5 Ways To Stop Customers From Abandoning You At the Shopping Cart

Category General | no comments »

My clients and I find it extremely frustrating when we manage to get site visitors all the way through the marketing funnel only to have them abandon their purchase right before the payment page. These pages have very little content on them, and the visitor spends very little time on them, so it can be difficult to pinpoint the problem. Usually, however, the problem can often be boiled down to five main elements:

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Poor Usability

Depending on how the site is set up, usability can often be an issue. If the buttons or text is difficult to see, or if there is information missing from the page, customers will leave rather than play around. This information should include exactly what’s in the cart, how many of each, the price of each, taxes, credits, and any associated fees or charges as well as a total.

It’s also important to make it easy for customers to put items back or add items at will. So, if they change their mind and jump back to a different page to add it to the cart, they should be able to without losing all of the items they already had in their cart.

Lastly, make sure the customer knows what to expect. For example, the payment process may include a cart inspection page, a shipping page, checkout, and a thank you page. Many sites accomplish this by having some kind of a progress bar at the top or bottom of the page. Otherwise, visitors may wonder exactly how many pages they have to go through to get what they want and leave.

Trust

Big brands often don’t need to be as concerned about this as smaller, more unknown sites because they’ve already build up a certain amount of reliability and trust. However, if the site looks spammy or untrustworthy in any way, a customer will often leave before they’ve given you any important financial information.

In many instances, security seals and verification symbols can help, but make sure they’re easily visible as the visitor goes to click the buy button. Otherwise, that person may never look below the fold and any weight they may have carried will have been lost.

Colors and Shapes

It sounds silly but colors and shapes may seem minor, and they may even play a minor role on the page, but they can give off hints and almost subliminal indications. Stop signs, caution signs, yellow, red, and orange can work to your benefit or against you, so be very cautious about how they’re used.

In some instances, it’s not a matter of changing those particular elements but softening them with other elements such as other graphics, fonts, or layouts.

Copy and Content

I usually name poorly targeted copy as the biggest reason customers leave the site and jump ship at a critical moment, but once they reach the shopping cart, this is rarely the case. In fact, at this point I generally recommend having as little copy as possible aside from the basic information.

For me, copy at this point hints to the visitor that there are catches, fine lines, or maybe you’re going to push and upsell them. But when they reach this point, they’ve already spent all the time they want to spend on your site at that very moment. They want to grab their stuff and go.

Less Is More

I recently had the pleasure of watching a video presentation given by Tim Ash, which you can find above (just be sure to go to the washroom, grab a coffee, and maybe a snack before you start. It’s a long one…oh, and make sure you have a pen and paper for notes.)

Anyway, in it, he preaches that less is more, and this is just as true for shopping cart pages as it is for landing pages. The less distraction the visitor has and the easier it is for them to understand what you want them to do, the more successful the page will be. It doesn’t always pay to be pretty

I’ve gotten this started. What have you found helpful for preventing customers from jumping ship when they reach the shopping cart?

Popularity: 1% [?]

How To Treat Guest Posters aka Get More By Giving a Little

Category General | 6 comments »

Time and again, I run into blogs who are interested in having guest posters, but they can’t seem to attract them. Or, they’re afraid to have other people posting on their blog and I don’t blame them. When you create a blog, particularly on a business website, you’ve worked hard to create a unique voice. One that can be trusted. However, that doesn’t mean everyone should lose out on the benefits of guest blogging.

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There’s Benefits To Hosting Guest Bloggers?

And yes, there are benefits for the guest poster (Ann Smarty, the Queen of Guest Posting has numerous posts on the subject), but there are tons of benefits for the blog’s owner as well:

• The guest blogger brings a fresh audience with him. This expands your reach and highlights your site for a new group or readers.
• More RSS subscribers, newsletter sign ups, affiliate sales, etc.
• You can host experts from within your niche and from complementary fields.
• Your site benefits from the content and the knowledge.
• The new perspective is refreshing and keeps things on your site sparking.
• You may learn things too!
• Improves your reputation because you’ve had Mr. X showcase a post on your site.
• Become a hub for industry information
• Your readers get access to a wider array of topics and information making you worth more to them.
• If someone gets controversial, you get the traffic and discussion without having the responsibility fall directly on your shoulders.
• You don’t have to write the content!

