Don’t Celebrate The Launch

One of the hardest things to impress into clients, and even my own staff at times, is an urge to celebrate a launch…

…of a new Website

…of a new Landing Page

…of a new SEO campaign

…of a new PPC campaign

You get the idea.  We all love to celebrate a job being finished, but in online marketing, and in ALL marketing for that matter, the launch is NOT the time to celebrate.  Sure, go ahead, high-five each other for nailing the deadline, putting out good-looking work, or figuring out that complex issue, but do not get drunk in this celebration because you’ve only completed about 7% of the task.

If you really want to celebrate, save that for when the sales roll in.  I could care less about how a web site looks, reads, or acts until I start to see what it does in terms of sales.

We’ve got a new saying around here, it’s called NATO (Not Attached To Outcome).  Meaning, we never get “attached” to any website, campaign, or strategy in case we have to dump it for poor performance.  And folks – believe me – you will very rarely hit home runs from Day 1.  The real work is Days 2 through 9972.  If a campaign, site, or strategy is not cutting it, and tweaking it does not increase sales – it’s gone.  No funeral, no tears.  It’s gone.  Next idea, please.

When I wrote my book, Big Ticket eCommerce, I purposely boiled down my philosophy into 4 simple steps.

1. Strategy
2. Website
3. Traffic
4. Optimization

But even with 4 simple steps, people jump right into step 2 and then worry about step 3 once they have their site up.  Since my book came out, clients are coming to us much more prepared, and they know they need to start with step 1, and they are willing to sit down with us for a day and hammer this out.  They are patient to wait with us as we carefully plan, design, and blueprint a strategy to marry their business objectives into a well-defined website and traffic strategy, and then hand it over to us and wait for launch for several weeks.

If launch is Day 1, then Step 4 starts on Day 2, and this is the step that you never complete.  Sorry.  For you achievers that like to put the check marks in your planner for tasks completed, Step 4 is a step that you will never complete if you understand the concept of continuous improvement.  In the optimization stage we discover small, hidden, and powerful tweaks that turn losers into winners, average campaigns into excellent campaigns, low response into high response, and weak sales into strong sales.  Most people can’t stomach this, but you must if you want success.

You see – even if you get a campaign to a good ROI, if you don’t continually optimize, you will continually and eventually lose.  Every campaign and project that we’ve every worked on in which we’ve allowed it to “coast” has always regressed and needed to be propped back up.

This is where we really excel, and where tiny little hinges can swing big doors.  We track, report, and analyze campaigns every week and continually tweak, toss, or turn the strategy to improve them.

If you think it’s time for you to enter our 4-step program (Hey, we’re 300% easier than a 12-step program!), or you’ve completed steps 1-3 and want us to dig in with you into Step 4, I invite you to set up a call with our chief marketing officer to discuss how we can help you increase results and slash your advertising costs.  You won’t regret it.

Bob.

Are You Less Than Happy With Your Website Results?

Let me ask you a simple question…

Are you happy with the results of your web site, online marketing and/or pay per click campaign?

In my conversations with customers and prospects every week, most people are less than happy with the leads and the sales they get from their site.

As I take the time to review each site, I notice there are three key components missing or seriously deficient in their site or online strategy.

First, the site is not designed to maximize the number of conversions from visitors to leads. It would be like having an ad run for your store, but then you forgot to open the door for business.

Second, they don’t have a process and system to convert the lead into buyer.

Third, the pay per click campaigns don’t synch up with the offer on the site.

Finally, they skimp on their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and use outdated tools to try and rig the system, only to find those tools don’t provide long term success.

I am going to take a few moments through the upcoming weeks to breakdown each of these issues. Mind you this information is determined from our work with clients in 30 plus industries.

If you have a starting company this will help you build your plan. If you are a successful company looking to grow more, then you’ll find these useful and helpful.

One final comment. There is nothing that is going to be sold at all. This is not some kind of warm up to a big launch. Sure, some of you (a very small number… less than 1%) might be a good fit for our company and our service, but that’s not the intent.

Our intent is simple. Get the truth out into the market place.

You will find, however, an opportunity at the bottom of each email to have 45 minutes with me on the phone to review your site and strategies.

Again, no obligation and there is no hidden charge. All I ask is…

** Your company is doing minimum of $750,000 a year. (Or has done consistently)

** You are not selling MLM, affiliate programs or anything like that.

** You be open and honest with me on the phone and in the pre call questionaires. It helps me help you.

Okay, be on the lookout for an email in the next day where I’ll start discussing the four points in more detail.

Best,

Matt Gillogly

Chief Marketing Officer – RJR Computing

The Overbelief Of Spiritual Warfare

I’ll never forget getting an email from a friend of mine Adam. I have known he and his wife, along with their two kids for a number of years. He a budding entrepreneur, she a hard core intercessor who just loves prayer.

The email went something like this…

“Please pray for us, we are experiencing another round of significant demonic attacks. My business is struggling, wife and kids are sick, etc. etc. “

I think you can fill in the rest. We’ve probably all received emails like this one.

I picked up the phone and started talking to Adam. He started talking about all the things going wrong and how the enemy is attacking him, his family and kids. I interrupted him in mid sentence and said to him.

STOP IT. JUST STOP IT. DON’T GIVE THE ENEMY THAT MUCH CREDIT!

He paused for second (I thought he was going to cuss me out in a kingdom sort of way) then said. “Wow you are right.”

We then began to talk about how the enemy is under God’s control. He can not do anything to us unless God gives approval. (See JOB) You only see two times in the Bible where the enemy shows up post fall. In Job and tempting Jesus in the wilderness and I guess we can only really relate to Job, since none of us are the Son of God.

David didn’t talk about demonic attacks, nor did Paul, Peter, (although Jesus did say, “I’ve given Satan the right to sort and sift you like wheat.”) John… you get the drift?

Paul did tell us that everything comes from God and that we are to have joy in all things. To which  I’ve started taking that seriously as I walk through my days. I figure if Paul lived that way, then it’s probably good advice.

Which leads me to my second point, Wiley Coyote and the Roadrunner.

I was out walking with my dog two nights ago, talking with God about spiritual warfare. I’ve pretty much come to the conclution that most of what we think is spiritual warfare is nothing more than life happening through God’s grace.

While walking God gave me a picture of Wiley Coyote and the Road Runner. In that picture the Lord showed me that we Christians are the Roadrunner and the enemy and his demons are Wiley Coyote. For those of you who don’t know, the coyote (Wiley) spends his entire life trying to snag the road runner. He tries to blow him up, crush him with the rock, run him off a cliff, basically anything that ACME makes, he buys in his effort to kill and eat the road runner.

Except he never gets him. The road runner is always too smart, too lucky, too fast for Wiley to get him. Well, why don’t you just watch this….

We need to realize that the enemy can’t do a darn thing to us UNLESS GOD APPROVES. Therefore, if God approves of it, well then it’s for our own good. Yeah it’s a hard pill to swallow, but it’s an important one.

Paul did say, “JOY IN ALL THINGS”. He didn’t say ‘Joy in the found money’ or ‘Joy when you and spouse get the perfect house’. He said ‘Joy in all things’. That includes the young child with cancer. The unmet payroll, the failed business, the bankruptcy. He meant it all.

I’ll end with this. Smith Wigglesworth, the famous revivalist and minister tells the story of waking up at night. He felt a dark cold presence in the room. He sat up in bed, look at the base of the bed and saw Satan standing at the base of his bed. He looked at him said: ‘Oh it’s just you’ and went back to bed.

That my friends is how we should handle the enemy.

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