Some of you are going to take this the wrong way.
You’re about to think I’m going to tell you to be mean to people.
And… I kind of am, actually, but you’ll see. You be the judge.
Listen selectively to the market
You may have read that listening to your market is a key to success. And it’s true, but what does that mean, exactly? What should you listen for and what should you ignore? You can’t listen to everything, and not everything is valuable (leads to you making money).
You need to listen selectively. You need to listen to some things and ignore the rest.
Here’s what you should listen for:
- Pain points
- Desires and dreams (implied and explicit)
- Words and phrases the market uses
And, here’s what you should ignore:
Everything else, especially complaints about tactics.
Selectively listening to people is one of the best things you can do to make the business you’re marketing with your blog more profitable.
The horrors of signup forms and long sales copy
I find it absurdly fascinating that most people swear up one side and down the other that they hate email list opt-in forms that fade in or slide in… like the ones I’m using on Remarkablogger. Ask people if they like them, and, to the person, they will all say “No, I hate those freakin’ things!”
Now, if that were true… then nobody would be signing up for my email list.
My list now has over a thousand people on it and I get new sign ups every single day. In just one day recently I had 44 people sign up (note to self: go back and see what might have caused 44 sign-ups in a single day).
So how is this even possible if “everybody hates pop ups?”
I guess they don’t hate them quite enough! Because not only do they work, they work like crazy. And on my opt-in forms, I even tell you I’m going to sell you stuff and if you’re not comfortable with that you shouldn’t subscribe!
Here’s another example: we all “know” that “everybody” hates garish, long copy sales letters. Now, if that were true, I guess they would never be read and nobody would ever buy any of the stuff sold through them.
So how did all that money get into my bank account? Freak accident?
There is an old saying: “The more you tell, the more you sell.” Depending on the market, you certainly don’t need to be garish and gaudy (but for some, you do).
If you check out the sales page for WordPress SEO Secrets, you will see that it’s long, but visually, it’s a class act all the way.
Listen to results, not complaints
The bottom line is you listen to results, not complaints. People will always complain.
Don’t confuse real market pain with general low-level whining.
Somebody telling you they hate fade-in signup forms is not expressing a market frustration that leads to an opportunity for you.
At the end of the day, if you’re getting more signups than unsubscribes, you’re doing it right. You only want to be talking to people who want to hear from you anyway, so it’s not a big loss. (Keep in mind that this is only the beginning of the process. You must now provide extraordinary value to your list, so that when you have something to offer for sale, they trust it will deliver the goods.)
If you do something and sales increase, you’re doing it right, even if a couple people get irate about long copy sales letters or say you sound “salesy” (and as I’ve already discussed, sounding salesy isn’t necessary or beneficial on a blog).
In other words: DO WHAT WORKS. And get over the fear of alienating people. If you’re getting results, you’re doing it right, end of story. If you’re serious about being in business, than for goodness’ sake you’re obligated to at least try stuff and test it to see if it works. If that fade-in sign-up form didn’t work, it would’ve come down.
It has been shown time and again that all the things people claim to hate about marketing are also the things that WORK. (Maybe people hate them because they work?)
Anyway…
Things that work = you making money.
You making money = freedom to live the life you dream of.
So by all means, listen to your market.
But listen selectively.
Yeah, 100% agree with you here. It’s like those TV ads where an outlet has a sale every second day – you know it’s fake but if it didn’t work, they would use something else. It has to be the same in the online world – except that online we can test & improve in near real time !!
You make a good point about sales letter and pop-ups. I’ve found that most ‘Internet insiders’ grumble the loudest about both.
Personally, I think a sales letter should only be long enough to answer all possible objections and present case-study proofs (testimonials). Once they’ve been killed (preferably before they’ve popped in to reader’s mind), the rest is extra fluff.
I rarely read an entire letter — not sure if that makes me an ‘insider’ or just lazy.
Sometimes those things will turn people off though. Sure, a long sales page or a pop up might result in 1,000 purchases or sign ups, but how do you know that it wouldn’t have been 2,000 if it wasn’t for those things?
If the content is good enough, I will sign up *in spite of* the long sales page or popup. But there are some that I’ve actually bypassed because of them so there’s at least one sale or subscriber they’ve lost.
@April – That’s great question. The answer is: you test. What are sign-up rates prior to implementation? After? Go with what works.
Same thing with sales copy: you can split test using Google Web Optimizer or other tools. Test short copy, long copy, combined with video, etc. Go with what works the best.
It’s not even a matter of opinion, what you like or don’t like. Testing doesn’t lie.
I love the opposition between “real market pain” and “general low-level whining” – and also: “Do what works” This is pure genius, Michael!
@Amadou – Genius? Nah… just overlooked and slightly uncomfortable truths. But thanks, I’m very glad you appreciate it!
Hi michael,
You raise a good point here. Whem I launched my first website I was concerned more what people thought of my business than actual results!(I was using a long copy strategy)
Then I suddenly realised, that you cannot please everyone and there will always be moaners in business no matter how you structure your sales pitch, it is just a fact of life unfortunately.
Even iuf you write long copy, you can structure it in a way that looks professional and compelling. As you say, people buy from the big gurus such as stomper net to name a few who use long sales copy and these guys are some of the best in the business!
So as you say, don’t get hung up on long sales copy and rule number 1, “You can only please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time”!
Cheers
Grant
About the sign-up – you got me aboard mainly because I clicked a link in Brian Clark’s tweet. Now Brian will not waste his reputation by coming up with sub-par recommendation, right? Besides I like what I’ve read so far. So that’s it.
This is an excellent post. I agree that people will always complain, you can’t please everybody. But you are right, as long as the majority of people are keeping you in business, making you money then your okay. It’s when the amount of people complaining are affecting your profits. Well expressed post.
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