Dear Kiss business too (2) reader.
Have I told you lately how much I appreciate to see the feedburner counter showing an average of around 75 - 80 (edited 13.01.09: 105-110) readers ? Daily! For a simple small business owner who ponders about being in business on this 'dynamic website' (aka blog) it is an astonishing but welcome sight. I know most of you have added the feed of this blog to their blogreader, a small minority receive email notifications as soon as I publish a new pondering.
Perhaps you too read (about) Malcolm Galdwell's disagreeing review on Chris Anderson's new book: “Free: The Future of a Radical Price” and perhaps you agree with Seth Godin's opinion of the review: "Malcolm is wrong".
I've been thinking of the concept 'free' even more since I've read Seth's post and Glaswell's review. According to Anderson's new book (not free ;-)) because of enhanced and advanced technology, IT infra-structure more and more products/services can be offered for free. Gladwell states that's rather utopian thinking: IT infra-structures aren't free (he points towards YouTube), nor is the infra-structure to deliver cheaper and cheaper power.
Seth on the other hand points towards the unlimited advancement of 'free' information: "In the world of free, everyone can play".
I've read Gladwell's Tipping Point, Anderson's The Long Tail and plenty of Seth's books. I also read Dan Ariely's "Predictable Irrational" (great read, really recommend it to everyone). This book is mentioned too in Galdwell's review of Anderson and in Anderson's new book. What Ariely's experiment shows IMHO that even free has a perceived value, depending to what the free item is compared.
And it is that perceived value I think will always be "top of the bill" - not "Free":
Seth states:
People will pay for content if it is so unique they can't get it anywhere else, so fast they benefit from getting it before anyone else, or so related to their tribe that paying for it brings them closer to other people.
In my humble opinion and experience as retailer of physical products who sees a tremendous increase in the sale of our 'digital products' (digital delivered PDF guides on various aspects of our trade, how to... etc) it is and always will be:
People will pay for content if it is perceived coming from an expert and saving them time to find and implement quickly what they are after (advice or training).
In the world of free, everyone can play is correct: where 'everyone' are those who are able to turn free information into knowledge and they can now play and profit in the world too, where before only those with expensive publication channels could play (and profit).
There's something wrong with the title, not? I'm sure you, like me, have been told many times that the only way to grow your business is by working "on" your business; where working "in" the business only means you're working for a wage, nothing more.
Some state you should dedicate at least 3 hours a week on working "on" your business and preferably more than that. Working "on" your business to improve sales rates, conversion rates, customer care, worth of mouth and overall performances. To increase profit.
So what is working "in" your business really?
Welcoming visitors in your showroom? Delivering ordered materials to your client? Calculating and writing a quotation for a prospect? Carrying out a survey to determine what and how many materials and labour are needed? Doing the actual work of - in our case - installing or maintaining a wooden floor? Following up on prospects? Sending out snail mail letters to existing clients to remind them of the need of maintenance? Writing another follow-up message or newsletter broadcast for your email campaigns? Washing our van to make sure it always looks presentable? Counting stock so no job is delayed because of shortness in materials? Replying quickly and adequate to emails coming in from prospects/clients? Keeping your website up to date with the latest news on products, procedures and prices? Keeping the books up to date so suppliers are paid in time to continue a good relationship with them?
But......
Isn't every single one of those tasks dedicated to provide your prospects/clients with the best available products/services your business can provide?
So isn't working "in" your business also working "on" your business?
Or do I see this wrong?
I got confused this week - sitting in our sunny garden one evening after work - pondering about all the things I'd done that day and the days before. It felt I only had been doing 'regular' tasks, taking care of our prospects and clients any which way. Shouldn't I make more time available for working "on" the business instead? But where would my and my partner's tasks be different then?
I mean, if my dear partner - who does the surveys, fitting, most of the deliveries and maintenance services - doesn't have the right materials at the right time, drives in a dirty van and doesn't pay respect to the prospect/client with his manners, that wouldn't do our "worth of mouth" and therefore existing and future profits no good at all. Same with all our marketing and systems/procedures I take care off. All are in fact targeted to provide our prospects/clients with the best possible service (be it physical products or simple advice) we can give them.
So perhaps the title is wrong and should it say: when working "in" your business feels like working "on" your business?
'Cos when is "in" actually only "in" and "on" actually only "on"?
Or perhaps we need a completely different phrase all together? How about:
Working "with" your business?
What do you think?
Have you ever realised how many 'standard' business tasks can now be done online?
We have been using Internet banking the moment it came available: constant instant overview of your going in's and out's. On the road? Access your bank's website anywhere you are and take care of your finances.
More and more service providers notify us we can find our latest invoice online. And then I'm not even talking about all the standard essential office products you can buy online nowadays, from stationery to coffee pods, study books etc - all delivered to your front door without you having to go out. Our own business has its own secure webshop and we dispatch products all over the UK (some through drop-shipping, some through our local post-office).
Marketing is more and more done on-line:
using blog platform software for your business website (again, accessible everywhere you are to add, edit and comment/answer questions left by your website visitors).
email-marketing: how often I access AWeber you don't want to know, queueing 'blog-alerts' to subscribers interested in wooden flooring, writing and sending out our monthly newsletter, checking how well all the marketing messages are performing and which headline in which webform works best (split-testing). Instant access to statistics: what you can measure you can improve.
