You’ll discover some simple and powerful strategies you can use right away to multiply the profits of your business. Don’t miss a word of this special report because what you’ll learn today will add icing to your cake and raise the bar in all your marketing efforts.

I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

I’m a family man, but today, even if my daughters are watching this show. I’m going to use a four letter word that some people may be repulsed by. It may even stir up some scary thoughts…

I hope to change that. This four letter word has been responsible for literally trillions of dollars in breakthroughs in the past 150 years.

It’s a way of helping your business to always grow, to be two or three giant steps ahead of your competition, and recession proof your income.

So what is this dirty word?

Let’s say you run a hot dog stand. Every day on average you sell 150 hot dogs. You pay the same amount of money for food, your license and other expenses. And you need a breakthrough.

If you could sell an extra 50 hot dogs a day you could pay for a much needed vacation at the end of the month.

What are you going to do?

You’re going to use the four letter word – “TEST”.

Here’s an example:

One week you’re going change what’s written on your sign. Let’s say its “Mouth Watering Hot Dog, Vitamin Water and chips – five dollars”.

You create another sign that says “President Obama’s Favourite Hot Dog here, with water and chips — five dollars.”

You test your new sign against your old one for a week and you see that sales went up 20 hot dogs a day.

Now you try and beat the new results from that sign so you come up with another that says – “President Obama’s Favourite Hot Dog, With Glacier Water and Fat Free Chips – five dollars”

Now your sales go up another 30 hot dogs a day, and you have your Florida vacation paid for. Obviously this is a simplified and glorified example.

But on the internet, this kind of testing is dead simple to do and creates the same surges in sales.
The test the hot dog vendor performed is called an A/B split test. You test one element – called version A – against another element – called version B – and compare results.

So how do you test online?

Well anytime you want your website visitor to take action, you should be testing to try and bump up your results, also known as your conversion.

If you’re selling a report on “How To Build A Toy Rocket North Korea Will Envy” then you simply create two separate web pages. Page A against page B. Think of it as sending customers to two different sales people, and determining who the better sales person is.

You’ll be left with a winner or no significant changes. If you have a winner then you send the majority of traffic to it – this is known as your “control page” and set up another test.

After a while instead of 1 in 100 people buying, 2 in 100 will buy…then 2.6 in 100 and you keep testing and upgrading your control – or winning – piece until you can no longer beat it.

Does this make sense?

Ok, here’s what you need to run these tests on your website…

Google offers for free, their Google Website Optimizer. It’s a great split testing tool, and there are plenty of resources available showing you how to set this up and use it.

Split test as much as possible. You don’t have to be a genius, but you’ll create genius results, raise the bar in your business AND leave your competition choking on your dust.

Let’s keep going here…

Now that you can see the importance of testing, you may be asking yourself, “How do I track all this stuff?”

This is a good question because before you can improve something you need a way to measure it. Think of your web page as a bucket with tiny invisible cracks in it. You’re pouring water in, but somewhere, it’s leaking out.

This is where good tracking software comes in.

Seem complicated? It really isn’t. Most tracking software is simple to use. For instance “Google Analytics” is one of the most popular programs out there. This used to cost around $3,000 to buy until Google purchased the technology and gave it away for free. They’re so nice to us – aren’t they?

Either you – or your web person – simply copy and paste some code generated by the software onto a web page you want to track, and an easy to use display shows you all kinds of cool information.

Tracking software is like special x-ray goggles giving you a look at what’s going on in the guts of your webpage. Here are some valuable facts you can gather about your customers and your business.

Exactly where in the world people who looked at your site are from…right down to the city name – and even the time of day they found your site.

How long people stay on your web page – and where they get confused, bored and leave. This is becoming more and more important. This is because the search engines know how long people stay on your site and it’s becoming a bigger factor in how well your site can “Rank”. Think about it. Good web pages, people read longer. Bad websites, people leave right away.

How people found your website, this is crucial. You can find out what keywords people typed into what search engines to find you, what web sites referred them to you, or if they came from an email campaign. If you find a certain banner ad is working like crazy, then you can pour more advertising money into that ad. If you find a certain ad is not making you any money, then you stop spending money on that ad.

You can track which keywords turn into a sale more often, and what keywords bring the most profitable customers. Some keyword searches are from bargain hunters and some are from people who will spend top dollar. Focus on the top spenders and you’ll raise the bar on your profits.

You can break down exactly how you want people to move through your site, and find choke points where people get lost. It’s like watching your customers walk through a maze you built, finding out where people get lost and then stepping in and putting in some arrows and directions to get them back on track.

