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The best marketing lesson I learned from my weird science teacher

be specific

I have to admit I had a few weird science teachers over the years. They can’t have been all bad though because I ended up graduating university with a bachelor of science. Ok it’s possible probable

I’m just as weird as them…

Anyway, I had one great science teacher though who was very cool… Don’t get me wrong, he was weird alright, as in running twice a day weird, recycling like crazy before we even new what it was.. Oh and he had a cockroach farm!

Ok, this crazy scientist he taught me something that I have never forgotten. At the time I thought he was joking, and he probably was, but joking or not he was right.

Listen up, this is going to sound stupid, but the thing he told me was: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: Advertising, Marketing, specific

Why your website doesn’t make any money (and what to do about it)

How to fix your website from loosing customers like a revolving door

You have a website for your business, but you’re still not seeing the promised customers streaming in the door. Sound familiar?

Don’t worry, you’re not alone…

The internet is now used by approximately everybody, (over 2 billion people anyway) giving businesses the opportunity to get their products and services in front local or global audiences of prospects who are actively looking for their products or service. But still, most businesses aren’t seeing the leads and sales.

Here’s why…

It’s well known in sales and marketing, that a prospect must view a sales message 5 to 7 times before they make the decision to buy.

And this is a problem because the internet is a place of infinite distraction.

Even if your site does a great job of grabbing a visitors meagre attention, they read the first page, and they love your product or service. Even if they think it is a perfect solution to their problem…

Ooooh, Facebook…

No wait, come back!

See, all it takes is one distraction – a phone call, an email alert, a text message… once they close the window, they are gone forever… they are never coming back to your site. Unless:

What’s the solution?

You need to give your reader excellent value as soon as they hit your website, and offer them a compelling reason to come back, and even better give you permission to contact them.

How to make your website Sticky

What do I mean by ‘sticky’?

A sticky website attracts visitors to return again and again. The best way to do this is by regularly creating interesting, useful information, that is helpful for your ideal prospects and adding it to your website.

Call it a blog, a journal, or simply a news section, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that it is relevant, useful and interesting. Bonus points for making it entertaining.

Two key points:

Keep it regular.
- If your content is good, your visitors will want more. When they come back you need something new for them to read.
Keep it focused on your customers
- Help them. Teach them. Keep giving until you feel like you’re giving away your secrets. The more you give the more valuable it’s likely to be for your readers.

Ask their permission to keep in touch

A nice polite invitation to come back to your website is the most effective way to make sure they do come back. (And remember you want them to come back and read your message 5 to 7 times.)

So when you have published a new post or made a new product, you can contact them directly and invite them to have a look.

But how do you do this after they have left your site? Plan their experience from the moment they load your website.

Get their permission to contact them as soon as possible.

First up, give them what they came for, and give them more than they expected. (of course this requires you know what your potential customers want).

Since you gave them some great information when they first visited, of course they want to come back and see what else you have.

Now’s the time to make them an offer they can’t refuse.

Offer them a bribe for their permission

Ok not a cash bribe (hmm, maybe), but give them even more high value content. Free regular updates, a video course of how to get what they want, or even regular discounts (I’m not a fan of this technique).

The point is, your bribe needs to be of as high perceived value as possible. You are paying them for their permission with valuable content. As well as getting their permission, you want the bribe to be so good that they can’t wait until the next time you offer them something else to read, watch or listen to.

To take you up on the offer, you then ask your visitor to enter their email address, or ‘like’ you Facebook page. Whatever works best for you to keep in close contact with them. Email gets you the best access to them, but a Facebook like might be easier to get.

The best bribes are information that adds value to any of your products or services that they are looking for on your website. Because information is relatively cheap for you to create, but can be massively valuable for your potential customer.

The money is in the list

Direct marketers have said for years, that the money is in the list. Which is true. Maybe.

If you have an email list of a few hundred people who have voluntarily given you their email address because they are interested in your products or services, you can from that point on advertise to them anytime you want or need to for effectively free. How does that compare to paying for ads in the newspaper?

The truth is, the money is in the relationship with the list.

If you have that same list of 500 people and you continually send them lame offers to buy from you, they are very quickly going to get annoyed and unsubscribe, or worse mark you as spam.

The trick is to keep giving your subscribers cool, interesting stuff. That could be more great content, insane deals, whatever. Just make sure they know you appreciate them.

conclusion

The goal of your website shouldn’t be to make a sale on the first visit, but to get your visitors to put heir hands up and show they are interested in what you can offer. From there you are building a relationship that solidifies you as a trusted expert and moves them to the point of becoming a paying customer.

What is the lifetime value of a customer for your business?

photo credit: l.e.o

Filed Under: Internet marketing, Marketing Tagged With: internet marketing, local business, Marketing, website

The attention battleground – The art of standing out from the crowd

Every moment in time is made up of infinite unique details. As humans traversing our lives we process, categorize and file these moments, but most are discarded because our conscious minds can not make sense of so much information.

