“How I Lost 115 Pounds…” (w/ Laura Richardson)

As a mother of two young kids, newly divorced Laura found herself at a crossroads and became determined to make a change. This change was largely motivated by wanting to be a better role model for her kids (especially her daughter.)

During Laura’s journey she went from not being able to do a single pushup to doing grueling Camp Gladiator workouts several times a week.

In this interview we discuss her journey. The tools she relied on to shed the weight, transform her attitude and become an inspiration for others.

Some of her tools included:

  • Free Apps
  • Intermittent Fasting
  • Exercise
  • Developing a Support System
  • Requesting Help Where Needed

Enjoy this interview and please feel free to leave a comment below.

How to Track Your Email Marketing Results

One of the greatest attributes of web advertising is its ability to be tracked. Without tracking its difficult to tell how many visitors are responding to your newsletter advertisements unless they order from you and tell you where they saw you.

Wouldn’t you like to know how many people clicked on your offer even if they don’t order?

This information is important. The following tracking strategy has been used for several Digital Harvest campaigns and is fairly easy to implement. This strategy does require some minor HTML skills. Primarily it requires the ability to cut and paste a tracker code to the bottom of your offer page and change the two variables where necessary.

Set Up a Relay Page

The easiest way to track clicks on a newsletter advertisement is by setting up a relay page that has a code to show each time it’s loaded. This relay page (also known as a refresh page) is where you will send your visitors. The refresh page is set up strictly for tracking purposes. You’ve probably seen them before. These pages load quickly and before you have a chance to do anything, magically take you to a new page.

You’ve just been tracked.

You can see an example of a refresh page by visiting the following URL:

http://www.businessemaillists.com/refresh.asp

You will notice that the page loads and after a second or two you are automatically taken to the destination page, which is our newsletter signup page. The refresh page quickly tracked your visit and since this is the only location in which we publish the above URL, we know that visitors to this page have read our report. If it were an ad we could name these refresh pages.

Sample Refresh Code:

“n” is the number of seconds it takes before the visitor is forwarded to the web page listed as the “http://www.destination.com.”

Be sure to place the refresh coding in the webpage’s header tag.

You can now use different URLs in your advertising so you can learn which ads performed the best. By setting up different refresh pages, each named after a different creative, you can quickly track click-thrus.

The 5 Most Expensive Web Mistakes Industrial Firms Make…

I’d like to start by saying, I love industrials!

Many of my best clients are industrial firms helping to keep America running strong with heavy equipment, generators, air compressors, forklifts, diesel repair teams and skilled technicians that work with their hands and get shit done!

Over the years however, I’ve had to repeatedly witness common mistakes and misconceptions that cause a negative impact on a client’s website.

In this article I’ll outline those issues and roadblocks to increase profits and growth.

1: No Idea What Is Going on With their Website

Anytime I have begun work with the client, the very first thing we do for their website is to check if it’s set up with analytics, so we can see what is going on with their traffic.

Who are their visitors, where are they coming from, what pages are most popular and what pages are responsible for generating new leads.

With so many people using the Internet to find service providers, it is critical that you have a good understanding of what is going on with your website and if your content and website is doing what it needs to do.

Google analytics is free and relatively easy to set up, so there is no excuse to not take advantage of it.

The most important things to check are:

  • Top 10 Pages
  • Unique Visitors Count (trends)
  • Traffic Sources
  • Bounce Rate
  • Average Time on Site/Page
  • Conversions!

2: Assuming Only emails Come From Website

The web only produces email inquiries?  This could not be further from the truth!

However I repeatedly hear this response from new customers when asked if they get any business from their website.

They usually say; no we only get a few emails a month.

And usually I follow up and ask how many phone calls they get via their website and they say not very many at all.

When I ask them how they know, they reply by saying; we have our receptionist ask callers how they found us.

Usually with some coaxing they allow me to put up a trackable phone number on their website.

Typically we find 8 to 10 times the number of calls versus emails.

We also find when we listen to the recordings that nobody is ever asked how they found the company.

Relying on people to ask where a customer found you is very unreliable.

3: Ignoring Local

One of the most exciting advertising developments to evolve over the last 10 years has been Google local and local search marketing.

The yellow pages are dead.

Unless you have an audience over the age of 80.

However most companies do nothing to take advantage of the hundreds if not thousands of searches that occur locally for their offering.

We see websites all the time where the area in which they do business is not even mentioned.

Where the GMB page is not claimed. Where there are no reviews. Where there are no local directory citations.

There is still a tremendous amount of business to be easily had in many markets and only a few businesses are paying attention.

