Web & Marketing Info Galore
Friday, September 29
Auto-response Examples for You To Use
Auto-response Examples for You To Use
My wonderful friend
Chelsea McLean (that's her left), the best publicist in Queensland bar-none, is off on a holiday.
Chelsea asked me to set up her auto-response email message for whilst she is away. She gave me 9 options.
The Top 9 Options1. Thanks for your email. IÂ?m overseas on holidays until Tuesday 17 October.
2. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I
fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.
3. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn't have received anything
at all.
4. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return from holiday on 4 April. Please be patient and your
mail will be deleted in the order it was received.
5. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged $5.99
for the first ten words and $1.99 for each additional word in your message.
6. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is
unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try
sending again.
(The beauty of this is that when you return, you can see how many
in-doh-viduals did this over and over).
7. Thank you for your message, which has been added to a queuing
system. You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in
approximately 19 weeks.
8. I've run away to join a different circus.
9. I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical
reasons. When I return, please refer to me as "Margaret" instead of "Steve".
Personally I liked # 6. But Chelsea wouldn't let me use that one. Kill joy!
Brendon
Thursday, September 28
Loving Your Work Melbourne Victory
Loving Your Work Melbourne VictoryMelbourne Victory is one of the teams in the
A League - Australia's premier football (soccer) league.
This weekend in Melbourne, 2 Australian Rules Football (
AFL) teams are playing off in the Grand Final. It's the Australian equivalent of the
Super Bowl - in excess of 100,000 fans watch live with millions more around the nation glued to TV screens.
Advertisement RejectedMelbourne Victory play a
game on Sunday - so they tried to take an advertisement in the Footy Record - the AFL Grand Final program magazine that gets read by the 100,000 fans on the Saturday.
The
AFL, which has veto over what ads can appear in the magazine, refused the ad.
".....we want to let our fans know.....""It's a huge weekend for sport in town, a great celebration and we want to let all the fans know, especially the ones coming from interstate, about our game against Queensland on Sunday," Victory chief executive Geoff Miles told Fox Sports.
"We got a call yesterday that the ad had been pulled. We understand that the reason was because we are a rival code and the AFL have a discretion to take out any ads that they're not happy with."
"We're disappointed, we're supporting the Storm this weekend, the (NRL grand final against Brisbane will be live) on the screens at Telstra Dome for all the fans."
Excellent work Geoff and whoever is advising you!
$100,000 Coverage For Free
So now instead of taking a 5,000 advertisement, Melbourne Victory go to the media and get about $100,000 worth of coverage. For free. And they come out looking like the nice guys.
Loving your work Melbourne Victory.
Check out the
full story here. Notice how Geoff covers all the important points:
- tells everyone when the game is
- tells others that his sport supports other codes (and he gives an example)
- make the AFL CEO look like a liar (or at least full of hot air)
A great example of different thinking generating excellent coverage - way more than the costly ad would have.
Cheers
Brendon
Wednesday, September 27
Grab Attention Instantly..... Or Get Thrown In The Trash
Grab Attention Instantly..... Or Get Thrown In The TrashThe importance of grabbing your prospect's attention
immediately really cannot be understated.
We're all bombarded with marketing messages everyday and it's tough to break through the clutter. So no clowning around!
Media Buyers Survey - zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzI just bought a marketing magazine - as I was walking back to the office with it I came across an 8-page insert. I took a look - the only writing on the front page was "Media Buyers Survey".
I tossed that in the bin.
You see, that insert had just 2 seconds to get my attention and interest. It did neither so was tossed.
How To Win A Holiday In Just 5 Minutes! Find Out How.........Maybe a better heading would have been "How to win a holiday in 5 minutes! Find out how......."
It's not perfect, but it's a lot better than "Media Buyers Survey." And it's la lot better because it answers the one question the reader wants to know:
What's in it for me?Answer that question for your potential customers in all of your copywriting and your print ads, TV ads, radio ads, web sites and brochures will all be more successful.
Cheers
Brendon
The Benefits Of Your Proposal
The Benefits Of Your ProposalI've made a few pitches for business over the past couple of weeks and we generally make the sale.
