You know that having your website found on the search engines is a major contributor to your online success, right?

And you know that every single one of your competitors wants their site to be on the first page of the search results page, too, right?

So which one of you is actually going to be there?? Who will your prospects find??

Well, unless you’re outbidding them with your AdWords campaign, the chances are that if they’re paying more attention to Search Engine Optimisation than you are, it will be THEM.

And that could be worth thousands of dollars in increased business to them. Business that could be coming to you – if only the customers had found your website first (and if your website does a better job of converting them…)

You’ve probably heard that SEO is expensive, that AdWords can be cheaper and quicker to get a result – and in many cases, you may be right BUT it’s like only having a single-barrelled shogun when your adversary’s shotgun is double-barrelled.

So we have an offer for you; one that if you’re really into doing it yourself, you should accept in an instant and it’s an offer you’re highly unlikely to EVER be offered again. Here’s why…

Your SEO Expert is John Hacking who for years has been successfully helping businesses gain great search engine rankings with his SEO process. John only does SEO workshops for Corporates and his fee is commensurate with his ability – which is significant – so you might get an idea of what that fee may be…

In terms of John’s street-cred, if you go to Google and do a search on seo training, his Company, Search Tempo is in the top 3.

If you they search on brisbane web design or brisbane web designer, johnhacking.com is also in the top 3.

Your AdWords expert is me, James Yuille. I’ve been running AdWords campaigns for years and have successfully generated tens millions of dollars of business using AdWords. I don’t do AdWords workshops and only do AdWords campaigns for clients on a fee-based service.

If you have a product-based business, or if your service-based business has any form of uniqueness, chances are that we can generate business for you very quickly using AdWords… How quickly? We’ve managed same day results for some clients!

So you can already see that this is not just a chance to learn SEO from John Hacking, it’s a chance to learn about using AdWords as well.

What this means is that YOU will be on top of the game; fully prepared with your double-barrelled shotgun to make a serious move on your competitors.

I am not going to provide a detailed list of what you’re going to learn so, if you’re someone who needs that kind of detail, please go ahead and read it BUT if you know a really good offer when you see it, and if you already recognise that neither John nor I run public workshops on these subjects, you’ll recognise that this a truly unique opportunity and you’ll book now.

And now for the minor details: The event is limited to 8 participants only. Seats are $695 each inc. GST and catering. It’s at the Mediaglue office, 2a, 925 Beaudesert Road, Archerfield on Tuesday May 19, 2009. You will need to be here at 8:15am for an 8:30 start and you will be here until 6:30pm. Yes, it’s a long day so get a good night’s sleep on May 18.

Payment conditions are that fees are payable in full be Wednesday May 14. There will be no refunds and no rain-checks. If you can’t make it on the day, sorry but you miss out. We will not be releasing notes to other than the participants.

Full details of agenda and your pre-course homework will be provided on receipt of your payment. You will need to allocate at least two hours to your pre-course homework prior to attending. If you don’t, you will be behind the 8-ball all day and that would be a real shame.

A final note: John and I aren’t interested in teaching people who are time wasters. Neither do we want our information broadcast to the wind so, for that reason; we will not permit you to record the event. We will also insist on your signature to a full confidentiality agreement as part of your booking conditions.

Your payment of $695 can be by cheque, by direct deposit, or by VISA or MasterCard and can only be made by registering here and we’ll send you a Tax Invoice for immediate payment.

That’s it. There’s nothing else. No bonuses, no specials. No upsell (although if you wish to engage either John or myself to work with you after the program, that’s your choice).

Sincerely,

James Yuille, Mediaglue Pty Ltd, and John Hacking, Search Tempo Pty Ltd

This inadequacy at the point of sale suggests that there is a significant gap between customer service processes and technologies at the focal point of retail customer service. Considering that the store still accounts for the greatest share of sales for the average multi-channel retailer, this gap undermines the retailer’s ability to build long-term, profitable customer relationships.

