THE Conversion

CHEAT SHEET

Table of ContentsChapter 1: Landing Pages .......................................................................................................................... 6

Tip #1: Using Arrows ....................................................................................................................... 6 Tip #2: Call To Action Buttons ......................................................................................................... 7 Tip #3: Copy Length ......................................................................................................................... 8 Tip #4: The Perceived Value Question ............................................................................................. 9 Tip #5: Image Callouts ................................................................................................................... 10 Tip #6: Optin Form Placement ....................................................................................................... 12 Tip #7: Optin Form Design ............................................................................................................. 13

Chapter 2: Emails ..................................................................................................................................... 14 Tip #8: The "Oh Shit" Effect ......................................................................................................... 14 Tip #9: Curiosity Killed The Cat .................................................................................................... 15 Tip #10: The 2 Word Phrase Which Boosts Email CTR ................................................................ 16 Tip #11: Storytelling ....................................................................................................................... 17 Tip #12: Send To Unopened Emails ............................................................................................... 18 Tip #13: The "From" Email Address Switch-up ............................................................................. 19 Tip #14: “Shorty”s .......................................................................................................................... 20

Chapter 3: Checkout Pages ...................................................................................................................... 21 Tip #15: Trust Seals ........................................................................................................................ 21 Tip #16: Testimonials ..................................................................................................................... 22 Tip #17: Product Images ................................................................................................................. 23 Tip #18: The 20 Second Audio Which Boosts Conversions 10% .................................................. 24 Tip #19: The Bailing Free Trial Offer ............................................................................................ 25 Tip #20: Restating The Offer .......................................................................................................... 26 Tip #21: Reducing Anxiety Near Points Of Resistance ................................................................. 27

Chapter 4: Salesletters .............................................................................................................................. 28 Tip #22: The 5 Reasons Box ........................................................................................................... 28 Tip #23: Drop Cap Heaven ............................................................................................................. 29 Tip #24: The Ebook Image Secret .................................................................................................. 30 Tip #25: Walk-On Videos ............................................................................................................... 31 Tip #26: Increasing Readability ...................................................................................................... 32 Tip #27: Cheap Design That WORKS ........................................................................................... 33 Tip #28: How To Setup Videos For Maximum Conversions ......................................................... 34 Tip #29: Dual Readership Path ....................................................................................................... 35 Tip #30: The Bigfoot Factor ........................................................................................................... 36 Tip #31: Copydoodles ..................................................................................................................... 37 Tip #32: Themes ............................................................................................................................. 38 Tip #33: Switching Up The Media ................................................................................................. 39 Tip #34: Involvement Device ........................................................................................................ 40 Tip #35: 2-Step Order Forms .......................................................................................................... 41 Tip #36: Comparison Charts ........................................................................................................... 42 Tip #37: Exit Popups ...................................................................................................................... 43 Tip #38: Personalization & Segmentation ...................................................................................... 44 Tip #39: How To Add The Perfect Image ...................................................................................... 45 Tip #40: Hype Level & Personality Styles ..................................................................................... 46 Tip #41: Surveys ............................................................................................................................. 47 Tip #42: 10 Plug-n-Play Headlines ................................................................................................. 48

Chapter 5: Offers ...................................................................................................................................... 49 Tip #43: The Ultimate Guarantee ................................................................................................... 49 Tip #44: Increasing Perceived Value .............................................................................................. 50 Tip #45: Price Testing ..................................................................................................................... 51 Tip #46: Bonuses ............................................................................................................................ 52 Tip #47: How To Double Your Price Without Affecting Conversions ........................................... 53 Tip #48: Increase Your Conversions 300% In 10 Minutes ............................................................. 54 Tip #49: Offering Multiple Ordering Options ................................................................................ 55 Tip #50: The One-Line Telephone Script Which Can Boost Phone Orders By 30% Or More ...... 56 Tip #51: How To LOWER Your Conversions On Purpose To Skyrocket Your Profits ................. 57 Tip #52: The Decoy Offer Strategy ................................................................................................ 58 Tip #53: How To Position Physical Products ................................................................................. 59 Tip #54: The Triple Pricing Option Trick ....................................................................................... 60

Chapter 6: Video Salesletters ................................................................................................................... 61 Tip #55: The Secret "Never Fails" Video Introduction .................................................................. 62 Tip #56: Video Placement ............................................................................................................... 63 Tip #57: Video Size ........................................................................................................................ 64 Tip #58: The Voiceover Myth ......................................................................................................... 65 Tip #59: The Future Promise .......................................................................................................... 66 Tip #60: Revealing Your Story ....................................................................................................... 67

Chapter 7: PPC Ads/Banners/Facebook Ads ........................................................................................... 68 Tip #61: A Guaranteed Way To Increase Your PPC Ads ................................................................ 69 Tip #62: Writing To Curious George .............................................................................................. 70 Tip #63: Action-Oriented URL's .................................................................................................... 71 Tip #64: Exploiting The Buying Cycle ........................................................................................... 72 Tip #65: Getting "Weird" With It! .................................................................................................. 73 Tip #66: Banner Animations ........................................................................................................... 74

Chapter 8: General Tips ........................................................................................................................... 75 Tip #67: How To Find Your Value Proposition .............................................................................. 76 Tip #68: Matching The Scent ......................................................................................................... 77 Tip #69: Creating "Fun" Event-Based Promotions ......................................................................... 78 Tip #70: The Social Proof Miracle ................................................................................................. 79 Tip #71: Page Loading Time .......................................................................................................... 80 Tip #72: Colors ............................................................................................................................... 81 Tip #73: Segmentation Secrets ....................................................................................................... 82 Tip #74: Reducing Friction ............................................................................................................. 83 Tip #75: Reducing Anxiety ............................................................................................................. 84 Tip #76: Increasing Motivation ...................................................................................................... 85 Tip #77: Selling To The Deep-Seated Emotions ............................................................................ 86 Tip #78: Developing Your Character .............................................................................................. 87 Tip #79: The Sneaky Little Pre-Framing Trick .............................................................................. 88 Tip #80: Damaging Admissions ..................................................................................................... 89 Tip #81: The Sweet Potato Secret ................................................................................................... 90

Chapter 9: Back-End Funnel .................................................................................................................... 91 Tip #82: The Backend Product Framework .................................................................................... 91 Tip #83: How To Properly Position One-Time Offers ................................................................... 92 Tip #84: Continuity Clarity ............................................................................................................. 93 Tip #85: The Ascension Ladder ...................................................................................................... 94 Tip #86: Yes/Yes/No Offers ............................................................................................................ 95

Tip #87: The Effortless Referral ..................................................................................................... 96 Chapter 10: Retention .............................................................................................................................. 97

Tip #88: The Courtesy Call ............................................................................................................ 97 Tip #89: How To Get A 230% ROI With Stick Letters .................................................................. 98 Tip #90: The Personal Coach Trick ................................................................................................ 99 Tip #91: The Sneaky Little "Gift" Trick For Improving Stick Rates ........................................... 100 Tip #92: Evil Shenanigans For Keeping Customers Forever ....................................................... 101 Tip #93: The Community Conversion Secret ............................................................................... 102 Tip #94: How To "Steal Back" 30% Of Your Customers And Clients ......................................... 103 Tip #95: How To Gain Mind Control Over Your Customers ....................................................... 104

Chapter 11: Webinars/Teleseminars ....................................................................................................... 105 Tip #96: The No-Fail Opening ..................................................................................................... 105 Tip #97: Breaking Down Individual Components ........................................................................ 106 Tip #98: Offering A Special Bonus At The End ........................................................................... 107 Tip #99: Setting Up The Perfect Webinar Offer ........................................................................... 108 Tip #100: The "Closer Email" Which Boosts Webinar Profits By Up To 15% ............................ 109 Tip #101: The Perfect Webinar Structure For Lazy People .......................................................... 110

Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 111

IntroductionCongrats!

You've just started down the path of higher conversions... higher profits... and a much more stable business.

Which is good, considering that at the time I'm writing this - the entire world economy is going down the tubes. People (your prospects) are scared, and therefore spending much less money than they used to.

With that is going to come a period of time in which ONLY the best businesses survive. If you start preparing yourself now... you'll come out on top. But if you don't, you may want to think about selling your business right now.

This book/report/course or whatever you want to call it is FILLED with the knowledge running through my mind which I've gained after making my clients many millions of dollars in excess profits. I work on a regular basis with 6-7 figure businesses and what you're about to read is what I've learned through working with dozens of those types of businesses in dozens of niches.

In other words - what you're about to read works in every niche. In every industry. And in every business. Some of the tips will work in all business, some of them will only work in most.

The main point I want you to know before you start reading and implementing these tips is this.

TEST EVERYTHING.

You'll see me repeat this point many times throughout this course. The reason I say it is simply because I'm not a wizard. I can't pull a crystal ball out of my @ss and simply "know" what will happen. While many people claim they can do that... it's not possible.

Everything you'll be doing will require you to test it.

So... step #1 is getting a split-testing tool.

Click here for THE single best split-testing tool I've EVER used

Go there now and sign up for a free trial. After you do that... continue reading and start making yourself some money! :)

Jeremy Reeveswww.JeremyReeves.com

Chapter 1: Landing PagesIn many instances, landing pages are the first interaction people have with your business. If they don't optin, you don't ever see them again. That's why it's CRUCIAL to create high-converting landing pages.

Remember, everything starts from the top and works down. As you improve each step of the funnel, you'll see bigger and bigger compounded gains. A measly 10% increase throughout each step of the funnel can bag you profit increases of 30%... 50%... or more.

Tip #1: Using Arrows

The use of strategically placed arrows is one of the easiest ways to bump your conversions on a landing page (or any other page for that matter).

They very naturally and powerfully attract the attention of the prospects eye and, almost magnetically, create a linear eye-path that your prospect begins to immediately follow.

There are several ways to use arrows.

One would be subtly, like the image I used for a webinar I have which very subtly directs the eye-path to the first step of the optin form. This is a great way to do it for “low-hype” markets because it very easily falls under their “hype” radar.

Another way you can use them is in a more blatant way, such as simply having a regular arrow on the page pointing them to where you want them to go. This is still a GREAT use of arrows even in low-hype markets because even though it's going to look slightly cheesy, it's still going to dictate the eye-path they should be taking and show them where to look.

Cupid used arrows to help attract love. My guess is you're not looking to find love from your website (although hey, maybe you are!) but you can still use them to help attract prospects and give yourself a nice little boost... many times 15% or more!

Tip #2: Call To Action Buttons

Ahhh the ever important call to action (CTA) button. Like a thief in the night, this button can steal prospects and customers away from your business faster than an X-15 fighter jet.

Use it the wrong way and your conversion rates will plummet.

Use it the right way, however, and you can see gains up to 30-50% or more!

There are many factors involved in a CTA, including the copy on the button (the most important)... as well as the color, shape, size, and placement.

Here is a brief description of the “best practices” to use regarding your CTA.

Copy – Make sure the copy is very action oriented and gives value. For example... “submit” means nothing and is the worst CTA copy you can ever have. Instead, tell them exactly what's going to happen and show value.

Here are a few of my favorites...

Add To Cart (a classic – used mostly for actual products) Get free instant access Download {Insert product name} Now! Reserve your FREE consultation Get started today/now/immediately!

There are hundreds more that you can use. Those should get you started :)

Size – This is easy. Make your CTA button as large as you can! In 95% of tests, bigger is better.

Color – Many people claim to have the “perfect” color for their CTA button. That's bullshit. The best color depends on the background color of the optin form. For example if you have a light blue background color, you do NOT want a blue CTA. Better would be yellow, orange, or bright green. You want the highest contrast in color possible.

Placement – This depends on the layout of your page. However on a typical landing page, it should be somewhere on the right side of the page (preferably as high as possible). People read left to right, so you want them to read the text on the left and have their eyes STOP right on your CTA.

Shape – I've always found oval to works best. Anything else looks weird. I've seen a lot of people use rectangles too (which you can make inside your html editor), if you don't have access to a graphic designer who can make you the exact button you want.

Tip #3: Copy Length

How much copy should your landing page have? This all depends on the market, the product, what you're doing for traffic, and, well, what your test results show. (TEST EVERYTHING!)

But here's something to get you started.

In the vast majority of tests I've done... landing pages giving away something free tend to do better with LESS copy. What I typically start with is the following...

1. Headline2. Very short intro paragraph3. Bullets4. CTA in text5. Optin form

That's it!

I've tested adding images, testimonials, more copy, and various other elements. But for most landing pages, the shorter the better. I've gone so far as to put a single headline, a short intro paragraph in text telling them to optin, and the optin form... and it's worked great!

As I'll say a million times... test EVERYTHING. Don't assume you know what will work. I can guarantee that you don't. I know I don't!

Tip #4: The Perceived Value Question

Here's a quick “psychology” lesson to help you understand why people buy from you. When someone comes to your page (any page, even a blog post) they have one question running through their mind.

Is it worth it for me to take the next action step?

Again, this doesn't matter what page they're on. If it's a sales page, the next action step is to buy... so they're figuring out if the value of what you're giving them is worth more than the price.

If it's a landing page, they're mentally saying “is this report worth more than giving away my email address and spending the time to read it?”

If it's a blog post – they're saying “does this sound like it's worth my time to read the post?”

Therefore, you MUST show as much value as you can. You can do this in dozens of ways including displaying the emotional benefits, the value of what you're giving away, showing proof and credibility, and many other ways.

So before your page goes live, give it a glance over and say “How can I make this product look more valuable?”

Yes... EVEN if it's free!

Tip #5: Image Callouts

Did you know that about 5-10% of people on any given web page will click an IMAGE on that page? I've studied this for years using Clicktale and I'm always astonished at the number of people who click on random images on the page.

So instead of simply letting them click and having nothing happen (which increases anxiety – which we'll talk about later), do this.

On any landing pages you have where you're giving away a video as the free gift, get an image made of the video so it looks like they can actually click to play the video right there.

A HUGE percentage of people will click that image.

