Craig Rentmeester's Blog

Befriending a Blogger -- For PR Pros

Apparently Chris Anderson, had no effect, because for the past few months I have been getting news releases from PR professionals.

At first, I would open and quickly scan them to see if they had any useful ideas to write about. (Hey, it gets tough to keep coming up with great stuff). However, I never actually wrote about any of them because nine times out of ten the business wasn't original, and the spin factor was riding high. The other times there would be no relevance to the topics I write about.

It seems to me that the same people sending out e-mail news releases blindly to bloggers don't blog themselves, which puts them at a disadvantage.

How to be more successful when trying to get mentioned by a blogger
Below are some ways to become friends with a blogger, and will help you get your sh*t mentioned.

Don't Just (First) Name Drop. Mention more than the person's first name, such as a related post, or overriding theme you've noticed about the blogger.

Brag Them Up. Bloggers generally have egos. Butter them up by mentioning their book, e-book, videos, web site design, award(s), or work you've seen outside their blog. 

Comment First. Send Second. Bloggers have opinions. That's why they have a blog. Agree or disagree with them. Expand on their posts. Join the conversation first, before sending one-sided communication.

Provide exclusive information or media. Invite them on a private tour of the factory where you divulge secrets about the company.

Create something exclusive for the blogger. If they have a sense of humor, put their face on something goofy. Feature them in a video. Most bloggers won't get uptight.

How I Quickly Built an e-commerce Site

As I mentioned in my previous post, the goal of this post is to inspire you to take a calculated risk and build a Web site you've thought about, but ‘haven’t found the time to build’. This post is describing a recent project I took on with my Dad.

Background

We needed a quick and dirty e-commerce site to showcase 50-60 scooter parts that my Dad has available for sale that fit various brands of scooters, primarily made by Dayang, Honda and Yamaha. 

Below you’ll learn about how I got started, the tools I used, and how I influenced search engine rankings by implementing proper on-page SEO items.

Please forgive my grammar, as I am writing this piece for speed as well. I'm hoping to edit it later on.

 

Built for Speed

Since this project wasn’t billable, and it’s not planned to be a long-term business, I tried to cut corners when possible. Also, scooters and mopeds are seasonal by nature, so finishing the site to allow for earlier rankings eased my fears about using shortcuts.

Buying a Good Domain

I bought the domain at the end of March for this site. Before buying it, I used five tools to help me compare search data. 

The five tools I used were:

1. Google’s Traffic Estimator

2. Adwords Keyword Tool

3. Free Keyword Research from Trellian

4. Keyword Difficulty from SEOChat

5. Keyword Difficulty Tool from seologs

To be able to compare the data quick and effectively, I set up an Excel spreadsheet with search data in columns and the corresponding search term in rows from the five data sources. I recommend this for both SEO research and keyword-based campaign research. It allows me to scan quickly for keyword opportunities. 

Using this data, and keeping in mind commonalities of the Web site content I was going to publish, I decided on MopedandScooterParts.com, which I was surprised was available.

Creating Content

To start, I got pictures of each part using a digital camera, with each part featured on a white bed sheet for easy editing in Photoshop. 

With the images, I also received corresponding descriptions and prices for each part.

Once I had this information, I had 80-90 percent of the Web site content. Now, it just need to be coded.

 

Payments

To save time, I decided to use PayPal for the shopping cart function. For this site, the transaction fees are reasonable (1.9% of the sale price + .20 cents per transaction).

 

Hosting

I already had Web hosting through Dreamhost, which is cheap, at $97 per year. (dreamhost affiliate link). Also, since I had the hosting package, Dreamhost allowed me to purchase a domain for free for the first year ($10 savings).

 

Software Used

I used Photoshop for deleting background noise from images of the parts for sale, and Dreamweaver for HTML/CSS coding.

I also used Dreamhost’s built-in HTML editor for minor HTML tweaks along the way.

 

Web site Building tools Used

I used CSSEZ to help me create a base model for the CSS stylesheet. It was tweaked slightly, but about 80% of the work creating the CSS was done in a WYSIWYG environment versus a coding environment, which allowed me to work much faster. (see CSSEZ version and the final version).Contrary to what this site states, these CSS you create can be used without WordPress or MoveableType.

