What Should You Be Doing on Your Last Full Workday Before Christmas?
By Michael Masterson
On a normal workday, I try to do something "important-but-not-urgent" first thing in the morning (like writing an Early to Rise article or a chapter for my next book). And if you've been reading ETR for any length of time, you know that important-but-not-urgent tasks are the ones that can really make a difference in terms of your major life goals. But on the last full workday before Christmas, I focus on less-important work -- preparing for the coming week. I spend an hour cleaning up all the non-critical odds and ends that I wasn't able to postpone until next week. But I do it as efficiently as possible. Short answers. Quick decisions. Lots of delegating. I contact my colleagues and clients, wishing them a happy holiday. And I let my clients know that even when I'm not in the office, I'm still handling the important things for them. Usually, the weather is beautiful -- Florida beautiful -- so I try to leave the office as early as possible to enjoy a little sunshine before dinner. Today, I recommend that you do the same. -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended ----------------------------------------------------- Where Can You Find the Best Business Partners? - You may consider your competitors bitter enemies. But in business -- especially online -- some of your most profitable deals will come from partnering with them. In the Internet Money Club, you'll learn how to set up these lucrative joint ventures. And put together win-win deals.
"Choices suck; they are inherently limiting." Craig Armstrong Consumers -- yes, that means you and me -- know what we want. More choices! May we have more sizes, colors, and flavors? And could you add soy milk, skip the cinnamon, then top it off with ice cubes... to go, please? And that's just to get a cup of coffee. Don't even get me started on cars, laptops, and safety seats for children. My head is spinning just thinking about the options. Perhaps we don't need so many choices. But we still want them, right? Maybe not. The popularity of sites like epinions.com, CNET.com, and Amazon.com's user reviews indicates that what most of us want is just a good recommendation from a credible source. We simply don't have time to completely research every purchase we want to make. Meanwhile, the average marketer feels his website must offer choices galore to try to answer the needs of all the people all the time. And Mom and Pop's little online store has to compete with big businesses that have pockets deep enough to do it. What's a small Internet business to do? Very often, if you look close enough (or stand far enough back), the solution lies within the problem. While choice is not a bad thing in itself, the attempt to offer every option to all the people all the time is counter-productive. Having too many options is confusing for the customer. Paradoxically, it makes it more difficult for him to make a choice. As a result, a website that takes this approach will have an overall response rate that, in terms of the size of its target audience, is low. It's easy to understand why this happens. When you market every one of your offers to the same large group of people, only a small percentage of those people can possibly be interested in each one of them. You would never send out a print sales letter in such an unsystematic way. The postage cost alone would be prohibitive. But even if you had unlimited funds, sending a sales letter to an audience without having data that supports their probable interest in your offer would be fatuous. The old way says you need a one-size-fits-all website serving 10 million visitors -- and that the numbers have to be big to make it work. But a website can't be successful if it's nothing more than a glorified brochure that treats every visitor the same. Websites that work well these days have to be smarter. They have to guide the prospect to what they are most likely looking for, and maybe even customize the content and pathway through the site as they use it. Sites like Google and Yahoo, for example, offer personalized home pages where the user decides what information should be presented to him. How to Apply This Way of Thinking to a Small Business My longtime friends Jonathan and Mary Hinde run a small aromatherapy business from their home in Cambridge, England. The greatest strength of their business is the wide range of products they offer -- more than 1,300. Their greatest weakness is -- you guessed it -- too much choice. Not long ago, I suggested that they try an experiment. I had them think of about five or six broad personality "types" their customers might fall into. (It had to be an educated guess, as they don't meet their customers. Orders come in via phone, mail, fax, and the Web.) The next step was to decide which of their bestselling products were likely to appeal to each defined customer type. They ended up with a grid of six typical customer profiles and about 100 bestselling products, with checkmarks indicating where a product was likely to match a customer type. Over the last month, they've tried to guess which "type" each new customer would fall into, judging by what he or she ordered or sounded like on the telephone. They've then sent the customer a "Thank you and welcome" letter, along with a recommendation for three or four bestselling products that match his or her grid profile. The initial results have been encouraging. Jonathan said the test has already resulted in 25 percent more repeat sales and 37 percent more income from new customers. This was a quick and dirty way to do a test that marketers normally think requires major CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software. An Army of One Whenever I bring up the concept of targeting discrete groups within their overall customer list, many big marketers say it's too "fiddly." That it's simpler to just point and shoot. And small business owners complain that they don't have enough customers to make segmentation worthwhile. But the fact is, every customer is already a segment... of one. Target that one, and you win every time. I admit that you could continue throwing spaghetti against the wall, and some of it will stick. But wouldn't it be smarter to figure out what your customers really need? [Ed. Note: David Cross is a veteran Internet marketing expert who has worked closely with Early to Rise and Agora for many years. He is also a featured expert in ETR's Internet Money Club.] -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended ----------------------------------------------------- Stop Playing Stock Market Games - Spending 12 hours a day on research and obsessing over trades is one way to play the markets. But why not use that time to enjoy your newly earned profits? Learn from one former Wall Street "insider" how to trade with precision and speed instead. Find out more here...
