You Never Get A Second Chance To Make A First Impression

 

 

In many cases, your website is the first thing your new potential customers will see when they meet you. Are you making a good first impression? Meeting someone online is little different than meeting them in person; unfortunately, you have less than a minute to catch their attention and keep them reading.

Do they like how you look? Are you saying what your customers are looking to hear? With the future of your online business riding on your words, are you making a good impression? Here are five ideas to have your customers staying longer and remember you long after the encounter ends:

l. Dress nicely and be well groomed. Have you ever been to a website you were ready to leave as soon as you got there? I have. Chances are things were too loud and too busy.

Though there may have been something there of interest to you, you weren't likely to have found it because there was just way too much stuff going on.

So what is the well groomed website wearing this season? Not too many loud flashing headlines. Instead, make sure your site is calm and confident. Your headline and first paragraph should be a summarization of the website theme. Who you are, what you're going to share with them and why you decided to do so.

No one likes to read half a page only to find the site didn't deal with his or her issue of interest. No flashing lights, no neon headlines, no blaring music or boisterous sales pitches blasting away.

2. Have a nice voice; be friendly and pleasant. Have you ever met someone you initially thought you'd like to get to know... and then they opened their mouth and you realized you knew all you needed to? Your website should speak to your readers like a good friend might. Be easy to understand. Write in short sentences, with short paragraphs.

Each paragraph should have a theme, stated in the first sentence, and elaborated on through its conclusion. And though it's so tempting to put some fancy font on your website, you have no idea what they'll see based on how their browser may be set up, which browser they are using, or if they are reading your site on a laptop, desktop or smart phone.

Stick to the basic Arial, Helvetica, and other Sans-serif fonts. They're easy on the eye.

3. Talk just to them; treat them like they're the only one. Rather than talking to the masses as a whole, write to a particular person. Picture them in your mind and write as though you are having a private conversation with them.

Be their friend - This is something for 'you', not just anyone. They'll feel like you really like them and like they have your undivided attention. Always use active voice rather than passive.   It will make them feel as though you're speaking directly to them.

4. Always focus on their needs rather than being pushy and trying to move too fast. Nobody likes to be around someone who pushes the relationship too quickly. You want to get to know someone before you get too emotionally involved. There was a reason this person chose to visit your website. Address that need. How can you solve their problem? Don't tell them what you have; tell them what problem of theirs you can solve. Making a purchase is an emotional decision. If you move too quickly, they won't be ready to commit emotionally. Get to know them first.

5. Give them a reason to stick around or come back. Give them something they can't get anywhere else. While yes, they probably won't feel as special at any other website, but on the off chance the competition is also following these five steps, give them a free mini-course. Let them see you care about their success and about them. Show them you value the relationship. Give them a free report; something to help them reach their goal.

If you follow these guidelines, you'll make a wonderful impression and your new friends won't want to leave. They'll appreciate your thoughtfulness and stick around long enough to see what an absolute 'peach' you really are.

 

 

Easily Create Email Marketing Campaigns

How do you develop an effective email marketing campaign?

 

What you send to your customers is very important. If it isn’t well designed or professional looking the results could be damaging to your business instead of beneficial.

 

The first part of the email marketing campaign needs to include your goals.

 

What do you expect to achieve from your email marketing campaign?

 

Who do you want to reach?

 

You should also decide what type of marketing you are going to do. Will it be random discounts and promotions, seasonal, or will you be sending a regular newsletter?

 

Next you will need to do some research. Do you know the email marketing laws? What are the current market trends? How are you going to make your email marketing campaign more appealing than that of the competition? You have to have these goals clearly defined and outlined. Otherwise your will just spin your wheels while developing your email marketing campaign.

 

Since the goals of every business are very different, the strategies they use in email marketing will also be very different. While this gives each business the ability to be creative a unique in developing their marketing campaign, it also makes it difficult because there are no clear-cut, cookie cutter answers.

 

If you aren’t skilled in developing email marketing campaigns you may need to purchase some type of email marketing software or hire an email-marketing consultant.

 

How well do you know your customer? I hope well because this is a very important part of developing an effective email marketing campaign. You have to be able to address your key audience by providing them with relevant information. If they aren’t interested in what you have to say then it doesn’t matter how many emails you manage to send out.

