6/01/2009  

Who Sends Out Your Newsletters?

My wife received an email newsletter from a retreat she stayed at last year.

The newsletter was signed by the "Chief Marketing Officer".

I think that's a bad thing.

We all know you're marketing to the reader, but I think if the newsletter was signed by the Customer Service Manager or the Receptionist or the General Manager, then it lessens the thinking of "Oh, they're trying to sell me something."

Just a thought.

Brendon

5/01/2009  

Funtastic Holidays - Removing The Negative Comments About You

One of the most popular commented posts on this site is the little yarn I told about the practices of Funtastic Holidays.

The article has had a ton of comments from people who feel like they've been dudded by dodgy dealings from Funtastic Holidays.

Most of the commenters have been made anonymously - I'm sure in part because, as 1 person said, ".......still waiting for a refund and would probably jepodise getting one from funtastic holidays if they knew who we were as the complaintants!!!!"

The owner of Funtastic Holidays commented on the post that the entry had "dam neared ruined my reputation".

Methinks she'd stuffed that herself and certainly didn't need my help.

And I'm not so sure Yvonne gives a toss - from what I've seen her company sure has a whole lot of ways to get rid of annoying customers.

But I'll be taking down the majority of the comments on the posts - I guess having a way to have a voice against bad company practices is nice. But not that fair unless people are willing to put their name to do.

Cheers

Brendon

Labels: funtastic holidays

25/12/2008  

Happy, Happy Christmas

Keep safe and enjoy the festive season.

Cheers

Brendon

19/12/2008  

A Triumph For Stupidity & Laziness - Get Your A$$ Off The Chair & Sell Something!

You know, I reckon selling stuff is pretty easy.

Someone walks into your shop, you have a chat, find out what they want and present what you sell as a solution.

Some sales are easier than others.

I went for my last motorbike lesson yesterday with Q-Ride trainers AMA.

I want to buy a motorbike so, at the end of the lesson, my instructor took me into a motorbike shop - the Triumph Motorcycle dealer on the Gold Coast - to show me a few bikes.

• So there's Tony - a well known motorbike instructor from down the road.
• And me - a guy wearing a motorbike jacket with a bright green fluoro vest with an enormous 'L' on the back.

Now if we walked into my motorbike shop I'd be one happy owner.

I Was The Perfect Prospect

I can't really think of a more qualified prospect - that is, it's pretty obvious the bloke who is learning to ride a motorbike would be keen to buy a motorbike.

It's basically easy money.

Tony and I were in that shop for 10 minutes. We looked at probably 10 different bikes.

Tony explained a few things I need to look for when buying a bike.

Salesman Was Curing Cancer

When we walked in the salesman was doing something incredibly important on his computer.

I can't be sure, but it may have had to do with curing cancer, ending the Middle East conflict and getting the Bush shoe thrower out of jail.

I know this because:

• not once did he stop playing on his computer,
  
• not once did he get his ass off his chair,
• not once did he engage us,
• not once did he ask if he could help us.

They must make making a shed load of money if they can afford to ignore just about the hottest sales prospect that could walk through the door.

And the thing that annoys me the most is if anyone from Triumph reads this post they'll be pissed with me because of my sarcastic tone.

Stop whining and do your job would be my advice.

The lesson for the rest of us:

1. It's bloody easy to sell stuff:

• Engage your customer
• Find out what they want or what their problem is
• Offer a solution to fill that want/fix that problem.

2. In this world of the web your crap service can get a big audience fast.

Cheers

Brendon

17/12/2008  

How To Be The Fittest Family In Australia.......Or Do Better In Business

A friend said to me today "My God!! You're like the fittest family in Australia!"

It got me thinking - maybe we are??

Nah, I don't reckon. There'd be families who do more than us I'd imagine.

Me - have just cycled across Australia in 30 days, did the Noosa Triathlon as part of a team and will be swimming across the Derwent River (2 km) and running to the top of Mt Wellington (1,270 metres ASL/24 kms from the river to the top) in Hobart in a few weeks.

Today I ran 5 km, swam 1km and cycled 30 km.

That's me on the right ;o)

My wife - ran the Gold Coast Half Marathon this year, is running the full marathon in 7 months, did the Noosa Tri (did the 10km run leg) in a team, trains 4 times a week.

Daughter Laura (17 yo) - runs lots, won a fun run this year, does the 10 km runs at the Gold Coast Marathon and at the Noosa Tri (she's on my team!).

Son Jack (16 yo) - youngest person ever to cycle across Australia (4,500 km in 30 days), does the Noosa Tri (with Laura and I) each year, does lots of fun runs, swims 1 km every 2nd day.

Son Harry (14 yo) - ran the Gold Coast Half Marathon this year, did the Kokoda Challenge 96 km walk (a non-stop walk), did the 40 km cycle leg as part of a team at the Noosa Tri and is running his first marathon in 7 months.

