NEW ZEALAND’S E-MAG FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND BUSINESS OWNERS
February 2015
GRAFFITI& GUACAMOLE Touch Me Baby Nelson BlueBerry is good for you Entrepreneurial Burnout It’s Not Cricket Hidden Secrets of Marketing Masters www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
ABOUT / Short and sharp, New Zealand Entrepreneur is a free e-magazine delivering thought provoking and enlightening articles,
CONTENTS
industry news and information to forward-thinking entrepreneurs.
EDITOR / Justin Cunningham ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson GROUP EDITOR / Richard Liew
3
From the Editor
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER /
4
Graffiti and Guacamole
CONTENT ENQUIRIES /
8
Touch me
14 Nelson BlueBerry is good for you 18 Entrepreneurial Burn Out 24
Alastair Noble
Phone Justin on 0212396144 or email justin@nzentrepreneur.co.nz ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES / Phone Jennifer on (09) 522 7257 or email jenniferl@espiremedia.com WEBSITE / nzentrepreneur.co.nz
It’s Not Cricket
28 Hidden Secrets of the Marketing Masters 32
Parting Shot
ISSN 2253-5683 NZ Entrepreneur is a GREEN MAG created and distributed without the use of paper so it’s environmentally friendly. Please think before you print. Thank you!
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EDITORIAL
✉
HOPEFULLY BY NOW you
Finding balance on your
finding your groove with
challenging. In this issue we
are switched back on and
building your empire. In this issue we have a few tasty
articles to get you focused
on dissolving obstacles and finding the perfect recipe
to find profit, passion and a pathway to happiness.
entrepreneurial journey can be look at how to balance, how
to fall and how to find a better
way to get results when we run out of time and budget.
Now let the banquet begin… - Justin Cunningham
NZ ENTREPRENEUR IS PROUDLY BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 3
INTERVIEW
Graffiti&Guacamole
Justin Cunningham talked to Otis and Sarah Frizzell about tacos and dreams
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You have launched a customised food truck, found a prime spot on Ponsonby road, put your own crafted products into supermarkets and had a lot of PR about your journey in a very short time. What is the big vision that is driving all this magical mayhem!?
Why did you start The Lucky Taco? And how has it been for you transitioning from being a prolific commercial and urban artist to a business owning culinary wizard? The Lucky Taco was initially my wife Sarah’s dream. She was dissatisfied with her career in advertising and wanted a new challenge... So we started it together. Her history in advertising and my experience in urban and commercial art really helped to get our marketing solid. Our logo and ‘look’ came together quite easily... Sarah is the culinary alchemist. You could have the best logo in the world, but if the food wasn’t good, you’d never last.
The vision..? We want people to eat GOOD MEXICAN. It’s basically that simple. The days of crunchy taco shells full of tasteless beef mince smothered in cheddar cheese and sour cream are coming to an end. Our vision is to become a global Mexican food brand known for fresh authentic flavours. Whilst also selling taco kits and salsas and pickles and tortillas and all that good stuff.
What personally inspired you and your talented wife Sarah to take the leap and commit to this endeavour? We were inspired by the great taco trucks in LA. And there comes a time when you’ve either gotta put up or shut up. We started talking about it, saying we were going to do it. We put it out there, and neither of us wanted to be all talk and no action. We (literally) put our money where our mouths were and got stuck in.
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 5
What similarities do you see between creating beautiful graffiti pieces and making luscious tacos and guacamole?
d it
rn i e : La
lson N ic o
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c re
that you can’t do everything by yourself. There came a time when we realised that we needed help. Not just financial. We needed people with business experience to help guide and mentor us. We were really lucky to find people we trusted, and who believed in us.
fact our food is the best is a start. But, also we come from an honest place. We don’t represent an American franchise. We don’t represent a group of millionaires that are surfing a wave of food popularity. We’re known as a couple of people who honestly love what we’re doing. And that shows in every aspect of the business.
oto
What have been your greatest learning’s on this taco-driven entrepreneurial path? Probably
With a million Mexican eateries popping up everywhere (four on Ponsonby road alone!) What do you think is the number one thing that has contributed to people choosing your boutique little business? Well the
Ph
You just have to believe it. You have to have pride in your work. I’d never try and sell an artwork that I thought was sub-standard. We’d never try and sell food that we didn’t stand behind. Every taco that goes out of that truck and every bottle of hot sauce we sell is amazing. The public are discerning these days. You will get called out pretty quick if you’re pushing crappy product.
