200-Proof Marketing

Google had a surprise in store for me today when I checked my Adwords account. They made their Multivariate Testing tool called Website Optimizer available free for Adwords customers.

Evidently they’ve been testing it for a while, but this was the first I had heard of it.

This tool could easily double your profit in a fraction of the time it takes old A/B Split Testing.

Multivariate Testing is the king of testing (in my opinion). Some might favor Taguchi but from what I’ve seen it doesn’t work as well for optimizing websites.

So what’s the difference between Multivariate Testing and A/B Split Testing?

A/B Split Testing only tests two different webpages at a time. Usually the two pages are identical except for one part (like your headline).

Visitors are split between the two pages randomly and the one that converts the most visitors into sales wins. Slowly and over the course of many tests, this can greatly increase your conversion rate (the percentage of visitors that buy or take action).

Multivariate Testing is somewhat similar except it allows you to test many different parts at a time. In a sense, it allows you to run many Split Tests at once.

In a Multivariate Test you can test your Headline, Price, Guarantee, Testimonial placement, and more all at once.

Let’s say you want to test your Headline, Guarantee, and Background Color. You decide to test 3 different headlines (the original and two new ones), 3 guarantees, and 3 background colors.

That would give you 27 different combinations of your sales page. Each time a visitor comes to your website they will be randomly shown one of these combinations.

One visitor may see headline 1, guarantee 3, and color 3 while the next visitor will see headline 2, guarantee 1, and color 3.

You can then not only view which variables of the different parts do the best but also which combinations do the best.

The bottom line is Multivariate Testing allows you to increase your conversion rate much faster than A/B Split Testing would allow.

But here’s the kicker…

The fastest way to increase your conversion rate when testing is to find which parts of your webpage effect your conversion rate the most and then find the best options for those parts.

For example: On your first test you test every part of your webpage you can think of. When the test is over you can see which parts increased or decreased your conversion the most.

Next, you retest only those parts.

It’s the 80/20 rule in action (look here for my article on the 80/20 rule). A small percentage of the parts of your webpage, have a large effect on your conversion rate.

I will start some tests tonight with the new Website Optimizer tool and give a more detailed report later.

I’m fairly confident it will replace the Multivariate Testing software I created simply because it will be easier to set up and more convenient.

Much more on this and testing in general coming soon…

I’m constantly getting questions about my calculator. Unfortunately, I’ve been too busy to answer them all.

So here are some of the common questions:

Can I have a stand alone version or the source code?

No, I don’t have time to program a stand alone version and since it brings a decent amount of traffic to this website, I don’t want to just give it away.

However it is just a math equation, that you can learn freely on the ‘net. It may take you awhile to figure out if you’re not a math geek though.

Why doesn’t the Calculator show a exact percentage instead of above 80, 90, 95, etc?

That’s because I couldn’t find a math equation for getting the exact probability, instead I found a table of results and their probabilities and used it to program it the way it is.

Is this the best way to tell if my results are statistically accurate?

As far as I know, yes. There are many other equations for this type of thing, including one called a “Confidence Interval” which gives somewhat different results.

My calculator uses the Chi Squared equation with a Yates Correction. Which is often used to determine whether survey results are valid.

If someone knows of a truly better equation, let me know and I will make a calculator for it. For now it seems like this is the most dependable equation.

In other news…

This website was attacking by some spam robots that spammed all kinds of weird stuff in the comments. Evidently someone specifically designed software to spam this blog.

Unfortunately I had to disable comments to stop the spam. When I get time I will rewrite the php and add some type of validation that will block the spam.

Also I’ve spent the past few months working on my biggest project yet, and so far the results are amazing.

It’s not an IM product, but if I decide to sell it (via a membership site), I will post a link to it here so you can benefit from it.

That’s it for now…

I just released a new product that I was sure would be an instant hit. Turns out I was a little optimistic as usual. Right from the start I lost $200 in advertising, but instead of giving up, I decided to fight.

