Creating Customers Out of Thin Air:

Transcription

1 Creating Customers Out of Thin Air: Secrets of Online Marketing for Offline Businesses by Brad Fallon, J.D.

2 CREATING CUSTOMERS OUT OF THIN AIR Secrets of Online Marketing for Offline Businesses How you can use Interactive Marketing to: Get more leads Close more sales Build better customer relationships And get more referrals... Starting TODAY! Brad Fallon, J.D.

3 Contents Acknowledgments Introduction iv vi Chapter 1 Uh-Oh You re Further Behind Than You Thought 1 Chapter 2 Fundamentals of Interactive Marketing 20 Chapter 3 The Magic Formula of Interactive Marketing 36 Chapter 4 To Increase Your Internet Effectiveness Increase Your Number of Web Sites 64 Chapter 5 Search Engine Marketing 87 Chapter 6 How to Promote Your Sites Online 131 Chapter 7 Data-Driven Permission-Based The Holy Grail of Internet Marketing 149 Chapter 8 What s Next? 202 ii

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5 Acknowledgements This is a book about sales and marketing. To that end, I d like to thank Steve Savage who first taught me how to sell and that attitude is everything. It s also a book about the Internet. I d like to thank Robert Jetmundson who allowed me to quit the best job I ever had to join the dot com world. And Michael Reed, for proving that in business persistence really does pay. My partner, Barry Trottier, one of the best sales people I know who happens to build software and the inventor of Just in Time Programming. And Garett Berg for holding everything together and making it all possible. I would like to thank Timothy Glynn for research and assistance with the original manuscript. Gary Appelbaum s editing talent was invaluable in completing what often seemed to be a project without end. They both made significant contributions; any errors that remain are my own. Finally, I d like to thank my parents, Cliff and Jane Fallon, for a lifetime of encouragement. iv

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7 To Jennifer vi

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9 Introduction This is a book for people who own a business. Or people responsible for bringing money into a business sales and marketing professionals. Is this you? If so, this book will help you create more sales fast. Very few businesses are taking advantage of the Internet and online or electronic marketing like they should. If you do, you will have a significant advantage over all of your competitors. This book could have been called How to Use Internet Marketing to Crush Your Competitors. Because that s what it s about taking unfair advantage of the tools at your disposal to surpass and eliminate your competitors who are stuck in the relative Dark Ages. The Rules Have Changed It may be fear of the unknown that causes people to think that online marketing can t help their offline business. It seems very complicated or expensive and many people don t know where to start. Or they have a nice web site and they think they re done. Bad news. A nice web site is barely the tip of the iceberg. The good news is that this book will show you everything you need to go from Internet newbie to experienced viii

10 Interactive Marketer in the time it takes you to read it. For your business, that means More Leads More Sales More Customers More Referrals Starting immediately! Knowledge is Power The ideas and techniques contained in these pages work equally well for small and large businesses, both online and offline. But the focus is regular offline businesses. Manufacturers, law firms, restaurants, consultants you name it. If you have a traditional business like this and you re ready to trounce your competition and take your business to a new level, read on! To your success, Brad Fallon Smart Marketing, Inc. Atlanta, Georgia brad@mysmartsuite.com ix

11 The Internet Good News and Bad News for Your Business Chapter 1 Uh-Oh You re Further Behind Than You Thought Quick when was the last time you received a telegram? Or, more to the point, have you ever received a telegram? If you are under a certain age, you probably haven t. In fact, many younger people have never even heard of a telegram. In today s Information Age, with ideas and images instantaneously broadcast around the world by satellite video phone, this brief paper message hand-delivered by special messengers seems rather quaint. But it was less than 50 short years ago that the telegram represented state-of-the-art instant messaging, and receiving one was an event. The story of how it became irrelevant within such a brief span illustrates how quickly the modern businessperson must adapt to an almost daily procession of technological advances in order to succeed. 1

12 What Hath God Wrought? Consider that it was only around 160 years ago in 1844 that Samuel F.B. Morse tapped out the first city-to-city telegraphic message, between Washington D.C. and Baltimore. The first electronic message that read simply, What hath God wrought, placed the birth of modern communications technology in perspective. This question taken from the Old Testament was an expression of awe at their accomplishment. Man had molded a force of nature and glimpsed the possibilities that still lay hidden within the mysteries of his creation. These were possibilities that the backers of the fabled Pony Express perhaps wished they could have foreseen, especially when the explosive popular growth of Mr. Morse s invention, combined with the ever-expanding reach of the railroads, forced the courier service out of business. Although the railroad is widely credited for opening up the American West, the telegraph played an equally important role. When the discovery of gold at Sutter s Mill, California began the Gold Rush of 1849, it wasn't the railroad that carried the first news of the bonanza; it was the telegraph. As is often the case with major technological advances, many felt we had reached the limit of our abilities. But it was 2

