This 3 minute video from Jim McCord shows how he was able to get a Fortune 50 CEO to call him. The company was Bank of America, # 23 on Fortune’s list of the biggest companies in the US.
We have helped thousands of businesses get set up with the Send Out Cards system to do this, so if you would like to get influential people to call you, this is an awesome way to make that happen – for only a couple dollars . . .
I used this technique 5 or so years ago to contact the CEO of Kinko’s to propose something to him and I got a response from him as well. But, as Jim mentions in his video, you have to make your message personal and relevant to the recipient.
Sending cookies or brownies definitely helps.
So, who are you trying to reach? Who would you like to get an audience with to sell your products or services? This strategy works and very hardly and money.
Just so you know Jim’s and my examples are not “one-offs”, another guy who uses the same system sells jet planes to billionaires.
He had a dozen or so clients but had never met or talked to the billionaires themselves, only to their agents.
He decided to send thank you cards to each of his customers along with a couple dozen brownies. Guess what happened?
Three of the billionaires called him personally to thank him for the brownies and the card – it was the first time he had ever talked to them personally.
Whether you are wanting to reach a Fortune 50 CEO or just the owner of a local business you would like as a customer, sending cards and gifts definitely works to build relationships and that’s what we all need to be doing these days.
Call me anytime at 303-884-0859 or email me at joemcvoy@gmail.com if you’d like some help doing this kind of marketing in your business.
Here is a collection of places you can buy bitcoin online right now.
Common sense local SEO is what’s needed by most local businesses, not expensive SEO consultants. Many local business owners have no idea what’s involved in ranking well in local search.
It can be very complicated just like regular SEO, but, like anything, there are a few common sense local SEO things you can do that will help a lot without paying large fees to SEO firms. Here they are:
1. Fix your title tags
Especially the title tag on your home page. A common mistake is to have too many keywords and to be written for search engine robots, not people. Keep it to no more than 3 keywords.
2. Make sure your name, address and phone number is on every page of your site.
This makes it easier for humans to find you and search engines like it too.
3. Make sure your contact info is the same and is on all the local directory sites.
This is the one of the biggest causes for poor rankings other than being delisted by Google. Sites like mybusinesslistingmanager.com or expressupdate.com can help.
4. Make sure to have reviews and have a plan for getting more.
Since Google has made it much easier for people to post reviews so you need to be asking your customers, clients and patients for them. customers, clients or patients. The most important place to have reviews is on Google + (we’re talking about Google rankings after all . . .)
5. Have a separate page on your site for each product/service you offer.
This will help you in that some of these pages may rank on their own in addition to your home page.
6. Take the time to make your listings on local directory sites more complete.
These are called “citations” and should include info on all your services, not just your name, address and phone.
7. Be careful of duplicate content or too many links on one page using the same keywords.
If your content does not read well or “flow” for human readers, it will not rank well either.
8. Do not try to “trick” Google!
They are a lot smarter than either of us, so how about focusing on giving your visitors what they were looking for when they searched instead?
Google makes their billions on ads, not search. So, in order to make sure people continue to prefer Google over other search engines (so they can sell more ads), it makes sense that Google pays close attention to how relevant a search is for their users.
Two of the ways they do this you can see for yourself in your Google Analytics data. (you do have Google Analytics on your site, don’t you?)
If someone comes to your site, then promptly leaves and goes to another search result, Google rightly figures that means they didn’t find what they were looking for. They measure this with two metrics, “time on site” and “bounce rate”.
If your “time on site” stat is a couple seconds, Google will figure you need to be ranked lower than another site where someone stays for 5 minutes.
Another sign of “engagement” is “bounce rate”. A high percentage on bounce rate (bad) means people did not click to go to other pages on your site, they just left (“bounced”).
A low percentage on bounce rate (good) means they went from the page where they landed on your site to another page on your site.
If you’d like some help with all this common sense local SEO stuff, give me a call at 720-890-8760 or email joemcvoy@gmail.com and let’s talk.
Although this webinar is talking to photographers, it applies to any kind of local business. It describes a new income source for local businesses.
The system described in the webinar is an automated referral creation system. Any business can use the 10 strategies discussed to grow their business by referral, and make a side income by sharing the automated system with other businesses and individuals.
If you are interested in the service described in the webinar, contact me at joemcvoy@gmail.com or call/text 303-884-0859
You can also go to my page for this system, which is called Send Out Cards, by going to sendoutcards.com/joemcvoy There is a video at the very bottom of the page describing the system and the opportunity.
As mentioned in the webinar you can participate for no cost at all, although you will make more money if you make a small investment.
I’ll pay for the printing and the stamp and you can add your own photos and text. See some examples below – create your own design or use one of our 13,000 stock designs!
Your card gets mailed in an envelope with a first class stamp like this:
Click on the three horizontal lines in the upper right corner of the page. This takes you into my SendOutCards Gift account.
