Health is essential to wealth and a happy life, if you are healthy then you have already done the hard work, next the easy part. Our aim is now to increase your happiness by increasing your wealth and make you become financially free in order to fully enjoy the benefits of being healthy.
Getting a little work done today and I thought to myself.... there are thousands of online marketers like myself making money every month with nothing but a laptop and an internet connection. Wow!
Fact: Many work from their homes and many of them work only part time.
I am going to offer an exclusive free webinar to the first 15 registrants only showing them my latest online business and exactly step by step what I do to earn my daily income and how they can copy this exact system and earn an income within their first 24hours. This will only require 15minutes of your time at the most, all you need is an internet connection. Does this sound like something you can do ? if you can spare 15mins of your time to earn an income then you will want to watch this short video below....
You know a lot of people ask me whether this whole 'laptop-lifestyle' thing exists? Can you really operate a profitable business entirely from your laptop from anywhere around the world? Do people really live a life of flexibility and financial freedom? A few years ago I would have probably said NO too.... that there is no way you can if you weren't lucky to be born rich or have won the lottery.
But knowing now what I know today... Let me tell you nothing is impossible and NO you don't
have to win the lottery or be born rich to live a great lifestyle. (I sure as hell wasn't born rich)
You CAN start from nothing and work yourself upwards if you have A SYSTEM, be willing to put in the TIME and EFFORT....and let the money work for you instead of you working for the money.
Here's the best part... you can get started for no money, no credit card either!
For the chance to register to this free webinar click the link below.
Do some digging and you’ll find a lot out there on website tweaks to improve conversion rates. I chose these 10 because our clients have found success with them in the past. They’re also relatively quick and easy to implement, with high potential to drive an increase in revenue.
Create urgency
Highlight the benefits of your product in addition to its features
Add reviews or testimonials
Use free shipping
Use strikethrough pricing
Add a call to action on every page
Answer questions before they’re asked
Add related items to a product view
Show the product in action
Make it easy to read
1. Create Urgency
It’s marketing 101. Offer limited time promotions to create a sense of urgency. This age old marketing tactic exists for a reason – because it works. Yet you’d be surprised at how many sites out there don’t give their visitors a sense of urgency! Use the following tactics to make sure that buying right now is a motivating factor:
Give a clear deadline
Use urgent copy, such as “Limited Time Offer”, “Offer ends soon”, etc.
Use strikethough pricing
Give users a clear next step, and funnel them towards making a purchase
Sweeten the deal – give customers added incentives to purchase your already attractive offer, like free shipping
Here’s a great example from Holt’s Cigar Company: During Holt’s Weekly Sale Special, there’s a clear deadline to create urgency, they explicitly list the savings by using strikethrough pricing, offer free shipping to sweeten the deal, and funnel customers directly towards making a purchase. Bravo Holt’s.
2. Highlight the benefits of your product instead of its features
A feature is a factual statement about a product or service being promoted. A benefit answers the question “What’s in it for me?”
Let’s pretend that I’m selling you air conditioners. Which AC unit would you rather purchase from me? Air Conditioner 1
Description:
Quiet condenser fan system
Factory-installed liquid line filter dryer
Contactor with lug connections
Steel louver coil guard
Heavy-gauge galvanized-steel cabinet
Air Conditioner 2
Description:
The quietest air conditioning unit on the market – you won’t hear a thing.
Cools a 50 square foot room from 90℉ to 71℉ in under 12 minutes.
Built with your electricity bill in mind, this unit was rated the most energy efficient in its class.
Extremely weather-resistant, built with industrial grade steel for long-lasting durability. Comes with a 10 year warranty.
If you’re not in the AC wholesale business like my friend John at BobsRedTrucks.com, you’d probably rather purchase Air Conditioner 2, even though Air Conditioner 1 and Air Conditioner 2 are the same product. Features aren’t what entice customers to buy, benefits are. Make sure that you’re describing the benefits in addition to your product’s features.
3. Add reviews or testimonials
Customers are listening to the word of advertisers less and less, and trusting the customers that purchased before them more and more. Think back to the last few purchases you made online. Did you read reviews before making your purchase decision? Most likely you did. This study published by Marketing Land revealed that 90% of customer buying decisions are influenced by online reviews. Adding reviews and testimonials builds trust, and adds credibility to your site.
Here’s how to use reviews to your advantage:
Incorporate testimonials on pages throughout your sales funnel.
Showcase positive customer tweets on your website. I worked for a company that embedded a live Twitter feed of the users Tweeting at them on their checkout page, which worked exceptionally well to increase conversions. It gave a face to the brand and built trust.
Ask your customers to participate in case studies that you can then feature on your site.
Create video testimonials that you can embed on your site and in a YouTube channel for your brand.
4. Use free shipping
This is the number one promotion that drives online purchases. Make sure to watch your profit margins, but if you’re able to offer free shipping, it’s proven to entice customers to purchase more than any other tactic on this list.
Also, offering free or discounted shipping can curb shopping cart abandonment rates. According to kissmetrics, 28% of shoppers will abandon their shopping cart if presented with unexpected shipping costs. That’s the number one reason for shopping cart abandonment! It’s also important that if you offer free shipping, you advertise it loud and proud, and that you’re as clear as possible about your free shipping policy. Remember, no one likes unexpecting shipping costs.
5. Use strikethrough pricing
Everyone loves a deal. If customers perceive that they’re able to purchase a product for less than it’s worth (or less than they’re willing to pay for it) on your website, you’ve created demand for that product and proven the value of your site.
Use strikethrough pricing to show customers the value of your offer, and how much they’ll save by purchasing the product from you. Cross out the original price and highlight the sale price. Here’s another example from Holt’s Cigar Company:
Not only show how much customers will save by purchasing the product from your site with strikethrough pricing, but directly compare your cheaper prices to those of your competitors.
