Traffic Funnels – the right way!

 

At the end of the day, it always comes back to sales!

Today I want to share with you the top 5 ways you can get more clients fast!

1. Get more leads.

It should go without saying, that if you don’t have any leads at the top of your funnel, your business is or is about to die.

So how do we do that? How can we easily generate more leads quickly?

Lead generation depends on 2 factors.

  1. The Traffic, and
  2. The Offer

leads

Traffic can be generated in many different ways such as:

  • Paid Traffic
  • FB Ads
  • Google Ads
  • SEO
  • Joint Venture Partnerships
  • Email Marketing
  • Paid ads on sites
  • Radio Ads
  • TV ads
  • Much, much more.

web-traffic

I am going to talk about how to get traffic to your website in the next few blog posts, so for now let’s talk about the offer.

The offer is what you are offering in exchange for their contact information.  The offer can be in many different forms but some of the most popular are:

  • Report or White Paper
  • Audio
  • Workshop
  • Webinar
  • CD, DVD
  • Book or eBook
  • Much, much more!

In order to capture their information, you will need to setup a landing page.  The landing page is where you send the traffic to so that your prospects can claim The Offer!

offer

After the prospect visits the landing  page, they claim the offer by putting in their name and email address.

And BAM! You have a lead!

 

2.  Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up!

One of the BIGGEST challenges as a solo-preneur is finding the TIME to follow up with leads!  Not all leads are created equal.  Not everyone is a good fit for your company.  There are many ways for you to follow up with your new leads.  Some are:

  • Phone call by a sales rep
  • Email follow-up
  • Mailing out a brochure or information packet
  • Sending text messages
  • Connecting on social media and engaging with them there

follow-up

All of the methods work, but only a few can be done on auto-pilot!  Autoresponders are emails that get sent out automatically using a marketing automation tool such as Infusionsoft.

When someone accepts one of your offers, you can have a series of emails go out to them automatically.  The emails should provide value and also have an opportunity to work with you.

Pro Tip: If you really want your business to explode, set-up different email sequences based on the actions of your prospects… something easily done with Infusionsoft!

 

3. Build Your Referral Network.

Having worked with hundreds of business owners over the last few years, I can say with certainty, that those that do the best, have a very strong referral network.

They say: Your net worth equals your network.

In many ways, this is true.

Just like clients, your referral network needs to be nurtured and taken care of.  It is one thing to go out and attend local meetups, live events, and more.  It is another thing to build relationships with the people that you meet.

referral-network

If you don’t have the benefit of having a first class assistant helping you to stay on top of your meetings and appointments, one alternative is Infusionsoft. Imagine heading to New York and within a few moments be able to send out an email invite to everyone in the local area that it is in your network letting them know you will be in the area and asking them if they want to meet for coffee.

Imagine never missing a birthday or anniversary again.

Imagine being able to send out postcard and letters automatically to everyone in your network every single month.  You can.

Building a strong referral network does not happen by chance.  You must have a plan to not only get out there and meet people, but to develop your relationship with them!

It all comes down to this.

You have to have a strategic plan to capture and follow up with prospects in order to get more sales.

In other words, you need a traffic funnel.  A way to funnel the traffic to go in the direction YOU want them to go.

strategic-plan

 

Tell me how many traffic funnels your business has set-up and I will tell you how successful your business is. 

 

What are you waiting for? Are you ready to get your first traffic funnel setup?

 

 

How to Incorporate Video to Your Marketing Strategy

3-videoOnline video’s popularity has grown exponentially in a short time, thanks to video sharing sites such as YouTube.  The increasing availability of high-speed Internet has also had a hand in making video so popular, there’s absolutely no doubt about it. More than 1 billion unique users each month to the site shows us we need to pay attention. Add to that, including video on your website can greatly enhance your visitors’ experience.

Live streaming video is a great tool for online tutors and others who can benefit from a high level of interaction with their visitors or customers.  It makes it possible for you to communicate in real time, do live demonstrations, and answer questions with ease.  For your audience, it’s the next best thing to being there with you.

