Sales

Want to increase your website conversions?

by Craig.
No comments yet

Most people want to improve their website conversions… and if they don’t then they probably aren’t clear on exactly what this means.

Basically every visitor that comes to your website has the potential to become a client. Say 1 visitor out of every 100 that visits your website decides to buy from you. That means you have a conversion rate of 1%.

Why website conversion is so difficult

We often see low numbers like 1% when it comes to website conversion because it’s so hard to sell anything online. Basically you’re a faceless website located somewhere out in the internet. It takes a lot of work to get a visitor to want what you have badly enough so they decide to trust you and take a chance on buying from an anonymous stranger.

This means we have to be very good at communicating through our website. We have to create a sales message that not only builds the desire in our visitors but also builds a huge amount of trust. It won’t matter how much they want your product if they think you’re some scam artist in Nigeria.

Why people don’t buy

There are just 3 underlying reasons people don’t buy from you:

  1. They don’t want it
  2. They can’t afford it
  3. They don’t trust you

When we look at the first two they are really interlinked. People will use the excuse that they can’t afford it when in reality they’re just saying they don’t want it badly enough. If people needed money for their sick child they would find it somehow… it’s really a question of motivation.

How to build desire in your visitors

To get people buying you have to talk in terms they understand… namely “what’s in it for them?” How would your product or service add value to their life? Once you can explain your business’ value in a clear and compelling way then you’re going to dramatically increase your sales.

This means you have to stop talking about what your product or service does (its features) and start talking about what it does for the clients (its benefits). Adding on to this you have to dig below the surface benefits and start getting to the real emotional core of why people buy a product or service. Do you want a new car because it’ll transport you more effectively or because it’ll make your friends jealous that you now own a Porsche?

How to build trust

Now it doesn’t matter how good you are at building desire if people don’t trust you. If I promise you that because you bought my $27 ebook you’re going to make a million dollars you’re probably going to laugh it off and forget all about it (I hope!). It’s not that you don’t really want a million dollars… you just don’t believe how wonderful my ebook is (it’s great but realistic).

We also trust people that we like. While many websites try to appear all businesslike and professional the reality is we don’t relate to them. I’m a big fan of putting your personality into your website as then visitors can see you’re a real, likeable person and they’re much more likely to trust you.

How to learn more about this stuff

In order to become great at sales and marketing whether it’s online or offline you just have to get out there and do it. By reading my website and subscribing to my email list you’re going to discover a ton of information that you can immediately put to use on your own website. You’ll also learn a lot by watching the free “Seven Ways To Turn More Website Visitors Into Paying Clients” webinar.

The good news is that when you start to master these concepts then your business (and any business you’re involved in) will be able to thrive. Most businesses struggle to get enough clients but with the skills you’re learning you won’t be one of those businesses. We’ll also talk occasionally about the challenge of having too many clients and what you need to do to grow your business then.

Communicating your unique message

by Craig.
No comments yet

When we talk about improving website conversion and sales we often get tied up in the numbers involved. “I have so many visitors and I only get this many sales” etc. It’s easy to focus in on these numbers and lose sight of the big picture.

At the end of the day increasing your sales is all about improving your communication. If you’re talking to a prospective client face-to-face then you have a certain amount of time to communicate why they should buy your product or service. It’s exactly the same when it comes to your website… only about 100 times more difficult.

When someone visits your website they don’t have to be polite and listen to you ramble on. They can click the back button any time they want and go visit someone else’s website. That’s why your website should be the ultimate at communicating your message.

It’s like having your best salesperson record exactly what they say to prospective clients so it can be repeated over and over again. In person or on the phone it’s called your sales script. Online it’s called your website.

It’s also important that your message is unique to your business. If you’re simply saying the same thing that all your competitors are saying then you’re going to struggle online. When your competitors are just one click away from you it’s important to get your message right so the visitor wants to find out more.

So if your unique message has anything to do with the “best products” or “best service” you may be in trouble. Because all your competitors are likely to be saying the same thing. I haven’t met a business yet who honestly tells their potential clients they have the “second best products and service in town.”

Personally I find this time of year to be perfect for asking yourself the hard questions about your business. It’s often the time we think about what we’d like to achieve in the coming year and set goals for ourselves. So as you set your sales goals for this year ask yourself what portion you’d like to come from your website.

