 |
Internet Marketing Must Absolutely Start With One Thing - The Exact Targeting Test | ||
|
| ||
|
 I don’t care how great you think your product is or how amazing you think your marketing plan is. When trying to sell anything online it all needs to start with one thing and one thing only - The Exact Targeting Test. Your overall marketing process should begin with Market Research - let’s not forget that. You need to do the proper market research to see what others are selling successfully, what certain markets want/need, etc. etc. But once you know what product or service you are going to sell, and you setup a landing page (or complete site) to sell it, your marketing strategy needs to begin with a test that I call The Exact Targeting Test. Here’s How The Exact Targeting Test Works…
Do some brainstorming and keyword research to find the most targeted keyword phrase you possibly can that relates to what it is that you are trying to sell. In other words, someone that is actively looking to buy what you sell. For example, if you’re selling do-it-yourself plans for building a bird feeder the keyword phrases bird watching or even bird feeder are not the most highly targeted keyword. Bird feeder might be, but build your own bird feeder would be even better. So you need to do some serious keyword research to narrow it down to the most targeted possible keyword phrase you can find. Once you find this keyword phrase the next thing to do is to start driving traffic to your landing page. Unless the top spot for that keyword phrase is going for $5 per click, you should pay whatever you have to so your ad will show up in the top spot — which will, hopefully, get you the maximum traffic. The purpose of this test is NOT to turn a profit. This is why you want to pay whatever you have to so you can get the #1 position for maximum traffic. This goes along with my methodoloy of Sacrificing Early Profits which I will expand upon in a future blog post. Hopefully, your most targeted keyword phrase at least gets enough traffic for you to generate about 300-400 visitors in one week or less. Because we want to get our test data as quickly as possible. If you’ve driven 300-400 visitors from your most targeted keyword phrase and you haven’t made any sales, you’ve got big problems. You are most likely faced with one of THREE things: 1. Your price is too high. 2. The marketing copy or sales information is too weak. 3. No one wants your product. There are some other small factors that could affect this scenario, but those are the major ones. Issue #1 (high price) can be solved easily. Just lower your price as far as possible — even if it’s $4.95. Then drive another 300 visitors or so. If you still don’t make any sales at that price then you’re in trouble. Price is the factor that can affect conversion rates more than anything. If you test a super low price and still get no takers the odds are good that you’re not going to have much success selling that product. Issue #2 is a bit harder to solve. The price of the product might not actually be the issue if prospects are leaving your site without even seeing your price — so testing a really low price might have misleading results in this case. But if you’ve done your homework and researched your competition in that market, and you have a good understanding of how they communicate with the market, you should be able to come up with something that will at least make some sales. If you do some tweaking and still don’t make any sales, you’ve most likely got big problems. Issue #3 is one that cannot be solved. It’s nearly impossible to pursuade someone to buy something they have absolutely no interest in. Millions of product ideas are thought up and created each year. And many of these products go unsold. The fact of the matter is not all products will sell. Many of them won’t. If you should run into this experience don’t get freaked out. Just move on to the next project. The biggest mistake one can make as an entrepreneur is falling in love with a product idea they have come up with. If it doesn’t sell, it doesn’t sell. Don’t take it personally. The faster you can move on to test something else, the faster you will start making more money. Period. Another method to test in the early stages of running The Exact Targeting Test is to use my Give-It-Away Method. Here’s How The Give-It-Away Method Works: If someone is leaving your site hit them with a pop-up window that says you will GIVE THEM your product for free if they give you their honest feedback as to why they left without ordering. Many browsers block these kind of pop-ups today but there are still quite a few that don’t. Obviously, there’s very little cost in giving away your product if it happens to be digital — like an ebook, video, audio, or software program. If you’re trying to sell a physical product then you will have some cost involved. But it will most likely be well worth it. The ‘answers’ that you can get from offering to trade someone your product for their feedback can be priceless. They may tell you that your web site was too confusing and they couldn’t find out how to order. Or that they wanted to order via money order and you didn’t offer it. Or they