I’m one of the finalists for Small Business Marketer of the Year!

/in , /by

Earlier this summer I printed out all of my marketing materials and handed them in as my application for the PowerCircle Small Business Marketer of the Year award.

Yesterday I found out that I’m one of the four finalists, which means that today I will be presenting the whole shebang to the PowerCircle this morning.

Wish me luck!
…

This is what Ron Patel said about what is going to happen today: (from his email)

“Back by popular demand, the PowerCircle Small Business Marketer of the Year Contest is back! If you haven’t seen this contest before, you are in for a real treat. Several of PowerCircle’s most creative, innovative and successful members are going to be showcasing their marketing from this past year!

Register Now for PowerCircle on September 12th
On top of all of the great presentations, you will get to see a “Shark Tank” like experience with our 3 marketing star-studded judges! The judges for this contest are:

Wayne Story (former Host of PowerCircle)
Stacy Sacco (founder of Marcom and UNM Small Business Institute President)
David Wolf (Podcast & Radio Producer, Host of Small Biz America Radio)

I look forward to seeing you on September 12th from 11am-2pm (Special 3-hour event!) at the Holiday Inn & Suites at I-25 & Jefferson as we watch the contestants battle it out for the NM Small Business Marketer of the Year!!!”

***

Wish me luck!

Mandy

Join Our Mailing List!

The winner of the Small Business Marketer of the Year is…

/in , /by

Yesterday I was one of five finalists for the NM PowerCircle Small Business Marketer of the Year award.

My application was a binder full of my daily emails. I explained the rationale behind my marketing plan and discussed how I use the stories from my life to keep people engaged and make a sale.

But while I can say that it gives me a steady stream of work and I am probably going to make more money this year than I did last year… I couldn’t say this activity led to these sales.

Not like the winner.

Joseph Santangelo is the owner of Sunshine Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning. This year he executed a brilliant plan that helped him find qualified leads, follow up with them and sell a dozen air conditioning units for $10-15,000 each.

He had a clear plan that resulted in sales.

But before I go into the funnel that he made, I want to talk about how he set his company apart from him competitors. As he explained in his presentation, when plumbers want to find an idea for how to promote themselves, they look around and see what other plumbers are doing. So what happens is they all end up copying each others terrible ideas, offering discounts, and creating a downward spiral race to the bottom.

Instead of comparing himself to other plumbers, he found ways to set himself apart from his competitors.

When they offer discounts, he did something different. He offered “the boldest guarantee”… and made sure that his guarantee was prominently displayed on all of his materials.

The guarantee takes different forms, depending on what people buy. But when people buy a heating and cooling system he had a “not a penny” guarantee that says that they won’t have to pay a penny on maintaining that system for 10 years. 10 years! His company will fix any problems that may arise.

Doesn’t that make you feel good about buying an air conditioner?

Another thing that he implemented this year was set up a “friends and family” membership. People pay a small monthly fee to be in this program. When they are in the program they get priority treatment, free maintenance on their systems and lots of other benefits. These are the people who are truly Sunshine customers, because when people pay to be in this program, they won’t go shopping around to the other companies when they need help. They will call him.

Finally, here is how he used direct response tactics to sell some expensive heating and cooling systems.

He started out by going where his potential customers were. He had a booth at a home and garden show. The people who attended this show were actively shopping for things for their homes.

Getting an easy yes

He made sure that his booth attracted attention. He had his big banner with the “boldest guarantee” promise. He had two air conditioners sitting in front of the booth. And he had lots of colorful balloons.

Whenever a family with children walked by he said, “Can I give your child a balloon?” Most normal adults say yes to that. Once they get the balloons they usually ask him what he does which gives him an easy, non pushy way to start the conversation.

His systems are very expensive. You can’t just walk up to a stranger and sell something like that cold. Rather than attempt to make the sale right away, he had an offer that was easy to say yes to.

He put together a free report, a consumers guide. When people started to look at his booth he asked them if they wanted to get the guide. 50 people said that they wanted the guide.

Most people make the mistake of just handing out the free information. But if he did that then he would be handing out his expensive books and he’d never hear from those people again.

Instead of handing them out, he told people that he would send the information. So they should give him their information (name, address, phone number and email address). He would mail them the book.

He followed up by mailing the books to all 50 leads. But he didn’t stop there. He had a system planned out with 12 different contacts over the next few months. He had phone calls, postcards, newsletters and other pieces of information.

Then, in June … just when the weather starts to get hot in Albuquerque, he sent a sales letter for the heating and cooling systems.

He sold 10.

Congratulations to Joseph! He did a great job creating a system that works.
I’ll be writing about the other presenters in the next few days.
Take care,
Mandy

P.S. I create a lot of the elements that went into his system. I write reports, booklets, newsletters, postcards and sales letters. If you need a system that will help you sell a big ticket item, give me a call at 505-515-7001.

Join Our Mailing List!

The most entertaining marketer of the year

/in , /by

On Tuesday I was one of five finalists for the NM PowerCircle Small Business Marketer of the Year

Tall Paul is a magician who made ads that people want to keep.

award.

The guy who went in front of me was the runner up for the award, but he really should have received an honorary award of “most entertaining presenter”.

