The Christmas rush is over. The returns are happening now, and you may already have plans or be chilling champagne for New Years night. But, what are your plans for starting the New Year right for your business?

Although a party is good and refreshing, your business is more important than a party held one night a year. While you know this, it is easy to think there is time to worry about it later. Now is the time of year to plan what your moves will be next week, next month, next quarter and next year. Once that is in place, enjoy that party without the worries.

You are a special breed of businessmen and businesswomen, called entrepreneurs. And even more important, you are a Stomper, which means we want you to have an extremely prosperous New Year!

While I am wishing you a prosperous New Year in 2012, I know you need the materials to increase your sales and income. Fortunately today’s post by Audrey Kerwood is about how you can keep your sales momentum rockıng after the holidays. These tips may seem small, but if you make them yours, you will start your year off with a bang!

Read the StomperTip and watch our exclusive video “Get To The Top Of Your Game: Ways To Achieve More With Less Effort” with Melanie Benson Strick  There’s no opt-in or anything.

Lee Collins
Managing Director
StomperNet, LLC

“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.”

~ Hal Borland ~
American author and journalist

Keep Your Sales Momentum After the Holidays

By Audrey Kerwood

Just because the holidays are over does not mean your profit windfall has to be over too. It’ll involve some initiative (which we know you’ve got because you run a successful eCommerce store) and the normal amount of work you do for promoting sales and specials for your store. Think of it more as a continuation of your holiday promotions than a whole new set of work and ideas.

In this article I’ll lay out the things I do with my store and you can take the ideas and apply them to your products and markets.

You might think that it would be hard to persuade people to buy right after they’ve done so much holiday spending. But quite often people don’t get what they wanted as holiday gifts…or just not every single thing they wanted. Because they’ve been doing so much of it over the past few months, they are used to spending at this point… and now they have the chance to spend on themselves.

That’s where your “after holiday” profits come from. You’re offering discounted gifts for bargain hunters and for people to give to themselves.

Here are some things I do to keep the profits rolling in after the holidays:

Keep your holiday sales and promotions going.

Whatever sales you were running to get more out of the holidays will help you also get more out of the post-holiday season.  Keep the blanket storewide discount running – a coupon code anyone can use – but reframe it so it’s centered around the idea of “The Perfect Gift You Didn’t Get” or “Get What You Really Wanted This Christmas” or something to that effect.

As long as the discount is good you won’t need to do that much convincing to get people to feel entitled to buying themselves a gift. Get the word out about your post-holiday sales via newsletters.

Frame it around ‘The Gift You Really Wanted But Didn’t Get” or appeal to the bargain hunters with something like, “Huge After-Christmas Discounts”. One of the headlines I intend to use this year is “The Most Awesome Christmas Gift You Didn’t Get”. That particular newsletter is going to be focused on a single product, but it could work for multiple products, or even your entire store depending on how you want to frame your offer.

Talk to your vendors

Get on the phone with your vendors. Yes. Again. I know you did it just before the holidays to check stock; now it’s time to do it again.  Getting to know your vendors is a good investment in your business. You don’t have to be buddies with them, but it’s good to be on a first name basis and have them happy to answer when you call. Being able to strategize with your suppliers is a great way to get more out of both of your businesses.

Ask your vendors what products they still have a lot of stock on and promote these products as overstock sales.  You might be able to get a bigger discount on these products if your vendor is motivated to sell them. Let them know what you plan to do – show how you’re going to promote the products – so they can see how quickly you plan to move them. Remember – they’ll be interested in keeping their sales up too! If you can show them a way to do that, they’ll be open to helping you achieve those sales.

Don’t be afraid to propose ideas! A good vendor will take a vested interest in your store because they know the better you do, the better they do. The worse they can do is say no, so if you have an idea, put it out there. It may not be accepted “as is” but it will open a dialogue between you and your supplier and give you the chance to work together.

Use your store blogs to capture more interest.

Put up blog posts about your blanket, storewide post-holiday discounts. These can be very similar to your newsletters. Also post your single product promotions.

Be sure to put nice big pictures of the products you’re discounting and make the coupon code stand out so people don’t have to read the entire post or search your blog for it. The more you can put out there and the easier you make it for people to use, the more your post-holiday season will be a success.

Along those lines, use your social networks to get more people into the bargain craze or the “I’m buying it for me” mindset. I use sites like Twitter and Facebook to promote my holiday sales and so I’ll also be using them to promote my post-holiday sales.

Whatever avenues work for you during the holidays should be approached afterward as well.

Network, network, network!

When you talk with other business owners you’ll probably come away with a few ideas you didn’t have before. You get new perspectives! So a great thing to do in the New Year is to join a mastermind or attend local business meetups.

Just by listening to other business owners talk about what they do or how they handle certain things gives me ideas that I can apply to my stores. No one is an island and no one knows everything. So passing ideas back and forth with other business owners is one of the best ways to expand how you think about your store and sales process.

Just as you might be able to spot an issue or offer a new idea to someone else, they will be able to do the same for you. Having someone outside your business look at what you do can give you fresh perspective that can totally change your approach.