13 only a baby step compared to the quantum leap of the early 20 th century as the first transatlantic cables connected the Old World with the New and made instant worldwide communication a reality. One of the most dramatic early examples of this profound new capability occurred in April 1912, as the telegraphed message, Titanic sinks in North Atlantic stop, flashed around the globe in a matter of seconds. This was an omen. Rightly or wrongly, tragedy and telegrams became strongly associated. The 1916 flash of the sinking of the Lusitania by a German U-boat hastened the entrance of the U.S. into the First World War. During WW II, telegrams represented millions of people s worst nightmares as they contained the news of the loss of their loved ones overseas. But as telegrams fed nightmares, they also built dreams. They relayed news of everything from births to weddings to hot stock tips to arrival times of visitors and returning servicemen. Telegrams also served as the fastest means of conveying congratulations for significant achievements. When Charles Lindbergh landed the Spirit of St. Louis at Le Bourget Field in Paris, following his record-breaking solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927, he was greeted by the largest single collection of telegrams ever received by a private citizen. 3

14 As with any evolving means of communication, the telegram found different voices to connect with different audiences. One of the more inventive results was the "singing" telegram, delivered on birthdays and other happy occasions. Perhaps this was the grandfather of rich-media e- mail. Throughout the modern age, communications and transportation have advanced at a similarly rapid pace. Just as the telegraph gave way to the telephone, the railroads stepped aside for the automobile, and the airplane, and the jetliner. And the most successful businesspeople have always been those who have been in the forefront of utilizing those advances to conduct their business. So, as a businessperson, the question for you is this: As you take advantage of modern transportation to conduct your business, are you taking equal advantage of modern communication technology to achieve your objectives? In short, are you fully utilizing the Internet to grow your business? If your answer is no, you are, quite simply, not making the most of the resources at your command. The purpose of this book is to show today s business owners and managers how to use the Internet to achieve 4

15 maximum success with minimum effort and expenditure. If you are sure you need to learn more about web marketing, we will answer your questions and put you on the fast track of the Information Age. But maybe you re not sure whether you are using the Internet to your maximum advantage, and want to learn more. E-commerce is still evolving, and the most common question for those just jumping in is: What are the current Best Practices for using the Internet to succeed in your traditional business? This book answers that question as well. To do so, I suggest that most people change the way they think about the Internet. What is the Internet, really? Let s start at the beginning with the following question: When was the Internet Invented? Ask most informed people this question, and they will tell you how the Internet grew out of defense industry communications during the 1980 s. I say they re wrong. Samuel Morse invented the Internet in 1840 when he received a patent for his telegraph. 5

16 By this time, Morse had already sent his historic electronic communication by wire between Baltimore and Washington D.C. And, after all, what is the Internet but electronic communication by wire? Indeed, it was the of the telegraph that put the snail mail Pony Express out of business. In essence, people have communicated by the Internet, in one form or another, since The principle is the same. The primary difference is that bandwidth has gotten better. In 1876, it became possible to send the human voice by wire, and the telephone became the new standard. Then we learned to send voices and music electronically, and radio became king. Then came the cathode ray tube, capable of transmitting images, as well as sound, and television was born. Now, it s 2003, and you can send video, music, news, games, and pretty much anything you want by wire or even through the air wirelessly. Mr. Morse s Internet has become what was the stuff of science fiction not all that long ago. But regardless of who invented the Internet, and when, the bottom line remains that your business needs more sales this quarter, or you need to make quota this month. And so the question becomes: Well, all that history stuff is really interesting, but what does it mean for my business? 6

17 To answer that question, we come back to our previous question: Are you using the Internet to your maximum advantage, to do all you can for your business? For most businesses, the honest answer is no. Even the biggest, most successful companies have been slow to catch on to the massive capabilities of the Internet. Most small business owners and salespeople, on the other hand, are necessarily preoccupied in the day-to-day grind of trying to keep their heads above water and, sadly, are completely missing the increased opportunities the Internet can provide any business, of any size. And that comes down to the real reason you are reading this book. Are you a business owner trying to figure out how to keep up in a tough economy? Do you need more leads and more sales? Have you been wondering how to increase your cash flow? Are you convinced there are better methods to help you increase your closing ratio? Maybe you re just sick and tired of commuting, and you re jealous of the 135,000 or so people sitting at home making a nice living selling stuff on ebay. In any case, if you want to increase your business or drive more revenue, and you want some quick, reliable advice on how you can use the Internet to capture more leads, qualify more prospects, close more sales, and get more referrals, then this book is for you. Just keep reading, and 7

