20 Mistakes that Will Undermine Your Call to Action and Cost You Sales

Posted on 09. May, 2012 by in Blog, conversion, Copywriting, Featured, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

image of number 20 in fireworks

Okay, show of hands.

Who else is wondering how to turn website traffic into actual sales?

You’ve seen the statistics showing businesses that build content marketing plans experience a boatload more leads than businesses that don’t. You’ve bought into it. You believe it works.

But, for some reason, it’s not working for you.

Looking through your stats, you realize your site isn’t capturing the leads you’ve been promised.

What gives?

I have an idea of what’s going on, and it’s completely fixable …

You are not alone

As content marketers, we spend a lot of time obsessing over increasing traffic. It’s the sexy thing to do.

However, the number of leads fails to match our expectations because we don’t spend enough time creating a killer call to action.

A call to action is the most effective tactic to convert random traffic into loyal readers and paying customers.

The most profitable sites use this tactic to convince readers to sign up for a newsletter, download an ebook, attend a webinar, or purchase a product.

This is the difference between a highly profitable website and a failed marketing initiative. Yet most screw it up.

Dozens of call to action mistakes can doom your efforts to convert traffic into leads or sales.

Below, I’ve gathered 20 of the most common …

Don’t make these beginner mistakes

1. No Call to Action

You spend countless hours guest posting, in social media, and formatting your website for search engine optimization purposes.

But your effort is wasted if you don’t ask your readers to take action. They may come to your site, read your information, and never come back.

Give your readers an opportunity to subscribe.

2. Below the Fold

When you visit the most popular sites in the world, you will notice that you never have to scroll to find the call to action.

The most valuable real estate on any website is the top third of the page. Too often, marketers waste that space with a large image of their logo or random images that distract readers from taking action.

The truth is, many of your visitors will never scroll down and view all of your content.

If you want to increase conversions, put your call to action at the top of your blog where every reader will see it. (Take a look at the Generate WordPress child theme for a very clear example of this.)

3. Not Authoritative

If you don’t speak with confidence and authority, your readers won’t have confidence to take action on your site.

Tell them exactly what you want them to do, and do so with conviction.

4. Not Specific

Your readers lead busy lives and don’t always have time to think about what you want them to do.

Your job is to spell it out for them.

If you want them to enter their email address, tell them in your call to action. If you want them to click a link, include the words “click here” in the link.

Always connect the dots for your readers so taking action is a no-brainer.

5. Too Much Self Proclaimed Hype

Unless a recognized third party says your blog is the largest, best, or any other superlative, leave it out of your call to action. The last thing you want to do is look like a used car salesmen.

Consequently, a great way to increase subscribers is to have an industry authority quote how much they enjoy reading your content.

6. Multiple Calls to Action

What’s the one thing you want readers to do on your blog?

Do you want them to sign up for your list? And click on ads? And buy your products? And go to your social media profiles?

When you have too many calls to action on your site, your readers become paralyzed by the choices and leave your site.

Pick one or two actions you want your readers to take, and build your design around that. Don’t leave readers confused about what they’re supposed to do next.

7. Puny Call to Action

If you have a call to action and no one can find it, you may as well have no call to action at all. Make it big enough so people can’t miss it.

I’ve never seen a website with a call to action that is too big.

Fix these intermediate mistakes and watch your list grow

8. No Social Proof

One of the most effective ways to get someone to take action on your site is to prove that others have done it too.

Here on Copyblogger, you can see how many of your fellow content marketers have joined the email list. Over 75,000 people can’t be wrong.

If you have a new blog with less than 1,000 subscribers, you should to omit this figure. But think about other creative ways to use social proof to lend credibility to your site.

9. No Benefit to Signing Up

Calls to action such as “Call for a free consultation” or “Sign up for our newsletter” don’t motivate your readers.

The words “free consultation” have come to mean “sales pitch,” and signing up for your newsletter is giving you permission to sell stuff.

Highlight exactly what your readers are going to receive when they take action. How will they benefit?

10. Too Risky

If your call to action involves a financial transaction, then offering a free trial or a money-back guarantee will boost conversions.

If something is free to download or subscribe to, mention that immediately.

11. No Urgency

People are extremely motivated to take action out of fear of missing out on an opportunity.

One reason webinars work so well at getting people to take action is because the software only allows for a limited number of seats.

You can create this urgency in other offers as well.

