Sandra Martini's Success Strategies

Marketing Mess of the Week: Hotel Horrors

I travelled to Anaheim, California last week for Adam Urbanski's Info Profit Success 2009 workshop (which was FABULOUS, by the way) and, due to our primary hotel being overbooked, had to spend my first night at another hotel.

Ideal?  No, but it happens and I'd just have to switch hotels in the morning (they're all within walking distance so not a big deal).

So what happened? 

There were several issues with the first hotel (the second, primary hotel was the Marriott and they were great!):

1. My assistant had requested early check-in.  No rooms were ready and I had to wait 4 hours for one.
2. I asked to join their Points/Reward program and the same front desk clerk told me to do it online as it was "easier for her".
3. A new front desk clerk (shift change) and the original (from #1 and 2 above) were yelling (literally) across the lobby about a bellman neither liked -- there were several guests in the lobby watching on in surprise.
4. The front desk told my assistant that a taxi from the airport would be about $35 -- it was $60 (without tip). Note: The $60 was confirmed by the hotel next door as average.
5. No one thanked me for my business.

So what are we to do?

Simple. . .

1. Tell the never-before-seen front desk clerk upon checkout (manager was offsite when I checked in and out) and she was very gracious.
2. Email assistant to put this particular hotel on our "never again" list.
3. Spend the 4 hours walking to/from/around Downtown Disney buying shirts for hubby's band from the House of Blues and having a great time.

No matter what business you're in, it's critical to make your clients feel welcome and appreciated.  How can you do that easily AND automatically?   :-)

Affiliate Programs: The Truths No One Talks About

When used properly, affiliate, or referral, programs are fabulous:

• for you (the host if you will),
• for your affiliates -- after all, they get to share a great resource AND get paid for it -- and
• for your new client who may not have been exposed to your wonderful info otherwise.

So knowing that affiliate programs are "so fabulous", why aren't more people using them to their fullest advantage?

Quite simply, affiliate programs are vastly underutilized as most business owners don't know how to properly leverage an affiliate, or referral, program.

First, there's setting it up in the shopping cart or acquiring one through another online gateway -- it's not the most user intuitive process out there and most business owners don't take the time to learn it properly or make it easy for their affiliates to use.

Second, as affiliate sales start rolling in, you're thrilled/excited even. And then it happens, the day you're supposed to pay your affiliate commissions and you find they're in the thousands of dollars and you don't have that cash "on hand".

Let me take a moment to say that having affiliate commissions in the thousands of dollars is not necessarily a bad thing.

It can mean you're reaching clients who would have never heard of you/your product if not for your affiliates and so your sales are up, up, up (good thing).

or

It can also mean that you're relying a bit too much on your affiliates to do your marketing for you and you're not using enough different media on your own (not-so-good thing as you're likely paying more for affiliate commission than you would for increased marketing).

You know which category you fall into. :-)

Business owners who have high affiliate sales must (and I don't use this word lightly) be sure to set aside the affiliate commissions as the sales are made and revenue comes in so that you're not surprised when the "bill comes due".

The worst thing you can do is make your affiliates wait for their commissions -- it sends a message that you don't value them (even if you do).

So what SHOULD you be doing for your affiliate program?

1. Provide your affiliates with cut-and-paste email language, Twitter/Facebook posts, etc. so it’s as easy as possible for them to promote you and your product/service
Set aside the funds for your affiliates so when “pay day” comes, you have the cash ready to go
2. Speaking of “pay day”, most affiliate programs pay affiliates on the paydate after the sale is made (if yours is different, let your affiliates know up front, such as in the case of waiting for an event to occur) so no one's surprised
3. And to continue with “pay day” items, if you offer your affiliates a choice about how they get paid (check or PayPal, for example), respect their choice and
4. If you’re paying through PayPal, avoid using the e-check option as your affiliates will have to wait an additional 2-15 days in order to access their funds

Most of the above deal with paying your affiliates and there's a reason:

Once you've gone through the work of finding them, signing them up and teaching them how to represent you, the last thing you want to do is mess up the payment part.

Make It Real: My Request to You

If you don't yet have an affiliate program, PERFECT, as you'll avoid making the above mistakes which so many have done before you and can get started on the right foot. :-)

And if you do have an affiliate program, let me share some things I'm in the process of implementing for my affiliates with the hopes of inspiring you to greater heights for your own:

1. Sending out a hardcopy resource kit (I've accepted that the shopping cart confuses many and want to make it SUPER easy)
2. Hosting quarterly contests for affiliates
3. Making commissions recurring on recurring/continuity programs so that we all benefit

So what can you do TODAY to create, or increase the effectiveness of, your affiliate program?

