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



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:





WARNING: Analysis Paralysis Man – Watch Out!

Posted on 17. Apr, 2012 by in Blog, consulting, conversion, Decision Making, Information Marketing, Inspiration, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

Yesterday we started talking about the kinds of  ”traffic demons” people become vulnerable when they don’t understand the essence of converting visitors into customers.   Because when you just don’t know what makes a site sell, you’re extremely susceptible to thinking all you need is  more traffic (or cheaper traffic).  And this is how evil creatures like seo scorpions, ppc piranhas, and social media snakes are able to make a good living.

Unfortunately there are many more internet demons you’ll face if you don’t know the 5 simple underlying principles of conversion.  So today, let’s face off against…

Villian: Analysis Paralysis Man

Evil Motto: “I’ve never met a problem more data couldn’t solve.  (Give me some money and I’ll be happy to waste weeks generating countless charts, graphs, and tables which will lead to an ever expanding list of questions, which of course will require more data to solve, etc.)”

Solution: Listen, I (Glenn) love data more than the next guy.  In fact, I spent a semester supervising graduate students at Yeshiva University on the  ”multivariate analysis of human behavior” via computer models.  But when it comes to internet sales you’ve REALLY got to be careful.  Because the ability to scientifically measure internet activity can create a dangerous vortex which sucks you into a paralyzing maze of meaningless numbers.

What you want are BIG SIMPLE TESTS with PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS. Tests that focus on the fundamental elements of conversion.   What are they?  (1) The way you describe the problem you solve; (2) the unique selling proposition you make; (3) the amount of proof you provide (and the way you present it); (4)  the specific offer you make, and; (5) the type of scarcity or reason to act now you’re using.

Screw the fancy analytics, heat maps, live-chats, uber-complex multivariate analyses, etc. UNLESS they’re designed to support a big simple test with a very clear and meaningful hypothesis.  At least until until you’ve exhausted conversion bumps from testing the fundamental elements.

Read that again (I just saved you a good year of wasted time and/or money to pay for data gathering and analysis experts!)

Listen, you can clear away SO much confusion–and easily defeat a myriad of evil internet villains–if you just master a few simple 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)

Onwards and Upwards My Fine Marketing Friends!

NEW: Live Conversion Webinars 2x/mo with Glenn.
Watch me fix conversion holes in site after site.
Get started as of the time of this post for only $5

PPC Piranha(tm), SEO Scorpion(tm), Social Media Snake(tm)
and Analysis Paralysis Man(tm) are trademarks of Psy Tech Inc.

PPS –  New “Done For You” Marketing Opportunities from Glenn…
(1) Let Us Get You More Compelling Proof
(2) The Weirdest Opportunity in the World (listen to the audio)



CHEAT SHEET: Supercharge Your Testimonials

Posted on 15. Apr, 2012 by in Blog, consulting, conversion, Copywriting, Information Marketing, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

This is a CHEAT SHEET I made for you to go along with the  ”testimonials that sell” MP3 and transcript.

What you might not know about my darling wife is that a good part of her consulting for Fortune 500 companies over the past 20 years has involved casting and spokesperson research for television commercials for big brands (like Excedrin, etc).  She’s really developed an ear for what sells, but more importantly a PROCESS for interviewing customers to bring their testimonials to life, elicit every last benefit they derived from your product, and get them to EMOTE while describing their results.

This is information you won’t find elsewhere… I hope you enjoy it!

(NOTE: Sharon has a done for you testimonial service if you don’t wish to do this yourself)

PS – You can now join me in LIVE conversion webinars 2x/mo. Click here to see the ridiculous introductory pricing .



The Pimp That Taught Me How To Market

Posted on 12. Apr, 2012 by in Blog, conversion, Copywriting, Information Marketing, Inspiration, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

It’s true…

One of the MOST valuable marketing lessons I ever learned came straight from the pimp who picked up my Mom in Harlem one summer night when I was eleven years old.

