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[mikeconkey]

Checklist on How to Drive Traffic to Your Blog

Summary Checklist  for Accelerating Traffic to Your Blog

Why You Need to Drive Steady Traffic to Your Blog Traffic is so important because of the following reasons: People come from search engines and other sources to make your blog popular & widely-read More traffic = More readers Higher volume of traffic means you’re more likely to hit your target More traffic = More sales More traffic means more opportunities to engage with people Traffic = Credibility Your blog can become a lead magnet for your other sites Your blog can become a fulltime job with enough traffic Define the specific purpose of your blog The Most Effective Methods to Drive the Right Traffic to Your Blog Some traffic strategies are very common as they produce great results Always be on the lookout for alternative strategies Social Media traffic Create a profile Connect Share and read content Utilize the sites unique features to engage Guest Blogging Write a post on someone else’s blog Get exposure to their audience Online Forums Create a profile Discuss common interests with other users Blog Commenting Read other blogs Leave comments with links to your own blog Email Create a feed Send an email out to all subscribers whenever you post something SEO Use methods such as keywords Improve your search engine rankings Base your strategy on where your target market can be found Maximize Your Blogging Efforts Through Social Media Interact with other users and build relationships Learn about your target market Some best practices include: Research the sites your target uses Spend some time seeing how sites work Put links to your blog wherever you can Write a description with emphasis on why people should look at your blog Update social media whenever you post anything Look at the content your audience is posting and interact Get an understanding of your audience’s interests Pay attention to audience reaction and tweak accordingly Make sure your blog is mobile-friendly Using Facebook to drive traffic: Use visual content Keep it minimal Share teaser videos Use Facebook ads Using Twitter to drive traffic: Shorten your URLs Keep posts quick and to the point Use a quote from your post Ask a question Include a statistic Use numbers (“35 Ways to…”) Include images with tweets Use hashtags Use ‘Please RT’ Using LinkedIn to drive traffic: Use LinkedIn to reach business professionals Interact with people using the groups Engage to build trust Add your blog feed to your profile Only post relevant content in groups Using YouTube to drive traffic: Create teaser videos Include a strong call to action Maximize SEO Interact with other users Using Pinterest to drive traffic Create a pinboard for your blog posts Interact with other users Re-pin content you like Add a description to each pin Using Instagram to drive traffic Use the editing capabilities to make images unique Share videos Use hashtags Use photo series Create themed images Hosts contests to engage other users Using Tumblr to drive traffic Create memes Re-blog other users’ posts Encourage people to re-blog yours Get users to recommend your blog as an explore page Tag with relevant keywords Guest Blogging, Forums, and Comments Guest Blogging Write a post for another blog Expand your audience Improve SEO of your blog Find a blog on the same or similar topic as your own with lots of traffic Contact the owner with a pitch Allow others to write for your blog Best practices include: Get to know the blog & its audience Write something important & meaningful Link to your own blog Subscribe & respond to comments Keep a regular schedule Maintain a presence on online forums Discuss common interests Not necessarily a great place for promotion Put your link in your profile and signature Find forums that will potentially give you more readers Make sure it has a large active membership Monitor traffic Blog commenting gives you an opportunity to broadcast your blog Make sure it’s related Follow Dos and Don’ts DO leave helpful, interesting or insightful comments DON'T put a link to your blog in the comment DO subscribe to comments and check back to respond DON’T say anything promotional in your comment DO read and comment on blogs daily DON’T leave a comment if you have nothing valid to say DO subscribe to blogs you like and make early posts DO use an image on your profile Set up Systems for Email Updates Set up a blog feed to let readers know via email when you make a post Ways to set up an RSS feed include: Some platforms like WordPress or Blogger automatically give you an RSS feed You can use FeedBurner to create one You can add a subscribe button to your blog, or use a widget You can use an email newsletter to encourage traffic Send subscribers a message with a taste of what to expect Create an email list with services such as Aweber or MailChimp The service will create a sign-up form for you Put this form on your blog, site, and other places Basic SEO for Your Blog SEO includes things you do both on and off your blog SEO revolved around keywords that are search terms people look for when using search engines like Google The best keywords are Relevant High Search Volume Low Competition It’s difficult to get the balance right, so focus on relevance and search volume first Brainstorm what you’d type into Google to find a blog like your own You can perform keyword research with software Some free tools include Google Keyword Planner Tool SEMRUSh Keyword Tool Keywords should be natural Don’t ‘Stuff’ your content with them as you will get penalized Create categories and tags, but not too many and make them relevant Use SEO plugins to automate tasks More Creative Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Publish a podcast Discuss various topics, have guests and interview people Put supplementary content on your blog Press releases Write a one-page release about your latest post Submit to media outlets Use Commentluv Connect bloggers and their comments Helps gain exposure QR codes Scanning a code directs the device directly to your blog You can use these online and off Contests and giveaways Give people a reason to visit and interact Publish the best submissions Reach out to key influencers Identify influential people and get them to talk about your blog Offer an incentive Promote Offline Tell people about your blog wherever you go Put your blog on your promotional materials Analyze Your Blog’s Performance Check analytics to see if your efforts are paying off Programs can give you data on performance Google Analytics is free and offers comprehensive reports Referral Sources tells you how much traffic you’re getting and where it’s coming from You can also see which keywords are performing best See who is visiting your blog, what they’re doing there and other information Decide which metrics are the most important to you and focus on them Common Mistakes to Avoid with Your Blog Not reading other blogs Copying content Too much design Too much promotion Not sticking to a schedule Text only Boring titles Too many keywords Not mobile ready Not checking analytics Read the full article

[mikeconkey]

How to Create Compelling Opt-In Offers

Creating a Compelling Opt-in Offer

The best way to approach creating a compelling opt-in offer is to assess where you currently stand and then choose the direction you want to take. Use your business goals, as well as your audience’s needs to help you create compelling offers. Your opt-ins should resonate with your audience and assist you in directing them to take the specific calls to action that you suggest. Analyze Your Current Content The first thing you should do is look at the content you have now. Check the analytics to find out which blog posts are the most popular. This content is the perfect place to add a related opt-in offer. By adding the opt-in offer on these posts, you’ll be able to reach and attract more people in the specific subset of your audience. This practice will ensure that it’s what they need, want, and are interested in right then. That means they’re much more likely to sign up for the opt-in. Target Audience Personas Even if you don’t yet have enough content to analyze what you can do is create several different audience personas based on the various types of people you want to work with or who need your products. A good place to start is with the different categories you have on your blog. Which audience persona is interested in each category? What are their pain points? Solve Your Audience’s Problems Each person who comes to your blog or website via a search has a reason for doing so. They searched for something to solve a problem that they have. If you know where your audience hangs out online, you can survey them to find out which problems are most pressing, so you can choose which one to address. Educate Your Audience When you find out their pain points, you’ll know their problems. From there, you can choose what you want to educate your audience about. Providing education about problems and solutions sometimes requires that you agitate the problem so that they want the cure. Engage Your Audience If you have an email list, social media pages, social media groups, or other ways to communicate with your audience, engage with them. In the process, you can glean info to determine what type of lead magnet to create. Ask them questions, survey them, find out what they’re searching for, and then provide the solution. Name the Opt-in When you create the opt-in, it should be very specific regarding the problem it solves and who the target audience is. This will make it easier to name and add specific benefits in your copy. For example, “17 Budget Hacks for Saving Mom Money” is very specific. It provides information about what’s inside, without any confusion. It’s also short and to the point. Offers They Can’t Refuse It’s important that your offer catches the reader’s attention and provides exceptional value. Offer a much-needed solution or group of solutions, which they are convinced will make their lives easier in some way. Show them what real benefits they can expect from the lead magnet solution. Use wording that motivates them emotionally and compels them to opt-in. When prospects opt-in, they get the high-quality freebie, put the ideas into action, and see for themselves that you know what you’re talking about they’re going to be more likely to take the next step to making a purchase. Remember that the content you create is supposed to move your audience forward from where they are now, to where they want to be. This may require a lot of study about your audience, your products, your services (and anything else you promote) so that you are better able to develop the right opt-in offers. Read the full article

