Carol Bentley

This is a brief, and I do mean brief, message.

If you’ve checked out the videos, web reporting and other material the StomperNet guys are pushing out then you have already got some great material.

But if you want more of their good stuff then you need to act quickly and check out what they are offering at StomperNet before they close the doors again.

(Throughout the SMARTS program I ‘attended’ the membership for StomperNet itself was closed, so I’m confident their claim they will close for a period of time is genuine and not just a marketing ploy).

Have a good weekend,

~ Carol Bentley

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Would you like to grab hours of your time back and still get through all the material you need to read, listen to or watch? I share 3 time-saving tips to help you do that!

With so much information; articles, videos and audios swamping us our time is becoming more and more precious, don’t you think?

Yes, we do want to keep up to speed with anything that can help us in our business, our careers or our hobbies/interests – but sometimes it can get overwhelming. There are just not enough hours in the day!

So how can we keep on top of all this; absorb all the material we want without sacrificing the hours we need to do other things?

It’s a challenge isn’t it?

You see, for me, it was important to find a way of minimising the time I spent absorbing necessary information because I’m carrying out huge amounts of research for new products I’m currently working on. I’m talking about checking hundreds of hours of audios and videos; thousands of pages of written material; that’s only a slight exaggeration; I totalled up the pages of the book and articles I’ve researched for one project and it comes to 2,336!

Fortunately I discovered 3 tips to save my time and still get through it all; some you’ll already know about, others may be a welcome solution.

Here they are…

3 Time-Saving Research Tips:

1. READING - I’m pretty certain you already know this one. Speed reading.

Now I’m a pretty fast reader anyway – or so I always thought. Mark, my husband, and I have similar reading tastes when it comes to fiction. So when we buy a new book by a favourite author I always read it first because he takes far longer than I do to finish it.

But I was surprised to discover that my reading speed was only just above average – I say ‘was’ because after going through a program with Patricia Hutchings of Unique Perspectives Un-limited Inc. I’ve boosted my reading speed 2-fold. That has been a huge help. (The training is part of Rich Schefren’s Strategic Profits program - check his blog at Strategic Profits.)

If you have a mountain of reading material you need to get through and you’ve never tried speed-reading training, then give it a go.

Think about it, if it only takes you half or a third of your normal time to read those articles and books what does that mean in saved time for you and your business?

2. WATCHING VIDEOS – More and more self-study and information material is delivered by video these days, especially online. And frequently the delivery mechanism is through Quicktime movies. The problem of course is you are stuck with the presenter’s delivery speed.

Well, actually No – you’re not! I’m watching hours and hours of these videos so I was delighted to find a way of speeding up the Quicktime movie-playback:

When you are playing the Quicktime movie:

Press Ctrl+K to display the A/V Controls (on the menu Window, A/V Controls).
Drag the Playback Speed indicator to the speed you want to play it at.

When you close the Quicktime file it will ask if you want to save the changes. I usually choose Save so I don’t have to reset the playback speed next time I watch the video.

3. LISTENING TO AUDIO - speeding up audio (or video) can give the sound-track a chipmunk effect, which can be irritating to listen to. So I was really chuffed to get a software package that lets you increase the speed of the audio; MP3 or WAV files - anything up to 3.5 times faster (I haven’t tried it that fast!) without the high-pitched chipmunk sound.

What I really liked about this software is it converts and saves your speeded-up MP3 audio file into a new file (leaving the original intact) so you can transfer it onto your MP3 player or even create an audio-CD if you have Nero-Burner or similar CD recording software.

The program is called FasterAudio and Yes! - this is a blatant plug for it - because I’ve saved so many research and study hours with it. That’s why I think anyone who listens regularly to informational audios needs this in their time-saving arsenal.

Up to now there was a restriction on the distribution of the program. It is shortly due to go on general release. The good news is I persuaded the developer to let me tell you about it first.

It’s Not A High Cost

I asked at the beginning ‘How much is your time worth?’

Is saving hours of your listening time worth an investment of £67?

