Free Google advertising for your business

Yes! Celebrate the 89cent petrol price drop with some free advertising from Google – the granddaddy of online search.

It’s true. You can get your business on the top of Google without investing a lot of time, energy and effort into SEO. (SEO is just a geek term for ‘search engine optimization’). The answer? Google Places.

[Side note – Google received 10.2 billion search queries last month (yes, that’s billion with a B)]

Have you ever searched Google and see that little map jump up? Like so:

The map on the top right hand side shows a local search is performed. And your business could be in top few listings just like mine (leanmarketing.co.za). However, this is not for everyone. Let me explain:

People search commercially when certain events are triggered in their lives. Like when you get crazy and decide to get married you search on Google for a venue. When your geyser goes kaboom you search online for a plumber, right? When you need to stay overnight in another city you look on Google for a B&B or a hotel. Makes sense?

See specific events trigger these online searches (like the leaky plumbing which creates the situation where you start searching for a plumber). And naturally, the place to start a search is Google.co.za – even the stats from Google Trends confirm this:

But I am getting ahead of myself. Just, remember this:

Events & “stuff” happen in the customer’s life > this creates a need > customer performs a Google search > customer chooses a service provider (I’ll get to this matter in a moment).

That is why, one of my clients (a kitchen company) is rocking local search. People move into a new house or they decide to revamp their place and go online and search. Simple as that. So if your business is similar to the types of businesses I described above, where people actually go and look for you – go claim your listing!

No, wait, stop. Not before you read this. There are only a few spots in the top places you can rank for locally. And Google obviously have a set criteria in deciding which businesses to put at the top. As far as I can tell, Google puts emphasis on:

·         The distance between your business and the centroid (actual distance between your business and the city)

·         Amount of reviews you have in your listing

·         The quality of reviews you have in your listing

·         How specific your selected categories matches up with the search query

·         Completeness of  your Google Places listing

And of course 70+ other factors Google takes into account. However, don’t let that discourage you in getting, keeping and maintaining your listing. It is much, much easier than optimizing a business to display naturally on the top of a normal google search.

If you would like me to either:

·         Set up a listing for you

·         Revamp your existing listing

·         Boost your local ranking

Phone me on +27 016-366-7032 and I’ll take a look at your listing.

Peace.

P.S. Almost forgot. Here is how people (mostly) decide on where to click after they searched in Google. By following a hierarchy of search click through rate:

·         First Google position: 36.4%

·         Second Google position: 12.5%

·         Third Google position: 9.5%

·         10th Google position: 2.2%

·         Top three positions in Google earned 58.4% of all clicks

·         The top 10 positions in Google earned 81.1% of all clicks

·         The second page of Google earned 14.4% of all clicks

Thanks to Optify for those stats.

A No Cost Mobile Marketing Strategy (Not SMS or mobile websites)

Hey readers, I’ve discovered a crazy cool marketing strategy for restaurants, bars, clubs, gyms or any other similar types of service businesses. Best of all – it’s F-R-E-E.

So, according to mybroadband.co.za over 3.2million South Africans are blackberry (or what I call crackberry) users. And 97% of all crackberry users are on that little app … the infamous Blackberry Messenger.

Ever seen beautiful women ferociously hammering away at a blackberry?

[Yes I have no idea why they keep their cell phone so close to their pretty little faces. Maybe they use it as a mirror for makeup as well.]

But when they are chatting away you can bet that they (and others) are using crackberry chat – BBM.

“So what are you getting at Mr. Smarty pants?”

See I knew you were going to ask that question! Don’t blame me when you smack yourself on the forehead when you’ve finished reading this post J

Here’s the point: You probably know SMS marketing is the new hot thing. You’ve seen those ads haven’t you? SMS this number to subscribe. SMS that number to subscribe. Yadda, yadda ya. Well it works. Once you SMS that 5 digit number, you get notified again & again (and again) about upcoming specials, deals and steals. 

Here’s the problem:

Ø  It is a little intrusive when you hear your SMS ringtone expecting it to be from a friend and it turns out to be promotional

Ø  It costs money to run an SMS marketing campaign

(Yes 30cents per SMS is not a lot, but when you have a 1000 customers for example, it does add up).

So here is the alternative:

Invite your customers on blackberry messenger. Sounds crazy right? It. Is. Crazy. Brilliant.

