Gaming Google: Private Blog Networks – The Latest Google Slap

Unless you were living under a rock this week or off exploring galaxies far far away, you probably heard about the Google crackdown on the concept of Private Blog Networks (PBN’s). It appears that the crackdown started on September 18^th via Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) manual action notices.

As Webmasters around the world logged into GWT that morning, they were greeted with manual action notices from Google informing them that their sites had “thin content” – shallow pages which do not provide users with much added value – also know as spam. Below is a screen shot of the message Spencer Haws, over at Niche Pursuits, received.

In fact, Spencer wrote a really interesting article “Alright Google, You Win…I’ll Never Use Private Blog Networks Again!” about his own experience with his latest Google Slap that’s worth a read.

Gaming Google

Again, unless you’re still living under that rock, you would know that Google considers thin content to be search spam and has a page in their Webmaster Guidelines explaining they can take action against this type of content.

As we saw in the example above a number of SEOs and Webmasters who have used PBNs to artificially inflate their Google rankings got “Google Slapped” with these manual actions.

Now we’re not hear to debate whether “Black Hat SEO” techniques are good or bad or if PBN’s fall under the black hat category, but apparently in this round of Google punishment and site slapping the holders of the keys to the kingdom have decided that PBN’s are on the bad side of the equation and that some sites needed to be de-indexed.

Since there can be only one site at the top of the totem pole there will always be those how try to Game Google and their ranking algorithm in an effort to have their site at the top spot. Of course, since Google controls the algorithm, they can pretty much do what they want in their attempt to provide what they feel are the “best” results for a search request that a user of their system performs.

Every time Google changes their algorithm there will be an endless debate about how unfair it was and how site rankings dropped. Nobody says you have to use Google to get traffic or even have your site indexed by them, so if you don’t like their rules then go get ranked on some other search engine and don’t complain.

Content at the End of the Rainbow

When all is said and done what “content at the end of the rainbow search” are people really looking for? Well, the answer to this question is probably one of those “it depends” type of answers. In some instances users are probably fine with thin content. A simple question or topic can often be answered in simple terms that don’t need 1200 words or some arbitrary amount of text to convey a perfectly sound answer.

On the other hand, there are times were page after page of content is needed to thoroughly explain a topic. Either way, as long as the “searcher” is happy with the end result the size of the content shouldn’t matter, right?

Recommended Action

Unfortunately, when your site violates one of Google’s recommended guidelines you’re usually left somewhat in the dark. It would be nice if they told you exactly what was wrong, but they don’t. Maybe they fear that if they did, folks would gain too much insight into how their algorithm works.

Oh well, in this case a quick read of the Google Support page for a recommended action related to thin content will tell you review the following sections of their Webmaster Guidelines:

Of course after you do that and check for duplicate content on your site, thin content, etc. etc. and you’re sure your site is no longer is in violation of Google guidelines, you can request reconsideration of your site. And then you sit back, cross your fingers, and hope after your site is reviewed that Google agrees with you and determines that your site no longer violates their guidelines. If they do agree with you, they’ll revoke the manual action and hopefully you’re site will once again rank and you’ll climb back to the top spot on the totem pole.

The Risk of Gaming Google

Just like everything else in life, there are those who make the rules and those who have to follow them. Those who don’t want to follow the rules will do anything they can to get their way and when the rule makers catch them, they usually whine and cry and try to blame everyone else rather than accept responsibility for what they did.

Did you think that SEO and ranking on Google was any different than any other rule based systems we have to follow? Nope. It really doesn’t matter if it’s PBN’s, Link Wheels, Black Hat SEO or any other method you use to get your site ranked on Google. If Google doesn’t like it, then you risk having months or years worth of work and money go down the drain. Trying to game Google and circumvent their rules for ranking will always be a game of cat and mouse.