For me it is a definite “Yes!” - but this guy is based in Canada, so he priced FasterAudio in US dollars!

$67!

That means you’re only looking at around £38 for a must-have, easy-to-use, time-saving audio conversion program.

Will I understand speeded-up audio?

That was the question I first asked myself, and I was surprised at how much I actually do.

But why not listen for yourself? On FasterAudio’s website there are audio testimonials from 15 different people - each with different ‘normal’ speaking speeds. You can listen to them speeded up from 100% to 125%, 150%, 175% or 200%. Find the speed that works for you and then calculate how many hours you could save.

OK, ’sales pitch’ over - but seriously it is worth considering the FasterAudio program [Aff]

I hope these tips help you keep on top of the material you need to know in a lot less time. I’m off to do some more listening - I’ll catch up with you again next week.

~ Carol Bentley

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Well, I decided to have a go myself - just to see if the web-report promised by StomperNet was worth the bother (see the post Is your website converting like crazy).

I wanted to see how this blog website fared, so I visited the “Stomper Site Seer” website. It was a surprisingly easy process and delivered some interesting insights. My report included a wealth of information - some I knew about, other aspects were things I hadn’t considered or was not aware of.

This is what my report contained:

• Where my website can be found on the web; Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Technorati, PRWeb, Ezine Articles, Compete, Archive.org, Quantcast and my Alexa Ranking.

Although my site may be present, it doesn’t mean it’s highly visible. The report showed just how visible this website is in the search engines - are people likely to find it? And am I showing up in the social media websites, which can be a powerful marketing technique (glad to say, I am).

• Google’s interpretation of what my website is about and advice on how to improve that perception. (hmm… some of the terms listed were completely off the mark!)

• Described how to use keywords effectively and gave crucial advice on how to stop keywords helping competitors!

• Analysed my tags and images (particularly useful bearing in mind website accessibility for visually impaired visitors) All OK there.

• If you are thinking of doing any sort of PPC (pay per click) campaign then the analysis of your keywords and the competition you would have in an Adword campaign is useful. I don’t think I will for this website, but it could be handy for other websites I have or plan to develop.

• The report dispels the top 10 myths about how Google treats your website for positioning in their search results. Now that was enlightening!

So how did this website do overall?

Well, let’s say there’s some work to do - but it could be a lot worse

Of course like anything, this sort of analysis is only worthwhile if you understand what they are talking about (after all we are getting into ‘geek country’ here ) and can (or feel like) doing something about it.

They covered the first point (understanding) because peppered throughout the report were 23 links to videos explaining the different concepts and why they are crucial to web positioning.

But the second point; can/will do anything?

Who Is This Report For?

Well that depends upon who is responsible for your website; you or someone else. If you have someone who takes care of your website then they are the people who need to take action on the report.

Mind you, I’d suggest it would be good idea to know what the report contains so you can check they’ve carried out the changes needed.

My Advice

There is a ton of good, down to earth, web optimising advice with extra tips thrown in. So I reckon it is worth going through the exercise - especially as it is free.

If you want to check the results for your website you can do so at “Stomper Site Seer”

Right - I’m off to check out my other websites, I suspect there will be work to do on those as well!

~ Carol Bentley

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In my book, and in previous posts, I’ve mentioned how you can create rapport in your writing by understanding how people communicate; whether they are auditory, visual or kinesthetic. Knowing that helps with the words you use in your letters.

But how about verbal communication?

Yes, the words you use still count. But there is more to verbal communication than just the words or even the tonality I mentioned in my previous post Conversation or lecture.

People speak (and listen) at a different pace. Some people speak extremely fast, others have a slo-o-o-w drawl. It can make listening extremely frustrating if you don’t happen to match their speed of communication. But, more importantly, if you don’t recognise and take your customer’s speaking (and listening) style into account you could alienate them.

Jill describes her experience with this in her blog post and explains why it is so important to adjust so you match your prospect or customer’s conversation style. (She also shows how preparation before making an important call is also vital!)

~ Carol Bentley

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Well, is your website attracting visitors and converting like crazy? Or do you find, like many business people, that it seems to be a never-ending battle?

