Customer Service in America stinks

The Research Institute of America conducted a study for the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, which found:

• Only 4 percent of unhappy customers bother to complain. For every complaint we hear, 24 others go uncommunicated to the company—but not to other potential customers.
  
• 90 percent who are dissatisfied with the service they receive will not come back or buy again.
  
• To make matters worse, each of those unhappy customers will tell his or her story to at least nine other people.
  
• Of the customers who register a complaint, between 54 percent and 70 percent will do business again with the organization if their complaint is resolved. That figure goes up to 95 percent if the customer feels that the complaint was resolved quickly.
  
• 68 percent of customers who quit doing business with an organization do so because of company indifference. It takes 12 positive incidents to make up for one negative incident in the eyes of customers.
  

Attract High Quality Prospects

To begin attracting high quality prospects you must be willing to do what others don't, so you that can eventually enjoy the things that others won't!

Quick Tips:

1. You Tube- post 2 minute value filled videos consecutively.
2. Articles- write compelling articles geared towards your target market and post them on sites such as Ezines.com, Linked in groups, face book, hubpages.com, etc.
3. Ezines- Post articles consecutively.
4. Traffic Swarm- Surf for credits daily and post your ads for others to see.
5. Face Book- Create an eye catching profile and join groups while adding friends. GREAT NETWORKING!
6. Free Classifieds- Post Ads for your opportunity or system on kijiji.com, sell.com, usfreeads.com etc.
7. LinkedIn - Leverage your network, build alliances, offer value, join groups, and provide solutions.
8. Forums- Leverage forums such as betternetworker.com, conqueryourniche.com, warriorforum.com participate in these communities and add value. The power is in your signature where you can place back links to your website!
9. Blogs- Creating a blog is the best way to generate leads, drive traffic to your website, and get good SEO rankings to climb up the Google ladder. In addition it gives you the ability to provide a one stop shop for all your information and affiliate programs.

Marketing as Service

For years, marketers were more concerned with what they said, rather than what their target heard, resulting in endless monologues. Marketers who continually support their customers through the course of life, providing value in each communication, will succeed. The value exchange can take many forms, but only if the marketer understands the needs and aspirations of its target and commits to a genuine dialogue at every point of contact. Marketers who treat marketing as a service and deliver real value to customers and prospects alike will undoubtedly triumph in the end.

Roll Video

With 70+% broadband penetration, streaming video is a must marketing tool. eMarketer reported 123 million Americans watch a video monthly; three-quarters tell a friend. Whether a B-to-B or B-to-C marketer, video is an enormous opportunity to engage, educate and entertain. Lots of brands are producing instructional videos to help customers install or use their product or service. Others create pure entertainment, hoping to build brand affinity or drive traffic. But the ubiquity of video is not without challenges. With over 7 million hours of video online, cutting through requires quality storytelling and judicious editing.

Get Game

Gaming now permeates society, creating fresh ways for marketers to connect. Millions of non-golfers are swinging virtual clubs as Nintendo's Wii transformed video games. Senior citizen centers bought Wiis to entertain guests and connect with grandchildren. MTV invested $500 million in online games. Even B-to-B marketers will be smart to give gaming a fresh look while blending in messaging, training or recruiting.

Time to Go Green

A "green" plan is no longer a luxury. Every day, another venerable brand commits to a sustainable future. While there is much "green washing," rating services like B Corporation will set standards that will have major corporations fighting to prove their green. As GE announces billions in green-related sales, and BP fends off bad eco-press, you may find a new seat in the boardroom, the CGO (Chief Green Officer).

More, More, More! - E-mail That Is!!

All too common is an e-mailer’s sentiment that “E-mail is cheap! We can touch our customers and prospects many more times at a much cheaper cost than direct mail, social media, public relations or advertising. With budgets so tight, we’d be crazy not to put it all into e-mail!”

Wrong, wrong and wrong! E-mail can be a very expensive proposition when done wrong. You can lose customers, prospects, credibility, not to mention that you can easily get blacklisted by major ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and corporate networks. E-mailing irrelevant, inferior and inappropriate messages over and over again to compete for your audiences’ attention can cause permanent damage to your company’s brand reputation. The road to recovery will be long and arduous, guaranteed, and you may never earn the attention of your original audiences again.

For your e-mail marketing efforts to be effective – successful from a business, marketing and sales perspective – your communications must entertain, inform, educate and then, sell.

Excerpt: Tips for E-mail Marketing Success: Quality over Quantity

Tips for Writing Effective Minutes

Minutes are an important means of recording and remembering what went on during a business meeting. Even if the meeting is recorded on audio or video, written minutes are useful for verifying and sharing what happened.

Here are some tips for writing effective minutes:

Give all pertinent details. Include relevant personnel—both those at the meeting and those absent. Include the date and place of the meeting, as well as the beginning and ending times. Record all topics discussed, along with the names of those who took part in the discussion.

Include outcomes. Note all decisions made or resolutions passed, including details of any votes. Record the names of people who were given assignments or who volunteered to work on a project.

Ask for clarification. If necessary, ask a speaker to repeat what he or she said, and always verify figures and facts.

Indicate supplementary materials. If handouts or graphics were used, note them in the minutes and attach copies. If an electronic presentation was given, note the content and whether it is available on the company’s Web site.

Note any follow-ups. Give details of related meeting dates or deadlines. Disseminate written minutes. After receiving feedback, make any necessary corrections and publish the minutes.

When taking notes, using shorthand and abbreviations can enable you to get everything down. For the sake of accuracy, rewrite the minutes as soon as possible following a meeting. Finally, keep the real purpose of meeting minutes in mind: Documenting the events of a meeting for future reference and establishing a clear record of ongoing events.

Excerpt: UpWrite Press

Prospects

You ever feel like you don’t have anything worthwhile to share with your prospects?

Maybe you’re a little hesitant to really “put yourself out there” because you’re afraid of what others might say or think. Maybe you’re doubting whether people will really want to hear what YOU have to say. Does any of this ring a bell with you?

It’s normal to have those skeptical thoughts run through your head. Just take a deep breath and relax. Look inside and build on what is really important to you and go from there.

Create a Path for Success

As businesses prepare for rebuilding, the executives who lead these organizations need to start thinking about a more productive and profitable future. The first step is to advance your thinking from the past year and focus on what can be achieved in the future. Experts stress that you need to know where you’re going, so you can create a path to get there.

