“It was overwhelming. I kept questioning myself wondering if I was taking care of getting everything updated that needed updating.”
That may sound like a strange question, and even weirder article title, so let me explain.
Recently, I finished and released the website for one of my trainings. Whenever I do this, I always hesitate and ask myself, “have I done everything?” “Is this ready to launch?” “Have I forgotten anything?”
In this case I was editing a previous sales letter and updating it for this product. Nothing was working correctly. The buttons were taking you to wrong places, I had to add more content than I had previously thought I needed to, and the videos weren’t working. Oh, and those that worked were playing incorrect videos.
It was overwhelming. I kept questioning myself wondering if I was taking care of getting everything updated that needed updating.
How can you overcome this and ensure you are doing everything?
One way is to make a list of everything that needs to be done. You need to stop and think about it because this will be an exhaustive list of everything, no matter how small, that needs to be completed. You then use this as a check list.
Now, the way that I do this (I know you’ve probably heard me talk about this before) is with an index card. I use index cards in order to make sure that I cover everything. On these index cards, I might put between five and ten different things on each one. I’ll use as many cards as it takes. I then will read through all the cards to ensure I haven’t missed anything.
Then I start going from the top to the bottom working on all the different pieces of the website. Some things may be out of order. I can stop and get them listed in the correct order, or I can skip over them and come back to them later.
In this case I went through the entire list and was sure I had done everything. You know the feeling. It’s like, you’re getting ready for a trip. You have the car loaded, you load up the family and head off down the road…and…you suddenly realize you forgot your wallet, so you head back for it. Just to make sure, I went through the list a couple more times.
Once I was sure everything was complete, I launched the website.
Of course, I’m anxious and excited about the prospect of this new product so I immediately go and check my stats, and I see I have an order. WOW…this is exciting, I just launched the site, and someone ordered right away!
Unfortunately, it wasn’t an order. I messed up on one of the order links and a person was able to order for free. Oh man, I was sure I had completed everything. Was I angry? No, well maybe a little angry at myself, but I was glad this person made me aware of my mistake so early on in the launch.
I then went through the entire site again and checked every minute detail.
It’s important to go through everything before you launch, but you’ll likely not find everything. At some point it’s better to just launch and continue to check and monitor stats for errors.
You can scroll up and down through the sales letter forever looking for spelling errors, improper phrasing etc. You may never launch if you try to get everything perfect.
At this point you need to just ensure the basics are there and launch. That’s when the fun starts.
Once it’s launched you can continue to go through the site adding fun features. On this particular site, after it was launched, I added a neat feature that allowed the video to follow you as you scrolled down the page. I also added a feature that showed the names of the people as they purchased.
Another cool add on was an interesting component that lets me add little handwritten notes to the right of the video as it scrolls with the reader as they read down the page. It made it look like I was adding personal notes with an arrow pointing to the video as it followed them down the page. The note might have said, “click the video to play” or some similar message.
These items and things like it are entertaining things you can add AFTER you launch it. The important part is to get the basic working site launched. Minor errors can be fixed, and fun things can be added once the site has been made live.
Also, as you’re continuing to go through the website you can look for things or features you may have neglected to add. When you do as many websites as I do, you find things that work really well, but sometimes you forget about them in future site builds (which is why they should be added to your index card to-do list).
At this point you need to sit back and ask yourself, “Am I doing everything needed to get the sale?” What new things are other marketers trying? What am I missing? Should I add an exit pop and offer them a bribe if they leave without purchasing?”
Here’s a word of caution. You don’t want to add too many things to your website because these can be bells and whistles that distract them from the sales message. You want to spend the majority of your time both before and after the launch on improving the content of the site. Because it’s the content that will make the sale—not the bells and whistles.
As the title of this article indicates, the question is, “are you doing everything?” That’s the question you need to ask yourself as you create the website, sales letter, order page, etc. Use those little index cards to keep you on track as you build the site. They’re cheap to buy and easy to use.
But even after the site is launched make sure you keep monitoring to ensure all the links take prospects and buyers to the correct places, all the videos play (and make sure they are playing the correct video). Monitor your stats and see how it’s converting. If you make changes keep track of them to see if they helped or hindered sales.
Remember launch with the basics in place and working. Then, the fun starts when you can actually go and start adding the little tweaks, small bells and whistles that can maybe, just slightly, put a person over the edge and make a sale!
