Shortcuts

I spent the last week at a conference in Dallas where I received an immense amount of knowledge, wisdom, inspiration and last but not least fodder for this blog!

This group does something called "circle of wisdom" where everyone goes around and spends 5 minutes per person getting feedback on an issue they are having in their business. One woman said that she is having trouble getting her customers to give up their emails addresses. People are so weary of spam overload that they are hesitant to give their email addresses to anyone, even if it is a company they actually want to hear from.

Another woman in the group had a brilliant idea: when in doubt, copy apple! When you buy a product from apple they email you the receipt. This is a great example of a win-win for the customer and business! I don’t know about you but it’s much easier for me to digitally file emails than it is to deal with paper receipts. This benefits the customer and gives the store the email address they are looking for.

For service professionals, your persona is likely a huge factor in why people choose to work with you. There are thousands offering essentially the exact same service as you. People choose your business because they enjoy interacting with you, and because they plain old LIKE you. Yet many services businesses have websites that don’t let their personalities shine through. They are trying to seem corporate and professional, so they don’t include any clues about what a client relationship might be like.

Ad agencies usually do a great job at this. They have pages featuring each employee with their favorite record, a picture of their dog and an irrevant quote. Maybe something so silly is not appropriate for your business, but having a photo and one line about your hobbies can go far in making people feel a connection.

Seth Godin’s brilliant post got me thinking about a time that a store suggested that I go with a competitor instead. Seth said such actions cause positive word of mouth and long-term growth and I could not agree more.

In search of basic snorkel gear for an upcoming vacation, I went into Tom’s Dive & Swim in Austin, Texas. The person at Tom’s told me that they had a set but that it was much nicer than what I was looking for, and I could go get something to fill my needs for half the price at the sporting goods store down the road. At first I was a little taken aback, as suggesting that someone buy from a competitor is not exactly a common occurrence!

But the more I thought about it the more sense it made. Since I am not a diver, I am not a target customer for their store. I don’t hold any value to them as a customer, but I DO hold value as an advocate. And by giving me helpful, straight-up advice instead of selling me something that I didn’t need, that’s exactly what they turned me into.

We know not everyone is a target customer for our business. But what if everyone could be an advocate?

Anyone who has met me or interacted with me in any way has my personal line. It is on my card, on every document, and in the signature of every email I send.

There is a different phone number that is listed on the contact page of Roeder Studios. This number just goes to a voicemail box.

Guess which one people often call?

Time and time again, people who have my personal line call the number on the website. Guess why? They know it’s there, it’s easy to find. When they are looking for my contact info their instinct is to go look on my website. So what are my take-aways from this? One you should make it as easy as possible for people to contact you. Some people won’t even go through the trouble of looking for my number any of the places that I mentioned, people are NOT going to dig.

Because of this I highly recommend that you NOT have only a contact form on your site. I think everyone should list an email address and preferably a phone number as well. What if your contact form is broken and you don’t know it? What if someone wants to send you a long message and they don’t want to put it in a little box? What if your form requires a phone number and they don’t want to give you one yet? So many businesses lose out on these customers entirely.

If you want people to contact you, make it easy!

Email overload is continually becoming a larger problem. Some people use auto-responders, generic emails that are automatically sent in response to every message, as part of their solution for managing email. Auto-responders have their place but I often see them used in ineffective and downright problematic ways.

I sent out an email newsletter to a few hundred people this week, and the immediate response back is always the auto-responders. Some people are on vacation or out of town, but some people have a responder that goes out to every single email they receive. I think for almost everyone this is a really bad strategy. I’m talking about the kind of responders that have a general message like "we appreciate your email and will respond soon". (There are absolutely some effective uses of auto-responders such as providing information that is commonly requested.)

