Google Plus A tool you really need
Business owners need to market!
You already know that. Many small business owners know they need to market, but are lost as to how. They are often given a tool, but do not really understand the power of that tool and give up on it before it really has a chance to help. This is how I feel about Google +.
Google Plus is an Awesome Tool
Google is integrating Search with Google +. What does that really mean for your business? If you have people in your Circles (even if you are really sure who they are) and those people do a search for something you have written or posted about then your post comes up in their search results (if they are logged in). Think about that for a moment…
If I was looking to make a purchase of a product or service, and I saw Continue reading
Become the Expert in Your Industry
How to become Locally Famous
Listen to an interview with Dr. Shannon Reece at her blog. I reveal my secret for building my business locally. Get some ideas for what you can do to build your business in your local market.
Benchmark Email Catastrophe
My sincere apologies…
to everyone that is on my Tip of the Week list. Benchmark has now sent out 2 unauthorized emails to mt entire list – causing confusion, frustration, and spam!
When my list service company that allowed me to send Video emails quit working (poor upgrade) I moved to Benchmark for providing my video email list management. After spending over 6 hours setting up the program – importing my list, purging names I knew were not valid, changing emails I knew had been updated, adding last names etc. – they decided to send out a Welcome email that I set up to be sent ONLY when a new person gets added through my website form. They sent it out to my entire list instead!
If that was not annoying enough for both myself and the people that received the email they then shut down my account. All that time wasted! When I called Monday morning to find out why they did that I was told the “confused” me with someone else and did not mean to close my account.
I had already moved to MailChimp (free account for email list management) and redid all the work from the previous day. I requested the Benchmark account be closed – and they complied and refunded my money.
Jump forward a week – yesterday they sent out an unaltered template (which I never even set up) to my entire list AGAIN. To my HORROR they spammed my list again with absolute garbage.
I AM SO SORRY THEY ARE TOTALLY INCOMPETENT
I went back into my supposedly closed account and removed everyone from the account. It should not happen again (now the list is empty).
It is never my intention to spam anybody.
Lesson Learned
Do not rely on a company to do what they say they are going to do – always double check when it involves your clients.
Dotty Scott
Customer Service VS Automation
Some areas of business cannot be automated
I had an interesting and frustrating event happen over the weekend. I registered for a new email management system that would allow me to send video emails easily. I spent about 6 hours setting up my imported list, adding missing content to the list, creating a Newsletter template, and creating my first autoresponder message for new people added through the web form.
The next morning I logged on to create an email set to go out on Monday and WHAM…My account had been terminated.
What happened? All that time and effort wasted…to say I was unhappy was an understatement.
Guess what I did on Sunday?
I redid everything I had done the day before in MailChimp. MailChimp now allows for YouTube videos to be embedded into email Newletters.
This morning (Monday) I contacted to original company to request a refund and find out what happened. I assumed someone had reported my account as spam (the company sent out the autoresponder meant for the web form registrations to my entire list…not what I had planned). They said there was no complaints but that the account was suspended for content.
WHAT…There was no questionable content in my email. Come to find out they got my account confused with someone else and was sorry for the inconvenience. UNBELIEVABLE!
They could have called…they could have emailed…they could have done a number of things. They chose to terminate me for someones else’s indiscretions.
They lost a paying customer.
Had they handled it differently by not making me redo everything with another company they might have been able to salvage the business relationship.
Customer service cannot be automated…it just can’t. Period.
Treat your customers right and they will treat you right.
Networking: Word of Mouth Advertising
Advertising that works!
I can’t believe that I still hear “Networking does not work for me.” I am here to set you straight.
Tip: Analyze where your leads came from last year
I do this every January. I print out my client list from my accounting software and actually figure out where each client came from (I ask when I get a new client). Then I count up all the clients and figure out the percentages. Here is my results from all my efforts this past year:
- Networking / Referral / Word of Mouth: 78%
- Internet Activities (Website, SEO, Social Media) 20%
- Tradia: 2%
Since the most expensive form of advertising gives the least return (2%) that is what I will be dropping. I have personally never purchased print advertising or any phone book ads so I cannot speak to their effectiveness.
Networking Wins Hands Down
For those of you out there that refuse to do Networking activities (Leads groups, Chamber events, Industry Association events) you are really handicapping your business. People do business with people they know and like. I would not be in business without 78% of my income!
If the thought of Networking makes you sick to your stomach then search your local area for classes that will teach you how to become a better networker. There are several professionals here locally that provide free Networking for Newbies workshops. I would highly advise you to start participating and watch your business grow.
Web Browsers: Which Web Browser is the Safest?
Best Web Browser
By Howard Leighty of Future Solutions Now Computer Repair
The above question arises because of Internet security concerns over hackers and malware.
I tell folks that hackers and malware writers prefer to spend their time attacking browsers that
have the largest market share of users. Hackers do not wish to waste their time and effort
attacking a product that is rarely used or has very limited market share. There is no joy or
satisfaction in attacking a product with less than 1% market share. Like, who cares?
