Real-life example of how terrible
customer service cost a sale

A couple of months ago, you might have read the article I wrote about the Sales Prevention department.

It basically described how many companies lose a ton of business because of the way they reply (or not reply) to customer service and sales inquiries.

I’m talking about questions from not only prospective buyers, but also from active customers.

Seems like many businesses don’t place a priority on the way they handle these requests. (Hopefully, yours isn’t one of them)

So today… I’m reprinting an actual e-mail inquiry and the actual reply from the company. The company name has been changed to protect the stupid.

Then you can decide whether their reply:

• Was a good reply
• It was a dumb-ass reply
• Maybe it was humorous
• Or they just plain don’t care about customers…

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But first a WARNING!

Whatever you do, don’t reply to your prospects and customers like this company did!

It could destroy your reputation and your business.
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My original e-mail

(with subject line to an online distributor of small engine parts…)

To: Joe Blow at parts place
Subject: Looking for part

I’m looking for a retainer bearing p/n 784-0357 for MTD (looks like it fits other mfgs)

Your online price says “call us”.

Whats the deal… Do you have them or can you get them?

Regards,

Merrill Clark
Web, SEO, Direct Response Copywriter
Marketing Advisor
603-686-5140

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(Embedded picture of my book)
Author of…
“How Your Local Business Can
Get More Customers on the Internet”

Their reply: (short and sweet):

To: Merrill Clark
Subject: RE: Looking for part

Send your spam some where else

The end!

My immediate reaction was… “Huh?”  How could asking for part number information be spam? Jeesh…

Note** On a positive note, they did at least reply from a real person, and they replied quickly.

Truly customer service at it’s finest! NOT!

I have to admit — I was confused — I laughed — I got angry — I thought about it for a bit — then I replied.

(Professionally of course, since I know that everything online stays online forever.)

How would you have handled it? (Leave a reply below)

Oh… If you are curious about what my reply was, simply post a comment below, and I’ll send it to you.

If you need help with website design, writing SEO optimized web copy, email marketing, or other online marketing strategies, I can help!

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark

Website and Marketing Copywriter

Join my discussion by leaving a comment below…

Using current news and events to boost response from your advertising

There’s an old saying from a legendary ad man (hmmm… don’t remember who though) that goes like this:

“When you write ad copy, you’ll get better results if you find a way to enter the conversation already going on in the reader’s head”.

Well… one of proven ways to do that is to tie your ad to a current news story.

Today, I’m going to give you a fictitious example using a current story, and your job is to see if you can use the concept to come up with an ad angle for your business.

Today’s News headline…

“Notorious Mob Boss Whitey Bulger hides
in rented apartment for 16 years”

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So let’s say you were a private investigator. You perform background checks, and you figure apartment and condo complex managers might want to hire you to make sure prospective renters were on the up-and-up, and not dangerous criminals.

I mean… The management has a duty to protect their tenants, don’t they?

He wants to send out a postcard to these managers to make sure they know about the background check he offers them, and comes up with a special offer they just can’t refuse.

Then the PI goes through his customer list, and also rents a list of local property/apartment managers.

His headline is based on the news… maybe something like this…

If you really want to take advantage of this concept, use well-read headlines and reports to create a product or service that would cater to those people.

An example of this may be a financial planner using a published survey that says American’s between 40-60 #1 worry is if they’ll have enough money for retirement.

They could create a seminar or a course called “The Boomer’s Plan to Gurantee a Comfortable Retirement”, or something like that.

Always remember to use all the components of a good direct response ad. (You know, the ones you’ve been reading about in this blog for years) -:)

And remember, this is just to get your wheels turning.

What are your thoughts?

If you need help with website design, writing SEO optimized web copy, email marketing, or other online marketing strategies, I can help!

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark

Website and Marketing Copywriter

Join my discussion by leaving a comment below…

Does your business make this profit-killing mistake while trying to generate qualified leads for your sales team?

If you’re old enough, maybe you remember the song “One is the Loneliest Number” by Three Dog Night.

And if you’re not, surely you’ve heard the phrase “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”?

Now, you’re probably thinking… “What’s this got to do with getting more good sales leads for your business?”

Actually – a lot.

Too often, companies severely limit the number of good leads they could be getting, just because they are only using 1 technique that happens to be currently working.

And that’s bad! Considering there are hundreds, if not thousands of ways to generate leads, it doesn’t make sense to put all of your marketing eggs in one basket.

