Good Conversion Rate

Greetings from Vienna, Austria. Or Wien, as they call it here. After a few days of outdoor adventures near Salzburg, I’m spending a night in Vienna before a night in Copenhagen, and then back to Toronto on Sunday.

It’s been a really great trip and there are a lot of lessons I learned along the way, particularly with the kids at the camp in Lithuania.

In fact, just one question I shared with them completely changed their mindset about a business opportunity. I’ll share that next week.

But now, for this week’s QnA:

Question: What’s a good conversion rate?

Answer: I get this question over and over again, and I heard it again this week, so here’s my final answer:

A good conversion rate is like a unicorn.

There’s really no such thing.

And yet that’s one of the most common questions I get.

The real answer is…it doesn’t matter.

It can vary dramatically based on different traffic sources, as my friend Mike Geary pointed out to me back in 2007.

Last weekend I endorsed a product through one of my email lists and we had a 2.7% conversion rate. It was okay, but no conversion rate is good enough in my opinion.

However, if that product had been promoted through facebook ads, the conversion rate would have been much lower.

The difference?

An endorsed mailing vs. an ad to a cold prospect.

That’s why conversion rates differ so much.

But back to your original question…

…what if you emailed me and said, “I have a 1% conversion rate, is that good?”

If I said, “Yes, that’s a great conversion rate,” what would you do?

Just stop trying to improve?

Rest on your laurels?

No, of course not.

If you were smart, you’d keep trying to improve your conversion rate no matter what it is right now.

The top guys, like Ryan Deiss, Joel Marion, and Eban Pagan are testing, testing, and testing.

Always testing their winners.

So even if they get better than expected results (and therefore a better than expected conversion rate), they are still testing and trying to do better.

Forget about thinking, “Is this a good conversion rate” and switch your thinking to, “Alright, we’re going to split test this, and then we’re going to get results and try a new split test against the winner. And so on and so on.”

You don’t need to worry about having a “good conversion rate” as much as you need to focus on having a good testing system for improving your conversion rate.

Question: Dear Craig, I have a blog with an opt-in page but have not yet started to promote it. I’ve also created a digital product.

What should I do now to get the word out about the product?

I have a maxed out budget but need to start making money fast.

Answer: Read everything here:

=> http://internetindependence.com/

There’s so much information on my website about getting traffic to your site – and it’s all free.

Pretty much everything you need to know is available somewhere, you just need to be self-reliant and look for yourself.

Question: Hi Craig, I hope that you are having a great morning. Thank you for another great post. I love your content and have been following your blogs and programs for almost 2 years now.

In this post, you recommend participating in a mastermind group. I’d love to find a group to join, and/or invest in personal business coaching. Like most of your readers, I’m in the fitness industry and do well with my training even working for a local gym.

However, I’d like to expand my services outside of the gym, but need assistance putting it all together.

My question is: Could you recommend a mastermind group or business coach that specializes in branding? I invest money in my body through private training (I have a trainer myself!), and now I want to invest in my business.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. And again, thank you so much for all of your content. It’s helped so much!

Answer: First, you do not want a mastermind that shows you how to do branding. Branding is not something you can measure.

You want to learn direct marketing. So get the book, “Direct Marketing” by Dan Kennedy.

As for the Mastermind, look for people who share your interests and goals and start one yourself if you can’t afford to join mine.

Have a great weekend,

Craig Ballantyne

“Never stop investing. Never stop improving. Never stop doing something new. The moment you stop improving your organization, it starts to die. Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in some small way.  Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen. Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.” – Bob Parsons