Increase Your In-house ROI with “Mystery Video”

Richard Seppala, “The ROI Guy,” here. They say a picture is worth a thousand words - meaning it tells a story instantly. You see clearly what there is to see, without too much effort. If someone had to describe the picture to you, it would take at least a thousand words to really capture the image – and even then, you can be pretty sure you still wouldn’t be able to exactly know what that picture looked like.

So, if a picture’s worth a thousand words, what’s a video worth? At least a thousand pictures, I’d say. The amount of information a video can convey about people and events is extraordinary. The impact of that, again, can’t be duplicated by just someone describing what the video recorded.

For example, the NBA finals are going on as I write this. If you’re a basketball fan, imagine not being able to watch the game and just hear commentators on the radio tell you what’s going on. I don’t know about you, but that would drive me more than a little crazy – which makes me glad I wasn’t born before the invention of television!

If you’re a doctor or dentist, you may hear about a problem with how a patient was treated at your practice. But you may write it off as exaggeration or an isolated incident. The problem, again, is you can’t see what happened. So you can’t really know what the situation was. Or if it’s a situation that happens on too regular a basis.

Unless you use a Video Mystery Patient service.

A Video Mystery Patient will make an appointment at a practice and not disclose that he or she has been hired by the practice to check out how they handle their customers. When that person comes in for the appointment, they’ll have a secret mini-video camera on them, recording the entire patient experience without the staff or the doctor having any knowledge that they are being filmed. Everyone at the office can then, at a later date, review the tape to see just what’s wrong – and what’s right – with their treatment of patients.

Why is this important? Because the camera doesn’t lie – and it tells the story better than anyone’s individual perception. If the Video Mystery Patient was left to wait too long without being attended to, the video will show it. If the staff failed to suggest additional services that would have benefited both the patient and the practice, the video will show it. And if anyone was rude or abrupt with the patient…well, you guessed it, the video will show it.

A Video Mystery Patient is the ultimate reality check for any practice. Let a thousand pictures help you improve the operation of your practice – and increase your in-house ROI.

Find out more about my Video Mystery Patient service at http://www.yourroiguy.com/video-mystery-patient.

Your Own “Reality Show” Could Send Your ROI Ratings Sky-High!

Richard Seppala, “The ROI Guy,” here, to talk about why you just might need to make someone else the boss – even if it’s at your own business!

Yes, not only am I advocating putting someone else in charge of your own business – I’m also saying that person should be someone you don’t even know. Hey, actually…it’s not even a person!

Because a Video Mystery Shop service makes everyone – including you – accountable to a video camera.

Okay, so nobody wants to have to listen to an electronic device, unless it’s playing the latest Lady GaGa tune. But, in this case, I would strongly advise it.

When you book a Video Mystery Shopper or Patient, someone will come to your office, they will have been hired to pose as a client, and they will secretly videotape their entire experience at your business with a hidden video camera. You and your staff will be able to review the entire tape after the visit.

And there won’t be room for excuses. There won’t be room for any justifications. If your business isn’t treating its customers in the best possible way, you’ll instantly see all the problems through the Video Mystery Shopper’s footage.

The staff of any business owner sees their own operation from inside a bubble. The day-in and the day-out running of a company often sees bad habits become ingrained – as well as opportunities wasted for both the retention of current customers, as well as the conversion of new prospects.

Unfortunately, the same people will make the same not-so-great decisions over and over, because that’s “just how we do it.” Even though it may not be the best way to do it. Too often, we’re all just focused on making it through the day without making any waves, instead of working on improving how things are done and, ultimately, improving your ROI.

That’s why the tape from a Video Mystery Shopper can be a shocking wake-up call. Maybe a customer’s left waiting for fifteen minutes without any attention paid to them. Maybe questions are ignored, sales openings are missed, follow-up appointments aren’t pursued, and maybe your staff comes off as just plain rude in some instances.

And all of it may be completely unintentional, because no one’s paying attention to the right things. That doesn’t make it any better – nor does it help your business.

So let a Video Mystery Shopper service boost the ROI of your business. Let the camera be the boss for an hour or so. Don’t worry. You can fire it later.

But only after you and your staff have learned everything it has to teach you.