If you need an internet ad campaign: Google Adwords is your tool. Easy to set up and to control your spending. Another great on-line tool.
(Although.... yesterday I received a discount voucher - valid till the end of this month - for Adwords from a friend as thank you for some SEO I'd done for his latest website. When I entered the code into my billing page of my long term Google Adwords account I got the following message: my account was too old to redeem this voucher! As if Google isn't making enough money already!! Too old to be treated as a respected client? End of rant.)
Customer care can be done online too these days with one of my favourite programs: ScreenSteps Desktop and ScreenSteps Live. Publish the answers to your frequently asked questions online (written in Desktop so you can publish and combine in multiple ways) and direct your prospects/clients to the appropriate page in the manual using ScreenSteps latest innovation: Live Support System.
(Blue Mango Learning System announced last week the price for ScreenSteps Desktop Pro is - IMHO finally! - going to be increased with $ 20.00. Since the release of the latest version 2.6 the value of the program is tripled if not quadrupled and rightly so should the price reflect this. If you hurry you can still get this excellent and multifunctional program for the old price of $ 59.95. Offer end Wednesday 17 June)
Another online software I used this week is perhaps also the latest 'innovation' of off-line business tasks now available online: bookkeeping! Liberty Accounting comes complete with Payroll and is one - if not the - first to include filling your VAT return through their program.
(Side-note: the program was recommended by our business adviser for my neighbour who had asked both him and me for advice on accounting. All three of us can access the program: the owner of the business, the 'bookkeeper' of the business and the accountant of the business - how's that for multi-functionality?)
All the above programs I've used this last week - a short week for us after our well deserved break last weekend - and makes you wonder/ponder if the 'virtual office' or 'virtual business' is about to truly become a fact?
How many online tools are you using for standard 'off line' business activities yourself? And what other tasks can you see being turned online in the near future?
It's that time of the year again, our home town in The Netherlands is organising its annual Jazz Weekend this weekend. We've made it a habit of travelling down there for a few days as annual (according to some a "well-deserved") short break.
It's a time to meet up with friends we haven't seen for almost a year, to visit family we haven't seen for almost 6 months and of course to enjoy various styles of Jazz.
Eventually we always end up visiting one or two suppliers in our home town too - you can take the directors out of the business, but not the business out of the directors!
This year I promised myself and my partner I wouldn't touch any Internet related equipment, so no email, twitter, facebook, AWeber or any other browsing activity. Not even checking the three DIY-forums we regularly contribute to for problems we might be able to help out on.
I think I'll survive ;-)
One item I always take with me I definitely refuse to leave behind: a notebook and pen. You'll never known when inspiration for a new or better marketing or business-concept idea hits.
Wishing you all a very pleasant weekend and 'see' you Tuesday.
Subtitle: and if you combine two software programs with the two principles it can triple the effect!
Half a year ago I never thought I would hear myself say this, after I decide then to untweet myself. But others convinced me - rightly so - that if you use twitter strategically and tactically it can do 'wonders'.
Therefore this statement: Twitter is a great tool to discover not only people but also principles that can make your business (life) more effective, efficient, profitable etc. Like bloggers can shows you, teach you; only tweeters tell you (redirect you more often) in a very short and effective way (140 characters). As with everything in business (life) it is what you do with it that counts.
Last week a twitter 'discussion' about the use of AWeber with @adriarichards made me aware of a principle I hadn't actually heard of being named this way: Inbox zero (as part of GTD: Getting Things Done). Adria pointed me to a video where Merlin Man explains the principle (I do recommened you watch it but be aware the video is almost 1 hour long!) in, I think - never have seen him before - his normal straightforward, no-nonsense, sometime hilarious way.
Inbox Zero does not mean reducing the amount of emails coming in, as business in these modern Internet times almost impossible. (If you don't want any email coming in, don't get an email address - again for a business almost impossible.)
Inbox Zero means: taking decisive actions on the emails coming in. Either:
And nobody orders you you should check your email every other minute. My email program only connects with the email server every hour to collect new emails from prospects, clients, suppliers, friends and of course the spam and phishing emails that somehow get past the spam filter.
After watching the video I had a proper look in my 'inbox' - I'm a kind of a horder apparently, I even found emails in there 1 year old! Decisive actions followed: a handfull got archived and 3 were responded to. None of the remaining needed a deferred or an immediate action any longer - had already happened - but still hovered in the inbox. They got deleted. (Now I have to tackle the 'outbox' the same way.)
Your inbox might look like mine did: still filled with emails you have already tackled. It is not just that a clean and uncluttered inbox gives you a feeling of accomplishment, following the Inbox Zero principle will spur you on to be more effective/efficient with responding to incoming messages.
And that's were the subtitle comes in: combining the principles of GTD and Inbox Zero with two software programs.
To help you increase the numbers of email you can respond to immediately and reduce the numbers of 'defered' emails you - as many businesses have found - will notice that many will contain the same questions/answers many times over. Using ScreenSteps in combination with ScreenSteps Live gives you an instant database filled with Q&A's. Now with the new widget of ScreenSteps Live Support Client (desktop application for listing, searching and quickly getting urls for your lessons on your ScreenSteps Live account) your respons is almost automated.
You can create a complete 'instruations of use' or training manual, step by step guides using multiple ScreenStep's options. The only response your prospect/client needs is the link to the right page of your Live manual/lesson. And he/she will be grateful too.