“Tall Paul” opened his speech with a card trick, and jokes, which got our attention and let us know what he does (he’s a magician… and he’s really good!).
His website is right here.
Paul does magic shows for birthday parties. And he was explaining how he put off buying a new car so that he could re-do some of his branding to make it look more colorful and professional.
Before, he was using black print on colored paper. And it didn’t look that great. So he switched to making colorful brochures that he had professionally printed (and discovered that it was actually LESS expensive to print than his old uglier flyers).

Besides making his handouts more colorful, he made a packet that his customers will want to keep.

His brochure has a list of party throwing tips that moms will want to hold on to.

Every kid gets a packet with coloring pages, little magic tricks that they can do on their own, instructions on how to do other magic tricks, and little toys.

What he was doing was very smart. He mas making ads that were valuable so that people will want to keep them.
After showing us that package that he put together, and how he uses those packages to generate more business through referrals and repeat business, he asked us all to reach under our chairs.

When we did, we all found one of those packets to keep. It was such a surprise, almost like a magic trick.

Hats off to Tall Paul, for upping his marketing game and for keeping us amused all the way through his presentation.
I’ll have more stories from the awards tomorrow.
Take care,
MandyP.S. The best part about Tall Paul’s advertising was that he made something that people would want to keep. If you want to talk about how this can work in your business, sign up for a free 15 minute discussion.

Join Our Mailing List!

Pamm Meyers

/in , /by

Pamm Meyers was the fourth finalist for the PowerCircle NM Small Business Marketer of the Year award.

Pamm Meyers

Pamm is a social media consultant and event planner. ( Take a look at her website) A lot of companies know they can get more business if they post more and get more engagement online… the only problem is that it’s hard to make time to post as often as you need to. That’s where Pamm comes in. She writes the posts for her clients, so their accounts stay active and her clients stay visible.

Her presentation included a fun video set to music where she showed photos of success events that she has thrown, and testimonials from her customers with statistics about how much she has increased the engagement on their social media accounts.
The numbers were very impressive. Pamm is the master of squeezing as much value from each social media platform as possible and maximizing engagement.
From her presentation, the biggest thing that she did to promote her own business was use the same social media strategies that she uses for her clients.

Two other things that she did over the past year that are worth mentioning.

The first thing is that she is a very effective networker. She spends a lot of time each month going to events where she will find her ideal client. She has a fun, quirky and vivacious personality and when you meet her in person you can instantly understand how she can help attract an audience to your business.

The second thing is that she knows who her ideal client is. Rather than struggle with clients that are a bad fit, she finds clients who will resonate with her personality and energy. I don’t know how she does that… instincts, I’d say.

Great work, Pamm! It’s fun watching your business take off.

Talk to you soon,
MandyP.S. My favorite part of participating in this marketing contest is being able to see what other people are doing right. I enjoy writing about business owners use the best practices and get results.If your business is doing something right, you deserve to be recognized for it. I can write a “best practices” article that you can use to promote your business. Call me at 505-515-7001 to set this up.

Join Our Mailing List!

Thank you, Titanides!

/in , /by

Sometimes, when you need it the most, you get the support and encouragement that you need.

The Titanides photo from 2016. What a fun group!

I want to thank the women in the Titanides for giving me a scholarship to attend the Titanides Live 2017 event.

Let me fill you in about this secret female society…

The world of direct response copywriting is without question, very male dominated. And yet, the women in the industry are the most brilliant, supportive and inspiring people I know.

Marcella Allison, an amazing copywriter who I have looked up to since the days when I was just getting started, formed this group of women several years ago when they were attending another event, The Titans of Direct Response.

Looking around, it was clear that only a small percentage of the attendees were women. So Marcella invited them all to a dinner where they all got to know each other and have since formed this circle of support.

I couldn’t be more excited to go to Titanides Live. The speakers will include Marcella, Abbey Woodcock, Annie Hyman Pratt, Ilise Benum, Monica Day, Mary Kincaid, Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero, Pauline Longdon, and Carline and Tiara Cole.

While I am extremely grateful for the financial support they have offered me, I am even more appreciative of the culture of paying it forward and giving back embodied by the Titanides.

It motivates me to give back… even seconds after I am on the receiving end.

When I was filling out the scholarship application, I was struck by one of the questions. “How will you pay it forward?”

Even though I was asking for help (because I didn’t have the money to get a ticket) I should be starting to think about helping others.

And I am. I may have had a slump of a summer, but I just need a couple of assignments to get things on track again. I am full of hope for the future, and ready for the business breakthroughs that are just around the corner.

That is why, from now until the event on October 17th, I will set aside 10% of all of my project fees and use that money to help another woman in my industry by contributing it to the scholarship fund.

If you have a project, call me at 505-515-7001 to set things up. I will thank you twice because you be helping me get a head start paying it forward.

Thanks in advance!
Mandy

P.S. Thanks again, Titanides, for the much needed support. I’m excited to go and I hope to take someone else with me.

Join Our Mailing List!

Are you making it harder for your customers to buy?

/in , /by

If you’re NOT making it easy for customers to purchase from you, then you’re leaving money on the table.

I want to help you fix that with Leadpages’ latest new feature, called Checkouts.

Find out how Checkouts can boost your conversions.

Leadpages just introduced this new Checkouts feature for their Pro and Advanced members.

It lets you accept payments right on your landing pages-and even deliver your digital products right from inside Leadpages.

