Self Employed Success

Much of marketing is about persuasion. Note that I do not say “manipulation.” That’s the kind of marketing we all hate.

Dictionary.com defines the verb “to persuade” like this:

1. to prevail on (a person) to do something, as by advising or urging: We could not persuade him to wait.

2. to induce to believe by appealing to reason or understanding; convince: to persuade the judge of the prisoner’s innocence.

So persuasion, especially in marketing, means:

• encouraging someone to take action (call me to talk about your needs, sign up for my program, buy my book, etc.)
• convincing someone by helping them to understand information, ideas and/or benefits.

CNN/Fortune Magazine posted a interview with Kurt Mortensen, entitled How Persuasive Are You? The article referred to a quiz (self-assessment) which helps you to understand your own first reactions to a series of events, to see how much you use persuasion in your marketing and sales efforts. Go ahead, take the self-assessment! It’s an eye-opener!

When you’re finished with the self-assessment, he will email you the questions you got right and wrong, so you can begin to understand the psychology of marketing.

I’m absolutely fascinated by the psychology of marketing: what makes people pay attention to a marketing piece, and more importantly, what persuades them to take action and buy. I’m reading several books on the topic right now, and as soon as I compile my notes, I’ll write more about the topic in this blog.

For instance, my blog post How Customers Make Buying Choices walks you through how decisions are really made during your clients’ buying process.

I think the psychology of marketing will make all the difference in the world to your success. I’ll keep you posted.

Do you sell products and services via the Internet? Do you get the results you want?

If you don’t get the results you want, it’s helpful to re-visit each step of your “sales path” to see where tweaks can be made.

Do a little marketing detective work

For instance, let’s say your sales path starts with an email broadcast, which directs the reader to your website. Here are the different statistics you will want to analyze to see what’s working and what’s not.

1. Open Rate: Open rates, on average, hover around 20-25%, and in some industries, open rates go as low as 15%. (See Mail Chimp’s Open Rate by Industry table. Here’s HubSpot’s version of the Open Rate by Industry.)  About half of all email users will open their email with the graphics turned on, which sends a “beacon” back to the email server to indicate “This person opened an email.” If they don’t have their graphics turned on when reading emails, then they won’t show up in your Open Rate. So, if your statistics show an open rate of 10%, that means that it’s closer to 20%.
2. Check Click-through Rates: Just because someone opens an email doesn’t mean they read it. One way to calculate whether people are actually reading your emails is click-through rate (CTR). CTR is the percent of people who clicked on a link in your email which took them to your website. You can get this statistic either from your email company or from your website statistics. You’re either calculating CTR (number of people who clicked compared to total emails sent) or CTOR (number of people who clicked compared to total emails opened.) There are a lot of opinions, pro and con, for whether you should put links in your emails or simply put the full text in your emails. Read more about that here in my blog post “Include Full Articles or Only Links?”.
3. Check Your Website Statistics: Once they click through from the email to the page where you are making your offer, how long are they staying there? This number helps to guide you as to whether they’re actually reading the web page text or not. If your web page is too long, poorly written, or doesn’t clearly explain what you’re offering, people may be turned off. Or perhaps the text isn’t formatted in a way that’s conducive to reading. If they’re not staying long enough on the page to read it, it’s time to re-write the page. HINT: to determine how long it really takes to read the entire page, read it out loud to yourself. That will slow you down so that you read every single word as if it were the first time you’d seen the page.
4. Bounce Rate: If they read the website text, does it answer all their questions? If not, they may click away from your website and never return. Check your bounce rate. Bounce rate is expressed as a percentage of the people who visit one page of your site, then leave immediately without looking at other pages on your site. Google says the average bounce rate is between 40-60%. If your bounce rate for your page is less than 40%, you’re doing great! If it’s over 60%, you need to tweak that page.
5. Call To Action. What are you asking people to do once they read your page? A strong call to action matters.  Let’s say you’re selling a class. Should the call to action be “buy now?” Maybe it would be better as “register now” or “click here to register.”
6. Sales Rate: Did they buy? Which payment option did they use?

Which traffic sources give you the best results?

