Making Websites Win by Karl Banks & Ben Jesson – founders of Conversion Rate Experts ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

making websites win

making websites win conversion rate experts

If you are looking to get the most sales from your website then you need to read this book, Making Websites Win from Conversion Rate Experts. It is full of actionable learnings on how to go about scientifically optimising not just your website but all aspects of your business.

I am grateful to Nigel Botterill from The Entrepreneurs Circle for recommending that I read this book.

The amazing thing about this book is that you can get it for free, (but if you buy the book then the proceeds go to charity). So you can download a copy to your e-reader, or as a PDF and, I have never seen this before, they have even created a free podcast for the entire book! Just search for the podcast Maling Websites Win – how cool is that!

 

Here a few nuggets I took from this book.

Page 65. From the outset, you need to set up your website so it is easy to test new ideas. The authors give an example where it took a client 2 weeks of web design time to put a few words in italics. If it takes too much effort to get stuff done then it will never happen. Be sure to have your website set up so that it can easily be tweaked – that is one of the reasons WordPress has become so popular to host websites – it’s easy to learn how to use and update, and even if you are too busy or not techie enough there are a bucketload of agencies and freelancers who can help you. It’s a case of working scientifically – test small changes and a cumulative effect can be extraordinary.

 

Page 102. Ask customers who just bought this question – “What nearly stopped you buying from us today”

Why ask this?

  1. You put this question to customers – if you ask those who do not buy then you get a mixed bunch with many that are not qualified to become customers. Customers by definition are qualified so you will get better feedback.
  2. A customer has been through the whole buying process, so they know what they are talking about. Those who do not buy have dropped out at various points in the sales process and so cannot give you reliable feedback.

 

Page 162. Ask salespeople to record on video how they sell your product and overcome objections. Then get the video transcribed by a tool like Otter.ai.  This copy can then guide you in creating compelling copy on your web and landing pages.

 

Page 164. Here I learned about “Memory Buffers” and how to write better copy. When reading we only have the capacity to take in 15 or so words at a time and then they are interpreted. And then we read the next 15 words and so on. And after a series of buffers we need a rest and so our understanding of the text starts to fade. And this is why you need to keep sentences short and cut out unnecessary words. I am just scratching the surface here, but I found this part of the book fascinating and it has given me plenty to consider when next copywriting.

 

In Section 4 of the book, Page 323 the authors take us through a real-life case study where they helped grow a client’s business by over 470%. Points that struck me – they improved a mobile landing page by 78% and the length of the page increased by about 4 times to 2.5m in length! And the conversion principles outlined apply to the whole business, not just websites and online marketing. We are given an example where the activation rate of a children’s bank card was increased by 11% by writing (direct mail) not just to the parent, but the child too. Then they harnesed “pester power” to have the parents activate the card for the children.

This is a book I would recommend to all marketers and it’s a no-brainer because you can read or listen to the whole book for free.

To download the book go to www.conversion-rate-experts.com and to listen to the podcast version search for Making Websites Win in your favourite podcast player.

Revive Old Posts – WordPress Plug In

revive old posts wordpress pluginIf you are regularly creating content in your WordPress website or blog then over time you will build up a huge library of content – I am currently on over 600 blog posts. This will be especially true if you have read and following the principles outlined by Marcus Sheridan in his excellent book – They Ask, You Answer.

Anyway, it is a shame that these blog posts become less and less visible as they age, and that is where this killer WordPress Plugin comes in. Its called “Revive Old Posts”. Basically, it connects to your social media accounts and then at pre-defined intervals it randomly picks up one of your posts and pushes it into your social media.

So what I do? – all I need is the free version and I just want to push it into one account – my Twitter account. It randomly picks up one post per 24 hours and pushes it into my Twitter feed. And there are three reasons I do this.

Firstly, the act of pushing content into Twitter can create connections with prospects and others. For instance, I mentioned earlier the book by Marcus Sheridan, well, when I auto tweeted out my review of his book it resulted in a direct conversation between Marcus and myself, neat.

