Craig Rentmeester's Blog

Being Available is Half the Battle

37Signals, developers of popular SaaS tools for small businesses and project teams, like Basecamp and Highrise, makes its CEO available for calls with customers for 4 hours each week.

Play to your strengths, and do something your larger competitors "can't do".

SMBs should take note.

Announcing Project LOO for Locally Owned and Operated Businesses

I wanted to let everyone know that I have created Project LOO, in conjunction with the launch of  Relevante Marketing, my newly formed internet marketing agency for SMBs.

What is Project LOO?

The goal of Project LOO is pretty straightforward. Build out Web sites and creating internet marketing systems for locally owned and operated businesses throughout the United States to make them more competitive.

Side note: LOO stands for Locally Owned and Operated.

Why is this Important?

While the recession may be over from a technical standpoint, independent businesses are still feeling the effects of high unemployment, translating into less sales than in year's past. 

Local search presents a huge opportunity for small businesses to grow their customer bases profitably, and be able to compete with national chains and franchises that have millions of dollars to spend on these services. In addition, studies have shown the decline of print directories and local newspaper as business information starting points, and the continued increase in local search.

Project LOO combines these data points into a call to action for locally owned and operated businesses; Your customers are acting differently, and you need to adapt your marketing to compete.

Project LOO by the Numbers

I want to work with 40 locally owned and operated businesses in 2010, in 40 different cities, to build 40 custom internet marketing systems. I plan to spend up to 40 weeks on-site (1 week per client).

Helping out the Local Community

I am willing to sacrifice my free time by traveling on site to each business to get each system off the ground. As such, I'll be spending money at local restaurants, coffee shops, bars, hotels, gas stations, etc.

I will hire local web designers, as needed, in each city to help me with each project.

The Offer

By working with 40 different businesses, I will be able to keep the price affordable for small businesses.

The cost for a primarily non-e-commerce related Web site will cost $4,000. This package will fit services-based businesses looking to increase leads, and retailers and restaurants looking to increase in-person traffic. The fee includes everything, including my time, freelance designers pay, travel, living, technology, 1 year of hosting, and 1 year of Web site maintenance.

The cost for a relatively small (~ 75 products) e-commerce site is $8,000. The higher fee is in place because I will need to hire more developers, at a higher rate, and there will be more prep work involved.There will also be more maintenance involved.

In addition, all 40 businesses will be promoted on the Project LOO web site, in any press releases, and via Project LOO's twitter account -- @ProjectLOO. 

Kickoff Contest

To kickoff Project LOO, I am giving away one Internet Marketing Package. All applications received by December 15, 2009, will be eligible.

I Need Your Help

With any new project or business, it's tough to get the word out. I have never asked for anything in return from my readers, but now I am. 

Think of your favorite local restaurants, dry cleaners, mechanics, etc. Do them a favor, tell them about Project LOO.

Tell a Small Business Owner

If you know of a small business in your city that doesn't have a presence online, tell them about Project LOO. It's an affordable and easy way for them to become competitive online. 

Promote Project LOO on Your Blog, Tweet about Project LOO, Post a Link, etc.

Visit the Support Page at ProjectLOO.com to learn more about what you can do to help me out. 

Sponsorship Opportunities

If you know of someone in charge of sponsorships at an airline, hotel or rental car company that might like to sponsor Project LOO, I can lower the costs  for each local business by partnering with these types of companies. I'd be willing to promote them on the Project LOO Web site, via Twitter and via any press releases or interviews related to Project LOO.

Thanks for reading, and helping me out. I truly appreciate it.

Thanks,
Craig Rentmeester

How to Handle Adversity

The Story

"AirAsia said 31-year-old passenger Liew Siaw Hsia went into labour on Wednesday's flight from the northern island of Penang to Kuching on Borneo island.

The aircraft made an emergency diversion to the Malaysian capital but the baby arrived just before landing, delivered by a doctor who was on board and who was assisted by the airline's flight attendants."

Article Credit

The Outcome

The Mom and her newborn son received a lifetime of Free Flights from AirAsia.

What a great move!

It allowed AirAsia to gain positive press. The story was also picked up by the AP, which also mentioned the lifetime of free flights, albeit less prominently. 

The story also got the number one spot on the Yahoo! homepage, which according to this article by Data Center Knowledge can drive upwards of one million pageviews.

The Takeaway

Handle adversity well, and make it a word of mouth opportunity.

The Simple Difference Between Web Designers and Internet Marketers

The simple difference between a web designer and an internet marketer is this:

A Web Designer cares about what the visitor encounters upon interaction.

An Internet Marketer cares about what the visitor does upon interaction.

The difference is clear and increasingly important.

Both parties are useful, but I'd argue that the internet marketer is more important to generating measurable business results.

5 Business Titles for the Future

In today's world of time-strapped employees, it's important to keep the focus on customers -- not on internal rules, processes and bull shit that gets in the way of productive interactions.

CSO - Common Sense Officer - The go-to person to act rationally, solve problems and work without regard for company policy. Isn't assigned to one department and knows the business better than anyone.  She may be a semi-retired industry veteran with a hatred for corporate policy and love for the industry and efficiency.

ICA - Important Customer Advisor - The person assigned to your most influential accounts that advises them on which products to purchase, how to purchase (finance, lease, purchase) and how to implement the products? This person gets paid handsomely, not on commission, to make sure these customers keep doing business with you.

Director of Customer Experience - A person who proactively seeks out areas where customers get screwed -- hidden fees, fine print, non-transparency, poor design, etc. This person is judged by how many complaints vs. how many positive reviews the company receives. NetPromoter score also a key performance metric. Has a healthy budget and never-ending list of approvements.