I used HTML Playground for a reference when I forgot some HTML/CSS lingo. 

I used XML Sitemaps to help me create a quick and dirty sitemap in HTML and XML. It took some minor tweaking to the code to make the HTML Sitemap respectable. This tool saved me a ton of time, though.

I used FormLogix web forms since I don’t know MySQL, but wanted to grow an e-mail newsletter subscription list. Now, it seems that FormLogix puts Google Ads on pages where its forms are used, which is lame and a deterrent. When I created mine, they didn't do this.
 

How the site ranks

Right now, the site ranks in positions 1-3 on both Yahoo! and Google for phrases including the word Dayang and the name of a specific part we have for sale, which is roughly 60-70 percent of the content. (sample search 1, sample search 2, sample search 3).

 

How Did I Achieve Strong Search Rankings?

Right now, the site doesn’t have many in-bound links, which certainly is not helping it for difficult keyword phrases. However, one thing working in my favor on this project is that there aren’t many online content providers for after-market Dayang Scooter Parts.
 

Also, each page of the site has a strong focus on targeted keywords. Keywords for each page are included in the: 

• Page Title
• Directory Name (so they appear in the URL)
• Header Tags
• The site description and Domain contain targeted keywords
• Meta Data (descriptions and keywords)
• Anchor Text
• Image File Names, Alternate Tags and Titles

 

Other Tools

Google Analytics – monitor site traffic, usage, referring sites, etc.

Google Webmaster – monitor search rankings, inbound links found by Google, upload a sitemap, etc.

Yahoo! Site Explorer – to check competitor’s links and my links.

 

Some More Things to Consider when Building or Redesigning a Web site

1. Information Architecture – This didn’t really apply for this site because there was only going to be around 60 pages. However, breaking content into clear classifications that allow for search engine indexability and navigation is critically important with larger sites (250+ pages).
2. Link structure – This also wasn’t that important due to the limited number of pages. Since no one item is extremely preferable to sell than another, I tried to keep the link architecture as evenly weighted as possible. However, if you want to rank in a competitive market and you don’t emphasize the pages you’re hoping to rank via extra internal links, you’ll have trouble.
3. CSS vs. tables. – If you use a Web design firm and they build your site using nested tables, you’ll have bigger maintenance bills, more search engine concerns and slower load times.  
   

Future Plans

In case you’re interested with how I plan to proceed going forward, I listed a few measures I plan to take below.

I plan to build a Squidoo page about Dayang scooters, because there is not a lot information about them. Squidoo has a high PageRank, and providing relevant content will help us pick up some link juice. Hopefully the lens will pickup and refer some traffic as well.

I hope that we can post PDF versions of various scooter owners’ manuals.

I will be analyzing existing competitors Web sites for opportunities to pick up links from the same sources. 

Depending on the time it takes to implement, I may add a Google Checkout option in combination with an AdWords account. For now, we’ll see how PayPal works out.

If you have any questions about something I left out, please e-mail me.  

For additional site-building and SEO Help

Download my on-page SEO e-book to help you improve your Web site’s rankings.

5 Ways to Reward Good Profitable Behavior

It amazes me when companies reach out more to new customers, with special perks and discounts, than their best existing customers.

As such, I thought I'd pass along some ways, in both the online and offline worlds of business, to reward your customers for good profitable behavior.

Here are five things I came up with.

Online

• Free shipping for a year for ordering more than X amount of  dollars the previous year.
• Develop a points-based rewards program in an industry that doesn't normally have one.
  
  • Example - Hallmark Gold Crown Points

Offline

• Special shopping hours. Imagine walking into an uncrowded store on Black Friday evening, after all the smoke has cleared, with all of  your targeted merchandise on hand.

• A convenience-based, headache releiving reward that doesn't exist for first-timers.

• Advance rain checks for your best customers on Black Friday merchandise. Tee times outside the normal range, reservations at restaurant that doesn't take them.

Both Online and Offline

• Exclusive benefits for purchasing X amount of goods or paying a membership fee.
  

• Advance downloads, access to limited edition products, signed memorabilia, etc.
• Example - Dave Matthews' Warehouse membership

The key with these types of rewards is to make them great so that your best customers tell their friends, and low frequency customers start buying more often because of the rewards for doing so are so enticing.

