Addressing Emotional Hot-Buttons In Your Ads and Landing Pages

Today we're going to talk about one of the most important, yet overlooked ingredients for getting killer ads.  And that's to address emotional hot-buttons driving your market.

You see, every buying decision is driven by emotion.  Even deciding to  buy the cheapest laundry detergent is an emotional decision.  How can this be?  

An emotion you may feel by buying the cheapest brand of detergent is that you are a wise shopper.  While everybody else wastes their money on things that have little additional benefit, you're smarter.  It may make you feel good to save.

Alternatively, the person who buys the more expensive green detergent also is being driven by emotion.  He or she may feel like he or she is making a difference in the world.  He or she may feel like while others foolishly try to pinch pennies, you're planning for the future.  It feels good to contribute to a cause greater than yourself.

Simply put, both choices make the purchaser feel a certain way.

This is of course not to say that logic does not play a very important role.  Logic is used to justify the purchase.  It's what the husband or wife tells the spouse after he or she makes a big purchase.  For instance, "I bought the upgraded car because I got a good deal."  This maybe true.  However, it does not tell the full story.  The nicer car also made you feel pretty good as well and was worth any increase in price to you.

Logic is necessary because, without it, you're going to have a lot harder time closing the sale or even getting the prospect to consider your offer.  The emotion of looking stuipid or foolish may be far stronger than what he or she feels from owning your product or service. 

Alright, so what does this have to do with you Google ads?

Simple.  You can address these emotional buying decisions in your ads.  Paint a picture of how your product or service makes your prospect feel.  Then, give logical reasons he or she can tell him or herself and others.

For instance, an age-defying facial cream blows friends and members of the opposite sex away.  The world sees you differently (emotion).  Best of all, you don't have to undergo any injections or expensive surgery (logic).

The key is to uncover what emotion is driving your prospects the most, their emotional hot-button.  It might be wanting to impress friends, provide a better life for their families, attracting the opposite sex, or just boosting self-confidence.  

Since your Google ads are small, you might not go too deep.  However, you might allude to the hot-button and then address it in your landing page.

AdSense Ads For Mobile Apps

One of the most exciting areas of growth for AdWords is mobile use.  An article was posted on its prospects for growth a short time ago here.  

Google recently announced here that they have partnered with mobile app developers to show ads within the apps. 

This is exciting because this shows a lot of potential for local businesses.  You get in front of local prospects when they might be driving or standing around the corner from your store.  They don't have to make a search inside Google to see your ads.  It's also a new way for iPhone developers to make money from free apps, which likely will spur mobile development.  Though, there are other ad networks, Google has a giant network of high-paying advertisers.

More on this story can be found at:

• http://www.clickz.com/3634198 -- overview of the story
• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/06/25/adsense_mobile/ -- good short article on the implications.

3 More Landing Page Conversion Killers

Recently, we installed Google Analytics and, by far, the most popular recent article has been "5 Landing Page Conversion Killers" located over here.  This is why today, we're going to continue on this topic and reveal more conversion killing mistakes.

Let's begin:

Conversion Killer # 1:  Having too many goals at once rather than focusing on one at a time.  

For instance, you may send visitors to your home page.  Here, you try to get your visitors to join your email list, buy your products, read your blog, and add you on Twitter.

The result is you're lucky if you get high-conversions on any of these.  The confused mind takes no action... and even the slightly confused mind takes minimal action.

What's your alternative then?

Achieve one goal at a time.  Promote your mailing list.  Once the customer joins your mailing list, promote your product.  Once he or she buys the product, promote your social media presence.  You may even do this one-after-the-other in real time.  After the customer joins your mailing list, send them over to your product sales landing page with a thank you and explanation of why you sent them there.

Conversion Killer # 2:  Not addressing the conversation taking place in your customers' minds.  This simply means saying one thing when your prospect is on a totally different page.

An example might be telling your prospect that he or she can lose weight with your solution when he or she does not believe losing weight is possible because of genetics or failure in the past.