Click on the left box where it says “send a free card”
The card catalog will open and a pop up will offer you an automated walk-through. Click “yes” to be taken step by step through creating and sending your card.
You will be asked to choose a user name and password because the system is setting up a free account for you along the way. You will not be asked for a credit card because I am paying for your card and the stamp.
When you get to the place where it asks for a phone number, do not put in any dashes, just digits
When you get to the shopping cart step, ignore the charges it shows – your card and postage is free – just click “continue”.
I use this system for business and for personal use. In fact, I have a report about 17 different ways to get referrals and many of them can be automated using this system.
I will do a later blog post and email about how to do referral marketing, but you can also request my referral system report and I will email it to you.
If you have any questions or problems sending your card, let me know and I’ll help you.
For many businesses, Google AdWords can be their most productive source of new leads and customers.
But how do you know in advance if it has a chance of working for you or not?
It can be expensive to hire someone to do it for you and you then you have their management fee along with your actual ad spend you pay Google.
Facebook vs Google
Before getting into the details of how you can tell, I want to make sure you understand the different types of online advertising.
Facebook is the hot thing these days, but you need to understand people do not go onto Facebook or social media to look for stuff to buy from you!
They go on it to avoid work, not do work . . .
It is the equivalent of having a billboard on a busy highway. There may be lots of people going by, but that doesn’t mean they are prospects.
Even if you use all of Facebook’s targeting capabilities, you may be putting your billboard on a road only your target people drive down, but they are still not there looking for you.
So, you have to “interrupt” them from doing what they are doing with some sort of enticing offer.
Google is totally different.
In the Google search network – called Google AdWords, you are bidding on key words and phrases so your ad shows up when someone is actually searching for what you have.
Big difference.
Trying to interrupt someone who is trying to avoid work vs being found when someone is actively searching for what you offer.
How Google Search Works
I think this is very interesting. Here’s what happens 3.5 Billion times per day when people do a search on Google.
Their algorithm decides which web sites should show up based on your location and prior search history.
Then they figure out which ad should be on top, which one # 2 and which # 3 at the top of the page and then which order should the ads be on the side of the page.
This is essentially an auction held every time someone does a search – 3.5 Billion times per day!
You place your bids on what you re willing to pay for a click and how much you are willing to spend per day and Google combines your bid with your “Quality Score” to determine where your ad shows up – if at all.
Quality score is essentially how likely someone is to click on your ad. If you have a high quality score, you can actually pay less per click than someone else with a low quality score in the same spot.
Google doesn’t explain it this way, but it’s really just a way for Google to maximize their income.
Say you bid $20/click and 10% of the people who see your ad click on it . . .
and you have a competitor whose ad is not as appealing as yours and they are bidding $40/click. Only 1% of the people who see their ad click on it.
Your ad with the $20 bid will be placed above your competitor who bid $40. Here’s why.
For 100 searches, at 10%, that means 10 people click on your ad making Google $200.
Your competitor bidding $40 only gets 1 click (1% of 100) so Google only makes $40.
Now, it becomes pretty obvious why Google puts your ad on top – $200 is more than $40!
Google goes through all these calculations 3.5 Billion times per day – I think that’s absolutely incredible . . .
Will Google AdWords Work For You?
Here’s how you can get a good idea:
1. What is a customer worth to you?
You may sell a variety of products and services, but whether this will work for you is all about the numbers. What will you have to pay for a click? What percent of those people who do click end up buying?
If you are selling a $29 book, and you have no other products and services to sell that customer, there is no chance.
If you had to pay $10/click, and 1/3 people who clicked, bought, you still lose money.
On the other hand, if you do kitchen remodeling with an average ticket of $50,000, you can pay $100/click and do great.
2. Importance of lifetime customer value
Back to the book example. If you had a high end coaching program people pay $10,000/year for, you might be using the book as a loss leader to get prospects.
So, understanding what a customer is really worth is what you need to consider, not just what the initial sale is for.
3. What does Your Competition Do?
If you are in an industry where all your competitors are advertising, that’s a hint that it might work for you too.
But be careful, in the book example, if you didn’t know someone paying for clicks to sell a $29 book, had a “back-end” $10,000 offer, you could end up losing money.
There are online tools that I use for my clients that show me what people are paying for clicks, what keyword phrases they bid on, and how well their ads are working.
You still have to actually try it and do testing to know for sure.
4. Are you a local business?
Google loves local businesses and advertising locally only is much cheaper than advertising nationally.
Google has many targeting options so you can even do things like only advertise to people within 10 miles of your office.
How To Get Help
I do AdWords campaigns for clients and if you are running Google ads now and they are not working well, or if you want to consider doing ads, get in touch.
I will do a free AdWords audit of any existing campaigns or help you set up a totally new campaign.
Call me at 720-890-8760 or email joemcvoy@gmail.com
