Big Foot Web Marketing

I have written countless emails and made considerable posts about plugins on developer blogs with usually disappointing results. I don’t; expect much in the way of support I am pretty grateful when some one creates somethings and lets me use it for free and don;t like to make waves or do anything to curb the future efforts.

I was very pleasantly surprised this evening when the developer of WP-Spam Free, Scott Allen commented on a recent post I made about tracking down scripts and plugins that were slowing down my blog.
Here was Scott’s comment:

Hi Lisa, Sorry to hear you had a problem with WP-SpamFree. I really do wish you had contacted me first before posting this if you were having problems because I don’t think that’s an accurate diagnosis. If it’s slowing down your site then there is something else going on, possibly some kind of conflict. It’s actually engineered to be extremely lightweight and fast. Most other anti-spam plugins use much more server resource bandwidth. We’ve tested it on many different configurations and servers and it shouldn’t be slowing anything down. Please feel free to contact me if you’d like to try it out again and would like help diagnosing anything.

Scott is so smart on so many levels I don’t know where to begin. He has done everything right from a marketing an service perspective. He followed up on a quasi- negative post about his product/service QUICKLY and saw an opportunity to make it better.
In a world of “what can you do for me” mentality was refreshing to have someone contact me and say- “hey, what can I do to help you ?”
Scott did not whine.. he did not say hey - its your fault the plugin in didn’t work, he didn’t flame me for criticizing his plugin, he saw a way to address the issue and ameliorate the situation and create some synergy.

When I owned my own brick and mortar retail store, a floral design studio, I saw every customer service problem or customer complaint as an opportunity. If some one called to complain about dead flowers- not only would I resend the flowers AND refund the money with a smile and a no questions asked policy I would send a little bouquet with note of apology.
Every time someone walked in the store with a problem I would address it and exceed their expectations. Customers were almost universally caught off guard that it wasn’t a huge hassle and and they were SO grateful .. and walked out of my store with a smile on their face. They did not tell 10 friends about the dead flowers and awful my store was.. they did not walk by my store and remember that there last experience was negative.
When you EXCEED expectation you have given good customer service.
I am stunned by the crappy customer service we are shoveled daily by the stores around us- we are so used to we do not even question it any more.
Try and return something.. EVEN if you have a receipt some stores now hang on to your money by making you accept a gift card as a form of refund.

I have lots more to rant about but my vision is fading and I am giving my spell check a real workout tonight.

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Tags: Marketing Your Web Site by Lisa Stewart
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I am just so tired of being sold to all day. I no longer go into a store expecting to “buy” something… I am “sold to” . I was just reading a post by Melanie Drake- a motivational speaker reflecting on a recent experience where the employee was punished for providing exceptional customer service.

It really does seem like good service is in fact punished by employers- perhaps out for fear that the customer may expect a positive experience every time (god forbid). As we head into a big box world room for thinking outside of said box is shrinking if not gone. The cost of consistent service has been to aim for consistently BAD service, keeping the bar low and wrinign existing customers dry.

Up selling Epidemic

One trend that is becoming apparent is lack of regard for a customers time and their over all buying experience while shopping.
It began with “Do you want fries with that? ” and has exploded into billion dollar up sell nationwide.
Daily phone calls from my bank asking me about life insurance or a new credit card. Letters telling me I NEED travel insurance. I call my phone comapny wth a tech support question and they try and sell me call waiting package. I cash a cheque IN the bank and get a sales pitch on a better (albeit more expensive) chequing account. I change my oil and I see a sign ” if we don’t offer you tire rotation- its free!”.. picking up my digital pictures from Christmas today - “If we don’t suggest a Photo CD it’s free!” .

The following scenario happened to be last week. Not one word is exaggerated. I went to my local supermarket… outside were air cadets selling apples for a fundraiser. I stopped to get some change from bottom of my purse. When I paid I was asked by cashier to buy a paper leaf for a dollar- and contribute to some charity. ( Actually- the question was ” Did you want to help needy children”? Umm. gulp… well .. no I don’t.)

Next stop- to Zellers- sort of like a Wal-Mart. I got in the door and was immediately accosted and someone tried to sell me daily newspaper delivery. I managed to elbow my way through…. to the next section where i was again grabbed- to open up a charge card account… At this point I was officially aggravated. I grabbed a couple of things and was thinking about how annoyed I was and felt trapped.. was almost comical and I did smile a bit. More of smirk really.

