We all know customer service is critical in any business. As is delivering as soon as you possibly can.
Most people have a view of customers as grumpy, impatient people just waiting to complain.
In 99% of cases nothing could be further from the truth.
Customers faced Long Delays
Years ago, our eczema web site went crazy with thousands of sales each day. We quickly ran out of stock and our customers faced a long, long delay.
We kept those waiting customers - who had already ordered - fully informed with very frequent messages and they were, to a person, understanding, kind and cheerful.
We've just started doing some work on a hammocks web site. Our client Alicia didn't answer her emails as quickly as she usually does today.
Alicia's Had A Baby
I looked at her web site just now and saw this message:
I don't think any of her customers will complain about slow delivery over the next week or so.
Sure, your hammock might be important to you, but if you'd read Alicia's message you'll understand why she's taken a few days off!
Customer care is about conversation. It's about keeping in contact. It's about talking and understanding.
Sue mentioned that her site now gets a lot of people saying "Heh, I found you via a Google search."
That's great news for Sue. She can help more people get fit, lose weight and achieve what they want to achieve. She offers an amazing service by the way.
Today I saw a couple of people found me via this forum post.
I didn't really write the post below to get a high ranking for the term "beauty salon Cammeray", but because of the wording I used it has gotten to # 1 within hours.
It's a great example of what I was saying: because I've made it clear to Google what that post was about (and because this site is trusted by Google), Google ranks it high for that term - beauty shop Cammeray.
Zooming ahead can be simple
I could make it even more obvious for Google - mostly by including the term in my blog post title and changing the title tag of the entire site....... but I don't want to do that because it was only a simple example post and my entire site isn't really about a beauty shop in Cammeray.
Don't Confuse The Search Engines
So if I did that it would confuse Google who would see tons of pages on this site about web design and search engine stuff, but see that I say the site is about a beauty shop in Cammeray.
Make sense?
Google wouldn't then have clear and logical hints on what this site is really about.
Anyway, # 1 in a matter of 2 hours all because I made it very clear and easy for Google regarding what that post was about.
If you'd like us to help you out with your search engine rankings, don't hesitate to contact us at admin@tailored.com.au. We know what we are doing.
We won't do any edits to Nicole's site for a few days - check it out now to see the aspects I mention above. We'll do the edits in a few days and she'll very quickly get found for her key phrases (beauty salon Cammeray should be pretty easy to get a high ranking for).
The Point Is......
..........getting your site a high ranking in Google is done by letting Google (and other search engines) know what your site is about.
What's the best time to send an email to your database of email subscribers?
(Assuming you have one - if you don't check out the very reasonably priced and excellent Constant Contact to enable you to have visitors sign up to a newsletter).
We've always found Tuesday to be the best day. As for time, we've never tested this but we tend to send emails at 10 am.
We send at 10 am because we assume people come into their office, check their overnight emails, delete whatever isn't urgent and then get down to business.
1 of 50 Emails or 1 of 2
If we send our email at 10 am we avoid being 1 of 50 emails, and (hopefully) are just 1 of a couple downloaded. Thus increasing the likelihood of being looked at.
Like I say, we've never tested the timing - but the Marketing Sherpa case study has....... read the full results here.
(And remember to keep testing and measuring.)
Cheers
Brendon
P.S: Yes, I know this advice to test and measure goes against what I said here but that's marketing. You gotta change it up.
Being a man, it stands to reason that I'm an ego maniac.
Being an ego maniac it stands to reason that I love getting praised.
The thing I get praised most about, apart from my magnificent legs and incredible good looks, is The Web Design Business Kit.
"You Are A God!"
I always enjoy the emails that compare me to God and rate the Kit as a 'bible'. Heh, what can I say?!
It's that good!
Anyhoo, I had someone call me a "bastard" today - but it was said with affection! This from the email:
Hello Brendon,
I normally wouldn’t contact someone right out of the blue like this, however, having just finished your marvelous business kit I feel a little bit like General George Patton saying “You magnificent bastard, I read your book!”
I'm not saying you should buy the kit............what I am saying is you'd be insane not to.