6. Add a call to action on every page
On every page of your site, you should be guiding visitors towards a desired action. Think of each page as an opportunity to funnel buyers towards a purchase, lead generation form, event promotion, social share, etc. in order to make more money and/or promote your brand. Persuading site visitors to do what you want is no easy task, but taking time to master the art of the call to action can dramatically improve your bottom line.
Here’s a few great examples of creative calls to action. A few best practices include:
Less is more when it comes to choices. If you give multiple choices, give weight to one choice over another, so customers don’t have to think too hard.
Give careful consideration to your call to action button colors. Different colors inspire different emotions, and some colors attract more attention than others.
Large, visible text captures attention, but make it too big and you’ll offput potential customers. Here’s a nice balance from Coin:
If you offer one main product, give customers a clear way to purchase it right away from the home page. Here’s a nice example from Tep Wireless:
Keep call to action button text short.
Movement attracts attention. Adding movement to your site in specific areas can draw visitors towards a call to action.
Make it stand out. Your call to action button should have sufficient space around it so that it clearly stands out.
Make your call to action contextually relevant to the content on that page. If you were shopping on BestBuy.com for a new TV and were scrolling through a TV category page, it would be weird if in the sidebar you were prompted to sign up for their camera lens newsletter.
7. Answer questions before they’re asked
People who visit your site have questions, and many want to know the answers before making a purchase. FAQ pages are great, but there’s more you can do to anticipate common questions, and provide contextually relevant information to answer them before they’re asked.
Figure out what people want to know, and provide the answers within the content of relevant pages. Survey your customers after checkout, after they reach your customer service department, and a few weeks after purchase through email to collect this data.
If there are too many questions, create multiple FAQ pages with a table of contents linking to each section.
Don’t make customers click the Contact Us button. It’s frustrating, and will decrease your conversions.
Continue to create interesting content around your most frequently asked questions. Consider leveraging your blog for this.
ProTip: Check out your top 5 landing pages on Google Analytics, and take an hour to brainstorm questions that customers could possibly ask about the content on those 5 pages. Filter out the questions that might not make sense after your brainstorm, and cross reference the remaining ones with your FAQ page to find gaps. Finally, create content around these questions on your blog or consider adding them to your FAQ page.
If you want to get even fancier, check out the channel breakdown for each of your top 5 landing pages. If most customers come directly to the page, then they’re most likely already aware of your brand/products, and might have less questions than if most of your customers are coming in via referral. If most customers are coming to one of your top landing pages via referral, you may want to spend more time brainstorming questions for that specific landing page.
8. Add related items to a product view
Adding related items to a product view allows customers who already have purchase intent to view products that they may not have considered (and may like more than the one they’re thinking about purchasing). It also allows you as the site owner to up-sell and cross-sell, which can have a dramatic impact on your average order value. If you use an ecommerce platform like Magento, this functionality is already built in.
Here’s an example from Urban Outfitters:
And an example from Fab.com:
9. Show the product in action
One of our clients, Revzilla, does an excellent job of showing their products in action. On their site, it all starts on their category pages, where they clearly label which products have video reviews.
On the individual product pages, Revzilla shows the product in action via these professional video reviews. In addition, they incentivize customers to leave a review, and allow them to upload their own personal photos with the product. It’s a genius way to show the product in action, while also creating added trust and proof of the product’s value.
To show your products in action:
Leverage your customers for user generated content. Embed this user generated content on your product pages, category pages, and social media accounts.
Create videos that showcase your products in action. Embed them into your product pages, and transcribe them so that Googlebot can index and crawl the content. Create a YouTube account for additional reach.
If customers can post reviews on product pages, allow them to upload pictures as well.
10. Make it easy to read
The expression “less is more” should ring true when it comes to the design of your site, and the words that you use in your content. Sites that reduce clutter, have clear calls to action, and beautifully display information in a conversational tone set themselves up to convert visitors.
To make your site easy to read, use the below tactics:
Use bullets
Keep sentences and paragraphs short
Use a conversational tone
Don’t use too many font sizes
Don’t use too many typefaces
When emphasizing text (like, you know, a call to action) consider using a colored background as opposed to bolding, underlining, or italicizing the text
When you’re finished reading this post, play around with the rest of Seer’s site. I’m a little biased, but in my opinion this is something that we do very well.
Cool! Now What?
A/B test! You can test almost anything on your website that will affect the behavior of your visitors. Test variations of these 10 tactics to see what resonates best with your audience.
If you’ve been following the boom of social media marketing, you already know blogging is an essential ingredient to any social media strategy. Are you unsure about what to write, when to post, how to grow your subscribers and how to keep them coming back for more? If you’ve had any of these concerns, you’re not alone!
To help you take your blog to an entirely new level, here are 7 tips from the best-of-the-best in the blogging and social media arena. Every expert below has created a thriving blog with tens of thousands of subscribers who engage with their posts on a regular basis. If you want to know how to create and grow a successful blog, make sure to take notes (and take action)!
#1: Measure Your Blogging Success
“If you’re blogging for business, rather than blogging about your cat, baby, fashion addiction, or crush on Taylor Swift, you need to set some success metrics,” says Jay Baer, founder of Convince and Convert.
Without a statistical measure of your blogging progress, adding content to your blog on a regular basis can be an incredibly lonely proposition. Is anyone out there? Does anyone care?
However, within the business blogging arena there are a wide variety of potential metrics to gauge your momentum. It’s imperative that you select the most relevant ones that match with your blog’s purpose.
The first step in that process of course is to know why you’re blogging. This sounds simple, but it’s shocking how many bloggers aren’t clear on the core business rationale behind their blog initiative.
