A good CRM implementation should be making you more efficient and saving you a lot of time.  After all, time is money.

A common question I’m asked is whether there is an easy way to add the incoming leads you receive from a website form directly into an ACT! database.  My answer is a resounding YES.

Many ACT! users don’t realize that the ACT! E-Marketing functionality does a whole lot more than simply send e-blasts.  The utility can also be used to create a web form.  Quite simply that means that means that when someone submits their contact information to you via your website their information will automatically appear in your ACT! database.

ACT! E-Marketing will allow you to create basic web forms.  I’ve recently partnered up with an amazing company, Juicy Results, who will connect those web forms to the “Contact Us” portion of your website and ensure that the web form will have the same look and feel as your existing website.  They also have some really great optimization services that will make sure that prospects are actually able to find your web site!

Jeremy Pound of Juicy Results is holding a free webinar on website optimization geared towards companies that offer professional services.  This would be a great time to learn about some of the great services that Juicy Results has to offer.

You can sign up for the event at:  http://www.juicyresults.com/2011/internet_marketing_webinar/

It’s amazing what you can do online, for free, in terms of connecting with your potential and existing customers right now!  What’s really great is that it doesn’t take a lot of time, and it’s a great place to promote your uniqueness and your personality.

If you’re looking for a few things you can right now to reach out people, and connect with them, let’s get started!

1) Assure your business is listed!

One of the best ways to do this is with GetListed.org.  GetListed.Org was launched in January of 2009 as a way for small business owners to learn exactly how their businesses are listed online.  They’ll assure you’re listed in some of the most important online business listings online, such as:

• Google Maps (via Google Local)
• Yahoo Listings
• Bing
• Yelp
• Best of the Web

2) Ask some of your most passionate customers for a Google review!

Once you’re listed in Google (see Tip 1) send your best customers an e-mail asking them to review your business on Google.  Google reviews (and people saying they found your review helpful) are a very effective way to grow online loyalty and it even helps with your Google relevance — meaning it helps your web site rank higher in Google’s search results.

3) Join LinkedIn.com, and connect!

If you haven’t jumped on the Social Media bandwagon yet, LinkedIn is one of the most effective ways to reconnect with existing customers, and introduce yourself to potential customers.  What’s really cool is their “introduction” feature that lets you introduce yourself via a friend or associate.  LinkedIn will either work from your address book, or let you search for contacts and add them to your network.

4) Join PRLOG.org and Spread the News!

One of the most effective ways to create awareness online is to “spread the news” via a press release.  If you, or your company, creates news releases, it’s really important that you share them online in addition to sending them to your local, regional or national news outlets.

I’ve found that one of the best, free, online sites for sharing news is PRLOG.org.

News releases are a great way to go after “keyword phrases”.  In my case I might want to appear in searches for “marketing consultant”.  The trick is to optimize the title of your piece to match the appropriate keyword.  Instead of a typical news title like “Train With Shane Offers New Service”, I might use one like “Marketing Consultant Company, Train With Shane, Offers New Service”.

Do you have any other suggestions on free ways to connect with customers online? Be sure to share them with us!

Unfortunately, the summertime can also mean the start of the slow season for many businesses as families everywhere pack up the SUV and head out for vacation.  As the song goes, See You in September.

If spring represents the time to clean-up your database, then summer should represent the time for the smart e-marketer to ramp up their marketing efforts.   Take advantage of the slow time to plot your future marketing efforts.

Here are a few ideas for those Lazy Hazy Days of Summer.

• Start segmenting your database. As tempting as it is to simply send out marketing pieces to your entire database, you’ll achieve much better results if you send out to a targeted audience.  For example, you might offer existing customers of one product a discount for another product, or offer new prospects a discount on their first orders.
• Fill in the holes in your database. Sometimes it’s not what you know but what you don’t know that can make a difference.  Create a query of all your existing customers for whom you are missing e-mail addresses and get to work tracking them down.
• Reach out to your clients through the social networking sites. I absolutely love ACT 2010’s Web Info tab because I can send an invitation to any of my contacts for Facebook, LinkedIn or any of the social sites at the click of a button.
• Develop a drip marketing campaign. Take advantage of the slow time to sit down and develop a good marketing campaign.  Create at least two campaigns:  one for new inquiries and another for new customers.  Design the templates, decide on the intervals between the pieces, and then “set it and forget it.”
• Write some blog articles. Like a little squirrel stock piling food for the winter, start writing articles now that can be posted later so that your blog will have a continuous flow of fresh articles throughout the year.
• Create some newsletters. Write ‘em now and avoid the holiday rush.  Once written you’ll want to add them into a drip marketing campaign.  As silly as it may seem to be writing holiday newsletters in June, you’ll thank yourself when you find yourself with one less thing to do in December!
• Relax and enjoy the slow time. After all, even the best marketers deserve a little time off!

Who knows?  Maybe you can write some of those articles while relaxing on the beach or floating in the pool.  Singing a few “summer-themed” songs is optional.

Do you have other ideas for summertime marketing?  I’d love to hear from you!

For those of you unfamiliar with the In-N-Out chain, they have approximately 250 locations sprinkled throughout the Southwest.  Compare that to McDonald’s who has over 31,000 stores world-wide and you’ll get a feeling for the size of this chain.  Talk about David and Goliath!  If there’s any question as to who is winning the burger war (in California at least) take a look at the drive-up lanes or ask a local which chain they prefer and you’ll have an answer.

