By Karl Staib

Marketing Video for Domino Feedback

I didn’t know where to begin.

I wanted a simple video that captured what my software will be able to do.

That’s when you need to lean on other people on your team.

Noelle, the woman that helps me with my social media marketing knew it just exactly what to do.

She asked me for three major benefits of the software.

These are the benefits I gave her:

1. Turn a customer into a fan. (This is tagline too.)

2. Learn from your customers on how to fix your problems.

3. Engage with your customers so you earn their trust.

4. Use your customers own words to improve your sales conversion rate.

5. Engage with your customers and grow your word of mouth sales.

6. Track customer issues and solve little problems before they become big problems.

7. Improve your customer response rate to your surveys.

8. Updated survey technology that will double your response rate.

She really liked 4, 5, 6, and 8.

She then found images that captured the benefits that she liked. She weaved them to gather into a video and sent it to me.

It was exactly what I wanted.

I recorded my voice reading each slide and send it off to her. She added my voice to the slides and send it back to me. I liked it even more.

I thought it needed some music so I talked to a friend who does a lot of audio editing and he suggested I use pond five for commercial use. I found a song I really liked and sent it off to Noelle.

She had the music over top and after a little back-and-forth I got the background music just right.

This is how it turned out:

What do you think?

I put the video up on the homepage of Domino Feedback. I thought it was the best spot for it since it’s easy on the eyes and ears as well as teaches them the value of what I’m creating.

By Karl Staib

Why the Use of Storytelling in Business Will Only Get More Popular

Stories are the fabric of all good marketing. I guarantee that more companies will use storytelling in their business as they see how important it is to sell product. It’s stories that allow people to connect more deeply with what you do.

Storytelling in business will only get more prevalent as social media grows.

Although the marketing focus used to be you telling your own story (old school advertising of “spray and pray”), it has shifted to your customers helping tell your story.

Your Mission Starts the Story

People need to know what you stand for. I was looking around for a great vision statement and out of the hundreds I read, Google’s was my favorite:

Google’s mission is to organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Google’s vision is succinct and helps the company stay focused on what is important to them.

Before everyone knew about Google, people would tell their friends to “Google it.” That two-word story would start a conversation. Maybe they knew Google, maybe they didn’t, and if they didn’t they would have to ask, “What do you mean by Google it?” The person would then explain that they needed to go to Google.com and type in the search phrase that they needed. Of course they would explain that Google would make sure that the best results came back and end it by saying it’s the “best search engine by a mile.”

When you do amazing work, it’s your customers that can tell the most effective story to all their friends.

Let’s look at TV as a medium for storytelling. What is your favorite TV show?

Every great show is based on a story that you can connect with. It’s this story that keeps you coming back for more. It’s why soap operas are so popular. They suck you in because you want to find out what happened to Dr. Drake and his evil twin Derrick.

Benefits

So many marketers rattle on about the benefits of what their product/service does and not the stories of who they helped. What pain does your thing solve? How does it help the consumer? Who can help explain your story?

“Your job is no longer about selling. Your job is about firing off as many synapses in your customer’s brain as possible.” – Hugh MacLeod

You have to tell people stories that get them excited about what you have to say. If you keep throwing out boring blog posts, interviews and tweets, no one is going to care that you have something to say.

I’m going to tell you about Danielle LaPorte and how she has used her amazing storytelling superpowers and how she has been able to achieve a connection with her audience that is meaningful and profitable.

Danielle is one of my favorite bloggers. The reason that I love her so much is her ability to weave in a message within each story. She doesn’t just release a product to the world and hope it does well. She let’s you in on the idea, and she brings you along for the ride. As an example, she:

Told her husband she was going to create The Fire Starter Session, now known as The Spark Kit. She ran upstairs and tweeted to her followers that she was launching the program on April 7^th.

Shared the process step-by-step.
When she had a great interview with (insert expert here), she shared it on Facebook.
How she reached deadlines.
How she got cover design.
She kept everyone involved and slowly built up the excitement as she got closer to the deadline.

When you share your story with people and explain what is going on behind the scenes, that’s when people see who you are and what your company is trying to accomplish. This is where the emotional goldmine exists. Great companies know that you often spend your money based on emotion. You buy something because it excites you.

A company that can draw you in with a great story will win the sale every time. You become attached and can’t let go.

Emotions Rule

You have to look at what kind of story you want to tell and how people can connect with it. Look at Chic-fil-A and its cow advertisements. They created a story that makes people laugh. People who like fast food chicken connect with the cows asking you on billboards, TV and magazines to buy more chicken. They created a talking point for their core audience. They hit the right funny bone and people want to eat their food.

