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Mistake #16: Having no referral program

When you have a customer who is happy the first thing you have to think about who does he know that will also enjoy your product. Sometimes the customer offers to introduce you to his friends and family and boom you have a customer advocate. Sometimes you need to ask the customer if he has referrals.

When a customer either receives the product or service he should be give a questionnaire to fill out and ask is there anyone that they can introduce you to. This can be sent by email, web form or done through social media. In most cases if the customer was happy with the service or product he would be happy to introduce it to his circle of friends and family.

Do you sell a product you feel wouldn’t work with a referral program? Something like food? Well, the thing is everything works with a referral program. For example on the restaurant you can say that for every new customer you bring in you can eat for free. Creativity is the key.

So make sure that happy customers have a system where they can easily refer new clients to the company. You can even reward them with incentives but either way referrals are a great way to improve lead flow.

Mistake #17: Not using YouTube

In Hollywood it becomes really popular to create viral campaigns before the release of a big movie or a in corporate America to launch a new product through guerilla marketing. One of the key ingredients is using the video sharing site you-tube. Surprisingly few people realize the potential that you tube has. You have to remember that Justin Bieber was discovered on YouTube and many of its videos can reach up to 3 million hits. So why don’t people use YouTube more often? Most likely because the people equate video with traditional advertising and well they are on the internet.

Creating a awesome video with something interesting than it could probably go viral. One of the most famous examples of that is the iPhone, when videos of the iPhone were leaked onto YouTube the world went insane and people kept taking a look at it. The video went viral and iPhone had one of the most successful product launches ever.

Mistake #18: Not going on sale

Notice how people look forward to sales like Black Friday? Or how that store goes on sale when they open to attract customers. You cannot ignore that strategy just because you are online. What you need to do is slashing prices to bring in new customers. Once they like your product than they are more likely to come back and become customer advocates.

One way to do this is through the group discount site Groupon, where you can attract new customers who are looking for savings. Now, if for example you are a restaurant and people try it because the food was discounted but love the food than they will come back and eat there at regular price. The discount is just about attracting the initial customer.

Going on-sale also creates a buzz on the online community. When your product is highly anticipated you slash the price on the first 100 units to ensure that they fly off the shelves. Remember that sales are not just for the end of shopping seasons, you can use them to push your products and help with the exposure of your new products.

It is also important to realize that sites like Living Social and GroupOn can generate a lot of exposure since a lot people regularly search the site for best deals. The growth of these websites are good for local business as now the can get exposure especially if they are new. Sales are a great way to bring in customers. All you need to do is make sure you time them right and that you don’t break the bank.

Mistake #19: Having bad customer service

A lot of companies spend all their money on developing the right product. Yes, having an awesome product and marketing will sell but having terrible service will almost guarantee that you won’t get repeat customers. Not only that but each unhappy customer will tell three other potential customers about their bad experience and make it even harder to expand your market.

Great customer service might even cover up for an average product. You need to have multi-channel customer service and a thriving online community with people willing to help. For example, you would need someone to answer calls, answer emails, answer chats and answer questions posted on the forum. Covering all these channels is only the beginning. You now need to ensure that the service is excellent.

If your company cannot afford to have its own in house customer service center they have several options. Some companies create user driven forums where the customers help each other, this is great at building a community but eventually you would need to add more channels to handle high volume questions. The other is outsourcing, you can do it onshore or off shore with a myriad of different option available at relatively cheap prices.

As a company your customer service is a reflection of who the company is. Just by adjusting the company to be more customers centric you should be able to improve the customer experience and make sure that people come back for more. Don’t forget one of the biggest costs is acquiring customers. So once you have customers why lose them?

Customer service is integral to your business. Your sales team can keep making sales but your customer churn will be really high and they might not even be unhappy with the product, it is probably your service. That’s why such a high premium is put on service, and if the customer demands great service you should step up to the plate and provide it for them.

