Hi, thought I’d do something different today and do a Video Blog (or Vlog as they are called).

Enjoy!

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

I now have a Mobile Marketing Channel:

Just text

To:  90210

Message:  successpoint

to subscribe to Trina’s Monday Morning Marketing Tips

Every Moday morning, right to your cellphone, you’ll get a short marketing tip that you can use right away to market your business.  How fun is that?  Subscribe today!

Tweet This Post

WOW! That’s all I could say after I heard the results.  Twelve inquiries and 3 sales of a downloadable e-book from a series of classified ads – that was pretty good for just about three hours of work.  I had almost forgotten completely about classifed ads until I was speaking with a small business owner who uses them regularly — but now I’m beginning to use them for my own business, and helping more clients plug into this little marketing success secret.

Online classified ads are a very simple, but often overlooked, marketing technique to get your business message out.  It is easy, it is inexpensive, and a recent study showed that 47% of all internet users browse at least one classified ad site a week. It takes a little bit of time to register and submit your ad to alot of sites, but if your competitors AREN’T taking full advantage of those potential inquiries, you may want to consider at least testing a few sites to see what happens.  Some of the sites offer a paid submission service and it is my understanding that for a winning ad, it pays to use a submission service.  But don’t do it until you are convinced the ad will pull in response.  No reason to pay to have a non-performing ad mass distributed.

Besides generating sales and inquiries, another great use for classified ads is testing of offers, headlines, and messages.  You’d be better off failing to connect with customers with a classified than with a pay-per-click ad.  Many of the top internet sellers use classified ads merely as a testing ground before they launch a PPC campaign.  Put out several different versions of ads and see which ones garner the most response.  Then keep tweaking the ad until you have the best ad you can make.  Then transfer it to a pay-per-click campaign, and you’ll likely see better response than if you had started with PPC.

As with all online marketing strategies, you need to use target keywords in your ads.  Most classified ad sites are searchable, so make sure you are using words your potential customers are looking for.  And yes, major search engines like Google and Yahoo scan the classified ad sites and will note your backlink. 

Try to grab attention of your readers.  Funny or odd subject lines that cause people to stop and go “Huh?” often work.  I recently stopped and read an ad with the headline “If a frog asked you to go to the movies, would you say Yes?”  It caught my attention at least. 

Here are some of the bigger Free Classified sites that you may want to try:

• http://www.inetgiant.com
• http://www.ecki.com/links/advert.shtml
• http://www.usfreeads.com
• http://www.boconline.com
• http://www.craigslist.com
• http://www.kijiji.com
• http://www.backpage.com
• http://www.sell.com 
• http://classifieds.excite.com
• http://classifieds.yahoo.com

 Each site has their loyal following, so you have to research a little to find out where your product or service would perform the best, but it’s worth trying.

Good luck and let me know if you have had any classified ad success stories.

Here’s to your success,

Trina

P.S.  Special Offer:  I’ll write 5 versions of a classified ad and submit them to all ten of the classified ad sites listed above for only $100.00.  That’s 50 submitted ads.  What’s your time worth?   If you are interested, please email me at Trina@SuccessPointConsulting.com.

Tweet This Post

Congratulations!  You’ve now thought about keywords and should be beginning to see the impact they can have on your online success.  But doing the research is only half the puzzle — now you have to use them. 

The first step is to review of your list of potential keywords  and keyword phrases and pick the one or two, but no more than three, of them to target.  You may have a list of 25 potentially dynamite keywords, but you cannot effectively go after all of them at once.  For each keyword or keyword phrase, think about how you would use it in a headline or sentence.  Sometimes keywords pop up that have a decent number of searches and almost no competition — because they are almost impossible to use in regular language.  You can choose to target those — but understand that it will make your job just that much tougher.

Before you do anything else, pull up a Google search box and type in the keywords or keyword phrases you have chosen.  Make note of the top ten results.  You want to be one of them within the next 60 to 90 days (or sooner).