Create an After Expo Plan

What do you do when you get back to the office after a trade show?

Once you get back to your office; schedule a meeting with your sales manager to review the leads and assign them to the appropriate sales person for follow up. Make sure the person who receives the lead is accountable for calling them in a timely manner and make sure they have been given detailed notes on the conversation from the booth. Most importantly, periodically check in with each sales person on their progress with their leads and if any business has been closed as a result of your marketing efforts at the show. By doing so, you will have some quantifiable data to give you an accurate ROI from your trade show participation.

Prepare ideas for follow-up a week, month, 3 months, 6 months, and even 10 months out. What level of attendee should receive the appropriate amount of follow-up? That depends on the conversations you are having, and the type of services you provide.

Consider ways to reach out to your prospects that include data they can use (like an article from a magazine or website). If you use email follow-up (like everyone), how will your message stand out? Are you visible year round with advertising, involvement, or even written articles? Soft visibility is important to build trust.

Personalization goes a long way with everyone. For great prospects, consider a hand-written note immediately following the event to thank them for visiting your booth. The sooner you make contact after the EXPO closes, the more apt the prospect is going to remember your conversation.

The Right Mind Set

Did You Know...66% or more of a salesperson's success is actually due to how they approach their work day. If you think the bad economy or anything else will affect your sales, well guess what, it will. You cannot be successful in sales if you wake-up each day complaining about how difficult it is to make a sale.

Understand What Makes Your Company Different And Then Telling It To Every Prospect

Ask each salesperson who works for you to answer this one question as if you were a prospect: "Tell me, what makes our business any better or any different than the competition?" Why should you ask this question? The answer to that is simple; it will give you an understanding of how well-prepared that salesperson is about your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). And if they spout out things like "how great your classes/trainers are" or "how long you have been in business," you can be sure that they will be competing on price more than ever before.

Try it and see what happens.

Coaching Drives Candor

Many organizations are investing in improving the way their sales managers coach. There are many benefits to this focus, but one solid outcome is creating a more candid environment. Why is this important? Think about how important forecasting is right now and the amount of pressure that comes down to achieve the targets that have been assigned.

Without a coaching oriented leadership team, you will see overcommitted forecasts, opportunity pursuit plans with missing risks and a burned out sales manager coming up short trying to save the day on every deal. Top organizations are focusing their coaching efforts around accounts and opportunities to keep it centered on results.

Invest in Viable Deals

When resources are scarce, it is important to invest in viable deals. When sales are down, salespeople tend to hold on to opportunities longer than usual. World-Class sales organizations are more than three times more likely to have an established process to know when to stop investing in a large deal.

One coaching tip is to find out if the key contact in each opportunity is willing to provide access to others in their organization. Not getting this access is a highly accurate warning sign that something needs to change in the pursuit plan, including a decision to stop pursuit.

Solve Your Prospects Challenges

Prospects, like your current customers, have new challenges they are trying to solve. Salespeople who can articulate how they can help solve these issues are much more likely to get their calls and voicemails returned.

Learn what your salespeople are saying when trying to secure time with prospects. Which salespeople are getting the best return rate on calls? As a manager, you should be leveraging these best practices for the benefit of the rest of the team. This is a scalable activity.

Invest Time With your Customers

There is no better place to invest time in current market conditions than with your current customers. But the most common mistake made when trying to secure this time with customers is that salespeople lack a valid business reason.

Your customers are facing new challenges. The reasons they started doing business with you may have changed in recent months. It is important to learn what’s changed,but salespeople must be prepared to bring value to the conversation. Trying to schedule time to “catch up” is not likely to produce results.

What's In it For Me?

Stressing Image Over Substance

Image advertising is all about you and your business. How great you are, your qualifications, years in business, full-service product line, etc.. But your prospects don't care about you, they care about themselves. Anyone reading or listening to your ad has one question in mind: "What's in it for me?"

Simply put, an image ad has no way to track results. Its goal is to keep the company name in front of the public and often tries very hard to be clever. Watch any beer and soft drink commercials and you'll know what I mean. By contrast, a direct response ad is trackable using "coded" responses. Your business knows exactly which ads their prospects are responding to. This helps you measure the effectiveness of each ad.

Follow Up on Your Exhibit Leads

Did you know that according to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR), nearly 80% of trade show attendees are never followed up with after initial exhibitor contact!?

Imagine if your sales team only followed up with 20% of the phone calls they received!? While not every lead at an event can be treated the same, an effective follow up plan is imperative to an exhibitor's return on investment. The one unique factor that separates trade shows from every other marketing vehicle is the fact that you get to interact and ask questions of the prospective customer face-to-face. In doing so, you are getting valuable information from them that will indicate their purchasing power, their timing for purchase, and ultimately their overall challenges that perhaps your products and services can solve.

Follow-up is Key

Follow up with any marketing initiative immediately. So many companies make the mistake of putting out messages and not following up on the success of the initiatives in a timely fashion. Set timelines for yourself to look back on your initiatives, find out which media you put out that was most effective for you and create a new strategy based on these results.

How effective would it be to spend thousands of dollars on a television campaign, invest in a following campaign and then find out at the end of your fiscal year that your web advertisements you developed in your first quarter outshone any other initiative you decided on all year.

Market to Your Customers

Market your product towards your customers, not towards yourself. When you come up with the concept for a product ask yourself "does my product really provide a solution to a customer need?"

So many brand developers come up with great ideas for products only to find out that if your friends and family like the idea - it doesn't necessarily mean the general public will like it. Get professional opinions outside of your circle and really test the true concept of your product.

Make your Marketing Message Sizzle

Do you know how to make your marketing message sizzle in the mind of your prospective customer? People are bombarded with thousands of marketing messages every minute of the day, from all angles. Making your message "stick" in their mind seems like a challenging task.

Empathize with their pain

The more you can show you understand the specific pain, discomfort or problem that your prospect suffers from, the more they will be inclined to believe you when you tell them you have a solution.

A physical trainer shouldn't ask, "Tired of being overweight?" because this doesn't touch the real pain. Instead they might ask, "Are you afraid that your kids might grow up alone, without their father?"

