Now I’m using a great tool called MailWasher Pro to stem the tide. MailWasher Pro is a program that you open prior to downloading your email that connects to your email server and allows you to preview incoming email messages without fully downloading them. So instead of waiting 5 or 10 minutes for a whole lot of junk email to download, you can view all incoming mail in about 15 seconds.

Then it uses a number of filters and learning tools to classify your email into “good” and “bad” groups. It also has a facility to easily “report” spam emails, which feeds back into a network of other users. This means that around 90% of spam emails are already correctly flagged when they appear in the program window.

Then you hit “Process Mail” and download only the emails you want to view - deleting, blacklisting or bouncing other emails non grata. I estimate that MailWasher Pro saves me at least 20 minutes a day - it’s definitely worth the nominal price and is a vital productivity tool.

From the Mailwasher website:

MailWasher works directly with your email server, exactly like your email program does. But there is one important difference: you can tell MailWasher to delete a message at the server, without downloading it - or you can bounce an email back to the sender so that it looks as though your address is not valid. MailWasher retrieves information about all the emails on the server. With that information (some of which is also processed by MailWasher) you can decide what to do with each individual email - download, delete, or bounce back. If you check your account with MailWasher first, you can delete or bounce the emails you do not want. Then, when you use your email program, it downloads only the remaining emails, those that you want to read. MailWasher can be thought of as a “first line of defence” which can weed out junk, large wasteful attachments, and potentially harmful viruses.

A client in the B2B consulting area recently asked me what a “typical” unsubscribe rate is for an email or autoresponder list. Here’s how I replied (paraphrased of course — I don’t actually speak in numbered points).

1. Unsubscribe rates can vary enormously. The main factor that influences your unsubscribe rate is the VALUE you offer your list on an ongoing basis. There is a delicate balance between education, value and selling - and the general rule is it’s much more effective to demonstrate value first before selling.

2. You’ll notice I didn’t actually answer the question above ;). If I had to give a figure, I would say that typical unsubscribe rates for “Special Report/White Paper + followup” sequences are in the 5% to 30% range.

3. Your unsubscribe rate is cumulative — it will tend to climb over time so in order to maintain a robust list size, you have to add new members faster than they unsubscribe.

4. Some messages in your autoresponder series will trigger many more unsubscribes than others. If you know which message(s) are the main culprits, you can edit accordingly. Take a look at the Followup Status - Unsubscribed report from within the Aweber autoresponder system (highly recommended, by the way):

As you can see, message 7 is the main offender — responsible for a massive proportion of unsubscribes!

A quick check of message 7 confirmed that the subject matter switched from good information and education to a “buy now” pitch, with some fairly clear-cut “disqualification” criteria. In other words, “buy now or go away”. Many subscribers obviously “took the hint” and hit the “unsubscribe” button.

Should you really care if list subscribers unsubscribe?

Making your unsubcribe rate as low as possible is NOT optimal in most circumstances. If your unsubscribe rate is very low, that MAY indicate your offers are too weak or you are not qualifying clients and/or setting appropriate buying criteria.

Autoresponder series are not only a powerful education tool but also a powerful QUALIFCICATION tool. Let me give you an example:

One of our clients is involved in property development project management in Brisbane. Their marketing had been quite effective at generating enquires, but of a very low quality. The result was that the sales team was forced to pick through the pile of low-quality leads to get to the hot prospects.

They solved this problem by publishing a targeted Special Report on their website, backed up by a series of autoresponders, educating prospective property investors about new property development options and how to put a deal together. One of the main purposes of the sequence is to DIS-qualify “non-buyers” BEFORE they call and start consuming salespeoples’ time like hyper-absorbant sponges.

So in this case, a certain number of unsubscribes from the list are a good thing.

Although not all unsubscribe patterns are as pronounced as the one in the image above, if you at least know how users are responding to each stage of your lead generation process, you can test new approaches to get improved results within only a few iterations.

Here’s to YOUR success!