Now get to work on your copy.  If you have a traditional website, ideally, all three keywords will appear on your website’s home page:  include all of your keywords at the top of the page; put at least one keyword or phrase in a headline or a subhead; at least one or possibly even two of your keywords or phrases should be in the first paragraph of the page; and make sure you add at least one in the last paragraph of the page.  If you can make the targeted phrase a logical hyperlink to another page in your site, Google will give you bonus points in your search rankings.  Note:  Make sure your keywords are in text, not artwork.  If your headlines and subheads are graphics and not text, Google may ignore them.

Make sure you include one, two, or all three of your targeted keywords in your page’s title and meta description and of course, include them in your web headers as meta keywords.  You can target different keywords on different pages of your website if each page is indexed separately.  That may be a little advanced for a basic website, but it’s something to keep in mind.

If you are using a WordPress or other blog format as your platform instead of a traditional website, you will want to make sure that each post has one or two keywords in it and that your targeted keywords are included as Categories and Post Tags.   If you have added an SEO plug-in for your WordPress blog, make sure you include your targeted keywords in your Title and Meta Description.

But don’t stop with your website or blog.  Now go into every directory your site has been listed in and re-write the description to include your keywords.  Pull up your profiles in LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook and add your keywords.  Begin a concentrated, targeted online campaign emphasizing those keywords.  Try to use those targeted keywords in your Twitter updates, on your Facebook wall, in articles submitted to article directories, and in press releases.  Add your website or blog to different social bookmarking sites and include your keywords in your profiles.

Finally, set up Google alerts to track your keywords or keyword phrases.  As you start to use the phrases more and more, you should start to see your site or marketing efforts pop up.  This will give you an idea of where Google is recognizing the phrase and you can adjust your copy or marketing efforts accordingly.

Give it a shot.  I would love to hear your success stories in a couple months.

Here’s to your success,

Trina

P.S.  SPECIAL OFFER:  

  GET A WEBSITE ANALYSIS AND CUSTOM ACTION PLAN — TODAY!

 Finally, a customized report that actually gives you what you need — real, solid, ACTIONABLE recommendations that you can implement IMMEDIATELY and start to see improvement in your page rank, search engine results, and traffic.

We produce a different kind of website analysis report, one that’s actually relevant to your goals. Most SEO analysis reports are canned. They use stock software to ”analyze” your website based on computer driven formulas, or even worse- copy and paste information from a grab-bag of resources. They produce results that have been predefined and offer nothing more than useless information.  Heck, a lot of them don’t even really look at your website.  They plug your URL into a software package and take what gets spit out and hand it to you, expecting it to make a difference.  Their reports might as well land in the trash for all the good they do.

Unlike the competition, we actually go on your site, read the content and check all the links.  Sure, we’ll run a software program or two to get us some baseline information from Google, but the meat of our report is a result of over 20 years of sales and marketing experience, including the last 5 years heavily invested in learning SEO and online marketing strategies.  We give you an ACTION PLAN of steps   you can implement right away to improve your website’s performance.  Not listed in enough directories?  We’ll give you a list.  Not utilizing social media effectively?  We’ll get you specific suggestions on how to improve.  Don’t know what to say in a forum?  We’ll provide you with a suggested topic list, as well as suggestions on what forums and how often you should participate.  Every website and market is different, and every Action Plan should be, too.

Satisfaction is completely guaranteed. If you don’t see results in 60 days after implementing our suggested changes in your Action Plan, we will refund your $179 investment. We produce results, or our services are on the house.  Our ACTION PLANS are effective. We guarantee it.

Order Today!

Website Analysis & Action Plan $179.00

URL to Analyze

Tweet This Post

Like it or not, if you want your small business to be successful online, you need to have an understanding of Search Engine Optimization and you need to take steps to get listed in the organic search results of the major search engines, especially Google, Yahoo, and Bing. 

One of the ways you get noticed by the search engines is to develop backlinks. Backlinks are exactly what they sound like — they are links which directs others towards your site; they are also often referred to as inbound links (IBL’s). In the world of search engine optimization, the number of backlinks your site has is an indication of how popular or important it is according to your peers (other site owners). These are especially important because search engines such as Google will give more credit to those sites with a good number of quality backlinks. So they will then consider these sites more relevant than others in the results pages of a search query and will show your site higher on in the rankings.

