Win Or Lose With Approved Index

Some subscribers will be familiar with a website/service called Approved Index.  This article covers how you can either win or lose business with Approved Index, as well as how you can use it to find suppliers for services you need.

Approved Index (http://www.approvedindex.co.uk/) is basically a leads-generation service that works as follows ...

For companies wanting to get more business

1. You sign up to receive certain types of leads from people actively searching for those services/products, choosing to receive a certain number of leads per week.

2. You pay an agreed cost per lead (for example, PPC/SEO leads cost £28 each).

3. When a lead is received by Approved Index it is human-qualified and then sent to only a few companies.  These are generally 4-6, but could be fewer, depending on the competitiveness of certain markets.

4. You respond to the lead, contacting the company directly, aiming to win the business quickly, or at least to further the lead.

For companies wanting to source suppliers

1. You use the Approved Index website directly, or may have found it accidentally through their visibility in Google.

2. You create a profile of your request, including contact details.

3. Approved Index contact you to discuss the brief in more detail.

4. The lead is then sent to Approved Index suppliers who respond to you individually.

5. You choose the supplier that appeals the most to you.

6. It costs you nothing.

The concept isn’t that new, but it works pretty well.  As a supplier of services/products you know that you’re always up against competition and so it’s important to closely measure what you’re gaining from the leads and making changes accordingly.  Here’s an example of our experience recently that showed how to win or lose business through Approved Index ...

Our client wanted to source an email list of certain types of people within certain sizes of companies (in order to run a campaign of email newsletters).  Our first thought was to use Approved Index and within a few hours we received an email showing us the details of four companies who could potentially help.  What happened after that was interesting because each potential supplier came across in totally different ways.  

All of them responded quite promptly but due to personal preference, we chose not to immediately take the phone calls of the suppliers, preferring to accumulate the voicemails to then compare them.  After the phone calls came emails from two of the suppliers and we started to weed out potentials having seen those emails and listened to the voicemails.

Out of the four potentials there was one immediate loser.  They had left a voicemail, which was fine but they hadn’t emailed anything so all we had to go by was their description in the email sent by Approved Index and their website address. We looked at the website but as is so often the case, it didn't live up to expectations and so our number of suppliers was down to three.

Although two of the other three had emailed us, one particular email stood out.  It wasn’t the standard blurb about getting in contact to discuss further but was a username and password that gave us access to their email list data and would let us do everything except download any actual data results.   Along with that offer to access their system was the direct line of the contact there and the offer to take us through the online access to see, without obligation, what type of data could be extracted for us.   This in itself was the clincher for us because it gave us the option to dive in and look through data and have access to someone who could help us further.  We didn’t want promises of getting the right sort of email data sent to us – we wanted some proof, and so this supplier ticked all the right boxes.

A few days later we’d gone with that supplier, who was extremely customer-focused all the way through and gave us exactly the data we needed.

The point made here is that to succeed from being a supplier with Approved Index, there are some simple rules: 

1. Don’t assume (that everyone wants to be contacted in the same way and responds in the same way).

2. Check your own website manually and through website statistics analysis (don’t allow potential clients to have access to a website that lets you down).

3. Follow up.  If you’ve lost out to a competitor then ask for feedback so that you can learn by the experience.  If the three ‘losers’ in the example above had made contact then that feedback about why the winner won would have been given, which would have been beneficial for them.

Every potential client is different.  Some people will pick up the phone all the time and so deal with potential suppliers one by one.  Others will prefer to accumulate all the points of contact but not interact, choosing to then do some background research.  Others still will have different ways of handling potential suppliers.   Sometimes it is ‘luck’ – if Custwin was the type of company that lets potential suppliers talk the talk on the phone then some of the suppliers may have had a better chance.  But it would be hard to beat a supplier who not only leaves an initial voicemail, but follows it up with a useful email giving access to a database, and further offers to help.

Who knows how much Approved Index charge mailing list data suppliers to receive leads but one thing’s for sure – Approved Index made their money from the four suppliers Custwin dealt with.   The big question is, how many of those four suppliers will be able to keep affording to pay for those leads if they’re not converting enough to business?

