200-Proof Marketing

I recently got the first question in my Ask Chad section from Aaron Smith and decided to write about it here.

You can view the question by looking at the “Ask Chad” page.

The question was based on the fact that stats for most Niche sites show that 90% or more of the visitors who land at the websites leave immediately (or Bounce).

The question goes on to ask whether it would be better to try to convert more of the visitors who stay or to try to get more people to stay.

First I need to say that the web stat that shows 90% of visitors leaving immediately is not accurate.

I use Google Analytics for these kind of stats and there’s a good chance that Aaron uses it also. Or at least another Web Stats service that suffers from the same problem. (more…)

I’m sure you know about John Reese’s Traffic Secrets and how he sold over 1000 copies for $997 in one day. That $997 price tag was a huge part of his strategy.

Because it cost $997, affiliates were begging for a chance to promote it. A $500 dollar commission is a powerful incentive to promote someone’s product, despite the content.

But that’s not the only advantage the price gave him. The price also set the perceived value of his product.

Naturally, people perceive a $997 product as being more valuable than a $97 product.

Having the highest price among your competitors is actually a good thing when the customer is looking for the best available product.

High Price Advantages:

1. Higher Perceived Value
2. More Attractive to Affiliates
3. You can pay more in advertising for each customer

Obviously, a high price demands a quality product. But the price it’s self often makes the product appear more valuable.

If you pay $7 for a Marketing Course, you are less likely to use the information given and thus get less value from it.

If you pay $997 for a Marketing Course, you will most likely try to get everything you can from the product and apply more of it to get your moneys worth.

In many cases, its the price that sets the value of the product. Not the other way around.

This is a crucial part of marketing strategy. Price is often the deciding factor in whether a product succeeds or fails.

Many of my recent tests have had to do with building trust which I’ve found is an absolutely critical part of making sales.

After thinking about it more I realized that it’s not so much about Trust as it is about Comfort.

They are similar, but I believe Comfort describes whats going on better.

By making your visitors feel comfortable about their purchase, you can increase your conversion rate to utterly insane levels.

So from this day forward I declare AIDA obsolete. Taking it’s place is AIDCA…

We all know AIDA stands for:

• Attention
• Interest
• Desire
• Action

The new C stands for Comfort.

• Attention
• Interest
• Desire
• Comfort
• Action

While Comfort building seems to fit best between Desire and Action, it should not be confined there.

You should be building comfort from beginning to end. With everything you write you should ask your self: “Will this make the reader more or less comfortable about buying from me?”

Here are some ways you can Build Comfort:

1. Give them what they want for free in your copy. Not everything but enough to show them you know what you’re talking about and can help them.
2. Write your copy so it looks more like a helpful article than a traditional sales letter.
3. Provide as many testimonials as possible. The more the better.
4. Add audio or video to your testimonials.
5. Link to and reference supporting work you’ve done (such as other books in the same market).
6. Say how many people have bought your product if it’s a large number. People will feel more comfortable buying after many others already have.
7. Test adding a picture of your self.
8. Let them know you will be there to help them if they need it.
9. Make it easy for them to contact you if they need help.
10. Assure them their order will be secure.
11. Portray to your visitors that you care for them and care about what happens to them.
12. Expose vulnerabilities. Show them you have weaknesses. Example: “I couldn’t count my fingers without a calculator.” or “As a child I was horribly over weight, even my parents made fun of me. (for a weight loss product)”

Test some of those and let me know what happens. My guess is that most of them will increase your conversion rate.

My multivariate test is still on going but one section has quickly reached statistical validity.

That section is the Contact Information. A little line at the bottom of my copy that says something like:

“If you have any questions please email me at: email@address.com”

The test was to see what effect removing it would have.

Why did this one section become statistically valid so much quicker than all the others?

Because removing it had such a huge effect on my conversion rate.

How much?

Removing the contact information reduced sales by over 300%!

I knew it would hurt sales, but I had no idea it hurt them that much.

You may be thinking “why would he test something he knew would hurt his sales?”

Because I wanted to quickly find out how important this part of my copy was.

