I currently have 2,235 unread emails in my Gmail inbox. Painful right?! As I started clearing the pile, I realized that most of them are sales emails and other notifications that I apparently don’t take the time to open. In my mind that many that starting to unsubscribe from some things.

Strangely enough, I was sad at canceling some of my subscriptions. It wasn’t that I had no interest in their product or service, I just didn’t have time to open and read all their messages. I’d be willing to bet that a lot of consumers feel the same way. One of the companies I had to part email ways with was AppSumo. Their emails are very clever, their offerings tempting, but I’ve yet to make a purchase and could no longer afford the inbox space.

However, they did a vet good job of trying to engage customers before they took the plunge off their distribution list. They offered a preference system where I could reduce the amount of emails I received by time frame or specialty. More importantly, they encouraged me to follow them on Twitter or Facebook in order to stay in the know on what they are offering without clogging my inbox.

I know it sounds simple, but that last step is where most companies drop the ball. In these times having a preference center is a huge step for a lot of people. However, why not step things up another notch and find ways to engage them via another channel that fits their lifestyle better. They also have “follow us” buttons on the regular email, but consumers likely won’t put 2 & 2 together.

Moral of the story, find ways to keep people engaged and offer them ways to do it that works the best for them. Instead of expecting then to figure out how, hold their hand and give them step by step instructions on what you want them to do. Taking the time to do so will earn your customers interest, respect, and possibly even a follower through another channel. And if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go follow AppSumo on Facebook now.

Have you changed or discontinued your longtail SEO strategy based on changes made by Google?

Infographic by SEO Book

“I’m Gonna Get Ya!” Photo by M. H. Stephens

Fast-forward to today and the nation being overwhelmed by paid marketing messages. Think WOMM has disappeared or gone away? Wrong, it is alive and well and it still has the same volume of influence on our purchases. However now, that influence reaches a wider network of friends and family because of the internet. We tend to support products and companies that have supported our families and our friends. We often do so without realizing that word-of-mouth marketing is hanging out in the background. Examples:

In college, I had a dear friend Happy Mercado who at the time worked for Sweet Leaf Tea. I hadn’t heard of the company until he worked for them. However, once he told me about how much he loved his job and how well they treated him I became a regular drinker due to my connection with him. To this day, when I run to the grocery store for lunch I will still pick up a bottle of half-and-half because it reminds me of the great times he and I had gallivanting around Austin, Texas and enjoying what I will always remember as some of the best days of my life.

Now as an adult, I have a friend who is an amazing and passionate event planner that puts her all into the projects she works on. She was recently let go from her job without warning or explanation in what appears to possibly have been a disrespectful manner. That establishment will never get my business because of the way they treated her. That is word-of-mouth marketing as well. Unplanned, unfettered, and unexpected.

Companies, both large and small, need to realize that WOMM isn’t always something you plan and control. WOMM is the way you treat people. It’s the emotions that you inflict on someone else in a way that causes them to share how your company made them feel with the world. With technology touching as many people as it currently does, treating employees or customers well can introduce your company to hundreds of thousands of people that you couldn’t possibly reach with paid marketing. It can also drive them just as far away.

All of this to say, at the end of the day companies are just people and people connect to each other. While business may be business, the way you conduct run your organization and treat people creates word-of-mouth marketing that you will never be able to control. It is an extremely powerful channel of marketing for your business and will affect you without your active participation. It’s best to follow my rule of thumb, act like you grandma is watching and treat people with respect. You’ll get rewarded for it in the end.

It got me thinking, why don’t more companies take a positive approach in their upsell techniques? I will be the first to admit that I’ve felt duped before when making purchases at restaurants, in retail stores, and online. Many times companies treat upsells as a way to squeeze a few extra pennies out of the customers before they hit the door, but don’t think about the long term repercussions of their customers having a bad experience in the process.

