Posts Tagged ‘sales’

Posted by: Beau Blackwell, Marketing Coordinator

ClickBank vendor Jeff Mulligan has created a very useful video showing how he increased sales for one of his ClickBank products over 22% by using a simple technique that only takes a few minutes to put in place. There are no tricks or gimmicks here: Jeff’s technique just increases customers’ willingness to buy by increasing their level of trust and making sure they know what to expect throughout the sales process.

This is especially important when you send customers to an order form that looks different from your main website. Although this video is specifically geared toward ClickBank vendors, there’s no reason affiliates who have their own website couldn’t try it too, by showing a screenshot of the landing page they’re sending customers to next. As Jeff states, you should always be testing. So if you’re an affiliate, give this technique a try and leave a comment to let us know if it helped your sales.

How to Boost ClickBank Sales Video

Posted by: Dush Ramachandran, VP of Business Development and Marketing

Have you ever gone to the market or the grocery store early on weekend mornings, just after the fresh produce has been unpacked and stacked? Have you noticed just how full and red the tomatoes look? How crisp the lettuce leaves are? Just how desirable everything smells?

Your marketing plans are very similar. The fresher they are, the more likely they are to succeed. You probably built your site, wrote some articles, or developed your product a few years ago, based on the information you had at that time. The traffic started to build and sales came in steadily, but things have started to slow down now. You may be wondering if there’s something wrong with the way sales are being tracked. If you’re an affiliate, you may wonder why your traffic isn’t converting as well as it used to. The answer may lie in the freshness (or lack thereof) of your marketing mix.

The target market you aimed at when you first built your site or developed your product may have changed, and your message to them may need to change as well. The keywords that you used in your search advertising campaigns when you first started were probably converting well at that time, but may have become a bit stale by now. Consider re-investing in some research to determine which search terms in your space are converting well. You need to keep your marketing message and methods fresh to keep pace with the changing environment around us.

Even two years ago, widespread use of social media tools like Twitter to promote websites or products was virtually unknown. Today, however, it is a vital weapon in the arsenal of the savvy Internet marketer. So, for example, a marketing mix that does not include social media needs to be updated to take advantage of its popularity and reach.

Even products that were hot sellers six or nine months ago are not as hot today. When gasoline prices hit record prices last summer, the number of products that dealt with increasing fuel economy in cars skyrocketed, and their sales numbers rose to match the demand for them. Since gas prices have declined, so too has the popularity of these types of products. Today, with a global economic downturn well underway, the products that are doing well are those that enable people to weather this rough economic climate.

Constantly test and re-evaluate your product and your marketing strategy for freshness, and update any part of your mix that is becoming stale. You wouldn’t want your products or your promotions to suffer the same fate as last week’s produce, would you?

Posted by: Ashley Watson, Account Specialist

Whether you’re a ClickBank affiliate or vendor, it can be very easy to become stagnant in your marketing activities. Once you’ve found a particular niche or method of advertising that works for you, it can be very difficult to change your methods. Why would you want to fix something that isn’t broken, especially when any change could potentially lower your profits?

The important thing to keep in mind is that digital products, like any other market, fluctuate based on seasonality and trends in the outside world. Even highly successful products that pertain to a wide audience experience these sales fluctuations, so you need to take these changes into account if you’re going to maximize your profits.

What influences changes in market activity?

Many different factors contribute to the market being in a constant state of change. Some of these factors aren’t surprising, such as the state of the economy or seasonal changes. However, some things are less obvious, such as the current sports season, school semesters and breaks, and holidays. It’s important to ensure your marketing campaigns are taking these factors into account so you can get the most out of your efforts.

What can you do to maximize on current trends?

So, what can you do to capitalize on an ever-changing market? First, I would suggest taking time on a regular basis to research current events. What is going on in the world to influence sales trends or cause higher levels of interest in certain subjects?

Here are some specific examples of events that affect sales, and the types of products that are influenced by these factors.