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So - you'll need to send out content to people but you'll also need to sell to them too.

The first thing to think about when creating an email is the subject line.

The subject is your only chance to get people to actually open your email - and if they don't open it then they can't make a purchase, so it's important to get this right.

One thing to avoid is spammy subject lines...

Ever seen emails in your inbox like...

"You've got cash"

or "You're payment is waiting"

or "I've been trying to contact you"

They're a total turn off, right?

When you see those you immediately think SPAM. They maybe used to work in the past but nowadays most people are wise to such tactics and generally most people would probably agree that they only serve to piss people off...

The thing is that when people then read your email body and see what you are actually promoting then they will most likely be pretty annoyed because it bears no relation to the product itself.

Following on from the advice I give a little earlier then I'd recommend heading over to your email inbox and having a look at how your favourite marketers write their subject lines. What intrigues you but doesn't pee you off at the same time?

It's good to add a little mystery into your subject lines because at the end of the day you don't want to give the entire game away because you want them to open the actual email and read the body text, but at the same time your subject lines shouldn't be so irrelevant that they have absolutely nothing to do with the content of your email. It's all about striking the right balance.

Once you’ve written your subject line then the next thing to think about is the body of the email.

Obviously your job here is to get people to click on your affiliate link and land on the product page.

The biggest piece of advice I can give is to just be yourself. Give your promo emails a slice of "you", a bit of your personality.

Whilst I highly recommend studying the promo emails of other marketers and learning from how they do things you never want to copy them.

Take a look at pretty much any top marketer and you'll notice that they all have their own style.

You'll often see multiple marketers promoting the same product but they'll each do it in a completely different way.

Some marketers have certain "buzz" words that they like to use. Other's always structure their email content in a certain way.

Find your own style and don't be afraid to experiment a little.

I mentioned earlier that part of being an affiliate/email marketer is becoming a trusted advisor - and that definitely comes into play when writing your promo emails...

Before you write a single word of your email spend some time studying the product and the sales page. What do you like about it? What don't you like about it?

You can then give your opinion of those things into the email.

So - you might say something like:

"I purchased this product yesterday and spent some time this afternoon going through it. On first glance you'll see the sales page is pretty hypey (click here to view it) but get past that and inside this is a really good product that I reckon a lot of you will benefit from."

Can you see that by making points like that you're actually differentiating yourself from everyone because you're giving your opinion?

Don't be afraid of pointing out the negatives either. For example, you might check out a product and find that it's not as detailed as you were expecting. So, you could say something like:

"From initially glancing at the sales page I was expecting a detailed a detailed step-by-step training product but when I actually started reading it I discovered it's not quite like that. If you're looking for a paint-by-numbers system then this probably isn't for you, however what it IS is one of those reports you'll read and it'll leave you feeling fantastically motivated. I like that you can read this in less than an hour and I almost guarantee you'll be smiling by the end of it because the author's story is so inspiring and I challenge anyone not to feel motivated by it."

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A crucial thing to realize about opt-in forms is that each field you add (Name, Email, Phone, Address) diminishes conversion, but increases quality. So you have to take into consideration what info is utterly necessary for you to collect on your landing page and adapt accordingly.

In order to have the form appear on the site, you require a third-party software. The most popular ones include Aweber, iContact, Constant Contact, or InfusionSoft. Once you've signed on for the third-party software, you (or your web designer) will produce the form, and get the HTML code. This code is then embedded into your landing page. Now when individuals fill out the form on your site, their contact info is stored within your database.

e. Product

As I adverted earlier, when I decided to sell a product that was ready to go. Not only did this save me the time and resources from having to produce a product from scratch, but I could select something that already had an firm track record of selling, decreasing the risk.

How to assess the product...

Q. Is The Product Sold By Itself?

Is this product affiliated to a business opportunity? If yes, do individuals truly purchase the product outside of that? Pick a product that individuals would actually purchase—just for the product itself.