For instance, if you want more readers to download your ebook or free report, try offering it for a limited time only.

12. Colors Blend In

Pop quiz: Does your call to action jump out at your readers the moment they arrive to your blog? If not, you might want to rethink your color palette.

For instance, if your blog has a blue background, having dark blue text is a big mistake. The contrast is too close and most of your readers will have a hard time immediately finding your call to action.

13. No Credibility

If you are a brand new blogger, earning the credibility that will entice people to take action is difficult.

You have two quick ways to get around this.

First, put the logos of your biggest customers above your call to action. This shows that the market has validated your products and services. This expertise will extend to your blog.

Second, start guest posting on popular blogs immediately. Once you have a guest post on a popular blog, you can put their logo above your call to action following the words “As seen in.”

(A quick note: you will want to ask for permission to post third party logos on your site.)

Can you imagine how much more appealing your call to action will be if the words “As seen in Copyblogger” follow it?

14. Loaded with Jargon

Too many marketers load their content with industry jargon instead of writing in words their readers actually use.

If you sell software with a 128-bit encryption key, the only people likely to understand what that means are software developers and IT professionals.

Unlike English class — where you got points for using big words — simple words work best when trying to persuade someone to take action.

Advanced mistakes that keep your list from exploding

15. Wrong Offer

If your offer doesn’t interest your readers, how convincing the copywriting is or how beautiful your buttons are won’t matter. They won’t take action.

This sounds like common sense, but it happens more often than you can imagine.

Think about the number of websites with ebooks and software that never get downloaded.

The bottom line: The best way to create a killer call to action is to offer something your readers really want, when they want it, the way they want it.

16. Undefined Sales Funnel

You need to understand your sales funnel in order to make the most out of your call to action.

Typically, a blog is great for getting readers to sign up for a free report to build your email list. However, it’s not so good at selling expensive consulting services.

In many cases, your job as a content marketer is to build an efficient sales funnel that will convert your readers into subscribers, and your subscribers into customers.

17. No Empathy

Do you know what keeps your readers up at night? What do they desire more than anything else in the world?

Chances are it’s not exactly what you are offering.

For instance, Jon Morrow offers a free report called “52 Headline Hacks that shows bloggers how to create headlines”. But the headline on his call to action is “A cheat sheet for writing blog posts that go viral.”

Few bloggers dream about crafting the perfect headline, but every blogger dreams about a post that goes viral. And headlines are a key ingredient to making that happen.

Dig down deep into the soul of your readers and discover how to make their dreams come true.

18. No Tangible Benefit

If you’ve been selling products or services for any length of time, you’ve probably heard that you need to sell benefits, not features.

But now you need to take that a step further and create tangible benefits.

For instance, the benefit “get more traffic” can become “Double your traffic in 30 days.”

Or the benefit “save money” can become “save $932 a month.”

This allows your readers to vividly imagine a better life if they take action on your site. Just be sure you’re absolutely honest in your claim about what your product or service will do.

19. No A/B Testing

At least once a month, you should test your call to action to improve your subscription rate until you’ve deemed it good enough.

Test your headline, copy, buttons, location, and your offer to determine what gets more people to take the most action.

20. Never Studied Copywriting

Let’s get perfectly blunt here.

Although trying to create a killer call to action without studying copywriting is possible, it’s highly unlikely.

If you’ve never studied copywriting, you need to start right now. Use the free resources right here on Copyblogger, and pick up a couple of the most important copywriting books.

A scary fact

Every time a reader leaves your site without subscribing, you’ve lost a sales lead.

And you know what? You may never get that lead back.

A killer call to action can mean the difference between building a popular website and toiling with one that lingers in obscurity.

Review the tactics I’ve listed above and start testing them one by one until you’ve created a call to action your readers can’t resist.

What are you waiting for? Wasting time is literally costing you money …

About the Author: Greg Digneo teaches businesses how to capture traffic, increase conversions, and generate more sales leads. Click here to read his free report “The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Killer Call to Action.”

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Monkeys, Sticks, and the True Nature of Insight

Posted on 08. May, 2012 by in Blog, consulting, conversion, Copywriting, Emotional Marketing, Hyper Responsive Marketing, Information Marketing, Inspiration, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

Are monkeys really capable of “insight?”

And what the heck does this have to do with making more profit in YOUR business anyway?