Smart marketers simultaneously use
multiple techniques to get new sales leads

Let’s say the only way you get new customers for your business is by attending local networking groups. So you don’t do any other marketing or lead generation such as direct mail, website marketing, or social media.

The problem with using only one technique is twofold…

First… Your potential customers are probably looking for you in more than one place. They may be on Twitter or Facebook, or searching for you on the Internet. And if you’re not there, you’ve lost your one and only chance with that person.

Wouldn’t you want to capture some of the prospects that no doubt you’re missing out on? If so, it’s just a matter of mixing and matching different techniques, media, and ideas. Try a targeted postcard, optimize your website for SEO and your readers, and connect with people on social media – all at the same time you go to your network groups.

The second problem is this…

Even though your current method of getting customers may be working, and you think you don’t have time to try anything else…

But what would happen if suddenly you couldn’t use your primary lead generation technique any more?

For example – remember back in the 90s when some businesses exclusively used fax marketing, and then WHAM…?

The government started handing out huge mega-fines for fax spammers, basically making it illegal to send a fax to someone who didn’t request it.

It pretty much shut down the fax marketing businesses – overnight.

Without a backup plans to generate leads and sales, these companies had to start marketing from scratch, and some of them just shut their doors for good.

Now I don’t want to see that happen to you, so play it smart, and use multiple ways to get new customers, not just one.

As your financial planner would say – “Diversify”! Don’t let your loneliest number be 1!

What are your thoughts?

If you need help with website design, writing SEO optimized web copy, email marketing, or other online marketing strategies, I can help!

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark

Website and Marketing Copywriter

Join my discussion by leaving a comment below…

With very little effort, even a good company can force prospects and customers to the competition using their website’s contact form and customer service e-mail.

Oh… I get it! You want prospects and customers to contact your business – not your competition.

That’s great… but are you doing the right thing to make that happen?

Let me share with you this quick story…

As a business professional, I’m sure you know that consistent and timely follow-up with your prospect’s and customer’s questions is crucial to the success of your business.

And some people… and for certain questions… they’d rather shoot off an e-mail they found on your website instead of picking up the phone.

When I have a quick question, I do. Mostly, because I think it’s usually a more efficient use of my time, as opposed to finding the right phone number, and waiting on hold forever, just to get disconnected.

Actually, I’ve sent off short e-mails to customer service departments of two good-sized companies recently, both with simple questions, assuming I’d get a quick (or at least timely) response.

NOT!

In both cases, it’s been more than 2 weeks, and I even sent a second e-mail using the “email customer service” link on their websites. Grrr… Lack of follow-up really puts me in a foul mood.

Now… one will never get my business, and the other… they just lost any future business.

Come on… isn’t responding to your prospects and clients, no matter how they communicate with you, just common business sense? Not to mention common courtesy. Jeesh…

Seems like both are seriously lacking in today’s businesses, where many companies let their “Sales Prevention” department’s bad habits ruin any chance of profits or success.

No wonder they’re bitching about poor sales and profits. If people don’t think you care about their questions and comments enough to even respond to ‘em, you’ll push them right to your biggest competitor’s doorstep – gift wrapped with a big bow.

The moral to this story…

If you have a customer service e-mail address or contact form published on your website, and tell people to contact you with it… For crying out loud, when your prospects and customers use it… Give them the courtesy of a response!

If you’re like the two companies I spoke of, and not going to respond, you might as well tell people not to contact you, or at the very least, remove those pages from your website.

What are your thoughts?

If you need help with website design, writing SEO optimized web copy, email marketing, or other online marketing strategies, I can help!

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark

Website and Marketing Copywriter

Join my discussion by leaving a comment below…

Generate more sales and profits by simply going back to marketing basics

Do you know of a business owner, marketing manager, or a sales professional who doesn’t want more good leads and more paying customers?

I don’t… And if I did… I’d tell ‘em they should be in a different line of work.

Anyway – today you’re going to learn the 3 most important basics of marketing anything to anyone.

Though they are vital to your success – they’re so simple,  most people don’t even think about them.

Dan Kennedy, a world class marketing guru, calls it the Marketing Results Triangle.

The Who:

One leg is your market, or audience. To help clients figure this out, I ask them these questions…

“Who is your ideal customer or prospect?”  You can get this info in several ways including looking at your past sales, surveys, case studies, and simply talking with your existing customers. See if there are any commonalities such as where they live, their average age, income, marital status, etc.

Then, once you figure out the “who” you want to market to, you can find an appropriate mailing list.

