Enterprise toronto june 11

Editor's Notes

1. Would you agree with this statement?
2. Yes or No?
3. Yes or no?
4. Yes of no?
5. These are the most common complaints I hear from business owners. I hear them almost every day.Back in 2006, when what we call Web 2.0 started to gain momentum and people understand the power of their website, I wanted to help business owners fix this problem and understand how they could turn their websites and web presence into their best performing sales tools.In 2006, less than 10% of the business owners I spoke to believed me.And this happened.....
6. The longer you take to accept this, the further behind you will be in your lead generation success. Traditional marketing tactics are broken. They need to change because customers are demanding that they do. So, how do you find new customers given this new paradigm?
7. So in 2006, this was the problem I set out to solve. How do you find customers and keep customers using your website or web presence.A quick qualifier: a website is a branded URL. It is a virtual marker on the internet about your company and who are and what you do. But with the popularity of social media and the explosion of interactivity today on the web, a web presence is about all of the places you are and all of the things you are doing online for yourself or your business. A website is important. But a web presence is what makes it all work.
8. Get your pens ready. It’s a simple answer but here are some thing you need to accept. This is not a series of tactics I am going to share. Today I want to talk about a journey and a process. It is a journey because you don’t suddenly arrive at the conclusion, “I have more than enough customers for business. This is it, I am done.” Your business is always evolving and changing. Today, now more than ever, the internet has given customers unlimited access to information and ways to solve a problem and unlimited control. Forget everything you know about traditional sales and marketing. You need to blow up this model and think differently. When you leave here today, I hope that you will be motivated and enthusiastic about the opportunities for your business. But more importantly, I hope will leave here prepared to do things differently.
9. Some of you may be disappointed with three things. You may think I am stating the obvious. But these are hard to do and if you were excelling at them right now, you wouldn’t be here in this presentation.
10. If you built a website three years ago and have not touched it since, you have your work cut out for you. It’s like hiring a sales rep and not speaking to them for three years.
11. Gone are the days of “go live” and “if I build it, they will come.” This is constant effort. Competition is fierce and instantaneous to get to Page One.
12. You can use your online strategy to test market interest in your product or service and if it doesn’t convert you can change it up and start again. Your website data is a powerful thing.
13. You are the owner of your company. The master of the ship. No one knows your business and customers better than you do. I am saddened by the number of times a CEO or business owner has come to me and said: I need to fire the web shop that did my website and I need someone to fix it. I would ask them very pointed questions like, “what is not working on your site today? What were your expectations?” The answers I would get back would lead me very quickly to realize they had no strategy, no goals and no way of measuring success. Then when they perceived the vendor to not deliver what they wanted, they were discouraged. How can someone get you to where you need to be if you don’t know where you are going?
14. Don’t be that passenger.This is why your website may not be working for you: you need to know where you are going in order to get there.So how do you do this?
15. We have used this methodology for more than 7 years now in our ongoing question to help business owners turn their websites into their best sales tools.The yellow and orange pieces of the pie are what we refer to as message.The green is what we call web presence.The blue is results. So let’s break this down into smaller chunks.
16. 95% of businesses today do not have a clearly defined value proposition. This is not a tag line nor a 50 page dissertation of “what” you do, it a precise articulation of why someone should choose you.
17. It’s quantifiable. Its specific. It speaks to a group of people with very specific needs. But it means you have to live your value proposition and you have to deliver.
18. The more specific you are about your value proposition as a reflection of your best customer, the more success you will have with your web presence.
19. How many time do you visit a website and have to dig through the About Us section to uncover why the company is different and why you should buy from them. Before you start “selling” on the home page, make the case for why.Buyer personas are not demographics – they are specifically created personas about someone’s need, their obstacles to buying something and where they will go online to get proff that your company is worth talking to.People need a nest step, they need to be told what to do. Make sure every page on your website has a clearly defined call to action.
20. If you have never emailed a list before and you are asking for the sale in the first communiqué, why would someone do it?Don’t add social media because everyone else is doing it. If you customers aren’t on Facebook or only want to be there to see pictures of their grandchildren, why would you be there?Groupon and Wagjag have plateau’d – they were cool because they blew up a business model. But what people crave now is value. People who buy on price and promotion will always buy on price and promotion but they are only 20% of the market. If you’re strategy and value prop is to be the cheapest, someone is always going to beat you until it’s free. People need to be told what to do so help them with that – eg: if you read this blog and enjoyed it, you might also like.....Be realistic about the time, money and resources you need to do this well.
21. But that’s not what I am looking for. First search result, number one on the list is a bad picture of a living room. This is not my office. This is not what I want a commercial office cleaner.Bad keyword strategy.
22. So in 2006, this was the problem I set out to solve. How do you find customers and keep customers using your website or web presence.A quick qualifier: a website is a branded URL. It is a virtual marker on the internet about your company and who are and what you do. But with the popularity of social media and the explosion of interactivity today on the web, a web presence is about all of the places you are and all of the things you are doing online for yourself or your business. A website is important. But a web presence is what makes it all work.