Improve your marketing ROI from start to finish by using a Video Mystery Shop service to make sure you’re doing enough at your office to keep current customers and convert new ones. Find out more at www.YourROIGuy.com.

Hi, Richard Seppala, the ROI Guy here. Would you believe a picture of a frog can improve your ROI?

Well, it’s true. While most conventional marketing would have you believe that your brand should represent your company or business, it’s much more powerful if it’s relatable to your customers instead.

You probably just read through that last paragraph without taking any of it in - because you’re still wondering about the picture of the frog. Okay, okay, I’ll explain.

A new study took as its springboard the fact that one out of five new table wines introduced to the marketplace had pictures of animals on the label. Not only that, the AC Nielsen company found that so-called “critter wines” outsold the others by more than two to one!

This goes back to the old sales canard that emotions are much more effective than facts when it comes to advertising. Consumers like animals on labels because they can process them faster than some abstract logo - and in this case, familiarity breeds buying, not contempt!

Smokey says, “Only you can prevent low ROI!”

To test this theory, researchers had participants in their experiments visualize an object like… a frog! They then showed them two wine bottles - one that had the object they were to visualize on the label and another that didn’t. Most picked the wine bottle with the object they were already trained to recognize.

The strength of this effect, however, did diminish depending on how much time people were given to choose which a wine bottle. If they were asked to pick instantly, they’d go for the familiar label. If they had a few seconds to think about it, then fewer opted for the familiar.

Obviously, if a wine label were to truly represent itself, it would have the traditional picture of grapes or a vineyard, as many still do today. An animal really has nothing to do with wine as a product - but the sales success of critter wines proves that it doesn’t matter.

People like friendly-looking animals - it personalizes the brand and makes it more accessible. Which explains the ongoing success of Tony the Tiger, Smokey the Bear and other animal pitchmen - or, should I say, pitchcreatures.

If you put an out-of-the-box image - whether it be animal, vegetable or mineral - on your product or service, it actually could improve your overall ROI even though it may have no direct relation to what you do. As long as it doesn’t work against your business - I don’t know that a cockroach would be a great logo for a restaurant, for example - it would be a plus if it evokes a happy, familiar reaction. That kind of imagery - even if just used for a single direct mail piece or marketing campaign - also makes you stand out in a crowded marketplace.

For example, go to my home page at www.yourroiguy.com - and you’ll see an illustration of me changing into my “ROI guy” superhero costume, just like we’ve all seen Superman do a million times over. That’s an image that most of us are very familiar with and can lock into immediately.

And again, the cartoon really doesn’t have that much to do with me. I’m not really faster than a speeding bullet - however, I can make your ROI more powerful than a locomotive. Stop by my website and find out more about how I can make your marketing super-strong!

Knowing “Who, What, When, Where, and Why” Saves and Makes You Money!

Richard Seppala, “The ROI Guy,” here. When you run your business, can you imagine not knowing the Who, What, When and Where – let alone the Why - of the product or service you’re selling? Sounds ridiculous, right?

Well, a lot of business people approach their marketing that way, even though they spend a large amount of time, money and effort on it. Without tracking that marketing, they don’t who they’re reaching, what they’re accomplishing, when and where to do their marketing or why it works or doesn’t work. That’s not a great way to approach…well, anything really.

Answering key questions about your marketing could be a real money-saver – as well as a money-maker – for your company. Using effective tracking and lead-capture ROI systems will help you lower your marketing costs by eliminating unnecessary ads and placements, as well as help you maximize conversions and revenues from your campaigns.

Tracking your marketing can tell you:

· WHO…

…is responding to your marketing? You can find out with a combination tracking/lead capture toll-free hotline that automatically builds your business an incredible marketing database of already-interested prospects.

· WHAT…

…campaigns, copy and visuals are most effective at bringing in customers? Least effective? Tracking tells you – so you can hone in on the products, services and advertising approaches that generate the most cash.

· WHERE…

…is the best place to advertise your particular product or service? Radio? Street benches? Direct mail? Or Google AdWords? You’ll find out instantly when you begin tracking your marketing – because you’ll know exactly where those prospects are coming to you from, without having to rely on their hit-or-miss memory.

· WHEN…

…is your marketing most effective? Is there a time of year when your product or service is most appealing and you should market more heavily? Is there another time of year when it’s not even worth any marketing money or effort? Again, tracking provides hard answers.

