Should You Spend More to Acquire More Business

As a business owner you always have to be concerned about marketing cost and marketing ROI. But how realistic are your expectations and how much should you truly spend to acquire new business? Are you strictly looking at the value of the initial sale when thinking about what to spend or are you considering the lifetime customer value when looking at your marketing budget and ROI?

According to Jeff Haden, BNET Contributor, thinking like this is a mistake. Jeff says, “you should almost always spend more to acquire new customers than you think, especially if you can land the right customers.”

Like any other business investment, you should think of customer acquisition costs as a true investment in your business, not just a cost that drains your bank account. Customer acquisition costs are an investment intended to “generate a reasonable shot-term return and a significant long-term return” states Haden. This is not something that you tweak every month just to make your overall expense budget “work.”

Haden uses himself and his photography business as an example on a new approach to looking at your marketing budget and why you need to spend more to acquire new customers than you actually think.

“We’ll use me as an example. I’m a ghostwriter and I also photograph weddings. (If you’re curious why I do both, this is why.) To keep things simple, assume we spend $5,000 a year on sales, we book 20 weddings a year, and the average price of a wedding package is $4,000. Quick math:

Sales: $80,000

Sales cost per transaction: $250

Sales cost as a % of sales: 6.25%

Are we happy with those results?

Check out Haden’s response at TeamBishop | Internet Marketing Guidance: How to Make Your Revenue Grow: Spend More to Acquire More

What’s the Point of Website Traffic If They Don’t Become Customers?

I hear business owners talking about wanting more website traffic all the time. But honestly what’s the point of me driving 1,000 more visits to your website if they don’t convert (and by convert I mean call you, submit your form, or if you are a retail business, become foot traffic).

Put your marketing money to work for you by making your website work for you. Check out these great tips on how to make your website convert!

To get more customers online, you need a holistic web presence optimization strategy that includes online advertising, social media marketing, and search engine optimization, for starters. But you also need to optimize your website to convert those potential customers into leads for your business. To increase conversion rates, your website must engage consumers while driving them to take action, such as calling, emailing, or completing a web form  (ReachLocal Blog).

Some best practice conversion tactics may already be familiar to you but without incorporating them to your website, knowledge of these best practices won’t get you any more conversions than you are already getting. So let’s not just list out these conversion ideas, let’s implement these so you can grow your business.

While I’m not listing this conversion technique as one of the 5 for this article, and neither did ReachLocal in their post, for any online campaign you run the biggest best practice is creating optimized landing pages witha clear call to action, a prominent phone number and email address above the fold (where the screen cuts off and you’d have to scroll to see the rest of the information) along with a key message that matches your advertising. It’s extremely imperative to maintain consistency between marketing messages and your landing pages.

Want to know the 5 ways to convert more website visitors?

Visit TeamBishop | Internet Marketing Guidance.

5 Ways to Improve Website Conversion Rates

Negative Reviews Equal Opportunities for Your Business

Don’t let negative reviews make you run and hide. Learn about why they can be a valuable opportunity for your business.

Are you hesitating to create a strong web presence for your business because you don’t want to open yourself up to negative reviews?

I’ve got some news for you. Your business has already opened itself up for negative reviews. The mere act of opening your business has opened you up to negative reviews. And there’s really nothing you can do to prevent reviews from being written. Sure, you could refuse to claim your Google Places page or Yelp business profile. You could refuse to create a strong web presence for your business but that doesn’t mean I can’t go out and leave a negative review about you.

Like it or not, people are having conversations about you and reviewing your business.

• Google estimates that there are 2.4 billion conversations involving a brand every day in the U.S.
• 7 out of 10 consumers share reviews with friends, family and colleagues
• Yelp has 45 million unique visitors per month
• 24 million reviews are expected to be written on Yelp by the end of 2011

You’re not going to be able to stop what consumers are saying about your business, but what you can do is stop viewing negative reviews about your business as an end-all for your business. They are only potentially an “end-all” when you don’t know about them or know about them and fail to act.

