Michael Wilding

Tag: internet marketing

  • It’s Not As Important As It Seems

    It’s Not As Important As It Seems

    I’ve got to be honest, this isn’t one of my most imaginatively named posts. But although the name isn’t optimised for maximum conversion, the content is going to change your life.

    That’s a big statement I know. But one I fully believe is true.

    And, I’m going to change your life with just seven words.

    Yes… you guessed it. The seven words are:

    It’s not as important as it seems

    Let’s take a step back for a moment and look at why these words are going to change your life.

    You are involved in internet marketing. That may or may not be your primary business, but in some way you’re involved it.

    It doesn’t matter whether you are in charge of writing and putting content onto your companies blog, manage the social media program, build websites or run a completely internet based business.

    If you have any contact with the world of internet marketing then this is going to affect you.

    Stress.

    You see there are two major problems that affect 99% of people working with internet marketing. They are:

    1. Too many possibilities
    2. Information overload

    Let’s begin by focusing on number one. There are simply hundreds of possible avenues for online promotion. For example you could:

    • Email marketing
    • SEO
    • Facebook traffic
    • Twitter traffic
    • Google Adwords
    • Bing PPC
    • Pay Per View
    • Sponsored Posts
    • Content Marketing
    • And many more…

    But when you start to dig into each of these it get’s even more overwhelming because there is so much to consider and test for each one.

    Take email marketing as an example. You need to consider and test:

    • Email lead generation from different sources
    • Email list segmentation
    • Email content
    • Promotion vs Content schedule
    • Subject lines
    • Squeeze page testing to different email traffic sources
    • Landing page testing to different email traffic sources
    • Sales page testing to different email traffic sources

    Before you even begin it’s starting to look stressful, and once you start implementing it just gets worse.

    Suddenly you find your job list filled with jobs that are all deemed urgent.

    You must send an email at a certain time. The split-test needs to be ready before the email goes out. The copy isn’t right. The list needs to be segmented.

    On and on and on until you feel like you’re going to explode.

    If you ever experienced a feeling like this before, and I know I have many times. Then you need to say to yourself just seven words.

    It’s not as important as it seems

    Because the really true bottom line is… there’s almost nothing that is so important it can’t wait a few hours or even a few days.

    So you miss a promotion. There’ll always be something else to promote. So your split-test isn’t ready, you can do it next week when it is.

    Although it feels like you have to do everything instantly. You don’t.

    Take things one step at a time. Complete one thing before moving onto the next.

    The internet is moving so quickly that there is always something new to test. There is always something different that is making somebody “insane profits”.

    But… if it’s a technique that’s seriously worth investing your time in. Then it will still be working in six days, six months and even six years.

    If it isn’t, then it’s not worth investing your limited time in learning how to do it.

    So, in summary, if you’re feeling your job list getting to many “urgent” jobs on it. If you’re starting to feel overwhelmed. Take a step back. Have a break and remind yourself that…

    It’s not as important as it seems

  • Less Clicks To Make More Money

    Less Clicks To Make More Money

    If you’re still reading then you’re ahead of most internet marketers.

    Why?

    Because at first glance the title of this post doesn’t make any sense.

    I mean, the lesson that we’re all taught in internet marketing is to get as much traffic to an offer as possible. After all, if you have a 2% conversion rate and send 1000 clicks then you’ll make 20 sales. If you can send 10000 clicks then you’ll make 200 sales.

    Surely it’s a no-brainer. Isn’t it?

    Well, in the next few minutes I’m going to challenge everything that you thought you knew about clicks and why you shouldn’t just be focusing on the number.

    Before I jump into the details of how you can reduce your clicks and make more money, I should clarify that this is primarily for email marketing to your in-house mailing list. Other sources of traffic don’t necessarily work in the same way.

    Alright… let’s jump into how we’re going to make you more money from less traffic.

    And, you’re going to do that by being selective.

    When you send a promotional email out, do you send it out to everyone on your list?

    If you do then I want you to stop doing that. From right now.

    Okay, you’re going to need to do it a few times more because you’ve always done it. But you’re going to do it in a much smarter way.

    Here’s the thing. When a prospect joins your mailing list they’re joining because of a specific offer. Maybe it’s free software, a trial, a PDF guide showing how to do something. Whatever the optin offer, everyone will have joined your list for a different reason.

