Diagnosis: Your email drip campaigns are not effective.

Symptoms: The recipients of your drip email campaigns delete them, or - worse - they ask to be removed from the campaign, causing you a loss of direct contact with your potential clients. You fear you may be losing your potential clients to the competition.

Analysis

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

When drip campaigns first came out, I, like everyone else, could see their potential value. If you provide good information, what could be the harm? As a matter of fact, I endorsed the idea.

But now, my initial excitement has dulled a bit, and I am not so sure. “Why is that?” you ask eagerly. Well, I’ll tell you.

One reason is that drip campaigns take up space. I have enough email as it is, and this is just one more thing to clutter up my In Box. So when I see these campaign emails come across my platform, I cannot hit the delete key fast enough.

Second, the information that I receive is, for the most part, uninspired, obvious, and generally less than useful.

Finally – and, I think, most important - I started to feel depersonalized. I was just another address on some auto-generated list. Simply put, drip campaigns went from something good, to something bad, and now I am real ugly about it.

Whose fault is it?

I admit that this is partially my fault. I signed up for these automated emails. I knew they were coming. But after a while I found myself deleting them without reading them, and, inevitably, I asked to be taken off mailing lists.

However, I must also blame the purveyor of these email drips. I had an expectation that the information they were sending me would actually make a difference in my business life. Unfortunately, I was being fed unoriginal ideas that provided me with no innovative insights that I could apply to my life or to my business.

The Problem with Technology

Technology is a great thing. I love it. I love the gadgets, the information, all of it. However, as we more and more frequently use technology as a means of communication, we begin to dehumanize people. One of the reasons we use email is because it allows us to avoid talking to others. Let’s face it: If I can send an email to you without you responding right away, I don’t have to immediately engage with you, which saves me time. It’s easy. It’s convenient.

However, while convenient, communicating by email is not personal. What we have created with a drip campaign is a program that sends a previously-written program to a person on the assumption that that recipient has the same agenda, the same type of mental programming. When it comes to staying in touch with your existing customers or potential clients, they don’t want some cute little email telling them you still haven’t forgotten about them. They want to feel important to you. They want to know that they are different than any other potential customer you have. That their needs are unique, and that they are unique.

The Narcissist in All of Us

I know that you have read or heard marketing gurus drill over and over that you need to understand your target market. However, I will take this one step further: you need to understand your target market without losing sight of the individual.

Humans are social beings. That is a fact. We like being with other people. We are designed to not be alone, and actually function better when we are supported by others. If you are one of those people who insist that you are better off alone, I will tell you to your face that you are in denial and you need psychological help. Please find a qualified therapist.

But despite the fact that we are social beings, we are also, for the most part, narcissistic. Each person believes he or she is special. We like it when someone recognizes us amongst others for our individuality. While on one level we don’t want to be embarrassed, we do want to others to notice that we are different.

The narcissist in each of us often drives us to success. Narcissism compels us to find ways for others to seek us out for recognition. The narcissist in each of us doesn’t want to be “just another one of the group”. We are innately intolerant of being lumped into the crowd, of being just like everyone else. We are better than that. We deserve better than that. The narcissist wants to be the best person in the group. Don’t make us feel we are just one of many cattle that you herd to the eating trough.

How did this happen?

Do you want the honest answer or do you want the politically correct answer? If you have read any of my writings in the past you know what you are going to get: honesty. So here it is.

Technology has made us lazy professionals. L-A-Z-Y. Think about it. When we didn’t have all this technology at our fingertips, our business was conducted face to face. We took time out of our lives to make sure that each customer felt that he or she was the focus of our intention and the most important person in the room. Enter technology. We hide behind our monitors. We screen our email, talk to who we want, when we want. At the same time, we still want to communicate with others.

True, the consumer has a narcissistic desire to be in control, but they don’t want to be alone. Technology theoretically gives us the ability to stay in touch with people without bothering them. The problem is that now we have crossed a line. It is much easier for us to set up an automated program that sends information to lots of people at once rather than taking the time to send a personalized email, or letter by mail, or to make a phone call. We just send out some pitiful piece of tripe that the originator has probably never fully read himself. By sending out mass emails, you are basically telling your customers “I am not going to take the time to communicate to all of you, so here is the same piece of information I send everyone else. P.S. I care about you!” Do you really expect anyone to believe that? Do you really think that we – as your customers - believe that you care about us? Hell, no! Furthermore, you can take your pre-written, simultaneously sent, skanky email, and shove it up your processor! “Please Remove.” Delete email. The only thing you have accomplished is to tell your clients that they are not important enough to get your personal attention, and that you are too lazy to pick up the phone and let them know you care.

The Prescriptions

Be part of the solution, not part of the problem: Make sure your current and potential clients have their own places at the head of the table. Find out what your clients really want, and give it to them. This may mean eliminating your email drip campaigns altogether, or you may have to come up with a customized, more personalized solution.

Do not buy an auto drip campaign: If you feel you must have an email drip campaign, then please write it yourself. Don’t outsource the writing of your campaign. If you didn’t write it, it won’t reflect your voice, and more than likely it won’t get you results.

Be more personal and less technological: We are talking about people here. We are not talking about communicating with a machine. Find out what’s important to your customers. Find out what’s going on with them. Find out what makes them tick. Then enter into their world. You will find that you have a returning customer for life. What’s more, you may even make another friend.

