Just a quick thought – you see a guru using a particular service, doing a particular technique, sending out a certain email, etc. And you think, “Hey! If he’s doing it, then it must be the thing to do, right?”
Well, not necessarily. Guru types make mistakes too. And because they are generally playing in a bigger arena, they sometimes make very big mistakes they quickly regret. The problem is, if you’re watching them then you can’t know for certain if what they just did was a good idea or the stupidest idea ever.
On top of that, you don’t know what their goals are. Maybe they’re selling a $2 ebook because they’re upselling a $97 course on the backend. So you sell a $2 ebook with no backend and then you wonder why you only made 6 sales and $12… It could be because you’re not a guru and so no one recognized your name and no one believed there could be value in something that costs $2.
That’s why you should never blindly imitate a guru – you don’t have the full story of what s/he’s doing and whether or not it’s working.
However, if you see him repeatedly doing something which he could easily change, then you might want to jump in and try it yourself. For example, you see a guru continually sending out emails with the same strange formulatic subject line. Try it.
If it wasn’t working for him, he wouldn’t keep doing it. Or at least we HOPE he wouldn’t – he might have someone in a faraway office sending those emails for him and he doesn’t even know the results.
Be cautious with imitating anyone, even the big dogs of marketing. Yes, it can be highly valuable to learn from others who are successful, but not everything that works for someone else is going to work for you.
There’s always going to be a small percentage of your customers who are more than happy to pay more to get things done faster and better.
Case in point: If you’re not familiar with it, there is a giant ferris wheel in London that is absolutely huge and offers spectacular views. It was built for the Y2K celebrations. Ironically, it didn’t open in time for Y2K, but that’s another story (perhaps about planning your business and hitting deadlines.)
To ride this ferris wheel, known as the London Eye, you’ve got to pay something like 20 pounds and stand in a que for about an hour and a half. For you Yanks, a que is a line. 😉
But if you’re willing to pay more – a good deal more – you will only have to wait about 15 minutes. That’s because they also offer something called the Fast Track, also know as the short line for rich people.
Now then, where in your business can you offer a “short line for rich customers?” That is, how can you upgrade your products or services for those customers who are more than happy to pay for better/faster service? Because these are the customers you need to spoil rotten. These are the customers who will make your business a pleasure to run and who will be the reason why you like getting up in the morning and you have a new car in the garage. Frankly, these are the customers who, when you get enough of them, will allow you focus exclusively on them if you choose.
Think of it this way – would you rather service 100 rich customers who pay whatever you charge without so much as a flinch, or a 1,000 customers all moaning about your latest $2 price increase? To be frank, you can earn far more by catering to your best customers than you can by trying to sell cheap stuff to cheap people. And yes, I realize it might not be politically correct for me to be saying this, but I bet you can already see the truth in it.
So it’s your decision – continue to focus only on selling to the masses, or begin locating those customers and clients who will gladly pay you top dollar for your extraordinary services without batting an eye.
Do you want to close more sales on your website? Then you need to answer more objections. If you were selling vacuum cleaners door to door, you’d find that prospects have questions they need answered before they will buy. Those questions are actually objections, and a skilled salesman will welcome them and answer them in such as way that the customer is more than satisfied with the answers.
Of course on a website we don’t have a star salesperson closing prospects, so we’ve got to rely on content to do it for us. Usually this is in the form of a sales letter, but the typical sales letter is rather lengthy. This is good, in that they cover the main objections and do a good job of explaining the benefits. But if a customer has a particular question, making them scroll through this long sales letter to find the answer may actually lose you the sale.
Imagine a customer on the brink of making the purchase. They just have one question, something that will be the deciding factor on whether they whip out the credit card or close the page. They’re busy, and they want the answer now. And no, they don’t want to scroll all the way through your sales letter 2 or 3 times searching for the information.
Solution? A Frequently Asked Questions section. That’s right. Adding an F.A.Q. to your sales process can increase your sales – sometimes dramatically. And it doesn’t have to be on your sales page. Installing a prominent F.A.Q. link to the top and bottom of the page is effective. So is having a F.A.Q. section either within the sales letter itself or off to the side of the page.
