Do You Engage?



This is a posting on M. Sue Woodward's blog, Sue's Muse at http://www.suesmuse.com/. I thought it applicable to both non-profit and for-profit application. If you need any referals to outstanding web designers, please be in touch. I know several who all do fantastic work.


That is the question … do you engage first time and returning visitors on your website?


It is more imperative than ever to ensure that site visitors have a good experience when visiting your site … this may be your only chance to share information, get them to sign up for future communications, volunteer and ultimately, of course, to donate (or buy).


Over the past couple of years, organizations have been taking stock of their existing sites (remember your site is your store front) and have determined that perhaps things are a bit messy, overcrowded and NOT user friendly when navigating … and are now embracing the POWER OF THREE.


“Good design is a Renaissance attitude that combines technology, cognitive science, human need and beauty to produce something.”Paola Antonelli, Museum of Modern Art.


These organizations vary in size, from the newly launched American Red Cross site to ANERA, a small organization that provides humanitarian relief in the Middle East. Other examples include Lupus Foundation, Armstrong Foundation, and HRC.

Suzy DeFrancis, Chief Public Affairs Officer at the American Red Cross shared enhancements to the ARC site in a recent email, included:

• Quickly directing a visitor to donate money, time or blood


• A Join Us button that allows us to register people when they come on the site


• Reorganizing and re-prioritizing the content and functionality to better meet user needs


• Improved navigation


• Links to social media sites


• More accessibility for people with disabilities

This is a great example of prioritizing your site goals and using the elements of good design to achieve them. So ask yourself the question … How do you engage? … It might just be time for a redesign!

Prospecting

Here is another email I received from another colleauge about prospecting

Greetings Paul,

I wanted to speak with you briefly on the subject of prospecting. You see, prospecting is the fuel that feeds a business. Turn off the prospecting, and you turn off the lifeblood of your business. Prospecting is what keeps the cash flow of a business viable and steady.

But how do you prospect for MLM business? What are you looking for when you prospect? What makes a person a "master prospector"?

Well, one of things that I do is lead with a product or service, not an opportunity.

The reasons I lead with the product or the service in an MLM business are many. They include:

1. You cannot separate yourself in the marketplace based on opportunity. Everyone has an opportunity, and in this day and age, the average 18 yr old has been hit over the head with so many opportunities that leading with your company's opportunity to earn compensation sounds just like all the other opportunities out there. Everyone has a way to get rich, which means that for you to sound halfway credible, you cannot lead with opportunity.

2. Retention rates increase dramatically when you lead with the product or service. You see, residual income means that you get paid later, not now. So when you are building a residual income foundation, it takes a little bit of time, and if a distributor signs up to market your product based on the potential to make a million bucks, then 3 months later when they're not making all the money they want, they quit. The only reason they were ever using the product in the first place was to get a paycheck.

3. People buy in the presence of expertise. What I am referring to is the concept of "positioning". Paul you simply cannot position yourself as an expert in the creation of wealth until you have actually created it. You see, if you are talking to somebody about making tons of money in your business, and you are leading your pitch with the opportunity to make money, and they see that you are NOT making a ton of money, it's over. It's like listening to a person that weights 700 lbs give you advice on staying in shape. There is a credibility issue there, and unless you have generated serious income with your business, you simply cannot effectively lead with your opportunity.

So...when you lead with the product, the reason a prospect is purchasing from you is to access a solution that your product provides them. Which means that if they do choose to market the product, then they won't quit while they are building the foundation for their business and they are waiting for the big bucks to start rolling in...because the whole reason they got involved in the first place was because they wanted the product or service. Both business builders and product users stay on the books longer...which means more income in your distribution channel.

So if you are leading with the product or service, how do you prospect?

When you do your prospecting, and you are leading with the product / service, you are looking for 2 key things in the prospect to determine if they would be a good fit for what you have:

1. They need to have pain - The best type of prospect that you could ever hope for is a prospect that is aware of a need for something else. For example, if you are marketing a health juice, you want to be talking to people who are actively aware that the type of health solution they are currently using isn't providing them with the benefits they are seeking. You don't want to convince them that they need what you have. You want to determine that they are already aware of a need, and if so, how you could help.

