We are finally to part 3 of scaling your business. It has been an eye opener thus far and I can’t wait to see what the next 6 months hold. If you haven’t read part one or part two you may want to.
Here are the links:
The other morning I was laying in bed in the twilight zone. I may be a little weird; I’ve had some crazy ideas come to me in the realm between fully awake and asleep. It’s like my brain is firing on all cylinders and the ideas start to flow.
It may sound crazy to some, but it happens to me all the time. One of these days I’ll tell you about the time I did calculus all night in my dreams, which helped be get a 99% on my calculus test.
Anyhow… I jumped out of bed and sketched our marketing blueprint.
As I looked at it, I could see a few holes that need to be filled and where we could adjust our remarketing and banner ad campaigns.
I’ll keep you posted on our results in the coming weeks. But for now, we have a complete online marketing blueprint. Here’s what it looks like:
As you can see, I am not the artist behind Ydraw videos. My chicken scratches will pass for a third grader and are fine for the time being, but I’m having this created professionally.
When I got done drawing I could see why we were generating so many leads. This Online Marketing Blueprint is a system that keeps getting better and better over time. To get the kind of results we are getting, each section has to be mastered. For example…Adwords is a big part of our business. We have put in a lot of time and effort to create the right text ads, keywords campaigns, display campaigns, etc. The same goes for Facebook, emails, and YouTube. Each section needs to be perfected.
It’s a lot of work, but very doable.
If you leave a part out…it may not work.
I just know that we have gone from 100 leads per week to 500 leads per week in a 3-month period. Which brings with it some growing pains, but those are great problems to have.
Here are the numbers from our Adwords accounts:
October 2015
Adwords
Spend: $8,083
Leads: 81
Cost per lead $99.79
Click To Conversion Rate was 3% to 9%
March 2015
Adwords
Spend: $10,653
Leads: 165
Cost Per Lead: $54.55
Click to Conversion Rate 13%
The Changes We Made to Adwords
You can see we’ve doubled our leads and cut our cost per lead in half. With the small changes we are making weekly, I can see this getting even better over the next couple of months.
Here are some of the changes:
We redesigned and simplified the website. I can’t stress the importance of simplification. Cut out steps and cut out the clutter. It made a huge impact on our conversion and I know it will make a huge impact on yours.
Create one call to action. What do you want the audience to do?
Google eliminated the right hand ads which gave us a little boost. This may have hurt a lot of other companies. We were always bidding high. It eliminated some of our competition.
Added more negative keywords.
Did A/B testing with text ads.
**added Gmail sponsored ads to the mix**
Gmail Sponsored Ads
I hate giving away secrets like Gmail Sponsored Ads because I know there are other video companies out their watching our every move. It’s a curse, but I want to make sure I give you as much value as possible.
In return I ask that you subscribe to our blog. It’s for the greater good. 🙂
Gmail sponsored ads have been a big focus of mine for the last couple of weeks. With Gmail sponsored ads you are able to run ads within Gmail.
We can place ads based on the account activity of a personal Gmail account. Think of all Gmail users out there. We are able to run promotions directly in their inbox.
The Gmail advert is set out in two sections in the Gmail inbox – a collapsed ad and an expanded ad, but essentially this is the same advert. The collapsed ad appears as a ‘new message’ in your inbox and when you click on it, this then leads you to another ad – the expanded ad. You pay for the cost per click (CPC) every time somebody clicks on the collapsed ad. The expanded ad then leads the user to your landing page; however, you do not pay for the click from the expanded ad to the landing page (this is free).
Here is what one looks like.
They are simple and have had a big impact on our Adwords account.
I created a simple tutorial video on how to set up Gmail sponsored ads. Watch it so you can see what I am talking about.
Now let’s jump over to Facebook and Instagram.
When we first started…here is what the numbers looked like:
Facebook and Instagram
(30 Day Time Period)
Spend: $4665
Number of Leads 446
Cost Per Lead: $10.45
Facebook and Instagram March 2016
(30 Day Time Period)
Spend: $6970
Number of Leads: 1461
Cost Per Lead: $4.77
Yay for Facebook and Instagram! Our leads have gone up drastically and our cost per lead has been cut in half.
Here are the changes we made to our Facebook and Instagram ads to achieve our results:
We basically had Facebook track anyone who hit our conversion page and created a lookalike audience that matched our conversions. It has been very effective.
