marketing

What’s Wrong With Your Web Marketing Strategy?

by Craig.
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If we’re being honest your web marketing strategy is probably flawed. In fact I would hazard a guess that you don’t even have a web marketing strategy. Today I’d like to share why having a strategy will make your website more effective and your life a lot easier.

So why do you need a web marketing strategy?

Your website’s goals will determine what your objective is and your strategy is how you’re going to get there. Without either of these your website becomes like a rudderless boat that just goes any way the current will take it. Personally I love to highlight this point with a conversation from Alice in Wonderland:

Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don’t much care where.
The Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.
Alice: …so long as I get somewhere.
The Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.

The sad truth is that most of us start a website like Alice with a vague idea of where we want to go and no idea how to get there. First you need a set of clearly defined goals that display your outcome with some milestones along the way. Then you can start to design your web marketing strategy.

What is a web marketing strategy?

For me a web marketing strategy is a clear and concise 1 or 2 page document that answers 4 questions. You don’t need a 50 page business plan as we all know this will go straight in the drawer to never be seen again. Your strategy should be in front of you every day so you can constantly refer to it and make sure you’re on track.

Your strategy should be the perfect combination of rigid and flexible. This means that there are times when your strategy is working perfectly and you just have to keep executing it to see even more results. The idea is you don’t get distracted by a million fabulous opportunities that come your way each day.

But you also need it to be flexible enough so when something isn’t working you can try something else. This also means you can add new ideas into the strategy but only when you’re sure they’re not going to disrupt your core efforts. And for the record my experience says you should be trying different actions for 3 to 6 months before deciding that they don’t work.

How to create your web marketing strategy

In my mind your web marketing strategy simply answers 4 big questions…

  1. Who is my ideal client?
  2. How will I amaze them?
  3. How will I turn website visitors into clients?
  4. How will I get traffic to my website?

And yes I’ve put them in that order for a reason. If you’re not going to amaze your clients and create a unique experience for them then no amount of clever sales techniques or traffic generation will save your website. First you need something worth selling then you can worry about creating an irresistible offer and putting it in front of your target market

What you do next

Write out the 4 questions above and answer them for your business. If you find yourself asking some hard questions about your business then that’s a good thing. By asking the hard questions we get clarity and this will lead to dramatic improvement in your results.

If you’d like to learn more about designing your web marketing strategy and how to make yourself stand out online (which is key) plus get a lot more clarity on the first 3 questions then check out my Automated Selling Machine course. If you’re tired of having a lackluster website now is the time to do something about it as tomorrow your competition will be. It’s your choice who wins.

Why Your Website Sales Suck Video

by Craig.
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Because I’m all fancy and technical I managed to make a video entitled – can you guess? – Why Your Website Sales Suck. It basically steps through what I believe are the key areas to make your website successful and introduces a system for getting results. More videos are planned as well so let me know what you think.

Note – Feedback about my sexy voice is also appreciated…

Why Your Website Sales Suck Video

It’s my birthday and I’ll discount if I want to!

by Craig.
1 comment

Well it is my birthday and if you’re arriving here on the 13th of January 2010 you might want to check out this link as an example of what I’m talking about:

[Offer is closed]

But what I want to talk about is putting a reason behind your marketing efforts. Many business owners market when they have nothing new to say and this reduces the responsiveness of your listeners. However if you make your marketing more exciting and about something more people will listen and respond.

Dan Kennedy – my favorite grumpy direct response marketer – first introduced me to the concept of making your marketing into an event. This means basing your marketing on more than just “I want to sell more stuff.” Believe it or not your marketing should actually be enjoyable for your audience.

Enjoyable marketing… ?

Yes you heard me correctly. After all you want your visitors and clients to have an enjoyable time when they visit your business or buy from you… so why not enjoy your marketing as well? We live in an age of constant noise and marketers shouting at us louder and louder but all it takes is to step away from the norm to make your marketing efforts much more effective.

I talk a lot about putting personality into your marketing (and try to do it with everything I do as well) and that’s the first step. The next is to make your marketing into an event. Believe it or not but your followers can actually look forward to hearing from you?

(Like you look forward to hearing from me… come on… you know it’s true… I hope!)

How to tie your marketing to events

All you really need is a reason for your special offer (or your irresistible offer) and a bit of creativity when it comes to story. Your reason might be your birthday and wanting to celebrate (or be crazy) or a public holiday. The good thing about using something personal is it’s unique to your business.

