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TVS Internet Marketing, LLC.

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Carmen Rane Hudson

How a Contractor Can Use A Web Contact Form to Make More Sales

June 17, 2013 by Carmen Rane Hudson

In a previous post we talked about how your web contact form can chase customers away if it isn’t set up correctly. But there are other ways to lose these leads.

This is a slide show presentation from B2B Lead Roundtable. The numbers are just as applicable to selling to homeowners as they are to commercial sales.

Research from Harvard, MIT, Pinpoints Hard Lead Conversion Lessons With Easy Solutions from B2B Lead Roundtable

So what are the takeaways of this presentation, and how do they relate to web contact forms?

Call Your Leads Fast

According to the presentation it takes about 5 minutes for a contact form lead to go stale. You need a way to put in a call the moment someone hits “submit.”

Your office staff can tackle the task if you want, as could an inside sales rep. Or you could use your mobile phone.

This was a technique that was recently outlined on a Screenwerk.com post called “Plumber: 95% of My Leads Come from Yelp.”

“He [the plumber] spoke about his reliance on his smartphone as a tool in the field and how he uses it to take payments (Square) and quickly respond to emails and make callbacks.”

This is a huge area of opportunity. Slide 9 indicates that it takes most people 44 minutes to put in a call back. If you’re competing with anyone at all you’re likely to become the winner simply by being the first person to pick up the phone.

Slide 11 makes this even more clear. 78% of the sales are going to the first caller, according to the report.

Now of course, if your prospect uses the form at 3 in the morning it’s more than acceptable to give them a call at a more reasonable hour. You don’t have to monitor your web form 24/7. Just make sure it’s covered during normal business hours.

Be Persistent

So you didn’t get the homeowner the first time. Do you drop a voicemail and go on to other things?

Not if you want to make the sale. Note slide 14. You need to try calling at least 6 times before you giveup.

Slide 41 specifically suggests 8 calls.

However, do leave a solid voice mail when you do call. Otherwise, how will the caller know that you were the first and fastest to respond? If they didn’t pick up the phone, they wouldn’t.

Keep in Touch

The slide show talks about capturing permissions in order to make contact again sometime in the future. It may be more efficient to just offer the option to subscribe to your blog so that potential customers can receive an update every time you update your blog.

According to massively popular blogger Jon Morrow, this represents the wave of the future.

I’ve talked about email marketing before. Even then I was talking about simply sending out blog updates as a time-saver. Let’s face it, your blog is the place where you’re working to create content that is specifically useful to the reader, and that’s pretty much the only kind of e-mail that the customer is that interested in receiving.

However, it’s not the only way to get the job done. Some people use their e-mail lists to go beyond the basics and to get “deeper into the weeds,” moving beyond the content they post online.

One way or the other though, you have to provide some method to hold onto people who visit your website and express an interest. Otherwise they’re just going to forget about you.

Using Calendars and Reminder Calls

I was quite intrigued by Slide 31, which mentions how Google or Outlook calendar invites can decrease no-shows. You could do this for estimate appointments and for service appointments, but you should definitely ask the customer’s permission to do this while you’ve got them on the phone.

Asking permission also gives you the chance to ask customers which of the two services they prefer to use.

However, the reminder call idea on Slide 32 does not require any special permissions.

Closing Thoughts

If you’ve done what it takes to turn your website into a big lead generation machine you’re already doing more than your competition probably is. Now you just need to tighten up your response so you can make the most of this advantage.

Filed Under: General Online Marketing Tagged With: marketing, small business marketing, small business websites

How to Market a Small Business When You Don’t Have Time

June 17, 2013 by Carmen Rane Hudson

how-to-market-a-small-businessIn a previous post I addressed some of the issues surrounding business marketing and how those issues can impact your time. Specifically, I spoke about the need to value your own time and the need to understand how much that time is costing you, specifically as it relates to internet marketing.

Of course, the price tag for not doing the marketing is correspondingly higher. If you don’t put yourself out there where people who want you can find you then you just won’t be in business for very long.

So what can you do?

Focus

There are 50 ways or more to market your business, drive traffic to your website, and increase the number of times that you appear in the public eye.

Trying to focus on all of those methods, however, can be extremely overwhelming.

Instead, you should focus on 3-5 methods that really work well for your business. You should feel comfortable with those methods if you try to take the DIY route.

3-5 marketing methods done well can bring you plenty of business. Trying to do dozens of methods badly, however, won’t bring you any business at all.

Take Advantage of Slow Days

Don’t get stressed out about slow days. Turn them to your advantage.