Now that I know this is a very important part of my copy, I will test a much more helpful, visible, and easy to use version.

I believe this is an important part of building trust and my past experience tells me that trust is huge.

By making the customer feel like they can get help should they run into any problems, you build trust and make them feel more comfortable about buying.

Take note of these results and start testing different ways to build trust in your copy.

While my current Multivariate test is still on going, I’m seeing some very interesting results so far. Some of which are already statistically valid.

Over the course of many tests, I’ve notice one constant. The more obvious you make it you are trying to sell something the worse your conversion rate will be.

In the past I wrote about Gary Halbert and Claude Hopkins who say the same basic thing:

The more apparent you make it that you are selling the more resistance you run into.

One of the great ideas Gary Halbert came up with was the A Pile - B Pile theory. Which basically said that when people go to their mail box, they immediately sort their mail into two Piles.

The A Pile contains personal letters, bills, bank statements, etc. While, the B Pile is for “junk mail” which will not even be opened.

Anything that looks like an advertisement, usually gets a quick glance and then goes to the B Pile (which ends up in the trash).

He used this theory to make his mailings look like personal letters, even going so far as using normal (more expensive) stamps and “fake” handwriting on the outside of the envelope.

What’s cool is that by looking normal and nonthreatening, his letters got more Attention than others that tried to get Attention by putting red writing all over their envelopes.

This is leading me to make big changes in the way I write copy. I’m quickly turning into a “Sneaky Salesman.”

Here are some interesting things I’ve found:

• Black Headlines consistently beat Red Headlines
• Formating a sales letter to look like a helpful article increases sales
• Simple words sell better than fancy sales type words (Ex: Learn seems better than Discover)
• Trust is huge and people seem to trust “normal” people more than salesmen.

Those are just a few of my findings so far.

One thing’s for sure, the next sales letter I write will be as “sneaky” as possible. I will probably make it look like an article throughout and include helpful information that the customer is looking for (to help build trust).

Then at the end, or possibly even on “page 2″ I will hit them with the Call to Action, and Guarantee.

One thing that’s annoyed me for awhile is how so many people say to use a Red Headline.

My tests tell me this is entirely wrong. Black has always beaten Red in my tests for headline color. I’m currently testing this yet again, and Black and Blue are tied while Red is doing horribly.

Maybe some markets respond better to Red Headlines, but I sell to quite a few markets and not once has Red beaten Black.

I don’t get it… Why are people hanging on to the Red Headline, much less recommending it to others?

Test it for your self and you will see what I’m talking about. If you are currently using a Red Headline, you should immediately test a Black and/or Blue one.

My opinion:

Red screams Ad, while Black looks more like a helpful article. But then how do we explain Blue doing well? That’s a little odd.

I’m testing alot of things right now, and look forward to telling you the conclusive results when I get them. Already, I’m seeing something very interesting that has me excited about what I will test next. I just need to wait for the results to be statistically valid first.

Evidently a lot of people out there have trouble finding new niches to sell to. Once you know how, finding a new market/niche is easy.

I guess most people are looking for markets with no competition, which is their biggest mistake.

Don’t waste time trying to find that mythical untapped niche. You’ll create a lot of losers before you find it.

Like I’ve said before, the easiest way to find a niche is to look at whats already selling.

Just go to the Clickbank Marketplace and look at the top 20 products in the subcategory you are interested in.

I’ll look for one right now and give it to you free…

Ok, in the category Home & Family and the subcategory Marriage, I see an interesting product about wedding speeches. It looks like it’s selling pretty good.

Next I did a search for “wedding speeches” and took a look at the results as well as the Adwords ads.

Guess what?

We have a winner!

Organic search competition is definitely there but it’s beatable. More importantly the Adwords ads look weak. There’s the tell tale Ebay ad, a local ad (for me), and an ad about speeches in general.

Enough competition to tell you there’s money in the market, but not so much that you will be in a David vs. Goliath situation.

Next a back end or bonus product pops into my head: Get Over Your Fear of Speaking in Public

Easy money…

That’s all there is to it. I found a profitable niche in less than 10 minutes. If I had time I could have a product up in 3 to 5 days and within a month I would own that niche.