The report, entitled ‘Cutting edge customer loyalty: Retail best practices’, also found that 50% of the best-in-class retailers identified already use fully automated loyalty processes at the point of sale, which are responsible for improved performance metrics such as a 16% year-on-year increase in customer retention.
The company’s original ‘Responsive Customer Loyalty’ report in June 2008 showed that loyalty has become one of the most critical factors that impact retailers’ sales and customer retention performance. But in order to ensure effective results, loyalty platforms and points solutions need to be combined with the key loyalty-related process workflow functions: planning, implementation, evaluation, and analysis.

The focus of large retail companies has largely been on the upgrade of legacy loyalty systems that are five to ten years old, or sometimes even older. These systems require constant updates for new loyalty scenarios and business attributes and, in the past three years, both ERP and best-of-breed loyalty companies have turned their focus toward providing loyalty solutions for small and medium-size retailers. These segments are most likely to grow and adopt loyalty solutions within the next two years, while large retailers will continue to update, improve, and adopt solutions that are function-specific (such as CRM, business intelligence, personalised e-mail, gift cards, private label credit cards, and rewards cards).

Interestingly, the 2008 report indicated that the top pressure for 58% of best-in-class retailers was the need to develop Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), which was defined by the report as “the present value of future cash flow through long-term customer relationships”.

However, in 2009, year the top pressure facing 61% of companies is the pressure of survival in global recessionary conditions that have changed the consumer spending landscape and made it more unpredictable than ever. Moreover, the second biggest business challenge (for 35% of best-in-class retailers) is the need to reduce customer acquisition costs in a recessionary market that is characterised by the high cost of goods sold. Best-in-class businesses cited the following key pressures:

1. Increased competition in a tough economy: 61%;
2. Need to reduce customer acquisition costs: 35%;
3. Need to reduce customer retention costs: 30%;
4. Need to increase brand awareness: 22%.

Among the 2009 survey’s key findings and recommendations for retailers:

* 90% of the best-in-class retailers indicated some level of success from their loyalty programmes. In contrast, less than one-third of Industry Average and Laggard retailers reported success from their programmes;

* Best-in-class retailers were found to be 1.8 times more likely than Laggards to develop customer behaviour-based promotions that ultimately drive greater loyalty;

* Best-in-class companies were also found to be 70% more likely than their peers to develop multi-tier rewards plans for their most profitable customers.

* In order to achieve best-in-class performance, retailers should conduct customer wallet share and market basket analysis, measure the net profit margin impact of customer loyalty expenditure, adopt rules-based and POS-integrated customer loyalty systems, and upgrade their loyalty infrastructure on an annual basis.

The 2009 survey also found that grocery, department stores, luxury, and retail financial service institutions are particularly affected by the need to reduce customer acquisition costs. In the entire customer loyalty lifecycle process, the acquisition of a customer is the most difficult and expensive process, due largely to a fiercely competitive retail landscape. In today’s down economy, customer acquisition costs are even more risky due to uncertain consumer spending and downward pressure on both prices and margins.

Currently, with same-store sales in decline, retailers are using every possible price-based ‘customer pull’ strategy to drive incremental sales through untapped customer segments that have any amount of buying power. Such short-term customer acquisition tactics drive costs upward as retailers sacrifice their net profit margin to increase sales volume.

According to Sahir Anand, analyst for Aberdeen Group, the difference between the 2008 and 2009 customer loyalty-related business pressures is primarily due to current market conditions which have led retailers to adopt desperate, short-term tactics to survive the downturn rather than focusing on long-term customer relationships.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
For more information about customer loyalty programs, gift cards and referral programs, please call us on 1300 139 467 or fill out the Contact form and we’ll discuss how you can have your own customer loyalty program, gift cards and referral program.

*Aberdeen Group

Following from The Dood Foundation site which was awarded in January, the second site awarded is for Community Care International who focus on assisting children in underprivileged  countries.

If you are involved in a not-for-profit group and would like to apply for a website under our Community Program, jump across to the Contact page or call us on 1300 884 757 and let us know who you are.

We’ll be posting CCI site live very shortly but in the meantime, you can see it on the Portfolio page.

