Christian

How to Make Money with a Crappy Product or Service

By Christian

Are you under the impression that you need a great product in order to get a lot of sales? Hogwash I say!

You don’t need a good product to get sales. You need good marketing. The world is full of crappy products that people buy in high volume.

Just visit your local Walmart. You’ll find shelf after shelf of thin, scraggly, scrawny, skeletal products, devoid of nearly any value whatsoever. Yet people buy this shit all day long. Why? Because we love it. Why do we love it? Because we’re slaves to our passions. And what directs our passions more than any other force in the universe? Marketing! None of us, including myself, like to admit this. But it’s just the way it is. Marketing works.

Some Finer Points on Making Money with Crappy Product…(or a great one…your choice)

Marketing and product development are completely separate things. Treat them as such.
Marketing is what sells stuff. Don’t pretend the quality of your product or service somehow overcomes the need to sell it.
The quality of your product is your responsibility to your customers. It’s your ethical duty as a human being to over-deliver awesomeness to your customers. But it’s not a marketing tactic.
Customers don’t buy your shit because it’s high quality. They don’t know any better until they’ve already bought it. They may believe it’s high quality, but that’s only because you or someone they trust has told them so. In other words, they’ve been sold.
When you learn to sell stuff, that’s when your whole business changes. Selling is what makes you recession proof, and it’s what makes your business viable. You can sell a totally crappy product or a totally awesome one…that’s your choice. But if you know how to sell stuff, you’ll always be able to earn a great living. The reason most business owners struggle is because they flat out refuse to learn how to sell.
When you deliver flat out epic value to your customers, that’s when they say positive things to their colleagues. That’s when they spread the word and send you referrals. That’s when they come back to buy from you again and again. When you take the approach of delivering high quality, it doesn’t help you to make that first sale. Instead, it leverages every sale you make into 20 more. But you still need to make that first sale. Learning to sell is what makes your business viable. Repeat and referral business…that’s what makes you wealthy.

So IN CONCLUSION…

Do you need an awesome product to have a viable, profitable business? No. You really don’t. All you need is to know how to sell stuff. When you know how to sell, you can sell anything to nearly anybody at any time. That’s the power of marketing.

Thing is, if you fail to deliver high value in return for the sales you earn, you’ll always have to hustle to earn more and more sales. You’ll never earn any advocates that way. You’ll never get repeat and referral sales. And it’s a really big missed opportunity. Some may argue it’s our ethical responsibility to deliver high value in exchange for the money our customers send us. I agree 100%. But regardless of any ethical issues, let’s get one thing straight:

It doesn’t matter how good you are at what you do. It doesn’t matter how valuable your product or service is. If you don’t know how to sell, you’re dead in the water. But as soon as you learn how marketing works, everything changes. As soon as you learn how marketing works, getting those first sales and building your client base stops being this nebulous, intimidating monster problem. It becomes easy.

And if you follow up on those sales with ridiculously high value, then you’ve changed the entire outlook of your business forever. Learning that marketing is actually a good thing is the rarest and most important lesson any small business owner can learn. If you already know this, please share this idea with your colleagues. You and I both know at least 20 people you know could use a reminder 🙂

The Biggest Mistake Small Business Owners Make With Social Media

By Christian

Do you struggle with how to effectively market your business on Facebook? Have you spent a lot of time on Twitter (or any other social media sites) and just aren’t seeing any results?

I talk with a lot of clients who struggle to understand what actual role social media should play in their marketing, so you’re not alone! Today I’m going to share with you the biggest mistake I see being made in social media marketing. If you’ve failed to get any meaningful results so far, there is a very good chance this single tip can set you directly on the path to getting the huge results you’d love to see!

First, let’s get the facts straight. Why even bother with social media if it’s not worth our time, correct? If you’ve wondered about whether social media marketing is a good choice for your business, here are a few facts that you may not know:

The number of profiles on Facebook is climbing steadily towards 1 billion. Really, there’s a very good chance that every client or customer you’ll ever work with for the entire duration of your career…is ALREADY on Facebook.
Internet users now spend more time using Facebook than they do using Google. Time = Attention. Attention is what we try to get with traditional media, and it is very expensive. Meanwhile, Facebook has more attention than anyone. Yet it remains free for the most part, and it remains one of the most affordable advertising options online as well.
Twitter isn’t just a bunch of people talking about what they had for lunch today. It has been used as a launching pad for several best-selling authors and multi-million dollar companies.
Savvy Twitter users often get MORE sales from Twitter than they do from expensive, traditional marketing campaigns.

