Using Statistics When You Start an E-Marketing Web Campaign.

In this market you have a choice...stay stagnant or do something, for it's better than nothing. If business is great (and you anticipate it continuing) do the former and count your money all the way to the bank! If you are not satisfied with your business, then I suggest you do the later.

Before you start any E-Marketing campaign you need to set a goal. As you proceed with your tactics, you need measuring sticks to determine your progress. Does something you do cause a reaction or not? How do you know?

Measuring sticks include sales of products and services, as well as sales trends and comparisons. Log on line sales as well as local sales (if applicable). As for your Website and blogs...unique visitor hits, Web pages browsed, exit pages, etc.

You should log telephone inquiries, emails, etc. Try to differentiate between local advertising, referrals, as well as Web based sources.

Note when you try something different to see if there is a significant change in any of the patterns. Some are sort term, while others are long term. When you find a key that brings results, hit on it hard!!!!

But you must try and experiment, analyze and improve, then try some more. These are the Web challenges facing us today in the competitive markets. But these techniques work for us, and they can work for you!

Niche E-Marketing Success Story, a.k.a. The Train is Leaving The Station

I have a story (not another! you say) to tell you this morning. Let me preface this by saying story telling is a salesman’s tool. We use analogies to get our point(s) across. Prior successes become the story lines for a salesman’s act. For we salespeople know we are on stage everyday with our potential customers and clients. All business owners must consider themselves to be salespeople and learn some of our basic sales techniques (i.e. moving people to decide), especially in these economic times.

All salespeople know we must perform well to get rewarded. If we successfully entertain, we get our applause a contract or commission, and get to keep our jobs and benefits! If we are not entertaining we are boo’d, get rejected, ugh(!), and feel badly.
Sometimes our audience even throws rotten fruit at us, too!

Wait, stop, cease and desist! You only feel badly if you are not a true professional for professionals know that a “No” is OK and part of the process. You simply cannot satisfy all of the people all of the time. It is really the “maybes” – stall tactics like, don’t call us we’ll call you, we’ll let you know, or ignoring the calls and emails after your hard work - that drive us up a wall!
Lead, follow, or get out of my way….Please!
Some salespeople are charming and insincere (per my cousin Barbara – I love you!). And some are blunt and frank. Guess what category I fall into?
My wife’s Website continues to draw national business as well as local customers. I recently posted a picture of a new kit for her to market in anticipation of an upcoming event. I needed about 30 minutes to post the previously taken pictures, write copy, and set the prices. In that time I made sure the page and all the items on it were Search Engine friendly. I uploaded the page’s incremental changes only in two minutes. That evening I posted two blog entries as my only advertisement, total time about 15 minutes.

My wife took an order for 21 kits yesterday morning, with add ons. And that is just one order!

Small business owners, attention, may I have your attention, please!
This is the POWER of today's Web. Knowing your niche market, knowing how to make your site search engine friendly, knowing how to advertise your product or service, and moving quickly. For the Web moves at lightening speed and you have to react FAST in an ever changing and competitive arena. It is the future of retailing and marketing.
I believe the Web and e-marketing can be applied to ANY business. That includes any Web business you choose now, or in the future to build.

What you need to survive in this competitive and hostile economy is to identify a niche market or a part of the market you are presently in, and a niche within that market where the competition is weakest. Take one of your products or services (or produce another that you have expertise in) that fills a need in that market. Stir in time and know how and bring the skill sets to a boil. Let it simmer for a while as the aroma fills the marketplace.

If it fails, write it off and cut your losses. If it works, improve on it and duplicate your efforts in another, or newer, part of that niche. If you are truly skilled and motivated already, start several at one time. Learn from one and apply o the other.

Or you can just do what you have been doing in the past, and keep headed where you were going in the past. You will indeed get there.

“Cause” the love train is leaving the station and “if you miss it, I feel sorry, sorry for you.”

Marketing your business in a slow economy.

"Plan marketplace disruptions that favor your business"
was an article in today’s daily Herald by Jim Kendall

I found it very interesting. In the article he writes:

"Adam Hartung suggests that your business should be the one that shifts the marketplace in a manner that takes competitors by surprise and puts them on the defensive. He goes on to talk about being willing to change. When you focus on execution you become obsessed with price.

"Then soon the difference between you and everyone else is merely price! Change your base and change the competition."

My comments are -- Do what others are not doing. Make yourself different, not the same. Distance yourself from the pack.

