OPT-INS. Training. Pete Williams:

Transcription

1 OPT-INS Training Pete Williams: Welcome to Lever No. 2, Opt-ins. I'm Pete Williams and I'm really happy to be with you again for this second section in our 7 Levers program. What we're talking about in today's session is about taking the leads who have come to your business from the traffic we generated in the last lever, and opting-in to your sales funnel. It's about turning those leads into prospects; getting them to opt-in to the next stage of the funnel. Let's define what an opt-in means for you and your business. Now, obviously, I want you to go back, pull out the worksheet that we did in our very first session together as part of the 7 Levers of Business. That was the triage section where we started to work on, and get a quick understanding and a bit of a roadmap or blueprint of the funnels and how they apply to your business. Let's reiterate some of them here now. The main types of opt-ins are generally going to be a phone call so, someone's responded to your marketing. They've come to your website and they've picked up the phone and called you; they've responded to a direct mail piece we may have mailed out to a particular list. So, they've picked up the phone and they've responded. They've opted-in to take the next step in your marketing. Maybe you've got an online request to quote. Maybe you're a services business where your opt-in is someone to come to your website, a visitor, and then request more information request a customized quote. That could be your definition of an opt-in. Opt-Ins Training 1 of 12

2 Maybe you're an online information marketer; you have an subscription-type opt-in form, or something that's commonly known as a squeeze page. That can be your opt-in. You want someone to come to your website off an AdWords-type marketing program, or some Facebook advertising, or a joint venture , and they've come to your website and you want them to give you their address, so they opt-in. Maybe you're a retail store like Athlete's Foot. That's an example we're going to use quite a bit throughout this program. And, they come in and want to try on a pair of shoes. Maybe you have a cosmetic store and you want someone to come, sit down, and try on some makeup. Or, a clothing store and you want them to try on a dress. That can be your definition of an opt-in. So, let's go through a bunch of these different opt-in tactics and work out some real-world action steps that you can do and apply in your business straightaway to get that 10% increase we're looking for. Now, if you're a retail store let's start with that. Obviously, the biggest objection you have to overcome as a retailer is the "just looking" response. We've all experienced it when someone walked into a store, or when we've walked into a store, and a sales clerk approaches. So, that person, that visitor, that piece of traffic, that retail foot traffic in this instance, have responded to, "Can I help you?" and they respond, "No, no. I'm just looking." It's a very typical response that is just generic. It's ingrained in us over the years. Now, as a retail marketer, you have to work out ways to overcome this. What you need to do is shake their frame. Now, it's an NLP [neuro-linguistic programming] term and what it means is they've come into that retail store with a frame in mind that you're going to sell them something as a retailer. They want to look and don't want to be pressured. So, you have to shake that frame and get them out of that habitual response-type mechanism where they are responding with, "I'm just looking." So, don't give the usual, "Can I help you?" What you want to do is try and involve the client in a different way. Offer them free trials or measure and fittings, and things like that. For example, if you go into Athlete's Foot, they have the Fitprint program, which is a computer-based solution where you can walk across a platform. They'll assess the way your foot rolls, your gait cycle, where your pressure points are are you flat-footed, are you high-arched? All those sort of things. They use that as a way to shake people's frame. Opt-Ins Training 2 of 12

3 They have it as part of their greet and seat rules, which is something that we'll talk about later. When they come into the store, they ask you, "Have you tried out Fitprint before?" It's not about, "Can I help you?" It's an involving question to have a conversation and shake their frame up. Another question that gets used a lot it's a great success is, "Is this the first time you've been into our store?" Again, people can't respond to that question with, "I'm just looking." It's going to shake their frame and they might say no. Then, the response to that can obviously be, "Well, let me tell you a couple of quick things; one or two quick things that might help you find what you're looking for a little bit better." And then, the sales clerk can go into the different sections of the store, the way you operate, the free trial process, the fitting process, the free makeup that you might offer as part of the sales process whatever it might be. Maybe you're in the pool-cleaning retail space and you want to happily offer an audit for their water. You give them a little test tube to go home, fill their pool water up with the test tube and you can give a free assessment of the quality of the chlorine or pool water they've got. By asking this question, "Is this the first time you've been into the store?" you get an understanding of where they are. Are they a repeat client? Which is something we're going to talk about as a different lever, or are they a new client? So, you assess what their needs might be and how you can best advise them to get the most out of their experience inside your store. Something else you can do and train your sales staff to do and this is a big thing here. As you'll see throughout the entire 7 Levers, it's all about putting systems in place. So, you want to make sure that you have systems in place to train your staff. And one of these systems could be make a direct comment about the item they're looking at. They've walked in and picked something up. Maybe you're a homeware store and you sell pots and pans and things like that. Maybe they've picked them up and just touching and feeling. Again, rather than asking, "Can I help you?" just say a particular comment about the color, the design, the style, the model, the features of the particular product they're playing with at the time of approach. So, something could be said along the lines of, "I notice you're looking at this stainless steel pot. Did you know that it heats water and gets to 100 degrees Celsius in a third of the time as traditional pots and pans?" Some sort of feature and benefit-type mix there. Give them some advice and support what they're doing. Show them they're doing the right thing by touching and feeling, and getting an understanding of the products you have to offer. Opt-Ins Training 3 of 12

