Another article from PersuasionTheory.com. You can find the original article here: “All Of Us At Some Point Wonder If What We’re Doing Matters.”

This is a letter to Jeff Goins (If you’re not Jeff, you can read this too. It’s okay.).

I finished the review copy of your book You Are A Writer. Very well done.

For many people, I think it will be a punch in the gut when they read the line:

“All of us at some point wonder if what we’re doing matters.”

I started this site for that reason alone. I want to improve the lives of those who influence other’s for a living.

Almost everyone I’ve met on this rock called Earth has something inside them crying for that feeling. There’s a desire beat down and holding them back from doing something that matters.

Your book is written for the writer. It’s for someone who wants to pour his soul onto a page and create magic. However, what I took away extends to almost anyone who wants to do something that matters.

Your story, about how you became the writer you are today, is great. The most important piece of your journey started when you realized You Are A Writer. When you made that mental shift everything changed, and I think that’s what will help those who read your book.

Be – Do – Have

I first learned the lesson of “Be, Do, Have” over 15 years ago. I don’t remember where I first read it but I’ve heard the example many times from self-help, law of attraction, and other gurus since then.

You were doing the writing. Yet you didn’t feel you could call yourself (Be) a writer because it wasn’t “good.” You also didn’t have the success you wanted because you were focused on the wrong aspect of writing.

Many people think you need to have certain knowledge in order to do the work and be a writer.

If you notice, in these last two paragraphs the order wasn’t Be – Do – Have. While you were struggling, your order was Do – Be – Have. In the latter paragraph it was Have – Do – Be.

When you look at the point where those who finally become successful and, “turn pro,” as Steven Pressfield calls it, they identify with their dream (Be) before they Do the type of work that gives them the success they desire (Have).

That’s what I gleaned from your story. How you finally made the decision to Be – Do – Have.

Who Do You Want To Be In This World?

“Before anyone else called me one, I believed I was a writer. And I started acting like one.”

I love that line. It’s hard to create a new identity and begin living it. It’s hard to have outside factors trying to keep you in a familiar box. You did… You took the road less traveled ”and that has made all the difference.”

Your book, and your story, is about giving oneself permission to be who you want to be. Yes, you also discuss writing, building a platform, getting published, etc. But if someone takes these and doesn’t truly identify and Be A Writer then the path won’t open up. Following the advice won’t lead to the satisfaction or success we all want out of life.

I know I only shaved off a sliver of what you wrote and emphasized its importance here. I think this sliver will resonate with those who seek to “do something that matters.” It doesn’t have to be writing, or an art form. It can be anything someone seeks to get that feeling.

As I said before, “Very well done.” I hope your book does fantastic and people begin to Be who they want to be. I am glad I found your writing. And I’m glad You Are A Writer.

If you’ve read this far and are NOT Jeff Goins, check out his site and get his book, You Are A Writer, at YouAreAWriter.com or Amazon.

Go leave a comment on the original article here: “All Of Us At Some Point Wonder If What We’re Doing Matters.”

Another article from PersuasionTheory.com. You can find the original article here: Do You Hesitate?

As I was watching my son’s baseball game last night I noticed a common theme among almost all the kids. When the ball came across the plate, they didn’t swing with the same authority and intensity as they did when they took their practice swings.

Do you do hesitate in your business?

My son is in a farm league. It’s his first year playing and he’s scared to death. Most of the kids have one or two t-ball seasons under their belt but they’re all still learning the basics of the game.

They have a pitching machine which throws consistent pitches so the kids can get used to hitting a moving ball. The coach tells each kid to take a practice swing before a pitch. Every kid steps up, taps the plate with his bat, and takes a practice swing or two. They’re clean consistent swings. I expect them to point like Babe Ruth, they seem so confident.

When the ball is pitched almost every kid hesitates. They start the bat moving and the swing is slow, half the speed of the practice swing. If the bat connects with the ball they don’t have the follow through to really get the ball moving through the air. It’s not because they’re not strong enough. They swing tentatively. The bat doesn’t have enough velocity to keep moving after hitting the ball.

Are you afraid to hit a home run?

I’ve noticed this tentativeness with a lot of marketing.

When I review sales letters I often want to ask the writer, “Do you really believe in what you’re selling?“ The sales letter is filled with words that imply the customer may, or may not, buy the product. There’s no guarantee. The call to action is weak. There’s nothing implying the writer fully believes what he’s selling. It’s as if they’re afraid to actually sell the product they created.

The marketing funnel is dead or dying. There may be a “thank you” email or letter but after that there’s no follow through. You have my attention. I’ve started to develop loyalty (link to loyalty post) and you do nothing to keep your company “top of mind” so when I’m ready to buy again you’re all I think about?

