and we are alive so what were we bought
into another live hangout super excited
to be here with you today to talk about
how to convert more of your your leads
your prospects into customers and
clients and I’m really excited to have a
special guest with me today Michael from
Aweber who is in charge of all of their
data and analysis and helping
entrepreneurs basically figure out the
science and conversion Michael welcome
aboard Thank You outlet i really
appreciate you having me he’s rocking
the the aweber hat because it’s
Christmas time I’m liking it so we
already have a ton of questions that
came in but before getting to the
questions I wanted to just get a quick
overview from you what your thoughts are
your approach is how can people get more
client and convert them better by using
data and analysis right amp mean that’s
what I’ll charged with Herod Aweber and
what we do is you’d think that it’s it’s
almost analysis paralysis type of thing
but really each each piece information
that you collect including every single
piece and know that you get is just
another step closer to getting to a
conversion I mean things we look at our
acquisition cancellations we use those
type type of information to help us lead
into churn rates lifetime values
retention rates these are the type of
metrics I’m looking at all day long and
other individual kpi’s we break it down
by channel even down to the add content
of the UTM parameter I mean everything
that we look at is essential to helping
us get closer to our customers
understanding what our customers need I
love it and for those of you who may not
be as familiar with Aweber we’ve been
doing this series for a number of months
now it’s an email marketing software
it’s a comfort of I’ve use for the past
ten plus years for all my email
marketing and so we’ll talk about email
marketing and conversion and the
strategies and the science behind it can
apply to any conversion engine and so
we’re excited to take your questions
that be able to help you work through
the process so let’s get to the
questions the first one came in from
Dennis what is the most successful path
to take a customer from signing up for
your email list to converting them to a
paying customer is there
certain path the process you take that
makes the entire transition simple and
painless for the customer well that is a
great question and the answer that is
unfortunately no there’s never one
single path that works for everyone to
help you flesh out that path or figure
out what that path maybe it takes a lot
of testing and it takes a lot of
tracking of what campaigns you’re using
or what channels you’re using so i can
tell you from my personal experience you
know working here at a weber is there’s
never going to be a single path we
consider you know are a top number one
way of going what we do is we take
different approaches to different
campaigns to different target audiences
different channels and what we do at
that point is we’ll start seeing what
the success is based on our acquisition
or our turn our attention so I’d love to
say that yes is the path that works best
for everybody but unfortunately i can
never tell that to you so it takes a lot
of testing it takes a lot of information
yeah and dennis thank you for that
strong lead opening question there uh I
feel like so many entrepreneurs were
told they need a list right everybody
says you need to get an email list and
it’s often one of the biggest regrets
for a lot of online marketers is that
they wish they had started sooner with
having a list uh but then you have a
list of what do you do with it right
like how do you I think a lot of
entrepreneurs make the mistake of i’m
just going to blast out promotions all
day long and is that yeah I mean it’s
best way the best way to do is actually
segment that list right so you want to
be smarter about the content that you’re
sending out that offers it’s not going
to relate back to everybody else so when
you’re collecting that list and this is
for anyone who’s starting with email
marketing or looking to start an email
list is um we have certain features and
functions within our product that you
can categorize them right so you can
look at maybe they like a certain
cupcake if you’re into pastries or
they’re certain movies they love to talk
about if you’re doing some kind of
review that’s the best way of segmenting
out your list at first and just
understanding what their specific
interest is and moving from there yeah
and I think it just with a general email
marketing strategy is providing content
and building a relationship first you
don’t you don’t walk up to somebody who
you just met and you know ask them to
marry you right yeah I hope nothing
developer relationship right go on dates
you get to know them and then
you need to do with your customers who
the people on your email list they may
come because they you know saw some free
download you had or they write a post on
your blog or they like something about
you but maybe not ready to buy yet this
is your chance to develop an ongoing
relationship with them and you know one
of the great things about a weber is the
autoresponder sequence that you can
automatically send emails every week or
every three days or whatever time
interval you want to build a
relationship with them and offer them
lots of value before you start selling
anything so you could test it obviously
right that’s the point of using data and
analytics just like you can test all the
things seven that’s what it is yeah so
if i was looking at like a successful
path to take a customer the question was
from signing up to email is to convert
into the pain customer i look at an
autoresponder sequence that was full of
value that establish you as the expert
that you know you’re talking about that
you’re credible and then after that
sequence is through you can have a sales
pitch a call to action once they know
you like you trust you right cool next
up was Rodney who’s asking is there a
blueprint to all of this converting
customers is there a blueprint he wants
to using an say what’s the blueprint I’d
love to say that could give everybody be
easy answer I mean for for if we’re
looking from start to finish you know
we’re looking for ways of converting
them more pretty much relates back to
the to the very first answer the very
first question that we got and that’s
you know first you know cultivate your
list try to figure out who your
customers are what they’re doing if
you’re in the e-commerce what are they
spending it on even more importantly I
think I said this in the beginning of
the the Q&A was remember every no or
every drop off during that that order
path is just another way of you getting
closer to the next person so you want to
make sure that you’re not only looking
at what successful you got to take a
good hard look at what wasn’t successful
in moving from there yeah and I mean
this is general advice but I think if
you look at an overall blueprint and
especially in terms of converting people
converting leads to customers I’ve been
looking at what is your sales engine
right so the other thing you want to
make a sale back that up to how do
people find out about your company so
maybe it’s you know before the sale
the newsletter and then before the
newsletter comes your social media and
your content marketing in you know
advertising that you’re doing and
networking events right if that’s your
fun all of these things are generally
attention Josh go to the website dress
rooms of the newsletter drive people to
buy then when you understand your sales
funnel then you can figure out okay how
do i optimize everything right how do i
increase my newsletter open rates in
click-through rates and how do i get
more people from facebook to then sign
up for my newsletter right i guess i’ll
use letter to my website or from my
newsletter to my order page that’s
there’s the type of things want to make
sure you’re watching constantly right so
you pack it out you have a yeah dinner
that you want to make a sale that’s what
you’re trying to do as an entrepreneur
what are all the steps that somebody has
to go through to get to that sale and
then how can you use data to optimize
each step along the way right so I guess
the first step would be you know gather
your leads so you can either get your
leads from sending out certain pieces of
content maybe you’re using pay per click
or you know starts engine optimization
something along those lines that you’re
cultivating a list you’re cultivating a
group of leads that you’re going to go
out and you’re going to target now with
those leads the next step is trying to
figure out how you’re going to convert
them into a customer so that’s kind of
cultivating your leads you’re going to
want to figure out who your customers
are what they like to what your spending
habits are if you can get an information
I mean Google Analytics if no one in the
group is actually looking at this there
is a ton of demographic information
showing you down even if they’re like
movie lovers or if they’re how long
their age group sex demographics things
like that but you want to start looking
at that information understanding who
your customer base is um one says Lisa
cultivated then you want to start doing
your campaigns right so you can start
looking at doing like I said before
Facebook Ads if that’s something that’s
that’s relative to you if you’re looking
into an email email marketing of course
if you want to start doing any type of
email marketing group out to them and
then Mitch make sure you’re tagging them
and seeing how successful you’re doing
cool live from the audience get your
eyes ribbon to say before talking in
depth can you do a brief clear
definition of what churn rate means oh
sure that’s not a problem sojourn ray
is the most simplistic way of saying
turn rate is all of your cancellations
and we’ll say given month right so if i
have a from the first of the 31st of a
month how many cancellations you have
there you take that as a numerator I’m /
your total active so your whole customer
base your whole customer universe that’s
going to give you a churn rate and what
churn rates meant to do is just give you
an idea of the amount people that you’re
losing on month-over-month basis churn
rate actually goes to a lot of other
metrics so it’s going to help you look
at retention rate retention rate is
basically just you know 1 minus turn and
that’s going to tell you like if your
turn is two percent your retention rate
is ninety-eight percent but we also use
turn for things like lifetime value so
if you were to take your monthly
recurring revenue or you’re like your
average revenue per user divide that by
turn that’s going to give you a lifetime
value what lifetime value gives you is
what would you expect to see from the
whole course in time that you have a
certain individual as a customer that’s
what your lifetime value is going to be
so the goal there is to get a higher
lifetime value as goes to a lower
lifetime value 11 welcome to all the new
people who are joining if you like what
we’re talking about you can click on our
faces to give us props right now michael
has a lead over me I feel like I should
be taking my airtime to get more props
if I so nothing’s helped definitely had
I love it okay marisha wrote in to say
how do i challenged myself to be more
data minded ah how do you challenge
yourself I mean hmm that’s what I saying
that every how do you challenge yourself
every action that you do within your
business should be followed and the
reason I’m saying that is to be make
educated educated decisions or
understanding where things went right or
went wrong you really need to focus on
using analytics there’s no other basis
of understanding how a problem occurred
or how to avoid future problems without
looking at the information that you’ve
collected and that’s to me things that
keep me up at night if all the
information that we have and we have a
ton of information how can I best
leverage that for our customers I mean
honestly we want to make sure that we’re
giving them the best experience over
time
and we’re very diligent about collecting
that information make sure that that
happens I love it and I think if you’re
not a data oriented person an easy way
to get started is just come up with
three things that you want to track in
your business what are three important
numbers that mean something to you
because once you start tracking
something what gets what gets measured
right you want to improve on so what are
three important numbers to your business
maybe revenue is one of them but what
are some other to write that might lead
to revenue and that if you see that
you’re you know you’re tracking is every
day every week every month know for me I
look at my youtube subscribers as an
example look at that everyday look at
where my YouTube subscribers are at and
I want to do better because I’m
following those things it makes me want
to do better so you’ll find that that
happens so that’s the easiest way that I
think to start if you’re not a data
minded kind of person then if you’re
looking longer-term maybe you need to
bring on someone like Michael who lives
and breathes and loves it and you know
goes the bad dream in the numbers ah and
do is I’m like you I do do equations in
my sleep so correct that may be some way
that you bring in either a part time
basis or consulting basis but to start I
think just having three numbers at you
track on a regular basis would really
help there is a mad props war happening
right now but you’re winning its own
love yes i’m waiting for now but we’ll
see Tamara’s is doing good Tom writing
in are there any good blogs or content
sources that help to make these concepts
more digestible yeah that’s that’s um
that’s a great question so if you’re not
on google analytics if you’re not
following them on twitter i mean it is
literally gold all day long that they
pass along that they retweet from other
certain individuals but then themselves
put out just a wealth of information
other places that I go if you’re really
into analytics and your ear stats guy
you could go to kissmetrics does a great
job with their blog Aweber of course as
always has good amount of information
around analytics and how you can apply
that to your email marketing campaign
for me I like the web
I called which test one they get an
email every week and their website is a
little hard to navigate which is kind of
surprising since they’re in a user
experience kind of business but I find
the email super helpful where every week
they send you a marketing example of hey
there’s this campaign versus this
campaign or this headline versus this
headliner this color button versus this
one it shows you two examples and then
you have to guess which one you think
did better before they tell you the
answer and so it’s it’s trying to train
your marketing gut I guess along the way
and I find that I think it comes out
every Wednesday once a week takes you
know 30 seconds to go in and I find it
just it’s a easy primer to kind of get
you thinking about this stuff Eileen
writing in how can I determine how often
to email my list oh great question you
want to start testing those things
around so you want to look at things
like your your open rates you want to
start looking at you know click through
rates if that’s available but really
it’s a tough nut to crack I will
definitely say take youtube or on a
conservative side at first it also
depends at this type of information that
you’re sending out now if you’re doing a
daily piece that people signed up for
then you know by all means do it every
day but if it’s gonna be like a
newsletter um maybe once a week maybe
once a month but it’s going to take time
for you to figure out what the secret is
for you what the best combination is for
you yeah and to add to that I would say
you want to make sure that it’s it’s
about the quality much more than the
frequency right right like if you’re
posting awesome quality stuff people
have a higher tolerance you can send
them to three emails a week if it’s high
quality stuff so it’s not like the magic
