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What are the sketch pictures all over your site?:
These sketches are the masterful works of Leonardo Da Vinci.
We like to think that Avatar Business Solutions, like Leonardo Da Vinci, are
ahead of our time, and as such we wanted to pay homage to him.
Can any business purchase your advertising solutions?
Unfortunately Avatar is forced to turn down a small percentage of
prospective clients due to one of the following reasons.
Inadequate Website: Typically if a client has a website that we feel would
not convert customers well, we generally turn them down. By converting a
customer we mean, if we send a qualified lead to your site, how likely is
the visitor to turn into a paying customer based on your site. Before we
cancel your order for this reason, we always call the client, and offer
suggestions, as well as offer to address any changes they need on a cost per
case basis.
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Inappropriate Content: Avatar Business Solutions does not advertise
pornography of any kind, nor do we advertise online gambling, get rich
quick/Pyramid schemes, sites with embedded spyware, illegal content,
affiliate sites, or any other sites we deem to have inappropriate content.
Over Saturation: We try not to have more than 5 clients who provide the same
services in the same market. Though it is very rare it does come up from
time to time.
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Is there a guarantee on how much traffic I will get?: No, it is our
experience that companies that guarantee a minimum level of traffic are
doing the customer a disservice. To guarantee a client 30 hits to their
site when it is obvious to a trained professional that they will get over a
thousand is as insulting as guaranteeing 30 when there are only 5 qualified
searches a month for what they do. It is impossible to pin down how many
qualified leads we can send your site. If you sell engines for solar
powered cars there will not be as many people searching as if you are a real
estate agent. Both businesses have a market, and both would stand to do
well with our services, but one relies on a very high conversion rate from a
few visitors, and the other will probably get a very low conversion rate
from a tremendous amount of traffic. Neither business would benefit from
such a guarantee. However we also realize the only way the we will keep
our customers is if we provide as much traffic as is humanly possible,
therefore we try our best get the maximum traffic that our plans allow every
month.
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Do you offer any discounts or promotions?: Absolutely, effective February
1st 2005 we are offering the following promotions:
* Prepay 11 months on any plan, and get the 12th month free. This
is available even on renewals.
* Recommend a friend who signs up for an equal or greater package who pays on a monthly basis,
and when your friend makes their 11th payment you and your friend get 1 month free. This
is a one time promotion for each recommendation you give us, however each new recommendation will
receive an additional month free
* Recommend a friend who prepays 10 months, and prepay 10 months
yourself, and each of you get 2 months free. Your friend must sign up for
an equal or greater package than you.
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How do your contracts work?: We ask that all our clients agree to an up front
3 month contract. This is only because for a new client it takes up to 3
months for the client to see the typical results, and since we want to avoid
snap decisions on whether our packages are working, we ask that you wait
this long. After your 3 month commitment is completed, you may cancel any time before
your next bill date. We do not offer prorated rates to any customer who
cancels in the middle of the month. That months advertising will be
completed till the date of cancellation.
The Internet is such a global tool, it can't possibly help my local
business, can it? Absolutely! Whether your business is a Mom & Pop hardware
store or a global Fortune 50 company, there is always a market for what you
have to offer. Did you know that according to a recent Kelsey Group survey,
1 out of every 8 searches online, or about 90 million daily searches, are
for a local product or service with the intention to purchase?
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I currently advertise with other mediums. Why is adding search engine
advertising important?: Search Engine advertising is another piece in your
marketing puzzle. We recommend to all of our clients to do many forms of
advertising, usually 4-5 is a good amount. It is important to have all of
your advertising strategies work hand in hand to help each other. If you
spend thousands of dollars doing a Television ad, it is important that once
you have made your impression on your prospective client, that they be able
to find you once they are ready. Generally speaking there are only 2 types
of advertising, "Direct" advertising, which puts your name in front of a
customer when they are looking for you. And "Branding" which puts your name
in front of the customer when they are not looking for you. Your
advertising strategies must help feed each other, and diversifying them,
without going crazy, is the key to building a successful company. We have
found that the best mix of advertising strategies usually include Search
Engine advertising of your website (Avatar's service), Direct Mail, Highly
visible signs near or around your place of business, Yellow Pages, and Word
of Mouth.
How much money should I expect to get back from my investment?: This depends
on several things. For instance if you only make $1 for every paying
customer we get you, then your return on investment will be low. However if
you make $1000 for every customer we get you, then your return on investment
will be very high. Everything depends on your individual case. Typically a
smart business person will seek at least $1.30 return for every $1.00 spent
on advertising. This is because the second time the customer comes to you,
it costs you nothing to re-acquire them, and because each customer helps to
better your word of mouth response rate. Our surveys have shown an average
return of $15 for every $1 spent. This is an average and your results will
most likely differ, however it important to recognize that breaking even on
an advertising campaign is usually considered a success for the reasons
mentioned before. Another significant factor on the success of a campaign
done with us is the quality of the website. The more you invest in your
website, the more sales you will likely achieve. We suggest to every single
client who has not purchased a site from us to ask 10 people who are
acquaintances who are not familiar with your business to give you their
opinion on your website. Try your best to get an honest opinion out of them
to see what they say. Or you can call us any time free of charge to get our
opinion, regardless of whether you are a client of ours or not for some
recommendations.