Here’s why:

Ø  It’s free

Ø  It can generate revenue for you

Ø  Keeps customers in the know

Ø  You can message your entire customer database simultaneously via group messaging

Ø  Its less of an intrusion

Ø  Its less of an interruption than normal SMS

Ø  Customers can just delete your profile when they don’t want your promotions

Ø  You can actually build a 2way conversation with clients (remember customers buy for their reasons, not what you want to sell them – and if we have conversation with a lot of them, we can find out those reasons)

There is a downside of course. Not everyone has a blackberry. There’s no tracking or split testing available. You won’t be able to target a certain demographic. BUT – you can target your customers who do have a blackberry.

Let’s go outside the box for a while longer. We don’t have to use blackberry messenger just to generate sales. Let us say you run a restaurant for example. You can survey your customers through BBM and ask them – what type of food they like the most. What type of food they would like to see on the menu. The possibilities & variations are almost endless. 

Side note:

Input from your customers is the best type of business intelligence you can have, because your clients generate a 100% of your revenue right now. Remember, a happy customer tells on average 3 other people about you, but an angry customer tells 7 others about you (not good). That is why some type of customer feedback system is crucial.

[Yes, it is better to be in the loop about the customers experience rather than having the customer say nothing and be silently moving his business to another vendor.]

Anyway, here are some more ways businesses can use Blackberry Messenger or BBM to generate sales or newfound revenue:

Video store: Can use blackberry messages to tell its current client base about the new movie releases it has available.

Bicycle shop: Can notify customers about upcoming bike races (guess where the customers are going to buy the gear?)

Restaurants: Can notify customers about coffee specials or ask the customer for feedback on the saxophone player they hired (some restaurants hire artists to perform loving the show but may not realize their customers hate it – what’s the point then?)

Gyms: Can post new exercises/diet tips/easy healthy meals to the BBM following.

If you already use SMS marketing to great effect, then don’t stop using it. Augment it by adding BBM, measure the response and go from there.

P.S. If you found this post at least somewhat helpful and enjoyable, could you please share it with your colleagues? Hover your mouse over the share button below and click on the Facebook icon. In the next window just click share link. Thank you J.

P.P.S. Working on some big marketing mojo for this blog, stay tuned.

How to sell at higher price points

What if you could sell the same product, the same service or the same thing-a-majig for more money? I'll demonstrate how Head&Shoulders, Cross Pens and Listerine did it ... and how you can too.


First off, it sounds nuts to sell the exact same thing for more cash. Suspend your disbelief for a moment. It is possible. Take a look at these pens to expand your mind:

[One pen sells for nearly 100x more than the other. And yet people buy them. Heck I bought them. And there are many more crazy people like me who will buy your higher priced goods if you price them so.]






By resetting the buying criteria (the reason why people buy), cross pens and many other pen companies can sell at higher prices. You see, they focus on the improved image, the sex appeal, the increased status, the emotional benefit to tip the value scale and therefore make a 100x more money on each sale.


Warning: You can't just simply increase price and expect people to buy. Yes people buy high priced goods. But to just mark up your goods is no way to go either, because the market has already made up it's mind.


Consumer logic: 'Hey if he sells this thing for X already, why is it XXX now? It's too much. I know it sells for roughly X. I think I'm being ripped off.'


Tip: If you already have a product at a certain price point you can't arbitrarily change it, but you can sell extra bonuses and complementary packages to increase your average unit of sale. [In case of the pen, the ink refills would be a logical add on sale]


Tip2: A new product can start off with an aggressive high pricing strategy and then you can reduce it later, but you can't do the opposite (starting low and then going high is a no-no)
Back to the story and the crux - how is it possible for some companies to sell the same thing for so much more? There are 3 ways:

• They emphasize emotional appeal that tugs the heartstrings (thereby launching the consumer into a buying frenzy where logic does not exists)
• They do a more complete selling job (See how good you look with that pen Mr. Smit)
• They have a very compact and crystal clear competitive edge

By having a competitive edge the consumer can clearly differentiate between products and their price points. Thereby selling at higher prices. 

[A quick note: Selling at higher prices means you'll need fewer sales staff, less order takers, less petrol, fewer employees, less wear and tear on vehicles, lower inventory and ultimately a lesser overhead. Plus you'll only need half the distribution to match the income of your competitors. Pretty slick huh?]

Now, compare these:

The shampoo itself? Hard to differentiate. It's all very much alike. Oh wait, here's what Head&Shoulders say that the others don't:

"Cures 9 out of 10 dandruff cases, as we are the most preferred by dermatologists"  

This little buying edge, promoted over & over & over again is what allow them to sell at nearly double the price of their nearest competitors. [I believe all the above brands sell a great product, but in the eyes and wallets of the consumer - the one that gets rid of dandruff is worth double.]