One of the keys is that instead of saying "Our web site marketing works" or "Our web sites are good" it is much more effective and believable to quantify and prove what we are saying:
Quantifying The Benefits
"This search term we would target
generates approximately 5,000 searches per month on
Google. If we can get a position number 5 for that search term we'll attract 250 visitors - you see,
our research shows 5% of people click on what's in position 5.
But if we get position number 1, then we'll attract 2,350 visitors because
47% of people click the top listing.With a
conversion rate of 4%, that would make 94 sales per month from that 1 search term alone. At an
average sale of $250 that is $23,500 per month in sales from that 1 keyword.
As we've show you from our Case Studies and Testimonials, we can achieve solid search engine rankings and have achieved # 1 on Google before on competitive keywords."
Quantify, Quantify, QuantifyThe above doesn't stand true just for web site proposals of course - quantify the benefits of whatever you are proposing.
That helps your potential client make a simple Cost/Benefit analysis and that makes it really easy to select your proposal.
Cheers
Brendon
Tuesday, September 26
Pretty Works - But Should You Exploit It?
Pretty Works - But Should You Exploit It?I feel stupid doing it, but I sometimes do. Just like
last week.
I was chatting to a client about his potential site and, based on the fact that his target market is guys, suggested using
photos of attractive staff on his Home Page rather than him.
It's just that using attractive women on a page makes
guys stop and take notice. And that's what we're after.
- Web visitors stop
- They take notice
- They might read on
Even
babies look at attractive faces longer.
As web developers/marketers we have to ensure our work attracts our market, interests them and assists in generating the response we are after.
Digital Point's Hugely Popular ThreadI was visiting the hugely popular
Digital Point - one of the world's leading web master sites. One of their current threads is running now -
Who is the hottest girl on DP?It is a hugely popular thread with tons of page views and hundreds of votes.
Shoemoney wants you to
vote for Vicious Summer.
But
DeniseJ is currently winning.
"I thought crap like this....."You'll always get negative feedback. Here's 1 post on the thread:
"I thought crap like that went out years ago and personality, talent and intellect had taken over. I'm not surprised to see certain guys salivating, but I would have thought the women knew better."But as the web manager/marketer for your site/business you have to weigh up the benefit/risk analysis and make your decision.
- Is the potential backlash worth it?
- Can you use attractive people effectively?
- Does it make sense to your target market?
Should you use an attractive face on your web site? If your job is to keep visitors on the site then there is a solid argument that you should.
But Use Faces AnywayEven if you are violently opposed to using attractive people on your site, I'd urge you to use photos of people's faces on your site - I've seen the positive impact of this increasing sales many, many times.
Brendon
Monday, September 25
A Must Read Site If You Have A Web Site
A Must Read Site If You Have A Web SiteBrian Clark is a lawyer turned copywriter who has the excellent blog
www.copyblogger.com.
In a very short space of time Brian has managed to turn
his site into a must-read - check it out for tips and information on a whole range of topics related to managing a successful site.
I love his
link bait list he just published.
Cheers
Brendon
Friday, September 22
How To Make A Huge Impression With A Tiny Thing
How To Make A Huge Impression With A Tiny ThingI'm the President of the
Palm Beach Scouts - my son
Jack is a mad keen Scout.
We give out lots of our framed Certificate of Appreciation (below).
When we present the Certificate we always make sure that taped to the back of the framed certificate are 2 hooks and nails so the certificate can be quickly and easily hung on the wall of the recipient's office or home.
Impossible To Understate The Importance Of The NailsIt would be impossible to understate the very positive impact that those tiny nails and picture hooks have - I know this sounds crazy, but the fact that we think to provide the nails and picture hooks is
as important as providing the Certificate itself.What
little thing can you do with your clients that will make a big difference?
- Offer a free cash wash when they visit your office for meetings
- Have umbrellas on-hand in your office should a client need one walking from/to their car
- Alert the Receptionist of the expected client's name and business so she can welcome them personally the moment they step in the office
Little things matter. Little things can matter more than big things.
