Get More Clients Online

5 Proven Tactics to Uplevel Your Client Base

I hear from clients constantly who say that their clients can't afford to pay them, or that they're constantly besieged by requests for "pro bono services."  Don't get me wrong -- helping those in need is an admirable part of any business plan and business philosophy. However, if your entire client base is filled with people who can't afford to pay you what you need to charge to stay in business, then you've got a major problem.   You are working with the wrong segment of your target market.

Most of my clients are in the helping professions and feel a great sense of guilt and remorse that they cannot help the many people who truly need what they offer but are unable to pay for the service.  The only way that you can stay in business long enough to offer pro bono services on a selective basis is by finding that segment of your target market who can easily afford to pay what you charge. 

Many of my business-to-business (B2B) service provider clients get a different kind of request from other business owners who claim any number of excuses about why they can't pay the full fee or request free help -- they're a non-profit, they're just starting out, they just went through a divorce, etc.  Here's one thing to remember if you're a B2B service provider:  It is not your responsibility to subsidize another business that has not made adequate financial preparations to be in business.  Period.

Here's how you can uplevel your client base to get in front of more affluent clients:

1.  Raise your prices.  There is an inherent value associated with price.  Are your prices putting you at the bottom, middle, or top of other service providers in your category?  You can offer the best service for a premium price, or you can give your services away very cheaply.  I usually urge moving toward the middle of the pack, but not always.  Regardless of the reality, low prices often connote poor service or tell your clients you're not worth it.  And, by increasing your prices, you get yourself out of the segment of the market who could just barely afford to pay you into a more affluent segment who can more easily afford your rates.

2.  Create a packaged value or system.  Rather than offering time for dollars, try to find better ways to serve your clients through a variety of package options or through creating a system. By doing so, you give the customers options so that they focus on the value of what you offer rather than on the amount of time your spend offering the service.  When your rates reflect this value, you increase the likelihood that the customer will stay with you for a longer period, or will return to you repeatedly.  And, people love to invest in a step-by-step system that makes it easy for them to get their needs met and their problems solved.

3.  Offer a variety of price points.  As your business grows and develops, you'll have more latitude to be able to develop ways to serve clients at all price points, from the very low to the very high.  Many times you can help others by offering information products at lower price points and reserving your higher prices for packages and systems that incorporate some 1:1 time with you.  Develop your upsell funnel so that you have a clear vision of how someone comes into your marketing funnel (typically by signing up for something you offer free of charge) and how the upsell process works to get customers to flow into higher and higher price points as they continue to work with you. 

4.  Make sure your marketing materials are top-notch.  Does your web site, blog, or social networking profiles have a customized, quality look to them, or does it look as though you threw these things together with a minimum of money and effort?  When you have an online business, your online reputation depends upon creating a "wow" factor when someone visits your storefront, i.e. your web site, your blog, your video channel, etc.  Andrew Lock of the "Help! My Business Sucks!" web television show says, "Everything is marketing and marketing is everything."  Don't let a sloppy online presence cost your business.

5.  Clearly articulate the benefits and results of working with you.  People rarely buy a service just to buy a service.  What they're buying are the results of the service.  Do your clients understand the benefits and results gained when they work with you?  Even if you offer a service where the results aren't often quantifiable, you can still look at the impact your service has on every part of your client's life, from health to money to satisfaction to relationships.

If you're not attracting the clients you want to attract, try at least one of these strategies and watch how your client base is transformed!

Copywriting Tips: How to Market Benefits vs Features

One of the most difficult concepts to grasp for online business owners who are writing their own sales copy is to write about the benefits of your product/service, rather than the features. Even though this skill is critically important, I would guess that less than 10% of business owners truly understand it.  Not surprisingly, it's also the primary reason that so many marketing campaigns fail.

Think about the products and services that you buy.  Why did you purchase them?  One of the reasons I go to the local Firestone auto servicing center to buy my tires and get my oil changed and my car maintained (despite the fact that it's 30 miles from my house) is because Dale, the customer service manager, told me when I first visited this center, "We take care of you so you don't have to worry about breaking down on the side of the road."  That sealed the deal for me -- no other explanation was necessary.

