22 May The SEA – How to systematically double, triple and even 10x your RESULTS
The Wrong Way to Grow a Business
Most people slowly grow their business incrementally and linearly because they focus the majority of their time and resources on increasing the number of Visitors to their website through SEO, online advertising, social media, and the list goes on and on. There’s no shortage of information, tools, and consultants to help you get more traffic to your website.
But what happens when that traffic lands on your website?
Does your marketing stop there?
Or do you have mechanisms in place to capture prospect information, follow-up, and convert your prospects into BUYERS over time?
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking online marketing is only about driving traffic but if your website does not convince prospects to transact business with you, then more traffic is NOT the answer.
Of course, if you have absolutely no traffic to your website, then generating visitors should be your priority. If traffic is zero, then your revenue will be zero. That’s easy math. However, if you already have some traffic, then improving your conversion rates might be a better opportunity to increase your revenue.
As you can see, traffic is only ONE piece of your overall online marketing strategy. However, if you also increase the number of SHOPPERS that email or call AND increase the of percentage BUYERS who purchase, you’ll grow your profits by 100%, 200% or more.
The Conversion Framework
So how do you increase your conversions?
The SEA Results Framework reveals how Market Leaders like ADP, Ford, and AutoNation drive results.
And it’s the same methodology that you can leverage to systematically drive more customers, clients, or patients than you can handle – all with little time, money, effort or risk!
No matter the size or type of business, this framework works because it relies on the same proven and time-tested methodologies that have been the foundation of every great organization.
Ready to get started?
Let’s dig in!
Learn the SEA Results Framework
The SEA Results Conversion Framework considers the 6 Factors that Influence Conversions: Audience, Value, Communication, Trust, Urgency, and Friction.
Individually, each element can either negatively or positively impact your marketing. Get them all working in harmony and your RESULTS will be exponential!
Step 1: Target a Specific Audience
It all starts with your Audience. Before you start sending any traffic to your website, you first need to understand exactly who your ideal clients, patients or customers are and what makes them tick.
One common way of specifying your ideal audience is through Buyer Personas. When you create each Buyer profile, you’ll want to understand their:
Demographics
What is their geography, age, income,, and education?
State-of-Mind
Are they stressed? How is their Self-esteem? What is their energy level?
Day in the Life
What does their typical day look like? Where do they work? What unique responsibilities do they share?
Affinities
What websites, books and magazines do they read? What thought leaders, influencers, and gurus do they follow?
Purchases
What other products or services do they purchase?
Needs
What are their biggest fears? What challenges do they face? What tools, skills, or knowledge do they need to acquire?
Personality
What is their personality like? What is their social status? And what is their mental state?
Common Questions
What questions do they ask when trying to address their needs?
Make sure that your product or service is as relevant as possible to the unique needs of your targeted audience.
You’ll also want to make sure that the Audience you target has both the Authority and Ability to afford what you have to offer.
- Are they the decision maker in the Organization?
- Do they have the budget to afford your product or service?
- Can you afford the Sales and Marketing cost to reach that audience?
Step 2: Express a Compelling Value Proposition
When Buyers buy from you, what are they actually buying?
What does your prospect’s life look like before they purchase your product or service? What about after their purchase?
What positive impact does your organization make in your Buyers’ lives?
Your Value Proposition is perhaps, the most significant factor in determining your success. It is the bridge that connects what you offer to what your ideal prospects wants.
It is the destination.
It reflects the desired result that your ideal prospect wants to achieve.
And it satisfies their need.
It’s what makes the Buyer happier, smarter, or better looking. It’s what makes them wealthier and more powerful. And it’s what makes them more sophisticated and stylish. It’s what makes them greater!
A good Value Proposition takes into account both the real and perceived value of your offer, its appeal to your target market and the exclusivity of your offering. It answers the question:
If I am your ideal prospect, why should I buy from you rather than any other alternative (including doing nothing)?
You’ll want to position your solution as an exact fit to your prospects’ goals and challenges.
You do this by understanding the Influences (the features, capabilities, and attributes) that buyers evaluate. After these Influences are defined, you’ll want to identify the various Points of Value that exist within the Organization that satisfy these criteria.
Finally, you will want to differentiate your Offering from all the alternatives by emphasizing what makes your solution unique.
Step 3: Clearly Communicate Your Value
Now that your Value Proposition is defined, your goal is to clearly communicate your value and influence prospects to take action.
It is critical to consider both the technical and persuasive aspects of your communication across your website, social media, advertising, and anywhere else you can reach your ideal prospects.
From a technical perspective you will want to make sure that your content functions as intended, is accessible across devices, and is usable by people of all skill sets.
Persuasion usually involves providing useful information that educates your audience, builds your authority, and addresses any attitudes and concerns that prevent each Buyer from taking action.
Do you remember in Step #1 how we mentioned targeting a specific audience?
You will want to make sure that your communication is as relevant as possible to each specific audience AND the stage in which they reside within the Marketing Funnel.
Are they a new Browser to your site? Then the goal may be to capture their contact information into your database.
Are they already a Shopper that you have in your Contact List? In that case, you may want to encourage their first purchase.
