Wealth Smarts Blog

Addictions are Growing!

2009-06-23T09:06:00.003-06:00

Greetings! L.I.F.E. Ministries is an addiction recovery ministry that provides resources, structure, and support to the Christian community.

I serve this ministry as Director of Development, leading program development, working directly with the Executive Board to manage business operations, and oversee all communications aspects.

As you know, we are in a financially trying time, but also a time where many addicts are returning to their addictions due to overall societal stress.

Help me help this ministry more with a tax-deductible donation that contributes to my work with the ministry.

] Learn all the details about this addiction recovery ministry before deciding

Poll: Email Marketing

2009-06-17T09:05:00.001-06:00

I have reviewed my subscriber list and found that many of them do not use email marketing in their business. This got me curious ...

Does your company use email marketing?

Answer at: http://polls.linkedin.com/p/43277/ndljw

Client Site Expands to State Level

2009-02-24T17:11:00.000-06:00

Oxford House of Louisiana was a website for local area Oxford Houses, a drug and alcohol free housing program. Last month, their site expanded to include all Oxford housing in the state of Louisiana. We upgraded the site wording and allowed easy searching of houses in various areas AND expanded their Administration Area so that Oxford House can update their housing on the fly.
Learn more at: http://www.ohola.org

Incredible Special Offer: Free Review of Your Plan

2009-02-19T17:33:00.000-06:00

Send your 2009 goals, objectives, business plans, … whatever you have done … to us for a review and email suggestions back from Brockwell. Please allow 2-3 weeks for review and reply.

Want more? Schedule a one hour conference call with Brockwell to review your plan by phone.
Call (225) 302-8032 before 2/28/2009 and mention this article to schedule a one hour conference call for $25 (a 50% discount)!

Want even more? Send your plan or plan components, along with your marketing initiatives to Bone Marketing and schedule a Complete Marketing Analysis. This Analysis allows us to spend an entire day learning about your business, review your marketing materials (ads, business cards, brochures) and sending you, not only recommendations, but a usable Marketing Action Plan that breaks down step-by-step what we would do to market your business further. (Incredible Price Expires 2/28/2009)
Find Out Why This Is A Good Idea <

From the Keyboard of Brockwell (Feb 2009 Newsletter)

2009-02-14T16:32:00.000-06:00

Last month, I wrote about planning for 2009 and to break down even the largest, wow-can-I-really-do-that goal down into quarterly goals, monthly objectives, and daily tasks.

Did you stop and make a plan? Without a plan, how will you know how to get to your destination (success)? I recommend stopping right now and jotting down where you want your company to be at the end of the year. Now, write what must happen each quarter to meet each goal. For example, if your goal is to increase sales by $40,000, your quarterly goal is to earn $10,000 more than you did that quarter in the previous year. Take it a step further and write that each month you must sell $3,400 more than you did a year before. How will you meet that goal? Get new clients? How many? Up-sell current clients? How? Congratulations, you now have a plan.

Are you following your plan? After writing a plan, you must revisit it (sometimes each day, but for realistic sake) each week. Did you meet your goal for that week? What do you have to do next week to keep with your goal for the month? Did you exceed your goal that week? If so, stop and celebrate – take your wife to dinner, take the salesman that met the goal for a drink.

Are you tweaking your plan? Things change therefore your plan should be a living document. Each month, your goals may change, products may be launched, services discontinued. Tweak your plan as your business changes.

Quote of the Month: Consistency

2009-02-09T16:31:00.000-06:00

Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.
- Plutarch, Roman Historian

Bone Marketing Promotes the Daigle Cottage House Plans

2009-02-03T14:51:00.000-06:00

Bone Marketing joined with Studieux Design of Louisiana, LLC to promote the Daigle Cottage house plan. While we did not design their website, Studieux Design approached us to assist with internet marketing.

