Convert | DigitalMarketer

The conversion stage is all about an entry-point offer.

In other words, we need the prospect to make a micro-commitment. The best way to do that is through a high-value, low-risk offer that lets them sample your wares without putting too much skin in the game.

Out of all of the stages, we truly believe that this one is the most critical. It’s also the one that marketers have the biggest difficulty with because it is by design a bit of a hybrid stage.

They’re not customers yet, but they’re not merely prospects. A lot of that ambiguity is why it works. We need a way to progress the relationship in a timely, appropriate, and sequential manner. 

How can we get our prospects to make a micro commitment that gives us the opportunity to deliver the aha moment? How do we get our prospects to meet us for coffee? 

The two methods of commitment that we as humans recognize is: Time and Money. The time on our calendars and the money in our wallets. 

Lets brainstorm some Entry Point Offers (what we call the deliverables at the convert stage, because this is the offer that you’re making at the entry point of the relationship.) We’re not looking to propose marriage on the first date we’re simply looking to meet for coffee, a micro commitment. 

The question we’re asking here is: What is something that your ideal prospect would only buy or register for if they had a very specific problem or challenge that you could solve? 

The most obvious answer here is giving a demonstration. If anyone registers for a demo then they recognize that they have a problem that you could potentially solve.

If you are a software company a demo is a great entry point offer. But let’s think about another way. What’s the kind of thing that if someone purchased you would know they were interested? 

For example, we once had ownership in one of the largest survival and preparedness communities on planet earth which also had an e-Commerce store. Our store sold all kinds of different items from water purifiers to fire starters and flashlights, and things like that. We found that not all of these products would necessarily suggest that someone was interested in survival and preparedness. 

For years our entry point offer was a very simple fire starter, a tool that could start fire even when wet. This entry point offer was very effective, but it wasn’t converting as high as we expected. Next up we tried a flashlight. 

Our flashlight offer exploded, sales went crazy, we sold out of these items. But no one who bought the flashlight was ascending into any of our other survival and preparedness offerings. What we found is that a flashlight is a very poor indicator that someone has a specific problem we can solve. The reality is that everyone would like a flashlight, regardless of their pains…

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How To Respond To Customer Complaints

Want to just get started? Click here to sign up for WebiMax and start responding to customer complaints today. 

Running a successful business with a large customer base is fantastic. But it isn’t always sunshine and rainbows, no matter the size, nature, or success of your business. 

It’s commonplace for customers to leave feedback throughout your entire business journey, and not all of that feedback will be positive. The good news is that it doesn’t always have to be difficult to respond to these complaints. 

Whether you view customer complaints in a negative or positive light, feedback will help you grow your business. Here are some ways to respond to customer complaints without damaging your reputation any further. 

The Top Online Reputation Management Companies to Respond to Customer Complaints 

If you need help with managing your business reputation and want to learn how to respond to customer complaints effectively, here are the best options: 

You can read our full reviews of each online reputation management company here

7 Steps to Respond to Customer Complaints 

Responding to customer complaints doesn’t just mean apologizing and logging off for the day. Here are seven crucial steps to help you respond without further damaging your reputation: 

  1. Listen to the customer’s complaint 
  2. Identify the type of customer you are dealing with 
  3. Respond quickly
  4. Apologize and thank the customer
  5. Present a solution
  6. Log the complaint
  7. Incorporate changes using customer feedback 

The Easy Parts of Responding to Customer Complaints 

You may already be aware that receiving customer complaints is one of the easiest parts of running a business due to advances in technology, as many people use customer service portals. But what most people don’t realize is how easy it is to protect your…

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Antidepressants Have A Confusing Effect On Emotions

Antidepressants Have A Confusing Effect On Emotions post imageAntidepressants Have A Confusing Effect On Emotions post image

A little-known antidepressant side-effect on emotions and motivation.

People taking antidepressants find it harder to identify their feelings, research finds.

The drugs may cause emotional blunting, lower levels of empathy and even apathy.

The difficulty identifying emotions and apathy could be two sides of the same coin.

SSRI antidepressants in particular are sometimes said to make people indifferent: apathetic towards their emotions and any activities.

People taking the drugs feel less motivation and less emotion — whether positive or negative.

For the study, 57 people taking antidepressants were compared to a control group of 441 people.

The results showed that people taking the antidepressants were more likely to have trouble identifying their feelings.

The study’s authors point out that their research doesn’t necessarily show that taking antidepressants causes this side-effect.

However, it is thought that up to one in five people taking antidepressants have emotional side-effects.

