Tech Forward:

A few days ago, I was talking with a potential client and I asked him about his company’s conversion rates.

Thankfully, he was prepared with the metrics, so he answered me quickly. (This is such an ideal scenario for a consultant.)

My next question was: What do you consider a conversion?

People use the term conversion to mean many things, including:

• Purchase
• Referral
• Sign up or opt-in
• Account creation

When looking at your own web metrics, be clear about what EXACTLY you mean when you say “conversion,” and communicate that to anyone working with you.

Don’t let term confusion trip up your internet marketing efforts!

Yeah, I’m a fan of Jim Kukral’s - what’s it to ya?

Anyway, Jim’s got a great video (3:21) about what in the dickens possessed him to give away his hard-won online video knowledge for free and what he’s gotten out of the process. It’s way more than you might think:

• Potential book deal with a major publisher

• Speaking gigs

• Consulting gigs

Hey, for 30 days, that ain’t half bad, Jim!

So, when you’re thinking about your next online marketing strategy, not only do you need to be talking to Jim, but you also need to think bigger and think free.

Just in case you didn’t go sign up for my friend Jim Kukral’s online video toolkit when I suggested it a few weeks ago, he’s been featured in a handy how-to article over at Marketing Sherpa on how to get started with online video.

Part of what I do is write for a living (obviously), and this article is well-written and has straightforward, step-by-step directions for you if you’ve always wanted to get started using online video, but were nervous/scared/hesitant/lazy Whatcha’ waitin’ for?

My blogosphere buddy and internet marketer supreme, Jim Kukral, is doing a really nice thing for everyone who wants to experiment with web video but really doesn’t know where to start.

He’s just launched a website, Online Video Toolkit, that tells you all the things you need to know to make professional-quality videos on a shoestring–and how to use them to market your business.

Here’s why I say Jim’s nice (other than that I know him and know he really is a good guy): It’s all free. No cost. Nada. Zilchorina. There’s no catch, and you can win a FlipVideo camera.

I’ve gotten an advance peek at all the goodies he’s going to be giving away, and he really does go into the nitty gritty details, from lighting (which lights you need and where to buy them–he actually videos himself in the store making selections) to apparel (types of clothes to wear and which to avoid). Jim, where do you find the time?

There are loads of different elements to businesses being successful with e-mail marketing. One of them is list pruning.

One of our clients sent me an e-mail the other day asking if removing nonresponsive people from her e-mail list will give her a more successful list.

Absolutely it will.

Think of it like this . . . when you have a plant with leaves that are half-dead, the plant’s systems have to work that much harder to attempt to send life to leaves and branches that are half-dead.

If you prune that plant and cut the dead leaves, the plant becomes much healthier. It now has free energy to sustain the leaves and branches that really want and need the extra energy, so they can grow.

Same thing with your e-mail list. Let’s face it, there are some people who are tire kickers. These are the people who signup for your lists no matter what you offer and never open the e-mail. They never buy anything. They never call your office for more information. They just sit on your list and suck up energy (all your free information).

So how can you start pruning your list?

1. Start looking at your list’s statistics. Look at the open rates overall and then start looking at the open rates per individual. It might take you some time to do this, but it’s worth it (or have your assistant do this).

2. Then look at your click-through rates (This rate measures how many people click through from your e-zine to your website). Look at the overall number and then look at specifics.

3. You can go all the way up to looking at conversions, but I’ll talk about that later. For right now, start familiarizing yourself with who the openers and the clickers are on your list.

4. Create a separate list for the inactive people on your list–those who don’t open or click. Move them to the separate list and only market to them once in a while.

Make like a healthy plant and devote your marketing energy to the leaves and branches that already show promise of growing.

If you’ve ever wondered how you can get your website to yield better results, you need to know about SitePal.

If you think you already know about SitePal, you seriously need to take another look.

As an expert about these matters, even I was able to get a good, old-fashioned schooling about SitePal’s capabilities from Yujin Sohn at the Small Business Technology Summit.

I’m amazed at what SitePal is up to right now. And the future? Fuggedaboudit! Break out your shades.

