MBA991 Guest Teacher: Carrie Olsen- How to get better results with your sales page using 3 principles from acting

Hey there, it's Nicole here again. Today. I'm the producer of the Hundred Dollars MBA show and co founder of the Hundred Dollar MBA, a complete business training and community online over at 100mba.net and welcome to today's episode. If you're just tuning in and you're like, hang on a second, that's not Omar. Who? Who is this? Never fear, I'm stepping in for a very short time while Omar's taking a quick break. Actually, at the end of the episode, I'll be making a quick announcement about Omar's return to the mic. So hang on for that. Yeah, yeah, I know you could just scrub right to the end, but then you'd be missing out on today's gem of a lesson from our guest teacher, Carrie Olson. Carrie Olson is with us today to teach you how to get better results with your sales page using three principles from acting. That very critical sales page of yours may need some fine tuning, so you're going to want to listen up, take some notes and apply these principles to your site right after this lesson. That's right. Even with our main man Omar away, we want to make sure you keep learning and your business keeps growing. Did I say business? Okay, let's get down to business. Today's episode is sponsored by indiegogo. Have an ingenious idea. Indiegogo, the global launchpad for entrepreneurs, can help you raise money for your product and turn it into the next big thing. Their global backer community of millions, as well as Expert tools and 24. 7 support can help you find success at every step of your journey to market. To learn more and download Indiegogo's free crowdfunding field guide, go to www.indiegogo.com 100mba to get started.

Started.

Carrie Olson is a voice actor, business coach, wife and mother of two who has lent her voice to brands like Tiffany's, Taco Bell, bank of America, REI and many others. Drawing from her experience as a speaker, podcaster and author, she brings passion and authenticity to her work of giving a voice to her many e learning and commercial clients. She shares her voiceover passion and expertise in her online courses, blog and podcast. And when she's not in her voiceover booth, you can find her hiding out in a coffee shop in Kansas City with her husband and daughters. Nice. I love a good cafe. We have some awesome spots here in Sydney. And you know, when Oma and I want to switch things up from the office, we usually head to one of those. Alright, I'm not going to take any more of your time. Without further ado, I'm going to hand over the mic to Carrie. Take it away. Carrie.

Welcome. Thank you for joining me today. Alright, so let's say you've got a product or service and it is killing and you can't wait for people to get their hands on it. So you put your product or your service out there, people are going to your sales page, but no one is buying it. Despite having killer reviews. You've got testimonials, you know that the thing works. So what do you do? Well, instead of going back to the drawing board with your product or service, consider first that maybe the issue is with your sales page itself. But there are a lot of things going on with your sales page, right? You've got headlines, graphics, sales copy, calls to action, all kinds of things. So how do you know where to start with all of that? If your product isn't selling and you think that it might be your sales page, how do you know which of those elements that you need to change to make your sales page start performing better? So that's what we're going to be talking about today. We're going to be using three tips from the acting community, specifically voice acting, which is my industry. And we're going to break down how you can get better results from your sales page. Okay, so before we go any further, I know what you're thinking. What does acting have to do with getting better results from my sales page? Well, hang with me for a second. Anytime you publish a sales page, you are testing it. Even the most prolific brands understand that there's no silver bullet when it comes to selling. So you always have to be testing what works and what doesn't. And as a voice actor, 90% of what I do is testing. But in my industry, we call it auditioning. Every single day, I'm sitting down behind my microphone, reading words that came from someone else's brain and doing my best to deliver a performance that sounds authentic, personable, on brand and relatable. But the problem with trying to sound all of those things is that it sounds different to everyone. So I have no control over whether or not the particular casting director that's listening to my audition is into my read. And I could let that drive me nuts if I let it. Just like how you might change your headline or font or button color on your sales page. I would start obsessing over how I said each word and wondering if I had changed just one small thing, if it would have made a difference in my not booking the job. So you could say that I'm a professional tester, but I learned a lesson in voiceover that I've been able to apply to my marketing as well. So that said, here are three tips from the acting community that will help you get better results from your sales pages. Okay, tip number one Come prepared. There are millions of resources on testing ideas, headlines, and just about anything else that you can test in your business. And here's a sweet tip. One of them is actually on the homepage of the $100 MBA site right now at the time of this podcast episode record. So because there are all of those resources out there, you can't afford to come to the table without already knowing the basics. You'll find something that works well with your sales page, something that converts better if you already know the basics, so do your research first. Things like when you're writing a headline, make it super specific as opposed to really broad. If you're already educated about the basics, you won't have to spend the first month of testing your sales page wondering why no one is responding to your message. When doing something really easy, like just addressing your audience would fix it. In voiceover, this means getting training so you know how to approach a piece of copy. Ironically, the first rule with voice acting is also know your audience. Okay, tip number two, don't approach your testing haphazardly. Or to put it positively, approach your testing with intention. If your sales page isn't performing and you need to make changes to it, the changes that you make on your sales page should be deliberate and and you should have reasons for making those changes. If your page isn't converting well, the last thing you want to do is say, well, I don't really love the color of that pink buy now button. I'm going to change it to fuchsia because I'm just feeling in a fuchsia mood today. When you approach your testing this way, your message and branding will feel disconnected. Nothing will seem to fit with anything else, and it will appear that you're just desperately trying to land on a winning formula without any forethought or planning, because essentially you are. Instead, give the element that you're testing time to really prove or disprove itself. Then, when you do decide to change an element in your messaging, have a reason for it. Maybe the change aligns better with your brand or audience. Maybe the change has subconscious or conscious connotations that will help with conversions. Or maybe you saw the change done by someone in a similar field and it worked for them. The point is Just make sure that there is a reason for the change and and if there isn't one, don't make it. And here's a side note, sometimes you do stumble upon a nice surprise that just happens to work, but this is the exception, not the rule. So don't make surprises your business plan. The parallel to acting is that you have to commit to a direction in your delivery as opposed to just giving wishy washy performances and changing up your tone and emotions every other line. And finally, tip number three, Keep your head up. And this is actually really important to your sales page performance because as you go in and make changes, if you're not confident in your own abilities, that starts to show through in your messaging. In the voice acting field, this is one of the hardest things to do, especially for new voice actors because there's just so much rejection. But if you start to let all of the rejection get to you, you start getting self conscious. You start getting whiny and insecure. And no one wants to hire someone who isn't confident in their own abilities. So here's the mindset you want to have. Yes, you're testing your sales page, which means you don't know everything. And ultimately your customers have to validate your work by buying your product or service. But remember that even though you need the market to decide what speaks to them most, you are doing things the right way and you can take pride in that. So don't get down on yourself if it takes time to find what works best for you and your audience. You have a message, you're prepared to deliver it in an impactful way. Remember tip number one, Be prepared. And through the process of testing your sales page, you will find the variation that works best. So don't view your sales page testing efforts as failures, but as learning experiences, use them to start out even stronger next time. So let's recap these three tips from the voice acting community that are going to help you get better results on your sales pages. Tip number one, Come prepared. Tip number two, don't approach testing haphazardly. Or to put it positively, approach your testing with intention. And tip tip number three, Keep your head up. So to get the best results from your sales pages, you have to be prepared. So if you want to make sure that you're prepared as you approach your sales page testing, I'm giving away a freebie with some of my favorite tips for optimizing your sales page. It also comes with three other bonus tips from the acting community that will help you get better results in Your business. To get these free downloads, text 100 MBA. That's the numbers 1 0, 0 and the letters MBA all one word to 44222 or go to Carrie Olson vo.com 100mba. That's C A R R I E O L S E N V o as in voiceover.com 100 MBA, all one word. And again that text opt in number is 100 MBA to 44222. Thank you so much for spending time with me today and all my best to you in your sales page testing.