Most search engines will want websites to have a level playing field, and so will more often than not look for natural links that have been built slowly over time. Although it can be fairly easy to manipulate the links on a web page in order to achieve a higher ranking in the short term, it is a lot harder to influence a search engine with external backlinks from another site. This is why these count so highly in a search engine’s algorithm.

One of the best ways to achieve quality backlinks to your site in a fairly short time is Directory Submissions.  Why don’t more small business owners do this?  I know it may have been some years ago, but you actually had to buy an ad to be listed in the  yellow pages, or at least buy a telephone line.  It’s no different online.  You actually have to DO something to be listed in a directory.

 It takes time, it takes effort, but it gets results. Believe it or not, you actually have to submit the link for your site to directories in order to be listed. Many directories allow free submissions. There are dozens more that want you to pay for the privilege of being listed. If you can afford it, DO IT. There are many sites around which offer a service where you can submit your site details to numerous sites. Do a search, you’ll find them. In some industries (like legal, for instance) there are well over 2,000 potential directories your business can be listed in. Every one of those listings then becomes a backlink.

But another benefit of submitting to directories, in addition to creating backlinks, is getting a boost in traffic. Imagine, some people actually use directories that they know to search for businesses instead of just Google search. The key to getting a traffic boost from directories is to actually write out a good description of your product or service and use your targeted keywords. I know, it begins to sound like a broken record, but if you use the same targeted keywords on your site, in your LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook posts and profiles, in articles that link back to your site, and also in business directories, you will start to become associated with those keywords in the eyes of the search engines. You will start to rank higher and be seen as more relevant. Isn’t that what you want?

I almost feel like the directories I tell clients to submit their site to are a closely guarded secret, but they really aren’t. This isn’t my complete list, but here are some ideas to get you started. You should make sure your business is listed in: Local.Yahoo.com, Google.com/maps, MerchantCircle.com, Brownbook.net, Cityslick.net and if you can afford it, PR.com.

There, now don’t tell me I’m not helping to make you successful online. I don’t get paid to advertise these directories (though occasionally clients pay me to help them listed on all of them ). But because you are friends of mine, I feel like I need to at least give you a hint.

Here’s to your success,

Trina

P.S.  We’re only 10 days away from the How to WOW! Now Seminar.  Have you registered yet?  HowtoWOWnow.eventbrite.com

There’s now a discount for friends of mywebWOW!com, which I would be glad to share.  Just let me know that you are going to attend and I’ll get you a discount code for 50% off the ticket price.  What are friends for?

Tweet This Post

As a small business consultant dedicated to helping my clients succeed, I am always on the lookout for resources.    One of the places I always turn to are online forums.   I was looking for a source of photos or art for blogs, Squidoo lenses and other uses, and went to the Work-at-Home forum (http://www.work-at-home-forum.com).  A lot of people there seem to be using Photobucket.com instead of Google Images.  So I checked it out.

I spent WAY too much time last night browsing. Any photo that made me laugh out loud, I downloaded. Any photo that I thought could be used in other contexts, I downloaded. I now have a catalog of about 85 photos and images, like the one to the right here, ready to be uploaded whenever I need them.  And since they are submitted to the site by users who agree to share, I don’t have to worry about copyright infringement when I use them.  Nice.

I surf forums all the time.  I think I belong to something like 34 of them at last count, in several different industries.  I still look at some of the legal discussions from time to time, but I spend a lot more of my time these days on the work-at-home, working mothers, small office/home office forums.  I find they are great places to find out information about what’s new and happening.  You also get a sense of what the issues are and can craft a stronger marketing message to those particular audiences.  The tips and techniques that get shared are incredible.  Who needs to buy an ebook?  Someone out there will tell you what they’ve learned, and if you don’t see it readily available, just ask and someone will answer.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

WAIT!  I have to interrupt this blog for an

SPEED NETWORKING is scheduled for May 18, 2010, at The Meeting Place.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Anymore, I never buy a new piece of software or advise a client to use any online service without first browsing a couple forums to see what the positive and negative reports are.  The Warrior Forum is a great place for all things internet-marketing related.  If it doesn’t work, if the provider promises a money-back guarantee and they don’t honor it, if their upsells are too aggressive, you’ll find it discussed.  Or, if the product exceeds everyone’s expectations and they get 20 ideas on how to grow their business, you’ll see that discussion, too.