This is much more direct and shows that you truly understand the challenges of being overweight. Only once you've shown your prospect that you really understand their pain (not just their "problem") and have created both hope and desire by painting them a "perfect picture", it's time to connect the dots with a solution. The key is to show how your particular solution is the best, easiest or most appropriate way for them to move from pain to perfect picture as quickly as possible.

Special Quote #11

If I set a goal and don't quite make it, I haven't failed! I am much further along than if I had never set a goal in the first place. My plan is to change the date, adjust the goal, learn from my mistakes and keep moving forward! Because I now know and believe that a goal is a dream with a deadline. I can always change the deadline! - Dr. Pamela

Is you Ad Message Complete

When you are developing your advertising message for your customers make sure that you have a powerful headline that complements that strategy behind your product. If these don't match, your advertising message will not make sense. Your call to action should reflect what you want your consumer's response to be, as well as provide me with the pertinent information.

Watch the Prospect

When a prospect says something positive about your products or your company, get him or her to expand on it by asking,"Why do you say that?". Then sit back and watch the prospect sell you on your products and your business.

Think about it.

Glimmer of Hope

People are starting to see them everywhere. Little glimmers of hope are beginning to poke their way through the despair, surefire signals that the economy is starting to turn around. As the economic pendulum begins to swing and confidence starts to rise, it's more important than ever to ensure your business is in a position to gain market share when we come out on the other side.

So, what can you do to get ready? We all know that planning a budget, managing inventory, and knowing when to hire and fire employees are never easy, but a dysfunctional economy has now made forecasting all but impossible. Try tightening the planning and shortening the planning cycle. Review your progress more often than usual and re-evaluate your goals and budget monthly instead of just annually or quarterly. Look for leading indicators of sales like website traffic, phone calls or incoming leads. By building flexibility into your business plan, you can remain nimble and react quickly to unexpected events.

Consider Your Copy

This article has been excerpted from Kick-Ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps by Susan Gunelius, available from Entrepreneur Press.

Whether you're a small-business owner, a medium-size business owner, an eBay seller, or simply trying to break into the copywriting industry, understanding the fundamentals of writing sales-oriented copy and put you on a path to success. At its core, copywriting is another device in a business' marketing toolbox. Well-written copy can make or break an ad or marketing piece. With that in mind, copywriting can equate to either well-spent advertising investments or a waste of advertising dollars.

Many people misinterpret the uniqueness of effective copywriting. I can't count the number of times I've heard freelance writers say they want to shift from article writing to copywriting as if it's simply an extension of their existing abilities. Copywriting does come naturally to some people, but for most, it's a foreign landscape they do not know how to navigate. Copywriting is about more than writing the hard sell sales letter that many short copywriting courses offer. In fact, I cringe when I see those over-the-top sales letters, which do little more than provide an ugly representation of copywriting, sales and marketing.

Motivate your customer to buy with these 10 copywriting steps:

1. Exploit your product's benefits

2. Exploit your competition's weaknesses

3. Know your audience

4. Communicate W.I.I.F.M. (What's In It For Me?)

5. Focus on "you," not "we"

6. Understand your medium

7. Avoid T.M.I. (Too Much Information)

8. Include a call to action

9. C.Y.A. (Cover Your Ass)

10. Proofread

Read more.

Smaller Firms more Vulnerable to in-house Larceny

Excerpt
June 5, 2009 by Jim Giuliano
Posted in: Special Report

In an economic downturn, small firms find themselves hit by more incidents of in-house larceny. Here’s why - and what to do about it.

First, the statistics. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners looked at 959 cases of in-house fraud and embezzlement, and came up with the following conclusions:

* The median loss in this study was $175,000.
* The typical period between the time of the first act of fraud and the time someone was caught was two years. In other words, most of the instances of theft went undetected for long periods.
* Most of the thefts were committed by first-time offenders - people who appeared squeaky-clean prior to getting caught. Only 7% of fraud perpetrators in the study had prior convictions, and only 12% had been previously terminated by an employer for fraud-related conduct.
* Most of the perpetrators were caught as a result of tips from employees or others, rather than by audits (more on that below).
* Most of the victims were small businesses - who thought their size was an advantage for keeping track of cash and the people who handle it.

To make matters worse, in-house fraud and embezzlement tend to worsen as the economy worsens, for at least two reasons:
1. Cash-strapped employees get desperate and are more likely to scheme against their employers.
2. Layoffs tend to leave holes in the usual controls designed to prevent fraud.

What to do about it

The ACFE study examined what might have been done to prevent fraud in the 959 cases:

* Look for it in the obvious places. Fact is, fraud and embezzlement usually take place exactly where you’d expect: your accounting department that handles the money. There are variations of fraud and embezzlement - some in billing, some in accounts payable and so on. But no matter the variation, the problem usually exists in the accounting department.
* Use checks and balances as much as possible. As mentioned above, many instances of fraud were uncovered as a result of tips: one employee’s noting misdeeds by another. (In a minority of cases, the tips came from customers, vendors and others.) One suggestion: Use cross-training and job rotation, so that one employee isn’t solely responsible for one area all the time.
* Use surprise internal audits. Big, planned audits or those conducted by outsiders are effective and have their place, but the surprise internal audit remains the most effective deterrent and means of detection.

Tips for Using Twitter For Marketing

While Twitter has quickly turned into a way to promote business, easily, quickly and for free.

Linking

Users can put a link to their website in their profile, not just in posts. So as people visit a user's page, they might see the link, click on it and increase that site's page views.

Commenting

Those who are serious about getting the word out are not only good about posting their own comments, but will reply to other people's comments. They might simply say, "great idea!", but doing so puts their tweets on those who follow the person they are commenting to. Before they know it, they have more followers, and that's more potential customers.

Connecting

Smart businesses put a widget on their web page that suggests others "follow me on Twitter" but even smarter businesses are finding better ways to get noticed. These smart Twitter users will put a widget on their page that gives people the opportunity to quickly and easily put a link to a site on their Twitter page. At TweetThisSite, a free download offers just such an opportunity. People no longer have to follow the business Tweets, but can click on links in others' profiles that increase site traffic.

There are many ways to leverage the power of Twitter. The key is to be smart, be ahead of the game and be willing to try new things.

Small Businesses Need to Market During Recessions

Many small businesses are painfully unaware of how critical this is to their businesses. With 80% of American households turning to the search engines for local business results, it's time for small businesses to develop your web presence.