So, if business owners all over the world are using social media to build significant sales, why can’t you too? The answer is you can!

Are You Spinning Your Wheels?

Yet I see many professionals and small biz owners spinning their wheels and not getting nearly the results they could be getting. Why does this happen? Certainly, there are a number of things you can tweak to improve your efforts, but I want to share the biggest mistake I see out there all the time.

The Biggest Mistake We Make In Social Media Marketing…

I’ll use real estate as a specific example, because I know that business really well and have a good number of clients in the real estate business also. Go to any real estate professional’s Facebook page, and take note of which groups they’ve joined. They’re mostly real estate groups, aren’t they? Then, go take a look at their list of friends. They’re mostly other real estate professionals, aren’t they? I see this over and over again, and if you think about it, it makes sense.

As a real estate professional, they’re naturally going to gravitate to others in that field. It’s edifying. It’s interesting. It helps you learn about your business. It also, importantly, does NOTHING to market your business to the people who are actually going to buy from you! This example is true in real estate, but it also applies 100% to any industry. We’re all guilty of it.

There is nothing wrong at all with using Facebook to network with others in your field. But do this with the knowledge that this is NOT your target market. If you want Facebook to be a networking tool, that is fantastic. If you want to use it to sell more, you need to be spending the majority of your time engaging and talking with potential clients and past clients! It’s really as simple as that.

If you’re a locally-based business, search for groups with the name of your city in them. It will likely turn up a lot of results, and you can join them, meet and talk with people in your community and begin building relationships with people that will actually buy from you. If you’re not bound by any geographic concerns (such as a business like mine where I can just as easily work with a client in Australia as I can work with someone here at home), find groups, forums and discussions that interest your prospects. Quite simply…don’t get sucked into the trap of only talking with others in your field. Simple, no?

Bonus Mistake

A second mistake I see most commonly in the social media world is when marketers fail to offer free items as a promotion. Look at this page, which is one of the highest conversion pages on Dangerous Tactics. It offers a free report in exchange for signing up for my email list. This page alone has generated well over 1,000 inquiries for me, and all I do is mention it on my social media sites every once in a while. No paid marketing, no SEO, no geeky tricks.

A page like this (known my most marketers as a “squeeze page”) won’t ever get much traffic from search engines, because there’s almost no actual content on the page. But people love to get free stuff, especially when it’s awesome. It’s kind of the perfect thing to offer to your contacts in the social media world.

Whether you’re running a personal profile on Facebook or a business page is fine. I’ve done both, and I personally have chosen to stick with a personal page because candidly, I just like it better. I understand I’m supposed to be using a business page for business stuff, but I’m just a hardcore rebel like that. LinkedIn is another great source of new leads for me. 2,000+ inquiries from LinkedIn in 2012, all from offering free gifts of various sorts to people. It works, people!

Your Website is Probably Failing this Test

By Christian

Testimonials. Testimonials. Testimonials!

Your website doesn’t have enough of them. I promise.

If you’re a small business owner, it’s crucial to understand there are two different types of content. Analytical content and emotional content. Do you know the difference?

Both are crucial. I’ll talk more about this over the next few posts if you like. Just shoot me an email if it’s a topic that interests you, and I’ll use your questions to develop the articles on this subject. For now, please understand that VERY FEW people are going to take action to help you, contact you or buy from you just because you have cool content on your blog. If someone is going to do BUSINESS with you, they need to feel comfortable with you, and they need to feel compelled to take action.

These two factors cannot be skipped. If you skip them, your website will not get the results you want. Period.

And no amount of education or information is going to make this happen. Know this:

People don’t take action because they’ve learned everything they need to learn.
People don’t take action because the time is right.
People don’t take action because they’re “in the market”.

So why do people take action? What causes us to make buying decisions? We make buying decisions emotionally. We say we don’t. And we’ll flat out deny it if you ask us directly. But we do. It’s just how it works. We make buying decisions emotionally, and then we back those decisions up with logic and data. We justify our emotional decisions with logic. Every buying decision is a logic sandwich. Yummy (high carb btw) logic on the top and bottom…but the meat of the decision is emotion.

