Email Marketing – Chris Schweppe | (877) 638-0827

Yes, They’re Going To Shop Around

Now, before i really get going on this post, I’m going preface by saying that i know nothing about cars. I have no clue how to change the oil. I know almost absolutely nothing about science. If you asked me what a proton or neutron was, I’d give you a look similar to a deer in the headlights. So…. I’m not a car guy. I’m not a scientist.

Another bit of information that’s come to my attention is that not all small business owners are salesmen.

The last few months, I’ve been more and more surprised by how some of our clients react to the phone call leads that we’ve been sending them. And the thing it always comes back to is our client’s disdain for the fact that the people we’re marketing to shop around. Mostly, i think this comes because the vast, vast majority of small business’ revenue comes from referrals and “word of mouth”. Or maybe it’s something else. Whatever the case, entrepreneurs need to be prepared to sell when people call. Or at least hire a professional sales rep who can’t handle the calls.

Talking with one of our web designers earlier, he was telling me about his experience looking for locksmiths. He needed to get a couple keys made. The first company he called quoted him $100 for the job and to the web designer, that was surprising, so he said thanks and called the next locksmith he could find hoping that there would be someone else out there with a better price. And sure enough on call #4 he found someone that was willing to do it for $70.

My main point is that if 10 calls come in from people you have no relationship with and they’re interested in your service, there are some companies out there that convert 7 sales out of the 10 calls. For entrepreneurs that are hoping to just get 1 or 2 sales out of 10 calls, maybe it’s time to think about your sales strategy and if there’s anyway you can improve what you or your sales rep is saying to increase sales. The only thing that’s more valuable than receiving more leads is converting more of the leads you already have into sales.

Internet Marketing Doesn’t Work

Every now and then I’ll hear someone tell me that that not interested in doing any kind of internet marketing because “it doesn’t work.” Anytime i hear this, it makes me sad. And it’s not because I’m a greedy capitalist trying to make a buck. ; ) I want to set the record straight for both fellow marketers and small business owners alike. I wanted to offer the 4 main reasons from my experience marketers and clients can’t find the same page.

BAD INFORMATION: I can’t tell you how many times i’ll be speaking with a client who has gotten bad information from a friend and or family member. The client becomes convinced the sky is blue and then someone like me comes along and tries to inform them that the sky is actually in fact red. It’s a difficult situation. All I am is the lowly web sales guy who’s only agenda is to sell our service. How is my word going to be more trust worthy than someone the owner knows and trusts.

BAD EXPERIENCE: This one is also tough to overcome. I’ve talked to many clients over the years who’ve worked with a free lance guy who does great in the beginning. Very giving with their time, usually low rates. And then the day comes when they’re gone and never to be heard from again. For a lot of these entrepreneurs, they’ve paid deposits and their projects aren’t finished yet. Free lance workers usually do this when either A) they thought they knew how to do the project and then find out they have no clue what to do, B) they thought the project wouldn’t be that much work, charged a low price and low and behold it turns into being a heck of a lot more work than they thought and decide it’s not worth it anymore, and C) they have another job or school or lots of other projects and they procrastinate and procrastinate and it really never gets done. To me, THE worst thing you can do as a professional is take someones money, not finish the work, and ignore the customer’s calls. The small business owner who’s been through this can have a hard time getting the bad taste out of their mouth. And rightfully so.

UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS: In marketing, expectations are everything. A campaign with super high expectations, that produces decent results, can be viewed as a failure. When we first rolled out social media marketing, I talked to a client one month after he had agreed to give it a try and he tells me , Chris, I want to cancel because it’s not doing anything. I tried to remind him that i told him the previous month it takes 3-6 months for the social campaign to produce results but for whatever reason, he was convinced that it should only take 4 weeks for his facebook page to bear fruit. There are some internet marketing services that can produce overnight results like pay per click and email marketing, but others like search engine optimization, social media, and reputation management take time. A lot of time. Entrepreneurs need to look at these services as investments that will be great for their company down the road.

THE ECONOMY IS BAD: This is something that is beyond anyone’s control at this point. The root of the problem with the economy is that when a marketer’s client’s customers don’t have as much money, there’s going to be a lot less conversions per lead. Sometimes business owners lose sight of this and blame the strategy. Sometimes marketers get upset because they’re doing exactly what they’re supposed to and the client is still not happy. The economy being what it is, makes things tough on everyone and I think it’s essential to keep perspective in mind when trying to determine if a marketing strategy is working or not.

Ultimately, it’s important for marketers and small business owners to be on the same page. When a marketing company, such as Customwave, can deliver leads and drum up business for entrepreneurs, everyone wins. In my opinion, if i was running an auto repair shop or sign manufacturer or any other small business looking to market online, i’d invest in both long term and short term solutions.

I’d keep in mind in the short term that the amount of sales I get from leads won’t be as high as it usually is because people simply don’t have as much money. But i’d really focus on the long term solutions because the economy will turn around sooner or later and there will be less competition in the market. And when demand starts really picking up again, there’s going to be a real opportunity to pick up a good chunk of market share. I truly believe that it’ll all be worth it to be ready when that happens.

What You Don’t Know About Email Marketing

Email Marketing. Doesn’t seem that complicated right? Take a list of email addresses, copy and paste them in. Come up with an email and send it out. Simple, right. Uhhhh, nope.

NEWSFLASH: The challenge in email marketing is making sure the emails land in the recipient’s inboxes. Why is this a problem? The service providers.

The service providers are the companies that operate people’s email. Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, etc. If you didn’t know, these companies operate email for people so they can sell advertising on their websites. Now, if their users (people who use the email) recieve spam consistently, they’re not going to tolerate it these days. The service providers do not want anything messing with their advertising dollars.

So they set strict guidelines. For every 500 emails that are sent out, sp’s require no more than 2 people marking the email as spam. If this happens, your email address becomes black-listed and any email that you try and send will either be not delivered or land right into people’s junk mail folder.So, it’s important that when doing email marketing, that you send email to your customers, people you have good relationships with.

Next week i’ll have a post on how you can do email marketing for people who don’t know you so you can generate new business.