People are emotional, so emote: I think the reason women are the best small business owners and dominate the real estate world is because they don’t mind emoting with their clients. They don’t mind listening to them. They want to understand, they better demonstrate that they want to help, and ultimately women are better at convincing clients that they really care. Now, I know there are exceptions. I just wish there were more men who demonstrated these skills.

Take the time: There is no such thing as “making time”. You have to take the time. If these people are really important to you, than “take” the time to make them feel important.

To the Health of your Business!

Ciao!

Dr. Jay

Conventional - 1: formed by agreement or compact 2 a: according with, sanctioned by, or based on convention b: lacking originality or individuality : trite c (1): ordinary, commonplace – Merriam Webster Online Dictionary

As you can tell from my last BLOG, I am far from conventional. However, the point of my last article is this, challenge the conventional, make people think, question the gurus. I am not an anarchist, but I don’t want to be like everyone else. One of the most disappointing things to me is that people have a hard time not being conventional. There is some part of us that just wants to “fit in”. However, it’s hard to advance when you look like and like everyone else. There is no defining characteristics, no character, we are just the same. I guess that’s why when it comes to marketing, I want to be different, I want to be unique, I want to challenge my clients and readers, I want to be unconventional.

The Conventional tries to quell the Creative

When we or our marketing becomes conventional it becomes more difficult for us to be more creative, to think outside the box. Very few if any inventions were constructed out of conventional thinking. As a matter of fact most inventors were seen as lunatics, mentally unstable, and in some early historical cases they were forced to recant their thinking and placed under house arrest (see Galileo). Sadly today, with exception of house arrest we commonly feel forced to keep our thoughts to ourselves, and remain conventional.

Conventional Marketing Limits Creative Marketing

Marketing is a funny animal. It’s conventional to rely on what other people say, especially those who are espoused as professionals in the field. I think it is unfortunate that so many marketing professionals say and recommend you do the same things. I call it conventional marketing. Let’s face it, it is easier to put everyone in the same box, then it is to customize and be different. Honestly, it’s also far less expensive. However, as professionals in our own field we are different, we have different strengths, weaknesses, business models, etc. It does not serve in your best business interest to always remain conventional.

Unconventional Marketing is Risky

Whenever you move outside of convention you are always at risk. It can fail. However, all marketing can fail, so I am not convinced of how big of a risk it can be if your current conventional marketing is not working. Let’s be honest, who ever would have thought that 15 years ago that placing an ad on a medium where by people connect with a modem through a computer would have any value. Now try going to a website without an advertisement.

Unconventional Marketing Requires Unconventional Thinking

Most everyone wants to be liked and accepted. The easiest way to do that is agree with everyone around you. However, if your marketing is going to be unconventional you are going to make some people very unhappy. You have to decide for yourself if you can handle that. If you cannot handle negative criticism, you may not want to become unconventional. However, if you can handle the criticism than let me give you some points to consider on your way to unconventional thinking when it comes to marketing.

1. Accept nothing as an absolute
2. Challenge everything that is assumed to be a fact on the basis of group consensus
3. Be outlandish in your thinking
4. Consider every idea as a possibility
5. There is no box

WARNING: You will tick people off!!!!!

Oh yeah, when you start doing this, being challenging to the group conventions of marketing, you really will piss people off, especially the “marketing professional”. On a personal note, I found that when I challenge conventional marketing concepts, people don’t argue about my thinking they make a personal attack on me. You know what that tells me, they do not have the intellectual competence to argue intelligibly. So it follows if you cannot argue intelligibly how good of a marketing person can you be? However, when you find those who do have the intelligence to argue intelligibly, it forces you to think, and think differently. I have also found the latter group of marketing professionals to be outstanding, and bleeding edge.

Does Unconventional Marketing and Thinking mean you are never wrong?

The idea here is that thinking outside of the box and challenging conventional marketing is never wrong. However, the results of your unconventional marketing techniques may not result in the desired results you had hoped for. In those cases you’re wrong. Then again, what’s wrong with being wrong, outside of the fact that we don’t like to be wrong. Wow! Is that existential? While I do not like being wrong, when I am wrong, I have learned from it, and found another way. Sometimes I take a step backward, but only to take 3 steps forward later.

…and in the end

Try, challenge, and don’t fear others or failure.

Ciao for now,

Dr. Jay

The hottest marketing term being thrown around today is “target marketing”. People are making tons of money on this term. It is so ill defined, that no one can tell you exactly what it is. How big or how small it is. What the defining parameters are, how to measure it, or how to actually observe it. As business owners please don’t fall into the trap of marketing professionals who tell you, “You are not targeting your market”. Hell they can’t even operationally define it. What’s more, let them try to measure it. Other than that, just ignore me, and spend your money any way you want without measurable results.

What is Target Marketing?

There are many definitions, and I don’t have enough room to put them down here.  Technically speaking, target marketing has been closely aligned with terms “niche” marketing, and “market segmentation”. Which are very nice sounding terms however, they lack good scientific vigor with regard to a definition. Honestly, if you jump on the web for a definition for target marketing you will find that the term is so grossly defined that you could drive a battle ship through the holes in the definition.

How is it measured?