wanted to order by phone but you didn’t list a phone number. Or they wanted the product in a large size but you only had medium. Or maybe they thought your product was only for men. Or for spanish speaking people. Or for people under 35. You just never know what you will discover until you ask. Running a Give-it-away process can sometimes save a product — because it can reveal some things you need to change in the marketing copy itself in order to successfully sell it to others. The bottom line is this… If you drive traffic to your site from the most targeted keyword you can possibly find for what it is you are trying to sell and you don’t have any luck, the odds are very high that you aren’t going to make any sales from any other keyword for that market either. Unless, of course, you’ve targeted the wrong keywords. I am constantly amazed by how many people go crazy and drive traffic from all over the place, spend a small fortune, and are shocked that their product doesn’t sell. It’s very easy to find out without spending too much money. Start with the most targeted keyword phrase. If it doesn’t convert, it’s most likely that any other traffic won’t convert either. Think about it… if someone is actively searching for something that’s as close to what you are selling as possible, and they won’t buy, how in the world will other not-as-targeted prospects buy? You always have to keep in mind that you need to adopt the Sacrificing Early Profits mindset in order to build your machine. Your marketing machine. The machine that will eventually run by itself and automatically produce profit after profit for you. So in the early stages don’t be afraid to overpay for keyword traffic. You want the volume of traffic to validate your testing in the beginning. Once you fine-tune and tweak your process then and only then do you want to back off and lower your costs to the point where it becomes profitable. In many cases, bidding 30 cents per click instead of 60 cents per click will take twice as long, or more, to generate the same volume of traffic. And your time is worth more than that. Don’t wait one month to get 300-400 targeted visitors when you can get them in a few days and know what your next step will be. And, of course, don’t worry about giving away some of your product for free if it will help you fine-tune your marketing machine that will eventually sell your products for the maximum return. But start with the most targeted keyword for your product. If you can’t make it work then the odds are good that you need to abandon that idea and move to the next. This isn’t always the case, but most of the time it is. It’s a very strong indicator. Â
|
|
« Web Site Traffic - The Future | Google Shakes Up The SEO World With Universal Search » |
 I truly believe anyone can make a small fortune on the Internet. But it all starts with the first move being one that validates that the product you want to sell (and the marketing you’ve set up for it) will work.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:02 am
Excellent ideas. Can’t wait for the launch !
May 16th, 2007 at 4:37 am
[…] Internet Marketing Must Absolutely Start With… […]
May 16th, 2007 at 5:15 am
Wow if this is the kind of “Amazing (and free) content that anyone can consume and apply to make money online.” that Income.com is going to provide then that’s the kind of community I want to be apart of. Great content post, this blog is going right into the feeder, favorites folder, notepad, etc..
Thanks.
http://www.NicheJournal.com
p.s. What white space I see no white space, all I see is content content content content content content content content content content content content content.
May 16th, 2007 at 6:48 am
Good post John.
Shah
May 16th, 2007 at 7:15 am
John, there are probably a lot more product failures than success stories out there. I’d imagine there are literally thousands of would-be internet marketers with unsellable ebooks on their hard drives.
Maybe you could write in a future article how to take unloved content and repurpose it for profit. Repackaging, bundling, trading, conversion to audio, video etc. If the Long Tail Theory has taught us anything, its that someone, somewhere wants to buy your stuff no matter how bizarre it is.
May 16th, 2007 at 8:06 am
You’ve given me a lot to think about today. I do know that I find some of these “sorry to see you go” pages a little annoying when I am surfing a traffic exchange. I don’t use PPC myself, because it’s just not in my budget, but some of these techniques are good ideas.
As far as the “Give it away” method goes, why not give a different freebie away for the feedback. some of us are affiliate marketers, and can’t give the primary product away, but have maybe a report or e-book that we have give away rights to. Couldn’t something like that serve the same purpose?
May 16th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Awesome post John..
I specially love your ’sacrifice early profits’ concept.
I first heard it in the free clips you gave from traffic secrets on your site. And since then that’s been mindset.
And the second thing about not wasting a month to get 300 visitors and just spending the bucks to get them in a week.
