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Day 23 Old-Fashioned Networking

August 29, 2008 Leave a Comment

I spent a lot of time out of the office yesterday. First at Triangle Business Leaders, which is the local Glazer Kennedy Inner Circle chapter. The topic was marketing to the affluent from Dan Kennedy’s new book No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent: The No Holds Barred, Kick Butt, Take No Prisoners Guide to Getting Really Rich. Unlike some of his multiple author books, this one is chock full of the research he has done on this market and he offers up a lot of great information. It’s definitely going on my Wish List. I also learned afterward that I may have two new potential prospects from other chapter members.

After that, I went to the Tweetdivas tweet-up at the swanky new Solas in downtown Raleigh. Solas is also an interesting marketing case because they are the first in Raleigh to ask several hundred dollars to reserve their “cabanas” for the evening (like skyboxes at a stadium). Many of the cabanas on the rooftop were empty during our visit so it’ll be interesting to see how that works out over time.

I also made 115% of my income goal for the day.

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A Proposal for Carefirst BCBS

August 29, 2008 3 Comments

Dear Carefirst Blue Cross Blue Shield,

I have a money-saving tip for you.

I’ve gotten 11 allergy shots in the past month and you’ve sent me 11 two-page Explanation of Benefits statements by mail. I’m sure my mailman is tired of delivering them and it annoys me that I now have 22 sheets of paper to file. And considering my insurance premium went up 14% this year, it really annoys me that you spent $4.62 in postage to mail all these individual statements. Why don’t you just send monthly monthy statements like everyone else in the world?

Let’s see, if you could have condensed those 11 individual statements into 6 sheets of paper–you could have cut paper costs by 73% and saved at least $3.78 in postage.

Even in the months I just get weekly shots (which is most of the time), you could save 50% on paper and spend 42 cents instead of $1.68 on postage.

I know it doesn’t sound like much, but given that you have 3.1 million members, if even 10% of those get weekly allergy shots like I do you could save $5.2 million a month on postage alone and save thousands of trees.

In fact, maybe you’d save enough to lower my premium or at least increase my prescription drug limit–which hasn’t increased at all in the past 3 years although prescription drug prices have risen more than 20%.

I’m just saying it’s something you should think about.

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Research Says…What Works in List-Building

August 28, 2008 Leave a Comment

by Tracy Needham

So what works when it comes to building your email list?

According to Marketing Sherpa’s Email Marketing Benchmark Guide 2008, that depends on who your target subscribers are. They surveyed more than 1,200 businesses as to what techniques generated the highest volume and best quality subscribers (i.e. people who are good prospects). 

If your customers are other businesses, the tactics that rated highest were:

No-cost trials and downloads. The proverbial “ethical bribe,” freebies are still an effective way to attract high quality prospects because they provide the subscriber with valuable information as well as insight into the value of working with you. That being said, people are getting pickier about giving out their email address so you have to sell them on the freebie–explaining exactly what they’re getting in exchange for their email.

Sales alert/product announcement offers. Think Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula or oodles of other products from big name information marketers these days. These guys mimic concert promoters by announcing a date and time for sales to open and then selling out quickly. But to get the actual instructions for buying, you usually must get onto their pre-launch email list.
 
Trade events. Trade shows, workshops and other speaking gigs–any time you can actually meet members of your target audience in a group environment, you have a great shot at getting a lot of quality newsletter sign-ups.

For business-to-consumer firms, the best tactics are:

Sweepstakes and contests. People always love the chance to win something and this technique has the added bonus of possibly getting the attention of local press. While contests are pretty simply, sweepstakes come with a plethora of legal rules–so you should consult a lawyer before going that route. (Basically, contests are based on skill while sweepstakes are based on chance.)

No cost trials and downloads. The advantage of no-cost trials and downloads is that the subscribers actually get something that shows off your expertise or gives them a taste of what they’ll get when they hire you or buy the product. So you can educate your prospects and build credibility while you build your list.

Checkboxes on registration/order forms. You often see them when you’re buying a product to capture people who may have been so intent on buying they bypassed the newsletter sign-up. This is also common when you have multiple newsletters to offer. For example, a visitor opts-in for one newsletter to download a no-cost report. But then at the actual download page, they’re given the option of subscribing to other newsletters from the same company.

One notable difference–sweepstakes and contests also produced the third highest amount of subscribers for business-to-business companies, but the subscriber were low quality.  Techniques that received low marks for both markets were buying ads in other people’s newsletters, co-registration services, and buying email lists.

The study also found that 50% of people will not hesitate to report messages as sp@m and 85% of people who have done so, consider newsletters they didn’t sign up for as sp@m. So whatever technique you use, make sure it’s clear that people are going to be added to your email list when you ask for their email. Or, wait until after the event and email them once to invite them to join your list. Because getting them on your list is never worth making them mad.