Going Forward to Game or Not to Game Google

At the end of the day there’s really only one question you need to ask if you’re going to game Google and that’s “Can you make a profit before they catch you?” It really is that simple, well that is if you are just looking to make a quick buck and then move on to something else. If you’re going this route, then you’re probably not creating a long-term business anyway.

However, if you’re looking to create a long-term business, you may want to think twice before you try and game the rule makers. Instead you may just want to adapt and evolve, because when it comes to ranking your site you need to realize what works today my not work tomorrow anyway. Besides you really are at the mercy of Google to some degree anyway. It’s their algorithm and they make hundreds of changes to it each year, and that’s in addition to all those animal updates like Panda and Penguin they make too.

Instead of just trying to game Google and get quick results, you might just want to create good solid content that really does interest the people you’re trying to reach and then reach those people. Once you reach a few people, if the content is good enough, they will probably start to share it and your network reach will grow. As your network grows and you turn out more content, it won’t be long before even more people will be talking about your website.

Going forward we just don’t recommend you game Google, especially with your money site, the one you plan to have for a long time and be your business. If you do, Google will eventually catch you and your site may just fall off the face of the earth when it comes to ranking and being found by those who are looking for what you have to offer.

Of course we’re not naive and we know plenty of individuals will continue trying to game Google and do things to rank their sites fast, but in the long term we’re fairly certain those sites will not achieve the true potential that they could achieve.

And for those who are willing to put in the time and effort to get their site to rank based on the rules that Google set forth, we’re fairly certain that they will rank well regardless of how many algorithm changes Google makes. So stop trying to game Google, think twice about Private Blog Networks, and do your best to stay away from the latest Google Slap.

Your Long Term Business Vision

Besides Google is just like any other business, here today and possibly gone tomorrow. OK maybe not tomorrow, but maybe one day. You don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket, such that your business depends only on traffic from Google to survive. Build your business with Google and also without it.

Create content and solutions for your audience that they want to see. Treat your business like a real business. Determine what your long term business vision is and then go out and make it happen.

As always, here’s to your success!

July 24, 2014September 26, 2017

The Value of Social Data

It’s July 23, 2014 and today we’re reviewing a webinar entitled “The Value of Social Data” presented by the link shorting folks at Bitly. Today’s webinar includes presenter Mark Josephson, Bitly CEO, along with one of their partners, Chris Kerns, Director of Analytics & Research at Spredfast. So, if you missed today’s live webinar here’s a summary of “The Value of Social Data”.

Marketing at the Speed of Life

Spredfast places brands at the center of meaningful digital interactions. They enable their customers to engage in real time, producing dynamic content with the world’s most powerful social marketing platform.

From one-on-one conversations between consumers and brands, to amplify conversations that are already out there about a brand, they bring the consumer voice into everything. They have tons of touch points to create this social data, not just from Bitly but from their many partners as well.

What’s So Great About Social Data?

Social Data is Diverse: by bringing in all different views from many different networks they can provide a 360 view of what consumers are thinking.

Social Data is Robust: you can view data not just by topics, you can also see how social data is impacted by people of influence, geography, demographics, language patterns, time of day, sentiment, and across many other dimensions as well.

Social Data is Growing: across all demographics social data is now key to brands. It crosses genders, income, and location. It’s becoming the new norm.

Social Data is Valuable: because it helps you to understand what’s working and to gain a better understanding of your audience.

Under Standing What’s Working

Through content engagement we discover what activities and content engage our communities the most. Social data helps you to understand the effectiveness of your content. It tells you what dives your audience toward your goal and establishes a benchmark for performance, allowing you to compare current performance to historical trends.

Within the Bitly dashboard you can discover where content engagement is working, find out which topics are resonating with your audience, and understand the half-life of your content. It’s key to use social data to find out what’s working and what’s not working.