Which of course, is the question for you reading this if you ever consider buying leads via a service such as Approved Index.

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You vs Me/We/Us

It’s no great secret that marketing material (web, print, others) should focus on the person reading it.  This means focusing on ‘you’ rather than ‘me/we/us’.   When it comes to websites it’s surprising how often companies still get it wrong and focus the attention on themselves rather than the potential client.

It’s a useful exercise to go through your own website (or any website you choose to) and critically examine how each page comes across to the person reading the page.  Is the page focusing mostly on ‘you’ or ‘me/us’?

This isn’t as easy to achieve as it sounds and on the Custwin site there are examples of both, but the advice is to ensure that overall, the balance is towards the ‘you’.   Take, for example, our ‘Home’ page (http://www.custwin.co.uk/) ...

On that page there are 13 references to ‘you’ and 9 references to ‘we/us’.  The page has been deliberately created so that the emphasis is on “what YOU are thinking’, while using ‘we/us’ as leaders to find out more by clicking on various links.

Look also at the Services introduction page (http://www.custwin.co.uk/services-intro.htm).  It starts off by saying ‘We have a range of services ...’ which starts off as ‘look at us’ but then quickly goes onto the details of the six services that are focused very much on the ‘You’.

Not for a second could it be said that the Custwin site is the best example of how to focus on the ‘You’ rather than the ‘me/we/us’ but we’ve (see, it’s easy to slip into the ‘we’ mentality!) tried to keep the focus on ‘You’ both in words as well as the overall message being portrayed.   And it works – we’ve recently gained a client who, when we asked the reasons why they initially made contact, were told that our website focused on their needs rather than purely on our experience.

So here’s the challenge to you – take a little time out and look at your website and consider how it could be altered (even in small ways) to focus more on what the potential client wants rather than having too much focus on the me/we/us.   You may well find that by making some changes you can also increase the level of enquiries as well.

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Client Focus: Etienne Pradier

At the Kent 2020 exhibition in April, Etienne Pradier of www.butterflytrixagency.co.uk and www.frenchmagician.co.uk won the Custwin competition to get a few months free web consultancy.  Each month we focus on the work done with Etienne to demonstrate how companies benefit from ongoing web consultancy.  This month we focus on why it’s essential to compare clicks gained from Google to the types of enquiries those clicks do (or don’t) result in.

Previously we set up a Google Adwords campaign that ensured high visibility for Butterfly Trix whenever people were searching Google for specific celebrity lookalikes, or searching for celebrity lookalikes in general.  That pay per click (PPC) campaign generated, and continues to generate hundreds of clicks to the Butterfly Trix website page http://www.butterflytrixagency.co.uk/look-alikes.html. However, clicks to a website are only as useful as the enquiries gained ...

As you’d expect from any website, we don’t expect all clicks to result in enquiries for lookalikes because there are many different types of people who would type phrases such as ‘ricky gervais lookalikes’ or ‘lookalikes agencies’.  These include people who:

1. Are just casually interested in lookalikes.

2. Are potential bookers of lookalikes.

3. Are competitor companies seeing what else is available on the market.

4. Are lookalikes themselves looking for work.

5. Are people who expected more from the website but may not have found it.

As a starting point, Custwin sets the expectation that at least 10% of clicks from a PPC campaign should be converting into enquiries that are useful, and it’s usually the first month of a campaign that focuses attention on potential improvements to both the PPC campaign and the website itself.

Feedback received from Etienne noted that there were various types of enquiries, including people interested in booking lookalikes - but two important gems of information helped to focus our attention on changes required:

1. Many enquirers were searching for agencies that would represent them (this is a positive as long as the lookalikes are good enough to be considered for Butterfly Trix).

2. Many of the enquirers had the perception that lookalikes are a lot cheaper to hire than they actually are.  This meant that in some cases, administration time was required to deal with people who were never going to be able to afford the fees for the lookalikes.

