BUT, NO SALES!

How is that?

Attracting visitors to your website is the easy bit, but getting them to stay is harder and what’s harder is getting people to buy from you before they leave. Especially now. People are watching their pennies and thinking about their expenditure much more than ever before.

In the Ten Reasons Internet Marketing Fails for businesses, one reason was lack of clarity, are you giving a clear message to your readers of what you are actually selling?

flip the coin… when you are looking online to buy something, the chances are you are looking for a solution to a problem right? you’ve got a date, so you need something to wear, so you look for an outfit. You don’t know what outfit, but you know you need something to wear on your night out. the same if your child doesn’t sleep through the night, you jump on the Internet looking for solutions to your babies sleep problem…

Your customers are the same!

They buy because your product/service:

• Offers a solution to a problem
• Makes them feel good
• Saves them time
• Educates them

But, 9 times out of 10 it’s because they are in search of a solution to a specific problem, ultimately they are buying your expertise.

When selling your products you are not just a coach or a VA, you are selling solutions to specific problems…

• I will add all of your business cards into a database following networking events
• I will help you to start talking to your moody teenager
• I will help you get people to read your newsletter

NOT I can help you with your admin or I can help you with your children..People need to know HOW. They don’t care that you WILL they need to know you CAN and WILL.

Does that make sense? i.e you are targeting specific individuals, business owners who network, parents with teenagers..

As soon as you start identifying your target market for your individual products then you can solve their specific problems, even if they don’t know it yet.

Other factors to take into consideration if visitors are not buying your products:

How easy is your website to navigate? if your website is hard to get around, or is too busy, people will get fed up and leave. Try this: ask a family member who is not very internet savvy to log onto your site and buy a product. Tell them what product you want them to buy.

Don’t actually get them to buy it… that’s wrong! you are family! hehe, but once they are almost ready to purchase, STOP them! and now ask them how they found it, how easy it was.

You visit your website frequently, and you know it inside out, you know your way around, sometimes you can be blinded by the obvious.

If you do have a busy website with lots of information, especially true if you’re an active blogger with sponsors etc, you could consider using sales pages, this way you have no distractions. That sales page is specifically set up to sell one product. You could use a product such as Optimizepress

Don’t forget your autoresponders and follow ups! when people buy a product from you, don’t forget to follow up afterwards, you could subtly link in other products that could be of interest to them, and ask them for feedback! if you are not selling as much as you think, maybe your products need fine tuning?

What are you doing to get people buying from you?

One comment I saw was that you should avoid using a VA if they are not charging as much as others as they may lack self worth. Really? can you judge someones self work and self belief just by what they charge?

I work with an AMAZING VA and she charges her clients half of what I do, she certainly doesn’t lack self worth, and neither does she lack self confidence. She’s damn good at what she does! the only reason she charges less is that she doesn’t want to fully commit to being a full time VA and just helps out on an ad - basis. This is great, if that’s all you’re looking for.

Another article read that VAs are looking for accreditation for what they do to provide clients with proof that they are ‘Accredited’ but does that mean they’re any good at what they do?

Don’t take this as a ‘ranty’ post. I’m genuinely interested in what your ‘tick sheet’ would be if you happened to be looking for support. Not just a VA, but any kind of support, whether that be an intern, another trainer for your training business etc.

For me, it would be the relationship they have with clients, this is usually transparent if they’re active on Twitter, the feedback from clients, I usually watch on Twitter, check out their Follow Friday’s and also spy they’re LinkedIn profile for recent testimonials. Then I would consider the price. If they’re the cheapest that’s a bonus.

Think about the last time you took on support for your business. What were you looking for? I would love to know

With all the excitement of starting up, you got busy and forgot about said newsletter. But those subscribers kept on coming, they sat there, on your list, and quite possibly forgot about you.

FAST FORWARD to today, and you realise that sending out those broadcasts to the people that were actually interested in what you had to offer, was just as important as ‘doing’ the work. They might have bought the new book you launched 6 months ago. If you had told them.