With so much information, bombarding our senses, you and I are hard-wired to ignore anything that is predictable, or irrelevant… So we can free our brain to focus on things that are important to us at the moment.

A direct effect of this filtering, is we reduce the memories of our entire lives, to only the truely remarkable moments and highlights.

This excellent video highlights exactly how good we are at ignoring information our subconscious classifies as irrelevant… Even things that are seemingly impossible to miss.

How does this relate to us in business?

Everyday you are exposed to thousands of advertising messages, from posters, billboards, radio, TV ads, and a hundred other mediums. So how many do you remember from today?

Don’t be discarded

If you want to be noticed. If you want to grab attention – you MUST be remarkable. To escape being filtered and discarded, you have to stand out from the crowd.

‘Me too’ businesses don’t win because they become a commodity that’s too easy to ignore.

How to stand out and get attention

There are countless ways to stand above the sameness of the crowd… here are a few to try:

1. Do the opposite of what everyone else is doing

Write yourself a list of the standard practices in your industry. What would happen if you deliberately changed one or more of these standard practices? Can you change the business model entirely?

2. Have a strong (even controversial) opinion

Ever meet someone at a party (or anywhere else) and they agreed with everyone about everything they said. They never have their own opinion because they are scared of saying the wrong thing or offending somebody. Lets face it, people like this are just plain bland.

Heres the thing, you might not dislike them, but there are hardly interesting enough for you want to become best mates with. You can;t be mates with them because you never know who they are.

You don’t have to be liked by everyone. In fact… no matter what you do. someone l won’t like you or you business.

If you take a stand on an issue, some people will disagree and hate you, some will absolutely love you for it, and others won’t care much either way. But no-one will be able to ignore you.

3. Tie yourself to an event or person that is already getting attention

People are always talking about some current event or other, from a change in the seasons, to sporting events and topical news. Clever campaigns to relate your business to these existing conversations can let you share the spotlight.

One more thing…

We also notice people we have a relationship with. When you walk down a crowded street, you always recognize a friend or someone you know well. Enter Content marketing and Social Media. By forming a relationship with people before you sell to them, you gain their trust and attention.

What examples have you seen of businesses standing out from the crowd? Do you have any tips or tricks to stand out from the crowd? Share them in the comments.

Be cool… share this on Facebook, Twitter or with someone that will get some value from it. Everyone else is doing it.

Filed Under: Marketing, Social media

5 lessons in web marketing from a door to door salesman

Imagine traipsing cold dark empty streets in the depths of winter, luring sane people from the warmth of their lounge in front of the fire and trying to convince them to buy… something. This was a period of my life, which though hardly glamorous, was surprisingly educational.

It was my fault. I had deliberately put myself here. I had a theory. If I could sell stuff door to door, then I could sell anything. It was also a crash course to harden the hell up and stop worrying what people think.

I want to save you knocking from having to knock on hundreds of doors (and two or three pairs of shoes), Here are 5 tips I learnt from doors sales, that you can use to market your business on the web.

1. Grab attention in 7 secs

As a door salesman, the person answering the door is already planning how they close the door before you even say hello. You need to grab their attention in 7 seconds or less. You need to have the best one-liner you’ve ever come up with. No second chances. If it doesn’t break their pattern and make them listen to what you are saying.. they will slam the door in your face.. If you are lucky. If you’re not lucky, they’ll let you talk for five minutes before making an excuse to slam the door in your face.

On the web you’ve got the same problem. Your visitors are likely stumbling around the web like cyber-goldfish. You need a jaw-dropping headline that makes the reader stop and think, “wow, that’s exactly what I didn’t know I needed”.

2. Tell a story they can connect with

Telling a story keeps the person engaged and listening to what you are saying. If it is good enough to make them want to know what happens in the end, they’ll let you keep talking.

You need to pull them into the story. It’s really about them. Their problems, their hopes and dreams and their view of themselves.

A story works on the web as well. I know, this seems crazy and completely at odds with the idea of short attention spans and…. for goodness sake, don’t make them scroll. But if the story is good enough, they have to keep reading to find out what happens at the end. and how it all relates to them.

There is an excellent example of a woman in the US who sold a baseball on ebay for US$1125.00. And all she did was tell the whole story of how how her kids smashed a light with the baseball kicking off the day from hell. The story was so good because it was something every parent can relate to.

3. Benefits

Back on the doorstep, I needed to give some incredibly compelling reasons why the person to buy from me right then. The best reasons give quantify-able results Otherwise known as benefits.

Your story needs to be packed with benefits. – Using highly specific examples to highlight your benefits makes them more compelling.