What should be in your F.A.Q.? Two things: First, all of the information a typical customer needs to make a decision. This includes what’s included in the offer, the major benefits, the price and guarantee, what they can expect, time frame to get results, etc.
Second, your F.A.Q. should include all of the questions you repeatedly get from prospects. These might be things you wouldn’t think they would ask, but they do, such as, “Does this work outside of the U.S.? Do I need to purchase anything else to make this work?” Etc.
Think of your F.A.Q. as a living, growing thing. Any time you think of a question that should be added, do it. Any time someone asks you a good question, add it. Typically, the better your F.A.Q., the more sales you will make.
If you’re a success at almost anything, sooner or later someone is going to ask you, “Can I take you to lunch and pick your brain?” And interestingly enough, if you’re a successful marketer you’re going to get his question a LOT. So how do you answer?
It’s up to you of course. Do you want to give your information away for free? Over and over? If you’re selling “how to market” type information, it’s perfectly reasonable for you to not give away services you normally charge for. After all, no one is asking doctors, “If I take you out to lunch will you look at my mole?”
Sere’s how you can answer that question…
Let’s say you teach Internet marketing, and you’ve got both free information that you give away and also paid products. Maybe you even do marketing consulting work. Someone asks you the take-you-out-to-lunch question, and you say, “I’d be happy to set up a consulting session with you next week, I’ll email you the details.”
Then you email them a link to your free information, along with the details of your paid product or service. Then they can choose if they want to move forward or not. It’s a nice way of letting them know that you don’t give away your best work for free.
Like it or not, the balance of power in the marketplace has shifted from sellers to buyers. Buyers have more information at their fingertips and more choices available than ever before. And because of this, if you don’t have a good understanding of your customers then your marketing is going to be akin to throwing mud against the wall in the hopes that something, somewhere sticks.
The trick to knowing your customers? It’s as simple – and as difficult – as turning halfway around so that rather than viewing your business through your eyes, you’re now looking at it through your customers’ eyes.
The more attuned you are to seeing your business through your customers’ eyes, the more successful you will become. Here then are steps you can take to make this transition…
Ask yourself, “What do your customers need?” What is the customer trying to accomplish and how are you going to help them accomplish it? What’s the result they’re looking for, and why are they going to contact you to get that result?
Understand the context in which they’re seeing your marketing message. Are they getting input from friends and family? From experts? What websites are they visiting? What kinds of offers are they exposed to?
What’s important to your customer? What is your buyer thinking, feeling, doing and saying?
What’s your customers fears? What kind of pain are they in? What keeps them up at night?
What are your customers’ aspirations and goals? What are they seeking, and what do they want to achieve?
Try to get in their head and speak as they would speak and think as they would think. Rather than saying, “My customer is afraid of losing her husband if she doesn’t lose weight,” say it from her point of view. “I’m afraid (terrified?) of losing my husband if I don’t lose this ugly fat.” See the difference? Your goal is to really channel that person and find out what it feels like to be them. As you can imagine, this is going to help you tremendously with your marketing message.
How does your customer perceive you, your business and your product? Your customers want to know how your product is going to really help them, if they can trust you, if they feel comfortable buying from you. Imagine being them: “Is this going to work? Will I get the results I want? “Does this guy know what he’s doing?”
And now we come to an element almost no marketer thinks about – justification. Your customer may have to justify their purchase to a spouse or boss. They’ve got to explain their decision. “What am I going to tell my wife? How will I explain to the boss that this is the best choice?”
Next – what style of buyer is your typical customer? Are they:
– The person who wants to have all the facts and details before they make a decision?
– Spontaneous, living in the moment, disliking details, making quick decisions and afraid they’ll miss out on something great?
– Slow to make decisions, placing others needs ahead of their own, looking at the big picture?
– Or are they curious, goal-oriented, highly motivated and focused on doing whatever it takes to be competitive?
Once you understand which general type of buyer your customers tend to be, you can personalize your marketing for that particular type of buyer, all the way from how they like to receive their information to how they make that final buying decision.
And lastly, where are your customers found? Not only in terms of geographic location, but also in terms of what websites do they frequent, when do they go there, and how can you attract their attention?
The more you can get into your customer’s head, the more you can tailor your products and the marketing of those products to exactly suit your customers, the more successful you will be.