State of the Economy: We are in a recession. Consumers are spending their money more carefully, so they look for products that offer a high return on their investment, or that save them money. Some products that sell well in a recession include alternative energy solutions, foreclosure guides, guides to making money at home, and even e-books on manifest reality.

The New Year: New Year’s resolutions are extremely popular every year, and lead to a big increase in sales for health-related products such as diet programs and fitness guides. The spike in sales is temporary, but significant.

Valentines Day: Romantic guides become very popular in the US market every February.

Sports Seasons: Some product types, such as fitness products or sports betting guides, tend to sell better during a particular sports season.

School Semesters: Products that may help you capitalize on the seasonality of the educational system include computer maintenance software, study guides, guides to teaching abroad, and guides for school applications.

Holiday Season: During the holiday season, customers are slightly less inclined to buy digital products, as they save to purchase physical goods as gifts for their loved ones. However, products that address pressing needs tend to be less affected by this trend. There are also products that deal directly with the holiday, such as recipe e-books and gift idea guides, which sell well during the holiday season.

There are billions of potential customers, all of whom are unique and who are affected by cultural and seasonal trends in different ways. By staying aware of these trends, and being proactive about changing your marketing methods to stay in tune with these changes, you can maximize your efforts and be more profitable than ever.

Posted by: Michel Fortin, Guest Blogger

For Part 1 of this series, click here. For Part 2, click here.

6. Messages

I spoke about meta-messages in an earlier point. Words are not messages. They are symbols used to convey them. As such, words mean different things to different people. The words you choose can literally change the meaning behind the message (this is what’s often called the “meta-message”).

For example, words can emphasize, support, or even contradict the message. People may read your copy and understand the basic message. But with certain words, they can make assumptions — assumptions that might be counterproductive to the sale. So the words you choose are important, as they may impact the reader in different ways. Here are at least three techniques I use:

A) Repetitious Words

As the old adage goes, “Repetition is the parent of learning.” Like the earlier point on emphasis, repetition aids comprehension, especially of complex or important ideas. However, the key here is not to repeat the same words over and over, but to use different examples to illustrate your point.

To that end, paraphrase, or substitute certain words with synonyms, and add new pieces of information each time the idea is repeated. For instance, in order to drive the message “privacy policies promote purchases” home, that message can be repeated with the following:

• “Privacy statements increase sales,”
• “Confidentiality is a key to online success,”
• And “respecting visitors’ privacy is profitable.”

B) Emotional Words

Again, words are not messages in themselves. They have different meanings to each of us and can be interpreted differently. While many words can be used to communicate a single message, the words you choose can dramatically alter its emotional impact. In copywriting, it is not so much the message that’s important, but the meaning behind it. For instance, look at these differences:

• “Cost” versus “investment;”
• “Beautiful teeth” versus “beautiful smiles;”
• “Skinny” versus “slim” or “slender;”
• “Products” or “services” versus “solutions;”
• “Cost-effective” versus “return on investment;”
• And “house” versus “home.”

C) Positive Words

Avoid using negative words. Say what it is, not what it isn’t. Dr. Maxwell Maltz, author of the bestseller “Psycho-Cybernetics,” states that the brain is a goal-seeking organ — it needs a goal in order to function. For example, if I told you not to think of a white carnation, you will have hard time since your brain needs a goal — it will naturally picture what it is supposed to avoid because the mind can not function when blank.

But on the other hand, if I told you to think of a pink carnation, you will then think of a pink carnation and not a white one — I gave your mind a goal. Similarly, stating what something isn’t can be counterproductive since you are directing the mind, albeit in the opposite way. If you were told that dental work is painless, for instance, your mind would still focus on the word “pain” in the word “pain-less.” Here are some other examples:

• Instead of saying “inexpensive,” say “economical;”
• Instead of saying “this procedure is “painless” or “pain-free,” say “there’s no discomfort with this procedure” or “it’s relatively comfortable;”
• And instead of saying “this software is error-free,” “bug-free,” or “foolproof,” say “this software is stable.”