Recorded video can also be a tremendous asset to your website.  It’s much easier than you might think to make professional-looking videos to showcase your products and services.  Your site visitors can watch these videos at their convenience, and if they like them they will often recommend them to friends and colleagues.  For added exposure, you could make your videos available for embedding with YouTube or another video sharing service.

Ways to Use Video

Video is a very versatile medium, and it can be used in a number of ways.  Here are some ideas:

* Make viral videos.  These are usually entertaining clips that include a plug for your business and appeal to a broad audience.  As a promotional method, viral video is not usually very targeted, but it can result in a huge amount of exposure at a relatively low cost.

* Hold online video conferences.  These provide an unparalleled way to reach out to your target audience. You can use tools like Google+ Hangouts to easily hold your online events.

* Make how-to videos. Create them on topics relevant to your website’s subject matter.  Providing informative video content will generate buzz about your website, potentially resulting in an increase in traffic.  It will also help you establish yourself as an expert.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Video Sharing Sites

 stop sign

YouTube site makes it easy for anyone to upload videos to share with anyone with a computer who cares to watch them, and it provides viewers with a wealth of entertainment and education opportunities. It’s easy to do with a mobile phone, from your computer or just about any device. Sharing your videos on YouTube and other sites definitely has some advantages.

YouTube’s immense popularity can potentially result in lots of people viewing your videos.  If they find videos they like, they can embed them onto their own sites or blogs.  That will result in an even greater audience, and some of them may choose to embed your video on their sites as well.  You can see why some marketers love the idea of video sharing.

There are, however, some disadvantages to putting your videos on sites such as YouTube as well.  One of the biggest concerns of marketers is that video sharing doesn’t require users to come to your site to view the videos.  That means that while your videos may be wildly popular, they might result in very little traffic to your site.  It’s important to give viewers an incentive to visit your site once they are finished watching the video. Alternatively, you can change your videos’ settings so that they can’t be viewed on the YouTube site or embedded elsewhere, but that will limit your viewership.

Make sure you use YouTube’s handy tools to include promotions in your videos, clickable links and more. This will help bring more of your YouTube watchers back to your own site.

The sheer power and excellent features of YouTube likely outweigh and concerns you might have.

Embedding Video from Your Own Server

Video1

Those who do not like the idea of uploading their videos to sites such as YouTube can upload them to their servers and embed them from there.  This gives you more control over your videos and ensures there is no “YouTube” logo on your videos.

But before you jump into that, it’s important to remember that video files are usually very large.  Making them available directly from your server can take up valuable file storage space, and it can also drain your bandwidth.  When you upload videos to a video sharing site and embed them from there, you use that site’s storage space and bandwidth.

Whether you should upload video to a video sharing site and embed from there or keep it on your own server depends on several factors.  If you don’t mind having another website’s name pasted on your videos and don’t want to overtax your server, video sharing could be the best option.  But if you want to ensure that users have to come to your site to see your videos and prefer not to provide free advertising for a video sharing site, hosting your own videos might be the best way to go.

How to Plan your Offer Funnel

content-funnel

#1 Identify your most expensive product or service. This is the tip/bottom of your funnel and what all of your activities, products, and services funnel into.

#2 Identify the price for this product or service. It should be a fair price that meets demand and solves a high level problem and provides a substantial value.

#3 Identify a tiered product/service offering that gradually increases from free to your previously identified most expensive item. Each item provides value and builds upon itself to offer increasing value and benefit.

14-list

#4 Create a system to brainstorm your free content, the largest portion and top of your funnel. This includes all of the content you normally publish to generate awareness and drive traffic. You can use the following tools:

  • List
  • Mindmap
  • Keyword research
  • Google Alerts
  • Consumer surveys
  • Previously published content
  • Competition
  • Trends
  • Social media 

calendar

#5 Create a schedule and content plan for your free content. The content marketing strategy includes:

  • Blog posts
  • Podcast(s)
  • Video(s)
  • Interview(s)
  • Viral Report(s)
  • Guest blogging
  • Article marketing
  • Social media posts 

free-offer

#6 Create a freebie or free offer to introduce or pull people into the next tier of your funnel. The goal of this offer is to capture an email address.

  • Newsletter
  • eCourse
  • Report
  • eBook
  • Audio
  • Video
  • Tutorials
  • Webinars

up

#7 Create an introductory product or service that meets your target audience’s basic needs.