4 Another great question you can put in your sales system and in your opt-ins system here, and train your staff to say is, "What brings you in today?" Now, that question can get a response of, "I'm just looking," so you want to be careful with this particular question. The, "What brings you in today?" question can help you get to the point very, very quickly by them saying, "I'm looking for a pair of running shoes to go and do a marathon with," or, "I'm looking for some bed linen that I can give as a wedding gift next weekend." Whatever it might be, you can help overcome and fast track the niceties and get to the core reason they've walked into the store. So, that's another great question. Just be aware they might respond, "I'm just looking," and you have to have some additional retort to that particular question. So, the rule here, as I'm hoping you're seeing as we go through ways to shake their frame, is to ask open-ended questions, questions that engage a conversation. They'll be different to the questions they've asked, or been asked, every single time they go into a shop so far today. You want to do something different. You want to start that conversation. Now, what happens if they do say, "I'm just looking"? Because inevitably, people are going to almost ignore your questions sometimes and just say, "No, no. I'm just looking." Well, in those instances, you need to have something in your arsenal to respond to to again, shake that frame up and help illicit that opt-in, which is the outcome you're after. So, you want to make a joke. Your response could be, "That's no problem. Feel free, as that's the only thing the Prime Minister hasn't mentioned to tax us on yet," or, "It's the only thing the President hasn't taxed us on yet. So, feel free to look, it's absolutely free." Some joke interaction like that can help break the ice a little bit and pull down those barriers and change their frame. You can also respond, "Not a problem at all. We've just got some great new XYZ in stock," and then suggest that and leave them to it. Just give them a bit of a prompt. "We've just got some great new shoes in the Men's Running range," or, "We've just got some really cool DVD players that allow you to also play Blu-ray and record at the same time." Now, that would probably a conversation you had in the late 1990s, but that's the sort of stuff you can communicate to the people as they walk in your store. Another thing could be, "Great. I have plenty to look at, but what in particular are you looking for?" That's a question you can ask and get them to respond. It's a bit cheeky it's a bit more direct. But as you get to understand and play with these types of responses, you get a gauge for the type of person that's responding to you. So being very direct and saying something like, "Great. We've got plenty to look at. Is there any particular item you're looking for?" is a great way to break down that barrier. Opt-Ins Training 4 of 12

5 There's a few great tips there to help you in the retail space to increase those opt-ins. It's all about breaking down the barriers, getting to the next stage. And obviously, like everything we're going to cover and talk about consistently, you have to ask for the outcome you want. In this example, the outcome is an opt-in. Now, if you're retail store, your opt-in might be, as I said at the start of this episode, about trying something on. You want them to try and interact with your product. You want them to try on a dress, try on a pair of shoes, touch and feel the fabric. You have to define this yourself and hopefully you've got some seeds there planted in your mind, and working out what your opt-in is and how to define it. But once you know what that is and you've broken down that barrier, and you've shaken that frame and gotten over that "just looking" mentality, what you want to do is then tell them and ask them to do what you want. "Let me try a couple of shoes for you to let you feel them and go for a walk in them," "How about you try a couple dresses on? It's completely free and we can show you how you look in the dresses." Whatever it may be, make sure you ask for that opt-in, particularly in the retail sense. So many people, as sales clerks, don't ask and try and lead the customer the person who's walked into the store, the visitor through the opt-in funnel that you want them to walk through. So, make sure you always do that. What about when we go online? What happens if you're an online marketer? You want to make the most of your website. There's a range of different things you can do online to increase opt-ins. Now again, if your opt-in is an subscription very, very easy to test that; and you can test everything online which is really good. Unlike retail staff where everyone's a little bit different in the way they interact and their language and the tonality can affect the result of a conversation. Online, it's very static in that everything is the same no matter who comes to your website. Whether they come at one o'clock this afternoon, or two o'clock in the morning, or from Bolivia, or America, or Australia; the website they're going to see is exactly the same every single time. This is really good because you can use science and statistics, and tests to get the results you want because it's consistent. Opt-Ins Training 5 of 12

