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Archive for the ‘Email Marketing’ Category

The thank you page is one of the most overlooked places of real estate on the web.

That quote, from one of my mentors, Yanik Silver, speaks volumes. There is so much opportunity to promote more business and further your relationship with a new client on your thank-you page.

That client has just indicated that they trust you by opting in to your offer. Signing up to your list is a sign that they want to hear more from you.   Don’t let them leave wanting; offer them even more before they click off your thank-you page.

When developing your thank you page, think about what you can do to increase your client’s involvement. Marketing research has shown that the more people are involved, the more likely they are to buy – again.

That’s one reason companies hand out scratch-off cards with prizes or discounts hidden beneath the ink. It’s called an involvement device. When someone physically has to do something, it increases their involvement, which increases response and increases conversion.

The content on your thank you page needs to be relevant to your target market. Think about what you want them to do next, where you want them redirected to, and if there’s an opportunity to make them another offer.

There are several key ways you can accomplish this.

•    Make another offer. While letting the client know you’re glad they signed up, also let them know about another offering. Make a special offer. Offer a special prize or a special bonus that new clients will receive, but only if they sign up there and then.   Remember to use language that encourages action.  For example, “This is the only time you will see this offer. It’s for new subscribers only and you won’t have access to it again.”

•    Ask for more information. Once a new prospect joins your list, ask them to describe their biggest problem. You can then direct them to other offers you may have to help with the problem, or develop that new offering if you don’t have one.

•     Create a “tell a friend” campaign. Invite people to tell three friends about your offering in exchange for a special bonus. “Congratulations. Your place on the call is reserved. But just before we continue I would like to offer you this free gift……..”

Everyone who opts in helps you spread the word to other people. This will make a massive difference to your opt-ins and really help to increase your list. You can automate this process using Viral Friend Generator software.

When saying “thank you”, the key is to include only one of these options on your page. Either attempt an additional sale by making another offer, ask new clients for more information, or create a tell-a-friend page.

Any one of these options added to your thank-you page will start increasing your sales immediately.

Bernadette Doyle specializes in helping entrepreneurs attract a steady stream of ideal clients. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, sign up for her free weekly e-zine at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Writing a sales letter is a practice in anticipating what your prospects will think, and overcoming their objections. When you’re writing your sales copy, it’s invaluable to be able to put yourself in your prospects’ shoes and predict what they’ll think when they read your copy. It may be difficult to predict all of the objections that your prospects will have to your sales letter, but one thing you can easily manage is this: catch the catch. Explain why you’re offering such a great deal or such a great product to your prospects, or they won’t believe your pitch.

Prospects Look Out for Deals that are Too Good
From an early age, most of us are told “if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” By adulthood, most people feel that they can judge whether a deal is good or not, but that little doubt lurks in the back of most people’s minds. If you do a great job of establishing the value of your product, and justifying your price, people might have trouble trusting you or your sales copy. If you make your product sound “too good to be true,” you have to explain yourself to your prospects or risk loosing sales.

Reasons for Offering a Great Deal
A few key phrases can help diffuse worry over a deal being “too good” and convince your prospects that you’re on the up-and-up. With one technique, you explain to your prospects why a product like yours normally costs more, and how you’ve managed to change the production method to realize a cost savings. Then, you can say something like “I can pass along my cost savings to you.” This lets the prospect know that you know you’re offering a really good deal, and gives them a reason for you offering a good deal. If you don’t explain this to them, they’ll think that you’ve misrepresented the value of what you’re selling, and will turn away from your product.

Another technique involves presenting yourself as the “good guy” and responsible community member to your prospects. For example, you could tell your prospects that a colleague has recommended that you charge more for your product, but you’re “not greedy,” so you’ve chosen to offer it for less. One successful copywriter said “This is such a valuable skill set that I’m offering it at this price so as not to price it out of the hands of the people who need it most.”

In most cases, it doesn’t really matter how you overcome the “it’s too good to be true” objection – just that you address it somehow. When you re-read your sales letter, look at it from the eyes of a potential prospect. If you find yourself thinking “What’s the catch?” then you probably need to re-work your copy, or add in some language explaining why you’re offering such a great deal. With this technique, you can overcome the mental objections of the prospects, and you’re that much closer to making a sale!