  • Ebook
  • Guide
  • Webinar
  • Group Coaching 

#8 Identify an introductory price for the product or service that your customers will be able to easily justify and part with.

ebook-reader

#9 Create a mid-level product or service that meets your target audience’s basic needs.

  • Ebook
  • Webinar series
  • Home Learning Product
  • Individual Coaching 

#10 Identify a mid-level price for the product or service that your customers will be able to easily justify and part with.

marketing-strategy

#11 Establish a marketing strategy to connect with customers as they move through the funnel to upsell and help them take the next step.

Use this plan for your offer funnel checklist to guide you as you plan your offer and create a system to introduce prospects to your funnel and move them through seamlessly.

How to Track Page Stats with CrazyEgg

analyze_crazyeggCrazyEgg is an easy-to-use tool that allows you to get a snapshot of what your page viewers are doing on any particular page. This is handy when you want to test page designs, text variations, and placement of ads, sign-up boxes and images.

With the free account, you can track up to 3 snapshots at a time. If you need to track more, you can upgrade to a paid account.

Step 1: Create Snapshot

When you log into your account at crazyegg.com, you’ll see the image below. Click the Create a Snapshot button.

 1-create-snapshot

 

Step 2: Enter Page information

Page Name: Name the page something you’ll remember. It might be the page name or maybe a site you’re testing.

URL:  Enter the URL of the page you wish to track

The following three options are optional and may not be necessary if you’re only tracking your home page or just a few pages on your site.

Customize URL:  This option gives you more control over your URLs such as when you want to track subdomains, https pages and so forth.

WildCard:  Use this option when you want to track multiple similar pages. For example, if you and 4 other bloggers all write for one site and each of you have a ‘bio’ page housed within a folder named “authors” on the site (http//:yoursite.com/authors/). You can use the wildcard and enter the URL as http//:yoursite.com/authors/* and it will track all of the pages with the same snapshot.

Regular Expression:  Similar to the WildCard, this allows you to track multiple similar pages, but it offers more control over which URLs are being tracked than the wildcard option.

 2-page-info

Step 3: Set Snapshot Expiration

How long do you want to track these pages? You can track a snapshot for up to one year or 50,000 visits. Make your selection and add a description or reason for the snapshot for your reference.

Click Save when you’re finished.

 3-snapshot-info

 

Step 4: Confirm Your Page Details

Check that your information is correct and select [this is correct] if it is. You can select [this is the wrong address] if you need to make edits (you can also edit the information later if you need to).

 

Step 5: Copy & Paste the Java script to your site

You should now have the script code to add to your website page(s). Copy this code. Do not close this page!

 5-copy-code

Open the page you want to add the code to and go to the html version of the page. Paste the code right before the </body> tag at the bottom of your page. Save your page.

 6-paste-code

 

Note: Although the instructions say you can put the code in the site footer rather than on each individual page, we could not get it to pull data when doing this illustration so we had to put the code in the page.

 

Step 6: Check Your Page

Once you’ve added the code and saved your page online, you need to check the page to ensure it is working.  From Step 5’s page, click the link at the bottom that says “Check Installation Page”. Enter the URL of the page you’re trying to track, then click the Check URL button.

After about 10 seconds, you should see a confirmation like the one below. If you get an error, you’ll need to check the page to see if you copied the script code correct and put it right before the </body> tag.

 9-check-results

 It will take at least 2 hours for stats to start showing up. If your site has little traffic it could take much longer.

 

Step 7: Options

If you click the Options tab at the top of your page, you can set additional options for your stats.

Sharing: Here you can create multiple logins for your CrazyEgg account. This is good if you partner with someone else on a site or if you have an assistant that needs to be able to view the reports.

Blocking: If you don’t want to track certain visitors (like yourself), you can block these by IP address.

Notifications: If you want to receive emails when stats are updated, enter it here.

Page Camera: If you’d like to track certain non-public pages (like a private members-only area), you can download this desktop application to watch your stats. Be aware that this requires the latest version of AdobeAir to be installed for it to work.

 11-options-page

Step 8: Check Stats

When you’re ready to check the stats, log into your account and click the snapshop you want to view from the list.