Secondly, every time a tweet goes out it gives Google a “social signal” and this tells Google that my website is active and interacting with social media – so it helps my search rankings.

Thirdly, using a second WordPress plugin called Easy Twitter Feed Widget. I use this the embed a Twitter feed widget on my website. What this does is makes my website look very current to website visitors. There is nothing worse than going to a website and seeing dates on posts etc that are years old. When they see that I tweeted just 2 hours ago then it makes the whole site appear more current. Check out the left-hand column beside this article.

Here is the link for more information on the Revive Old Posts WordPress plugin.

Free – 10 Point Website Audit From The Entrepreneurs Circle

The EC 10 Point Website Audit gives you a checklist that you can work through and you can then see how your website scored!

Complete the audit then you can see the areas of weakness in your website. This will help you focus and implement improvements to your website and as a result, convert more website visitors to customers of your business. Download the 10 Point Website Audit here.

 

website audit entrepreneurs circle

 

If you have any questions on how to use the audit or implement the findings then please schedule a free 15-Minute Discovery call.

Accountant lead generation. Do you really need to buy more accountancy sales leads?

You have probably arrived at this page because you are looking for lead generation services for your accountancy firm and to buy more new sales leads for your business. But is this really the case?

So do the numbers stack up (a favourite topic of course for accountants 🙂 ? If you double the number of new accountancy leads then you will double your sales and grow your firm. That is true, but at the same time, you will probably more than double the cost of your advertising. (It will most likely cost you more than double as you will no doubt already be using the most responsive advertising medium, so you will have to start using less responsive advertising and so use more of it. So your costs will be higher).

And there are other factors at play too. Take a look at these sales rules.

lead generation buy accountant sales leads

 

So if you have a new business sales team then the sales team will first focus on the easy sales and they will not consistently follow up with the lukewarm/ colder leads as these may not enable them to meet their new business sales target for the month. As a result, those leads who are not ready to buy now will quickly get forgotten about and “fall between the cracks”.  As I mentioned above, as you go to “weaker” advertising in order to generate new leads, so you will generate less responsive leads and so you see the issue – you are generating lower value leads that are harder to close, that the sales team do not want and they cost you more money.

So what is the solution? Before you spend any more money on buying more accountancy sales leads you need to implement an automated sales and marketing system that will work in sync and support your new business sales team. A system that does all the hard work in following up with prospective clients and nurturing them to a point where they are “warmed up” sufficiently to make it worthwhile for a salesperson to speak with them. This way the leads that have cost you money do not “fall between the cracks”.

So let’s look at the maths with a quick calculation.

Say you are currently getting a 1% conversion rate from your sales leads, and leads are costing £1 each. So the Cost per Acquisition (CPA) is £100. OK, let us say you implement a marketing automation system to automatically nurture those leads and then pass them over to the sales team when they are ready to buy. So we still get the initial 1% conversion. But then say we consistently follow up with the remaining 99% (who did not buy) over the longer term so that they begin to know, like and trust us. Now, say over the next 2 years we follow up automatically and gain another 2 sales from the initial 99 leads. So now then numbers look like this. We have 3X our conversion rate and so we have tripled the size of our business. Because we did not spend any more money on lead acquisition, so our Cost of Acquisition has come down from £100 to only £33. And this is without spending any additional money on advertising and lead generation.

Now at this point, you have a sales and marketing machine that efficiently converts accountancy sales leads. And now you can start to look at buying from lower value/ higher-cost sources of leads because you have a finely tuned sales lead generation and marketing machine that can profitably convert poorer quality leads. At this point, you can effectively afford to outspend your competitors on advertising and marketing.

Entrepreneurs Circle Certified Coach accountant sales lead generationAnd all this is before we even consider the best AND lowest cost of leads for your business. Referrals from existing clients of your accountancy firm. Are you actively asking your existing clients to refer you to their business contacts? The chances are that you are not proactively harnessing this source of leads. Once you have an efficient sales and marketing system in place then referral marketing can also happen consistently on autopilot.