Some studies, though, suggest the rates of apathy and emotional blunting after taking SSRI antidepressants could be even higher, perhaps approaching 50%.

The antidepressants people were taking in the study were mostly SSRIs, which target the serotonin system and include most modern antidepressants such as Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil and many, many more.

Some were also taking older style tricyclic antidepressants, such as clomipramine.

The study was published in the journal Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology (Kajanoja et al., 2018).

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Advice to My Younger Self

Advice to My Younger Self

You see who you are by reflecting on who you were. One way to practice self-reflection is to give advice to your younger self. I’ve done this a few times over the years. I do it to comfort myself by feeling smart.

My self-counsel retains a consistent theme even though time passes.

I'd give advice to my younger self, but I wouldn't listen. Image of a donkey.I'd give advice to my younger self, but I wouldn't listen. Image of a donkey.

Advice to my younger self:

#1. Knowing

I’d give advice to my younger self, but it would be futile. He didn’t listen to anyone because he knew everything. And the things he didn’t know didn’t matter. But if I felt foolhardy, I’d say to my thick-headed younger self, “You don’t need to be the smartest most talented person on the field. In fact, you aren’t.”

Confidence with openness surfaces when you get over yourself.

Openness lifts you higher than over-confident knowing.

#2. Winning

My first time at bat was a disaster. I hit a line-drive homerun. After that, I always batted in the top of the hitting lineup. Usually I hit fourth, clean up. I was lucky my first time at bat in Little League. I didn’t learn how to hit until I became a Little League coach.

Don’t swing for a homerun every time.

The need to excel at everything is a leech. The honest way to say you need to be the best at everything is to say you need to be better than everyone.

You carry the indelicate smell of skunk when you must win everything you play.

#3. 10x living

Everything isn’t a competition, but if you must compete live a 10X life.

  1. Express gratitude 10x when you receive it 1x.
  2. Show honor 10x when you receive 1x.
  3. Give love 10X when you receive 1x.

What have you learned with the turning of the calendar?

What I Would Say to My Younger Self

12 Promises to My Future Self

Advice To My Younger Self

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Excite | DigitalMarketer

Buying generates warm fuzzies. It’s a scientific fact. The dopamine from a new purchase gets people excited—which is why the fifth stage of the Customer Journey is to build on that excitement.

How do you do that? By giving your new customer a memorable experience.

Consider offering a quick-start guide… bonus features that surprise and delight… quick wins… any content that makes your new customers happy.

What we talk a lot about in the Excite stage is “The AHA Moment.” The AHA Moment is when you’ve been talking to a prospect and something that you said made their eyes light up. 

If it’s a piece of software, there’s a moment in the demo when the value just rushes in and they go, “oh yeah, I know what it is” and that’s a huge deal. 

It’s critical that we discover what that aha moment is for your business, so that we can build marketing and follow up to engineer towards that moment. 

Defined by Ryan Deiss, the AHA moment is when the true core value clicks with a customer. Transforming your product from a “nice to have” into a “must have NOW.” The AHA Moment is a combination of relating to feelings and emotions. When you have wonder combined with understanding, you have the AHA. 

But the AHA moment is just a simple magic trick, people are amazed and impressed, but they’re not necessarily motivated to move forward. Next we need to answer the questions that people are asking, that’s how we get our client’s understanding. 

When Twitter first got started they found that before someone could begin to see the value of Twitter, they needed to follow 30 people. The brand was starting to take shape, there was a kind of viral loop taking place by looking at other people’s tweets. 

The subscribe stage was when they registered, set up the account, and started using. But what they realized is that if they couldn’t get someone to follow 30 people they would bail. So they engineered the follow up, getting people to follow 30 accounts, that’s where they had their AHA Moment. 

The best example of this by far is Tesla. If you have a Tesla, or have ridden in a Tesla, you know that these are very fast cars. Tesla owners will never forget the test drive.

If we go back to Tesla’s customer journey, first thing we know off the bat is that they have brand positioning perfected. A lot of their marketing is in fact word of mouth, where this is happening engagement happens. All people have to do is go online, sign up (the subscribe stage) and do a test drive (the convert stage). Then, during the test drive, the AHA Moment happens. 

This is how Ryan Deiss’ Tesla test drive went:

“I’ll tell you how it happened for me. So the test drive started out like any other test drive. You get the car…

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VoIP Starter Guide: Learn The Basics

After several weeks of in-depth research, we found Nextiva to be the best VoIP provider because of its high performance and quality standards. Get a free trial to experience the platform today.

If you’ve ever used a service like Zoom or Google Voice, you’ve already experienced the convenience and cost-saving benefits of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). In this article, we’ll explore what VoIP is and how it works and discuss key VoIP features that make it an extraordinary telephone service.