Brendon
Tailored Team Member Quits - Flies To Japan
Tailored Team Member Quits - Flies To JapanYep, we've had a resignation.
Our intrepid weekend cleaner has quit! 15 yo Laura (left) has stopped coming in with her
Dad on a Saturday to empty bins, clean the windows and tidy up.
She flew off to Japan yesterday where she'll live for the next 3 months as part of sister-school thing.
The worst thing about it all is that every time
Mel (my wife and Laura's mum) mentions the 3 month stay to people they say "Oh Mel, you poor thing! You'll really miss her."
Great. Just keep rubbing it in!
Cheers
Brendon
Those Pesky Bloody Customers!
Those Pesky Bloody Customers!
There's that old joke about "This would be a great business if it wasn't for all our annoying customers!"
Here's the reason
this business (in the Frequent Asked Questions bit) doesn't accept phone orders (hat tip to
Seth Godin for writing about it first):
"Unfortunately, we can no longer take phone orders. Customers forget to tell us something and after the order is placed and processed they claim we wrote down incorrect information.
By placing an order online we have a record of exactly what you want, especially for custom-designed items, leaving no room for error."
So there!
Geez, the only thing I thought was that they must be doing incredibly well from their online sales to be able to do that.
Cheers
Brendon
Labels: business marketing
Thursday, September 21
Thinking Of Buying My Book (C'mon....You Know You Are!)?
Thinking Of Buying My Book (C'mon....You Know You Are!)?If you're thinking of buying my book -
The Web Design Business Kit - then you might be interested in this great email I received a couple of days ago.
=========================
To: Brendon Sinclair
Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2006 4:13 PM
Subject: A note of thanks!
Hi Brendon,
My husband Jeff and I have been running our website development business for just over two years.
Neither of us had worked in the industry before, we had always worked for big insurance companies, but we wanted a change and the internet was Jeff's obsession. He had started doing a Computer Science degree but had to stop when we started the business due to lack of time.
We purchased your
Web Design Business Kit a couple of months into starting and have lived by it ever since. We found it so easy to follow and we were continously getting compliments for our service as well as our work. Clients were more than happy to refer us to others and to also provide testimonials.
The Proposal in particular has won us many jobs over cheaper competitors.
In May this year we won the
Most Outstanding Specialised Business award at the city's Business Awards which was very exciting and have had non-stop business coming in since then.
Our problem now is too much work. I recently took the Web Design Business Kit Manual off the office shelf again and am reading the section about expanding the business. Everytime I read this manual I not only gain the knowledge but
also renewed motivation for our business.
I don't know what we would have done without your kit. It has saved us making many mistakes and has helped us grow immensely. We affectionately refer to it as our "Bible" and to you as "
Lord Brendon"! :)
=========================
I know I have an ego the size of the Grand Canyon, but it's fantastic to receive such kind words about the kit.
Cheers
Brendon
iTunes Movie Store Sells $1 Million Worth In Week 1
iTunes Movie Store Sells $1 Million Worth In Week 1In the first week of the iTunes Movie Store they've sold $1 million worth of movies. Not bad considering they are currently only stocking Disney’s 75 titles.
Click here for more.Brendon
Wednesday, September 20
It's All Marketing - Accessibility Is The Key
It's All Marketing - Accessibility Is The KeyWe're always looking for innovative tools to use online for our client's or our own web sites. Yesterday
Anthony sent me through what sounded like a very useful online reminder service that,
according to this news report,
".....will send alerts to people via phone, e-mail, text message, instant message or fax for any event or appointment they need to remember.
Users have to log on and provide the date and time of the event, choose the method they want for the alert, when they want to be alerted and how many times.
Alerts can go to land lines or cell phones and instant messaging applications from AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo."But Then DisasterWhat happened next was I visited
the web site of the company to assess further and maybe sign up. And I received this message:
=================================================
We are sorry, as a startup company, we simply do not have the resources to make this site compatible with other browsers at this time.
Thank you for visiting. We hate seeing you go. Please use Internet Explorer 6 or 7 to view this site.