And what if your prospect/client has also implemented the Inbox Zero principle in his/her life? Can you, as business, still market them effectively without running the risk being deleted? You can, when you use email marketing strategies and tactics that makes your message anticipated in such a way your prospect/client can only take the 'Do' action.
Get Things Done and help your prospect/client Getting Things Done, be it buying your product or receiving the most effective answer to his/her question about your product/service.
And it starts in the inbox, yours and theirs.
Marketing, from ads to email marketing, needs: focus, strategies, tactics and a keen eye for all the details. Without any of these you might as well stop before you even start.
No matter how small, large, known or unknown you and your business/products/services are, the Devil is truly in the Details. If you spend time to create the best worded advertisement with the best placed images in the best read magazine or paper it all has to be right. Your call for action should be hitting the right spot and the "tools" you provide your prospect to take that action should be securely in place, tried and tested.
If that call to action is for the reader to request free reports, free materials up to the value of £ 1,200.00 and you've got the targeting of your prospect absolutely spot on, you better make sure that tool works absolutely problem free. Because your irresistible offer will be seen by over 200.000 specially targeted readers and a handful of your existing private list members. Those are big numbers!
The details of the ad are spot on, what else do you expect from someone labelled marketing wizard who's private clients pay a 4 figure amount for an hour advice. I've read books, reports from this wizard, listened to plenty of recordings by him and know that if he launches a new program you better pay attention and try not to miss out.
The let down here was in the details of the email marketing tool. Not so much in using AWeber's default Thank You Page (now with added narration!) - many here know that is one of my pet-hates - after submitting my name and email address in the web form on the special landing page, but in the fact I almost didn't even reach that default Thank You Page:
For a moment I started to doubt myself - had I already received all these new free reports? and so checked the ad again. No, definitely an offer of new materials and a new program.
If you are promoting a new product, want prospects, clients to opt-in to a new program you are launching DO Create a NEW AWeber list/campaign for it!
(I have various email addresses I use to subscribe to various lists and used a different one to end up on the default AWeber Thank You Page, received the confirm opt-in email and even ended up on a custom 2nd Thank You Page. The first follow-up message contained a link to the download page - unprotected - where I indeed found all kinds of new material from the marketing wizard.)
Now it could be that I'm a nit-picker in this regard, possible because I know how easy and simple these details can be improved. But the fact remains, no matter if you are just starting out with email marketing or if you are regarded as marketing wizard: your email marketing is a part of your total marketing strategy - not just an after thought to be used as 'delivery vehicle' of your no doubt splendid and correct in every detail marketing messages.
You need to have Strategies and Tactics for the delivery vehicle too. If you are using AWeber as this vehicle, you will find practical, tried and tested strategies and tactics in this guide, created by 1 Plus 1 Makes 3 - or pop in your name and email address below to receive inside information about this guide first - to seamlessly integrate the delivery of your marketing messages into your marketing strategy.
(Post origins: 1 Plus 1 Makes 3 blog)
A month ago I reported on the "at least 5 methods" you can publish your content with ScreenSteps Desktop Pro.
Make that: at least 6!
ScreenSteps (by Blue Mango Learning Systems) has now added a new export facility to their Pro program (beta version): as docx document.
Let me list all the 'standard export methods again:
All this - mind the note about ScreenSteps Live - for only $59.95 (that's around £ 39 - £40 at today's rate) That's all, not a monthly or annual price, that's what you pay, once! A steal!
Is this a blatant promotion for the program? Yes it is.
And with reason. Since I bought ScreenSteps Desktop Pro end of last year for this IMHO ridiculous low amount I've
And I've discovered a 6th method to publish my content (over and over, as stand-alone, in combination with other lessons) with one click of a button. I now also use new or existing content to publish follow-up messages and/or broadcasts in AWeber. If you want to know more about the how and the what, it's part of the Best AWeber Strategies and Tactics for small Businesses E-training on ScreenSteps Live (or select the PDF version, comes without updates though).
I'm a big fan of Typepad blog platform, I'm an even bigger fan of AWeber the ultimate Permission Marketing Machine and I'm an absolute big fan of ScreenSteps:
DOCUMENTATION, DONE, RIGHT.
And that's exactly what this program does. Create documentation quickly and very, extremely even, efficiently. Or in other words: create content once, publish it in multiple ways over and over again.
Blue Mango holds weekly webinars on all the possibilities ScreenSteps Pro will give you, you can register here - and for interested business in the UK/Europe they've arranged 'early' webinars too (early for the US, around noon here)
The weather forecast of last week didn't promise many sunny days. Heavy rain, blustery showers and overcast skies was the daily recipe.
But when I look back at last week, we did manage to spend some late afternoons enjoying the sunshine in our garden. It wasn't as nice at it has been two/three weeks ago, but the heavy downpours didn't arrive. We did have some rain, more a drizzle, too some days. Much needed rain for the garden.
What we did see in the distance were dark, angry clouds coming our way often, to take a left turn at the last moments.
Charing is located at the foot of the North Downs and not very far from the rolling hills of The Weald. Apparently in the most perfect location to avoid most of the downpours and worst of the weather forecast for the Eastern Regions. Located there where the weather fertilises the land/gardens best.
As business, in these stormy economical climates, it is the same. Find the location where you grow best, where you can take full advantage of fertilising circumstance.
Now I don't mean you have to physically pick up your business and (re)locate to a different location.
