Online Marketing Business

Becoming A More Effective Affiliate Marketer

If you are reading this post, you must already realise that affiliate marketing is one of the quickest and most lucrative ways to start an online business.

But it isn’t always as straightforward as it seems and we’re going to look at a couple of affiliate marketing strategies that you can use to boost your effectiveness as an affiliate marketer and these are based around the concept of SEO (search engine optimisation).

Firstly, we’ll take a look at keyword research to help you rank in Google and then we’ll look at best practices to set up your site so it can be easily found.

This may sound like affiliate marketing for beginners, but I reckon most would benefit from these 2 tips.

Sound good? Let’s dive right in…

Basic Keyword Research For Affiliate Marketers

As an affiliate marketer, you want to learn the best ways to use keywords to help build your business. But if you don’t have any experience working with keywords, it can be a little confusing.

These helpful tips should assist you in being able to learn the best keywords and how to use them. First, you need the right tools to help you gather the best keywords.

These are called keyword tools and their purpose is to show you which keywords people are using to search for things.

If you’re just starting out, there are some great free and paid keyword tools you can use. One of the good free ones is Google AdWords. You can also use tools like Wordtracker, SEMrush, SpyFu, Ubersuggest, Wordze or Keyword Discovery.

Some of these have all free access, some free but limited usage offers and others are paid.

The Google AdWords Keyword Tool is very easy to use. When you pull up the screen, type the word or phrase you’re thinking of using on your website or blog. For example, if you’re selling acne products, you’d type the word acne in the box where you list the word or phrase.

When the words come up, you’ll see: acne, cystic acne treatment, adult acne treatment, best acne treatment, etc. The tool will show you if the competition is high, medium or low and what the volume of global and local monthly searches is.

One helpful tip is that you also want to cover other terms people would use to search for acne. To get other words people might be using, you can pull up an online thesaurus and type in acne.

You’ll get a response of: blemishes, pimple, skin inflammation etc. – and you can put those words in the keyword tool and see how they rank.

You want to make sure that you’re looking for both broad and longtail keywords. A broad keyword has the potential to bring more views to your site if you’re able to rank high for it.

These are words that people use when they’re looking for something but aren’t completely sure what they want. For example, someone might type in the keyword ‘shoes.’

When you’re doing keyword research, you also want to look for exact matches. An exact match is how it sounds. Your keyword or keywords exactly match what someone has typed into the search engine.

For example, if someone types in ‘black lamp’ and you have that as your keyword, it will lead them to your website or blog or ad.

You want to make sure that you use longtail keywords. A longtail keyword is a set of 3-5 words that are better targeted toward someone’s search because they’re more specific.

While ‘play guitar’ is an example of a keyword phrase, an example using longtail keywords would be ‘learn how to play guitar’ or ‘how to play guitar notes’ or ‘how to play guitar for kids’ etc.

Longtail keywords are important because you can get more traffic because you rank well – and you’ll end up with higher conversions.

OK, now let’s look at some ways to optimise your site with some basic SEO settings and we’ll assume that you are using WordPress to build your blog or website.

Basic Search Engine Optimisation For Affiliate Blogs

Some affiliates set up a blog and create lots of content – without ever learning the ins and outs of search engine optimisation. As a site owner, whether you have your own products or promote someone else’s, it’s important that you know SEO.

Make sure the settings allow search engines to index you. Inside the dashboard, you have the option to block access to your site by the search engines. This is under Settings and Privacy, so do a quick check to see if it’s set up correctly.

Give your site a title and tagline. Under the Settings tab again, you want to go into the General section. Here it says Site Title and Tag Line, you want to fill these spots in with relevant, keyword-based content that tells people what your site is all about.

In the Writing category under Settings, go to the bottom where it says Update Services. Find a good up-to-date Ping list and paste those URLs into this area. That helps other sites know when you have new content.

Categorize your blogs and deliver a good navigation system. When a visitor lands on your website, you want it to be sticky. Sticky means they stay around for awhile, not clicking out after they read one blog post.

