Why This Website is Number One

'This website' being our Cinnamon Edge site, which is number one for the competitive term 'online marketing Bury St Edmunds', since that's what we do and that's where we are.

A few months ago, due to an, erm, technical hitch, we had to hastily rebuild our website on a new domain. We decided to use the opportunity to concentrate on getting it to number one as quickly as possible, as a test for ourselves and to prove to you we could do it.

And we did, within about three weeks. The site is still at number one for the key phrase we targetted, but because of the speed with which it was built we didn't really trouble ourselves too much with the design and appearance. So we also proved that, as far as SEO is concerned, design in that sense doesn't matter.

But how did we get to number one? The same way you can; by following the steps outlined here, on our Marketing Manual blog. Steps one to four are there now, with more to follow.

In fact, not only did we get to number one, we even got to positions two to ten at the same time, so we actually held ALL of page one of Google for a time - just to prove we could.

We'll be rebuilding the Cinnamon Edge site again in the next few weeks so it will be a site we can be proud of, but for now it serves to prove a point - online marketing, in Bury St Edmunds or anywhere else, is about much more than building pretty websites.

Roy

More Online Marketing Clients

A busy few weeks of ahead for us in Bury St Edmunds as more clients have sought our online marketing help to promoting their businesses.

Once again, we're looking beyond Bury and our new clients are in very different sectors, but the basic 'rules' of online marketing are the same for any business.

If you're planning to promote your business via the Internet, pop across to our marketing manual blog for some free advice on how you can do it yourself.

Roy

Online Marketing in Bury St Edmunds

If you have a business in Bury St Edmunds or Suffolk, Cinnamon Edge has some good news.

In fact, it's probably good news, wherever you are, if your business could do with some marketing help, even though we've labelled our project 'Online marketing in Bury St Edmunds'.

That's because we're based in Bury St Edmunds, not because you have to be.

But the online marketing part, that's for anyone. The great thing about the Internet is that it's essentially free. Free to add your business to and free for customers to access.

So marketing online is a bargain, but that's just one advantage.

It's also amazingly powerful, because it can be very local AND because it can be global - whichever suits your business.

It's also always 'on' - meaning it's there whenever you choose to look, and whatever you want to look for. And you only find what you're looking for. If you search for an accountant in Bury St Edmunds, for example, you won't usually see an advert for used cars or information about stair lifts. So it's incredibly, almost perfectly, targeted.

That's why most people search online these days, including for local products and services.

Which means you could be found online at any time by exactly the people who want what you offer. And you won't waste a single penny trying to sell your stuff to anyone else.

So, if you have a business, almost any business, and you're not taking advantage of online marketing yet, can I ask why not?

Roy

PS. It's not too late to get online. In fact, it's the perfect time! We can even supply you with a FREE WEBSITE, just to get you online ASAP. Just visit the website at http://www.cinnamonedge.co.uk/ to find out more.

Cinnamon Edge Moves (Temporarily...)

Due to unforseen circumstances (okay, we forgot), CinnamonEdge.com was allowed to lapse last week.

But, that little 'mishap' won't stop our online marketing, either in Bury St Edmunds and Suffolk, or for the rest of the world, for that matter...


...and Cinnamon Edge is now to be found at http://www.cinnamonedge.co.uk

See you back at the website!

Roy

A Lesson in Email Marketing

Actually, this lesson applies to any advertising and selling you do, through whatever medium.

It's just that it's so easy to measure it with email marketing (and so inexpensive, not to say effective...)

Anyway, we had a reminder of this principle recently, more or less by accident.

We use email marketing quite a lot. Tracking the results is always fascinating and illuminating. So a 100% click-through rate for a download we gave away gave me quite a kick, I must say.

Especially as the open rate for that email was only about 25%!

So yes, over four times as many people clicked the link as actually opened the email, which I've never seen before.

And the lesson? We 'accidentally' took away the risk, by using the words 'just download' in the subject line.

Meaning, not only did people not have to pay, or even sign up with another list, it seems most people realised they didn't even have to open the email. So maybe we appealed to their lazy side, too...

So, several lessons, actually.

1. Taking away the risk dramatically improves response

2. 100% response IS possible

3. Email marketing really does work

4. When you make things really easy and obvious that makes a big difference

5. We really should emphasise how we ALWAYS remove the risk from buying our products, with our no-quibble guarantees!

Until next time, to prosperity - it IS still possible.

Roy

PS (Always have a PS) here are some of our products, and they're all guaranteed:

http://www.nicheseminarsecrets.com/

http://www.completemarketingmanual.com/

http://www.thelifecoachingmanual.com/

NEWS RELEASE:

Fastest-Growing Profession Has Potential To Do Great Harm...

