The Strangest PPC Secret

Posted on 22. Apr, 2012 by in AdWords, Blog, Content Network, Overture (yahoo search marketing), Pay Per Click, Quality Score, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Traffic

OK, so here’s the strangest clickthrough secret I’ve come across in my years…

Something which has the capacity to take your prospect OUT of a competitive environment and position you as the obvious solution to their problem…

And something largely counter-intuitive, so I need you to stay with me please.

Here’s the secret…

When you’re in a high volume traffic stream, advertising to a specific demographic segment of the market can actual increase your volume of sales and overall profits, even–and sometimes especially–when that segment represents a smaller proportion of people searching.

For example, let’s suppose you’re selling a solution to stop excessive barking in dogs.  Let’s call it the “Shut Up Machine” OK?

OK.  And suppose we’re paying $1 per click for our best performing ad on “stop barking” for this ad:

CTR = 1%  Conversion = 1%
Cost Per Conversion = $100
Conversions Per 1,000 Visitors = 10

Now, let’s further suppose–and these are just wild assumptions since I haven’t actually researched this market–that the search volume in this market breaks down as follows:

  • Women Under 40 = 35%
  • Women over 40 = 30%
  • Men Under 40 = 15%
  • Men Over 40 = 20%

Common sense might suggest you’d need to keep the generic ad, because there’s no demographic which makes up the overwhelming majority of the market.  (So one might think that advertising to women only, for example, would drop our clickthrough by 35%, since women represent 65% of the search volume).

But in many cases I’ve seen this just isn’t true.    Especially if you’ve analyzed your BUYERS and found a bias therein.

For example, suppose ShutUpMachine.com’s buyers were 50/50 men and women, despite the fact women outnumber men 2 to 1 in search.  What this says is, men are disproportionately responsive.

Now suppose we dig even further (by surveying our buyers) and discover that 80% of our male buyers are over 40. (We’d expect only a slight bias towards the over 40 range given the search volume breakdown above) .

This tells us that men over 40 are especially responsive to our offer.  Indeed, 40% of all our customers are men over forty  in this scenario (50% of all customers are men x 80% of male customers over forty = 40% of all customers) , even though this demographic represents just 20% of the search volume.

In other words, men over 40 are twice as responsive to the generic offer.

Can you imagine what would happen to the system if you optimized it for them?

Here’s what I’d do in that situation…

I’d aggressively test optimizing a WHOLE PATHWAY for men over 40.

So we might write an ad like this:

And then we’d land them on a page with a story from a man in his 40s who wants nothing but some peace and quiet when he comes home from a hard day, finally finishes taking care of wife and kids, and just wants to relax.

We’d paint a before and after picture with that story…

And because we’d knock our visitor out with the “Holy Crap!  This is exactly for me!” experience, we’d probably get an even higher conversion rate on the landing page.  Let’s assume 50% higher.

What might the numbers look like?

This is the strangest secret…

Because often when you’ve done this kind of analysis of your buyers to isolate the most responsive demographic, you can create a situation where the CTR doesn’t drop at all.

In other words, you might be targeting a much smaller percentage of the market, but their click responsiveness makes up for their lack of presence in the market as a whole. (And even when that’s not the case, you can often make up for it with increased landing page conversion)

For example, you might see something like this:

A few important things to note:

  • Even though the CTR is the same from the PPC engine’s perspective, the truth is you’re getting a 5% clickthrough from your target audience.  You just can’t SEE that because you can’t restrict the exposure to the rest of the audience in general PPC advertising. (Sometimes you CAN do this with email buys and banner advertising, but you’ve gotta be very, very careful because advertising vendors will often jack up the price for these kind of “selects” more than the increase in responsiveness warrants.  Run your spreadsheets and know your numbers before testing this!)
  • Even though the price per click is the same, we get a bump in conversion by taking the prospect OUT of the competitive environment and re-assuring them we are the ONLY vendor positioned to meet their unique needs
  • As with so many other things in marketing, going after a “higher percentage of a smaller percentage” is so often the answer
  • There’s nothing to stop you from developing ANOTHER site for women over and under 40, etc.  in order to look for more volume with additional conversion bumps.  However, by rank ordering your customer demographics in terms of responsiveness you’ll be able to estimate the effectiveness of these efforts as compared to the time and money you need to allocate to accomplish them.  (In the example above, we found women were modestly less responsive than men as a whole.  Still, you should expect SOME increase in conversion due to the demographic segmentation (assuming you’ve studied how the product plays out differently in their lives), so it’s just a matter of math to guestimate which segments are worthwhile to pursue as such, and in what order.
  • There’s also nothing that stops you from ALSO running the generic ad if it’s profitable.  (You should test  running both a generic and a segmented ad vs. running only the segmented ad)

If any of this math was hard to follow, let me restate it in simple English…

  • If you survey your customer database, you might find you’ve got more women than men, more young people than older people, etc.
  • Compare the percentages you find in your customers to what Quantcast.com and/or Alexa.com says about the demographic breakdown for search volume in your market.  (Enter a few of the top search engine ranked websites to find out)
  • If you DO find your percentages are different than what you see in Quantcast, etc, that probably means there’s a demographic group that’s MORE responsive to your offer than average…
  • Test targeting a teaser ad and landing page to THAT unique demographic and see what happens

Yah?

Got get’m!

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)”

PPS – Want a simpler way to increase your conversions?   Put evangelistic audio testimonials  on your site. Listen, testimonials sell, but they’ve got to be done right.   You want to support the specific claims you make in your USP with specific results obtained.  And you need to get the customer to describe their results in contagious, emotionally compelling language that BRINGS THE TESTIMONIAL TO LIFE.   (Do It Yourself |   Let Us Do It For You)

PPPS – The above example is hypothetical.  Please don’t attempt to advertise with these specific ads.




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 :-)



5 Ways to Get More Traffic with Content Marketing

Posted on 20. Mar, 2012 by in Blog, content marketing, Featured, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Traffic

image of busy traffic

It’s the question I get more often than any other when I’m talking with business owners about content marketing strategy.

It’s the question we see most often from new members in our Third Tribe Q&A sessions.

It’s the hook most online marketing teachers use to attract your attention and get you to buy their products and services.

How do I get more traffic?

There’s more — a lot more — to online marketing than traffic.

But if you can’t attract a critical “minimum viable audience” of traffic, you’re dead before you get started.

