The Marketing Message Blog

Can you spend 10 minutes a day thinking about your customers?

I'm sure you think my asking whether you can spend 10 minutes a day thinking about your customers is an odd question.  You probably spend hours thinking and worrying about them or the lack thereof.  But how productive is that time? 

Here's a tip that might help.  Each day when you sit down at your computer begin by spending 10 minutes asking yourself:

"What is the one thing that I can communicate today, that if my customers hear it, they will be one step closer to increasing their revenue."

Does it sound too simple? Write the answer down and then work it into a blog post, an email or a presentation and watch the quality of your content improve and your subscriber list grow.  Try it and let me know how it works for you.

Roger Parker of Published and Profitable

I'm excited to see what Roger Parker of Published and Profitable is saying about my new upcoming 4 week workshop, "Small Steps, Big Profits." 

Roger is an institution when it comes to writing books and creating a book platform.  His experience speaks for itself. If you want to write a book and want a creative voice helping you, Roger's your guy!

Some thoughts about how people buy online

When you think about how to excite your buyer, it's helpful to take two different categories into account:

1. What buying stage they are in:

Are they just starting the hunt for a solution to their problem?  Are they at the point where they've exhausted their search and are ready to buy?  Think about providing information for all the phases they'll go through.  Talk to your customers about how and what made them decide to buy.  Listen carefully to the words they use and the ideas that captured their imagination.

2. What learning style they prefer:

When you provide information on all your different channels, make sure you take into account the different ways that people learn. They are:

Visual: use videos and graphical information

Auditory: use podcasts, audio greeting, audio testimonials, etc.

Tactile (also called Kinesthetic): use demos, interactive quizzes, step by step how-tos.

A good mix of these will significantly boost your customer's interest in investigating and buying your product.  Also, it's key that you don't rely on the style you prefer!

Can you match your personality to your choice of social media network?

As I watch the evolution of social media and talk to my clients, I think there's a link between your personality type and the social media networking site you choose to promote your business most often. 

Introverts: If you're an introvert you will feel most comfortable on Twitter. Of course the millions on Twitter are not all introverts.  It is just a great medium for saying what you want and getting the heck out of there. No time wasted trying to chat anyone up, you know who your followers are.

Extroverts: For extroverts it's Facebook. You can ask people to become your FANs and talk about the great event you're holding next. It's a big party and you're the lucky host.

Something to think about if you still haven't decided which to start with. It's just my theory, let me know what you think.

How using small steps will get you more profit and overcome the fear that holds you back from success

Lots of people are asking me to elaborate on the theory behind my new 4 week online workshop about making"Small Steps for Big Profits"  http://bit.ly/2aFRC 

Let me tell you why I think it's critically important for you to use small steps in this economy.  I feel very strongly about the value of this and hope I get to help as many people as possible discover the power of small steps.

Each day we face a set of tasks, problems and opportunities.  Our response to these daily challenges dictates whether our businesses will grow or fall back. 

Sometimes, you may feel that you are being held back by your own responses.
Your response to:
" opportunities that seem too big
" problems that seem insurmountable
" people who seem more 'important' than you, etc.

The list for every business owner is long.  The only difference between those who succeed and those who fail is how they manage change.  Do they have a plan or just hope to wing it?  Do they worry about losing control or feel they can rely on their management skills?

Typically the successful ones are those who value small incremental changes that don't arouse fear and allow them to course correct as they go. 

When we plan new ideas and try to move ahead in our business the cortex or our brain is engaged.  At the same time, when we begin to challenge ourselves to make changes we upset the status quo.  So the mid-brain stirs up an alarmed response. 
Put simply:

New thought + threat to the status quo = fear

This fear response is the same one our ancestors faced when confronted by a charging animal or a hostile enemy.  It's called the 'fight or flight response' which refers to one of two actions we want to take when we fear something-fight with our enemy to maintain the status quo or flee the situation. 

Unfortunately, this fear response does not feel any different to us today when we deal with business changes than it did to our ancestors.