Recent comments from golfer John Daley, condemning remarks by his ex-coach about alleged drinking bouts, reminds us that coaches frequently find themselves in a position of great trust. Whether personal, professional or sporting, all coaches are liable to hear and learn things about their clients that are best kept from the outside world.

Some personal coaches, though, might mistakenly invite such revelations. So how do we know who we can trust with some of our less savoury secrets? Are we risking great harm to our reputations and ourselves by seeking the help of a life coach?

‘Only if we confuse coaching with the confessional or even therapy’, says life coach marketer Roy Everitt. He believes there is no need to spill the beans on anything we wouldn’t tell our biggest rivals, apart from our business plans and targets for the future.

‘Even then’, he says, ‘why would we be planning anything untoward?’ Provided we keep the details behind closed doors in a ‘commercial in confidence’ agreement that should be implicit in any working relationship, we have nothing to fear.

Yes, the potential for damage is there, says Roy, but only if we misunderstand what a life coach is actually for.

‘Helping us find a desired destination and designing a route map to get there from here is about the extent of it’, he says.

‘It’s a truly valuable service’, adds Roy, ‘and the fear of letting something slip shouldn’t stop us accepting the help of a genuine and committed life coach’.

Roy helps promote and market coaches through innovative and cost-effective means, concentrating on ‘getting done what needs doing’ rather than what his clients already feel comfortable doing for themselves. He’s married to life coach Jacqui Carrel, author of Become a Professional Life Coach and with whom he co-authored The Complete Marketing Manual.

What Do You 'Produce'?

Hello again,

One myth that holds back many a business person is the idea that he or she (or his or her company) produces one product, which we’ll call ‘Product X’.

Well, of course, many companies do just that. They go on, year after year, producing this or that product or service, perhaps adding ‘Product Y’ to their range in due course.

But sometimes the demand for products X and Y dries up. Rather like life on Earth, there are a million times as many extinct products, or species as there are extant, surviving ones.

Companies with foresight might see the end coming, and evolve and adapt to create new products and services for the new environment. Many companies are more like dinosaurs, though, and carry on in the old way, with obsolete products, because they served them well in the past. Those products were once brilliant ideas, but not now…

Meanwhile, you may have a passion, a dream and boundless ambition, and you might have a new product that you know the world truly needs. You may, but you’ll be hard-pushed to sell that product if it’s also something no one actually wants. Instead of being a dinosaur, your company might be an evolutionary dead end…

You can spend months or years and unbelievable amounts of money ‘educating the market’ to want what you feel they need. Just as you can pour endless amounts of money down the drain trying to promote something that people used to want but no longer do. Either way, you’re in danger of extinction.

Listen to the market, ask your customers their opinion and watch for signs of what people actually want, not what they need or what you feel they should have.

Then you will have a better chance of owning a brilliant business, not just a brilliant idea.

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

PS. One product that we created to suit customer demand is The Complete Marketing Manual. It wasn't in our plans for now, but we saw a demand and created the product to suit. We can help you do the same.

PPS. To find out what your customers really want and think, why not ask them? Ask us about setting up a survey, made to measure, so you can supply people with exactly what they want. That’s the easiest ‘sell’ of all. Go to our Cinnamon Edge website to see how we can help you set up a survey to ask your customers what they want from you.

Is Email Marketing Dead?

Hello again.

Judging by the number of emails we all send and receive every day, email marketing is still very much with us.

But how many of those emails are read and acted upon? Most of us have some kind of spam filter, and then we delete a lot of the mail that gets past that filter, without even opening it.

Still, I'm betting you read at least a few email messages every day, and if most of those are from friends, family and colleagues, there will be a percentage that nonetheless contain a sales message of some kind. And if you think you never read any of those, then they're probably slipping under your radar! Score one to the email marketer.

The ones you do notice are also succeeding, of course.

'Succeeding' doesn't have to mean persuading you to buy - marketing isn't just about closing the sale today - it means getting you to 'receive' the marketing message, because all marketing is a process, not an event.

So every message you open is another step towards an eventual sale (or it's another step towards your losing interest and unsubscribing), just as every email you send could be...

Because you don't just have to receive all these emails every day, you can send them, too. It's really quite a simple process and it's amazingly cheap (and therefore cost-effective) if you choose to do it yourself. Even hiring someone to do it for you, using their copywriting skills and experience, needn't cost the earth, and results will usually be even better.

When you target your old and existing customers you'll multiply their lifetime value to you.

You needn't worry about alienating people. We're talking about emailing your customers, not your friends here. If a few do unsubscribe, ask yourself this: do you really need to stay in contact with 'customers' who don't buy anything and don't want to hear from you?

So, is email marketing dead?

No; but maybe, for you, it is sleeping...

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results

PS You won't be surprised to learn that email marketing is one of the services we offer at Cinnamon Edge. You can read more about it in The Complete Marketing Manual or by signing up for our newsletter and free reports, using the form on this page.