Sitting in our sunny garden last week, watching dark clouds being side-tracked in their path towards us again, made me aware of this metaphor. These thoughts could haven been triggered by another rather good month in turnover of course (and it's not even the end of May).
Like our garden and our village, you can't avoid a drizzle. But a drizzle might just be the right fertilising circumstance you need to brace yourself. Our garden is protected against the worst of the winds with high trees and a big robust building. And we protect ourselves against the colder days by wearing sweaters.
We still catch the most of the sunshine, even when a few clouds overcast the sun, because we are out there. We want to be out there too.
(Just some sunny ponderings)
The first tool in The WebMarketing ToolBox for Small Businesses is available!
The Best AWeber Strategies and Tactics for Small Businesses - maximise Permission Marketing.
The E-training/E-book is based on our own experiences and successful implementation of AWeber's auto repsonder for our ethical email marketing. As independent specialised (rural) retailer we now reach prospects and clients in the whole of the UK and even beyond. Our success rate?
90% confirm their subscription, only a hand full ever unsubscribe and we convert many subscribers into clients.
The Strategies we use (trial and error discoveries) and which are now available to you too:
READ MORE HERE....... (1 Plus 1 Makes 3 dynamic and interactive webiste - aka blog - my 'home' of The Webmarketing ToolBox for Small Businesses)
As you might know, Sunday mornings are for reading the Saturday Times in our home. In the business section my eye caught two little articles underneath the recap news headline: Economics.
1) Factory Gate Prices UP - 0.6 % in April, rose more sharply than expected. (Factory gate prices = goods going out of a factory.)
2) Manufacturers Costs Down - 1% in April to 5% lower than a year ago, in the steepest annual decline for 7 years. (Manufacturers Costs = goods going in a factory.)
Now that's what I call proper economics: increase your profit at both ends.
(Side-note: also in the Times this morning I read an article about poor customer care, big retailer blames manufacturer for poor serivce. Because it concerned flooring I turned it into a promotion post on Wood You Like's FAQ & News blog, see here. We're proud to be a small and independent retailer who takes customer care very serious!)
Yesterday Seth Godin kind of celebrated the fact his excellent book
"Permission Marketing - Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers"
saw the daylight exactly 10 years ago. With "kind of celebrating" I mean he wrote a short but interesting blog post about this fact. Between the lines you can read he is, rightly so, proud of the effect this principle has brought to the Internet:
"The biggest impact of Permission Marketing isn't that there is less spam. In fact, there's more, because it's so cheap. No, the biggest measurable impact is the growth of truly opt in marketing, from close to zero to a number big enough that we've all seen it and are part of it. Not just email lists, of course, but RSS feeds and yes, Google AdWords."
Our own business thrives on Permission Marketing, we utilise AWeber double opt-in autoresponder to grow our business in a sustainable way (and we are proud of the results of the conversations and the conversions we establish this way). The about to be launched The Best AWeber Strategies and Tactics for Small Businesses is absolute based on this principle.
Imagine my big surprise today to read a post by Justin Premick on AWeber's own blog: "Do Not Reply" Address? Don't Bother!
In his extraordinary article Justin mentions the fact that some of AWeber's account holders have the audacity (my word, to keep it nice - have other words in my head to describe the arrogance and complete ignorance on proper and sustainable marketing methods of some) to use a "Do-not-reply@" email address as sender.
How can you combine the two together: asking permission and as Angela Wills, one of the commenters on Justin's post rightly asks:
"I don’t like it. If I’ve subscribed to someone’s list and made MYSELF freely available to them whenever they feel like emailing me I think it’s common courtesy not to make me jump through hoops when I have a question to ask or a comment in reply to an email."
I left my own little rant in the comment box: using AWeber as marketing tool should be a two-way-traffic, otherwise why bother indeed to ask permission? Even if you have so many subscribers (leads, prospects all eager to hear from you, to buy from you) and you are 'afraid' you will be snowed under by emails filled with questions - or heaven forbid, enquiries to buy - why not delegate???
How can someone be so arrogant - no, make that stupid - not to understand how marketing works?
How can anyone, through your remarkable marketing messages, interested in buying your product be bothered to go the whole hog when you email from a "Do-not-reply" address? In my book that's like a: "Do-not-buy" address!
Fortunately I've never encountered such an email myself, but I guarantee you that if I ever do, the link to unsubscribe will be found and used very quickly!
(Rant over.)
Time to publicly answer some questions I've been receiving over the last few weeks:
AWeber is an online software program you can use for your email marketing. From sending out your email newsletter weekly, monthly or even daily to - sometimes even more effective - automating your sales messages through the autoresponder (follow-up) feature. It is a great marketing tool that delivers automatic e-mail responses, updates, offers, and instant messages.
AWeber's autoresponder puts an online OR offline business on Auto-Pilot. The Autoresponder works tirelessly, 24 hours a day / 7 days a week/ 365 days a year.
With the AWeber online software, you will be able to:
Why AWeber is so powerful:
Ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to subscriber inboxes is an increasingly difficult battle in the age of spam filtering. Open and click through response rates can be dramatically affected by as much as 20-30% due to incorrect spam filter classification.
Confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list is the number one step in the battle for deliverability. AWeber is using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the same person that owns the email address and requested to subscribe. Plus AWeber itself (their email server that sends out all your messages in your name) is White-listed - ensuring an almost 99.9% deliverability.