Don’ts When Publishing A Guest Post

I’ve had the pleasure to guest post in a number of industries around the web in addition to being a contributing author for some of these sites, and while I’ve enjoyed them all very much, I’ve discovered not everyone does things the same way. So, to ensure everyone gains the most from guest posts, here are a few recommended ‘don’ts’:

• Don’t edit or cut a post without saying something. It sounds silly, but sometimes certain sections are important for a particular reason.
• Don’t let the guest poster get away with murder. You can refuse the post if you don’t feel it matches your site, but be careful. Just because you don’t agree doesn’t make it a bad post! The discussion is excellent.
• Don’t request a post within 24 hours. It sounds silly, but I’d rather have a writer produce a post in their time rather than in mine because it turns out far better.
• Don’t neglect to introduce the post (preferably in a different font, italics, or even a different color) and give the author a clear byline. This eliminates any confusion as to who wrote it.
• Don’t be afraid to discuss a topic and the types of posts that work well on your site. After all, no one knows your readers like you do!
• Don’t remove the author’s name, link, or other information from the post after its ‘debut’.
• Don’t be afraid to link back to the post or add links to the body later on as you get more related posts.

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Please Do When Hosting a Guest Blogger

• Do give the writer a short author’s bio with a link or two. They’ve gone to all the work of creating a great post, so give them a little back. It won’t kill you.
• Do let the writer know when the post is up so he can share it on various social networks.
• Do put the post in draft early and supply the writer with the URL so he can create a complimentary post on his own site and link to it if he so wishes.
• Do go over the do’s/don’ts and pet peeves for your site with the writer. For example, I don’t mind linking to competitors and do so all the time, but if you don’t like it, that’s your choice. (I figure my clients choose me for me…if another writer would work better for them, so be it. There’s tons of work to go around.)
• Give your opinions and thoughts in the comment section even if you don’t agree with the writer, just be respectful.
• Do trade posts with other website owners. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, and this way everyone gets to benefit from guest posting.

I’m not saying that guest posters need to be catered to, but I really think it’s important to work together. Besides, if you don’t treat your guest bloggers fairly, you’ll have to catch them unsuspecting or you won’t get anyone to guest post at all.

Popularity: 1% [?]

How To Fight Personalization — Is It Possible?

Category General | 6 comments »

Google has made no secret of its excitement over personalized search results. This only makes sense. After all, the goal is for them to achieve unspammable results (Ha!). Unfortunately, this has left some webmasters and Internet marketers unsure of where they stand and what to do next. So, my question is what are you doing to offset its effects, if anything? (Keep in mind that it’s certainly nothing to worry about, but it should definitely be in the back of your mind when making changes to your website, marketing, and business plans.)

I’ve had a few thoughts…

Social Media Marketing

One option webmasters have available to them is the incorporation of social media and social marketing strategies. This gives visitors and users the chance to ‘personalize’ the site a little themselves. There’s more interaction and it gives customers a feeling of being comfortable.

Now, there are strong arguments for and against SMM. Heck, I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not for all businesses, but the big question is: Can it help counteract the effects of personalization? If you are able to make a connection with that customer, it’s possible to some degree.

(Matt Hamm)

Conversion Optimization

By analyzing your website, its visitors, and how users interact with it, it’s possible to customize a number of different paths in order to improve the user’s experience and boost conversion. This could include adding, removing, or tweaking graphics. It could be testing headlines, improving or changing copy, or altering keywords and navigation to make a site visitor realize that this is the site they’ve been looking for since the creation of the Internet.

Will this help sites compete with the constant inclusion of personalization? Maybe. To some degree anyway. If nothing else, it will help site owners make the most from each person who visits their site.

Untouchable Personalization Factors?