I’m using the forums mostly for information gathering, not to sell my services per se, which is good because most forums frown on blatant selling.  But I do get business.  It’s just a more subtle approach.  I answer a lot of questions and try to give people honest answers.  I refer them to my blog, or to other resources I know about.  In return, I get inquiries from people who want to know more about me.  Those inquiries often lead to connections on LinkedIn or Facebook, and new followers on Twitter.  Sometimes, those inquiries lead to sales of my content-writing packages or consulting services.

And don’t forget that other nugget that comes from being involved in forums, especially the more active ones — that precious backlink to your site that Google loves for search engine optimization purposes.  If you write your forum profile using your targeted keywords, and your “about you” box has the link to your website or blog, Google will find you and give you credit in the page rankings and search results.  Win-win for everyone.

Depending on the target audience, I encourage clients to get involved in one or two forums, in addition to LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.  If you are active on the forum, you will develop a following and start to be recognized as a expert.  That’s not a bad thing.  But sometimes, you don’t need to be active.  Just sign up, go out and observe.  Read the discussions.  See what resources people like.  See what they don’t care for.  There is a wealth of informatioon about your potential customers out there just waiting to be discovered.

For my list of favorite forums, email me at SuccessPointConsulting@hotmail.com.  Please put “Favorite forums” in the subject line.

Here’s to your success,

Trina

P.S.  We’re only 3 weeks away from the How to WOW! Now seminar.  Seating is limited, so reserve your spot NOW.  RSVP to http://howtowownow.eventbrite.com.

P.S.S.  My good friend, Heather Tapia, is running a series of classes entitled “Why2How2 Abundance Marketing” starting Monday, April 26.  Get more information and sign up at http://abundancemarketingpro.eventbrite.com

Tweet This Post

Okay, okay, yes, I admit it.  I have been slow in getting on the Facebook bandwagon, but with small business clients and friends seeing FANTABULOUS results, I’ve been forced to take another look.   

And I’m here to tell you — Facebook advertising is the real deal.  You can target demographically and geographically, it’s cheaper than Google, there’s less competition, and small business owners are seeing results.  I just ran a little ad myself — I had a simple landing page offering a FREE Report and asked the respondents to fill out a short survey about their current online marketing activities – and got 6 very high-quality business leads in about 36 hours, for less than $100 ($82 to be exact).  I’m excited.

Facebook Ads provide two ways to advertise on the pages of Facebook. You can create an ad campaign that links to a landing page within your Web site, or you can advertise something on Facebook, such as your new Business Page or an application you have developed. You can also employ a Social ad. This shows your image and text alongside the social action you take on Facebook pages.

The targeting available for Facebook Ads is awesome.  You can choose  the location, gender, interests, relationship status and other demographics of your target audience.  For my test, I chose to target women, in Ohio, who were business owners and involved with service professions, like attorneys, accountants, insurance sales, etc.  And sure enough, every response I got was from a woman, from Ohio, and all but one is in an industry I was targeting.  And my guess once I dig a little deeper into her background, I bet I find she is or was connected somehow to a law firm.

In creating a Facebook Ad campaign you will need to decide which type of ad you want to run and provide the link the ad will lead visitors to.  The link does not appear in the ad — it’s behind the scenes.  The entire ad is a hotlink to the URL you select.  The ad title is restricted to 25 characters while the  text (body) must fit in 135 characters. If you choose to include a photo (which I recommend), it needs to be 110 by 80 pixels.  And like any good ad test, you should run at least 2 versions, if not 3 or 4 versions, to make sure you are getting the absolutely best response rate you can.

Very similar to the Google model, Facebook Ads can be run on a Pay for Clicks (CPC) or Pay for Views (CPM) model. During the ad creation process, you set your daily ad budget and the maximum bid, which is the most you are willing to pay per click. CPC ads are displayed in Facebook’s Ad Space, Home Page (or both), while CPM ads are shown only in the Ad Space. Facebook selects the best ad to run based on the cost per click or impression and ad performance.