Tracking software lets you see what people are doing months after they first visit your site. For instance if someone signs up for your newsletter in October, and then in December they buy something, the tracking software lets you know that sale was conceived in October – a great time to conceive since it’s so cold out – how that person found your site, and how much you spent to get and nurture that lead.

Anyhow.

What good can a doctor do for a sick person if he can’t measure pulse, breathing rate, temperature or other vitals? Your business is the same, when you start measuring vital stats you’ll know with laser precision where to focus resources so your business machine yields $2 for every $1 you put in, and then $3 and beyond.

Our question this week comes from Jim P from Dallas, Texas who wrote:

Hi Randy, what should I start testing for the biggest and fastest results?

Answer:

Great question Jim. Here’s a good starting point. Test your offer.

An offer is your basic proposition such as: You give me $1 and I give you a hamburger.

An offer on your landing page can be:

You give me your email address and I’ll send you a report on how to perform your own brain surgery.
Then test headlines, sub headlines, price, your first paragraph, and your P.S.

Test credibility tools like awards, Better Business Bureau certificates, and pictures. Careful with pictures, some marketers have found that pictures of men with beards lower response.

Graphic devices pointing out important sales arguments and your call to action can make a big differences too.

I like the saying “Test the forest, the trees, then the branches and then the leaves”.

This means you test the most important items for conversion first, and then move down to the smaller items.

Well, that wraps up this episode of Randy Report. Because company websites, prices and quality of service on the Internet change rapidly, for my up-to-date recommendations on resources and for free tools and training, visit me today at RandyReport.com.

Today you learned:

Today you learned about the importance of testing. You know how to perform a basic A/B split test so you can steadily improve the selling power of your web page.

You know about the power of tracking. Because if you can measure it, you can improve it. There are dozens, if not hundreds of ways for customers to fall through invisible cracks in your web business. Tracking software lets you find those cracks and weld them shut.

Combine testing and tracking together and you’ll raise the bar on your business, and without a doubt ensure your business becomes more profitable every day.

Thanks so much for watching. Remember, if you’d like more free reports, resources and training then visit RandyReport.com and join me again next week where you’ll discover

Simple, search engine optimization methods to get your website easily found on search engines. You’ll also learn that more important than SEO – search engine optimization – is SEM – search engine marketing – AND you’ll find out what the most important things you can do in order to raise the bar in your business and get your site listed ahead of your competitors sites in the search engine results page.

I’m Randy Charach, and this is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

I’m Randy Charach from RandyReport.com and THIS is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!

Picture this: Four people walk into a restaurant, sit down and the waitress comes by and asks “Can I get you some drinks to get started?” And the four patrons reply “No we’re just going to sit here and then leave”.

Everyday people come to websites all over the world and don’t do something! Getting people to do something is called “conversion” and it’s the “oxygen” of internet business success.

Anyone who plans on making a living online (or in any business) better learn how to improve conversions. Put another way web site traffic is like wind. And conversion is like the sails on a ship that actually make something move.

When you ask someone to do something on your web page and they do it. You’ve converted them. For instance, if you ask them to sign up for a newsletter and they do, you just earned a conversion. If you ask someone to buy, and they do, then you just earned a conversion.

If you ask someone to click a link, and they do, then you just earned a conversion.

So how do we improve conversion? How do you get more people to do what you’re asking?

The first thing to do is make sure you’re asking people to do what you want them to do. This may seem obvious, but you’ll be shocked at how many websites don’t do this.

We call this the “call to action”. The “call to action” is the written or spoken words used to direct people to take the next step. In its simplest form: Tell them what to do. Why they should do it. And what happens next.

Let’s say you want to get someone to buy a report.

Your call to action in its most basic form can be “Click this button to buy my report”.

Let’s make this better. We’re going to add, “What happens next”, if they do what you asked them to do. The reason you add this is to remove the fear of the unknown which holds some people back from taking action.

OK, here’s what we have now.

“Click this button to buy my report. After you click, my report gets sent to your email inbox”.
We’re getting better.

There are still more ways to improve conversion. Let’s take it one step at a time though.

If you want to persuade another human being to do something you have to show them how it will benefit them. So you have to sweeten your call to action. This answers the “why should someone do what you’re asking them”.

Here’s a fun example:

I’d like people to sign up for a newsletter where I can sell them an information product on “How to train your dog to do house chores.”

My call to action is: Sign up for my newsletter.