So you send out a lovely newsletter, full of fabulous information, bright pictures and you log out and come back a day later to see how many people actually read it…

OOOPS! your Newsletter provider closed your account. Why? people clicked the ‘spam’ link as soon as it hit their inbox. They can’t remember you.

Come on, it has been a while! I would have done the same…

You finally manage to get your account re-opened after you’ve proved you’re not a spammer and they did opt in via your website through they’re own choice (albeit a year or more ago).

Now what?

Let me tell you. You could have done it differently….

ASK THEIR PERMISSION!

I get this all the time. Clients wanting to send out newsletters but ‘oh I haven’t sent one out in months’. Well if you haven’t done it in months, you can’t expect to send it out NOW..out of the blue…

But you do have a good list of people who ARE your target market, and were interested at some point.

So, why not just drop them an email initially – ‘Hi, do you remember you signed up for my free e-book a few months back?‘ <<remind them who you are

‘I know I haven’t been in touch for a while, but I am going to start to send out regular updates‘<< tell them what you’re emailing them for now

‘If you no longer want to be on my list feel free to unsubscribe and I won’t bother you again‘>> offer them a chance to get out!

This way – you’re covering your backside, giving them a choice to unsubscribe…

Next thing, when you’re drafting your broadcast, make sure you display the ‘unsubscribe’ link in a prominent place, I usually put it at the top above the header and also in the footer – and usually a paragraph at the bottom ‘if you no longer want to receive my email feel free to click ‘Unsubscribe‘.

It’s too easy for them to click the spam button because they don’t know how to get off your list.

Sure, you’ll probably end up having people unsubscribe immediately, but the aim is to build a quality list of subscribers, ones who will actually buy your products, click through to your website and talk about you!

Good luck!

Here are my 4 top tips for getting started and attracting yourself followers.

Look as though you are open for business

When you go past a shop in the high street, they have the lights on, sign above the door and stock in the window. Well, Twitter is no different, you need to look as though you are taking Twitter seriously if you want others to take you seriously. So it all starts with the Photo. If you still have the default egg photo, forget it, people wont usually bother to follow you. You must add a photo. Now I would always recommend a photo of a person, not a logo or an icon or a building etc… Twitter is all about being personal and transparent. People like to tweet with other people.

Your Bio – need to make you stand out from the crowd

The Bio is 160 characters and can be changed as many times as you like. But please write one. This is your chance to make a quick excellent first impression on potential new followers. People typically will look at your photo and then your Bio. If you have no Bio, or something incredibly vague its doubtful that people will follow you. The Bio consist of 3 parts…

Firstly, what is your expertise… so 30 years as a DIY expert… Then, how can you help people…. so here to answer all your DIY questions… and finally as much personal information as you are happy and comfortable to share….. so lover of ballet, red wine, snooker, golf and harleys……As I say to all my clients, Twitter allows you to tell us who you are, not just what you do. So use the Bio to make yourself interesting, fun and do be afraid to stand out from the crowd…. That’s what will get you more followers. Remember though, that peoples Bio’s are keyword searchable using http://followerwonk.com or indeed Twitter’s own people search function.

We are a bigger company.. what do we do?

I am still a fan of personal photos on Twitter even though you may be a bigger account. Check out http://twitter.com/kelloggsuk who everyday change the photo of the person who is tweeting whilst at the same time keep the branding the same as they all have the same logo on their photos. The Bio for a bigger company could be more about what the account is going to do.. so here to answer any of your questions, deal with any of your issues etc… and also list who is tweeting… so Jim, May, and Bob doing the tweeting…

Add Your Website

This is dead easy, yet so many forget to add their website. You want more website traffic, so add your website info.

Name the account

Each Twitter account has a Twitter username and an ‘actual name’… The actual name should be your name. It tells me who is tweeting. If it is a team, then put the PR team or media team, or Mary Bob and Dave etc…. The ‘name of the account’ does not need to be the Twitter username…. Humanise your brand its so much nicer…

Finally… Start Tweeting…..

Today however, a lot of people are reading on their Kindles, and prices of kindle books and e-books are a lot cheaper, and selling cheaper means that people are more inclined to by (although if you have a target in mind, it does mean that more people have to buy! so weigh out your options first).