If you can write 4 blog posts on a slow day, for example, you can use WordPress’ scheduling feature to make sure those posts are coming out at regular intervals over the next 2 weeks.

Then you can jump on Hoot Suite. Stop and reply to anyone you need to, then schedule three tweets per blog post.

Then, perhaps you can take about half an hour to clean up some of your citations. And, if you have time and haven’t automated the email, you can e-mail some of your customers to request feedback.

Now you’ve had a very productive day, and you’ve made it more likely that you’ll have fewer slow days in the future.

Get Help!

If you really, consistently have no time for marketing then it’s time to get some help. Call us at (612) 424-5700 or toll-free at (800) 679-6005 to discuss whether getting full-time online marketing help is right for your business.

Filed Under: Small Business Websites & Blogs

How to Write a Craigslist Ad

June 14, 2013 by Carmen Rane Hudson

how-to-write-a-craigslist-adIn my last post I talked about some of the pros and cons of using free local classified ads like Craigslist to market your business. Today, I’ll talk about how to write a Craigslist ad that gets good results.

This is important for more than just conversions. Writing a really good ad will help customers see you as legitimate even though you are choosing to use Craigslist to market your business.

Write a Strong Headline

Use a strong headline that communicates the benefits of clicking on your ad. For example:

Get Your House Sparkling Clean, Today!

or:

Let Me Finish Your Honey Do List.

For a cleaning contractor and a handyman respectively.

Resist the urge to use a zillion exclamation points, to shout in all caps, or to surround your headline with hearts and stars. It just makes you look desperate and untrustworthy.

Use Photographs

People who don’t put photos on Craigslist look like they’re hiding something. Photos increase conversions by building trust.

Don’t upload your logo. Your logo doesn’t really tell your customers anything.

Instead, show a before and after picture of a carpet that you’ve cleaned. Or put up a picture of yourself, fixing a sink.

You’re trying to create a visual of the benefit that you’re trying to communicate to your customers.

Use Prices

People on Craigslist are usually on some kind of a budget. It’s okay to list a price range for your services, or to use an average price, explaining that it’s subject to an estimate and that your averages are based on a certain square footage or whatever.

Just give people an idea of what to expect. Don’t be coy.

As a bonus, people won’t call you if they can’t afford you.

Add Your Website

You might as well get SEO benefits from being on Craigslist. And people might want to know more about you before calling you.

So add your website. Besides, it makes you look far more professional.

Tell the Whole Story

Don’t make people wait to find out what they need to do. Your ad should state what you do, why you do it, why it’s unique, and how it solves your target customer’s problem.

Then you need to add all relevant contact information such as your phone number and your address.

Be careful about adding your email address. You don’t need a lot of spam, and if people want to email it’s probably better to let truly interested parties grab that information from your website.

Keep Your Expectations Low

If your Craigslist ad generates a sale or two every month then awesome! If not, you haven’t really lost anything.

You can come back and post a new version of the ad once a month. If people are searching for your type of business they’ll find it, so in my opinion there’s no need for you to post multiple times unless you have multiple products to sell (like specific cars). It’s just annoying to come across the same ad over and over again.

Have you used Craigslist? Did it work? If so, what did you do to make it work? Let me know in the comments section below!

Filed Under: Small Business SEO

Should a Small Business Use Free Local Classified Ads?

June 13, 2013 by Carmen Rane Hudson

free-local-classified-adsSeveral people on various small business forums that I’ve spent some time on have asked whether or not free local classified ads like Craigslist are helpful for lead generation.

Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. Locally-focused businesses that sell real products and services can indeed pick up some good leads to this medium.

So I thought I’d take a moment to discuss some of the pros and cons of using Craigslist.

The Pros of Craigslist

Free local classified ads have an unbeatable ROI. And unlike other “free” internet advertising methods, they really don’t take too much time since you’ll look like a spammer if you post them too often.

Craigslist ads are searchable too. That means that you could appear at the top of a highly targeted local search even if you aren’t at the top of a chronological list of category results.

Craigslist ranks very well in Google. Individual ads do sometimes come up in the search results. So Craigslist can give you a little SEO boost.

And people who are searching ads on Craigslist are usually there to buy and not to window shop or do research. That means you’re much more likely to make a sale.

These pros are true for just about any free local classified ads site that you can think of.

The Cons of Craigslist

Craigslist nevertheless carries quite a few noteworthy pitfalls.

First and foremost, the site’s got a scuzzy reputation. This reputation can impact you if you aren’t mindful of the way that you present yourself.