The test most small business websites fail

The most crucial test for any small business website is to be emotionally compelling. And interestingly…this is usually the last thing any of us thinks about when it comes to putting content on our site. We want to load our website up with all the most helpful information possible. And that’s important. But it’s not the whole story. If you want your site to generate leads and business for you consistently (the ongoing topic of this blog), it needs to be emotionally compelling…not just informative.

The topic of engaging your readers emotionally is a huge topic, and it’s one I’m happy to answer any questions about. Just hit me up with any of your concerns via email, or let’s chat on Twitter. I’m shooting to cover this a lot more in depth in future articles. But for now, let me share a secret weapon with you. One of the most dangerous tactics of all…liberal, strategic and aggressive dispersement of testimonials on your website.

Testimonials are your most powerful opportunity to share what OTHER people are saying about you. Clients, customers, readers. It’s not you talking about yourself for once. Your readers WANT to feel compelled to work with you, and testimonials are a great way to encourage it. Testimonials get read. They get noticed. They make a difference.

After working on hundreds of client websites over the last several years, I can report definitively that very few small business websites out there are fully utilizing this crucial type of content. If I were to point to a single type of content that was more emotionally compelling than any other, it would be a stack of high quality client or customer testimonials. Yet on most websites I see, testimonials are hard to find. In many cases they’re not there at all. Big mistake.

Why I Don’t Talk About Social Media

By Christian

I get load emails with questions about social media. Here is just a small sample of questions I’ve received recently, paraphrased:

How do I get more “likes” on my Facebook page?
Should I start a Facebook business page?
How do I prepare for the Timeline switch on Facebook?
Do you recommend using Facebook ads?
Do you prefer Facebook or LinkedIn groups for finding new business leads?
What’s your take on G+?
You get the idea…etc, etc.

Interestingly, my favorite social platform of all (Twitter) is one I get the fewest inquiries on. Go figure 🙂 Anyway, you may have noticed I don’t talk too much about social media here. I’ve covered a few topics on occasion, but for the most part I’m pretty quiet about it. So what’s up with that?

Why I’m not a social media advocate

I just don’t have time to advocate social media. And I don’t see any purpose really. There are bazillions of consultants out there harping on every day about the value of social media, and the world doesn’t need another social media lackey talking about how social media is the way of the future, blah, blah, blah. None of this means I’m AGAINST it. I use Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn daily. I get business from social media. I’ve met good friends using these tools. I find social media pretty invaluable actually. It’s also fun.

But that’s not what this website is about. And it’s not what my business is about.

The focus here is getting ridiculously impressive results from your website. So my company builds ridiculously effective websites. Pretty simple 🙂 And that’s where my focus lies. This doesn’t mean that social media isn’t valuable, it just means that I focus where I’m able to provide the highest value.

Blogging and email rule

From day one I’ve pretty much focused on blogging and email. These are the tools of my trade. This doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to chop down a tree. This is just how I do it. And it’s what I teach clients how to do. There’s a pretty high appeal to this approach, because to be honest…most people are pretty overloaded with info and all this pressure to use social media incessantly. The marketing world is filled to the brim with cats talking about how you need to be using every social media site out there, be everywhere all the time, etc. It’s pretty exhausting if you ask me. Not to mention the fact that it’s all bullshit.

Not only do you NOT need to be everywhere, all the time…you also can’t. There’s not time. And even if you were, 90% of it would be a complete waste of your time. Most of my clients are pretty relieved when I inform them that I’m not going to give them a bunch of rules about how they need to be on the internet all day long. I like cutting through all the B.S., so we can get right to the heart of things. What’s going to get RESULTS for your business?

My two weapons of choice

Blogging and email rule. These are the two tools I focus on. Since the late 90’s, this has been my focus and it’s served me well so far. Yeah, social media has blown up. And yeah…I use it. There’s a lot of value there. But you know what no one seems to recognize?

Even though Facebook has completely exploded and taken over the entire internet, guess what remains the internet’s NUMBER ONE most used platform for consuming and sharing information? That’s right…frickin email. Good ole email.