2. They need to have a desire - Have you ever heard the phrase "misery loves company"? Well here's a new one for ya: "sometimes, misery loves misery".

We all know people who, for whatever reason, seem to take pleasure in their pain. We have all had a friend that was involved with a relationship that was less than beneficial for them, but regardless, they stayed in the relationship. Well, if your prospect has given up all hope of fixing their pain, then there is nothing you can do for them.

So... if a prospect has pain, and a prospect has desire to fix that pain, then I simply show them how to get that done. I know that there are plenty of opinions out there on how to grow a business, but personally, I enjoy helping people to solve their pain much more than convincing them that they need what I have.

If you have a business, then go find some people to help! We live in world that is chock-full of pain. If your product has benefits, then go find the folks that are in need of those benefits, and help them out! Ease their pain. Make the world a better place.

If you don't have a clue where to start, don't worry, I'll talk about how to find people with pain in further emails. Stay tuned. I'll keep you posted.

Walking This Road With You,

Joshua Fuson
Business Growth Specialist

21 Keys to Improving Customer Retention through Relationship Marketing Programs

by Lee Marc Stein at www.leemarcstein.com

In preparation for an annual offsite meeting with a major client, we developed this checklist with copywriter Mark Hallen.

1. Realize that your Retention Program starts on Day One. If your business model involves lead generation, Day One begins with your handling of the lead. You not only affect conversion, but the tone of the entire relationship.
   If you’re generating most of your new customers at retail, Day One is what happens when customers open the box after they’ve left the store. Are you doing enough to get them to register with you? How can you help them use the product more easily?
2. Assume that all new customers are created equal. As a general rule that worked in the past, a new customer generated through direct mail always had a longer lifetime value than a customer coming through direct response TV, inserts, or retail. Now, because of the Internet and because consumers are using all their channel options, we don't know how good a customer they're likely to be. Only performance can dictate that. Therefore you won't be able to pick and choose which customers to invest in with a relationship program. As the relationship unfolds, we can reduce or increase the investment.
3. Don’t try to start the relationship in the middle. While an action-based loyalty program can be augmented at anytime, a true relationship program will get the biggest return by beginning at the beginning. There will be less effect with older customers.
4. Make it easy to be a customer. Remove some of the necessary barriers you set up for suspects and prospects (e.g. automated email and voice response, long login forms). Think about a dedicated phone line for repeat customers. Some companies have different (easy re-order) web sites for customers than for prospects.
5. Reward and recognize longevity. You can afford to give long-time customers discounts, special services, and red carpet treatment. Don’t think so? Do the math. In many cases, it’s not even necessary to invest in a formal “loyalty” program. Recognition can go as far in exceeding customers’ expectations as rewards. Stage and invite best customers to “inner circle” events, even if the customer has to pay for the trip. Example: For its Select Banking customers, Chase arranges for a week-long golfing trip to Scotland. Even having a dedicated phone line for long-term customers can help them understand how much they’re appreciated.
6. Divide and conquer. Score your customers as you would prospects and leads. You can do this in many ways – everything from the old standard RFM (recency, frequency, monetary value) to share-of-wallet and potential based on relationships with other direct marketers. Once your customer files are scored, break customers up into distinct groups and build mini-marketing plans based on the segments’ unique needs, previous behaviors, established predispositions and potential to grow. Be sure to establish control groups within each segment so you can see the incremental value of your new marketing efforts.
7. Personalize and customize. Think about how good it feels when the waiter at your favorite restaurant greets you by name and knows exactly where you want to sit. You return again and again and always tip more than usual. The same thing works even with hardened enterprise IT buyers. Give them advice, counsel and content specific to their needs. There’s no question that direct marketers have the technology to do this.
8. Market to the life cycle stage and to the customer’s schedule. New customers have different needs and expectations than those you’ve had for years. What’s even trickier is that new customers acquired today will probably have different needs than the new customers you acquired three, five or ten years ago did. Do the research to understand and respond to these differences. Track triggers to certain behaviors and use those triggers to time your messages. When is a customer most likely to buy again? Immediately? A month later? A year later?
9. Ask them what they want. Most people want their opinions heard. And they’ll like being asked for them. The act of surveying your customers makes them think you care. When you report the results of the survey back to them, that’s a double confirmation of your concern. While you don’t want to do format surveys too often, you can get feedback after particular transactions.