[mikeconkey]

How to Quickly Grow Your List via Opt-In Offers

Setting Up Highly Targeted Opt-In Offers to Grow Your List Quickly

One advantage of doing business online is the ability to set up multiple sale funnels, which offer opt-in freebies and info, in exchange for the reader joining a mailing list. Setting up highly targeted opt-in offers, in order to grow your list, is the key to your success. An opt-in offer is essentially an ethical bribe that you give your audience to make them want to provide their email address to you so that you can put them on your email list. The item or items used as the incentives are frequently called lead magnets. This is because, like magnets, they attract or draw your chosen audience or leads to your offer, which often involves a mailing list opt-in. You can add the leads, who opts-in to special lists, where they receive specific topic information designed to inform, educate, engage, and inspire them to take suggested actions. However, you will first need to create an opt-in offer that includes a lead magnet or incentive. Lead Magnet Opt-in Incentives When it comes to choosing an incentive for your offer, you have a wide range of options. Here are a few lead magnet content formats that are used widely and successfully to provide readers with solutions, info, and items they want and need most. In the process, your opt-in incentives serve as product samples to new leads, as well as help you to grow and maintain your potential customer base. Checklists Webinars Cheat Sheets Spreadsheets eCourses Short Reports Step-By-Step Guides Resource Lists Blueprints Printables Quizzes Apps, Plugins, Software Templates Whitepapers Free Graphics Free Trials When selecting the format of the “solution” or information you provide in the opt-in offer, choose the format that best serves your purpose and solves the problem for your readers. You also need to make sure that your lead magnet is helpful, appealing, and it effectively accomplishes the goals you’ve set for the opt-in offer. Create Effective Lead Magnets Everyone loves to get freebies. However, you can’t offer just any old freebie and expect to get massive signups. While there are people who signup for anything as long as it’s free, these freebie seekers are not your target market. Your target market has very specific characteristics and needs. It’s their qualities, situations, and pain points that you want to highlight and address in your opt-in offers’ lead magnet incentive to make the overall opt-in offer more effective. In addition to incorporating what you know about your target market, there are other strategies and essential elements, which help ensure that your lead magnet is doing a good job. Here are a few things you want to keep in mind as you create the most effective lead magnet possible for your business and your potential customers. Quick Usability – Effective lead magnets should be accessed quickly, usually within a day or so. This allows the audience to begin implementing the solution or applying the information almost immediately. Quick delivery helps to build trust, which means they’re more likely to respond to your follow up email messages. Comprehensible – The offers and lead magnets must be clear and easy for the target audience to understand. Matching your audience and lead magnet with an experience level can help ensure that new subscribers don’t opt-in to an offer that is beyond their experience level or need. Use simple terms/concepts for newbies and use more advanced terms/concepts for advanced learners. This helps cut the frustration level and the unsubscribe rate down to a minimum. Identify who it’s for and who it’s not for. Quick Results –The best lead magnets quickly provide a certain degree of relief from specific pain points related to a problem or question. Quick results help to build your authority and expert status on the topic, which prompts your audience to buy paid products and provide you with earned media. Laser Targeted – Offers, solutions, and information must be laser targeted to the audience that you want to sign up for your email list. Use a profile persona, created from your demographic research, to make sure your offers and lead magnets always contain solutions and words that are specific to the audience segment and topic. This helps to keep freebie seekers and confusion to a minimum, as well as keeping your list clean. Funnel Vision – Whether you do it at the end of the lead magnet document or in a follow-up email, give your new subscribers a hint of what action they should take next. Just as a syllabus helps students follow along in school, getting a small glimpse of your sales funnel lineup helps subscribers to follow your suggested recommendations in an orderly fashion. In addition, it helps you to make more sales after an initial signup offer. Brand Consistent – It’s important for your opt-in offers to be brand consistent. This means the visual branding and the quality of the items should be the same as your paid products. Keeping the topics, branding, and quality consistent throughout your entire business/sales funnel makes your audience feel safe whether they are signing up for a freebie or buying your most expensive product. They know what to expect from you and can easily identify your items. This feeling of safety ultimately turns new subscribers into returning, loyal, and long-term customers. Focused Relevant Content – It’s easy to lose focus as you create an opt-in offer. To help you make your offer more effective, identify the most popular posts and topics on your site. Create an offer, for content that doesn’t already have an opt-in. The offer should be specifically related to the content and the target audience you want to attract. Dedicated Opt-in Landing Pages – Your landing pages can be short or long, but each should focus on one topic, solution, and offer. Design the page to introduce the freebie and provide details about the offer’s benefits. Include an opt-in form on the landing page to collect the name and email address, where the item will be delivered. An effective lead magnet requires that it be something your audience needs, wants and is simple for them to understand. It should also be highly targeted to your audience.   Read the full article

[mikeconkey]

5 Habits of People with High Levels of Personal Power

People with High Levels of Personal Power Possess 5 Key Habits

  People with high levels of personal power will go far in their lifetime. They always seem to be successful at just about everything they do. Believe it or not, you have the personal power within you to become one of those people. In this post, you’ll learn about 5 habits the people with high levels of personal power possess so you can become one of them and hone your own personal power. 1) They pay close attention to how they think Part of developing your personal power and maintaining it is focusing on how you think. The way you approach something is your greatest personal power; you have the power to think how you want to think and feel how you want to feel. Those with high levels of personal power focus on the way they think. They know it’s okay to feel the emotions their feeling and to think the way they think, so long as they look at it the right way. They don’t blame their actions, decisions, emotions, or thought processes on anyone else; they take full responsibility. 2) They forgive easily Those who have high levels of personal power know that forgiveness is not for the person who hurt them, but for themselves. When you harbor hatred and hold on to grudges, you hurt no one but yourself. Forgiveness gives you the power and allows you to move on from the transgression and grow. You don’t have to forget the transgression when you forgive, but letting it go will give you the power and the freedom to move past it. 3) They set boundaries Boundaries are an important asset to developing and honing your personal power. Those with high levels of personal power set emotional and physical boundaries. This allows them the control how they spend their time, and with whom they want. They don’t blame others for wasting their time or for forcing them to do anything. These boundaries also play a role in the first point we made, how you think about things. You have the power to control what you do, how you view the time you spend, and who you blame. Those with high levels of personal power don’t blame others for anything; they take full control and hold all the power. 4) They take responsibility Those with high levels of personal power take full responsibility for their feelings and actions. You won’t hear these people saying that so-and-so made them feel a certain way or that someone forced them to do something. They take responsibility, control, and power. Only you control your emotions, actions, and choices. No one can force a person with the personal power to do anything. 5) They don’t complain, they problem solve You don’t get anywhere by simply grumbling and complaining. You have to actually look for a solution. Those with high levels of personal power don’t just grumble and complain, they look for what they can do to fix the problem. That’s not to say that you can’t vent, you can, it just all comes down to the way you’re thinking and how you’re perceiving the situation. Those with high levels of personal power get far in life. They tend to be successful at everything they do and hold the power in all situations. In order to be like them and develop and hone your personal power, you have to learn from them and duplicate their habits. I hope this post helped to guide you on your journey towards honing your personal power and that you make the effort to implement these habits in your own life. Read the full article

[mikeconkey]

Tips on How to Develop Healthy Eating Habits

Tips on How to Develop Healthy Eating Habits

Healthy Eating Habits Tips

If there is one thing just about everyone has in common, it is the desire to be healthier. However, it can become confusing and overwhelming when you don’t know what to change, how to eat, or how much to eat. When in fact it is all a matter of small choices and simple habits you can change.

This report gives you some easy ways to start developing healthier eating…

[mikeconkey]

Four Tips on Ways to Make Decisions that Get You Started

4 Ways to Make a Decision So You Can Get to It Already

Making decisions is never easy. You need to assess your options, consider the risks, and predict a potential outcome. The more choices you have, the harder it gets. Additionally, self-doubt can affect your judgment and keep you from taking action.