But instead of being able to click the video, they'll get a javascript popup telling them to optin to get that video they're trying to watch.

This helps increase conversions in TWO ways.

1) It creates an “open loop” in their mind. Kind of like when someone tells you a story and stops mid-way. Your brain needs to close that “loop” (e.g. finish the story) and begins to actually CRAVE the closing of the loop just like you crave bacon on a Saturday morning.

2) It creates commitment in their mind and gets them involved in the process. The more committed someone is to anything on your site, the more likely they are to buy. This is one of the reasons car dealerships take so long to talk about your car, and why you go to several different people throughout the process. They're increasing your commitment by increasing the time you've already put into the process.

Anyway, enough “theory”. Here's the code to do it (it's REALLY easy) so you can IMPLEMENT.

Step #1: Right before </head> in your source code... add this code.

<script type="text/javascript">function show_alert(){alert("I am an alert box!");}</script>

Step #2: Wherever you want to place your image, add this code:

<input type="Image" src="http://www.urlhere.com" onclick="show_alert()" value="Type in what you want it to say right here" />

That's it!

Easy-peezy, I know.

And while it might not increase your conversions by 30%... it literally takes 20 seconds to implement and can increase your conversions by 2-5% and hey... everything adds up.

Tip #6: Optin Form Placement

I know I know, you're expecting me to say “keep your optin form above the fold”.

WRONG.

I recently finished a test which proved this “best practice” isn't true all of the time.

In fact, the variation I tested with an option form LOWER on the page actually beat the control, which had the optin form at the top, by 15% at 97% confidence.

Here's why.

On this particular page, my client was giving away a free book.

The prospect only had to pay for shipping and handling.

Since it wasn't technically “free”, it required further persuading in order to get more people to buy it. So even though “everybody” was telling me to keep it at the top because it ALWAYS works better with the optin form at the top... I decided to go against the grain and test it.

And, like I said, I got my client a 15% boost in conversions. Considering that book is worth a considerable amount of money in lifetime customer value... that single test added tens of thousands of dollars to his bottom-line because I refused to listen to “best practices”.

Anyway... the point is this... test everything! Just because something works best in “most” cases doesn't mean it will work that way for you. It all depends on the value proposition.

Tip #7: Optin Form Design

Should you have a fancy optin form? What color should it be? How should it look? Again, all of this comes down to doing your own testing but here are a few starting points.

Fancy/plain – If you're in an older market, plain usually works just fine. If you're in a younger more computer-savvy market, fancier typically works better. However, fancy does NOT mean you should make it hard to read. Everything you do should always look professional... but clean and easy to read.

Color – As we talked about with CTA buttons, there is no “one” best color. What you're striving to do is make your optin form stand out. That's the sole purpose of it. To put it simple... your optin form should contrast with the background color of your landing page. And your CTA button should contrast with the background color of your optin form.

Remember... we're trying to make sales... not win awards for the best looking landing page :)

Size – As usual, the bigger the better. With an optin form the sole purpose is to make it stand out, so small optin forms would blend it and be hard to notice. You want that bad boy sticking out like a sore thumb!

Chapter 2: EmailsWhen it comes to email, you have two critical components.

The subject line, and your clickthrough rate (CTR).

These tips will show you how to increase both of them which will increase the amount of traffic you get to your sales pages and therefore increase your profits quite a bit.

Enjoy :)

Tip #8: The "Oh Shit" Effect

Let's face it, we're all addicted to “drama”. If you're driving down the street and see a burning house, car accident, or someone fighting... do you keep driving without looking? Of course not. Aside from the fact that you might be stopping to actually the people... we all stop for the same reason. We love drama!

I call this the "oh shit" effect because I've heard so many people say that exact phrase when they see something like that.

Why do you think reality TV shows are so popular? They're the least thing from reality, but they're filled to the brim with drama.

Knowing that, you want to create as much drama in your emails as possible. Here's a little trick I've discovered over the years that gets the best open rates.

Display a negative message (e.g. “drama)... with an added benefit or some type of added value if you can squeeze it in there.

Here are a few examples.

Bad news (weird video reveals all) Worst day of my life... (yet made $10k) This is ruining your health (plus how to get rid of it!)

Tip #9: Curiosity Killed The Cat

When it comes to email, one of THE single best ways I've found to both increase open rates and CTR is with curiosity.

Before I explain, let me recap something.

The #1 purpose of email is NOT to make a sale. The purpose of email is to get a CLICK to your sales page, which then does your selling. This holds true for information marketers, Ecommerce owners and everyone else.

Because of that, you want to get as many clicks as possible. The best way to do that is with curiosity.

Here are a few curiosity swipes you can use for your subject lines.

FYI Haha... nice! (crazy story...) I KNEW it! Ever try this? Ouch!

If you saw one of those subject lines in your email... wouldn't you open it? Of course you have to match the personality to YOUR personality, so feel free to change them. But remember, have some fun in your marketing. People want to be engaged.

Also, when writing your body copy, be sure to make it very curiosity-based as well. For example if you're sending them to a blog post which then gives them a small pitch to your product, your entire email could look something like this.

Subject Line: Ever try this?

Body: Hey, I just finished up a KILLER blog post and wanted to show you. It'll take you like 60 seconds to read, and I just used this strategy to bring in an extra $10k last week.

(And it only took me 2 hours to setup)

Read the article <--- Click here!

**Signature**

See how easy that was?

Now obviously not EVERY email should be this short. But if you can do 30% of them that short, or even more than that, you'll be fine. People don't like reading email, but they love reading blogs.

Tip #10: The 2 Word Phrase Which Boosts Email CTR

There are a million ways to increase your clickthrough rate, but many of them come from being a better copywriter or hiring someone like me to write your copy for you.

If you want to increase your CTR without spending a fortune on a copywriter, this next tip will show you a way to increase your CTR by up to 30%... and it's so simple a drunk monkey can do it :)

First – Instead of using actual URL's in your emails... use TEXT call to actions.

Not This: www.urlhere.com

But This: Get your free video now!

That alone will increase your CTR in most cases.

Here's another one.

Instead of ONLY having a text CTA, you simply add THIS after your CTA...

<--- Click here

So for example...

Get your free video now! <--- Click here

Easy, right?

Go try it out now.

Tip #11: Storytelling

She stood at the root of an ancient oak tree. The light cascaded through the canopy like a rushing waterfall, illuminating her glistening body. Excitement danced through my mind. My heart became an ocean of desire...

Gotcha!

As you read that... did you picture everything I mentioned? Would you have kept reading if I continued the story? If so... you now understand the power of storytelling.

And you should use it in your emails! We all take for granted everything that happens in our life, but the truth is, people WANT to know what happens to you. They want the inner details of your life, and if you share it with them you'll not only increase your branding... personality... and credibility... you'll also increase your click-through rates and open rates.

Here are 5 storytelling ideas to get you started...

A recent discovery you made when doing something “outside” of your normal job A question a subscriber recently asked you Something you learned from “X” A conspiracy you recently uncovered Taking something that happened to you and finding the connection between that and a

tip you can give them. For example... “What my dog taught me about customer service”.

This takes some hard work and practice... but once you start connecting seemingly unrelated events and turning them into stories... you'll become an email marketing master.

One of the single best resources I can give you if you want to truly grasp the power of storytelling in your marketing is Troy White's Storytelling Course. It's absolutely fantastic and can EXPLODE your results if you put it to work.

Tip #12: Send To Unopened Emails

Ok, so let's say you have a list of 30,000 people. You spend an hour writing an email, load it up, and send it out to that list.

We'll assume you have a great subject line and 10,000 people open the email. Awesome, you just got a 30% open rate!

… but what about the other 20,000 people?

Most people are so focused on the open rate that they forget that the vast majority of people DIDN'T open the email! And it's a crying shame.

So instead of simply being content with whatever open rate you get, do this. TWO days after your initial broadcast, you have to create a list of all the people who DID NOT open it. They're called “unopens” (I know... original name eh?).

Then... you re-send the EXACT same email with a different subject line to those who didn't open the first email.

Not all autoresponder services will allow you to do this, but most will. Just ask the support team for your autoresponder service or do a quick search online and you should be able to figure it out in 5 minutes or less.

... and you can easily increase your open rate by up to 50%. This tip alone can, and should, pay for this course MANY times over.

Tip #13: The "From" Email Address Switch-up

Your “from” name and email address is MUCH more important than you think. Let me show you an example of why this is so true.

Imagine you just sign up on Bob Giggly's email list. You don't even notice his website URL, but you know Bob himself.

You download his free report and start getting random emails from “Money Sucker Blog” with the email address of admin@moneysucker.com (no idea if that's a real website). Assuming they're spam, you either delete them or hit the spam button.

Sorry Bob – you just lost a subscriber!

And this happens MUCH more often than you think. So to avoid this happening, here's what I recommend doing. As always, do your own testing.

From Name: Your ACTUAL nameFrom Email: Yourfirstname@yourwebsite.com

That's why you'll see that in my own email marketing, I have my "from name" as Jeremy and my "from email" as Jeremy@JeremyReeves.com

When you start doing this – MAKE SURE people know who you are. I recommend having a first email in an autoresponder series simply explaining who you are and introducing yourself. People these days want an intimate relationship... even if it's only via email.

In my own email sequence for people who download my 3x3 Formula For Doubling Your Profits In 30 Days Or Less... early on in the sequence (I think the 2nd email)... I send them to my "About Me" page on my blog.

I do that because it describes who I am, my results, what I do, as well as gives a CTA at the end for those who might become clients of mine.

It might take you 30 minutes or so to do this... but trust me... it's worth the effort.

Tip #14: “Shorty”s

People always ask me... “should I write long emails or short emails”?

Honestly, that depends on what you're trying to do and your goals. This is different in every market, but what I've TYPICALLY found is this.

Short emails – Use short emails as “teaser” emails which are curiosity based. The link should go to a page which closes that curiosity loop and explains the teaser... and then sells them your product/service.

Long emails – These CAN be very useful if you can fit an entire sales message within an email. For example, one of my clients was selling a $17 Ebook which was very self-explanatory and easy to understand. The salesletter wasn't very long. We tested a teaser email sending them to a salesletter... versus putting the entire salesletter in the email itself and sending that.

In terms of overall sales... the “salesletter in an email” won by quite a bit. If I remember correctly – about 30%.

Once again, try it!

Chapter 3: Checkout PagesIf you want to give yourself an ulcer, do a test and figure out how many people click your Add To Cart button and get to the checkout page, and then bail.

Here, I'll do it for you.

On average, most websites lose between 50% - 80% of their sales due to unoptimized checkout pages.

Yikes!

If you don't believe me, signup for a free trial of Visual Website Optimizer and test it out for yourself. You'll be shocked.

Instead of getting pissed off at that statistic though, I want you to switch your mindset and start testing your checkout page to improve it. Here are various ways to do so.

Tip #15: Trust Seals

Trust seals are one of the single easiest ways to boost your conversions. Especially on order forms!

You can expect to see increases of anywhere from 5 – 30% or so... depending on the level of trust people already have in your business.

This tip is simple. Put trust seals on your checkout pages.

Here are a few you can use...

Hackersafe Verisign HonestE Online Geotrust Better Business Bureau Your merchant account (for example – Authorize.net) Paypal

Tip #16: Testimonials

Testimonials are another way to EASILY boost your conversions on your checkout page.

Here's what you do.

Pick out 3 of your BEST testimonials for that product.

They should preferably talk about a different major benefit each.

Then, you simply put those testimonials on your checkout page. One of the places I like to put it is on the right-hand side of the page (you can also put them under the CTA).

Each of these testimonials should also have a short headline. I like to pick a short phrase out of the testimonial and use that as the headline, in red, and in quotes.

If you don't know how to change your checkout page, just give your 3 testimonials to a designer or coder and have them implement it for you.

Tip #17: Product Images

Think about when you're shopping at a retail store. You pick out your items, walk up to the cashier, and they ring up your total in front of you.

Now think about the typical online shopping experience. You pick out your item, add it to your cart and hit the checkout page... and you're presented with a form asking for all your information.

Then, you have to pay.

Since most checkout pages don't include an image and description of everything the person will get, psychologically you hit resistance because it “feels” like you're paying $X for...

... nothing.

The easy way to fix this is by simply adding a product image of EVERYTHING they'll get, along with the value. That way they physically SEE the value of everything they're getting and don't have to rely on memory.

Remember, retail stores have been in existence for DECADES and have perfected the process of buying. Model them whenever you can!

Tip #18: The 20 Second Audio Which Boosts Conversions 10%

Friction. Anxiety. These are terms we'll talk about later. In short, they reduce conversion. You want to minimize them to increase your conversions.

One area of friction and anxiety is site security. This is especially true for “older” markets where the prospect isn't quite as trusting of the Internet as younger generations.

Instead of having some generic, lack-luster description such as “we respect your privacy” like most people do... what you should do instead is create a 15-30 second audio explaining the DETAILS of your security.

Go into full detail. As much as you can muster. The more "technical" you make it sound, the better. When I did this for a client, it got him an immediate 10% boost. And it took about 30 minutes from start to finish.

If you've never created an audio before, just go to www.Audacity.com - you can download it for free and it's a fantastic tool.

Tip #19: The Bailing Free Trial Offer

I hate to tell you this, but I can GUARANTEE that you're losing a MINIMUM of 30-50% of your customers on your checkout page. If you don't believe me... setup a test that shows a funnel like this.

Salesletter > Checkout Page > Thank you page

And then, of course, you track it to see the individual conversion rates between each page. If you have a conversion rate of 5%... I'd be willing to bet that at LEAST 10% of your customers are hitting your checkout page, and only ½ of them are actually buying. There are various reasons for this which I won't get into.

Instead, I'll tell you how to fix that leaky bucket and get more sales.

Instead of simply letting these people “disappear”, you can add an exit popup to the page and offer them a discount on the product... or even a free trial. You'll find that you'll typically get somewhere between 5-10% to take you up on that offer. Sometimes less, sometimes more. But the fact is... it takes literally FIVE whopping minutes to setup and can add at least a few percentage points to your bottom line :)

Go here to get my hands-down FAVORITE exit pop tool

Tip #20: Restating The Offer

Remember the tip above about having a product image and value? Right next to that... you need to restate your offer in text (you can also make ones image which spans across the page including all of this).