Do you maximize the profits of each customer you help? In a retail environment this would be the rack of impulse items by the cash register. Or you would be asking, “Would you like fries with this?” What’s your upsell? Do you ask for something smaller if they say no to your initial upsell? Do you ask for more if they say “yes” to the first upsell?

A Model To Follow

Over the weekend a girl came to my door selling some coupon book so she could “earn” a trip to Disneyland (link to Disney story) with her classmates. Her offer was horrible. Her delivery was excellent and I almost bought because of that alone. When I said “No thanks,” she replied, without hesitation and with confidence, “Would you consider making a smaller donation then?”

She wasn’t going to settle for a “no.” She was ready to take anything for her efforts! She wasn’t hesitant. She practiced. She was ready to hit a home run and squeeze every dollar out of every stop in our neighborhood. I have a feeling if I said “yes,” she would’ve offered me three for the price of two.

Swing With Power

Don’t be afraid to make a sale. I hear some people say they don’t want to sound “too salesy.” I know they mean slick or pushy but what’s “too salesy?” If you had a cure to cancer would you worry about being “too salesy” or would you be working to help everyone you could?

Becoming good at what you do requires practice. It requires you to stand up to the plate and swing with power knowing you’ll occasionally strike out. It’s painful.

What do you need to convert more sales? A stronger call to action? Better language skills? A better marketing funnel to upsell and retain customers?

What one thing can you take in your business and make sure it’s swinging with full force every time it’s called up to the plate? Work on that today. Then, when that’s going full force, work on the next item. Take each of the players in your lineup, one at a time, and make each to swing without any hesitation.

Where do you find yourself hesitating?

Go leave a comment on the original article here: Do You Hesitate?

Another article from PersuasionTheory.com. You can find the original article here: Customer Loyalty Is A Myth

“I didn’t know you sold that too!” she said after I asked why she didn’t call us before they bought their life insurance policies.

I heard that often when I started my first insurance agency. You would think owning an insurance agency with a nationally recognized, household name, customers would think of you each time they thought of insurance. It doesn’t happen.

If you own a small business, or an online business, your chance of being remembered are even less. Even if you offer the best products or service, someone else is lurking around the corner and will sell something to your customers they could’ve bought from you!

Customer Loyalty Isn’t Dead, It Never Existed

You’ve probably heard “customer loyalty is dead.” Or, “WalMart is killing the mom and pop, main street business.” Or, “Amazon and other online giants are cutting out local retail stores and destroying loyalty to neighborhood shops.”

Whatever.

WalMart, Amazon, and other stores like them may muscling their way into your town but they’re not the reason you’re losing business.

You’re the reason.

As a business owner we’re always searching for new customers. We’re hunting for the next sale, the next new customer. Then, once you find one, you want him to buy as much as possible while his wallet is still out? (Would you like fries with that?)

But most businesses neglect the third way to increase sales in business:

Sell more products to your existing customers!

This is the most overlooked area for almost every small business. You spend money on marketing to drive new business. You spend hours working on up-sell options to increase the average sale of each customer (I hope you have an up-sell).

So why aren’t you nurturing your customers so they buy from you again and again? (You can download a spreadsheet which will show you how small increases in each of the 3 ways will dramatically impact your bottom line here.)

Top of Mind Awareness = Increase Loyalty

When my customers said, “I didn’t know you sold that too,” it was typically followed with, “I would’ve preferred to buy from you. You’re easier to work with than the other guy and more fun to work with.”

Have you ever heard that from your customers? Talk about kicking a man when he’s down. This is the sales equivalent.

After about the 42nd time I heard they would’ve preferred to buy from me, I finally realized I had an awareness problem, not a customer loyalty problem.

It wasn’t about loyalty. My customers liked me. They liked my staff. They like the products and services we offered. They liked my “brand.” They were “loyal.” They didn’t know to visit us first. We weren’t “top of mind” when it came to specific products and services. That had to change.

Implementing Customer Retention Strategies To Increase Brand Loyalty

Because of the awareness problem, I implemented a monthly newsletter mailed to all customers. It cost about $18 per year, per customer to print and mail. It wasn’t fancy and it was much less expensive than the cost of marketing to acquire new customers.

Within two years of mailing the first newsletter, we brought in over a million dollars in new sales from this simple monthly newsletter. Was the newsletter worth it? Very much so.

In the insurance business, the more policies I can put into your home the longer you will remain a customer. A person who owns three policies with us (ex. their home, auto, and life insurance) is less likely to shop their insurance around than a customer with only one policy. It’s more painful for them to leave (Or does this increase loyalty?).

This is true with any business. The more products you can sell someone they more likely she will come back to buy something when she needs it. And, as a bonus, she’s more likely to tell other people about you too. But that’s another story.

If your marketing strategy doesn’t include customer retention strategies you’re losing money. There are few businesses where this is not true.