Historically, recessions force businesses to cut costs. Many small businesses decide that the first cost needing to be cut is the marketing budget. Notice how big business does things. They cut jobs, reduce manufacturing, tighten their product focuses...but they don't touch their marketing budget. Why? Because marketing is the act of finding, engaging, and creating customers. Advertising is only part of the equation, but it's a big part. Without customers, there is no business. So why do some small businesses cut that out of their expenses?

The internet may be your only solution for survival. With over 80% of households turning to the search engines for local business results, you now have the opportunity to dominate. Don't loose this window of opportunity.

Trade show Marketing, It's All About Making Impressions.

Trade show marketing is really all about making impressions. Successful exhibitors give careful thought to everything from display design and tag lines to novelty promotional products, and the selection of optimal floor space. Now in days budgets are stretched and nothing is overlooked while focusing on the goal of putting the company's best image on display.

Trade shows and other forms of event marketing have one clear advantage: They are people events. Businesses are run by people and customers are always people. A handshake and a greeting, as a way to start the prospecting/sales process, supercedes everything else.

Managing your personal impression is more important than anything assembled, printed or distributed. Always being conscious that impressions are emotional, not fact-based, will be the real foundation of successful marketing. Impressions are not about what you want someone to think, but how you want them to feel.

Treat your next marketing event like you were hosting a party at your home. Greeting people with a smile and a handshake will make them feel welcome and happy to be there. This approach will serve you well in your goal of turning attendees into prospects and customers. Standing slump-postured with your arms folded or talking on a cell phone let's people know you have priorities greater than spending a few minutes with them.

Let Go of Old Marketing Pieces

Help spread the word that as a business owner, sometimes you need to take notice of how things look. Give your website the once-over and compare it with the up and coming competitors from time to time. Check out your business card, your direct mail pieces, and maybe even your tagline. Over time, the look, the feel, the perception of your marketing pieces by the people who matter (your target market) can fall victim to "old age" and this isn't a good thing.

It is very important to stay consistent with your brand, but you also want to stay connected with what your target market wants and likes. And if you're not giving it to them, someone else will.

Look at your marketing pieces with a discerning eye and ask other people what they think. (Tip: Don't start with people who originally designed the pieces. They are too close to their work.) Hold a survey. Develop some focus group sessions. Do what you need to do in order to get true stock on current marketing pieces and whether they need a refresher or complete overhaul.

Your business will looke fresher, be relevant, be seen, and beat out your competition for sure!

Special Quote #10

"Stop selling what you have and start selling what your prospect need."

Your Sales Performance Starts With These 6 Things

1. The Right Mind-Set - 66% or more of a salesperson's success is actually due to how they approach their work day. If you think the bad economy or anything else will affect your sales, well guess what, it will. You cannot be successful in sales if you wake-up each day complaining about how difficult it is to make a sale.
2. Understand What Makes Your Professional Training Company Different And Then Telling It To Every Prospect - Ask each salesperson who works for you to answer this one question as if you were a prospect: "Tell me, what makes our business any better or any different than the competition?" Why should you ask this question? The answer to that is simple; it will give you an understanding of how well-prepared that salesperson is about your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). And if they spout out things like "how great your classes/trainers are" or "how long you have been in business," you can be sure that they will be competing on price more than ever before.
3. Get Your Prospecting Database Aligned and Organized - One of the biggest challenges you will face is the organization of your salespeople's prospecting database(s). If you cannot direct your salespeople to your most fertile prospects, guess what? They won't find them either.
4. Become Better At The Art of Selling - Practice, practice and practice even more. Make sure your salespeople know you are tracking their "sales metrics" and help those who are having a tough time. The key metrics for the most organizations are: # of "oh by the way" calls, # of appointments set each week, # of proposals sent, # of referrals they received, # of proposals closed and how much money they brought in. Remember, a good sales leader grows salespeople not sales.
5. Make More "Oh By The Way" Calls - As I mentioned above, the number of "oh by the way" calls is a critical metric to track. Why? Because magic starts to happen when a sales person picks up the phone to follow-up on a marketing campaign.
6. Automate Your Marketing Campaigns - If you are a business owner or the person responsible for sales, do not let your salespeople do their own "street marketing." Why? Because it will not be done well or consistently. Our research has determined that salespeople tend to be poor writers and lack the skills necessary to create compelling marketing campaigns.

Assess what People are Really Thinking

If the recession has you rethinking your marketing strategy or plan, or if you are concerned about how your crew is handling the uncertainty with each other and with customers, it may be time to assess what people are really thinking within the four walls of your organization.

Removing dysfunction in your company's execution of marketing is always important, but it is never more important than when times are tough. You must have a team approach to your fight on the recession's impact. But to have a team approach, you must have buy-in from employees to the marketing strategy. And, to truly have buy-in, you must must engage your employees from the very beginning of your planning (or re-planning) process!

Engage in Social Media - Do not Fear

If you read blogs about marketing small companies, you're inundated with "social media" advice about why you need a blog and a Twitter account and everything else. Still, most people and most businesses don't think they need a blog.

Did you know that Back in the late 1990s, there was a day when suddenly every company in the western world decided they needed a website. Not that anyone knew what a website was for. Was it a brochure? A storefront? A billboard? What pushed everyone over the edge was that they soon realized that if you didn't have a website you were invisible.

Sure you had advertisement and PR; you could get a message in front of people. But then what? It's not just a new media, it's a completely different world. Business models are changed forever. Flash-forward to today, and the same pattern is emerging, just in a different guise.

Tips for Tech-Enabled Prospecting

With so many new options to communicate, why does it seem harder to connect with and secure appointments with prospects? Even when you use modern technology to reach prospects and schedule appointments, be sure you apply some fundamentals that have proven successful in the past. Here are a few reminders for contacting prospects in order to schedule time:

• DO address potential business challenges they may be facing in opening statements so you have their attention from the beginning.

• DON’T just say "hi."’ Communicate something of value – demonstrate that you understand their business or industry, how you have helped organizations like theirs solve problems or increase in areas like profitability or efficiency.

• DO offer research information or an article or whitepaper that pertains to some of the issues companies in that industry may be dealing with to pique their interest and position yourself as a credible resource.

• DO cut through the clutter. Keep your messages concise and relevant to show that you value their time and attention.

Most importantly, ask your prospects how they prefer to be communicated with: emails, texts, voicemails, instant messages, Linkedin, Twitter? Reaching out to them in the manner they prefer shows you will make them a priority as you advance your business relationship.

