I normally would NEVER write a testimonial to any business on my blog . . .

And, it’s beyond comprehension that it would be to praise an INSURANCE company????

Here’s why . . .

There’s a lesson here from a big-ass company that all us little businesses can actually learn from.

The company is Geico – hence the headline about the lizard . . .

Here’s what happened . . .

After a totally frustrating day, being totally stymied with technological glitches and further confirmation of my lack of technological skills . . .

It was 9 PM and I decided to try to get the “renter’s” insurance I’m supposed to have after hearing my ex, Jeanette, tell me about how her daughter’s dog sitter stole all her valuables and jewelry . . .

Since I have my car insurance with Geico, I figured I’d start with them . . .

As expected, the web site led me into the dark morass of insurance . . .

Since the site didn’t answer my questions – how could it? – I clicked on “contact us”!

Of course, my computer, a Mac, tried to open up Microsoft Outlook to let me send them an email.

Of course, that didn’t work, so I went through the usual 5 steps to stop Microsoft from taking over my computer . . .

The questionnaire wanted to know what my building was made of – no idea – what kind of heat I had – again, no idea.   I was totally prepared for another typical insurance./banking experience . . .

But then, the system gave me a phone number – answered from 7 AM – 1 AM????  18 hours/day?

I couldn’t believe it, so, even though it was 9 PM at night, I called the number on the East Coast . . .

A nice guy actually answered the phone after I went through a totally reasonable automated menu asking me what type of insurance I wanted or whether I was filing a claim . . .

After getting my name, he already knew my address and the fact that I had an auto policy with them . . .

We talked – he actually asked me what I wanted???? – and I told him my story and he listened????

What’s happening here – a big company listening to me  . . .

It can’t be . . .

I told him I had no idea what my building was made of – brick, block, alien materials, or what.  He said – no problem – he looked it up in his database – powered by Google I’m sure – and he told me more about my building than I knew . . . He saw that I was in a 4 story building on a golf course . . .

I made the mistake – I thought – of telling him I had a business in my home – online, of course.

That created another batch of questions and I also told him I was certifiably old and asked for any AARP discounts, he laughed and said he’d check.

He also had questions about how much I made and I pitched him on joining my business – which he said I could send him info on separately . . .  No idea if he’s really interested, but it doesn’t really matter – he listened to me and responded accordingly!!!

Then, he asked me to hold and then he checked a bunch of affiliated insurance companies and came back with a price . . .

30% lower than any I’d been quoted before – $40K of renter’s insurance for $10/month . . .

Absolutely amazing!

Who can say they’ve had an enjoyable conversation with an insurance agent selling them insurance.  In my entire life, I’ve never had that happen – and, as I said, I’m old!

Warren Buffet owns Geico – the dude knows what he’s doing – and it passes all the way down to the customer – kudos to Geico and kudos to Warren Buffet.

So, long story, not so short, there’s a lesson here for all of us.

Customer service is king.

Do a good job of that and after someone gives you money, they will tell their friends about it!  Just like I’m doing here.  What’s it worth to you for a customer to spend an hour or more posting unsolicited positive info about your company online?

Do you want people doing that about your business?

Well, be good at what you do and make sure you stay good at what you do, and it will happen . . .

I have systems for local business to do just that without a billion dollar budget.  Contact me and I’ll help you to do it.

To Your Success,

Joe
720-890-8760

Profitable Marketing Systems, LLC
690 S Alton Way # 4C
Denver, CO 80247
joemcvoy@gmail.com

I just learned a cool new Facebook marketing tip I’d like to share with you so you can do it too.

I’ve always thought social media was for people to have fun watching funny cat videos or telling their friends what they had for dinner, but, who cares?

Could anyone actually use these social media platforms to make any money and to really help their traditional brick & mortar business?

Well, guess what, you can!

Here’s how.

I had heard that getting Facebook “likes” was a good thing, but had never heard how that makes you any money.

You can run Facebook ads “boosting” a post, to get “engagement”, to get “views” of a video you post on Facebook, or to get “likes”.

I’ve known people spending a bunch of money to get “likes”, but now I found out from an Internet marketer named Mike Hobbs a cool Facebook marketing tip that most of these people are missing the boat.

Here’s why.

If you run a “like” campaign, aside from getting a “like”, you can also automatically redirect people to a landing page to sell them something!  You get a “like” and also get a visitor to your landing page – right on Facebook.

My impecable timing being as it is, I learned about this only after spending $100 on Facebook to get likes.

So, why did I want “likes”/fans in the first place?

. . . because, your business page/fan page needs a minimum of 100 “likes” before you can use some of facebook’s cool features like “custom audiences”.

I did get over 300 likes for the $100, but after people “liked” my page, that was it – I actually have no idea where they went next . . .

Ideally, it’s best if you send your visitors to a page giving something free in exchange for their contact info and start building a relationship of trust with people.  You can sell them something later.