bullet it’s not hey once a month is the
ideal time or once a week on Wednesdays
is the best time to send it it’s really
focusing in on are you adding value like
is somebody you know here’s what
happened to me when I went on vacation
and people wrote in to me because I
didn’t send up my newsletter so hey I
didn’t get your newsletter what happened
that’s a good sign you got your alloy
but not office yeah people miss your
newsletter right are you posting that
kind of
all the information that if you don’t
post people going to write to you right
it’s the same thing that any of the
content you’re creating a blog you know
if I stop posting on my youtube channel
people would for sure right to me and
say what happened um so you know on my
youtube channel is another example
people say you should post one video a
week two videos a week I’m three a day
you know three videos go out almost
every single day on my youtube channel
but it’s all really good stuff right a
different content subject matter right
for certain individuals yeah but it’s a
good question i know it’s one that again
you want an easy answer for like oh Oh
once a week okay great that’s what I’m
going to send it but really young you
want to do the test in and make sure
that it’s high quality information
you’re sending cool so ty is writing in
and then I guess for those guys again
who will watch in live if you want to
ask this a live question it’s /q and
then type and it will show up as a
question for us ties right in with
selling something like digital magazines
what are some good metrics to track oh
yeah the ones we’ve already touched on
so we’re subscription-based service as
well so things that I currently look
into and I look into day and a night is
going to be our acquisitions right so
our number sign ups always looking at
cancellations looking at churn rate
which we discussed earlier and then
actually looking at LTV and the reason I
look at our lifetime value and the
reason I look at lifetime value is I
want to see the type of customers that
we have coming in expection you know how
long we expect them to be with us and we
actually because I’m you know Evan said
this earlier I’m commentary with this
stuff I break it out by Channel and
source so i want to say if i have a good
amount of people that we referred are
that were sent to us from facebook i
will understand what their churn rate is
or what their lifetime value is those
are the things that I look at constantly
non-stop so sorry that was long-winded
but acquisition cancellations churn rate
in lifetime value are the ones i look at
i love it and for me you know with any
without knowing too much information
about the business i would say again
look at what the sales funnel is so you
want people to buy your digital magazine
so where are they buying from the bond
from your website are they buying it
from your newsletter and if those are
the two primary sources then how do you
then get people to the website into the
newsletter right I think you probably
have a lot more success through a
newsletter than just a website because
you get to touch with them every week or
every month or whenever you want to send
them content where with the website
you’re hoping that they land on it may
be a one-time thing so are using
Facebook or using YouTube videos are you
going to networking events and if you
start to track this stuff and say hey
here’s how many leads I got to my
newsletter list from going to this
networking event then you can say okay
this is worth my time I’m getting an ROI
from it and if you don’t track it then
you don’t know what’s working what’s not
right maybe you shouldn’t be doing
facebook at all because it’s not getting
not the best sorry I got you want okay
right right and then once you’re getting
some data you can work okay well how do
i improve the numbers how do I make it
better how do i optimize it right if you
I test doing two emails a month and
increase the quality or maybe I work on
going to higher quality or higher and
networking events that are specific to
my audience right once you know where
your leads are coming from it’s easier
to optimize your campaign where to spend
more time and potentially dollars to and
then with what you might want to cut
back and eliminate from there’s the old
adage and advertising that you know
fifty percent of my advertising is being
wasted I just don’t know which half yeah
people don’t know where they’re spending
money and I get again it’s hard for
entrepreneurship you’re doing so many
things you know you’re trying to run a
quality business and you’re you’re in
the day to day of running it and you
don’t listen want to think about all
these things and everybody says okay you
got to do this social media you got to
get on blab now you got to get on
YouTube you got to do all these things
and and like when do I actually have
time to run my business right the nice
part is a lot of the tools people are
using now like YouTube blab Facebook
free analytics Google Analytics if no
one in the group is using that yet and
you have a website you should be on that
constantly every day just to see what’s
up a traffic you’re getting where people
falling off in the funnel where are my
referrals coming from why getting you
know a thousand some referrals from a
certain domain as opposed to another one
so you just want to make sure
or you know where your traffic is coming
from how it’s converting and where
they’re dumping off yeah I love it fly
duo hey guys welcome fido as a loyal low
viewer um great ok the next question
came in from Mauritius for youtubers who
are looking to use data to make
important changes in their business for
2016 what metrics should they be paying
attention to most thank you so much
great I feel like this is one that you
should cover because you probably know
way more than I possibly could but i
will say before heading it off to evan
because he is the expert in this um it’s
my understanding that a lot of YouTube
analytics are the same as google
analytics so if they were me and I’m not
Evan but if it were me I’d be looking at
email sessions that come in the
impressions that were given the time
spent watching the video any type of
consumer action that happened during
that time I would consider that my KPI
or my you know the bar and I’m
constantly trying to be jumped that bar
is what I’m doing but Evan please I
leave to you hey you got the personality
you should have your own YouTube channel
2i I would say my killing oven because
kayla is not that far away buddy I we
should do it you should do it I like it
I would subscribe an understanding data
I like it um okay so with YouTube watch
time is the most important variable in
their system if you have high watch time
on your videos then you will get ranked
higher and it’s not just watched I’m on
a particular video it’s then their
entire session so YouTube wants you to
stay on youtube as long as possible 24
hours a day so if you come and watch one
of my videos then you leave my channel
and watch 10 hours of Justin Bieber I
get credit for all those 10 hours too
and so that’s YouTube’s goal and if you
look at your analytics now they recently
changed the back end where watch time
its number one thing that you see it’s
the first box when you log into your
YouTube back in it used to be views and
now it’s so it’s watched time and so if
you’re doing a deep dive on your videos
you could look at one series versus
another and i know mauritius channel a
little bit she has different series she
has like whatever wednesdays what I was
Wednesdays and
do some singing videos what you can do
is compare those two series right take
videos in those series and compare the
watch time on them not the absolute
watch time but the relative watch time
so if you’re singing video is five
minutes long it’ll show you how it
compares to other five minute videos on
YouTube and you’ll see if you’re above
or below the average and if you’re below
then what can you do make it better
right how do you I don’t know sing
better or bring in friends or pick
different songs or maybe don’t continue
that series right so I’ll always track
you know I track my daily daily and kind
of obsessed have this excel file and
I’ll check my subscribers and I’ll track
my number of views on the channel I
would have to say that oven if you’re
keeping an excel file we should partner
up I’m telling you right now because
that’s that’s my life you keep excel
files too I like it um but yeah but like
ended on an individual video basis watch
time is going to be the most important
thing um cool JD I get wealthy what do
you think about storytelling in
marketing so I just wanna make sure I
understand the question too and I don’t
know if he’s on here if you can reach
out but I storytelling on thinking you
mean content the content that you’re
providing to your audience um yeah I
would I would I would assume so ok I
mean the things that you want to look at
when you’re starting to create a write
or send out any content is start looking
at the type of keywords that if you have
google analytics or any type of other
analytical tool that you might be using
look at that certain keywords that
people are responding to right so for us
we look at things like email automation
email marketing the other thing is if
you’ve put out other types of content in
the past get in the habit of tagging
every piece of content you put out there
when i say tagging with google analytics
you have four dimensions right so its
source medium campaign name of that
content you should be providing a tag
for each piece of content so you can
understand what’s being more receptive
to your audience right so who is reading
your blog post or anything along those
lines and same thing with email
marketing if you’re setting out certain
types of
newsletters or pieces of broadcast I’m
you always want to make sure the
understanding how people are reacting to
it and you just want to try to follow
that type of pattern throughout the
course your business honestly throughout
the end of time if possible yes
storytelling is super important uh you
know we before we got on this call we’re
talking about Star Wars and how michael
has to wait till Wednesday before you
can see it mommy’s not worried like it’s
just a great story writing has built a
multi-billion dollar industry I think
your advantage as an entrepreneur is
your story the way that you stand out
the way you compete against the huge
companies in the industry is your story
like why don’t you do this let me feel
your passion because if if you are doing
you know the same thing as a big
competitor and you want to offer the
same price why would I ever go with you
right I’m going to go with somebody else
that has the brand name the recognition
the trust so then you have to cut your
price which isn’t the business that you
want to begin so the difference is your
ability to tell your story because if I
feel your passion about what you’re
doing and I can relate to you that I’m
much more likely to want to buy from you
and I think too many entrepreneurs hide
behind a corporate looking website
because it looks professional put your
picture on your website tell us why you
started this thing right in your email
campaign let me feel your your passion
right like one of the emails should say
why you started this business and why
you’re so excited about it when you’re
providing content tell me your personal
take on it right not just here are the
facts and figures but tell me what it
means to you that’s your ability to
create a personal relations with people
that will then convert really well to
building trust and then to closing
clients uh 2,000 books writing in ten
percent I think it’s a YouTube question
ten percent of 60 minute watch time is
better than one hundred percent of a
three-minute video so yes they’re
looking for a number of minutes so six
minutes the ten percent of a 60 minute
video is six minutes versus hundred
percent of a three-minute video yes now
watch them is not the only thing they
look at they also want to see engagement
right so are people leaving comments or
people adding it to playlist but watch
is the most important fact and criteria
in that closed that down again for those
of you who just joined you can do /q to
ask us a question and you can click on
our faces to give us props it’s a close
race the close race we’re neck and neck
here we’ll see how it ends up ok Kumar I
would like to know which is the best
social media marketing platform for
e-commerce businesses ok well I mean
from personal experience and just
previous experience I don’t think there
is just one channel social channel
that’s perfect for everything that you
send out their content wise I mean
Facebook versus linkedin linkedin is
more business oriented right so you’re
going to have a different type of tone a
different type of audience with that as
opposed to Facebook where it might be a
little bit more friendly or might be a
little bit more not as formal so what
you do want to do is if you start
spending money in any of these but like
any of these channels if you’re starting
to look at facebook ads if you’re
looking at LinkedIn ads you definitely
want to see how much is being spent and
then seeing how successful it was
compared to the other channel right so
you want to look to see the amount of
impressions or conversions that you have
so you can double down on something
that’s doing better the one channels
because the other one that’s not giving
you the the result you’re looking for
but just three hundred one more time I
don’t think there is just one perfect
channel for anybody I think it’s just a
matter of testing the channels seeing
the best results and then just doubling
down on the ones that work great yeah i
agree i think having a campaign that
targets multiple channels intestine and
seeing what works is it is it a great
start I think it’s understanding the
dynamics of each channel you know so
like YouTube is a video channel right
are you able to create video content
that’s compelling if not don’t go to
youtube right i mean there’s some basic
things i don’t know what kind of
programs are trying to sell through your
ecommerce platform and what your
capabilities and strengths are ideally
that’s what you want to overlap is where
your audience is at combined with what
you are good at doing and have the
passion for so my audience is you know
on on youtube and i’m great at being on
camera that’s the place that I want to
be
right right uh if I had to kind of pick
one to start with and you’re looking for
advertising I would look at facebook I
just think the ability to the target is
insane the dimensions I give our awesome
is very specific yeah but but it’s it’s
it’s paint like if you are not willing
to spend money isn’t be big money but
thirty forty fifty dollars a day if
you’re not willing to spend that then
you’re not going to get results from
facebook it’s it’s very much a paid
platform right um twitter is is great
there AB product is just okay but you
have to put in a ton of work like you
have to follow people you have to follow
hashtags you have to engage with them
it’s just it’s grinding it out like you
can get the results a lot faster with
Facebook and Twitter but it’s going to
cost you money if you have more time
than money go all in on Twitter and put
in the work if you’re great on video
going on YouTube and then the other ones
are you know targeted towards certain
communities and if that fits your target
audience and that’s what you want to be
you know marketing 101 is you want to be
your customers are okay you know if you
if your customers are Star Wars fans you
know you want to be outside the theaters
tonight talking to them because that’s
where they’re going to be and so do an
analysis of where your customers are on
the different platforms could be really
helpful I love it a question from Eileen
about a weber uh what makes a weber
stand out above your competition I mean
having besides having good looking data
analysts definitely it’s our customer
service for me I we’re one of the best
in the business for customer service we
