Infusionsoft Automates Small Business Marketing to Avoid Chaos |  |
- Infusionsoft Automates Small Business Marketing to Avoid Chaos
- Optimizing Your Website: Ten Powerful SEO Tools
- Selling to The Bottom of the Pyramid
- Leadership Lessons Learned From Reality Television
- Marissa Mayer Spends First Week at Yahoo!
| Infusionsoft Automates Small Business Marketing to Avoid Chaos Posted: 26 Jul 2012 01:00 PM PDT Small business owners often have trouble piecing it all together. From daily marketing efforts to sales, there’s often a lot of disjointedness in terms of seeing how everything works together as part of a business strategy. To refer to the E-Myth book by Michael Gerber, most of us are too busy working in our businesses to work on them. We simply don’t know how to get the eagle eye view of our business from a strategy standpoint, and to plan where we want to take the business in the future. Infusionsoft gets that. The all-in-one sales and marketing platform recognizes that small businesses often don’t have the resources to integrate processes to show them how they connect. And that means, for most, missed opportunity. CEO and Co-founder, Clate Mask, says:
Clate says that many small businesses attempt to improve their sales and marketing processes by piecing together a variety of point solutions, but that doesn’t fix the disjointedness. Unlike big businesses, he says, small businesses don't have the internal IT resources it takes to integrate all these points solutions, so their sales and marketing processes are never fully connected, leading to lost sales and wasted time. Filling a Niche Customer Relationship Management software is beginning to connect the dots for small businesses, and it’s rapidly evolving. CRM has changed from being, as Director of Product Marketing, Rebecca Sprynczynatyk, says:
It’s that intelligence that helps business owners get the big picture. With Infusionsoft’s platform, for example, a customer can capture data about leads and customers, including where the lead came from, how long they spent on the company’s website, what they’re doing on social media and how they make purchases. Sales, too, are tracked, providing valuable data for small businesses.
What does this data mean for small biz? It provides ample information about what’s working and what’s not, which helps a business better target its efforts and find more opportunities for growth. Says Sprynczynatyk:
How Infusionsoft Connects to Small Business Infusionsoft’s primary focus is on the small biz customer. In fact, the company has more than 9,800 small business clients representing 35,000 users in 62 countries. But simply providing CRM solutions isn’t all the brand does to connect. Each year, the company hosts InfusionCon in Phoenix, where 1,500 small business owners meet for three days to get valuable tips and tools from the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Brogan and Pam Slim. Infusionsoft recently launched its Marketplace, which connects business owners to apps, consultants and other businesses that can help them grow. And its acquisition of CustomerHub – a membership site creator — in the fall of 2011, further embedded Infusionsoft into the small business world.
The company recently announced its “Battle of the Apps” contest, encouraging developers to create apps and plugins that enhance an Infusionsoft user’s experience. The pot for winners – $20,000. The company participates in other small business events, including the Small Business Influencer Awards (they’re a sponsor), the GROWCO and Inc. 500/5000 conferences and the Arizona Entrepreneurship Conference. Infusionsoft also travels the country and to London every year educating small businesses on how to be better marketers during its 2012 Small Business Success Tour. The Future of CRM, According to Infusionsoft Technology accelerates small business tools, and it’s no surprise Infusionsoft frequently comes out with new releases that include useful features for businesses. The company says it’s working on its lead scoring capabilities to make it even easier for sales teams to find qualified leads based on their behaviors. This should, I expect, help cut down on chasing the wrong leads and focusing on leads that have higher scores in terms of behaviors that are more likely to turn into sales. Infusionsoft is one of the key brands showing their support of small businesses by sponsoring the Small Business Influencer Awards. From Small Business Trends |
| Optimizing Your Website: Ten Powerful SEO Tools Posted: 26 Jul 2012 11:00 AM PDT Optimizing your website is mission critical, but it isn’t a black box. You can do a lot of it yourself with any of these search engine optimization (SEO) tools. If you are a small business owner that has dreamed of showing up on page one of Google or Bing, this post is for you.