Living Rich: Your Own Starter Wine Cellar
By Michael Masterson
If you like wine, having your own wine "cellar" will give you much pleasure. And it doesn't have to cost a fortune or take up much space. A small closet can be turned into a very respectable beginner's cellar. (Just vent in some air conditioning.) Or you could buy a relatively inexpensive, climate-controlled wine cabinet. (Some are under $300.) The trick to putting together a good wine cellar is balance. You need wines that can be drunk right away and wines that need aging. You need reds and whites. You need inexpensive table wines. And you need a few somewhat more expensive ones for special occasions. Here's my recommendation for a 30-bottle starter cellar: - 10 white wines (6-8 dry; 2-4 sweet), none of which need to be aged
- 20 reds, five of which will be for special occasions
The reds should be a combination of French, American, and Italian wines (5-6 of each). Include strong and dry Cabs, Barolos, medium Syrahs and Merlots, and some lighter stuff (like Beaujolais). Sally has an ambitious weight-loss goal for 2010. She told me she is planning to lose 40 pounds. She said she figured she'd lose four pounds a month for 10 months, and then celebrate in October. If she fell behind a little bit, she'd have two months to catch up. That is good thinking. But rather than shooting for an even four pounds per month, I suggested that she should plan to lose weight more realistically. For example, she could aim for six pounds in each of the first three months, five pounds in each of the next three, three pounds in each of the next two, and the final pound in the ninth month. That approach corresponds to the way the body actually works. You take off more weight at the beginning -- when your new eating and exercise program is having the greatest impact -- and then give yourself time to settle into a stable routine for the rest of your life. Holiday Fun Fact: Frankincense and Myrrh
By Michael Masterson When the Three Wise Men gave the Christ child frankincense and myrrh, they were doing much more than giving him something that smelled good. They were giving him a gift of good health. In those days, these two aromatics were widely used as medicine. Frankincense, a natural antiseptic, sedative, and immune stimulant, was used as a treatment for respiratory problems, depression, infection, and tumors. Myrrh is a natural anti-inflammatory and astringent. It was used as a tonic and as a cure for cancer, leprosy, and syphilis. Mixed with coriander and honey, it was also used to treat herpes. Both are still used by herbalists for many health problems.
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"The feeling will follow." "Wow, Michael! You've done it again. Quite often you make me want to jump up and applaud with unbridled enthusiasm, and today's message on what you call 'Calculated Enthusiasm' was one of those times. "You are absolutely right about using this technique to change employees' attitude toward customers. But I want to tell your readers that the technique works in ANY situation in which you really should be enthusiastic, but the feeling doesn't come naturally. "Start by acting as if you are enthusiastic. Try it on your new son- or daughter-in-law (or mother- or father-in-law, for the younger set) and improve that important relationship. "Let your behavior come first -- and the feeling will follow. If it feels 'phony' at first, push on through that feeling. 'Fake it till you make it.' "You can also use it when you enter your workplace in the morning. Don't answer the 'How are you?' question grimly. Answer it with Calculated Enthusiasm. Say 'I feel fantastic' with a big smile on your face, and guess what? Pretty soon, you WILL!" CM
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Today's Words That Work: Fatuous Fatuous (FACH-oo-us) -- from the Latin for foolish -- means idiotic or smugly stupid. Example (as used by David Cross today): "But even if you had unlimited funds, sending a sales letter to an audience without having data that supports their probable interest in your offer would be fatuous."
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