If you are contemplating the launch of a new product, the addition of a paid employee or a speaking engagement, you will likely feel this fear.  This is what holds you back.  This fear leads to stagnation, writer's block and just plain being 'stuck.' 

To avoid being stuck, you can employ small meaningful steps that don't trigger that response.

I hope you'll consider joining me for our eCoaching  http://bit.ly/2aFRC 

Keith Ferrazzi's "Who's Got Your Back" free tour call #1

Does your future really depend on who you know? You bet. In fact, it depends on strategically building and leveraging key relationships.

But, any old relationships won't do the trick. This is about building the RIGHT relationships and leveraging them at the right times in order to radically accelerate your success. Easier said than done...

On Monday, June 8 at 12pm Eastern Time, my buddy Elizabeth Marshall, host and founder of Author Teleseminars, is hosting a call with Keith Ferrazzi, bestselling author of Never Eat Alone. On the call, you'll hear about his new book, Who's Got Your Back, and discover his breakthrough process to building deep, powerful relationships that set you up for extraordinary success - and won't let you fail.

Also, you'll get to hear from two leading entrepreneurs on how they've leveraged this process to build strategic relationships:

-> Seth Godin, NY Times bestselling author of Tribes and The Dip

-> John Jantsch, bestselling author of Duct Tape Marketing

http://www.authorteleseminars.com/keithferrazzi1.html <- SIGN UP HERE

Let Keith, Seth and John show you how you can implement this strategy that gold-medal athletes, top execs and global leaders consistently rely on to achieve their FULL potential.

Go ahead and register for the call, even if you can't make it live.  Elizabeth, host and founder of AuthorTeleseminars.com will send you a recording of the call after it is over.

http://www.authorteleseminars.com/keithferrazzi1.html <- SAVE YOUR SEAT

Questions? Please email Elizabeth directly, as she's the one hosting this call.  You can reach her here: host@authorteleseminars.com

My no nonsense reading list for online business 'how-tos'

If you're searching around for solid 'how to' online business books, check these out.  I think they're worth your time.  No fluff, good advice.

If you're just getting started:

Career Renegade, Jonathan Fields

279 Days to overnight success, Chris Guillebeau

If you want great ideas for developing web content:

Web Copy that Sells, Maria Veloso

If you need solid SEO information:

Findability Formula, Heather Lutz

Web Design for ROI, Lance Loveday and Sandra Niehaus

If you want good ideas about social media:

Personality Not Included, Rohit Bhargava

Social Media Marketing in an hour a day, Dave Evans

Food for thought:

Why we Make Mistakes, Joseph T. Hallinan

12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women, Gail McMeekin

Also, a very no nonsense guide to online marketing is my book:

Web Marketing for Small Businesses

 

What Michael Crichton can teach you about writing blog posts

Found an interesting article in Writer's Digest from Karen Dionne, author of Freezing Point. She lays out what she believes were Michael Crichton's top 5 writing lessons for fiction.

In reading them I was struck by the fact that all good writing, including blog posts should be written with these 5 lessons in mind.  Here's how I think they apply to blogging:

1. Challenge your reader: This is always a must. Wake people up with new concepts and ideas. Your blog is a great place to try out new ideas and let readers respond.

2. Surprise your reader: Keep her entertained and don't always go for the cliched ending. That means sometimes you'll even surprise yourself.

3. Keep the clock ticking: Don't be boring.  Say what you have to say - no fluff or filler.

4. Get your facts straight: Always. Take the effort to research if you aren't sure.

5. Play fast and loose with the facts:  Well, not really.  Don't forget he was writing fiction.  But the point that's paramount here is the idea of story.  Screenwriter Robert McKee said that a memorable story 'unites an idea with an emotion."  Be memorable.

7 Success Principles for Online Businesses

I have seven success principles that guide all my decisions about online business.  You may want to try them out and see if they make decisions easier for you.

1. Ask the right questions

Unless you ask the right marketing questions about improving your business right up front, you will waste a lot of valuable time on things that don’t matter. Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying, “If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my ax.” You need a plan of action. 

