Ding-Dong, Stranger Calling
- WEALTHY: Investment advice from Ralph Waldo Emerson (Rick Pendergraft]
- HEALTHY: Pair up to pare down (Jon Herring)
- WISE: George Simmel on our complex connection to strangers
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- 7 ways to build profitable relationships with your customers (David Cross)
- Non-incentive pay? (Michael Masterson)
- Add "plaudit" to your vocabulary
The Only Three Ways to Grow a Business
Did you know that there are only three ways to grow a business?
- Increase the number of customers.
- Increase the average transaction value.
- Increase the frequency of repurchase.
Find a way to maximize each one, and your business will experience an
astonishing rate of growth.
In his "9 Pillars of Business Growth" program, acclaimed consultant Jay Abraham outlines hundreds of proven, frequently unrecognized, and almost totally underutilized ways to grow these three key areas of your business. If you own a business (or would like to), be sure to take a look at Jay’s program.
- Patrick Coffey
Succeeding With Enthusiasm!
By Rick Pendergraft
Having enthusiasm for what you do is a must, no matter what your vocation (or avocation) may be … at least, if you want to be successful at it.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." And that applies to trading as well as just about everything else I can think of.
To be a truly successful trader, you have to be enthusiastic about it. That means doing your homework (which doesn’t seem much like work when you love what you’re doing). Regularly going through your charts. Poring over economic news as soon as it’s released. Studying your indicators.
There are 21 ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) that I watch each and every day, looking at their charts and their sentiment indicators. You could probably take away the names on those charts and I would still know which ETF was which just by the patterns.
I’m convinced that my zeal for trading is the number one reason I’ve been so successful at it.
So if you aren’t completely over the moon about tracking your investments, pay attention to Emerson’s famous words … and let someone else take care of it for you. Then spend your time pursuing whatever it is that you are most enthusiastic about, regardless of what that may be.
[Ed. Note: Find out how Rick Pendergraft can help you make money - no matter what the market’s doing - as the editor of ETR’s new investment service, the ETF Options Trader.]
"The stranger is close to us, insofar as we feel between him and ourselves common features of a national, social, occupational, or generally human, nature. He is far from us, insofar as these common features extend beyond him or us, and connect us only because they connect a great many people."
George Simmel
Kicking Off the New Year With ETR: Ding-Dong, Stranger Calling
By David Cross
Dong! 1970. Dong! As the resonant peals of Big Ben welcomed in the New Year, my sister and I felt quite important being allowed to stay up past midnight. We had fizzy pop in our glasses, potato chips in our laps, and enough chocolates left on the tree to increase our level of excitement even further.
Dong! Dong! Ding-dong! Another bell rang out … our doorbell. Ice clung to the inside of the window as we pressed our warm noses against the glass to see the dark-haired figure standing on the stoop. Our old front door creaked open, letting in a blast of bitter-cold air and the sound of a distant, drunken chorus of Auld Lang Syne.
"Happy New Year!"
"Oh, come in out of the cold, Love. You must be freezing!" my mum exclaimed. The door clicked shut, and we heard two sets of footsteps walking up the hallway.
"Dad!" We ran over to hug him. He handed us each some nuts, a silvery sixpence, and a piece of shiny black coal.
"Food to fill your tummies, money for your piggy bank, and fuel to warm our home! May your New Year be prosperous and happy!"
My dad kissed us all, and then headed off again into the frigid night air, with a canvas bag over his shoulder and a spring in his stride.
It’s a very old tradition in England for a dark-haired stranger to welcome the New Year into your home and bring you good luck by giving gifts of money, food, and fuel. My dad, as the only person in our neighborhood with jet-black hair ("and quite dashing, when he was in the Navy!" my mum always reminded us) took on that role of the local "dark-haired stranger" - and our house was always his first stop.
Every year, the same ritual. A stranger (who wasn’t really a stranger) being welcomed into our home to bring us good fortune. And every year, just as magical. A perfect, treasured memory … one of many.
