20 Ways to Blow it with Your Sphere of Influence (SOI)

I am like a broken record when I give marketing advice to Realtors and people who run small businesses. At the top of my list of free advice is to nurture your sphere of influence (SOI). Why? Because most people want to do business with someone they know and trust and most people feel good about helping your business and their own SOI by providing a referral. So why market to total strangers when you have dozens of raving fans itching to help your business?

There is a fine line between staying in touch and communicating useful information to your SOI and pestering and I thought this list compiled by Jennifer Allan, a top producing real estate broker in Denver, a published author, a speaker and a trainer was perfect to share with you. While it is geared to Realtors it applies to all businesses.

Twenty ways to blow it with your SOI:

1. Ask a friend to lunch and give her your sales pitch (every time).
2. Call your friends on the first Monday of every month and ask if they have any referrals for you.
3. If they don’t, ask them why not.
4. Angrily (or tearfully) confront your friends and family if they use another real estate agent or service provider in your field.
5. Take on business you aren’t qualified to handle.
6. Blow off your friend’s housewarming party, but expect her to be loyal to you.
7. Attend your friend’s housewarming party and sales-pitch everyone to death.
8. Tell everyone you know how lousy the real estate market or economy is.
9. Tell everyone you know how overwhelmed you are.
10. Tell everyone you know how depressed you are about your business.
11. Send out an announcement letter with typo’s and misspellings.
12. Send your friends frequent “forward this on for good luck or else” mass emails.
13. Pepper your language with four-letter words.
14. Borrow money or books or tools or whatever and don’t return them in a timely manner.
15. Don’t return social phone calls or RSVP’s.
16. Try to hijack referral fees from your family’s pre-existing real estate relationships.
17. Ignore your SOI in favor of mass-advertising projects (then get your feelings hurt when they use someone else).
18. Contact your friends only when you’re looking for business.
19. Offer bribes to your friends for referrals.
20. Sell real estate “on the side”.

To learn more about Jennifer’s books and philosophies, please visit her website.

Consumers Want Your Email

I have written about subject lines, email content, preview panes and the importance of email stationery to make an impact on recipients so it is no secret I am a big fan of email marketing. This survey by a leading Exact Target a leading provider of software for email communications supports that email is in fact an accepted form of marketing communication.

ExactTarget’s “2008 Channel Preference Survey” concluded that nearly two-thirds of US Internet users surveyed said email was their preferred channel for written communications between friends, with text messaging the next favorite choice. The phone was the most popular way to communicate with friends overall, with 41% of respondents naming it as their channel of choice.

Asked to judge the acceptability of various channels for marketing purposes on a scale of 1 to 5, respondents gave direct mail an average score of 3.9, followed by email at 3.7. All other channels averaged under 3.

Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said they had made a purchase because of a marketing message received through email. More than three-quarters said they had made such a purchase in response to direct mail. The age group with the highest response to email is surprisingly the 55 -64 age category.

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Getting Your Email Read - Start With a Better Subject Line

Email is my life. Okay that is an exaggeration, but as one of the leading email stationery providers (inboxFX Email Stationery) I spend a lot of time studying the art of email.

How important is email in business today?
An April survey conducted by Ipsos for Habeas found that two-thirds of adult respondents said they preferred e-mail for communicating with businesses. Just as many—and this is the important part—said they expected to still prefer e-mail five years from now.

Why is it so important to have a great subject line?
Think of subject lines like the headline of a newspaper article. If it grabs you, you start to read. Furthermore it is the only thing people see in an email. It is what they are going to use to determine if they go any further down your email or if they are even going to open it. It is the only thing that differentiates your email from all of the others.

Scott Ginsberg of Hello My Name Is Scott offers up some interesting observations on passive subject lines. Do you ever find yourself using these?

• Hi! (This sounds like spam.)
• Hey there… (This sounds like pornography.)
• What’s up? (Come on, you can do better than that!)
• Check this out… (Yep, more spam.)
• (No subject) (This is lazy and annoying.)