Every negative review is an opportunity. Repeat that with me: EVERY NEGATIVE REVIEW IS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUR BUSINESS.

Here’s why these negative reviews are really opportunities in disguise.

Read how they are opportunities by visiting TeamBishop | Internet Marketing Guidance  – Why Negative Reviews Are Really Opportunities for Your Business

Do You Hear Me Talking About Your Business?

Whether most people realize it, talking about brands, products and services is extremely common in every day conversation and not just offline. We are having these conversations online as well. And they very well could be about your business. What you may not realize is how powerful these conversations really are!

Whether you like it or not, people are going to talk about your business – and you should want them to. Unlike twenty years ago, we’re not just standing around the water cooler chatting with 3-5 of our colleagues. Now we’re tweeting about your business, Yelping about what we liked and possibly didn’t or sharing information about your business via Facebook.

Welcome to the new age of word of mouth.

According to Google, there are over 2.4 billion conversations involving a brand every day in the U.S. Talk about powerful! As a local business, harnessing the power of word of mouth is an important way to build your business.  (ReachLocal | The Power of Word of Mouth for Local Business).

While the majority of brand conversations continue to happen offline, the Internet, particularly search, still plays a vital role in these word of mouth conversations between consumers. The Internet functions as a top information source motivating and informing these conversions.

Think about your last brand conversation with a friend or family member. Did your conversation initiate because of an article you saw or shared online? Was it because of an online video you watched that you couldn’t wait to share? And what about a conversation that a friend initiated with you? Did you search for more about that brand following your conversation?

With all the time we spend online, we are constantly interacting with brands whether we are aware of it or not. As a result, these brands naturally make their way into both our online and offline conversations.

Learn more and see Google’s video on The Power of Word of Mouth by visiting TeamBishop | Internet Marketing Guidance.

If I Search, Surf or Socialize, Can I Find Your Business?

Like it or not, the Internet has become an essential way for you to find new customers for your business. But can your potential customers find you? Do they even know you exist?

Can consumers find you? Or are they finding your competitors instead?

Any successful business owner knows that a marketing strategy that not only encompasses a mix of media but includes a mix of media that shows their services or products to their potential consumers is the best way to grow their business and spend your marketing budget effectively. For instance, if you’re a realtor, how much would it really benefit you to advertise homes for sale in a college newspaper? Are these really the consumers who are ready to purchase a house? Or if you’re a roofer, how would business would you get from sending direct mailers to consumers who live in apartments?

What you have to ask yourself is – where are my consumers?

Do they read the newspaper, watch the 6 o’clock news, flip through specific magazines or search the Internet?

While I may not be able to tell you which magazines your consumers read, what I can tell you is that they are online.

In fact, there are over 240 million Internet users in the U.S. and consumers who are between 18 and 44 spend more time on the Internet than with offline media. These Internet users spend an average of 2:35 hours a day and 18 hours a week online. And in the last 5 years, time spent surfing the web has grown by 121%.

So, are you reaching your consumers where they are spending their time?

Find out by reading more at TeamBishop | Internet Marketing Guidance

Does Your Business Have a Presence Where Your Customers Are?

Feel Like Giving Marketing Advice is Like Leading a Horse to Water?

I don’t pretend to be something I am not. Which is why you don’t see me trying to pull bunnies out of a top hat or cut myself in two then piece myself back together again. Why? Because I’m not a magician. What you also don’t see me doing is attempting to heal the sick with my bare hands or part the Red Sea. Why? Because I’m not a miracle worker.

What am I? A marketing consultant who specializes in Internet Marketing.
As such, my job and my passion is to provide business owners with marketing strategies, particularly Internet Marketing strategies, to help their business flourish. And that is exactly what I do.