Chris gave a great example of how real-time marketing works with an example of the “Bite Heard ‘round the World.” Although there are a lot of opinions as to whether or not this type of marketing is good or bad, you can’t deny that it engages your audience. Consider the McDonald’s Uruguay Tweet of Luis Suarez biting Giorgio Chielliniwas Retweeted over 77,000 times; while the account usually sees only a 2-3 Retweets of their normal content. Ten brands jumped in on this relative conversation that their audiences were already talking about and all of them saw their Retweet performance jump astronomically.

Social data gets rid of opinion and focuses on performance. And it’s not just about engagement. Clients have used Spredfast to increase conversions as well.

Audience Insights

Again the Bitly dashboard helps you to not just understand who clicked, when they clicked or how long before they clicked, but to know where they were when they clicked, from what source they were at when they clicked, etc. All of this allows you to understand your audience much better.

You can also see who’s sharing your links the most and thus identify influencers of your content, possibly allowing you to reach out to those individuals and align yourself better with them for addition content sharing.

Putting Your Data to Work

Given the increase in social data you need to set goals around it, if you’re going to take it serious. To get the most out of your data your organization needs to be using it every day. And you need to be testing. Test what you learn. Use different languages, calls-to-action, #hashtags, media, and most of all diversify your use of social networks.

Like everything else in life, always be testing and always be learning in order to make the most out of your social data.

That’s a pretty quick summary of Chris’ comments about social data and Spredfast ability to help manage and further engage your audience. At this point Chris turned it back over to Mark to continue the presentation.

A Bit About Bitly

Talking about massive amounts of data. Mark discussed how every day Bitly works with over 40,000 brands, who create over 500,000,000 (million) links each month, that are clicked over 8,000,000,000 (8 billion!!!) times across every social platform, media site, and brand site in the world. They are the large link shortener on the planet.

Social Data Can Drive Your Business

Once you collect your social data you can use it to influence your paid media and to optimized your spend. Having the ability to identify where your audience is and their demographics you can take that knowledge and optimize your paid spend, further target you audience, reduce waste spend and improve ROI.

Diving into your data you can discover new customer segments. Usually we start at higher levels, but having all this social data available you can dig down into deeper segments and see additional customer groups that are interacting with you. And once you have this data analyzed, you can use it to drive sales.

There is so much social data out there and so many ways to connect it, however, there are three key takeaways for you to remember:

Social Data Can Drive Your Business
Track Everything with Trusted Data
Explore and Build New Markets Using Social Data

By the way, Mark noted that Bitly is working on new tools to help further unlock your social data and help drive your growth. At this point the webinar was opened for questions.

That’s it. Another webinar summary for those of you who were not able to attend live.

Replay Info

Now that you read the summary you only need another 34 minutes and 16 seconds to watch the complete video. It’s really not that much time and we could only summarize the webinar, so make sure you watch the video and gain all the insights presented by Chris Kerns and Mark Josephson today.

To your success!!

July 1, 2014July 1, 2014

Cross Browser JavaScript Exit Pop

How to Create a Working Exit Popup

Although exit pops can be really annoying when over used, they do have their place when used properly. When you bombard someone with ten exit pops to different offers and up-sells, that’s probably overkill. However, if you use an exit pop to remind someone to save a form before leaving your site or you direct them to a discount or special offer, then that’s probably a much better use of this often frowned upon functionality.

Creating a working exit popup for an HTML page isn’t that difficult and we’re going to show you how to do it using JavaScript. And you don’t have to be a coding wiz to implement this solution; nor will you have to spend any money on some slick tool to do this either. So without further ado, here is a simple cross browser JavaScript exit pop solution that we use in our HTML pages.

Required jQuery Files

In order for our solution to work you’re going to need to download jQuery files and install them on your server. Note: we’re using the version 2.x file and haven’t had any issues, but if you’re worried about older browsers you might want to go with the version 1.x file; you only need one or the other version not both. Also, you’ll probably want to use the compressed version of the file, your code will run a little faster, however the uncompressed files work with our solution too.