Listen and learn my friends :-)

www.GlennCoach.com



How to Craft an Offer That Can’t Be Refused

Posted on 08. May, 2012 by in Blog, conversion, Copywriting, Featured, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

image of orange on a tree

A few years ago, I ran my first marathon in Seattle.

I’d love to tell you I ran strong to the finish, but by mile 18 I was wiped out, focusing entirely on putting one foot in front of the other. As I trudged along in the final hour, I spotted a volunteer handing out fresh orange slices on the side of the road ahead of me.

Tired as I was, I made sure to change my position, slow down, and gratefully accept the gift. The piece of fresh orange was an offer I couldn’t refuse — even though it was free, I would have gladly paid for it if I’d had the money and was in the right frame of mind to have a conversation. 

Two miles ahead, I saw another volunteer handing out a different gift: halves of Krispy Kreme donuts. Unfortunately, this offer did not excite me (or any other runners I saw) at all.

I’m no puritan. I’ve have eaten more than my share of donuts over the years. But three hours into the longest race of my life was bad timing for a sugar rush. The offer was unattractive and a poor fit for the context.

Ironically, there were no donuts available after the 26.2-mile race, something many runners would have been thrilled to see. Keep this in mind if you are ever in charge of providing donuts for marathoners.

An offer you can’t refuse

A compelling offer is like a slice of orange at mile 18.

It’s a marriage proposal from the guy or girl you’ve been waiting for your whole life.

An offer you can’t refuse is like the $20,000 Bonderman Fellowship offered every year to graduating seniors at the University of Washington. The fellowship has very strict rules: Take our money in cash and travel the world on your own; don’t come back for eight months. Oh, and once in a while send us a quick note so we can tell your parents you’re alive. If you’d guess that hundreds of students compete for the fellowship every year, you’d be right. 



So how can you construct an offer that your prospects won’t refuse?

Remember, first you need to sell what people want to buy — give them the fish. Then make sure you’re marketing to the right people at the right time.

Sometimes you can have the right crowd at the wrong time. Marathon runners are happy to eat donuts after the race, but not at mile 18.

Then you take your product or service and craft it into a compelling pitch … an offer they can’t refuse.

Here’s how you do it.

1. Understand that what we want and what we say we want are not always the same thing

The next time you get on a crowded plane and head to your cramped middle seat in the back, with a screaming infant seated behind you at no extra charge, remember this principle.

For years travelers have been complaining about crowded planes and cramped seats, and for years airlines have been ignoring them. Every once in a while, an airline creates a campaign to respond to the concern: “We’re giving more legroom in coach!” 

It sounds great, but a few months later they inevitably reverse course and remove the extra inches of space. Why?

Because despite what they say, most travelers don’t value the extra legroom enough to pay for it; instead, they value the lowest-priced flights above any other concerns. Airlines have figured this out, so they give people what they want — not what they say they want.

A good offer has to be what people actually want and are willing to pay for. 



2. Most of us like to buy, but we don’t usually like to be sold



An offer you can’t refuse may apply subtle pressure, but nobody likes a hard sell.

Instead, compelling offers often create an illusion that a purchase is an invitation, not a pitch. Social shopping services such as Groupon have been successful in recruiting their customers to do most of their marketing for them. Indeed, the biggest complaint about these businesses is that they sell out of deals too quickly, also known as “They won’t let me give them my money!”

As you might imagine, the path of least resistance is a good place to stand.

Marathon runners do not need to be sold on the benefits of fresh oranges after three hours of running. Adventurous college students will grasp the value of a $20,000 “go travel somewhere and do what you want” fellowship without much explaining.


Offer Construction Project

Here’s an exercise that will help you put together the offer your audience won’t be able to refuse.

Remember the Magic Formula:

The Right Audience + the Right Promise + the Right Time = 
Offer You Can’t Refuse

BASICS

  • What are you selling? _______
  • How much does it cost? _______
  • Who will take immediate action on this offer? ________

BENEFITS

  • The primary benefit is ________
  • An important secondary benefit is ________



OBJECTIONS



What are the main objections to the offer?

  1. 


How will you counter these objections?

  1. 


TIMELINESS

Perceived value and the expensive Starbucks run





After nearing the end of a five-hour drive from Boise to Salt Lake City, I stopped off at a Starbucks about twenty minutes away from the bookstore I was speaking at that evening.