VP of Next Generation Customers - The person responsible for person who has a ridiculous budget to gain favor for the company and its products amongst students and children. Donations, Volunteering, Partnerships, Workshops, Giveaways and Sponsorships are order of the day.

Frontline Reporter - The person responsible for collecting and relaying information about bad business practices to the CSO, CEO, COO and Director of Customer Experience. Similar to the CSO, but with less authority.


The next time you're frustrated about how things are handled at your company, just think if you could turn to someone in one these roles and trust that something would get done to fix it. Customers, employees and suppliers would be lined up around the corner to work with this company. 

Do you know anyone in these types of roles? Are they awesome to work with and turn to with issues?

6 Things to Do Before Hiring an Internet Marketing Firm

People hire internet marketing firms and contractors for many different reasons. Some see competitors ranking highly and think they're doing a ton of business online because of it. Others
want more traffic. Others want to start selling products online.

The problem is that many companies don't do the leg work up front to help a specialist be successful quickly.

Below is my list of 6 Things to Do Before Hiring an Internet Marketing Firm.

If you take these steps, you're more likely to see success with the firm you choose.

1. Fire your Hit Counter & Install Google Analytics.

Sure there other analytics packages that more in depth. But, Google Analytics is free and will provide some much needed visitor data for your prospective vendors to analyze. It's also easy to install -- just copy and paste one line of pre-written code on each page.

2. Have a Ballpark Budget and Expected Results.

A good customer is forthcoming about how much they're comfortable spending and what they expect in return. 

It sets clear expectations for a proposal and allows an Internet Marketing Firm to provide a sound, reasonable action plan.

3. Figure out Your Break Even Point or Cost per Conversion Targets for Your Products.

If your products cost $50 and you make $25 per sale. Your break even point is $25. So, you can spend $25 per sale on marketing. Anything more, and you're losing money. Anything less and you're profiting.

This helps an internet marketer, such as myself, make accurate estimates about expected results by looking at industry data such as Cost Per Clicks and Conversion Rates. Also, it sets an reasonable benchmark for success.

4. Have Estimates on the Lifetime Values of Customers.

If your business is like most, a majority of your business comes from repeat customers, you should have an idea on how much a new customer is worth over the long run. Customer retention rates, average transaction sizes and purchase frequency rates work well for this type of pre-project analysis.

This data can help justify losing a bit of money on initial transactions to acquire new customers, if you know they'll be loyal and profitable in the future. I remember Robert Scoble saying a Kraft Foods executive spent about $40 per new customer.

5. Have a timeline.

Let the vendor know when you're going to make your decision and when you want to see a return. Again, this provides clear expectations.

6. Have Future Plans in Mind.

If you have a vision for how you want to scale your internet marketing or web site functionality, an internet marketing firm can write code with that in mind, saving you time and money in the future.

If you have these six things in line, a good internet marketing firm should be able to create a successful plan of action for your company.

Do You Need an Internet Marketer?

If you're interested in hiring an internet marketing firm, contact me to get an evaluation and proposal. I help small businesses get more traffic for leads, sales and customer loyalty.

How to Make a Twitter Background

Now that I'm on Twitter, I needed to make a background recently. You'll notice I tried to keep the same style as my personal site. 

Where I Started

Here is a link to helpful article from Croncast on how to make a Twitter Background. There is one misprint in the article. You have about 200 pixels  to work with for branding, rather 80 pixels as stated in the article.

I made mine in Adobe Photoshop (see below), and you can download the free trial here, after creating an account, if you don't have it already. 

Reference Files for You for Free

As a nice gesture, I've decided to upload my finished image in JPEG and PSD format so you can use mine as reference for creating your own background.

Click here to download the zipped folder containing my working files.

Looking for Feedback

What do you think of my background?

Follow me on Twitter: @CRentmeester

Link: Google Caffeine

Google is re-working its search engine with a work-in-progress called Caffeine.

You can preview it here.

Notice, the preview does not have any AdWords ads, which would surely be included in a launch version. 

In my quick tests of Caffeine, the results weren't much different, with LinkedIn pages appearing higher than normal. Other than that, most rankings were changed very little (1 spot), if at all.

Tip of the Hat for the Notice: LifeHacker , Techtree

Now on Twitter

I've succumbed to the pressure and joined Twitter.

You can follow me @CRentmeester

I will try to keep the overlap between my twitter activity and blog content to a minimum.

Leaps of Faith

Every transaction involves a leap of faith.

Buyers worry about a seller's reputation, customer service, warranty, product performance, resale value, etc.

Sellers worry about the buyer's ability to pay, how much post-sale support resources they'll use, how likely they are to buy again in the future, etc.

How big that leap is varies depending on the product being sold and the seller.

It is the marketer's sole purpose to make that leap of faith small enough that a deal happens.

So, what does this mean to your business?

1. Brand Awareness.
The fact that someone knows about your business before making a purchase is important. It immediately gives them an increased sense of trust.

2. Brand Experience Matters.
People are creatures of habit. If a customer is able to try a product and it lives up to expectations, their more likely to purchase that product in the future versus one they haven't tried.

What if you're entering a new market, or are a relatively new company?
See below.

Ways to Minimize the Leap of Faith without Discounting
It's easy to discount, and I'm completely opposed to it. However, for expensive purchases or lengthy contracts, I think discounts should be used only if you get something in return. 

Below are some other ways you can add credibility in inexpensive ways.

• Encourage Positive Word of Mouth about the product from friends of relatives.
• Request testimonials, images, and/or video from your current customers.
  • Buyers don't want to be the guinea pig. They want to know there are other people, like them, that chose this product before.
• Free trials, samples, or test drives.
• Advertising. Like I said, brand awareness still helps.
• Face-to-Face Meetings. Old school. It can instill confidence that you're not running a Boiler Room-type operation.