When you download the file you’ll end up with a file similar to “jquery-2.1.1.min.js” – the 2.1.1 will be replaced with the version release of the file you downloaded, so don’t worry if it doesn’t exactly match the version we’re using.

We recommend that you upload this file to your webserver in a folder called “js” that your HTML pages will have access. We do this because we have other JavaScript routines we use and organizing them in one location makes things a little easier. A little organization now, makes things much easier down the road.

Cross Browser JavaScript Exit Pop Code

There are only a few pieces of code to this solution and the first is referencing the jQuery files. Add the following line of code within the HEAD statement of your HTML file:

<script src="yourpath/js/jquery-2.0.3.min.js"></script>

Make sure you change the “yourpath” portion of the code to the proper path name to your “js” folder based on where your HTML files are located. And you will most likely have to update the version of your jQuery file too.

The second piece of code you need will also go within the HEAD statement of your HMTL file and someplace AFTER the first line of code you added above (hint: we usually place both right before the final “/HEAD” tag.

<script type="text/javascript">
    function PopIt() { 
      var redirect_to = 'YourRedirectPage'; 

      window.onbeforeunload = UnPopIt;
      setTimeout(function() {
        window.onbeforeunload = function() {};
        setTimeout(function() {
          document.location.href = redirect_to;
        }, 500);
      },5);
      return "**********\n YourMessgeGoesHere\n**********";
      }

    function UnPopIt()  { /* nothing to return */ }

    $(document).ready(function() {
      window.onbeforeunload = PopIt;

      $("a[id=nojump]").click(function(){ window.onbeforeunload = UnPopIt; });
      $("[id=YourFormID]").click(function(){ window.onbeforeunload = UnPopIt; });
    });
</script>

There are three things you need to change in the code above. First, change “YourRedirectPage” to the page you want your exit pop to send your visitor to when they click the “Stay On Page” button. Note: the value of “YourRedirectPage” can be a relative or absolute page value (e.g. special-offer-discount.html or http://yourdomain.com/squeezepages/special-offer-discount.html).

Second, you’ll want to change “YourMessgeGoesHere” to the message you want to display to your visitors in your exit popup window. Your message can be short and sweet or as long as you want, just make sure it conveys want you need it to and some type of Call-To-Action. Also, the \n characters represent a newline or linefeed, so use these and spaces to pretty up the message that is displayed in your exit popup window.

The last and final thing you need to change (well maybe) is “YourFormID”. This line of code is only needed if you’re using this exit pop code on a page that has an opt-in form. You’ll need to change “YourFormID” to the ID of your opt-in form. And if the HTML page your adding this code to does not have an opt-in form, you can delete this line of code:

$("[id=YourFormID]").click(function(){ window.onbeforeunload = UnPopIt; });

from the function; leaving it in won’t cause a problem either. By the way, if you forget to change the “YourFormID” on an page that has an opt-in form, then the exit popup will be shown when your visitor clicks your opt-in button.

Updating Hyperlink <a> Tags

We’ve also included a little bit of code in our function for hyperlinks. This little bit of code will stop the JavaScript exit popup from firing IF and ONLY IF you add the id=”nojump” code to your hyperlink tags.

$("a[id=nojump]").click(function(){ window.onbeforeunload = UnPopIt; });

Below is an example of how you would add it to a hyperlink:

<a id="nojump" href="”some-page-on-your-site-link”">YourAnchorText</a>

We typically just add the id=”nojump” to the hyperlinks that reference pages on our site, that way the exit popup doesn’t fire and display to the visitor when they are staying on our site (accessing internal site pages).

However, if we have a link on our offer page that goes to some other site (external site pages), then we do NOT add the id=”nojump” code to the hyperlink and the exit popup will be shown when the visitor clicks the hyperlink and tries to leave our site.