So what does the offer include?

Well, if you followed my advice you're already showing the product, bonuses, and value. So this statement should include the major benefits they'll receive... original and today's price... any scarcity elements... as well as any “terms” such as a guarantee or warranty.

Here's an example.

Remember, your investment today is backed my by “XXX” guarantee. You'll receive EVERYTING you see here – a full {insert value}– for just {Insert price} if you order today. That's XXX off the original price! Fill out the form below and experience {insert benefits and wrap up}.

Tip #21: Reducing Anxiety Near Points Of Resistance

We've already touched on anxiety in terms of using testimonials and an audio explaining site security. But that doesn't cover everything. To explain this, I want you to think about the last time you bought something. Or, if you want to really experience this... go buy something now from www.Amazon.com (I love Amazon!)

Add something expensive to your cart, fill out the forms on the checkout page and JUST before you're about to press your finger down to click that mouse on the “process order” button – I want you to stop and examine your emotions.

If you're human, you're hand is going to hesitate for just a second before clicking that mouse.

The reason this happens is because on some level, you're experiencing “buyers anxiety”. This happens in the 30 seconds or so that leads up to a sale. Think about it. You're casually strolling along on the website, checking out their products. You click on an add to cart button but still don't experience much anxiety because there's nothing “committed” yet.

But once you get to that last button... your anxiety levels go sky-high. The reason is because you now have to COMMIT to your purchase!

All buyers experience this. YOUR job is to reduce that anxiety. You do it by adding reassuring statements and images near your calls to action.

Here are 3 ways to reduce anxiety and boost your conversions...

1. Just under a “free trial” button you can put something like “no credit card required!”

2. Around a CTA on a normal checkout page you can add a testimonial... or social proof saying how many people have already bought the product/service.

3. Or you can add statements such as “You have a full “X” days to return this product if you're not satisfied. Or “you'll receive instant access to this product after you click “Process Order”

The possibilities are endless.

My homework for you is to get someone (in person) to go through YOUR checkout process and speak their feelings out loud as they go through it. You'll come up with some great insights!

Chapter 4: SaleslettersAhhh the mighty salesletter. This is my bread & butter! If you don't already know, I've been a freelance copywriter for years now and my “specialty” is long-form salesletters. So, this chapter is going to focus on that. HOWEVER... there are two things you need to know.

1) These can also apply to NON long-form salesletters.

2) If you don't have a long-form salesletter, what the hell is the matter with you? I don't care what you “think” they'll do. In the vast majority of cases, they WILL increase your conversions. Yes, even if you think “your audience wouldn't read that”.

I recently worked with a client who was hesitant to try it out because he was selling to engineers who were “too smart for long form letters”. Funny thing is, I rewrote his sales page and checkout page and gave him an increase of over 150%.

Go to this blog post for more information that I wrote for the Visual Website Optimizer blog explaining why long-form letters STILL work.

Seriously. Do it. Now.

And then continue reading :)

Tip #22: The 5 Reasons Box

This one is insanely easy and takes about 10 minutes. It's been used in direct mail packages for AGES. I've seen increases ranging typically in the 10% range depending on the rest of the copy.

All you do is this. Somewhere on the page, preferably right before your main CTA... add a box giving the “top 5 reasons to buy {insert product name}.

That's it.

I typically like to do the top 3 main benefits, the price, and the guarantee.

10 minutes. 10% increase in conversions.

Not too shabby in my mind!

Tip #23: Drop Cap Heaven

et me reveal a little secret that you, and everybody in the WORLD... already knows. Yet, for some reason – you're probably not using it in your sales pages. It's a little something known as “readability”.L

Based on 95% of the websites I see today, it seems that nobody really cares about it. Here's another hint. If your customers can't read your website, they can't buy your product!

Ok ok... enough said. Maybe I'm going on about this a little too much (it's a Friday afternoon and after I finish up this 50 minute chunk of writing... I get to start my date night with my wife for wings & beer... so forgive me if I'm a little “extra” excited for the next few tips :).

Here's the deal.

There are a million ways to make your website more “readable”. I'll go over more later. For now, one thing you can do... another “spend 5 minutes and get a 5-10% increase in conversions”... is by adding a drop cap to the first paragraph of your salesletter.

(The only way I know to do this is to create the letter as a picture and align it to the left)

Here's what I love about it.

The main purpose of a drop cap is to increase readability. So, if your copy sucks... your conversions will DROP because more people will read it more carefully. But if your copy is good, your conversions will INCREASE because more people will read it more carefully.

Think about that for a second. Then move onto the next tip :)

RESOURCE: http://designgala.com/magazine-style-drop-cap-first-letter-with-css/ <--- Go here for a tutorial on how to do this.

Tip #24: The Ebook Image Secret

This one PISSES ME OFF. It really does. The tip is this.

Spend a lousy $50 and get a professional friggin Ebook cover made for your product! And if you're an Ecommerce store, you need HIGH-quality pictures for each and every image. They count more than you could possibly imagine.

If you want the reasoning... keep reading.

Psychologically, people have been conditioned for CENTURIES (even hundreds of years ago when they bought everything in the town market) to “buy what they see”.

You walk into a store to buy clothes and have a visual on what you're buying. You go to the grocery store and guess what – you can SEE the food you're buying.

You get my point.

But online... for some reason... lazy ass marketers decide that spending $50 - $100 on an Ebook cover simply “isn't worth the investment”.

You know what else isn't worth the investment? Your time, because if you have a mindset like that – I can guarantee you – you'll fail at business if you keep thinking like that.

Be a REAL business owner.

Show your prospects what they're about to spend their hard-earned money on. It may "technically" mean nothing since your product might be digital... but psychologically it makes a hell of a difference.

Many times... 30% or more.

Tip #25: Walk-On Videos

Let me be very honest with you.

I personally HATE these things.

These are the people that walk onto your page when you load them. (For the record, I hate video salesletters too... but they can work like gangbusters for many markets. My point is... don't assume or go with what YOU like. Go with what works.)

Anyway, these have been shown to provide some pretty huge increases in conversions. In the range of 10% - 50% or more. As always... test and see how it works for YOUR business.

Test it out and see how it works for you. Here are a few resources you can check out to see which one you like best.

(I have no affiliation with any of these sites)

http://www.websitetalkingheads.com http://www.impactspokesperson.com/

Tip #26: Increasing Readability

Earlier we talked about a way to increase the readability of your sales pages. That was just one of the ways, here are 3 more.

More Whitespace – Whenever I create a long-form salesletter, I like to have a 30-50px space on the left and right side of the page. That gives the impression that the block of font is more narrow, and makes it easier to read. You can also try increasing the space between paragraphs. Although it will lengthen the page, it increases readability.

Easy to read font – I still don't get why people use serif-fonts (such as Georgia, Times New Roman, etc... for online sales pages.) It's been proven a million and a half times that using sans-serif fonts are better online. My recommended font is 12pt (POINT, not PIXEL), Arial font. I also like to use Tahoma Bold in my headlines.

Images – Adding emotional-driven images to your website will increase conversions in two different ways. First, it adds emotion to the copy. Second, it increases readability because you can break up the text.

I like to use an emotional image, with a caption underneath (critical), and use the hex code #f7f7f7 BEHIND the image as the background color to make it appear slightly 3D.

You do this by creating a table with 2 rows, 1 column. Have the picture in the first row, and the caption in the 2nd row. Then make background of the table #f7f7f7 as I just mentioned.

I also try my best to rotate whether the images are on the right or left side of the page (so they're not all on one side)

I once increased a client's conversions by 80% by doing nothing but increasing readability. Do you think it's worth it?

Tip #27: Cheap Design That WORKS

Back in the good 'ole direct response days, design didn't matter. If you sent out one mailing piece which was plain-jane and looked like a teenager put it together (with great copy)...versus another package which had stunning design (and shitty copy)... the plain-jane piece would win every single time.

However... these days it's not that simple.

Because people can get design done so inexpensively these days, customers are starting to EXPECT a nice looking website.

How much of a difference can it make?

A professional, CLEAN (not flashy) design can sometimes give you anywhere from a 10-30% boost in your conversions. This all depends on your market and what they're used to. For under $500 to get your design done... that should be a no-brainer.

But there's one caveat to this.

Any design you do on your site MUST be there for a specific purpose. For example the colors you use should evoke the emotions you want them to. You should have plenty of whitespace. Your logo should strengthen your brand. Your layout should be created in a way to creates a clear, definable eye-path for your user to follow.

Do that and watch your conversions shoot up :)

Tip #28: How To Setup Videos For Maximum Conversions

Many people think video increases conversions every single time. What most people don't understand is how many dozens of factors make up whether a video helps... or hurts... your conversions.

One of those is whether or not it's an autoplay or click to play video.

So which converts better?

Like everything in this book, you have to test it in your OWN market and don't assume what I'm saying is correct. Trust me, I wish I could bring out my crystal ball and get it right 100% of the time, but let's be realistic. I can't predict anything, I can simply tell you what I've found for MY business and my clients businesses. Maybe in my next life I'll have a real crystal ball...

Anyway... before I go off on a tangent, let me give you a short summary of when auto-play and click to play videos work.

In general...

Auto-play videos work better to COLD traffic. Auto-play videos work better when the user is expecting a video (for example if they see

an email telling them they're about to watch a video) Click to play videos work better on home pages (and sidebars of blogs, etc.) Click to play videos work better for social media traffic

Don't discount the difference auto-play vs. click to play can make. You can get an easy 10% - 20% bump by figuring out which one is right for your particular product/market/page.

Tip #29: Dual Readership Path

Coined by Dan Kennedy, this is a marketing nugget that has been talked about a million and a half times over the years. Funny thing is, I VERY rarely see people put it in action.

Here's what it means.

When people are reading online, they're not really reading. Some people still read word for word, but the majority don't. Instead, they SKIM.

Because of that, you need to set your page up in a “skimmable” way. Simply put, you want people to read only the bulleted, highlighted, bolded, and sub-headed information and be able to make a buying decision.

Here's how to do it.

Step #1: Create your page how you normally would.

Step #2: Go back through the page, and DO NOT read the page. Instead, skim it. Can you skim the page in 20-30 seconds and be sold enough to make a buying decision? If you can't, fix it. Re-write your subheads, re-bold certain areas, add emotional images with captions, and highlight certain areas until you can make a buying decision by simply skimming the page.

This won't give you a 30% bump or anything like that... but 5-10% never hurt anybody :)

Tip #30: The Bigfoot Factor

I'm about to tell you a secret that VERY few people follow these days. And it's all about trust. But first, some background information.

In this day and age, consumers are more than jaded. They're pissed off at anything to do with business. Most people have been ripped off so many times, they simply don't trust business owners anymore. They think we're lousy scumbags. If you don't believe me... go tell a random stranger you made $500,000 last month and watch their response.

I guarantee you – they say something along the lines of “Yea... and how many people did you scam to make that?”

Because of this, you must build TRUST with your prospects. Fast. The best way to do this is with overwhelming proof. But that's not enough. The sequence in which you do this is vitally important.

Here's the “secret sauce”.

Benefit > proof

I know, mind-blowing isn't it? And I bet you were looking for some advanced algorithm!

Sorry to disappoint you... I'm not the kind of guy to create “new words” for existing strategies that exist just to try and sound smart.

So what am I talking about?

As you know, benefits sell. You want to pack your sales messages with as many benefits as humanely possible. The problem with benefits, is that they're like Bigfoot. The vast majority of people don't believe them until they're given proof.

And that's what you should give them!

Immediately after you make a claim (e.g. a benefit), you should provide clear proof showing that you're telling the truth.

Here's an example.

"Lie down and relax as these tapes gently condition your mind to enjoy eating healthy food. With just 15 minutes per day you'll quickly find yourself craving less sweets, enjoying exercise, and eating smaller portions!"

**Then you would insert a testimonial of a person who did exactly that**

I can't give you a specific percentage for this one. Just do it. You'll be glad you did :)

Tip #31: Copydoodles

This one is going to make some of you feel uncomfortable. But copydoodles are one of the single EASIEST ways to improve your conversions. I use them both online and offline. Offline they're amazingly effective because very few people use them.

You can expect increases of 30% - 50% or even higher by adding copydoodles to direct mail. The best part is, you can add them in under 5 minutes.

Go here for more information on these - www.CopyDoodles.com

And if you're not doing direct mail – SHAME ON YOU! Start doing it now. End of story. Get in touch with me on why you're making a colossal mistake.

Tip #32: Themes

This one is for long-form salesletters only (or video salesletters) so if you don't use them...

1) Get in touch with me b/c you're losing money2) Skip to the next tip

If you ARE using them, as you should, are you using an overall driving theme which focuses your promotions? What I mean is that when you write a long-form letter, you shouldn't just “start writing”.

You should do your research, and through that research come up with an overall “theme” you want that letter to convey. 90% of your theme will basically be your headline and lead. I like to test themes by simply changing those two... to make things faster.

Oh, and by the way, testing themes can give you ENORMOUS bumps once you find the right one. I'm talking 3-digit increases (yes... 100%+).

Here are a few themes you can try in your letters...

Testimonial – Your headline should either be a testimonial... or talk about specific results people are getting with your product. You then follow that up with an actual testimonial directly under the headline.

Story-driven – Do you have an interesting story which would resonate with your target market? If you do, TELL it! People want to know your story. They want to know your struggles... your triumphs... and how you finally “made it”.

For more information on storytelling, I highly recommend Troy White's Storytelling Course. I've personally gone through this and can't recommend it enough.

Outrageous/Shocking – People are BORED in their lives. They want drama, and excitement, and shocking details. That's why shocking and outrageous themes sometimes work amazingly well. I once wrote a promotion for a back pain client of mine which went something along the lines of “Discover The Back Pain Secrets Of This COW!”. That headline pointed to a cow, and I then explained what that cow had to do with their back pain. And... it CRUSHED the control which was simply benefit driven.