“
1. Back yourself. If you don’t believe in what you’re doing, why should anyone else? 2. Never underestimate haters. People will try and take you down if you start to do well. 3. You have to work REALLY HARD. Nothing’s gonna fall in your lap. Good luck comes to the hardest workers.
What has been your greatest obstacle as an entrepreneur personally? The amount of work. I’ve never worked so hard in my life. And if I’m completely honest, Sarah is working harder still. I guess it’s not an obstacle as such, just a bit of a shock.
“
What are the top three things you would teach someone who is seeking to start fresh with a dream that allows them to create and make a dollar?
You have to work REALLY HARD. Nothing’s gonna fall in your lap. Good luck comes to the hardest workers.
Can you list all the entrepreneurial endeavours you have attempted, and what the overarching lesson is from all of these fantastic and not-so fantastic escapades?
Well... being an artist is kind of like being an entrepreneur. It’s all about believing in your work. As I said before, if you go in half-cocked people will smell it a mile off. Be prepared to be knocked back without losing heart. And The Lucky Taco lessons? See above.
What does the future hold for The Lucky Taco family? More. Bigger. Better. ■
This interview was conducted by Justin Cunningham. Justin and Otis first met as aspiring rappers in the late 80s looking to do something different. Some things never change.
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 7
SALES
TOUCHME
Touch your customers frequently in an appropriate manner and you will get love and sales for a long time to come.
Touch Me & Show Me You Love Me
your existing customers.
• Do you want to get more sales out of your existing customers?
While most businesses understand touch points they have no strategy and certainly no replicated system. In this article we explore why touch points will multiply your income, reduce your marketing budget and take less time than traditional sales and marketing activity. We will also reveal some simple steps you can implement now.
• Do you want to elevate your marketing to sales conversion rate? If so, then read on. A touch point strategy will develop your sales prospects to sale and increase the value of
8 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
Sales opportunities are valuable commodities. When we get a sales suspect who has taken action to call us, email us, opt in for a resource or attend an event or webinar we have a very valuable commodity.
Commitment. This action was driven by a need, and the person who took this action was committed enough to take action to meet their need.
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SO WHAT DO YOU DO TRADITIONALLY WITH IT? You reply to their action with a question such as ‘What can I help you with?’ under the premise they are ready for your product or service. The only problem with that is, a lot of first point contact with prospects is digital. Therefore we can determine that they are not ready to speak to us directly (normally for fear of being pitched at). Even if the first point of contact was not digital, it is vitally important we over deliver with value in our response before looking to sell a solution.
When we get a sales suspect who has taken action to call us, email us, opt in for a resource or attend an event or webinar we have a very valuable commodity. Commitment.
“
MAKE THE FIRST DANCE MEMORABLE
THE ART OF SEDUCTION
By asking an obvious sales question such as ‘What can I help you with?’ we have skipped a vital step. We have not established the one important foundation of sales.
Trust. In Stephen M.R Covey’s book The Speed of Trust the vital 4 factors to establish trust are: • Intent • Integrity • Capabilities • Results
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 9
1
How this is represented on our most common of public faces - our website, is by having the following key elements:
Quantitative proof you created transformation for your customers. This
is not be confused with testimonials of opinion such as ‘He was great to deal with’. An example of qualitative proof would be “I looked for a mortgage for months, but it was so damn hard. John helped me find the best deals in a few days and had the paperwork sorted within 24 hours of my decision. I couldn’t be happier”. Clearly the measuring stick is time as a value.