If you haven’t downloaded my workbook Friction Free Sales and Marketing, go do it now. In it I discuss how a nurturing program like this lowers your customer’s resistance and makes them more likely to purchase from you. You can download it here.

Does top of mind awareness build customer loyalty? I don’t think so. You have to sell loyalty on a regular basis. Loyalty is fleeting. When you’re not in front of your customer you’re missing the opportunity to sell when they’re most likely to buy.

Go leave a comment on the original article here: Customer Loyalty Is A Myth

Another article from PersuasionTheory.com. You can find the original article here: 3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Write Like You Speak

David Ogilvy, the legendary ad man, wrote:

“Write the way you talk. Naturally.”

This comes from a famed internal memo sent to his employees.

I love the idea and think it’s wonderful advice. However, before you hit the “publish” button, skim through your words and perform a quick review. Don’t use Ogilvy’s advice as an excuse for lazy writing.

The words you just vomited onto the page are there for a purpose. If you want to write to inspire, persuade, or simply get your point across clearly, I recommend you make a few edits.

Then, think about the way you speak. If you speak like you’re writing you’ll understand why your persuasive techniques aren’t working as well as they could be.

1. You Got A Better Verb?

When Ogilvy wrote his memo the word “got” wasn’t as commonly used as it is today. It’s lazy speaking and conveys vague action in your sentence.

Verbs are the action in your writing. They sprinkle the magic dust and allow your words to paint the mental canvass for your reader. As an example, which feels more enjoyable to read?

1. John got the car keys.
2. John seized the car keys.

I hope you felt a little more enjoyment in the second sentence. You could use dozens of other verbs instead of seized. You could use snatched up, nabbed, grasped, clutched, hung on to, etc. These bring up images far more rich in detail than simply, “got.” And that’s the point.

Another misuse, “got” is often an extra word. It’s most commonly added onto the word “have” (or a form of the word “have” like “had” or “has.”) as an unnecessary word in the sentence. Example:

• John had got the keys so he could start the car.

The word “got” is completely unnecessary. You could’ve written, “John had the keys,” and it would’ve been fine. Adding “got” makes the sentence bulky and not fun to read.

Grab a thesaurus (although I prefer an physical, print thesaurus) and find elegant verbs. Make your action pop off the page. Got it?

2. The Passive Voice That Created Confusion Was Written By The Author

I’m not a grammarian. I don’t believe you should worry about the many strict rules of grammar while writing. You understand most rules naturally. Plus, worrying won’t help you construct your compelling masterpiece.

If you’re going to implement one rule, learn how to write without a passive voice. You write passively when the subject of your sentence is receiving, instead of the one performing, the action (or verb). When you write in a passive voice it makes the reader struggle to understand what’s happening. More examples:

1. The ball was thrown by John. (Passive)
2. John threw the ball. (Active)

In the first sentence, John is the subject but “the ball” is performing the action of being thrown. In the second sentence John is performing the action. Did you also notice the second sentence is more concise and easy to understand?

You can often find the passive voice by your use of the the verb “to be,” and its various forms. These are: be, being, is, was, am, been, are, were, and contractions formed from these words (ex. I’m or wasn’t). I may be missing a few and you can read more on it here.

You don’t need to eliminate it completely. Sometimes a passive voice is best used to express your thought. Most would prefer you ruthlessly edit your passive sentences and create vibrant, dancing images in your reader’s mind.

3. “That” Is That Unnecessary Word

I’m guilty of this one. I hate it. I hate it! (I used it in the title of this post before I edited it out.)

When I’m done writing a piece the first thing I proof for is the word “that” and rewrite almost every sentence where I find it. I just did a search on this document and found it in three places before this section. I changed one to make the sentence clear (I won’t tell you which, sorry) and the others are there because they fit. I’m getting better.

The word “that” is often an extra word. Many bloggers out there don’t even notice they’re throwing it in. It’s how they speak (I speak with it occasionally and, did I say, “I hate it,” yet?”). “That” typically adds nothing to a sentence.

I’m going to struggle for a couple examples now:

1. It’s important that you write well.
2. You think that John is smart until you read what he wrote.

Now, read each sentence without the word “that” in them. Does it change the meaning? No. Does it sound better? Hell yes!

It’s as though the sentence is covered in mud and when you remove “that” you cleanse it to make it shiny and new.

This isn’t going to make your writing resonate like the voice of a top opera star but it will keep your voice from sounding like a chain-smoking homeless man.

Many people won’t notice you’ve woven “that” throughout your writing. But, look at those who consistently create “awesome content,” those you deeply enjoy reading, you’ll notice the word “that” is rarely used improperly.

But It’s How I Talk

Great. Me too.

I do what I can to edit myself when speaking and I know I’m not perfect. When speaking though, once you’ve said a word it’s gone. When you put it in writing, it’s just the opposite. In writing it’s, as they threatened you in grade school, on your permanent record.

