You’re putting out your community connections – emails, audios, videos, programs, what-have-you – and your open rates are dropping.
Have you considered that your community isn’t looking forward to hearing from you?
- Perhaps your communications are always “the same” and so have become repetitive at best and mind-numbing boring at worst
- Perhaps you’re not communicating regularly and they forget who you are
- Perhaps you’re all business and let nothing of *you* into your communications
Knowing what you know, what if you were to start over today?
What would you do differently?
- Mix up media – some writing, some audio, some direct mail and some video
- Mix up when you send what
- Inject more (or less) you into the connections
- Add/Delete some of the connections
- Post different info on more sites
If you’re creating a program, product or service and want to ensure you’re connecting with your audience, I recommend going back to basics with what I call “The Starting 12″.
Grab a notebook and pen or open up a word processing file – personally, I like to do this exercise with pen and paper as it puts me in touch with the content in a way that typing never does. Do what works for you.
Before you think about starting to create your information page, you want to answer the following 12 questions (yep, all 12).
Go ahead, grab that notebook or go to your computer, I’ll wait. . .
These questions serve as the foundation to your entire information page (notice I didn’t say “sales page”) so take your time in answering them. And if you can’t answer one, skip it for now and then come back – let your subconscious go to work on it.
Think about your product/service.
- WHY’d you create it?What was the reason behind this particular topic? Of all the things you could have chosen to do, why this one?
- What are the main benefits clients will receive?From widgets which are the perfect piece in the kitchen or living room to programs which teach us exactly what we need most right now, after investing (note that we didn’t say “buying”) in your program, product, service or widget, what will your clients receive?
- Take a look at your client autobiography – what keeps them up at night?Hint: If you know your clients well, it’s often the “not having” of Question 2 above.
- What are your ideal clients’ biggest frustrations?What, in their mind, have they tried again and again only to be frustrated and thwarted? Is it find that perfect piece of art or earn 5 figures with a single program or license that one item or work day in and day out without seeing the results they desperately crave?
- What will they gain after investing with you/your business?Peace of mind, great outfit, step-by-step instructions, perfect gift, money. You get the idea. Write as many results (both tangible and intangible) as you can think of.
- What is your proof? Why should they listen to you?Include testimonials, case studies, stories, audios, videos, pictures of clients using your “thing” — everything you’ve got. And if you don’t have, how can you obtain?
- WHO is this program, product or service for? Who needs it?Note that not everyone in your total audience is going to be a good fit for this particular program, product or service. Be specific about who is a good fit. For example, if you’re a coach who works with women entrepreneurs, and you’ve created a program for “getting things done while the kids are home from school”, you’ll want to appeal only to that subset of your audience with children.
- Who doesn’t need this program, product or service?Think of your audience. Who is not a good fit. Make a note here so you can ensure you’re talking to the right audience when crafting your information page.
- What can you give away as a taste?While this is always important, it’s even more so if you’re weak on testimonials and case studies. If you’re offering a widget, can you create a brochure or website showing how others have used your widget? The object of this is to showcase your expertise and how it can help me. (Think of your local food court — servers are handing out free tastes of different foods with the hope that you’ll try, like and order more. Same concept.)
- Why won’t they buy? What objections will they have?List all the objections you can think of. From “it’s too expensive” to “I don’t have time to implement it” and everything in between. The better the job you do here, the easier your info page will be to create.
- What’s their dream? If their life was perfect as it relates to what you’re offering, what would that be like?
- What’s the worst thing that can happen if they don’t invest in your program?Be specific. Will they stay stuck in the same situation? Will their health remain the same or get worse? Will their business continue to stagnate? Will they walk into their living room knowing that the perfect piece to pull everything together is missing? Will they be afraid to invite people over to sit on their ratty furniture? What is it?
Now that you’ve read through all the questions, it’s time to go back and answer them.
Is it a lot of work? Absolutely. And I promise you, the more thoroughly you do the work here, the more your customers and clients will resonate with your information page and your communications.
These days we crave the personal touch. There’s so much that’s automated and robotic that true personal connections, vulnerability, mistakes, proof that we are indeed humans and erasers are still valuable goes a long way.
Want to go deeper? Check out the “Sales” Page Creator here.
Questions? Comments? I’d love to have a conversation below.