Whether it is a new tool that you find will help you get better rankings, a different line of thought around your Pay-Per-Click advertising, some constructive criticism about your site design, learning how others create and distribute coupons and sales, etc – joining a business owners group is another good investment in your business. I’m pushing this because the groups are out and ready to accept new members but a lot of eCommerce store owners think these groups are for Internet Marketers primarily focused on info marketing. Not only is this not true, it wouldn’t really matter if it was because…

You don’t have to work strictly with other eCommerce store owners! I mastermind with a group weekly where I am the only eCommerce person present. Sometimes some really cool advice or ideas come from people who are not enmeshed in the same things you are. They are not in the same box, let’s say, as you are so they can just throw ideas out there that aren’t constrained because they are not dealing with the same things you are on a daily basis. A broad range of views can help open up your way of thinking, which can lead to new ways of doing business.

So that’s it. Those are my main sales tricks for after the holidays. You have an oft-overlooked opportunity to sustain your holiday sales momentum and these are the basic steps I take to get the most out of my own products post-holiday. Do them all and I bet you continue profiting – even after the holiday rush has ended.

Video

Get To The Top Of Your Game: Ways To Achieve More With Less Effort:
By Melanie Benson Strick (FOH)

FLV / MOV / M4V

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Secret Sauce Checklist

Tips to keep your sales growing after the rush

• Use promotions like “The Gift You Really Wanted But Didn’t Get” or appeal to the bargain hunters
• If you sell physical products see what your vendors will discount to offer sales to customers
• Use your blog to promote your sales and increase consumer interest
• And now that your busy season is over, get out and network with other business owners

Stomper Buzz

Next Week’s Focus: Start the New Year Right

Stompernet Blog

by Melanie Benson Strick

One of the biggest challenges facing a service-based business is how to grow bigger than just you. When your revenue is a result of the work solely you perform, you can only get as big as the amount of time you can actually work for a client.

Time constraints can create a wealth ceiling; without proper leverage strategies your revenue will be limited. Or worse yet, you’ll work yourself into the ground trying to fit in more clients.

It’s time to unleash leverage into your business so you can explode your profits without giving up your life. Here are some strategies I teach my clients to grow.

Think  “Leveraged” Offerings

To avoid getting caught in the time-for-money trap, you’ll want to think in terms of “how can I get this  knowledge to many people at once?” The following are some of the best strategies for leveraging your time and being able to impact multiple people at once.

1. Books or Audio Programs

One of the easiest ways is to take a proven system, unique approach to solving a problem or some other technique that you teach over and over again and document it. You can write a book, make an audio recording or a combination of both. Or you can produce a training video. Create a way to teach your methodology in a systemized way.

I personally found that there was a sequence of 10 steps I took every client through. So I created a workbook outlining these steps with two audios, which were a visualization I almost always conducted for the client. I packaged everything into a system called “The ULTIMATE Success Generator” and charged $297 for the self-study program.

Two things happened. First, because I can’t possibly perform this process for a client for less than $1,500 and multiple sessions, I can now help more people get clarity, direction and focus at an affordable rate.

Second, I can expedite the value of my coaching program because my clients can take this system, complete the steps on their own and use my time for more customized support needs.

Consider creating your own book or audio program to offer clients a more leveraged approach to a routine methodology. If you will be speaking or offering your services online, a book or audio program can also be a low-risk small investment to introduce a potential client to your services.

Self-study programs of this nature typically run between $50 and $2,000.

2. Small Group Trainings

Another approach to leveraging your time is to take a small group through your process. This can be done virtually or in person depending on your topic, target audience and industry standards.

The benefit of offering small group training is twofold.  1) You can work with multiple people at once and 2) your price point will be less than an individual engagement, thus creating a more affordable option for cost-sensitive clients.

Typical small group training will include some tangible benefit or outcome such as leaving with a marketing plan, designing a speech, setting up social media or web presence or becoming media-ready. The idea is that the participant gets a tangible outcome, and can utilize your wisdom and benefit from what others in the group are learning.

Small group trainings can run between $100 and $5,000. I’ve even seen some as high as $15,000 to $100,000 for a one-year, ongoing commitment.

3. Live Events

The difference between a live event and small group training is typically the number of attendees and the content. Often a live event is much more generic in topics, won’t always have a specific, tangible outcome and may include multiple experts.

We call it going wide vs. going deep. Live events are great if you want to bring a large number of people together, introduce them to your ideas and entice them to hire you or buy your program. The price is typically between $100 and $2,000 depending on the focus of the event.

Create  Packaged Pricing

Another way to set up your private consulting to avoid getting into the time-for-money trap is through pricing strategies. Of course, if you have multiple leveraged offerings your private coaching becomes more exclusive and you can offer it at a higher price point.

One strategy I teach my clients in my “Fast Track to Lifestyle Business” program is to create packages.

Here are three examples of packages:

• A certain number of sessions or hours. Give your clients the option to buy in advance so you’ve locked in a certain amount of time with them. This also helps you plan for availability.
• A time frame such as three months, six months, etc. Getting your client to commit to a monthly retainer fee over a certain time period is a great way to lock in recurring revenue.
• Bonus products or workshops with the purchase of a higher package. The idea that they are getting extras by paying for a package is a great value proposition.
• Discounts for paying upfront. Another package idea is to give the client a significant reduction in price for paying in full. This also can help with cash flow.

By offering packages, you also help clients understand they are in a process with you that will unfold over time. A tip on positioning the need for a package is to let them know how long your system or blueprint takes to complete.

Scalable Growth Strategies

One other way to explore leverage options for growth is to consider a scalable business model that actually removes you as the sole provider of the service and expands your bandwidth to deliver to your market.

Three options that are the easiest and most popular are to integrate subcontractors, certify others in your work, or consider licensing your materials or system for third-party usage.

