BrightCite

Service companies like health clubs (who provide ongoing memberships) and interior plantscapers (who sell weekly maintenance) are faced with a sales situation that can make or break their businesses. How to structure contract

Long term contracts provide predictable cash flow, insulate clients from competition and reduce client churn. However, they can be harder to sell and renew because the client faces more risk from the transaction. The secret weapon for selling long term contracts - a strong money-back guarantee to reduce client risk.

Month-to-month contracts (or no contract) provides less initial sales resistance and better conversion rates. But, attrition has a greater impact on cash flow and clients can be lured away by cost cutting competitors.

Selling Less To Sell More
More and more businesses have been migrating their contract service models to month-to-month. Why? Because consumers are demanding that service companies share the dis-satisfaction risk. It provides the customer with extra value in the transaction without a written or formal guarantee. Companies are understanding that value and turning it to their advantage. Here’s an example from the health club industry via The Houston Chronicle:

“Why are Life Time and Town Sports succeeding when Bally has stumbled? One key difference is in membership structure.

In an interview, Simkins said Bally was highly leveraged to member financing under its original structure, which required that customers commit to long-term memberships at lower rates.

Analysts prefer the Town Sports and Life Time models, which are primarily month-to-month and target a higher income clientele with more expensive fees.

A Bally spokesman said the company began offering month-to-month memberships in 2004, to provide customers with more choice.

One downside to a month-to-month structure, however, is it gives customers an easy out if the fee becomes too burdensome. Analysts said the industry has been generally resistant to recession, but acknowledge that an economic downturn could cause customers to turn in their gym memberships for jogs in the park.

CIBC World Markets analyst Vivian Ma, who gave Life Time a “Sector Outperformer” rating noted, however, that the industry has experienced steady growth since 1987 and showed no significant slowing during two recessions. Life Time outperformed the industry during the most recent downturn in 2001 and 2002, she adds.

As for Town Sports, Simkins said the company is tied to New York City’s economic health, and noted that unemployment in the city is relatively low. About 70 percent of Town Sports’ store base is located in the New York City metro region.”

How is your business selling it’s services? How could your business be selling it’s services? That may be the most important question of all.

By: Curt Conrad
President, BrightCite Inc.

Warning.  Slight rant below…

Is Your Business Web Friendly?

Is your small business prepared for the arrival of the virtual marketplace?  For years I’ve been telling all who would listen how strategic use of the web is a critical small business asset.  I’ve been met with many glazed eyes and blank stares from small business people who just don’t get it. 

Too bad - because the clock is ticking for the small business person who is web-illiterate and who still thinks about and uses a website as only an online brochure. 

It’s going to be a rough road ahead for small businesses not actively seeking to build online assets and who lack a basic understanding of how business works on the web.

On the flip side, proactive small business owners who see the Internet as an opportunity for a business building investment will be rewarded with an exceptional rate of return on time, money and resources. 

Are you actively educating, positioning and preparing yourself and business to profit from the power of the Internet?  Where do you stand?

Quick Audit
Answering yes to the questions below indicates you are positioning yourself to build online assets that will serve you and your business well in the years ahead:

1. You have a dedicated domain name for your website and e-mail (www.yourbusiness.comyourbusiness.com) skills.
2. You have a strategic plan for your website that ends with tangible results.  These results are based on visitors taking specific actions like calling, e-mailing, registering and downloading information from you.
3. You see  analytics information at least weekly, that tracks how many people visited your site, what they clicked on and how they found you.  You use this information to improve the strategic results of your website over time.
4. You understand the basics of Search Engine Optimization and have identified the keywords potential customers are likely to type into a search engine to find you.
5. You understand what a blog is and how it works for business (just as you understand the news media and PR).  You have left a comment on a blog.
6. You have a basic understanding of what RSS is and have used a feed reader before.  You know how it’s used to subscribe to and organize video, audio, blogs and other web content.
7. You have visited MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr and SecondLife to familiarize yourself with social networking, Web 2.0 and network effects that govern an emerging virtual marketplace.
8. You know what a Podcast is and have listened to one.
9. You know what a widget is.
10. You have given thought to how the web is changing the rules of your business and assessed how it complements your business strengths and exploits your weaknesses.  You are actively exploring the online opportunities and threats to your business.

The more questions you answered "no" to, the less prepared you are for the rapidly approaching future.  On the other hand - there has never been a better time to start increasing your online business knowledge and skills. 

By: Curt Conrad
President, BrightCite Inc.

Ideas, Vendors, Opportunities, Hiring…  Small business is filled with decisions large and small.  We make most of those decisions by comparing pro’s and cons, risks and rewards, plus numerous other variables to determine the best. 