After creating the ads you want to run, Facebook will approve your ads for use and suggest a max bid if you have bid too low.  This seems to take anywhere from 4 hours to 24 hours, which is very comparable to Google.  Through your Ad Management Page, Facebook provides ad data so you can track your progress, change the audience, or adjust other metrics as the campaign progresses.

And here’s a little tip for the day (you’ll never be able to say I didn’t help you out after this) — do a search for FREE Facebook Ad Credits and you’ll find several companies out there willing to give you $50 to $100 in Facebook advertising credits.  I did it — I took a $50 credit to test with — so my $82 campaign only cost $32 — and it would have only cost me $0 if I had shut it down a little earlier.

So go ahead, try it.  You just might find a new PPC platform that really performs for your small business.  If you need help coming up with a strong headline or ad copy, just ask me.  I’ll give you three or four versions for you to test for a very reasonable $80.00 — I’ll even do the set-up for you, if you want.  Call me at (614) 753-5979 or email me at SuccessPointConsulting@hotmail.com and I’ll do what I can to help you succeed.

Here’s to your success,

Trina

P.S.  Plans for Speed Networking at being finalized.  May 18 is the target.  Stay tuned!

P.P.S.  If you’re in the Columbus Ohio area, make plans to attend the How to WOW! Now seminar on April 29, 2010.  Local celebs like Gabe Speigel, Ryan Bauer, Bruce Heinemann, Shelley Moore, and Andrew Catapano are going to talk through the process of going from having a dream about owning a business to starting a business and then promoting your business online.  A portion of the proceeds from the night is going directly to Junior Achievement.  Make your plans now — it WILL sell out.

Tweet This Post

We lost an hour this weekend because of the switch to Daylight Savings Time.  If you are like many small business owners, you need more hours every day, not less. 

Here are a couple ideas on how to get that hour back and build a more successful small business while doing so.

1)  Learn to use the tools and systems you have to their full capacity.  Whether it’s Word or Excel, or HootSuite, so many small business owners could save themselves so much time and effort if they would just take the time to learn how to completely utilize the tools and systems they already have.  I am constantly amazed when I talk with small business owners who have trouble keeping track of appointments, deadlines, and heavens! billing, and yet they have the software that could make it a breeze.  They just don’t know how to use it, or they don’t know what is available.  

One such tool is Microsoft Outlook. It is so much more than an email management system (though it’s good for that).  My good friend, Bob Cich, of Priority Management will actually come to your office and train you and your staff on how to use all the bells and whistles of Microsoft Outlook.  How awesome is that? 

2)  Another area of Bob’s expertise is organization.  He does a seminar titled  “Organize or Agonize” which basically says it all.  Spend the time to get organized today and you’ll save that lost hour over the next few weeks just by being able to access your resources quicker.

3)  Make a list of all the tasks you should perform weekly and daily and SCHEDULE them on a calendar.  I can’t stress enough how important it is to actually schedule time — and stick to your schedule.  But WAIT — before you put them on your calendar, take one more step:  Sort these tasks into “like” activities.  For instance, in my business, I typically have these weekly tasks:  client writing, client research, client promotions, client consultations, new client prospecting, online business promotion, telephone calls, new business development, business writing.   When I sort them, I have the following activities: research, writing, telephone calls, promotions, and prospecting.

When I first take on a new small business consulting client, I create a list of all the tasks I plan to complete for that client.  I used to schedule my work based on each client.  For instance, for many clients I have to conduct research into a client’s product or service and then write blog posts or articles to support their business.  I also need to promote their business by creating listings in directories, posting comments in forums, sending Tweets and such.  I also help them with offline promotions, so I sometimes design flyers or brochures for them.   I used to pull out my client task list and do all of that day’s tasks for that client, then go to the next client and do that day’s tasks.  What I discovered was that I was doing the same activities over and over again.

I had a productivity break-through when I switched from client-based to activity-based scheduling.  I can get two or three times more work done in the same amount of time by focusing on the “activity,” not the client.  For instance, I will now block out a couple of hours to do nothing but research.  I will do research for all of my clients at once, not just one.  While I’m researching, I’m not checking my email, I’m not randomly surfing the web.  I’m focused on finding information and downloading or saving it for reference later.  After the research is done, I’ll schedule a block of time dedicated to writing the blogs and articles.  During my writing blocks, I don’t chat with friends on Facebook, I don’t make or answer phone calls.  If I have done my research thoroughly, I have no reason to go online until my writing is done.  For me, when I’m on a roll, I can write fast and furious and if the research is already done, I can zip through client work.   