Here’s how to use content to get the attention of those all-important prospects — the men and women who are in the market to buy what you have to sell.

The content conveyor belt

Before we start talking about traffic, we need to talk about your overall content marketing strategy.

Smart marketing is “salesmanship in print” (or, these days, pixels), to use the classic copywriting definition.

And as any good salesperson will tell you, a sale progresses through predictable, natural stages.

First, you have to attract the attention of that prospect. That’s the piece we’re going to talk about today. No matter how brilliant your sales sequence, if no one knows you exist, you’re going to fail.

Then you have to engage that person’s interest. This is a particularly risky moment in today’s web environment, with millions of distractions competing for our attention.

As you keep delivering strategic content over time, engagement starts to turn into desire for what you have to sell. Whether it’s a product, a service, a charitable cause, a political candidate, or even the “sale” of an idea … we all have to spark this desire in our customers.

When it’s time to make a sale, you put on your copywriter’s hat and you provide the opportunity for your prospect to take action, turning a fan into a customer.

Finally, smart marketers won’t stop there — they’ll create ongoing customer-focused content so that one-time buyers can be turned into raving fans, who make repeat purchases and who refer you to their friends.

All of these will be covered in future strategy posts, so be sure you’re signed up to get future blog posts so you don’t miss them.

OK, let’s talk traffic

All of that sounds very inviting, but if you’re still struggling to build an audience for your blog, website, or email newsletter, it’s all still in the realm of theory.

So let’s get you some readers.

Strategy 1: Guest posting

Right now, this is probably the quickest way for most up-and-coming content marketers to find a larger audience — while building authority with potential customers and gaining SEO juice at the same time.

Smart guest posting means you create the best content you know how to create … but instead of the dozens of readers you have now, you find thousands (or even hundreds of thousands). Intelligently send those new readers back to your site, where you’ll have additional terrific content to share with them.

If you’re serious about using guest posting to get more traffic and grow your audience, my favorite resource right now is Jon Morrow’s Guest Blogging course. He’s sent us lots of great guest writers, and his students know their stuff.

Strategy 2: The how-to video

What kinds of things do your customers want to know how to do?

Dye their hair pink? Take better portrait photos? Make dinner their kids will eat?

Successful businesses are based around solving customer problems. Figure out some problems that lend themselves to a how-to video. Launch a series on YouTube on how to solve a problem that interests your customers, and make sure it’s extremely easy for those viewers (and potential customers) to find your site.

The more competitive your topic, the better your videos have to be. In crowded topics, differentiate yourself with an interesting personality, a more effective technique, better production values, or all three.

Use YouTube videos for entry-level tips and strategies. For the more advanced advice, send them to your site … and possibly on to your products and services.

Strategy 3: The Q&A series

Lewis talked yesterday about using webinars to conduct Q&A sessions that build engagement with your audience.

Q&A sessions — using webinars, teleseminars, or whatever tool is most comfortable for you — don’t just encourage engagement, they’re also a strong traffic builder. They’re easy for your fans and your network to promote, they’re inherently interesting, and they’re a great vehicle to show off what you know. They’re also an excellent way to collect topics for future content.

When you write about the questions your audience has, you’ll be writing the kind of content that gets shared — the kind of content that attracts traffic.

Strategy 4: Professional networking

Once you’ve put together a decent foundation of interesting material on your own domain, you’re ready to start a little professional networking.

You can earn the trust of other bloggers in your niche the same way you earn the trust of readers — be nice, be relevant, be interesting.

Don’t just approach the owners of sites with huge audiences. Get to know the people who are creating interesting content at all levels — small sites, medium, and large.

Don’t bother trying to set up or join artificial schemes to promote posts. Instead, share the stuff you truly think is cool, and explain why. Be friendly and pay attention. It’s called social media for a reason.

If you struggle financially, upgrade your social skills. Money flows through people.
~Steve Pavlina

Strategy 5: Get real

A lot of online marketers ignore the possibilities of finding traffic in the offline world. (You know, the part of your life that isn’t Facebook, Google+, or Twitter. I realize this is a weird idea.)

If you’re selling business-to-business, look for trade journals and business newspapers you can place articles in. Depending on your business, direct mail can be a surprisingly good way to find new leads.

However you find them, entice those offline readers to your website with a great piece of content like a white paper, a how-to video, or a killer email autoresponder sequence.

None of this works if your content sucks

Remember, content marketing only works if you can create content that’s both entertaining and useful to your readers.

Make it user-friendly. Make it clear. Write about the problems your potential customers care about.

If you’re not 100% sure how to do all that, sign up for our free Internet Marketing for Smart People course. It will give you all the basics on how to create an effective content marketing strategy for any business or organization.

How about you?

There are dozens of ways to attract traffic with content. What are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is co-founder and CMO of Copyblogger Media.

Post image by SmokingPermitted

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Introducing The Lede: A Copywriting and Online Marketing Sheet

Posted on 29. Oct, 2011 by in Blog, Blog Psychology, content marketing, conversion, Copywriting, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Headlines, Keyword Research, Landing Pages, List Building, Metrics, persuasion, productivity, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing, Traditional Media, Traffic

The Lede | copyblogger.com

Welcome to The Lede.

Every week I’ll be digging up and linking to stories, news, and opinion relevant to online marketing and copywriting.

Email, social media, innovation, SEO, productivity, mobile, conversion, publishing, and everything in between.

No commentary, just a fast, single page of headlines that you can grab, scan, and squeeze for all they may (or may not) be worth.

All right then, on with it …

The ROI of Email Marketing

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“The easiest thing in the world for a reader to do is stop reading”

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Steve Jobs’ “Seven Rules of Success” Applied to Email Marketing

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Twitter looking for full-time Copywriter

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How the Kindle Transforms the Marketplace

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Is Mobile SEO a Myth?

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How to Write a Popular Blog Post

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The 6 + 1 Copywriting Formula

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The Ultimate Measure of Marketing Success

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The Strange Art of Achieving More by Doing Less

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Better Marketing Through Social Media Optimization

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5 Advanced Keyword Research Tips

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Copywriting as Online Reputation Management

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Great Content Needs to Transcend Platforms

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“‘Social sharing buttons’ are one of the least

effective tactics you can use to build your list …”

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Finding the Value of Email Marketing Through Metrics

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Building a Landing Page Using “The Backward” Tactic

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Is Rational or Emotional Copy Better for the Bottom Line?

