There’s is a strong chance, like most businesses, that your business becomes slower during summer. Summer is a time where you try to spend as much time away from the office or at least having your office become the beach. Given the technology and world we live in, it’s totally possible but there are some industries and businesses that NEED to the office and attention that comes with an office.

This blog is for you!

We wanted to give you a few tips to help bring more business during the summer months and hopefully by using these tips you can NEVER have a slow summer again!

Social Media

Ok. So yeah, this one’s obvious. Social media is definitely important but as the weather gets nicer there is one that that people LOVE to do.

BRAG!

People love bragging about where they are going, what they are doing, and even who they are with. So as more individuals are on social media, it’s a huge opportunity for you to capture your audience on social media!

Take pictures that resemble a vacation and add your business INTO the content. You don’t have to be a travel agency to win on social during the summer. Find ways to make it relevant. Like this blog for example 😉

Ask Customers to Spread the Word

Once you have your summery content down pat. The next thing to do, is ask!

Ask your customers to spread the word about your business. As mentioned before, we all find an excuse to have a more time for leisure during the summer. Use it to your advantage. By having good content and offering something that is mutually beneficial to your customer, they are more likely to spread your brands message online.

Incorporate asking within other marketing channels as well. Email, advertisements, and more are also great ways to simply ask for the sale!

Offer Financial Incentives

CUSTOMERS LOVE SALES DURING THE SUMMER! Think of the summer of a time where people like to spend money on extra things. This is a great for your business. Time to capitalize. While you market our business do your best to offer financial incentives that help us save a few bucks.

Try to offer BOGO (Buy One Get One) If you sell a premium service, there is still a way to make this happen. Try pairing your services together for an additional bonus for your customers.

Make an Excuse To Give a Gift…Just Because

The most obvious gift givings are during the holiday season, primarily between November and December. Although its great to give gifts, let’s try to be less obvious. Summer is a great way to give gifts, (not chocolate of course) but gifts that don’t require eating.

We all know how much you like being outside, but you can take your clients out with you. Golfing/other sporting events are great ways to get to know your clients and networking partners.

Lastly, we strongly encourage you to create your own holiday! There is enough information throughout the internet to find out the meaning of each day ever in existence. There is also a holiday for just about any occasion. There’s “Speak Like a Pirate Day” or “Dinosaur Day”. The list goes on, but do the research and invest in people. You’ll win every time.

People are what makes your company tick. By investing time in your people during the summer, it may open them and have them coming back during your busier season.

The word persuasion for some reason just sounds negative. Realistically it’s not all that bad if you persuade in a positive manner. For example, we all have those pesky prospects that have been giving you the run around for the past month.

It happens to everyone!

I’d say that’s life, but I’m sure it will only make you more mad that they haven’t converted yet. We wanted to set the record straight and give you some techniques to help turn a prospect into a customer. But first, let’s get to know the basics.

Persuasion IS NOT Manipulation.

Just because you can get a prospect to convert after a long hiatus, does not mean you manipulated them to perform the act. Persuasion is the art of getting people to do things that are in their own best interest that also benefit you. In this case, your services. You know how good your services are, and there is a strong chance they do too. Why aren’t there converting yet? Well that’s an entirely different question, but the goal is simple and it stems from one word:

YET!

Think about it. How often have you asked your sales rep.

You: “Hey _____, Has _____ converted into a sale?”

Rep: “Nope. I’m trying. Can’t get to the decision maker for some reason.”

Sounds pretty negative right? Immediately it puts you into an awkward situation and potentially lets a negative energy throughout the rest of the office because your sales rep now feels worthless.

Now, imagine the conversation if they added just this one word.

You: “Hey _____, Has _____ converted into a sale?”Build a Rapport

Rep: “No, not yet.”

Now, there is hope! The following 7 persuasion techniques will help turn that prospect into a customer!

1. Timing

As I am sure you’re aware, timing is everything. It’s not different with sales. If your prospect hasn’t responded to your emails or even voicemails. It’s probably because you’re trying to reach the individual during normal working hours. Try a new strategy. Call the individual either before or after working hours.

Yes, that means you might have to get up early.

Try calling from 7am to 9am or 5pm to 7pm. There’s a good chance they are working late on a project, or just busy. Catch them during these hours for optimum success.