It’s impossible, because there is not an operational definition for it. Good luck with spending those marketing dollars.

Can a Target Market be too small?

Well supposedly it can be. However, it really is based more in how much money you are making. If you are only selling to 10 people but they are paying you a million dollars a year, and you are happy with that, then I guess it’s not too small. There are companies that make fabulous money selling personalized private jets to very few people.

Can a Target Market be too large?

Well supposedly it can be. Ha! Don’t you love it, it’s the same answer as above. The definitions of “target marketing” do not define the parameters. However, I read an article where a company target marketed an entire country. Although think about toilet paper companies? Who is their target market? Better yet who is NOT the target market? If I find out who those people are, I will not be shaking hands with them. I guess it’s anybody that doesn’t produce human internal waste. Hmmm. I guess if they don’t produce human waste, I suppose they are dead. So I guess toilet paper companies don’t target dead people.

Is there any value to target marketing?

Well let me save you several hundred dollars on this one. Here are some things you already know but will be told to you in different way.

1. Only try to sell your goods or services to people who can afford them.
2. Only try to sell goods or services you actually have an expertise at selling.
3. Only sell your goods or services in geographical area you actually serve.
4. Only try to sell your goods or services to people who actually want or need them.

Are you target marketing on the web?

Well I have a question is your web marketing working? If you respond yes to this question, by definition you are evidently “target marketing”. If you say no, then evidently you are not. Can you see how much B.S. this is? I discussed this with my good friend and colleague Brad Carroll, author and CEO of Dakno Marketing, Inc. We batted target marketing around on IM for a good 30 minutes, when I brought up the definition of “target marketing” of as “if your marketing is working you are target marketing, if it isn’t your not target marketing”. He gave me a “smiley”  and simply said, “yeah”.

What came first the Success or the Target Marketing?

Talk to the Chicken or the Egg.

What is the answer?

First of all, I don’t claim to have all the answers. I do know that I have been quite successful with clients businesses on the web, and I don’t spend a whole lot of time worrying about target marketing. Although Brad says I am, I just don’t know it. I am not sure he knows for sure, because we can’t even define the darn thing clear enough to know if you are doing it or not. However, I do know a few things that I have found to be very effective through trial and error.

1. Don’t be something online that you are not in person.
2. Don’t work with people that you don’t like working with and make sure there is not something on your website that is attracting them.
3. Figure out who you want to work with, understand them as completely as you can psychologically and focus your content to that group.
4. Don’t be afraid to try something way outside of the box.
5. Know how people behave on the web (My next post will focus on this topic)

If you can do these 5 things don’t worry about nebulous terms like “target marketing”.

Ciao for now.

Dr. Jay

I pretty much say what is ever on my mind. That’s nothing unusual, but today, quite frankly I am hoping that some of you will pay attention. I have had enough of the ignorance that I see everyday on websites and people who have no business discussing how consumers use the web. So I am going to try again, to get people to understand some of the missing links in Web Marketing.

1. Having your website found is not enough; the idea is to get people to use your website.

   Pay Per Click may increase your activity, but that doesn’t mean that anybody will actually use your website. Your goal is to get people to use your website not to have them just find it. I am so tired of the ignorance of people who insist that if you pay to be number one in the search engines people will do business with you. The facts are this, paying to be number one doesn’t mean anything, if you don’t have information people want. You are lying to yourself if you believe it’s true. You should know your statistics inside and out, and check them regularly. You need to be able to interpret those stats, or hire someone that can. You need to probably have someone who has insight not into your web design, but the information your website has. You need to be working towards the goal that you know what your intended consumer wants and get them the information quickly and in a way that is easy to find and understand.

2. Looks aren’t everything.
   

   People please I am begging you, don’t spend most of your time on your website look and spend more of your time on information. The search engines don’t care if you have flash, cute pictures, etc. The search engines care if you have the information people are looking for when they type in a request. Give them that information. Ugly websites can do great business because the focus on the right things. Besides the search engines don’t care what your website looks like, they are only interested if you give the people what they want. If you have a ton of graphics, flash, and other cute widgets moving around, consumers find it distracting and will click off your page because they get irritated by the distraction.

3. Don’t assume you know your consumer.
   

   This is the biggest mistake business people make. They think they know their consumer best. Quite honestly you don’t, because you are standing in the middle of the forest looking at the trees, you really can’t see it clearly. You really need someone to walk you through the painstaking task of really figuring out who your consumer is, what it is they are really looking for, and what they really want and need.

4. Privacy is a bigger issue today than ever before, always thinks about it.
   

   In today’s world identity theft happens according to one report every 30 seconds. Although you would never steal someone’s identity, make sure your website doesn’t require name sign-ups for information that is otherwise free, and when people do give you their personal information, make sure that you ensure that their privacy is important to you as it is to them.

5. Develop Web Relationship.
   

   I think I may be one of a handful of people who even talk about developing relationships with people through your website. The idea is to let your website do your talking for you. When you meet a person face to face you engage them, you speak their language, and you build a relationship. All of those things must come through on your website. There is a reason why places like myspace.com, facebook.com, and other community sites are so popular, because on some level they develop relationships. Whether you like it or not, it is your future.

