We are now listed with America's Best Companies.  If you would like to become a member or learn more about this website company, please click on the logo.  Thanks!

We recently joined the BBB of Wisconsin (Better Business Bureau).  We believe in offering a service that is accountable so we decided to back it up by joining an organization that can help us track our reputation and help build trust in the community we serve.  They also offer co-op advertising opportunities.  Let me know if you have a comment about this or want to join as well.  To learn more or see our Seal of Acceptance, click here!

In an age where marketing keeps changing and almost every person has multiple computers and email accounts, it made sense for us to change our marketing plan.  We still do the traditional marketing such as television, radio, and monthly mailers, but what we discovered was we could do online marketing. It has proven to be nothing less than successful!

We'd heard from other companies stating that online marketing was the way to go. After many months of discussing it amongst ourselves, we did our own research and found New Results, LLC.  In December 2008, we met with Jeff Blackman we made an instant connection & our online marketing was launched! 

With the exising economy, changing your marketing strategy might be scary, but I'd like to reassure you about going with New Results, LLC.:

1.    First and foremost, the general question when switching over to a new company or starting brand new with online marketing is – does it work?  Yes it does!  Jeff reinvented our website.  We are now able to track who visits our site, where they are located, date and time of their visit, consistently viewed items, what are the search engines  they are using, and the key words or phrases used to find us.

We are seeing around 300 visits a day from the public.  Jeff knows how to develop a website so that it is easy to find and navigate in and customers keep returning.    

Jeff has created an email campaign for us as well.  We currently are sending out approximatley 10,000 emails twice a month for an affordable cost vs. sending out a traditional mailer.  Our first launch we sent out a “Free Tan” coupon as a test market on a Friday afternoon and by Monday morning we had over 200 people coming in to visit our locations.  At that time we had only sent out about 4,000 emails.  By asking people to sign up in our stores, we have increased this list signifigantly.

2.    The quality of work that Jeff does is amazing.  It is very professional.  What ever we have dreamed of doing, Jeff was able to create.  His famous lines are “Oh I can do that, that is simple” or “I can work on that and get it done for you”.  He is very “hands on” with any new project as well as knowledgeable and efficient on getting his work done on time. 

3.    Lastly and most important to most business owners is the quality of services for the price. Be assured that the quality of work in the time frame that it gets done for your website is nothing but great. 

Jeff’s email campaign program is perfect for our growing business.  We can send out an 'email blast' every week for an entire year and it would still cost less than sending out just one mailer a year!

New Results, LLC has given us real results that we can measure!  It is a great way to spread your business name to a lot of potential or current customers at a fraction of the cost. 

Thank You,

Scott Nichols
General Manager
SunSeekers by Rosie

What's First to Go When Times Are Tough?
If you run a small business then there is no doubt you've been keeping a close eye on the economy. When times get tough, most small business owners immediately look to cut costs...

The most "expensive" part of running a business is normally employees, so typically firing under-performing employees or external contractors is the first step most businesses take to reduce cost and therefore reduce risk.

The second thing to go is the marketing budget. If you're small, this might mean reducing your local advertising, phone book ad, or Google AdWords budget...

I want to demonstrate practical examples of how you can survive (and even prosper) during a recession by putting various online marketing methods to work for you.

Yes, some of the ideas I'll discuss do involve our products, but when used correctly you'll generate an ROI significantly higher than what you've invested, and can continue to do so at will whenever you need more sales.
Think about it this way - if your competitors are reducing their marketing budget and you're not, who do you think will have more reach and a better shot at winning more customers?

If that sounds good then let's get started...

Strategy #1 - Building Trust With Autoresponders (Email Marketing Term)
Product required - Quebert.net - Your Email Marketer. 
If you're a small business then you might not be able to demonstrate the level of trust that your larger competitors can. What you can offer, however, is useful information which is relevant to your prospects - which will lead to an increased level of trust and therefore sales...

Most people will only buy from businesses they trust, so if you can't boast that you have thousands of customers or a best selling product, then you can build up trust over the period of a few short weeks using autoresponders.

To do this, you need to write a series of about 10 emails which will be sent out automatically to people on your email list over the period of about 2-3 weeks.

Your main focus with these emails is NOT to sell or promote your products or services. It's to provide your subscribers with practical, useful information which they can get immense value from. Over the period of a few weeks they will use and hopefully implement the valuable information you're (automagically) sending them. The word-of-mouth momentum will kick in, and they will want to "return the favor" by doing business with you or referring you out to friends and clients.