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The Art of the Simple Content Strategy

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Marketing Advice for #occupywallstreet

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An Email Marketing Cheat Sheet

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6 Steps to Selling More

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Mobile Marketing Industry Sets Privacy Guidelines

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Why You No Longer Need a Blog

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5 Mobile Marketing Mistakes

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An SEO Copywriting Cheat Sheet

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How to Diagnose and Heal a Sick Landing Page

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Even Hollywood Needs Good Landing Pages

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It’s About What They Do, Not What They Say

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An SEO Copywriter Walks into a Bar …

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Is the New Facebook Design Killing Your Traffic?

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In Praise of Slow Copywriting

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What Movies and Comic Books Can

Teach You About Writing Powerful Scenes

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The Importance of Daring

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What SEOs Must Learn From Adwords Pros

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65 Ways to Get Traffic to Your Blog

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Why Social Media Research is so Valuable

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3 Big Email Marketing Myths

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How Apple Changed the World

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse.

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A Social Media Marketing Case Study: Uncertainty by Jonathan Fields

Posted on 29. Sep, 2011 by in Blog, content marketing, List Building, Online Product Launches, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing, Traffic, video

image of Jonathan Field's Uncertainty

I started blogging in 2007 because I’d just signed my first book deal with Random House and I realized that social media was about to become a huge tool in any author’s marketing arsenal.

What I didn’t realize was how huge.

It’s become the core of my marketing outreach not just for books, but for everything I do.

But with the launch of my new book, Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt Into Fuel for Brilliance, I decided to take things to an entirely different level, test a bunch of new strategies, and bring video strongly into the picture.

I knew some things would hit big and others would bomb. The results, though, surprised even me.

Here’s how it’s unfolded …

A brief outline of the entire approach

My Major Goals for the Launch:

  • Generate thousands of pre-orders
  • Build substantial buzz that ramped to fever-pitch on launch

My Major Goals for the Book – Long Term:

  • Get ideas and strategies into the hands of creators to help them do great work, without suffering
  • Arm entrepreneurs and corporate teams with tools that fuel higher-levels of creativity and innovation

My Approach:

  • Create a highly-differentiated design & user experience
  • Create a time-release anticipation & buzz-building launch sequence
  • Leverage video to turn a text product into a multi-sensory experience
  • Give a ton of high-value content, experiences, and tools along the way
  • Create irresistible pre-order “experience” offers
  • Blend response-principles with social outreach
  • Integrate social media, video and applications

The big picture strategy

I’m a bit of a freak about visual feel.

I was heavily involved in the cover design process of the book and I wanted to ensure that everything we created online for the launch also created a visual experience that said, “wow, this is different.”

But, I also knew I wanted to be able to start to let people know something was coming, while we worked on the bigger launch pages. So, I started by adding a very simple “book page” on my blog that had the book cover, a few paragraphs, and links to booksellers to pre-order.

Behind the scenes, though, we were in heavy design and marketing mode.

The big challenge was to create something that was visually stunning, but also was really smart and effective from a response-driven marketing point of view. I’d seen a lot of book mini-sites and, while some were very polished, they were also really ineffective at driving visitors to a particular call-to-action.

And I began to realize that to really pull of what I wanted to do, we’d need to create not only a series of very cool pieces of mixed-media “engagement” content to release, but a website that progressed through a number of different phases that would allow the structure and design to support the key calls to action and media at each point of the pre-launch campaign.

So, here’s what we did …

The tactics and the sequence of events

Phase 1: The Opening Shot and Conditioning the Market

This happened almost two months before the book came out.

Traditional book marketing wisdom says this is way too early. But the main point here was to get onto peoples’ radars and start to build an emotion around the “brand” of the book.

We were also looking to start building a segmented list of people who’d be interested in pre-ordering the book, which would allow us to reach back out to them a number of times over the course of the launch.

I also didn’t want to put up a full mini-site with navigation at this point. It was too early to be giving so much information and asking for any substantial action. This was all about building energy, emotion, anticipation, and a list.

I wanted to set the tone for what was to come and use storytelling and video to make that happen. So we hired Michelle Vargas and her video production team to create a very simple, yet really powerful book trailer where I actually never even mentioned the book or asked anyone to buy it. In fact, the only call-to-action in the video came in the form of a bigger question about life at the end. You’ll have to watch the trailer to see the question.

Here is the video:



Click here to watch it on YouTube

We then embedded the book trailer on a very simple landing page and made the video ginormous on the page. Next, we added a few calls-to-action aimed not at selling, but at evangelizing and commenting.

  • Sign up for info about pre-order bundles
  • Share the page on social media
  • Leave a comment

At first, we were going to use the typical WordPress comment section, but changed it to Facebook comments to capitalize on the viral potential within the Facebook platform.

I had Charlie Pabst, from Charfish Designs do the building all the way through every phase of this launch and he also did the design for the first few phases, until we launched the full mini-site.

Here’s a screenshot of the first landing page (it’s not public anymore).

As soon as we published it, I shared it on my blog, twitter, Facebook and Google+ and did a small amount of DMing to simply tell a few friends “this exists.”

I didn’t overtly ask anyone to spread it around, but rather leaned on the gut feeling that we’d created something that would really resonate. Sure, I hoped people would consider it worthy of sharing. Whether they were compelled to share it or not would come down to how good the video was and how clean the page was.

A few minutes later, I had my answer.

It took off. The site started getting shared very quickly, Facebook comments poured in creating powerful social proof, the social buttons underneath the video were racking up serious counts, and the pre-order notice list started to build.

My email was flooded with stories from people all day, sharing their own stories. I literally sat in front of my screen for an entire day on the verge of tears. It was amazing to be sitting in the eye of a tornado of such deep emotion and connection like that.

We then pulled back and let that energy feed on itself for about a week, then it was time for phase 2.

Phase 2: Rolling out The First “Experience”

In this phase, I wanted to inspire people to not only pre-order, but pre-order more than 1 book for a number of reasons.

One, because I wanted to move books. But, also, for a more old-fashioned, human reason. I love when someone hand-selects a book and gives it to me. There’s something really powerful about that. It’s much more meaningful. So, I wanted to encourage people to buy multiple copies and give the book to friends. To create that connection.

But as a marketer, I also knew that the more options I introduced at once, the more likely potential buyers would be to suffer the paradox of choice and buy nothing.