    Which means one thing.

    They’re all interested in something different.

    Of course, there’s cross-over. I mean someone who joined your list to get information on optimising their email marketing campaign may also be interested in finding out how to send paid traffic to that campaign.

    Or someone who joined your list for a free video guide on how to increase their sales page conversion rates may also be interested in how to send paid traffic to that campaign.

    So it makes sense to send an email to everyone when there is a paid traffic product to promote. Right.

    The thing is, they’re both going to be looking at the paid traffic product from a different viewpoint.

    And if you want to maximise your sales then you need to write your email copy differently for each type of subscriber in order to make sure that it “speaks to them”.

    Otherwise you’re going to be losing sales. Full stop.

    The way to do this is through a process called segmentation. You want to segment your mailing list into a lot of small mailing lists.

    Ideally you’ll be using a CRM system like InfusionSoft so that each contact that comes in is tagged. The benefit of this is that the person will only receive the email once. However, CRM software is pretty pricey compared to autoresponder services like Aweber and GetResponse.

    If you use Aweber and GetResponse then you should have a separate list for each other that a prospect can join by. This allows you to segment the content you send to each list based on what you know they’re interested in.

    You may, at the moment, just have one mailing list where you have put everybody who joins however the join. If so, don’t worry. We can use that as well but you need to start segmenting it up from now on.

    If you have just one list then send an email out about a topic, not a product, asking who is interested in that product.

    Let your readers know that you’ve got some awesome, highly valuable content you’re giving away for free about that topic and they should head over to your optin page to get it.

    This optin page will put anybody who opts in onto a new mailing list specifically for that content.

    Great, you now have a smaller list of people who can be considered hot leads for that topic. They just opted into a mailing list to get the information.

    Your job of converting them from a lead to a sale is now much easier, because you know they are actively interested.

    This segmented list is going to be hyper responsive. Of course you’ve got to provide them with some awesome free content. After all they did just optin to a new mailing list and if you provide them with some awesome free content then they’re going to want to get more content.

    But here’s the trick. Give enough free content that they want to finish your email sequence, but then tell them you’re going to take it to the next level if they buy the product you’re promoting.

    The information you’ll give them then will not be released to anybody else and is going to jumpstart you.

    What you’ve now down is:

    • Created a hyper-responsive mailing list for a specific topic
    • Provided them with some awesome content to really help them, but held back on the best bit
    • Told them that what they thought was the best bit, isn’t. In fact the best bit is only available to people who buy the product you’re promoting

    Repeat this message a few times, before finally giving them the best bit you promised at the beginning. You give this to everyone whether they bought or not. I usually like to do a final sales message at the very end as well.

    But for those people who purchased the product you were promoting, you give them the bonus that you had created for the product. The only thing is… you’ve never called it a bonus.

    Bonuses may still work well for some people, but personally I’ve found that they’ve become less and less effective as a sales tool due to the quantity of poor bonuses on offer.

    So if you provide high quality content that’s going to make a big difference when used with the product they’re purchasing but never say it’s a bonus. The conversion is going to be much higher.

    In summary, we’ve reduced your mailing list to those people who are interested right now in the topic that the product you’re going to promote is based around. You’ve then provided them with awesome free content before telling them they can get something even better if they purchase the product you’re promoting.

    You may send significantly less clicks, but your conversion rate is going to be skyhigh. Why?

    Because you’re only sending people who have told you very recently that they’re interested in exactly what you’re selling.

    Test it out. You won’t be disappointed.

  • Why You Should Use Trackable Links In Every Email

    Why You Should Use Trackable Links In Every Email

    Do you use trackable links in your email?

    And I don’t mean the kind of links that are automatically put in by your autoresponder company.

    Yes, they’re tracking links. But they will only track the basic information such as number of clicks.

    The exception is if you’re using a CRM such as InfusionSoft which allows you to “tag” contacts when they click a link so you know the exact action that they’ve taken.

    In digital marketing data is the key.

    And if you don’t know what your lists are doing then you’re leaving money on the sidewalk.

    How many lists do you currently have in your auto-responder? Five? Ten? Twenty?

    The reason for creating multiple lists is to segment your readers when they show interest in different things.