That means no third-party payment page. No shopping cart software. No ecommerce platform.

Checkouts gives you the fastest, simplest way to process payments without making your customer jump through hoops.

So you’ve got a choice.

You can keep processing payments in multiple steps (and hoping you don’t lose sales along the way).

Or you can simplify the process with Checkouts and start making more sales now.

Why put off success?

Go here to read all about them.

And then get started.

Mandy

P.S. Again, full disclosure I am a Leadpages affiliate. But I’m also a Leadpages member. I use them for all my landing pages and if you do too, you know why they’re the #1 landing page builder on the market today. Now see their latest breakthrough in landing pages that convert.

Join Our Mailing List!

What’s the biggest barrier to you making more sales?

/in , /by

It’s one of the biggest mistakes I see marketers make.

Overcomplicating the order process. Making it harder for prospects to give you their money.

My friends at Leadpages have just launched a solution for that.

It’s called Checkouts.

You can read all the details about it here.

It’s a long-standing fact in marketing that the simpler and clearer your ordering process is, the more likely your prospect is to take action and buy.

Making potential buyers click through multiple pages to place an order greatly reduces the likelihood they’ll complete their order.

Think about it. Doesn’t that just make sense?

It may sound obvious, but too often marketers get it wrong.

Sometimes it’s because they try to “oversell” their product or service. Sometimes it’s just because the technology they use demands they have more steps than they should.

The folks at Leadpages have eliminated ALL the steps with this new Checkouts feature.

Now you can actually make sales from a single, simple landing page-eliminating all the barriers to the sale right on your page.

You can even automatically send your customers any digital product you’re selling right from inside Leadpages once they purchase.

This is a breakthrough that could change everything for you.

If you think simplifying your buying process would make a difference for your bottom line, go here to get all the details.

Then start adding Checkouts to your landing pages and start making more sales.

[sig]

P.S. Yes, I am a Leadpage affiliate. But I’m also a member and a huge fan. They bring innovative best practices to all their landing page building functionality. That means you’re always building the highest-converting landing pages possible. Now adding Checkouts to your landing pages could make your pages even better. See how to use Checkouts on your landing pages here.

Join Our Mailing List!

How Paco Got Us Out of a Tight Spot

/in , /by

We were stuck.

While we slept, someone parked their dented rust bucket so close to our van that we couldn’t get out.

Our friends were already on their way to the Taos Ski Valley, but we were in so tight, we had only inches to move and the curb was so steep that it blocked the way.

Just when we had resigned ourselves to a walking tour, Paco, the owner of La Doña Luz Inn, arrived to show us what he’s truly made of.

What grit! What patience! What determination!

He said, “I’ll do it! I’m a professional.”

As a small crowd gathered to see if he would add another dent to the tin can that had us trapped, he squeaked his way out centimeter by centimeter.

For a while we couldn’t even tell if he was making any progress. But he had faith in his own mutant ability. Other people stopped by to offer their two cents, and he just said he kept his mind on his task and kept moving.

Finally he got the van lined up so we could back out. We were free.

As we thanked Paco for his fancy unparking he said, “I remember you from the last time you came here and visited your friends. What was it, ten years ago?”

 

It was more like eight years ago that we first came to La Doña Luz Inn. Calvin was one. Our friends came out to see us from New York. That time we stayed in Los Angelitos and they stayed in the Rainbow Room (with the rooftop hot tub). This year we stayed in La Madonna and they stayed in the Rainbow Room again.

 

How could we forget? We had such a great time. And this year, talking to some of the other guests, we could see that they came over and over again too. The only regret that we had was that we let eight whole years go by before doing it again. What a shame!
 

I don’t know if they have a newsletter, but I could see how his business could benefit from having a newsletter.

First of all, it is a historical bed and breakfast, with a rich history and lots of stories. The guests come back, sometimes every year. But the thing is, the guests could certainly come back more often.

In our case, we come to Taos often, but we usually either go home for the night or stay at the Sagebrush Inn, simply because it is cheaper. (It’s lame, but true.)

While the Sagebrush Inn is cheaper, La Doña Luz Inn is more special. The rooms are more interesting and luxurious, it’s closer to the historic square, the guests are more interesting.

Using a newsletter they don’t have to compete on price. They can just send out the emails with stories about what’s going on with the hotel, talk about the artwork, tell more stories about the people who work there and what is going on in the city.

Then include a link to reserve a room.

That’s it. When people get the newsletter, they can decide to come more often, or they can share the newsletter or forward it to a friend. They would get more repeat business and more referrals without spending a lot on advertising.
All right. While I go call Paco and tell him about the newsletter plan, I want you to answer this question.

What qualities (other than price) does your business have that makes you better than your competitors? Those are the things that you talk about in your newsletter.

The idea is that you keep the relationship going, and make more sales without having to constantly offer discounts.

Talk to you soon,
MandyP.S.  I’d love to help you get started with a newsletter. I believe it’s one of the best ways to grow a business.

If you’re just getting started with a newsletter, or want to inject some life into your existing publication, I can help. I offer a one-hour consultation where we can plan out the content for your upcoming issues so that you will make more sales.

This consultation is $150. Call me at 505-515-7001 to set this up.

Join Our Mailing List!