So I started with a single offer, the one I thought would be the most desirable (and likely to be purchased). This was a 3-book bundle “experience.” I knew I’d create other offers, but I held them back to avoid muddying the decision-making process and hurting conversion.

We kept the same design, but stripped the Facebook comments and list-building form and added in long-format copy for the 3-book offer. We also kept the video in mega-size on top because, by then, we knew it was really moving a lot of people and driving a lot of sharing of the site.

It was also important to me to create an offer that was truly extraordinary, not just another dopey “pre-order and you’ll get a bazillion PDFs worth $2 gazillion dollars that everyone knows are available without cost all over the web.”

Not my style. I wanted to create a genuine experience that both expanded on the book and also allowed me to create a real value proposition that was somewhere between 50 and 100 times the cost of the book.

So, I did some things that have never been done before and decided not to just keep it digital, but create something powerful and tangible.

I spent months working with badass Austin, Tx illustrator, Marty Whitmore and Megan Morris from IdeaSchema to create two insanely cool concept illustrations around two key ideas from the book. These were then turned into 16″ x 20″ limited-edition, signed, numbered giclee fine-art prints — real works of art with real value.

Here are mini-images of the two illustrations:

Then I added in a 6-week live teleseminar-based training with me and convinced many of the high-level people I interviewed for the book to allow me to edit the interviews into a super-cool Creative Masters Interview series.

The value of this bundle went into the thousands of dollars, and it was a real value. People realized that. Once we had this all ready to post, we went live, I again posted it around social and the pre-orders began to flow.

Time for the big shift.

Phase 3: Mini-site, Multiple Offers and Buzz-Central

We gave that first offer some time in the market. Then, behind the scenes, I’d been working with the amazing Reese Spykerman to design the fuller mini-site. But even then, I didn’t want the entire site to go up all at once.

Too much to think about.

And as long I was creating multi-book experiences with additional elements that allowed me to create irresistible offers, I didn’t need a whole lot of extra information about the book itself up. People were buying the larger experience and the larger value proposition. At this point, the book pretty much rode along as the sprinkles, not the cupcake.

I knew that would need to change over time, but not yet.

We launched the new design, but only in the form of a landing page with multiple pre-order offers and, again, people started buying. Though, as I suspected, the 3-book experience was very much the sweet spot.

I then introduced a number of videos, all designed to keep drawing people back to the site to experience the video content. And I spread them around, too, both on the book site and on my main blog. I hosted all the video on Youtube in order to create the greatest opportunity for sharing, too.

One video was a really goofy, tongue-in-cheek offer to shave a company’s logo in my hair and dye it to match if they brought 10,000 books (Marc Benioff from Salesforce.com, call me, dude!). That got a lot of giggles and the production value and animation was actually super professional.



Click here to watch it on YouTube

The next was a slideshow video based on a poem I wrote called Have a Little Faith. It had a powerful indirect message for the exact demographic that would benefit from the book. I went subtle again with the call-to-action here. You can see it at the very end.

There’s nothing about buying the book in the video. It’s more about creating an emotion that anchors to the book in a very under the radar way, while also creating a standalone experience that had value, regardless of whether the viewer ever bought the book.



Click here to watch it on YouTube

Some went on my main blog at JonathanFields.com. But if it wasn’t on the book site, there was always a clear call-to-action in the post text and leading the Youtube description field to learn more about the book by clicking over to TheUncertaintyBook.com.

At the same time, with each passing week, the buzz around the book, the offers, the videos and the ideas from the book were gaining steam.

Uncertainty and its “multi-sensory brand extensions” were pretty much everywhere. Pre-orders were rolling in.

About two weeks before launch date, I staged in the full mini-site with a ton killer reviews, sample pages, the whole yadda yadda. You can see the current full site design here.

Oh, and, I should probably also tell you, I was running a bunch of this while spending 3-weeks driving up the California coast with my family. That was an interesting adventure!

Phase 4: Launch Window

This is where we are right now.

During this entire process, I’ve also been doing a massive amount of outreach to my community, my relationships and friends to inspire them to help in the final launch phase. A lot of people offered to help get the word out, both because they believed in the book, and in me.

That, by the way, is an incredibly humbling thing.

I wanted to make that process as easy as possible, so I offered to write a lot of guest posts (like this one) and do a ton of interviews.

This was a huge amount of work, but many of these folks were friends who were doing something really nice for me, so to the extent that my personal bandwidth could handle it, I was happy to do it.

Starting about 10 days before the launch date, I began to post more actively about the book and ask my tribes to do the same. Every day, the buzz continued to build.

This week, I then launched a story-sharing contest which has seen the creation of dozens of insanely inspiring personal stories, both in the comments on my blog and on websites all over social media.

On Tuesday, I released a special online application called the Creative Mindset Audit tool, which is a mindset assessment app I had built for the launch. I mentioned this tool across social media and hundreds of people started completing the assessment and sharing both the tool and their scores.

And, today, to celebrate the actual launch day for book, I’m holding a live-streaming book launch party at TheUncertaintyBook.com.

I’ll be live-streaming there from 1-4pm EDT (New York) time, having a ton of fun, answering questions, having special guests stop by and giving away a bunch of super cool prizes that include a Kindle FIRE, Kindle, iTunes and BN Gift Cards and more. But you’ve gotta be there to win. Feel free to swing by and say hello, btw!

Wrapping it all up

While this may seem like a lot, what I’ve shared here is actually only a fraction of what went on behind the scenes. And, since this is already a monster post, I’ve left a bunch of things out.

I have an amazing team and, in the end, what we’re really all trying to do is not just move a ton of books (we pre-sold thousands, btw), but change a lot of lives.

The book’s website is still getting shared across social media like crazy with nearly 3,000 Facebook shares, 1,110 tweets, and, to my surprise, it’s been emailed more than 600 times. That’s all due, in large part, to the power of the book trailer video and the strong emphasis on sharing on every page. But, it’s also about the message.

I worked so hard to bring this book to market, because I know in my heart it’s going to help people. Especially artists and entrepreneurs who struggle with the need to make choices and take action in the face of uncertainty. The big message is that you have to go to that place, but properly armed, you don’t have to experience it as anxiety, pain or suffering.

And, that’s a message I hope people can get behind and experience.

Truth is, this is all fun, cool stuff, but the single most important thing you can do as a marketer, an entrepreneur or a creator is … build something remarkable.

Do that, everything else falls into place.