To illustrate this concept further, let's say that your prospect buys your product or service.  What is this person thinking as he or she hits the thank you page?

Most likely he or she is feeling the same as many of your other customers.  He or she wants to be reassured that the investment he or she made was the right choice.  

You can communicate this by addressing this conversation by saying, "Thank you for your investment.  Your product is being rushed to you so you can start enjoying it right away.  Your order confirmation number is 12345.  You can contact support at any time here."

Do you see how talking to your customers this way may make a big difference in how they think and feel about his or her purchase with you?  You're on the same page.

But, it's far from the thank you page where you need to adjust your language based on what your customer is thinking.

You need to do it on your landing pages and Google ads too.

Let's say you sell wrinkle reducing beauty cream.  A prospect types-in, "Reduce Wrinkles."  Your ad shows-up.

What is the person who typed this in thinking?  The lack of the word "cream" tells you he or she may not have any idea of the best solution.

He or she may be considering botox... but, wants to see if there is another solution first.

You may then speak to the conversation going on in his or her head by saying in your ad:

Forget Needles
Eliminate wrinkles by applying 
small dab of amazing new cream.
YourDomain.com

You might also add credibility to the ad by adding, "As seen on," "Celebrity secret," "doctor approved" or other explanation for its effectiveness.

Your ad then sets your visitor up for your landing page.  On your landing page, you would then discuss the problems with botox and why the customer does not have to go through with it.

Of course, this example is just a guess of what the customer wants.  You must do research to see if your guesses pan-out.  The best way to do this is simply to listen to people in your market one-on-one.

Using empathy, putting yourself in the shoes of the person you're talking, goes a long way.

Conversion Killer # 3:  Not spelling-out the benefits of your product or service.  Most sales pages do a decent job of listing the features of the product or service.  They tell what's in it.  This is a good first step.  However, if you want to rocket your response rates, you need to go further.  Spell-out what those features mean.

For instance, a feature for anti-aging wrinkle cream may be that after it rubs on it quickly disappears and has no strong smells.  However, you can go further and say, "This means you can put it on and get on with your day.  Others will respond in a new way without a clue as to how you've done it."

Do you see how much more powerful that is?  It instantly allows the consumer to create a picture in his or her head of owning the product.

You can apply this by going through your landing pages, looking at your features, and then asking yourself, "So what?" with your prospect in mind.  You can then integrate your answers into your landing page.

Alright, we've talked about a lot of powerful strategies in this post.  We'll continue on conversion tactics in the days to come.  If you're not already subscribed to the blog update list, be sure to add yourself in the upper right corner of this page or subscribe to the RSS feed.  

Combining AdWords With Social Media Marketing

It's not enough to just optimize your AdWords campaigns.  You've also got to focus on what happens after your visitors hit your landing pages.

So far, in this blog, we've talked a lot about strategies to boost your conversion rates -- get more from each of your visitors.

Another important area we haven't talked as much about is the role of social media sites.  These include places like Facebook.com, Twitter.com, YouTube.com, and even LinkedIn.com.

Social media sites accomplish two goals:  

1.  Helping to build your brand and relationships with your customers.

2.  Increasing your conversion rates.

How does it help you do this?

You can encourage your AdWords visitors to follow you on these sites.  You can do this on your blog, order thank you pages, and in your email signatures after your name.

Then, on these sites you might post:

• Content (videos, articles, and so on with tips).  The content may then promote a certain product or service.
• Personal updates about people you're meeting, events you're going to, and other news of interest your customers would interested-in.  Typically, a majority of the personal updates are business or industry related and not about you brushing your teeth or walking your dog.  These updates allow people to get to know you.
• Gently promote products or services.  For instance, you may let your followers know that you're offering a unique special offer.  Or, you're releasing a noteworthy product.  You would most likely not promote a constant barrage of products visitors can easily find on your website.  
• Your personal  opinion or take on the latest industry news and events.  You can be known as the "Go to" expert for staying on top of trends.