It’s possible to increase your bottom line and also gain the trust of your customers in the long run through offering upsells. Keep these things in mind when presenting them to your audience:

Be Upfront

Nobody is happy when they see a surprise or unknown charge on their credit card statement. That’s one of the reasons that being upfront is the most important part of successfully upselling your customers when they make a purchase from you. Those selling in brick and mortar or other face to face channels typically don’t have this problem as often as those selling online. Still, when an upsell is presented in an inconspicuous manner and the price isn’t disclosed upfront, the customer might make a purchase without realizing it.

Getting that immediate bump in revenue may be appealing on the surface. However, once they see that inflated charge hit their credit or debit card statement they will likely be confused and upset. Those feelings will then transfer to your brand and they will start to lose their trust in your business. Diminished trust leads to fewer return purchases, if any at all. That one time gain can easily turn into a much larger loss in revenue further down the line.

Make It Relevant

All upsells are not created equal. Before presenting an upsell to your customers you should ask yourself if it makes sense. For example, if you are selling clothing, customers could easily be tempted to purchase accessories or shoes before they finish checking out. They would be much less likely to purchase a life insurance policy or a crystal vase to go with their new shirt.

I’ve seen odd pairings such as those before while making purchases online and it’s simply a bad customer experience. If an item doesn’t compliment products that are already being purchased, they shouldn’t be presented as an upsell. A few odd ducks may be persuaded to buy in, but you are likely turning off a much larger volume of people who are weirded out by the mismatched offerings.

Price Appropriately

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that the place I ordered dinner did a very good job of trying to get me to buy a little more. Before I ordered my meal, I was offered an upsell of chips and salsa for a mere $.95. Considering that most things on the menu are around $6-$8, their offering for less than a dollar is more likely to pull in takers than if they offered chips and salsa for $5.95. A majority of the public has a budget that they’d like to stay close to when shopping. Offer them something that nudges them closer to their limits without breaking the bank and you’ll have a better chance of them taking the bait. Offer them something extra that will double their bill and they might pass out from sticker shock. I’d suggest A/B testing to find your sweet spot for where to price your upsells.

Make Them Choose

Chances are customers aren’t going to jump for joy at the thought of spending more money than they originally planned on spending with you. For that reason, in addition to making your upsell details upfront, you should also make sure that they get seen. In retail, this could be as simple as asking your customers if they’d like various extras during the checkout process (while being forthcoming about extra charges). In an online format, this could be as simple as including a page prior to final checkout that shows customers products that compliment what they are already about to purchase.

By offering these extras in a format which makes the customer choose either yes or no to move forward in the process, you make them consider the possibilities. With each no, you come closer to a yes than you would have been if you never bothered to ask.

Pick Good Locations

How many times have you gone to a website or store and made it your goal to find extra things to buy after you’ve already found what you wanted? Probably not often and you shouldn’t count on your audience to do so either. Consider tempting them with an upsell before they’ve decided what they want to purchase from you as well as after they’ve made their decision. By offering various upsells at multiple points in time, you give yourself more opportunities to spark their interest and get a conversion.

If you take these points into consideration you’ll be a few steps closer to ensuring that your customers have a positive experience when you try to upsell them. Positive experiences create happy customers who are likely to come back for more. In today’s economy, that form of retention is one of the best ways to ensure long-term financial stability for your business.

Image from Wendy Cholbi

You are friends with a brand/person/company on Twitter (they follow you and you follow them). You interact with them and have meaningful conversation about each others 140 characters. During this time, their profile has a respectable follower to following ratio. Flash-forward a few months and they unfollow you.

Not a big deal because perhaps they disliked something you said. Yet, when you visit their profile to see what they are up to, you find that they have unfollowed pretty much every single person that they were previously following. Now, the only folks they follow back are employees of the company and a few big names with more followers than them. Ring a bell?

A fair amount of people still believe in this type of Twitter binge and purge. While starting, they use the binge of interaction as a way to build up a large amount of followers. The second part of the act, the purge, is often viewed by participating individuals as a way to make themselves an important authority figure. In other words, “I have thousands of people who follow me and therefore am too important to follow you back anymore.”

