Bill got right to the point. He asked, “You’re the expert at
CRM how can I put my half of the seminar attendees in their seats?”

 “Back up,” I said. “Your half?”

 Bill explained, “I’ve worked out a deal with a client to
host a seminar and they will put 10 people in the room and I have to provide
the other 10. I’ll present and they will host the room and the lunch. It’s a
win-win if I can get those other seats filled without having to buy the room.”

He explained, “Buying the room is a theater expression for
providing free tickets to an event to fill the room so it looks like it is a
hit.”

“So,” I asked, “Why are you buying me coffee?”

He reviewed his plan to send out e-mails to his list of connections
that had opted into his newsletter and even showed me the rough outline of his
message.

He got a blank expression when I asked him, “What is the
subject line?”

He was so wrapped up in the message that he forgot that you
have to get it opened. There are two things people look at before opening an
e-mail:

1. Who it
   is from
2. The
   subject line

The more personal the message appears, the more often it is
opened and the easier it is to accomplish your objectives.

I told Bill, “If you have to put 10 people in the room the
process they are going to go through is:

• Open
  the e-mail (Open rates from a Newsletter list are good, up to 50% but don’t
  count on more than 20%)
• Read
  the offer, reject you, look for more information or register (Rejections—80%
  at least. The measure here is click-throughs)
• If
  they look for more their options are to reject or register. (About 20%,
  with luck will register).”

Bill, who is a numbers guy said, “So if I hear you
correctly, if I went out to 100 people only 20 would open the message. A best 4
would look for more information. Of those maybe 1 would register.”

“Right, “I said, “so the number you go out to is critical.
With those numbers you need to go out to 1000 to get your ten. BUT I can
increase our odds. Put their name in the subject line and you get a 15%
to 25% increase in opens.

Do the math. That gets you 40 opens, 8 click-throughs and 2
registrations per 100 e-mails sent.”

Bill said, “Thanks, with the personal touch it now seems
possible.”

Jerry Fletcher
speaks: www.NetworkingNinja.com

Learn more about his
Marketing viewpoint at:
www.JerryFletcher.com

I’m a professional speaker. I’ve been an NSA Member since
1993. I’m also a consultant. Before that I was CEO of an ad agency.

When people are looking to get into speaking, they get
referred to me so they can pick my brain.”

Here’s what I tell them:

1.This ain’t no picnic. When you see a great platform
performance it looks so easy. You just stand up and “let ‘er rip.”

It’s not that way Bunkie. What you don’t see is the
years of preparation to get to the level of expertise needed to really craft
winning remarks. What you don’t see  is
the hours spent rehearsing and the days spent marketing to get those few brief
shining moments.

2. Go with your passion. Every Successful speaker I know is
not only an expert in some area, they are passionate about it. Most have been
known  to speak on the topic even when
they are not being paid.

Their zeal comes through in a simple conversation or in a
packed auditorium. It is the reason a meeting planner or program chair selects
one speaker over another. It is obvious in a video a webinar or a phone call.

3. Practice shameless self promotion. This is the hardest
for most beginners and even some of the old pros. Until your speaking business
(Yes it is a business) reaches as sustainable level you will probably be on
your own. You won’t have an office manager to handle booking phone calls. You
won’t have a full time marketing person. You will be the manager of sales, PR,
Advertising and the Grand Poobah of all promotions.

So you have to suck it up and do it yourself, The best advice
I can offer is to emulate as much of the form of promotion used by successful
speakers as you can. And never be afraid to ask them what works for them
now as well as how they did it getting started.

4. Maintain your expertise. Each day I check a full array of
marketing information resources to see what is new, what is being commented on
and what, if anything, is being injected into the conversation from the
periphery.

I look for hard data—-surveys, analytic summaries, data
compilations, analyses, research reports and any non-statistical data cited as
“proof of process” or standard practice.

Then I step back to see how the new data fits with what I
know. If a contrarian approach is warranted, I may blog about it or fit it into
a speech.

5. Never stop believing. Today a young man (an Army Officer)
who wants to be a speaker was looking for advice. He noted that in the military
he had been training people from the time he started as a private. He trained
people at every rank he held as he rose from the ranks to be selected for Officer Candidate School.

I told him his abilities would stand him in good stead as he
moved toward a speaking career. In addition, I pointed out that the leadership
skills he had developed and demonstrated would give him first hand knowledge
and experience he could draw on in speaking about his passion: the impressive
capabilities and practical skills that vets have to bring to industry.

And I told him to never stop believing in himself, his
comrades in arms, and the men and women of the companies and associations he
will serve with pride as he has served his country.

Jerry Fletcher’s speaking web site is www.NetworkingNInja.com

HIs consulting site is: www.JerryFletcher.com

Look.” said Jean,” I can think of at least three relatively low-cost ways to do e-mail marketing that aren’t part of a CRM Contact Relationship Management system.”

“True, I agreed, “But how do you update your list from one system to the other and vice-versa?”

“I hadn’t thought about that,” Jean replied, “That could be a problem what with bounces and opt outs and using purchased lists…it could get to be real hassle.”

