The Blog For Entrepreneurs

1. Creating and Rewarding Participation

I installed the ‘Top Commentators’ plugin you see in the sidebar.The reason I did this is that I want to encourage participation in my blog. There are, however, millions of others that want the same so I give something back – link love!. Now I know you may say that I am just getting spammers, not real comments, but I would disagree. Yes, there is loads of spam, but these are nuked in the admin section. The bottom line is that there have been over 100 genuine comments in the one and a half months this blog has been online, some are looking for the link and that’s it, but most have been encouraged by other comments to comment on the blog. This creates feedback and a sense of community.

This is obvious for online businesses (of course I am not the only one doing it!) but for offline businesses it is not such a priority. These companies need to engage their customers and potential customers and provide rewards for doing so in the same way. It could be anything, discounts, freebies, special attention. etc. If you are an offline entrepreneur think about how your business can engage customers in this ‘Top Commentators’ type way.

2. Move The Free Line

You downloaded the eBook and subscribed to this newsletter maybe out of curiosity, maybe you heard the podcasts like many do or maybe an article inspired you. By far the biggest reason people subscribe is for the free eBook.

The eBook was designed as a starting point for getting your head right to becoming an entrepreneur, and also an initial introduction to what I hope is great business relationship with all my subscribers. But even with this brief material available I wanted to give more. So I added a free bonus, which took me a while to put together, and included that. Coming soon is another addition for the free download. Basically I want to be able to give massive value for free, before I even consider offering a course or mentoring…. I know what my personal buying process is like… first I try, then I buy.

If this concept could be brought into small businesses it could be life changing. If I was to go back to the commodities business (which we grew to $300mn of business) I would grasp this concept and provide massive amounts of free training on commodities trading, through videos, newsletters and trading advice etc. If I had implemented that the business would have done $1bn worth of business, I am sure.

Think about your ‘free line’ . How can you offer massive value.

3. I installed the ‘Sociable’ plugin.

The plugin basically put the icons for Digg etc on the bottom of every post. In one click people can recommend an article. In all my years as an entrepreneur I can think of no better marketing technique than referral marketing. Not one campaign in the hundreds I have run, or the hundreds of thousands of dollars my companies have spent, has ever given a higher conversion rate than referrals.

Offline businesses often neglect this area of business. How could your business implement a ‘sociable’ type process in your offline business? How can you make it ‘one click’ for you to be recommended. What process can you set up to make recommending you easy for clients?

4. Community

I never spoke to my competitors unless it was in court. That is just how it was in the business that I was in. Even when I was involved in the hotel game other hotels on the island were mostly hostile to each other. This is something that can be ingrained in offline business people. The web, in comparison however, is some sort of Utopian land where competitors skip hand in hand down the information superhighway creating joint ventures and marketing each others products, at least this is how it can seem.

The reason for this is, I believe, that online entrepreneurs understand that there is plenty of business to go around. I am fond of listening to Sterling and Jay and they repeatedly talk about only needing a list of only 1000 great subscribers to make money, 1000! How many people are online!

This is something that could be grasped by offline businesses that are competing. There are many ways that companies can work together. I tried this with the commodities business, however every potential partner such as a stock brokers or financial advisor was so protective of their business nobody was interested. The fact is that our client base was massive compared to theirs and they could have done very well.

Think about your competitors.. how can you reach out to them and do some business together?

5. Data integration that causes addiction to your product

Have you seen the Nike shoe that integrates with an online platform? When you are running or working out, data is stored which can be uploaded to the Nike site. You can challenge other runners, train together with people thousands of miles away, this is a classic example of integration that causes addiction. If you got used to training this way you will always go back and buy a Nike show that integrates with their platform, wouldn’t you?

If you are sitting there owning a coffee shop you must be hovering over the back button by now. How can you implement data integration? I don’t know, but I can have a couple of guesses.

How about having an online presence that allows people to buy a coffee from your store for locals who are in their network? Let’s say I am trying to get someone’s attention online. I want to interview them or do a JV with them , whatever. How many emails do they get? Loads… What If I sent them a voucher from your store for a coffee on me?

How about if you gave a huge freebee (a weeks worth of coffee) for your 500th customer each week. How difficult would it be to upload your coffee sales each day and monitor the sales number…. How many people would come in that wouldn’t normally… would the local press catch on? There are all sorts of things that most any business could think of to integrate with an online platform, that cold lead to addiction to you business.

The above examples are just a few of the ideas that online businesses take for granted but which are not a priority in a lot of offline businesses. I would be interested in your feedback and also your ideas for this area too.

Regards
David
@OneLifeNoFear