On the way inside, I grabbed something from the trunk and left the keys inside. Nice move, Chris. It was even worse because I didn’t realize my mistake until I had finished my latte and email session an hour later, shortly before I was due to arrive at the bookstore.

I was mad at myself for being so stupid, but I had to think quickly.

Using a combination of technology (iPod touch, MiFi, cell phone), I located the number of a local locksmith and quickly rang him up. “Uh, can you please come as soon as possible?” He agreed to be as fast as he could.

Much to my surprise, the locksmith pulled up in a van just three minutes later. Impressive, right? Then he got out his tools and approached the passenger door. In less than ten seconds, he had the door open, allowing me to retrieve my keys from the trunk and get on with my life. “How much do I owe you?” I asked. Perhaps it’s because I don’t own a car and the last time I paid a locksmith was ten years ago, or maybe I’m just cheap, but for whatever reason I expected him to ask for something like $20. Instead, he said, “That will be $50, please.”

I hadn’t discussed the price with him before he came out and was in no position to negotiate, so I gave him the cash and thanked him. But something was unsettling about the transaction, and I tried to figure out what it was.

I was mad at myself for locking my keys in the car — it was obviously no one’s fault but my own — but I also felt that $50 was too much to pay for such a brief service.


As I drove away, I realized that I secretly wanted him to take longer in getting to me, even though that would have delayed me further. I wanted him to struggle with unlocking my car as part of a major effort, even though that made no sense whatsoever. The locksmith met my need and provided a quick, comprehensive solution to my problem. I was unhappy about our exchange for no good reason.

The problem of perceived value

Mulling it over, I realized that the way we make purchasing decisions isn’t always rational. I thought back to something that had happened in the early days of my business. I had produced a twenty-five-page report on booking discount airfare and sold it for $25. Many people bought it, but others complained: Twenty-five pages for $25? That’s too expensive.

I knew I couldn’t please everyone, but I didn’t understand this specific objection.

The point of the report was to help people save money on plane tickets, and many readers reported saving $300 or more after one quick read. What does the length of the report have to do with the price? I remember thinking about that one complaint.

If I gave you a treasure map, would you complain that it was only one page long?

It turned out the joke was on me: All of us place a subjective value on goods or services that may not relate to what they “should” be.

Just as what we want and what we say we want aren’t always the same thing, the way we place a value on something isn’t always rational. You must learn to think about value the way your customers do, not necessarily the way you would like them to.

The good news …

The good news is that when you do understand what people want, everything else gets a lot easier.

Like the orange slice at mile eighteen of the marathon, an offer you can’t refuse comes along at just the right time. As you follow your blueprint to freedom, think carefully about how you can create a similarly compelling offer.

The next step is to take your offer out into the world. Are you doing that?


About the Author: Chris Guillebeau is the author of The $100 Startup, available today from Amazon.com or your favorite local bookstore. The book provides a blueprint for creating irresistible offers that increase income and improve the state of the world. You can also read his free blog at ChrisGuillebeau.com.

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If It Doesn’t Sell …

Posted on 05. May, 2012 by in Blog, content marketing, conversion, Copywriting, Featured, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

Advertising legend David Ogilvy hated the word “creative” in the context of the work his firm did for clients. In Confessions of an Advertising Man he wrote, “I tell new recruits that I will not allow them to use the word creative to describe the functions they are to perform in the agency.”

The job of advertising, Ogilvy rightly maintained, was to sell the product or service. If it didn’t do that, the advertisement was a failure, no matter how “creative” any of its other attributes.

Madison Avenue has continually failed to heed Ogilvy’s advice. Will you?

If it Doesn't Sell ...

Embed this Copyblogger Shareable on your own site, just copy and paste the code below into your blog post or web page …

About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger, CEO of Copyblogger Media, and Editor-in-Chief of Entreproducer. Get more from Brian on Google+.

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Using Micro-Commitments to Increase Profits (Transcript)

Posted on 03. May, 2012 by in Blog, conversion, Copywriting, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

Just following up with the TRANSCRIPT from my previous blog post on using micro-commitments to dramatically increase conversion.



Odd Way to Double Email Clickthrough Rates

Posted on 01. May, 2012 by in Blog, conversion, Email Marketing, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

Know what’s kinda stupid?

Not optimizing your email follow up sequence to maximize clickthrough and dramatically increase your site traffic, that’s what’s kinda stupid…

Because you spend a lot of time, money, and attention to acquire the prospect…

And you CAN realistically double or even triple the traffic to your website with an optimized follow up sequence.