That was one of my biggest mistakes which costed me many months. I should’ve bidded high and seen the fate much MUCH sooner.
Great tips.. thanks a ton for sharing!
Shariq.
May 16th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
After reading your blog post, I just went on my Google Adwords account and upped my bids by 200% for ads directed to the sales page of new eBook product I just launched yesterday.
I need to know if the price point is right, if my sales page needs work, and if I should pursue this line of products any further. And geting the informations ASAP is worth paying a few more bucks to Google.
Thanks,
Elizabeth
May 16th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Another thought provoking post! THANKS AGAIN JOHN.
Question: Will income.com cover stuff that was in traffic secrets?
May 16th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
[…] This is one blog that you definitely should subscribe to (RSS feed). Go read is last two posts if you haven’t yet; - The Exact Targeting Test - Web Site Traffic - The Future […]
May 16th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Another thought provoking post! thanks again john.
Question:Will income.com cover the stuff covered in traffic secrets?
May 16th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
John I want to thank you on a nice post and I want to thank you. I have been reading your material for years and each time I read something else of yours I learn something new. I really like the give it away method.
Thanks, Bill Shultz
May 16th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Excellent post, John! I think I’ll be playing with my AdWords bids and keywords this evening.
Denise
May 16th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
John Your Information is always on time and on target. Are there any plans to bring this concept into the seminar “Reese Live” format. Tim
May 16th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Hi John
You are one of those few marketers who would share deeper insights and experience to a particular problem in online marketing.
I have known that keyword research is essential to a successful marketing campaign but have always avoided PPC, although other marketing ‘gurus’ advice that. From what I gather from you, more of our time should be spent on looking out for problems in our site and fix them, to make our marketing campaign work. Makes better sense.
I have not figured out why using PPC was important but you have kept me back on the right track with this strategy. Thanks.
May Ong (IM Trainer)
May 16th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
Nice post John. One thing I’d like to mention from my testing is that I’ve found that using the whole “give it away free to people leaving the site without buying, in return for them telling you why they didn’t buy” didn’t do much good for me personally, but I think it’s probably due to the niche I was running the tets in (The IM niche) It sounded great in theory, but in all of my tests, I found that about 95% of the comments were that it was too expensive. And the other 5% were completely random things like “I don’t like it” etc. But… with that said, what waas even more surprising to me was that I ran this test on SEO Elite for a period of 24 hours and only about 40 people took me up on the offer to get SEO Elite 100% free for filling out a 1 question survey! More people actually bought the software for $167 than downloaded it for free. Some crazy stuff…
May 17th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Or you could use Chris Carpeners new GCdetective and steal someone elses proven campaign right from under them.
May 18th, 2007 at 4:55 am
Both Sherri and Brad have valid points, but I’m sure you’ll cover points like these and others once the site launches. But for those with specific controllable products to sell, it’s a very good technique, and one well worth considering. Love the posts, keep them coming.
May 18th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
You touch some very important points. Testing your products from the beginning through over exposure lets you know from the beginning whether something will be profitable or not. Testing is the name of the game. Thanks for the post!
May 18th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Hi John
Just want to say thanks for your information on testing and paying more for traffic to find out what the conversion is for a particular site. I suppose it makes sence to first make a site that converts into sales befor you decide what to do with it.
If you have exausted all your options trying to get a site to make sales, and still no sales, then its time to drop it and move on.
DaveT.
May 19th, 2007 at 8:25 am
Thanks for outlining a “testing procedure” we can apply.
Keep up the Good Work
(re reading again - “The Rebirth of the Internet”)
May 19th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Great post as usual John.
Thanks!
May 21st, 2007 at 9:16 am
Thanks John. Simple yet overlooked by so many of us. Can’t wait to see what income.com has in store.
May 21st, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Can your New Niche Pass The Exact Targeting Test?…
I don’t care how great you think your niche or product is. When trying to sell anything online it all needs to start with one thing and one thing only - The Exact Targeting Test.
