Following on in this series of posts about the steps I’m taking to market one of my online programs I thought I’d take you through the work I did on the website that I’m using as a case study, From Anxious to Happy.
The first thing I’d say about marketing a product online however is, just do something everyday – something toward achieving your desired outcome.
Using your website to converse with your visitor
It’s not enough to just put up a website with information and hope that people will access your stuff. You need to converse with people and interact with them. How do you do that on a website? One way is by using video, and I wrote about that the other day. Another way is to encourage people to interact with your site by requiring them to take an action that takes them to another page of your website and provides you with another opportunity to converse with them.
This way you are leading your visitor through your website, which is entirely different than having them just land on a home page, do nothing, and then leave your site.
When people land on my new site, www.fromanxioustohappy.com, the first thing they encounter is an auto-play video of me speaking to them and giving them an orientation to the website. I ask them to read the information below the video, I let them know that they can purchase the program, I let them know that they can download a free chapter from my book, Anxious but Happy and that they can watch the slides from a presentation I gave on anxiety disorder and panic attacks. So, the video is informative as well as instructional – I give them things to do on the website.
Option 1: Downloading a free chapter.
So, what am I going to do with those people who choose to download a free chapter? Do I just give them the chapter and that’s it? No. I want to converse with them, relate to them, and create an experience. So, in order to access the free chapter, I require them to enter their email address – and that’s all. At this stage I don’t ask for their name because I want to make it as easy as possible for them to take an action and asking for a name might stop some people from taking up my invitation to get a free chapter.
As soon as they enter their email address they are re-directed to a page where they can download the free chapter, and I lead this download page with a large heading that says ’surprise bonus’, and I give them an additional chapter to download. I wanted to create a good experience for them, and so after they decide to interact with me and get a free chapter, the first thing they encounter is a surprise and another free chapter from the book. I could have given away both chapters at the beginning, but I would have missed the opportunity to create a small but additional impression – everyone likes surprises (when they’re good ones!).
I then remind them that they can purchase the entire program from a link on that page, and I also invite them to look at my slide presentation – another call to action and opportunity to make the experience interactive and keep the ‘conversation going’. Of course, this is only going to work if the stuff you give them is good quality – few people are going to hang around for free crap.
In addition to what’s happening on the website, I’ve now also have the persons email address and I can send them emails to continue the conversation by providing good quality information and mplying with privacy and anti-spam laws of course.
In order to make all of the above happen, I need to use an ‘auto-responder’, which is a piece of software that collects names and email address, can send emails automatically, and can also re-direct people to different webpages. There are a number of different auto-responder services available and they’re very cheap when you’re starting out. So, here’s how it works:
Person fills in email address –> activates the autoresponder –> the autoresponder collects their email and nominates them to receive a series of automated emails scheduled to be sent over the next two weeks –> the autoresponder then re-directs the person to the webpage with the surprise bonus –> and the process is continued –> the person receives the additional free chapter –> they are invited to purchase the entire program OR watch the slide presentation
Option 2: Watching the slide presentation.
People can watch the slide presentation for free, however it is just a plain presentation with no audio. The presentation has high quality information about anxiety and panic attacks, however a presentation without the audio to go along with it isn’t the same as a presentation with audio. So, directly under the slide show, I invite people get the audio version of the presentation by leaving their email address. This is another opportunity to invite the person to interact with ‘me’ on the website. As before, when they leave their email address, they are automatically added to the autoresponder series of emails and are then re-directed to the page with the audio version of the presentation (at the time of writing, I am re-doing the audio version).
On this page, they are also invited to download the free chapter (because they may have watched this first, before accessing the free chapter) and are reminded that they can purchase the whole program from a link on that page.
Summary
The website is now much more likely to engage someone rather than just presenting them with information. It encourages them to be active rather than passive. They come to the website – they see a video – the video invites them to ‘do something’ – they can either purchase the product, or they can enter either of two ‘free loops’: (1) download a free chapter or (2) watch the presentation. If they choose either of these options, they are then given a further opportunity to interact by entering the other ‘loop’. Finally, by choosing to receive a free chapter or watch an audio version of the presentation, they have given me their email address and I can then send them a series of emails in order to keep the conversation open.
The key to all this is the autoresponder – an essential tool for marketing online.
Let me know if you liked this post – leave a comment below! Otherwise, you’re just being passive and I want to encourage you to become an ‘active web user’. Can I also ask you to forward this on to your network of friends or colleagues – those who would find it useful.
Thanks and I hope you’re enjoying Internet Business Tribe.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Nic, Just wondering what you used to create the website. Is it a wordpress blog (thesis)?
another great post on how to market your products online- will have to improve my offering…
Yes, it’s thesis.