It’s really about  competition - survival of the fittest.  Our options compete and what we feel is the best solution wins the decision and survives.

A Powerful Business Tool For Making Decisions
There is a simple, powerful tool that distills logic, weeds out the weak options and narrows a field of contenders to a best choice.  

It allows you to harness the collective intelligence of others on your behalf.  And you are probably familiar with this powerful tool and it’s elegant, simple solution - The Bracket.

Sure you’ve seen them used to measure the results and winners of sporting events and college basketball.  But have you applied their power to your business?

Slate - offers an interesting application of brackets based on what authors Mark Reiter and Richard Sandomir call Braketology the title of their book.  According to the Slate essay:

Bracketology—the practice of parsing people, places, and things into discrete one-on-one matchups to determine which of the two is superior or preferable—works because it is simple. It is a system that helps us make clearer and cleaner decisions about what is good, better, best in our world. What could be simpler than breaking down a choice into either/or, black or white, this one or that one?

Apply The Power For Yourself
Let’s say you are looking for a new Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for your business.  You write down numerous tag-line ideas, looking for the ultimate slogan.  You arrange your list in brackets and have potential slogans compete with each other.  Round after round you narrow the group, harnessing the collective brainpower of your company and customers, who choose their favorites.  Ultimately, one tag-line is left standing - the best decision has been made.

See It In Action
Slate has set up Ad Slogans bracket competition to determine the best slogans of all time.  Check it out and you’ll not only get some great marketing inspiration for your company - you might just discover a way to solve that business problem that’s been holding you back.

May the best solution win!

By: Curt Conrad
President, BrightCite Inc.

In my last post I discussed how adoption of feed readers are turning RSS into an up and coming online advertising channel.  The channel is relatively new and inexpensive, not to mention uncrowded.  This is a great time to get in on the ground floor and get ahead of the pack.

Here’s some info on how RSS is being integrated into online ads:

From the post: Turn Ads Into Content & They Work Better:

"In late September, several marketers — including Symantec — rolled out ad units that pulled content into ad banners straight from RSS feeds of those advertisers’ corporate blogs. I just reviewed click-through data for Symantec’s first twenty days, and the early data suggest that RSS-powered deliver better performance, both in terms of click-through rates and engagement.

Normal ads (whether they’re video ads on TV, banner ads on the web or billboards along the freeway) experience “creative fatigue” over time. Creative fatigue means, in essence, our eyes get bored with the same creative after we’ve seen it too often, and we stop noticing it altogether. If you plot the performance of a single creative execution over time, with time passing left to right along the x-axis, it’s a sad, downward slope almost every time. This is why advertisers “refresh” their creative frequently."

Blog.memeorandum.com expalins the RSS sponsorship model being used by Techmeme (A news and blog aggregator website).

"The way it works is simple. A sponsor’s blog feed is polled every few minutes, the latest post of which appears in its assigned slot (first, second, or third).

Advantages of this approach over banner advertising are numerous. "Click-throughs" can lead to the visitor browsing, commenting on, and even subscribing to the sponsor’s blog. And a sponsor has direct control over what appears on Techmeme simply by posting."

Here’s how they’re doing it. (Notice the sponsored posts on the right coming from the advertisers Blog Via RSS feed)

This is an exceptional ad model because it hits the intersection of Consumer and Advertiser value.  The consumer can self-select meaningful content that stays relevant because it’s constantly updated.  The advertiser’s product and services then become next in line for the consumers attention.  Even if no transaction takes place, a consumer clicking through to the advertisers blog can set off a chain reaction of back end marketing value through list building,consumer comment feedback, community development, analytic analysis, inbound links, social networking and SEO impact. 

We’ll keep our eyes on this as it evolves.  But there is no doubt RSS has and will continue to develop into a powerful online marketing and advertising tool for small businesses. We’re working on integrating a similar model in our upcoming Xtenda™ release.  Stay tuned…

Many people are familiar with pay-per-click advertising models.  However, the popularity of the channel has driven prices for good keywords through the roof.  Click fraud continues to be a problem as well.  Small business marketers would do well to understand the next up and coming marketing channel - advertising on RSS feeds.

Essentially, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds allow people to subscribe to specific content.  That subscription is realized through a feed reader that is automatically updated each time new content is posted.  Below is an example of Google Readers RSS Reader - I’ve also included their description of the free product:

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Keep track of your favorite websites

Stay up to date
Google Reader constantly checks your favorite news sites and blogs for new content. Whether a site updates daily or monthly, you can be sure that you won’t miss a thing.

Simplify your reading experience
Google Reader shows you all your favorite sites in one convenient place. It’s like your inbox, for the web.