Adding or not adding the id=”nojump” code to hyperlinks on the page allows us to independently control each hyperlink on the page as needed. Who knows, there might be a time when you want an exit pop to appear even when a users stays on your site.

Cross Browser JavaScript Exit Pop Compatibility

Unfortunately all browsers are not created equal and therefore not all browsers support JavaScript Exit Popups the same. Firefox is the real pain, since it does not display (return) your customized message. It will display its own message and buttons for staying on or leaving the page.

Other browsers do a much better job of displaying your exit pop window and message the way you want it to look. The text on the buttons for staying on or leaving a page are a little different from browser to browser, but at least your customized message is displayed the way you coded it.

Below is an example of how some browsers display the exit pop window.

JavaScript Exit Pop Code Sample

Here’s a small JavaScript exit pop code sample that you can pretty much Cut & Paste into your own HTML files and use going forward for all your exit pops. Don’t forget to download and install the jQuery files mentioned above.

We’ve included some comments (Step 1 – Step 7) in the file for your convenience and hopefully you won’t have any problems getting this to work. If you do, just leave us a comment and describe what’s happening or not happening the best you can and we’ll try to help you get it working.

Things To Consider

There are plenty of exit pop solutions out there, but this is one we’ve developed for our use with HTML files and it works well across all browsers that we’ve tested. Feel free to modify it for your needs and don’t go spending money on one of those pricey solutions, unless you really need some specific functionality that you just can’t get to work by modifying this code.

A couple of things you should realize: if someone turns off JavaScript in their browser, this solution isn’t going to do you any good. With JavaScript off the PopIt and UnPopIt functions won’t fire and no window pop will happen when someone closes their browser or tries to go to a new page. Also, Mobile browsers tend not to support this type of JavaScript function either, so mobile visitors to your site won’t see your popup and you can’t control what happens when they try to leave your page.

Oh well, free is free, and there is only so much you can control in your code when the browser or platform doesn’t support certain functions.

June 14, 2014June 26, 2014

Creating Social Media Visual Content That Gets Results

Webinar Review: Creating Social Media Visual Content

As Mari said “Woohoo, what a fabulous webinar we had today!”

On Monday, June 9th 2014, Mari Smith hosted a webinar with Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick. both from Canva, in which they shared the tactics and best practices for crafting the perfect, most effective social media posts including:

How to create perfect social media posts for each of your channels
Which types of posts attract the most shares, comments, and search engine rankings,
How to increase your following with the right combination of standout social media posts + enchanting engagement!

And for those of you who missed it, here’s a quick recap of the “How to Create Awesome Social Media Visual Content That Gets Results” webinar.

The Art Of The Perfect Post

First and foremost visual content is the way to go in social media. In fact, social media is now all about creating eye catching visual content that makes the viewer to want to share the content, not only with all their friends and followers, but also inspires them to take action; to sign-up for your list and to become a follower of your brand.

Remember that social media is a marketing platform for your brand. Take it seriously and your brand can soar above your competition. With that in mind here are 10 Key Points of the Perfect Post as recommend by Guy and Peg.

Key Point #1: Pass the re-share test

Probably the most important philosophical point to consider when creating your social media post is “Will it pass the re-share test?” Are you sending something out that is so interesting, informative, entertaining, that others will share your content. If your posting achieves just this one key point, you’ve probably cover 90% of what needs to be done when writing a post.

Key Point #2: What makes something pass the re-share test

Be Valuable. But what or who determines value in a post? It’s certainly not you! You need to send stuff out that is: Informational (what just happened), Analysis (what does it mean that this happened), Assistance (how to avoid a bad thing or have a good thing), or Entertainment (is this just funny stuff).

Key Point #3: Be bold

All this means is that you should feel “free” to express “your opinions!” Express your thoughts, regardless of the topic and do not be worried about negative comments. You’ll get them and you’ll also get plenty of positive comments too. So take a stand and be bold.