• Subcontractors (or employees) would be trained in your methodology and could deliver your program or service to the customer on your behalf. Profit does go down in this model, but you have the ability to scale your growth, have a global reach and remove yourself from the “technician” role in the business.
• Certification allows you to train others in your methodology, but they deliver the program to their own clients. Certification requires you to train people, but you can charge for the training, the annual certification fee, and any copyrighted tools or materials they use.
• Licensing is a way you can take a proven system or process and allow other vendors to offer it to their client base. A license can deliver somewhere around 10 to 20 percent of the gross fee, or you can charge an annual license fee with unrestricted usage.

The real point is to get out of the mindset that you are stuck being the only one who can make money for your business. If you have your sights set on anything more than $150,000 per year in revenue, leverage is a sure-fire technique for unlocking more time, money and growth potential.

by Melanie Benson Strick

Melanie is a StomperNet Faculty member and knows first-hand how to build a successful, thriving company with her secret weapon — LEVERAGE. With over 12 years working for a Fortune 500 company, Melanie now works exclusively with entrepreneurs who want proven strategies to double and triple their revenue, eliminate unnecessary costs, and stay sane as they grow their business.  Visit her at www.successconnections.com

How To Create Inputs for Your Test That Get Higher Response And Conversion

By David Bullock

FLV

Stompernet Blog

We have some gardeners on the StomperNet team. Some have roses, some have flowers, and some have vegetable gardens or combinations thereof. But these are a lot of work, unless you put some great systems into place that can make it easier.

Your business is similar in many aspects to a garden. Both should have certain systems and mechanisms in place to automate labor and reduce it as well.

Weed block cloth reduces weeding, just like using someone to check your email reduces your email. Sprinkler systems help reduce the amount of watering the gardener does, just as your autoresponder sprinkles information to your subscribers. Many gardens require supports to help the plants grow better and stronger, just like businesses. These are all systems the gardener or your business can use to make things work smoother and easier.

You have already received some great advice this week about systems and automation. Today we have some tips that you want to make certain are part of your business. Although basic, these are the supports that will help your business, so you aren’t constantly weeding and watering your business to get it to grow.

Now you can work on the main goal, which is the cultivation of your business and the regular harvests of profits.

Talk soon!

Lee Collins
Managing Director
StomperNet, LLC

“Organize around business functions, not people. Build systems within each business function. Let systems run the business and people run the systems. People come and go but the systems remain constant”

~ Michael Gerber ~
E-Myth Revisited

Tips for Virtual Teams and Systems for Your Business

Three years after starting my first successful online ecommerce store, I was exhausted, overwhelmed, frustrated and underpaid!  Thanks to the original Stomping the Search Engines course, my website was ranking in the top 10 for most all of the major keywords we went after and sales were through the roof!

Unfortunately, this meant that I spent most waking hours answering the phones, emailing orders to vendors, and updating the website with new products and sales!  This left little to no time for marketing and almost no time for sleep during our peak season.  The site soon became a source of conflict, and I began to wonder if this was the entrepreneurial dream that I had signed up for!

But I have learned some tips about virtual teams and systems for your business that helped my business and they can help yours.

Out-task.

One of the very first and important business tips I learned was that I needed to out-task. As long as I was answering the phones and processing orders, my business could not grow. Basically the premise is that if you can pay someone minimum wage to do a task and you choose to do that task, then you are earning minimum wage. A good idea is to make a daily To Do list, and examine what you are spending your time on. If there are tasks on the list that are not generating income or making your business run more effectively, then those tasks need to be out-tasked to someone else.

Systemize everything.

If your business is dependent on you, then you will never be able to take a vacation or enjoy the reasons you became a business owner in the first place. Create How To guides and manuals for each area of your business. This is a gradual process and not something that you do once only to forget about it. Set up your business processes and when there is a breakdown and an employee or contractor has to come seeking your approval or advice, update your business processes.

Set specific goals and tasks for everyone on your team.

Have a weekly meeting and discuss the pending tasks and any issues that have arisen with those tasks. Always praise in public and criticize in private. Take this time to give positive feedback and to deal with any problems. Many times employees don’t bring problems to management because they think it is their responsibility to try to figure it out themselves. Such initiative is often good, but other times, there are problems that we as management have already dealt with and we can provide a simple solution in about 20 seconds!

Teach your team to out-task and supervise others.

To be successful you will need a core team that supports you and can work effectively to get projects done with little to no input or guidance from you. If your team is not functioning, it’s your responsibility as the business owner to set up systems and procedures so that they can be successful. Everything does rise and fall on leadership. If you have great team member but he or she is not able to give up some of their responsibilities and supervise others, then you cannot grow. One person can never do it all. Teach them to assign tasks to junior team members and how to effectively supervise their junior team members so that their time is freed up doing more productive things.

Have two people for each job.

Although this may seem impossible in the beginning when finances are tight, as soon as possible, always have two people for every job. When out-tasking projects overseas, unexpected problems happen. Hurricanes (especially in the Philippines), power outages, kids get sick, and so on. By having two people trained for every task, you ensure that you won’t have to renege on the responsibilities you have already trained others to take over.

These are just a few tips that I have used in my business.  As a mom of 7 children, a wife and a missionary, my life is busy.  Your life is busy so you can’t afford to not add what you can to make your business run easier and automatically.

by Nicole Munoz

Nicole is an SEO expert, mom of 7 kids, and missionary wife that runs her business from Puebla, Mexico. Get your virtual team up and running in record time with her newest venture SEOTrainingMaterials.com. If you are interested in full service SEO work with an emphasis on link building, check out her website www.StartRankingNow.com.