Excerpt from Miller Heiman

Make your Website Work For You!

Create an Architecture for a Content Rich Site

You are going to be writing many, many pages for your website. So the first thing you need do is create a structure for the pages you will be writing. The diagram of a website's architecture looks very much like a family tree. At the top is a single page, the home page. Linked directly from the home page are the second level pages. These are typically the principal categories of the website. Beneath each of these main category pages are the third-level pages.

Ask yourself how many second and third level pages should there be? There are no rules, but you might want to start out aiming for the home page, ten second level pages and ten third level pages for each of the second level pages. That gives you 111 pages in total. And that's about right, because 100 pages is pretty much the minimum number of pages for a content-based website that makes a good passive income.

If that sounds like a lot, don't worry. You don't have to write them all at once. Just work out a structure that makes it easy for your readers to find all the information they want.

Write Useful, Informative Content

Once you have a clean, well organized structure for your site and you know which phrases to use to best optimize each page, it is time to start writing for your readers. While search engine optimization is essential when you want a ton of traffic, your site will ultimately thrive or fail depending on the quality of your content. Make sure that every page is useful and informative. Write in a way that addresses people's interests and concerns and answers their most frequent questions.

Special Quote #9

I missed 100% of the shots I didn’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky

How Many Touches

The key to success in marketing is to choose a niche market and then dominate it by using repetitive marketing. What I mean by repetitive marketing is marketing to both your customers and the prospects in your niche market over and over...forever. This keeps your company fresh in the minds of your customers and prospects.

Here is sample marketing campaign a client used over a 1-year time period to absolutely dominate their market:

18 mailings (direct mail - sales letters/promos)
4 personal calls from their sales associate
4 Telephone Voice Broadcasts
52 weekly emails

That is a total of 78 contacts (also known as "touches") per year to each prospect and customer. And, each prospect and customer is being contacted using 3 different marketing channels - direct mail, the telephone, and email. Very, very smart!

If you want to dominate your marketplace, the way to do it is with repetitive marketing. If you are only contacting your customers and prospects a few times per year, you are going to get killed by your competitors. Make it a rule that you should contact every customer and prospect in your database a minimum of once per month and contact them using different channels such as direct mail, phone calls, email, faxes, thank you notes, etc. If you do this, you will quickly dominate your marketplace and have very loyal customers.

Special Quote #8

The Company That Doesn't Stay In Touch Is Forgotten When Someone Is Ready To Buy.

Growing you Mailing List

Social media sites offer exciting new ways to showcase your newsletter content and invite people to sign up for your email list. But it’s not about adding your voice just for the sake of increasing exposure. It is about making new connections.The key is demonstrating that you have valuable content to share with new subscribers and then turning those connections into customer relationships — and additions to your mailing list.

Innovate ... Conceptualize your Business Future

For your next innovation meeting, consider putting down the PowerPoint and picking up some markers instead. Rather than simply discussing the future of your company, invite your team to draw it out.

Give everyone in your meeting a large piece of paper and spread out some fun crafting supplies around the room—markers, crayons, magazines, anything that might help participants visualize the future of your company.

Next, ask people to draw your company in the year 2020. Don’t get into too many specifics; the beauty of this exercise is in everyone’s unique interpretation of the challenge. Give participants 15-25 minutes to complete their artwork, and then ask everyone to share their creations with the rest of the group. What does your company look like 11 years from now? Who are its customers? Where is it located? Who are its competitors? What does it do?

Once everyone has shared their creations, you’ll have a better understanding of how your team views the future of your company, and you can begin to discuss how to get there. Most importantly, you’ll have given everyone an opportunity to voice not just their short-term goals, but their long-term vision.

How To Use Social Media For Branding

Branding is all about going beyond simply selling to your audience. Branding involves an emotional connection between a company and its key stakeholders, including customers and employees. For a small business, branding is ultra important when you consider local competition

Here are different ways companies can extend brand attributes via social media:

Twitter, Facebook, MySpace - Social networking and relationship building

Flickr - Photo sharing with others

YouTube - Sharing videos

Stumble, Digg, Del.icio.us - Social bookmarking pages and online information

LinkedIn - Professional networking

The first step in developing this deep emotional connection is identifying with your customer what it is that they like above and beyond just having a good price (you’re lying if you say price never plays a role in your shopping decision). Social media lets you reach out to your audience on a one-by-one basis to deeply understand what motivates their behavior.

Excerpt from - How To Use Social Media For Branding

Get Along with People

Theodore Roosevelt said, "The most important ingredient in the formula for success is knowing how to get along with people."

Business owners who possess great people skills or emotional intelligence have a huge advantage. It doesn't matter how big your company is. It doesn't matter whether you employ three people or four hundred. The customer's first impression of your company is formed based on how you present yourself. No one is born with great people skills. By being aware of your actions, your emotions and how you speak around others you're headed in the right direction.

Quick Tips on Keeping your Customers

Keeping the customers you already have is vital to staying afloat right now. Using fresh, cost-conscience ideas, such as online promotions, is a great way to keep your base coming back. Be Creative... come up with a few ideas for incorporating online promotions into your marketing that will help you retain customers and weather this challenging economy.

• Give Your Customers What They Need, Not What They Want.
• Give Your Customers Hard Numbers.
• Stay Disciplined in Your Message.

Reflection Of The Day: Prosperity Begins Within, A Deeper Thought

Reflection of the Day: Prosperity Begins Within, A Deeper Thought

May 12, 2009

 

So if the past month hasn’t been painful spring cleaning your soul, good for you. Give yourself a hi-five and step into your place of wealth. To the damaged goods I referred to last, stick with me for the next couple of minutes and we’ll join the others in a bit.

Admit The Pain and Don’t Complain

Don’t ignore the wounds. Denying the pain is a counterproductive move. Pain is an indicator that something is not functioning properly so count it a blessing that you are now an informed individual. Knowledge is power and self-knowledge is power on steroids (apologies for lack of a wholesome reference). Once you have identified the issues that cause malfunction in your ability to excel, you are now perfectly positioned on the offense.  I call this the stance of the victor.  Don’t let your circumstances or your weaknesses torment you with defeat.  Resist the victim mentality and adopt the victor’s stance.