2. Sound Genuine

Once you get a hold of the prospect make sure you sound genuine. Ask the individual how they are doing. Don’t trash talk the individual for missing your calls, just act like they never happened. Remember, it’s summer time. Although you might be thinking business 24/7, theres a chance they might be thinking of their boat!

3. Persistence Pays Off

One of the biggest issues in today’s business world is the follow up. If your client hasn’t responded, find a way to set alerts on your phone to remind you to reach out. The more persistent you are, the stronger chance you have at proving to your prospect how serious you are about their business. Remember, persistence IS NOT annoyance. Don’t be that loud,annoying, and obnoxious drunk guy/girl at the bar. No one likes them, and neither will your prospect. Be respectful to them as a person and to their time.

4. Create Urgency

This technique can be a tad risky, but it solely depends on your product/service. If you are trying to sell a product, there is a good chance you can attempt to offer a discount. If you are a service based company, you might want to try bringing up your teams random lack of time. A classic technique is to mention that your teams schedules are being raided with other projects and that if they don’t act quickly, they may lose out on your next month’s availability. Who likes waiting? Exactly, no one!

5. Maintain Confidence

The minute you lose confidence, the minute you lose the prospect. Assume at all times that it’s not that they haven’t signed up, it’s that they haven’t signed up, YET! Find ways to increase your confidence and positive mental attitude.

6. Continue on Your Path 

Focus! Yes, they haven’t signed up yet, but the show must go on. Continue working on bettering your clients experience, continue building rapport for other prospects and network. There will be plenty of other prospects, but you can not focus on the ones that haven’t signed up yet. Eventually the more you harp on the ones that haven’t, that confidence and positive mental attitude will slip away from you.

Happy prospecting!

Over the past week I have been traveling across the nation to meet with prospects in multiple cities to expand our client base. It’s been a surreal experience thus far, one that I will truly never forget. Along the way, I have met a ton of great people, experienced great food, and learned a lot about myself and in business.

Sometimes in life we have so many things going on, that we neglect the small things that we take for granted. For example, you’re a dang business owner! You have an awesome product, an awesome company, and an even awesome culture! You have created a product / service, in by far one of the busiest and loudest periods in the history of man kind.

There is a ton of noise and it’s extremely difficult to disrupt that and break through. So to you, congratulations!

With that said, you truly don’t know that your product works, until you’re not only able to expand your business into another city/state, but successfully sell within that city/state. And I don’t mean the city/state across the bridge. I’m talking, half way across the nation cit/state!

I had the privilege to meet with a few brands in Chicago and San Francisco to pitch our business. Each meeting I gave them the same pitch I give everyone else, only more tailored towards the company’s goals. Each meeting was a huge success and after I went home to my hotel, I had my “ah ha” moment.

Here are 4 Ways to Know Your Product / Service Works:

Solves A Problem

During my meetings, I used a few discovery tactics to find the customers pain points. After finding out what the client was interested in, we developed a solution to meet the client’s needs. It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, people have problems. It’s up to you to discover how you and your company can solve the equation.

Bring Immediate Value

You’ll know your product is good because you can reach in your utility belt of services and produce value to your client. Your product / service needs to bring the customer value because regards of who you are, where you’re geographically located, the customer can see if solving the company’s main issue. Being value now a days is such a buzz word and it truly does pain me to use it in a blog post, but there is a lot to be said about it. Value can mean several things, but the most important piece of value that you need to focus on, is the value that is MOST IMPORTANT to your prospect, in that EXACT moment.

If you try to bring value in ways that have been used in the past, or has worked for past clients, it simply won’t work. Bring immediate value that gets them to sign that day! Time is valuable and you have a whole world to conquer!

Low Risk and High Reward

This is a no brainer and allows the client to simply sign on the dotted line. After all of the steps within your sales process, you need to show that your client isn’t losing much by using your product / service. By showcasing the above two ways, it’s only a matter of time before the client sees that you’re the company for their organization.

In conclusion, there are a ton of businesses out there that want to work with a local company and that’s great, but the fact of the matter is that you shouldn’t worry about location. What you need to focus on is getting your problem solved. It could mean that the solution lies in Philadelphia, it could also mean Chicago, San Francisco, or maybe even over seas. The fact of the matter is, you will know that your product / service works because your language is universal. It’s recognized and respected by the world, and not just the individuals within your back yard.

