Successful Blog

5 Ways to Bring More Customers in the Door

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Jake Oates

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Getting more customers is not just worthy, it is necessary to keep your business alive. In order to enjoy success you have to continually build upon what you have. There are a number of things that you can do to grow your business. With a bit of planning and investing just a little time, you can begin enjoying a steady stream of new customers. Here are a few tips to get you started:

  1. Ask for referrals – Getting new customers in the door could be as simple as asking for them. Ask your current customers to refer you to new customers. Note that you have to be providing satisfactory services to your existing customers before you can begin to expect referrals from them. After every sale or job that you do, ask your satisfied customer if he or she knows of someone else who would benefit from your business.
  2. Penetrate your market – Your existing market can be a great way to increase your business revenue. Getting new customers is great but you have to remember the customers that you already have. Take care of them and they will continue to use you for their needs.
  3. Innovate your products – Find new ways of using your products or services in order to entice new customers. There could be many ways that you could use your products or services. Find these new ways and begin promoting them.
  4. Reach out – Extending your market reach is a great way to find new customers. Opening stores in new places or building a website with an online store could really help you to add to your customer base. Once you have tapped into this new market, choose advertising methods that will reach your target audience.
  5. Think trade shows – Trade shows are an excellent way to promote your products and services and reach new customers. Trade shows draw in people who already have an interest in your market so participating can help you to reach new people. Choose trade show displays that highlight your product or service and work well with your business needs. A good trade show display can have them lined up around the corner just waiting to see what you have to offer.

What ways do you use to engage customers and keep them coming back for more?

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Author’s Bio: This post was written by Jake Oates on behalf of Display Wizard, UK – specialists in design, printing and distribution of display stands for exhibitions, trade shows and events. You can find him at displaywizard.co.uk.

Is Your Company’s Email Marketing Campaign Nothing Short of Junk?

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Although some “experts” stand by their claim that email will one day go the way of Beanie Babies, New Coke and Pontiac, there are others that believe email will be with us for the foreseeable future.

No matter which side of the fence you find yourself on with such a debate, one thing we can all agree on is that our respective email folders do not take very long to get filled up. In fact, go away on vacation for a few days without computer access and see what your business or personal email folder looks like when you return home.

For those individuals that are in charge of email marketing campaigns for their respective companies, it takes a delicate touch of finding the right amount of emails to send out to current and prospective clients so that you do not come across as a spammer. Making matters worse than spamming, a bad email campaign can dampen your company’s reputation, leading consumers to go elsewhere for the products and/or services that you offer.

So, how can you put together winning email marketing solutions that not only keep you out of the doghouse with search engines, but allow your company to get its message across at the same time?

  • Avoid having a spam reputation – The last thing you want your business to come across as with current and potential clients is that of a spammer. We all have junk folders in our email set ups that allow us to filter out all those sales pitches that we neither have time nor interest in. Make sure you are emailing individuals that have opted-in to receive messages from you in the first place. If you’re randomly emailing consumers about your business without their approval, you are breaking cardinal rule 101 of emailing, you are a spammer;
  • Avoid the same message to everyone – It should be obvious, but don’t send out a mass emailing to individuals regarding benefits for senior citizens if they are not 55 or older. Break down your list to make sure the people you are targeting are of that age and would actually find your message of value. Sending such an email to someone in their 30s is not only a waste of your time, but also their time. Yes, you could argue that their parents or someone they know in the 55 and older age range would find your message of value, but then it should have gone to those people in the first place;
  • Avoid a mixed message – Another faux pas is to have an email where the headline and the content do not match up. In the event you are trying to push information on auto insurance quotes, don’t have a headline that touts life insurance. You may think you are killing two birds with one stone by mentioning both forms of coverage, but it comes across as an error and could hurt your reputation;
  • Avoid not having solutions – Your email message should provide a solution for the party it is being sent to. Make sure your email shows how you can help the client, giving them a solution and not more questions. At the end of the day, you need to show the individual how you can assist them and why this email should be saved and not junked;
  • Avoid not providing a way out – All of your email messages should include an opt-out provision, even for clients that have been on your email list for some time now. It is as simple as providing clear details on how the individual can opt out of mailings down the road;
  • Avoid being too cheap – Just about everyone likes deals and promotions, so offer some up in your email marketing campaigns. The incentives you provide individuals are a great way to respond to your pitch, leading to added business or a new client down the road;
  • Avoid mistakes – Last but not certainly least, avoid having typos in both your headlines and the body of your message. If you think grammatical issues are not a big deal, think again. Would you consider doing business with a company whose email marketing message was sporting typos, run-on sentences, incorrect information and more?

Email marketing is still a prime player in a company’s efforts to attract and retain business these days.

If your email marketing campaigns seem a little junky these days, don’t automatically mail it in on failing.

Photo credit: websiteexpert.com

Dave Thomas, who discusses subjects such as direct mail advertising, writes extensively for San Diego-based Business.com.

5 Simple Ways to Deliver Irresistible Content and Lower Your Bounce Rate

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Be Irresisible!