Make decisions that help you to take action. It is Time for Action, get to it! Even a minor decision, such as skipping a workout, can impact your life. For some reason, you can't make it to the gym today. The next day, something unexpected comes up, so you miss your workout once again. A month goes by, and you barely got any exercise. So, what's the best way to make a decision you won't regret? One that requires action and can change your life for the better? Here are four strategies you can use: Write It Down Every time you need to make a big decision put it on paper. Write down how you feel about it, assess the pros and cons, and highlight the key facts. Read everything the next day and the day after. If you still feel the same about it, go ahead and take action! Journaling is a good way to clarify your ideas and thoughts, stay organized, and learn more about yourself. Give it a try - decision making will become a lot easier! Set Clear Intentions Make sure you have a clear goal in mind. Don’t make decisions when you're feeling sad, angry, or overly excited. Think of what you want to achieve and decide accordingly. Let's say that you want to switch careers. What's the reason behind your decision? Do you dislike your current job, want a higher salary, or feel like you could do more? Quitting your job just because you're bored or stuck in a rut may not be the best decision - especially if you don't have a backup plan. Consider your reasons for taking this step - refrain from acting purely on impulse. Detach Yourself from Negative Emotions Fear, self-doubt, anger, and frustration can interfere with decision making. Negative emotions affect your mood and behavior, reflecting on your actions. Acknowledge these feelings and declutter your mind. Never make a decision when you’re under stress or pressure. Stop Striving for Perfection When you're striving for perfection, it can be difficult to make decisions. The result might not live up to your expectations. Smart decision making isn't about finding the perfect solution. It's about getting things done. Stop aiming for perfection and start making decisions that drive results. Click here for the previous post on this subject... ...And, related to the previous post is the Small Business Success Tips episode #4. Click here for my Small Business Success Tips Alexa Flash Briefing Episode 4 The related Small Business Success Tips episode #5 (to be posted 4/1 a.m.) covers the topic of this post... FYI... You can listen to all of my weekly business success tips podcasts at http://smallbusinesssuccessips.com Read the full article

[mikeconkey]

Why You Should Become an Action-Taker

Reasons Why You Should Become an Action-Taker

What's stopping you from taking action? Is it fear? Perhaps you're waiting for the right break instead of making your opportunities in life? Or maybe you believe you're not smart or talented enough? These negative beliefs are holding you back. There's a reason why so many intelligent people fail. They tend to overthink everything and are often afraid to take risks. If that's your case, here are some powerful reasons to become an action-taker: Get Rid of Doubts If you don't take action, you'll keep wondering What if? You will struggle with self-doubt and question your decisions. Taking action builds experience and boosts your confidence. It also allows you to discover new resources and information that will contribute to your success. Your Time Is Limited Steve Jobs once said that remembering you're going to die is the best way to stop thinking you have something to lose. Your time on this earth is limited. You never know what’s going to happen a month or a year from now on. You might never get a second chance to rent that perfect office space in your area, go to that meeting you've been postponing for weeks, or apply for your dream job. Take action today! Don't settle for anything less than you deserve! One Thing Leads to Another Getting started is often the hardest yet the most important step to success. No matter your plans, you must take action to bring them to life. Once you make that first step, everything else will fall into place. It may or may not work out as you hope, but it will lead to something new. Think of it as an opportunity to grow and learn. Let's say you want to apply for a job that sounds perfect for you, but you know you aren’t quite qualified enough. Yes, it’s scary to apply, but what’s really at stake? Even if you don’t get the job, you’ll get practice interviewing for your dream job. You’ll also get feedback on what you need to focus on to get a similar job in the future. When you start taking action, you get results. Develop Your Skills Whether your projects succeed or fail, there's always a chance to learn new things. Taking action will help develop your skills, leading to greater confidence. The next time you want to take action on a dream, you'll feel better prepared and have more experience. On top of that, you’ll approach things from a new perspective and won’t repeat the same mistakes.   Read the full article

[mikeconkey]

How to be a Prolific Content Creator with an Editorial Calendar

The Art of Prolific Content Creation – Creating an Editorial Calendar

In order to do content marketing successfully, you need to create a great deal of content. This can seem overwhelming. How do you get it all done? Content marketers do it by creating an editorial calendar to follow. An editorial calendar helps you stay on target; be sure to take it with you when you are traveling or out of the office on an appointment. Following your calendar, you know when your content needs to be published and you can create and publish it in an organized fashion.

You now have several content templates and easy content creation strategies under your belt and you're ready to start pumping out more content. There's just one more part of the puzzle missing: your editorial calendar. An editorial calendar is essential for planning your content strategy. It gives you a schedule for creating and posting your content. Your 4-Week Plan Start by creating a content creation schedule for the next 4 weeks. This is a good trial period to get started and see how it goes. You may find that the schedule you created is too demanding of your time and you need to either cut back or outsource. On the other hand, you may find that you're capable of creating much more content and can increase the amount. Realistic Goals An important element in creating an editorial calendar is to make sure it's realistic. You shouldn't set a goal of blogging three times a week if you can't keep up with it. If your schedule is unrealistic, you'll get bogged down and stressed, and the quality of your content will suffer. You can create a realistic schedule by doing a trial run. Decide how much you'd like to publish and try it for a set period of time such as four weeks. You'll gain an understanding of how much is too much, or whether or not you can do more. Monitoring Results You can alter your editorial calendar by looking at results. If you find that certain types of content (for example, Facebook posts or videos) are getting more engagement, you can add more of them to your calendar. On the other hand, if you find that your articles aren't drawing traffic or gaining readers, you may choose to focus your efforts elsewhere. Your Content Creation Schedule There are two ways to go about creating your content. You can spend some time daily producing it, or set aside a block of time each week or so to create the week's content. If you're not sure which approach is best for you, try them both for a set period of time. In content creation, as in all things, nothing gets done without a clear plan and a workable schedule. Your editorial calendar is an important part of your content marketing campaign.   Read the full article

[mikeconkey]

How to Boost Your Career and Business

Tired of watching everyone else succeed while you fail? Your Mindset May Be Keeping You from Achieving Your Dreams. Download this Guide Now: Developing a Success Mindset to Boost Your Career and Business

From: Mike Conkey, Business Coach & Consultant

Subject: Start Living Your Dreams

  Dear Friend,

Click to register and to download your copy of the “Developing a Success Mindset…” eBook

Have you…

[mikeconkey]

Content Marketing Guide for Your Business and Brand

Your Guide for High-Quality Content Marketing 

Many marketers think in terms of content as blog posts, books, reports, and email marketing. These products are often written specifically for each type of product created. But why are you wasting time (and potential income) by creating something new each time, when you could (and should) be repurposing and reusing what you have already. Let’s say for example you’ve created a series of blog posts on the topic of stress management. Each post has been well received. Now you want to create a book to sell on the same subject. But instead of writing it from scratch, why not take the blog posts, rearrange them and possibly add to them to create your book? Then take that book and turn it into a video, an audio, a podcast, a report, and checklist. These are just a few of the types of content you can publish using content you’ve already created. Within a matter of a few hours or days, you’ve been able to get quality content in front of your customers. It’s important that you are using quality content as a way to build traffic, get leads and customers, though. People aren’t going to purchase or read content from you that isn’t relevant to them. What is quality content, why is it important and how can it help you build traffic, get leads and customers? Isn’t all content important? Yes and no. If you are publishing content in your voice to build your brand and grow your following with relevant, helpful content that is right on target with your potential customer’s interest, then yes, it’s important. On the other hand, if you are creating content or having content created for you that is about totally irrelevant subjects, are publishing content just to fill your blog and social media channels, then no the content is not important in building your brand.

What high-quality content is:

Engaging content should be user-oriented. We all like to talk about ourselves and our brands. Your customers want to know how you can solve their problems or make their lives easier. You should stress the benefits over features, but you also need to show that you understand their needs by writing content from their shoes. It should be free of jargon they wouldn’t understand, be structured correctly, written in your voice and style as if you’re speaking to them, and asking for a response or call-to-action. It should serve a specific purpose. Everything you publish should tell your story. It’s okay to use humor and to entertain, but the content should have substance behind it. Each story should have a point, a moral or a key message behind it. Your content should be shareable. Is your content addictive to your potential customers? You should focus on creating videos, social media updates, blog posts, newsletters and all your content that makes people what to click the “share” button. Catering to their needs and desires is how you do this. For example, if they like silly cat videos, figure out how to incorporate them into your line of services and products!