With good navigation, like a list of categories and recent or popular posts in your sidebar (all done with widgets), you can let the visitors know there’s more good content they might like.

Go to the Settings section again and click on Permalinks. You want this option to be Post Name. This means that after your domain and the word blog, the URL will have the name of the post, like this: yourdomain.com/blog/keyword-relevant-blog-title.

Use both broad and longtail keywords in your posts and pages. Some affiliates make the mistake of trying to rank for the broadest keywords in their niche, like “health” or “diet.” It’s much easier to rank well in search engines when you use longtail keywords.

By the way, if you are serious and want to take your blogging to the next level, check out the Rapid Blogging Blueprint. This is a premium level training that takes you through each and every step of setting up your own highly profitable blog and profiting from it. You can check it out here.

A longtail keyword phrase would be something like this: “the best diet after pregnancy.” Over time, as your blog becomes an authority figure, you may find that you’re also ranking for the broad terms as well.

Use a Google sitemap plugin. This plugin helps Google have quick access to a sitemap, rather than you having to manually create a sitemap that helps guide their robots or spiders around your domain.

Consider an SEO optimiser plugin to give your blog a boost. There are many plugins that help you maximize your blog posts on autopilot. Do some research and see what works best for your needs.

Using Personalisation To Get Higher Conversions

It’s amazing what a little personalisation can do.

Quick example: You go into a store looking to buy something. A salesperson helps you, but you leave without making a purchase. You go back a week later, and the salesperson greets you by calling you by name.

How do you feel? Maybe respected, appreciated and memorable? And do you want to do business with someone who cares enough to remember your name? Of course you do; it makes you feel special doesn’t it?

When Coca-cola introduced Coke bottles personalised with people’s names, sales jumped 2%. Now I know 2% might not sound like much, but to a company as big as Coke, it’s huge.

Personalisation – when used properly – can double your conversions.

Here are 10 ideas on how to personalise not just words, but actual images – and how you might use these ideas in your own business…

1: Inactive Customers Or Subscribers

Re-engage with customers and even subscribers who are no longer active.

For example, for customers who haven’t made a purchase in 90 days, or subscribers who haven’t clinked a link in a month, send them a photo of you in front of a whiteboard looking sad.

The whiteboard has a simple mathematical equation with your business name, minus their name and a frowny face, like this:

Your Business Name – Your customer’s name = ☹

2: New Customers And Subscribers

Create life-long customers and communities by taking the time to welcome someone when they join you. For example, you might send them a picture of you holding a sign that says, “Welcome Paul!”

Many people know that emails (even with their first names) are hardly personal so by going out of your way to send them a picture like this will make you stand out.

Is it a little cheesy? Perhaps, but it does work so why not give it a go?

3: Product Sales

When your customers buy a product that you are shipping out, keep them engaged by sending them an email with a picture of their package.

This keeps them excited and tells them it’s on the way.

Bonus: Get a clear shot of the address label, and it will help them to confirm their shipping address before it’s too late.

You could even do this with a digital product such as a course. Most courses will have a generic welcome video but you could easily personalise this and welcome them to the course by name. How cool is that?

4: Webinar Attendance

Get people to show up for your webinars by sending them a personalised reminder email in the form of a photo of a handwritten note, or of you standing next to a whiteboard with the written words, “Are you coming to the webinar, Joan?”

This will capture their attention, be far more memorable and do more to get them on the webinar than the standard email that webinar services send out as reminders.

Once again, this takes a little effort (but not much) and it really does make a difference.

5: Cart Abandonment

If someone goes to buy one of your products or services but doesn’t check out, you should be following up with them as soon as possible to try to save the sale.

Send out a photo of an empty box with their name on it, such as, “Order for Bob Smith.”

This emphasizes the sense of loss in not ordering and will get some of your customers to come back and finalize their purchase.

Remember that you don’t know why they abandoned the cart; it could be that their internet connection dropped, doorbell rang, any number of reasons that had nothing to do with your product or service so you lose nothing by following up.

