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The IMC Insider
Helping Real People create
wealth and freedom with Internet businesses since 1998
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Editorial: Introducing The IMC Insider!
By
Derek Gehl
Welcome
to the first edition of my brand-new newsletter, "The IMC Insider"!
If you've been subscribed to IMC's Marketing Tips newsletter
for the last nine years, you may be wondering how I can call
this a "first" edition.
Well, it's pretty darned simple... As you'll see, I've changed
the entire look and layout of the newsletter.
I've shortened the article length -- but increased the number
of articles... I've invited my team of experts to start contributing
articles on their particular areas of expertise... and I've
made it easier for you to tell me EXACTLY what you think about
each article, so I can make sure we always give you the kind
of valuable, ACTIONABLE information you're looking for.
I've even changed the newsletter's name!
And all of these changes (except the new name) came directly
from the suggestions YOU gave me in last week's newsletter survey.
As of today, 3,362 of you have completed the survey, telling
me exactly what you want from this newsletter... and now I'm
going to do my best to give it to you.
From this day forward, in every single edition I promise
to give you...
- Short, to-the-point articles that offer you immediate
value! No fluff... just hard-hitting advice you can
put to work for your business right away.
- The latest proven strategies from my team of experts --
based on the real-world testing they're doing on the frontline
of Internet marketing.
- Strategies for both advanced Internet business owners
and beginners alike! Whether you're still a little wet behind
the ears or have been working in the Internet marketing trenches
since the beginning of 'Internet time'... there'll be
massive value for everyone.
I am going to be blunt... I am absolutely, totally and
completely dedicated to making sure that you're on the edge
of your seat waiting for this newsletter every week.
In fact, you should stop what you are doing right now and
add my email address (derekgehl@marketingtips.com) to your
address book so you…
Never miss all of the
FREE VALUABLE INFORMATION
I'm going to give you!
Speaking of free information, when I asked you to take part
in my survey last week, I made you a promise. I said I'd
share the survey results with you so you could apply the
information to YOUR online business as well.
I'll be revealing the results of that survey in just a moment...
But first, I wanted to let you know what ELSE you'll be
finding in this issue:
Mitch Tarr, IMC's Vice President of Marketing, is going
to tell you the top 5 things you need to know about testing
and tracking in order to make sure your online business
is functioning at peak performance levels.
Then we'll show you how online musician Aaron Bradley did
some testing and tweaking of his own -- and ended up growing
his revenues by 300%!
So enjoy the first edition of our newsletter! Remember,
this newsletter is a community resource -- it's YOUR newsletter
just as much as it's mine.
If there's something you want to see in this newsletter...
something you particularly like or DON'T like about this
brand-new format... or some particular topic or strategy
you want to learn more about, then go to
my blog and tell me about it!
After all, if I'm not giving you EXACTLY what you're hoping
to find in this newsletter, then I'm not doing my job.
Have a great week!
Derek Gehl
P.S. How do you like the new name? Which do you like better,
"The IMC Insider" or our old name, "Marketing Tips"? If
you have a preference, please tell me about it on
my blog. I'm dying to know what you think!
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Survey results: Discover
the issues that matter most to YOU!
By Derek Gehl
My team and I were absolutely blown away by the response
we got to last week's newsletter survey.
Usually when we run a survey, we offer a free gift
such as an eBook to encourage people to take part
in it. This time -- because we'd just given away a
free eBook the week before -- we decided not to offer
a free prize. As a result, we figured we'd be lucky
if we got 1,000 responses.
Well, as I said, 3,362 of you weighed in with your
thoughts -- and the information you gave us was invaluable.
Thanks to you, we now have a much better idea of exactly
who you are and where you are in your business-growing
efforts -- and we also know exactly what kind of advice
and information you want from us.
(Like I've always said, "If you want to know what
your customers and subscribers want from you, just
ASK!")
And we thought it would be valuable for YOU to have
this information, too -- so you can put it to work
for your business.
Here's what you told us about yourselves:
- 21.9% of you are subscribed to 10+ newsletters
- 52.1% of you are subscribed to 5 or fewer newsletters
- 69.2% find three or fewer newsletters to be
actually helpful
- The five newsletter features you're most interested
in are:
- Advanced "how-to" articles (76.6%)
- Basic "how-to" articles (75.3%)
- "Ask the Expert" columns (50.4%)
- Case studies (47%)
- Industry Update news (43.8%)
- In terms of how you want your newsletters
formatted:
- 51.1% of you prefer to receive your newsletters
in simple HTML
- 19.8% prefer plain text
- 14.7% want HTML with all the "bells and
whistles"
If you have your own newsletter -- and have
been delivering it in plain text up until now
-- you might want to start experimenting with
HTML. You should also pay attention to the kind
of articles you're sending your list, to make
sure you're giving them the kind of information
they're looking for.