So you’re about to get a website, and you’re doing your research online to find the right company to build it for you.  That’s probably the best and safest place to start because you can see their work and gauge how fast they respond to you.  If the works look good and they’re responsive…HANG ON!  There are 3 things you MUST clear with them first before you  make that deposit!

1.  How will you make my website load fast?

Asking if your website will be fast is a rhetorical question.  Of course they’re going to say YES.  The last thing you want is a beautifully designed/coded website…that takes 1 minute to load.  This is a problem in our industry.  Many companies know how to make websites, but don’t know how to make them FAST, and you unfortunately pay the price.  Just because the site seems fast on your computer doesn’t mean it’s fast for others, especially those in other states.  Your computer may be saving a cache version of your site, allowing it to load lightning fast (Chrome does this).

A good Web company will tell you exactly HOW they will make your website fast and will give you third party options such as CDN to enhance speed if necessary.  Never accept “Our sites are just…fast”, trust me that’s not good enough.  They need to be able to list the things they will do to enhance speed if necessary.

Asking this question will help you weed our bad companies early on.

2.  How are you coding my website?  Can other developers fix it?

If they’re using CMS (content management system) to build your website, chances are it’s going to be WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla.  If they’re using something custom, you need to know ASAP.  Because if whatever they’re using isn’t open-source (meaning it’s freely distributed to other developers and others can work on it) then you have no choice but to stay with them, even if their support is garbage.  So make sure they’re coding your website using something common and that other developers can jump in to fix their mistakes or take over their job if necessary.

Now…there are exceptions to the rule.  For most websites, using a common CMS is appropriate, however for larger projects it may not be the best.  If you’re asking a company to build you a scalable Social Network with complex features, chances are it’s going to be completely custom from the ground up.  And it’s appropriate in such instances to maximize performance.  If you want to see examples of such awesome work check out our website https://dinoenterprise.com.

Asking this question early on will give you an EXIT if you don’t like the company.  Otherwise you are stuck with them.

3.  Will you give me a FULL backup of my website?

I know this sounds pretty silly. We’ve had clients who came to us asking to rebuild their website, and when we asked them for access to it they tell us their old web company refused to give them back their website or any access to it.  Sure, you can eventually get access to your site and files after a long drawn out court battle that shouldn’t happen in the first place.  Why don’t we just skip all this headache and ask them up front if they will give you the FULL backup of your website, and the keyword there is “FULL”.  A FULL backup of your website will contain all the graphics/images/files AND Database, and you can upload it to any new host you desire.  Trust me, you will be glad you have a full backup of your 50K investment.

Asking this question will save you a lot of money and time on pointless legal battles.

With the Proper Research Consider your Competition as Prey!

With the on-going changes on sites like google, Facebook, and many more businesses from around the world know exactly where their customers are going and where they are searching. The problem now is, how do you get in touch with your specific customers. Paper ads and other forms of traditional media don’t work the same way they once did, and although you may beg to differ that social advertising doesn’t “Work” statistics speak differently. Here are 5 ways to capture your target audience.

1.) Competitor Research

Guess what!? Facebook is free and you can stalk and creep on any and every public business in the world! The world is your oyster and you’re allowed to see what your competition is doing right and of course doing wrong. We all know who the top brands are. We all know our favorite CEO is from that top brand. We all have different brands we love and follow. Use this to your advantage! Remember the time when a Comcast rep wouldn’t let a customer cancel their account? Don’t just read and listen to the phone conversation, analyze this and see how you can adapt this to your business.

2.) Find Brand Advocates

Businesses from around the world are all loyal, work hard, and put the customer first. We get it, and have all heard it before. Being more realistic we all can’t hit a home run at every at bat, but the times we do, everyone better know about it. In order to find your target audience on social media, simply ask your client to either write a review or promote the brand on social media. Because your current customer is happy and content, use that person to promote your brand and find other customers exactly like him/her.

3.) Encourage Phone Use at the office

We all agree that we hire individuals that fulfill a need within our business and are able to fit into the company culture. The people you hire are more than likely individuals that you are trying to reach. Use that to your advantage! Check-in, tag, and take pictures at your facility. It is simply a win win!