Will Autoresponder Marketer

P.S. I highly endorse the Aweber Autoresponder system because of it’s very reasonable cost and raft of useful features, including the ability to SPLIT TEST multiple emails to the same list and track the results — that’s instant leverage.

For starters, the “Reset” button should be banned altogether. Why on earth would you want a perfectly good prospect or client to reset an entire form? Although this seems self-evident, I’m amazed the the number of companies (even big, reputable companies) that still feature “reset” buttons on their forms. (In one case, tweaking form design including removing the dreaded “Reset” button doubled conversion for that page.)

Then there’s the trusty “Submit” button. Remembering that EVERY element of a form can potentially influence response and that the button is the last thing the user sees before taking the desired action, wording is critical.

Some good alternatives to “Submit” are…

• “Free Instant Access” (very good for opt-ins and digital information)
• “Yes! Count Me In!” (good for event and seminar registrations
• “Yes! Reserve My Place”
• “Yes, Fast-track My Application”
• “Contact a Website Conversion Expert Now”

You get the idea.

You won’t always significantly boost response with a custom button name, but it is one of the many conversion levers you have at your disposal, so why not use it?

I’ve been flat out team building and working on some exciting internet consulting and lead generation projects for clients as well as a few “side projects” including information marketing, and as a result content production and blog posts have suffered.

I’ve recently started creating more content on generating, nurturing and converting more leads online — here’s a brief introductory video on Exponential Internet Lead Generation strategies for product and service businesses. This is the first in a series of three - the other 2 will be posted here shortly.

Here’s a brief summary of the topics I cover in the video:

1. Your Selling Philosophy
2. Your Lead Definition
3. Your Lead Generation Map
4. Testing and Tracking
5. Optimization Strategies, and
6. Integrating Lead Generation and Sales Functions

Episode 1: Introduction To Exponential Lead Generation On The Internet

Press “Play” to listen.

Download a FULL TRANSCRIPT of the video in PDF format here

More profit-boosting resources:

• If you’re a Small Business Owner: Discover how to multiply your website profits with the Marketing Results Gold Internet Consulting Program.
• If you’re looking for an Enterprise-level solution for improving web profits: Read more about the Marketing Results Platinum Internet Consulting Program.

Finding the technology is simple (two popular providers are Zoomerang.com and SurveyMonkey.com) but it’s how you USE surveys to create value and enhance your marketing that really counts.

One Marketing Results client created a comprehensive Business Audit, structured as a survey, that they went on to sell for $297 a pop. Another colleague conducted a survey of IT professionals that was picked up by influential media in the space as “latest research”.

Here are 15 ideas on ways to use surveys in your online business to create more value:

15 Ways To Leverage Surveys In Your Online Business

1. Conduct quarterly “client satisfaction” surveys.

2. Add relevant polls / surveys to your website or newsletters to learn more about your market and start a 2-way conversation.

3. Set up a survey for clients to pass on THEIR clients i.e. leverage.

4. Use surveys to pre-qualify or pre-frame potential clients.

5. Include a survey in an autoresponder series to automatically capture testimonials.

6. Survey customers and clients on where THEY think you add value (their perspective might be different from yours).

7. Use internal surveys to capture ideas to improve productivity or team satisfaction.

8. Include feedback surveys with product literature - use them as testimonial capture device AND to improve future versions of the product.

9. Ask clients or prospects to tell you their biggest frustration or problem relating to your area of expertise. Use this info to develop a white paper based on the most common problems.

10. Use surveys to capture ideas and strategies from a large number of people to collate into a “master” document.

11. Create a short 1 minute feedback survey and include the link in your email signature.

12. Send an email to past clients and ask for testimonials and feedback. Structure the survey so respondents provide information on the topics you want.

13. Structure a product / service as a survey and give it away as a “value add” or better yet, sell it.

14. Use surveys in your front-end marketing to identify customer “hot buttons” so you can craft your sales message in the right way for maximum impact.

