Hi, Richard Seppala, your ROI Guy here. In my new article, “Proper Pricing is Paramount,” I write about two new studies about discounting and how to make it have more impact.

The first study made it clear that offering a new product or service for free when another existing product or service is purchased doesn’t work for most people. They tend to see the new product as being worthless – they don’t really know what it is and if you’re giving it away, then, hey, can’t be worth much, can it?

One suggestion I gave was making the existing product free – and charging for the new product. That way, consumers see the value in getting something they already know and like for nothing.

But another point in the study was that if you bundle the package together at the same price – but don’t tag one of the products or services as “free” – that can also be effective in improving your marketing campaign ROI. Consumers, in this case, just see an overall great value and aren’t forced to look at the new product as possibly being worthless. Which is always a good thing!

The second study I wrote about had to do with “Opportunity Costs.” Simply put, it’s confronting the customer, client or patient with the fact that if they spend too much on one thing, they won’t have enough to spend on another thing they might want more.

The awesome example I cited was an IKEA ad showing just how many more shoes a woman could buy if she bought an affordable IKEA cabinet instead of an expensive one.

Again, there’s another – and just as effective – way to approach “Opportunity Costs” in your marketing. An experiment the researchers did was to offer people a choice between a 16GB iPod Touch and a 32GB iPod Touch. The number of people who chose the 16 gig model doubled when the researchers said that choosing the cheaper model would “leave you $100 in cash.”

Just saying 10 or 20% off – at a time when huge discounts are commonplace, thanks to the economy – may not be enough. You can increase your ROI with marketing by bringing home what that discount really means to their everyday lives – either by having more cash on hand or by being able to buy something they really want.

The sure way to improve marketing ROI is by communicating as effectively as possible in your advertising. By presenting discounts and freebies properly, you make the most of them. You’re only offering these kinds of deals to get more business – so do the little special tweaks to how you offer them to ensure they have the biggest impact with the people you’re marketing to.

Until next time, I’m Richard Seppala, The ROI Guy – hoping your ROI is all good! Don’t forget to stop by www.yourROIguy.com for the latest on how to measure and increase your ROI!

Hi, Richard Seppala, your ROI Guy here. In my new article, “Don’t Be Too Busy for New Business,” I write about “the Busy Bartender” syndrome. That’s when a new customer walks in the door, and the bartender is way too crazed pitching pina coladas to everybody else to even give you the time of day. Eventually, you get tired of waiting around and you leave to find a friendlier place to drink. And odds are, you avoid going back to that place again for a while.

Now imagine your business is that bar – and someone calls, wanting to know about your service or product. You’re too busy to really talk and you blow them off like they’re trying to sell you something. Think that customer is going to come back your way? Only if no one else is selling what you have - and there aren’t many lucky people in that position.

Over half of all incoming sales calls from prospective customers are mishandled, did you know that? One of my services is recording those calls and analyzing how they’re dealt with. And business owners are shocked to hear how bad a job their staff – and sometimes, even themselves – do in handling those calls.

Over half the calls mishandled. Let that roll around in your head awhile – you could be losing over half of your new business. What kind of difference would that make to your bottom line?

That’s why I developed “The ROI Bridge” – to help you bridge that new business gap and handle those incoming calls automatically. The calls are answered by a customized message, and messages are automatically recorded and transcribed – so you can return the call when you do have the time to deal with it properly. Plus you’ll know in advance what the specific question or request is – so you can have an answer ready.

There’s a lot more “The ROI Bridge” does to improve your marketing ROI – you can find out more about it at http://www.yourroiguy.com/infusionsoft-bridge . But this aspect is really important in this so-called “New Economy.” Now, more than ever, getting and keeping new clients and customers is crucial. My clients know that my services more than pay for themselves – by improving their ROI and raising revenues by making that new business stick.

So if you’re a “busy bartender,” maybe it’s time you found some affordable help. Like me, the ROI Guy. Hey, I don’t even take tips!

Hi, Richard Seppala, your ROI Guy here.  In my new article, “Incoming Sales Calls:  How’s Your ROI?,” I talk about how a lot of businesses completely drop the ball – and the sale – when already-interested prospects call for information. 

Many business people sweat over their marketing content, worry about where to put their advertising dollars and work to improve their sales message – and completely forget to have an effective system in place to handle phone calls from their marketing efforts.   Not only that, they’re not even measuring the ROI from their different marketing campaigns – so they have no idea what’s working and what’s not.

Unfortunately, all businesses lose a whole lot more from not taking those extra steps than it would cost to take them.  I’ve developed many affordable systems designed specifically for medium and small businesses to help them significantly increase their revenues – just by catching these “dropped sales” and measuring marketing ROI simultaneously.