 

Dot Your I’s and Cross Your T’s

 

Once you have decided on your email marketing campaign you may think you are ready to hit the send button, but hold on just a little bit longer. Make sure everything in the email is spelled correctly and grammatically correct. Nothing looks more unprofessional than an email marketing campaign will errors.

 

They will stick out like a sore thumb. Remember to test the effectiveness of the email on the various email service providers as they all have variations. You will be disappointed to discover that subscribers to a particular service weren’t able to open your email for it to read properly.

 

Subject Lines Are the Beginning of the Email

 

Make sure the subject line of your email is clear and effective. This will help your email marketing campaign to get past the various spam filters and virus protectors. Many researchers of email marketing believe the subject line will make or break the reader’s decision to open your email. Make sure you personalize the email and address it to the consumer rather than a broad introduction. You will want to attach a clear expiration date to your email marketing promotion. Nothing motivates the consumer than having a deadline. They don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to take advantage of what you are offering.

 

Email marketing is a great opportunity for you to communicate with your customers and to promote your business. It is very important that you take the time to set your goals and to know the market before you develop your email marketing campaign.

 

This will ensure it is successful. While you want your email marketing strategy to be unique and creative you need to keep the wants and needs of the customer in mind. You can choose to develop your email marketing strategy on your own, using software, or by hiring a consultant. Getting your email to the consumer is only half of the battle.

 

As always, here’s to your success and to building your legacy.

Secrets of the Cold-Call

Cold calling has to be one of the most dreaded ways to gain new clients/customers so that is why I am coving it first in this new mini-series.

When it comes to cold calling, there are a few questions that go through people’s heads that are more for procrastination purpose than actually answering the questions; “What is cold-calling?” “ Is it beneficial to my sales?” Cold calling (or canvassing as it is commonly known as) refers to the first meaningful calls you make to a prospective client for the purpose of marketing yourself, business, product or service and how it could benefit them. If used properly and effectively, the cold calling technique can be very beneficial and gain you quite a bit of future business. 

Having the best cold-calling techniques serves as an added advantage to your business in that it allows you to improve other aspects that will serve your business in a positive sense such as developed communication skills.

Notably, the basic principles of cold calling as they relate to communication are among the main characteristics mentioned by most prominent entrepreneurs. The fact that cold calling creates a focus on initiative, addressing one’s fears and action is a recipe for successful sales hence the importance of employing cold calling strategies while promoting your product brand and aiming for higher sales in mind with each call.

The need for cold calling strategies

Today's modern world is characterized by increased dependency to online marketing, social media marketing, email marketing and content marketing. Cold calling should be seen as an opportunity to generate new leads and contacts and a viable process in which to promote your product brand and increasing sales. Cold calling may seem like an ancient marketing strategy, but, though this is factual to an extent, it is also a tried and true method by which people have been making a name for themselves for decades.

Besides the fact that successful entrepreneurs were able to successfully nurtured their business skills long before the internet by employing basic principles of this marketing strategy, cold calling plan kits have been introduced making product brand promotions easy and general sales even easier. Cold calling marketing strategies kits are all-inclusive and will always positively impact your sales considering the fact that it comprises of:

 

• Detailed tips and techniques geared towards effective telephone pitches and additional win/win business opportunities that benefit everyone.

• A number of secrets to cold calling success that experts from the different fields implement on a daily basis.

• Examples of actual cold calling scripts that have helped secure appointments even with high profiled prospective buyers.

• Sample checklists and worksheets that can help you come up with your own personal cold script (which I recommend that you have your own that way it is geared toward your specific business).

• Tutorials on how to leverage voicemails to get prospective clients to call you back.

 

How does cold calling strategies affect your sales?

 

Normally as a sale's person you serve as a link between the customer and the supplier / source.

What this means in a nutshell is that you are the one who is influencing the leveraging products and services. With this task in mind, it becomes apparent as to why cold calling strategies comes can help you establish some key fundamentals when it comes to linking suppliers with customers.

At this point, I hope that I have given you a strong indication as to why cold calling strategies make it relatively easier for you not only to interpret and predict sales opportunities but also to control your market. Using cold-calling strategies for your sales intentions places you in the best position to control the relationship and cooperation between customers and suppliers.