Your message:

Next leg is your sales message, which must resonate and get the attention of the people (the who) you want to respond. Basically, use the right bait for the right fish, metaphorically of course. It’s the words you use to communicate your message, and include a kick ass offer that’s aimed squarely at your ideal prospect.

The media:

How do you reach your ideal prospect? Direct mail, radio, postcards, emails, flyers under windshield wipers?

The list is endless… but you need to try and use as many as possible that make sense. For example… pizza flyers on windshield wipers may get a good response… but a $100,000 financial opportunity… not so much.

In closing…

All 3 of these legs need to work together in order to be successful. If you only consider or use 2 out of any 3…

It just ain’t gonna work.

So spend some time, and figure out these 3 things. And I’ll bet you’ll start seeing better results almost immediately.

What are your thoughts?

If you need help with website design, writing SEO optimized web copy, email marketing, or other online marketing strategies, I can help!

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark

Website and Marketing Copywriter

Join my discussion by leaving a comment below…

How to get your business listed on page 1 of Google’s search results – even if you don’t have a website

If your business depends on local customers, and want to get more of those customers, it’s simple math…

You see, 86% of your potential customers will search for your products and services on the Internet. And of those people, 75% of them will use the king of search engines, Google.

So the more often your company shows up in the first page of search results when someone searches on your keywords, the more people will call you.

More exposure to your prospects = more customers and profits.
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So how can you move up towards a top listing?

By optimizing your Google Places listing.

This is a cool feature from Google that kinda gives you a “mini” web page for free. First, they accumulate information about you from many other online sources like Yahoo, Bing, and other online business directories.

Then they compile the information they find into their own “Places” listing. And when someone searches on your type of business and adds a local identifier in the search (like a city, town, or zip code), Google will often list the local business “Places” listings at the top.

Generally speaking… the results are based on actual distance to your search and the relevance of your listing details.

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You can beat your local competitors online

And get this… if your listing is optimized properly, you can still get listed with or above your competitor’s listings… even if you don’t have a website! (Of course, if you’re in business, you put your company’s future at risk if you don’t have a website)

However, until you claim and optimize your listing, it’s likely to contain wrong and outdated information about you.

After you claim your listing, you can add descriptions, categories, pictures, videos, and maps, which will all help in getting found online.

Not to mention, it includes its own analytics, by displaying the top keywords people are searching for when your listing shows up. It also shows you how many times people clicked on your listing, your website, and got directions.

Even though your Google Places is free, if you want to optimize your listing in order to get better results and rank higher than your local competitors, you’ll have to spend some time learning the ropes…

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But spending time to learn Google Places will be worth it

To find your listing, claim it, and start making changes to it, simply search on your business name or service and add your zip code. Your local listing should show up with a little teardrop on the left, with a letter in it.

If it doesn’t show up, you’ll have to create a free Google account, or sign in to your existing one and click on “Places”.

Don’t wait to claim and optimize your listing!

Take advantage of it before your competition figures it out.

And…for a small investment, I can do all the work for you and optimize your Google Places listing so you’ll start to show up on page one of Google’s search results page more often.

Simply e-mail me or give me a call for details.

What are your thoughts?

If you need help with website design, writing SEO optimized web copy, email marketing, or other online marketing strategies, I can help!

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark

Website and Marketing Copywriter

Join my discussion by leaving a comment below…

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Priceless marketing and copywriting quotes from the trenches

For business professionals everywhere – Here are a few short and sweet marketing quotes from marketing, copywriting, and advertising gurus who’ve already “been there, and done that”.

Enjoy, and think about how you can apply them to your business!

“The offer should be so attractive that only a lunatic would say no.”
Claude Hopkins

“The copywriter’s aim in life should be to try to make it harder for people to pass up his advertisement than to read it”
Vic Schwab

“A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself.”
David Ogilvy

“Of course, nothing happens until somebody sells something.”
Jim Barksdale

“The customer or prospect doesn’t give a damn about you, your company, or your product. All that matters is, “What’s in it for me?”
Bob Hacker

“Specifics sell. Generalities don’t!”
Andrew J. Byrne

What are your thoughts?

If you need help with website design, writing SEO optimized web copy, email marketing, or other online marketing strategies, I can help!

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark

Website and Marketing Copywriter

Join my discussion by leaving a comment below…

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Get more leads without cold-calling

If you don’t like cold calling (personally – I hate it)…

Then this marketing tip may be the answer you’ve been looking for.

Think about this…

Isn’t it much easier to talk with a prospect who expressed interest in your product or service by contacting you first?