Why quality content is important

Quality content is important for many reasons for building your brand, creating relationships and getting leads and sales. Providing content your potential customers want to read and become engaged in gives them a reason to come back and continue following you. Businesses hoping to remain competitive need to have fresh quality content in front of their potential clients continuously. This means creating a content marketing plan, producing different types of content and being where your customers are. There are a few reasons why creating quality content is important to anyone doing business online. They include: Builds brand awareness. Quality content helps you reach a wider range of consumers. Frees up your time from having to create new content continuously. Saves you money you would otherwise spend on writers creating content for you. Establishes you as the thought leader. Good content establishes your reputation and you become recognized for your leadership in your niche. They will share your content and posts with others, creating more opportunities for potential customers to become familiar with your brand. Drives traffic. The more types of quality content you put out there, the more traffic sources you have for people to find you. Improves your rankings. Creating quality, valuable content that answers questions your people are searching for helps your website appear higher in the rankings. Quality content improves your website and social media channels. This ensures people will stick around longer when they land on your site and hopefully, push them towards your landing page to become a customer. Creating quality content helps you stay on the minds of your potential and current clients. They will keep coming back to learn more from you. Create quality information that touches your audience, explains things to them, and causes them to want to engage with you. Always ensure that every piece of content you put out has a point both for the audience member and for you.

  Energy 5-2-6 Join Ambit Energy Why Ambit Works The Ambit Energy Story   Read the full article

[mikeconkey]

7 Methods and Tips for Brainstorming

The Basics of Brainstorming

The most important skill in business isn't a technical, marketing or sales skill. It's not even strictly related to business. This most essential skill is your ability to brainstorm. Everything in the world of business is driven by ideas. The ability to brainstorm allows you to efficiently generate ideas and evaluate those ideas to find the right one for the situation at hand. Without brainstorming, you have to rely strictly on inspiration to give you the ideas you need. You may sometimes be struck with ideas or inspiration in the shower, in your car, walking down the street, and so on. But as painter Chuck Close is quoted as saying: "Inspiration is for amateurs – the rest of us just show up and get to work." The "getting to work" of generating ideas is brainstorming. If you know how to brainstorm and evaluate the ideas you've generated well, you'll always come up with new ideas and the well will never run dry. Brainstorming is a special skill, and like any other skill, it can be learned and practiced. In this report, you'll learn different methods for brainstorming and tips on how to make your sessions as effective as possible in generating ideas. You can use brainstorming for absolutely anything, including: > Problem solving > Ideas for new products > Topics for pieces of content such as blog posts > Ideas for marketing tactics or strategies > Improvements to business operations > Work hacks and productivity improvements > New directions for your business You can use brainstorming for not only every aspect of your business but in your personal life as well. This is an invaluable skill that will help your business and enrich your life. In this post and subsequent posts, you'll learn about: Gain an understanding of how brainstorming works > Learn valuable tips to help you get the most out of your brainstorming > Learn 7 brainstorming methods that are the most effectively used in business, along with their variations and different options > Learn how to take the massive list of ideas you've generated through brainstorming and evaluate each, whittling your list down to just the single idea or few ideas you need > Have a chance to try out each of these brainstorming methods so that you can decide which to add to your arsenal > Learn the most common pitfalls and mistakes used in brainstorming and how you can avoid them Brainstorming Basics Brainstorming is the process of generating ideas through intensive idea sessions. It can be done either individually or in groups. For individuals, it's basically the process of sitting down and trying to think up ideas. For groups, it's a more complicated and structured affair. In the realm of business, brainstorming is most often done in groups. Multiple brains are better than one. There's more chance someone will suggest the best solution and you get many different perspectives. When you brainstorm, you focus on a problem or topic and generate a huge list of ideas. You then go through the list and remove those that are unsuitable and what you have left is the one idea or few ideas you're looking for. An important part of brainstorming is that participants are allowed to think outside the box. All ideas should be taken down and not judged. The process of judging the ideas is the next phase—the evaluation process. The brainstorming session should welcome the ridiculous, the crazy, the impossible, and the incredible. There is no bad idea in brainstorming, as long as it's focused on the topic, question or problem at hand. In fact, the wildest ideas are often the best ideas. What may seem ridiculous or incredible might be just the edgy, original or innovative solution you're looking for. It's easier to make a crazy idea more practical than to make a dull but practical idea more interesting. Brainstorming Tips Keep It Focused. There is no bad idea while brainstorming, but every idea needs to be on target. Keep the session focused on the specific goal at hand. It should be at the top of your mind. Define clearly the outcome you expect from the ideas you generate. Choose a Good Venue. The environment for a brainstorm has a huge impact on the creativity of its members. Choose a comfortable location with few distractions for the session. This will help you keep it focused and stimulate creativity. Lay Down Ground Rules. Make sure the structure of the session is clear to everyone involved. State the issue at hand clearly at the beginning of the session. Everyone involved will probably know this beforehand, but stating it at the top of the meeting again is a good refresher and ensures that everyone is on the same page. Set Time Limits. Set time limits to your brainstorming sessions or parts of your sessions. This helps you maintain focus and also applies a bit of pressure. When you know you only have a limited time, it prevents you from over-thinking as you generate ideas. You can just get them down. Take Breaks. A good way to keep focus and not burn out is to take many breaks. Take short breaks to change your environment, move around, get your mind off the issue momentarily, and so on. Come back to it refreshed and ready to let the ideas flow. Make It Fun. If you're brainstorming in a group, create a fun environment where everyone feels safe and there is no judgment. You might introduce some game elements to make it easier for everyone. Assign a moderator who can help direct the session. The moderator can encourage quieter people to talk, enforce the session's time limit and make sure it stays on track. The Evaluation Phase - What to Do with Your Brainstorming Ideas A brainstorming session will generate ideas. In the following chapters, you'll learn some brainstorming methods you can use. But you'll also need to know what to do with the ideas your brainstorm generates. The purpose of brainstorming isn't just to list ideas, but to bounce these ideas off each other. There needs to be feedback and a selection process to narrow your list down and select only the right ones. The first step is to decide how many ideas you need to generate. If you're trying to find one specific solution to one specific business problem, obviously you need to choose only the best idea. If, however, you're brainstorming a list of topics for blog posts, the selection process may not be so involved. You can hold on to the ideas you come up with for later if you don't use them right away. Evaluating Your Ideas Before beginning your brainstorm, decide how many ideas you need. You may need only one, but decide to select a handful for a post-brainstorm feedback and evaluation session. This session will give the members (or you if it's an individual undertaking) a chance to discuss the top 5 or however many you choose. You might also keep a few of the runners-up as backups or "Plan B" if the idea you choose runs into trouble. You should evaluate your ideas based on a few criteria. The most important is how appropriate the idea is to your goal; in other words, how suitably does it solve the problem. Another important factor is feasibility. In brainstorming, thinking outside the box is always stressed. But if you think too far outside the box, the ideas you come up with will be impossible to carry out. You may want to carry out some research as part of the evaluation process. If you're trying to come up with something unique and original, you may take each idea and Google search it to see if someone has beaten you to it. If it's a problem many businesses face, you may want to research your competitors or other businesses to see how they handle it. Building on Existing Ideas You should look for ways to build on existing ideas. A few ways to do this might include: > Having members of the group take other members' ideas and add something new to them or suggest changes. > Taking old ideas and adding a new twist to them. > Combining two ideas into one. > Separating an idea into its parts. When brainstorming, your ideas don't need to be set in stone. Keep in mind that in addition to generating new ideas, you can also alter the ideas you already have. Keep this chapter and the last chapter in mind as you try out the brainstorming techniques on the following pages. There will be 7 brainstorming techniques explained. You may not find all of them useful, but it's a good idea to try each and see if it works for you. You can add those that produce results to your business operations.