It’s also a great time to take a look at the message your business is communicating. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again because I still haven’t heard a more elegant question than Dan Kennedy’s…

“Why should I do business with you – over all other alternatives – including doing nothing at all?”

The answer to that one question is what your website should be saying to every visitor you have. Whilst it’s not always the easiest question to answer it’s worth taking the time to think about it. Because once you have this answer it becomes a lot easier to increase your website sales.

Why Your Ideal Client Is Critical To Success

by Craig.
1 comment

I believe that most people go into business backwards. They develop a product or service that they love and then try to find people to buy it. But it’s a million times easier to find people with a pressing problem or desire and fulfill it.

This is how my business started although it was more by accident than my incredible business mind. Someone I knew heard me talking about websites and asked if I could help her improve her website rankings. So I did (I started web marketing with search engine optimization) and managed to achieve excellent results for her.

Then she asked me the fateful question of what I could do next. Purely from my own gut feeling I thought we should rewrite the website to make it more friendly and easy to use. So I did that, her clients loved it and suddenly she started pimping me out to all her other friends with businesses as well.

Do you know your market inside out?

However since most people reading this will be in business already it’s a bit late to go back and start all over again from scratch. But we can make sure we get to know our market inside out. We need to have a picture in our mind of our ideal clients so we know what they look like when we meet them.

So ask yourself some simple questions like:

  • Who is your ideal client?
  • Who do you love to deal with?
  • Who makes you the most profit?

Describing your ideal client

The questions above will get you thinking and help you define your ideal client in useful terms. But I want to point out that you need to describe your client from multiple different angles. Because while most people focus on demographics I believe their psychographics are much more important for really being successful.

So what exactly does this mean?

Demographics

I think of demographics as all the statistical data you can collect on your market. Things like their age, income, location etc fall in here. But this is where most market research stops and I believe misses the real point of understanding your market.

Psychographics

While there are more technical definitions I view psychographics as the psychology of your market (funny that). This is where you really get in touch with your ideal client’s hopes, dream, problems, feelings and so on. This is where you really start to understand your ideal client on a deeper level.

I always find the best way to understand your market is to be part of it. This means that you’re solving a problem or fulfilling a desire for your clients that you once shared. If this isn’t the case then you need to do your best to feel empathy for your clients and really understand where they’re coming from.

Discover your ideal client’s story

I find a very powerful way of getting in touch with your ideal client is to write down their story. This means describing everything about them so you understand completely where they’re coming from. By doing this exercise you’ll have a detailed description of your ideal client and can then be on the lookout for them every day.

What you do next

Have a think about who your ideal client is and then really dig deeply into their psychology. From there you’ll have a lot more clarity about what drives them and be able to discover their story. Once your ideal client is in your mind you need to ensure you always communicate with this person throughout your business’ operations.

And if you’d like to learn how to really discover and connect with your ideal client then take a look at my Automated Selling Machine course.

Increase Website Sales By Building Better Relationships

by Craig.
No comments yet

Increasing your website sales is all a matter of building better relationships online. Selling over the internet is one of the hardest ways to sell anything… simply because we don’t have that personal touch with the potential client. This is why we need to do our best to replicate an offline relationship when we’re operating online.

Sales is all about the relationship. When we think about it we generally buy from people we like and trust. How many times have you decided not to buy something you actually wanted just because of the way the salesperson presented themselves?

Now building a relationship face-to-face is a lot easier than doing it online but this doesn’t mean we can’t do it. You can also do ok selling online from a faceless website that builds no relationship. However if you want to amplify your results and make more sales then you’ll want to build better relationships.

The important thing to remember is that website visitors are not just some number you see in your analytics package… they’re people who want what you’re offering.

Becoming “unprofessional”

Most website owners seem to be scared about appearing “unprofessional” to their visitors… whatever that means. They like to pretend they’re some big faceless corporation that does millions of dollars of sales online. However the truth is most buyers prefer to deal with a real person as they know they’ll be looked after.

Think about some of the service providers you visit on a regular basis. You’re probably not shopping around for a new hairdresser every time you need a haircut as you’ve built a relationship with one in particular. This is probably the same for your car mechanic, dentist, doctor and even your favorite restaurants, bars and cafes.

