Does Infusionsoft Make Business Impersonal?

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Patrick

A common question from non-Infusionsoft-users is the idea that powerful marketing software such as Infusionsoft makes business impersonal, even cold. It’s a legitimate concern, no one enjoys junk mail sent to “Resident” or email blasts that aren’t relevant to you! So how can so many businesses show increases in engagement and sales after switching to Infusionsoft?

Better Tracking Means Better Messaging

With Infusionsoft’s dynamic open, click, and campaign tracking you can see – at a glance – which messages aren’t connecting to your audience when they reach the inbox. This means if your message is currently inauthentic, boring or impersonal, Infusionsoft will help you identify the problem so you can make changes. Continue reading →

Tags vs Tag Categories in Infusionsoft

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Patrick

One of the most powerful yet under utilized features of Infusionsoft is tagging. If you’re unfamiliar with tagging, think of it like labels you use for your friends. You can categorize who is married, who’s single, who has a truck when you’re moving and who has great advice when you’re stressed.

Tagging your clients and leads is very similar, it allows you to identify groups easily and target your message very personally.

Instead of broadcasting news of a 50% off sale for your new program offer to everyone on your list, you can now broadcast to everyone who hasn’t purchased (and paid 100%), those who have viewed the sales page and those who haven’t bought from you in 6 months. Continue reading →

How Marketing Automation will Save Your Business

Posted on February 27, 2013 by Patrick

If you’re like most entrepreneurs you find that your time is often spent following up with customers and leads as you promote your business to pay the bills. The problem with this focus is that while you’re busy with managing ads on Google or Facebook, using social media, blogging, and talking or email with potential customers, there’s little time to think about the growth of the business.

Sound familiar? You’re not alone. It’s easy to get caught up in the merry-go-round of customer support and sales because it’s the most pressing problem on the table. And you care about your clients and want to ensure they choose the right program and mix of services.

To compound the problem, if your advertising and word of mouth marketing works then you’ll have even more leads clamoring for your attention.

If you don’t solve this problem soon you’ll lose business and possibly your mind. Continue reading →

How to Track Conversion Rates with Infusionsoft

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Patrick

One of the biggest strengths of software like Infusionsoft is finding out how well you’re doing with your marketing. As a new user there are several points you should be looking at to find the baseline results. As your business grows you can target areas that need improvement and consistently test and adjust.

Here are a few of the key areas you should track when you get started with Infusionsoft:

You may have multiple opt-ins or forms on different pages and each should be tracked. How many people opt-in for your offer from Facebook vs Twitter? Do people sign up after watching a video or in a light box?

Knowing how you best capture the attention of your audience is great and can inform you on how best to design and style future offers. You should also be measuring which offers get the most conversions, not only by numbers but percentages. An offer that converts 50% of unique viewers is more compelling than one with twice as many opt-ins converting at 5%. Focus on driving traffic to the opt-in offer that has better conversions and your advertising investments will likely pay off.

Advertising Return on Investment (ROI)

Advertising without tracking your numbers is a little like gambling with your eyes closed. You might hit it big or bust but you will likely have no idea why. By tracking which ads are converting to leads you’ll know which graphics, offers, calls to action or designs are best for your business. Especially in pay-per-click advertising you want to know that your ad is drawing the attention of the right people and then they’re taking the action you want so you can capture those leads.

Once you have the leads then you have to nurture and sell to them. Taking this a step further, we can use the tracking abilities in Infusionsoft to measure your cost per lead, cost per prospect, and ultimately cost per customer. This is where things get fun. If we can find a sweet spot where the Lifetime Customer Value (LCV) of a particular lead source is higher than the cost of acquiring that customer (Cost per Customer), we’ve just found the BEST places to spend our advertising dollars to maximize our ROI.

Email Click Rates

It’s absolutely worthless to have a list of 10,000 people if you don’t know how many of those people are actively reading your emails and messages. When you start out in Infusionsoft, begin tracking the open rate of your campaigns and newsletters and test regularly to improve the open rate with better subject lines, high quality content and regular updates (without spamming your list!).

If your emails include a call to action (which they should) then you should also be tracking who is clicking and what percent of readers click on your video, sales page, register for a webinar or request more information. This not only measures the engagement level of your list but can help you determine if your offers are appealing to the list.