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Secret Sauce Checklist

Tips for Virtual Teams and Systems for Your Business

• Out Task.
• Systemize everything.
• Set specific goals and tasks for everyone on your team.
• Teach your team to out-task and supervise others.
• Unexpected things happen, so make certain you have 2 people for each job

Stomper Buzz

Next Week’s Focus: Landing Pages

Stompernet Blog

Typically you do not ask favors of random strangers. You do not expect strangers to hand you cash just for the sake of it. If you need something, you generally ask your friends and family. You have a relationship with them, and because of that they are more likely to help you.

Yet, in business we expect that consumers will just open their wallets and tell their friends to do the same… just because we are a business. Consider starting a relationship with your customers and clients. Just like with any relationship, it has cycles. Learning how to make these cycles work for you will help your relationship grow, which in turn helps your business.

The best part of this cycle is that once it’s started, all you need to do is maintain it. The customers and clients in this relationship help keep the business moving forward and growing. A long-term arrangement like this is designed to provide both of you with mutual benefits.  In Ryan Garey’s article today, you will learn essential techniques on how to build relationships and why you want to start to grow that relationship marketing now.

Talk soon!

Lee Collins
Managing Director
StomperNet, LLC

“If you can get an edge based on how customers feel about your company, it’s a much stickier–sustainable–relationship over the long haul.”
~ Bob Thompson ~
CEO, CustomerThink Corporation

Consumer Lifecycle

By Ryan Garey

In a rapidly changing environment spotting and capitalizing on trends can become more and more difficult. Especially if you are a bootstrapping entrepreneur, the idea of “trends” or “forecasting” becomes laughable. Yet, regardless of the shifting “trends” something that will never go out of style (if you’re building a real business) is relationship marketing, and in a way that still makes you money!

So despite your current level in your business, let us capitalize on the atmosphere of reflection, and take a step back to see the life-blood of your business: your consumers. More specifically we will focus on the relationship between you.

The aim: higher conversion rates and cultivating better clients.

Clients that actually help you build your business with repeat sales, referrals, and glowing social media reviews rather than burying you with support issues, refunds, and scathing complaints in the social sphere for all to see!  It can be much easier than you think when you have a good framework.  So today I am going to reveal to you the “Three Critical Phases of The Consumer Lifecycle”.

If you have any one reason to give your Consumers Lifecycle serious attention, it is this:

“If you don’t have a process for what you are doing, you don’t know what you are doing.” W. Edwards Deming

A path that ensures you make the most of every opportunity, while giving you accurate information with which you can refine a water-tight funnel; building your business with efficiency and scalability!

The stages themselves are:

Each one of these stages has a number of stages within them that I have identified in the complete cycle, but it is important for YOU to build out according to your unique business model.

Generation to Conversion

Do you sometimes feel as though you have the best product in the world? If only more people could find out about it, then you’d be set! I think everyone goes through this “phase”, until they start generating serious traffic that is!

It doesn’t matter if you’re in a strip mall, a business complex, or online; you will always need traffic in one form or another. The more the better, however, it is not just the amount that matters, but also the quality of the visitors (how closely what they want is aligned with what you have). Bottom line: traffic is great, but leads are better!

When put into a choreographed process, leads can “move along” a pipeline toward becoming actual customers!

During this phase it’s important to educate your leads and, while educating them you can watch their behavior and find out towards which they gravitate. By focusing on relationships, their behavior, in addition to surveys and market testing, you will find that getting sales conversions become natural and easy! You will get more than just buyers; you will get the Right buyers! Buyers who actually use your product or service enough to get value!

Adoption to Causation

Basically, it doesn’t matter how great your product is, unless people actually DO something with it, they will most likely not be coming back to you for more products, let alone give you a referral, a testimonial, or positive review online.  And why should they?

It is through better adoption of your product that your consumers naturally become a causative force for you in the marketplace. This leads to more natural repeat sales, upsells, referrals and testimonials.

As more and more business are struggling with diminishing email open rates, lower quality leads, and diminishing sales, you will find more and more businesses realize the value of each and every lead and customer. So DO NOT make the mistake of thinking that just because the deal is ‘closed’ that the relationship has ended!

Affiliation to Ascension

Entire empires have been made from affiliates and affiliate marketing, but despite the vast opportunity many business owners still struggle with how to 1) Get affiliates on board and 2) get them to actually DO something! But while there is nothing wrong from going straight to affiliate networks, it would be reckless to ignore the greatest affiliate goldmine you may have: your happy customers!

As you can see, the third stage relies heavily on the efficiency of the second stage, much like the second relies on the first. Thus, if you get the right traffic (which generally comes from good affiliates, which you can grow inside your own organization) you will easily get higher-quality leads.

Higher quality leads makes getting sales much easier. With the right clients on board, they will naturally use more of what you sold making it easier on your support team. When people see actual realized value, it makes it MUCH easier to get authentic testimonials. Likewise, it is now much easier to get a referral from someone who gave you a testimonial. At this point it is surprisingly easy to turn your referral sources into full-blown affiliates!

Finally, with the right kind of motivated affiliates on board, they will see their traffic turned into a goldmine. It soon becomes easy for them to become super-affiliates who flood your sites with the perfect visitors for your products! It is actually quite easy and takes relatively very little effort to take someone to this level of ascension when you plan and act deliberately with a holistic process in mind! It may seem complicated, but it also seems complicated to have to date a person before asking them to marry you. Thus you build a relationship, which is exactly what you need!

