Shotcallers #13 - July/August 2020

SPECIAL 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY DOUBLE ISSUE

Your Purpose, Your Story: With Ted McGrath MotivationandSuccess.com July / August 2020 FREE

INSIDE THIS MONTH’S ISSUE Marketing Calendar- pg. 3 SHOTCALLERS 1st Anniversary - pg. 4 Top SEO Tips for Optimizing Video Content pg. 8 10 Ways to Humanize Your Brand and Connect with Customers- pg. 12 Your Purpose, Your Story: With Ted McGrath pg. 15 Direct Response Marketing: 7 Steps for an Effective Sales Letter - pg. 21 Ten Ways to Get More Subscribers to Open Your Marketing Emails - pg. 29 Conversion Rate Optimization: 10 Strategies to Improve Conversions on Your Website - pg.

31 8 Reasons Your Business Needs to Take Blogging Seriously - pg. 34 10 Ideas for Video Marketing Content - pg. 36 BONUS - Email Marketing Stats - pg. 39 2020 Pinterest Statistics - pg. 40

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Marketing Calendar Plan your marketing messages around these upcoming holidays and proclamations.

August Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month Foot Health Month Happiness Happens Month Medic Alert Month Motorsports Awareness Month National Golf Month National Immunization Awareness Month 1st - Play Outside Day 1st - Girlfriend’s Day 1st - Spider-Man Day 2nd - Friendship Day 3rd - Watermelon Day 4th - Chocolate Chip Cookie Day 4th - National Night Out 5th - Underwear Day 7th - International Beer Day 8th - Bowling Day 8th - National Garage Sale Day 8th - International Cat Day

10th - Lazy Day 10th - S’mores Day 10th - Spoil Your Dog Day 12th - Vinyl Record Day 13th - International Lefthander’s Day 15th - Relaxation Day 15th - International Homeless Animals Day 15th - World Honey Bee Day 16th - Roller Coaster Day 18th - Serendipity Day 21st - Senior Citizen’s Day 25th - Banana Split Day 26th - Dog Day 26th - Women’s Equality Day 28th - National Bow Tie Day 30th - Frankenstein Day 31st - Bacon Day 31st - Eat Outside Day

September National Guide Dog Month Hispanic Heritage Month Baby Safety Month Self Improvement Month Shameless Promotion Month Sep 7 - Labor Day (U.S.) Sep 11 - Patriot Day (U.S.) 4th - Wildlife Day 4th - Stand Up To Cancer Day 5th - Cheese Pizza Day 5th - Bacon Day 5th - World Beard Day 9th - Teddy Bear Day 11th - Hug Your Boss Day 12th - Video Games Day 12th - Chocolate Milkshake Day 13th - Grandparent’s Day 13th - Scooby-Doo Day 3

14th - Eat a Hoagie Day 17th - Citizenship Day 18th - Cheeseburger Day 19th - Talk Like A Pirate Day 19th - Puppy Mill Awareness Day 19th - Thank a Police Officer Day 20th - Wife Appreciation Day 21st - Batman Day 21st - World’s Alzheimer’s Day 22nd - Autumnal Equinox 22nd - Ice Cream Cone Day 25th - Comic Book Day 25th - One Hit Wonder Day 26th - Pancake Day 27th - Chocolate Milk Day 27th - Google’s Birthday 28th - Family Day 28th - Drink Beer Day 28th - Good Neighbor Day 29th - Coffee Day 29th - VFW Day

This month is the one-year anniversary of SHOTCALLERS magazine! To celebrate a year’s worth of amazing Meet & Greet interviews, I wanted to recap all the conversations we’ve shared from our first issue to last month’s.

Our first interview, back in July 2019, was with Meredith Allan, an awardwinning public speaker who has worked with Barbara Walters on The View and hosted The Meredith Show on NBC. We talked about her journey to becoming an award-winning speaker, how in the search for success, it’s important to “create magic” in other people’s lives, and how to move from adversity to success.

the finished product, they only see the success and none of what went into it.”

To find out more about Meredith, visit her website: https://themeredithshow.com/.

In August I talked to David Essel, the number one bestselling author of ten books. David’s also a counselor, master life coach, international speaker and radio host. Our topics ranged from how During the interview, Meredith made this he broke from the pack and developed his own voice within the motivational important statement about kindness, speaking and coaching industries. We humility and vulnerability: also talked about why he challenges the Law of Attraction and his secrets to help “Kindness is universal, and it’s the most important thing. And being humble feels struggling business owners resuscitate their businesses. good. It feels good to recognize that we all have our limitations, we all have One of my favorite quotes from the struggles, but we can overcome them.

Honestly, I don’t enjoy watching people interview was what David had to say about the difference between leaders who aren’t willing to be vulnerable and and those who want to be the best in true. I design my their field: whole series, The It Factor, around “First, leaders are willing to do the people who can uncomfortable. They don’t bitch, whine talk about really and complain. They’re not victims. hard things that they’ve overcome. They’re not martyrs. If things don’t work the way they want them to, they pick it I think that makes you more relatable up and move on. But they’re willing to challenge themselves daily. and more likable because when “Second, they surround themselves with people only see

people who are better than they are. When you look at a list of people that you communicate with the most, 90% of the list is people who are equal to or below you, and only 10% are surpassing you. Why? Well, we feel a little threatened. We feel embarrassed. It’s all about the ego. So, surround yourself with people who have what you want is the second tip.

“Third, you’ve got to have a professional in your corner. Right now, I have a business coach. I have a counselor that I work with. The counselor is more for my emotional support and relationship support. My business coach is rocking my world, holding my feet to the fire.”

For more wisdom, watch David’s Daily Video Boost on talkdavid.com.

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In September, King of Sales Jeffrey Gitomer was our guest. Author of fifteen bestselling books, Jeffrey was recently given exclusive access to the archives of Napoleon Hill Foundation, and the first book in that partnership, “Truthful Living,” is available now.

During our conversation, Jeffrey shared tips for entrepreneurs who need help improving their sales teams. He also talked about ways you and your

sales staff can get more creative.

When talking about investing your time, Jeffrey had this to say: “I wake up in the morning, and I do at least one, if not all five, of these things: I write, I read, I prepare, and that causes me to think and create. But most salespeople piss their time away. They go home at night, and they have a choice: social media reputation or Netflix. Those are the two choices. The salesperson who’s not making it has to realize that it’s time to change the way they invest their time rather than simply SPENDING their time. You spend your time, you make nothing. You invest your time, you make something. So, if you’re watching Netflix three hours a night, only watch it for an hour and a half and then devote an hour and a half to you.”

You can catch Jeffrey every week on his Sell or Die podcast: https://www.sellordiepodcast.com/.

October brought us Real Housewife alum Vicki Gunvalson, who happens to be my coauthor on Let’s Talk Money: Women’s Guide to a Lifetime of Wealth.

Vicki is the owner and founder of COTO Insurance and Financial Services. She is a retirement specialist, an Orange County five-star wealth manager, a master elite IRA advisor and an international bestselling author.

When we spoke, she shared tips on getting through public adversity in business and gave us a lesson in adapting our companies to technological and social changes.

I love the advice she gave for dealing with adversity in business. Here’s part of what she said: “Surround yourself with good people because the bad people can drain you.

They can smother you, and they can leach from you. They can hurt you. If you’re with good people that want you to be successful, then you’ve got this.

But if you have so many dragging you down under the water wanting to, like, smush you, you have to tell them to go somewhere else and leave you alone. But that’s the hard part. Our minds can play tricks on us. Right?”

Find out more about what Vicki’s up to by visiting her website: https://vickigunvalson.com/.

In March Brett Wagner, the owner and founder of Wagner Metal Supply in Ohio, stopped by our offices. Brett started in the roofing business when he was a teenager and over the decades has gained expertise in roofing, entrepreneurship and leadership. He shared what it’s like to go from a 15-yearold on the cleanup crew to roofing company owner. He also relived some of his worst mistakes and talked about the one thing he wishes he knew when he got started.