But you don’t have to wait for your birthday… just be a little creative. It might be that your daughter just graduated college and you’re a proud parent. Or maybe you want to go on holiday and need a little extra cash to afford it!

Why this works

Everyone likes a good deal… it’s just human nature. How many times have you told someone “I bought it for X but it’s normally Y…” a few I’ll bet. And perhaps more importantly we want to spend money with people we like and enjoy dealing with.

So now I’ve spelled out all the reasons for my birthday promotion you can go and check it out:

[Offer is closed]

And  just because I’ve spilled the beans it doesn’t mean you have to try and resist the temptation to buy. Inside the course you’ll learn all the other tricks and techniques that will have your visitors eager to spend money with you. Marketing doesn’t have to be a horrible experience… it should be fun for all involved!

What you do next

Think about what events you can base your marketing around and get to work. And if you want to see how to structure an offer then subscribe to my email list and learn how. As for the birthday offer it’s now closed… at least until next year!

Risk reversal options to increase sales

by Craig.
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There are various risk reversal options to improve your sales closing rate. The idea of risk reversal is to get the buyer over that last seed of doubt in their mind by taking on as much of the purchase risk as possible. The aim being the prospect has nothing to lose when trying your product.

Guarantees

Guarantees are an example of risk reversal but they are often done poorly or not at all. Your guarantee should be clear, short and to the point to act as a marketing tool rather than something your lawyer dreamed up. It should tell your prospect that you believe that your product or service will fulfill your promises.

A strong guarantee can then take pride of place in your marketing materials and help you seal the deal. The best guarantees will also attract attention and make prospects wonder how you can afford to have such an amazing guarantee. This translates into faith in your product based on the confidence of your guarantee.

Free Trials

By putting your product in the prospects’ hands before they pay a cent you are again showing confidence in your product or service. By offering them a risk free trial they are much more likely to take up your offer and if your product is as good as you say it is they should have no problem purchasing it after the trial.

Sure – not everyone will buy after the trial – but by exposing your product to more people you’re going to get more sales. You just might have to be creative about what kind of free trial you can offer. If you must you could charge a lower fee for an initial trial as well.

Getting Ripped Off

Many business owners are afraid of making strong guarantees or offering free trials because they feel people will take advantage of them. The truth is most people are honest and these are the people you need to focus on. You’re going to get ripped off at some point but it’ll pale in comparison with the extra sales you make.

What You Do Next

Which risk reversal options are you using in your business? How can you use the ideas above to increase your sales. Try being creative and measure your results to find out just have powerful good risk reversal can be.

How to start your own business

by Craig.
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There’s a lot of advice floating around on how to start your own business. Unfortunately a lot of it is misleading and will cost you a lot of time and money. There is – after all – a good reason why most businesses fail.

The biggest problem I see is a new business owner who is focused on their own needs first. When it comes to starting a business you are the least important person in the equation. You have to figure out what your market wants before you even consider your own wants.

Follow your passion

This could be the king of misleading advice. If no one else cares about your passion then no one will buy your products. It’s as simple as that.

So the advice really should be “follow other peoples’ passions.” Ideally you want this to coincide with your own passions but they never come first. Always focus on what your market wants.

Find a need and fill it

People don’t “need” much anymore. In fact we’ve pretty much got our needs covered. We’re more interested in stuff we “want” now.

But even that should go a step further:

“Find a dream and help them reach it.”

People are usually a lot more committed to their dreams than needs or temporary wants. Dreams come in all shapes and sizes from the golfer who dreams of a lower handicap to the person who wants to climb Mount Everest.

“That’s a great idea for a product/service”

Be very careful of this advice that can come from various well-meaning people. Just because they say it’s a great idea it doesn’t mean they’re going to reach into their wallets to give you money. Many great ideas have failed the “Will people give me money for it?” test.

Again you want to be market focused. If you start talking with people with a particular passion you can discover their biggest dreams and frustrations. Then all you have to do is work out how to help them achieve their dreams or solve their frustrations.

Marketing is everything!

Marketing needs to be a key component of your business from day one. If you start with good market research and back it up with good marketing of your business then the margin for error is much smaller. But marketing needs to be the foundation your business is built on.

Marketing is not some ads you put in the newspaper. It’s everything you do that interacts with your market. Including their experience with your product and when they call you up on the phone.

Marketing is everything because it brings in sales from new or repeat clients. Those sales create profit and pay your salary. Without marketing your business is dead in the water.