Towards the end of 2011 I started converting e-books for clients into Kindle format and they now sell both online on their website, via newsletters or autoresponder marketing, and in Kindle format.

If you’re interested in getting your e-books or books on Kindle, and fancy doing some self publishing I highly recommend you reading ‘John Locke – How I Sold a Million E-books in 5 months’

OK – he is an established author and 90% of us won’t ever achieve this high level of sales, but he does offer amazing advice on best practice and how you can achieve better sales with your Kindle products…

Get yours now!

And he also has a paper copy if you don’t yet have a Kindle.

Great marketing technique and Moo Cards are an amazing company! they’re great price, great quality and come in all sizes.

However, I can’t understand why someone would want a facebook business card? Yeah, I guess it’s useful if Facebook is your primary place of marketing, BUT the information is taken from your Facebook Profile, the image is generated from your cover picture on the new timeline. This hasn’t been rolled out to business pages yet.

Do you have a business card to suit certain situations, events or networking groups? would you have a facebook business card? or are you one of the ones who have opted for the free offer?

I’m not, my facebook cover photo is of my two boys and I certainly wouldn’t want it plastered over business cards.

As I said before though, it’s a great marketing tactic and a great (although costly) way to test the market for demand on such products.

You can read the full article on Mashable http://mashable.com/2012/01/05/facebook-moo-business-cards/

• Integrate with both outlook and google – as I’m using both
• One click to create a task
• Add said task to a specific workgroup that essentially becomes a folder for each client so I have separate to-do-lists so I can prioritise more effectively
• Cost effective – or free
• Multiple users

and I’ve found one!!!! >> www.producteev.com

This baby integrates with both outlook, gmail, gmail tasks, calendar, it is a cloud application and also has an app on the android and on the mac!! each email that comes through – I click ‘add to producteev’ select which workgroup I want to add it to, select a due date, add tags if I want’ and hey it’s done!

Email filed away and there’s a copy on my phone, gmail, desktop and somewhere in the sky!!

I’m in love and feel more in control than ever before!

Oh and it’s free for single user and then just a small monthly fee thereafter if I wanted to add someone else.

I don’t care! for me it’s a reason to not get depressed after a full month of festivity excitement, and a way to beat the blues of a long January.

It also seems to be the way a lot of people think too, I’ve already had ’2012 goals’ sent through from my very lovely clients and my To-Do-List has already spanned into February.

So I thought I would jump into 2012 with a bang with my brand new website! hope you like it

My other site, as lovely as it was, just wasn’t moving with the times, I had no way to add an opt in form to grow my list, or an easy way to display my blog posts on my home page or even add links to my Social Media accounts – doesn’t work well! so here I am, a fresh new look to bring me right up to date and into a new year.

What are your goals for this year? Here are mine:

• To blog more
• Write a book and publish on the Kindle
• To do a ‘Blog Tour’
• EXPAND! – I want to create a bigger team and help more people!

I’d love for you to share your goals and dreams for 2012! and also what you think of my new site.. good or bad. I don’t mind

But you’ve got to give it to them, they’ve back yet again having another bash at social networking with the arrival of Google+, and this time everyone seems to be jumping on it – with it’s similarity to FB, users are already claiming to have left Facebook in favour of the new platform, Chris Brogan is a classic example, but he is renowned for his bold statements…

Google+ is the search engine giant’s answer to Facebook, in a lot of ways it’s very similar, with similar features.

When I used it for the first time, it felt a bit pointless, just like back in 2009 when I joined Twitter and had no followers, a bit like standing in a middle of a field with no one around, talking to myself….

So if you don’t have any online friends, it’s pretty pointless.

Given it’s similarities to Facebook, it is also very different. One example is how it asks users to categorise one another, the same way as FB friends lists, I guess also the same as Twitter lists – putting people into lists of how you know them, but it’s a lot less complicated than Facebook with it’s simplicity of ‘Circles’

Facebooks initial strategy was to become a platform for people to keep in touch with friends and families, and adding additional features afterwards has over complicated things. I don’t know about you, but unless I categorise things straight away, I tend not to bother, especially if adding people to lists will take time. I’ve never used this feature…..

