Do This And You’ll Win In ANY Market

There’s one number you should focus on, if you want to dominate your market online.

You’ll never see this number mentioned in any newspaper article or magazine.

Hardly anyone understands it…but those who do often lead their industries.

What is this number?

Average Visitor Value (AVV)

Average Visitor Value is simply how much each website visitor is worth to your business.

If you want to dominate your market, aim for the highest AVV in your industry.

When your Average Visitor Value is higher than anyone else, you can unleash what Jonathan Mizel dubbed “The Unlimited Traffic Technique”.

The Unlimited Traffic Technique goes something like this:

If a visitor is worth $2 to you, but only $1 to your competition, you can pay them $1.50 per visitor to send all their traffic to you, and you’ll both be better off!

Over time, website visitors gravitate toward the two or three companies with the highest Average Visitor Value because those companies can afford to…

..spend more on AdWords and other forms of advertising…
…outsource more work…
…invest in more content generation…
…generate more exposure and publicity…

Bottom line: whoever makes the most money per visitor…WINS.

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1-Step Lead Generation Formula: C-R-E-A-M-S

There are times when it pays to provide raw website visitors with plenty of information, education and introductory offers in order to turn them into a client. Much of the online lead generation consulting we do falls into this category.

Then there are times when your prospect doesn’t want or need to be educated or informed about what you do or how you can help.  They just want answers – NOW.

I call this Simple or 1-Step Leadgen.

Use 1-Step Lead Generation When Most Or All Of The Following Are True:

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10 Reasons Why You Can Never Have Too Many Leads…

Many business owners say to me, “If you put 10 prospects in front of me I’ll close 6 or 7.  Now all I need is plenty of prospects sitting in front of me.” (Hence the reason why we specialise in online lead generation).

Here are 10 reasons why you can never have too many leads:

1. So you can charge premium prices.
2. So you can choose to work with ideal clients only.
3. So you never experience “feast or famine” in your business.
4. So you can create a waiting list for new clients.
5. So you never have to discount.
6. So you can operate as close as possible to optimal capacity at all times.
7. So you can fuel growth without going into debt.
8. So you can confidently take action on your 80/20 Strategy without fear.
9. So you can stop working with people who know aren’t a “fit”.
10. So you can stop working with people you just don’t LIKE.

What do you think? What other reasons why you can never have too many leads would you add? Leave a comment!

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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:

1. 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…
   
2. 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…

1. 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.  

2. 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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Sales Funnel Optimisation Phase 4: Total Integration

This is the final instalment of a five-part series on Sales Funnel Optimisation. [See the introduction here].

Phase 4: Total Integration

After you’ve evolved from internal orientation to objective measurement through to user involvement, you’re ready to enter the phase that can potentially unlock the most rewards: total integration.

This is where the first three phases feed into each other in a never-ending improvement process:

• developing and prioritising strategies internally
• measuring your results objectively
• capuring insights from users to acceleratete the process

These aren’t “steps” so much as never-ending improvement loop.

So the ideal website development and optimisation process goes something like this:

1. Conduct research of your market, competitors and opportunities.
2. Develop your site based on your “best guess” (plus smarts and experience) as to what is most likely to work
3. Measure everything so you can track what’s working and what’s not
4. Try different approaches and if they work, keep them.  If they don’t, revert back to the control.
5. Glean insights from users to add new ideas to the mix.  Selectively test, measure and optimise.
6. Rinse and repeat!

With most optimisation processes, it is normal to reach a stage of diminishing returns, once the most obvious improvements have been made.

But in the case of online sales funnel optimisation, the field is developing so quickly that there are always new opportunities to test new tools and strategies.

Even if your online sales process is relatively “mature”, it’s still possible to generate ongoing improvements of 10 or 20 percent per month using this process.

About Marketing Results:

As Australia’s leading internet lead generation experts, Marketing Results specialises in helping fast-growth companies generate more enquiries and sales online while eliminating marketing waste.  Find out more about our internet consulting services here.

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Sales Funnel Optimisation Phase 2: Objective Measurement

This is the second instalment of a four-part series on Sales Funnel Optimisation.  [See the introduction and Part 1].