Bernadette Doyle specializes in helping entrepreneurs attract a steady stream of ideal clients. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, sign up for her free weekly e-zine at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Good marketers know they need to stay fresh in people’s minds to be ideally positioned for that sale, or to form a good business partnership with a new affiliate. People try a variety of ways to stay in people’s thoughts, both physically and on the Web. You may do article marketing, newsletters, email blasts, and media marketing to keep your Web presence fresh. Alternately, you may send postcards, letters, holiday cards, or even birthday cards to build relationships and stay connected with people physically. Most of these methods are getting old and tired, but forming good relationships enables you to connect with people in creative new ways.

Be Creative with Your Connections
Do you send out holiday cards every year to your prospects? So do most businesses. You don’t stay fresh in people’s minds by doing the same thing that everyone else does. Find new ways to be creative with your connections, and catch your clients’ minds in a unique way. By forming good relationships with people, you’ll have a fresh pool of creative ideas to draw upon to keep your relationships dynamic and unique.

Consider this example: Carrie Wilkerson spoke with my Mastermind Group and talked about how she uses social media to build relationships. Carrie mentioned that one of her contacts talks on Twitter every day about how he walks his dog in the morning. He mentions the dog by name, and even the type of dog. When Carrie wanted to make a connection with this man, she didn’t just send him a note or a card; she sent a dog toy for his dog. She mentioned his dog by name, and found a toy that the dog would appreciate, based on the information that this man shared about his dog.

This showed the man that Carrie listened, and was interested in him as a person – not just him as a business contact. This is a fantastic strategy for solidifying relationships, and as a way to stay connected with people that will actually stay fresh in their thoughts. That man probably won’t remember everyone who sent him a card, but he’ll definitely remember the woman who sent his dog a toy.

Use Your Relationships to form Unique Connections
Your relationships with people provide valuable connection opportunities. By building good relationships, you set yourself up for opportunities you might not otherwise have. When you build a good relationship with someone, for example, you’re much more likely to be set up with the friend of a friend as a new business contact. People are more likely to refer business contacts that they like, than pushy sales-oriented people who don’t care about them as a person.

Use your relationships with people to form unique connections. Don’t just be the sales person, or the person with the coaching product, or that consultant. Be a friend; be the person who sent the dog a toy, or the person who’s always asking about the kids or the wife. By building these unique connections with people, you’re getting into their lives in a real and meaningful way, and you’ll be in their minds if a fantastic new business connection comes up, or if they remember that they know someone who might be a good match for your business.

Bernadette Doyle specializes in helping entrepreneurs attract a steady stream of ideal clients. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, sign up for her free weekly e-zine at http://www.clientmagnets.com

What is your definition of opportunity?

Imagine that it’s a typical week for your website – the one that you have planned, designed, to which you have driven traffic, and through which you have made booking and registrations possible. Let’s assume that during a given week, 100 visitors cross into the realm of your site; 2 of them make the decision to purchase; however 98 of them leave without investing in your product.

What number captures your attention in the above example? Is it the 2 buyers? Will you wait for another 2 buyers next week? Will you count on luck, or “spray and pray” to deliver a sprinkling of voluntary customers next month, and next year?

Or, do you view the 98 departees as 98 new opportunities for sales?

In truth, your best profit potential lies in the 98 visitors who chose not to buy. If you plan well, after they leave, you will have 98 names and addresses that can lead to potential sales. All you need to do is have a plan for following them up. Just think – if you can get even 2 of those 98 to say “yes,” you have converted a larger percentage than you did with your sales page alone.

Here are some points to show why you should be following up:

• When you follow up with website visitors, you are targeting prospects who have already expressed an interest in your product. They clicked, which means, at the very least, that they are curious. For my regular readers, you know that this means you have gathered an audience of people with “raised hands.”

• Targeted follow-up correspondence answers questions that many of your visitors are not willing to ask (and many people have the same types of questions). Every time you answer a question, you take the opportunity to dispel an objection or a fear.