Curiosity (has to have an added/implied benefit) – Curiosity driven themes can sometimes work amazingly well, but can sometimes bomb. You have to be careful in how you do it. One of the ways I've found which always increases results is by stirring up curiosity, but at the same time showing them a benefit they'll get from reading the copy below (or at least implying it).

Tip #33: Switching Up The Media

This is one very overlooked area to increase conversions, branding, and overall “dominance-building” in your market. Think about it... in a given market... how many different forms of media are being used? In most niches, typically only one or two (text and video).

So why is it so important to use multiple forms of media?

There are actually THREE reasons.

#1: Higher Conversions – You'll find that by using multiple forms of media, your overall conversion rates will shoot up. The reason is because people respond to different forms of media and you're kidding yourself if you think one form is going to appeal to everybody.

#2: More Loyalty – The perception of multiple forms of media is that you're getting in touch with them more often. Also, because you're contacting them in various forms of media, they'll become more loyal because it will appear that they'll know you better.

#3: You'll Get More Exposure - By engaging your customers in multiple forms of media you also please Google :) The more exposure you have, the better. But not just in “SEO” terms. If you think about it psychologically... this is why people believe in “brand advertising”. The theory is that the more people see your company, the more they automatically trust you.

While I'm a hardcore direct response kinda guy... I DO believe the underlying theory of the “brand advertising” argument.

The problem is that most people do it completely the wrong way. After all, why can't you do direct response advertising but start putting out content in multiple forms of media to take advantage of both forms of advertising?

Tip #34: Involvement Device

Here's another easy one for you that's been shown over and over again to increase conversions.

What you do is simple.

In your salesletter, preferably in the beginning, you include some type of involvement device.

It could be a question they have to answer... a short little survey (very short)... or even just a type of qualification in the copy.

For example, sometimes I like to have a very curiosity-based lead, followed by a subhead which says something like “But This Is ONLY For Certain Types Of People”. Then in that section, you tell them who should and shouldn't read the letter.

What happens is that by qualifying them, it then commits the person to reading your letter. By committing to read the letter, you'll end up with a higher percentage of people reading the whole thing, and a higher conversion rate.

What kind of increase can you get with an involvement device? Increases from 10% - 20% are what you can typically expect.

Tip #35: 2-Step Order Forms

Remember earlier when I talked about how so many people bail on your checkout page? Having a 2-step order process is the solution to that problem.

Here's what you do.

Instead of people clicking “Add To Cart” and going straight to a checkout page, you instead send them to a page which asks for their first name and email address.

They fill out that form, and THEN go to the checkout page.

Then... you setup an autoresponder sequence that automatically goes out to people who filled out that form, but didn't buy. I like to put between 3-5 messages in there.

Here's what a typical 3-email sequence would look like.

Email #1: Sorry, our servers must have messed up! (Blame it on yourself)

Email #2: Noticed you added the product to your cart but didn't buy... just wanted to see if I could help

Email #3: Offer a 10% discount if they go back and order in the next 24-48 hours

Don't discount how powerful this can be if setup properly. You can easily bump your conversions up buy 20% - 50% or even more.

Tip #36: Comparison Charts

Here's another REALLY easy way to bump up your conversions.

All you do is add a comparison chart, comparing your product/service with your competitors.

You want to make it so people are getting a minimum of double the value of your competitors. If you only have one extra feature, people are still going to shop due to price. And the point of marketing is to STOP that from happening!

So how do you get one made?

It's easy.

First, create a spreadsheet comparing your best features with your competitors.

Second, send that spreadsheet to a graphic designer and have them make you a graphic.

And then watch your conversions go up by about 10% - 20% :)

Tip #37: Exit Popups

Exit popups are one of those things that some people hate, and others love. In my mind, I like them because they increase profits and serve your customers. However, I HATE when people exploit them and offer 3... 4... 5 or even MORE exit popups.

I was on one site and he had 7 exit pops! I can guarantee you – I'll never go back to that site because of that single reason.

So lesson #1... only have 1, MAXIMUM 2 exit popups. Otherwise you're going to piss off your customers and end up losing long-term sales.

With that said, here are a few tips for using exit popups.

#1: Give away a free trial

#2: Lower the price, but only if you're taking something away (This is for long-term businesses.

If you have a short-term business, you can lower the price without taking anything away. It's just kind of "snake oil-ish" in my mind)

#3: Have a video on the exit popup page which plays automatically

#4: Use Exit Splas h – best exit popup software I've used so far

#5: Keep the page short. This should be an impulse buy (in most cases)

Conversion rates vary wildly on these pages. Just do it... it doesn't take long and will do nothing but increase your profits.

Tip #38: Personalization & Segmentation

Personalization and segmentation is an advanced strategy which I recommend you start doing towards the END of your testing cycle for most people.

Even though it's incredibly effective, most people don't have the discipline to do it properly. If that sounds like you, just wait until you're a little more organized or are at the point where you're finding it hard to get anymore winning split-tests.

A lot of people might disagree with that because personalization and segmentation can dramatically increase your conversion rates by triple-digits, but the reason I think you should do it later on is simply because most people don't have the organization and discipline to do it correctly.

Get comfortable with the testing process FIRST, and then worry about this. I should also add that it's CRUCIAL if you want to be a dominate force in your marketplace, so don't put it off for too long.

Once you're ready, you can personalize and segment many different areas of your website including...

Segmenting traffic based on if it's warm or cold Adding personalization to salesletters Special offers to certain segments of your list Buyers vs. prospects Men vs. women Behavioral actions they've taken on your website

… and a million other ways! Get creative, it's worth it. People expect personalization these days... don't fall behind on the times :)

If you're interested in this... I HIGHLY recommend Office AutoPilot.

It's WAY better than Infusionsoft (in all ways) and I can help you create your own automated, personalized and segmented campaigns that convert like crazy. I personally use it and recommend it to anybody serious about massively boosting their conversion rates.

Tip #39: How To Add The Perfect Image

When people are on a website, they want to know who the man behind the curtains is (or woman). In other words, they want a relationship. They want you to know and understand them, and they want to know and understand YOU. They want to bond with you and develop a certain “closeness”. This is especially true if you're a “guru” in your field.

Because of all this, people take your image very seriously.

And by simply changing the image you can increase or decrease your conversions in a huge way. I was talking to a friend of mine awhile back who's black... and when he added his picture to his salesletters his conversions dropped by 50%. I know that sounds terrible, but it's true.

Whether you want to believe it or not, people still have unconscious beliefs about certain people.

(And it's not just what color your skin is. People have unconscious beliefs about age, gender, race, religion, and a million other factors)

The point is – TEST your images. Here are a 5 tips for doing so.

1. Look friendly

2. Match your appearance to what your prospects expect ◦ OR... do the exact opposite and be the unorthodox person in your niche

3. Look towards the copy you want them to read

4. Test “lifestyle” pictures... showing you in a way that's outside of business

5. Create pictures that interact with your copy... for example you can “hold” your headline on your shoulders

Tip #40: Hype Level & Personality StylesTesting hype level is a fun test to do because you can write the copy HOWEVER you want for that particular test. What you're looking for is an “insight” into what type of marketing hype your audience responds to.

For example, some markets respond to high-energy, in your face marketing (some types of alternative health, finances, Internet Marketing). Other markets respond to very low-pitch, soft-selling copy such as engineers, software businesses and others.

The point is, you don't know until you test.

This also depends on the persona you've set for yourself and your business.

For example, if you're a “NO BS” kind of person... your personality would be high-energy yet low-hype. If you're a “surfer dude” like Frank Kern... your personality would be laid back and the selling has to be done much more subtly. On the other end of the spectrum you could be like “Rich Jerk” who is very loud, obnoxious and hypey.

It really all depends.

When you do this, you're not necessarily looking for a conversion increase. Rather you're trying to get an insight into what your customers respond to. You WILL get an increase with one of the types of copy, but what you should focus on is the insight you get... because you can then model that personality level and carry it throughout all your copy :)

Tip #41: Surveys

We're circling back to exit popups again... yay!

However you're going to do it in a different way.

Instead of adding an exit popup to get an immediate increase in business, what you're doing is asking your non-buyers why they didn't buy. You then dig through the responses to find those objections... redo your copy to overcome them, and THEN watch your conversions increase.

Another great place to do this is in your BUYER autoresponder sequences.

What you do in this case is ask them why they DID buy. Dig through the responses and make a note of the top 5 reasons people bought. Then you can use those reasons in your “top 5 reasons to buy” that I mentioned earlier.

Tip #42: 10 Plug-n-Play Headlines

Headlines are one of the single most important elements you can have on ANY page of your website. They're especially important on salesletters and other money pages.

So in this tip, let me give you 10 "easy winners". In other words, these are GOOD headlines which you can build from and improve your conversions. They'll at least get you started if you don't have enough money to pay a copywriter.

1. How You Can (ACTION) In The Next (TIME FRAME)

2. (#) Ways To Beat (PROBLEM)

3. How To Turn (PROBLEM) Into (BENEFIT)

4. How To Improve Your (BENEFIT) In Just (#) Minutes Per Day

5. Read This And (PROMISE/THREAT)

6. Do You Make These Mistakes In ... ?

7. The Truth About ...

8. What Every (PERSON) Should Know About (Niche/Person)

9. (#) Little Known Ways To (BENEFIT)

10. Secrets Of (SOME KIND OF EXPERT)

Plug those into your headline tests... and profit :)

Chapter 5: OffersWhen it comes to marketing, there are only THREE things that matter. Your market, your offer, and your copy. Having an irresistible offer is absolutely essential if you want to dominate your market.

This chapter will show you how to do exactly that ;)

Tip #43: The Ultimate Guarantee

When it comes to guarantees, there are a few things to consider which will help increase your conversions.

#1: Name Your Guarantee – Instead of having the some old “unconditional money-back guarantee”, why not make it stand out? Name that guarantee! For example, you can say “Joe's $10,000 Guarantee” and have a guarantee which guarantees that they make at least $10,000 in the next 12 months or they get the product free.

#2: The Longer The Better – This one is simple. The longer your guarantee the higher your conversions will be and the less refunds you'll get. Don't argue or think that's wrong. It's right. It's been tested THOUSANDS of times. Just do it. I typically like to go with a one-year guarantee, but you can even get crazy and go with a 5 year... 10 year... or even “til the end of time” guarantee!

#3: Get Crazy, And Get Scared! - Look, people are scared. They want to feel relieved and secure in knowing they aren't risking anything. Make your guarantee STRONG. If you're scared, you may want to make your product better. There are a million ways to make a unique, very powerful guarantee.

Go back and look at my guarantee for this product if you want (I'd say what it is, but I'm most likely testing it). I know this product is going to make you ridiculous amounts of money, because it's done so for myself and my clients, which is why my guarantee is so powerful.

Here are a few ideas for you...

Reposition as you “buying it back” from them Buy your competitors product for them if they send yours back Double money back guarantee (make this conditional on them actually doing the work) Give them their money back plus a gift certificate for your business Give personal coaching help if your product doesn't help them

I've seen a revised guarantee give conversion and profit increases anywhere from 20% - 300% depending on how strong it is.

Bottom line - TEST THIS NOW.

Tip #44: Increasing Perceived Value

When it comes to someone buying a product – the psychological decision making goes something like this.

“Ok, this product looks like something I need. They're asking for $XX and to me it seems like it's worth $XX. But I also have the risk in buying it. Should I do the deal?”

Ok, that's a pretty simplified version but you get the idea. What I'm saying is that you want the PERCEIVED value of your product to be at least 5-10x higher than the price you're asking. So if your product is selling for $97... you want the perceived value to be between $500 - $1,000.

Even more if you can do it.

You can do this in multiple ways including adding bonuses, adding a section of copy justifying the price and showing what it's truly worth, doing an apples to oranges comparison with something more expensive (for example, selling DVD's from a seminar for $997 and explaining how participants paid $5,000 to be there), and many other ways.

Trying to get your product to be perceived as being 10x more valuable than your asking price is sometimes hard, but it's a GREAT way to quickly be known for producing valuable products which will increase your conversions over time in a huge way.

Tip #45: Price Testing

I wish I could simply say... “test your price”... but I have a feeling that wouldn't suffice.

Instead, let me give you a few options you can do with your price. But first, I need you to think about something.

When you're testing your price, you HAVE to consider your customer lifetime value.

Many times it's more profitable over the long-term to break even (instead of profit) on your low priced front-end products designed to get people into your funnel because you can then sell them more expensive products through your back-end.

Also, do some manual calculations to see if the price increase or decrease helps. For example, in a 100% profit business (which doesn't exist), if you decrease your price by 15% but increase your conversions by 16%... you'd have a winner.

Don't go by gross profit when testing price, go by net profit (or by customer lifetime value).

This is complicated to explain in a short space so if you need help determining if your price test is a winner or loser, get in touch with me for a 1-hour consultation and I'll figure it out for you.

Once again, I recommend Visual Website Optimizer for any testing you do.

Tip #46: Bonuses

This should be a no-brainer to figure out, but so many people don't have any bonuses when they sell products. The thing is, many people buy products FOR the bonuses!

This is commonly used in direct mail to sell newsletters. Since it's nearly impossible to sell a continuity program by itself, the "product" they sell is the bonuses... and by purchasing the bonuses you automatically get enrolled in the newsletter.

The obviously suggestion here is to add bonuses.

But what kinds of bonuses should you offer?

In general, the bonuses should be complimentary to the original product. For example if you're selling a book on how to get rid of diabetes, you could have bonuses including “diabetes recipes”... or “exercises for reducing diabetes”... or “the top 10 foods which blunt your insulin response”.

See how they're complimentary to the original product and help increase the value of the product? Those are the kinds of bonuses you want. Don't skimp on these... adding and testing various bonuses can easily bump up your response by 30% or more.

Tip #47: How To Double Your Price Without Affecting Conversions

I have to go full credit to Ryan Deiss for this one.

It's brilliant!