We like familiarity and this is what our relationships provide us with. We know what to expect before we arrive. And the irony is that you probably have businesses that you visit that don’t even give you great results but you still visit them anyway because of the relationship you’ve formed.

But I digress… here are some ways to help build personal relationships with your website visitors:

Unleash your personality – Your personality is your strongest point of difference in your arsenal. It’s something your competitors can never replicate (although they may try) and can help you stand out. So never be afraid of using your personality when it comes to communicating through your website.

Be a real person – We’re surrounded by marketing that is based on a world of make believe. Now while everyone likes to live the fantasy it’s always nice to come back to earth and deal with a real person at the end of the day. Present yourself as a real person with warts and all to deepen your relationships even further.

Be unique – As you present your personality to the visitors remember to pick out what makes you unique to make yourself really stand out. It’s most effective if your uniqueness also resonates with your visitors but not necessarily. You’ll be amazed at some of the random things I put into my content and the responses I receive.

Be genuine and authentic – I want to be clear that we’re not inventing a personality to fit your market as eventually you’ll be found out. You want to take natural parts of your life and share them with your visitors. You should always come from a place of authenticity as our aim is to build trust… not destroy it.

I should also mention that you’re going to find some people on the planet who don’t like your personality and uniqueness… that’s just a part of life. The good news is for all the haters you attract you should be attracting equal (and hopefully greater) amounts of people who love what you’re doing. So don’t mind the haters and keep on fighting the good fight.

What you do next

Look at how you’re communicating with your visitors at the moment and decide right now how you can make it more interesting. The next step is to simply jump in and see what kind of results you receive. Just note that some people won’t like the transition while others will love it… as I said above this is just a fact of life so keep going and the results will follow.

And if you’d like to learn more ways to achieve better relationships with your website visitors use my Automated Selling Machine course.

How to improve your website conversion rate

by Craig.
2 comments

Your website conversion rate is critical to your website’s success. It also provides you with an amazing amount of leverage and makes every visitor you drive to your website more likely to buy. Yet in my experience this is one of the most poorly executed parts of websites and no-one seems to be explaining how to do it properly.

Fun with maths

Here’s a quick example of what a small increase in your website conversion rate can achieve:

100 visitors per day x 1% conversion = 1 sale or say $47 per day
100 visitors per day x 2% conversion = 2 sales or $94 per day

So over a year you’d have the following results:

1% conversion = 365 sales or $17,155
2% conversion = 730 sales or $34,310

And that’s comes from making some one-off changes to your website. To look at it the other way you’d have to attract 200 visitors to your website per day to get the same sales figures. I don’t know about you but that sounds like a lot of hard work to me!

What website conversion actually means

Website conversion is the experience your visitor receives that might make them want to become a purchase. Website visitors are very fickle creatures and if we don’t capture and hold their attention then we’re going to lose them to the next website. So you have to make your website captivating and worth hanging around on.

Most websites are boring and offer little value to the visitor. They talk all about the company without giving any compelling reasons to choose them over a competitor. If someone walked into your physical store would you start by saying to them “Our company was founded in 1957 and is the leading provider of blah blah blah?”

Then why do you do that with your website?

How to improve your website conversion rate

There are two main factors to get someone to buy online:

1. Desire
2. Trust

Increasing someone’s desire

Many marketers and sales people think there job is to convince, cajole, persuade and harass people to buy from them. This is why selling has such a bad reputation and why many of us hate doing it. However I believe selling is all about giving the visitor what they want.

But first you have to figure out what exactly that is. What benefits you’re offering your clients. Then you can clearly and succinctly explain to the visitor why buying from you will give them what they want.

Gaining your visitors’ trust

The second big factor is trust and this is especially important when selling online. After all you’re just a faceless website floating out there in cyberspace. How does the visitor know your business isn’t being run by some Nigerian while he waits for a kind soul to help him unlock his uncle’s $23 million fortune?

Ok so that may be a little extreme but most of the human race lives in fear of being ripped off. It’s bad enough wondering if a product will live up to the promises when you buy face-to-face let alone over the internet. Therefore you have to do everything in your power to earn the visitors trust.