Finding your numbers is not about manipulating data – it’s a powerful tool to better serve your clients and followers with content that’s valuable and compelling.

Conversions

Without sales all the work up to this point is worthless. An important factor to making the sale is knowing what works and what doesn’t. So just like every other point in this process you need to test to see what works. Should you provide a discount code? Add a bonus? Send a letter in the mail? Call them and ask for the sale?

What works will depend on your business, your offers and the clients. When you get started in Infusionsoft make sure to utilize the lead tracking system to measure who the best leads are and the opportunities section to track where your prospects are in the sales pipeline.

Your goal should be to increase percentages at each point in this funnel and massively increase your traffic and pool of qualified leads.

Infusionsoft is a great tool to measure and track these metrics but it does require some set up out of the box. If you don’t have these tracking points set up or need support finding out how you can identify and tweak your campaigns to convert better contact us to learn how we can help.

Using Infusionsoft to Earn Trust

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Patrick

In online business it’s hard to earn the critical “know, like & trust factor” when you’re asking people who you’ve never met to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to work with you. Using Infusionsoft you can automate this process of trust building and – best of all – this can happen immediately after you get started with Infusionsoft.

Using Nurture Sequences to Build Trust

One of the first things your Infusionsoft Certified Consultant (ICC) should teach you in the software is how to set up a campaign, and one of the best types of campaigns to start with is called a “nurture” sequence.

Nurture sequences acknowledge that not every lead is immediately ready to buy your products and services and may need more information or time before making a buying decision. These sequences are less intense than sales campaigns which often drive toward a goal date such as “buy by Friday for 50% off” or “group program closes on the 30th!”

Instead, nurture sequences are designed to drip out content over time and answer objections, educate leads on the process and share success stories. These sequences aren’t just for new clients – you can create them for clients ready for your second or third programs.

Design a Nurture Sequence

It’s all about delivering the right message, to the right person, at the right time. To do this you can use the power of Infusionsoft to segment and categorize your list into smaller groups. After all, you don’t want a long nurture sequence to sell a program that your lead has already purchased.

By using Infusionsoft’s powerful tagging feature you can separate your leads and clients by purchases, clicks, even psychographic and demographic information. Imagine being able to email just those leads in North America who have visited your sales page and have purchased from you in the past, but have not signed up for your May workshop.

With Infusionsoft this kind of nurture campaign is not only possible, it’s easy!

Nurture sequences eliminate the need for large sales teams keeping notes on every client call and interaction – Infusionsoft can track all of this information with incredible accuracy. The result to the client or lead is the that they get personalized messages that address their objections and concerns and you’re able to show that you understand their worries, which positions you as trustworthy.

Given the right timing of messages and copy, nurture sequences can dramatically improve your sales closing rate. Infusionsoft understands that many small businesses like yours may not have the brand recognition and marketing budget of Coca-Cola or Nike, so you need to build up the faith in your business with a consistent message.

While Infusionsoft gives you the tools to get started, you’ll need to design and implement your own nurture sequences. The easiest way to get started with nurture sequences that build trust is to ask yourself, “what if the leads don’t buy this program?”

Write down what you’d want to communicate and how often you should be reaching out with this content. While some programs are evergreen, also consider programs that launch annually or quarterly. By building up the program to your leads and then giving them another chance to work with you, Infusionsoft can help you stay in touch with warm leads and increase your conversions with minimal effort.

If you’re just getting started with Infusionsoft be sure to talk to your ICC about these campaigns or contact us to discuss which nurture campaigns you need for your business to increase sales and serve your clients.

Image Credit: sfxeric

Why Creating a Successful Business is like Winning in Ice Hockey

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Patrick

Coaching & Strategy

In hockey, the coach can make or break a team. A great coach inspires the players, guides them to follow a rock solid strategy, and helps them keep their head up when times are tough.

A great business mentor needs to have the same qualities. Although it may take “10,000 hours” to become a master in something new, you can certainly speed up your process by borrowing hours from people who have been there and back. Great mentors can give you a solid strategy to market your business, convert more sales, keep your customers coming back for more, and give you advice when things aren’t going your way.

A great business coach (and a supporting mastermind group) can make the difference between a business flop and a tremendous success. Ideas are a dime a dozen, but the fortune is in the execution. My business coach is offering a new challenge this week that will certainly transform some businesses for the new year!

