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The Bottom Line Series - Part 2: The Secrets that Keep Them Coming Back for More

How many businesses do you know that have failed because they just couldn’t keep their customers coming back?  What do you think they did wrong?  Did they not pay enough attention to their customers needs? Did they neglect their target niche? Well if you’d like to avoid making these same mistakes, feel free to follow the steps below.

The most important thing in any business is its ability to keep returning customers.  This is not to say that a business cannot succeed without recurring customers, but it makes it a whole lot easier.

Imagine you were the CEO of an NHL arena.  Your job is to fill 15,000 seats at every home game… how are you going to do that?  If you had no returning customers, your arena would probably be empty 10 games into the season.

SEO BLOG

So what can you offer as a company to keep the customers coming back?

In the NHL arena example the main niche the arena targets is entertainment.  They offer an action packed hockey game featuring some of the best players in the world competing in front of a roaring crowd.  Not to mention why half the fans go… the alcohol.

All in all it makes for a good night and people seem to enjoy the environment enough to come back for multiple games or even purchase season tickets.

When operating your own business you need to think in the same mindset.  What niche am I going to target to keep customers coming back?

How do I know what niche to target?

Market research is the best tool for finding that target niche.  Survey your customers, research the trends in your industry and decide what the main concerns of your customers are.

If your product was a running shoe, you may want to target the performance niche.  Not just the niche, but also the competitive athlete driven customers you have.  You could talk about how much faster you can run with the shoe, how much higher you can jump and specifically how you will outperform the competition.

Likewise, if you were running a health spa, you may want to target the organic product and healthy living niche along with the regular comfort and relaxation niche most spas target. 
You could show pictures of the organic products, snapshots of your smiling clients and show testimonials from other satisfied customers stating how pleased they were with the service.

Give your customers a reason to keep coming back

Why do most people go to the same groceries stores their whole lives?  I personally go based on the variety of goods and the supply of the goods.

The grocery stores know their target niche and they stick to it.  They make sure to have a wide variety of goods and always try to maintain a large supply of those goods.  They service to their niche completely just like any business should.

This is exactly what you need to do with your own company.  Find your niche, stick to it, and make it your goal to serve the customers in your niche better each day than the day before.

Using the grocery store example; to better themselves they could introduce a new line of products that would make their customers even happier.

Self improvement should always be in the mind any business owner and it should be used to specialize in your niche even more.

What can I take from all of this?

“Instead of walking door to door, give them a reason to come to you”

or in other words

“Why talk to 100 people door to door when you could draw 1000 to you in the same amount of time”

Thanks for reading the second installment of The Bottom Line series!
Hope you enjoyed the article and will read the third part of the series “The Need to Know Reasons Why Brand Imaging Rules”.
Check back soon!

-Jarod Henderson

This morning after waking up to the blindingly bright sun, I got up, rolled over to my computer and sat down while I wondered why I hadn’t started the kettle before sitting down. Either way, my concerns melted away once I hit the web and started reading some of the new posts that my favourite blogs had to offer.

Darren Rowse is the guy behind ProBlogger.net - A great resource for internet marketers and bloggers alike. This morning a new article was published, “13 Quick tips to Make Your Blog STAND OUT from the Crowd.”

In my opinion these thirteen tips should be made into a common checklist that is somehow distributed to anyone who plans to “grace” the net with their blogs’ presence. For the top bloggers I would bet these are all second nature.

The 13 Quick tips to Make Your Blog STAND OUT from the Crowd

1. Pick a unique topic
2. Develop a Unique Voice
3. Design
4. Useful Content
5. Be Prolific
6. Love Your Readers to Death
7. Be Original
8. Express an Opinion
9. Get Visual
10. Use Titles with Bling
11. Longevity Counts
12. Build Momentum
13. Drive People to Your Archives

There it is, the straightforward list of quick tips for effective blogging. The original post has much more detail and describes each of the points in depth - click here to view the original article on ProBlogger.net.

Now to finish up the beautiful day with a bit more work, maybe even some blogging now that Darren has got me thinking. I had to share this article and blogger checklist with you, I hope you add it to your arsenal of resources as I add it to mine. Enjoy the day!

Yours for Big Business, Starting Small,
Kris Scheben-Edey

P.S. I Think Jarod is working on the second part to his “Bottom Line Series!” Maybe he’ll release it tonight.

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Nearly two years ago my very own mother decided to start a blog.  The real-estate markets were steady and any guerilla marketing tactic seemed like a new and exciting new idea at the time.  My mom has always been a natural marketing talent (probably where I got my own interest in marketing) and she loves connecting with people.  However, she doesn’t have much of a tech background.

When I say she doesn’t have much tech background – I mean that I was plugging in printers and installing CD’s for her since I was about 8 years old.  Now with a blog, venturing onto the World Wide Web full of code and critics - I was both concerned and curious.

I remember her telling me from the very beginning that she was just going to persevere with the blog and at that exact moment she made the commitment to manage her blog for 1 full year no matter how it went.