The Robot Touch

Auto-responders leave the recipient feeling like they are just a random face in a crowd. That they are taking a number for your precious time instead of getting a real response. Yes, you might write back to my email later but it leaves an initial impression that my message is not important enough to require your personal response. Also, you should always aim to make your clients feel like they are your world. Auto-responders say just the opposite - "Hey, I have a LOT of other people to deal with and you are not necesarily at the top of my list."

It’s Just Annoying

Auto-responders help the sender deal with their email problems, but only at the expense of the recipient! I can’t think of a better example of useless inbox clutter. It also creates a weird did-they-or-didn’t-they read it problem. An auto-responder is technically a response to your email, but does not guarantee that it was actually seen by human eyes. They are also just plain annoying - it’s like calling someone up and getting an automated message instead of the actual conversation that you were hoping for and expecting.

I am zipcar’s prime target market. I don’t own a car. I use my bike, my feet, and public transit to get around.

I have been tempted to join zipcar many times but haven’t for one reason - their (admittedly very reasonable) initial membership fee. In my opinion, it’s an unnecessary barrier to using their service. Sometimes I think about joining but I’m afraid I’ll pay the $75 up-front and then never use it. After all, I’ve gotten along three years with no car.

Let’s look at the flipside - what if they did not charge an up-front membership fee but instead made a tiny rate increase in order to cover what they usually make in membership fees. I can tell you that I would definitely sign up for zipcar. Why not? I’d like the service to be ready to go when when I need it. And I would be more likely to actually use their service knowing that I’m all set up and already a member. I think the biggest benefit from zipcar’s POV is that they would also have my contact information and could send me promotions to encourage me to use the service more often.

What do you think? Should zipcar change their system or not?

So those of you who read my post No Choice But To Give Up may be wondering what I think you should never share online (after all, I gave you free range to post embarrassing party pictures).

The answer is: never EVER for any reason badmouth your clients or business parters online.

It is stupid because they will find it. It makes you look stupid to everyone else because we know they will find it. It makes you look petty and immature. It’s like when you notice that someone is always talking about everyone else behind their backs and you finally start to wonder "hmm, I wonder what they are saying about ME?"

Don’t do it in a blog comment. Don’t do it on a forum. Don’t do it on your friend’s facebook wall. Constantly badmouthing others is a shortcut to a bad reputation offline, and in the online world that is even more true.

I just read in today’s New York Times that google ads are creeping in to yahoo’s ad space. To me this comes as no surprise, and I’m guessing Google AdWords will eventually take over yahoo’s channels entirely.

Occasionally I’ll have clients ask me about yahoo’s program when we’re first discussing their search engine marketing strategy. I always recommend that we stick with AdWords only. Why? There’s no reason to complicate things. The goal of these campaigns is to get your ad in front of people who are searching for you. There are more people searching in Google, so in my opinion duplicating the campaign in yahoo is usually a waste of time and resources. In this instance, the old cliches are totally true: "keep it simple (stupid)" and "if it ain’t broke don’t fix it"! AdWords is simple, and it just plain works.

A good friend recently told me something that I was very embarrassed  to hear: the contact form wasn’t working on my website. How can potential clients expect me to create websites for them if my own site is not working properly? I cringe thinking about the people who may have tried to contact me and gave up.

I cannot count the number of times I’ve found a broken link, typo, testing message, etc on an otherwise great website. This can really turn clients off and ruin the entire experience of an otherwise fantastic site. Your clients want to know that you will pay attention to all the little details of their project, and a sloppy website says that you just don’t care. I bet there are some of you reading this who KNOW something is wrong with your site, you just can never seem to find the time to fix it.

So this is my call to action - go through every single page of your site. Read every word, click every link. If you see something wrong correct it immediately. You rarely get a second chance on the web, people will just move on to the next search result and never visit you again. Make sure to get it right the first time.

There is a lot of talk these days about customizing websites to the visitor, creating an interactive experience that is custom-tailored for each user. Apparently some clever programmer sold forbes.com on the idea that they could have this SUPER COOL feature that would identify where a user came from.