About the Author: Jonathan Fields is the author of Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt Into Fuel for Brilliance, he blogs at JonathanFields.com and runs the acclaimed Tribal Author Camp online book marketing training.


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Further Reading

What Bestselling Fiction Can Teach You About Writing Better Landing Pages

Posted on 26. Sep, 2011 by in Blog, Blog Psychology, content marketing, conversion, Copywriting, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Headlines, Landing Pages, persuasion, productivity, RSS Marketing, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing, Traffic

image of spy with gun

Imagine you’re having a discussion with a talkative, hyperactive teenager.

The conversation goes something like this …

We went to the mall, and like, there was this fire in the mall. And we went from there to the movies, but we didn’t have any money and anyway the popcorn machine was broken, and so we didn’t really want to go to the movies without popcorn. But right after that we went to have some pizza and there was this creepy guy outside the store. But listen to this — because that’s not the best part. The best part is that Sylvie dumped Josh, and like, they ran into each other in the street …

Annoying right? Then why do we so often write our web copy just like that teenager talks?

Is there a better way to write a landing page?

When we write copy for our website, we sound a lot like that teenager

We tend to move all over the place with our copy.

First, we’ll try to stuff five different concepts into the headline.

Then we’ll try and fill in too many sub-heads that we want to drive home.

And then our first paragraph attempts to cover all the possible points.

And — like that teenager above — we have the entire story in our heads, but nothing quite gets across to the client.

We’re trying to cover way too many points, way too quickly.

And, as you’ve worked out for yourself, this bouncing and jumping around is exhausting for your reader.

How this mistake unfolds in an actual piece of copy

Let’s take a look at our “teenage talk” problem using a real-life example:

Headline:

Are You Fed Up With Unprofessional Contractors?

Body text:

  • Contractors that don’t call you back or even show up?
  • Are you done with contractors that lack the ability to communicate in a timely manner?
  • How about contractors that run away from problems that crop up during and after a project?
  • Are you completely over dealing with the hacks of the world?
  • Have you had enough of sitting at home, babysitting the people you’re paying?

So what’s wrong with that sequence?

It gets off to a good start. The headline gets my attention without too much of a fuss, particularly if I’m having this problem right now.

But then I start reading and I get between three and five main plots and no sub-plots at all.

How do we know they’re main plots? Because we can list them out and see for ourselves. They all want to take center stage.

  • Main plot 1: Contractors don’t call you back or even show up
  • Main plot 2: They lack the ability to communicate in a timely manner
  • Main plot 3: They run away from problems that crop up during and after a project
  • Main plot 4: The so-called professional is nothing but a hack
  • Main plot 5: You are tired of having to babysit these people

Just like that teenager’s story, it’s possible for us to jump from one to the other, without so much as pausing for a single breath.

So now that we know we’re creating bounce, how do we get rid of it? And how do we still use all the persuasive points we want to cover on our landing page?

How to say exactly what you’re trying to say

Just like an exciting movie or a bestselling novel, your article needs a single main plot. One primary storyline that the reader or viewer is most interested in.

You can also have sub-plots — additional points that make the story more complex and interesting, and continue to hook that reader.

So how do you know which point is your main plot? It’s the client’s most pressing problem.

That’s obvious, isn’t it? You want to get the client’s attention by driving home the biggest, scariest, buggiest problem.

Here’s how we go about it:

Headline:

Write your headline. It should only cover one big, buggy, nasty problem

Body text:

  • Body text 1: Drive home the problems involved with that one point
  • Body text 2: Drive home the consequences of that one point
  • Body text 3: Drive home the solution to that one problem

Move to the next point.

So how does the teenager’s story look in this format?

Headline:

We went to the mall and there was a fire.

  • Body text 1: What happened next at the mall?
  • Body text 2: Then what were the consequences?
  • Body text 3: How did we escape the fire?

With the teenager, she’d complete one story, and move to the next.

And the next …

But you may have made your point with a single story.

So what do you do with the rest of the stuff that you so badly want to get across? You bring it up later.

Let’s see how. But first let’s get back to squaring this in our original example.

Headline:

Are You Fed Up With Unprofessional Contractors …

  • Body text: … That don’t call you back or even show up?
  • Body text 1: Talk in detail about the problems created when the contractor doesn’t call back or show up.
  • Body text 2: What are the consequences? Describe the emotions that the client feels — again, in detail.
  • Body text 3: What’s the best way to avoid this wretched scenario?

And then you present your service:

  • Body text 4: Presenting XYZ contracting company.
  • Body text 5: Drive home the point of how you handle calling your customers back. Describe in detail how you do it — when you show up and how you follow up.

Notice we haven’t gone to Point 2 yet. And yes, I know, you’re itching to drive home that point.

But first, do you notice something?

The customer doesn’t care about your itch. They’re locked in to what you’re saying.

You’re the first person they’ve met who isn’t like that teenager, jumping from story to story.

The customer’s biggest problem is ‘unprofessional contractors that don’t call back or show up’ and you’re talking about exactly that. The customer wants to know more about that story in detail, before they’re ready to move to the next story.

So after you present your company and how it brings that one solution to their problem, you can move on to the next “subplot,” the secondary stories in your copywriting plot.

Roll out the remaining subplots in slightly less detail, in a feature/benefit format that looks like this:

Feature 1: Benefit 1. Describe the benefits of Feature 1 in strong, vivid terms.

Feature 2: Benefit 1. Now write more copy vividly describing the benefits of Feature 2.

And so on with Features 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 — adding benefits, of course, to every one of those features.

You can have as many as 8-10 paragraphs rich with details of the problem and the solutions you bring to the customer.

Having locked into the main problem and seeing how you bring that solution, the customer will happily trundle through the rest of the points, and become more convinced by the word about your ability to solve their problem.

In short, you must have a main plot, then drive it home

Later, pull in the sub-plots, but without the same level of intensity as the main.

Just remember to pick the point your customer cares most about as your main plot. ‘Sylvie dumping Josh’ has more drama than ‘no popcorn at the cinema.’

From there, you’re simply re-telling your story on the landing page.

One plot at a time ;)

About the Author: Sean D’Souza offers a great free report on ‘Why Headlines Fail’ when you subscribe to his Psychotactics Newsletter. Be sure to check out his blog, too.

How to Get Your Blog the Traffic it Deserves (Check out the Sweet Trailer)

Posted on 06. Sep, 2011 by in Blog, content marketing, List Building, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing, Traffic

image of route 66

Well, it was bound to happen one day.

