In order to grow your business, and maintain your sanity, you must learn to say NO. Saying no to potential new clients is something they do not teach in business school, and in the real world of entrepreneurship, is very difficult.

At Bourn Creative, we have experienced growth year after year, and one element that continues to thrive is that we actually have become more selective on who we choose to work with. I know that seems a little backwards, as clients are also choosing to work with us, but let’s face it, clients shop around, so why shouldn’t you?

Accepting less than your ideal client usually has one of three outcomes:

1. You work way too hard to make them happy, and end up eating it on your hourly rate or sacrificing sleep and time with your family.

1. The project gets completed to your standards and their expectations, but you never hear from them again. No repeat business, no quality referrals, and no raving fans that will help promote your brand.

1. The project goes sideways and you find yourself either in a contract dispute, or end up working for free after you give a refund.

FYI, all of these have happened to us in the past, and one of the ways we have been able to maintain a steady stream of great clients now, is by being selective and regularly just saying no. It took us awhile to get here, but after looking back we have identified some common elements that usually lead to less than an ideal client or project outcome.

Six Red Flags That May Signal a Big Fat NO!

Your prospect is price shopping. If during your initial conferences, your prospective client is too focused on cost, and not results, you have two options; say no, or see how good of a salesperson you are and use the opportunity to convince them why you are truly worth the investment. Sometimes people just need a little nudge to move forward. If their only concern is price, nothing you say will change their mind.

Your prospect doesn’t really want to work, or has unrealistic expectations. This is harder to sniff out during a preliminary meeting, because most people are genuinely excited about starting something new. The key to filtering out the prospective clients who have a get rich quick mentality, or approach their business like a hobby or side job, is to set clear expectations before a contract is signed. It’s OK to set expectations for clients before you engage in business. The ones that are truly ready to work with you will appreciate your seriousness, and the ones that are not will move along to someone else who will tell them what they want to hear.

You don’t understand or believe in what your prospect is doing. If during your preliminary interviews, your client can’t articulate their ideas enough for you to understand their vision and their goals you are probably not meant to work together. Also, if they engage in something that you have a moral dilemma with or simply find ridiculous, don’t take their money and try to do a good job, because you won’t.

Your prospect asked you to do something that is out of your circle of competence. If someone asks you to do something that you do not know how to do, kindly decline, but use this as an opportunity to evaluate if their request fits into your big vision of yourself and your business. If it does, you should be motivated to go out and enhance your skill set and grow your offerings. The first time you try something new in your business, it shouldn’t be an experiment on your client’s dime.

They do not understand or value your process. Our roots were formed as a design company, and still rely on our creative process to get the results we get. This takes time. I have yet to find someone who can create someone’s brand, design their logo and collateral materials, build an awesome website, conduct keyword research for SEO, craft a marketing plan, and then get the implementation going in a week. After you explain everything, if your prospective client doesn’t understand why it takes the time for you to work your magic, they may not be the bet fit for you.

No matter what nothing you do for them will help. It is easy to take money from someone; the hard part is feeling good about. If your potential client has a flawed business model or engages in practices that you know will not convert sales, and is not ready to receive constructive criticism, they are not your ideal person to work with. Let them down easy and move on.

How to Say NO Gently and Professionally

After you have made the mental decision to say no to your potential client you must do it gently and professionally. One good tactic is to state that you are simply too busy to take on any additional clients, and then provide an actual referral to somebody else. This is great a chance to refer business to someone you may be in competition with or someone who needs the work more than you. They are not your ideal client anyways, so who cares, and they will love you for it. A little Karma goes a long ways.

It is hardest to say no the first time, because you are turning down revenue. We personally have said no to some monster projects, based just on the vibe we got from the prospect. It was really tough turning down that much money, but after looking back, I am really glad we did. It just wasn’t a good fit and would have probably sucked us dry.

So trust me, after a few times it gets easier to say no, and after a while, you will only be working with your ideal clients who will truly value your abilities, become raving fans and repeat customers for life, and provide an endless supply of quality referrals.

All legal disclaimers for products, programs, or services that you are marketing should be clearly visible on the same webpage or printed marketing piece that your items are described.

I have gathered the following marketing disclaimers as examples to consult when crafting your disclosures with a professional legal advisor.

General Website Marketing Disclaimer

“The income statements, testimonials, and examples on this website are exceptional results, and are not intended to represent or guarantee that anyone will achieve the same or similar results. Each individual’s success depends on his or her desire, dedication, marketing background, market place, product, service, effort and motivation to work and follow programs and advice. There is no guarantee you will duplicate the results stated here. You recognize any business endeavor has inherent risk for loss of capital.”

Membership Disclaimer

“Per the current FTC guidelines, we are in the process of collecting results data from Company X members in order to be able define the “typical” or “average” experience of our members. While we collect that data, we are sharing unique stories of individual Company X members. None of these stories in any way represent the “average” or “typical” Company X member experience. In fact, as with any product or service, we know that some members purchase our system but never use it, and therefore get no results from their membership whatsoever. Therefore, the member stories we are sharing can neither represent nor guarantee the current or future experience of other past, current or future Company X members. Rather, these member stories represent what is possible with our system. Each of these unique stories, and any and all results reported in these stories by individual members, are the culmination of numerous variables, many of which Company X cannot control, including pricing, target market conditions, product/service quality, offer, customer service, personal initiative, and countless other tangible and intangible factors.”

Coaching/Educational Program Disclaimer

“Every effort has been made to accurately represent our program and its potential. Any claims made of actual earnings or examples of actual results can be verified upon request. Testimonials and examples used are exceptional results, don’t apply to the average purchaser, and are not intended to represent or guarantee that anyone will achieve the same or similar results. Each individual’s success depends on his or her background, dedication, desire and motivation. As with any business endeavor, there is an inherent risk of loss of capital and there is no guarantee that you will earn any money.”

Affiliate Marketing Disclosure

The FTC clearly states that all products and services sold through affiliate marketing programs must have a clear disclaimer notifying the consumer that you may receive a commission or fee if someone purchases through your link.