Here's the story.

He was selling a product for $97 for a very long time. They'd tested other prices but $97 came out to be the winner. One day they were thinking of other ways to test the price, and they decided to test 2 payments of $97 to see if that would help.

Turns out, it did! Conversions didn't go down (just a little)... yet they effectively DOUBLED the price of the product. But psychologically it doesn't seem like the prices were doubled. Consumers are used to payment plans, so this reduced the perceived risk.

(See how easy it is to reduce the perceived risk?)

Moral of the story – test having the exact same price you have now... but try 2 payments instead of a single payment. And if that wins... might as well try 3 payments right?

Tip #48: Increase Your Conversions 300% In 10 Minutes

Remember in the last tip how I mentioned people psychologically felt as though the perceived risk was lower when you do payment plans? Well, the same is true if you do a free trial of your product.

After all... if you were given an option to pay $97 right now... or $97 30 days from now... which would YOU choose?

Obviously you'd choose to pay 30 days from now.

Try offering your product as a free trial instead of a payment right now. And be sure to have an autoresponder series following up with them throughout those 30 days to help your stick rate.

I've seen this increase conversions up to 300%. Of course not everyone will end up buying so you have to track it... but it's DEFINITELY something worth testing.

The best part about this is that it takes only 10-20 minutes to setup :)

One of the ways I use this one is simply having my regular offer on my sales page, and then using exit splash to create an exit popup... offering the person a free trial instead of paying now.

Tip #49: Offering Multiple Ordering Options

For some reason, a lot of online marketers these days somehow “forget” the old ways of direct response that have worked for hundreds of years. One of those is giving your customer multiple ways to order.

This works particularly well in markets with older consumers. There are multiple options you can give them including order via telephone... credit cards... with or without Paypal... as well as a print order form which they can mail or fax you.

Giving them the option of paying via telephone can boost sales up to 20% or more by itself.

Spend the tiny amount of money it costs to get a phone number for your business. Have it redirect to your cell phone. It's fast, easy, and will boost your sales.

Tip #50: The One-Line Telephone Script Which Can Boost Phone Orders By 30% Or More

In the last tip we talked about letting your customers order via telephone. The reason is because people want to know you're a REAL business with a telephone where they can call and talk to someone with questions. Or simply because they “don't trust the Internet”.

If you have a telephone number they're calling, here's what you do.

#1: Put it directly below the “buy button” on your page.

#2: Dedicate that phone number specifically to taking orders (NOT customer service, which should have a separate number)

#3: When a person calls, answer the phone in this way. “Hi this is {insert name} from {insert your business name}, thanks for calling. What credit card will you be using to place your order today?

That single line alone can boost your telephone orders by up to 20% - 30% or so :)

Tip #51: How To LOWER Your Conversions On Purpose To Skyrocket Your Profits

Here's something that very few people know. Most people will vehemently disagree with me on this, but those who trust me and take my advice are going to make themselves a fortune. I'm talking about how to properly setup your front-end offers.

Every business should have at least one product which is considered a “customer acquisition” product.

In essence, the SOLE purpose of that product is to acquire a new customer. You are NOT looking to make a profit on it. Instead, you slowly expand your universe (the amount of customers you can reach) and broaden your market. If you start going in the negative, you can cut back. If you make a profit, you expand your universe.

To do this, you have to have a robust back-end of course.

But the point of this tip is to get you to create a front-end product which gets you back to break-even.

NO profit.

The reason you want to do this is because your back-end is MUCH more profitable than your front-end. So by lowering your conversions by increasing the market you can reach, you end up acquiring MORE customers... and more customers on the front-end means much, much more profit on the back-end.

And a much larger business :)

Tip #52: The Decoy Offer Strategy

Here's a quick little quiz.

Is a $25 bottle of wine expensive? The answer is a trick question. It depends on what it's being compared to. For example if you're looking at one menu with 3 bottles of wine - $10, $12 and $25... $25 is expensive. But if that same bottle of win is being compared against a $50 and $200 bottle of wine... it seems cheap.

You can apply this little psychological trick to the way you position your products if you're offering more than one option on your sales pages.

Let's say you're offering 2 options. One is the “bronze” level for $47. The other is the “silver” level for $97. You obviously want as many people to buy the silver level. What you could do to boost your conversions on that is to add a decoy offer which offers just a little more than the silver level, but you charge $197 or $297 for it.

People will look at that price and think... “WOW, the silver level is a bargain!”

Try it out and see what happens :) Be sure to track how many people are buying which level, too.

Tip #53: How To Position Physical Products

This one is so easy to setup it's almost too easy. AND, it can increase your average order size by using a powerful psychological positioning trick.

Let's pretend you're selling a digital Ebook for $97. You also got a printed version made and are selling that for 50% more than the digital version. That would put it at $147 (roughly).

What you do is simple. You add a THIRD option where you get the digital AND physical version for the exact same price as the print version alone.

You'll end up selling more of the physical version and increase your average order size. If you get even 30% more people to buy, in this case it would look like this.

Before: For each 1000 orders, 500 take the digital and 500 take physical. That's $97 x 500 + $147 x 500 = $122,000

After: Let's say you get 30% more to take the physical version. That would come out to $97 x 350 + $147 x 650 = $129,500

While this might not look like a huge difference, what if you sold 1,000 per month? That would add $7,500 to your profits each month which could pay for 1-2 employees!

Even 10% of that would add an extra $750. Not too shabby for 5 minutes worth of work.

Here's an example below.

Tip #54: The Triple Pricing Option Trick

Let's assume you have 3 options for the product you're selling. Maybe a bronze/silver/gold package as we used in the previous example. How should you offer them and what prices should you put them at?

I suggest testing this out and watching it boost your conversions.

The middle option should be just a LITTLE better than the smallest option, and the biggest option should add several times more value than the middle option. This will get people to either take the lowest or highest option and not the middle. Depending on the split, it should increase your average customer size.

If it doesn't, you can also try having the middle option MUCH more valuable than the lowest option and the highest option MUCH more valuable than the middle option, but not “all” that much more expensive. This completely eliminates the lowest option from people's minds and gets them mulling over whether to go with the middle of highest option.

Again – as I've said and will say a million times – all this stuff depends on your market, price, product and offer.

Test it out and see what works for YOU.

Chapter 6: Video SaleslettersVideo salesletters (AKA "VSL") can be KILLER... or they can do NOTHING... or they can give you the same conversions as a text salesletter. Don't listen to the hype saying "videos always increase conversions".

If you've ever noticed, that advice comes from people selling video courses. That shouldn't shock you ;)

If done properly, video salesletters can increase your conversions in pretty huge ways. They're also useful in many situations where text salesletters simply wouldn't perform as well. Plus one of the added benefits is that if you're a "heated" person with a strong personality, videos can help show your voice even more.

Anyway... there's lots to talk about when it comes to video salesletters and I HIGHLY recommend testing them out in your market.

If you want someone to create one the PROPER way for you, just go here and get in touch with me.

Let's get started :)

Tip #55: The Secret "Never Fails" Video Introduction

The structure of video salesletters and regular salesletters is similar, yet has to be setup in a different way. With a regular salesletter, your headline and lead can be “ok” and you'll still have many people scrolling the page if it catches their attention just enough.

With video – the first 15 seconds is absolutely CRUCIAL to the success of the video. Videos must promise to give the reader valuable information (just like a regular salesletter). And one of the best ways to get people HOOKED into your videos is to do this...

In the very beginning of the video, preferably in the first 15 seconds... tell them a few things they're going to learn by the end of the video.

Here's a sample clip from a VSL I created for a client of mine.

**Begin sample**

“I'm also going to show you EXACTLY why nothing has worked for you in the past, and the shocking research which shows that dieting without a certain “X” factor can actually make you FATTER over the long-run... not skinnier.

I can promise you that this video will NOT be up forever. Once the big wigs in the weight loss industry discover this video, lawyers will be swarming me like mosquitos in the rainforest. So be sure to watch this video to the very end, TODAY, because I'm going to show you a way to lose weight that you've NEVER heard of before and I can't guarantee this video will be up tomorrow.

But first... I'm going to make a prediction about you.”

**End sample**

Before that part began, I told them a few other things they were going to learn. I didn't want to give too much away which is why I only included part of it. The few paragraphs before that were VERY hook-worthy but would give away his website, etc.

So to break it down... if you want an EASY way to start your video it should go something like this...

#1: Hi this is X from X, and in this short(content-packed/unique,etc.) video you're going to discover a little-known way to (insert benefit) without (insert the traditional way which is either hard or doesn't work).

And then go from there. Just do your best to find a UNIQUE hook that most people don't talk about. Or you can take an existing piece of common knowledge and explain why it's completely WRONG. Just be sure to promise PROOF that it's actually wrong.

Tip #56: Video Placement

In a few tests I've done, a VSL by itself did NOT improve conversions.

What did improve conversions was having a text salesletter, with an additional video on that page. That video can be used in several ways including introducing the “face” of the business, offering additional information or demonstrations, having the product endorsed by a celebrity or guru in that niche, etc.

I've also tested having those types of complimentary videos in several areas on the page.

What I've discovered is that, in general, the closer the video is towards the TOP of the page, the better. More, if you have that video interact with the headline... it can give you even bigger increases.

In other words – the video can either be placed directly next to the headline, or just under the headline on the RIGHT of the page next to the text.

Tip #57: Video Size

Here's a quick tip for you.

Make your video BIGGER.

As always, test the size, but what I've found is that in nearly every test I've done... bigger was better. Sorry guys, this one rings true once again! :)

Tip #58: The Voiceover Myth

Here's one that should definitely help your conversions and save you money at the same time.

People mistakenly assume that they should pay $500 - $1,000 or even more for “professional” voiceovers. But think about it. Why are people on your page in the first place? To CONNECT with another human being. In this case, that “human being” is the face of your business.

(Note: If you don't have a specific face of your business, you should)

In all my tests I've done... regular Joe's have outperformed professional voiceovers.

The reason is simply because they can tell it's FAKE. Not exactly "fake"... it just sounds "too good" and they don't like that. Transparency and relationships sell these days, and hiring a professional voiceover is like telling your audience that you don't care enough about them to use your own voice.

This is why you'll notice many big companies such as Sprint, Allstate, Geico, etc. use a very common "character" to use as the face of the business.

Here are a few test ideas for you with voiceovers.

1) Test a very natural, next door neighbor sounding voiceover

2) If possible – use the same voice in each of your videos to establish rapport

3) If you're going to hire voiceovers... try British and females. They seem to beat non-British and/or guys in most cases. Australians work well for United States audience too.

As always, remember, TEST TEST TEST!

Tip #59: The Future Promise

This sneaky little trick boosts your conversions by getting them hooked into your VSL and by promising to tell them something LATER in the video that you know for a fact they'll want to stick around and here.

In other words, you hook them in by promising to reveal a secret to them. However you have to say “I'll show you exactly how to do this a little later in the video. First I want to talk to you about...”

Here's an example.

“The bottom line here is that when you add this little-known secret to virtually ANY weight loss program, the results are always better - more than 146% better over the long term!

In just a minute I'll show you exactly what it is and how you can use it in your own life starting just a few minutes from now. But first, I'd like to tell you a little story of how I discovered this secret.”

Tip #60: Revealing Your Story

Stories are amazingly powerful. We briefly talked about this already but I'd like to go into a little more depth on what types of stories you can talk about.

First – stories are hypnotic. The reason they work so well is that if you craft them carefully enough, you can make the STORY sell which lowers your prospects defenses and gets them to trust you while being pitched to.

Here are a few types of stories you can add into your VSL's...

Personal discovery – You struggled until you accidentally discovered the #1 secret which allowed you to succeed

Hometown boy becomes hero – In this you'd go into full detail on why you're just a regular person who happened to come across success and now you want to show others how they can do the same

Rags to riches – I think you've heard enough rags to riches stories to understand what they are!

“Imagination” stories – This is typically a “made up” story in which you start off by saying “Imagine this”... and then go into a full blown detailed explanation of what their life could look like

Case study – In this you offer the prospect a glimpse of what could happen when they follow your system, and show them by giving them a few case studies of people just like them who took a chance and succeeded

I can't say enough about creating video salesletters based off stories. By combining a powerful story with the opportunity to actually HEAR you speak it, you can achieve some pretty amazing results.

Once again... if you haven't checked it out already I highly recommend Troy White's Storytelling Course if you want to learn one of the most powerful persuasion techniques I've ever come across.

I know I keep repeating to signup for his course. There's a reason for that!

Chapter 7: PPC Ads/Banners/Facebook Ads

Traffic.

Everybody loves it. And everybody needs it!

Without traffic, testing takes forever to do. The more traffic you have, the faster you can test and the faster you can increase your profits.

Plus, by improving your CTR with PPC ads, banners and Facebook ads, you typically lower your cost per click (CPC) as well. Lower cost, higher traffic, higher conversions. I don't know about you, but to me that smells like a damn good recipe :)

Tip #61: A Guaranteed Way To Increase Your PPC Ads

If you do a lot of Google PPC or Facebook marketing, one of the BEST tips I can give you is to signup for an account at www.BoostCTR.com

This website allows you to get your ad rewritten by writers (like myself) who send you their versions and have you test them.

The best part?

You ONLY pay for winning ads. That means you don't have to pay copywriters to write your ads and not know if they'll win or not.

In other words, it's “pay for performance” only.

When it comes to PPC, you can't get much better than pay per performance.

Tip #62: Writing To Curious George

One general tip I can give you for PPC ads, banners, Facebook ads or anything driving clicks to your website is to make them very curiosity based. For example you can say something like “Can This Little Tool REALLY Boost Your Conversions By 32%?”

Anybody interested in boosting their conversions would click on that link because they want to see what you're talking about. One caveat is that if you're on a shoestring budget, this own't work because your conversions will drop slightly because people won't be pre-sold on anything.

So if you're on a tight budget, try doing something more direct first for higher sales page conversions... and then test curiosity driven ads for more clicks.

Tip #63: Action-Oriented URL's

Just like any other piece of copy, these types of ads need a call to action. But most people never have one!

