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Long Copy VS Short… Which One Sells Better?
By Susan Greene

If long copy leads to poor results, it isn’t because of the length. Rather, it has to do with the copy’s content. If the copy is boring or doesn’t contain some kernel that the reader can instantly relate to, then he’ll stop reading. However, if the copy, lengthy though it may be, engages, entices, educates or entertains, then you’ll have no problem keeping the reader’s interest.They say, “The Internet is a fast medium. People don’t want to read long blocks of text. They’ll click away.”
The reality is that prospects who are genuinely interested in the product you offer always want more information about it, not less. If they are not interested in the product or not qualified, no matter how long or short the copy is, they will just never buy. They won’t read 15 words, much less 1,500. If long copy leads to poor results, it isn’t because of the length. Rather, it has to do with the copy’s content. If the copy is boring or doesn’t contain some kernel that the reader can instantly relate to, then he’ll stop reading. However, if the copy, lengthy though it may be, engages, entices, educates or entertains, then you’ll have no problem keeping the reader’s interest.When it is well written, long copy can significantly outperform short copy and lead to a much greater level of response. Prospects want more product information, particularly when buying on the Internet where they can’t see in person, touch or test-drive the product. Detailed feature and benefit statements are the golden nuggets that tempt prospects and cause conversions.Shorter copy can lead to several potential outcomes: a lower response rate due to lack of compelling information; a barrage of information requests because the copy didn’t successfully answer the prospect’s questions; or a higher number of cancellations or refund requests because the product or service was not what the customer anticipated based on the limited information he read.So, if you’re writing for the Web, just how many words should a page contain?
The optimum size is 250 words for maximum effectiveness. While it may seem like a lot, a 250-word count for each page balances search engine and reader needs. Search engine spiders crave content, especially keyword-rich content. You may see “a lot of words,” but the search engines see “a document with lots of important data to extract.” As long as you follow usability principles, you can write tons of text without overwhelming your reader. Besides if the search engines see a lot of key phrases combined with a low-word count, they may flag your site for spamming. A longer word count makes it easier to include your key phrases without sacrificing your marketing message.
Do you lose customers with scrolling copy? No, according to a study by User Interface Engineering (UEI). “One of the most significant findings of our research on web site usability is that users are perfectly willing to scroll. However, they’ll only do it if the pages gives them strong clues that scrolling will help them find what they’re looking for,” reports the article As the Page Scrolls from UEI. “In the trade-off between hiding content below the fold or spreading it across several pages, readership increases when the content is on a single page.”
Susan Greene is a freelance copywriter located in Orlando, Florida. Visit her website at (www.SusanGreeneCopywriter.com) or contact Susan at
susan@susangreenecopywriter.com, (407) 578-5528.

Reposted by Zach Hoffman – Online Marketing Agency - 954-763-1130

by Jason Lee Miller
Staff Writer WebProNews
Published: 2006-09-18

AOL and Intel launched an on-demand video service for Intel Viiv-based PCs. The joint effort provides AOL Video’s online library of movies, TV shows, music videos, concerts, and sports videos, viewable on large-screen televisions.

Much of the programming from the PC to TV screen is free to consumers with a large number of videos available in DVD quality via AOL’s Hi-Q format.

The service offers 45 channels of on-demand video programming featuring original, licensed and branded content; downloadable movies; AOL’s video search index. The user interface offers menu choices to search the entire video library, browse a video category, or choose from AOL’s recommended viewing list via remote control.

“We are very excited to launch our 10-foot AOL Video service with Intel and make what we believe to be the best online video experience on the Web available to consumers on the next generation of PCs and TVs,” said Kevin Conroy, Executive Vice President, AOL.

“AOL Video on Intel Viiv technology-based PCs combines the best premium Web video experience with the best media PC platform to deliver a whole new experience that will forever change how consumers use their TVs,” said Kevin Corbett, vice president of Intel’s Digital Home Group and general manager of the company’s Content Services Group.