I'm no different than you are.  It's taken me a long time to begin to write about the benefits of what I offer, because, like you, I always assumed that prospects will understand why they should buy the product or service just because I've told them about it.  After all, isn't listing the marvelous features of what I'm offering enough?  Unfortunately, the answer is no.

When you try to sell the features of your product or service, you're making the customer do all the work to figure out why they want the feature. As the seller of your products and services, it's in your prospect's best interest to draw the connection for them. In order to do that, however, you have to know the results yourself.

So, then, what's the difference between benefits and features?  A feature is a factual statement about the product or service being promoted. However, it's not the features that entice customers to buy. That's where benefits come in. A benefit answers the question "What's in it for me?"

The best way to understand the true benefit that your product or service offers is to focus instead on the results that your customer will receive when using said product of service. It is the customer's perception of each feature's result that will attract a prospect to buy a particular product or service.

So, for example, if you were selling a car, one of the features might be "all wheel drive". While your advertising might include that information, you'll fare better in your sale when you focus on the benefits of that feature, such as greater safety when driving on poor surfaces, ability to drive places other vehicles can't, and minimizing the likelihood of getting stuck in the winter. If the prospect says "so what?" when hearing of an aspect of the product, then that aspect is a feature. The answer to the "so what?" question is a potential benefit. 

Let's play this out:

Car ad says: This car has all wheel drive.

Customer reads and says: So what?

Salesperson responds: This means that you're much less likely to get stuck in the snow in the winter.

Ideal customer response: I hate when that happens! That's something I need!

If the response to the answer is another "so what?" or a shrug, then the answer did not nail a benefit for that customer (maybe they live in an area of the country where getting stuck in the winter isn't an issue). Perhaps they would respond better to the "ability to drive places other vehicles can't" or something else.  The key here is knowing and understanding your customers and what they need.

To help you create your list of benefits for your product or service, create a Features and Benefits Sheet. Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the left hand side write a list of the features of your product or service. On the right side write the corresponding benefit that goes with that feature. answering the "so what?" question (what problem are you solving) in the process. Once you have completed this exercise, share the sheet with colleagues who will give you honest feedback about your benefits listing.

Remember, success in sales and marketing in your business is all about the benefits to your audience rather than the features you're going to deliver.  It's all about selling the sizzle, not the steak.

Members of OnlineBizU.com can download the Features and Benefits worksheet here.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Internet Marketing Automation Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals create prosperous online businesses that make more profit in less time by teaching them how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise, and get found online.  Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at ==> http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

Cyber Monday Deals

Had I not been so addled with cold medications, perhaps I would have remembered that the online alternative to Black Friday for brick and mortar stores is Cyber Monday for online businesses. Of course, this didn't stop Amazon, who ran Black Friday deals all last week and Cyber Monday deals this week.

When I opened my email this morning, I had 10 Cyber Monday offers, with more arriving each minute. Amazingly enough, however, was the fact that all of these email were from ecommerce businesses (selling consumer goods online) rather than from independent service professionals.  So, I guess other solo service professionals like me forgot about this trend, as well! LOL

However, it's not too late to put your special deal together and offer it to your list.  If I had not just run another promotion, I would have quickly put something together, as well.

Happy shopping on this Cyber Monday!

How to Promote Yourself Without the Slime

Q:  How do I market my web site with a non-intrusive manner? So that people feel welcome but not obliged to visit my site?

Marek

A:  Hi Marek -- I think the real question you may be asking is how to promote yourself without feeling like a slimy salesperson.  You do need to send people to your site, for if you don't, how will they ever buy from you?  Unless you have a trust fund that's helping you pay the bills, you need to make sales in order to be profitable.