==================================================
Oh dear. I'm using a
Firefox browser at the moment. My educated guess is that 35% of the potential market initially for this service would be using
Firefox browsers.
You see,
Firefox browsers are used more by tech/sophisticated Internet users. And tech people tend to be the early adopters - that is, we'll try new technology much quicker and easier than most and we tend to be authorative figures on tech stuff for family and friends.
Strong Word of Mouth Referrers
Which then means that it's great to have us using your tech/innovative product because we tend to be very credible third party endorsers. That is, we tell our friends what to use and they believe us and use what we use.
So to announce a big new service and then have it
inaccessible to a good 35% of your target market - probably the most important segment of your entire market - might not be the greatest marketing move ever.
Cheers
Brendon
Labels: business marketing
Holiday Accommodation Research Makes For A Level Playing Field
Holiday Accommodation Research Makes For A Level Playing FieldEarlier in the year my wife (Mel) and I went to the UK for a holiday. One of the things we would have liked to have done would have been to stay in some
holiday cottages in Sussex run by Ian, who is the friend of a friend of mine.
As much as a stay in
UK country accommodation would have been a welcome relief from the hustle and bustle of central London (that's me below posing for the typical London shot) - and as you can see, the prices are very reasonable - we weren't able to swing it.
But after having a look at Ian's site, and more general
Sussex holiday sites, it really struck me that the smaller boutique accommodation operator has never before had such great access to their target market - namely people taking a holiday.
Online Bookings Outstripping Travel Agent BookingsAll the stats I've looked at show that more and more people are booking holidays online (it's overtaken bookings via
Travel Agents according to many sources) - and I know from experience that an
enormous amount of research is done online to find the best spot, the best place and the best deal.
So for any web site, learn web marketing or engage the services of someone who knows what they're talking about.
Cheers
Brendon
Tuesday, September 19
Warners Joins With YouTube For Revenue Synergy
Warners Joins With YouTube For Revenue Synergy
TechCrunch reports that "....a deal Monday that will put thousands of
Warner music videos on the video sharing site (
YouTube) and allow user created videos to legally use Warner owned music.
YouTube is reported to have
created technology that will automatically detect when copyrighted music is used in videos, give Warner the right to accept or reject those videos and will calculate the royalty fees Warner is owed."
Users Won't be Charged RoyaltiesYouTube have just come out to say the users won't be charged the royalties.
It's a terrific move by
YouTube as it drastically cuts down the risk of legal action from Warners and improves their ability to make some money with Warners from ads.
Check out more hereWarners MusicYouTubeCheers
Brendon
Quirky Works
Quirky WorksI get quite a few images from
iStockPhoto - a subscriber site where quality, royalty free images can be obtained very cheaply.
The people at
iStockPhoto have a keen sense of their brand and go to great efforts to keep the site easy to use, fun and a little quirky.
I visited the site just now for an image and the site was down. No ugly "Page Not Found" here. Instead they had this image:
A web site being down for a little while can frustrate people - but when you have a neat little apology like this in place it's hard to be mad.
What's your "Page Not Found" page like?
Brendon
Monday, September 18
How To Benefit From Other's Mistakes
How To Benefit From Other's MistakesChris Marshall, Project Manager over at
Varien, shot me through an email after
Thursday's post to let me know that the site they've just provided a 1-page checkout for hasn't yet had time to demonstrate a 50% increase in conversions.
"Our client
Bentgear has not had enough time with the new checkout to compare conversion rates. The 50% figure comes from a NY Times article.
From the
Varien Blog:
New York Times (registration required) article from last year (Registration required) found that for
TJMaxx.com and
HomeGoods.com,
"?Fifty percent more customers completed the one-page checkout process than finished the multipage process."?And yes, the old page was butt-ugly. But that iss why they came to Varien. :)"
Thanks Chris.
Couple Of PointsCouple of points here.
1. By tracking who is linking to their site, Varien has established a
beneficial relationship with us - by that I mean I've written this follow up blog and they've just received some good quality links to their site.