It is crucial, as you work toward meeting your set sales goals, that you choose to implement cold-calling strategies focusing on more pertinent matters such as your target market place including your competitors and all the threats your sales are faced with.

 

Successful cold calling strategies for online and offline marketing

 

As an entrepreneur, to make cold calling strategies effectively work for you, it is advisable that you use the following basic standards in creating a cold calling strategies kit:

1. Preparation:

Before you call a prospective client it is vitally important for you to plan in advance, set your objectives right from the start and most importantly choose the best time to call you prospect as outlined below:

A) Pre-call planning:

According to research, a pre-call plan stands out as one of the main fundamentals when it comes to making a positive conversation with a prospective client. When prepping to make a cold call, it is crucial that you collect pieces of information about your prospect that will help you not only effectively introduce yourself but also professionally raise your business intentions in a manner that grabs the attention of the prospective client. It is during your discussion with such clients that you bring in the specific details of what you are proposing to assist them with in a way that they can directly relate it to their business. This helps you give a precise account of your company's' overall goals regarding business as you will be talking of specific features your product brand or service can provide to them. As Zig Ziglar always said, “You’ll get everything out of life that you want if you just help enough other people get what they want.”

Prior to calling your prospect, research for enough insights about your prospect’s business. To do so and to inject some of these facts into the conversation will impress the prospect and thus gain more interest from them. It's all up to you.

 

B) Setting an objective

Apart from the pre-call planning, cold calling strategies for offline marketing also requires you to have set objectives for the direction that you want the cold-call to go, and to have those objectives expressed clearly in writing prior to making that important call. Why is this relevant? Because the main aim for making this call is to set up a meeting and not necessarily to promote your product brand or services. Having a set of objectives, serves as a gateway, which allows you to bring in a possible business meeting to discuss the details of your proposals.

Remember your goal is to establish meeting with your prospect client and should you deviate from this by giving out too much unnecessary information up front, your prospect is likely to see you as being “salesy” and turn you down before you even have the chance of demonstrating the true value of your products or services. Consider your call to a prospective client as an opportunity to build more clout and develop a potential sales opportunity and introduce yourself as the best contact to consult in case of a situation change instead of “buy from me now” attitude.

 

        C) Choosing the best time to Call

Besides choosing to call your prospect at a time when you are prepared, well rested and ready for the call, it is extremely urgent that your timing be done perfectly; calling your prospective at a time you are certain he is not only available but also free to talk. Reason being chances are if your approach is agreeable; the call will most certainly be characterized by a lot of explaining and discussions before you finally settle on a meeting date. In other words, it would be more of a delightful conversation rather than one or the other trying to rush the call along. It is pointless to call up a client during extreme hours. Consequently, it is recommended that prospective clients not be contacted first thing in the morning, right before or immediately after lunch and not right before close of the business day as well as toward the end of the week is better. During such times, people are usually relaxed and in extremely pleasant moods.

 

2. Introduction

When introducing yourself and your business, try as much as possible to be relevant. Go straight to the point stating who you are, what you represent, the purpose of your call and the reason for the meeting request at a later date or another time depending on the availability of your client. At this point, you are free to explain the details of your offer, taking care not to go into details.

 

3. Ask questions

The course of your talk, it is healthy that you engage your client in a brief question and answering session to allow him to enlighten you on his situation. At this point, you will likely have a clearer picture on how best to approach so as to earn a more complete trust as well as being able to predict how he/she prefers to get work done which will give you a direction in how to make the meeting go most effectively. If the prospect is a story teller, then jumping right to the point with facts and figures won’t impress them, however, the prospect who is naturally impatient and likes to get to the straight facts, will be irritated if you go into testimonials and anecdotes.

 

4. Do not judge

Avoid taking sides especially when dealing with your customers; make sure you remain fair and neutral considering that most people prefer being helped to being judged and critiqued. In fact, providing help and offering guidance is the best choice regardless of your field of specialty, It is essential to consider this as it will help you come up with informed decisions that appeal most. Never get into what they are doing wrong, or could do better. Concentrate on how you can help them improve what they already have going.