 12-snapshot-list

 

Quick Overview:  You can get a quick overview of your visitors and clicks in the dropdown. To get more results, click the View Results button.

 13-stats-overview

Once the page loads, on the top, right side of your screen, you’ll see your stats navigation.

Overlay View: When you view the overlay results, you’ll see several small button markers showing you which areas have been clicked. These markers are color coded to make it easier to tell which areas are most popular – red is the most popular.

Mouse over (or click) the button marker to see how many clicks each area received.

List View:  Clicking the List view will give you a full list of the links and objects that have been clicked on the page. With the three tabs, you can see visible data that is shown on the page, invisible data that isn’t viewable on the page and both. The list feature makes it easy to see all the elements that have received clicks. The element name and type are pulled from your page, so you can easily identify them.

Heatmap View:  The heatmap view will give you a visualization of where people have clicked on your page. It tells you which areas are “hot” and which are not. The brighter the area is, the more popular it is so you can quickly see what areas are doing well and which may need a little help.  

Confetti View: This will show you where people click based upon the things like what operating system they use, what browser they use, where they came from (search engines, affiliate site, etc) and also what the search terms were.

When you first open the Confetti View, you’ll see the referrer box at the top as shown here, to the right.

Export Data

If you’d like, you can export a PDF copy of the Lists, Heatmap and Confetti pages for your records.

When you’re viewing a one of the three results pages, directly above the page, you’ll see the Export to PDF button. The wording is a little hard to see but here’s what it looks like…

Simply click it and then choose download.

Why you should consider Amazon before opening your next ecommerce store!

shopping_cartMany of you know I got started online when I opened up my very first ecommerce store.  I love ecommerce sites. I still have my ecommerce sites.  We still sell products every single day from my ecommerce sites.

Lately I have been getting phone calls from people asking me to help them build their ecommerce stores.  We work on Yahoo, Volusion, OSCommerce and many other platforms and a lot of people like the fact that I don’t just sell ecommerce design and marketing… but I do it for my own sites!  The thing is, most people are surprised when I tell them that before even building out their own site, the very first thing that I want to see them do is to get their products onto Amazon.  Let me explain why.

SEO used to be easy.  You could put up your site. Follow the rules.  Get #1 in Google.  Get lots of traffic and sales.  Done.  Today it does not work like that.  Today Google is showing sites in the top results that are authority sites.  The thing with being an authority site is that you have to have traffic to be an authority site.  So if you are depending on Google to send you that traffic to become an authority site to get ranked number one to get traffic… you see the problem?  =)

So today it is even more important to get your products out there on as many channels as possible!  You need to look at Google and SEO as one channel to get more sales.  But not the only channel and possibly not the most important channel.

So what is a channel anyways?  A channel is simply another pathway towards sales.  All successful companies know that it is important to not be dependent on one channel.  You could have an affiliate program.  That affiliate program is a channel as it drives sales.  You could use PPC to drive traffic and sales.  That is another channel.  You could have a team of re-sellers or sales reps.  They are another channel.  The key is to setup multiple distribution channels to sell your products in as many places as possible.

I mean think about it.  Would you rather have your products in one store?  Or a chain of stores?

Think about it this way also.  If you have a product what is the fastest way to get sales?  Put up a brick and mortar store.  Buy the shelving and decorate the store.  Co-ordinate a ribbon cutting ceremony.  Run ads in your local area.  Pass out flyers. Invite all your friends.

Or….

Negotiate a deal with an established business that already has a lot of traffic and customers for a little bit of shelf space in their store.

That is what you get with Amazon.

Amazon already has the traffic.  They already have thousands of visitors on their site every single day.  They don’t only have visitors, but they have thousands of visitors with their wallets out ready to buy!

So why do I recommend ecommerce owners get on Amazon first even before they open up their own ecommerce website?

 

#1 Traffic

Amazon already has the traffic.  You don’t have to wait to build your site, get the products up, write unique descriptions, begin an SEO and social media campaign or drive traffic with PPC.  All the traffic is already there.  You literally have to upload your products and wait for the sales.

blogamazon1

 

 

#2 Market Research

Many times we don’t know if a product will sell or not.  Did you know that there are major retailers that use Amazon to test whether or not they will carry a product in their retail stores?  Brilliant!  Instead of taking up expensive shelf space in a retail store to find out if a product will sell or not, you can now upload your digital versions of your products and test what the demand is even before you stock up.