Some computer security specialists make a scientific career out of hacking. There is even an
annual convention in which the world’s best hacking experts gather to compete with one
another for cash prizes for being the first to successfully hack one or another software target
in sort of a modern day high-tech “capture the flag” contest. For more about this contest, see
Computer Hacking Contest
There is a reason why Internet Explorer gets the most attacks. Internet Explorer is the most widely used browser everywhere in the world. Millions of people use Internet Explorer, and thousands of other people, ranging from the curious to the criminal, try to hack Internet Explorer vulnerabilities. See the graph showing the relative utilization of various browsers.
Based only on relative market share, Opera is last in popularity, thus arguing for Opera as being highest in operational safety by being an undesirable target for hackers because of a very low number of users.
The number and variety of attacks on a particular browser has little or nothing to do with the intrinsic strength or weakness of a particular product or browser. All browsers have their own unique vulnerabilities. In short, there is no real safe harbor. Any browser can be hacked.
In the same way that sailors of yore avoided pirates by steering away from the most common
sea lanes, modern computer users can do a number of things that can enhance (but not assure) their safety.
Among these defenses, the use of a strong antivirus program is mandatory. My preference is
to avoid TrendMicro, McAfee and Norton products, not because they are weak or bad, but because they cause the computer to run very slowly, often making the cure worse than the disease. Those three products also disable the Windows Firewall and substitute their own firewall. Some IT guys will say that the 3rd party non-Windows firewalls are superior, and maybe they are. But in my view they come at too high a price if we must tolerate high intensity CPU usage by the security program such that it slows the computer.
My current favorite antivirus tool is Avast 5.x. The free version is for non-commercial use by home users. The paid version is for business and commercial users. The price is cheap when you consider the costs of technical labor to remove a nasty malware infection.
Also important is avoiding websites that are known to be risky or that are of a similar type as other sites known to be risky. In the same way that terrorists will detonate their bombs where there is a large gathering of people, hackers will launch their malware from websites that have large gatherings of users. Consider as being risky any of the various popular sites:
- porn sites
- dating sites
- gambling sites
- gaming sites
- social networking sites
- file sharing sites
Small Business Web Design
Web Design Services for Small Businesses ~ How To Choose?
My clients are all small business owners. What is really great about small business owners is that they wear many (or all) hats for their business. They are very smart and know the value of their time. I really enjoy the clients that want to learn to make small changes for themselves so that they are really taking ownership of their website.
As a Small Business owner it is important to find the right web designer for your project. Not all web designers are equal ~ and Continue reading
Email Autoresponders ~ Which To Choose?
Bulk Email Marketing Auto Responder Comparison
What is Email Marketing?
And why would I want to use an email marketing service?
Email Client
- Outlook, Thunderbird, Eudora, Windows Mail
- Manages email on your computer
Web-Mail Services
- gmail (Google), yahoo mail, msn, hotmail
- Comparison of the Top 17 Email Services
- Most are free
Email Marketing Services Continue reading
Affordable Web Design
Low Cost Web Design
Ever hear the term “You get what you pay for”? That is not always true with web design. The web design industry is littered with wanna be web designers that think they can sit at home and crank out the designs and make a fortune. When they decide it really is work and it really is not that easy they just disappear. Low cost websites are not always low cost in the long run. Here are some things to consider:
- Will the designer be available a year form now if I want to make changes?
- Is the website going to be a template and look like thousands of other sites?
- Will the site have duplicated content that is copied from other sites?
- Will the designer listen to what I want or will they just do what they want?
- Does the designer have a great track record with other clients?
- Will my site get ranked well in the search engines?
Small Business Websites
Many small business owners try Continue reading
Marketing: What Works
Marketing That Works
I took some time today to analyze my business for the past year. I printed a report with all my customers then went through one by one and wrote down where that customer came from – yes I know each customer and how I earned their business.
I basically have 3 sources of business:
- In person Networking
- Online
- Tradia (an online Trade website)
I counted up everyone and came up with percentages that I would like to share publicly.
- In person Networking won hands down at 80% – of that 32% were Word Of Mouth – referrals that people I have met while Networking gave me to follow up and convert to a client.
- Online efforts was 16% – these are people that found my website either by a search or through a Social Network of some kind.
- Tradia came in at 4% – not really worth my efforts here since this is the most expensive form of advertising that I did all year.
I often get people asking me if I think going to leads groups is worth the time investment for the business gained. I can say for sure that my business would have not made it through the year if I had lost 80% of my income.
Some might also say that if only 16% of my clients came from online efforts then is that a good use of my time – it takes time to have a quality presence online. What these numbers do not tell is how many of the 80% looked me up online before actually deciding to use my services. How many compared me to another designer, how many got to know me better through Social Media?
These are questions that I can’t answer, but I do know that the combination of In Person Networking, Online Networking, and having a quality website that actually reflects my business gave me 96% of my total business last year.
Where do you think I will be this year? Out meeting people and carrying the relationship Online ~ I have another year of experience under my belt and I expect to get better results than last year. Stay tuned…I will let you know in another year!
Dotty
