There are some real benefits to purging your vast sums of emails every now and again, mostly for your own sense of organisation and control. Not only can your important emails end up being lost in the vast sea of contact you’re holding on to, but you may also end up becoming backdated when trying to respond to all of the contact you receive every day. Starting afresh can help refocus your efforts and ensure that your email account doesn’t simply become a filing cabinet for every last email you have ever sent or received.

There are two ways you can declare email bankruptcy. One is to close the account in question entirely and open a new one, whilst the other way is to simply delete everything up until a certain date. Closing your account entirely and starting again takes far less time and hassle, but this may not be possible for some – so clearing the account up to a certain point is a great way of spring cleaning your emails and regaining some structure and organisation.

If you think you have reached a point where you need to purge all your emails and start again, then here are a few issues to consider before you press the almighty “Delete All” button and dismiss them all for good. 

It may be worth considering going through your account and moving any important emails into a safe folder – although this is completely dependent on the amount of emails you have been hording and how much time you have to dedicate to this. Usually this will be something you do as you go along, but it’s possible you may have missed something so double check if you can. 

A great way to look for important information is to search by name. You should be aware of who your most important conversations are held with in general and this should help you find any vital emails quickly without having to wade through them all.

It’s also worthwhile sending out an email to all of your contacts, explaining that their emails have been deleted and asking them to contact you again if they are still waiting for a response. Hopefully, you’ll have managed to respond to the majority, but in case you have missed anything important this should help you catch it the second time around.

When you feel like you’ve done all you can to ensure that you haven’t lost any important communications, it’s time to press “Delete All” and wipe the slate clean. Now, doesn’t that feel better?

Once you’ve cleared your account of all unnecessary items, you need to start to reorganise your email system so that this doesn’t have to be a monthly occurrence. A great tip for gaining more control over your email account is to immediately set up separate folders alongside you inbox, such as Colleagues, Clients, Leads, Important Info etc.

Then, when you start receiving emails again you can begin to file the important ones away into relevant categories – leaving all the irrelevant correspondence in you inbox to be deleted at the end of every week. Make it a ritual on a Friday afternoon, before you power down and leave the office, to file the important emails and cleanse the rest. These five minutes a week will save you having to shut down and start again several times a year.         

Remember, the “Delete All” button is a last resort to help you reorganise your workload, so in future make it easier on yourself to keep on top of things and prevent the necessity for declaring email bankruptcy at all.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

(Image by Nokhoog Buchachon)

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

So, what can you do to give your social media strategy longevity in 2012? Here are a few tips to help you consolidate your social media activity for the New Year and beyond.

1. Stop saturating and build your brand

Once you have really got to grips with using social media as a business tool it is very easy to overdo your efforts and start to saturate your social media platforms with lots of content, from each department of your company, and for each separate product or service that you offer. Whilst you might think this gives you a broader reach and a better web presence, you are probably just confusing your followers by making it too overwhelming to receive all the content you are putting out there.

So instead of saturating your social media platforms, start branding all of your company’s departments and products or services under one main name. You can still keep separate accounts for marketing, management, sales etc but ensure you only have one contact from each department and include the company name in all of their usernames. This will help to consolidate and group together your team and products under your main company brand.

2. Post for the platform, not for your own benefit

Each social media platform is different. The way your followers use Facebook in comparison to the way they use Twitter is different, and the reasons some of your audience chooses to interact with you on LinkedIn rather than on Flickr will be different as well – they are looking for different content and are expecting different interaction with you depending on which platform they are using.

You probably already know how to use each of the platforms for your own benefit, but use 2012 to really tune in to what your followers want from you on each platform.  If they’re friends with you on Facebook then they probably want to see a more personal side of you, if they are following you on Twitter then they probably expect regular and consistent updates about your new content and if they have connected with you on LinkedIn they are clearly looking to engage with you in a more professional way.