The best way to sell without selling is to do what I call "educational marketing," or where you share your expertise freely with your prospective customers.  The best way to educate your prospects is by writing a content-rich article each week for your email newsletter, or by posting 2-3 content-rich blog posts each week.  When you do this, you demonstrate to your prospects that you are the expert in a particular arena, and then you can send them to your site for more info on how they can "buy" more of this expertise themselves.  This additional expertise may come in the form of a membership site, an information product, or hiring you for some 1:1 coaching or consulting.

You can get more detailed tutorials on creating ezines and blogs, downloadable audio, and how-to articles to implement any of these strategies with a membership to OnlineBizU.com.

If you think 1:1 marketing coaching might better help you, check out my individual coaching options here.

Got an Internet Marketing question?  Ask it here: AskDonnaGunter.com.

Upsells for a membership site

Q: Can you help me think of ways to upsell, cross sell and reduce refunds for our software membership website?  We do upselling, cross selling and saving refund/cancellation via inbound calls of our existing members who has questions regarding billing, technical concerns and other inquiries. 

Frances Meris
Izonetech-ph.com

A:  Hi Frances -- Great question!  You've already got a good start in that you handle much of this though your inbound call center.  Here are a few more ideas:

1.  Use your shopping cart to create a special one-time offer for another product/service when:

• someone signs up for your software
• someone signs up on your prospect list
• someone purchases another product

2.  When someone calls to cancel their service (if they have been a short-term subscriber), give them a "rural refund".  This is a trick that I've seen other Internet marketers use for physical products.  When a customer calls to return a physical product, they will ask the customer is they live outside a city where it might be troublesome to get to a post office or mailing center to return the product, or just ask if the return process would be troublesome regardless of location.  Assuming the customer will say yes, they offer to refund the customer half of the purchase price if they'll try the product another two months before returning it. If they want to return it at that time, they can do so and get the remainder of their money back.  I'm told this decreases cancellations.

This could also work for a membership subscription by asking the customer to continue to try the membership for an additional 2-3 months at no cost (you extend their membership at no charge).  This also decreases cancellations.

The key in any of these upsells/conversion tactics is to not to try and fool the customer.  Make sure that they fully understand what/if they're being refunded and how much they're being refunded, or if it's an upsell, what additional charges will appear on their card.  By being transparent, you'll avoid having nasty chargebacks levied against your merchant account.

Got an Internet Marketing question?  Ask it here: AskDonnaGunter.com.

How to Use Your Ezine Thank You Page to Create a One Time Offer

Many times, when you sign up for a free giveaway or purchase an item, you are taken to an OTO (One Time Offer) page, where you'll be given the opportunity to purchase a "never to be seen again, one time offer," which is a product that has been discounted for one time only during this one particular transaction.  In this transaction scenario, you have two choices: either buy the product now at the special discounted price, or continue on without buying the product and lose access to the special pricing opportunity. However, you can usually buy the product later, but at a higher price.

Normally, these types of offers drive me crazy because there are usually 3-4 "one time offers" bundled together.  When you decline one, another one pops up.  Sometimes it feels as though the one time offers will never end!  However, after watching several videos recently as veteran Internet marketers touted the benefits of the OTO, I wondered if I might be able to use these in my business without being slimy.

Here's how I decided to implement this strategy:

1.  Determine the offer.  One "one time offer" is quite sufficient for my needs at this point, so I looked through my inventory of products and made a decision on what to offer as a one time unique deal.

2.  Name the price.  Your OTO needs to offer enough of a price reduction to make it truly attractive to your prospect. In many cases, that means a savings of 40-60% off of the regular pricing.

3.  Outline the order of the offer.  In many cases, the OTO is attached to another purchase.  You'll need to determine if your shopping cart can be configured to handle such an offer. In my case, the most natural place for this one time offer is on my ezine subscription thank you page. I have 2 thank you pages created when someone subscribes to my ezine.  The first gives instructions on how to opt into the list.  The second, called a "confirmation success page," gives the visitor access to my free giveaway, or client attraction device, once the visitor has confirmed her email address and opted into my list. For simplicity, I decided to keep my confirmation success page intact, and tie the OTO to my opt-in thank you page.