Agility & Responsiveness

In hockey, players need agility to cut in and out of tight spots, turn on a dime, and re-act in super human scenarios, because a second late can make all the difference between a win and a loss. In running your business, you need agility to make changes on the fly when something you thought would be a huge success isn’t working.

While you’re running your big marketing campaign, you need agility to analyze and take action on results from split testing to achieve maximum profits. With the speed at which the modern world operates, failing to react quickly to signals can mean the difference between a massive success or a disappointing failure.

Coordination & Teamwork

In hockey, having the best players in the world isn’t always going to lead to a win. The use of great teamwork and coordination is just as important as the skill of the players. We’ve seen this many times when underdogs “outplay” the teams expected to win. This happens in all sports and many times it’s a matter of superior teamwork and coordination that leads to winning the game.

In business, it’s critical to have all of your systems and employees talking to each other and working together. If your email system doesn’t know which customers purchased products, you can end up with embarrassing emails going to the wrong people. If your team members aren’t aware of new promotions coming along, your customer support can falter from miscommunication.

Having alignment in your systems and team is incredibly important to having a business that runs smoothly and grows rapidly. This is one of the biggest reasons we love Infusionsoft so much – it makes this level of coordination easy and seamless in your business!

Stick-to-it-iveness & Commitment

In hockey, it takes incredible commitment to show up game after game with intensity and focus. Down the stretch when teams are tired and worn out, the best conditioned and most committed teams rise to the top and claim victory.

In business, it’s a similar story. My good friend Lynan once gave me some advice when I was starting a new project. She said, “This part is a sprint, the rest is a marathon”. Sometimes you need to be able to take a few blows while testing new ideas to see what works, and stick in there when things are getting tough. You can’t always give up after the first try.

With that said, it’s also imperative to give yourself time for recovery and rest. Otherwise you risk burnout which can be detrimental to your focus for a long time. Hockey teams regularly take breaks from practice to recuperate. This is essential for solid performance in the long haul!

Hunger & Hustle

In hockey, commentators regularly say that the best players are “hungry for the puck”. They’ll do what it takes to get the puck on their stick to make a play, score a goal, etc. A little bit of extra hustle can mean a big difference over the course of a game or season.

In business, companies have to be hungry for the sale. This isn’t to say that you should compromise your values and integrity – that’s a whole different topic. However, if you don’t ask for the sale and fail to give your customers a clear and obvious path to buy from you, they will never convert from prospects to customers.

Getting the Right Support

If your team needs support in the sprint or needs help preparing for the marathon then it may be time to invest in a strategic coach to help you reach your goals. If you want to discuss how better marketing automation can support your business and launches click here to schedule a call.

In other news, I am so glad hockey is back!

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Image credit: 5of7

5 WordPress Plugins to Optimize Your Site in 2013

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Patrick

One of the most common questions we get around web site design and maintenance is a list of favorite plugins for WordPress. It’s almost like the entrepreneur’s version of wanting to know the “must-have” apps for that new smart phone!

Here’s our list of “must-have” plugins that will re-vamp your website for the new year!

1. Google Analytics for WordPress

It’s shocking how many businesses with websites aren’t using Google Analytics – an amazing FREE tool that tells you who’s visiting your site, what the are clicking, how long they are sticking around, and how well your goals (like getting folks to view a sales page and click through to purchase) are converting. It’s a must have, and our favorite plugin to tie WordPress to Google Analytics is Google Analytics for WordPress by Yoast.

2. WordPress Backup to Dropbox

We’ve written about securing and backing up your website data before, and our favorite plugin to accomplish this task is WordPress Backup to Dropbox. If you’re living under a rock (haha just kidding), DropBox is a free service that allows for automatic backup of data to your free “cloud” storage drive. You can get several GB of space for free, which is sufficient for most sites. Configuring this plugin is a breeze, and you can set it up to automatically back up your website every day or week. This one has been a life saver in the past!

3. WP-Optimize

Do you regularly go through your MySQL database to manually clean things up? Nope? Same here. That’s why we use WP-Optimize to delete old junk (old post auto-saves, and other things that build up over time) which improves the site’s speed and user experience. It’s free and super easy to use once you’ve installed the plugin!

