Working Smarter

Best Practice in Online Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:36:00 +0000

One of the advertising practices that annoys me immensely is the forced video. You know, you land on a sales page and you have no option but to listen to a video presentation. Some are very long and uninteresting and usually after a few minutes I quit.

If I quit, you can bet your life others quit too. Sales potential lost. There is a better way.

I'd like to share with you a sales page I stumbled upon recently that is an exemplar of best practice in online marketing. It's the sales site of the Mobile Marketing Bandit. In my humble opinion at least. Now, let me qualify that. The site and video presentation has been exceptionally well produced with an excellent artistic theme. The video consists of someone drawing artwork as it progresses, only it's been sped up and is intriguing enough to hold one's interest. Nothing has been spared by way of cost and expertise to produce a professional site with top copy, graphics, video and audio.

What I like most about it is that the very first page, just below the video has a link buyers can take to go directly to the Clickbank sales site to buy the product. Further below that is the written version of what is in the video. This is a far superior option to that of the automatic video from which there is no escape but to leave the site or stay until the death knell.

This program may be the last thing in which you are interested, but I do suggest you have a look at the site and watch the video for several minutes. You'll see some very impressive art work appear before your eyes as the sales video progresses. You can watch it here.

If you are planning a sales video, this may help you to see what the new benchmark is.

Robin

PS: Are you impressed? Tell us what you think.

Remembering Your Product Unlock Keys

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 03:28:00 +0000

How will you restore your original software after your hard disk fails?

Although it doesn't happen often, computers and hard disks are prone to catastrophic failure. Every piece of equipment has an MTBF ... an estimated "Mean Time Before Failure". It's a bit like we humans. We like to think we are here forever, but the shocking reality is, we are perishable and eventually succumb to old age and the Grim Reaper.

So, your hard disk dies or you need to replace your laptop and all of a sudden you find that you have to reload perhaps dozens of software programs. It's then that you realise you don't have the product unlock keys or registration codes. You ferret through a load of warranty papers, purchase receipts and tax invoices only to find that you have proof of purchase, but no record of the data you need to get the software up and running again.

You've stumbled upon a time wasting dilemma; either you need to write to the product supplier and try to get the issue solved or you need to buy new copies of software you already have. Whatever route you take is a diversion from your core function ... making sales.

With a bit of planning, you can make sure this doesn't happen to you. One day you will face the necessity of reloading software. It might not have happened yet, but as sure as the sun rises, it will happen. Take my word for it. The more high tech stuff you have, the greater the risk.

What's the solution?

It's really quite simple. Set up a system for recording important product keys, passwords and other information like serial numbers that you may need later. Some of this information can be stored in an Asset Register along with the details of assets. You could set up a spreadsheet with columns for specific details of the product and keys. Alternatively, you could download a small utility program called Lock Box from Coffee Cup Software and use it to store your essential passwords and other information (see image above).

If you prefer, you could write the details in a diary. It doesn't really matter what system you use, provided you have a system that will be there when the inevitable happens and you need it. It can save you hours of wasted time and frustration. I know, I've been there and experienced the frustration and waste of time.

Robin

PS: Did you like this article? Please send a link to your friends and comment about any of your experiences.
http://desert-wave-enterprises.blogspot/google77db2cae216ce9a3.html

Write and Share Your Knowledge

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:49:00 +0000

Do you have business experiences you'd like to share that will help readers improve their performance?

If so, I'd like you to join in and write an occasional article for "Working Smarter". Articles need to be at least 300 and perhaps up to 500 words, but longer articles will also be considered.

Articles may be humorous, case studies, how-to, or anything else that helps people do something better. They may not be sales blurbs or in any way offensive.
Does this sound like something you'd like to do? If so, please write a comment to this post with your contact details and I'll contact you.

What's in it for you?

You won't get paid, but you will have the opportunity to become better known in the business community, advertise your business with a short subscription block at the end of your article, and I'll send you a copy of my ebook "Guide to Formatting and Writing Letters" which has sold over 3,000 copies.

This year promises to be a challenging year for all of us. I hope you'll join me in this joint venture to share business tips so we all improve as we go forward.

Robin

Do Architects Work Smarter?

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 20:30:00 +0000

Every time I visit my local Mc Donald's store, I am exasperated. I might add that I don't visit too often, but when I do, I'm exasperated. "Why?", you ask. Because the layout and design of the business is among the worst I have ever seen. Let me explain.