You see this is a new type of product for me, I know it’s selling well because of how competitive it is but I’ve never made this type of product before. The main difference is all my competitors sell with very short copy, which tells me that’s what the market is buying. I’m used to long copy so it has been a little bit of a challenge for me.

Bad News: My sure thing started off unprofitable.

Good News: I did make a few sales

The fact that I made a few sales is what’s important here, if I can make at least some sales, even at a loss, I can usually find a way to make something profitable. It’s just a matter of tweaking the advertising and copy.

This fight is ongoing so I can’t tell you a winner yet, however I have turned the tide in my favor and just made a change a few minutes ago that should (optimistic again?) finish it.

The Moral here is to not give up so easily when something doesn’t work out the way you had planned. If you release a product and it’s unprofitable, that’s ok. Fight it and do everything you can to make it profitable. At the same time you also need to know when to cut your losses.

One thing I did to help boost the conversion of my newest product was to add “Scarcity” which means a limited quantity or time. A believable Deadline or Limit almost always boosts conversion rates. The more believable it is the more powerful it will be.

Another thing I did was sharpen my PPC Targeting (keywords). You don’t want to sell Bicycles to people in Wheelchairs so make sure the people who see your ad will be interested in buying your product. That also gave me a little boost.

The final move is a combination of Qualifying and Strategy.

Qualifying is another way of targeting your ads. The idea is that only people who are looking to buy will click my PPC ad. That way I will spend less for advertising while still making roughly the same amount of sales.

I’ve seen other people use this method of qualifying but I never have so I’ll have to wait and see how it turns out.

I’m confident that I will make it profitable within a few days, it’s just a matter of how profitable. I expected $500-$1000 per week in sales from this product, but it’s looking more like $200-$500. Luckily, my next product should not only do well on it’s own but will also be a perfect backend for this one.

Alright… Back to the fight…

Recently Google put their Landing Page Quality Score system for Adwords on overdrive. The effect was that thousands (millions maybe?) of advertisers were instantly shut down. In some cases advertisers that spend 6 and 7 figures a year with Google had their Ads inactivated.

To reactivate the Ad’s Google is demanding anywhere for one dollar to ten dollars a click and possibly more for some. Unfortunately most advertisers can’t pay those extraordinary amounts unless they’re selling Jets or Mega Yachts.

Do they think advertisers will pony up the outrageous new minimum CPC? Or do they think advertisers will somehow change their websites to conform to their new rules?

If it’s the latter as many people are assuming, then why are they refusing to tell their advertisers what they expect of them?

Google’s saying they want searchers to find the information their looking for on the landing page. That’s great for organic traffic and would be a good move for them to apply to their search traffic. However, they can’t expect advertisers to give their products away for free.

If someone is searching for “how to fix a slice” and clicks an Adwords ad for a ebook addressing that problem, should they be immediately sent to the product and then asked nicely to pay when they’re done?

I haven’t done any testing yet since I wasn’t hurt too badly, but my suggestion to you would be to add webpages to your website. Possibly a FAQ, contact page, etc. A little SEO couldn’t hurt either.

Some tests have shown that FAQ pages improve conversion rates. Also as I mentioned here before, a well placed link in your salesletter to a helpful article (on your website) that you wrote can improve your conversion rate. Make sure it opens in a new window so they don’t have to leave your salesletter.

The article should be helpful and solve one of your customers problems, but it should leave them wanting more. The idea is to build trust and establish credibility by proving you can solve their problems.

If you want to read more, one of the best discussions I’ve found is HERE

If you look in the Money and Employment section of Clickbank, it’s dominated by “Get Rich Quick” type products that promise big money for little or no work.

I bet very few of their customers ever make a dime from their programs yet those same customers will most likely keep buying Get Rich Quick products.

They dream of being rich and living the good life, yet they either can’t figure out how or their too lazy to actually work for it. The ‘how’ is easy. It’s on this website for free to anyone willing to read it.

Here’s something I want you to try for educational purposes…

First, create a little Home-Biz Opt-in webpage on a domain of your choice. Make the domain name something small and easy to remember if possible. The purpose of this webpage is only to gather names and email addresses.