What happens next is: You’ll be sent an email every few days offering tips.

How do we sweeten this? Let’s try – If you sign up for my email list, I’ll send you an interview from the world’s highest paid dog trainer on “How to teach your dog to mow the lawn”.

That will raise the bar on conversions because you’re offering something of value in exchange for them doing what you ask them to do.

Ok, this all being said. You’re not going to get someone to buy a $2,000 information product with three simple sentences.

If what you are asking has a huge impact on their life, then you’ll have to dig deep into the “Why you should do this” part of the equation and the “what happens after you order”.

If you’re asking someone for money, think of the task of persuading them like climbing a steep rock face. Instead of going for a very difficult one time sale, help your prospect by building him a ladder.

Each of your conversions will be a rung on the ladder moving them closer to the top of the rock face.

Let me give you an example.

Let’s say your ultimate goal is to sell a $2,000 seminar on teaching your turtle how to juggle.

Your first conversion (or first step to take) could be to persuade someone to give their email address in exchange for a report on how to teach a turtle to juggle.

Your second conversion goal can be to buy a $27 deluxe edition of the report.

Once they start liking you, trusting you, and seeing results from their turtle training, they’ll be more open to a high priced edition of the training. So your third conversion goal can be to buy the $400 course.

And then you try and convert them on to a seminar.

Another little tip: You can train your audience for conversion. Here’s what I mean.

If you have an email follow up going out to your audience, you can train them to click links in your email by sending them to good content…that isn’t even yours.

For example, let’s go back to the turtle juggling report.

First: Send an email asking people to take action by clicking a link to a funny turtle juggling video on YouTube.

Then in your next email, ask them to take action by clicking on a link to go read a great article on Turtle Juggling.

And then in a third email ask them to take action and click a link to your turtle juggling sales letter.
What you’ve done is train people to expect good stuff when they do what you ask. When you train your audience to click your links you’ll improve conversions on every email you send out (as long as you don’t start sending them to junk).

It’s just like training a pet, when you reward them for good behavior they’ll keep doing it.

A final note: Another simple way to increase conversions is to make sure things are easy to read for the human eye.

Tests show that when the width of written text is longer than 60 characters people find it hard to read and thus your conversions will drop off (This is why newspapers split up their editorial into columns).
Stick to easy to read fonts like Arial, Georgia, or Times New Roman because tests show over and over that the human eye finds it easier to read, and thus increases conversions.

If you model your layout like a well established newspaper you’re on track for success.

Now for the question of the week.

Our question this week comes from Ryan S from San Francisco, California who wrote:

I’d like to know the easiest way to improve conversion without being an expert persuader?

Good question Ryan. There are literally thousands of ways to improve conversion. And the simplest way I know of is to clearly communicate to your website visitor that by taking the action you want, there is a far greater reward.

If you’re email subscribe rate is too low. Then improve the reasons why they should sign up. Add more value. If you tell people you won’t spam them, and they’ll always have the option of removing themselves from your mailing list, you’ll get a bump.

If people aren’t buying your product then work on clearly demonstrating the reasons why they should buy — or add more value to your offer.

Besides improving your offer, there are layout changes you can make to improve conversion.
Adding graphics to draw attention to your call to action usually helps.

Things like arrows, dashed boxes and even cartoons demonstrating what you’d like people to do can all bump your conversion.

When using design to improve conversion, ask yourself if what you are adding will make it easier to find, read and comprehend your call to action.

Well, that wraps up this episode of Randy Report. Since company’s websites, prices and quality of service on the Internet change rapidly, for my up-to-date recommendations on resources and for free tools and training, visit me today at RandyReport.com.

Today you learned

To make sure your calls to action are clear and follow the “Here’s what to do next, here’s why you should do it, and here’s what happens when you do”.

If you’re going for a big sale, then break it up into tiny chunks, and move people through the chunks one tiny conversion at a time.

Train people to do what you are asking by making sure you’re rewarding them with valuable content, goodies or product by doing what you ask them.

Thanks so much for watching. Remember, if you’d like more free reports, resources and training then visit RandyReport.com and join me again next week where you’ll discover

How to measure the success of your website through testing and tracking so you can see your conversion rate soar. You’ll learn about the different ways you can easily track useful visitor information on your site, how to use A B testing to learn how ads, graphics and text on your site are performing, and how to raise the bar…and your conversion rate…through continuous tracking and testing methods.

I’m Randy Charach, and this is the show that takes you from internet zero to business hero!