“From time to time, we will promote, endorse, or suggest products and/or services for sale. These recommendations are ALWAYS based on a belief that the product and it’s author will provide excellent and valuable information or service based on a review of that product, our relationship with that person, and or previous positive experience with the person or company who’s product we are recommending. In some cases, we will be compensated if you decide to purchase that product based on our recommendation. We may also receive the product for free for review purposes. Always do your OWN due-diligence before making any purchases and never purchase anything that you cannot afford.”

My Personal Disclaimer…You Knew This Was Coming

“The contents of this post are intended to be purely educational in nature, and are not intended to be used as legal advice. As with all legal matters, consult a proper attorney before using any of these disclaimers in your marketing materials, advertising, or on your website. Use of these examples without due diligence is at your own risk.”

You know the people, the ones that never miss an opportunity to tell you that they rank number one on Google for all of the keywords relating to their business.

Yeah. Right. Sure You Do.

I know for a fact one of these so-called Google Braggers uses this line to woo new clients who don’t know any better… Ah the illustrious promise of the Google Promise Land.

Here’s my problem with that. Those statements 99.9% of the time are FALSE!

Yep. They are false. And, here’s the even bigger problem… the people claiming to have reached this state of Google Nirvana with their site ranking number one for every keyword, usually have no idea that they are making false claims because they don’t understand search engine optimization (seo) and rankings.

Take for example a local Sacramento company that makes this claim often. They aren’t even in the search engine optimization business, so it clear that they don’t realize how silly what they are claiming really is.

After about the fifth time I’ve seen them make this claim both in person and on Facebook, I decided to check it out. I cleared my browser history, I cleared my cache, I logged out of Google and I searched. Yes, they ranked number one for their business name and the two owners’ names – but everyone should rank number one for their branded keywords. Then I searched for them under the top seven keywords and key phrases I could think of that would fit their business and they didn’t even crack the top three pages. For several keywords, they didn’t even crack the top ten pages.

Here’s what you need to know. Your search results are relative.

The sites that come up in the results when you search for something are affected by your browsing history, the links you click on, whether or not you’re logged into Google, your location, whether you search for yourself 100 times a day, and more. That means that just because you come up number one when you search for yourself, it doesn’t mean you will when other people search for you.

Now, you can log out of Google, wipe your browser history clean, and clear your cache, etc. to get a fairly accurate and clean look at where your site stands. You also can use Google’s Webmaster Tools and other tools available to see your true stats.

If you get one thing out of this article, I want you to understand that everything online is relative and as we move more toward the socialization of the web, it will become even more so.

Also, don’t get sucked in by the promises of reaching the number one spot on Google for every keyword that applies to your business. There are companies that get paid millions of dollars a year to achieve that and if they have a hard time getting it done and have to work on hitting that goals day in and day out, your local entrepreneur, for whom SEO isn’t even a part of their business, isn’t going to make it happen.

What you can do, is hire a reputable company to do some keyword research for you and provide you a report back on the appropriate keywords and key phrases for your business that you can successfully compete on, and which keywords and key phrases that, no matter how hard you try, there is just too much competition in the market to be successful without a lot of money and a lot (and I mean a lot) of effort. That way you can get the best results for your efforts.

I read the email, re-read the email and again and at the end I still wasn’t quite sure what the sender was asking of me! But I think the sender was asking me to either meet him for a sales pitch or provide free coaching.

Here’s the problem with “cold calling” using direct email marketing: you can’t hear the tone of voice, you have a hard time reading between the lines, and you can’t clarify and ask questions easily.

In this post, I am going to share the email I received with you, I am going to critique it and share some insights on what a stranger would think reading it, and I am going to provide a rewritten version of the email that I would have liked to have received.

Here’s the email I received:

Hello Jennifer;

Looks like I could learn much from you. All that I read about you on your website says ” you are successful” and I feel that all of us could benefit from encouraging success at all levels in our lives. Our mutual friends of Cinderella and Snow White are wonderful folks. I would like to come in and meet with you and learn more about what you do and see first hand what you offer. I also am a member of Disney Church. We have a group that meets on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month. We are all business owners, managers or sales people. Good coaching and networking to help one another I think is one of the keys to help propel our business’ in this economy.

Jennifer, let me know what you think and how soon we can meet. I look forward to learning about your company, and seeing how we just might enhance one another’s business’. Thanks kindly for your time and I hope you have the best day ever!!!

Before I point out the mistakes made in this email, I want to be very clear that this email critique isn’t meant to bash the sender

• I think the sender actually had his heart in the right place
• I think the sender was truly wants to build a mutually beneficial relationship
• I think the sender was trying to reach out and do good
• I think the sender meant well

But this email message, from the recipient’s point of view, is a mess and sends up all sorts of red flags and doesn’t adhere to the most common direct email marketing best practices.

I chose to critique this email publicly on the blog because I get A LOT of these emails, sometimes several each week and I am seeing the same email mistakes made over and over.

Plus the email marketing statistics for a message like this has got to be awful. So, with a few changes and improvements, the senders could increase their success rate with email marketing leads quite a bit! And hopefully, this critique will help you write better and more successful solicitation email messages as well.

Email Introduction Critique
From a total stranger’s point of view as the recipient

Email Message Says:

Looks like I could learn much from you. All that I read about you on your website says ” you are successful” and I feel that all of us could benefit from encouraging success at all levels in our lives

Email Message Critique:

Starting off an email to someone you have never met, never had any interaction with, and have never introduced yourself to before with this statement immediately puts the recipient on guard and sends up fiery red warning flares telling them to watch out.

That statement alone, whether you meant it or not, screams asking for free work. In fact, the email might as well have read, “I’m struggling and I need help. You look really successful. In the spirit of giving, because you’re nice right? Will you teach me everything you know and coach me for free because that would be great?”

As you can see, starting an email off with this statement to a total stranger pretty much renders your message dead upon arrival and your email marketing statistic and success rate are probably going to be in the toilet.

Email Message Says:

Our mutual friends of Cinderella and Snow White are wonderful folks.

Email Message Critique:

Um, name dropping only works if you explain why you are name dropping. Yes, it’s great that we have some mutual friends and I’m glad you think they’re wonderful. But what does that have to do with me? Why are you using their names? Are you a client of one of theirs? Do you work with one of them? Did one of them tell you to contact me? You need to explain this to me or it just seems odd and leaves me baffled.