My rule of thumb is to give people helpful content and only sell stuff one time out of each 7 contacts thereafter.

Because I don’t believe in telling you about a cool thing without showing you how to do it, what follows is an example of how I’ve done this exact thing for a client of mine called Dine-In Delivery.

Dine-In Delivery sells restaurant meal delivery business opportunities and I set up a “fan” page – or business page, whatever they are calling them now, on my Facebook account.

(although Facebook limits how many “friends” you can have on your main Facebook page to 5,000, there is no limit on how many “fans” you can have for a business page – which of course, with my total of 6 Facebook “friends”, means I need to plan in advance and create fan pages to let me go above that 5,000 “friends” limit.)

Step 1

The first thing you need to do is to create the page you want to show up in Facebook.

You will want to create it and set up a “tab” on your Facebook to prioritize the order of it’s appearance so it’s not under the “more” area.  I used a program called ClickFunnels to create the page and it was only one click to make it into a Facebook page with it’s own tab.

Here’s what my Dine-In Delivery Facebook page with the new tab looks like:

The “tab” my new page is under is called “Webinar Training” and can also be reached from my business page by clicking on that tab.

Step 2

If someone “likes” my page from my Facebook ad, they don’t even see that page, they go straight to the landing page itself, which is shown here:

Keep in mind that, when you set up your Facebook ad, you need to go to advanced targeting to tell Facebook where to redirect your visitor and choose the page at the tab you just created.

What I did here was film a 60 second intro video with my iPhone thanking people for liking my page and offering them a free gift – in this case, a seat at my webinar about how to start a restaurant meal delivery business much cheaper than by buying a franchise.

The ClickFunnels program makes this simple page – which is just a video with a button underneath.  You can use other landing page creators like Lead Pages, Optimize Press, or others to do the same thing.

If you have a free report to give away or something that is a PDF file, you can have the button take people to an intermediary page asking for their email so you get them on your list and then take them to the PDF to read online, print, or download.

I do exactly that at another business page where I offer consulting services and give away the process by which I help clients.  See how that works here:  That page is here.

As I’m writing this, I realize that setting this up is more complicated than I thought before starting this post – in fact – I hired someone else to do this myself – I have no clue how to do the tech stuff!  although I am learning – my awesome tech guy – Danny, is in the UK and is teaching me the “how to” as he does it for me . . .

Key Point

If you are a business owner reading this, don’t despair – you don’t have to learn how to do this yourself, your job, should you choose to accept it, is to understand the concept and show this post to your web guy or gal to do it for you!

Your real job as a business owner is to figure out what you want to sell and create a free give away or set up a webinar like I did to sell it for you.

Once someone clicks the button under the video, here’s where they go:

Step 3

This is the registration page for my webinar.

I use a tool called StealthSeminars to create a webinar that plays 24/7.  It appears live, but is really recorded in advance and the viewer gets several times to pick from to attend.

Then, they get reminder emails and invites to a replay later after it’s over.

The cool thing is that there is always an upcoming time that is an hour or less from the time the visitor sees this page!

No worries about having to remind people to attend – it’s coming up in just a few minutes – what a nice coincidence . . .

Here’s what a registration page looks like.

I think this entire process is very cool!

The process of the webinar itself, how you set that up, what you say, how you say it and what you do to keep people on until the end where you have a call-to-action is a subject for another post.

My goal with this post is just to show you what’s possible with Facebook used as a lead generator and, if you, like me, are not a tech person, knowing what can be done easily by tech people is very cool.

The key point is that if you set up a funnel and FB page like this, it can work for you for years.  You only have to set it up once.

Contact me if you need help with this Facebook marketing tip or any other marketing issues at 720-890-8760 or by email at joemcvoy@gmail.com

Joe

If you have ever thought about getting into either the food delivery or restaurant business, you might like to hop on this webinar about how to start a restaurant meal delivery business for much less cost than buying a franchise.  Here’s the link:

Register Here

The webinar is about a client of mine, Dine-In Delivery, and how their “license” model allows people to get into the restaurant meal delivery (RDS) business for less than $20K, as compared to the $100K + cost of opening a franchise.

Another huge difference is that franchises charge a royalty on your sales and a national advertising royalty that in this industry add up to 8 – 10% of your sales.

Dine-In Delivery charges no sales royalty or national ad fund.

So, this is one reason I like them as a client!  I’d rather sell something for $20K when my competitors are at $100K + for the same thing and then offer a 0% sales royalty vs an 8 – 10% royalty.

This is all possible by being a license instead of a franchise.

If you have a business you are thinking about franchising, consider using the licensing model instead – much less expensive for you and your customers.  Watch the webinar and give me a call if you’d like to use this model for your own business . . .

or, of course, call if you like the idea of opening a RDS business in your area!

So, you think you are a nerd?

Well, prove it!

Since Bill Gates and Steve Jobs made being a nerd cool since they became billionaires, now you have to prove your nerd credentials . . .