Throughout the year, it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day activities of living and forget the magical moments that bring us joy, warm our hearts, and cement our relationships. But in this simple New Year’s ritual lies a clue to the best way to markedly improve your online business in 2007. And it is this:
Develop a relationship with your online customers and readers that makes them see you as a "welcome stranger" - one they can depend on to fulfill their needs.
In your personal life, your most important relationships are with family and friends. In your business, they’re with your customers, every individual one of them. Every communication, every "touch" with every customer, is precious - and it behooves you to develop those relationships by finding ways to make your communications with them as personal as possible.
As direct-mail professionals have known for years, people don’t buy the item you’re selling. People sign up for your e-mail newsletter or buy your product based on your promise - expressed or implied - of what you can do for them. Personally. Fulfill that expectation and build a long-term, profitable relationship. Fail, and you’ve just lost a customer.
So, your challenge as an online marketer is not only to make your communications with your customers and/or subscribers personal and timely and relevant, but also to learn how you can deliver what they want and need from you.
How will you do that? How will you turn yourself into a "welcome stranger"?
Here are some ideas to get you started …
- When someone signs up for your e-mail newsletter, start their subscription with an introductory series of three or four e-mails that are separate from their subscription. This series of e-mails should introduce the content, writers, and topics you typically talk about in the newsletter.
A newsletter is a conversation. Welcome each new subscriber to that conversation so they feel comfortable with what’s going on.
- Depending on where a subscriber/customer signed up to receive your e-mail messages, they should receive a different series of introductory e-mails. For example, if your newsletter is about investing and a subscriber signed up to receive it on a page about high-tech stocks, they’re probably a different kind of investor than a subscriber who signed up on a page about safe, long-term investments in gold.
Make sure the content of at least the first e-mail in your introductory series matches the broad topic the new subscriber was reading about when they chose to sign up for your newsletter.
- Keep tabs on your active customers/e-mail openers/link-clickers. Behavior leads to similar types of behavior. Action leads to similar types of action. It is more likely that a customer/subscriber who did something recently will do that same something in the near future.
Marketers call this recency - and what it means to you is that you’ve got a much better chance of getting these active customers/readers to take other similar actions than your more dormant customers/readers. So segment them out and figure out ways to get them to buy … or buy more … or look at new content … or sign up for a new e-letter or free report.
- Your customer service team hears firsthand from your customers/readers about what they think of your products and services. Listen to them and learn. Their insights about your customers/readers can help you understand how to adapt to and capitalize on their needs.
- When shopping online, be an observer as well as a customer. If an online store does something really well - especially if they get you to buy more than you planned - think about how they did it. Adapt their techniques to your own online business.
- Test different communication methods. Telephone, print, text messaging, teleconferencing, e- mail, and good old snail mail … they are all channels through which you can communicate with your customers/readers. Try segmenting your most active customers/readers and telephone some, write some a print letter, and so on. See what works best.
I’ve seen great results recently when people who started but did not complete checkout at an online store were phoned or snail-mailed within 24 hours. (See ETR #1848 to find out how some of the companies I work with successfully used this approach.)
- Finally, remember that every relationship needs nurturing. Attached to the other end of that postal or e-mail address is a real, live, breathing, feeling, sentient human being. You don’t always have to try to sell them something when you communicate with them. It really is okay to thank them for doing business with you … to give them some good news … to share some interesting, useful, or helpful information …or just because.
That said, I wish you and your family "Food to fill your tummies, money for your piggy banks, and fuel to warm your home! May the year ahead be prosperous and happy!"
[Ed. Note: David Cross is Senior Internet Consultant to Agora Publishing in Baltimore.]
Jump On Now and Make 300%…
Before Wall Street Discovers the Stealth Market in Uranium
Thirty years ago, the biggest energy giants walked away from millions of acres of land with proven uranium reserves… land that wasn’t worth exploiting when prices hit rock bottom. But one company grabbed the best of that land for as little as $1 an acre.