Every step along the sales path is an opportunity to tweak your technique. Your e-commerce path might start with web traffic from a search engine (so good SEO is important) or it might start with online referrals from other sites. Perhaps you’re using sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to send traffic back to your site. Check each of these “sources” in your website statistics to see which ones yield the most traffic.

To do that, first go to the Landing Pages section of Google Analytics. You’ll find it under the Behavior section of the menu. (Behavior>Site Content>Landing Pages)

Then use a very cool feature of Google Analytics, the “Secondary Dimension,” which allows you to select a page you want to focus on and drill down to each source of traffic and how much each source sent traffic to individual landing pages.

To do this:

1. In the Landing pages table, click on the URL of the page you want to study. This will bring up statistics only for that page and help you drill down to get specifics for that page.
2. Above the “Page” column, you’ll see a button that says “Secondary Dimension.” Click on that, and a drop-down menu will appear of all the different statistics you can get about that page.
3. Select “Acquisition” then “Source.” This will show you all the sources of traffic to this specific page. Check the Time on Page and Bounce Rate for each source, to see which one yields the best results.

NOTE: When source says “(direct)” that means that people came directly to this page without going through an additional website. These are the people who click-through from emails or type your URL into their browser.

If people are reading their email in a browser-based email system, like Gmail or Yahoo Mail, the source might say Google or Yahoo.

Once you find the right combination of the steps above that brings the best results, you then repeat that over and over again.

By the way,  I recommend you use Google Analytics, if you are not already using it. It’s free and it gives you a ton of good information about how your marketing campaigns are doing.

Do You Find These “How-To” Types of Posts Helpful?

Let me know if you find this helpful and if you’d like to see more of these step-by-step “how-to” types of posts!

For some business owners, it’s a struggle to clearly explain what it is you do, especially if your business is unique or you are trying to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Often, we explain what we do, but not how it’ll benefit the person we’re talking to. We need a clear way of saying, “This is what I offer and this is how it will help you.”

Whether you are marketing service or products, classes or mastermind groups, you need to have a quick, precise way of explaining your offer.

Forbes contributor Carmine Gallo suggests three steps to map your message in 30 seconds or less:

1. Write a short headline with the one well-defined message you want to send to potential customers. What is the single-most important thing you want your audience to know about your product, service, brand or idea? What do you do and who do you help? If this is all the customer knows about you, does it give him or her a clear picture?

Hi, I’m Karyn. I’m a business-building consultant for micro entrepreneurs.

2. Expand on that message with three important benefits.

I help people expand their reach, increase their revenue and decrease overwhelm.

Put steps 1 and 2 together, and you have your 15-second commercial. If potential clients walk away from the conversation hearing only that, they have a good idea of what you do and how you might help them.

3. Support those points with additional benefits (or examples). Come up with three examples, stories or statistics that reinforce your statements.

I’m a business-building consultant for micro entrepreneurs. I help people expand their reach, increase their revenue and decrease overwhelm. I teach people how to get known in their market, package and price their offerings for maximum profit, and create cohesive action plans to get it all done efficiently.

Here’s another example:

Hi, I’m Joe. I facilitate a mastermind group for baby boomers who are getting ready to retire. Through brainstorming, support and accountability, we help you to find clarity on your goals, make the best decisions, and move forward. You will walk away knowing that the retirement you envision is not only possible, but that you’re designing and taking active steps every single day to making it a reality.

Use This for Networking and Marketing Launches

It’s easy to see how this would be useful in a networking situation where you have to quickly explain your business to someone when they asked the dreaded question, “So, what do you do?”

But you can also use this same exercise for all your marketing. You need to come up with your Core Message in these types of marketing situations:

• When you’re describing your services on your website
• When you’re writing an article or blog post
• When you’re putting together a speech or a class
• When you’re launching a new product
• When you’re writing a proposal or white paper

Not comfortable with your writing skills? Use the same outline to create a vision board. Cut out pictures and words that explain your business, and arrange them in a map that helps bring clarity to your message.

Mapping your message, whether with words or pictures, will help you move beyond telling people what you do to clearly explaining what results your customer can expect.