Nurse The Wound

So how do you nurse the wound in the victor’s stance without submitting to the temptations of defeat? Treat it like you would a physical wound. With the expectation of recovery,

• identify the severity
• prescribe and apply the proper treatment
• bandage the wound
• monitor the healing progress to determine continual treatment 

Don’t let the severity of the wound define who you are. Pain is nothing more than a side-effect no matter what degree it manifests. It’s irrelevant to the essence of you. A healthy way of tackling pain is to simply endure it like you would a road block on a highway—you may rant and rave for a brief moment, but ultimately (and quickly, I’d hope) you work your way around. The lesson here is you make do. You find an alternate route (or just plow through, more power to you) and get to the place you need to be without hesitation.  Pain will back off when it can no longer intimidate you and manipulate your perspective.

Understand that issues need to be dealt with. They can’t be ignored or simply swept under the rug. It’ll fester into an infection and show up like a persistent bully sometime in the near future.  Blow the bully from the roots and “sweep the leg” like Johnny’s sensei told him to do Mr. Miyagi’s apprentice Daniel san.  You will have to discern (or seek guidance) as to what would be the best appropriate method of working out your issues and apply them. Don’t skip this step. Just don’t.

Move On

Once you have taken steps to work through your issues and you have set the healing process in motion, it is now safe (and wise) for you to move on.  Bandaging the wound has a two-fold impact on your psyche. The maneuver will protect the wound as it undergoes recovery, and it will also simulate health as if it wasn’t there. This allows you to move on as if nothing happened, while (important) you are mindful of the condition and respectful of the healing process.

Why the spring cleaning and the first aid talk? It has everything to do with your financial health. For enduring success and wealth in your life, it’s important to build financial health. This requires the same attention and mindset you would invest in your own physical health. In order to manifest prosperity, you must prosper within, because the inner road blocks will spring up like weeds to tear down what progress you have achieved. Don’t worry, we’ll jump into monetizing your vision as soon as we repair this bridge to your place of prosperity. In time, once healed, you’ll be sporting the battle scars with a proud sense of accomplishment and a million dollar smile. For now, admit the pain, quit the complaint, and move on to the better tomorrow.

Become a Thought Leader

TV commercials and print ads have been losing their effectiveness for decades. The Internet has only accelerated that curve. Today's TiVo and delete key are yesterday's fast-forward and channel-surfing. As far as print ads go, have you noticed how thin magazines are lately?

So what's a marketer to do? You still have to reach your target audience, right? You now need to put useful and relevant information in that ad space you buy. Your ads can't just talk the talk, they must walk the walk. Some would argue this can only be done in b2b marketing, not b2c. I disagree. Look at the leadership role Apple has taken with iPod. Below are examples of Thought Leadership Marketing.

Talk Less, Listen More...

I've met my share of industry leaders, gurus, wizards and virtuosos. I find most of them ask loads of questions of everyone around them. The seasoned ones tend to be reflective and very observant of what goes on around them. The older they are, the quieter they get.

Start a Newsletter, RSS and/or Blog...


If your product or service has a long lead time, it makes good sense to start a periodic publication online. An email newsletter is the most obvious way to go, but you should probably augment and amortize the content by employing other channels, such as publishing your own blog (which can also help boost your rankings in search engines). When done right, there's no better way to spend your marketing money.

The Power of Public Speaking...


Some people are scared to death to speak in front of audiences while others think they're really good when in fact they aren't. Sometimes, what you have to say is so strong it doesn't need to be polished into a perfectly controlled presentation. But if you are going to be presenting in front of an audience, you might as well communicate as clearly as possible while letting a bit of your personality shine through.

Get Published...

There is a distinct halo effect when you can add the word "author" to your self attributions. If you can get a well-known book publisher to publish you, so much the better. While it is maybe less important in today's digital age than before, it's still impressive. Don't expect to make money on your book. Even with a decent advance you're likely to spend more promoting it, yourself and your firm than you get in an advance.

Tip: What Does Your Competition Miss?

Whatever it is, it could have your name on it. Often, when looking for a niche to own, it's a good idea to see what is not being done well - or at all - by your competitors. Now you may get lucky and find something that isn't being covered and really does need to be addressed. But then, sometimes there's a good reason why no one is addressing a given niche already. Approach with a skeptical but open mind.

5 Keys to Building Better Benefits Communications

	Identify and address your key communication challenges
	Increase participation through strategic communications
	Increase message comprehension and retention
	Use communciations to successfully manage problem issues and areas
	Optimize your messages through tracking and measurement

Tip: Learn from Your Competitors

Before you spend any money, before you budget any funds, see what your competitors are doing. What email channels are they employing? Solo emails? In-line ads within newsletters? Do they have their own newsletters? How do they get new subscribers? Do your competitors run offers similar in nature month in and month out? If so, it's probably working for them, or else they'd do something different. Mind you, sometimes they're testing and don't know themselves if a given campaign is working, which is why you want to track them over months, not weeks.

It's all well and good to closely track and mimic you competitors, but you don't want to do that exclusively or else you only follow in their footsteps. Look for venues where they are not. There may be a good reason why they're not there, or it may be an oversight, or a personal preference that causes them to overlook an opportunity rife with prospects.

Avoid Landing Page Disconnect

Try to avoid making one landing page that fits all outbound messages. The first job of a landing page is to confirm that the readers of your outbound message have indeed come to the right place. If you've advertised one white paper, but you have four others to offer, first play off the one you originally heralded before you present the others. You may offer the other three white papers after the advertised white paper or on a subsequent screen, but do lead with the original offer. Yes, some forms of email marketing "bury the lead or offer" and force you to read through hundreds or thousands of words of copy, and this can work. But you really need to know how to do this right. The delayed gratification offer better be so juicy as to keep visitors reading on and on before hitting pay dirt.

Loss-Leader White Papers & Webinars

The Internet is an information treasure trove. People typically turn to it to learn something they don't already know. You may have noticed that most of the ads and solo emails you get from vendors are offering white papers and Webinars. So, it stands to reason that your prospects may be attracted to documents and Webinars on your topic or subject of expertise. Offering discounts on services and products doesn't work as well because these readers aren't in buy-mode, they're in information-gathering mode.

You know your mileage may vary, depending upon your target audience and the venue in which you advertise. But our point here is to examine closely the vehicle in which you advertise and what sort of offers are apt to meet with satisfying response rates. Think about the modality your audience is in when they see your message, be it a newsletter, a solo email, an advertisement within an email newsletter, a website advertising banner, etc.