(And if you aren't sure what they're looking
for, I suggest you send them a survey and ASK
them -- after all, it worked for me! :)
As for where you are in your business-building
efforts, here's what you had to say:
- 31.2% have your own website (but it's
not making any money)
- 17.7% have websites that are making money
- 5.4% are actually earning a full-time
income with a site
- 21.1% are in the process of building a
website
- 18.4% are planning to build one soon
We were really surprised to see how many
of you actually had your own websites or were
in the process of building one. That's awesome!
Lots of you have already taken action and
have experienced some level of success, which
shows you really ARE motivated to take it
to the next level.
You also named a lot of different newsletters
you enjoy reading (in addition to ours --
thanks for all your positive comments!). The
ones that kept on cropping up most often in
the results were:
- Dan Kennedy's newsletter
- Joe Vitale's "New You Can Use"
- Brian Tracy's newsletter
- Early To Rise
- Jay Abraham's newsletter
- Dr. Mercola's newsletter
If you're not subscribed to any of the
above newsletters, you might want to check
them out to see why other people find them
so valuable.
Finally, in terms of the challenges you're
facing with your business-building efforts
RIGHT NOW, the top 10 problems that kept cropping
up were:
- How to get started
- How to find a good niche/product to
sell
- How to get more potential buyers to
your site
- How to get more opt-ins and subscribers
- How to increase conversion rates (in
other words -- turn visitors into BUYERS)
- How to get a good search engine ranking
- How to write engaging content for your
site
- How to determine if an affiliate program
is a scam or not
- How to make sure your emails are actually
getting delivered and opened
- And finally, how to find the TIME to
get things done!
Going forward, you can expect to see more
articles from me offering usable "how-to"
advice that will help you deal with those
problems and much more. If there's some other
topic you'd like me to address in this newsletter,
please let me know! Leave your suggestions
on
my blog and I'll do my best to address
them in upcoming issues.
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Want to grow?
Then you've got to test
By Mitch Tarr
At IMC, our entire philosophy is based
on the principle of testing EVERYTHING
you do -- and tracking the results.
It's the only way to keep track of what
you're doing right with your online
business, and what you need to improve.
For example, let's say you want to make
some changes to the layout of your web
site. Obviously, you don't want to make
changes just for the heck of it. Any
changes you make should be for one main
purpose: to do a better job of converting
visitors into customers.
But if you don't test the new version
vs. the old version, how will you know
if the changes you make actually DO
improve the performance of your website?
And if you don't track the results of
your testing, how will you be able to
know exactly which changes had the greatest
effect?
Simply put, if you don't test and track
every single change you make to your
site... every promotion you run... and
every traffic generation strategy you
try... you're going to be shooting in
the dark every time.
And there's absolutely no way of knowing
what you're going to hit.
So here's my list of the top 5 things
you absolutely MUST know about testing
and tracking in order to keep your business
on target.
1. Only test ONE thing at a
time
When it comes to testing, the most important
thing to remember is this: KEEP IT SIMPLE.
Make sure you only test one thing at
a time. It's the only way you'll ever
know exactly which change is causing
which effect.
Say you want to increase the number
of
opt-ins on your site. There are
lots of different things you could test
to make this happen.
You could try putting your opt-in form
in a different location on your site.
You could change the wording of your
opt-in offer. You could even change
the offer itself! (For example, you
could try offering a gift with the subscription
instead of just a free newsletter.)
But if you made all these changes at
ONCE and your opt-in numbers began to
skyrocket, how would you know which
change was responsible? Besides, one
of these changes could actually be having
a negative impact -- and you'd
never even realize it!
If you have no way of knowing, then
the next time you change your opt-in
offer, you're back to square one.
2. The MOST important numbers
you need to know
To keep on top of your website performance
you need to know TWO main numbers: the
number of visitors you get and the number
of sales you make in any given period.
That way, you can figure out exactly
how many visitors you need to attract
to your site in order to make a sale.
