Archive for the ‘Resources’ Category

Today's Cool Tool is all about  improving website conversions. That's when people who visit your website sign up to receive your newsletter or ezine or whatever else you send them so that you can keep in touch, keep marketing to them and ideally sell your products and service to them.

The 5-Minute Conversion Health-Check Scorecard is a simple 20 question YES or NO Questionnaire that you can complete in 5 minutes or less that lets you know where your website landing page(s) may be letting you down.  

The great thing is that it comes with a simple, easy to follow 12 step rehab program for what to do about it.   I hope you enjoy the article and good luck with your website rehabilation program.  You can get the full article and questionnaire here. 

How does your website stack up?  We'd love to hear what you learn and how it improves your website effectiveness. 

  When was the last time you asked your clients or potential clients for feedback? How long is it since you asked them: What do they want? What they think about your products and services?  What they would like you to be doing more of better or differently?  What would they like more information about? What new products, services, varieties, flavours etc would they like you to produce?

Market research and knowing your audience has never been more important than in the era of social media.  If you're not communicating with your clients and potential clients you can guarantee it someone else will be!

Today's Cool Tools are three simple and mostly free tools to survey your clients and potential clients (all three have both free and upgraded options).  We use all of them at Networking World. Read the rest of this entry »

Your Website Woes Diagnosed Live.

Your Website Woes Diagnosed Live from Craig Reardon on Vimeo.

This was a quick and easy strategic alliance I took part in last week.

Check it out and get some website help at the same time.

Having trouble getting visitors to your website? Or converting them to customers? Or perhaps you arent anywhere to be seen on Google. Now you can get expert advice on how to fix these common problems without paying a cent.


During the 60 minute webinar, participants submitted their website or eMarketing problem. Our panel of web experts analysed the issues and suggested a range of solutions to get your online presence on track.

Wow what a busy week and productive week. A business presentation on Monday, A Bartercard Networking Event on Tuesday, and Thursday and Friday filled with the  Australian Business and IT Expo, a strategic alliance success networking workshop and a Big business Referral Team meeting. So much follow up and catching up to do this week. Lucky I have schedule time in the diary!

If you happened to notice that I my tweets and Facebook status updates were a little sparse that’s why.  Also my apologies to anyone who was trying to get hold of us in the second half of the week. We’re back in the office and returning calls and emails today.

However I still found time over the weekend to check a number of articles and blog posts that have come my way during the week and here are my top five reads.

How to Measure Social Media Return on Investment for the Complex Sale

I am constantly being asked about measuring ROI on social media – unfortunately in my experience many small business owners are struggling with measuring ROI on any of their marketing efforts and the additional complexities of ROI on social media are particularly daunting.  There are some excellent ideas in this article which can be translated across your marketing efforts so if you are struggling with measuring ROI this article is worth a read.

Strategic Alliances Competition
I often talk to small business owners about the value of creating alliances with your competitors. This short article has a fabulous analogy if the idea of working with your competition fills either you or them (or both) with dread.  Worth a read.

ChannelBiz: The Simple "Referral Script" That Works Like Magic To Fuel Super-Qualified Referrals For Your Computer Consulting Business.

It really doesn’t matter what sort of consulting your business does.  If you provide outstanding service and you wait until you have proved it to your clients BEFORE asking for referrals then this script should be winner.



When to say ThankYou.

A few weeks ago I responded to an Ask Brenda question from Michelle at www.pamperboxes.com.au Michelle was thrilled with the answer and sent me a Pamper Box as a Thankyou.  It was gorgeous!. Make sure you check Pamper Boxes the next time you want to send a Thankyou gift. Thanks again Michelle.

And remember always be on the lookout for opportunities to say ThankYou. A phone call, a card, an email, a gift.. This article may give you some ideas for saying Thank You when you are given referrals…
 

Getting Unstuck Solving the Perfect Problem.
It wouldn’t be a normal week if there wasn’t an insight from Seth Godin that I wanted to share. If you are faced with an impossible problem.. something that you just can’t seem to solve, get over or work your way around. Check out this article and see where it takes you..
Please share your thoughts on my top five reads and feel free to share your favourite posts, articles or books from last week.  Love to hear from you.

What the camera Sees and the headphones hear!
I found over the past 9 or so years that having a broadcast quality camera affixed to your shoulder is like having a special pass to all sorts of rather interesting places. It's like having a back stage pass to any number of events and access to some interesting people...to say the least. Mind you I have filmed the odd abattoir and sewage plant!

It's also a sizeable learning commodity...how? you may ask. The majority of the filming I do seems to gravitate towards speakers, presenters and trainers. Sure we do our share of music videos, documentaries and even the occasional short film, but in the main the three aforementioned groups take the largest slice of the cake. Without being over analytical, it's not to difficult to work out why: The discipline of speaking, training or presenting is a 'one to many' arrangement, so if you can distribute the knowledge/performance of one individual to many, you achieve [one of] your desired outcome...video does this splendidly.

Well that sets the scene for the man behind the camera. So now my role is to capture the event and commit it to some transmission medium but as I stand behind the camera I also digest vast amounts of information that any number of presenters broadcast; Marketing, sales, communication skills, negotiation skills, networking and many more just being motivational about doing business.

After working with Brenda from Networking World for some time now I also make one other, possibly more profound, observation: As I film each of the seminars, conferences or training sessions it's fair to note that although my customer is usually a specialist in some specific discipline, I find that when I work with individuals that have alliance partners, the functions and the outcomes seem to be larger and have more impact...and one could suggest are more profitable.