Phase 2: Objective measurement

Yesterday we looked at some of the advantages and disadvantages of relying on internal knowledge and resources to develop your online strategy. Today we’ll look at the next phase – objective measurement.

Objective measurement tools tell you WHAT users are doing on your site and whether or not tweaks or changes are working.

I’ve written extensively elsewhere on these “quantitative” strategies, so I won’t expand further here, except to provide some examples of typical objective measurement tools and what you can use them for:

• Google Analytics – broad-based analytics package, great for showing a range of key visitor (‘How many visitors did we get last month?”) and conversion (“What percentage of visitors from search engines are downloading our White Paper?”) metrics.
• CrazyEgg – shows you WHERE on your webpage visitors clicked and presents the information as an easy-to-understand “heat map”
• Google Website Optimiser – multivariate testing tool. Use GWO to test different page elements (e.g. headlines, copy, offers or designs) and establish which elements convert best.

According to a survey we conducted last year of 324 Australian small and medium business owners, approximately 4 in 5 Australian companies have NOT yet evolved to this level. If you’re already using some or all of these quantitative tools, you should give yourself a pat on the back!

The great advantage of these tools is that they tell you what’s actually happening on your site — what’s working, and what’s not.

That allows you to test new things and if they work, keep them; if they don’t work, scrap them. This step-by-step process of is the basis of our online sales funnel optimisation service that we implement for SME clients.

The disadvantage of a purely quantitative approach is that you don’t have any insight into WHY users are doing what they’re doing. You have to make a “best guess”.  While you can certainly produce dramatic results from a quantitative approach, these types of tools are relatively inefficient for answering the following types of questions:

• What do prospects and clients really think of our website?
• Which specific elements of my website or sales copy are unwittingly turning new customers away?
• What new ideas should I test to improve user experience and conversion further?

To answer these types of “WHY?” questions, you need to evolve to Phase 3: User involvement.  That’s what we’ll look at tomorrow…

The Evolution of Website Sales Funnel Optimisation – Introduction

The central question of online sales funnel optimisation is, “how do we get better results than we’re currently getting, as quickly as possible?”

While sitting in a banana-chair in Punta del Este, I got to thinking about this question and the distinct but interlocking approaches and toolsets you need to maximise your online lead generation results including traffic, conversions and sales.  Here’s what I came up with:

There is an “evolution” with four phases that can take you from getting poor/average results to excellent/outstanding results from your website.

Over the next 4 days, we’ll look at each phase in detail.  Here’s a quick summary of what’s to come:

• Phase 1: Internal orientation:
  Many companies and organisations design their websites in line with their own opinions and preferences. While this can be a great starting point for gathering content and ideas, in many cases this can be detrimental to your sales goals.  What’s more, it doesn’t tell you anything about your customers and how they use your website.
  
• Phase 2: Objective measurement:
  Objective measurement tools allow you to reduce subjectivity and manage by fact rather than by hunch. Measurement tools tell you who is visiting your website and what they do when they get there. 
  
• Phase 3: User involvement:
  Measurement tools are very good at telling you WHAT users are doing.  But getting website users to tell you WHY they’re doing it is one of the best ways to gather useful optimisation ideas.  Until recently, professional user testing was beyond the reach of most SMEs at $250+ per user. Now, thanks to a new web-based service, you can buy user tests from only $29 per person!  We’ll look at this in more detail in Phase 3.
  
• Phase 4: Total integration:
  While each of the previous three phases have a part to play, they become exponentially more effective when used in concert. Give this process the time it deserves and it will reward you with increased sales and reduced marketing costs.

Tomorrow we’ll take a closer look at Phase 1 – Internal orientation.

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New Audio Program, Search Engine Strategies For Lead Generation Websites, Released Today

I’ve just released the new-and-improved version of my audio program, Search Engine Strategies For Lead Generation Websites.

This program is designed especially for time-poor, results-focused business owners and managers who want to learn how to deploy practical and proven Search Engine Optimisation strategies to drive top search engine results.