6 Now, what I say to everyone I consult with is test everything. We want to make sure we continually test online because it is so super easy. With tools like Website Optimizer, Google Analytics, and Zen Tester these things make testing very, very easily. And the testing I'm talking about is split-testing. What split-testing is, is when someone comes to your webpage, you can show two completely different webpages or two elements, or multiple elements of a page, that are different to one visitor compared to another. When you multiply this out by hundreds and thousands of visitors, you can get some cool statistics on which elements of the site result in the opt-in you're after. So maybe one headline might get a 30% opt-in rate, but simply changing the headline to something different can increase opt-in rate to 33, 35, or even 40%. Some simple changes online one simple change like a headline can see a result in increased opt-in rate by way more than 10%. There's a whole range of elements you can test images, headlines, colors, layout, style, placement of the opt-in box all that is very easy to test with Website Optimizer, or Zen Tester, or a whole range of other split-test tools. You can use outsourcing to make all of this happen for you. Elance or odesk are two great resources to find tech-savvy entrepreneurs and people from across the globe who can help implement this for you. So, if you don't know how to do this sort of stuff, that's completely fine. As an entrepreneur and marketer, all you have to be is at the front of the orchestra, conducting everybody, and just have people on your virtual team bench who can step up, walk into the game and implement these split-tests for you. So, when it comes to getting these optins online, and increasing your opt-in rate, there's a number of things you want to do. The first thing is a rule that I refer to as, "One page equals one action." And what this means is you want to be very clear on the outcome you want the person to do when they come to your website. So, that visitor who's come from Facebook, or AdWords, or SEO whatever sort of traffic generation method you've employed based on the previous module we spoke about, the previous lever you have to know and be very clear on the outcome you want. Opt-Ins Training 6 of 12

7 What is the primary objective not only for the site, but also for this particular page? And again, this is the beautiful thing about the web. You can have individual pages with different objectives throughout your website. You can have landing pages that's the page the person lands on when they come to your website from a particular source of traffic. And that outcome can be very, very specific to that particular objective. So, you want to be very clear. You want to have one or at least two, clear calls to actions. Just like I mentioned in the retail side of things, you want to train your sales staff to be giving calls to actions and telling people what they should be doing when they walk into your store that they should be trying on these pairs of shoes, they should be sitting down, trying on those dresses you have to do the same online. And, be very, very clear with the call to action. Tell people that you want them to opt-in, put their address in the box, and get some sort of result for doing so. Now, what happens if your objective is a phone call? This is something that a lot of people do with their websites. It's all about getting the phone to ring. Maybe you're an accountant trying to get consulting clients. Maybe you're a bricklayer, or a tiler, or a roof painter, and you're whole objective is to get people to pick up the phone and enquire with you. But, what you want to do and it sounds pretty obvious when we talk about it in this context, but so few people do this is put the phone number on every single page of your website. Don't just hide it on your contact page like so many people do. If that is your primary objective, is to get people to pick up the phone, make it easy for them. Put the phone number on every page and put it above the fold. Now, what "above the fold" means is that when someone comes to your website for the very first time, before they even scroll or move the mouse, they see your phone number. It's very important. The term "above the fold" comes from the old newspaper days, that when people at the Daily Planet used to produce newspapers about Superman, what they would do is they'd have the headline and the real important part of the newspaper above that fold line where they've folded the newspaper in half and stack it on the pile. Because that's what people could see every single time above that fold line. So, you really want to make sure that works with your website as well. And, where the scroll bar sort of starts, is fundamentally where the fold line is on your website. So, make sure your phone number's very, very clear and above the fold on every page if that is your objective. Opt-Ins Training 7 of 12

