A offline seminar
March 11, 2011 by ginagray
Filed under offline consulting
Watch here for a live small seminar I did.
http://www.youtube.com/user/
Get Paid to Send E-mails!
February 7, 2011 by ginagray
Filed under offline consulting
Get Paid to Send E-mails!
By Gina Gray
Copyright Notice
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical. Any unauthorized use, sharing, reproduction, or distribution is strictly prohibited.
Legal Notice
While attempts have been made to verify information provided in this publication, neither the author not the publisher assumes any responsibilities for errors, omissions, or contradictory information contained in this book. This information is not intended as legal, investment, or accounting advice. The purchaser or reader of this book assumes all responsibility for the use of these materials and information.
Gina Gray and Internet Marketing Tips, LLC Publications Inc. assumes no responsibility or liability whatsoever on behalf of any purchaser or reader of these materials.
Copyright 2008, Gina Gray
Disclaimer:
I am a firm believer that humor is essential to life. In an effort to make this an enjoyable read I wrote this book in a humorous tone. This does not take away from the serious content and instructions I am providing. Just because you’ll chuckle at many points, everything said is honest and helpful.
Index
1. Thank You
a. So, Are you ready to dig in?
2. Let’s Get Started
a. Registering Your Business’ Name
b. Your Business Cards and Brochure
3. How to Sell Your Services to Local Businesses
a. My Own Personal Start
b. Approaching the Owner
c. More Tips For the Emails
d. Cold Calling
e. Forums
f. Emailing
g. A Quick Review
h. My Style
i. The Number One Sales Line I Use
j. Selling the Internet to Businesses
4. What to Put in These Darn Email Thingy’s
a. If the Local Business is Starting From Scratch and Has No Emails
5. Ah… Payment
6. Autoresponders
7. Referrals
8. Conclusion
Thank You
Thank you for purchasing my report! I am so happy that you made it to this point. You don’t know what it means to me, for you to allow me to help you get closer to achieving your dreams and that excites me. I believe more of us should take the risk improve our lifestyles and financial situations.
Do you know what you really get when you grab control your own destiny and financial future? Sure you’re thinking vacations, cars, becoming debt free, or maybe a new house. No, you get to have F R E E D O M. You can do and buy what you want. It’s freedom you really desire. Freedom to buy the things you want, time to spend with your family and friend’s, freedom to go to any event, or foreign location you may desire. That’s the real dream.
You can have the freedom you desire, if you have the correct tools and the right intentions. I can give you the first one, but your intentions must be honest, moral, and truthful. You must be professional and trustworthy in your dealings, if you yearn to be successful. It’s essential. If you are interested in a career where you can effectuate your true desire to help people and at the same time make money, then read on. The more you help and give the more it will come back to you. People and business owners will see through you if you are not trustworthy.
Can you say it right now, “I swear to give this business 100% of what I have, not just for me but for my clients as well.”
That was your first lesson. Did you pass? Did you say it? If not go back and say it. I’ll wait…….
Ok good for you. Now we can be friends. : )
So, Are you ready to dig in?
Do you want to go get a drink first or some popcorn? You’re going to be here for a bit. Go ahead get comfortable. Put on those soft clothes, sit in a comfortable chair, turn off the TV, and close out of your other open documents or programs. Your IM and all that nonsense TV will not make you money, and your friends can wait…
Now are you ready? Do I have your full attention?
Let’s Get Started
Both novices and those of you that have some internet marketing experience can accomplish your goals. You can do this. Like I said in the video you must have some balls, and that’s the truth. Ok, well if you don’t have them do you at least have determination? That’s a good start.
At some point in your experience you have talked to a complete stranger right? You have tried to convince someone, at least once in your life, to do something you wanted to do right? If so, you’re halfway there already, this is basically the same thing. You will talk to a stranger, initially they are anyway; hopefully, they won’t be for long. You will want to form relationships with your prospects and clients. The better the relationship the more they will buy from you and refer you to other business owners. These are things you want. You will convince someone that they need you to help their business succeed. Don’t worry most of the time it’s not that difficult. There will be a few road bumps but I’ll help you through them. Most of the people you come in contact with will already know these things:
1. They need an online presence (they know they should be on the web)
2. They need to contact their current customers
3. They need to change their way of advertising
4. The phone book and newspaper advertising doesn’t work anymore
5. The internet is not going away and it’s where their customers are.
So you got that part down, now how do you offer this service of email marketing? How do you convince them that they need to stay in touch with their customers? How do you make them money? How do we get them to not only get more customers but also keep the customers they have to keep coming back? What do you say to the business owners and managers? How do you approach them? All these questions will be answered for you and more…
Now, go to any local business, walk in and say, “Hey, do me a favor and collect some names of people that come in this rat hole, and oh can I have a check I’ll send-em some emails for ya.”
