InfusionCon 2010 Attenedees – Are You One of Them?

I’m shaking the dust off of my blogging vacation to ask you a very important question. The question I’m posing is the same question that I’ve been getting from my clients over the last few weeks…are you attending InfusionCon?

Well, my answer is a resounding YES! Not only am I going, but our company will have a booth there. So please make sure you stop by and say hi to Dustin, Dallin and myself.

To mention a few of our clients and partners who will be there:

Paul Lonsford: First Data Independent Sales Dallas
Wes Schaefer: The Sales Whisperer®
Mike Searls: LA Boxing & Success Training Systems
Brian Johnston: Johnston Search
Chris Wise: Credit Line Millionaire
Curtis Dueck: Muvezi & Guardian Silver
Ray O’Donnell: TotalRewards Software
Jennie Jorgens: Small Business Lifeline
Chris Griffin: 3 Day Dentist
James St. Clair DVM: TopDog
Jess Wilkinson: Dorado Vista
Wade Ungaro: Jodo Collections

I know I’m leaving out many of you that I’ve already spoken with. We have 3 short days and would like you to connect with as many clients as possible. If we didn’t mention you on the list, but you’d like us to know you’re coming, you can either comment on this post or CLICK HERE to fill out our contact form.

If you’d like us to mention you in the list above, just disclose that in your submission and we’ll gladly add you to it.

If you haven’t made arrangements to be at InfusionCon, I highly recommend you do so (as long as they are still accepting registrants). If the seats aren’t completely taken already, go to http://infusioncon.com and reserve yours now.

I look forward to meeting many of you in person. Please let me know if I can help you make any connections with Infusionsoft Employees, Partners or any of our clients. I am happy to assist you with anything I can.

~ Jarrod Morris

P.S. The dates are March 10-12, 2010.

Jim Rohn Video Tribute

Yesterday a legend passed away.

I thought it important to celebrate his life here on our blog. Jim Rohn has been revered by just about every successful person I know.

If you’re not familiar with Jim Rohn, you can search his name on Google or Youtube. The banner to the right will take you to the official tribute page where you can view the tribute video.

As a business professional and practitioner of personal development, I have turned my vehicle into a rolling university. While driving to and from work I am learning how to improve different areas of my life. I learn from great mentors like Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy and of course, at the top of my playing list is Jim Rohn.

I thought I’d share a handful of some of my favorite quotes. So here they are:

“We all have two choices: We can make a living or we can design a life.”

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”

“The miracle of the seed and the soil is not available by affirmation; it is only available by labor.”

“Rich people have big libraries – poor people have big TVs.”

“Make rest a necessity, not an objective. Only rest long enough to gather strength.”

“After you become a millionaire, you can give all of your money away because what’s important is not the million dollars; what’s important is the person you have become in the process of becoming a millionaire.”

“Good service leads to multiple sales. If you take good care of your customers, they will open doors you could never open by yourself.”

“I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps that is because escape is easier than change.”

“Well chosen words mixed with measured emotions is the basis of affecting people.”

“We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.”

“The best advice I ever came across on the subject of concentration is: Wherever you are, be there.”

“The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become. That is why I wish to pay fair price for every value. If I have to pay for it or earn it, that makes something of me. If I get it for free, that makes nothing of me.”

Hope you’ve enjoyed the quotes. If you don’t own any of Jim’s stuff, you should! What a great man.

~ Jarrod Morris

Disclosure: These quotes are by Jim Rohn, America’s Foremost Business Philosopher. To subscribe to the Free Jim Rohn Weekly E-zine, go to: www.jimrohn.com Excerpted from The Treasury of Quotes by Jim Rohn. Copyright © 1994-2008 Jim Rohn International. All rights reserved worldwide.

The Daunting Deliverability Dispute: Infusionsoft Vs. Aweber

It’s the day before Thanksgiving and while I have a list of To-Do’s before taking off for the holiday weekend, I felt the need to spotlight a fascinating blog post I read earlier this morning. You see, I work with a lot of clients who use autoresponders to streamline their communication and automate their sales and marketing efforts. The majority of our clients use Infusionsoft however, from time to time we see the shoestring start-up try to get by with Constant Contact or Aweber. The sole determining factor in their choice of email provider: price.