As I see it, you have 3 options:
Blogging for Content This is the scenario where you are writing a blog with considerable emphasis on search optimization, attempting to drive traffic to the blog via strategic content creation and keyword inclusion. Your metric is search traffic.
Blogging for Commerce Related to the first, but commerce-oriented blogs are more interested in conversion events than in traffic generation. Funneling traffic from the blog to some other web destination (typically a corporate site or lead form) is the primary objective. Here, your metrics are leads and conversions.
Blogging for Community These blogs seek to build a consistent readership that interacts with the blogger(s) and advocates on behalf of the content on other social outposts.
Determine the main reason why your business has a blog and pick success metrics to match.
#2: Pursue Guest Blogging Opportunities
One of the best ways to get exposure for your blog is to blog for other people. Rich Brooks, president of Flyte New Media, offers some great advice to start building relationships for potential guest blogging opportunities.
“Find the influential bloggers in your related industries,” says Brooks, “and read their blogs. As appropriate, leave intelligent, thoughtful comments that further the conversation. This can drive traffic to your blog and may open up opportunities for guest blogging at their blog as they become aware of you through your brilliant insights. However, this must be a win-win for it to work. If you leave comments for completely selfish reasons, you can expect limited results.”
#3: Reframe How You Look at Business Blogging
“I often hear people complain that they don’t have time to write on their business blog or they don’t know what to write about,” says Denise Wakeman, founder of The Blog Squad. “Yet a blog is one of the best tools you can use to distribute your message across the web.”
One way to move away from this mode of thinking is to reframe how you look at blogging. It’s not about writing on a blog; it’s about taking advantage of a powerful marketing tool that works for you 24/7/365. Then, schedule writing time so it doesn’t slip through the cracks in the course of a busy day or week.
Here’s a 4-step process to get you started:
1. Block out your writing time on a calendar.
2. Plan your content in advance. Create an editorial calendar and plug in your topics 1 to 3 months in advance.
3. For each of your blog categories, list a minimum of 5 topics you can cover related to your company, products and the solutions you provide.
4. Pop them into your editorial calendar as prompts so you’re never at a loss for ideas when it’s time to create content.
#4: Add Keywords to Your Blog Titles and Posts
Rob Birgfeld of SmartBrief says keywords are the secret sauce to a successful business blog.
“It’s easy,” Birgfeld says, “to write blog posts on whatever topic springs to mind. But chances are your blog was created to help achieve business goals. In order to reach those goals, take data from your search engine marketing efforts and develop an editorial plan around your top-producing keywords.”
Gather your top 10-15 keywords or phrases and write blog posts specific to each one. Keep the content compelling, but be sure to sprinkle the selected keyword (and synonyms) throughout the post.
Most importantly, be sure to include those all-important keywords in the blog title and in the tags that you select. Not only will a keyword-driven blogging strategy help you build and plan out your editorial calendar, it will help you reach company goals via proven search engine marketing data. Thus providing you with something that’s hard to come by in social media: An easier sell to your CFO.
#5: Interview the Best in Your Industry
Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner, suggests, “Hire a videographer and go to the biggest trade show in your industry. Interview all the leading book authors and thought leaders.”
When you do this, you’ll end up with tons of content you can release on your blog over months. And chances are, when the big names see your video, they’ll share it with their fan base, driving new traffic to your site.
Here’s Mike Stelzner interviewing Scott Monty of Ford at Blog World 2010. This is a great example of attending the best events in the industry and connecting with the influencers.
#6: Create Persuasive Calls to Action
“You’ve got anecdotes, case studies, top-ten lists, provocative insights and more on your business blog. Hats off to you. That’s a huge achievement, particularly if you’ve been publishing a blog for a year or less. But what’s your call to action? And by that I mean, what step is a visitor prompted to take after landing on your blog?” says Debbie Weil, expert blogger and author of The Corporate Blogging Book.
What obvious callouts do you have to attract a visitor’s eye after he or she reads your latest blog post? Think about it. Your blog reader, if a first-time visitor, has most likely typed in a keyword phrase and ended up on your blog through search results.
Readers may not even know that it’s a blog. So you’ve got their attention, at least for a few seconds. This is your real-time moment to prompt your visitor to take the next step. IfI sound all salesy here I don’t mean to. This is permission marketing 101. It’s offering something unanticipated but relevant at the exact moment your visitor is looking for it.
Here are a few ideas for persuasive calls to action from Debbie Weil’s Social Media Insights Blog:
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Request our toolkit
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#7: When it Comes to Video Blogging, Forget Acting
“I remember the first time I was on camera,” says David Garland, founder of The Rise to the Top and author of Smarter, Faster, Cheaper. “I was trying to be someone I wasn’t… with an awkward spray tan. (Stop laughing.)”
For some reason, our personalities can sometimes change when on camera (something about that scary lens). What the audience craves is to see the real you. All the good stuff, quirks and everything else.
Try this. Invite someone over with whom you are VERY comfortable. Have him or her ask you a question and simply answer it. Then, have the person hold a camera and try it again. Rinse, wash and repeat until you feel comfortable. When you talk into the lens, picture that person. It will make all the difference.
Here's David Garland interviewing Mike Stelzner about the success of SocialMediaExaminer.com.
If you’re looking to build a lead capture landing page, it’s not just a matter of slapping a form on a page and driving traffic to it. Well, you could, but it wouldn’t perform well.
Instead, follow these 15 steps and create a high performance landing page designed specifically for gathering leads.
Read on and learn how to build the ultimate lead capture form, an example of which will be uncovered right at the end.
Step 1. Define your target market & campaign goal
Who are you marketing to?