The building must have been designed with the thought in mind that there would be few customers at any one time. When you walk in the narrow front door, several metres away are three cash registers sitting on a bench that faces you. So when there are more than maybe six people, which there always are, you queue in such a way that you obstruct the entrance. Anyone coming in who wishes to walk into the seating areas has to fight their way through the queue of hopeful customers.

If that's not bad enough, when you park in the parking area, vehicles queued for the quick service window obstruct the U shaped parking area. Some cars can neither reverse out of parking places because they are obstructed by waiting motorists, others cannot enter the car park because the traffic flow is blocked by cars going through the car park to the servery.

Now, I'm not an architect or an engineer, but every few days I see something that has been designed by someone who should have taken up dancing, cricket, or anything else but design. These people are certainly not working smarter. They are a menace to society.

Have you had an experience of something that is a design failure? We'd love to hear about it. If you are an architect responsible for some of these failures, for goodness sake, get another job.

Robin

Season's Greetings!

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 04:44:00 +0000

Robin and Working Smarter are having a Christmas-New Year break and will be back in mid-January 2012 with more good items to help you succeed in whatever you do.

Until then, if you are having an end-of-year break, I wish you a safe and pleasant holiday.

Robin
Director
Desert Wave Enterprises

Finding Solutions, Not Problems

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 05:06:00 +0000

As the saying goes, "Come to me with solutions, not problems." Recently it occurred to me again that many people come across a hurdle eg an organisational policy or procedure that doesn't work and just accept it as being sacrosanct. This is unchangeable.

Most often, those who write organisational policies are miles, even oceans away from the coal face where the policy is intended to be implemented. Arrogant managers and executives write policies to reflect what they want and expect. Some times what they want and expect is totally unaligned with what is possible and practicable.

So, what do you do? Do you just throw your hands up in the air and say, "that's the policy, I can't change it" or do you do something about it? My nature and personality, for good or worse, has always led me to try to rectify things that don't work. You see, I have always seen myself as part of the organisational team, all rowing in the same direction to achieve the organisation's goals. On numerous occasions I was successful in changing unworkable policies and procedures.

What you need to remember is that an organisation, any organisation, lives or dies on its employees. If you have poorly trained, badly motivated, disinterested employees, earning a buck will be much more difficult than having a team of top performers who are focused on achieving the goals. Organisations aren't some mystical force that exists outside the collective energy and consciousness of the people.

People will listen to you if you have good ideas. If the ideas improve efficiency and help the profit line, they will change the unworkable and implement the workable. It makes good business sense to do so.

Look for people in your organisation who are progressive like you and avoid those who simply go with the flow. Find the people who will make things happen, not just follow what's happening.

Do this and your worklife will be much more interesting.

Robin

Know Your Place in Your Organisation

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:55:00 +0000

When you begin a new job, it’s often confusing if you haven’t got a big picture view of where you sit in the organization and where your department or work unit fits. If you don’t know something about your internal environment, it can be very difficult working to your optimum level.

All work units have dependent and independent relationships. You can discover some of these by studying the organizational structure chart of an organisation.

Almost all firms have an organizational chart. Organizational charts give a graphical view of an organization much more readily than can be given verbally. In a glance you can see how many people there are, what the different departments are, how many levels there are in the hierarchy, and where you sit in relation to others.

Another good use is when you need to find someone or information about something. Need to know who to call in the Sales Department? Look at the organizational chart and it will most likely have a name or at least a position.

It’s good practice to view an organization’s structure chart before you apply for a job. It gives you an idea at the outset about the size and complexity of the organization in which you are interested. It could frighten you away, or make you feel that this company is for you.

When I was recruiting I always provided prospective applicants with a link to my employer’s organizational chart so they could decide if they really wanted to come and work with us. The better informed applicants are, the less chance there is that they will leave shortly after they have commenced work.

Whatever you do, always use the organization chart to your advantage.

Robin

Business Intelligence - Finding Out About New Product Launches

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:31:00 +0000

I have a smart colleague, an Internet marketer who follows Mark Twain's dictum of, "Figure out where the people are going and get there first".

He wrote to me today saying that he goes to newsagents on the first day magazines are released and after identifying new products he can sell, rushes off home and produces a sales page on his site. Because many of the people who read the magazine check out the links, the search term is popular and his link gets picked up. He makes sales.

This approach won't work for every business, but the principle is the same; have an active business intelligence program to find out what is happening in your industry and how you can benefit from it.

Case Study

I did exactly that when I heard that financial processing merchant PayPal was moving to Australia. I guessed that there would be many Australians entering search terms like "PayPal Australia" so I bought a domain name called Paypal-Australia.com and set up a sales page. I was already a client of PayPal and an affiliate, so the sales page contains links to PayPal.