Why improving your website conversion rate is worth the effort

We’ve already done the math to show just how powerful this concept is but let’s take it a step further. You probably have a website that’s already receiving at least some traffic. So what if you could simply change the way your website communicates with those visitors and increase your sales overnight?

By making changes to the way your website converts visitors into clients you can get dramatic results in a very short space of time. When I work with clients we notice a decent bump in sales as soon as the new webpage is uploaded. And that’s not even including all the other components of a successful website marketing system.

What you do next

So if you like money I suggest you look at your website with new eyes. Ask yourself if you can stir up more desire and create more trust with your visitors. Your website sales will thank you for it.

And if you’d like to learn more about how to make your website sell including detailed instructions on how to use my 6 Components of Selling system then check out my Automated Selling Machine course.

Getting Visitors To Buy Right Now

by Craig.
1 comment

The other day I was reading that procrastination is the one thing everyone in the world suffers from. It makes total sense when you think about it as well. While there are plenty of people who are fit, healthy, rich and enjoying wonderful relationships… all of them have suffered from procrastination in some aspect of their lives.

I believe this makes procrastination the number one epidemic in the world. Because if we could cure procrastination then I’m sure we’d all be able to be fit, healthy, rich and enjoying wonderful relationships. If only we could get ourselves to do the things we need to do for success.

As Mark Twain so eloquently puts it… “Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow.”

While this is fascinating it’ll have to be an idea for another article because for now I want to look at…

How procrastination affects selling

Procrastination all comes down to our two friends pain and pleasure. We procrastinate in the moment because the perceived pain of doing a task is greater than the perceived pleasure we get from completing it. We procrastinate to avoid pain and gain pleasure… at least in our minds perception.

The same is true when we come to buy a product or service. All the pain associated with making a bad decision comes to the surface and we procrastinate. The trick is we need to give visitors a reason to do it right now rather than put it off till later.

You need a strong call to action

If you want someone to do something you need to create a strong call to action. Something that will move visitors over their procrastination hump so they take action in the moment. We need to avoid the all too common “I’ll think about it” even though everyone knows there’s nothing really left to think about.

Here are some quick ways to create a successful call to action:

Deadlines

A deadline simply means they have to take action by a particular date or time. If you remember back to your school days it was pretty easy to procrastinate on your assignments on a regular basis. That was until the deadline loomed and suddenly the pain of not finishing your assignment became a lot more painful than just getting it done.

Limited quantity

People hate to miss out on stuff. We love exclusivity and the significance it gives us. So if you’re selling something that’s only available in limited quantities you should let people know and increase their motivation to buy right now.

Special offers

Everyone loves a special or the chance of getting a great deal. How many times have people told you the sticker price and then what they really paid for it? And special offers don’t have to just be all about discounting… get creative with them.

Bonuses

If you can add a bonus for people that buy right away your sales will increase. Bonuses are like giving gifts with purchase and everyone loves presents. Some marketers even go as far to sell the bonuses rather than focusing on the actual product you’re receiving.

All of the above ideas can also be combined in various ways to increase your response. If you have a limited quantity of a product that’s on special and comes with a bonus but only if you buy before the deadline. Well I think you can see for yourself how powerful this can be!

What you do next

Simply go and add a clear call to action to all your offers. Remember to be creative but also make sure your offer is still clear. There’s nothing worse than losing the sale because you made your offer too complicated for anyone to understand.

And if you’d like to learn more about creating effective call to actions along with 9 other ways to increase your website sales then check out my Automated Selling Machine course. Or just do it next week when you have more time ;)

Stop Your Website Visitors Being Fraidy Cats

by Craig.
No comments yet

Buying something online is usually a very scary experience. We’ve already had our visitors ask the question “Why should I trust you?” and now it’s time to make sure they follow through. You’d be amazed at the strange things that go through a person’s head when they’re about to make a payment.

This is the moment of truth when people get to the payment page and start getting cold feet. They ask themselves questions like “Am I making the right decision?” … “Do I really need this?” … “Can I really trust this person?” … “Is this the best price?” … “What will other people think?” And the more doubt they have the more likely they are to walk away without purchasing.

