Hi, folks...
I had originally written today's article as a single piece.
When Marlon sent out that email I sent you last time, it was
such a good fit I decided to use it as a prologue of sorts.
Then I thought of things this needed, so it will be at least
two sections.
This one will be immediately familiar and a little strange at
the same time. I hope you find it useful.
Before we get into that, though... Happy Independence Day
(August 15th) to our friends in India.
"The 'Other' Formula"
===================
You're probably familiar with the basic formula for online
success: Traffic times conversion equals revenue.
You'll read about that in a lot of places, and it's true. It's
the simplest and most important rule you can have for building
a profitable enterprise on the Net. There's another formula
that doesn't get talked about a lot, but which is just as
important.
Value over time equals worth.
That one is ignored because it's harder to quantify in many
cases. When you start talking about the value, in human terms,
of a product or service, things get murky. It's too subjective
for pure math, or it seems to be.
In this part of the series, we'll take a look at some of the
basic ideas from the business owner's side of things - what you
get out of the deal. Next time around, we'll look at the
formula through the eyes of the customer - what you give them
in return.
While we do, let's keep in mind that there often is no single
right answer. What works for one person may not fit the goals,
lifestyle preferences, or interests of another.
You have to make the decisions. My hope is that this stuff will
make you more aware of what choices are available, so you're
not just opting for the default.
Or worse... someone else's idea of what you should want.
....
The stuff we'll cover this time may seem repetitive to some
folks. That's okay. What will help you to see the difference is
to look at it with the thought in mind, "How can I use this to
get more value for the TIME I invest in my business?"
Asking that question with each thing you consider will
slightly change the answers you get. And those little changes
can make all the difference ... over time.
Sometimes not very much time.
....
When we talk about "worth" in that formula, it takes a lot of
meanings, depending on what you want from your business. It can
be net worth, cash in hand, lifestyle benefits, personal
satisfaction, impact on others, the reach of your message, your
legacy, and probably a lot of things I'm not thinking of right
now.
We'll get more into the profit end of things here, as that's
what you signed up for. Just keep in mind that it is far from
the only measure of the "worth" of your efforts.
....
Let's start with a basic money example. Which is better?
Getting an affiliate to promote your product and send you 200
sales in a week, or publishing an article that brings you 10
new subscribers a day for a year?
Before you can answer that, you have to know a few other
things. How much does your average subscriber buy over the time
they stay with you? How often can you repeat that same process?
Can you get more affiliates to do the same thing?
Do you have multiple offers, or are you a single product
company? Are the customers your affiliate referred to you more
or less likely to buy from you in the future than the
subscribers that came from your content?
If you can get a lot of affiliates to do the same thing, and
keep that going, you may find more dollar value in that
activity, even though the long term potential of a larger
subscriber list might be greater.
Why not do both?
Great question. We'll get to that soon.
....
Then there's the individual stuff. For instance, do you enjoy
creating content or are you happier selling full time? Does
your business depend on your reputation more, or less, than
your marketing collateral? There are a lot of those kinds of
questions you could ask yourself.
The really critical questions aren't as obvious. The biggest
one being: Is this the most sustainable or scalable method of
promotion over time?
Then there are things like: Which provides more leverage? What
other doors does each approach open for you? Does this enable
you to reach more people next time around?
Those are some of the fundamental business-building questions.
They're mostly focused on cash per unit of time. The value over
time formula involves more than that, though.
A lot more.
....
Let's look at it from a different perspective. Let's assume
you're happy with your current outcome, but you want to achieve
it in less time.
To start with, if you have existing methods that work, look for
ways to automate and systematize them. Before you start, write
out your goal. An example might be:
"I want to do the same volume of sales each week, and cut
the time needed by xx hours per week. I also want to
eliminate [some annoying task] from my routine."
One of the fastest ways to cut down time costs while improving
things for your customers is to install a help desk system and
prepare "frequently asked questions" documents. (With most help
desk software, you can add articles to a knowledgebase, which
can let your customers find answers to their most common
questions without you needing to become involved. More
convenient for them, less time for you.