I simply cannot stress this enough: Buyers hold the cards, and until you learn to sit down at the same table with them and play by their rules, your business won’t be nearly as profitable as it could be.
Like it or not, the balance of power in the marketplace has shifted from sellers to buyers. Buyers have more information at their fingertips and more choices available than ever before. And because of this, if you don’t have a good understanding of your customers then your marketing is going to be akin to throwing mud against the wall in the hopes that something, somewhere sticks.
The trick to knowing your customers? It’s as simple – and as difficult – as turning halfway around so that rather than viewing your business through your eyes, you’re now looking at it through your customers’ eyes.
The more attuned you are to seeing your business through your customers’ eyes, the more successful you will become. Here then are steps you can take to make this transition…
Ask yourself, “What do your customers need?” What is the customer trying to accomplish and how are you going to help them accomplish it? What’s the result they’re looking for, and why are they going to contact you to get that result?
Understand the context in which they’re seeing your marketing message. Are they getting input from friends and family? From experts? What websites are they visiting? What kinds of offers are they exposed to?
What’s important to your customer? What is your buyer thinking, feeling, doing and saying?
What’s your customers fears? What kind of pain are they in? What keeps them up at night?
What are your customers’ aspirations and goals? What are they seeking, and what do they want to achieve?
Try to get in their head and speak as they would speak and think as they would think. Rather than saying, “My customer is afraid of losing her husband if she doesn’t lose weight,” say it from her point of view. “I’m afraid (terrified?) of losing my husband if I don’t lose this ugly fat.” See the difference? Your goal is to really channel that person and find out what it feels like to be them. As you can imagine, this is going to help you tremendously with your marketing message.
How does your customer perceive you, your business and your product? Your customers want to know how your product is going to really help them, if they can trust you, if they feel comfortable buying from you. Imagine being them: “Is this going to work? Will I get the results I want? “Does this guy know what he’s doing?”
And now we come to an element almost no marketer thinks about – justification. Your customer may have to justify their purchase to a spouse or boss. They’ve got to explain their decision. “What am I going to tell my wife? How will I explain to the boss that this is the best choice?”
Next – what style of buyer is your typical customer? Are they:
– The person who wants to have all the facts and details before they make a decision?
– Spontaneous, living in the moment, disliking details, making quick decisions and afraid they’ll miss out on something great?
– Slow to make decisions, placing others needs ahead of their own, looking at the big picture?
– Or are they curious, goal-oriented, highly motivated and focused on doing whatever it takes to be competitive?
Once you understand which general type of buyer your customers tend to be, you can personalize your marketing for that particular type of buyer, all the way from how they like to receive their information to how they make that final buying decision.
And lastly, where are your customers found? Not only in terms of geographic location, but also in terms of what websites do they frequent, when do they go there, and how can you attract their attention?
The more you can get into your customer’s head, the more you can tailor your products and the marketing of those products to exactly suit your customers, the more successful you will be.
I simply cannot stress this enough: Buyers hold the cards, and until you learn to sit down at the same table with them and play by their rules, your business won’t be nearly as profitable as it could be.
Don’t buy an Internet Marketing product unless you know you’re going to use at least one piece of information inside that product immediately.
For example, you’re creating a forum and you see a product on how to get people really active inside your forum and you know you’ll use that product immediately, so you buy it. You’re making your money back on that product almost immediately.
But then you see a great looking product on how to do webinars, but you don’t do webinars and you have no immediate plans to do any in the future. Should you buy it? After all, you may use it down the road and you may make money from it, right? I think you already know the answer from your past experiences – don’t buy it.
All you have to do is look at your hard drive at all the products you’ve purchased in the past that you haven’t touched to know that unless you’re going to use the product immediately, odds are very good you will never use it.
Because what happens? A year from now you decide to do webinars. Great. The only thing is, you’ve totally forgotten that webinar product you bought a year ago. Or you remember it, spend a half hour searching for it, only to discover halfway into it that the info is outdated and you would have been better offer buying a new info product on webinars.
I call this just-in-time learning. You buy an info product “just in time” to learn from it and USE THAT INFO to further your business. You’ll be surprised how much money you’ll save this way, and how much more you’ll earn from the products you actually do purchase, because you APPLY what you learn from them to grow your business.
