[ad#FastFollowers]Here is a great email from Marlon Sanders
You’re reading this because you have something to sell.
Whatever it is you sell, let’s talk about how to sell
more of it or get sales coming in to begin with.
1. Do NOT start with your squeeze page
When you’re trying to create an offer that converts,
you don’t want a squeeze page. That comes later.
First, you need to find out if you have something that
people will buy — at all.
Rule 1: Send your visitors/traffic to a conversion page.
This is only to start. There is an exception to this
rule I’ll discuss shortly.
2. SEE your traffic real time. Don’t trust stats programs.
Stats software like Google Analytics is ok. I’m not that
crazy about what it shows me. I see a lot more visitors
reported by it than actually exist sometimes.
There are probably explanations for that like cookie
stuffing and other things that are too technical to discuss
here.
The point is, you want to SEE the visitors with your own
two eyes.
In an upcoming Ateam call, I’ll discuss how I do this and
what the options are. But the main thing to know is you
want to SEE your visitors. All these fancy stats programs
are ok.
I don’t trust them.
I want to look at my site and SEE the visitors live right this
second who are on my sites. That is the data you need to make
marketing decisions.
Let me give you an example: My stats programs show that I have
a lot of visitors from the United Kingdom. I’ve certainly had
a good following there in the past from speaking at seminars.
But right now as I’m writing this, in the U.K. it’s 10:56 a.m.
I SHOULD be seeing lots of folks from the UK on my sites. Yet,
in looking at my traffic LIVE — I don’t see my UK folks.
Well, I have one operson from London on my Design Dashboard
site at the moment.
Now I know I need to take action about this. I’ve got to
rally my UK folks! If you’re from the UK, give me a shout
out on my blog at marlonsnews.com and tell me how I can better
communicate with you.
If I trusted what I see in my analytics programs, I’d think
everything was ok. I’m sending this ezine earlier than I
normally would to see if it snags some of the UK traffic.
Trust what you see real time with your own eyes. And again,
there are a number of options for doing this and maybe I’ll
write an ezine issue on it in the future. But if you’re an
Ateam member I will be discussing this in the next call or
two.
Another example is my Aussie traffic. It’s 8:53 p.m. in
Australia and I should be seeing more traffic from Australia!
What the hay is going on in Australia right now?
Gimme a shout out on my blog at marlonsnews.com. Let me know
what’s going on for you. Are you getting my ezines at a good
time? Or are they arriving in the middle of the night and
getting buried?
I’m joking of course. But the point is, if I couldn’t see the
actual, real visitors on my web site and I just trusted what I
see in Google Analytics, I’d have a completely different read
on this.
I’m not saying a Google Analytics pro can’t get the info they
need. And I’m not even targeting that program in specific.
I trust my eyes. I trust real time traffic. That’s all I’m
saying.
3. Find that magic formula
I’d use the word “amazing” in place of “magic” but I imagine
that would send this ezine to the forbidden folder in your
email box.
The idea is that there are different formulas that sell for
different traffic sources.
Example: If you’re getting traffic from affiliates, you normally
need a higher price point so your affiliates can get a nice
commission.
If you’re selling via direct mail, you likely need a $60 price
point so a 1% response will break even.
If your traffic comes from pay-per-click or organic, you want
an absolutely irresistible offer.
This means studying what the competition does and doing thou
likewise. To start with, don’t reinvent the wheel.
Later, find your uniqueness. To start with, don’t be so creative.
Do what is proven to work.
My friend Lee McIntyre (a UK guy) uses affiliate traffic and
a low-priced front-end offer. But he adds on recurring billing
and upsells (offers after you buy the first one).
You have to treat different traffic sources differently.
For my traffic, I’m finding that I need to change up my offers,
lower some price points, go with more upsells.
But there’s more than one way to do it.
My oldtime friend (and competitor back in the day) Terry Dean
gets really great organic traffic. But he nurtures traffic with
lots of articles and a very low key conversion traffic. That’s
Terry for you. Drip. Drip. Drip. Those articles post to his
blog like clockwork.
And before you know it, you’ve built trust and bought.
I really find that approach refreshing. And I think I may like
it better than how I’m approaching my list right now.
Have a clear strategy.
[ad#Outsourcing Work]
Test.
Some people offer you a really cheap widget (could be any
product or service). Then they immediately present you with
upsells or additional offers.
Why?
Because a body in motion tends to stay in motion. Someone
buying one thing is likely to buy another.
That’s one approach. It’s valid. It works.
Someone like Terry Dean has another approach. He drips content
steadily and doesn’t really hammer the upsells. It’s all
relationship.
There is no right or wrong way here. It’s an art.
I think you probably do make a lot more with immediate upsells.
It’s also more technical at the moment to set up, although
automateyourwebite.com will shortly be rolling out an upsell
module to make it easy as pie.
There’s also the customer service issue to think about. Sometimes,
people take an upsell and forget about it. That increases
refunds and chargebacks.
4. Learn the art of the irresistible offer
At heart, you sell by making an offer that has so much value
compared to someone’s pile of money that they can’t refuse.
Stack the value.
That’s the secret.
You don’t sell in a vacuum. People are comparing what their
money will do if they give it to you vs. other alernatives.
The “free line” does move and increase.
I don’t care WHAT you sell nor WHO you sell it to. The process
is always the same.
You get people in your sales funnel, usually with a no-risk
offer. That could be a really inexpensive widget. It could be
a teleseminar or other event that is low risk and low cost or
no cost.
Then you present your sales story and work your way up the
funnel. I presented this many years ago in the Twister Marketing
course.
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The Non-Conversion to Conversion Action Plan
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Here are some things you can do to boost your conversions:
1. Start off with an initial offer that is very low priced.
In my market, that would be under 10 bucks.
2. Add testimonials and proof
People are skeptical. Don’t overlook the testimonials.
3. Add upsells to boost your revenue
If your initial offer is low in price, you still need dollars
to pay affiliates commissions. That’s where offering other
products immediately on upsells comes in.
4. Monitor your traffic real time
5. Work the relationship via emails
6. Split test
I haven’t discussed the last point. But you can use Google
Website Optimizer to split test your pages to find out what
works best.
This is highly recommended. But keep it simple. To start with,
go with simple A/B split tests. You know, test one page vs.
just one other one.
7. If all else fails, use a squeeze page
That’s right. If you lower your price, add bonuses, add
testimonials and proof and do all the other conversion tricks
and people aren’t buying, check your live traffic monitoring
to make sure you have real visitors.
And if you do, THEN put up a name squeeze or email capture
page. If people won’t even give you an email address for a
nice targeted report, you don’t have a message-to-market
match.
Your people aren’t in the market for what you’re offering
them. You have a problem with your traffic.
Target.
Attract.
Entice.
Pull.
Build relationships.
Push.
Sell.
It’s breathing. First you attract and PULL. Then you process.
Then you exhale or push.
Attract. Build relationships. Sell.
Inhale. Process. Exhale.
This is a law of the universe.
Marlon Sanders
The King of Step-By-Step Internet Marketing and
“The Ambassador of Old School Marketing”
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Marlon Sanders helps people with hopes and dreams figure
out how to turn those into reality by selling stuff on
the Internet. http://www.marlonsanders.com[ad#Google Adsense]