For things you have to answer often but don't want posted for
all the world to see, such as re-sending download links, you
can prepare canned responses and enter them into replies with a
few clicks.
That can free up a lot of time previously spent on boring, but
critical, processes. And it will make things smoother for your
customers, too.
....
Organizing your content (which includes marketing materials,
along with less directly commercial content) can inspire
interesting options.
Content can be re-used and re-purposed. If you're working in an
evergreen market, this is one of the easiest ways to build
value-generating networks of prospects over time.
Ads are another story. If you've tracked your response to each,
it's easy to scale up the ones that work and drop the ones that
don't. If you know an ad or banner produced a profit in one
channel, do small tests to see if it will work in other,
similar channels. If a banner worked for affiliates, test it on
banner networks.
It is usually a lot easier to buy traffic than to recruit
affiliates, and much more predictable when you find a source
that works. Then you just keep track of the numbers and
re-order traffic as long as it keeps producing.
You can also consider alternative sales systems. Selling
content? Look into Amazon's KDP, or Barnes and Noble's digital
publishing platform. Take some time to find out who might be
able to move product for you with little added expense or
effort.
"Channel surfing" isn't just for couch potatoes any more.
....
Hiring help is another option. You can often get people to do
the repetitive stuff for you very inexpensively. If you can
hand them a system, you may find they can do more of the work
than you would in the same time, and end up producing a profit
for you over and above what you pay them.
This is, for many people, the ultimate goal.
It's also part of the "doing both" that I mentioned earlier.
But only part of it.
....
Another tool for reducing time is the Pareto Principle.
Eliminate as much of the unproductive 80% of activities as
possible, and outsource or systematize the rest.
You want to be concentrating on two things: Product
development and marketing (which includes customer service).
That's where the money is.
The rest is maintenance.
....
Along with this is the notion of streamlining. You know where
the time-consuming bugs are in your process. Find ways to
eliminate them.
Use tracking software to do the math for you. Use a shopping
cart system that handles emails and delivery automatically. Add
affiliate recruiting systems to your marketing processes, and
have the necessary promotional materials ready for them.
Have unadvertised bonuses to reduce refunds. Automatically add
your customers to a list that explains how to get the most from
your products, and consider adding "stick" bonuses and answers
to commonly asked questions to that content to help cut down
back end issues.
This stuff doesn't take long to set up, and it can save you a
lot of time later.
....
Another thing a lot of people could benefit from and probably
don't consider. This could be especially productive for younger
folks.
Set up small systems that take very little maintenance and
produce regular streams of revenue, even if they're not a lot
of cash at once. Direct all the money you make from them to
retirement accounts.
If you're in your early 20's and set something up that brings
in just $50 a week that goes into retirement investments,
you'll be very surprised at what that could add up to later on.
And some of these streams, once set up, can be maintained with
very little time cost each month.
That future security is a very big value for the time.
....
The key here is to look at each thing you do in your business
and ask, "How can I get more value for this time investment?"
If you focus on that question, you may be surprised at the
answers you get. It's a different perspective, and it will
force your brain to look at the process in new ways.
Have fun with it. You never know where it might lead.
Next time, we'll get into the value over time equation and how
your customers view it. That's not nearly as obvious as a lot
of what we've covered today, but it will add to the value you
get, too.
....
If you're looking for something you can add to your mix that
will build over time, take a look at this guide to getting free
traffic. This one's a doozy for the price.
http://talkbiz.com/heaven/?e=1
Enjoy!
Paul
-----===(*)===-----
Find this useful? Buy me a beer...
http://www.buy-paul-a-beer.com
Tell your friends about us. Send them to...
http://www.talkbiz.com
Copyright 2012 TalkBiz Digital, LLC
"100% of the shots you don't take don't go in."
- Wayne Gretzky
TalkBiz News, 651 E 24th St, Erie, PA 16503, USA
To unsubscribe or change subscriber options visit:
http://www.aweber.com/z/r/?7GyMDAystKzMrGzszMxMtEa0jKzMjGxsrMw=
No comments:
Post a Comment