If you’re writing to influence, you want vivid moving images in the mind of your customer. To me, these three common errors make the images stagnant or fuzzy. They don’t allow your words to create the happy dance you expected in your customer’s mind. And, creating the happy dance is what it’s about, is it not?

What do you commonly read that nags your irritation nerve?

Pure verb image by Grongar.
Resonate image by Robynejay

Go leave a comment on the original article here: 3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Write Like You Speak

Another article from PersuasionTheory.com. You can find the original article here: One Fear Killing Your Ability To Influence

When I was a teenager, maybe 13 or 14, Penn and Teller had a special on PBS. I saw them on Letterman and loved their style of magic and humor. I recorded the show so I could watch it a few times. At the time, they were the “bad guys” of magic who exposed their secrets. Magic was fascinating to me and wanted to learn more by studying their “secrets.”

On the show, they taught how to “force” a card so you could perform a card trick with your friends. When you “force” a card, you’re shuffling the deck and making it so the other person draws a specific card. Your subject thinks he’s chosen a random card when you’ve actually “forced” the card you want him to choose. Penn & Teller then taught a trick you could do with your friends. I practiced eagerly and grabbed a friend for it the next day.

Looking frustrated, you pick a random card (not the three of clubs) and ask, “Is this your card?” Your friend replies, “No” and giggles at you for your stupidity. You repeat this a few times and eventually feign a rejected look. You stop and say, “Never mind. This magic stuff is harder than I thought. Let’s watch TV instead.”In the trick, you “force” your friends to pick the three of clubs (if you’ve seen Penn and Teller, the three of clubs is always the card) from a shuffled deck of cards. You have your friend look at it and put it back into the deck. You shuffle the deck and start look through it, nervously searching for your friend’s card.

When you turn on the TV, you also turn on the VCR so it starts playing a segment you recorded from the Penn and Teller Special. Penn and Teller aren’t on the TV. It’s a female newscaster sitting in a studio desk reading the “news.” She’s handed a piece of paper from someone off camera, stops talking, and looks at the paper. She looks up at the camera and says, “I have some breaking news just handed to me. (dramatic pause) Is this your card?” and she holds up a giant card that’s the three of clubs. I jump up and yell, “Aha!” as my friend’s jaw drops and I quickly turn off the TV so he doesn’t see Penn and Teller come back on from my recording.

Instantly, my friend starts pestering me with, “How did you do that? How did you get the card on TV? How did you get me to draw the three of clubs?” I began to tell them what “I” did.

Are You Tricking People?

When you first start learning magic you feel like you’re tricking everyone. And you are tricking everyone. But there’s something in your gut that nags at you when your friends ask, “How did you do that?” You want to tell him. You don’t like deceiving people, especially your friends.

The nagging feeling is what stops most people from becoming a powerful persuader. The art of influence requires a bit of sleight-of-hand. You’re not lying (I hope). However, when you learn the techniques of influence, it can feel like trickery.

It’s About Creating An Experience

As a person of influence, you create an experience. You create pleasant feelings that overwhelm your customer. It’s about knowing your product is beneficial for the person buying, and reducing resistance so your customer can make an educated decision.

I think of ministers working to influence their flock. They use grand cathedrals to make the church and their God seem larger than you. They use language to create fear and desire to motivate you in certain directions. They use persuasion techniques (consciously or not) in ways to get you to believe what they believe.

If you have something good to offer, you should not feel like you’re tricking anyone. Eliminating buyer’s resistance helps your customer lose his emotional baggage and make better decisions. Understanding and using persuasive techniques is not trickery when you’re selling to the right people.

When you get comfortable with this, you’ll be able to move mountains with your words. You’ll help your customer draw the three of clubs and be delighted with his choice. He’ll be telling his friends and thanking you for the amazing experience.

Afterthought

I am in NO way condoning lying to your customer. This is the quickest way to failure. This is about becoming comfortable with the tools of influence to thrill your customers.

Let me know below what you think. Have you struggled trying to influence someone (or writing copy) because you felt like you’re being tricky?

Image from Teller’s Twitter stream and img.ly post.

Go leave a comment on the original article here: One Fear Killing Your Ability To Influence

Another article from PersuasionTheory.com. You can find the original article here: Free Workbook: Friction Free Sales and Marketing

It’s finally ready. And it’s free.

What started out as an simple eBook on dealing with sales resistance turned into a 77 page Workbook with dozens of exercises and examples to help you blast through the three types of psychological resistance torturing your customer’s mind.

The three types of resistance are: Reactance, Skepticism and Inertia. Each type has a different cause. Each type has multiple ways of being dealt with.

That’s what this workbook is about.

It’s about knowing what’s going on inside your customer’s mind and making your sales and marketing funnel friction free.

