Tips
How To Increase Conversions (3 Simple Tricks That Can Massively Increase Conversions)
As I have stated in numerous articles and videos, many people believe they have a problem with traffic, but I believe that the actual issue lies in converting that traffic.
Just think about this:-
If you have the same offer with the same amount of traffic but you double conversions, then you’ve effectively just doubled your sales and profits, too.
So, how do you do that you might ask?
Well, here are 3 simple tricks that can massively increase conversions:
1: What’s In A Name? Everything
You pour your heart and soul into a blog post, article – even an entire book – and nothing happens.
No one reads it. No one comments. No one shares it on social media. No one buys your book.
Yet the content is excellent, it’s well-written and it’s entertaining.
You know that people SHOULD be reading it.
So how do you fix it?
9 times out of 10 it’s as simple as changing the title.
That’s right – relaunch with another title and see if you don’t do a whole lot better.
I know of one fellow (retired now) who spent his career finding under-appreciated books, buying the rights and re-titling and re-releasing them.
He made a fortune doing this before the Internet blew up.
You just might just have a new best seller on your hands. This always comes down to testing and if you know that the content is good but it isn’t selling, start by doing this simple hack and see if the title sparks off a flood of sales; you may be surprised!
2: Stop Being So Bossy!!!
BUY THIS! DO THAT! DO IT NOW! CLICK HERE!
“This is the greatest so-in-so ever and you will fall in LOVE with it, even though you don’t even know what the heck it is yet…”
Let’s face it – in the name of brevity and enthusiasm we tend to tell our customers what they should be doing and how they should be doing it.
We have their best interests at heart – don’t they see that?
Actually, no they don’t. And that is a problem.
Imagine someone standing on the other side of the room from you.
They’re screaming at you that you should do what they say.
What’s your reaction?
My reaction isn’t fit to print, so I won’t but I’m sure you get the idea!
Now imagine that same person smiles at you across the room, walks over, extends their hand and introduces themselves.
Next, they start talking about this problem they have. That’s funny, it’s the same problem you have. And they sound just like you. They even have the same thoughts about the problem, the same worries and fears that you have.
How do you feel? Like you just met a kindred spirit perhaps? It’s a completely different experience for you, the “customer.”
They invite you to walk with them, and without even thinking, you are right there with them, side by side, going for a short walk.
By the end of the walk, they’ve shown you how they solved their problem. You’re elated. There is a solution! You ask if you can buy the solution and they graciously sell it to you.
What just happened?
Instead of feeling like someone was trying to command you to buy something, you voluntarily bought it because you wanted it.
All because they came over to where you were, talked to you in your own words and then walked with you to the solution.
That’s how truly great sales work. You don’t shout from the rooftops or across the room.
Instead, you go to where they are. You feel what they’re feeling, say what they’re thinking, and become a kindred spirit. Then you gently guide them to where you want them to go.
3: Go For The Big Ticket Sales
Why do you suppose you see so many $10 products, and so few $10,000 products?
It seems like it would be harder to sell a $10,000 product.
But what’s easier – selling 1000 $10 products, or just ONE $10,000 product?
The good thing about that means that there is less competition in the high-end marketplace.
And you will also find that somebody willing to invest that kind of money is a much better customer overall unlike many low value customers who nowadays seem to expect everything for $10!
Take a look at Jon Chow as an example. If you don’t know who John is, he is an extremely successful blogger.
John Chow opted to sell the big products and it paid off big time. In just 2 years, he grew his blog from $0 in revenue to more than $40,000 per MONTH.
To do this, he worked a whopping 2 hours per day.
And he didn’t even do his own selling. Instead, he licensed a phone team to sell big ticket items for him.
If you want to sell big ticket products, I would highly suggest hiring or licensing a professional phone team. They’re going to be able to convert prospects at a much higher rate than you can through online marketing.
Offer a free product that totally ROCKS to get the prospect’s information.
Work on building that relationship and let your phone team do the rest.
And in two years? If you follow in John’s footsteps, maybe you can be making $40,000 a month as well.
These are three very different methods that all have the same end goal – to increase your conversions on everything you sell. Use them wisely and the sky is the limit!
6 Little Known Ways To Increase Sales
We all want more sales in our business I’m sure you’ll agree. After all, why did many of us start a business in the first place if not to make money and gain financial freedom to have the time to do the things we want, when we want.
