John Jantsch - Duct Tape Marketing and Selling. The Online Marketing Show Episode 149

05/28/14 • 16 min

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John Jantsch is the author of Duct tape marketing, duct tape selling, the referral engine and the commitment engine. In this episode John shares how small businesses can get themselves out there, generate leads, sell more, get more referrals and build strong, loyal customer bases.

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Marketing Funnels - 13 Ways to Increase Conversions Part 4. The Online Marketing Show Episode 148

What is a marketing funnel? A marketing funnel is a strategic method of gathering leads and then warming those leads up so that they desire what you are selling and are ready to buy. In the online world this generally begins with getting a person’s contact details such as name and email address. Then you continue to communicate with them give them value, educate them and pre-sell them, again typically this is happening by email, and then when you decide they are ready, you sell to them, you offer them something. Why is a marketing funnel good? Simply put, your conversions increase. Because of all the great value, education, content they have been receiving from you, this will help them to view your offer in a different light than would have done without it. If you try to sell someone, first time, totally cold, your conversions will most likely be poor. However the exact same offer, pitched to the exact same person, only this time they have experienced your funnel, will lead to a greater chance of that person deciding to buy. Funnels are also a great qualifying process. If you think of a funnel, wide at the top, narrow at the bottom, this is what happens with your marketing funnel, lots of people coming in at the top end, and once they have gone through your funnel, some will come out the other end as a customer. Many will not but this doesn’t matter, the ones who do make it through the funnel will be super qualified, they will the right kind of customer, this means what you offer will be right for them and will most likely get the results they were looking for and that means happy customers and less refunds for you. So you will get more customers because of a good funnel and you’ll also get more of the right kind of customers too. What’s bad about marketing funnels? I suppose that creating a really good marketing funnel that converts can be difficult if you don’t know much about it or are entirely new to the concept. It’s certainly not some easy thing to do, skill is required. Also marketing funnels can be done wrong, often people think that just following up and sending emails is “a funnel” but it isn’t a funnel is far more strategic than that, it’s not sending helpful emails for the sake of sending helpful emails, there is a goal a purpose to every step in your funnel and it should be strategically leading people towards saying yes to the offer which you are about to give them. If you’re not doing that then you are doing it wrong. Who is a marketing funnels for? All online businesses should have a funnel. If you have website, in 90% of cases, rather than trying to sell immediately, you are better off getting people into your funnel, warming them up and selling later. For the majority of website owners, this should be the big goal of your website, getting people into your funnel. How to do marketing funnel? As we’ve discussed all of this is based on your market research and copywriting. You need to understand exactly what your customers want; your whole funnel is based on this. Then using strong copywriting at each stage of the funnel you lead people through the funnel until you ask them to buy. So your first step is to collect the persons email address. More information than this can gathered but in 99% of cases, an email address is the bare minimum. Once you have an email address for that person you can get into their inbox and continue to communicate with them but people don’t just hand over their email address to any old person willy nilly, they only want to get emails from people that they really want to hear from so you have to make yourself desirable to them right from the get go. So the most common way that people do this is by offering a lead magnet. This could be a free report or some videos or an audio or a free trial or any numbers of things, the point is you offer something for free which is perceived as highly valuable, that people in your market will want, in exchange for contact details. What happens next can vary, some people will try to make an offer on the thank you page after they have signed up for a lead magnet or ask them to register for a webinar on the thank you page. Others will just say thank you, deliver the lead magnet and then start to send emails. I think all these options can work, there’s no one right answer so have a think about your strategy, what makes sense for your business, in your market, but the point is after they have signed up for the lead magnet you now can continue to market to them further. When sending emails make sure they are not only valuable, no one likes to receive some unhelpful email but in addition to that you are leading them in the direction of deciding for themselves that your product or service is right for them, this is called pre-selling. It’s a cool way to sell that doesn’t scare people off by hardcore closing them to early but also is not just wasted content or content without any purpose, it’s content they will love but will also lead th...

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Unique Selling Propositions - 13 Ways to Increase Conversions Part 5. The Online Marketing Show Episode 150

What is a USP? USP stands for unique selling proposition. It’s a differentiation strategy that puts you in a category of your own. It’s a very specific promise to your customers that gives them a compelling reason to do business with you instead of your competitors. Why is a USP good? A USP is great because you carve out a little place within your market that is unique, even if what you do is 90% similar to your competition. By developing a USP you can take a product or service that may be common and then put your own spin on it, your own unique stamp. That 10% that makes you different could be the reason they choose over a competitor. If you don’t have a USP, you’ll pretty much be forced to compete on price as prospects won’t have anything else to judge you by or compare you to. If you have a good USP then you don’t have to compete on price, it gives a convincing reason that someone should spend more with you based on your USP’s promise, the promise of extra value of some form or another. And your market will happily pay more for it but you need to justify it with your USP. A USP can also serve as a good qualifier/disqualifier, people can read it and immediately understand whether they fit the criteria or not. You’ll get more of the right kind of customers. What’s bad about USP’s? There’s nothing bad about a good USP. The only thing that’s bad is not having a USP altogether or failing to deliver on your USP. Make sure that you don’t make any promises you can’t keep 100% of the time or you’ll run into trouble. Who is a USP for? Every business should have a USP. It costs nothing and it will attract you more business and more of the right kind of business too. How to create a USP? A USP should be short, a sentence or two in length; it’s got to be strong but to the point. No room for wastage. Your USP should state exactly who you help so describe your ideal target customer, this is that qualifier that I spoke about earlier, help your ideal target customer to identify themselves as someone who your message is for. Your USP should state the amazing result they get, the big benefit they get when they are a customer of yours. Your USP should state something that differentiates you or makes you unique within your market place. This could be any number of things perhaps you guarantee a certain result or their money back, perhaps you deliver it within a certain period of time, perhaps your quality is far superior, perhaps your price is the lowest, perhaps your customer service is outstanding, perhaps you have a method of obtaining results that one else use or producing product that no one does, perhaps you source the best ingredients or materials from a certain location, there are many ways to differentiate, just make sure that it matters to your market and that it does indeed make you different and puts you in category of your own. So to summarize... who it’s for + what amazing result they get + a differentiator that matters = an amazing USP. Then let prospects know your USP by communicating throughout your marketing.