I’m always searching for ways to improve my results, which is why I recently completed a programme with the StomperNet people. It was amazingly informative and has helped to increase the traffic to this blog site.

Then an interesting email arrived..

It came through, at 23.18 last night, talking about StomperNet’s new release and I took a quick peek.

They are making their new SEO competitive intelligence tool available free to visitors when they release it today (Friday 16th).

Is this worth looking at?
Now you and I are business people; marketers, so we know that even though this tool freely gives valuable information we can use, we also know the StomperNet guys will probably follow through to see how they can help us get the results we want. And maybe they can. That’s your decision.

The way I look at it is why not get the know-how they’re offering for free and then decide whether or not to go for anything else?

You decide
Anyway - here’s the message that came through, the links are affiliate links so it’s up to you whether or not you want to check it out.
______________________________________

The cat is out of the bag and people are spilling the beans all over the ‘net.

StomperNet’s new SEO competitive intelligence tool, “Stomper Site Seer” is going to be released THIS FRIDAY, May 16.

And it will cost you NOTHING.

That’s right. You will be able to submit *your* site and get a complete StomperNet diagnostic report! It’s as if you had their entire faculty of seasoned, hands-on SEO and internet marketing experts looking right over your shoulder.

They ANALYZE your SEO, they DIAGNOSE problems…

Then, they PRESCRIBE the solution!

The tool tells you what you’re doing right, and what you’re doing WRONG. If you’re messing up, “Stomper Site Seer” tells you EXACTLY how to fix it!

Get a sneak peek demonstration of this groundbreaking tool narrated by StomperNet faculty Jerry West and Howie Schwartz .

They’re smart, experienced, and funny, too!

Not only do they reveal how this helpful little robot can put you on the path to profit and success - they ALSO tell you how to avoid the worst SEO accidents that would keep your site out of the Search Engine Results *you* want.

Listen, if you think it’s all hype, just go check out the page and read the comments from folks who have already watched.

There’s nothing to lose, and they aren’t asking anything at all from you.

Watch the preview, and if you like what you see, subscribe on that page to get the early-bird notice when “Site Seer” comes online.

___________________________________

That’s it! Your decision.

~ Carol Bentley

P.S. If this release goes as well as the programme I took part in, then I reckon they will be inundated. If you want to be FIRST IN LINE to get started on fixing up your site for SEO domination… (their words ) opt-in right away. It’s first come, first served. Don’t hesitate.

I think this must be a ‘business resource’ week because this is the fifth business tool I’ve told you about since last Friday!

If you are subscribed to this blog then you got the private post in which I gifted the specially recorded audio of the conversation I had with Phil Hutchinson.

Since then Phil has generously said you are invited to request an audio-CD (complete with workbook) of a business presentation he gave. In the CD he shares 10 Direct Mail Secrets which, in his experience, make an impact on the success of a mailing campaign.

Listen whilst he tells us:

• How to determine who to write to
• How to trim your mailings costs whilst still generating the highest impact
• The single, most effective thing you can do to make sure your message is read
• Why the wrong presentation of your mailing can decimate response
• Why using the wrong addressing method can drastically cut your open rate

And, because the tips he gives are important, I’ve decided to make this a publicly available invitation so you can get your copy even if you are a casual visitor to this blog.

Pop over to Phil’s website at Direct Mail Services and click the Free Direct Mail Secrets graphic in the right panel.

Enjoy Phil’s generosity and use the tips he reveals to boost your mailing responses.

~ Carol Bentley

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A few years ago I joined the online networking website LinkedIn. Did you? Have you gained anything by being a member?

I can’t say I’ve noticed any particular benefit but I think I’ve been missing an important point here.

You see, over the last few months I’ve been checking how social bookmarking and online networking helps business growth - specifically by encouraging traffic to web sites.

A great many of the bookmarking and networking websites are geared towards the social aspects of interaction. But LinkedIn is, supposedly, geared more towards business networking, which makes more sense to me.