Viiv-based PCs will also include AOL Radio, featuring XM Satellite Radio, and AOL Pictures, a free online digital photo service. In the future, AOL will include Music Now, the company’s online digital music store and subscription service.

AOL set up a new site called Digital Lifestyle Web site, designed to educate consumers about digital media consumption in the home and on the go for devices and technology platforms related to video, music, photos and home networking. The Digital Lifestyle Web site has articles and video clips from consumer technology experts, online classes, and buying guides for technology products.

The site also features an Intel-sponsored multimedia blog called “My Plugged In Life,” focusing on user-generated content.

Reposted by Zach Hoffman – Online Marketing Agency – 954-763-1130

Make Your Website Sell As Well As Your Best Sales Person By Charlie Cook, In Mind Communications, LLC.

How would you like to make your website as personal as meeting someone at a tradeshow? Your website is available 24/7/365 and it’s worldwide. Maybe you don’t have to fly all over the country with a booth after all! Charlie Cook offers four sound tips for bringing in as many sales as your best salesperson does.

1. Target People Who Are Looking To Solve a ProblemPeople come to trade shows because they are looking for a product or service. When they walk up to your booth, you know they’re at least mildly interested and want more information. Online, the best ways to attract people who are looking for your products and services is to make sure your site can be found in the search engines, to use pay-per-click ads like Google Adwords and to get your articles published everywhere you can online.

2. Start a Conversation What’s the first thing you do when a prospect walks up to your booth at a tradeshow? Do you immediately start spouting product features and prices, or do you introduce yourself and try to get a conversation going by asking them a question? Of course, you don’t immediately try to sell them. First you find out what you can about their business and which product would best suit their needs. The same is true online. If you immediately try to sell people, you’ll turn them off and they’ll go away. Instead, write marketing copy on your web site that begins a virtual conversation with prospects. Start by asking them the biggest or most common question on their minds relative to your product or service. Continue to ask questions about their problems and aspirations. Use this virtual conversation to spell out their concerns and, once you’ve defined them, explain how the solutions you provide solve their problems.

3. Build a Relationship by Being HelpfulWhere does your best business come from? From clients you’ve been helping for years; clients who know and trust you. When you’re standing in front of a prospect, you can hand them a free report, answer their questions directly and demonstrate your expertise.Converting online prospects to clients involves doing the same things with your web site marketing. Offer a free report to prospects to prompt them to give you their contact information. List commonly asked questions; then answer. Include content on the site that demonstrates your expertise and knowledge of your customers’ business needs.Think about how many ideas and how much information you’d share with a prospect in a 15 minute face-to-face conversation at a tradeshow. Your web site needs to present at least this much information. In fact, it gives you the opportunity to present more.

4. Make it PersonalMake a personal connection with your prospects. If you’re an entrepreneur or a business owner, use your web site to help prospects get to know you. Help your prospects see you as more than just an anonymous site that wants their money. Do this by:
• Putting up snapshots of yourself in your office or on the golf course.
• Using audio and or video clips with ideas prospects can use throughout your site.
• Providing free Telecalls. Not only does this give your prospects a chance to hear you demonstrate your expertise, it gives you an opportunity to find out what they’re really thinking about.
• Using ‘Live Help’ on your site. Most businesses have hundreds, if not thousands, of competitors and many of them market similar products and services. Whether you’re marketing in person or online, your best competitive advantage is the strength of your relationship with your prospects. For getting a conversation going or closing a sale, nothing beats being there in person, talking face to face with a prospect. But your website marketing can and should do as good a job. You don’t have to live with conversion rates in the thousandths of a percent. Put the four ideas above to work and make your site sell.