6: Text Messages

If you use text messages for following up with customers, how about adding an image of a newspaper that features their name and the reason for the follow up?

Guaranteed you’ll have their attention.

This may not be as easy to do as some of the other methods but that is why it can be so effective.

Also, text messages and instant messaging services just feel more personal than email so if you aren’t using them in your business, perhaps it’s time you looked into adding them to your arsenal.

7: Customer Anniversaries

Send out a personalised image that contains congratulations on their anniversary – perhaps the anniversary of purchasing a product, subscribing to your list, joining your membership site, etc.

You’ll make them feel special and important.

8: Upsells

This is a brilliant idea that can put serious money in your pocket almost immediately – send out an image letting your customer know they forgot something.

It might be a picture of the upsell they didn’t take, along with words such as, “You forgot something John! (It’s our best offer).

Remember it’s much easier to convince someone who has already bought from you once than it is to convince someone who hasn’t bought from you yet so it makes sense to try to increase the average order value as soon as possible.

9: Certificates

Do you offer any kind of courses or online training?

Send out personalised and official looking certificates of completion with their name, the training level achieved, the date, signatures and seal.

You could also use gamification in your courses too.

These may appear gimmicky, but they do work to encourage buyers to actually log in and consume your content.

If they do that, they are more likely to get results, and if they get results, they are much more likely to buy from you again!

10: Online Order Confirmation

When someone places an order, send them a photo of you and your team (if you have one) with a sign that welcomes them by name. It might say something like, “Welcome to the family, Aaron.” Make sure everyone in the photo looks especially happy.

Now then, you might be saying: “Sure, this is all well and good and I can see how it will help me to retain customers and make more sales, but who has time to do all this?”

Good question. The answer is, you do – if you get PicSnippets.

PicSnippets creates personalised images for marketing, sales and customer follow-up. You can create your PicSnippet and use it on nearly any platform such as ClickFunnels, ManyChat, Convertri and more.

Just go to PicSnippets.com and register today.

OK, so there are 10 ways you can use personalisation to boost conversions and if you want some other strategies to boost your conversion then grab a free Conversion Boost report by clicking on the “Featured Resource” below.

Target Marketing – A Quick Case Study

We talk about targeting the right people for your product, but just how valuable is it to know your audience?

Well, it is of critical importance to the life of your business and can have a substantial effect on your profits and whether you even get off the ground in the first place!

If you are not crystal clear about who your target market is, you could be wasting time driving the wrong kinds of people to your opt-in offers via social media etc.

And, even worse, if you are using paid media such as FB or Google ads you will be wasting some serious money by not targeting the right audience.

So, as you can see, doing the research on your niche needs to be done before you even think about creating and selling a product or service.

And once you have decided on a profitable niche, you need to dial in and really find out what makes these people tick so you can target those specific people who will be most attracted to your offers.

It may not be sexy, but it can have a huge impact on your business, and in an area where so many people give up before they have really started, wrong niche selection and poor target marketing is one of the primary causes for people giving up.

This is because they aren’t seeing any return on their investment (whether that be time or money) and quickly become disheartened and it’s easy to see why.

Now we have established that being able to target your market successfully is of vital importance, let’s look at a company that did this right.

Target Marketing Done Right!

Here’s a quick case study of a deodorant that became a top seller through nothing more than pinpoint targeting of its customers:

In Brandwashed: Tricks Companies use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy, we learn how Axe Deodorant took over their market through laser-focused targeting.

Unilever executive David Cousino tells us that Unilever first analyzed the potential male deodorant user by breaking men down into six profiles:

The Predator – He takes advantage of drunk girls, and lies about his job and where he lives

Natural Talent – Athletic, smart, and confident. He doesn’t need to lie to score

Marriage Material – Humble and respectful, he’s the sort of guy you want to bring home to Mom and Dad

Always the Friend – He always hits that glass ceiling

The Insecure Novice – He has absolutely no clue what he’s doing, and things get awkward fast – the geeks and nerds

The Enthusiastic Novice – He has absolutely no clue what he’s doing, but he’s outgoing and tries valiantly anyway

Based on these six profiles, they chose to target the ‘Insecure Novice,’ since these are the guys who need the most help in getting women.

