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Online Marketing Training & Consultancy

Why Your Customers Buy… A Few Interesting Buyer Biases

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I've just finished reading the Choice Factory by Richard Shotton and wanted to share with you just a few of the useful gems I picked up from this book.

It sets out 25 behavioural biases that influence why people buy (or not).  You may know of some of these already.  May well be using a few of these in drawing a person through their buyer's journey with you.

Here are the ones I found most interesting:

The Fundamental Attribution Error

The Fundamental Attribution Error is pretty common.  Do you make assumptions about a person -- attributing what they do to their personality, rather than to their situation?  Several studies have shown that someone who is rushed, is likely to behave differently to someone who is relaxed and in no hurry.

Your Takeaway

Make sure you've taken the context into account.  As far as possible meet your potential customers at a time and place where they are not rushed or distracted.  They'll be far more open to your message.

Social Proof and Negative Social Proof

I'm sure you're all familiar with this one.  People buy what other people are buying.  We tend to use this a lot in business.  Case studies, testimonials are all really great ways to foster social proof.  However, not all social proof works.

Some backfires brilliantly and ruins a campaign.  By pointing out negative behaviour, for example, you give your audience permission to behave badly too.

Your Takeaway

When you want to shift behaviour, make sure that you cite a positive rather than a negative one or you'll get more of what you don't want.  Point to how they ought to behave instead.

Distinctiveness

Standing out from the crowd.  We're hardwired to notice what's out of the ordinary, so where you can, be unusual.

Your Takeaway

Make your copy and your approach distinctive; take a stand and you'll be remembered.

The Pratfall Effect

Where your flaws are appealing.  They make you look human -- honest and authentic and that's very appealing.

As long as you are seen as trustworthy and competent, then this can work really well.  However, if you really are a prat, then showing your flaws only makes you more so in the eyes of others.

Your Takeaway

Be honest and authentic.  Admitting to your mistakes or keeping the odd negative comment about your work will only serve to make you more approachable and likeable.

The Veblen Effect

And one that bears mentioning here -- the Veblen Effect -- or how a high price can boost demand.  Price conveys quality.

Your Takeaway

Have a portfolio of products or services, and promote the top end ones.  That will ensure you are seen as a quality provider, even if someone chooses a lower priced product from you.

Are you using any of these? Or others I haven't mentioned to improve your sales?

Why Mastering Technology is SO Important

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It’s my belief that business and technology are two of the most powerful forces for change in the world.  In the past 20 years alone, digital technologies in particular, have transformed the way we work, play, shop, entertain ourselves and communicate with one another.  Rapid and radical transformation. Harnessing these powerful forces for change and directing them can speed up and magnify the impact we know we are here to make.  Because…

The third most powerful force for change resides within us. 

As heart-centred entrepreneurs, we’re running purpose-led businesses. Encouraging creativity and connection, using our expertise to make a difference by sharing our know-how with those most in need of our life’s work.

And yet, digital technology is anathema to many heart-centred entrepreneurs. You may feel that somehow:

  • Making money is at odds with making your difference or that 
  • You’ve got to change personality  — become that distasteful Internet entrepreneur — in order to succeed online.

And that inner conflict, coupled with the vast array of digital technologies at your fingertips today, can be altogether too much.  It’s confusing and downright overwhelming!

And why would you invest time and precious energy in something that made you feel you weren't being true to who you are and what you value?   

Yet not embracing these technologies may be stopping you from being all you can be, serving those who most need your work and making the difference only you can make.

Here's my take on this...

First off, it's possible to be authentic, to express yourself fully and be comfortable -- even masterful -- with digital technologies.  They are hugely powerful, and very feminine forces for change.  And so are we.

They make it easy for us to connect, communicate, collaborate and co-operate with people all around the world.  Powerful feminine qualities.  We extend our reach, develop relationships, make a good living making the difference each of us is here to make.

And that's the important bit.  You see, I have a vision -- a crazy vision -- that came to me in a rare moment of clarity.  I'm here, with a handful of enlightened people, to stop the madness that is the way of the world.

When this realisation first came to me, I was floored.

Who am I to take this on?
What does Stop the Madness mean anyway?

In time, I realised that my genius lies in making technology accessible to those purpose-led entrepreneurs who know they are here to make a difference.

Using business and technology as powerful drivers for the kind of change we want to see in the world.

And that's my mission.  The reason why I'm in business -- to make it easy for you to embrace technology and grow the kind of thriving, sustainable business that changes lives, makes a difference.  With the right strategy, and a few tools you can master.  I'll show you how. So..

What if we, collectively, could usher in a new world order?

A world that works for everyone, not just a privileged few.