Today's episode is also brought to you by Weebly. Lets say you make Danish inspired urban clogs. And let's say you want to start selling those gorgeous shoes online. Well, creating a beautiful website is a good start. But you know what's even better? A powerful website. With Weebly, you don't just get great looking online store templates. You get all the tools you need to build your brand, promote your products, process payments, manage inventory, send marketing campaigns and more. All of that wrapped up in one one neat little package designed to turn your idea into a thriving online business. Plus, they've got an epic support team. No scripts, no robots, just friendly experts whose only job is to help you do whatever needs doing. So whether it's lavender biscotti or distressed denim sofas, Weebly helps you turn your idea into a powerful online store. Because success isn't just getting your products online. It's getting them in the hands of customers who will love them. And here's the best bit. As a fan of the $100 MBA, go to weebly.com mba and you'll get 15% off your Weebly online store. That's Weebly w E-E-B-L-Y.com mba and get 15% off your WeeBly online store. Weebly more than just a beautiful website. Well, thank you Carrie for that lesson. It was super distilled with just clear, actionable insights and I love that because that's what this show is all, all about. I really resonated with her second point on approaching testing with intention and making sure every change you make is deliberate. When I did some film school training in New York some years back, we learned the very same thing when we were working on camera work or cinematography. So when we were in cinematography class, we'd be learning how to set up our shots. We might have some really grand idea. Oh, this is a really cool angle. I'm going to take my camera really, really up high and get a bird's eye view. Of the character. And I always remember my teacher saying, well, why? And if your answer was like, oh, because it's so cool, well, that was a no.

No.

Of course, anytime we made a choice on camera angles, we had to have a strong reason. Like, did it evoke a particular emotion? Did it drive the story forward somehow? You get the point. We had to have a purpose, and we had to articulate that purpose so we were really clear. And that's the same thing for your sales page. Be clear on why you're making that change. Last year, we launched our new site for the latest version of our Software, webinar ninja 5.0. And on our sales page, Omar added a section that we didn't have. If you go to the bottom of webinar ninja.com, you'll see a personal message from Omar that tells the story of why we created Webinar Ninja and the problem that we were solving. So that when a potential customer reads that, they can say, yes, that's my problem too. I need this for the very same reasons. So we wanted to make sure we connected with our visitors to the site and they understood that we shared the same pain points they have when it comes to running webinars and finding the best tool to do so. Okay, well, I think that wraps it up for today. I hope you found this lesson useful. Make sure you listen back and jot down those links where you can get Carrie's freebies just for you. I've checked out the page that she set up, carrieolsonvo.com 100- MBA and there you can get for free three voice acting tips to help you get better results from your sales page. And she's giving a free guide to optimizing your sales page as well. How awesome. Just go to cariolsonvo.com 100mba well, thank you for listening today. It was my pleasure to fill in for Omar again. But before I go, it's time for that announcement I mentioned at the start of the show. Omar's back tomorrow. Yay. He'll be back at the mic with a fresh freeride Friday lesson. Make sure you tune in for his lesson tomorrow. Thanks again, folks. I'll catch you another time. Take care, Sam.