8 Also, have a very strong About and Contact page, because again, the web is a tool and a mechanism that doesn't give you the same amount of trust as a bricks-and-mortar store does, because people don't know who you are, or where you are, or what you are. So, having a strong About page and Contact page can help reinforce the trust and then help increase those opt-ins. Make sure you put your addresses and your photos on your About and Contact page. It helps build trust with the prospect, with that visitor to your site. And things like simply putting a phone number above the fold, or a photo on your Contact page, you'll be surprised that those two things alone can easily give you that 10% increase in opt-ins that we're looking for. Something we've done with extreme success on our e-commerce sites throughout Australia, is use country flags. By putting "Australian-owned and operated" with an Australian flag on our site, it has done wonders to our conversions rates. So, that's something else I would strongly suggest you do when you are trying to get people to do things online make sure they know that you're local. What about if your objective is subscribers? Like we spoke about earlier, people coming to your website, giving you an address to then market to after the fact. They want to subscribe to some sort of list, or newsletter, or offer that you've got available. Again, just like your phone number, you want to make sure that the opt-in box is above the fold. Make sure you use large buttons as well. The "optin", or the "Subscribe", or the "Download Now" button that they must click to make the form work should be big, bold, and bright. It's very funny, but aesthetics are not important here. It's all about effectiveness. And, using tools like Website Optimizer or Zen Tester that we spoke about allow you easily to test different fonts, colors, and sizes of buttons. You'll be surprised at some of the results you'll get by simply going from the standard grey opt-in button to a bright red "Download Now" button. You can easily see opt-in rates double not just increase by 10% double. It's absolutely incredible. What you also want to do, when it comes to subscribers, is reduce the friction. And this is a term I'll use a lot throughout the 7 Levers here, is reducing the friction. You want to make everything easy for the customer, for the visitor, for the subscriber. So, less is more in this instance. Only ask for their name and address. And ideally, if you can get away with it, just the address. Opt-Ins Training 8 of 12

9 The more information you ask for, the more friction there is in the transaction and the lower the opt-in rate is going to be. So, what you want to try and do here, if you only need the first name and the address, then only ask for the first name and address. A lot of services like AWeber or MailChimp will automatically grab the person's location, the country code. So, you don't need to ask what country they're in, the system will do that automatically for you. Another big thing you want to look at, is to increase the trust and the credibility like I spoke about with photos and addresses on your Contact and About page. So, videos are a great way to build that trust. I would strongly suggest you test a video where you're face-toface on the camera. People can see you and feel like they get to know you before they do the transaction be it subscribe to your newsletter, or pick up the phone. Testimonials are a fantastic way to build this trust and increase the credibility. So, throwing some testimonials on your website down the side, on the About page, on the Contact page, throughout your offers is a great way to increase your opt-in rates. And you'll be surprised as long as you start testing this regularly how easy it is to get this 10% increase that we're talking about. Also, third-party endorsements something that's worked extremely well for me and a number of people I know, having the "As Seen In" type endorsement. So, if you can get some publicity and some exposure as part of the traffic-generation lever we spoke about, you can incorporate that to help increase your opt-ins. Putting those on your website, just simply near your opt-in box, "As seen in the New York Times," "As seen in Herald Sun," "As seen in " the British newspapers, the Guardian-type of stuff. It really helps you increase those trust and credibility factors that increase your opt-ins. Now, I can't say this strongly enough test everything when it comes to online marketing, because it is so, so easy to manage and measure this. So, things like Google Website Optimizer and Zen Tester are fantastic tools for getting these increased optins online. What about phone opt-ins? What happens if we try and get people to request a free quote be it online, on the back of a direct mail piece, on a brochure, on a letterbox drop, on the back of anything we spoke about to increase traffic and eyeballs to our offers? We want to increase opt-in rates. Opt-Ins Training 9 of 12