Email Message Says:

I would like to come in and meet with you and learn more about what you do and see first hand what you offer.

Email Message Critique:

Really!? Oh My Gosh! I am jumping up and down! Okay, not really. At this point I am actually wondering why. Why do you want to come in and meet with me to see what I offer? Earlier in the email you told me you were on my website. You even told me that it made me look successful. So why do you need to meet with me to figure out what I do?

Is it because you didn’t actually read anything on my website? Is it because you just went to my website to get my contact information so you could email me and it looked professional so obviously I am successful?

Or, is it because you don’t actually care at all what I do and you’re just using that as a reason to get in the door? I know this trick well because in the past I have fallen for it many times.

It goes something like this: I agree to meet a total stranger who wants to learn more about my services and when we actually meet, I can barely get out a brief overview of the company before they start in on their sales pitch of a product or service that would be a great fit for me and my clients. I smile, nod, barely say a word, excuse myself as quickly as possible and drive home mad that I just wasted my time on a work day listening to a sales pitch.

Email Message Says:

I also am a member of Disney Church. We have a group that meets on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month. We are all business owners, managers or sales people.

Email Message Critique:

There are so many things wrong with this statement it isn’t even funny.

I mean seriously… Good for you! You go to church and you network! But again, what does this have to do with me? I can’t figure out if this is a statement or a question or an invitation. Am I supposed to be familiar with your church? Am I supposed to meet with you because you go to church? Are you inviting me to be a part of your group? I am confused!

Email Message Says:

Good coaching and networking to help one another I think is one of the keys to help propel our business’ in this economy.

Email Message Critique:

Let’s just ignore the fact that the overused “in this economy” phrase was included and focus on the good part of this sentence. At least the sender understands that good coaching and networking are part of business success.

But it has the same problem as the other statement’s we’ve reviewed. What does this have to do with me? From the statement we just looked at I thought maybe you were asking me to network with your group. But from this statement, it sounds like you’re asking for free coaching.

These types of statements drive me crazy. It’s as if you asking for free consulting or coaching is acceptable because you’re asking under the guise of helping others “in this economy.” Is that supposed to make me feel bad or guilty and agree to work for free out of guilt?

Email Message Says:

Jennifer, let me know what you think and how soon we can meet. I look forward to learning about your company, and seeing how we just might enhance one another’s business’.

Email Message Critique:

This is the part that I have the hardest time with. How do I respond to this? At this point, I don’t really have a clear understanding of what you want, what you’re asking of from me, what your intentions are with the meeting, or why I should go. There really wasn’t a compelling reason presented that makes me think, “Oh Yeah! I want to meet with this person.”

And, I’m curious… the sender is asking how soon we can meet. Is he in a hurry? Is this urgent? Nothing in the email message made me think so.

The last line is the best. Of course the sender looks forward to learning about my company (even though the sender says they’ve already been on my website), learning about my company is just the appetizer they need to snack on before they push their main course across the table at me and sell me their product or service. They’ll talk about how much more successful I’d be if I used the product. Then they’ll ask me for ideas of how I would market and sell their product, and if they’re like the people I’ve met with in the past, you’ll expect me to pick up the bill for lunch because I’m the successful one.

Thoughts on The Direct Email Marketing Introduction
Insights From Past Experiences

Am I jaded? Of course. I have received enough of these direct email marketing messages to know that it is more than likely a canned email you wrote and sent to 50 people, just changing the names your dropping each time. And, I’ve sat through enough of these meetings to have earned the right to be jaded. Each time, Brian would always ask me, “Why are going to another one of these lunches or meetings? They’re always trying to get something out of you for nothing.” And each time I’d respond with, “But they seem really nice and they know Cinderella, and maybe this will be different.“  But they never were.

What people don’t understand is that when you first start out with your own business, you’ll take all of those meetings because you’re looking for every opportunity under the sun. You’re at the point where you’re saying yes to everything.

But then something changes. As you become more successful, those inquiries start coming more and more often. You try to meet with everyone because you want to be nice and you want to give them a chance and you want to help everyone who asks you. But then you realize you’re exhausted and you need to start protecting your time.

It usually isn’t until this point that a business owner or entrepreneur really starts to realize the value of their time and the exact dollar amount each hour of their time is worth. It’s at this time that the word “No” comes into play more often simply out of the need to stay focused and productive. It is not easy and it doesn’t always feel good because it is in our nature to help.

It’s at this time that the lunches and meetings over coffee with complete strangers who want to “see how we can work together” get cut out of the equation. Instead, only the inquiries from serious business owners and entrepreneurs who have done their homework, have come prepared, and present a proposal or idea of their own are the ones that capture their email marketing leads and earn the meetings.

It is with this approach in mind that I want to present the original email rewritten the way I would have liked to have received the email message.

Email Introduction Rewritten
What I Would Have Liked To Have Received

If direct marketing by email was part of my marketing strategy and I was going to reach out to someone I had never met before who had no idea who I am, my email would sound quite a bit different. Here’s an example of the email I would have sent:

Hello Jennifer;

I was recently at a networking meeting and I was speaking with the wonderful Cinderella and Snow White who mentioned your name and recommended I get in touch with you.

My name is Robin Hood and I think our businesses could be very complimentary to each other. I have spent some time on your website and see that you provide online marketing training and consulting, marketing implementation, and web development services.

I am a representative for Product X and while I see that you offer very comprehensive service, I also see how important it is to you to learn about new marketing products and tools that are available.

I believe that Product X is going to change the landscape of traditional marketing and online marketing by making it easier and faster for your audience to connect with you on the spot.

Obviously, you don’t need a consultant on SEO, but I do have some interesting ideas I think you’ll like about the immediate ways that I can see this benefiting Bourn Creative, especially when it comes to keynote speaking. Then, if you’re interested, I’d also like to speak with you about adding Product X as a tool or resource in your marketing training and seminars.

On another note, I see that you’re also an avid networker! The networking group I mentioned is held at Disney Church on Aladdin Street near your office. We meet on the first and third Tuesday of each month and regularly have about 50 business owners, sales reps, and managers in the room supporting each other. I would like to invite you to come and check it out and talk about having you speak to the group about online marketing and website marketing.