But how to use it? I’m still exploring that, but I wanted to share what I’d discovered so far with you. And this is something that is particularly interesting to anyone selling to the larger companies.

Jill Konrath (I’m sure you remember Jill from my earlier posts) decided to ask the LinkedIn community how being a member had helped them in their business because, like me she hadn’t seen any advantage to being a member. She created a report based on the answers she got. In her report she cites 8 case studies from people who have used LinkedIn to enhance their business activities, as well as passing on some useful tips she received on how to use LinkedIn.

Her report has certainly opened my eyes; and at just 14 pages it’s definitely a worthwhile read.

You can download it for free (she doesn’t even ask you to subscribe to anything, but I’d strongly recommend visiting her blog page at Selling To Big Companies).

Get Jill’s report at http://tinyurl.com/4e293g

Share Your LinkedIn Experiences

Do you have a story to tell about being a member of LinkedIn? Have you made a useful connection? Or got some valuable research from it?

Use the comment link below to tell us what you experienced.

~ Carol Bentley

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Thanks to Phil who emailed to let me know there seems to be a problem with the web address I included in my previous post for Mark Joyner’s book.

If you tried, unsuccessfully, to visit Mark’s website, please have another go with this updated URL.

http://tinyurl.com/4ogohj which describes what he is doing or go direct to the download page on http://www.simpleology.com/training/tio/

~ Carol Bentley

Well - actually you do get a great business book to download - but it is with the express permission of the author who wants to test the effect of digital piracy.

The book is The Irresistible Offer by Mark Joyner. It claims to describe ‘How to Sell your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less’.

It is one I bought a couple of years ago and the text in my copy is almost obliterated with highlighter markings because it contains some interesting, and simple to follow, marketing philosophies. If you’ve been studying marketing for a while some of the content will be familiar to you - but if you only get one new marketing gem from the book it’s got to be worth downloading.

To get the book you do have to open a free simpleology account - I suggested looking at that in an earlier post about time management.

You can get more details at: Mark Joyner’s The Irresistible Offer

~ Carol Bentley

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This is a very quick, take action now notice because I’ve only just found out about it.

Ed pointed me towards Ryan Healey’s Birthday Gift Post - in which he is offering a printed copy of his book Million Dollar Marketing Secrets for just $7 (about £3.50) BUT the gift expires early morning (US time) today, Friday 9th.

Now I don’t know Ryan’s work, and I don’t know how good the book is - as you’d expect the write up in Ryan’s post sounds intriguing. But I do trust Ed’s opinion.

And c’mon £3.50 - and the guy isn’t even charging postage - means it’s got to be worth going for.

Anyway I’ve ordered because I always like to see what tips other people offer. And if you act quickly - like now you might catch it before it goes.

Good luck.

~ Carol Bentley

Wow! I was hoping I might get some useful feedback in the survey I invited you to visit, but I didn’t expect such an overwhelming response. So I’ve just got to say ‘Thanks’ in my normal way…

You see the questions and feedback left on the survey gave me some real food for thought. As a result I can see where the frustrations lie for many business people when creating sales campaigns. It wasn’t just writing the letters, there were other aspects that were highlighted too.

So I’m going to give them some serious thought.

But, to start with, I decided to talk to a very good friend of mine who is the Managing Director of a mailing house. We spent 40 minutes on the phone last night discussing some of the issues that impact on the success of a mailing campaign; how a badly structured mailing can dramatically suppress the open rate of letters and subsequently give a low response.

Actually - it was more of an interview than discussion, I wanted to be sure you got some extremely valuable insights so I asked rather a lot of questions for you. And I recorded our conversation so you could listen in like a ‘fly-on-the-wall’.

My friend revealed some startling facts and, frankly, offered good advice - in fact this recording is the sort of thing some experts would make into an audio programme and sell. I’d say it’s worth a good £100 or more, especially when you hear how one company cut their mailing costs in half, slashing it by over £400, in a way that you could too.

But I’m not ’selling it’ - other than to persuade you to look out for the post containing your free gift.