    For example you may have one list for your free course on product creation. You may have a list for customers who’ve bought your WordPress plugin, and yet another for people who’ve wanted to get your blog updates and submitted their details through the form on your website.

    All these lists have people on who’ve shown interest in different areas of your market. They’re segments.

    Of course, some of people will be on two or more of your lists. That’s fine, it just shows that they’re interested in multiple areas.

    But when you send an email out to a product and you send it to all your lists do you know which it works best for?

    If you’re not using tracking links then you won’t. And if you don’t then you can’t tailor the offers you send to that mailing list to ones that you know they’ll be interested in!

    Install some tracking software, such as CPV Lab, and you will suddenly find new insights into your readers that you never knew.

    I recommend tracking each of the following three things to begin:

    1. Every link in your email marked by position, e.g. top link, PS link, middle link
    2. The list name
    3. The email number in the promotional series

    When do you first tracked promotion then write an email tailored to the audience in your biggest list.

    Then take this email copy and adjust it to make it more relevant to each of your other lists.

    Yes, this means rewriting the same email multiple times, but I assure you it will be worth it.

    If you can, wait until you have a few hundred clicks to multiple products before making any decisions. Then go into your analytics for your tracking software and check each list for the following:

    1. Which product has produced the best conversion rate for each list. Make a note of the sub-niche it is relevant to and make notes on how the sales page is written.
    2. Which link position in the emails for each list has created the most conversions. If you are tracking how many links in an email as well then you can also note the overall best number of links to put in an email to each list. Consider bolding or increasing the font size slightly for the link position that converts the best.
    3. Whether single emails or promotional series work better for each list. If promotional email series works better then which email numbers produce the best and worst conversion rates. Consider removing the links in the worst converting emails and just provide content only, this will often increase the conversion rate in the other emails.

    So, if you’re not already do this then go and investigate the different tracking pieces of tracking software that are available. Some are free and some are paid.

    Install and get familiar with the software and start to implement tracking in your emails as above. I guarantee that within four weeks you will be seeing higher conversion rates and know exactly which products you should be promoting to each of your mailing lists.

  • How To 100% Know If You’re Product Is Going To Make Your Money

    How To 100% Know If You’re Product Is Going To Make Your Money

    Wouldn’t it be great if you could know with a 100% certainty if there was a market for your product before you even had it made?

    Imagine, you’re having your morning coffee when you come up with the idea for what you’re sure is going to be the next top selling product. You phone around and get some quotes for how much it will cost to produce but…

    …you’re now in a position where you have to buy stock.

    That means you have to outlay money but you’re not sure if there’s really a market for it or if they’ll pay the price you need to be able to make a profit.

    Traditionally you would now spend a lot of time and money doing market research and predicting the level of demand and the price point.

    But not only does that take money, it’s also very slow and often wrong.

    What you need is a crystal ball that’s going to tell you that information with a 100% certainty.

    Well, with the advent of the internet that crystal ball is available if you know how to use it.

    It’s otherwise called:

    Paid Traffic

    What I’m about to share with you can be used for both real products and digital products, but it’s going to be easier with real products due to a lot of paid traffic sources not being so keen on digital products.

    I am going to describe a process using AdWords but any high quality paid traffic source will do.

    It’s also worth noting that although everywhere says you can’t use AdWords with internet marketing products anymore in my experience that’s not strictly true.

    Because… we do.

    You will need an account in good standing and you need to be careful with how you promote and what your sales page looks like. But it’s certainly possible and, because nobody else is doing it, the traffic is plentiful 😉

    Anyway, I’ve moved away from the main point.

    How do we check with 100% certainty whether your product is going to make a profit.

    First of all you make your sales page. If you are making a real world product then you should get a sample made up so you can take photographs of it.

    Once you’ve made your sales page then you make a two stage order form. The first stage is entering the name and email address. The second would be the payment details but…

    …the second part doesn’t exist.

    Because at this stage we want to find out how many people will go through to the order form.

    Instead after they optin to your mailing list you send them to a page which says there are currently no items left in stock and say that you will be in touch as soon as you have more stock.

    Assume that 25% of the people who complete the optin will purchase your product (this is the average across all markets).