……
May 21st, 2007 at 4:40 pm
How Profitable is your Niche? Marketing Test…
Sometimes you read some advice that just boils it down so simply that you wonder why we all tend to make this online marketing thing so difficult. I’ve blogged a lot about the importance of finding a……
May 21st, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Good advice as always John, will try the give-away idea for feedback. Makes perfect sense, well worth the money for honest comments.
May 21st, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Great post as always John, I have used Alex mendossians (opps wrong spelling!) for an unstopable popup up on exit (exit survey generator) for anon feedback- that helped with a physical product I was selling
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:24 am
Great information, thanks John!
I’ll be quoting this post on my blog
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:47 am
[…] Click here […]
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:10 pm
I like the Give it away method, I always do it. I use forums for this. It work like gangbusters. Where else will you find more targeted traffic than in forums and discussion groups?
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:23 pm
John,
I’m surprised you’re telling people to spend a lot of money upfront to see there’s a viable market for their product, without also advising them to make the most of that money by split- or multivariate-testing their landing page! Why let money go down the drain, without finding out if one or another version converts best?
Google offers its free Website Optimizer option on AdWords, and the Vertster.com testing tool is not expensive for quick a/b tests.
May 23rd, 2007 at 5:14 pm
Excellent post John. I have in the past tested at the 4th or 5th position but your post opened my eyes on getting the final results in as fast as possible.
This post should be worth an extra $50,000+ a year to anyone that implements it.
Brad’s results were rather interesting. Let me know if that page is still available and I’ll offer you my opinion.
L
May 23rd, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Interesting post. Makes sense to me. Thank you John.
May 30th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
John:
Thank you for ‘making it simple.’
JerryWFranklin
http://www.BlueSkyBrothers.com
May 30th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
[…] His latest venture, income.com, is a ‘must-feed’ site. Today, I found the following article he posted on 5/16. Thanks, John……..enjoy everyone! […]
June 11th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
good post john
very clear and consise
DC
June 18th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
[…] I’ve read about John Reese and his sites before but to be honest I ignored him because I thought he was another Internet marketing guru spewing the same old get-rich-quick garbage. The fact that Linda whom I trust linked to his post, I decided to read. And am I glad I did. It’s a great post and fits right in with what Jeremy Palmer had written about testing. Read John Reese’s post here. […]
June 18th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
[…] post on “Exact Targeting Testing” was fantastic and he laid out step by step how to test your product idea before investing a […]
June 19th, 2007 at 4:52 am
Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! wvrdsugmgulsk
October 1st, 2007 at 11:48 pm
Want to start your private office arms race right now?
I just got my own USB rocket launcher
Awsome thing.
Plug into your computer and you got a remote controlled office missile launcher with 360 degrees horizontal and 45 degree vertival rotation with a range of more than 6 meters - which gives you a coverage of 113 square meters round your workplace.
You can get the gadget here: http://tinyurl.com/2qul3c
Check out the video they have on the page.
Cheers
Marko Fando
October 4th, 2007 at 8:04 pm
I’ve got an Amazon gift certificate burning holes in my pocket,
and I want to get the most bang for my buck.
Enter the Secret Amazon Web Pages:
http://tinyurl.com/38sojf
This is where you’re going to find the “latest sales, rebates, and limited-time offers” from
Amazon, and you can score some pretty deep discounts if you’re a savvy shopper.
Next, there’s the special Sale link. This is open every Friday, and ONLY on Fridays.
You can find the same good discounts here as you would in hidden Deals, although some
Fridays you can really get lucky and make off like an Amazon bandit - I’ve seen discounts
there as low as 75% off sticker price.
February 10th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Exquisite Auto and Home Insurance Rate…
Exquisite Auto and Home Insurance Rate
Exquisite Auto and Home Insurance RateThe state of New Jersey has never looked into a pay as your go car insurance premium idea, even though it boasts the countrys highest average car insurance rates. Because you …
April 6th, 2008 at 10:55 am
I like your blog, this post is really good, but please vary your topics, it will broad your readership.
April 9th, 2008 at 4:57 am
I’m understanding you, but I’m not agreeing with you. But anyway I’m sorry that I don’t know the right thing to do in that situation