My latest service is an incredible all-in-one solution.  “The Bridge” automatically responds to and records sales calls, collects contact data, uploads it into marketing software and also measures the ROI of your various advertising campaigns, by tracking the specific phone number from the specific marketing piece they’ve seen.  

We also offer the service of recording phone calls personally answered by your staff and working with them to improve the effectiveness of their response to generated leads.  An incoming prospect call needs a person trained in sales techniques to properly handle it – not the nightmare receptionist scenario I outlined in the article mentioned at the top of the blog.

Basically, I look at something like “The Bridge” as finishing the job when it comes to your marketing and advertising.  You have to think of your campaigns as like inviting someone to a party.  The invitation might be incredible – but if people show up and there’s not much of a party, they’re not going to be happy.  It’s not enough to get people to call through your marketing – you have to make sure you connect effectively when they do!

Check out everything we can do to improve your bottom line at www.yourROIguy.com .  Oh, and before I forget, did you know I was now one of “America’s Premier Experts?”  Yep, I’m coming up in the world – you can hear my interview on “The Next Big Thing” national radio show at http://www.americaspremierexperts.com/the-next-big-thing. 

Until next time, I’m Richard Seppala, The ROI Guy – hoping your ROI is all good!

Hi, Richard Seppala, your ROI Guy here.  In my new article, “Word of Mouth Brings the Best ROI of All,” I wrote about how what could have been just another fast food burger joint turned themselves into a Southern California icon – mostly by building buzz created by their satisfied customers.  “In-N-Out Burger” ended up becoming a cult that was spread by its devoted patrons and spontaneously endorsed by celebrities who enjoyed the food.  It was WOM at its best – because most of it wasn’t even engineered by the franchise itself!  

So what makes WOM marketing so powerful – to the point where it delivers almost a foolproof ROI?  Well, take a look at the graph below: 

Just by taking a quick glance at it, it’s easy to see that the best way to improve your marketing ROI is by a credible recommendation by either someone your prospect respects or actually has a personal relationship with. 

That’s why I am now offering the “I Refer” service – an inexpensive way to use your already-satisfied customers to get you new ones.  Your existing customers get rewarded – and so do new ones who decide to try your product or service.  It’s powerful and it works.

Why?  A real recommendation from a real person means more to the average consumer than anything else.  We’re bombarded with commercials every day from companies claiming they have the best this or the greatest that.  And we’re almost immune to that kind of market-speak.  To quote a former “In-N-Out Burger” executive, “If you have to tell somebody you’re something, you’re probably not.” 

It’s much better if someone else delivers the message – someone who’s not a part of your business.  That’s why testimonials are so important.  “I Refer” takes the power of a testimonial several steps further, however – because it’s someone the person talking up your business actually knows.

Remember one important thing about WOM marketing, though – you have to deliver a quality product and great customer service for it to work at its best.  That’s how you get credible references and increase your overall profile – and that’s what really drives WOM and your ROI.

Please check out my “I Refer” service at www.yourROIguy.com to see how WOM can do the job for you.  Until next time, I’m Richard Seppala, The ROI Guy – hoping your Word of Mouth is all good!

Hi, Richard Seppala, your ROI Guy here. 

I constantly work at helping businesses market more effectively.  That’s my focus and that’s what I concentrate on.  And sometimes I get frustrated when I see people missing easy opportunities to improve their marketing ROI with just basic steps that could make a big difference.

Then I remember increasing ROI is my primary business – it’s not theirs.

In other words, if you’re a dentist, a chiropractor, real estate agent or involved in any kind of small or medium-sized business, your focus is going to be on doing what you do most effectively.  You don’t have a lot of time or energy to put into marketing and advertising.  You’re too busy with your main occupation or business.

That’s why I try to create and provide automatic turn-key ROI marketing services to make it easier for you to market yourself more effectively.  The kind of systems you can put in place and will run without much maintenance from you and your staff.

Two of them that I’ve added recently are “The ROI Bridge” and “irefer”. 

“The ROI Bridge” automatically measures the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, answers calls from generated leads, and collects and uploads their contact data into software that can then be used to launch new marketing and advertising campaigns down the line.

“irefer” is a great new word-of-mouth online system that can generate quality referrals from your satisfied customers with just a special discount offer from your business – it’s my featured product this month. http://www.yourroiguy.com/uncategorized/featured-product-irefer.php

In both cases, a minimal one-time setup allows you a streamlined marketing mechanism that offers up-to-the-minute measurement of numbers as well as collection of specific and invaluable contact information.