The methods included above can help to influence the possible behavioral factors included in personalization, but unfortunately, they do nothing for the geographic, technical, historical, or chronological factors (or others I may not have thought about).

I personally feel the best way to handle these types of factors is to simply ensure your site is as user friendly as possible.

To help combat technical factors, make sure your site works. For example, if your site doesn’t work with IE6, you might not do well in the search results for that browser’s users.

Geography might be kind of permanent, but this isn’t totally out of touch for webmasters. At least, it’s nothing some local SEO couldn’t help with. Of course, if you live in Las Vegas and want to show up in New York results, you’ll have to do a bit of work. It’s just not possible to show up in everyone’s local results, particularly not with geo-tagging becoming more prominent.

(Slightlynorth)

Other than that, webmasters need to give their sites a little TLC. Keeping a constant supply of new, quality content will help battle chronological factors and keep people coming back while helping to target a specific user.

So, my question is: What are you doing to combat personalization and improve conversion? Do you agree with my suggestions here?

Popularity: 3% [?]

A Newsletter Marketing Primer

Category Email Marketing, General | 14 comments »

Newsletter marketing can be one of the best ways to sell a product or market your company. It can be difficult to start and maintain, but the benefits of a good subscriber list can be a great gain.

So why are newsletters great? Simple. Instead of soliciting random consumers, you’re reaching out and talking to those already interested in your product (they signed up after all). Not only that, but instead of forcing them to come to you, you’re able to go to them.

Building the List

The hardest part of creating a profitable newsletter is building the initial following. There are a few strategies that can be mixed and matched, and I’ll go over a few here.

The first is to simply drive traffic to a landing page. List the value someone would gain from your newsletter and offer them a form to sign up from. This is the simplest of methods, and is a great starting point.

You can take the above method one step further and offer a gift to the potential subcribers. The gift could be anything from a free listing on your site or a free ebook to download. This strategy may increase the number of subscribers you have but may also drop your open-rate for emails, as people were never really interested in your emails and just wanted the free ebook or listing.

A third strategy, one that takes more effort, requires making friends with other list owners. You can ask them to send out an email inviting them to sign up for your newsletter, as you do the same for them. You can also add onto this by linking to their newsletter landing page on your thank you page. This technique works well because the people already subscribed to one newsletter are more likely to sign up for another.

Newsletter Profit

By the time you begin really building your list, you should already have some good content. An autoresponder is a great way for sending pre-created chains of emails, or you can use a broadcast system to send one email at a time to the entire list.

Generally the rule of thumb to use when pushing affiliate products on a newsletter is to not suggest a product before your 7th email. You need the initial 6 emails to build trust with your subscribers.

If you’re trying to push your own product, the emails can be slightly different. The first email should remind consumers to check out your product. The second could try to sell your product again, reminding consumers how useful it is. Finally, the third email should try to sell it at a discount. You’re better off making a sale at discount, than no sale at all. At this point, if the consumers hasn’t bought your product they most likely won’t. Instead, you can now start recommending related products to these subscribers via an affiliate link.

Another method to make money from your newsletter is to simply sell advertising space in each email. This works well because its a generally consistent email and you don’t have to worry about how many people clicked through to the product and converted. Sell the advertising like you would any other ad on your blog or website.

Hopefully, you got a basic understanding of how to create a newsletter and how it can help sell affiliate products or your own. Subscriber lists are a great way to keep in touch with your consumers, so never let the conversation die. Try to send out a relevant and valuable email at least once a month, reminding your consumers the value of your emails.

Do you have any good experience with email marketing? How does it relate to social media marketing? Have an advanced tip you’d like to share? Let us know, and leave a comment!

Popularity: 44% [?]

Why unique selling propositions are a thing of the past

Category General, Marketing concepts | 16 comments »

Diversified Selling Propositions; the modern equivalent for USP

Back in the 50’s a fellow named Tosser Reeves is said to have come up with the term we all know well these days; ‘Unique selling proposition’ or the more oft used acronym – USP. At least if you’re in the marketing game, you should. The main concept was that by promoting certain key aspects, features and benefits over time would drive home the message creating a strong brand in the consumer’s minds.