Danielle creates a story around her creative process and brings people along for the ride. She talks about her meeting with Oprah’s company. If that story falls flat with some people, so be it. She has 10 other stories that excite people and show her paving the way for other people. People want to emulate other successful people in order to become their best selves. Danielle shows how success is possible and how other people can use similar tactics to hers to become successful.

Your Mission

You have to look at what you do well and why people want to connect with your story and buy from you.

Brian Clark put it this way:

“It’s rare that an attack against your competitor will work on the basis of attack motivation, but comparative advertising (Pepsi challenge, Mac Guy and PC guy) can work if you invoke enough approach motivation due to the expressed benefits and differentiation. On the other hand, negative political ads work on independents not by triggering attack motivation, but instead by prompting avoidance… the undecided voter doesn’t want to make the wrong choice. Thinking in terms of motivation makes selling with emotion a little less mysterious. And spending the time to truly know who your prospects are makes motivation crystal clear.”

– Brian Clark of CopyBlogger from How to Motivate People to Buy

People used to talk about a Mission Statement, but that is so 1990’s.

Now there are marketing departments that talk about creating a movement. This is also tricky territory because everyone wants a movement, but that usually means you have to have some sort of injustice.

Apple fought the establishments of IBM and then Microsoft. Zappos fought bad customer service. Toyota fought gas-guzzling monsters.

This is where creating your story gets difficult. You have to figure out what you do differently from others and why it matters. Then you can get people to share your story with the world.

Ask yourself some tough questions:

Why do we do what we do?
Why does what we do matter to the world?
How can we get people to join in our cause?

When you are crystal clear on all three of these questions, then you have a sharable story that just needs to get off the ground.

What’s your company’s story?

By Karl Staib

Top 5 Website Mistakes You Can Fix

You understand that you provide valuable products and services, but conveying this message clearly to your ideal customers is difficult. The closer you can get your message to making your ideal customer feel a connection with your site the easier it is for them to want to deepen the connection with you.

And please be very aware that your landing and sales pages are the most important part of your online conversion process. From first connection to the sale, each step must feel comfortable. If the first thing they see is an awkward landing or sales page they won’t stick around to deepen the connection with you.

When people come to check out your product or service, they make their yes or no decision based on how trustworthy you seem to them. That’s why every stage of the buying process is important. One domino out of place the trust dissipates and they leave your site.

The foundation of a great message is showing vs. telling. When you tell someone you are great, it’s 1/10^th as valuable as showing them through stories, data, testimonials, images, etc.

So let’s look at the five most common mistakes businesses make as they try to attract customers with their website. I looked at other companies organic search and paid search terms that they were using. I picked terms that I’m interested in, so if I liked the product I would be willing to buy instead of wasting their money to write this blog post.

It’s amazing to me that people who spend a lot of money on ads have a landing page that falls flat. With just a little work they could bring in a lot more sales.

Are you interested in improving your website’s ability to connect with your ideal customers? Then order a website review today. You will understand where you can close these connection gaps to generate more sales.

Top 5 Website Mistakes You Can Fix

I focused on the health and wellness industry since this is the industry most of my clients are in. I’ve found the same 5 common mistakes that occur again and again. If you aren’t sure where to start improving your connection system, this article will help simplify it.

1. Too Complex

Your visitor should be able to understand what you do well in less than 5 seconds. A crowded website will confuse them and make them click away. Your website should lead them toward the next step that you want them to take. If they don’t see this, they will leave.

It’s a harsh truth that many business owners have trouble facing. Your potential customers actually don’t have time or want to hunt for what problem you solve for them and how to connect with you. They want it to be easy, intriguing, and worth their time.

My search term:

The result:

The fix:

I’m actually a fan of HEB. They are my go to store for many items, but if I want specific type of healthy food I don’t usually go to them. I go to their competitor.

Your site should focus on creating landing pages that speak directly to the person searching for you. If they land on a page about Toys then you will lose their interest very quickly. Look at the top entry pages on your site. Where are these pages leading your prospects, and if they click through to those pages, does it help you generate more leads and close more sales?

2. Lack of Connection Points

Every step of the connection process needs to feel easy and fun. If they aren’t intrigued to take the next step, the dominoes stop tipping and they leave.

Is everything congruent from one page to the next? For example, this is very important from social media to your landing page. Is the tone of voice similar? If it isn’t, red flags start to pop up. They pause and begin to question what they are reading.

Once they begin to doubt you, they find a reason to click away.

The more congruent your message is, the more likely they are to keep tipping toward connecting with you.

My search term:

The result:

The fix:

Look at what happens when you are too focused on selling instead of creating a great experience. In the above example they are going straight for the buy without building trust.