• Follow-up breeds interaction, which begs conversation. Think of your follow-up e-mails, postcards, and teleseminars as ice-breakers in a conversation that everyone wants to have, but no one knows how to broach.

• Marketing research doesn’t lie. It tells us that more follow-ups equal more conversions. Stay relevant in the minds of your prospects, and you’ll be the first person they turn to when a problem arises.

• Follow-up is a circular phenomenon. It gives you the information you need to devise better methods of follow-up. When questions are posed, and objections voiced, you are given valuable insight into the minds of prospective clients. With this information, you can plant more seeds and dispel more fears.

• Follow-up contact is an invaluable vehicle for conveying the idea of urgency. If a conference is set to take place 6 months from now, people will put off registration. But, if you can communicate a special offer through follow-up correspondence, you will light the fire to sign up. Often, discount deadlines and space limitations work well.

To increase conversions and increase your sales, it’s absolutely necessary you follow-up with all your prospects – even the prospects that don’t buy from you. You cannot follow up too often – you just need to vary your medium to keep your prospect engaged.

Don’t hesitate to use the invaluable follow-up for attracting and retaining clients. Leading prospects to your door is never enough – you must give them the incentives to revisit, and to invest.

Bernadette Doyle specializes in helping entrepreneurs attract a steady stream of ideal clients. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, sign up for her free weekly e-zine at http://www.clientmagnets.com

Recently, my friend and mentor, Kevin Nations, was offering a teleseminar.  Since he’s been such a great help to me, I passed the word along to my list of people.  But some who were reaching the web page to sign up for the call were having technical problems and unable to use the signup form.  They started emailing to find more information and to complete their signup.  I couldn’t help but think what a great offer he had – so great that it compelled people to take the extra steps to overcome a technical problem to get signed up!  Would they do that for your offer?

Just a few years ago, it was so easy to build a list of potential clients using online resources.  A little signup box in the corner of a webpage that offered a few free tips worked well for list building.  Soon the tips grew to a free report.  Is your list continuing to grow?  If your list isn’t growing as it once did, it’s time to take a fresh look at your offer.

We call that offer your ethical bribe.  You’re giving people something of value to them in return for their name and email address, which is of value to you.  And you’re not just getting any old name and email.  It’s someone who’s showing, just by the nature of your offer, that they have an interest in your product.  They are the perfect person to sell to – someone who’s receptive to your product.  But is it time to sweeten the pot?  Are you offering enough that someone would take an extra step to get the free offering?

Since building a list of potential clients is key to building your sales, you need to make sure that you continue to cultivate your list.  What were once tried and true methods for list building may now be growing more lackluster.  If you’re not generating results as you once were, take a fresh look at what you’re offering.  Is it compelling with enough value that people would take an extra step to get it?

One tried and true sales method is to create a sense of urgency, and this is the same for creating a valuable ethical bribe.  That may the reason that free reports don’t work as quickly and effectively as they used to – there’s no sense of urgency.  It’s still going to be there next week or next month.  On the other hand, a teleseminar has a deadline, it’s taking place on a certain date, so by its very nature it has the deadline to create urgency.  It also has scarcity in that there are only so many lines available for the call.  Together, the deadline and the scarcity create the urgency you need to compel people to act.

Think about your ethical bribe – does it have a high enough perceived value?  Is it enough that people will take an extra step for it?  Keep it fresh and compelling to keep your list, and therefore your business, growing.

When it comes to marketing, every single thing that you do to generate leads should have a purpose. Without a purpose, you can end up with an advertising blitz campaign that saturates the market but doesn’t have any real direction.

And where does something without direction end up going? Nowhere.

We call this “spray-and-pray” marketing – advertising your business anywhere and everywhere, hoping that people will notice you, praying your hard work pays off.

You’ll do a ton of things because you think you need to be doing them. You’ll get on Facebook. You’ll start to Twitter. You might host a teleseminar or write some articles. Don’t get me wrong. These can all be very good leads for your business, but if you don’t know why you’re doing them, they are just busy, random activities. Unless they are consciously linked to your end point, they will simply exhaust you and your physical resources, like your energy and time. Some of them will exhaust your money as well because they cost money to apply.