6. Address the fears associated with your business or service.
   

   People don’t understand why I say this, but it is so powerful. Whenever people hire a business or a service there are potential negatives and fears that are associated with completing the process. You need to address these fears, there is nothing more powerful than to acknowledge the fears of someone, and then empower them to overcome them. This is what removes the fear, removes the shame from the fear, and the guilt of the person not knowing how to deal with them.

That’s another prescription for your internet health.

Dr. Jay

DrJay@internetdr.com

I have recently been receiving tons of emails concerning Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Before I write much further, let me be very clear that I believe SEO is very important to a website, however… There are some fallacies about SEO that need to be addressed that you must consider. As well as some questions you need to ask.

1. When someone says, “My site is optimized” what does that mean?
   

   I am amazed how easy it is for people to say that their site is “optimized” and expect people to know what that means. When you say you are “optimized” you are “optimized” for what, a word, a phrase, two words, two phrases, three, four, are they all on the front page of the search engines? I hope you are doing better than just a few terms.

    

2. High ranking can be a dangerous thing, be careful before you start putting yourself out there.
   

   One of the biggest mistakes made in the SEO game is that people get their websites high up in the search engines for specific terms or phrases however their websites are actually not ready for “prime time”. For instance, have you ever done a web search and selected the first organic listed inquiry only to find that the website did not have the real information you wanted? Was it frustrating? Did you go back to see if they eventually would have the information you wanted? Probably not. You need to make sure that you know that you are really providing the information your consumer is looking for in the way they are looking for it. If you have not spent time doing this you may be doing more damage than you know.

    

3. Make sure your SEO Company is not trying to “trick” the search engines but is playing by all the rules.
   

   I have seen so many SEO companies make claims that they get people to the top of the search engines. (Whatever that really means) However, there methods of doing so are that they believe or they may have found a loop hole that for a period of time works. The danger in this is that once the search engines catch on to these loop holes they start penalizing you for using these methods. Although you may be completely innocent from your stand point, the SEO company that you used has made you guilty. Occasionally, this can cause you to be so penalized you get dropped from organic search. Make sure whatever company you use is always above board. If you don’t know, then consult other companies to discuss these methods. If you are not sure who to trust, I would highly recommend consulting with Brad Carroll at www.dakno.com. He is probably one of the best above board, knowledgeable people I know. His advice to my clients and me has been invaluable.

    

4. When an SEO Company guarantees results, make them be specific about the guarantee.
   

   I have received a myriad of emails recently with companies guaranteeing their results for front page positioning. Let me be very clear on this issue. There is NO ONE who can guarantee anything with regard to organic positioning on search engines. Search engines DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT tell companies the secret algorithms that effect how they pick and choose where a website will be on the search engines. If you choose to go with a company that makes this claim, (and I hope you won’t), then make sure you get their guarantee in writing. Furthermore, insist that for every day your website is not on the front page you expect a financial return. I find that the best companies will not give these guarantees because they know their limitations. Good SEO companies should be able to improve your ranking for specific terms, but only so far.

    

5. When you choose an SEO Company get a “non-compete clause” in your contract
   

   I know that SEO Companies are in the business to make money, but so are you. How is possible for an SEO Company to guarantee results for your website if they are working with your competition? They can’t. It’s just not possible. You need to make sure that whoever you use is willing to give you a “non-compete” with your competitors. You may have to spend more money for this type of a clause, but as someone who has one, it is well worth the peace of mind knowing that my SEO Company is not promising results to the local companies that I am competing against for the same business.

    

6. Search engine rank does not necessarily translate into more business.
   

   I saved the biggest issue for the last. There are two philosophies. One is the “law of numbers” philosophy. It says that if I drive enough people to a website the eventually some of those people will do business with my company. The other philosophy is what I refer to as the “Interactive Trust Connection” philosophy. It says that if my website is providing information that the consumer is really looking for, in an easy way, where they want to interact with the website, they will also interact with me, and hence want to make a connection with me. I am a subscriber to the latter philosophy. I have seen many websites have great numbers as far as people go because they have great search ranking. However, they do very little business, because they do not have a website that really engages the consumer to interact with the website or them. On the other hand, I have seen websites with just okay search engine ranking for several words and phrases, but do tremendous business because when a consumer comes to their website, they can find everything they want, and when they don’t, they feel comfortable contacting the owner to provide the information because clearly an effort has been made by the owner to try to give the consumer what they want. In essence the website has built trust with the consumer. Search Engine Optimization Companies can increase your traffic, but they cannot guarantee an increase in business they just hope you do. Please, please always build your website from the consumer perspective, not your own. You must think like your consumer, not think that you know what the consumer wants, but in fact what the consumer really wants from their perspective. It won’t be easy but you will find you will attract a better, more qualified consumer, they will feel like they win, and so will you and that really is the best for both parties.

    

   …and that’s another prescription for your internet health and your internet wealth!

