Aaron Hoos

The Question:

I am a real estate investor and I’m going to a local event shortly where I will be networking with other real estate investors and looking for money to fund my deals. I’ve got an introductory card that I give out but it isn’t pulling in as much response as I’d like. What do you recommend?

[For privacy, card is not included in post]

Aaron’s Answer:

The content on your card is good and just needs to be tightened up a bit. However, I think you should consider something to compel people to talk to you. After all, there are MANY real estate investors all networking hard to get a limited amount of funding dollars. An introduction of yourself is good, but you should consider enticing them to talk to you. I would write up a 2-3 page report about “The State of Real Estate In [your local city]” and indicate on your introductory card that you’ll give them a free copy if they talk to you.

The Question:

I was asked a great question through the private message boards on Guru.com. After briefly outlining his 3 new businesses, an entrepreneur asked: “I have never done much online but am interested in the effectiveness of blogging, press releases, etc.. If i am just beginning each of these businesses, what would you recommend for my ‘plan” to success?”

Aaron’s Answer:
At a very basic level, you’ll want a 3 step approach for each of your businesses; and you’ll find that it’s not that different than a really simple sales process:

1. Get the attention of cold contacts. You can do this through search engine optimization, articles, Twitter, and elsewhere (depending on the specifics of your target market). You might consider investing a little in Google AdWords or some other form of marketing, but that depends on your budget. The point of this step is to draw them into your “sphere” and turn them into warm contacts…

2. Build a relationship with warm contacts. Now that you have all these people listening to you, you need to give them something valuable. Again, it depends on the specifics of your target niche, but typically I’ll create some combination of the following for clients: blogs, whitepapers/reports, and ezines. The goal is to ultimately turn these warm contacts into customers…

3. Sell to your customers. There are a number things you can do — some of which I can help you with. This might include presentation material, “inner” website content (that doesn’t appear in search engines), and more. You might even consider broadening your offerings to include ebooks, webinars, and other products that you can either sell or you can use as positioning material to help you sell your services.

It’s hard for me to give you much more specifics than that with the little bit of information I have. I would say that the specifics depend on:
* Your target market
* Your business area (i.e., where do you do business?)
* Your budget
* … and a few other things.

[Visit my Guru profile]

The Question:

Steve asked: How to increase the number of conversions?

How one can increase the number of conversions with the limited number of visitors he is getting..

Thanks,
Steve

[Visit Steve's LinkedIn profile]

Aaron’s Answer:

I quickly looked at your website (http://www.granite4less.co.uk/) and have a couple of suggestions:

1. Your “order now” button is buried in a list of other things. It should be more prominent. I’d suggest that you put it where the “call me back” button is in the top right.

2. When I click “order now” I get a phone number and email address. If someone clicks that, though, I’d guess that they are ready to buy online. But that option isn’t available to them. This adds an additional step in your sales process. “Order now” is actually “call us to order”. In your prospect’s mind, that’s an extra step. Websites should reduce the number of steps required to buy something, not increase them. If you can’t make the “order now” an immediate online purchasing option, I’d suggest that you remove it altogether and just make your phone number and email address more prominent.

3. You might also consider reducing the number of links on the left side of your page: Move “Why we are inexpensive” to the “price” page. Move “Site map” to the bottom of the page. (I’d even consider moving “Price” and “Contact us” elsewhere, too). In other words, make the left side of the page ONLY about finding a great product.

All the best,

Aaron Hoos

http://aaronhoos.com

[Visit my LinkedIn profile]

The Question:

John Cameron asked: What are the leading indicators of business success?

When you see a business and think that it has a great future, what are you seeing?

I’d like the answers to focus on either entrepreneurs or businss owners.
I realize that they never really separate,but entrepreneurs bring business ideas to life and business owners build & maintain organizations that profitably deliver value to customers. Another way of looking at it is: what causes a business’ success?

Thanks in advance for your time.

John Cameron
ROCK SOLID Business Coach

[Visit John Cameron's LinkedIn profile]

Aaron’s Answer:
In my experience, there are 4 elements that can make a business successful, but they appear at different times in different circumstances. (i.e., the entrepreneur might introduce a few of them and the business owner might introduce others).

1. Cash flow: Money needs to be coming in.
2. Profitability: Some of that money needs to stay in the business.
3. Investment: The business needs to invest in itself (i.e., innovation, better service, better processes)
4. Systems: The business needs to systematize or automate as much as possible.

Aaron Hoos

http://aaronhoos.com

[Visit my LinkedIn profile]

The Question:

Ed Wills asked: What is the best way to market a virtual product?

I have just finished an e-book on using social media to market small businesses. I have considerable experience in marketing both tangibles and intangibles, but am now struggling to develop a good marketing plan for virtuals. The book outlines a marketing plan to reach out to local people who are on social media platforms and bringing them into a brick and mortar establishment such as a restaurant, retail establishment of professional service provider. But to market my e-book effectively, I need to reach brick and mortar establishments who are not using social media and bring them into the virtual world. So I am struggling with how to do the opposite of what I am teaching others to do. Any suggestions?

[Visit Ed Wills' LinkedIn profile]

Aaron’s Answer:

Good question, Ed. I’d suggest a couple of ideas:

1. Write articles for trade journals. You’ll have to get industry-specific, of course, but that shouldn’t be too hard. Talk about why social media is important to their customers (and, thus, to them) and give a few basic steps to help them get started easily. The article should answer “why social media?” and it should touch on “how”. In your byline, mention your ebook, of course.

2. Get your foot in the door of a local store that is part of a larger chain. Offer to help them for free. If their sales skyrocket (and I’m sure that you’re confident they will) their peers in the chain will ask them what their secret is.

All the best,

Aaron Hoos

http://aaronhoos.com

[Visit my LinkedIn profile]