That may sound mean but one of the most common mistakes people make when writing copy is assuming their audience is smarter than they actually are.

It’s important to use the language of your market but don’t over complicate things. Stick to small words and avoid using terms your audience may not understand.

Your copy should be simple enough for a 5th grader to understand it.

The only exception is when you’re writing to an audience that you’re sure will understand certain terms (for example medical terms in copy meant for doctors).

Try to make it fast and easy to read. Keep your paragraphs short (three lines or less) and on target. Avoid long confusing paragraphs at all costs.

When you finish writing, go back and remove any boring parts.

By making it easy and fast to read, you will effectively keep your prospects eyes glued to your copy and increase your sales.

As Ray Edwards said recently on his blog: “Copy should read like conversation; it should flow naturally and be easy to listen to (or read).”

As you may have noticed, I tried to write exactly as I described in this post to give you an example.

I was just reading a post on Ryan Healy’s blog about a “200% Lowest Price Guarantee” a furniture store offers. They guarantee there price is the lowest or they will pay you 200% of the difference in price.

As I was reading, I remembered something Gary Halbert wrote about guarantees and how they could not only increase sales but also reduce refunds. I believe Gary’s example was a 200% money back guarantee for some kind of home business product that was getting hit hard by refunds.

The catch was that if you wanted the 200% refund, you had to provide proof (business license, merchant account records, etc) you actually followed the steps outlined in the product.

By setting the guarantee up that way he reduced the perceived risk and as Ryan said built trust. He also drastically cut the amount of refunds. Evidently most the customers asking for refunds never put the information in the product to use.

So if you’re looking for something to test, why not try testing a bold guarantee.

Which Guarantee do you think is better?

Try my Niche Annihilation System for 30 days. If you aren’t making at least $100 a week by the end of the 30 days, I’ll give you a quick 100% Refund.

OR

Try my Niche Annihilation System for 30 days. If you aren’t making at least $100 a week by the end of the 30 days, send me a link to your Niche’s website and links to the 10 “free ads” described in my system and I’ll not only refund your order, but I’ll send you a $100 dollar check just for trying my system.

No matter what happens you make money!

I don’t know about you but the second guarantee would tempt me a whole lot more than the first…

I’ve been working with Google’s new Website Optimizer and I’m impressed. Multivariate Testing is much more powerful than A/B Split Testing, but it does take longer for reliable results. Still it’s faster than it seems since you are testing so many things.

The first test I set up was on my most profitable product’s sales page. Why? Because the more visitors and conversions a site gets, the quicker and easier it is to increase it’s profits. In all I am testing the maximum of 8 sections (I originally tried to test 10).

Here’s what I’m testing:

1. Two new background colors, a new shade of blue, and a purple-blue.
2. Headline quotes vs no quotes. (no quotes almost always wins)
3. Headline color - black (consistent winner), blue, and red
4. Using the word Discover instead of Learn (supposed to be better)
5. Size of an important image - big vs small
6. Background color of testimonial box - blue vs beige
7. Active or inactive link leading to another website of mine that helps build trust
8. Contact information vs no contact information (contact should win)

It’s still to early to say on any of those but I could make some pretty good guesses. The best part of testing for me is seeing the results. I love checking the reports to see which variables are doing the best. You may want to test new headlines, sections of copy, different guarantee’s, etc. I didn’t because I’ve already tested the crap out of this site and wanted to test these first.

It looks like it may be awhile for valid results but when I get them, I will let you know what they are.

There’s no excuse for anyone to buy testing software anymore. I haven’t tried them all but I doubt any can beat Google’s ease of use and reporting features. If you’re thinking of buying some testing software, do your self a favor and try Google’s Website Optimizer first.

Funny, I sound like a Google advertisement. I don’t like everything they do (that page quality score thing cost me a good bit of money), but I have to praise them for making such a great tool available to their advertisers.

Now stop reading and go set up some tests. The easiest way to make more money is often to improve what you’re already doing.