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Month: June 2010

Tales of Click – Part II

I’ll always remember the call I received while we were early adopters on the web. It was from a scientist stationed in Antarctica, and he was inquiring about purchasing a foosball table when he returned from his stint down on the faraway frozen continent.

We received many calls from people all over the world during the six years we operated both online and offline ventures. It was the wild, wild, west, and I was right in the middle of it all. My friend, Jack, worked with us for a while in the late 1990’s, and he reminded me of working with a TV executive in Australia that purchased a certain product from us.

This gentleman lived over 6000 miles from us but decided to make his purchase with us since our pricing was significantly better than he could find in the land down under. We would eventually ship him the product plus oversee all the logistics. You see, being located in the Seattle area, we had worked with Alaskans for almost 10 years when the internet crossed our path in the summer of 1995.

We had the catalog business up and running, albeit it was a small part of our business. This led to an online catalog with no ecommerce but increased our sales, market share, and visibility throughout the Western United States, Alaska, and International markets.

Our site grew from 20 or so pages to over 200 pages within a few years. All done with SEO on a wing and a prayer. No classes, no seminars, or webinars or fancy courses to lead us by the hand. It was all new and a lot of work.

As far as technology was concerned, we were on 56K dialup from 1995 to 2001 but I did get my hands on the first residential ISDN in the area where we lived at the time. This made a huge difference, even though the speed was only about 115K. Technology has changed so much in the last decade that sometimes I have a difficult time keeping up with it.

Still to this day, staying up to date and current on technology is a chore. Most of the time it’s reading a tech magazine when I’m in the airport and/or catching updates online. Many of the business owners I’ve come across the past 12 years have still yet to embrace email marketing, let alone utilize the internet to market their businesses.

One owner I know of doesn’t even have a cell phone, and another owner I know really dislikes the computer and has only responded to a few select emails in the eight years I’ve known him. Why is this?? I have come to the conclusion that it’s because they grew up in the 50’s and 60’s when there was little or no change in personal technology. The biggest change was from radio to black and white TV in the 1950’s.

All of these business owners are still embracing old technology and methodologies. Very few are using email and internet marketing. The ones that are getting results with email and the web are seeing success but utilizing static techniques instead of current methods.

Now you’d think that business owners in this day and age would do everything they could to drive more traffic and increase sales? You all know the saying “old habits die hard”. Hopefully you’re one of the many business owners who have taken advantage of advancing technology and the benefits of email marketing.

  • Are you embracing technology and doing everything you can to implement online marketing into your business? If not, why!?
  • Are you reading, learning, and staying up-to-date on current technology and what’s coming down the pike? If you’re not, then I want to encourage you to make a change and check out online and offline resources that will keep you up to date.
  • Are you surveying and catering to your clients needs by finding out how they communicate? One thing you might consider is looking into email marketing services like AWeber.

If you’re not already using an auto-responder email service like AWeber then check it out. These are powerful digital tools that can help to increase your conversions and sales when it comes to online marketing.

Using these services will enhance your business by communicating more effectively with prospects and clients.

Do you want to learn how to increase your sales, develop more business and work less?
If so, I suggest you go here and Download My New Guide Now!

Dave K
Publisher