After three wonderful years of writing almost exclusively for Copyblogger, I’m finally branching off and launching my own blog.

But not for the reasons you might think.

It’s not because Brian Clark has finally put his foot down and refused to meet my extravagant demands.

It’s not because Sonia Simone is a pink-haired tyrant who rules Copyblogger with an iron fist.

No, the truth is, I see a problem:

Let’s say you’re not Copyblogger or Problogger or the Huffington Post.

You don’t already have a huge audience … but you do care about the readers you have, and you do care about creating really good content.

You write a great post — the kind of exceptional content that builds a relationship with your customers. You publish it to your blog. You wait for the visitors to come stampeding in, and …

Nothing happens.

No comments. No tweets. No pats on the back, telling you you’re doing a good job.

In the great cacophony we call the blogosphere, you go unnoticed, unappreciated, and unloved. Not because your ideas are unworthy, but because it’s just too damn crowded.

Your little voice gets swallowed up, almost like you never said anything at all.

And it’s starting to piss me off

The web is overflowing with spammers and trolls pumping the blogosphere full of junk and getting rewarded for it. While here you are, an intelligent, articulate person, publishing ideas that could actually help people, and nobody knows who the hell you are.

It’s wrong.

And after years of watching from the sidelines, I’ve finally decided to do something about it:

I want to teach you everything I know about building a popular blog.

Yep. Everything.

I started BoostBlogTraffic.com to teach you how to get more readers, build your email list, become an authority in your niche — everything you need to get the attention you deserve.

By the time we’re done, you won’t be a spectator in the battle for attention, squeaking out your posts and praying for a couple of retweets.

You’ll be a warrior, armored with marketing know-how, brandishing your perfectly-crafted content, sending spammers scampering by the thousands as you claim your rightful spot at the top of the web.

Sound like fun?

Well then, click here to check out the sweet new trailer announcing the blog.

We’ll be getting started soon.

Oh, and just to clarify, I have no intentions of leaving Copyblogger. (Even though Sonia really is a tyrant.) If anything, you’ll be seeing more of me, because writing here is one of the smartest things I can do to promote my new blog.

Still, I have every intention of making Boost Blog Traffic one of the most popular blogs in the world, and this is your chance to be there from the very beginning.

So, head on over, and I’ll talk to you soon.

About the Author: Jon Morrow is the Associate Editor of Copyblogger and the Founder of Boost Blog Traffic, an upcoming blog about (go figure!) blogging.

6 Design Tips That Will Have Your Audience Licking Their Screens

Posted on 30. Aug, 2011 by in Blog, Blog Psychology, content marketing, conversion, Copywriting, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Headlines, Online Product Launches, personal branding, persuasion, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing, Traffic

image of dog licking chops

We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.

~ Steve Jobs

You’re creating great content to attract an audience. A loyal audience that comes to know, like and trust you.

But what if you never get the attention of that audience in the first place?

What if your blog visitors take one look at your well-written words and move right along because your page looks bland, boring, and amateurish?

You lose them at hello. Your words never had a chance to take root.

That’s where design can help.

Design creates a welcoming first impression.

It engages your site visitors and draws them in so they’ll actually spend time with your information.

It’s the difference between throwing some fast food on the table in front of your guests, and presenting a meal that’s carefully prepared, beautifully plated, and smells delicious.

Want to build up an appetite for your content?

Today’s post shares 6 tips to make your blog so luscious looking, you’ll need to warn people not to lick their screens.

1. Think about your guests

Delicious design starts with an understanding of who you’re cooking it up for.

Knowing your target market and what they’ll respond to is crucial if you want to pick typefaces, colors and images that will resonate with them.

What do you need to know about them?

Ideally, you have a grasp of their age group, predominant gender and education level.

Bonus points if you are aware of psychographic details like what motivates them, what their beliefs are, and what other companies they’re attracted to and buying from.

And just like you’d want to know about food allergies before you prepared a meal, it’s important to be aware of what your target market finds unpleasant or repulsive so you can avoid it on your pages.

2. Speak their language with typography

Custom typography allows you to break out of the Helvetica-Times Roman-Georgia-Verdana fonts our sites marched in lockstep to just a few years ago.

You can express your brand or your blog’s personality through your typefaces’ personalities.

Serif typefaces — the ones with little “feet” — are classic and traditional.

Sans-serif typefaces — those with streamlined letters — are contemporary and modern.

There are exceptions within these major categories, so trust your eyes to tell you what your typeface choices are saying.

It’s easy to use custom typefaces on our blogs now. There are several good commercial offerings that will “serve up” unique fonts to your site. The Google Font API will even do it for free.

It’s an extra step, but will make your content stand out, and give your words personality.

Here’s more on choosing and combining typefaces.

3. Use colors that make sense to your market

If you’ve carefully researched your target market as outlined in step one, you may already have an idea of what colors will work for them.

To start, I recommend you choose two main colors to represent your brand.

For you, two colors are simplest to work with — you’ll have a short list to choose from every time you need to make a color choice.

For your audience, two predominant colors will make it easier to recognize and remember your brand.

How can you pick just two colors from the millions available?

Start by looking at the consumer goods your target market already buys. What colors already appeal to them?

You don’t need to walk around your local shopping mall with a swatch book, but keep your eyes open to color combinations that sell to your particular market. Take inspiration from what’s already working.

4. Tell your story with enticing images

I’ll be the first to admit it: finding a good image to work with your posts is a huge pain.

It adds to the time it takes to finish your piece, and — because you typically look for an image after you’ve finished writing — it feels like just One More Thing To Do.

But, it’s worth it.

As wonderful as your carefully-crafted words may be, they’ll sit there limp and lonely on the page if you don’t pair them up with a compelling image.

A great image is like the cover of a dinner party invitation.

It gives people an easy “in” to start engaging with your writing. Images are processed quickly, and if you’ve picked one that’s attractive and creates just a little bit of curiosity, it will draw readers into your headline and the first paragraph of your post.

5. Order your information hierarchically

Visual hierarchy helps your visitor navigate through your page and absorb your information in the order you prefer.

Sounds confusing, doesn’t it? Here’s how to make it work …

Look at the information on any given page of your blog. What do you want your site visitors to notice first? It’s probably your site name.

Then what do you want them to see? It might be your headline, or the image you’ve used with your first post.

