I asked if any of you knew of a web development company that could assist me in taking Hellopeter.com into the future. Your response was overwhelming. I received responses from Vereeniging to Viet Nam (really)…

My request was quite specific, so I didn’t look at all the CVs submitted, and I eliminated applications where links didn’t work… I also rejected emails where Hellopeter was spelt hUllo, hAllo, etc…

This sifting process still left me with too many applications to process properly, so… and here’s a tip for anyone looking for new business… I filtered out the companies telling me only how wonderful they were. I focused on companies who told me what they could do for Hellopeter.com.

It’s simple. We’re not really interested in what our suppliers can do: we’re only interested in what they can do for us.

Surround yourself with brilliance, expertise and experience, but if you don’t like the people, keep away. It’s critical to surround yourself with nice people.

… I’m in the final stages of sifting through the development companies that responded to my email, but I can assure you that – in addition to the company being brilliant – it’ll also be full of helluva nice people, from the top down.

People like YOU… Thank you for being just so…nice.

Whenever I talk to some intrepid entrepreneur about finding clients…they assure me they don’t need to do any marketing because all of their clients arrive by word-of-mouth.

This is a prime example of a problem known as confirmation bias.

Of course all of their clients arrive by word-of-mouth. That’s because they’re not doing any other marketing, so there is no other way for clients to arrive.

Just in case this isn’t obvious, it is very unlikely that a person will call in response to the ad my intrepid friend did not arrange, or the magazine advert he didn’t place, or the flyer at the traffic light he did not hand out, or the website he doesn’t have.

That’s not the way he sees it. Rather, he interprets the results to mean that he is so darn good that his past clients are referring him.

It is easy to make this mistake. After all, 100% of his new clients are indeed the result of word-of-mouth, even if there are not enough of them to cover the watery soup and gruel he has come to enjoy.

Relying on word-of-mouth is, I think, a dreadful way to sell your services and products. Especially at a time when the world economy is tightening, and the competitors are getting a lot hungrier.

I think this is the universe telling us to bring our First Team to the market…

- Peter Carruthers, PetesWeekly.Com

You’ll agree that s.p.a.m is bad. Irritating all the time, time-stealing some of the time, really dangerous a bit of the time. And, to combat its unrelenting flood, Internet service providers, email marketing services and even email programmes analyse millions of messages, compiling lists of ‘trigger’ words and phrases associated with s.p.a.m.

These words and phrases are then used to filter or screen incoming email messages.

Now, this helps to reduce the deluge of unwanted messages we all receive, so it’s a good thing. But the down side is that, often, real emails, i.e. yours, are caught in the web. Why? Because certain words, especially when used in the subject line, trigger the s.p.a.m filters and get you bounced to the Junk folder. Relegated – possibly forever.

Here are some of the evil triggers at the moment. Don’t use them. Please. Thanks.

• #1
• 100% satisfied
• Additional Income
• Affordable
• Amazing
• Bargain
• Best price
• Click / Click Here / Click Below
• Congratulations
• Dear friend
• For free
• Free
• Guarantee
• Information you requested
• Marketing solutions
• Message contains
• No-obligation
• Order / Order Now / Order today
• Please read
• Remove
• Risk free
• Satisfaction guaranteed
• Save $
• Save up to
• Special promotion
• Urgent
• Win
• Winner

Tip: Talk to the email service provider that sends your messages and see if they’ll give you their most current trigger word list. Be particularly careful with subject lines.

Note: Your email won’t get junked because it features just one of these words. Filters use formulae that allocate s.p.a.m points to each message. The words above, and some others, add points. And when your message gets enough points, it is filtered. Cheerio.

***

They ask for it often: A quick paragraph. A small logo. Some web design ideas. A photo or two. On spec, so they can decide if you’re the right creative for them. And if you’re desperate enough for the work, or to “get in” with that client, you’ll do it. But if you’re not, here’s my answer.

Dear [Prospective Client],

Thank you for making contact with me, and for asking me to work on your copy. I’d love to. However, even though you asked nicely, I’m not able to write up some spec copy for you, as a sample, so you can decide whether or not you want to use me.

I completely understand that, as we’ve never collaborated before, you want to be 100% sure I understand your brand language and corporate ID, as well as your needs, before committing to use me as your service provider. I also understand that you want some guarantee of what I can do before you approve my quotation.

But I don’t work on “spec”.