Thank you so much for your time. I look forward to hearing from you and hope we can meet soon!

Thanks kindly for your time and have a great day!

Here’s a quick recap of why this email introduction has so much more impact:

• Immediately, I was told why this person was contacting me and who referred me.
• The sender introduced himself and proved that he had done his homework and knows something about me, about my business., and about the services I offer to my clients.
• The sender told me exactly what type of business he is in and what product he is pitching
• The sender handled an immediate objection he knew I’d have because he took the time to learn about my business before emailing me
• The sender got my attention with the immediate ways he could see the product benefit my business, which means he has ideas to help me and isn’t going to ask me to come up with ideas about his product can help me.
• The sender didn’t push to sell the product or push me to sell the product to my clients, but instead asked to discuss the possibility of me sharing information about it along with the other resources I share (that’s called smart and respectful).
• The sender looped back to the first statement he made in the opening and gave me more information about his networking group and an official invitation to attend. The sender told me that is was close to my office which also shows that he did his homework.
• The sender closed with a positive but not pushy statement. The sender gives me the option of how to respond and when. I can email or call the sender, or I can choose to attend a meeting of the networking group to meet him for the first time there.

So there you have it. Insights on what a total stranger thinks when emailed a vague, sales-y introduction email that seems to ask them to do something for free.

I hope you found this email marketing critique helpful and that it improves some of the email communication being sent today!

When I checked in with Facebook this morning I saw that a friend of mine commented on the post (Don’t go looking to see who posted it. I deleted the comment so there wouldn’t be any embarrassment), and here’s what he said:

“Email Marketing is Outdated! Just FYI!”

I couldn’t believe I was actually reading this statement. I actually laughed at the ridiculousness and ignorance of this comment. Was he serious? There was no way he could really think that right? I was a bit more than surprised and had to tell Brian what I just read.

His response to my question, “Can you believe that statement?” was interesting. He said, “Yes I can.”

WHAT!?! I was getting ready for an argument because he knows that email marketing is a highly effective marketing tool for our business, for our clients’ businesses and many of our friends’ businesses.

But then he continued, “I can see that point of view, because if you’re not really using email marketing the right way and you don’t do any marketing to support your email marketing, you aren’t going to see good results and you might say that.”

Here’s the Email Marketing Problem

You see, I think some entrepreneurs and small business owners get sucked in by the often used sales pitch that email marketing is a quick and easy marketing magic pill. They fall in love with the idea that they can simply send an email once a week, or once a month, and then new clients and new qualified prospects will start beating down their door. They get bamboozled by the idea that all they have to do is add an opt-in form or subscribe form in the upper right-hand corner of their website and suddenly people from all over the web will flock to their site and their list will grow and grow and grow.

But that’s not really how it works – at least not in the real world. But they don’t know that.

So they keep sending out their emails and they keep seeing little to no results. And they’re sitting in front of their computer wondering,

“Why isn’t anyone buying my stuff? Why isn’t anyone registering for my classes, workshops, teleseminars, or webinars? Why isn’t anyone clicking on my links?” And then they get frustrated and say, “Email marketing doesn’t work. Email marketing is outdated.”

Um… Email Marketing is Not Outdated.
You’re Just Doing it Wrong

Since his comment was in response to my Infusionsoft’s Biggest Fan post, I need to point out that Infusionsoft calls their approach: “Email Marketing 2.0″ It’s because the old way of email marketing… ok, let’s be honest, the LAZY way of email marketing isn’t going to work anymore. Today’s entrepreneurs and business owners are too savvy for that.

You can’t be lazy about your marketing, not really try, then send out an email and expect magic to happen. To be successful at email marketing you need to embrace Infusionsoft’s Email Marketing 2.0 approach.

Here’s a quick run down of what I interpret to be the differences between Email Marketing 1.0 (the old lazy way that used to work) and Email Marketing 2.0 (the new kick butt approach that totally works).

Email Marketing 1.0: Blast all of your current and past clients, prospects, vendors, and partners with a marketing sales message and hope that it resonates with someone.

Email Marketing 2.0: Tailor separate versions of your sales message for each segment of your list: current clients, past clients, vendors, affiliates, partners, prospects, etc. Each group gets a highly targeted email that speaks right to their needs and problems, which makes them instantly feel like you know exactly how they feel and your conversion rate increases.

Email Marketing 1.0: You use it only for your weekly, or monthly (not as effective) email newsletter to your whole list.

Email Marketing 2.0: You use it for your newsletter, small targeted sales messages, and all different types of multi-step follow up like the ideas listed below.

• The “Hey great to meet you at…” follow up sequence
• The “Thanks for subscribing…” follow up sequence
• The “Congratulations on your purchase…” follow up sequence
• The “Holiday Message…” stay in touch sequence
• The “Did you know…” stay in touch sequence

Email Marketing 1.0: Your follow up email is inconsistent, mostly just a single email and that’s it.

Email Marketing 2.0: Your follow up emails are pre-written, planned, and tested. They are not a single message, but instead a sequence of emails that build off of each other. Your follow up sequences can be 3 emails, 9 emails, 12 emails, or more, and they can be spread out over a couple weeks, a couple months, or even a year or more.

Email Marketing 1.0: You send your email newsletter and sometimes look at the report, but you mostly just wonder why it’s not working.

Email Marketing 2.0: You integrate Google Analytics and you track, measure, and test everything, looking at the reports from your email marketing service provider and Google Analytics to see what is working and what is not working, then you adjust your marketing accordingly.

Email Marketing 1.0: You operate in an email marketing bubble and you don’t put much effort into other forms of marketing to support your email marketing.

Email Marketing 2.0: You’re everywhere! You’re regularly posting rich, valuable, content to your blog or website, you’re sharing useful and helpful information across your social networks, you’re attending live networking events, you’re using direct mail, and you’re staying in the conversation with your audience, working to build strong, trust-based relationships.

Email Marketing 1.0: You’re thinking “I sent it, they will click it.” You wonder why you’re not seeing results. You never think it could be because you’re doing it wrong… Nope. It’s not working because email marketing is outdated. (FYI).