“That’s why I liked integrated systems,” I said. “Over the years I’ve dealt with the back and forth so often that I developed a log for clients to keep which records n each of the databases is most current as well as notes on peculiarities in each of them. Keeping things in sync is much easier with a single database.”

“Okay, I can see that,” she conceded. “But how many companies need that kind of tight coordination?”

“All of them. Every single one because e-mail marketing can double your business in no time and you don’t want the headache of that manual database wrangling. That gets in the way of making more sales.

“Double your business?” she asked.

“I didn’t stutter,” I said. “And you don’t have to be big company for it to work. A study that MIT analyzed shows that 93% of companies that use e-mail marketing generate more leads than those that use other means. On top of that, companies that have under 10 employees generate leads at rates higher than those with over 25 people.

The best solution for the little guy is e-mail marketing integrated with your contact manager.”

Learn another way to double our business here.

Jerry Fletcher Consults on Marketing: www.JerryFletcher.com

And Speaks on Networking, CRM and Trust: www.NetworkingNinja.com

Dan told me, “I want to launch my consulting business by a
having a series of seminars or workshops to give people a taste of what we can
do.”

I agreed and then offered this advice, “There are five
things you have to do to get the bodies into the room:

1. Work a list

2. Leverage Social Media

3. Understand the numbers

4. Make it easy to RSVP

5. Make it hard to not show up”

 “Just what exactly do you mean,” he asked.

 “Okay, I’ll deal with them one at a time.

Work a list Tell me,
is your list just an amalgam of all the folks you’ve met over time? Or is it
those people you have special connection with…your tribe? Then, too, you may
have purchased a list or one was supplied by an organization.

You need a list to even begin thinking about putting on an
event. Email marketing out of an integrated CRM system makes this easy.

Leverage Social Media
You can announce an event on all the social media. Those that come immediately
to mind are Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, Pinterest, Meet Up and a host of
others

Make sure the benefit of coming is emphasized in each.
Provide a link to more information and to sign up. And do it more than once.

Understand the
Numbers. Using postal mail? Assume that the best return you’ll get from a
purchased list (dependent on the quality of the list, the offer and how it
is presented) is between 1/2 of 1% and 2%. That makes sheer quantity
important.

But if you are promoting to your tribe, fewer numbers will
do. You can expect anywhere from 8 to 18% to sign up. However, don’t expect
these folks to turn out week after week. Be sure your behavior warrants their
trust.

Make It easy to RSVP If
you’re doing a free or very exclusive event include a postage paid return in
your mailing. If you let them know via e-mail a simple click to respond could
be sufficient.

Or use a registration site like Meet Up or EventBrite to
simplify things for both you and your guest.

Charging for the event? Either link to your store/shopping
cart or to PayPal via one of the registration sites.

Make it hard to not
show up. Charge for it. Once their card has been charged, they tend to show
up. Another way is to make an offer they find hard to refuse. People will show
up for a chance at a great gift especially if the odds are in their favor.

You can also make them aware of a great offer that will be
available only at the event. If they believe it will go away, they will show
up.

Of course, you can mix it up and use postal mail and e-mail plus
social media as well as personal announcements. An integrated CRM System can
help you manage it all.”

Pass this advice along and get additional resources at www.JerryFletcher.com

Need a speaker that can show you how o double your business through Trust-based Marketing like Networking and CRM look into www,NetworkingNinja.com

“I don’t care what CRM system you use, sooner or later it all comes down to the click rate,” said Charlie.

“I’ll go along with that for email marketing,” said Jan, for once not accompanied by her partner.

“It is just as important for landing pages,” said Ted, “In fact I’d say it’s more important there.”

“HOLD IT” I said, loud enough to stop the argument before it started.

“Let’s be sure we are all talking about the same thing before you guys get your imaginary knives out.

As I understand it you can have a click rate on a landing or squeeze page but usually a person gets there from a click on an e-mail. Right?”

“Yeah.” “Okay.” “Picky, picky, picky.”

 “So, first off they had to open the email,” Jan piped up. “There are a lot of things you can do to assure that happens including smart targeting and personalization and finding your way into the mindset of the reader,” she continued.

 Charlie, our resident number cruncher rode over her saying, “If it is a prospect e-mailing you’ll get anywhere from 4 to 15% to open it. With customers it will be higher, from say 10 to 35%.

Click rates are more important. They come when someone has decided to act. These are the numbers nobody likes but the reality is if you are going after prospects you can expect a click rate of 0.2 to 2% Customers will be higher from 2 to 7%.”

“That’s all well and good but the conversions are what put funds in the bank,” I said.

 “Which is why the click rate on the landing page is the most important,“ Ted gloated.

Charlie couldn’t let that pass. He said, “And that is why they call it the conversion rate. If you have a clear call to action you should convert 20 to 35% of the people that finally get to our landing page.

In other words if you sent a well formulated email with an optimized subject line and landing page that connects with the call to action in the copy to 5000 strangers you could expect 10% or 500 to open it and 1% or 5 to click through and 3 to order.”

“Which is why or list is so important,” I pointed out. The same size e-mailing to people that know and trust you would generate a 25% open rate or 1250 and a reasonable click rate of 5% or 62 leading to purchases by 30% or 18 people.

