Do you want to change your online business from ho-hum to a sales machine on steroids?

The secret is not getting more traffic, but improving how many of your current visitors become actual customers.

To track the progress and performance of your internet marketing campaign and your website, you must analyze conversion rates. Your conversion rate is the number of hits to the website that are needed before a sale is made. It is calculated by dividing the total number of unique visitors you receive in a period of time by the total number of sales you make during that time period. Changes in the conversion rate reflect the overall effectiveness of your internet marketing strategy.

Poor conversion rates are indicators that something needs to be done to improve your internet marketing efforts. To improve your conversion rates and thus the conversion of browsers to buyers, there are a few things that deserve your attention – primarily the targeted market, the products and services, the website, and the business terms.

The target market that you have selected to market to has certain characteristics that will determine what marketing mediums are best for you to use and the internet marketing techniques that will most likely appeal to the target market. Use of certain keywords in a pay-per-click or search engine advertising campaign can improve your chances of driving targeted traffic to your website. So, if your conversion rates aren’t satisfactory, review your target market and make sure that those you are reaching with your advertising are actually qualified buyers who have an interest in what your company is offering.

If your products and services are not selling, even though you have sufficient traffic, perhaps there is a problem with the products and services themselves. The pricing strategy may not appear to add value to the products or services, or your presentation of the products and services may not clearly convey the benefits of their features to the potential customers. Review your products and services to identify their features and to determine how those features translate into benefits for consumers. Then review your sales copy to ensure that it is appealing to the target market.

Another issue that can negatively impact conversion rates is problems with your website. If the website pages are slow to load, if there are broken links, or if the website is confusing or isn’t easy to navigate, you will likely lose website visitors before they even consider buying products or services from your website. It pays to take measures that make your website user-friendly.

Last but not least, your business terms may be an issue with potential customers. Payment terms, shipping policies, warranties and return policies, privacy policies, and ecommerce payment options are all things to consider. Making it easy for a variety of customers to make payments through a secure server using various types of payment options along with policies that enhance their confidence in your company and your business practices can aid in improving your conversion rates and boosting your sales.

Thank you for calling Widgets Inc. Your satisfaction is sometimes important to us, and we will eventually get around to answering your call - maybe. If you wish, you may leave us a message and a maybe a representative will contact you, but please don’t get your hopes up.

Have you ever used the telephone to contact a business, only to feel the frustration that can result from voice mail or automated answering services? Today, it seems almost every major business operates this way. People have become used to automated and imprudent business practices such as this and these methods of customer relations are gaining acceptance (or at least tolerance).

Many customers today are forced to listen to a long recording and find their way through a jungle of push buttons in order to leave a message, instead of being afforded the luxury of speaking to a warm-blooded human.

Of course the ole’ time principles of customer services – such as answering the phone before the third ring, avoiding putting a customer on hold if at all possible, and providing personal service – are still superb solutions to customer satisfaction. But, in our automated world, it is vital to recognize the importance of responding to customers quickly and appropriately.

Whether a customer makes contact in person, via telephone or through email, businesses should strive to provide a timely, if not an immediate response. Customer satisfaction is reliant on responsiveness.

So, you may ask, “What is a timely response?”

Honestly, the definition of a timely response really depends on the customer’s perception. The urgency of their need may play into the mix or their idea of a timely response may be linked to their expectations.

For some reason there is a perception amongst business people that a 24 hour response to a customer inquiry is sufficient. From the customer’s perspective; however, having to wait 24 hours for a quick answer to a simple question or a viable solution to a serious problem is ridiculously aggravating and neglectful on the part of the business.

When customers have a bad experience, from the customers’ perspective, they are sure to seek other options for fulfilling their needs. Plain and simple – poor customer service results in lost business.

Regardless of the type of business you are in and whether you receive customer inquiries via telephone, email or a website contact form, it is absolutely critical that you get back to your customers right away. Placing responsiveness at the top of your customer service objectives is the simplest solution to gaining a competitive advantage, producing satisfied customers, maintaining your customers through repeat business, and building your market share through client referrals. Responsiveness is the single most important factor to enhancing customer satisfaction.

My high strung uncle sat staring intently at me. His mouth moved as if to speak, but no words came out.

You see, I had just explained to my uncle the concept of recommendation marketing, and it left him totally baffled.

It was actually quite comical seeing this usually well spoken man, who seemed to have an opinion on everything (especially other people’s business), stricken speechless.

I must admit I reveled in the moment.

He couldn’t believe how much I made each month, by simply recommending high quality products and services to my customers.