· WHY…

…has your marketing not been as effective as it should be? Why do you often feel like you’re throwing money out the window when you spend it on marketing, because the results just aren’t there? You can measure your marketing ROI just like you can measure anything – and ROI tracking systems will do the trick every time. They help ensure your advertising makes as much impact as possible and reaches as many potential customers as possible.

By properly using tracking and lead capture systems, you can easily increase your marketing and advertising ROI. Studies show they boost your marketing results dramatically – because when you finally know the answers to all 5 of those big W’s, you avoid mistakes and make the smartest, most informed moves that you can.

Find out more about how to affordably track and improve your marketing and advertising ROI at www.YourROIGuy.com.

Capture and Convert Your Leads to Improve Your Marketing ROI

Richard Seppala, “The ROI Guy,” here, to remind you about the importance of making sure your marketing has a foolproof way to deal with generated leads.

So many people spend so much time and money on marketing and advertising that actually is incredibly effective at generating a response from potential customers and clients. That’s really awesome, but, when those interested prospects actually come calling, a lot of businesses just don’t know how to convert the sale or even efficiently capture the contact information.

That’s like being really, really good at driving cattle…and not having a cow pen to put the critters in. Kind of a pointless effort if the steers just kind of roam around and spread back out into the wilderness. As the marketing experts say, you have to build an “iron fence” around your herd to keep them in!

There are a couple ways to keep your marketing ROI high. One is, if you’re directing people to call your physical business, you make sure there is a person dedicated to answering those calls. That person needs to be trained – and even given scripts to follow along with – on how to handle incoming sales calls in a way that gets the prospect to either come in for an appointment or to buy your product.

In either case, if you can’t get them to commit, you have to at least make sure you get their contact information - and that the info gets saved in whatever marketing database your business is using. Your marketing list is your goldmine – and a big part of what you want to gain from your advertising is building that list.

The problem with relying on what I call “the human factor” is that it’s easy for people to drop the ball. Whoever answers your phone might not take it seriously enough no matter how many times you try to talk to them. They may be having a bad day and not really sell your business in a positive way. They may jot down the contact info on a Post-It note that somehow gets stuck to wrapper from their sandwich and gets thrown away with it. You know as well as I do how often we end up making those kinds of mistakes.

That’s why the only foolproof method is to automate the process. For example, my “ROI Bridge” package sends your incoming sales calls to specific pre-recorded messages targeted to what they’re calling about. These messages also contain a “Call to Action” – a special discount or informational item like a book or DVD that they can get if they leave their information. But even if they don’t volunteer their info, The Bridge captures their phone number no matter what. The generated lead’s contact information is then automatically transcribed and uploaded to your CRM software, so you and your staff don’t have to be bothered with it.

Businesses often think that placing a newspaper ad, an online banner ad or a radio commercial is the start and finish of their marketing. That’s completely wrong – it’s only the beginning of the process, and that process has to carry through your entire business. That’s the only way to really increase your marketing ROI.

And by the way, it also makes you a lot more money. That’s always a good thing, right?

Find out more about my “ROI Bridge” at http://www.yourroiguy.com/infusionsoft-bridge.

The ROI Guy with the Latest Research on Pricing and Performance

Hi, Richard Seppala, the ROI Guy here. Sometimes the hardest thing to deal with when you’re offering a product or service is determining your pricing. Well, a couple of new studies offer some interesting insights into how your potential customers are likely to look at certain price strategies.

First of all, it’s no secret that a wonderful way to create interest in what you have to sell, especially if it’s a new product or service, is to offer it for free the first time, bundled with an existing product. A freebie sounds like the perfect way to increase the ROI of a marketing campaign, right? Well, it just might be a big mistake – especially if it’s a new product or service!

According to “The Journal of Consumer Research,” people view the worth of a free item that’s packaged with an existing product as exactly the price you’re asking for it – nothing! They not only figure out you’re giving it away for free as a marketing gimmick – but that it must not be worth anything or you’d be asking for money.

The only exception? When you’re offering for free an existing product or service they’re already familiar with. Because they already know – and presumably trust – the freebie, consumers are much more likely to see it as a deal.