One thing that really stood out to me during the conversation was his philosophy on sales: “When you have confidence in your product, you already know the sale is going to happen.

Sales to me is a transfer of emotion.

And that part of it 6

has always been easy for me because I believe in what we’re doing. I believe that we’re the best out there, and I never second-guess that. Realistically, I am sales, but it’s something I believe in, something I can control. So it’s easy.”

To learn more about Brett’s company, visit https:// wagnermetal.com/.

April brought us an interview with leadership consultant, professional speaker and bestselling author Mark Crowley. We talked about a new way to lead employees, how to hire with heart, and how to avoid ruinous empathy.

My favorite part of the interview was his take on why kindness is a more valuable motivator than intimidation.

“No matter what your job is, work is hard.

You’ve got to get up in the morning, get yourself dressed, get in the car or a train or a bus. Then when you get into work, there are meetings, expectations, difficult people, customers and obligations. Overlay all that with fear and intimidation, and we make that environment even worse.

“So, heart, and kindness, support and encouragement—these might sound soft to some, but they’re a necessary offset. They make such a difference to people, and because we’re hardwired to reciprocate, if you’re generous with them, their inclination is to be generous with you.”

You can get Mark’s book, “Lead From the Heart: Transformational Leadership for the 21st Century,” on Amazon.

In May bestselling author, speaker and teacher of leadership and cultural development Todd Gongwer shared his wisdom with us. Todd has spent the last decade working with some of the most successful coaches, teams, business leaders and educators in America. During the interview, he shared some ways people can learn to deal with social media madness and his methods for walking in peace and joy even during the midst of our current troubling situation.

One interesting technique he shared was his sixmonth filter for time priorities: “Some people will say we should live like we’re going to die tomorrow, and I always think, ‘That’s impossible.’

If I’m going to die tomorrow, I’m not going to be doing this interview. I’m not going to be doing any speeches. I’m going to be home with my family. But if I had six months to live, I would go do this event, I would go spend time with this team. And how much richer would that experience be if I could walk that way, because I think, ‘Hey, I might not ever see these people again.

This may be the last opportunity that they get exposed to the light that’s in me and what I feel I’m supposed to share with them.’ And that became my filter for priorities.”

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rouser of Masterpiece Coaching. After 20 years of liberating business owners from the curse of “not enough” and the myth of “hard work pays off,” she knows without question that you can make massive amounts of money and influence millions, even if you’ve been struggling for years. Jeanna shared some critical tips for entrepreneurs about decision making and five-star clients.

Here’s some of what she said about mindset: “I think that mindset is everything.

Mindset fuels every decision we make. It determines whether something is easy and we find the resources we need.

When your mindset is focused and you allow it to be easy, it can be. It’s like, people serve things up to you and you don’t have to go looking for stuff. The stuff comes to you.

“I think if you don’t make mindset the number one priority in your business, you can still make a lot of money, but you will not enjoy yourself along the way.

You’ll make things complicated. You’ll have to push harder. You’ll have to get things done through sheer force.”

To find out more about Jeanna and her coaching business, visit https://masterpeacecoaching.com/.

You can pick up his book, “Lead … for God’s Sake!” on It’s been an amazing year, and I want to thank you for coming along for the Amazon. ride! Now, let’s see what SHOTCALLER’s second year has in store!

Finally, we wrapped up our first year in June with Jeanna Gabellini. Jeanna is a master business coach and chief rabble-

Top SEO Tips for Optimizing Video Content

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Video is king in digital marketing today. Video content is being consumed at a rate much higher than other forms of content, with 78 percent of people watching videos online every week and 55 percent watching videos every day. Video content is expected to take up more than 82 percent of all online consumer traffic by 2022.

Due to the spread of the coronavirus and ensuing lockdown in countries across the world, video consumption has skyrocketed even more. Now, more than ever, content marketers should include video content in their campaigns. It takes a lot to make an effective video that pulls in exposure to your brand. You cannot simply create a video, post it, and wait for the views to come rolling in.

Videos, like all other content, must be optimized for search engines. In this article, you will find the seven top tips for optimizing video content.

Make Excellent Content It sounds obvious, but you would be surprised how many people miss the mark on this first tip.

Search engines today, especially Google, are designed to help users find quality content.

Useful, informative content has become a cornerstone of ranking on search engine results pages.

High-quality content is especially important for videos. With so much competition out there, your video will not be noticed if you have poor production value or stuff it full of unhelpful, irrelevant information. While there are several SEO (Search Engine Optimization) factors to keep in mind when posting videos, do not get so bogged down in optimization that you produce bad content.

Make sure your video is in line with your overall marketing strategy, a piece of content that people will want to like and share.

keyword research, then you need to figure out which keywords you want your video to rank for.

keyword should appear at least once, and you should add related words and phrases as well.

You can use tools like Google Adwords to help you pinpoint your keywords. You must also put yourself in the mind of your audience what questions are they asking that your video can answer? The most engaging and highly ranked videos do one of three things:

Do not Forget About Mobile

• Entertain • Answer a direct question (“how to” or instructional) • Inform on a buzzworthy issue

Half of all digital videos are viewed on mobile.

When users search for something, 69 percent reach for the smartphones first. If you have not optimized your video content for mobile search, your ranking potential will decrease.

Ensure that your video can play on mobile devices and that your website will load on mobile as well.

Some video types, like those with Flash, cannot Your video content should run on mobile at all. If you fall into one of these are hosting a video on three categories. Finding your website, you do not keywords also involves want it to slow your load competitor research. time - or not load at all.

What kind of content is This frustrates users, who the competition posting? will quickly navigate away Which keywords are from your site, hurting their videos ranking for? your overall SEO. You can quickly conduct One way to make sure competitor research with your videos load properly free tools like Ubersuggest. on both desktop and Incorporate Your mobile is to use a hosting Keywords Once you have your platform like YouTube or keywords, you should Vimeo. These sites are Just as you would include them in your already optimized for incorporate your keywords video’s title, description, mobile viewing, so you into an article or blog post, and metadata. Do not use can save yourself some you should also do so in them too much, though, hassle. your video. If you have as your content will not already done your appear “spammy”. But your Take Advantage of 9

YouTube

If you have included your keywords in your title and If you are creating highdescription, you stand quality video content to better chances for your post on your website, video to rank in Google you are off to a great start searches if you post on for improving your site’s YouTube. Since Google rankings. Keep in mind, owns YouTube, many however, that self-hosting global search results are will only help boost pulled from the video conversions if your video is platform. optimized properly.

Instead of hosting the If you post a video to video on your site, post it YouTube instead of your to platforms like YouTube, own site, always include a Dailymotion, or Vimeo. call to action with a link to You will take a small hit your website in the video by directing users away description. If viewers like from your website to a your content, they will be video streaming platform, more inclined to visit your but you will reap more website after viewing. benefits in the long run.

Focus on Text Although Google’s algorithms for ranking videos have grown more sophisticated, the search engine is still better at crawling text.

Consequently, you should include as much text as possible along with your video. Keywords and phrases in the title and description are a good start but consider adding a video transcript as well.

You will have to put in extra work to create a transcript but doing so gives Google even more content to crawl. It also

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helps usability, as some people might prefer to read the transcript than watch the video.

Keep in mind that thumbnails featuring people, rather than some text or an icon, have much higher chances Getting into the habit of of being clicked on. You posting transcripts along will have the option to with your video might also make the thumbnail as a motivate you to write your still shot from your video, scripts ahead of time! but you should avoid this if possible. To make the Make an Eye-catching highest-quality thumbnail, Thumbnail take some photos before or after the video is shot One of the most important and upload one of these contributing factors to images as the thumbnail your video’s “clickability” instead. is your thumbnail. This is the image that appears Optimize the Webpage alongside your title, You Host the Video On date, and description in search results. Treat the If you host a video on thumbnail like a preview one of your webpages, of your video. It should be make sure the page is appealing and enticing, also optimized for search catching a viewer’s engines. You may have attention so that they incorporated keywords want to watch your video and written an optimized to see more. description for your video,

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but if it appears on a webpage that is not SEOfriendly, your page (and video) will not appear in search results.

