Susan Friedmann [00:00:00]:
Welcome to Book Marketing Mentors, the weekly podcast where you learn proven strategies, tools, ideas and tips from the masters. Every week I introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books. Today, my special guest is Sandra Beattie. Since 2017, Sandra has been practicing conversion copywriting. She studied under two of Amy Porterfield's copywriters. She's edited and ghostwritten several books and is a published children's author under the pseudonym Mrs. B. Her predominant area of expertise is website conversion, copywriting and strategies to convert visitors into business leads.
Susan Friedmann [00:00:49]:
Her clientele consists of service based businesses and more recently, her home services. Sandra, what a pleasure it is to welcome you to the show and thank you for being this week's expert and mentor.
Sandra Beatty [00:01:05]:
Thank you, Susan. I appreciate you having me.
Susan Friedmann [00:01:08]:
Well, you and I have had some incredible conversations about websites and I've attended several of your training sessions and you're such a wealth of knowledge when it comes to what websites and what works, what doesn't work. Let's start off with a question that I get so frequently, and that is, should I have a book website or should I have an author website? If one of my clients came to you with that question, what would you tell them?
Sandra Beatty [00:01:45]:
I would tell them to have both. It depends on how many books they have had, how much of their business is focused on being an author as opposed to using the book to establish their credibility. For example, if predominantly you want to be well known because of the books you've written, maybe that's the majority part of your business as opposed to consulting or speaking, then I would say for sure have an author website. If the book is more related to a credibility or authority piece, but you're not really trying to make money from your book or your books, then I would say landing pages. I would start with that because it becomes a, you know, here's a place to get the book. But it's an appendage to my bigger website, which is really about my consulting and speaking and the other things that you do. Yeah, it just depends on the situation, like I said, what the business strategy is, where you're really wanting to make your income, and how much does this book need to be featured as part of that entire strategy?
Susan Friedmann [00:03:04]:
When you say maybe have both, could you in fact have them under different tabs on the website? Maybe let's say the author website, where, as you rightly said, featuring your main business, which may be speaking, training, coaching, and then maybe having another tab that leads you to a landing page for the book or more about the book? Could you incorporate the two?
Sandra Beatty [00:03:32]:
Like I said, if you have a main website where people are coming for consulting and stuff, then I wouldn't say you should have then an author part of your navigation and author and then another one for your books. I probably combine them in that case. So it would be like your main website with your name. Let's just say it's Susan Friedman. Susan Friedman does consulting and speaking, and she has books. So in the tabs I would then have here's the speaking, here's consulting, here's books that I've had. Does that answer your question?
Susan Friedmann [00:04:04]:
I think it does. It absolutely does. Because yes, I mean, it's costly maybe to have a website and to have it designed nicely and you want to make the most of it, but yet not overwhelm people with what's on it. Talk to us more about. I mean, the landing page is just so important on a website. Talk to us what should be on that landing page?
Sandra Beatty [00:04:34]:
That landing page is very, very important. One of the biggest questions that need to be answered on that landing page is why should I buy your book? Basically, people are looking for an answer to a problem that they have. Perhaps they're trying to achieve a certain. They're at point A, trying to get to point B, and they're not sure how to do it. But really it's what's in it for me? Or. Or why should I choose your book over someone else who speaks on the same topic? That landing page has to do a really good job in terms of answering that question. And there's many, many ways that that question can get answered. It's an unconscious question people are asking in the back of their mind.
Sandra Beatty [00:05:20]:
They may not be consciously, but definitely unconsciously. They're wondering, should I invest time, attention and money into buying your book? Why should I? You need to convince them that you're the person that can help them with this problem. There's so many different ways of doing that. Testimonials is one, you know, any kind of certifications or any kind of proof of authority or other pieces, things you can do, but really answering for them how you're going to help them, identifying with them. Look, I really understand your problem and saying it in a way that they really get it. You want to get their heads nodding on that landing page where they feel like you get them. And look, I can help you with this without giving obviously away all of the book details. You really want to give credibility that you can help them get from A to B.