A new business paradigm. Where everyone enjoys a liveable wage and meaningful work.  Work that treats them like human beings, cares about their wellbeing rather than exploits their labour?

Such businesses are already starting to emerge -- they're known as Teal organisations and they work.  Purpose-led, not profit-driven.  Touching hearts and minds, caring for one another and for the earth that gives us live.

Why not join me?

  • Embrace business
  • Embrace technology.  I'll show you how to do that AND stay true to who you are.
  • Grow a thriving, sustainable expert business online
  • Fulfil on your big vision, and
  • Lead the change you want to see in the world.

Who knows? Maybe together we can truly Stop the Madness.

Sales Funnels Explained

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Let's begin with the basics: What is a sales funnel?   And how does it fit into and support your online expert business?

In marketing and selling your products or services online, you need to take your customer on a journey -- one that begins with their first awareness of you, and continues through to the point where they have not just bought from you, but continue to do so as a loyal customer.

There are 6 basic stages a buyer goes through:

Awareness -- through a social post or ad -- of you, your offerings, and how you may be able to help them.

Interest -- where they begin to show interest in what you do, perhaps by reading a blog post

Evaluation -- where they begin to suss you out and see if you really can deliver what you say you can.

Trial -- where they try out your products or services on a trial basis, via a training webinar, etc

Adoption -- when they actually buy that first product

Loyalty -- when you treat them so well, they keep coming back for more.

Your sales funnel maps the Evaluation, Trial and Adoption stages of the buyers journey.

And because your customer comes on a journey with you, it's important to meet them where they're at -- with an offering that matches the stage of their journey.

I call this FLIRT.

Free content at the awareness and interest stages.

Your Lead Magnet as interest grows and your potential customer begins to evaluate your offers

An Impulse Buy when they're ready to try  your products or services to see what it's like to be your customer

Revenue products for the adoption phase and your Top End services for those loyal customers who love what you do.

Your Sales Funnels

Yes, you'll have more than one.

There are many different kinds of sales funnels, each one suited to a different type of product or service offering.

Here's my take on them.

  1. Free Plus Shipping for a physical product you're using as a Lead Magnet.  A book, CD, DVD that offers great value.  Either the postage covers your costs, or you offer an additional product to do so.
  2. Self-Liquidating Offer as the name implies, is one where you cover all your costs, not from the sale of your offer, but from an 'upsell' to a related, higher priced offering.
  3. Continuity a special funnel where you offer the first month's subscription to your members' club or continuity programme at low or no cost, then immediately offer the full subscription.  Enough people will take up this second offer to make this profitable.

These three funnels are ones you will use for low priced, high perceived value items -- your Impulse Buys.

When it comes to higher priced products and services, you'll need a different approach:

  1. Sales Webinar where you conduct a live (or evergreen) webinar to sell a higher priced Revenue product or service.
  2. Invisible Funnel where you deliver great content for free, then ask for a payment afterwards from those who have found value in it.
  3. Product Launch a special series of free live trainings which work really well to launch a Revenue product or service.
  4. High Ticket Application for your Top End services.  This begins online with a funnel that culminates in an online application.  Thereafter, you take the sales conversation off line.

Is your Market Saturated?

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It's a very noisy world online. So how do rise above the noise and get your message out to your community? To others you know you are here to server?

One key element of this is recognising that we've reached a tipping point online on two fronts:

  • Research estimates that the average adult in the western world consumes 10 hours of content a day!
  • And, experts estimate at least a 500% increase in the amount of content produced in the next 5 years.  Some as high as 1,000%.

On the one hand, you have an audience full to the brim and unable to engage with any more.  On the other, a huge increase in the content available for them.

This is what Mark Schaeffer refers to as 'Content Shock'.

How do you deal with this challenge?

You can't compete in a market that's already saturated.  This is the bloodied ocean that Kim snd Mauborgne refer to in their excellent book Blue Ocean Strategy.

You must find a niche -- a special place where you have few if any competitors and then own that niche.  This is your blue ocean.  Swim in it. Create great content, grow your community there, and rise to the top, above the din and the noise.

Finding that Blue Ocean

Here's a cheap and cheerful way to know whether your market is saturated.

Type your keyword into Google in this way:

"Your Keyword" AND blog

This search will return all the blogs that are optimised for this keyword.  Note at the top of the page the number of search results.

(Do this on a computer; a mobile device does not give you this critically important number).

What your results mean...

If there are:

  • Less than 10,000, you've found yourself a blue ocean, a special niche you can own.  Get in there and create great content that engages your audience.
  • Between 10,000 and 100,000, your market is getting challenging.  At the lower end, you could still make an impact.  But it will be more difficult.
  • Between 100,000 and 1 million. This market is saturated. You'll need deep pockets to make any impact here, so my advice here -- and for the next category:
  • More than 1 million

DON'T BOTHER!