Ha! Got ya. Ever feel like some e-books you buy do just that? I hate that.
Registering Your Business’ Name
Ok in all seriousness. Let me ask you a question; are you serious about this offline marketing stuff? You do realize there is money in it right? Because there is, you know. If you believe it, you really are going to have to call your accountant, or some accountant. Otherwise you can go online and file with www.irs.gov to obtain a tax id number. How come you’re wondering, well because soon you will be accepting checks from those business owner’s. You will be accepting checks, cash will look silly, and even more silly is saying, “Um, can you make that out to my personal name.” To ensure that business owners take you seriously you need to register as a legitimate business. Stop reading and go now to get your tax id number and register your new business name. I’ll be here don’t worry.
Now hurry up, make it snappy. What you want me to do it for you? Well, ok here try this http://www.irs.gov/businesses/index.html. Go there, click the link needed, read it, and do it. It may take a few days to get the little paper saying you’re a real business to take to the bank so you can open your business account.
Of course if you already have a business setup you can use it. The proceeding instructions were for the “newbie’s,” but you marketing veterans are also welcome for a little refresher. I do suggest going with a LLC. So now that you get that paper verifying your new business name run, don’t walk to your local bank and open that account. You can take those checks you’re about to receive and put them in your new business account. Woo-hoo! Ok, do I need to recap that or do you have it? Got it? Right? Good.
Your Business Cards and Brochure
Business owners or managers may ask you for a business card or brochure. I use Vistaprint for my business cards and brochures. I love them. Sign up to their notification list, they will send you free offers all the time.
You are now ready to design your cards. Make them nice and professional. Make sure you business name, your name (as president, CEO, whatever you want your title to be), email address, fax number if you have one, a website if it is related to marketing, your tag line, USP or something related to what it is you do or specialize in that relates to this work, and finally your phone number. You can use your cell number if you don’t have a dedicated line you can use. Make sure the business line you do use, will be answered by you, or someone else with a professional disposition. The phone that little Tommy may pick up, would not be a good choice.
I gave you some stuff to do and think about huh. Oh stop complaining! This was the hard part and now it’s almost over. Ok well, paying taxes is never over and that part stinks. We will get into that in a later newsletter. But for now, order your business cards soon; you really don’t have to pay the rush fee, the cheap delivery still comes pretty quickly, usually within a week.
Now in the download area I have included the brochure I use, feel free to use my picture on there. LOL, I’m just kidding. You can copy it if you like, and edit it as much as you like; you must put your info on there anyway. Have fun and feel free to send me your samples, I would love to see them. They are nice to hand to the businesses if they are on the fence about your service, or as a reminder to businesses that have turned you down that they should reconsider. So get them ordered right away.
Ok we got your Federal numbers done, your banking done, your phone straightened out, your cards and brochures done. You’re getting there. We are getting the necessities out of the way. You’re starting a new business, that’s right YOUR ARE a new business owner.
How to Sell Your Services to Local Businesses
~So it’s a week later ~
Now you should have all your stuff done and in order. Awesome! So now what? Well now I must tell you about the best way to sell your service to your local businesses.
Well, you can go about this a few ways.
1) Put your big girl/boy pants on and go visit businesses
2) Call from your home office ~a cold call~
3) Direct mail
4) Email
Yes, I will help you narrow those down.
My Own Personal Start
When I started I had my brochures, my cards, my booklet, my contracts, and a list of names of businesses, that I obtained from my local mercantile office for $5.00. It gave me a lot of business names maybe 10 pages of about 24 names on each page. The list didn’t include names of local doctors, lawyers, architects and some other professional businesses that would also benefit from my services; but it was a start. So I got the list and hit it. Now, I will tell you something and it’s private so please if you could don’t tell anyone. I have a slight medical condition called OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (diagnosed by my husband; he’s not a doctor, but plays one on TV). My condition is not to the extreme, but on some issues some things just must be done a certain way. I had OCD with my list; I did one page a day to start, roughly 20 businesses a day. Now some on there were chains or hotels, or others that I just knew emails wouldn’t work for. Nor was I experienced to go after that type of business, so the ones that I thought could benefit from me I went to. I am sorry, I forget the first three I went to, but they said it sounded great but I didn’t convince them. Ok, no problem as I say, “live, learn, NEXT.”
My first business was a florist. She said yes, before I could even finish my speech. Not only did she want to setup an email program, she wanted her website redone, too. Luckily it just so happens I could do that as well. Bang Boom first day! Now they are not all going to be that easy, but some are. She totally agreed she needed to contact her customers so loved the email idea. I was excited, and didn’t know what to do next. Yes, your first one will be messy, but don’t worry the first time trying anything is always nerve racking. I fumbled in my briefcase for the contract, had to decide which email website to use, I needed to go get her the box the email forms, and make the email forms.