7. Urgency

Add urgency or scarcity to your copy. Use a technique called “takeaway selling.” As Jim Rohn once said, “Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.” Procrastination is the biggest killer of sales — particularly online, where the chances of a prospect staying or returning to a Web site (in order to think about buying) are scarce in today’s click-happy world.

Takeaway selling is in fact based on the concept of supply and demand. As the saying goes, “You don’t know how much you want something until it’s about to be taken away.” Look at it this way: if you give a chance for your prospects to procrastinate, they will.

So add a deadline or some kind of constraint, such as a time-sensitive or quantity-bound offer. Such limitations implore at some unconscious level, “You’d better read this and take action now!” Put an actual end-date or a specific, limited quantity to your offer. But always make sure to back up your limitation with a logical, genuine, and easily justifiable reason in order to avoid appearing misleading or disingenuous.

Don’t just stick with limiting orders or time, either. Think about the offer. Perhaps your offer contains certain bonuses or a pricetag that, in its current combination, must be limited — especially if the bonuses come from third parties over which you have no control. The product (especially if it’s a digital one, which is often perceived as limitless) may not be limited. But the offer, in its current state, certainly can be.

Also, urgency can be applied to current events, situations, or circumstances. For instance, not taking action soon may cause the reader to aggravate their current problem that your product solves. The longer they wait to buy, the more they lose out.

The Bottom Line

Look at your copy and read it carefully with a discerning eye. Does it violate any of the above laws — in other words, is it easy to scan, does it grab people’s attention, and above all, does it excite them about your products or services? And more importantly, do people truly understand the meaning behind the message in the way you anticipated? Or do they interpret the message differently?

If you can, have someone else read it and tell you what they understood — you might be surprised!

Craft a message that jumps out at people and compels them to respond — or, at the very least, to read further — using the seven elements above. Finally, remember that you should tweak and test your copy regularly, and the above pointers are great places to start. Because you never know: one little change can potentially send your conversation ratio through the roof.

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Michel Fortin is a marketer, copywriter, and author of many books and courses. For more information about Michel, including how to get your hands on several free ebooks, visit his blog and sign up free to get tested conversion strategies and response-boosting tips by email, along with blog updates, news, and more! Go now to http://www.michelfortin.com.

Posted by: Michel Fortin, Guest Blogger

For Part 1 of this series, click here.

3. Bullets

Insert bulleted lists within your marketing copy. If at any point you list more than three items, use bullets! Bullets are short, captivating, and pleasing to the eye. They give the reader a visual break, especially with the long copy salesletter style. Most importantly, they reinforce the offer, help deliver straight-to-the-point benefits, and are clustered for greater impact.

An effective way to incorporate bullets is when they follow the words “you get” or “reasons why.” This grants the reader the ability to know exactly, item by item, what they are getting out of responding to your offer. For example, use bullets after the words “with this [product], you get” or “here are the reasons why you should buy [this product].”

Again, people scan. If you scan up and down a salesletter, you will naturally stop at anything that’s visually out of place. Along with pictures, graphics, and boxes, bullets are indented and keyword- or keyphrase-driven. So bulleted lists provide eye gravity, help to stop scanners, and force them back into the copy.

4. Postscripts

Postscripts (or “P.S.’s”) at the end of a sales copy are great tools for a number of reasons. While they can surely be used to restate or summarize the offer, postscripts can also emphasize the critical points mentioned earlier in the copy and especially in the headline — such as the element of scarcity — that can give that final “push” prospects need to go ahead.

An extra bonus not offered in the copy as a last-ditch effort to close the sale, a link to the order page with emphasis on the fast approaching deadline, or an alternative (such as a downsell to an alternative, perhaps lower-priced alternative) are all elements that can be used very effectively with postscripts.

Don’t limit your copy to a single “P.S.” Add a “P.P.S.” or more. And don’t just stick with plain body copy. Like bullets and headers, they are some of the elements people read first before they read the entire copy. They really work! For example, add FAQs (frequently asked questions) in the postscript section. You could also include testimonials, case studies, or a video.