Scott has a different approach to subject lines and recommends using them to entice the reader. He offers 12 exciting subject lines on his web site that will get your email opened. I think these are excellent for personal emails:

1. Have you seen this article about your company yet?
2. I saw something that made me think of you…
3. Man, I sure hope you’ve already seen this…
4. I thought of you when I read this…
5. I thought of you when I saw this…
6. I was thinking about you the other day.
7. I was thinking about your business the other day.
8. Someone paid you a compliment yesterday.
9. I blogged about you the other day…
10. When I saw this, I immediately thought of you!
11. Your ears should be ringing…
12. Your name came up in a conversation recently…

The Golden Rule

The golden rule of email subject lines according to Josh Nason of SendLabs is:

Tell what’s inside, don’t sell what’s inside.

Advice from Mike

1. Use your name (or company name if it will have more impact)
2. Do not use all caps in a subject line.
3. Write a compelling subject line that won’t deceive people.
4. Have some fun with subject lines!

Look through your subject lines and ask yourself which ones seem to work. I recently sent out a free ebook called 50 Great Marketing Tips and Techniques and the subject line was Mike Blaney’s 50 Great Marketing Tips and Techniques. Pretty catchy!

How about the ones you get from Facebook? John Smith sent you a message on Facebook... simple, but effective.

Scott Ginsberg sent me an email with the subject line 12 Ways to Get Your Emails Opened FIRST It caught my attention and I opened the email.

My ISP needed a new credit card expiry from me and sent an email with the subject line Hello - Important notice from ________. I found it friendly and informative and I knew it was important.

I recently signed up for a weekly travel email and the subject line was UNIGLOBE Geo Travel - Weekly Travel Specials - May 21, 2008. I recognized it as the email I had subscribed to and it was dated so I can tell which one is the most current.

Top 10 Subject Line Words

For B2C and B2B emails choosing the right words for your subject line is important. According to Karen Talavera president and founder of Synchronicity Marketing the Top 10 Power Words for a Subject Line are:

10. New - Appeals to our basic human curiosity to seek novelty.
9. Save - We all love a bargain.
8. Safety - Connotes reliability; appeals to basic human needs.
7. Proven - Justifies your claim, removes fear of the unknown.
6. Love - An all-time favorite.
5. Guarantee - If you have one, state it. It iron-clads your offer.
4. Immediate (Now, or Instant) - Instant gratification is the expectation online. If it can’t be found, completed, or received almost immediately, you’re offer is in the wrong channel.
3. Results - Provides rationalization for instant conversion.
2. You - Remember WIIFM? Your audience wants to hear about what’s in it for them, not you. Articulate your benefits in personal, conversational terms.

And the number one Power Word:

1. Free - Surprised? Probably not. Because this is the time-honored, most potent motivator in direct response, be particularly vigilant of overuse. Just a dash’ll do. Strive to optimize placement, and test if necessary.

Bottom line for the subject line; a good subject line is the fine line between being read and being deleted. Make every subject line compelling.

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10 Ways To Build Relationships

Do you ever find a point where your business has tapered off and you are not sure where the next order, listing, client or deal is coming from?

Most of the time this can be attributed to not having a marketing plan with the ability to measure the success or failure of the various strategies you deploy. You don’t know how you got your business in the first place so you don’t know what to do to get back on track.

One way to “recession proof” your business is to incorporate Relationship Building Strategies into your business that you can deploy on a regular basis. After all, business is based on relationships so if you are not paying attention to this aspect of your business you are missing the “low hanging fruit”.