You will often read all about traffic and conversion rate and these are critical to your bottom line, so you need to ensure that your sales process is as optimised as it can possibly be.
Well, please read on to find out about 6 little know ways to increase sales. The good thing is that none of these take much time, but any one of them can add considerable sales to your bottom line. Or try all six, and see your sales explode.
Your Prospects Don’t Trust You
Provide your real contact information, including name, company name, snail mail address (physical is better than P.O.) and phone number.
Why? Because your prospects are afraid you are not who you say you are.
On your ‘about me’ page, provide all of this info again, along with photos of you, any employees you have and maybe even your location. Make it super easy to trust you and you’ll get more sales.
Elevate Your Prospects’ Status to Make More Sales
People want to prove they are better than others and have people look up to them. This isn’t bad, it’s just human nature. And you can use this tidbit of knowledge to make more sales, too.
Have Your Sales Message Come from A Peer
One of the ‘secrets’ to boosting response of your sales message is to have it come from a peer of your ideal prospect.
In other words, you want your message to come from someone of the same group you are selling to.
Are you selling to women in their 40’s? Have your message come from a woman in her 40’s. Selling to investors? Have your message come from another investor, and so forth.
You can likely take any promotion you are running right now, change the message to come from the prospect’s peer, and increase your response considerably.
This technique is even more important when you are selling to someone who is highly skeptical. Nothing melts resistance faster than hearing a message from someone you perceive to be very much like yourself.
Split test this and see the response – I think you’ll be shocked at the increase in sales you experience from this simple technique.
Focus On The Benefits Of The Benefits!
You already know how important benefits are to the selling process.
Features are great, but it’s the benefits that sell.
For example, that weight loss book is pretty, and it has 300 pages – those are features. The benefit is the reader will lose weight if they follow the plan laid out in the book.
But what are the benefits of the benefits?
In the above example, ask yourself what are the benefits to losing weight?
For example:
- Looking better
- Feeling better
- Becoming more attractive
- Living longer
- Fitting into clothes they already own
- More confidence
- Turning heads and getting dates
And so forth.
Talking about just the main benefit – in this case, losing weight – isn’t enough.
Tell Stories
Every product has a story buried somewhere – you just have to dig it out.
For example, look at this headline from John Carlton:
“Amazing Secret Discovered by One-Legged Golfer adds 50 Yards to Your Drives, Eliminates Hooks and Slices… And Can Slash up to 10 Strokes from Your Game Almost Overnight!”
I have zero interest in golf. None. Yet after reading this headline, I want to know about the one-legged golfer.
Now imagine if I did golf – and imagine what all the golfers who read this headline did. Yup – guaranteed, they couldn’t help but keep reading to find out about that one-legged golfer.
That’s the power of a good story.
Encourage Micro-Commitments
The more a person commits to something, the less likely they will change their mind.
For example, if you can get someone to opt-in to two or more of your lists, they are more committed to staying on your lists.
And get this… they are also more likely to make purchases, too.
For example, someone might say they are going to start running. But all they do is say it – they don’t do anything else – and within a week they’ve forgotten all about it.
But if that same person buys new running shoes and clothes, visits running websites, subscribes to a running magazine and joins a running club, then I can about guarantee they’re going to run.
It’s the same with your lists. If you can get subscribers to opt in to multiple lists, they become more committed to you and to the niche or topic itself.
So, let’s say your niche is dogs. You might ask your new subscribers to opt in to a special course on potty training, another course on bad behavior modification, another course just on their particular breed of dog and so forth.
By getting more of these micro-commitments from your readers, you greatly increase the odds they will become your customers and even purchase from you multiple times.
Now how great is that? Fantastic, I think you’ll agree!
OK, there you have it; 6 little know ways to increase sales. Which ones are you going to put into practice today to boost your sales? I hope you will try at least one, if not all 6.
Why You Should Be A Content Creator And Not A Marketer
Labels are important. Most important are the ones that we give ourselves. How you define yourself will color the way you see yourself, and this in turn is going to influence the way that you interact with others, your happiness, your confidence and much more about you.
This is particularly true for people who are entrepreneurs and internet marketers. If you’re someone who works online, then you will be doing something that isn’t easily defined and that many people won’t really understand. What is it you do again? How do you make money without leaving the house??
