Going 3 deep to understand concerns

It is so important these days to understand needs of customers, affiliates, vendors, and all others that we do business with. Many times an answer to a question we ask may not contain the real reasoning of concerns that a contact is having. For this reason it is so important to go 3 DEEP with your questions. Here are 4 quick tips on going 3 DEEP and getting a result. 

1. Ask open ended questions to try and get to the real reasoning behind a concern. Avoid Yes/No questions

2. Probe a little further with questions like "Tell me a little bit more about that?" and "Help me understand why this is a concern?"

3. Know when to be silent and listen. Sometimes silence after a question or an answer can lead the other person to try and fill that silence with more deeper reasoning. 

4. Be friendly with your contacts. Follow the "Platinum Rule" and treat them as THEY would like to be treated. 

Thoughts on Going 3 DEEP?

Email Campaigns

 What is the Key to email campaigns? How do you measure success with an email campaign? How often should you do email campaigns? These are all questions that you need to address when formulating your strategy. Some quick thoughts and tips:

1. Formulate tests and a different creative for each group you are trying to reach. By testing different ideas and ads you will be better able to see which ideas work and which don't.

2. When you make the creatives for the email campaigns try to formulate each one to appeal to different personality types ie. Have lots of data, comparison, and reviews for the analytical minded people. Have testimonials of how great the product is and how everyone is using it for those who seek to have everything that is currently Hip, and be quick and too the point of why and how to purchase the product quickly to those who are quick start minded. 

3. Track your numbers of success, whether its click through rate, revenue from the campaign, or page impressions on your gateway site, find a way to see the success of the project. If one campaign is more successful on revenue but less on click through rate and vice versa on another campaign, find a way to combine those two campaigns to create a efficient, effective way to reach people. 

4. DON"T BOMBARD PEOPLE, through analysis of your numbers and customer surveys you can find out what the optimal amount of emails that you should send is. Use your numbers effectively to produce less unsubscribers and more devout customers. 

Skull Candy Ad Review

I saw this great commercial from Skull Candy the other day. Skull Candy is embeded as a company for the action sports enthusiast. Through this brand positioning, Skull Candy has 2 unique audiences. First, the actual participants in Action Sports (Skiing, Snowboarding, Skateboarding, etc) Second, it has captured the spill over effect to those who WANT to be participants in action sports. This has proved to be successful, and along with new brand extensions such as shirts and backpacks, Skull Candy appears to continue its enormous growth and remain entrenched as the number 2 distributer of headphones worldwide.

This commercial does a great job at hitting its target audience as well as its secondary audience, and the tag line, Every Revolution Needs a Soundtrack fits perfectly with the people it wants to purchase its product.

Take a look.

Client Retention

After you have generated the lead and sold them on your service or product it is CRUCIAL to keep them connected to your company. It is much cheaper to retain a customer than to generate a new one. 3 quick tips of advice for customer retention

1. Customer retention begins with how you treat them during the initial sales process. You want to make sure that you create Raving Fans of your company after each product or service you sell. Many companies ensure this service in different ways, I would suggest to customize a process that works for your company.
2. Brand Growth- a strong brand and continued growth will also ensure that customers are proud to tell others that they used you for a service or purchased your product.
3. CRM- a customized CRM with multiple and varied touch points to your consumer are valuable at creating a future customer. Utilize social media like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube as a way to keep in touch with clients without bothering them. Also, plan a every other month email promotion campaign to bring people to your site.

Next Post - Featured Company Skull Candy

FOLLOW UP UNTIL YOU ARE BLUE IN THE FACE

1. Contact MUST be made with the lead ideally within 5 minutes of being generated. The stats for converting

a new lead drop off significantly each minute you don’t contact them.

2. If you are unable to contact within the first 5 minutes and you left a message or an email, contact each person 3 times within the next 3 days following the generation. Various methods can be used; email, call, Thank You Note, text… be creative.

3. If no contact is made within the first 3 days, continue to contact once a week for a month. Make sure to provide value with each contact, don’t use the same method or message each time.