What I don’t do is perform magic or miracles.
And that is why I say providing business owners with marketing advice is like leading a horse to water. I can lead you to the water. Heck I can even show you how to drink the water, what I can’t do is make you drink the water. In marketing terms. I can tell you about marketing strategies that will help your business and I can even show you how to implement those strategies but I can’t do it all for you.

What I mean by that is if I’m providing you with advice and solutions on how to make your business grow, because that is the overall goal of marketing: growing your business, I can’t put all of those solutions and advice into action for you.

But if you want to see what I can do and what you can do to further your marketing read more of this article at: JibberJabber with Leslie | Giving Marketing Advice: Like Leading a Horse to Water

Do You Know the 3 Types of Customers and How They Impact Your Business?

They can make you or they can break you. Your customers are your livelihood; are you unknowingly driving them and your profits away?

More than ever, you need to focus on providing superior customer satisfaction to your customers. Why? Because when it comes to your customers, perception is reality so ultimately your company is nothing more than what your customers say it is. And in a time when your customers can easily spread the word (good or bad) about your different and have it spread faster than a wildfire during a drought, can you really afford for them to post negative reviews?

So let’s discuss the 3 types of customers: advocates, apathetics and assassins. Here’s how they each affect your business.

ADVOCATES: are customers whose belief in your company and services has transformed into an almost religious zeal.

Advocates are:

• priceless because they become your best salespeople by promoting your services within their spheres of influence
• willing to go out of their way to use your product or service
• oblivious to your competitor’s attempts to steal them away with discounts and incentives
• fiercely loyal to your brand
• a fantastic way to increase your bottom-line while decreasing your advertising budget
• created with above-and-beyond service, courteous and personable employees, and great products or services

APATHETICS: customers to who are indifferent to your services and are most likely the majority of your customer base right now. For them, it doesn’t matter where they get a product or service, just that they get it.

Apathetics will:

• use your product/service because it meets their basic expectation and is within their desired price range but your product/service does not surpass their expectations in any way
• tend to remain loyal to you as long as it is convenient and you meet their basic expectations
• switch to your competitors if they offered a better price tag or quality of service
• not speak out for or against you
• only do business with you on their terms, not yours

ASSASSINS: are your worst nightmare – they will kill your business without you even being aware of it.

Assassins:

• openly and actively speak out against you – thereby poisoning your reputation
• are created when you fail to meet their basic expectations such as failing to rectify a problem that results in a “win” for them
• are 50% more likely to speak out than an advocate
• will, at a minimum, poison your company within their circle of influence (most will now broaden that by posting negative reviews online that can reach millions)
• have the capability, with an Internet connection and savvy, ruin your company’s reputation on a global scale
• are typically scorned for life (meaning the long-term effects can be devastating)
• may not even voice their concerns or complaints to an employee or manager but will proceed to publicly soil your reputation

When it comes to your customers, it’s not about what you have the right to do but doing what is right. While it can be easy to create an assassin with poor customer service, it can also be easy to create an advocate by implementing a company philosophy founded on customer satisfaction. The key is to deter the creation of additional assassins while converting current apathetics to advocates.

“It will not suffice to have customers merely satisfied…Profit and growth come from customers that can boast about your product or service – the loyal customer. He requires no advertising or other persuasion and he brings friends along with him,” states the late leading guru of quality, Edwards Deming.

Remember that perception is reality so make sure your perceived reputation is one that will generate more business for you, not cripple you. If you garner a reputation for providing great customer satisfaction, you increase brand loyalty and you can charge a price premium that goes straight to your bottom-line.

What do you do to create advocates for your business?

Is Your Business Losing Money Every Day Because of Missed Opportunities?

The phone rings, another interruption in your day but you reluctantly answer it anyway only to hear the chipper, enthusiastic voice of yet another salesperson wasting your time. Immediately you switch into “no” mode; and, without even listening to the remotest hint of what the salesperson is calling in regards to you angrily mumble “not interested” and hang up.