Do your visitors have chances to connect with who you are and what you do? Are they intrigued by the next action that you want them to take?

3. Weak Offers

Simply put, your offer is the most important part of any connection system. It’s why people keep reading. If you are selling a weight loss product to overweight people, you had better create an amazing, honest and compelling offer that gets them excited to use your product or service such as “My friend lost 50 pounds in 6 months using this product and never felt hungry”.

The biggest mistake people make when creating an offer is writing about all the great features of a product or service. They talk about what it is and how it works, but not the benefits of using the product or service. Creating a clear offer that explains how your product or service has helped other people and how it will help them is crucial to your sales page’s success.

The key to figuring out how to create a clear offer is having someone help you dig down. I have a few friends who are way smarter than me to help me bring clarity to my offer. I also use Toyota’s “5 Why Method”… I have a colleague keep asking me why I created or want to create this product. After I answer, they listen, let it sink in and ask why again. They really force me to figure out why someone should spend their hard earned money on something I created.

The search term:

The result:

The fix:

Where does Liberty Mutual want you to go next? It’s confusing. This page has an article that can help, but how can they deepen the relationship quickly if they want more information?

Look at your current offer. Is it clear and easy, so they know what they need to do next? What are you doing to ease their fears and make it easy for them to say YES?

4. Boring Stories

Every customer connection system needs a narrative that helps people see how valuable your product or service can be for them. They need to see themselves in the story. That’s why using the word “you” is so important. People want to know you are speaking to them and how you can help them.

Look at the story you are creating and ask yourself who does it speak to? Does it speak to your “ideal” client or is it just slightly missing the target?

Your copy and the design you choose also make a difference between keeping them on your website and taking action versus clicking away.

After you create or modify your sales page, ask a friend to read it and tell you what they think is the main story of what problem you are solving. Hopefully they see a clear narrative that grips them. If it does grip them and they want to know more, then you know you are on to something special.

The search term:

The result:

The fix:

Look at your main pages. What are you doing to tell a compelling story that makes them want to learn more about you and what you have to offer?

Remember you don’t need to write a novel, but you do need to help them envision how they will feel after they buy the product. You can do this in a myriad of ways through images, video, audio, and words. You just have to look at what your ideal customer would prefer then focus on creating a compelling story.

5. Missing Details

Anyone can throw up a website and sales page, and this is exactly what happens at the beginning of a new product or service. But people get caught up in creating a great product that they don’t take the time to put details into their sales and landing pages that build trust with their audience, like testimonials or concrete facts about a product’s success rate

I’ve had a client tell me, “If they don’t trust me, it’s their fault.” This may be true, but he was losing out on a lot of sales because he didn’t take the time to create detail that walked people step by step through the benefits of using his product.

Sometimes it’s a lazy sentence that doesn’t sound quite right. Other times it’s the look and feel of the website. Whatever is holding people back from buying, it’s holding your product or service back from success.

It helps to have an expert read your sales page and give you feedback. I suggest that they read through the sales page with you in person or over the phone. It helps if they actually read it out loud. You can see where they get tripped up.

The search term:

The result:

The fix:

Look at where you might have missing pieces that would help show your visitors what it’s like to work with you. It’s the missing details that make people feel slightly uncomfortable and stop them from tipping toward connecting with you and ultimately buying something that can help them feel better.

Where are you missing little details that could help build trust with your ideal customer?

Let’s Review

It’s important that you don’t try to apply all 5 ideas at once. Pick one idea and apply it over the next 30 days. I suggest that you A/B test it to get actual data. Create a little intrigue for yourself by creating a hypothesis.

For example, you can start really simple and test out a different headline at the top of your site and see how people respond. Do they like it? Do they stick around on the website longer? Does it increase email sign-ups?

The more you can have fun with testing out different ideas, the more you will enjoy measuring and refining your connection systems. That’s why you are in business, right? To have fun helping people from your place of strength while making money doing it?

Would you like help finding your website’s connection gaps so you can close more leads and sales? You can order a website review from me today. You’ll get a full report that breaks down where you have connection gaps and how to close them so you can generate more sales.

By Karl Staib

The 3 Biggest Mistakes Companies Make with Their Adwords Campaign

A great adwords campaigns can help grow your business quickly. Bad ones can cost you a lot of money. The hard part is getting all your marketing dominoes in place so they all tip into each other.

You must first understand how your keywords tip to your ad, your ad tips to your landing page and your landing page convinces people that your offer is exactly what they need.

If you’ve ever created a Google adwords campaign before, then you’ve probably had an “ok” response, especially in the beginning.

I started working with a client a few years ago. I wanted him – let’s call him Alex – to create a Google campaign, but he resisted. He had tried them in the past, but he didn’t have much success.