4.) Create Targeted Ads

Facebook Dark Posts. Consider it the Snapchat of Facebook. Facebook specifically has allowed us marketers the ability to target individuals so specific that you can find out what they ate for lunch. Kidding aside, using ads on social media is so important! Figuring out how to properly use ads to leverage your content and brand is essential. This will allow you to capture your audience and at the least let them know who you are and what it is that you do. Create engaging content and may be customers for life!

5.) Execute

Take what you have learned from this blog and simply EXECUTE it! Use your skills, trust your brand; You know who you’re trying to capture. It’s just a matter of time until they convert to customers.

Types Of CTA’s Your Blog or Website Needs

CTAs or Call to Action buttons are usually those “click here” buttons website and blog owners put on their site usually to generate leads or sales. These buttons are important because the button gets visitors to do different kinds of things. This is why there is no one size fits all buttons. Remember that your button is there because of a number of different reasons depending on what you want: more visitors, information, leads, promotions and many other things. Website and blog owners want their visitors to become leads and then customers and eventually promoters. This is why you need different types of CTAs in your website.

1. Lead Generation

Before visitors become customers they become leads. A lead generation CTA is perhaps the most common kind and is most effective in a page in your website that attracts new visitors. The most popular places for this kind of CTA is at the end of blogs, in the sidebar or as a floating banner in the corner. These CTAs are usually eye catching and communicate the value of clicking it.

2. Form Submission Buttons

This CTA is when you want your visitors to fill up a form usually for information or registration purposes. Before visitors become a lead they have to register and you need to get them to click the submit button. Because you don’t want them to slip through your fingers you want your visitors to get something more specific for the marketing offer they are trading their information for.

3. Product or Service Discovery

New visitors and guests to your website are usually looking for useful information about your product or service and you want to make it easy for them to do so. This kind of CTA does not need fancy buttons and graphics. All it needs is useful information and a button that stands out against the background. Remember your product and service is what keeps your business afloat. Make it easy for visitors to get useful information.

4. Social Sharing icons

Social media is a big part of the internet. The purpose of the social sharing button is to encourage visitors to share your blog or product. This is can be an effective CTA because it is a low commitment way for visitors to share your blog or website. Place these buttons in areas that make sense such as the end of blog posts, landing pages, etc.

Sumome does an awesome job, and is extremely easy to install, to help small business owners with setting this up.

5. Lead Nurturing

In some cases, visitors are just not ready to buy your product or service. When this happens you want to entice them with another kind of offer, something that is aligned with the one you are offering. To nurture your lead, offer them free demos, free trials or quotes. Showcase these CTAs in pages of your website where you know there are a lot of lead visits such as the bottom of another marketing offer or on a blog post.

We compiled a list of ways to increase conversion on your website. We hope you use these for your business.

Before we begin, we need to define what is an actual conversion. Conversion can defined in many ways, but it all depends on your company’s goals and mission. A conversion is an action that is on your website that leads to an action. The best kind of conversions are those actions that also lead to a dollar amount, or at most, leads the user into your sales funnel. Your sales funnel is your process that allows your users to flow directly into your company to not only learn more about who you are, but most importantly about what you do!

Here is a quick list of ways to increase conversions on your website:

• Contact Form
• Email Newsletter
• Learn More about a specific product or service
• Social Like/Follow
• Share your message
• Quick Quote
• and so many more…

Once the conversion is made by the user, we suggest implementing a “success page” that allows the user to know that they have successfully converted into the next stage of your sales funnel.

Converting your customers can be tricky, but here are 6 ways to increase conversions on your website:

Google Analytics

If this tool is not on your website, please contact a developer.

Google analytics is by far one of the most important tools for any website. It tracks your users and shows you exactly where they are coming from and also how they got to your website. It’s also important to see where they are clicking, once they get on your page. A way to increase conversions on your website is to simply read and understand the statistics themselves!

Think about it.

If you knew how long people are staying on your website and what their clicking patterns were, I can assure you, you’d be able to create an inbound marketing strategy that compliments your website.

To start, focus on the top 5 pages on your website. Not only should you make them look better, but add new content. Most importantly, add a Call to Action (CTA) A CTA should be strategically located throughout your website that again, reverts back to conversion strategies.