And frankly, this is the target market that could most easily be persuaded into buying a product – ANY product – that could potentially help them get over their nerdiness and get the woman. Or women. Lots of women.

The next step was to create the ads. Research showed that the ultimate male fantasy isn’t to have just one woman at a time – it’s to be irresistible to several sexy women at once. (Seriously, did they really need research to determine this?)

That’s why the TV ads proclaim that if you use Axe Deodorant, you will get the chicks. ALL the chicks.

The result? Axe came out of nowhere to be the #1 male antiperspirant / deodorant brand.

Is this a bit cheesy? Yes. But did it work? Absolutely!

Notice they weren’t targeting EVERY man. They didn’t target married men, old men, men who could already get women on their own and so forth. They targeted ONE demographic – men in their 20’s and 30’s who were nerdy and had trouble getting women.

But in the process, they had a great deal of crossover into the other groups as well.

This is an added benefit of targeting that most marketers don’t realize. They think in order to get the biggest share of the market, they must target everyone.

But when you target everyone, you tend to get almost no one. Paradoxically, when you target one specific group, you tend to get customers from all the other groups as well.

One side note: In this case, Axe’s marketing worked almost TOO well. High school kids were completely dousing themselves in Axe, thinking they would get every girl in class to fall all over them.

Instead, school districts complained of kids reeking of the cologne-like smell.

How could Axe have fixed this? Perhaps by cautioning its users that because of the power of Axe, a normal amount was actually more effective than going full coverage.

Instead, Axe backpedalled a bit from their original campaign, and sales declined.

Which is another lesson – when you find a target market that works for your product – or better still, you target your product to the right market – don’t change what’s working.

Here’s what you can do:

Make a list of potential target markets for your next product.
From that list, choose the market – or demographic – you want to target.
Create a profile of ONE person in that market – this is your ideal customer.
Tailor your product and your message to that one person.
Dance around your office as you see the sales come flooding into your in box.

Stop targeting everyone and start targeting your ideal customer. Once you do, it will become clear how you should market, where you’ll find your customers, and how to get them on board.

So, if you haven’t done so already, think about your ideal customer and create a customer avatar and really get to know them and what flicks their switches.

And yes, your sales will almost certainly increase because you not only know what they need, you also know wat they want and you can tailor your products and services just for them and they will gladly pay you for them which is win-win for both buyer and seller 🙂

Niche Marketing

3 Powerful And Surprising Goal Setting Tips You Missed

I once heard a famous motivational and sales speaker tell the story of someone who set some goals.

It seems he wrote down all of his great big goals like getting a super high paying job, traveling the world, starting a non-profit foundation and so forth, folded up the paper and put it in a drawer.

Then he forgot all about those goals and went about his life.

Fast forward three years, and he’s moving into his new house. Packing up that drawer, he finds the goal list he wrote out, and realizes he has accomplished every single goal on that list, including buying a mansion.

Yeah. Right.

And then a leprechaun jumped out of the drawer and handed him a magic genie lamp, and he made three wishes and married the fairy princess.

As you might have guessed, I’m not buying that story. Are you?

You can’t simply write down your goals, forget about them and then have them magically happen. If only you could.

But there are things you can do to help you achieve your goals and New Year’s resolutions – things I’ll bet NO ONE has told you about.

Things that can give you the life you want, if you embrace them.

Things that… well… might just set your goal getting abilities on fire.

Let’s get started:

Goal Setting Tip 1: What Kind Of PAIN Do You Want To Have?

Focusing on what you want usually isn’t going to work unless you also consider what kind of pain you want to have.

Everyone wants a rock hard body and a few million dollars in the bank. But are you willing to go through the pain it costs to get those things?

THAT is the question.

An art fan tells a great artist that she should would do ANYTHING to paint like he does.