I often film individuals and get their videos up on the net to promote their products and services but of late I am asked more and more to work with groups of speakers presenters trainers as a combined approach. It makes sense that if there is a synergy of topic it attracts a greater number of delegates and needless to say the economies of scale of promotion and venue costs are an added bonus.

Trainers presenters...a multitude of topics, economies of scale in production costs.. it makes simple sense to work with likeminded people; well it looks that way from behind the lens!

Gary Hegedus Productions, an award-winning independent filmmaking enterprise, produces a wide range of multimedia spanning across corporate videos and training videos, through to music videos, and right through to a wealth of online content including webinars, podcasts and YouTube’s. Networking World readers can have a studio-recorded professional YouTube video ready to load for $275 inc GST. Bookings are essential and the offer is limited till 1 August 2010. Ring Gary Hegedus Productions for further details (03) 9876 2860 Gary Hegedus: Gary Hegedus Productions

Thanks to all the people who contributed to the conversation last week around communication. I’m certainly going to be looking for ways to open the ears and close the mouth more in the future. I found some great ideas in one of my favourite articles during the week. Check it out at #5.

We’ve been super busy in the Networking World office over the past couple of weeks.. 

1. We’ve been getting ready for the expo at ABITE on Thursday and Friday and the SMART Networking Event on Friday afternoon culminating with the presentation of the 2010 Australian Home Based Business Awards. I can’t wait to meet this year’s finalists and find out who the winner is. Hope you can join us for the afternoon.

2. SMART Social Media for Busy Business Owners is finished and the final version is currently under review. There have been a few technical hiccups but Colin the Networking World Cool Tools Geek and Technology Whizz has been working overtime to get them under control. If you are thinking about a social media strategy for your business or even just thinking about whether you need to think about it, make sure you watch out for the final release and remember to keep sending us your burning social media questions at Ask Brenda

3. We’re also working hard on the relaunch of the new look Strategic Alliance Success Club.. Please give us your feedback on the draft plan so far.

Plus here are my top five articles from last week:

Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of weeks ago I told you about the One Minute Business Checkup tool. The guys at One Sherpa have reported a massive increase in response from that blog post, saying that the feedback has been really positive and complimentary. Some people have been using the tool to test the impact on their business of implementing new ideas (to accurately predict positive or negative effects on their business), while others have been using it to assess the viability of new business opportunities.  People have been saying this tool is a great way to take much of the risk and stress out of making important business decisions, which I think is really great.  They asked me to pass on their sincere gratitude to everyone for your positive response. To express their appreciation they have given me a small gift to give to you.

It's one of their most popular products, and it's yours to enjoy right now!
The Seven Keys of Business Wisdom

P.S. If you are one of the few who haven't yet tried out the One Minute Business Checkup it's not too late! You can still do it here: http://oneminutebusinesscheckup.com/r/net

1. Bookings are now open for the next SMART Strategic Alliance Networking Event in Melbourne on 30 July.  If you've been before and you want to come again, or if you've been planning to come make sure you book in now. Tickets are limited.

2. Don't miss this opportunity to change your business for the better. There is still time to enter the Australian Home Based Business Awards and realise the benefits for entering a national award. Entries close this Friday. You can enter here now.

3.    We finished putting together the SMART Social Media Planning for Busy Business Owners. There's over 5 hours of videos, audios and checklists to create a Social Media Plan and step by step TO DO lists on how to get started with Linked In, Facebook and Twitter.  

4.    We created the initial draft proposal for the NEW Strategic Alliance Success Club. And now we need your feedback. Please make sure you tell us what you think.  

 5.    Here are my top five articles from last week. Hope you enjoy them.

Read the rest of this entry »

Whew what a week!
My first week of daily blogging! Hope you enjoyed the posts.

The BIG event of last week: I gave away lifetime memberships to the Strategic Alliance Success Club & I’m working on a new style program based on YOUR input. Thanks to everyone who’s contributing. Here’s what we’ve understood you to want so far.. I think you could call it a SUPER alliance. Please tell us how we’re doing.. 

Plus if you haven't yet voted on who should win the NWW SMART Business Makeover Award. Make sure you vote now. Voting closes 11.30am on Wednesday 14 July 2010.

What did I read this week?
I follow a heap of different blogs and newsletters to pull my top five reads every week.  Plus I have Google alerts on all of my key words which yields a fair amount of rubbish, lots of duplication of the things I get anyway and some interesting results.. One of these is #5 in my top five for this week..

So here are my top five articles of the week in no particular order..

Read the rest of this entry »

Today is the first installment of Cool Tools Tuesday..

Every Tuesday I'll be bringing you something cool (and F-ree or almost) that you can use in your business.  After all that's one of the benefits of networking, you get to learn about cool tools and resources from people you meet.

This week's Cool Tool comes from my friend Andee Selman at One Sherpa.

He says they have been blown away by the response of business owners to this new tool and I’m not surprised. Anything that gives you useful information AND you can do it in one minute has got to be popular. .

Many of the people who have completed the One Minute Business Checkup have already uncovered more about the health of their business in one minute than they've known in all their years in business.

Andee has kindly made this tool free for anyone who is part of my community and allowed us to go through this process for free because we’re some of the first to try this out. I’m not sure how long this will be free so don’t miss out and make sure you do this right away.

Read the rest of this entry »