So What Next?  Did it Top the Charts or Flop to the Bottom?

Now, nearly two years later I cannot help but be amazed by the results of her hard work and perseverance.  In our last time together we briefly looked over her blog, the successes and pitfalls, and discussed her journey from a lonely collection of articles to a first page blog that really connects with the real-estate market.  I asked her a couple questions, questions like:

Do you know much about SEO? “No”
Do you understand keyword relevance? “Not sure”

How about title tags? Anchor text? Outbound Links!? No, No, No.  Then the next question I was far too afraid to ask out loud – so I wondered silently, “what do you know?” I just kept asking myself, “how does a mother and real-estate agent with no technology background build a first page blog?”

The Layman’s Secret to SEO Success

After some thought, I realized that she didn’t need to know the exact ins and outs of the search engines just to become popular, build a reader base, and even climb positions.  No, all she needed was the three things she had all along: a passion for perseverance, the drive for self-improvement, and the patience for trial and error.

Over the years that she worked with her community real-estate blog, my mother developed many skills great for internet marketing and even SEO, without even knowing it.

The internet is changing daily, and more and more the people are starting to hold the power.  Web 2.0 is all about meaningful connections with such a negative connation on spamming that I dare even say the word.  So why make this point? It’s because a meaningful connection with someone can do wonders for a website at times, and you’ll never need to be a webmaster for that!

Alright so you can make meaningful connections, but what else could someone with no technology background possibly offer to the SEO table?

Quality.  I could write a thousand articles stuffed with keywords at every angle but the simple fact is that no one will end up reading the material if it isn’t relevant, useful and informative.  I sometimes ponder on that too.  How many wasted articles have been spammed with keywords, only to be rejected endlessly by the flowing crowds of uninterested prospects because it just wasn’t very good?

The Big Picture

It doesn’t take a webmaster to write gripping content; in fact, the best content will connect with the readers and leave little for them to ask – but with plenty to take away.

The big secret is that anyone is capable of smashing the online barriers and building a presence on the net.  You don’t need a background in technology, or programming, or internet marketing.  You only need some perseverance, the will to learn, and the courage to try.

I guess the truth is I’ll never stop learning from my mother.

Visit the blog that inspired it all: http://blog.collingwood-bluemountain.com

Regards,

Kris Scheben-Edey

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The Blog Bloodlines Pt.1 - The Top 5 Articles on Blog Marketing

You could spend hours, or even months bringing traffic to your website and yet you aren’t making much money.  You can generate lots of traffic with the optimization you’ve done… but they just don’t seem interested in what you have to offer.  Well, it’s time to learn why.

Want to Know Why I’m Not Interested in What You Have?

Put yourself in the shoes - or in this case the computer chair – of one of your prospects.  You’re clearly searching for something, and maybe you found this site after looking at countless others to no avail, or maybe you followed a network of links here.  Either way, you’re there – but what is going to make you want to reach for your wallet – or subscribe to the newsletter?

That is what’s missing - a persuasion to act.  You could have a thousand visitors but if there if the value in your offers are not properly communicated, then you have little chance of making a single sale.

Want to Turn Clicks Into Clients? Here’s the Key to Converting Your Prospects!

You need to communicate value in your offers, provide incentives and guarantees.  You can connect with your prospects through stories or by connecting to their emotions of greed and passion.

It sounds like a lot, but you can achieve all of these goals, and you can learn how to really connect with your prospects and convert their slight interest into a bigger bottom line.  The first thing you’ll need to do is get familiar with copywriting.

Below are my favourite 5 copywriting articles and resources – the ones I had bookmarked for 2008 and constantly found myself using:

SEO Unique Blog
This article is a great checklist when developing any website.  It’s my quick fix for SEO Copywriting, and it’s a great article containing “20 SEO Copywriting Hints.”

Marketing Words Blog
The Marketing Words blog is a great copywriting resource, with regular posts and an excellent knowledge base.  Lots of information can be found here, just try not to spend all day reading and make sure you put the pen the paper once or twice for good measure.

CopyBlogger
I regularly check here for updates, in addition to a comprehensive archive of articles on SEO copywriting.  Follow this link and check out their “10 Step Copywriting Tutorial” a great guide designed to get you up and running with the basics of writing great copy in ten easy lessons.

Clayton Makepeace Blog
This is my favourite copywriting resource, hands down.  With almost daily articles you can bookmark this one with ease, because the knowledge in every article is based on the success of some of the top copywriters in the world.  Find thrilling articles written by the likes of Clayton Makepeace, Daniel Levis, Julie McManus, and over 20 other successful copywriters.   This is a must have for any business builder.

Copywriting.com
I remember the first day I learned about copywriting.  I spent hours on Copywriting.com just browsing the beginner’s articles, the blog posts and the excellent copywriting resources.  At the end of that day, I was inspired, and I recommend that anyone who likes to be inspired read the works of Miguel Alvarez here on Copywriting.com.  Another must have resource for your online business builders.