What you do next

Be careful who you go to for business advice and ideas. Everyone has an opinion but that means nothing when your time and money are on the line. And always remember that marketing is the key to your success.

Email marketing – 7 easy ways to guarantee failure

by Craig.
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If you’re looking to fail at email marketing here are 7 key guidelines:

  1. Make your subject line boring so no one opens it
  2. Don’t include the recipient’s name
  3. Make your email as impersonal and formal as possible
  4. Include html images and other pretty formatting so your email plainly looks like a commercial message and doesn’t show up properly in most email programs
  5. Ensure all your email is boring and uninteresting
  6. Don’t build a relationship… remember your favourite mantra – get the money, get the money, get the money!
  7. And never EVER give away any value to your subscribers

By following these 7 easy rules I can guarantee that your prospects will cringe at the thought of opening any email from you. If you’re really good they may even come up with clever little nicknames behind your back. Fingers crossed!

What you do next

If for some strange reason you’d like to build a relationship with your prospects that leads to sales you might want to do the opposite of all the rules above. To each their own I guess…

Oh and if you’re not collecting the name and email address of visitors to your website you’ll want to start right now. Aweber is the company recommended by most full-time internet marketers (before they upgrade to the thousand dollars a month system). They’re inexpensive, have great support, tons of features and are easy to use since they guide you step-by-step through creating each new email list.

Find out more about Aweber here

Recession busting idea #384 – Sell garbage… literally!

by Craig.
1 comment
Every wanted to own a special piece of New York City?

Ever wanted to own a special piece of New York City?

One of the huge lies spread about the recession is that no one is buying anymore. Well, maybe I’ll believe it if you’ve had literally no customers walk through your door recently. And in that case, I urge you to leave the South
Pole for a more convenient location.

The truth is… people are buying! If you’re offering something people want and creating enough value in exchange for their hard earned money… consumers will buy it.

If you want proof, you only have to look at this clever guy in New York. Justin Gignac is living and profiting in one of the worst hit cities of the economic disaster. And how’s he doing it?

He’s selling garbage! www.nycgarbage.com

Yes, you heard me correctly. He’s selling garbage… in a box… for US$50. And it’s not even a big box!

Business is even going so well he’s launched a new line of “specialty garbage” for US$100.

Now, honestly… if this guy can sell a little box of garbage for NZ$75 to $150… can’t you make your business more successful right now too? Imagine if you actually sold something people needed… or even desired.

And the next time you want to complain about your industry being hard hit by the recession. Just remember it’s nothing compared to the “selling a box of garbage” industry… and that’s apparently thriving.

What you do next

Stop complaining and start focusing on selling stuff… and suddenly all your recession worries will simply disappear…

Are these the most important skills in business?

by Craig.
1 comment

When it comes down to it almost everyone has valuable skills. You know things that other people don’t. You’ve had experience that would take years for others to obtain.

And it’s not really difficult for you to turn your experience, skills and knowledge into a product. There are random businesses all over the place that I never would of dreamed of. Did you realise there are many different internet businesses selling guides on “How to build a chicken coup.”

Not just one… several. Someone had the knowledge of how to build a chicken coup and found that others wanted that knowledge. They now make thousands of dollars a month selling this information.

But obviously there’s a catch

They make thousands of dollars selling the information. If they don’t sell it… they don’t get paid. And that’s why I believe sales and marketing are the most important skills in any business.

Sure – your unique products are important – but without good sales and marketing your business will disappear from the face of the earth just like millions of others around the world. This means I believe all business owners should be improving their sales and marketing skills. Ignoring this fact is simply disastrous for your business.

Who makes the cash register ring?

In some businesses marketing is seen as an expense. It’s just something that has to be done and is roughly equal to flushing money down a black hole. This attitude is downright dangerous.

Marketing is something that affects every facet of a business. It’s involved every time a prospect or client has anything to do with a company from seeing an ad to after sales service. Everything is marketing and marketing is everything.

Without it… the cash register doesn’t ring and the business dies. End of story.

Who is your most valuable employee?

Dan Kennedy tells the story of doing marketing consulting for a company and being called into the CEO’s office one day. The CEO explained they had run the numbers and worked out they were actually paying Dan more than the CEO’s own salary. Dan simply explained that there’s a reason for that… without him they wouldn’t have any sales and the CEO would have nothing to do.

If you have someone that brings you sales… look after them! But be aware that this person should really be you… the business owner. If you have to hire someone  to bring in sales then you’re in a very bad position if that person ever leaves.