Reposted by Zach Hoffman
www.Exults – SEO, Inc.
Dial Up: 954-763-1131

By: Jason Lee Miller
Staff Writer @ WebProNews.com
Published: 2006-09-06

People are more and more putting down the red markers, forsaking ink-stained fingers in favor of carpel tunnel and blue-light specials at online classified websites. comScore reports the industry has grown by 47 percent over the past year – not so much from the folks in the Ozarks, though.
The highest concentration of US online classified users is where you’d think it’d be: in Silicon Valley and up the West Coast. The Pacific region accounted for nearly twenty percent of visitors, followed by the South Atlantic and Mid-Atlantic. Along the Old Man’s brow, in the East South Central region, the river folk make up just four percent of online job seekers and bargain hunters. Craigslist leads all others, growing by 99 percent over the last year, attracting nearly 14 million July visitors, or over a third of the 37.4 million classified site visitors. “As the category leader, Craigslist has clearly impacted the way in which new and traditional media companies approach the classifieds business,” said Andrew Lipsman, Senior Analyst of comScore Networks. Trader Publishing Company wasn’t far behind with over 10 million unique visitors, but if taken as a whole with third place AutoTrader, which TPC owns as well, the total moves to over 16 million. With Craigslist and TPC controlling 75 percent of the online classified sector, the remaining 10 million visitors preferred, in order, Cars.com, Apartments.com, Livedeal.com, Homescape.com, Backpage.com, Oodle.com, and RegionalHelpWanted.com sites. The demographics for online classified visitors didn’t skew as young and rich as other categories. The majority are between the ages 35 and 54, representing nearly 43 percent. Nearly the same percentage, 41.4, making less than $60,000 per year.
Craigslist, Online Classifieds

Republished by www.Exults
Zach Hoffman
Zach@Exults
Dial Up: 954-763-1130

Craigslist.com remains a solid asset to people around the country looking to grow their business. On the website you can post free information in their classifieds. The classifieds are broken down by state and then city. You can use the site to recruit employees, post for jobs, find used goods, and many more. The classifieds are very well organized and allow you access to all marketplaces around the country.

Also, the search engines constantly read Craigslist.com for relevant information pertaining to local areas. They are listing Craigslist.com postings in there results as a service to consumers seeking information about a local area. As a free service Craigslist.com is worth dropping in to at least browse and see if you can find any information of use.

We will follow up in a later posting about how to use Craigslist.com as a tool for SEO and to grow your business.

Thanks for reading,

Zach Hoffman
www.Exults
SEO, Inc., CEO
Zach@Exults
Dial Up: 954-763-1130

Web Presence Building Blocks (Step 2): Site Map Building (Site Blueprints)
By Zach Hoffman – www.Exults

Blueprints are the key to building a sound structure in both the physical and virtual world. For the virtual world of the Internet we call our website blueprints “site maps.” The creation of a site map makes navigation of your site more efficient for both consumers and search engine robots (computers building search results). A site map should organize all information you plan on having on your website into a logical format.

Benefits to a site-map:
Guide to building out your site,
Increased browsing efficiency for potential consumers and search engines,
Organization to information,
Search Engine Optimization Benefits.

The site map should start at your home page (index page) and build down into categories and sub categories. Below is an example of the initial break down off of the home page (index page) for a basic dental website:

SITE MAPS ON DOWNLOADABLE DOCUMENT FOR NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS @ SEO.CC

Chart 1: Home Page site map
Location + Dentist (Home Page)
Cosmetic Dentistry
Sedation Dentistry
About Us

The beginning of your site map focuses on the initial index page and builds out into sub-categories. The sub-categories will build out into various solutions for cosmetic dentistry, sedation dentistry and about you.

It is important to give prominent information first on your website and then to build out into details about what you do. Your sites main page should rarely have individual service offerings mentioned. The higher up you mention certain topics on your website it is given increased relevance to the people reading and search engines weighting of importance. The reasons it may be negative to list some detail items with prominence on the site is that it may draw away some readers and give the search engines suggested prominence of topics people are less concerned about searching for on the web.