What really blew him away, was when I revealed that it only took me an hour to set everything up, and I continue to make this residual income each and every month.

If I choose to work out, spend time with my family, or do something else I enjoy, I will still be earning the same amount.

This is the power of recommendation marketing.

The principle behind this technique is quite simple, but you must earn people’s trust for it to be effective (This means being honest and not trying to make a quick buck).

I compiled a list of my favorite products and services, and then created a page with a condensed review of these products. (Luckily for me most of them have an affiliate program, which is how I earn the residual income)

I only recommend something I believe in, that has personally worked for me or someone I trust.

If the product is full of hype and not up to my standards of excellence, I will not put it on my recommendation page. Period.

Here is a quick start guide to getting your own recommendation page up and turning a profit:

- Compile a list of your favorite products and services within your niche

- If the product/service has an affiliate program, be sure to join up.

- Tell your customers about this page. (You can do this with newsletter subscribers as well)

If someone trusts you enough to buy your products, it is very likely they will buy something you recommend.

If you are struggling to find something positive to say about one of these products/services, that should be an instant red flag. You should only recommend products you have purchased and believe in.

Never compromise your customer’s trust in you. Trading money for a damaged reputation can be fatal to your online business.

Once you lose someone’s trust, you can never truly gain it back. This can mean lost sales and profits for your business.

Try putting this simple plan into action, and I can almost guarantee that you will be thrilled with the results.

A majority of Internet marketers are lazy…

But what if I told you this was a good thing?

Why? Because you can use that to your advantage.

If I told you that thirty seconds of your time could potentially bring you a new customer for your business, would you be interested?

Let me take that a step further: Would you be willing to trade those thirty seconds to gain a new customer? Hopefully your answer is an emphatic “Yes!.”

You don’t have to be in business long to discover that customers are your most important asset. If you ask any successful online marketer where he or she have found a majority of their customers, the answer more times than not will be “my list.”

However, there is a roadblock between all newsletter publishers and their subscribers…SPAM. The increase in spam has brought yet another hurdle to Internet marketers, spam filters. This is the new dirty word among all marketers using email marketing.

Newsletter publishers are in a constant battle to get their email through the spam filters to their subscribers.

Now let me reveal my little secret…

There is an easy system that allows you to bypass these filters, and get your email into your subscriber’s inbox.

So why aren’t more publishers using this system? One simple word: Laziness.

Many seasoned newsletter publishers are throwing away their sales and profits because they are l-a-z-y.

If you publish any form of newsletter, you have most likely been sent verification emails from places such as Spamcop and SpamArrest.

These services require you to verify your email address before your message is passed into your subscriber’s inbox.

Many publishers simply disregard these emails and with a simple click, delete away a potential customer. They deem the task as a waste of time. I am still in awe of this decision, but you won’t hear me complain. The less emails in my prospect’s inbox, the better.

Are you making this same profit draining mistake with your newsletter subscribers?

Saying that you don’t have enough time to verify your address is a poor excuse. It will take you no more than thirty seconds to do. I receive hundreds of new subscribers a day to all of my newsletters and always find time for this task. If you are getting more subscribers to your lists than me, then you probably don’t need my advice anyway.

Investing some time to verify your address for your subscribers can be a huge payoff, now and in the future.

When your address has been verified, that means your newsletter and promotional emails are all being sent right past the spam filters directly to your subscriber’s inbox.

The beautiful thing is, this is an inbox that isn’t filled with spam. So your email is much more likely to be read than if it had been sent to a spam filled inbox.

Don’t let the simplicity of this technique fool you. It is very powerful.

By verifying your address for your subscribers who use these spam prevention services, it puts you one step ahead of your competitors who are too lazy to do the same.

Getting the edge on your competition is the key to success, no matter what business you are in.

Are you afraid of success?

Nick Carter, the former vice-president of Nightingale-Conant’ once said about people who procrastinate:

“Some people are great at coming up with ideas, but they don’t have the guts to try. You know it’s like, they’re walking on eggs, carefully, hoping to make it safely into death”.

That is a very powerful image. Read over it a few times until it is etched into your memory permanently.

When you feel yourself starting to procrastinate, or worrying about failure, let Nick Carter’s words flow through your mind… then ask yourself, are you walking on eggshells and hoping to make it safely to death?

Is that how you want to look back on your life? That you where afraid to take chances, and it cost you your dream?

I have always said it is better to regret something you have done, than regret something you haven’t done.