Be more intentional with your marketing techniques to avoid becoming frustrated by the amount of time you’re spending on lead generation. Instead, your time will be well spent because your marketing is on purpose. What you really want is to be engaging with your clients in your specialty, and that is where intentional marketing will lead you.

But, if do you reach a point of being overwhelmed or disillusioned, where you’re putting out a lot of energy but aren’t getting the returns, don’t be discouraged.

Do not give up. That would be a tremendous waste of your talent.

Part of my own purpose is to support and encourage you to pursue your own path. I know it’s easy to get discouraged if things haven’t been working out the way you’d imagined. Don’t blame yourself, and don’t assume that what you are offering has no value because you haven’t been able to get people to buy it. That would be a critical mistake.

What you are offering to clients absolutely does have value. You may just be missing one or two of pieces on how to promote it. It’s time to tweak your approach and get focused. A tweak or two could be all you need to make your approach more intentional, to turn things around and help you start attracting the clients you want.

You will probably find that you don’t need a major overhaul in your business, and that some of the approaches you are using do work quite well. It’s not about giving up on what you’re doing, throwing it all out, and saying that it was all a terrible waste of time. It’s not about throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

It’s about evaluating where you are and looking closely at where you want to be.

There are almost certainly pieces of what you’re doing that are working. But, that spray-and-pray part of marketing is just not smart marketing. And if you have been doing that, at least you’ve been taking action. If you look on the positive side, you’ve been doing something. It may not have been the most effective thing, but you are working, trying and doing the best you can.

Now you know that you need to be more deliberate, more purposeful. And you now know it’s time for you to address your business and your marketing with intent.

Bernadette Doyle specializes in helping entrepreneurs attract a steady stream of ideal clients. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, sign up for her free weekly e-zine at http://www.clientmagnets.com

What comes to mind when you see that the majority of your sales page visitors have left without purchasing?  You may choose from two schools of thought: you may consider them to be lost to the click-away, or you may consider them to be interested prospects that simply need to be followed up with.

Everytime a prospect visits your website – whether they purchase from your or not -  is an opportunity to increase your revenue and grow your business.   The key is in following up with each and every visitor.  But how can you do that?

You must first capture the information necessary for following up, and then you need to implement a plan that makes meaningful, targeted contact.

Your squeeze page, or opt-in page, is an invaluable tool for gathering contact information from your website visitors.  You can’t follow up with people unless you have the information necessary for doing so.    The best way to collect names, addresses, and other data is to make it a prerequisite to entering your site.  On your opt-in page, you ask for their details.  This information will then be used by you for following up with buyers and non-buyers in one or more of the following ways:

• E-mail Follows Ups. Your first contact with website visitors should be immediately after they register their details – a sort of “welcome to the club” message.  Autoresponder programs are more readily available, and less costly, than ever – and are the easiest way to accomplish e-mail follow ups.  You can try to orchestrate follow-up emails on your own, but it won’t be long before you find yourself buried under the weight of this task.

E-mail follow-ups shouldn’t stop after initial contact.  In fact, you should use your email list to stay in contact, to gather questions, to respond to feedback, and to stay relevant in the minds of interested parties.

• Snail Mail Follow-Ups. Standard mail is still relevant.  In fact, it can be a valuable tool for “switching things up.”  When a prospect finds you via the internet, and then receives a postcard with valuable information in their mailbox, you instantly establish yourself as a well-rounded and versatile business person.

Services are available, much like those of autoresponder companies, that can do this for you.  Traditional mail can be a great tool for driving traffic back to your sales page.

• The Teleseminar. In your chosen follow-up method, make the offer of free participation in a teleseminar.  This will give prospects the opportunity to hear your voice, ask questions, and to voice concerns.  The dynamic that occurs when you speak to a number of people at once is one that can electrify the transfer of information.  Additionally, you can use your teleseminar to make special offers to your listeners  – a limited-time offer, for instance, or an offer that’s only available to teleconference attendees.