Ideas for Changing the Rules

I realized that my last post doesn't provide any ideas for changing the rules in your favor and improving your business.

Here are some ideas that you can build off of. They're broken up into categories and aim to look at every step in the sales process.

Phone Systems

• No more automated answering machine messages (think: please listen closely as our menu has changed).
• Put your number on your contact page, preferably one that is answered within three or less rings.

Testimonials and Case Studies

• Gather testimonials from your customers and use them in pre-sales collateral.
• Record testimonials from your customers and put them on your Web site.
• Create video testimonials with your customers.
• Create case studies of successful past customers in different situations that your customers are often in when they're considering.

Web Site

• Offer content online that you normally wouldn't (prices, price ranges, videos, photo galleries, employee biographies, employee testimonials.
• Start planing an SEO overhaul of your Web site.

PR

• Apply for industry awards that can be leveraged.
• Have your best employees apply to write articles for trade magazines.

Sales Reps

• Have your sales team attach their vCard to every e-mail.
• Have your sales team add upcoming events to their e-mail signatures. 
• Have sales reps add testimonials to their quotes.
• No more text-based, customer-facing PowerPoints.

Increase Customer Loyalty

• Put together a customer satisfaction event that people will have to talk about.
  
  • Top of the line. Exclusive. One awesome prize instead of 50 giveaways.
    
• Reward great customers with exclusive benefits.
• Let customers take an item for free at the checkout if the purchase over a certain amount. 
  
  • Don't advertise it. It will spoil it.

Product Development

• Customizable products.

Product Delivery

• Free, unexpected items in the shipping container that are useful.

Change the Rules

A problem that some companies face is that the way they've always attracted customers and made sales changes.

Here are some examples you can probably relate to:

• Sales numbers are down.
• Customer retention rates are down.
• Customer service calls are up.
• Direct mail begins yielding lower and lower, or dare I say, negative returns on investment.
• A ground swell of customer service mistakes leads to anti-company forums, blogs and web sites.
• The seminars and conferences you used to host and fill with eager bodies are being canceled or filled with people there solely for the free lunch.
• Newspapers aren't bringing qualified job candidates to your HR department.
• E-mail blasts have a click-through rate lower than five percent.

The question is, how do you market to people who have less and less time to take in your message?

How do you grow your sales ten percent in a market that's growing less than three percent per year?

Today is the best day to start changing the rules.

Make it Easy to do Business with your Company

A problem that some companies have is that they don't make it easy for companies to business with them. Whether it's a slow accounting department, software tools that don't integrate with other mainstream software packages or not providing enough product information online for a prospect to make an informed decision.

This applies to almost every company, and in fact, almost every company already tries to do this on some level. Here are some examples I thought of that you can probably relate to: accepting Mastercard/Visa/Discover/AmEx, sending contracts as MS Word document, using vCards in MS Outlook, making software that works with Macs and PCs, etc.)

The main question is how do you take it a step further and take down the barriers to change?

The Customer Band

In today's ever-changing, ever-connected, world it's not uncommon for customers to band together to solve each others issues, bring up ideas for how to improve products or even complain about bad customer service interactions.

This is already happening in places like Facebook groups, Google groups and Ning.

Here's a link to an interesting interview on Fast Company with Thor Muller, CEO of getsatisfaction.com, a site that brings customers and businesses together in a forum-like setting for customer service interactions.

Language and Control

It's been heavily talked about in magazines, TV programs and blogs for years, to varying degrees and with varying intentions.

Yes, customers are in control.

In the broadcast era of marketing, customers decided whether or not to pay attention to your message.

Then, the Internet came along, put print and TV on the ropes, and gave customers new avenues to express their opinions, along with a wider selection of free content delivered in many forms.

Online, customers are always in control. From product reviews, to blog posts, to the search terms they enter to find products they're looking for.  Not only can customers determine whether or not your prospects buy your products, but your prospects can pass you by without even knowing you exist, unless you play by their rules and cater to the wants that they communicate.

The key to marketing in the digital era is to research how your target audience describes the products and services they use. Then,  create content related to that instead of trying to have your audience begin using the language your company uses to describe itself. 