    

   Ciao,

    

Dr. Jay

Well here we are in the midst of craziness. The Real Estate Market is in the tank for now. The mortgage industry is in trouble and tightening up. The stock market makes no sense. Elections are coming closer and as of yet there doesn’t seem to be a candidate that anyone can put their full confidence in. With all that said however, you still have a business that you are trying to run and still be successful. So now everybody and their uncle are coming out with things to spend money on that “guarantee to make you money”. I have even recently read some real estate marketing people espousing that the internet is “dead”, and it’s time to “get back to basics”. Well, here’s my answer to that. First, the internet is NOT dead, and it’s not going to die, and if you don’t have a website that hasn’t or isn’t producing income or is at very least gaining potential clients for the future, you are way behind. Furthermore, if your website is not customized to reach specified target markets you are “dead in the water”. Secondly, I hope you don’t have to “get back to the basics”, because you should be doing the basic things on a regular basis. Think about this, a star athlete doesn’t “get back to the basics” because they do the basics everyday as part of their daily routines. I hope you are a star.

Alright then so with all this doom and gloom that we all are facing, where do we go from here? Well quite honestly that is up to you. So rather than giving you marketing tips that may or may not work it’s time for me to put on my psychology hat and start with some mental health that hopefully you can integrate into your business, your team, and for yourself that can make a difference.

1. Realize the Only Thing YOU can CHOOSE to Control Immediately is your Attitude
   

   It really does take a realization that “attitude” is the one thing you have power over to control. I recall in one of my group counseling courses of an example that goes something like this: If you kick me in the shin, I actually have many different ways I can react to that. It is all within my power. I can get mad at you and hit you back, I can fall down and cry, I can remain silent, I could even laugh at you. It really is up to me to decide how I am going to react to whatever you choose to do to me. We are in no different of a situation. YOU CAN CHOOSE how you are going to react to the world around you. You don’t have to like it, but you can still CHOSE to control your attitude on a moment by moment basis.

2. Honesty is Still the Best Policy
   

   I notice in down markets that people panic. They start doing things they never dreamed they would do. They become afraid of losing clients so rather than telling them the truth, they inflate the possibility. I am all for thinking and believing positively, but at the same time one must be realistic. I can believe all I want that I will win The Masters Golf Tournament, but truthfully it will never happen. Be honest with yourself and with your clients you will save your reputation, save your integrity, and you will build an instant reputation of being the one thing people can trust in a non-trusting environment.

3. Aim to Serve Not to Please
   

   There is really a difference here. Don’t try to please people, you will never please everyone and in most cases “people pleasing” is phony. However, if you aim to serve your current and past clients they will respect you for it. Pleasing people implies that you give people something that they want so that they don’t bother you any more or you can stay on their good side. When you truly serve people it is because you go much deeper and care about their well being. You are truly interested in what people really need and you provide it to them. The idea here is to go beyond the ordinary. In fact, when it comes to service most people are ordinary, your goal for you and your business is to become extra-ordinary. I have yet to hear anyone complain that they received too much service.

4. While You have Time Re-evaluate What You Are and What You Want to Become
   

   Now is the time to take a closer look at yourself and your business. I know you have a good idea of what you think you are, but maybe it’s time for you to have honest people (preferably not your friends, they have a tendency to lie to you) tell you how they see your business. Tell them to be brutally honest. What are those things you really want to become, write them down and start today to change them.

5. Identify Your Passions, and Your Dreads, and put some Fun Back into Your Business
   

   I know this sounds a bit weird, but what are you passionate about? I am not talking about your kids or your family. I am talking about what do you love to do, and adapt that to your business. At the same time identify what you “dread” about this business and eliminate it. You will never do it anyway.

   Let me give you an example:

   I have a friend and client that is a real estate agent in Las Vegas. She has really been struggling to enjoy the business, as you can well imagine things are a bit tough. She is doing a great job of maintaining a positive outlook; however, she isn’t enjoying the business. Furthermore, we thought she would start doing an expired program; however, she couldn’t get started. Why? She “dreaded” talking to people on the phone. Not that she wasn’t good with people on the telephone, she just dreaded the idea of talking to people who have homes that expired. Hence, she never got off the ground with it. We needed to do two things. 1. Improve her business, and 2. Get her back to a place where she enjoyed the real estate business. Rather than trying to convince her of doing it, like most people would try to do, I asked her what she was really passionate about doing, not related to real estate. This of course caught her off guard, but she told me cooking, entertaining, and being creative. Hmm. Quite a dilemma isn’t it? She wants to grow her business, yet she can’t bring herself to do the expired listings program (which may help her business) because she dreads it. Understand that “dread” is different than “I don’t like it”. When you “don’t like” to do something you can overcome it because you know you might not like it but you can force yourself through it, because it might be good for you (I like to think of it as eating my vegetables). However, when you “dread” something you will not do it, as a matter of fact you will even make “passive aggressive” actions to not do it. When it comes to something you “dread” you may even become depressed just thinking about it. Okay so what did we do? I mean it’s not like she can open of a real estate agent restaurant in her home (although it is kind of a neat idea). We had to break it down into smaller elements and really get at the heart of the matter. I asked her, “What was it about cooking and entertaining that she really enjoyed”? She told me that some of things she enjoyed about cooking and entertaining was that preparing the food was relaxing, there was a creative element to it, and that she enjoyed the immediate feedback people would give her when they tasted her cooking. Ah ha! We now had a plan of action. What we decided to do is work with her web designer and create a few pages on her site dedicated to frustrated sellers, with the idea of getting expired listing appointments through her website. She is writing the content aimed at expired sellers who can’t sell and giving them a place to “vent”. No promises that she will be the one to sell their house, just a place where they can come and vent about their frustrations, fill out a form if they want to try something different, or ask for more information. In the mean time she is creating a unique marketing piece that is not a square or rectangle, that will be sent out encouraging them to come to that particular area of the website. What are the results? Well the numbers aren’t in yet, but she is so very excited about her business again, and she is creating and looking for immediate feedback from people who have had bad experiences, so that maybe she can help provide a good experience. She is really cooking and entertaining in a creative way in her business. She is back to having fun in her business, and when you enjoy what you are doing, that radiates to others you come in contact with.