 

#3 Amazon Fulfillment

One of the biggest benefits of Amazon is their Amazon fulfillment centers.  By storing your products with Amazon, your products are available to be sold through the Amazon Prime Free Shipping Program.  Your customers will also thank you because when your products are shipped through Amazon Fulfillment, you can get better shipping rates with UPS.

 

There are other channels to pay attention to.  The other major channels are Ebay, NewEgg.com, Sears.com, and rakuten.com.

blogamazon2

 

So before you start another ecommerce website, consider getting your products sold on Amazon first!

 

Need help setting up your Amazon store?  We can help you from start to finish to get your products up in no time flat.  Just give us a call and let’s get you added to Amazon in no time flat!

Setting Goals for 2009

As the New Year approaches it is that time to set some New Years Resolutions.  Apart from the typical New Years resolutions to lose that last 10 pounds of pregnancy baby weight, eat healthier, exercise more, spend more time with the kids (do you ever spend enough time with the kids), read more books and of course spend more time with my husband, it is also a good idea to set some goals for each of the businesses!

How to Set Goals for 2009

Start Backwards.

First step is to think about where you want to be at the end of 2009.  These goals can best be represented in dollar amounts but could also be represented in traffic, page views, rakings for keywords and so on.  Depending on how many different websites and businesses you are involved in, this might take a little work!  It is not enough to simply say that you want to make $1,000,000 in sales for 2009!  Take each of your profit generating websites or as I like to call them, “money sites”, and think about where they are at now financially and where you would like them to be at the end of the next 12 months.  Second step is to divide up the year into four quarters and to assign what goal each site or business needs to be producing each quarter in order to meet your financial goal for the year.  For example if I have a site that is producing $6K per month in sales now and I want it to go to $18K per month by the end of 2009, then for the first quarter, my goal will be to increase that from $6K per month to $9K per month.  The second quarter the goal will be $12K, third quarter $15K and by the end of the fourth quarter of the year, $18K.

Write it down.

Second step is to write down your goals in the most visual way possible so that they will always be in front of you for the next 12 months.  My new best friend are the huge white sticky post its.  Take one of the huge post its, write the name of the business at the top and then write down the financial goals for each quarter.  Stick this huge post it in your home or work office or somewhere where you will see it every single day.  You could write your goals in a business journal or in a file in your computer but I find it best if you actually print out your goals and then post them up somewhere you can look at them everyday of 2009.

Break it down.

Next step is to write out what needs to be accomplished to be able to reach your goals.  Don’t hold back here.  On the same huge post it that you have the goals written down on for 2009, write out all the steps you need to accomplish to be able to reach your goals.  Maybe that is add live chat to your website.  Maybe start a newsletter list.  Maybe blog 2 times per week.  Write down all of your ideas and be as specific as possible.  As you achieve and accomplish each of these tasks you can cross them off of your list.  As you think of more you can also add them to your list.  The most important thing is to keep pushing towards your goals.  Many times we have great ideas but they never get implemented as we are too busy with the day to day activities.  Having the goals or steps we need to accomplish written down in a highly visual place will help us to always stay focused to the bigger picture. Some tasks can be outsourced.  I even have a list of things I want to learn how to do for 2009.  Family goals can be written down as well as personal and spiritual goals.  Don’t just write down: Read 12 books.  Write down the names of the 12 books.  If you don’t know which books you want to read, keep adding to the list as you have books recommeded to you.

Plan it out.

Next step is to make a serious attempt to plan out how you will implement the steps to achieve your goals in 2009.  As you look at all of the steps you need to accomplish to reach your goals, it is time to plan out the calendar year of exactly when you will be focusing on and accomplishing each of the steps.  This can also be accomplished with a huge post it.  Write down the first date of each week for 2009 and write out next to it what you will be focusing on for that week.  Take into consideration holidays, family vacations, and so on.  You will soon find that the year 2009 is quickly becoming filled!  A saying we learned in college was “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”.  Take time to plan and you will soon find that as the months pass you will be accomplishing much more than in years past.