Sandra Beatty [00:06:16]:
You can help them solve their problem. It's always great to stand back, take a look at that landing page and, and ask yourself have I built a case for this person to buy my book? That is what people are looking for. They want you to convince them that, yes, I can help you with this problem. And yeah, so that basically using trust signals like I said, using testimonials, using logos, using perhaps excerpts from your book or results you've gotten for clients, that's another one you could put out. Especially if you are talking about a topic and you would be talking about a topic that you have in real life and in real time. Perhaps you have gotten results for people. You want to put that kind of information, that kind of data, or that kind of proof that the reason you've written the book in the first place is because you've gotten experience and results for people in your business. That's another great thing to add to that landing page.
Sandra Beatty [00:07:20]:
If you can add statistics in terms of how many people you've worked with, what kind of results they achieve depending on the topic of your book. So, for example, if you're a business coach, maybe you on average are able to help people increase their revenue by X amount, Things like that, like these little tidbits of proof that your book can help them because you have actually executed these things you're teaching in real life and people have gotten results from it.
Susan Friedmann [00:07:47]:
And based on that, what I'm hearing is too that maybe if they're not ready to necessarily buy your services at this point, buying the book, there's valuable information in that book that will help convince you that, hey, I'm the right person to work with because I've got the expertise, I've written the book, the book's giving me credibility in that area. Yes, you're not only necessarily selling the book, but really, I mean, the money is in your services, speaking, training, coaching. Because I always tell clients, I mean, it's like you're not going to get rich necessarily on the book, but the book is going to help you get rich through other bigger opportunities, which usually come in the form of the speaking, coaching and training. Would you agree with that?
Sandra Beatty [00:08:44]:
Absolutely. And I think there's an important process here that you've mentioned, is that that book landing page could be and often is people's first introduction to you, depending how many books you've written and whatnot. But the point is it's an easy first step for most people to take to invest $30 into a book. That's all that pages purposes it is to get them to trust you enough to give their credit card, whatever, say, I'm going to buy this book. And within that book is your opportunity to then open the door to perhaps then working with you. So it's this whole kind of a path, stepping stone. How this book and this landing page can work into the bigger strategy of trying to actually get more clients. I think it's a really important point to bring out is that each part of this process has its own purpose.
Sandra Beatty [00:09:39]:
And you only really should be honing in on that one purpose. Your book landing page isn't to get clients. Your book landing page is to get people to purchase the book. That's it.
Susan Friedmann [00:09:51]:
Yeah, I think that is so important that there's one action step. Talk to us more about that. Because I've heard you say that each page should have that one action step. Talk to us more about that.
Sandra Beatty [00:10:09]:
When we're talking about each page, we're talking about each page on your website, not just related to a book landing page, but as a whole a website. You've got your homepage, you have your about page, your services page, your contact page. Usually you may have articles and blogs and other things, but every single page on your website should have a call to action. And not all of them are going to be the same. And not all of them are going to only have one or have several. It depends on the purpose of the page. So for example, I think of a homepage, when it comes just to call to action buttons, as like a mall directory. Where you are looking on the mall directory, you're selecting where you're going to go.
Sandra Beatty [00:11:00]:
From there. You give people lots of different options on your homepage. Usually you'll talk about a little bit of snippet about you and they can then go to your about page. Maybe you have some lead magnets on your homepage that they can either download or that takes them to a landing page. For your lead magnets, it will have check out my services and it will take them to your service page. So your homepage, like I said, is like that mall directory. But then as they go to each individual page on your site, from there, if they've navigated, for example, to your about page, there's gotta be a strategy behind that. I can tell you that an about page usually is the second most visited page next to the homepage.
Sandra Beatty [00:11:42]:
The homepage is the most visited page. Your about page is often the second most visited page. You don't necessarily want to only have one call to action. You can have one Call to action on your about page. But what people are generally doing is they're checking you out and they want to learn a little bit more about you. So you might then lead them to a lead magnet from your about page and maybe check out your services. You're just kind of giving them some options on your about page, but less options than your homepage. Then when they navigate to your service page, that is where you want to be very clear on having one call to action here.