Here's how you do it:
Let's say you got 300 visitors to your
site in one day and you made 12 sales.
Simply divide the number of visitors
by the number of sales like this: 300/12
= 25.
For every 25 visitors you got that day,
you made 1 sale. (Expressed as a percentage,
this means your conversion rate was
4%, as 1/25 = 0.04)
If that conversion rate remains steady,
then you can expect to make one sale
for every 25 visitors. If you get 100
visitors, you'll make 4 sales. If you
get 1000 visitors, you should make 40
sales.
It's a simple conversion -- but it's
something everyone should know. It tells
you EXACTLY how well your website is
doing its job.
If that conversion rate drops for some
reason, it could mean there's a problem
with your website -- and you should
do a thorough examination of it right
away.
On the other hand, if it spikes, then
you should try to figure out why more
visitors are suddenly buying your products
-- so you can repeat this success!
3. Test the most important things
FIRST
If your site sells more than one product,
then you should be tracking the
conversion
rate for each product separately.
Maybe your site is doing a great job
at selling one product, but a lousy
job at selling another. This is something
you need to know, so you can figure
out what's going right in the first
case and what's going wrong in the second.
BUT: Don't start off trying to track
30 things at once! Focus on your lead
money makers first, as they'll have
the greatest impact on your business.
4. Think in terms of RATIOS
as opposed to ABSOLUTES
By that I simply mean, think in terms
of
percentages, not
whole numbers.
Instead of thinking, "Hey, I made 25
sales last week!" -- think, "Hey, I
made 25 sales per 1000 visitors last
week!"
Knowing you made 25 sales is nice --
but it doesn't tell you anything by
itself.
If you know you made 25 sales per 1000
visitors, however, you know your conversion
rate is 2.5%. (In other words, 2.5%
of all your visitors last week bought
something from you.) If it was a normal
week, then going forward you can expect
that 2.5% of all your customers will
probably buy something.
This kind of knowledge is ESSENTIAL
if you want to forecast how much revenue
you're going to make in any given time
period. It also gives you a baseline
number that you can refer back to when
testing different elements of your web
site in order to grow your income bigger.
For example: imagine if you changed
the headline of your sales page this
morning -- and you ended up making 25
sales, just like you did yesterday.
Does that mean that the change to your
headline had no effect on your sales
numbers?
Not necessarily.
Maybe you only got 100 visitors to your
site today, instead of 1000. That means
your conversion rate today is actually
25% -- which is HUGE! That means 1 in
every 4 people is taking action on your
site. Wow. That must have been some
headline you wrote.
(However, you really should find out
why you only got 100 visitors to your
site today. Once you bring that number
back up to 1000, then if your conversion
rate stays the same, you'll be making
250 sales a day!)
5. Track your conversions by
SOURCE
It's not just enough to know what your
conversion rate is. You've got to know
where your best-converting visitors
are coming from.
For example, are your most qualified
visitors coming from
pay-per-click ads you're running
through
Yahoo Search Marketing? Or are they
coming from your
organic listing on
Google -- or maybe your
affiliate network?
This is something you need to know!
It'll help you understand where your
most lucrative stream of traffic is
coming from -- so you can focus your
efforts there and work on growing those
high-converting traffic numbers even
bigger.
So in a nutshell, those are the top
5 things you need to know about testing
and tracking in order to make sure you're
getting the best results from your web
site.
Finally, I just wanted to point out
that you shouldn't worry about what
the precise definition of a "unique
visitor" actually is. (Different
software tracking packages actually
track unique visitors a bit differently)
Whether your software tracks the same
way as someone else's doesn't really
matter. But what DOES matter is whether
or not you count the same numbers in
the same way every day.
As long as YOUR definition of a "unique
visitor" remains consistent from one
day to the next, then your numbers will
always give you meaningful results.
[Ed. note: Mitch Tarr is IMC's Vice
President of Marketing. He's going to
be Derek's featured guest during the
next
Internet Entrepreneur Club tele-seminar
on April 11th, and will be talking about
the latest proven email marketing strategies
during that call.]
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Discover
how Aaron Bradley of AaronBeats.com
boosted his revenues by 300% --
in just one month!
By Jennifer Boulet
Anyone who thinks that artistic
creativity and solid business
sense can't go hand in hand should
meet Aaron Bradley of
AaronBeats.com.