And it also changes the way you feel about the work you do and the kind of path that you will end up pursuing.
But here’s a thought; have you ever considered shifting the way you describe yourself away from ‘internet marketer’ to ‘content creator’ instead?
Yes? No? Well here are a couple of reasons why you should be a content creator and not a marketer.
What’s in a name?
You might be wondering how you can just go ahead and change your label if you’re still doing the same job. Isn’t a content creator something entirely different from a digital marketer?
Well, not really! In all honesty, they are essentially the same, but the perception is very different.
These days, content marketing is the most effective option for any brand wanting to increase its visibility and status online.
And if you’re a content marketer who creates articles and videos for a blog, then chances are that you have the precise same goals as the marketers: getting your content seen.
The only difference is that a content marketer is someone who puts the ends first, whereas the content creator puts the quality content first. They put the value first. The content creator builds a brand and then promotes that brand with great multimedia content.
The marketer on the other hand looks at the market and asks how they can make money…
Why being a content creator is better for you
The thing is, the content creator – ironically – actually often makes more money.
That’s because they have a brand they believe in and they are putting more work into their content.
Both these things are not lost on readers who will end up wanting to spend more money as a result. And thanks to Google’s more recent changes, they’re not lost on the search algorithms either…
Then there’s the fact that content creators are happier. Why? Because they are working on something they love.
If you’re going to avoid letting this crush you and make you miserable, then you better ensure that you are doing it for the love and not because you have to!
Think about all the most wealthy and famous people online. How did they get there? From pedaling ‘make money’ eBooks? Or by creating an amazing YouTube channel and sharing a vibrant personality and talent for writing and production?
Content creation and marketing go hand in hand and rely heavily on each other, but by labeling yourself as a content creator rather than a marketer will change peoples perception of you, but perhaps more importantly, it may change your perception of yourself and that is priceless!
Dropshipping For Beginners
You don’t need major skills to be a drop shipper these days. You don’t need to stock inventory, ship anything, or even guess what might sell.
Heck, you don’t even have to use your own money to pay for the goods.
You can work a couple of hours a day or week, depending on how serious you are.
And frankly this dropshipping for beginners method I’m about to show you is so straightforward, a teenager can do it.
Instead, when a store sells a product, it purchases the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer. As a result, the merchant never sees or handles the product.
The biggest difference between dropshipping and the standard retail model is that the selling merchant doesn’t stock or own inventory.
Instead, the merchant purchases inventory as needed from a third party – usually a wholesaler or manufacturer – to fulfill orders.
Hint: Get your kids started with this when they’re in 8 or 9th grade, and by the time they graduate high school they’ll have a very nice nest egg for college, along with more real-world business skills than most college graduates.
Now Then… How Do You Find Products?
Amazon can give you a wealth of information on what’s selling and what’s hot at the moment.
Think about it, Amazon is probably the world’s biggest marketplace so doesn’t it just make sense that if you want to find hot products, people will be selling these on there and all you really have to do is go and find them ?
Go to Google (yes Google, not Amazon) and run some searches such as…
- Most popular kitchen gadgets on Amazon
- Most popular fitness items on Amazon
- Most popular electronic gadgets on Amazon
- Most popular pet products on Amazon
- Etc.
The first few results will be from the Amazon website itself, but don’t stop at those.
You’ll also find articles pointing out what’s new, what’s selling and what’s especially popular.
Be sure you’re only looking at results from the last 12-18 months – anything else might be out of date, especially if you’re looking at anything electronic in nature.
Make a list of possible products you’d like to sell. Once you’ve got some research done, you should have an idea of what niche you’d like to focus on.
Once you’ve chosen your niche, dig deeper into that niche to find products. You might even choose a sub-niche to make targeting your prospects easier.
For example, instead of choosing ‘dogs’ as your niche, you might choose a single breed such as ‘Great Danes.’
When you have your chosen niche and your products, go to Shopify https://www.shopify.com/ and open your own store with their 14 day free trial.
Next, go to Oberlo https://www.oberlo.com/ and sign up to get their free plugin. This is going to make it super simple to add products to your store.
Now add the Oberlo plugin to your Shopify store.
Set up your payment processor. This is probably going to be Paypal or Stripe, or whatever service you are currently using.
