06 Mar 10 Is Your E-Marketing Message Marking You as a Spammer?
One of my clients recently sent me a one of his proposed e-marketing templates for my review. He had spent quite a bit of time developing his message and was understandably quite proud of it. What he had in mind was for me to review it, make a few suggestions and fix any typos I might find. He was no doubt expecting a few words of praise, or, at the very least, a large smiley face. What he got was a totally reworked piece that bore little resemblance to his original chef-d’oeuvre; I did, however, refrain from placing a large red “F” at the top.
As an author I’ve been critiqued by some of the best editors in the world and I know the process. It’s not unusual for the early drafts of my books to return to me in the form of road kill. As the daily recipient of dozens of pieces of spam I know which messages will make their way through – and which messages will take a permanent place in the Spam Folder.
My rule of thumb for writing a marketing piece is to pretend that I am writing to one of my buddies with a bit of friendly advice. You might want to think about the following parts of your message before sending out your next blast:
1. Subject line: This is absolutely the most important part of your message because it will determine whether or not your e-mail is opened. Take a look at your own Inbox and determine which message you opened and which you immediately marked as Spam.
2. Length: Do you have time to read a two page message from a stranger, or someone you barely know? After you write your piece go back and remove any unnecessary verbiage. Keep you sentences brief and to the point.
3. Tone: Keep it simple and friendly. Period. Don’t lecture. Don’t sell and/or come across like a carnival vendor.
4. Formatting: If your message is clear you don’t need to resort to bold, underlined and red formatting, and avoid using ALL CAPS. This type of formatting will make readers think you are shouting at them and will cause spam filters to gobble up your messages and spit out the pieces.
5. Bullet points: Yes, pithy little statements neatly arranged with bullets can be effective – but only if they are done extremely well. In my client’s case his bullets had no symmetry; some started with sentences, others with verbs, some focused on his product and others on the customer.
6. Blatant sales pitches: Granted, some of your product pricing might include a manufacturer’s discount or rebate that you’ll want to share with your recipients. My client, however, offered a “3 day only” offer for his services knowing full well that he’d offer the same “deal” at any time.
7. Closing: This one should be simple. Do you normally sign your emails with your own name or just that of your company?
Put yourself in the shoes of your recipient, keep your message simple and you’ll find that writing great marketing pieces is easier than you think!
Tags: email marketing
25 Feb 10 Old Dogs Must Learn New Software Training Tricks
The publishing industry has gone into a free fall. It’s almost impossible for a publisher to compete with the constant stream of new – and relatively cheap – information that we can be accessed via websites, blogs and e-books. Small wonder that so many newspapers and magazines – and even brick and mortar bookstores – have permanently closed their doors.
Perhaps the final nail in the publishing coffin will be delivered not by the purveyors of information but by the speed of the information itself. Take a look at the ACT software; it took 18 years to develop the first 6 versions of ACT and only 5 years to develop the next 5. More and more software is coming to us in the way of SaaS (software as a service) and can be modified at a moment’s notice. Considering that it takes anywhere from 6-9 months to produce a book it becomes almost impossible for a publisher to keep up with the changes.
When I wrote the first of what would turn out to be 11 For Dummies books nearly 9 years ago, the publishing world looked quite a bit different than it does today. Wiley Publishing had contacted me as the ACT Software Expert, we agreed on a table of contents, and I wrote the book. When a new version of ACT came out a couple of years later, I expanded the table of contents slightly and wrote a new version.
Fast forward to 2009. Publishers’ are facing a decline in revenues; consequently it is harder than ever to get a book published. About this time I was contacted by lynda.com to create ACT training videos. Lynda has been around for 10 year, mainly focusing on web and graphic software training. Lynda advertises that they have courses in over 700 software titles. Intrigued, I perused their offerings and found courses on subjects I had never heard of (Joomla! and Ruby come to mind) as well as on topics that I knew but needed to know better (WordPress and Twitter ). And, like a book, each course is divided into chapters and each chapter contains a number of topics. Viewing a topic can take anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes and, if a picture is worth a thousand words these are worth a million.
The team at lynda has the process down to rocket science and in a little more than a month’s time the ACT 2010 Essential Training videos were up and running.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ll continue to write – and read books. I live in Florida and don’t want to drag a laptop to the beach or risk getting sand in my Kindle. But if I need training on a rapidly changing site such as Facebook I’ll be using lynda where I know I’ll get the latest and greatest information.