2
Your specialty. When we
search for a solution we do not want a generalist, and we don’t want to be perceived as one. Otherwise we will end up selling on price not value. An example of a specialty might be: ‘We help six figure businesses get to seven figures quicker’. What is your specialty?
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3 Reverse risk guarantee.
When most people hear the word guarantee - fear overcomes them. However sales data and psychology says that if you supply a guarantee that removes the risk of purchasing, you increase your chance of conversion by huge amounts and the big players in the international market will attest to this. Zappos.com have amazing service, and they have a 365 day right of return guarantee and they got bought by Amazon for 1.1 billion! The other issue is less than 5% of people act on taking action on guarantees. So you will close more deals with it than lose in the long term. Here’s an article by kissmetrics on how to create the perfect guarantee.
4 Call to action. You will
notice that all of the prior keys illustrate intent, integrity, capabilities and results. But there is one vital thing missing. We must always ask for commitment after establishing value. We can do that in two ways. Ask them to contact us directly with a zero cost yet attraction proposition such as a strategy meeting or complimentary consultation, or secondly by offering a premium free resource such as a customer guide that advances our customer on their path to a positive outcome with a call to action at the end of that. Note: All of this information can and should be used in all of your promotional material from print to radio to networking and in any situation where you want to make a great impression.
PLAYING HARD TO GET Sometimes we can’t get our prospect to call or email us back, yet we know they accessed our premium resource and opened our email. So what do you do?
Give up and move to the next customer? No, you put them in to an automated email/mail sequence that serenades them again until they are ready to respond. This is called a ‘nurture sequence’. It might look like this:
EMAIL: FREE REPORT
MAIL PROMO
EMAIL: VIDEO
EMAIL: SPECIAL OFFER
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 11
“
“
Now, go out and touch your customers (in an appropriate manner).
IT MUST BE LOVE By creating five to eight plus touchpoints your chance of conversion to sale goes up over 80%. You have optimised your marketing spend, time, and you have optimised your staffs time and wages by using
automation. If you have an average sales size that is over $150 and you are not using these strategies and tools then you are throwing away your valuable money. Now, go out and touch your customers (in an appropriate manner).
Resources to investigate: Automation CRM options:
Non-CRM email automation:
• infusionsoft.com
• Mailchimp.com
• ontraport.com
• First Direct. ■
• hubspot.com
Justin Cunningham from JustinCunninghamOnline.com is a ‘resultant’ specialising in turning marketing into sales results.
12 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
We’d like to thank you. BNZ’s proud to be Canstar best small business bank* for the fourth year running.
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*Best Small Business Bank Award independently rated by Canstar 2014.
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 13
IT
Nelson BlueBerry is good for you Nelson business BlueBerry IT is a full service IT company. They stand out from the saturated market by providing ‘technology on your terms’ - products and services that are people focused, custom made and remarkably easy to use. We talk to ex-Brit, guitar playing, Technical Director and the last remaining original owner, Richard Butler about how it is making an impact in a little town on the southern island 24 hours from Europe.
14 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
Why did you start Blueberry IT?
We (the original founders) were working together in another business and we felt there was a different way of doing business. We wanted to approach our industry, which can be fraught with jargon and complexity, in a more people focused way.
Is this your first business? Yes and even after seven years it can still be scary at times!
What inspired you to become an entrepreneur? I wanted
to be the master of my own destiny. I’d worked for other people for many years and became frustrated with having to do things the way someone else wanted them done, when I could see there was a better way.
outsiders to the business has been the best thing we ever did. It allowed us to take the business through some very difficult times and significant ownership changes.
