Month: July 2009

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Are You Choosing Your Customers Wisely?

I have to say my title sounds funny doesn’t it, don’t customers chose you and not the other way around? Well, the reality is that as part of the selling process you should be evaluating if a customer is right for you too. It’s a “dance”, they check you out, but you should also be checking out your prospect as well.

As an Christian business woman I look for opportunities where I am the best match for a client based on their needs and based on the services and products they sell. I simply will not take on a project where goods or services that are sold do not square with my values and I will even pass a client who has a questionable online reputation. If online reviews trash a potential customer and their business practices most likely a rocky business relationship with you will be created as well.

Recently, I’ve had an even more unusual situation of a high profile felon pursuinge my firm for services. Yes, we are niche providers and we are specialists in several important areas, but we will never trade our integrity or lower our standards of what we promote and who we select to promote for money.

My business model has always been to provide the best service possible at a fair price, but passing on certain business sectors as not being consistant with a Christian lifestyle. I had one situation where a man wanted us to promote his “player” dating site where he gave tips to men on how to “play” multiple women at the same time – pass. I had another who wanted us to promote a dating website and when I looked at the site it was soft core pornography featuring women from Peru – pass. Another prospect wanted us to promote male organ enlargement vitamin pills – pass.

One thing that I have learned over the years is that my firm is not a good match for every customer and for every need. Some things that prospects sell or want to promote simply do not square with my values. So, as part of my initial conversation with all clients I check to see if they are a good choice for us. If they are not there is no amount of money that will change my mind. (The male organ enlargement pill seller offered $25,000 and I still said no!)

I have found that once you compromise your integrity once it will be easier to compromise yourself again and again. So, as part of the selling “dance” I am reviewing a prospect too. Clearly, the end decision rests with the prospect on whether they employ us for a project or not, but we still work to chose our customers wisely in the initial conversation.

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Bing is Testing Out Indexing Twitter Posts

Bing is testing out indexing Twitter posts – not just the Twitter profile page as Google does, but actual Twitter posts, or tweets, as they are known. This is important news and just one more really important reason why Twitter is so important to add to a web presence arsenal in today’s business environment.

Tweets can point to information on your website, outside articles you have written, or industry links and videos. If Bing does roll out massive tweet indexing it will be a real boon for search engine marketeers and spin Twitter use into the stratosphere. Right now Bing appears to be testing the indexing of tweet for only specific Twitter accounts.  

If there has ever been a reason for you to embrace Twitter this is a big one! I have long expected that the interest in Twitter would continue to grow, not only for marketing, but for search engine optimization. I still feel that eventually Google will try to gobble up Twitter this year, but Twitter may end up standing on its own as Facebook has.

As an early embracer of the Twitter medium, I totally “get it” when it comes to Twitter. I really love the application, post frequently during the work week, and love to share, connect, link, and interact with others online on Twitter. I have been able to connect directly with giants in my industry using Twitter, and on top of that, I consider it huge fun.

One of the real values of Twitter is the ability to “know fast”. I knew Michael Jackson and Farrah had died before it was on any of the mainstream news medias. All because of Twitter. I can follow topics and events from around the world. I have experienced the “push” that Twitter can bring for viral marketing myself – picking up 100 new followers on a mini white paper that I did that was then tweeted and retweeted widely in the Twitterverse.

If Bing and then Google decide to roll out indexing tweets, watch out! For all hot new things that are just appearing to be ready to crest, it is best to get involved early and get involved before the curve hits. Twitter is just that appearing to be ready to crest. If you are not on Twitter it is time to think again.

If you really don’t know where to start we do offer a Twitter set up program and ghost twittering program, but really with a little research and time investment you can do it on your own. Just do a search on our blog and website for Twitter and you will find a wealth of information on how you can get started with Twitter and the great applications that help you use Twitter effectively.

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Concrete Marketing Recommendations for Business Startups

I get asked a lot for help in regards to what a new business startup should do to develop a web presence and what provides the biggest return for investment. To help answer this question as concisely as possible, without you having to pay me a consulting fee, I have tried to share my insights in this blog post.

1. Purchase a great content-rich professionally designed website

I have to say if you do not have a great website, and I am not talking about one your kid sister made, or one created using a GoDaddy template, then you will not be able to convey the professionalism that you need to convey to create confidence in yourself or your products to potential customers. Many startups come to me asking why they do not generate sales and when I look at their website it appears that they are operating on a shoe string. The Web is a great equalizer. Your business startup website can make your business appear to be large, established, and successful if it reflects true professionalism in content and in design. This is one of the most critical expenses that any new business startup should invest in. You may choose to work with our firm for a custom website or a Quick Launch website or select another web design firm, but you must have a good-looking professional appearing web presence.