Here’s one test – do you watch the popular show called the “Big Bang Theory”?  If you don’t, you are not a nerd – case closed.

With a title like that, no nerd could resist watching  . . .

So, assuming you have watched the show and relate to the characters – you are a nerd if you try to figure out whether the equations shown in the background on the show that Sheldon is working on are correct or not . . .

You are a really smart nerd if you know . . .

Do Sheldon’s comments about string theory and black holes along with his comments about Stephen Hawking send you to your bookshelf to see if Stephen really said that in one of his books – which, of course, you have and can reference quickly . . .

If you were, or were threatened with, being stuffed in your locker in High School by the football team, you bypass all other criteria and you’re qualified!

. . . especially if you are now over 65 now and still remember it . . .  you may not remember much else, but that incident you still remember even if you forgot what you had for lunch today . . .

Another test – we all know that E=mc2 (c squared – which I can’t find a way to type. . . )

Einstein figured that out in his 20s – along with the mathematical proof – thanks a lot Al for making the rest of us feel stupid . . .

Only a nerd would be bothered by the fact he cannot remember what the units are for this equation and what it really means . . .

So . . . you knew this was coming . . .

I decided to find out.

As a frustrated physics major in college who had to switch majors because the math was too hard . . .

We had an architecture  department that had “life drawing” classes you could get credit for attending.  “life drawing” was, in my humble 18 year old opinion, a class where you got to look at and attempt to draw, naked women!

I had found my calling.

I sucked at drawing, but loved the class – don’t remember if I actually did drawings of any of the models – the time went so fast . . .

So, back to E = mc squared . . .

– E stands for energy – measured in Joules – named by complete coincidence for a guy named Joules who figured a way to measure energy.  For the rest of us, 1 Joule is approximately the amount of energy it takes to lift an apple 1 meter.  (do NOT ask me what kind of apple . . .) Also, I mean the fruit, not the computer . . .

– the “m” stands for mass – measured in kilograms – with which anyone buying any kind of drug knows as a “kilo” . . . (2.2 pounds)

– the “c” stands for the speed of light – 186,000 miles per second – or damn fast . . . or “Warp 1” in Star Trek terminology . . .

To put this all in a perspective we all know – 1 Joule per second in energy = 1 watt.  Also amazingly coincidently named after a guy named Watt – who figured this out . . .

So 100 Joules of energy would power a 100 watt light bulb for one second.

So, working out the details of Einstein’s equation shows that energy and mass are equivalent to each other and that if you turn mass into energy, you get a big explosion.  The “Big Bang” refers to the formation of the universe – which was a really big explosion, so let’s reduce it down to something we can visualize . . .

One gram is 1/1,000 of a kilo, so Einstein’s equation when calculated out – as any nerd would do – comes out to mean that if you could convert one gram of matter into pure energy, it would power a 100 watt light bulb for 28,500 years!

Since there are 454 grams in a pound,  one pound equals enough energy to light a 100 watt bulb for 13 million years!

so, this is the mathematical proof, from Einstein no less, as to why it’s so hard to lose weight . . .

Granted this was written a couple years ago but is just as valid as it was in 2012

Chris Record has just launched his latest course called Dark Post Profits 2.0 today.

This course is all about how to do marketing on Facebook.  His product has three main sections:

Video Tutorials – these show you how to actually do everything you need to know to make money on Facebook.  This includes over 100 training videos, but not to worry, you don’t need them all.  Just focus on the strategies you want to follow and watch those.

Actual Facebook Ads – these are actual ads showing you how well they work and how many likes, comments and shares each ad has.  You can then click on the ad and see their entire ad, headline, copy, link and even their actual sales funnel and content. Everything you need to re-engineer an ad for yourself.  The database of thousands of ads is growing daily and lets you search deny niche or industry, not just Internet marketing.  Want to see how realtors are selling houses on Facebook, just search for “real estate”.

Comment Management Software – also included is software to help you manage comments for an unlimited number of fan pages or ads.  You can easily find and eliminate negative comments and because Facebook itself has approved the API interface, this software will save you many hours of time.

Have you heard the term “retargeting”?

Do you know what that means?  It’s the # 1 technique people will be using in 2015 to sell and promote online.

Chris shows you how to do it in this course, but not only on Facebook, but also on Google and other content networks.

Here’s why retargeting is so cool.  What you are doing is putting cookies on your visitor’s computers so that if they didn’t buy what you are selling or opt in for your offer, you are building a list of these people.  That’s right – the people who came to your site and did NOT buy or opt in!

Then you show them your ads as they go to other web sites!  I’m sure you have seen this in action – if you search for something online, all of a sudden, you start seeing ads all over the place for that very thing.  That’s retargeting.  And it’s extremely cheap too!  It only costs fractions of a cent to have your ads show up on CNN or other major web sites.

You can watch the video from Chris here.  I highly recommend this course and am getting it myself too.

To check out my Facebook page, click here