Sound familiar? As a small business owner, are you tired of being inundated with those pesky and inconvenient cold calls? Of course, what small business owner isn’t. No one likes to be inconvenienced with what they deem a “waste of their time.” And as someone who struggles to keep their business a float and deal with the constant impossible feat of juggling far too many responsibilities, your time is a precious and valuable commodity that you just can’t afford to waste. But can you really waste hundreds if not thousands of dollars in missed opportunities?

What if I told you that cutting off those annoying sales calls before they even begin is most likely costing you hundreds if not thousands of dollars in the long run?

Technically, you’re allowing hundreds of your hard-earned money to go directly into someone else’s bank account. And in this economy, can you really afford to do this? What if that pesky salesperson has a way to save you hundreds a year without you having to work longer or harder?

Now, I realize you probably receive on average 40-50 of these “cold calls” on a weekly basis, if not more. And I know devoting your time and attention to each call would severely eat into your time. I also know that a high percentage of these calls are either not necessary for your business services or not beneficial to you; but, every now and again, there will be a call, a legitimate opportunity, where you can add substantial amounts to your bottom-line without having to work harder. In fact, it may even free up some of your time to spend with your family and friends or focus on generating more business.

So what, you may ask. Well, what if you accepted more than one of these opportunities. What if you accepted a handful in the course of a year. Now you’ve just added thousands to your bottom-line and you didn’t have to work even one extra hour. Now you can finally afford to buy that new high-tech laser printer or computer you’ve been saving up for. Or you can finally take your family on that vacation you’ve been promising for the past 3 years. Wouldn’t you welcome a way to earn more by doing less?

Do yourself a favor – the next time you receive one of those “pesky” cold calls, listen with an open mind. You never know what opportunity may be on the other end.

Charm Your Way through the Virtual Room

Since the explosion of the Internet, online chat rooms, social networks, instant messagers and communities have become a popular networking tool. Like in-person networking, virtual networkers seek to cultivate long-term relationships, gain exposure and communicate with other professionals. Networking online is just as important as networking within your community. By networking online, you’re distinguishing yourself and getting your name out there in a very tangible and meaningful way. These communities allow you to connect like never before. In minutes, you can network with professionals thousands of miles away establishing relationships in areas never before reachable without huge marketing budgets.

But just like offline networking there is proper etiquette that must be abided by. “Managing our actions and behaviors in the virtual room is as important as how we behave in the ‘real’ rooms we visit,” states Susan RoAnne, author of How to Work a Room. Any time you engage in networking online remember to follow the rules of netiquette.

Don’t forget the human on the other side.
When communicating electronically, you lose the human aspect of communication. All the computer screen can provide is text. There are no facial expressions, gestures or tone of voice to communicate your message, only lonely text. With only text conveying the message, it’s easy to misinterpret a message’s meaning. It also makes it frighteningly easy to forget that your correspondent is a person with feelings. This makes us more prone to place hurtful, rude or anger-laden content in our messages. Plus, unlike verbal communication, your words can come back to haunt you in the form of written documentation. Before sending a message ask “would I say this to someone’s face?”

Know where you are.
Perfectly acceptable behavior in one community may not be acceptable in another. To avoid being rude or disrespectful to other group members, lurk before you leap. When entering a new community, take a look around to get a sense of how other members behave. Doing this allows you to figure out what type of behavior is acceptable and what type of behavior is not.

Don’t abuse your network.
Just as you wouldn’t abuse contacts in person, don’t abuse your connections online. You are not the center of attention. Don’t expect immediate responses to messages or postings. Also, respect other people’s time and bandwidth. When you send emails don’t send everyone everything, especially when forwarding emails. Have you ever connected with someone who forwarded you an average of five messages per day, none of which contained any important information just useless jokes and stories? If so, you’ll remember how annoying it was to be bombarded with useless information on a daily basis. Therefore, before you send a message, ask yourself if the person really needs to know the information. No one wants to remain connected with someone who wastes their time with unnecessary messages.