Fill out the form on the right, or the form below this post, to get your free copy. Or, go to the Friction Free Sales and Marketing page to fill out the form there.

I guarantee you it will be worth it.

Go leave a comment on the original article here: Free Workbook: Friction Free Sales and Marketing

Another article from PersuasionTheory.com. You can find the original article here: Exponential Growth Calculator

The Exponential Growth Calculator is a spreadsheet to calculate the impact to your bottom line from small changes in your business. A few days ago I posted an article on the 3 Ways To Increase Revenue In Your Business. If you like, you can go read that first so you better understand the details behind the spreadsheet.

To summarize, there are only 3 ways to increase revenue in your business. They are:

1. Sell to more new customers.
2. Sell more to each customer.
3. Get more repeat sales from existing customers.

This spreadsheet calculates the changes you want to make in each area. You can use it to plan next year and achieve the income growth you want in your business.

You can download the calculator here as a Google Doc and below is a walkthrough with the example so you can see how easily it works.

You won’t be able to edit any variables on the attached spreadsheet.

If you use Google Docs choose “Make a copy” from the File menu and then make your changes on your copy.

If you use Excel or OpenOffice, choose “Download As” from the File menu and save it to your computer.

What You Can Edit And The Incredible Impact On Your Business

First, only change the data in the yellow cells. If you change other cells it will screw up the formulas for the rest of the sheet. So, don’t cause trouble and stick to the yellow cells.

Section 1: Your Current Information

You can choose the time frame of this data if you want. I have it set to annual. You can change it to monthly, weekly, or daily. It doesn’t make any difference on the results. The time frame is only for your information.

Fill out your current traffic. If it’s your website, how many page views of your sales letter? If it’s store traffic or sales, how many people are you sitting in front of or walk through your store during this time frame?

Next, how many of those become New Customers? These are new transactions. In the example above we have 100,000 people visiting a site that turn into 500 new customers (sales).

After that, fill out your Average Sale Per Transaction. If you don’t already know this, take your total income from these sales ($50,000 for example) and divide it by the total number of sales transactions/new customers (500) and you’ll get your average ($50,000/500=$100 average).

Once you’ve filled out these three cells it will automatically calculate your conversion rate and your total income.

Section 2: Increase New Customer Sales

In this section you’ll be able to see what happens if you were to either Increase Your Conversion Rate or Increase Your Traffic (the amount of people that get your sales message). It also computes what happens when you increase both of these.

In this image, the first line is the results from increasing conversion rate. You become better at selling and you sell more. In the example it’s a 40% increase.

The second line is what happens when you get more people to your sales message. You become better at marketing. In the example it’s a 20% increase.

The third line is the result of improving your conversion rate AND your traffic. The increase is 68%. As you’ll continue to see, a small increase in each piece leads to large changes in your business income.

Section 2: Increase Average Sale Per Customer

In this section you can find out what happens when you Increase Your Average Sale Per Transaction. This is the average amount a person buys from you when they checkout. It’s what happens if you can make that extra upsell every now and then. It’s the results of always asking, “Would you like fries with that?”

In the example we went from an average sale of $100 to an average sale of $110. It’s a 10% increase in income. Adjust this to what you think would be reasonable to upsell in your business.

Section 4: Increase Frequency of Customer Purchase

This is where you can find out what would happen when you get some of your existing customers to buy more. Selling your existing customers is the easiest marketing you’ll ever do. Don’t neglect them.

What happens if you can get 10% of them to buy an additional $50 worth of goodies from you?

In this example it’s a 5% increase in income. That may not seem like much but if they’ve bought from you once, and you have quality products or services, chances are you’ll be able to sell more frequently than you think.

If you’re running a monthly service or membership program, this would by your customer retention. How much more would you earn if your customers stayed with you an extra month or two (or five)? When you see these results it will give you even more reasons to spend a few extra bucks to make sure they’re really happy.

Section 5: Total Increase in Income and Total % Change

This section gives you the results when you make a small change in all three areas.

With the examples already in the spreadsheet, the income went from $50,000 per year to $96,600 by making small changes. That’s a $46,600 increase in income.

Or, a 93.2% increase in income from several small changes.

If you were to add up the changes for each individual section they would only add up to a 75% increase (conversion rate 40% + increase traffic 20% + average sale 10% + increase frequency 5% = 75%). However, each improvement compounds the other results. So, instead of a 75% increase you have a 93% increase in this example.

Would you rather try and improve 93% in only your conversion rate (or traffic, or upsells, or repeat buyers) or would you rather make small improvements among all channels?

In this case, I’d say it would be at least 18% less work for you to improve this much, would you agree? 

Enjoy the spreadsheet. If you didn’t download it above, you can download it here.

You can also read The 3 Ways To Increase Revenue In Your Business for some more examples on growth in each area.

