What do sex, surveys and marketing have in common?

Cosmopolitan magazine.

You can learn a lot from Cosmo whether you find their content engaging or trashy.

First, they are appealing to one of the three mega-niches (money, sex, and staying alive). That alone means they are appealing to us in an area where we have a strong, in-built emotional drive.

…the three mega-niches (money, sex, and staying alive)

The last time I was checking out their web site, I came across something that caused me to sit back and say, “That’s just marketing genius.” What I saw was the second thing you can learn about marketing from Cosmo…

Here’s what the smart marketers at Cosmopolitan were doing – surveying their existing readers (aka “customers”) to ask them what headline they would be more likely to buy.

Marketer or not, we love it when other people take the time to ask us what we think and listen to our response. And you know what, it was working… people were responding like crazy.

How smart is that?

Before they ever go to print, they already know which headline will outsell all the other options.

That’s like pre-selling an information product before you develop it so you get the opinions of the only people that matter – check writers.

…they already know which headline will outsell all the other options

I think it’s too easy to fall into the trap of asking what those around us think instead of taking it to the only people that really matter (as it relates to selling our products) – the people that will decide to buy from us or take a pass.

To put this into practice today, figure out how you can get your “check writers” to vote on your next product or service before you sink your time into creating it and you’ll be ahead of the game… just like the smart marketers at Cosmopolitan. There are lots of ways you can do this, but one method is to offer a free webinar or teleclass on the product or service you are thinking about offering. That will tell you how many people are interested.

Then towards the end of the webinar or teleclass, offer some paid follow-up coaching or training sessions to gauge interest based on the number of customers that sign up.

Want to build your email list faster? In this video, you’ll learn how you can use Google Website Optimizer to increase your email opt-in rate quickly by running simple split tests.

In this video, you’ll learn how I increased my opt-in rate by 119% over my existing setup (that means I’m building my list over twice as fast). Watch this. Then use it.

If you are a small business, email marketing is a very effective way to increase sales, so I’d encourage you to make it happen if you haven’t already.

P.S. If you want to get on my email list, click on the picture of me in the sidebar and you’ll also get a sneak peak inside my home video studio that you can easily copy for your business.

Have any questions or better ideas? Leave a comment.

In today’s video, which is part of the “30 Days of Marketing Solutions,” I’m answering John’s question about how you can generate leads online fast. This involves two components – traffic and a lead capture page (squeeze page).

Since I covered squeeze pages in an earlier video, this video will focus on driving traffic as quickly as possible.

When I first got started, my number one mistake in driving paid traffic was not hiring an expert to help me optimize my campaigns sooner.

A PPC (or SEM – Search Engine Marketing) expert should be able to save you money in a hurry.

My second biggest mistake was building huge SEO campaigns before I tested the keywords with PPC – sometimes I hit it out of the park, but I flopped a lot after investing tons of time and that is just flat out painful.

You’ll definitely want to split test your ads and try different landing pages, squeeze pages and reverse squeeze pages.

Here are the resources:

• Find a PPC Expert to Setup Your Campaigns on ODesk (affiliate link)
• AdWords Beginner’s Guide
• How Yahoo Search Marketing Works
• Microsoft Advertising AdCenter
• Google Content Network
• Affiliate Prophet Tracking Software (affiliate link)
• Market Samurai Keyword Research Tool – Free Trial

Add your $0.02 below in the comments box or submit a question.

In this video you will learn the difference between a landing page, a squeeze page and a reverse squeeze page.

Split testing these different types of pages allowed me to double my opt-in rate…

If you get similar results, you can build your list twice as fast or cut your PPC budget in half and still build the same sized list.

You’ll also learn a little “bonus tip” you might want to use in combination with your social media pages like Twitter or Facebook:

Your results may vary, but I would encourage you to start testing a squeeze page against a reverse squeeze page if you haven’t already. You should also consider using to test your niche market fast with my “Demand Driven Marketing” model.

This video is part of my 30 Days of Marketing Solutions where I answer your online marketing questions for free via video.

Submit your online marketing question or leave a comment below.