The best thing about online marketing is that the playing field is (relatively) even online. Companies small and big can use the same research tactics and create great content.

B2B — From Sales Quotes to Persuasive Proposals

I wrote in the past about post-sale tactics for pre-sale marketing.  In that post, I mentioned case studies and satisfaction surveys to help gather testimonials and build credibility for future sales opportunities.

A few weeks back I attended a conference and a speaker mentioned transitioning from an ordinary sales quote to a persuasive sales quote. (I prefer the term proposal.)

I thought it was a great talk and thought I'd elaborate on it and provide some personal insight as well.

He mentioned that most companies sales quotes consist of:

• line items
• a brief summary of what's included in each line item
• prices
• contact information
• a logo
• an expiration date

However, a persuasive proposal includes the items listed above, but also includes:

• Business issues that you're helping solve with this purchase and plan.
• Testimonials from past customers.
• A one-page case study featuring a past customer in the same industry.

Why does this matter?
This matters because the person you've met with, talked to and persuaded may not be the person that ultimately signs off on the purchase. In that case, you may have created a champion inside the company that doesn't help your cause when it comes to their recommendation to the board, president, or CFO. The persuasive quote  provides your contact the additional firepower they need to help advance the sale with the end decision makers. 

Pros and Cons
The downside of using the persuasive proposal is that it will be longer making it tougher to fax.

However, give your fax machine a break, save a bit of money, time and paper and send it via PDF. It will allow you to add color and style to the proposal, providing a level of distinction from your old-fashioned competitors.

Remember, every interaction provides an opportunity for marketing. Whether or not you're prepared is up to you.

Benefits of using a Blog as your E-newsletter

A rather new concept is using a blog like an e-newsletter.

I love the approach from a marketing and an SEO standpoint.

• Rather than sending PDFs or E-blasts via e-mail to subscribers, a blog offers dynamic content that maintains the same look over time.
• A blog instead of an e-newsletter makes subscriber management much easier.
• Its easy to transmit and easy for customers to subscribe in a way that works with their existing habits (live bookmarks, posts via e-mail, feed readers, etc.)
• From an SEO standpoint, the blog approach provides an opportunity for more content on your site and more inbound links.
• You can archive posts, allowing for customers to revisit old items.
  
• It provides an opportunity to distribute press releases when they're timely vs. lumping them together in a monthly newsletter.

The one drawback I can think of is not getting each subscriber's contact information. However, users are in control, whether you like it or not. If you provide continuous value, they'll want to do business with you.

I am going to be pushing for this approach at my company.

Do you have any other drawbacks or benefits of using a blog as an e-newsletter?

Also, I'll be on vacation this week. This will be my last post for a while.

Creative Packaging and Product Ideas

Here are some unique and creative examples of product ideas and product packaging. Hopefully these images spark creativity for you.

(Click on the images for an enlarged view)

Beer bread in a bottle

Waistline Soup

Pie in a Bottle

These three products put the 'fun' in functional.

Personal Branding Lessons from an Experienced Brand Builder

Personal Branding Magazine issue 3 is now available. For issue 3, I interviewed John Purdy of the Kendall Purdy Group.

The article tells his story of leaving the Ad Agency he'd worked at for over 20 years to become a one-man consulting firm.

My article, featured on PDF page 25/magazine page 19, is below.

Enjoy.

Personal Branding Advice from an Experienced Brand Builder

By Craig Rentmeester

Freelance consulting is considered to be the ultimate reward in personal branding by many professionals. It signifies you’ve reached a point in your career where people recognize your brand and value your opinions.

To gain perspective on consulting and personal branding I caught up with John Purdy. With over 30 years of marketing experience on both the agency and corporate side, Purdy is a thought leader when it comes to brand building. For the past nine years he has helped his clients grow their brands on a freelance basis through his consultancy, the Kendall Purdy Group.

Striking Out (on His Own)
The decision to go into freelance consulting brings both freedom and uncertainty. It allows professionals a chance to take on projects they’ll enjoy while setting their own work pace. However, it also brings an unstable income and less job security. When asked about the decision to go into this line of work Purdy responded,

“I started consulting when my agency client fired the agency in favor of an agency with a more extensive international network. As (it) often happens in the (advertising) agency world, my job was eliminated when the income from that large client ceased. The client who left the agency still valued my counsel in their business and contracted for a portion of my time if I chose to consult. That was sufficient incentive to establish a consultancy, with that client as a base.”