18 utilize the methods I outline, and you can start making more money, more quickly, and more efficiently. But to begin with, there s good news and bad news. Which do you want first? First, the Bad News: The bad news is that you re probably much farther behind than you think. I know this because I ve sat in many meetings with business owners, executives, sales managers, sales people, and others directly responsible for bringing in revenue to their organization. Typically, the conversation goes something like this, with me asking the question: How s your Internet strategy going? Pretty well. We launched our new web site last quarter. It s pretty flashy, and everyone seems to like it. We re getting more leads, and we re happy with the results. Then, five minutes later, after I ve mentioned just a few ideas basic concepts we ll discuss in Chapter Two they aren t as happy with the results any more. Instead, they are stunned by how much more business and revenue they could be bringing in online if they would just implement a few key strategies. 8

19 And I believe I can do the same for your company. I ve spent the last several years working with many types of traditional offline (not dot com or online) businesses, helping them do more with the Internet, and a great many of them have benefited from using these strategies. Even if most of your sales are already made online, you could benefit from them, as well. But the fact is that I wrote this book for the millions of small business owners, sales managers, marketing directors, and even individual salespeople who: 1) Work in a traditional (offline) business. 2) Are responsible for bringing in new business, closing sales, and increasing revenue. Now, the Good News: There is a Magic Formula for increasing your company s sales and revenues through the Internet. Implementing an effective Internet Strategy is not rocket science. Unfortunately, many consultants tend to throw around jargon, statistics, and acronyms until you think it is a science and that only the computer geeks in the IT cubicles can understand Internet marketing. Most consultants excel at making it seem as though you can t do anything unless you re a programmer, that you need 9

20 to know HTML, database programming, server technology, etc. Then, there are the software sales people pitching great ideas in which the Return on Investment (ROI) for modern systems is so obvious you can easily be convinced you need software applications that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. In essence, they all want to convince you that there is no Magic Formula for effective, profitable Internet Marketing that the true path is steep, complex, and costly. Fortunately, this is not the case. The truth, which I have discovered after investigating and working with e-marketing implementations in many different fields of business is that there is a Magic Formula a fairly simple combination of certain concepts that any business (your business) can utilize to sell more and generate more revenue, using the Internet, throughout all parts of your sales cycle. Following this formula to generate an effective Internet Strategy will help your company improve in all areas of business, from generating more leads, to better qualifying prospects, to improving follow-up, to closing more sales, to getting more and better referrals. It s not difficult, and the best news is that, for the most part, once you implement these ideas, the processes happen automatically! The purpose of this book is to explain this Magic Formula, and provide you with the knowledge, ideas, and 10

21 specific action steps you need to begin implementing your own Internet Selling Strategy immediately. I used to call this system Automatic Marketing, because once you implement these concepts, many of them run on autopilot. It incorporates a combination of web sites, systems, and other tools that provide Interactive Communication with real prospects and customers, and creates a true hands off automated marketing system. The beautiful part is that your employees and sales people don t have to raise a finger! Think about it. Your sales people, customer service reps, account managers, partners, and managers can keep doing exactly what they need to be doing while these remarkably efficient marketing and sales systems are added on to your present organizational processes. It s like having a marketing staff on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, that never asks for time off or salary! Furthermore, the Magic Formula Internet Marketing system is not a zero sum game in which you have to constantly re-engineer processes. There is no need to teach old dogs new tricks. Incorporating automated Internet systems to your present business structure often results in an exponential gain in productivity; it adds impact and consistency to your sales process, and benefits your sales people simultaneously and 11

22 instantly. In other words, it creates an online Interactive Marketing department within your company that makes conducting business easier, and improves your bottom line. What is Interactive Marketing? To fully appreciate the difference Interactive Marketing can make in your sales and revenues, it is important to understand the revolutionary nature of the concept. And the best way to explain that is to define our terms. The best definition I ve heard of interactive is: twoway communication that occurs independent of time or place. Any time people speak face-to-face, they are engaged in two-way communication, but they must be in the same place at the same time. A telephone conversation is two-way communication, but all parties must be on the phone simultaneously. However, the Internet has revolutionized the process in which we interact by making possible two-way communication without the necessity of the parties being in the same place or available at the same time. In other words, Interactive Communication. As you know, any successful marketing program requires productive, two-way communication between the 12