So – do you really need to buy more new sales leads for your accountancy practice  -or do you need a system to convert more effectively the leads you are already generating? If you are interested then this is exactly where I help my clients. If you would like to book a free Discovery call at a mutually convenient day and time then click here.

buy accountancy sales lead generation

Check out my blog post with top 5 marketing tips for accountants.

Tattoo studio CRM, job management and marketing automation systems

tattoo studio crmAre you looking for a Tattoo studio CRM for your tattoo studio? Maybe you have already looked at Zoho CRM or Sugar CRM and found they do not fit your requirements?

When studio owners are searching for the best tattoo studio CRM they are probably working with a number of artists, and are feeling the pain of managing all the admin. As well as struggling to market their services to, not only new prospects, but also to existing clients!

A tattoo studio CRM (customer relationship management system) is the obvious choice for any business wanting to better manage clients, with the aim of improving service and ultimately increasing revenue/sales. Like any system, CRM’s have core functionality, with different strengths and weaknesses – depending on if they are a generic solution or have been designed and developed for a specific sector.

Tattoo studios have specific requirements:-

  1. Management of client information
  2. Staff / Job scheduler (calendar based)
  3. Job Booking notifications – email/sms
  4. Job Booking reminders – email/sms
  5. Client marketing communications – email/direct mail
  6. Integration with external calendars (Google/Outlook)
  7. Integration with cloud accounting software (Xero/Quickbooks)
  8. Custom forms/reporting
  9. Mobile APP

Two important areas to consider are the management of multiple artists combined with the scheduling of multiple job bookings of different duration’s, with the chance that work is completed over multiple, scheduled, sittings.

I suggest you take a look at ServiceM8 and see how ServiceM8 handles job scheduling.

Job Management systems and CRMs do not typically have the capability to do marketing email communication very well. If the system you are investigating does not appear to have the functionality that you require, modern software usually has either ‘partner’ technology or the ability to connect to third party solutions that will provide you with the capability needed. Keap / Infusionsoft can be integrated with ServiceM8 to create a complete CRM, Marketing Automation and Job management system.

If you are looking to grow your tattoo studio then you need the right systems in place to maximise sales and reduce time spent on the time-consuming, non revenue-generating activity. As both a ServiceM8 Certified Partner and Keap / Infusionsoft Certified Partner we can demonstrate how we can transform your tattoo studio business. Simply schedule a Discovery call and have a chat.

 

Tattoo Studio photo by 🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič on Unsplash

Home security marketing – Six top tips

home security marketing

Entrepreneurs Circle Certified CoachIf you are responsible for home security marketing for your company then you will find these 5 top tips valuable, so please read on.

The first step to winning more home security installation jobs is to think like a potential client who has a security issue – maybe they have had a recent break-in or attempted break-in. Or maybe a neighbour just got burgled and so home security is now top of mind. Put yourself in their shoes.

What thought processes will they go through? Which websites do people visit when they are looking to learn about home security options? How can you engineer so they “see you” online when they are searching for a solution?

TOP TIP 1

Initially, potential customers will be searching online for information. Maybe they are looking for a DIY home security solution. This is your ideal opportunity to become their trusted advisor for all things home security. Have information on your website to educate them to the problem they are experiencing and looking to solve, and even give them help on the solution. It may seem counter-intuitive to give free advice but this really does build you as the trusted advisor and even though some people will solve the problem themselves with a DIY solution there will be others who simply want to call in a trusted expert when they do not have the time or the job is more than a simple DIY job. So this can be blog posts, PDF guides or videos. I recommend this book to my clients on how to create content that draws clients to you. They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan.  And this becomes even more powerful when it can be linked to a marketing automation system, see point 4 below.

home security marketingBe visible online. These days the first port of call, when someone is interested to learn about home security options will be the internet and primarily using Google. It is imperative that your home security business is visible on Google.