Q. Do You Believe In It 100%?

You wish to pick a product that YOU believe in. As I mentioned earlier, when you trust in something, it’s a heck of a lot simpler to make revenue selling it. You’re excited about it, excited to promote it, and are surefooted in discussing it with your prospects.

Q. Is The Product Relevant?

Following, you need to make certain that the product is relevant to what is occurring today, and what will be happening in the really near future. Does this product solve a major issue for individuals in today’s world?”

f. Sales Process

Now that you've a Product, Site and Landing Page, you require a solid sales process to help you yield the profits. Whatever you’re doing in life, you’re a sales person. Whether you like to utilize the term “selling” or not, that's what we do in life.

We sell individuals on being our friends, on being our mate, on being our business partner, and purchasing from us. We may likewise sell individuals on not doing business with us, not being our friends, or not seeing our viewpoint.

Whether you’re selling some a positive or negative end result, you’re selling either way.

The truth of the matter is: if you wish to make a killing online—or in any business for that matter—you have to learn not only how to face rejection, but alter your position of what rejection truly is. Most of the time, rejection happens when a prospect doesn’t trust you or feels that inaction is a choice.

Your greatest obstacle isn't in getting individuals to choose you over the competition, but it’s in getting them to choose you versus doing nothing. The main way to defeat the obstacle of individuals doing nothing is through effective personal communication.

Whether it’s accomplished by copywriting or a phone conversation, overcome objections is your #1 obstacle to yielding profits.

The truth is, if you abide by my advice when selecting a product and sell something you believe in 100%, you don’t have to have “sales skills” to make sales. You merely need to trust in what you’re selling, and that rubs off on your prospects immediately.

chapter 7 Integrity

Integrity is taking action in a manner that’s in line with your declared values. Many individuals confuse integrity with morals and ethics. According to Wikipedia, “Integrity is a concept of consistency of actions, values, techniques, measures, principles, expectation and results.”

Look At Yourself

To act with integrity means that your actions match your stated beliefs and values.

To act out of integrity means your actions don't match up with your stated values and beliefs. For instance, if a marketer states on his site, “I value helping other people succeed”, but then he doesn't take action to help other people succeed—he's out of integrity.

But, if a marketer states on his site, “I value helping myself succeed”, and he takes action to help himself succeed—then he has integrity. Integrity isn't about being correct or incorrect.

It’s about actions matching up with stating values and beliefs.

The most significant thing, particularly if you're an individual marketing yourself online, is that you have integrity with yourself. If you don’t have that, you may never have it with anybody else. What are your opinions? What do you time value? What is significant to you?

Does what you offer, and how you depict your business, have integrity? Do the actions you take online match up with your core beliefs?

That is step #1 in success. If your actions don’t match-up with your core values and beliefs— if integrity doesn't exist—attempting to accomplish success will be an uphill battle.

But, when what you provide is in line with your core values and beliefs, any resistance appears to dissipate without notice.

It’s not a “fight” of getting individuals to purchase stuff. It’s merely a matter of sharing what is already there. The whole process of making revenue becomes fun and enjoyable.

Let’s face it: we don’t have a limitless number of days on this earth. There's no point in “struggling” to make revenue when you may have fun making money. This is the advantage of building a legacy with integrity.

Producing a successful business, regardless if it’s online or a traditional business, takes a lot of “blood, sweat and tears”.

The last thing you wish is to put in all of this work, and have nothing to show for it.

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‘What’s in it for me?

The unrivaled purpose of your web page is to sell. And to build sales, you have to answer this query for each and every potential customer that comes to your site. The better way to answer the “What’s in it for me?” Query is by relating to your likely buyers through the advantages of your product.