do love our customers is not just
something that we throw up on our
website is something that every single
detail of our business is really focused
around our customers and that’s why I
love working for this place for me
personally I it’s a great group of
individuals and we really do take steps
just to make sure that the experience
you get is the best experience you could
possibly have with us that’s what we’re
interested in doing so from my
perspective of being a customer for ten
years I absolutely agree i think the
service is amazing you can always call
in and there’s somebody that you can
talk to who doesn’t just answer the
question
actually cares about your business like
why are you trying to do that and ask a
couple extra questions because I may not
have the right thing in my head and by
talking it through a couple questions
deeper they understand what I’m trying
to do and can maybe recommend the better
solution for me which I really
appreciate everybody’s really nice too
we’re happy people for the best places
of work we’ve won several years best
places of work in Pennsylvania we do
have we actually have a very we just got
a nationally a customer service award
nationally so yeah it’s it is a great
place to work and honestly the reason
it’s a great place to work is because we
do care we just care about our customers
yeah it’s just everybody’s nice it’s
it’s appreciate them out if you’re nice
person it’s just elected with other nice
people and and for those of you been
watching the series you know we’ve had a
number of people now want from you ever
and everybody is just nice you know they
have their domain expertise but they’re
just nice um why I got on a weber at the
first place was I love on the in the
email give you a spam score so when you
before you send an email that says hey
this is likely going to get caught in
search engines because I sorry in email
filters because you included these three
words which are going to get caught by
spam filters like wow that’s a huge
savings right you know you think of how
much time you spend trying to cultivate
a following and then because you use
three words now your messages aren’t
being seen so that’s why I first got on
and then it’s just been a it’s been a
great experience ten-plus years later
and then with our industry you know the
CEO of a weber tom says it’s all the
time as you know our customer success is
our success so we’re very invested in
making sure that everyone who use our
service does well because that’s just
going to help us down the line I love it
pastor d writing in on an email campaign
for consulting services what is the best
strategy besides the content besides the
content to convert them speedily what
would be the tactic of creating urgency
what would you suggest or what sorry
would that be the tactic of great
emergency for well I mean if you what do
you want talk about are in season
creating certain CTAs or I’m sorry I’m
anything along those lines sure I mean
if it was a consultancy effort to
service any service in general you
really should be selling yourself and I
know that might seem a little bit more
on the content e side is what you
brought up but um I would make sure that
you’re selling you know what you do who
you are what makes you you and takes you
above the competition that’s something
that I would be pitching in any aspect
of a service industry but Evan what do
you think um so typically with service
providers I find two things one somebody
has an urgent need and they’re gonna
call you right so I don’t know what
you’re selling what kind of consulting
you know if you’re helping somebody
raise capital and I’m trying to raise
capital right now that i’m going to call
you and I have a need immediately if I
need to bring on a plumber you know I I
need somebody right now because my
faucet is leaking and in that case they
you know they may just call you up from
your website the people who are joining
a newsletter list they’re interested but
it’s not it’s not important enough yet
it’s something they’re thinking about
but they’re not may be ready for it so
example if you’re a business growth
consultant’ as an example like yeah I
want business growth who doesn’t want
business growth but is it important
enough that I’m going to sign up right
now for it you know like I need a little
more context to understand and so if I
were you I’d be telling stories to
create the relevancy and urgency so if
you’re talking about business growth hit
me with something that makes me think
maybe I need that right now and it’s not
it’s not just having a promo offer but
something that makes me think like that
makes it important for me to want to do
this and make this change in my life
right now so if it’s coming up in 2016
you might talk about how I didn’t hit my
did you hit your goals in 2015 it was
important what was your biggest thing
that you know you missed out on do you
want to hit that next year you know get
me thinking so that it it brings
something that’s relevant that makes me
want to sign up now um the other thing I
would consider is having a lower entry
product as a taste just like your email
is a taste right like somebody visited
your website they didn’t hire you right
they didn’t didn’t call you they didn’t
email
didn’t hire you but they want to taste
like they’re interested enough to want
to taste what you got and so that’s your
opportunity through your auto responders
and regular broadcast to give them that
taste what’s the next level up like can
you sell them on a group package or a
one hour call or something before
getting to whatever you really want to
sell to give them a taste so that it’s
it lowers the risk makes it easier for
them to say yes so those are some of the
things i would look at it and other kind
of consulting business to try to get
people to sign up faster dennis is
writing in he was asking doing answer
this question Dennis you had a great
question we open the show with your
question it was amazing you’re going to
watch the replay it was a great question
and why is it gone on YouTube we’re
doing it on blab today but it’s going to
be the replay will be on youtube so you
can watch it there go back and watch the
first question is like open the Therns
and it was strong we liked it okay who
is next up here and again for those
watching live / q and then you can start
entering your question and it’ll show up
as a question for us there’s a lot of
chatter I can’t keep up with those
happen on the side there and so if it’s
not you it comes to me and honestly any
questions we don’t get answered anyone
can feel free to reach out to me through
Twitter or through a weber michael are a
weber com that that’s fine i never have
a problem with that cool I appreciate
that and maybe I’ll put that in the
description of the YouTube video to
Brian from social contacts and mailing
list how do you professionally make a
speculative proposal to contacts and
develop opportunities on your lists well
I’m gonna need to hear that one more
time I’m sorry that was that was very
deep I’m sorry little contact / I was
like you know so it’s basically asking
from from from people you meet and from
sorry from social contacts of people in
social and on your mailing list how do
you make a professional introduction to
get them interested in your proposal
okay um i guess i would really be a big
part of his nature of your business
quite I mean uh taking those leads and
getting them to the next step of a
customer it’s
again it would just be looking at the
type of people that you have is your
leads you’d have to me personally it
would be content it would be education
maybe you want to educate those leads
before they even sign on your service if
you if you have some type of valuable
piece of content or education to provide
to them it’s putting you over the
competition that’s in my opinion yeah
for me I think again it’s jumping too
soon to try to get to a proposal you
know people are on your list because
they want to learn about you they’re on
your they’re following you on social
because they they met you and they’re
curious about you and it’s up to you to
deliver value um my style is I like the
kick up I’m much more of a marketer than
the salesman so take that with a grain
of salt but I like to kick up a ton of
noise in my industry I like to providing
same volume in my industry and get
noticed whether it’s on social you know
youtube videos Twitter getting the media
writing books working with brands I like
to kick out but just a ton of knowing so
that people in the industry know who I
am and then opportunities find me
because people want to work with me and
so it’s finally in the strategy that
works best for you that works best fits
my personality uh but if it’s somebody
like if I follow somebody on social the
last thing I want is to be tweeted back
hey do you want to buy my stuff right
like it’s it’s too too quick a jump
right build a relationship with them
first if you’re trying to reach out to
somebody then you should be a known
quantity to them right like people pitch
me all the time with ideas and here you
can you look at my app and can you
promote my business and if I don’t know
who you are I’m probably not even going
to read the rest of that message but for
people who have been involved in my
community for a while and comment on a
bunch of stuff you know Dennis we talked
about Dennis at the start Dennis almost
every week at least there’s multiple
tweets coming out you know he sank me
from my stuff he’s giving me pluses on
cred you know he’s asking questions on
this if Dennis had something that he
wanted me to look at I would look at it
because it’s Dennis and he’s been a
valuable part of my
unity and so I think that’s the way to
do it like the person that you’re
reaching out to should should know who
you are you should be a known quantity
to them because you provided a ton of
value to them just don’t jump I know you
want to make the sale I know it’s
important like you got to make a sale
this is about making sales and providing
value to get there but the way to do it
isn’t just to try to hard sell people
because it doesn’t doesn’t work out well
another thing I loved about what you
just said to Evan was that your knowing
your customer I mean that’s the
analytical portion of this is there’s
there’s ways of tracking and just
knowing and understanding who your
customers are and that’s where you’re
gonna find success yeah even even like
uh this is a little stalkerish what was
a data mining I had a meeting with with
somebody uh they called me and say hey
Evan we want to talk about a campaign
you want to do and so I looked at their
Twitter following and found out that
they like this that she posted on her
twitter account I love this local cafe
and so before I met I went to the local
cafe and bought some treats and brought
them two words ago I love this place
right like I didn’t say of course I
found it on Twitter and shock you but
like you can do those things it’s dive
into the data right a little personal in
front of my interview I do love that I
do you have a friendly face and aura you
know it makes me want to share but but
that’s like you any it’s never been
easier to find information on people and
if you’re trying to make a sale you
trying to get that’s know somebody try
to build relationships you know as an
example Michael I’d never met before
this we you know connected on Twitter a
few times but we haven’t there’s our
first time meeting each other today I
went to his Twitter profile page he’s
got this Darth Vader thing at the top so
I know he’s a star wars fan I know that
wednesday night with your salsa dancing
I believe right on your website you’re a
salsify yeah yeah yeah so I mean the
first thing I talked about with Star
Wars and it gives us an easy way to open
up a relationship and so it’s never been
easier to find out about people just
search on them see what they’re posting
have some contacts before you open the
conversation a question from Joe that
got cut off
we paste it in Joe Reitz in
service-based business questions would
you provide tons of value from the
beginning then proposed the highest
price service program will this convert
better than offering an intro program
well that is a really good question so
basically we’re looking at adding a
monthly a monthly charge are we looking
at bringing a freemium up front are we
looking to do upsells um for each
individual business I don’t think there
is a perfect solution I really just
don’t I can tell you from working with
several organizations in the past um it
really you really have to define who you
are against the competition right so you
might have a larger huge marketing firm
type of establishment where they they’re
built on premium models right there
looking at bringing as many people in as
possible that again you could be looking
at another organization that’s focused
on small business or a small and
medium-sized business that believes in
the service that they offer and they
leave our their product they might have
the the billing up front because it
shows a certain amount of you know we
know who we are we know what we do and
we feel that this is a fair price now
again there is no simple solution for
this you should always be upselling I
said earlier she be upselling all the
time I’m trying to figure out additional
needs um but there is no simple solution
for that or how you should be pricing
out your product or service yeah I would
say I think it depends on your client if
you’re doing if you want to sell big
ticket items that’s your angle then I
don’t think you usually won’t get people
along that process right so I mean I
work with Microsoft I work with Dell I
how I get them is by providing insane
content that then they reach out to me
and we go right into a bigger package
it’s never like hey you know what before
we do something big why don’t you buy my
$99 ebook and then we’ll see what we can
do together so if that’s your goal like
to get the big the big deals you can
still start off on an intro thing with
them like I might do one youtube video
with them and
right a fly to redmond and do one thing
with them and then that leads to an
annual program but it’s never these like
super low budget cheap things if you’re
trying to go mass then yeah then you’re
it’s a numbers game and you’re trying to
get but people on a free thing or maybe
that sign up for your newsletter for
this free program or download and then
you have a seven dollar product and then
the fifty dollar product and then one
hundred dollar product and then maybe
it’s a coaching call that’s five hundred
dollars a month or it’s a live event and
that’s the kind of logical stream to
move up so I think it depends on your
audience right if you’re a real estate
agent trying to sell 5 million
ten-million-dollar homes those clients
aren’t buying the seven dollar ebook and
how to get more money from your house
like it’s just it’s a different market
and inside the middle market is the hard
one that’s the that’s the hard dangerous
when the planes so I’d be looking at
high-end custom awesome content and and
go right for the sale once you have a
relationship or low end mass free and
work work their way up but you’re not
going to get you know from those free 17
all you know you almost never else they
almost never get the million-dollar huge
accounts from that free stuff all right
um cool got to go on a bit of a rant
there so this is something that is
unique to to blab we have the ability to
call in if somebody wants that we still
have other questions I get to wear
something wants to call in live there’s
an open seat I’m excited you can click
on the open sea do you have a question
for us make it this isn’t promotion time
the gap you have a genuine question that
you want to ask us will do the open seat
and you can call in and at so what was
on that first I know some people were
trying earlier to get in I saw a rise
online and Maria trying to get in but
time anyway I’ll leave that option open
cool uh Ravana Ravana email campaigns
how do you come up with the content for
your emails to send your subscriber list