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This is the magazine you need, with training and content that improves your business and makes you money now.
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Secret Sauce Checklist

Tips for a Strong Consumer Lifestyle

• Have a process for what you are doing
• Remember Relationships
• Generate traffic and convert them into buyers
• Get buyers to adopt your products (this is part of your relationship)

Stomper Buzz

Next Week’s Focus: Web Design

Stompernet Blog

Video can be used in a variety of ways to enhance your online business. It doesn’t take a lot of fancy equipment to make a video that can add credibility and trust to your product or service. It also doesn’t take a lot of money. You just have to produce something will solid content and good audio.

You can use video in an ad, you can use it in your website and in today’s Stomper’s Intelligence we’re going to show you how you can use it in your squeeze page.

Read our Stomper Intelligence Report on The Video Squeeze. And remember, take action this week and implement video in to YOUR internet business.

Lee Collins
Managing Director
StomperNet, LLC

“It used to be that if you wanted sophisticated marketing tools, you had to be rich. That’snot the case on the Internet. Anyone can compete, just at different levels.”
- Chris Baggott, Compendium Blogware

The Video Squeeze

by Paul Colligan

What if you could add a single process into your Internet Marketing efforts that resulted in better conversion? A process that also automatically sifted and sorted your user base, was easier to produce than the alternative, and had a list of side bonuses with no additional efforts?

In truth this article is about 2 things: the “squeeze page” (which I’ll call a “squeeze” from this point on) and the addition of a video element to the squeeze page process. The strategy behind the squeeze is solid and the addition of video allows your audience to quickly know, like and trust you – all of which are essential elements to closing any and every sale.

Closing that sale, through squeeze methodology, only happens when you have their name and email address – and that’s accomplished through a successful squeeze page.

Let’s face it, video on the Internet is very ‘sexy’ right now – leveraging it in the squeeze page process will produce some very interesting results.

About:

The concept behind a squeeze is simple: send your audience to a page that only has 1 option – the entry of an email address.  The end game is always the same - get the user to give you the info you need to market to them on a regular basis – not just the one time option provided by the existing page.

Because there are no options on a squeeze page other than information collection, the % collected are considerably higher than in any other medium. I’ve seen squeeze pages that convert as high as 80%.

The goal of a squeeze page is to sort the audience between people who will trust you with information and those who won’t. You end the short process with a list of people hungry for your marketing messages.

Truth be told, most pages try to pull that off via nothing but text.

We’re a visual world. People respond to visuals and place a considerably higher value on them over other forms of media. Video is the top player in visual communications for the simple reason that is in fact multiple frames of visual content per second. Consider how many people watch news on television versus read the paper and how many suddenly jumped on the iPod bandwagon once they introduced video and … do the math.

For those who eat, sleep, drink the world of Internet communications, we often forget that the “average” user doesn’t. With video on a squeeze page you can explain the process, even point to the form elements. By showing your face, you make it personal, and conversions go up considerably.

You’d be surprised how many people don’t know how to fill out a simple form. But you know what? Your warm face online, walking them through the process, changes everything.

So, how is this done? It’s actually much easier than you’d expect.

You 1) produce the video and 2) publish it online. Once that’s done you 3) embed the video using a video player on your squeeze page and 4) collect information accordingly.

FYI, a video squeeze almost always has the video set to play the second the page loads.

Word of caution: your video has to demonstrate the trust you are asking your visitors to demonstrate. Post video worth leaving your name and email address for.

Numbers:

The numbers in a squeeze process are considerable. Instead of having a single chance to convert a buyer to a single product, adding them to a mailing list gives you as many chances as you can email. Even if you can only get one out of every four people who visit your squeeze to give you their name and email, the lifetime access to that customer is exponentially more viable (and potentially profitable) than the single-minded approach of one-off pages that so many employ.

Another great thing about squeezes is that they quickly let your marketing decisions become as simple as running numbers. If you know your page converts 40% (low) and it costs a dime to bring someone to that page, you now know that adding someone to your list costs forty cents. You can then determine if you can make more than 40 cents per name on the list.

The numbers change dramatically when you can convert more people on your squeeze page. Video will help. That is what the rest of this piece is about (oh yeah, with a bonus trick too).

Quick Recommendations:

I’d like to offer some additional simple suggestions for creation of video content:

First of all - the video player is crucial – not only must it auto-play without any interaction from the user, it also must not advertise anything else other than the video you are playing. Using the (traditional) video player from a popular video hosting service (no matter how cool) will result in lost conversions. In short, if your users can go anywhere or do anything on the player, you need to find one that works. More on that in a second.

Secondly – audio is more important than you think. A great looking video with bad sound makes you look bad. Looking bad has a way of decreasing conversions. ‘Nuff said.

Finally - the video doesn’t have to be a special effects spectacular. In fact, this could distract your audience.

Some of the best (most effective) video squeezes are a simple, well-lit face with good audio explaining why they should sign up accordingly.

Remember, the squeeze (video or other) has one simple purpose: get the user to enter their email address (and often name). That is the single purpose of the page. Explain how great the product is later - after you have their address. Nothing makes more sales than an email – and we don’t expect that to change – for a long time.

Technology:

To pull off a squeeze you need a 1) page to place the squeeze on, a 2) video player (without distractions) and 3) an automated email collection and management system.