It would take months to read all of those articles, but the key is practice.  Learn something new, apply it and learn how to master it – then move on to the next thing.  First, you learn how to get the traffic, and now it’s time to learn how to convert it.

At many times content is king, and copywriting your content would be the ace.  Check back soon for an article on how a mother and real-estate agents – with no technology background – built a first page blog.  Until next time, enjoy converting your traffic!

Regards,

Kris Scheben-Edey

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Why is it that some of the worst ideas in history are the central focus of the public eye while some of the best ideas go unnoticed?

The saying “A lie is halfway around the world before the truth even gets his boots on” relates to ideas as well.  Just because you have a great idea doesn’t mean it’s going to succeed regardless of your efforts.  You need to find a way to make your idea stand out from the crowd and in a sense make it “sticky” so that people will remember it.  Well, in a recent book I read, “Made to Stick” written by brothers Chip and Dan Heath - they do just that.

The New York Times bestseller “Made to Stick” has made a dominant impact on the business world. It was ranked #1 on the Top 10 Business books by Globe and Mail and has been renowned by critics everywhere.

Chip and Dan Heath have done rigorous amounts of research on the marketing community and on business ideas and concepts.  Within every successful idea, the Heath brothers found many similarities and characteristics that were profound in all cases.  Using this information, they compiled a set of principles that they believe everyone should follow while developing an idea.  These principles were transferred into the acronym “SUCCES” which the Heath brothers stand by religiously.  The categories are as follows:

SUCCES

1. Simplicity

Find the core of the idea.  If you’re a lawyer and you argue 10 points in a case, when they get back to the jury room chances are, they won’t remember any of them.  You must learn to exclude things that aren’t the most important.

To make something simple doesn’t mean you need to dumb it down.  The best example for simplicity is “For something to be simple doesn’t mean there is nothing left to add, but that there is nothing left to take away”.

2. Unexpectedness

How do we get readers attention and maintain it? - By violating their expectations.  Something unexpected will throw a readers mindset off and keep them thinking about it in shock.  But after you get their attention you need to be able to keep it.

You can do this by creating interest and curiosity. The best way to do that is by opening gaps in the subjects’ knowledge and filling those gaps.
Example: After you have finished explaining a topic, lead into another topic with a question.  This will cause the subject to keep interest and have them wondering of the answer to the question.

3. Concreteness

How do you make your ideas clear?  This is where many businesses have problems.  When a business may release its Mission Statement, company vision or strategies there is usually so much “noisy” information that the meaning is almost pointless or impossible to understand.

To support a sticky idea, one must use concrete words and images such as “a bright red balloon” or “a steaming cup of coffee”.  Avoid the use of sayings such as “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”.  All of the audience might not understand the saying and it may be unclear.

Stick to concrete words and images that everyone understands.

4. Credibility

What is the key to making people believe your ideas? Having credible information is a big part of an idea.  If you were to state “ This song is great” or to say “This song was rated #1 on the America Top 100 charts for 2 weeks in a row” people would be more apt to listen to the second song because it is credible with a third party testimony.  People trust information that has credentials and they can test for themselves, kind of like a “test before you buy” concept.

Most people think using numbers and statistics is the best way to gain audience approval when in reality, name dropping and simple statements usually work the best.

An example of this was in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was running for president.  He could have used a pile of statistics to show the poor economic state of the economy, instead he said “Before you vote, ask yourself if you are better off today than you were four years ago”.  That had credibility.

5. Emotions

How do you get people to care about your ideas?  Tying a persons’ emotions into an idea is a great way to keep their attention.

An example used in the book was with health enthusiasts trying to stress to the public how unhealthy movie popcorn is for you.  Saying “Movie popcorn has 37 grams of fat in it” doesn’t mean much to people.  But if you show a picture of medium game of movie popcorn and show one bag has as much artery clogging fat as a bacon and eggs breakfast, a big mac and fries lunch and a steak dinner with all the trimmings it really gives an image to the idea.

People then can relate their emotions to all of that bad food rather than a statistic of 37 grams.  The same case is for the world aid ads.  The commercials don’t show a nation in need but instead show individual who have a name and a face.  A person is more inclined to give a donation to a single person instead of a country.

As you can see, tying peoples’ emotions into an idea can drastically improve its chances for success.

6. Stories

How do you get people to act on your ideas? You tell stories.  Another example used in “Made to Stick” is the stories of firefighters.  After a fire, firefighters naturally swap stories.  By doing this, firefighters build a database of different situations that they may encounter as a firefighter.  They can then use their database of situations to be better equipped for their next fire.  Research has shown that mentally rehearsing a situation helps us perform better when encountered with the situation in real life.

So, tired of having your great ideas fail once again?  Well look no further.  After reading the entire book, these 6 principles (also known as “SUCCES”) have “stuck” in my mind. I found them to be extremely helpful when developing ideas and I use them constantly in day to day work.  For anyone who wants to learn more about making their ideas sticky- Check out the book.

-Jarod Henderson

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die