Discover new content
Millions of sites publish feeds with their latest updates, and our built in feed search makes it easy to find new content that interests you.

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What This Means For You
RSS feed readers allows readers to build their own newspapers or magazines from only the content that matters to them.  Because RSS feeds tend to provide very specific content it holds great promise for putting highly targeted advertising in front of a person at the height of their potential product / service interest.

Several companies are trying to provide RSS feed Pay-Per-Click advertising models as Google and other PPC advertisers have done with search engines.  Two of these companies - Feedburner and Pheedo have also release some stats involving RSS usage and feed reader adoption. 

According to Pheedo:

Here is a chart by FeedBurner showing top feed readers.  If you do not currently use a feed reader I encourage you to try one of the readers from the chart below.  Getting comfortable with using RSS technology is something that will pay off big for you in the future…

By: Curt Conrad
President, BrightCite Inc.

Web design students are often taught the C.R.A.P. acronym as a way to remember the key fundamentals of great design.  They are as follows:

• Contrast
  Elements that aren’t the same should be very different so they stand out.  If they are too similar it confuses the user into seeing a relation that doesn’t exist. Strong contrast between page elements allows the user’s eye to flow from one element to another down the page rather than creating a ocean of similarity that’s monotonous and not communicative.

• Repetition
  Repeat styles down the page to create a cohesive feel.  For consistency, if your style related elements are the same way in one area, continue that trend for all other areas.

• Alignment
  Everything on the page needs to be visually connected to something else.  Nothing should be out of place or distinct from the other design elements.

• Proximity
  Proximity creates related meaning: elements that are related should be grouped together, whereas separate design elements should have enough space in between to communicate they are different.

Writing C.R.A.P. Content
The C.R.A.P. guidelines will help you put together a nice looking website - but what about getting and converting qualified leads?  C.R.A.P. to the rescue again.  Your website design becomes more powerful when you connect the C.R.A.P. principles to your content development and online marketing strategy.  Here is how to create C.R.A.P. content that will get you noticed more by search engines and help turn visitors to your website into paying customers:

• Contrast
  Create content that differentiates your products and services from competitors and other alternative solutions.  Create a distinctive Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that captures the essence of your brand.  A good USP answers your potential customer’s question - "Who are you and why should I care?"  Write content that helps readers immediately appreciate your unique value.

• Repetition
  Repeat the benefits your customers receive from doing business with you from several different angles.  Keep reminding them through words, testimonials, captioned pictures, awards, top ten reasons, etc… why you are the best choice for them.  Place call to action links on every page multiple times.  The more you repeat a specific action you want a visitor to take, the more likely they will be to take it.

• Alignment
  Connect your content to meeting the customers needs, eliminating their frustrations and accommodating their preferences.  Make your web content show you "understand" the prospect.  To do this, put yourself in your customer’s shoes and create web content that answers questions before they ask them.  Create clickstreams that segment your customers by how they use your product or service.  When your web content is aligned with the visitor they will feel like your website is reading their mind.

• Proximity
  Make it fast and easy for a customer to take action.  Each page should give them an option to "call, e-mail, download or register".  It’s important to be close by when their impulse to do business with you strikes.  Also, group and suggest your related products and services on each page.  Help the visitor easily transition and see the connections between your different offerings.  Content that guides the reader from one benefit to the next opens doors for you to show them more of what you have to offer.

So for better online business results make sure your web pages are full of C.R.A.P.

Seth Godin makes a great point. 

"The right strategy makes any tactic work better. The right strategy puts less pressure on executing your tactics perfectly.

Here’s the obligatory January skiing analogy: Carving your turns better is a tactic. Choosing the right ski area in the first place is a strategy. Everyone skis better in Utah, it turns out.

If you are tired of hammering your head against the wall, if it feels like you never are good enough, or that you’re working way too hard, it doesn’t mean you’re a loser. It means you’ve got the wrong strategy."

Strategy is hard.  Tactics easy.
If you don’t have a clearly defined web strategy, tactics don’t matter much.  Search Engine Optimization, Linking, Pay Per Click, Blogs, Wikis, Widgets, Social Networking, Tagging, Video, Podcasting, Commenting, RSS feeds and all the other web marketing platforms should each have their own strategy that serves the master strategy behind your web properties.

When your strategy is in place the right tactics can  be recognized.   If you want to build powerful online assets - start with strategy and the right tactics will become clear…

By :Curt Conrad
President, BrightCite Inc.