By developing a Content Strategy that targets each Buyer Persona at the different stages of your sales and marketing funnel, your content will make a tremendous difference in your results.
Step 4: Convey Trust
Can your prospects trust you? Are there elements in your marketing that create uncertainty in your prospect’s mind?
You may have the perfect prospect, the best product, and an amazing offer, BUT if you do not instill trust, the sale is lost.
In fact, people WILL NOT BUY if they do not FIRST TRUST you.
To instill confidence in each prospect’s mind, you will want to promote your Expertise within their niche – the special skills, education and experience you have that can be applied to their unique needs.
It is also important to communicate any Trust Factors that apply to the Audience you are targeting. These may include industry groups, associations or events, awards or badges, and any publicity or media coverage you have received.
Did you know that 75% of all people research a company before they even think about doing business with them?
People don’t trust what you say about your product or service: today people trust other people like themselves.
The reputation of your business includes everything that people say about your business – such as reviews, social media posts, comments, blog posts, and articles.
You can build a 5-star reputation by monitoring your existing reviews, engaging consumers and requesting reviews from the buyers you have served. Then, market your stellar reputation on your website, in social media and across all your marketing channels.
You can enhance your credibility even more by developing those reviews into Testimonials and Case Studies. By establishing third-party Proof that you deliver on your promise of value, you can dramatically improve your results.
Finally, it is important to reduce any risk that potential buyers may perceive. This is commonly done through Third-party seals, Promises and Guarantees.
Third-party seals alleviate anxiety that may still exist during the sales process. It may be concerns about the safety of the website, security of the transaction and the privacy of any information provided.
Guarantees assure Buyers that you stand behind your promise to satisfy their need or you will refund, replace or redo the product or service.
Step 5: Instill Urgency
Have you heard the saying “timing is everything”? That is especially true in marketing.
The vast majority, somewhere between 96 – 99%, of your website traffic (Browsers and Shoppers) are NOT yet ready to buy TODAY, for whatever reason.
That means only about 1 – 4% of visitors will be ready to buy now. Right now. At that very moment they visit your website.
So your marketing really has three jobs:
- Convert the SHOPPERS that are ready to BUY NOW into BUYERS
- Grow the number of BROWSERS visiting your website and convert them into SHOPPERS
- Get the BUYERS to BUY MORE
To convert sales, you need to convince BUYERS why they need to take action now. Ask yourself:
What incentives, offers, tone, and presentation will move them to action immediately?
To grow your lists of Shoppers, you need to offer free, valuable resources in exchange for each prospect’s contact information. Ask yourself:
What content, tools and insights can I provide in order to grow my lists of contacts?
In addition to encouraging action, you should capitalize on the events that naturally turn Shoppers into Buyers. These Triggers include events in your prospects’ lives, physical and emotional changes and social influences.
Knowing when to engage each shopper and where to prioritize your efforts is a critical component of successfully improving the number of Shoppers that you are able to convert into Buyers.
Step 6: Reduce Friction
In physics, friction between two items creates resistance, impeding maximum velocity.
The same holds true in business: any friction created between you and your prospects will limit your full potential.
So what kinds of friction are preventing your prospects from taking action?
The friction associated with your business can be thought as residing in two buckets:
- How much they must pay
- What your prospect must do
The good news is that you do not have to be the lowest cost provider, in fact, it’s usually best not to be the cheapest. The important thing is to clearly communicate your value so that you can justify your pricing no matter where you reside in the pricing spectrum.
Many times you can overcome pricing objections by creatively bunding your products or services, changing the delivery and payment terms or by starting small and increasing the Lifetime Value of your Buyer over time with recurring purchases, product add-ons and upsells.
The other kind of Friction is the psychological resistance that buyers experience in the conversion process. This has to do with how difficult it is, and how much time it takes for your prospect to convert.
Any elements that aggravate or cause anxiety in the prospect’s mind reduce your conversion rate. To make the process easier, improve the user experience by eliminating distractions and unwelcome surprises, simplifying your design and reducing options.
You can shorten the time required to convert by reducing the number steps in each process, shrinking the length of pages and by eliminating unnecessary questions and form fields. It is also a good idea to make sure that your site loads as quickly as possible.
To stimulate response, you can provide Incentives to “tip the balance” of emotional forces from negative (exerted by Friction elements) to positive. Use different Offers at each stage of the funnel for prospects to take action.
Offer useful information on your blog to Browsers visiting your website for the first time. Then encourage visitors to share their contact information in exchange for valuable “gated” content that resides behind contact forms. Finally, to encourage a purchase, offer special incentives like free add-ons, bundles or delivery options.
Applying the SEA Results Framework
How do you ensure each one of these conversion factors are considered?
You need a system.
Having a marketing system means you know why you’re doing what you’re doing. You have a clear strategy for moving the company forward.
It allows you to reliably and affordably drive results without wasting money on marketing you cannot measure. With a good strategy and the right tactics, either you’ll hit your goals or you’ll know why not and be able to quickly adjust.
That’s why we created The Market Leadership System …
Big Fish Results has the only marketing system specifically created to grow market leaders. Partnering with Big Fish Results means you get the proven strategies, campaigns, tools, and templates to grow your business and consistently drive measurable results.
Want to learn more?