Online Marketing Business

marketing lessons

3 Marketing Lessons That Will Transform Your Business

marketing lessons

You can take an awful lot of those “how to market online” courses and sometimes still not learn the truly ground-breaking stuff.

I’m talking about the seemingly unimportant things that turn out to be so important, it’s like a scene in one of those adventure movies:

The hero fights through obstacle after obstacle to get to this secret cave that hasn’t been entered in a century.

He pries open the heavy door, sweeps away several inches of cobwebs, and by the light of his torch he sees something shiny. He picks it up… it’s a gold coin! Nice, but not that earth-shattering, right? It’s just one coin…

Taking a set forward, he sees a small chest. Opening it, he sees a couple hundred gold coins. Yeah! This is pretty cool.

But then he catches just a glimmer of something deeper in the cave. Opening the door wider to let light in, he sees more gold. And priceless statues. And gemstones. And… the treasures go back as far as the eye can see.

Holy cow. That one gold coin turned out to be the beginning of more wealth than the GPA of most countries.

Well that’s how I feel about what  you are going to learn here. To the uninitiated eye, these three lessons might seem small, like a single coin.

And they might almost appear trivial. But I promise you, if you follow this advice, your online income can become almost limitless.

And by the way, some people have paid literally thousands of dollars to discover what I’m about to show you:

Marketing Lesson 1: Make An Irresistible Offer

marketing lessons

You’ve heard the term irresistible offer before, but what does it mean?

First, it’s an offer that’s better than anything your competition has.

Second, it’s so good that’s it’s truly hard to pass up.

For example, if I were to sell you a brand new car for $1,000, that’s an irresistible offer.

Most marketers have trouble getting their marketing to covert because they’re offering the same stuff as everyone else. Yes, they try to make it sexy, but it isn’t.

You can dress a pig up in a lovely, low-cut evening gown, or even a tiny bikini and high heels. But it’s still a pig.

(Not trying to pick on pigs here, btw – I think they’re kinda cute and definitely smart.)

You can have weak marketing and a great offer and make it work.

But great marketing will never compensate for a weak offer.

If you don’t have the right offer, then it doesn’t matter how great the copy is, what the headline is, who is promoting it and so forth.

If you want to make sales, you’ve got to have an absolutely superior, irresistible offer that the prospect simply cannot turn down.

And you’ve got to back the offer up with a product that delivers, too. I’ve seen offers that blew me away, but once I got into the product, I realized it was 80% hype and 20% substance.

As you might have guessed, I asked for a refund – as did close to 50% of their purchasers.

So make them an offer they cannot refuse, and then deliver on every promise you make.

Do this and you cannot help but make a fortune.

Marketing Lesson 2: You Need A Big Marketing Idea

marketing

Just having a bigger promise or using a hyped headline isn’t going to work anymore.

If you’re going to be seen and heard by your prospects, you’ve got to cut right through all the shouting online and present something brand new.

Think of it this way: A regular marketing idea is doing what’s already been done, expect maybe it’s 10% bigger or 10% better.

That used to work, but these days it just blends with everything else.

But a big marketing idea is something new, something revolutionary. It could be an entirely new approach, a new way of looking at something or a new way of doing something.

Take cars for example. A regular marketing idea is to make a car 10% more gas efficient, or 10% sleeker/bigger/smaller/curvier/boxier etc.

If you think about it, most of the cars today just sort of blend. They look a lot alike, work a lot alike… it’s always been like that.

Then there’s Tesla. Put a Tesla side by side with any other car, and you’ll notice a difference. Talk about how a Tesla runs, and it’s revolutionary.

Don’t let your idea be the latest model of Ford or Chevy.

Make it a Tesla.

Give your prospects a feeling of discovery, of something completely new that gives them an AHA! Moment.

Offer them hope that this is finally THE solution they have been searching for.

It’s powerful, indeed.

Marketing Lesson 3: Customer Acquisition Is All About The Math

marketing strategy

I know you keep hearing about free traffic. But free traffic isn’t free; it costs you time and work. And more time. And more work.

If you want to make serious money, then you’ve got to learn some math and be willing to invest some money to make that money.

Online marketing in the six and seven figure range is all about buying new customers – not hoping they eventually find you on their own.

Buying new customers is how you grow big and fast.

