If you have ever used Yahoo for search marketing, you will already be familiar with its lack of features.  With many rants and raves from search marketers, I think Yahoo has finally got a clue…  With that said, let’s get into what Yahoo is changing and how it will affect us.

1) Day Parting – Yahoo is finally stepping their game up and including day parting in settings.  You will now be able to increase, decrease, or pause bids altogether throughout the day without having to go in manually.  This has been a huge hassle for many when it comes to Yahoo. Many accounts that are in Yahoo need to be turned on and off throughout the day and until now, you would have had to do it manually.

2) Demographic Settings – You will now be able to adjust bid percentages by certain demographics like gender and age.  This feature is possible due to the registration process of Yahoo, where you are asked these questions as you sign up.  Although this will not be 100% accurate, it will be useful in many situations.

3) Zip Code Targeting – Along with demographic bidding, Yahoo is now allowing you to control your bids for certain zip codes.  If you find more actions resulting from certain zip codes, you can now focus and bump up the bid percentage to advertise more aggressively in that certain area. This will be certainly useful for businesses that want to focus on certain cities.

4) Updated Content Network – From experience, the Yahoo content network has been horrible. We have noticed that most of the Ads show up on very poor quality sites, mainly from other countries.  Yahoo is now saying that they have increased their control over which websites your Ads show on.  Their goal is to show your Ads on sites that are relevant to your keywords, which should have been the objective starting out.  Also Yahoo will be decreasing their minimum content bid for $0.10 to $0.05 to try to persuade advertisers with past negative experiences to give the content network another try.

These are the changes that have been promised by Yahoo.  Hopefully these changes will start a trend that will result in better results and ease of use.  Unfortunately we are still waiting on a desktop editor from them.

What do you think of these additions and what else do you think should be added/changed?

Engine Ready, EngineReady, search marketing, Yahoo, Yahoo Search

Sales copy, or copywriting, is the most important aspect of a business that “sells” online.  Copywriting is what drives sales, and without sales there would be no business.  There are several techniques that can be used to become good at writing sales copy and increase your online conversions.

Benefit of Good Sales Copy

Now before you develop the skills to become effective in copywriting you should learn how it will benefit you and your business.

It will…

• Increase the amount of conversions and overall conversion ratio
• Allow you to better connect to customers on an emotional level
• Increase the number of products sold (up-selling)
• Earn respect from visitors and create a relationship
• Increase sales, which will result in an increased list of buyers.  Once they have a positive buying experience they will probably come back to you the next time they are in need of a product or service.

Essentials of Effective Ad Copy

Certain phrases or aspects of copywriting trigger emotions in people that will influence them in the buying cycle.  Here are a few that are found to be effective.

• Tell a story – Make your visitors feel connected to you by sharing a similar experience.
• Original Content – Stand out from your competition and give you visitors what they want, not what they can find everywhere else.
• Customer Service – Stress the customer service they will get when purchasing through you, and make sure to fulfill your promises.
• Be a complete resource – Customers like to have their problems solved in as few steps as possible, so become a complete resource or guide them in the right direction.
• Popularity – People are influenced by others, there is no doubt about that.  Make it known that others are raving about your product or service and it will have a positive influence.
• Prove it – Show solid results proving your product or service is worth the time and investment.
• Sneak Peak – Offer a trial with no risk to give them a “taste” of your product or service.
• Exclusivity – Make them feel as if they are the only one (or few) that are getting your product or service.
• Sell the benefits – Clearly articulate how your product or service will provide the solution to the problem that initiated their visit.

These are only a few tactics and there are many more out there for you to experiment with.  Not all tactics are needed to be effective, but using one or more will increase your chances of meeting your company goals.

Headline

What is the first thing you see upon landing on a website? That’s right, the headline.  If you have a horrible headline and amazing sales copy then kiss the majority of your customer’s goodbye.  Spend the time to really test and see what is triggering your customers to continue reading and complete an action.
Some Ideas to begin a headline with…

• How to…
• Discover…
• Imagine…
• Attention…
• Learn…
• How to…
• Warning…

Call To Action

Another important factor when copywriting is your call to action.  Without a call to action your visitors are not going to know how, or what you want them to do.  You can have the best sales copy in the world but if you don’t have a strong call to action you are going to lose a huge amount of potential customers.
Here are some terms that will entice your visitors to take action…

• Join Today…
• Order Now…
• Order Today…
• Don’t Wait…
• Buy Now…
• Sign-Up…
• Subscribe…
• Become a Member…
• Learn More…
• Find Out…
• Get Your Free…
• Take Action…

Try to keep your calls to action to a minimum because you don’t want to put your visitors in a predicament of choosing between multiple actions.

No matter what kind of product or service you are providing you should always spend a great deal of time creating your sales copy; it will prove worthwhile in the long run.

copywriting, EngineReady, sales copy