Think about the offer:

“Receive a FREE iPod Shuffle with every 2 year registration”

I did a quick Google search on ‘buy ipod shuffle’ and found that I could get a 1G Shuffle at OfficeWorks for $65.00.

Interesting, so how do they make money when to register an Australian domain costs less than $65? Then I read the financial aspects of the offer:

They were asking my client to register a .com domain for $249.00. They’re worth $20 or thereabouts! So if they’re buying them direct from the USA for about $12, even with the free iPod Shuffle, there’s a huge margin.

So I called their promoted number only to get a voicemail saying that all their sales team were busy and would I leave a message?

Nice one guys…

No names, no pack drill here; the message is simple - check with us before you pay any unsolicited domain name registration invoice. And to my little furry friends who initiated this masterpiece of deception, I hope you send me one of your letters for one of my / our domains. I’d love to write you a response letter…

Amidst talk of doom and gloom, we’re really busy here at Mediaglue. That’s a great sign that our customers see that they need to work on their marketing image when others around them are waiting to see what’s going to happen next.And that they trust us to help so Thank You to all of our customers!!

The reality is that for those who are smart, the time to get aggressive in the marketplace is when others are playing it down.

Now is the time to be investigating AdWords campaigns, to be investigating affiliate marketing, banner advertising and joint ventures. What’s more, now is the time to be speaking with people who have been there before and know that “economic downturns” pass. Now is the time where experience comes to the fore, when a Bachelor of Bitter Experience  (B.Be.)is a bankable commodity.

More than a positive mental attitude, a (B.Be.) comes with calmness and confidence. Exactly what you need when looking at how to move your marketing forward in 2009.

If your business is bricks-and-mortar based; if you’re selling real world products and services, right now is the time to revisit those old sales skills the younger members of our business community don’t have.

Remember the old line, “It’s about relationships”? Well, right now, it is. It’s about establishing and maintaining trust, about understanding the issues your marketplace faces and delivering what you promise and staying true to your core values.

Sales training is a necessary, almost mandatory skill for business owners as well as salespeople. As a business owner, how can you expect to manage or coach a salesperson if you don’t understand the process yourself? How do you know where they’re going wrong?

I was talking to well-known Brisbane sales trainer Stuart Ayling last week and made the comment that the next year or two will be very profitable for well-trained, professional consultative salespeople. He agreed and so I though that, seeing I’m no longer doing sales training workshops, you might like to take a look at Stuart’s site and his offerings. His approach to the sales process is very similar to mine and he’s a darn nice guy as well.

Success in sales in 2009 will be celebrated by those who can both generate high quality leads and convert a significant percentage of those leads into loyal, paying, repeat customers who refer others.

We can help with the lead generation; get Stuart to help with the conversion process and then ask me to introduce to another colleague, Charles Alder of Dynamic Rewards to manage the repeat business and customer loyalty.

At the end of the day, you can have the best darn whatever it is you sell BUT if you haven’t got anyone to sell to, you’re unemployed.

Stay in the game in 2009 by talking to us about lead generation so you always have someone to sell to!

Call us on 1300 884 757 or complete our Contact Form.

To your fantastic 2009!

Developed internally, our intent was to create a system easy enough for anyone with basic IT skills to use, yet sophisticated enough to deliver some real grunt in terms of capability.

Giraffe CMS provides a wide degree of menu flexibility by allowing variance in both horizontal and vertical menus, as well as the ability to provide sub-menu capability.

The text editor is better than anything else I’ve seen and comes close to the functionality of Word without the pain… (Word 2007 is difficult, isn’t it?)

As you would expect, it provides the option of adding pictures, pdf’s, videos and audios to your site.

It also allows you to decide which pages are shown on your site, and which are hidden.

The other really exciting aspect is that it has a blog component, meaning it delivers both the capability to function as an hierarchical page manager as well as a “most recent post first” editor.

What this means is that you can have a “live” news feed to your home page and whenever you update your blog, it feeds the most recent headlines to your home page. The result is that your site is always live and updated - a feature the major search engines (read Google…) appreciate!

For those keen in the minor details, yes, you can edit page names and titles, too.