Second, people often jump on Craigslist because they are looking for some kind of deal. This means you’re likely to run into a lot of tire kickers, lowballers, and bargain hunters.

In some cases, Craigslist is not a good match for your target market or customers. If you sell interior design services to high-end clients you may as well market yourself elsewhere – your customers just aren’t looking for you here.

It’s also very easy for trolls and competitors to bock and flag your ads. And a lot of spammers lurk around the site, looking for email addresses.

Finally, it’s easy and free, which means that there’s a real danger that you’ll want to rest on your laurels instead of pursuing stronger marketing methods.

These cons are true of just about any free local classifieds ads site that you can think of.

Who Does Craigslist Work For?

Do you rent property? Craigslist is an awesome place for you as it’s often people’s first stop when they’re looking for a new place to live.

Craigslist is also a good place to sell cars and furniture. It’s very popular for these things.

If you’re a local contractor, it all depends. Handymen and cleaning services do well.

Plumbers, electricians, painters, and roofers do okay, too.

Higher-end specialty custom contractors or products should look elsewhere.

In my next post I’ll talk about how to write a successful Craigslist ad so that you can get great results if you decide that this is a good venue to add to your overall marketing mix.

Filed Under: Small Business SEO

Is Your Small Business Relying Too Much on Referrals in Marketing?

June 12, 2013 by Carmen Rane Hudson

“I don’t need to market. I get all of my business from referrals.”

I hear it a lot, and my response is often, “Hmm. Really?”

Don’t get me wrong. Using referrals in marketing is an awesome way to build your business. That’s why I devoted an entire post to using the internet to build a referral network.

But referrals alone won’t keep you busy forever. You have to keep engaging in consistent marketing efforts.

I’m not the only one who feels this way. BloggingPainters.com recently ran a post called The Danger with Referrals which talked about this very concept.

“There is nothing more invigorating than when one of your happy customers tells one of their friends about the fine work you do…and a referral is born.

But there is a real danger of being passive about getting referrals.

While word-of-mouth is the top way of getting new business, you cannot be lazy about it. You need to stimulate activity.

If you don’t actively pursue referrals, one day the phone will just stop ringing. Your referrals will dry up…and yes, your business will, too.

I couldn’t have said it better.

Darren Slaughter of DarrenSlaughter.com followed up on the post with this outstanding comment.

DarrenComment

My guess is, most small business owners know all this. Most small business owners just don’t enjoy marketing very much.

Putting yourself out there is uncomfortable. Marketing can be expensive, time consuming, difficult to predict or all of the above.

Only marketers really feel like they’re “good” at marketing, and we all have a tendency to avoid things that make us feel awkward or less competent.

But marketing still has to get done.

Getting customers is all about moving them through a sales funnel. But a sales funnel isn’t like a water funnel.

In a water funnel, all of the water at the top eventually makes it to the bottom. That doesn’t happen in a sales funnel.

Instead, customers leave at various points in the funnel until only a small percentage of them remain to become buyers.

Red, yellow and green sales funnel with arrow

“Suspects” are in research mode. They’re a little bit interested in what you have to offer, but they’re not necessarily interested in you, and they haven’t made any real decisions yet.

If you’re a siding contractor maybe it’s just occurring to these people that their siding looks like crap, so they’re doing a little bit of poking around online to figure out what their options might be and what prices might be like.

Prospects are a lot more serious. They are actually in a position to replace their siding. They’re qualified buyers because they’ve got the money to replace the siding as well as a need to do so.

As you can see, there are already fewer prospects than suspects.

Callers are now taking some kind of action. They’ve filled out your contact form or picked up the phone because they want a free estimate from you. You actually have a chance to earn their business, but, of course, you won’t get them all.

Buyers, of course, ultimately choose your company. You get to work, and then they pay you. This is the smallest funnel of all.

For simplicity’s sake let’s imagine that you lose 25% of the people who show up at each level of your funnel. That’s way too generous – 100 suspects will never produce 25 buyers. You’d be lucky to get 1 buyer off of just 100 suspects.

But, using these numbers will give me some neat, clean numbers that I can work with as I try to demonstrate why you MUST market your business.

Marketing fills up the top of the funnel. So in our example, you fill the top of the funnel with 100 people and then 25 buyers drop out of the bottom of the funnel.

Now let’s say that you decide not to market again because all 25 people stat sending you referrals. What happens?

Let’s say that each of these people generates about 2 referrals. That would be a pretty engaged customer.