Who cares if you make a mistake in your business? We all make mistakes, even marketers who make millions of dollars each year. No one is immune from making bad decisions.

Start focusing on what you DO want out of your life and your business.

Stop trying to find the perfect idea and pick the one you think is right for you. Trust yourself, believe that you are capable of making decisions on your own. Then pursue this idea until you have achieved success, or if you are certain it is doomed to failure, then and only then should you move on to your next idea.

You don’t need a complicated ’system’ to start ‘focusing’ and getting results in your new business.

Here’s EXACTLY what I do (and it’s ALL that I do) every day to fight procrastination:

#1. USE A “TO-DO” LIST EVERY DAY and update it every day. List your ‘to-do’s by priority (A, B, C, etc). Check off the one’s you accomplish today and transfer the one’s you didn’t complete to tomorrow’s to-do list. Keep doing that for 30 days and you’ll see how much more focused you become.

#2. Before doing your to-do list ask yourself this question, “What EXACTLY do I have to do today to make $XXX (fill in the EXACT amount you want to make TODAY- $50, $100, $500, $1,000, etc), today. Try to shoot for 20%-50% over what you made on YOUR BEST DAY EVER - You may not make it- BUT consciously ASKING yourself that question brings a powerful agent to your assistance-your creativity- and a surprising number of times the ‘answer’ becomes apparent. It also has a tremendous power to FOCUS your energies.

That’s all you need to do. Choose to do something today, no matter how small it might be. Whatever it is, it’s one step closer to your goal. Then do something tomorrow that will take you one step closer - and the day after that- and the day after that. All the little things you do will add up and you will have battled procrastination and won.

The key to becoming a successful marketer is what I coined as the “Focus Factor”.

Most people become their own worst enemies when starting a business.

They don’t know what kind of business they want, or even have a real plan. They just want to earn some extra money.

That’s why you see so many ‘bizop junkies’ buying all of these money making programs and never doing a single thing with them.

Then instead of looking inside themselves and learning how to focus on one opportunity at a time, they shift the blame onto the so called gurus. Calling them thieves and liars.

Let’s face it, they don’t know what they WANT…so how can they follow a plan, especially one written by someone else?

They are confused about where to start, what they want, what to do next, etc…

My suggestion to people who want to start their own business is NOT to follow someone else’s plan… but to use those plans as a launch pad, a blueprint that you mold into your own plan.

Most money-making plans have a lot of value in them, but only if you inject your own personality and creativity into them!

You must learn to think critically and grab little nuggets of gold from each ebook or video you watch. Then improve the ideas that you have just learned.

Force yourself to think in such a manner, and it will soon come naturally. This is how you will find your success.

The important thing is to start MAKING MONEY right away…no matter what kind of business you’re starting….it’s an incredible confidence builder.

Take small steps, DOABLE steps to make $40-$100 a week extra and do that for a few weeks…then ratchet it up to $70 to $200 a week, etc, etc…

The problem is, most people never get started. If they just got started and took action, even if they failed, there are valuable lessons to be learned when you get off of the sidelines!

When you do business online (or offline for that matter) you will discover that each day is a new challenge with its own unique problems that you must solve.

Many times working for yourself can feel like a heavy burden, and we have all muttered the self-defeating words, “WHY ME?”

Do not make yourself into a victim.

You must focus on resolving the problem and realize that what you are going through is not unique. Many others have faced the very same obstacles as you are currently experiencing and overcame them at one time or another.

Your problems may seem unique, but they aren’t. At one time someone else had the same problem. Maybe even a lot of people had the same problem.

When you are faced with a difficult situation, don’t waste your time trying to reinvent the wheel. Do research, read, investigate, call SCORE, ask a colleague, do an Internet search– chances are you will find someone who solved the problem you have.

Having a negative attitude will only hamper your ability to find a solution to your problem. By keep a positive mental attitude, you will find that you can think much more clearly, and it becomes that much easier to find the answer you are seeking.

How do you get your creative juices flowing?

You can look look to the arts for your inspiration. Or perhaps literature. However, should we seek to create something entirely new?

“Creativity” as it’s commonly understood, is to experience a breakthrough, something that has never been seen before.

A creator wields power to shape the world around him/her, to change lives, and empower themselves.

The truth is that creativity is nothing more than a synthesis of the mind - a bringing together of unrelated parts to form something new.

The next time you want to stir your creativity, expose yourself to several niches that are totally unrelated to yours and see what methods they are using to market themselves.

Observe, borrow and then synthesize all the methods and strategies you see being used outside of your business and industry. Then apply those methods and strategies to your own business.