One easy way to add a call to action to your ads is to simply put it in the URL.

For example...

Don't Do This: www.YourWebsite.com/

Do This: www.YourWebsite.com.com/LoseWeightNow

Or This: www.YourWebsite.com/GetYourReport

I've seen increases of about 15-20% with that simple little addition :)

Tip #64: Exploiting The Buying Cycle

One HUGE mistake I see people make is not taking into consideration the stage of the buying process their prospects are in.

For example... let's assume you were shopping for a new car. You just realized you needed one and were figuring out what kind of car you wanted.

Which of these ads would you respond to?

Shop Used CarsFree tool lets you decide whichcar is best for you. Try it now!

Shop Used CarsLow prices + 2 year warranty on allused cars. Shop today!

Obviously you'd choose the FIRST ad because you were in that stage (the research phase) of the buying process. But if you already knew the make and model you wanted... you'd choose the 2nd ad.

What you want to do is segment your ads and landing pages based on which stage of the buying process your prospect is in. Match up the keywords with your ads and landing pages and you'll not only get much higher CTR's, you'll get much higher conversion rates as well!

Tip #65: Getting "Weird" With It!

I do a lot of tests where I test a “straight pitch” versus an “educational pitch”. And I can tell you that in virtually EVERY case, the educational pitch won. People are simply addicted to good, unique information.

And that's why if you offer FREE information in your ads, you'll get a higher CTR nearly every time. You can offer a free special report... a free video... a free whitepaper... or whatever else.

Videos typically beat audio and PDF's.

Digging deeper, people don't want to have information PILED on them. They want a quick little tip they can use NOW to increase their results in whatever they're doing. So one thing you should test is using ads using the following formula (I've included a few examples which you can modify to fit your niche)

Discover My #1 Weird Little Trick For XXXRevealed: The Strange Secret Which Allowed Me To XXXRevealed: The Strange XXX Lurking In Your XXX

Tip #66: Banner Animations

All humans have a very unique feature within their brain which allows us to be amazingly sensitive to movement.

The reason for this goes back to the “cave man” days.

Think about it... back then... seeing something move out of the corner of your eye could keep you alive! There's no way I'd want to be surprise attacked by some vicious animal :)

Anyway... it's very easy to take advantage of this natural ability. Instead of having banners that are static graphics (jpg, png, etc.)... you make them animated. You'll most likely have to hire someone to help you with this of course, but you're probably doing that anyway to get your banners made.

Here's what you do to be cost effective.

#1: Have them create your normal banner.

#2: Then, simply find two RED arrows and make them flash back and forth, pointing towards your call to action on the banner.

That's it!

And by the way, you can apply this same strategy to your CTA button on any/every page on your website. Just don't overdue it too much as it can look spammy after awhile.

Chapter 8: General TipsThe following tips are what I call "general" tips.

I know, I should get an award for the best chapter title ever.

These tips can help various people in various places and don't really have a place under one roof like the others.

But, they'll help you increase your conversions and that's all that matters.

Enjoy!

Tip #67: How To Find Your Value Proposition

This conversion tip is a little different than most of the others. Instead of changing something on your site and seeing an immediate increase, this is like an intermediary step which gives you an insight, which THEN can boost your conversions.

So first, we all know we should have a unique selling proposition. I'm assuming you're familiar with that. Similar to that is a “value proposition” which, in my mind, is so similar it's not even worth explaining the difference. So whether you want to use a USP or value proposition... it's all the same for this purpose.

The problem with a value proposition (VP) is that you don't know which VP resonates most deeply with your prospects. So instead of guessing, you simply TEST your VP within PPC ads. Here are a few VP's you can test to see which resonates strongly with your audience...

1. A unique feature2. Price3. Guarantee4. Customer Service5. Quality6. Exclusivity

Test at least 5 of these (and any other differentiating factors) and base the entire PPC ad around that factor.

See which gets the highest CTR.

Then, test that on your pages to see if it truly helps sales. If it does, and you've tested the other value propositions, you now have your unique value proposition!

Tip #68: Matching The Scent

Way too many ads these days lose the “scent” of the visitor.

What I mean by scent is the thought sequence they've started which led them to your website.

In more basic terms, you want congruency and consistency in EACH step of your marketing funnel.

For example... if you're driving people to a landing page talking about a 60% off sale on a specific item, all of your marketing before that point should also talk about the product being 60% off.

If your sales page is talking about “red widgets”, everything before that step should talk about “red widgets”. You would think this is common sense, but SO many people don't do this that it's almost criminal.

In many of the clients I work with, we create several “themes” like we talked about earlier for the sales page. Since those themes are so different, sometimes it's hard to maintain the scent.

Because of that I do one of two things.

1) I create ads (such as an email, PPC ads, Facebook ads, banners, etc.) based around each theme and send the traffic to their respective theme

2) I create a “general” ad which gives neither of them more or less congruency than the other

Remember... consistency & congruency. You'll see an immediate 10% - 20% increase in your sales pages when the traffic source sending them to that page is consistent and congruent.

Tip #69: Creating "Fun" Event-Based Promotions

As I write this, it's Cyber Monday. A few days ago on Black Friday my inbox was PUMMELED with offers from every company you could possibly imagine.

And they're all making a COLOSSAL mistake.

Look, business is about standing out. NOT about blending in. Why would you want to have your good offers during the exact same time everybody else is having their offers?

If you do that, you're losing out on an insane amount of money. People are distracted with all the offers during Black Friday, Christmas, and all other "typical" holiday sales.

(They should have had it a few days BEFORE everyone else...)

Instead what you want to do is create event-based promotions in times that AREN'T competing with everyone else in your industry (and other industries).

Here are 10 fun, event-based promotions you can do just to get your juices flowing...

1. You accidentally over-stocked your inventory

2. National Thank You Month (Thank them for being customers by giving a $20 coupon with no minimum purchase)

3. Random acts of kindness week (Add an extra bonus(es) to your product)

4. Tax preparation (just got a big tax bill so you're having a sale, etc.)

5. Tootsie roll introduced (Feb 23rd... you can send a tootsie roll in a direct mail package and say it was introduced on Feb 23rd, and you're introducing your new product)

6. Read an Ebook week (Tie it into reading your Ebook...)

7. National obesity awareness week (perfect for people in the health market!)

8. Embrace your Geekiness day (admit any "geekiness" you have and tie it into a promotion you're doing)

9. National out of the doghouse day (perfect for people selling items that would be good gifts for women... like flowers, candies, etc.)

10. Accountants day (Do a promotion playing a "joke" on your accountant and pissing them off by lowering your prices)

That should get your juices flowing. These promotions are fun... viral... and profitable!

Tip #70: The Social Proof Miracle

In this day and age, people simply DON'T trust businesses. And I can understand why. People have been neglected, lied to and swindled for centuries. Unfortunately the jackass companies out there ruin it for the rest of us trying to help others.

But, it is what it is. And instead of getting mad about it, you have to adapt. One of the best ways to do that is to make sure EVERY claim you make is backed up by proof. We've already talked about this.

Another way is adding another element of proof called “social” proof. This type of proof is very subtle and shows how credibly your business is without being “hypey”.

Before I give you a few examples of social proof, I want to be crystal clear.

Social proof, and regular proof such as showing scientific studies, etc.... is CRUCIAL to success. You can never have too much.

With that said, here are ten different types of proof you can use in your marketing.

1. How much of your product has been sold2. The number of countries you've sold your product to3. As seen in/on...4. Testimonials5. Pictures of you in credible places (on stage, etc.)6. Endorsements (celebrities work like gangbusters!)7. Case studies8. 3rd party reviews (such as Amazon reviews, Power Reviews, etc.)9. Publicity10. Achievements

Tip #71: Page Loading Time

Here's another VERY easy way to boost your conversions. By speeding up your site. People these days are incredibly impatient and simply won't wait for a slow site. Amazon.com did a study in 2007 and discovered that for every one second it takes its pages to load... they lose 10% in sales.

Yikes!

That means if you can speed up your page load time by just TWO lousy seconds, you can boost your conversions by 20%. It's hard to test this one, and honestly there's no reason to even test it because it's a “guaranteed win” for once... so just do it.

Go to www.Elance.com/ and create a project asking someone to speed up your website. It'll probably cost you $100 but will boost your sales.

Oh, and by the way, Google also favors fast websites in their SEO results so you might even bump up your SEO results by a few spots :)

Tip #72: Colors

Colors are actually much more important than you realize. Here's a test. Go watch 10 different news stations and write down which colors make up their sets. My guess is, in at least 80% of the case... they have these colors: Blue, darker orange/brown.

Those colors are called “trust” colors. Blue is trust, brown displays genuineness, and orange shows excitement. Add these up and you can understand why the news shows these colors as much as they can.

For more information on using colors in your marketing, you can go here.

Colors can also be used to guide the eye-path of the reader.

If you want someone to look at a certain place on your website, one easy way to do that is to simply make that area more brightly colored than surrounding areas.

There are many ways to do that, but in terms of conversion increases, here's a tip. Whenever you have a call to action, let's just say on a landing page, make the color of the CTA an OPPOSITE color of the background of where the CTA is located.

So let's say your page background is white. Your optin box is a light blue color. If that's the case, you want your CTA button to be a bright color such as yellow or orange. Or maybe green. On the other hand if your optin box is green... you could use yellow which makes it pop out.

And of course if your CTA is on a white background like it is many times on sales pages, you can test having a red button... slightly darker orange... or a dark green.

Here are the key points to remember.

#1: Certain colors make you feel certain emotions.

#2: Your eye is guided towards contrasting colors.

Remember those two key points and designing your website should be a piece of cake.

Tip #73: Segmentation Secrets

Segmentation is another “general” conversion tip that can be used for the traffic you use... your email campaigns... promotions... how often you get in touch with people... and so many different ways.

It IS an advanced marketing technique and sometimes takes a little technical know-how, which is why most people don't do it. However... I've seen conversions DOUBLE when segmentation is done correctly.

So do it.

Here are 7 ways ANYBODY can segment their list to dramatically increase their profits.

1. Segmenting traffic into cold/warm lists and sending to certain pages

2. Tagging your prospects based on what types of products they're interested in and only promoting related products to those lists

3. Setting up user-behavior triggers (you can do this in software such as Infusionsoft or Office Autopilot)

4. Segmenting based on demographics (age, gender, race, etc.)

5. Segmenting prospects & buyers

6. Geography

7. Types of customer (e.g. “only people who have bought similar products from competitors)

Remember, this can get a little tricky, but it's VERY much worth the effort. The key to high conversions is being able to talk directly to your exact perfect prospect. Segmentation allows you to do that!

If you don't segment yet... but want an EASY way to do it... I highly recommend checking out Office Autopilot.

Tip #74: Reducing Friction

When people are shopping and browsing online, they all come across various elements of “friction”. In short, friction is anything that makes it harder for the consumer to take the next step in your funnel.

For example, let's say you have an optin form asking for name, email address, phone number, address, and “title”.

Do you REALLY need all that information?

Most likely not.

The more fields you remove, the higher your conversions will be.

My rule of thumb for optin forms is that if you aren't actively using the information to increase your sales... take it out.

That one is easy to understand. Here are a few more you may not have thought of. Read each of these and write them down. Then go to your main sales page and see how you can reduce friction each of these is causing.

1) Eye-path making your page hard to read

2) Having more than one equally weighted CTA's on your page

3) Having too many/competing font styles and sizes

4) Bad color combinations which increases eye strain (for example, a black background with white text is extremely taxing on your eyes

5) Having too many steps in the order process

There are many more areas of friction that can be reduced on your website but if you reduce all five of those, you can get anywhere from a 10% - 100%+ increase in your conversion rates.

I would start with your optin forms and make sure you're asking for the least amount of information possible. I've seen 100%+ increases JUST from removing a few fields!

Tip #75: Reducing Anxiety

Another negative emotion people feel when shopping on your website is called “anxiety”.

Think about it.

People are spending their hard-earned money with your business. Most of them are broke. So just before they hit the “buy” button, they're nervous.

Reducing customer anxiety can get pretty complex and require deep explanation. Since this course's purpose is to give you quick tips you can use immediately, I won't dive into it.

Instead I'll go straight to the meat and potatoes and tell you a few ways to reduce anxiety, including...

1. Privacy policies showing that you won't spam them

2. Using third-party seals and testimonials which display your quality, reliability, security, price, etc.

3. Use close proximity where your customers are feeling this anxiety. For example when people are checking out, they get anxious that they're getting the best price. So having a testimonial showcasing how that person comparison-shopped and found your site to be the best price will reduce anxiety just before they purchase.

4. If you have a unique offer, such as a free trial, explain why it's a free trial. Also, explain why you need their credit card information. Or explain why you have to charge for shipping, etc.

5. Add various forms of media such as audio or video to places throughout your site which need further explanation. For example, instead of having “this site is secure”... have a video or audio of you going into full explanation of WHY it's secure.

Tip #76: Increasing Motivation

When a person comes to your website, they're motivated in some way, shape or form. If they have zero motivation, they won't do anything. These are the people who “bounce” off your site. On the other hand if they're highly motivated (meaning your offer was congruent with what they want and need), they can do anything from sign up on your list... to buy your most expensive product.

The more motivated they are, the more likely the are to buy.

So how do you increase motivation?

By RESEARCHING your market.

By understanding the needs, wants and motivations of your market, you'll automatically be in tune with writing the copy that motivates them to take action. You'll also be in tune with what products they need.

For more information on researching your market, you can download this interview I did with Ben Settle.

Tip #77: Selling To The Deep-Seated Emotions

Everybody on this planet responds more to either negative actions or positive actions.

In other words, you're either moving TOWARDS pleasure, or AWAY from pain. In general, business owners tend to move towards pleasure, while consumers tend to move away from pain.

So if you're selling a course on how to grow tomatoes, you might want to talk about how you can avoid losing your tomatoes... instead of talking about growing them bigger.