Created a new whiteboard animation video that provided a little better messaging.
Increased our ad spend budget.
Allowed our good ads to keep running continuously.
That is exactly how we increased our leads.
Please note that we have created an overall system and you are getting a glimpse into this portion of our marketing campaigns. There are more videos and blogs coming in the near future (and most likely a book).
Now it is your turn.
Let us know if you have any questions. We would love to help implement our whole marketing strategy to your business.
Thanks for reading Incredible: From 100 Leads Per Week To 500 Leads Per Week. See How We Did It!
Your email campaign should be a major deal to you, and here’s why.
There are a few things here at Yinc that we deem pretty darn important. And one of them is your email campaign. Oh, you don’t have an email campaign? Then what are you doing with yourself?! Haven’t you ever heard the saying, “The money is in the list?” Because it is.
Your site should have a few forms on it. Something like a general form for visitors to get into contact with someone at your company (probably located on your “contact” page). And you probably should have one somewhere else that allows people to subscribe to your newsletter, or give their email address for some awesome offer. You always want to offer something to your customers in return for their information. This is how you will capture emails for your email campaign.
If you’re a health or fitness company, allow site visitors to download some recipes and boom! You’ve got an email. Maybe you have totally awesome guides that help people accomplish something. Allow them to download these completely free as long as they give their email. Or just give them an option to subscribe to your monthly/weekly/daily newsletters. But let them know you are going to give some good information in these emails, something of value. Make sure they are excited to sign up for what you can offer.
And then make it worth it!
How?
By creating an awesome email campaign. I know, I know, you probably delete the majority of emails you sign up for without ever opening them. You’re probably thinking, I never open emails so why should I waste time creating emails that people aren’t going to read?
That’s when your subject line comes in! If you create an amazing subject line, people are going to want to open them up and read them. It’s the same with writing headlines. If you create a gripping ad headline, people are going to want to click on it…so create a gripping subject line and get those people clicking!
Here’s a little bit of information that we’ve learned about subject lines and what gets opened and what gets tossed.
Bad words to not use in your subject line:
Discount -38.8%
Trial -45.6%
Learn -35.5%
Report -23.7%
News -34.8%
Even the word “free” gets a -3%
Some good words to use in your subject line:
Weirdly enough “free delivery” gets a 50.5% opening rating
Alerts 38.1%
Sales 23.2%
Breaking 35.4%
Review 37.1%
Limited 28.7%
If someone is signing up for you list, it’s usually because they want information that you can provide or are hoping for deals or exclusive information. So start with great content right out of the gate, and they will want to open every email from you that comes into their inbox.
So what should your email campaign contain?
It really depends upon your demographic, but you’ve probably heard our rant about the 4 happy chemicals and the one sad one inside your brain. If not, go read it, it’s fantastic and a real insight into how we make decisions as people. Basically you’ve got to get these people craving something right off the bat. Right in that subject line. Make it something they can’t pass up. Think about what gets you reading articles that pop up on your social media? What entices you? Then replicate it. Get your readers dopamine going.
Now for the good stuff, the meat and potatoes of the email.
We like to write our email campaigns like you would a movie. The introduction (headline) the pain, peril, and problem, then the solution, and then a call to action at the end.
So, what need are you going to fill for your clients? What can you offer them that helps their lives? What are they stressed about right now? Get their cortisol flowing so they feel a little tense.
Then hit them with the solution. How you can relieve that stress from their lives. Make them feel okay again, that you have a solution for them. And then end your email with a strong call to action.
But be careful, you want to sell your audience without them realizing you are selling them. Because no one wants to be sold to.
Make your emails fun and funny for your reader, but make sure they have a point and your reader knows what that is.
We really enjoy throwing in what we call a “Seinfeld Story.” Seinfeld is a whole show based around nothing. So throw in an email that’s about nothing. Write about what you did today, or some other mundane story. Make sure it’s still fun and entertaining, but make sure it’s also not a sales pitch. We like to add this one in around email 4 or 5. Which brings me to my next point…
How often should you send out emails?
We go off the Fibonacci sequence. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and then we like them to go out once a week. If you can’t do once a week, link your service (Infusionsoft, MailChimp, Aweber, etc) to your blog, so that your blogs will be sent out. Either way let your clients know that you’re still around.