How to get more leads with landing pages

/in , , /by

Craig Rhode is a digital marketer from Minnesota.  In this interview he explains how to grow a business with landing pages and get more leads. He also gives advice on how to get the best ROI from pay per click ads, how to retarget ads, and what to do when someone unsubscribes from your list (best advice ever!) Click here to get his landing page resource guide.

Mandy:        Whenever I talk to people about landing pages, especially entrepreneurs, it seems like they all have a different idea about what a landing page is. What’s the difference between a landing page and a regular website page?

Craig:  This is how I explain it to clients. A website, basically, is your business. It’s your storefront. It’s your brand. A landing page is designed to act as a funnel to one action.

On a website, there are tons of places to click and tons of forms that you can fill out. Sometimes there are videos to watch. But with a landing page there’s only one call to action, and one form, and there are no outside links.

Take for example someone who is selling fire pits.  They just came out with a new custom fire pit.  The website would feature all their products. A landing page would only focus on the one product.  There’s no other action on that landing page.

Mandy:   There are a lot of benefits to using landing pages. Earlier you mentioned that a landing page can help make the sale when the initial answer is no… but it’s a soft no. How can a landing page turn a “maybe” into a “yes”.   

Craig:   A lot of people would assume that when someone looks at a sales pitch and chooses no, it’s a hard no. It’s a “No, I don’t want anything to do with it. It’s over. I don’t want anything to do with this.”  In reality, it’s not a hard no, it’s just that it’s a soft no, where you can maybe nurture it a little bit.                

Mandy:   A soft no means, “Maybe not now.”

Craig:              Maybe not now.

Mandy:   Maybe on Thursday when I get paid?

Craig:              Yeah, that’s a really good tip. I’ll drop a real good tip on everybody right now. Is that most people get paid on three different dates. On the first, 15, or Friday. If you’re selling a product that cost more than $1,000 nine out of ten people probably don’t have the funds to buy it. But if you were to set up your landing page to deploy an automated email, on the 1st, 15th or on a Friday, it’s been proven that you get more engagement or purchases, because people will have extra cash on those days.

If you’re selling something that’s less than $100, plan on there being a soft no, a yes, and a hard no.

Mandy:   What’s the best way to get people to come to a landing page?

Craig:   Landing pages are 99% designed to be reached through a pay per click advertisement, or some other sort of marketing. 

If you’re doing Google AdWords or Ad Sense or Facebook ads, or anything that requires a funnel to go one link, is that please, for the sake of your pocket book, don’t not have pay per click advertisement go to your home page. You’re just wasting money. There are too many other things to click on in your main website. Always use landing pages for pay per click advertisements. No matter what, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Ad Sense, AdWords, or  if you’re just doing guest blogging, never send them to your homepage. Always send them to a landing page, or at least a page that you really want them to focus.

Mandy:   Yeah. Pay per click ads have such specific headlines. If you send people to your homepage, people will wonder, “Why am I here?”

Craig:              I see so much wasted money out there on these Facebook ads, because they’re being run by people who don’t know what they’re doing. They’re just like, “I’m going to put $400 to this Facebook ad that goes to my homepage,” then all of a sudden you see them on Facebook with a little frowny-face emoji with a  status update saying, “Where did all my money go?”

Mandy:   Okay, if someone has $400 for their Facebook ads, what should they do? What will actually work?

Craig:               Say you have $400 to promote this one product. That’s the budget, that’s all you have. You don’t …

Mandy:   I want to stop you and point out something that I like. You’re saying, “I have $400 to promote one product.” Rather than having an ad that says, “Here are all of our services.” Focus on one product at a time.

Craig:    If you have that $400, this is how I would do it. I would take $200, and create a Facebook ad. I’ll just kind of summarize it, that $200 that I would take $50 of that, and invest it into creative. I would find stock photos that I could put some copy on. I would do some design that will be appealing. The magic number for Facebook ads is eight. You should always have eight variations.

I always make eight different pieces of content for that Facebook ad, and they’re all going to that one landing page that is designed for that social media. A lot pf people only use one photo and one variation of the copy. The thing is, with Facebook ads, if you have a 20 bucks per day spend it doesn’t take any extra money to send those eight pieces. It’s still $20. I don’t understand why people don’t take advantage of that. When you send eight different versions of the ad, eventually you’re going to see which ads are working and which ads aren’t.

Mandy:   Then you can get rid of the ones that don’t work and try to write an even better one?

Craig:   Yeah. You just keep building and building and building. You take the ads that aren’t working, and rework them. You keep doing A-B testing. The thing is, it doesn’t effect your budget. You can still stick to your $20 per day, or $10 per day. It takes a lot of patience, and a lot of testing.

People ask me, “Why should I pay for someone to run my Facebook ad?” Facebook ads are pretty easy to do. The thing is that the normal business owner doesn’t have time to spend an hour looking at each variation. You’ll just lose money if you don’t test. Facebook provides all the tools, but people need to take advantage of it. People who don’t have time to take advantage of it, should hire a professional who knows what they’re doing.  Not only do you save money on the ad, you will get guaranteed ROI and your ads will work  at peak performance.

Mandy:   There’s so many pieces of the puzzle. You have to focus on one product at a time, have a landing page, set up Facebook ads that send traffic to that specific landing page. But before you do any of that you need to know what  your offer is going to be? How do you recommend people figure out what the offer is?