For example, in dentistry an item would be porcelain veneers or teeth whitening, both of these would fall under the broad category of cosmetic dentistry. Therefore your primary category “Cosmetic Dentistry” should be given priority over individual items. An example site map for your cosmetic dentistry section of your page would look as follows:

SITE MAPS AVAILABLE TO NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS @ SEO.CC

Cosmetic Dentistry
Bonding
Teeth Whitening
Porcelain Veneers
Before & After Photos
Testimonials
Before & After Photos
Testimonials
Before & After Photos
Testimonials

There are many ways you could choose to break down your site. You could breakdown dentistry concerns into a few different ways. You can make it symptom based vs. want based. You could also use various breakdowns to discuss solutions for various symptoms:
Sensitive teeth,
Chipped teeth,
Aching Jaw,
Migraines,
And many more symptoms/self-diagnosis your patients may bring to you on a daily basis.

Sites like WebMD didn’t get famous because they are selling services; they are giving people answers and solutions to their problems. Web speak on most sites are at a level that is too technical for your target audience. People are looking for information about what you are going to be doing to them and for them. They know what you offer because that’s what your profession provides the solution for. As an example when somebody is looking up teeth whitening they probably want to know:
How long it will take?
How long the results will last for?
Are there any health effects they need to consider?
The average searching consumer won’t see the use of Discus Dental vs. Bright Smiles as a primary concern to solving their issue. More on this will be discussed when we talk about web copy development in our next newsletter. Back to site map development.

When constructing your site map be sure to remember you want all roads you are developing leading to a destination. We have increased our client’s web conversion rates for new patients exponentially by making one small tweak 98% of dental sites lack.

Be sure your content on your site links back and forth to relevant information someone would logically want to virtually step to. An example would be if you come to us with a broken tooth there are many options to how we could help you solve your problem. This can include porcelains veneers, bonding, and other solutions depending on the concern.

If a patient is looking to have these concerns fixed they may also be a candidate for gum contouring which is where you integrate information about your laser procedures into the content. This will allow you to educate potential patients of pertinent information to concerns they would like addressed before they even come in. It will allow for more educated consultations, and a potential patient with an educated mind as to what they want from you.

Here is an example of a start to the dental site map we worked on today (it is not completely built out because this is a client service we provide):

SITE MAP AVAILABLE TO NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS @ SEO.CC

Location + Dentist (Home Page)
Cosmetic Dentistry
Sedation Dentistry
About Us
Bonding
Teeth Whitening
Porcelain Veneers
Our Team
Contact Us
Before & After Photos
Testimonials

Once you have created your dental site map, the next step is to develop your copy for each section of the website. We will be discussing this in our next newsletter about building out your web presence.

Web Presence Development Recap:
Step 1: Choosing the Right Domain Name
Step 2: Site Map Building (Site Blueprints)

Dental Information Technology Seminar – Saturday, December 9, 2006
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Contact Us for Details…And More Coming Soon!

Until Next Time, Zach Hoffman
www.Exults – Online Marketing Agency
SEO, Inc., CEO
Zach@Exults
Dial Up: 954-763-1130

For Beginners: A domain name is ____.com, a sample domain name is DallasDentistry.com. Domain name is your identifier.

Why is a domain name so critical?

Practices today spend a lot of money on marketing themselves. A ballpark figure depending on your city is $2,000-$10,000 per a month. These all encompassing marketing budgets regardless of the chosen medium usually try to market the consumer back to their website.

This is where your domain name comes into play.

For examples sake we are going to use the Dallas dental market and pick on the guys you find on the front page of Google. They pay big dollars to be there and probably bigger dollars on other mediums of marketing.

A set of domain names from here are:
MyDallasDentist.com
LoversLaneDental.com
CosmeticDentistryofDallas.com
JamesMartinDDS.com
ParkCitiesDental.com
21stCenturyDental.com
WowDentistry.net
GrinAllDay.com
GarySolomonDDS.com

Which domain names from the above set are resalable upon selling the practice?

MyDallasDentist.com, CosmeticDentistryofDallas.com, ParkCitiesDental.com, 21stCenturyDental.com, WowDentistry.net, and GrinAllDay.com

Why?

