Hobbits and buy now buttons that change color

In my last email I let you in on my ultra-secret New Zealand source for web design/layouts that convert visitors to clients at a very high rate.

I even gifted you a rare chance to have him “scour” your website for free:

http://attentionthievery.com/scour/giveaway/

One of the things that immediately lept out at me when I first discovered Bnonn Tennant is how well he employs one the four “magic” action drivers of email I cover in my book Stealth Email Secrets:

Personality.

For example, he doesn’t shy away from celebrating several aspects his country’s “lore”, noting that he lives just 30 minutes away Hobbiton (the set built for the mythical village in the Lord Of The Rings movies)…and using the acronym FRODO in distilling his web-visitor-converting ways.

One of the tips I learned from Bnonn in that fateful web critique he did for me 10 years ago is to bestow your “buy now buttons” (or buttons for any other action) with a TACTILE quality.

This means that when someone hovers over your button, it should feel clickable.

It could change color.

It could morph in shape.

Or it could be as subtle as a slight shift in the image.

(If you go to the link above and place your cursor over the blue ‘enter the draw’ button, you’ll see what I mean.)

Point being, images that are static have less touch to them…

…And are therefore less likely to get clicked.

(Also, the Kiwi pronunciation of the word ‘tactile’ is so cool it should be all the incentive you need to enter the draw.) 🙂

Anyway, that’s just a hint of what you’ll discover should your name be pulled from Bnonn’s hat.

For your chance to win a free web critique with my New Zealand secret (a $299 value) go here:

http://attentionthievery.com/scour/giveaway/

We haven’t set a formal deadline, but Bnonn won’t be keeping this page up forever.

(At some point soon he’ll need to pull it down and do the draw.)

So if you’re interested, act now.

Happy Converting,

Conor Kelly

4 Free Ways To Sell Services In A Down Economy

If you’d like to know a few low cost or even free ways to market your services in a down economy, then here are four methods that I used starting around the time of the financial crisis of 2008 to build a multiple six-figure personal training business from scratch, in just a couple of years.

1. Public Speaking.

Public speaking has long been my go-to. First of all, it’s a “no-brainer” to get speaking opportunities by offering to teach something valuable to groups at no charge. I went to many local companies, community groups, and business networking meetings to present and they were almost always very receptive to the idea.

Not only that, but speaking in front of a room instantly gives you an air of authority. This is known as the “podium effect” in marketing circles. Even if you’re brand new in your industry, simply being willing to stand up and talk makes you come across as an expert and a leader. The key to making this all work for your business is to combine valuable tips with lots of stories. I always tried to give 3 or 4 tips in 30-40 minutes, and for each tip I’d walk them through a “case study” of one of my training clients.

PRO TIP: Always end every talk by offering them a valuable free gift in exchange for an email address (and possibly more contact info). A free consultation or a free report should do the trick. This will let you do the most important part of the sales process which is: follow up! More on that below.

2. Content Marketing.

Content marketing includes things like blogging, article marketing, YouTube videos, Instagram, email, podcasts, etc.  The idea is to routinely pump out great content which demonstrates your knowledge and the kind of value you provide for your clients – the more, the better.

You want to use all these formats to drive traffic back to your main website, where, hopefully, you have a way of capturing visitors’ contact info.

My advice is to focus on whatever format makes you feel most motivated. That way you’ll be more likely to stay consistent with it. If you enjoy talking and presenting, do video. If you’re more of an introvert, writing, and to a lesser extent audio (e.g. having a podcast) might be more your bag. In either case, it’s not hard to take that content and repurpose it across many channels and on all your social media (if you’re on those sites; this part in NOT required, contrary to what people will tell you).

3. Join Ventures.

At the highest level, you want to find someone who already has your clients and make a deal with them. Here’s an example. Around the time I was building my business, I had a colleague who sold in-home personal training. His stroke of genius was approaching home fitness equipment stores and adding value for them by letting them offer certain purchasers his free home training instruction.

His team would then convert a lot of those trial sessions to paying clients, and he built a sizeable business rather quickly off the backs of just two of these relationships.

Another way is to get together with other non-competitive but complementary services to cross-refer and cross-promote. As a personal trainer I was in a good position to refer to chiropractors, and over the years I’ve sent a couple of them quite a few new patients. This ideally would be a two-way street, if there’s enough trust between you.

To put this strategy on steroids, add other health providers to the mix as well. Imagine a dietician, a massage therapist, a chiropractor, and a personal trainer all cross-promoting to each other’s clients. This is standard in the direct response industry. But a lot of service providers don’t think this way. They’re costing themselves sales. Organizations like BNI are built on this principle and some of those groups are very productive. The problem is when the businesses serve different types of customers it makes mutual referrals a lot less natural.

