Archive | September, 2023

You might not be telling your prospects and customers everything they want to know – and it’s hurting your sign-ups and sales. Yet these are 3 easy fixes you can do in a day…

Tell them what they get when they join your list.

Sure, you’re telling them they get an incentive like a report or a video… but are you telling them you’re going to be emailing them? Are you telling them how often, and what to expect in those emails? Most marketers don’t, and it’s resulting in unsubscribes.

If you’re not telling your visitors that grabbing your freebie means they get emails from you, then you need to do it in the very first email you send to them.

Make a bullet list of all the great things they’ll discover in your first 10 or so emails. And let them know how often you’ll be sending email.

Done right, this small step not only prevents unsubscribes – it even makes subscribers anticipate your emails and open and read them.

Tell them how you are different.

You’ve got competitors – probably LOTS of them. Your customers are having trouble understanding what makes you different from all the other guys. And when they can’t tell the difference – they don’t buy.

So clearly communicate your biggest difference. Communicate it well and communicate it often. Be specific. Don’t just say, “Our traffic generation product is terrific.”

Instead write, “Our traffic generation product stands apart from all others because it details 42 specific traffic generation techniques in step-by-step format. No question goes unanswered. And we even give you an assessment of which 3 techniques will be the most profitable for your exact business.

Wow – I’m sold! Seriously, somebody make this product and I’ll buy it.

Solicit feedback.

At the end of any purchase, service or project, let your customer know that you want their feedback on their experience. Tell them you’re going to be sending a survey so you don’t take them by surprise, and so they know you really do want feedback. This puts them in the frame of mind to give you that feedback when they do receive the survey.

There are three kinds of feedback – good feedback, bad feedback and B.S. feedback. The hard part is telling the bad apart from the B.S.

Bad feedback is legitimate complaining about your product or service and shows you where you need to improve. Bad feedback is priceless and can earn you a fortune if you listen and if you make the appropriate changes.

B.S. feedback is a troll who is having a bad day or a bad life and wants to take it out on you. You should ignore this totally because it’s only going to make you feel lousy if you let it.

How do you tell the difference? Sometimes it can be difficult. Ask yourself if acting on the feedback will improve the product or the customer experience. Have others given this feedback? Does it seem like a legit complaint? If not, file it in the round folder, as they used to say (that’s the trash can.)

Good feedback is of course wonderful to receive, but don’t let it go to your head. Instead, find ways to do MORE of what they are praising for an even better customer experience.

And there you have it – 3 things you should be telling your customers: What they’re going to receive in emails and how often they’ll receive it, what makes you head and shoulders better and different from the competition, and that you sincerely want their feedback.

These 3 small changes can add up to a much larger bottom line for you.

Many people think that they need to have all the answers to be successful in any capacity; business wise or in life. While we all require some knowledge, there are some people in the world that have made it without.

That is, without qualifications, studying, school or even full expert knowledge of the field they want to be in. In fact, the majority of the world’s richest people know that they don’t need to have all the answers in order to gain success, and what’s more, they use that to their advantage.

They may have a certain specialism in their field, but using Henry Ford as an example, having a solid team of people who fill out your knowledge gaps is far more important than having all the answers for yourself. Henry Ford was the founder of Ford Motor Cars and was a very wealthy man in his time.

A Chicago paper published some articles after the First World War, claiming that Henry Ford was an “ignorant pacifist”. Mr. Ford rejected the idea that he was ignorant and retaliated by bringing a libel suit against the paper, even taking the not-so-common approach of putting himself on the witness stand to prove that he was in fact, a very clever man with nothing to hide.

The court lawyers asked Mr. Ford a series of pointless general knowledge questions and accused him of being a man who runs a car company with no real knowledge or experience with cars, the industry, academics or mechanics. The answer he gave silenced the court and became a very famous statement…

“If I should really WANT to answer the foolish question you have just asked, or any of the other questions you have been asking me, let me remind you that I have a row of electric push-buttons on my desk, and by pushing the right button, I can summon to my aid men who can answer ANY question I desire to ask concerning the business to which I am devoting most of my efforts. Now, will you kindly tell me, WHY I should clutter up my mind with general knowledge, for the purpose of being able to answer questions, when I have men around me who can supply any knowledge I require?”

This retort was genius. The fact was – Ford didn’t have all the answers and that was OK. He had instead kept his mind free from clutter and employed experts in their fields to answer his questions while he focused on keeping his company running smoothly. If he needed to know about brakes, he would push the button for that expert, if he needed someone to explain engines to him, he had another. He used the specialized knowledge of others as an external brain to store extra information in and it made him the success he was.

You Too Can Be Like Henry Ford

We now live in the greatest information age of our time. You can Google any question you may have, so without qualifications – we are becoming experts just by searching.

The point is this – do not avoid a certain field or reject a job opportunity or investment because you feel you are not up to scratch, use other experts and research to find out as much as you can about your industry. Knowledge is power. If you think you don’t have it and that’s stopping you from moving forward, find someone who does and get up to speed.