Craig:   You’ve got to treat your landing page as a commercial. You only have 15 seconds for a person to determine whether they are interested in this product or not. For this gold and silver landing page, we had several variations on the headline in the Facebook ads. The first variation was, “Thinking about buying gold and silver?” Okay, I am thinking about buying gold and silver. Let’s move on. Or the B variation is, “Can you afford to lose 42% of your portfolio?” And hopefully somebody reads that and says, “Holy crap, I can’t afford 40% loss. What the hell is this guy talking a bout?” The third one was about how the dollar is becoming worthless. Then they go onto the landing page, where they find that we’re talking about gold and silver.

Mandy:   For the readers, Craig and I worked on an e-book and landing page together. I wrote the copy for the ebook, and the landing page, and he designed the ebook and the landing page, and made the Facebook ads. As a copywriter, I wrote the copy but didn’t know what happened next. Anyway, continue.

Craig:   Exactly. Those are Facebook ads, but they are also the headlines for the landing pages. I can see what landing pages are working, and what landing pages that aren’t. The only difference between, AB and C, is that the very top line.

The first landing page says “Thinking about gold and silver?”, the second landing page says, “Can you afford to lose 42% of your portfolio?” and the third one says something about how the dollar is becoming worthless. We’re currently right now in a testing phase, we’re actually seeing some really great results from B. We’re not seeing a lot of results from C. A seems to be consistent. What that’s telling me is that people aren’t interested in the dollar, they’re more interesting in protecting their portfolio. After this test, I think we’re going to add another one that’s focused on the portfolio and hopefully that works.

Even if your landing page looks great you have to ask yourself “What’s the one thing that I could change and test that might increase the return my of investment?”

If you are hiring someone to build you a landing page, don’t settle on one landing page. Ask them for three variations. If your guy is really good at designing landing pages, he should be able to say, “no problem.” If he doesn’t, then I would think about finding someone else to design your landing page. A-B-C testing is essential for getting your return on investment. That’s just my advice to everything thinking about getting a landing page, or hiring someone to do it for them.

Mandy:   In this landing page, there is an offer where you download the book and you get it. You’re telling me in the weeks since we’ve put it up you’ve been able to gather a lot of information, that tells us how we could write a more effective copy.

Craig:                  Yeah, it’s all about analytics and data.

Mandy:   The first one was sort of a shot in the dark because we didn’t have that data.

Craig:   That’s the thing. It is a shot in the dark. Then you find out did it hit? Did it not hit? It’s perfectly fine to take a gamble. It’s that gamble that’s going top open the doors to better copy. Better copy always makes better landing pages.

Mandy:   Yeah, definitely. Tell me a little bit about the retargeting efforts that you’ve done.

Craig:   Okay, this goes back to like the whole, yes, no, soft no. If a person filled out the form, got an email from your landing page, but they unsubscribed from it, your email software will tell you, “This person unsubscribed.”

You should have an email, already designed, for that person that says, “Listen, I saw that you wanted to unsubscribe from my email list. I just want to say thank you for giving us the time. I really appreciate you taking a look at our information. If by chance you have any more questions about this, feel free to give me a call, or send me an email. I would be happy to talk to you, if you have questions in the future.”

You just reach out to them in a friendly way.

This tells people that this isn’t just another automated click funnel. There’s an actual real person behind it. That soft no, that came from that unsubscribe, can easily be turned into a yes, or a maybe, just by reaching out to that person. Now, the person realized that there’s a real person behind all of this, it’s not a scam, it’s not some sort of automated system. There’s actually a physical person that I could talk to. This strategy is really important for financial advisors, or anybody who needs to have a one-on-one relationship with a person in order to sell something.

If you’re in financial services or home repair or anything like that. As soon as someone unsubscribes from your funnel, you’ve got to reach out to them, and say thank you. Those five minutes that you spend emailing to say thank you, is going to pay off  nine out of ten times. That person is going to pump the breaks, and think, “Maybe I made a mistake, maybe I should really take a look at what this person is offering.”

Some will email you back. Sometimes they don’t. It’s okay though. You’re going that extra step. That’s what I kind of like to call personal retargeting.

Mandy:   I’m going to use that for my own business. I’ve got a daily email, and people will subscribe and unsubscribe. A lot of times, my attitude is bad and I think “You’ve unsubscribed… see you later.” Maybe they weren’t going to be my customer. But sometimes they were my customer. And I’m like, “Why is this person leaving?” It seems worth it to send out a letter like that.

Craig:   I’ve done this a lot. The response I get most is, “Oh my god, I didn’t know I unsubscribed from the news letter. Will you please re-subscribe me?”

Mostly these unsubscribes are by accident, or they might have clicked on something, or maybe they did a select all and junked them. If you respond to them and say, “Thank you for reading my email, really appreciate it”, I’ll put serious money down that one of those emails will get responded back with. “I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to unsubscribe from your news letter. Can you please subscribe me back?” That opens up the door for you to sell something. You can say, “By the way, I  have a special offer for new subscribers. I could give you 10% off a service.”

Not only do you make them feel special, but you’ve also made sure that people know there’s a real person behind all that stuff. People want to do business with real people.  It’s just a real helpful tip for anybody with an email marketing list.