Once they’ve taken in the name of your site and you’ve drawn them into your content, then where do you want them to look?

Visual hierarchy directs the viewer’s eyes through your information by giving it an order of importance by where it’s positioned, how bold or bright it is, and how much white space it has around it.

The most important information? Make it larger, bolder, and brighter. Give it some breathing room, too: white space draws eyeballs.

The next-most-important information? Make it a bit smaller, less bold, and not as bright.

As you move down the ladder of visual hierarchy, remember: the less important the information, the less visual “weight” it should carry.

6. Keep it together with a style guide

OK, you’ve used color, typography, gorgeous images and visual hierarchy to create lickable, luscious pages.

Now what?

Keep up the good work!

Maintain consistency with a simple style guide. It doesn’t have to be a complex 20-page document.

Try this:

  • Open any word processor, and note your official colors
  • Log your typefaces, and which font you use where
  • List the file name for your official logo or header artwork, and where it can be found
  • Note any resources for photography so you know where to find more of a style you’ve used in the past
  • Continue to add to this document as you make design decisions about your site

Once you’ve created an attractive blog, keep people coming back to it by serving up beautifully-presented content consistently over time.

Make good design decisions, then continue applying them using your style guide notes as a reference.

And don’t forget the “please don’t lick your screen sign.” You’re going to need it!

About the Author: Pamela Wilson teaches small businesses to grow using great design and marketing at Big Brand System. Get her free Marketing Toolkit and follow her on Twitter.

23 Reasons Your Blog Isn’t Making Any Money (And What To Do About It!)

Posted on 29. Aug, 2011 by in Blog, Blog Psychology, content marketing, conversion, Copywriting, Headlines, Keyword Research, Landing Pages, List Building, Online Product Launches, persuasion, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing, Traffic

image of broke man

Sure, you want comments.

And subscribers, and shares, and likes.

But you don’t really care about any of these things. You want what they will eventually lead to …

Money.

Yes, traffic is good, and so is reader engagement. But if you’re reading this, chances are you’re running a blog with the intention of marketing a business and making some money.

Now, that could be a bit distressing, because most bloggers are broke.

Some bloggers don’t have traffic or reader engagement, and some bloggers have lots of both. But most bloggers aren’t making any money.

Here’s why …

The chain of conversion is everything

We tend to think of conversion as a single event, but it’s really more like a chain of events.

If you market a business online, several conversions need to take place:

  • A stranger has to convert into a lead by being exposed to your message for the first time (in the online world, we call this traffic)
  • A lead has to convert into a prospect by liking what you have to say (this is often done by opting in to your email subscriber list)
  • A prospect has to convert into a customer by buying something from you
  • A customer has to convert into a repeat customer by turning a single purchase into an ongoing buying relationship

This entire process is called the chain of conversion.

Does that sound like a tall order?

It should, because it is — for your blog to make money, you need not one, but many people to smoothly move through this entire process.

And if your blog is like most, then that probably isn’t happening.

Let’s explore all the reasons why that might be, and what you can do to fix it.

Problem #1: You’re a billboard in the desert

The most common problem that bloggers face is that strangers aren’t converting into leads.

In other words, there’s no traffic.

And if there’s no traffic, then it doesn’t matter how well-optimized the rest of your funnel is, because nobody is feeding through it.

So the first order of business is to get traffic flowing to your site. Here are some of the reasons why that might not be happening, and how you can fix it:

  1. Build it and they will come. Yes, content is king, but without an army of marketers, the king can get pretty lonely! The truth is that while epic content is critical, it won’t go viral all by itself without an existing audience to start the ball rolling by seeing and sharing. If you don’t have traffic, you have to go and get the word out about your content.
  2. You just tweet to your followers. If you’re Guy Kawasaki, then your marketing can consist of tweeting to your followers, and calling it a day. But for the rest of us (who don’t have 400,000 followers), you’ve got to get out there and promote. Build relationships with other bloggers, write guest posts, put viral campaigns together, and apply any other strategy for blog growth that you can think of — just get out there and do something!
  3. Marketing in the wrong place. We love to fall for the promises of magic strategies that will get us tons of traffic — the kind that showcase the success that somebody else had. The problem is that you aren’t going after their audience, and your audience may not hang out where theirs does. If you’re marketing in the wrong place, then your audience will never find you! Of course, to market in the right place, you have to know who your audience is …
  4. No clearly defined audience. Obviously, you can’t market to your audience if you don’t know who your audience is. It isn’t enough for you to have a general idea that you’re marketing to “bloggers” or “writers” or “stay at home moms” — you’ve got to get way more specific, to the point that you’ve created a profile of the ONE person that you’re targeting.
  5. Asking for the wrong action. If they haven’t heard of you, then don’t start by asking them to buy — it isn’t likely to happen. Remember that your goal with each piece of messaging is to get the audience to take the single next action. When you’re talking to strangers, the goal is for them to become leads (visit your site) and then prospects (opt in to your list). So don’t even mention whatever it is that you’ve got for sale.
  6. You don’t hook their interest. Yes, I’m talking about headlines. For your blog posts, for your ads, and for the teaser links to your content. They all need to hook your audience’s interest. And you happen to be reading the world’s best blog about copywriting. So go read all about headlines!

Problem #2: Selling ice to Inuits

The second problem is that you get traffic, but they all bounce — no subscribers, no customers, and you’re on a constant treadmill to generate more traffic.

In other words, leads aren’t converting into prospects.

Here’s why that might be happening, and what you can do about it:

  1. It’s all about you. Yes, that’s right — all of your posts are about your news, your products, your company. And you wonder why nobody signs up for more? Forget about your subject area, and think about your customers. What are their problems? What matters to them? That’s what you need to be writing about.
  2. Your content is “me too” content. If you’re just writing generic, bland content of the “6 tips everyone already knows about productivity” variety, or (gasp!) going so far as to actually spin articles, then the truth is that there’s no reason for people to come back to your site, because you haven’t impressed them yet. So pull out the stops and write some truly compelling content!
  3. You don’t draw them in. You get them to start reading your stuff, but their attention wanders, and pretty soon they’re gone forever. You need to draw them in and keep them going, section to section, until they reach the action that you want them to: subscribing!
  4. You don’t make it explicit. Yes, that’s right. If you want your visitors to opt in to your mailing list, then you have to say so, in so many words: “Sign up for my list to get all sorts of goodies. Do it now. Click here.” Put those words, or words like them, near your opt-in box, and make sure to include a call to action in your posts, too.
  5. You don’t optimize. No matter how good you are, and how well you’ve done everything else, there’s always room for improvement — and improvement is had by split-testing, split-testing, and then split-testing some more.