So do a check – how do you appear on Google right now in your local area. Because most of the time people will be looking first for a local home security expert.

Step 1 – Go to Google, enter the name of your local area followed word like  “home security”, “burglar alarms” “cctv system” into the Google search bar.

Example: Manchester home security, London cctv systems

Step 2 – Make a note of the websites that come up on Page 1. Study them and get inspiration for your own ideas. Is your home security business on the list for your locality? If not…

TOP TIP 3

You need to get your website listed.

Google Adwords are the ads top and bottom of the Google search results page. Advertising is a quick win, but can be expensive and you need to know what you are doing. I would recommend hiring a Google Adwords Expert as it can be complex to set up Adwords and expensive if you get it wrong. (I would definitely recommend using the Google Remarketing option, this enables you to display ads across the internet to your website visitors AFTER they leave your site – the ads follow them all over the internet. These work great and costs next to nothing).

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). This is the process to optimise your website so that Google lists it in the rankings. You need to be on page 1 of Google. The good news is that this is free, the bad news is that it can take months of work to achieve a result. But once you do you will reap the rewards for a long time. SEO is a huge subject so you can either hire an expert or if you have the time and inclination you can teach yourself, check out the book I mention in TOP TIP 1.

TOP TIP 4

Have a home security marketing and sales follow up system.

This is what the majority of home security businesses do not have or understand. In points 1 to 3 above we are looking at ways to generate interest in our service, which is essential. But what you have to realise is that of all those who visit your website, only one or two in every 100 are ready to buy today. So if they do not buy today then that means 98% of visitors leave your website and they will probably never return. That 98% of visitors is where the gold is for your business. So you have to have a system in place that enables you to consistently follow up with EVERYONE who expresses an interest in your home security services. This can be really simple – paper-based or Excel, it is possible, but it is a definite chore that requires dedication and time. And that leads me nicely on to what I do. I specialise in helping clients set up a marketing automation system called Keap / Infusionsoft and this is the leading marketing automation system for small/medium-size enterprises. Check out my blog post – Home Security Sales Leads. Do you really need more new home security sales leads?

TOP TIP 5

Referrals. Even in this online world, word of mouth advertising is still the best. How can you encourage previous home security clients to talk about your service? Can you offer them an incentive if one of their friends or family buy from you? Can you reach out to all your previous customers and remind them about your service, this is really easy if you have a marketing system in place, see Top Tip 4 and an efficient Home Security Installation System, see Top Tip 6.

On this note. Have you listed with the likes of Trusted Trader and/or any other industry-relevant review sites? Social proof these days is so important. How many times have you decided between one or other hotel or restaurant based on the reviews from previous customers? This social proof is key these days and you should be actively asking your customers for a review on each job you do.

TOP TIP 6

Home Security Installation Systemisation

OK, so you have been busy marketing and you now have home security leads and sales. But the job is still not finished. Now we have to ensure we look and act professionally and do a top-notch job so that we WOW and retain those hard-won clients. How do you manage you and your team’s on-site jobs currently? As the business grows you will need a system to make this as professional as possible so that clients not only return again to us later on, but they are happy to refer us to their friends and family. One very impressive service I recommend to home security clients is ServiceM8.

If you are interested to learn more about how to build your own home security marketing and sales system then please schedule a free 1-hour Discovery call.

home security marketing

Home security photo by Max Böhme on Unsplash

Home security lead generation. Do you really need to buy more home security sales leads?

home security sales leads

home security sales leadsYou have no doubt arrived at this post because you are looking to buy more home security sales leads for your security business. But is this really the case?

So do the lead generation maths stack up? If you double the number of home security sales leads then you will double your sales and grow your business. That is true, but at the same time, you will probably more than double the cost of your advertising. (It will most likely cost you more than double, as you will no doubt already be using the most responsive advertising medium, so you will have to start using less responsive advertising and so use more of it. So your costs will be higher).