Needless to say, I wanted to scream ARGHHHHHHHHHH! It was funny; in the frantic, I was freaking out kind of way. M next obstacle was, how do I ask for the check if she just doesn’t give it to me? It was a riot. But that’s how it went. She asked how much, I told her, she said fine. I gave her a real low ball price for a website because honestly I knew I could do it, I just never had for someone else.
I got her 50% deposit for the website, and had her sign the contracts. She ended up not wanting my box for the emails, she made a beautiful gift wrapped box with a big bow on it with a sign that said, “Enter your name and email for a chance to win a flower arrangement a month.” She does great with collecting emails. She knows that it works, and she knows that they are now ordering more and they can even ordering online. Anyway, everything did go smoothly; I gave her my email cards to use. I told her I would start transferring the content from her current website to the new one and started the redesign.
At this point she is on her way collecting emails and I am redesigning the site. How cool, on day one I collected $600. Nice! So this is that easy. To be fair, some days it is.
The next day I did visited a pizza shop to offer the same thing: email and website. Now if you don’t want to mess around with the website idea you don’t have to, but it is a good up sell. You could strictly stick with just E-mail marketing. However, if you have experience with building websites, then yes offer it. More money means more “Ca-Ching.” Just don’t try to deceive, don’t tell them you can make them a profit producing website that can be found on Google, if you can’t.
Approaching the Owner
(Or Ambushing, as I call it)
You may wonder… how did I approach this owner and the others? Well, I walked in with my black briefcase bag and kept walking till I ended at the counter. I asked if it was possible to speak to the owner. Sometimes you get lucky and they are available, other times you will get a manager. If you get someone other than the owner, they are going to ask you what they can help you with. You simply ask, are you able to make decisions in regard to their marketing? Sometimes they say yes, if so, you can give them your spiel. If they so no, ask when the person with that authority will be available. Normally, they will tell you. Finally, thank them and ask for they’re name. When you follow up with a phone call, direct mail, or you try and go there again, you’ll appear to already know this person. You have just formed your first bond with the company.
If you actually get the owner then you are even closer. They will once again ask how they may be able to help you. You say, “Actually I was hoping to see if I could help you.” Wait for their answer.
Here is a rough outline of the information you should cover:
1. Introduce yourself, shake their hand, and tell them you are on online marketing consultant. Let them know that you are visiting some local businesses, to verify if they could use some help attracting new customers, or get your current clients to come back more often. Or you could tell them, that you are already helping other local businesses with their online marketing, and they are seeing results.
2. Ask if they are willing to sit down with you for 10-15 minutes to see if you can even help them.
3. If you frequent that business, you can tell them you come in at such and such times and what you get, buy, eat, etc; then give them a compliment. However, don’t lie and say you frequent them, if you don’t. You can say, “I drive by here a lot and I have always wanted to come in, now I finally can and meet you to boot.”
4. Always be smiling. It’s helpful.
5. Oh crap, sorry I forgot to tell you a major step. This will really make you look like an expert, newbie or not. When you have your list of prospects, go through and try to find them online BEFORE you go visit them. Try to find them on Google by the name of the business and the city or town it’s in. You may find some directory listings about the site, but that is not an actual site, it doesn’t count. It may give you the address of the business, phone number, and occasionally a link to their website. Check it out, are they collecting email addresses (probably not), a contact us page doesn’t count.
a. Nine times out of 10 if they are not collecting e-mail addresses on their website, then they are not collecting them at the store front.
b. Now, you can tell if they have a website and you can get a good idea if they are collecting emails from their customers. Once again, if you can offer them a website, do it.
c. If building, or redesigning, websites is a service you want to provide I suggest hooking up with a company that can do websites. And you can charge a referral fee; ask me about it.
d. This pre-research will provide information about the business before you even get in the door. I would definitely stick to this research before going to any business.
6. Now back to you talking to the owner… The first thing you should ask them is if they contact their customers?
a. If they say yes, ask them how often and how do they accomplish that? Most likely, they will say they don't. I of course will ask them why. Then I may respond with, why not?
b. If they appear confused be gentle with them. You must explain that today it is extremely important to stay in touch with customers. There are many benefits to having access to customer information.
A. You can build a relationship with them, contact them easily and more often, alert them to specials, coupon sales, or anything else for that matter. The best part, all of this can happen in practically a moments notice (via your product/service; that’s right, email marketing).
7. Stress that there is no other advertising avenue that can deliver your message to your customers as fast and easily, as email marketing.
a. Here are a few examples:
A. If they are a business and taking appointments, and they look at their book and notice a slow day or weekend. A time sensitive offer or coupon can be emailed for those desired days, on short notice.
B. A business can look in their stockroom and see an abundance of one item, and they want a blow out sale. Send out an email with the sale and get rid of that item, faster.