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Tags: ACT consulting, act software, learning act, learning crm
20 Feb 10 Keep It Simple, Stupid!
Many years ago my husband and I attempted to wallpaper our dining room. Of course it didn’t help that we began work on this DIY project two weeks before Thanksgiving and were under a time crunch. I carefully set up a table in the garage where we applied the paste and carried the soggy paper through the house and into the dining room. Needless to say by the end of the trip the paper was in shreds. After we had pretty much mangled the project we called in a professional who just looked at us and shook his head. He finally managed to ask why we hadn’t simply set up our table in the dining room. Quite frankly the thought never occurred to either one of us, nor had the concept of purchasing pre-glued paper.
I like to think of myself as a fairly smart person. However, I also know my limitations, and know when I need to call in the experts. I’ve learned over the years that money I spend on a consultant, book or course is well worth its price when I compare it to the time it might take me to eventually wave the white flag and concede defeat.
To paraphrase Ben Franklin, “he who teaches himself is taught by a fool.”
I run into folks all the time who prefer the DIY route when it comes to software. I understand the desire to tinker with software; after all, I do it myself. Unfortunately, those same folks who teach themselves usually make the same mistake that I did when I tried my hand at wallpapering: they didn’t keep it simple. As I work to untangle the convoluted system that they created – which, by the way, doesn’t provide them with the functionality that they had hoped for – they often mutter something like, “Gee, that was easy!” It’s amazing how simple tasks become when we actually know what we’re doing!
My suggestion is that if you really want to master a software title, learn from a pro. There are a number of avenues available to you. I’ve written numerous titles for Wiley Publishing who has created For Dummies titles on over 2,000 topics; they even have a book that covers wallpapering! I recently created and recorded training videos for lynda.com; for a yearly subscription you have access to online learning courses on hundreds of software titles. If you prefer that up close and personal approach hire a good consultant; just make sure that the consultant specializes in the specific area you need help with. Don’t settle for a computer guy who “is really good;” it’s your time, your money and your business. Get help from an expert who will be able to simplify the learning process.
Tags: act 2010 training, ACT consulting, act essential training, learning act
12 Feb 10 Let Me Sell You Some Swamp Land in Florida
I love my tennis buddies even if they are a bit technically challenged. Take away their AOL accounts and they’d never be able to access e-mail; to them a browser is someone who’s not yet ready to make a purchase. I found it quite interesting that lately many of them were switching cell phone carriers because they just “had to have” an I-Phone. I know they’ll never use the device for anything other than the most basic features yet they were willing to pay the price for an I-Phone.
I began to wonder what prompted this I-Phone fixation by my friends. The answer is quite simple – it pays to advertise. After all, the harder “they” sell the more likely we are to buy.
All too often CRM shoppers succumb to the same sales tactics that got my friends to buy I-Phones. They’re told that one solution is “better” or “easier” than another when in reality most solutions offer pretty much the same standard set of features.
A simple search on the Internet will provide you with hundreds of CRM solutions. So how do you narrow the field? Here are a few of my suggestions:
- Look for software with a proven track record; after all, there’s safety in numbers. A large user install base means that the company has been able to keep lots of people happy – and stayed current with the latest advancements in technology.
- Avoid start ups. Period. Sure, they can promise you the moon but might lack the financing to stay solvent. Where will you – and your database – be if the company goes belly up?
- Look for a variety of technical support options. If you love to DIY you’ll want a large searchable knowledge base. Look for books and online training videos from third-party vendors; those vendors will only create materials if there are enough folks out there to buy them. Are there independent consultants available to help you and, if so, at what price?
- Understand the pricing structure before you sign on the dotted line. Are you paying a one-time, monthly or annual fee? Does the pricing include all of the software’s functionality or do you have to pay extra for adding additional features? Will you be hit with an additional charge as your database grows?
- There is no such thing as a free lunch –avoid free software unless you have a very high tolerance for buggy software and advertising sidebars.
- A good CRM solution should be fairly effortless. For example, if you want to send out a lot of letters make sure you can accomplish that task quickly and easily. Have your sales person concentrate on the features that are the most important to you not the bells and whistles that you’ll never use.
- A good CRM solution should be easy to customize. The goal is to help you become more efficient, organized and profitable. Don’t be forced into changing your existing successful businesses practices to accommodate your software; a good CRM solution should be flexible.