To which the artist replies, “If that were so, then you would already be painting like me. I’ve painted every single day since I was seven years old. I painted when my friends were outside playing. In high school I painted when my friends were going to dances and playing sports. In college I painted instead of dating. I’ve taken art courses and studied art until I know more than most of my professors. I’ve traveled the world to sit at the feet of great painters and observe their process. I’ve given everything I have to be a great painter. And if you really wanted to be like me, you would have done the same.”

Ouch.

That artist paid a very big price for achieving his goal.

Goal setting and goal getting isn’t just about choosing the rewards you want like you’re a kid in the candy shop with mom’s credit card. It’s also about deciding on what cost you are willing to pay to achieve those rewards.

What pain are you willing to go through to achieve your goals?

What you willing to do?

What will you sacrifice?

What regiment, training, practice schedule and so forth will you commit to doing every day until you succeed?

When you decide this in advance, you multiply the odds of achieving your goal by ten-fold.

Goal Getting Tip 2: The Secret Ingredient

“I want to be a medical doctor.”

Okay, that’s your goal. But what do you do to achieve that goal? Writing it down and stuffing it into a drawer won’t make it happen.

You need systems in place to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

For the would-be doctor, she needs systems to apply to and get accepted at medical schools. She needs a system in place to pay for the school. She needs another system to make sure she studies, and so forth.

For a pianist, his goal is to give concerts to millions of people. But his system is to practice each day of his life.

For a coach, her goal is to win the championship. But the system is the practices she puts her players through each day.

For an entrepreneur, the goal is to build a profitable business and sell it. But the system is the sales and marketing process that brings in the customers, as well as the system for delivering the products or services.

Without systems in place to reach your goals, you won’t get there.

That’s because it’s the system and not the goal itself that achieves the results you want.

First, you choose your goal based on both what you want and what pain you are willing to endure to get that goal.

Then you choose the system you’re going to use to achieve that goal.

Goal Getting Tip 3: Goal Assassination

You’ve made your goals and now you’ve got a list – the kind of list a kid might send to Santa Clause – so what’s the delay? Why aren’t you achieving your goals?

Maybe you’re got too many of them. The more goals you have, the less likely it is that you will achieve any one of them. That’s because they’re all competing for your time and attention, and you simply don’t have enough of either one to simultaneously achieve every goal on your list.

Imagine you’re growing roses. On one rose bush, there are a hundred rosebuds. But on the other rose bush, you snip off every single bud except for one.

Which rose flower will be the biggest? The one by itself, of course. And that’s because it gets all of the energy and food the plant can provide, instead of having to share it with a hundred other flowers.

Your goals are all competing for your time and energy.

That’s why you’ve got to ruthlessly eliminate your lesser goals, at least until you achieve your biggest goal.

The more time and energy you can put into your #1 goal, the faster you can achieve it. And once you do, then you can focus on the next goal, and then the next, and so forth.

The exception: If a secondary goal directly supports your primary goal, then it can be best to pursue both at once.

For example, you want to build a business. It’s going to be a lot easier to make good decisions and work hard if you get enough exercise and eat right.

Exercise and proper eating support your goal of building a business, so don’t wait until the business is built to get in shape. Start exercising and eating healthy right away, so you have what it takes to build that business and live the good life.

I know the motivational gurus want you to think getting your goals is easy, but usually it’s not. It takes work. Sacrifice. Pain. Focus. Perseverance. And tenacity. But knowing this from the start means you’re forewarned and forearmed to get the job done.

And once you achieve your first big goal, you just might find you’re addicted to the process.

Guaranteed, the second goal will be easier than the first, because now you’ll know what it takes.

The New Year is upon us. 12 months from now, you can either look back and wish you had achieved that big goal, or look back and be thrilled that you did.

The choice is yours.

self-discipline

How To Create A Great Value Proposition

Your value proposition determines if people will bother reading about your product or close the page.

If you get it right, sales can skyrocket. Get it wrong, and you’ll wonder why all that traffic isn’t converting into sales.