Measuring ROI and effectively following up with generated leads are incredibly important to your business.  But they aren’t your real business – so I like to provide you with the most cutting edge, automatic and affordable solutions I can to make it as easy as possible for you.  That boosts your bottom line – and that’s my business.

Until next time, I’m Richard Seppala, The ROI Guy – contact me at info@yourroiguy.com for more about what I can do for you!

IMPROVED ROI REQUIRES MORE THAN “JUST THE FACTS”

Hi, Richard Seppala, your ROI Guy™ here.  I just wrote about a new study in my article, “Increase Your ROI with The Magic ‘Touch”, that proved people were more likely to pay more for a product if they touched it. 

It’s one of those mental tricks people play on themselves.  In this case, the products used for the testing were a coffee mug and a toy Slinky.  Let’s be honest – who doesn’t know what either of those two things feel like?  But somehow, when you put your fingers on it, your mind suddenly thinks it’s worth more. 

We all know there are various marketing tricks that defy logic – and that an effective emotional approach always makes for the strongest sale and ROI.  That’s why someone handling your sales calls who just gives out information in a nonchalant I’m-filing-my-nails-as-I-say-this tone doesn’t make the necessary connection.  That takes some charm, some genuine interest in the caller and their situation, and some enthusiasm for the product or service that’s been sold. 

In other words, emotion.

Yes, I’m big on objective measurement systems and hard data when it comes to ROI, but I’m also big on doing what’s necessary with marketing content to improve ROI.  And that involves tapping into your potential customers’ feelings to make them feel good about your product or service – to make them mentally “touch” it.

If you still think most people have too many smarts to let their emotions rule their common sense, let me tell you about another study recently done by the same journal that did the “touch” study.

In that study, college students were given one of two menus.   One menu gave a choice of chicken nuggets, a baked potato or french fries – the second menu had all three of those items, plus a salad.

In both cases, all the students flagged the fries as the least healthy food item of the group.  But when the salad was offered as an alternative – three times as many students picked the fries than when the salad wasn’t offered.

In other words, when they were given a more healthy choice, they went three times as much for the unhealthiest item!

Even the researchers can’t explain that one, so I won’t try – except to say it’s probably good news for McDonalds and Burger King!

Until next time, I’m Richard Seppala, The ROI Guy – and another guy who should probably pick the salad option more often!

Again, taking customer calls is not just “answering phones.” That person needs to be your best sales agent, not someone doing their nails while they repeat “uh-huh” over and over no matter what the person on the line is saying.

That’s why I strongly believe in recording customer calls for quality control. It’s not a case of Big Brother watching over every word your employee says – it’s a case of improving job performance and can be a very positive experience. If you’re a one man band, you might even want to do it for yourself!

Just as it’s important to deal with what happens when someone answers the phone, it’s equally important to deal with what happens when someone isn’t there to answer the phone – especially when you look at it as another opportunity to increase your ROI and your revenues!

The traditional ways of dealing with phone calls during off-hours – or when everyone’s too busy to answer – is for the caller to simply leave a message. Well, I’ve taken that to a whole new level with my “ROI Guy Bridge.”

The “ROI Guy Bridge” automatically collects the contact information from the caller, transcribes the call content, and uploads it into your customer marketing database. That way you not only don’t miss a message, but you also have their invaluable contact details at your fingertips and ready to market to.

If that sounds complicated, it’s not – and it’s very affordable for small and medium-sized businesses. As a matter of fact, it will more than pay for itself quickly – you can check it out for yourself at www.yourroiguy.com/pdf/Infusion-Bridge.pdf.

Sales calls are the lifeblood of your business – so make sure you’re getting the most out of them. Until next time, I’m Richard Seppala, The ROI Guy, wishing you many happy returns on all your investments!

Richard Seppala, your ROI Guy here, with just a few more thoughts on my article, “Avoid Feast or Famine with a Steady Marketing Diet” 

I have a friend who’s a freelance designer.  He was in over his head for weeks on several major time-consuming projects, working night and day.  He didn’t have time to deal with other potential clients calling him and inquiring about his services – so he didn’t.

When he was finally done with all the big jobs, he suddenly realized he had absolutely no work lined up – a situation that went on for several weeks and caused him to have a nonstop panic attack. 

He eventually regrouped and learned from the experience – you don’t stop marketing to new clients ever.

I think we’ve all been through that drill – you’re working so hard for existing clients, you don’t even want to think about getting new ones.  You can’t really avoid those periods of too-much-to-do.  And when you’re in the middle of them, it’s incredibly hard to focus on Big Picture marketing or generating leads.  But that’s just as important as your current business obligations.