As small business in a niche market and followers of the Givers Gain principle I write a lot/create content about:
We use our FAQ blog, our website, PDF files, AWeber autoresponder and printed reports to 'publish' this content. And then I'm not even talking about my 'second career' over at "1 Plus 1 Makes 3", where I write about Web marketing tools for Small Businesses.
The programs I used before to create this content varied from MS Word to writing 'live' online in the blog platforms or autoresponder software. Copy/pasting directly from Word can create havoc with formatting, so frequently when I have existing content in one program I have to copy/paste it to notepad, then into the other software and 're-format'. Not so handy.
Since last year August I've been increasingly using ScreenSteps Pro (aff) from Blue Mango Learning Systems. In this single program I create that specific content I need for various methods of publishing: blog posts and PDF-files mainly. (Our growing list of wood-guides are created with it, and so are various short 'how to...lessons' for my blog-workshop students.)
The real beauty of ScreenSteps Pro (desktop) is that you only have to create your content once and are given at least 3 options to publish your content: PDF, blog-post (all main blog platforms covered) and HTML-pages. For instance one 'lesson' in a manual can be exported as blog-post where the whole manual can also be 'exported' as PDF file.
If for one reason or the other your content needs editing, the changed document/blog-post/html-page will be 'exported' to your selected medium again, overwriting the 'old' one.
The snapshot (right) of the export function in ScreenSteps Pro shows a 4 method - ScreenSteps Live.
ScreenSteps Live is an additional product with the Desktop that allows you to host your content in "manuals" on the ScreenSteps Live server. And a manual contain 'lessons'.
Now, "lessons" can be interpreted in many ways. For small businesses who answer questions from prospect/clients - the customer service or technical department comes to mind - it can be 'instructions of use', how to.. documentation, up to a whole list of FAQs. For training businesses - software training up to English grammar training - a lesson can be just that: a lesson in the study.
Imagine your customer service department having to answer the same question over and over again. Wouldn't it be nice, practical, effective, efficient and evidence of good customer care to simply direct the client to that specific lesson online? It is proven that correct and accurate documentation available to clients reduces the number of times your customer service department is called again by the same client still struggling with the same question.
The beauty of ScreenStepd Pro (desktop) and Live is that new lessons are created in no time at all and as soon as the lesson is ready it is uploaded and added to the index - with one simple click on a button: Export to...
Last week I've taken the step to add ScreenSteps Live to my SS Desktop, and today Blue Mango launched the ScreenSteps 2.5 Candidate - with more features, benefits and ease of use. Over at 1 Plus 1 Makes 3 I'm in the process of creating the Best AWeber Strategies and Tactics for Small Businesses and a pre-view of some of the tactics can be viewed on ScreenSteps Live by those who registered for my pre-launch news.
Both ScreenSteps Pro and ScreenSteps Live receive my very own K.i.S.S. award - it makes my live as 'web marketing toolbox maker' so much easier!
And what about the title of this post? It mentions (at least) 5 methods. The 5th method I discovered this morning: adding AWeber to the 'publishing' options of ScreenSteps Pro. But that, as they say, is a completely different story I will come back to later (and if you subscribe to the pre-launch news for the Best AWeber Strategies and Tactics for Small Businesses you will have a excellent chance to hear it sooner ;-))
Blue Mango Learning System will hold an 'early' webinar (early for the US, just after noon over here, thanks Greg) on ScreenSteps Desktop for new Users:
Tuesday 28 April 9am Eastern = 2pm BST
I've mentioned it here before: are you leaving the back door to your material (E-books, reports, white papers) or even products (software, access keys to online programs, training, studies) wide open to clever but dishonest web surfers?
Last week I asked AWeber users (over at the 1 Plus 1 Makes 3 blog) if they were willing to take part in a little survey about one part of the subscribers process: Default (AWeber's) or Custom (create you own on your website, blog) Thank You Page new subscribers are directed to once they submit their name and email address in the webform.
The results are - as they say- in: and shockingly 50% of contributors seem to do just that: leaving the back door wide open!
Read the complete post on the results and if you need a simple solution to close your back door you can request access to the preview lessons on The Best AWeber Strategies and Tactics for Small Businesses there too.
Through a contact in the LinkedIn Group Kent we learned about the Kent 2009 Ecommerce in Kent Awards. Our secure webshop is nominated (9th listing on the nominees page). The award is sponsored by Icelab.
Are we in with a chance? We might if we attract votes of course (hint, hint).
Perhaps I should tell you about the many products and accessories available in our web shop - all with their specific and informative product description, or about the 7 different delivery charges we have added - and which our clients can select themselves - instead of "one or two options suit all". Or the 4 different payment options we offer, from debit card to BAC's payment.
Perhaps this story will be in our favour? Two weeks ago our web shop received an order from one the largest wood-flooring manufacturers in Europe (at the moment we cannot tell you the name, nor the product they bought). We knew it would be used for a first test to see if this innovative finishing product would enhance their own products.
Delivery of the order was arranged in cooperation with the inventors of this eco-friendly product and within 7 days the goods were received in good order. We know this because we've checked on it - as focused on customer relationship businesses do. With the positive answer also came the request for a quotation for a very large quantity of the same product. And of course we will do our utmost best to give our best quotation for mutual benefit.