Email Marketing 2.0: You are reaping the benefits of an integrated marketing strategy. When you send out your email newsletter, or sales-oriented solo email blast, your community takes action. You see a spike in your website traffic, you see a significant jump in registrations and/or purchases, and you receive emails in response about your great article or about how excited they are about the purchase they just made or the class they just registered for.

Email Marketing 1.0: You use a general opt-out or unsubscribe link that removes them from all of your lists and mailings.

Email Marketing 2.0: You use custom opt-out or unsubscribe links that let people change their contact information, choose when they hear from you, and choose what topics they want to hear from you about.

Proof That Email Marketing Still Works and is Highly Effective

At Bourn Creative, we use an integrated marketing approach for ourselves and our clients, which means we weave a wide range of marketing strategies together so they all work together and support the efforts in each area to work toward one single comprehensive goal.

We use social networking to build, nurture, and enhance relationships. The people we connect with on Facebook and Twitter, end up clicking a link we share and reading a blog post on our site. While they are on our site they opt-in for the newsletter. Once they are on our newsletter, and when it is the right time for them, one of our messages will strike a nerve and they will become a client.

Now this process is pretty standard, but there are some things you have to take into account to make sure that this process actually works. For example:

• You actually have to work at connecting on Facebook and Twitter. Just posting links and retweeting or liking other people’s stuff isn’t enough. You have to have conversations. Would you walk up to someone at a live networking event, shove a printed copy of your special report in their hands, walk away, and expect them to hire you? No way! If you did that, you know where your report would be? In the trash (and they probably wouldn’t like you).
• When people come to your site, they need to be in awe. If your website stinks, it doesn’t matter how much you market or how hard you work at your marketing, your efforts will be wasted because the visitors you get there won’t convert.
• Your opt-in or irresistible free offer also needs to be AWESOME! It needs to be so good that your site visitors feel like they have to have it – like they need it and can’t leave your site without getting it. If it is just okay, if it is just something you decided to offer because you think its good, if it doesn’t solve a painful problem your audience is aware of, it won’t work.
• Your newsletter needs to be fantastic week after week. You need to regularly provide useful, interesting, and when you can, entertaining content that will help the reader. You need to make it personal so they get to know you a bit, relevant so it speaks to their needs, and valuable so they don’t unsubscribe. Remember, people buy when they are ready not when you are ready. So you need to keep publishing great content and when they’re ready, they’ll work with you because you stayed in the conversation. For example, we recently had a subscriber who has been on our newsletter list since 2008 finally pull the trigger and hire us for a monster project. This is an extremely valuable connection for us and when we asked why us and why now, they told us that they loved our newsletters and it just took them a long time to get in the position to be able to say, “GO!”

Traditional Email Marketing May be Outdated, But Email Marketing 2.0 is Here and It’s Kicking Serious Butt

So, to the guy who commented this morning about email marketing being outdated (FYI), I say that your notion of what email marketing really is and how it is used is outdated. I know an unbelievable number of entrepreneurs and business owners currently using email marketing in their business and achieving great success as a direct result of their efforts.

If you need some help, you can always hire us… and if your email marketing provider stinks, you can always move over to Infusionsoft. After all, as I mentioned before, I’m Infusionsoft’s biggest fan.

Well, Guess What? Infusionsoft’s biggest fan is me!

Yes, we do a lot of online marketing strategy and planning for your clients, but we also manage all of the implementation from email marketing, to website marketing, to information product marketing and more.

Every client seemed to have a different combination of tools they were using and as a result, I have worked with a lot of different service providers. Some used a combination of QuickBooks and Constant Contact, some used a combination of 1ShoppingCart and aWeber, some used PayPal and iContact. The different combinations of tools were immense. But there was one thing that was consistent in all cases – the fact that they needed (and were paying for) multiple service providers.

One client was even paying a virtual assistant more than $2,000 a month to manage her list and keep it current between her shopping cart database and her email marketing provider’s database.

When Bourn Creative decided to focus on proactively marketing and growing our business, I knew that I didn’t want any of the solutions that my clients were using. It was a pain in the butt to manage marketing lists across multiple systems and they were spending a lot of money trying to do it efficiently.

I wanted an all-in-one solution. A solution that would make my life as a business owner and marketer easier, not more difficult. You see, I was swamped. I didn’t have time to spend on something that wasn’t going to work and I needed to be able to automate as much of my ongoing marketing as possible. I knew that there had to be a better solution out there.

I discovered Infusionsoft during their Double Your Sales tour. I flew down to LA for the day to attend and their staff on hand was incredible. They were friendly and they were willing to answer every question I had in detail. Needless to say it was obvious that Infusionsoft was the solution I had been looking for. It is the only all-in-one solution for small business marketing. With Infusionsoft, I have the capability to send broadcast emails, faxes, phone calls, and more, I can add all different types of web forms and order forms to my website, and I can automate customized follow up sequences, drip marketing campaigns, and marketing actions based on the behavior of my clients and prospects.

You know what though? Several internet marketing consultants I approached to see what they thought of the software told me the same thing … “It is too big and robust for you.” They told me that for a small home based business, it didn’t make sense.

But, I don’t know any other marketing software on the market that has the capability to implement behavior based marketing at the level Infusionsoft can and that is what I wanted.

I bought into Infusionsoft and was walked through the software setup by an amazing set up expert who patiently answered every question I had. Yes, I am a small home based business and yes, this is the perfect solution for me. Now that I use it, I don’t think I could ever use anything else!

With my shopping cart, auto responders, and email marketing all in one place, under one login, Infusionsoft allows me to quickly and effectively manage my clients, my communications with them, and all of my marketing… which saves me a ton of valuable time.

And speaking of saving time, with Infusionsoft, I can “set it and forget it,” meaning that I can create a marketing campaign or follow up sequence for an opt-in or purchase one time and set it up to run automatically over and over and over as needed without more work on my part. And do you know what that means? I have more time to do what I want to do … whether that is working on a new marketing campaign for my business, or spending more time with my kids!

I could go on and on, but I am sure you don’t want to spend hours reading this post, so here is a quick list of why I love Infusionsoft and why I think it’s the best solution for email marketing and online marketing management on the market:

• I can manage my shopping cart, my email marketing, my auto responders, my follow up, and my fulfillment from one place, which means I only need to remember one login.