Here's another great unique selling proposition: "There's no deeper clean, than Listerine"

Price tag? R71.99 for 500ml. Compare this with:

Price = R36.99 for 500ml.

Competitive advantage for this particular mouthwash? I have no idea. That's probably the reason why it sells for much less than Listerine.

The lesson: Come up with unique buying advantages (what's in it for the consumer/client) to allow you to sell at higher prices more often.

Having a 5 page, 20 page or a 100 page website can cost you a fortune and generate little or no leads for you

Here’s what you can do about it…

I’ve discovered that a tiny 1 page website is far better for selling your products than a large, beautiful and fancy website with flash, music, bells and whistles.

Why?

Well firstly, a big website will cost you a lot of money to set up and maintain. Perhaps double, triple or quadruple as much compared to a smaller one.

In return, the big website is built mainly as an online brochure for displaying goods and not selling them. 

How so?

Well as you’ve probably noticed a large website has many buttons, tabs, windows and options. This distracts the prospect from doing the single most important and lucrative thing he or she can do when visiting your website. And that is…

Giving you their contact information. Getting your prospects contact details is almost as good as getting a list of buyers.

So imagine having a list of a 100, 500 or a 1000 people who are pre-motivated, pre-qualified and pre-disposed to do business with you. I’m talking about people who will raise their hand and indicate that they need your service. How hard will it be to market and sell them something if you know they are already interested and eager for your products and services?

Not that hard at all. In fact, it would be easy wouldn’t it? (Just email the list of buyers, ‘hey I got this, here’s the payment details’ and some of them will buy).

And here’s how to do it:

Set up a simple 1 page website where you give away something for free. It could be an assessment, a lucky draw, a consultation, a brochure or something similar. However, in order for a prospect (your customer) to gain their free gift – they will have to give you their name, phone number and email address. 

And the point is…Only the people interested in a lucky draw of your product will give you their email. This means, the people that do give you their contact details are interested in your products.

Even if they don’t win the lucky draw, you will still have their email to advertise your products to them for FREE. Pretty neat huh? How do I know this works? Simply because…

An entire industry is based upon this model. Almost every business that sells over the internet captures the name and email of a person. From Norton Antivirus to Amazon and now even Google is starting to use emails to generate sales.

Oh and the best part is… Once you have gained the prospects contact details you can promote to him again, again and again without advertising. See advertising is once off. You pay for the ad, it runs, you generate something here and there. It’s over. Then you must pay again to keep the sales coming in.

However, if you have a lead capture system such as this … You can simply email the entire list of prospects of any special offer you decide to run – all automatically. Yes, you do not have to type emails one at a time. Simply email a 100 a 1000 or even 10 000 customers all at once. You can even indicate to the system at what day and time in the future your emails will be going out.

This means:

You can literally type all your emails in a day and have a whole year’s worth of automated selling ready … so that you don’t have to worry so much where the next sale is going to come from.

Is this the end all, be all of your marketing? Nope. It’s the beginning. You still have to (at least initially) promote this lead capture page either online or offline. But once you capture your leads, treat them well, give them some free industry information, a discount here and there, a thank you and so on, they will stay with you and eventually buy from you.

Soon your email list will grow from a few people to a 100, 200, 500 or more happy customers. Then you don’t have to advertise as much to get more prospects, because you would already have a large list of buyers. This way, you’re working smarter not harder.

If you would like a quote for a lead capture system for your business or just a no pressure chat about this, simply contact me on my office number 016 366 7032. Or email me at info@leanmarketing.co.za

To Your Continued Success,

Raymond H. Smit

10% Response Rate on My Direct Mail Package YES :)

I never thought sending a letter through the mail and getting a phone call back could be this exciting. A few moments ago a little lady phoned me from Potchefstroom saying she wanted to see me and help her guesthouse get more guests. Awesome :)


The letter was one page long, sent via fastmail (it's a bit expensive now though R4.60 'n pop, eish). So the cost of the mailing was around R50 - I sent about 10 out and got an appointment. So the cost of the appointment is 50 bucks BUT I might get a client out of it. The client could very well spend many thousands of rands with me and give a great testimonial and referrals in the future. Damn I'm excited.


[I love direct mail for being so scale-able]


And if the numbers work out I could just take this mailing to another market and test it there. Oh about the copy of the mailing - I think what did the trick was a rappore hook. Let me explain.