Mandy:   They were interested in it, then they think they’ve just been put on  a big list, when they really wanted someone to personally help. That’s maybe why the unsubscribed. Then if you send the personal letter, they realize that you can help them.

Craig:   It’s what I call the “Human Element.” Marketing has become so automated and artificial. Not personal. That’s why it’s really important with this type of marketing, to create a relationship that really grows trust between you and your clients,  or potential client.

It’s trust that really makes the world go around. Doing that type of strategy, really creates trust. Making sure to add the human element to all your marketing, creates trust which leads to sales. I mean, I could spend 45 more minutes on this. But we also have to talk about Facebook Pixels.

Mandy:   Why don’t you walk us through that?

Craig:   It’s super simple. There’s tons of guides on Google and Facebook, and even LinkedIn.

If you create a sales funnel and get that no, you can hit them with an ad again on Facebook, and Google, and Pinterest, or maybe LinkedIn or Twitter.

But here’s one thing I hate. Some people will set up campaigns that start right away, so as soon as I click out of Amazon, and log into Facebook, all of a sudden my wall is full of ads for that product.

Mandy:   I agree. I  just bought a bunk bed for my son. Before I paid I put it into my cart. It was pretty expensive, so I was waiting until I got paid before I bough it. All I did was click on the picture, and boom, this bunk bed was everywhere.

Craig:   That’s the thing. This type of marketing can get aggressive. Amazon’s theory behind that is that you are shopping around. If you go to that bunk bed page, and you click away, they realize that you probably went to a competitors’ website to price shop.

Mandy:   Absolutely. That’s exactly what I was doing.

Craig:   Yeah, they’re trying to bring you back to the page by doing aggressive targeting. But, if you’re doing some sort of landing page and someone engaged with your landing page, I recommend giving them 24 hours. Then hit them again with that retargeting ad.

Mandy:   If someone visits your landing page, and you’re saying that it’s a no, does it mean that they didn’t put their information in?

Craig:   Yeah, they didn’t put their information.

Mandy:   How do you get the ads to them?

Craig:   All it is a piece of code you put into the header piece of the website. Facebook and Google will walk you through the steps on how to do this. This isn’t voodoo. Everyone should be doing this for the landing page.

Mandy:   It feels like voodoo to some of us.

Craig:   Yeah it does. That’s why you call me, the voodoo guy. Craig Rhode.

If you really want to get magical though, with retargeting, I recommend that people take a look at Google Tag Manager. It’s a free tool that Google released maybe a year ago. With Google Tag Manager, instead of polluting your website with tons and tons of scripts, you can just have one script and have Google Tag Manager manage them. There are tons of free tutorials out there on how to use Google Tag Manager with Word Press site, normal landing pages, with Joomla, Shopify.

If you really, really want to start doing retargeting marketing, marketing, you should embrace Google Tag Manager and learn how to use it.  It’s simple. Its really easy. Google will completely walk through all these steps.

Mandy:   You mentioned adding human elements to your funnel. What other areas in your funnel do you think the human element really needs to be added? Where’s a good place to be a human being?

Craig:   Maybe having a live chat plugin installed on your landing page. If someone has a question, they would be able to send a message right away to you. You can answer it right away. I’d like to give you some links to some of the stuff I’m talking about for your listeners. (Click here to get more detailed information about the resources Craig is talking about in this interview). Installing a live chat is a great way to add the human element.

Mandy:   What else can you do to add the human element to your funnel?

Craig:   Add a short video to your landing page. That’s probably the best way to make that trust connection. If you have a landing page with a video and a live chat you should get a really great response.

Mandy:   Thanks. I really appreciate all of the tips on how to make landing pages more effective. It sounds like having you on board can make it possible to get better results.

Craig Rhode can be reached at www.agatebayconsulting.com. Or you can email him directly at [email protected].  

 

How to use landing pages to start a business; an interview with Tanya Brody

/in , /by

An efficient way to start a business is to build a landing page and get some people to join a list. A lot of businesses start that way, because ultimately, you need to have someone to sell to. In this interview, Tanya Brody explains how to use landing pages in the beginning stages of a business.

Mandy: Tanya, why are landing pages so important?

Tanya: Whether you are writing a blog or you’re selling a physical product or virtual product, you can’t do it without an audience. The place you really have to start is building your audience.

Mandy: How do you build an audience with a landing page?

Tanya: The standard way is to come up with what is commonly known as a lead magnet. A digital piece of content that you can give away for free.  People can download it and they give you their email address in exchange for that thing.

For example, my lead magnet is an article with five copywriting tips. A restaurant could give away a coupon that people could print out and bring in. As you know, our friend Bob Sands has an emotional intelligence assessment that people can take. You want something that relates to whatever it is you are doing and that will make people want to have it enough that they will give their email address in exchange for it.

Mandy: I have a book called “How to get customers”

Tanya: Exactly. So you could give that book away or a chapter of that book away as part of your lead magnet.

Mandy: Once you have your lead magnet, how hard is it to create the landing page?

Tanya: It can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be. It can literally be a picture and an opt-in form with a headline. It could be that simple or it can be more complicated with a bunch of information about what people will be getting and that option form. It depends on how much information you feel like you need to give to get people to respond.

In my “other life” I am a musician and I give away a free song.  So my landing page is a picture of me playing the harp and says, “Download my free song”.