Consider what each platform is used for and research the way people on the site interact and then tailor your involvement to these conforms – you’ll be amazed at the results.

3. Schedule your posting in advance

It’s always good to think about what you’re going to say before you say it, and the same rule applies with posting. Is what you’re posting really relevant? Will it be of interest to anyone? I would hope it would be otherwise why would you be producing it – but it doesn’t hurt to ask the question every now and again!

Scheduling posts in advance also stops you from overwhelming your followers with massive amounts of content, or ignoring them completely due to the fact you’ve had no time to create anything that day. If you schedule a weekly or daily plan for what you will be posting about and what content you will be distributing on which platform, you will soon find you have a nice on-going structure for each site making the whole process much more automated and easy to follow.

A great way to schedule social media sharing is to draw up an editorial planner at the start of each month, which gives you a chance to plan the bulk in advance and then add in more topical updates at times when you have less scheduled content going out. This will give your followers enough to keep them interested and ensure you don’t overwhelm them with information and scare them off.

The best advice I can give you for 2012 is to reassess where your social media campaign is at currently and where you would like it to be by this time next year – then simply put actions to your words and make it happen. Ask yourself these questions:  If you were a follower of your company on each platform, what opinion would you have of them? Are you getting what you hoped you would from engaging with them in this way? And is there more they could do to keep your attention? Then make 2012 the year you give your social media plan real depth and long term value.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert – Motivational Speaker

Which begs the questions, how do you build trust? You build it by offering value-add, by providing valuable products and services to your customers. You also build trust by managing relationships. In the hustle and bustle of today’s world, it is often the second part that suffers.

Making Promises

Everybody make promises that they never really follow through on. From the simplest of things, like mentioning to a friend that you found a recipe online that you think she’d like, to the much more complex, like promising to help a colleague design their website. We all make promises that we fully intend on following through with, but then the world gets in the way, we forget, and the promises go undone.

If you give your word to someone and then don’t follow through, it damages your trust with them, and it damages your relationship. Nowhere is this more true than with your customers.

One Simple Trick

Start by taking a small notebook. This can be a physical notebook, or it can be a note on your iPad or cell phone.

Now, every time you make a promise to someone, every time that you give them your word that you will do something, write it down in your notebook. Then set aside a time each week, say Saturday afternoons, when you’ll go through that notebook and follow through on all the promises that you made over the week.

This applies to everything. Whether you mentioned in passing that you would send an interesting article to a colleague, or you told your son you would go play a game of basketball with him over the weekend. Follow through on every single promise that you made over the previous week.

The best part about this is that since most people forget to follow through on their promises, you will look especially good, and people will stop and take notice of the fact that your word is your bond.
Start with your personal relationships, and once you get in the habit, it will automatically follow you into your business relationships.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert – Motivational Speaker

Last year the appeal raised £36 million but this year organisers are hoping to smash this record by applying some very modern techniques to help boost the Poppy Appeal tradition.

To mark the 90^th anniversary of the Poppy Appeal, the charity has moved full throttle into the modern age of online interaction and are hoping to appeal to younger generations through their involvement with social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.

The Royal British Legion, who are behind the Poppy Appeal, have this year decided to enhance their traditional campaign of selling poppies in places such as big shopping centres and on the streets of our towns and cities, by moving online into the virtual world in an attempt to raise more money and awareness for the cause than ever before.

Supporters can now purchase their poppies online by logging on to the RBL’s interactive forum “Shoulder To Shoulder”, uploading a photo of themselves to the site, purchasing a virtual poppy to pin to their picture and adding a special message to their image. This option seems to have really appealed to the public, as the site has had nearly 18,500 pictures uploaded of people with their virtual poppies to date .

The public can now purchase downloadable Poppy Appeal wallpapers for their computers and add support buttons to their websites which link back to the RBL Poppy Appeal homepage. 

