' WEBSITE101: READING LIST
Reaching Great Minds Online
July 30, 2001 Issue #102
Mike Valentine, Editor, learn@website101.com
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By subscription only Welcome to the July 30, 2001 issue
WEBSITE101: READING LIST
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This issue online at http://website101.com/arch/current/
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IN THIS ISSUE:
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==> Sponsor Ad: PR Promoter
==> Feature Article: Press Releases and Promotion
==> Guest Article: Marketings Greatest Enemy
==> Classifieds
==> Subscribe/Unsubscribe information
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SPONSOR AD
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PR Promoter, http://www.prpromoter.com, specializes in press
promotions, press releases and public relations. Features
regular columns and forums where readers can ask questions
and contribute ideas. We'll show you many ways of getting
"the press" on your side, what press is looking for and expects,
what will be picked up by a journalist and what would normally
go into the trash. mailto:prpromoter@usa.net
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FEATURE ARTICLE
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PR, Press Releases and Promotion!
by Mike Banks Valentine
This week WebSite101.com and OnlineWorkshops.com officially
announced our partnership to the press via an electronic
press release distributed online via multiple sources and
sent by email to specific local media sources. I can't yet
say what results that announcement will have as it just
went to the inbox of hundreds of journalists across the
country.
Our first press release was picked up in some incredible
places and got WebSite101 noticed by national media. The
effectiveness of press releases can be entirely dependent on
whether or not there are any major national scandals brewing
before that news release is sent. I don't know if there will
be any major earthquakes, tornadoes or presidential sex
scandals this week, but I'm very excited that television's
60 Minutes news magazine covered online education tonight!
What the media pays attention to is often determined by what
the media pays attention to. Every news outlet looks at what
the competition is running on the front page or what tops the
hourly news reports. If 60 Minutes is paying attention to
online education, then WebSite101 has got great chance of
being a major news story tomorrow. If my local paper, the
Santa Rosa Press Democrat gets interested, their parent
publication, the New York Times may pick up the story too!
All we can do now is to wait and see if the San Jose Mercury
News or the San Francisco Chronicle notice a small business
internet tutorial teaming up with a distance education portal.
The 60 Minutes piece was specifically discussing major online
distance education initiatives launched by Duke University
and the well known internet education site, University of
Phoenix. Talk was centered around whether it was an effective
and useful way to learn. I already believe that it is.
Now we'll see whether the media agrees with that perspective.
And as long as George W. Bush is faithful to his loving wife,
and makes no malaprops during the performance of his duties
tomorrow, maybe the Philadelphia Enquirer will take notice
of a quiet little web site that is seeking to change the face
of ebusiness by training a few thousand independent entrepre-
neurs in ecommerce for the little guy.
I'm excited and hopeful of the potential for distance
education and the small part WebSite101 can play in helping
small business gain an edge in ecommerce.
Our first press release was used by Entrepreneur Magazine,
the Sacramento Bee and Oracle Magazine and we can only hope
for more of that kind of attention will follow with the
latest announcement. Ted Koppel, what do you think? David
Letterman, do you care to comment? Howard Stern, care to
weigh in on this one?
Take a look at our press release by visiting it online at:
http://website101.com/press.html
And keep your fingers crossed for us that no movie stars get
arrested for soliciting prostitution or some such nonsense.
Maybe Martha StewartÕll say something nice about WebSite101.
Oprah, would you like to add my ebook to your recommended
reading list?
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WebSite101 "Reading List" Weekly Netrepreneur Tip Sheet
Weekly Ezine emphasizing small business on the Internet
http://website101.com/arch/
e-tutorial online at: http://website101.com/shortcourse.html
By week's end you're ready expand your business to the web!
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GUEST ARTICLE
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======================
Marketing's Greatest Enemy
by Jay Conrad Levinson
You work like crazy trying to attract attention and business,
operating from a marketing calendar, committing to your strategy
and doing everything right, resulting in an influx of customers
-- but you lose them. They never come back. You did your
marketing so well and marketed so wisely that you're almost in a
state of shock at how your customers ignore you.