Go leave a comment on the original article here: Exponential Growth Calculator

Another article from PersuasionTheory.com. You can find the original article here: Email Marketing: 5 Reasons To Build Your Email List Now

I wrote this originally as a guest post on Blog For Profit last year. After listening to Infusionsoft’s Joe Manna give his PodcampAZ presentation, I thought I’d repost it here since the reasons haven’t changed.

I’ve slightly updated and edited this to reference some changes since last year.  Enjoy.

Email marketing is one of those touchy subjects. Some love it. Others fear it or don’t understand it. Some recent conversations on Twitter say it’s dying or (fill in with new technology of the day) is an email killer (this conversation has been going on for over the last year). When I hear these statements I know this means email marketing will be around for a while.

While building and maintaining an email list can involve a little work, the rewards are well worth it. I’m not going to go into list maintenance, segmentation or, marketing strategies here. And, don’t let those scare you from starting. This is to help you understand why email marketing is important to you today and why you want to build an email subscriber list as soon as possible.

1. Everyone Online Has At Least One Email Address

This is probably the most important reason you want to build an email list. Email is the only form of online communication where everyone participates in. It’s the biggest social network online.

A fraction of all people online have a Facebook, Twitter or Google+ account. Although many people are flocking to drop their brands into these playgrounds, they’re only hitting a small percentage of the online population.

Before you can even sign up for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or virtually any other site on the Internet, what’s the one thing they’ll ask you for?

Yes, they’ll probably ask you for your name and password however, all these sites will ask you for an email address.

Why is that?

Because everyone has an email address.

People read their email. (I’m going to ignore spam and email delivery issues here.)

Unlike most social media options, email sits in an a recipients inbox waiting patiently to be opened. It doesn’t matter if your reader is on vacation. In seven days, when they return from the beach, your email will still be sitting there waiting to be read and it will be one of the first things they go through when they’re back online.

Which leads me to…

2. Email Is Important To People Online

Many people hop on Facebook everyday to find out what aunt Gertrude is up to in Florida. They play their games, share links and patriotic sayings, but they don’t wonder, “What’s the next important business message I’m going to get on Facebook?”

Email is different.

We check it regularly to see if anything important has come in. We have it automatically load on our phones so we can be accessible where ever we are. You never know when your next big deal will come in. Email is where we go to really find out “what’s important?”

Yes, we all expect some junk in the inbox. It’s just like traditional snail mail. We sift through it eagerly searching for something more exciting than the “new process for putting covers on the TPS reports.” We want to see what exciting friend has emailed us. We check to see if smelly Stan down the hall was fired yet.

Email marketing is where you come into the picture. This is where you provide a small escape from the day-to-day boredom of life. You have the opportunity to give your list something of value and brighten their day.

Email is where you’re mixed in with friends and business. You’re on the same playing level. You’re important and that is where the money is.

3. You Own Your List

Over the past couple of years the online marketing masses have flocked to Facebook, Twitter, and now Google+. They preach loudly, “You can communicate directly with your audience.” And, they’re correct. Social media provides wonderful tools to do that. Social media marketing is a great form of permission marketing. You get real time interaction and the ability to create a quick and easy following with hundreds, thousands, or hundreds of thousands of followers and fans with a few simple clicks. But, what if?

What if, with a few simple clicks, Facebook deletes your personal or fan pages? What if Twitter’s fail whale makes a permanent appearance and never leaves? Chances of it happening are slim, right? But, what if?

These are great places to start a conversation and engage readers however, once you’ve been kicked off you’re out of the conversation. You don’t own your content. You don’t own anything.

You can’t access your market anymore. And, if you don’t have an email subscriber list you have absolutely no way of contacting your readers to tell them what happened. None. Bummer. Your marketing strategy was just flushed down the intertoilet.

An email subscriber list is yours. It’s yours to have and to hold, until death (or unsubscription) do you part.

Because it’s your list, you can download a copy and save it to your hard drive. If you have issues with your email provider, you can move it to another provider and magically continue business with little, if any, interruption.

And, since it is yours, it’s an asset to your business. Bonus! If you someday decide to leave or transfer your business you’ll have a tangible asset of value to sell to a buyer and increase the value of your business. (I’m not talking about buying email lists. That’s stupid and don’t ever do it. EVER! I’m talking about selling your business and how an email marketing list, like a customer and prospect list, increases the value of a business.)

4. It Is Pure Permission Marketing

When a reader signs up for your email subscription they’re raising their hand and showing interest. They want more information. Give it to them.

If you’re using a double opt-in email provider (you are using double opt-in, right?) you’re ensuring your subscriber actually wants you to contact them. First they give you their email address. Next, they have to click a link in an automated email sent to confirm they signed up. These are hurdles for them to jump through. It’s a qualifying mechanism. This is permission marketing.

Now it’s up to you to keep them happy.

