ProBlogger: Are You Balancing Emerging Technology with Effective Strategy?

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Are You Balancing Emerging Technology with Effective Strategy? Posted: 20 May 2013 08:21 AM PDT Last week I was asked at a conference to reflect upon the future of digital and among other things I made a reflection that seemed to resonate with those gathered. It was: Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. As online publishers we see a steady stream of articles being written about new and future technologies, companies and trends in the online publishing space. It is certainly an exciting time to be doing what we’re doing with such amazing development happening all around us and some amazing projections being made about what is ahead of us – however in the midst of all this development it is easy to overlook some of the most effective ‘old’ technologies and trends that we also have at our finger tips. The reality is that while many new and future technologies are exciting and promising the world – that many of them are still either untested or not yet reaching their potential. The example I used last week was to compare the effectiveness of social media against email in my own blogging. On Digital Photography School we have around 300,000 social media connections (mainly Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest) around 300,000 RSS subscribers around 700,000 email subscriber Last week we updated our social media accounts around 150 times over the week published 14 new posts to our blog (and RSS feed) sent a single email to our email list Which was the most effective for us in terms of driving traffic? Hands down it was the email we sent. I’d estimate that last week the single email generated well over 10 times the traffic that the 150 social media updates and the 14 RSS updates combined. Our previous testing also shows that when we launch a new eBook that a short series of emails will generate over 90% of our sales of our eBooks over launch even though we promote it to social media numerous times during the launch too. By no means is social media a waste of our time – it helps with multiple objectives that we have (it does drive some traffic, builds community/engagement, helps with branding, drives some sales) but my point is that an old technology like email still has an exceptional return on investment in our situation. I will continue to invest time, energy and resources into developing a social media strategy – however not at the expense of ‘old’ media that is a tried and true strategy. What about you – have you got the balance between the ‘new’ and the ‘old’ right? I would love to hear how you approach it? Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Are You Balancing Emerging Technology with Effective Strategy?

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Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

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Turn them complaints into a positive. Posted: 20 May 2013 07:29 AM PDT Good customer service is a staple for any business there is, but it is often times hard to come by. Many companies think they have good customer service when in reality when you ask their customers they tell a different story. According to Brad Tuttle in his book Customer Service Hell 80% of companies say they deliver "superior" customer service, when in reality when they asked their customers only around 8% said the service "superior". This is a problem… however, it means that there is room to improve! One thing I have learned that works well for us is taking those negative experiences and turning them into positives for your customer. Often times companies think just giving stuff away to customers is the best way to make them happy, true that does work to some extent, but the problem can be handled in other ways that won't cost you a dime. For example, if someone is asking for a refund for product ask them what is it about the product that they didn't like, or what they feel needs to be changed. These questions can provide you insight about your product and what needs to be changed. When you ask a customer why they wanted a refund be sure to let them know that you are currently in the process of getting them their money back. When the customer knows that you are not just trying to talk them out of getting a refund they are more likely to cooperate with you. I would say that about a 1/3 of the time asking my customers what is was they didn't like about the product it was just a simple misunderstanding of the product or they were simply confused about some of the material. During this time I am able to clear up their issues and they end up canceling their refund. So as you can see I turned that positive into a negative and it didn't cost me a dime, just my time. According to Jim Moran Institute and Lee Resources close to 70% of customers will do business with you again if you resolve a complaint in their favor. Like I said turn that complaint into a positive! Trying to increase your Google rank that is like no other?

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