And while it is a tried, tested and true methodology over the years for the marketing munchkins, it may not be all powerful and defendable in a modern media world, at least not in every situation. You see the word ‘unique’ alone denotes that there are singular reasons for buying decisions on the part of consumers. For that matter singular actions, as we can certainly have primary and secondary conversions metrics in play.

This fundamentally asserts that telling a people a singular message time and time again ultimately will convince them to purchase. While this can work well these days in many instances, often times it isn’t that simple. Not only do we have a variety of media approaches available to deliver our message, but people are often more complex and buy for different reasons. From the emotional to the practical, buying decisions are varied on a given product (or service).

By approaching your marketing with a singular approach it forces the consumer to adapt the message to their own needs.

Can we agree to disagree?

Another issue that arises is that the original USP concepts were more of a branding tool for building a long term concept into relationships with consumers. These days buying decisions are often based from a wide variety of factors and the speed of change means more of a moving target. Being more fluid means a more diversified message.

Obviously there is an inherent risk in diluting your over-al message, thus some tactical decisions are paramount. One way to find ideas if to mine existing customers by asking them what qualities drove their buying decision.

1. Quality of product/service?
2. Competitive/low Prices?
3. Quality customer service?
4. People that referred them?
5. Features or benefits?
6. Emotional draw?

Now try and nail down just ONE that represents you. In almost all cases such qualitative data shows that people have a wide variety of reasons for purchasing decisions. There may be common elements, but always a diversified set of factors are involved. Looking deeper, the demographics of age, location, income and the like will also create different buying decision patterns. This speaks to the difficulties in using ‘unique’ propositions over diversified approaches.

This is why in the modern media world you will often see multiple ads for the same campaign. Not only does this allow for targeting a variety of emotions towards purchase but also ensure that the consumer doesn’t ‘tune you out’ after enduring the same angle over and over.

Use with care

Ultimately you should scope out diversified selling propositions to cover a variety of consumer types and maximize the potential for success. This does not mean to get carried away and promise everything under the sun. Not only can this dilute the selling proposition, but runs the risk of not living up to your own promises; which is not the kind of branding we’re after.

Do your homework and isolate what your market holds and where you fit in. Find out what your primary and secondary demographics are and then work down from there as to what primary factors drive their buying decisions. From there some self assessment to find your strengths should begin to carve out your own DSP. What makes you stand out from the crowd and how do you reach out to consumers while filling the voids left by competitors in the market.

Unique is often not the case… it is more a combination of factors which makes you stand out form the crowd, who themselves are a diverse group in a multilevel media world.

It is certainly worth consideration…

Popularity: 50% [?]

Why I Got Lost and Left Your Site

Category General, Tools and Resources | 17 comments »

I spend hours surfing the web, reading articles, and watching videos. Each site gets about a second to lure me in or watch me leave. Knowing how many users are enjoying your content, and how many are bouncing away is the first step in creating a useful website. Making sure you follow acceptable usability guidelines is the next step.

Good navigation is a must for any website. Going from one page to another should be intuitive and easy. Make sure each page has a navigation bar that points to major parts of your site.

The more options people have the better you chances of someone finding something they like. Be careful not to overload the navigation bar though, that might just turn people away.

One thing many people don’t do, but I highly recommend is making your logo a link to your home page. Giving people multiple options to get to your front page allows people to easily start over if they get lost.

Another question to ask yourself is, “Can people read what’s written?”. Using large legible fonts is important. Users are moving towards larger screens, with higher resolution. That size 11 font is a thing of the past, move to something easier to read and easy on the eyes.

Once you know your site is usable and people aren’t bouncing because of the way the site looks and flows, it’s time to decide what are important parts of your site.

Start by creating goals and conversion points. For example, are you trying to get users to sign up for your newsletter? or are you pushing a specific product?

Google offers the ability to track your conversions via Google Analytics. You should definitely set it up and watch it often.

When we talk about website flow we’re referring to how well your site funnels visitors. How long do they stay? How many are sent to conversion points? How many convert?