Simply put, your social media presence can be a valuable asset to get the most from your AdWords traffic.  An additional conversion goal you can focus on is growing your following there.

Adding One Time Offers

The other day we talked about how to maximize your revenue from each customer you generate from AdWords here.  One of the best ways to boost the amount of people who take you up on your upsells and downsells is with one time offers.

What is a one time offer?

A one time offer, often called an "OTO," is an offer that is only made once.  If the customer does not take you up on it, then they miss-out on it forever.  

This then creates an urgency for the customer to act.  

Typically, it's in the form of an upsell or downsell.  You might even offer a free report or product and then after the customer signs-up for it, you can offer an OTO.

Effective one time offers usually offer a bargain and a solid explanation for why it can only be offered once.  For instance, your offer may be such a bargain that it's not profitable to do it on an on-going basis.  Your product or service may also be limited in quantity or in the amount of time it can stay on the market.

You want to make your one time offer a no-brainer bargain combined with urgency to act.  Similarly, your OTO should compliment the main product.  It should add more value to the original product.  For instance, you may offer an e-book and then offer an OTO audio version.  The audio does not make the customer feel like they don't have everything they need with just the e-book, but still offers convenience value.

There are a wide-number of scripts to  create OTO's.  Some of the simple ones are for free.  More advanced ones are for sale.  You can find them easily by searching on Google for "OTO Script" or "One Time Offer Script:"

• http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS291US303&q=OTO+script&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

The key takeaway is that you can rocket your conversion rates by adding urgency to your offers.  When done right, one time offers are a great way to do this. 

Growth For Mobile Phone AdWords Ads

An interesting study on the growth of mobile phone use and advertising has been published over at:  

• http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/mobile-ad-revenues-to-hit-15b-by-2013-9476/?utm_campaign=rssfeed&utm_source=mc&utm_medium=textlink 

It predicts that by 2013, there will be 239 million smart phone users in North America with 95% having 3G network data plans in the U.S..

This then likely has big implications for adwords advertisers.  Currently, there are limitations with mobile advertising.  These can include a limited targeted market, the number of ads shown is limited, and customers do not always find it easy or secure to order or engage through their phones.

Some products and services may have an easier time succeeding with mobile advertising.

Despite this, mobile advertising appears to be maturing steadily and to be an important part of future AdWords marketing.  The study does warn that there appears to be customer resistance to ads, but this seems to be expected.

Another report predicts that mobile ad spending will reach 5.7 billion by 2014:

• http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/ebusiness/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=217701718

Boosting Your AdWords Customers' Value

One of the most powerful features of AdWords is that it has a built-in conversion tracking solution.  You can know exactly how much each keyword is worth to you.

Most marketers set how much each conversion is worth based on the profit they make from each sale.

For instance, you may make a $20 profit off the sale of your product.

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg of the profit you can be making from each conversion.  Your customers and keywords can be worth far more to you.

How can you do this?

Instead of just offering one product, service, or package for sale, you can offer multiple.  Let's talk about how you can do this:

Backend offers -- A backend offer is one made after the customer has already paid you and finished with his or her initial order.

When customers decide to buy from you and follow-through, their mindsets change. They've justified in their minds why they should buy from you.  A certain level of trust has been built.

This means that getting a second sale from each customer is much easier.  Best of all, you don't have to pay any extra costs to acquire the customer.  Just send a mailing (either email or direct mail).

What kinds of products can you offer?

The key is that they be complimentary to the product he or she just bought.  It should make the original purchase MORE valuable.  For instance, if the customer bought website hosting from you, then they need effective design and marketing as well.

Think in terms about what you can offer on a recurring basis.  Instead of a $20 profit, you're now earning hundreds, even thousands from each customer.

Upsells -- An Upsell is an additional offer right after the customer has made his or her initial order decision.  One of the most well-known uses of the upsell is when you go to McDonalds, they ask "Would you like to supersize it?"  This may add 25% to each order and the customer gets more value.  An upsell can be incredibly profitable because it's shown when the customer has gone into "Buying mode."  He or she has already decided to make the jump and wants the best offer possible. 