4. If after a month there is still no response , continue to follow up each month for the next 3 months. Announce specials for the month, news for the industry.

5. If after 3 months still no response, add to a monthly auto – email list. Continue to make sure that you auto email campaigns provide enough value so that HOT leads don't become UNsubscribers. 

Next Post....Lead Retention

Step 3 Sales Process Close the Deal and Client Retention

You've generated the lead through your great online efforts, you built rapport and created value, now what? Close the sale. If you did well with the previous 2 steps, the customer will sign up for your service or purchase your product, and don't be fooled this is actually when the sale begins to capture a lifetime customer. 5 quick ways to capture this person for life. 

1. Contact MUST be made with the lead ideally within 5 minutes of being generated. The stats for converting a new lead drop off significantly each minute you don’t contact them.

2. If you are unable to contact within the first 5 minutes and you left a message or an email, contact each person 3 times within the next 3 days following the generation. Various methods can be used; email, call, Thank You Note, text… be creative.

3. If no contact is made within the first 3 days, continue to contact once a week for a month. Make sure to provide value with each contact, don’t use the same method or message each time.

4. If after a month there is still no response , continue to follow up each month for the next 3 months. Announce specials for the month, news for the industry.

5. If after 3 months still no response, add to a monthly auto – email list. When contacted make sure to continue to provide value through email campaigns and new reasons for the customer to go back to your website. 


Next Cup of Joe-- Follow UP

Step 2 Sales Process: VALUE

So you spent all of that time and effort with PPC campaigns, social media events, and Google natural search techniques, and now your work is paying off with website traffic. What do you do next? First, you need to make sure that you actually have a valuable sustainable product in the eyes of your consumer. Your landing page that you advertised needs to be clean, simple, and immediately show the consumer their WIIFM (what's in it for me). 

This is where all of your efforts into understanding your consumer and marketing toward your target market pay off. However, what works today may not always work tomorrow, so be willing to be flexible to change in this Information Age. Continually focus on ways to better serve your consumer with your product or service and make sure that its reflected on your site.

Second, once you have captured the client and got them to your website, you need to create value for them to sign up for continual service whether it be subscribing to a blog you have or ordering a product. The end goal here is to get the contact information because it is a lot cheaper to retain a client then to find a new one.

Last and most importantly, implement CRM systems to keep your client. The initial sale is just the beginning to hopefully a long relationship of trust and service to a consumer. Make your CRM system simple to understand for your employees and also make sure you create just enough future touch points with a consumer to keep you in their sub-conscious. Whatever you do, don't bug them. You ever want a consumer to click that unsubscribe button on the bottom of your emails. This is why it is crucial in your email campaigns to make sure every email creates value or is of worth to your target consumer.

Thoughts?

Step 1 Sales Process- Building Credibility/Rapport/Trust

Step 1 may begin before your customer even Google's a topic related to your customer. It may begin with the way you have dealt with clients in the past, outside brand management you do, promotional activities you have, and the Google Juice you have (how high you are on the natural search results in Google.

