When Sir Richard Branson, Brendon Burchard, Rachel Hollis, Dean Graziosi, Frank Kern, JJ Virgin, Trent Shelton, Ezra Firestone, and friends gather in the same place, at the same time to discuss the most effective ways to market a business in 2019, you’d better believe I’m going to join them. And that I did–along with 6,000 other marketers from all around the world. The collective brain power in San Diego this week at the 2019 Traffic & Conversion Summit was once again, off the charts.
Here are the best 2019 Traffic & Conversion takeaways and specifically, the best marketing tips for coaches and experts, in no particular order:
1. To sell more: Make your offers simple, convenient and easy to act upon. Whoever makes it the easiest to buy, wins the sale! Netflix made buying easier than Blockbuster. Uber made getting a ride easier than Yellow Cab. Amazon made buying books easier than Borders. Simplicity, convenience and ease-of-use sell better than anything else.
2. To re-engage unresponsive people on your email list: Run a re-targeting campaign on Facebook that incentives them to opt-in again. However, instead of only asking for their email, ask for their phone number so you can run text marketing messages to them moving forward. The average response time to an email is 48 hours vs. just 4 mins via text!
3. To generate more sales after a webinar: Send follow up texts to people who register. If they cut out early, send a text that says, “Hey {FIRST NAME}, I noticed you left the webinar early, what happened?” When they tell you their objection (the connection was bad, it was too long, etc.), follow up with a solution such as, “perhaps we can set up a call and I can give you the ‘short’ version?”
4. To stimulate massive engagement in a Facebook group: Create a 3-part welcome sequence that trains group members to engage instead of lurk. In your first post ask them to reply to three very specific questions, such as “where are you from?” In your second post, ask them to upload a favorite photo or gif in the comments. In your third post, invite them to find a buddy in the group by adding the comment, “I want a buddy.” Then encourage anyone that’s available to be a buddy to reply. Do this until everyone is paired. Moving forward, instruct buddies to tag each other in all future posts to keep the connections alive.
5. To increase conversions on your website: Use buttons instead of forms (doing so gave one company a 55% lift!), ensure your most important buttons are the size of your thumb (or bigger) and placed “above the fold” (that’s marketing lingo for in the space you see without scrolling.)
6. To bump up product sales: Include premiums that are physical products (not digital bonuses.) Your premiums should cost you less than $5, ship easily and be things your target market wants but doesn’t necessarily need. This isn’t a NEW idea, but it’s a classic that’s still working like a charm. Sports Illustrated has been successfully doing this since 1981. Here’s one of their classic premiums that’s said to have been the main driver behind 1.6 million subscriptions way back in the early ’80s. Take note, promo copy should focus more on the coveted premium than what you’re actually trying to sell. As seen in this commercial, the first minute of the two-minute commercial focused entirely on the premium and said nothing about the actual subscription at all.
7. To get up close and personal with your ideal clients: Email regularly! 58% of people check their email in bed and 42% check their email in the bathroom! In other words, email is intimate! If you don’t use it to engage with your prospects and clients on a regular basis you’re leaving major money on the table.
8. To monetize great content when you don’t have traffic: Buy a highly-engaged audience by assuming ownership of a blog or Facebook group that’s a perfect fit for your products/services. Yes! People sell their Facebook groups and their blogs!
9. To acquire targeted connections on LinkedIn fast: Next time you’re at an event where you’re networking, login to the LinkedIn mobile app. Click on the “My Network” icon (it looks like little people.) Then click on “Find Nearby.” It will automatically populate people within 100 feet who have the Find Nearby feature active so you can connect easily.
When you’re speaking, display your custom LinkedIn-generated QR code on the big screen and invite people to connect with you before they even leave the room. To acquire your QR code login to the LinkedIn mobile app. Click the icon that looks like three boxes and an “x” found on the far right side of the search bar.
Click “my code” to generate a QR code that leads directly to your profile. Instruct people in your audience to click “scan” to grab your QR code and connect quickly. This is especially helpful if you have a difficult-to-spell last name as I do! 🙂
10. To find an email address for virtually anyone: Visit VoilaNorbert.com. This is freakishly accurate.
11. To create viral content: Build a quiz! Self-discovery is very alluring and as a coach, you undoubtedly help your clients learn more about themselves on a regular basis. Use a tool like Lead Quizzes to build an interactive quiz 7-12 questions long (that’s just enough to make it seem meaty without droning on and on and losing interest.) Make sure the first question you ask is really easy to answer (ex. Are you male or female?) Make sure the last question is a lead capture question (ex. Do you want to learn how to be a better leader?) Immediately after the user finishes the quiz, give them the opportunity to buy something from you.
12. To increase sales during a limited time offer: Run retargeting ads that say “last chance” in addition to sending out emails and other promos. When Brendon Burchard did this he saw a 14% lift!
13. To build trust with your prospects: integrate messaging campaigns (email sequences, text messaging campaigns, bot sequences, etc.) that answer three frequently asked questions virtually every buyer of coaching services asks including,
- “what is best for me?” (For example, “is one-on-one coaching or a digital course better for me?)
- “is {your product/service} right for me?” (For example, “how to know if I’m the right coach for you.”)
- “can I afford {your product/service}?” (To answer this question, you may want to integrate a price comparison calculator on your site–perhaps calculating the cost of inaction vs. action or something along those lines. Utilize a tool like Outgrow.co to build a calculator in minutes without a developer and then promote it via email, social media, texts and bots.)
Pssst…need help writing the content for your messaging campaigns? I specialize in helping coaches clarify their marketing messages & captivate their audience so they can gain a competitive edge. Send me an email if you’d like to talk about how I can support you!
14. To get new clients to pay you more: When they ask how much you charge respond by saying, “You decide.” Naturally, they will be somewhat puzzled by this answer. When they say they don’t understand, respond with, “the amount of time, effort and attention I allocate to supporting you is directly commensurate with my financial reward. What is it worth to you?” (They’ll almost always offer you more than you charge! BAM! I must admit, this tip made me chuckle. It would take guts to do this but I’m dying for one of you to give it a try and tell me how it goes!)
15. To make more money from your events: Turn one event into many. For example, Digital Marketer hired Sir Richard Branson to speak at Traffic & Conversion 2019. It wasn’t cheap. To cover the cost, in addition to selling tickets to the conference, they hosted a private reception where 20 (out of 6,000) guests could chat it up with Richard Branson and get a photo with him for $15,000. This created an additional $300,000 in immediate revenue! But it didn’t end there. They also ran a contest on Facebook where one person could “win” one of these $15,000 seats. To be entered to win, guests had to download their new podcast, share the conference on social media and more. This resulted in acquiring 2,372 new podcast subscribers and selling 619 “last minute” conference registrations just a week before the event ($619,000 in additional revenue.) In addition, they kept the speakers top secret. When they finally announced Sir Richard Branson and Rachel Hollis were speaking, another 728 tickets were sold (another $728,000 in revenue.) Do the math. That’s $1,647,000 in additional revenue just because they were willing to get a little creative. Wow!
Impressed? Ya, me, too. And quite honestly…these 15 best marketing tips for coaches and experts from Traffic & Conversion 2019 are just the very tip of the iceberg. My brain is so loaded with new ideas it very well may explode at any moment. Now you know why I put everything else in my life on pause when it’s time for the Traffic & Conversion Summit. It won’t be back until next year; however, if you like what you’re reading and you want support from a strategic copywriting team that knows exactly how to craft marketing messages that help you get noticed and attract more clients, look no further. Shoot me an email to start a conversation about how we can support you as you grow your coaching business in 2019.