How do you build relationships? There are dozens of ways, but the top 10 in my opinion are:

1. Handwritten Thank You Notes
2. Remember birthdays
3. Educate Your Clients
4. Inspire & Motivate Them
5. Share Your Talents & Resources
6. Help Them By Referring Them to Others
7. Invite Them To an Event
8. Apologize and Clear Things Up
9. Make a List Of People Important To Your Current And Future Success
10. Identify Relationships That Are The Most Valuable To You

Following is a workshop you can go through for your own business to help you implement your new relationship building strategies.

1) Handwritten Thank You Notes
Send handwritten thank you cards to show people that you appreciate them. Handwriting them is a time‐tested method that creates a positive response when it’s sincere & genuine.

Workshop:
Write down the names of 5 people you’d like to thank today.
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________

2) Remember birthdays
Remember birthdays ‐ because most people don’t. Birthdays are special to people. And if you care enough to remember their birthday… and give them a call or send a quick note, you go from being a business contact to being a personal friend.

Workshop:
Do you have your top client’s birthdays?
Call or email each one and ask them for their birthday. Add these dates into your calendar.
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________

Do you have your employees birthdays? Ask each one for their birthday. Add these
dates into your calendar.
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________

3) Educate Clients
The world is constantly changing … and it’s changing quickly. Give them useful information… and if you give them an insight that they end up using, they will remember you… and you’ll soon find yourself to be a trusted partner in their decision making.

Workshop
What do I know that others would love to know?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

What do my contacts want to know? Can I go learn it and then share that info?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

4) Inspire & Motivate Them
If you can find a way to inspire & motivate them, they will feel warm & fuzzy feelings for you. This tactic is one of the hardest ones to pull‐off because you have to have good timing & something interesting.

Workshop
How can I inspire & motivate my contacts?
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________

5) Lend Your Talents & Resources
Offer your talents and resources to people who need it…without asking for anything in return. Sometimes helping someone move over 1 weekend from Point A to Point B can build a relationship that creates 10 or 20 sales over a few years. Be a friend and you’ll find more friends.

Workshop
Which talents or resources of mine could I put to work for my contacts?
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________

6) Help Them By Referring Them to Others
One of the best ways to do this is to recommend them to people who need them. Another way is to help them look good in front of their boss by show how successful a project is. Help them look good in front of others.

Workshop
How can you help you clients look good to whoever they report to?
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________

How can you help the key influencers in your market look good?
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________

7) Invite Them To an Event
Whether it’s a baseball game, workshop, networking event or a business mixer these types of invites show that you are thinking of them…the time spent together invariably leads to strengthening the bond.

Workshop
What kinds of events both personal & business can you invite people to?
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________

Apologize and Clear Things Up
Sometimes we mess up… we drop the ball… Often, it’s not as bad as you think it is. And if you messed up a while back, they probably don’t even remember why they were mad at you. This is a great way to win back lost clients.

Workshop
List down the names of people where you dropped the ball and messed up? Schedule
a time to call or visit that person and apologize… simply for the purpose of making them feel good.

Name Date To Call/Visit
1. _____________________________ _____________________
2. _____________________________ _____________________
3. _____________________________ _____________________
4. _____________________________ _____________________
5. _____________________________ _____________________

9) Make a List Of People Important To Your Current And Future Success
This helps you bring focus to developing the right network of friends before you need them… so if & when the time comes that you do need them, they’ll be more than happy to help you.

Workshop
Who is important to your current success? Name general categories such as ‘my employees’ or ‘local real estate agents’ or ‘CEOs of top 100 companies’ And then research those categories and write the names of the real people.

Category Name
1. _____________________________ _____________________
2. _____________________________ _____________________
3. _____________________________ _____________________
4. _____________________________ _____________________
5. _____________________________ _____________________

10) Identify Relationships That Are The Most Valuable To You
Allocate resources accordingly. The 80/20 rule definitely applies to your relationships… 80% of your success will be the result of 20% of your relationships. Indentify this 20% and treat them extremely well.