Keep Track

Last step is to create one final chart where you can record your progress.  Again, a huge post it comes in real handy here.  You don’t have to be fancy here.  Fancy takes time. A simple chart where you can record the monthly progress of each of your businesses with each of your goals.  You want to be able to quickly look and see if your efforts have been working.  You don’t want to get to the end of 2009 and realize that you worked the whole year but the strategy was not as effective financially as you hoped!  Keep track of what works and focus on the most profitable strategies first.  If something is not working, don’t wait six months to change direction.

Now go set some goals!

(PS next year I will be selling huge Post Its!)

StomperMom.Com

Ever wondered how to homeschool 3 kids, take care of twin babies, manage the household, and run a full time business all at the same time? I have news for you. You can’t! At least not alone. Almost a year ago I joined an internet marketing membership site called StomperNet. Since then I have learned some important things about running an internet business.

1. You should be working ON your business and not IN your business.
2. Do you have a J-O-B or a business?
3. Is your business an asset that can be sold?
4. Don’t forget the most important thing: Spending time with Family.
5. Your income is the average of the people you hang out the most with.

Number One: This was me about 6 months ago. In between processing orders, answering the phones, and updating the websites to delete discontinued products, there was no time left to actual work on the business. I was so involved in the every day activities in became impossible to actually grow the business to the next level. Solution: Get out of the house and get an office. Hire a Manager. Train manager to do everything I do so that she can supervise all the other people I will hire. Second step: Hire a webmaster. Third: Hire link getters. Fourth: Hire someone to work on product updates and uploading new products to sites. Fifth Step: Outsource everything else and then train manager on anything I am still doing. Granted, these five steps took six months. It takes time to train people. But once you do, you can actually start working ON your business and not IN your business. It obviously also takes cash flow. You don’t want to go into debt to pay salaries, but you have to look at things ojectively. If I can pay someone $7 an hour to answer the phone, and I choose to answer the phone instead, then I am making $7 an hour! My job is not to answer the phone for $7 an hour! My job is to work on Traffic, Conversion, and Community.

Number Two. Do you have a J-O-B or a business? Do you HAVE to get up everyday and go to work or everything will fall apart? If so, then you have created a Job for yourself. Part of the beauty of being an entrepreneur is that you have FREEDOM to go and do whatever you want, whenever you want. If I want to take the kids to the park, I CAN…. because I have a business, not a J-O-B. You need to create systems and policies and procedures so that your office can run itself. If YOU are the center of every decision, then you have a job.

Number Three. Is your business an asset that can be sold? If every day you have to work 16 hours just to keep the business running, then you don’t have an asset that can be sold. You have a nightmere! If someone offered to buy your business tomorrow, do you have the systems in place for someone to come in and take over? It is as old fashioned as creating step by step flow charts for your workers using a program such as SmartDraw so that everything can be run without you. It takes time to think out and plan the flow charts, but once in place, everyone will know what to do and how to do it. Keeping good books is also important. No one is going to want to buy debt. Make sure to pay the sales tax you collect on time to the respective states and be sure to only go into debt for inventory and office furniture. Don’t bank on tomorrow’s income to pay today’s salaries.

Number Four. Remember why you quit your job! You quit your day job to be an entrepreneur so you could have the convenience of working from home and spending time with your family. Nothing is more important than the kids. If you don’t get that project finished, so what? Who is going to fire you? Your kids however, are only little once and they WILL remember that mommy or daddy put them first before their work.

Number Five. Brad Fallon said this at one of the live conferences. Your income is the average of the people you hang around. How true is that. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and go out and meet people in a higher income bracket. It is not about the money. It is not about what THEY can do for YOU. It is about what you can learn from THEM. It is about the tips and advice you can think about and apply to your business. It is about expanding your horizons and seeing things from someone else’s point of view. Maybe spending $30 a month on pay per click ads is a huge deal to you. Wait till you meet someone who is spending thousands of dollars a DAY! Then ASK them for some tips! Believe it or not, people usually like to talk about themselves! They like to talk about their experiences and the their successes. Be genuinely interested in other people and don’t forget to help out those that are learning!