The less known your company is, the more you need to work on and perfect your value proposition. Does Pepsi or Coke need a value proposition? Probably not.

Does Little Guy Joe who just got into online marketing need a value proposition? He sure does if he wants to make sales.

So What Is A Value Proposition Anyway?

Not wanting to rely solely on my memory, I did some research, and this is what I found to be something of a consensus of what a value proposition should be:

It’s your promise of value to be delivered to the customer. And it’s the #1 reason your prospect should buy from YOU.

A great value proposition incorporates one or more of these qualities:

Explaining how your product is going to solve your customer’s problem, or how it’s going to improve your customer’s situation. (This is called relevancy)
States specific benefits your product delivers (This is quantified value)
Tells your customer why they should buy from you instead of your competition (This is unique differentiation)

But I think we need more clarification. In doing my research, I also found that a great value proposition…

Targets a specific market
Focuses on quality, cost or speed, or a combination of two of those
Clarifies what the company or product does not do

Your value proposition should be the first thing visitors see on your home page. Plus, you’ll want to place it on all entry points to your site as well.

People need to be able to read it and immediately understand it. Which is to say, corporate gibberish created by a committee of eggheads isn’t going to cut it.

For example, if I tell you that my value proposition is:

“Revenue-focused automated marketing and sales closing solutions unleashed through collaboration throughout the revenue cycle”

I’m guessing you’re going to be bewildered. Or you’re falling asleep. Or you’re confused as can be.

And there’s no need to be redundant. For example:

Online Billing and Invoicing Software

Invoice Dude is an online billing software specially designed for small and medium businesses. Thousands of businesses and individuals trust us for their invoicing!

This tries to appeal to too many people – small businesses, medium businesses and individuals.

There is no differentiation from other online billing and invoicing software.

In addition, it says ‘thousands of businesses,’ yet offers no proof. Stating an actual number such as 12,549 would be a great help, and it could be updated automatically or manually on a daily or weekly basis.

Plus, I don’t know about you, but this entire value proposition puts me to sleep.

And with a name like Invoice Dude, they could have done soooo much better.

What A Value Proposition Is NOT

It’s not a catch phrase or a slogan.

“Coke, it’s the real thing” and “L’Oreal, because you’re worth it” are slogans, not value propositions.

It’s also not a positioning statement.

“America’s #1 bandage brand, heals the wound fast, heals the hurt faster” is a positioning statement.

These are better than nothing, but they’re not what we’re striving for.

Calling your product the ‘real thing’ doesn’t show one benefit or reason why we should buy it over the competition.

Because you’re worth it doesn’t tell us anything – it just sounds good. And expensive.

Being #1 doesn’t make me want to buy your product, either.

These are all examples of slogans, not value propositions:

Like sleeping on a cloud (Sealy)
Milk from contented cows (Carnation)
Save Money, Live Better (Wal-Mart)
I’m lovin’ it (McDonalds)
When you care enough to send the very best (Hallmark)
Just Do It (Nike)
Finger Lickin’ Good (KFC)
Have it your way (Burger King)
Melts in your mouth, not in your hands (M&M)
The happiest place on earth (Disney World)
The best a man can get (Gillette)
Betcha can’t eat just one (Lays)
Think outside the bun (Taco Bell)
“Koo Koo for Cocoa Puffs”
“Snap! Crackle! Pop!” (Rice Krispies)
Are you a Cadbury’s fruit and nut case?”
“Keep Walking” (Johnny Walker Whiskey)
“Wii would like to play.”
“I’d rather die of thirst than drink from the cup of mediocrity.” (Stella Artois)
“We don’t charge an arm and a leg. We want tows.” (From a towing company)
“Yesterday’s meals on wheels” (From a septic tank)
“We repair what your husband fixed.” (From a plumber’s truck)

Value Proposition Components

A value proposition is usually longer than a slogan.

In fact, it can have a headline, a sub-headline, one short paragraph of text and possibly bullet points.

And it might even include a visual, such as a photo, graphics or hero shot.

There is no one correct way to build your value statement, nor is there only one possibility. This is something you’re going to have to think about for awhile.