What if your search returned a million or more results?

Refine your keyword.  Make it longer, add a demographic element to it, and keep playing.  You'll soon find that Blue Ocean you're looking for.

 

How to Find the Influencers in your Target Market

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Finding and connecting with the key influencers and authorities in your field online should be an important part of your online marketing strategy.

But how do you do that easily?

Simple.  A few of the right searches on social media platforms will give you a great list of the key players in your field.

Begin with Twitter.  It's an excellent resource for finding the top people.  The key here is to use their advanced search which you'll find at:

https://twitter.com/search-advanced

Of all the many fields you can stipulate here, only two are really relevant at this stage in your research:

"All of these words" for your keywords or target market and

Dates at the bottom of the form. Choose the last 3 months, to get the most up-to-date information on active influencers in your field.

twitter search

Twitter ranks the results by the size of the following and also how active the account is.  So check out their twitter feed and select those are both active and have a large following and add them to the People list on your Market Research Template.

Download your Market Research Template Here

Use similar search facilities on other social networks like FaceBook, LinkedIn and Instagram, as appropriate to your target market.

iTunes -- Not Just for Music..

Another great place to look for those key persons of influence in your field is on iTunes.  These are the podcasters, many of who have large and dedicated followings online.  It's also a great place to find those experts who are interviewed on podcasts.

Go to iTunes, and in the search field key in your keyword.  Select 'podcasts' and All to get a full display of all the podcasts related to your keyword.  Generally speaking, the ones with the most authority are at the top.

Add as many of these to your Market Research Template as are relevant to your field.

Download your Market Research Template Here

PLAN your Marketing Messages

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For your messages to resonate with your audience, you need to PLAN them first.  This is an acronym for:

  • Understanding their Problems
  • Using their Language
  • Finding the Anecdotes or stories they really relate to
  • Knowing their Needs -- or more importantly their wants.

And then, giving them the right message at the right time in their journey with you.  I'll consider that in a separate blog post.

Problems

What is the biggest Problem your ideal customer experiences with respect to your topic or area of expertise?  One of the best ways to find this out is to ASK.

Best done 121. Next best by survey. Here are a few good questions to ask:

  • What frustrates you most about [your topic]?
  • How long have you had it?
  • What's that costing you now? Not just in terms of money, but time, effort, emotional or physical wellbeing
  • What have you done about it?

Then, importantly, explore their aspirations with a question like:

  • If you had a magic wand and could change anything [related to your topic and their pain/problem], what would it be?

Language

Make a careful note of the language they are using.  Their complaints, their dreams, their words.

What questions are they asking? What exactly are they looking for? You can find those questions in the forums and the FAQs on those influencer sites you've identified.

Your target audience also have complaints.  The best way to find these is through a forum search or Amazon reviews of the products you've identified.

And finally, keywords.  A great place for this, apart from the forums you've identified, is the free site answerthepublic.com. Here, you'll get a full list of all the long keywords people are actually using to find what they want and need.

Anecdotes

Those short, interesting stories that can have a massive impact on your audience.  Find true stories.

The best place is in person.  Capture these stories as accurately as you can.  They are pure gold.

The next best place is to throw the net wider and do yet another forum search. Or listen to podcast interviews.  They often contain amazing stories.

Needs

From your research thus far, you will have identified both needs and wants.  In the stories, in their complaints, they are looking for a solution.

What is it?

Find it and then sell them what they want, and give them what they need.

 

 

How to Sell Big Ticket Items Online

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There are several different types of sales funnel you can use to sell information products online.

But if you want to attract your dream client into your top end product -- or any high ticket programme -- you need a different strategy.  This is what I've been developing lately, to sell my 6 month Courses that Sell Mastery mentoring programme.

It's a three step process.  The first two occur online.   For the third step, you change the selling environment to make sure your prospect has information they need to make an informed choice.

It's also your opportunity to screen candidates, so that you know -- as do they -- that this is the right programme for them right now.

Step #1

Begin with an enticing free or very low cost offer.  Something that draws the right people to you.  I'm going to be using a Free webinar to introduce my audience to Courses that Sell Mastery.

Let them know that this programme is by Application Only.

Step #2

Invite those who are interested to fill in the online application form.  This serves two purposes:

  • It helps you understand about your prospect's business -- where they are now, and what they want to achieve.
  • More importantly, it pre-frames the prospect by getting them to sell you on why you should take them as a coaching client

This process weeds out those who are not ready for your programme, so you only call those who are a good fit.

Step 3

Once they complete the application, take them to a page that engages them with you and the programme, and explains what happens next...