Before you start building anything you need to know who you are marketing to. The chances are you’re creating a campaign for one of the following targets:
Existing customers: You might think that having a customer means you don’t need to continue marketing to them. Sometimes a customer is inactive so your goal is reengagement, through exposure to new content or product demos that may turn them from a fence sitter back into a real customer.
Leads in your email or CRM lists: Once you’ve established a list of leads, your goal should be to nurture them with more content and events to turn them into customers. Perhaps you get them to register for an e-course using autoresponders to drip content into their inboxes, slowly building a rapport that eventually moves from a soft sell content marketing strategy, to a request to sign up (potentially with a special offer).
Prospects: This is the purest form of lead capture, where you are chasing entirely new prospects through the use of content marketing.
Lead form tip: If you are marketing to customers or leads, pre-populate as many of your lead capture landing page form fields as you can, to reduce the friction involved in filling out the form, and to create a sense of personalization.
Step 2. Define & create a relevant reward
Are you giving something appropriate away in exchange for personal data?
Having established your target audience, you need to figure out what to offer them in order to get their important personal or business data.
Everyone likes to be rewarded, getting free stuff is awesome. But with lead gen there’s a little work to do first, and it gets pretty personal. Typically the very minimum a prospect, lead or customer will have to part with is an email address (covered in step #3).
Before thinking about what you’re asking for in exchange for your content, you need to define the content, and make it relevant to your target’s needs. Here are some of the things you can create:
Digital content to give away
There is a ton of digital content you can give away, first we’ll list them, then explain how they should be used differently for prospects, leads and customers.
An ecourse delivered over a period of time
Report/whitepaper with important industry stats
Ebooks – comprehensive guides to different aspects of your business
A newsletter with tips related to your area of subject matter expertise
A podcast – useful for people who like to listen during a commute or workout
Checklists/scorecards – good for people that need to see how well they are doing and produce a to-do list of things to improve
Webinars – live sessions, often with Q&A with experts and special guest presenters
Presentations – slides you can incorporate into your own presentations
Consultation – this is when someone requests your time to explore if they want to use your product or service
Prospects
Prospects are people you haven’t come into contact with yet, so they need extra reasons to believe in what you’re giving away. They need a softer sell, usually educational material that doesn’t push your product, like an ebook.
Leads
Leads are prospects who have converted by already consuming some of your content. These are the people you really want to convert into customers. As such they should be receiving content with signup CTAs and links to register for product demos.
Customers
Customers come in two forms: active and inactive. Your goals here are to keep active customers happy with instructional material that makes their life easier, and then re-engage your inactive customers with special offers, and updates on new features that could reactivate them. Customers are prime candidates for newsletters and ecourses.
Webinar tips: Have a webinar calendar to allow people to sign up in advance. List each session as beginner, intermediate or advance – much like you would with a yoga calendar. And remember to inform people on your landing pages that they will receive a recording of the webinar the next day if they are unable to attend – this will increase registration significantly.
Crucial to your success with lead gen is to balance the reward (the size of the prize) with the friction involved in getting it. This is where your choice of form fields come into play…
Step 3. Define the required form fields
Do you really need to ask for a fax number?
What’s an appropriate number of form fields to ask for in exchange for your content? Ideally, you would test this to find out what number of fields converts the best, while still getting the data you need to successfully segment and re-market to them in the future.
Here’s a breakdown of the content listed in the last section with an appropriate level of information you should ask for (note these are simple guidelines – every situation will be slightly different).
Email only
Presentation slides
Checklist/scorecard
Podcast
Name and email
For a more personalized experience over a period of time.
Ebook
Newsletter
Ecourse
Report/whitepaper
Name, email and company information
Company information might include: size of company and phone number. Often used for longer sales cycle items.
Webinar
Consultation
Product demo
Note, you could ask for a lot more if you want to, but realistically, an email is all you really need for most things. Form tip: Scale how much information you ask from prospect, lead, customer (prospect being the least, and customer the most).
Step 4. Craft a headline to match your promotional ad source
Does your headline match the ad that was clicked on?
Message match is the term used to describe the connection between the call-to-action (CTA) of an advertisement and the headline of the destination page.
There are two reasons why this is important:
The human factor: When someone clicks a CTA they have a level of intent that must be matched when they arrive at their destination. For example if they clicked on an ad for used pickup trucks, and they arrived at the homepage of a used car business where there was no direct mention of pickup trucks. Immediately the message match has been broken and they will feel like they have made a bad click. The end result of this is that they either get lost trying to find what they came for, or ,ore likely they just hit the back button and leave.
The machine factor: It’s not just people that get affected by poor message match. If you are doing paid advertising such as Google AdWords, there is a bot that reads your target page to see if there is a connection to the keywords in the ad. In the previous example, you’d get a lower Google Quality Score for your ad, and consequently a higher price for your ad.
An example of good message match
Here’s an example from an Unbounce banner CTA that sits at the end of our blog posts. Read the text on the button, as this will be the last thing in the mind of a visitor when they click it.
Now consider the headline in the destination landing page, and how closely it matches that of the CTA:
Always pay close attention to your message and you’ll increase your conversion rates by virtue of more people staying on a page they asked to visit.
Step 5. Establish relevant trust elements
Is your lead capture page trustworthy?
Trust is key to making people believe you won’t be spamming them after getting your email. Social proof is a key element here as we’ll see in the list of trust element you can include on your page:
Trust elements
Registrant count: If you are running a webinar, list the number of registrants to encourage a herd mentality (if that many people are going, it must be good). Note: only start listing the number when it gets to an impressive count.
Download count: Similarly, show how many people have downloaded your ebook.
Share count: Showing the social share numbers shows how many people find your content valuable enough to tell others about it. The best place to put this is on your confirmation page when they’ve already expressed interest.