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Days 21-22 Progress and Delays

August 28, 2008 Leave a Comment

Yesterday I had a terrific Marketing Strategy Session with a client (although I spent waaaay too long prepping for it!) and I received yet another project from my biggest client.

I was a little bummed to find out Tuesday though that the potentially big announcement I’ve been waiting to make has been delayed at least until after Labor Day.

I’ve got another JV and at least two other teleseminars in the works–am hoping to finalize some of those details in the next week.

Spent some time on that forum that has brought me a couple of prospects and clients. Also, a little time catching up on Facebook. Still working with one of my VA’s on web changes, hopefully you’ll start seeing some blog changes too soon.

I also had the honor (and the pleasure!) of reviewing the pre-release of the Twitter Handbook, which should be coming out in the next few days. Deb Micek and Warren Whitlock have done a terrific job at conveying what you need to know to use Twitter for business–in a fun, Twitterific way of course. And the tips and applications they’ve uncovered are astounding. I bet even the Twitter developers would learn a few new things by reading it!

Reached 45% of the daily income total yesterday. I’ll have to do an update on the overall total later this week.

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Days 18-20 Website, Website, Website

August 26, 2008 Leave a Comment

Web, blog and more web. I took part of Saturday off to go to Lazy Daze Arts & Crafts festival with my sister, and then I spent some time on Sunday really thinking about where I wanted the business to go. Right now I”m treating copywriting and marketing services/products as almost two separate businesses. I want to simplify back and make it all part of just one focus, just one strategy. And ideally, one niche, but I’m still working on that.

So other than pursuing a few new opportunities, starting to promote the September 3 teleseminar, and writing my newsletter as well as writing drafts of two other articles for either the blog or newsletter, I was focused on what had to be done for my new website and blog. So my VA’s got two very long emails from me yesterday. Handing the actual implementation off will help a lot, although it still takes time to figure out what needs to be done and how you want it!

Was it worth all the time I spent? It will be. To me, your website should be the hub of your marketing efforts–with everything else you do focused on driving prospects, customers and media there. It’s your 24-7 salesperson/customer service rep. So you should constantly evaluate whether it’s primed to make the most of those visitors. And this will take care of a ton of needed changes. (There are a few bigger changes I need to still make decisions on, but it looks like they’ll require outside expertise.)

Daily income total $0. (And it’s time to kick a really late payer or two in the arse!)

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Free Teleseminar: How to Quickly Generate a Flood of Clients Without The Hard Sell

August 25, 2008 Leave a Comment

Does this sound familiar…

  • You spend hours attending networking events only to get a bunch of cards for people you don’t remember when you find them on your desk a month later.
  • Every now and then, you meet someone who says they’re interested in your services. So you meet for coffee, they ask you tons of questions and you never hear from them again.
  • And then when you do have a lot of client work, you don’t have time for all these meetings. So you essentially fall off the radar to your prospects.

Marketing this way can be a slow and painful process.

But there ARE alternatives, and no, they don’t involve cold calling.

Join me and UK Online Marketing Coach Victoria Player for a FREE teleseminar as we share the top tricks, tips and tools that have spurred our business’ growth and allowed us to reclaim our time from all that one-on-one marketing! Find out more and sign-up.

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Day 17 — Marketing Planning

August 23, 2008 Leave a Comment

Yesterday was a rather quiet day. I had the call with my Mastermind buddy Victoria where we discussed our upcoming teleclasses and also her including my 5 Steps to Creating Copy that Persuades Prospects to Know, Like and Trust You So You Can Land More Clients and More Sales ebook as part of the bonus package for her upcoming teleclass series. We’re trying to figure out the logistics of how that would work, but it would be a great deal for both of us.

Also discussed paring down what I’m trying to offer. Instead of creating a whole marketing system, which is really a whole separate business from the copywriting, I’m going to just start offering teleseminars and info products on marketing first. This will allow me to see where the interest lies and also where I can really differentiate my approach. I have a few ideas for doing that, but now I can test them out before I commit to all that work. It also means I can get things out the door much faster since I’ve been stuck on what exactly to include!

I made a follow-up call on a package I sent a top tier copywriter a few weeks ago. No surprise that I got the answering service. I’m going to give it a few days then send an email. I know she was away at the beginning of the week, so she may have taken the rest of the week off as well.

And I did have a prospect call for a quote on a copy review and sales letter. She found me through my postings on a forum we’re both members of. That’s the second time that’s happened in a month. Perhaps I should spend some more time there!

Nothing new on the daily income total.

