What's Your Real Message?

What's Your Real Message?
Andy Stetzinger
11-28-06

Say you are dragging your wire canoe across the desert because it runs out of gas, how many pancakes does it take to fill a log cabin?

WHAT???

Exactly.

It makes no sense. In this case, it's not supposed to. What about your case? Is your well crafted, finely tuned, swiss-precision message really reaching your audience?

When I was first married, my wife Wendy and I moved to Arkansas. The first week we were there, I saw some guy picking through my garbage cans beside my house. I ran outside, and yelled at him. I told him to get out of my yard, stay away from my house, and to quit going through my trash. I let him have it. Boy did I!

He didn't move. He didn't budge. He didn't leave.

I was all ready to come at him with round two, when he stopped me.

"Sir, let me explain", he said. "This is my job. I work for the city. Since we don't have a scheduled trash pick up day, I come down the street and move your trashcans to the curb side so the truck can pick it up."

Talk about a helping of crows feet!

After regaining my composure, I attempted to salvage what dignity I had left, and offered the guy a cold soda, which he gladly accepted.

If the guy had been dressed in a city uniform, or had a name badge, or anything that identified him as a city employee, the event might never have happened. He might have easily conveyed his message completely non-verbally. I would have watched him, and seen what he was doing rather than completely misunderstanding his intentions.

Are you inadvertently confusing your customers? Are you frustrating them to the point they walk away from any business they might do with you?

Successful companies go to great lengths to make sure their message is clear, precise, to-the-point, and easily understood.

A simple, yet highly effective testing method is to find someone who doesn't use your product, show them your message, and ask them to repeat it back to you. You'll hear first hand what your real message is.

Just remember, if it's not what you think it is, don't yell at the person. They're just doing their job.

~Andy Stetzinger
KeyThing Marketing Technologies

A confused mind says.... NO!

A Confused Mind Says... NO!
Scott Dennison
11/21/06

Lately both Andy (High Tech) and I (High Touch) have been called into meetings asking about making websites work more effectively. We really are not a "web development" company, our specialty is marketing technology, or the creation of tools and strategies that will help companies market better on the Internet.

But in the time we have been working on the Internet, we have learned what works and what doesn't and we stay current with the things that are working now. As advocates for the smart use of video on a website and with our own proprietary products designed and marketed to add video to your sites quickly, easily and affordably, we sometimes have to be involved in the design or layout of client sites.

So in almost every conversation, you will hear me ask... what is the one thing you want a visitor to your web site to do? Then to go further, when someone arrives on this particular page on your site - what is the ONE THING you want them to do. This is called the "Most Wanted Response".

The silence is usually deafening...

Many times they say somethng like -- "we want them to buy from us..."

Well ok, I can understand that, but when I look at most sites, I get confused. And a confused mind says no. The visitor to your site will just simply click the back arrow and depart, never to return. And I doubt that is your most wanted response.

So as you plan the layout of your site, ask yourself the critical question. What is the one thing we want someone to do when they arrive at this page? And build the page with that in mind. Then test to see if what you want is what visitors actually do.

Doing so is just smart. Because a confused mind says NO!

Sure, it does that!

Sure, It does that!
Andy Stetzinger
11-14-2006

A few years back, I held a position with a company as "Director Of Development". It sounds lofty, but in reality, it was a small company with a mediocre piece of software that was hodge-podge put together.

A particular national store had taken notice of our software, and expressed an interest in it. They wanted to talk with us prior to moving forward with the purchase. My boss, the president/owner of the business, allowed me to sit in his office for the conversation. With speaker phone on, I was told not to make a sound. I was there to listen, make notes, and explain things to the boss when the call was done.

At one particular point, the national store asked if our software did a particular function. My boss looked at me, and I shook my head 'no'... because it did not do what they were requesting.

Without missing a beat, my boss returned his attention to the phone, and said, "Sure, it does that!".

The point is - nobody can represent, promote, or sell your product better than you. Nobody can gain the trust of the potential buyer better than you. With todays' websites incorporating video, you should be representing, promoting, and selling your product by gaining visitors trust and likability yourself. Right there on your home page. Right out in front of your site for the world to see. You. Yes you. It's easy, and surprisingly affordable. Let us show you how.

~Andy
KeyThing Marketing Technologies

Website Automation For Small Businesses

Website Automation For Small Businesses
11.07.06
Andy Stetzinger


As our companies CTO and lead software developer, I am often asked about some of the "features" we employ on our website. Most of the tid-bits go unnoticed by the untrained eye, but from time to time, individuals do pick up on some of the things we do, and want to know more about them.

While I won't reveal any trade secrets in this article, I will share some of what we do, and why we do it. If you choose to employ the same tactic, that is up to you.

Feature #1 - Self Spidering
We "self spider" our sites multiple times a day, depending on the nature of the site. If content changes often, we self spider more. The reason for this is pretty simple: speed. Major search engines, once told, will look for a specific file when they spider a site. As long as that file is kept up to date, then your information is kept up to date as well.

Feature #2 - Self Cross Publishing
You might be reading this blog entry on one of several different websites. We only publish it once. Our websites pick up this article live and present it to you for your reading pleasure. Statistically speaking, this increases the readership of our blog, and decreases the amount of time needed to keep up with a blog. Not to mention the updated content on each of our sites.

Feature #3 - Self Published PodCasts
While we may not employ any dramatic routines in creating our content-rich, not-to-miss, you'd-better-be-listening podcasts, we do something a little different with the processing of the files. We self publish to different feed sources as soon as content is updated, and, if not updated, we let them know we have no current changes. We also employ a self updating feature on our local podcast page to present the user with just the latest podcast. We have no interaction with regards to updating our podcasts other than uploading the file itself.

Feature #4 - Magic KeyWords
On some of our sites, we use a system I like to call "magic keywords". In essence, the keywords from the page are derived from the page itself. Pages automatically become self relevant, and search engines love them.

We use a lot of other techniques on our various sites. The main thing is we don't often touch our site - they self optimize. Why spend the time working on your website when you can spend the time working on your business?

~Andy

Let The Summit Begin

Let The Summit Begin
11.02.2006
Andy Stetzinger

We're in Atlanta, GA this week for the Bill Glazer / Dan Kennedy Inner Circle Information Summit. A huge group of information marketers gather to learn from the best minds in the business, talk to like-minded individuals, and of course, network with other people.

As a Marketing Technology company, we're having an absolute blast here.

We arrived early for a special extra day of the Conference that included classes, presentations, and capped off with a large ticketed dinner. People introduced themselves around the room, mingled, exchanged information and business cards, and really tried to find out how one could possibly work with the other in some form of a business venture.

Both Bill Glazer and Dan Kennedy were there, and had a small "pick our brains" session where people in the audience could ask them direct questions relating to their business. This is akin to being able to sit and ask Donald Trump for some insider investment tips, or a private one-on-one lesson from Emril Lagassee on how to cook the perfect lobster.

The whole day was a terrif lesson in individual marketing efforts by some amazing people in the business.

We are looking forward to the rest of the conference.

~Andy