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About a month ago I attended a business networking group meeting for the first time. While I thoroughly enjoyed the meeting and left the event with a lot of new contacts that I hope to meet with again, there was one gentleman that seems to not understand proper email etiquette.
Every since that networking group meeting, which was the first time I’ve ever come across this dude, there has been an email every single day from him promoting his financial advisory business.
TWO OF THEM no less! He entered my name twice into his database and has been emailing every day like clockwork.
Costly Mistake #1A
I requested to be removed from the broadcast not realizing I was actually in there twice … so I’m at least down to one unrequested email per day instead of two. I thought one request would remove both since they go to the same email address. I guess not so lucky me! I get to send two removal requests for a series of emails I never wanted in the first place.
If you’re going to broadcast email every day, make the opt-out process simple and one time (preferably one simple click)! Don’t confirm the fact that someone opted-out while trying to make them feel guilty for doing so. They’re asking you NOT to email again, and that’s part of the CAN SPAM regulations by the way.
Look, I truly admire this cat’s enthusiasm and persistence, but a networking group meeting is not a substitute opt-in for a broadcast list!
Introductory Promotions Are One Thing
If you know anything about me, you know I have no problem sending someone one (unsolicited) email that encourages opting into a list or promoting a free offer to someone that has never heard of you.
I’ve done it and will probably continue to do it when I believe I have a quality free offer that business owners can benefit greatly from.
That’s part of business these days, much like sending a letter in the mail, but I don’t encourage repeatedly emailing people that didn’t opt-in somewhere or specifically request more information (that’s spam).
When you meet someone in person, you don’t magically obtain the right to add them to an auto-responder or broadcast list to hammer every single day to promote your stuff.
Sorry, that’s bad form regardless of how nice you may have been in person or how compelling you believe your offer/story to be.
You Know What They Say When You ASSUME!
The next time you’re at a networking group, don’t assume that because someone gives you their card that they’re asking for daily emails about you, your product or service, or your back story. That’s what an opt-in form is all about … simply send a follow up email that lets people know you have an update service should they wish to get more information from you. Guide them to the form and be done with it!
Easy Rule of Thumb
Here’s a rule of thumb I tend to follow: would you pay the money necessary to type out whatever you plan to say in your daily email broadcast, print it out, stuff it into an envelope, pay for postage and mail it out? That could get expensive quickly, right? Is your daily unrequested broadcast email THAT valuable?
Most of the time, these emails wouldn’t be worth the value of the ink on the paper, and the senders know it.
The Bottom Line
If you wouldn’t pay to put a stamp on it, you shouldn’t email it!
At least that’s how I look at introductory emails … just because email is free (for now) doesn’t mean you don’t weigh out the value of the communication as if it would cost the same as regular mail.
If you’re in the real estate industry, you’ll want to mark your calendar for Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 2 PM ET to join me for a free SEO webinar. While the webinar is aimed more at real estate professionals, there will be plenty of information presented throughout the webinar to benefit most industries.
I’m about to ruffle some feathers including my own because I’m guilty as charged … there I admitted it before the rant even begins.
I hate entrepreneurs!
Why, you ask? Because WE are a pigheaded & illogical bunch of thinkers and business owners. We have this deep seated belief that we can do things better, cheaper, or faster. A lot of the times, that’s what led us to starting our own business(es). We see things through a unique lens that centers around our own beliefs in our own abilities. That’s not bad from a big picture perspective, but it’s idiotic when it comes to running a business.
We don’t see things like most people … most people tend to be a lot more logical in their decision making processes especially when it comes to business. Most people would say “I need a solution to this problem, and I need it as quickly as possible. My budget won’t exceed X.” Not the entrepreneur … we think, “I need a solution to this problem, but I don’t want to pay someone fair value to solve it for me because I know I can do it better if I put my mind to it.” It’s what drives us … we know we can do just about anything we put our minds to. Why else would we sign up to run our own “show?” It’s not easy, but we cannot be deterred when the seed is planted in our minds, right?
If you’re an entrepreneur, you can relate totally to what I’m saying because you’ve been there … likely within the past week or two.