The RBL has also taken their Poppy Appeal into the realm of social media and now have a Facebook page, a Twitter feed and a Youtube channel where supporters can gain to-the-minute updates on the campaign and share and contribute with each other in this online space. The campaign is even fronted by a virtual blogger called Poppy, who is the face of the appeal online and posts regular blog articles to the “Legion Live” forum for supporters to read, share and contribute to. 

With over 11,300 Facebook likes, nearly 12,000 Twitter followers and well over 520,000 views of their videos on Youtube it seems like the campaign has taken on a whole new lease of life. Although official figures for the total amount raised by this year’s Poppy Appeal have yet to be confirmed, it is obvious to see what a huge impact this first outreach via social media and other online platforms has made to the campaign.

It’s great to see such a well-established and long-serving organisation as the RBL looking to more modern and interactive methods to engage with the public and help raise awareness and funds for their cause. Personally, I feel this really shows just how important and influential social media interaction can be when you want to get your message out there and ensure that it is heard on a massive scale. The internet and social media is the way forward, so ensure that you are not missing out on its benefits when it comes to your business’ next big campaign.  

(Image by Paul Simpson)

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

Image by Birgerking

Following the spree of riots and looting which swept across Britain’s towns and cities during early August, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have come under scrutiny by the national press for the part they had to play in the cause of the violence which erupted on the streets earlier this month.

Social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter and Blackberry Messenger are claimed to have been used by rioters to encourage others to join in the destruction, organise meeting places and times for the riots to occur in different towns and cities and to keep in touch with each other via real-time messages in order to operate as a unit.

So far three social media users in their early twenties have been brought to justice for attempting to organise and encourage riots in their home towns, with some receiving four year sentences for online incitement via the creation of Facebook pages and events.

In the aftermath of the riots, representatives from Facebook, Twitter and Blackberry met with police officers and government officials to discuss they ways in which they could prevent future violence being initiated through these social networking sites. The meeting resulted in talk of disconnecting some online and telecommunication services if a similar problem was to arise in the future.

Social media has become such a popular and natural way for people in the 21^st Century to communicate with one another, so it’s not surprising to see how the violence and unrest which swamped the UK over a four-day period recently was so openly discussed online, as well as becoming an integral tool in helping to fuel the fire behind the riots.

It is not how this situation came to be so much, but whether the detection and response to online incitement should have been more predominant during the riots? Another key questions falls with the severity of the sentences given to those who chose to use social media to encourage violence and disruption within a nationwide platform – are they fair sentences for the crime committed? Take into consideration that it was incitement to do harm rather than the act of actually committing the crime, and on the flip side consider the scale of people who these messages are distributed to?

Social media has the power to influence, formulate ideas on a global scale and encourage trends with those who use it regularly. That’s how powerful social media is as a communication tool, so just imagine the ways was you could use Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites to advance your online presence….but for the good of course!

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert - Motivational Speaker

To mark the launch of my new book “eselling” in July I have just recorded a special 60 minute training session on the nuts and bolts of the approach.

eselling is unlike anything you have seen before so please download the online training session here.

You can also be notified when the book is out too as I am going to be giving away a lot of goodies and sales training material on the launch date!

Thanks again

Sean

PS Here’s the link to gain immediate access to the free sales training

 In all, my newsletters, tips and general advice go out to over 60,000 people each and  every   month.

I receive tons of replies each month from ranging from questions about how to improve their business through to compliments on what I have written or indeed disagreements about what I have written too.

Throughout April 2011 I was receiving a different kind of email from UK small business owners:

“Sean, is business as bad for all of the other small businesses that you know as it is for me in April? I’m being wiped out here”

You see, April 2011 was a killer for small business. Time and time again, no matter who I spoke to said the same.

In a time when small business needed a hand up to help them fight the downturn, April, or more the logistics of April were simply a killer.