It will take a day or two to get the audio prepared and converted into an MP3 file. When it is ready, you will be the first to hear it. Ah, but that is only if you are subscribed to this blog because this audio is only available to the people who completed my survey or who are subscribed to this blog. The download link will be in a private, password protected post; another gift for my subscribers.

I’ll do my best to get it to you before the weekend if I possibly can, otherwise it will be next Monday afternoon.

Watch out for the post subject ‘Breaking barriers to sales’.

If you are not subscribed before that post is sent out then, sorry, you won’t be getting the download link.

You can make sure you get this valuable gift by subscribing, simply add your name and email to the boxes at the top of the right hand panel and hit the Tell me! button underneath. And, of course, you also get the two reports when you subscribe - it will feel like it’s your birthday this week!

Don’t forget… keep an eye on your inbox for the post.

~ Carol Bentley

P.S. If you haven’t already given me your thoughts in the survey I’d love to know your opinion. Simply visit http://copywriting4b2b.opinion.sgizmo.com

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I’m forever going on about making your letters to clients and prospects interesting and information-packed. (Are you sick of hearing it yet? ) Well sorry, I’m not going to apologise for emphasising it (oh - I just did, sort of… didn’t I? )

No, seriously! Including useful tips, insider knowledge or understanding puts you at a higher level than your competitors, who do not do this, because you are giving value.

What’s better - is you are giving value without obligation because you are making it freely available without your prospect having to pay a single penny. And they come to regard you as the ‘go-to-expert’ when they decide to buy your type of product or services.

Adding Value

So what sort of thing is useful to your prospect; what gives your letter ‘added value’?

The actual content you can offer is different in your industry or profession compared to another. Let’s see if we can discover what would be useful for your target audience by going through a few questions:

1. When you have a face-to-face meeting with a prospect do they ask you questions? (What? Did I hear you say “Doh!” ‘course they do! )
   Alright, what questions do they ask?

   Are any of the questions generic to your industry or profession rather than specific to your product or service?

   Those are the ones you should be answering in your letter. And by doing so you are giving valuable information to your reader. (An added bonus is you might also be overcoming a possible objection the reader might have had).

2. Along a similar vein - what tips do you share with your staff and customers? Again look for the more generic gems. Include these in your letters.

   Remember, something very simple and obvious to you can be a real eye-opener to a person who does not have your experience or knowledge. Sometimes it’s easy to forget the wealth of expertise we accumulate over the years.

Offering free advice, from a position of knowledge, goes a long way towards encouraging people to decide in your favour when they decide to buy!

~ Carol Bentley

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You’ve worked hard to make sure everything is working properly. Whether it’s a process in your administration, in your production, in your marketing or on your website. Now it’s time to relax, safe in the knowledge that everything is running smoothly.

Think again!

That’s what I thought - but it was a false sense of security I shouldn’t have slipped into.

Here’s what happened…

You may have noticed that in the right panel of this blog there’s an invitation to recommend this website to your colleagues and friends. When you click on the link you are taken to another web page from where you can send a message to the people you want to tell. After clicking the ‘Send Emails’ button you are supposed to go to a ‘Thank You’ web page where you collect your gift for taking the time to send those recommendations.

Now that system was working fine. So I didn’t see any need to re-check it.

More fool me!

I discovered there was a problem when one of my readers kindly rang to let me know a 404 ‘Page Not Found’ error was coming up instead of the Thank You page. And there was a pretty good chance the recommendation emails were not being sent either.

Fortunately, thanks to the great IT support I get from my supplier, the problem was quickly resolved, and it is now working as intended.

Reviewing Systems

Of course looking at our systems doesn’t just apply to making sure they are still working - although that in itself is a good enough reason to keep a close eye on them. Improvements in our procedures and techniques are just as important. And that’s where asking your staff, customers and even suppliers can reveal some extremely valuable insights.

How long is it since you reviewed your systems; the ones that run like clockwork? Are they in place because they are the most efficient and effective method? Or are they used because “we’ve always done it like that!” Is it time to dust off the cobwebs and see if there are better ways?

