by Amber Miller | Oct 12, 2016 | Blog, Marketing
It’s no secret, humans were born to be social creatures. We crave social connection as much as we did thousands of years ago when humans first starting roaming the earth. But… in order to become a part of the group, we need to know what to do in order to be respected by the group. Think about it like this… You feel like you should add an important snippet to a group conversation at work. Either your coworkers will love the idea or they will reject it – therefore embarrassing you in the long run. Is it worth the risk of ridicule to express your thoughts and ideas? Sometimes it is, sometimes… not so much.
This same dynamic rings true in referral marketing. Is it worth it for a customer to refer your company to one of their friends? Below are five ways you can get people to refer your business.
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Be Unique & Reliable (even if you can’t be unique)
Be unique. Do something that set’s you apart from the rest of the players within your industry. Even if you can’t provide a unique product, you can provide a unique customer experience. Set standards and abide by those standards and expectations each and every time you sell a product or talk to a customer. People are going to want to talk about outstanding experiences they have with companies.
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Build and keep relationships with industry partners
If you’re a wedding planner, you’ve probably needed a florist, a DJ, and even a caterer at some point. Build and keep those lasting relationships. These related businesses are in contact with your targeted audience on a daily basis and are a perfect resource for referrals.
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Get out there. Get connected and be visible.
Getting involved in the community is a great way to get referral business. Sponsoring a sports team or an event that helps homeless animals is a great way to get your company name out there and let people know you care about the community you do business in.
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Refer to Get Referred
Going back to #2 and those strong related business relationships. Refer those companies to other people and in return, they will refer business to you. But don’t just refer anyone. Make sure you are only referring other business that you know provide quality and honest work. You don’t want bad referrals to come back to bite you in the butt after all…
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Don’t be afraid to ask. (But make sure to give something of value in return)
A lot of the time, asking for what you want really works. Are you selling some kind of software that helps people to streamline their finances? Do you get a lot of questions about specific cases? Before answering, have your customers post a public review of your business in exchange for a little bit of “free” consulting advice.
There’s a lot more when it comes to getting referrals. We actually recommend reading a great article by Infusionsoft that talks a lot more about referrals and the psychology behind them.
But hey… before we go… Did you know that we offer a referral program here at STF? We offer $50 for every single friend (or foe) that signs up with any of our service programs. (*Also* Offering referral bonuses is just another great way to get people to “refer-a-friend” ;-p)
by Amber Miller | Sep 20, 2016 | Blog, Infusionsoft, Marketing
We were over at Infusionsoft’s blog the other day catching up on all the wonderful things they post over there when we came across this post, 5 Sales Promotion Ideas That Small Businesses Can Execute. They talk a lot about actual promotions you can do, duh, but what we liked most about the post was the information they shared about the details. Yah, you could throw a flash sale or offer a discount, but if you miss out on important details- it could end up killing your business instead of growing it.
The first part of the article talks about the execution. Before you announce any kind of promotion, it’s important to consider the who, what, why, where, when… you get the point. What kind of promotion do you want to offer? What is the goal of the promotion? Why are you offering this promotion? Understanding the reasoning behind the sale/promotion will help you decide what the best course of action your business needs to take to prepare and execute the sale/promotion.
They then go on to list a number of promotion types including flash sales, Buy One Get One Free (BOGO), coupons and/or discounts, tripwires, and recurring sales. Each point provides information on what each type of sale is, what type of customer it could target the most, and even includes several points on how to execute the sale to your own business needs.
All in all, we thought it was a darn good blog article and thought we should share with all our followers. It’s great information, and if you decide to implement some of these ideas to your own business, please let us know how it worked for you in the comments!
Read the full Infusionsoft blog article here.
by Amber Miller | Sep 2, 2016 | Blog, Entrepreneur, Marketing
Hi there fellow entrepreneurs! We’ve got a special treat for you this week! We thought we should share a post from one of our clients (below) about launching your products and services. A lot of people get super anxious and overwhelmed when it comes to launching a new product or service, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Read the post below and get in touch with us with any questions, concerns, comments, or if you just want some help getting things moving!