2. Get involved immediately with Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter

You’ve got to get the word out about yourself once you have a website. By updating your status and posting information, sharing and interacting online at a minimum of three times a day on these various sites you start to build an online presence, get authority links to point to your new website and inside content, and start to establish yourself as a contender in your industry. I have reviewed many social networking sites and these are the ones where I invest my own time (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn). I recommend in some cases setting up accounts under your own name as the business owner. I do not have one profile for business and one for pleasure. Small businesses need to just get involved with social networking and typically some of your very first customers will be friends, family, and social contacts.

If you take the attitude that social networking is a time pit and worthless, you will be woefully wrong and out of the loop. In fact the more you involve yourself in these endeavors with the attitude that you are sharing and providing information and not looking particularly to sell, the more fun you will have and the more fruitful the connections will become.

I have closed sales from social networking contacts. It does happen, really. But if you watch any of the networking I do myself you will see that I am open, sharing, providing information on a wide variety of topics and soft selling my own services only occasionally. I do not use social networking as a brochure or lead generation opportunity, but yet it has worked to bring me business over time.

3. Get started on Google AdWords

If you have the budget you really want your very next step to be advertising your products and services on Google AdWords. Don’t waste money at this point on Yahoo, MSN adCenter, Yoddle or other pay per click enterprises. Concentrate on AdWords. If you cannot afford a professional account manager such as myself, then get started using the simple to use Google AdWords Starter version. If you are advertising your services to a national audience be prepared to spend anywhere from about $1.25 to $3.50 or so per click (some businesses will pay much more). Don’t go into this expecting to pay $.05 per click and set $150 per 30 days as your monthly budget. Allocate $500 to $800 for the first 30 days of clicks and set your maximum click cost to a “market reasonable” setting. Make sure you set up special landing pages for your ad group themes and have conversion tracking installed. Review your program often to make sure that your money is working for you and is an investment in the future not an expense.

4. Build great content on your website under your domain name using a blog

Now we’re moving into maintenance mode on your website. You must be adding to and growing your web presence over time to attract search engine robots, improve your placement organically, and to provide opportunities for readers to connect with you. There is no better way to do this than using a blog. Blogs build website traffic, allow for keyword dense topics to be discussed and housed under your domain name, and build “web authority” for your site over time. It is not necessary for you to have a professional blogger write for you. Although we offer this service, there is no replacement for your insights as the business owner, but you must be a consistent writer however and provide interesting on-topic information and resources in your blog posts.

5. Focus on customer service in all you do

I have found when I first started out that it was easy to do the work, but hard to find someone to pay for it. Here is where top notch customer focused customer service is key for a new business startup. You must provide free information and help initially to prospects, then move them to a paying customer status, and then finally  make sure that you do everything possible to satisfy them. My own business started out solely as a word of mouth referral service and now earns a six figure income. When you build your base on happy customers, rewarding referrals, and provide real advise and value to customers, your business will grow.

If you have other recommendations for a business startup, just leave your comments to this post below. I’d love to see what you think is important.

If you feel that you need a more personalized plan and review of your own business’ current statistical information we do provide consulting services for $90 per hour.  Much of the information on what you can do and how to do it however is provided as free content on our website and blog, so we invite you to dig deeper and browse our content. You’re sure to find a wealth of information in both locations.

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Our Blog Writers Are So Good – Our Blog Posts Make It Into Books

We have some excellent blog writers – real quality people and outstanding creative writers. In fact some of our writers are so good that clients ask if they can include our blog pieces in their books. In fact we’ve had two incidents lately where this has happened.

I have to say it is flattering when this happens but is troubling to me as well. We pay our writers typical blog writing rates for blog posts. I have to say it can be good money for a prolific blogger but is certainly not a way to get rich by being a writer. Web content and book writing is typically paid at a significantly higher rate normally $75 to $125 per hour including research time or even $1 per word. It rubs me the wrong way when we have a client take blog posts and pass them off as their own writing in a book and then make a large profit on the book without looking back.

It seems incredibly unfair to the writer and in fact simply does not square with me when this happens. I work hard to help our writers be productive, learn great technique, and make money blogging. If I get more money, I share with them. Their hard work is our success story and we create a partnership with each writer to help them be all they can be and to receive fair compensation for what they do for us in a great work environment.

Based on this new query of book  use, I will be putting a clause in our letter of agreement that blog posts may not be used for books. Our writers simply must receive more compensation when a written piece is used in a professional arena such as a book or professional magazine.

One other big issue to consider for clients to just take blog posts and compile a book from them (one actually told us) is that we reserve the right to use the content we create for marketing and promotional purposes, as we see fit on our website. If a client takes blog post content and passes it off as their writing in a book, it is highly possible that on a Google search the same content will turn up on our website stating that we are the writer in our sample content section. For a high profile book this could be potentially embarrassing for an author.

It is by far better to be upfront with us,  negotiate fair payment for what you will using content for. This way you will not be hurting yourself or your reputation in the future if you are suddenly outed with not having written your own content for your own book. Just my thought for the day. you may agree or may not.