1. Name / Brand Recognition -  You need to create activities on small and large scale to reach your customers. If you are a Large Brand with 100 years established credibility it is a little less important to spend time and money on Brand Recognition. If you are a startup company, this needs to be a big portion of your budget, a part of your "shock and awe" campaign to get customers to your great product. This can be done via low cost means in Social Media or email campaigns, through cost means by doing PPC campaigns on Google, MSN, Bing, or Yahoo, or through more conventional advertising and direct mail campaigns. 
2. Positive Customer Feedback - Once you have customers, make sure you take care of them. With the ease of access to the internet and social media, one bad review can hurt your company. Be fast to respond to questions and resolve concerns to create repeat customers and raving fans of your company. 
3. Nice Updated Design - Don't bog down your website with too much text, most people don't care they just want to see there WIIFM (Whats In It For Me) of why they should use you or buy your product over your competitor. Keep your website up to date with the latest and greatest technology and social media access. 
4. Clear Product Descriptions - Keep It Simple Stupid -  the KISS principle is one of the oldest in marketing and still holds true. Be descriptive but to the point about your product or service. 
5. Clean Pictures or even videos of Product - It is good to use relevant pictures, videos, and audio to reach all customers. Some will prefer audio, some will prefer visual, and some will prefer text, it is important to appeal to all 3. 
6. Awards received - If you were voted by JD Power as the best of something, be proud of it. Post it where customers can see it. This will provide instant credibility to your brand. 
7. Business Success - This goes along with awards, show that you are a big dog and an expert in the area that you are selling. 
8. Community Outreach - Be involved in the community, this may be the deciding factor for some customers. 
9. Co-Branding with recognized brands - Create relationships with affiliates that customers may purchase or use along with what you sell. This will help link you to perhaps a larger more established brand or an up and coming recognized brand. 
10. Refund Policy - always offer a refund policy. Take care of your customer
11. Verisign -  if you offer credit card purchases on your site make sure to be Verified as a secure site. Customers may be leery of purchasing on a new site and that image will give them more peace of mind
12. Pod Casts - This is a great tool to provide additional information on products, knowledge, your company, or anything else that is relevant to your brand. It can be accessed by clients on your site and can prove to have Viral effects and spread to new customers if done correctly. 

What are your Company's online goals?

Today I wanted to go over some basic online goals to produce business. What are your online goals?  What are you trying to accomplish?  Some web sites merely want to be an information provider, but if you want your web site to become a virtual seller then you probably have these three goals…

Typically you want the person visiting the site to do one of the three things:

1. Fill out a form with their information so your sales team can contact them
2. Sign up for a continuing monthly service or purchase a product
3. Have the potential lead contact you through phone, e-mail, or a live chat

A successful online sale will happen when the potential lead does one of these three things.  

1. Builds Rapport or Trust with your company
2. Sees the value provided by your company
3. Signs up for your service or orders your product. 

Now the question you need to ask is,  "What can I put on the web site to close the sale so the potential lead will do one of those 3 things?"  To answer this question we can simply reference the sales process:

The sales process of the web site should be geared towards the target market of the company. For example, you would create rapport, provide value, and close the sale differently for consumers than businesses.  For businesses you would provide value by showing them how you can save them time & money, increase efficiency, convenience, and profits.


I will get further into the sales process with the next Marketing Cup of Joe. 

Website Design Tips

The second part of online presence is how your online presence looks. People won’t buy from web sites that don’t look good or are disorganized and don’t have any good form. How is the site designed, is it clean is it not clean does it have too much information and text.

Here are some design characteristics:

1. Clean
2. Simple
3. Organized
4. Correct Navigation
5. Few Barries to purchase
6. Customer Path to Purchase Well Designed….this is basically looking through the customers eyes and see how from start to finish how they will look at items before they buy and what are going to be the reasons they buy.

12 Web Site Must Haves

Necessary Web Functionality to close more sales

1. Information Forum- give your clients a chance to ask questions, receive information on your product and upcoming promotions, and create a real interactive way to get consumer data.

2. Live Chat- This is more mainstream now and almost a necessity. It is a great way to engage customers who are on your website NOW. It requires having a customer service rep, but is a great way to engage the Information Now client who may have a question.

3. Free Web Offers - This drives your web business and is key to online merchandisers who don't have brick and mortar locations. Create excitement and traffic to your website. This also means that your website and product need to be good enough to create repeat business from web offers.

4. Video - You tube channels are free and a great way to reach the general public. Viral videos can produce a million hits within a few days. You can also use video to demonstrate product or service use to clients who are more audio and visually stimulated people.

5. Client Login - Locks them in as a client and allows them value for being a repeat customer because they won't have to input data again.

6. One to One Marketing - Try and create marketing specific to your client. Amazon does a great job at this with suggested items before checkout.

7. Contact info on every page - Customers need to know how to contact you

8. Contact Us - Again the more ways to contact you Immediately the better.

9. E-mail Marketing - Great way to drum up business from current and past clients as well as from niche areas. Needs to involve Scarcity, Urgency, and Real Value to generate more leads to the website.