You know how Facebook ads have tripled in price over the past few years? You know how Facebook changes their TOS and silently exploits their users personal information every time they get a chance? You know how Facebook regularly changes their platform, throwing everyone for a loop, so they have to completely relearn where everything is and how to use their website? Email doesn’t do any of that crap.

After all these years, email has quietly remained on top. And for good reason…it works. And blogging remains one of the most accessible and effective ways to show up in search engines and build a highly engaged, powerful email list.

Where do we go from here?

So where do we go from here? If you want advice on social media, I’m always happy to give you my feedback on whatever I’m doing. Those of you who subscribe and talk with me know I respond to your questions. And I always love hearing from you and sharing what’s working for me. I just don’t go in depth on social here, and if you have super technical questions, I’ll usually refer you to one of my friends who focuses on that. For me and my clients here, I find a lot of value in simply focusing on what works best. Focus on blogging and email, because that’s where you can get the most substantive long term results. From there, use social as much as you can and have fun with it. Just don’t stress it. Life’s too short 😉

Questions? Then subscribe, and talk to me! That’s right…via email!

Does Your Website Pass The 10 Point Checklist?

By Christian

Nothing is more frustrating than wasted time. Blowing time away on stuff that doesn’t work. Stuff that produces no result for your business. Nothing grinds my gears worse. How about you?

I’ve never met a small business owner who didn’t value efficiency. You want better results in less time, no? Let’s work on that.

As you know, your website is a crucial part of your marketing strategy. Having a website that doesn’t produce a meaningful result in your business isn’t really something most of us are cool with. Your website should produce results, just like any other part of your marketing strategy, correct?

If we’re on the same page about that, then this article is pretty crucial for you to read. There are so many thousands of web developers and website providers out there, and you likely have questions. For example:

How the heck can I know who is worth working with?
How do I know if my website has what it takes to produce results?
What do I need to do to get my website set up properly?
How do I market my website after it’s set up, so it continues to produce results for me?

Today I’m sharing 10 critical factors for website success with you. After building these sites for years and working with clients all over the world, I have noticed a few essential elements that you really want to make sure you address. Please don’t stop here. This article isn’t the end all and be all of how to be effective online. It’s the bare minimum. This is like your tool belt. You need to have the right tools for the job. After you have the right tools, you still need to put those tools to work for you. But at least you can rest assured knowing you have everything you need to truly produce an impressive result.

As you know, starting off with the wrong tools can only lead to frustration down the road. Let’s get you started off on the right foot! Here we go:

Use your own domain name – A custom domain name is inexpensive and simply a fundamental part of a professional web presence. If your current website is located on a domain name that you do not have control over, then the truth is…you don’t have your own website. This is step one. Get your own domain name at Name Cheap and get your site developed on that domain name.
Use your own server – After you have a domain name, go set up an account at Bluehost. This is where your website will live, so it’s accessible on the internet. Bluehost is a great web host for small business websites. If you’re a larger business and expect several thousands of visitors a day, then you’ll need a more robust web host that can handle that type of traffic. If you’re in this category, set up an account at MediaTemple.
Use a professional, flexible design – Rule number one when it comes to web design…you should be able to change it yourself quickly and easily. If you have to go through your web developer every time you want to change something, you’re going to get frustrated fast. This is one of the many reasons I recommend Bluehost. After you log in, you can easily install WordPress with a few clicks of your mouse. It’s fast. It’s simple. It’s totally free. And it’s one of the most feature-rich and flexible ways to build a powerful website out there. After it’s installed, WordPress can be made to look and work however you like. Just like anything, there’s a learning curve. But everything worthwhile does. And even if you don’t want to learn how to set it up, just shoot me an email. I’m happy to hook you up with a custom WordPress setup. You’ll be up and running within just a few days. Pretty easy 😉
Update regularly – After you’re up and running, update your site regularly. Let both the search engines and your customers and clients know that your site is active and current. No one visits a website over and over again if it’s never updated. Blogging and social media can all be synced up with your site very easily, so keeping your website updated doesn’t have to be time consuming or complicated. If you’re not sure what to publish to your site to keep it updated, here’s a list of 20 ideas to get you started 🙂
Don’t try to do everything – One thing I see small business owners do so often is trying to add every single widget and feature available to their site. Instead, do something different. Only add the essentials. Be different. The internet is cluttered with websites already that are trying to be everything to everyone. Don’t clutter up your site with so many tools and resources that no one knows where to even start. Let it be simple, clean and easy to navigate. It’s easier for you this way, and your visitors will appreciate not being overloaded.
Leverage media – Don’t shy away from media. Pictures, video, blog posts. Content like this keeps people on your website longer. If you want your website to produce leads consistently for you, then you need your visitors to stay on your website long enough to get to that point. Keeping visitors on your website for a minimum of 2-3 minutes is crucial. After this point, conversions go up considerably. What keeps visitors on your website? Content. So have lots of it 🙂
Implement both analytical and emotional content – Many small business sites focus on analytical content. It’s good stuff. Facts and figures. Data. Market stats. Market updates. Industry news. Product and service descriptions. All that stuff. It’s important. It’s great for search engines. It educates your readers. It’s also fairly dry, and it doesn’t compel action. If you want to educate, inform and help solve problems, then analytical content is crucial. If you want readers to take action, then you need to use emotional content. You need to have calls to action (described in the next section of this list), and you need to have pictures, video and testimonials. These can take many forms, and there’s no fixed formula. But pics, vids and testimonials (this also includes user-generated content like blog comments, etc) engage people on an emotional level. People don’t make decisions because of data. They make decisions emotionally. They don’t admit it, but that’s how it works. If you want your site to generate business, you need to understand this. If you want your website to get leads and sales regularly, you need to engage people emotionally. Use emotional content liberally.
Calls to action – If you want business, you need to ask for it. Sorry. I know you don’t want to be a sleazy salesperson, so I’ve got some awesome news for you. You don’t have to be! If someone reads a post of yours and loves it, what’s the next step? The next step isn’t always to buy something, but let’s face it…sometimes it is. Selling your stuff isn’t sleazy. Being sleazy is sleazy. So…don’t be sleazy. But don’t neglect having calls to action. Go to the About page on this site. Is it sleazy? Is it high pressure? Most people don’t think so. I don’t think so. There are 12 calls to action on that page. Not 1 or 2. There are 12. Can you see them? This page generates new leads for me every day. I end up working with many of them. Many business owners hire me to help them get more business from their site. Very often, I find the entire site has only 1 or 2 calls to action. 1-2…on the entire site. I have 12 on one page. See the difference??
Optimize your About page – The about page is likely the most misunderstood and under-utilized page on your whole website. First off, many small business websites don’t even have one. So…make sure you have one. From here, let’s take note of what role the About page plays in lead generation. Very few people hit your About page right away. But after they’ve been on your site for a while, they inevitably go there. It’s typically the 5th or 6th or 7th page people visit. If you’ve done a good job providing cool content for them, they’ll be at the point where they’re considering subscribing. But they’re not gonna just do it automatically. They need something to put them over the edge. They’re also looking for any reason they can find to NOT subscribe to your site. So we’re on thin ice here. They’re on their way to your About page now. This is your shot. Don’t screw it up 🙂 How do you make an awesome About page? Make 75% of it about them. Who reads this site? What can you find here? Why is this the best website for this particular subject? How is this website different? Where is the best stuff on this website? Who are you and why are you qualified to have a site on this subject? See…there’s a question in there about you. And it’s important. And every other question is about them. Demonstrate to them that you know what they’re struggling with and that you can help them. Then have compelling calls to action. Do that…and your About page will no longer be a wimpy little bio about your company. It will be a page that generates business for you daily.
Have access to great support – The web is constantly changing. Does your website update it’s technology on a regular basis? Do you have access to quick and personal answers for any of your questions? If you want to change or update something on your website, do you have access to training that makes it easy for you to do anything that you want to do? Is your website supported by someone that knows how lead generation works and understands your personal goals? These concerns are a crucial part of the equation. I hear from readers at least a few times per week who bring stories about how they have a great-looking website, but it’s not producing the results they want, and they can’t seem to figure out what’s missing or what to do next. Whatever website you have, it should be built for the purpose of accomplishing the goals you have for it. And the process of achieving those goals shouldn’t be a mystery. You should have access to support that walks you through the whole process, so you can get the results you’re looking for.

How does your current website measure up? If you have any questions, it’s my pleasure to help. You can subscribe to get further info, or contact me. I’m excited to talk with you further!