   I hope you will do the same.

   Always trying to find a prescription for you w-health,

   Dr. Jay

I recently attended a wine gala for the Frankie Lemmon Foundation. It was a fabulous event for an extremely worthy cause that my wife and I have contributed to over the past several years. During this gala event, there were several wineries represented with hundreds of wines to taste and enjoy. I am a wine enthusiast. I study the vinification (winemaking) process. I want to know the grape, the oak, how long in steel, where the vines came from, and the types of soils, etc. It is a learning process that I enjoy very much. For me, this enhances the tasting process. After learning how each wine is made, it then becomes a challenge to taste some part of the winemaking process. However, one of the greatest challenges in the winemaking process, is the palate of the winemaker. What I realize, is that on some level the winemaker is not just making wine that tastes excellent to him or her, but to the people who purchase it. What I find interesting about this, is that each winemaker, has in mind, a particular targeted audience. He or she spent years, sometimes decades, developing the right grapes, grown in the right way, or fermented in a particular way. Why go through all of this trouble? Because quite honestly there are variety of individual tastes. Simply put, not all wine is good, not all wine drinks well on it’s own, and some wine is made as a complement to food. As an example, my wife prefers white wines. Even within white wines there are so many varieties: chardonnay, pinot grigio, sauvignon blanc, and the list goes on. She is particularly fond of Italian Pinot Grigio, but even within that group of white wines there is quite a variety, and for her not all Pinot Grigio’s are the same. They do not taste the same to her. I would not call her a wine connoisseur. As a matter of fact, she would tell you, “I like what I like, and that’s all I know about wine.” She is the winemaker’s dream. The winemaker knows that if he or she makes a wine that will appeal to her taste, even though she knows little about it, he has a consumer. Like many consumers, when she found the wine she liked, she has difficulty deviating from it. As a matter of fact, it’s the first wine she asks for in a restaurant and the wine that I that I keep a case or two on hand of at home. At the Gala event, I watched her as we went from one wine to another. She sampled wine after wine, probably sampling nearly 10 different whites. She found 2, that were in her opinion, worthy of purchase. The rest for her, were quite frankly, for lack of a better term, “spitters.”
It was during the course of sampling wine, watching her and others sample wine, that I thought very much about the internet, websites, and the consumers. Websites need to be a process that gets better and better over time and remain consistent. You cannot be static. In winemaking, they have to overcome many things year after year, such as too much or too little rain, too hot or too cool temperature, the type and availability of oak barrels. The great winemakers have learned how to overcome these, and other obstacles to keep their wines consistent. Keep in mind, that for winemakers, the biggest challenge is to make sure that when you taste their wine, it will taste the same, bottle after bottle, year after year. When a wine becomes inconsistent they lose their consumer. Think about your website, there are things that change on a moment by moment basis. Such as technology, the way search engines work, and economic factors, just to name a few. Your job is to overcome these obstacles, so that you maintain your current customers and at the same time attract new ones. There are NO short cuts! Sure, you can try to short cut for a while and even have the possibility of having some success. Some winemakers have done the same thing, utilizing short cut methods only to find that their wines become so inconsistent over time ,that they lose their customers to a better winemaker. What do they do? Many will hire a new winemaker, some will change their consumer. From a well paying consumer to those who cannot afford a good wine. Others, well, sad to say, die.
So what does it take to be a great winemaker of your website.

1. Identify who it is that you want to taste your website.
   
2. Remember there are people with different tastes don’t try to make one website to fit every palate.
   
3. Not everyone is a connoisseur of web use, keeping things simple and tasty.
   
4. People know what they like, make sure you find out what that is, and make it for them.
   
5. Don’t ignore the basics, but don’t be afraid to try some technology to help you overcome some obstacles, new gadgets do not necessarily equate to great wines or great websites, but they can be used when times are tough.
   

To your Internet w-Health!

Cheers!

Dr. Jay

My friend and colleague Brad Carroll, CEO of Dakno an Internet Marketing Group, www.dakno.com turned me on to something that was just so phenomenal that I had to write about it immediately. So often we talk about “leads”. I have even made the mistake at times of using this term. First, I want to apologize for the usage of this term. From here on out, I will make a conscious effort to forsake this term, because these are people looking for information. When I reduce them to a lead, I have done nothing more than make them a number, or put them into a category. The truth is these are people who want some information, maybe it is not specific to what you were hoping for, but have you ever thought that these people are asking for information from you because they find you trustworthy, you have relevant information on your website, or possibly they may have nowhere else to turn. Even if this is not the type of individual you were hoping to speak to, the fact that they contacted you, puts the ball in your court, and you have a responsibility to contact them, even if it is with a recommendation to someone else. To ignore these people is the worst thing you could do for your future business. These are people, these are people with questions, these are people with needs and wants, and they are looking for someone to help them. Are you that person? Watch this video compliments of www.1000wattblog.com I think you will see what I mean.