10. Turn customers into stakeholders. Build a customer panel and/or an advisory board and invite customers to join. You’ll be surprised by how many will join, share, refer and buy more as a result of their participation. If you listen and act on what they have to say, that not only builds their loyalty but makes them more willing to reach out to prospects.
11. Use the power of referral programs. No customer is going to make referrals and then defect. Most customers will feel even better about the value of your product or service when they refer you to people like themselves who have stronger retention value.
12. Give instruction on how to get the most use from products and services. Obviously, this is most important with brand new customers, but also has retention value when an existing customer renews, buys a more expensive model, or accepts a new release of the product.
13. Do not turn all communications into sales pitches. Don't train the customer to believe that anything with your logo is trying to sell him something. Communications that are thank you's, welcomes, usage tips, anniversary messages, case studies, etc. make the customer feel that he is more than just a target for additional sales, and pave the way for opening the envelope when you are selling.
14. Assume that all new customers are created equal. When somebody first buys your product, you may not how good a customer they're likely to be. Only performance can dictate that. Therefore you won't be able to pick and choose which customers to invest in with a relationship program. However, you can reduce or increase the investment in a customer as you see what kind of customer he is.
15. Don’t try to start the relationship in the middle. This is the corollary to #1 (realize that your retention program starts on Day One). While an action-based loyalty program can be augmented at anytime, a true relationship program will get the biggest return by beginning at the beginning. There will be less effect with older customers.
16. Understand that unexpected “perks” do more than expected ones. Think carefully about how you position extras. Let’s say, for instance, that you’re marketing software to an installed base. If the upgrade mailing says "and you'll get 30 days free support" it might get some extra sales, but it may also decrease response because the customer thinks support will be necessary. It also raises expectations and may lead to disappointment. However, if you tell users AFTER they upgrade "to thank you for your purchase, we're giving you 30 days FREE support" it can't have a negative affect. It lets me know you're thinking about their welfare, since there is no (obvious) profit in it for you. In addition, because it was a "surprise" and not an incentive, users’ expectations for it are lower: whatever they get is a bonus.
17. Determine the effects of any retention or relationship program only in the long term. By definition, any relationship program must be viewed as a long-term investment with the potential for a sizable, but deferred, return on that investment. Do not look to see results this quarter or even this fiscal year. Your customer will reward you for good products, service and treatment only after a long enough period of time that establishes this as your company's way of doing business.
18. Make customers feel that the relationship is worth something. Here's a real relationship killer. I get a mailing with a special "customer price," then see a lower price in a store (or store circular) where anyone can walk in off the street. Treat me as an "insider," eligible for things that a non-customer can't get. Otherwise, what's in it for me?
19. Keep a Control Group long-term. To accurately measure the affect--and ROI--of a relationship program, you must retain a control group that has absolutely no contact with any component of the relationship program. Just as important, every action of this control group must be compared to the test group for a long period of time.
20. Define your goals and be sure they can be accomplished. Direct marketing is not a branding or image medium. Even mailing monthly, the frequency just isn't there to create a brand. Direct marketing can reinforce what I already think about the company, but not change it. That's why it's so important to start with new customers; that's when they feel best about us, so it's the best time to build on that.
21. Do not even think about a relationship program without reciting this mantra: "LIFETIME CUSTOMER VALUE IS EVERYTHING." All marketing should have lifetime customer value in mind, but it's the whole point of relationship marketing. Three, five, 10 years from now, how much more business have you done with Customer A (in whom you invested in a relationship program) vs. Customer B (in whom you made no additional investment). If you don't plan to look at the program this way, there's really no reason to do it in the first place.

The Master Mind Sessions

Last month my good friend and colleague, Jack Young, shared with me the title of a book that truely impressed me. Jack is the president of Trust Financial Solutions and is a master at meeting people. The name of the book was The Greatest Networker in the World by John Milton Fogg. This eBook can be found at http://www.greatestnetworker.com/library/pdf/tgnitw207.pdf. Fogg also has a website called MasterMind Sessions found at http://themastermindsessions.com/. This site lists 92 FREE sessions of the most knowledgeable and experienced experts, authors, speakers, trainers, coaches and successful business- builders in network marketing.