These all have retainable value because they do not mention a specific doctor’s name, and speak to the region or the broad nation. So upon selling your practice the new dentist will just need to go through your site and change the name. You should incorporate the sale of your web presence to the new dentist if you are in this position.

Which domains are premium domains from the above set?

A premium domain name is a name that can stand solo in the marketplace and receive traffic without spending marketing dollars on it.
Of the above name none in my book would be considered premium domain names for the Dallas area. The following would be:
DallasDentist.com, DentistDallas.com, DallasDentistry.com, DDSDallas.com, DallasCosmeticDentist.com etc..

The list goes on but is limited. What makes these domains premium is people may just type in the domain name and you never had to pay for the traffic at all. For example we own DallasDentistry.com and it gets over 30+ type-ins a month, these are people looking for one thing and one thing only.

How many words should be in your domain name?
As little as possible, you want people to remember it and be able to spell the domain name correctly. Try to limit your domain name to words that speak specifically to your geography and profession.

Is it okay for your domain name to have hyphens?

No, your domain name should only have hyphens if it is being used strictly to trigger keywords for search engine optimization purposes.

What extension (.com, .net, .info, .cc) should you be looking for?

.Com all the way if you are fortunate enough to be able to pick the domain name up. There are very few .com domain names left and you may need to pay a premium for the excellent ones. We acquired DallasDentistry.com in an aftermarket (www.TDNam.com) and believe me it didn’t cost $7.99, our taxes to renew it will be $7.99 a year but the initial payment was a lot more.

How does your domain name play into marketing online?

The search engines read your domain name for relevance and keywords. The more keyword rich your domain name is for what you are targeting the better off you are. If you go to the major search engines and type in a search term you may realize some of the domain names especially in the sponsored search come up in bold. This is because the computer is identifying that they found the keywords you are looking for in this domain name.

How does your domain name play into marketing through other mediums?

Domain names used on outside forms of marketing from the Internet need to be real particular. They are the GLUE holding together your overall marketing campaign. It is necessary to have a great domain name when marketing through multiple mediums or you may be hitting deaf ears with your message.

Simplicity…Only one of the domain names in our sample set is 2 words and that is WowDentistry.net. But also realize it is a .net, and local competition in Dallas owns WowDentistry.com. Hmm…is this a name you would want to market on the radio? Are your potential consumers going to remember the .com or .net? Main question is, Are you feeding someone else’s fire?

Three simple rules when choosing the right Domain Names:
Be Particular,
Go For the .Com,
And, No Hyphens.

If you have any questions about your domain name in particular, feel free to reply with any questions.
Thanks for your time,
Zach Hoffmanwww.Exults
SEO, Inc., CEO
Zach@Exults
Dial Up: 954-763-1130

Marketing Mix – Learning from the Dental Players

After taking on a variety of clients it has been interesting to learn through discussion what type of marketing mix they are using. Scary thing is some people actually say, “Marketing mix?”

Marketing mix – the strategic mixing of various mediums to express your message to the marketplace

We have identified the four main marketing mediums for a local marketing mix:
Direct Mail – Newsletters
Print – Magazines/Newspapers/Yellow Pages
Television/Radio
Internet
Direct Mail

Direct mail comes in a variety of packages. You can take two design routes: custom design route ( www.GoldenProportions.com) or template package route ( www.PatientNews.com).

Two factors you may want to account for in choosing custom vs. template are:
Budget & Timeliness Factor
Custom work will cost more and take increased time preparation.
Template will be very cookie cutter where you choose what articles you want and it can be printed and placed in the mail relatively quickly.

The most important element of your newsletter will be choosing the correct mailing list. Unless a firm has experienced Economist/Marketing (demographics experts) working for them you may be best choosing a mailing list yourself. A great source to find this information is www.InfoUSA.com an online database. They charge by the address/lead and allow you to setup your criteria for who you want to target. Key factors to target are Age, Income, Home Value, Sex, Marital Status, and Zip Code proximity.