And yes… I’m talking about myself here too. If you bring me in to increase your sales you better pay attention to how I do it because at the end of the day… it’s your business. While I work hard for my clients and want them to succeed I’m not invested financially in your success… because I can always bring in more clients who want to learn from me.

Teaching a person to fish

I have no interest in creating your marketing for you. The only reason I actually consult with clients is because it allows me to keep my skills sharp in the real world. I also enjoy the challenge of a new market, product and business.

What I really want to do is teach you how to market your own business because I know this is the most valuable skill I can ever give you. Plus I can offer my knowledge at a much lower price to more people and achieve a longer lasting result. And I save you years of study by condensing it into the essentials you need to know to improve your business.

What you do next

Realise the importance of what I’m saying and make a commitment to yourself to improve your sales and marketing skills. And if you haven’t signed up for my 12 Hour Sales Booster course – which will teach you some of the most valuable skills you will ever learn in just 1 hour per week – then I really don’t know why you’re spending time on this blog.

Increase your sales in just 12 hours

by Craig.
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Both time and money are constantly scarce for business owners. I’ve been in business long enough to know this firsthand. But it’s a bit of a paradox… if you don’t commit time to marketing you won’t have more sales/money.

I’ve been struggling with this problem ever since my first client. What are the critical actions that create amazing results in the least amount of time? The good news is this is no longer a dream of mine… it’s now a reality.

Solving your biggest problem… getting more sales

After two years working directly with clients, hundreds of business and marketing books and thousands of dollars spent on marketing courses and seminars… I’ve managed to boil all this knowledge down into the few key areas that increase sales fast. And the great part is the concepts are very simple to implement when they’re explained properly.

So I’ve created the 12 Hour Sales Booster which takes these ideas, breaks them down into actionable steps and then ties them all together into a marketing system. All in just 12 hours.

How the 12 Hour Sales Booster works

Now rather than swamp you with 12 hours of information and confusing the hell out of you… I’ve broken it down into 1 hour a week for 12 weeks. And I know every business owner on the planet can find one hour a week to spend increasing their sales! You’ll step through 12 modules and do a little work on your business… but all within that one hour.

It also means you can’t breeze through reading it without taking action. Your subconscious mind will start thinking about the current module for an entire week allowing you to have even greater breakthroughs. Believe me when I say I’ve put a bit of thought into the best way to get you results.

Each module is powerful in itself but when combined your business will become an unstoppable sales machine. I know that sounds like hype but if you’ve read enough of my stuff you know I only share the most valuable insights. I even guarantee your sales will increase in just 12 weeks if you follow the simple steps.

How to get a free trial

For the launch I’m giving you a free 2 week trial to see if I’m really delivering the goods. If you decide to continue it’s at a ridiculously low initial price so I can collect some early success stories. So I highly recommend you check it out  (obviously)…  unless you’re not interested in increasing your sales.

I sent it out to my email subscribers yesterday and the response has been fantastic. I’ve received great feedback on the first module and people can’t wait to see the next one. Based on that feedback I decided to accelerate my plans and post about it here as well.

What you do next

I wonder what the action point will be today? Go and check out the course and sign up. I know you won’t regret it. Sign up here now…

12 Hour Sales Booster

Why low prices suck

by Craig.
6 comments

Following a discussion today with Ben Young of bwagy fame I want to focus on price. How businesses price their products or services obviously has a large impact on how successful a business is. Allow me to share a few thoughts on the subject…

Your price is too low!

There aren’t many businesses that can’t raise their prices and still have lots of happy clients. Most of the concern of raising prices comes from your own hang-ups about price rather than the consumers. Plus there are ways to minimise price sensitivity in your clients that we’ll touch on in a second.

The problem with pricing strategies

Business experts will teach you all kinds of formulas for determining your prices. The problem is most of these formulas rely on the costs of you delivering your product or service. They don’t take into account how much value you deliver your clients.

This forgets all about the golden rule of marketing and the only question consumers are ever interested in: What’s in it for me? If I invent a machine that legally prints $1,000 notes but it only costs me $1 to make the machine… how many people are going to complain I’m charging them $10,000 for it?

The same applies to hourly rates. If you’re charging by the hour you’re not taking into account the value you’re delivering either. The best way to illustrate these points are through examples.

How to sell a bottle of water for $200

Sound impossible? Not really… just hang around in the desert and keep your eye out for lost travellers. A person who is literally dying of thirst will happily pay anything you ask to save their life.