Anti-spam statement: Put a simple statement next to the email form field that says you won’t spam them ever.
Testimonials: Customer testimonials show that others have made the effort to report back on the quality of your content. The best kind are video testimonials, followed by written ones with a photo and official title. Never use a fake testimonial – they’re usually easier to spot that a wig.
Customer logos: If you have an impressive client list, take advantage of this by prominently showing them on your page.
Media mentions: You’ve seen these before. It’s the list of logos from CNN, NBC, FOX News, TechCrunch etc. If you’ve been lucky enough to have been mentioned in big publications or on TV, make sure to show off.
Security badges: If you’re asking for sensitive data, include these to show that you are using security best practices, such as a secure server. Examples would be McAfee or Symantec.
Content previews: Leverage people’s desire for “Try before you buy” by including a preview of your content such as a chapter of your ebook. Amazon has perfected this with their “Look Inside” concept.
Past content examples: If you are asking someone to sign up for a newsletter, show them an archived example so they know what they are signing up for.
Step 6. Write a short persuasive and descriptive intro paragraph
Make it clear what people should do to start understanding your service.Your opening paragraph should be a short and succinct extension of your headline, which serves as an introduction to some bullet points (coming up next) describing the product or service you’re promoting.
Let’s look at an example from a webinar registration: Join us at 2pm EST for a special webinar about lead gen landing pages, featuring [insert star name], hosted by [insert another star name]. We’ll be talking about best practices for generating leads using webinars (how meta), and we’ll be covering the following:
Insert bullet points…
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
The star power and time limited component give it a persuasive edge, while the details and bullet points give it the descriptive clarity it needs to answer your questions and convince you of the benefits of attending.
Step 7. Bullet point the key benefits of your solution
Bullet points are easier to scan than a paragraph of textFollowing directly from the last point (no pun intended), given how little time most people spend on most pages – you have maybe 5 seconds to garner their interest. Most of this is done via your headline grabbing their attention, but assuming this has already happened, you need to dig into some simple benefit statements rather than ramble on in a long paragraph like this one. If you can turn your text into about 3-5 bullet points each explaining why they should fill in your form, then your lead gen page will be more effective. As an exercise, let’s break down whaty I’ve just said into bullets:
You have 5 seconds to convince someone to stay
Don’t use a rambling paragraph
Use 3-5 bullets points
Focus on the benefits
Explain why someone should complete your lead gen form
See how much easier that was to read?
Point made.
Step 8. Decide on image/video requirements
Which medium best communicates your product or service?This is a classic A/B test – whether to use images or video on your page, or none at all. The decision often comes down to the purpose of the page. Let’s run through some of the rewards you are giving away (from step #2) and see what would be most appropriate:
Ebook: An image showing the cover, and the authors is the most appropriate choice here.
Ecourse: A personal video describing what the course is about is typical, and most likely the most persuasive method.
Webinar: Photos of the participants are the most powerful choice here.
Podcast: Here you’d want a short audio clip.
Slide presentation: An embedded Slideshare or lightbox gallery presentation with a sample of the full version is a great idea here.
Online product demo: A video showing the context of use (the product in action) is the best way to showcase a product.
Let’s look at a couple of examples:
Ebook download
Webinar registration
Click image for full size view
Notice how each of the examples uses only the required information in the form, uses a short intro paragraph, bullet points and relevant images.
Step 9. Write an actionable CTA
Make your CTA desirable so people want to click itThis one’s conversion 101. Your CTA should describe exactly what will happen when you click on it. We just talked about message match, so you should understand the importance of a descriptive CTA.
To make it more actionable, use persuasive copy, that has some urgency or benefit statements in it. Even simple words like “Get”, “Try”, “Now” or “Today” can work.
Here’s an example of good and bad CTAs:
A good CTA
Look how clear the description on this button is. Both lines are very actionable and descriptive.
A bad CTA
This is more of a rule to follow. The absolute worst thing you can ever write on your buttons is the dreaded “Submit” word as it describes nothing about what’s going to happen when you click on it. If you’re using this on your buttons, go and change them right now!
Step 10. Create urgency factors
Before the candle burns out…
The key to creating a sense of urgency is to create the illusion of a pain point in the mind of the visitor to your page. To understand how this works, let’s first look at a couple of examples from the world of ecommerce.
Amazon delivery deadline
Amazon preys on the fear of not getting Christmas presents delivered on time (who wants crying kids on Christmas morning?) They do this by helpfully telling you the last day that you should order to guarantee delivery by the date in question. They’ve taken this even further (as shown in the example below) where they are applying urgency to any date – no doubt to capture last minute present buying for birthdays which can occur on any given date.
Expedia seats limitations
Expedia uses a live seat count for their flights, to encourage immediate bookings. Looking at the best flight for your journey and seeing that there are only 2 seats left is a great way to add urgency to the booking process. Note that they only do this when there are a couple of seats left – not when there are 200 left.
I have no idea if there is actually one seat left, or if this is just a ply to encourage bookings. It works extremely well though – from personal experience.
So how do we go about applying these principles to our lead gen landing pages?
We can apply both of these principles to our lead gen pages as follows:
Ebook/report – free for a limited time
For an ebook download, you can say that it’s free for a limited time only, and that after a certain date it will cost $14.95 for example. This will increase the number of downloads before the date you choose – which of course can be continuously extended.
Webinar – limited seats
If you are running a webinar, you can increase both the urgency and exclusivity of the session by stating how many virtual seats are still available. For example: register now – only 20 of 100 spots left.
Essentially, anything you can do to create a scenario of urgency through utilizing a pain point, you’ll increase your lead gen form conversions.
Step 11. Apply the principles of Conversion Centered Design (CCD) to your form
Apply the principles of conversion centered design to perfect your form. In this instance, encapsulation is demonstrated.