I’ve seen it done multiple times with great success on the surface by brands and people looking to appear like a leader in their industry. Their goal was to get a bunch of people to follow them without having to reciprocate and they made it happen. Whoo hoo, right?! Not in my opinion and here is why.

The message they are sending out suggest that they no longer care what you have to say. They are asserting their self-imposed importance, and moving forward want your relationship to be all about them talking and you only listening. They aren’t concerned about things being mutually beneficial because their ears are closed unless you go out of your way to scream at them (@ reply because you can’t direct message someone who doesn’t follow you back). Essentially, your interaction with them helped humanize their brand, which likely attracted even more followers, and now that they’ve gotten what they want from you they are done. It’s like that boyfriend/girlfriend you had in high school that you made feel pretty and confident. As soon as they believed they were as awesome as you said they were, they dumped you for the quarterback/head cheerleader.

I usually stop following that account because no one wants to feel like an unappreciated supporter and a Twitter follow is an extremely low-maintenance way to build a bridge with someone. I think a lot of people miss the boat on that last statement. And before you attack and call me a whiny baby, please know that I don’t make it a hobby of analyzing every person that unfollows me. I get that some people see it as matter of business. However, I do analyze communications because it’s kind of sort my passion and what I spent 4.5 years of my life getting a piece of paper to say I was qualified to do.

Many marketers who participate in social media still don’t have a clue what it’s about. Twitter relationships are still real relationships with real people. This is why you shouldn’t do a Twitter binge and purge if you care about building real relationships with others:

1. It’s not just an online relationship
Someone that follows you on Twitter is likely someone who shops at your brick and mortar if you are a retailer or someone you might see at face-2-face networking events if you are a person. If you make them feel like they are a minion/flunkie online they might hesitate to walk into your store or come talk to you at an event.

2. A mutually beneficial anything is better dictation
By unfollowing people you don’t have an opportunity to interact with things that matter to them. If you don’t care about what matters to them why should they care about what matters to you?

3. Changing a relationship without warning creates unease
If you treat someone like a friend and equal and then toss them to the curb, it doesn’t exactly make them feel warm and fuzzy. Some people will follow your brand or person on Twitter and interact with you, but may not be 100% sold that you are awesome. Ditching them only solidifies in their head that you are in fact not awesome.

4. You should never forget where you/your brand came from
Change is inevitable, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop being true to yourself. Gary Vaynerchuk started his business by being social and talking to people on Twitter. His volume of followers has grown wildly over the years but that doesn’t mean he quit talking to people. He understands that the people who interacted with him in the beginning are the reason he made it to where he is today and still makes himself available to talk to anyone through various channels.

Now granted there are some exceptions to what I’ve said. I’m not saying mutually follow everyone. No one wants to follow spammers or bots and I personally unfollowed a few real people recently after realizing that everything they talked about was pretty vulgar in a sexual nature. That’s not what I want to interact with, therefore I don’t. However, I’d never unfollow a bunch of relevant people that I have conversations with for the sake of having numbers that made me look popular.

There are a lot of people that naturally have a lot more followers than what they follow because they are celebrities and people already knew them and were excited to have a chance to follow them on Twitter and that is fine as well. Just don’t try to pretend that is you, if it isn’t. There may also be people that are observers and follow you/read your tweets without saying a whole lot and those people are just as important.

Do you think unfollowing people on Twitter for the sake of numbers is a good thing or a throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

Photo from Optify

In case you don’t know what The Bees Awards are, this is how they describe themselves on their website:
“The Bees Awards are the 1st international social media marketing awards for communication professionals.” – BeesAwards.com

The email stated the cause of postponement to be a lack of funding which seems crazy considering how many businesses are willing to throw money at anything social media related just because it has to do with social media. Last years event seemed to go well,  so it’s really a shame that they are having issues.

Perhaps they tried to have them too close together? The last awards ceremony took place less than 6 months ago. Hopefully they will get things rolling and have the event later in the year! If someone from the Bees Awards checks this out and needs some help, let me know.

You can also check out my recap of the announcement as Dallas Marketing & PR Examiner.