Compare this to the way most companies go about trying to win new customers, and you'll see why it works. It's "selling without selling", and your prospects will be grateful that you've taken the time to provide them with useful information instead of simply pitching your products or services to them like everyone else does.

Here are the exact steps to take:
1. Come up with a compelling reason for people to join your list
In order to send emails to someone, they first have to join your list. You need to come up with a strong reason for them to do so, and the best way to do this is to ask yourself "what one thing can I offer to prospects that will bring them the most value?"
 
Use this one thing as the anchor for your "join my list" page, and try to evoke curiosity by mentioning the benefits they will receive when they join your email list.

2. Create your series of 10 or so autoresponder emails.
The emails can be short, but should be personalized with the subscriber's first name and include useful information which they can use. For example, if you install or maintain lawns then you might send a series of emails with advice on how to take care of your lawn, landscaping, or new construction project.

Each email should also have a catchy subject line. Here are a few which get great open rates:

• "[First Name] - here's that report I promised you"
• "The information you requested from our web site"
• "[First Name] - urgent"
• "Check this out..."

The role of the subject line is to simply get your email opened. If you can do that, the rest is easy.

When you've created all 10 emails, copy them into Quebert.net - Email Marketer as autoresponders. Nothing screams "this is an automated email" like sending out a new autoresponder every 24 hours, so schedule the autoresponders to go out with a bit of variation, like this:

• Email #1 goes out immediately after signup
• Email #2 goes out 2 days after signup
• Email #3 goes out 5 days after signup
• Email #4 goes out 7 days after signup
• Email #5 goes out 10 days after signup
• Etc...
  

3. Talk about your products or services in the FINAL email only!

OK let me set the scene here...
Your subscriber has received 9 emails from you over the last 2-3 weeks, and the information you sent them is useful, so they look forward to hearing from you...AND they haven't opt'd out of the list.
 
If you've done it correctly then they've started to trust you, because you've given them valuable advice for nothing - This is something 99% of businesses don't do because they don't understand the psychology of the buying process...
 
Your final email should still include a heap of useful, non-sales-pitchy information, but you should add a "P.S." after your signature which subtly mentions your products or services, such as:

"This is the final email in our series on '[subject]'. Did you know that we've been voted the #1 Lawn Care company in the Fox Valley area for 3 years running? If you're looking to put in a new yard which will help you stand out from the crowd and get your neighbors talking, then call us on 555-0199 or visit our web site at www.yourwebsite.com for a no-obligation quote."

So, let's look at what we've done here...
Over a 2-3 week period we've provided this subscriber with a wealth of useful information without mentioning ANYTHING about our products or services and without asking them to buy anything.

The informative autoresponders you sent out (automatically) have helped build rapport and establish trust in the subscriber's mind. When they're ready to buy the product or service you offer, you instantly stand out because they remember all of the useful information you sent them.

You could take this one step further and simply give them a call once all of the autoresponder emails have been sent to them. You could lead in with something like:

"Hi John. I just wanted to make sure you've received our new lawn maintenance course and I wanted to see if you've found anyone to help get it installed yet?"

This will lead into a natural conversion which you can use to further build trust, and also introduce them to the products or services you offer which you feel could be useful to them.

This is called top of mind awareness, and it's why you see so many Pepsi ads - they know if they bombard you enough times with the same ad, they hope you'll remember them over the other companies.

Conclusion
This is one of the many strategies I'll be sharing with you over the coming weeks to help grow your business using simple, affordable yet effective online marketing tools.

If you don't have autoresponder software yet, take a look at Quebert.net -  Email Marketer - there are no monthly fees and it has all of the features you need to implement the strategy I described above.

I'd love to hear what you thought of this strategy and would be keen to see how you've implement it.

Until next time...

Tonight I went to the Home and Garden Show in Green Bay with my son Alex.  We both love walking around, looking at outdoor displays.  Everyone we saw had a lot of thought and effort put into it.  We had a great time. 

What I loved the best was that I use to walk around these shows with a pocket full of business cards, just hoping that I could find a good lead for a new website.  Well, tonight I didn't have a single card on me, but I shook the hands of 8 clients that were at the show.  I was awestruck by what I realized. 

Retrocrete LLC was there with some awesome pictures of his work.  He can be found online at www.retrocretellc.com. 