Activity-based scheduling has been proven to be one of the most efficient methods to increase your productivity. I highly suggest you try it.  You may be amazed at how much more work you can get done in  day.

Sometimes, fresh eyes can see where you are wasting time.  I recently met with a gentleman who was complaining about not having enough hours in a day to get everything done, yet during our one-hour conversation, he pulled out his iphone and texted at least 3 people.  Not only was it rude, but it was telling me exactly why he’s not efficient.  If that’s you, you may want to consider only checking messages once an hour, not every 5 minutes. If you need someone to help you organize your tasks and suggest some tools and processes that could make you more efficient, let me know.  I would be glad to help.

As always,  here’s to your success,

Trina

Tweet This Post

On Saturday, I was in a meeting with a small business owner and three of her key staff members in Grandview Heights, a neat little suburb just west of downtown Columbus, Ohio.  Wearing my small business consultant hat, I was leading the group in a brainstorming session on new offers we could create to generate more revenue for their fledgling small business.  We were in an office suite on the second floor of a, no offense to those who work there, but non-descript, rather run-down-looking office building in the midst of the industrial area of town.

To our surprise, we were interrupted by two young women, complete strangers. “Excuse me, but can anyone tell us how to get to the convention center?”  For those of you who are not from Columbus, you may not know that this past weekend was The Arnold Classic, an international body-building and health & wellness convention started by none other than Arnold Schwartzenegger himself a dozen or more years ago.  These two ladies were from out of town and had gotten lost.  They had zigged when they should have zagged.

We gave them directions, pointed out where the restrooms were in the building, and scratched our head as to how or why they would have chosen this building to come in and ask directions.  We marveled a bit at the gumption of these two travelers, pulling into the parking lot of an office building on a Saturday, going in the door, climbing the stairs to the second floor until they found an office with the lights on and door unlocked.  Finally, one of the ladies in my group said, “Well, I guess they were thinking outside the box.”

Exactly.  They were thinking outside the box.   On that street there are no fast food restaurants nor gas stations.  There are a couple small retail stores, office buildings, industrial warehouses, and apartments.  These two ladies had a need for directions and the usual suspects were nowhere to be seen.  So they thought a little differently and came up with a solution.

If you run a small business, you need to occasionally think outside the box. Determine what outcome you want first (directions) then open you mind up to all the possible ways you can achieve your outcome .   If they had been closed to all possibilities but getting directions from a gas station (which we speculated would have been the case if a man had been driving, but that’s another topic lol), they could have been driving around lost for quite a while because there aren’t many stations in Grandview and they are hard to find.    But they were focused on their outcome, not the method of getting there.  When they saw a group of cars parked outside of this office building, they took the calculated risk that someone inside would be able to help them.

Turns out, it was a successful endeavor because we did indeed know how to get to the convention center, they got to use a clean, uncrowded restroom, and we got them in the right direction quickly.

You will find that there are so many more paths to small business success if you will just be willing to think outside the box and try a different approach on occasion. Sure, tried and true methods still work, but so can new ways.  You just have to be open.

If you ever need someone to facilitate a marketing brainstorming session, or need help coming up with creative and innovative new ways to promote your product or service, especially utilizing the internet and social media, give me a call at 614-753-5979 or email me at SuccessPointConsulting@hotmail.com and I’d be glad to help.

Here’s to your success,

Trina

P.S. Mark Your Calendars.  SPEED NETWORKING Coming MAY 18, 2010.  MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW.

Tweet This Post

In talking with small business owners who are struggling to find success, I am often struck by how strongly they resist change.  In my role as small business consultant, I seem to have to bite my tongue at least twice a day so I don’t blurt out that Dr. Phil one-liner, “So, how’s that working for you?”  I try to listen, give constructive suggestions, and try not to over-promise on how I can help their small business grow, but it’s so hard when I see what great potential there is with offline relationship-building techniques complemented by online social networks and online marketing techniques, and so many small business owners don’t.

