kiss2

A true calling for the Dragons Den?

Yesterday saw the return of one of my favourite programs on BBC 2: Dragons Den.

And boy, were we in for a treat! The program makers left the best for last: Steve Smith with his "True Call" a 'cold-call' blocking system with a difference. Most phone companies have 'services' you can use to block certain numbers but these will block callers indifferently and will cost you between £ 3.50 - £ 4.00 per month.

The "True Call" is a device which is (at the moment) plugged in between the phone socket and your phone and screens every incoming call. Meaning you as user have multiple options when the phone rings. If the caller is on your 'friends list' the call is let straight through to your phone, if the caller is 'unknown' the True Call will ask him/her to identify themselves and then gives you, the user, 4 options:

1. accept the call 
2. accept the call and add number to the 'friend list'
3. direct the call to an answer machine
4. Zap the caller

During the demonstration Steve Smith did just that and the cold-caller hears a 'standard' message we are all eager to be able to tell one of those callers:

"We're not interested in your call. Please hang up and don't call again"

in the most cold voice you can imagine. It had the Dragons in stitches too.

It was a great pitch, straight forward and to the point. And then it became even more interesting due to the almost eager reactions of the Dragons to get a 'piece of the action'. 

It does not happen often in the Den what happened yesterday - or at least was broadcasted yesterday, today saw plenty of very surprised tweets about how quickly the product seemed to be available in the shops.

There in front of 5 of the most renowned Entrepreneurs UK has come to know (and appreciate) stood an entrepreneur with a proven track-record, a proven product, an almost perfect pitch and a believable financial forecast asking for an investment of £100.000 for 7.5% equity.
They almost tripped over each other to get in.

James Caan set the benchmark by offering 1/2 for 12.5% - Deborah Meaden went straight over him by offering the full amount for 12.5%.
Duncan Bannatyne was really clever IMHO to simply state he would underwrite every offer made by Peter Jones (who as we all know is THE man to have as Dragon for any product even just slightly related to tele-communication).
Peter did indeed make it known that he could add the most value most quickly and offered the full amount for 15% or would share 3 ways with Duncan and James.
Then Theo Pathitis threw in his retail acumen: he could have UK distribution in seconds and matched Deborah's offer.

I'm not going to spoil it any further for those who haven't seen it yet, just watch the 13 minute video of the broadcast here. I must confess I was sitting on the edge of my seat at the end - which offer would this proven entrepreneur go for?

In all the years I've been watching Dragons Den it is rare to see a fight like this and offers in so quick (and so low!).

One thing that did cross my mind at the end was: which cold call business will find a 'cure' for the True Call blocker?
And that my friends, is what keeps the economical world turn round and round and round:

act and counteract

Dear AWeber

Dear AWeber

Greetings from a big fan of your autorespond and email marketing software. Your functionality enables our business to start an ethical and long-term conversation with those prospects who opt-in to receive information about many of our ranges. It even enables prospects to request personalised advice on any subject of our trade they can't find quickly enough on our site or anywhere else online. We can even use you as instant delivery vehicle of "how-to wood-guides" in combination with Paypal secure payments. And everyone on our many retails business lists receive our monthly newsletter when we broadcast it every first Monday of the month.

Because of its functionality and ease to use I'm also using your software for my second career business 1 Plus 1 Makes 3, where combined expertise gives you triple value. There you are, amongst other usages, also the instant delivery vehicle of the E-training I created on "The Best AWeber Strategies and Tactics for Small Businesses".

For this Kiss2, the 1plus1makes3 and our retail FAQ & News blogs you alert subscribers when a new article (post) has been published so no one misses out on news, be it on new ranges in our retail business, on business and marketing books I've been reading or software programs that can make small business life simpler and effective.

And recently we're sponsoring our village community by hosting and managing the CharingKent website and use your software to inform every local business and villager of all the activities that take place in our lovely Kent village.

All in all we are very happy with your software, your first class deliverability and your excellent support team. Since recently I and others can even tweet with you in 140 characters at a time and receive a relevant tweet back.
There is however one thing that would make my life - and I'm sure many other AWeber account holders who use your software for more than one purpose (various departments, locations, targeted groups and/or volunteer work) - even more simple. Explaining this in 140 characters won't do in this case I'm afraid, hence this 'old-fashion' format of a blog post.

The last time I counted our AWeber account contains 23 lists for our retail business, 7 for 1 Plus 1 Makes 3 and 2 for other purposes. No doubt this will continue to grow - a new division in our retail business is about to be launched. For every single list I have to fill in the From/Reply email address and name, the Company branding details and global fields with specific signature per purpose. I know it doesn't sound like much, but I would be very grateful if you could make this task more simpler.

 Can't you give us 'department defaults' options where the above details are filled in only once per department (business, organisation, purpose)? And then in the List Settings you give us the option to select either

• Use "Department defaults" - with a drop down menu to select which department the new list belongs to and which then fills in the From/Reply address and name, the Company branding details and the Global Fields automagically
• Or create list specific details and manually fill in the above settings.

I've come to know AWeber as very tuned in to its clients and always willing to improve the software. So could you do me and I still believe many others this favour?

Yours truly

Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

In the world of free, everyone can play.

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":

• perceived value of free advice: if it's free there is hardly any commitment to implement the free advice, no matter who gives it out
• perceived value of that one single precious item that will never be infinite: time.

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).

Off line business activities online, recap of last week

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?

Two combined principles that'll make your business (life) more efficient

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:

1. Delete (or archive)
2. Delegate
3. Respond with one effective answer
4. Defer - when you need time to make sure the answer you do give is as effective as possible
5. Do - immediate action such as buy the product, schedule the meeting, phone the sender etc

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: The Devil's in the simple Details

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.

I'm very interested in Best AWeber Strategies and Tactics for Small Businesses Send me more inside information
Name:
Email:
Your details will never be divulged to anyone else - I hate spam as much as you do!

(Post origins: 1 Plus 1 Makes 3 blog)

THE Multiple Media Publishing Machine - ScreenSteps Desktop Pro

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:

1. PDF - per lesson, per a handful of selected lessons and per manual (= collection of lessons)
2. HTML - per lesson, per handful of selected lessons and per manual
3. ScreenSteps Live (when added to your account, for a monthly low fee, to create an instant and growing FAQ or Users Manual online - see the preview of The AWeber Strategies and Tactics for Small Businesses as example)
4. Blog/web - per lesson into WordPress, Movable Types and Typepad blogs
5. Word 2007 - per lesson, per handful of selected lessons and per manual (including, like with all the manual export options, a TOC)

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

• written 7 wood-guides (4 as digital products),
• plenty of product leaflets
• and instructions of use for our Wood You Like prospects and clients
• I've combined leaflets and guides in complete E-books with a simple drag and drop of existing lessons 
• for all the blogs I manage I've used the blog export method
• Over at 1 Plus 1 Makes 3 I've used it to write lessons for my blog workshop students,
• created a complete E-training on AWeber and more E-trainings in the pipeline.
• Even without the ScreenSteps Live addition I can turn these trainings into E-books or password protected blogs/websites

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 Best AWeber Strategies & Tactics for Small Businesses - maximise Permission Marketing!

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)

Or buy now: £ 47.00 E-training - never out of date!

Economics?

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!)

Permission Marketing with no-reply?

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.)