Many “big shot” internet marketers get you on a list and then pummel you with affiliate offers for every big launch that comes up. That’s not a great way to run a strong permission marketing list. It does work but you’ll lose a lot of the list over time and constantly need to look for new subscribers. If you want to keep your list active provide value more often than you’re promoting offers.

Send a newsletter every month or two weeks. Provide unique content not available on your site. Hint at the next big idea coming to their inbox soon. Give them a reason to stay subscribed.

They’ve given you permission. They’re not just a fan or a follower, they’re a member of your community. A member is more valuable than any Facebook fan or Twitter follower.

Give your subscribers a reason to stay on your list because you want to scream…

5. Show Me The Money!

Visitors come and go. Maybe they’ll click on a banner ad or buy your product but once they’re gone, they’re gone.

If they subscribe via an RSS reader then they’ll read your content in a 3rd party reader and rarely visit your site. They miss all your money making mechanisms on your site.

Email allows you to send them the post, a teaser, or whatever copy you want to use to drive your subscriber back to your blog or shopping cart. It forces them to see your ads and other money making mechanisms on your site.

Plus, and here’s the fun part, you can email special offers for your products/services without publishing it live on your site. If you want to have a special money making weekend you can send an email or two that lead back to a special page on your site with a unique offer just for subscribers. Or, you can send an affiliate offer of a product you recently fell in love with and want to share with your email subscribers. Either way, it’s a more responsive way to making money than publishing a post to your site and hoping people will see it. It’s the original social media business strategy.

6. Email: The Original Social Media Listening Spot – Bonus Reason!

Social media marketing is about jumping into the conversation going on with your customer and prospects right now. Well, when you have an email marketing list you can easily ask for a response to whatever topic you work with. It’s a targeted social media marketing campaign.

Consumer behavior can be changing and fleeting. If you want to know what’s going on in the mind of your customer, you can spend all day monitoring and waiting for people to mention you and the subjects you’re involved with. Or, you can send an email to your email list and ask them to email you their thoughts.

Many people are afraid to leave comments on blogs or make public statements to you on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ pages. They don’t want to be publicly embarrassed.

Email is considered private. It’s between two individuals. When you treat your subscribers with respect and ask for opinions you’ll get them.

Direct marketing, to me, has always been about the relationship you have with your customers. You have to be open and willing to accept all responses. Treat them with respect, listen to their opinions, and you’ll be in a better position to respond if you hear something along social media channels.

How Soon Will You Start?

If you have any experience with direct marketing or permission marketing you may have heard, “the money is in the list.” If you haven’t started building an email list then I hope this is a friendly jolt to start building your email subscriber list today.

It doesn’t require much effort to maintain and, just like other pieces of the online marketing puzzle, once you start you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it earlier. It’s the best way to build a relationship and create customer loyalty.

If you’re using email now, what motivated you to start building your list? If you’re not, what’s stopping you?

If you haven’t signed up for email updates yet, do it now below!

Here are some more popular email providers I recommend.

• Aweber – Probably the most popular and respected system out there. This is great option for new or experienced marketers. Their support is top-notch.
• Mailchimp – Has been growing rapidly and a great start for those new.
• SendPepper/OfficeAutoPilot – They’re easy to use and offer growth for fully automated marketing.
• Infusionsoft – When you’re ready for fully automated marketing system.

Image Credit AOL Jacket lazzarello.
Image Credit Email Address Sean MacEntee.

Go leave a comment on the original article here: Email Marketing: 5 Reasons To Build Your Email List Now

Another article from PersuasionTheory.com. You can find the original article here: The 3 Ways To Increase Revenue In Your Business

You work hard to move a new customer into your pipeline. You network. Maybe you pay for advertising. You work for links to your website. Anything to get those precious people into your sales funnel. Anything to make sales. Anything to give you the opportunity to help your customer and help yourself in the process.

You want to increase revenue without increasing your expenses. There are many tips and tricks you can find online. However, they ultimately fall into one of these three categories. And, as you read through them, you’ll find multiple ways to increase revenue in your business.

Big doors swing on small hinges. When you understand these three principles you’ll realize you’ve only cracked open a very large door and have left a large amount of revenue sitting outside.

1. Increase The Number Of New Customer Sales

Of the three ways to increase revenue, this is the most obvious solution and the one most businesses work to improve.

There are two ways you can increase new customer sales:

• Sell your stuff to more people, or
• Convert more existing prospect to buy your stuff.

These seem the same but they’re two slightly different details. And, they both revolve around your conversion rates.

So, what are your conversion rates? How many people buy who visit your website, walk through your doors, receive your marketing, etc.? If you don’t know your conversion rates then you need to start measuring.

In order to sell your stuff to more people you can increase the traffic to your website or store. This involves more advertising, networking, etc. You’re working around your existing conversion rate and playing the numbers game in sales.