Page: To be as effective as possible, your squeeze needs to be on a single page without any other links on it.

Video Player: As mentioned above, the player must not have any other options on it than playing the video – and playing it automatically. Third-party players usually won’t do this for you. Find one that does.

Automated Email Collection: I believe there are really only two options in the email game anymore. Aweber or InfusionSoft.

The YouTube Squeeze Twist:

This one is good. Are you ready?

Place your squeeze page video on YouTube.com.

Paul, doesn’t their player do all the things you said not to do above?

Yes, their player does.

But, wait, Paul, if I did that, I could a) get free hosting of my video and b) get credit in YouTube views every time someone viewed my video at a squeeze?

Yes, you could …

Paul, really, how does that work?

Watch THIS! You’ll see a YouTube video that explains all.

Heck — with the YouTube QuickCapture Feature (Google it), you can even record right to YouTube without having to edit a thing on your desktop. Remember what we said about high quality videos though.

Oh, and about the people who find your video on YouTube.com proper, include a little something for them so they can find their way to your squeeze page as well. YouTube annotations, a verbal welcome to the domain name hosting your squeeze, and a link in your YouTube description can help pull that off.

In Summary:

The squeeze builds your mailing list faster than anything else out there. If you aren’t using squeezes – start TODAY.

Anything you can do on your squeeze to get more people to know like and trust you, the better off you are. Video is one easy way to do that and should be implemented immediately in any squeeze plans you have planned – or have in production. Have the video play automatically when the user visits the page and walk them through the process of signing up for your information. This will increase your conversions (and later, profits) considerably.

The YouTube Squeeze Twist will host your video for free and get your video views counted on YouTube. It’s the best of both worlds and leaves you, dear reader, without an excuse!

Use Traffic Geyser to create videos easily that go to multiple websites.

STOMPER Speed Boost

SEO Secret Checklist

Tips for a Video:

1. Use a good video player
2. Make sure your audio is outstanding
3. Don’t worry about special effects
4. Use a premier automated email collection system
5. Don’t forget the YouTube Squeeze

Stomper Buzz

Next Week’s Focus: eBook Writing

FACULTY OFFICE HOURS NEXT WEEK:

Wednesday Sept 7, 2011 at 7:00pm Eastern

How You Can Boost Your Business with eBooks – the 7 Secret Tricks You NEED to Know! with Staffer MJ Schrader and Coach Renee Corbett

Join MJ and Renee on this Question and Answer session as they discuss how ebooks can help your business. Listen in as they discuss some quick ways to get your ebook written and the variety of ways you can use them to grow your business. Tune in and find out how giving away THE RIGHT KIND of ebook could be the fastest and easiest way to boost your business!   StomperNet Members:  Register Here!

PUBLIC WEBINARS NEXT WEEK:

THURSDAY September 8, 2011 ~ 3:00 pm Eastern

“So You Want To Write An eBook?” with Suzanne Roese-McGee

How To Go From an Idea to a Finished Product Even If You Are Not a Writer Register Now

We know everyone has questions about their business or different stumbling blocks. Well we invite you to bring them to the table during our Open Forum. With the combined training and experience of our Coaches you will get the direction you need to get you back on your road to success!

The next StomperNet Open Forum Call with our Professional Coaches happens next Friday at 11am EDT and we hope to see you there! These calls are intended to be live Q&A sessions and playback will not be available.

Let us know your thoughts on today’s issue.

Post Your Comments Here

Stompernet Blog

You may have an awesome product or service. And you may have even built a really terrific website. But just because you built it doesn’t mean “they will come”.

You know…customers…buyers…people who are interested in what you have to offer.

Building a list is vital to growing your business. You have to have a list of people to mail to on a consistent basis in order to let them know what your business offers.

A great way to build a list is by using a squeeze page. Some call it a landing page. Either way. It’s a landing page because someone “lands there”. It is NOT your website. There is not multiple pages and choices. There is one page and one choice. The visitor can either sign up for your list or leave. There are being “squeezed” in to a single decision. Sign up or leave.

Of course you want them to sign up! So read our Stomper Intelligence Report on Tips for Writing a Strong Squeeze Page. Then implement those tips in your business and start building your list!

Lee Collins
Managing Director
StomperNet, LLC

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
- Lewis Carroll

Tips for a Strong Squeeze Page

Everyone who has a good or service to offer needs a good website to let people know about what they have to offer. One of the best ways to get the word out is through placing ads on line. Therefore, every good website needs a good squeeze page. What makes a good squeeze page? Here are some elements you want to be sure to include:

A Strong, Compelling Headline

A good rule of thumb is to stick with theheadline (or close to it) that got the visitor to click on the ad that brought them tothe squeeze page. It was compelling enough for them to click, so don’t mess withwhat worked. Remember, you have precious little time to make an impressionand make them want to stay and learn more. Make the headline clear and concise.

Never go with cutesy, clever and confusing. If the visitor thinks “huh?”, changesare you’ll lose them.

Benefits to the Visitor

Whether you have a product or a service, make alaundry list of the benefits to the visitor. Don’t list the features, and don’t thinkof the benefits to YOU. Put yourself in the visitor’s shoes and think how their lifeor business would be better if they used your product or service. Narrow your listdown and include each of the benefits as a bullet point in your landing page. Putthe most important benefit as the first bullet point and the second most importantbenefit as the last bullet point. Interestingly, most people will read the first andlast bullet point first. If those resonate with them, they will go back and read therest.