I’m going to leave the end of this post open, since there are so many different tips about navigation. I’ll post my favorite tip and ask that you add one in the comment section. When everyone has had a chance to sound off, I’ll compile them all together.

Samir’s Tip: Most users refuse to click on more than 3 links to find pertinent information. The less obstacles to a conversion point, the more likely they are to convert.

Now it’s your turn…

Popularity: 50% [?]

Advertising on AdWords for Local Business

Category Advertising, General | 4 comments »

If you’re a local business owner wondering how the Internet can be useful to you, realizing that online advertising is not only for large companies is the first step. While it’s true that corporations use broad advertising for branding and creating national recognition, smaller companies have a different goal from their marketing budgets.

AdWords keeps this in mind, allowing companies to target geographically who will see an ad. Meaning that businesses offering services or products in a specific area can create and deploy ads only meant to be seen by web users from that area. Since AdWords follows a pay per click method, as a business owner you only pay for people who click on your ad (generally people interested in your product or service).

Getting Started

Getting started with AdWords is simple, Google has made it as intuitive as possible. First you’ll have to deposit $5 to create an account. The money you deposit will go towards your ads, and you can add a credit card to pull funds from later.

Once you’re logged into Adwords, you’ll want to create your first Online Campaign. Usually, as a basic user, you’ll want to create ads based on keywords.

Name your campaign something that is easy to track, either by the name of the product you’re targeting or something you’re testing. Be sure to also name your ad group.

At this point we start to target our ads. You’ll want to begin with choosing the language your customers speak. This is the most basic of targeting.

Next you can be even more specific. Click on the link to “Change Targeting”. This opens up an entirely new page, where you can choose to target via country, state, town, or even zip code

.

Local businesses will want to create multiple ads for select areas.

If you know the demographic of your key customers can be found in a zip code near you, target that area with an ad that reminds people to visit your store or or with an ad that strengthens your company brand.

When you’re attempting to increase your market share in surrounding areas, you’ll be able to create ads meant to introduce your company to these future prospects.

Test, tweak and adapt

Remember, online marketing is dependent on extreme testing and tweaking. Make multiple ads, try to see what works, and invest the time.

Want to see how big of an impact your advertising is doing? Just ask your customers where they heard about you from. Use this feedback to determine your future online advertising budget.

Although this may seem extremely time intensive, it doesn’t always have to be. Getting started takes a good amount of effort and attentiveness, however, once you’re happy with how much you’re spending and the return you’re receiving you can lower the amount of time you invest in maintaining your online advertising.

Related Reading:

• How to get the most from your Adwords GeoTargeting
• Google AdWords: Local Advertising
• The Importance of Pay Per Click Account Structure
• Where are your clicks coming from? (Geographically speaking)

Popularity: 41% [?]

User Name Check – A very cool tool

Category General, Tools and Resources | 5 comments »

I came across a handy little toy the other day that has some interesting applications for those playing in social spaces for fun and profit… It’s called; User Name Check.com

This funky little application searches a TON of the more popular social media, networking, book marking and multi-media websites to see if a given username has been taken. While that is, on the surface, pretty cool… there are a few things your can do with it such as;

Researching company/website names – if you are starting a new company or website, you could definitely use this in co-ordination with domain name research to ensure the best possible choices. If there are SMM elements in your marketing plan, certainly something to look into.

Securing all profiles for SMM campaigns – obviously if you have a new client/business/website and are including elements of a social media marketing campaign, this tool is wicked handy. There are so many listed that it makes securing all the relevant ones a much easier task. It also helps when researching the potential usernames to ensure you get one that is fairly Virgin across the majors.

Researching targets for marketing campaigns – let’s say you’re crafting some link bait and want to target various social media influencers, this tool would be great to stalk them and really understand what types of content might appeal to them. Cyber stalking is made easy with this little bad boy.

Monitor the competition – you can also use it to keep a close eye on the competition by identifying profiles and setting up some monitoring.