We are 'only' a small retailer in rural Kent UK, our secure web shop attracts (repeat) business not only from Kent, South East England, the whole of England, Scotland and Wales, in other words the whole of the UK - but also from renowend large corporations in Northern Europe (other retailers normally sell their products - are client, not supplier).
In with a chance? Can I ask you kindly to vote for us?
If so, why not join the LinkedIn Group "Kent" and work, network, discuss and share news with other Kent located (small) businesses? It is a lively group with plenty of discuss topics weekly.
Contacts are made easily, no matter if you're looking for new contacts, leads, clients or quality suppliers or advisers. At the moment there are 135 members already but the more the merrier of course.
Through the group I've already come in contact (by starting a "discussion") with a regional National Trust and with two independent Kent based Estate Agents. Introductions like these make growing your business more easy.
The title of the book I'm going to recommend below is too long to put in the title of the post, but here goes:
"How to Fill your Small Business with Non-Stop Customers, Money, Success and Growth... Leave Every Single one of your Competitors Scratching their Head to the Bone.. and Create Great, Great Personal Wealth Quickly!"
by Paul Gunter and Andrew Shorten.
Don't let the modern long title fool you, or come to think of it, the 'volume' of the book - 'only' 80 pages.
It is a good read, simple and straight forward. It contains one of my all time favourite quotes: "Good Fortune is what happens when planning meets opportunity". (You do make your own luck.)
Although thin (what's 80 pages nowadays, my own début business novel contains 168) and happily without any 'credit-crunching' references like we seem to be bombarded with today, I would even go so far as to state:
It's "Good to Great" in a nutshell.
And it is (still) offered for free, no catches. (Just a tiny fee for P&P and it is delivered extremely quickly too, mine arrived 1 day after claiming my own free copy)
The affiliate image explains it all: I love AWeber ;-) (What else is new I hear you ask).
Last year I started creating a Guide on AWeber for small businesses, but early on realised I'd selected a medium for it that wasn't really effective. The first part - of a total planned 5 parts - contained a 59 minute long Camtasia video. The problem: two weeks after I launched part 1 AWeber changed - many items for the better - the lay-out, options and plenty more in the program, rendering my 59 minute video out of date immediately.
Part 2 to 5 were never 'recorded'. Since January this year I've been working on an AWeber guide again, but this time in a 'upgrade' proof medium. The e.t.a. of this guide: The Best AWeber Strategies and Tactics for Small Businesses is end of this month.
Over at my 1 Plus 1 Makes 3 dynamic and interactive website (aka blog) I've already published two articles about the coming new guide:
When 'failure' turns into innovation = win-win (explaining more about the 'failure' of last years attempt)
and today:
There's more to the submit forms that meets the eye - one single form to drive multiple AW lists.
In both articles you can submit your name and email address to be kept up to date on more news about the imminent launch.
The more the 'Credit Crunch' seems to bite, the more the blame-game is being played.
It's the banks.
No, it's the hedge-fund manager.
The short sellers are to blame.
The Government should have send the regulators in way earlier I say.
It's the cheap import, we can't compete any more!
No, it's the number of immigrants taking over our jobs.
How about the property developers, they forced up the house prices way too high in the first place, all for a quick buck.
The shareholders - they are to blame!
How refreshing is it then to read the article by Sir Jonathan Sacks (Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth) in this Saturday's Times, putting his finger on the real issue IMHO:
Morals: the one thing markets don't make - No amount of regulation will restore our sense of honour and shame. Economics needs ethics
"Often, these past months, I have found myself going back to one of the most painful conversations I have had. It was with one of Britain's leading industrialists. He had led his company to consistent success for decades. When I met him he had retired and was near the end of his life.
He was not a religious man but he was a deeply moral one. He spoke of the principles that had guided him in business and of the salary he had drawn. It was not negligible, but it was modest. What pained him was that his successor had awarded himself a salary ten times that amount, while systematically destroying the company he had so carefully built."
"Common to these stories is the gradual disappearance of the cluster of principles that went by the name of morality. Whatever its source - religion, conscience, custom or code - it meant that there are certain things you don't do because they are not done."
"Somehow, between the 1960s and 1980s the idea prevailed that we could
do without the moral sense. Who needed it any more? In the 1960s we
thought that the State would take care of our problems. In the 1980s we
thought that the market would. Self-imposed restraints were dismissed
as outmoded and killjoy. Greed was good. The guy with the most toys
when he dies, wins."
(I'll hope you will read the whole article!)
He ends his marvellous and full of - for some hurting - truths article (rant?) with this pondering question:
The big question is: how do we learn to be moral again? Markets were made to serve us; we were not made to serve markets. Economics needs ethics. Markets do not survive by market forces alone. They depend on respect for the people affected by our decisions. Lose that and we lose not just money and jobs but something more significant still: freedom, trust and decency, the things that have a value, not a price.
I sincerely hope we go back to 'the old times' where ethical and honest common sense principles of "doing good for the long-term benefit of all of us" wasn't even thought about: it was just there.
In every dealing you do, in every contact/contract you make.
It seems to be forgotten by most, traded in for short term individual benefit. Let's take that pledge again and work ethical on/for the long term benefits and value for all. It is really simple to do - just give it a decent try.
You'll at least sleep better tonight.
An ad yesterday made me wonder:
The product - in this case the new Miele S7 - comes with something extra: optional 10 year warranty.