Think of customer acquisition as an investment.

You’re investing in the acquisition of assets — customers.

And to do this wisely… like the best marketers in the world… you need to know some numbers.

For example, one of the absolute most valuable marketing numbers for you to understand and use is the Maximum Allowable Acquisition Cost (MAAC).

MAAC tells you the most you can pay to get a new customer.

And to know your MAAC, you also need to know the lifetime value of your customer. Which in the beginning is hard, so do this instead – know the 3 month value of your customers.

How much do they spend with you in 3 months? Whatever that number is, you need to spend less than that to get a new customer.

Most entrepreneurs and marketers don’t know their MAAC or their customers’ lifetime value.

Of if they do know the numbers, they don’t use them to determine their traffic generation budgets.

But if you want to earn six or seven figures a year, you’ve got to know and USE this stuff.

Once you know these numbers, you’ve got to focus on increasing the value of your customer, so you can increase your MAAC, so you can get more customers.

Very few average entrepreneurs and marketers understand this, but now you do.

So, did I just hand you three gold coins?

Or a vast and unending treasure trove?

That’s up to you and what you do with this information.

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refunds

Turning Refunds Into Customers For Life

refunds

When you get that dreaded email that says, “I don’t like this, please refund my money…” what do you do?

Most marketers make the refund and forget about it.

But what you might not realize is that a refund request can be the perfect opportunity to create a customer for life, if you handle it correctly

Remember, your objective is to save the customer, not necessarily to save the sale. If you can do both, then that’s terrific.

And your goal is to fix the problem, not the blame. That is, don’t blame your customer or yourself. These things happen for a myriad of reasons. And you want people to speak positively about your products, not ‘win’ arguments.

Here’s what you need to be able to say, regardless of who is ‘at fault:’

  • You’re sorry it wasn’t a good fit
  • You want to do what you can to help, because that’s what you’re there for – to help the customer

There are two variations of communications to send out to customers seeking a refund, based on whether or not they are eligible for a refund according to your refund policy.

Throughout the process, keep in mind that your customer is likely in ‘fight or flight’ mode.

Think back to when you wanted a refund and you’ll understand the feeling: You’re ready to fight to get that refund if you have to.

But nothing defuses that fight or flight response faster than…

“I’m sorry. How can I help?”

Now then, let’s say you’ve received a refund request, and you’ve determined your customer is eligible for a refund based on your policy and the timeframe of when they ordered.

Here are the key points to keep in mind to keep your customer:

You’re going to acknowledge that they are eligible for a refund

refund

Until you say this, your customer isn’t going to hear anything else you say.

So lead with this, and they’ll relax enough to read the rest of your email or listen to you if you’re on the phone.

You’re going to reinforce their desired result

refunds

Your customer bought your product for a reason – likely a problem they need solved.

They still have the problem, and they still need a solution.

You’re going to offer an alternative solution

customer for life

You’re now teaming up with the customer to find an effective solution to their problem.

You’ve gone from being adversaries to working side by side as partners to fix their problem.

Lastly, you’re going to set a timer for an automatic refund

refund

This emphasizes that you are sincere about that refund, and that you are more interested in helping them find a solution than holding on to their money.

Here’s an email template you can use. Be sure to thoroughly modify it to fit your situation:

Hi [First Name], I’m really sorry to hear that [product name] wasn’t a fit for you.

Don’t worry, you are well within our refund period [or you have x days left in our refund period] and I’ll be happy to process that for you.

But first, I want you to know that I care about my customers and I want to be certain you’re not only happy, but that I help you reach your [business / personal] goals.

So no matter what, I’m going to take care of you.

[First name], I’m guessing you purchased [product name] because you wanted to [solve ‘x’ problem or get ‘y’ result].

And since you are requesting a refund, you probably still need a solution to that problem, right?

So with your permission I’d like to suggest something a little different.

As I said, it’s my job to help you reach YOUR goals, and I think we can both agree that a refund isn’t going to do that (no worries, if you don’t like what I’m about to suggest, I’ll still refund your money ASAP, just please hear me out first.)

Instead of a refund, I’d like to offer you one of our other courses that I think will help you [insert goal here].

Here is a list of products that might be a better fit for you.

List products with descriptions – if prices are larger than what the customer paid, list the prices, too.