Getting traffic to your squeeze page, website and sales pages is terrific. But if that traffic doesn’t convert, what good is it doing you? Here are 22 proven strategies to get your visitors to do what you want – whether that’s giving you their email address, sharing your content on social media or buying your products.

Before you read the following, allow me to offer 3 words of caution: Empty your cup. Just as a full tea cup can hold no more, a closed mind can’t increase conversions.

Imagine 3 people read this article. The first person says, “I’ve heard some of these before,” and dismisses the entire list. But is he doing these things? No. Are his conversions increasing? No. The second person reads this list and says, “These won’t work.” Again, her cup is full and her conversions never improve. The third person? Is you. You read through these and say, “That’s a good idea, yeah, I’ve been meaning to do that. I’m glad for the reminder.”

And then you get busy. Think your conversions will improve? Absolutely.

Let’s get started…

→ Use testimonials and case studies. A lot. Don’t just have a section for testimonials – work them into your copy, into your videos, everywhere.

→ If you don’t have testimonials and case studies, get some. Even if it means giving your product or service away or at a steep discount.

→ Use a guarantee. Or two. Or three. What sounds better, “If you’re not happy, you get your money back” or “You are 100% covered by our TRIPLE guarantee.”

→ Don’t make your guarantee contingent on anything but their satisfaction. Don’t say, “When you do every step in the program exactly as outlined, we guarantee you will get x results.” Instead, tell them if they so much as don’t like the font, they are fully covered. This takes all the fear away. Yes, refunds may increase slightly. But sales will increase even more.

→ Give them an ongoing bonus. Refunds do affect your true conversion rate, so reduce refunds by offering a terrific bonus that they get only if they don’t refund. For example, a valuable year-long membership can work well.

→ Use action verbs. Instead of, “Get yours today,” say, “Grab yours” “Reserve yours” or “Claim yours today.”

→ Reaffirm the sale repeatedly. Write an autoresponder sequence that kicks in after the sale. Each email should reaffirm how smart they were to buy the product, provide testimonials and show them something about the product they may have missed. “Did you see the trick in video 4 on how to get your mother-in-law to stop harping on you? Sally Smith used this exact technique and here’s what happened…”

→ On opt-in forms, use as few fields as possible. If you can just ask for their email address and first name, do it. If you need more info, consider asking for it later.

→ Use a two part opt-in. The first page announces the bonus and has a button to grab their copy. They click the button and it takes them to the second page where they put in their email address. These almost always out-perform one page opt-ins.

→ Pay a graphic designer to create a professional looking cover. Whether you’re giving away a book or selling a course, your cover should look as good as a New York Times Best Seller. If it does, your conversions will increase – sometimes dramatically.

→ Test and retest possible headlines. Sure, you’ve heard it before. But how many headlines have you tested on your squeeze page? Your sales page? It’s possible there is a headline that will literally double or even triple your conversions – you just need to find it.

→ Use video. On landing pages and sales pages, have a short, simple video showing that there is indeed a real live person behind the brand.

→ Create a dedicated landing page for… everything. You’re doing a guest blog post? Create a page that says, “Welcome readers of ABC blog.” You’re running a PPC ad? Create a dedicated page that perfectly matches what the ad said.

→ Include subscriber or social media follower counts. Anytime you can provide positive social proof, you’ll increase conversions. That said, if you have 5 followers or 10 subscribers, wait until your numbers are more impressive to share them with the world.

→ Use strong, clear calls to action. Never assume they’ll fill out the form if you don’t tell them to.

→ Lose the hype and “get real.” Customers can spot hype a mile away. So instead of “BUY THIS NOW,” try, “If you want (benefit) then I’ve found ABC product works well.” Then tell them why it’s not for everyone.

→ Prevent them from comparison shopping. Let them know that your product has no competition because you do things or offer things no one else does. (Do this only if it’s true. If it’s not true, make it true.)

→ Get visitors excited. Use emotionally charged language, tell stories and create desire. Get visitors eager to have your product or service.

→ Don’t use boring generic images. You know the ones – a stick figure at a computer, 4 people in suits sitting around a table, a lightbulb, etc. Use interesting images that capture attention and make the visitor look twice.

→ Test a single column layout. MECLabs tested having a sidebar versus not having a sidebar. The version with only one column won – and generated an astonishing 681% increase in conversions. But further tests showed this is not always the case – thus the need for testing it on your own pages.

→ Include headshots on your webpages. Again you want to show there is a real person behind the brand.

→ Spend serious time crafting your “about me” page. Include your bio, come across as a real person, include plenty of contact info, and talk about what you want to help the reader accomplish. Done right, your “about me” page can be your greatest selling tool.

Pick out exactly 3 and write them down. Do one of them today, one tomorrow and the third on the following day.

Then pat yourself on the back, because you’ve just done more to increase your conversions than 95% of marketers out there.