Archive | March, 2023

If you market to Internet marketers, you might consider the following: 60-80% of your prospects are currently going through or have just gone through a major life change.

Maybe they were downsized, fired or retired. Maybe something at their job changed and now they want out. Maybe they’re going through a divorce or mid-life crisis. Maybe they have money problems or the opposite – They’ve come into money and want to invest it into an online business.

People who are suddenly looking for ways to make money online have experienced a major shift in their life. They’re probably unhappy with the way things are. They’re looking for guidance on how to make a change. Many of them want money FAST – as in yesterday. They want solutions now. They want to push a button and have it done for them. And if that’s not possible, they want to be told EXACTLY what to do to make it happen.

You can use this information to better communicate with your prospects, to let them know you know what they’re going through, and to show them that it can indeed be done.

And you CAN offer them “push button” solutions, too. The legitimate kind. As an example; “We’ll set up your WordPress site, create your first product in 3 different formats, build your squeeze page, write your autoresponder series and so forth, all for “x” amount of money.” That is truly a push button solution, because they push the “buy now” button and you do everything for them.

Of course, it will be too expensive for many, so you can also offer a downgrade, like this: “Too expensive? Then we can teach you how to do it yourself.” By offering two dramatically different price points, you can appeal to both the people who can afford the real push button method, and those who will have to invest their own work to make it happen. In fact, by wording your offer this way you will often get more sales. Your second option will look so low in price compared to the first option, they will find it difficult to say no.

Another great way to market to new Internet Marketers is to offer micro-continuity products that anyone can afford. For example, instead of charging $100 for your product, charge $9.99 a month. Then give them the option of receiving the entire course now for $89 more. Most will opt for the monthly charge, and a percentage will go for the $89 option because they don’t want to wait.

Once they’ve signed up as members, market other affordable products to them inside your members’ area. Plus, make an offer of a big ticket coaching program where you work with people personally.

You might use the Pareto principle when marketing to the Internet Marketing Community. 20% of your prospects are knowledgeable and perhaps even making money online. The other 80% are new, don’t know a great deal and haven’t yet made their first Dollar, Euro, Pound, Yen, Franc or Rand.

Which brings up my last point – unless you specifically target one geographical area, your market is GLOBAL. Yet the needs are very much the same. People who lose their job in China or Switzerland or Brazil or The United States all have the same concerns and fears – “How do I pay the bills and provide for my family now? What if I can’t? What if I fail to land on my feet?”

It’s scary for them, and what they want most of all is someone to take them by the hand, alleviate their fear and show them the way out of the dark and into the light.

The need for money is universal. Your target market is in distress, and they’re desperately hoping you can provide the very real and legitimate guidance that will see them through their financial crisis. Do so, and you will never want for business or income yourself.

Even the smallest changes can sometimes result in the biggest increases to your conversion rate. Take the headline split test, for example. Headlines A, B and C are tested against each other. Headline A converts at 1%, Headline C converts at 2.5%, and Headline B converts at 4.9%. Hmmm, which one should you pick? The choice is obvious, you go with Headline B.

But what if you hadn’t split tested? You would never have known. Just imagine: You write a terrific headline, which happens to be Headline A. It looks like a sure winner, so you don’t bother to test. And sure enough, it converts at a respectable 1%.

BUT, if you had tested, you would have chosen Headline B. And for every 100 people who hit your site, you would have made 3.9 more sales. If your product sells for $47, that’s another $183.30 you would have earned for every 100 visitors. But you didn’t test, and so you didn’t know, and so you lost thousands of dollars. Ouch.

Testing might seem like an irritation, but there are few things that can pay off as handsomely as a simple split-test.

That’s why I’ve made a list of things you might want to test in your next sales letter or even in your next email. I’ve left out the common things like headlines, pre-headlines, sub-headlines and calls to action. You already know about those. But have you thought about testing these?

