Archive | May, 2023

Almost any marketing coach can tell you stories of students who came to them for help in launching their product. The student has the product ready to go. Maybe it needs a few tweaks, but they are small things that could be done in a few days or maybe even in a few hours. We’re talking about products that in many cases are better quality than 90% of products out there. But they won’t launch the product. They keep telling themselves the product isn’t ready, that it needs improving, the time isn’t right, etc…

They’re deluding themselves. The real reason they’re not launching? Terror.

Stark terror that someone, somewhere, will say something BAD about their product.

Or worse yet – people will hate their product AND the product won’t sell worth a darn.

But here’s the fact to focus on instead: A product that is never launched makes no money. Period.

Yes, someone might not like your product. So what? In fact, there could be HUNDREDS of people who don’t like your product. So what? If the product is selling, does it matter that some people don’t like it?

Look at radio talk show hosts and commentators. They have thousands or in some cases hundreds of thousands of people who don’t like them. Yet they also have a loyal following and LOTS and LOTS of money.

So how do you get over the fear of launching? Here’s one way:

Agree with yourself that your product isn’t finished. That’s right – it isn’t done yet. But you’re going to launch ANYWAY.

As you improve your product, you will send your customers updated versions. What’s that? You forgot to add a section about managing gophers to your gardening product? Add the section and send it out to buyers.

Then add it to the product itself so all new buyers get it automatically. And then add a couple of bullets to your sales letter that let prospects know you cover gophers, too.

Easy, right?

In fact, this gives you an entirely new way to look at criticism. Instead of cringing and wishing you had done the product differently, you can objectively look at the criticism and decide if you want to make a change based on that feedback or not. This is a much more empowering point of view than hiding in the corner, fearful of any negative comment that might come your way.

Now then, let’s look at a worst case scenario: You launch your product and the very first feedback you get is, “This product sucks, I want a refund!” If this happens, there is one of two things going on, and the next few days will tell you which one it is.

If more people write back with similar comments, then maybe you do have a poor product. In that case, pull it, fix it and relaunch it. Or pull it and create something else.

But if sales are good and refunds are low, then what you encountered on that first feedback was likely a chronic ‘refunder’ – one of those people who buy products with the intention of asking for a refund. Another name for those folks? Sorry, I can’t print it here.

Just know that the vast, VAST majority of buyers don’t do this. Most buyers are good, honest, decent people. The few who do chronically refund are just a minor annoyance that ALL product sellers have to put up with, including the big, big names in your niche.

So don’t sweat it. Give them their refund and if you have the capability, block them from buying from you again, just to avoid aggravation down the line when you launch your next product.

Fear of launching your product is a fear of leaving your comfort zone. Comfort zones are… well… comfy. Cozy. Warm. Secure.

But sometimes you have to take a deep breath, hit the button and launch your new product to the world.

Don’t worry – it gets less scary each time you do it. And you’re not alone. Even product creators who have made millions still get plenty nervous when it’s time to launch their new creation. It’s natural. The point is, you can’t let a case of nerves, no matter how bad they are, get in the way of moving forward and launching your product.

Find out what you need to use to get yourself to launch. Is it a reward? Blackmail? A psychological trick? A reminder of WHY you are doing this?

I know one marketer who imagines hurling himself into battle each time he launches. Another one keeps photos of his family at his desk to remind him of why he needs to overcome his fear. And a third bribes herself with a 4 day vacation for each product she launches. Whatever it takes to get you to launch – just do it.

You want your home page to capture just as many email addresses as possible. But using a squeeze page is not nearly as effective as it used to be. If your squeeze page isn’t pulling in stellar results, it’s time to update and improve your conversion rate in a big way. So how do you do it? By creating what you can call an upside down home page.

Here’s how it works:

Above the fold at the top of the page (this is the portion of the page the visitor sees without scrolling down): This is where you place your first call to action. This is a big box that goes all the way across the screen with no distractions. In the box you will place just enough copy to ‘hook’ visitors into subscribing, along with a call to action.

