The 5 Minute Guide To Cheap Startup Advertising. The following is a guest post by Rob Walling.
Rob Walling has been an entrepreneur for most of his life and is author of the book Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer's Guide to Launching a Startup. He also authors the top 20 startup blog Software By Rob, that's read by tens of thousands of startup entrepreneurs every month and he owns the leading ASP.NET invoicing software on the market in addition to a handful of profitable web properties. Imagine that you've just completed version 1 of your product and you're preparing for launch.
You’ve greased the wheels with a few bloggers, targeted some keywords with SEO, created a bit of linkbait, and scheduled the press release to launch in the morning. At this point your co-founder turns to you and says: “What are we going to do with the $300 we have stashed away for advertising?” The half-life of advertising traffic is zero. Strategy #1: Try to Get Permission Seriously consider offering something in exchange for a visitor's email address. How to Design Social Proof That Drives Sales. If you run an ecommerce site, you know that in every visit there’s a moment where your visitor chooses to buy or bail.
If they buy, you win. If they bail, you lose. Simple, right? Since the very first ecommerce transaction, site owners have been trying to optimize the user experience to get more people to check out before they bail out. Today’s successful ecommerce sites are using social proof to help drive more conversions and revenue for their business. What is social proof? Social Proof Defined So what is social proof exactly?
Social proof, also known as informational social influence, is a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others reflect correct behavior for a given situation. 10 ways to use psychology to lure web customers. I’ve been researching and thinking about the psychology of the social web and our Internet relationships.
There are many common psychological techniques you can use in your every day Internet marketing. Here are a few ideas to ”psych” your visitors into spending more time on your website and your blog. 1) Social proof is king In real life, “social proof” is the trappings of society that impart influence. A person’s height, a fancy car, a diploma … all help determine influence, subconsciously. With the density of information in today’s world, these badges are more important than ever.
We make the same assessments about websites and blogs. Another way to accomplish this on a website is product reviews and ratings. 2) Give web tourists a reason to become residents In the first few seconds you have a visitor on your site, are you giving them a reason to stay a little longer to learn about you? 3) Put the most important action at the top 4) Provide instant gratification 5) Illusion of scarcity. The four stories you need to grow your business.
As human beings, we are hard-wired to tell stories.
From the campfire to the water-cooler, it’s these stories that are remembered and passed on to others. Whether we’re standing around a BBQ, sharing after-work drinks on Friday night or grabbing a latte at mothers’ group, it’s our shared stories and experiences that bring us together. So why don’t we place the same emphasis on storytelling in the world of business? The business world that is one that’s full of data, statistics and numbers. We talk about our yearly revenue. But the reality is: do most customers care about these numbers? Don’t get me wrong. We’ve been conditioned to think in short, sharp facts. That’s why storytelling is so important in business. In other words, stories access your emotions and this helps you put a feeling or meaning to facts and figures. If you are serious about marketing your business, you need to tap into the hidden power of stories. 1.