Posted by:
Julie McManus
April 25, 2008
Issue #404
Dear Business Builder,
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend Yanik Silver’s Underground Internet Marketing conference in Los Angeles. There once was a time when I attended several conferences a year … hitting the big names in my industry like the Direct Marketing Association and the Newsletter Publisher Association (now called Special Information Publishers Association) every year. But times have changed, and for me the conferences come fewer and farther between … especially with two little girls at home.
But there are so many things I love about conferences and this one was no different.
The networking opportunities are by far the biggest reason to go to conferences. In a strange twist of fate, I met two important people that I needed for upcoming initiatives, and a short three weeks later, I’m already discussing implementation … plus scores more that I will contact when the right moment (or need) arrives.
The inside marketing secrets can’t be beat. The unique aspect of Yanik’s conference is he brings in real business owners … this year Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com (nearly $1 billion in sales), and Mike Faith, the CEO of Headsets.com ($30 million in sales), were the keynote speakers, and that’s just two of among half a dozen other online business owners that spoke. I walked away with dozens of great ideas – that are working in the real world – I’ll implement this year that will make an immediate impact on my client’s bottom line.
You get to see the latest trends. Of course, video continues to be huge … especially as technology makes it easier to not only get your video on the web but for users to watch it. Podcasting is also hot, especially video podcasting, which is considered to be one of the best ground floor marketing opportunities available. And buzz marketing is growing in popularity like a house on fire.
And lastly you get to see the frustrations. Although frustration was few and far between at this conference (it was a really optimistic crowd), there was one question that kept cropping up. It came up several times during open panel discussions … and it’s a question I’m seeing on a regular basis …
How do I get traffic to my website?
Now at first glance, this seems like a crazy question (especially from people already making a living online) and a really huge question all at the same time. And since I know there are so many new entrepreneurs entering this space all the time, I’ve always just assumed it was newbies asking the question.
But when it kept cropping up at this conference, it had me wondering about the education level of people entering the Internet marketing space. And it got me really mad!
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Posted by:
Julie McManus
April 18, 2008
Issue #399
(Frequent Flyer)
Hi Ya, Fellow ‘Net Trenchers!
Did you miss me? I was on vacation in Colorado. My family and I rented a condo in Keystone for a little spring skiing, plus we spent some time with family in Denver. We had a nice, relaxing time … at least as relaxing as possible with a four-year-old and eight-year-old (that have never seen snow or skied before) in tow. Although the weather wasn’t exactly springlike, if you ask me … we had snow every day and a couple of days included 60 mile per hour winds and whiteout conditions. But on the sunny days, you could see the green tips of all the flowers trying to break free of a winter’s worth of freezing temperatures.
A good time was had by all except for a few minor mishaps, including getting stuck on the top of the mountain in a major snowstorm with two frightened little girls and only an open chairlift to get down. As well as another big snowstorm that rolled in the night before we were scheduled to check out of our condo and left the roads an absolute mess (with snow chains required for all commercial vehicles) … not exactly comfortable driving for Florida folks.
But perhaps the worst experience was that we were flying American Airlines and - like hundreds of thousands of other folks - our flights were cancelled …
Thursday started like many of the other mornings … dark grey skies and lots of snow falling. We’d seen the news reports about the American flight cancellations, so I checked American’s website Wednesday night to see if we were affected. As of Wednesday night, our flights were still a go. But as the snowstorm rolled in Wednesday night, another type of storm was taking place over at American Airlines. 500 flights cancelled on Wednesday … 900 more flights cancelled on Thursday …
So as we rushed to beat the snowstorm and get out of our condo on Thursday morning, I decided to check the flight status one last time. Sure as sugar … our flights were cancelled. A quick call to American’s customer service line elicited a busy signal and then another. What should I do!? I quickly hopped onto Expedia.com (as my brother-in-law is yelling in the background “We gotta go if we’re going to beat this storm!”) to check and see if we could rebook on another airline. I ended up booking our return flight on Frontier Airlines. The good thing was it was a non-stop flight. The bad thing was it left at 11:55 p.m. – a red-eye – and it cost more than our total round trip on American.
As we quickly vacated our condo, I started to wonder whether re-booking on my own was the right thing to do. But after seeing thousands of people standing at ticket counters and sleeping in airports all across the country on television … I realized it was.