If you’re a company of one or hundreds, you still need to make time for planninig.   For example, make a list of the main problems your customers have identified for you from tech support, customer service or sales. Then analyze those problems and group them by category.  Then, edit them down to five main questions.  This will help you see what marketing questions you should be asking.

Instead of asking a broad question like, “How can we increase revenue?” perhaps you should be asking, “How can we make it easier for our customers to check-out using our shopping cart?” You’ll continue to drill down and simplify until you have a list of very specific questions and and then set about to answer those.

2. Simplicity

Intuitively, we know that when something is easy to use, we are more likely to use it.  The moment something seems complex or hard, our attention wavers and our interest declines.  This should be a guiding principle for all the work you do online.  Making things easy for yourself and your customers will guarantee a huge return.  The founders of Google are famous for their ‘one box’ search engine.  Yahoo missed the boat with their search page by offering a page that had a lot more “stuff” on it.  Make sure you don’t fall into the trap of making things more complex because you’re not sure what will work.  “Less is more.”  If you’re not sure about what to have on your landing page or squeeze page, experiment in a small way.  You won’t know what works unless you test and isolate the winning combinations.

3. Understand the biz model for every revenue stream in your business

If that idea sounds obvious, well it should be.  But I know that in the crush of running your business you will add products and create promos that aren’t as well though out as they should be.  There’s no sin in that, Just make sure you go back after the crush is over and see if it should be more than a “one-shot”.  To advance quickly, you need to look at all your revenue generators and to break them into meaningful components of your business.

4. ‘Think Big; Act Small’

This principle becomes even more important as the days and weeks go by.  Jason Jennings’ book ‘Think Big Act Small’ details how companies succeed by maintaining a small business attitude.

Embrace the qualities that ‘smallness’ provides:

• quick improvements that can be tested

• the ability to change direction almost instantly

• employees that are close to the problem

• the ability to connect with your customers

I’ve worked with companies that assume their competitors are better because they have deeper pockets. The notion that more marketing dollars ensure success is misguided. Look at your product or service and continue to improve it in small increments. Online buyers want quality and service. In this economy, that’s even more important.

5. Be alert to what’s different in the culture and strive to understand coming trends

The popularity of online marketing tactics goes up and down like the stock market (mostly down.) Twitter, podcasts, ezines and blogs are all effective tactics if applied to the right audience at the right time.  But how to figure out what’s right for you? The key is to continually ask yourself, “What’s different today in my customer’s life and how can I meet that need?

Are customers suddenly responding to something you didn’t highlight in your products? Are they bored with your current promotions? Does some package you’re selling seem outdated?  Read everything you can about new ideas and cultural trends. You don’t have to try to apply every one of them, but you do need to know what your customer knows. Keying into changes on a weekly basis ensures that you won’t suddenly find yourself with an outdated marketing strategy and no customers.

6. If you’re not the customer, ask her!

Don’t spend your time debating with other staffers about what you ‘think’ your customer wants. Unless you ARE the target customer, you don’t really know. I have listened to endless client debates about their customer needs based on no actual customer data. Ask your customers. They will be happy to tell you what they think. If you don’t want to hear what they think, you’ve got a different problem. 

7. Prepare and do what’s difficult

I find that this principle separates the wannabes from the real innovators. If you know what tactics need to be applied to make a difference, but you are too lazy or disinterested to try them then stop reading now. Nothing you do will make a difference until you tackle the hard work necessary to grow.  

You need to make a commitment to yourself to take action.  If you need a better designed website, a new database, an easier buying process or a new social media strategy, then the time is now.

 

Want quick progress? 10 tips for building a customer relationship using tactics with no names

I want to see my clients make progress quickly!  Recently, I've noticed that when we were planning, they were thrown off by the special name or category given to a tactic—Web 2.0, social networking, etc. As soon as we didn't worry about the names and just based decisions strictly on whether it enhanced the customer relationship or not, we could speed along and make good decisions.