• I can easily create and send both plain text and HTML email messages with completely custom design and even custom opt-out links that can say anything I want.

• I can customize my opt-out forms to allow my audience to only opt out of certain things, choose what they hear from us about, and update their profile information with us.

• I can create all different types of web forms with custom fields for my website. I use the form builder for my free offer opt-ins, my contact form, my affiliate sign up, and other forms.

• I can choose to use the shopping cart or an order form, both of which are customizable with my own images and html. I can even integrate Google analytics to my order forms and shopping cart for cross domain tracking, which means I can track every step of my sales process to see where any break downs occur.

• I can pass information that a visitor puts in a web form they fill out and submit on my site to a thank you page to serve up a targeted and personalized message on the thank you page.

• I can have my follow up sequences (auto responders) start or stop based on an action or even a specific date. I can even have email messages go out on a specific date which is great of pre- and post workshop marketing.

• I can create completely custom, mixed media follow up sequences that use email, phone, fax and more to stay in touch with my clients.

• I can automate the assignment of tasks and fulfillment orders based on client actions.

• I can manage an affiliate marketing program in the Infusionsoft affiliate center (which has boosted our marketing and conversions significantly).

• I can assign “tags” to anyone in my database based on their behaviors and actions. Tags are like categories. They are an incredible tool for segmenting my database in as many different as I want for highly targeted, user focused, niche marketing. For example, I can assign a tag to someone based on the free offer they got when they opted in, based on what they purchased, based on where I met them, based on where they live, based on what type of business they are in, etc. Basically Infusionsoft will let me segment my list based on any criteria I want.

• I can remove “tags” from anyone in my database based on their behaviors and actions. This is a HUGE deal. For example, We held a preview call for our recent bootcamp and everyone who registered was tagged to receive a reminder follow up sequence before the call, and an upsell follow up sequence after the call. The minute that anyone in the upsell follow up sequence registered for the bootcamp, they were automatically removed from the upsell follow up sequence and added to the participant follow up sequence. Imagine how much better it would be if some of the gurus used Infusionsoft instead of 1ShoppingCart? You would no longer keep receiving the preview call sales messages after you registered for the event they are marketing or bought the product they are selling. Or they could set up a form on the website for their big live event that you could fill out once you booked your hotel. That way you wouldn’t have your email inbox clogged with 20 reminders to book your hotel room.

• Infusionsoft helps us keep email marketing relevant to the recipient, and in turn we are converting more prospects into clients, and seeing more clients come back again and again.

• Infusionsoft employees are present and active on Facebook and Twitter and any time I have had a question or hit a stumbling block, they have responded in record time and offered all the assistance I needed quickly.

• Because my marketing is now automated, I am working less and spending more time with my family. In fact, I went from working 14 hour days almost 7 days week one year ago, to now working 5 days a week, 8 hours a day… and I am MAKING MORE MONEY NOW THAN I WAS BEFORE. I also experience much less stress, which is great for everyone in my house!

• Infusionsoft hosts its annual conference, Infusioncon that is free for all Infusionsoft users to attend and they don’t spend the whole time marketing themselves and upselling their services. They provide marketing training and access to experts to help their customers get better at marketing and get more out of their software.

There are more reasons I love Infusionsoft and this last one I want to share with you today may really surprise you…

Now, we had been using Infusionsoft to manage the back end of Bourn Creative’s marketing for about a year when we started looking into and researching a project management system to implement in our business and help our team keep track of projects more effectively and efficiently.

I had mentioned this on Twitter once and Joe Manna, Infusionsoft’s Community Manager responded and suggested I take a peek at the features available inside Infusionsoft.

“Seriously?” I thought, “Are you kidding me?”

But then we began to really look at the software. With the ability to have multiple users with different levels of access, manage calendars, assign tasks and responsibilities (even as part of a follow up sequence), and keep track of client communications, the idea of using Infusionsoft was incredibly appealing. Plus we wouldn’t have to spend more money on another software system to implement in our business and we wouldn’t have to learn another system.

At this point, we aren’t using the project management features to the best of it’s ability and we’re sure that we’re only really taking advantage of just a portion of what Infusionsoft is capable of but yet, we’re already seeing a difference in our business.

I can only image what improvements happen in our business processes and marketing management when we do use the software to its full potential. That I look forward to!

Infusionsoft’s commitment to constantly improve their software and service, their commitment to staying in the conversation with their customers online through social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and their blog, and their one-stop-shop, make-my-life-easier online marketing solution and supportive staff has earned in me, a FAN FOR LIFE!

But the email I got the other day really irritated me and inspired this post.

A while ago, I opted in to this person’s website who is a self-proclaimed social media expert (who I will not disclose out of privacy concerns) with my first name and email address and watched the free video, which wasn’t that good and didn’t really provide any value. The free video was just a lame sales pitch.

Over the next several months I received a barrage of emails, at least two a week, of poorly disguised sales pitches and affiliate promotions, with nothing new of “value” since the initial free video. I guess I could have unsubscribed, but this person uses Infusionsoft for email marketing, just like we do, and I thought maybe I will pick up something new I didn’t know with the software.

So, to get to the point of the story, the other day I received and email that read something like this:

“Hey, it’s me, XXXXX.

I just noticed you haven’t opened one of my emails or clicked a link in the last 4 months.

Which means this email address is dead, or you just don’t want to be on my list any more :-( So I’m getting ready to remove you from my mailing list unless I see “signs of life” from your email address. Please click this link just to let me know you are still alive:

http://www.facebook.com/vanityURL (identity protected)

If you click the link I will assume your email address is still good and will NOT remove you from my list.

Thanks,
XXXXX

P.S. This link simply takes you to my fan page, where I have prepared a great short article for you to read on how to start monetizing your Facebook account now. Please visit the Fan Page so I know not to remove you from my list.”

Now as a loyal Infusionsoft user, I know that you can create trackable links and view click through reports, and view reports of unopened emails to get a rough idea of your email marketing effectiveness, but no online marketer in the world would manually remove someone off of their list, just because they haven’t clicked on one of their links or “opened” an HTML email. What if their email reader is set to plain text only? I knew this was a cheap attempt at trying to get me to click on his link, and I didn’t. I wanted to see if he would really remove my name from his database, and he didn’t, just like I predicted.