23 salesperson and the customer. Before the Internet, this meant arranging a face-to-face meeting, or speaking by telephone. In either case, it involved juggling of schedules on one or both ends, travel time and expenditures, and a lot of missed connections all of which meant reduced productivity and profitability. Think about it: how many sales have you lost because you couldn t establish two-way communication with the prospect until it was too late? As the Internet revolutionized the art of two-way communication, it simultaneously revolutionized the art of marketing, by enabling sales calls, responses, and even transactions to take place without the familiar, often endless, processes of traditional marketing techniques. In other words, Interactive Marketing. As an example of interactive marketing, you can visit a hypothetical web site of mine. When you arrive at the web site, you announce your presence and interest by clicking on certain icons and links. In response, the system automatically sends you a personalized from me, which you open at your convenience. If you respond, your is sent to my inbox, and I can respond individually. And there it is; we are conducting an interactive communication at the times and places most convenient for both of us. Especially for me, because my computer acted as my proxy, enabling me to send you a 13

24 personal while I was actually out talking to another client! That s efficient selling. Let s look at this advance from an historical perspective. Back in the 1840 s, Mr. Morse s telegraph made instant communication possible, independent of place. But the power of the telegraph, amazing as it was, was limited by two factors: it enabled only one-way communication, and the user had to rise to the technology by learning to code (in this case, Morse Code), or by depending on others to do so just like many business owners trying to get changes made to their web site. Then, in the 1870 s, Mr. Bell s telephone signaled the birth of two-way communication, independent of place. Plus, it was more user-friendly all you had to do was talk. So the telephone supplanted (but by no means replaced) the telegraph. Still, you could only talk to one person at a time, both people had to be on the line simultaneously and, since the infant technology relied on manual connection, the process could take forever, and was notoriously unreliable. Now, the Internet allows you to conduct two-way interactive communication with literally millions of people at a time. Not surprising that it has transformed the way business gets done. And even less surprising that businesses around the globe are spending billions trying to figure out 14

25 how to take advantage of this new communication medium. So, now, the question becomes: What does the Internet represent to your business, and what is the best way to utilize it? Some people see the Internet as a whole new way of doing everything. (Many of these people led the dot com charge and then whined the loudest when the bubble burst.) Others see it as just a new generation tool, like a pneumatic nail gun versus a hammer. They figure you just keep doing business the same old way and eventually figure out ways to use it. I say that sales and marketing people need to recognize the Internet as the specific tool it is: the 21 st century version of the telegraph an interactive communication enabler. How are you going to use it to enable you to have a better relationship with your prospects and customers? The key, of course, is to exploit its interactivity, to expand your base of operations by conducting interactive business relationships with an increasing number of people; making more sales calls and following up with a higher percentage of leads. Most of the rest of this book will show you specific ways to do so easily and automatically. I am convinced that following its techniques can help increase your sales exponentially. 15

26 The key is not just to be interactive, but to think interactive. You can tell your sales story to many people at the same time all over the world, on their schedule. That s powerful. But it s still only one-way communication. How do you make it interactive? That s where the exponential sales increases come in. 80/20 Marketing I keep referring to the fact that I believe that it is easy for you to get exponential increases in your sales numbers using Interactive Marketing. How? By looking at your traditional sales processes from an entirely new angle, and with an open mind, you can create very significant changes in your sales results, usually with only a few small procedural improvements. Every business needs more sales and more revenue. And that s why I wrote this book; your Internet Strategy table has more money sitting on it more leads and more sales waiting for you. You only have to walk over and pick it up. Of course, this assumes that you have the capacity to handle an exponential increase in sales. Of course, for most businesses, and certainly most sales people, increasing sales as much as possible is the desired result. (Indeed, most of the 16

27 dot com bombs that went out of business suffered from a simple lack of sales not from a lack of cool technology.) However, if you increase sales to the point that the workload is overwhelming and it causes nothing but problems, there s no benefit. Indeed, it could do your business and business reputation far more harm than good. But if you increase your business to the point where you have the freedom to conduct business according to your original vision, and pick and choose your most profitable clients, while leaving troublesome or unproductive accounts behind, you have reached the optimum stage. And that is the level to which Interactive Marketing can take you. The greatest communication tool in the history of the world is just sitting there, mostly untouched, by the vast majority of the small-to medium-sized businesses that employ 80 percent of the American work force. If there were a simple formula that would let such businesses take full advantage of the capabilities the Internet has to offer, it would undoubtedly make a big difference in their sales, productivity, and revenues. As I stated previously, this Magic Formula does indeed exist. I call it 80/20 Marketing. The name comes from the fact that 20 percent of your marketing activities typically generate 80 percent of your 17