If you’re a public relations professional–or an above-average entrepreneur–you’ve probably wondered how you can get bloggers to talk about your business…in a favorable way.

Late last year, I was a guest speaker on a webinar that was geared toward PR agents. Prior to that I had had extensive conversations with business owners and PR pros about social media–and most honestly admitted they had no idea how to make social media work for them. They saw it as this black hole of yet more new technology that wasn’t going away as previously thought but, in fact, was taking the world by storm.

During my speaking tour last year a frustrated woman actually asked, “Who are these bloggers? What do they want from us? What drives them? Why do they care?”

Truthfully, most companies DO get it all wrong and end up angering the bloggers with whom they want to become allies. But, you? You’re lucky…you know me and you read this blog. That doesn’t have to happen to you.

That’s why I wrote The Blogosphere Cluebook–to show you, step-by-step, both what to do and what NOT to do when befriending bloggers. It’s not the War and Peace on social media influencers by a long shot, but it will serve as a bit of a North Star in the confusing world of widgets and wikis.

The book is free to download, post on your site or blog or e-mail to colleagues and friends.

Here’s a clip from an email I just received:

“Properly applied, the strategies revealed during this event will allow you to have an autopilot, never-ending flow of new clients pounding down your door–PLUS–a simple technique to create info products for passive revenue. “

Or what about this one:

“Never work again. There’s a new book out that explains that you don’t have to work as long or as hard as you think you do…”

For some reason, people think that the internet is going to make them rich. It reminds me so much of the old “Fool’s Gold” days.

I do believe in working smart and being strategic. I really do, but no amount of strategy in the world is going to bring in $12,000 of online income a week in the first week of business–unless, of course, you have $10,000 per week to spend on marketing and promotion. It just doesn’t make sense.

Most of the “net marketers” are just rehashed versions of pyramid schemers. Any good marketing tip they have, believe you me, they’ve used until it doesn’t work any longer and then they package it and sell you their “foolproof system” for $2,000.

The internet makes businesses easier to start, and it does a good job of removing some of the traditional barriers to entry for business. But it, too, comes with its own set of challenges that need to be addressed.

So take it for what it is: grease on the wheel, not an overnight money-making machine. Stay focused and don’t take any wooden nickels.

I received an e-mail newsletter–an e-zine–from a consulting company the other day.

This company says it helps clients bring in more cash, get new clients and keep the good ones.

If that’s the case, the company should know better. Its e-zine was a trainwreck riddled with amateur errors!

Where did it go wrong?

• First, it talks about its own e-zine being on an unscheduled break and only sending this issue because so many people have asked about the newsletter. It must not provide value for me because I didn’t notice it was missing. If the company can’t do what it teaches its clients to do, what’s the deal there?
• The main article was loooong blocks of text with no visual breaks at all. No bullets, no white space, no subheads, no bold text and no extra space between paragraphs. Give me a (visual) break!
• The main article was also all about the company sending the e-zine. It offered some tips here and there but, for the most part, it was a glorified marketing brochure. And then it had the nerve to put an “About Us” section at the end of the e-zine. Newsletter content should follow a 75 percent/25 percent ratio. Seventy-five percent usable content and 25 percent promo–not the other way around.
• The formatting was too narrow. The design of the e-zine was so narrow that it made the newsletter–and all the run-on text–look much longer than it really was.
• There were competing logos in the e-zine’s header. The ezine has its own logo, and then the designers put the company logo–in the same size–right next to it. What brand confusion!
• The owner of the company used prime real estate to add a picture of himself. Why? No one cares about you and what you look like. Use that real estate for lead generation or to leverage your latest media opps.

If you want to send out an e-zine, that’s awesome. Just make sure if you’re advising people about marketing that you walk the talk. And, even if you’re not, tighten up your e-zine look, and you’ll notice that you get higher and consistent open rates and feedback.

This is Part 4 of Your Website Needs to Get a Job.

Get caught up with Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

In Part 3, I mentioned IP addresses. Ok, now we’re getting into tech speak a bit, but let me explain.