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Posted by:
Julie McManus
March 28, 2008
Issue #384
Dear Business Builder,
As I write this, I’m on an airplane headed to LA to Yanik Silver’s Underground Internet Marketing Conference. I’ve actually wanted to attend Yanik’s conference for many years, but it was never convenient … two little girls whining “Mommy don’t go” seems to have a way of making a lot of things inconvenient. And this time was no exception, but here I am … on my way, regardless.
This time I couldn’t pass it up. The big draw being Dr. Mercola and his organically grown list of over 1.4 million subscribers. Heck, if I pick up a few new techniques to organically generate a list one quarter that size … I’ll add several million dollars to my health client’s bottom line.
Clayton’s been talking a lot about his partnership model. And sadly, I missed his and Tony’s teleconference on the subject. But from what I hear, Tony put Clayton through the wringer … but I’m more than sure Clayton held his own. If there ever were a king of the partnership model, it would definitely be Clayton … having made millions through his partnering ventures (believe me, I’ve seen the checks).
I can’t think of a more fitting person to explain exactly how it’s done than Clayton. So if you haven’t seen his recent offer to join his EasyWriters Club so you can get all his partnering secrets … I suggest you check it out now.
Working in a consulting capacity and especially as an exclusive partner can be great. But, it can also be a big giant pain in the keister. Firing a client is probably one of the most difficult business decisions you’ll ever make, so when you set out to establish a relationship with a client, it pays to know exactly who you’re dealing with. And this isn’t always easy.
Some of the client relationships I’ve been in, I knew exactly what I was getting into ahead of time. I knew the client and their business well, therefore I knew how they operated and what to expect before I started. It’s the "eyes wide open" scenario.
In other cases, I’ve entered into contracts with businesses where I didn’t know the client or how they operate their business. So I relied on word of mouth and referrals as a starting point for entering into a relationship. Although colleagues can tell you someone is a nice person, easy to work for and/or well respected, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll make a good client. Or for that matter a good partner. And I suspect this will be your situation more times than not.
So what exactly makes a good client? And how can you know? Good questions and I’m going to answer them right now.
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Posted by:
Julie McManus
March 14, 2008
Issue #374
Dear Business Builder,
Oh customers! You can’t live with them and you certainly can’t live without them. But boy do they whine … and not to mention piss and moan about everything.
Here’s the scenario … a green, fresh out of school marketer starts her very first corporate job. She’s just gotten through executing her very first marketing promotion … and the e-mails have just started hitting the inboxes.
Less then 5 minutes later, the marketer’s own inbox is flooded with messages from the customer service reps … the indignant harbingers of the frontline …
The order button’s NOT working … Mr. Johnson tried and it didn’t WORK!
The newbie starts to panic. She goes to the page and checks the order button and it’s working fine.
Mr. Smith would like to place an order, but says something’s wrong with the order form. CAN YOU CHECK IT AGAIN PLEASE?
Once again, she goes back to the page and places a test order and everything is fine.
Mrs. Pitts is furious. She wants to know how we got her e-mail address. She’s turning the matter over to her attorney.
And now the poor marketer is in full panic mode. Her first attempt at executing an e-mail promotion, and she’s getting her company sued. Well, that will surely mean a one way ticket out on the street.
And so it goes … dozens and dozens of customer complaints. By the end of the day, the new marketer has her desk packed and is ready to be unceremoniously escorted from the building.
If there’s one constant in any direct response business, it’s complaining customers. It’s the one thing that takes new marketers very much by surprise.
And quite frankly, Customer Service Reps don’t help the matter … often blowing things completely out of perspective.
Only a small percentage of marketing prospects will actually take the time to voice a complaint. But to a CSR that takes phone calls all day – a dozen calls in a row all complaining about virtually the same thing is a huge deal … even if that dozen calls equals less than 1/10th of 1 percent of the total number of people that actually received the marketing message.
It’s the CSR’s job to sound the horn … it’s the marketers job to put it into perspective.
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Posted by:
Julie McManus
March 7, 2008
Issue #369
Dear Business Builder,
I’ve been upstaged!
Dammit, I wake up this morning and now that curmudgeonly, stubborn, intellectually arrogant bonehead you hear from on Mondays is giving away even more FREE stuff!
Honestly, how can I compete with that?
Advice to Clayton – STOP Googling yourself … you’re going to go blind!
I feel like a bride whose younger, prettier, skinnier sister just showed up to her wedding wearing white. Only in this case, my sister’s a biker in an expensive black leather jacket that just rode up on a bad-ass Harley.
Clayton, I know where you live … and I have a nice friend named Guido who really likes me a lot! I’ll show you … steal my thunder …
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