If there’s one phrase that I hear over and over again which is preached by every successful online business owner it has to be “Know Your Numbers!” Business at the end of the day is a numbers game, and if your bottom line isn’t up to scratch then you’re heading for trouble!

A couple of posts back I spoke about the 4 Skills for Business Success and I thought I’d follow that up today with a little look at The Numbers Game – more specifically Conversion Rates and EPCs.

These are 2 of the most important numbers to an internet marketer and the cornerstone for unlimited success. Okay, so by now you may have built a squeeze page and perhaps even put a backend product in place but what’s next? Well your going to want to add Targeted Traffic to this funnel and see what numbers it churns out.

These numbers will quickly identify the strengths and weaknesses in your sales funnel and will give you tangible results which you can then take and build on for the future.

The first number which we are interested in is the Conversion Rate. This is the % of people who arrive at your squeeze page that opt-in to your mailing list – the higher this number the better. E.g. If your squeeze page is only converting at 10% then you know that you’ve some work to do whereas if your seeing a 70% conversion you may be reasonably pleased.

It’s worthwhile taking the time to split-test different pages and variations until you hit your sweet spot of maximum conversions. If you are seeing a 10% conversions then take some time and analyze your page. How could you improve it? Is the copy compelling enough or the product images catchy enough to convince your visitors to Opt-in?

If you are really lost here then just go and “Reverse Engineer” what your successful competitors are doing. Have a look at their squeeze pages and take notes and inspirations from them – then get to work and get your page as good as possible!

Okay, so you’ve done some work and are relatively pleased with your efforts. Your page is converting nicely and you are seeing opt-ins to your list. After this the next number you’ll want to study is your EPC (Earnings Per Click) – this is the average revenue generated by each visitor to your site. Again you should try to keep this number as high as possible and aim for at least $1 EPC.

This is because you’ll need such numbers in order to be able to convince affiliates to promote your offer for you. If your numbers are poor then you’ll have a very hard time in attracting affiliates and joint venture partners.

One way of testing your sales funnel is to pay someone to send traffic to your squeeze page. One of the most popular ways of doing this is by purchasing a solo ad. A solo ad is essentially where you pay someone to promote your product to their email list for a set fee. You pay for the amount of “clicks” (visitors) which this person will deliver.

For example… Say you purchase 100 clicks from a solo seller and out of this 50 people opt-in to your mailing list. This tells you that your squeeze page is converting at 50%. Now imagine after opt-in these 50 subs are presented with an OTO (One Time Offer) which costs $10. 10 of these subs purchase the OTO giving you total revenue of $100.

So based on this hypothetical example lets have a look at our Numbers….
50% Conversion rate on the Opt-in Page
20% Conversion on the OTO (10 from 50 bought the product)
Total Revenue of $100

…all of which means we have a $1 EPC (total visitors / total revenue)

Can you see how important it is to Know Your Numbers?

And don’t stop there! – you now have a benchmark and you should continue to tweak your squeeze page and alter your OTO sales copy until you get those numbers as high as possible.

For every percentage point you increase your Conversion Rates you are putting money in your pocket and not only that – but the higher you can get your EPC the more traffic will start to flow to your site.

Why? Well, you know how hard it can be to attract JV Partners and Affiliates? Well if you can show them an attractive EPC you’ll no longer have to chase after them because they will find you out and beg to work with you!

Sounds crazy right? Not at all – the Numbers don’t lie and if your numbers stand up then you’ll have no problem whatsoever attracting some very powerful JV Partners and even some Super Affiliates. It will all start to snowball from there and every one involved will do very well for themselves 🙂

So the moral of the story is to persevere because your not going to nail this the first time around. Your Conversion Rate may stink and your EPC may be non-existent….but that’s okay. At least now you have a starting point, a benchmark that you will use to measure your results against as you tweak you copy and test, test, and re-test your numbers.

The important thing is to keep moving forward and try to make a little progress all the time. And remember the more you go through this process the better you will become at it. You’ll find it tough the first time around but after a while you’ll be able to set up and test conversion rates and EPCs in your sleep!!

So that’s it for today, a very simple introduction to the importance of good Conversion Rates and EPCs – so now go out there and get started yourself and don’t forget – “Know Your Numbers!

Thanks for reading – Noel.


Noel
Noel

Easy going guy and founder of CunMark.com who enjoys traveling, live music and good coffee - as well as sharing tips and strategies on this blog to help others navigate the world of online marketing!

    18 replies to "Know Your Numbers and Grow Rich"

    • Roger

      Great post Noel.
      Time spent split testing is well worth the effort. A small increase in your conversion rate can give you a big increase in your bottom line.

      • Noel

        Thanks Roger,
        It’s something I’m really going to home in on from now on. It just makes sense – why be out there working on driving traffic if you don’t have your system optimally set up in the background?
        As they say “every little helps…” and this is true for conversion rates too!

        Thanks,
        Noel.

    • Paul Conway

      Hey Noel

      Thank you for explaining this to me in terms that I can understand.:)

      Sometimes the “Guru’s” blind me with science and throw all sorts of numbers at me 🙁 no doubt to get a sale!

      I also noticed that you used the term “Reversed Engineer” I personally have heard this term before but no one has explained it to me in language that I can understand.
      Cheers
      Paul

      • Noel

        Thanks Paul – appreciate that!
        Nice to know that some of what I say makes sense to people:)

        All the best,
        Noel.

