11 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
11 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Can anyone explain what these IM jargon means?

by zetaReticullan
9 replies
I am trying to put together a set of simple, concise steps to follow, in order to:

1. drive traffic to a new (free to join) community website
2. convert visitors to members (i.e. register on site)

I have been doing a lot of reading, and the following words keep cropping up:

i. auto responders
ii. sales letters
iii. copywriting
iv. squeeze pages

I have to say upfront that I am a techie, so I know what an auto responder is (I can event write my own if need be) - so I understand it from a TECHNICAL point of view, I just don't see exactly where it fits in a marketing campaign.

It is not clear to me, the difference between sales letters and copywriting (or a piece of "copy" to use the lingo).

Can anyone explain how all of these fit together into a marketing plan?
#conversions #copywiting #explain #jargon #means #newbie #sales #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by zetaReticullan View Post

    I know what an auto responder is (I can event write my own if need be)
    Not quite. That's an autoresponder email, which you can write yourself.

    An autoresponder is a form of software which holds the email addresses (and sometimes other information) about your subscribers in a database in the form of one or more "lists", allowing you to communicate with them on an automated basis. It can be on someone else's site (that's called an "autoresponder service", such as Aweber) or on your own server (that's called a "self-hosted autoresponder") but either way, it's software.

    Originally Posted by zetaReticullan View Post

    ii. sales letters
    "Sales letters" is a strange term. It dates from the days of direct postal mail (still in use) when a sales page was a "letter". In our context, it just means "sales pages".

    Originally Posted by zetaReticullan View Post

    iii. copywriting
    "Copywriting" is the writing of sales pages (and sometimes the writing of other text designed specifically to sell). As opposed to "content-writing", which refers to articles and other site content apart from sales pages.

    Originally Posted by zetaReticullan View Post

    iv. squeeze pages
    Easy one: a "squeeze page" is simply a page with a prominently incentivized opt-in and no other content.

    Originally Posted by zetaReticullan View Post

    Can anyone explain how all of these fit together into a marketing plan?
    I think once the words are clearly defined and understood, that becomes fairly clear?

    Traffic is attracted (with whatever traffic-attracting methods you use) to your "squeeze page" (if you use them - I don't), and opts in, providing email addresses (and maybe their names, too - not necessarily) which are held in an autoresponder. Then you send automated emails, using the autoresponder, and the subscribers click on links inside those emails and get taken to sales pages (yours, if you're a vendor, or someone else's, if you're an affiliate) which have been produced for the purpose by a copywriter and a proportion of them buy. There are many details missing here, of course, but that's a general overview.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5248319].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author zetaReticullan
      Alexa, thanks for taking the time to answer relating to IM jargons that I kept encountering whilst trying to learn more about IM and marketing in general.

      I suspect, (from the quality of your response), that you have a deep knowledge in this field (IM in general).

      Do you have a blog or other web presence that I could visit to glean some more of your "pearls of wisdom"?. Also, I would like to know what IM (or related marketing) services you offer - for the purpose of gaining more help from you further down the line.

      I am a small, bootstrapped (i.e. self funded) startup and have no meaningful marketing budget to speak of - what I do have however, is the determination to succeed. I have read a lot on IM, SEO etc, but a lot of the information has been contradictory (for example in terms of emphasis or the order in which things are to be done). The net result is that I am experiencing "information overload".

      What I am in need of is, a small subset of things I can do myself in order to attain SOME success (in the twin goals of driving traffic and conversions to the free registration community website). Any such success (funded purely by "sweat equity") would be prove that I am headed in the right direction. I will then be in a position to make an investment in terms of consulting with you (assuming that you do "coach").

      I will be interested in hearing your response to the above. You may PM me with your response if you deem that more appropriate.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5248450].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        Originally Posted by zetaReticullan View Post

        Do you have a blog or other web presence that I could visit to glean some more of your "pearls of wisdom"?.
        LOL, no, sorry ... nothing like that. "IM Advice" isn't one of my "niches" at all.

        Originally Posted by zetaReticullan View Post

        Also, I would like to know what IM (or related marketing) services you offer - for the purpose of gaining more help from you further down the line.
        None at all, sorry - I just hang around here and heckle, and worsen people's indigestion, and make facetious comments aimed at my friend Caliban (above) and others. :p

        Originally Posted by zetaReticullan View Post

        I am a small, bootstrapped (i.e. self funded) startup and have no meaningful marketing budget to speak of - what I do have however, is the determination to succeed.
        This is more useful and worthwhile, anyway.

        I started my online business with under $100, and there wasn't a time (early or later) when having an extra $1,000 or $2,000 to spend on it would have made it any better or faster, or produced income any more quickly - so not spending any money to get going was no handicap to me at all.

        Originally Posted by zetaReticullan View Post

        I have read a lot on IM, SEO etc, but a lot of the information has been contradictory
        Yes, I identify strongly with what you're saying, here.

        To put it very bluntly, it's terribly difficult to know whom you can believe and rely on. This is, for many people, the major hurdle, I think. When you don't know a lot, all information looks more or less the same. There's no "quality control" of online "information" and a lot of it turns out with the benefit of hindsight to be straight out of the Urban Myth School of internet marketing. :p

        I found this terribly difficult, when I started.

        Somehow you just have to develop the judgement to know who to listen to, but it isn't easy to develop judgement without experience.

        Anyway, you're better off than I was, if you're a techie. I was technophobic and incompetent when I started, and am still slightly technophobic and slightly incompetent now, to be honest.

