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Help Your Customers Love You

July 2, 2010 By Michelle Shaeffer 3 Comments

It’s worth it to do whatever you can to build a business others can become fans of.  Why?  Because fans are LOYAL.

My husband is a football fanatic.  In 11 years of marriage I think the best gift I gave him was tickets to a Steelers playoff game for his birthday.  He had to fly from Alaska to Washington, DC, drive several hours to Pennsylvania, and make quite a trek to get there.  But I’m sure he’d say it was 100% worth it.  And if the Steelers hadn’t won that game he’d still have been thrilled to be there because he’s a loyal fan.

What’s your favorite sports team? Favorite place to shop? Favorite restaurant to eat in? Favorite author or actor? What is it about those people and places that makes you love them?

Take some time to consider what it is that makes you a fan of the companies, products, services and people that you’re always raving about, and then figure out how you work that into your own business and build your fan base.

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Filed Under: Customer Service, Ethics & Green Business, Mindset Tagged With: , , , ,

10 Things You Can Do in 10 Minutes Each to Move Your Business Forward

June 26, 2010 By Michelle Shaeffer 44 Comments

I’m writing this from the airport at 7:03pm.  My goal is to be done at 7:13pm and schedule this post.  I’ve got 30 minutes until my plane boards and I can complete three small tasks to move my business forward.  Here are some ideas:

1. Write a quick blog post and promote it.

Jot down some random thoughts about something helpful for your readers.  Try a top ten list (like this one!) or top 5 list.  You can polish it later and use it as an article, in your newsletter, for a podcast, in a video, etc.  Take time to tweet your post and add it to your Facebook status.  If you’re using Networked Blogs, it will tweet/update for you.

If you feel overwhelmed at the thought of posting in 10 minutes, check out Michele Scism’s 10 minute blog post ideas: part one and part two.

2. Write a few thank you cards or emails.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Business Online, Cool Tools, Customer Service, Newsletters & Email, Online Marketing, Social Networking, Time Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Three Deadly Website Sins

June 25, 2010 By Michelle Shaeffer 3 Comments

If you’re serious about building a website that will attract your ideal clients, here are three “deadly sins” you need to be careful to avoid.

1. Allowing Your Ego to Make the Decisions

Is your website focused on YOU or on your customers?  Are you obsessed with “shiny objects” or bells and whistles? Is something not working but you don’t want to admit defeat and change it? OH NO!! Ego alert! Yeah, mine does that, too. Sometimes we’ve just got to tell that ego to sit down and shut up so we can make whatever changes we need to so that our websites can be effective.

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Filed Under: Customer Service, Website Tips Tagged With: , , , , ,

How to Share Your Brilliance Without Giving Away the Farm

June 23, 2010 By Michelle Shaeffer 10 Comments

You want to build your credibility and you want to help people, but need to make a living, too.  So how can you share your brilliance (or your products) without “giving away the farm” so to speak?

If you send out all your products as freebies you’ll lose time and money.  If you give away so much free advice and expertise that no one hires you, you’ve invested a lot of time with nothing in return.

Not to mention the fact that people tend to put less value on what they recieve for free and don’t put in as much effort to implement the suggestions or use the products.

So, what’s a gal in business to do? Here are three strategies:

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Filed Under: Customer Service, Online Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Get Control Over Your RSS Feed

June 14, 2010 By Michelle Shaeffer 5 Comments

One of the great features of a blog is it’s “RSS Feed.”  That stands for “real simple syndication” – but it can be a little confusing and not feel so simple if you’re new to blogging.  It allows your fans to get notified when you post a new blog, if they choose to subscribe in an RSS reader.  Awesome, right? Here’s how it works for your fans:

But what if your fans don’t use an RSS Reader? What if you move your website to a new URL? How can you tell who’s following your RSS feed?

Easy answers! I use Feedburner along with the plugin FD Feedburner Plugin on my blog.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Cool Tools, Customer Service, Newsletters & Email, Online Marketing, Website Tips Tagged With: , , , ,

Are You Rewarding Your Blog Commenters?

June 11, 2010 By Michelle Shaeffer 45 Comments

I’m sure that if you’ve got kids you’re familiar with the concept of rewarding desired behavior.  It works so much better than other parenting strategies.  Have you thought about applying that in your business?  Are you taking the time to appreciate and thank those who take time to leave a comment on your blog or interact with you?

Don’t worry, I’m not suggesting you send handwritten cards to a few dozen (or hundreds) of people a month.  That’d be time consuming and costly.  Here are some easy ways you can show your appreciation.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Customer Service Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Find Out What Your Audience’s Interested In

June 4, 2010 By Michelle Shaeffer 9 Comments

Which direction to go next…

Wondering what products to create, what services to offer or how to package them, or what topics to write about in your newsletter or blog?  Here are three ways to find out what your audience is most interested in.

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Filed Under: Customer Service, Website Tips Tagged With: , , , ,

Mini Makeover Tips: 9 More Actions You Can Take to Increase Your Website’s Credibility

May 26, 2010 By Michelle Shaeffer Leave a Comment

This post is part 2, continuing from yesterday’s 10 Actions You Can Take to Increase Your Website Credibility.

Is your website building your credibility?  Or scaring away clients?  Here are 9 more easy actions you can take to boost your website’s credibility and help your website visitors feel comfortable purchasing from or working with you.

Give visitors a way to share your website/blog/articles. When a potential client arrives to your website based on a referral from a trusted source, they’re more likely to sign up for your newsletter or purchase your products/services.  AddtoAny works with any website and is easy to install.  If you’re using WordPress try the Sociable or SexyBookmarks plugins. (This site has the SexyBookmarks plugin active and you can see it at the bottom of this page.)

Answer the “Frequently Asked Questions.” Create or update your Frequently Asked Questions page to help answer more of the questions customers can (or should!) be asking you.

Share generously. Offer free articles, checklists, videos and other resources that showcase your expertise in creating your product or delivering your service.

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Filed Under: Business Online, Cool Tools, Customer Service, Website Tips Tagged With: , , , ,

Mini Makeover Tips: 10 Actions You Can Take to Boost Your Website’s Credibility

May 25, 2010 By Michelle Shaeffer 2 Comments

Is your website building your credibility?  Or scaring away clients?  Here are 10 easy actions you can take to boost your website’s credibility and help those visitor feel comfortable purchasing from or working with you.

Add your complete contact information to every page. The footer is a good place for this.  Visitors will feel more comfortable when they know they can get in touch with you if anything goes wrong with their purchase.

Be Accessible. Give visitors multiple ways to contact you including snail mail, email (or a web form), telephone, and/or social networks.  This is especially credibility-building if visitors can visit your social network links, such as a Facebook fan page, and see that you are actively interacting with and responding to your fans and clients.

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Filed Under: Business Online, Customer Service, Website Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Small Business Lessons from a Mosquito

May 20, 2010 By Michelle Shaeffer 3 Comments

I enjoy writing/working outside in the summertime–it’s something about the sunshine and fresh air.  Today though the mosquitoes are being particularly pesky and it got me to thinking about why people generally don’t like mosquitoes and the business lessons we can learn from them.

1) Don’t suck the blood out of anyone you come in contact with.
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Filed Under: Customer Service, Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,
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