You can call it “social media” marketing because it involves the use of new tools and tactics.  You can call it conversation marketing.  Call it whatever you want —in whatever century you want.  The simple fact is that if your customer doesn’t have a trusted relationship with you, you won’t succeed.  (Yes, you can burn a few people and make some short-term money, if that's your goal.  But it’s not sustainable, desirable, good or smart.) 

If you’re saying to yourself, “I knew that.”  Then ask yourself whether you actually practice it.  The answer is probably, “No, not really.”  After over 20+ years in marketing I know that’s true and I'm sometimes guilty myself.  I see people at all levels of business pay lip service to it.  When I look at their actual strategies and tactics, I find that they are not practicing it.  If they did, they’d be making a lot more money in a shorter amount of time.  That's what I want to help them do-fast!

Ok, so you don’t want to be “that guy.”  What are some things you can do immediately to turn that situation around? 

Here are ten tips that will build your relationship with your customer:

1.    Create and build your OWN audience

Start your list with one customer and build it up.  Don’t think that buying some pre-made list will give you a great start.  That kind of list is called ‘spam.’  You want a targeted, quality list of responsive buyers who are interested in you.  That means someone who has opted in to your specific list. 

A 1,000 person list that’s not targeted is so much less valuable than a 200 person list you build from scratch.  Quality not quantity!  When I ask a new client how large their list is, I know they may feel sheepish if it’s not very high.  That’s not the measure!   If your list is responsive and cares about what you have to say it could be profitable and small.  Don’t let vanity get in the way.  Start small, grow organically.

2. Pay greater attention to a satisfied, repeat customer
If you are ignoring a customer who has already purchased from you, you are leaving a lot of money on the table.  It’s easier to sell to someone who is already a customer.  Does it matter much?  Frederick Reichheld strategy guru has proven that a 5% improvement in customer retention rates will yield between a 25 to 100% increase in profits.  If you’re looking for a way to increase revenue, this is it.  Invest in customer satisfaction and satisfied customers.

3. Help your customer tell your story and share it with others

Yes, this means ‘word of mouth.’  But it’s more than that.  Not only do you want your customers to talk about you.  You want them saying the things that will create new customers.  That means that you have to give them meaningful stories to tell.  And you have to make it easy for them to tell your story.  You see all those ‘share this’ buttons on websites for a reason.  Those are good, but imagine if you also created pages for your customers that were specifically written in a way that makes sharing meaningful.   Maybe it’s a video or PDF.  Think about what you can create that would bring this to life.

4. Help customers find you
Ok, this one is obvious—so what’s your keyword strategy?  Hmm, not sure?  Don’t worry.  This can always be improved.  Everyone online marketer I know has struggled with it.  If it was easy, there wouldn’t be hundreds of books and blogs written about it. 

But there is one thing you can do to start to get a handle on it right away. Look at where your traffic is coming from and then what the bounce rate is.  (The bounce rate tells you how many people just read one page and clicked away, which means they weren’t interested in looking further.)

Look at your current level of traffic and determine where it’s coming from.  If you use Google Analytics, start by clicking on “traffic sources.” You will see in pie-chart form how your traffic is divided up by direct traffic, search engines and referring sites.  (If you have separate advertising pages you set up, you’ll see the category other as well.)  Ok, so quickly you can see what’s dominating.  Is all your traffic coming from search engines?  It’s time to get referring sites involved.  How about search engines?  Getting anything from organic search?  

Next, under “all traffic sources” look at your bounce rate from the different sources.    If you look and see that one referring source has a much lower bounce rate, you can tell that people coming from that source are more targeted from those that have really high bounce rates.  

With information about these two measures you can start to form a plan for improving your traffic levels.

5. Make it easy for customers to buy from you
This is a ‘battle-cry’ I have been using since the early ‘90s when the Web was in its infancy.  If it’s hard to get through your shopping cart, if the help information is unclear, or the requirements are not stated, you are throwing money away. 

