how to get more sales

Why Knowing Your Target Audience Is Super Important

May 10, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Many people make the mistake as defining their target audience as anyone who is on Planet Earth or in outer space. By making their audience too big, these people are not able to zone in on their targeted audience–the people who care about and appreciate what these people do. Your targeted audience consists of the people who will buy your products, read your blog posts, and eventually become returning customers.

By knowing your target audience, you will be able to tap into the audience that cares the most about what you provide. People who care a lot about home and gardening products will not care as much about a blog about hotel marketing. Knowing your targeted audience allows you to create lists of people to interact with, build connections with, and turn into customers.

Since a targeted audience cares about what you do, they are more likely to tell their friends about you. As your blog and products spread through word of mouth, you will get more visitors and sales. Knowing your target audience is the starting point towards creating a strategy. Creating a strategy and then implementing that strategy is the starting point towards success.

Knowing your targeted audience will allow you to interact with the right people and make the right connections. The most successful social media power users are the ones who have built strong presences on various social networks with targeted followers. If you have not identified your targeted audience, then you need to do that right now. If you have already identified your targeted audience, then you are one step closer towards becoming very successful.

5 Ways To Get More People To Contact You

May 8, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

The strongest connections are the ones that take place one email at a time. There is no limit to the number of characters someone can use in an email. In addition, people in the conversation can go in-depth since their followers will not see the conversation. Five emails can have the same amount of content as 50 tweets. Followers who get 50 straight tweets about a conversation they are not in would get annoyed very quickly. Annoying your followers with these long conversations may result in some of those people clicking the dreaded unfollow button. Taking the conversation off social media and to the email solves that problem.

In addition, emailing blocks all of the distractions. When on social networks, some people are having 10 short conversations at the same time. Being able to email people will allow you to have one powerful conversation with someone and provide more information than you would be able to in a 140 character tweet. The person who you are having the conversation with will view your blog posts more often. Most of the people who are actively commenting on my blog are also the people who contacted me via email and had a lengthy conversation with me about social media, business, blogging, or my story. Some people may want to contact you about a speaking opportunity or another opportunity as well.

Basically, the more people get to contact you, the more connections you get to build. Allowing people to contact you is one of the most important ways to become successful. Everyone–whether the newbie or the people on Shark Tank, provide their visitors with a way to contact them. In order to get more people to contact you, implement these 5 tactics.

Create accounts for multiple social networks. Although my main social network is Twitter, I use a variety of other social networks as well. I have a strong presence on Pinterest, occasionally use GooglePlus, and I have my own Facebook Page. Most people come to my blog from Twitter, but some people find me on Pinterest. The Little Pickle Press found me on Pinterest, and as a result, I ended up getting featured on their site.
Have a Contact Me Page on your blog. Visitors should be able to contact you without scrolling up or down on your blog. By having a Contact Me Page that appears on the header of your blog, more people will know how to contact you.
Forms are overrated. Before leaving my email address on the Contact Me Page, I had a form. The problem with having a form is that the form can be buggy. Although I was getting 100 daily visitors at the time, no one contacted me on my blog. I later learned that the reason people were not contacting me like before was because the form I used on my blog was buggy. All of the people who tried to contact me at that time got a message saying, “Are you sure you want to do this?” with no way of saying yes or no. Since then, I simply have my email address right there on the Contact Me Page. Leaving your email address on your Contact Me Page cancels the risk of a buggy form.
Give the visitor at most three email addresses to choose from. A common mistake I see is that people create 10 email addresses and lump them all together on one Contact Me Page. Instead of creating a lot of email addresses, give your visitors subjects to choose to relay their message. If you need to have more email addresses on your Contact Me Page, you should have a Media Inquiries email address and one more of your choice as well. My recommendation though is to only have 1 email address available. Less is more.
Turn yourself into someone who people would want to contact. Seth Godin is someone who people would want to contact. Mariano Rivera is someone who people would want to contact as well. In order to get more people to contact you, you need to boost your credibility. The person with a Klout score of 70 gets contacted more often than the person with a Klout score of 50. The person with 100,000 real followers gets contacted more often than the person with 10,000 real followers. The bestselling author gets contacted more often than the author that published his first book a few days ago. By turning yourself into someone who people would want to contact, you will be able to have more conversations that go from social media or your blog to back and forth emails.