Remember, when crafting your message, make sure it is short and clear, and that you can say it in 30 seconds or less. (If you can say it in 15 seconds or less, you win the prize!) Too much information could confuse the person you’re speaking with. This message will become your elevator speech at networking events, and your marketing message to potential customers. It’ll be the core message you use when launching a new product, service, class or mastermind group.

This article is for the rest of us – people who are NOT professional copywriters, but need good copy and good headlines for our websites and email newsletters.

Let’s focus in this article on writing good headlines. Or, in the case of email newsletters, good subject lines.

The purpose of a headline or subject line is to grab the reader’s attention and motivate them to want to read further. If you can’t get them past the headline, the rest of your copy is wasted, no matter how elegantly it’s written.

Most of the examples are funny, but you’ll get the point. When you’re done, check out my companion blog post, 6 Copywriting Steps for Non-Copywriters.

I’ll share 3 headline writing tips today:

1. Use numbers
2. Tell a secret
3. Use emotion

Use Numbers

Formula:

• _____ (number) _____ (adjective) Ways To _____ (thing they want to do or to have or to become)
• _____ (time) to Learn/Get _____ (topic)

Examples:

• 10 Easy Ways to Wash Your Dog
• 5 Exciting Ways to Make Spinach That Children Will Eat
• 20 Minutes to Learn Chess Like a Pro
• Get a Complete Personality Makeover in 10 Minutes or Less

Tell a Secret

Everyone wants to the learn the insider secrets of people who have been successful.

Formula:

• My Secret Formula to _____ (thing they want to do or have or become)
• Insider’s Guide to _____
• Easy Success Secrets to Create _____

Examples:

• I’m Drawing Back The Curtain and Revealing My Secret Formula to Buying Pencil Holders
• 10 Secrets Steps to Finding Online Grammar Mistakes

Use Emotion

People are only motivated by two things: to go towards pleasure and to get away from pain. But pleasure and pain can be subtle. For instance, I find it a pleasure to learn something new, to increase my mastery of a subject. So if I see a headline that promises to teach me something, I will always continue reading.

Another thing that motivates people is scarcity. If you TRULY have a limited number of items available (don’t lie to people about this, folks, they can see right through a scam), then telling them how many are left can get them to read the rest of your web page or email newsletter. Also, if there is a time limit, that motivates, too.

Think about what emotion your customer wants to feel. Confident? Energetic? Free? Safe? Take a moment and put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Then you can write a headline that speaks to their emotional needs. (Look at the photo above…who would respond to a Stop sign like that?)

Formula:

• _____ (number) Keys to_____ (topic or outcome)
• Learn _____ (topic)
• How to _____ (outcome)
• Only _____ (number) of _____ (item) Available
• You Have Done _____ , Now Try _____
• Do You Have _____ (name of problem)?
• _____ (name of problem) Got You Down?
• Do You Want _____ (name of desired item or outcome)?
• Never Be _____ Again!

To increase the motivation level, use phrases like hurry, last chance, and only.

Examples:

• 3 Keys to Better Peanut Butter Sushi
• Learn to Buy Fresher Bread
• Only 5 Seats Available for Seat Sitting 101 Seminar
• Last Chance! Special 1 Percent Off Coupon Expires Wednesday
• Do You Want a Better Goldfish?
• Find Your Keys. Find Your Children. How to Solve Your Clutter Problems.

(Okay, some of these are silly. Just making sure you’re paying attention!)

Plain and Simple

Don’t forget the basic, informational headline. You don’t always have to get jazzy with your headline or subject line; sometimes just saying what the article is about is motivating enough. What if you were to see these simple headlines or subject lines?

• 50 Percent Off All Classes
• How To Type Faster
• The Recording Is Available Now

TAKE ACTION NOW: Now take these headline tips and write three possible headlines or subject lines for your next article or email newsletter. Play with them until they feel right. Then try them out and watch the results!

Want more information on copywriting? Let me know in the comments area of this post and I’ll create more copywriting blog posts in the future! I could write about this stuff all day. 🙂

Think of a new subscriber to your email list as a guest in your home.

