By Ryan Swadley

Everyone knows there are plenty of ways to reach a customer today. But why reach a customer online? Today you either have a website or have no window to the outside world. Consumers of today increasingly don’t read newspapers, watch TV, and have limited attention spans. If you have kids you probably know they are lucky to even know what the yellow pages are. Not having a good web presence today is the modern day equivalent of not having a phone number for your business. How will your customers reach you when they are ready to make a purchase?

More and more customers are starting to look for information online and for good reason.

It’s Convenient - It can be done at your own leisure. Whether consumers are shopping for a better dentist or a better hair salon they can look at other opinions and read reviews.
It’s Fast- It can be done without the hassle of driving around and going from store to store. With gas prices skyrocketing there is no wonder why.
Social- Many consumers today still want to make sure that their friends approve of their purchases.
Trusted in Numbers- Whether it is true or not consumers still tend to think “that if everybody is doing it” or “wearing that brand” “eating at that restaurant” then it has to be good.
According to Business Week, December 17th 2007

69% of Consumers will research a planned purchase online, prior to making a store purchase.

62% of Consumers will seek online peer reviews for planned purchases prior to making store purchases.

So just exactly what is a planned purchase? A planned purchase may be a new car, High Definition television, a plumbing service, new golf clubs, a health membership and the list goes on.

Today’s consumers are increasingly migrating to social network sites and seeking peer feedback for many decisions in their life on places such as: MySpace, Facebook, Ning!, Bebo, Linked In and more. These sites are being used to form the 21st Century’s social gathering places for friends, family members and business professionals to share opinions, gather contacts, create memories watch videos, share digital photos and post their current likes and dislikes.

It is the new marketers challenge to connect into this new wave of consumers on their own turf.

Particularly, with the Millenials the ages born from 1982-2002 as they have more or less grew up around technology their whole lives.

Just how much buying power do these milllennials have?

According to Kelly Mooney President & Chief Experience Offer from Resource Interactive

What is the exponential dollar power of the digital millennials?

$200 billion in annual direct spending power, 15%-17% spent online, and “co-purchasing” influence on the buying decisions of America’s households.

How much do the digital millennials influence household purchases?

81% of clothing and apparel purchases
77% of groceries purchases
76% of movie, video, DVD purchases
69% of video games and systems purchases
68% of computer purchases
66% of cell phone and computer software purchases…

So how does your business tap into this elusive audience?

The answers for doing this are not necessarily so obvious and various ways are being deployed by some of today’s top brand’s in different companies today using wikis, Facebook Applications, Google Gadgets, blogging and more. One thing they all have in common is one goal of creating enough buzz and awareness that they create a campaign that spreads on the Internet like wild-fire.

What is the Exact Formula for Success?

While no one has figured out the exact formula as of now the search is still on for the right way to reach this coveted new demographic. Either way, the message is clear the new customer is here to stay and the more your business continues to adapt to the way these millennials communicate the more likely you are to succeed. The challenge for business owners will not only be to reach the consumer of tomorrow but to turn them into “the new consumer of today.”

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Ryan Swadley is the Chief Executive Officer of Paladin Inc. an award winning digital communications firm specializing in web development and leveraging new media marketing channels. He is also a consecutive top ten finalist in the technology category for the Indy’s Best and Brightest award for Business Executives under the age of 40 in 2006 and 2007. Visit: http://www.paladin3d.com/ to learn more.

by Annie Johnson

Would you like to increase the number and quality of referrals you get? Building relationships is the key. It starts with your relationship with your advocates and continues through building a relationship with referred customers.

It’s like a courtship. You ask your friends to introduce you to single people they know because you know your friends know you and who might be compatible with you. They tell the other person about you and you about the other person. You may talk on the phone or via email to begin the process of getting to know each other. You arrange to meet, hopefully with your mutual friend there, too.

At this point, do you ask them to marry you?

Typically in referrals, that’s exactly what people do! That’s the point where most people ask for the sale. Although it takes more time to build a relationship first, it is more effective and productive in the long run.

Courting Referrals

#1 Train Your Advocate.
As in dating, you ask people who already know you and have done business with you to become your advocate and refer others to you. It might not occur to them.