Aaron is a multi-instrument playing
musician and producer who sells
Hip Hop and R&B beats to musicians
who want to make their songs sound
more professional. He's been running
his site for two years now, and
is already doing very well for
himself -- earning a five-figure
income some months.
And get this: Aaron is only 21
years old!
Aaron offers two different categories
of beats through his site: "exclusive"
beats he records for the sole
use of an individual artist, and
"non-exclusive" beats any artist
can download automatically from
his site for a fee.
Aaron was clearly doing a lot
of things right with his site...
but he knew there was still lots
of room for improvement. That's
why he joined IMC's
Internet Entrepreneur Club
at the beginning of February this
year.
His main goal was to increase
the amount of revenues his "non-exclusive"
beats were pulling in. (A good
idea -- he'd fully automated the
sale process for the non-exclusive
beats, so selling MORE of them
wouldn't take up any more of his
time at all!)
Aaron came to the Internet Entrepreneur
Club forum burning with questions
on how he could improve his site's
performance. Our team of experts,
together with some of our more
advanced Club members, gave him
suggestions on how to improve
his headline, salescopy, and overall
site design.
Aaron immediately got to work
and completely revamped his site,
based on the input he was getting
from our experts. And by February
28th, he'd already increased revenues
coming from the sale of his "non-exclusive"
beats by 300%!
Here are some of the suggestions
he acted on:
- His original site had distracting
animation and loud music that
started playing as soon as visitors
arrived on his site. We suggested
he remove these elements so
his visitors could focus on
his offer, instead.
- His original copy was written
in a light font against a dark
background, making it difficult
to read. We told him to use
black text against a white background
instead. (It might seem boring
from a design perspective, but
in our experience, black text
on a white background ALWAYS
performs best!)
- His headline emphasized
features more than benefits.
- His salescopy was too focused
on Aaron and the services he
offered. There wasn't enough
emphasis on his visitors and
how they could benefit
from buying his products. (Remember:
the #1 question on your potential
buyers' minds is, "What's in
it for ME?")
- His copy was written in
long paragraphs, which had a
negative impact on its readability.
- His site had LOTS of objects
and images which were extremely
large, which meant his site
took at least 5 seconds to load
(in Internet time, that's almost
an eternity). We told him to
decrease the number of graphics
and objects and to optimize
the ones that remained, so his
site would load faster.
And the result of all the
changes he made? Here's what
Aaron had to say on February
28th: "Instead of people buying
just one beat for $29.25, I
had people spend as much as
$300 in a single order... I
did more than 300% more revenue
than last month!"
Here are a couple of links to
earlier versions of Aaron's
website, so you can see the
kind of changes he was experimenting
with:
http://AaronBeats.com/cool.htm
AaronBeats.com/indexbluegrey.html
And here's the link to his most
recent -- and best-performing
site so far:
AaronBeats.com
You can read the whole forum
thread yourself -- and check
out the exact advice Aaron was
visiting, by
clicking here.
(One thing: the comments in
this discussion thread are arranged
with the newest appearing first.
Make sure you're starting at
the very beginning of the thread
by scrolling down to the bottom
of page 3 and going up from
there.)
As you read through the suggestions
on the thread, ask yourself
if you're making any of the
same mistakes that Aaron was
making with his.
And if you don't have your own
web site yet, or are in the
process of building one, keep
our experts' advice in mind
-- that way, you can avoid the
pitfalls and set your site up
right the first time!
[Ed. note: Jennifer Boulet
is a professional copywriter
and IMC expert moderator in
the
Internet Entrepreneur Club
forums.]
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Meet the IMC team
of experts
Meet the IMC team
of experts – join us for
an exclusive two-day "Wealth-Building
Bootcamp," coming soon
to a city near you!
For two full days in each
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blueprint you need to
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Upcoming Bootcamps:
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To claim your tickets,
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-- or call my team, who
will be happy to answer
any of your questions
about these exclusive
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Reprint IMC's up-to-the-minute
marketing advice
on YOUR website
or blog -- free!
Click here to
find out how you
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help grow your
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Do you have
a question
for Derek
Gehl?
Drop him
a line at
questionsforderek@marketingtips.com
-- and you
might see
your question
answered
in an upcoming
issue of
The
IMC Insider!
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Do you
have an
idea or
comment
you'd
like to
share
with the
IMC community?
Leave
a comment
on Derek's
blog:
http://blog.marketingtips.com/derek/
And let's
get the
conversation
started! |
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