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Website Conversion Optimisation Video – Why Do It?
When it comes to increasing website profits, the first question that comes to most business owners’ minds is:
“How can we get to number 1 on the search engines?”
In the following video, I explore some of the arguments for focusing not on generating more traffic, but on improving the proportion of visitors who take action on your site by opting in, enquiring or buying. Click below to watch now:
Or, you can watch this website conversion optimisation video on YouTube.
How Many People Have Paid You At Least $1?
How many people have paid you at least $1?
People who have paid you $1 or more are clients.
People who have paid you $0 are still prospects.
The first dollar is the hardest dollar to earn. It means crossing the threshold from “non-client” to “client”.
Once clients see what you can do and understand more of your capabilities, the chance of them giving you more dollars increases exponentially.
Yet in many typical lead generation scenarios, the contact database looks something like this:
Total number of suspects (e.g. newsletter subscribers): 5,000
Total number of prospects (e.g. past enquirers): 300
Total number of clients: 100
Now the value of each client may be high (say, $10,000). But nevertheless, the client:non-client ratio is also very high at 1:50.
In this scenario, the shortest path to growth is often what I call thickening the sales funnel.
In other words, implementing strategies to reduce your client:non-client ratio.
This simply means getting more people to pay you $1 or more.
A few options for doing this are:
- Publishing a book ($19 – $29)
- Publishing a CD or DVD ($19 – $99)
- Offering a ‘free plus shipping’ offer
- Holding low-cost webinars
- Holding events or seminars
- Group coaching or accountability mentoring
- Smaller or self-contained project types
As you do this, you start to thicken the middle section of your sales funnel, resulting in more clients who are further along the journey with you.
These “entry level” clients are far easier to convert into “full blown” clients than are cold prospects.
Yes, your new product offerings may supply some extra income too, but depending on how you price your services, the incremental income may pale into insignificance compared with the effect of shifting prospects from a “standing start” to a “rolling start” when it comes to fully engaging with you.
This may look like I’m talking about the “Product Ascension Model”, well-known in information marketing circles. In fact, this is the reverse (Is Descension a word?)
With Ascension, you give away a free report…
Then you sell a $19 ebook
Then you sell the $97 audio program
Then you sell the $497 full-day seminar
Then you sell the $10,000 year-long mentoring club
Then you offer the $30,000 “done-for-you” services.
With Descension, you start with full delivery, then drop down new offerings as “fish-hooks” laden with attractive bait, with the aim of luring more prospects up to higher levels of engagement with you.
We’ve recently been experimenting with Descension by offering paid webinars to our subscriber list. The first webinar was a great success and these will become part of our regular offerings in future.
We also have several online marketing events on the cards for next year, which will offer a lower price of entry and a new way to engage with us.
Will Swayne
Connect with me on twitter. I’m @willswayne!
How To Sell High-Priced Products And Services Online
Got an email last week from a subscriber who asks how to sell high-priced products and services online.
Here’s a little background on his situation:
- There is a ‘screaming need’ for the products…
- And the products work very well…
- But they are very expensive…
- And current lead generation activities aren’t working…
Here’s the email I received below, with my responses in bold.
Hi Will,
Firstly, many thanks for your excellent 7 Steps to Doubling Your Website Leads e-mail education series. They were concise, informative & thought provoking to anyone serious about website marketing.
<Why, thank you!>
Before I get to my queries & the main purpose of my correspondence, I possibly need to give you some background information to ‘paint a picture’…
- I commenced a Sales Rep position some 4 weeks ago marketing a range of top shelf therapy products.
- My company’s target market is a ‘screaming audience’ of people in massive (medical) physical pain! Some have been in physical pain for over 27 years!
- I have witnessed first hand, by way of in-home therapy demonstrations, what these therapy products can do for these people, and there is a 100% ‘screaming need’ for our products.
- However, under the company’s current marketing regime, there are two problems:
- Our appointment leads are Telemarketer driven to an at-home (captive) audience, who are not on the ‘Do-Not-Call Register’, and who are predominantly in the 50+ Age Group. Whilst this group is being qualified by the Telemarketers to the extent of their physical pain and medical concerns, these leads are not being Financially Qualified, hence…
- This at-home audience does not have any money! Predominantly aged, disability & invalid pensioners. This ‘Aged’ audience is only the ‘finger-tip’ of a massive population in significant physical pain.
These therapy products can help ‘anyone’ in any age group in physical pain. It is drug free, and easy to use. And from my own humble research, The Market Audience is huge!
<This is your first problem. When ‘anyone’ is qualified, no-one is qualified.
Part of your problem is that your prospecting approach is ‘shotgun’. You need to laser in on the core customer with the highest propensity to buy your products.
- Age may be one factor
- Certain ‘high-pain’ medical conditions may be another
- Key demographic information (net worth, residential postcode)
- Use or non-use of other products/services/treatments/subscriptions
- Etc.
You need to develop a much clearer idea of who is really the customer – clearly, it’s not ‘anyone’.
There are some other fundamental problems with the way prospecting is being done (and I think you’ve answered most of your own questions in this department):
- The audience you’re targeting doesn’t have any money!
- You’re not financially qualifying them anyway, so by the time you find out they can’t afford your product, it’s already too late.>
However, The Retail value of these products range from $1,200 to $22,000!!! and yes, people are buying these products once they’ve have the benefit of first hand experience of what our products can do for them.
<That’s encouraging: there may be potential to test offers — perhaps a ‘try before you buy’. You might also try creating a DVD or similar of the in-home demonstration and making the first step in the sales process a DVD request.>
It’s all about restoring their mobility, regaining their independence and achieving a quality of life without physical pain. These products are not going to cure the myriad of medical conditions which plague the human race, but it will alleviate their physical pain & discomfort, without doubt.
So the questions are…., In your website marketing experience…
- Can products with such a high Retail Value be marketed via the web, without an in-home demonstration?
<No. The role of your website would be to attract, educate and qualify potential customers for your products. The in-home demonstration will still be required to close the sale. The difference is, if you do this right, you’ll be having more appointments with pre-educated, pre-qualified prospects and sales closing percentages will rise dramatically as a result. - Can the leads be ‘Financially Qualified’ before an Opt-in lead is followed-up and an appointment set?
<Absolutely, and it’s critical that you do this — otherwise you’ll have the same problem. There are a few ways to do this, including some or all of the following:– position the products as the ‘Rolls-Royce’ solution in the market
– provide an indication of price or price range in advance (e.g in the Free Demo DVD or other literature)
– Insert more intermediate steps (e.g. Special Reports / Videos etc.) which address pricing and cost/benefit
– Use pre-appointment surveys that correlate some known factor (e.g. level of pain experienced) with propensity to buy
I would appreciate your feedback on these questions in the first instant before I go on to strategizing any further…
Many thanks & regards,
David
<I trust this sheds some light. Your problem is very common and it has a number of root causes. You may need to address each of the causes before your marketing really starts to take off. Buy hey, the rewards that come from successfully marketing a premium-priced pain relief product into an affluent market are huge, so the rewards are there too. Best of luck with your marketing! Will>
About Marketing Results
Marketing Results specialises in helping growing entrepreneurial companies generate more enquiries and sales online, while eliminating marketing waste.
Our unique Sales Funnel Optimisation™ methodology is credited with producing 100%-plus ROI gains for dozens of entrepreneurial and corporate clients (see case studies).
Marketing Results can be contacted on 1300 799 737 or online.
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