Went to Chapters (think Border or Barnes and Noble) and bought a couple of books for my kids.. I was strapped for time and just wanted to get home . I felt pummeled by the retail experience and once again was grateful for online shopping . I used to LOVE to malls and shop. Now I avoid it. I lined up to pay for books and waited … About a zillion little baskets of filled with impulse sale items. When I finally got to cash- I had to listen to a minutes long sales pitch on why I needed a “Chapter’s Member” card at the low low price of 24.95. I was sort of rude to clerk.. then she looked embarrassed and I apologized. She said sorry and confessed that they had to ask every customer about the program and most people were annoyed. If you know it annoys people why do it??? This is pretty basic stuff. Buyer has warm fuzzy feeling at your store and they want to come back. Cold prickly feelings are bad and they won’t return- or buy as much.

Why do they do it? It must work. Reminds me of the sleazy guy in a bar who hits on every girl because for every 50 no’s he gets he gets one yes.. The yes’s keep him coming back.
At what cost? You alienating those 49 people whop say now. You make them numb to the process.
I go to locally owned craft store- not a Giant Micheal’s nearby. The prices can be more but most times they are not . The store has been there 30 years. Some of the staff have been there 20 years. There is no turnover. They know my name- my kids’ names and my husband’s name! They have an open house at Christmas and give free classes and lunch. They give my kids stickers and candy at the cash. No one hassles me. They offer free tea and coffee and soothing music play in the background. Customers come in to CHAT. I go there often. At least once a week because I like to so much. I spend A LOT of money there. I don;t avoid that satire- i look forward to it!

You can apply this to your blog as well. Do you have flashing banner ads? Skyscraper Adsense Ads? Amazon widget in your sidebar and Context Links popping up everywhere? Do You have to log in to comment on a blog? Are you annoying your customers/reader?
There is line you may cross- making money and profiting at the expense of your blog visitors user experience. Think outside the box- or give reasons for your customer to come back- don’t up sell/convert/call to action them to death. Don’t make them jump through hoops to buy something from you or get information from you.

I once read a report that said it costs a business 10 times more money to get a new new customer than it does to keep one they all ready have.

Keep existing customers (or blog readers) by making their experience consistently positive. Build a relationship with new ones by doing the same thing.

Tags: Internet Marketing and Blogs, Marketing Your Web Site by Lisa Stewart
2 Comments »

Andy takes a very thorough look at an interview done by Eric Enge at Stone Temple Consulting with Matt Cutts. The topic is how crawlers and Google see noindex pages in robot.txt files and how they affect page rank. This leads to Andy making some key points on the way robots view pages on a site and how dangling pages may be causing a page rank leak- among other things. The article is not a dry as I make it sound
Take 15 minutes to read the Interview and then read Andy’s brilliant analysis in his post, SEO Link Gotchas Even the Pros Make and reflect on it a bit- there is a lot of meat in this post.
Guaranteed you are making at LEAST one major mistake Andy mentions.

Andy also looks at the IMPROPER use of nofollow tags and trend of slashing and burning of outbound links.

I have mentioned this before as I see rampant paranoia among web designers and developers and think the the worst is yet to come. I feel a bit like Chicken Little sometimes

Andy points out that adding useless nofollow tags , removing outbound links that used to be standard i.e. links to web designer’s site sloppy removal of reciprocal links pages has created untold number of dangling pages and he outlines the nasty effect this has on a site.

The article really is brilliant. I feel like I am in danger of fast becoming and Andy Beard Groupie

Tags: Google, Marketing Your Web Site by Lisa Stewart
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I have always been a big believer in offering a potential client three price points. I have always done it. When I owned a flower store I would always give a bride 3 quotes. I started a consultation asking what she had in mind and what her budget was.

Assuming what some one can pay is one of the biggest mistakes you can make in any kind of a negotiation. Having three price points gave her an idea of price comparison. Often a client has no clue what her money will buy.

My husband has no idea what a good price is for chicken and what seems like a great value to me is outrageous to him. I have no idea about his audio stuff. His 500.00 headphones were apparently a great deal when I happy to buy mine at the dollar store. Value is subjective and needs a context. Offering choices gives a frame of reference.

My Three Price Points Have Always Been:
1)What I will do that satisfies the need and does the job for the best price.
2)The second is not only doing what is asked but recommending what I think should also be done and give biggest bang for the buck.
3)The third is what I would do in best case scenario if budget not a consideration

All quotes are broken down. The idea is to educate the customer or client. Giving them a point of reference helps them make better choices and articulate what they need. They may not even KNOW they need something.
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In his post, The Key To Getting The Fees You Deserve Michel Fortin discusses the finer points of setting price for your services using the same model I used above- only he dies it better
He delivers his message only in a much more eloquent way than I do. Michel is writing about the pricing of copywriting services- but the principles are exactly the same and can easily be applied to any kind of web marketing service.

Take a look if you have ever wondered about your price structuring and how to give a client a quote on your rates or services.

Tags: Marketing Your Web Site by Lisa Stewart
2 Comments »