All your hard work on developing and creating your services and products will be wasted because no one is willing to spend more than a few seconds figuring it out.  If you make it hard they will get frustrated and angry and blame you.  Not only will you lose the sale, you will engender ill will.  In 2008 the cart abandonment rate (the rate at which people start the buying process but don’t complete it) is 59%. 

Let me repeat that:

In 2008 the cart abandonment rate was 59% and there's not indication this year will be different.

That means that 59% of the people who start to buy something, give up before they complete the process.  Wow, that is a lot of money that you could be scooping up if you do a better job of making the buying process easier.  This one is really worth the effort.

6. Don’t continue to break the budget on PPC if it isn’t working
You’re not doing your customers (or yourself) any favor if you spend a boatload of money on PPC advertising that doesn’t bring your specific audience to you.  Some people have told me they do it because it brings ‘awareness.”  There’s nothing magical about PPC.  It either brings you a targeted audience or it doesn’t.  If no one ‘opts-in’ they’re probably not coming back later for a second bite of the same apple.

7. Don’t bother your list with trivial junk that only you think is interesting
If you know what your subscribers are interested in (and obviously if you’ve been reading down this far, you probably do) don’t send email broadcasts just to send them.  You audience knows the difference between being entertained and enlightened or being bothered.  Your subscribers have the expectation that you are evaluating information before you send it.  If your friend has a weak offering, don’t send it to your list just because she’s a friend.  You worked too hard to build the list.  Don’t tear it down with a collection of subpar materials.

8. Be generous
Ahh, we’re back in positive territory again—those last two tips were kind of negative in tone.  I’m sure your mother told you to share with your friends if you want them to like you.  It works the same way with possible customers, vendors and colleagues.  Hoarding good information and holding everything really close is never a good strategy. 

Make it a point to create some free reports, articles or videos.  Share something valuable with no expectation of return.  Call it reciprocity, ‘the secret’, good karma, synchronicity or whatever you like, just do it.  You know how much fun it is to get an unexpected PDF that has actionable information.  Be the sender of that report.

9. Be specific and clear about what you’re selling
You hear about the importance of ‘call to action’ messages from marketing blogs, and articles everyday of the week.  Buried in that phrase is the idea that you need to tell people what, when and how you want them to respond and how you will respond in return.  If you leave any one of those parts out, you damage your response and lower your conversion rate. Look at your online store and see if you can improve your information. 

For a silly example, think about telling your customer “Act now!” But not tell him how.  But, what about telling your customer to “click the button when you are ready to buy.”  That’s just as silly— but it gets played out much more often than you think.  Everything about your offer has to be spelled out, clarified, exact and forceful. 

10. Never assume your customer knows anything about how to buy from you. 

Tell him everything he needs to know about what he’ll receive, when he will get it, what kind of receipt he’ll get, etc.  No one will be insulted.  No one is thinking about anything but getting what they paid for and being happy with it. 

Make sure you take advantage of all the ways you can to publicize your online tactics. 
Have you created a feed for your articles, blogs, websites, etc?  Did you register with Technorati?  An SEO strategy is great, but if you don’t let any directories, feed services or bloggers know about you, then you’re working with one hand tied behind your back. 

Beginners and longtime marketers alike can always benefit from a quick reality check.  Find ways to get yours and you'll be in it for the long run.

How marketers are using social media to grow their businesses-new free study!

Do you wonder how (or if) your marketing colleagues are using social media?  Well, a new report gives you the full scoop and it's very surprising. The just-released Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses found that a surprising 64 percent of marketers are spending five or more hours weekly using social media sites like Twitter.

Report author Michael A. Stelzner, founder of WhitePaperSource says that
"the real shocker is that experienced folks are investing more than 20 hours each week with social media."

For most marketing pros, social media marketing is a fresh new phenomenon--and it's not just for the young professional.  Among the 880 marketers surveyed, 72 percent have been at it for only a few months, and the median age was 40 to 49.  "This is a story nobody else is telling," explains Stelzner. "Most marketers know the future is social media, but they aren't sure how their competitors are playing the game."

The big questions marketers most want answered about social media are also revealed in the comprehensive report.  Knowing where to start and if there is real money to be made were among the top questions pros want answered. 