There is no such thing as a totally ‘creative’ or ‘new’ idea.

But it’s easy to be creative by synthesizing all the already proven methods and strategies around you.

Previously, we discussed why you must create a Unique Selling Proposition.

Over the years I have had many customers tell me they are afraid to market online because so much information is available for free.

Remember, people buy for their reasons, not ours.

First, nothing EVER sells itself. Just because you have something on your shelf, doesn’t mean customers will be beating down your door to buy it. THERE HAS TO BE A REASON FOR THEM TO BUY IT FROM YOU.

Second, you better give your prospects EVERY REASON you can think of to buy your product. List as many benefits to your product as you can imagine. People buy because of how it will benefit them, and impact their life.

Third, NOTHING is really “FREE”, except maybe the air we breathe.

It is true that there is a lot of FREE information on the Internet. But, is it really FREE? Of course not.

In some cases it’s already been paid for through advertising dollars. In other cases it will still cost you TIME to search for the information.

Time is more valuable than money, because you can always make more money, but you can’t buy more time. Ask any billionaire who has fallen terminally ill.

People are willing to pay for information and save their time if it is:

1. Delivered promptly; 2. Formatted; and 3. Organized.

Some people like information delivered by ink on newsprint.

Some people like information delivered by sound waves from a radio. Still others like to read information in magazines or books or listen to information on audio tapes or on web pages.

People like information delivered, formatted and organized in many different ways, not just one or two.

The question you should be asking yourself is: “Why should people buy my information on the Internet, over all the other available ways it’s currently being delivered, formatted and organized?”

Competition (even from those who ‘give it away’) is NOT the problem. The problem is creativity in a way the translates it into a benefit for your buyers and profits for yourself.

One of the most fascinating marketing books ever written is by Lorin Deland, “Imagination In Business”. It was published in 1909, and even today it is pure genius.

It is believed that he was the first one to ask the question “Why should anyone do business with you over your competition?”.

Deland was a ‘business consultant’ who specialized in sales and marketing at the turn of the century, yet the book reads like it was written just yesterday.

In his book he explains how a retailer came to him for advice. The retailer was on a busy street, and had 4 main competitors on the same block.

He asked Deland how he could garner more business with so much competition.

All of the retail stores were fairly close to each other and all were selling the similar merchandise.

Deland stated that the retailer was really only entitled to one-fifth of the business on the block, as there where in fact 5 stores. He then explained that for every dollar above that amount the retailer wanted to make, there must be a reason why he deserved a bigger share of the marketplace. And he had to create that reason, if he was going to get any more of the business!

Deland also said that if he discovers he’s getting more than his share of the business, he should discover what that reason is, “some customers travel on the line of least resistance, you must make that line of least resistance lead directly to your store”, Deland said.

Deland continued, “Again and again you must ask yourself, ‘Why in the world should these people pass four other stores and come into this one?’”

There has got to be a reason for people to do business with you over your competition. What is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that sets you apart from your competition?

Is it a better product? Better service?

You must discover your USP and then show your prospects why they should do business with you, and not your competition.

We discussed “personalization” - an incredibly powerful tool to help us market better with email in the last lesson.

People in general repond in a more postive way when they see their name scattered throughout the message and letters they read.

Today let’s take a closer look at how we can prospect for new customers.

The question marketer’s have been asking for decades is: “Who is my customer?”

Then came, “Where can I find my customer?”

Finally, “What characteristics, habits, and hobbies do my customers have?”

To find out who, where and what your future customers are… you should be mining the data in your current customer list. You where smart enough to compile one, weren’t you?

Now you can put a profile together of your past customers which will help target your future customers and prospects.

Even doing this work and finding common characteristics of your past customers is not good enough.

Often we will completely miss the opportunity to market our products and services to a new market. Since the ‘market’ is not always staring us right in the face. we should not only look at *common* characteristics of our existing customers, we should be looking for those customer that are at the **fringes** (’fringe’ customers are those that don’t match ANY of the common characteristics of our current customers).

What made them buy our product?

What did they use it for?

The answers to these questions may be more profitable - in the long run. Because these ‘fringe’ buyers do not match the *common* characteristics of our current average customer, they may be representative of entirely NEW markets that are not so obvious, but could be highly profitable.

Remember, people buy our products and services for their reasons, not ours. There may be markets out there that want our products, but we haven’t been able to identify them. Ask your ‘fringe’ customer why they bought, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that there may be several thousand NEW prospects out there for you to contact and sell!