Take them out for coffee or lunch and explain what you’d like them to do for you. Start with appreciating what a good customer/associate they are. Then ask if they would be willing to be your advocate. Tell them what you would like them to do:

· Be aware when someone else mentions a need for your kind of product or service. (Some people are good at this, but many need to be “trained” to watch for and respond to expressed needs. Talking about his may help you both to cross-refer.)

· Suggest that person might like to meet you and give the reasons why. (Explain what part of your business lends itself to referrals and what kind of customers could use your product or service.)

· Give that person your contact information and ask if you can contact them and how. (You want that person to have your contact information, but don’t rely on them to call you. Have the advocate find out the best way for you to contact them—and assure them that you won’t give them a hard sell.)

· Tell you about the referral as soon as possible. (Encourage your advocate to get back to you immediately. The other person has a need and will probably act on finding a solution. The sooner you know about it, the more likely you will be considered.)

· Set up a time when all three parties can get together, at least by phone. (This is like the blind date. It always goes better if the mutual acquaintance is there when you meet.)

Explain what you will do when he or she contacts you about a referral, which is to act promptly to arrange to meet with the referred customer.

#2 Begin Building a New Relationship.
Make it easy for your advocate to help you get in touch with the person referred. Take the lead in planning how you’re going to do that.

Learn all you can about the situation in which the advocate and potential customer talked about you. What is the specific need the referred person expressed that made the advocate think of you? What’s the timing? How would that person like to be contacted? Ask the advocate to introduce you.

When you meet, be interested in the other person. Refer to the conversation with your advocate only as a way of establishing a mutual connection. Look for other connections like a Chamber of Commerce, a sport or music, or a philanthropic organization, whatever might generate a conversation that helps you get to know more about each other.

Ask about their business. Be interested in what you can do for them. Remember you’re in the courting phase. If you can establish a connection, arrange to talk later—possibly about how you can meet the need expressed to the advocate. Ask how they would like this to happen.

Follow up on all your commitments. Send a thank you note or email.

#3 Thank Your Advocate.
Have you ever referred someone to a colleague and then wondered what happened? Don’t let your advocates hang out like that. Tell them how the referral turned out and thank them for giving it to you. Make this a good experience for your advocates and they will be more likely to continue recommending you.

-Thanks to Dan Wilkewitz of RealPro Real Estate & Mortgage 970.231.3714 for the concept of thinking of the referral process as similar to courting.
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Annie Johnson, owner of AA Limos, has built the company on a reputation for !st Class* Customer Service. *!st Class = astonishingly high quality. Show your out of town visitors how important they are – have a limousine pick them up. Call 970-587-9299 or 866-587-9299 (toll free) for reservations.

by Gina Nieves

This month I show you where to place the keywords.

This is part four of an article series on the Building Blocks of Search Engine Success. If you want to read the first three articles, you can read them on my blog.

To recap, the building blocks of search engine success are:

1. Build a website that is search engine friendly. That means search engines can find your website and capture the content on your site.

2. Identify what search terms people use to find your product or service and ultimately your website.

3. Identify reputable websites that can link to your website.

4. Analyze results and revisit the first three building blocks.

I should note that this article may contain some website building language that is unfamiliar to you. If you are unfamiliar with these terms, contact a professional developer to add your keywords.

Keyword Placement

You will have search engine success if you follow all of the tips I shared in the previous three articles.

Focus

Focus on no more than three keywords for each page of your website. If you have 15 keywords it is very difficult to place all of the keywords in the areas I list below. For example, if you sell office supplies and copy machines, you want a page just for your copy machines. On that page you optimize your copy machine keywords only.

Title Tags

The most important location to place the keywords is within your title tag. The words in your title tag tell the search engines what your website is about. I recommend placing your most important keywords in your title tag. Avoid using a title tag such as “About Us". No one is going to type “About Us” into Google when searching for your product.

Here is a sample title tag from my website. I use “Website Design, Internet Marketing, Graphic Design - Putnam…".

Now let’s put it to the test. Go to http://www.google.com/ and search for “website design Putnam County". I rank first on the first page. Now try “Internet Marketing Putnam County". If you notice my page follows all of the elements of search engine friendly design as well.