Now, I don't make millions from my PayPal-Australia.com page, but I get a constant trickle of income from sign-up commissions and trailing commissions for 12 months. They keep my PayPal account topped up.

Look around for similar opportunities. Let us know about any opportunities you find and how you found them.

Robin

Learn to Delegate

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 12:04:00 +0000

One of the best things you can learn to do when you become a manager is delegate. No, I don't mean give other people your work. I mean, give them work they are paid to do.

Every so often when I want to take a rise out of my beloved wife, she gets a cup of coffee or something for me and I say, usually to visitors, "Why bark when you have a dog?"

Fortunately, she knows me well enough not to be offended and just shrugs it off.

When I became a manager, the first task I delegated to one of my team members was writing a letter to a senior public servant in response to something. When the letter arrived on my desk, it wasn't written exactly the way I would have written it (of course it wasn't!) so I rewrote it and asked my subordinate to change it.

As I drove home, I wondered what point there was in delegating if you finish up doing the job yourself. I knew instantly that I had to let go and trust those to whom I delegated tasks. In this case, I should have asked myself if the letter was good enough to do the job. If the answer was "yes", send it as it was.

This was a valuable experience for me and now I delegate without any worries.

Meer cats have no trouble delegating. They take turns standing lookout, like this lovely little fellow above, and scan the horizon for predator enemies. His fellow family members trust him implicitly to warn them if danger approaches. When he's done his bit, another meer cat takes over.

What's your delegation ability like? Are you a manager or supervisor who delegates? How well does it work. Write a comment and let us know.

Robin

Have You Got a Data Loss Plan?

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 08:23:00 +0000

One day my hard disk drive decided to throw in the towel. It just stopped working. No matter how hard I tried, it was dead and was staying dead. I contacted a hard disk recovery company who provided me with an exhorbitant quote to "try" to get my data back with absolutely no guarantee.

I was shocked. Numerous photos, graphics, documents and much more were on that hard disk and could never, ever be recovered. As I looked at the piece of metal, I thought of how delicate all those binary digits are that stored so much work and memories. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that at the time, I was teaching computing to TAFE students and one of my catch cries was "Backup, backup, backup!" If only I had followed my advice. Well, I had, but I had not backed-up often enough to recover all of the data.

According to Chris Crum, "The Carbonite study, which surveyed 130 small business owners in August 2011, revealed that 81 percent of small businesses consider data to be their organization's most valuable asset. While this is the case, more than half (57 percent) do not have a plan to protect it."

So, the message is, you need to have a solid backup and recovery strategy. You can do this fairly easily by having automatic backup systems incorporated into your computer systems. Alternatively, you can do it online by having your data sent to an online repository.

Whatever you decide, you simply must have a robust backup and recovery program for your business.

Robin

Don't Underestimate the Value of Your Domain Name

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 11:03:00 +0000

How would you feel if you were the proud owner of your firm's domain, surveytrends.com and one day it expired and someone else bought it? Would you be annoyed?

Would you be any more annoyed to find that the person who bought it had auctioned it and earned a whopping $100,000 for it? All because you had let your registration of the Universal Resource Locator lapse.

There is big money in domain names. When domain names first hit the market, some well-heeled people purchased hundreds or thousands of them with generic names eg, pharmacist.com, realestate.com and others that might be in demand. Why? Because each domain name is unique. Once it's taken by someone, it's taken. Scarcity creates competition ... competition creates demand and demand creates willingness to pay.

Here's a true story of a person who let his domain name expire, only to have it auctioned for $125,000 by someone else. Do you think he's crying in his milk?

Don't understimate the value of your domain name. Look after it and if you wish to let it expire, at least try to sell it off before you do.

Robin

Why You MUST Monitor Your Pay-Per-Click Campaigns

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 22:50:00 +0000

When you set up advertising accounts at places like Google or on Facebook, it is easy to do and you can usually target your audience very well, unlike some other forms of advertising. You simply set them up and let them run.

Pay per click adverts have been very lucrative for millions of people who have earned a great return on investment. I've sold a few thousand ebooks and other people's products using pay-per-click. You set a cost per day maximum and can also set a start and finish day for your campaign.

Ultimately, your aim is to obtain more money through sales than you pay for advertising. Common sense eh? However, where the system breaks down is that while Google or Facebook can get you the clicks, you have to make the sales. This is where the system becomes complicated.

If your sales page isn't a winner, people will click through and never buy anything. While this post isn't about pay per click optimization, I can say that there are dozens of strategies you can employ to increase your sales per click ratio. It takes a lot of work, but if you are interested in getting the job done properly, you should work on optimization.