This little toy should definitely find its way into your social media marketing toolbox; great for business and stalking too…

(Note; in early testing there were some bugs and false/positives noticed by Andy, so be sure to double check listings while the bugs are being squashed)

Have a great weekend!

Popularity: 51% [?]

What’s The Simplest, Fastest Way To Explode Your List Size?

Category General | 5 comments »

by Martin Wales

If you want to sell more of your ‘stuff’ then you need more people to offer it to.Online this means the faster you increase the size of your list of contacts and email addresses the faster you make more money!The one tactic that did it really quickly and very easily for me was using Publicity. It’s led to huge jumps in my list sizes, especially when combined with offering a free audio tip subscription, like at www.CustomerCatcher.com.Publicity remains one of the most misunderstood and, therefore, under-utilized activity by online marketers. Publicity doesn’t have to be only about getting in the newspaper or on radio and television.

Publicity is what you do in ‘public’ that brings attention to you, your business, your activities and traffic to your sites!

It’s literally ANYTHING you do to communicate outside your company to promote.Here are some tips to take action on right away.

1. Add/or rotate links to your web site as part of all your email signatures
2. Clearly state your web site domain on your voice mail messages, both inbound to people calling you and outbound when you leave others a voice mail message
3. Introduce yourself and your web site at the beginning of any teleconference you participate in. People who come to my teleseminars overlook this simple tactic
4. Make your URL part of introducing yourself at live events, e.g. stand up at a microphone to ask a question – you’re in front of hundreds of people (and often being recorded on both audio and video too)
5. Write articles for submission to publications, both online and off, that include a powerful ‘Call to Action’ in your bio, or byline, that directs them to your Opt-in page and other irresistible offer
6. Host your own Internet Radio Show or Podcast. Use both audio and video online
7. Post tips and comments in Forums. Today, Blogs are hot so make sure to post your comments on the blogs of gurus, leaders and other centers of influence in your niche or industry
8. Offer samples of your material or smaller digital products, like ebooks and Special Reports, as a Bonus for other people’s products
9. Give testimonials to associates and also to service providers you buy from (meaningful and truthful ones) that include your domain name
10. Write a book or at least contribute to one! My friend Steve Manning does an amazing job of tell you how to do this FAST at http://www.writeyourbookin14days.com/Using Publicity multiplied my lists by over 400% within a year and one single activity (remember “providing a bonus” to another’s product) grew one list by 50% literally overnight.If you add publicity (read “Public ACTIVITY”) to your efforts, you are guaranteed to build your lists faster with ease! Get more FREE marketing help and tips at www.CustomerCatcher.com and http://www.CustomerCatcherTV.com/ right now. To create your own Publicity and media platform, check out http://www.RadioTalkShowHost.com/ today.

Popularity: 44% [?]

How to Squeeze Blood from a Copywriter

Category General | 2 comments »

True story:

Not too long ago I was approached by a marketer who had a product idea — just the idea mind you.

And he wanted to hire me to develop it… market it… sell it… and everything in-between.

The reason being — he didn’t have the time to do it himself.
My first thought was… now here’s a man after my own heart — lazy as the day is long, and dying to be rich and famous without lifting a finger.

Seriously, if I could take a pill to give me muscles like the Governator’s (in his prime)… play tennis like Federer… and attract women like Pitt — I’d order a life-time supply as fast as yesterday!

Anyway, I was up for the challenge… even though there are more than enough products like his already on the market (which is actually a good thing).

So… I cracked open my secret black book of sales and marketing pros and considered which “Mission Impossible Team” would be perfect to attack this beachhead.

Then, I sent the marketer my proposal… including my fee.

He was totally impressed. He told me I had brass balls (I think that was a compliment)… and then told me to get real.

He said he already had copywriters lined up to do it all for under $2,000 — flat fee, no percentage.

Yeah, right!

But, you know what… I bet he can find a copywriter to do it all for under $2,000 — and, boy, what a job he’ll do — he’ll even throw in the Brooklyn Bridge and shares of Enron at no extra charge!

Anyway, I checked back with him a few weeks later, and asked how the project was coming along… and… heh, heh… he still hadn’t hired a copywriter.