And then when you have a new product or service, or maybe it’s sale season, send out a separate email giving discount codes or exclusive offers.
Just remember, the money is in the list, so work it baby, work it!
Two men set out on a mission. It was a mission of discovery, adventure, and misfortune. 1400 miles in total.
One had all the resources at his fingertips and the other did not. One man was well funded and had all the training and talent necessary to win the prize and the other did not.
A David and Goliath story.
The goal…The South Pole
Scott had all the resources necessary to succeed and bring home the prize, but it was Amundson who would arrive at the South Pole and live to tell about it.
It all came down to decisions.
Scott made bad ones Amundson made great ones.
Make no mistake about it: Scott and his men had heart and hardihood in spades. But Amundsen was the superior tactician.
Here is a great example…
A day when Scott should have been in a mad dash to get to the next station he decided to stop and collect rocks. This was after they were already starving and frost bitten.
He took horses and skis instead of dogs
He didn’t plan and prepare
He took one navigator compared to Amundson’s four.
His depot stations were too few, too little, and too far apart.
It was a disaster, which would eventually cost all of them their lives.
They froze…
Amundsen’s route had never before been taken, but it put his starting point 60 miles closer to the Pole than Scott’s.
Amundson, on the other hand, did the exact opposite.
He planned for emergencies.
Instead of one depot station he would set up multiple.
They had so much food on the trip back they were eating all they could to lighten the load. They were even feeding the dogs delicious chocolate. (don’t do this at home, your dog might leave you some presents)
His men reached the pole 30 days before Scott and were back home about the time Scott was dying.
You might be asking how does this apply to marketing, especially video marketing?
Let me elaborate.
There are two companies that have similar products. They are both looking for success, but one makes millions while the other shuts it’s doors.
It all comes down to decisions and preparation.
Are you going to spend the time and prepare for success? (due diligence)
Are you going to make sure your video and marketing efforts are really producing results? (measure results)
Do you have different lead sources? (preparation)
Who are your marketing partners do they know what they are doing?
I continually consult with business owners and find that some are prepared but unfortunately most aren’t.
The majority never makes it back from the South Pole.
It’s the perfect time of year to go back over your marketing efforts.
I did…
When Marketing You Make Your Own Luck
Here is what I found
Facebook ads are still working great, but you have to make sure the target audience is dialed in.
YouTube is still our poster child. We love video ads and video marketing.
2015 is going to be a big year for video marketing. Platforms are only getting better and Google is always improving the target audience options. I will we harping on this throughout the year so expect to see a lot more in terms of video marketing. It works
PPC ads – Adwords are still working, but can get very expensive.
Bing and Yahoo Ads are gaining market share so make sure you are using them
We stopped running Twitter and Linkedin ads. They still need to improve conversions and results. I might look to test them in a couple of months
Video SEO – organic search marketing is awesome
Google and YouTube autocomplete is going to be a big part of our strategy for 2015. We have created machines.
Email marketing is a must. The money is in the list
Customer retention and customer service is also a must. Look for ways to improve it.
“I may say that this is the greatest factor—the way in which the expedition is equipped—the way in which every difficulty is foreseen, and precautions taken for meeting or avoiding it. Victory awaits him who has everything in order — luck, people call it. Defeat is certain for him who has neglected to take the necessary precautions in time; this is called bad luck.” -Roald Amundsen
That should cut it.
The logistics of Scott’s expedition were complex; he started out with 16 men, 23 dogs, 10 ponies, 13 sledges, and 2 motor sledges. Since the different forms of transport varied in speed, they had to each start out at different times from the camps, so that they’d all arrive near the same time at the next camp. The party was slowly winnowed down to the five men who man-hauled the rest of the way to the Pole. In contrast, Amundsen’s expedition was very simple: 5 men and dogs all the way there, and all the way back.
Why take horses? Bad Decision by Scott
We want to be your strategic partner and see how quickly we can get to the pole and back.
Jace Vernon
(your video marketing consultant)
PS. Hey guys I think it has been a month since I have written a blog, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do better in 2015. We have some great guides and advice coming.
I’m serious we have some amazing stuff coming so keep a look out.
Great Marketing Advice I Learned from The Death of Scott
As many of you know I have 6 wonderful kids that keep me pretty busy.