How will you make them feel welcomed and appreciated?

Your first email to them, your “Welcome” email, can begin that relationship, and turn a one-way conversation into a two-way conversation between your business and your customer. Make it count.

Your customers are accustomed to building personal relationships with a business via email. They reject companies and service providers where they don’t feel they’re being honored, heard or respected.

Send the first email out automatically, within a few minutes after a person subscribes and opts-in to your email list. It can be one email, or a series of emails, triggered by a person joining your list.

What a Welcome email will do for you and your business

A well-crafted Welcome email – whether it’s confirming a person’s subscription, offering immediate access to your free content, or a receipt for a purchase – can build trust and a rapport with your audience. It sets the tone of future communication, starts a conversation, helps reinforce your brand and message, and acknowledges how important your audience is to you.

Consider it your calling card; it’s your one opportunity to knock their socks off with meaningful content that solves their problems or answers their questions. You want them to open future emails from you.

Be warm, professional, helpful – and human.

Some tips on what you should put in your first email

1. Welcome them to your community. Remind them how they got on your list – did they sign up for a free offer, did they make a purchase from your online store, or did they hear you speak or teach somewhere?
2. Thank them. Acknowledge that you’re grateful they chose your content, or for their purchase.
3. Talk to them about what they’ve signed up for. What kind of content can they expect? If they bought something from you, let them know how to access that item or when they can expect to get it. If they signed up for an event, remind them of the date and time. Help them figure out how to get started quickly.
4. Let the content match the relationship. If your Welcome email is to a new customer, craft it as a thank-you for their purchase. If your Welcome email is to a new subscriber who is not a customer yet, focus the email on what resources you have for them (especially free resources/content, to help build the relationship).
5. Assure them that you understand what their challenges and dreams are. They signed up to your list, but they still want to know that you understand their situation and that you can provide solutions. Provide content that outlines some common problems or questions they have, along with tips and techniques to move forward.
6. Give them more than they expected. Offer links to important and helpful content on your website, or links to audio files, documents or webinar and video content.
7. Tell them how often they can expect your emails. You should be sending email newsletters at least once a month, but once a week is better. Whatever you choose, be consistent.
8. Provide them with links to your social media accounts as another way to connect.
9. Answer frequently asked questions. Are there questions that pop up all the time which a list of FAQs could answer quickly?
10. Continue the conversation. If you promised something in return for their signing up, make sure they got it. Follow up with a survey asking them what they think about your product or service. Remember: Even if it’s free, they’re still a customer. They’re consuming your content.
11. Ask them to take action. To keep email subscribers engaged, ask them to take action: click a link, complete a survey, respond to a question, share a comment, sign up for a video tutorial.
12. Tell them how to unsubscribe. It’s important that you give clear instructions on how to get off your list. Most automated emails have a link at the bottom to unsubscribe, but assure them in the Welcome email that they can exit anytime they want.

One email… or two?

There’s a lot of information you could include in your Welcome email. But you don’t want to overwhelm your new prospect or customer with too much information in one email. When you’re crafting your Welcome email, take a step back and ask yourself: Am I overloading them?

If yes, consider just putting the welcome, thank-you, and what you can expect topics in the first email, and use a second email for additional information.

Sometimes the shortest, simplest emails get the best response.

Doubling down with a double opt-in

Sometimes asking people to confirm their email address – known as a “double opt-in” – will be your first electronic correspondence with a customer. By asking people to double opt-in, you’re ensuring a quality list of real email addresses.

The double opt-in is meant to get people to click on a link to confirm their email address. Some people don’t do this right away – or they don’t do this at all – so you might have to send a reminder. You can also check the list of people who signed up but didn’t confirm their subscription to check for obvious misspellings in their email addresses.

If you are finding that people don’t click the confirmation link, the first question to ask is: Are they receiving the email in the first place?

Check your bounced email list to make sure they are receiving and opening the confirmation email. If necessary, send a reminder.

I’d love to hear from you

Are you sending out Welcome emails? Do you add anything to them aside from the 10 items listed above? Do you send them automatically or manually? Share your story, comments and questions in the Comments area below. 🙂

I LOVE reading about the psychology of marketing!