About the Daigle Cottage: The designing architect made sure the Daigle Cottage offers all the amenities characteristic of larger homes in a manageable footprint ideal for smaller lots. The free flowing modern kitchen/dining/living room space combines with plenty of natural light from front and side windows to contribute to an open feel that overflows onto the covered back porch.
(More information at http://www.daiglecottagehouseplans.com/)

We tweaked some behind the scenes stuff like META tags, and continued on our mission by submitting the site (http://www.daiglecottagehouseplans.com/) to over 90 search engines requesting that it be cataloged.

Aside from that, we employed other internet marketing efforts to draw attention to the site (it's a trade secret or I would list them here -wink!).

We are monitoring the sites ranks on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.com to ensure that we are properly marketing the site and increase visibility on these search engines. Since taking over the internet marketing of the site, we have gaining positions on the search engines.

Email Deliverability Tips

2009-02-03T09:12:00.003-06:00

by Tom Kulzer, AWeber Email Management System

Ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to subscriber inboxes is an increasingly difficult battle in the age of spam filtering. Open and click thru response rates can be dramatically affected by as much as 20-30% due to incorrect spam filter classification.

Permission
Confirming that the people who ask for your information have actually requested to be on your list is the number one step in the battle for deliverability. You should be using a process called confirmed opt-in or verified opt-in to send a unique link to the attempted subscriber when they request information. Before adding the person to your list they must click that unique link verifying that they are indeed the same person that owns the email address and requested to subscribe.

Subscriber Addresses
When requesting website visitors to opt-in ask for their “real” or “primary” email address instead of a free email address like Yahoo or Hotmail. Free emails tend to be throw away accounts and typically have a shorter lifetime than a primary ISP address.

List Maintenance
Always promptly remove undeliverable addresses that bounce when sending email to them. An address that bounces with a permanent error 2-3 times in a 30 day period should be removed from the list. ISP’s track what percentage of your newsletters bounce and will block them if you attempt to continually deliver messages to closed subscriber mailboxes.

Message Format
Usage of HTML messages to allow for text formatting, multiple columns, images, and brand recognition is growing in popularity and is widely supported by most email client software. Most spam is also HTML formatted and thus differentiating between requested email and spam HTML messages can be difficult. A 2004 study by AWeber .com shows that plain text messages are undeliverable 1.15% of the time and HTML only messages were undeliverable 2.3%. If sending HTML it is important to always send a plain text alternative message, also called text/HTML multi-part mime format.

Content
Many ISP’s filter based on the content that appears within the message text.

Website URL:
Research potential newsletter advertisers before allowing them to place ads in your newsletter issues. If they have used their website URL to send spam, just having their URL appear in your newsletter could cause the entire message to be filtered.

Words/phrases:
Choose your language carefully when crafting messages. Avoid hot button topics often found in spam such as medication, mortgages, making money, and pornography. If you do need to use words that might be filtered, don’t attempt to obfuscate words with extra characters or odd spelling, you’ll just make your messages appear more spam like.

Images:
Avoid creating messages that are entirely images. Use images sparingly, if at all. Commonly used open rate tracking technology uses images to calculate opens. You may choose to disable open rate tracking to avoid being filtered based on image content.

Attachments:
With viruses running rampant and spreading thru the usage of malicious email attachments many users are wary of attached documents. It’s often better to link to files via a website URL to reduce recipient fear of attachments and reduce the overall message size.

CAN-SPAM Compliance
The January 2004 Federal CAN-SPAM law introduced a number of rules regarding the delivery of email. It’s important you have your legal counsel review your practices and ensure you are in compliance. The two most important rules include having a valid postal mail address listed in all commercial messages and a working unsubscribe link that is promptly honored to remove the subscriber from future messages.