The easiest way to do this is by testing 2 different landing pages. One would be focused on NEGATIVE statements such as moving away from pain. The other would be focused on POSITIVE statements such as moving towards pleasure.

If you find a significant increase by using the language of one of those routes, you can then use this in ALL of your marketing... and see increases in every single area of your marketing ;)

Tip #78: Developing Your Character

Consumers hate big businesses. That's something that most people know but most people don't really think about. If given the choice (same value, prices, etc.)... 90%+ of consumers would rather give money to a PERSON... rather than a “business”.

And that's why you need to develop a character to be the face of your business. This does NOT have to be you. Heck, it doesn't even have to be a person. It can be a cartoon character. But what it/they must do is add personality and excitement to your business. By doing this, people will become more loyal.

Remember, most people are looking for an escape from the daily horrors of their life. They want excitement, drama and passion. By creating a character that's “larger than life” they'll automatically become addicted and passionate about YOUR business.

Here are some examples you can model from...

Dan Kennedy who is the "NO BS" guy. He's very straightforward, down to brass tacks and takes no prisoners. He admitted... he's not quite that "harsh" in real life.

Frank Kern... the "surfer dude who makes easy money hardly working"... even though he works like crazy.

The Rich Jerk - this guy lives the high life. Fast cards, hot women, luxury houses, etc. Everything he does attracts those who want to live that kind of life, and pushes away those who don't agree with his tactics

Whatever your character is, make sure it resonates with your market. Creating the right character can propel your business faster than the vast, vast majority of marketing tactics out there. It's VERY important!

Tip #79: The Sneaky Little Pre-Framing Trick

Pre-framing.

It's the little-known conversion secret that VERY few people think about.

This is the reason good affiliate promotions work so well. They pre-frame the customer and give them a unique form of proof that's hard to duplicate.

But besides using it in affiliate promotions, here's another way which I've seen increase conversions up to 100%.

All you do is add a page BEFORE your sales page which “sells” your customer on what your product is.

So if you're selling a product on how to train dogs, you can create a page talking about how important it is to train your dogs, and give them five qualifications to look for in a person or course showing you how to train your own dog.

Then, of course, on the next page your sales page replicates what you mentioned on the pre-sell page they just saw. You can do this by educating the prospect, offering proof about your product, having a third party review, or many other ways. Get creative... but definitely test having a pre-sell page added into your funnel before they see the sales page.

Tip #80: Damaging Admissions

Skepticism is rampant in todays selling environment. They have a very hard time believing ANY claims made today, and it's very possible (and very easy) to make too many unbelievable claims in your marketing. Because of this, one thing you have to do is establish trust with your prospects.

And a very easy way to do this is with a damaging admission.

A damaging admission can be defined like this: “Any statement you make about yourself that displays a weakness or flaw in yourself or your product... without damaging the effectiveness of you or your product”.

In other words, you display a weakness of your product/service, but reposition that weakness to actually become a benefit.

Here's an example.

If you only buy products with perfect audio quality, this isn't for you. There are times within the course that the audio gets a little fuzzy. Here's why that's a GOOD thing. Because the quality turned out to be less than I expected, I decided to DROP the price by an extra 20% so there are no hard feelings.

That means you save XXX off the price I was going to sell it at, simply because a few spots in the course aren't perfect quality. These are SMALL spots which don't affect whether or not you can actually hear what I'm saying. You can. I simply wouldn't feel right charging the full price because of those few small audio mistakes.

See how powerful that can be?

Not only does it evoke trust in the person reading the message and makes them feel that “well, if he's being so honest about that – he must be an honest guy!”... it also gives them yet another reason to buy (the discount)!

There are many ways to add in damaging admissions. Go through your product/service and try to find ANY weakness in it, and tell people about it. Turn it into a strong benefit. And watch your sales go up.

Tip #81: The Sweet Potato SecretThe sweet potato trick is something I thought of after really sitting down to think about the mindset of the majority of consumers today. At least, those in markets where you're selling them more than once (an example of only selling them once would be if you were selling caskets).

Think about it this way.

Earlier in the 1900's we were in the Industrial Age. Next, and even still, we're in the Information Age. Unfortunately a lot of Information Age marketers have ripped off consumers, and because of the "social" age we're in now... people have access to just about ANY information they want to get.

Which means they're going to shop prices. They're going to compare you to your competitors. And they're going to talk to their friends about you.

People want a conversation. They want to know, like, and trust you more than ever. And that's why you need to start turning your business into a sweet potato. Sweet potatoes, unlike baked potatoes... are cooked SLOWLY.

And when it comes to selling your information, you want to nurture your prospects SLOWLY. The more you try to ram your message down their throats, the lower conversions you'll have. Sure, you can have pitches upfront... I typically do... but those pitches should start off a little more subtle and gradually increase to more of a hard pitch.

Remember, people are looking to know, like, and trust you. You have to build that trust.

The way to do that is nurturing your prospects slowly. Don't pop 'em in the microwave like a baked potato. Rather, cook (i..e. "sell") them slowly by giving them tremendous value FIRST and getting them on your list... and then build out your list with hundreds of autoresponder messages that span at least 1-2 years.

Chapter 9: Back-End FunnelThe back end is where your profits are made. Many people forget this and continually focus on creating new products for the front-end... when they'd be much better served by building out their back-end with higher priced products.

There are hundreds of ways to do this, but here are a few you can start immediately to increase the profits in your business.

Tip #82: The Backend Product Framework

Have you ever been sold a product... and then on the upsell page were sold basically a "better" version of that product you just bought for more money?

Here's a hint.

That pisses people off!

For example, if I sold you 30 more conversion tips... that would be a bad upsell because you'd say to yourself "well why didn't you just put them in there in the first place?".

(You CAN make this work, but it's a little tricky and usually unethical)

Instead, you want to try and find a way to sell them another product/service that gets them either faster or easier results (or both). Therefore... a good upsell for this product is having ME do your split-testing for you. That gets you faster results because I have experience... makes it easier for you... AND saves you time.

Surprise! If you want me to help you boost your conversions just go here :)

1. Faster. 2. Easier.

That's what you want to shoot for in your upsells.

Tip #83: How To Properly Position One-Time Offers

I can't tell you how many times I see "one time offers"... which I then see again... and again... and again. Just on principle, I never buy those offers. And I typically don't ever buy from that person again unless they have a product that's something I desperately need.

And if you're doing that, your prospects and customers are thinking the same way. Everybody hates getting swindled and by having a "one-time offer" which isn't actually a one-time offer, you lose INSTANT credibility. Maybe you won't notice it immediately, but your conversions will silently drop because people will lose respect for you.

Now, am I saying one-time offers are a bad thing? Absolutely not. Doing them can churn out some insane profits. What I'm saying is if you say they're a one-time deal, it'd better be true.

Going deeper, also understand that most people don't believe one-time offers. They realize it's probably not true and it causes them not to buy. So what do you do? You EXPLAIN why it's a one-time offer. In other words, give a reason why.

For example, you can explain that you hired a programmer and set it up so that your system tracks their IP address and won't allow them to see that particular page again with the one-time offer. If you explain it with enough programming language, they'll believe you. And again, it'd better be true!

In summary, I have 3 main points.

1. DO one-time offers. 2. Make them legit. 3. Explain why and how they'll never see that price again.

On my one-time offer pages throughout my upsell process... I always have an expiration date in my html which makes it so that people can't access the page twice. You'll also notice that I SAY that on the page.

All you have to do is put this line of code inbetween your <head> and </head> tags...

<META HTTP-EQUIV="Expires" CONTENT="-1">

Do that... and watch your conversions on your one-time offers go up over time.

Tip #84: Continuity Clarity

This one involves a little math and will force you to do some work (oh no... work!?!?!) but it's well worth it because it's going to teach you a valuable lesson.

So let's start with the basics. Most people don't ever test whether it's more profitable to have a one-time product or a continuity product as an upsell. They simply "assume" or don't put any thought into it.

And that's a mistake.

For example, if you're selling an upsell for $47 with a conversion rate of 20%... that's an average value of $9.40 per visitor to that page.

But what if you had a continuity program for $27 per month... with a stick rate of 4 months... and a conversion rate of only 10%?

That would mean the average person spent $108 over those 4 months. But since it's only a 10% conversion rate, that gives you an average value of $10.80 per visitor to that page.

So as you can see... even though the price was almost half... and the conversions were almost half... you still make more money.

The point is - test your offers.

Be a real marketer and spend the time to figure out what gives you the highest profit. Higher conversions do NOT always give you higher profits.

Tip #85: The Ascension Ladder

If you've never heard of the term "ascension ladder" it simply means that people should start off at a lower price point and continually and gradually be sold products/services that are MORE expensive than the first product.

You can do this in ANY niche if you get creative enough. Let me give you an example of what I COULD do if I wanted to, for this product. Remember just because you can do something doesn't necessarily mean you should if it doesn't fit your goals.

This Product - low endNext Upsell - Swipes for each of these tips - $297Next Upsell - Having me critique your site and giving specific items to test - $497Next Upsell - Having me work directly on your site - $500+ per monthNext Upsell - Having me create new sales copy for you - $4,000+Cross Sell - Creating an automated webinar for you - $Several thousand + royalties

See how that works?

If I wanted to (I don't even know if I will at this point)... I could take you from a purchase of under $100... to a purchase of $5,000 or more, plus royalties. This is what I do in my service business... taking people from critiques, to creating new salesletters (and other things)for them.

So why aren't you doing this in your business? Get creative. You can do seminars (even virtual if you want)... monthly coaching... email coaching... "done for you" services... and dozens of other things to get you into that 4-figure range for products and services.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather only have to sell a handful of one product to make, say $100k, than hundreds of another. You have to sell 1,000 $100 products to make $100k. Or you can sell 20 $5,000 products.

Tip #86: Yes/Yes/No Offers

I'm sure you've been through an upsell/downsell chain. Have you ever noticed that the layout of the buttons is usually the EXACT same on every page? Most marketers get lazy and use the same buttons, and people very quickly become conditioned to finding and hitting the "no" button.

What you want to do is break that pattern...

... by mixing up your offers.

For example, on the first offer you can have a "yes/no" offer. Then on the second... make it a "yes/yes/no" offer (maybe selling them the gold package, silver package or nothing).

Then on the next page, make the buying area look completely different from the last page.

Doing this isn't going to triple your conversions, but it can increase them on your upsells by 5-10% or so by creating a pattern interrupt.

And if you're following my suggestions and selling high-ticket items... you could increase your profits by quite a bit by selling just 10% more.

Tip #87: The Effortless Referral

Referrals. They're one of THE most overlooked ways to increase your business. They cost you nothing and generate tons of goodwill. Think about it. If you have a customer who recommends your product/service to their friends... don't you think it would automatically make them more loyal to your company?

Ok, you agree, great :)

So here's an easy way to do that.

Spend 10 minutes writing a quick email asking your customer to show your products to their friends. Explain the benefits of doing so. How they'll be helping their friend, etc. Reiterate the reasons why THEY bought your product. Yadda yadda.

Then, stick that email in your post-buying autoresponder sequence.

(You DO have an autoresponder sequence for buyers, right?)

You can offer them a bonus, surprise, free consultation, etc. for referring others if you want. You can even send them to a viral friend generator. Whatever you want to do. Just do it!

I'll have one of these messages in the customer autoresponder sequence YOU are now on, so you can feel free to model (not copy) that email if you like.

Your welcome... I just paid for this course several times over ;)

Chapter 10: RetentionIf you're in a niche where you sell to the same customer more than once, retention is absolutely critical to the longevity and overall profits of your business.

Let's say you have a membership site at $47 per month and have 500 customers who stay, on average, for 3 months. If you can increase that number to 4 months on average... you've just increased your profits by 33%.

Crazy!

In that example, you'd take the average customer value for that continuity program from $141 to $188. Not too bad, and it's really not very hard!

Below are various tips on retainer customers and clients. Read them, do them, and make yourself a boatload of moolah ;)

Tip #88: The Courtesy Call

The title of this one is (hopefully) pretty self-explanatory. An EASY way to increase the profits in your business is simply calling people after they order and thanking them. Not only thanking them... but making sure everything went smoothly and they're still happy about the purchase.

You can answer any questions they have, reassure them that they made a good purchase, and reassure them again that if they have ANY problems they can call you (or your support) and get their questions answered right away.

Very few people do this, so once you do (and you better!), you'll immediately have an advantage over your competitors. THat means the next time they need something in your market, they'll think of YOU instead of your competitors.

Now, I understand most people reading this won't have the time to call customers all day long.

After all, you have to get work done.

Because of that, I recommend getting this outsourced.

If you already have a customer service team, your first option should be to train them on how to do it. If you don't, or don't want to pay for an extra person, you can use an outbound telephone service such as www.retentioncalls.com

They're just one company that can help you out.

Do your research and talk to a few companies to see which you like best... and choose one if it makes sense for your business. You'll be glad you did.

Tip #89: How To Get A 230% ROI With Stick Letters

Here's a little tip I want you to remember for the rest of your life.

The more ways you connect with your customers, the more money you'll make.

I don't know why this is, but 90%+ of businesses today (ESPECIALLY online marketers) think that there is only one media good enough to use.

The Internet.

That's bullshit. Your customers want to be engaged. And they want to be engaged in several different ways. That means email... videos... articles... postcards... direct mail letters... the telephone... and many other forms of media.

One easy way to increase your stick rate (and to make more money immediately) is to send customers a "stick letter" when they buy one of your products.

A stick letter basically consists of 1-4 pages. The first page would be your "thank you" page in which you thank them for the order, explain everything, and reassure them that they made a good purchase.

The rest of it would then transition into a short pitch on why they should buy one of your OTHER products. It's basically the same idea as an upsell online, except you're doing it offline while they're in a different mindset (many people, especially older folks, don't respond well to online advertising but will respond to direct mail).

Now, let's do the math. Let's say you're upselling a product for $47. You send it to 1,000 people. Your cost is, let's say a dollar each. When you send it out, you get a 5% response rate (very reasonable).

That brings you in $2,350 in revenue. And you only spend $1,000.