Moral of the story (sorta)… you can hire a copywriter to do practically anything for you… but if you’re not willing to pay the price for delegation, abdication and sloth — better to work together, following these simple “save money and make money” guidelines:

Ask Not What a Copywriter Can Do for You-Ask What You Can Do for Your Copywriter!

As Hemmingway said, writing is easy… all you’ve got to do is open a vein and bleed all over the page.

And yet, copywriters are actually more than just writers, they’re… ta dah!… Super Salesmen!

Copywriters aren’t hired to entertain, or dazzle the reader with unparalleled wordsmithing…

They’re hired to sell the client’s product (or generate a qualified lead).

And if they can’t do that — it doesn’t matter if they can write a poem like Frost, a play like Shakespeare, a thriller like King or a humor column like Barry (not me, the other Barry, Dave Barry).

But… if they can sell in print — does it matter if they employ broken English, fragmented sentences or any other type of grammatically dysfunctional construction, intentionally or not?

The only measure of a copywriter’s talent… is how much and how fast he can sell his client’s product!

But… since the product is not the copywriter’s brainchild… he neither conceived it, nurtured it in its embryonic stages, delivered it into actuality nor surrounded it with a supportive family… that’s never an easy thing to do (to sell to a stranger off the page and for maximum dollars, too!)

So he needs your help.

He needs research… background and market info, access to data and the ability to conduct interviews, etc. Indeed, there are tens of questions that need to be answered.

(For a comprehensive list of questions that always need to be answered, click here.) (http://www.writingwithpersonality.com/questions.html)

Now, as the baby’s parents, aka the marketer, you can leave the copywriter to discover all the answers on his own.

But first understand one thing — a copywriter typically makes a living by selling time — his time. And time equals writing, which equals money.

So if he has to spend time doing research — he ain’t writing, and therefore he ain’t making money.

So in light of that, copywriters will charge for research (it’s factored into your over-all cost — that’s why you’ll never get a separate bill).

And, depending on the complexity of the product and the intricacies of your targeted market — plus, the amount of research the copywriter must do on his own — research can be quite expensive (regardless of whether the copywriter does the research himself or hires someone to do it for him).

Now a good copywriter is fairly expensive to begin with. A-level copywriters can command a $25,000 advance plus 10% of gross sales, minus fulfillment costs.

So unless you’ve got a bottomless bank account… well… need I say more?

The other option, of course, is for you to provide the copywriter with the research he needs to get the job done (which is to quickly make you a whole bunch of money).

Now, most marketers obviously opt for this latter approach — but, unfortunately, in a very casual, hap-hazard fashion.

Don’t Short-Change Yourself by Short-Changing Your Copywriter

Too many marketers feel they’re doing a copywriter a favor by providing research.

They’ll give the copywriter… oh, about five minutes of their time.

They’ll send him an email with a bunch of URLs to investigate, a couple of sentences about their target market, and a couple of words about the benefits and features of the product (though most times they get the two confused).

And then they’ll end by saying that they’re always available to answer any further questions… just call.

Needless to say… this isn’t much help to a copywriter — and that’s why typical turnaround time for the completion of a copywriting project is often quoted in weeks if not months.

Experienced and successful marketers, on the other hand, those in tune with the rigors and demands of writing a money-pulling promotion — and who, quite frequently, wrote copy themselves — will send a FedEx box packed with collateral and emails filled with megs and megs of info and data.

After all, you can never send too much background research to a copywriter.

In fact, I would estimate that the success of any promotion is directly proportional (times ten) to the depth of research done on the product and the targeted market.

Furthermore… you should recognize that the ability to conduct research is a talent in and of itself — a talent which many copywriters do not possess.

So my advice is this: share the hours, if not years of information, wisdom and knowledge you acquired while growing your business and developing your product — however much effort it may require.

And if you do this… your copywriter will not hesitate — indeed, he’ll be empowered — to open a vein and pour his blood, sweat, and money-sucking talent on to the page for you — just to make you rich.

–Barry

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