Vol. 2, Issue 5

Increasing Business Through Print Media And The Internet

CONTENTS

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Article 1: Are You Letting Sales Slip Away

dezinNEWS

Article 2: Search Engine Optimized (SEO) Copy - The Down and Dirty Details

dezinNOTES

Ask O

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Are You Letting Sales Slip Away? Recently, I spent an afternoon with some friends at a go-cart track. We had the time of our life each pretending to be world class race car drivers. Although we were older than most of the people there we felt young and alive. We committed to doing this again and soon! I found over the next few days I shared stories of my experience with countless people. I told story after story of what a great time I had had and how nice the staff was and of my plans to return. With each passing day my plans to return got swept up with the day to day activities of running my business. A couple weeks after my go-cart experience I got a call from a friend who wanted to know the name of the track. Honestly, I just didn't remember. I didn't even know what to look under in the phone book or on the Internet in order to find the company name. "Sorry," I said. "I just don't remember." How often does this type of situation occur? Sadly, more often than not. And how many sales and potential sales are lost as a result of poor follow up after the initial sale? Sales that could be easily won if people could only remember your company name, the phone number, and the web address. If you are like most people you have set goals and outcomes for the coming year that include increasing the client base and revenues while increasing profit margins. The sad truth is these are probably the same goals that are set every year and the strategies for achieving the outcomes are probably the same also. Why not use a smarter strategy? Cultivate relationships with your current client base and keep your name fresh in their mind. Fact is if someone has already bought something from you and they were pleased with their purchase there is a good chance they will buy again. That is if they remember you and your company when it is time to make the purchase. This applies to hair salons, dentists, specialty gift shops, pet stores and dog groomers, clothing stores, nail salons, or just about any type of business. Additionally, if they were happy with their experience often they are more than willing to refer people to you, if they could remember you company name. Seems a bit ridiculous they wouldn't remember your company name. After all, they had such a great experience and said they would be back. Not remembering a company name is more common than you might think. A good friend loves shopping at an upscale clothing consignment store in the Salt Lake Valley. Her sprees there are sporadic at best. Although she enjoys her experience and will spend in excess of $100 each time she does shop at this unique store, she often forgets about the shop just because she gets so busy with other things in her life. She said if the owner would simply send out an occasional reminder to come on it she would likely stop in more often. Even a quick email message could work well, she said. An email that could turn an occasional buyer into a frequent buyer. Not only a frequent buyer, but one who more often tells others about the store because the name of the shop is fresh in her mind. Unfortunately, with many businesses, beyond the initial sale, not much is done to keep their name fresh in the customer's mind. Customers who have already proven they are willing to spend money with the company and customers who get busy and easily forget the name of the company. What often surprises people is how simple this can be. The challenge for many people seems to be staying with a system. It's like any habit, it has to be cultivated. When someone initially contacts your company make sure to input their name and contact information into your database. Send some type of a follow up regardless of whether or not they make a purchase. This can be done through phone calls, email or standard mailings. Here are a few recommendations that can be an effective part of any business system. These suggestions will help build a consistent flow of business throughout the year. If, and when, you experience a slow period in your day, utilize the time to call clients/customers in your database. Recently I stopped into a pet store located in the Salt Lake valley. The groomer was frustrated because several people had made appointments for that day and failed to show up. Her clients may not realize if they don't show she doesn't make money. The groomer told me she got more discouraged as the day progressed. I asked if there was a system in place to assure a higher rate of clients keeping their appointment. As I suspected, there wasn't. My suggestions were as follows: Require a 25 - 50% deposit when an appointment is set. No shows forfeit the deposit. It will only take once before people realize they need to be certain when setting the appointment. A simple explanation to someone who doesn't want to put a deposit down should take care of the situation. Consider this - if someone refuses to give a deposit are they going to be a good pay when they get the full amount to pay? You may want to consider carefully before you do business with them. A day or two before the appointment call the customer giving a friendly reminder. This one strategy will realize a dramatic increase in people keeping their appointment. After the appointment, send a thank you card to the pet in c/o the owner. This is not a common practice, so the groomer will be seen as someone who cares about the customer's pet rather than someone who simply provides a grooming service. By sending the card to the pet you add humor that makes the groomer stand out and the owner may show the card to his or her friends because it is so unique. When time allows, pull out past and current client lists. Make as many calls as possible. Use dialogue such as, "Hi Mary, I notice that Max is due for a grooming. We tend to get very busy this time of year and I want to make sure you are able to get an appointment. Can we go ahead and book Max for his grooming right now? Great, let me go ahead and get your credit card number so we can take care of your deposit on that. Thanks and see you on _____." These communication techniques can work for you, regardless of your business. Think of how you can apply these simple tools to your business. In these changing times, it is up to you to be as flexible and creative as possible. Take advantage of every opportunity to keep in touch with your customers and clients. You will be amazed at the bottom-line results. Results that are a result of people remembering you and your company name. By Kathleen Gage All rights reserved. www.smallbusinessnews.com

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GREAT FOOD, MUSIC AND ART The Grapevine Market and Cafe has been busy with some exciting changes and additions. Some upcoming events include Kirk Landry and Lester Kenyon will be playing their jamming music on Friday night, July 15 and Friday night July 29. Also the next featured art exhibit will be "King Rob" Harris from New Iberia. August 1, 2005 - September 25, 2005. COMING SOON - Groovin at the Grapevine: Sunday brunch with live music AND an upcoming FINE website.