Right next door was another client, Bowie, from Curb N' Decor.  Bowie spent a lot of time on his booth; awesome pavers, columns, and a waterfall.  Great Job Bowie.  I didn't design his website but I did make some SEO chances for him. 

Then we made our way over to Midwest Metal Roof Supply and talked to Craig.  I just designed his logo and website last week, perfect timing for the show.  Craig is normally in work boots when I see him, but today he was all cleaned up and smiling.  I even called his new business manager and asked that she bring the camera over to take some pictures of him at the show. :-) (www.midwestmetalroofsupply.com)  We even sat through a metal roofing seminar while we had a cheeseburger.  Very interesting..... if you don't know anything about metal roofs :-)

Right around the corner was Gerry, talking away... Gerry is from Landscape Associates and wow did they have a nice booth all setup.  It was taking up two or three slots and he was showing off his work with nice big color pictures.  Very nice job Gerry.  Check out his new digs at www.landscape-associates.com. 

Then we saw Brian, actually for the first time, over at Concrete Curb Creations since his site was sold and started by Suann from Distincitve Designs.  Brian has a new animated feature on his site for rotating pictures.  Check em out at: www.concretecurbcreations.net

Just when we thought we were done, we saw a whole new room of booths to check out.  This was a pretty big show.  We ran into Suann and her hubby Paul over at Alpine Structures.  She helped me build this site so I can't take all the credit, but none the less, a client.  (www.alpinestructuresllc.com)

Let's see we're up to seven.... and then eight was Malcore Central Vac's.  They weren't there to talk to but we saw their booth and the cool 'vroom' machine they are marketing.  We got a 'vroom' installed over Christmas and love it.  If you want to check it out they have one at the show or you can see one online at www.malcorecentralvac.com

So that's it... we wrapped up the night with some roasted almonds and a back scratcher over at Patriot Mortgage.  What a night... What fun.  It sure was nice to see everyone. 
If you get a chance, head on over to the show.  Lots to see and do.

"I'm a local automobile mechanic. My business has done fine for years based on word-of-mouth, but I keep hearing from everyone, "Why don't you have a website?" Why do I need a website?"

Consumers have adopted the Internet as a daily research tool much faster than many experts even predicted. Sure, some of your new customers will continue to find you via word-of-mouth. However, when a potential customer is trying to find mechanics in your area, many of them will turn to the Internet vs. looking in a phone book. If you don't have a web site and a presence online, those potential customers will find your competitors that do have websites.

I want to maximize any type of e-commerce opportunities out there.

"Currently, I sell several locally made products on my website, and I have many repeat customers buying my products. What else could I be selling via my site?"

Do you have an eye-catching logo or tag phrase for your web business? If so, there's an easy way for you to sell more.

Currently, there are several online services that give you the power to create T-shirts, coffee mugs, and many other items adorned with your logo or tag phrase and sell them on your site. And the best part of services such as Cafepress (www.cafepress.com) is that you don't have to buy a bunch of T-shirts upfront and hope that they'll be successful. They'll print and ship a T-shirt or coffee mug only after you've received an order.

"Some of my competitors have started blogs, but all they keep writing about is their business. It seems very self serving to me. What's the value in creating a blog on my website?"

Blogs - or web logs - have certainly exploded in popularity in the last 4-5 years. However, we haven't seen many blogs that focus on a person's own business attract many readers. Are you passionate about your industry (not just your company, but your industry as a whole)?

Do you have to hunt for specialized message boards to discuss your industry? If so, maybe you should consider launching a blog - focused on news throughout your industry not just your specific business. If you're constantly hunting for information online, your potential customers may be looking too, and you could create a blog that's a valuable resource and authority on your industry.

"I was doing a web search a few days ago and found a website where a previous customer had posted a negative review of my business. I'm worried that other potential customers might see that review? What can I do?"

Negative reviews can certainly be annoying when you're working hard every day to do a great job for your customers. You may even be tempted to log onto the site and leave a stern message rebutting the customer's review. If you're tempted to lash out in response to the negative review, you should take a deep breath and don't act on your impulse! Some review sites allow you to easily contact the reviewers one-on-one. If so, you could contact the reviewer to apologize for their experience and see what you could do to change their perception of your business.

If you do decide to respond to the reviewer's post, you should write a neutral response stating your case without anger (though you might be angry).

By writing about what you do and either posting the information on your website or in a Blog, more people will find you and consider you the expert in your field.  This form of 'networking' with others can help bring more sales to your physical business.