ah good question um so there’s a couple
of things I think I brought this up
earlier too if you guys are using
analytics I mean start looking at
keyword
birds start looking at any type of
previous articles that you’ve written
see how they’re doing a performing the
other thing is I mean if you’re in your
industry I’m sure that you’re keeping up
with it seeing what people are
responding to in your competitors blog
post or anything along those lines just
understanding what’s being more
receptive with their audience which is
your audience um that’s all i have for
that one I think cool you know so a
couple ideas for me one I would always
have something that tells my story I
think every entrepreneur needs some
piece of content if it’s you talk about
email campaigns here for bonus so that
should be in there somewhere but why you
started what you’re doing and make me
feel your passion that also belongs on
your website that also belongs in your
YouTube channel that also belongs
everywhere else in your campaigns we
have J reyez joining us Oh loyal loyal
viewer um but then some other ideas I’d
be looking at because it’s easy to run
out of content it’s super easy to run
out of content is it I don’t know what
else to talk about I would be looking at
what are your customers asking you on a
regular basis right like what are the
common questions that you get asked is
chances are everywhere on your list has
the same problems I’d be looking at what
inspired you like what are the some of
the things that happen in your week that
inspired you made you upset and you
angry made you happy you could talk
behind the scenes what’s going on give
people little sneak peek and you can
also subscribe to other people’s
newsletters in your industry and outside
your industry you know I get some great
ideas for my salsa business channel from
a guy who does reenactments like these
18th century battles I’m you think well
that’s a totally different kind of
business but it’s not like how he
interviews people and how he talks about
the products they use gives me cool is
ago maybe we could do a video related to
that too but talking about dance shoes
instead and so you can subscribe to
other people’s content to to good ideas
most of the content on my channel is
from what are we talking about today
it’s all your questions right like a
content is this people’s questions and I
started all my stuff I basically having
people write in from my email list and
hey Evan I have this problem and I would
spend hours just running back the people
and said this is like I don’t tumblr in
my business so i’m going to start
answering questions on youtube and share
them out that way and so lots of ideas
for you there Jake rise yo can you hear
me welcome aboard can you hear me yeah
we got you it’s a little bit delayed but
we got you all right what’s your
question all right so have a question
for you guys first thank you both so
much for this I really appreciate it and
second you keep talking about the power
of story and how you want to feel the
passion I feel like a lot of
entrepreneurs are passionate about
numbers and testing and conversions uh
maybe Mike could share his story like
why are you so passionate about this why
do numbers matter to you oh okay well
that that’s great thank you so much i
love how i’m getting more attention than
evan so make sure that you show that
with your little sign here Thanks good
morning but you know the little props I
could use more props you guys up uh how
do I get passion into it um I’ll tell
you it is a long time ago in my first
job actually meant that my first or
second job I was actually sales guy so I
i was doing business of business phone
sales did that for a couple years i
moved into a sales management position
then i moved into an account management
position and this is where i started
happen was with account management so i
had a lot of clients largest live I mean
I know no joke fortune 500 companies
that I worked with its type of business
that I worked with Lee had higher in
contracts but we also had small mom and
pops and what happened here was looking
and seeing um you know the Lisa came in
how are they were converting of seeing
how we could track that I was getting
that information from the large
enterprise right this is how you do it
and that’s how I started getting a
little bit more knowledgeable with it
but what I saw how great it was was when
I brought to the small business so when
you’re starting to see the people who
are just starting their businesses or
maybe have 20 30 employees taking that
information and relating to them and
just seeing you know just how happy they
were just happening understanding where
did invest our money or how things were
working just being enlightened about you
know
how they can make their business better
that makes me feel better and that’s
honestly the passion the drive i get
from analytics now I’ve always been a
math guy I’ve always liked um getting to
the end solution there’s there’s no
wrong solution in math right there’s
always going to be that that answer um
the quest to get that answers always
been something I love but taking my
experience and from large enterprise
relaying that back to small business
owners and just you know helping them
grow their business that’s what makes me
happy hello may I love it you know in
the passion and jj’s diras has been on
for like two minutes and he has ten
percent of the oh so I have mana people
are loving the J reyez connection there
come on you ever is so bad he needs his
own lab channel now with next Roy bud
cool well thank you for the question my
pleasure you guys keep Rocking really
appreciate it thank you so I close this
thing on blab there’s we gonna like golf
ok next question dinero who is writing
to say as a young graphic designer what
can I sell besides my actual service of
graphic designing to make constant
income also how can I promote local as a
graphic designer mmm there’s a marking
question where can we use data to I know
hmm that’s hmm I mean you could maybe if
you look at referral sources
analytically speaking if ya if you have
a good idea of where your for referral
sources are coming from and see if you
can split off that way but I’m kind of
at a loss to give you a great answer
which I’m sorry no that’s cool so I’ll
answer it in and there may be Italian
too I see two things here I won the
fastest way to grow business is through
is through a microsecond partnerships
and referrals right so who is already
selling this is like the analytics part
who is already selling to my custom I
customers like what kind of graphic
design do you do or you designing
billboards you dine designing websites
who are the people then who are already
dealing with your target audience and
then how can you connect and partner
with them so if it exam
ample web designers and people in
advertising and agencies and video
producers those are the guys who already
have your target audience then I start
making a list in my local area of all
the people who fit that mold and start
reaching out and trying to have coffee
with them not like saying hey you need
to refer me clients but trying to figure
out how you might be able to help each
other out is the fastest way to grow
your business and if you’re looking for
a extra income stream that scares me
because if you you know if your passion
or graphic design and then you’re you
you’re not making enough money from
maybe you don’t have the skills and
talents yet to then go take on another
business like if you can’t make money at
the business that you’re passionate
about how are you going to make money
about a business that you’re not
passionate about you’re just trying to
make money yet we’re honestly if you
feel like you don’t have the skills
necessary what I would say is I would
actually try to find a job in that
industry work at not a big company but a
company that has 5 10 employees a
company you want to be like in in three
four or five years and go learn from
them part time while you’re still
building your business as we also you
don’t want to take a job just for money
it’s for the experience and growth
opportunities to help you get better and
then go all in on your business and now
you have the knowledge and tools you’re
getting paid to learn but the analysis
like the data part is hey you find all
those companies you figure out who’s the
best target who will owned my audience
and then as you start working together
you can tweak that algorithm right like
oh I get the best referrals from website
designers okay great how do I find more
website designers one of the program’s
could I offer to boost my conversions
from these website designers how do I be
the one graphic designer that as top of
mine versus all the other ones that they
know right fastest way to grow through
partnerships question do you feel that
visualizing the data in a beautiful way
is impactful or inspiring the people oh
okay um like analyzing data yellow means
this I mean it is huge I I’d like to
think that the visualization like the
graphs and the charts and the way I
display my information is beautiful but
that’s kind of second
to making sure that people can interpret
it and that that’s my biggest thing is
you really don’t want to overload any
type of visualization with facts and
figures there’s just new ways to your
audience you want to make sure that you
can clearly define the point that you’re
trying to get across with that
visualization right so you want to make
sure they understand hey we have more
account sign ups and cancellations our
turn rate has gone down over time like
these are the things that you want to
clearly point out I just don’t put a
bunch of noise in there that people are
just going to overlook and not
understand and that’s more important to
me yeah I think I think it depends on
who the data is for I think if you are a
data head then you want to dive right
into the data and if your parent for
other data heads and they’re like let me
look at the data I remember when I was
in the venture capital business one of
the guys was all about the financials
like tell me about the financials me
given a business plan he just flips to
the end to look at the number that’s
right all that work oh just let’s go to
the edge that’s that’s his style right
um there are others who don’t understand
what all the numbers mean and you got to
simplify make it easier for them and so
if the data is for yourself then you
don’t maybe need to do all that work if
you love looking at like I’m I can look
at my excel chart of my youtube growth
and I know what it means and nobody else
might be able to look at it and
understand it but I know what it means
if I want to then share that information
and make it relevant and valuable for
other people because I need to have them
make a decision that would impact me
somehow right if I have a boss or a
customer or supplier and investor media
that isn’t a data head then they might
be confused and so then making it
beautiful and simple needs to understand
is helpful valuable important cool um
Joseph three things you would say that
our distinctive factors that would win a
lead to conversion of customers when
other service providers are pursuing the
same leads Wow okay things just guys to
convert clients when other people are
trying to convert the same client I’ll
say there’s there’s three things that I
think then this is just in my opinion
there’s three things that will help you
get above you
competition and to me it’s going to be
customer service is always going to be
number one number two is the way that
you’re educating your group right you
want to make sure that they’re well
informed and understand what your
service or product is then finally of
course cost is always going to be a
factor but if I had to pick three those
will be the three so customer service
education costs I love it I know we’re
short on times we should have kind of
ran through the questions am NOT asking
how to differentiate our services in
real estate what strategy would you make
to attract larger number of customers
for real estate well probably i would
start looking we’d said this before
maybe if you start looking into a
referrals if you’re looking into
advocates things like that that would
help know your business like
cross-industry maybe but what you want
to do is start to look at if you have a
website or if you’re using email
marketing which I hope you are look to
see where those referrals are coming in
from on your website so you won’t
understand if it’s coming from a certain
maybe trade publication something like
that you really want to start looking at
understanding where your leads are
coming from and then once you understand
what the leads are coming from then you
can start establishing a connection or a
relationship with that person or that
service yeah I love it and to add i
would say i would try to combine your
passions because real estate you know if
you’re a real estate agent i could swing
a lightsaber and hit for real estate
agents right like it’s a commodity and
so how you make it not a commodity is by
adding something else that you’re
equally passionate about to the mix so
as an example a buddy of mine is a
financial advisor it’s the same thing
financial advisor like you’re selling
the same products he had a passion for
hockey and it’s like well how do you
combine those things he’s a guy who can
walk hockey watch hockey replays all day
long same thing seven times his wife
thinks as nuts but he ended up being a
financial advisor for NHL hockey players
Wow he could talk to them in a language
that makes sense financially but also
understands the game where other
financial advisors they’re just doing it
for the money they’re just expertise on
stocks and bonds and how to allocate
your money this guy knew
Plus hockey and so because he can speak
that language he stands out is easy to
give him the business if I look at real
estate for me I built a 5,000 square
foot modern home and then I sold it and
when I was selling I didn’t watch us any
real estate agent to sell it so i looked
up who was the guy in toronto my city
that sold modern homes because i felt
like somebody who sold normal
residential homes wouldn’t understand
how to sell the modern house I needed
assertion is one main guy was one guy
Toronto’s after New York and LA
Toronto’s the third biggest city in
Canada us right some respect for Toronto
but we end up kind of like Toronto like
there’s one why this one guy who’s the
modern guy like most people don’t
segment themselves and he just he had a
love of modern homes and he drove up and
he was the guy who sold the house and so
if you’re in real estate great what else
can you add to it like what other
passions you have that you can bring
into the mix to be the real estate agent
for this niche because you love it not
just because an opportunity good because
if a genuine love for I think that gives
you disproportionate value in an egg
before everybody else cool well we’re at
timer writing this is crazy it flew by
my house that was great and I Devon
think I mean your audience well informed
great audience you always pleasure thank
you so much I appreciate the time and
the love you gave and all of the
activity and people are still giving
props for people who want to learn about
a where you can learn you go to a river
comm for people who want to learn about
you or have racks a question we didn’t
get all the questions answered mmm
what’s the best way just to email or
Twitter you can twitter um Michael
underscore recit are on Twitter or I
mean of course you guys can always use
my email it’s Michael Arad Aweber calm
again I’ll try to get to respond to you
as soon as possible but I think it’s
important so yeah cool well all I this
is going to go up on YouTube and i will
add those two links to his email Twitter
in the description and that’s it a lot
of Thank You comments coming in so
thanks again Michael have an amazing
enjoy Star Wars when it comes out anyway
there’s no ronak no spoilers I love and
thank everybody for watching and we’ll
see you soon thanks guys