I Asked For Your Help

My main method of delivering information is through writing; books, articles, email messages… these blog posts.

But my previous profession was developing and delivering training courses - so I’m perfectly comfortable with talking to people and showing how things work. It makes sense to incorporate all these coaching skills into any future materials or courses I create. But is that what people really want? Would using different presentation styles be better? Maybe, maybe not.

That’s why I decided to ask your opinion in last Friday’s post.

If you haven’t yet given me your thoughts, would you do me a favour and pop over to http://copywriting4b2b.opinion.sgizmo.com? Thanks.

And in the meantime… what areas in your business need a bit of oiling to make them run more smoothly?

~ Carol Bentley

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Are you having a conversation with your customers and prospects? Or are you lecturing them?

We are the experts in our field. And we want to be sure our prospects - and customers - fully understand the results our offer gives them.

So, just like the experts tell us, we ‘paint the picture’ in our letters or on our web pages; clearly describing all the benefits our features deliver. And it reads well, because we know what we meant to say. And we know the tone we are using to express our thoughts.

The problem we all have - yes, me included - is making sure what we’ve written is read correctly.

There’s two challenges we face:

1. The words we use. Are we friendly, persuasive and supportive without being condescending, dismissive or just downright ‘in-your-face’ annoying?
2. The emphasis that someone reading might put on the words you’ve given them.

I’m sure you know (or have read somewhere) that only 7% of our communication is in the words we use - the rest is made up of body language (55%) and voice tonality (38%)

So how do we get over these challenges in our writing, where we don’t have the benefit of body language or voice tone? Here’s a couple of techniques I’ve developed that you might like to use:

1. After writing your letter, sales page, email or message, read it out loud. If you can record your reading, so you can listen back, that would be even better. When you listen to your reading does it sound right? Do the words flow? Does it sound like you are having a conversation or does it come across as a speech or lecture?

   Writing in a conversational tone is not easy, which is why I so often recommend recording what you want to say and then transcribing it into your document. The words you use when you speak come across more naturally and, after using this technique a few times, you’ll find it easier to write in that style as well.

   Now, ask someone else to read the same message aloud. Does it still sound as you expected? Or has the message changed? If so, why? Words in the wrong order can change the meaning.

   Let me give you an example. On this website a pop-over appears if you visit the blog and are not subscribed. I recently changed the pop-over to offer a couple of reports as an incentive to subscribe.

   The wording I used for one of the reports was:

   31 Word Time Saving Tips for Sales Letter Writers

   I wanted the reader to know the report contains 31 tips on how to save time when you use Microsoft Word for creating sales letters. And that read OK, didn’t it?

   But when I looked at it again a bit later I realised it could be read as 31-Word Time Saving Tips for Sales Letters. Do you see the difference? The way someone reads it could be entirely different to what I meant! So I changed it to say:

   31 Time-Savers in Word for Sales Letter Writers

   It’s another good reason for putting what you’ve written to one side and coming back to review/revise it later!

2. Punctuation can sometimes create a problem as well. Pauses in the flow - created with commas, semi-colons, colons, dashes and other punctuation marks - may not be in the right place, or missing punctuation can completely change your message!
3. Formatting can change the emphasis on words. Here’s another example; read these sentences putting emphasis on the word in italics in each one:
   • I never said he stole the money
   • I never said he stole the money
   • I never said he stole the money
   • I never said he stole the money
   • I never said he stole the money
   • I never said he stole the money

   Do you see how changing the emphasis on a different word in each sentence changes the whole meaning?

   So how do you handle this challenge - the challenge of emphasis? It is more difficult when you are writing, compared to speaking. Using different formatting (as I did in the sentences above) can help. Use italics, bold, underline and capitals as well as careful punctuation.

   But again, I would strongly suggest going through the same ‘reading aloud and checking’ process as I recommended above just to be doubly sure it sounds OK.

The good news is once you’ve written a few letters or emails following these suggestions you’ll develop your own natural, conversation style. And I’m confident your prospects and customers will respond more warmly to you as result.

~ Carol Bentley

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