Walk a fine line between being a stiff and an over-sharer.
When in an online community there is a delicate balance between appearing as a boring stiff and over-sharing every detail of your life. Share a few well-chosen interests or charitable activities you enjoy. If you post information on an online profile only share information that is useful to that community. You don’t need to share every aspect of your life, even when in a social network like Myspace or Facebook. Keep it clean, tasteful, professional and engaging.

Be careful.
Every time you send a message or interact with someone online, think about the content of your message before sending it or publishing it. Check for sloppy grammar and spelling errors as well as any information that could potentially be misinterpreted. Once posted or sent there’s often no way of editing it.

Keep it professional.
While some sites, like Myspace or Facebook, promote a more social atmosphere don’t allow yourself to be careless in what you post. It may be tempting to post goofy pictures, humorous quotes, ranting blogs or videos of you out with friends but you need to keep it professional. You never know who will see your posting, message or online profile. You can post pictures, videos and write blogs just keep it tasteful and professional.

Remember networking is a two-way street.
Would you want to connect with a professional who is only out for his own benefit? Try to help others as much as possible. Networking is a two-street about building mutually beneficial long-term relationships. The more you do for others, the more likely they’ll return the favor.

Online and offline there are proper behaviors one must follow to get the most benefits from networking. By following the proper rules of netiquette you’ll enable yourself to build a strong online network that can lead to unlimited opportunities offline and online.

The Art of Starting a Conversation

So, you’re ready to start networking. You’ve gathered your courage, your business cards and your most professional attire yet you’re missing the key element – your conversation starter. Without the ability to initiate a conversation out of thin air, even the most dedicated networker will only see lackluster results. As Michael Korda, author and editor, says that “there is nothing small about small talk.” But one of the hardest social situations is starting a conversation with someone you know very little about. Luckily, you don’t need to be extroverted to be a good conversationalist, all you need to do is learn a few conversational tricks of the networking trade.

Read, read, read.

To engage in interesting conversation, you must first have something interesting to say. The best way to build a knowledge bank from which to draw upon a conversation is by reading. Information is power. Through daily reading, you’ll develop a well-rounded knowledge bank from which you can pull intelligent questions and provide insightful answers.

One of the best resources for up-to-date information is newspapers. Many networking experts suggest reading at least one newspaper a day making sure to include the business, lifestyle, sports and comic sections. Reading magazines such as People is recommended by other experts who claim these magazines provide you with casual conversation topics. With most people discussing daily news, weather, sports and celebrity happenings you need to stay updated on these topics for easy conversation starters.

Additionally, if you are attending a networking event for a particular industry or sponsored by a specific organization read relevant newsletters, professional journals and blogs. Being familiar with that industry will help you not only begin conversations but continue to participate in them.

Take Notes.

In your everyday conversations with people you have the opportunity to gather stories, jokes and other tidbits of information that can be used later as conversation starters. Use your best friend’s kid’s latest escapades or your co-workers latest vacation adventure to break the ice. Writing these juicy pieces of information down allows you to recall them for later use.

Actively Listen.

Active listening involves making a conscious effort to hear not only the words that another person is saying but, more importantly, to try and understand the total message being sent. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by what else is going on around you. If you’ve ever found yourself in a situation where you constantly wondered if the other person was even listening to then you know how annoying it is to have a conversation with a brick wall. Active listening focuses on what the speaker is saying and not what you’re going to say next. Active listening shows your undivided attention to the other person, builds trust, builds understanding and provides you with a speaker’s entire message from which you can formulate an intelligent response.

Be Interesting.

Be a conversational chameleon by adapting your conversation topics to each individual. Conversation will easily flow between two people with common interests. You must say stuff worth listening to. Keep people’s attention by being funny, intelligent and engaging. Being knowledgeable, witty and charismatic is a big advantage when starting a conversation but so is having interesting conversation topics. No one wants to chat with someone who has nothing intriguing to say.