Now call up your local newspaper and place a little classified ad in the Employment section (it’s really cheap). Make that ad read something like this:

Earn up to $10,000/Month
All from the Comfort of Home
(Your website here)

Now sit back and watch what happens. I bet you’ll be surprised.

What do you do with your new subscribers?

Just setup an Auto-Responder Sequence and promote affiliate products in the Business Opportunity area.

Easy Money…

Keep running the ad and work on improving your opt-in rate as well as the conversion rate from your mailings. From there (if it’s profitable), start spreading to more and more newspapers.

I haven’t done this (I’m trying to focus on product creation right now), but I know someone who is making Millions doing something similar (on a larger scale).

If you already have a profitable infoproduct site (or sites), an easy way to boost sales is to find new ways to drive traffic. Many people who make infoproducts, setup AdWords and then move on to another infoproduct.

Almost all of their income relies on their AdWords ads and if something were to happen, their income could dry up very quickly.

If you’re the typical Infoproduct Marketer and only use AdWords, you can give your self an immediate pay raise by going and setting up an Overture Campaign with your best keywords.

While Overture is annoying (I don’t like the user interface at all) and sends less traffic than AdWords, it does seem to deliver higher quality traffic than AdWords.

Another way to boost your traffic is with articles. In competitive areas like marketing, articles aren’t very effective, but in other markets they work great. Just write and submit as many articles as you want to article directories and you will quickly start getting some decent quality traffic for free.

Throw in a little basic SEO and you’ve got your self a much more profitable infoproduct. You can write and submit 3-5 articles, setup Overture, and SEO optimize your web pages for one product in a day easily and it will potentially more than double your sales for that product.

Take a look at this quote:

“Those who have much, enjoy little. Those who have little, enjoy much.”

What does that mean you ask? Think about it, the more you want or need something the more satisfying it is.

When I was just starting high school I went to football tryouts. The tryouts were tough and the coaches kept us going non-stop for about two hours.

For some cruel reason they refused to give us any water except for a small, almost pathetic sip half way through.

When it was over, I was worn out and dehydrated. Yet, after cleaning up and changing I remember having one of the most satisfying experiences I can remember.

I went to the water fountain just outside the locker room and probably spent 5 minutes sucking up every bit of water I could get.

That was without a doubt the best tasting and most enjoyable water I’ve ever had. If water was that good all the time no one would drink anything else.

What made the water so fantastic? I was very dehydrated after over 2 hours of heavy physical exertion in the hot Florida sun.

The lack of or extreme need for water is what made it so good.

That’s why those who have little enjoy what they get so much more than those who have “much.”

I saw a show on the Discovery Channel a few weeks ago about two guys who were stranded on a desert island for 4 days with no water. When they were rescued it showed them gulping down water and I found my self envying how much they must have enjoyed that water.

Now you’re probably wondering what that has to do with Marketing…

While it is somewhat relevant to Marketing it’s also an important life lesson(and something for me to write about since I can’t think of anything else right now).

When you’re picking a product to sell the first thing you should look for is a Starving Market. A group of people that desperately want something.

You don’t want to sell A/C units in Antarctica, sell heaters instead.

Once you have a starving market, all you have to do is let the market know you have what they’re starving for. From there on it’s easy money.

One of my favorite things to read about on other marketer’s blogs is their test results. Very few ever give them out, yet say they are religious testers.

I too consider my self an insane tester (it can be alot of fun) but sometimes I get lazy and stop testing for a while.

I imagine it’s the same for other marketers but maybe they’re just greedy?

One thing you should always keep in mind is that what works for one market or salesletter may not work for another, so it’s important to test every change you make to your sales page.

Here are some results, (the ones I can remember) that have boosted my conversion rate…

1. Use a blue background just like you see on this website. The color code is #003399 I think. I’ve tested this many times and every time it has beaten a white or light grey background.

2. Make your headline any color but Red (preferably Black, although I’m about to test Dark Blue as an option). Red has always failed against Black in my tests.