Alex resisted because he was afraid he would get the same results. Money spent with no new leads generated.

There are a lot of nuances to Google ads. You can’t just slap up an ad and expect people to swarm to send you their information. You have to be intriguing, persuasive and clickable to get people to go to your page.

And it doesn’t stop there.

That’s why I wrote this post. I wanted trustworthy local businesses to get maximum value out of their Google ads.

Top 3 Biggest Google Adwords Mistakes:

Weak Copywriting
No Landing Page
Not Having a Clear Benefit

Let’s break it down.

1. Weak Copywriting

There are certain words that trigger excitement, trust, and intrigue, and then there are words that are just blasé and don’t catch your attention.

Learning how to use the right combination of words is vital to getting people to click through to your website.

We’ll break down the Google Ad screen shot of the search term “replace my roof”. I picked this term because this ad showcases the good and bad of Google Adwords copywriting.

You can see the first ad has a good understanding of what they are trying to accomplish. They want you to visit their site so they can have your project bid on by experts. They build trust in their ad by saying “local” and “licensed expert roofers”.

The second ad is simple and uses the word “free” which is a very powerful word and draws people’s attention. This is another site that tries to aggregate roofers and send out multiple quotes. The problem is there isn’t a connection at all. “Get Up to 4 Quotes Today” is now a powerful call to action. Makes it seem like it’s like it’s not a very polished process.

The first one is much stronger and more clickable.

The third ad makes a huge mistake by choosing the wrong keywords. If I want to replace my roof and their ad comes up, then they aren’t getting targeted traffic. They might get a small percentage of people clicking through, but the ones that do probably aren’t going to be their ideal customer.

The key to a good ad is to draw their attention in, build trust and make sure they understand the benefit of clicking through. Their time is valuable and you need to make sure you are targeting people that you can help.

2. No Landing Page

This is one of my biggest pet peeves with some companies Google ads. If you don’t have a landing page when people click through to your site it kills your conversion rate.

When you send people to your site without a clear call to action, people don’t know what to do next. They may click around, but without any direction most likely they’ll click away and not come back.

My client’s landing page is far from perfect, but we are at a 7.14% conversion rate. A very good conversion rate. We aren’t resting though. We are split testing to bring our conversion rate up.

Here is a screenshot from a landing page I created for the client:

The page is simple, earns trust and they can really only do one thing once they land on it – fill out the form. That’s it. Because people are busy, keep things simple and make filling out the form worth their time.

The key to creating a domino effect on your landing page is using each element to support the next.

Step-by-Step Process

Create an attention grabbing headline.
Explain the benefits of what you do.
Show people why you should be trusted.
Develop a strong call to action that they can’t refuse.

Once you have all four elements in place you’ll have a landing page that creates a domino conversion effect.

3. Not Having a Clear Benefit

The key to conversion is developing an emotional connection as quickly as you can between the potential client’s wants or desires and what your products or services can offer them. That means you must focus on the benefits.

Many of my clients make the mistake of focusing on features.

The feature is how you describe the service or product you offer. For example if you sell blinds and shutters – they may have a 10 year warranty, are made of durable plastic that looks like wood and come in 18 different colors. These are great features, but what is the benefit of these features?

The benefit of a 10 year warranty is that you believe in your product and will replace it if the internal components stop working. (You guarantee they will be happy with their purchase.)
The benefit of “made of durable plastic that looks like wood” is long-lasting blinds that will save you from having to buy new blinds in 5 years, and having the look of real wood without the higher cost. (Your blinds save customers time and money)
The benefit of “18 different colors” is you are able to match the color of the blinds to any room in the house, keeping the decor congruent and beautiful. (Your blinds will match any home decor, making it easy for them to create the look they want.)

By talking about the benefits instead of the features will have a more direct emotional connection that makes it easier for them to say “yes” to filling out the response form on your landing page.

Explaining the benefits instead of just describing the features on your landing page will help you boost your conversion rate. Seems very simple, but many ads focus on the features instead of the benefits, which drive sales.

You have to create a domino effect that starts with generating interest, then builds trust and connects with one of your prospect’s emotional triggers.

* Do you need help with your Google Ads conversion rate? I can help. I enjoy helping people expand their ability to connect with prospects through marketing. Just fill out the contact form and let me know how I can help.

Your Mission Starts the Story

Benefits

Emotions Rule

Your Mission

Top 5 Website Mistakes You Can Fix

1. Too Complex

2. Lack of Connection Points

3. Weak Offers

4. Boring Stories

5. Missing Details

Let’s Review

Top 3 Biggest Google Adwords Mistakes:

1. Weak Copywriting

2. No Landing Page

3. Not Having a Clear Benefit

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