15. Survey your market and use the results as the basis of a press release and/or pre-eminence building tool.

Leave a comment to submit your additional survey ideas.

Here’s one that I didn’t know about until recently - this Ad Preview Tool that lets you see how your ads are being displayed in other regions besides your own.

The tool also returns natural search rankings as well, so you can see how your site ranks on Google.[country].

Rather, it covers the “organisational” side of lead generation from a 30,000-foot perspective.

This includes defining what a lead looks like (and getting sales and marketing to agree), instituting closed-loop tracking (tracking a lead from the first contact through to the sale) and ensuring that lead generation and sales capacity are closely aligned.

I have always focused on the marketing side of lead generation - getting qualified leads in the door in the first place - but I’ve realised that the approaches outlined in Lead Generation for the Complex Sale are just as important for producing outcomes and another source of leverage in your sales and marketing process.

If your sales and marketing process involves multiple contacts, I highly recommend that you read and apply the information in Lead Generation For The Complex Sale.

Tickets went on sale a couple of weeks ago at the introductory “Early Bird” price of $197, but a new twist has been added over the last couple of days…

You can now attend the entire event for *just $1*

(Yes, there’s a catch, but I think you’ll agreee it’s very reasonable.)

Click here to find out how you can attend for just $1.

(This offer is also a very interesting example of total Risk Reversal - one of Jay Abraham’s foundational marketing principles.)

What you’ll learn at Business Mastery Secrets

Business Mastery Secrets follows a unique format that brings together 6 business experts over 2 days.

Dr Marc Dussault - entrepreneur of the year finalist, Managing Director of Jay Abraham Asia Pacific, Business Development Manager for an International software firm’s sales team that sold more with a staff of 3 than any other worldwide office with staffs of 50+.

Peter Sun - founder of the Better Business Institute, $1 Million personal income per year working from home with 1 employee.

Ed Dale - 0 to $5 Million in 36 months on the Internet. Enough said!

Garry Kewish - superstar salesman, consultant to Brian Tracy, Jay Abraham and many other business luminaries. Garry is also Brian Tracy’s head honcho in Australia.

Richard Evans - CEO of Imagine Essential Services, credited by the Australian Financial Review for creating an entirely new industry in essential services cost reduction. Imagine can save the average business $500+ per month at no cost.

Dymphna Boholt - one of Australia’s foremost tax minimisation / asset protection experts who specialises in showing business owners how to save tax.

Venues and Dates

SYDNEY [Apr Sat 28 - Sun 29] Venue: SMC Conference Centre 99 Goulburn Street Sydney NSW 2000

MELBOURNE [May Sat 5 - Sun 6] Venue: Melbourne Convention Centre Corner Spencer & Flinders Streets Melbourne VIC 3005

BRISBANE [May Sat 12 - Sun 13] Venue: Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre South Bank South Brisbane 4101

Who else lets you attend their entire conference for just one dollar, then gives you seven full days to decide if the event was worthwhile or not, and you only pay if you think it was? NO ONE!

Reserve your seat now for just $1

See you at the event! Literally, if you’re in Brisbane!

Will

See Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

How Well Are Your Natural Search Campaigns Converting?

Once the fat has been trimmed from your paid search campaigns and your website content is performing well, the next step is natural search engine optimisation.

Most Search Engine optimisation campaigns deal with the question of how to generate more traffic to a website and this is certainly a worthy goal. But it’s just as important to remember that you also want to target the right kind of traffic. That is, traffic that leads to more opt-ins, leads and sales.

Another useful application of Google Analytics is that it allows you to distinguish between traffic generated via natural search and paid search.

When deciding which keyword phrases to target in your SEO efforts, it’s useful to know which keywords are already converting via paid search. You can use conversion tracking within Google Adwords (and/or more advanced tools within Google Analytics) to establish this.

The next step is to establish how competitive your target keyword phrase is - are there dozens of well-ranked competitors in the space already, or are there no strong competitors?