I'm not calling you crazy if you don't.......but others probably would :o)
Just a little reminder of what we did in our first session way back when we first started running.
Ran from the car park around to Woodgee
Ran up Woodgee (some needed to stop at the corner where we turned around today and walk the rest)
Up over and along Woodgee and down the other side.
Ran along the flat around to the stairs
Ran up 2 flights of stairs single and double leg
Ran up 4 flights of stairs single and double leg
Ran to the top.....AND NEARLY PASSED OUT!!!!!
Today’s session
Ran from the car park around to Woodgee and then up to the corner (non-stop...barely a warm up)
Ran to the TOP of the stairs – TWICE!
Ran up 2 flights of stairs – 3 TIMES!!!
Ran around to Elephant rock
Ran up Elephant rock stairs – TWICE!!!
Ran down the other side of Woodgee
Ran back up Woodgee and down the Elephant rock stairs
Ran back around the front to the stairs
Ran 1 flight of stairs – 5 TIMES
Ran 2 flights of stairs
Ran to the top – AGAIN
Not to mention all the walking down hills which takes your legs into that real ‘wobbly zone’.
====================== Positive Reinforcement
With that 1 little email Chris has reinforced everyone's improvement and given Mel a little boost after she was feeling down about not being up to get to the top of the stairs that last time.
You see, he' s noticed she was a bit despondent today and thinking she hasn't improved - a little positive feedback is all it takes to change her mindset, get her enthused and feeling good again.
It's simple stuff like this contact and encouragement that makes a difference to people.
And it keeps Mel coming back. And that's good for business: not saying that's why Chris does it of course, but I am saying you can apply this exact same lesson to your business.
The grumpy blogger - Shoemoney - basically just mouths off with great stuff, good stuff and complete rubbish in an effort to create controversy and get posts like this one written and linked to him (gives him more readers you see).
But, as is sometimes the case, he's writing complete rubbish.
Title tags are important for helping to achieve higher search engine rankings.
Search engine optimization is a very important part of any web site's ongoing marketing strategy.
Build A Great Site Is Priority # 1
Shoemoney suggests building such a great site that others will want to link to it (that helps increase your rankings within search engines) - true.
That should be the goal for each and every web site.
But working on your site to make it as easy as possible for search engines to find you and figure out what your site is about is just as important.
Doing that can make a tremendous difference to your web site's success.
It's a great example of how 1 guy (Shoemoney) uses controversy to increase his brand awareness and his success - just like young Corey below.
One of the big stories here in the last week has been the hilarious going ons of a teenage jerk off/slimeball/white trash/genius called Corey Worthington.
Corey is a 16 yo kid from a Melbourne suburb who has brilliantly encapsulated a lot of the success of modern marketing.
You see, he held a party.
He advertised his party of MySpace.
500 kids turned up.
They drank and got drunk.
They then annoyed the neighbours.
The cops were called.
It emerged that Corey had been left home alone.
Then the outrage started.
The media has pounced on this story to give oldies a forum to vent about "the youth of today".
Then something unexpected happened.
Corey showed he was smart. Or at least that he understands modern media.
He was different.
He was outrageous (so he was noticed - he cut through the clutter).
He leverage social media.
He branded himself (yep, those yellow sunglasses that he refuses to take off).
The Classic Answer
The classic answer was to the question from the "outraged" current affairs show host.
"What do you say to other kids thinking of having parties whilst their parents are away?"
I think the host was expecting a contrite "Ooooh, don't do it."
Instead Corey comes out with "Get me to do it for you."
Then she comes out with "I suggest you take a good long hard look at yourself....."
Corey says: "I have. Everyone has. They love it."
Ha!
He's managed the media brilliantly. And the media have managed the story brilliantly to cultivate the sense of outrage.
(And still, there are people who simply don't understand that the media are there to get the highest ratings possible, so they'll keep hammering away with this false sense of outrage to make this story run and run and run.)
The Benefits To Corey
The benefits to Corey are numerous.
He'll get a girlfriend(s)
He'll make some money.
He'll have his 15 minutes of fame.
If he was smart he could leverage it into a whole career, but I'm not sure he's that smart.
