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04 Nov 2014

Why blogging and content marketing are a waste of time.

By Andrew Seipp

For most businesses.

Blogging is praised as the way to build your following, build a list, and gain “authority.” I’m not disputing that these things can’t or don’t happen but instead I question the ROTI (return on time invested) is worth it for most businesses.

I don’t believe it is for many businesses.

If you’re in a sexy industry writing about a subject that’s hot, or that thrives on constant updates (think technology blogs like Techcrunch) then yes, it’s worth the effort. But even then, there is so much competition that it’s going to be hard to get the attention of readers.

But what if you’re a dentist? Or a trucking company? Or…the list is endless. There simply are a lot of businesses that don’t have an interesting story to tell.

If you’re thinking of writing a blog the questions that needs to be asked are basically:

  1. Does anyone really care about what I will write?
  2. Will this actually attract paying customers? Or will it result in vanity metrics (hits, subscribes, bounces etc)?
  3. Can I put out decent, interesting and unique content on a regular basis, while still working on the rest of the business?

If you answer no to any of these questions, it’s probably not worth the effort and you should probably find better ways to market.

But…

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a web presence of some sort simply because people your potential customers will Google you. Likely all they’ll want to do is find a little bit about what you actually do, and this is something that applies to even the most traditional and unexciting business.

And for people that argue that this is bad for SEO I have to ask: does it even matter? Most likely the people who are Googling you already know you in some way shape or form and are simply doing a search for your business name. Hopefully when you started your business you did research to make sure that it was somewhat unique right?

Online marketing for a site without a blog

Yes, I recommend that you start doing online promotion without a blog.

“But Andrew, how will I get people to sign up for my email list if I don’t have a blog to attract them?”

Ask them.

At a networking event? Ask them if they want to go on a list.

Working with a client? Ask them.

In line at the supermarket? Ditto.

Forget about a business card, try this instead.

The most powerful tool in my arsenal is my smartphone. I have web forms bookmarked on my phone for different circumstances and after I meet anyone I always ask them if they want to join my list. It’s extremely important that you tell them that there is no problem if they unsubscribe; we’re all busy and at times we

Offline marketing meets online marketing

Surprisingly, no one seems to do this, which is a shame, because many business people spend hours networking with a very poor return on their time. By taking a more systematic approach to networking, and combining it with the strategies that online marketers use, there are plenty of opportunities to strengthen your relationship with your contacts.

But remember, it’s all about a relationship

If you’re doing this to SELL, SELL, SELL you’re setting yourself up for failure. It’s important to make sure that you’ve put a lot of thought into what outcomes you want to achieve.

In fact, the best results that my clients have had is by not selling at all, but by entertaining or educating.

Want to learn how to combine online and offline marketing to create a powerful strategy. Then book your free marketing and sale automation consultation.

 

29 Oct 2014

5 awful, mundane, and tedious tasks I’ve completely automated.

By Andrew Seipp

Systemizing and automating the tedious has changed the course of my business while letting me focus on the important stuff.

There are so many mundane, but really important, tasks that I have to do with my business…and even life. The problem is that although I know they’re important, I hate doing them. And often, I don’t them as a result.

Thank god for software automation.

So without further ado, here are some things that I have automated:

  1. Adding inspirational quotes to Linkedin.

    I’ve linked together 2 wicked services. Quotationspage.com has a quote of the day, and best of all, they have an RSS feed. I then use a service called ifttt.com to tie the RSS feed to Buffer which then eventually feeds it to Linkedin. Sounds complicated, but it’s not.

  2. Managing my intake on appointments.

    On my appointment page, the process is extremely automated. It’s a 3 part form: 1st it asks for an email, secondly it asks some more in-depth questions, and thirdly it directs to a calendar that is linked to my Google calendar. But if at any stage someone doesn’t complete it, then it will automatically send an email asking if there is a reason why they didn’t complete the form.

  3. Billing, billing, billing

    On projects that allow it, my clients are billed automatically. Best of all, my clients enter their payment information directly to my payment processor so I don’t have to worry about onerous things like PCI compliance. I personally use Freshbooks for this task, but there are many options

  4. Educating people in my network

    I do a lot of networking, but I only have so much time to tell people what I do. The solution is that I invite people to join my mailing list right on the spot using a web form that is loaded on my phone. Because it is tailored for that exact purpose it is an extremely effective way of building a relationship with someone and it is a very effective way to keep “top of mind.”

  5. Long term follow ups.

    For my telecom side of the business, my sales cycle is 6-9 months. As a small business, managing that cycle is simply not possible to do without some help. The solution is to automate this cycle and slowly educate the customer on the benefits of hiring me. A lot of people end up unsubscribing over the months, but that mostly says that they were likely never going to become a client anyway and saves me some a lot of work.