The key is that you must manage your advertising account to make sure you are getting value for money and a suitable return for your efforts. If one approach doesn't work, try another. Eventually you will win out.

One thing you must never do is have a campaign that doesn't have an end date. Thousands of newcomers got caught when they set up a campaign, selected a daily spending maximum and then forgot about the campaign for three or 12 months. Guess what happened? They found themselves with credit card charges in the thousands without having made one sale.

When I use these programs, I work my budget out up front; how much do I want to spend on this campaign assuming I never make a sale? I choose an amount I am willing to write off and work from there. That way, any sales are a bonus. Then I keep testing until I get the best sales rate I can for the clicks I'm getting.

Give pay-per-click a try, but be careful you don't incur unexpected debts.

Robin

"Learn With Google" Site for Small Businesses

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:29:00 +0000

I love the Internet! It provides everything you need to know (and more) at the click of a button. Not only that, most information is free. Of course, although the information is available, there's no guarantee that it's true. Except when it's published by reputable persons and organisations ... like Google.

Now Google has launched a "Learn with Google" site to help small businesses online grow and prosper. Their beta site is separated into three key stages ie, Starting a Business Online, Marketing a Business Online and Running a Business Online. In each section, you'll find step-through videos, worksheets and downloads and there is a large volume of information to go through.

As would be expected, much of the content relates to the AdWords and AdSense programs and other Google programs. But this shouldn't be a deterrent as there is still a volume of information of a general nature that is most useful.

At the bottom of the site pages there are numerous links to Google tools and Google product pages that are also worth visiting.

Take some time to have a look at Learn with Google then comment and let me know what you think. I'll look forward to hearing from you soon ;-).

Robin

Working Smarter with Google's Gmail

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 23:32:00 +0000

Over the past few years I have become a great fan of Gmail. I use it for 90% of my email activity both private and business and as a highly demanding email client ie, one that knows and uses most features, I find it perfect for what I need.

Gmail has too many features to discuss here, but you can rest assured, whatever you need, Gmail has it ... and more. It even has a game included. I'm a bit past computer games, but that just shows you how extensive are the features. Among the many features it has, perhaps the best is it is being improved daily.

Google has an innovative practice whereby it's employees are given free time to develop off-project software and processes. So, not only is a team of smart geeks working on Gmail improvement week in and week out, but other technologically gifted staffs are working at adding plugins that do more or resolve perceived weaknesses. The outcome is a fantastic system used by millions of people.

The ability to send email from Gmail and make it appear to the recipient that it came from a different account is very useful. It can't be used to deceive recipients eg,by sending spam from a dud address, but it does mean you can use it for business and private use very easily but still receive all your email at the once place.

Gmail has all the filters, labelling capacity and storage space you will ever need. You can use templates and graphics, retain lists of contacts, and it integrates well with other Google features such as Google Calendar, Documents and much more.

If I use Gmail for 90% for my private and business email, what do I use for the other 10 %. Stay tuned and next week I'll tell you what I use and why.

Robin

Choose the Best Host for Your Website

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:30:00 +0000

When I entered the URL of a Registered Training Organisation recently, I was served a page with this quote at the top:

"Please be advised that the website you are viewing is an older version of our website and may contain errors, formatting or paging issues. Our regular website was recently destroyed when the server carrying the site was hacked into and severely damaged causing us and some other 4800 websites to be destroyed. Our website technicians are currently redeveloping the site and will have it back online as soon as possible"
I was astonished to think that because of a hacking issue, 4,800 websites were "destroyed". How good is the host company at providing a website hosting service? Did they have backups of the sites? Do they use multiple servers? What do their terms of agreement say about lost data?

There's a message here for all of us ... and no doubt the 4,800 people whose websites have been lost. The message is, when you choose your web hosting company, choose carefully. Don't go for the cheapest, the nicest-looking or the one that tells you what a great job they do. Here's my recommendation:

1. Find a web host that has been around a while and is a main player
2. Check out what type of systems they have and what security they have in place to avoid total loss of data, hacking attacks, viruses etc
3. If possible get a couple of client contact details and call clients to find out what they think about the service
4. Read thoroughly the terms and conditions and make sure that they accept at least some liability for your losses of data

Do your due diligence and if you think necessary, retain a duplicate image of your site on your own server or backup system. You can even pay third-party businesses to provide "cloud" backups for all of your data. This can save a lot of work in you have a crisis such as happened to the above people.