In today’s interview, Ryan and I discuss an unusual way to double your email clickthrough rate…

And we made sure to give you the 80/20 version after we explained the whole thing too! (Be sure to listen for it near the end)

Speaking of stupid things, wanna know something else that would be really stupid?….

Not getting started for only $4.95 (and locking in your rate forever!) for my bi-monthly live webinars this week before the price raise, that would be really stupid!

And hey, even if you never join me live, you can always download the recordings (available for 90 days).  PLUS, you get two bonuses immediately when you join: (1) Maximum Sales Bumps in Minimum Time – a collection of the BEST sales bumping techniques which I’ve identified as working across markets and (2) Building Your Persuasion Architecture(tm) – How to Focus on a Two Minute Verbal Sales Pitch Before You Publish a Single Page.

The first bonus alone is worth 100 times the $4.95 it’ll cost you to download it, because plain and simple, it’s got the best conversion techniques Terry Dean and I have found to work across markets, presented in under two hours.  Many of which you can implement quickly.

But it’s the second bonus I’m most excited about, because it’s there that I’m introducing the concept of “Persuasion Architecture(tm)”… a powerful way to develop a two minute VERBAL pitch which keeps you focused and grounded in everything else you do.  (One of the biggest reasons I see for websites not earning what they’re worth today is lack of FOCUS… this is the solution!)

Anyway, as soon as I get the word from ClickBank that my preferred higher price has been approved, I’m going to raise the price forever.

But as of the time of this posting, you can still lock in the lowest rate I’ll ever offer on this, just as a reward for paying attention to me :-)
(I guess if my Mom paid more attention to me when I was a kid I wouldn’t need to bribe you… oh well, my deep-seated psychological problems are your gain)

Seriously though, this is one of those head scratchers… I can’t understand why anyone who’s been following me wouldn’t jump on board.  Do it now before ClickBank approves the new prices please.  (Hey, at the very least you can say you finally “made money with ClickBank” right?)

Onwards and Upwards My Fine Marketing Friends…

You can clear away SO much confusion if you’ll just take the time to master a few fundamental conversion principles.  And now you can watch me do it LIVE on site after site.  (Get started as of the time of this post for less than $5)

Dr. Glenn :-)

Your “Web Sales Hero(tm)”



FREE SPREADSHEET: Profit from Your Own Bad Advertising

Posted on 27. Apr, 2012 by in Blog, conversion, Decision Making, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

This is my second post in a series on “How to Profit from Your Own Bad Advertising”…

And today I’ve got a short (18 minute) mp3 interview with none other than THE Ryan Levesque illustrating several very specific examples…

Along with a free spreadsheet to help you implement this in your own market! (IMPORTANT: Listen to the interview first or the  spreadsheet won’t make any sense)

Last thing…

You might have noticed the new club where you can interact with me LIVE 2x/mo.  (There are also video recordings of course)

It’s selling quickly, and I’m going to raise the price next week, so you definitely should lock in your rate now (it’s only $5 for the first month!)

Honestly, this is the best deal you’re EVER going to get from me…

I’m doing it so I can bond more with my audience in a group environment without costing you a fortune.  (People keep asking for a forum, but honestly I hate those… people get so yucky-ass-stupid on them, and there’s just SO much nonsense to deal with!)

Anyway, if you’ve been around GlennWorld for a while, you know that I introduce my products and services at a low price in order to prove the concept, gather market intelligence about the buyers quickly, and then I steadily raise the price.  (You might wanna copy this philosophy by the way… because it frickin works)

You also get two crushing bonuses immediately when you join (1) Maximum Sales Bumps in Minimum Time – a collection of the BEST sales bumping techniques which I’ve identified as working across markets and (2) Building Your Persuasion Architecture(tm) – How to Focus on a Two Minute Verbal Sales Pitch Before You Publish a Single Page.

Anyway, why anyone would read this deep into a blog post of mine without spending $5 for live interaction AND those two bonuses is beyond me :-)  But hey, you know, with the recession and all, you could almost buy a whole gallon of gas for that money!  (Not in Europe of course)

But seriously, if this isn’t worth $5, I don’t know what is.

All my best,

Glenn :-)

Glenn Livingston, Ph.D.