The picture below illustrates what I saw when I clicked a link to forbes.com after searching google for the term "service business". (By the way, can you tell from this snippet how incredibly cluttered and difficult to use their website is?)

Now, this may have been a cool feature if I was a google employee. But welcoming me as a "google user" is about as useful as welcoming me as a "computer user". Using google to find websites does not exactly put me in a unique user category. Recognizing this fact does not add anything to my experience of the website.

The point is - technology for the sake of technology doesn’t add anything except clutter, wasted space that is useless to me as a user. You should never add bells and whistles for the sake of adding bells and whistles - it will at best do nothing and at worst completely backfire! You might even find a blog post making fun of your useless feature.

Do you want to stay in the minds of your potential referral sources and clients? You could host an event, start a blog, or write a newsletter. OR you could try a much easier, much tinier tactic: stay logged in.

If you work on a computer you likely have a gmail chat window, skype window, and IM account that you see throughout the day (to name a few). In all of these avenues of communication, simply logging in highlights you and puts your name at the top of the list.

So how do you get your name in front of people? Just log in! Whenever I open Skype there are a few contacts that are usually logged in. I can’t help but see their names every time I use the program. And when I see their names I think about them, if only for a split second. When people glance at your name on the list in their chat window, they are likely not having any complex thoughts about you. But they ARE remembering that you exist.

Two Choices - Who Wins?

Someone met you and another divorce lawyer at a networking event three months ago. She is now getting divorced and needs an attorney. She has never spoken to either one of you since then, but when she entered your info to her database she added you on skype and therefore sees your name every time she logs on. Who do you think she will call? She has probably forgotten that the other lawyer exists by now. But even though you two have had zero communication, she still knows who you are.

Is this tactic going to triple your sales? Probably not. But you never know where that next big client will come from! The more you put yourself in front of others, the more opportunities they have to give you business.

Many people think they should be on online social networks, but don’t really understand what the point is or what the value could be for their business. For me, the primary aim of social networking is to keep myself and my business top of mind for those that I already know.

Facebook and twitter are great because people are always receiving the latest news about you, and vice versa. Linkedin has tried to replicate this with the "network update" feature that they now have on their site, but those updates are generally boring and/or irrelevant. Even on linkedin, just seeing someone’s name on that list reminds you that person exists. And often a reminder that you exist is all someone needs to refer you.

Build Your Brain Network

I like facebook and twitter in particular because they often give information that catches my brain. What I mean by that is my mind isn’t just grazing over it, I’m having a thought in response like "oh that reminds me of . . . " even if it’s for only a millisecond. From a neurological perspective, I am building my network of thoughts and ideas centered around that person whenever I get a little ping that they exist. Every time I get more information related to someone, however minute, that person take up more space in my brain and I get to know them a little better.

A True Story

For example - Justin and I had lunch once about a year ago, then he moved to California shortly after. We emailed once or twice since then but I didn’t know him well enough to frequently write purely social emails or talk on the phone. If this pattern continued he likely would have dropped off my radar entirely. Then something changed - we became friends on twitter.

Now I have to say, neither one of us has especially fascinating twitters! It is not a matter of having the most engaging content, just a matter of saying hey, remember me! Since we became twitter friends we have become much better "real friends" and he’s been a valuable resource for referrals and great advice. I now feel like I could call him up and ask his thoughts, even though he lives in another state and we’ve only sat down and had a conversation once.

I think that the power of online social networks is not to befriend strangers in hopes that they hire you, it is to develop relationships with those that you already know.

If you are someone who is hyper protective of your privacy, worried about your clients finding some tidbit about your personal life, my advice is this - GIVE UP! It’s a lost cause. Yes, I’m serious.

Anything that you have ever put out there about yourself is easy for anyone to find if they really want to. You think your clients can’t find the forum you post to? Have you EVER used that screen name for any account that might be tied to your real name? If the answer is yes, someone can find it. If the answer is no, the answer is someone can still find it!