This 4-part, 97-minute audio program shows details how to:

• Generate immediate “windfall” income by generating more sales leads and sales at lower cost.
• Save thousands of dollars on paid traffic generation such as Google Adwords
• Leverage your existing website content while incurring minimal additional expense.
• Reduce or totally eliminate pay-per-click expenditure.
• Bypass the steep SEO learning curve (is it worth your time to spend dozens of hours studying what you could easily digest in less than 2 hours?)
• Become your own “SEO guru” and master the tools and tactics the big players use
• Gain an instant credibility boost: studies show that consumers believe that the websites at the top of the search engines are more credible and pre-eminent than paid advertisers.

The price is just $47 (that’s Aussie dollars), putting this program well within reach of any business owner, and it comes with a no-questions asked, 60 day money back guarantee.

Update: 4 May 2009: A number of commenters have asked me to elaborate on what makes this program different – here’s a brief update:

How is this SEO program different?

There are a lot of SEO experts and “gurus” on the Internet – many with impressive experience and qualifications – so what makes this program different and why should you buy it? Here’s a brief analysis as to what makes this program different:

• An SEO program for business owners – many SEO programs delve into excessively technical details.  My program provides a “business owner”-level overview of the core techniques of SEO, plus implementation steps for the 20% of SEO techniques that deliver 80% of the results.  Business owners can either use this program to quickly get up to speed on SEO in order to tell good SEO firms from bad, or delegate the implementation to an in-house person to implement the action steps laid out in the program.
• Focused on lead generation applications – most SEO programs take a generalist approach — this program focuses specifically on SEO for lead generation websites (i.e. websites where the principle focus is generating qualified enquiries for a product or service).  In the program I provide specific advice on the kinds of SEO strategies that work best in lead generation applications.
• Based on what works - the program is 100% practical and is focused around the exact same strategies that have produced first page rankings for dozens of our clients in real lead generation scenarios.
• Concise and to the point - the entire audio program is only 97-minutes long – long enough to cover all the key points, but not so long that you need 20 audio CDs to listen to the entire thing (and business owners typically don’t have time for that anyway).
• Very affordable - other programs are priced at up to $1,000 (or more).  This program is only $47.   I deliberately priced it so low to ensure that price is not an option.  Any business owner can acquire these skills for a fraction of the cost of engaging most SEO firms.
• All future updates included FREE – because the SEO world is changing so fast, I intend to occasionally update the program.  When I do, all purchasers of the program will receive the updates free.  A one-time investment ensures unlimited updates, for the time being at least…

Click here for the full story and to purchase the program

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SEO vs PPC – Which Is Better For Lead Generation Websites?

Here’s a question I’m often asked:

“Which is better: optimising my site for “free” search engine rankings, or paying for clicks on Google Adwords?

My answer is always the same – if you can profitably generate website traffic with both, it’s best to do both to generate maximum returns.

But you should also keep in mind that free search engines and paid search engines are very different animals.

Let’s look a little deeper so you understand the pros and cons of Search Engine Optimisation for the “free” search engines (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click optimisation on paid search engines (PPC).

SEO vs PPC

PPC (paying for clicks) is good because…

1. It’s a very fast way to generate targeted traffic – you can literally generate visitors to your website within 10 minutes. SEO takes much longer to see results.
2. You can easily decide where to send each visitor (e.g. if a visitor searches on “blue widgets”, you can direct them to your “blue widgets” product page.) With SEO, the search engines decide for you.
3. You can easily test multiple headlines / copy / offers by testing ads in Google Adwords.
4. You can easily drive traffic for a broad range of keywords. With SEO, you’re wise to focus on fewer keywords.
5. Your website doesn’t have to be “search engine friendly” for PPC to work. (Websites built with “Flash” are notoriously UN-friendly to search engines, but they don’t necessarily affect PPC traffic.)
6. You’re optimising for conversion results, not the ranking formula for a particular search engine.
7. You can easily change positions on the page in order to find the best Return On Investment.
8. Changes in “the rules” of Pay-Per-Click search engines tend to be smaller and less frequent than changes to the “free” SEO rules.