Talk Directly to Your Visitor

Do your proper research and find out the needsof your customer. (Think customer avatar) This is not about you and your needs.You will completely miss the boat if you think this way. Take yourself out ofthe equation and write to your visitor as if you know exactly what they need (andyou will because you’ve done the research), and how their life or business will bebetter by using the product or service. Don’t talk over their head. Use languagethat is easy to understand.

No Other Links

Don’t confuse your visitors with any other links orpossibilities to go anywhere else. Chances are they won’t come back.
Break up the Text – But Don’t Go Overboard – You don’t want to have along squeeze page of paragraph after paragraph of text in the same size font. It’shard on the eyes and boring. The visitor will start skimming and eventually loseinterest all together. Break it up with larger text and some bold or colored text.Leave some white space to give the eye a break. Use illustrations, graphics orpictures if at all possible. However don’t go overboard. Don’t go crazy withwacky color combinations and fonts that are hard on the eyes. Don’t use flashanimation that is annoying and takes a long time to load. Be interesting, but usestatic images and stay relevant.

Compelling Offer

If you are looking to have them sign up for your newsletteror list, have a compelling and relevant offer. A 10-page free report is a greatoffer…as long as is of value and relevant to your product or service. You couldhave a short course or a free coaching session. If you have physical products youcan still give a service instead of a product. Think outside of the box. Don’t dowhat everyone else does!

Strong Call to Action

While we’re talking lists here…you may have a squeezepage that is all about a sale. One of the most important things you need in asqueeze page is a strong call to action. Whether you want your visitor to sign upfor your newsletter/list or purchase your product, make your call to action crystal
clear. Have your call to action several times throughout the landing page. It should always be visible “in the fold”. It should be in a call out box that is large,bold and has the price (if there is one) clearly annotated. If there is a form to fillout, make sure it is easy to fill out. Otherwise you will lose your customer.
Follow these simple tips and you will have a good squeeze page that is worthy of yourwebsite and will help you build your list.

STOMPER Speed Boost

SEO Secret Sauce

Tips for a Strong Squeeze Page:

• Strong Compelling Headline
• Benefits to the Visitor
• Talk Directly to Your Visitor
• No Other Links
• Break Up the Text, But Don’t Go Overboard
• Compelling Offer
• Strong Call to Action

Stomper Buzz

Next Week’s Focus: Branding

Stompernet Blog

A lot of people talk about growing your ‘list’ or ‘list building’ as a means of building a subscriber base, which you can then market to again and again. In fact, my previous article for StomperNet dealt with looking at the life-cycle of your consumers, hopefully inspiring you to be more diligent when architecting your lead funnels.

Bottom line: if you don’t know exactly what the ‘next step’ for a lead in that stage of the funnel is… how would you ever expect your consumes to know? And remember the old marketing slogan that “a confused mind never buys!” So today we are going to delve in to a couple quick examples of some innovative ways to increase up and segment the quality of your leads!

There’s one innovative method I am particularly fond of because I have used it successfully in many lead generation scenarios (i.e. Selling / Lead Generating from Stage, networking events, on business cards, on squeeze pages, etc.) and it always seems to work. In fact I am getting ready to do a beta release on a WordPress Widget I created to help me with just this one tactic, it’s called: Optin-Options. The concept is really quite simple: provide innovative and creative options on or after opt-in, with the aim of:

A: Differentiating yourself from your competitors
B: Creating and solidifying rapport
C: Setting expectations – Setting the stage
D: Providing you with segmentation data

Let me give you a quick example, and then I will break down the four items above. Last year I spoke at Ryan Lee’s Continuity Summit; an hour before I went on stage, I decided to do something different and demonstrate ‘explosive action’. So I came up with a concept, grabbed a URL, set up a site with a nice header graphic, an optin form and a quick half-page marketing report for opting in, set up in my autoresponder. I literally hit the publish button on the thank you page as I was walking on to the stage. Now, perhaps because of the nature of my creative flurry… I added one more option to my opt-in form…

One option which changed EVERYTHING!

The demonstration site I set up was called GetGangster.com (as a call to get serious and take explosive action in business and life). Ryan Lee pulled up my site on the large screens for everyone to see and we went through everything that I was able to do in an hour. The audience loved the concept and the graphics, all fine and good.

But when we got to my optin form, instead of having just the same old name and email fields, I also added one extra option: “Your Gangster Nickname!” And in smaller font beneath it “To Keep the Fuzz Off Your Back!” I had no idea the reaction I would get; the crowd literally went wild!

By the time I was walking off stage, my phone was lighting up from opt-ins and I had people shouting their “gangster nicknames” to me! A number of times I overheard people in conversation telling people their nicknames and referring to each other as such.

Just this one little Optin Option not only differentiated myself, but it created rapport and a buzz in the audience. It set expectations for the crowd on me and my ‘communication style,’ so they felt more comfortable trusting me with their email address… and the data I got from it told me A LOT about their personality and creativity!

Oh and it also got me a ton of optins and other speaking engagements because of the uniqueness of it!

There are many ways you can add options to an opt-in, and checkboxes are a great way of making it easy as well. Another quick example is giving your leads the opportunity to choose a ‘communication preference’ such as if they would prefer daily, weekly or monthly updates, html or text based emails, etc. Another option I have used that worked VERY well and leads to surprising results is giving the option to select if they would prefer a Professional or more Personal / Casual tone to the communication they receive.