What does that mean for your marketing? Well, maybe you should just turn conventional wisdom on its head. Instead of offering the new product or service for nothing, maybe you do charge for it – but bundle an existing product or service with it for free. That way, it looks like the new product has value – and the customer, client or patient is also excited by getting something they already know and trust for free.

Another study by the same publication zeroes in on what they call “Opportunity Costs.” To use their example, that means if you’re out for dinner and you spend $10 extra on an appetizer, that’s $10 less you have to spend on wine, dessert – or even ten new songs on iTunes! In other words, by choosing to spend money on one thing – it eliminates your option to spend that money on something else!

Calling attention to “Opportunity Costs” can help improve your ROI marketing as well – because most people don’t think that way when they buy something. IKEA, the furniture franchise, used the idea cleverly in an ad showing an expensive cabinet containing one pair of shoes – contrasted with a cheap IKEA cabinet overflowing with shoes. By making explicit the idea that you can buy more of what you want by purchasing affordable IKEA furniture, they gave consumers a real incentive to shop there.

If you’re offering a discounted service, you can do the same thing as IKEA. For example, if you’re a dentist offering a deal on teeth whitening, your marketing could say, “You can buy this, this and THIS with what you’ll save on getting a brighter smile this month!” By showing in real terms what the money they can save will actually mean, you make it more real – and more attractive – to your customer base.

Everyone’s business is about money – so it makes sense that price is a vital part of your operation. Research like this is invaluable to helping us all to going beyond “business as usual” to communicate better with consumers.

Find out more about ways to increase your ROI at http://www.yourroiguy.com.

Paying Attention to New Prospects

Hi, Richard Seppala, the ROI Guy here. We’ve all been there – you go to a restaurant, sit down with your family or your date, and the place is packed. The service staff is swamped – they hurry past your table at 100 mph, trying their hardest to act like they don’t see you waving or even verbally asking for help.

Or you go to a bar, and the bartender is busy making drinks for everyone but you. Again, you don’t exist in their eyes. You don’t rate a pretzel or a bar napkin.

If there were Oscars for service staff performances, the “Best Ignoring of a New Customer” category would be overloaded with nominations!

While you’re walking out the door and thinking about where else to eat or drink, you know that on some level you can’t blame the waiters or waitresses too much. They’re obviously overwhelmed with the existing customers. At the same time, if they only acknowledged you were there and let you know you would be taken care of, you might still be in there, patiently waiting for service.

Small and medium-sized businesses, frankly, can’t help but have their own “Busy Bartender” scenarios on a regular basis. They run a tight ship and, most of the time, don’t have the necessary staffing to deal properly with new customer inquiries.

If you’re at one of those businesses where everyone is often too busy to deal with an incoming sales call, think back to those times when you couldn’t get anyone to wait on you. And remember how you were probably pretty upset that somebody you wanted to give your business to couldn’t even take the time to greet you.

Do you want potential new customers to be angry with you before you’ve even had a chance to sell them your product or service?

Of course you don’t. But sometimes you can’t help how busy you and your staff might be – and how little time you have to explain what you do or can provide.

That’s why automating that system can be a terrific solution and an amazing way to increase your marketing ROI. Instead of having new customer calls coming to your place of business, they can be relayed to an automatic responding system that (a) has a customized message responding to what advertising or marketing promotion they’re calling about (b) records the message and automatically transcribes it (c) provides a CTA (Call to Action) that offers to send free information if the caller leaves their contact info and (d) records and transcribes the contact info, and uploads it into customer service software that can be used for future marketing.

That’s a whole lot of vital marketing work getting done – without the business owner or staff having to lift a finger! More importantly, it looks after your new customer calls – and allows you to return the call on your own timetable.

Losing new clients and customers is a big problem for small and medium-sized businesses – it’s literally throwing money away. But automating marketing efforts is an amazingly affordable solution. It helps past marketing efforts pay off – and positions a business for the future.

Find out more about automated ROI marketing systems at www.YourROIGuy.com.  

Are You Losing Customers Who WANT To Do Business With You?

Hi, Richard Seppala, the ROI Guy here.   If you run a business, I’m sure you’d love it if someone knocked at your door, you answered it and, there, in front of you, was someone asking if they could be a client.  I think I know what the answer would be too!

Well, someone calling your place of business to inquire about a product or service isn’t any different than someone knocking on your door.  The only difference might be…who’s answering that call?