Sandra Beatty [00:12:22]:
Because at this point of the stage that they've kind of gone through, they're warming a little bit more to the possibility of working with you. So you do not want to distract them and take their focus away from getting them to schedule a call with you. For example, don't start putting in, well, here's my lead magnet on your service page, or here, read my about page or I'm going to send you to my testimonial page. You don't want to do things like that on a service page because you really want to focus them in on getting them to take one action, which is schedule a call, get on your calendar. Same thing with the lead magnet. If you're sending people to get your free video series, for example, don't distract them by putting other calls to actions to maybe check you out on your about or to check out your services. Just get them to download that lead magnet. When it comes to each page on your website, you just need to know what the strategy is for each page and how you're going to take people into a journey to open their mind to the possibility of working with you.
Sandra Beatty [00:13:31]:
That's really important that you understand that 97% of people coming to your website are going to be tire kickers. They're curious, they're exploring the possibility. So just keep that in mind as part of your strategy that just because they've come to your website doesn't mean they immediately want to have a call with you. You've got to be kind of, like I said, taking them through a journey, but then keeping them focused on taking specific actions when they land on pages that seem signal to them, I'm more open to getting on your email list or I'm more open to scheduling a call with you.
Susan Friedmann [00:14:07]:
If I'm hearing you correctly, they've really checked you out quite a bit before they make that critical move to have a conversation. Yes, it's easier to sign up for a lead magnet, a freebie, whatever you're offering, than it is to say, hey, I want to schedule a call with you would you agree with that?
Sandra Beatty [00:14:29]:
Exactly. Absolutely. And that's where I know a lot of people do not like social media. I am one of those people. But it plays a really, really important role in getting people warmed up. Like, people are not going to your website because they just found you on a Google search. AI is changing the way we search massively. Unless you are putting specific, intentional work on your website to get found from people who've never heard of you before, then you know that the people that are coming to your website, they probably all heard of you somehow.
Sandra Beatty [00:15:09]:
Whether that's through groups, networking, you've done in person networking or through your social media or whatever, they're already, at this point, they're at least curious when they're coming to your site. But if you are not doing networking, if you are not being active on social media, people are not going to be coming to your site. And so you're missing opportunities to really get leads. It's as part of this whole cogwheel of taking visitors. You have to have enough traffic coming to your website to have any chance of converting people into a lead from your website. You have to have a high amount of traffic. And that's where social media, networking, getting your name out there, you really have to do a lot of marketing to get people to come to your website, the website on its own. You can't have a website and expect people to convert.
Sandra Beatty [00:15:59]:
It's just not going to happen. They convert because they've started getting to know you before they even came to your site.
Susan Friedmann [00:16:05]:
Yeah. It's so funny because I think a lot of authors think that build it and they will come. It's like the book. I've written the book, therefore they will come and buy it. I put up a website that means that they're automatically going to come and find me. But there's a path to get there before they even get there. So, yes, you said something really interesting that piqued my interest that the about page is the second most visited part of your website. And I had not considered that.
Susan Friedmann [00:16:41]:
I thought they would have gone from the landing page to possibly the services or maybe to your free resources or to podcasts or blog posts. And the about page might be further along the line, but you're saying no, that's the second most visited page. Wow.
Sandra Beatty [00:17:01]:
Yeah. Because people want to know, who am I thinking about doing business with? What is this person like? They probably answered some of those questions by however it was they got to your website, if it was through networking or through social media, they're still curious about you. They're considering you more seriously at this point as a potential person that they want to partner up with. Yeah. So the about page is really important in terms of establishing trust and answering some of the questions that they would have on their mind if they're thinking about working with you. Like I said, it's very relational. We think business is transactional sometimes, but it's extraordinarily relational. Your about page has an opportunity to help.
Sandra Beatty [00:17:50]:
Again, just open their mind a little bit more to the possibility. That's essentially what most people coming to your website. That's the job of the website. You're just trying to open their mind to the possibility of wanting to hear more from you, possibly getting on your calendar. Whatever action it is that you want them to take. Your about page can really help. Like I said, open that possibility a little bit more.
