Last week I talked about my “traffic + conversion equals profits” formula that so many of my students have used with such great success over the years.
By total and amazing coincidence the same morning I posted it, I received a hand-written note in the mail from one of my students who is in the US Army talking about the very same issue – and reminding me of another piece I left out. (Funny how things work sometimes, isn’t it?)
Two quick notes before I get to the topic of this post:
1. Hand written notes – ones that actually say something – often get read, even by people who have “no time.”
2. Everyone who is serious about success needs to learn how to sell and market – even military men. No matter who you are you can’t “order” your way to success.
Another piece of the success puzzle
To make money online – or in any enterprise – you need traffic and you need systems for converting your traffic.
Converting it to what?
Sales is the ultimate answer, but there are many situations where the first conversion will not be a sale.
It will be a download of a white paper, or listening to a podcast, or requesting a free report, or making a phone call or any one of a number of first steps.
Once this happens the ball is in your court Mr. Business Owner.
Astonishingly, it’s the fairly rare company that has anything that even remotely looks like a follow up program for its leads.
As my correspondent has learned and as he reminded me in his letter: “I’ve heard you say ‘the money is in the follow up.’ That statement is rock solid has been my recipe for success.”
In the old days…
In the old days before the Internet, there was very little ‘gimme’ traffic. Every lead had a hard (sometimes a very hard) cost.
Therefore the idea of squandering leads in an old school mail order type business was unthinkable.
Mail order and direct mail people knew three things:
1. Not everyone buys on the first contact
2. If someone has taken the time to contact you they are exponentially more likely to buy from you than a totally cold prospect
3. If you follow up with inquiries, you will get sales
Print-based marketers like catalogues and direct mail publishers pay real money for their follow ups. Even today. Design, copy, printing, postage, handling. None of it’s cheap.
But if you know your numbers – and mail order people know their numbers – you know exactly how much money you can spend on follow up and why you should.
Yet many, many Internet businesses are organized around making an impression, splashing ads, banging a drum, and catching the hyper-responsive customers who buy on the first visit – and letting the other 98% disappear forever into oblivion.
Big mistake.
As my correspondent reminded me – and thank God I have students who remind of the things I’ve said – the money is in the follow up.
By all means sell-sell-sell, but make sure there is another wheel turning in your business that says follow up-follow up-follow up.
P.S. Business success is not easy, but the principles involved are often pretty simple.
Greg Renker who runs the $1.5 billion-a-year Guthy-Renker infomercial powerhouse said something recently that was as profound as profound gets.
“We all need to spend an hour a day reminding ourselves of the fundamentals.”
Renker has no business education courses to sell so this comment was not in any way a come-on.
It’s a reflection of his experience from dealing with hundreds of employees, producing scores of infomercials every year, and moving tons of product since 1988.
Very, very often it is the simple things that matter.
Unlike Renker, I do sell business education courses and even though I’ve been teaching Internet marketing since 1993, teaching and focusing on business and marketing fundamentals has always been a big part of what I do.
There are few guarantees in life, but this I can guarantee. If you’re a member of the System Club, you will be constantly reinforced on the fundamentals. Info about the System Club here.
– Ken McCarthy
P.S. For over 25 years I’ve been sharing the simple but powerful things that matter in business with my clients.
If you’d like direction for your business that will work today, tomorrow and twenty years from now, visit us at the System Club.
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