Key Point #4: Be brief

These are guidelines: Fifty Character headline, Three-sentence body, Active Voice. Social media is NOT a replacement for blogging. Your blog, like this one, can share valuable information that is rather lengthy. The key to social media is K.I.S.S… and we know what that means (Keep It Short Silly). Make it brief with eye-catching photo’s and you’re golden.

Key Point #5: Credit your source

Always, always, always credit your source. When you find great content form someone else just give them credit. When people see you sharing their post, it helps you establish a relationship with them and it fosters better engagement. And as Guy says “It’s good karma.”

Key Point #6: Add drama

Add a photo or image that helps tell your visual story and create more activity on each of your post. Text only isn’t going to grab attention on every platform. And if you’re re-posting / sharing something that doesn’t have an image, then create one or find one you can use that helps sell the story. By the way, size matters a lot in social media. You’ll want to use properly sized images per the platform your posting to. Here are Peg’s recommendations, in pixels of course: Instagram (640×640), Pinterest (735×1100), Facebook (940×788), Google+ (800×600), and Twitter (1024×512).

Key Point #7: Embrace hashtags – #

These have become extremely important in social media. The reason to use them is it ties content together. Typically when you click on the # tag it gives you a listing of all the posts that relate to that topic, so it’s a great way to connect all of your content with related content created by other people. By the way, don’t forget to “check” your # tag before using it or you could pick one that’s already being used for other (possibly inappropriate) content or totally unrelated to your target audience.

Key Point #8: Schedule and spread out

You want to trickle your content out at a steady pace. Don’t send out a bunch of tweets or post over a half hour or so. Find a scheduling tool that works with your service, if the service you’re using doesn’t have one, and schedule your content to go out at different parts of the day and days of the week.

Key Point #9: Keep calm and post often

You need to be consistent on social media. Being consistent helps people know that you’re a resource they can count on and use. Especially when new features or problems arise in your niche, you want people to be able to visit your site and find content and discussions taking place about the subject at hand that allow them to find the answers they’re looking for. In addition, frequent posting helps build your brand and (as long as it’s not thin or spammy) Google loves sites with lots of content.

Key Point #10: Cross-post

Share your content far and wide. If you have something you want people to see, you have to get it out in-front of them which might mean sharing it on multiple social media platforms. And you might want to consider not sharing exactly the same thing at the same time across each of the networks you’re a part of. Spread it out and format it differently on each network; it doesn’t have to be drastically different, just different enough and with any specific features the individual network requires.

Bonus Point: Check with an “incognito” page

Known as incognito in the the Chrome browser, while other browsers call this private browsing, this allows you to see what other people see when they visit your social media post or profiles. When activated its as if you are not signed into any services, so some features within a service won’t track your viewing habits and thereby show a profile owner that you were stalking them. BTW… it doesn’t necessarily hide things from your service provider or employer, so don’t think you’re following everyone.

Well there you have it. Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick have shared with Mari Smith every thing you need to know in order to create social media visual content that gets results. But wait, that’s not all.

Services and More

After sharing all these great tips on the art of the perfect post, Guy and Peg shared some additional information about tools / services that make their social media content creation that much easier. They also listed some sites that have great content that you can add to your sharing process.

Since Guy and Peg are Canva employees, they offered a special deal to everyone which you can also access even though you couldn’t watch the webinear live. They encouraged everyone to tryout Canva, an online graphics tool that you can use to design really great images for social medial and more. There are plenty of designs available for you to use, for a small fee, and plenty more that are free or you can upload your own items.

And to wrap things up they gave a quick demo of Canva. Oh… and as great live demos go, Guy dropped himself from the Google Hangout… oops! It didn’t take him long to reconnect, but Peg did the demo just to make sure we could see it :o)

Replay Info

Thankfully Mari understands that not all of us can join a live webinar due to other commitments and timezone differences. So, as promised, she recorded the entire event and here’s the replay link.