My sons' friend can design websites, should I just get him to do it for me?:
Unless the "friend" has years of designing business websites, we highly
recommend against that. Most sites that are not professionally designed
generally hurt the chances of acquiring a customer, or converting a sale.
Think of it this way, if you are designing an office for your company, would
you get a professional contractor to do all the work for you, or would you
get a friend who can fix a toilet clog on the weekends? It is imperative
that your website show your professionalism to your clients.
Is it true that advertising with you is a tax write-off?: Absolutely, every
single dollar you spend with us is a tax write-off, this is why it is
important to put pricing aside when choosing which package to choose from
us, but rather focus on how many customers you would like to see, and choose
a plan accordingly.
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What response rate should I expect from your plans?: It is difficult to
predict what a response rate can be. It is dependant on 2 things. The
quality of the website, as well as the quality of the ad leading them to it.
The bigger the plan, the higher the probability is that you will be getting
leads to your site from highly relevant searches. Likewise, the higher the
quality of your website, the more likely the potential customer is to
purchase with you. We have seen typical response rates between 2% and 20%.
This should be taken into consideration before choosing a smaller package,
as a higher package increases the likelihood of more customers. Doing the
math, 200 hits can get you anywhere from 4-40 customers a month, if you make
$100 per customer, and you get 20 customers, you will make $2000 on a $200
investment, or a 900% return on investment.
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What happens after I place my order with you?: First we would like to thank
you for your business and for choosing Avatar Business Solutions as your
search engine advertising solution. There are several things that occur
after a purchase is made. First, if you have a pre-existing website, we
manually examine every aspect of your site, and keep a record of all
products, services, promotions, and locations. We then spend several hours
researching what your competition is doing, and what areas of your
particular business is most likely to succeed based on the amount of
competition, and the amount of traffic we estimate to come in. We then
design dozens of advertisements for hundreds, even thousands of possible
keywords and track statistically what works and what does not. We repeat
the process many times till we have found a mix that works. Once we have
found a mix that works we maintain the program on a monthly basis by
repeating the steps above to try and get you more traffic for the same
amount of money. This is why some of our clients see the typical results
after several weeks, even months into the program. If we are building your
website we have a representative call you within 3 business days to gather
all the needed information. We even offer to scan in pictures to be used on
the site free of charge for any site we build. (Please note that any
pictures sent to us for scanning will not be returned unless return postage
is included) During your call with us we will discuss your web hosting
options, most clients elect to choose our recommended web hosting solution
and we will guide any customer with set up of this.
What is the difference between Search Engine Optimization, and Pay Per Click
Advertising?: Pay per click advertising, which is the service we provide, is
also known as an inorganic search result. It is an advertisement that shows
up in varying locations of a search engine and is organized in complex
orders. It is something that we can control, and is generally more
profitable than search engine optimization. Search Engine Optimization, is
the process where a website is altered in some way as to effect the manner
in which is comes up in a search engine. Typically it is not an exact
science, and changes all the time. Most search engine optimization
companies charge thousands of dollars for an optimization, and it is
suggested that your site be re-optimized every 3-4 months. We are currently
developing a search engine optimization program; however it is not ready at
the moment. If you would like to be listed on our waiting list, please call
us to be added.
What is "Conversion Tracking"?: Conversion tracking is a way to estimate if a
visitor has taken a positive action on your website. For example if you
have an e-commerce site, if a customer has made a purchase, then a
conversion has occurred. If you have a non e-commerce site, then perhaps if
a customer has sent you an email, then a conversion has occurred.
Do you offer "Conversion Tracking"? Absolutely!: If you are already a client
of ours and would like to add conversion tracking, please have your
webmaster contact us so we can set it up. If your site was built by us
please call us to let us know you would like conversion tracking added to
your site. This is done free of charge for all our clients, and is only
done for our Google campaigns, we currently do not offer conversion tracking
on Overture campaigns. Also note that conversion tracking does not make
sense for everyone, particularly contractors, or anyone who does not wish to
interact with their website on a daily basis. Please call or email us any
time for more information on conversion tracking.
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How do your prices compare to everyone else?: Our prices were set after
exhaustive research on our competition. Typically a competitor of ours
charges $250/month plus the cost of traffic, with a $500 setup fee. We
currently are not charging customers a setup fee and all our pricing
includes the cost of traffic. We believe that this form of pricing greatly
benefits small businesses that simply do not have the revenues to pay for
this service. It is also a huge key in our customer loyalty which is one of
the highest in the business.
For any further questions or comments please give us a call.
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Prepay 11 months on any plan, and get the 12th month free. This is available even on renewals. 