And the better you know your clientele the better your click rate.”

Jerry Fletcher starts where the software stops. No matter how powerful your CRM system is you need to manage all the creative components of an e-mail campaign to get the best click rate you can. It is what he calls CRM Magic. Jerry’s consulting site is www.JerryFletcher.com He speaks as well: www.Networking Ninja.com

Great businesses are built from one referral linked to another & another & another strung together like a strand of pearls.

Each of us pass referrals along daily to friends, colleagues
and even strangers. Each of us respond to a request for help, either direct or
implied, with suggestions, advice, phone numbers, web URLs, e-mail addresses or
any other way we can think of to connect two people.

Referrals are the bonds that keep everyone connected in the on and off-line networks I liken to a strand of pearls. Referrals are the strings in
the necklace.

Here’s how to increase referrals for your business:

1. Ask. Many people simply
   don’t.  The best times are
   immediately after someone buys and when you deliver the product or
   service.
2. Tell. Explain in very specific
   terms just what your prospect is like. Suggest ways I can identify them.
   Give me the short but powerful phrase that will help prospects say,
   “that’s for me.”
3. Give. The simplest way to generate
   leads is to give them away. Extend your network to include all kinds of
   suppliers. Pick the best you can in each category  and refer them.
4. Take.  Take the time to say, “Thank You.” Do it
   in person, via phone, via e-mail and most importantly via a hand written
   note. That will get you remembered positively which should lead to more
   referrals.

Remember, businesses, careers and lives of joy are all built
one contact at a time. One contact plus another and another until you have a string of them. Great businesses are built from a great string of
referrals.

Jerry Fletcher speaks internationally as The Networking Ninja

He consults under his own name. Learn more at www.JerryFletcher.com

Jean scolded me, “Once again you’re playing word games.”

Tim concurred. He put down his coffee and said, “What does a
serpent’s tongue have to do with Good CRM?”

I allowed as how, “It is all the words that start with S
that crop up when you’re trying to build your list that made me think of that”

“Spit it out,” they said in concert.

“Okay, the S Words are:

Submit—think
about how many times you see that word on a button at the bottom of a form even
though testing proves there are better options.

Security—is
what those statements like ‘We will never, ever sell your information’
are trying to tell you. Important? You bet. People will stay away in droves if you
don’t reassure hem in this way.

Simplicity—is why
your sign up form should be as few fields as possible. Whatever you do, don’t
go past seven fields if you can avoid it. Sign ups plummet when you ask for too
much.

Sincerity—is the
magic ingredient that will get those folks to give you their contact information.
Whether you’re offering a white paper or a Newsletter or a webinar if you or
your material is weak or condescending they will not be back.

Suggestion—is what
puts the magic in a CRM system. With the right data you can suggest the right
gift at the right time for a husband or lover. With the right data you’ll know
when the purchase of a newer version is a good idea. With the right data you’ll
be able to offer options that make sense

Success—comes
when you treat customers/clients with respect. You provide solutions to their
problems. You send the information that will help them make a decision. You give
them real breaks on products and services. Everybody wins.

Savor that!”

What should you be looking for in a CRM system? Here’s a 5 minute audio that will help you understand the Magic in Contact Relationship
Management.

Jerry Fletcher crafts Trust-based Marketing Strategies that build businesses, careers and lives of joy…on and off line.

Speaking web site: www.NetworkingNinja.com

I had agreed to do a guest lecture to a college entrepreneur
class. Before I could begin the instructor asked me, “What is Marketing?”

It got very quiet in that classroom as I tore my notes in half, walked out from behind the podium, shut down the projector and walked back to lean against a table in the front of the room.

Then I answered:

“1. Go where the
money is.”

We all expect to get paid for what we are providing but that
won’t happen if the folks we see as customers or clients can’t pay for our
offering. And we won’t be able to stay in business if there aren’t a number of
them we can sell. So the first marketing task is to locate a group of them in
time, space, interest or viewpoint.

“2. Sell what they
want to buy”

What you sell needs to conform to their needs and desires.
It needs to solve their problems. How you provide the product or service to
them is just as important.

Over 60% of all non-essential purchases made in stores today
are first reviewed on the internet. If you have exclusive merchandise, you may
stand out in their minds. If you have a unique return policy or any other
visible or perceived difference it may separate you from the pack.

“3. Do it again.”

Successful businesses are built on relationships not
transactions.  Whether your business is
wholesale or retail, business to business or business to consumer you can’t
afford one-off sales. Even if the second sale to the same customer is years
later, they can still provide you with ongoing sales via referrals. An initial
sale may be only a dollar or two but over time as that customer comes back six,
eight or 10 times a year it adds up.

In today’s world you need to keep track of those buyers as well. Click here to hear Jerry speak (just five minutes) about Contact Relationship Magic and what you should be looking for.

Jerry Fletcher builds Trust-based marketing strategies that build businesses, careers and lives of joy…on and off line. Speaking web site: www.NetworkingNinja.com

Consulting web site: www.JerryFletcher.com