About three days later, I got another email marketing message with another lame affiliate promotion. I really should just unsubscribe, but the material I am getting for blog posts is worth the onslaught. I want to send him a message and tell him, “If you actually sent me something of value and didn’t constantly pollute my inbox, maybe I would click a link once in a while.”

Email marketing can be a great way to engage your audience and the majority of the newsletters I subscribe to routinely provide value and are worth reading. In fact, my favorite gets published everyday and I can barely keep up to read all the great content I receive.

So don’t try lame email marketing tactics like this. You are either going to see your results plummet, or become fodder for other bloggers.

Now I know the idea seems simple enough, and easy to understand, but for some reason I continue to receive Facebook Friend Requests from businesses as I am sure you do as well.

Look – I can’t be a friend to a business offline, but I can like a business and be a fan of the business. Facebook operates the same way. People use profiles, businesses use business pages.

Note to businesses: Using a profile for your business means you created a FAKE PERSON and a FAKE PROFILE. A Business doesn’t have a first name and last name. A business doesn’t have a birthday. A business is not a person, so please don’t fake like it is. You can be reported for creating a fake profile and you run the risk of having the profile shut down and frankly irritating other people.

So why are so many businesses using Facebook incorrectly? Well, I truly believe that it’s not their fault. It’s because Facebook doesn’t make the information about creating a business page easy to find and they confuse people further by referring to Facebook Business Pages as Business Profiles in several places! In fact, I get asked all the time from long-time Facebook users, “How do I create a Facebook Page for my Business?” and some of them have been using Facebook for years and can’t find the information.

In this post, I am going to clarify this whole topic for you and provide you step by step instructions on how to create a Facebook Business Page.

Things to Remember When Creating a Facebook Business Page

There are several things you want to take into consideration and know when creating your Facebook business page to make the process easier and less confusing:

• You have to have a Facebook Personal Profile or a Facebook Business Account to create a Facebook Page for your business. This is because every business page must have an administrator in charge of and assigned to the page. If you do not have a Facebook Personal Profile, Facebook will require you to create either a Personal Profile or Business Account before you can complete your Facebook Business Page creation. Don’t worry, people who “Like” or connect to your Facebook Page won’t be able to see that you are the Page administrator.
   
  Business Accounts are for individuals who want to use Facebook only to administer Pages and their related Facebook ad campaigns. Business Accounts can’t be found in searches, can’t send or receive friend requests, and can’t view other Facebook user profiles or content that is not on their Pages. You are not allowed to have both a Personal Profile and Business Account, but a Business Account can be upgraded to a Full Personal Profile at any time.
• Once you have created your Facebook page, you can add another person who has “Liked” your page as an administrator. Once you have multiple administrators, you can remove Facebook Page administrators as needed.
• Pick a category your Facebook Page will best fit under. This is the main subject you want to promote on Facebook. Make sure you pick the closest match if you can’t find an exact match and know that you cannot change the category once it has been set.
• Think about your Facebook Page name carefully before you choose it. Your page name cannot be changed and you’ll be stuck with it once you create the page. If it for a public figure or artist, consider using the name of the person. If it is for a business, consider using the name of the business. If it is location specific, consider including the city or area the business is in. If it is a brand, product, or organization, consider using the name of the item it represents.
• Make sure you have a photo, image, or graphic ready to use for your Facebook Page. If you are an entrepreneur and you are your business, consider using a combination of your logo and your photo to differentiate your Facebook Business Page from your Facebook profile or maybe use a different photo. Also two different photos from the same photo shoot for consistency works really well! If you are a business with employees, think about using a photo of your storefront or a group photo of the staff with your logo. Just make sure that when the image is reduced or cropped to thumbnail size, it is still clear and easy to understand.
• Click Add information to this Page underneath the profile picture and fill out all of the information completely for your Facebook Page. This is your opportunity to let people know more about your business. Let people know what they can expect if they “Like” your Business Page. The more details you can add, the more successful you will be.
• When you’re ready, publish your Facebook Page by clicking the Publish This Page link. This will make your page visible to the public. It is amazing to me how many people get this far, forget or don’t realize they need to take this last step to publish their page, and then wonder why no one can find their page.
   
  While your Facebook Page is unpublished, your Facebook Page will display a message that your page is not visible to other users. You can change your published Facebook Page to back unpublished at any time to hide it from all users, including your fans. While unpublished, your Page will only be visible to administrators.
• Invite your friends to “Like” your Facebook Page. You can do this by sending them an invitation through Facebook, or like some of my clients have done, you can promote it in your email newsletter, or send out a solo email blast about your new Facebook Business Page. You can also share it with friends by clicking the Share button at the bottom of the left sidebar of the page’s Wall
   
  
• Once 25 people have “Liked” your Facebook Page, you can secure a custom URL or vanity URL for your page. For example, the Bourn Creative Business Page vanity URL is www.facebook.com/BournCreative. When you reach 25 fans, you can set your Facebook vanity URL at www.facebook.com/username (see screen shot below).
   
  
• Don’t forget to “Like” your own Page! It’s okay for you to be a fan of your own page!
• You can optimize your Facebook Page’s performance by clicking the Edit Page link right below the Page Picture in the upper left-hand corner and customizing your settings for a variety of controls. For instance, you can control the default landing tab for users who are not yet fans of your Page. You can also choose whether or not to allow fans to share Wall posts, photos, and more; allowing these will enrich your Page and increase its reach across Facebook.

How to Create a Facebook Business Page for Your Business

First, you need to be aware of the Facebook Page Resource where you can learn more about creating a Facebook Page for your business, organization, band, group, product, etc. You can also learn more about using your Facebook Page and how to advertise your Facebook page using Facebook Ads. Simply visit: www.facebook.com/pages/learn.php. Here’s a screen shot of the page you will find:

To create a new Facebook Page, you go directly to the Create a Page resource on Facebook by simply visiting: www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. Here’s a screen shot of the page you will find:

If you already have a Facebook profile and you are logged into Facebook, there are a few other places you can click to create a new Facebook Page.