The leading benefits experienced by social media marketers included:

#1: Generated exposure for the business (81%)
#2: Increased traffic and subscribers (61%)
#3: Established new business partnerships (56%)

The report also takes a close look at the social media tools used by marketers.  "It's intriguing to see which sites the pros focus on compared to the newbies," Stelzner comments.  Twitter is the big winner among all marketers, with 86 percent regularly tweeting. The report is packed with 30 color charts and diagrams. 

Download a free copy of the report NOW!

How microsites fit in with your other marketing tactics and why you should use them

Microsites make sense for all kinds of online businesses because they can be used to create a showcase for one product or service.  First came the landing page. Now with the popularity of "information product" marketing systems, everyone is exposed to the ease with which you can create specialized microsites.  That's all to the good.

But since I work with businesses who also use a lot of different tactics—blogs, websites, newsletters, facebook pages, etc. I see a bit of confusion. So, I thought it would be good to look at where microsites fit in to the equation for small businesses. 

First a working definition. 

A microsite is a 1 to several page site that most often:

• has it's own domain (or perhaps subdomain) separate from a main website
• is time limited
• has a tight focus on one product or service with buying information
• can be used to provide additional instructions, links to multimedia and editorial content
• can help to strenghten keyword value

Ok, so how do you know when to create a microsite for your product or service?  Focus on the distribution. Ask yourself whether this format will get this 'capsule' of information to a wider distribution than your website, blog, etc.   If you can find a way to take some 'nugget' and open it to a wider distribution, you'll have a great traffic builder (and money maker). 

You should also use it as a compliment to your other tactics by providing links to it.  But the main reason for creating it, is that it will drive new traffic.

Marketing new technology? Avoid these top three mistakes.

Over the years I have worked with many technology companies who market their software, hardware or tools online.  I still see some of them making the same mistakes today that were made when the web was in its infancy. 

Here are some things to consider that may prevent a common misstep:

1. Don't assume anyone will know what your product does just because you put up a website. 

This is probably the most common mistake.  I will be asked to go to a website to evaluate a software product.  When I get there, I can see immediately that everyone who was involved with putting up the website knows exactly what the software does.  The secret is safe with them.  Without a clear idea of what it does to improve my life on the home page, I'm off to the next site. Before you launch your product make sure you ask several people who know nothing about it to look at your website and see if they can tell you what it does. Seriously.

2. Make sure you create marketing videos, audios, step-by step instructions, etc. 

If you have to rely on the customer spending time to figure something out, you've lost them to a vendor with an easier product, even if it doesn't hold a candle to yours.  You've seen it time and time again.  A mediocre product outsells a great one because the mediocre one came with instructions.

3. Offering a trial version of something is not the end of the sales process, it's the beginning.

Just because they downloaded or requested a look at your product doesn't mean they will take any action to review or evaluate it.  Keep in touch with your prospect to help them make it over the greatest hurdle which is actually looking at it with an eye to buy it.

Community building tools

For info on the latest community building tools, check out the February issue of Entrepreneur.com.  You'll find an article by Amanda C. Kooser called "Make your new site social" with a sidebar on "Networking Tools."

She mentions four that are worth a look.  They are:

1. Google Friend Connect This is in beta. No technical knowledge needed.

2. Ning Very popular, lots of great features

3. Wetpaint Wiki based

4. Yuku Adds forums to your website

If you determine that an online community will work, start small and see how your audience responds.  The key is to make everyone feel like participating.  When a few people dominate the conversation, it's not very rewarding.

Note: I've used Ning and recommend it highly.  The others look interesting, but I haven't built a community with them.

Assess Your Productivity Levels to Guarantee You Are on Track

If you're looking for some ideas about how to make the time you spend at work more productive and generate more revenue, check out my latest Mindjet newsletter column called Assess Your Productivity Levels in the New Year to Guarantee You’re on Track 

Also, you can download my self-assessment map and refer to it as a model for creating your own Time vs. Revenue analysis.