5. Emphasis

In speech, we use tone, pitch, rhythm, and inflection (i.e., emphasis on certain syllables, words, or expressions) to stress the message being conveyed, its meaning, or certain key points we wish to drive home. On the Web, however, there are no verbal cues like these. People can’t grasp the context and meta-message (i.e., the message behind the message) of what is written.

Fortunately, HTML is an effective tool to address this problem. Since most people will scan a Web site, through text formatting we can accentuate certain words or phrases that we want the reader to read and understand — words to which we want the reader to pay greater attention and grasp an underlying or implied meaning.

Things like bold lettering, italics, underlines, colors, font sizes, tables, borders (borders and framing text help to increase readership by about 20%), and so on can make a message and particularly critical points of the copy more impacting and forceful.

Emphasis also aids comprehension, especially of complex and critical ideas, and can be used to drive home important points. Like speech, it can make the message more seductive and meaningful. Take, for instance, “I love you” versus “I *LOVE* you!” The latter is more appealing, more invigorating, and more significant. The emphasis implies, “I really, really do love you!”

Check back for Part 3 of this series on Thursday!

Michel Fortin is a marketer, copywriter, and author of many books and courses. For more information about Michel, including how to get your hands on several free ebooks, visit his blog and sign up free to get tested conversion strategies and response-boosting tips by email, along with blog updates, news, and more! Go now to http://www.michelfortin.com.

Posted by: Michel Fortin, Guest Blogger

There are certain things you can do immediately to help you drastically improve your sales copy. Granted, writing persuasive content is in itself deserving of an entire book. But given a choice, I believe there are seven simple tips for increasing attention, readership, and desire of your current sales copy. Here they are.

1. Headline

You might have heard of the famous “AIDA” formula in direct marketing. Successful direct response web copy is contingent on your adherence to that well-known formula. AIDA is an acronym that stands for:

Attention

Interest

Desire

Action

The first part (i.e., “Attention”) is probably the most important on the Internet. Crafting a headline on your site’s front page that immediately captures the prospect’s attention is critical to your success. Why? On the web, our attention span is enormously short. You only have a fraction of a second to capture a person’s attention and pull her into your copy.

If the prospect hits your front page and does not immediately feel a need to read further, she’ll leave at the single click of a mouse. And if so, the rest of the formula goes straight down the tubes, no matter how great your copy is. Therefore, in order to limit my writing to the confines of this short article, here are at least three important things to remember when developing headlines.

A) The 3 Top Human GOALS

The first is to focus on the three most important goals in human nature, which are to either save (or make) time, money, and energy. (And by energy I mean “effort.”) These three are possibly the most common and easiest ways to build headlines, because everyone wants to save time, make money, or work less.

B) The 3 Top Human DESIRES

The second is to focus on the three greatest human desires, which are greed, lust, and comfort (or convenience).

Of course, when I say “lust,” I don’t mean the topic of sex. But there is a way to use sex in a headline without appearing crass or even pornographic. Whether your product or service helps to make a person feel good, sexy, attractive, powerful, potent, virile, appreciated, happy, loved, etc, these are all elements we desperately seek. It all comes down to emotions!

C) The 3 Top Human TEASERS

Third, use an element of curiosity, scarcity, or controversy in your headline. For example, with curiosity you want to produce intrigue. Don’t mention everything to your readers — give them ample information but not too much so that it pulls them into the copy. Leave an interesting tidbit out or keep them on the edge of their seats, eager to read and absorb more.

Here’s an example. Don’t say, “How to Triple Web site Sales.” Instead, say, “Discover these six unconventional secrets for tripling Web site sales!” People will then wonder, “What are they?”

2. Headers

On the Web, people don’t read. They scan. They seldom read entire Web pages from top to bottom. If the headline is compelling enough, then the likelihood that they will read the entire body copy will be greater. However, the chances of that happening 100% of the time are very small.

