Monthly issue of ShopT@lk

This month, the Spotlight is on the Web Success Team. They are a direct response web development and marketing company that strategically grows your business online and generates leads and sales.

Marci Rosenblum, is co-founder and CEO of WebSuccessTeam and an award winning website designer and developer with over 25 years experience. Bob Speyer, Co-Founder & President is a graduate of UCLA and his expertise lies in taking a company's marketing vision and transforming it into creative advertising strategies with practical cost effective applications. Janet Speyer rounds out the team and brings her 22 years experience as a creative director to the creative web development and offline design projects for Web Success Team clients.

Marci says, "I must say, we use a 1ShoppingCart as a solution for all of our clients," from their L.A. office in California. "It's a great solution for our clients. And we love it, it's easy to use. And our clients love it because we educate them how to use it, and how to have complete control of the back end of their business."

WebSuccessTeam is experiencing exponential growth and generating a ton of exposure from their terrific direct marketing web work. Their approach really sets them apart from more 'traditional' web design companies who focus on graphic design more than effectiveness.

Check out their marketing power by looking at some of their real life case studies at http://www.websuccessteam.com/websuccessportal/casestudies.htm. You can see excellent lead generation examples for companies like Tony Robbins and Smart Cover Cosmetics.

"It's really important that clients know how many orders they're getting, how many people are responding to their site, to their emails and how many people are in their affiliate program. And, it's very important for them to be able to process orders through a merchant account. They can do that all in the same place with a 1ShoppingCart.com solution."

Bob recognizes his ability to serve their clients based on the power they have in hand. "On behalf of our clients, the Team has had numerous interactions with customer service and technical support. Every time, the Support people have been extremely courteous, knowledgeable and efficient in providing solutions to any problems we have encountered. That is a BIG reason why 1ShoppingCart is a prized vendor of our WebSuccessTeam."

Get the Web Success Team's FREE report "Get Web Smart with 9 Email Marketing Strategies" for an inside track on how they use direct marketing on the Net at www.WebSuccessTeam.com.

How to Improve Response to Your Support Requests
Even technical wizards seek Support from time to time. Whether it's a simple check on your billing or a more complex technical issue, requesting Support can become a bit frustrating, or a time consuming process, with the wrong approach.

There are several things that can make the interaction run more smoothly and easily. The key is providing all the information necessary. Support is a methodical process, normally referred to as troubleshooting.

Support is simply taking a problem and breaking it down into its most basic elements. Offering technical support is the same as many problem solving process, from fixing cars to diagnosing illness. Whether an auto mechanic or a doctor, the steps and questions share very common similarities.

The most frequent problem is that support requests are too brief and do not include all of the relevant details of the problem. We regularly receive support requests such as:

"My client was receiving our ezine for the last 6 months, and now they have missed the last 2 issues. What gives?"

A request like this, wastes time for you because it will only generate a request for more details. A properly formed request would read something like this:

"My client, John Doe, was receiving my monthly ezine "How to fly a jet fighter in 10 easy lessons". He received issues 1-6, but has missed the 7th and 8th issues. His email address is john.doe@someemail.com, is it possible to find out why he stopped receiving the series?"

A request like this makes it easier to break down the problem into simple elements. You see that the questions follow a logical train of thought, where one element leads to the next:

What is happening: Client John Doe is not receiving autoresponder messages
Which autoresponder series it is: "How to fly a jet fighter in 10 easy lessons"
What is their email address: john.doe@someemail.com
Further information: He was receiving the messages, and now is not. Something has changed, or there is a difference, between the first 6 messages and the last two.
With this amount of detail, support requests are often answered correctly the first time with no further clarification required.

Here is a Support Request Checklist. If you follow these steps, you should see a dramatic decrease in support response times and an increase in your satisfaction with replies too:

Where is this problem happening?

Be specific about where the problem is. What section of the program, where on your site etc. When you give a specific place to look it saves time and confusion. Rather than saying my signup form on my site is not working, indicate that the form located at www.wherever.com/signup.htm is not working correctly, and the specifics of 'what' is not working. Indicate that when you submit the form it does not take the prospect to the right page or that it is not signing them up to the autoresponder.

Who is experiencing this problem?

Be as specific as possible about who is having the problem. If everyone is having a problem with not being able to complete their order indicate that. If it is one client that cannot place an order, be sure to indicate that. Is there a common message? Are they all being declined or are they getting some sort of gateway error?

Further, finding out specific information from your customer is really important. When your customer contacts you about a problem ordering, find out what web browser they use (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox) and what operating system they use (Windows, Linux, or Mac OS). These details are extremely helpful when requesting support.

What steps do I take to see this problem?

Giving exact reproduction steps is probably the most important part and encompasses details from the other two questions. Offering up an overview of what you or your client were doing when the problem was encountered allows Support to quickly and easily see the problem. Be sure to include relevant details of exactly what you were doing. If you are getting an error creating a product; be sure to include details, like what you were naming the product, the price of the product, and any other details that your Support Representative would not necessarily do in their own tests.

Following these three simple guidelines will help you resolve your support requests quickly, with as little back-and-forth as possible.

Cliff Van Kempen
Customer Support Manager
1Shoppingcart.com Corp.

Top Five 2005 Required Marketing Tips Needed to Succeed
When marketing your practice, as well as designing your brochure, web site, business card, flier, advertisement, or other marketing effort, we recommend investing the time and effort needed to effectively address all these tips. Not one of them can be omitted.

Tip 1. MARKET FOR YOUR DESIRED PROSPECTS, NOT YOURSELF

What looks good to you is not necessarily effective for your desired audience. This is the biggest mistake I see people make over and over again. They come up with an idea, they think it's great, a few friends, family or nontarget market people give them the thumbs up and they run with the ball. When it doesn't work, they just can't understand why.