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If you’ve been developing a business online in the last few years, you’ve probably heard statics regarding the brief amount of time we have to get and keep the attention of first-time visitors. What was almost 20 seconds in 2005 now is being described as something between 8 seconds and 10.

Getting folks to arrive is the first step, of course. In that, an attention-grabbing, killer headline is everything.


Click image to access complete podcast at The Onion.

Whether it is something completely original and novel, ultra-specific and geared towards a niche, or just incredibly compelling, good headlines on the Web always win.

They always win, except when they don’t.

If a headline delivers traffic, but the traffic immediately bounces away, can you say the headline wins?

A killer headline will get traffic, but what keeps folks reading?
We have to deliver great content to give that headline legs or that traffic will bounce away.

5 Ways to Deliver Irresistible Content and Lower Your Bounce Rate

Strong businesses are built on strong relationships. What transforms a headline clicker into someone who hangs around? What turns first-time visitors into people who want to stick around? What makes them stay and already thinking about their return? Here are five things you can do to make it more likely they get what they came for.

Five Ways to Deliver to the Clickers Who Follow a Headline to Your Blog …

  1. Deliver content that your headline promises.
  2. Deliver content in short paragraphs using subheads surrounded by lots of white space so that people have room to think and breathe. Add a picture that supports the text and illustrates the content. First impressions count.
  3. Deliver it without making folks jump over ads or through hoops to get to the prize that the headline promises. Decide whether you want me to stay … there are other ways to get me to buy.
  4. Deliver it by responding to the people who take time to comment.
  5. Deliver it by making it easy to find more of what brought people to your site.

It’s not the visitor who never came that’s a loss. It’s the visitor who comes to find that we’re not what he or she thought. A great headline followed by something less doesn’t win. It doesn’t even finish.

The most important thing is deliver — do what we say we’re going to do.


Click image to see complete article from The Onion.

If the content you deliver is easy to access, faster to enjoy or employ, and adds value and meaning to a visitor’s life, you can bet that visitors will be glad they came and ready to come back. Easier, faster, more meaningful is irresistible. That’s a fact.

Great headline, lame blog post — who wants to deal with that? You’ve been there. What’s your response when you end up on one of those?

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

6 Ways to Promote Your Business Online Using Green

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by Jen Thames

Green Marketing

A few days ago at a favorite deli there was a new sign. The sign said:

“We are now Powered 100% by Wind Energy,”

Unconsciously I gazed up. There aren’t any windmills around here! I thought. Yet the message stuck and it made me think: If a deli that specializes in large greasy meatball sandwiches on soft white bread is promoting Green, maybe more businesses need to start using Green marketing.

These days Green marketing thrives far beyond co-ops and solar energy companies. Other businesses need to think about adding Green to their brands. Most importantly small businesses and large companies alike can all use Green to enhance customer relations. It’s an easy way to connect to customers because the underlying message is, “We care about the same things you do,” rather than, “Buy our product or service.” Here are 6 ways to use Green marketing for a small business or a blog.

Incorporate a Green Spring Giveaway into a Mobile Smart Phone Promotion

Mobile marketing through smart phones is a fast growing online trend. According to Google, mobile searches with a local intent were up 400% between 2010 and 2011. Signing up for a location based service like Foursquare or WHERE and offering a free Green spring give away can draw customers into your store and improve your image at the same time. Make the promotion fun and tailor it your business. For example, a children’s clothing store could have a free plant your own tree promo for kids while a bakery could offer a class on decorating spring cupcakes naturally without using food coloring. Get creative!

Offer an Online Green Promotional Product on Your Website

Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream invented this idea with their Rainforest Crunch Ice Cream. A percentage of sales were set aside to help nut-shelling cooperatives in the Brazilian Rainforest. Unfortunately, the company was stretching the truth a bit and they were forced to pull the marketing from their packaging. Ben and Jerry’s is mentioned because Green claims need to be truthful with genuine intent or a promotional campaign can backfire.

Keeping Green product campaigns short is one way to get the message out, give properly and make money. In addition, time limited promotions encourage action. For example, “Buy from our website during the next two weeks and we will donate 25% of your order to Greenpeace.” A further advantage of a short Green campaign is that you can pre-advertise and post-advertise the campaign online through the press wires. Charity and giving pieces are almost always picked up quickly and spread widely. Press wires can drive online traffic for months.

Think about incorporating Green into your Business Brand

Make Green a real commitment. Then methodically publicize your Green stand online through every channel possible. There are separate marketing channels for Green Businesses like Green Tweets and Facebook Pages. Like the deli above, you don’t have to be a health food store to endorse Green and incorporate it into your brand image. Green makes people feel better about eating ice cream and 1000 calorie meatball sandwiches. Maybe it can work for your business too!

Use Green Promotional Gifts to Spread the Word

Traditional promotional gifts now come in a variety of Green alternatives. Green shopping bags and coffee carriers are an excellent way to get your brand out there while promoting a Green lifestyle.

Start a Green oriented blog, email newsletter and RSS feed to get your chosen Green message out.
The deli above chose wind energy so a blog about wind energy, clean energy and hiking (where you need to take sandwiches) would be fitting for them. Encourage customers to participate in the blog to lessen the writing work and gain fresh perspectives.

