Gold Coast Web Expert

I assessed an advertising opportunity for one of my clients today. This is how I did it.
He was offered the back of a local golf club’s scorecard the players receive. His ad would appear along with 2 others. It was $400 to be on 8,000 cards.
Now, a good way to assess the value your advertising (aside from does it work!) is what’s called CPM. Stands for cost per thousand. How much does it cost to reach 1,000 people. $400 divided by 8 = $50. $50 to get the ad in front of a potential 1,000 people.
Let’s look at the downside of these ads:
1. Do golfers look at the back of golf scorecards? I’d say no.
2. My client sells mainly to women. More men play at this golf course than women.
3. I know that this golf course has been purchased and will be developed into housing. Those 8,000 cards may not even all get used.
So, we have an ad that the vast majority of people won’t see. And if the golfers do see, they are not our target market anyway. And the ads compete against 2 others on a very small space.
This ad ain’t going to make the cut!
Let’s compare it to other forms of advertising. We’ll see how it stacks up against the local free newspaper.
Readership of 80,000. Costs $160 for a decent sized ad. For $480 we would get 3 good sized ads. And a free editorial – that’s a story written by a journalist about my client’s business.
3 and a bit times more cost effective
For much the same price we get to 320,000 people. $480 divided by 320 = $15 CPM ($15 to get in front of 1,000 people).
From that simple exercise we can see that my client doesn’t spend $400 on the golf scorecard ads. his money is better spent elsewhere.
Can you apply that sort of review to your marketing?
Brendon

Take this simple test. Read the paragraph below:
Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe and the biran fguiers it out aynawy.
Amazing, huh??! What’s the lesson here – I have no idea. It just amazed me, that’s all!
Cheers
Brendon

I think I know a bit about how people perceive value. I observe it, test it, document it and write about it. I’m pretty cynical when it comes to assessing the true value of things.
Or so I thought
Or so I thought……………until I caught myself assessing the value of something I purchased today. You see, I purchased an e-book today. It came with 4 bonus ‘reports’.
When I downloaded the pdf files (the e-book and the reports) I opened the folder I’d saved them in. The first thing I noted was the file size. The book had the largest file size. I immediately assigned that as having the most value.
Next most valuable in my quick review was the next highest file size report.
As soon as I made that judgement I knew I’d made a judgement call on value based on flimsy, flimsy evidence. All it would take is an extra large graphic within a report and it would suddenly be perceived (to me anyway) as being more valuable.
The point is this: We make judgement calls every single day. Based often on nothing more than very poor criteria (like file size for instance!).
How do people judge your service or product? Every single part of your business matters. It all says something to your customers. Are those things saying the right thing?
Brendon

Howdy. Talking with some clients last week about how best to market their business. During the discussions we got around, as we always do, to what they are going to offer their target market.
Make your offer irrestible. Have your market look at your offer and say “WOW! That’s unbelievable! I want that!!”
That way your market will come to you and buy. And once they do that you are much more likely to have them come back and buy from you again (it’s all about reduced perceived risk, knowing where you are, etc) – and you can now market to these people with laser like precision.
Brendon

I’ve talked before of the problem with many businesses of not getting the cash in the door quickly enough.
We generally ask for 50% deposit on most work, with the balance on completion. I’ve been thinking of always asking for 100% upfront and providing a decent discount if the client chooses that option.
But I hadn’t done that regularly as yet.
But I will from now on
I gave a client a quote. Usual terms of 50% upfront.
“Can I pay 100% upfront and get a discount?” she asked.
Yes, she could. I’ve finally implemented that strategy with a gentle shove by my client.
Cashflow is critical for all businesses. Can you use that strategy?
You’ll never know if it works until you ask your client.
Brendon

