Letters From Dan

This past week we had a MeetUp Group Meeting and I met with two website owners looking to improve their business:

First we spoke about the power of Gmail. Gmail is Google’s e-mail client, like Hotmail or AOL or earthlink. But Gmail offers a few things the others do not. I consider Gmail to be an e-mail manager. You can send and receive e-mail from all your accounts in Gmail.

So if you work at Autozone and your e-mail is JoeJoe@autozone.com, you can receive all that e-mail in your Gmail account and you can reply to it (Re: JoeJoe@autozone.com) without the person ever knowing you use Gmail to manage your e-mail. I recommend that for its sheer simplicity and efficiency.

Another great part of Gmail is the “labs”. In the upper right corner of the Gmail screen, you’ll see a little circle that looks like a gear. Click it and drop down to Settings. Inside the Settings is a tab called Labs.

So you’re familiar with Groupon, I’m going to assume. It’s a great service for those of us that like 50% off – but like many lead generating services you’ve got to be prepared on the back-end.

Most companies that use Groupon get excited about all the traffic that’s coming to their front door, but don’t realize that unless that traffic is harnessed or brought back somehow, it can be a really big money losing proposition.

Groupon customers pay 50% for a service. So $20, for a $40 service. The company providing that service gets 50% of the $20 – so $10. Basically they sell a $40 service for $10. That only makes sense if your cost of goods is much less than $10 and if you’re able to make additional sales from the traffic.

And that’s true for any special or giveaway that you put together.

To make a Groupon or other giveaway a success, build the backend first. What do you plan to offer the customer next? How are you going to capture their information if the service your using isn’t going to give it to you? How are you going to harness their original interest and turn it into something bigger?

Many, many companies have complained about Groupon and have decided they would never do it again. While others flourish and do them over and over. Don’t let the tail-end catch you by surprise.

Build it in its entirety and then figure out how you’re going to get the customers into the funnel – whether that’s Groupon, banner ads, postcards or a blimp.

I’ve got a couple Groupon Case Studies on my blog: http://lettersfromdan.com/examples-of-bad-social-marketing-decisions/

Ever get referred by someone? Usually 1 of 2 things happens. Either you make a new acquaintance/customer or the job just totally blows.

But even if it blows, it sure was nice that someone was thinking of you – enough to bring you business. So what percent of your business is that, anyway? Even for me, word-of-mouth marketing is the greatest thing ever.

So, is there a way we can get more referrals from our friends, family and clients? There is indeed.

This week I was able to meet with 3 different groups for lunch. It was a pretty good week for me because I think I took more notes than I gave. I love learning new, cool stuff.In no particular order, we talked about these things:

PixelPipe, Onlywire, and  TubeMogul are syndication websites. That means they’ll send your content out to lots of other websites. TubeMogul will send your videos to YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion and a bunch of others all at once. PixelPipe does photos, Onlywire bookmarks things.

Setting these sites up is a bit of pain. In order for TubeMogul to upload your video to YouTube, you have to a YouTube account. That goes for all the other sites as well. This is the kind of task a VA could set up for you. Getting these set up would allow you to send your videos and blog posts out to 150 sites or so with the click of a button.

I recently took some photos of my “geek-tech” friends at TEDx Nashville. Once I got home I was trying to figure out where to post these photos.

Should I post them on the TEDx Facebook Page, what about my neighborhood “Nashville Geek Breakfast” page? My Profile?

Well at that moment I noticed that Dave Delaney had posted his photos to Flickr. Shoot! Why didn’t I think of that? Instead of the same ole – same ole, why not use the Flickr account I pay for annually?

So that started me on a week of “introspection”. What else am I already doing that I’m not really thinking too much about? Where can I move my audience, give them something interesting to see and do. So here’s a list of new ways to interact with your audience: I already know this places look “normal”, but take a second look – are you really USING THEM?