Here’s why:

1. The Half Term Exodus

More people took time off with their kids than ever before. This started at the beginning of April. For my own daughter, she had over 2 1/2 weeks off! This hurts business 2 business transactions as the decision makers are not in the office and the info gatherers are not their too. Business is put on hold – either new business development or for those who are waiting upon decisions to be made. For my own business for example we were waiting on a “yes” or a “no” for over £250,000 worth of business but “Mr X was away on holiday” so it will be early May when a decision is made. For some businesses that could mean the difference between success and closing down.

2. Easter!

Good Friday and Bank Holiday Monday meant that no-one was around in business during that time which leads me on to…

3. The Royal Wedding!

Today is the Royal Wedding! For those workers canny enough, they took off the Good Friday the Bank Holiday Monday and then booked off the Tues, Weds & Thurs leading up to the Royal Wedding. Hence returning on Tuesday 3rd May. They would have had off 22nd April to 3rd May and only took up 3 days holiday! Now, that’s a killer for business!

4. April Is The End Of The Financial Year

For some companies their budgets and accounts co-incide with the financial year end of 5 April and hence April is a month of taking stock, revising and finalising budgets before any expenditure is granted again.

So how was April for you?

Of course there will always be some success stories. If so, what did you do to negate the impact? If not, what impact has April had on your business?

Would be interested in your thoughts so please comment below

Live, Love and Laugh!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Please Click Here For The Same Internet Marketing Cheat Sheets That I Use For My Business

Insiprational!

Enjoy and get inspired!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker - Internet Marketing Consultant

We were looking for a new car for my wife so we chose a garage to take a few models out on the road.

Our objective was to test drive some models and not to buy today.

We were never asked what our objectives were as we met the “sales person”

Anyhow, we went out in 2 cars. Afterwards…

“So, which one are you going to buy today?” said the “sales person”

“None” I replied with

“What?” he said in complete surprise “You came in to the dealership today with no intention of buying?”

“Correct” I added

“So all you wanted to do was test drive some models?”

“Yup” I replied

“Could you just wait here one moment please….” he then went into his Sales Manager’s office

10 minutes later both the “sales person” and his sales manager came out to see us

“Why aren’t you buying today?” said the Sales Manager in a very hard selling, forceful manner

“Because we don’t want to” I replied

What occured then was about 5 minutes of the most out dated, hard selling tactics I’ve seen in a long time.

Statements like this were commonplace ”It’s the best month to buy so I’d purchase today if I were you” and “The cars you drove will be sold this time next week, which one would you like to buy?”

Yawn, Yawn, Yawn

The approach had so much cheese that it was embarrassing!

Yes, these old outdated methods are still being used.

It’s a shame because my wife loved the Kuga that she test drove and would have purchased a model this time next month so the sales person actually lost a £22k sale simply because they wanted the sale THAT DAY.

Lesson – ask questions about what the objectives are of your buyer, how they buy and when they want to buy. Not today does not mean NOT EVER!

It really makes me angry because dinosaurs like that give proper sales professionals a bad name.

Sean

Sean McPheat

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant - Motivational Speaker

Click here for Internet Marketing Courses

Click here for a top Internet Marketing Blog

If you’re a business owner, currently use FLASH and want your sites to have full functionality on Apples iPad, iPhone et al then listen up!

You see, the fight continues and it will affect you in the end!

The constant battle between Adobe and Apple went to new heights earlier this year when Apple announced that the iPad would not support Flash and instead would look to HTML 5.

This is another kick in the “you know where” for Adobe.

Back in 2008 when the iPhone was launched it was rumoured that Adobe would produce an “enhanced flash application” that would support all of Apples innovations but Adobe could never reach Apples high standards of technology.

I think the time has past and the opportunity is now gone forever for Adobe to be partners with Apple and in a straight fight between the two, my money would be on Apple!

So bear this in mind if you are producing videos and applications in flash. If you want them to show up and play on the iPad, iPhone etc then you need to change to something like HTML5.

Happy marketing!

Sean

Sean McPheat

Marketing Consultant – Sales Expert – Motivational Speaker