1. Perhaps a business is having a holiday special or sale, send out an email about the upcoming promotion.
C. There are endless possibilities that you can do with email marketing. Flyers or mailing can do some of this for you; but how long do you think it would take you or one of your employees to make a flyer, fold the flyer, stick it in an envelope, address it, and send it out? And, the cost of the paper printing, envelopes, and stamps will be enormous. There is no more affordable solution for you to take control of your customers than e-mail marketing. From there you can pretty much ad lib.
8. This next step is something to keep in mind while you’re in the meeting. As I mentioned earlier, if you get the sale that day, it is good to be prepared. Have boxes and email forms to give them, have a contract for them to sign right then, and collect your first monthly fee.
a. If they seem to be on the fence you can tell them if they really wanted to start that day you will “wait” the setup fee, with the date its due specified.
b. Or, offer it them to try it for 30 days. You will collect their e-mails and addresses, and send out one or two e-mails for them, but in 30 days their one-month fee will be due, along with the set up fee.
A. They will get used to promoting their e-mail box and start thinking about their e-mails. They will get addicted to this and you will receive your check in 30 days.
9. One very important thing you must stress to the business owner is: they must create an incentive to collect this information.
a. Give away something, or pretend it's a contest. Tell them every person who gives their information will be entered to win a prize. They can give away one dinner, one oil change, a free haircut, a free flower arrangement, etc.
A. A follow-up email can be sent to all the non-winners with, “Sorry you didn't win type e-mail, but he did win a consolation prize, and maybe give them a 10% off coupon off something.
b. This incentive should be attached to the box that they use to put the names in. I go as far as getting them a sticker to put on the box. The easier you make it for the business owner, the more they will appreciate you for helping them with the business. Don't make anything hard for them.
10. Here are some other questions, I’d be sure to ask the owner, when you see them in person:
a. Ask about the nature of the business.
b. How did you get started in the business?
c. How did you get started in the business?
d. How long have you been in business?
e. Why did you choose this type of business?
f. What kind of results are you getting from advertising?
g. What would you like to see improve specifically?
h. What do you offer that is most profitable?
i. My personal favorite: what is your USP? I love that one. Most go, “huh?” and when you tell them what it is they think you are a marketing god. If they happen to have one, which most don’t, you tell them they already do they feel so darn good about themselves. But it they don’t it’s a revelation to them when you explain it. Then use that on their website, email, etc.
j. What part of your business would you like to promote more?
k. Where are you lacking sales?
l. What do you worry about most in business?
m. What would you like to change?
More Tips for the Emails
Now as far as collecting the addresses, I tell him or her that I can pick up the e-mail addresses once or twice a month, or as often as they want me to. However, there is a $10 pick up fee. If they choose to they can email you the names, or fax them. Once the address are collected, by any method you and your customer work out, go into the autoresponder and manually insert them.
Here is something very important; never call it an autoresponder, ever; not in front of, near, close by, or to a customer. You can just say it is email software that you provide. If you tell them the service is called an autoresponder, there’s nothing stopping them from looking up the term, finding a company, and doing it themselves.
Also, they may think they can just send emails from their current email provider and not pay you. You can mention that if they don't use this commercial software they will lose their email privileges. If they are collecting the right amount of email address they will be sending out a lot of emails. The email software will consider the account a spammer and it will be blocked. The USP will also be blocked preventing another email account from being activated; it’s essentially email lockdown. I always like to point out this information so they don't think they can be slick and do this themselves.
Make sure you have some examples of either local businesses that you have done, or use my samples until you do have some to show them. Make sure you show them the difference between the plain text email and they HTML one. If I haven’t made this point clear enough yet I’ll try again… up sell, up sell, up sell.
Cold Calling
Okay we are now moving on to cold calling. I do this as well as meeting in person. I truly believe that meeting face-to-face increases sales, but cold calling can be very effective too. And, there is nothing wrong with calling first, and setting up the personal meeting. Something you may want to look into for some tips and guidance is this little helper/ guide. The methods used, and offered there, are absolutely awesome, and should definitely not be overlooked.
Still… do the research on Google to find the business. You want to be just as prepared to make a phone call, as you would be going into the actual store. When you call announce your name and business name, then ask if it’s possible to speak with the owner? If they say they are not there ask what a good time to reach them, or ask to speak with someone in charge of the business’ marketing? They may ask why you are calling and how they can help you, simply state you need to discuss a very important business matter with them. Then try to call back when they say you can reach that person.
If you happen to be so lucky as to get owner on the phone say, “Hi, I’m …. From company…..how are you doing today? I was wondering if you could help me help you. You see I was wondering if I could bother you for a few minutes and ask you a few questions to see if my business could help your business. I am in ….town right near you and would love to see if I can get you more business.” Feel free to make your own speech; I’m just giving you an idea of a way of introducing yourself. Wait for their answer, if they hang up or say no thanks move on. If they say sure go ahead with the sales pitch.