Using Microcommitments to Increase Profits

Posted on 26. Apr, 2012 by in Blog, conversion, Copywriting, Emotional Marketing, Information Marketing, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

What’s that?  Do I hear some of you in danger off in the distance?
Are there too many money-sucking-conversion-leaks on your website?

Well there are 12 WORDS WHICH CAN FIX MOST OF YOUR CONVERSION PROBLEMS:

Fear not!  Today’s post and accompanying MP3 is something most marketers can quickly take advantage of…

And it all starts with something Perry Marshall told me about 8 years ago…

“If your sales process isn’t working, break it up into pieces” – Perry Marshall.

I think Perry first told me this over lunch in 2005…

And those words have rung in my ears ever since.

The vast majority of marketers forget just how mistrusting, frightened, and paranoid the average consumer is online.  And hey, if the internet has proven ANYTHING it’s this: just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean people aren’t out to get you!

The consumer is reinforced for developing mistrust, fear, and paranoia online because even if the majority of vendors are trustworthy (and maybe only 1% truly out to scam you), when you multiply 1% by the sheer numbers of vendors on the internet the truth is you find a scam around every corner.

We live in a world where it’s sane to trust people only to the extent that they’re PROVEN trustworthy…

NOT “trust until people prove otherwise”…

Especially with internet vendors.

Know what the implication is for marketers?

You’ve gotta work a LOT harder to earn every little bit of trust along the way.

  • You can’t assume people will scroll down your page, you’ve gotta earn it…
  • You’ can’t assume people are ready to buy, you often have to get the opt in first…
  • You can’t always assume people are ready to opt in, you frequently have to earn their trust with valuable content, proof, and the look and feel of your site first…
  • And you can’t even assume people are willing to CLICK.  Instead, you’ve gotta earn the right to pull them deeper into your site by being sure to cover the “3Ps” above the fold (problem, promise, and proof!)

Listen to this intriguing interview I did with Ryan Levesque all about Using Micro-Commitments to Increase Web Profits…

And if more than 20% of you don’t find at least one HUGE conversion leak in your sales funnel by the time you’re done I’ll shave my big hairy beard off!  (Note: I haven’t seen my own chin  since literally August of 1987, and Sharon will kill me if I ever show it again–she says it makes me an Adonis–so you’d better believe I’m confident!)

Oh, and when you’re done, get your butt into my new Live Webinar Club (just $5 to get started as of the time of this post) and/or Personal One-On-One Coaching (new options available) so you can interact with me and start plugging ALL the conversion leaks on your site!



Marketing Lessons from My Dogs

Posted on 23. Apr, 2012 by in Blog, conversion, Copywriting, Email Marketing, Emotional Marketing, Hyper Responsive Marketing, Information Marketing, Inspiration, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

Hey, maybe this is cliche’, and I know I’m definitely not the first one to say it, but every marketing project starts with enthusiasm and passion.  If you don’t have it, it’s really WAY more difficult to get over the rough spots.

See someone do something you think you could emulate?  Sometimes even if you’re wrong, it’s worth the effort and you DO get partial credit for TRYING.  Consider the little guy in this video:

You’ve gotta believe he saw someone playing, maybe his master.

Then, during the day when his master was away, he took his time and started wailing away…

Who knows where he’ll be after HIS 10,000 hours of practice?

While I’m on the topic, there’s an MP3 interview with Sharon and I below talking about everything OUR dogs taught US about marketing… worth listening to!

For what it’s worth,

PS – Do you ever feel alone in your marketing quests?

PPS – Did you join my live webinar club for the $5 trial yet? (As of time of this posting)



When is Crappy Advertising Actually MORE Profitable?

Posted on 21. Apr, 2012 by in AdWords Cost, Blog, conversion, Copywriting, Decision Making, Information Marketing, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

Q: When is crappy advertising the MOST profitable route you can take?


A: When it’s working–AND–you have bigger fish to fry!

Today’s insight is for the more sophisticated marketer…

(At least I like to think it is because I didn’t realize this until I had already burned through a LOT of cash, and the alternative is that I’m just an idiot!)

You see, when I first started building my own advertising systems, I really thought it was possible to have a perfectly optimized system.

I figured I knew how to split test, and I understood what consumers responded to in advertising…

So all I needed to do was aggressively split test every last part of my system until it was a perfectly tuned machine, making more money than anyone else’s machine on the market, and thereby becoming an unlimited traffic magnet. (Because due to the “Unlimited Traffic Theorem”,  if I’m making $3 per visitor and you’re only making $1 per visitor, I can pay you $1.50 per visitor and eliminate your reason for competing… you should just start sending all your traffic to me!)