Header Tags

The header tags are the headlines on your website. Use the h1 and h2 tags when adding headlines to your website. You should try to have a header tag on each page of your website.

Let’s take a test drive by visiting my services page. In the services section of my website I use “Custom Web Design” as a header tag. Now search for “custom web design Putnam county” in Google. My website is on the first page. Not only is the site on the first page but if you look at my results in Google the words “Custom Web Design” is in bold.

Avoid the mistake made by many professional web developers and customers. To enhance the website, all of the headers are a beautiful graphic. I have had, and continue to have, customers that order me to use graphic headers because they believe the look is the most important aspect of the website. It is not…the most important aspect of a website is growing your business.

Body Text

The body text is the text people read on your website. Use your keywords throughout your text; however, make sure it reads well. Readers should enjoy your website and it should look natural. I recommend hiring a professional copywriter if you have a lot of content on your website.

There are more important factors to keyword placement than the areas listed in this article. I have listed the most important factors.

Gina Nieves is the owner of MarkNet Group Web Design. Gina has been providing web design and Internet marketing services since 1998. Gina strongly believes in using your website to fuel the growth of your company. For more information, visit her on the web at www.marknetgroup.com.

by Pamela Muldoon

Do you know the numbers in your business? To get your business on a growth fast track, the first place to start is where you are right now. Like any plan, to get to your end destination, you have to know where you are starting from. Understanding basic numbers in your business does not have to be an overwhelming process.

With the “5 Ways” model you can begin to breakdown important numbers in your business today. Numbers that will allow you to make informed decisions on what activities to focus on for continued growth in your business. Let’s recap how the activity vs. result formula works:

5 Ways To Grow Any Business:

1. Number of Leads: the total number of potential buyers that you contacted or that have contacted you in the past year.

2. Conversion Rate: The percentage of people from your leads who bought your product or service.

Number of Leads x Conversion Rate (activities) = Number of Customers (result)

3. Number of Transactions: The average number of times your customers buy from you over a 12 month period.

4. Average $$ Sale: The average amount purchased by your customers; add up your total sales and divide by the number of sales.

Transactions x Average $$$ Sale (activities) = Revenue (result)

5. Profit Margin: This is the percentage of each and every sale that’s profit. In other words, if you sold something for $100 and $25 was profit, then you’ve got a twenty-five percent margin.

Revenue x Margins = Profit

Number Of Transactions: The third activity of this formula is Number of Transactions.

You’ve probably heard the statistics: It costs six to seven times more to get a new customer than it does to sell to an old one. How often do your customers buy from you? What is the lifetime worth of each customer to your business?

Number of Transactions is when you go through your current customer database and track how often each one buys from you in a 12 month timeframe. Some may only have bought from you once, perhaps others numerous times. The idea is to get the average so you have a place from which to gauge your current customer activity. This will allow you to decide how and where you can increase this activity amongst your current customer base. As an ActionCOACH Business Coach, I have over 50 different strategies that focus solely on increasing current customer activity for my clients to choose from. Here is a sample:

Underpromise and Overdeliver: This one may sound pretty simple, but underpromising can be a bit tricky. It means you need to be willing to create some modesty in your marketing. For example, if you tell your customers it will be in stock on Wednesday, get it on Tuesday, and call them on Monday afternoon to let them know it will be in early. Always do a little more than they expect. If you do as you promise, you will probably get them to return another time; if you go above and beyond the expectation you will have customers for life.

Inform Customers of Your Entire Range of Products/Services: Oftentimes, your customers only buy from you for one specific reason. Don’t assume that your customers know all of the products or services you offer simply because they have purchased one from you. They already trust you and your main product. Be sure to educate your clients regularly on the range of products and services you offer.

Socialize With Clients: Show you customers how much you value and appreciate them by inviting them out to dinner or have a client appreciation party at your home or special location. Make friends with your customers. Spend time with them away from the work environment. This will create a special bond that goes beyond business and consumer. People find it hard to change businesses after they’ve come to know the owner personally.