CCD is a discipline targeted specifically at achieving the goals of a business, from the standpoint that the primary purpose of any page is to guide the visitor toward one specific action. It’s an approach that uses persuasion and psychological devices to convince a visitor to convert. Landing pages sit at the heart of CCD, used to focus the attention of a prospect toward a single objective or conversion goal.
In the examples following, we take a basic lead capture landing page, and transform it using 3 of the core principles of CCD: encapsulation, color contrast, and directional cues. The end result being a stronger lead gen form designed for conversion. Using encapsulation: Notice how the form stands out more in the version on the right, due to the use of an encapsulation container. This is most often done simply by placing the form in a containing box to provide a contrasting background.
Using color & contrast: Now the form is really starting to pop. Notice how there are two primary areas of the form that are brought forward by the use of color & contrast: the form header and the CTA. the reason for using the same contrasting color for both is to provide a sense of correlation. The header should contain pertinent information that describes what you are getting by submitting the form, and the benefit of doing so. For example: “Download our free ebook to master the art of conversion.” Using the same color as the CTA will naturally allow your eye to follow the trail down to the CTA after reading the contents of the header.
Using directional cues: Notice the use of two arrows in the example on the right. By taking the previous version and adding some extra visual persuasion to the form, the first arrow brings your attention from the introductory copy to the form header (which as described above, should contain the description of the purpose of your form) and a second arrow from the form header down to the CTA.
We now have a lead capture form based on the principles of conversion centered design.
Step 12. Architect for the 6-point punch
Architect your page for the 6-point punch
You’re probably wondering what the 6-point punch is. It’s a concept based on the primary elements a successful lead gen page requires to be effective. Essentially, it acts like a checklist of the important elements already discussed, as a reminder that to be really conversion focused, you need to create a page with all of these aspects working in concert together.
Headline with strong message match Here the ad that was clicked should be a very close match to the headline as discussed in step #5.
Intro with bullets Remember to keep your intro short, and simplified by the use of bullet points.
An appropriate media choice In the example below an ebook image is shown.
Conversion Centered Design influenced lead gen form The form area shows all of the conversion centered design principles describe in the last step.
Urgency factors Remember to add some kind of time, price or space limited statement to your page.
Trust factors In the example below, testimonials are added to the bottom of the page. A good addition to this would be a preview of the ebook to let the visitor know what they are going to download.
Here’s a good example of an ebook download landing page with some of these principles in action. Later on you’ll see how it could be improved via a collaborative A/B testing exercise.
Click image for full size view
Step 13. Decide what you want to do post conversion
What do you want people to do after they convert?
Despite having a well targeted and relevant reward on your page, you could be generating more paying customers from your prospects – and I’m going to show you how.
It’s important to think about what will happen after you generate a new lead, and what you want them to do now that you have their attention. You want to take advantage of that magic moment directly after the customer says “Yes, I like you” to keep them in your sphere of influence while they’re “in the mood”. You can do this by focussing their attention on the first thing they see after submitting your lead gen form – the confirmation page.
The lead generation confirmation page could be considered the digital equivalent of a supermarket candy shelf. Admit it, you’ve fallen victim to those shelves of sweet goodness stacked by the checkout as you wait in line – aimlessly throwing crap you don’t need into your basket.
So what should you ask them to do on your confirmation page? Here are 5 quick tips that you can implement now:
Social: Ask them to follow you on a social media network (Twitter, Facebook) – or share your page.
Invite them to a webinar: Make sure the subject matter is closely related to the goals of the leads you’re capturing – and of the landing page they were just on.
Give them a discount coupon (or code): If you give people a discount when they’re not asking for it and they don’t have to give you anything in return (after all, they just completed your lead gen form) – they’ll get a great buzz from being treated so well.
Send them to an important “What To Do Next” page: Many people enjoy a guided experience. Tell them what to do, and they’ll often do it. Use only a single link for this and send them to a “Greatest Hits” or “Top 10” list page that shows off the very best content and information you have to offer.
Ask them to subscribe to a newsletter: Newsletters (or a drip campaign if you want to push them through a progressive story arc) are a powerful permission marketing tool that keeps you in your leads stream of consciousness for an extended period of time. The confirmation page is a good time to ask if someone would like to participate if you can automatically transfer their details to the new newsletter email list without asking for more data.
Step 14. Create a wireframe for your page
Create a rough wireframe to figure out your page element placement.Before you start designing your page, you should grab a marker and use a whiteboard to lay out a wireframe for your page. There are a couple of reasons for this: it saves you design time, by getting the layout right before you start building a page you might need to deconstruct and re-build, it also allows you to run a few initial tests using your sketch.
Before you run the tests I’ll mention below, make sure your wireframe is quite detailed and includes some real copy and some CCD elements such as color and contrast etc.
The 5-second test
This is a fun one to do with a whiteboard (or piece of paper hanging on the wall if you decided to sketch it that way or printed out a page from a wireframing tool like Balsamiq.
Here’s how it works. Get a lineup of people who’ve not seen the page before, and one at a time, position them right in front of the page with their eyes closed. Then ask them to open their eyes and look at the page. After 5 seconds, tell them to close their eyes again and tell you what the page is about. If they can’t tell you after 5 seconds of exposure (the typical amount of time a visitor will stay if your page isn’t clear), then your core value proposition (headline) isn’t clear enough. If this happens repeatedly, rewrite and start again. Do this until you have a very clear page.
The 6-foot test
For this one, you need to stand 6ft away from the sketch and see what the most dominant areas on the page are. If the CTA doesn’t stand out enough, you should consider adding more contrast, size and some whitespace around it. Similarly, if the headline is buried, apply the same concepts to make it more easily readable.