I have hosting accounts with an Australian firm called Ilysis for about 10 years and have never had a bad experience. I also use US-based GoDaddy and find them excellent also. Whichever firm you use, make sure you carry out sufficient research to make sure you won't be left with a website that cannot operate because it's been destroyed.

The ball's in your court.

Robin

Make Your Office a Paperless Office

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 21:01:00 +0000

When I received an SMS message from the Abu Dhabi Police, I was a little surprised. It was in Arabic, so I couldn't read it, but I quickly had it interpreted and it was a reminder that my motor vehicle registration was due to expire soon. I was pleasantly surprised. Surprised that a country that is incredibly paper bound in some areas, is doing something to overcome paper warfare and move gradually to electronic communications in others. It certainly doesn't happen in my home country, Australia, registration renewal still arrives in the mail.

This got me to thinking about the work I had done to make my home-based business (and the rest of my life) as paper free as possible and details of those strategies follow.

Central to this activity is Adobe PDF as you'll see.

Electronic Communications

I've streamlined my marketing and general communication activities to the extent that I rarely produce a communication in hard copy format. I've eliminated postage, envelopes, paper and having to line up at the post office by doing almost everything via email, telephone or electronic fax.

My account with an Australian-based fax service provider means that I can email a fax anywhere in the world 24/7 from my laptop. When it's sent, I receive an email advising me whether it was successfully transmitted and the time. I delete these, but they could be used as receipts. Similarly, faxes sent to me using my fax number arrive at my desktop as Adobe PDF files.

I can print them if I need to, but usually don't. When I have actioned them I either delete them or save them to an external hard disk drive used specifically for that purpose.

Paper-based Documentation

After reading Internet marketing guru, Ken Silver's blog about paper free offices, I've invested in a scanner that scans to Adobe PDF. Any hardcopy document that arrives and needs to be saved eg, for taxation purposes, I scan and then shred the original. This is about as paperless as it gets.

I've arranged with as many organisations as possible to access my bills, invoices etc, electronically. Almost all of my banking is done online and I no longer subscribe to paper-based catalogues or other advertising media.

Digital Filing

With the exception of the occasional document that can't be retained in digital format, I file everything on an external 80 GB hard disk drive I can take wherever I go. Periodically I back up the data to a DVD disk and file it. At the end of the financial year I download data for that year to a DVD and file it.

All my files are in related folders and are similarly named eg, my monthly Visa Statement is filed as VISASEP06.pdf. By using a filing and naming convention, it means I can find things faster, order them in ascending or descending order and so on.

Conclusion

If you are sick to death of being bombarded with paper, as I was, make your life as paperless as possible by following some of the procedures I have adopted. Once you get set up and into the hang of it, you'll be glad you did.

PS: This Digital River article about green computing is worth a read too ... it's fairly short.

Robin

Good Communication Improves Your Image

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 23:19:00 +0000

Good communication improves your image and is essential for a successful business entrepreneur.

Look at it this way. If your communication is poor, people will think that whatever your core business is will also be poor. If you run a plumbing and draining business and exhibit poor communication, some people will think if you can't communicate correctly, how will you ever do a good plumbing job.

Communication is part of customer service ... it includes written communication, oral communication face to face via telephone. We also communicate by body language ... the signals we send to others and how they perceive them. Today I want to focus on written communication eg, quotes you send, letters, tax invoices, emails, and all the other things that are written.

Business communication is an area that I have focused on for nearly 30 years, teaching it in TAFE and industry. Most recently I taught it to Diploma of Applied Business and Technology students in the United Arab Emirates. While in the Emirates, I stumbled upon a software program called WhiteSmoke.

WhiteSmoke is the world's leading English editing and correction software. As if that isn't enough, it also translates into a number of different languages. Imagine how useful that was to my students, all of whom were Emiratis who speak Arabic as their native language.

If you communicate as part of your business role, are a student writing assignments, a medical or legal specialist writing medical research or legal opinions, WhiteSmoke provides a version suitable for you. You can even set the editor to the level of difficulty you want eg, academic or customer service.

When loaded, WhiteSmoke lies in the background. You type your text eg, in an email message, press a function key and within seconds, your text is analysed and appears in a pop-up window with parts of interest colour coded so you know what has been found and how to correct it.

As far as software goes, this product is value for money for anyone wanting to improve their English expression and produce flawless documents. Why not download a free trial copy of WhiteSmoke now and see what I mean?

Robin

PS: Why spend time proofreading and editing when you can get software that does it in a flash?

Are Your Business Quotations Successful?

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 00:37:00 +0000

Throughout the years I've written and assessed thousands of quotations, usually for large cost training activities. The requests for quotation I have sent others have had a high success rate (Yes, I'm blowing my trumpet here). The quotations I have received from others and had to assess, have demonstrated a range of standards, many being very poor.