Do you enjoy speaking and explaining things? Do you have a topic you’re knowledgeable about, even passionate about that others want to know more about?
And do you know someone who can intelligently talk with you about that topic? Then you can make fantastic money by speaking. Here’s how…
First, choose your topic. Use the same criteria you would use for creating any kind of info product – are people willing to pay for this info? Next, find a partner, preferably someone just as knowledgeable about the topic as you, or someone who has complimentary information and knowledge to share.
Next, write an outline of what you will cover. Make sure the two of you agree on what will be covered and that you’re not leaving anything out. Now talk on the phone and record the conversations using your conferencing service of your choice. It might take you one or several calls to cover everything. Really more calls are better, since the product you’re creating will have a higher perceived value.
Now get transcripts of the calls made, and sell the entire package as one product. You can do this from start to finish, including transcripts and sales letter, in 7 to 10 days. Result? You’ll have a product you can sell for months and years to come. Split the profits with your partner, promote to both of your lists, place it on ClickBank, sell it through forums, etc. I know people who’ve cleared $50,000 to $100,000 on a product like this. Splitting the profits with your partner, you would walk away with $25,000 to $50,000. Not bad for spending a few hours on the phone.
The shortcut you probably don’t want to take: Yes, you can do this by yourself. Sure, you get to keep 100% of the profits after affiliate commissions. The problem? Your product will almost certainly not be half as good as it would be if you had a partner who knew as much about your topic as you do.
First, there is a synergy and energy that develops between two people having a conversation that you just don’t get talking to yourself. Second, your partner is bound to have information and stories you don’t have. Third, one person lecturing can be – let’s face it – boring. Fourth, a partner with their own list will double initial sales and help you to spread the word with affiliates, creating momentum from the first day you launch.
Can you make a recorded product by yourself? Absolutely, and some people have been very successful doing just that. But everything else being equal, you’re almost always better off partnering with someone else.
Tips for making the calls/recordings: Keep the energy high and the umms, errs and ahhs to an absolute minimum. Have fun, smile, laugh and joke when appropriate, and give great, timely, usable information that will truly make a difference for your listeners. You’re value is to quicken their learning curve so be sure to do this to the very best of your ability, and not only will you make money once, but some of these customers will be eager to buy future products you develop in the future as well!
For some of us the hard part is in finishing what we start, and for others it’s in starting what we want to finish. If you fall into the second category, this is for you.
Now then, you know what you want to do and what you want to accomplish. But for some odd reason you’re finding every excuse not to get started. What’s the problem? If this is a pattern with you, and you find that once you get started you have no problem continuing on, then the solution is a simple one.
The reason you’re not starting is because you have some sort of anxiety or fear about the project. Maybe you secretly think you’re not up to the task, or you can’t meet the expectations of your customers or clients. No matter.
What you’re going to do is to start it badly. That is, you’re not going to worry or even think about quality – you’re simply going to make a lousy start, no matter what that might look like.
For example, if the project you’re putting off is writing an article, you’re going to sit down and begin writing the worst article you can possibly write. Make it a game to see just how bad you really are.
An example: You need to write an article (or a blog post, a report, and ebook, whatever) on driving traffic. You’ve been putting this off for days now, and you just can’t seem to get started. Open your word program, and write anything. I mean ANYTHING that comes to mind about traffic. For example:
“Driving traffic is a pain in the other end and I don’t even want to write this stupid article because I don’t feel like I know enough but what I do know is that when I wrote that 20 page report and then paid affiliates 100% commissions I got all kinds of new list subscribers and then I sent them emails and they came to my website and not only did I get traffic but I got more sales and some of them even linked back to my website and others became affiliates which snowballed the whole effort.”
Do you see what just happened? I really did start out to write a bad article, yet within the third line I began imparting good information that someone could not only use, but would probably thank me for if they didn’t already know it. Yes, it needs rewriting, but what I’ve done here is I’ve STARTED THE PROJECT which was the hurdle I needed to get over.
Do you see how incredibly EASY this technique is? If you’re procrastinating about building your website, start out to build the ugliest website in the world. If you’re putting off making a video, start the camera right now and just begin talking. You get the picture. Worry about getting it right after you start, and you’ll find you no longer put off beginning those tasks you need to get done.