 

5. Respond to customer inquiries

Take it upon yourself to listen to any inquiries that the prospect has and be willing to give an answer. If the answering the question is something that would be discussed in the meeting, then give a simplistic answer that doesn’t get into too many details and explain how you have full intention to go over that very question in detail at the meeting. Think of any and every question that could possibly be asked and have a prepared answer in advance so as not to have any dead space in the conversation. If the prospect feels that you are grasping for the information, then he/she might feel that you are not prepared, whereas on the adverse, a quick, well spoken answer could give the prospect the view that you are an authority on the topic.

 

6. Educate and inform your markets about your offers.

As a professional entrepreneur who understands the significance of an established offline customer base, make it one of your duties to reach out to your market audiences through both formal and informal venues of multimedia. Even if you don’t get the meeting, try to acquire permission to send them more information. Go with the attitude that if you can’t help them now, you may be able to in the future and express to the prospect that if they ever need your services in the future not to hesitate in contacting you.

 

They say information is power, so make sure that you never leave a cold call without having the prospect feeling that they are more informed without it costing them anything…and a future meeting to discuss a business venture wouldn’t be bad either.

 

Let me know your thoughts on cold calling, does this help you? What are some techniques that you use when it comes to cold calling?

Efforts Fail: Why do some leadership development efforts not work out?

 

Organizations invest large amounts of time – and even more money trying to develop their leaders.  Unfortunately much of that investment doesn’t get the return it should. 

If you will permit me, here is a scenario for you:

George was seen as an up-and-coming leader in the organization.  The people who worked under him liked and respected him. Those in senior leadership saw his potential, so he was slated to attend the company’s leadership development workshop.

George was ecstatic!  He loved the organization and wanted to move up and contribute as much as he could.  He saw this opportunity as a positive step in that progression.  Plus, he had some challenges in his job that he hoped he could learn how to deal with more successfully.

After he found out he was slated to attend, George didn’t hear much more about the training until about a week before it began.  The email gave him all of the details and he was excited all over again.  Excited, that is, until he looked at his calendar and saw how much he had to do.

Because the training meant so much to him, he was determined and focused while he was there, so he worked hard to get his projects all caught up before he left for the workshop, leaving nothing unfinished to distract him while at the training.

George loved the workshop!  The facilitator was great, the content was helpful, and the food was even good!  He was so motivated by the new ideas and the people he met.  He gained in confidence as they practiced some of the things they learned. As a part of the program he built an action plan.  He left the two days completely stoked about what he had learned and how he would be able to apply it.

 

After the Workshop

 

George awoke the next morning and reviewed his action plan.  He was excited because he knew what he would do to be a better leader, starting today.  Then, George got back to work.  As he fired up his computer he checked his voice mail. 

23 messages. 

His heart sank a little.  As he listened to the messages, taking notes when needed on his next steps, he opened up his email and found an even more depressing sight.  91 emails.  A quick glance found that there was little fluff there – it wasn’t 20 serious emails and a bunch of reading or jokes, it was a solid 91 emails to read, work through, reply to and take action on.

After getting a cup of coffee, George went to say hello to his team.  This took awhile because they had questions and things they wanted to talk to him about – which was only natural since he had been out-of-pocket for two days.  By 9:15 he was back at his desk, ready to tackle all the messages – including the 7 new emails that had come in while he was out.

By 3:00 he had mostly forgotten about his action plan – he remembered it only when he saw it in his briefcase.  He took it out and looked at it wistfully.  He was still committed to working on those items, but they would have to wait, the next project meeting was all day tomorrow. . .

 

Reviewing the Situation

 

I know, the scene played out a little long, but it does set the stage for the topic of this post. Perhaps the situation above sounds familiar.  What is written up to the “After the Workshop” heading looks good; a willing learner, a well-designed workshop, and a person leaving excited about his action plan.  This story might be a bit too rosy – admittedly, not every one who attends training will be as excited and motivated as George, but in the end it doesn’t really matter – because a highly motivated person like George won’t get as much from this effort as he could or even wants to.

Why is that you ask?

Because while most leadership development programs focus on developing a great training program, that is a small part of the overall likelihood of success.  You see, training is an event, but learning (including leadership development) is a process.

We don’t learn important, complex life skills in a brief instant.  In an instant we might be able to gain new insight or inspiration, but then the law of diminished intent kicks in.  The law of diminished intent basically states that the longer you go without acting on something, the less likely you are to do it.