Proceed to cover the important points and questions you would if you were talking to them in person:
1. Are you having trouble getting enough return customers at… place of business name…would you like to see the return rate increase?
2. If they say yes, explain you have a new innovative valuable tool that can do just that.
3. “Are you interested in hearing more?” Proceed if they say yes.
4. Honestly I could restate everything I’ve previously written, but to save you time just go back to the “Approaching the Owner” section, and follow the same steps.
At first it will sound strange, but after you do this a few times it will get easier. I promise. If you’re nervous here’s a tip; standing up and trying to smile through the entire conversation does help and makes you sound more confident. IF they say that your proposition sounds interesting say, “May I stop by and introduce myself? When is a good time?” Show up with their box in hand and everything ready to go. Close the deal!
Now as far as these boxes I keep referring to, the pictures are in the pictures area. You can obtain these at garage sales, dollar stores, K-Mart, Wal-Mart; just keep an eye out try not to pay anymore than $5.00 or so. If you are feeling crafty you can also decorate the box with a tasteful ribbon or other decorative piece.
Again, if you would like more help on the topic go here.
Forum
Another very useful tool you can use, and easily set up, is a forum specifically designed for helping your clients and keeping them up to date about what’s going on within the online world. My forum www.ginagray.com offers all sorts of advice and information that I post for my clients, or anybody, who wants to keep up with online trends. If you decide to set up a forum you can use an online “template style” program or, like me, have a professional beautiful site build by your website developer and hosted by whoever you are using for your hosting needs.
Emailing
You can use the same sales letter you used for direct mail to email. You may have to scan business websites or obtain the email address during the cold call then send your sales email and follow up in a week or so if you haven’t heard back.
So that completes most of the sales process.
A Quick Review
Here is a recap of all the information we’ve discussed so far.
· Give the customer an incentive to get their information.
o Make that offer irresistible on the box or website.
o Let them win something, be on a exclusive VIP special notification list, give them a free report on something. You get the idea.
· Oh almost forgot, if you sell this to a restaurant with waitress service make sure they place cards in holders on the tables to fill out while they are dining, or in the check book when they receive their bill.
o We have an in house graphic designer that does ours.
§ He does such great work I charge the clients exactly what I pay her $50 per design. He will make a draft that I show to new client. If they like it he will put 6 or 8 on one sheet. We send it to the client then they pay to have it printed and cut.
§ They are so much nicer than the generic ones, as you will see. IF you don’t have a designer and need mine let me know; he would be happy to help you out. Yes, his fee is $50 per job.
· Back to the recap. To collect the emails place a box on counter where customer pays, ask for it on the phone if they take phone orders, put on tables or in waitress bill books, place an opt in form on the website.
o You will have to give their current web designer the opt in code to place on their website that you acquire from the autoresponder you use.
o With the autoresponder you can enter the email addresses and names into their account manually. Most of the responders will email them and ask them to confirm that they want to be on this list, but if they volunteered at the business then most likely they will opt in.
· I have provided examples of emails in the previous pages. Feel free to make your own variations.
o Auotresponders will likely have a variety of templates, but you can choose to have one designed by outsourcing it to someone or creating it yourself.
o You can outsource all your work to us. Contact me at RetailGoldmine@gmail.com.
· Finally: Stress the importance of building the contact list!
o They must build the list of email contacts! Obviously the more people on the list the more people will show up for that special secret XXXX they are offering. Chant to them if you have to, “Build your List, Build your List, Build Your List”; do whatever it takes. You need them to do it so they see the results you told them about; the more people on their list, the more the results.
o Inspire them to make appealing subject lines, also. If they don’t know how to do that, do it for them. You want their open rate to be high. If you don’t know how to do it you can search Google for Headlines, you will find plenty, and Andrew Cavanaugh has a story about it as well. It will do your customers and yourself well to research this and do it for your customers.
My Style
Someone recently asked me which I prefer, direct mail or walk-in. If you know me by now you probably know my answer; AMBUSH of course. There is nothing like face-to-face combat, I mean contact. Well, sometime it seems like combat. You would think most people “just know” they would like more customers so when we have to convince them of this it boggles our minds. Although it’s not so much the convincing that they need the business, it’s more about convincing them to use a new approach to get more business.
The second part of the question I received was how many hours per week do I do this? I believe they meant the selling aspect. It really depends; sometimes 5, sometimes 20. Depends on the children’s schedule, depends on the weather, my mood. Now if you’re reading this and also offer optimized website be prepared to have a lot longer work week.
You will need to set a goal for yourself; maybe you want 2 new clients per week maybe 10. Then you work as long as it takes till you get your number. I have to warn you it gets addicting; once you get a few clients you want more and more. And the more accounts, obviously the more monthly income. Wouldn’t it be nice by month two, if you had enough money to pay the rent, mortgage, car payment, and insurance—all from doing this. If you put yourself into action it can be done.