Don’t fall into repetitive sales tactics.  Mix it up – send a welcome e-mail, then a special offer postcard, then an invitation to an exclusive teleseminar – keep them guessing.  No matter your follow-up plan, ensure that you gather all of the information necessary to facilitate it when your website visitors register their details.  You can’t send postcards without physical addresses, and you can’t send e-mails without e-mail addresses.

Use your site visitor statistics to your advantage.  Don’t view those who walk away as failures in conversion, but rather, as opportunities to follow up and build your turn-over numbers, and your business.

Bernadette Doyle is a marketing specialist who helps entrepreneurs become client magnets and attract a steady stream of their ideal clients. She publishes a free, weekly newsletter. If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com

You know the bullet point – in fact, a few of them are included in this article.  But there’s a noted difference between the bullet points included here and the ones that you’ll find on a registration page or sales letter.  When your intention is to entice readers to buy, a simple listing of information will never do.  Instead, you must entice and provoke curiosity with bullet points that shoot right to the heart of the matter.

Expert copywriters know how to pack a real punch with their bullet points, and here are a few of their industry secrets:

• Each bullet point should be a solo act and encase its very own mini-topic. It should not rely on the points before it, or the points after it.  When bullet points are well-written, it’s not uncommon for someone to sign up as a result of reading one, topic-targeted bullet point.

• Bullet points should be enticing. Each bullet point, when read alone, should evoke an, “Oooh, that looks good,” from its reader.

• If you’re selling something (like a paid teleseminar space, for example), you’ll need about 12 to 15 bullet points. You want prospects to feel confident that you have a significant amount of information to exchange for their money; that there’s so much juicy stuff included, they simply can’t afford to miss out.

• Be specific. Let readers know exactly what you’re offering, how many steps are included in your plan, how long it will take, and what they will learn.

• Be bold. Make promises that make prospects say, “Really?  Can they really do that?”  Of course, you must ensure that you can, without a doubt, deliver on that promise.

• Provoke curiosity. An example of a bullet point that provokes curiosity is, “This 3-step plan to jumpstart your business growth can increase your lead from 50% to 300% in less than 30 days.”  Readers will stop, wonder how in the world that’s possible, and at the very least, read on to satisfy their curiosity.

• Keep your agenda out of it. Sales letter bullet points should be all about getting prospects to consider the benefits available to them.  The points should focus on satisfying readers’ desires, and should mention nothing about your needs.

• No tables of content. That’s  boring!   You’ve got to entice, provoke, and make it nearly impossible to stop reading.  When’s the last time you were captivated by a table of contents?

• Address the problems that you’ll solve. People want to know that you “feel” them.  They want to know that you’re prepared to solve their problems, because you have a good grasp on what their issues and problems are.

• Read the work of the copywriting greats. Don’t plagiarize, of course, but become familiar enough with their work that you can effectively imitate their work.

Generic, strictly informational, bullet points will never gather the effect that you’re looking for from your registration page or sales letter.  Each one of your bullet points has to reach out of the computer monitor, grab your prospect by the throat, and make it utterly impossible for that person to click away (without first signing up).

Bullet points have the potential to be powerful selling tools…as long as they’re brazen, enticing, curiosity-evoking, and shoot right to the heart of the matter.  You have the power to create powerful bullet points…by simply keeping your target in mind, taking careful aim, and shooting.

Bernadette Doyle specializes in helping entrepreneurs attract a steady stream of ideal clients. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, sign up for her free weekly e-zine at http://www.clientmagnets.com

There’s little point in driving people to your website if you’re not able to capture their business once they get there. So, before you try to draw the crowd, make sure the fundamentals are in place.

There are three foundational things that you need in place before you try to get your business name in front of potential clients.

•    A List Manager.

Because I didn’t have a list manager when I first started, I had to manually send out the free report I had offered to a hundred people. You don’t want to do that. A list manager is your database – the place where you store all the names you’re going to collect – and it enables you to handle the “subscribes” and “unsubscribes” automatically. You don’t have to spend any time on it, or hire an assistant to do it.