I knew sending out just a plain salesletter without warming up to the person would plummet response. I felt it in my bones. So I put two letters in brackets at the end of the letter to indicate that we are familiar to each other (ever read that study that showed 80% of people married others closest to them? Something about "proximity"? I think it has huge business & marketing applications).


When she called we actually had a real easy conversation, because it felt like we were familiar to each other, like we knew each other already. Anyways, the letter was just 1 page long (so much for long copy) - with my main biggest benefit in the headline of the direct mail piece. Oh and another thing ...


Gary Halbert mentioned that these small post offices in a tiny town are the best to use for direct mail. And I'm finding that to be true. 


Anyways, direct marketing is such a fun way to generate leads (I've got a feeling that using direct mail for lead gen + in person follow up is a great way to sell high ticket items), man I can't wait to experiment more and give you (my dear reader) the findings, applications and TESTED KNOWLEDGE so you can go out there and make mucho fungolas for yourself.


Or something like that.


Arrivederci!

Get Your Foot in The Door With My Cold Call Method (50%-70% appointment rate so far)

Hey Business Owners, this could be a fluke, but …

I’m getting a very high number of appointments from people I don’t know personally. In other words, I get a chance to demonstrate my service and get leads without spending money on advertising. And best of all, using the phone to call people is almost F-R-E-E.

And it’s as simple as talking to someone like a normal human being.

It’s old school and people hate it – but your phone is sitting right there in your business and it could be your biggest marketing asset. I think you are atleast missing out on 20-30% more revenue if you do not use the phone.

Now people hate using the phone to get business. Funny thing is, the calls I am making now are the most pleasant calls on earth. Really. It’s like calling up and old friend and just talking. It feels so natural. Words are failing me to describe it. And it’s fun!

I’ll give you my little method in a moment. But the first thing I think you ought to know is that there are two ways to use the phone. It’s the difference between karate and judo. You can either use a LOT of persistence, rebuttals, smart comebacks and a very thick skin to do cold calls or do it the low pressure and low key way – it depends on your personality. But both methods work.

I prefer the low key way. It’s just who I am. Anyways, here’s my method. Let’s call it…

Raymond’s Way To Get Business With The Telephone:

Start with your intention and expectations. Remove your expectation from the outset. You are not selling over the phone. In my business I can’t sell over the phone, because I don’t know what the client truly needs yet. Therefore I would be doing him a disservice by selling directly over the phone.

Besides, I don’t really care about the sale. Sounds funny doesn’t it? What I really care about is forming a relationship or a partnership with my buyer. Let’s put it this way, I’m more interested in keeping the client’s business than getting it. Know this:

When you start to sell over the phone you will be met by resistance. And the person who “outlasts” the other will make the sale – either the prospect or the salesman. That’s just not my style. There has to be an easier way … and there is!

In my ‘style’ you don’t meet force with force. You don’t seek the sale. You never push for the sale. You never hammer the prospect with well thought out rebuttals. You never rebut. You never disagree and argue. You never become adversarial.

But…

You redirect and you give value immediately. In fact, you get permission to give value and then follow up. 

The method in short is:

Ask for permission to give value > Send value > Get feedback from the buyer > Ask for the appointment

Also:

Seek the truth not the sale. You can’t sell everybody. And all those salesbooks saying you’ve got to keep closing and sell, sell sell are crap. Heck I don’t want to sell everybody, because everybody is not the right client for my service. Next:

Don’t make any assumptions. I made that mistake once. Lesson learned. If you go in and say “oh I can help you, I can do this, why aren’t you doing this” you are going to make your buyer look foolish. Buyers have ego’s. Ask for permission to give value first.

If he is not open to it, then … he is not a qualified prospect anyway. See you don’t want to work with people who are not open to suggestions and who knows ‘better’. Such a relationship is doomed from the start.

So right before I pick up the phone I think “man I hope I can give this guy a killer suggestion to help him increase his business and I hope he has an open mind – but if he doesn’t that’s okay too.”

That’s the mindset I go in with on each call. Your mindset is key. Because your prospects are smart. Your buyer might be a troll in real life, but when it comes to purchasing descisions he is Einstein like clever. You can’t disguise your intention. And if your intention is on selling him right over the phone – you’ll get resistance.

So what is my intention?

My intention is just to get permission to give value. Not sell. Not push a report. Not push a consumer guide. No. There is no pushing involved. Infact the more you “push” the more your buyer “pulls”.