Last, go to AliExpress www.aliexpress.com and open a new account.
Once you’ve done that, import your products to your store by using the Oberlo plugin.
Did this sound like a lot of work?
Driving Traffic
Once you’ve done everything above, you are ready to start driving traffic and making money.
If you already have a list in this niche, then that’s your first go-to place to get traffic.
Same way if you already have social media accounts and followers in this niche, you’ll want to promote your store in those accounts.
When you’ve done those things, it’s time to invest a little money and start advertising.
Let’s use $100 as an example. And if you don’t have the $100 to spare, you can always sell something on a site like Craigslist or Gumtree to get it, or just borrow it someplace.
Your goal will be to set up a Facebook page for your store and test ads until you find your winner. Figure on initially spending $10 a day for 10 days to find the ad that gets the sales.
Don’t overthink this or get stressed. If you’ve chosen hot selling products, this really isn’t going to be that difficult.
As an alternative, or in addition to using Facebook, you can also find large Instagram pages in your niche that have at least 50,000 followers and decent engagement.
To figure out the engagement rate, add up the number of likes for their last 10 posts, and then divide that number by 10 to find the average likes. Once you have that number, divide it by the total number of followers to find the average engagement rate.
You’re looking for a bare minimum of 1% engagement. Once you find these pages, send them a direct message asking if they’re willing to promote your product.
Rates for promotion are typically $15 for 50,000, $20-25 for 100,000, and $30-$50 for 200,000. But these rates aren’t written in stone. The higher the engagement, the more you might want to consider paying. And a lower engagement means you shouldn’t be paying as much. Negotiation is key.
Look for the pages that most closely match what you’re selling. For example, if you’re selling something for rose enthusiasts, you ideally want to find a page that focuses on roses, not on gardening in general.
By investing $50 to $100 in Instagram, you should get 2-6 promotions and several sales or more.
Add products, rinse and repeat.
See how easy that is? Yet I know that 98% of people who read this won’t do it. Which is good news for you… much less competition that way.
So, are you going to be one of the 2% who does take action and makes a killing with dropshipping? I know what my answer would be!
Video Marketing 2018 (The Best Way To Approach Video Marketing In 2018 And Beyond)
Businesses need video marketing in their arsenal and key to this is developing a strong video marketing strategy.
This idea isn’t new but what has significantly changed over the past couple of years is how important video has become on every platform and channel. It’s no longer just one piece of your overall plan. Video needs to play a central role in your outreach and campaign efforts.
Video has been an important part of digital marketing for a number of years now, but it’s amazing how much it has changed and evolved over the last 2-3 years. From basic animations and “talking-head” videos to new live streaming and social media formats, there are so many ways to embrace video within your digital marketing strategy.
So, what does video marketing look like in 2018 and beyond? And what is the best way to approach your video marketing strategy in 2018 and beyond?
Take a look at these stats:
- 81% of companies use video for marketing purposes in 2018, compared to 63% in 2017.
- The average person watches 1.5 hours of video each day.
- 81% of individuals have purchased a product or service after watching a video
- 76% of marketers say video has helped their company increase sales.
- Marketers rate Snapchat the least effective video marketing platform, while LinkedIn is rated the most successful (even though only 38% of marketers are using it).
It is obvious from these stats that video marketing is here to stay so the next question you should be asking is:
How Can You Use Video in Your Marketing Strategy And What Types Of Video Should You Be Creating?
Now that you know how important video is to the sales process, let’s look at how you can incorporate video into your marketing strategy for the foreseeable future.
Here are some of the best ways of using video and the best types to use to maximize effectiveness.
Live Video (Live Streaming)
Live video rightly deserves to be at the top of this list as it continues to grow in popularity, and we believe this new trend is here to stay. For brands, live videos offer the following advantages:
- Attractive to users, promotes authenticity
- Economical, don’t require investment in production or editing. Once the broadcast it over, it stays on the platform for promotion purposes
- Increases views & quality of views because live video is on popular platforms, and its time-sensitive nature attracts a curious audience
- The sheer level of engagement is astronomical and worth the effort to get on camera as soon as you can.