To show you a bit of how the professionals optimize, I left the phrase or keywords that they use when titling and organizing their own websites. You’ll see that most of these savvy firms open their website title with what they do and not their company or brand name. I've bolded their company name for emphasis. As usual, the tools listed here are web-based and do not require a phone call to the sales team to "schedule a demo" (transparent pricing) nor do they mail you a software CD: SEO Software. Simplified. | SEOmoz is one of the 800 pound gorillas in the web-based SEO software market. They have a robust (serious understatement) community and blog. They provide many free tools in addition to their paid plans starting at $99/month with a 30-day free trial. Open Site Explorer lets you check which domains are linking to your site and their corresponding authority. It offers a few results as a free tool, but most of the power comes with the paid plan. Their MOZbar is a free add-on for Firefox and Chrome to quickly see page level details like how content is organized (keywords, titles, etc) and ranking details. SEO Book.com ~ SEO Training Made Easy positions itself as an SEO training program, but it is rich with useful tools that come with your membership. Founder Aaron Wall is one of the anchor experts in the professional SEO community and shares a lot of insights and expertise. He also authored one of the most successful DIY SEO ebooks that has sold over $1,000,000 in volume. When you become a member of SEO Book, you get access to Aaron and his team of experts. They have many free SEO tools, as well. Internet Marketing Tools for SEO and Social Media | Raven simply has a cool brand name and you have to check out a company that aligns its positive image a bringer of light, truth, and goodness. I used this service for a few months on a client project and was super impressed with how it helped me figure out keywords to focus on and cut down on my research time. Interestingly, their research assistant tool taps into SEOMoz and Majestic SEO applications. Plans start at $99/month with a free 30-day trial, no credit card required. Simple SEO Software – Scribe is from Brian Clark of Copyblogger fame. If you haven't seen his blog and the tools/services that his company provides, then you'll want to head over there today. Brian and his team know how to keep things elegantly simple for small business owners. Here's how Scribe explains the first three steps:
Scribe plans start at $17/month with a 30-day money back guarantee. Copyblogger Media is also the creator of StudioPress, a premium WordPress theme and framework product that I'm going to review soon. Majestic SEO : Site Explorer is one of the largest link indices that is publicly available. You can test it out immediately by simply typing a web address into the search bar on their home page, but you need to register for a free account to see much detail. Paid plans start at $49.99 per month. BruceClay – SEO Tools – Search Engine Optimization Tools, SEO Software is another well-known brand in the SEO, PPC (pay-per-click) and Internet marketing circles. They appear to be more consulting and service focused and less a web-based software provider, but I did discover this monthly option under SEO tools on their site starting at $29.95/month per domain with 30-day money back guarantee. SEO Software | SEO Tools | SheerSEO is free for two months, and then light plan starts at only $7/month. Their first page of content spells out why a small business owner will want to use an SEO tool. "Research shows that 60-70% of the users of search engines will only use the results in the first page. This means that getting to the top 10 results of the search engine is critical for your business." SEO Software for Your Small Business | DIYSEO is unique with its do-it-for-you SEO level plan in addition to its DIY namesake option. Monthly DIY plans start at $33.25/month and $149/month when they do the SEO tasks for you. I was intrigued by their Local Report Card that will analyze your local presence on Google, for free. You have to enter your contact details to get it, though. Fair enough. SEMRush – service for competitors research, shows organic and Ads keywords for any site or domain immediately highlights why many small business owners pay for tools like SEMRush – you can see what keywords your competitors are using on their posts, buying in pay-per-click, and more. That can help you to better position your own site content. Their paid plans start at $79.95 per month with a 7-day money back guarantee. They are also the makers of the free SEOQuake for Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari which lets you see SEO parameters (ranking, links, and more) when you do a search on Google or Bing or Yahoo. The Keyword Tool for the Long Tail | HitTail is one of the newer (started in 2006) SEO software players on the field, but shaking things up with affordable plans and real-time focus. As each new website referrer (or visitor, if you prefer) comes to your site, it will show on your screen as it occurs. You can click through to view the referring page or, even better, re-create the user’s search. Pretty cool. Plans start at $9.95/month with a 30-day free trial. HitTail Owner Rob Walling is also the author of a popular ebook and email newsletter for software startups at Software by Rob. Here are a few media/blog resources that may also help you to understand search engine optimization and search engine marketing. Here on Small Business Trends, Lisa Barone is our resident expert on the stuff SMBs should think about around SEO (and many other content areas, too). This is a great primer: 4 Ways SMBs Can Get More From Their SEO. Tom Demers also wrote a great piece in May: How to Choose the Right SEO Tactics for Your Small Business. BlogWorld posted on: Link Building: The Best Marketing Strategy You've Never Heard Of. Search Engine Land is one of my favorite sites for keeping up with SEO, search engine marketing, social media marketing, and more. It is worth a bookmark. Last, don't miss this controversial and popular post by my colleague at Forbes, Ken Krogue, who writes: The Death Of SEO: The Rise of Social, PR, And Real Content. From building links to monitoring your keywords, these SEO tools can help your site show up in the search results. You may choose to hire consultants or contractors to help you navigate this space. Buyer beware is the last bit of advice as there are many who treat this specialty like the dark arts and you'll want to be incredibly careful as you consider vendors. But these tools are all about the do-it-yourself mindset and many of them offer the tutorials and education that any small business team can use to become proficient at search engine optimization and marketing. SEO Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| Selling to The Bottom of the Pyramid Posted: 26 Jul 2012 08:00 AM PDT The “bottom of the pyramid” concept is the theory that even the poorest markets in the world can be revenue generating for companies if they tailor their product and packaging to these markets.