(If the above link doesn’t work for you, you can watch the replay video directly on YouTube.)

Plus, the slides from the presentation can be accessed via Guy’s SlideShare account.

Now set aside some time, specifically 1:01:29;29, and watch this video so you can learn even more about Creating Social Media Visual Content That Gets Results and The Art of the Perfect Post.

June 13, 2014September 26, 2017

12 Email Marketing Hacks To Double Your Sales

Another webinar review and this time it’s all about email marketing. On June 12^th, 2014 Vishen Lakhiani of Zentrepreneur hosted a free Masterclass with Andre Chaperon about advanced email marketing tips related to – How To Double Your Sales – Without Growing Your List – Using 12 Email Marketing “Hacks” – and to establish that rare ability to make sales on demand.

12 Email Marketing Hacks

For those of you who missed the live webinar here’s a summary of it, so you don’t miss out on the 12 Email Marketing Hacks that Andre reviewed. Plus you’ll also learn in this Masterclass:

How to use stories to instantly sell more of your products
Andre’s legendary “Soap Opera Sequence” email system
Discover what Hollywood Screenwriters know about creating extraordinary levels of desire that most other people don’t
Why to AVOID sending “click bait” emails like the plague
The best way to write emails that make MORE sales… without sounding “salesy”.

Oh and before we begin, sorry about not recording the very beginning of this webinar. We had a slight technical problem and missed the first few seconds of Vishen’s intro. Fortunately we didn’t miss anything important and that’s just how live events go. Not much you can do when your browser freezes.

Presenters Bio

For those of you not familiar with Andre he’s one of the top email-marketing experts on the planet. Not only has he won countless affiliate competitions (with tiny lists), he also created the game-changing course Autoresponder Madness.

Andre has also become known as THE go-to guy in the email world. He’s different from most marketing “gurus”, because he believes that your email list should be based on a trusting relationship that you nurture as you build and focus your marketing efforts. And should you do this, Andre believes you can realistically double or TRIPLE the amount of money you make.

Andre’s Notes

Yes, these really are Andre’s hand-written notes on using the art of storytelling within the context of email marketing. It’s his personal framework that he’s used for creating most of his storytelling emails.

Basically there is a universal framework for storytelling which consist of 8-points:

Ordinary World (create empathy)
The Call to Adventure
Refuse The Call
Meeting the Mentor
Crossing the Threshold
Test / Allies / Villains (drama, conflict, anticipation)
The Ordeal
The Reward

The story is the emotional delivery vehicle (a narrative) of your marketing message that leads people down a (specific) path that they follow and eventually complete your call to action.

Andre’s 12 Email Marketing Hacks

Hack #1: Talk To The Right Audience

This seems so easy, but it isn’t. Owning someone’s attention isn’t free. You must be relevant. An individual needs change over time, so you must stay relevant to their needs. Your trust equity starts at or near zero, builds non-linearly, and if you abuse the trust that you’ve earned with your subscribers, it can vanish overnight.

Note: Vishen suggest using a ratio of 7 emails that add to trust equity for every 3 emails that might take away from trust equity.

Hack #2: Be Interesting (Worth Reading)

Corporate emails are so boring and will put you to sleep. Being interesting is a dance… it’s entertaining, relevant, preeminent, teasing, flirty and gives value (but never at the expense of giving it all away.) Lust ends when craving ends, so you must always leave your subscribers with a sense of something else that something better is coming.

Hack #3: Segment!

The only hack that isn’t optional, hence the exclamation mark. You must segment your email subscribers. Why? Because everyone on your list has some shared core needs, wants and desires, but only very broadly. As your audience’s level of sophistication increases, so will their needs and desires. Thus your emails will need to evolve in order to meet those needs and desires; relevance is achieved through segmenting.