Vertical & Square-Shaped Videos
Video formats are always changing, affecting all aspects of design and production. While videos used to be all done in landscape mode, the advances in phone and tablet technology have changed the way we think. More brands are creating vertical videos from the start and the focus is definitely shifting to “mobile-first” or “mobile-friendly.” However, the more popular solution at the moment is square videos. This format occupies 78% more space in the Facebook News section, leading to more engagement.
But with the emergence of Instagram Stories and Instagram TV (IGTV), there is an increasing requirement to start producing more vertical videos.
Basically, mobile is growing and you need to think “mobile” when producing any type of video content, especially for the social media networks.
E-Learning Videos
Product and services videos can be a powerful tool, but videos are flexible enough to have many other uses, such as e-learning. Such training can be used to monetize your videos and help you transmit information to customers or prospects in a clear, visual way.
Many information products used to be simple pdf type reports or eBooks, but video training is becoming increasingly popular as most people prefer to watch rather than read.
These can be simple PowerPoint/Keynote presentation style videos, talking head videos or screen capture videos.
You can even use videos for in-house training for employees or integrate training and marketing by offering up a valuable video to users who submit their contact information. There are countless uses for video limited only by your imagination.
Sponsored Videos
Using paid media can be a big jump for solo entrepreneurs and small business with a limited budget.
But the rewards can be huge.
Done correctly, paid and sponsored videos can be highly profitable on social platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. You can even partner with YouTubers and other influencers to boost your content.
To maximize ROI, carefully measure your results and make edits when necessary. Tracking and testing is critical to your success with paid media, so get tracking in place BEFORE you start paying for advertising.
360 Degree Videos
360-degree videos are becoming increasingly popular as a way to show destinations, experiences and products in an interesting way. On top of that, case studies conducted by Magnifyre and Google suggest that people engage more with 360-degree videos.
Many modern mobile devices allow you to capture 360-degree videos so give them a shot.
Demo/Review Videos
Showcase how your product works — whether that’s taking viewers on a tour of your software and its particular uses or unboxing and putting a physical product to the test.
This works great with affiliate products. You can show your viewers inside the product, outline and show the pros and cons and then make your recommendations so they can make an informed decision.
This is great for building trust IF you are honestly reviewing products with the buyer in mind and not just out for the commission; always put your prospects first.
Brand videos
Brand videos are typically distributed as a part of a larger advertising campaign, showcasing the company’s high-level vision, mission, or products and services.
The goal of brand videos is to build awareness around your company and attract your target audience.
Combining this with paid advertising to increase awareness about you and what you have to offer is a cheap way to increase your exposure.
Expert Interviews
Getting internal experts or thought leaders in your industry to do short interviews on camera is a great way to build trust and authority with your target audience.
Find the influencers in your industry or those with a different point of view and get these discussions in front of your audience.
It can feel a bit intimidating to approach these people, but what is the worst that can happen? They say “No!” But what if they said “Yes?!”
How-To Videos
How-to videos can be used to teach your audience something new or build the foundational knowledge they’ll need to better understand your business and solutions.
This type of content is great for building trust and positioning you as an expert in your niche and is a very popular type of video to create.
Explainer Videos
This type of video is used to help your audience better understand why they need your product or service.
Many explainer videos focus on a fictional journey of the company’s core buyer persona who is struggling with a problem. This person overcomes the issue by adopting or buying the business’s solution.
This is why these types work well in VSL’s (Video Sales Letters).
Animated/Doodle Style Videos
Animated videos can be a great format for hard-to-grasp concepts that need strong visuals or an intangible service or product.
They are also different to many other types of video so will tend to stand out.
Many explainer videos used as VSL’s are animated or doodled in this way for this very reason although as they have become more popular, their efficacy as a sales tool depreciates.
Case Study and Customer Testimonial Videos
Your prospects want to know that your product will solve their specific problem, and one of the best ways to showcase this and build trust is by creating case study videos that feature your happy and loyal customers.
These are your best advocates. Get them on-camera describing their challenges and how your company helped them meet their goals.
Social proof is increasingly important so using these types of testimonials goes a long way.
Video Funnels
In the same way you use other types of content (such as email campaigns) to move your audience along the buyer’s journey from awareness, to consideration, to decision, you can also do this with video.
Facebook and other platforms now allow you to build custom audiences based on behaviors, allowing you to also retarget based on the same.