Have you read The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar? She’s a social psychologist and a professor of business at Columbia University. She studies how people make decisions, which all small business owners can apply immediately when you market your services and products.

It’s an especially helpful book when trying to understand how customers make choices.

Iyengar conducted a series of studies about the psychological factors in decision-making. The best part about the results of the studies is that you can use the information in your marketing and sales efforts right away.

Here are top seven highlights from the book which will help you immediately:

1. Customers like to feel they are unique and not “just like everyone else.” This, of course, isn’t true: as human beings, we’re more alike in our buying behavior than we realize. However, customers want to appear as if they each, individually, make unique buying decisions different from their peers. For instance, if two people would normally choose the same meal at a restaurant, studies show that when one person gives her order, the second person will change her order so that she doesn’t appear to be a copycat. If everyone at the Apple store is buying a white iPhone, all of a sudden people will begin to buy black iPhones. But when customers choose this way, they are less satisfied with their choice. This is more apparent at in-person events than in situations like online shopping (where you can’t see the other person and can’t be judged by the other person). Takeaway: In face-to-face contact with your customers and colleagues, how they perceive their individual identity matters. Don’t tell them they’re “just like every one of my customers.”
2. Customers do take copywriting puffery seriously, even though logically they shouldn’t. They’ll buy bottled water that they know, intellectually, comes from municipal tap water that’s been created via reverse osmosis. They buy into claims that the water is especially refreshing (all water is refreshing) or that it’s bottled at the source (in this case, the “source” is municipal water) or that it’s “expertly designed water” (does it need any further design than the original H2O formula we’ve been using for so long?? Apparently, yes.). That’s why Dasani’s website focuses not on the water, but on the bottle the water comes in: 30% plant material, 100% recyclable. Takeaway: Even though the customer intellectually knows not to fall for marketing copy, they still do. They want the experience that buying and using the product will bring. You, as the marketer, get to define that experience for them through your copywriting and your branding efforts.
3. We take into our psyche the words we read and hear from marketing copy. Researchers asked people to construct a sentence using five words they were given. When researchers gave them five words that related to the elderly (old, gray, wrinkle, Florida, bingo), the participants took 15% longer to walk to the elevator when they exited the survey room. Our autonomic nervous system connects pre-existing knowledge with what we’re seeing and hearing right now. Takeaway: Think about how you want your audience to feel and act after they interact with you, your blog, your marketing, and even your social media comments in Facebook and Twitter, and use words that will conjure up that feeling in their minds. If your brand is about “passion,” don’t use words like “slow” or “creepy” when connecting casually with your audience…or they’ll connect it with you and your biz.
4. Even a small amount of choice brings a sense of well-being to customers. Several studies showed that when participants were given a choice versus being told what to do, those who were given a choice (even the smallest, simplest of choices, like which night to watch a movie), made people feel better about the situation. Takeaway: In your marketing, where can you give them choices instead of only one option?
5. Customers get overwhelmed by too much information. In 1956, George Miller conducted his famous study that concluded that people can process only seven pieces of information (plus or minus two). We are limited in our capacity to process information. When you give people too much to think about, they shut down. We simply can’t keep track of multiple objects or facts. Takeaway: When listing the benefits or features of your site, limit the bullet-point list to 5-7 items. If you have more than seven, create a second list with a new title, like, “Here’s even more reasons to buy our service!”
6. When you give customers too many options, they are (at first) attracted to the most options they can see. But when it comes to buying, people purchase less when they have too many options to choose from. When given a choice of 24 jams flavors, only 3% of the people purchased jam. But when given only three choices of jam flavors, 30% purchase jam. Takeaway: Be careful of how many choices you give customers. At first, they may be attracted to your full array of offerings, but when it comes to buying, having too many options may hurt sales.
7. If you have to give them options, help them to choose from among the options. Help them to figure out the best way of sorting, comparing and eliminating options. Takeaway: Create a chart about which program they should purchase (from among several), or an article about the pros and cons of different products that will help them and increase customer loyalty. Organize their choices for them.