Business Mentors NZ have an amazing service which is well What is your vision for Blueberry worth using - don’t be afraid IT? Our tagline is ‘Technology of paying for coaching services on Your Terms’. Our aim is to and good financial or legal advice. The benefits should make technology available always outweigh the costs. to anyone in business. Technology should be an enabler to success and not What do you think is the number a pain in the rear. We focus one thing that has contributed to on providing solutions to your success? Flexibility – being our customers, which allow able to bend with the wind is their businesses to keep a critical to any small business. competitive advantage. We aren’t here to be the biggest What are the top three things you company in the world - but would teach a startup to get results? we do want to be the best at what we do. • Get a good team around you - staff, lawyers, accountants, and What have been your greatest business advisors. All of learning’s on your entrepreneurial these are invaluable. path? Nothing comes easy - it • Develop good systems and requires a lot of hard work processes and document and effort and even after the hell out of them. seven years it’s still a slog. • Work out what you’re But, if you enjoy what you really good at and focus do, it’s never unpleasant. on that. Asking for help from
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What has been your greatest obstacle as an entrepreneur? Being taken seriously when you first start out can certainly have its challenges. It takes many years to build up a good reputation and about 10 minutes to completely destroy one. In our industry, our staff are key to our relationships with our customers, so we are very particular about whom we employ and focus just as much on interpersonal skills as we do on technical skills.
What are the pros and cons of building a business from Nelson? The pros are obvious - this is the best place in the world to live and work, great weather, great surroundings, sea, mountains… what more could you ask for? Nelson is an amazing little community and once you get established here it’s a fantastic place to do business. With mutual trust and reputation being paramount, most of our
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new business is garnered through referrals. The cons are more subtle. I think a lot of young people tend to move away from Nelson for the bright lights and this does leave a gap in the community between the 20 to 35 year old bracket. This can make the town feel a little sleepy sometimes and it does mean a lot of business owners tend to be in the older age bracket, so they often see technology as a burden to bear rather than an investment. We’re also very dependent on the three industries; they call them the three F’s in Nelson - forestry, fishing and foreigners (tourism). Any impact on those industries is felt across the board.
What does the future hold for yourself and Blueberry IT? Not an
easy question to answer in our industry as things change daily, but I’m sure we’ll be delivering customer focused solutions with a smile for many years to come.■
MIKI SZIKSZAI CEO, SNAPPER
NEW ZEALAND’S SMARTEST BUSINESS PEOPLE ARE SWITCHING TO 2DEGREES. “We were saving between 35% and 40% off our telecommunications bill right off the bat. It also has opened up the opportunity for us to potentially reduce our reliance on landline phones in the office, which we’re now exploring. And again, that will probably take another 20% to 30% off our comms bill.”
MC2527A
To see the full story about Snapper, and hear about other companies who have made the move to 2degrees Business, visit: 2degreesmobile.co.nz/business.
Talk to one of our Business Consultants today and we’ll help drive your business forward. Call 0800 022 249 or visit 2degreesmobile.co.nz/business www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 17
STRESS
*
ENTREPRENEURIAL
BURN OUT
Richard Liew explores the art of entrepreneurial energy and how to set yourself up for your best year yet
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AT THE BEGINNING of each new year, you, the intrepid entrepreneur, will find yourself feeling one of two things: 1. Refreshed, rejuvenated, full of energy and eager to get to work, or; 2. Not the above. If you can honestly say that you fall into the first group, well done. If not, you have already failed in your job as an entrepreneur and your year hasn’t even started! Best you try again next year. The worst time to run a marathon… is when you’ve just finished a marathon. Building your business is a bit like being a marathon runner on the international pro circuit. Each year you spend in your business is like one race out of many on the circuit. Do well and you win the race. But you need to be able to string several wins/years together if you want to win the championship.
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 19
* “ And it is very difficult to go from one marathon straight into the next if you have not first given yourself suitable time out to rest, recover and re-energise between races. Sure, you maybe able to do it for a few years in a row, maybe even several.* But do it to yourself too often, for too long and there is only one inevitable result – entrepreneurial burnout.