Some examples of list managers are 1ShoppingCart.com, Total Business Cart, Constant Contact and  AWeber.

•    An Ethical Bribe

What are you offering that is interesting and enticing to the clients you want? You need to present something so tempting that people will be eager to hand over their name, their email address, possibly even their mailing address.

Consider using a free report, a teleseminar, or an audio. These can all work very well in helping to build your list. If you don’t think you have enough expertise, consider interviewing an expert, and use that as your giveaway.

Spend some time thinking about what that enticement is going to be. Make sure your offer is congruent with the people you want to attract. What will have those clients flocking to you?

For example, high-end marketing clients probably won’t be interested in a program titled “Marketing on a Shoestring.” Psychologically, you’re going to attract the cheapskates with that title, when what you really want are the money people. So make sure your pitch fits the people you’re pitching to.

•    A Squeeze Page

It used to be enough to have a box on your website that says, “Sign up here for our free newsletter.” These days, you will find that less than 10% of people who visit the page actually sign up.

A squeeze page is a standalone page that has one goal – to get people to join your list.

For example, use a squeeze page to promote a teleseminar. That page will contain the teleseminar topic, the details about the teleseminar, and a box where people can sign up. There is no navigation bar leading to another section of the website. There is no other information.

Here’s an example of one of my squeeze pages:
www.clientmagnets.com/steppingup

I’ve found that about 70% of visitors say yes, compared to the 10% who click on that box somewhere in the corner of your website. This is where you will capture the person’s details.

Once you have these fundamentals in place, you can begin to focus on the promotional things you need to drive traffic to your site.

Bernadette Doyle specializes in helping entrepreneurs attract a steady stream of ideal clients. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them, sign up for her free weekly e-zine at http://www.clientmagnets.com

The sales letter is your most important marketing tool for building an audience and gaining attendance at your event. It forms the core for your entire marketing campaign, be it online or offline. As the single most important piece of marketing material you’ll develop for your event, the sales letter is worth an investment, either in terms of time or finances.

Writing a Sales Letter Yourself
As the most important marketing material you’ll have for your event, it’s vital that you produce a good sales letter. If you’ve got a low budget or you simply prefer to maintain control of your event materials, you might want to try writing the sales letter yourself. If you do decide to go this route, make sure you understand what you’re doing before you start your draft.

Because the sales letter is such an important marketing piece, it’s worth investing in training that teaches you how to write a sales letter. Don’t assume that writing a sales letter must be easy. Copywriters use tried-and-true techniques to lead into a sales pitch, list benefits, overcome objections and inspire readers to action. If you don’t utilize these techniques in your sales letter, you could be missing out on potential audience members. Training that teaches you how to write sales letters may cost you both financially and in time spent, but it’s an investment well worth the cost.

Hiring a Copywriter to Write Your Sales Letter
If you don’t have the time or inclination to write a sales letter yourself, you might choose to hire a copywriter to write your sales letter. In some ways, this is an extremely beneficial way to approach the sales process. When you hire a copywriter, you’re getting the benefit of that copywriter’s experience writing sales materials. A good copywriter knows the techniques to motivate attendees to register, and can use that knowledge to help make your event a success.

When selecting a copywriter for your sales letter, ask for samples of prior sales letter writing. Additionally, request conversion information. A copywriter who writes a high-conversion sales letter wants to brag about it, while copywriters who can’t provide conversion information may not have written any high-converting sales materials.

How to Turn a Sales Letter Into Other Marketing Materials
A sales letter is just the starting point for your marketing campaign. You can also turn a sales letter into other marketing materials by taking some of the bullet points or takeaway points and creating new materials. You could create postcards, a landing page, brochures, flyers or other sales materials simply by rearranging and nicely formatting your sales letter. The sales letter contains all the information you need for your marketing; all you need to do is convert it to whatever end format you want to present to potential attendees.

Whether you choose to write it yourself or hire a copywriter, I recommend you invest in a good sales letter. Your sales letter is going to be your point of contact with potential attendees, and it can single-handedly create a successful event.

If you’d like to receive invaluable tips and advice on how to attract clients with ease, register at http://www.clientmagnets.com