Method 1 – Mind Mapping Mind mapping is a visual brainstorming technique where you start with a central idea and "map" your ideas out of it. The center of your map is the topic, question or problem that's the objective of the brainstorming session. You then add ideas around the center. These ideas branch out. You end up with what looks like a map. Branches that come out of the original center can become their own centers. For example, let's say you're brainstorming blog topic ideas for an online security company's website. The first topic that springs to mind might be "encryption." You may have a more specific idea that falls under the category of "encryption," like "how encryption works." You would draw this as a branch coming from the "encryption" node. For the purpose of your brainstorming, you may choose to decide on the overall shape of the map at the beginning. If you're brainstorming ways to improve your customer service, for example, you might start with "customer service" in the center and then decide beforehand that you'll have the nodes "point of sale," "call center," "quality assurance," "internal company policies," and so on, coming out of the center. Mind mapping thrives on creative visuals, so in addition to words and phrases, you could use images, color coding, and symbols to represent ideas. When you use words and phrases, they should be single words or short phrases. You don't need to write complete sentences. You can draw a mind map by hand on a whiteboard or on paper, or there are many software programs that allow you to do it electronically, making the process easier. These programs allow you to collaborate on mind maps remotely, so you can have a brainstorming session with people all over the world. Here are just a few examples of mind mapping tools that will make your life easier and help you collaborate with others: Freemind MindMeister Xmind When brainstorming with mind mapping as a group, make sure that everyone is allowed to add their ideas. Each person should be given the chance to contribute and branch out new ideas from the ideas of others. What you'll end up with is a visual representation of the problem with its possible solutions. Rather than a list of ideas, mind mapping gives you a diagram where the ideas are already organized for you. The visual element also makes it fun for brainstorming sessions. Method 2 – The Challenger Method The challenger method involves questioning assumptions or common ideas in order to generate ideas that are "outside the box." It gives you a new way of thinking about an old idea. Take your topic and create a list of things you hold to be true about the topic. These are your basic assumptions. Once you have a good list, take each item and ask yourself, "Is this really true? What if it weren't?" As an example, let's consider marketing methods. Here are some of the assumptions you might come up with: > We need high traffic keywords > We need backlinks from relevant, high traffic websites > We need to put a blog on your website for fresh content > We should be active on all major social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google+) These are reasonable assumptions that are commonly espoused by websites on internet marketing. But what if you really questioned each one as it relates to your specific marketing plan? They may stand up to your challenge, or you may discover that: > You don't need high traffic keywords, but keywords that are targeted well to your audience (not to mention that high traffic keywords also have higher competition, which may make them ineffective for you). > Maybe for your particular niche and goals, backlinks aren't as important as other things like content, social media, and other means of getting people to your site. > Instead of a blog, a video might work better for your particular audience. > Some social media sites may not be worth the time because your target market don't spend time there, and you may instead choose to focus on just one or two. So, how do you decide which side to take, the original assumptions or their opposites? This questioning doesn't necessarily result in an easy answer. The point is to question assumptions so that new ideas emerge. It forces you to get out of your thinking rut. You can challenge assumptions about specific aspects of your business, or you can question general assumptions about your industry, society, the world, and so on. For example, you might take an assumption like "People love low prices" and challenge it. Do people really love low prices, or are they simply driven by economic conditions to find deals? Maybe people would happily pay more if they were getting more value out of the deal. This is a great critical thinking exercise as well as brainstorming method. If you get into the habit of thinking like this, you'll boost your creativity. Method 3 – Random Input The random input method is a very creative way to brainstorm that triggers the imagination. It involves taking some random input from somewhere that's not related to the topic of your brainstorming and using this random thing to inspire ideas. The random input could be a word, a picture, a sound, or anything else that opens new lines of thinking. You make associations with your topic and the new input or make associations between different random inputs, and come up with new ideas. The random input isn't some kind of oracle that magically gives you the answer. Rather, it's a form of outside stimulus that gets you to think differently and thus come up with new ideas. There's an oft-told legend that Campbell's Soup used the random input method to come up with its Chunky Soup. Supposedly, they were brainstorming using a random word tool. The tool gave them the word "apartment," which they then free associated, coming up with a stream of words that went something like this: "apartment," "build," "tools," "hammer," "saw," "drill" and so on. It eventually led to the word "fork," which led someone to say, "What if you could eat soup with a fork?" Another participant responded that it would have to be chunky. There are many ways to find random input you can use for your brainstorming. A few ideas include: > Flipping open a dictionary to a random word > Putting a random word or phrase into Google or Google's image search > Turning on the TV or radio and using what's on > Pulling a random book, CD or DVD off the shelf > Picking a random object from somewhere in the room > Looking outside your window and using the first thing you see or the first thing that passes by Be creative with what you find and freely associate, as the brainstormers at Campbell's Soup did. A great group variation is to assign each person a random input and have each person brainstorm individually first. Then, bring everyone together to combine their random ideas or free associate together. Method 4 – New Perspective With the new perspective method, you take the problem and consider it from another perspective. There are a variety of different ways you can do this. You could take another person's point of view. For example, try considering the issue from the point of view of your customers, or someone in another country. You can choose a famous person, public figure or person from history and try to consider the problem from their point of view. How would Steve Jobs deal with your human resources problem, or what kind of branding concept would Socrates come up with? Instead of a different person, try seeing the problem from a different era in time. Take your modern business problem back to Ancient Rome or Medieval Japan. Your new perspective could be another part of the world or another industry. For example, how would an airplane mechanic or a circus performer handle the problem? If you're brainstorming in a group setting, you could assign a different perspective to each member. Assign your sales team the roles of Mark Twain, Confucius, Joan of Arc and Charlemagne. You can do the same with eras in history, parts of the world, industries, etc. One particular technique that uses the new perspective approach is what's called the Six Thinking Hats. It involves putting on six different hats to consider the problem using different perspectives. The hats are: White – This is the factual hat that just considers the information available, or what facts are known about the problem. Black – The black hat is the risk-averse hat which considers the problem from the point of view of all that could go wrong. It places security as the top priority. Yellow – This is the hat of optimism which explores the positives to the black hat's negatives. It looks at benefits and seeks harmony. Green – The green hat is the creativity hat, which considers alternatives and other possibilities (you can use the challenger method here). Red – The red hat is the intuitive hat. It bases decisions on emotions and gut instincts. Blue – The blue hat is the management hat, which makes sure that each hat acts in accordance with its role and makes sure the brainstorming session stays on track. You can use the Six Thinking Hats or come up with your own variations. Assign a hat to each member of the group or each part of the group. This is also a good technique to use during the evaluation stage when you have a list of ideas to narrow down. Method 5 – Speed Thinking Speed thinking is basically brainstorming ratcheted up a notch. Whenever brainstorming, it's always good to time your sessions and get as many ideas down as possible. Speed thinking does the same thing but takes it a step further by imposing tight time limits and putting on a bit more pressure. There is a variety of speed thinking techniques but all involve setting a time limit and giving participants a goal. An example might be something like 20 ideas in 2 minutes. It puts the pressure on the participants to come up with as many ideas as they can. You can create other rules and parameters to gamify it and increase your efficiency. Speed thinking works best in short bursts of thinking with short breaks in between. You can combine speed thinking with other methods. For example, you can assume roles for a speed brainstorming session, and then take a break and switch roles. You can set a time limit and idea goal for free associations from random input. One speed thinking variation is what's called 6-3-5 Brainwriting (also called Method 635 or the 635 Method), developed by marketer Bernd Rohrbach. The method involves six participants who each have to write down three ideas on their sheets individually within five minutes. The ideas can be expressed as words or as images or symbols. At five minutes, the sheets are passed to the participant on the right. At the end of 30 minutes, you have a total of 108 ideas. You can actually perform 6-3-5 Brainwriting with any number of participants. More participants would produce more ideas, but with more than about seven it starts to get unwieldy. This also makes the overall session longer. Method 6 – Freewriting Freewriting is an exercise used by writers to stimulate creativity, generate ideas or warm up. It involves setting a time limit and writing from start to end with as little thinking, self-correcting, judging or editing as possible. You can use either a computer keyboard or a pen. Set a timer for an allotted time such as five or ten minutes. Write down a word or phrase that describes your topic at the top. Once the timer starts, start writing. Write as quickly as possible and try not to think too much about what you're writing. Let yourself free associate. It doesn't matter if the writing is "good" or not, just that you keep writing. It's okay to go off topic and it's perfectly fine to make spelling and grammar mistakes. Just try to get down whatever pops into your head. Keep the pen or your fingers moving until the timer stops. Then, go back and read over what you wrote to see if any ideas emerge. Often, you'll find that there's some part of the text that stands out as being useful amid a great deal of meaningless scribble. Sometimes the actual writing itself won't yield anything useful, but it will get the ideas flowing and your creativity will be flying high after you've finished writing. This is why writers use it to warm up. The time limit is vital in freewriting. If there is no time limit, you'll run out of ideas or burn out. With freewriting, you can stop when the timer stops, or take a break and set the timer again for another session. Another option is to set a page limit or word count limit rather than a timer. There are many ways to do freewriting in a group context. Like 6-3-5 Brainwriting, you can pass your papers each time the timer stops. Each participant can pick up where the last left off. Another group freewriting idea is for each person's writing to be read by another participant. The other participant may bring a fresh perspective to it or find an idea valuable that the writer might not have. Method 7 – The Stepladder Technique The final method is the stepladder technique and it can only be used in a group setting. However, it harnesses the power of both individual and group brainstorming. First, a topic or problem is presented to all of the members within the group. Every member except for two leaves the room. The two that remain in the room brainstorm together on the problem. Each other member brainstorms by themselves individually. The two remaining in the room hold their brainstorming session for a set period of time. At the end of this time, the first of the other members is called back into the room. This member shares the ideas they came up with in isolation with the two who have already been brainstorming. All three continue their discussion together for a set period of time and then the next member is called into the room. Each member is called back into the room one by one to add their ideas to the discussion. You can combine the stepladder technique with other techniques. For example, each individual member could be given a speed thinking time limit and idea goal, or their own new perspective (person, place, industry, era, etc.). The reason that the stepladder technique works so well is that each member gets to express their own individual ideas. It gets everyone involved equally. It also prevents groupthink, where people go along with the ideas of others instead of coming up with their own and other common problems that can occur in group brainstorming sessions.  