Reputation
Reputation services are often used by large ISP’s as a way to vet email senders regarding their email practices and policies. Businesses listed with these services are then given less stringent filtering or no filtering at all. Several reputation services are:

http://www.isipp.com/iadb.php
http://www.bondedsender.com
http://www.habeas.com

Relationships & Whitelisting
Contact with major ISP’s and email providers is essential in letting them know about your requested subscriber email. Many large providers such as AOL and Yahoo have specific whitelisting programs and postmaster website areas to ensure your email is delivered as long as you meet their policies and procedures in handling your opt-in list.

Email deliverability is about ensuring requested opt-in email is delivered to the intended recipient. While no single tip will enable you to get 100% of your email delivered each one utilized as a group can go a long way to reaching that goal.

------------------------------
Are you using email communications to boost your business?
Check out the AWeber system

What Can We Learn from the Big 3?

2009-01-26T16:08:00.000-06:00

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know that our country is in an “economic crisis”. Sales are down, companies are failing, and the government is giving money to “bailout” some of these companies.

Late last year, the “Big 3” automakers approached Congress together to ask for “bailout” money. The first response from Congress applies to any business CEO seeking other people’s money …

What are you going to do with the money I give you to ensure that you will still be in business and be able to pay me back?

Tail between the legs, the automakers left Capitol Hill and returned later with a plan.
Do not make this mistake with your business!! Whether you are approaching a bank, a family member, or a potential equity investor, always have a plan ready to show them.

Sure, most family members will accept an elevator speech – but give them more than that. A bank will require a business plan. And an investor may not meet with you again if you did not bring a business plan and bombed your elevator speech.

There are so many resources our there to model a business plan from. Books, websites, blogs, etc. The best resource I have found is “Other People’s Money, How to attract Other People’s Money for your investments” by Michael Lechter, Esq. Using Rich Dad’s Business-Investing Triangle (Trademark of Cashflow Technologies, Inc.), Attorney Lechter leads you through planning and executing plans for raising funds for your business – from banks to investors.

You know your business better than anyone – in a day or two you could have a rough draft done! Then have at least one (if not 2) other people knowledgeable about your business review it.

Even if you don’t need it at this moment, make a business plan … you never know when you will meet a potential investor or need to suddenly expand to meet a large order.

Bone Marketing Donates First Bone-site

2009-01-24T14:38:00.001-06:00

Bone Marketing is pleased to announce the launch of the test-product, bone-site. The bone-site is a custom-tailored content management system that allows us to quickly build a powerful website, loaded with features, with a unique look, and allows clients to update their own site with ease.

We donated the first bone-site to the Tri-County Riders, a non-profit bikers club that raises money and takes gifts to deliver to underprivelged children in Southeast Wisconsin.

] Learn more about the bone-site content management system

] Visit the Tri-County Riders, biker club in Southeast Wisconsin

Crazy Link of the Month

2009-01-22T16:10:00.000-06:00

Each month we like to feature some wild thing we have found on the internet. This month, we offer Street Art: Joshua Allen Harris' Inflatable Bag Monsters.

Thanks Cathy Miller, Realtor, Burlington, WI for this one!

Do you have a crazy link? Submit It

Recommended Service: iContact

2009-01-17T16:06:00.000-06:00

If you are searching for simple email marketing software that provides a platform for your online marketing campaigns, we encourage you to use our friends at iContact. iContact allows you to use multiple channels such as email, RSS feeds, and blogs to distribute your message to your prospects and customers. [ Learn More ].

From the Keyboard of Brockwell (Jan 2009 Newsletter)

2009-01-12T16:05:00.000-06:00

“Life is a unique combination of ‘want to’ and ‘how to’, and we need to give equal attention to both.”
- Jim Rohn, America’s Foremost Business Philosopher

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Last month, I wrote about planning for 2009 and how much more effective (and affective) you will be if you have a plan!!

Did you set goals? What are your goals for 2009? I have set several goals from gaining employees to increasing gross sales. This is only half the battle. This is the “want to” that Mr. Rohn speaks of above.

