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By Karl Staib

Website Review of Best Selling Author Pam Slim

Every website review teaches me something new.

I hope you get to learn as well.

Too  often we think experts have it all figured out. It’s so far from the truth. I’ve worked with some very talented and successful people and they struggle with their website as much as everyone else.

With every review most of the focus is on mistakes that I see. There are so many positives on her site and I do touch on this, but my main focus is how to improve the User Experience and increase conversions on her site.

I’m a huge fan of Pam Slim. I went to her Lift Off retreat a few years ago and she is super smart.

There are many things on her site that are probably there for a reason from branding to conversion. If I could look at her analytics and run A/B tests then I would probably offer a new ideas as well as adjust my current recommendations.

Now it’s time to dig in and learn from one of the best life coaches out there.

Breakdown of top of the home page:

Pam Website 1

Great quote, but I’m not sure what you do in 5 seconds.

How many people click on the social media buttons? I would love to see a heat map of her homepage and where people are clicking and where they aren’t.

Wonderful image that captures her personality.

Middle of home page:

Pam website 2

Love the Indispensable Community Tour! It shows that she lives what she preaches.

I also love the logos of companies she spoken at because it shows how popular and sought after she is in the tech community.

How often is”book Pam to speak” button clicked? This needs to stand out more and be accompanied with a testimonial.

3/4 Down on the Home Page

Pam Website 2

I like the high quality video here. They can see a sample of her speaking.

Good quote. Would like to see it pop more.

The email sign-up should probably be further up the page, so she can collect more emails. Blue buttons with a blue theme usually don’t convert well. Would like to test out conversion with a red button.

End of home page:

Pam Website 4

I like the book offer here. It is a good chance to get a sale and deepen the connection.

I would like to see the email sign-up box at the top of the page or very close to the top.

How often are the social media buttons clicked at the bottom? Would be good to A/B test to remove them.

Breakdown of About page:

Pam Website 5

We know what Pam looks like from the home page. Use this important space to capture people’s attention.

If she would bring the text up she could capture people’s attention with 1-2 short paragraphs and then a photo.

Plugins she could use:

I would use a pop-up to capture people’s emails. There are many times people don’t see the email sign-up area and they want updates. Pam may not want to use this plugin. Many people don’t like it because they think it takes away from the experience on the site.

The choice comes down what goals Pam has for her site and how she wants to reach them.

Your Turn

Now it’s time to go and look at your website. What did you learn that you could apply to your own site?

By Karl Staib

By Karl Staib

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

storytelling

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 7th.

  1. Shared the process step-by-step.
  2. When she had a great interview with (insert expert here), she shared it on Facebook.
  3. How she reached deadlines.
  4. How she got cover design.
  5. 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:

  1. Why do we do what we do?
  2. Why does what we do matter to the world?
  3. 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

By Karl Staib

Sell to Your Customer’s Initial Spark

There is a moment in every potential buyer’s day when their pain is acute. They just can’t stand it any more.

They need relief and fast.

Are you there for them?

Are you in the right spot with the solution to ease their pain when they need help?

Are you showing people how your product or service solves their problem?

Let’s take a simple example and say that you are trying to figure out where to go out for dinner in a new city, so you do a quick search on your phone to see what is around you. Or maybe you ask the concierge or your friends on Facebook.

How people find out about restaurants matters. If they get a referral from a friend on Facebook and they know this friend has great taste in restaurants, the “yes” is easy for them.

Whatever you’re selling, the quicker you identify their pain and the easier you make it for them to say yes to you, the better.

Let’s look at a 5-step process that I teach my clients to get to the “yes” as quickly as possible.

5 Steps to Selling to Your Customer’s Initial Spark

We are going to use J. Peterman clothing company as an example. They do an amazing job of creating a connection with their ideal buyer through stories and timely offers.

1. Identify their pain

The reason people buy your products is because they don’t want to feel pain any more. Whether you sell food to them when they are hungry, or you sell them an app that makes keeping track of their daily tasks, you are solving their pain.