Once you’re satisfied with your page, it’s time to do the final design and get ready for launch and A/B testing.
Step 15. A/B testing your lead capture landing page
A/B test your landing page for maximum conversions.
Here’s where the real fun starts, running an A/B test on your page. But first you need to publish it and start driving traffic to it (from PPC, social, email, display etc.). Quick plug: Unbounce makes it super simple to build, publish and A/B test your pages without any help from I.T. – okay, pitch over.
When you start seeing conversion results from your landing page, you’ll undoubtedly come to the correct conclusion that it could be better – every page can be. This signals the time to run an A/B test. It’s also when the classic question of what to test comes up.
Before jumping into testing, you need to know a few of the fundamentals involved in the A/B testing process, and then some techniques for figuring out what to test.
Gathering insight for a test
Before you know why you are going to run a test, you need to get some actionable insight into what could make your test effective. One of the best ways to do this is by using visitor feedback. This can be done in a number of ways:
Use services like Qualaroo to add a survey to your pages to ask people questions about their experience.
Using live chat on your pages so that you can talk to people at the point of conversion and figure out why they are sitting on the fence, or what they need to become a converted customer. Unbounce recommend services like Olark and ClickDesk
Sending an email to your customers to find out what it was that made them sign up.
Use online usability tools like UserTesting.com or Loop11 to see where people are dropping off.
Connect heatmap software like Crazy Egg to your page to see where the most clicked and focused areas of the page are.
Have a brainstorm with people from different departments in your company
Why are you testing?
A big mistake is trying to test something without a real purpose. This is where a test hypothesis comes in – a statement of what you are going to test and your theory behind why it will be a success. As an example:
“The page does not have a clear call-to-action, and prospects spend too long trying to understand what to do next. Adding a large orange button right under the main benefits will help them identify the CTA and perform our desired action.”
Once you have a hypothesis you’re in a better position to create a test page to compete against your original page in an A/B test.
How to test
Now that you’re ready to run a test, you need to follow a few rules to ensure your experiment is clean:
Each page in your test should receive at least 100 unique visitors
The test should last at least a week to account for different daily behaviors
The statistical significance of the experiment should be over 95% to remove the potential that your results are based on chance. This is a measure of confidence that your experiment is valid and can be ended, knowing that the results are trustworthy.
Brainstorming
Educated with how to gather feedback and run an effective test, we’re going to focus on one element of gathering insight – the group brainstorm. Include people from different departments to get a range of opinion.There are a lot of feedback mechanisms listed above – all of which are effective, but armed with the data from these techniques, you will be tempted to go it alone and try to figure out how to implement change. This will work most of the time, but having more than one opinion is a great way to establish new ideas and priorities.
Here’s a basic overview of the brainstorm process.
Draw a giant version of your landing page on a whiteboard (or just print it out as big as you can).
Gather a representative from several departments/disciplines around the company (marketing, design, customer service, management, software development) as your brainstorm participants.
Provide everyone with a block of stickies and a sharpie pen.
Write down a list of the primary page elements that could be tested to start the process with.
Ask everyone to come up with ideas to test as you walk through the list of elements. For each idea, they must write it down on a stickie and verbalize the idea as it’s passed to you (as the facilitator) and stuck on the page in the relevant position.
Open it up to big picture ideas with no restrictions.
Once you have exhausted all of the ideas, have everyone come and vote (by checking a stickie) on their top 3 ideas.
Create a prioritized list of which ideas to test, ordered by the number of votes.
START TESTING…
A final point. Never stop testing. Test, Rinse & Repeat. Because as I mentioned earlier, every page can be better.
As a result of a session like this, imagine our example from earlier, modified based on the principles we’ve learned along the way and the ideas gathered from a group brainstorm.
As you can see from this version, it now includes all of the elements of a great lead capture landing page:
Reward: The ebook
Appropriate form fields: Name and email address only – removing the unnecessary company and phone number
A short intro
3 bullet points
Relevant media choice: An image of the ebook, along with author photo & bio below it
Trust factors: A testimonial, ebook preview, and privacy policy
Urgency: A time-limited free price offer
CCD elements: Directional cues, encapsulation and color contrast applied to the form area
Do you need to rank higher in YouTube search results?
Understanding how you can take advantage of YouTube’s algorithm will help your channel and videos be seen by more people.
In this article you’ll discover how to make your video rank higher in YouTube search results.
Discover six tips to improve your YouTube search rank.
#1: Align Content Development With Viewer Searches
To get a leg up on your YouTube competition (which may be targeting irrelevant topics or subjects), find the exact words and phrases people use to search for content like yours on YouTube.
You can use both free tools (like Keyword Tool and YouTube Trends) and paid tools (VideoCents and vidIQ, for example), to get insights into what people are searching for on YouTube.
The paid tools give a bit more data, but their true value comes from providing a sense of how hard it is to rank for specific terms. Here’s an example of some inline keyword insights on the word ‘vine’ from VidIQ.
Use tools like vidIQ to get keyword insights.
You’re looking to find the sweet spot, where a keyword is getting a good number of searches but isn‘t overly competitive. What constitutes a good number of searches will vary by industry or market.
After you’ve identified the best keywords, you can use them when creating and publishing your content.
Create Videos People Search For
Hank Green’s SciShow searched for the most asked questions about science and created an entire series of videos to answer them. This tactic earned the channel millions of views across the series.
Target the keywords people are searching for on YouTube.
Optimize Your Video for How Viewers Search
For all its power, YouTube still finds it difficult to read video content, so you need to tell the platform exactly what your video is about. You do this through the video‘s meta data.
If you use your keywords strategically (without spamming), you’ll be much more likely to rank for your chosen keywords, as YouTube knows that your video is related to these terms. Include your keywords in the video title (as close to the start as possible), the description, tags and transcript file (the script should contain targeted keywords).