The Lessons For Any Business
Get noticed.
Brand yourself so that you stand for something in everybody's eyes (but big yellow sunglasses are already taken).
On the one hand they want to attract service/product providers to buy stall space.
So the offer to the potential stall holder has to be good:
good space
great Expo promotion
tons of potential customers coming to the Expo
And the Expo holder has to attract people interested in the services of the stall holders.
Pre-Register For Free Entry
Part of that might include something like pre-register for free entry.
Then the Expo holder can say to potential stall holders - "Look, we have 200 people pre-registered. You can get in front of these potential customers for just $200 by taking a stall."
The other way the Expo holder can provide added value is by providing the stall holder with the contact details of those who pre-register.
But here it gets tricky.
Getting Inundated With Calls
You see, I've just had a friend in my office who is getting married. So she pre-registered for a Bridal Expo.
Whilst she can't remember giving permission to be contacted by stall holders for this upcoming Expo, she has been inundated with calls and emails.
(She did give permission, I just checked. The fine print says "Disclaimer: Please note that by completing this form you give permission for your details to be passed onto advertisers on this site.")
But even if she did, I'm not sure it's such great marketing to hammer her with offer after offer after offer after offer.
Permission Marketing - But It's Too Much
I guess it's permission marketing to a perfectly qualified target, but it's the deluge of calls and emails that make it intrusive.
Permission marketing is great.
Marketing to a perfectly qualified target is great.
Having your marketing message welcomed is an important part of the strategy too, however.
Surprising Email From Client - How To Push Buttons 101
I sometimes write up the success stories we have with search engine work - that is, getting to the top of the search engines.
But this blog post is about how we dropped to # 2 and how to push buttons to get a response. My client David does it brilliantly!
Here's his email:
"I noticed that we are no longer number one when you Google xxxx xxxx!
How can this be???? Is there someone smarter than you who has over-ridden this???
Let's shoot them down and get back at the top of the Google pile."
Very amusing David.
Surprising Too
Surprising too........because David's the Financial Officer for the client company and we all know how boring those guys usually are.......maybe he got someone else to write it for him??
I wonder if he reads this blog?!! I reckon I'll soon know.
Phil was telling me this story about a guy he was drawing a caricature for – he always asks people commissioning the caricature as a gift for any funny stories involving the subject.
Here's the story he was told - and he swears this is 100% true.
Flying Alone
John (not his real name) mentioned that his nephew is studying Geology at university and works at a mine in outback Queensland handling explosives.
On one occasion he was by himself at the airport ready to catch a flight back to the mine when an announcement was broadcast throughout the Airport terminal:
“Can all unaccompanied minors please report to reception?”
You guessed it, he went to the counter.
When asked why he was there, he said he was an “unaccompanied miner” - much to the delight of the airport staff!
We get a fair few enquiries asking a generic "What do you do?"
That means a couple of things:
Our web site isn't clear enough
We need to provide more info every now and then
So here's an overview of what we do:
1. Web developers - we develop web sites. We develop new sites, we redo existing sites. 2. Search engine optimization - we work on sites to help them achieve very high search engine rankings. 3. We manage client's web sites - add content, do marketing, etc. 4. General marketing - we still do a little general marketing for clients. 5. Run our own ecommerce sites - this gives us a huge advantage over web developers. You see, we own and manage sites that get up to 10,000 visitors per day. We know what works.
Because Brendon wrote the Web Design Business Kit and writes the 140,00 subscribers SitePoint Tribune, we also use this site to provide information for web developers trying to figure out how to get clients.
Which kind of screws it up a bit with different info for different people.
How The Dumbest Business in Australia Became Successful
"What Does This Button Do?"
The Secrets Of Relationship Marketing - Never Network Again!The Secrets Of Relationship Marketing - Never Network Again!
Here is what 3 people who have booked him said:
"You were a breath of fresh air......particularly enjoyed self effacing style - believe most attractive to an audience who expect consultants to present with heads slightly wider than average."
"Brendon is a brilliant business presenter. His presentations are clear, concise and motivating. He offers advice freely and with great knowledge, whilst at the same time ensures interest with... his wit and his energy."