Finally a lot of you must be wondering; what is the number one sales line I use? “Contact your customers when you want!” That’s it. Without their customer’s information they cannot contact them, luckily I am very good at doing this for them, and I stress this point to make the sale.
Selling the Internet to Businesses
Some “mom and pop” operations know of this internet thingy, but because they may not use it they think their customers don’t either. They couldn’t be more wrong. I wonder how often they are asking their customers anything like, “Hey, Bob have your surfed the internet today?” I doubt it. But chances are they were on the computer today or yesterday. It’s hard for them to grasp that there is this whole internet world, and unfortunately if some of them don’t grasp it soon they won’t have a business.
Everyone is online now a days, they book travel, look for sales, do their holiday shopping, banking, email, search for help for their frustrations, chat on message boards, look for info on a health concern, and now they are going online to find local businesses to do business with.
Sorry folks, the phonebook doesn’t cut it anymore. That gives them an address and phone number… whoopee. This is the information age. We want info, and lots of it. We want to see the business we may visit, we want to see the doctor that may treat us, or food that is being presented. We want to know of any special event that a business may have to offer, we want to see the actual boat we might charter; just calling and asking about it doesn’t cut it anymore. We want your hours and a map. The phonebook is on its way out; they know it, that’s why they even offer website services.
If the internet wasn’t so popular why do we see Wi-Fi everywhere now? Airports, hotels, libraries, it’s everywhere. And if a business is not there they are almost dead.
People who have recently moved into a new area, college kids especially are looking for places to go to do business with. They have no knowledge of the area, but they know where to find it; you guessed it, the internet. Locals who are looking for new places to visit or seeking to change their doctor, lawyer, real estate agent, dog groomer, hair salon etc. They know that the phonebook is not going to help them make that decision; but the internet will, surprise.
I will give you the support you need and so will the forum members. There is no reason to fail…..unless you do nothing…
So do you want to do nothing or do you want to have your own business?
Which is it? You can’t have both. Sorry. Are you going to move ahead with this and make me proud or are you going to stick with your mundane job?
What to Put in These Darn Email Thingy’s
What to write in your clients autoresponders?
I seem to be getting this question a lot.
Well, to be truthful you don't write much of anything. All the accounts either e-mail, or fax the content for the email they are sending.
We don't know their business so therefore we can't write them. The business owners will send an article for us to send out. We will format it so that it's appealing to they reader.
Do not write and send an email that is small font or all jumbled together, spacing is key. Think about the emails you receive what is easier to your eye; obviously emails that are easy to read. Whether you are sending HTML or text emails make it easy on the reader. You may have to learn how to make a coupon if your client wishes to have coupons sent. Here’s an example…
If you receive an email from a client that has bad grammar or spelling errors than yes fix them, we don't want him or her to look dumb. Also, if you think you can make the email look better than do that.
Always remember that you want these emails opened and you want a response from the email. Whether it be to go to the website, bring the coupon into the store, or call them. Your monthly checks, from your clients, depend on it.
You not only want great open rates but you want your clients to get sales from these e-mails so help them out with the content if you can.
So, you may need to give the business owner ideas on what to put in their new found advertising source. No problem.
1. Coupons
2. New arrivals-New item in stock
3. Limited time offer sales
4. What’s New
5. New employee
6. New service offered
7. Presentation on site that will be offered
8. Appointments look slow at a certain time
9. Special occasion for the holiday or the customer birthday, anniversary etc.
10. Reminders
The list goes on; I’m sure you could add a few.
I know I mentioned a setup fee earlier; that one is your call. I don’t normally charge it. However, like I said it is great motivation for you to collect the check when you are visiting the business owner. As far as what that fee should be I have seen anywhere from $150-$500 I think the $500 is enormous but maybe if you are in an affluent area go for it.
I prefer to use it as the up sell though (If you get it on the 30 day collection day, even better).
It does take a bit of time to actually setup the template the first time and customize it for that business. Sometimes they do already have a list of emails that they didn’t know what to do with, so it will take time inserting them as well.
Try to get them to email you the names and addresses as it is easier to copy and paste them into your autoresponder.
If that local business is starting from scratch and has no emails.
No problem you can tell them you are starting today. You can bring in the box and email forms and slap on their offer on the box with your labels. Make sure customers see it. Reassure the owner that this work; tell them you are sure they’ll have enough customers to send an email in two weeks. Don’t forget that you are a local member of the community, there is nothing wrong with adding your email address, or the email addresses of your employees or friends if they don’t mind. Right there you can have at least four or five to add to the list; and if you’re popular even better, even more emails!