You could have the best marketing and advertising campaign in the world driving people to call you immediately – a campaign with a potentially amazing ROI – but if you lose your generated leads at the point of sale, that money all gets flushed down the drain.

For instance, maybe you’ve got a receptionist prone to going outside for a cigarette and forgetting to turn on the voice mail system. 

A prospect calls because of a great direct mail piece you sent out.  They’re ready to do business.  But, instead of getting a person answering their call, or, at least, a message, all they get, “Ring.  Ring.  Ring.  Ring.  Ring.”

I could type out ten more “Ring’s,” but you get the idea.  You’re not making that sale.  Probably ever. 

Now let’s go with an alternate scenario.  Perhaps, as luck would have it, the generated lead calls after your receptionist’s butt break.  The receptionist says, in a tired voice, (it is 3 o’clock and the burrito they had for lunch is making them reaaaaal sleepy), “Hi, so-and-so’s office, can I help you?”

“Yes,” the prospect says, “I’m really interested in so-and-so’s so and so.”

“Oh,” says the Receptionist.  “Okay.  That costs so-and so.”

“Actually, I had a few questions first.  Does it do so-and-so and so-and-so?  And how long does it take?”

“I dunno,” mutters the Receptionist.

Awkward pause.

“Could you…find out?”

“Um…I guess…hang on.”

The Receptionist puts the phone down on top of the desk – not on hold – and goes back to ask you the question.  But turns out you’re talking with someone else on another line.  The Receptionist waits, not indicating it’s important in any way…finally asks the question…gets the answer…goes back and picks up the phone.

And gets a dial tone.  The receptionist shrugs and looks forward to another cigarette break.  No skin off their teeth.

The prospect who hung up?  They haven’t lost anything either.  They’ll just go on with their lives. 

Meanwhile, here’s what you’ve lost.  A sale.  More potential future business.  Contact information.  Marketing info on what campaign got the person to call in the first place.  And a big dent in your overall ROI.  You spent a lot to get that person to contact you.  And all you have to show for it is a turned-off prospect who thinks you run a Mickey Mouse organization. 

The last customer you should be losing is the one that’s coming to you, ready to buy from you.   That should be a no-brainer, but, unfortunately, all too often that’s exactly where we’ve stopped thinking our operation through - and we lose valuable revenue.

As the ROI Guy, I help my clients put together a variety of affordable solutions to make sure that their marketing campaigns are paying off and that sales calls are being handled correctly.  Those solutions run the gamut to training personnel answering the phones in how to properly deal with a sales call to setting up an automatic system that gathers all the information you need without you having to lift a finger.

When businesses actually look at how their sales calls are being handled, most are shocked to find out just how much money they’re losing at the point where it’s easiest to make it.  So make sure your generated leads are being handled correctly and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the improvement of your bottom line.

Find out more about ways to increase your ROI at http://www.yourroiguy.com.

The “Ins and Outs” of WOM Marketing

Hi, Richard Seppala, the ROI Guy here.  Word of Mouth (or WOM, if you can handle another acronym) has long been seen as one of the most effective ways to increase ROI inexpensively.  It’s the concept behind most of the social networking marketing going on today through Facebook, Digg, Twitter and other Web 2.0 applications.

But before you or I ever heard of the internet – and when computers were closer to the size of the offices they now sit in – one Southern California franchise built its success on WOM, as well as increasing their marketing ROI from their small-scale advertising campaigns.  

“Business Week” writer Stacy Perman recently wrote a book on how the “In-N-Out Burger” chain achieved cult status by, first, being the real deal, and second, using its very satisfied customer base to spread the word and increase sales.

A Typical In-N-Out Restaurant

Let’s talk about the first part – being the real deal.  “In-N-Out” insisted on putting only fresh quality ingredients into their burgers.  Not only that, but imagine a fast food franchise paying employees more than minimum wage, and throwing in great benefits to boot.  That’s what “In-N-Out” was all about from the beginning – treating both workers and customers as well as possible.  And because it was a privately-owned family operation, there was no stockholder pressure to lower standards in order to improve profit margins.  The family was free to build on its quality formula from the beginning when they opened the first restaurant in 1948.