My goal is just to ask for permission to send the buyer some tips on how to improve his ad. See most advertisers want some advice on how to improve their ad. Their paying for it, so they will naturally be open to advice that could help them. See how that works? 

Now ask yourself:

What advice can I give my potential buyer that would be valuable for him?

Are you in real estate? Perhaps you can assemble a little buyers guide for bachelors and call on bachelors looking for cool houses. Are you a tax planner? Maybe you can make a report on 27 ways to save money on tax? Heck if I’m getting smacked with a large SARS tax bill I’d sure want to know how to cut back on my taxes.

Oh I almost forgot! Very, very important. You need to give a solution to someone who has a predetermined need that he knows about, cares about and would like help on. No point in sending your tax guide to a 1 man band when he really doesn’t pay any tax. Get it?

Okay your almost ready to make that call. “Radical Raymond” has one more golden nugget for you. The inspiration comes from Malcom Gladwell in his bestselling book blink. In a nutshell we make descisions instantly. Food good. Salesman avoid. Gang in alley bad. It’s almost caveman like. So it’s important not to identify yourself as a salesperson in the beginning of the call.

“HIII, my name is Daaaavid, how are you this morning”

SALESMAN! LOCK UP!

“I’m from XYZ Consulting, I sure hope it’s going well today”

SALESMAN ALERT!

“Hi, are you interested in abc”

HE’S OUT TO TAKE MY MONEY, RUN!

Don’t come across like that. It’s an uphill battle like trying to break into a bank that can see you coming.

You are not a salesperson, because you don’t know if there is a need yet. You are merely asking for permission to send value to your buyer. There’s much more to this so …

I’ll see if I can upload a video of me doing these calls so you can get a feel for how to do it the no pressure & easy way.

P.S. Like I said in the beginning, this could be a fluke. I just made a handful of calls and didn’t need to do anymore so I don’t have a very large sample – but I’ll test it some more and be back with those videos.

Stick around,

Raymond

Simple But Overlooked Facebook Marketing Strategy Wins Referrals for Businesses

A really simple but overlooked way to get referrals for your business is by using facebook. I’ll give you the exact steps on how one of my clients was able to churn out atleast 100+ referrals per day with this method (and how you can too).

Best of all – it’s free, gratis, mahala and you can use it right away.

This idea invaded my brain right before bed, so much for trying to sleep <(-_-)>. But more importantly is the question that led to the idea and not the idea itself (oh boy I’m starting to sound like Mr Miyagi from Karate Kid).

See it’s one thing to think how do I sell, how to get rich, how do I make mooooneeeeyyyy out my business – but these questions often leads us into a brick wall only to pound our soft and squishy heads on hard concrete like the many victims before us. No – we must think differently.

[Note: I’m not talking about thinking “positive thoughts” or any other wushu type of think happy pink bunnies and you’ll be rich. Children below the age of 10 think happy thoughts all of the time and they aren't raking it in. And yes The Secret is crap, thanks for asking.]

What I mean by thinking differently is to think outside of the box. Changing the thought process from:

“How can I generate more business”

To…

“How can I get more sales"

Towards...

“How can I get more referrals which will then allow me to sell”

And then…

“How can I use my salesforce to get more referrals?”

Bingo! If we can simply use the salespeople, the receptionist, the order takers, the people that interact with the customers to get a referral – we’d be golden right? So my client, Ocean Basket in Capetown (an awesome seafood restaurant by the way) have waiters that interacts with the customers (the salesforce if you will).

The customers love the food, the owner and the place. So the question is – why not ask the customers to update their facebook status and recommend the restaurant to their friends? Most of the customers are happy to do this, because they had a nice evening.

So the customers simply went to the counter (where the owner had his laptop), and updated their facebook status and then say to their facebook friends what their evening was like. This not only reinforces the enjoyable evening in their mind, but also promotes Ocean Basket on facebook for free.

And since facebook mostly consists of wall posts … the friends of the customer will most likely have a facebook wall populated by praise for Ocean Basket. This not only increases sales but branding and top of mind awareness as well.

The average facebook user has around 200 friends. And if only half of them see the status update, it means that each update is viewed 100 times per referral. So if the client gets 100 referrals per day, he gets 10 000 (100x100) people to see his brand every day.

That’s more people viewing his brand than the amount of people in my town! And if you have a salesforce or a bunch of customers or clients or an email list … Ask for a recommendation via facebook to help others realise your value and make yourself some paper.

Peace.