This demonstrates why it’s so important to have a strong dialogue with clients because it’s only through getting a good understanding of the types of enquiries gained that refinements can be made if necessary. 

Prior to the useful information about types of enquiries, we had an advert appearing, such as the example below when people type ‘lookalikes agencies’:

Celebrity Lookalikes
For All Types Of Events.  So Good
You’ll Think They’re The Real Thing
www.butterflytrixagency.co.uk

This was then changed to:

Celebrity Lookalikes
Lookalikes So Good You’ll Think
They’re The Real Thing! From £300.
www.butterflytrixagency.co.uk

Google restricts adverts to a fairly tight number of characters per line and we knew that we had two issues to resolve:

1. Potential clients clicking through to the website who had little idea of the costs of lookalikes, but who took up administration time to find out that the costs were beyond their budgets.

2. Lookalikes themselves wanting to be on the books of Butterfly Trix Agency, but, how do we say this nicely ... aren’t convincing enough to command that level of fees (or, the not so nice to put this is that they don’t look much like the person they’re supposed to be a lookalike for).

The change of PPC advert basically says to people who type the numerous search phrases:

1. If you want a lookalike then you should be expecting to pay at least £300 per session hired, so don’t bother clicking on the advert if that’s not for you. 

2. If you’re a lookalike yourself and the typical fees you’d command wouldn’t be anywhere near £300+ per session then Butterfly Trix may not be the agency for you and so it’s probably not worth clicking or making contact.

In both the cases above, the aim is to save clicks budget and also save administration time dealing with people who don’t have the right budget or are lookalikes who aren’t of a standard to be on the books of Butterfly Trix Agency.

Something else that the first few weeks of the PPC campaign demonstrated to the client was that there are a lot of people actively searching online for lookalikes agencies in general or specific lookalikes to hire.  This has led to a further action point to add a lot more lookalikes into that http://www.butterflytrixagency.co.uk/look-alikes.html page and add those into the PPC campaign.

Apart from focusing on lookalikes we’ve discussed many other opportunities to gain more from the websites, which will be the subject of this article next month.

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2009 - Your Company Halfway Review

Yes, it’s now halfway through 2009 and it barely seems five minutes since we recommended people make a diary note six months from the start of January to assess how much more business the company website has generated compared to beforehand.   Time goes fast in business and so do the opportunities that are missed through not finding the time to dedicate to website strategy/online visibility.

So take out your diary and put a note on 31st December 2009 that says words to the effect of “how much extra has our website contributed to business success compared to how it was at the end of June 2009?”

Here are a few tips that apply to all types of companies and are mostly free of financial cost (or have minimal costs).  These are the tips that everyone will get something out of and will lead to actions that make the website become a stronger contributor for the remainder of 2009.

Tip 1 – Look at your visitor numbers

If you’ve got just basic website statistics analysis software installed (if you haven’t, then this becomes tip 1 for you), compare the numbers of visitors to your website in each month from January through to June 2009.  Are they increasing?  If yours aren’t increasing at a good rate then some of your competitors are probably experiencing increased visitors, which can only create competition for your company.

Tip 2 – Compare enquiries to visitors

Presuming that you keep records of how many enquiries you gain, and what sources you perceive those enquiries to have originated from, compare the number of enquiries that you perceive to have originated from your website to the number of website visitors you’ve had in the past few months.   If your level of enquiries is lower than 10% of the number of visitors then there’s clearly something wrong with the website or the way in which it’s promoted.  If you’re not keeping accurate records of your enquiries gained then this becomes your tip 2.

Tip 3 - Think like a potential customer

Briefly brainstorm a few search phrases that you think potential customers would type into Google in order to find your business.  Just 5-10 will do.  Then type those phrases into Google and see what appears in the search results (both natural results and Sponsored Links).   If you’re not seeing your own website appearing in the search results anywhere or, worse, your competitors ARE appearing, then you have plenty of scope to investigate how you can get a stronger online visibility to avoid your competitors taking all your potential business away.