4. MaxButtons

Want to make those awesome looking call-to-action buttons that you see everywhere around the net? (You know, those ones that change color as you hover over and look beautiful?). If you aren’t much of a CSS3 coder, no worries. MaxButtons is a great plugin that allows you to build your buttons (and choose where they should link) with an easy what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor. Once you’ve created your buttons, you can pop them into any page or post that you’d like with some super simple shortcodes.

5. nRelate Related Content

What are your website visitors supposed to do after reading an article? If you’d like to keep them around to consume more, one great way is to display related articles that may tickle their fancy. One of our favorites is nRelate Related Content. It’s easy to set up, looks fantastic, is fairly customizable, and – best part – it’s totally free!

(Bonus!) 6. iMember360*

If you’re already using Infusionsoft, then iMember360 is a plugin that will super-charge your WordPress website. Using iMember, you can create content that is restricted to “members only” who have paid for access to your material. But that only scratches the surface. With iMember, you have control to display nearly any data from your Infusionsoft database on your WordPress page.

For example, you can customize pages by merging in the user’s name, you can make notes of their actions by applying tags based on activity, you can create one-click-upsells for users who are already previous customers, and so much more.

iMember360 is a premium plugin that costs some money, but used properly, it’s worth its weight in gold many times over. If you choose to purchase through our links on this page, we earn a small commission which helps support the site.

Need help installing and configuring iMember360?

Head over to the contact page and get in touch.

How Healers Can Use Infusionsoft

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Patrick

I have many friends and colleagues who own and operate businesses in the healing industry – massage therapists, holistic practitioners, medical doctors, and much more.

One of the most common traits that I notice is a huge aversion to software.

In fact, most healing professionals that I know would rather do just about anything other than learn how to use software for their business.

But what if you embraced a software solution that enabled serving your clients at an even deeper level and brought more money into your business effortlessly?

Why Constant Communication is Key

One of the most common and true ideas in marketing is that your prospects must “know, like, and trust” you before they are ready to buy something from you. This holds true whether you’re selling widgets, providing consulting advice, or trying to grow a healing practice.

But how can you focus on growing a healing practice and STILL have time to serve your clients? The answer lies in the authentic use of automation marketing software.

Through automation software like Infusionsoft, you can achieve those 5 to 12 touches that marketing gurus are always talking about – where you are building the “know, like, trust” factor consistently over time.

The magic happens through the nurture process. Once you have the right system in place, your new leads will feel just as loved as your long time customers, and this attention to detail will scale up as your business grows.

Reach out with Resources

For your best clients who visit you for healing on a regular basis, you can roll out the red carpet: update them regularly with great health tips, daily inspiration and challenges, and regular exercise reminders can add even more value to your clients and inspire loyalty.

Take it a step further by having automated gifts sent to your clients when they purchase a high end package from you.

How do you offer this without adding hundreds of extra emails to your daily schedule? The key is in automation. Set up your business so that this happens without your direct involvement, and it will free up your time to focus on improving the lives of your clients – not feeling like a robot!

Want to Make More Money in Your Practice?

Put the tasks of your business on autopilot: Remind your clients to come in for their sessions. Introduce new services to long time customers. Share promotional gift cards and allow online payments. Make their life easier and better, and they will love you for it!

Healers who use Infusionsoft in their Business

If you’re a healer who wants to learn more about Infusionsoft and if it is the right tool for your business, I have a great resource for you. Check out my free guide: 5 Indicators That You’re Ready For Infusionsoft.

You’ll learn how to assess what stage your business is in now, and how to authentically build your business with this amazing software. If you are not quite ready for Infusionsoft, that’s totally okay, and you’ll get some great tips on what steps to take to grow your practice right now!

*image credit: o5com

How to Build Your Perfect Customer Lifecycle Brick by Brick

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Patrick

“It won’t happen as fast as you want, but it won’t take as long as you think”

This is one of my favorite quotes from my friend Johnny Dzubak. Johnny is an expert in the personal development field and teaches people how to hone their social skills. But today I was thinking about this quote in the context of growing and marketing your business – and there’s a TON of parallels!

In our busy society, we all want immediate results – and if you look at the ads on TV, it’s obvious as to why. In the world of “6 minute abs” and get rich quick schemes, we’ve lost our patience. Rome wasn’t built in a day!

I have some good and bad news for you: building a business won’t happen overnight, but if you consistently take action it will grow and attract new customers impressively fast.