Hopefully these hints will prevent you from making a costly mistake both in terms of time and money. And remember, if you’re one of those folks who avoid doing your due diligence, I have some prime Florida swamp land you might be interested in!
Tags: act software, crm software, salesforce
18 Jan 10 Singing the Customer Service Blues
Once upon a time life was much simpler – at least if you believe everything you see in “Leave It To Beaver” re-runs. Dad marched off to the office every day while Mom stayed home and dusted. Not once did you hear Dad cursing because he couldn’t find his software activation code and the gentleman at tech support couldn’t speak English, or watch Mom navigate through a maze of “Press 1 or Press 2” in an attempt to correct a billing error.
I moved across town last summer. Although the move went smoothly, dealing with the various service providers didn’t. Six months down the road and I’m still receiving monthly bills from Comcast for my old address. The message that AT&T promised would play for a year providing callers with my new phone number stopped working after 30 days. My lender closed its doors 30 days into the mortgage; the new lender routinely disconnects incoming calls and provides support via a third-world company with very poor connectivity.
Alternatively, I recently purchased some software from Staples online and found it the next day at my local Costco for $75 less. I made a call to Staples and was put on hold; I expected to hear the usual drivel about restocking fees and software returns. I was shocked when the rep came back a minute later and informed me that she had just made an $80 credit to my account. My, that was easy!
So when did we start the downward spiral from idyllic support to customer service nightmare? And more importantly, is there anything we can do about it?
My dad always said that if you point a finger at someone you’re actually pointing two fingers back at yourself. Try it, you’ll see what I mean. Having been in the software industry for over 20 years I can’t help but think that I helped to contribute to this mess. After all, I’m guilty of wanting to get the absolute best price around. In turn, my comparison shopping cuts into the revenue stream of the companies I do business with. Small wonder that the lines are now longer and the support folks less knowledgeable.
Software companies are in the same boat as your local hardware or office supplies store. Hard as it may be for the average consumer to believe, software companies are in business to make money – or at least to remain solvent. For example, ten years ago there were very few players in the CRM market; today there are virtually hundreds. And, like the independent candidate that chips away at a front-runner’s lead, each of those companies represents a bit less revenue for the major players. The math becomes simple – either raise the price of the software or cut back the services.
I’ve decided to start my own one man campaign to try to improve upon customer service. I’m going to compliment great service (Staples, Staples, Staples) to my friends, neighbors and anyone else who will listen. Rather than complaining about poor service (Comcast, Comcast, Comcast) I’ll give them two chances to correct the problem; if that doesn’t work I’ll do a search for “investor relations” on the Net, contact the President’s office, and let them know how lousy their service is. When given the choice, I’m taking my business to the company that offers the best service, even if it’s a bit more pricey. After all, if I don’t continue to support the one man shops I’ll have no one to blame but myself when my only recourse is to shop at a Superstore where I’ll have to deal with both long lines and poor service.
Finally, when it comes to software I’ll remember the words of my father – and those two fingers pointing back at me. If I do something to mess up my computer (like simultaneously install 3 different Betas), don’t know how a program works, or try to get my latest piece of software to work with my oldest piece of hardware, I will call tech support. And I will be willing to pay for their services.
Who knows, maybe my grass roots effort will catch on. Now I wonder if that Obama guy needs some help with health care reform.
Karen Fredricks
www.techbenders.com
blog@techbenders.com
08 Jan 10 Fathers Don’t always Know Best
My twenty-three year old daughter was home for the holidays. Hard as it is to believe, my “baby” is now a college graduate. Of course the start of a new decade left me thinking about the technological changes that have occurred over the span of a decade – and how they’ve impacted her life and my business.
Alyssa was raised with a computer. She used to come with me to my computer school and help teach the children’s classes. We were the first house on the block to have Internet access and Alyssa took advantage of my expertise when it came to mastering Word, Excel and Power Point.
My two daughters are only four years apart in age, yet I saw a tremendous difference between their generations. When Andrea departed for college at the start of the millennium it took a mini-van filled to overflowing to carry her “necessities.” Her possessions included a stereo, television, desktop computer, digital camera, photo albums and a huge box of cables including one for the dorm’s Ethernet connection. Alyssa arrived on campus four years later carrying only an IPod, I-phone, Mac book and a couple of power cords; although she traveled much lighter her amenities were comparable to those of her sister.