Your dream scenario…
Every time I offer a new service, program or product, it’s like the entire world lines up to give me their credit card.
No matter what I offer, my ideal clients eat it up and then come back for more.
Often the reality…
I have an idea, bumble around putting it together, bumble even harder to plan how I’ll get it out into the world… feel frazzled instead of dazzled with my results.
Truth…
Look, babe, you’ve got a great idea. If you were excited when you conceived it and it’ll solve a top-of-mind problem for your peeps, you’re probably headed in the right direction.
Celebrate!
But before you head into hibernation to create that puppy, here are five questions for ya:
- How will your new “thing” fit in with your other offerings. Does it support and elevate the others?
- Will you be thrilled to produce, market and fulfill on the new service, program or product?
- Are you willing to put in as much thought into your marketing plan and execution as you did in creating your idea?
- Are you willing to learn new skills to see your “thing” successfully change lives?
- Will you invest money and time into creating a launch for your product or service, that will be more intentional and reach more people than anything else you’ve done to date?
If you answered 100% yes to these five questions and you feel nervous and excited about stepping up your game, then you’re ready to proceed.
And if you’ve never truly had a successful product or program launch, for the sake of your future, get help from mentors and other professionals to show you how.
Wouldn’t it be worth it to invest $5k, $10k or even $20k if you knew there’d be a $50k, $100k or even $150k payday shortly thereafter?
Yeah, I know that may feel like a bit of a stretch for you, but what’s the alternative?
You don’t want to create something that stays hidden in the shadows, right?
Market first, create later. I’ve followed that rule the last 20 years and I’ve always made money before I ever created or delivered a darn thing.
So tell me in the comments . . . what is most helpful about this info for you and your biz?
Jeanna Gabellini is a Master Business Coach who assists conscious entrepreneurs to double (and even triple) their profits by leveraging attraction principles, proven strategies and fun. Grab her FREE audio on dialing in your biz here: http://masterpeacecoaching.com/freecd
by Amber Miller | Jun 24, 2016 | Blog, Customer Service, Marketing
We wanted to let you know about an import update!
We have found out today that Gmail and Microsoft are set to adopt strict email deliverability policies similar to Yahoo and AOL. Word on the street says the policy will be enforced by June 30, 2016.
This will impact any email service provider including Infusionsoft, MailChimp, and Constant Contact.
What does this mean to you?
Basically, users who use an email address from any of the below email domains as the “From” email address when sending any type of email from these email systems will no longer have their emails delivered.
Impacted email domains: @gmail, @hotmail, @yahoo, @aol, @outlook, @live, @msn.
You will need to be sure any emails you send are coming from a domain email account such as yourname@yourdomainname.com (note – this is really best practices anyway!).
Our team has been made aware and we are making sure we are on the lookout for you if we are supporting you with email marketing.
If you have any questions please reach out!
by Tina Walker | Apr 19, 2016 | Blog, Marketing
The Divas have been listening to me for months talk about how much I love the Divi theme. I mention it on team calls, I mention it on team Skype and I almost feel like the team might roll their eyes when I suggest it being a good fit for multiple projects. Somedays I feel as if I chant the name “Divi” over and over. Let me share with you why I love it so much, and what it can do for you.
What is Divi?
Divi is a multi-purpose theme created by Elegant Themes. For me, as a developer, it’s the ULTIMATE WordPress theme with endless possibilities for layouts and styling. Combine that with the Divi Page Builder, which is an extremely easy and versatile drag and drop builder, and it becomes a monster do-anything, be-anything WordPress theme option.
Divi Announces Built-In Split Testing – perfect for Opt-In Pages, Landing Pages, and Sales Pages
So many clients use programs such as Leadpages or ClickFunnels and many times those programs are used for the purpose of ease of use, built-in split testing and conversion rates. But, you also have a heavy price for these programs. With Divi’s most recent update, they now offer Divi Leads Split Testing and a conversion optimization system!