Ladies and gentlemen, let there be no mistake about it …

If your Google My Business listing isn’t showing it’s a huge missed opportunity!

At the very least request a company to do an audit of your locations.

Knowing if your website has a fighting chance is half the battle.

4: Incorrectly Referring to Their Territory

This next point expands on the last.

You want to reference the areas you serve in the way that customers reference them.

All too often businesses make references to the county or counties that they serve.

However, people typically use the name of their city or the next largest city they live near.

Most companies we see don’t mention their territories at all, but when they do, make sure it is done correctly.

Simply adding a big list of, separated locations will no longer cut it.

It’s time to take this seriously.

5: Testimonials / Reviews

Prospective customers like to check out reviews, if you have a Google My Business listing, there is a good chance people are leaving a review on it.

The amount and type of reviews can offer some insight into the success of the company and the quality of the product(s) or service(s) being offered.

Reviews are also taken into account by Google as a ranking factor for localized search.

So reviews are a big deal, not kind of a big deal … they are a big deal, period!

When we see a business not paying attention to their reviews, ignoring them completely, or not engaging with customers that leave reviews (Good or Bad) in a timely manner we know that is an area that needs to be looked into.

Make sure you have a system in place to engage with reviewers and obtain reviews, because it plays such an important role for the way people perceive your business and ultimately how it affects your profits.

The Biggest Mistake I Routinely See Businesses Making with Phone Leads

I’ve talked with many companies who remark that by the time they call a lead back it’s often unresponsive or already being serviced by another company.Response time is critical in lead generation.  In fact, research shows that an alarming percentage of leads do business with the first company to call them back!

Not the best.

Not the friendliest.

Not the cheapest.

the FASTEST!

Being fast often causes the customer to view your firm as responsive and professional.  “Wow, if they called me back this fast, I can just imagine how responsive they will be when I become a paying customer!”

If you are purchasing phone leads, do yourself a favor.

Come up with a plan.  Measure your response time and work on improving it.

It will help you close more leads and grow your profits.

You Might Be a Spammer If…

It’s funny to me how so many spammers are in denial and don’t actually think of themselves as spammers. So I thought I’d put together a little list of activities to help determine if you are a spammer.

Before I start, I will say there are shades of grey in the world of email marketing. Sometimes, what is spam to one person might be seen as convenient and appropriate by another.

  • If you send email to masses of people who have no idea who you are… you might be a spammer.
  • If you are afraid to include your name and phone number in the email messages you send out of the fear of backlash… you might be a spammer.
  • If your site is constantly being shut down and forced to change ISPs because of your email abuse… you might be a spammer.
  • If more people complain about your email messages, than actually buy your products… you might be a spammer.
  • If you are afraid to tell people at parties what you do for a living… you might be a spammer.
  • If you define success as one out of every 100,000 marketing pieces being opened … you might be a spammer.
  • If you sell Viagra, home loans, or herbal remedies via email… you might be a spammer.
  • If you take great pride in the fact that you allow people to “opt-out” from your marketing list so that you can then sell their name and email address to others… you might be a spammer.
  • If you need to lie on a regular basis to customers and other business associates about your products or services… you might be spammer.
  • If, when questioned about your marketing practices, you reply with, “Well, other people send me spam. What’s the big deal?”… you might be a spammer.
  • If you can’t comprehend the difference between junk postal mail, which is paid for by the sender, and junk email, which is paid for by the recipient in lost time and increased aggravation… you might be a spammer.
  • If you are clueless, vain, and insensitive to anyone but yourself, and you thirst for making money regardless of how many people you inconvenience or irritate… you might be a spammer.
  • If you interpret the fact that the people you email haven’t actually visited your house and strangled you to death as “permission” to email them countless offers for which they have no interest in… you might be a spammer.
  • If you use a computer program to electronically gather the email addresses of unsuspecting businesses and consumers so that you can blast them with offers for a myriad of things you’d never buy yourself… you might be a spammer.
  • If you set up false opt-out buttons that only subscribe your audience to more junk lists… you might be a spammer.
  • If you have to send your entire offer in graphical format because you are afraid servers will be able to read your messages and block the filth you distribute… you might be a spammer.
  • If you have little concern for the innocence of children who may receive your porn offers and body part enlargement pills… you might be a spammer.
  • If you email people using a fake or junk reply mailbox… you might be a spammer.
  • If you email large groups of people who have never heard of you and never opted to receive messages from you or the company you are renting your list from… you might be a spammer.

I think I’m being a bit too kind when I say you might be spammer. Most of these actions would definitely make you a spammer, and consequently make you hated by a large portion of the web population.

Now, let’s learn what happens to spammers…