Two weeks ago Camdyn (2) and Taya (4) discovered Taylor Swift. So I have spent the last 336 hours listening to “Blank Space” and “Shake it off” over and over again.
Normally this would drive a Dad crazy, but I am all for it. I love Taylor Swift and her lyrics are amazing. There is nothing better than cruising around in a Mini Van, stereo blasting, listening to two little girls fumble through the lyrics of a song. That is what I call happiness!
Taylor Swift was the 2nd highest paid Female Musician last year bringing in close to $64 Million. Why is that?
Answer: She has created what I like to call the “Attractive Character”
Think about it. Her songs relate to her audience. Taylor writes or co-writes every song on all of her albums and most come from her personal experiences.
People love Taylor because they see themselves.
“A key line in the song (Blank Space) “Ain’t it funny rumors fly, And I know you heard about me,” gives us a glimpse into what it’s like to be miss Swift, but it’s also very relatable to the average person. Many of us have heard things about others and ourselves that aren’t true. The art of a Taylor Swift song comes from being able to take personal experiences and having them translate into the lives of millions of other people. This is the reason Swift can still sell over a million copies of her album the first week and why all of her concerts sell out. She knows how to connect to people’s emotions.”
The point…
When it comes to building a business, writing emails, creating scripts, or interactive with our audience we need to create an “Attractive Character.”
A character that relates to our customers.
Apple = Steve Jobs
Oracle = Larry Ellison
Disney = Walt Disney
Obviously, when building an attractive character you open yourself up to push back and criticism. That is just the way it is.
You will be tempted to return to your old ways of corporate talk and bore the heck out of your audience. A good indicated of progress could often times come in the form of criticism.
Example:
Two weeks ago I sent out an email about my cleaning lady stealing my wife’s camera. It was a great way to introduce our new watercolor videos, but I still get one or two emails where people seem to take offense no matter what I say.
Here’s a response from XXXX XXXX
“No good deed goes unpunished” huh? What a lovely message. Well let me encourage you that I find your email less than a good deed. In fact I found it insulting as the introduction was unnecessary and placed an unbalanced, negative light upon an almost universal spiritual message of giving – whether it is returned and appreciated or not.
So you may be encouraged to find that bad deeds don’t go unpunished either as I have no intention of rewarding such behavior by patronizing your business. How’s that for balance.” XXXX XXXX
Crazy, right? Who is this guy.
I know, I know, I am confused just like the rest of you… Who doesn’t love my emails?
Criticism and push back can be a great indicator that you are heading in the right direction.
Although I get some negative response, they don’t even compare to all the positive ones.
So do not be afraid to go out there and write about you, your experience, your triumphs and failures.
In the coming weeks I will try and do the same, I will share with you guys:
How I lost a million dollars in one day.
How $60,000 cold hard cash show up at my office in a Fedex package (You’re not going to believe where the money came from).
How I gained a net worth of 8 million by age 27 and lost it all by age 28.
How we made $400,000 in one day all because of a simple mistake.
The list goes on. I share these things, in hopes that I can help some business owner improve their business in one-way or another.
I am just like most of you. I am out their searching for my tribe…
We all want to find our tribe.
“A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. For millions of years, human beings have been part of one tribe or another. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate. … Tribes need leadership. Sometimes one person leads, sometimes more. People want connection and growth and something new. They want change…you can’t have a tribe without a leader – and you can’t be a leader without a tribe.” Seth Godin
When you are creating your email sequence, blogs, videos, etc. You will want to make sure you are relating to people and you do this through creating the “Attractive Character.”
Someone whom people relate to.
Attractive Character = You
Here is simple PDF that will help you create the “Attractive Character.” I got this from Russell Brunson.
“If you’re remarkable, then it’s likely that some people won’t like you. That’s part of the definition of remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise — ever.
The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed. Criticism comes to those who stand out.
Playing it safe. Following the rules. They seem like the best ways to avoid failure. Alas, that pattern is awfully dangerous. The current marketing “rules” will ultimately lead to failure. In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is failing. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.”
P.S. I am going to be sending out another email on YouTube Marketing. You are now able to create annotation that will link out to a website.
I will explain in the next email.
Lead Gen, Business Marketing Or Advertising? You Need This!