If you’re having any difficulty with this, as I mentioned before, ask your customers for their input.

Once you identify the real pain, the hard part is creating an offer that appeals to their desires when they need it. This is where you need to meet their spark of pain. They need a new pair of jeans and they don’t want just any kind of jeans. They wants something that fits their body type and makes people notice them.

j-peterman-jeans-590

People arrive at J. Peterman’s catalog or online because they want to feel special. They don’t need a new pair of jeans just for work. They need a new pair of jeans that are special to them. That’s why stories are so important.

2. Craft an offer that sells to the spark

How you offer your help when they need it most determines whether people say yes or no to you.

Does your offer speak to their needs? Are you showing them how you are able to help them?

Showing them is the key phrase because too often we tell people that we can help them instead of showing them the value that we provide. That’s why your examples are so important. If you don’t use words and images that speak to them and help them imagine how your product or service will improve their lives, they won’t tip toward connecting with you.

The master of selling to the spark is J. Peterman clothing company.

They don’t just put up a photo of their dreams, they show a drawing of the jeans that adds to the story and allure of their products.

3. Be where your ideal customers are

Now that you know their pain and have crafted an offer, you have to go where your ideal customers are and know when they might be feeling this pain.

When do they feel this pain, and are you able to reach them when they are suffering? The pain could stem from wanting to grow their business or it could stem from an empty belly once again.

I’m sure you’ve noticed that commercials that focus on selling food to people who are hungry pick spots that reach people just before meal times.

J. Peterman advertises on Google and I seen them on Facebook, but I couldn’t find any FB examples.

j-peterman-google-ads

They mostly rely on word of mouth. They encourage customers to share their stories with their friends. They go to where their customers are by allowing their fans to talk about them to their customers. When you focus on growing your sales through word of mouth you stay focused on creating a great customer experience that turns average customers into fans.

4. Activate Their Memories

We see the commercial and BAM, we want what they’re selling! They sold to our spark.

The visuals and sounds play to our memories. We remember hearing the sizzle or the taste of the pizza and crave it.

If you help them remember how trustworthy you are at delivering great food, they reach for their phone, keys or computer to order the food or take the next step to get closer to filling their bellies with your delicious-looking food.

J. Peterman creates a romantic story with each product that they offer. It’s this story that helps us envision ourselves using this product, creating desire to buy it.

j-peterman-jeans-story

5. Make it easy to follow through

This last step is where so many companies struggle. They sell to the spark, but the spark can die out if there are too many obstacles.

Your job is to remove as many difficulties as you can so more and more people follow through to enjoy your solution to their pain.

When was the last time you went through your own buying process? You should do this often to bring fresh eyes to your sales process. If you have trouble viewing your sales process with fresh eyes then contact me and let me help.

You might have noticed how easy it is to read the reviews, pick a size and add to the cart. They don’t add a lot of clutter. They let the image and story do the talking so you can make your own decision.

In Summary

The further people get in your sales process, the more chances they have to drop off. If one domino is out of place and doesn’t tip into the next, you will lose the connection. The only solution is to make sure that they follow through from their first spark of pain to the sale.

Look at every step of this five-step process and look at where your connection systems might be falling short. Create a hypothesis about each one and figure out how you can test and solve it. If you focus on at leasat one problem each month, you should be able to double your sales in a year.

Do you need a little help to help make your spark a little stronger, so people get excited to buy from you? Let’s set up a quick chat to see how I can help.

By Karl Staib

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 1/10th 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:

01-google-search-health-food-stores-590

The result:

01-health-stores-heb-590

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:

02-lose-weight-search-590

The result:

02-Connection-Points-health-590

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:

03-google-search-healthy-living

The result:

03-liberty-mutual-healthy eatying

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:

04-exercise-equipment

The result:

04-no-narrative

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:

05-exercise-equipment

The result:

05-no-detail

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

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