If you would like to learn more about how a website can help you, please contact us for a free consultation.  If you have other ideas and want to respond to this posting, please do so.  We invite comments and ideas.

Thanks!

Are you considering selling products online?  Having an e-commerce website built can be complicated.  The process involves many aspects of the internet, enough to detour someone from even considering it.  This article or blog post will help you think through some of the advantages and disadvantages. 

Electronic Commerce or e-commerce is the trade of products and services by means of the Internet or other computer networks. E-commerce follows the same basic principles as traditional commerce that is, buyers and sellers come together to swap commodities for money. But rather than conducting business in the traditional way in shopping stores or through mail order catalogs and telephone operators — in e-commerce, buyers and sellers transact business over networked computers.

E-commerce offers buyers maximum convenience. They can visit the websites of multiple vendors any time of the day to compare prices and make purchases, without having to leave their homes or offices from around the globe. In some cases, consumers can immediately obtain a product or service, such as an electronic book, a music file, or computer software, by downloading it over the Internet.

Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well. E-commerce or electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. Electronic business methods enable companies to link their internal and external data processing systems more efficiently and flexibly, to work more closely with suppliers and partners, and to better satisfy the needs and expectations of their customers.

For sellers, e-commerce offers a way to cut costs and expand their markets. They do not need to build, staff, or maintain a physical store or print and distribute mail order catalogs. Automated order tracking and billing systems cut additional labor costs, and if the product or service can be downloaded then e-commerce firms have no distribution costs involved. Because the products can be sold sell over the global Internet, sellers have the potential to market their products or services globally and are not limited by the physical location of a store. Internet technologies also permit sellers to track the interests and preferences of their customers with the customer’s permission and then use this information to build an ongoing relationship with the customer by customizing products and services to meet the customer’s needs.

E-commerce however has some drawbacks. Consumers are hesitant to buy some products online. Online furniture businesses, for example, have failed for the most part because customers want to test the comfort of an expensive item such as a sofa before they purchase it. Many people also consider shopping a social experience. For instance, they may enjoy going to a store or a shopping mall with friends or family, an experience that they cannot duplicate online. Consumers also need to be reassured that credit card transactions are secure and that their privacy is respected.

In the existence of these few disadvantages e-commerce has opened new horizons to versatile the modern age. It puts away time, energies, labor and money.  Dealing with security is the most important part of the whole experience for a store owner.  Having a SSL or Secure Socket Layer ensures that data between the customer and the store owner is encryped and secure.  It is also important to store the data correctly, so employees and hackers from outside the company cannot access it. 

I would encourage you to check into how an e-commerce shopping cart website could benefit you, but be aware of the challenges too.  It is important to work with someone that knows what they are doing and has experince with this type of website development.

Several years ago, we at Kiefer Uniforms were contemplating whether we should have a website for our business. In order to stay competitive we felt it important to add this option for our out-of-town and local customers. Unfortunately, we had virtually no knowledge of creating, much less maintaining a website with a shopping cart.

After a bad experience with a national company, we had almost given up on the idea. We decided it was important to stay local, so we could talk to a “real” person. We started to interview several local web designers and after some time, we felt comfortable with Jeff Blackman and N.E.W.Results, LLC.

He not only created a beautifully designed website, he was also there for us every step of the way. He was very sensitive to our budget and he was extremely patient with myself and others in our store as he taught us how to manage and maintain the site. He taught us how to add product to our site and he is always very prompt to return my calls when I have a question.

I have been very pleased with his service and continued support and would recommend him to anyone who wished to create a website.

Barb Kiefer, Owner
Kiefer Uniforms

With the holiday season here, email has been on my mind. And many folks just starting out ask about pitfalls to avoid for their email marketing and communications campaigns. So here we go: seven surefire ways you'll be emailing directly to a trashcan or spam filter. These are common mistakes in email marketing. They are not the Seven Deadly Sins, in which case we'd have a laundry list of illegalities for spamming and phishing. In fact, we'll cover that soon in another post. For now let's just assume some basics, like legal and ethical standards for list procurement.

So maybe you've tried some email marketing tactics that didn't work. Or maybe you're doing a little preventative research before you launch a campaign. Today's topic will help you sidestep the biggie, beginner's blunders. As you'll see, there's plenty of overlap in these mistakes. They work together for success, but can also combine to equal certain doom for your campaign.