In order to grow your presence as an entrepreneur, business, or writer, you need to build strong connections. Whether someone from NBC contacts you or a potential customer, you will be more likely to build a strong connection when you are sending emails back and forth to each other. Those strong connections can lead to business opportunities, but any of those connections can lead to a customer. When people contact you, be sure to respond as quickly as possible no matter who is contacting you.

7 Ways To Increase Your Conversion Rate

May 7, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Increase Conversion Rate

There are few bloggers who get conversions on a daily basis. While many bloggers dream of getting numerous conversions every day, the truth is that 95% of bloggers do not get traffic conversion. The main reason bloggers do not convert a lot of their visitors is because the blog is not designed properly to entice the visitor. If you want to get more traffic conversions, follow these 7 tips:

Make the buttons bigger and easier to see. A giant button is going to get more visibility than a tiny button. Some people have reported that having a bigger button has doubled their conversion rates.
“Download Now” buttons Work Better Than “Add To Cart” buttons. This is a proven statistic that can increase your sales. “Download Now” encourages the person to buy your product (or enter an email to get it for free) while the “Add To Cart” button is generic and does not encourage the potential buyer as well.
Stop using the phrases that everyone else uses. Add To Cart is one of them. Another one is Click Here. Instead of saying, “click here to get the report,” say “Send me the report.” By starting the phrase with an action verb and using a phrase that is not too common, you will be able to boost your conversion rate.
Give your product a better design. Everyone judges a book by the front cover. Although the bestselling books (usually) are filled with quality content, they also have really cool covers. The Pumpkin Plan is a quality book, but the cover of a pumpkin with the “$” sign on the leaf dwarfing city buildings is a good cover. A better design may be all you need to boost your conversion rate.
Take advantage of color psychology. Colors have a big impact on conversion rate. Changing the color of your button may be all you need to do to boost your sales. I could go in detail about color psychology here, but QuickSprout provided a great infographic that explains how colors affect conversion rates. Before deciding what color to make your conversion buttons, you need to identify who your targeted customers are.
Run tests. The best way to see which results will allow you to boost your conversion rate is by running tests. In order to run a test, you would need to have a control (the design you are currently using) and an experimental design (the one you think will boost your conversion rate). After a month of split testing the two designs, stick with the design that leads to the most conversions.
Start with a quality free product. People are more likely to buy your products if you offer a free product. People are more likely to subscribe to your blog if your blog posts are really good. Then, that visitor knows that what you give them for free as a subscriber is going to be really good. Quality is always important in boosting your conversion rate.

Those are the 7 ways to boost your traffic conversion. Conversion is very important factor towards building a strong following and presence on the web. What do you think about the list? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

9 Ways To Get More Sales

April 30, 2014 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Increasing Sales

No matter what product you are selling, what niche you are in, or what your business is all about, you need sales in order to make a strong income from your business. However, many people are struggling to make sales let alone a single sale. There are books up on the Kindle have not been sold once. The main reason this happens is because the person who made the product does not know what to do in order to get more sales. I am going to provide the solution and share with you 9 of the methods I implement to increase my book sales. Whether you are selling books or toys, these methods apply to you.

How frequently you create something new. The most successful self-published authors tend to be the ones who publish 1 eBook every month or publish 1 highly detailed eBook every year. The rate in which you create new products and the quality you can produce in that amount of time will determine how many potential sales your product could get.
Market your product before it launches. If you want one of your products to get more sales, tell people about the product before it launches. I have mentioned my upcoming book Lead The Stampede in several of my blog posts. Each time I publish a blog post that references the book, people ask me when it will come out. To answer the question, Lead The Stampede will come out in Summer 2014.
Write a blog post about your product that sells. In order to get more sales, you need to write a persuasive blog post. Instead of simply writing a description of your product with the big “Buy Now” button, give people a reason to buy the product. Here is an example of a persuasive blog post that resulted in one self-published author getting thousands of downloads for his book in less than a week.
Build your credibility. An author who has written several bestselling books is going to get more sales for his/her next book than the author who started writing books a few months ago. In order to build your credibility, you need to get a strong following on a social network and have a popular blog. There are other ways to pull it off as well.
Have multiple products available. Having multiple products gives you the possibility of returning customers. Once a returning visitor buys three of your products, chances are that visitor will buy a lot of the products that you create.
Create a product that people would want to buy. Create products that people would want to buy. People only buy something for the quality. False! Fast food restaurants are not successful because of their quality. They are successful because of price and convenience. The three options you have are quality, price, and convenience (although all three in the same business always fails). I combine quality and price which means I produce quality products and sell them at much lower prices than the competition.
Spread the word about your product using social networks. Find people who would be interested in your products and introduce yourself to those people. Spreading the word on social networks will allow you to get more sales and interact with those customers so you can ensure they come back for your next product.
Get testimonials. The most successful products are the ones with good testimonials. Would you rather buy the product without testimonials, or would you want to buy the product with hundreds of positive testimonials? Most people would go with the product with hundreds of positive testimonials. When customers buy into the product, they are also buying into the testimonials about those products.
Become a public speaker. By being a public speaker, you will be able to talk about your niche and inform people about your product at the same time. People are more likely to buy an author’s book after listening to that author talk about something in your niche for 20 minutes or so. The author’s signature also entices more people to buy the book.