You make notes, try things, think about it, tweak it, ask opinions and tweak it some more.

Headline: This is usually the big end benefit you’re offering your customers, stated in one clear, short sentence. You might mention the product, the customer or both. This is where you grab attention, because if you don’t, then you’ve already lost a fair share of your prospects.

Sub-headline: This is a specific explanation of what your product does, who the ideal customer is and why your product is useful.

One short paragraph: This can be instead of or in addition to a sub-headline, and serves the same purpose as the sub-headline above.

3 bullet points: These are the key benefits or features. Notice we said three, not unlimited. You may or may not need bullets, but if you do, keep them short and punchy.

Visual: Images always communicate faster and generally better than words. You might show the product, the happy customer or an image that reinforces your message.

How To Write Your Value Proposition

This takes time to get it just right. In the beginning, do the best you can, and then adjust it along the way.

There is no reason to delay starting or growing your business just because you don’t have the perfect value statement yet.

A good value statement is better than no value statement, and in time you can make it great.

Start out by answering these questions:

What’s your product or service?
What is the BIG end-benefit of using it?
Who is your ideal target customer?
What makes your offer unique?
How is your product different from anything else available?

NOTE: If you can’t answer why your product is unique or different, then you might want to work on the product itself. Selling a ‘me too’ product that is identical to what’s already being offered can be difficult UNLESS you already have a well-known brand.

Once you have your first draft of your value statement, ask yourself these questions:

Is it clear and easy to understand?
Does it communicate concrete benefit(s)?
Will a customer know exactly what result they will get from using your product?
Does it say how it’s different or better than the competition?
Does it avoid hype? (amazing, fantastic, best ever)
Does it avoid business jargon? (revenue generated resource allocation blah blah blah)
Can your ideal prospect read it and understand it in a few seconds?

If someone is shopping around, then they’re likely to check out 4 or 5 different options before deciding.

By having your value proposition at the top of your first page, you can easily stand apart from all competitors.

Research shows that visitors notice value propositions faster when they have more text. Visitors were also able to describe more product advantages when there were more to read about in the value proposition.

And readers tend to prefer bullet points – they’re easier to understand and remember.

Examples Of Great Value Propositions

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Uber is the smartest way to get around. One tap and a car comes directly to you. Your driver knows exactly where to go. And payment is completely cashless.

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NASA’s jet propulsion laboratory is one of tens of thousands of teams around the world using Slack to make their working lives simpler, more pleasant, and more productive.

Trello: Trello is the free, flexible and visual way to organize anything with anyone.

Drop the lengthy email threads, out-of-date spreadsheets, no-loner-so-sticky notes, and clunky software for managing your prospects. Trello lets you see everything about your project in a single glance.

iPhone: Why there’s nothing quite like iPhone

Every iPhone we’ve made – and we mean every single one – was built on the same belief. That a phone should be more than a collection of features. That above all, a phone should be absolutely simple, beautiful and magical to use.

Value Proposition Boosters

Sometimes it’s difficult to find ways to differentiate yourself from your competition, so you might try adding one or more of these to your offer:

Free shipping
Fast or next day shipping
Free trial
Free setup or installation
Free bonus
No long-term contracts or payments
A very clear money back guarantee
A better than money-back guarantee
A discounted price
Customization
One-on-one personal help

Remember, you don’t need to hit your value proposition out of the park on the first try. But you do need to build one and use it.

Tests show that having the right value proposition can have an immediate effect on your sales, sometimes even doubling or tripling conversions.

Of course, it’s going to depend on your product, your niche, your customers and even your competition.

And most of all, it will depend on how well you craft your value proposition.

One more thing – an added beauty of having a great value proposition is it clarifies in your own mind what it is that you are truly doing for your customers.

It actually makes your job easier, in that you are no longer trying to be a jack of all trades, or trying to make your product fit everyone.

The clarity your value proposition brings can also bring you peace of mind and a better ability to grow your business big, strong and fast.

Niche Marketing