    Now you only need to spend between $100 and $200 to get enough data to determine:

    • How much a sale will cost you
    • How big the market is
    • If it’s profitable

    If your product isn’t going to make a profit, don’t despair. Maybe you can reduce your profit margin slightly or call the manufacturer and ask them if they can reduce the cost to the level you require for it to be profitable.

    What using this process will do is tell you for just $200 whether your product is going to work before you’ve had to spend any money creating your product!

    This means that you never need to make a product that doesn’t have a market or won’t be profitable for you again.

    In summary:

    • Decide on your product
    • Determine how much it will cost to make and ship
    • If a real product get a sample made and photograph it
    • Create a sales page with a two-step order form
    • Send paid traffic to the sales page
    • Assume 25% of people who optin will purchase
    • Determine if your product will be profitable

    Oh, and I forgot to mention… you’re also building a mailing list of people who are interested in your product at the same time!

  • Information Products Are Worthless

    Information Products Are Worthless

    I’ve put a pretty bold statement on the title of this post. Especially considering that most of us in the IM market are selling information products.

    But don’t hit the back button just yet, there’s a reason.

    First of all though, let me explain why I’ve called this post:

    Information Products Are Worthless

    It’s because you can find everything that you want to for… free!

    That’s right, everything you need to know about is freely available, from marketing to skydiving. If you go to Google now and type in:

    “write killer headlines”

    You will get something similar to…

    Writer Killer head

     

    That’s over 2.5 million results which are related to writing killer headlines!

    So if everything we need is freely available then why do we make, and people buy, information products.

    Because there’s too much information.

    And most of the time time the people searching for the information don’t really know what they’re looking for.

    That’s definitely been me in the past, and I’m sure it will be me again in the future.

    You see modern society has a schooling system that generally teaches us facts. It doesn’t teach is how to solve problems, how to (in effect) teach ourselves.

    Have you seen threads in forums or reviews saying completely conflicting views on whether an information product works?

    The most common assumption is that some of the reviewers know the product creator.

    But then it also happens on some products to such a large scale that this simply can’t be the case.

    So what is the reason?

    It’s the type of person and the position they were in when buying the product. Broadly speaking there are two types:

    1. The buyer who knows what they need to move their business forward
    2. The buyer who still doesn’t understand what they need to move their business forward

    Most buyers are going to be in the second category, and that’s why products that claim to show you how to… “Start Making $3000 A Month!” sell.

    Why?

    Because that’s the end-goal for a lot of the buyers. But, most of them won’t achieve the end-goal as they don’t understand what they’re truly looking for.

    They will flit from one approach to another never succeeding in any of them.

    And that’s because they don’t know how to teach themselves.

    This is NOT the sort of customer that you want, at least not yet.

    But surely that’s great, won’t that mean that I’ll make a lot of sales off them?

    You may well make a lot of sales off them. But they will never be happy. They will never achieve their goal and that means that they will blame you. Ultimately that leads to mixed reviews of your services and yourself.

    Now look at the other buyer. This is a buyer who knows what they need to move forwards with their business.

    They may only just be starting but have done their research and decided that they’re going to learn how to use Facebook Ads to drive traffic to their landing pages and offers as they’re selling a product which will appeal to a social media based audience.

    To have got to this stage they must already have a good understanding of how to teach themselves.

    Which means… they’ll do it again when using your product.

    They’ll put it into practice and focus on it and that will create success. That success will be attributed to you and boost your services and your own names.

    The key difference is that this person knows that they can find the information they want online for free if they want to.

    What they’re paying you for isn’t just your individual approach, but the convenience of not having to search around the internet finding and testing the free information.

    This is exactly the customer you want.

    But how do you know if your customers are going to be the ones you want?

    You don’t.

    This where both your sales copy and information in the product come into play.

    By structuring your sales copy correctly you can make sure that you get the right customer. The customer who will put what you’re selling into action and leave glowing testimonials.

    But don’t forget when writing your product that…

    Most people aren’t good at teaching themselves.

    That means that you need to think carefully about the structure of your product and how your members will go through it.

    All the processes should be broken down into bite size and easily achievable sections. Never forget that the information you’re providing can be found for free, the reason people are buying it from you is because they’re expecting you to provide everything they need in one place and teach it to them in a manner that they will be able to implement it.