Category Archives: Internet Marketing

A while back I wanted to check out the newsletter of Jim Cramer of TheStreet.com and the Mad Money TV show on CNBC. Big mistake! I can’t get off his newsletter. I have attempted to unsubscribe by opting-out numerous times as I also emailed his organization directly but no response and to no avail. You must be asking by now: “Chad, why are you not setting up a filter to remove his email into the trash folder?” Well … I did! But this is not the point. I should not be expected to do so from what appears to be a credible individual and company. Yet, after doing a quick search on the net I found out that Jim apparently has been getting quite a few complaints about this practice.

Although I realize that I may be generating free publicity for his organization, my hope is that my readership takes notice and also recognizes the following Lessons:

1. Make it easy for your audience to subscribe (opt-in) and immediately honor their unsubscribe (Opt-out) requests.
2. Test your various aspects of technology.
3. Make it easy for your audience to contact you.
4. Quickly respond to contacts emails.
5. Don’t take success for granted.

Below is a snapshot I captured to illustrate my point:

(Click on image to enlarge)

Below is a recent testimonial I have received from Libby Wagner, President of Libby Wagner & Associates.

“Don’t think for a minute that having a great, value-laden website is a nice-to-have business tool but doesn’t really impact your business results or revenues. My website has increased my brand and credibility, created opportunities for new business, including a six-figure contract and two keynotes just in the past 6 months! Potential clients are calling with their buying decision already made!”

This testimonial was also featured in our most recent newsletter.

Pretty powerful stuff you would probably agree. Not only do I take tremendous pride in receiving such testimonial, but the true essence for me, is our ability to lead and help our clients generate powerful results and reach higher level of success in their business and be rewarded for that.

So with that in mind, how effective are you in soliciting testimonials from your clients and how do you then leverage it in your business. Here is my take:

1. It is great to receive unsolicited testimonials from your clients. The way I believe to increase such is to share stories with your clients of the ones you have received. And when that testimonial arrives, I like to follow-up with a thank you note to my client.
2. When I hear my clients share their success story with me, it is the trigger I need to hear to request a testimonial. The language I usually use is: “Thank you for sharing your success with me. It delights me to hear this. If I may, I would like to share something with you. The way our business grows is when others hear success stories, such as the one you just shared with me. It would me the world to me, if you would be willing to write us a testimonial outlining the outcome we have generated for your business and place it on your letterhead.”
3. When presented with the opportunity, I would also ask my clients for their willingness to video record a short testimonial. I would suggest you bring a professional videographer or use a flip video to do it yourself. The perfect opportunity to do this is at the end of your speeches such as in my previous post.
4. Pull out the most powerful sentence or two and display on your testimonial page as well as on various applicable pages. If the testimonial refers to your consulting, why not place it also on that page.
5. Scan the testimonial letterhead received and place a link for the visitor to be able to view the entire scanned testimonial.
6. Why not frame the testimonials and hang them to display proudly and prominently in your office.
7. Include them in your PR kit when you need to send it out.
8. Blog about them.
9. Refer to them in your discussions and speeches. “I was chatting with one of my clients who proudly shared with me that …”
10. Finally, make sure to share with your clients what makes for an effective and powerful testimonial. Let them know that it is not the one that talks about how many years your are in business or how nice your new web site looks. You are looking for the one that describes the outcome and results you have generated for your clients.

You’ve built a great looking web site (well, let’s start with that assumption) and announced it to the world. Yet, several months later you are starting to get desperate as the phones are not ringing, no emails inquiries are coming in and no products are being ordered from your site.

You are probably wondering what went wrong and what are the most effective ways of changing this. Well, here are some points to consider before you pull the trigger:

• There is no one silver bullet approach to creating success on the web.
• Engage in as many effective marketing activities that allow you to connect with your clients. Such as: creation and participation of various web sites, blogs, press-releases, online forums, newsletters, social media activities, Radio, TV and podcast interviews, teleseminars, workshops, speaking and more.
• Strengthen your brand and credibility and become an object of interest.
• Nurture and grow your audience and your databases. From results reported by many of my clients, one of the most effective marketing techniques is to consistently send emails containing valuable offers and incentive to their database. This means that in addition to your content driven newsletters you need to also send announcements of your products and services. This is often overlooked by many.

What have you found to be effective?

A question was asked today on an online forum I’ve implemented and help moderate. Here is the question:

“I’m doing a redesign of my site based on comments gleaned from an earlier post. (thank you to all). A point was made that too much is buried and buyers are not compelled to dig any further. My worry is having the home page crowded with too much info. I don’t want the buyer to work too hard. As if this isn’t enough, I have three services which i really want to highlight so I have to make sure those are front and center. I plan to include links / topics such as “client results” / “case studies”, “testimonials”, etc. , but what other elements do you feel are essential for the home page?”

I was surprised that all answers from various members focused primarily on tweaks to design and some minor words enhancements. Here was my reply:

Assuming your objectives are:
1. Create credibility and strengthen your brand.
2. Improve and increase your contact with others, increase your distribution list and potential clients.
3. Make it easier for your clients to do business with you.
4. Implement technologies to easily and consistently deliver your value to your clients

And assuming you want to position yourself as a world-class act, then your site does not need a facelift, it needs a major surgery.

And keep in mind that design, look & feel and navigation are only one small component of desired success. Some of the others are:

1. What valuable content (article, position papers, case studies, booklets, books, teleseminars, workshops …) is on your site to benefit your current and future clients?
2. What are you doing to increase your content consistently and how do you leverage it?
3. What are your strategy and your tactics?
4. What elements of marketing gravity have you committed yourself to and how does your site leverage them?
5. What does your accelerant curve look like (products and services)? how does it evolve? Any chasms in it? How does your site support and leverage it?
6. Are you a speaker? If not, should you be? If so, how is your site promoting you as such?
7. Should you leverage social media? If so why or why not and which one(s) should you embrace?
8. Does your target audience search for you and if so should you engage in search engine optimization (SEO) or paid listings (PPC)?
9. Should you create a blog or build a community around your work. Should you create videos and podcasts and place them on your site and on YouTube and iTunes and others?
10. Should you have an affiliate program?
11. Are you evolving and reinventing your business and your site?
12. How would you rank yourself on my Internet strategic profile and where do you need to be tomorrow?
13. I could go on and on …

Focus on design and you will probably end up with a pretty web site that most likely has missed its mark and objectives. But then again, some say: “if you build it, they will come.” I say: “will they?”

Let me share this with you. The ones that have taken my recommendations seriously and work hard at consistently executing the strategy, recognize the highest success. The others, have pretty web sites!

Best,

Chad