Characteristics VS Advantages

If your wish your web page to be an ongoing sales machine it’s utterly critical that you are able to translate your products list of characteristics into advantages. Advantages sell because they appeal to individuals emotions. Characteristics don't. For instance, view this characteristic list for one particular product:

Keyword rich URL’s

Integral contact form

Simply add Google AdSense ads

Pretty boring, eh? Now let’s translate this list of characteristics into advantages:

Keyword rich URL’s: better your search engine placing by including the title of your material in its web page link. It’s a long-familiar fact that all of the huge search engines prefer sites with keyword-rich links.

Integral contact form: Make it simple for your site visitors to get hold of you utilizing the integral contact form. No more messy “do it yourself” HTML forms!

Simply add Google AdSense ads: turn a profit from your knowledge and authoring skills by placing Google AdSense ad’s beside your material. This product makes it easy to put in AdSense code wherever you decide.

As you are able to see, I’ve added the chief advantage of every point. I’m sure you’ll concur that the advantages list makes the product sound much more appealing than the ho-hum characteristic list.

Social Substantiation

Next time you are somewhere, try this out:

Walk up to a corner where there are a set of stoplights. Once there’s no traffic (make certain you double check), walk across the street before the walk light turns green. If there are others waiting with you, 9 times out of 10 they'll likewise begin walking. This is an illustration of social substantiation.

Here’s a different illustration:

In the beginning part of a week discover a comparatively quiet restaurant and have lunch there. Rather than sitting inside, sit at one of their outside tables. Over the run of your meal I assure you at least five individuals will come into the restaurant and order their lunch on what would’ve commonly been a quiet day for that certain restaurant.

These are simply two illustrations of social substantiation that I've discovered. Social substantiation relies on the concept of “if he’s doing it, then it has to be good, so I ought to do it also”.

The best way to implement social proof on your web site is via customer testimonials or referrals. By showing your visitors that people have already purchased and are using your products or services, you eliminate most of the pre-conceived doubt and skepticism they carry about you and your company, and believe me; everyone has doubts, even for the best of companies.

Headlines

The matter of authoring a great headline may fill a book in itself. There's no correct or incorrect way to compose a headline, and you ought to always test assorted versions of your headline because if you have a feeble headline very few individuals will carry on reading, therefore resulting in lost sales.

The most beneficial way to come up with a headline is to place yourself in your potential customer’s shoes. Ask yourself “If I were among my potential buyers, what terms, characteristics, advantages, etc would make me wish to continue reading and finally order my product?”

I’ll give you a couple of tips to get you started out authoring or revising your own headline:

Social substantiation headlines work well. Utilize phrases like “Who else wishes to [have whatever your product does]”, “Learn how 1000s of individuals have [accomplished whatever your product executes]”, “Here’s how to [acquire the advantages your product supplies]”, and so forth.

Your headline ought to stress the top advantage of your product. It ought to be short and pertinent and ought to make people want to continue reading to learn more.

Keep away from headlines that sound too great to be true or include a bit much hype, like “With only an hour a day you too may become a millionaire in a month”.

Explore. Look around the Net for headlines that snap up your attention and copy their formatting, or remember recent purchases you’ve made on the net and mark down the headline or web material that swayed you to purchase and utilize it on your own page.

Formalness not demanded

Any great business owner ought to think of his buyers as extension of him and his company. Structure your sentences as if you're talking to a close friend. I find that formalness in web copy, e-mail or phone conversations only bestows clumsiness, so I attempt to avoid it.

Certainly, if you’re an enterprise-level company formalness is a must, but most individuals purchase from small companies because they favor personal interactions and value the attention to detail. Here’s an illustration of what I like to address as “starchy” copywriting:

The new version of XYZ is ideal for e-mail marketers. It includes dozens of fresh characteristics perfect for anybody looking to begin and maintain an e-mail marketing campaign.

Flat, ho-hum, no advantages, and it doesn’t speak to the potential customer. Always attempt and utilize the word “you” as much as you are able to, while refraining from utilizing your company name or references to your establishment as much as conceivable.

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Publishing to Kindle is relatively easy, but once it's "out there" you're going to have to market it. Without marketing it's basically like creating a website and expecting visitors to "come to you."