Think of an IP address like the street address for your home.  It’s the street and number - the identifiers - that have been assigned to where you live so that friend, family, emergency personnel, mail services, etc., can locate you. Same deal with an IP address. The IP address is the identifier that has been assigned to where your computer lives on the Internet. And, just like no one else has your exact same address, no one else has your IP address. It’s a bit like a fingerprint in that way.

Who Cares?

Let’s say, I sign up for your thai chicken. I conveniently forget that I’ve signed up. The next bit of information I get from you doesn’t ring a bell. I mark it as spam or I complain to your hosting company that you’re sending me unsolicited information. How can you prove that I indeed DID sign-up to receive information from you?

You can’t. Unless you have my IP address on record. Most top-level intenet marketing services offer IP address grabbing as part of their service. What happens is, I request your ‘thai chicken’ and immediately, my IP address - my computer’s identifier - is stored in your account with the internet marketing service.

It’s never shared with anyone and usually you never have to do anything with it. It just hangs out. But, if I ever say that I didn’t make the request to be on your list, you can reply, “Yes, you did. You did it on this date and oh, by the way, here’s your IP address to prove it.” How powerful is that?

In fact, this is one of the problems I have with Constant Contact. I really like their service, but new businesses tend to get caught up with their fancy templates and colors and lose sight of the functionality they need to run their business. The last time I checked, Constant Contact DOESN’T collect the IP addresses of people who request your ‘thai chicken’. This can leave you in a bit of a lurch if you ever had to, beyond a shadow of a doubt, prove that the person really did request the information. Not good. (They also don’t let you do split tests, etc., but that’s another story.)

For so many reasons, I much prefer Aweber. Yes, the learning curve is a bit steeper, but with the ability to do split tests, use timed autoresponders, grab IP addresses, manage multiple mailing lists and segement those lists….you just can’t beat Aweber.

While traditional press has not disappeared, it’s safe to say that businessowners need to learn how to effectively engage bloggers and podcasters to generate interest and increase buzz/word of mouth about their products and services.

Back on September 18th, I helped coordinate and was a guest speaker on a webinar given by ShowStoppers. The webinar was called How to Engage Bloggers & Podcasters to Boost Buzz and Generate Coverage.

We shared some great information during the webinar and I even wrote an e-book to share some additional tips and tricks.

The e-book is called “The Blogosphere Cluebook: How PR Agents & Publicists Can Effectively Engage Blogosphere Influencers Instead of Ticking Them Off”.

The good news is, you don’t have to be a PR agent or publicist in order to benefit from the insider tips in this e-book.

The better news is, it’s free and you can share it with as many people as you want.

Grab your copy: http://www.xynomedia.com/showstoppers/

This is part 3 of my “Your Website Needs to Get a Job” series. We’re talking about ‘thai chicken’ and lead gen tools. If you don’t know what that means right away, you might want to get caught up with part 1 and part 2.

In part 2, I mentioned the dreaded CAN-SPAM Act. Eek!

It’s not that the Act itself is a bad thing - in fact, it’s great. But, the Act has effectively penalized honest companies that want to market their products and services, right along with spammers. Not so great.

When you’re setting up your ‘thai chicken’ (a.k.a. lead generation tool), you need to get permission to market to the person requesting the chicken sample - both now and in the future. Ok, Lena, how do I do that?

The Now Takes Care of Itself

The fact that the person is requesting the information means you have permission to send them whatever they are requesting immediately - so that effectively takes care of itself.

The Future, However, is Another Story

We’ve all seen how small those sign up forms are. How do you get permission for the future?

It’s all in the wording, dear Watson.

Take a look at what we say on our website for our Technology Strategy Workbook:

Sign-up to receive your free “Technology Strategy & Planning Guide”, along with our regular publication,The X Dossier.

The “along with our regular publication” grants us permission to send our e-zine, updates, etc., in the future.

This languaging is critical to ensure future marketing permission. This way, if someone ever says they didn’t agree to receiving your newsletter, you can show them their IP address (more on this in part 4) and direct them back to the verbiage on your site - and, that solves that.

Bottomline: If you’ve set up your ‘chicken’, are you getting permission to market to requesters in the future? If not, you’re presenting a potential liability for yourself and possibly damaging your brand. What company wants to be known as the company that spams?