This concept was introduced by the Late Professor of the University of Michigan, C. K. Prahlad, in his book The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits. Some well known examples of products that cater to these markets include micro-credit products and selling shampoos in sachets. I am currently visiting India and below are some interesting observations on the concept that I see actually being applied: Mobile phones The cost of ownership of a SIM card is low. I got mine for $.20 cents with talk-time and incoming calls free. No wonder there are over 900 Million mobile users in India. According to a Times of India article, India has 70 subscriptions per 100 people, of which 96% are prepaid, while 53% of households own a mobile phone and India’s price per minute use is the lowest possible at $0.01. Mobile phones have created an opportunity for entrepreneurs to setup dealerships and sell SIM cards by offering competitive discounts. These make the crowds flock to them to get the cards, as is reflected in the picture above. SIM cards are also sold in businesses of different verticals. SMS is used a lot in India, according to the Times of India:
This creates a market for products and marketing techniques using SMS. A unique example is the launch of a service to send a message by SMS to find out if a cheaper generic drug was available for a prescription. Cars The cheapest car in the market is the Tata Nano. According to CarDekho, it costs the equivalent of $3,616. Barriers to car ownership have come down leading to other problems like traffic. On the flipside, this creates an opportunity for entrepreneurs selling auto accessories and service at repair shops. Innovative Consumer Products The case study of Godrej’s refrigerator for rural India, ChotuKool, was designed with the help of women living in villages themselves and won several awards. Social Innovation Drinking water and health are very essential. In November of 2011, NPR had run a story on a successful for-profit organization, HealthPoint, that provides safe drinking water to village folks at $1.5o per month and low cost diagnostic tests and ehealth consultation. Food This may be my own short term experience, but when I left India over 15 years ago, international fast food giants like KFC and McDonalds were costly and beyond the reach of the common man. Judging by the prices today, they are competing not only in price but also in products by having products that are closer to the market they are serving. McDonald’s McAloo Tikki Burger – a vegetarian offering made of potato is a a good example. The take away for small business and entrepreneurs globally from these examples should be: 1.) Think about how local market opportunities can be capitalized on using this concept. Closer to home, in the US, the Virgin Mobile brand of Sprint sells a cellphone plan with unlimited data and text plan with limited minutes for $35 which is very suitable for students 2.) If you are thinking of exporting, consider the market opportunities that exist in both the affluent markets and the bottom of the pyramid. 3.) Be conscious of the strategy of large corporations that may affect your business — for example, the fading away of local book stores due to competition. I miss the independent book stores a lot. The Economist featured a post titled, “The bottom of the pyramid: Businesses are Learning to Serve the Growing Number of Hard-up Americans.” It includes examples of bottom of the pyramid products in the U.S. What have you observed similar to the bottom of the pyramid concept? From Small Business Trends |
| Leadership Lessons Learned From Reality Television Posted: 26 Jul 2012 05:00 AM PDT Before I begin, I'd like to clarify that I understand that we only see what the editors want us to see on reality television shows. My discussion here is based on what we see.