So, in order to be successful, your book also needs to be marketed well. In case of traditional publishing houses, the task of marketing is usually taken up by the house itself. But here, since you are self publishing, the marketing part has to be handled by you. Given below are five easy ways to promote your Kindle book...

Utilize the social networking sites

There is a reason social network marketing is such a rage today. Almost everyone is active in at least one social networking site today. It is where the buzz about the newest products goes on.

And being talked about on a social networking site is the best thing that can happen to your Kindle book. So, before you even upload the Kindle book, make it a point to set up accounts in these sites and build a good friend list. Sign up in the various forum websites and join in the conversations going on. Make yourself as well acquainted as possible. Once your book is published on Kindle, advertise it on the social networks, include the link in your signature in forums or even emails. Create a Facebook page or tweet about it.

As a publisher, your blog can be one of your biggest weapons to promote your Kindle book.

If you maintain a steady blog, then you would have built up a steady readership too. Advertise your book extensively on your blog. Take good pictures and post them. Make it look like a virtual launch of your Kindle book. You can also promote over video chatting platforms like Skype, or upload a video of it on Youtube and include a link on your blog.

Have a free promotional sale

When you publish your book on Kindle, you often get a limited period promotional free sale. Utilize these days to the fullest. Announce the promotional sale of your Kindle book for free over the social networking sites as well as your own blogging platform. There are also various platforms, which focus only on book and reading like Goodreads. Make sure to promote extensively on these platforms, as you will get much more prospective readers here.

Offer books for review

This is yet another good way of utilizing the digital space for promoting your Kindle book. Books which have reviews are often bought more than the books without any reviews. Reviews mean

that the book has been read and recommended by someone. The power of word of mouth plays a big role here. So find some people who are willing to read and review your Kindle book. They can post the review on Amazon, or even on their personal blogs or websites, if they have any. This is a great way to ask a fellow blogger to review your book and write a post on it on their blog or a guest post on your blog. If you get any negative review, then be graceful about it and do not attack the reviewer. The key is to get as many reviews as possible, so that the word about your book reaches far and wide.

Create a website for the book

For a more focussed promotion of your Kindle book, one of the best ways can be to create a website focussing solely on the book. The website can be completely based on the book. You can add up additional features like newsletters, which the readers can sign up for and get for free. On this website, you can keep posting pictures of the book, reviews that the book may have received or any upcoming offer on the book. You can also include a discussion forum. This way, more and more people will get to know about your Kindle book and your promotional task will be done successfully.

Growing your Kindle empire by publishing more related books

As we have discussed there was a time when becoming a published author would take years to be a reality. It would take months of going back and forth with publishing houses to get one book published. Well, the times have changed and with that, the possibilities have changed too.

Successful authors publish related books

Say you published your first ebook on Kindle and it becomes a runaway success. You will no doubt earn a lot of royalty. But, every day new books are being added to Kindle. It would only be a matter of time until your book fades away to the background and some other writer’s book takes its place. This is why it is very important to keep being on the reader’s radar. One way of doing this is by keep marketing about your book on various digital platforms like social networking sites and discussion forums. You can even start a website solely based on your book.

But, all the above efforts are bound to fizzle out after sometime. And you cannot really establish yourself as a writer in your reader’s mind by publishing just on book. Hence, successful authors always move on to publish more books, which are in some way related to their first book.

In order to be an established author, you have to have a decent number of books to your name. Writing related books to add on to your list of published books gives you that credential. When you write related books and publish them, they come up more often when the readers search for books of the particular genre. So, instead of depending on one book to catch your reader’s eye, you will have multiple books. This will put the odds in your favour.

Also, having related books establishes you as a writer of that particular genre or topic. This means that your readers start connecting you with that genre and hence whenever they want to read a book of that genre, they would look you up, or recommend you to friends. It is very important to establish such connection in your reader’s mind as that will substantially lead to multiple sale of your books on Kindle.