into another live hangout super excited
to be here with you today to talk about
how to convert more of your your leads
your prospects into customers and
clients and I’m really excited to have a
special guest with me today Michael from
Aweber who is in charge of all of their
data and analysis and helping
entrepreneurs basically figure out the
science and conversion Michael welcome
aboard Thank You outlet i really
appreciate you having me he’s rocking
the the aweber hat because it’s
Christmas time I’m liking it so we
already have a ton of questions that
came in but before getting to the
questions I wanted to just get a quick
overview from you what your thoughts are
your approach is how can people get more
client and convert them better by using
data and analysis right amp mean that’s
what I’ll charged with Herod Aweber and
what we do is you’d think that it’s it’s
almost analysis paralysis type of thing
but really each each piece information
that you collect including every single
piece and know that you get is just
another step closer to getting to a
conversion I mean things we look at our
acquisition cancellations we use those
type type of information to help us lead
into churn rates lifetime values
retention rates these are the type of
metrics I’m looking at all day long and
other individual kpi’s we break it down
by channel even down to the add content
of the UTM parameter I mean everything
that we look at is essential to helping
us get closer to our customers
understanding what our customers need I
love it and for those of you who may not
be as familiar with Aweber we’ve been
doing this series for a number of months
now it’s an email marketing software
it’s a comfort of I’ve use for the past
ten plus years for all my email
marketing and so we’ll talk about email
marketing and conversion and the
strategies and the science behind it can
apply to any conversion engine and so
we’re excited to take your questions
that be able to help you work through
the process so let’s get to the
questions the first one came in from
Dennis what is the most successful path
to take a customer from signing up for
your email list to converting them to a
paying customer is there
certain path the process you take that
makes the entire transition simple and
painless for the customer well that is a
great question and the answer that is
unfortunately no there’s never one
single path that works for everyone to
help you flesh out that path or figure
out what that path maybe it takes a lot
of testing and it takes a lot of
tracking of what campaigns you’re using
or what channels you’re using so i can
tell you from my personal experience you
know working here at a weber is there’s
never going to be a single path we
consider you know are a top number one
way of going what we do is we take
different approaches to different
campaigns to different target audiences
different channels and what we do at
that point is we’ll start seeing what
the success is based on our acquisition
or our turn our attention so I’d love to
say that yes is the path that works best
for everybody but unfortunately i can
never tell that to you so it takes a lot
of testing it takes a lot of information
yeah and dennis thank you for that
strong lead opening question there uh I
feel like so many entrepreneurs were
told they need a list right everybody
says you need to get an email list and
it’s often one of the biggest regrets
for a lot of online marketers is that
they wish they had started sooner with
having a list uh but then you have a
list of what do you do with it right
like how do you I think a lot of
entrepreneurs make the mistake of i’m
just going to blast out promotions all
day long and is that yeah I mean it’s
best way the best way to do is actually
segment that list right so you want to
be smarter about the content that you’re
sending out that offers it’s not going
to relate back to everybody else so when
you’re collecting that list and this is
for anyone who’s starting with email
marketing or looking to start an email
list is um we have certain features and
functions within our product that you
can categorize them right so you can
look at maybe they like a certain
cupcake if you’re into pastries or
they’re certain movies they love to talk
about if you’re doing some kind of
review that’s the best way of segmenting
out your list at first and just
understanding what their specific
interest is and moving from there yeah
and I think it just with a general email
marketing strategy is providing content
and building a relationship first you
don’t you don’t walk up to somebody who
you just met and you know ask them to
marry you right yeah I hope nothing
developer relationship right go on dates
you get to know them and then
you need to do with your customers who
the people on your email list they may
come because they you know saw some free
download you had or they write a post on
your blog or they like something about
you but maybe not ready to buy yet this
is your chance to develop an ongoing
relationship with them and you know one
of the great things about a weber is the
autoresponder sequence that you can
automatically send emails every week or
every three days or whatever time
interval you want to build a
relationship with them and offer them
lots of value before you start selling
anything so you could test it obviously
right that’s the point of using data and
analytics just like you can test all the
things seven that’s what it is yeah so
if i was looking at like a successful
path to take a customer the question was
from signing up to email is to convert
into the pain customer i look at an
autoresponder sequence that was full of
value that establish you as the expert
that you know you’re talking about that
you’re credible and then after that
sequence is through you can have a sales
pitch a call to action once they know
you like you trust you right cool next
up was Rodney who’s asking is there a
blueprint to all of this converting
customers is there a blueprint he wants
to using an say what’s the blueprint I’d
love to say that could give everybody be
easy answer I mean for for if we’re
looking from start to finish you know
we’re looking for ways of converting
them more pretty much relates back to
the to the very first answer the very
first question that we got and that’s
you know first you know cultivate your
list try to figure out who your
customers are what they’re doing if
you’re in the e-commerce what are they
spending it on even more importantly I
think I said this in the beginning of
the the Q&A was remember every no or
every drop off during that that order
path is just another way of you getting
closer to the next person so you want to
make sure that you’re not only looking
at what successful you got to take a
good hard look at what wasn’t successful
in moving from there yeah and I mean
this is general advice but I think if
you look at an overall blueprint and
especially in terms of converting people
converting leads to customers I’ve been
looking at what is your sales engine
right so the other thing you want to
make a sale back that up to how do
people find out about your company so
maybe it’s you know before the sale
the newsletter and then before the
newsletter comes your social media and
your content marketing in you know
advertising that you’re doing and
networking events right if that’s your
fun all of these things are generally
attention Josh go to the website dress
rooms of the newsletter drive people to
buy then when you understand your sales
funnel then you can figure out okay how
do i optimize everything right how do i
increase my newsletter open rates in
click-through rates and how do i get
more people from facebook to then sign
up for my newsletter right i guess i’ll
use letter to my website or from my
newsletter to my order page that’s
there’s the type of things want to make
sure you’re watching constantly right so
you pack it out you have a yeah dinner
that you want to make a sale that’s what
you’re trying to do as an entrepreneur
what are all the steps that somebody has
to go through to get to that sale and
then how can you use data to optimize
each step along the way right so I guess
the first step would be you know gather
your leads so you can either get your
leads from sending out certain pieces of
content maybe you’re using pay per click
or you know starts engine optimization
something along those lines that you’re
cultivating a list you’re cultivating a
group of leads that you’re going to go
out and you’re going to target now with
those leads the next step is trying to
figure out how you’re going to convert
them into a customer so that’s kind of
cultivating your leads you’re going to
want to figure out who your customers
are what they like to what your spending
habits are if you can get an information
I mean Google Analytics if no one in the
group is actually looking at this there
is a ton of demographic information
showing you down even if they’re like
movie lovers or if they’re how long
their age group sex demographics things
like that but you want to start looking
at that information understanding who
your customer base is um one says Lisa
cultivated then you want to start doing
your campaigns right so you can start
looking at doing like I said before
Facebook Ads if that’s something that’s
that’s relative to you if you’re looking
into an email email marketing of course
if you want to start doing any type of
email marketing group out to them and
then Mitch make sure you’re tagging them
and seeing how successful you’re doing
cool live from the audience get your
eyes ribbon to say before talking in
depth can you do a brief clear
definition of what churn rate means oh
sure that’s not a problem sojourn ray
is the most simplistic way of saying
turn rate is all of your cancellations
and we’ll say given month right so if i
have a from the first of the 31st of a
month how many cancellations you have
there you take that as a numerator I’m /
your total active so your whole customer
base your whole customer universe that’s
going to give you a churn rate and what
churn rates meant to do is just give you
an idea of the amount people that you’re
losing on month-over-month basis churn
rate actually goes to a lot of other
metrics so it’s going to help you look
at retention rate retention rate is
basically just you know 1 minus turn and
that’s going to tell you like if your
turn is two percent your retention rate
is ninety-eight percent but we also use
turn for things like lifetime value so
if you were to take your monthly
recurring revenue or you’re like your
average revenue per user divide that by
turn that’s going to give you a lifetime
value what lifetime value gives you is
what would you expect to see from the
whole course in time that you have a
certain individual as a customer that’s
what your lifetime value is going to be
so the goal there is to get a higher
lifetime value as goes to a lower
lifetime value 11 welcome to all the new
people who are joining if you like what
we’re talking about you can click on our
faces to give us props right now michael
has a lead over me I feel like I should
be taking my airtime to get more props
if I so nothing’s helped definitely had
I love it okay marisha wrote in to say
how do i challenged myself to be more
data minded ah how do you challenge
yourself I mean hmm that’s what I saying
that every how do you challenge yourself
every action that you do within your
business should be followed and the
reason I’m saying that is to be make
educated educated decisions or
understanding where things went right or
went wrong you really need to focus on
using analytics there’s no other basis
of understanding how a problem occurred
or how to avoid future problems without
looking at the information that you’ve
collected and that’s to me things that
keep me up at night if all the
information that we have and we have a
ton of information how can I best
leverage that for our customers I mean
honestly we want to make sure that we’re
giving them the best experience over
time
and we’re very diligent about collecting
that information make sure that that
happens I love it and I think if you’re
not a data oriented person an easy way
to get started is just come up with
three things that you want to track in
your business what are three important
numbers that mean something to you
because once you start tracking
something what gets what gets measured
right you want to improve on so what are
three important numbers to your business
maybe revenue is one of them but what
are some other to write that might lead
to revenue and that if you see that
you’re you know you’re tracking is every
day every week every month know for me I
look at my youtube subscribers as an
example look at that everyday look at
where my YouTube subscribers are at and
I want to do better because I’m
following those things it makes me want
to do better so you’ll find that that
happens so that’s the easiest way that I
think to start if you’re not a data
minded kind of person then if you’re
looking longer-term maybe you need to
bring on someone like Michael who lives
and breathes and loves it and you know
goes the bad dream in the numbers ah and
do is I’m like you I do do equations in
my sleep so correct that may be some way
that you bring in either a part time
basis or consulting basis but to start I
think just having three numbers at you
track on a regular basis would really
help there is a mad props war happening
right now but you’re winning its own
love yes i’m waiting for now but we’ll
see Tamara’s is doing good Tom writing
in are there any good blogs or content
sources that help to make these concepts
more digestible yeah that’s that’s um
that’s a great question so if you’re not
on google analytics if you’re not
following them on twitter i mean it is
literally gold all day long that they
pass along that they retweet from other
certain individuals but then themselves
put out just a wealth of information
other places that I go if you’re really
into analytics and your ear stats guy
you could go to kissmetrics does a great
job with their blog Aweber of course as
always has good amount of information
around analytics and how you can apply
that to your email marketing campaign
for me I like the web
I called which test one they get an
email every week and their website is a
little hard to navigate which is kind of
surprising since they’re in a user
experience kind of business but I find
the email super helpful where every week
they send you a marketing example of hey
there’s this campaign versus this
campaign or this headline versus this
headliner this color button versus this
one it shows you two examples and then
you have to guess which one you think
did better before they tell you the
answer and so it’s it’s trying to train
your marketing gut I guess along the way
and I find that I think it comes out
every Wednesday once a week takes you
know 30 seconds to go in and I find it
just it’s a easy primer to kind of get
you thinking about this stuff Eileen
writing in how can I determine how often
to email my list oh great question you
want to start testing those things
around so you want to look at things
like your your open rates you want to
start looking at you know click through
rates if that’s available but really
it’s a tough nut to crack I will
definitely say take youtube or on a
conservative side at first it also
depends at this type of information that
you’re sending out now if you’re doing a
daily piece that people signed up for
then you know by all means do it every
day but if it’s gonna be like a
newsletter um maybe once a week maybe
once a month but it’s going to take time
for you to figure out what the secret is
for you what the best combination is for
you yeah and to add to that I would say
you want to make sure that it’s it’s
about the quality much more than the
frequency right right like if you’re
posting awesome quality stuff people
have a higher tolerance you can send
them to three emails a week if it’s high
quality stuff so it’s not like the magic
bullet it’s not hey once a month is the