Hartung also says what I have been saying for years: "Get obsessive about the competition. Analyze the competition."

Read the rest of the article.

Intro to Web 2.0, Backlinks - Part 2

You have to speak the jargon of the Web to succeed in this battle ground. And, this is a giant war, a war for sales. It will get worse as the economy shrinks! Consumer confidence hit a new low as reported this morning.

And, people do NOT play fair. There are smoke screens and diversionary tactics, super highways and dead ends, gurus and scam artists. This is a playground where acronyms abound. HTML, FTP, RSS, PDF, JPG, MOV, etc., etc., etc.

You have to learn by doing. You have to walk the walk and talk the talk. But before you can Run, Run, Run you must crawl, crawl, crawl.

Building backlinks to your site improves your visitor traffic. More visitor traffic should increase you SALES. If you are selling something they want.

Forget about the past, this is a new day with a new market. Building backlinks is but one way to build your success. Use the free tools Web 2.0 offers you.

Web2.0 My Understand Thus Far, Part I

Web2.0 is social networking. And social networking can be, and is being, used for business, point blank. You can use Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, TBD, etc., to only socialize. You can share events, play games, meet old and new friends, post photos, etc., and waste a lot of time. You can post videos on YouTube for humor, shock, information, etc.

Or you can use these, and other Web2.0 avenues, to get people to visit your Website. And most of these avenues are FREE advertising and demand only sweat equity. Some are better than others. The point is if you want to generate sales through social networking, you can. If you get more people to visit, more people will purchase. Increase traffic, increase sales. Point blank, end of story.

The old rule of thumb in retailing was you either have traffic or you build traffic. In either case you pay for it. One option was to rent in a mall or street location where there was a lot of traffic, and a lot of rent. Or to start in a low traffic (i.e. home based, garage, industrial park, etc.) and spend money on advertising for traffic.

That day is passé.

Some of you spent a lot of time, money, and energy at last week’s Party Planning Showcase in a Northwest Chicago Suburb. Judy and I strolled the show talking with our friends. We asked ourselves “why continue?” five years ago and could not find a reason to. We found the reason.

Glance at the Web statistics I provided you free, or request another or a new one. It compares your recent Website activities and search engine rankings with those of A-BnC Parties and More, Inc. Visitor hits on Judy’s sites, including www.abncparties.com have DOUBLED on a daily basis from December, 2008 to January, 2009. Sales have also increased over last year’s comparisons. Sorry, I will not divulge by how much.

The invitation is still there, join the Facebook (Home Based or Small Businesses on the Web) discussion. The information is Free. Or should I charge for it? Will it be more valuable if you pay for it? Judy’s new V-P and national sales manager asked: “Why is it so cheap?”

Building a Web Business – Part 2 – Dealing With Sales 101

See the preceding blog article for the first in this series.

As a salesman I love to hear a “yes, I’ll take it”. I am an actor on a stage, and a sale is my applause. I am not afraid to hear “no thanks,” for I know I cannot please everyone. But maybes drive me up the wall! I define “maybes” as any stall tactic. Mostly it comes from people who cannot make a decision. And, I have heard most of them…call me back in a week, check with us later, we’re not ready, it’s not in our budget now (well then when?), we’ll call you when we are ready, don’t call us – we’ll call you. I hear nothing lately that is very original.

People who are not courteous also upset me. Mostly, they do not return phone calls, or in this day and age, emails. Or they use caller ID to screen their calls. I guess am old fashioned, I long for the days when chivalry ruled. But I am mature enough to (mostly) not get angry. I only get angry with people and customers who pull this “shtick” even though I have known them or been servicing them for years. Or, if they blatantly lie to me. That is why I generally do not sell to friends and people I know.

To all of you out there I say: “Attention people! Attention! We salespeople are people to!” You think we like to have our feelings hurt? (I still do not know how can you hurt feelings? As I used to say to my daughter…where are they? Can I fix them for you?) I know it may be hard to tell us to our face, or even call us, but at least drop me an email and tell me I did not make the cut! I will understand and I forgive you, in advance! It’s NOT personal, I hope! If it is, please tell me so I can Fix it!

If an Elephant and a Dog can become Friends, Why Can't We Be Friends?

If you cannot believe that an 8,700 pound Asian elephant named Tarra and a dog named Bella could become friends, click on this link. The story was on CBS' Sunday Morning last Sunday, January 4, 2009. I have been talking about it ever since! Here's the full transcript.