The Suitcase Entrepreneur: An Interview With Natalie Sisson

Natalie Sisson is an entrepreneur known for her blog The Suitcase Entrepreneur (formally known as WomanzWorld).

She is also a representative for the Nike Women Under 30 CEO movement, a blogger for Forbes, a mentor for the Visa Business Network and has grown a thriving online community by being hands-on and practical with running a business whilst on the go.

I catch up with Natalie on the Huffington Post in this in-depth interview and find out what makes a successful Suitcase Entrepreneur:

natalie interview The Suitcase Entrepreneur: An Interview With Natalie Sisson

Click here to watch the whole interview on the Huffington Post.

Posted in Business Strategies, Social Media | Tagged , , | 0 Comments

8 Questions That Could Boost Your Website Conversion Rate

Your website sucks!

There, I’ve said it.

But that’s ok, because frankly, so does ours. And your competitors’. And your mom’s website. And your grandad’s. In fact, everyone’s website sucks.

Don’t you find it interesting that in spite of the many stealthy, magic and ninja tools available to us internet marketers, we somehow still manage to screw up and create web pages that have less than 1% conversion rate (CR)? Indeed, it’s regarded impressive to have a 3% conversion rate.

But why settle for a 3% conversion rate? – 1-3% response rate is typical of the offline direct response world.

Online, we have so much more tools available to us that give us so much more edge over your offline counterparts.

For example, when we advertise, we could ensure that only targeted traffic will see our offer. There are tools that would enable one to know exactly what the prospects clicked, where they came from, how they interacted with the website, how they found the site, etc – so, armed with such market intelligence, shouldn’t we be able to command a higher conversion rate?

Hell yeah!

How much higher could you aspire to? Check out the conversion rate of the Top 10 Online Retailers:

megaview 2010 march retailers conversion 465x600 8 Questions That Could Boost Your Website Conversion Rate

Top 10 High Converting Retailers Websites as of March 2010

There are reasons why website like these are converting at above 13% and your site isn’t.

Today I’m going to list 8 questions you could ask yourself that would help you gain insights on what potential actions you could implement that would help raise your site’s conversion.

So take your time to ask yourself (and answer) these 8 Questions…

1. Do I know my customers REALLY well?

Many marketing efforts are not effective precisely because they fail to speak directly to the prospects’ deepest needs and desires.

If you know your target prospect – their deepest fears, their highest hopes, their most frustrating problems, the thoughts that keep them up at night and the stuff they daydream about, you will know exactly what to say in order to persuade them.

So your first task after you get off this webinar is: get to know your prospects. Find out everything you need to know about them.

2. Is my Unique Value Proposition (UVP) clear?

Is it obvious what you do, what benefits you offer, and for whom? (Will visitors be able to discern those within 5 seconds from the time they hit your site?)

Is it clear what makes you different to the other providers in the marketplace? (Sure, they need the widget you’re selling, but why should they buy FROM YOU?)

One effective way to communicate your UVP effectively is doing the “5-second-man-from-Mars test”. That is,  ask someone (ideally, a member of your target market who has never been to your website) to look at your website for 5 seconds then look away.

Then ask them what your site is all about, what your business does, and for whom. If they didn’t get all those just by looking at your site for 5 seconds, you need to make your value proposition clearer.

3. Does my site/page address potential questions/concerns/objections they may have?

One of the top reasons for shopping cart abandonment is because the prospect didn’t feel confident about moving forward.  This may be due to lack of information (you didn’t provide enough information), or they didn’t feel going ahead was safe, or that the perceived risks of not buying was much less than buying.

4. Does my site elicit a trustworthy/credible image?

While many of your prospects may actually have decided they needed what you were selling, they decided to not go ahead because they perceived buying from you as a risk they’d rather not take. This could be because they didn’t think your website was secure, or that their credit card details could get hacked, or that they think your site looks cheap and therefore your biz might be a scam etc.

5. Does it reflect who I am and what I stand for?

Some buyers are Humanistic – they buy not so much because you are the best in your field, but because they feel you are trustworthy and honest.

They buy not so much because you are the cheapest or the most convenient, but because they resonate with your values and philosophy.

Some buyers don’t just buy what you are selling, they buy because they believe in what you stand for, and they believe there is so much value in what you are trying to accomplish.

So let your personality and your values shine icon smile 8 Questions That Could Boost Your Website Conversion Rate

6. Does it provide easy/convenient means of contacting me?

Providing your contact details (and by this I mean telephone and address as well as email) and company registration number (if applicable) gives the visitors more sense of security, and assures them that you are legitimate and they can always call you should they have any questions.