Over the years they built up an insanely happy group of customers that visited the limited number of carefully-located sites regularly.  Celebrities began openly touting “In-N-Out Burger” in interviews without being paid to do it.  Patrons would drag in their friends and family and make them try the food.  “In-N-Out” fostered the cult by having secret “off-menu” items at restaurants that only the regulars knew about.   

But many a quality product has foundered through lack of marketing expertise.  In this case, the management knew how to use their customers to their best advantage.

In the 80’s, they pulled off a relatively inexpensive marketing campaign that tapped into their grassroots WOM appeal – and hit the ROI bulls eye by taking the franchise’s cult status into the mainstream.   Periodically, they would give away “In-N-Out” bumper stickers to customers.  They would then send out spotters to write down the license plate numbers of cars with the bumper stickers on them and hold drawings to award prizes such as trips to Hawaii, video recorders, microwaves, etc.  It was a tremendous success.

At the time, a restaurant trade magazine wrote, “The burger Goliaths doing business in Southern California must surely envy the kind of hometown customer enthusiasm which can turn little David in the form of In-N-Out into a self-advertising car cult.”

A new exciting service I now provide, “I Refer,” uses this same method of using your already-satisfied customers to build your WOM appeal.  WOM, used the right way, is way more inexpensive and delivers way more powerful ROI than any conventional marketing techniques.   Find out more about “I Refer” at my website, www.yourROIguy.com.  

By the way, if you’ve never had the chance to have an “In-N-Out Burger” and you’re wondering just how good they are, let me give you an idea.  You know Gordon Ramsey, the notoriously short-tempered and world-acclaimed chef who slices and dices contestants on a regular basis on “Hell’s Kitchen?”  One time he stopped by an In-N-Out for the first time, had a Double Double, drove away – and five minutes later, came back for another one!

Why Your Marketing Shouldn’t Be All About You

Hi, Richard Seppala, the ROI Guy here.  Would you believe a picture of a frog can improve your ROI?

Well, it’s true.  While most conventional marketing would have you believe that your brand should represent your company or business, it’s much more powerful if it’s relatable to your customers instead.

You probably just read through that last paragraph without taking any of it in – because you’re still wondering about the picture of the frog.  Okay, okay, I’ll explain.

A new study took as its springboard the fact that one out of five new table wines introduced to the marketplace had pictures of animals on the label.  Not only that, the AC Nielsen company found that so-called “critter wines” outsold the others by more than two to one!

This goes back to the old sales canard that emotions are much more effective than facts when it comes to advertising.  Consumers like animals on labels because they can process them faster than some abstract logo – and in this case, familiarity breeds buying, not contempt! 

To test this theory, researchers had participants in their experiments visualize an object like… a frog!  They then showed them two wine bottles – one that had the object they were to visualize on the label and another that didn’t.  Most picked the wine bottle with the object they were already trained to recognize.

The strength of this effect, however, did diminish depending on how much time people were given to choose which a wine bottle.  If they were asked to pick instantly, they’d go for the familiar label.  If they had a few seconds to think about it, then fewer opted for the familiar.

Obviously, if a wine label were to truly represent itself, it would have the traditional picture of grapes or a vineyard, as many still do today.  An animal really has nothing to do with wine as a product – but the sales success of critter wines proves that it doesn’t matter. 

People like friendly-looking animals – it personalizes the brand and makes it more accessible.  Which explains the ongoing success of Tony the Tiger, Smokey the Bear and other animal pitchmen – or, should I say, pitchcreatures.

If you put an out-of-the-box image – whether it be animal, vegetable or mineral - on your product or service, it actually could improve your overall ROI even though it may have no direct relation to what you do.  As long as it doesn’t work against your business – I don’t know that a cockroach would be a great logo for a restaurant, for example – it would be a plus if it evokes a happy, familiar reaction.   That kind of imagery – even if just used for a single direct mail piece or marketing campaign – also makes you stand out in a crowded marketplace.

For example, go to my home page at http://www.yourroiguy.com – and you’ll see an illustration of me changing into my “ROI guy” superhero costume, just like we’ve all seen Superman do a million times over.  That’s an image that most of us are very familiar with and can lock into immediately.

And again, the cartoon really doesn’t have that much to do with me.  I’m not really faster than a speeding bullet – however, I can make your ROI more powerful than a locomotive.   Stop by my website and find out more about how I can make your marketing super-strong!