P.S. What’s the best squeeze page or landing page you have seen or used in your online business?

What would you do if you could put half your online advertising budget back into your pocket?

Today you are going to learn exactly how you can do that compliments of Terri, who asked about split testing as part of my 30 Days of Marketing Solutions where I’m answering one question a day for thirty days.

I’m going all the way in this video – revealing some of my own split testing results.

Here’s another video that shows more about setting up A/B Split Testing with Google Website Optimizer:

Submit your question for a video response or comment below.

Over the next 30 days, you can get your questions about information products marketing and online marketing answered in a daily video – for free. We both know free advice is usually worth what you pay for it, but…

I’ve spent a small fortune learning this stuff from masters like Eben Pagan, Frank Kern, Rein Deiss, and others and I’ve gone with very little sleep for about a year and a half because I’ve been testing like a madman to discover what works and what fails miserably, and now…

I’m literally going to give you the answers that I’ve paid dearly for.

Make sure you sign up for my newsletter in the box to the right so you’ll know when your answer gets posted here on the site.

Click here to submit your biggest question or frustration comment box below.

Having trouble thinking of your biggest frustration? Here are a few areas I struggled to overcome:

• Marketing Funnel
• Squeeze Pages
• Outsourcing and Hiring “A” Players
• Getting Video On Your Site
• Membership Site Software
• Testing Markets Fast
• Split-Testing (Web Page Optimization)
• Automating Repetitive Tasks with Software or Outsourcers
• Hosting Video/Reports/Products on Amazon S3 For Pennies (and how to protect your content so it doesn’t get ripped off)
• Video Lighting, Hosting and Encoding

Click here to submit your biggest question or frustration

Are you wondering if the Guru Blueprint works? Check out this video and judge for yourself.

That only took about 30 minutes after I read the free report “How to Create An Information “Magic Formula”” Eben is currently giving away for free.

Get your copy of the report here.

P.S. I’ve decided to definitely give you 1 hour of 1:1 Marketing Consulting ($497 value) if you end up purchasing Guru Blueprint through my affiliate link above. I feel very strongly that this can save you a lot of time and money and help you achieve the success you deserve…

To qualify for the consulting session:

• Clear your cookies before clicking on the link
• Forward a copy of your sales receipt to jason at jasonrayers.com
• Bookmark this page for future reference

If you missed the first post, check it out at “Want a Blueprint for Online Marketing Success?“

I want to share a secret with you that I learned from my mentor, Eben Pagan.

Eben is about to release a new product called Guru Blueprint where he takes you by the hand and teaches you how to create an information products business that you can run from anywhere.

In December 2009 when I was just getting started in marketing online, I purchased a course called Altitude. Eben charged $10,000 per seat for the Altitude seminar and people came literally from around the world to attend.

I purchased a home study version of the course which came with a free ticket to attend a seminar in Los Angeles.

As I was adding up the cost of travel, hotels, and food, I almost convinced myself not to go. That would have been a big mistake…

HUGE.

That’s where Eben taught me one of the secrets behind his $29 million a year information products business.

Eben told me, “Take your very best information, and give it away for free.”

I thought he was crazy…

But how do you argue with a guy who has 80 virtual employees and an online dating business that brings in $20 million a year in revenue. Maybe he got lucky and stumbled across the right niche, but then he added another $9 million a year in revenue helping people improve their time management, money management, and information products businesses.

Then it hit me.

I was sitting in his seminar in Los Angeles with a huge crowd of people because HE had given away some of his best information for free. I was questioning the very marketing strategy that attracted me and converted me into a customer.

By offering his best stuff for free, he won a chance to prove himself.

I was hooked and Eben has been my mentor ever since. I’ve used nearly every product that is released since that time, and they rock. I’ve gone from marketing newbie to expert in no time flat by combining good old fashioned hard work with the expertise Eben has perfected while building his businesses.

Now it’s time for me to pay it forward.

Eben is at it once again, sharing some of his very best ideas for free. You can literally take when he is giving away for free and use it to pick the right niche for your business.