And there are other factors at play too. Take a look at these sales rules.

home security lead generation

 

So if you have a sales team then the sales team will first focus on the easy sales (the low hanging fruit) they will not consistently follow up with sales leads that are not going to buy in the short term – after all following up on the lukewarm/ cold leads will not enable them to meet their sales targets. And those leads who are not ready to buy yet will quickly get forgotten about and “fall between the cracks”.  As I mentioned above, as you go to “weaker” advertising in order to generate new leads, so you will generate less responsive leads and so you see the issue – you are generating lower value leads that are harder to close, that the sales team do not want and they cost you more money.

So what is the solution? Before you spend any more money on new leads you need to implement an automated sales and marketing system that will work in sync and support your sales team. A system that does all the grunt work in following up with leads and nurturing them over time until they reach a point where they are ready to speak with a salesperson. This way the leads that have cost you money do not “fall between the cracks”.

So let’s look at the maths.

Say you are currently getting a 1% conversion rate from your sales leads, and leads are costing £1 each. So the Cost per Acquisition (CPA) is £100. OK, let’s say you implement a sales and marketing system to automatically follow up leads, to nurture those leads and then pass them over to the sales team when they are ready to buy. So we still get the initial 1% conversion. But then say we consistently follow up with the remaining 99% (who did not buy). Now, say over the next 2 years we follow up automatically and gain another 2 sales from the initial 99 leads. So now the numbers look like this. We have 3X our conversion rate and so we have tripled the size of our business. Because we did not spend any more money on lead acquisition, so our Cost of Acquisition has come down from £100 to only £33. And this is without spending any additional money on advertising and lead generation.

Now at this point, you have an efficient sales and marketing machine that efficiently converts home security leads. And now you can start to look at using lower value/ higher-cost sources of leads because you have an efficient sales and marketing machine that can profitably convert poorer quality leads.

And all this is before we even consider the best AND lowest cost of leads for your business. Referrals from existing customers. Are you actively asking your existing customers to refer friends and family? The chances are that you are not proactively harnessing this source of leads. Once you have an efficient sales and marketing system in place then referral marketing can also happen consistently on autopilot.

Entrepreneurs Circle Certified Coach

So – do you really need more new home security sales leads?  -or do you need a lead generation system to convert more effectively the leads you are already generating? Check out the MarketerM8 AI Lead Reactivation System.

 

 

 

 

PS. Check out my other post with 6 top tips for home security marketing.

 

Home security photo by Arno Senoner on Unsplash

New Fitted Bedroom and Wardrobe sales leads. Do you really need more sales leads?

You have no doubt arrived at this post because you are looking for new fitted bedroom and wardrobe sales leads for your business. But is this really the case?

So do the maths stack up? If you double the number of new fitted bedroom and wardrobe sales leads then you will double your sales and grow your business. That is true, but at the same time, you will probably more than double the cost of your advertising. (It will most likely cost you more than double as you will no doubt already be using the most responsive advertising medium, so you will have to start using less responsive advertising and so use more of it. So your costs will be higher).

And there are other factors at play too. Take a look at these sales rules.

fitted bedroom and wardrobe sales leads

 

So if you have a fitted bedroom and wardrobe sales team then the sales team will first focus on the easy sales and they will not consistently follow up with the lukewarm/ colder leads as these may not enable them to meet their fitted bedroom and wardrobe sales target for the month. As a result, those leads who are not ready to buy now will quickly get forgotten about and “fall between the cracks”.  As I mentioned above, as you go to “weaker” advertising in order to generate new leads, so you will generate less responsive leads and so you see the issue – you are generating lower value leads that are harder to close, that the sales team do not want and they cost you more money.

So what is the solution? Before you spend any more money on new fitted bedroom and wardrobe sales leads you need to implement an automated sales and marketing system that will work in sync and support your sales team. A system that does all the hard work in following up with prospective clients and nurturing them to a point where they are “warmed up” sufficiently to make it worthwhile for a salesperson to speak with them. This way the leads that have cost you money do not “fall between the cracks”.

So let’s look at the maths with a quick calculation.