One way to overcome this is to use headers at every two or three paragraphs so that, when the reader scans the page, headers pull readers into the copy. Similar to the headline, don’t be vague or general. Use benefits. Be specific. And think keywords. Rather than saying “Background,” “Profile,” or “History,” say “The Strange-but-True Story of How Michel Fortin Went From Colossal, Bankrupt Failure to Becoming a Million-Dollar Success.”

Just as the headline is meant to grab people’s attention and get them to start reading your copy, their desire to restart scanning and jump a few paragraphs is almost excruciating. Time is scarce, and with so many things vying for our attention both in our lives and on our computer desktops, people get easily distracted — and more so today, with the Internet, than ever before.

So write and include headers throughout the copy to get readers to stop scanning any further, and to continuously bring them back into your salesletter. Write your salesletter as an amalgamation of several “mini-articles” with headlines for each, strung together in one flowing, fluid letter that keeps them riveted from the first word to the buy button.

Be sure to check back next Monday for Part 2!

Michel Fortin is a marketer, copywriter, and author of many books and courses. For more information about Michel, including how to get your hands on several free ebooks, visit his blog and sign up free to get tested conversion strategies and response-boosting tips by email, along with blog updates, news, and more! Go now to http://www.michelfortin.com.

Posted by: Beau Blackwell, Marketing Coordinator

Whether you’re a ClickBank publisher or affiliate, a key component to your success is getting people to take action based purely on the strength of your writing.

For publishers, it’s obvious that your pitch page needs to be able to sell interested visitors on why they really need your product, how it’s going to improve their lives, and why it’s better than any of your competitors’ products.  Once you’ve made the sale, your product needs deliver the value you’ve promised, and be easily comprehensible and actionable to people all over the world.

Affiliates need to have an even broader range of writing skills, depending on where and how they’re trying to promote products. If you’re paying for search engine advertisements, you have a very limited amount of space in which to convince searchers to click on your ad, and to explain what they should expect on the landing page. If you write articles, you have to legitimately inform people and entice them to click on your Hoplink. Affiliates have to master a wide variety of writing styles and learn how to use them properly in many different locations.

Since great writing is important and valuable to all of us, I wanted to share a few particularly useful articles from my favorite writing blog, Copyblogger.

• Copywriting 101: Brian’s 10-step tutorial has something for everyone, whether you’re writing full articles or just PPC ads.
• Do These 3 Common Copywriting Mistakes Keep Your Readers From Buying?: Sonia makes some great points about why solid products sometimes don’t sell as well as you’d expect, and how to remedy that.
• The Two Most Important Words in Blogging: Although the title refers to blogging, this post applies equally well to all sales writing.
• How to Write Magnetic Headlines: This series of posts about writing headlines can be especially useful to affiliates working with a limited amount of space, like in PPC advertising. It’s also great for publishers who want to grab a visitor’s attention immediately on a pitch page.
• Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques: Great advice for all kinds of copywriting.
• And finally… Five Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb: In affiliate marketing, credibility is key, and even smart people make grammatical mistakes from time to time.

These posts, along with the rest of the useful information available on Copyblogger, will go a long way toward help your affiliate marketing efforts thrive!

Posted by: Ashley Adamson, ClickBank Senior Customer Service Representative

This is part four of a five-part, five-day series about how publishers can attract more affiliates.

To really succeed as a ClickBank publisher, you need to get as many affiliates promoting your product as possible. In this five-part series, I show you some of the best techniques for becoming an affiliate magnet! Did you miss part one, two or three? Click to learn about how to take full advantage of the Marketplace or creating an affiliate tools page or getting your site right the first time.

Tip 4: Offer High Commissions

A penny saved is a penny earned? You’ve heard it all your life, but the sound advice your mother gave you could actually be damaging in the affiliate marketing industry.