None of this stuff was easy to do, and it took a lot of trial and error, but the benefits are huge. I spend a lot more time on the meaningful customer interactions and less time on the mundane (but still important) stuff.

If you want help mapping out what can be automated in your business. Please Apply here for your sales automation plan; space fills up quickly, so act now to reserve your spot.

28 Oct 2014

Why I don’t publish on Linkedin. And neither should you.

By Andrew Seipp

Planning on publishing your blog posts on Linkedin? Don’t.

With Linkedin opening up its publishing platform almost everyone is quickly rushing to publish their posts on Linkedin. But overall it’s a terrible strategy to follow. Every day I see people putting their heart and souls into publishing heartfelt posts hoping that they’ll be the next Tim Ferris with thousands of followers, but it’s a bad idea for these 5 reasons.

  1. You’re handing over your content to a 3rd party.

    If you’re going through all of the trouble of creating your content, why would you put it on someone else’s site? This isn’t guest blogging, this is a private, for-profit, company with no links back to your website.

  2. You’re losing points from an SEO point of view.

    Creating good content is the key to good Google rankings. As a rule, if you build good content you’re going to get links to it, which will lead to more contacts and more links to your site. With Linkedin you don’t get this benefit.

  3. You want your tribe to be on your site.

    You want your readers to come to your site, read your content and get your message. If you’re lucky they’ll even subscribe to your email list which will create your own captive audience. With Linkedin…

  4. It’s already crowded, and it’s only going to get worse.

    Anyone can publish on Linkedin, and you’re competing for the attention of a lot less eyeballs (Linkedin users) vs. publishing it on your own site(the entire world)

  5. Remember Facebook

    A lot of publishers were caught flat footed when Facebook changed their algorithms to display content based on followers and reach…or if you paid them a pile of money for likes. When people start abusing the Linkedin platform, and they will, Linkedin will do the same thing. All of the sudden this entire body of work you’ve produced is going to be useless.

I use Linkedin every day and while I love the platform from a professional networking point of view, it’s a dud as a publishing platform. In short, it’s not the place you should publish. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t publicize your body of work on Linkedin; however, using a tool like Buffer or Hootsuite to publish links to your content is a much better smarter way of marketing your posts.

What are your thoughts on Linkedin as a publishing platform?

 

20 Oct 2014

5 big mistakes most businesses make when trying to automate their marketing

By Andrew Seipp

Marketing automation is awesome, but often goes awry. In my experience, here’s where most projects go wrong

  1. No plan.

    If you don’t have a strategy, a plan and something mapped out using a mind map or flow chart, you’re wasting your time…and money.

  2. Analysis paralysis.

    Plan, but don’t over plan. Start with easy stuff like automating new posts when a blog post goes out, or just do simple stuff like sending out simple campaigns. Don’t get into the complex stuff like lead scoring until you’ve learned the ropes a bit.

  3. Buy a Ferrari when they need a Toyota.

    I see this all the time. Someone rushes out to buy software like Infusionsoft before they’ve even made a plan. In reality, these tools are so complicated (and expensive) they hurt rather than help a lot of companies. I can’t blame them, the sales people for these companies are very persuasive, but often in the excitement of buying a lot of entrepreneurs….

  4. Forget that they need to have a business.

    Automating things without a solid business model doesn’t work. And a website isn’t a business. Before you automate things you need to have a solid grasp of your unique selling proposition.

  5. Forget the offline world.

    Did you know that more than 50% of my list consist of people who I’ve met in person? Guess who my most engaged readers are. It’s not that difficult either, most of mine are added by snapping a picture of my business card.

Look, the power of marketing and sales automation is amazing, but it has an extremely bad rap because many companies simply don’t take the right steps before jumping in.

Want to build your own marketing automation plan?

To qualified businesses I offer a free strategy session to map out sales strategy, and find the processes that can be immediately automation. Want to give it a shot APPLY HERE to learn more.

In this call we’ll go over what strategies you can use to build a powerful strategy and dominate your market all on autopilot.

30 Sep 2014

4 affordable business apps you must use today.

By Andrew Seipp

 

In a sea of apps, it’s hard to find useful apps. But some apps are a cut above the rest.

Running a business is a lot of work, and taking care of the minutiae of the day-to-day stuff is a challenge for most entrepreneurs. Luckily, there are some cheap and easy to use tools that make running a business a little bit easier.

Here are the tools I find the most useful.

