the client services blog
How do you know when to send an email to your clients?
Mostly companies just guess.
Some listen to where a person lives and emails them taking their time zone in to mind.
We’ve solved this problem with our new app, HourScore.
Now you can send every email at the right time.
For now, it’s just for Infusionsoft users. But sign up at HourScore.com and we’ll tell you as it becomes available on more platforms.
How do you best use outside help for online marketing?
Know what you need before you call!
See the article here.
How do you promote cruises nowadays? Try blogging about a ship as it is being built.
At www.eurodamnews.com Holland America shares with you the incremental building and design of the new Eurodam cruise ship.
This blog supports one of the most important parts of marketing- make your clients feel like part of a private club.
When someone wanted to see what the elevators looked like, the Eurodam folks blogged it and fulfilled their request.
I feel like giving them a high five and buying them a drink. Good job!
Kelly Smith, founding partner of Curious Office, spoke at NWEN today on the first six months of a startup.
Big ideas-
1. Most of your stress will be about people. (IE, don’t worry about the tech so much, because dealing with the people around the tech will be harder)
2. Don’t do a startup just for money.
3. Family, health, and friends (for Kelly anyways) are more important than work. Starting a company is probably not worth killing yourself over through lack of sleep, lack of exercise, poor eating, etc.
4. Months 3-6 are really hard because it is too late and too early to quit. You have put in a few months and some money, so you want to keep going, but you haven’t really put in enough time to say that you know it won’t work.
And the big one:
5. When I start a project, everyone knows that I will finish it. Doesn’t matter what happens- I’ll turn it into a concrete mixing company if I have to to make it work. I don’t fail and I don’t stop. (from memory, so not his exact words)
So keep your priorities straight, and don’t stop. Good advice from a serial entrepreneur.
Next question for Kelly- what experiences and skills does someone need before they enter the startup arena on the sales/marketing side?
Side note- Kelly helped work on SEOmoz, one of the most respected SEO companies, period, so props for that decision.
Click here to see the American Stationery mad libs Valentine’s Day card creator.
Simple, effective concept- your sweetie needs a card, you don’t want to get them the same thing every year, and this card is funny and geeky and takes a minute to make.
Of course, not that you shouldn’t buy her chocolates as well…
Recently, a firm I use made a big mistake. I was inconvenienced and unhappy.
They fixed the problem (eventually), and sent a Starbucks gift card.
I went to starbucks this morning and used the card.
Total value?
5 bucks.
IE, less than the price of coffee and a donut at Starbucks.
Fortunately, I bought less than $5. But you can imagine if you usually didn’t go to starbucks, going just this once to use the gift card, and finding that you had to pay a dollar or two more to get your coffee and donut.
I understand that they want to keep costs down, but I have used this company for 10 years. A $5 card? Come on, guys, you can do better than that.
If you are going to go to the trouble of saying “sorry, we screwed up, here is a gift,” make it at least $10-$20. Give me a pound of See’s chocolate- that way I’ll know you care!
Enjoy my email marketing column.
You may want people to call you. They may not want to- maybe fax, or email, or just dropping by is more comfortable for them.
Unless you are willing to lose them as a customer, you should engage them in the way they want to be engaged.
2 groups of people who do this poorly:
Telemarketers
They want to interrupt someone at the office. I say they can email the person. They don’t.
Companies that share only their email address, not a phone number
Google. Yahoo. Everyone else. Sometimes, I just want to call.
Don’t waste my time by trying to interact with me in a way you know I don’t want. That’s all I’m asking.
My boss tagged me, so I guess I better answer:
1. I am a shooting instructor for rifles and handguns.
2. I have played trombone for a decade.
3. My RedHead Childhood Survey (I just made up that name) has been administered to about 6 people over the last 4 years, with the conclusions so far that most redheads are deeply affected by their hair color, and most of them underplay how much their hair color affects their personality, relationships, jobs, etc.
4. I lived in Wales for a year.
5. Both of my parents have run their own businesses since before my birth, so I have no idea what it would be like to have parents that worked 9-5. “Work” lasts until it is done, balanced with family life, in order to get food on the table for the kids.
In the spirit of the democracy of the net and of blogs, I will ‘vote with my feet’ by not tagging 5 other people.
Ian is reviewing Yahoo’s new Panama PPC management system.
Read his day one report and his day two report.
I am looking forward to the full report at the end of the week where he will talk about how you should change your Yahoo ads to reflect the new system. Now that Yahoo is more like Google, should all of our ads look the same?
I will tell you when he writes his report.
All For You by Brian Keith 