This way you can target people who have watched a certain amount of your video to create highly targeted audiences that you can advertise to.
Structuring Your Videos
As far as structuring your videos is concerned, you need to think about the overall objective.
Are you just using it to increase brand awareness, or are you hoping to monetize it by reviewing/promoting either your own or affiliate products?
You also need to decide on what type of video you are going to create. Will it be a presentation style video? In that case you can use PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides.
Animated videos can be done quickly using tools like Explaindio
Doodle videos can be done quickly using tools like Doodly
If you want to create really cool-looking Buzzfeed style videos, the best options are Content Samurai and Rocketium.
They are both good and although Rocketium has more customization options, I prefer Content Samurai as it is really quick to create great looking videos in minutes.
All videos should have an introduction, followed by a call-to-action.
Then you transition into the main part of the video where you are sharing the information you have promised.
Make this good content that people would be willing to pay for!
You can have calls-to-action during this part of the video if you want, but certainly when you transition into the end of your video, you definitely want another call-to-action followed by your outro; don’t overcomplicate it.
It isn’t difficult to structure a good quality video and the more you do it, the better you’ll get!
Once you have the video created, you will need to edit it, and this is where Camtasia come in. This tool is fantastic; you can add intros, outros, lower thirds, alpha animations, text boxes, quizzes and so much more, but you will need to learn how to use it effectively and you can do that here
If you do want to sex up your videos by adding logo stingers, intros/outros, lower thirds and overlays, I highly recommend checking out Viddyoze as it is an amazing application.
OK, so now you have gone through all this and decided to create your amazing video. Now you need to decide on a strategy to market it.
Now that you know what video creation and marketing looks like in 2018, here’s how you can begin to develop your strategy.
How to Build a Video Marketing Strategy
Here are 4 steps that you can use to build out a video marketing strategy for your business.
Step 1. Develop Your Perfect Customer Avatar & Their Journey
To make sure your videos connect with your customers, you need to be sure that you’re targeting the right message to the right audience.
To do so, you’ll need to take the time to find these consumer insights before creating your video.
While text can be easily rewritten, videos take a lot more resources to be re-done. It’s best to try and get them right the first time.
Make sure that your messages match your brand voice in every instance.
This is a step that many new marketers skip over, but it is incredibly important that you know who you are going to be talking to, so DON’T skip it!
Step 2. Build Goals, KPI’s And Test And Track Everything
Next, you’ll need to create measurable goals and KPIs for your video campaign. Without goals, you can’t calculate ROI and prove that your videos are working.
To learn what works well for your audience, perform some A/B tests, then determine what “good” looks like for your brand.
Constantly monitor your stats and keep testing and tweaking to ensure that your videos are optimized as much as they can be.
Step 3. Determine the Type of Video and Platform
There are many platforms where you can “host” your video, including Facebook, Snapchat, LinkedIn, YouTube, e-publications, etc.
You’ll need to research where your audience spends time and which platform is the best fit for the tone of your message; this is tightly linked to step 1!
Some content platforms are better for short-term campaign videos, while others are better for live videos. Still others (like YouTube) are best for longer videos that you want to have some staying power.
Step 4. Create Cost- Effective, Valuable Videos
Make sure that your video is easily recognizable with visual-striking branding, then tell a story that matches your goals and your brand.
Having attractive thumbnails and enticing headlines are a key factor in whether someone will click on your video if/when they find it.
You can choose to create your video in-house or work with an external agency to build them for you if you have the budget.
You will be able to create in-house videos quicker and it is easier to edit them later if required, while external videos ensure your content looks professional and appeals to your audience. In-house videos are typically more cost-effective, though they do take a fair amount of time.
Now, if you want to learn all about video marketing, including setting up your YouTube channel correctly, optimizing your video/thumbnail etc. and all about using video ads then you really need to take a look at Video Marketing Insider (VMI) as it is an incredibly deep course and you will become a better marketer for it.
There are also a number of software’s included which are exclusive to members which can make your video marketing efforts easier and more effective.
But hopefully reading this has encouraged you to get started, and by using tools such as PowerPoint/Keynote/Google Slides, Content Samurai and Rocketium, you don’t need to appear on camera at all so that hurdle is easily overcome.
Video is here to stay, so grab your piece of the action today and see your marketing efforts become even more successful by leveraging the power of video.