You treated them well while you were making your business
transactions. You gave them a fair price, knew that the quality
you put into your offering matched the quality they got out of
it. You assured them that service is your middle name. You
smiled and used their name when you said good-bye, thanking them
for the sale. And then, after all that caring attention on your
part, they completely ignored you, never set foot in your
business again.
Do you want to know why they ignored you, why it was so easy for
them to put you out of their minds?
It's because you ignored them. It's because you made the sale
and then made the grave but all-too-common error of thinking
that your marketing job was over. That was a terrible error. But
at least you've got a lot of company making the same terrible
error. Nearly 70 percent of business lost in America is lost due
to apathy after the sale. Apathy is the deadliest enemy of
marketing. A "love 'em and leave 'em" attitude is usually fatal
to profitability.
The opposite of apathy is follow-up. Guerrillas have a "love 'em
and love 'em" attitude, marketing to prospects like crazy till
the sale is made, then continuing to market like crazy to them
after the sale. Apathy never sets in. Customers never feel
ignored. Guerrillas do all in their power to intensify the
relationship with caring follow-up and loving attention. They
know that once they have established a relationship, their
product or service is no longer thought of as a commodity.
Businesses that offer commodities often lose customers due to
competitors offering lower prices. Businesses that form warm
relationships transcend being thought of as a commodity and
maintain their customer relationships with service and constant
contact.
No wonder they don't lose business so readily. People want
relationships, want the businesses they patronize to stay in
contact, want to feel cared for and not ignored. All guerrillas
know that their customer relationships are their most precious
assets. They know that if customers purchased from them one time
and had an enjoyable purchase experience, they are very likely
to buy from them again. And again and again. And to provide many
referrals over time.
To nourish these kind of lasting relationships, guerrillas send
thank-you notes after the sale -- within 48 hours. They contact
customers within a month of the sale to make certain they are
satisfied and have no questions. They get in touch with
customers once again three months after the sale, this time
suggesting new items that may tie-in with the original purchase.
And three months after that, they make another contact. This
kind of guerrilla follow-up not only prevents dreaded apathy
from setting in, but also increases business anywhere from 20%
to 300%. That's because customers, in their hearts, silently
hope for recognition, acknowledgment, information, advance
opportunities to purchase, and new calls to action.
Instead of the kind of apathy that loses customers forever,
constant attention and follow-up results in healthy back-end
sales. This means repeat sales, ancillary sales and referral
sales. And this means big profits to you -- because it costs six
times more to sell something to a new prospect than to sell that
same thing to an existing customer.
These days, all the true marketing experts ask you to calculate
the lifetime value of a customer. If you don't understand the
damaging effects of apathy after the sale, that lifetime value
is pretty small, probably a few hundred dollars, if that. If you
do all in your power to prevent apathy from ever setting it, the
lifetime value of each customer may be measured in hundreds of
thousands of dollars, maybe even more. You'll profit from the
initial sale, from the repeat sales, from the referral sales and
from the long, mutually beneficial relationship. It happens only
when you defeat the most deadly enemy of marketing. And now you
know how to do that.
======================
Jay Conrad Levinson is responsible for some of the most
effective marketing campaigns in history, and his 29 books have
been published in 39 languages. We highly recommend that you
attend his upcoming Guerrilla Marketing Boot Camp that Seth
Godin called "the most important business event of the new
millennium." Be sure to use this gift certificate code: C130
http://www.roibot.com/tk_gmbc.cgi?bcartnl
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************
Learn to be a professional HypnoTherapist! at The Alchemy Institute of
Healing Arts. Offering Residential training intensives at our school
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************
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Copyright © 2001 Mike Valentine
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ISSN: 1527-5094
Mike Valentine
WebSite 101
learn@website101.com