7. Is the sales copy or web copy persuasive?

Your website’s copy is one of the main factors that will directly affect your conversion. Never underestimate its power.

8. Is my website/sales page easy to navigate/ user-friendly?

Are there clear and compelling Calls To Actions (CTAs)?

Is it cluttered?

Are there far too many elements clamoring for the visitor’s attention?

Is the right amount of emphasis placed on the right elements (if the main objective of the page is to generate you leads, is the lead-capture form being emphasized properly, or there are other elements getting the visitor’s attention?)?

———————

Simply by taking the time to reflect and answer these questions, and brainstorming for ways how you could improve your website, you would surely increase your conversion rate.

Be sure to create a to do list of what improvements you wish to implement, then prioritize your to do list by implementing those that don’t require too much resources and time.  If necessary, hire a website developer / designer to implement the changes you wish to do.

Posted in Conversion Optimization | 1 Comments

The Science of Getting Clients

How to engineer all of your marketing to find the best clients for your business.

If you want to grow your business fast you’re going to need a fast forward button.

Okay, you know there’s no such thing. Maybe you’re right from one perspective, and wrong from another.

You can’t accelerate time in the normal way of thinking.  But time is a made up mental perspective.

Here’s why I believe that.

You would usually expect any business to take a while to get off the ground wouldn’t you?

I used to think that way.

But I found out how to jump ahead in time and become profitable with as many clients as you can handle.

And you can too with the right tools, right thinking and right strategies.

Here’s how:

Before you begin to implement your next marketing campaign segment each strategy into smaller action steps.

Think of this like a dial you turn one click at a time.

I’m going to use the five segments I believe to be the most powerful.

They are:

  1. Identify problem
  2. Identify person
  3. Create uniqueness
  4. Focus on finding
  5. Solution partnering

Let’s look first at:

    Identify problemworking hard The Science of Getting Clients

Think about your client’s problem, something that’s really getting under his or her skin.

I have a checklist for choosing products I want to either create or promote for others. It’s a seven point checklist I use as a guaranteed success guide.

Every time I use it I succeed. Every time I ignore it and let my ego run the show I fail.

The second on my checklist is:

What you offer must solve a common problem.

Note the emphasis on the word common. A lot of people must have this problem. They can’t fix it on their own because it’s too complex.

And that’s where you come in.

You must be able to solve this problem every time.

The three problems people typically pay the most to solve are:

  • Money problems
  • Relationship problems
  • Health problems

And these are almost always the most pressing problems.

The next segment we’re going to look at is:

    Identify person.

Who exactly is this person with this problem?

Once you figure out the type of person who has the common problem you know how to fix you would have pressed that fast forward button again.

You would jump about two years ahead of almost every other start up business.

So what do I mean type of person?

We’ll rewind a bit to type of problem. Let’s randomly choose health. And the problem is ageing too fast.

Who has this problem?

Women are concerned about their looks after the age of 35.  They begin to notice wrinkles and other signs of ageing.

When they are post menopausal they think almost no-stop about how old they are getting.

A woman of 50 would be a start. Perhaps she’s separated and looking for a romantic relationship so she wants to look and feel younger again.

And we know she is into complimentary health by the time she reaches 50.

The third of five is:

    Creating uniqueness

The best two books on this subject are:

‘Reality in Advertising’ by Rosser Reeves.

He’s the guy that came up with the unique slogan for a brand of chocolate, ‘It melts in your mouth not in your hand.’

‘Positioning – The Battle for Your Mind’ by Al Reiss and Jack Trout.

MMs The Science of Getting Clients

I read this book when I first got started with my first ever client in 1990.  His business was called ’Bennet & King partnership.’  Not very sexy is it?

The book inspired me to come up with a name that meant something. So I created our uniqueness by coming up with the name ‘ChemClear,’ which described what we did: clear chemicals.

As an unknown waste disposal company we were soon doing business with blue-chip pharmaceutical companies.

Being unique allows you to ‘push the fast forward button’ and be seen as an established brand almost overnight.

It’s better than waiting years and having to say, ‘established since 1990.’

How boring it that?

Other uniqueness I’ve created includes:

Lacewood designs – for kitchens that work the way you do.

The Academy of Dynamic Development – The bridge to your goals.

There was a game shop in Salisbury can’t remember the name but they sold computer games so I dreamed up ‘virtual games at realistic prices.’

If you don’t want to use a slogan then capture the essence of what you do in your company name like I did with ChemClear.

And like I’ve done with ‘The Science of Getting Clients.’  This works because of the rhythmic value and the rhyming sounds.