Susan Friedmann [00:18:16]:
You said that so nicely that they want to feel as if they know you. And what popped into my mind as you said that was why something like People magazine, people love that because they want to know about the celebrities. They want to know more about their life, who they are, not just seeing them on the screen. They want to see that they're real people. So I'm like, oh, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Sandra Beatty [00:18:42]:
Yeah. And there is something else too to consider as part of this that I haven't yet mentioned. But it's a very important part, is the more you know the people that you work with. And what I mean by that is I'm not talking necessarily just about their demographics, you know, where they live and their age and how many kids they have or whatever, but also really understanding their pain points, how they talk about the problems that they're having that you help solve, or the transformation they really want to see in a particular part of their life or their business, the more you really understand that, then that is a very essential part of guiding the strategy on your website and the words you use on your website. For example, if you know that most of the people that you work with tend to be, maybe you're an engineer and you work with other engineers. And most of them tend to be very detailed people. They tend to be more logic thinking people as opposed to emotional thinking people. Knowing that information, you're going to write the words on your website and the strategy on your website very differently from someone who's more of an emotional decision maker.
Sandra Beatty [00:20:01]:
Or maybe they're a really quick decision maker. Another important part of all of this is the more you understand the people or the person, the one individual, your person you're talking to that you'd love to work with. And you can mirror back some of the language and the problems and how they describe it and all of those things on your website and lay it out in such a way that it makes sense to them and they get it, the higher the chances are of a conversion. And when I say a conversion, I mean a conversion in terms of they sign up for your lead magnet, they get on your calendar, maybe they start following you on social things like that. That's another really important part of this, is that with any kind of general information that you get, you need to think, okay, how does that actually apply to that one person I really want to work with?
Susan Friedmann [00:20:59]:
One of the questions that I also get, and I know you and I have talked about this, is do I put pricing on my website? This is something that people always want to know because there's a sort of bit of a fear factor of putting pricing on the website. Talk to us a bit about the strategy and the thinking there.
Sandra Beatty [00:21:21]:
Yes, I am a big proponent of pricing. One of the reasons is I was convinced when I listened and read Marcus Sheridan's book. They ask, you answer. I'm starting into a second book, Endless Customers, and it makes sense to me that especially in today's day and age where we are moving from before maybe 20, 30 plus years ago, you bought something probably because you talked to a salesperson. The information you got from them helped you to decide whether or not you were going to purchase whatever, a car or anything like that. But the landscape has changed so much. People want to be informed before they make a decision and they don't want to talk to anybody to help make that decision. And the Internet and having so many things as accessible to us at our fingertips has helped us to be able to get questions answered before we even need to speak to anybody.
Sandra Beatty [00:22:27]:
Pricing factors in because we know that that is probably the top one to two questions on people's minds. When they're considering something, they want to know how much it costs. If you are in an industry where people are not putting their pricing up, then you have an excellent opportunity to be different from everybody else, to be transparent with your pricing, because that's what people want anyway. If you think about it going to a store and you're considering one couch over another and you're equally thinking you would be happy with either one. You think, but one has the price and one doesn't, you're far more likely to buy the one that has the price. Because it's easier, it's an easier decision than to find somebody who can tell you what the price is of the other couch. It's too much work. So it's the same thing when it comes to your website.
Sandra Beatty [00:23:23]:
People want to know how much it's going to cost to work with you. And if other people are putting their prices up and you're the only one who's not putting your prices up, you're just digging a grave for yourself. You're saying it actually feels like you would be hiding something because you don't have an opportunity to have a face to face conversation with somebody at this point. They're going to walk away thinking this person is hiding something. They're probably not putting their price on their website because they're too expensive. So I'm just going to go with my B option. I really think it shows that you care about the potential client that's thinking about you. You care enough to help them make an informed decision by putting your pricing up.
Sandra Beatty [00:24:06]:
People are expecting that anyway, they're wanting that. And if you have put your pricing up and they've contacted you even after they've seen your pricing, you know that they are very warm lead. It just actually can end up saving you time that you're not wasting your time on people who can't afford you anyway. I just think overall it's just a great strategy. And I know that there's some people that get concerned because maybe they think, well, my pricing's complicated, it depends on the situation, maybe what their needs are. And I always say, well, you can always give a minimum. This is where they know at least they're going to pay this much money. And you can also give a range from here to there and you can explain what different factors or additions would affect the price.