There are numerous ways to get sales, but these are the 9 methods that I have used and seen good results. What are your thoughts about the list? Do you have any additional tips that you use to get more sales?

5 Ways To Get More eBook Sales

April 23, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

eBooks and Books

Many authors who publish their eBooks have dreams of being able to get hundreds (or even thousands) of sales every day. However, the problem new authors face is putting in a lot of work and not making many sales. Some authors’ eBooks do not make a single sale until several months after the eBook gets published. However, it is possible to get more eBook sales. Not only is it possible, but it is also not as challenging as people think to get more eBook sales. These are some of the ways to get more eBook sales:

Write eBooks frequently. Some authors publish 1 eBook every month. By publishing at this frequency, customers are easily able to become returning customers. However, as you increase your frequency, you need to be sure that you are not throwing away quality. If you do not publish 1 eBook every month, you do need to make sure that you are publishing multiple eBooks every year.
Get more reviews. Contact the people who you know bought your book and ask them if they would like to write a review. If you ask a customer this way, the customer is more likely to say yes. Include your social networks in your book so you can have conversations with your customers. In addition, you can ask for a review at the end of your book. Say something like, “After you read this book, I would greatly appreciate it if you wrote an honest review for my book on Amazon.”
Build the buzz. Many people make the mistake of not building the buzz. The people who have been reading my blog for a while know that I am writing a book called Lead The Stampede that will be published in the summer. That’s because I have mentioned my upcoming book in several blog posts. In addition, people have already contacted me on Twitter saying that they cannot wait for the book to come out.
Use HARO to get pitches. After reading The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz, one of the things I noticed is that there were a lot of examples of other people using various methods included in The Pumpkin Plan. Mike Michalowicz got many of these stories from using HARO and submitting a query. I decided to do the same thing for Lead The Stampede. Several people’s stories will be included in Lead The Stampede. The people whose stories are going to be included in Lead The Stampede have asked me when the book will come out and want updates. I get more sales and promote others. It’s a win-win for everyone!
Get the big guys and gals to review your book. If you get a review from one celebrity, that’s all you need. The people who have a deep respect for that celebrity notice the review. At the back of The Pumpkin Plan is a review from Seth Godin. It did not take me long to realize that The Pumpkin Plan needed to be on my reading list.

Those are 5 ways to get more eBook sales. What are your thoughts about the list? Do you have any additional tips you would like to recommend? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

The Only Good Change Is The One That Matters To The Customer

April 20, 2014 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Time For Change

It has been established that innovations are critical towards getting more customers. Instead of doing what everyone else does, you have to be different. Whether you are different by raising your prices or offering a high quality product, you need to differentiate yourself from the competition.

However, this idea has brought forth the idea that any innovation is a good one. That is simply not the case. There are several innovations that are not effective. The only innovations that are effective are the ones that people notice. If your customers do not notice your innovation, then it’s not going to work.

Authors who add content to already published books do not just add a few pages. Adding a few pages would be a minor change that went unnoticed. Instead, when authors update their already published books, they are adding several pages to those published books. Some authors write an additional 40 pages that get added to an already published book. The people who purchased their book the first time will end up purchasing their book the second time because 40 pages is a lot of new content. 40 pages is a noticeable change which results in more sales.

When you make changes to your business model, you need to make positive changes that your customers will notice. Electric powered cars get noticed because they are safer for the environment.

Before you make a change to your business or product, ask yourself if your customers would be able to see and appreciate the change that you are going to make.