Tip: Answering the What Do You Do? Question

Take a moment and think about the results that your work delivers to others. When someone asks you "What do you do?" pretend they asked, "How do you help people?" Then play around with some new ways you might answer the question and see which ones create the most understanding and interest. When people seem able to completely grasp your role without needing a lot of follow-up questions, you'll have a winning answer.

Stop Wasting Your Marketing Efforts! - Use AIDA

What is AIDA? It is an acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Every marketing message you prepare must reflect the AIDA method.

Develop your marketing messages with the following in mind:

Attention: You must use a headline that attracts the attention of your recipient to want to know more about what you have to say. If you fail to attract your recipient with your headline your marketing efforts will be kaput! The most powerful winning headlines will evoke emotion as you highlight a problem that affects your target audience. You must address the every-present question of your target audience Why Should I Care? about what you have to say.

Interest: Your headline has made a promise and you must deliver on the promise. You must keep them interested in your marketing message by focusing on What is In It For Me and quickly communicate on a one-to-one level how your product or service solves their problem or issue. Keep in mind that this approach works with both consumer and business markets. Give the recipient the facts or the evidence needed to support your claim to establish credibility. Do not swamp them with statistics or product specifications otherwise you risk boring them to death.

Desire: Your message must convert the recipient's interest into a desire to have your product or service. Explain how your recipient will receive the benefits by accepting your offer. Yes, that is correct your message must make an offer to the recipient. Your recipient will need to be reassured. You must include customer testimonials and guarantees or warranties to minimize if not eliminate any perceptions of risk on their part. Your recipient must be able to visualize how they will benefit when they accept your offer.

Action: Now you need to tell your recipients what to do and when to do it! Be assertive and do not assume that they will know what to do. You need to be absolutely clear about your call to action and make it simple for your recipient to accept your offer. Reiterate the benefits and the consequences of not taking up the offer. Encourage your recipients to take action now and accept the offer by including incentives available only during a limited time frame or availability.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Patrick_Zuluaga

25 Twitter Tips

1. Join Twitter! Choose the name of your business, yourself, or a product (like a book title). Beware with product names - what if you aren't selling that eventually? You don't want to lose all your followers!

2. Upload a picture of you. Be a real person!

3. Find like-minded people to follow. Don't follow too many at once though - maybe 20 a day at tops.

4. RT means retweet - it's like forwarding an email.

5. Give people real information. Don't advertise!

6. Help people 90% or more of the time. Promote yourself 10% or less of the time.

7. Put "@" before a username to reply to someone or mention another user. I.e., instead of saying "Andi Enns" say "@andienns".

8. Don't post the same thing over and over.

9. Post links to articles at other people's websites, too.

10. You don't have to read every tweet.

11. DM means "direct message". It's private, like an email.

12. When you @reply, that is not private. It's like yelling across the room at a party.

13. Tweet at least once a day. Aim for morning to early afternoon on workdays to get the most attention.

14. Snip your URLs. Go to Tiny URL and put your link to "enter a long url to make tiny".

15. Write your bio. You have 160 characters - let people know what you do, and maybe a hobby or two.

16. Hashtags look like this: #hashtag. Put these in your tweets to come up on searches for that tag. Useful for events, popular news stories, industry news, etc.

17. Go to search.twitter.com to search for keywords related to your business, as well as your business name.

18. Periodically go through the users you follow and unfollow ones who aren't following you - with the exception of shows or reporters you want to keep an eye on.

19. If you're unsure about a Twitter term, look it up in the Twittonary.

20. When you see a tweet you want to share, RT @thatpersonsname to share it (changing @thatpersonsname to their actual user name, like RT @andienns)

21. If you tweet while your coworkers or clients think you are working, you'll be in trouble. Best to tweet in the lunch hour.

22. Ask questions! Even "personal" ones like, "Anyone have good recipes for asparagus?" This helps keep you personable.

23. Answer questions! It's great to help people out. Don't tell them the answer lies in your product or service though. Be genuine.

24. Use Qwitter. It tells you when people unfollow you and after what post. It can be useful for seeing what your followers don't like.

25. Be sure to reply to anyone who complains about your business, and offer to fix it!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andi_Enns

Reflections: Prosperity Begins Within

The fastest enduring way to achieve wealth at any given point of your life and career is to begin within. As cliché as that sounds, quite frankly it's true. As simple as it sounds, quite frankly, it's not. The process of aiming inwards to establish a solid foundation of self image, awareness, passion and vision is rather complex, potentially long, and perhaps even painful. It requires a great amount of patience, courage, and honesty to endure the process. It truly is a journey and it should be one that every dreamer is willing to venture. It is a path, safe to assume, that every great legacy has endured and overcome (with the exception of those gifted with easy access to their greatness). But for the rest of us damaged goods, there is hope still.

It is possible for the average person to reach within and pull forth the best that he/she can be. For the one who catches this vision and is willing to risk venturing outside the comfort zone of mediocrity, it is inevitable to be grafted into the same destiny of greatness as those we read about, admire, inspire after, and envy. I speak to this forward thinker—YOU who have the capacity to think beyond limitations. Friends, you are what you think and you think what you believe. Believe possibility. Believe success. Believe prosperity. This prosperity mentality is what will carry you to your Promised Land. So go ahead and take the plunge. Start within, build within, and then branch forward to achieve your goals. Nothing is impossible for the one who believes.

Beat the Recession: Build Your Lists

According to a TopRank survey, 28% of marketers are saying that they're looking to increase their email marketing budget in 2009. Borrell Associates also notes in their April 2008 report that over 80% of those surveyed said that they would give away personal information (name and email address, for example) in exchange for a chance to win a big prize. Get targeted, motivated leads from list companies. They should be providing you with names, email addresses, physical addresses, and custom marketing questions. You should be able to build an opt-in list of consumers who are excited to hear from you, which makes your marketing all the more powerful.

Beat the Recession: Boost ROI

According to National Mail Order Association's DMA 2009 report, a successful direct marketing campaign returns about a 1 - 3% response rate, whether you're using mailed pieces, SMS texts, email, or PPC ads. When you consider that Borrell Associates announced in their April 2008 report that direct marketing sees increases of 300 - 500% when tied to a promotion, you can see how promotions can dramatically increase your ROI. You can add a promotion to your already existing marketing campaign for as little as $500, making it easy for you to increase the power of your marketing without increasing the cost.