What makes ‘circles’ different for me? Well it’s there from day 1, so I can start adding people and organising my streams how I like them, and I do so each time someone new follows me, I also like how you can very easily drag and drop people into circles, and how easy it is to name them and create new ones, so when I want to broadcast a particular message, I can select what circle to broadcast it to, and not to the whole world like Twitter or Facebook…so if I have a boozy night out and want to tell my friends to keep my stories a secret I can send it to my ‘friends’ list, likewise if I have some fab business news I can send it to my more professional circles.

One added benefit, is that it’s not cluttered and I don’t get farmville requests… how long this will stay for remains to be seen as I’m sure Google will start to want to make revenue out of it’s claimed already 10 million users.. so watch this space.

Am I convert? not yet. I’m failing to see where it fits into my social media strategy, at the minute it’s just somewhere else to post, draining yet more time on my day, but I am a geek who loves social media, so it’s somewhere I have to and need to be

However, having said that, it does have one cool feature called ‘hangouts’ an online chat area that combines voice and video with instant messaging and the ability to share and talk about youtube videos… this bit is cool – I can ‘hangout’ with my usual Twitter buddies in real time and not just through Tweets…something the other social networking platforms are missing….

Scary thought – if you are an avid Google fan, you could do everything from within Google, you have your documents, emails, browser, chat… so you quite possibly might never have to leave your screen….

So my thoughts? well it is easy to use, and I’m guessing if you are a Google+ user, the usual stream of Tweets that appear currently when you search on Google will soon disappear and be replaced by Google+ messages…

I think I will reserve my final judgement until the Business aspect kicks in, because now I’m just ‘not getting it’…. why I would want to use it (although I do a little), and how it fits in around everything else…

Help?..

Then, you sit in front of your computer ready to implement your well thought out marketing strategy, but you’re confused! Your ‘likes’ are being posted as YOU and your wall posts on other business pages are being posted as YOU.. when you wanted to post as your business…

It’s confusing huh? So let me try and explain it and help Facebook work for you…

So the basics…

Facebook Profile (Home)

Your profile is your starting point. This personal account (think of it as your FB home) is required before you can move up to pages and groups and is limited to “one per person.”  Setting up a second account may violate Facebook’s Terms of Service, which could cause all your profiles to be removed.

The Facebook profile is about you, the individual. I use my Facebook profile as my place to be me… I have so many online profiles that I hate the feeling of being too exposed so this is my place for just my family and friends.

When you first log into Facebook you will land on your own personal profile, not your business profile. keep that in mind.

When you post anywhere on Facebook, you’re representing yourself and not your business, unless you tell Facebook otherwise – I will cover this in a bit.

Facebook Page

Designed for promoting your business/club etc your Facebook Page is a sort of mini-shop front, like an interactive version of your website or an extension to your Twitter. It’s a place to provide useful information, links to articles and blog posts, images and video — anything that adds value to your fans. Because all status updates appear in your fans’ news feeds (making it visible to all their friends), Facebook Pages can help attract new fans (customers) through existing clients.

Analytic tools are provided and customisation is available, allowing you to monitor your progress and bring your pages to life. With unlimited fans and multiple administrators possible, Pages becomes the best choice for businesses.

You are allowed more than one business page, and you can allocate administrators to manage your pages on your behalf.

Unlike your personal profile, when you post on your business page, you post as the business and not the individual.

If you want to interact on other pages as your business, this includes liking pages and comments, go to account (top right of the page),

click Use Facebook as Page, and choose the page you want to represent, and click ‘switch’

From now on, you ARE the business and whenever you post you will no longer be the human you will be the business, until of course you choose to change back to the human you (the same way as before).

Hope that helps anyone struggling to separate the both.

Key Points:

• To like a page as your business – remember to change to the business page
• To post on other business pages – remember to change to the business page
• To gain even more exposure, change to the business page!

Feel free to ask any questions you may have and I’ll try my best to answer