4.  Craft your copy.  On your ezine thank you page, give your subscriber instructions on how to get on your list, and below, create your OTO that fully describes what you have available, why it's a great deal, and the special price that you're offering.  I also use some OTO graphics that I purchased inexpensively to help me get the message across. Be sure that you give your prospect the option of opting out of this offer.

5.  Test your conversions.  You can test your conversions in many ways -- by changing headlines, graphics, or even at the point you are making the offer.  For me, the conversion calculation was pretty simple -- was it making me sales?  I don't have the figures yet, as I've just started this process, but I'll keep you updated on how I do.

How much money are you leaving on the table by not using one time offers?  Give it a shot, and test to see if it increases your sales.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps baby boomers create profitable online retirement businesses by demystifying the steps needed to successfully market a baby boomer business online. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at == > http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

Top 8 Signs of ECommerce Fraud: How to Detect Fraudulent Credit Card Transactions

When you have an online component of your business, experiencing ecommerce fraud is becoming the rule rather than the exception. No longer is it a matter of "if" this will happen to you but "when" it will happen to you. I did some quick research and was astounded at the extent of fraudulent transactions, especially given the poor state of the current U.S. economy.
 
 My first major case of ecommerce fraud happened this past week. I was running a special promotion with my affiliates to see how this marketing strategy for additional sales might work out for me. Unfortunately, I got results I never expected in the way of too many sales happening in a short period of time, which made me suspicious.
 
 After getting additional sales over the weekend, I decided to begin to call the people who were listed as purchasing a membership to my site. Just as I suspected, none of them had heard of me nor my site. In fact, my phone call to some of them was the first indication they had of their credit card information being stolen. This guy (I'm assuming it was a guy, based on how he registered his affiliate account with me) was very thorough in that he had the COMPLETE credit card record for the victims of this fraud, including name, complete address, phone number, credit card number, card expiration date, and credit card security code (verification number).
 
 Even though I had address verification turned on as well as the credit card security code verification turned on in the settings for my online payment gateway, this did me no good. My merchant account provider informed me that when the thief has complete information, there's essentially nothing a merchant can do to prevent fraud. Setting your address verification at maximum may block legitimate sales, especially when the sales are outside the U.S. This leaves many online merchants stuck between a rock and a hard place.
 
 One upside to this situation is that I didn't ship out physical products but was selling virtual items like ebooks and site memberships. I've heard horror stories of merchants losing tens of thousands of dollars in goods shipped to a fraudulent account. My thief's goal in this scam was in collecting affiliate commissions. He was hoping I'd pay out affiliate commissions on his "sales" prior to discovering that all of this sales were fraudulent. Fortunately, I didn't fall prey to that, as I would have been out even a greater amount of money than I already am.
 
 The second upside in this situation is that my thief wasn't bright enough to enter fake telephone numbers. Because he generously provided me with the correct phone numbers of the other victims in this scam, I was able to contact them and let them know what was going on. Otherwise, I would have had to resort to direct mail to reach them if I wasn't able to find a phone number through directory assistance.
 
 So, what were the indicators that these transactions might not be valid? Here are the 8 clues that tipped me off to the possibility of ecommerce fraud:
 
 1. Emails don't resemble the name of the purchaser. I require an email address for a purchase. In the vast majority of cases, the purchaser's email addresses resembles some portion of her name or business. In my case, none of the emails from the recent purchases mirrored the given name of the purchaser. One or two I could count as an oddity -- 5 or 6 in a row made me very suspicious. In this case, all of the emails were valid, as the thief opted into my email marketing system with each email address. However, they weren't the valid email addresses of the people whose names were on the accounts.
 
 2. Sales are exclusive to one affiliate. In this campaign, all of my sales were linked to one affiliate. I suppose he thought I would have other sales, as well, and his would blend in unnoticed with the others. However, he didn't realize that this was my first affiliate campaign, so his sales stuck out like a sore thumb.
 