Another option is for you to add and edit your own Contact forms as well; or, if you prefer, we can “hard code” your Contact forms to make sure they always work…

If you’ve read our report, “The Best Way to Build a Website” you will know that we prefer individually-designed sites to template-driven sites. Traditionally it’s been difficult to provide a content management system with other than a “straight line” template style site and that’s one of the issues we wanted to address when designing Giraffe CMS.

The result is that we can now offer you the best of both worlds; a custom designed page layout with both variable menus and a content management system.

On the Portfolio page you’ll some early examples of sites built using Giraffe CMS - Centenary Landscaping and Arctic Air were two early examples; watch the Portfolio page as we add more. Both UCG and Power-Comm sites will feature Giraffe CMS.

If you would like to take Giraffe CMS for a test-drive, we’re happy to provide you with access to the demo site, so just take this email link and get yourself a temporary username and password.

I’m not going to say anything corny like “Giraffe CMS changes the way websites work” or “Giraffe CMS makes websites easier” but it sure makes building them and adding content less stressful than most other CMS we’re seen and used!

The Mediaglue office is closing on Friday December 19 and will reopen again on Monday January 5. In the meantime, we can be contacted by email; preferably webmaster@mediaglue.com.au which will be monitored throughout the break.

Our phone number - 1300 884757 - will be answered on all but the Public Holidays and any urgent messages will be forwarded to us.

Let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous 2009!

See you soon,

James and the Mediaglue team.

Keep your eyes on this site as we’re going to be adding heaps of great content over the coming weeks and months.Of special note will be our Expert Author articles…

Bookmark the site now at www.BrisbaneBusinessBlog.com

Mediaglue is starting a community involvement program in 2009. Every month, we will build a website for a Brisbane based, not-for-profit club or association absolutely free of charge!

You will get…

· An unique website displaying your own photos
· Three fixed pages of content including a Contact US form
· The ability to add your own new pages and content
· Email configuration for secretary@, president@ etc.
· Free hosting
· Free links from our site to yours

Yes, there are some conditions…

· We reserve the right to have a small advertising panel on the site and links to our website.
· You will need to register your own Domain name - maximum cost $44.50 for 2 years

Optional extra:

An electronic newsletter management system to send messages to members, just $25 per month

Act now - the first round of offers is available until December 20th.

To register your expression of interest,
or to discuss the offer in greater detail, call me on 1300 139 467,
or complete our Contact Form

First Free Site Already Taken!

We’re delighted to announce that the first free site awarded under this new program will be for the Dodd Foundation. Here’s some more information about the Dodd Foundation…

The Dodd Foundation was established this year by Megan Dodd and was launched publicly at Brisbane’s Biggest Networking Event on the 1st of November.

Megan started the Dodd Foundation after her husband of only twenty four days, Paul Dodd, suffered a severe brain injury while on their honeymoon. Tragically, Paul slipped down a flight of steep stairs when a time delayed light went out early, hitting his head a number of times as he fell.

This happened on Christmas Day 2007, and sadly Paul is still in a coma to this day.

The purpose of The Dodd Foundation is to help raise much needed funds for Paul’s costly and ongoing care and to extend this opportunity for others in similar circumstances.

Currently there is no hospital or hospice for young patients, like Paul, to provide them with the round the clock attention that they need in an environment dedicated to their support. There are about 6,000 young Australians in a similar situation to Paul, who are either in aged care or in general hospitals.

The Dodd Foundation aims to source and build suitable accommodation for young people with Acquired Brain Injuries (ABI), provide support through groups and resources, and also help with education to prevent the occurrence of ABI.

We’re delighted to be associated with the Dodd Foundation and will keep you posted about their site and how you can contribute to this worthy cause.

I called one of them this morning and was blown away by the pleasant, bubbly voice and thoroughly professional gretting I received.

How’s this?

“Good morning and welcome to Bellbowrie Florist. This is Emily, how can I improve your day?”

Emily Telfer is a delight and she deserves your business; so next time you want flowers, call Emily on (07) 3202 8773 or visit her beautiful website at www.BellbowrieFlorist.com.au