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Choosing a Pricing Strategy for Your Sales Page

Series Blog Post #4 - Choose Your Pricing Strategy

Contrary to popular belief, price isn’t the only thing that governs sales. The value and service you provide play just as important a role in buyer decisions, sometimes even more than the price. However, deciding on pricing remains one of the most challenging things entrepreneurs have to do. In this post, you’ll decide on a price that reflects the value that your offer, and you’ll figure out how you can make it easier for customers to say “Yes.” Price Your Offer to Sell Many entrepreneurs start out pricing low because they don’t value their own offerings enough. Don’t fall into this trap. Don’t assume that lowering the price on a product or service that didn’t sell last time will make people buy it this time. Choose a price that corresponds with the value your customers receive.  It’s important to test your price to see what works best for your customers. Test one thing at a time to see how it affects sales. For example, try a different pricing table for one month. Then try different value-add options another month. Most sales page tools like Leadpages or Click Funnels will give you options. Or you can just change one thing each month and measure your conversion rates and how they differ. Choose the Price It’s a business basic that you need to cover all your costs and make a profit. You need to choose a price that will give you the revenue returns you expect. When deciding the price you want, look at your competitors’ prices and see what they’re charging so you know what the going rate is. But don’t just copy them. What works for your competitors won’t necessarily work for you, especially since your value proposition should be different if you want to stand out. Focus on the value your customers will receive from your offer and the added value you will bring. Be confident in your pricing. This means being confident in yourself and your business, especially if you’re a service-based business where the ‘product’ you’re selling is yourself. When you work out the price, the figure might stretch you a little outside your comfort zone. You’ll ask yourself questions like, “Who would pay that much?” and, “I’m not worth that!” But don’t underprice your offering or people will think it isn’t worth buying. Be clear on the cost of every part of your offer and the total value in monetary terms: Cost out each of the features of your offer. Total this up. Compare the total cost with the price you’ve decided on for the offer. This will show that your offering is priced way below the ‘actual cost.’ For example: When you add up the cost of all the features in your 12-month coaching program, it comes to around 12000. You choose to offer it at 4997. Having this data helps boost your confidence level and dispel any fears of “It’s not worth it.” Some people use this comparison on their sales pages, showing it as a pricing table. You may want to try this in the future but for the first page, stick to the price you’ve chosen. You can always test the pricing table later.

How Price Influences Page Length A commonly held belief is that long sales pages are for higher priced offers and short pages are for lower priced items. But price doesn’t determine page length. There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for the length or details you include on your page. The length of your sales page depends on how much information you need to convey to convince your visitor to buy. You should provide just enough information and no more. If you feel something is essential for the visitor to know, then include it. If it’s something that addresses a primary objection, then include it. If it’s a detail that doesn’t affect your argument significantly, then leave it out. Here are a few benefits and disadvantages to consider when deciding how long to make your sales page. Long-Form Sales Pages: Pro: More room to build trust and address questions and objections. Con: Too much detail can confuse the buyer. Short-Form Sales Pages: Pro: When visitors already know the solution works, more copy just distracts them from taking action. Con: You don’t have room to explain things for people who aren’t familiar with you or your solution. In general, people will only read what interests them, which means that almost no one will read all your copy, especially if you’re creating a long sales page. But that doesn’t mean you should exclude elements that you feel are important to persuading new buyers. Again, testing both short and long copy will ultimately determine which is best for your offer. Help Customers Buy While price is not the only basis for a buying decision, it does play a large part. Make it as easy as possible for people to say “Yes” to your offer by helping make it affordable. This doesn’t mean lowering the price of course, but consider offering payment plans or pricing plans, particularly for higher priced products and services.

Payment Plans For some people, the price you’ve chosen is just too high to pay all in one go. Others may have the money but prefer to spread out their payments for cash flow purposes. To counteract this, consider offering payment plans. Divide the total price of your offer into several monthly, achievable payments. Depending on the nature of your business and what you’re selling, you may restrict access to some of the features of your offering.  For example, if you are offering an online program, those who pay in full get access to all the content right away, whereas those who pay monthly get access on a month-by-month basis. If you offer payment plans, you are in effect offering a loan spread out over several months. Make sure you add on a percentage to cover this benefit (10% is common). Or offer ‘interest-free’ payments as your added-value if your budget allows. Pricing Plans Some people don’t need all the features you propose. If it fits your offer, you might choose to structure a pricing plan to propose different levels of service for customers, priced incrementally. Give pricing plans meaningful names that make it easy to understand which plan is right for which customer. For example, email services often have plans for solopreneur, small team, or enterprise levels. Make it very clear and easy to understand what the differences are between each level of your pricing plan. Whatever you choose to do: Show the price clearly towards the bottom of the page. Don't give so many pricing options that your visitor ends up in analysis paralysis. Only offer plans that make sense to your revenue model. Finally, the price is within your hands. You may only wish to offer the one price. Key Takeaways: Make it as easy as possible for prospective customers to say “Yes” if it suits your business model. Offer price doesn’t determine page length. The length of your sales page will depend on what you need to say on it. Action Steps: Quick Win: Write down your price for this offer. Do you feel comfortable with seeing it in black and white? Is asking for this amount a bit scary? Complete the worksheet in the Action Guide to check the cost for yourself of all the features vs the price of the offer to boost your confidence about pricing. Decide whether payment plans or pricing plans work for your business and this offer. Write down how you’ll explain them in clear, concise language on your sales page. Return to MikeConkey.com for the next blog post in this series for “Create Sales Pages That Convert – Turning Visitors into Customers”   

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Demonstrate Your Unique Value Proposition for the Customer on Your Sales Page