10 Well, the first thing we want to do is qualify your leads. You want to find out if they're a fit. As much as we're trying to increase opt-in rates by 10% and increase numbers, it's not 100% a numbers game. Let me say it again it's not just a numbers game. We're trying to find people who are a good fit to you and your business because the better they fit are for you upfront, in the first one, two or three levers, the easier it's going to be for you to increase the Levers Five, Six, and Seven, because they're more qualified. They're a greater fit. They're more aligned to you and your business. What you want to do is on the phone maybe you want to increase opt-ins. In this scenario, let's say they've already responded to your marketing and they've picked up the phone. And what you're trying to do here is to qualify them to come in for a free consultation. So maybe, in your accounting practice, the levers that you've broken down through your worksheet is the first opt-in is someone to come in and spend 20 minutes on a free consultation about their current finances, that you could then sell into an actual consulting service or a monthly subscription fee, or a high-end tax assessment-type scenario. So, if you're wanting to get people to opt-in on the phone, have a script and a checklist in place. Not just for yourself, but also for your team and your sales staff. Having a script makes it as close to online testing as possible, because every call will have the same experience. You want to make sure it's repeatable. You want to make sure it's scalable. Checklists also give you confidence, because a script being repeatable means that not only you, but your other staff, can work through a structured, proven marketing communication piece, a sales pitch, on a repeatable basis. That means you can be consistent with those results. It's not about one person having better tonality or another person saying one thing and someone else saying something different. If it's consistent, it's easier to manage and to measure. It also makes it scalable too, because you can get other staff and train them in to this sales and opt-in process, and leverage your own time bringing more people to do this phone call screening and opt-in pitch. But also, not only for you but for your team, scripts can give you confidence. The more confidence you have, the better tonality you have, and the better chance of increasing these opt-ins by 10%. Opt-Ins Training 10 of 12

11 Some useful questions for you when you are creating this script why are you looking for this particular product or service? When someone calls up maybe you're a roof tiler ask them the question, why are you looking for this particular product or service? Why do you need some roof tiling? Maybe they've had storm damage. Maybe, they're just looking to sell their house and they want to make it more impressive. Maybe they just want to increase the value of their home for the future and just retile the roof. Those three types of people need to be communicated and proposed to differently. They've got different needs and objectives. And I'm sure roof tilers can approach each of these three services slightly differently. Another great question is, what's your current situation? Getting an understanding of where they are right now can help a lot in the remaining part of the conversation. Maybe, if it's a repeatable type service, where did they get it from last time? What experience have they had? Maybe if you're an accountant, you can ask, where did you get your tax returns done last time? Get an understanding of what type of customer they're going to be. Maybe the last three or four times they got their taxes done, they went to the cheap, rinse and repeat, quicker type services that you find in every street corner. Maybe they had a high-end tax accountant that was too expensive. Getting an understanding of where they've been can help you understand where they want to go and how you can communicate to them better, and get them to opt-in to the free consultation you're after. When are you looking at making your decision? That's a fantastic question to ask, because understanding their buying cycle and their timing, can again give you a good glimpse into where they're at. Maybe they're just making some early conversation, questions right now fundamentally, kicking tires. Cut the conversation short, or be stricter with them about their needs and their outcomes and their action points. Don't waste your time speaking to people who aren't qualified buyers. And don't forget to always ask, how so? Can you explain that a little bit more? Why is that? Most people's responses to questions are the guarded response to questions. By digging deeper with these how so, why is that, type questions, you get them to reinforce, reiterate, and dig deeper into their real answers. Opt-Ins Training 11 of 12

12 So, it's very important to make sure you have that as part of your sales script. And don't forget one thing you want to do throughout these entire conversations with people, is future-pace the whole conversation. Future pace it as in they're already decided to do whatever you want them to do to qualify as an opt-in. Speak to them like it's already happening. "When we sit down face-to-face and go through this audit of your current financial situation, we'll do," this, this, and this. "When I come out to give you the formal quote, we'll do," this, this, and this. "When I come and mow your lawns as part of the actual house cleanup service that we offer for new home sellers, you're going to experience," this, this, and this. It's all about future pacing and using language that assumes and progresses the sale in the way that you want. And getting that opt-in is the first outcome we're after. So, don't forget all we're trying to do in this particular lever, like every lever, is increase our opt-ins by 10%. We're not looking at going from a 3% opt-in rate to a 13% opt-in rate. That's a 400% increase. We're only working at going from a 3% opt-in to a 3.3% opt in from a 40% opt in to a 44% opt-in. We're just looking for 10% more. Opt-Ins Training 12 of 12