Tip 4 – Understanding your visitors

A decent website statistics package (no, not Google Analytics – that’s not strong enough – ask us for advice) will tell you the details of companies that have been to your website, what they were interested in, and how they navigated through your website pages.  If you don’t have that visibility then you’re missing out on huge opportunities that you can capitalise on.

Tip 5 – Scare yourself

Go to a competitors website and find something you like about it.  Consider that potential customers may also find that same something and will contact that competitor in preference to you, if your website is lacking in some way.

Tip 6 – Get free advice

Although it may provide depressing information, ask website consultants how they think you could improve your website to generate more business.  While you can of course ask Custwin, we’d advise you ask a few people so that you can get a good idea of who knows what, and what the best advice is.  Most website consultants will offer a small amount of free advice if they think they may gain business from it.

Tip 7 – Don’t spend any money

There are many opportunities to promote websites. The Custwin view is that you shouldn’t attempt to promote a website unless you’re fully confident that the website can convert visitors into business at a rate that’s fully profitable.  Yes, you could spend £500 worth of clicks on a PPC campaign and get 1,000+ people to your website, but if your competitor is spending the same and their website performs better then their profitability will be higher, which makes them stronger than you.  Always seek professional advice before spending money on promoting your website.

Those few tips may not make you a quick fortune by implementing them but they will raise your awareness of what the potential is from your website and the actions that you make take from that awareness will make you look at your diary note of 31st December 2009 and smile, knowing that your business has advanced through the actions you’ve taken.

If you have any questions about how to most effectively implement any of these tips then please do contact us – we’ll be happy to advise you without obligation.

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'Click Here' For Natural Google Rankings

There are many ways to promote websites but the most satisfying result of all has to be when a website appears high in the natural Google rankings.  At Custwin we do this for some clients and every good result gives that feeling of “yes, up in lights on the first page of Google!”.   But getting website pages listed in the natural Google rankings is not a simple task because there are numerous factors that have to be considered.

Just one of those factors involves having links into the website from other websites and for those links to be considered mostly ‘quality’.  This subject in itself is vast but here we want to focus on just one element of it – the ability to be highly visible under niche keyword phrases, and we’ll use what was probably an accident as the example.

If you go to Google.com and type the words ‘click here’ and click on Search you’ll see a link to Adobe Reader appear top of the natural results.  If you click through to that website page (http://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/) you won’t see the words ‘click here’ anywhere on the page.  In normal circumstances you generally find that the landing page does also have reference to the search phrase that’s been typed.  So how do Adobe appear when people type ‘click here’ into Google?

Firstly, it’s very unlikely that Adobe intended this to happen (after all, what use is there in being visible under the phrase ‘click here’?) but it’s a good example of how links from other websites can have a positive effect.  

If you think about it, there are thousands of websites out there that have PDFs to download and nearby they’ll have text that says something like:

To download PDF files you will need Adobe Reader – click here to download.

The impact of having so many websites with click here as a link going to the page on the Adobe website where you can download Adobe Reader is that Google thinks “wow, the Adobe site has so many people linking to it with the words click here that there must be some relevance”.   Therefore,  Google makes Adobe top of the search results when you type ‘click here’.

OK, that was undoubtedly something that happened by accident, but let’s consider your own website.  Let’s say you sell bendy widgets and you want to be top of Google whenever people type bendy widgets.  Although there are many things you have to do, one would be to build up a series of links from other websites to your own, but ensuring that the actual link people use to your website is listed as bendy widgets.   For example, ‘Find out more about bendy widgets’, or ‘Visit the authority on bendy widgets’

Obviously, if you sell office furniture then you’re not going to get far with a links campaign that focuses on the words ‘office furniture’ because that’s far too generic, but if you had a particular sub-set of office furniture (e.g. ‘black reception desks’) then there’s more potential.

We don’t want you to go out now though thinking you can dominate Google purely with such a strategy but just wanted to highlight how it’s possible to be highly visible through a phrase that may be relatively niche.

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