ideal time or once a week on Wednesdays
is the best time to send it it’s really
focusing in on are you adding value like
is somebody you know here’s what
happened to me when I went on vacation
and people wrote in to me because I
didn’t send up my newsletter so hey I
didn’t get your newsletter what happened
that’s a good sign you got your alloy
but not office yeah people miss your
newsletter right are you posting that
kind of
all the information that if you don’t
post people going to write to you right
it’s the same thing that any of the
content you’re creating a blog you know
if I stop posting on my youtube channel
people would for sure right to me and
say what happened um so you know on my
youtube channel is another example
people say you should post one video a
week two videos a week I’m three a day
you know three videos go out almost
every single day on my youtube channel
but it’s all really good stuff right a
different content subject matter right
for certain individuals yeah but it’s a
good question i know it’s one that again
you want an easy answer for like oh Oh
once a week okay great that’s what I’m
going to send it but really young you
want to do the test in and make sure
that it’s high quality information
you’re sending cool so ty is writing in
and then I guess for those guys again
who will watch in live if you want to
ask this a live question it’s /q and
then type and it will show up as a
question for us ties right in with
selling something like digital magazines
what are some good metrics to track oh
yeah the ones we’ve already touched on
so we’re subscription-based service as
well so things that I currently look
into and I look into day and a night is
going to be our acquisitions right so
our number sign ups always looking at
cancellations looking at churn rate
which we discussed earlier and then
actually looking at LTV and the reason I
look at our lifetime value and the
reason I look at lifetime value is I
want to see the type of customers that
we have coming in expection you know how
long we expect them to be with us and we
actually because I’m you know Evan said
this earlier I’m commentary with this
stuff I break it out by Channel and
source so i want to say if i have a good
amount of people that we referred are
that were sent to us from facebook i
will understand what their churn rate is
or what their lifetime value is those
are the things that I look at constantly
non-stop so sorry that was long-winded
but acquisition cancellations churn rate
in lifetime value are the ones i look at
i love it and for me you know with any
without knowing too much information
about the business i would say again
look at what the sales funnel is so you
want people to buy your digital magazine
so where are they buying from the bond
from your website are they buying it
from your newsletter and if those are
the two primary sources then how do you
then get people to the website into the
newsletter right I think you probably
have a lot more success through a
newsletter than just a website because
you get to touch with them every week or
every month or whenever you want to send
them content where with the website
you’re hoping that they land on it may
be a one-time thing so are using
Facebook or using YouTube videos are you
going to networking events and if you
start to track this stuff and say hey
here’s how many leads I got to my
newsletter list from going to this
networking event then you can say okay
this is worth my time I’m getting an ROI
from it and if you don’t track it then
you don’t know what’s working what’s not
right maybe you shouldn’t be doing
facebook at all because it’s not getting
not the best sorry I got you want okay
right right and then once you’re getting
some data you can work okay well how do
i improve the numbers how do I make it
better how do i optimize it right if you
I test doing two emails a month and
increase the quality or maybe I work on
going to higher quality or higher and
networking events that are specific to
my audience right once you know where
your leads are coming from it’s easier
to optimize your campaign where to spend
more time and potentially dollars to and
then with what you might want to cut
back and eliminate from there’s the old
adage and advertising that you know
fifty percent of my advertising is being
wasted I just don’t know which half yeah
people don’t know where they’re spending
money and I get again it’s hard for
entrepreneurship you’re doing so many
things you know you’re trying to run a
quality business and you’re you’re in
the day to day of running it and you
don’t listen want to think about all
these things and everybody says okay you
got to do this social media you got to
get on blab now you got to get on
YouTube you got to do all these things
and and like when do I actually have
time to run my business right the nice
part is a lot of the tools people are
using now like YouTube blab Facebook
free analytics Google Analytics if no
one in the group is using that yet and
you have a website you should be on that
constantly every day just to see what’s
up a traffic you’re getting where people
falling off in the funnel where are my
referrals coming from why getting you
know a thousand some referrals from a
certain domain as opposed to another one
so you just want to make sure
or you know where your traffic is coming
from how it’s converting and where
they’re dumping off yeah I love it fly
duo hey guys welcome fido as a loyal low
viewer um great ok the next question
came in from Mauritius for youtubers who
are looking to use data to make
important changes in their business for
2016 what metrics should they be paying
attention to most thank you so much
great I feel like this is one that you
should cover because you probably know
way more than I possibly could but i
will say before heading it off to evan
because he is the expert in this um it’s
my understanding that a lot of YouTube
analytics are the same as google
analytics so if they were me and I’m not
Evan but if it were me I’d be looking at
email sessions that come in the
impressions that were given the time
spent watching the video any type of
consumer action that happened during
that time I would consider that my KPI
or my you know the bar and I’m
constantly trying to be jumped that bar
is what I’m doing but Evan please I
leave to you hey you got the personality
you should have your own YouTube channel
2i I would say my killing oven because
kayla is not that far away buddy I we
should do it you should do it I like it
I would subscribe an understanding data
I like it um okay so with YouTube watch
time is the most important variable in
their system if you have high watch time
on your videos then you will get ranked
higher and it’s not just watched I’m on
a particular video it’s then their
entire session so YouTube wants you to
stay on youtube as long as possible 24
hours a day so if you come and watch one
of my videos then you leave my channel
and watch 10 hours of Justin Bieber I
get credit for all those 10 hours too
and so that’s YouTube’s goal and if you
look at your analytics now they recently
changed the back end where watch time
its number one thing that you see it’s
the first box when you log into your
YouTube back in it used to be views and
now it’s so it’s watched time and so if
you’re doing a deep dive on your videos
you could look at one series versus
another and i know mauritius channel a
little bit she has different series she
has like whatever wednesdays what I was
Wednesdays and
do some singing videos what you can do
is compare those two series right take
videos in those series and compare the
watch time on them not the absolute
watch time but the relative watch time
so if you’re singing video is five
minutes long it’ll show you how it
compares to other five minute videos on
YouTube and you’ll see if you’re above
or below the average and if you’re below
then what can you do make it better
right how do you I don’t know sing
better or bring in friends or pick
different songs or maybe don’t continue
that series right so I’ll always track
you know I track my daily daily and kind
of obsessed have this excel file and
I’ll check my subscribers and I’ll track
my number of views on the channel I
would have to say that oven if you’re
keeping an excel file we should partner
up I’m telling you right now because
that’s that’s my life you keep excel
files too I like it um but yeah but like
ended on an individual video basis watch
time is going to be the most important
thing um cool JD I get wealthy what do
you think about storytelling in
marketing so I just wanna make sure I
understand the question too and I don’t
know if he’s on here if you can reach
out but I storytelling on thinking you
mean content the content that you’re
providing to your audience um yeah I
would I would I would assume so ok I
mean the things that you want to look at
when you’re starting to create a write
or send out any content is start looking
at the type of keywords that if you have
google analytics or any type of other
analytical tool that you might be using
look at that certain keywords that
people are responding to right so for us
we look at things like email automation
email marketing the other thing is if
you’ve put out other types of content in
the past get in the habit of tagging
every piece of content you put out there
when i say tagging with google analytics
you have four dimensions right so its
source medium campaign name of that
content you should be providing a tag
for each piece of content so you can
understand what’s being more receptive
to your audience right so who is reading
your blog post or anything along those
lines and same thing with email
marketing if you’re setting out certain
types of
newsletters or pieces of broadcast I’m
you always want to make sure the
understanding how people are reacting to
it and you just want to try to follow
that type of pattern throughout the
course your business honestly throughout
the end of time if possible yes
storytelling is super important uh you
know we before we got on this call we’re
talking about Star Wars and how michael
has to wait till Wednesday before you
can see it mommy’s not worried like it’s
just a great story writing has built a
multi-billion dollar industry I think
your advantage as an entrepreneur is
your story the way that you stand out
the way you compete against the huge
companies in the industry is your story
like why don’t you do this let me feel
your passion because if if you are doing
you know the same thing as a big
competitor and you want to offer the
same price why would I ever go with you
right I’m going to go with somebody else
that has the brand name the recognition
the trust so then you have to cut your
price which isn’t the business that you
want to begin so the difference is your
ability to tell your story because if I
feel your passion about what you’re
doing and I can relate to you that I’m
much more likely to want to buy from you
and I think too many entrepreneurs hide
behind a corporate looking website
because it looks professional put your
picture on your website tell us why you
started this thing right in your email
campaign let me feel your your passion
right like one of the emails should say
why you started this business and why
you’re so excited about it when you’re
providing content tell me your personal
take on it right not just here are the
facts and figures but tell me what it
means to you that’s your ability to
create a personal relations with people
that will then convert really well to
building trust and then to closing
clients uh 2,000 books writing in ten
percent I think it’s a YouTube question
ten percent of 60 minute watch time is
better than one hundred percent of a
three-minute video so yes they’re
looking for a number of minutes so six
minutes the ten percent of a 60 minute
video is six minutes versus hundred
percent of a three-minute video yes now
watch them is not the only thing they
look at they also want to see engagement
right so are people leaving comments or
people adding it to playlist but watch
is the most important fact and criteria
in that closed that down again for those
of you who just joined you can do /q to
ask us a question and you can click on
our faces to give us props it’s a close
race the close race we’re neck and neck
here we’ll see how it ends up ok Kumar I
would like to know which is the best
social media marketing platform for
e-commerce businesses ok well I mean
from personal experience and just
previous experience I don’t think there
is just one channel social channel
that’s perfect for everything that you
send out their content wise I mean
Facebook versus linkedin linkedin is
more business oriented right so you’re
going to have a different type of tone a
different type of audience with that as
opposed to Facebook where it might be a
little bit more friendly or might be a
little bit more not as formal so what
you do want to do is if you start
spending money in any of these but like
any of these channels if you’re starting
to look at facebook ads if you’re
looking at LinkedIn ads you definitely
want to see how much is being spent and
then seeing how successful it was
compared to the other channel right so
you want to look to see the amount of
impressions or conversions that you have
so you can double down on something
that’s doing better the one channels
because the other one that’s not giving
you the the result you’re looking for
but just three hundred one more time I
don’t think there is just one perfect
channel for anybody I think it’s just a
matter of testing the channels seeing
the best results and then just doubling
down on the ones that work great yeah i
agree i think having a campaign that
targets multiple channels intestine and
seeing what works is it is it a great
start I think it’s understanding the
dynamics of each channel you know so
like YouTube is a video channel right
are you able to create video content
that’s compelling if not don’t go to
youtube right i mean there’s some basic
things i don’t know what kind of
programs are trying to sell through your
ecommerce platform and what your
capabilities and strengths are ideally
that’s what you want to overlap is where
your audience is at combined with what
you are good at doing and have the
passion for so my audience is you know
on on youtube and i’m great at being on
camera that’s the place that I want to
be
right right uh if I had to kind of pick
one to start with and you’re looking for
advertising I would look at facebook I
just think the ability to the target is
insane the dimensions I give our awesome
is very specific yeah but but it’s it’s
it’s paint like if you are not willing
to spend money isn’t be big money but
thirty forty fifty dollars a day if
you’re not willing to spend that then
you’re not going to get results from
facebook it’s it’s very much a paid
platform right um twitter is is great
there AB product is just okay but you
have to put in a ton of work like you
have to follow people you have to follow
hashtags you have to engage with them
it’s just it’s grinding it out like you
can get the results a lot faster with
Facebook and Twitter but it’s going to
cost you money if you have more time
than money go all in on Twitter and put
in the work if you’re great on video
going on YouTube and then the other ones
are you know targeted towards certain
communities and if that fits your target
audience and that’s what you want to be
you know marketing 101 is you want to be
your customers are okay you know if you
if your customers are Star Wars fans you
know you want to be outside the theaters
tonight talking to them because that’s
where they’re going to be and so do an
analysis of where your customers are on
the different platforms could be really
helpful I love it a question from Eileen
about a weber uh what makes a weber
stand out above your competition I mean
having besides having good looking data
analysts definitely it’s our customer
service for me I we’re one of the best
in the business for customer service we
do love our customers is not just