10. Toll Free Number - More ways to contact you the better

11. Online Payment Processing - Self explanatory and required for any merchandising company

12. Social Media Access (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn)- need to have consistent content on all of these FREE sites. There is no reason not to promote your product on these avenues. It needs to be consistent, you can't slack on Twitter or Blog posts, people will eventually subscribe if you consistently provide value and information about your product.

19 Ways to get people to visit your website

How to get people to visit your Web Site


Once you have answered the question of your online presence, you’ll want to figure out how to get people to your site. Here is a list of a few ways to drive traffic to your site. Some of the list is internet specific while others are traditional marketing / public relations methods. The traditional methods should be used to promote the site in addition to their regular duties of promoting the company and generating sales.


1. Search Engines
2. Banner Ads
3. Search Engine Optimization
4. You Tube
5. Free Internet Ads
6. Radio
7. TV
8. Sponsorship
9. Charity Events
10. Associations
11. Affiliates (Links to other peoples web sites)
12. Trade Shows
13. Print Marketing Materials (directing people to your site)
14. E-mail Marketing (Free Offers)
15. Mailer
16. Current Customers
17. Discounts
18. Special Web offers
19. Regular Advertising (directing people to web site)

Add your comments! I will post later on possible ways to convert leads from this list

Email Techniques

Just a quick blurb today on techniques with initial follow up on a newly generated lead.

Did you know that the chance of converting a website lead decreases 100x if you contact them 30 minutes later vs. contacting them 5 minutes later? An MIT Study conducted on converting leads proves this. (http://www.leadresponsemanagement.org/mit_study). The MOST important thing with converting leads is response time. We are living in an information NOW time and if people don’t receive an answer or response to their inquiry within 30 minutes, they will find somebody else to give them an answer.

The key with the first contact of a new lead is to as listed previously:

1. Build rapport- you can do this by introducing yourself and stating why you are calling. Go 3 deep with questions, that means don’t take surface answers as the real meaning behind the questions you ask. Use phrases like “Tell me a bit more about that “ and “help me understand why”

2. Provide Value- Answer questions and ask questions to prove your credibility, create expectations and to build a trusting relationship. You want and need to become the new lead’s “go to guy” Remember, the lead contacted you which means they trust that YOU are an expert in the field they are requesting information on. Take notes on what you talk about, this will help for the next appointment and building future rapport

3. Close the sale- you may not sell the product on the first contact, but it is crucial that you at least set the next appointment, whether it be in person or a follow up call. The close also includes what you do after you hang up the phone. Review the notes you made during the conversation and send your contact a Thank You note. This will serve as a second contact with the client without being over bearing.

Featured Company - Pepsi Co

Having just finished my MBA in marketing at the University of Utah, I have become addicted to analyzing commercials ie: target markets, purpose of the commercial, promise and reason why their product is the best. 

Last night while I was watching some TV, I saw a great commercial by Pepsi about selling their Diet Mtn Dew product. Mtn Dew is one of my favorite drinks and has done a great job at branding itself as the Extreme drink within the 15-35 age range. With its Diet Dew commercial it was clear that they are marketing to an older generation with the way it showed 3 people in an office setting drinking the Mtn Dew and showing off their Eagle Tatoos. Great commercial that I have included below. 

Online Marketing Tips

Content, Content, Content.

SEO, PPC, Social Media, Blogs....what does it all mean? The key to each of these is to create content to push your clients to your website. There are so many great companies out there who just don't have the savvy or knowledge to implement these low cost plans to help raise their results on the search engine giants, Google, MSN, Bing, and Yahoo. The key to success in helping your company to be seen is first.....start doing something.

The goal for this week is to start a blog for your company. Shout to the housetops to people about your product and link your website in your blog. It is simple to do a quick note or message on a blog once a week and it will be the start to creating and inventing your brand.

Goal for the week: Start doing something,


Next Weeks Lesson- More free stuff to do.