Remember [first name], I promised to take care of you and I mean it. So please reply with any questions you might have, or take a day to think it over. Either way, I am here for you.

If I don’t hear back from you by [date, time] I will issue you a full refund instead.

And if you want to talk, please call me and I can activate one of the above courses for you right now, or issue you a refund, your choice.

You can reach me at [phone number].

Talk to you soon,

Kindest,

[Your name]

Now let’s say you’ve received a refund request, but you’ve determined your customer is not eligible for a refund based on your policy and the timeframe of when they ordered.

Here’s the email you might send:

Hi [First Name], I’m truly sorry to hear that [product name] wasn’t a fit for you.

Unfortunately, you are beyond our [XX day] refund period which means I can’t issue you a refund today.

BUT I still want to help you and I think I may have a solution.

I’m guessing that you purchased [product name] because you needed to [achieve ‘x’ goal or solve ‘y’ problem].

Is that a fair assumption? … and you likely still need a solution to that problem, correct?

Since I am unable to issue you a refund, I’d like to “exchange” [product name] for one of our other courses that might be a better solution for you.

Here are a list of options for you to choose from: [Enter product names, descriptions and prices]

Please let me know which of these trainings you’d like to have and I’ll get you access as quickly as possible.

If you’re not sure which one you would like, please feel free to reply with any questions or take a day or so to think it over.

Either way, I’m here if you need me.

And if you would like to talk, you can give me a call and

I can activate your new course right now

You can reach me at [phone number].

Talk soon,

Kindest,

[Your name]

Again, be sure to modify these completely to suit your needs.

You’ll find that by taking this extra step, disgruntled customers become happy customers – and sometimes even become your strongest advocates.

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affiliate marketing

How To Get An Army Of Affiliates PAYING You To BUILD Your List Of Buyers

affiliate marketing

Yes, you read that headline right. In fact, you might even want to read it again.

You can totally get affiliates to PAY YOU for the right to send you buyers.

I ran across this a couple of years ago, and I have to say I was impressed. In fact, I just about joined this myself, and I’m a seasoned pro. This was done by a group of seasoned marketers, but there’s no reason why a new marketer or marketers couldn’t do it, too.

Last time I checked, this funnel I’m about to describe is still up and running and going strong. I don’t want anyone to actually steal their exact system, sales copy and funnel, so I’m going to just give you the highlights and you can fill in the rest.

Build A Basic Sales Funnel

affiliate marketing

First you start with a sales funnel. You’ve got a squeeze page offering a terrific little “how to do marketing” type of lead magnet. Once visitors grab the lead magnet, or even if they try to click away without picking up the lead magnet, they are then directed to a sales page for an online marketing membership site.

The membership site has several levels, with the lowest level being free to join. Of course, they highlight the free level in the headline to keep people on the page, and then they extoll the virtues of the other levels. Each level has more and better content, better support and so forth.

The free level is fairly basic but does give enough info for a newbie to make a start in making money online.

And of course, each level is more expensive than the previous level, with the prices skewed a bit to encourage visitors to choose the highest level.

I’ll give you an example of that pricing to give you an idea of what I’m talking about:

Level 1: Free

Level 2: $29 per month

Level 3: $44 per month

Level 4: $49 per month

These aren’t the exact price points they used, but you get the idea. You see there is very little difference between level 3 and 4 in terms of price, but in terms of content there is a big difference.

This is a great psychological ploy, because it gets the prospect to study the differences between levels 3 and 4 while forgetting all about level 2.

And of course if they’re going to get a paid membership, they’re most likely to choose level 4.

The content is drip fed each week…

…and if you’ve been paying close attention, you’ve realized I haven’t really shown you anything new yet.

Offer Affiliate Programs!

affiliate

Here it comes, so hang on to your seat, because THIS is how you get affiliates to PAY you to send you a list of BUYERS:

(I love this bit!)

All of the levels offer a built-in affiliate program that sets the affiliates up to sell their own memberships for all of the levels they qualify for.

This means if they are a level 2 member, they can give away level 1 and sell level 2. If they happen to sell level 3 or 4, they still get paid, but not as much.

But if they are a level 4 member, they get to sell all four levels and KEEP ALL the money.

That’s right – they get to keep 100% of what they sell if they are level 4.