something that we throw up on our
website is something that every single
detail of our business is really focused
around our customers and that’s why I
love working for this place for me
personally I it’s a great group of
individuals and we really do take steps
just to make sure that the experience
you get is the best experience you could
possibly have with us that’s what we’re
interested in doing so from my
perspective of being a customer for ten
years I absolutely agree i think the
service is amazing you can always call
in and there’s somebody that you can
talk to who doesn’t just answer the
question
actually cares about your business like
why are you trying to do that and ask a
couple extra questions because I may not
have the right thing in my head and by
talking it through a couple questions
deeper they understand what I’m trying
to do and can maybe recommend the better
solution for me which I really
appreciate everybody’s really nice too
we’re happy people for the best places
of work we’ve won several years best
places of work in Pennsylvania we do
have we actually have a very we just got
a nationally a customer service award
nationally so yeah it’s it is a great
place to work and honestly the reason
it’s a great place to work is because we
do care we just care about our customers
yeah it’s just everybody’s nice it’s
it’s appreciate them out if you’re nice
person it’s just elected with other nice
people and and for those of you been
watching the series you know we’ve had a
number of people now want from you ever
and everybody is just nice you know they
have their domain expertise but they’re
just nice um why I got on a weber at the
first place was I love on the in the
email give you a spam score so when you
before you send an email that says hey
this is likely going to get caught in
search engines because I sorry in email
filters because you included these three
words which are going to get caught by
spam filters like wow that’s a huge
savings right you know you think of how
much time you spend trying to cultivate
a following and then because you use
three words now your messages aren’t
being seen so that’s why I first got on
and then it’s just been a it’s been a
great experience ten-plus years later
and then with our industry you know the
CEO of a weber tom says it’s all the
time as you know our customer success is
our success so we’re very invested in
making sure that everyone who use our
service does well because that’s just
going to help us down the line I love it
pastor d writing in on an email campaign
for consulting services what is the best
strategy besides the content besides the
content to convert them speedily what
would be the tactic of creating urgency
what would you suggest or what sorry
would that be the tactic of great
emergency for well I mean if you what do
you want talk about are in season
creating certain CTAs or I’m sorry I’m
anything along those lines sure I mean
if it was a consultancy effort to
service any service in general you
really should be selling yourself and I
know that might seem a little bit more
on the content e side is what you
brought up but um I would make sure that
you’re selling you know what you do who
you are what makes you you and takes you
above the competition that’s something
that I would be pitching in any aspect
of a service industry but Evan what do
you think um so typically with service
providers I find two things one somebody
has an urgent need and they’re gonna
call you right so I don’t know what
you’re selling what kind of consulting
you know if you’re helping somebody
raise capital and I’m trying to raise
capital right now that i’m going to call
you and I have a need immediately if I
need to bring on a plumber you know I I
need somebody right now because my
faucet is leaking and in that case they
you know they may just call you up from
your website the people who are joining
a newsletter list they’re interested but
it’s not it’s not important enough yet
it’s something they’re thinking about
but they’re not may be ready for it so
example if you’re a business growth
consultant’ as an example like yeah I
want business growth who doesn’t want
business growth but is it important
enough that I’m going to sign up right
now for it you know like I need a little
more context to understand and so if I
were you I’d be telling stories to
create the relevancy and urgency so if
you’re talking about business growth hit
me with something that makes me think
maybe I need that right now and it’s not
it’s not just having a promo offer but
something that makes me think like that
makes it important for me to want to do
this and make this change in my life
right now so if it’s coming up in 2016
you might talk about how I didn’t hit my
did you hit your goals in 2015 it was
important what was your biggest thing
that you know you missed out on do you
want to hit that next year you know get
me thinking so that it it brings
something that’s relevant that makes me
want to sign up now um the other thing I
would consider is having a lower entry
product as a taste just like your email
is a taste right like somebody visited
your website they didn’t hire you right
they didn’t didn’t call you they didn’t
didn’t hire you but they want to taste
like they’re interested enough to want
to taste what you got and so that’s your
opportunity through your auto responders
and regular broadcast to give them that
taste what’s the next level up like can
you sell them on a group package or a
one hour call or something before
getting to whatever you really want to
sell to give them a taste so that it’s
it lowers the risk makes it easier for
them to say yes so those are some of the
things i would look at it and other kind
of consulting business to try to get
people to sign up faster dennis is
writing in he was asking doing answer
this question Dennis you had a great
question we open the show with your
question it was amazing you’re going to
watch the replay it was a great question
and why is it gone on YouTube we’re
doing it on blab today but it’s going to
be the replay will be on youtube so you
can watch it there go back and watch the
first question is like open the Therns
and it was strong we liked it okay who
is next up here and again for those
watching live / q and then you can start
entering your question and it’ll show up
as a question for us there’s a lot of
chatter I can’t keep up with those
happen on the side there and so if it’s
not you it comes to me and honestly any
questions we don’t get answered anyone
can feel free to reach out to me through
Twitter or through a weber michael are a
weber com that that’s fine i never have
a problem with that cool I appreciate
that and maybe I’ll put that in the
description of the YouTube video to
Brian from social contacts and mailing
list how do you professionally make a
speculative proposal to contacts and
develop opportunities on your lists well
I’m gonna need to hear that one more
time I’m sorry that was that was very
deep I’m sorry little contact / I was
like you know so it’s basically asking
from from from people you meet and from
sorry from social contacts of people in
social and on your mailing list how do
you make a professional introduction to
get them interested in your proposal
okay um i guess i would really be a big
part of his nature of your business
quite I mean uh taking those leads and
getting them to the next step of a
customer it’s
again it would just be looking at the
type of people that you have is your
leads you’d have to me personally it
would be content it would be education
maybe you want to educate those leads
before they even sign on your service if
you if you have some type of valuable
piece of content or education to provide
to them it’s putting you over the
competition that’s in my opinion yeah
for me I think again it’s jumping too
soon to try to get to a proposal you
know people are on your list because
they want to learn about you they’re on
your they’re following you on social
because they they met you and they’re
curious about you and it’s up to you to
deliver value um my style is I like the
kick up I’m much more of a marketer than
the salesman so take that with a grain
of salt but I like to kick up a ton of
noise in my industry I like to providing
same volume in my industry and get
noticed whether it’s on social you know
youtube videos Twitter getting the media
writing books working with brands I like
to kick out but just a ton of knowing so
that people in the industry know who I
am and then opportunities find me
because people want to work with me and
so it’s finally in the strategy that
works best for you that works best fits
my personality uh but if it’s somebody
like if I follow somebody on social the
last thing I want is to be tweeted back
hey do you want to buy my stuff right
like it’s it’s too too quick a jump
right build a relationship with them
first if you’re trying to reach out to
somebody then you should be a known
quantity to them right like people pitch
me all the time with ideas and here you
can you look at my app and can you
promote my business and if I don’t know
who you are I’m probably not even going
to read the rest of that message but for
people who have been involved in my
community for a while and comment on a
bunch of stuff you know Dennis we talked
about Dennis at the start Dennis almost
every week at least there’s multiple
tweets coming out you know he sank me
from my stuff he’s giving me pluses on
cred you know he’s asking questions on
this if Dennis had something that he
wanted me to look at I would look at it
because it’s Dennis and he’s been a
valuable part of my
unity and so I think that’s the way to
do it like the person that you’re
reaching out to should should know who
you are you should be a known quantity
to them because you provided a ton of
value to them just don’t jump I know you
want to make the sale I know it’s
important like you got to make a sale
this is about making sales and providing
value to get there but the way to do it
isn’t just to try to hard sell people
because it doesn’t doesn’t work out well
another thing I loved about what you
just said to Evan was that your knowing
your customer I mean that’s the
analytical portion of this is there’s
there’s ways of tracking and just
knowing and understanding who your
customers are and that’s where you’re
gonna find success yeah even even like
uh this is a little stalkerish what was
a data mining I had a meeting with with
somebody uh they called me and say hey
Evan we want to talk about a campaign
you want to do and so I looked at their
Twitter following and found out that
they like this that she posted on her
twitter account I love this local cafe
and so before I met I went to the local
cafe and bought some treats and brought
them two words ago I love this place
right like I didn’t say of course I
found it on Twitter and shock you but
like you can do those things it’s dive
into the data right a little personal in
front of my interview I do love that I
do you have a friendly face and aura you
know it makes me want to share but but
that’s like you any it’s never been
easier to find information on people and
if you’re trying to make a sale you
trying to get that’s know somebody try
to build relationships you know as an
example Michael I’d never met before
this we you know connected on Twitter a
few times but we haven’t there’s our
first time meeting each other today I
went to his Twitter profile page he’s
got this Darth Vader thing at the top so
I know he’s a star wars fan I know that
wednesday night with your salsa dancing
I believe right on your website you’re a
salsify yeah yeah yeah so I mean the
first thing I talked about with Star
Wars and it gives us an easy way to open
up a relationship and so it’s never been
easier to find out about people just
search on them see what they’re posting
have some contacts before you open the
conversation a question from Joe that
got cut off
we paste it in Joe Reitz in
service-based business questions would
you provide tons of value from the
beginning then proposed the highest
price service program will this convert
better than offering an intro program
well that is a really good question so
basically we’re looking at adding a
monthly a monthly charge are we looking
at bringing a freemium up front are we
looking to do upsells um for each
individual business I don’t think there
is a perfect solution I really just
don’t I can tell you from working with
several organizations in the past um it
really you really have to define who you
are against the competition right so you
might have a larger huge marketing firm
type of establishment where they they’re
built on premium models right there
looking at bringing as many people in as
possible that again you could be looking
at another organization that’s focused
on small business or a small and
medium-sized business that believes in
the service that they offer and they
leave our their product they might have
the the billing up front because it
shows a certain amount of you know we
know who we are we know what we do and
we feel that this is a fair price now
again there is no simple solution for
this you should always be upselling I
said earlier she be upselling all the
time I’m trying to figure out additional
needs um but there is no simple solution
for that or how you should be pricing
out your product or service yeah I would
say I think it depends on your client if
you’re doing if you want to sell big
ticket items that’s your angle then I
don’t think you usually won’t get people
along that process right so I mean I
work with Microsoft I work with Dell I
how I get them is by providing insane
content that then they reach out to me
and we go right into a bigger package
it’s never like hey you know what before
we do something big why don’t you buy my
$99 ebook and then we’ll see what we can
do together so if that’s your goal like
to get the big the big deals you can
still start off on an intro thing with
them like I might do one youtube video
with them and
right a fly to redmond and do one thing
with them and then that leads to an
annual program but it’s never these like
super low budget cheap things if you’re
trying to go mass then yeah then you’re
it’s a numbers game and you’re trying to
get but people on a free thing or maybe
that sign up for your newsletter for
this free program or download and then
you have a seven dollar product and then
the fifty dollar product and then one
hundred dollar product and then maybe
it’s a coaching call that’s five hundred
dollars a month or it’s a live event and
that’s the kind of logical stream to
move up so I think it depends on your
audience right if you’re a real estate
agent trying to sell 5 million
ten-million-dollar homes those clients
aren’t buying the seven dollar ebook and
how to get more money from your house
like it’s just it’s a different market
and inside the middle market is the hard
one that’s the that’s the hard dangerous
when the planes so I’d be looking at
high-end custom awesome content and and
go right for the sale once you have a
relationship or low end mass free and
work work their way up but you’re not
going to get you know from those free 17
all you know you almost never else they
almost never get the million-dollar huge
accounts from that free stuff all right
um cool got to go on a bit of a rant
there so this is something that is
unique to to blab we have the ability to
call in if somebody wants that we still
have other questions I get to wear
something wants to call in live there’s
an open seat I’m excited you can click
on the open sea do you have a question
for us make it this isn’t promotion time
the gap you have a genuine question that
you want to ask us will do the open seat
and you can call in and at so what was
on that first I know some people were
trying earlier to get in I saw a rise
online and Maria trying to get in but
time anyway I’ll leave that option open
cool uh Ravana Ravana email campaigns
how do you come up with the content for
your emails to send your subscriber list
ah good question um so there’s a couple