I am not a lead

Another Prescription for your Internet w-Health.

Dr. Jay

I am a student of human behavior. I am certain that my interest in how people interact started at a young age and grew as I went to college and graduate school. One of my favorite activities is to watch salespeople develop rapport and secure a client. As an outsider, who is basically a fly on the wall, watching these interactions I am always interested in these salespeople’s skills and how they go about their business. I don’t think it takes a person with an advanced degree in psychology to see if someone is genuine or just out to make a sale. I think it becomes more obvious to the potential consumer. When people want to genuinely help people with their needs and wants, it is natural, unforced, and free of sales games. I have seen people with what I would call bad sales skills become very successful out of shear desire to want to help people. I will take someone with sincerity and passion over a person with impressive sales skills anytime.

I am going to over simplify the sales process for a moment, and perhaps reanalyze it in a future writing. Simply put the sales process comes down to 2 elements: Communication and Relationship.

More than Words

Let’s talk about communication briefly, as I do not have the time or space to fully explore it. I don’t think it would surprise anyone that communication is more than words. Words are extremely important and powerful however, words are only a small portion of the communication process. Words by themselves are quite frankly…empty. Even the words that you read on this page lack so much. I am always frustrated when I write, because the words alone cannot express, or convey what I am truly trying to say, as I try to make my point. While it is true I am not the best writer, if you could see the emotion and passion on my face as I write, I can assure you that I am fully aware of the problems of putting words on a page. ARRRRGH!

Emote with Me

Emotions are important to the communication process. Whether it be the salesperson or the potential consumer, the individual’s emotions and the ability to react to them immediately is crucial to the process. When someone’s tone becomes more excitable, or there is a sense of sadness, anger, or joy, it is absolutely key to be able to respond appropriately. This makes the communication process not only easier, but less frustrating for the all the parties involved.

The Eyes Don’t Lie

If I were sitting in front of you right now you would be able to look at my face and into my eyes. Typically the face and eyes give us clues as to the genuineness of someone when they speak with you, especially when the subject matter has significant impact on us. We will have a tendency to look a little deeper into the eyes, check the facial expressions, compare it with the words and make a determination whether a person can be trusted. When I was working as an intern in a mental hospital, the very first thing I would do is look at the eyes of the new patient. I could immediately get clues as to the type of person I was dealing with, or if my point was being communicated.

Hand Jive

Body language is extremely important, yet one of the most underestimated. This is partially because we don’t pay conscious attention to it, yet it gives us strong clues into intention, passion, and believability. There have been numerous studies conducted on people crossing their arms in front of themselves vs. opening their arms, leaning forward versus leaning back in conversation and the effects on specific physical behaviors of the person being engaged in conversation. Many people talk with their hands. I have been told I am one of them, part of this may be because I get so excited about the topics I discuss I want to emphasize a point. I am also a “hugger”. No words need to be communicated in a hug, yet the message is powerful.

Relationship

What about “relationship”? Humans are built for relationships. No one functions emotionally, mentally, physically, or spiritually healthy when they do not have relationships. How many studies have we seen that demonstrate that people who are married, or have significant relationships tend to live longer and have less health problems than people who remain alone. Beyond this we want to work with people we know, or think that we know. We want people to care about us, to care about what we care about, to be genuine, and show empathy toward a situation. This my friends, is “relationship”. Honestly, people want to work with people they can trust, that they like, and they can count on.

The internet presents a set of problems for communication and relationship that even the best salesperson cannot overcome. Let’s talk about these for a moment.

1. The Internet Lacks a Human Face
2. The Internet Lacks Emotion
3. The Internet Lacks Physical Responses
4. The Internet Lacks Vocal Inflection
5. The internet does not foster true relationships

The internet does have words, but as I stated earlier it is progressively more difficult to express them because it lacks so many elements of the communication process, much less trying to develop some sort of relationship. I understand that there are a few successes with dating websites etc, but there are far more failures, and ultimately those people who are successful still must meet face to face. Here is then are the issues of trying to sell on the internet. It is nearly impossible to communicate and create meaningful, long lasting relationships on the web. So then if you are trying to practice your same face to face communication and relationship skills on the web, you are not going to be very successful.

So what do you do?

Since you cannot employ the same strategies, then you need to create trust, and relationship in a different way.

1. Provide updated accurate information your potential consumer wants
   

   There is nothing more powerful that will create faster consumer trust then understanding what the consumer actually wants and getting it to them in a user friendly manner. I am sure you think you are providing useful information, and maybe you have good information, but do you know what your consumers really want. Here is a clue, if you look at your website statistics,(I hope you have some package) and you see that your consumers are exiting specific pages they are going to after a brief period of time. Chances are you are not providing the information that they want. Further make sure you update your information on a regular basis. There are two reasons for this. First of all, nothing is static, so you need to update your website all the time. Add new content, change information that has changed. Second, the search engines like it when you update your site, it tells them you are being active, and trying to provide the most up to date information.

2. Make sure your information is FREE
   

   I have never understood why people would require sign ups for information they can find somewhere else for free. While you think you are getting a significant number of customers from forced sign ups, I can guarantee this statement, you don’t know how many didn’t sign up and are now working with someone who is providing that information at no personal identity cost to them.