A 121 call, where you deep dive into where they are now, what they want to achieve in the programme, and whether they are ready, with the resources they need, to be a part of it.  Ask them why they think they are right for your programme.

And if they are right for it right now,  take them through the sale.

If not, offer a different programme, or put them into your follow process, for when they are ready.

How to Find Your Target Audience Online

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Simple Strategies, Free Tools

In this post, I'm going to give you an overview of a few simple strategies you can implement to find your target audience online, using free tools.

These strategies centre on two words:

  • Places
  • People

Before you do anything else, create a spreadsheet to capture your findings.  Set up a sheet for Places and another for People, each with three columns:

Name, Web Address and Notes

This will become your treasure chest of rich information and intelligence as you conduct your research and gather very specific information on your target market.

Need one that will give you this and a whole lot more?

Download your Market Research Template Here

I'm assuming you have a topic or keyword you will be using.

For places, some of the richest veins of gold will be found in blogs, forums and social media groups. 

For finding those key people -- the ones your target audience already knows and trusts --  the best place to look is on social media platforms, like Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn and Instagram.  Another great source of information is iTunes.

Strategies for Places here.  Check out How to Find the Influencers in your Market to find your People.

Places

Blogs

Blogs are a really rich source of information. They give you the added advantage of being able to connect with the owner and his/her community.  It's easy to get this information.  Go to your browser and type in:

blog: [your keyword]

And Google will automatically deliver up to you all the key blogs that are talking about your subject.

Just look at the first page.  You'll find some useful blogs to examine further.  You may even find a list post, which gives you even more blogs to explore.

Capture this information.  Then check out the "Searches related to this keyword" at the bottom of the page.  Explore those that are relevant or interesting.

Forums

Forums are another great way to find people interested in your subject.  Again, use Google search engine. Type in:

forum: [your keyword]

And capture any results on the first page, and "searches related to" links that are relevant.

Social Media Groups

Facebook and LinkedIn are likely to be the best options for you.  Depending on your market, choose one or the other.  The process is similar for each:

For FaceBook, simply go to the search bar and type in your keyword.

From the results you get, scroll down to find the 'groups' category and make a note of those that have large and active communities.

By this stage, you should have upwards of 100 places where you can find your target market online.

Make sure you capture all this information in your Market Research Spreadsheet.  You can download a template to use here.

We'll look at People in the next post.

How to Create the Right Marketing Strategy

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marketing

This is a simple way to get a really good marketing strategy set up for business growth.  I picked it up at Marketing Strategy Live a week or so ago.

All you need do is 5 things:

Do a SWOT on your business to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Sit back and take an objective look at what you've written.  You're looking for the most important critical success factors for growing your business this year.

Is it in playing to a strength? Overcoming a weakness? Exploiting an opportunity? Or protecting your business from an imminent threat?

Select 3 critical success factors from your SWOT.  And rephrase each one as a strategy.  For example, if you have a small list and see growing this as key to your success, then the strategy is "Grow Community".

Get clear on what you'll measure to know you've achieved that goal.  For growing your community, this may mean growing the email list to 1255 by the end of the year. Be as specific as you can.

Then for each of your 3 strategies, set out the tactics you'll use to achieve your goal.

Easy Peasy.  Here's a template you can use.

Your Marketing Strategy Template

How to Prepare your Product Launch

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product launch

This is where your commitment to creating an evergreen information product or course is tested to the limit.  And maybe even beyond.

If you've done your Market Test, you may have the makings of a truly great product.  But it's useless to you if no one has ever heard of it.  This is your task.

Get your product out there and into the hands of as many people as possible

Through as many routes as you can think of.

 

mastery diagram

First, refine your product using the feedback from your Market Test.  Package it so that it really appeals to your target market.

Then plan your marketing campaign.  What assets do you have to hand?  What to do need to launch this product successfully?

Bring your influencers on board.  Who do you know who can support you with your launch? Not the big boys and girls, unless you're already in league with them.  Those just ahead of you in your field or in a complementary field, who benefit from their involvement with you as much as you benefit from them.

Then design and develop your sales and marketing materials, beginning back to front, with your customer delivery.  What do you need to put in place to make sure you provide an excellent customer experience?

Create your sales copy and sales funnels, in such a way that you gently lead a person from one step to the next as easily and naturally as possible.

Identify what you absolutely must measure to gauge your performance.  What does success mean to you? Find those metrics and make sure you have an easy means for monitoring and analysing them.

Create all your marketing and promotional material.  The social posts, blogs, ads, PR, whatever you have decided is the best means to reach out to your target audience and make yourself and your product known.

WHEW!!

And now you're ready to launch!