4. Email Marketing.

Alright, here’s where it all comes together. In my way of doing things, all roads should lead to your email list. I built a list of 2,500 subscribers in a couple of years using the free methods listed above. And I’d keep in touch with tips, stories, and event invitations once per week. This is the persistent follow up I hinted at above. Don’t spurn this part!

There’s an art and a science to effective email marketing, but the idea is to combine content with promotion. Share a tip, reveal a common mistake they may be making, then link it back to how you can help them and don’t forget to include an offer for them to contact you! Keep the dialogue focused on your prospects’ problems more than the features of your service. And make it entertaining. The easiest way to do this is just to tell lots of stories.

There you have it. You don’t need a big marketing budget to make money. In fact, if anything I’ve found the leads that come to you via these methods are higher quality. There’s some leg work required with each of them, to be sure. But if you want to build a business that will provide you with freedom and feed you for years to come, get over it – and get out there!

P.S. Get your FREE copy of my book “Stealth Email Secrets: The Simplest System Ever Created For Writing High-Converting, Cash-Producing Emails On Command” and more free marketing tips by joining my email list here: http://conorkelly.com .

The New Zealand Web Conversion Secret

A while back, The Muscle got props from a client re: one of his website critiques.

This client went as far as to say, “I received more than 10X the amount of value from Conor’s 30-minute video than I did from 3 full days at the [insert guru name here] copywriting workshop.”

I remarked on how that wasn’t all that surprising given I’d had a similar experience.

Here’s how I described it:

******

About ten years back I hired a copywriter/web conversions expert to critique my website.  Unless I’m mistaken, I paid him all of $275USD.  And it was honestly some of the best marketing training I’ve ever received.

Many of its lessons have stuck with me ever since.

******

A big reason for that is having a set of trained eyes pick apart your webpage (and make suggestions you then have to figure out how to implement) is more concrete than broad strategies or tactics.

Which leads me to the punchline:

That copywriter’s name is…drum roll please…Bnonn Tennant.  Bnonn is also a copywriting coach and web designer who helps you convert more of your website’s visitors to customers.

And even though you’ve probably never heard of him, he’s 100% brilliant at what he does.

He’s quarantining currently in scenic New Zealand (about 30 minutes away from Hobbiton…no joke) where he resides with his wife Smokey The Magnificent (as he calls her) and his “indeterminate” number of kids.

Well, Bnonn and I recently reconnected.

See, I wanted to find a way to introduce you to his “attention-thievery”, if for no other reason than I think you’ll benefit from knowing him.

Here’s what we came up with:

http://attentionthievery.com/scour/giveaway/

When you travel to the web address over yonder, you’ll be prompted to type in your email address to be entered into a draw for a free SCOUR audit (A $299 Value).

This is the exact same lovely service that Bnonn performed for me all those many years ago, and that I subsequently raved about.

According to the man himself:

“The audit will work for any page: a homepage, a landing page, an opt-in page, a sales page, a product page—the framework is specifically designed to be flexible enough that it will work on whatever page represents the biggest potential lift for you.  Your audit will be 15–25 minutes of clear, concrete advice on changes you can make to the page’s layout, look, and content, to lift your conversion rate.”

(Side note: Bnonn has a gift for presenting his tips in a memorable way.  Plus, the charming accent doesn’t hurt.)

If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you can watch an actual video of one such audit he did for a client.  Even if you don’t go for the draw I urge you to check it out; lots of marketing insights in that simple video.

Finally, when you enter you’ll also be added to Bnonn’s email list, which – listen to me now, believe me later – is a GOOD thing.

He’s one of the few marketers whose content I readily look forward to both ingesting and learning from.

Here’s that link once more:

http://attentionthievery.com/scour/giveaway/

You’re welcome. 😉

Happy Auditing,

Conor Kelly

How to persuade even the poutiest arm-crossing skeptic

More proof of my muscular email ways today, this time from chiropractor to elite athletes, Dr. Kevin Arnold:

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“I liked Conor Kelly’s writing a lot.  It led to appointment bookings and sales of orthopedic pillows fast!  It contained relevant, accurate content that educated my patients and strengthened their relationship with the Clinic.

Conor is a knowledgeable and supportive professional.  He quickly identified my needs and was responsive to them.

The bottom line:  Conor’s marketing services helped me to engage my current patients and resulted in more appointment bookings and health product sales.  I would highly recommend him.”

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To Kevin’s point about fast “back end” sales of orthopedic pillows…

This is one of the facts of email marketing I’ve long appreciated.  Many businesses have plenty of emails in their database that they seldom, if ever, use.  But here’s the 411: once you get your subscribers on board as far as hearing from you and reading your emails, you can more or less sell them anything.  Then, your “problem” becomes finding new things they want to buy.