Some of the responses I have received in relation to requests for quotation or tender look as though they had been thrown together by an amateur with no real expectation that the submitter would win the tender. Some were outlandishly over-priced, which sent the signal that, "Hey, we have plenty of work, but if you are stupid enough to pay us so many squillions of dollars, we'll make time to do your piddling project."

The main reason responses I sent were successful is that they were well presented, sensibly costed, and answered all of the questions asked of the advertising organisation.

There's little point in spending the time and effort to do a half-hearted job, even if you are responding to a request for tender with low expectations of winning. After all, your submission says something about you and your company which will be remembered next time when perhaps, you feel you are in with a chance.

To help those of you who either call tenders and assess them, or respond to other advertisements, I've written a small ebook (5 pp) which you can download from my link or the graphic above. I hope you take the time to read it. As usual, feedback is always appreciated.

Robin

How to Provide Top Customer Service by Autoresponse

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

How many times have you submitted an online form or email to a help desk only to wait days for a response?

I'm usually annoyed when I go to online help screens, complete all the information required, submit the form and then wait and wait for a response. Some of the firms I email have 24/7 help desks, but for some reason still can't manage to reply under several days.

The best way to deal with some of these issues is to set up an autoresponder in your email system that sends an immediate reply with details of how common problems may be dealt with. This may include FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) details for your customer to look at just in case the FAQs have the answer the customer is looking for. This means your task has been completed and usually customers will be happy at having received such a swift response.

Alternatively, you can detail solutions for some possible problems and provide another email link for people to get a personal response if you haven't provided what they want. This will eliminate some queries.

While I have always thought that if there are FREQUENTLY asked questions, a business hasn't done it's job well initially, people do not always read everything available to them and therefore questions do arise.

Providing good customer aftercare is vital as it makes people realise that you aren't just after the sale and have an interest in their use of the product. It's easy to set up an autoresponse and it will mean that the number of queries you have to deal with personally will drop as customers find answers to their own questions.

How good is your customer aftercare? Perhaps now is a good time to take a look.

Robin

Use Templates or Waste Time

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:11:00 +0000

If you don't make extensive use of templates, you are probably wasting time.

Many software programs provide stock standard templates or allow for user-made templates. The template functions in Microsoft Office products for example, are excellent. You can use the templates provided as is, or customise them for your needs. They have dozens of them.

One of the most useful features of templates is that you can combine them with other features eg, forms and protected document. When used to produce standard documents like letters, templates save time writing and formatting every letter from scratch. Add the forms capacity and protect the document and you have a very efficient combination. Here's a short example:

When I was an HR manager, I used to produce employment contracts for a variety of different salary levels at four different offices. My contract form was a template with drop down boxes for the different positions, salary levels and offices. The template was protected so that the only details in it that could be changed were the positions, salary and offices fields. This meant that whoever created the contract only had to focus on those three aspects. If they got them correct, all of the other wording would be correct and the contract would be a valid one.

This is an excellent way to ensure quality and to reduce time spent proofreading a document. These features can be applied to a range of business documents if you simply think about what you do that is repetitive eg, letters to customers about overdue accounts, quotations, and much more.

Are you using templates in your business? Do you use drop-down boxes and protect your documents to ensure accuracy? I'd like to hear from you.

Robin

What's the Cheapest, Most Under-Used Marketing Tool?

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 23:58:00 +0000

What's the cheapest, most under-used marketing tool you have?

The answer's no secret ... it's your business cards. If you aren't making them work for you, you may be missing an excellent opportunity at leveraging a cost effective marketing tool.

By the time you have read this article, you'll know several ways in which you can increase your profits by wringing every last cent of value from the advertising power of business cards.

Business card content
Everyone knows what a business card contains, so I'll keep this brief and focus on what some people don't have on their cards.

Every possible way to contact you. Don't just give your address and telephone number - give it all; fax, phone, mobile, email, street address, postal address and if you're keen, an after hours contact
Your Internet site URL. If you have one, put it on EVERYTHING
In Australia your Australian Business Number or Australian Company Number (or equivalent elsewhere). People may not deal with you if they think you are not equipped to handle Goods and Services Tax or are too small to have an ABN or ACN
Use the back to advertise. This can change each time you print or you can summarise - in dot point, the services you offer which are not always obvious from your name.
A byline. If you don't want to advertise on the back, think of using a byline, a short statement about what you do, 'Producers of the best hamburgers in Cuba'
Colour and professional design. People like colour. They like attractive design. Make sure your cards have both

Cost effective advertising
The last supply of business cards I bought cost me 0.07 cents Australian per card; the last classified advertisement I lodged cost me $72. While the newspaper advertisement will get much more coverage for a day or two, I have no control over who reads it. Among those who do, thousands will have no personal interest in my offer and still others might never get to the classified advertisements pages. Many will throw out the paper in a day or so and my three line ad will be gone forever from their houses and minds.