And here are six reasons:

• Good copy is informed copy. And informed copy can only emerge from client input, because you know your audience best. I need to understand your objectives, criteria for success, brand personality, competitors and many other things in order to produce the right content for you. And this is a process.
• Good copy comes from partnership. It’s not about a copywriter having a moment of inspiration and producing a quick masterpiece. If I work in isolation I can’t hope to write the right copy – because it will only tell half the story.
• Good copy takes time. Intelligent, relevant, appropriate copy needs to emerge from a sound understanding of your target market. Until I can interact and empathise with your users, or until I can learn everything there is to know about them via you, I can produce nothing more than a superficial content solution.
• Spec copy is a pretty picture, not a meaningful conversation. A “best guess”, created upfront as a sales tactic, is never going to be good copy. Yes, it may “wow” you. It may impress. But will it express what you need it to? Unlikely.
• Web copy, in particular, is more technical than you think. The writing of web copy starts quite far down the line; after I’ve had a chance to get to know you, your business, your users and your competition. And after several hours of Google tools, research, reading, review and SEO analysis. It’s not something that can be done right at the start of a project, before I’ve been awarded the job.
• Spec work makes other work more costly. If I took on spec work, I’d have to charge higher fees to cover work I produced but didn’t win. You’d be paying for failed pitches, as well as the one piece of work you were interested in. And for that kind of money, you may as well use an agency, not cost-effective little me.

Because I am a freelancer and not a big advertising agency, I’m not in the business of acquiring as many retainers as I can. I’m in the business of writing clean and high-quality copy that hits all of the clients’ important notes and that I can be proud of.

I’ve spent 10 years in the business, so I know my stuff. But more than that, I love my work and I’m proud of the diversity of projects I’ve worked on. Every copy deck has been crafted with thought and research, and with respect for the client.

Finally, I put all of my resources into every client that engages me because I don’t need to save my best ideas to sell myself to potential new clients, on a spec basis.

So, where does that leave you? Well, I’ve worked on copy for [180 clients over the last 10 years] – many of them, in your industry or in similar environments to yours. Why not have a look at the client list on my website, and let me know whose copy you’d be interested in reviewing… If I need their permission, I’ll get it. How’s that?

Thank you.

Best regards,

[Your Hopeful Freelancer]

***

[Note from Tiffany: This letter, tongue-in-cheek as it is, is not intended to be a blanket condemnation of spec work and anyone who takes it on. It's merely an explanation of why I choose not to. Having said that, if I were a beginner writer without a piece to my name, I'd consider writing on spec if the prospective client a) seemed serious, b) had a clear idea of brief and c) appeared to have a solid reputation; if I could use the work elsewhere if they turned it down; and if the spec work seemed likely to lead to other assignments and writing opportunities.]

***

Is ‘Trolley Abandonment’ Costing Your Company Serious Money?

Any marketer worth her salt knows that lead conversion whips lead generation anytime.

So that’s why tracking generation-to-conversion is vital to see if your company is getting bang for its marketing buck.

Trolley abandonment is to a marketer what Kryptonite is to Superman. It knocks the stuffing right out of you.

For the uninitiated, trolley abandonment is when you have a full trolley of goods and leave it at the checkout counter for whatever reason … the queue was too long, a can of beans wasn’t correctly priced, the credit card machine is on the blink and so on.

The same scenario plays out on your website – people want to buy what you have to sell, but you make it too hard for them. You make them jump through hoops just to get what they want.

The #1 rule of both online and offline marketing is “Don’t make me think.” and a photo finish second rule is “Make it easy for me to buy.”

Don’t make me think

1. Is your company’s telephone number on every page of your website?
2. Is it easy for your visitor to find what they’re looking for in less than 3 clicks?
3. Are you giving your visitors enough reasons to buy – benefits, case studies, special offers and the like?

Make it easy for me to buy

1. Do you only have one payment gateway? Or can I choose to pay via credit card, bank transfer or bank deposit?
2. Is the price clear and visible?
3. Is your guarantee and returns policy visible?

Here are some examples:

Call Centres

I’m not even going to get into call centres. I’ve experienced them, you’ve experienced them and what can one really say about them? Nothing is hated more than lack of service delivery, potholes and call centres. I believe they’re the biggest detractors of a brand and lead to unsatisfactory experiences. One has to jump through hoops just to get to the right person. And, if you have the patience and do get to the right person, it is invariably the wrong person for your problem.

In my opinion, there’s only one big winner in the call centre debacle and that’s Telkom and the cellular companies. An average call can take 15 minutes with all the runaround so the telcos are just going “Ca Ching, Ca Ching” and ringing up those cash registers.

Here’s a novel concept. How cool would it be if I could phone my bank, cellular service provider, Internet service provider, etc and within 3 rings, actually get to speak to a live person who can help me with my problem straight away?