Take the insurance agent I recently met.  He has been a small business owner selling property/casualty/health insurance for almost 12 years.  The past 2 years have been the hardest of his career.  He is struggling to find new business.  Where does he currently get most of his clients?  The majority of new business comes from a half-page ad he runs annually in three yellow page-type directories, but the phone doesn’t ring as much anymore.  The other main source of new business are leads he gets from his parent insurance company.  Where do those leads come from?  Those leads are people doing online searches, of course, not people looking in the yellow pages.  Lightbulbs coming on, anyone?

Does he have a website?  Yeah, the one the company put up for him almost 5 years ago – and it’s never been updated, at least not by him.  Does he promote it?  Not really.  Ever think about a blog? No, too time-consuming.  ”Are you on LinkedIn?” I asked.  ”I think so,” was the reply.  I looked him up.  Yeah, he has an incomplete profile and only 12 connections.   Facebook? That’s for kids.  Twitter?  Doesn’t get it.

“So what steps are you taking to encourage your current clients to refer more business to you?” I asked.   Nothing systematic, it turns out.  I didn’t have my laptop with me at Panera, but if I had, I would have made him sit through THIS VIDEO right then and there.  Ah, live and learn.  He got a follow-up email from me AND a thank you greeting card is on the way, so he’ll be exposed to the information that can literally turn his current customers into a dynamic referral machine.  Will he take action?

“What networking events do you regularly attend?”  None.  He used to be involved in the local Chamber, but not now.  I suggested a couple groups that he may want to check out, but he has young kids so evenings are spent at home.  Some of these groups meet in the morning or over lunch.  No enthusiasm.  I don’t want to say the guy was negative, but I think all he could see was the desperation of shrinking business, not the excitement of growth.  But he’s not willing, right now anyway, to hire me to help him.  The pain isn’t great enough — yet.

On my way home from my meeting with him, I was listening to a CD I had gotten a couple years ago from my good friends, Dave and Linda Brincks, of ActionCoach International, entitled 6 Steps to a Better Business, featuring ActionCoach founder Brad Sugars.

One of the things Brad talked about was overcoming resistance to change.  (Sidenote: I once said I wanted to be like Brad Sugars when I grow up.  I still do.  He imparts a lot of common sense.)  Turns out, there’s an actual scientifically-proven mathematical formula that governs when an organization – either an individual, small business, or even the largest corporation or government in the world — overcomes resistance to change.  It was actually introduced back in the 1970s by corporation efficiency expert Peter Drucker and then mathematically proven by the team of Gleicher, Beckhard & Harris in the late 1980s.

Anyway, the formula is stated something like this:

Dissatisfaction + Vision + Action > Resistance to change

Basically, in order to overcome the resistance to change, there has to be a certain level of dissatisfaction, often rising to the level of actual pain, the small business owner wants to alleviate. But pain is not enough.  The small business owner will continue to do what he or she has always done despite the pain unless there is also a vision of what their business can look like after the pain is removed.  That’s where a business consultant like me can help.  I help refine, or maybe even completely define, the vision.  But envisioning the result is not enough.  There has to be action.  Meeting with me may have been my insurance agent prospect’s first step.  But he doesn’t yet have the vision.

I have my work cut out for me with him.  Only when all three elements are in place: 1) enough pain, 2) a clear vision, and 3) action will he be willing to let go of his current ways to doing business and try some new things.

I am convinced that building relationships is the way to build a successful small business today.  Whether it’s offline relationship-building activities, like consistent communication strategies like SendOutCards, or newsletters, or even one-on-one personal networking, or it’s online relationship-building activities like email, blogging, and social media strategies, no small business owner is going to be able to really experience the success he or she seeks without embracing a new vision and overcoming  resistance to change.

If you are dissatisfied with your current business, and are ready to seek out a new vision, then take that action and call me at 614-753-5979 or email me at SuccessPointConsulting@hotmail.com.  I’m ready and excited to help.  A more successful small business is in your future.

Until next time,

Here’s to helping you reach your Success Point,

Trina

Tweet This Post

Research has shown that it can often take seven or more contacts before a prospective customer will buy from your small business.