Workshop
Who are my best & most profitable customers? Who are people who refer me the most?
1. _____________________________ 1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________ 2. _____________________________
3. _____________________________ 3. _____________________________
4. _____________________________ 4. _____________________________
5. _____________________________ 5. _____________________________

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What Is a Millennial?

Guess number one - A thousand years?

Guess number two - A bug with a thousand legs?

Guess number three - Something bigger than a centennial?

Actually it is a term to describe the generation of workers born roughly between 1977 and 1995, known as millennials or Generation Y. This group represents the biggest shift in the U.S. workforce since the baby boomers came of age. They are eighty-million strong and will soon account for the majority of American workers, especially as boomers start to retire.

How big is this group? There are more millennials than baby boomers and there are more than 50 percent more millennials than Generation Xers.

Andrew Tilin has written an interesting article on BNET that answers the question “Why Millennials Matter to You“.

According to Tilin “these workers are also change agents who may force you to rethink and improve your methods of recruiting, training, and management — the lifeblood elements of your company. They’re accustomed to working away from their desks, using everything from library computers to smartphones and laptops. They got intense and individualized mentoring from teachers and coaches, and they were never told that their elders should intimidate them.”

According to Lynne Lancaster, a consultant on generational issues in the workplace, millennials were the first generation to grow up with soccer moms, doting dads, and trophies for participation. All that adult attention gave them confidence and a knack for following directions. In addition, says Lancaster, many millennials’ lives have been heavily scheduled since childhood, so they understand achievement and heavy workloads. And growing up with PCs has contributed to their comfort with technology and social networking.

Millennials are nicknamed Generation Why for a reason. Experts say they’re like living, breathing search engines, asking question after question.

As a marketer I was not familiar with the term millennial although I had used the Generation Y term and have 6 kids that fall into this category. I must admit that they are different than we are and everything I have read seems to hold true. They present a different challenge to employers and marketers than their Gen X predecessors.

Following are a few other terms that are associated with millennials that you might have heard:

Helicopter Parent: Parents who hover over their millennial offspring. Acting on the notion that they know best and can help their children make decisions, Helicopter Parents hope to prevent their kids from making missteps.

Black Hawk: A Helicopter Parent who goes to unethical lengths to help his/her child. A dad who helps write his kid’s college application essay is a Black Hawk.

Trophy Children: Children driven to succeed in part to please their parents’ need for elevated status and bragging rights.

Boomeranging: The act of children moving back into their parents’ homes after graduating from college. Parents often welcome their millennial children back into the house. The children are sorely missed and get the opportunity to squirrel away money for a down payment on a house or to start a business.

I am going to use this information to change some of my messaging to this group as I can see now that they will respond differently to marketing than their predecessors. I can also see why being a parent has been so challenging!

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Take The Mystery Out of Marketing Your Business

I am a fan of Allison Nazarian who is a well known copywriter and marketing professional. Her web site Get It In Writing Blog is an excellent source of information and her blog which is also entitled Get It In Writing provides great tips and observations on copywriting, marketing and growing your business with the right words.

As a marketing guy myself I would prefer you didn’t rush out and hire her for all of your marketing needs (just some of them), I do recommend you take a look at her free e-book entitled Take The Mystery Out of Marketing Your Business. Allison poses these three questions:

1. Have you ever wondered why some sales and marketing approaches SUCCEED while others FALL FLAT?
2. Did you know that your results, good or bad, have VERY LITTLE to do with your actual product or service?
3. Do you have a hard time finding the BEST WAY TO TELL your prospective clients why they should choose you over your competitors?

And then she actually provides the answers. She offers proven techniques to increase sales, credibility and visibility. Some of her key points include:

1. The “hard-sell” approach is a thing of the past.
2. Understand what it means when someone tells you it’s ‘all about your customer.
3. Speak their language, know their pain, show (don’t tell) you have what they need.
4. Make your target clients feel as if they can’t live without your truly valuable product, service or expertise.
5. Once and for all, stop the platitudes, jargon and empty words.