"Bloody brilliant - you summed up marketing better than any speaker in my fourteen years....."
We develop web sites. We market web sites. We manage web sites. We help other people to build up their own web development business. We speak about business stuff (and do some Uni lecturing).
Any questions?
Yes - contact us. No - well stop reading because this is the end.
Okay, you should (most likely) be doing some sort of public relations for your business.
Media coverage can snowball from a simple mentioned to a ton of mentions to international media coverage.
I present Example # 1
How A Nerd Became "President" of Facebook
TechCrunch reports that 28 year-old French man by the name of ArashDerambarsh won an online vote to be the "President of Facebook".
It was a simple online prank.
As TechCrunch says: "He used that information and got some coverage with French media that started to report the news and really believed that a French man had become the new worldwide president of Facebook......TV channels and traditional media covered the story one after the other: TF1, LePoint, L’express, FranceInter, Le Parisien....."
You see what happened?
Reporters searching for an interesting story found one story and simply repeated it over and over again. And because it was in mainstream media it suddenly has huge credibility.
There are plenty of challenges, like any business, in running a web development business.
One thing the industry needs like a kick to the groin is bottom feeding companies.
Network Solutions is a company that you can register domains with. But don't try.
Here's What They Do
When you do a search on a domain name to see if it's registered, they (Network Solutions) put it on reserve.
That effectively means they register it.
Which then means the only place you can register the domain name is with Network Solutions.
Unethical, scummy practice. But not illegal.
Domain Tasting
The practice has been called Domain Tasting and there have been rumours of it going on for a number of years. Everyone always denies it's true, but Network Solutions happily admit to it.
My best advice is if you do a search for a domain name, be prepared to buy it there and then. And don't use Network Solutions or you'll get screwed on price.
Okay, a big/huge/enormous/life changing part of your web site strategy should include work to help the search engines rank your site and rank it high.
Now, it's no secret that Google ranks us as the "world's best web designer" (it's no secret because I tell every man and his dog!).
And that kind of demonstrates that we know what we're talking about.
From # 426 to # 1 In A Matter Of Weeks Another thing that shows we know what we're talking about is the case study we did last year for my Irish mate Seamus and his Belfast web design business.
Seamus' site went from nowhere (# 426 actually) in Google to be pretty dominant for the 3 major terms he targeted:
To check out the full case study on how he achieved this, check out this page.
To check out the 1st video right now in the 4 part series, click on the below (it's only 1 min 52 secs long).
The ONLY Search Engine Optimization Book To Buy
If you're look at which book to buy to help you along with your search engine rankings, then there is only one as far as I'm concerned. I do a full review of that book at SEO Book Review.
This review will show you how this book made us $5,000 per day - don't buy another book on search engine rankings until you check out this review.
It's that easy.
(And yes, the book has its critics, but they're few and far between.
The review is a couple of years old now, but because the book gets updated on a regular basis (very frequently) the book is still, without doubt, the # 1 SEO Book.)
Do This Stuff
If you want higher search engine rankings for your site you can do 1 or more of these 3 things:
One of the things we've committed to in 2008 is to make this site more practical and useful for people looking to develop their web site and/or their online and offline marketing.
So here's the first practical written blog post.
Make your existing customers an offer. Grab A Big Wet Fish
If you don't have the name and contact details of your current customers then grab a big wet fish and slap yourself across the head. Your existing customers can be your most valuable asset.
Here are 3 ways to encourage customers to provide their details:
Have them enter a contest
Have them fill in a guarantee card
Simply ask
We use ACT! as our contact relationship software. It's brilliant and available online here or in most decent software stores.
Once you have that software (and your customers/prospects in the database) your ongoing marketing will be a breeze.
** Winner Web Design Library - Best Book of the Web Industry 2004 **
The Web Design Business Kit is a compilation of everything Brendon has ever done and every document he has ever used to build and grow his business!
It contains two huge ring-bound folders with over 700 letter size (8.5x11) pages, plus a CD-ROM which has everything you need to build a thriving Web Design Business...
To find out more about The Web Design Business Kit click here