Think about the now

Ryan mentioned that many startups begin looking too far down the line instead of focusing on the present. This sometimes leads to conflict between co-founders which can kill the idea before it has chance to grow its own legs.

Avoid unfavorable angel round terms

Including items such as non-dilution, dividends, personal guaranty, hiring consent, milestones, and interim CEO’s in your angel round terms can add unnecessary stress and confusion in the process of getting your startup rolling.

Be passionate, but not overly emotional

Obviously you will have deep involvement in your startup but its important to keep your emotions at bay. As your startup gets larger, you will need more funding to continue growth. Letting go of parts of your “baby” in order to continue progress is ok.

Don’t get the short end of the stick in biz dev deals

Consider rev share, keep your IP, get press release rights, and don’t be a starter wife. Roberts suggests that entrepreneurs take steps to make sure their hard work won’t be for naught. Think about termination provisions and other forms of protection so that you don’t get left on the curb with nothing at the end of the day.

The Startup Lawyer ended the session with advice on what legal structures are best suited for startups and also talked about the differences in dealing with the West Coast startup crowd versus the Dallas startup crowd. He stressed making sure all parties involved are well educated on the nature of Startup law before negotiations begin. Lastly he cited a trend of data being the golden nuggets that new startups need to protect.

Have you ever run into issues concerning startup law? What steps have you taken to better educate yourself on the process?

We’ve managed to throw together the foundation of our social presence in less than 12 hours. In a short amount of time we’ve managed to get our domain, logo, splash page, form to capture email with custom thank you page, branded social profiles, and more. Pulling this off wasn’t an easy feat, but these are some things that have helped us.

7 Tips to Brand Your Startup in 12 Hours or less

1. Pick a name and register the heck out of it. One of the most important steps to accomplishing quick online branding is making sure you “own” the name or phrase you will be called. After you’ve got the name, register the following:

• Domain
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Flickr
• YouTube
• Foursquare

2. Create your logo, but not just one. Create the logo for your website, avatars, profile backgrounds, and favicon all in one sitting. Also, create versions of your  logo that will work in different configurations (vertical, horizontal) so that sizing issues won’t be a road block as you move along.

3. Fill out your online profiles. Make sure they have the images and descriptions that you want people to see. Since you’re just getting started, you may not be bursting with things to say about your idea. However, a bold one liner that describes who you are and what you do is better than leaving people with the opportunity to come to their own conclusions.

4. Pump out some content. This could as simple as a quick update on your progress, pictures of your team, or a 140 character tweet. Throw something out there for people to chew on and someone is bound to take notice of what you are working on. If you don’t post anything online it will be much harder for those interested to get an idea of who you are.

5. AUTOMATE! Startups are usually slim and trim with a limited number of resources. Utilize tools that will enable you to push one button and distribute your content to multiple places. However, don’t forget  to setup alerts that will notify you when you are mentioned online so you can participate in the convo.

6. Don’t be perfect. Remember that you can perfect your design and your branding statement as you go along. Come up with something that is professional and let your friends and followers give you feedback. You can get started before your look and feel is all you want it to be.

7. Be friendly. Online branding typically works best for those that are social and willing to talk to anyone who will hear what they have to say. Follow and friend people that have common interests, or that live in your area, or that simply seem interesting. Being a snobby social media dirtbag won’t make you many friends.

What tactics have helped you quickly brand your startup?

The votes for Dallas are all in and the teams that were most voted for during this Startup Weekend Dallas are as follows:

• On Da Menu – review individual menu items
• Bet your Balls – Bet on every pitch; make baseball engaging
• Be-friends – cross between words with friends bijouled
• Motorcycle Club App – mobile motorcycle app; track rides and events
• Cell phone self guided tour – cell phone self guided tour powered by Twilio
• Runner Pain App – where you hurt on body & why; crowd-sourced
• Project G – Tool for golf courses and clubs
• Moped – Mobile app, specials, location aware
• Chaching! – kids scholarship program; kiva + scholarships
• Twittermint – twitter brand mgmt + sentiment tracking

I’m rooting for and working on On Da Menu. Let the games begin!