Words Say.  Pictures Convey.
The words behind the execs in the picture below are vibrant, exciting - preparing us to be wowed.  Is this genuine?  Not from the looks on the faces of those who are selling them.  Sure - this picture may have been taken out of context - before the big show, before the execs needed to be "on".  But if you were about to start what Steve Balmer calls “the biggest product launch in Microsoft’s history" and had a New York Times photographer in front of you snapping photos wouldn’t you be a little more genuinely excited? 

From left, Kevin B. Rollins of Dell, Sean Maloney of Intel, Steven A. Ballmer of Microsoft, Hisatsugu Nonaka of Toshiba, Hector Ruiz of Advanced Micro Devices and Todd Bradley of Hewlett-Packard helped kick off the Vista operating system Monday in New York.

Your Website Is Always On.  Or Is It?
I can’t help but think of this picture as a website.  A website can say the right words, but if you get the sense it doesn’t mean them,  it feels wrong.  The kicker, your website is literally always on, so it better be "always on".

Perception Power
We all know a genuine smile makes a powerful first impression.  It gives us immediate feedback as to how receptive a person is to us.  When someone genuinely smiles at us it’s a universal and non-verbal symbol that communicates - "welcome, I’m glad to see you and am interested in getting to know YOU better".  A genuine smile is personal, validating us and creating instant rapport.  It’s about giving, not taking.  It mysteriously and magnetically attracts us. What an opportunity…

Fake Is Worse Than Frown
On the other hand, a fake smile can be insulting.  It communicates "I’m tolerating you because I have too or I want something from you.  It’s worse than a frown because we are being lied to.  A fake smile makes us feel less than zero.  It’s about taking, not giving.  And that repels us.  What a shame…

What kind of smile does your website have?  Does it welcome, attract, create rapport?  Or does it say one thing but do another?  Remember - you’re always on…

We’re pleased to announce the beta release of our latest portal product  - PlantscaperPortal.com.  Our goal is to provide interior landscapers with an affordable and professional web presence that helps grow their business faster and with less hassle.

• Simplicity - We’ve taken the guesswork out of web development.  You don’t have to spend time and energy managing web developers or trying to understand their proposals.  We help you get up on the web fast and with ease. 

• Ownership - You have and own your company domain name so if you ever decide to take your site somewhere else it’s easy.  Your web address is www.YourDomainName.com  All you do is let us know the name you want and we’ll register and set it up for you.  It’s all included with the set-up fee.

• Brand Building - Help customers realize your value, differentiate yourself from competitors and establish the unique identity of your company.

• Local search Engine Optimization - Your PlantScapePortal site is locally search engine optimized so you attract qualified prospects in your area of service.  Plus our PortalReach™ technology helps you achieve higher search engine ranking for your strategic keywords.

• Professional Online Marketing - We market additional web properties designed to refer business back to plantscapers within the PlantScapePortal network.  Our online marketing pros are constantly adding and optimizing content, adding links and online promotions designed to increase the flow of qualified leads back to your company web property.

• Professional Copy Writing - Your online content is edited by BrightCite online marketing pros to help your company website generate qualified leads and convert them into paying customers.

• Ongoing Fresh Content - Your web site is also plugged into our compelling content generation program that automatically displays new prospect/customer relevant content on an ongoing basis.  This means your customers have a reason to come back to your site often and refer your content to others.

• Site Statistics - See who’s been visiting your site, what keywords they used to find it and how effective your page is at generating leads and converting customers.

• A Cost Effective Web Solution - Professional web development can cost thousands of dollars up front.  Our web lease program lets you have all of the above benefits at a flat monthly fee.   Plus we have multiple packages to suit any budget.

Now You Can Get Professional Web Services At A Fraction Of The Cost
With a PlantScapePortal website you get more for less.  Companies spend thousands on just  online marketing and ongoing search engine optimization services.   Think of your PlantScapePortal web site as a "marketing mutual fund".  You invest a small monthly fee and get the benefit of professional management.

PlantScapePortal Beta Program
For a limited time PlantScapePortal will be in premium beta release phase.  This means we’ll be testing our systems, working out kinks and adding new features over the next 3 months.  Plantscapers who set up accounts with us during this time will receive deep discounts, free functionality upgrades, personal support and additional functionality that won’t be available once our beta phase is over.

If you’re interested in the opportunity to build your company’s online assets, we invite you to apply for a beta account today.

 

BrightCite Inc. President, Curt Conrad will be speaking at the Tropical Plant Industry Exhibition on January 18th, 2007.  During his short course the hundreds of interior plantscapers in attendance will learn how to use the web more effectively to grow their businesses.

Mr. Conrad will address increasing qualified leads and converting them into customers through effective web design, navigation, persuasive content, search engine optimization and analytics assessment.

The presentation will be posted on BrightCite.com after the session.