So it’s our job to make it feel like it’s impossible for our visitor to make a mistake. This starts with building trust and is cemented in place by…

The magic of risk reversal

While risk reversal may sound fancy all it means is we make sure that we take all the risk. So when our visitor makes a purchase they have no chance of being ripped off, disappointed or losing their money. So here are two easy ways to do this…

Free trials

If you can somehow have your visitor sample your product before buying then you’ll go a long way to closing the sale. This is why when we sell information we usually offer free resources before asking anyone to make a purchase. We give a free sample of the knowledge we have to share and show that there’s even more in the paid products.

The most famous sales technique for this is known as the “puppy dog close.” The example is when someone is trying to decide over buying a puppy for their home. If the salesperson is clever they’ll say something like “take the puppy home right now, pay nothing and next week you can come in and either pay for the puppy or bring him back… whatever you decide.”

Of course once they get the puppy home and it starts bonding with the family then the decision is made. The salesperson gets their sale, the family gets the puppy and everyone walks away happy.

Strong guarantees

Another way to reverse the risk is to offer an amazing guarantee. Most businesses are required to have guarantees or return policies by law but many never think of them as excellent sales points. If you’re willing to go above and beyond with your guarantee and customer service then your business will flourish.

You can also effectively use your guarantee to show your complete confidence in your product or service. This means avoiding the boring “or your money back” promise and putting more pizzazz into it. How about a “double your money back” guarantee or “if you’re unhappy I’ll not only refund your money but hand you $50 cash on the spot!”

This way the visitor is presented with a win-win situation. They either love your product or service (and you’re obviously confident about it) or they don’t like it and get extra money back. Of course there may be some people that take advantage of you but at the end of the day the extra sales will more than make up for it.

What you do next

Decide how you can reverse the risk and create an incredible guarantee. If you can do some sort of free trial then do that as well as the more you can reverse the risk the more successful you’ll be. Then talk about your free trial or amazing guarantee loudly and proudly… don’t hide it away in the terms and conditions but make it a huge selling point of dealing with you.

If you’d like to learn more about how to use risk reversal plus my 6 Components of Selling and other important concepts of selling online then check out my Automated Selling Machine course.

Crafting Your Irresistible Offer

by Craig.
No comments yet

Nothing gets sold without someone making an offer. Maybe the offer is just a product sitting on the shelf with a price tag on it but this is still an offer. It simply means I’ll exchange the value of this product or service for a certain monetary value.

However there are many different levels of offers ranging from strong to weak. We might consider the product just sitting on the shelf to be a weak offer. A strong offer is usually one where the value you get from the product is worth a lot more than the price.

For example say I designed this wonderful internet business in a box that was set up completely for you as soon as you bought it. So basically the business ran completely without you and just deposited thousands of dollars into your bank account. That could be considered an irresistible offer whether it was sold for $50, $100 or even $2000 dollars if it was going to return more money to you with no effort on your part.

So let’s talk about how to craft an irresistible offer…

Stack the value

As in the example above you want to stack the value as much as possible in favor of the client. Now this doesn’t mean you have to lose money on the sale because we’re talking about perceived value here. This means it’s all about the value in the eyes of the consumer… not necessarily what it cost you to produce it.

I could sell my internet business system above for $2000 but maybe it only cost me $100 to create each one. This means I make a lot of profit but the client is still over the moon as they make even more money from my product. The perceived value in their eyes is well over the $100 or even $2000 mark.

The more you give… the more you get

If you turn your focus away from how much profit you can make and instead ask yourself how much more value you can deliver to the client then you’re probably on the right track. Providing you offer a lot of value there will always be plenty of people out there prepared to pay for it.

Most people focus on the wrong side of this equation first… themselves. They ask themselves how they can make the most amount of money without much concern for the client. But I firmly believe that if you change your focus to deliver as much value as possible your business will create remarkable results for both your clients and you.

Play with your pricing

Many business owners have hang ups about price and the way they charge. Whether it’s negative beliefs about what their products are worth or a mistaken belief that people won’t pay premium prices they’re both hurting your business. The only way you know for sure what the market will pay is by creating offers and putting them out there.

The might mean creating a premium level of your service that has lots of additional extras. It might mean charging higher prices but offering a payment plan. There are many ways to play with your pricing that are win-win for you and your clients.

Make them an offer they can’t refuse

At the end of the day your goal is to make clients an offer they can’t refuse. The benefits they’ll receive must be so incredible that they completely overpower the price and any other objections your clients might have. An offer that makes them say to themselves “I’d have to be crazy to not buy this!”