I hope this is making sense. It sounds complicated at first, but it’s actually fairly simple once you understand the concept.

Thus you’ve got affiliates paying (in our example above) $49 a month for the privilege of selling memberships and keeping all the money.

That’s a great deal for the affiliates, right? Absolutely. You can see why I almost jumped on it.

The affiliates don’t have to worry about hosting, fulfilment or any of that stuff, because the membership takes care of all of that.

The affiliate gets a unique sales page URL, squeeze page URL and membership area.

The content is automatically drip fed into that member’s area. The subscriptions are managed for them, the levels are managed for them… all they have to do is make sales by promoting their squeeze page URL.

The affiliate gets to build a list of prospects and buyers simply by promoting the URL, and of course they are earning residual monthly income, too.

The list of prospects and customers stays in the system and cannot be exported. Affiliates can only email their lists from inside the system. So if they drop out and stop paying their monthly fee, they lose their lists.

This can make for some very sticky affiliates who never leave.

Clarify Your Terms And Conditions

affiliate marketing

Now for the icing… in the terms and conditions, it is made explicitly clear that the membership site operator(s) have access to all of the prospects and customers who sign up.

This means they can email prospects and customers any time they like, making any offer they like. PLUS, the site owners can also place offers in the membership area as well.

Now think about what I just said… affiliates are paying you $49 a month (or whatever price point you choose) to be able to build you a list of prospects and customers.

And the affiliates are getting a terrific deal, too, getting 100% monthly commissions and the ability to email their customers and prospects from within your website.

It’s a true win / win for everyone involved, and done correctly it can yield a tremendous amount of prospects and buyers for you, as well as excellent monthly income to pay for a very nice membership site and have money left over.

When I heard about this, they were making five figures a month from the membership site fees alone. This doesn’t include what they were earning from mailing to their ever-growing email lists, or from the special promotions they continually placed in the members’ area.

Imagine if you were earning 5 figures from your membership site AND having a team of affiliates working hard to build your list of prospects and buyers. Sweet.

I wish I had started my first site this way – I’d probably be retired today.

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Copywriting

6 Copywriting Techniques That Will Boost Your Conversions

Copywriting

If you’re wondering why your landing pages aren’t making you as much money as you had hoped for, you might be using common landing page copywriting techniques the wrong way.

While the six copywriting techniques we’re about to cover have been proven to work, too many marketers use them in a way that cancels out their otherwise potent conversion power.

This really is too bad because your landing page could be raking in larger profits if you only paid closer attention to how you implement these proven techniques.

The good news is that once you become aware of how badly you may be implementing these techniques, you can quickly fix them.

The key is to become aware that you’re using them the wrong way in the first place.

1: Tell A Story To Personalize Your Landing Page’s Value

Copywriting

Storytelling is one of the most powerful landing page copywriting techniques you can use. Not only do you pull your reader into the scenario your offer addresses, you also create emotional urgency with your offer.

Once emotionally engaged, chances are much higher that your viewer would enter his or her email address or make a purchase.

Awesome, right?

Well, sadly, too many marketers tell stories that are simply worthless.

They are duds.

They seem too good to be true. They show extreme conditions. They simply fail to convert.

What went wrong?

The stories most marketers tell in their landing pages fail to focus on putting a human face on the problem the reader is facing.

Instead, these low converting landing pages tend to present almost ‘too good to be true’ situations.

If you want your landing page stories to convert, take the most probable circumstances faced by your target audience members and base your stories on these.

These realistic stories are more believable because more of your audience members can relate to them.


By the way, if you are serious and want to avoid the most serious mistakes that novice copywriters make, then make sure you download this free report called Copywriting Blunders. This is a premium free report that takes you through each and every one of the worst mistakes a copywriter can make and you can find it here.

2: Use A Question As A Header Title For Your Landing Page

Copywriting for beginners

Questions are very powerful ‘centering’ devices because they draw your prospects attention to one central concept or a small set of concepts. Questions help narrow and define the problems and situations your offer addresses.

If a question is well-defined, it is easier to present your solution and it is easier for the prospect to see the value in your solution.

Sadly, too many marketers use a header question that has little to do with the questions their target audience members care about the most. For example, the question focuses on cost when most users are actually interested in saving time.