Series Blog Post #3 - Define the Unique Value of Your Offer

Value drives a large portion of your sales page copy because you need to demonstrate that what you’re offering is what your potential buyer wants. Linking value to customer wants shows that you have the solution to their problem. In this post, you’ll get clear on the value of your offer and how you can add additional value to make it even more attractive to prospective customers. Your Unique Value Proposition You need to be clear about your Unique Value Proposition (UVP) before you start writing your sales page copy. Your UVP should express what you do and how you will solve the key problem your target market is facing. Remember your UVP is best written as a short, succinct sentence like these: LegalShield (legal advice) – Worry less. Live more. Fundly (crowdfunding) – Raise money for anything. Scribd (audiobooks) – Read without limits. Explain Your Current Offer Every offer has benefits and features that you need to explain to prospective customers. The benefits of your offer are the outcomes your customer gets which help resolve their problem. They are the reason people buy and they address your customer’s pain points. The features of your offer are the characteristics or specs of your offering. For example: If you sell cycles to Sunday cyclists, the benefit would be to get fitter while having fun with family and friends. The features would be that the cycle has 24 gears and cantilever brakes. There’s a big difference between the two. Unless you already know a lot about cycles, the number of gears and type of brakes won’t mean anything to you. Not only can features confuse the customer, they can make them feel stupid – this won’t encourage them to buy. If you are a business coach for new businesses, the key benefit to prospective clients would be to have their business up and running and making sales. The features would be a program lasting 12 months, 12 one-hour coaching sessions with you, and access to business startup videos. Always describe benefits first, since the emphasis of your page is on the solution you can offer. You still need to list the features so your customers know exactly what they’ll get from you, but you’ll do this further down the sales page when your visitor is already hooked by the solution you’re offering. If you’re unclear on the benefits of your offer, go back to your customer’s pain points and identify how your offer addresses those. Take each feature and ask yourself, “So what?” and keep asking it until you have identified all the benefits. Examples: Your new bike has 24 gears. “So what?” You won’t have to struggle going uphill. Your coaching program lasts 12 months. “So what?” You will have the time to work on your business creation at a steady pace and start to see the results within the year. Add Value to Help Conversions Once you’ve established the value of your basic offer, you need to think about ways you can add even more value. This can make the difference between a sale and a lost customer. Adding value is a way of differentiating yourself from your competitors. This is especially important if you’re operating in a crowded market. Add value to your offer and you’ll increase conversions. The good news is that you can add value quite easily and without necessarily incurring huge costs. Always budget for the cost of added value so you can adjust your price accordingly. For example, if you want to offer door-to-door delivery which your competitors don’t, you may have to pay for a courier service or employ someone to undertake the deliveries. This may be a worthwhile investment if you get more customers. Here are some examples of ways to add value:

Offer bonuses which complement your offer. Add in personal interaction to your online coaching program like a one-on-one starter session with you. Personal follow-up support service with a member of your team. 24-hour delivery. Free upgrades as they come on stream. Free demonstration videos to get the best out of the product or service. Key Takeaways: Your sales page needs to demonstrate the value of your offer. You must be clear on how the benefits of your product or service provide value by addressing the pain your customers are experiencing. Find ways to add value to stand out from your competitors. Action Steps: Quick Win: List the problems that your offer solves. Write a UVP for the sales page. Then identify your benefits by listing the features and asking yourself “So what?” Decide how you will add value to your offer. Return to MikeConkey.com for the next blog post in this series for “Create Sales Pages That Convert – Turning Visitors into Customers”   

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Creating Sales Pages that Target Your Ideal Customer

Series Blog Post #2 - Target Your Ideal Customer

You probably already have an ideal customer profile that you use for marketing, even if it isn’t explicitly written down and is only in your head. When it comes to sales pages, you need to be absolutely sure you know who you’re targeting. The details you define about your ideal customer are crucial to everything that follows. When you know what this ideal customer wants, you can gear your offering to them. In this module, you’ll learn how to drill down into your prospect’s key challenges and present your offering as the solution they’re seeking. Address Customer Pain Points with Your Offer The problems your ideal customers have are known as ‘pain points’ for the obvious reason that they cause pain. Understanding these pain points will be vital in securing conversions from your sales page. What are the major challenges your ideal customers face? They will probably fall into one of the four main types of pain points:

Financial They want to save money They’re looking for a cheaper alternative to something they already have It’s a first-purchase and they want good value Time/Productivity They want to save time They want to do more in the time available They waste time on non-essentials Process/Systems They want to get organized They want to improve their internal processes They want to use automation somewhere in their lives Support They want help with certain tasks They feel they’re on their own They have a gap in their skills they need to fill Prospective customers’ pain points are often complex and can involve multiple categories. You need to address at least one in your copy. If you can address more that’s even better. It’s a challenge to identify your customer’s predominant pain point, and it’s different for each business. Make the effort to find out what their pain point is, address it in your copy, and you’ll be rewarded with sales. Talk to your target customers and really listen to what they say. If you’re still uncertain or need more information, use social media to find out what your target market is saying about its problems and challenges. A practical way to drill down to the root cause of your customers’ pain is -"The 5 Why's" exercise. It’s simple and very powerful, and it works like this: Take the customer’s problem and ask yourself “Why?” Then take the answer you gave and ask four further “Why?”s in succession. Here’s an example of something a customer might say when asked what their main challenge is: Pain Point - I can’t get my business off the ground

Why #1: Why can’t you get your business off the ground? Because I don’t have the time to take care of all the tasks. Why #2: Why don’t you have the time to take care of all the tasks? Because I have family commitments. Why #3: Why do you have family commitments? Because I’m a mother and I have to look after my daughter after school every day for three hours. Why #4: Why do you have to look after your daughter after school? Because I don’t have anyone to help me. Why #5: Why don’t you have anyone to help you? Because my husband doesn’t give me any help and I could really do with the support just now. There’s a world of difference between the presenting problem, “I can’t get my business off the ground,” and the resulting “My husband doesn’t give me any help and I could really do with the support just now.” Of course, this conversation could have gone in many directions but you get the idea. Try it on a past customer if you have one or run it as a mental exercise in your own head, knowing what your ideal customer is like. Identify Resonant Language to Use in Your Sales Copy People in different target markets speak in different ways. If you use the same type of language as your potential customers, you build rapport and make a connection that will create trust and help sales. It’s important to know the language your customers use when they talk about themselves and their situation so that you can use it directly in your sales copy. When you talk to past and potential customers, note down the words they use to describe their problems. When you’re doing your research into people’s pain points, write down what you hear verbatim. By incorporating these words into your sales copy, visitors to your page will be drawn in to read more. They will see familiar words and phrases and will trust that you fully understand their needs. Key Takeaways: Drill down to discover your prospects’ key pain points. Learn the language your ideal customers use so that your sales copy will immediately resonate with them. Action Steps: Quick Win: Complete the ideal customer checklist in the Action Guide. List what information you have, what more you need and how you’ll get it. Write down examples of the language your ideal customers use to describe their challenge, what they want and their ideal resolution to their current difficulty. "5 Why's" exercise. Follow the steps in the Action Guide which sets out the 5 “Why?”s formula of asking yourself “why?” five times for each pain point a customer has identified to check your understanding of their core challenge. Return to MikeConkey.com for the next blog post in this series for “Create Sales Pages That Convert – Turning Visitors into Customers”   

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How To Turn Website Visitors into Customers

Create Sales Pages That Convert - Turning Visitors into Customers

Create the enticing landing page that you deploy to attract prospects and turn them into buying customers, and long-term clients!