If you’re tired before you’ve even started your year, you are unlikely to have the energy reserves needed to deliver like a champ during these times.
• Prevent you from operating at 100% clarity, productivity and creativity. • Affect your stamina. You may not have the energy to complete the long slog ahead that is this years marathon. • Affect your speed. Within each year, there will be times in your business when you the entrepreneur/founder/ leader needs to go flat out (eg a product launch or rebuild, embarking on a new sales campaign, running a fundraising round, a series of important expo’s, or just being short staffed). It could be for a week, or it could be a few months. If you’re tired before you’ve even started your year, you are unlikely to have the energy reserves needed to deliver like a champ during these times.
“
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Starting your new year when you’re already suffering from the cumulative effects of year after year of entrepreneurial burnout will, at best:
At worst it can: • Cloud your vision and create disillusionment. The joy goes. It becomes an obligation rather than an opportunity. You’re so tired you forget why you were doing this in the first place. You start to hate it. • Lead to depression or mental, physical or relationship breakdown. Read The Psychological Price of Entrepreneurship. • Cost you your business and/ or put you off the business building game forever.
If you’re new to business building and are still in that awesome ‘honeymoon period’ where you’ve got energy and adrenalin to burn, this may seem like a bit of an overkill. “Harden up!,” you may be thinking. But here’s the truth – as an entrepreneur you are the biggest risk to your business. Therefore entrepreneurial burnout is a very real risk to your business. You can not continue drawing gas out of the tank if you do not stop to refill it from time to time. For this reason, managing your mental, physical and emotional energy levels is one of the most important skills for entrepreneurs to master.
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 21
So, what are the takeaways here?
1
Pledge to set a great example to your team and the culture of your organisation by looking after yourself properly. As a founder, you owe it to your startup/business/team to give them the best ‘you’ possible. This means ensuring you are taking time out to rest, recover, rejuvenate before you hit rock bottom. As noble as you think it is, don’t martyr yourself by running yourself into the ground. It will not help you or your team in the long run.
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2 The first thing to do when you come back to work… is to plan your breaks and holidays for the coming year! As a rule of thumb aim to reward yourself with: • One three-day weekend per month (eg take off a Friday once a month), • One week holiday per quarter (if you have kids like I do, you may want to time these with their school breaks), • One big end of year break of at least two weeks. Get a big wall planner, or diary and/or use your Outlook or Gmail calendar. Whatever you do, block those dates out! Not only will this ensure you have a series of pit stops in place at regular intervals throughout the year, but it will help inspire and energise you when you’re feeling tired because you know you always have something to look forward to. If you haven’t done this already, get to it.
3
4
Do not mistake ‘time off’ for quality “time out”. Holidays and vacations can often be just as energy sapping as work – often more so! Holidays often involve planning, packing, travelling, socialising, partying, activities, not much sleeping – it’s easy to come back from holiday having had a great time but just as tired or more tired than when you left. We are all different, and therefore will have different ideas of what a good holiday looks like. But in my experience, the time most beneficial for me as an entrepreneur is quiet time, where there is no expectation to do anything, and where I can just zone out, think (or not!), reflect, and breathe.
Being ‘too busy’ is not an excuse for not taking holidays. Rephrase that. Being too busy may be an excuse for not taking a holiday, occasionally. But if you are always skipping breaks and holidays because you are too busy, your business is broken. It shows that your business is unduly reliant on you. You have a job, not a business. Your job as an entrepreneur is to build it so that it can operate successfully without you and if it cannot survive without you for even a week every now and then, you are doing it wrong!
*In 10+ years of business building experience, I myself can only say I have experienced being in the first group, once or twice. For some reason,
planning holidays and taking them takes years of practice. **I have experienced all of these symptoms personally. Except the last one, thankfully.■
Richard Liew is an Auckland based entrepreneur and founder of NZ Entrepreneur magazine
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IP IN ACTION
It’s Not Cricket Kim McLeod of AJ Park explores the excitement of the cricket world cup and the hidden pitfalls of trying to ride the excitement wave of the cups IP for your own profit.