Did you plan your goals? Each goal can be broken down into steps, or objectives. If you have a goal for 2009, what must you do each quarter to get there? What must you do each month? Do you see where I am going with this? You can break even the larger, wow-can-I-really-do-that? goal down into quarterly goals, monthly objectives, and daily tasks.

Next Month: Are you following your plan? Are you tweaking your plan?

January's Quote of the Month

2009-01-05T16:41:00.002-06:00

I thought that the following quote is perfect for the planning and resolutions associated with the new year ...

“Life is a unique combination of ‘want to’ and ‘how to’, and we need to give equal attention to both.”
- Jim Rohn, America’s Foremost Business Philosopher

If you know where you 'want to' take your business, but want another brain to pick to ensure that you have the right 'how to', contact us! Visit our website at www.bonemarketing.com for business and marketing consulting.

2009 Goals and Resolutions

2008-12-31T09:35:00.000-06:00

Greetings All!

If you are like most people, you have a set of new year's resolutions in mind. Think back to last year, did you change overnight and stick with your resolution for this year?

Most people did not.

I want to share a video with you about goal setting - http://www.internetmarketing.com/2009-goals/873283. Disregard the underlying sales pitch for their service and focus on the method they share for goal-setting. (NOTE: I do recommend the products and services that they advertise, however, the focal point is goal-setting.)

What resolutions/goals do you have for 2009?

Help Me, Help Others

2008-12-19T13:06:00.001-06:00

As you may know, I work for a ministry out of Orlando, Florida called L.I.F.E. Ministries. L.I.F.E. Ministries is a ground-breaking organization that helps people trapped in an addiction involving sexual immorality; prostitution, extra-marital affairs, pornography, compulsive masturbation, and other un-healthy sexual acts.

Back in 2002, I started with L.I.F.E. as their webmaster. Today, I lead the development of ministry programs, manage the Ministry Team and their projects, & continue to serve their communications needs.

In 2008, L.I.F.E. finished authoring its workbook resources (now available for men, spouses, women, teens, and couples), expanded its reach on the internet, and continued expansion of facilitator resources (for facilitators of L.I.F.E. support groups found in churches across the globe!).

L.I.F.E. Ministries needs more of my time in 2009 to further outreach efforts; unfortunately, as with many non-profits, finances are tight – especially in this economy.

If I were to raise $8,400 in tax-deductible contributions, I could double my hours with L.I.F.E. Ministries in 2009.

I feel that after 6 months of doubled hours, I can increase the ministry’s income enough to support compensation for my extra hours!!!

Therefore, I want to raise $4,200 so that I can beginning working twice as much and accelerate L.I.F.E. to the next level – reaching more people drowning in this addiction!

Would you prayerfully consider a one-time, tax-deductible donation of $100? Would a monthly contribution fit your pocket book better?

Help me support L.I.F.E. and continue their mission of freedom from this addiction.

If you have any questions or comments, please call my cell phone at (225) 378-0551; or email me at brockwellb@freedomeveryday.org.

I can send you a DVD about the ministry so that you fully understand where your investment is going, or you can watch online at www.freedomeveryday.org/donations/brockwell.

Thank you in advance for your support,

Brockwell Bone
Director of Development
L.I.F.E. Ministries
24 Hour Pre-Recorded Information (866) 408-LIFE

Recommended Service: Mass Email Management

2008-12-16T14:32:00.000-06:00

I recently had a client that needed to change from their free mass email management system to one with more capacity. After researching several providers, and even testing another, I found that iContact had what they needed.

iContact had a feature that others did not have, they allowed us to import all the email addresses into their system without their staff reviewing them and potentially not allowing them.

] Check out iContact

Merry Christmas (with a Capital "C")

2008-12-15T09:01:00.000-06:00

Does Your Business Have a Umbrella?

2008-12-11T14:30:00.000-06:00

Does your business have an umbrella? Are you making it in the economic conditions of our country? Did you have a plan or are you, like many others, "winging it"?