 3. Sales are all to one gender. By and large, I have more female members than male. All of the sales that I was making last week were from men. Again, one or two is expected, but not multiple ones consecutively. I'm assuming my thief stole card information from some company whose customers are exclusively male.
 
 4. Too many sales of a particular product in too short of a time period. I know the sales pattern for my site. Sales typically trickle in unless I do a special promotional campaign to encourage buying. Granted, I was doing a special promotion at the time, but to sell the number of yearly memberships that I did in a short period of time wasn't usual, as most people choose to purchase the monthly membership option when they join.
 
 5. Transactions occur from same IP address. Fortunately, my merchant account provider and online payment gateway provider capture the IP (web) addresses from which the purchases are made. When I logged into my merchant account, I quickly realized that each of the transactions of the day were all coming from the same IP address. The IP address changed the next day, however, so this won't be a very valuable tool to track the thief. However, I still had my web host block access to my site from these IP addresses as an additional precaution.
 
 6. Too many declined transactions in too short of a period of time. Normally, if someone tries to join my site and their transaction is declined, I don't receive any notification of this. I'm not sure I can change that fact, but I'm certainly more motivated now to regularly log into my merchant account to check my number of declined transactions. Had I been doing this regularly, I would have realized the fraud that was taking place on my site much sooner.
 
 7. Affiliate is in another country. Some countries have a reputation for being a hothouse for online fraud. As I checked the info my affiliate provided in his affiliate account, his address listing didn't seem quite right, and he listed himself as a resident of a country nearby to those known for online fraud. This fact added to my ever-growing list of suspicions.
 
 8. Big ticket items. The sales that were made were consistently my highest-priced item. As mentioned earlier, that sales pattern is unusual for me, so it tipped me off, as well. My thief apparently wanted to rack up the greatest amount of sales in the shortest period of time by repeatedly "buying" my highest-priced item.
 
 I'm still sorting out this mess. Because the card holders have all canceled their cards, I'm unable to refund the money from the fraudulent sales. I'm working with them and their credit card companies to try and rectify the situation from my end and prevent nasty charge backs from being issued to my account (too many of these puts your merchant account in jeopardy, as you then appear to be an unreliable business). My merchant account provider also encouraged me to provide all the info I have about this scam to the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
 
 If your Spidey sense is triggered by unusual sales activity on your web site, don't delay in checking it out. At best, if your suspicions are groundless, you'll make a personal connection to your customers and they'll know you're diligent and you care. At worst, you'll nip this scam in the bud before it gets out of control.
 
 WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps baby boomers create profitable online retirement businesses by demystifying the steps needed to successfully market a  baby boomer business online. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at == > http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com

"I'm Going to Write Me a Swimming Pool"

The title of this post relates to something attributed to John Lennon.  I heard this story on a teleclass, so I can't verify its authenticity nor details.  The gist of the story was that John Lennon wanted a new swimming pool for his home, so he decided to write a new song, which he was sure would generate enough cash to enable him to build the swimming pool that he wanted.

I love this concept for all of us who are self-employed!  Rather than whining, "Oh, poor pitiful me, I can't afford to do x," why don't you offer something to your list that will enable you to create the cashflow that you need to proceed?

Alexandria Brown has related a similar story to the members of her coaching program last year.  She said that anytime she was short on cash or needed cash for a project, she would put together a teleclass, offer it to her list, and raise the funds that she needed.

What are you going to do today to raise the capital that you need to move forward?

If you don't have a list or don't know what to offer your list, check out a membership to OnlineBizU.com for step-by-step instructions on how to market your service business online.

Want more client conversions?

If you haven't already, there's still time to sign up for a groundbreaking marketing teleclass featuring Creative Marketing Coach Sue Painter  coming up on *Tuesday, August 18, 2009*. 

It's called The 11 Most Crucial Emotional Triggers That Convert Prospects Into Customers.