4. Make your salespage’s Table Width between 65 and 70 percent. The main Table on this website is about 65% I think.

5. Use a little “Satisfaction 100% Guaranteed” picture in your guarantee. Did I mention you should put your guarantee in a table with a different background color from the rest of the website to make it stand out?

6. Test different PS’s because they are one of the most read parts of a sales letter. Try using it to reinforce a deadline, justify the price, or reiterate your guarantee.

7. Add a fake picture of your Ebook or Software box to your salesletter. My tests have shown this to increase conversions in most cases.

8. Try adding some audio at the beginning of your salesletter. Something as simple as paraphrasing the first few paragraphs of your salesletter can and has boosted conversions by over 200%.

9. Try adding Video near the top of your salesletter. This is still new territory but early results look very promising.

10. Prices ending with 7 tend to out sell others. This isn’t true in all markets and can be tough to figure out, but as a general rule $29.97 will usually outsell $29.95.

OK, there ya go… Ten things you can test right now that will almost certainly increase your conversion rate.

Don’t forget to test them though(individually), because nothing is an absolute in this business. There may be general rules but there are always exceptions.

I’m not going to tell you what I’m thinking just yet. Read below first then I’ll explain…

“One must be able to express himself briefly, clearly and convincingly, just as a salesman must. But fine writing is a distinct disadvantage. So is unique literary style. They take attention from the subject. They reveal the hook. Any studies done that attempt to sell, if apparent, create corresponding resistance.”
Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins

Now go read this Chapter of Gary Halbert’s Boron Letters: http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter18.htm

Did you read all that? Did you find the similarity in the two? If not, keep trying before reading on…

If you notice both texts are from Copywriting legends and both say that you shouldn’t make it obvious you are trying to sell something.

If it looks like a blatant Ad from the start, people are likely to ignore it and move on. That makes perfect sense, because I do that quite often.

I’m guessing the typical internet sales letter has become a “Blatant Ad” and my stats are reflecting this.

On one of my niche sites, over 90% of my visitors spend less than 10 seconds on my sales pages before leaving. Yet that site still averages a 3% conversion rate.

That’s just screaming to me that something is up. Either the stats aren’t reliable, I have a horrible headline, or people can easily tell it’s a Ad and leave before reading anything.

The current thinking is that at the very least people will read your Headline before deciding whether to stay or leave. Then if you’re headline is good they will be interested and keep reading.

People are told the Headline is there to get attention (which it is), so they think they should make it stand out even more. Why not make it BRIGHT red, or make it enormous? Because that might be telling the customer “THIS IS AN AD, PLEASE GO AWAY!”

In theory something that doesn’t look like an Ad but instead a piece of helpful information should draw people further into the copy, thus increasing sales. I’ve found corresponding proof of this by looking at some successful copy of the past.

So I’m going to potentially create a little stir and say “All the Guru’s are doing it wrong!”

I can’t prove it yet and I could be completely wrong, so I’m going to run a test on one of my niche sites.

I’ve already rewritten the sales page so it looks more like a helpful article at first than a Ad, and I should have the test up and running in a few hours.

Update: I forget the exact results of this test but I know it inceased my conversion rate.

I read somewhere once about the 80/20 rule which basically states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. My experience shows me that this is correct.

I try to test and track everything I do so I can change my actions and improve my results.

When I launch a new niche product, I use Conversion Tracking to track which keywords convert and which don’t. I then use that information to bid more on the ones that convert well, bid just enough to make the crappy ones profitable, and delete the ones that don’t convert at all.

By doing that I greatly increase my products profit. In fact, some of the products I sell start off losing money but then after some tweaking end up very profitable.

When I’m testing my sales copy I first try to find what parts of it affect my conversion rate the most, then focus on improving those parts. Therefore making the most of my time spent testing.

Get the point?

If you find the 20% that’s making the biggest difference, and then focus on improving or duplicating that 20%, you can easily increase your profits in every thing you do.

Find a way to track as many details of your business as possible, and then exploit the hell out of that information.