If you want to put more than one video on a webpage, try to limit the number to as few as possible. Too many can slow down your website.

Also, put the video you want to rank for first on the page, since search engines will not crawl your other videos after they find the first one.

In today’s content marketing landscape, video content has become more important than ever.

By incorporating these seven top tips, you will have an SEO-friendly video that is ready to boost your rankings.

10 Ways to Humanize Your Brand and Connect with Customers

‘People buy from people’ is an adage that is as accurate today as it has always been. Here is a simple example of what the phrase means. There are two coffee shops that you could visit in the morning on your way to work. One coffee shop serves average-quality coffee, but the staff always greet you with a smile and pass the time of day with you. The other coffee shop serves excellent-quality coffee, but the employees are rude and abrupt, and you never seem to see the same face twice. The chances are that you 12

would choose to frequent the coffee shop that gives you a personal service with a smile and put up with the less than perfect coffee.

Humanizing a small, local coffee shop is not difficult to do. But the ‘people buy from people’ idea applies to all types of businesses. Whether you are selling to consumers or other companies, your customers are human beings who like to interact with other people and not faceless corporations.

So, how do you transform your business from an

inanimate object into a brand with a personality?

Here are ten tips on how to go about humanizing your company.

1. Start at the Top Humanizing a business is a process that must start the top and then work its way through the entire organization. In the above coffee shop scenario, for example, the reason that the employees are friendly is not entirely down to the individuals who serve the coffee. It is probably down to staff training and the ethos of the business. In a

humanized business, the entire team is transparent and on show. There will be pictures and biographies of the management team on the company website and the CEO might even have his or her own Twitter account.

2. Start Treating Customers Like Friends If you want to humanize your business, you cannot treat customers as though they are merely numbers on a spreadsheet. You must start to use the language that friends use when they talk to each other instead of the relentless hard sell. If you are launching a new product, for example, explain why you are so excited by this innovation rather than why your customers should buy it. If your friend tells you why they love a product, it will be much more convincing than a conventional advertisement.

3. Create Two-Way Engagement Start a two-way conversation with your customers and make that conversation publicly available. Respond to 13

comments left on your website, your social media accounts, and on review sites. When you respond to comments, demonstrate that you are open to ideas and that you take on board and act on criticism.

Let your customers know that there are human beings behind the brand who are working to resolve issues and provide a better service.

4. Make Good Use of Video Content Video is an excellent medium for showing the human side of a business.

If you use real employees in your marketing videos, it will help to create a connection between your brand and your customers.

There is nothing wrong with written content, but video content is much more personal. And, with more than 50% of people now watching online videos every day, marketing videos are an excellent way of getting your message across to a broad audience.

5. Open the Door and Let People In Demystify what goes on

behind the closed doors at your business by holding open days and producing behind-the-scenes marketing videos. People have a natural curiosity about how products are made and how companies are run, so let people see for themselves what happens inside your company. The objective of humanizing a company is to make your customers your friends. You would be happy to invite a friend into your home, so why not let your customers look behind the scenes of your business?

6. Communicate on the Same Level as Your Customers Friends do not talk down to each other, so talk to your customers in a tone that recognizes you are equal and that you understand the customer’s issues and needs. Work with customers to solve their problems and, as mentioned above, encourage customer feedback and comments.

If you want to humanize your brand, you will need to consider the tone you use in every letter, email, and post on your blog.

You will need to use the same friendly style of language, whether you are promoting a special offer or reminding a customer about a missed payment.

7. Inject Some Humor into Your Business Try not to be so severe all the time! Everyone enjoys a good laugh, so look on the bright side and inject a bit of humor into your marketing campaigns. Share some of your calamitous failures with your customers and let them see that you are human. Crack a few jokes on your Twitter account and lighten up in some of your blog posts.

There are some types of businesses that do not lend themselves to humor, of course. Still, for most companies a bit of fun will make it easier for customers to relate to the brand.

8. Become a Storyteller As a part of your transformation from a monolithic corporate entity to a business with a human side, you will need to stop trying so hard to sell and start telling more 14

a business will not be achieved without planning and a consistent approach. The new-look personality of your brand will have to be rolled out right across the company.

If the company has a well-entrenched formal approach to business, it will take time for a more 9. Get Your Employees on approachable persona to take root. You may also Board find that some employees may resist the change.

It will be crucial that You cannot, of course, employees at all levels force an individual to be get on board with your company’s humanization friendly and cheerful.

With persistence, though, project. Everyone who you can change the works for your business personality of a brand. will have a part to play in projecting the personality Conclusion of your brand. Every The above points will employee should be help you get started with encouraged to think of humanizing your business. themselves as a brand But you will need to ambassador. And all continue with your efforts employees should be encouraged to talk about if you want to maintain a the brand outside of work consistent brand image. as well. If employees speak After the isolation that the coronavirus crisis has about your business in caused, people are looking a positive way on their social media accounts, for for a personal approach example, it will add to the to business more than ever before. So, if you connection that people have not done so already, have with your brand. now is the time to begin humanizing your brand 10. Plan and Be and making your business Consistent more approachable.

The humanization of stories. You are aiming to cease being merely a business and become a group of friends instead.

Of course, you will still need to market your products. But you do not need to hard-sell to get a trusted friend to buy something from you.

Your Purpose, Your Story: With Ted McGrath

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This month’s Meet & Greet features theater performer, speaker and bestselling author Ted McGrath.

He has created five household brands and made millions teaching coaches, speakers and servicebased business owners how to turn their life stories into a lucrative business. I was introduced to Ted’s webinars and books in 2013 and have found that he brings a unique approach to coaching, speaking, transformation and information marketing by combining his business marketing strategies and his transformational skill set with his talent as a performer.

Dennis Postema: Tell us about some of the early days in your career in insurance and sales.

Ted McGrath: I started in the insurance business fresh out of college, at 21 years old. I didn’t really have a better idea of what I wanted to do. I walked into New York Life for an interview and initially thought it must be a magazine, only to find out it was an insurance company. I had nothing better to do, so I sat in the interview. The guy who interviewed me asked me one question, and we talked for four hours. We just clicked. He hired me and we’re still best friends, 20 years later.

Between age 21 and 22 while working in insurance, I cracked six figures. Then I went out one night and ODed on drugs. I took a bag of cocaine, a couple pills of ecstasy, and topped it off with 15 drinks. Next thing I know, I’m on the kitchen floor at four in the morning and my soul is coming out of my body.

At the same time, professionally, I was being promoted to partner with a company. That’s when I decided to stop doing drugs. Most people will 16

say, “Why? Did you fear almost dying again?” I would say fear of dying was second. My primary fear was losing my job.

When you get into a leadership position, things change. So I spent the next six or more years as a top partner at New York Life.

Dennis: You were making great money, you were a big success financially, but there was something that was inside that made you switch and want to go get more. Can you talk about that?

and found it inspired me.

And even when I played athletics in college, I was always center stage. That’s a form of communication too. Even though you’re not using your words, you’re expressing yourself.

When I got into the insurance business, my performance needs were met by giving seminars.

The first seminar I did had 40 attendees. We’d sent out a mailer and a bunch of people showed up for dinner. My whole focus for the seminar was how good of a story I was going to tell up there. I Ted: I think deep down started to tell the story people know what they and my only real interest want to do right away. I was to tell a great story, think a lot of times, people and even to this day at my try to ignore what they seminars, it’s an interesting really want, or they think thing. My story was the they can’t do it—that they thing I rehearsed the aren’t enough—and they most before the seminar. just follow societal norms, Most people think, “You’ve pressures. Also, people are got to get up and make very influenced by what a pitch.” Most people they see, what’s in their go through their pitch environment. People think, religiously. I glanced over “Okay, well, this is what my my pitch, got up and did life is going to be because it. everybody around me is doing it.”