Checking their own website one of the features (benefit?) states:
Long Term Reliability: the S7 has been designed and tested for a life of 1000 working hours, that's up to 20 years use!
So what's up with this optional 10 year warranty? (Extra cost of £ 30.00)
A product is promoted - guaranteed? - to last at least 10 years, according to their own statement even up to 20 years - or it is not.
Buy it without the optional extra costs of warranty and it is guaranteed to break down within 10 years time?
Social Media is a funny thing, you meet all kinds of people world wide. Sometimes it's a Social Media Tool you share, sometimes it's a marketing method you both are implementing and want to compare results, and sometimes because - no matter where in the wide world the other is based - you work in the same type of business/trade.
That's how Christine B. Whittemore and I met - well, through a combination of reasons, the Z-list from end 2006 and the fact both our main blogs are about flooring:
Beginning this month CB asked me the following questions - as part of her weekly blog series: "Social Media bridging old and new" (and according to CB it also falls in the "Flooring It Differently" category):
I did warn her about my inability to keep things short (I keep things simple, that should be obvious ;-)) - did I 'floor the consumer'?
You decide, and do say hello to CB when your there.
Last week - as most of all weeks - the news was filled with doom and gloom stories about the economy, the recession, the redundancies, the closures and struggling businesses.
But hurray, there was one significant Green Shoot the journalists did dare to report - always wonder when they too realise we're kinda fed up with doom and gloom stories, I hear from more they don't really turn on the TV to watch the news lately.
When Woolsworths - a dinosaur institution - closed the last of its 807 shop early January was this really due to the recession or, as my insertion mentions, had it become too old, too rigid, too stuck in its ways to survive the changes of this Millennia?
(In Ashford there used to be a Woolworths too, brown lino on the floor and rows of just a little bit of everything. From cd's, clothes, small electrical goods, cutlery and linen to books and toys - never sure I think of its target market.)
It seems the shop manager of "Woollies" in Dorchester had no intentions to let things end this way - as things had ended for most dinosaurs. There is still life in the beast I presume she thought, if the beast adepts to the modern times (there are still offspring of dinosaurs around too).
"Dorchester always was a profitable shop, even though the company wasn't."
With backing from financiers she re-opened the old location of Woollies in Dorchester, changed the name to "Wellworth" - adding a catch phrase: well worth the money" - which now already has been nicknamed "Wellies" and kept the best bits of the dinosaur, those bits the local customers liked. Familiar items and familiar faces:
Pick & Mix and more importantly re-employed 20-22 of her old staff (in the news report I watch some of the employees shed a tear of joy and pride no doubt!).
But no more cd's, dvd's or clothing. Claire Robertson has filled "Wellies" with more locally produced lines: pet and craft section and wooden toys.
This local focus in products will no doubt support not just her shop but more businesses in the region: now that's got to be a win-win situation in anyones book!
So, well done "Wellies" and all the best! Go for it!
(sources: Brournemouth Echo and Daily Start)
In these days of online conversations - aka Social Media Tools - many businesses are engaging with their prospects and clients on the Internet. Through blogs - which I prefer to call dynamic and interactive web sites = "blog-sites" - YouTube, Facebook, MyBlogLog, LinkedIn, various forums and Twitter.
In December and January I dipped my toes in the Twitter world, in search for mini conversations: twittering or tweeting to followers in 140 characters. And on 21 January I had enough and 'untweeted' myself. The post I wrote about it focussed on what I experienced as seeing only one side of the conversation. I didn't get it.
February saw an avalanche of white papers, blog-articles, free reports and even handbooks on how Twitter is working for so many businesses. And as many of you know I'm never averse of publishing comments left, right and center about my own experiences. The avalanche became so thick and quick I almost decide I didn't even want to 'get it'.
This decision was halted at the end of last week.
Martin Malden - the WealthyDragon - wrote: "Is Twitter the New List?" on his blog Creating an Awesome Home Business. And low and behold, someone else had already left a comment that reflected my own feelings towards the subject.
"I can see this approach working for a very large company. It’s free and easy to blast a short message to throngs of people. If they pick up on it, great. If not, who cares?
For a home business, this just isn’t the case. You’re trying to establish deeper relationships with less people and I just don’t see that happening in 140 characters. Quality versus quantity."
Chris O - Referral Key - Your Trusted Referral Network
I followed suit with my own comments on list building. And a very interesting discussion started, listing experiences and 'tactics' about using Twitter for list building.
The 'tactics' - in the best meaning of the word - Martin listed made me think. Specially when he talked about using Twitter's search function on specific keywords to find other Twitters asking questions on subjects Martin feels he can help with.
So, what if you forget about Twitter as "conventional" Age of Conversation Tool and use it as a "finding Tool" for those in need of your expertise? The search on keywords can be rss-feeded into any 'blog-reader'.
Instead of watching the one side of conversations of those you follow, you use Twitter to contact the Twittee (?) who asked the question. You offer help in the form of a link to an article, blog-post or even, as Martin frequently does, write a whole new article/post to address the question.
Now, that's in my 'conventional' web-marketing eyes a perfect way to build a list and start a conversational relationship with new leads, prospects and clients in more than one way and in more than 140 characters. Twitter as start, not as "only on".
Don't you just love it when inventions turn into an innovation
"So are you saying that invention is merely the creation of some technology, but that the innovation is the idea of applying it to a previously unexploited market?"