If you‘re a business owner looking to cut costs or simply looking for an alternative to traditional phone service, read on to get a comprehensive understanding of VoIP and its potential advantages for your business.

The Best 12 VoIP Phone Services for VoIP Calling

To experience the benefits of VoIP, you have to choose a reliable phone service provider. The good news is we‘ve already reviewed over 25 brands to shortlist the best VoIP phone services that are worthy of your time and money.

  • Nextiva — Best Overall VoIP Provider
  • RingCentral — Best for Hybrid and Remote Work Environments
  • Ooma — Best for Small Businesses That Want Simple Setups
  • 8×8 — Best VoIP Provider for International Calling
  • Dialpad — Best AI Functionality for VoIP Phone Systems
  • GoTo Connect — Best Feature-Packed Entry-Level VoIP Plan
  • Phone.com — Best For Businesses on a Tight Budget
  • Google Voice — Best Simple and Lightweight VoIP Phone Service
  • Aircall — Best Built-In Call Management Tools
  • CallHippo — Best VoIP Phone System for Industry-Specific Compliance
  • 11Sight — Best One-Click Audio and Video Calling for Sales and Marketing Teams
  • Zoom — Best Call Monitoring Features…

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5 Lifestyle Changes That Reduce Alzheimer’s Risk by 60%

Following four of the five lifestyle factors reduced Alzheimer’s risk by 60 percent, the study found.

Making four out of five critical lifestyle changes can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s by 60 percent, research finds.

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia: one-in-ten Americans over the age of 65 has the devastating disease.

The behaviours are limiting alcohol intake, a high-quality diet, exercise for brain and body and not smoking:

  1. A high quality diet involves eating something like the MIND diet.
  2. Giving up smoking — even after 60 — benefits physical and cognitive health.
  3. 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise is a good weekly target.
  4. Limit alcohol to light or moderate intake. In the US, moderate drinking is no more than 2 standard drinks per day for men and 1 for women (i.e. 2 glasses of wine for men and 1 for women).
  5. Keep the mind active with intellectually engaging tasks, such as hobbies or social activities.

Even following just two or three of these lifestyle changes is linked to reducing Alzheimer’s risk by 37 percent.

However, the more lifestyle factors people adhere to, the lower their risk of dementia.

Dr Richard J. Hodes, Director of the National Institute on Aging, said:

“This observational study provides more evidence on how a combination of modifiable behaviors may mitigate Alzheimer’s disease risk.

The findings strengthen the association between healthy behaviors and lower risk, and add to the basis for controlled clinical trials to directly test the ability of interventions to slow or prevent development of Alzheimer’s disease.”

The study included 1,845 people from whom data on diet, lifestyle factors, genetics and cognitive function was collected.

Following four of the five lifestyle factors reduced Alzheimer’s risk by 60 percent, the study found.

Dr Dallas Anderson, who also works at the NIA, said:

“This population-based study helps paint the picture of how multiple factors are likely playing parts in Alzheimer’s disease risk.

It’s not a clear cause and effect result, but a strong finding because of the dual data sets and combination of modifiable lifestyle factors that appear to lead to risk reduction.”

The study was published in the journal Neurology (Dhana et al., 2020).

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Priorities: The One Priority of Leadership

Priorities: The One Priority of Leadership

A priority gives direction. Without a priority, leaders squander resources, frustrate people, and live in alarm mode.

One website lists 40 leadership priorities. A person with 40 priorities is an exhausted chipmunk with its tail on fire.

You can’t do anything important when you have 40 priorities.

You can't do anything important when you have 40 priorities. Image of a chipmunk stuffing its mouth.You can't do anything important when you have 40 priorities. Image of a chipmunk stuffing its mouth.

Priorities exposed:

Life was simple when priority meant the first thing. With that definition, your first meeting of the day is your priority. There can only be one first. We define priority as anything important or urgent today.

Life is out of control because you have many ‘most important’ things. The problem is definition. You have many urgencies. You have a long list of to-dos. You can’t have many priorities.

Circumstances control people who don’t have a priority.

A person without a priority is a frantic chipmunk in a blizzard of sunflower seeds.

A priority:

  1. Is more worthy than other things.
  2. Is done first. (If not in order of time in order of importance.)
  3. Receives your best energy. You don’t tag a priority to the end of the day.

A person without a priority is a frantic chipmunk. Image of a chipmunk on a log.A person without a priority is a frantic chipmunk. Image of a chipmunk on a log.