28 results. The secret is to identify that productive 20 percent, ignore all the other clutter, and focus your efforts on the things that make the most difference to your bottom line, especially the things that can be: 1) Easily implemented across the entire sales process 2) Automated 3) Easily added on to whatever you re doing now For example, if you hire a crackerjack salesperson, that s terrific. But if they are just marginally better than their predecessor, that s not nearly as good as helping each member of your sales force close two more deals a month. Remember, it s 80/20 Marketing, not 80/20 Sales. Assuming that your sales force is already closing the highest possible percentage of deals based on what they have to work with, how can they close more? How can they get more leads? How can they follow up with more prospects? And how can they do it all automatically? That s 80/20 Marketing. And here s how to make it work: Focus on the few processes that make the biggest difference. Think about the Internet in terms of Interactive Communication. 18

29 Look to the Internet for its automation, and seek out ideas that you can appropriate as add-ons to your current Marketing techniques. There are a million different variations, approaches and techniques you could learn from the Internet. This book will present many of them, but it isn t meant to be an encyclopedia of Internet marketing ideas. Rather, it is intended to help you immediately focus on implementing the 20 percent of your marketing activities that will bring in 80 percent of your sales. So let s get right to it. You want more leads. You want more sales. You know you can get more of both using the Internet, but where do you start? Easy. Turn to Chapter Two. 19

30 Chapter 2 Fundamentals of Interactive Marketing As we move on, let s take a quick review of what we learned in Chapter 1: Interactive Marketing hinges on two-way communication between you and your customers and prospects, independent of time and place. Your Internet Strategy refers to your action plan to implement an Interactive Marketing campaign designed to improve and automate the communication between you and your customers. Improved customer communications means that your interaction with your customers is: More personal, More frequent, and More relevant to the individual. For many businesses and salespeople, improving communication means having any communication at all! It s amazing how many businesses conduct a single transaction with a paying customer and then never ever communicate with that customer again. Not to confirm the 20

31 customer s satisfaction, not to keep them up to date on their new products and services, not even to just say hello to thank the customer for their business. What a waste! Most businesspeople are well aware of the universal business dictum that it costs seven times more, on average, to acquire a new customer than to keep an old one. But it is depressing to see how many never make any effort at all to keep in touch with the people who have helped keep them in business. Oh sure they re friendly as can be if the customer calls or returns to the store. But how many businesses especially small businesses think about inviting the customer back to the store themselves? The answer is: not enough. Customers are very sensitive; they want to be appreciated and remembered for their business. If they are not, the odds are good they ll do business somewhere else, leaving the business owner wondering what went wrong. What too few businesspeople realize is they can create and maintain this all-important customer relationship using an Internet Marketing system that does the remembering for you, and automatically sends personalized reminder/greeting/promotion/ s to your customers, according to your schedule all for less money than keeping the lights on for an extra hour one day a week. 21

32 The Inspiring Story of Arnie the Florist Here s one hypothetical example of a traditional offline business that s missing the boat when it comes to marketing. Arnie Oldschool owns a retail florist shop in a pretty good strip mall, right next to a busy grocery store. Like most florists, Arnie knows that 90 percent of his male customers buy flowers at the last minute. He gets a good deal of business from guys who are shopping in the grocery store when suddenly they remember their anniversary, or other special event, and stop in to buy a dozen roses. In most cases, they come in, buy the flowers and leave. That s it. Some may come back, but Arnie will probably never see most of them again. But that was before the Internet. How difficult would it be for the smiling clerk to ask the customer, A dozen roses? Wow what s the occasion? It s our 10 th anniversary! Hey, that s great. When s the big day? Today, as a matter of fact. Congratulations! At least you re one of the husbands who remembered. Ha! I ve come close a couple times, but I ve never actually forgotten. Good for you. Say, you have , right? 22

33 Sure. Well, we could guarantee you never forget! What would you think about being placed on our 100 percent guaranteed list? We you a few days before your anniversary and her birthday, and Valentine s Day, so you ll always be ready. We do it for lots of our customers. That s a good idea! A little reminder, eh? Oh, yes, some of our customers said we saved their lives a couple of times. We can also tell you about our preferred customer discounts and show you some birthday bouquet options. If you want, you can just us back with your order and the inscription, and we can deliver the flowers on the right day or have them ready for you to pick up. Sounds good! ` Piece of cake. Here let s just jot down your name and address, and your anniversary, and other important occasions, and we ll get you started. Simple, right? And, simply brilliant! Think about what has just happened. By providing good, friendly service, and getting an address, Arnie has transformed what could be a one-time sale into a customer for life! A few days before June 2 nd, and every other date on the list, Arnie (or, more accurately, Arnie s computer) s the customer automatically. Arnie never has to tie a string 23