I know I repeat myself.
I know I repeat myself.
And I’m about to do it again.
I’ve stressed before the importance of removing (or lessening) the perception of risk in dealing with you or your business. It’s one of the most important parts of the sales process.
I’ve had a couple of experiences today that have really bought home this issue for us.
Case 1: I made a follow up call to a lady for whom we had provided a proposal for a possible web site. She said she was keen to go but just wasn’t sure. Her “wasn’t sure” was related entirely to her anxiety regarding the suitability of our proposal and, ultimately, her trust of us.
I talked her through the proposal one more time, focusing on the testimonials, the client names and numbers to call, our 100% guarantee, our client list and the suitability of our proposal to meet her needs.
I would like to finish that off by saying she said, “Okay, go ahead!” but she didn’t. Which means she probably won’t go with us (time is another big killer when making a sale. The longer the time between asking someone to buy and them making a decision the less likely are they to say “Yes” to your offer.).
Case 2: A client recently sold his business. The new owners had us in for a chat. The new guy started the conversation with “This conversation won’t get back to the old owners will it?”
It wasn’t as though the new guy said anything ‘bad’ about the old owners (to the contrary, he was complimentary), it was just that he recognised the importance of keeping his business strategies confidential.
Commercially Confidential
Of course all of our dealings with clients are commercially confidential. It’s a gimme. And I should recognise better the importance that our clients are aware of that.
Once I’d reassured the new client of our discretion, then he happily spoke of his vision for the business.
And then it got me thinking that there would more than likely be previous clients who have sold their business and the new owners have been reluctant to use us because of that perception of risk associated with us blabbing to the old owners.
We’ll reduce the perceived risk better next time by informing any new clients that our discussions and work is all subject to the strictest codes of discretion.
Regards
Brendon

A mate of mine runs a successful web development business. One of his team (let’s call him Tom) answered the telephone the other day from another web development business – one of the largest ones in the state. It was a wrong number.
“It’s John Doe here from XYZ Company. Is that ABC Pty Ltd (I made both those names up) – you’re interested in having a web site done?? We’re a web firm and we are trying to get hold of the brief.”
Tom: “Nope, you’ve got the wrong number.”
End of call.
Now Tom recognised ABC Pty Ltd as a decent sized business in the city. He picked the phone back up, contacted Yellow Pages for the number and made the call.
“Hello, it’s Tom here from Our Web Business. I understand you are interested in having a web site developed. We do web sites. Could we make a pitch for the site?”
Sure they could, was the answer. Tom got hold of the brief. The business made the pitch. And they won the job!
What are the odds of that happening?
The lesson is that opportunities present themselves anyplace, anytime. You have to grab the opportunities as they come.
I’ve just re-read that and it sounds like I made that story up! But I didn’t. I got it first hand from the guy who owns the business, and I knew it was true because he couldn’t stop laughing the whole way through telling me.
Brendon

We won a nice job on Tuesday for a $6,000 web site. The new client wanted it completed as soon as possible, so we quickly registered the domain name, set up the hosting and briefed our designer and programmer on the requirements.
That took a couple of hours of our time on Tuesday afternoon.
On Wednesday at 10.30 am the client rang to say he had changed his mind and wasn’t proceeding. And despite our efforts, they couldn’t be convinced to continue.
The next day at lunchtime we had a call from another designer who wanted the domain details and passwords because he had just won the job and wanted to make a start!
Mmmmmmm……..so the client lied to us, wasted our time and cost me money.
What should I do?
The answer, and as I write this I’m not too sure this is the right thing, is nothing. I can’t afford to let the negativity of an incident like this stop us giving the best for our other clients. I gave the details to the designer after checking his credentials with the ex-client and moved on.
On reflection (as I write this) I probably should have let the client know I was aware of his lie and let him know my dissapointment with his business ethics. After all, we did this:
* completed the extensive proposal (took us 8 hours),
* had a couple of meetings to ensure the best solution for them, and
* paid for the domain name and hosting in good faith prior to receiving the deposit cheque.
And then he’s probably taken our detailed proposal to the nearest designer and received a lower quote.
Business is all about ethics and integrity. Lose those and you’ve lost.
Regards
Brendon