(In a hurry? Sign up for this complimentary call now at
http://www.onlinebizu.com/public/421 )
 
If you haven't heard of Sue, get ready to have your marketing philosophy changed forever. This dynamic woman is paving a new road for entrepreneurs with her innovative and creative marketing strategies. 

The important thing to know is that Sue's methods work - she's helped everyone from home-based moms to seasoned business owners double or triple their revenues by ramping up their business marketing.

You see, there's a monumental shift happening in marketing, and in business.

Previous marketing models are failing and fading. Entrepreneurs who are continuing to operate as they have previously are finding the same old strategies are not working anymore. In fact, they are likely hurting their business.

The "traditional" paradigms for marketing are collapsing. And those who know will be leading the way as they listen to Sue talk about...

• It's not about marketing harder - it's about daring to market differently

• It's not about marketing with hype - it's about authenticity, with style and emotion

• It's not about dreaming aimlessly - it's about pursuing 11 motivating strategies

Sue will explain it all on this one-time call. Again, learn more and register for this free teleseminar on August 18 at
http://www.onlinebizu.com/public/421.cfm

You don't want to miss this call with Sue - your business will be changed forever!

Client Testimonial Tips: 10 Most Effective Questions for Take-Action Testimonials

Client testimonials can make or break a web site. They are a vital factor in establishing a relationship of trust with new visitors to your site. Visitors want to see that others just like them have hired you or purchased your products and have successfully overcome some hurdle or some issue. Better yet, when the testimonials specifically note how the client's life or business has been enhanced by buying your product or service, the visitor then begins to believe that it will help her overcome a similar issue, as well.

Several years ago I updated one of my sites. I continued to get phone calls from potential clients who wanted to hire me, but the calls were much different than I had gotten previously. The difference was that I spent the duration of the phone call in sales mode to convince them to hire me, which is something I hate to do. I'd never had to do that before. Typically when someone would call me, they were already sold on the concept of hiring me and just wanted to know when we could get started.

I racked my brain to try and figure out what in the world was going on and what had changed with these prospects. Suddenly it hit me that in the update of my site, my client testimonials had gotten lost in the process and weren't on the new site. This gave me the motivation I needed to get additional testimonials from satisfied clients and determine how to best display those testimonials for maximum impact. Once I added those to my new site, things returned to normal and those rave reviews did all of my selling for me.

So, now you know that testimonials can serve as an important sales tool on your web site. How do you go about getting testimonials that say something more compelling than, "Jane is great to work with!", which is useless for all practical purposes.

Here are ten questions you can ask your clients to get results-oriented testimonials for your online business:

1. What factors made you to choose my business to assist you with <fill in outcome desired by your client here>?

2. What were your preconceived notions about using <my type of business, service, or product>. For example, "What were your perceptions about working with an accountant before we started?"

3. How has that perception changed since you hired me/bought my product?

4. What do you like most about working with me/using the product?

5. Did you expect it would work as well as it did?

6. Did you have any objections/hesitations before you decide to hire us/buy the product? If so, what were they? How did we overcome your hesitation and objections?

7. What are the three biggest benefits of working with us/using the product? OR How has your life changed/things changed since you began using our service/product? Please be as specific as possible (i.e. we increased sales by 25% in 3 months; I lost 15 pounds in 20 days; I doubled my income last year).

You may also want to ask this as a before/after question, i.e. "How are things different now after hiring us than they were before you hired us?"

8. If you were to recommend me to a colleague, friend, or business associate, how would you describe the way I provided my service to you (or, the way I helped you achieve a certain result)?

9. Is there anything else you'd like to add that I haven't yet asked about?

10. Can I share this information in our marketing materials?

If you don't have any client testimonials on your site, it's not to late to go out and solicit a few. Use some or all of the questions noted above to increase the trust visitors have in your services and products and increase your sales dramatically!!
 

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this blurb with it:  Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps baby boomers create profitable online retirement businesses by demystifying the steps needed to successfully market a  baby boomer business online. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to increase your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, at == > http://www.TurbochargeYourOnlineMarketing.com