Alyssa is a card-carrying member of the 70 million strong “Generation Y.” Although they travel light they have access to a never-ending source of media which they expect to access immediately, anytime, anywhere.
ACT 2010 now includes links to various social networking sites including Facebook and LinkedIn. I was surprised to learn that many of my clients weren’t as excited about this new development as I was. “Don’t use Linked In,” huffed one person. “Facebook is for kids,” snapped another. These folks obviously assume that the people they encounter in the business world think the same way they do. Unfortunately, they don’t.
I’ve identified ten areas of communication that have changed over the course of the last ten years, at least if you’re a member of Generation Y. And, like it or not, if they want your business to survive you’ll have to adjust to those changes.
- Land lines: For Generation Y, land lines are a thing of the past. If they do talk on the phone they do it via a cell phone which has become a permanent appendage. More than 23% of homes currently lack land lines – and the number is going up all the time.
- Newspaper Classifieds: I’m a firm believer that radio killed the video star then Craig’s List surely killed the newspapers and put most forms of print media in jeopardy of extinction. Morning papers and TV news have been replaced by online media sources.
- Dial Up Connections: Your first Internet connection was probably a dial-up. Today’s generation wants instant gratification and finds it at home, on their phone and even at the local McDonalds. And your site had better have the bandwidth and design to enable quick page viewing!
- Books: I’m an author so this one really pains me. Books are expense to produce – and purchase. They take space to store. Gen Y does their research over the Internet and downloads their reading material to their Kindle. Students can even download textbooks at sites like Coursesmart.com.
- CD’s: Whoosh. Now you see them, now you don’t. Faster than you can say “download” the CD has been replaced by YouTube, ITunes and a variety of other sites that allow media downloads.
- Film cameras and prints: Even if you could buy one, you’d have a hard time finding a place to process your film. Gen Y has thousands of pictures residing on their cell phones, computers and Face Book pages. And can access millions more on the Internet. A single image is no longer enough to speak a thousand words.
- Yellow pages: Ironically, the only people using the Yellow Pages these days are aging Baby Boomers who probably lack the eyesight to read them anyway.
- Fax machines: If they don’t have land lines, why in the world would a Generation Y’er have a fax line?
- E-mail: If you think you’re reaching your target audience via e-mail alone, think again. Generation Y is so mobile that even e-mail can’t keep pace with them. they’re using Face Book and Twitter to communicate.
- Cell Phones: Buh-bye cell, hello smart – at least when it comes to phones. Gen Y doesn’t have to sit at a desk or be tied to a computer to access information; they carry a wealth of information in the palm of their hands.
Of course, you don’t have to reach out to Generation Y. You could market only to people who think – and communicate – the way you do. Unfortunately, that idea makes the somewhat flawed assumption that those people will still be around at the end of the next decade!
Tags: act software, crm, email marketing, emarketing
30 Dec 09 My Love/Hate Relationship with Amazon
Hi. My name is Karen, and I am addicted to online shopping. There, I’ve said it so I’m now on my road to recovery. I love the fact that I can go online and, in a matter of minutes, send a last minute gift to my cousin in Des Moines complete with card and gift wrap. As an added bonus I can spend a moment or two to do a bit of comparison shopping and then fill in my credit card information faster than you can say “Google Toolbar.”
One of my favorite sites is Amazon. It’s definitely my site of choice for book shopping. I started using their “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” section years ago and have discovered some great reads that I might have otherwise missed. Throw in free shipping – and the fact that they carry all of my books – and I’m indeed in Shoppers Nirvana.
However, as much as I love Amazon I’ve come to hate – or at least be very wary of – their review process when it came to items other than books. In case you’re not familiar with Amazon virtually anyone can offer a review of a product and assign a ranking based on a 5 star system. And of course the more people who assign a product a low ranking, the worse the product will appear in the minds of a potential buyer.
I’m not one to post reviews but I purchased a Canon wireless printer last year for my home and really love it. I’ve had numerous printers over the years including an Okidata dot matrix and an HP laser that could double as a tree anchor during hurricane season. Never had a Canon but tried this one because the features – and price – were right. I got it to work with everyone of our computers in minutes including machines using Win 7, Vista and XP. Even got my daughter’s Mac book to work on it. I headed to Amazon and was stopped dead in my tracks by the venomous reviews posted there. Yikes! If I had read those reviews first I would never have purchased my beloved printer.
