Hi Achaeans
Well, the ecommerce software is installed - but not ready to go. We need to choose a bank as our merchant. Now that’s a tough one. I was left ‘on hold’ to the NAB for just over 18 minutes - no satisfaction there. St George was very prompt and gave me lots of good advice.
But right now I’m pretty confused. There are lots of conditions that just don’t work with our marketing strategy. Still more work to do on the payment side of things. I’ve put together a due diligence list to help in the selection of our merchant. I feel that it will get more frustrating before we make a decision.
We move on.
have a good night
Gail Geronimos
Hi Achaeans
We took the plunge on Thursday and bought software to run our ecommerce business. Our due diligence (thanks to Christian) took about 2 weeks and involved
- a review of the current software available
- discussions with 5-7 ecommerce businesses and others with experience with the ‘money’ end
- setting up our own selection criteria
- ensuring that the backend (settlements, audit, reconciliation, etc) will work.
It was a big job and gave us the confidence to make a decision. My advice, don’t undertake this sort of decision without a thorough ‘due diligence’ process. And I mean actually writing up a table and doing a serious assessment.
We decided on Infusion CRM. Why?
- it can manage both online and offline businesses
- it is the most automated software and will remove a lot of our current manual processing
- it has a very good CRM database
However, it’s not all roses!
- will take considerable time and effort to load information
- you’ll need someone with a good understanding of software
- it’s not cheap (upfront fee plus monthly fee)
And I’m sure that as we install the software we’ll have some frustrating moments.
We’re happy with the decision and look forward to ramping up our ecommerce business.
Until next time
Gail Geronimos
Hi
I’ve been frustrated many times by setting goals that I simply didn’t achieve, particularly on a personal level. I can manage the business stuff reasonably well but some of my personal goals just keep slipping.
Sound familiar?
So I decided to get on top of this. I was at a conference in Sydney last October and heard Paul Blackburn speak about ‘blockage busters’. Now there are lots of so called gurus out there and I was the classic skeptic.
So I tried just one of his techniques. WOW. It made a big difference.
Here is a link if you want to find out more.
Cheers
Gail Geronimos
I’m amazed that ‘The Secret’ is at the top of the best seller list!
Don’t get me wrong. The message is a good one - go for your dreams. But this book takes a very superficial approach. The whole emphasis is on getting a bigger house, a ‘wife to die for’, millions in your bank account. What absolute nonsense.
To give an example: I wrote an article in January about Chuck Feeney. He sold ‘Duty Free Stores’ for billions. Now he owns very little, he travels by bus and he carries his papers in a plastic bag. Chuck is very busy giving away his billions to charities. He’s not typical but he sure didn’t follow the pack of the rich and famous.
Just take a look at the rich and famous. Are they any happier than rest of us?
There has been a lot of research about what makes us REALLY happy. Does more money mean more happiness?
Now, we all want to be happy. The trouble with books like ‘The Secret’ is that they peddle a totally materialistic approach to being happy. We are on this earth for the shortest time. The best favour you can do for yourself is to first understand what will make you happy and then set your dreams in place. Don’t make assumptions, this decision is far too important.
Read books by credible authors - as a start read ‘Affluenza’ or ‘Growth Fetish’ by Clive Hamilton. Go searching for information to help you in your quest. Be patient, it will take time.
Cheers
Gail Geronimos
Hi Achaeans
Christian and I are collecting some really amazing resources on emarkeing. Our heads are bursting with information. It’s a bit overwhelmimg!
It’s the classic web problem - access to all sorts of experts but which ones really know what they’re talking about?
We started this little journey in August 2006 and it has taken longer than expected. I shouldn’t be surprised I tell all my clients that. We now have sorted out our systems and processes. Not in great detail but we have a system in place. And we are progressing to the ‘finer detail’. That’s a good feeling.
The good news is that we are seeing some fantastic opportunities. There is a lot to this business and it needs attention to detail to make it work and build a business that makes money.
More in future blogs.
Cheers
Gail Geronimos
Hi
I have been totally frustrated by the rarity of people who can write really great sales copy. And I mean copy that actually sells.
So I’ve got together with some colleagues and come up with an idea that you may also be interested in. We have managed to get Pete Godfrey (one of the best) to run a 2 day workshop on sales copy to help us recruit a copywriter. And the really good news is that we have a few spare places.
If you are interested send me an email and I’ll get some information to you.
Have a good weekend.
Gail
When I first asked how to go about blogging someone said ‘just write something about anything’. Well, I’m a strategy person and I know that everything needs a theme or focus. So I then went looking for resources to understand the strategy behind blogging. They weren’t all that easy to find.
There’s lots about blogging but not much on how companies can use blogs in their marketing. After spending too much time and money on some pretty useless books, websites, etc, I finally found The Corporate Blogging Book.
Here’s why you should have a look at it:
- it gets to the point, short and sharp
- the focus is on how COMPANIES can use blogs to increase sales
- it give very good examples and links
- she covers micro businesses to major corporations
- she gives you a process to evaluate whether blogging is for your company
Here are some links:
thecorporatebloggingbook.com
Amazon
Gail
In the last 5 months I have been to 1 emarketing workshop and 2 conferences. What really surprised me was that I was very lonely. There were hardly any entrepreneurial companies at any event.
In a total audience of 2,300 across the 3 events I found that quite amazing.
So, I’ve started talking about how SMEs (small to medium enterprises) can tap into this very exciting marketing opportunity. What I’ve learned is that most companies simply don’t understand the emarketing space.
It’s all too complex, they don’t know how the technology works, they don’t know how to incorporate this new marketing tool into their businesses, they don’t know how to modify products and services to supply to this market and they don’t know the resources that are available.
So, I’m going to focus on emarketing for SMEs.
We are doing lots of research to find out who’s who in the emarketing world. If you want to get up to speed then check in and I’ll share what we find out with you.
Gail Geronimos