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Days 13-16 Client Crunch part 2

August 22, 2008 2 Comments

Ok, ok, I fell down on the job again with posting. I was in the midst of another client project crunch. This time though, I knew it would be tough to make their deadline given the extent of the project and I said yes anyway.  That will not be happening again!

There are good and bad sides of having a former employer as a client and one of the downsides is they often forget you’re not working exclusively for them anymore when it comes to time expectations. But it’s my job to remind them and request more time.

But…

  • My ezine did go out on time and I sent a solo blast yesterday as well for my ebook.
  • I also firmed up details to start promoting a joint teleseminar on Sept. 3, which I’ll post about separately.
  • And I did get feedback from a Facebook friend who’s participating in that Private JV Club that they seem to still be working out some kinks and I may be better off waiting a month or so.

Although a bunch of invoices went out last weekend and I have a marketing strategy session set up now for next week, none of that income has come in yet so the daily income total was $0 each day. But I’ve reached 1/3 of my monthly goal at this point!

I’d love to hear from others (especially writers) how you handle getting that final payment. Deposits–which are required to start the work–are paid promptly. After the project’s over though, that invoice seems to hang out for awhile before it gets paid. Web designers have it easier, because they can keep the site from going live until the invoice is paid. But writers don’t have that kind of leverage–I’m certainly not going to send someone the final bill before they see the first draft. Any suggestions?

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8 Secrets for Selling to Women

August 20, 2008 Leave a Comment

So you know not to ask a female prospect, “Do you need to check with your husband first?” But are you sabotaging your selling conversations with women in other ways? There’s no special sisterhood pass—both men AND women unwittingly turn off women prospects with habits they’ve picked up over the years.

In general, here are some key differences when it comes to selling to women:

1. Women start the decision-making process by seeking word-of-mouth recommendations from those she knows. Men prefer to get their information from impersonal sources such as websites, magazines, and brochures.

2. Women initially define the product or service by its end use—“I want a laptop to take with me on next week’s trip.” Men define the product or service based on key features—“I want a laptop with 17” high-definition screen, 320 gigabyte hard drive, and an Intel Core 2 Extreme Processor.”

3. When asked what they’re looking for, men will get straight to the point. Women may answer with a story. This is not a waste of time. Tune in and you’ll hear exactly what you need to identify the best solution for her—as well as how to position it.

4. Men focus on a few top criteria and march straight toward the decision by eliminating options that don’t fit. Women add criteria and more options to evaluate along the way as she gets new recommendations or thinks of other uses—“It would also be great if the one of the kids could use it when they both have papers to work on for school.” So her decision path is more of a spiral.

5. Men look for a good solution, but women want the perfect solution. So she will want a lot more information and ask a lot more questions. Women are much more attuned to detail so you shouldn’t ever brush off a question. The deciding factor may just be something you see as trivial.

6. The bad news is the initial selling process will take longer with women, but the payoff in repeat business and referrals will be worth it. Women are much more vested in the decisions they make, so they tend to be more loyal customers and a lot more likely to recommend you to others.

7. A man nods when he’s agreeing with someone and often means he’s ready to seal the deal. A woman nods to signal that she’s listening to you—not that she necessarily agrees and definitely not that she’s ready for you to “close her.” When she stops nodding, it means she’s tired of what you’re saying, so stop the monologue and start asking some questions.

8. A woman usually means it when she says “maybe” or “I’ll think about it.” Often she just wants time to review the new information and mull the decision over with a few friends. If you push too hard to close, she’ll decide you’re untrustworthy and write you off. It’s better to schedule a follow-up conversation.

If you’re interested in learning more, the best resource I’ve found on marketing to women is Marketing to Women by Martha Barletta.

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Days 9-12 Time Crunch

August 18, 2008 1 Comment

Ok, so life got a little crazy with client projects at the end of last week and I didn’t get a chance to post. Among other things, I wrapped up the first draft of copy for a killer prospecting package–can’t wait to see it when it’s done! I also got raves on my first official Marketing Map (which needs a better name)–a 12-month marketing action plan for a green home store in New Jersey. I hope to chronicle some of his journey as he gets closer to opening the store October 1.

Marketing-wise, it’s been a lot about the website. We finally went live last night but I can’t get in to edit some outdated info because Contribute sucks. So I’m a little stressed about that this morning. This is why I wanted a CMS system but there’s no point going into that now.

I have two teleseminars tentatively scheduled–one for next week! And I have one more new project related to the other two I got last week for a new mutual fund. And finally, on Friday I received a check that equaled 645% of my daily income goal. Yeah!

Lots of thinking and ideas for the week ahead if I can get a better grip on my time. : )

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