Telling my story has always been more important to I always had a performer me than the money. It’s in me. My core purpose not that I don’t want the is the play, Good Enough. money, I love the money, It’s my life story. I did but even when I was some performances as a doing those seminars, I kid, nothing formal, but I wanted to do the story always loved performing more than I wanted to

make the sales.

I found storytelling in my career in the insurance business, which was a stepping-stone to actually doing theater now and acting.

Dennis: In some of your talks, you mention mentors and relationships. I was fortunate enough to have a mentor at an early age, and I see a lot of successful people do.

What are your thoughts on mentorship?

Ted: Mentors are good for different things that you want to learn. Ultimately, the great goal is your spiritual growth and your personal growth, and I think you have to find what works for you, and I think you evolve with that.

The greatest mentor you have is yourself. Of course, there are great people who are knowledgeable in different subjects that you want to learn from.

Like my mentor, I had no experience in business at 21 years old. Without him, there’s no way I’d have done what I did that first year. Nobody does it alone. Even in doing a one-man play, you’re up there alone, but you have a whole team of people supporting you.

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Dennis: You teach confidence in a way that I love, not only in your book but in what you do.

How can entrepreneurs gain more confidence and bring it to the table?

Ted: A lot of it is life experience. Some of it is acknowledging what you know, deep down.

Anybody can have uncertainty in different situations. But if you have a strong point of view, then you certainly won’t be shaken. Even when you lose your focus and you feel uncertain, if you know what you’re capable of, you can get through it.

Knowing is just at your core. I think the biggest thing that knocks people off is when you have people in your environment who are invalidating you, you’re going to think less of yourself if you’re not trained to smack them over the head a little bit.

You have to be able to protect your space.

Dennis: That’s a very good way of putting it.

Do you have any tips for people who are scared to get in front of a camera?

Ted McGrath: It’s all about practice and confronting

it. If you’re going to do a video with an iPhone, you’ve got to pick it up and be there with the iPhone, because it’s just a lens. What are people worried about? It’s just a lens. If you go live, then you have eyeballs watching you, so you need to have the willingness to confront that.

You also need to realize that you’re always going to have people who make negative comments. I don’t see a point in this lifetime where you’re going to put something out and not have people who are negative about it. You’ve got to learn to deal with that and not even pay attention to the comments on it and just send your message.

I would also say that it’s important to know what you want to say. Have three bullet points you want to talk about and just talk. If you’re not confident, practice before you even go live or before you go on video. Do it 100 times.

Dennis: What would you say the best business advice you ever received was?

Ted: There is really good advice out there and I’ve gotten a lot of good

do you think that they should jump in right away? Or do you think they should start in an intrapreneurship or working for somebody else?

marketing tips and things like that, for sure. I could probably be better at seeking out advice. I kind of jump in and learn it myself. Ultimately, I think any advice you get, you have to take the spirit of it. I don’t think you just follow advice point blank, because your situation is different, who you are is different, how you see the world is different.

to put your own twist on it ... take it with a grain of salt to make sure it fits into what you’re doing and then put your own spin on it.

Ted: Yeah. I think you’ve got to. There was a quote in the Wall Street Journal years ago that said, “Starting a business is rarely a dignified affair.”

Is that true, though?

It sounds good, but is You can look at a model it true? I think it’d be a of how something’s done very dignified affair, to and think, “What’s my idea do what you love. Don’t on the situation? What take blind advice. A lot would I do?” Anytime I’ve of times people look at really just taken advice and authority and think what gone and done precisely the authority says must what somebody else says be true. Don’t ever take to do, it hasn’t turned out advice from an authority in a way where I’ve owned without inspecting it to it. It’s not that it hasn’t see if it’s true. turned out well, just it hasn’t turned out in a way Dennis: Do you have where I’ve owned it. any advice for those who want to get started Dennis: Yeah, you’ve got as entrepreneurs and 18

Ted: I think they need to make a decision that’s best for them. Everybody’s situation is different. I was in the insurance business with no kids and no wife.

At the end of the day, I just left because I didn’t want to do it anymore, but I knew deep down inside, there was something more for me. I knew that I had an entrepreneur in me, I had somebody who wanted to go do something that I was passionate about, that was going to bring me fulfillment, so I jumped.

I had a transition plan of six to seven months and then one day, I called my mentor and said, “Listen, I’m out.” And I just left. I didn’t even have a plan. I think you have to determine what your risk level is and make sure when you leave something, the need to succeed is high. Do I regret the way that I left? No. Maybe I never would have if I’d waited and waited and waited. I jumped and I broke the rope when I jumped. That was fine for

me at the time. Do I do things differently now?

Yeah, to some degree, but when I wanted to do a play, I was like, “I’m going to do my own version of it without any coach.” Then I got up on stage and flopped around like a dead fish and embarrassed the hell out of myself.

So, you learn, and you go do it. You’ve got to look at your responsibilities, what you have going on in your life, and everything that you need to fulfill.

Ultimately, if you think you have responsibilities now, I think as you grow, you have more responsibilities, not just for your family and yourself, but responsibilities for your groups and mankind and making sure you do good things in the world to help.

Dennis: One of the things you mentioned about entrepreneurship is that when you see something, you take action and you go for it. I see so many people with paralysis analysis, and they’re just like, “Well, if I knew everything about this, then I would finally take the jump,” whereas I’m like, “At least move toward it. You’re going to mess up, but course correct versus not doing anything at all.” You 19

probably saw that in insurance too. You always have the people who want to know everything about something before they’ll go out and talk about it. Do you have any advice to get out of that rut?

Ted: I think it needs to be balanced. It’s about taking action intelligently and doing it in a sane way that makes sense.

It’s interesting, if you’re doing things that are on your purpose, there’s no question in your mind that you’re going to do it. So it helps when you have a purpose or a passion that is guiding you because you have another reason to confront it. If it’s a business thing that you have to confront, there has to be the drive behind it to want to confront it.

you know now, what advice would you give a 21-year-old who’s just starting out?

Ted: You hear this all the time but do what you’re passionate about. Do what your purpose is, what your main purpose is. You can be passionate about many things and you can have multiple purposes, for sure, but do what your purpose is—whatever is true for you.

There are business situations you have to confront because they’re a problem. Then there are those you want to confront because they are opportunities to help you realize your big purpose.

Those are different kinds of confrontation and different kinds of taking action. They’re universes apart. One’s reactivity and one is choice.

Don’t worry about what Mom or Dad want you to do. I didn’t have that with my family—they weren’t like, “You need to go be a doctor, you need to do this.” That wasn’t their path at all. They weren’t very, I would say, influential in terms of me deciding to do things. When I wanted to play tennis, it was my own idea. I’m going to go play tennis, which was cool. They let us make up our own minds in that respect. So, find something that’s a purpose of yours that is true for you and go, “This is what I know is true for me.” Don’t worry about the expectations, whether it’s an expectation to go to college or go to grad school or get a stable job.

What is a stable job?

Dennis: Knowing what

Look at the middle class

today. It’s a joke. No disrespect to anybody, but it’s barely surviving.

It’s living in a prison that you don’t even know you’re in, where you’re barely making the house payment, you’re barely making the car payment ... Open your eyes and look at what’s true for you.

Don’t worry about what you see out there because most of what you see is a façade, and if you pull back the curtain, you’ll actually see the truth. Look at the person who’s giving you the advice, see how they are and how they’re being. Look at their life, look at their actions, pay attention to their ethics.

Dennis: What advice can you give on staying motivated?