When you achieve this you’ll have a truly irresistible offer and your sales will reflect it.

What you do next

I would start by discovering your best selling product. Then simply look at what we’ve talked about and see how you can create an offer around it. The next step is easy… promote it and see what happens.

If you’d like to learn more about crafting offers plus my 6 Components of Selling and other important concepts to increase your website sales then check out my Automated Selling Machine course.

Why No-One Else Cares About Your Business

by Craig.
No comments yet

I hate to break this to you but no one cares about your business. They don’t care how long you’ve been in business, they don’t care how many staff members you have and they certainly don’t care that you have 23 mouths to feed at home. They just don’t care.

They’re only interested in themselves. I don’t mean this in a selfish way… this is just how we’re wired. We are trained to look after our own interests first and foremost because – let’s face it – no-one else is going to.

So when people visit your website they’re constantly asking themselves one question: “What’s in it for me?” As is commonly said in marketing circles the clients favorite radio station is WIIFM. This means you have to always be answering this question in your website visitor’s mind.

All they really care about is the results your business can provide for them. So make sure you’re always focusing on their needs and wants… not your own. If you satisfy the visitor’s needs and wants then you can worry about your own after that.

It’s all about benefits

A lot of people talk in terms of features of a product… rather than benefits. A common marketing example is the person who goes to the hardware store to buy a drill. They’re not there to buy a drill so they can still it on a table and have it look pretty… they want to have a hole.

The features of the drill obviously support this result but they need to be converted into benefits so the buyer understands why that feature is important. A great example is how Apple marketed their iPod. They didn’t worry too much about how many gigabytes it had… they simple said “1000 songs in your pocket” which explained a benefit in terms everyone could understand.

Focus on the result

In this way you need to focus on the results your product or service provides your clients. You need them to picture that result in their mind and how much better it’ll make their lives. When they start to visualize the benefits they’re going to receive you’re halfway to making the sale.

To make this more powerful you also need to add emotion into the mix. While we may think we’re very logical purchasers the truth is we buy on emotion and then justify with logic. This means we buy stuff based on how the product and result it gives us will make us feel.

Quick copywriting cheat

Another quick tip I have for you to improve your website copywriting is to make sure you use the word “you” a lot. This means you’re talking directly to the person reading and not spending too much time talking about yourself. So have a look through your website and see if you’re using “you” over “I” or “we.”

What you do next

Go and read your website now from the perspective of a potential client. Is the copywriting focused on the benefits it’s giving you? Are you talking in terms of what the visitor wants or is it all about your business?

It’s the things like this that may seem insignificant that can really make a big difference when combined together. And the best part is you don’t have to be a master copywriter to start using them.

If you’d like to learn more about discovering the benefits your product or service offers plus all the other components that will get your website selling then check out my Automated Selling Machine course.

How to write an effective email (with example)

by Craig.
3 comments

I hate how most people do email “newsletters.” They suck for the readers as they don’t provide value… and they don’t make any sales so they suck for the business as well. Today I want to give you some quick tips on making your emails work.

Here’s a quick email I had someone send out to promote my event that got some good responses. So here’s the email and then I’ll break down the lessons for you in a second:

Sender: Craig Dewe
Subject: Want to be like Tony Robbins and Robert Kiyosaki?

Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki and all top internet marketers
are able to make such a difference in the world (and rake in
the big bucks too) because they’re experts at selling their
information. And the best part is you can join them.

If you’re an author, speaker, coach, trainer or consultant (or just
have knowledge to share) then web marketing was basically built
for you. Selling your own knowledge in the form of information
products is one of the most lucrative and high leverage ways to
make money.

Not to mention how it supports and builds all the aspects of your
current business. More authority and credibility, more followers
and most importantly… more loyal clients.

And the best part is you can find out exactly how to do it here…

http://www.webmarketingoutlaw.com/knowledge

Talk soon,

Craig

Keep it personal

Let’s start with the email from field. I use my name Craig Dewe because I want to have a personal relationship with you. If I wrote my email from some random company name you’d probably file me away with all the junk newsletters you get.

I also write in a very personal way. I don’t want to appear like a big faceless company (I’m not one) because most big companies
are boring. Think of all the company newsletters you’ve subscribed to in the past… we’re they fascinating reading or a snore fest?