With Divi Leads Split Testing we can build amazingly beautiful custom landing pages using a simple WordPress Install with Divi. This is the effective landing page tool that I have been waiting for, because for me, this puts Divi in the category of Leadpages or ClickFunnels at a fraction of the price! The look and feel you see can be created in Divi, plus you have the benefit that it’s fully customizable.
The Divi Leads Split Testing also allows you to not only A/B test pages, but modules within pages, individual sections, or rows. The results are also very in-depth. This includes bounce rates, click-through rates, engagement rates and sales rates.
Complete Websites with Easy User Interface
Divi also can be more than marketing pages. It can be an entire website with ease in functionality that anyone can easily use. For those who want to be able to add or change their own content easily, this is the theme for you. The drag and drop interface is the easiest interface I have seen in my 20 years of experience.
Sometimes with easy interfaces, you lose the power of options. Not with Divi. It integrates with membership plugins, commerce plugins, and community components with ease. It’s used to build full blown powerful website designs. In February, Elegant Themes launched the ability to import Squarespace sites with minimum fuss, as well as a new feature – the dynamic help system which, if needed, Divi will troubleshoot itself and help find the problem and fix it, saving a lot of time and frustration.
The support that Divi has from the WordPress Community is huge and I only see the future being brighter as Elegant Themes continues to offer amazing add-ons, modules, and more tools such as the split testing piece that was just introduced.
by Amber Miller | May 16, 2015 | Featured, Marketing, SEO, Social Media
Everyone knows that they need to track their marketing efforts. If you didn’t track your marketing you would not know what’s working and what isn’t. Now I know tracking and analytics isn’t really sexy and exciting, but it is a necessary evil that we have to do to determine if our marketing is paying off.
If you don’t already have Google Analytics set up on your website then that is going to be your first step. Google Analytics does a great job at tracking your visitors as they move from page to page on your website. But if you don’t know what you are looking at, Google Analytics can be very confusing and overwhelming.
The good news is that there are some free tools that can help simplify Google Analytics so you can understand the data that comes from this form of tracking.
Below are 3 free tools that will help simplify Google Analytics for you.
Need to know helps you find out what you need to know when it comes to Google Analytics.
So what does it do?
Need to know is relatively new and is definitely worth checking out.
N2K gives you a one-page overview of your Google Analytics data. This report will highlight your key information over the last month. It takes all of the complicated Google Analytics and presents it to you in a compressed format.
It is incredibly easy to use while still giving you a very detailed easy to read report.
What story will your data tell you?
Quill is another fairly new free service that will take the data that is gathered from Google Analytics and transforms it into an easy to read and understand report. Quill gives you the option to receive a weekly or monthly email that is written in plain English.
Take a look at this example report from Quill Engage
Why is Quill Engage Useful?
Quill Engage will literally take all of the data you get from Google Analytics and convert them to an easy to read, easy to understand report. This will allow you to take action on the data that is being collected.
Tracking webpages just got easier.
What does PadiTrack do?
Just like the other two tools shared before, PadiTrack connects directly to your Google Analytics account and displays the data in an easier to understand format. This tool especially works well when it comes to tracking sales funnels.
How is PadiTrack useful?
One cool thing that Paditrack shows you is the conversions for each and every step of your sales funnel. This allows you to quickly pinpoint “problem areas” in your conversion process.
PadiTrack also allows you to see how well your sales funnels are doing against specific segments. For example you could create a segment of users from a new email campaign, traffic driven from a specific keyword or from new visitors to your website who found you through Google search.
PadiTrack offers a ton of other great reports and comes with a free version and makes a great “add-on” to your analytics toolbox.
These 3 tools are just a few tools to check out that will assist in making those hard to read Google Analytic reports a breeze to understand and read. Smart to Finish offers website analytic tracking support that will help give you a leg up on your competition.
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