Ted: You’ve got to figure out what is the core thing

that you’re passionate about. When you’re doing that core thing, fulfilling your purpose, and you really nail it, it feels amazing. You get done with that and you feel satisfied, fulfilled, excited and inspired. But then, at that point, if you’re not growing or shooting for something bigger, how can you really be happy?

Because you’ve got to be moving forward toward goals to be excited and inspired in life.

feel like enough because comparatively to your potential, it’s not.

Then what do you do?

You keep growing. You keep heading toward your purpose. And when you’re on purpose, there will be good days and bad days.

But you learn and you take something away. It’s like you go smash into the experience a little, you pull some information away, and go back stronger next time. Don’t smash into the experience and If you are just stagnant, then let the takeaway be then how can you get joy “I shouldn’t do it again.” Let out of life? Even if your the takeaway be “I need to goal is to spend more time do it again.” with the grandkids, you have to be doing things To find out more that progress that and about Ted and get move it forward. For some, some free gifts, visit when they know what tedmcgrathbrands.com. their potential is, what they’re capable of, many accomplishments won’t

One of Ted’s favorite causes is Drug-Free World, the largest nongovernmental, education-based drug initiative on the planet. Of the cause, he says: “Drugs are destroying our society, particularly in America. Psychiatric drugs are running rampant. They’re misused and abused among a big percentage of the population and that, to me, is a problem.

That’s why top running back Marshall Faulk and I do a video podcast every two weeks called the Drug-Free World podcast. On the show, we’ve interviewed people from Deion Sanders to Dr. Jay as part of an effort to raise awareness about drug abuse in the U.S.”

Direct Response Marketing: 7 Steps for an Effective Sales Letter

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All effective direct response marketing campaigns include some kind of sales letter to convert leads into customers. It could be in the form of a landing page, or it could be broken up into multiple drip emails. Not much has changed since the dawn of direct response marketing by mail, and the same fundamental principles apply to all ad copy campaigns. Learn how to better reach your target market with this helpful sales letter formula that can be used for online and offline marketing. This guide is for creating single page short-form sales letters that engage the customer and close the sale.

1. Identify the Target Customer

a 50-year-old male golfing enthusiast living in Florida with an income of $60,000, The most crucial then you shouldn’t word component of a successful your sales letter like you’re marketing strategy is talking to a 16-year-old identifying your ideal skateboarder. You should customer. You’ll have more gear everything towards insight into what works reaching the right person when you know exactly and avoiding the person who you are trying to who’s unlikely to become attract. Answering these a buyer. important questions will prepare you to write a • What type of person is more inclusive sales letter. currently buying similar products and services?

Basic Demographics • Where do they live?

• What’s their income?

The statistical data • What’s their age? associated with your target • How much do they market helps you make spend on average for a broad generalization of similar products and how to optimize your sales services? letter. You can use those statistics to determine the Matching Their general wording of your Personalities advertisements and sales letters. For example, an Once you have a basic elderly demographic may idea of the current buyers respond better to a more in your target market, professional tone, but a then it’s time to narrow younger demographic that group down into may prefer the complete your ideal customers. opposite.

Who exactly is your product for, and who That information can can you most easily sell be useful, but the broad it to? It’s important to be generalization of basic as detailed as possible. demographics will really This allows you to paint help you avoid marketing a mental picture of the to people who will never person you are trying to become your customer reach through your ads under any circumstance. If and campaigns. Great your average customer is sales letters depend on 22

your ability to personalize them for your best possible buyers.

If your average customer is a 50-year-old male living in Florida with an income of $60,000, then think about what they might like.

Consider their interests, and get a mental picture of someone like them. It can be a fictional persona, or it could be based on a person you know in real life with similar interests.

Write your copy like you’re speaking directly to that person as an individual.

People tend to seek out others like them. If you can single out any common characteristics in your target market, then you can simulate that type of personality in your writing.

Find the answers to the following questions as a starting point.

• How do they talk, and what words do they use in conversation?

• How do they dress?

• Where do they spend their time?

• What do they like to do?

• Where do they shop?

• What type of careers do they have?

• What hobbies do they share that are not related to your product or service?

The trick to writing great copy in any sales letter is understanding your ideal customer on a more personalized level.

A sales letter aimed at providing upper-class golf enthusiasts with a GPS tracking golf ball is going to sound a lot different than a lawn care services brochure. That’s like comparing apples to oranges. It’s exactly why you need to have a clear representation of who your perfect buyer is.

2. Define Their Desires and Goals Creating an effective sales letter is more than disguising a sales pitch with a relevant case study.

The ideal direct response campaign will be centered around adding immediate value to the reader, and it should focus on an achievable desire of the target customers.

Think about what your customer really wants to get out of it. For example, a jewelry store could conduct a simple survey to find out why their customers are buying jewelry in their shop. They could discover a vital piece of information on the driving forces behind 23

those purchases. That store might find out that most of their customers buy jewelry for their spouse.

Do they buy it based on how much they like it, or do they buy based on how happy they think it will make their partner? The answer to that question will directly determine the most effective angle of approach in that store’s direct response marketing.

Asking your potential customers the right questions is the only foolproof way to uncover those hidden motivations and desires. However, it’s perfectly fine to make a few assumptions and test the effectiveness through utilizing different campaigns.

those underlying desires.

Look at the example of the jewelry store, and use a little common sense to come up with an angle.

Would you focus on how much your customer’s spouse would love a new set of diamond earrings?

That would be the surfacelevel approach to helping them visualize their desired outcome. Your opener could say, “Imagine the look on your wife’s face when she finds out what you did!” The real desire of that buyer is to see their spouse enjoy the gift, and you should remind them of how great that’s going to feel.

You could dig deeper than that, and focus on specific situations that determine • What benefit does the why they want to give a customer really want? gift in the first place. The • Are they purchasing for more specific you are, then themselves, or someone the more likely you are to else? get a strong emotional • What do they gain response with your direct through buying from you? response marketing.

• Is there an ulterior motive behind their purchase?

Maybe husbands are buying jewelry as an Using Desire as a apology for spending the Motivator and Trust weekend with friends.

Builder Your angle might sound like, “Let her know you Your angle of approach care with these gorgeous can be significantly diamond earrings.” improved by defining

Combing Personality Statistics with Desires to Create a Personal Connection with the Reader

could take advantage of that knowledge by combining it with the first direct response advertising approach. An efficient opener could read, “Show In the first step, you her you care with new defined several personality diamond earrings before traits that your target she finds out about your market has in common. new season pass for the Particularly, you probably race track.” Alternatively, found out some the sales letter could add information about their a sense of urgency by hobbies that isn’t directly saying, “You’ll have to buy related to the product or her two sets of diamond service you are selling. earrings when she finds Now, that might seem like Your Daytona Speedway useless information, but Season Pass!” Those are it can be extremely useful just a few examples of with the right application. how seemingly useless Keep thinking about that information could narrow jewelry store example, down your direct response and pretend that store marketing for stronger is right in the middle of results.

Daytona, Florida. The average customer for 3. Breaking Down an that business is a 40-year- Annoying Problem with a old married man that Big Benefit hangs out at the Daytona International Speedway on Pain points during the the weekends. They love buying process can racing, and they collect seriously reduce the model cars as a hobby. conversion rates for any The jewelry store doesn’t marketing campaign. sell model cars, and their It’s important to address customer’s wives probably any objections that the wouldn’t be interested in average buyer may have race-car themed jewelry. when thinking about That doesn’t make the making a purchase. information useless to the A common way to jewelry store. All data can overcome those issues is be a valuable asset if it’s by facing the objections applied correctly. In this directly in the copy, instance, the jewelry store but you’ve got to know 24

what those objections are. Thankfully, you’ve already thought about the desired outcome that your customer wants. You’re halfway there already.

Surface level reasons for purchasing aren’t always the most powerful driving force behind a purchase.

Your direct response strategy can become more effective as your ad copy becomes more specific.

You can focus on the problem your customer is trying to avoid by clearly defining the big benefit you provide. It’s like reverse engineering.