When affiliates are looking for a new publisher to promote, they have thousands of products to choose from. Searching through each pitch page for the perfect product and sales copy is not always practical. Of course, having a professional, great-looking pitch page is important, but for most affiliates, other factors take priority.

Advertising costs can be expensive for affiliates. An affiliate wants to be able to look at a product and, in a glance, be able to trust that they’ll receive a positive return on their advertising and promotional investment. One of the most important stats in the ClickBank Marketplace that affiliates look for is “% sale.” This is the average commission percentage earned per affiliate per referred sale on a particular product. With many of our top products offering the maximum commission of 75%, you really can’t afford to not be generous with your commissions.

Though it may seem that the maximum payout amount is high, remember that these are sales you would not have made otherwise.

For more information about this subject, and data that proves the advantages of being generous with your commissions, check out our Generosity as Business Strategy article by Bob Dunlap:

http://www.clickbank.com/blog/2008/04/17/generosity-as-business-strategy/

Check back tomorrow for the fifth and final tip on becoming an affiliate magnet – advertising.

Posted by: Ashley Adamson, Senior Customer Service Representative

This is part three of a five-part, five-day series about how publishers can attract more affiliates.

To really succeed as a ClickBank publisher, you need to get as many affiliates promoting your product as possible. In this five-part series, I show you some of the best techniques for becoming an affiliate magnet! Did you miss part one or part two? Click to learn about how to take full advantage of the Marketplace or creating an affiliate page.

Tip 3: Get Your Site Right the First Time

When you’re sending in your first Product Approval Request, your top priority is probably getting your site active as quickly as possible. It certainly seems like a reasonable notion; the sooner you’re active, the sooner you can start receiving sales.

However, I strongly recommend that you take the time to perfect your site content, and to double-check that your Marketplace title and description are optimized to attract affiliates. You should make it clear what type of product you are selling and list the benefits affiliates receive by promoting your site.

There are third-party companies and sites on the Internet that feature newly-listed ClickBank products for a short period of time. If your site content is not optimum, you may be losing out on an opportunity for attracting affiliates right off the bat.

Check back tomorrow for the fourth tip on becoming an affiliate magnet – offering high commissions.

Posted by: Ashley Adamson, ClickBank Senior Customer Service Representative

This is part one of a five-part, five-day series about how publishers can attract more affiliates.

As many successful Internet marketers already know, ClickBank’s extensive affiliate network can be a powerful force for taking your product’s sales from mediocre to massive. Unlike most advertising and promotional efforts, ClickBank only pays out commissions to affiliates on your behalf for completed sales. This makes our affiliate program much more cost-effective than other traditional methods of product promotion. For example, when you place a paid advertisement in a search engine, you have to pay for the cost of the ad even if the clicks you get generate little or no sales. With our affiliate program, you are only paying for marketing costs when you’re actually making money.

To really succeed as a ClickBank publisher, you need to get as many affiliates promoting your product as possible. In this five-part series, I’ll show you some of the best techniques for becoming an affiliate magnet!

Tip 1: Take Advantage of the ClickBank Marketplace

ClickBank provides all new publishers the option of being listed within our ClickBank Marketplace: http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace

The question is, with the ClickBank Marketplace containing over 15,000 products, what can you do to obtain the most exposure and make your product attractive to affiliates?

The first thing that most new publishers don’t realize is that the majority of the Marketplace audience is comprised of affiliates, not consumers. So rather than have your Marketplace title and description tailored to consumers, you should use it to describe what makes your product appealing to affiliates.

Do you have a high commission percentage, a high payout or a Web site containing useful affiliate tools to help them promote your product? Be sure to list features like these in your Marketplace description so that affiliates can quickly see why they should promote your product.

To edit your Marketplace title/description, you’ll need to log in to your ClickBank account, click the “Account Settings” tab, the “My Site” link, and the “Edit” link under the “Marketplace Information” section, then modify your Marketplace description as needed.

Be sure to click “Save Changes” when finished!

Check back tomorrow for the second tip on becoming an affiliate magnet – creating an affiliate tools page.