Here’s what I didn’t take into account…

RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN THE REAL WORLD OF BUSINESS!

I really started understanding this when I started Rocket Clicks with Jeff Hughes about 4 years ago. (As a side note, time goes SO fast and I’m SO fricking old!  I wish I could remember which comedian said this first but when I look at my receding hairline I think “that’s not a forehead, that’s a fivehead!)…

Anyway, way back in 2008 I was talking to all these entrepreneurs, constantly astounded at how much money they were making with relatively crappy advertising, seriously under-optimized AdWords accounts, and landing pages which had conversion leaks in them the size of Kentucky!

When I interviewed these people about their business, I was kind of shocked to find out that it wasn’t that they didn’t KNOW there was a problem…

They all kind of “hung their heads in shame” (metaphorically over our GoToMeeting conferences), dropped their voices and said “I know, I feel so guilty but I’ve been so busy with other things I just can’t get to it!”

But the more people I interviewed, the more I started to realize these people weren’t stupid by a long shot…

In fact, they were making BETTER prioritization decisions in their business than I was.  Because the kinds of things they were attending to were making them a whole lot more money than doubling their conversion on the front end would… at least at the moment.

How could that possibly be?  Let me give you a few examples:

Consider someone selling a supplement for prostate health with a just barely profitable front end.  Maybe they’re spending $2 per click and making back $2.10, all things considered.  Now, suppose they’re a one man shop, and so far they’re able to sell 10,000 customers per month.  Might sound like a lot, but because of the margins it’s just $1000 profit.  Certainly not enough to hire a PPC agency or conversion expert.  And worse yet, he’s at the mercy of ONE supplier with limited capacity.  So even if he COULD ramp up his sales, the supplier can’t keep up!    And he’s got customer service problems (e.g. he can’t afford to hire a team but he can’t afford not to!) so refunds are climbing.  What do to?

With seriously limited time and resources, this person’s got several options for where to put his time and resources.  He could:

  • Work on striking deals with other supplement companies to eliminate the vulnerability in the business…
  • He could work on back end products to sell to his buyers to seriously increase his margins…
  • He could build a stick sequence via direct mail to get existing customers on the continuity to stay longer…
  • He could spend a month building a better customer service system…
  • Or he could dig into AdWords, learn optimization techniques, test and optimize his landing page, in hopes of making an extra 20% to 30% on the front end.

Now, it’s not that there’s no money in the optimization…

And it should be done EVENTUALLY…

But the hard reality is that the other problems really take precedence given his capital resources and available time.    Because what good will the extra 20% to 30% be if his supplier drops out of the game, can’t keep up with capacity, or if he loses his merchant account due to too many chargebacks (from lousy customer service?)

This is why all businesses develop a long list of “guilty projects” which they KNOW would make them more money if they could only find the time and resources to do it.

And sure, you can make joint venture arrangements to solve a lot of these problems, but you can’t choose these partners randomly… finding JVs itself takes time and effort. (You’ve also gotta vet the prospective partners or you could be making more trouble than it’s worth… trust me, I learned the hard way!)

JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN FIX SOMETHING DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD.

The reality of business is that it’s a constant game of priorities.

“What is the highest and best use of your time and resources this week?”

As much as I hate to say it, sometimes optimizing this or that part of your advertising system just isn’t the answer.

And even when it is, it’s rare that you have the time and resources to optimize the WHOLE THING.  Rather, you usually need to pick the point of greatest leverage where you’ve got the greatest potential for increasing your profit volume…

Like your highest end product…

Or often it IS the front end, because that increases the value of the whole system.  (Hint: most people totally ignore their email follow up system when it comes to optimization… but you can often quadruple your site traffic with a well optimized long follow up system without spending another penny on traffic!)

But there’s a bright side…

Because when you KNOW and UNDERSTAND this essential business reality…

You also know that everyone else is going through it too…

And that the best we can ever do is  (as Stephen Covey taught me) is to “organize and execute around priorities”

So throw away the “guilt” from that “guilty project list” you’ve got building in Outlook…

And just put your head down and ask yourself “What’s Next?”

Dr. G :-)

PS – we’ve got some new options and services I’d like you to check out:





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