With my business cards, however, I can target where and when I leave them or to which individuals I hand them in order to get the greatest advantage. Of course, there is never a guarantee that where I leave them will result in sales, but at least people do keep business cards. The idea is to increase probability ... the probability that the recipient will want my goods or services. Here's an example.

Target marketing
Recently I attended a workshop about Email Marketing which was also attended by about 50 others. As the products I sell include three high capacity email management software systems, this was an opportunity I couldn't miss. I left a card at every place mat on every table.

If the target audience was interested in email marketing, wasn't there a probability they might also be interested in email software? Sure enough, I received 11 enquiries within a few days of the workshop and sold three copies of the software.

Had the workshop been about 'The Metallurgical Use of Sodium Cyanide' how successful do you think I would have been?

When you use target marketing, you may have to offer a financial incentive for someone to distribute - or allow you to distribute - your card. If someone asks for a commission to distribute my business card, I'm happy to oblige, but I also expect to be allowed to leave a brochure. The incentive I offer is this: If you agree for me to leave my sales brochure, I'll use a code within the brochure that lets me identify a sale as coming from your workshop, shop, seminar or whatever. For every sale I'll give you a percentage commission.
If you do this often, you can set up an affiliate program through Clickbank, Sharesale or someone else who provides affiliate management programs. But I don't create affiliates for short-term ventures that may last only a few weeks, it's too much work.

Depending on the goods or services you sell, you can leave your business cards at business offices. For example, when I visit a real estate office I see business cards for insurance brokers. When I go to the insurance brokers, I see cards from real estate businesses. This can be a mutually beneficial arrangement that costs nobody. If you do it though, you must ensure you don't neglect your business card holder ... keep it stocked.

When you get a chance, identify those businesses whose customers may also want your complementary products or services. Talk with the owners/proprietors and see if you can arrange to leave your cards there. Remember, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Even your friendly Chinese Cafe may be a good place to get some exposure. A cafe I visit every couple of months has a cork wall board bristling with business cards. Every time I go there I leave three or four of mine. They always need replacing, so someone is taking them. And let's face it, they aren't good for much else but reading.

Ask your friends to pass your cards to people they know -their sphere of influence - referral is an excellent method of marketing. Hand them out to people you meet at work - at play - anywhere if you feel they are prospective clients.

At the end of the day, you need to use every conceivable method to keep your firm's name in front of as many people as possible. After all, if they don't know you exist, why will they call you when next they want a new batch of widgets?
The cheap, humble business card can be a very effective marketing tool if you use it wisely. How well are you using yours?

Robin

How Good is Your USP?

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 11:49:00 +0000

Have you heard about USPs ... Unique Selling Propositions?

If you haven't, or even if you have, you may enjoy my short article about "Squash and The USP of the Older Man" which you'll find at Ezinearticles. It is, of course, a tongue in cheek article with a touch of humour and also reveals the USP I use with women ... especially younger women. (If you are a young woman, this could be a good instruction on how to avoid older men ;-))

Being serious for just a moment, a USP is essential for any business that wishes to be successful. If you don't know what it is that you do better than anyone else, how will you be able to provide a different and superior service to your competitors?

If you don't have an inherent USP, eg, you are the only company in your region that has the high cost equipment to service a D94 Automatic Widget, then identify one and work on it. Choose something you can do that is better than your competitors. Some firms for example, pride themselves on customer service and use slogans like, "We Try Harder!" (Avis Rent a Car). Others might provide home service, or delivery. Your guarantee or warranty may be longer than all of your competitors eg, the Mitsubishi Motor Company provides (I think) a five year warranty instead of a three year warranty. I think you get the drift.

Do you have a USP? Have you had it in place long enough to evaluate if it works? Do you wish to share your USP with us? We'd love to hear.

A good USP can be a strong selling point, especially for a business operating in a highly competitive market. It is essential feature of business strategy.

Until next time, take care and thanks for visiting.