4. Everyone else is doing it

Social proof…. I know what you are thinking. How can you use social proof when you are standing in the cold. Alone.

Here’s how it works…
“Do you know your neighbour? Ron, next door? – Yes
He decide to pick up two of these turtle scrubbers. One for himself and one for his son who has just bought his first turtle.

Give them ideas on how they can use your products or a reason to buy them (holidays, birthdays,).

On your website, this is a thousand times easier. Showcasing glowing testimonials on your website is a must. Text, images, audio all work, but video knocks it out of the park.

5. Make an irresistible offer

Selling door to door, you’ve got to get the sale before they close the door or you don’t get paid. Your website has a few more options than that. But even if your website is designed to provide customer support or just information, you need to get your visitor to take some action. You’ve done the hard work, now you need the pay off.

The first rule is to make them an irresistible offer. Either ‘order now and we’ll throw in this unbelievable bonus’, or sign up for this free report. The options are endless.

Assume the sale – They’ve just spent their time finding out more information about your products, and you’ve told them how great they are. Now you need to tell them what you want them to do next.

How many of these tips are you using on your website?

Be cool and share this on Facebook, Twitter or with someone that’ll get some value from it. Everyone else is doing it.

Thanks

Filed Under: Internet marketing, Marketing Tagged With: door to door sales, internet marketing, lessons, Marketing, web design, web marketing

How to put your word-of-mouth marketing on steroids

Everybody in business knows that word of mouth is the absolute best form of marketing for their business.

Having a third party recommend your business is more credible in the eyes of the potential customers. Numerous studies have shown that recommendations from friends and even complete strangers have much higher levels of trust than advertising.

The problem with word of mouth marketing is that it is really hard to instigate, encourage or control. For someone to recommend your business, you need to be top of their mind when they happen to be having a conversation with someone who needs your products or services. Basically the right person needs to be in the right place at the right time, having the right conversation to make the referral.

Enter social media

Social media removes some of the barriers of word-of-mouth referrals and makes it easier for your customers to refer or recommend your services. In fact, it makes it so easy, often times, people don’t even realise they are doing it.

Staying Top of mind

Social media, be it Facebook, Twitter, a blog, or even email, allows you regular contact with the fans and customers of your business. That regular contact is critical to reminding your fans that you exist.

Here’s the thing… The contact doesn’t have to be anything heavy. It doesn’t have to be a sales call, a product offer or any form of ‘marketing message’. In fact, it is better if it isn’t (of course there is a place for promoting sales from time to time).

The point is purely to let them know you are still here. Doing your thing. Helping people.

Make it easy to share and promote your business

Before social media, contacting people was slow and expensive. But now, taking 10 minutes to post a photo or a tip on Facebook, and you’ve made contact with all of your fans who are interested enough to follow you.

The trick is posting something interesting that inspires your fans and followers to want to have their say. To share it with their friends.

It only takes 2 seconds to click the ‘like’ button or send a retweet on Twitter, or a minute to compose a comment. On Facebook, every interaction with your content spreads your idea and the visibility of your business further, to reach a larger audience. Effectively removing the barriers of referring your business.

How to make this work for your business

If you haven’t already, set up your presence on these platforms.

Think about what sort of content would be useful or interesting for your customers, and plan some cool content. Remember, content, can be short text tips, long articles, photos or video.

Get some fans. Spread the word with your staff, friend and customers, and give them all a reason to follow you on these services.

Get publishing. Be cool.

Speaking of being cool. If you found this article helpful, I’d appreciate it if you took a moment to write a comment below or share this article on Facebook.

Filed Under: Internet marketing, Social media, Uncategorized Tagged With: Facebook, local business, Marketing, social media, word of mouth

How to grab business by targeting a highly specific market

Shampoo is marketed to specific target markets. I’m going to tell you something you already know. You know it, but I’m going to tell you again, because you probably don’t do it.

First, something to consider…

In our house, if you wander into the bathroom and poke your head behind the shower curtain. You will find quite a number of bottles crammed onto the tiny shelf. Including, not just one, but three separate bottles of shampoo. A white bottle with a blue lid for me, a tall architecturally designed cream bottle with a peach lid for my wife, and a transparent bottle of golden liquid for our kids.

Why the hell do we need three bottles of shampoo? They all do more or less exactly the same thing – clean hair.

We have them because shampoo companies know something. It’s the same thing that you already know.

You need to define your target market, and sell directly to them

Most small businesses, when asked who their target market is, have a version of the same answer.

“Anyone” or “Anyone with money”

The idea being that by targeting everybody, they have a larger potential market. Wrong! This strategy is leaving money on the table.

Back to shampoo… Do they sell less shampoo because one brand is targeted to only men? NO they sell more, a metric boatload more.

By targeting a specific, well defined market, it is easier to understand their problems and communicate how your product or service can solve it for them.