If I’d known this stuff when I get started, I would have saved at least 150 hours worth of work, and countless thousands of dollars that I spent targeting niches that I never should have gone after in the first place. From now on I’m using this information is giving away for free to evaluate every niche that I’m considering going into. I suggest you do the same.

Watch the free video and get your free Niche Test and Niche Intelligence Report.

Eben’s free information is so good that I feel it will save you a lot of time, frustration and money.

Jason R. Ayers

P.S. I’m considering giving away a coupon for one hour of free 1:1 marketing consulting as my Guru Blueprint Bonus if you end up buying through my affiliate links above. If you’ve checked out my consulting page, you know that’s a $497 value.

Let me know that something you’d be interested in. If enough people are interested, I think it would be a lot of fun, so let me know in the comments section below.

Every page, post, postcard, banner ad, email or tweet needs a purpose.

I’ve learned this lesson the hard way… and class is still in session.

Whether you are creating marketing for yourself or for someone else, the pressure to produce can drive you to do just that – to just produce. It’s a double-edged sword. You need to be marketing, but without perspective, each postcard, email or tweet will only convert a fraction of the customers it could (if it were part of a larger plan or system).

Go back and look at your previous marketing pieces. Was the desired action clear? Did the piece fit into a larger plan? Was there a larger plan?

I’ll admit, I am continually trying to improve in this area.

When I was in commercial real estate, I created a series of postcards and a series of newsletters. They were effective. At the time, I felt like a marketing genius, but I lacked a larger view. Each piece was designed to sell by itself rather than to be a cog in a machine that would build a relationship with a total stranger to the point that it just made sense for them to do business with me.

My marketing was tactical, not strategic.

So how do you make your marketing more strategic?

One method is to study and dissect marketing campaigns that have converted you from a prospect to a customer.

• How did you enter the marketing funnel?
• What was it that hooked you and caused you to pick up the phone, submit your email address or send for more information?
• What caused you to be receptive to the messages that followed your first interaction?
• What path did you take from the initial interaction to the moment of purchasing the product or service

Another approach you can try is to draw a time-line that represents your customer relationship. One axis represents time and the other axis represents the level of trust and respect in the relationship. Now, figure out what kind of value you can deliver to your customer over time to take the relationship from zero trust and respect to a high-level of trust and respect.

What should you deliver? At least two things will help build the relationship: something your prospect perceives to be valuable and anything you can do to help your prospect move closer to what they want.

In practice, the challenge is to zoom in an out between the tactical piece in front of you and the overall strategic plan to make sure each piece you or your team creates supports the strategic plan while building relationship momentum.

Pssst…
If you want more marketing tips to help you increase your revenues, sign up for my newsletter in the upper right hand corner of this web page.

If you own a small business you owe it to yourself to check out Google Local Business Center.

I’ve used business listings with Google with success in the past to drive traffic and phone calls to small businesses, but Google has really improved this service.

The new features in Google local business Center allow you to customize your listing to attract more customers.

You can customize how your business listing is seen on Google and on Google maps, and you can upload photos, specials, coupons or other information that you want customers to see when they search for you on Google. Plus you can tie your listing into Google Analytics to see how people are searching for you and what they’re searching for.

Check out this video to see how your small business might benefit from this free tool:

You may not realize this, but Google accounts for about 65% of search engine traffic according to ComScore (although Google argues that figure is in the 80s) and about 30% of Internet traffic according some of the other figures I’ve heard. This means it probably worth your time to set up your small business with Google.

A business listing will help people who are looking for your phone number, your address, your cross streets and your web site while providing you with valuable feedback if you use Google Analytics.

You will still need to design a website and marketing funnel that funnels prospects from Google into your marketing funnel, where you can convert them into customers by providing exceptional value. That is a little outside the scope of this article, but the bottom line is this: provide more value than whatever it is you’re asking for, whether it be an e-mail address or an order.

For more information, check out: http://www.google.com/lbc

Psssst….
If you want to know how to generate more inbound leads then subscribe to my newsletter in the upper right hand corner of this page, where I’ll provide you with marketing tips you can use to increase your number of leads and your revenues.