Plugging The Leak Strategy

Want to make 30% more money without buying any more traffic?

What about making more money automatically anytime someone hits your page?

So, here’s the thing, every time a visitor comes to your site, chances are they are going to see something they want and then flake out. They will abandon the purchase or optin for something never return. Or, they will buy one time and then fail to return again and purchase more great stuff from you.

In any of those scenarios, it’s not good for you and it’s definitely not good for your visitor. Why? Because you have awesome products and/or services which they will never experience nor realize the life-changing transformational power of your offer, that’s why.

Bottom line, you are in a boat with several leaks that you need to plug so you don’t end up underwater.

How? I’m glad you asked.

Let’s get started…

The Strategy

There is an old Spanish saying, “When the wind is strong it is smooth sailing. When the wind is gone you have to paddle like hell.”

When things are going great and you’re sales numbers are trending in the right direction it’s human nature to coast. But, as a business, you know that things are not going to go smoothly. In fact, things going smoothly is the exception, not the norm.

You’re attention is being pulled in any given direction, often at the same time, with the gravitational pull of a black hole.

That’s why you need a method to recapture traffic and get them back in your sales sequence automatically.

Enter: The Plugging The Leak Strategy.

If you’re tracking your visitors (and you should be with Google analytics or some tracking tool) then you can track where you visitors enter your site, what they do, and where they exit.

It is the exit part of this equation where the “leaking” is happening and where you want to plug it up.

To help, here are some of the most common places where you want to “plug the leaks”:

  1. Welcome Email
  2. Abandoned Cart Email
  3. Upsell Email
  4. Reengagement Email

Welcome Email Sequence

So, you got a customer who bought. Now what? Well, if you’re like most business owners you sent them there order, right? Wrong.

You want to welcome them into your world! You want to tell them how much you appreciate there business!

Even better, ask them to buy something else!

Don’t be afraid to pour it on thick and even make it a little light-hearted.

“The sun broke through the clouds and rainbows appeared! There! Deep in the blue clouds, there came a ray of sunshine that beamed down on me, signaling you had just joined our happy family of customers!

Seriously, thank you for your business. You could have spent your hard-earned money anywhere and instead you invested it here with our little operation.

It means alot and I want you to know I will never take your business for granted.

Please, use this coupon of “10percentoff” any time in the next 48 hours to show our appreciation for your next purchase.”

See what I did there? I probably made them smile a little and then presumed the next sale while adding a little scarcity (”…the next 48 hours…”) to sell them more stuff.

Abandoned Cart Email Sequence

The bulk of customers will come to your site, find something they like, add it to their card, and then bail.

That’s the reality of doing business online.

However, by making them set up an account, and/or get them to optin prior to purchase, you can trigger this email sequence to get them back in your sales process.

Here is how the numbers breakdown: If you have 20,000 potential clients and half of them bail on you in a month that’s 10,000 lost sales. If the average first-time sale is worth $100 then you’ve lost potentially $1,000,000.

But, you set up an Abandoned Cart Email Sequence asking them “Something wrong? Can I help? Did you forget something?” to get them back in the fold. If you recover 30% of those lost sales then you’ve bumped your sales to an additional $300,000 in revenue (10,000 abandoned sales x 30% recovered x $100 average first-time transaction = $300,000).

With one email sequence, you’ve doubled your revenue.

How would it feel to have an additional $300,000?

Now, I know, I know. Not every Abandoned Cart Email Sequence will earn 30% sales back. But, sometimes you do a lot better.

Out of all the “plugs” this one is missed the most and alot of lost money as a result.

Upsell Email Sequence

Want to know the best time to sell a buyer something else? Answer: As soon as they’ve bought something.

When you buy something you’re body releases “feel good” chemicals they give you a type of “high”.

This is why Amazon is such a beast in eCommerce.

Amazon has the most frictionless selling process in the world. They measure and track everything from the color of their “Add to Cart” button to their referral engine of product recommendations to the emails they send you with products they think you’ll like.

You buy something from them then they come full-force gangster at you with lots of offers.

When someone buys from you, then the Upsell Email Sequence kicks in to sell them something else.

If someone buys something, then you want to setup an automatic email to fire off and offer them something more.

“Hey, Bob! Thanks for buying the Hedgehog Wonder Socks from our site! Look, I know you’re going to love these socks (everyone does!) but let me give you some advice…

If you’re going to get the socks, then you’ve got to get the Hedgehog Wonder T-shirts too!

Seriously, the fabric slides of your skin like silky lavender and adds an extra layer of warmth between you and your over-shirt. Plus, the color scheme matches the socks.

But the cool thing is (are your ready)…they are REVERSIBLE! Yup, it’s like getting two shirts in one!

Do yourself a favor (and because I like you), go add this to your cart by clicking here AND, Bob, buy one T-shirt and get the next one 50% off on us!

Don’t wait, go now and get the T-shirts and we’ll ship it along with those righteous looking Hedgehog Wonder Socks!

Do it now and it’ll ship right now so you get it in a few days!”

This sequence works because the buyer is still in a buying mood plus you’ve offered him a chance to keep his “high” going.

And, did I mention? You get more sales as a result.

Give it a try.

Re-engagement Email Sequence

Sometimes, leads cool.

It’s normal, but that’s why professionals have email sequences to get them re-engaged with their brand.

In email marketing, there are sequences that serve a purpose (think Plugging The Leaks Strategy by yours truly) but there are also emails whose purpose is to get the client active with their brand again.

If a customer has bought in the past then sometimes they need to be reminded that you’re still around and have cool stuff for them to check out.

When you send a special reminder (”hey, we’re back in stock on that awesome vanilla latte flavored oatmeal that you love”) to gain their interest again.

Now, if you’ve tracked your sales (and you always should) plus when they last bought then you can plan your marketing strategy accordingly.

If a client hasn’t bought in 30 days, for example, then a simple email based on their past interests may be enough to re-engage with your brand and activate them again (get them to purchase something).

But, if a client hasn’t bought from you, in say, 90 days then it may take a little more coaxing. It’s at this stage, you might want to make a special offer in the form of a discount and/or bundle offer. Anything that can get them back into your sales process so you can offer them awesome value and keep them as a customer.

The rough outline is designing a broadcast email that has a special offer to a group of past buyers. The links in the email will help you track their interest in the offer while your site should be pixeled to retarget them with relevant ads till they purchase.

Once they do purchase, voila! They are reactivated and you continue to follow-up with more offers to keep them in sequence and present them with similar offers to expand your offering to them based on their behavior (clicking links, buying stuff, etc.).

Let’s Huddle Up

This is a rough outline of a very sophisticated approach (Plugging The Leaks) which can give you a lot of ideas on how to increase sales without increasing traffic.

It takes a combination of creativity and know-how, but the good news is that once you put an emphasis on email marketing then you don’t need to worry about increasing ad costs.

Most businesses try to put their foot on the gas peddle and increase paid traffic but that’s only effective up to a point. As ad prices rise or you experience “ad fatigue” by your ideal customers who are growing weary of your ads you have to create better systems to stabilize your revenue.

Email marketing and Plugging The Leaks Strategy can help you do that.

And, unlike PPC marketing, you set it up once and it runs automatically, forever.

Billy Williams
 

Billy Williams is a content marketing strategist and digital marketing consultant who has written for Askmen.com, Addicted2Success.com, and Futures Magazine.

>