SEO (free traffic) is good because…

1. It’s free!
2. You can generate hoards of traffic for search terms that it would be un-economical to bid on with Pay Per Click.
3. The long-term Return On Investment is often better than Pay Per Click. It’s slower at first, and the risk is higher if you don’t know what you’re doing, but it’s cheaper in the long term.
4. Once you get good rankings, it’s relatively easy to maintain them with little incremental effort.
5. You can build incredible momentum and dominate your market while your competitors bleed themselves dry trying to compete with you on PPC search engines as they pay for every click.

Conclusion: SEO and PPC both have their place in any online lead generation strategy for your business website.

But the Search Engine Optimisation field is riddled with mis-information and half-truths that can waste your time, blow your budget and frustrate the heck out of you, all at the same time.

That’s why I’ve decided to totally rework my audio program, “Search Engine Strategies for lead generation websites”. It will contain what I believe to be the most concise, most effective way to generate free Search Engine traffic to your “real” business website. And…it will be available for less than $50.

This new program will be launched on Tuesday 10th March at 12 noon AEST, but if you want to get access before everyone else, and gain access to extra Early Bird bonuses, you can join the pre-launch notification list here.

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Want To Boost Site Conversion? Increase Your Font Size

Sometimes the simplest website changes can produce the most rapid Return On Effort. One of the easiest ways to make your site convert better is to make it easier for users to read.

In fact, a whole category of website conversion heuristics is based around making your content easier for website visitors to digest.

Here are seven ways you can increase your website conversion right now:

1. Increase font size. For example, change 10 or 11px body text fonts to 13px.  Some people find these larger fonts “childlike”, but our tests have conclusively shown that larger fonts can increase conversion significantly (especially where the original font size was very small to start with).  Graphic designers often specify smaller, “cute” fonts, but you should remember that text content is primarily a means to convey your selling message, NOT a design element.
2. Avoid large line widths. The human eye just isn’t designed evolved that well for reading text on a screen.  One of the things that tends to slow people down when reading is moving they eyes from line to line.  And the longer the line width, the more difficult it is for the eye and the brain to hook up with the next line.   That’s why shorter line widths of 600px or less generally help conversion.  Test 600px vs 900px and you’ll see what I mean.
3. Increase colour contrast. Another thing graphic designers seem to love are font colour choices based on design sensibilities rather than communication and legibility.  Light grey text on a mid-grey background appears to be a designers’ favourite.  On the web, as in print, poor colour contrast = decreased legibility = decreased sales.  By increasing colour contrast (good ol’ black text on white background is my boring-but-effective favourite) you will boost sales.
4. Shorten paragraphs. Long paragaphs make it harder for the eye to navigate text.   Anything much longer than 7 lines and you’ll start to put readers off.  Where your paragraphs are longer than this, break them into two or more pieces.  The occasional one line paragraph can also work well.
5. Give “texture” to long copy. Many of these tips are centred around breaking the monotony of long, “blocky” tracts of text.  One way to do this is by adding “texture” — creating varying areas of white space around lines and paragraphs. For example, you should always leave a “ragged right” edge on paragraphs (i.e not fully justified).  The ragged edge helps the eye navigate.  Indenting the occasional paragraph with a <blockquote>, or placing content in a centred box achieves the same effect.
6. Break the monotony. White space is one way to break the monotony of dense text content — another is to use headlines, sub headlines, colour, “callouts”, bullet lists, numbered lists and text effects (bold, italics, underlines, strikethroughs etc.).  These elements help to focus the user’s attention on key selling points and create variety that keeps the brain engaged.
7. Add diagrams, graphs and images. I believe that copy is the main tool in your persuasive toolset on the web.  But other types of visual content can be a very useful way to augment your central sales argument.  Use images, graphs and diagrams appropriately when they make your point better than text.

This Is NOT A Long Copy vs Short Copy Debate

Please note that this has nothing to do with the long/short copy debate (if you could still call it a debate – the long copy folks won that a decade ago online, and a century ago in print).

This is about recognising that text content can be daunting when presented the wrong way.   By making your text content as legible and digestible as possible, you’ll get higher readership and more leads and sales.  And isn’t that what we all want?

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