Arthur M Gallagher
I can see that work for every small business: turning the invention Twitter, the mini-blog tool, into the innovation for finding those in need of your expertise/knowledge/experiences and as start of the relationship building conversation. Now that's what I do get.
You know what's funny (in my eyes at least)? I only realised this through an 'old fashion' multi-contributors discussion in the comment box of Martin's blog. Would the same have happened through mini-blogs of 140 characters?
Next project: setting up a new Twitter account for Wood You Like and we'll be in search for those needing help on all matters related to wooden flooring. Our FAQ & News site (aka business blog) has plenty of useful articles already we can direct them to and if needed we will write a special post for the answer.
Copy-writing and marketing should be focused more on benefits of a product or service than on features. We've all been taught this by many experts and gurus: your lead/prospect/client is tuned in to WII.FM: What's In It For Me.
So we talk about saving time and effort of cleaning a wooden floor compared to carpets; about increasing the value of your home when you install wooden flooring instead of carpets etc.
And then sometimes you watch a TV-commercial - I love watching commercials - that miss-fires on benefits.
Yes, I know we had some inches of snow lately - almost crippling UK's logistics - but how often a year does that happen? Is 'snow-motion' traction control really the most important benefit you are looking for in a new car?
Citroen thinks it is:
Does your benefit marketing ever miss-fire?
Being owner of several dynamic and interactive websites (aka blogs), all with its own specific goal and specific readers you sometimes wonder if an article you wrote on one contains also information readers of one of your other blogs could find interesting and useful too?
Now, I'm not in the habit of doing this (often), but can I redirect you to this post here?
"Are you re-inventing your own wheel?"
on the "1 Plus 1 Makes 3 - where combined expertise gives you triple value" blog-site?
When I watched the news yesterday evening one question came to mind:
Banks are known to pay big bonuses, banks are known to market themselves as trustworthy institutions where it is safe to leave your money.
Banks now also are known to receive/ask taxpayers rescue packages.
Would you leave your money in the hands of a bank, who - cap in hand - asked for Government funds/guarantees (taxpayer's money - our money) to survive but still pay those big bonuses?
Or would you trust a bank who sends out a clear marketing message:
I wonder who will be the first to use the binning of bonuses for long term branding result.
Most of us know and use scarcity to attract prospect/clients. A time limited offer is one option.
Dreams is holding Britain's largest ever bed sale which ends today - Monday! (09.02.09)
Last weekend (31.01.09 and 01.02.09) TV commercials told us that Dreams was holding Britain's largest bed sale every which must end that Monday (02.02.09)
The weekend before TV commercials told us that Dreams is holding Britain's largest bed sale every which must end that Monday (26.01.09)
Before that in the weekend of 17 and 18 January 2009 TV commercials announced Britain's largest bed sale ever by Dreams which must end that Monday (19.01.09)
If memory serves I saw a TV commercial the first weekend of 2009 - I guess you know what it was all about. Scarcity.
Would you hurry?
Seth Godin states the following:
Here's why people liked the telegraph: It was universal, inexpensive, asynchronous and it left a paper trail.
The telephone offered not one of these four attributes. It was far from universal, and if someone didn't have a phone, you couldn't call them. It was expensive, even before someone called you. It was synchronous--if you weren't home, no call got made. And of course, there was no paper trail.
If the telephone guys had set out to make something that did what the telegraph does, but better, they probably would have failed."
Hmm, am of a different opinion.
When a telegram came into the telegraph office someone had to deliver the message physically. Then someone thought of the idea: why not create a system to notify someone a telegram for them has arrived in the telegraph office so they can come and collect it themselves. Then we have also a better chance - opportunity - to telegraph their answer straight away (instead of the receiver perhaps writing a letter in reply if the messages wasn't too urgent, who wants to walk all the way back to the telegraph office to have the reply send out when it is not an urgent matter?).
That's, according to myth, why and how the telephone was invented: to make life easier for the telegraph office (and create more 'selling' opportunities).
However, someone else saw a different 'use' for this new invention: why send a telegram through the telegraph office when you can relay the message yourself, and get an answer straight away?
It's the new (better) use of the telephone that destroyed the telegraph, not the invention itself.
What other 'invention' do you know of was officially created for something but turned into a completely different 'innovation'?
Last week social media contacts - friends - brought me some jewels of quotes:
Dawid Miracle published this one
(Dawid helps Building Successful Websites for Independent Professionals and Small Business Owners and co-founded The Advisory Gym on Facebook)
Long standing friend Kent Blumberg brought us this one - which made me chuckle
(Kent is an Executive coach: Catalyzing your Growth and and organises tele-seminars on "networking for the shy and not-so-shy".
Happy New Year! Chinese New Year that is and welcome the year of the Ox.
The second sign in the Chinese Zodiac stands for pragmatic attitudes, hard work and perseverance.
Does sound like characteristics we will be needing this year more than ever.
You could ask: if it hadn't been for so many yielding to temptation for short-term gains the last few years, we wouldn't be in this recession any way.
All the above 'quotes' are from various 'Chinese horoscope' sites, some from International known online newspapers.
I don't know if you believe in star signs, Western or Chinese, or believe in the 'Predictions' this Chinese New Year will bring. I'll leave that with you, but it does make interesting if not somehow positive reading.
Greetings from an 'Ox' (and double Capricorn - so if you ever wonder why I can be so very stubborn sometimes, blame my signs
)
Recent Comments