In an event we can get ideas, approaches, checklists and knowledge.  But skills come to us over time – not in a one shot, one time training course (regardless of how well it is designed or how awesome the trainer is). Skills come with practice and application.

Leadership development is a process and as long as those efforts look like events, the return on those investments will never be high.

Much can be written about the specifics that can be done to make the process more effective, but you can start without that list of ideas.  Reread the story above.  Connect it to your situation and then think of two things you can do to make your leadership development process (whether for yourself or your organization) to be more successful.

The key is to make it an ongoing experience, not an event. True leadership comes from growth, not a playbook of guidelines.

 

 

Brand Your Way To Success

As a business owner for over 5 years now, I have found that branding is very important for any business that is looking to expand and move forward in today's economy. A company's brand is like the glue that differentiates it from all of it's competitors. In today's world of economic turbulence and uncertainty, it's vital for many to most businesses, no matter what your field, to have a remembered presence in order to remain competitive. Effective branding can create a visual imprint in the minds of your clients. Simply put, whether online or off line, branding helps you get and stay remembered.

Brand Your Way To Success

Simple Branding Techniques That Work

While branding can offer vast opportunities for your business, whether you are the CEO of a top 500 company or a blogger using affiliate marketing to add additional revenue to your account, in order for it to be great and serve you well, we need to first draw in and engage our clients. This isn't as easy as it sounds, but if done correctly, it can bring you in a bounty of new and interested clients as well as keeping the old ones engaged and eager to continue coming back. Unfortunately, branding isn't as simple as putting your company logo and motto on a business card or (now days) creating a social media page. The branding strategy that you use must make your brand not only noticeable, but relevant in your market place so that a client sees you as a trusted authority and thinks of you first. If I say, "Just Do It" we all know what company that I am talking about. The same holds true if you see a webding style image of an apple with a bite taken out of the top.

Branding Basics

New Perspective

Branding, especially when you are working with online branding, has many tools at our disposal that we can utilize to produce a visual presence for our business that makes our companies pop when it comes to making a visual impression, and many of them are inexpensive to free. Web graphics and animation, great web copy, and your overall website design, a killer logo and tagline are just a few of the significant factors that will bring your brand alive. This magnetic appeal that helps your viewers easily and quickly think of you first when they need what you provide is the number one most fundamental key to turning viewers into paying customers. The branding that you use should include great design and factor in a visual uniqueness that visually captivates interest when producing your total impression.

The Branding Reflection: Your Visual Presence
A strong, easy to recognize image can make the difference between someone who buys from you or goes on to your competition. For example, a client online, can easily go from your site to your competitor's by simply double clicking their mouse. First impressions are everything and a lot hinges on the impression they get from your web site, your newspaper ads, or any other advertising media that you use. Branding, or so I have found, conveys a unique message about who you and your business is to your target market.
There many requirements for a successful branding campaign. If you are totally out of your element here, you could try to hire a branding agent to help give you some ideas, but before you do, continue reading. My goal is to give you some pointers and hopefully encourage you in creating your brand without spending hundreds, if not thousands on branding.

Baby Steps

Taking it slow so you don't fall short

I discussed the importance of having a great, easy to recognize logo, but branding is much more than simply having your logo or slogan and it's more than simply using a unique color scheme on all of your documents. Here are some initial baby steps to take that need to happen in order to begin your successful brand creation.

First steps

Where To Start

Analyze Your Competition

Probably the number one key, as I have come to use many times over in my own business as well as helping others, is to produce a successful brand by differentiating yourself from your competition. You will have to know how buyers see your competitors and then, equally as important, know how they see you in comparison to your competition.

You must recognize how your competitors set themselves apart from their competition. In addition, you should also make yourself aware of all of the areas in which they excel as well as fall short in. Your business may benefit more from knowing where your competitors drop the ball than from where they are killing it, and learn how to use their shortcoming to distinguish your company from the rest of the pack.

Show...Know your muscles: Identify your strengths

Now, after you recognize where the competitors are dropping the ball when it comes to how the client sees them, you are able to start cross-comparing their weaknesses with your strengths, because their weak areas need to be part of your company's strengths in order to catch the eye of the clients they are turning away because of the weaknesses. You can perform a target market analysis (formal or impromptu), learn from it, and utilize it in every way that you can to your advantage. This is a valuable tool when first creating your name in the market place.