Symptoms you have too many priorities:

  1. You can’t remember the last day you were at your best.
  2. Exhaustion is the norm.
  3. You do lots of work, but you never work on the way you work.

The one priority of leadership:

An unfertilized garden is unfruitful. The leader’s priority is self-care that enables and expands service. If you’re going to die in the next few days, smoke all the cigarettes you want. But if you plan to serve in the future make self-care your priority.

Questions about your priority:

  1. What self-care plans do you have today? Education? Self-reflection? Coaching? Rest? Diet? Exercise?
  2. What’s systems for self-care have you implemented? (Try 50 minute meetings.)
  3. What resources are you dedicating to self-care? Invest in things that are important.

A one priority life requires belief in your future.

Still curious:

A Leader Without Priorities is a Chipmunk on Steroids

The Ability to Say NO is the Power to do What Matters

Get a Grip on Your Schedule when Work is Out of Control

Stop Chasing Too Many Priorities

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Ascend | DigitalMarketer

At this stage, your goal is to generate repeat buys and real profits. While your entry-point offer was designed for conversions, your ascension offers should be geared for profits—because if you’re serving your customers well, they’ll want to buy again and again.

Ascension offers may be simple upsells made after that initial purchase… bigger, better solutions… or “done for you” add-ons.

So now we must ask ourselves, what is our core flagship offer and how do we continue to deliver value after the first sale is made? What is the thing that we are selling? 

How we continue to deliver value after the first sale is really important, because having upsells and cross sales gives you the ability to sell to customers you already have. It will give you higher Average Customer values, which is going to give you higher margins. Which means you can spend more to acquire new customers. 

Why does this matter? It matters because of this universal law of marketing and customer acquisition, he or she who is able and willing to spend the most to acquire a customer wins.

Very often the business with the best product messaging very often is the business that can throw the most into customer acquisition. Now there are two ways to do that.

The first way is to just raise a lot of money. The problem is if you have a lot of money, that doesn’t last forever. At some point you need economics. 

The second way, and the most timeless and predictable approach, is to simply have the highest value customers of anyone in your market. If your customers are worth more to you than they are to your competitors, you can spend more to acquire them at the same margin. 

If a customer is worth twice as much to you than it is to your competitor, you can spend twice as much trying to acquire them to make the same margin. You can invest in your customer acquisition, because your customers are investing in your business. You can invest in your customer experiences, and when we invest more into the customer we build brands that have greater value. Meaning, people are more likely to choose you over someone else, which can actually lower acquisition costs. 

Happy customers refer others to us, which is called zero dollar customer acquisition, and generally just ensures you’re making a bigger impact. You can invest more in the customer experience and customer acquisition process if you don’t have high margins. 

If you deliver a preview experience, you can utilize revenue maximizers like up sells, cross sales, and bundles. These are things that would follow up the initial sale or are combined with the initial sale to increase the Average Customer Value.

The best example of an immediate upsell is the classic McDonalds, “would you like fries with that?” You got just a burger, do you also want fries with that? 

What distinguishes…

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Cloud Hosting vs. Shared Hosting: 5 Key Differences

Sign up for Kamatera today for affordable hosting, near-instant server setup, unrivaled uptime, and round-the-clock customer support. Try Kamatera risk-free with a 30-day free trial, including $100 worth of service credit with no contract or commitment required.  

Web hosting services offer critical storage and computing resources to ensure your website and applications are readily available to online visitors. However, there are many different hosting services to choose from, including cloud and shared hosting. This post will explore the fundamental differences between these two hosting types to help you make an informed decision. 

The 10 Best Hosting Companies for Cloud Hosting 

Spoiler alert: you’re likely to decide you’re better off with cloud hosting by the end of this post. Our research team has tested over two dozen hosting services to find the best cloud hosting services. You can see the results of that experiment in our post Comparing The Best Cloud Web Hosting Plans. Our top options include: 

  • Kamatera – Best for affordable versatility 
  • Hostinger – Most bang for your buck 
  • Scala Hosting – Best cloud hosting for custom resource allocation 
  • Cloudways – Best customizable managed cloud hosting 
  • HostGator – Best cheap cloud web hosting 
  • Nexcess – Best cloud hosting for ecommerce sites 
  • DreamHost – Best cloud hosting for developers 
  • SiteGround – Best cloud hosting for scaling resources 
  • A2 Hosting – Fastest cloud web hosting 
  • InMotion – Best cloud hosting for small businesses 

While it’s arguable that most people benefit more from cloud hosting than shared hosting, you can only come to a solid conclusion by thoroughly comparing the two hosting types. 

Therefore, below are the key differences between cloud and shared hosting. 



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