  1. FullContact Card reader ($4.99 per month) iOS, Android

    I do a lot of networking and collect a lot of business cards. Unlike many other business card apps, this app uses human transcription to ensure that data is entered correctly. It syncs with Google Contacts and even has an integration into Zapier. Moreover, the app pulls more details about contacts including any associated social networks.

  2. Zapier (Free to $$$) Zapier.com

    Zapier is a tool that ties together all of the APIs of different cloud services. It’s free plan includes 5 “zaps” (connections between apps) and 100 actions. This is probably enough for many startups. The paid plans are a tad pricy, but compared to the time and expense of hiring a developer it’s quite reasonable.

  3. Triplog GPS ($10/year) iOS, Android

    I hate book keeping, and keeping track of mileage is an absolute hassle. Luckily this app keep track of mileage automatically by detecting when you’re moving, or when you’re connected to your car’s Bluetooth. It automatically keeps track of expenses with the current IRS and CRA rates and automatically emails reports that can be kept for taxes.

  4. Wave Accounting (FREE!) Waveapps.com
    iOS, Android

    I can’t say enough good things about Wave Accounting. I can snap a photo of my receipts and they are automatically transcribed and cross referenced with my credit card and bank statements. Speaking of that, they’re a Canadian company so their integration with even the smallest institutions is mostly flawless. It’s not going to replace my accountant come tax season, but for keeping track of expenses, generating invoices, and collecting payment it’s hard to find too many faults.

I use these tools every day and I can’t get over how much time and money these apps save me. For anyone trying to manage a few aspects of their business these tools are a life saver.

What tools have you found useful for running your business?

17 Sep 2014

To increase sales, you need to stop selling.

By Andrew Seipp

With customers being more informed then ever, the old paradigm of push selling is dead

“Always be closing!” A phrase still shouted out by sales mangers the world over with the same results: no one be closing. In the last 20 years the role of a salesperson has changed dramatically from being a product pusher and into a trusted advisor and customer advocate.

Thanks in large part to the internet, prospects can seek out unlimited amount of information, not only on your company but down to the individual sales person. Not to mention your competitors. By the time a customer has talked to your sales person they have already completed about 75% of the buying process and it often results in a price bake off.

So what is your sales team supposed to do in this new reality? Become teachers.

With customers having more information at their fingertips the role of an outbound sales team is to educate a prospect before they enter into the buying mode. Since most purchases in enterprise accounts have long sales cycles, the role of the sales person is to provide education to the prospect and to keep the sales pitch out of the pitch for as long as possible.

But with the traditional sales person, who often has to juggle multiple roles, this is something that isn’t always possible. So the solution is to have a rep that is dedicated to bringing pre-purchase customers down the pipeline and warm them up to the point that when the customer starts looking for a solution, they come to you. And the real opportunity is that a large part of the process can be automated with the right technology which both doubles the efficacy of your sales team, but dramatically reduces the cost per lead and the total acquisition costs.

Your competitors won’t know what hit them.

Get your free sales toolkit to find out how.

16 Sep 2014

The depressing math of cold calling, and what can be done to fix it.

By Andrew Seipp

If you’re selling into the B2B space, you’re going to have a tough time. Here’s why.

Cold calling is tougher than ever and it’s largely due to some depressing numbers.

Let’s start with the percentage of buyers that are ready to buy your stuff today. How many people are ready to buy today? Typically 3% of customers are currently in the market for most products at any given time.Even worse, according to most stats I’ve come across it takes about 7 calls before you reach a decision maker who’s likely going to tell you that they’re not in the market right now.

That means that if you have a target of 100 accounts, you’re going to have to make 700 calls and of those only 3 of them will be a qualified buyer and if you’re lucky maybe 1 of them will close. Keep in mind, salespeople are also some of the highest paid employees in an organization so the total cost of outbound prospecting is extremely high.

Before giving up on it entirely, it’s also the most effective way of getting into large enterprise clients.

Luckily these problems can be solved in a couple of ways:

  1. Identifying and contacting only clients that are ready to buy.
  2. Increasing the contact rate per hour.
  3. Increasing your close rate.
  4. Automating as much of the above as possible.

None of these tasks are easy, and none of them can be done in isolation; it usually requires an overhaul of your sales process and an investment in technology.

What’s always astounding to me is, and it’s something I come across frequently, are companies that are perfectly willing to pay their salespeople $5000 a month, but don’t want to spend $50 a month for a software tool that will help them do their job more effectively.

08 Sep 2014

Introducing SellClarity

By Andrew Seipp

SellClarity is the newest service line from TelClarity. We will be focussing on sales and marketing automation platforms and will be posting insights into the sales process of the 21st century.

More to come.

 

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