We call ‘em “warm” prospects, because you know they at least have a need. And it certainly beats the hell out of cold calling them.
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So how do you generate “warm” leads that contact you?

In theory, it’s pretty simple:

Create a compelling guide or report containing information your target market craves. It doesn’t have to be long… 1-3 pages works fine.

Instead of selling your product or services directly in a low cost space ad, an e-mail, or a letter…

Offer them your free guide or report with the information they desperately want. In exchange, all you want is their contact information.

Use an attention getting headline to target your audience, and include a call-to-action that tells them how to contact you.

Create your compelling guide or report. It doesn’t have to be long… 2-4 pages is usually fine.

Then, once they contact you, make sure to mail it to them right away.

And if your report is good, your phone will start ringing off the hook.

Proven topics you might use are:

• How to…
• 7 Secrets about…
• 5 Mistakes most people…
  .

For example, I recently saw a great example of a “free guide”. This particular one was formatted in a 3”x5” 3-page booklet and had a decent title “The Field Guide to the Benefits of Home Ownership”.

In this case, it was inserted in a magazine that their target market commonly read.

But you can just print a report on regular paper, or even make an audio or video CD. The physical format doesn’t matter as much as the content, but is still important.

The cool thing about a uniquely formatted guide is you can use them for various things such as handing them out at networking events, replacing traditional brochures (unless your brochures are really good, which most aren’t).

And the best part – YOUR  business can use this technique to generate warm leads, and then use the telephone to follow up with the people who request the report… no cold calling required!

Give me a holler when you’re ready to get more warm leads using my Ultimate Lead Generation Package that includes an ad, an e-mail, a letter, and a special report – all for one special price.

What are your thoughts?

If you need help with website design, writing SEO optimized web copy, email marketing, or other online marketing strategies, I can help!

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark

Website and Marketing Copywriter

Join my discussion by leaving a comment below…

This common marketing mistake just might put you out of business

It’s a marketing question that often comes up from start-up and established business owners:

“What is the one marketing technique that will work best to generate leads and sales for my business?”

Well… first of all… it’s not even the right question to ask.

If you’re serious about growing your business, a better question to ask is:

“What are different things I can do to effectively market my business?”

The difference?

The first question assumes there’s one magic marketing tactic that will generate all the profits you could possibly want, is downright cheap or free, and doesn’t take any of your time to implement.

And why would you want to limit yourself to use only one way to promote your business?

The second question shows you want to explore the many marketing strategies and options available.

The truth about promoting your small business…

Frankly, there is no single magical marketing technique that works like gangbusters for any business, all the time, and is cheap. It just isn’t reality.

There are, however, many different ways to promote your business. Ones that have been proven to work for many businesses.

Just to name a few of the marketing methods your business could use: (Successful businesses typically use several of these at the same time)

• Direct Mail
• Postcard marketing
• Websites
• E-mail marketing
• Social Networking
• Business referral networks (like BNI)
• Radio & TV ads
• Space ads

These can all work for your business – some better than others, depending on your business and who your prospects are.

To get the best results, you need to figure out where your prospects are hanging out, and deliver the right sales message and an irresistible offer to them, using the media they’re most likely to read or hear.

Dan Kennedy, a world-known marketing expert, said it best, when asked what marketing technique he would use to get new clients:

“There’s not one way I would use to get lots of clients, but I know 50 ways that will each get me a few.”

It boils down to this…

When it comes to marketing your small business… there is no right answer… and don’t put all your marketing eggs in one basket.

Mix and match several of the techniques, using the ones your ideal prospects are looking at.

What are your thoughts?

If you need help with website design, writing SEO optimized web copy, e-mail marketing, or other online marketing strategies, I can help!

To your marketing success!

Merrill Clark
Website and Marketing Copywriter

Join my discussion by leaving a comment below…

Stratham marketing copywriter donates to
Portsmouth breast cancer support group

From now until March 31st, Merrill Clark, owner of Crestview Marketing Services will donate $5 from the sale of each copy of his new book titled “How Your Small Local Business Can Get More Customers on the Internet” to Portsmouth  based My Breast Cancer Support.

My Breast Cancer Support is a wonderful and inspiring non-profit organization that was started and is headed up by Wendy McCoole, a cancer survivor herself.

Their mission is dedicated to supporting breast cancer patients, and helping them overcome many of the challenges and issues they face.

Show your support My Breast Cancer Support and get some valuable online marketing advice for your business, too…

You can click here for more information about Wendy and My Breast Cancer Support.

Oh… if you know someone else who could benefit from Wendy’s group or my book,  please forward this to them!