Your email list is the gym.

Sending them regular emails is the workout that keeps your back end both full and shapely.

Indeed, another client told me not long after we started his email program last year that he wished he’d done it years ago.

More:

If you go to Page 82 in my book Stealth Email Secrets you can see me break down an email I wrote for Dr. Kevin that reveals little-known secrets for converting even the most ardent of non-believers to your cause.

(Includes a special way of doing testimonials that lets you slip past your prospect’s “sales defenses” undetected.  Am I using this tip here?  Get the book to find out.)

Not to mention (or TO mention) the book shows you seven more ways to write emails that give people almost no choice but to buy from you.  Plus, they’re easy to do and don’t require a lot of time.

Could you use more sales right now?

Grab your copy from Amazon today:

Go here to order Stealth Email Secrets.

Paperback is 40% off at the moment.

(Personally, I’d ALWAYS rather a physical book in my hands.  Guess I’m old-fashioned that way.)

But the party won’t last forever.

In fact, I’m thinking of raising the price again soon.

Might as well learn these skepticism-smashing secrets while the DJ’s still laying down beats:

Go here order Stealth Email Secrets at 40% OFF, and build your shapely back end.

Happy Persuading,

Conor Kelly

Naked Baby Doll’s gastronomic adventure

All of this lately reminds me of a story.

At the time of the great Northeast blackout in ’03, I was renting a basement apartment from a Russian family in Richmond Hill.  They were sweet, red-cheeked little dumplings with much love for The Muscle.

Even had a pet name for me:

Pupsik.

It’s a Russian toy shaped like a naked baby.

(Don’t ask.)

Many stores were closed due to the power outage, so they insisted I come upstairs for a bite.   The family’s Babushka (Grandmother) brought forth a large crystal plate.  From what I could tell, it contained a gelatin substance with random floating chunks of mystery meat (which I later discovered is traditionally pig’s feet, cow’s feet, or chicken feet).

[Akwardly] Ah ha ha!  Yummy…

Being the Canadian paragon of politeness that I am, I powered through.  I took spoon to splotch, and went at it like a champ.  And with my eyes watering from suppressing the gag reflex, I politely asked for more bread, hoping to relieve some of the violent siege on my senses.

During this gustatory power struggle, I noticed the oldest son downing the meat-flavored jell-o like it was chocolate cake.  “What the…?  Is he enjoying this??”  I thought, as I nodded, forced a smile with high eyebrows, and flashed a thumbs up.

That experience drove home for me how varied taste can be.

Same basic DNA shared between us…but our amigos in other cultures will gladly shovel into their mouths forkfuls of fat which we’d normally discard AND vaporize with dish cleaners powerful enough to thin paint.

What does this have to do with you?

First, it’s just an entertaining story.

And we could all use more of those right now.

Second, the most common objection I get when encouraging business owners to up the frequency of their emails is,

“But I don’t want to annoy my customers.”

Here’s the thing:

It depends WHAT you’re sending them.

If you’re serving up the equivalent of ‘Mousse au animal-foot-fetish’ to North Americans, per above…then yes, more is not better.  But consider a different example:  Imagine your favorite food is chocolate chip cookies.  And every day I show up to your house in the afternoon with one freshly baked chocolate chip cookie, just how you like it.

How quickly are you going to love seeing me and hearing from me?

The point is to send them emails they like.

Then you almost can’t send them too many.

With that in mind, if you’d like a simple system for writing emails that your subscribers love reading AND buying from, then my new book Stealth Email Secrets might just keep you teetering on the edge of your seat.

It reveals no less than seven “magic” formulas to write emails that let you make more sales (and build more customer loyalty) at the push of a button. (HINT: I’m using one right now.)

And if you buy it now and turn to page 52, I show you a little-used secret that, if you do it correctly, can make your emails almost impossible to ignore.  In fact, if you’re not currently doing this, chances are good you are losing readers every time you hit ‘send’.

Grab your copy from Amazon to read about this secret today:

Click here to get your copy of Stealth Email Secrets.

Also, I just knocked 40% off the price of the paperback (Kindle is just $9.99).

Personally, I’d always rather have a physical book in my hands.

Call me old-fashioned.

I know you might prefer that too and understand many folks are tightening their purse strings right now so figured I’d help out.  I also know that for some this could be potentially business-saving information.  You can thank me by leaving an absolutely glowing review, should you feel so inclined. 😉

However, I won’t be keeping the price this low forever.

Don’t wait, get your copy now so you don’t miss out:

Order Stealth Email Secrets from Amazon.

And if you’re ever confronted with intestinal Russian roulette like I was, remember: loads of bread and water, minimal chewing, and SMILE…you can do this!

Happy Baking,

Conor “Naked Baby Doll” Kelly