I started by reading some of the 1 star reviews. Most of them were quite short and many weren’t about the printer itself. For example, can you really hold Canon responsible if there is a delay in Amazon’s shipping, or the package arrived damaged by UPS? The 5 star reviews were much longer; some of these reviewers might consider a career as e-book authors. One common theme I noticed in the 5 star ratings was reference to the Quick Start guide. Funnily enough, I didn’t see that reference in any of the 1 star ratings!
This got me to thinking – who exactly is posting these reviews? What is prompting them? And most importantly, which ones should I believe? If I were looking for a new car I’d probably take a look at Road and Track. Software and hardware? PC Magazine or PC World work for me. And, by the way, they both agreed with my assessment of my new printer. I’ve decided to stick with Amazon for their book reviews but leave other reviews to the experts!
For more information on CRM and Contact Management visit www.techbenders.com or drop me an email at blog@techbenders.com
30 Jul 09 ACT 2010 Will Soon be Here!
I know, I know. Another year, another upgrade. Upgrades can be expensive both in terms of money and time, but unfortunately they are a necessary evil of the computer world.
Some companies force you to upgrade every year or so. For example, Intuit’s tax tables will stop working when QuickBooks reaches a certain age, or you’ll no longer be able to access your accounts online in Quicken after a year or two. Sage takes a different approach with their new releases by trying to entice you to upgrade by offering a bunch of new “must have” features. And of course, you’ll be forced to upgrade if you change other aspects in your computer world; for example, users of Vista and Office 2007 found that their older versions of ACT simply wouldn’t work.
Quite frankly, ACT 2009 didn’t have a huge “wow” factor, although it did make significant changes in performance. On the other hand, ACT 2010 has added several cool features that I really like:
- The new Welcome Page includes things like instant access to search and links to your most common tasks.
- The new Web Info tab automatically integrates your contact records with data from all the latest sites including LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google Maps.
- The Opportunities area has been revamped to behave like contacts, groups, and companies, which means you can add lots of customized fields and change the Opportunity layout.
- There’s now “out-of-the-box” integration with Swift Page’s e-mail and drip marketing solutions.
- There are 9 new dashboards, 13 new reports (created for Sage by Tech Benders!), and a new customizable Reports view.
- iCalendar and vCard compatibility so that you can send invitations and contact information to “non-ACT” users right from ACT.
I’ll be running a series of “Drive Before You Buy” webinars of ACT 2010 throughout August; for more information visit http://techbenders.com/users.php If you decide you want to take advantage of some great pre-release pricing drop me an e-mail at info@techbenders.com.
Tags: act 2010, act 2010 upgrade, act consultant, act help, discount act software
03 Jun 09 Protecting Ourselves from Ourselves
My dad taught me that when I pointed my finger at someone (or something) I was in fact pointing two fingers back at myself. Think about it the next time something goes wrong with your computer.
I recently corresponded with a very irate ACT user. He had tried in vain to install ACT without success. He had hired a “computer expert” who had tried to help him, again with no success. Of course he pointed his proverbial finger at ACT, not realizing that two fingers were pointing directly back at himself.
The first mistake the user made was not to call Sage’s technical support team for assistance. One benefit that comes with your ACT software purchase is 30 days of “Getting Started” support. This support includes phone, chat, and e-mail support for up to 30 days from the date of product registration. I guarantee that had he called the support line, or taken advantage of the online chat, he would have been up and running in a matter of minutes.
The second finger, or mistake, that the user made was not being aware that all the safety mechanisms he had in place to “protect” himself from intrusions from the outside world were also preventing ACT from installing properly. There are three common safety devices that should be turned off, at least temporarily, during the installation of most any software program:
· Anti-Virus Software
· Firewall Software
· The Vista operating system’s User Account Control (UAC).
Ironically, ACT warns you to turn off your Anti-Virus and Firewall software during the installation process. And, a quick Internet search will explain how tame the UAC warnings that drive many users nuts – and interfere with software installation.
Although I wouldn’t categorize my Dad as a “computer expert,” his common sense would have saved this user from a lot of unnecessary aggravation!
For more information about ACT please visit www.techbenders.com or e-mail me at blog@techbenders.com.
Tags: ACT consulting, act software, crm software