That sounds like an awful lot when you write it down!

(My 78 yo Dad gets up at 3.30 am and cycles 10 kms to the beach, swims a km, runs a couple and then cycles home. Every day.)

Here's the thing.

Leaving aside that I probably sound like a big bragging tosser, I (and my family) don't see anything special about what we do. It's nothing.

Any clown can do it if they can be bothered.

All we do is consistently do something.

It's all about consistency. We do a little each day and before you know it we can swim 1 km.

• A little each day and we can cycle 100 kms.
• A little each day and we can run a marathon.

Doing something consistently soon gets results.

It's The Same With Business

It's the same with business.

Whether you are doing search engine work or web design or selling stuff, whatever.

Do a little bit each and every day and before you know it stuff happens. You start getting results.

• Add content to your site every day.
• Make 10 phones calls a day to new customers.
• Send 10 letters a day with a special offer.
• Write a Tweet 4 times a day.
• Whatever.

Just do something. And do it every day. Every single day for a year or 2 or 3.

Whatever it takes. Because this is business and it's hard to succeed.

Cheers

Brendon

Labels: australia's fittest family?

16/12/2008  

Get A Sense of Humour & A Spine Your Boring, Stupid People

In this politically correct world we see some pathetic, stupid crap all the time.

Oh look, here's one now:

A gay activist says his human rights have been violated by the human rights watchdog itself.

And Another

Then the guys at Made to Stick get their knickers in a knot about the tongue-in-cheek JC Penney ad about the guy being in the dog house.

I blogged about the video back here.

Here's The Thing

Here's the thing with whingy, whiny clowns who don't have a sense of humour - they're the exact opposite of what you need to be in business.

• They get upset about stupid things.
• They lose their focus and worry about stuff no one cares about.
• They don't have a compelling reason to do business with them because they're so bland and boring. You don't remember them.
  

Okay, time to unsubscribe from Made To Stick because they're boring as hell and I'm not gonna to take it any more!

What You Need To Do

What you need to do in business is worry about the stuff that makes you money.

Don't get sidetracked by stuff that doesn't matter.

And don't be a boring sop, because that's....well....boring!

Cheers

Brendon

Labels: General Marketing

15/12/2008  

Why Should Your Client Buy From You?

Let's face it - most web developers are the same.
All doing essentially the same thing.

So the question you have to ask yourself is "Why should the client buy from me?"

The answer is easy: Because you offer something the others don't.
The thing you have that's different should also be something that is important to the client in their decision making process.

The Biggest Marketing Tip Of Them All

Here's a hint: Don't make your point of difference price. You can always be beaten on price.

Think about what difference could make you super attractive to potential clients. Then develop that difference and promote the hell out of it.

Cheers

Brendon

Labels: General Marketing

12/12/2008  

Motorbike Training Gold Coast

I'm always keen to give a shout out for great service - if you want great motorbike training on the Gold Coast you have to use Shona and the team at AMA.

They're Q-Ride specialists and provide exceptional motorbike training at a great rate.

Riding around the beautiful Gold Coast is fun on my old pushbike, but it's even funner (if that's a word!) if you ride the Gold Coast on a motorbike.

Contact Shona for motorbike training at Nerang, Gold Coast if you want some top training.

Cheers

Brendon

Labels: motorbike training gold coast

10/12/2008  

The Perfect Christmas Gift For Every Client

Here's how to buy the perfect Christmas gift for every client. I'll use an example.

"Hi Clare, what are you up to over Christmas?"

"I'm heading to New York - leave on Thursday."

"Uggggh, that's a boring flight - do you have an iPod?"

"Yep, that reminds me, I've gotta get some decent music on it."

Clare's gift: iTunes Voucher

The best gifts for clients (or anyone in fact) is one that's specifically for them based on their interests and desires.

Easy.

No more socks or jocks for your clients!

Cheers

Brendon

Labels: Client Care

9/12/2008  

Designers Just Don't Seem To Get It

We outsource some of our work - whether it's design or programming or whatever.

It helps us to keep on top of things and provide more flexible, effective service to our clients.

But I gotta say this - Designers just don't get it. They don't get business. The majority of ones I deal with don't have a clue.

The Case For The Prosecution

• We've just had a web site design done via a competition.
• We very clearly stipulated that payment was only via PayPal.

So some guy enters and wins. And then it all turns to crap.

1. Firstly he tells us he wants to be via some payment service that isn't PayPal.
I say no. Our conditions were clear.

2. Then he told me he had PayPal and to pay into that.
I did that about 30 seconds after receiving his email.

3. Then he emailed back to say he couldn't access the money in his PayPal account and could we pay via the original payment service he mentioned. That would mean we'd pay twice.

This was over several days - we still didn't have our design.

I told this clown to either send the design or refund our money. Several hours later we had the design.

• We were now way behind on the project.
• We'd spent hours messing around with this fool.