Send Out A Newsletter: This is a great tool to stay in consistent contact with current and future customers. Be sure to provide value to those receiving your newsletter. If you include enough good information, people will read, and more importantly, they will buy. A great e-magazine tool is GrowthPOD, which uses your current network of strategic business partners to reach thousands of people each month. Check out www.growthpod.com to learn more.

These are just a few of the strategies you could use to increase your customer transactions. The key is to find one or two that you are not currently using and try them out. But remember….Test & Measure your results! To understand which strategies work best for you and your business, you must be tracking the outcome of each strategy! And if it’s working, then keep doing it! Commit to working smarter this year, not harder. Grow your business, one strategy at a time!
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Pamela Muldoon is a Business & Executive Coach with ActionCOACH Business Coaching, the World’s #1 Business Coaching Firm.

Learn more about how the 5 Ways can change your business. Contact Pamela for your Complimentary Coaching Session by calling 763-670-7238 or go to www.actioncoach.com/pamelamuldoon.

Want to launch your own e-magazine? Go to www.growthpod.com for details.

by Candice Bennett

How well do you know your customer? Do you know who they are? Do you know what motivates them? Do you know how they make decisions? Do you understand why they choose your company over the competition? Do you know why they come back to you over time or why they don’t? Do you know why potential customers choose your competitors instead of your company? Segmentation studies and customer satisfaction tracking studies are two types of studies that might help your company better understand its customer.

Segmentation Studies

Segmentation studies are large quantitative studies conducted either over the telephone or online. These type of surveys generally have sample sizes of at least 600 respondents, and sometimes as many as 5,000. The main purpose of these surveys is to ask respondents a battery of demographic, behavioral and attitudinal questions.

Demographic questions can include questions such as gender, age, geographic area, education, income and marital status.

Behavioral questions can be quite varied. Respondents can be asked about how frequently they use a service or product. They can be asked how they use a product or service. They can be asked where they get information about certain types of products or services (for example, are they getting their information from magazines, the Internet, television or word of mouth). They can be asked about how much they usually spend on certain types of products or services, or how much they expect to spend. These questions can run the gamut but will help the researcher better place a value on a particular consumer when it comes to deciding on which potential customers should be targeted and which ones should not.

Attitudinal questions tend to be a battery of statements where respondents are asked whether or not they agree. These inquiries can help understand customer motivations. For example, it might be important for a packaged goods company to know if their likely purchaser cares about protecting the environment. It might be important for a restaurant chain to know if their customer lets their children decide where they eat.

With this wealth of data collected from a segmentation survey, statisticians can then use a variety of tools at their disposal to develop different types of customer segmentations. Why is this useful? It can help companies determine which segments of customers and potential customers have the most value for their business—either because they are likely to spend the most money, use the product or service most frequently, or are most likely to influence others to use the product or service. Prioritizing the customer base can then help companies decide how to spend their marketing dollars most effectively. For example, if a company sells pink hand tools, like screwdrivers and hammers, that are also smaller in size and designed to fit a woman’s hand, maybe the company should choose publications that women read and keep, rather than in men’s do-it-yourself magazines.

Customer Satisfaction Tracking Studies

Customer satisfaction tracking studies are also important for just about any company. Tracking studies are surveys that use the same questions and the same methodology over a period of time. The objective is to quantify a variety of measures against an initial benchmark so that a company can make certain that decisions they are making about their product and service offerings are keeping their customers satisfied.

It’s important when conducting tracking studies to keep the survey itself consistent. Key measures being tracked should be asked the exact same way every time. Also, it’s very important to make sure that the same type of people takes the survey over time. For example, a packaged goods company that wants to measure satisfaction for its floor cleaner should not conduct a tracking study where they talk to only women in March who clean their house once a week and then talk to both men and women in November who clean their house only once every two months. These are different groups of people and their responses from March to November most likely will be different, simply because the population surveyed is very different, rather than because opinion about the cleaning product has changed in six months. Just like any type of scientific method, you want to try and control for as many variables as possible in order to determine what is really impacting change, if even there is any.

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Candice Bennett is the owner of Candice Bennett & Associates. Visit www.candicebennett.com to learn more.