Robin

The Struggle to Find Filed Documents

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Sat, 28 May 2011 11:27:00 +0000

When you applied for your job with the Western Women's Liberation Movement (or perhaps the Eastern Men's Liberation Movement) you wrote the best application letter ever. Then you filed it under "WWLM Letter" so you'd be able to find it at the drop of a hat. But now, 6 months later, not only can you not recall the name of the organisation that wasn't astute enough to hire you, but you have no idea what you called that letter. You want to reuse the content to save reinventing the wheel, but eventually give up. If only you could have filed it where you could find it!

This is a common ailment that all but the most organised and particular face. I faced it for years until one day I woke up to the fact that it could all be done better. I implemented a standard filing system.

My system labels every file with the year number followed by the month and date of creation. Next is the type of business document it is ie, Tax Invoice, Sales Invoice, Letter, Email, Backup etc. Now, when I sort my files, they line up by date and type of business document as in the example above.

When I need to find something, I usually know what I'm looking for: a tax invoice for something I purchased in November, 2008. I sort the files and look in the 2008 range of files for Tax Invoices that detail the company or product I bought. Bingo, I find the file within minutes.

Since eight digit file names are no longer a limiting factor, you can use longer names that describe more about what your file contains. Design a system that suits you, mine is only one way of doing it. Then, print a page with examples and instructions and give them to all of your staff. Once everyone begins using the same protocol, time wasted looking for files will drop substantially.

Give it a go and tell me what you think. Do you have a better system? Tell us about it.

Robin

Try some of our ebooks at Desert Wave Enterprises.

PS: Sign up for our blog and keep informed.

Making Money on Autopilot

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Fri, 20 May 2011 22:59:00 +0000

While there are numerous ways to make money, the best by far is to make money on autopilot. That's why rock stars are wealthy; they produce a CD or DVD and then it rolls out into the marketplace and every time their product is sold, they get a commission. Others do the selling. Authors are in the same category.

My sales of ebooks have increased recently and it's all done on autopilot. I spend a few hours building site pages, do a little advertising and sit back and wait for the money to roll in. At any time of the day or night, customers can buy products I have produced and also download products from my partner sites.

For example, yesterday I used my Internet Marketing Software to knock up a two page Golf Ebooks sales folder on my main corporate site. I will be producing dozens more in the near future, each of which will have popular ebooks in one topic.

Each discrete group of pages is search engine optimized so it attracts people who use the keywords in their searches. People visit the pages and some visitors buy. Another email arrives in my inbox with the message, "You've Got a Sale!" ... or words to that effect.

It's just after 8 am as I write this and already I've sold two copies of my ebook "Writing Responses to Selection Criteria" for a measly $9 per copy. (I put the price down because it needs updating, but it usually sold for up to $25). I may or may not make more sales today, but remember, that's only ONE ebook. I have links to hundreds, if not thousands.

While I don't sell thousands of ebooks a day, I make a steady trickle of income which is increasing as I fine tune and add additional pages to my sites.

Recently, a guy called Dan Brock hit upon the idea of optimizing sites for sales of online products and then selling those sites to affiliates. For a small fee at Deadbeat Millionaire, you can obtain numbers of sites to download that are already built and optimized to sell. All sales go to you. It's an easier way to get started if you aren't up to date with website building.

I've bought into Dan Brock's site and will add his sites to those from which I'm already making money. I'll be able to see whose methods are superior.

Robin

How well are you using your email client?

noreply@blogger.com (Robin) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 09:56:00 +0000

Auto-response features found in most quality email programs can save a lot of time and effort if used correctly and are very easy to set up. For example, if you have a help desk that is contacted via email, an automatic response can be sent to each individual who sends a help request. With the autoresponse you can send details of solutions to a range of more common things for which people seek help.

In that response you can tell your clients that if an answer to their problem is not found, to contact an alternative help address for a prompt and thorough response.

Nine times out of 10, you will be able to predict the problem and provide a satisfactory answer in your autoresponse, so it cuts down work considerably. Additionally, instead of having to wait for three to five days for a response, clients get a response immediately. It's good customer service!

Here's some ways it can work. You set up an Internet site with help information for the most common help requests you get, or you write the help content in an email and store it as a template. You could use a PDF file attachment, but unfortunately many spam filters delete or intercept attachments including PDF files.

You work out a keyword or keyphrase for your incoming email that will trigger a response. When your incoming email arrives in your email client, it automatically sends the response you have chosen; an email with a link to your help site, or an email with details of common challenges you have. Here's a diagrammatical representation of it with two courses of action. The first is answered and finalised with an autoresponse; the second is a new request after a client's problem hasn't been resolved.

In the next post I'll demonstrate how you can set up an autoresponder using Google Gmail.

Robin

Download my free ebook about Managing Your email.