Focus on a Benefit That Relates to Their Underlying Desire Defining a great benefit as the solution to an annoying problem is dependent on how indepth you were with understanding the customer’s desires. Take a look at your average eCommerce clothing brand. On the surface level, you might think that the desire of the customer is to just look good. That’s not a very defined desire, and it probably won’t be a very effective angle. If it was that easy, then every ad would read, “Buy this and

look great!” It would be safe to assume that there are other fundamental reasons that people buy certain brands of clothing.

You’d probably come to the conclusion that a lot of shirts are bought because they relate to a hobby or character that the customer is interested in. Their desire evolves from looking great to supporting an idea or expressing a philosophy.

The real desire in that example is to express something personal about yourself. What’s the big benefit of buying a certain shirt? You can show the world who you are before you meet anybody. It can break the ice during a conversation. You can attract like-minded people who are interested in the same ideas. Go back to the jewelry store example from the last section. The motivation isn’t that they want jewelry, and the big benefit isn’t owning the jewelry. The real end-goal is to make their spouse happy, and the big benefit is that they can go to the race track without feeling guilty.

Using the Big Benefit to Determine Their Really Big Problems 25

There’s almost always a direct correlation between the benefit you can give a customer and their painpoints. They want to meet new people with their interesting t-shirt, and their annoying problem is that they have trouble finding other people they can relate to. One guy wants to keep his partner happy with a new necklace, but the real problem is that his partner feels neglected. One company manufactures golf balls with GPS trackers built-in. The big benefit here is that a golfer can know exactly how well they’re performing, and they might be able to take a few strokes off of their game without spending so much time on the course. Their problem is they don’t have enough time to practice, and they need your gadget to make their time on the green more efficient.

Using Stories to Address Annoying Problems and Gain Trust A very powerful way of using points of pain to your advantage is by talking about an experience you’ve had with the same problems.

It doesn’t have to be a

personal experience.

You can always refer to someone else, or you can call back to a case study.

The key is relating to their problem by bringing it up and showing that you understand how they feel.

Even a small mention can work. Let them know that you understand what they are going through. Remind those jewelry buyers how hard their spouse works all week. Throw in a story about your buddy’s wife, and talk about how she felt when he went to the races every weekend. Tell those t-shirt buyers how you didn’t fit in with the rest of the crowd, and talk about that handsome guy you met that liked the Indie rock band on your shirt. Let those golfers know that your uncle Bob only had two spare hours a week to golf, and he still took two strokes off his game. Every piece of data you collect from your target market can be used to build trust and appeal to their personality.

Price Objection is a Qualifier, It’s Not a Problem In step one, you described the basic statistics of your target market. If you did your job, then you

know what the average income of a customer looks like. You also know how much you can expect the average customer in your demographic to spend on a purchase.

You’ll constantly see poor-quality sales letters address the price as a pain point in the copy. That is a huge mistake, and it could waste your customer’s valuable attention span.

Price should never be focused on unless your intention is to beat out price with the perceived value of your offer. If the price is a real issue, then that person isn’t your ideal customer. If they can’t afford to buy what you are selling, then they can’t become your customers.

There’s no point in spending any time at all trying to overcome most cost-related objections.

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decent header.

Like A Dork

How [Ideal Customer] Can There’s nothing like going Get [Main Benefit] Without to see your favorite band.

[Problem] Everybody just gets it, and you really feel like you Structuring the Opening belong. It works the same Sentences way when you rep your favorite band with a cool You’ve got plenty of shirt. You meet people just creative freedom with your like you. opening sentences, and you should aim for a very Working Golfers: Cut Two personalized perspective. Strokes Off Your Game It’s a good idea to start the Without Quitting Your Job first sentence reminding the reader of some When you’ve got a whole positive experiences and day on the golf course, it’s associating yourself with it. like paradise. If you had It’s best to capitalize every just one day like that a word in a headline when week, then you wouldn’t writing a sales letter. Check have a problem taking out the examples below. a few strokes off your average. You can’t get How Racing Fans Can more time, but you can Enjoy The Speedway And always get more out of Keep Their Wife Happy your time on the green.

Without Feeling Left Out! Here’s how my uncle Bob did it last Spring.

Remember that look 4. Creating the Opener on her face when you 5. Writing the Sales and Headline popped the question? It’d Letter Body be great to see that same You can brainstorm and smile every day. You want The bulk of your sales summarize the opening her to feel like you did letter will serve the header with the simple after the big race Friday purpose of building formula below. Create night, but she doesn’t like trust and relating to the your own version of it, the track. You know, she potential customer. It’s or add a personal twist. really deserves something divided up into three This is just a basic formula nice, but what does she main sections, but you you can follow to create like? don’t necessarily have an attention-grabbing to separate each section opener. You could simply Into Indie Rock? Make New with a sub-header. Keep in fill in the blanks to create a Friends Without Looking mind that there’s nothing

wrong with breaking grammatical rules when writing a sales letter.

Paragraphs can be one sentence long. Incomplete sentences can be effective.

Just write naturally, and break the sections up in a way that’s comfortable to read.

Section One: Leading with a Story This point can’t be stressed enough. You should seriously consider personalizing the sales letter with a real story. It can be anything related to the message you want to get across. Get into the mindset of your potential buyer. If you can’t write from a firstperson perspective, then talk about a case study to prove your point.

You can also reference historical figures if the story fits the bill. Only use anecdotal evidence if you are writing from your own perspective.

Section Two: Agitate the Problem This is where you’ll really get them thinking hard about the problem they are facing. Get them to look at the issues headon. Don’t sugarcoat it. You 27

want to stir up emotions in the reader. You want them to understand that you know how they. Position yourself on the same team as the reader, and share a common enemy with them. Their problem is your problem, and you know how to fix it!

action, and to take the next step right now. It’s perfectly natural to be a little pushy. The potential customer has already spent several minutes reading every word in your promotion. If they aren’t ready to make a buying decision, then they will never be ready.

Section Three: Summarize Buying now should be the the Benefits as a Solution most important takeaway to Their Annoying from this section of your Problems sales letter. Put a strong emphasis on it. The Really bring all your majority of your readers points home, and let the will want to buy at this reader know that you point, but a large portion completely understand of them are very likely to their underlying desires. put it off for a later time.

You want your potential They are less likely to customers to be blown complete a transaction away by how much when they wait longer you can relate to their to take action. Convince situation. Your goal is them to handle the to leave them feeling purchase now. like you wrote this sales letter especially for them. 7. Rewriting the Sales It’s smart to add bullet Letter for Performance points in the middle of and Style this section to keep their attention. List relevant You should have anywhere statistics or problems that from 500 to 1000 words are common. Three to five written for your first draft. bullet points is the sweet The final step to achieve spot. a greats sales letter is rewriting the existing 6. Closing Strong copy. Your first rewrite should focus entirely on Create a call to action in cutting down the word the last portion of your count and removing sales letter. Urge the unnecessary sentences. reader to take immediate If a section doesn’t add

any value to the letter, then cut it out entirely.

Any sentences that don’t flow naturally should be reworded for the sake of simplicity. If you find any complex words, then try to replace them with easier to read phrases. You should have a shorter sales letter when you’re done with that first rewrite. The next step is to optimize your letter for style. That includes adding language that would appeal to your ideal customers, and it also includes formatting the sales letter to be more

pleasing to the eyes.

Add extra line breaks in paragraphs. Use attentiongrabbing sentences between paragraphs.

Make your sales letter easy to skim through.

You should have a very polished sales letter after rewriting twice.

Now, Send Out Your New Sales Letter

mailing printed copies to potential clients can work.

Your job now is to take action. Don’t wait around for your sales letter to work magic on its own. That will never happen. You’ve got to get it in front of the people that can buy your product or service. Even the best sales letter won’t make a penny of profit if it’s sitting on your desk.