When I watched the Celebrity Apprentice final project, I was struck by the way the project leaders communicated. The competition was strong and the result of winning significant. It was apparent that the leaders were feeling the weight of the responsibility. Whenever they were talking to their team or to the camera the word “I” was most prominent. They had chosen people to be on their teams because they respected those players and trusted them. Yet, Arsenio Hall and Clay Aiken never empowered them or talked about the team. It's as if Arsenio and Clay didn't trust the people they'd selected to complete their tasks autonomously. Unlike real life, the teams were made up of celebrities who had no stake in the outcome other than the feel good from a job well done. Their livelihood didn't depend on the success of the effort. So, they could tolerate being disrespected and even verbally abused. Another example comes from America's Got Talent. The addition of Howard Stern has been an essay in how not to lead. He's the newest member of the judging panel. Sharon Osbourne and Howie Mandel have been on the show for years. Yet, Howard talks about how he is going to have to keep or let go of someone. He talks about “my show. ” It's as if Sharon and Howie aren't even there. He speaks as if he is the sole decision maker for which acts make it to the next round. The fact is that he only has 1 vote out of three. He needs at least one other judge to agree with him in order to get what he wants. These postures happen all the time in business and are, in my opinion, what contributes to dysfunction within organizations. If I asked you whether you'd rather work hard or work smart, I'm imagining you'd say smart. Creating an environment where others want to work with you and help you achieve your goal is working smart. Being self-focused and dictatorial creates a situation where you end up working really hard to achieve your success. People aren't as enthusiastic about working with you if they feel disrespected or discounted. These two stark examples of a lack of leadership actually help us see what TO DO to be an effective leader: 1. Communicate the Goal and How Important the Teammates Are to Achieving it This is something that should be done early and often. When people understand what you want to achieve, why it matters, and how they are a part of that process, they are more likely to work with you. Remember here that it's about the goal – not about you or your needs. When we keep our focus on the goal, we remove our egos and emotions. We are able to keep things objective and professional. 2. Empower Your Team in Decision Making and Taking Action When you hire people or add them to your team, you are doing it because you believe they bring skills and abilities to the table. Let them use them. Don't micromanage; don't order them around; don't keep them on a short leash. You need them thinking and acting enthusiastically. That's how you'll get the most out of them. When people are contributing with the best of their ability, your team is stronger and your odds of success go up dramatically. 3. Seek Input and Ideas From Your Teammates You know the saying, “Two heads are better than one?” It applies to this situation. You don't have to have all the answers. I submit to you that you shouldn't have all the answers. When you get your teammates involved in the ideas you get greater buy-in from them. Let them help you problem solve. They'll be more committed to the outcome and you'll be working smart. Can you see how I've moved away from the leader holding all the cards to the team sharing the load? That is true leadership. When you actively engage your teammates to contribute with their skills and ideas, you make your team stronger. People who are empowered tend to bring energy and results to an organization. The better you are at pulling those forces together, the greater leader you will be. Being a leader doesn't mean you have to know everything or have all the answers. It means that you understand that you need your team and that everyone plays a significant, valuable role. Treat them as such by changing “I” to “We” and “Me” and you will find success much more attainable and enjoyable. Howard Stern Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| Marissa Mayer Spends First Week at Yahoo! Posted: 26 Jul 2012 02:30 AM PDT Last week, Yahoo! announced recruitment of Google executive Marissa Mayer as the company's new CEO. The move was considered surprising and bold in many quarters, and Mayer's performance may teach us much about how the right leadership can make a difference. Their Fearless LeaderSetting a course for tomorrow. The mammoth task Mayer has been given, setting a new direction for one of the most famous and yet most uncertain companies in online business, will test her abilities as a leader. Big questions remain about what course she will set and who she will choose for her team. All Things Digital Taking the road less traveled. Two of the most critical things any business leader must decide upon are what kind of business to run and what type of customer that business serves. Both of these issues now face Yahoo!'s new CEO Marissa Mayer in the form of a single question: What kind of company will Yahoo! become? The New York Times Don't trust the media. While others cling to the notion that Yahoo! is a media company, Mayer's appointment seems likely to change this. The selection of a new leader with tech credentials signal's the company will be heading in a new direction. The aim will be to create products, not just content, something many feel is vital if Yahoo! is to succeed. Ad Age Digital Just one of the geeks. One of the most important characteristics of great leaders is not just the decisions they make but the tone they set. In Mayer's case, her cred as a first tier technology leader, her habit of going to the cafeteria like any other employee, and even the way she makes Yahoo! "feel" like a startup again are all important steps toward winning employee confidence. Business Insider Life After Yahoo!Finding the right fit. While Marissa Mayer is settling in at Yahoo!, her predecessor, Scott Thompson, who left the company abruptly under less than ideal circumstances, has found himself a new gig as CEO of ShopRunner, an online consortium for retailers like GNC, Sports Authority, and Drugstore.com. Bloomberg Businessweek Other Leadership LessonsThere's nothing like experience. No matter how Netflix has turned the entertainment business upside down, when it came to hiring a leader to market its online video rental business, the company chose a guy from a traditional Hollywood studio. Sometimes there's no reason to reinvent the wheel. Go with what works. Fox Business Learning from Steve. Is Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, a role model for entrepreneurial leadership or an example of what not to do when managing your company? A recent article explores Jobs's legacy as both an innovator and an often autocratic leader. Some entrepreneurs express their opinions of Jobs as a leader, good and bad. Wired From Small Business Trends |
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