More leads--and sales--in business are lost in the shopping cart section than any other portion of a website. It's here during shopping cart usage that on average 7.5 out of 10 people abandon the website buying experience.
 
    What would happen if you were able to cut that number in half? Or by one-quarter? Or even one-tenth? Your bottom line obviously would look dramatically better.
 
    What's your shopping cart page abandonment rate? If you don't know, take a look. Then email me at craig@cdmginc.com. I won't reveal the name of your URL, but I will let the readers know the average rate of your abandonment experiences...and next issue we'll talk about how to stop the bleeding.

    Response to marketing campaigns often increases when you are relevant and current with what's going on in the world today. No truer example exists than with the current fears of the economic slowdown or recession.
 
    B2B marketers are that finding many companies are cutting budgets and cutting back on their business expenditures.

 

    Consumer marketers are feeling the effects of inflation and soaring gas costs. Their target demographic is cutting back on anything that may not be necessary; and/or consumers are postponing what would be considered a luxury purchase.
 
    The best approach

 

    Your best approach when writing copy is pre emptively addressing why, in an economic downturn, it's in the prospect's self-interest to make those purchases.

 
    In other words, be realistic in your marketing. Empathize with your prospect. Let them know you know the situation that they're in and that you have a solution for their needs. Reposition your copy by understanding and addressing the objections on their mind that:
 
- The expenditure can be postponed
- The expenditure is not necessary
- There's a cheaper alternative
 
    Does your copy address these objectives?

    By incorporating this strategy into your copy you're going to increase your response.
 
 
    Empathy is a key principle of direct response copywriting. But you don't want to lesson response by writing "too soft." Let us help you. CDMG, Inc. copywriters have helped our clients thrive through 5 recessions. If you haven't had a chance to send us a piece of your marketing material for a FREE critique, now's the time. craig@cdmginc.com.

 

    In the last issue, we talked about some fail-safe options for your business when a natural disaster occurs. While it's uncomfortable to think about, recent tragedies worldwide show us how important it is to be prepared and have a disaster game plan.
 
    This week, we're going to talk about some things you can do before disaster strikes to protect your business, profits and infrastructure.
 
Before a disaster occurs
 
    The time to prepare is now. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Make sure your business has a solid business continuity plan in the event of a catastrophe or natural disaster.
 
This means:
 
o Have a customer service back-up plan. After the San Diego wildfires in October 2007, Real Health Laboratories closed their home offices, call center and fulfillment center for 36 hours. As a result, product shipments were delayed for about 2days--complicated by the fact that the company had just mailed a catalog the week before.
 
Their solution was to send an email to the company's entire house of 100,000 names explaining what happened and offering a 10% discount on any future purchase.
 
o Have a copy of your customer list outside your geographic area. Having it at a service bureau locally won't help. A devastating disaster could cause you to lose your entire database of customers...a problem that could cost thousands to reconstruct.
 
o Have a back-up call center to handle calls and orders from customers and business associates. After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans clothier Orient Expressed survived largely because it immediately re-routed phone calls to Signius, a back-up phone service. The company continued to take orders, phone calls and explain delays to customers.
 
o Make sure your company's servers are backed up on a regular basis (at a location away from your main offices). When PETCO corporate headquarters faced the San Diego wildfires last year, their company switched to back-up generators for several hours so their website wouldn't go down, avoiding a disruption in service and sales.
 
o It's also a good idea to have your website "mirrored" at an offsite location so you always have real-time duplication of your critical files and web presence.
 
o Also, ask your printers, customer-service lines and fulfillment houses if they have a disaster contingency plan put together. Just because you're prepared doesn't mean your vendors and associates are.
 
o Finally, map the "points of failure" of your business or marketing plan. Analyze your customer processes from beginning to end to map out areas where a natural disaster could disrupt your business. For example, keep your emergency contact list and procedures up to date and review them regularly so you're always prepared for any disruptions.
 
    Unfortunately, you can't control mother nature. But armed with some preventative measures, you can take steps to ensure your business survives, no matter what the situation.