SumoMe

This tool is a fun plugin that can be used on any website. SumoMe has a ton of tools in their tool box. For starters, you add a sharing option on every page of your website. This gives your users the ability to share your work throughout their social channels. The next tool are pop ups. No, not ads, but more so fun pop ups that describe in greater detail what you’re trying to sell.

We suggest using SumoMe as a tripwire to bring more people into your sales funnel. By creating great content and offering your users to enter their email for a “Free eBook” or adding themselves into your email newsletter, or better yet, 25% off their first purchase. You will see a significant increase in your emails and give your business the opportunity to grow your email base and sales funnel.

Social Media Pixels

DISCLAIMER. This does require you to be a little nerdy. To do so, you need to add a conversion pixel on your website. Follow the instructions here and you will be fine! By adding a conversion pixel you are then able to track every single user that goes onto your website, also you will be able to figure out how many people have realistically have bought something.

Your conversion pixel should be located on your Thank You page. This page is the final good bye once the transaction is complete.

Heat Map

This is another feature within SumoMe, but there are a ton of other options available. This tool is a tad creepy, however it is extremely affective. A Heat Map gives you the ability to track your users mouse, every step they take throughout your website. By looking at your heat map you can see exactly where the hot spots are on your website and even what areas of the website people are clicking on. You will be able to find potential broken links or even add a link to a place on your website that isn’t clickable.

Talk to Your Customers

It depends on who you talk to, but we at Dino are huge fans of feedback. More specifically, asking your users how they found out about you. You can have all of the tools you can on your website, but there is nothing better than simply asking your customers why they chose you over your competition.

To do this, we strongly suggesting asking this question AFTER they become a customer and a relationship is already established.

Hire a Trusted Web/Marketing Company

We are totally bias and we believe that we very much so could be your marketing team to help you with increasing your conversions, but for the some odd chance you don’t hire a web/marketing team that you know and trust.

The reason why this is so critical is because by monitoring your analytics, by looking at your heatmap, by developing your email newsletter, and creating conversion pixels throughout your website, you need a team that make the changes and adapt your brand with your customers.

Just because you get 10,000 visitors to your website doesn’t make you a success. Especially if no one is doing what you want them to do on your site. By doing everything we have mentioned above, you can make changes to your website and place your conversions and your call to actions, in “hot” areas on your website that will significantly increase your conversions and hopefully bring more money to your business.

5 Ways to Get Your Website Investment Back

How To Know It’s Time To Let Small Clients Go

If you’ve just started your business you embrace all your clients. You value them and try to take care all of them no matter what their size is. As you grow bigger it is sometimes inevitable that you need to let some of your smaller clients go. It is usually not about the business they bring to you but the time you can spend with them. Here are some signs that you need break up with your smaller clients.

Not Earning Your Worth

It’s good to audit clients from time to time. Auditing does not only involve the amount you bill your clients but also the time you spend on their account every month. You know it’s time to let them go when there is an imbalance with in the time you spend on them and the amount you are paid. In most cases the least lucrative account usually takes up a lot of time. When you see this happening to some smaller clients, you most probably need to break it off.

Business Practices No Longer In Line

As businesses grow it’s quite possible to drift apart not only in terms of relationships but in business practices. You and your client may have started out with the same beliefs and practices but as you evolve as separate entities it is possible to form different views and change. Drifting off to different directions could be a sign that it’s time to let go.

Spending Less Time On Their Account

It is inevitable to spend less time on smaller clients as your business continues to grow. If you fell that you don’t give small clients the time and attention they deserve then they will probably benefit more from firms that can give them full attention. Let them go gently to preserve your relationship by referring them to a company that you know will treat them better.

Too Close

When you’ve been in business a long time you sometimes get close to your clients. You go to each other’s parties or visit each other’s homes. You probably even know the names of all their children and their ages. When your client starts to feel like family or when you get too close for comfort it could make it hard for you to make business decisions for their behalf. Another good sign is when you can’t make decisions without emotions. Finding yourself mixing business with pleasure is also another sign.

Letting clients go can be a hard chore to do, however the above stated situations are practical and calls for action on your part. Once you identify small businesses that need to be let go it will become easier to run your business and healthier for the state of your company in the long run.