Downsells -- Usually, if customers do not take the upsell, it's because of money.  They want the product, but can't afford it.  This is why if they turn down the upsell, you can offer a smaller and cheaper version.

For both upsells and downsells, it's a good idea to offer a special deal.  For instance, you might offer fries and a drink to an order for less than if the customer ordered these items seperately.

The bottom-line is that there are a lot of different ways to get more from each of your customers.  This then makes you a formidable AdWords opponent that others don't have a shot at competing with.

This is because if each conversion is really worth $500, then you can spend hundreds on gaining each customer.  You still earn a profit.

All in all, maximizing  your clients' value is the biggest secret to dominating AdWords in the long-term.

Maximize Your AdWords Profits With A Follow-Up Email Series

Most of your visitors will come to your site and leave without buying.  If 5 out of 100 visitor buy, then that means 95 did not.

There are a lot of reasons that they did not make a purchase.  Most of the time, it's not because they don't want your product or service.  But, it's because they either don't have the money or completely believe your claims.  They don't know you.  Trust has not been built.

So, what are you to do?  

Well, you can do what most merchants do and give-up on those who leave without buying... where they're likely never to return to your sites again.

Or, you can capture their contact information and follow-up.  Your conversion rates rocket.

You might follow-up by sending direct-mail, postcards, or picking-up the phone.

However, one of the quickest and easiest ways is to use email.  We talked more in-depth about how to collect contact information in this post here.

Of course, you may already have a mailing list.  But, you may be wondering about what you should do now and how you can get the most from it.

First, just doing something is usually better than not mailing at all.  If you just want to start with mailing a monthly newsletter, then this is a great start.  You can always expand later.

However, far better than just sending a newsletter is building a complete follow-up series that runs on autopilot.

All you need is an autoresponder service, such as Aweber.com or GetResponse.com.  These services allow you to input e-mails that get send automatically to your subscribers.  You input the emails once into the autoresponder service and they are automatically sent like clockwork based on the time frame you specify.

For instance, you may set your emails to be sent on the 1st, 3rd, 7th, and 15th after visitors join your mailing list.

Let's talk about what you might include in your email follow-up series:

• Immediate welcome/redirect email -- Thanks the subscriber for joining and redirects him or her to the sales page of a product or service you're offering.  You also might point the subscriber to your facebook or twitter page.
• Case study email -- Proves your product or service works and shows applications of how your product or service can be used.  Case-studies help your prospects imagine having your product or service.
• The top 10 FAQ email-- Answers your prospects' top 10 questions or objections about your product or service
• Testimonial email -- Send a series of testimonials from existing customers to prove your product or service works.
• Demo video email -- Send a link of an example of your product or service in action.
• Direct solo sales emails -- Allows your visitors to picture what owning your product or service is like.  Focus your readers' attention on just one product or service. 
• Promote a live Q & A session webinar or teleseminar where you answer questions and objections regarding your product or service.
• Mix-in content articles that explain key concepts regarding your product or service.  
• Link to news articles or third party reviews of your product or service.
• Send interviews with either you or someone else as the expert.

Simply put, you can create a follow-up series that converts new customers on autopilot.  Don't just send one email or occasional newsletter emails.  But, there are countless more powerful approaches you can take.  A prospect may not be ready or convinced to buy on his or her first contact with you.  However, down the road, he or she will have a much better idea of what you can do for him or her.

How To Add Video To Your Landing Pages

The web has advanced.  No longer are you limited to static text web pages, but you can take advantage of video to build trust and boost your conversion rates.

How exactly can you use video on your landing pages?