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THIS MONTH cricket fans from around the world will be feasting themselves on the bowling and batting of their favourite teams at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. With match ticket sales expected to reach the ‘magic million’, possibly more, cricket’s flagship tournament is on track to be one of the most exciting and intense competitions yet. This spells great news for Australia and New Zealand, where tens of thousands of fans will flock to one of fourteen venues to support their team. What a great opportunity for businesses in hospitality, retail, and tourism, you might say. And that will surely be the case for many – providing they don’t get LBW’d by infringing intellectual property rights. Sorry, folks. Events like these are full of highly protected IP, the enforcement of which is almost a sport in itself.
and designs of ICC, or official sponsors, licensees, suppliers, or other third-party products or services, belong exclusively to ICC or such third-party, as applicable, or their respective owners, and are protected from reproduction, imitation, dilution or confusing or misleading uses under national and international laws, as applicable.’ It goes on, but you get the idea. In plain English, the International Cricket Council (ICC) owns all rights in pretty much anything to do with the Cricket World Cup, and the use or misuse of these rights is prohibited.
Aside from obvious cases of infringement, such as producing t-shirts featuring the official ICC Cricket World Cup logo, there are other traps to beware of falling into. For example, you might innocently advertise a ‘Cricket World Cup special’, but that would be against the rules. Why? Here’s a flavour of the fine Because in New Zealand print on www.icc-cricket. com’s media zone terms and there is a piece of legislation known as the Major Events conditions: ‘All rights in the Management Act 2007 tournament names, trophies, company names, trade names, (MEMA) which is designed to protect organisers and logos, product packaging
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sponsors of major events from ‘ambush marketing’. Ambush marketing is where a company (or person) seeks to capitalise on the prominence of a major event by unauthorised association with the event, or by using an event to draw attention to its brand, products or services. Under MEMA, protection against ambush marketing is partly achieved by defining ‘major event words’, and ‘major event emblems’. In the case of the ICC Cricket World Cup, two emblems (pictured below), and several major event words or word combinations are protected.
MEMA also provides for protection against unauthorised advertising in designated ‘clean zones’ and ‘clean transport routes’ for specified times before,
during, and after major event activity. For example, if your restaurant or bar happens to be in a designated clean zone, you wouldn’t be able to put up a sign on the pavement saying ‘Come in and enjoy our CWC fanzone’. That would be considered ‘intrusion’ (a particular type of ambush marketing), and the word combination ‘CWC fanzone’ is protected under the MEMA order. The moral of the story, is that unless you’re the organiser of a major event, an authorised sponsor, licensee, or third party, your best bet is to go about your business as usual and not be tempted to jump on the bandwagon of a heavily protected tournament. All that’s likely to do is result in you being out for a duck. For full details, you can read the Major Events Management (Cricket World Cup 2015) Order 2013 here. This came into effect on 20 December 2013 and will end on 15 April 2015.■
Kim McLeod is a partner at AJ Park, and heads the firm’s litigation team. If you’re concerned about enforcement or infringement of IP rights, you can contact Kim by email on kim.mcleod@ajpark.com or telephone +64 9 356 7684.
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iP is about igniting passion Great ideas shape our world if they are harnessed and protected in the right way. At AJ Park, we work with you to understand your business and where you want to take it. Our experts specialise in helping you identify, protect, commercialise, and manage your intellectual property. If you’re looking for clear IP advice, call us today. 0800 257 275 I www.ajpark.com I New Zealand + Australia
AJ Park is about iP • intellectual property • igniting passion • ideas pervading www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 27
SEO
Hidden Secrets of the Marketing Masters Do you want to get on Page One of Google for next to nothing? Do you want to get more sales leads? Do you have a limited budget, but some time on your hands to make it happen? If you answered yes – then please read on BY JUSTIN CUNNIGHAM
Twin Design / Shutterstock.com 28 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz
I AM NOT an SEO genius. I have however learnt some simple tricks that saved me money and got me very, very cheap sales leads that I want to share that I have discovered over the past eight years from people who are SEO geniuses. The following are their hidden secrets. • Getting on Page One of Google • Google accounts for over 80% of traffic used for search. So to utilise this platform is vital, however you must do it legitimately. I have done this very exercise I am about to show you for my new entity as it worked a dream in the past for getting me free sales leads. To get onto page one for Google you must be perceived as being active, and by using multiple channels and Google’s tools you will confirm with Google that you are the real deal, and worthy of Google’s digital love. So how do we do it?