Mandy: I love that picture of you.

Tanya: Thank You.

Basically it’s just a box that says download the song and they click on the box and there is this thing that says, “Tell me where to send your free song.” People enter their email address and their first name and they click on the box. The system I use is Leadpages.  Leadpages automatically delivers them the mp3 of the song.  That’s one of the reasons like Leadpages. They have an automatic delivery system so you can upload a file and people can download it automatically.

Mandy: What if someone has invented something or created some sort of new technology. How can a Leadpage work with that?

Tanya: Well if you’ve invented like a software technology, for instance, offer a free trial. Say try our software for 15 days and then since you already have that person’s email and you can email them and say, “You’ve got 5 days left on your trial, are you interested?”

The point of having someone’s email is that it allows you to keep in contact with them, whether they are ready to buy right now or not.

Mandy: What happens if people join your list and they don’t really want to buy?

I use CoSchedule’s headline analyzer whenever I write a headline. Just so I can get some information about how people will respond to it, so I can just hone down what the best headline will be. I am not going to use CoSchedule because I am not at the point in my business where I need that, but I really love their headline analyzer.  But they put their headline analyzer behind a sign-up wall. They used it as a lead magnet. I went ahead and signed up. Now I get a whole bunch of emails from CoSchedule and I am okay with that because they send me some interesting stuff, but I am really only going to use the headline analyzer and I am aware of that and I am okay with that.

There are going to be people like that on your list. There will also be people who are completely read to pay. When I signed up for free trial for another scheduling program, I knew I was going to buy this product from them, but I wanted to give it a try just to make sure I was happy. So when they emailed me to say, “Hey, your trial is almost up,” I’m like, “Yep, here’s my credit card information.”

Mandy: So sometimes the people who give you give you their emails will be your customers and sometimes they won’t.

Tanya: And sometimes it may take them awhile. Two years from now, I may totally want to use CoSchedule.

Mandy: When you’re ready for it?

Tanya: That is the question. Will I actually be ready for it? You have to consider where people are in the buying cycle when you build a list and you have to accept that not everyone is going to jump on the bandwagon at the same time. Which is why you collect their email addresses and you nurture those leads.

Mandy: Yes, that is so good. Can people make a landing page where they just ask for the sale?

Tanya: Yes.

Mandy: What’s the value of getting the email address and when do you first start to ask for the sale?

Tanya: I think that depends on what you are doing. There are a lot of people, myself included, who have landing pages out there that go straight for the sale. I have a landing page geared towards selling landing pages. How crazy is that, right? I have it out there so that when clients say to me “I am interested in your landing page services”, I can send them there and they can say, “That’s what she does. That’s the package I need.” Boom, there we go. But, by the same token I also send out a regular blog mailing list and a regular newsletter just to keep my clients interested and reminding them that I exist. So I do both.

There are people out there who all they’re doing is selling stuff. So all they are going to put out there are sales pages and that’s fine. You can still get email addresses from that so you can so you can tell people about your next special, your next sale, your next coupon … whatever that is.

We are all at the point where we realize that we are going to be marketed to wherever we go. We may like it, but we all recognize that if we are given something for free that you are going to be marketed to. Someone’s collecting your information to be able to market to you.

Mandy: Why are landing pages becoming more important?

Tanya: We have to recognize that marketing has become much more of a two-way street now. It used to be one way. It used to be you put an ad on television, you put an ad in the paper, or you had an ad on the radio, and all it did was broadcast out and there was no way to respond.

When you are doing things like landing pages and emails, that’s a way for people to respond and so we have to recognize that.

Same thing with social media. People will respond and so you have to remember that it’s a relationship now and you really have to nurture that relationship.

Mandy: So this is really like starting a relationship-you are getting the phone number and then you are going to start to call and set up your dates.

Tanya: Exactly. So once you start that relationship, you need to make sure that it’s not just about you. It’s also about them. That’s why I write my blog every week… to make sure that I am giving my potential customers useful information. Sometimes that information drives them towards hiring me. Sometimes it’s just information they can use in their own marketing because I want them to be empowered to do their own marketing. Sometimes they lean abo something that actually works, but they may not have time to do it and so they think, “Maybe I should get her to do my marketing.”

Speaker 1: Yesterday I saw someone with a really familiar face… I see her all the time. I’m always smiling and nodding and saying Hi. We know each other but I don’t know why I know her. You know what I mean? A long time had gone by and it was getting really awkward for me because I couldn’t figure out what we had in common. Turn out she has been on my list for two years.

Tanya: Oh my goodness. That’s wonderful!

Mandy: When we originally met I was about to have a baby, so we didn’t connect in person. It was like a relationship that wasn’t really getting off the ground. But I had this list. And so she joined my list and then she kept getting my emails. So then when we talked the other day, it was as if the relationship wasn’t just thrown in the garbage. It was like we kind of know each other now.

Tanya: Right.

Mandy: Or she knows me a lot more than I know her.

Tanya: Yeah, and honestly I have had several people who have joined my email list who wants to be copywriters contact me and go, “Hey, can you give me some advice about getting started with this?” And I will absolutely help them.

Mandy: She was a writer too. So, we are both kind of working in the same space.