1. Wrong list. The right audience is paramount. It seems quite obvious, but also presupposes knowledge of your target reader. If you have slowly developed your own list through a double opt in subscription on your Web site, congratulations. You should have this list issue pretty well dialed. It's when you start renting lists that this becomes a major issue. You can use magazines' list rentals and the information they provide on their audience as your barometer for all list procurement. Based on direct mail metrics, the list is said to account for 40% of your success rate. That's pretty significant. If you're out list shopping, be cautious, metrics driven, demand more information, and test the waters.

2. Irrelevant content. Once you're pretty sure you have the right audience, it makes sense that you need the right content. Relevancy takes into account content, creative, audience, timing. This doesn't require higher calculus to figure out, but does support of lot of marketing strategy development. It is said to account for another 40% of your success rate. Readers will only respond to information that is important to them and engaging enough to consider. Of course, this is always easier said than it is to actually accomplish.

3. Poor creative execution. Even with the correct list and great content, your message will be lost without reasonably professional creative development. This includes "from" and subject lines, graphic treatments, artwork, photos, logos, colors, fonts, formatting, as well as spelling, grammar, and the amount of information. Traditionally, creative is said to account for the last part of the 40-40-20 percent rule of your success rate, though I tend to believe it's far more important, intricate and subtle. With all the sales drumming and information bombardment nowadays, how are you going to attract your audience? Is your email engaging? Is the offer and its layout intriguing? Do you offer a reason to learn more?

4. No call to action nor landing page. Now that I've opened your email and I'm reading it because the artwork and offer are quite interesting, you need to give me a reason to click, a purpose to learn more, a sense of urgency to act, a hook to take the plunge. Any combination of: "call today," "act now," "learn more," "sale ends Friday," will usually do the trick, depending on your sales style and needs. Once I do click on the link, I want the landing page on your Web site to be just as relevant. It should continue with stellar content and creative to bring me closer to browsing, shopping, finalizing the sale, or sharing information.

5. Ill timed frequency and delivery. Readers can only tolerate receiving so many marketing emails from you each month. It's necessary to know where you must draw the line before you cross it. Readers who feel badgered will unsubscribe from your list. Be cautious and nurture your list. Make each email matter. And when you do hit the send button, do it on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, sometimes Thursdays. Statistics show these are the best times of the week. The good news here is that timing and frequency are completely flexible, testable, and easy to change. Start tracking when you send your emails and how often, then watch to see how these affect your success rate.

6. Dearth of strategy and campaign. Successful email marketing requires forethought, planning and a budget to continue with a campaign. The same holds true for advertising in any medium. A single insertion ad in the local newspaper, for instance, is nearly a complete waste of money. However, an ongoing media buy in several local and regional publications along with radio, Web and outdoor is a powerful combination. The trick is to hit your audience with the right message more than once, without violating email frequency expectations. For example, if you have a yearly event, you can email pre-show to elicit excitement, during the show with news, and post-show with pictures and commentary. To do it well requires some thoughts around a campaign that ties into the event.

7. Opaque to transparency. The work necessary to appear transparent is part and parcel in the email marketing gig, especially for a list that you rent. Your audience needs to trust that you're not hiding online viruses or worse. Interestingly, the same elements that can help alleviate these concerns are also helpful for improving click through rates. Here's another area where writing superior "from" and subject lines becomes essential to your success. It's also helpful to include a signature with contact information and make it super simple to manage subscription accounts and to unsubscribe.

Seven common mistakes. We'll file this under basic, though these bad habits are still rampant among the expert class. Surely there are more, such as harboring the wrong expectations or using home email systems for bulk mail delivery. But these seven will suffice for now. It's enough to keep any email marketer busy for some time. Good luck! And please let us know how it goes.

Jeff at N.E.W. Results has been so awesome to me!  My name is Zach Wiesman and I’m a missionary that has to raise my own support.  Jeff helped me create a website that's not only easy to use, but it’s effective as well!  I have had no experience with websites previously, but I’m sure this is as awesome as it gets!  Jeff is always helping me, and letting me know what can be done to increase my support base and make my website better.  Jeff at N.E.W. Results has been a huge blessing to me and my ministry, and I know he has been to many others as well.  Whatever you’re looking for in a website, Jeff can do it.   Go with Jeff, he’s the best!

Zach Wiesman
Missionary
Youth With A Mission
"To Know God and Make Him Known"