Step One - Register on free or nearly free Business Directories Google the words ‘business directories New Zealand’, then look to register on as many as possible using the same contact details, descriptive keywords and links. I found eight directories on page one of Google including: • Nzdirectory.co.nz • Businessme.co.nz • Finda.co.nz • Nzsbdirectory.co.nz • Yellow.co.nz • Fundus.co.nz • Yalwa.co.nz • Gopher.co.nz
www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz • 29
Step Three - Ask customers to give you positive reviews
Step Two - Sign up for your Google+ page and activate your business listing Google has a free business listing waiting for you that you can access by having a Google+ page. To have a Google+ page however you must have signed up for a Gmail account. It’s easy and free, so go do it. Once you have a Google+ page you can activate a business listing so that you are easily found on the Google search engine. When you search for any product or service on Google you will notice a list of businesses with letters next to their name that correspond with the map of the area in question. You want to be on that organic (non-paid) list if you can, and high up if possible. ALERT: Less than 20% of people go past page one when searching for a solution on Google hence it’s important to have a strategy to stay there.
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When you have a business listing on Google+ you also have a reviews section. This section is an indicator to Google that you are worthy of attention and priority. So when you have completed a job for a happy customer, send them a link to your Google+ page to leave a five star review. This shows Google that you are worthy of prestige and your ranking will elevate. Make this part of your sales process so all of your sales team are making this happen with happy customers.
Step Four - Activate and use your Social Media business pages weekly When you create a business page on Facebook you are ultimately utilising the largest traffic consumer on the internet. Therefore it has credibility. You will notice when searching for businesses on Google that you will often see a Facebook page listing ahead of the actual business website for a company.
This is the reason why. So go to Facebook and setup your Facebook page or go to a cheap outsourcing option like fiverr.com and get the page created asap. Do the same for Linkedin also. If you have a business that revolves around imagery then also do it on Instagram and Pinterest. Aside from setting the pages up remember to delegate someone to leave one message on your pages per day, asking a question. This creates engagement and credibility once again.
Step Five - Create a low cost Adwords campaign To really prove your value to Google give them a bit of money. An Adwords campaign can be as little as $6 to 8 daily and still work. I have a chiropractic client and he spends $6 per day and gets two to three clients per week. At an average sale of $60 that’s a fantastic return. That’s not to say all businesses will get that, but even if it doesn’t get you that amount of leads it’s a proven way of staying prioritised by Google for your search terms.
Step Six - Use the same keywords on multiple formats of content When writing blogs, creating videos, e-books, resources and the like remember to use the main keywords you are found for in the title and description. This again emphasises your value under the terms people are searching for.
The Truth The truth is most people read stuff like this and then forget to do it. This should take you three hours total to do and cost you under $100. If your average sale is over $50 then this is definitely worth it. So please don’t file this under ‘interesting’. Pick up the phone, fire up the internet and do it today as there’s no greater tool for getting sales leads than the power of Google. ■
Justin Cunningham from JustinCunninghamOnline.com is a ‘resultant’ specialising in turning marketing in to sales results
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PARTING SHOT
“Beingtherichestman inthecemeterydoesn’t mattertome.Going tobedatnight saying we’vedonesomething wonderful,that’swhat matterstome” - Steve Jobs
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