        The "big breakthrough" for me was working out whose information was reliable and whose was nonsense.

        I found that "majority views" were pretty often ill-informed and misguided (no surprise there, perhaps, when you think that "most people actually fail": the "consensus" is always likely to be a mistaken one!), and that opinions from people advertising/promoting "SEO services" were often less reliable than others.

        You can see from some of threads here how great the "differences of opinion" are, on some really fundamental matters.

        I'm sorry not to be able to offer you any direct assistance at all. But Caliban may be able to help you, and is as reliable as you can find and will never misinform you.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5248534].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Alexa's done a pretty good job here, just adding some more bits and pieces here.

    A squeeze page is a web page where people join your mailing list.

    Your mailing list is hooked up to an autoresponder, which is a series of emails sent on a specific schedule.

    Those emails direct people to your sales letter, or sales page, where you are selling your product or service.

    On all of these, you have copywriting - a specific kind of writing which is designed to sell your product or service.

    A common layout works like this:

    - The squeeze page promises a free report

    - The first autoresponder message delivers that report

    - Another autoresponder message sent a day or two later provides additional valuable content

    - A third autoresponder message sent another day or two later links to the sales page

    - The sales page offers a larger, more comprehensive product or service similar to the free report
    Signature
    "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5248356].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author zetaReticullan
      Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

      A common layout works like this:

      - The squeeze page promises a free report

      - The first autoresponder message delivers that report

      - Another autoresponder message sent a day or two later provides additional valuable content

      - A third autoresponder message sent another day or two later links to the sales page

      - The sales page offers a larger, more comprehensive product or service similar to the free report
      Thanks CDarkLock: Thanks for the workflow explanation. Its all starting to make some sense to me now.

      Couple of quick questions:.

      1. Is the workflow you describe above, what is known as a "sales funnel"?
      2. How do you get people to the squeeze page (i.e. drive traffic to the squeeze page)?

      Also, same question I asked Alexa:

      Do you have a blog or other web presence that I could visit to glean some more of your "pearls of wisdom"?. Also, I would like to know what IM (or related marketing) services you offer - for the purpose of gaining more help from you further down the line.

      I am a small, bootstrapped (i.e. self funded) startup and have no meaningful marketing budget to speak of - what I do have however, is the determination to succeed. I have read a lot on IM, SEO etc, but a lot of the information has been contradictory (for example in terms of emphasis or the order in which things are to be done). The net result is that I am experiencing "information overload".

      What I am in need of is, a small subset of things I can do myself in order to attain SOME success (in the twin goals of driving traffic and conversions to the free registration community website). Any such success (funded purely by "sweat equity") would be prove that I am headed in the right direction. I will then be in a position to make an investment in terms of consulting with you (assuming that you do "coach").

      I will be interested in hearing your response to the above. You may PM me with your response if you deem that more appropriate.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5248469].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
        Originally Posted by zetaReticullan View Post

        1. Is the workflow you describe above, what is known as a "sales funnel"?
        More or less. It's more complex than that, really, since a sales funnel usually involves bumping your price upward - you would sell a $17 product, offer an "upsell" to a $47 product when they clicked the buy button, and then a few days later offer them a $97 product with an upsell to something at $197 or $497.

        2. How do you get people to the squeeze page (i.e. drive traffic to the squeeze page)?
        The same way you would drive traffic to anything else. I personally have the best luck posting in forums and giving people links to my blog, where I have a no-bribe opt-in form in the sidebar.

        Do you have a blog or other web presence that I could visit to glean some more of your "pearls of wisdom"?
        I have a blog at Darklock Communications | Caliban Darklock's Personal Blog and I have a one-hour live broadcast on Talk Marketing Now Network. Learn. Share. Connect. Monday through Thursday at Midnight Eastern, 9 PM Pacific. I also tend to show up for the Friday Night Chat there every week - usually around 10 PM Eastern, 7 PM Pacific.

        Also, I would like to know what IM (or related marketing) services you offer - for the purpose of gaining more help from you further down the line.
        I'm restructuring my business right now, so all my products are off the market while I retarget everything. I've got some stuff on the way out Real Soon Now, though.
        Signature
        "The Golden Town is the Golden Town no longer. They have sold their pillars for brass and their temples for money, they have made coins out of their golden doors. It is become a dark town full of trouble, there is no ease in its streets, beauty has left it and the old songs are gone." - Lord Dunsany, The Messengers
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5248555].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
    Banned
    i. auto responders- A group of mechanics that are constantly on standby to come help with your vehicular needs.

    ii. sales letters- Men dressed as giant members of the alphabet who try to sell vaccums door to door

    iii. copywriting- What you did in fourth grade to pass that English exam

    iv. squeeze pages- The cause of many internet sexual harassment suits.

    Seriously though, just read what the two above me said.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5248468].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author CarolSmith
    I am basically a teacher of basic IM skills (for the beginner who knows nothing). In general right now I am doing this free for a very few at a time. As a retired teacher, this is a passion. I find that far too many try "to eat the elephant" in bites that are far too large and not in an organized step by step fashion -- building on knowledge instead of trying to conquer that information mountain all at once.

    The one thing that I did want to mention relates to your comment about creating your own "autoresponder". Since you said you are a techie, this is probably very possible for you. The one piece of advice that I would give you about this is to identify the advantage of subscribing to one of the well-known, reliable services.

    They are well known by ISPs and far less likely to cause your emails to be tagged as spam.

    Good luck in your quest.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[5248653].message }}

Trending Topics