Hack #4: Only Promote Badass Products

Don’t promote “shit” (sorry that’s Andre’s word not ours, but we’ll agree) and burn your list for any commission. Regardless of your niche you should strive to be the fiduciary (the most trusted adviser) to your prospects, customers, and clients. So never promote products or services that do not help move your audience towards their desired end goals.

Hack #5: Use Storytelling as The Emotional Delivery Vehicle For Your Marketing Message

Why are stories so much better as a delivery vehicle for your marketing message: It’s because stories have a unique power to move people’s hearts, minds, feet, and wallets in the story teller’s intended direction. Stories teach, unite, and motivate by transporting audiences emotionally. The building blocks of all story telling are to: create a challenge, describe the struggle, and deliver the resolution. Stories don’t have to be long, but they must have a surprise.

Hack #6: Build Tension & The Desire For More

Nothing will grab the attention of your subscribers faster than their need to know what happens next. If you can keep your readers constantly guessing as to what’s next, you’ll have them hooked. Use an open loop, something like “I’ll explain why this is important shortly”, between two paragraphs will hook your reader. And you don’t even have to answer your open loop in the email it’s in; how insane is that?

Hack #7: Treat Your Customers Like You Would Expect To Be Treated

Don’t treat people just as a numbers… metrics and stats. The people on your email list are not just a commodity. They are real people with feelings, emotions, needs, wants and desires. And when you start treating them as just numbers, it becomes easy to burn your email list to the ground. Unless of course that’s how you want to be treated? Hopefully not, because your customers and clients will be the lifeblood of your business.

Hack #8: No Need To Sell

Hard selling is for amateurs. If you know the products you’re offering to your list fit their needs, there really is no need to sell. Your job is simply to bring a product to their attention and demonstrate to them how it fits their needs and desires.

Hack #9: ONE Action

There is no reason to have multiple actions in your emails. One and only one desired end result, call to action (CTA), per email is all you need. Trying to get someone to do just one thing is hard enough. Getting them to do four or five is impossible! Including more than one CTA creates choice, which creates confusion, and you’ll lose people. Stick to one thing and your emails will be much more successful.

Hack #10: Use (Part 1) and (Part 2) In The Subject Line

Create a series of emails and include an open loop indicator at the end of the subject – Part 1, Part 2, etc. This will set an expectation with your audience and they’ll be looking for more. And if you want to be really sneaky… skip a part (that’s a Ninja strategy) just to create conflict in your reads mind. Watch the video and hear more about that tactic around the one-hour mark.

Hack #11: Use a Story To Call Out The Best People To Expose To a Promotion

Tightly linked to Hack #1, use this hack to call out any extra people who are interested in being exposed to a promotion you have. You’re getting people to raise their hand that they want more; they’ve shown interest in your offering. Be transparent, it builds trust. You want to do business with pre-qualified people (those who’ve raised their hand.)

Hack #12: Soap Opera Sequence

This is the Holy Grail in Andre’s email marketing strategy. Sending out only broadcast emails is manual, it requires a ton of commitment, and has many other built in detractors. Build an email sequence and leverage automation to get it out to your audience. There’s a beginning and no end to the sequence, because over time you keep adding to the end of the sequence.

There you have it a summary of Andre Chaperon’s Email Marketing Workshop with Vishen Lakhiani. If you didn’t before, you should now realize that everyone has needs, desires, and wants and that your fulfilling their desire is the end result.

Replay Info

Now set aside some time, 1:24:22 to be exact, and watch this email marketing workshop mastermind by Andre Chaperon, as interviewed by Vishen Lakhiani.

And what would a video replay be without the associated documentation? Make sure you download Andre’s Email SOS Story Framework and his How To Double Your Sales eBook.

Our goal is to see you succeed and to succeed you need to take action. If you made it this far you’ve taken action. Now download the two PDF files, watch the video, and begin implementing Andre’s email marketing strategies into your business; then come back and leave a comment and let everyone else know how these strategies have helped you.

To your success!!