Invest In Yourself!
I just got back from a conference in Atlanta called Exposure & Profit. Kelly McCausey, one of my recent podcast guests, ran it. I had an awesome time. It was three days filled with awesome speakers. I learned so many tips and techniques that I wanted to share a few of them with you.
1) Find Your Perfect Clients
The first thing you have to do is find your perfect clients. Now, what do I mean by perfect clients? You need to find people that are specifically looking to either solve a pain point or get to a pleasure point and make sure that your product or service matches up with their needs. The more that you can identify the perfect client for you, the better chance you have of speaking the language that they need to hear. That’s really what it boils down to. One of the speakers in Atlanta told us that they were trying to sell a fitness product and they put pictures of men on it. Then as they started to explore who would possibly buy this, they found out it was more women than men. They started to understand exactly who their demographic was, the language that they wanted to hear and the sales messages they needed to craft to communicate exactly what their audience wants to hear, what they need to know, and what’s going to convince them to at least dig in a little further.
2) Create Clear Sales Messages
Point number 2 is clear sales messages. Now, one of the places where a lot of people falter is focusing so much on the features that they miss the opportunity to tell people what’s really going on. People don’t buy features. They don’t care if you have a blue ball or a red ball. They want a ball that bounces the way they want it to bounce. That’s really the most important thing. What are the benefits to the end user? In the golf world, it’s the ball that lands softer or drives further or is the one that is going to be less likely to spin so you don’t slice or draw whatever it is. Each ball that you buy has a different value proposition specifically for the thing that you’re trying to fix.
That means maybe you hit one ball off the tee and then you hit another one around the green. Unfortunately, in regulation golf you can’t do that, but essentially what we’re trying to do is to get the message out that this particular product or service is going to have the benefits that you desire. You’re going to get a flatter tummy. You’re going to look better. You’re going to feel better, whatever it is. The sales message has to be clear, concise and targeted towards that perfect audience.
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3) Steady Stream Of Traffic
Point number 3 is that you need a steady stream of traffic. Now, traffic can be eyeballs in the newspaper. It can be website visits. It can be people that are seeing your ads on Facebook or Google, but it’s up to you to get your message in front of the right people. One of the other things you can’t neglect is that sometimes you have to do contact people face-to-face. Sometimes you just have to get out and talk with people in order to get your messages in front of the right audience. Or maybe you’re just starting a sales conversation. You’re not really selling anything, but you’re creating product awareness. The goal is to be top of mind when people are ready to make a buying decision for the specific thing that you’re selling. You need to get a steady stream of traffic: eyeballs, ears, whatever is in line with what you’re trying to accomplish.
4) Create An Easy Call To Action
The next thing you have to think about is your call to action. What I mean by a call to action is when people are ready to purchase, they’ve made that decision, are you making it super simple for them to execute that exact thing? One of the lessons that I learned was that if you make it too complicated for people to get your product by making them jump through hoops or fill out pages and forms, then the less likely they are to buy. One of the things that makes it super, super simple if you’re selling something online is to get the customer to a PayPal button. Have them pay on PayPal with a credit card or their PayPal account and then immediately take them to a thank you page where they can get the product or service and download it.
Another concept that I heard was never put the download on a download page. What you do is you get them into your email system and you send them the link from email. Your thank you page is actually there to possibly up-sell something. Maybe you have another product or service that enhances what they’ve already purchased. You have to think about the whole sales process. That call to action must not block the sales process.
Now, if they’re not ready to buy now, you want to get them on an email list or on your social media list, so that you can go back and try again when they are ready to purchase. Give them the opportunity to say, “I’m ready now.” Or if they’ve gotten to the sales page but left before getting to the checkout page, then you need to find a way to communicate with them again and say, “Hey, I see that you didn’t get it now. Maybe I could give you a coupon to convince you” or “Let me communicate in the future when I’m doing this again” or “Maybe now is not the right time and you’ll be ready a week from now.” You want to make sure that you have that whole enclosed sales loop so that you’re communicating the right messages to the right people at the right time, because frankly, everybody who goes to your sales page is not ready to buy. Make sure that you’re doing something to keep them in the loop.
5) Fantastic Follow-Up
The last thing is fantastic follow-up. That’s number 5. You want to make sure that you’re following up with people who have purchased your products recently or even a long time ago and also people who have not purchased your products. One of the things I heard that I absolutely loved is every single person who makes a purchase from this one particular speaker gets an email that says, “Can we do a follow-up phone call?” Then he gets on the phone with every single customer to make sure that the checkout was easy, to get their feedback, and also to enhance the relationship so that in the future if he’s selling something again, they had a personal touch from the person selling it rather than a cold email coming from nowhere. I love that personal connection.
That was one of the tips that really got me. It said, “Man, you’ve got to make sure that you get contact information from the people who have already been through the Bacon System or purchased your book, so you can get ahold of them to do follow-up calls. Make sure that you’re following up with those who are not ready to buy, too, to see since now may not be the right time, when would be? That killer follow-up is so incredibly important.
Final Thoughts and Recap
This is a whole mini system within my systems that I teach with my productivity bundle, my checklist bundle as well as the Bacon System. These are really some of the big takeaways that I got from this conference. This is really a combination of all the wisdom that I got from the speakers and the two mastermind sessions that I was able to attend. Let’s start with the 5 things: the 5 things you need to do to grow your business now.
First, you have to know who your perfect client is. What are the attributes about them that make them the perfect client? Are they male, female, young or old? What are they buying for? Are they buying to alleviate pain or maybe to add pleasure to their lives? What are the benefits of what you have to offer and how would it excite them, get them energized to say, “This is the right solution for me.”
Then comes the sales message. That’s number 2. You have to have a very clear sales message that speaks to them where they’re at, at the time when they’re ready to buy. If they’re not ready to buy, you want to have a sales message that is easily repeatable, so when they get to that position they will remember you because you’re top of mind.
Thirdly, you want to make sure that you have a steady stream of traffic. You need eyeballs and ears. You want to make sure that whether you’re doing paid advertising or organic advertising, you got to make sure that you have a steady stream of people who are willing to purchase what you’ve got.
Next, you have to make it so easy for people to purchase. Have an incredible call to action and don’t make it complicated.
Then, finally, follow-up, follow-up, and follow-up with some follow-up.
I would love to hear your thoughts and comments!
To learn more on this and other topics about Internet Marketing – visit our podcast website at http://www.baconpodcast.com/podcasts/
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