 
Choosing a Brand
The Kendall Purdy Group is a unique choice for a freelance consultant’s brand. When asked why he decided on that Purdy said, “…I developed a list of possible names that had probably 20 options to choose from. There were logical and descriptive names, benefit-focused names, fanciful names and others. I reviewed the list of names with friends and the clear winner was the Kendall Purdy Group. “

Purdy said it was the clear choice because, “It sounded as though I wasn't all by myself, which I was. It sounded dignified and professional, which it wasn’t particularly…and it was vague enough not to pigeonhole me in any one discipline or area of consulting.”

John Purdy had two things at this point; a client to stabilize his business, and a brand to manage and grow. But, the key to running to a successful business is a consistent customer base.

Getting Customers
When asked about how he normally gains business, Purdy said, “Ninety-five percent of my business comes from referrals -- from people I know in the business who either hire me themselves or recommend me to others…My network has been the only dependable source of business over the nine years of consulting.”

Tricky Situations
Purdy also went on to mention how he is put into peculiar situations. He mentioned how he sometimes competes against advertising agency’s he consulted for and consulting for two businesses that directly compete with one another.

“I always try to be upfront about the organizations I have worked with and (let clients know) that I cannot disclose anything that is considered proprietary information,“ says Purdy.

“Honesty is the best policy in consulting,” says Purdy.

 

SEO E-book Available for Free Download

My SEO e-book is now ready for downloading, viewing and sharing. (see below)

The e-book is 18 pages.

It provides straightforward advice for entrepreneurs new to  search engine optimization. It may also be of great benefit to those in marketing, public relations or advertising as well.

It features an example of a page that is properly optimized for the search term "sore throat". Using the example, I point out certain aspects of search results as well as the underlying code that corresponds to the optimization advice.

The e-book also features resources that will allow for quicker implementation.

While improving on-page SEO items alone does not guarantee higher search rankings, the advice lays the foundation for proper search engine optimization of your site.

The book is free of charge. In return, I just ask that you do one of two things.

1. If you read the book, please provide feedback via e-mail or through this survey.
2. If you learn something new about SEO from the book, pass it on to a friend.

Download

We Have a Web site. Now What? Part 1.    SEO-E-book    PDF (791.4K)

Reminder

I will be working on the second part of the series that will focus on off-page SEO items such as PageRank, inbound and outbound links, and visitor behavior. If you'd like to be notified when it's released, send me an e-mail.

Monitoring Popularity

If you're into monitoring trends and awareness, then you may already know about these tools. If not, then they're an easy way to get a quick snapshot of industry and product trends.

Google Adwords Keyword Tool - Shows CPC, advertising competition, and search data for the past month and on average.

Google Trends - Provides search information, geographic information and related news stories for keywords.

Submit Express Keyword Suggestion Tool - This tool uses Wordtracker and KeywordDiscovery to suggest keywords and provides data about the number of search queries per related keyword.

Breaking the (Golden Arches) Mold

Last night I watched a show called, "Most Unique McDonald's" on the Travel Channel.

The show consists of a guided tour with tour guide Peter Holden, a McDonald's fanatic, who claims to have visited nearly 12,000 McDonald's restaurants across the world.

From a McDonald's on 42nd and Broadway with theater lighting and movie trailers shown on 60 video screens , to a McDonald's that is architecturally shaped like an actual Happy Meal in Dallas, TX. (see image on the right).

Most McDonald's I've seen have been run of the mill fast food restaurants. However, these franchisees set out to break the mold. Rather than building just another fast food stop, they've created destinations.

Here are some fun facts from the show
- The arches were originally part of the restaurant's building structure and not meant to be part of the logo. (see right, click to enlarge).
- There are nearly six hundred McDonald's locations in New York City.
- Willard Scott was the original Ronald McDonald.

If you'd like to watch the "Most Unique McDonald's" for yourself,  here is the complete TV schedule.

The Takeaway
Tell an authentic story and differentiate yourself. PR opportunities will come and people will talk about you, like Peter Holden.