Here’s what I’m getting at … let’s say you’re looking to grow your business through better utilization of savvy advertising and marketing (no, there’s no pitch coming at the end of this). You evaluate several providers or partners and begin to reach out to the ones that seem like potentially good fits.
So far, so good, right?
You Can Do It Better, Right?
What typically happens after you talk with a few providers? You get that twinkle in your eyes and start to rationalize internally about how you can probably do this stuff yourself better, cheaper and faster! If you could just be shown the basics, you can take off from there. It happens more times than you’d like to admit.
How can I say this with such confidence? I’m an entrepreneur, too so I go through this every single time I’m evaluating potential solutions to any problem or obstacle. This is as much a “look in the mirror” exercise as anything. Luckily, I’ve realized that mowing my own grass, changing the oil on my car, or fixing a leaky pipe isn’t a good use of my time and others actually can do it more effectively and timely even though I could do the job.
Where’s My “Friends & Family Discount?”
So after you’ve convinced yourself that you can do something better, cheaper or faster, what happens next? You back-track to beat down the providers you’ve already talked to on price.
You immediately discount their knowledge, experience and abilities to the point you now believe they should concede a hefty discount or better yet, show you how to do it for free because you’re a “good guy” or “swell gal.”
You want the best deal humanly possible even if it means your new found “friend” loses money in the deal because you have convinced yourself that you know enough about the subject to do a reasonable job so you’re “not going to pay what everybody else pays.” You want the “friends and family discount” even though you just met your new “best friend forever (BFF).”
To hell with them if they dare ask you “are you the low cost provider in your market?” You typically scoff at such a question and reply with something along the lines of “look, we’d be out of business if we tried to be the low cost provider in THIS industry.” Hello!!!
What’s the Solution?
The solution to this dilemma is simple, but we entrepreneurs don’t want to face reality often times. Simply calculate the value of each hour of your time or the value of your team’s time if you’re planning to off-load tasks to your people.
Don’t skimp on how much time it’ll take to learn AND implement the stuff yourself or for your staff to research and test everything they’ll need to know to become successful. It’s often 50% more time than you initially estimate, and you typically discount your time somewhat when you’re on the front end of this little exercise so add at least 25% to whatever number you came up with to start.
When others ask us what our time is worth, we’ll go high with the estimate. When we ask ourselves, we’ll go lower because we’re trying to “save money.” You know I’m “preaching to the choir” because you’ve been there, right?
Bottom Line
The next time you call in a third party to help you overcome an obstacle with your business, be realistic about your expectations before you make that first contact. Be HONEST with yourself!!!
Remember to evaluate what your time is truly worth and whether it makes sense to even call someone or if you’re going to try to be he-man and attempt it yourself.
Stop trying to low-ball everyone to “save a nickel” here and there because you’re so smart and gifted. It’s great that you’re smart and gifted, but you can’t do everything yourself because there simply aren’t enough hours.
PS–For the record, I don’t really “hate” entrepreneurs … I just have a supreme disliking for the trait we all share of believing we’re the best possible solution to our own problems. We wouldn’t have problems if we were already fully capable of providing the solutions, right?
Ok, so the SuperBowl is over, and there are a new set of commercials to judge and discuss. Since a 30 second spot during the game costs anywhere between $2.5 to $3 million, advertisers need to bring their “A” game for this once/year event. The thing I don’t like about SuperBowl ads are that the big budget corporations dominate the space so the rich tend to get richer.
Here’s an idea: have a contest where some lucky small business gets a 30 second spot “sponsored” by the network airing the game. It would present a fabulous opportunity for us little guys and inject some new blood into the mix as well. Probably won’t happen, but it never hurts to toss the idea out there, right?
Which ones did you like best and least? Post your comments below the video.
Winners
In my completely informal poll (conducted via Twitter, Facebook and text message), the early winners seem to be:
1. Snickers (featuring Betty Davis)
2. Budweiser (no shock–they always bring it for the SuperBowl)
3. Dorritos – all were well received in my “straw poll”
4. Hyundai (like him or not, the play on Brett Favre in 10 years was great)
5. eTrade (the “Milk-aholic” line was classic!)