of things I think I brought this up
earlier too if you guys are using
analytics I mean start looking at
keyword
birds start looking at any type of
previous articles that you’ve written
see how they’re doing a performing the
other thing is I mean if you’re in your
industry I’m sure that you’re keeping up
with it seeing what people are
responding to in your competitors blog
post or anything along those lines just
understanding what’s being more
receptive with their audience which is
your audience um that’s all i have for
that one I think cool you know so a
couple ideas for me one I would always
have something that tells my story I
think every entrepreneur needs some
piece of content if it’s you talk about
email campaigns here for bonus so that
should be in there somewhere but why you
started what you’re doing and make me
feel your passion that also belongs on
your website that also belongs in your
YouTube channel that also belongs
everywhere else in your campaigns we
have J reyez joining us Oh loyal loyal
viewer um but then some other ideas I’d
be looking at because it’s easy to run
out of content it’s super easy to run
out of content is it I don’t know what
else to talk about I would be looking at
what are your customers asking you on a
regular basis right like what are the
common questions that you get asked is
chances are everywhere on your list has
the same problems I’d be looking at what
inspired you like what are the some of
the things that happen in your week that
inspired you made you upset and you
angry made you happy you could talk
behind the scenes what’s going on give
people little sneak peek and you can
also subscribe to other people’s
newsletters in your industry and outside
your industry you know I get some great
ideas for my salsa business channel from
a guy who does reenactments like these
18th century battles I’m you think well
that’s a totally different kind of
business but it’s not like how he
interviews people and how he talks about
the products they use gives me cool is
ago maybe we could do a video related to
that too but talking about dance shoes
instead and so you can subscribe to
other people’s content to to good ideas
most of the content on my channel is
from what are we talking about today
it’s all your questions right like a
content is this people’s questions and I
started all my stuff I basically having
people write in from my email list and
hey Evan I have this problem and I would
spend hours just running back the people
and said this is like I don’t tumblr in
my business so i’m going to start
answering questions on youtube and share
them out that way and so lots of ideas
for you there Jake rise yo can you hear
me welcome aboard can you hear me yeah
we got you it’s a little bit delayed but
we got you all right what’s your
question all right so have a question
for you guys first thank you both so
much for this I really appreciate it and
second you keep talking about the power
of story and how you want to feel the
passion I feel like a lot of
entrepreneurs are passionate about
numbers and testing and conversions uh
maybe Mike could share his story like
why are you so passionate about this why
do numbers matter to you oh okay well
that that’s great thank you so much i
love how i’m getting more attention than
evan so make sure that you show that
with your little sign here Thanks good
morning but you know the little props I
could use more props you guys up uh how
do I get passion into it um I’ll tell
you it is a long time ago in my first
job actually meant that my first or
second job I was actually sales guy so I
i was doing business of business phone
sales did that for a couple years i
moved into a sales management position
then i moved into an account management
position and this is where i started
happen was with account management so i
had a lot of clients largest live I mean
I know no joke fortune 500 companies
that I worked with its type of business
that I worked with Lee had higher in
contracts but we also had small mom and
pops and what happened here was looking
and seeing um you know the Lisa came in
how are they were converting of seeing
how we could track that I was getting
that information from the large
enterprise right this is how you do it
and that’s how I started getting a
little bit more knowledgeable with it
but what I saw how great it was was when
I brought to the small business so when
you’re starting to see the people who
are just starting their businesses or
maybe have 20 30 employees taking that
information and relating to them and
just seeing you know just how happy they
were just happening understanding where
did invest our money or how things were
working just being enlightened about you
know
how they can make their business better
that makes me feel better and that’s
honestly the passion the drive i get
from analytics now I’ve always been a
math guy I’ve always liked um getting to
the end solution there’s there’s no
wrong solution in math right there’s
always going to be that that answer um
the quest to get that answers always
been something I love but taking my
experience and from large enterprise
relaying that back to small business
owners and just you know helping them
grow their business that’s what makes me
happy hello may I love it you know in
the passion and jj’s diras has been on
for like two minutes and he has ten
percent of the oh so I have mana people
are loving the J reyez connection there
come on you ever is so bad he needs his
own lab channel now with next Roy bud
cool well thank you for the question my
pleasure you guys keep Rocking really
appreciate it thank you so I close this
thing on blab there’s we gonna like golf
ok next question dinero who is writing
to say as a young graphic designer what
can I sell besides my actual service of
graphic designing to make constant
income also how can I promote local as a
graphic designer mmm there’s a marking
question where can we use data to I know
hmm that’s hmm I mean you could maybe if
you look at referral sources
analytically speaking if ya if you have
a good idea of where your for referral
sources are coming from and see if you
can split off that way but I’m kind of
at a loss to give you a great answer
which I’m sorry no that’s cool so I’ll
answer it in and there may be Italian
too I see two things here I won the
fastest way to grow business is through
is through a microsecond partnerships
and referrals right so who is already
selling this is like the analytics part
who is already selling to my custom I
customers like what kind of graphic
design do you do or you designing
billboards you dine designing websites
who are the people then who are already
dealing with your target audience and
then how can you connect and partner
with them so if it exam
ample web designers and people in
advertising and agencies and video
producers those are the guys who already
have your target audience then I start
making a list in my local area of all
the people who fit that mold and start
reaching out and trying to have coffee
with them not like saying hey you need
to refer me clients but trying to figure
out how you might be able to help each
other out is the fastest way to grow
your business and if you’re looking for
a extra income stream that scares me
because if you you know if your passion
or graphic design and then you’re you
you’re not making enough money from
maybe you don’t have the skills and
talents yet to then go take on another
business like if you can’t make money at
the business that you’re passionate
about how are you going to make money
about a business that you’re not
passionate about you’re just trying to
make money yet we’re honestly if you
feel like you don’t have the skills
necessary what I would say is I would
actually try to find a job in that
industry work at not a big company but a
company that has 5 10 employees a
company you want to be like in in three
four or five years and go learn from
them part time while you’re still
building your business as we also you
don’t want to take a job just for money
it’s for the experience and growth
opportunities to help you get better and
then go all in on your business and now
you have the knowledge and tools you’re
getting paid to learn but the analysis
like the data part is hey you find all
those companies you figure out who’s the
best target who will owned my audience
and then as you start working together
you can tweak that algorithm right like
oh I get the best referrals from website
designers okay great how do I find more
website designers one of the program’s
could I offer to boost my conversions
from these website designers how do I be
the one graphic designer that as top of
mine versus all the other ones that they
know right fastest way to grow through
partnerships question do you feel that
visualizing the data in a beautiful way
is impactful or inspiring the people oh
okay um like analyzing data yellow means
this I mean it is huge I I’d like to
think that the visualization like the
graphs and the charts and the way I
display my information is beautiful but
that’s kind of second
to making sure that people can interpret
it and that that’s my biggest thing is
you really don’t want to overload any
type of visualization with facts and
figures there’s just new ways to your
audience you want to make sure that you
can clearly define the point that you’re
trying to get across with that
visualization right so you want to make
sure they understand hey we have more
account sign ups and cancellations our
turn rate has gone down over time like
these are the things that you want to
clearly point out I just don’t put a
bunch of noise in there that people are
just going to overlook and not
understand and that’s more important to
me yeah I think I think it depends on
who the data is for I think if you are a
data head then you want to dive right
into the data and if your parent for
other data heads and they’re like let me
look at the data I remember when I was
in the venture capital business one of
the guys was all about the financials
like tell me about the financials me
given a business plan he just flips to
the end to look at the number that’s
right all that work oh just let’s go to
the edge that’s that’s his style right
um there are others who don’t understand
what all the numbers mean and you got to
simplify make it easier for them and so
if the data is for yourself then you
don’t maybe need to do all that work if
you love looking at like I’m I can look
at my excel chart of my youtube growth
and I know what it means and nobody else
might be able to look at it and
understand it but I know what it means
if I want to then share that information
and make it relevant and valuable for
other people because I need to have them
make a decision that would impact me
somehow right if I have a boss or a
customer or supplier and investor media
that isn’t a data head then they might
be confused and so then making it
beautiful and simple needs to understand
is helpful valuable important cool um
Joseph three things you would say that
our distinctive factors that would win a
lead to conversion of customers when
other service providers are pursuing the
same leads Wow okay things just guys to
convert clients when other people are
trying to convert the same client I’ll
say there’s there’s three things that I
think then this is just in my opinion
there’s three things that will help you
get above you
competition and to me it’s going to be
customer service is always going to be
number one number two is the way that
you’re educating your group right you
want to make sure that they’re well
informed and understand what your
service or product is then finally of
course cost is always going to be a
factor but if I had to pick three those
will be the three so customer service
education costs I love it I know we’re
short on times we should have kind of
ran through the questions am NOT asking
how to differentiate our services in
real estate what strategy would you make
to attract larger number of customers
for real estate well probably i would
start looking we’d said this before
maybe if you start looking into a
referrals if you’re looking into
advocates things like that that would
help know your business like
cross-industry maybe but what you want
to do is start to look at if you have a
website or if you’re using email
marketing which I hope you are look to
see where those referrals are coming in
from on your website so you won’t
understand if it’s coming from a certain
maybe trade publication something like
that you really want to start looking at
understanding where your leads are
coming from and then once you understand
what the leads are coming from then you
can start establishing a connection or a
relationship with that person or that
service yeah I love it and to add i
would say i would try to combine your
passions because real estate you know if
you’re a real estate agent i could swing
a lightsaber and hit for real estate
agents right like it’s a commodity and
so how you make it not a commodity is by
adding something else that you’re
equally passionate about to the mix so
as an example a buddy of mine is a
financial advisor it’s the same thing
financial advisor like you’re selling
the same products he had a passion for
hockey and it’s like well how do you
combine those things he’s a guy who can
walk hockey watch hockey replays all day
long same thing seven times his wife
thinks as nuts but he ended up being a
financial advisor for NHL hockey players
Wow he could talk to them in a language
that makes sense financially but also
understands the game where other
financial advisors they’re just doing it
for the money they’re just expertise on
stocks and bonds and how to allocate
your money this guy knew
Plus hockey and so because he can speak
that language he stands out is easy to
give him the business if I look at real
estate for me I built a 5,000 square
foot modern home and then I sold it and
when I was selling I didn’t watch us any
real estate agent to sell it so i looked
up who was the guy in toronto my city
that sold modern homes because i felt
like somebody who sold normal
residential homes wouldn’t understand
how to sell the modern house I needed
assertion is one main guy was one guy
Toronto’s after New York and LA
Toronto’s the third biggest city in
Canada us right some respect for Toronto
but we end up kind of like Toronto like
there’s one why this one guy who’s the
modern guy like most people don’t
segment themselves and he just he had a
love of modern homes and he drove up and
he was the guy who sold the house and so
if you’re in real estate great what else
can you add to it like what other
passions you have that you can bring
into the mix to be the real estate agent
for this niche because you love it not
just because an opportunity good because
if a genuine love for I think that gives
you disproportionate value in an egg
before everybody else cool well we’re at
timer writing this is crazy it flew by
my house that was great and I Devon
think I mean your audience well informed
great audience you always pleasure thank
you so much I appreciate the time and
the love you gave and all of the
activity and people are still giving
props for people who want to learn about
a where you can learn you go to a river
comm for people who want to learn about
you or have racks a question we didn’t
get all the questions answered mmm
what’s the best way just to email or
Twitter you can twitter um Michael
underscore recit are on Twitter or I
mean of course you guys can always use
my email it’s Michael Arad Aweber calm
again I’ll try to get to respond to you
as soon as possible but I think it’s
important so yeah cool well all I this
is going to go up on YouTube and i will
add those two links to his email Twitter
in the description and that’s it a lot
of Thank You comments coming in so
thanks again Michael have an amazing
enjoy Star Wars when it comes out anyway
there’s no ronak no spoilers I love and
thank everybody for watching and we’ll
see you soon thanks guys
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