2. The other point is that by taking the time to correct an inaccuracy they've positioned themselves as
very professional and honest.Cheers
Brendon
One Page, High Ranking, More Money
One Page, High Ranking, More MoneyI came into the office over the weekend and checked the stats of one of my web sites. The numbers were through the roof.
A quick check found why - one of the pages on the site had obtained the
# 2 spot on Google for a super high searched for key word. Which meant tons of new visitors for that page.
And because my page has
AdSense ads and links over to an affiliate site, that equated to quite a bit of money for me. I'm not talking a huge amount, but I am talking 5 figures.
All for one page on a site that has hundreds of pages.
The Internet Can Be ProfitableYep, this Internet thing really can be profitable. Listen, a little, to those who talk it up. Listen, a lot, to those people who genuinely know what you need to succeed online.
I know a little - check out the archives on this blog (top left) and the
articles page. Hope you find something of interest there.
Check out
SEOBookReview.com for how to achieve high search engine rankings.
Check out
GoogleAdWordsReview.com for how to learn about
AdWords.
Cheers
Brendon
Labels: search engine promotion
Thursday, September 14
One Page Checkout Improves Conversions by 50%
One Page Checkout Improves Conversions by 50%These guys used AJAX (a javascript technology) to create a single-page checkout for a shopping cart.
They experienced a 50% increase in conversion rates.
It's worth noting that I don't see an 'old' page - so for all we know, the old page might have been butt-ugly, and the new page is more user friendly, for example.
But interesting just the same.
Cheers
Brendon
Wednesday, September 13
Want Proof That People Head Online For Breaking News? Here It Is
Want Proof That People Head Online For Breaking News? Here It IsSteve Irwin's death drew enormous attention when news of his tragic accident broke.
- The massive ABC news web site here in Australia crashed under the weight of visitor numbers
- CNN had to switch to a 'lite' mode - ditching bandwidth hungry elements from their page - so they could cope with the visitor numbers
- His death has been the most 'blogged' about subject
Click here for the full story from Emerging Media News.Brendon
Thursday, September 7
Google Launches News Archives
Google Launches News ArchivesGoogle has just launch the
Google News Archive Search - it allows you to search back through more than a century's worth of content, from Time Magazine to Washington Post to hundreds of other publications.
The
Advanced Search function allows you to search by year or even create a timeline.
What a incredible resource that is.
The Tasman Bridge Collapse Of 1975
So I did a search for an event from my childhood that had a big impact. The
collapse of the Tasman Bridge in Hobart, Tasmania that linked the Easter suburbs with the city itself.
Here's a Time.com story on the ramifications of that bridge collapse.
An interesting ancedote on the bridge collapse was that the ferries that shuttled people from one side of the river to the other were licensed to sell beer. The owner of the ferries was a guy called Bob Clifford.
Bob's ferries
sold more beer than any licensed premises in Australia! And it was only a 10-minute ferry ride.
Cheers
Brendon
AHCC - Health Marketing Ideas
AHCC - Health Marketing IdeasMy training in marketing came via marketing roles with the now-defunct
AHCC - Australian Hospital Care.
AHCC - not sure where the extra C came from - was a dynamic health group and I headed up the marketing in their largest hospital acquisition.
When I told people I marketed hospitals there was always a bit of a funny look -
"How do you market hospitals? Encourage people to smoke?!" was the usual joke.
AHCC was Australia's
second largest private hospital group and the lessons I learnt have been applied to many non-medical clients:
1. Identify your target market2. Identify the choice influence
I've written a detailed article on
AHCC marketing tips. I hope you find this
health case study of interest.
Cheers
Brendon
Labels: business marketing
Wednesday, September 6
Domain Name Sells For $3 Million - Is This Another Internet Bubble?
Domain Name Sells For Almost $3 Million - Is This Another Internet Bubble?
The domain name
www.wiki.com has just sold for $2.86 million US.
Entrepreneur John Got
ts
is the man splashing the cash and the question needs to be asked
"Is this another Internet bubble?"The answer: Nope.
I remember running some numbers when Mortage.com (typo of mortgage) sold for $242,400 US.
Enough people type
www.mortage.com directly into their address bar to make that price seem a bargain.