In some cases it might be more appropriate to not give an option, such as if you want to qualify-out prospects that might not be a good fit for what you are selling. It is appropriate to use Optin Options when you want to qualify-in your leads, which means you don’t want to exclude them; rather include them, but put them into different ‘buckets’ or sales and marketing funnels.

Connect  By Being Creative

The point is to be creative and connect with your audience while giving you precious data to work with. The first point of giving Optin Options is to differentiate yourself from your competition. Now I want to stress that you DO NOT want to be different for the sake of being different! Consumers can see right through that, and it will certainly differentiate you, but not in a good way. The point in setting yourself apart from the crowd is to create a stronger connection and rapport between you and your audience.

Speak to the ‘psyche’ of your audience by using their language and addressing their wants and needs from a vantage point that would resonate with you automatically create a rapport that sells! By giving options and creating rapport you are also setting expectations on how they (if in their mind only) will expect to be communicated to. When you don’t meet a consumer’s expectations, conversion rates drop CONSIDERABLY!

Make sure that whatever options you give, they are in alignment with your overarching brand, image, and communication style. This will help prevent future ‘fallout’ (where people begin to disengage or even distrust what you say). Fallout is particularly brutal the ‘higher the bar’ so to speak. That’s why they say “Under Promise and Over Deliver” because the higher (or stronger in terms of trust, respect, and rapport) you take them, the farther they have to fall!

Many Gurus have created their own PR nightmare by setting expectations they simply could not deliver on because they created a persona or image that was not authentic. But since it was what the ‘market wanted’, they played the role… poorly. Be original, be authentic, be creative and just have fun! Optin Options are a way of identifying and connecting with your audience. By not only collecting, but also USING the data you get from providing these options, you then continue down the path of really setting yourself apart from the crowd… because you listen!

Segmentation and usage of lead specific data is the only way to create and maintain the trust and rapport you earned by differentiating yourself in a way your crowd loves! This makes it much easier to set, meet, and exceed the expectations of your list; and this, my friends, is the Holy Grail of Marketing: to have a growing and flourishing list of subscribers who know, like, and trust you; getting value from your products they buy again and again, showering you with testimonials and referrals, rather than complaints and clawbacks! Which would you prefer?

So get creative, start testing and having fun with your marketing today!

Ryan Garey, a Sales Psychologist, speaker and author of the upcoming book and series, “Employee Lean – Revenue Rich!”, flourished at the University of Phoenix, helping them to become the worlds largest University, and rising to the top 1% income earners out of UOP’s employees. Taking his sales and behavioral psychology to the world of entrepreneurs, Ryan was a pioneer in the sales department at InfusionSoft, lead their external channel of 150 Certified Marketing Automation Coaches, and directly consulted InfusionSoft’s elite partners. Ryan now runs a research and development company dedicated to holistically combining the worlds of business and consumer sciences.

Why and How List Building Begins Before the Optin

by Ryan Garey

FLV / MOV

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and our NEW StomperNet levels,

you will find exactly what will help you take the next successful step in your business!

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Stompernet Blog

As always, take the important information that you learn this week and make a plan to implement the necessary parts into your business as soon as possible.  Information plus action equals success!

Ryan Taylor
Director of Operations
StomperNet, LLC

IMPORTANT: Some of the resources shown are only available to members. Not a StomperNet member? Join us today for just $1.00 to get access to the world’s largest Internet Marketing community plus all the tools and resources you need (including upcoming free webinar replays) to start, build and grow a thriving Internet-based business!

Curriculum Resources

• List Building 301: Do You Want Email Addresses or Do You Want Sales?

• How to Weed Out the “Crap” and Say Yes to the Best List Building Strategies for YOU!

New Media

• Infusionsoft Email Marketing That Will Save You HOURS of TIME with Nicole Munoz

• Kool Kindle Kash with Dan Hollings

• Mobile Marketing is NOT Text Marketing with Josh Peak

Faculty Office Hours

TUESDAY, August 9nd 2011 at 7:00pm Eastern

5 Stealth Tactics to Improve Traffic on a Shoestring Budget with Faculty Member Nicole Munoz.

Join Nicole as she shows us:

• A cutting edge Facebook strategy to triple your list sign ups
• Simple Video Marketing Strategies that will get you more clients
• Social Media Tips for a Positive ROI
• How to get rankings FAST in Local Search Results
• How to help your Virtual Assistant be MORE effective in LESS time

StomperNet Members: Register Now!

Special Announcements

TUESDAY Aug 9th, 2011 at 9pm Eastern

QVC Meets Facebook–Home Shopping Live On Facebook

Imagine what would happen if you took the power and reach of homeshopping shows like QVC and the Home Shopping Network, and put Your Own 5-minute show LIVE on Facebook with direct access to 750 MILLION Facebook users – every single month. If you have a product or service that’s ready for Prime Time, then LIVE Direct Response Television on FBTV is for you!

This is the new standard in direct response TV. Crowdsbuy will change the face of advertising as we know it.

Our first special webinar discussing this revolution will be held at 9 PM EDT on Tuesday, the 9th of August.  You need to Register Here right away to secure a spot in this live webinar.

* Free Live Webinars This Week

Ryan is known for his enthusiasm in marketing and presenting, but has a very laid back style… so come prepared for great content instead of just a great ‘pitch’. For those who saw Ryan Speak at Stompernet LIVE 10… you know exactly what we mean!  Register Now!

Stompernet Blog