• Various bonuses tested against each other and against no bonus
• Person next door tone versus formal business tone
• Header versus no header
• Placement and look of testimonials
• Adding more images, arrows, underlining, etc.
• Adding/changing the text underneath the images
• For low priced items – Placing the price at the top (beginning) versus at the bottom (end)
• A soft sell versus a hard sell approach
• Adding more call to actions throughout
• The design of the page itself
• Wording directed to your best customer versus more generic copy
• Changing the color scheme
• Changing the color or text on the order button
• Variations on your product image(s)
• Variations on your product image size
• Variations on your product image location(s)
• Renaming your product
• Focusing on benefits versus focusing on the pain of no solution
• Placing bullets closer to the beginning versus further into the page
• Focusing on one major benefit versus a laundry list of benefits
• Having all copy or video on one page, versus using steps with a progress indicator
• A trial offer versus asking for the entire sale up front
• Sales – a percentage off versus a dollar amount off
• Coupons versus sales
• And perhaps the most interesting of all: Using dark emotions like jealousy or revenge to get the sale [“You know that snobby woman at your child’s school who thinks she’s so terrific? Right now she is praying you NEVER get this program, because if you do you’ll lose that weight and look ten times better than her. Imagine how envious she’ll be then!”] Heh heh.

Mind you, this list is to get you thinking and moving in the right direction. There’s no way you’re going to test all of these things unless you’re a compulsive profit-seeking entrepreneur who can’t rest until you’ve got the most finely tuned sales presentation in the history of the world.

For the rest of us, pick and choose what you test. If you haven’t already, start with the basics like your headlines and calls to action. Then choose something from this list and see if you can’t boost your conversion rate even higher.

To stay motivated, do the math to find out how much more you will earn on every 1,000 visitors for every tenth of a point you increase your conversions. Write this number down and post it where you’ll see it. Then every week, or every day if you’ve got the traffic, test something new. There’s no easier or faster way to give yourself raise after raise than continually split testing.

You’ve probably heard that commenting on other people’s blogs is a good thing to do. But do you know why it’s so important?

Yes, it can get you traffic. People see your blog comment, like it, and click on your name to go to your website. But that’s not the biggest reason to comment on blogs.

Leaving blog comments might also give you backlinks, which could potentially increase your standing in the natural search results. But again, this isn’t the biggest reason to leave comments on other people’s blog posts.

Leaving blog comments also gets you seen by others in your niche. Leave enough great comments and people might start to remember you and your brand.

But again, that’s not the biggest benefit to leaving well-thought-out, interesting blog comments.

The biggest benefit? Whether you realize it or not, consistent blog commenting builds relationships with other bloggers.

Think about it – you go to Joe’s blog once a week and leave a well-thought out comment on Joe’s latest post. Joe keeps noticing you, and pretty soon the two of you are building a relationship that can eventually lead to:

• Guest posts
• Product endorsements
• Joint ventures
• Introductions to other movers in your niche
• And so forth…

Here’s how to be effective at blog commenting:

• Post on blogs in your particular nicheRead the entire post thoroughly before commenting
• Share your specific thoughts and opinions
• Don’t be general or vague. “Nice post” doesn’t cut it
• Use a great avatar – a photo of your smiling face is usually best
• Use your real name, not “Mary6504”
• Never be rude and never be mean
• Be genuine and thought-provoking – Add value to the conversation
• Use Google Alerts to be alerted to new posts so you can be one of the first to comment – more readers will see your comment this way
• Subscribe to RSS feeds and to email lists of your favorite bloggers – again, this helps to alert you when someone makes a new post
• If you’re not the first to leave a blog comment, then scan the other comments to make sure you’re not repeating a thought or comment
• Use personal stories where applicable
• Quote the post itself in your comment – for example, “When you said ____ it gave me a great idea”
• It’s okay to disagree if you do it in a way that totally respects the blogger’s opinions and thoughts
• Ask questions of the blog owner. This will get you more engagement and shows you’re interested in their opinion – very effective for relationship building.
• Always double proofread your comment for spelling and punctuation before submitting

And remember to be patient – you don’t develop a relationship with a blogger over one blog comment. Continue to come back and comment on new posts and you will gradually build real relationships with these bloggers.