So consider having tested turn-key marketing solutions in place for when a tsunami of work sweeps you away.

By regularly employing reliable ROI measurement services, you’ll already have identified the best venues to place advertising and what generates the most leads.  By having that info, you don’t have to scramble to put together an effective marketing campaign – you’ll already know the best way to go to get the most results, and you can jumpstart the process instantly.  That’s a big plus when you want to increase your marketing  - and your time and attention are already stretched to the limit!

A crucial way to maintain your marketing mojo and increase your new client list in chaotic times is to simply make sure generated leads and referrals who call your office are handled correctly by whoever answers the phone. 

If they’re not trained sales personnel, it’s relatively easy to improve their skills – we have a program that does just that.   We all need to realize, however, the fact that those incoming calls are where a lot of sales are made – and a lot more are lost.  Not dealing correctly with a hot prospect means you’re literally throwing away potential revenue for years to come.  Those people are coming to you to ask about your business – not selling effectively to them and, at the very least, gathering their contact info is a huge blown opportunity.

We have the kind of ROI measurement programs and marketing training that can help keep your business profile visible even when you have to drop out of sight.  Visit me at http://www.yourroiguy.com to find out more. 

Richard Seppala, your ROI Guy here.  I hope you’ve had a chance to check out my article, “HOW ROI CAN BE YOUR OWN “STIMULUS PACKAGE” where I talk about how your business might benefit from ROI Marketing Measurement just as much as from a government stimulus package.  You could be losing thousands of dollars if you’re not actively analyzing how effective your advertising and handling of sales calls is.

That got me thinking…what if the government had used ROI measurement on all the corporations and banks that got the first wave of big bailouts?  What if they actually saw what the Return on THAT investment had been?  Maybe that would have helped with the current fine-tuning of the second wave of bailout money.  ROI is all about accountability and responsibility – not to mention researching ways to use your budget to create a positive impact on the bottom line.

Let’s go back further.  What if the stockholders who got screwed when Wall Street crashed and burned had been able to use ROI measurement to see what the companies they were buying shares in were actually doing with their money?  I bet they wouldn’t have made those investments!

And turn back the clock a little more to a few years ago, when banks and lenders were giving out six and even seven-figure mortgages like they were candy.  They didn’t even really care about the ROI on those bad loans, because they were too busy reselling the toxic debt to resell to other financial institutions.  If they had bothered to follow up, they would have seen that they had virtually no chance of getting those mortgages repaid – since the people they were issuing them to couldn’t afford them in the first place.

Face it - our economy wouldn’t be going through what it is today if (a) honest accurate ROI measuring was employed on a regular basis and (b) adjustments were made based on researching it.  Yes, ROI could have saved the world!

Your business can stay safe, solvent and even become more profitable in hard times, just by applying ROI measurement to your advertising and marketing.  I’ve got the proven systems to make that happen for you.  Visit me at http://www.yourroiguy.com to find out how. 

In the meantime, let’s petition the Obama administration to add a Secretary of ROI to the cabinet!

I’m sure you know lots of business people who are telling you what they CAN’T afford to keep selling in this recession.  So they still spend money on marketing and advertising – to try and keep revenues flowing in.

I’m also sure you hear those same business people saying they CAN’T afford to waste any money on additional services in these kinds of times.  You’re probably one of them.  Every penny has to count and you have to make sure it does.

If you’re looking at ROI Measurement as part of those “extras” you CAN’T afford, I’d ask you to try a different viewpoint.  As I wrote in my recent article, “Riding out the Recession with ROI Measurement,” ROI actually saves you money by enabling you to target your marketing dollars in the most effective way.

ROI Measurement also helps you optimize fixed costs, such as the salary of your receptionist or sales personnel who take customer calls.  Often, that person is your most effective sales tool, because the crucial one-on-one communication, if handled correctly, can close the most sales – or at least get a prospect in the door.

On the other hand, if you don’t measure your ROI by tracking your marketing expenditures or analyzing incoming sales phone calls, you could literally be throwing money away just when you need to maximize spending effectiveness the most. 

What’s the point of advertising when you have no idea if you’re reaching the right target group – or if your ad concept is having the right impact on your intended audience?  And what’s the point of driving prospects to call, when your customer service doesn’t positively represent your product or service to the caller?

I’ve developed systems to not only measure how well your sales operation is reaching potential customers, but also how to improve your sales results based on our ROI analysis.   That means you can spend smarter and boost revenues at the same time.

I’m Richard Seppala, Your ROI Guy.  Visit me at http://www.yourroiguy.com to find out more about how ROI research can be critical to your business.