Sandra Beatty [00:24:53]:
Like I said, it just helps people to make an informed decision. You're doing them a service by putting up the pricing and you're doing yourself a service to. Because then you know you got a warm lead, they're familiar with the price and you haven't scared them away. So don't worry about scaring people away.
Susan Friedmann [00:25:09]:
And that's interesting that you say that because when people think, oh, it's too much, it's too expensive, you're like, well, compared to what? Because they're just looking at a figure, it seems like a lot of money, but they're taking it out of context of what necessarily you might be offering for, for that and what are other people charging? How do you get around that comparison? Well, it's too expensive, as I say. My question to that is always compared to what are they comparing apples to apples or apples to oranges?
Sandra Beatty [00:25:51]:
Exactly. When it comes to your pricing, I don't recommend just here's my prices, take it or leave it kind of a thing. But you do want to build a case. Each page on your website needs to be building a case as to why, answering the question on their mind, which is why should I choose you over somebody else or why should I choose you over doing this myself? So build a case for yourself. And there's so many ways you can do that. If you can do case studies, you could do an article on you compared to other options that people have and be transparent with it. Just state the facts. It doesn't have to be persuasive, it doesn't have to be emotional.
Sandra Beatty [00:26:31]:
You just are giving people the facts, the information and helping them to decide for themselves and what that actually ends up doing. You might think that it sounds counterintuitive, but it does build trust. People actually will trust you more because you're being transparent to the point that you're not afraid to say, look, this is what my competition offers you might be best suited for them if these are your needs and these aren't needs that I meet, you know, or that's part of what I offer or whatever. And they're going to remember that because especially if you're in an industry where nobody else is doing that and you're the only one talking about this and being completely honest, like I said, it's just going to raise you that much more in their mind as someone they actually want to work with. Because if feel they can trust you. And in an environment now where trust is so low right now, if you can be the person that is just being honest without the emotion or the derogatory remarks or anything like that, wow. Like you're just going to completely stand out. You'll probably end up getting way more business than you thought just by being honest and transparent.
Susan Friedmann [00:27:45]:
What fabulous information, Sandra. This is a perfect segue into sharing how our listeners can find out more about you and you being able to share your wisdom with them. So what's the best way?
Sandra Beatty [00:28:01]:
The best way is through my website. But if you prefer social media, I'm found on LinkedIn. Sandra Beatty and my website is very easy too. It's just SandraBeatty.comyou'll notice when you go to my website. I just started working with home service businesses, but I've had years and years experience working with service businesses, many, many consultants and coaches and authors and anything related to mostly business. Actually tons of experience doing that as well. But like I said website, LinkedInand actually YouTube. If you just Google Sandra Beatty on YouTube, I've got tons of video related to helping really quick strategies you can do on your website.
Sandra Beatty [00:28:51]:
They're 15 minutes or less and it's like one thing you can do to your website to help convert a visitor into lead to increase your chances of being able to do that.
Susan Friedmann [00:29:00]:
Beautiful. And I'll put the links to those in the show notes so that people can go check you out and do so. Listeners. Sandra is a wealth of information and as you know Sandra, we always ask our guests to leave our listeners with a golden nugget. What's yours?
Sandra Beatty [00:29:24]:
Mine would be to about every six months or so take a step back, look at your website through the eyes of the visitor and ask yourself, would I choose me if I didn't know who I was? And just ask yourself, have I built a case? Have I given people what they need, which is trust and information to help them make an informed decision and to choose me.
Susan Friedmann [00:29:52]:
Beautiful. Yes. It's like, would I buy from me? It's a great question to ask yourself and stand back and really be objective about that, which is sometimes really hard. Sandra, you've been amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. And listeners, if your book isn't selling the way you want it or expected to, let's jump on a quick call to brainstorm ways to ramp up those sales. Because you've invested a whole lot of time, money and energy and it's time you got the return you were hoping for. So go to BookMarketingBrainstorm.com to schedule your free call.
And in the meantime, I hope this powerful interview sparks some ideas you can use to sell more books. Until next week, here's wishing you much book and author marketing success.
Here's how to connect with Sandra:
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