Do market research and test your strategies on your target market. Big companies do lots of market research before launching a product or service. The little guys don't have the resources to match this but that doesn't mean you omit it. Even if you are an independent professional, you need to do marketing research. And market research isn't a one-time deal. It needs to be incorporated into your marketing system and it needs to be ongoing.

Tip 2. YOU MUST ANSWER THESE FOUR CRITICAL MARKETING QUESTIONS

Question 1: WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?
Is it immediately clear to the reader what is being offered? Any opaqueness, confusion, or question marks in their mind, even for a second, and they have moved on. Don't be cute or clever. Make it simple and clear. Cute and clever has a reference point now with S*P*AM or hype. Don't let them place you into that category.

Question 2: WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME?

The big benefits are very clear and directly stated... not implied; the reader doesn't have to guess. The listener doesn't have to guess. They come to you from all different stages of readiness and desire levels.

How do you handle each one when they arrive makes what occurs afterwards critical? It isn't what you perceive that they want, it is what they perceive what they want. Stop guessing just because you are too lazy to do the legwork. Start asking and don't ever stop.

Question 3: CAN I TRUST YOU?

How do I know you are safe and credible? Can I find out easily enough if I want to? Is your photo and contact info prominently displayed so I can build a relationship with you? Put your photo on every web page. It doesn't matter if they are different pictures.

People don't trust any more especially if all your contact information isn't on your web site. Put your phone number and address on ever page. It says you are credible. Put them in every ezine, in fact, add them twice -- beginning and end.

Create a safe place for them to be -- a comfort zone. If you offer a complimentary session, realize that people don't immediately sign up for these because they aren't comfortable yet. It doesn't matter if you think you are safe, it's what they think. Step them through becoming safe with you.

People are either boulders or blue birds. Blue birds are easy to convert to clients. Boulders need to know that they have a safe place to roll to before they will move.

Question 4: DO I FEEL GOOD ABOUT THIS?

Do I WANT to engage you? Do I feel COMPELLED to click or pick up the phone (or whatever the call to action is)? Do I feel good about myself in deciding to engage you? Can I trust that I'm making the right decision? What's my motivation? Am I being motivated by fear, shame, or being empowered to make a good choice? Am I so excited that I want to tell all my friends?

Lots of questions need to be answered to deliver the emotional needs people have before they buy from you. Don't leave these out.

Tip 3. ALWAYS INCLUDE THESE THREE KEY ELEMENTS IN YOUR MARKETING MESSAGES

Element 1: POWERFUL HEADLINE
This grabs their attention and lets the reader know what you can do for them; the big benefit. Say what the biggest benefit is up front. Make it about them. Use attractive words that rock their boulder so they read more.

Element 2: COMPELLING CALL TO ACTION

Your desired result is to motivate your ideal client to act immediately to engage you directly or indirectly and generate a prospect by getting their contact information. What do you want people to do? E-mail, phone, what? What will compel them to take action?

Element 3: OFFER THEM MULTIPLE CONTACT METHODS Offer a choice between e-mail, telephone, web site, etc, so your prospect can choose what is most comfortable to them. I have visited many web sites where I had to search for five minutes to find their contact information. I am a persistent person and I know that most others who have left after 30 seconds. Can visitors to your web site find your contact information in 30 seconds? Put the information on every page.

Tip 4. CREATE A SYSTEM

Design a marketing system that you can implement repeatedly. Make it as automatic as possible. Ask the most valuable series of questions to yourself, "And then what do you want them to do? And then what? And then what? Etc." If they visit your web site ask, "And then what?" If they subscribe to your ezine ask, "And then what?" And then when they do that, ask "And then what?" Keep challenging yourself to come up with the answers.

No, I didn't say it was going to be easy. When I work with clients, sometimes it takes months to create a system. Most people give up to easily. Once you have it set up and it runs automatically, you will understand.

Don't waste your time, effort, and money with one-shot deals or fragmented marketing activities. Leverage everything. If you use writing for publicity, don't just write an article once for your ezine, ask "And now what?" Send the article to past clients with a "just in case you didn't see this yet."

Tip 5: FOLLOW UP, FOLLOW UP, AND FOLLOW UP AGAIN

Following up is one of the biggest areas independent professional fail to do. Set up a follow up system that is a part of your overall marketing system. Make it as automatic as possible -- so that I can run while you are on vacation.

If you want to always have that "personal touch" with everyone, hire a virtual assistant as part of your system. Always have the next step planned and let your prospects know of future opportunities to engage you.

Working with many independent professionals this past year, including coaches, insurance agents, real estate agents, engineers, too many medical practices to mention, I found they never asked the challenging question I mentioned earlier, "And then what? And then what?" Etc. They did speaking engagements and there was only one "And then what?" and they stopped there.

Remember people are at different levels and need to build trust with you. Give them the ladder and the rungs to do that and they will.

Always contact your leads within 24 hours of receiving them. Contacting them a week or two later, they people have moved on. If they had an issue they need to solve that you had a solution for they had most likely already found someone and by-passed you.

Always follow up by e-mail, telephone, etc, multiple times. Yes, it's true, 80% of sales are made after five or more contacts.

These elements will make all the difference in the world between struggling to get clients and becoming wildly successfully in marketing your services. They are worth investing your best efforts and getting the support you need to implement them effectively.

Catherine Franz, a Business Coach, specializes in writing, marketing and product development. Newsletters and additional articles: http://www.abundancecenter.com blog: www.abundance.blogs.com