Television/Radio

Television and radio are great mediums for marketing but experience short shelf life. Your expression is limited to the time you buy, and only as affective as the frequency you can place.

In my local market of South Florida, where cosmetic appeal is what we breed we have been starting to hear associate practices stepping into the marketplace. Consumers know little difference between associates vs. an experienced professional, but they do know who they are hearing. Why do I say this? Well as a single professional practice your marketing budget is going to be far shy of what the associate practice can throw at a marketing push. If you are experiencing this in your marketplace you should once again refocus your marketing to a niche audience and beat out your competitor’s guerrilla marketing strategy this way.

Print – Magazine/Newspapers/Yellow Pages

Print marketing works in the dental industry on a local/regional level with the right ad. If you decide to run a print ad, look into a local magazine or newspaper where your budget will allow you to market for a majority of the calendar year.

We have encountered many clients who have been burnt by numerous organizations with nationwide magazines claiming to pitch you to an “exclusive” crowd. We will not mention any of these publications in respect for other mediums but you all know who we are talking about. To pay five figures to get into a nationwide publication, unless it comes with some silent benefits, or other strategy, just isn’t worth it.

Yellow Pages = garbage/firewood, need I say more? And yes we believe it worked for you ten years ago, but this is a different era.

Face it our society is not reading print, they are reading the Internet.

Internet

Internet marketing is currently the most affective medium of the above. All the above mediums feed interested consumers to the Internet. Look at you here reading the Internet for information. Your potential patients are doing the same thing; remember that sedation radio ad you ran this week? What do you think your potential patient had better odds of remembering?

Sedation Dentistry vs. Your Name?
Porcelain Veneers vs. Your Name?

Stop feeding your competition’s fire, if you are marketing on various mediums today and not the Internet, STOP THE LEAK!!!! Those clients you are grooming to buy your products and services should be coming to you at the end of the day to close the deal and not your competition.

If you would like additional information about Online Marketing and your current Online positioning, feel free to contact me at Zach@Exults for a free consultation.

Thanks,
Zach Hoffman
www.Exults – Online Marketing Agency
SEO, Inc., CEO
Zach@Exults
Dial Up: 954-763-1130

Hi,

Here are some steps to help you identify a domain name suitable for your business.

1. Would you like to target a location?

Answering this will help you identify a key-keyword to have in your domain name.

2. Are you a specific type of company? an Organization? etc.

This will help you identify the extension to end your domain with:
.com, .org, . biz, .info, etc…

3. What type of business are you?

Identify your profession, which will become a key keyword in your domain name also.

Here is the above applied to an example:

1. Would you like to taget a location? Yes, Dallas

2. Are you a specific type of company? Yes, we want a .com

3. What type of business are you? Dentistry

First suggestion to come to mind is DallasDentistry.com

This domain we identified is a generic domain name. Genereic domain names hold the most value because they have value to the most number of people that would be interested in your domain name.

Hope this information helps you choose a domain name and if you have any questions feel free to contact me.

Speak to you later,

Zach Hoffman
www.Exults
SEO, Inc., CEO
Zach@Exults

People are starting wonder why domain names are suddenly unavailable and getting expensive. Well check out www.DNJournal.com for more information on this growing market. It’s the law of supply and demand controlling the marketplace and very few excellent domains can still be found on the primary domain market. This series of events has led to many secondary markets beginning to appear. A few of the popular domain secondary markets are DomainFN.com, Sedo.com, TDNam.com, Pool.com, and many others.

Our firm solidified our positioning by catching www.Exults our company website. We would be glad to help your company find a suitable domain name for your company for a one time fee of $500 per a domain. We will bring you more information shortly on how to construct a solid domain name of your own, and what extension you may want to consider purchasing.

Speak to you later,

Zach Hoffman
SEO, Inc., CEO
www.Exults
Zach@Exults