I think now quality domain names are so valuable because of the number of potential customers they bring to the door that
$3 million is an okay price.
Cheers
Brendon
More InformationMortage.com Domain Name Sale What's A Wiki? John Gotts
Vale Steve Irwin - He Left The World A Better Place
Vale Steve Irwin - He Left The World A Better Place I was saddened, like many people, to learn of the death of
Steve Irwin, the
Crocodile Hunter (site may be unreachable due to heavy demand).
Gabriel, a regular reader, commented on
a post I wrote 3 years ago about Steve and it was a good prompt to do this post.
2 things I'll remember about Steve Irwin:
# 1: Steve's left the world a better place
# 2: Steve was true to himself and stayed true to what he thought was best
My step-mother is from Steve's small home town of
Beerwah and tells me the little community is devastated at the premature lo
ss of their favourite son.
I Thought It Was A Big Fake ActI remember when the
Crocodile Hunter shows first came out I couldn't quite believe that the guy was genuine. I thought what he did and how he acted was a big fake act.
But my step-mum assured me that Steve had always been like that ever since she could remember. And that made the shows even better.
Vale Steve Irwin.
Regards
Brendon
Tuesday, September 5
How To Market A Nurse Agency in Brisbane
How To Market A Nurse Agency in BrisbaneMy wife
Mel is a
Registered Nurse (Sister) - she's been nursing in excess of 23 years.
When we first moved up to where we live now she registered with some
Brisbane nursing agencies and did some shifts in Brisbane hospitals. I remember she struggled to find a decent agencies and had only the phone book advertising as a guide.
There is now a high demand for
nurses in Brisbane because of numerous issues (ageing population, etc).
Mel now does 1 shift every month or 3 in
a local hospital just to keep her hand in and because she enjoys it.
High Demand Improves MarketingBecause nurses are in such demand now the marketing by the nurse agencies has become much more nurse-centric.
That is, the
nurse agency provides great pay and a whole range of other benefits (free clothing, free training, etc) to ensure they attract quality staff.
Over the years I've seen
nurse agencies here in Brisbane slowly move part of their marketing online and include a greater emphasis on directing nurses to their web site.
It's another good example of
how the web is impacting on the more traditional forms of advertising - such as the Yellow Pages - after all, what would you prefer to review as a nurse:
- An ad with a phone number or
- A Brisbane nurse agency with a web site full of useful information?
Cheers
Brendon
Labels: business marketing
MySpace A Huge Influence
MySpace A Huge InfluenceIn 2 short years web sensation
MySpace has grown to generate more traffic to online shopping and classified sites than
MSN according to web stats firm
Hitwise.
Considering the history and resources of MSN, that is incredible.
Brendon
Monday, September 4
Relax In Style Here At Tailored!
Relax In Style Here At Tailored!
My family used to have old-fashioned deck chairs when I was a kid.
So when I saw these ones (left) I knew we just had to have them for the office reception area - after all, we are a pretty relaxed business in a holiday town!
And yes, we also have a hammock we're looking to set up here in the office. And stuff for
Pina Coladas!
Cheers
Brendon
Why You Might Not Need That Full Page Ad
Why You Might Not Need That Full Page AdI have a client who is in a fairly specialised niche. He takes a full page
Yellow Pages advertisement every year because his main competitor does.
In fact the rep says to my client "You need to take a full page ad because your competitor does. You don't want him to get an advantage do you?"
Yellow Pages Ads Might Not Be Truly EffectiveAt a function last week I met the competitor. I asked him why he takes a full page Yellow Pages ad. He said:
"I hate to because it's so expensive and doesn't give us a huge amount of business, but my main competitor always takes a full page ad and the rep says I need the same size so he doesn't get a big advantage."
The Last Person.....The last person you should believe when you're buying advertising is the advertising rep. They can pretty much make any statistic fit the scenario they're selling.
Brendon
Labels: business marketing
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To find out more about The Web Design Business Kit click here
My wonderful friend Chelsea McLean (that's her left), the best publicist in Queensland bar-none, is off on a holiday.