Friendly advice between me and you: I do highly suggest you ask them what they do for advertising currently. Ask them if it’s working for them. Don’t tell them anything negative about what they are doing; as a matter of fact, if they tell you something is working for them, tell them to keep it up. Don’t stop with what works, do drop what doesn’t though. There is a chance you can incorporate some of the advertising that is working into the emails. If the company sends out a newsletter tell them that could now be an email, or the email could mention it raising awareness for it.
I would suggest that your clients send out an email at a minimum of once every two weeks. If it’s for a restaurant they may want to send two. Possibly send one Monday morning with lunch specials for the week. The second could be sent on Friday for their dinner specials or weekend specials.
For most other businesses typically once a week or once every two weeks is sufficient. Make sure they don’t over mail either. You can wear out your list that way and they will unsubscribe. Make sure the information is useful and informative, and is not more than a page if it can be helped. Also send an offer in each email whether it is for 2 for 1 night, a coupon, a time sensitive offer if they come in on Monday or Tuesday, or get a free desert with their dinner. Also as the person writing the responder, always include a link to their website if they have one, and use the ‘forward this email to a friend’ feature. Remember: the more people that get on this list the better for you and your client.
Ah… payment
There are many ways to collect your payment. You have to decide the best arrangement for you and your business.
1. You can go collect it every 30 days in person.
2. You can invoice them, and send it out 5 days before it’s due and wait for your checks to come in.
a. If they don’t come in within 10 days you can access a late fee charge.
3. If you have a website or if you want to work out a PayPal arrangement, you can do that as well.
a. With the website you can have a link there to pay their bill. Setup the buttons with your charges and they pay that charge that they owe.
4. If you don’t have a website you may ask them if they do PayPal. If they do, you can simply send a payment reminder through PayPal that their payment is due.
5. We are now using Freshbooks, for our office. We like them because their website is easy to navigate and easy to use. You can have them bill invoices through snail mail or email; and you can set invoices to ‘reoccurring’, which is a ‘set and forget’ process. An invoice will be automatically sent every month.
Autoresponders
With the Autoresponders, I use two: Aweber and MailChimp.
Please check them both out.
Aweber is a little technical and a little expensive, but they have a lot of features. There customer support is outstanding.
MailChimp We mainly use Mail Chimp, and it’s fairly easy to navigate. They are reasonable in pricing and the given templates are satisfactory. There is a video area that allows you to upload videos for the emails, too.
I do suggest opening a separate account for EACH business you do E-Mail marketing with. Otherwise it can get very confusing with the send from; the setting for the business it’s being sent from has to be changed each time you send an email from a different business. I’ve lived through the slip ups of my assistant sending out the wrong information, it’s not worth the headache of dealing with (I’m sure my assistant will back this up). Addresses that show up on the bottom of the email might also be considered spam if you have large lists for each business.
If you chose to work with Icontact, whether you set up individual accounts or one main one, send a test email. Before the email gets sent the people on the list have it sent to yourself so you can check for errors.
Referrals
If your business runs like ours, you rely on referrals. They better job you do for clients the more they will recommend you to others. The same is true for us business owners who know other business owners. If you produce results for them and handle yourself professionally they will recommend you to others. Of course you can also ask for them as well. It is true it’s always cheaper to get a referral than pay to get a new prospect, less work on the researching end as well.
Conclusion
This really should help you get started; there is absolutely no reason you can’t go out right now and just start talking to some business owners about your new business. If you don’t you are just plain lazy.
I demand you to go make a sale and I want to hear about it; email me or post in the forum how it’s going. If you don’t I have your address now, I’ll just send my men to beat you to a pulp.
If anyone here wants to strictly do sales, and does not want to do any technical work sending the emails setting up the auto responders; or if you happen to run into someone that wants their site, done, fixed redesigned etc., and you don't want to do that either I have the staff. I will be happy to work with you on a commission basis. Email me at RetailGoldmine@gmail.com.
Let me know if you’re interested.
Take care
Gina
An Open letter to a prospect
December 22, 2010 by ginagray
Filed under offline consulting
You may use this to direct mail
Your address and info
July 17, 2010
Business address you are sending to
Hello ______
I'm not here to waste your time. I am writing you because I'd like to make , ____________ more profitable. I'm also a local business owner like you and know business strategies that work in our local area.
I recently spent some time looking on the Internet, as I see you have advertised recently in our area. Your business jumped out at me for a few reasons. I see that you do not have a website set up and that's a bad move on your part. No one can find you when they need you. Why would any consumer choose you over your competitor especially when they can‘t find you online? Therefore you are losing money and not making any money with that website.
Locals are searching for you and can’t find you. Did you know that a combined number of at least xxxxx+ people are putting keywords into Google MONTHLY looking for THEIR KEYWORDS AND TOWN etc , You are not to be found, and You are missing out by not being listed for both organic listings and more importantly Google Local Listings.
I would love to help get you more exposure and lead generation. I currently work with several high-profile businesses and have been able to achieve outstanding results for them. Google's local directory can you bring you an incredible amount of targeted traffic.