Assessing the strength of your competition can be complicated, but one of the best resources for simplifying the process is the SEOmoz Page Strength Tool.

If the websites who already occupy the search engine rankings you’d like to occupy have high Page Strength scores, it may be wiser to start with less competitive key phrases and work your way up.

Above: output from a “CPC vs Organic Conversion” report within Google Analytics. [cpc] refers to paid search and [organic] refers to “free” search engine traffic. In this example, two conversion goals called G1 and G2 are being tracked. The system also allows drilling down to get a clearer picture of what’s going on.

N.B. This screen can be accessed via the Marketing Optimisation > Search Engine Marketing > CPC vs Organic Conversion menu within Google Analytics.

Google Analytics is a surprisingly powerful platform, especially considering that it’s free! The danger lies in falling into the trap of thinking that data = knowledge.

Conclusion

In a previous post I wrote about the democratization of web technologies. In years gone by, companies spent their online optimization budgets on either media or the “widgets”, software and systems to drive their website. Now, those technologies are becoming freely available - now smart organisations are shifting their focus to invest in clever people.

Converting analytical data into actionable strategies is why companies retain consultants such as Marketing Results.

This article concludes this 7-part series. What did you think? What did I leave out that you think should have been included? Leave a comment and I’ll respond to your feedback.

Will Swayne Website Optimizer

See Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Visualising Where Website Visitors Are Clicking

In a previous post I commented on a service called Crazy Egg which allows you to visualise where users are clicking on your website. This post expands on the use of Crazy Egg as a data visualisation tool.

Above: Crazy Egg generates an easy to understand “heatmap” image of the Jay Abraham Asia Pacific website, revealing exactly where visitors are clicking.

Why do you want to visualise data anyway?

The first thing you may want to know is - with so many analytics packages and tracking tools on the market, who needs one more?

Here are 4 reasons:

1. When an easily identifiable “conversion” is difficult or irrelevant to track.

On many types of website that you may wish to optimise (e.g. a blog), an easily identify “conversion action” such as a sale or enquiry doesn’t occur. Crazy Egg provides meaningful information by showing you where users are clicking - what’s how and what’s not.

2. When you want a detailed picture of how users are engaging with your content.

Many services including Google Analytics offer some visualisation functions that reveal where users are clicking. Crazy Egg’s output is much more detailed than other services I’ve seen. Rather than just telling you that a graphic or link was clicked, it shows you exactly where it was clicked. It also reveals when unlinked content was clicked (e.g. a graphic with no link).

3. When you want to decrease bounce rates and optimise clickthrough rates.

One effective technique of website conversion optimisation is to use your homepage bounce rate as a proxy for the effectiveness of your homepage in general. (Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who leave your site without clicking onto another page. An ineffective homepage will have a high bounce rate.) Crazy Egg allows you to quickly identify what’s working and what’s not on your homepage so you can optimise accordingly.

4. When you want to quickly understand and communicate what’s happening.

Let’s face it - a picture is worth a thousand words. Not everyone thinks in terms of figures and data. A visual summary of user behaviour is a useful way to communicate what’s working and what’s not without resorting to long reports or reams of data. (This can come in handy if you’re forced to engage in internal battles about what content to have on your company website).

Generous “free” plan plus paid plans

Crazy Egg offers a number of service plans, starting with the free plan, which is more than sufficient to test drive the service (or as a complete solution for relatively small or low-traffic websites). The fee-based plans are big enough for enterprise applications.

Conclusion

Many companies have no formal process for deciding how content is organised on their website (often it’s either by decree or by committee). Tools such as Crazy Egg give you the power to make informed decisions on what works so you can optimise accordingly.

Crazy Egg is also a simple, visual alternative to data-driven tools that many people find either too boring or too difficult to interpret.

If you could get just 10% more visitors to click deeper into your website than they are now, what would that mean to the profitability of your online channel? For many websites, this would translate into a significant increase in results.

Will Swayne Data visualiser