With this goes my feeling that your emails should be plain text or at least look like plain text. I laugh at companies that create email templates with pretty images and fancy designs. First off most email programs have images turned off so they just leave big holes in the email and second it’s like waving a big giant flag that says “This is NOT a personal email!”

Sorry! No one cares about your business…

The next thing is the subject line. If you have a boring subject no one is going to read your email. Included in this are subjects like “XYZ Business Newsletter” as no one cares about your business’ news… they want to know what’s in it for them. Always focus on creating value for your subscribers at all times.

The job of the subject line, the from name and the first few lines of the email (as displayed in a preview pane) are to get the email
read. In this email I got attention by mentioning names that 99% of my market know… and hopefully created a little curiosity as well. Remember that your lovely email is useless if nobody bothers to read it.

Make sure you get your message across

I then tied this message to how people can become just like Tony Robbins and Robert Kiyosaki by becoming information marketers. Now many people might not know what information marketing is (and it may sound a little boring) but by explaining it in a different way more people should understand it. It also becomes a lot more interesting with a frame of reference people can relate to.

Part of your job as an authority in your market is to simplify the process for others. No one is impressed by your big fancy words or ability to sound intelligent. They want value and that means giving them information they can use.

Don’t get ahead of yourself

Once the email is opened the next step is to get someone to take action. I like to give them a link to click and that’s there action step. So all the email has to do is get them to click the link inside.

I don’t try to sell my products and services via email. I don’t confuse people with endlessly long emails (this started as an email and then moved over here as it got too big). All I want to do is give people enough information so they can decide if they want to click the link.

Be clear about what they do next

If I want you to click a link I want to make it plainly obvious and easy to do. That’s why most email newsletters fall down… they confuse the reader with too much stuff. I usually have one link and I repeat it twice if not three times so it’s always easy to click on.

The best places are the first time you mention the action you want them to take, then maybe further down the email after another call to action and finally right at the end of the email so if they read all the way to the bottom they don’t have to scroll back up to find the link.

Note: The email above was a short one so I only put one link… there’s a balance between making it easy to find and slamming them over the head with it.

Help keep them focused

Once they click the link they’re taken to a page about my event: http://www.webmarketingoutlaw.com/knowledge

The job of this page is then to show them my event is valuable and that they should attend. Notice that I have an entire webpage to now explain and sell the value of the event. Imagine trying to do all that in an email! Or worse just giving them a random event name and a price without explaining what they’ll get out of it.

The page (known as a sales page) also has one focus and that’s for them to sign up or leave. There’s no other menu navigation for them to start browsing. There are no other distractions… just a simple yes or no decision.

Bonus lesson in selling

You’ve probably heard that you need to sell the benefits… not the features. But still a lot of people don’t understand what a benefit is. Here’s an example:

Feature: Learn how to build an information marketing business
Benefit: Make money online by selling information products

See why this can be a confusing distinction? The benefit isn’t that they’ll learn something… it’s what they can do with that knowledge. And it’s very important to describe what true benefits your business is offering.

Want to learn more stuff like this?

This is exactly the type of thing I’ll be teaching at my workshop so you can see that it’s more than just for potential information marketers. All business owners can do with having a more responsive email list. It’s nice when you can send an email and know sales are going to come in.

Some of the other things I’m going to cover are:

  • Why most websites are built backwards and what to do about it
  • The 2 big questions that will decide your success or failure online
  • How to build a following of people who love what you do
  • How to know exactly what your market wants to buy… every time
  • Techniques to create information products that anyone can do (and I do mean anyone)
  • My simple 6 step formula for selling online
  • Why most people think about traffic in completely the wrong way
  • How to ensure your website always has a steady stream of new visitors
  • And how to convert those visitors into lifelong clients

Or as one big benefit: How to make more money from your website :)

Anyway… you can find out more here: http://www.webmarketingoutlaw.com/knowledge

You can also drop me an email if you want to know if this is right for your business. Remember – I’m a real person – and not some faceless company :)

P.S. If you’re not in the area and want me to turn this into an online presentation then also drop me a line. The more interest people show the more likely it’ll happen.

Click here for more about the workshop

← Earlier Posts