As a small business owner, I work on my business and I work for my business; many of you do the same. Working for your business and working on your business reviewing the books, answering phones, and planning the next tradeshow rarely leaves any time for proper business planning.

Some business owners set a point from here to their goal and start going, usually without a list of steps to get there. Would you agree that this method generates less than efficient results - I would!

The new year is upon us! What do you want for your company in 2009? A profit increase of 10%? Two new employees? Three new computers?

Setting these types of goals are only half the battle! Proper business planning also develops the requirements, financials, strategies, and other steps to get from where you are now to your goal.

Take time this December (or even beginning of January - I'm a realistic guy) and layout your goals and the steps to get there. A few hours of planning now could help you pass your goals later!!!

To your success,
Brockwell Bone

PS - If you would like assistance planning your year, need another brain to pick, or advice, please do not hesitate to schedule a consultation.

Quote of the Month

2008-12-10T14:16:00.000-06:00

"The American people never carry an umbrella. They prepare to walk in eternal sunshine."
-Alfred E. Smith

Weathering Economic Declines

2008-12-05T14:15:00.000-06:00

It is no secret that our nation is in a recession. While I do not believe that it is as bad as the media portrays it, I see and hear about how this recession is affecting business in different areas of the country.

Cash is king right now. If you do not have it and your sales are down, you may have taken up nail-biting, or even drinking. During a recession, you want to save as much money as possible – I should say, as much cash as possible. Cash is the best floatation device a company can have.

Many financial gurus suggest to individuals that they have 3-6 months of expenses in savings for an emergency. Why should businesses act any different? Make it a plan to reserve as much cash as possible until you have 3 months or more in the bank in case sales dry up before this economic situation is over.

Did you ever see Mr. Mom with Michael Keaton? At the end of the movie, which took place during an economic downturn in the auto industry, Teri Garr convinced her boss to lower the price of their product for a limited time. The marketing around this announcement was fantastic! The boss himself appeared on the TV commercial in patriotic colors and explained that they were reducing the cost of their product during these troubled times, and that they would return to normal pricing when the economy gets better.

This is a risky move – I hear ya! We do not know how long this recession will last! So, why don’t we put a spin on this and give discounts to cash customers and larger discounts to pre-paid customers? If cash is king, this is a great way to get cash.

This last idea is a difficult one for me to discuss because I do not have a lot of experience with employees – easier said than done moment. If it comes down to it, you can have an employee meeting and share any situations and the short-term future of the company. Notify employees now if you are expecting a drop in sales. Tell them that until the economy gets better, there will be no raises.

If your situation is dire enough, you may need to devise a temporary wage reduction or “savings” program. This program would ask employees to take lower pay in exchange for continued hours.

Another idea is an employee investment savings program where your employees pledge up to 20% of their paychecks to remain in the company. The company uses that money to float and, in return, the company gives them 2% interest on the money they let the company “borrow”. You will not get a loan rate that low, they will not get an interest rate that high – you both win.
A recession can be extremely scary to business owners. I hope that these ideas have helped or generated new ideas for you and your business. What other ideas do you have?

Recommended Business Communications Service

2008-12-01T10:00:00.001-06:00

Bone Marketing uses and recommends this vendor.

Do Your Potential Customers Forget About You?

2008-11-24T14:29:00.001-06:00

By Tom Kulzer (AWeber CEO)

Your web business probably gets product inquiries from potential customers around the globe. Inquiries come via e-mail and your web site, and you try to send information to each hot prospect as quickly as you can. You know that you can drastically increase the likelihood of making a sale by satisfying each person’s need for information quickly!

But, after you’ve delivered that first bit of information to your prospect, do you send him any further information?

If you are like most Internet marketers, you don’t.

