Slowly, Slowly Catchy Monkey
If you have managed to read all my newsletters from the last 12 months you now know enough to put you in the top 10% of online marketers. However, knowledge on its own is nothing but idle fancy. You see, knowing new stuff is one thing, applying it to your unique business situation is quite a different matter.
The power of new knowledge is in its implementation. It’s the main attribute I see in those members who get the most from our group coaching programme. They start off completing the easy ideas first and then move onto others each and every month, and have finished the year with some huge gains. These are the ones that end up much further ahead compared with those members who rush into it in the first week and promptly lose momentum after the first 6 weeks. Small changes made frequently win out in almost all cases.
For instance, did you know that improving your business by just 1 % each day would represent an overall 50% improvement in 72 days? Some of those 1% improvements are easier to make than others. And truth be told, there are some simple, small changes that produce 5% improvements. The challenge, of course, is knowing where to find those improvements and knowing which are the bonus ones that provide the greatest increase with the least amount of effort.
And, while I mentioned earlier that previous newsletter editions have pointed you in the right direction to find these changes, here’s a short review for those new to the newsletter and those who (like me) are short on memory.
Website Analytics – tracking the paths and final destinations of your website visitors.
It’s the subject I cover at the start of every monthly coaching session I run. (I’m working on the theory of constant repetition to ensure that everyone gets the message.) This is one of those bonus improvement areas – there is at least a 5% jump in effectiveness for anyone who installs and configures a system correctly. And what’s more, any work done here can provide you with all the knowledge you need to support your future changes.
Email Marketing – match the right message to the outcome you want.
Once you have mastered the technical nuances of this media (this on its own is a good 1% improvement over others), then look further into the content you create. Most companies deliver email in its most basic and ineffective form – one list, one message, and one send. There should at least be two groups of messages, with prospects receiving one message and customers receiving the other.
Online Lead Generation – people search for solutions to problems not products or services.
Over 90% of websites talk about what they do and how they do it, with very few words on the problems their products/services solve and the benefits this brings. To see how your site fares, search for the word ‘we’ across your site and see how often it comes up compared with ‘you’.
Swing the balance back to favour more use of ‘you’ and you will instantly grab a solid 1% improvement in your copy. If you capture the attention and contact details of prospects who are in the research phase of buying what you offer, then you have achieved another bonus 5% step in improvement.
Online Advertising – buy only the choicest ‘cuts’.
So long as the first improvement step of installing a website analytics application has been achieved, then this is a viable option. Only then will you know which traffic stream brings you ‘sirloin’ – that easily converts to prospects – compared with the ‘low grade mince’ traffic that most receive but are unaware of.
So there you have it. One percent improvements can be found in a whole range of online marketing endeavours. Five percent enhancements are there too – all are just waiting to be acted on in the months ahead. Pick a few ‘quick wins’ and let’s get this thing started.