"PLEASE SIR, I WANT SOME MORE." So begins the plight of the hungry but plucky orphan Oliver Twist and the opening scene of Ascension Community Theatre’s summer musical offering, Oliver. Packed with memorable scores like “Consider Yourself,” “Where is Love?” and “Food, Glorious Food,” Lionel Bart’s hit musical Oliver! will be staged July 28-31 and August 4-6 at the historic Pasqua Theater in Gonzales. Tickets are on sale now at Ascension Community Theatre’s box office located at 823 Felicity St. in Gonzales.

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Search Engine Optimized (SEO) Copy - The Down and Dirty Details

Today, being on the first page for your most popular keyword phrase is like having the most memorable prime time television commercial in 1973.

Essentially, that's where the power of advertising is going. It's all about Search. And Search is only going to become more important over the next ten years. If you can get on that coveted first page organically, well then, more power to you! I know you probably have read other articles about writing SEO copy and how it relates to achieving high search rankings, there are plenty of them to go around. But some of the articles are complicated; some are too long, others boring. Still others don't explain that great SEO copy is rarely effective just on it's own - in order to get those high rankings (which is the goal after all), you have to do other things too. So, we decided that what most people really needed was a "down and dirty", easy to understand, ten step method. You ask, and we deliver. Below are the official ten steps in order:

• Check your Competitors- Who are your competitors? Do you know? If you don't, you may want to go online and do a search for your product or service. Who is on the first two pages? That is your target. Those are the companies that you want to compete with. Because right now, they are getting your customers. Take a look at their website. Notice the copy. Analyze their business. Are they successful? What are they not doing right? Look for the holes. You're going to meet the needs of their customers (that they are not fulfilling) so they become YOUR customers.
  
  
• Research your Keyword Phrases- Remember, Keyword Phrase research is critically important. It can also be a little tricky. Do you know what keywords or keyword phrases your customers search for when they look for you? Are you sure? See what your competitors are using. You can do this by right clicking on their home page, selecting "View Source" and then checking their keyword meta tag. Next, go on to Overture.com (Owned by Yahoo), clïck on "Visit the Advertiser" section, and use their Keyword Selector Tool. Its great - and its frëe. You can also use Wordtracker.com, but it does cost $7.50/day.
  
  
• Write Good Copy- Now it's time to start writing. Or re-writing. And if you can't write, you can hire a website copywriter to do it for you. The bottom line is to write about benefits, not features. Don't tell them how great your company is. They will discover that for themselves when you overwhelm them with your service and deliver the perfect product that meets their every need. Make the copy to the point and snappy. Make it sure it has impact, and asks the potential customer for their business.
  
  
• Integrate Your Keyword Phrases- After you figure out which keyword phrases you want to use on your site, you need to integrate them into the copy of your site. Think Home Page and Services page as the most important pages to use them on. Essentially, you want to them to make up 5% of the total words on the page. It's not that hard actually. Just don't use them all over the place like some stupid copywriters do - you could get de-listed from the search engines. Definitely use them in your headlines and sub headlines. That will get you extra points, so to speak.
  
  
• Check your Links, Build if necessary- Do you have any inbound links pointing to your site? If not, no amount of awesome copy is going to get your site high rankings. Links are very important. And even more so for Google. Go to linkpopularity.com and see what you have. Also chëck your competitors. If they have more than you, you need to get some high quality links. You can either do that yourself or hire someone to do it for you. It can be time consuming and expensive. But you gotta do it. It makes you look important to the search engines. A good way to do it is to make sure you are listed on directories, including DMOZ and industry related sites. Go to incominglinks.com to see which ones you should be listed on. Then write articles and submit them to article submission sites. That could potentially give you hundreds of links for frëe.
  
  
• Use Go Rank's Analytical Tools- GoRank.com is a fantastic frëe resource for SEO. They have a Keyword Density Analyzer, Link Popularity Analyzer, Top 10 Keyword Analyzer, Research, News and lots of other great stuff. It's a great tool and something I use every day. It will help you in your SEO copy efforts.
  
  
• Submit to the Search Engines- After you've ensured that your website copy and all the other important SEO considerations have been completed, it's time to submit to the Search Engines. Do it manually. Go to the search engine and do it yourself. Definitely don't pay someone to do it for you. You may have to resubmit a few times, but eventually, your site will get noticed.
  
  After your site has been up for a while, go back and take a second look. Ask friends and customers what they think of it. Can anything be improved? You'll be surprised what you may hear. If something isn't working, fix it. Make it sound better. The other thing that you should also be doing is adding content regularly. Build frëe resources into your website. This will make your customers and potential customers happy, and it will make you appear to be more important in the eyes of the search engines. Adding articles to your site is a great way to give your customers new, frëe content. Write about things that they would find interesting.
  