I gleaned a number of useful tidbits that I plan to introduce into my own marketing:

1. I will build my business on a foundation of true value and true expertise.
2. I am going to give my target market and clients something valuable.
3. I am going to share what I know and what I offer in a way that clearly demonstrates that my service/product/expertise is the bridge between their problem/need and a satisfying solution.
4. I am going to put my expertise into action.

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Social Networking Sites Update

With all of the hype about the value of Social Networking to marketers eMarketer estimated last December that US marketers would spend $850 million to advertise on MySpace in calendar year 2008. Facebook is projected to reach $305 million in US revenue this year.

Following are the rankings of the the Top 10 Social Networking Sites as published by eMarketer.

I have been experimenting with Social Networking joining a number of different networks including Facebook, Linkedin, ecademy and Meetup and will report my results in a few weeks.

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World’s Worst Sales Letter (and the best one too)

I have written a number of posts on letter writing such as When Was the Last Time You Wrote a Letter? and Writing An Effective Marketing Letter and take great pride in my ability to write a letter. But when I read Geoffrey James’ post about the World’s Worst Sales Letter I knew I had to bow to him as the master letter writer.

Now Geoffrey has the advantage as he is the author of seven books, including Business Wisdom of the Electronic Elite and The Tao of Programming but what really amazed me was the impact his revision of the World’s Worst Sales could have on a Realtor’s success or failure.

Here is the letter that Geoffrey received. Read the letter carefully and be honest in your appraisal. The bracketed numbers refer to his comments:

Dear Mr. and Mrs. James

During the past few months, I have completed an intensive training program for real estate professionals through the _________ learning system. [1]

With this recent training and my experience as a full service agent, I feel quite confident in my ability to help buyers and sellers with their real estate needs. [2]

_________ is one of the best real estate firms in the area due to the many educational programs promoting current market strategies[3], as well as many years of experience within the real estate community.[4] In addition, we provide:

- Outstanding service to all clients.[5]
- Market data that is always changing.[6]
- Weekly updates for clients listing there homes.[7]
- A wide variety of buying and selling tools.[8]

It is great working with a company that has so much to offer their clients.[9] If you or someone you know is considering buying or selling [10] property feel free to give out my name or business card [11] and I will do everything I can to meet their real estate needs.[12]

Sincerely,

Here are Geoffrey’s comments:

[1] OK, you’re fresh out of school. So why would I want to work with you?

[2] That’s nice. Unfortunately, you’ve said absolutely nothing to make me feel confident in you.

[3] Why do I get the impression that some marketing guy wrote this as boilerplate?

[4] Experience doing what? Sending out awkward direct mail pieces? And compared to whom?

[5] Outstanding in what way? Outstandingly bad? And by how much? And where’s the proof?

[6] Huh? Does this mean that the data is getting more accurate or less accurate or what?

[7] And that’s important because…? And what’s with the typo?

[8] Sounds like a hardware store. Why would I care? What do the tools do?

[9] Glad you like it. Why should I care? What’s with the grammatical error?

[10] Trying to address two different markets weakens the entire pitch.

[11] At this point it starts sounding positively desperate.

[12] Why would I risk my friendships for somebody I don’t know?

Not just a critic, Geoffrey rewrote the letter and I think he transformed it into a tutorial on How to Write a Sales Letter. (the numbers refer to his explanatory notes below)

Dear Mr. and Mrs. James:

As a property owner, you’re no doubt aware that these are difficult times for the real estate market. You’ve probably even heard that property prices have declined in your area. If you’re thinking of selling your home, you’re probably wondering whether it’s still possible to get the best price. [1]

Turns out that many homeowners in this area are getting record prices for their homes. The key to achieving the best price is marketing your home in new and creative ways. Ways that leverage the unique characteristics of your house and its neighborhood. This is what _________ is all about. [2]

___________ has sold more houses, for a higher average price, than any other realtor in the area. We know this market, and we know how to ensure that you get the best price. And we’ll be happy to put you in touch with some past customers who’ll vouch for our ability to sell a house quickly and at the best price, even under challenging conditions. [3]

If you’re thinking of selling, please call me first. [4] Even if you don’t list with me, you’ll learn some facts about today’s market that will help you get a better price. [5] And if you know somebody else who might be interested in selling their home (or buying one), pass my name along - if a sale takes place as the result of your referral, I’ll pay you a $100 finder’s fee, right out of my commission! [6]

Thanks for your time.