Oops, I fibbed, it appears I did get into call centres.

IBurst and Neotel

Make it easy for me to buy. I recently tried to get a second Internet data contract from IBurst and a second phone from Neotel. [Understand, I'm not picking on them, the malaise that has befallen them is rampant in most companies.] I’m sure you’ve tried to open a bank account, get a car loan, get a query answered, tried to get your inaccurate electricity bill reduced from R10-trillion to its normal R1 000. You get the picture, I’m sure.

Both accounts are under my company name. I waltz into each respective store and ask them to add the second device to my company account. I get told that I have to open a brand new account. You know what that entails, don’t you? ID document, CK1 document, proof-of-residence and retina scan (ok, I made that one up).

Guess what? I abandoned the trolley and left. Can you imagine if they actually made it dead simple to add on another device to an existing account? How many more sales would both companies make? The repeat business would be phenomenal. All the marketing hype that probably cost millions to generate the lead came to naught because the systems failed it and resulted in no lead conversion.

UNISA

I tried to find out information about a Philosophy course at UNISA. I click the link to the BA courses. It tells me the duration of the course and that’s all. What would your main questions be that you’d like answered?

• What does the course entail?
• How much is it going to cost?

I clicked everywhere (and I’m no slouch when it comes to navigating a website) to no avail. I finally did what all men dread doing; I asked for directions. Yes, I sent an email to the help desk to see if it could answer my questions. That was in November 2010. I’m still waiting for a response.

But, I’m onto UNISA. This is its selection process. Sneaky creatures that they are. They figure that if I’m too dumb to follow the maze they’ve built for me, I’m too dumb to enroll at their facility. Absolute genius. They’re only ever going to get the cream of the crop.

Walk in your customer’s shoes for one day and try your own system and see if it would lead you to abandon your trolley.

Jacques de Villiers is a business speaker, writer, trainer and thinker in the spheres of marketing, sales and motivation. The above piece was penned by Jacques in Feb 2011 and generously shared with me.

Tiffany, the bossyboots

I can be a bit of a brass. I’ve been freelancing a long time (well, for a full-time freelancer). I have my rules. I love my processes. And I’m known to be pretty inflexible about changing them, amending them or putting them to one side.

There are procedures to follow. Briefs to be given. Quotes to be approved. Deposits to be paid. And then, only then, there is good, solid work to be done.

And when I’m doing the work, I’m doing it in my lovely peaceful office, with my heater on, peppermint tea at the ready. In my comfort zone. No coffee shops. No outdoors. No hot-desking. No working – gasp! – in a client’s office. No scenery.

That’s the way I’ve always done it, and that’s the way I like it. My way.

Then, something happened

But, after six years in the industry, 180-odd clients and a lot of rules, I recently did something that shocked even me. So out of character was it that it more or less rocked my world. And it gave me pause to think about what good can come from abandoning your strictures occasionally and producing amazing stuff.

You see, I’d been on holiday. A working holiday, yes, but still: a beachside vacation.  It had come to an end and my husband and I were driving back to Johannesburg from the Garden Route. It’s a 12-hour drive. Which is long. But we had about 20 hours of Harry Potter to listen to, so all was well in our world.

Except that a client of mine, for whom I had created some ad copy, had been absolutely unable to review it until that very morning, and needed to get it to the publishers the following day. He wanted a few extra headline options, a couple of lines re-phrased, a few things tweaked. Nothing major if I’d been at home. Nothing major if we’d still been on solid ground, back at the beach. But I was in the car, sharing 12 hours of driving, and I was busily mastering cruise control.

I abandoned my rules

Under normal circumstances I’d apologise profusely, explain that the day was an out-of-office for me and leave the tweaks up to the client, in his own wisdom.

But not this time. This time I figured, Bugger it. Let’s help the guy. He’s nice. I did a good job on the copy and I’d hate it to get messed up now, at the last minute.

I put the client on speaker-phone and over 20 or 30 kilometres and several short phone conversations, we got the job done. No pens, no paper. No comfort zone. And a completely weird copywriting experience for rules-crazed little me. I may even, should the situation and potential outcome dictate, consider doing it again.

Moral: Most of the time, rules are great. They keep things neat and tidy, garner you client respect (albeit occasionally grudging) and ensure that your back (and the bit just below it) is mostly covered. But sometimes, when the situation warrants it, you can do great work in an off-the-wall way, space, place or vehicle.

This piece originally appeared on the Freelancentral website as ‘Part 4 – The Stable Door: Why breaking the rules sometimes works’. For the full text of that contribution, click here.