And if you're interested in joining my program, click here to sign up. :-)

Keeping Clients in a Down Economy: Is Giving or Taking Better for Your Bottom Line?

Times are tough. There's no doubt about it.

That said, I had my best month ever in March and quarter 1 was my best quarter ever. In fact, I'm on target to surpass my 2008 revenue by June 30th.

I don't tell you that to brag, I tell you so that you can learn from what I'm doing, which, by the way, is almost the exact opposite of what I'm seeing many others doing.

Hmm. . .interesting to note that I'm doing the opposite of a lot of other business owners and am having my best year ever-to-date.

So what's my secret?

Quite simply, in an economy where most business owners are scaling back and taking things away from their programs, and therefore their clients, I'm adding goodies and little perks.

Rather than spend more time, energy and money to recruit new clients, I'm showing current clients how much I value them by going above and beyond, thus creating raving fans who are telling others and then those others are coming to me.

Is every person I speak with hiring me?

Of course not, when it's a good fit and a win/win for us both, we get together. When not, we had a great conversation and now know more about each other (a new connection is always a good thing!).

Here are a few examples of what I do which may inspire you with your clients and leads:

• Send a welcome gift to new Team Sandy clients (it's a book which I highly recommend and feel everyone should read)
• Send a different welcome gift to new private clients
• Send a handwritten card to new clients and those I have a strategy session with
• Send items via snail mail and yes, incur the ongoing fulfillment cost, if I think it adds to the program and increases the client's experience
• Send flowers or other appropriate gifts to clients who have a breakthrough or realize a great success (recent examples include a client who signed a book contract with a major publisher, another who stopped taking insurance and a 3rd who launched a membership program in an industry where you wouldn't expect one and quickly got her first sign-up)

You see, it isn't about how much revenue you can bring in -- it IS about how the client feels when doing business with you:

• Does she feel valued?
• Does she feel your work together far outweighs the investment?
• And, even when it's time to move on from the relationship, does she know that she's welcome back and that valued for your time together?

If you're unsure in any way about how your clients would answer to the above 3 questions, it's time to either ask or amp up the quality of your client experience.

After all, without clients you don't have a business. . .

Ethical Question: Sandy's Response

In posting the ethical question, and I truly believe it a question of ethics and integrity yesterday, I was curious about the responses I'd get.

There are, of course, no right or wrong answers.  It's what's right, or wrong, for you and your business.

Here's my response:

Once I raised the price of a program/product/service, I would not give a friend, former client, etc. the "old" price for several reasons, including:

1. I announced a price increase -- not adhering to it would call my integrity into question and others would wonder what else I would be willing to be out of integrity on.

2. If I "change my mind" on that item, it sets a precedent that I would do so again on other items.

3. It lessens the value of my product/program/service to be changing the price willy nilly because someone asks me to.

4. If the program is something that I chose to offer preferred client pricing on (a great and completely valid marketing decision), my clients would know that in advance and have a special link/coupon in order to obtain their special pricing.

I've seen so many instances of business owners using marketing techniques ("only X number available", "available until Y date", etc.) and then changing them because their sales were too low OR too high (and they wanted to keep cashing in), that I'm very sensitive to what I consider a lack of integrity within marketing campaigns.

I have 2 simple questions to determine if something is right for me in terms of whether or not I'd do it:

1. Knowing my sensitivity around questions of integrity, would doing it conflict with that? If the answer is "yes", I don't do it.  PERIOD.
2. If I saw it on the front page of the paper/twitter/facebook, would I be embarassed?  If the answer is "yes", I don't do it (even if it passed number 1 above). PERIOD.

The above questions are asked in the order listed.  If something doesn't pass #1, it does NOT move on to #2.

In the end, you must choose to do what's right for you and your business.

Ethical Question: What would you do if...

Many may not feel that this is an ethical question or one of integrity, but I absolutely do. 

Let me set the stage...You recently raised the prices for a program/service/whatever and sent out several notices that you were going to do so.

The question...

"What would you do if a former client, someone you consider a friend, asked you to honor the old pricing structure?"

Option 1: Would you give them the old pricing?

Option 2: Would you decline and them the new pricing?

Option 3: Other...

I know what I did when in the situation and am curious about what you think -- please leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts, okay?

It's happening again on May 11th

For those of us who use direct mail as part of our overall marketing strategy, there's a great incentive to get something out sooner, rather than later...

The US postal service is raising the price of postage again -- a first class stamp is going from 42 to 44 cents.

However...if you purchase the "Forever" stamp (the Liberty Bell ones), you can purchase them now and use them "forever" -- pay 42 cents now and they're good after May 11th.

For more info on the postage increase, please visit: http://www.usps.com/prices/pricechanges.htm?from=global_ftpromo&page=NewMay09Prices