The water hasn’t changed… all that’s changed is the need of the person and you’re able to increase your price astronomically. From about $2 to $200 is an increase of 100 times! By saving their life you’ve increased the value the water provides.

Sound stupid? What do you think bottled water is?

You pay about $2 for a bottle of water compared to drinking tap water. For simplicity let’s say tap water costs $0.02 a “bottle” still resulting in a 100 times increase in price. Now you can argue all about the quality of the water but let’s face it… it’s still water. Bottled water has never given me any superpowers I’m aware of.

The same with different brands of water. How does one company charge a premium price? By increasing the perceived value of their water. Spring water from some natural park is going to sell for more than my tap water. And how do you know their water isn’t from the tap too?

Let’s forget about perceived value for a second

If that’s a little abstract and hard to swallow… let’s look at it another way. How about a graphic designer that charges $100 per hour because it’s the industry standard. For example, you could go to any graphic designer in town and they’d charge around the same price.

So the designer who designed the logo for a number of leading brands around town charges the same as the new design company who have little experience outside of university training. After all, they’re both selling a logo aren’t they? Well no, they’re really selling a memorable logo that will enhance and promote their client’s brand.

The value of having a great logo may increase sales for one company. There’s probably someone out there who specialises in testing different logos to see the effects on sales. The fact is the designer with more skill and experience should be offering greater value.

High price = high perceived quality

We equate in our mind high price with high quality. After all, if you want the best you have to be willing to pay for it… right? So my question for you is if you believe you’re better than your competitors why would you charge the same amount?

If you have better customer service or a higher quality product then you shouldn’t be afraid of charging more for it. However, if you’re not the best at what you do (yet) then it might pay to get better before raising your prices. Just remember that how good you are is largely based on your own perception of yourself and your competitors.

The benefits of higher pricing

You always want to price at the higher end of the market. There are a few reasons for this:

  1. The clients will actually have money
  2. The clients are less price sensitive
  3. You can afford to provide a better service
  4. You can spend more money on marketing
  5. The higher end market is increasing (despite what the media tell you)

The dangers of low prices

On the flip-side if you have low prices you are clearly deciding you want to work with people with less money. Without getting into a debate about helping those less fortunate and greed you really don’t want to base your business on price. A few reasons are:

  1. The market is extremely price sensitive and unloyal
  2. There is a lot of competition
  3. There is always someone trying to undercut you
  4. Your cashflow is less forgiving if you make a mistake

A lot of businesses focus on price because that’s the only kind of marketing they understand and while some obtain a level of success… most die a painful death very quickly.

Learn from low price success stories

Let’s take two NZ institutions that based their marketing on low prices and were very successful: The Warehouse and Michael Hill Jeweller. Both started with very sales orientated marketing that emphasised lowest prices. However, if you look at their marketing now it’s very different.

Both now have much softer advertising attempting to show increased value to consumers. The Warehouse “Where everyone gets a bargain” slogan is no longer emphasised and different unique products have been introduced to raise perceived value such as designer clothes.

The amount of effort to reposition these companies in the consumers minds (and they’re not finished yet) has been enormous. Learn the lesson now and plan for premium prices… it’ll make life a lot easier for you.

Value based pricing

The best way to determine your price is work out how much value you deliver to the client. If you’re marketing to businesses then how much money do you make (or save) them? If you’re marketing to consumers how important is what you offer?

Personally, I don’t care that my smile isn’t perfect but to a model her smile is critical. So should a dentist try to attract me or the model as a client? The value she places on her smile is a lot more and if you’re going to create the result she wants she’ll pay a lot more for it.

Back up your prices with good marketing

When you price on value you also want to be able to explain and quantify the value you’re delivering. A consumer won’t realise why they should buy your fancy and expensive potato peeler until you describe how the design is more comfortable to hold, faster to use and easier on arthritis sufferers.

So make sure you can clearly explain the value you’re delivering and support it with every aspect of your marketing. You should already be focusing on benefits anyway… you just have to be more aware of price justification when you have premium prices.

What you do next

Write down a plan for increasing your prices then work out what pieces of the puzzle you’ll need to put in place first. You might want to start by just offering a premium version and see what the response is. Just remember the key to success is always focusing on the value you deliver.

Still not convinced?

Leave a comment if you have any questions or want feedback on your particular industry. It’s hard to cover all the angles of this concept in one blog post so feel free to help fill in the holes.

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