Why you’re not selling as much as you should online.

In this duo podcast/YouTube episode, I break down some of the psychology related stuff behind selling things online.
In short, a lot of the troubles that businesses face comes from messaging that is out of line with what they should be saying.
Here’s a quick break down…

1. The messaging we put out often persuades our potential customers before they even come to us.

I see this mistake a lot with local businesses. They think it’s a selling point to be the “cheapest” option around. That is all well and good until it comes time to pay your bills and have no profit left over.

2. You can charge more while competing with the big companies.

The only advantage a lot of the big companies have is that they are cheaper. If you sell something that means something to someone, you can make your potential customer have that “they get me feeling” which means you can charge a fair price for everyone.
In the end, people are going to perceive you by what you put out to your market. If you say you’re “cheap”… no one is going to expect to pay much.
But, if you shift that message to be “I’m valuable…” it changes the game forever.
If you found this valuable, please share with someone who could use it!

Apple’s newest iOS upgrade has marketers pulling their hair out once again. Shortly after the devastation of the 14.5 iOS update that nearly killed retargeting as a viable marketing tactic, we are now seeing the next phase of Apple’s commitment to user privacy. This short post will dig into what iOS 15 means (as I understand it) and what you can do about it.

What is iOS 15 and what’s the “big change”?

Apple’s iOS 15 update in regards to what it means for marketers is going to mean big changes specifically in the reporting of email marketing metrics.

Currently, if you are deploying email marketing, you can track open rates and make intelligent decisions based on what % of opens your email gets.

The newest iteration of Apple’s iOS updates will essentially skew those numbers beyond the point that they’ll be usable.

What’s the big deal?

Essentially, this update will essentially “count” each email delivery as an opened email. This of course will skew performance overall because marketers will essentially be partially blind if a number of email subscribers are using apple devices (which is a significant part of the market).

What should you do to combat the iOS 15 update?

The first step? Accept it.

Personally, I’m jumping for joy over this update because it’s another “hit” to the tricks that make up what disguises itself as marketing today.

Am I happy we’ll be losing critical decision making data? Of course not!

But, I am happy about the fact that lazy marketers will be forced to deploy effective strategy instead of cheap tricks like tricking people into opening emails.

What should the focus now be?

Looking at things as “gloom and doom” as possible means that we can assume the end of retargeting and the end of accurate data for email marketing.

(Of course… I know it’s not that bad.)

But what you should be focused on now is frankly getting back to the basics.

First… Focus on providing value instead of tricking someone into opening an email. This is actually probably the perfect timing for this. More and more people are admitting to being annoyed about their email boxes being inundated with spam, marketing, and other stuff that they don’t want to see. Instead of shooting for an “x% open rate” deliver something valuable!

Second… Focus on the front end. Similar to the old school tactics like TV, Radio, and etc… It’s critical now to nail down your messaging. Marketers have been lucky lately where a sale can be won in the retargeting. Now, it may be worth considering widening your Top of Funnel and really nailing your messaging when people see you there.

Third… It’s more important than ever to be found. I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a mention of using SEO as a strategy to combat these changes. 🙂

It’s important to make sure you are found when people are looking for the products you sell. This does not just mean being there for “the sale”, it means the top of the funnel as well. Like in the other points mentioned above, it’s important to make that great first impression.

Once you have the visitor, work to make sure you create the best experience possible.

In short… treat your customers like people & with respect.

Launching a new website can be an exciting experience, but it can also feel overwhelming. There are many things to consider when launching a site for the first time – including SEO! In this blog post, we will discuss how to launch your website with SEO in mind from the ground up. I’ll share insights on what you should do before you publish content, and offer tips for when you’re ready to start marketing your site!

Step 1: Marry your targeted keywords with your navigation.

In a perfect world, you’d have a page for each targeted keyword. But this is not a perfect world. So, instead, focus on matching up the main keyword for that page with what it means to you in the navigation bar.

Here are some recommendations:

– Use variations of your targeted keywords in each nav item and subnav items (e.g., “read about SEO“)

– Don’t forget to include related topics or closely linked terms as well! (Eg.: “Want more info? Check out our blog.”)

If you don’t have time for that now but want to keep future updates easier – go ahead and designate a couple pages as landing pages on your site by adding them at the end of your existing navigation scheme while keeping these best practices in mind! That way when new content goes live, you can update your navigation to match.

Step 2: Identify “Sub-Keywords” and include them in your content.

You can also think of this as “long tail keyword” optimization. A lot of businesses make the mistake of going right for the “getting the sale” keywords.

The reality is that potential customers are all at different points of the buying journey, so instead of going right for the sale, build goodwill by being there in the research journey.

Step 3: Best technical practices to be considered.

Page speed and SEO – these two things are intrinsically linked. Google has said that a few seconds of loading time can affect your SEO rankings, which is why it’s important to have page speed in mind when you’re launching or relaunching a website.

If at all possible, load the content asynchronously and prioritize what you want first – less relevant elements like ads should come later. This will not only improve your page speeds but also create a better user experience for your visitors because they’ll see more of what they came to see quickly without having to wait for ads and other non-essential components of the site before getting back on track with their research!

Mobile Optimization and SEO – Google has made it clear that they prioritize mobile-friendly websites, so if you don’t have a responsive design or the site doesn’t work well on mobile devices, this is something to keep in mind.

You can use Google’s Mobile Friendly Test Tool and see how your website fares! You’ll want to fix as many of these issues before going live with your new site – once content goes up there’s no turning back!

At the end of the day, successful SEO comes when you’ve successfully considered your customer’s buying experience.