Specifically I can help you
* Save money on your advertising
* Make more money from the business you already have
* Target the clients that are LOOKING for THEIR SERVICES on the internet each and every day
*Target sub-communities in our area
I would be happy to share the details with of the marketing analysis I did for your company. I want to be fair and let you know that I am also mailing your competitors a similar letter, so I would suggest not waiting to set an appointment with me.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Your name
Local Ecommerce Solutions
Your contact info
Your Local Business Needs a Website
November 1, 2010 by ginagray
Filed under offline consulting
Websites are possibly the most disregarded vehicle of advertising for local businesses. Yes, every merchant needs one. Every doctor, lawyer, and accountant needs one. Every café, restaurant, flower shop and hair dresser needs one.
I'm not suggesting that all these businesses need to actually manage business online. I'm saying that everyone listed in the phone book or advertising in print needs to also be available on the internet today–it's where your customers expect to find you.
If you're thinking you might not be able to afford a website, think again. For a simple website, a budget of $1,500 to $5,000 for construction and $100 to $400 for monthly maintenance and updates should cover it. Robust sites with streaming video, opt-in subscriber functions and other, more complicated features can run between $5,000 and $10,000 for construction and $500 to $4,000 for monthly maintenance and updates.
When accurately constructed, a website allows your customers to gather the information they need from the privacy and convenience of their own computers. What are the questions your clientele ask virtually every day? And how, exactly, would your best employee answer on his or her best day? This is the information that needs to be available 24/7 on your site.
People are looking for convenience in today’s hectic world. They are looking for the quickest and easiest way to get information, or they simply like to gather all the facts before they come to you with questions. Forty-nine percent of your customers strongly prefer to know what they're coming to buy before they walk in your door. And even the additional 51 percent of your target market will appreciate an informative site that functions during all those hours you are not open for business.
Don't think for a moment that your customers aren't already online. Several times a month, I speak to groups of at least several hundred people. And I always ask, "How many of you have used a search engine within the past seven days to research a product or service that you were considering purchasing?" I raise my own hand as soon as the question is finished. The hands raised in response have never been less than 85 to 90 percent of the crowd.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that the internet is something that only the young generation utilizes. Your customers are online and they are looking for you, let me help them find you.
Video Ad Marketing
October 24, 2010 by ginagray
Filed under Uncategorized, offline consulting
Use this ad copy to promote video marketing services
Video Ad Marketing
Increase Website Traffic With Video Ad Marketing
See first page rankings within 24 Hours
(I've seen first page rankings in under 20 minutes!)
Build Trust and get visitors excited about your products or services!
One new video (4 variations distributed to over 30 High Ranking Video Sites Like YouTube, Google Video, and Live Video; 15 blog and social bookmarking sites; and over 15 Podcast sites) for $599.
2009 Special $399
There is a onetime $97.00 set up fee that goes to setting up all the accounts on the different sites..
Now with Video-in-Article
Publish your videos to thousands of sites embedded in your articles!!!
IF "a picture is worth a thousand words" what is a video ad worth?
- According to a study by Google and AOL conducted by market insight and information group TNS, 75% of respondents reported watching more video online than they did a year ago, and over half expect to watch more online video in the next year.
- 78% feel that online video ads provide as much or more of an opportunity to learn about a product or service than television, and 63 % said they prefer video sites to include advertising if it helps keep content free. Apparently the online community is embracing video much more willingly than expected.
- 64% of respondents have taken action after seeing an online video, 44 % going to the advertiser's Web site, 33 % searching for a product or service, 22 % visiting an actual off-line store, and 21 % discussing the advertised product with friends or family. So not only does online video bring in new business, it gets the ball rolling on that elusive buzz marketing campaign.
- The responses came from 2,394 online users between 18 and 54 years old. The study also found that online video ads result in 32 % of viewers describing the featured brand as innovative, 32 % as creative, and 30 % as fun.
- Video Ads dramatically increase the "7 second" widow. This is the average time that a visitor to a website takes to decide whether or not to stay or leave. Video ads help keep visitors on your site longer so that they can understand the value that you bring to the table.
Two Aspects of Rush Hour Video Ad Marketing
Video Ads
These are short videos that are designed to drive traffic to your site. The process is to create several versions and upload them to 50 video publishing sites. The upload process is very time consuming but I have tools that cut the upload time considerably. Because the video sites are so heavily indexed by the search engines it is easy to get high rankings in a very short period of time. Depending on the number of competing pages, first page ranking can happen in under 24 hours.
There is a "secret sauce". The key element is optimizing the title, video description and keywords. This is what the search engines look for since they cannot read video content.
Content Video
These videos can serve as either ads that provide valuable information and point customers to your site or as informational content on your site that explains your products or services. Both are very power tools to increase website traffic. I will have more sample videos shortly.
Our passion is your success!
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