2 referrals per buyer assumes, of course, that every single buyer is so happy with your business that they feel the need to tell people about it. You already know that this doesn’t happen but, again, we’ll go ahead and pretend that it does.

So, great, you think. I now have 50 new buyers, who should become 100 new buyers after they give me their referrals.

Only you don’t have 50 new buyers. You have 50 new people who are starting at the top of your sales funnel!

17 of those people will probably never be anything more than suspects. 11 of them will drop out of the funnel at the prospect phase, and 11 more will drop out of the call phase.

So what does this leave you with? It leaves you with just 11 new customers.

And if you sit there thinking that everything’s fine because the phone seems to be ringing with these awesome referrals then you won’t notice your business is drying up.

But your business will dry up, because now you have 9 people stopping at the suspect phase, 4 people stopping at the prospect phase, and 4 people who drop off at the “call” phase.

Now you have a grand total of four new customers.

Now you might ask why I’m not dividing them evenly. Well, it’s mostly because 50 doesn’t divide evenly by 4 and neither does 22. And more people are almost always going to drop off at the suspect phase than at any other phase.

The “I’ll kind of think about this but will never make a decision” crowd is always the largest.

So what’s the takeaway here?

A referral is not a guaranteed sale.

It’s not a guaranteed sale even if you call the referral. And think about the way that most customers give referrals in the first place.

“Hey, if you ever want to get your siding done, you should call Joe.” (Suspect. This person has maybe never given any thought to their siding before their friend mentioned this in passing).

“You said you wanted to redo your siding last month. Here’s Joe’s number.” (Prospect. This person at least wants their siding done and probably has the money to do it.)

“Hey, do you know a good siding pro?”

“Yeah, call Joe.”

This will create a caller. The referral actually started this conversation.

“Oh my God! Who did your amazing siding? I have to call that person right now. ”

“Here, call Joe.”

This is the only interaction that will generate an instant sale. As you can guess, this type of interaction doesn’t happen that often.

So not only do people not always buy when someone refers them to you, but they don’t even always call. Some of those referrals forget about the conversation. Sometimes the referral never cared that much in the first place. Some referrals run out of money before they can buy. And some change their mind.

Eventually, your happy customers are moving on to other things in the meantime. They simply forget about giving referrals.

So you have to fill the top of that funnel with everything else that you’re doing to create customers, and you have to make those efforts constantly. And of course, you need way more than 100 people at the top of that funnel. You need every last person you can pour in there.

Bottom line: marketing is NOT optional. Internet marketing is even less optional. And you can’t get all your business from referrals, period.

Filed Under: General Online Marketing

How to Respond to Bad Reviews

June 11, 2013 by Carmen Rane Hudson

ow-to-Respond-to-Bad-ReviewsBad reviews can fee like a crushing blow. It’s easy to feel defensive, panicked, and angry when you get one.

Breathe. I’m going to teach you how to respond to bad reviews in a way that lets you come out of the situation smelling like roses.

Note that nearly every review site lets you do two important things. First, they let you flag fraudulent reviews, such as the nasty fake reviews that a jealous competitor might leave. Second, they let you respond to bad reviews.

You should also be aware that a few bad reviews can actually help you make more sales. Why? Because customers trust all the 5 star reviews a lot more when there are a couple of disgruntled customers out there.

A real business is imperfect and is expected to make mistakes. So a bad review or two lets the customer know that they’re getting a real picture of what your business is like.

Now that you know that bad reviews can be a positive, you just have to know what to say in order to turn them into an even stronger selling point.

First, thank the customer for giving you feedback. Good or bad, the customer took time out of his or her day to alert you to a problem rather than simply going to someone else.

Second, apologize that the customer had a bad experience with you. Avoid the urge to get defensive about it. Every business has a bad day – maybe the customer caught you on one of yours.

Then, you can explain your position and/or propose a solution. For example:

“We’ve addressed this slow service complaint by hiring additional wait staff. Give us a call. We invite you to stop and see the difference this has made!”

This shows that you are interested in improving your business and that you care whether or not your customers have a good experience.

That specific customer may or may not return. But every other customer who visits your page will know that you run the type of small business that actually cares about customers.

This is so rare that this demonstration alone will make you look great to anyone who is thinking about working with your business.

Remember, nobody expects you to be perfect. They just expect you to deliver the best service you possibly can and to keep improving all the time.

When you improve, something else happens too. You’ll probably generate even more positive reviews, which means that a bad review will eventually get pushed lower and lower in the review results. That’s all the more reason not to treat bad reviews like they’re the end of the world.

Filed Under: Small Business SEO

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