Check out this example, which ranks #2 for the search term “video marketing.” The keyword is visible in the title and description.
Include keywords in your title and description.
You’ll also find the keyword in the tags.
Use keywords as tags.
It’s even included in the subtitles.
Add keywords to subtitles.
With strategic keyword optimization like this, it’s no surprise that this video ranks so high for such a competitive keyword.
#2: Maximize Video Watch Time
Watch time is YouTube’s most important ranking factor. It’s a simple fact: If you don’t have strong watch times, your videos will be demoted in search. Remember that it‘s all about what percentage of the video is watched, not just total minutes (though it’s best to increase both).
Michael Stevens of Vsauce is successful at getting his YouTube audience to stick around. Even though his videos are over 10 minutes long, they routinely log hundreds of thousands of views.
He gets straight to the point in answering the title question, and uses his personality and intelligence to pique people’s curiosity again, steering the conversation to a different but related topic. Take a cue from Michael and consider removing long intros and outros.
Get people to watch more of your video, and YouTube knows that you’re providing value to those viewers. YouTube will reward you by suggesting the video to more people and ranking the video higher in search.
#3: Drive Longer Channel Sessions
This may seem like a no-brainer, but try to get people to watch more than just one of your videos. All channels want this of course, but not all of them actively encourage viewers to watch more videos. This tactic has more benefits than meet the eye.
If your channel consistently starts people off on long YouTube sessions (even if they go off and watch videos on other channels), your channel will be rewarded by YouTube’s algorithm, and your videos will be more likely to rank higher in search.
A good way to encourage viewers to watch more video is to use clickable thumbnails (called end cards) to drive multiple video views in one sessions.
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Epic Rap Battles uses this tactic to earn great SEO benefits. The only action they want viewers to take is to watch more videos.
#4: Keep Your Content Consistent
YouTube (like its big brother Google) loves authority, and if you regularly upload videos on the same topic for a number of years, you’re much more likely to rank well for related search terms than the new kid on the block.
Unbox Therapy has been uploading “unboxing” and tech review videos multiple times a week for almost five years. Not only have they earned over 3 million subscribers to their channel, they rank second for a search of Apple’s latest gadget.
Improve your ranking by consistently uploading videos in your niche.
I always advocate tweaking styles and formats, but when it comes to topics, it’s best to choose as narrow a niche as possible and stick to it. That way YouTube recognizes you as a trusted source in that area and will favor you in rankings. If you make your content too diverse, you’re more likely to be overlooked by the algorithm. Remember that on YouTube, niche is king.
#5: Encourage Off-Platform Embeds
As previously mentioned, YouTube is hot on authority. This is also reflected in the weight they give to off-platform links and embeds. If your videos are featured and getting linked to from high-quality places on the web, YouTube thinks you must be doing something right and will give you a boost in the rankings.
A good example of this is BuzzFeed’s videos. Their videos are embedded not only on their own hugely popular website and social profiles, but also on popular and relevant entertainment blogs.
Reach out to relevant sites to promote your content.
This is doubly awesome, as it’s a sustainable and potentially huge source of views.
Think about how you can promote your content on external sites relevant to your market. Do active outreach to those sites so you’re being linked to and embedded instead of your competitors.
#6: Cultivate Audience Engagement
Comments, likes and shares are great for social proof, and comments are especially good for getting feedback and insight from your audience. But mixing up your calls to action to encourage engagement (rather than just subscription) has another benefit, too: a healthy boost in the search algorithm.
Again it all comes down to providing value. If people are giving your videos a thumbs up, sharing them with friends and talking about you, these are all positive signals to YouTube that the channel was right in sending searchers your way.
There’s no better example of this heightened engagement than the popular Soccer channel Copa90. They have a weekly show based on their viewers’ comments, so it’s little surprise that their engagement and rankings are off the charts.
Engaging with your audience is one way to boost your ranking.
You don’t have to go to these extremes, but you should mix up your calls to action and pose questions to get people talking in the comments. When people leave a comment, why not give them a shout-out to encourage interactivity?
Here’s a brilliant example from Screen Junkies, which uses fan comments in their videos.
Give your viewers an occasional shout-out.
The flipside of this is a comments section full of tumbleweeds, no shares (which also means fewer views) and no interaction, all of which are red flags to viewers and YouTube.
Bonus Tips
Here are a few other ways to boost your ranking:
Upload in HD. There are also 4K, 360 and even VR upload options.
Add closed–caption files. With closed-caption files, your scripts can be read and indexed by YouTube and Google. If you have the resources, translate your caption files into a language spoken in a secondary market or a market you’re trying to break into.
YouTube superstar Tyler Oakley called on his worldwide audience to translate his closed captions into multiple languages (62 and counting!). His video has been indexed and ranks higher in non–English-speaking countries.
Include links in your descriptions. Like Google, YouTube likes when you link to other relevant websites (and videos).
Choose a relevant video category. If your video can easily be placed in more than one category, choose the one that has the least competition.
Conclusion
As with any platform you publish on, you’ll only get out of YouTube what you put into it. The steps above might seem like a lot of work, but the results make it a sound investment of your time.
Go to your YouTube Analytics now and see how many views you‘re currently getting from search. You can do this by clicking Creator Studio> Analytics > Traffic Sources and look for the stats for YouTube Search.
Check out your YouTube stats.
Make a note of your average monthly views from search and then revisit this metric once you‘ve implemented the tips above.
Even if you don’t have time to implement all of these suggestions, putting just a few into practice should result in an uptick in views. Remember, too, that this process isn’t only for new videos. The beauty of YouTube is that it allows you to revisit and optimize old videos so you can get those working harder for you, too.