Sincerely,

Explanatory Notes:

1. Make them feel the pain. Give them a reason to read the rest of the letter.
2. Position your firm as the unique (and perhaps only) solution to that pain.
3. Provide proof that your positioning is valid.
4. A simple call to action that also pre-qualifies the lead, reducing sales cost.
5. Promise value from the start of the relationship. What have they got to lose?
6. Provide a real incentive for them to find you some business.

The above is based upon the basic principles of sales and marketing that Geoffrey has been writing about in the BNET blog for the past year. While he does not claim to be an expert on real estate selling, he is and I are 100 percent certain that this version would generate far more business than the lame letter that he received.

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Prospecting Giveaway Idea # 1

In honor of earth day my first prospecting giveaway idea will not only have a big impact on your clients and prospects, but on the earth too. What is it? A re-usable grocery bag.

A re-usable grocery bag can really make an impact. They are estimated to:

1. replace 2 paper bags or up to 4 plastic bags each time it is used.
2. be used weekly for two years or more.
3. replace up to 416 plastic bags over its entire lifetime.

Why should we be giving away re-usable grocery bags?

Even if your clients are not aware of the problem plastic bags are creating they soon will be and you will make them a leader in change.

From their manufacture to their disposal, bags have a bigger impact on our cities and our environment than many people think.

How many bags are being used?
No one really knows. Estimates for annual US usage range from 14 billion bags annually to over 300 billion bags. World wide estimates range in the trillions per year.

• A study at UC Berkeley estimated 14 billion plastic bags per year.
• The Wall Street Journal put the number at 100 billion a year in the US alone.
• The EPA has estimated that if you count all bags, sacks, and wraps, the number may be as high as 380 billion.
• Some world wide estimates place the number of plastic bags used annually at a trillion bags a year-that’s about a million per minute!

But others say that 3-4 trillion plastic bags are produced each year.

Why is it so hard to estimate the number of plastic bags used?

Perhaps it is because no one wants you to know, and also perhaps because we ourselves don’t want to think about it. Manufacturers don’t want to be associated with the problems these bags cause. Stores and even consumers are embarrassed about their own bag usage. Yet, stores and consumers continue to use them daily.

There are many web sites where you can shop for re-usable grocery bags, but here are a few that you might want to start with.

1 Bag at a Time
ReusableBags.com
EcoLife Products

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Energize Your Database Marketing

I am a fan and believer in the power of database marketing. Why spend money attracting total strangers when you have a database of raving fans who already trust you and do business with you?

I create monthly programs for a number of clients. We send their database a compelling letter on a different topic each month or 6 weeks and enclose some item of value most of the time. This can be a Calendar of Events, memo pad, directory of restaurants in the area or a newsletter as examples.

I created a March program for a new Realtor which was centered on daylight savings time. We all know you are supposed to change the battery in your smoke detector so we sent a 9 volt battery as the item of value.

The letter started out with:

There are two things you can count on in March; the clocks will spring forward and homeowners will be speculating about what the real estate market is going to do this year. Well there are…….but I can make sure you have a battery so you can change the one in your smoke detector…..As for energizing…..

We taped the battery to a small, white postcard and mailed it in the envelope with the letter. This is a great example of lumpy mail. The battery was a huge success and generated more calls and activity than any other item of value. Click on the image for a larger version.

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Thanks go to Cari Gililland for the idea.