I learned this from Eben Pagan who uses ‘Double Your Dating’ as an eBook title.

I also came up with ‘Startup Successful,’ which also rhymes. And like Double Your Dating has two D’s, Startup Successful has two S’s.

These make the name easier to remember.

And you get to stand out from the crowd and rise to the top of your potential client’s mind to the number one spot in your category.

How?

Because you create your own category.

When you do you’re automatically the best. People love doing business with the best.

Don’t you?

    Focus on finding

The question I discovered for the genius marketer Jay Abraham was, “Who has your clients just before you do?”

This takes a bit of thinking power to come up with an answer to this insightful question.

So let’s use our imagination.

You have a clothes alteration business. You also repair clothes.  Who has your clients just before you do.

One possible answer is a off-th-peg clothes shop.  Someone slightly up market who doesn’t have a tailor.

You could approach them and say as a part of their service the offer to their clients they could come to your shop and get a 10% discount.

Another possibility is a laundrette. People often notice a broken zip or buttons missing when doing their washing.

A flyer in a local to you launderette would tell people what you do.

Create a solution focus partnership with the ideal authority figure in the client you want to attract.

Yes I know that’s a bit long winded but it saves you time when you know who your ideal client looks up to.

Here is where you go to someone who has access to your clients and your clients look up to them.

You could befriend someone like this by helping them in some way.  Or provide your product free for them to try.

Then you ask this person to endorse you to the people you want as clients.

That’s it.

You’ve identified the problem, the person, created uniqueness, found where your clients get together.

Then you asked for help by someone they respect, admire and trust.

The formula looks like this:



SOG Model 1 495x510 The Science of Getting Clients

How about looking at a real life recent example of exactly how I used this formula?

Here’s what I did:

I have a client who sells a health product called wheatgrass.  The main benefit of the product is that it gives you back the vitality, strength and stamina you had when you were 10 years younger.

So let’s look at the five part formula and see how I used it.

  1. Identify problem
  2. Identify person
  3. Create uniqueness
  4. Focus on finding
  5. Solution partnering

The problem is that people above 45 start to feel the effects of aging. I could go into this more deeply, but I think you get the picture.

The person with the problem is in my opinion women over 45.  Okay, there are men who notice the signs of slowing down at this age, but women actively seek to keep their youth, looks, and beauty far more often than men.

And we may as well go with the biggest market on this planet – - women.

Now we need to stand out from the crowd, so I gave my client the tag line, “Health by Choice – Not by Chance.”

This naturally implies that if you choose his wheatgrass you’ll have chosen good health.

The next part of the formula is where do you find this people. I suggested you’ll find women over 45 who want to slow down their aging process would attend a yoga class.

The last part was fairly easy. The guy who grows the wheatgrass is friendly with the head yoga teacher in his area.

In fact this yoga teacher was already taking the product and loved it.

So I asked my client to get an endorsement from this yoga teacher.  He not only got one, but two endorsements. The second was another well respected yoga teacher.

Only then do you create your marketing message. And that’s what I did.

Imagine you are a woman over 45 who attends a yoga class given by a teacher she admires, respects and trusts.

You’re given a letter with his photo on the front page and his words saying how good he feels the products is, and what a great thing his friend is doing by providing this to our community.

Would you at least read it?

Of course you would.

So phase one of our strategy is to take it directly to the yoga teacher’s class.

So far everyone who has read it has bought some wheatgrass.

The great thing is that almost everyone who buys the wheatgrass buys it every month.

That’s great for business.

Phase two is have this head yoga teacher phone other teachers in the area to tell them about the product and send them some letters to give out to their class.

Phase three is to get testimonials from people in this area and scale up by going to other yoga communities around the country.

I hope you enjoyed this look at how I use the fast-forward button to get start up businesses successful fast.

Of course there is more to it than this.

You now need to create a compelling marketing piece like I did in this example.

I have some great information on the do’s and don’ts of how to structure your marketing so that clients feel compelled to do business with you.

Get your free Science of Getting Clients Kit here.

——————————————————————————————————-

About the Author

Clive Cable is a master copywriter who has a 20 year track record of creating money making business launching promotions. Some of his sales copies made clients gross over £100K within the first year. Since 2003 his response rates have ranged from 7% to 38% (UK average is < 1%). He is a Founder Circle Member of American Writers and Artists Institute (AWAI), the world’s largest school of copywriting.

Posted in Business Strategies, Traffic Generation | 2 Comments

Subscribe to our RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, friend us on Facebook or sign up to our exclusive Newsletter below for further insight which will help you boost business!