Thinking of selling things online? Here's how to WIN...
Odds are, over the past few years, especially months, you've heard someone say that the way to ultimate wealth is online.
Whatever industry you're in, go online, lower your overhead, and make millions, BILLIONS!
Pffff.
YES, there's money to be made online.
But the way most are teaching it, all you'll ever end up doing is signing up for a bunch of software you barely know how to use, burn a bunch of money trying to send un-focused, cold Facebook traffic to a poorly converting website, until you've invested your last dime and you finally realize you're about to lose it all for nothing...
"amazon FBA is the way of the future!"
"build your own entire store with Aliexpress!"
"instagram hack your way to riches in your underwear"
"turn your knowledge into a digital empire without lifting a finger"
I've heard it all, and for most, it's a slow, painful death.
At least when folks used to invest 20K into a brick and mortar store, if they didn't do their homework, or didn't know what the heck they were doing, the death was quick.
If you went a month or two behind on rent, burned a few bridges, bounced a few things, you're out, case closed.
But online, you can hide behind your debt and misery for years, slowing letting the last ounce of life slip away.
And the worst part, it eats your soul.
Failing, especially online when others seem to "do it so easily" makes you feel incredibly insecure :(
Okay Al, this is getting depressing... where are you going with all this...
Don't worry, there's a light at the end of this tunnel!
As you know, I write and build entire funnels and digital empires for clients. I'm not cheap, but it's highly profitable. (NO, this is not a pitch for me to build you a funnel. There's not even a link to hire me, I'm extremely selective and don't allow just anyone to sign up)
And, I'd say most of my clients make all of their investment back within the first year, some it takes a little while longer, and a handful never make a dime.
That's life. Sometimes you win some, sometimes you lose some, and I'd be a fool (and a liar) if I said everyone I work with makes it big.
Many do, some don't.
So, you want to make money online?
You can, in just about EVERY niche (heck the smaller the better), but don't do what everyone else does...
Here, take a look at THIS website.
Now, this is NOT my work, but it's a spittin' image of what I do for clients.
A friend sent it to me bragging that he just ordered his FREE LURE! ;)
I laughed because this website, or at least the model, is exactly what I do for clients day in and day out.
This stuff works, and when you leave the heavily polluted "self-promotion" world, and enter an odd niche like say fishing lures, and within that niche the sub-niche of BASS fishing lures, you'll find there are thousands of un-jaded buyers waiting to send you money.
Buyers who've never seen a funnel. Buyers who've never seen a real sales-letter written by a pro. Buyers who are left mouthwatering for your offer by the end of the page. Buyers that are salivating, throwing their wallet at you.
Back to the point...
That page, and the ones I build, work for 1 main reason...
It's a focused offer, for a focused market.
I NEVER send cold traffic to a catalog or store.
Yet, that's what everyone tries to do...
They send you to their new online store, and buyers leave as fast as they came.
If anyone ever tells you to run an ad sending cold traffic to your e-commerce store, run like hell, and bring your wallet with you. (So you can pay me when you run to me to fix your store ;)!)
Instead, always (ALWAYS!) send cold traffic to one very specific offer that they were specifically targeted for, and that they are most likely to buy.
Listen, this is an old, repeatedly proven psychological FACT, yet so many new marketers out there never read the old research papers and seemed to have forgotten it...
Here, I'll share one such study...
In 2000, psychologist Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper from Columbia and Stanford went to a local food market with a display table of 24 different kinds of jams. On another day, same food market, people were offered only 6 different types of jams.
Guess which sold the most?
Sales on the 6-jam sample days were miles ahead of the 24-jam days. Although they noted that the 24 jam days generated much more interest, sales always fell flat.
Why?
Because choice paralyzes the consumer!
There are so many awesome options, they want them all, they can't seem to decide, argggggg they'll finish it later and bam they leave and never come back.
But when you run a targeted ad promoting one very specific product...
...you can tailor the message of that ad specifically for that product
...getting them all excited about it
....and when they click the link they're taken to that same products purchase page
...with more copy to fuel the fire we've started within them
...and bam, they make a purchase.
No distractions, no change of focus, no choices.
create 1 desire + offer 1 product that scratches that desire = CHACHING!
If we look back at that fishing lure site above, what if the link went to a page showing all their 250 different types of lures, colors, styles, hooks, weights, designs, rattles, floatability, boy I'm losing interest in it just writing this...
One last time for the repetitions sake...
COLD TRAFFIC should always go to ONE PRODUCT. (And be driven by one specific targeted campaign)
"But, I sell lots of products..."
That's awesome :)
Once they make a purchase, and they're done the checkout process, that's when you can share the rest of the love.
And of course, we'll usually write ads to several of your products, heck we can even do stand-alone ads and landing pages for each of those products, and it works like magic, as long as you follow the same formula.... targeted, cold traffic should always go to one product.
Once they're buyers, they're warm buyers, then you can start to run retargeting campaigns to your entire store :)
(BUT you may find that you're making so much money with single products, that you don't even need too!)
Anyhow, I need to get to work, I have several of these sales letters to write today, which means lots of research finding buyers HOT BUTTONS, uncovering their deep needs, and crafting the perfect, mouthwatering, irresistible offer that makes selling easier than taking candy from a baby...
So whatever you're selling, go ahead and make one killer sales page, one ad, and make loads of money :)
To your success,
Al
PS - If you're wondering what software the fishing lures sales page was done with, and which I personally use, it's Clickfunnels.
Yes, you can do try and code it manually. Yes you can try sending traffic to your specific product page on Shopify, yes you can make sales pages on Wix, but they're all clunky, and NOT conducive to a a smooth selling experience.
Clickfunnels has a 14 day trial, I suggest you give it a shot and see for yourself. And, full disclosure, if you sign up using the my link (Clickfunnels) I get a few bucks for recommending it.
BUT, don't be blinded by the referral fee, that's pocket change compared to what I do for my clients. Even if I wasn't getting a few bucks, I'd still recommend them.