Are you doing enough to convert each contact into a buyer?

Sometimes you meet a prospect when it’s the         wrong time for them.  You give them a business card, or a link to a website, and hope for the best.  But they never call, they never respond.  But eventually, they will be in the place where they need or want the service your small business provides. That’s why it is so important for every small business to have a prospect contact follow-up plan in place.

Let’s use a financial planner as an example.  Everyone needs a financial planner in their corner.  They need that extra set of eyes looking at their financial situation, helping them make good financial decisions.  But many people do not.  There are many reasons:  some people say that financial planners are too expensive, or they don’t have enough money to make it worth their while, or financial planners only want to sell them insurance – they’re not really interested in doing what’s best for the consumer.

For whatever the reasons, the market for financial planners can be resistant to hiring a new planner.  But then the prospect loses his job and now has to make a decision about his IRA.  Or the prospect receives an inheritance and doesn’t know how to invest it.  Or the prospect has a new baby and wants to set up a college fund.  He vaguely remembers meeting a financial planner a couple months ago, but doesn’t remember much about him.  He turns to an internet search or asks his brother-in-law at church and that financial planner never gets the call.

So what’s the smart financial planner to do so that he does get the call instead of his competitor?

Create a prospect contact follow-up plan.

For most service-related small businesses, every prospect you come in contact with should receive at least three contacts from you within the first month of the initial contact.  This reinforces the initial information on what your services are and what sorts of situations you can help with.  It could be two letters and a telephone call.  It could be two telephone calls and one letter.  It could be two emails and a telephone call.  It could be a letter, an email, and a telephone call.  You decide what works best for you.

After the initial month, you need to decide whether you want to keep in touch with these potential clients monthly or quarterly.  Do not go more than four months without contacting them again.  Work out a plan.

For instance, your follow-up contact plan may be something like this:

Initial Contact – Day 0

Follow-up Letter with a Free Report on why Retirement Planning is more complicated today than ever before – Day 3

Follow-up Telephone Call, did you read the report, can I answer any questions? – Day 10

Follow-Up Letter, Touching Base – Day 30

Letter or email, Financial Topic of Interest – Day 60

Postcard, Special Offer – Day 90

Telephone Call – Checking in, Can I assist you in any way? – Day 120

Letter or email, Financial Topic of Interest – Day 150

Survey (print or online) – Day 180

Postcard, Special Offer – Day 270

Unexpected Greeting Card – Day 360

Your ongoing contacts should not be overbearing or needy.  They need to be warm and friendly.  They need to be informative.  All you are trying to do is stay top-of-mind with these people so that when they or someone they have frequent contact with needs your services, they will think of hiring you first.

There are several tools on the market that can help you make your prospect contact follow-up plan easier to manage.  I personally use iContact for email marketing.  They provide great templates for newsletters, they have a decent autoresponder system, their survey platform is easy, and they are affordable.  Plus, they offer a 15-day trial to start, so there’s no reason not to try them.  Check them out.

For real reach-out-and-touch someone relationship-building, I personally use SendOutCards.  Check out a great video on how their service can really boost your business at http://NewReferralGrowth.com You can send out 3 customized greeting cards for free on me.  I highly recommend it to anyone in personal or professional service industries where competition is high and relationships mean the difference between success and struggling, especially realtors, financial planners, insurance agents, accountants, attorneys, day spas, hair salons, and the like.  It’s also terrific for everyone in direct sales and even companies like Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, Tastefully Simple, Tupperware, and other similar programs.  Plus, it’s great to never miss a family or friend’s birthday or anniversary again.

There is no “right” way to stay in touch and there is no secret formula that will guarantee success.  But set up a follow-up contact plan, follow it consistently with every prospect you meet, and in time you’ll reap the rewards.

If you need assistance in creating a prospect follow-up contact plan, or other marketing ideas, please let me know.  I would love to help.  Email me at SuccessPointConsulting@hotmail.com.

P.S.  If you are in need of a financial planner in the Columbus, Ohio, area, give Augustus, aka A.W., Abel a call at 614-389-2075.  Check out his website at awabelfinancial.com.  I’m working on some changes for him so check him out now, and then again in a couple weeks!

Tweet This Post