You can use your finished Send it out, and find out writing in a ton of different what works for you. ways. It can be used as an effective landing page. You can send it out in emails to potential clients. Even

(855) 694-4426

Ten Ways to Get More Subscribers to Open Your Marketing Emails

If your marketing emails are not getting opened, then you are wasting your time sending out emails.

But how do you go about improving your open rate? Getting more people to open a marketing email takes more than a sensational subject line.

To increase the number of people who are reading your marketing emails, you must work on nurturing your mailing list over time.

Here are ten ways that you can get more of your subscribers to open the emails you send them.

1. Treat Your Subscribers Like People 29

The first step to improving

your open rate is to start treating your subscribers like individuals and not a list. No one wants to see hundreds of emails with clichĂŠd subject lines appearing in their inbox.

So, think about how you would react to the emails you are sending to your subscribers. Would you open your marketing emails?

2. Build Trust in Your Brand If your subscribers know that you only send relevant and useful information to them, they will be more likely to open your emails. Mix up your email marketing

campaigns so that you provide both informative and valuable content as well as sales content.

Never send an email to your subscribers that might damage your brand.

It only takes one poorly worded or misleading email to make a subscriber unsubscribe.

3. Segment Your Mailing List You will see your open rate increase if you target your emails at the relevant subsets of your mailing list. If you segment your mailing list by subscriber interests and demographics and target your emails accordingly,

you could see the number of people opening your marketing emails increase by as much as 15%.

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to open your emails by telling them what is in it for them. Whether it is something for free, a significant discount just 4. Get Your Timing Right for them, or some valuable information they need to The time of day that you know, tempt people with send your emails can have something of value in your a dramatic effect on the marketing emails. number of people who will open your messages.

7. Appeal to Your The best time of day Subscribers Needs for sending marketing varies according to the An excellent way to target market. One way of grab the interest of your finding the best time of subscribers is to offer them day to send your emails a solution to a problem. would be to look at the Consider what issues peak time for visits to your people on your mailing website. list face and how your products can solve those 5. Personalize the issues. Highlight in your Message emails how what you re offering will improve the Personalize your emails by lives of your subscribers. including the subscriber name in the subject 8. Use Humor line and the body of your email. Word your If your email subject line marketing emails in a puts a smile on someone’s friendly, conversational face, they will be more way, and make your emails likely to open your sound like you want message. Everyone likes to to build a relationship. have their day brightened Remember, you will always up, so inject a little fun open an email from a into your marketing friend, but you will often emails, and then you will skip the over-hyped sales see more people opening emails. your emails and reading your content.

6. Offer Something of Value 9. Make Every Email Count Give people a reason

Getting people to open your emails is only half the battle. When people do open your messages, you must make sure that they find something of value. The quality of the last email from you that a subscriber read will influence the person’s decision to open your next email.

10. Value Your Subscribers Treat your mailing list like the valuable asset it is.

Aim to build a relationship with your subscribers and build their trust over time. Building a loyal list of subscribers is much like building a community.

Become a trusted friend of your subscribers, and then they will be more likely to open your emails.

Conclusion Nurturing a mailing list takes time, so don’t expect your open rate to increase overnight. Even so, the above tips should boost the number of people who open your marketing emails. Try out some of the above ideas and track the results. When it comes to email marketing, the best way to improve your success rate is often through trial and error.

Conversion Rate Optimization: 10 Strategies to Improve Conversions on Your Website A company’s website should be a tool for driving conversions. Unfortunately, many businesses focus too much on website traffic and overlook conversion rates. While attracting visitors is important, visitor engagement matters more, which is why conversion rate optimization should be a priority for any business operating online today.

whether it is filling out a form, making a purchase, or something else. Once you understand how users behave on your site, you can make the necessary adjustments to encourage visitors to perform certain actions. And this is the key to achieving more of your marketing goals.

It is not as complicated as it sounds. With a few simple modifications, you can ensure your What is Conversion Rate website is more engaging Optimization (CRO)? to users and primed for conversions. Here are 10 Put simply, CRO is the CRO strategies you can process of increasing the number of website visitors use to improve conversion that take a desired action, rates on your website: 31

1. Update Old Pages First, it is important to clean up your website by removing or upgrading outdated content.

Visitors are unlikely to be engaged by out-of-date information and it could seriously undermine your credibility. If you do not want to delete a page, at least make sure all the information is up to date and relevant to your business today.

2. Communicate Your Unique Value Proposition On any landing page, you should emphasize

your unique value proposition. It is often the first thing visitors read about your company, so it is important to get it right. Usually in the form of a headline or large statement at the top of any page, it should include:

clearly convey your unique value proposition and demonstrate the value of your products and services.

4. Shorten the Checkout Funnel

to review sites, although showing testimonials and reviews on specific pages of your site is ideal.

6. Survey Your Customers

There are plenty of online tools you can use In terms of sales, the for customer research. shorter the path to a paid Whether it is on your transaction, the more likely website or via email, a • Who your target it is that you can convert customer is. survey is a great way to a visitor. This is why it is • What you offer. discover what potential so important to make • How potential customers really want. the checkout process customers will benefit Ask people what kind uncomplicated. There are of content they want from your offer. a few ways to make it as • What makes you from you, and what they pain-free as possible: different from your want from your products competitors. and services. Instead of • Don’t make visitors multiple-choice questions, register for an account let users tell you in their 3. Incorporate Multimedia first.

Content own words.

• Don’t offer anything else at this point.

Including images or 7. Write Stronger CTAs • Use short forms, only videos of your product or asking for the minimum Clear calls-to-action service is a quick way to amount of information. should be placed make your site feel more • Make the payment trustworthy. Videos are throughout your website process simple. especially effective, as and landing pages. To most consumers today ensure more visitors take prefer this content format 5. Include Social Proof the desired action and to learn new information. click on CTA buttons and According to a According to recent links: research, including a video PowerReviews study, 97 percent of consumers on a landing page can • Include them at the top, use product reviews increase conversion rates middle, and bottom of by 80 percent (1). Whether before making a purchase pages. decision (2). This is why they are animated • Make sure they stand you should include some explainers, real-person out on the page by kind of social proof on interviews, or slideshow using contrasting presentations, videos can your site. You could link colors.

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• Make them benefitoriented. For example, “Download My Free Guide” is more powerful than “Click Here to Download.”

• Apart from buttons, try using anchor text within content to encourage users to take a specific action.

8. Try A/B Testing A/B testing tools are useful for testing CTA buttons and many other elements of your website.

Use them to test out two versions of the same page to discover which version converts more visitors. The difference between the two versions could be the headline, the color of buttons, or the size and placement of visual elements on the page. See what works for your audience. You can run multiple tests to help improve your conversion rates. Here are some tools to try: Google Optimize, Optimizely, and Crazy Egg. 9. Optimize Page Speed According to Kissmetrics, 40 percent of users abandon sites that take more than three seconds 33

to load (3). For this reason, page speed is closely linked to conversion rates. To get started, try Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool, which also offers tips on speeding up load times. Here are a few recommendations: • Switch to a more reliable web hosting service.

• Compress image and video files.

• Enable browser caching.

• Use a content delivery network.

• Remove unnecessary plugins if you use WordPress.

• Compress JavaScript and CSS files.

• How visitors spend their time on individual pages.

• The demographics of users.

• Where visitors leave your site.

You can even get screen recordings of visitors using your site, showing you what they click on, where they look, and more. All this information will help you see what is working on your site and in which areas you can improve.

If you want more of your website visitors to take the actions you want them to take, these CRO strategies are a good place to start. Using these techniques will not only 10. Analyze User Behavior help you increase website conversions; they will also By using powerful website improve the overall user experience for visitors. analysis tools such as Google Analytics or Crazy However, every business is unique, and audiences Egg, you can check how respond in different ways. users are interacting Therefore, it is up to you with your website. You to test different strategies will discover important in order to optimize information, such as: the results for your unique business. Keep • Where visitors enter experimenting and in the your website. long run you should see a • Where visitors came dramatic improvement in from. your conversion rates.