The first place you can click is the Ads and Pages link in the left-hand sidebar of your Home screen (screen shot below). If you do not see this link, you may need to click the More link.

Another place you can find the link to create a new Facebook Page is at the bottom of the left-hand sidebar on any other Facebook Business page. Simply look for the link that says Create a Page for My Business. You’ll also notice in the screen shot below, just below that link, is the Share button that allows you to easily share the Page you are visiting with your friends.

Some Tips on How to Use Your Facebook Business Page Effectively

Similar to the tabs across the top of Facebook Profiles, Facebook Pages offer tabs you can customize for your business. Your Facebook Business Page by default, has a Wall tab for you and your community to share content, an Info tab for you to share information about your business, and a Boxes tab for applications etc. You have the ability to dedicate tabs to other Facebook applications as well.

For example, I chose to remove the Boxes tab from the Bourn Creative Business Page, and instead add the Notes tab for my blog feed, the Photos tab to show photos and portfolio images, the Tweets tab to show my latest tweets, and the Welcome tab for new Page visitors (using the FBML application).

Don’t stress out about managing your Facebook Page!

Think about managing your Facebook Page the same way you would manage your business. For example, if you are a retail store, you need a consistent supply of high-quality inventory and you need new and fresh items to arrive frequently to keep your customers coming back. Facebook Pages work the same way. The more content you add to your page that is personal, relevant, and valuable, the more successful your page will be. Be careful not to just post links to your blog and self promotional stuff. The more variety there is in your posts, the easier you will make it for your community to interact with you and share you page and content with their friends.

As the owner of a Facebook Page, you have the ability to send updates or messages to your community by clicking Send an Update link in the right sidebar of the Facebook Page Editing Window under the heading Promote Your Page. Sending your community updates are a great way to let them know about an big announcement, upcoming event, special, sale, or new product.

Just be careful to not send updates too often. Even though you have the best intentions, sending updates too often can quickly start to resemble Facebook SPAM! I place a lot of value on my inbox space and yours too, so Brian and I made the decision to only use the Send an Update feature for major announcements and that they would be no more than once a month. In the past year, I have only sent four updates and instead choose to encourage our community to subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on workshops, training events, and more.

Your Facebook Page can be a powerful tool to help you build your brand and build relationships with your community. But remember that it is just another tool in your marketing toolbox. A Facebook business Page isn’t the only solution and it isn’t the magic solution. Creating and maintaining a successful Facebook Business Page requires time and dedication and the willingness to interact with your community.

If you don’t have a Facebook Page for your business yet, What are you waiting for? Use the information in this post and go get one! If you do have a Facebook Business Page, I hope you found some great nuggets of information this post that are new for you!

This post was created in response to questions posted on our Facebook Wall by Heather Atherton of Atherton PR and Jim Pelley of Laughter Works Seminars. If you have any questions you’d like answered about social media marketing, website marketing, or online marketing in general, stop by the Bourn Creative Facebook Page and Write on our Wall!

When setting up a Facebook Business Page, a Facebook personal profile is required because each page has to have an administrator that owns the page and is in charge of the page.

Once the Facebook Business Page is created, additional people can be added as administrators for the page. For example, both Brian and I are administrators for the Bourn Creative Facebook Business Page.

If you are the only administrator for your Facebook Business Page, you can not remove yourself as the page administrator. But, once you have two or more people set as administrators, you can remove those who are no longer relevant. For example, you may want to remove yourself as the administrator from a page for an organization you are no longer involved with or a business may want to remove administrator rights for an employee that no longer works for the business.

Note that before you can give administrator rights to someone, they have to Like the Page.

If you need to remove an administrator from a Facebook Business Page, you simply need to:

1. Open the Facebook Business Page in your browser
2. Click on the link to See All in the upper right-hand corner of the XXX People Like This box in the left sidebar
3. Scroll through the list of people who like the page to find the person you want to remove
4. Click the Remove Admin button to the right of their avatar and name
5. *As you can see, the process is the same to add a new administrator to a Facebook Business Page

For you visual learners, I’ve grabbed the screen shots of the process and included them below:

Once you have more than one administrator assigned to a Facebook Business Page, you can also remove an administrator in the Page Editing Window (see screen shot to the left).

Simply click the Edit Page link just below the photo/avatar in the upper left-hand corner of the page. In the page Page Editing Window, look for the Admins section in the grey right-hand sidebar. You’ll see the photo for each Admin person and a link next to them that says Remove Admin. Click the Remove Admin link to remove that person as an administrator.

Others ask me, “Why would I want to hide my Facebook Friend List from “Everyone” or even from my other friends.”

Well, to some Facebook has quickly yet another place for spammers to hijack email addresses and “harvest” friends.

If you’ve been using Facebook for any length of time you probably know what I mean. You accept a friend request from one person that you have a few friends in common with, and the next thing you know you have 200 friends in common with them. These are the folks that send you a friend request hoping you’ll accept so they can then access your friend list and send all of your friends Facebook Friend Invites.

Others who use their Facebook profile for personal reasons only, want to hide their friend list to protect their friends from getting bombarded with friend requests from their other friends.

If you do want to hide your Facebook friends on your profile, there are two ways to hide your Facebook Friend List on your profile:

1. From the Privacy Settings page, follow the View Settings link under the Basic Directory Information section of the Privacy Settings page. Adjust the See My Friend List setting (Screen shots below).

Note that most people get to screen shot 4 shown below and never even notice the option to Customize their Facebook Friend List Settings. It’s only when you click Customize that you can get specific with your settings and choose Friends of Friends, Friends Only, Specific People, or Only Me. At this point, you’ll see that you also have the option to hide your Facebook Friends from specific people (screen shot 5 below).

2. Directly from your profile, click the pencil icon in the Friends box on your profile. Then, click Change Visibility Settings (screen shots below).

If you don’t want to hide your friends and you like displaying your Facebook Friends List, you still have options. When you click on the pencil icon in the Friends box, you have the opportunity to choose how many friends display in the Friends box on your profile. The default is six, but you can change it to 9 or 12. You also have the option to decide which friends get shown in the box. By default, Facebook randomly pulls the friends that appear, but you can control the settings by typing your friend’s names in the Always Show These Friends field.