Here are a few ideas:

• Create a brief "About us" video where you do a tour of your office or store.  Let your visitors know you're real and who they're doing business with.
• Do a brief introduction video where you capture your visitors attention and explain what you have to offer them.  
• Sell your products or services.  Your sales copy can go inside your video.  At the same time, you don't always want to ditch text copy for videos.  Text allows those who are scanners to quickly determine if they want to listen to your entire sales message.  
• Do a demonstration.  Show how your product or service works.  You might do a before and after demonstration.  This type of video proves you have the goods and allows visitors to get an idea of what to expect.  
• Explain difficult concepts.  For example, if your product uses an advanced scientific formula that makes it stand-out from the crowd, video is a powerful tool to explain what that means for them.
• Do interview case-studies.  Video case-studies are a lot more believable than those described with text.  With text, visitors know a lot of key details can be left-out or exaggerated.  Video gives them a lot more confidence that your case-study is accurate and credible.  

Simply put, video is a great compliment to any landing page.  It connects with your visitors in ways that text can not.

Of course, you may not know how to create professional video.  

However, you may be surprised to discover that its a lot cheaper and easier than you may think.

Moreover, your videos often only need to be easy to understand.  They don't always need a professional polish to achieve its objective.  For instance, a video case study may be believable if it is just you and a camcorder... or if you take an informal tour of your office with just a camcorder.

Let's talk about the different ways to create your videos:

• Record a screen capture video using Camtasia over at:  http://www.Techsmith.com.  You may simply record a powerpoint presentation.  You then provide voice narration.  
• Grab a camcorder and do an informal video where your visitors get to know you.  Instead of talking from a "We" point of view, you can let your visitors know you are a real person.  You may explain that you got an idea for a quick video and wanted to get it out to them as quick as possible.  Thus, you lack the professional look.
• Hire a professional team to create your videos.  You can tell them what goes in your video, what images you want displayed when, and then you can get a professional voice over artist to read your script. 

Plus, here's a quick tip to give your videos a professional polish:   Add a high-quality intro video to your larger more informal video.  You can do this by purchasing royalty free stock footage, images, or music found in a site like IStockPhoto.com.  

By just having a professional intro, it makes a big difference in how others perceive your videos.

Another important point is that if a video is the first encounter with you, then you probably want to keep it very short.  Grab the visitors attention and interest first before you show longer, more in-depth videos.

5 Landing Page Conversion Killers

Your landing page can do a lot right and still not convert like it should.  This is why today we're going to cover 5 deadly mistakes that kill your conversion rates.

Let's begin:

1.  Using unrelated images to your offer.  Attractive doesn't always equal results.  Focus on what you're communicating to your customers first and foremost.  If you're not sure about an image, test its impact on conversion rates with Google's Website Optimizer.  

2.  Distracting the visitor from taking action.  You want to lead your visitor step-by-step, until he or she feels excited about making the investment in your product or service.  Having outside links, too many web pages, ads for other products and services, and other distractions from your main goal can dramatically lower response.

3.  Giving too much away for free at the wrong time.  It's true that giving information away for free can be a very powerful marketing strategy to grab your visitors' attention, build trust, and establish credibility.  However, it can be a major problem when you give away the main value contained inside your product or service you're selling.  For example, you may sell a book about dog training.  You may then give one training technique to prove your system works.  But, you would not give everything the visitor needs to know -- especially not on your sales page.  Your free content or services need to leave your users wanting more.

4.  Not standing-out from the crowd.  You may have a great product or service.  And, if you were talking to someone one-on-one, you could tell him or her exactly why it's better than anything else on the market.  Yet, your landing page doesn't contain any of this information.  When the visitor looks at it, he or she just sees the same old product or service he or she can get from anywhere else.  Instead, you can differentiate on price, on ease of use, at speed of use, effectiveness, and so on.

5. Making your claims too unbelievable even if they're true.  For instance, let's say you have a product that helps people lose weight without exercising, dangerous side effects, and customers can still eat what they want.  It's the perfect solution.  However, try telling this to your target prospect.  You'll get a big, "Yeah right!"   Instead you may start with more modest claims to grab attention, establish credibility, and then prove your more unbelieavable-seeming claims.

The bottom-line is that your landing page should grab and hold your visitors' attention, while guiding them to take action.  Avoid profit-draining leaks.