• Which devices and browsers visitors use.

8 Reasons Your Business Needs to Take Blogging Seriously

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Blogging is an activity that can help businesses of all sizes. Most entrepreneurs understand the importance of content marketing in this era, but many don’t dedicate enough attention to their blog. A quality blog can be the hub for your content marketing endeavors, acting as the focal point for your activity. You may still question the potential of a business blog on your site, though, and want to feel confident investing in its development. The following reasons show

why blogging can be a major addition to your promotional strategies.

SEO Most business websites won’t rank for many keywords apart from their brand name. A blog offers the chance to gain rankings across a host of search terms, bringing in targeted traffic. Each new post can be created around a theme, so you increase the chances of reaching many long-tail keywords. Quality content

will also gain backlinks, helping your pages rank.

Create Awareness The vast majority of visitors won’t know your brand and are encountering you for the first time. Your blog can be the first stage of creating awareness, introducing people to your business and identity.

Your posts may discuss general industry topics, but you can relate them to your own products and services, helping people to become familiar with you.

Education

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niche will have a number of locations where people Many prospects are gravitate to in order to unfamiliar with various get industry news or aspects of your industry. discussion. When you It is easy to assume can make your site one of that everyone is these locations, you can knowledgeable about the ensure a continuous flow broad topics that make up of traffic. a niche. In reality, though, many people are only just Become a Recognized encountering the subject, Expert so can benefit from some information. Your blog can It is easier to promote be the place that educates offers when you have visitors on the niche, gained expert status. making you the go-to You can start to become option for these people. recognized as an expert when you have Build Trust consistently provided value and others turn Trust is required for to you for information. prospects to become A blog is the best place customers. People not to start this process, only need to trust your offering a place to write website offers security detailed and extended and authenticity, but content. Social media can they need to feel you will bolster your blog, but the deliver what you promise. limited characters prevent A blog helps to build this detailed insight. trust, offering upfront value. When you can Grow a Network consistently deliver value to people, it becomes The most successful far easier to ask them to bloggers usually have a purchase your products. network of influencers they collaborate with.

Build a Community Each individual promotes the others, helping to A useful blog can become build the reputation a hub for a community. of the entire group.

Visitors will come to your Sometimes networks site to consume content are formal groups, while and discuss it in the they can also be informal comment section. Every relationships between

friends and associates.

Your blog can help you get recognized by influential people in your industry, helping you to start forming relationships.

Learn About Customers Insight into your customers helps you craft a better user experience.

A blog encourages participation through the comment section. You can find out what your visitors are thinking, what questions they have, and where they disagree with you. You can also see from your analytics exactly the posts that get the most interest.

Blogging can become the focal point of a content marketing campaign.

You can develop quality articles that bring visitors into your site, helping to build a brand and convert visitors to customers. It is also important to publish content elsewhere, but your blog ensures interested prospects are visiting your site. If your business doesn’t have a blog or hasn’t been committed to the strategy, now is the time to focus your attention on blogging.

10 Ideas for Video Marketing Content

It has been estimated that 55% of the population watch online videos every day, and more than 75% of people watch videos at least once a week. Videos are relatively cheap to make, and a single video can be used on multiple platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, and your business website.

So, there is no denying that video marketing is an inexpensive and 36

effective way to reach a lot of people. All you must do now is think up some novel ideas for your video content. But, in a world where people watch so many short videos, how do you come up with something new and engaging?

have to do is wait for the ad break on TV, or they could wait for the YouTube video they are engrossed in to get interrupted at a crucial moment by an advertisement. In other words, people are already overexposed to video advertising, so they are not going to click on another The first rule of video video ad voluntarily. Here marketing is that you must are some ideas for topics tell a story. If people want around which you could to watch ads, all they will build an engaging video

marketing story.

1. Make Big Announcement

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you prototyped a product that failed miserably, do not be afraid of showing the spectacular footage of your brainchild imploding exploding or falling to pieces. You cannot innovate without having some failures. Admitting that things have gone wrong in the past shows that you are human. It can also be used to highlight your stringent quality control procedures.

4. Show How It Is Made

People often search on Google for answers to questions like “how do If you are opening a new they make...?” and “how store, releasing a new do they build...?”. So, product, or holding a whatever line of business surprise sale, break your you are in, someone will big news to the world be interested in how you with a marketing video. make your products or Video can be a theatrical how you carry out your medium, so it is perfect services. Do not worry if for the big corporate you do not actually make announcement. With a product, because how drum rolls, dramatic you provide a service music, and few special 3. Prove Your Claims can also be remarkably effects, you can create a engaging as well. These mini-epic production for If your product is “how something is done” an affordable amount of waterproof and fireproof, videos are an excellent money. And do not forget do not just list out the opportunity to promote that videos can be shared standards with which your the quality of any type of as well. So, if you get the product complies; prove product or service. video right, word will how good your product spread that something is! Set your shiny new 5. Customer Testimonials exciting is happening with product alight, drop it into your business. a swimming pool, and Honest customer then demonstrate that the testimonials are a potent 2. Share Your Failures product still works! If you marketing tool. The thirdsay that your product is party endorsement that Millions of people watched easy to use, shoot a video testimonials provide the recent successful of a child using it. can remove any last voyage of the SpaceX doubts that prospects Crew Dragon spacecraft Proving that the claims may have about your to the International Space you make about your products or services.

Station (ISS). Eighteen products are valid will be Written testimonials have million people have also far more convincing than become commonplace viewed the compilation asking people to take your on websites, but video video of SpaceX failures word for it. Plus, videos of testimonials are even on the SpaceX YouTube you deliberately trying to more persuasive. People Channel. Elon Musk has damage your products or trust their peers far more never shied away from disprove your claims will than they would trust a admitting that things do be entertaining and more salesperson, an actor, or an not always go entirely to likely to get shared. influencer. plan, and nor should you. If

6. Product Demonstrations Marketing videos provide a way to show people your products in use in real-life situations. Product demonstration videos can be used on your web site and social media posts.

Demonstration videos can also be sent by email to prospects after a salesperson’s visit. While people are living with the ongoing threat of coronavirus, product demonstration videos can also be used in place of face-to-face meetings.

7. Put Faces to Names Technology, for instance online ordering, chatbots, and email, is excellent for streamlining business processes. Technology can also improve customer service. Even so, all this use of technology can alienate people who miss the personal interaction with real people.

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8. Tutorials Another great way to showcase your products is to make video tutorials that explain how to use what you sell. Tutorial videos serve two purposes.

Firstly, prospective customers might view your tutorial videos to learn more about your product. And, secondly, videos explaining how to use your products will cut down the number of customer support calls you receive. Publishing helpful videos like tutorials also demonstrate to prospective customers the importance that you place on supporting your customers.

9. Take People Backstage

When you share behindthe-scenes footage of your business operation, you give people the impression that they are getting an exclusive peek into how your company operates.

Behind-the-scenes If you create a “meet the videos are also another team” marketing video, opportunity to showcase you can show that there the professionalism of are real people behind the your business. Behindtechnology. That will allow the-scenes videos can people to put faces to take lots of different the names of people who formats. You could show work for the company. how a customer order is processed, packed, and

shipped, for example. In a service business, you might demonstrate how a customer’s project is managed.

10. Showcase Events If you hold customer training days or you attend trade shows, these events can provide you with another source of material for your marketing videos.

If your company is in line for an industry award, then this too would be an event that you could film for a marketing video.

As mentioned in the introduction, marketing videos should not be all about sales. Marketing videos should tell stories that allow people to learn more about your company and the people behind the company.

There are lots of variations on the above themes, and there lots of other entertaining ways that you can reach out to your target market through video content. There are lots of people who would prefer to watch a video rather than reading written content. So, if you are not making use of marketing videos, you are missing out on a massive opportunity.

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