Tanya: Yeah, but you know I have had people contact me and go, “You’ve done this. Talk to me about what I should be doing.” And I’m happy to take the time to do that because again, that’s nurturing that relationship. Then if I have a client who I don’t want to take on because it’s not in my field, I can pass it on to them and they’ll do the same. Again, it’s just nurturing that relationship.

Mandy: That’s really important. Does it lead to sales?

Tanya: Yes, it does.

Mandy: You mentioned that a landing page can be just a picture with a headline or it can be really complicated. Do people make it too complicated?

Tanya: Oh, I’m sure people make it too complicated.

Mandy: How easy can it be?

Tanya: Honestly, a landing page can seriously take you 15 minutes to put together if you make it that simple picture, headline, contact box. It can be that simple. This is not rocket science. You are not trying to sell them a car. You are trying to sell them … Give them information. If you make it clear, this is free, I am giving this to you because I think it will help you.

I have a landing page. It’s out there. It’s on my website. It’s on my Facebook, but I don’t ever draw any traffic to it necessarily and every time I do, I have people opt in because they are interested in those five copywriting tips because they are good copywriting tips.

Mandy: How to you go from giving away free stuff to making a sale?

Tanya: There are always going to be people who want to do it themselves and there are always going to be people who want you to do it for them, whatever it is. If you make and repair guitars, you could put together a list of the five ways to diagnose and fix the tuning problems with your guitar and there will be people who will be like, “Oh, this is exactly what I need, thank-you!” And they will be excited to get more free tips from you.  And there will be people who are like, “Thank God someone who knows how to do this. Here take my guitar.”

There will be people who will buy from you when they are ready and when you present the right product. So that person who was really excited about being able to fix their own guitars? If you write a manual on how to maintain your own guitar, they’ll buy that.

But then there are people like me, who don’t want to screw up their guitar. I’m going to hand it to you and say, “Make it better!”

You have to recognize who your audience is and what they want from you. That will help you decide how to create your landing page and your lead magnet.

Just ask: What is it that you are selling? What is it that you are giving your audience that will be the best thing to attract them.

Mandy: You’ve worked with Leadpages for a long time and you’re an expert at putting these landing pages together. What features does Leadpages offer?

Tanya: Sure. The great thing about Leadpages is that they’re offering you hundreds of templates and you can just stick words and images into the templates. That’s why it’s so easy. You can build a landing page with their drag and drop builder or from scratch.

Mandy: The template will have a picture you can put a different picture in it to make it your own.

Tanya: Exactly

Mandy: There is a headline and you can exchange the headline with you own headline and then you’re done.

Tanya: Right, but the beauty of what Leadpages does is they have fully-optimized templates. They’ve already done the research. They already know about how big the headline should be and where the image should go and what the layout should look like. You get to go in and change the colors and the images and decide if you want a picture or a video and write your own headline and put your own text in

Tanya:                 Of course, you have to the pictures and the files ready. Whatever it is you are going to upload. You have to know what you are going to write. But after that, it’s ridiculously easy to do with their system.

The other nice thing is you can publish it on your website. They have a plug-in to use with WordPress. You can download their plug and you can basically stick your landing page onto your website. You can download the html and download it to your website if you don’t happen to use WordPress. You can actually publish your landing page to Facebook so that you could put it into one of those tabs on your Facebook page

Or if you don’t happen to have a website yet, because you are just getting started, you can actually publish it on Leadpages server.

Mandy: Will they give you a long link?

Tanya: Yeah, and they’ll just give you a link that you can use wherever you want and you can shorten it with Bitly or Hootsuite and stick it wherever you want to. You can actually build your own full website out of Leadpages which is kind of nice because it’ so simple.

Mandy: Yeah, making a website seems like kind of an undertaking, but making a Leadpage is easier.

Tanya: Yeah, Leadpages actually has template that are like a full scroll-down landing page and you can actually just make your standard home page one of those things where it has all those different sections and there’s a menu at the top and when you click on the menu it just takes you further down the page to that section.

With their templates, it’s all built in. It’s all coded for you. You don’t have to think about any of the coding and for me, since I don’t do coding, it’s perfect.

Mandy: Cool. What are the components of a good landing page?

Tanya: You need a compelling headline. That headline needs to tell people why they are at your landing page, what you are offering them, and what the benefit is. Believe it or not, you can actually cram that in in 5-10 words. You need some sort of image. Human beings are very visual so you need something to catch their eye to keep them attracted. Always remember you have between 5 and 10 seconds to grab someone’s attention on any page on the internet.

Once you grab their attention, keep their attention by telling them again and again what the benefit to what they are getting is. How will it help them?

One of the cool things about Leadpages is you can actually duplicate your page. So if you are sending someone from Facebook, you can specify that they came from Facebook. If you are sending someone from a Google ad, you can specify that they came from a Google ad with this key word. If you are sending them from a page on your website, you can say, “Hey, you were just on my website looking at this” All you have to do is hit the duplicate button and change the text a little bit.

It’s much faster than having to build the whole thing over and over again.

When you get ready to build your landing page, you need a compelling headline, a good image, and text that tells people why they are there, what they are getting, and how that will benefit them. Really those are the components of any good landing page and that will at least get you started.

 

 

Tanya Brody is a copywriter and a Leadpages Certified Conversion Expert. You can find more articles about copywriting and marketing at Tanyabrodycopywriter.com.