That's like giving somebody $1 and them giving you back $2.35. Let me ask you, how many dollars would you give that person? Obviously you'd do it as much as you could!

Once again... do this... make money. Your numbers will differ of course, but it's easy to test and can add a heck of a lot of money to your bottom-line, especially if you're selling higher-end products.

Tip #90: The Personal Coach Trick

Here's something you probably already know. Just a small handful of people ever actually USE the product they buy from you. With information products, estimates are that about 10% of people ever even OPEN the product.

And less than 5% finish it.

Crazy, I know.

But that's life.

And the lesson here is that the VAST majority of people who are asking for refunds for your product, are doing so because they got excited in your salesletter but realized after buying that they really didn't need your product.

So instead of simply letting that happen, what I want you to do is create a customer-only (AKA "buyers" autoresponder list and walk them through HOW to consume your product.

Act as their personal coach, giving even deeper insights into the lessons taught in your course. Give them teasers as to what they'll discover in certain chapters. Do whatever you have to do to get them to open your product!

Then, watch your retention stats go up and your refunds go down.

It's a beautiful thing :)

Note: Feel free to model the "customer-only" list you're on right now since buying this product. But PLEASE don't simply copy/paste. Take the main ideas, not the actual words.

Tip #91: The Sneaky Little "Gift" Trick For Improving Stick Rates

This one is only for those with continuity programs. If you don't have one, you can skip this and the next tip.

Now, I'm assuming you have some type of cancellation policy. For example “give it a test-drive for free and you'll be charged after 30 days if you don't cancel.

As you probably know, you'll see a HUGE percentage of people cancel right before that 30 day mark. There are many reasons for this, but we're not concerned with that just yet.

What I want you to do is... ONE week before their trial expires... send them an email (or phone call/direct mail/etc.) and tell them that their membership is about to expire but if they stick around for another month, you have a FREE gift for them.

Make sure the free gift is an irresistible one.

Once you implement this, I want you to keep track of your retention rate before and after you added this in. You'll find that, once again, this single tip will have paid for this product many times :)

Tip #92: Evil Shenanigans For Keeping Customers Forever

Man, I hate this one! I can't tell you how many memberships I've signed up for in the past and have sucked hundreds, possibly thousands of extra dollars from me.

Let me explain.

One of the main reasons people cancel memberships is because they become bored with what they're getting, or because they aren't using the information.

An easy way to overcome that is to create some type of software that they HAVE to use in order to get the benefits of joining your membership site. That way if they cancel, they lose all the benefits of joining the membership in the first place.

One great example of this is supplements. Once you stop your autoship, you lose all the benefits. In the case of multivitamins, you no longer get the vitamins you need and the previous benefits basically vanish.

Now I realize this is a little “sneaky” and CAN be used unethically... so please be ethical and honest with how you use this.

Tip #93: The Community Conversion Secret

Question: Why are people willing to spend 20-30% or more on a house... even if they have access to the EXACT same house a few towns away?

Answer: The community.

Being part of a community is a biological necessity of humans in order to complete the human experience. Think about it. In most cases (except maybe for buddhist monks), the more people you know and the more you interact with others, the happier your life is.

People have an ingrained need to feel like they belong to a group or community.

Whether its their local community or YOUR community of like-minded people sharing a similar interest doesn't matter. What matters is that you create a community, or, at least make them feel like they're in a community.

You can do this as easily as mentioning the words club, group, community, clan, or any synonym you want to use. You should also talk in very specific language that "outsiders" wouldn't understand. For example, in marketing we have phrases such as CTR, ROI, LCV, and others.

Knowing what those means makes you FEEL like a marketer. Like you're part of the marketing community.

Now, is this going to increase your conversions immediately right off the bat? No, of course not. It's a long-term brand building effect.

But if you doubt how powerful it can be, think of this. In any cult... whether it be a Ku Klux Klan... Nazi's... or any religion (I'm not saying religions are BAD cults... I'm a church-goer myself... but in a technical sense they're a type of cult nonetheless)... having a leader make you feel like you're part of the community is one of the most used tricks in the book.

So... use it wisely.

And for GOOD only!

As you can see, it can be amazingly powerful.

Tip #94: How To "Steal Back" 30% Of Your Customers And Clients

People die.

And they move.

And they get disinterested in the market you're selling in.

And they get offended by some of the things you do.

Any one of these factors (and many more), can turn a customer into your competitors customer. The problem is, most people never do anything about it. They simply let that customer leave, not only lowering their own profits but increasing the profits of their customers.

So what do you do?

You create a customer reactivation letter. This is simply a direct mail letter, email, postcard, phone call, or any other type of media which tries to reactivate a former customer who has been inactive.

There are a few things to consider when doing this.

#1: What is "inactive"? In my opinion, I like to think of inactive as anybody who hasn't taken action on your website in 20-30% longer of a time period than the average person. So if you average customer orders once every 6 months, a person would be considered inactive if they didn't purchase for 8-9 months.

Note: You can also do this with people who don't open your emails.

#2: What do you say to them? First, you want to make it clear that it might be YOUR fault, and you apologize for anything you may have done to offend them. Then, you compliment them, and offer them a free gift for responding. No catch. The purpose of this is simply to get them re-engaged in your business. You can also test getting them back on a continuity program by offering an irresistible free gift for starting again. It all depends on your business.

#3: Is it a good ROI? Obviously it depends on your market, copy, and offer. Just like anything else in marketing. I've seen reactivation letters get a 30% response. I've also seen them get a 10% response. In my opinion, it's DEFINITELY worth testing because even if you can re-activate 10% of your customers, that's a 10% increase in business for the year. Not too shabby for something that takes a few hours to setup!

Tip #95: How To Gain Mind Control Over Your Customers

Remember when I said that most people don't even open or finish information products... and that's where the vast majority of your refunds are coming from?

Great, glad you remember :)

Well, think about this.

Your brain works in "circuits" or "loops".

When you start something, it wants and pushes you to finish it so it can close that loop. I recently read that the reason songs get stuck in your head is because, in most cases, you didn't finish the song and your brain is trying to close the loop. So it continues replaying it in your mind to try and finish the job.

Knowing how the brain works, we can put together a simple little trick which will get more people to consume your product. And the more people that consume your product, not only will you get less refunds (I'm assuming you have a good product), but you'll also have more loyal, long-term customers.

What you do is simple. You make a GOAL for your customer to finish your product. You can get fancy with it and have them login to your website which automatically tells them what percentage of your course they finished... or you can simply make it easy and at the end of each chapter, tell them what percentage of the course they're already through.

As you can see in this course, the numbers pretty much do that for me. You know how far along you are based on the tip #. After all, why would you want to only read something like 77 tips? You wouldn't, and that's why you're still reading. You want to finish it.

Why?

Well, first because it's great information that can dramatically boost your business. But second is because internally your brain is actually making you do it.

So... technically... I have control of your brain right now! {insert evil laugh}

Chapter 11: Webinars/TeleseminarsIn all my time as a conversion specialist, I've NEVER come across a technique so powerful as creating webinars to boost your conversions. They're simply amazing... and can literally take your product from a 2% conversion rate to an 8%... 10%... even 15% conversion rate if done properly through a webinar or teleseminar.

(Webinars are more effective).

For the single most amazing webinar software I've EVER personally used (and still do) - click here.

That sentence might sound a little hypey, but seriously... it's incredible.

Below are various ways to increase the results you get through your webinars. As always... do what I'm saying... and make money :)

Tip #96: The No-Fail Opening

When people are listening to you on a webinar, they're not listening to a "voice".

They're listening to YOU as a person. Because of that, one of the first things you need to do is sell them on YOU. Not what you're about to tell them. Because if they don't know, like and trust you, they won't believe what you're saying and they won't buy.

Since that's the case, you have to begin your webinars starting with your story. There are many types of stories you can tell... I recommend you follow one of the types of stories I listed for you in an earlier tip.

But when it comes to webinars, one of the ways I like to tell MY story is simply by explaining my story in a way that enhances my credibility. For example I explain why I do things differently... but in a story-like fashion instead of simply boasting about my accomplishments.

What I suggest you do is write down 5 things that your "perfect prospect" is thinking or feeling at the time they're listening to your webinar. Incorporate those into your story so you can bond with them, and you're as good as golden.

I've seen stories increase conversions by anywhere from 0% or negative (if the story doesn't match the audience)... to HUNDREDS of percent. Try it out and see how it works for you. And test different stories, assuming they're true of course.

Tip #97: Breaking Down Individual Components

When it comes to marketing, trust is king.

People are jaded these days, especially in markets like health, financial and Internet marketing, because they've been lied to for years now.

Many marketers fill their marketing with unrealistic hype, and people are pissed!

Because of that, if you tell people you're giving them $2,385.38 worth of information... they're not going to believe you.

That is... unless you broke each component down in specific detail... explain it... give it a label... and value it. By the way, you should be doing this with ALL your sales pieces, not just webinars.

Here's an example.

Instead of selling a home study course and saying it's worth $2,500... you break it down into individual pieces. One example I recently noticed was from David Lindahl's "Foreclosure Investing Riches".

You can see how he breaks everything down here - www.rementor.com/foreclosure_product/

Here's what he's doing right...

He has a picture of the product AND all the bonuses (this is the online equivalent of the "thud" factor

He breaks down each individual component and explains it

Here's what he's doing wrong...

He doesn't show a price justification

He doesn't have a value for each of the products as well as the entire package as a whole

He doesn't have any type of urgency factor or scarcity. I don't ever use fake scarcity, but just adding some urgency typically boosts conversions a bit

Now, what I want you to do is take that example and do it for YOUR product. Split it up into the individual components to show people the true value. Show them what they'd be paying if they got the same information anywhere else.

And watch your webinar (and salesletter) conversions soar!

Tip #98: Offering A Special Bonus At The End

You'll see a common theme running throughout this last section. That theme is the ability to KEEP people on your webinar. Just like any sales message, the ability to keep them engaged until the end is absolutely critical to high conversions.

One of the ways to do that is to tell them in the beginning of the webinar that it's going to be very information-packed and that they should take notes. You should also tell them to not worry TOO much about it, though, because you'll give them a PDF/special report at the end which sums it all up.

Just be sure that you mention that they'll ONLY get the link at the very end of the webinar. And, of course, this doesn't only apply to reports that sum up the content. You can also create any special gift, just make sure it's mouth-watering to them.

This not only forces people to sit through your entire webinar... it also keeps them more engaged with your content and allows them to pay attention more as they won't be taking any notes.

All of which will increase your conversions.

Tip #99: Setting Up The Perfect Webinar Offer

Here's something I see people screw up CONSTANTLY, and it blows my mind. The mistake most people make is that they put dozens of hours into creating a webinar... and their offer SUCKS! When it comes to making sales and marketing in general, there are THREE things you need to worry about.

1) Your marketing (copy, pre-selling, etc.)2) Your customer (traffic source)3) Your offer (the package you're selling, price, guarantee, etc.)

#3 needs to be absolutely KILLER if you want to turn your webinar into a raging cash machine. To make this work, you need to have three things in place.

1) A one-time offer that's not given anywhere else2) Bonuses used ONLY for the webinar3) A special "webinar-only" guarantee

I can't stress just how important your offer is when it comes to webinars. In fact, if there is one single area that most people screw up the worst, it's the offer. They offer plain, boring offers that people see every single day.

If you want a killer webinar, you need a killer offer. It's as simple as that. One of the best ways I know to allow you to know if you have a killer offer is this.

If you're SCARED to offer it, and people will think they're taking advantage of you, then it's a great offer :)

Tip #100: The "Closer Email" Which Boosts Webinar Profits By Up To 15%

Want a 10-15% bump in your webinar conversions?

Do this.

At the end of your webinar, either just before the webinar is over or immediately after the webinar is over, send an email out to your list giving a SUMMARY of the offer.

Be sure to add in elements of proof, including how many people already took you up on the offer... scarcity such as how many packages are left at that price (offers where the price gets higher as more people buy is sometimes fun for a webinar)... plus how much longer the offer will last.

In that email, keep it short and sweet. Send them to your sales page which can give them a visual of everything they get, and again, break it down to each individual component. Show the total value and then how much of a discount they get.

And of course you should have a post-webinar follow up sequence.

The Evergreen Business System software lets you do that :)

This should be the first of the sequence, and you can expect to add "roughly" 10% more customers from this first email alone.

Tip #101: The Perfect Webinar Structure For Lazy People

A lot of people have problems figuring out what type of content their webinar should have. My advice is this.

Set it up like a salesletter, but more educational.

In a typical salesletter, you should have multiple subheads and sections which overcome specific objections people are having. An EASY way to do this is simply to overcome the myths in your industry.

In many cases, myths are objections.

For example in the weight loss industry, one myth is that you have to starve yourself to lose weight. That's also an objection. You can overcome that objection by citing studies which show that's actually NOT true. And then you can give them tips on how to avoid starving themselves, such as eating more protein and fat which keeps you full longer... as opposed to carbs which make your body crave more food.

See how easy that was?

You can also do a similar approach like I did with my "7 Deadly Marketing Sins" webinar which went over the 7 deadly marketing sins. Then, at the end, I transition the pitch by saying I can help them overcome those 7 sins if they hire me... yadda yadda yadda.

The options are endless. The point is, overcoming objections is a simple, easy, fast way to build a webinar which gets sales.

ConclusionThe point of this product was to give you simple, action-oriented tips and tricks you can use to increase your conversions and profits.

If you've read this entire report and can't find a way to make more money... you may want to consider doing something else. These tricks have made myself and my clients literally MILLIONS of extra dollars in excess profits.

If you have any questions about any of them in particular, feel free to email me at Jeremy@JeremyReeves.com.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you have.

If you got a lot of out of this report, it looks like you and I are a good fit to work with each other. I have tons of products, services, free reports, audios and videos for you to check out and grow your business from.

Just head over to my website at www.JeremyReeves.com and see which of those is good for you. I'll also be keeping in touch via email... so feel free to hit "reply" to any of those emails if you have any questions.

Good luck with everything!