Say you are currently getting a 1% conversion rate from your sales leads, and leads are costing £1 each. So the Cost per Acquisition (CPA) is £100. OK, let us say you implement a marketing automation system to automatically nurture those leads and then pass them over to the sales team when they are ready to buy. So we still get the initial 1% conversion. But then say we consistently follow up with the remaining 99% (who did not buy) over the longer term so that they begin to know, like and trust us. Now, say over the next 2 years we follow up automatically and gain another 2 sales from the initial 99 leads. So now then numbers look like this. We have 3X our conversion rate and so we have tripled the size of our business. Because we did not spend any more money on lead acquisition, so our Cost of Acquisition has come down from £100 to only £33. And this is without spending any additional money on advertising and lead generation.

Now at this point, you have a fitted bedroom and wardrobe sales and marketing machine that efficiently converts leads. And now you can start to look at using lower value/ higher-cost sources of leads because you have a finely tuned sales and marketing machine that can profitably convert poorer quality leads. At this point, you can effectively afford to outspend your competitors on advertising and marketing.

Entrepreneurs Circle Certified CoachAnd all this is before we even consider the best AND lowest cost of leads for your business. Referrals from existing fitted bedroom and wardrobe customers. Are you actively asking your existing bedroom and wardrobe customers to refer friends and family to your business? The chances are that you are not proactively harnessing this source of leads. Once you have an efficient sales and marketing system in place then referral marketing can also happen consistently on autopilot.

So – do you really need more new fitted bedroom and wardrobe sales leads  -or do you need a system to convert more effectively the leads you are already generating? If you are interested then this is exactly where I help my clients. If you would like to book a free Discovery call at a mutually convenient day and time then click here.

new fitted bedroom and wardrobe leads

 

Fitted Bedroom photo by Photo by Francesca Tosolini on Unsplash

Just solved an SEO mystery on my website using Google Analytics and Live Chat

It amazes me how few marketers and business owners ever look at the Google Analytics from their website. When I have my EC marketing coach hat on, it is amazing when I dig into a clients analytics just how many golden nuggets are in there. Often a nugget, once found and acted upon can transform an entire business. Here is a blog post I wrote on this.

To give you a real-life example of what just happened to me.

Over the years I have seen visitors come to my terms and conditions page. I have always wondered – why would anyone search out and go to my T&Cs page – seemed weird??

This morning I got the answer. I had an enquiry via the Live Chat on my website (I use Tawk.to, check out my post here). The chap was inquiring about how he could automate getting his T&Cs signed using Keap / Infusionsoft. I looked at my Google Analytics and lo and behold there was a visitor from London who landed first on my T&Cs page. And this was the clue I needed to solve the mystery for me – people have been searching for how to automate getting their T&Cs signed for their businesses. That was the A-HA moment for me.

But that is not the end of this tale. Now I know that people are searching on how to automate getting their T&Cs signed I can then capitalise on this via my blog, in accordance with Marcus Sheridans book – They Ask You Answer. I then write a short blog post to answer the questions that anyone who specifically searchers on Google for T&C automation with Keap / Infusionsoft has. This new blog post will of course answer the questions they have and more likely result in them taking the next step and enquiring with me regarding my services.

 Photo by Simone Secci on Unsplash

Smiirl – Physically display your KPI’s in real time

smiirl

smiirlWhen I learnt of Smiirl recently I thought – what a great little hack to physically display your KPI’s that will surely motivate and align every member of your team with the company objective!

Or imagine showing your customers in your shop/restaurant/venue etc the number of happy customers served.

The Counter uses retro-looking split-flaps displays (like you used to get in stations and airports) and they make an audible and satisfying “clatter”, as the numbers update. It would give a powerful physical presence to the figures that matter most to your business.

Taking the thinking a bit further – you could attach your Smiirl physical counter to your Keap / Infusionsoft data via Zapier. (Not sure what Zapier is? Check out my Zapier blog post).

 

Check out Smiirl here.