The Real You

Some people take this information and try to keep their personal life off the web entirely. Personally, I think that is really boring. Your clients know that you are a real person. Real people curse, post pictures of themselves making stupid faces, and have the occasional mis-step at a bachelor party. These may not be your finest moments. I would advise that you not put this content on your homepage. But I would advise that you relax about it content being out there.

Seeing the real you is how people connect. I love twitter because I get to read all the "unprofessional" details of the lives of all sorts of fascinating people. I get my best referrals from clients that I have become friends with, not the ones who have kept things strictly business. So if you are shy about commenting on forums, blogging about your weird hobby, or posting your vacation pictures on facebook my advice is give up! Let go, and let people see the real you.

If you liked this post, look out for my future post on things you should NOT share on the internet!

I just looked through twitter to check out who is following me. There was one person I didn’t know who apparently created a twitter account just to promote his microfiber towel company. He only had a few tweets, all of which were all about how great his towel store is. His strategy is to add as many people as possible, hope they check out his profile, click the link to his store, and buy a towel.

The chances of someone in this chain of events being poised to buy a microfiber towel are like lighting striking.

He has the right idea in using twitter to promote his business, but is going about it the wrong way. What if instead of a bunch of junk as his twitter messages he posted cleaning tips and advice? What if instead of randomly adding every person he sees he searched for people who had twittered about cleaning? He would have used the same amount of time and energy, but with much more focused (and successful) results.

I’m continually surprised by the number of business owners I meet who don’t understand why they need a website. I think they are in an "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it mentality", and it’s true that many people run thriving businesses without a website. What they aren’t seeing clearly is all the business they’re missing out on, and how difficult they are making the sales process for their potential clients.

Joe Customer’s friend Potential Client asks Joe - do you have a CPA to recommend? Why yes, in fact Joe has two. You, and That Guy. That Guy has a website, You do not. Potential Client is very happy to have two qualified referrals, and decides to check them both out. Here’s his process for deciding between the two choices:

You

• Potential Client calls You, leaves a message on your voicemail
• You call back, leave a voicemail
• Potential Client calls back, asks for information
• You call back, ask for his address
• You send Potential Client a brochure in the mail
• Potential Client waits a week for brochure and finally receives it. He has a few questions that the brochure doesn’t answer, but is hesitant to spend more time playing phone tag and feels bad about "wasting your time" when he might hire That Guy. Also, he hates having to sit through a sales pitch every time he talks to you, he just wants to gather information and make a decision on his own.

That Guy

• Potential Client goes to That Guy’s website at his convenience, reads all about his services and unique features. That Guy still has a few concerns, so he fills out the contact form with a few questions.
• That Guy responds with an email that answers all the questions just 3 hours later, leaving Potential Client with all the information he needs to make an informed decision.

How easy is it for your clients to gather information about your business? How easy is it for them to get their questions answered thoroughly and quickly? How could your website improve these processes?

I recently took the long-overdue step of hiring an assistant. Now that I took the plunge, I don’t know what I was waiting for! One of the biggest changes since I hired her is that I now have a simple solution for anything I am having trouble motivating myself to do.

You know how it is when you run your own business. There is that looming list of things that have to get done that you just DON’T want to do. Every day you push it off, either for the fun stuff or stupid busywork that you create to waste time. Maybe it’s finances, updating your website, or a huge project that you can’t even figure out where to start on.

Whatever it is - it needs to get done, and it hasn’t.

So what do I do now when there’s something I don’t want to do? I DON’T DO IT! You can spend hours reading productivity blogs trying to figure out how to motivate yourself, but your assistant already has a great motivation: they have to because that’s what you pay them to do. See how easy that is?

So the next time there is a task on your to-do list getting bumped to the next day over and over again, now you know exactly how to get it done: have someone else do it.

Came across this while using LinkedIn today, check out her name:

This is why you always want to use a font with a full character set!