3. Always Protect the Consumer Identity
   

   We used to talk about this as privacy. However, it is now a bigger issue than just privacy. It is taking active steps to protect people’s identity. This is about ensuring your potential clients that your business is going to do everything within your business power to ensure that their identity does not get passed out. This means that you will delete their names from your data base when they want it deleted. It means that you are not going to put them on some email list, unless they request it. It means that you want to keep them as anonymous as they want to be kept anonymous.

4. Discuss Their Issues NOT Your Service
   

   If you want to really communicate to people and you want to develop relationships with them, then in your content talk about the issues that affect them. When I go to websites the owners want to talk about how great their service is. No one cares. First of all, the internet consumer is skeptical, they can’t see your face, they can’t see your body language, you are nothing more than some cheap salesperson giving them a line. I know that is not your intention, however, that is what the consumer sees and believes. If you are going to change that, then you need to truly consider, what are your consumers concerned about, and then discuss it. If you feel you have to talk about your service, put it somewhere on a back page.

5. Don’t try to be everything to everybody
   

   We all know the old saying, “when you try to be everything to everybody, then you become nothing to no one”. I know that you might service more than one type of individual, however, when you try to make your website so big with so much information to include everyone it becomes to overwhelming to the consumer and they have too many choices. The best answer is to start creating more websites that will specific speak to the different member of your business. Too many times I have seen website with so many links to so many places that people are overwhelmed with information. You would never do that in face to face conversation. If a person must sell then you talk about selling, not buying. Therefore you need to simplify the life for the consumer. If you make it simple, more user friendly you will achieve greater success.

    

   All in all you cannot continue to be the salesperson on the internet that you are in person. You do need to have it in your style buy you do not have the advantages previously mentioned on the internet as you do in person. You have to “tune in” to you client. You have to think like they think. You have to stop thinking about your next sale, and think about what is important to your consumer. If you can truly stop thinking about your dollar bottom line, and start thinking like your consumer, you will find that your internet business will take a turn for the best, you will develop better customers, that will turn into clients, that will turn into great relationships for life. Really, isn’t that the bottom line?

    

   Best Success for Your e-Business

    

   Dr. Jay

Happy New Year everyone! It’s the beginning of a new year. It also means that your internet business should be celebrating a new year. Why? Because we know that more people will be using the internet to buy products and services than ever before. This should be exciting to you. I know I am excited! As we approach the New Year, I have one question. How did you do last year? Do you know? If I was to come over to your office right now could you show me exactly what your internet business did? Can you show me every lead you received? Can you tell me where those leads came from specifically? Can you tell me what happened to those leads? Who is your best converter of leads? How do you know? How did you define a lead? How do you know that your Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign actually worked? How did you evaluate it? Did your PPC just drive more traffic to your website, or did it actually produce business? How did you measure that? What is your follow up system?

If you cannot produce numbers that can clearly show me the answers to any one of these questions, then I would say you are not really running a business; you are just spending money and assuming you are doing business. The key here is to track your business by the numbers. One of my clients tracks every lead, she makes sure her sales staff is accountable for every internet lead, and she can produce a spreadsheet with actually numbers of where the leads came from and what happened to them. She is running a business, not feeding one with money. She has a budget; she knows her conversion rates for each of her forms on her websites.

In this New Year, your first goal is not to set a goal for how much business you should do, your first task is to put systems in place so that you can track every lead, from every location, how much money it cost you, and what eventually happened to those leads. How do you know if your business is going, if you don’t know where your business has been? How do you know that your internet marketing is really working? How do you know you are really profitable? Is it because you can still write a check without it bouncing, or there is still money on the credit cards? Ridiculous! You need to know your business by the numbers; as a matter of fact it’s a must.

I know this sounds like it’s crazy, to some business people, but what I have found is that people have no idea when I start asking them questions where their business is really coming from, they just a assume the do, and we all know what ass-u-me translates to.

Okay so here are some handy tips for you this year to get your numbers off to a good start.

1. Operationally define what you are going to consider a lead
2. Determine whether the lead is an A, B, C, or dead and operationally define it
3. Determine how many sources from the internet you are getting leads from
   1. Create an alphanumeric system from each source that can identify each lead
   2. If you have purchased leads from another company determine how those leads will be identified, and how they will be tracked
4. Purchase a program or create a spreadsheet where every lead is going to be listed
5. Hold each person who is responsible for handling leads to be able to access the software or spreadsheet and require them to make an entry every time they have a lead
6. Create a follow up system by which your you or your team will follow up on each lead until it leads to a sale or is dead
7. Make sure you have talked to your SEO about conversion rates and how you will define them
8. Have a quarterly review with your SEO and your conversion team to review how leads are handled and whether or not more expenditure is necessary

Clearly this is not an exhaustive list. However, if you will start with just these things your business will already be ahead of 90% of your competition. With all that said stop the resolutions, and get to know your numbers. If nothing else you really will know where your internet business is headed. This is an exciting New Year. Fill it with numbers and it will be your best one ever. Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

Your Internet Doctor – Dr. Jay

P.S. If you want help with your Internet Business, contact me DrJay@InternetDr.com

Ciao