Losers:
1. Diamond Foods (Pop Secret & Emerald Nuts) “Let’s Get Aquatic” with people as dolphins (seems as though the message wasn’t clear)
2. Charles Barkley’s Taco Bell spots (I love Barkley, but I didn’t care much for the commercials either)
3. GoDaddy (I disagree but it seems as though some of my “constituents” don’t like their ad campaigns; as competitive as the online world is today, you have to do something to stand out especially for something as mundane as domain registration)
I recently got a copy of Mike Hill’s CPA Tsunami and have had some people asking me what I think of it so far so I thought I’d do a “mid-term” review of the product. Admittedly, I have only gotten through 1/2 the course even though I have had it for awhile. That’s what the holidays will do to you!
Anyway, here are my raw honest opinions/takes thus far:
1) The bonuses more than make up for a lot of what the program lacks. The collection of bonuses are worth the price of the program by themselves. The offer truly is a good one from that perspective.
2) The program itself isn’t all that earth shattering or even that well done considering the price point. It’s more or less Mike Hill sitting in front of a computer reading over slides on his deck that they periodically cut to shots of him talking then back to the slides. They have nice backgrounds for the slides and use color effectively, but that doesn’t compensate for some of the bigger pot holes that I’ll get to in just a bit.
3) One thing that Mike could have improved upon is stepping into his slides versus tossing the whole slide up there and reading over it. It makes it much harder to follow along because our natural human tendency is to read ahead so that’s a rather significant criticism of the program. It’s simply not that hard to step into slides point by point so I’m surprised and a bit disappointed at this oversight.
Maybe the coordination between showing the slide and Mike talking was tricky . . . I don’t know, but stepping into each point is something you’d (at the very least) expect out of a $2,000+ product. Sure, for a $197 product, toss your slides up on the screen with all the points showing and read over them all day long, but that’s unacceptable for a product at this price point. Sorry.
4) Something Mike has done very well: it’s as if he’s having a one-on-one conversation with you, and that’s something we could all learn from & model. You hear everyone say “write or talk to one person with your marketing,” and Mike does this throughout the course.
5) The packaging is absolutely top flight, and I believe that sold some people including yours truly. It looks cool, and that may make a difference for some folks. Hey, I’m vein and can appreciate cool packaging! LOL
6) There are some really good tips for beginners, intermediates, and advanced marketers so there truly is a little something for everyone. It’s not a heavyweight bout of rainmaker tips, tricks and pointers however.
Some of the stuff is a bit too basic, but I’ll cut it some slack because Mike & his gang were aiming to be a product for every level. I belive they’ve pulled this off, but some advanced level guys (no names mentioned–ha, ha) get bored and tend to zone out especially when there are 10 bullet points on a slide that someone is going to read over . . . our minds tend to zoom to the last point and wander away from there before the presenter is even to point #3.
7) The creative examples are good to model after, and that’s one of the strengths of this program. If you’re not sure how to craft an offer effectively with solid creative, this is a good course for you.
If you’re looking for a course that will take you by the hand and teach you exactly how to make a lot of money quickly through CPA networks, I’m not sure this will do it because I honestly haven’t finished it yet.
I say that as an “advanced” level internet marketer that isn’t all that great with CPA networks yet. That’s the primary reason I got this course, and I’m hoping there are some serious “ah-ha” moments to come later in the program.
9) I will say that no matter what level you happen to be right now, you can learn a lot about offer formulation, creative, up-sells, cross-sells, and down-sells through this course.
You may not know exactly how to pull one off with your particular shopping cart & auto-responder, but you’ll understand the theory and tenets behind the concepts. It’s clear that Mike knows how to capitalize on a customer at the point of sale very well, and that’s the difference between a mediocre business and a high flying one.
10) The Value Trojan concept is pure gold! That might make up for some of the shortcomings mentioned above. Too many marketers get caught up in continuity programs that they design to break the bank from day one, but a much more powerful strategy is to implement Value Trojans as much as possible. Think “Consumer Reports” and their model for getting you into and keeping you in their program.