Now, with the price of uranium skyrocketing, the value of those reserves has increased more than 1,300%… yet you can still purchase this company’s stock for pennies on the dollar.
But you’ve got to jump on this now before Wall Street discovers the stealth bull market in uranium. Once they do, this stock is going to POP. Get the full story here.
A "Friendly" Way to Lose Weight
By Jon Herring
Two months ago, several women who work here at Early to Rise signed up with a gym near our office. Not surprisingly, the main fitness goal they shared was to lose weight. And to achieve that goal, they agreed to visit the gym together on a regular basis. They have upheld that promise, and the results have been terrific.
Had they tried to achieve this goal on their own, they probably wouldn’t have managed to maintain the same level of commitment. Not only has that been my own experience, but numerous studies prove that social support is one of the most important factors in successful weight loss.
In one such study at Brown University School of Medicine, a group of overweight men and women were scheduled to attend group exercise sessions for the purpose of weight loss. They were encouraged to bring as many as three support partners who would also participate.
What the researchers discovered is that the number of support partners each participant had didn’t matter, but the success of those partners mattered a great deal. They found that each test subject’s weight loss after six, 12, and 18 months was closely associated with the weight loss success of their exercise partners. They also found that those with successful partners lost significantly more weight than those with no partners or no successful partners.
So if one of your resolutions for 2007 is to lose weight (isn’t it always?), find a friend or a family member who will join you in making a strong commitment to eat better and exercise. You will both enjoy a greater probability of success. Better yet, add a professional weight loss advisor, personal trainer, or nutritionist to the mix. It will give you even more accountability.
[Ed. Note: If you’re looking to burn fat, build muscle, and quickly step into the body you have always wanted, check out Turbulence Training for Fat Loss, by ETR contributor Craig Ballantyne. Craig has shown millions of Women’s Health and Men’s Health magazine readers how to get more results in less time with resistance and interval training workouts. In only three short but intense workouts per week (that can be done in your own home) he will show you how to dramatically improve your appearance and maximize your health. Click here to learn more.
Notes From Michael Masterson’s Blog: Might As Well Throw the Money Away
Once you’ve given incentive pay to an executive, it’s hard to get it back from him if something goes awry. That is the not-very-startling point of an article by Phred Dvorak and Serena Ng in The Wall Street Journal. Case in point: FPL Group Inc. top executives received $62 million in bonuses linked to an intended merger. When the merger didn’t go through, the company tried to retrieve that money - but, after three years and "millions in legal bills," the company got back only $9 million of it.
Duh.
[Ed. Note: Read the rest of this article on Michael Masterson’s blog.]
- Michael Masterson
Start Making Money Today
Interested in getting a nice little side-business going on the Internet? Or maybe even from your living-room table?
But you don’t have too much money, you don’t have too much time, and you’re not exactly Bill Gates when it comes to technology. Sound familiar?
A lot of people are in the same boat. The good news is that ETR has heard you. And now we’ve done something about it…
We’ve asked our colleague Marc Charles to be on the lookout for profit opportunities that can be run from a kitchen table, your desktop or out on the road.
Criteria? They’ve got to be inexpensive, easy to start, and still have great income potential, but without a lot of red tape.
They say when you’re first getting your feet wet with a side-business, the most important dollar to make is the first one. Well, Marc is an expert at taking beginning entrepreneurs and showing you how to make that first buck. He knows, because he’s done it dozens of times for himself, his family and his friends.
If you’ve been dreaming about starting your own business … now you can get started for about the price of 2 lattes.
And get this - you could be making money literally just hours from now. Imagine the feeling of finally getting a side business launched -TODAY!
- Patrick Coffey
Word to the Wise: Plaudit
"Plaudit" (PLAW-dit) - from the Latin for "applaud" - is an expression of enthusiastic approval or praise.
Example (as used by James T. Fisher in Dr. America): "A large, robust man, he [Dr. Thomas A. Dooley] had earned the plaudits bestowed on him at that testimonial dinner through a lifetime of earnest toil."
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007