Everyone has hair that needs cleaning, but some have dry hair, oily hair, or an itchy scalp. Those are all specific problems that need solved.

Advertise specifically to your market

My shampoo says ‘for Men with sensitive scalps’. It’s a no brainer… That’s the stuff I need (or at least that I think I need).

By being specific you decommoditize your product or service. A product that fixes a specific issue is more valuable than a generic product.

But the market would be too small

Ok, here’s another example of a sneaky way to get around the problem with a small market. In the Internet marketing world, there is at least one dog training course that is marketed as train your Labrador, train your Great Dane, train your German shepherd and many other popular dog breeds.

It’s the same study course, the only way the course is differentiated is who it is marketed to (Labrador owners or German shepherd owners). Simple tactic but it works because all dog owners know their dog is the best dog breed, and training techniques tailored specifically to their breed is going to be better than general dog training.

Could you market the exact same product to two (or more) specific markets?

Action

Who can you help specifically? Write a list of specific groups of people who you could tailor your product or service to fix their specific problem.

Can you add something to you product or service to make it cater to a specific group?

How-to reports and Tips work great:

‘How to teach your child about bike safety’
or ‘7 critical accounting systems for a new service business’

Try something to reach a niche market.

— Rinse and repeat —

photo credit: Cormac Heron

If you liked this post, we would really appreciate it if you could write a comment below or post it on Facebook. Sharing is what the cool kids are doing!

Oh, and jump over and ‘Like’ our Facebook page

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: Demographics, Marketing, target market

How to use Facebook places to market your local business

Facebook Places just went live here in New Zealand yesterday.

I just posted this Cinchcast which covers, what Location services are, how they work, and why they are important in marketing your local business online.

Heres what you need to do now.

1. Go and make sure you are listed on Facebook places (and Foursquare for that matter)
(Beg or borrow a smart phone from a friend if you don’t have one yourself…. or go buy an iphone because you should have one anyway.

If your business isn’t listed, then add it.

2. Go to www.facebook.com/places and claim your listing
(just follow along with the instructions)

3. Encourage people to check in to your business. Put up a sign, ask customers as part of your sales process. Especially customers playing with their nice new iPhone in the queue.

Could you do me a favour and leave a comment below. Tell me if you found it helpful or if you have any other questions.

Filed Under: Marketing, Social media Tagged With: Cinch, Facebook, Foursquare, internet marketing, local business, Location Services, Marketing, Places, social media

My Forehead-slappingly obvious lesson in Marketing

Once upon a time, not so long ago, I was a Strawberry Farmer.

As with most horticulture businesses, I had a hand in every part of the operation, which was great for understanding the whole picture of running a business.

Some parts of the business I am glad to be finished with, such as getting up and starting work at 6am (and finishing at 6pm). But I really enjoyed the grass roots marketing of the berries.

Talking to customers, working out pricing (which changes daily in the fruit and vege game), and coming up with marketing strategies and promotions. this was the interesting stuff for me.

I recently got a lesson in PR from Mary and Ian who are now running the Farm

It is funny how when you are busy running around in your business sometimes you miss the “slap myself in the head” obvious stuff.

The beginning of last season, the strawberry packing team weighed in a monster Strawberry at 78 grams. That’s a pretty big strawberry… Three of those and you’ve filled an average punnet.

Super impressed with their 78g berry, Mary mentioned it to a local reporter… And just like that, they had a story run in the local Newspaper.

How is that for publicity?

But it gets even better… The local newspaper is part of the Fairfax media group here in New Zealand, and it must have been a slow News week because before you new it, Fairfax papers republished the story throughout the country.

Seriously… National exposure of their strawberries, just because they grew a large strawberry.

Funny thing is, Monster strawberries are pain in the arse… I know because, here’s the kicker, when I was running the show, our record was 105 grams!!!!

That’s about the size of a small apple.

But here’s the thing. When we weighed our mega-berry, we thought, that’s cool, we showed it to a handful of customers, and then gave it away (or ate it, I can’t remember). That was it!

What’s the lesson?

If you find something in your business that you think is cool, somebody else probably does as well. Don’t assume that no-one else cares. Ask them to find out.

Ok, sure, if I had told a friendly reporter about our 105g strawberry, it’s possible they would have said, “so what”. And obviously you won’t necessarily get massive exposure – but you might!

When it comes to marketing and publicity, sometimes it is hard to know what will strike a cord and take off. Take the “double rainbow” guy on YouTube… Who would have thought that would get 24.7 million views?

With Social media, you can publish things with a couple of clicks

Publishing news (or stories and quirks) about your business online is as simple as a few clicks, and while it might not make you front page news, they might just get you front of mind with some potential customers. And what can be more valuable than that?

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: Marketing, social media

The best marketing lesson I learned from my weird science teacher