This did provide me with a significant “ah-ha,” and it’s something I’m trying to instill upon clients and partners alike because there’s more money to be made over the long haul with this concept than the traditional continuity models. If you implemented nothing else from this program aside from The Value Trojan, you’d improve your business significantly so I’m contradicting myself a bit with some of the earlier criticism.
The Bottom Line
Mike can show you a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff, but don’t go into this thinking you’re going to raise your game from a nobody to superstar in a week or two. You can add some cool components & tactics to your existing strategies that will improve results so that’s always a worthwhile endeavor in my opinion.
Overall, I’d recommend the CPA Tsunami, but I’d recommend it as much for the bonuses as the core content.
I would not have paid that much for just the core product. By itself, it’s not worth that much money as it stands today. I wouldn’t pay someone over $2,000 to more or less read complete slides to me no matter how nice they look, how well the packaging is done, or how good the bullet points are on the slides. As mentioned above, at least step into the slides so “students” don’t read ahead and get frustrated that it’s hard to follow along with the “instructor.”
Hopefully Mike & the gang enhance the core product to include some of the recommendations to make it better next time so the bonuses don’t carry the product quite so much. I believe it could be a great standalone product that could require zero bonuses to tip the scales with some tweaks here and there.
Report Card
Product by Itself: B-
Bonuses: A+
Overall Offer Including Bonuses: A
Overall Offer Sans Bonuses: D (if the product were offered by itself at the current price point and no bonuses, it’s not worth it)
Recently I filled out a request for information form at BuyerZone.com for outbound telemarketing and direct mail services. I did this for two reasons: 1) to help the folks who go through the List Samurai program identify potential quality vendors to connect with for their marketing needs and 2) develop a better understanding of the price points for these types of vendors for my own business growth needs.
Buyer Zone Homepage Screenshot
I filled out the request on Sunday in order to get some feedback on Monday and Tuesday as I create more List Samurai videos & slides, and boy did I get some feedback! To the tune of a phone call every hour on the hour starting around 9:30 AM ET. Here are my takeaways and friendly advice based on the experience thus far:
1) Many of these companies MUST be hurting for business based on the amount of phone calling and email attempts made in the last 36 hours. This means you can likely strike a pretty good deal if you play your cards right when approaching them. How can you do that? Simply don’t contract for services for at least 48 hours after the request. See what everybody brings to the table before furthering the process.
Also, it’s probably a good idea to sit back and see who responds most and how. If one particular vendor calls more than the others, they’re likely the one that will provide the most wiggle room on your first deal. This may also be an indication that their business health isn’t as positive as the others, too so be cautious.
2) If you don’t want to be hounded by the hourly phone calls, simply place a statement in the request for information form that says something along the lines of “searching for relevant providers and pricing information. Please do not call.” That’s what I wish I had done in this situation, but you live and learn, right? Next time I fill out one of these forms, I’ll include that caveat and if any vendors ignore the request to not call, they’ll be eliminated immediately for a failure to pay attention to the request. After-all, if they can’t follow simple directions at the outset, how are they going to produce when things get more complicated?
I highly recommend using services such as BuyerZone.com to find quality vendors and potential partners, but you may want to include some basic contact & follow-up instructions especially if you’re not looking to be called a lot on the phone. In the vendors’ defense, they are following up to a request as best they can, but sometimes that follow up is a bit extreme.
There is also a brief podcast below that shares my experience and advice. Enjoy!
I vowed yesterday to talk a little more about the SPAM issues of late including what all happened with Infusionsoft. I just got done creating a podcast that talks about everything in a lot more detail and shares, what is likely, a little different perspective on what is spam versus those crying wolf at every turn.
Listen in on the podcast and let me know what you think in the comments afterward.
If you’re looking for a course that will take you by the hand and teach you exactly how to make a lot of money quickly through CPA networks, I’m not sure this will do it because I honestly haven’t finished it yet.