  
• Partner with a Great SEO Firm- You may want to also consider partnering with a great Search Engine Optimization firm. There are probably a hundred very good ones out there. There are also 1000 bad ones. For the good ones, check-out TopSEOs.com and MarketingSherpa.com. They both list reputable firms. Whoever you go with, make sure they have a list of client success stories complete with stats to back it up.
  
  
• Measure Your Success!- Finally, measure your success (or progress). Get a software program that will provide you with some web metrics as it pertains to your site. WebTrends and Statcounter are great ones. There are quite a few others as well. As you can see, Search Engine Optimized copy is only part of the overall SEO story. There is a lot to it, so make sure you cover every area. After all, we want to get your web site to the very top!
  

About The Author- Jon Wuebben is a professional Website Copywriter, SEO Copywriter and Advertising Copywriter with 10 years experience in B2B & B2C copywriting and marketing. He has provided copy for a number of organizations including Ford Motor Company, Kia Motors America, Harmon Kardon, JBL, Infinity, Advertising Agencies, small and medium sized businesses and pro bono for a variety of non-profit groups. He can be reached at (909) 437-7015, or online at CustomCopywriting.com for any copywriting project you may have or if you would like more articles or a Complimentary Website Copy analysis.

By Jon Wuebben
Professional Website Copywriter
http://www.sitepronews.com

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ASK O We've added a new feature to the dezinSOURCE e-newsletter and it is called "Ask O." This is where you ask questions of interest and we'll do the research and post the answers to your inquiry. There are lots of things about marketing, the internet and print media that can be challenging, so, ASK O.




PROTECT YOUR FREEDOMS If you are interested in monitoring the actions of our government and voicing your opinion to those that can make a difference... your elected officials, then The Action Network is for you. All you have to do is sign-up. You will receive notices via email relating to actions taken by our senators and representatives. You then have the CHOICE to decide what you want to do. This is not a Democratic thing or a Republican thing... it is a Freedom thing. Sign-up today!

A glimpse inside the 2005 Juneteenth Festival art contest and show. Pictured top middle is the first place winning entry by Eric Werner. Pictured second row, left is the second place entry by Elliot Williams. Pictured second row, middle is the third place entry by Welmon Comeaux, III and to the right of that is Trey Christopher William's honorable mention entry.

THE FAMILY WAS CELEBRATED THROUGH ART The importance of art and artistic expression are evident throughout the world and Ascension Parish is no different as seen through the results of the 2005 Juneteenth Art Contest.

Held in Donaldsonville, this year’s art contest was better than ever. The criteria for the submitted artwork were that the entries reflect the theme of this year’s contest – family reunions.

With the keen eye of seven judges, all entries were judged in three categories: color, composition and relevancy to theme.

“All of the entries truly represented the heart of the Juneteenth Festival and even expanded the viewers experience by each artist bringing their own personal stories to flow into the larger story of the family in the African American experience,” stated Kathe Hambrick, founder and director o f the River Road African American Museum who along with other contributors, sponsors the Juneteenth Festival.

The first place winner and recipient of $100 was Eric Werner with his untitled watercolor.

A special thank you to Leanna Muse for creating these beautiful custom designed prize ribbons.

“Eric’s painting was an artful combination of numerous glimpses of African American life both past and present all presented in a balanced setting of Louisiana Square,” stated Orhan Mc Millan, whose company, Dezins – Print and Web Services sponsors the art contest each year.

“My painting represents the many different aspects of not only family reunions but of important historical figures in African American history including the buffalo soldiers and I wouldn’t feel right without including an image of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”, explained Werner.

Thank you to Miguel Miles of Street Legal Riders for their contribution to the art show. More about Street Legal Riders in the next issue of dezinSOURCE

Second place and $50.00 went to Elliot Williams of Gonzales for his acrylic painting titled “The Roots.” Third place and $25.00 went to Welmon Comeaux, III of Belle Rose for his oil painting titled “Our Family Reunion” and honorable mention went to Trey Christopher Williams of Donaldsonville for his pencil drawing titled “The Williams Family Reunion.”

Plans are underway for next year’s art show and include an expanded contest along with a tent for area artists to exhibit and sell their artwork.

Dezins owner, Orhan Mc Millan, pictured with some young fans of art.

“It is part of my vision to make this art show an essential part of the Juneteenth Festival for years to come,” stated Mc Millan. “This area is full of talented individuals who deserve to have the space to express themselves freely through their art and in doing so truly enrich and empower not only their lives but the lives of each and every member of our community.”

A special thank you to Miguel Miles of Street Legal Riders for their contribution to the art show and also to Leanna Muse of Uniquely Yours for her donation of the most beautiful prize ribbons ever seen.

REFERRALS EARN CASH In appreciation for web referrals, Dezins is now offering a cash thank you for those who refer us and whose referrals end in signed contracts. Just think of it... cash rewards with no interest.








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The high IQ society has put together a challenging game. Click here to test your ability. Requires Microsoft Excel. When you're done, email (orhanmc@dezins.com) us your test results and we'll post them next issue. Don't worry, we won't use any full names. Have fun...

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