When you don’t follow that initial message with additional information later on, you let a valuable prospect slip from your grasp! This is a potential customer who may have been very interested in your products, but who lost your contact information, or was too busy to make a purchase when your first message reached him.

Often, a prospect will purposely put off making a purchase, to see if you find him important enough to follow up with later. When he doesn’t receive a follow up message from you, he will take his business elsewhere.

Are you losing profits due to inconsistent and ineffective follow up?

Following up with leads is more than just a process - it’s an art. In order to be effective, you need to design a follow up system, and stick to it, EVERY DAY! If you don’t follow up with your prospects consistently, INDIVIDUALLY, and in a timely fashion, then you might as well forget the whole follow up process.

Consistent follow up gets results!

When I first started marketing and following up with prospects, I used a follow up method that I now call the “List Technique.” I had a large database containing the names and e-mail addresses of people who had specifically requested information about my products and services. These prospects had already received my first letter by the time they requested more information, so I used the company’s latest news as a follow up piece.

I would write follow up newsletters every now and then, and send them, in one mass mailing, to everyone who had previously requested information from me. While this probably did help me win a few additional orders, it wasn’t a very good follow up method. Why isn’t the “List Technique” very effective?

The List Technique isn’t consistent. Proponents of the List Technique tend to only send out follow up messages when their companies have “big news”.

List Technique messages don’t give the potential customer any additional information about the product or service in question. He can’t make a more informed buying decision after receiving a newsletter! If someone is wondering whether your company sells the best knick-knacks, what does he care that you’ve just moved your headquarters?

List Technique messages convey a “big list” mentality to your potential customers. When I used to write follow up messages using the List Technique, I was writing news bulletins to everyone I knew! I should have been sending a personal message to each individual who wanted to know more about my products.

What follow up method really works?

Following up with each lead individually, multiple times, but at set intervals, and with pre-written messages, will dramatically increase sales! Others who use this same technique confirm that they have all at least doubled the sales of various products! In order to set this system up, though, you need to do some planning.

First, you’ll need to develop your follow up messages. If you’ve been marketing on the Internet for any length of time, then you should already have a first informative letter. Your second letter marks the beginning of the follow up process, and should go into more detail than the first letter. Fill this letter with details that you didn’t have the space to add to the first letter. Stress the BENEFITS of your products or services!

Your next 2-3 follow up messages should be rather short. Include lists of the benefits and potential uses of your products and services. Write each letter so that your prospects can skim the contents, and still see the full force of your message.

The next couple of follow up messages should create a sense of urgency in your prospect’s mind. Make a special offer, giving him a reason to order NOW instead of waiting any longer. After reading these follow up messages, your prospect should want to order immediately!

Phrase each of your final 1 or 2 follow up messages in the form of a question. Ask your prospect why he hasn’t yet placed an order? Try to get him to actually respond. Ask if the price is to high, the product isn’t the right color or doesn’t have the right features, or if he is looking for something else entirely. (By this time, it’s unlikely that this person will order from you. However, his feedback can help you modify your follow up letters or products, so that other prospects will order from you.)

The timing of your follow up letters is just as important as their content. You don’t want one prospect to receive a follow up the day after he gets your initial informative letter, while another prospect waits weeks for a follow up!

Always send an initial, informative letter as soon as it is requested, and send the first follow up 24 hours afterwards. You want your hot prospects to have information quickly, so that they can make informed buying decisions!

Send the next 2-3 follow up messages between 1 and 3 days apart. Your prospect is still hot, and is probably still shopping around! Tell him about the benefits of your products and services, as opposed to your competitors’. You will make the sale!

Send the final follow up messages later on. You certainly don’t want to annoy your prospect! Make sure that these last letters are at least 4 days apart.

Following up effectively seems complicated, but it doesn’t have to be! So many potential customers are lost because of poor follow up - don’t you want to be one of the few to get it right?

Get an easy-to-use email management system that makes consistent communications possible by clicking this link.