To fix this problem, figure out the primary concern of your target audience members and pose relevant header questions.

3: Change Up Your Font To Emphasize Key Points Of Your Pitch

Copywriting 101

When you’re talking to somebody, you normally change your tone of voice when you are trying to emphasize certain things. By the same token, text in bold or italics or larger, ‘special’ fonts tend to be noticed more.

The problem here is that too many marketers overuse these font changes. They use them so much that the reader is confused or reads the text like the formatting isn’t even there.

To maximize the impact of special fonts when emphasizing key points in your landing page text, make sure you use them SPARINGLY.

Keep special fonts to a minimum so when you do emphasize certain words, they truly STAND OUT.

4: Use testimonials from happy customers

Copywriting

One of the most powerful selling tools you can use is social proof. People are more likely to buy whatever you are offering if they see that other people have had positive experiences with what you’re selling.

Pretty simple, right?

In fact, this is so simple that you’d think this would be hard to screw up.

Wrong. Marketers actually blow this all the time.

The key problem is RESTRAINT.

Steer clear of using overly positive testimonials that may look fake. People are very suspicious of overly positive testimonials. ‘Over the top’ recommendations make them skeptical.

Make sure you only use REAL testimonials on your landing page.

Real testimonials are grounded in reality. This means there’s a mix of both positive and not-so-positive elements in the testimonials.

Above all else, use testimonials from happy customers who got results that are not outliers.

Otherwise, your testimonials might seem too good to be true and won’t carry much weight with people you’re trying to convince.

5: List Out The Benefits Of What You’re Promoting

Copywriting for beginners

One of the most common, yet powerful, copywriting tips you’ll ever come across is to write out benefits of your product, not features.

People buy based on benefits not features. Benefits solve their problems. Benefits are easier to understand. Features, on the other hand, tend to degenerate into so much sales talk and technical jargon.

Sadly, too many marketers list SO MANY BENEFITS, they flood their prospects with information. This data overflow leads to, you guessed it, lower conversions.

Your landing page shouldn’t read like a laundry list or check list. Instead it should be focused on a very small set of benefits which were strategically selected to appeal to your target readers.  To figure out which benefits to focus on, ask your target audience members.

Of course, you need to cross reference this information with the landing pages of your competitors to make sure you’re operating in the right ballpark.

6: Link Your Call To Action With The End Result Your Target Customers Want

Copywriting 101

One of the most useful copywriting conversion tricks you could ever learn involves pairing a call to action to a specific benefit the reader wants.

For example, instead of relying on the tired and weak “Click Here” try using “To finally get rid of the high costs and headaches of random outsourcing, enter your email here to take your labor sourcing results to the next level!”  See the difference?

People buy because they are looking for solutions. By pairing the action you want people to take with the benefit they are looking for, you increase the likelihood they will take that action. Clear, right?

Well, marketers tend to blow this technique when they end up listing a ton of benefits with the call to action. Not only does this result in horrible run on sentences, this dilutes the conversion power of your call to action.

The reader is simply too confused to take any action at this point.

The solution?

Focus on one central benefit and pair that with the conversion action.

This is quite risky because your target audience might be looking for a number of benefits instead of just one.

This is where split testing comes in. Test different landing pages with different action-tied benefits and see which pages produce the best results with your traffic.

Don’t Be A Victim Of ‘Proven’ Landing Copywriting Techniques

Copywriting

Make no mistake about it, the landing page copywriting techniques we’ve just covered can turn your landing pages into quick winners.

However, you have to use them the right way. Avoid the common implementation pitfalls outlined and truly take your landing page conversion rates to the next level!

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website for traffic

How To Make The Most Of Your Traffic And Monetize It

website for traffic

If you are a marketer of any description you will know that traffic is the lifeblood of any business.

Simply put: No traffic, no business!

A lot of marketers get so caught up in tracking their traffic stats that they forget to make the most of that traffic. Tell you what, traffic is worthless if your visitors aren’t buying what you’re selling, joining your list, or taking some other important action.

So how do you make the most of your traffic and monetize it?

First off, make sure you are indeed bringing targeted traffic to your site. You don’t want just anybody visiting your website or hitting your sales/squeeze pages. Do this and you’ll wonder why you’re getting a lot of visitors but no sign-ups or sales!