I’m not a fast food person but the In-N-Out phenomenon fascinates me, especially after hearing Tom Hanks tell Conan that “one of the true great things about Los Angeles is In-N-Out Burger.”  And wouldn’t we all like to be the In-N-Out of our respective industries, especially those of use in the small business sector?

There are several elements that have led to In-N-Out’s tremendous success that can be easily applied by the typical business:

1. Word of mouth advertising: When In-N-Out opened in Scottsdale, Arizona, there was a four-hour wait for food, and news helicopters hovered overhead.
2. Loyal customers: Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith raved about In-N-Out from the podium of the 2007 BCS National Championship Game, golfer Phil Mickelson mentioned the chain in his book, and many celebrities make In-N-Out part of their “post-awards” rituals.
3. Customer Satisfaction: The In-N-Out restaurant chain consistently rates as one of the top fast food restaurants in customer satisfaction surveys.
4. Good product: Celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay was quoted as saying that he’d chose an animal style In-N-Out burger for his “death-row” last meal.
5. Branding: The signature colors for In-N-Out are white, red, and yellow and they are used extensively. The white is used for the buildings’ exterior walls and the employees’ basic uniform. Red is used for the buildings’ roofs and the employees’ aprons and hats. Yellow bands appear throughout.  It’s not hard to miss an In-N-Out location!
6. Not so Secret menu: The In-N-Out menu boasts four items (burger, cheeseburger, fries and drinks).  However, part of the In-N-Out allure is the “secret menu” that all employees know as the items appear on the cash register.  I suspect that knowledge of this “secret” menu makes customers feel like insiders who somehow share a private connection with the chain as they order their animal fries (topped with cheese, onions and 1000 Island dressing) and their protein burger (nestled in iceberg lettuce rather than a bun).

Maybe you can’t offer a secret menu, but you can make your customers feel like insiders by treating them like members of the family.  And although you might not garner celebrity endorsements, you can ask for referrals or post positive comments on your website.

If you’ve heard of In-N-Out please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Like it or not, unless you’re working for one of the Fortune 500 companies you too are an underdog when it comes to your business.  It’s an uphill battle to get your name to stand out against the competition.  Compounding the problem is some scary information that I read years ago that still reverberates.  It takes an average of 12 touches to convert a prospect into a customer.  And, 50% of sales people give up after the first effort; 90% give up after the second.

Wow!  With the odds so highly stacked against us it’s tempting to wave the white flag and admit defeat.  But like Butler, or Jimmy Conners who came back from a 1-6, 1-6 deficit to win Wimbledon in 1987, you have to focus on what you can do and not on what the other guy is doing.

Here’s a few coaching tips that apply to both sports and, more importantly, your business.

1. Act like a hero. Think of the frustrations you’ve had when contacting large companies (don’t get me started on Comcast!) and then do the opposite when interacting with your customers and prospects.
2. Out-distance your competition. I always said that if the other guy only tries to reach someone twice, I’d try to reach them three times.  If it takes twelve attempts to win a new customer then make those twelve attempts.
3. Use the proper equipment. I doubt that Conners could have won Wimbledon with a broken racquet or holes in his tennis shoes.  If you’re going to resort to e-marketing use an ESP (e-mail service provider) to track your results.  And by all means use an effective database tool to help you focus on the correct audience.
4. If you can’t be bigger, be smarter. Was it me or did the Butler guys look a heck of a lot smaller than the Duke players?  The fact that they almost won gives testament to the believe that brains can conquer brawn.
5. Don’t think meat, just pitch. In case you didn’t catch it, that’s a reference to what Kevin Costner told Tim Robbins in the baseball classic, Bull Durham.  He was trying to get “Nuke” to stop over-thinking everything and trust his mentor.  Trust your coach or, if you don’t have one and you’re struggling, hire a great coach or consultant to help you out.  It works for major class athletes and it will work for you.

Let the games begin!

Once your e-mail address –or worse yet – your company’s domain – becomes black listed it can take you months or years to get the problem rectified.  And, even if you don’t get blacklisted, most spam filters will eat your message for lunch if you don’t follow a few e-mail best practices.

Here’s my short list of suggestions:

1. Scrub your database.  Make sure that you aren’t emailing to e-mail addresses that have bounced in the past or are just plain invalid.  Avoid sending your message to duplicate addresses or generic addresses that start with “info” or “webmaster”.
2. Make sure you’re spam compliant by following the Can-Spam law.  Basically you need to make sure you have procedures in place for users to easily opt-out of future mailings, and include a valid mailing address in your message.
3. Use an ESP (email service provider) that uses a valid form of e-mail authentication.  That basically means that your e-mail blast comes from an authorized source.  These folks spend lots of time – and money – making sure that their emails get through to the folks using the Big Three for their e-mail (Yahoo, AOL and Google).
4. Time the frequency of your mailings; sending out a monthly newsletter is much more appealing than sending out a daily special pricing offer.  Target your mailings so that you are not sending your message to folks who have absolutely no interest in your products.
5. Make sure you know the difference between plain text and HTML e-mails.  If you want to include graphics in your e-mail blast you’ll need an HTML editor or risk having your message show up as a jumbled mess.
6. Avoid common spam triggers like exclamation points, red lettering and words like “sale.”

If you’re new to the world of e-marketing you’ll want to consult with an expert for a while.   They’ll be able to help you master the process and avoid some serious blunders.

 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. 

1. 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.
2. 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.   
3. 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!
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Fax machines:  If they don’t have land lines, why in the world would a Generation Y’er have a fax line? 
9. 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. 
10. 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!