    • Muhsin

      Knowing your numbers is definitely important.
      Although I got to admit that I am not doing any
      at the moment as I find it all too confusing. hehe

      Nevertheless your post definitely shed some
      light and helped made the numbers game more
      clearer to me.

      Thanks alot Noel!

      -Muhsin

      • Noel

        Cheers Muhsin, glad it helped you!
        It can be a confusing concept to get the head around at first but I think its very important for all of us..
        Thanks for stopping by.

        -Noel.

    • Christine Brady

      Hi Noel,

      Awesome post as always!

      Having just ventured in paid advertising, I am watching my numbers very closely. Ultimately, I could have just read your post to find out what I should be paying attention to – instead of trying to decipher all the other terminology!

      I think keeping it simple is best – conversion rate and EPC is basically all you need to know to start with.

      Thanks for sharing!

      ~Christine

      • Noel

        Hey Christine,
        Cool, glad you liked it – Good luck with the Paid Advertising (it’s not something that I’m very familiar with) and let me know how you find it? And what kind of results you see with it.
        I live my the K.I.S.S. motto (Keep It Simple Stupid) so Conversion Rates and EPCs are enough for me at the moment!
        Thanks for dropping by;)
        Noel.

      • Dee Kumar

        Slightly disagree with Christine, but Profit is the number one metric in any business, and perhaps it is so surprising just how many people forget, or simply do not know how to calculate profitability.

        EPC is such a great metric alongside conversion rate BUT these number will not tell you how profitable you are.

        One must never forget to add all costs (inc hosting, autoresponder etc) but I guess both Christine and yourself are way beyond this and simply take it for granted, but believe me, so many people simply forget about it, especially as your business grows.

        Great post and a great discussion you have working here. Good stuff Noel and look forward to more.

        • Noel

          Hey Dee,
          I think you’ve raise a valid Caveat in your post. While EPCs and Conversion Rates are Super Important to your business they don’t give represent the Overall Financial Health of your Company.
          We have other metrics for that;)
          Thanks,
          Noel.

    • Brad Lees

      Hi Noel

      Very informative post – and important info for those of us getting close to the stage of list building.

      It’s also really important to understand the cost versus the long term value of all marketing actions.

      For example, if it costs $100 to get 50 subscribers – by whatever means you use – but you know that each subscriber will earn you an average of, say, $10 over the year (again, you need to find out the numbers, so this is hypothetical right now) – you will make $500 for your $100 investment.

      Once you know the longer-term value of subscribers you can make a judgement call on what you are prepared to spend acquiring them.

      Many marketers seem happy to take a ‘loss’ on acquiring subscribers because they know the longer-term numbers.

      It’s all interesting stuff.

      By the way, I sent you a preview copy of my first info product last night – it went to your gmail account. Hope it’s of interest.

      Brad

      • Noel

        Brad,

        Great input as always to the discussion:)

        You raise a really interesting idea: The Upfront Cost of Acquiring a new Customer versus their Long term value.
        Again it will take some time and plenty of trial & error to nail those numbers but once you know what your dealing with you can confidently make judgement calls on how much you spend in that area.
        It’s quite exciting really when you get into it!

        P.S. I got a pleasant surprise when I saw your product last night. Just flicked through it quickly but was very impressed with what I saw. Looking forward to sitting down later and taking my time to go through it. I’ll email you then and give you my verdict 😉

        Thanks again,
        Noel.

    • Wendy Owen

      Hi Noel,

      Reading your article has made me feel guilty! Everything you say makes sense and yet I have to be one of the worst “number crunchers” out there. I tend to concentrate on the creative side of website building and shy away from conversion rates and EPCs, probably to my detriment.

      I think it’s time to change. From now on I will start to pay attention to my conversion rate. Who knows? I may get a pleasant surprise 🙂

      Thank you for the inspiration.
      Wendy (wowen)

      • Noel

        Hi Wenday,
        Thanks for your kind words – glad you like it. I guess we can’t master everything at the same time and as you say you’re confident with the creative side of things (which is Really important) so the next step will be to take some time out and see what the numbers are telling you about your business.
        The first set of numbers can sometimes be disappointing but I always look on the bright side and use them as a Benchmark for future reference. You can then make out a plan and tweak your sales copy/squeeze page until you get the kind of numbers that put a smile on your face:)

        Talk soon – Noel.

    • Guy

      Impressive post Noel. The numbers game IS the bottom line after all is said and done. Interesting to find out about what the jv’s are looking for when desiring to send to their lists. Now that I know the quality of your comments, I’ll be looking forward to your next post. Guy

      • Noel

        Thanks for the kind words Guy – yup, its a Numbers Game! Especially in the beginning when you’re trying to attract JVs for the first time.
        If you can show them Big Enough numbers how can they refuse?

        Cheers,
        Noel.

    • […] Well beware because if you don’t deliver the agreed amount of clicks back to each participant you will have to make up the difference somehow – whether that’s by repeatably  mailing to your own list until the shortfall is taken care of, or perhaps buying a solo ad to cover the difference (this could be expensive!). […]

    • […] promote your product for you. Now keep in mind that affiliates get excited about one thing – EPCs… And with $5 front-end you are unlikely to generate the minimum $1 EPC to get them on […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

CommentLuv badge