Listen to the 11 minute mp3 below to get the whole story and see how you can incorporate the marketing insight into your funnel too!

All my best,

Dr. G :-)

PS – You can now join me in LIVE conversion webinars 2x/mo. Click here to see the ridiculous introductory pricing .

PPS – I’ve got some new coaching options available too. (I guess you could say I was feeling a little out of touch with my audience, instituting these new options so I can spend a little more time with you guys in a productive way!)

PPPS – This was the only good picture of a pimp I could find on iStockphoto, sorry!  (Doesn’t do the story justice)



Make More Money By Turning OFF Your Advertising

Posted on 10. Apr, 2012 by in AdWords, AdWords Cost, Blog, Campaigns, Content Network, conversion, Copywriting, Decision Making, Hyper Responsive Marketing, Information Marketing, Inspiration, MSN, Overture (yahoo search marketing), Pay Per Click, Quality Score, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Traffic

If the escalating expense, difficulty, and time to generate a high volume of profitable internet sales is crippling your growth–or crushing  your morale–I’ve got a very important audio for you to hear today…

Because it’s entirely possible that…

“You Can Make More Money by Turning Off Your Time Killing, Morale Crushing, Migraine Inducing, Pain-in-the-Ass Advertising System!”

Listen to this interview with Ryan Levesque, my partner in an extremely weird new marketing experiment which just might be your saving grace :-)



Make More Money By Turning OFF Your Advertising

Posted on 10. Apr, 2012 by in AdWords, AdWords Cost, Blog, Campaigns, Content Network, conversion, Copywriting, Decision Making, Hyper Responsive Marketing, Information Marketing, Inspiration, MSN, Overture (yahoo search marketing), Pay Per Click, Quality Score, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Traffic

If the escalating expense, difficulty, and time to generate a high volume of profitable internet sales is crippling your growth–or crushing  your morale–I’ve got a very important audio for you to hear today…

Because it’s entirely possible that…

“You Can Make More Money by Turning Off Your Time Killing, Morale Crushing, Migraine Inducing, Pain-in-the-Ass Advertising System!”

Listen to this interview with Ryan Levesque, my partner in an extremely weird new marketing experiment which just might be your saving grace :-)



MP3: Testimonials THAT SELL…

Posted on 09. Apr, 2012 by in Blog, Copywriting, Information Marketing, Inspiration, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

Testimonials Sell! (But Only If They’re Done Right)

Not every testimonial helps you sell. The ones that work support specific claims with specific results. And they’re expressed in compelling, emotionally contagious language…

(Note: Sharon’s now got a “testimonials done for you” service you should consider before she’s booked up!)

The truth is, satisfied customers want to help us. They really do. Because they “get it.” They know a great story about how you helped them will help you bring in more customers. And why not? You’ve made a difference in their business and their lives.

But customers aren’t copywriters. It takes time for them to think of what to say, and a lot of work to finally write it. It’s often a stretch for them that gets “back-burnered” because it’s frustrating and makes them feel inadequate…

Or else it does get done, but without the enthusiasm and specific results that make testimonials sell.

You see, even though your customers would be happy to sing your praises, they’re really not eager to write…

Plus, testimonials expose them to others, just like public speaking. Is it any wonder most businesses don’t have enough testimonials that sell?

In Today’s World Your Business is Nothing Without Proof

The internet has made prospects more skeptical than ever.

One of the best ways to overcome this is with testimonials, case studies and customer stories…

But most businesses have little to no compelling proof in their advertising. And while owners are baffled by poor sales, the #1 reason that reasonable people don’t purchase reasonable offers which genuinely would solve their problem is…

LACK OF PROOF.

Simply put, prospects assume you’re “guilty until proven innocent.” Especially today.

Well…

In this exciting audio, Sharon and I review some little known yet very powerful secrets for soliciting audio-testimonials THAT SELL.

Lean in and listen close…

And do it now…

Because this should be a breakthrough moment for you (really)…

All my best,

Glenn :-)

Testimonials Done For You Service |  New Coaching Options



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