5 Ideas to Thrive in A Recession

Focus on Profitability not Growth.

Many times we need to invest in order to grow our business. In a recession, you can only grow if it is profitable. If you can't be profitable and grow at the same time, just be profitable. Growth needs to wait.

Remember Your Resiliency.

Economic cycles come and go. You have been here before and survived. Cheer the good times with parties, awards and trophies. Mourn the bad times but then let go. Value action so you have more chances at success.

Cut costs now even if revenue has not gone down.

No owner has ever regretted cutting costs too soon. Don't get caught in a death spiral. First, in deciding which ones to cut, use the "cringe factor". Ask yourself, which checks do you "cringe" when you write them at the end of the month? Which payroll checks do you "cringe" when you sign them? If you do cringe, it means that you are not getting value out of these expenses and you need to either cut them or find another way (provider/ person) to offer those services.

Focus on Cash not Sales.

"It's Cash Flow, Stupid" and this is even truer now. Forget about the sales line on your profit and loss statement. Look at your cash flow statement. Focus on getting paid from your customers, extending your payments to vendors and keeping your inventory as low as possible.

Challenge all of your business assumptions.

This is no time to be scared. Can your business be done another way? How can you increase gross margin? How can you sell to your clients at a lower cost? What parts of your business make a profit? Which are the profitable customers? What are nice to haves and what are luxuries in your business? Take all of these questions into consideration when making your move.

Invite People to Come Back

You might have new and interesting content on your web site. Your customers might be raving fans. You might offer daily specials or monthly coupons. And yet...

People get busy. They get distracted. Life happens. They aren't necessarily unhappy about anything; they just forget that your site exists. They need a tap on the shoulder. If you know who they are and have their permission to stay in touch, you can invite them to come back. Some of the most effective messages impart a sense of urgency. A sale is about to end! Free shipping until midnight! Hurry, or you'll miss out!

Remember, to be able to send these reminders, you need email addresses and permission. Because few are excited about clicking an "email sign-up" present this as an enticing opportunity, such as "become an insider." And be sure the content has real value for the reader. Make people happy to continue hearing from you. Take advantage of any additional communications, too. Include information on a new special when you confirm that you've shipped a customer's order, or invite customers to view new products when confirming their email subscription. This is just like the warm "thank you for coming in, and remember to stop by next week when our big sale is on" that you might get when shopping in person. Make people feel appreciated and welcome to return.

Once people stop by, we want them to stay -- but why would they? We need some sticky content to keep them around, but what makes content sticky? What is sticky for one person, at a particular moment, will not be sticky for another -- or even for that same person at another point in time. But there is one universal truth in this regard: Sticky content fulfills some need for the visitor. People are strongly motivated to get their unmet needs met. Websites obviously can't meet all our needs, but when a site does offer something we really need, it is very easy to get caught up in it and hang around. We could be drawn in by the prospect of being admired for our taste in clothing, promise of finding meaningful work or by having a place where we can belong and feel understood. Let's look at a few of the many needs that could compel visitors to spend time on your site.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

1. The first dysfunction is absence of trust amongst team members. If team members are not genuinely open with each other about their mistakes and weaknesses, it is impossible to build a foundation of trust.

2. Absence of trust creates the circumstance for the second dysfunction, fear of conflict. Teams that lack trust are incapable of fully and honestly debating issues as they resort to veiled discussions and guarded comments.

3. The inability to openly discuss issues leads to a lack of commitment. If team members are unable to fully air their views, it is unlikely that they will be fully committed to the decisions of the group.

4. If team members are not fully bought into the decisions of the group, they will inevitably avoid accountability. How can they stand up and be counted on issues if they were not completely committed to them in the first place?

5. Failure to hold one another accountable creates an environment where the fifth dysfunction can thrive. Inattention to results occurs when team members put their individual needs (such as ego, career, recognition or reward) or even their division above the collective needs of the team.

by Patrick Lencioni (San Francisco; Jossey-Bass, 2002).

Networking: The Beehive Game

Networking: This activity is great fun and is called the Beehive Game:

1. unlimited total number of people
   
2. everyone brings tons of business cards
   
3. break into small groups of four or five people
   
4. 3 rounds of activity
   
5. for each round, every participant is given an envelope and a blank recipe card
   
6. participants write on the card a need that they have. Could be a business need i.e. I want to get in touch with potential audiences of x type - or a personal need i.e. I need a good real estate lawyer, or I want to get in touch with people who can give me ideas about where to go on my next trip
   
7. for each group and each round: Queen Bees, and Worker Bees.
   
8. each person in turn gets to be the Queen Bee, and someone else represents him or her as the Worker Bee.
   
9. the Worker Bee "buzzes" around the room with the Queen Bee's request and collects business cards that match that request
   
10. time the rounds to keep a sense of energy and urgency.
    
11. this activity can be processed to whatever degree you wish. The game can take three hours or a couple days. For the shorter version, people go away with tons of leads to explore on their own time.F or the longer version, you can ask people questions about which role they felt most comfortable in, what new things did they notice about themselves, how did the teams work etc.
    

Justify Social Network Spending

To justify spending and ensure budget for future projects, it is crucial that marketers can demonstrably prove the success of a given campaign. As the economy worsens, and the struggle for budget becomes increasingly more challenging, it becomes even more important. While the majority of digital marketing can provide highly quantifiable results, social media can prove challenging. Create a metrics program to track the success of a campaign.

Determine what to measure
The first step is determining what to measure. Start by considering why social media is being used in a particular campaign, and then look for ways to measure the results. It is important to set the campaign up for success. Don't track data that is hard to gather, but do set your sights on the low-hanging fruit that will yield meaningful results. For example, many sites offer a tool enabling users to post content to their Facebook or MySpace pages. By using a tool such as Omniture, it is possible to track the frequency with which users are posting, and which networks they are using. By tracking this information, meaningful insights into the resonance and value of material on the site can be gauged.

Take advantage of existing tools
Social networking sites recognize that they live or die by their user base, and they understand that advertisers on these sites want specific insights into who they are talking to and how the message is being received. By using Facebook's sophisticated tool kit, it is possible to track specifically who is engaging, and what they are doing there.