One of the well known statistics in marketing is that it typically takes somewhere between 5-12 “touches” with a prospect before they will be ready to buy from you. However if you try to fit all 12 touches into one day, you’ll likely scare away your prospect and come across as overly needy.

Luckily we have client relationship marketing tools that can spread these points of contact out over time in a way that feels authentic and natural to your prospects, yet automated so that you don’t have to remember to reach out to each person those 5-12 times.

I really love the concept of the “Perfect Customer Lifecycle”. In essence, it’s the process of breaking down your interaction with each customer in a systematic way that WOW’s them, follows up appropriately, addresses their reservations, nurtures them towards a sale in an authentic manner, and ultimately turns them into raving fans who promote your business for you!

You can download a free workbook to check out the process here. I go through the Perfect Customer Lifecycle with my private coaching clients and it always amazes me to watch the transformation of their business as we apply these systems.

It can be daunting when you look at the whole customer lifecycle so remember “It won’t happen as fast as you want, but it won’t take as long as you think!” Begin today with the very beginning of the process and be consistent in building it out piece by piece.

If you need to implement quickly with an expert guiding the process, reach out for support and accelerate your results! One of the best parts of investing in this process is that – while you may tweak things over time – once it’s done your marketing and follow up is on auto pilot and creates so much freedom in your business!

Need help getting started? Head over to my contact page and get in touch!

WOW Your Customers With Systematic Love

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Patrick

Lately I’ve been reading The E-myth Revisited. While this is a fantastic book for all business owners and is full of knowledge, there’s one particular story that really struck me.

The author tells a story of his hotel stay at a small quaint lodge located near the Pacific Coast on a particularly cold night and after a long day of travel.

As he checks into his room at the front desk, he notices that the hotel is warm, comfortable and inviting. He unloads his bags into the room, and heads down to the connected restaurant – also a warm and inviting place.

He was quickly seated (since this particular restaurant actually respects reservations), and after a delicious dinner and a pleasant chat with his waiter, he heads back to his room.

Along the way, he notices that the lights along the path had been turned up to compensate for the darkness of night.

Upon arrival in the room, he had planned to start a fire to keep warm – but someone had already beaten him to it! The pillows had been plumped and a mint rested on each one.

He noticed a card from the friendly receptionist welcoming him for his first night at the hotel. Along with the card was a glass of brandy – the same as he had ordered at the restaurant.

Compassion Through Attention to Detail

The following morning he awoke to a strange sound perking in the bathroom – upon inspection, he found another card – this time wishing him a good morning and a note that the coffee brewing next to him (automatically triggered by a timer) was his favorite brand.

How in the world would they have known? He quickly remembered that at dinner the night before they had asked what brand of coffee he preferred – yet so casually that he hadn’t thought twice about it!

Upon pouring a cup of coffee, he was greeted by a knock on the door. As he opened, he spotted his local newspaper – The New York Times. How did they even know he was local to NY, as this hotel was across the country? Aha – he remembered that the receptionist had inquired about his favorite paper upon checking in.

After such a fantastic experience, the author returned to the hotel many times. With each visit, he was greeted with exactly the same hospitality and attention to detail – without ever needing to remind them of his preferences.

How Can We Apply This To Our Business?

Customers love and expect consistency and attention to detail. McDonalds is not one of the most successful businesses in the world due to it’s quality of food products – it’s successful because McDonalds has developed an amazing system to provide customers with nearly the exact same super-detailed speedy service anywhere in the world at any time of day.

Today, as solo-preneurs and small business owners, we have tools to create this type of system in our business to provide a consistent and enjoyable experience for our customers.

Combining the power of a CRM, automated and well-thought-out emails, customized yet automatic promotions for complementary product offers – we can develop a system that truly suits the customer and nurtures a strong relationship.

Through intelligent data collection, we can pay attention to what our customers REALLY want – and hand it to them on a silver platter without even officially asking. This kind of interaction shows them that we care about them and their needs – which is what everyone truly wants deep down.

Look at the success of a company like Zappos, who built their brand by focusing on 100% Wow-ing the customer. It works!

What customer service tweaks have you tried in your business, and what results have you noticed? Leave your comments below.

Patrick Conley

Automation * Intelligent Marketing * Web Technology