Series Blog Post 1 – Get Inspired

A high-converting sales page is a business basic. Whatever your business is, your sales page will become one of your key interfaces with potential customers. This is especially true if you’re offering high-end products and services. It’s essential to spend time and energy on creating the perfect sales page. That’s what you’ll be doing in this course, and what you learn here will be applicable for years to come. In this first module, we’ll look at what you can learn from other people’s high-performing sales pages and how this can inspire you to write your own. Why Your Sales Page Is Important Your sales page isn’t just important to your business because it’s where money changes hands. There are other reasons to focus on the skills and know-how required to create a high-converting page. You want your page to be found on the Internet by people searching for the solution you’re offering. The content of your sales page means they can find you easily. For a large proportion of visitors, this page will be the first connection you make with them. It’s certainly how people will learn all the details of your offer. You’ll also be driving prospective customers to that page through your social media profiles, any advertising you do, and your email list if you have one. Many people will see this page, so it must look professional, appealing, and showcase your work. You want prospective customers to see right away the match between what they’re seeking and what you’re offering. Even if you don’t make a sale to every one of your page visitors this time, the connections you’ve made and knowledge you’ve displayed will encourage people to follow you. At a later stage, after some relationship-building with you, they might become customers too. Key Elements of a Sales Page There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to sales pages, but there are formats that can be tailored to your specific proposition. You need to find what works best for your business and your product or service. There are two major elements that affect conversions:

Content Headline Subheadings Introduction Your Offer Pricing and Payment Refund Policy and Guarantees Call to Action Buttons Testimonials FAQS Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions You can introduce various methods to increase conversion, e.g. video, urgency, payment plans Design Font Layout Colors Branding Images There are checklists in the Action Guide to help you remember everything mentioned here, and in a later module we’ll focus on the most effective flow to use. Review Others’ Sales Pages for Inspiration You may not have written your own sales page yet, but you’ve probably seen one (and bought from one). You may have even purchased this course through a sales page. Although we said there are no one-size-fits-all sales page, the more you can get familiar with other people’s pages, the more you can learn. You can then adapt these ideas for your own use. Find sales pages online and look at the key elements we’ve mentioned for content and design. When you find something you like, make sure you store the copy in a swipe file so you can refer to it later. When you research other people’s sales pages online, you can find answers to questions that will help you create your own. A word of warning though: the pages may look fantastic, but you won’t know if these pages convert or not. However, if you look at the leading competitors in your field and their sales pages, then there’s a good chance those pages are converting. When you review these pages, ask yourself: What is enticing me to buy? What types of headlines catch my attention? What visually attracts me so I want to stay on the page? What motivates me to keep reading down the page? Your own experience of buying from sales pages is valuable too if your target market is similar to you: What have you bought from a sales page? What convinced you to buy? How did the page handle any concerns you had? Key Takeaways: If you’re selling anything online, you need a sales page. There are two key elements that affect conversion – Content and Design. Look at tried and tested sales pages online to get ideas for what you like and what works. Action Steps: Quick Win: Set up a swipe file on your computer or smartphone and keep examples of persuasive copy there. Complete the sales page review exercise in the Action Guide which will indicate the data you need to collect as you research other people’s sales pages. Return to MikeConkey.com for the next blog post in this series for "Create Sales Pages That Convert - Turning Visitors into Customers"

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How to Create Sales Pages That Convert

Create Sales Pages That Convert - Turning Visitors into Customers

Create the enticing landing page that you deploy to attract prospects and turn them into buying customers, and long-term clients! Intro - Series Blog Post Whatever business you’re running, you need to make sales. If your business is online, you’ll need a sales page to do the selling for you. You want this page to be high-converting so you can reach more people with your product or service and make the sales you want. To do this you must capture and keep your visitor’s attention from the headline right through to the ‘buy now’ button. What you say on your sales page and how you say it will influence your visitor’s buying decision. It’s not always easy to get the balance right between providing information on your offering and enticing the prospect to buy.  You don’t want to be pushy, but you need to convince your potential customer that you have the solution to their problem so they’ll want to buy. Over this series of these posts, we will help you learn exactly what to do to achieve those sought-after sign-ups! If you’ve never written a sales page before, then we'll provide tips and ‘how-to’ details in this series of posts. If you’ve tried selling online before but haven’t had much luck generating sales, you need to use the high-converting strategies that we will cover. Whatever your experience level, we’ll take you through a step-by-step process of putting your sales copy together, getting the flow right and the visual impact of the page enticing, so that you make the sales you need. Learning Objectives covered in this series of posts: By the time we complete these posts and you have applied what we've provided, you should be able to: Recognize the key elements of a high-converting sales page, so that you can ensure your page contains everything to help you make the conversions you need. Drill down into your ideal customer profile, so you can write sales copy that speaks to them and creates an immediate connection. Clarify the benefits and features of your offer, so that you can show you have the solution your prospective customers are searching for. Choose and clearly explain your pricing strategy, so that you demonstrate the value of your offer and make it easy for people to say “Yes.” Use your copywriting skills to write sales copy that sells, so you can communicate powerfully with your ideal customers through your sales page. Write introductory copy, a video script, and an enticing headline, so that you can grab your visitor’s attention right from the start and keep them reading your page. Inspire trust on your sales page by including testimonials and social proof, so that your visitors are reassured that they’re making the right decision buying from you. Identify common objections and preempt them in your sales copy, so that you eliminate any barriers to purchase your potential customers may have. Introduce ways to increase conversion on your sales page using the strategies of urgency and scarcity, so that visitors will be motivated to take immediate action. Organize the flow of your page and add in the final crucial elements to complete your sales page copy, so that it stands the best chance of converting visitors into purchasers. Design the look of your sales page, so that the page will have a powerful visual impact to encourage visitors to buy. Consolidate and implement your learning and plan further action steps, so that you achieve the goals you set for this course and know how to develop further. As we proceed through the series of blog posts for creating sales (landing) pages that convert visitors to customers, here's a climpse at the topics we will highlight: Blog post 1 – Get Inspired Blog post 2 – Target Your Ideal Customer Blog post 3 – Define the Unique Value of Your Offer Blog post 4 – Choose Your Pricing Strategy Blog post 5 – Draft Persuasive Sales Cop Blog post 6 – Engage Your Visitors at a Glance Blog post 7 – Inspire Trust Blog post 8 – Anticipate Objections Blog post 9 – Use Urgency and Scarcity in Your Sales Copy Blog post 10 – Make Your Page Flow Towards a Sale Blog post 11 – Use Design to Increase Conversions Blog post 12 - Review and Refine We hope you will return frequently to catch our latest post! Thanks for visiting with us...

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Split Test your Sales Pages

Sales Page Split Testing 101

An important step in building your sales page is A/B split testing. This is how you discover what will truly work with your market and what won't. A/B testing involves running two versions of your sales page with just one element changed to see which performs better. For example, you might run one page with an off-white background, and one with a pale blue background. After some time, you can clearly see that the off-white background is getting higher conversions. This tells you that your market prefers an off-white background. Why Split Test? It sounds like an extra step in an already involved process, but split testing is extremely important. This is how you discover what works and what doesn't using objective data. To build a sales page that converts, you need to use real data, not just your own assumptions. Another benefit is that you can conduct split testing on an ongoing basis, even after your sales page launches, and keep tweaking it to improve it and sustain its conversion rate. What to Split Test? You should split test every feature possible on your sales page. Any element of your page could have a direct effect on conversions. However, there are a few key elements that are most likely to make a big impact and should, therefore, be tested. Headline. You should definitely test your headline. This is probably the most important feature of your sales page because it determines whether a visitor will read on or not. Write multiple versions of your headline and test them. If you're not sure what key benefit to mention in the headline, test that as well. Call-to-Action. The call-to-action is nearly as important as the headline because this is the feature that urges the person to buy. They've been reading about the product and its benefits, and weighing its value in their mind. Your CTA tells them to buy now. You should test the wording of the CTA, its design, its size, its color, and its placement on the page. Images. Test your page with different images and test their placement on the page. Images have a huge impact on conversions. The wrong image in the wrong place could certainly cost you, so it's really important that they work the way you want them to. Best Practices for Testing Your Sales Page Only test one element at a time. If you change multiple elements, you won't know which one had the impact on conversions. Don't just test the elements themselves, but also their placement on the page. A good sales page has a flow that leads the visitor directly to buy. Test the length of your page. There's an ongoing debate about whether sales pages should be short or long, but the truth is that it depends on your market and what you have to say. Give each test plenty of time. If you run a short test, you may end up with a statistical anomaly. A few days isn't long enough to understand trends, so let each test take the time it needs. Try to leave your assumptions behind when you start split testing. This is easier said than done. But if you have assumptions, these could get in the way. Once you start testing, you may be surprised at what you find.

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