For example, the headline might be, “Double Your Website Traffic in 22 Days.” Your sub-headline could be, “Get the Good, Bad and Ugly on Every Traffic Method from Proven Marketers.” And your button copy could be, “Get the 5 Top Methods Now.” That’s it. No need for long copy. Be direct and let them know exactly what they can learn on your site and what they get if they subscribe to your list.

Use a two-step for capturing emails. That is, only show the button on the home page. Once they click the button, then they are taken to a second page where they submit their email address. This alone can increase sign-ups by 10% or more.

Directly underneath that big box you’re going to put something that lends to your social proof. For example, you can do an “As seen on…” box with the logos of all the sites that have written about your business. Or you can put a short and powerful testimonial from a happy customer. Or you can even use a quote from someone famous in your niche. Even though this famous person doesn’t know you, it still lends credibility to you and your business by association.

Underneath the social proof is the area that is hidden until the user scrolls down. Here you will place one of your most popular pieces of content. If you’re not sure what that is, just take a look at your analytics to find out which post of yours had the most social shares.

But you’re not going to simply copy and paste that post. Instead, you’re going to reformat it like this:

First, tell the result. You’re telling visitors a story about someone who got great results from what you are teaching.

For example, tell how an unknown website went from being a ghost town to generating “x” amount of traffic and “y” amount of subscribers and “z” amount of sales in a certain time period, using just 2 methods they learned on your site.

Second, tell the story. But not the whole story. You’re going to focus on the before and after, and what a difference it’s made and so forth. But to get the details of how it was done, they’ll need to subscribe. Give them just enough to hook them in so they urgently want to get the rest of the story.

Third, tease them with bullet points on what they will discover in the full article or interview.

If by now you’re thinking this is something like a sales letter, it definitely does borrow some of the techniques without being a full blown sales piece.

Fourth, place your final call to action. It might say something like, “Discover how to get non-stop traffic to your website using Angela’s secret,” or “Discover how Angela took her income from $0 to 5-figures with these two simple traffic methods.”

Lastly, place your website navigation at the bottom for those who do not subscribe. That’s right – navigation buttons go on the bottom, not on the top. That’s why it’s called an upside-down home page.

Set your page up so that once a user subscribes, they never see that sign up page again. Instead, they see a welcoming or home page on subsequent visits.

Try this set up and see if you don’t improve your list building efforts dramatically. It really can make a huge difference.

There’s a Shakespeare quote you’ve heard: “To thine own self be true.”

And here’s another one (not quite with the Shakespeare flair, but still quite eloquent): “You can’t fit a round peg into a square hole.”

People online will tell you what to do. How to do it. When to do it.

They’ll tell you to get up two hours early and work on your business before work. Or set a timer for 30 minutes and work without distraction. Or enter a niche just because there is money there. They’ll tell you all sorts of things. And they’ll even get righteously indignant when you don’t do what they tell you to do.

So now I’m going to tell you what to do. Seriously.

Know yourself first. Yes, you can get round pegs into square holes, but it does a tremendous amount of damage to the round peg. If you like to sleep in until 10:00 am, then maybe that’s what you should do. You probably do your best work in the afternoon and evening anyway.

If you have a flair for an odd niche, maybe you should find a way to monetize that, instead of going into a more popular and overcrowded field that everyone is telling you to enter.

If you don’t like speaking to people in person, why are you buying that course on how to do marketing for local businesses?

Figure out who you are and what you’re good at. Then build your business around YOU.

For example, if you’re great at seeing the big picture and hate details, then focus on what needs to be done and have other people do the actual work through outsourcing. If you love to write but hate to deal with websites, have someone else set up and run your blog. If you hate writing but love talking, make a vlog instead of a blog. Or do a podcast. Or both.

Just don’t do the thing you hate to do, because guess what? You cannot force yourself to do the things you don’t like for any real length of time. It just isn’t going to work.

To be successful, figure out who you are and what you like. THEN figure out how to build a business around you, instead of trying to mold yourself to a business you simply aren’t suited to.