Does this sound familiar? Yes, traffic is a numbers game, but you need the right high-quality targeted traffic or you won’t make any progress and you won’t make any money!

So, whatever methods you are using to drive traffic to your website, make sure you have your targeting dialled in and you know your ideal customer is to make the most out of your website traffic.

And secondly, use this little “traffic checklist” to monetize that traffic…

Determine Your Primary Goal

website for traffic

The first thing you need to do is figure out the primary goal for EACH page of your website. Depending on the page, this primary goal (and monetization strategy) might involve getting your visitor to:

  • Make a purchase
  • Take advantage of an upsell offer
  • Join your list.
  • Call you.
  • Fill out a form.
  • Share content/tell their friends.
  • Enter a contest.
  • Click on a link.
  • Clicking on ads, including affiliate offers and AdSense ads.
  • Complete a CPA (cost per acquisition) offer, such as filling out a credit card application.
  • Read or watch content.
  • Visit you offline (if you run a brick and mortar store).
  • Ask for a free consultation.
  • Register for an event, such as a webinar or contest.

And so on. Be sure your primary goal is the one that will make the most of your traffic in terms of monetization.

Here are two best practices when it comes to monetizing traffic:

  • Be sure to pick just ONE primary goal for each web page (and, overall, one primary goal for your website as a whole). Because if you create a page with multiple goals, your prospect may get confused and not take any action at all.
  • Focus on your own products first. There are plenty of ways to monetize traffic as mentioned above, including putting offers from third parties in front of your visitors. Be sure to focus on promoting your OWN offers first, as this will always be more profitable (because you get both the profits and the list).

Next…

Design Your Site Around Your Primary Goal

website for traffic

Now you need to design each page of your website around your primary goal.

For example:

  • If you’re designing a lead page with the goal of growing your list, then remove all other content and extraneous links, so that the page is focused on getting people to join your list.
  • If your goal is directly sell a product, then create a high-response sales letter and plug up sales leaks such as external links.
  • If your goal is to get people to click on AdSense ads, then create highly engaging content and embed those ads within the content.

The key here is to try to remove all superfluous distractions that may stop your visitors from taking the action you want them to. Remember, less is more.

Next…

Create An Exit Traffic System

website for traffic

Despite your best efforts, people are going to hit the back button on your site and bail out without joining your list, without buying a product, and without clicking on any ads.

That doesn’t mean that they’re poor-quality visitors who’ll never buy anything from you. Instead, it could mean they just didn’t see the right offer, or they’re in a hurry, or you didn’t sufficiently persuade them to take action.

The problem is that if they leave, they’ll probably be gone for good. They’ll forget about you. So that’s why you need to stop them when they’re going out the door and put an irresistible offer in front of them.

For example, redirect your exit traffic to a highly enticing lead magnet so that you can get people on your list before they leave your site. For best results, create multiple lead magnets so that you can offer the lead magnet that is directly related to the page the visitor was viewing before they tried to leave the site.

For instance, if your visitor was reading a blog article about how to set up a Facebook ad campaign, then offer them a lead magnet (such as a report) that gives in-depth instruction and “done for you” ad templates.

TIP: Don’t know how to redirect exit traffic to another page or create an exit pop? No problem. You can search for “exit traffic scripts” in your favorite search engine, or you can use a service such as Thrive Leads or Conversion Gorilla.

Many folks will say that they don’t like exit pops or redirects, especially marketers, but the simple fact is, they work but use them sparingly.

And finally…

Test And Tweak Everything

website for traffic

One of the best ways to monetize your traffic is to test and track all parts of the process to find out what really works.

Specifically:

  • Test offers to see which ones appeal the most to your visitors.
  • Test ad and link placements, including in the header, footer, sidebar, and directly embedded in content.
  • Test your headlines, benefits and calls to action to see which improve conversions.
  • Test your upsells to increase your per-transaction value.
  • Test the design of your pages to improve overall response.

Let’s wrap things up…

Conclusion

website for traffic

So there you have it – a quick and effective checklist for making the most money with your traffic.

To recap:

  • Pick one primary monetization goal.
  • Design your web pages around this primary goal.
  • Test and track everything to optimize response.

As you can see, this “traffic checklist” is pretty simple, but very effective! So put this plan to work for you today to start making more money from all your traffic.

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