Turn Green Milestones into SMS events

Once the Green campaign is up and running use a quick messaging event to broadcast how well the campaign is doing or how well it went. This is a great soft-sell way to encourage further customer interaction and increase brand awareness and loyalty. For example, “Our store just surpassed our yearly giving goal to Greenpeace! A big Thank You to all our customer’s- we couldn’t have done it without you.”

Success often increases with giving. Green is a wonderful way to thrive and give back not only to your community but also to the world.

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Author’s Bio: Jen Thames writes about marketing and business at SixSigmaOnline. You can find her on Twitter as @SixSigmaAveta

 

Thank you, Jen. Great green ideas!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

What to do when you have Twitter block

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Rosemary O’Neill

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So you’ve decided to use Twitter as one of your content marketing tools. You’ve built up a respectable following, you engage with people, send out a steady stream of diverse original content and RTs, and you occasionally attend a Twitter chat. Everything is good, until….Twitter block!

It’s similar to writers’ block, except in 140 characters. You see, if you aren’t contributing a reasonable number of Tweets throughout the day, you won’t be seen in your followers’ streams.

The average lifespan of a Tweet is supposedly only one hour, according to ReadWriteWeb. That means you need to space out your Tweets in order to keep your voice “in the stream.” I believe that the optimum number of Tweets per day is somewhere around 5-10 for the normal user.

Here are 10 solid tips on how to stay visible without driving yourself insane.

  • It’s OK to tweet an important piece of content 2-3 times in one day, at different times; just change your Tweet wording up a bit to keep it fresh.
  • It’s OK to use a scheduling app like Buffer or Crowdbooster to space out your Tweets, as long as you are actually available to reply to people who respond to your content.
  • Look for 5 people who recently RTd you, and RT something of theirs that you think will resonate with your followers.
  • Take a pretty picture and add a relevant comment to it.
  • Find 5 people who follow you who you haven’t directly engaged with yet, read their bio and/or website, and mention them with a comment or compliment.
  • Use the “OH” tag to tweet something interesting you heard someone else say IRL.
  • Don’t resort to quotes all the time! But if you’re reading something interesting on your Kindle app, highlight a great phrase and Tweet it out using the integrated share tool.
  • Ask a question. It could be something industry specific, or as minimal as “what should I watch on Netflix next?”
  • What big project are you working on? Can you “leak” out a little tidbit of it as a teaser? People love to be on the inside, behind the scenes.
  • Do a series of Tweets that are related…Christopher Penn does “#the5” which is the five things you need to know that day. Could you do 3 tips for starting your day happy? Perhaps a series of 10 great blog links?

Where do you find great stuff to share with your connections? Have you ever felt Twitter block?

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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

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Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

How To Prep Your Customer For A Killer Video Testimonial

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Sean Rosensteel

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Video marketing has become an extremely popular approach for generating interest in services or products offered online. With so many affordable tools in the marketplace, videos can be easily produced and distributed online for less than what other mediums (like TV) would cost.

Consequently, utilizing the ever-so-popular video testimonial has become a common approach to connecting with prospective customers. And the proliferation of video cameras installed on most computers manufactured within the last few years has made it easy for people to record their own videos. Businesses are starting to leverage this recent technology trend to gather raw video submissions from customers – without the enormous costs of doing an on-site or commercial production.

But preparing your customers to record a proper video is critical for gathering useful video clips that can be displayed as effective testimonials on your website, blog, etc. Here are some tips to ensure you get the most out of your customers when they hit that record button.

Don’t be afraid to give them some direction

A good testimonial doesn’t have to rely on fancy scripts to get the point across. But it can be to your company’s benefit to provide customers with some direction.

  • Consider giving them talking points, however broad they may be;
  • Encourage them to focus on their overall customer satisfaction, the ease of working with your business, or whatever other angle you want your testimonial video to take;
  • Encourage them to talk about any unique experiences or stories that reflect well on your company;
  • Don’t be afraid to ask them to talk about certain aspects of their experience that other customers aren’t likely to share.

Explain the real value of their testimonial

You’re probably seeking testimonials for one reason: they’re valuable to your business and can lead to more sales. Don’t sidestep this goal – let your customers know up-front how integral their relationship is to your business, and explain that their testimonial can be a big boost to your business’s future.

You don’t have to encourage them to exaggerate or lie for your benefit, but by understanding the value they have within your company, they will feel empowered to help – particularly if they are satisfied.

Strike while the iron is still hot

Timing is everything. The best time to approach your customers about recording a video testimonial is while they’re enjoying the benefits provided by your product or service.

If they’re actively enjoying your product or using your service, you have a better chance of getting them to agree to record a quick video than you will if you wait until their customer experience is weeks or months old.

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Author’s Bio:Sean Rosensteel is the Head of Business Development at Bravo Video, a web-based platform that enables businesses to easily capture video from customers, users and fans – right over the web.

Thank you, Sean, for adding to the conversation! Killer testimonials do so much.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!