For example, if you have 100 visitors and 5 buy something then your conversion rate is 5%. If you want to double your sales based on this, you’ll need 200 visitors to make 10 sales. Fairly straight forward and simple right?

Your other option is to increase your conversion rate. If you don’t want to work on getting more visitors you can work on increasing your conversion rate from 5% to 10% so you can sell those 10 items.

Increasing conversion rates has become a hot topic recently because of the big impact it can have to increase revenue. For example, if you’re currently converting 50% of your visitors and you increase that to 60% it’s not a 10% increase in revenue. That’s a 20% increase in revenue.

That’s a huge impact!

It’s important you’re measuring these numbers so you can deeply understand the dramatic difference any small changes will make on your bottom line.

2. Increase Your Average Sale Per Customer

Now that you’ve started to convert more visitors into sales, you want to make sure you’re able to get as much money out of each customer as they’re willing to spend.

In most small businesses the sales process is some random series of events. There’s no systematic way to upsell or bundle products and maximize the revenue per customer. Many big chains do it but the mom and pop, main street business, or blogger hasn’t really embraced this. Often there’s the sense of community and a fear of offending your customer (you really won’t but it’s a common fear).

In my first insurance agency, I remember looking at our reports that showed the average auto insurance policy premium of our agency compared with others in our area. Our average premium was $770 for a six month policy and the rest of our district was only $701. We were 10% more per customer.

This additional revenue meant I had to service 10% fewer customers to earn the same income as the other agents. This led to lower staff expenses, time spent on policy changes, etc. It also meant our customers had better protection then the average agent because we were offering more and they were buying. We had a systematic process each agent went through when discussing coverage and options to yield this additional income.

It was critical. It was required!

When you go to almost any fast food franchise you get an upsell via two different processes.

The first thing they do is bundle products together. You probably only want a hamburger and drink. But, for an additional 20 cents you can bundle the fries into your meal. This would save you 90 cents if you bought them separately (it’s on sale so I have to upgrade! Yes?).

Then, after you place your order they ask you if you want to “go large” or “super size.” This is only an additional 24 cents. So, why not take the large? The Illusion of Value has been created and they’ve extracted the additional revenue out of your wallet.

Search through what you offer. What can you offer after the initial sale? What can you bundle? What can you add to existing products/services and create a premium offer (ex. a silver, gold, and platinum level)?

You may not think what you sell could be bundled however, you’ll be surprised how you can bundle many random things and, because it’s a bundled “savings,” you will sell more stuff.

You may not want to do this because you don’t want to offer a discount on a bundled item. You’re making a big mistake. If you weren’t making the additional sale in the first place this discount is found money. Naturally, you want to be profitable so make the numbers work and think…

Where can you create the illusion of value?

3. Increase The Frequency Of Customer Purchases

What are you doing to get customers to buy your products more frequently? Do you mail or email your customer often enough?

I hear you thinking to yourself:

“I don’t want to spam my list!”

Or:

“I don’t want to my customer and prospect list, they may unsubscribe or tell me to stop mailing.”

Okay. Good points.

How about this?

What if you make extra sales from those that stick around? What if you make a lot of extra sales from those that stick around? Would it be worth losing the complaining part of your list if you create a few more happy customers? (I hope you said “Yes!”)

Of the three ways to increase revenue in your business I’ve found this to be the most neglected. I believe it’s mainly because of the fear of pushing too hard or asking too often.

Naturally, you want to provide value so you aren’t seen as a greedy business person. You can offer discounts, coupons, frequent buyer programs, etc. to get customers to come back more often. Repetition of your offer will also increase curiosity and desire in your product. A discount can give them that extra nudge to move ahead and invest in your offer.

You can think of many creative ways to get people to buy more frequently. I love an example in the book Priceless about a movie theater that gave customers a Loyalty Card. The first visit to the theater each month was regular price. Each visit after the first the customer paid less and less. The number of tickets sold to card holders went up 22%. They also earned additional revenue from concessions. This was a win/win for everyone involved.

If you only offer one or two products or services, hw can you increase buyer frequency?

Find similar businesses that support what you do and offer their products or services to your customers for commission. If you’re selling online, look into affiliate marketing. There are many missed opportunities for any business to increase their revenue with the products and services of another’s when you begin to search around.

Where Will You Start?

If you don’t have any statistics for your current conversion rates, average sale per customer, or the frequency of customer purchases you want to start measuring where you’re at now! Then, as you begin to really understand those numbers, dive into each of these three ways to increase revenue.

As I said at the beginning, big doors swing on small hinges. As you work on each of these areas, you’ll realize the enormous door of opportunity has only been cracked open and you’ll be able to swing it wide open.

Image Credit familymwr.

Go leave a comment on the original article here: The 3 Ways To Increase Revenue In Your Business