Once you've recognized AND LISTED your strengths, and made note of which ones are most significant to your clients, you should be able to think about ways to successfully market these assets and incorporate them in your branding campaign. For example, when I started my engraving company, it was really difficult to find engravers that would personalize individual gifts purchased elsewhere. Part of my slogan and our mission statement was "We make your memories more personal." I also incorporated quite a few pictures of original, one of a kind engravings on the website to catch attention. Through this we, not only gained more clients, but actually had some of our "competitors" sending jobs our way.

Hark! Who goes there? Know YOUR client

Learn everything you can about your target market. Know their buying habits. How often do they purchase? Do they have a habit of only purchasing during special promotions? How detailed are they when purchasing? what I mean by this is, do they stick to specific name brands, are their only certain sites they visit online?

These are questions you really need to ask to better market to those that you serve. In addition to that, know your buyer's lifestyles, needs, mentalities, and attitudes. Knowing and working with things such as personality traits and shopping habits are key to your marketing success with these potential clients.

Think da brand, know da brand, BE da brand

Make certain your company truly reflects what your brand identifies. As another example, if one of the traits your brand attaches to your company is professionalism, then show professionalism in every aspect of your business. If your website hasn't been updated in years and still references a sale or event that happened years ago, this isn't professional. If you have a brick and mortar place of business and it is disorganized with employees looking disheveled, this also does not reflect professionalism.

Be the Guru

Become the expert that your client needs

Demonstrating yourself as an authority in your field will help you acquire both recognition and respect from your peers, your competition and, most importantly, your clients. Like I mentioned earlier, I actually had competitors sending me clients.

When those around you see you as the expert, you become the expert, i.e. you become the first one they think of when they need the product or service that you provide.

This is where good visual and auditory branding come in to play.

Making the Grade

Some things to think about when creating

"you see what I mean?" Now you are probably saying "FINALLY!" I know, the preceding was kind of long winded, but it was important to lay some groundwork out before jumping into the actual physics of branding. You can have the best logo in the world, but if it doesn't represent what you do, then it is a lost cause and could actually end up repelling potential customers.

The Logo

A big mistake many businesses get into when they first come up with a logo is to try to make this ornate, elaborate design. Yes, its nice and, yes, it is definitely original, but how does it look at 1 1/2"? How does it transfer in black and white? Can it be embroidered as easily as it can be printed?

These are all questions that have to be asked in the design process. Always remember the K.I.S.S model (Keep It Simple Sweetheart). This is a golden rule. It doesn't matter if it is embroidered or printed; every color has a price tag attached to it. Cost of production is always a factor when producing quality promotional pieces. You also have to factor in that if the logo is small enough, will it effectively go through the four color printing process? If your logo has 9 colors and it is printed at 1 1/2" tall, you may get a blob of colors that are unrecognizable.

Tag It and Bag It

A tag line is a great way to be remembered. If, for example, your marketing includes a radio spot, the listeners can't see a logo, but a great tag line can be an instant auditory visual. It doesn't have to be a tag line either. A catchy jingle is nothing more than an elongated tag line. "Give me a break...give me a break...Break me off a piece..." Don't tell me that you didn't finish singing that.

Commit to It

Once you have a logo, commit to it. Incorporate the colors into your web page, your letterhead, even the color scheme of your showroom if you have a brick & mortar place of business. Once you have it all worked out, own it because if you don't, it will promote you as being wishy-washy and can go as far as to concern people of your reliability if your logo changes at the drop of a hat.

Now once you have your logo in place, you can modify it as long as the core concept is there. The Niki icon has changed since it was first created, but it is still the swoosh that people the world over have come to associate with the name.

Final thoughts

Being original is the key here. To copy someone else is to run the risk of trademark infringement as well as running the risk of someone associating another company to your brand as per the photo example to the left. Walgreens sues over the use of the 'W". It was in the news for quite some time and you can click on the photo if you want to read up on it. I hope the connected links to the helps serve you well when creating your next branding campaign.

 

The purpose of these blog posts is to help you strive to be more successful and to create a life worth living, so I never want to end a post without giving your some sort of “power question” to ponder over. Answering these questions will help you to take action.

 

Power Question for the day:

What are you tolerating or putting up with that would make your life easier if you didn’t have to?

Thanks for reading, take care.