Problem #3: “Just the free sample, thanks”

Sometimes you’ve got traffic, and you’ve got subscribers — but you still aren’t making any money.

In chain of conversion terminology, prospects aren’t converting into customers.

This might not sound so bad (“at least they have the traffic and subscribers”), but without the money, you’re just sinking more and more work into what might be a dead-end project.

The good news is that when you’ve got an audience, you can usually find a way to make some money — let’s explore why they might not be buying, and what we can do to fix it:

  1. You’re selling what they need instead of what they want. As an expert in your field, you know exactly what the customer’s problem is. I don’t mean the symptoms, or the issue that they want to fix right now — I mean the real problem that lies deep down at the root of it all. The trouble is that they don’t know that, and so they aren’t looking for that solution. Start by selling what they want, and then you can deliver what they need along with it.
  2. It’s in the wrong format. Maybe they love what you’re offering, but they just don’t like the format. I mean, really, how many more e-books can someone buy? Try a different format — like audio, video, a virtual conference, live workshops, infographics — or something else entirely.
  3. The price isn’t right. Maybe your product is great, but the price doesn’t fit. You could be asking for way too much money, or you could be asking for way too little. Remember that not only does the price have to fit with the buyer’s budget, but it also has to communicate the right thing about how valuable your offering really is. So test different prices, and find the price that works best.
  4. You don’t ask for the sale. Yes, this comes back to being explicit. Don’t just have an “Add to Cart” link on your site — you’ve also got to tell people that you want them to buy your stuff. Tell them why they should do it, and what they’re going to get. And tell them when they should do it (right now!), which leads us to the matter of urgency …
  5. There’s no urgency. Why buy today when I can buy tomorrow, right? You need to give your audience a reason to take action now. Make sure the constraint is real — maybe you’re raising the price after a certain date. Maybe the first 50 people to sign up get a special bonus. Or maybe you’re closing your program on September 1 (hypothetically speaking, of course …).
  6. No social proof. Nobody wants to be the first one to arrive at a party — you want to know that other people are there, and having a good time. So who’s already bought your product or service? What was their experience like? Were they happy? Were they a lot like the person who is thinking about buying today?
  7. No guarantee. There’s something comforting about a money-back guarantee. It provides a safety net, and shows how much confidence the seller has in whatever is being offered. Most companies offer guarantees, to the point that it looks sketchy if you don’t. So you have to offer a guarantee. But don’t just offer a simple “if you’re not satisfied we’ll give you your money back” guarantee — go over the top. Give them 110% of their money back. Donate $100 to charity. Set it up so that it’s not just about satisfaction, but about results (we guarantee that you’ll add $1,000 to your bottom line in six months, or your money back).
  8. You don’t optimize (again). Yes, it applies here, too. If you want to make more sales, then there are a lot of things for you to split-test: your headlines, the placement, text and colors of your opt-in boxes, the style of your introduction, your product imagery, your trust seals and their placement on the site … and the list goes on.

Problem #4: Once is (apparently) enough

Okay, if you’ve made it to this point in the chain, then you’re probably doing all right — you’ve got traffic, you’ve got subscribers, and you’re even making sales.

But customers aren’t converting into repeat customers.

Which means that you’re always scrambling to find new customers, and to keep that wheel in motion. Wouldn’t you rather have the wheel sustain itself?

Here’s why your customers may not be buying from you again, and what you can do to change that:

  1. You don’t deliver. This is a HUGE problem; if you promise something, your customers sign up, and then you don’t deliver, then you are doing irreparable damage to your reputation and business. In the words of my marketing professor, “marketing is a promise that the organization has to keep” — and you should never, ever break a promise. This probably doesn’t apply to you, but if it does, stop reading this article, and fix it immediately!
  2. There’s nothing else to sell. This is a more common problem: you’ve worked so hard to build and sell your product, that by the time they’ve bought it, there’s nothing left to sell. This is worth taking the time to fix; think about what else they might benefit from — an easy add-on is some consulting to help them get the most out of what they’ve already bought. Remember that a customer who’s already spent money with you is 8 times more likely to buy from you again, and you’ve already spent the time and money to convert them the first time!
  3. You don’t communicate. This is sad to see, but easy to fix; you’ve got happy customers and more great stuff to sell to them, but you don’t communicate with them after that first purchase. This is terrible — you should be communicating with your customers on a regular basis, both to collect feedback about their experience, and to keep the lines of communication open so that you can sell to them again. An easy way to do this is to build follow-up directly into your product, for example with automated follow-up emails and surveys.
  4. You don’t ask for the sale (again). Yes, you’ve got to ask for the repeat sale, too — periodically reach out to your existing customers to see if there’s more that you can do for them, and have a specific offer ready if they do have a need.

Fixing your blog, one link at a time

Every blog has holes in its chain of conversion — and most have lots of them!

So where should you start making repairs?

The answer depends on whether you’ve already got a functioning funnel:

If you’ve already got traffic, opt-ins, and customers: Start at the end, and work your way backwards. First get more customers to buy again, then get more subscribers to buy from you, then get more website visitors to subscribe, and only then get more people to visit your website.

If you don’t have any of that stuff: Then start at the beginning — start by getting traffic to your site, and once you have traffic, work on getting them to opt-in, and then buy from you, and then buy from you again.

Now, a question: how long are you willing to wait before your blog starts delivering dollars to your bank account?

Having realistic expectations is important. If you try to run a marathon as though it were a sprint, you’ll end up exhausted on the side of the road. And if you try to run a sprint as though it were a marathon, you’ll finish dead last.

So what kind of race do you want your blog to be running?

If you’re willing for it to take 2-3 years to get your blog to where you want it to be, then a good strategy is to read business books for bloggers, along with the best blogs in the industry.

But if you want to see results sooner, then get some help. For example, you could click the link in my bio and read about our marketing training program, that just happens to be closing to the public on September 1. ;)

About the Author: Danny Iny is an author, strategist, serial entrepreneur, and proud co-founder of Firepole Marketing, the program that teaches non-marketers to fix their chain of conversion like expert marketers. Get his free video course on how to get more money out of your business, website or blog, or follow him on Twitter @DannyIny.


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