24 hours later he emailed again to ask if we'd like him to code the design.

Hmmmm, after days of delays and giving us nothing but problems he thinks we'd use him again!

Understand This

Your job, no matter what it is, is to make your client's life easier. Not harder.

Cheers

Brendon

3/12/2008  

How To Be A Media Star

Have you ever wondered where the media get their experts for expert comments on stories?

Have you ever thought that your business/brand could benefit from being that expert?

I've provided expert media comment on numerous occasions after the media have found me via various avenues. Those avenues include the media:

1. doing a Google search like this
   
2. asking their friends
3. seeing me in another media story
4. receiving my offer to comment

Chris van Hoof is a personal trainer here on the Gold Coast (Chris trained Jack and I for our across Australia bike ride - that's him with Jack on the right).


Chris Called Up A Radio Station To Win Stuff

He had a client cancel a few mornings back at 6 am. So he's sitting there at the beach and heard a competition come on the radio.

He called up for the competition and had a brief chat with the radio announcer:

"We have Chris on the line, what are you up to this morning Chris?"

Chris mentioned he is a personal trainer and that a client had just canceled and he had some free time, so decided to call up.

He answered the competition question (wrongly...... He can lift heavy things but he's not very smart!) and went about his day.

A couple of days later Chris got a call from the radio station's News Desk:

"We remembered you from your call in a few days ago - the government announced a $400 million boost to fight obesity - would you be able to comment on that for the news?"

Could he what!

Later that day Mr Chris van Hoof was lauded as a fitness expert and had his snippet played numerous times to the radio audience.

What fantastic coverage and a fantastic opportunity.

Leverage Media Opportunities

The thing is once you become the 'expert' commentator on an issue affecting your industry, you can leverage that to comment more and more in the media.

Before you know it you're the acknowledged industry expert with a high profile - and the perception of expertise will help build your business tremendously.

Cheers

Brendon

Labels: General Marketing

2/12/2008  

Get Google To Do Your Work......For Free

I've mentioned before on this site the importance of doing keyword research before you start thinking about how to get your client's web site to the top of the search engines.

I had a neat example the other day - I have a client who provides helicopter rides on the Gold Coast.

Should we target the term "helicopter rides" or "helicopter flights"? Which term would get searched the most?

Good questions and I had no idea what the answers would be.

But I know how to find out - here's a great way to figure out which term to target.

Go to the Google AdWords Keyword tool and type in your 2 terms. You'll get a very good idea on how many searches are done each month for each term.

Use Google AdWords For Research

The absolute best way to gauge the search numbers is to set up a Google AdWords account and bid on the 2 terms.

Within 48 hours you'll have an excellent idea on the number of searches completed for each term as this data is provided in your reports.

Ths can go a long way to avoiding some confusing data from the keyword tool.

For example, here are the search numbers for the terms from the tool:

• helicopter rides - 18,100
• helicopter flights - 2,900

Seems pretty clear cut doesn't it. You'd expect the terms "helicopter ride" and "helicopter flight" to have a similar proportionate gap.

Nope.

• helicopter ride - 14,800
• helicopter flight - 27,100

Get As Much Data As You Can For The Right Decision

Hmmmmm.

That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. In a case like this I'd go to Google AdWords and test all terms and get the real time results.

As you can see, if you choose the wrong term to get a high ranking for it can be a terrible move.

Sure, you'll work hard and get a # 1 rankings but you could have gotten your client x6 times more potential customers if you had targeted the more highly searched for term.

Makes sense and can mean a lot more $$$ for your client.

Cheers

Brendon

Labels: web site marketing

1/12/2008  

Step 1 In Assessing Advertising Opportunities

Advertising can be difficult to assess when you're taking your first ad in a media you haven't tried before.

Sure, the salesman will tell you his magazine is fantastic, gets 100,000 readers each issue and will result in big sales for you. Usually he's full of crap.

But how can you tell.

A very simple advertising assessment strategy I've implemented over the years is easy and effective.

I get hold of the magazine/newspaper/TV show whatever I'll be advertising in and I see who else advertises with them.

A Quick Phone Call

A quick phone call and (as long as they're not a competitor) I'll have the truth about the effectiveness of advertising in that media.

Cheap, simple and effective.

It's a few quick phone calls that have saved me thousands of $$$ over the years.

Cheers

Brendon

Labels: General Marketing

28/11/2008  

My Top 6 Secrets For Business Success

1. You have to be in the game - Opportunity only dances with those on the dance floor.
2. You must have passion for what you do.
3. Have great communication skills - basically you have to be able to sell stuff: your vision, your product, the benefit of working for you, etc.
4. Get a great team about you.
5. Believe in yourself - don't quit.
6. Do something - Ideas are great, action is better.

Cheers

Brendon

Labels: Business Tips

27/11/2008  

A Place To Avoid

I have visited this place many, many times. I'm one of the few to return.



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