Obviously there’s a lot more to calculating total return on investment than just keeping the investment low. I’d rather spend $200 and get back $10,000 than spend $20 and get back $1,000…but maybe that’s just me. In my mind any comparison of Infusionsoft and Aweber is apples and oranges anyway. Moving on to the purpose of this post, clients are constantly asking me about Infusionsoft’s deliverability. I share with them the honest facts, based on the time I spent as an employee at Infusionsoft as well as my own usage of the service in my day-to-day business. Let me clarify that our company does a lot of testing and measuring when it comes to opened emails and click-thru rates – and we have been more than satisfied with Infusionsoft’s deliverability.

Yet, on a weekly basis I’ll listen to something like this, “I heard Aweber has better deliverability than Infusionsoft.” This statement is usually hearsay by someone who knows someone who uses Aweber. There never seems to be any raw data to support this theory. Recently though, I had two clients who left Aweber for the host of additional features and functionality Infusionsoft has to offer. They actually seemed (SEEMED) to have data to support higher open rates and click-thru rates using Aweber than Infusionsoft. I was stumped. Was it time to get off of my soap box and put my foot in my mouth?

Nope. Joey Novak to the rescue! Joey is the author of the blog post I’ve been rambling about. He decided to put Aweber to the test and while doing so uncovered some pretty interesting facts about the way Aweber measures deliverability and counts their open rates and click-thru rates. I was shocked to learn about the logic Aweber developers used to program email tracking and reporting statistics. Either they weren’t thinking like marketers (which Infusionsoft is really, really good at) or they knowingly designed this sneaky secret to sway the statistics in their favor. I’ll let you decide for yourself.

Check out Joey’s original post here.

I hope the 2 clients I mentioned above read this post. (I’m emailing them about it now). I also hope it’s helpful to new Infusionsoft users or prospective users who are investigating Infusionsoft. If you have any questions, post them below and I will make sure to respond quickly. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

~ Jarrod

Buy Infusionsoft – 30 Day Trial

First of all, Happy Halloween to all of those celebrating the holiday. For those of you who have been kicking tires on purchasing Infusionsoft, I have a special “treat” for you just in time to “trick” prospects and customers into pulling out their credit cards and giving you business over and over and over again.

Okay, “trick” really isn’t the most appropriate word. Perhaps “persuade”, “educate,” “convert,” “influence,” “entice,” might be a better explanation. You see, you don’t have to trick prospects or customers into doing business with you. All you really need to do is follow up with them. Unfortunately, 90% of small businesses don’t have the time, man power or other resources to properly stay in touch with their audience.

Your responsibility is to remind them that you’re there, clearly educate them on your service (focused on benefits and what’s in it for them), and consistently provide value. Not only will you establish yourself as an expert or leading provider in your industry, you’ll establish something called “reciprocity.” (To be discussed in a later post). When your prospect is ready to buy, you’ll be the one in front of them.

By now, you’re probably wondering what kind of spooky offer I offer I have up my costume. As a trusted partner of Infusionsoft, they have allowed us to extend their standard 15 Day Trial to 30 Days for all of our clients, subscribers, blog readers and social media followers. In addition to doubling your trial period, we are offering a complimentary 1 hour consultation to help you maximize your ROI. We usually charge $100 for this initial Infusionsoft planning session.

In order to claim your 30 Day Free Trial and complimentary 1 Hour Consultation ($100 value), all you need to do is buy Infusionsoft through the link below:

Buy Infusionsoft

The League of Extraordinary Minds – Now Live

When the doctor says you need a “second opinion”, you get it, right? So why wouldn’t you do the same for your business?

Let me tell you a little about the The League of Extraordinary Minds…

Two of marketing’s top players, Jay Abraham and Rich Schefren just brought 53 of the business world’s finest expert minds together for a six-week long, brain trust experiment that’s unprecedented anywhere else in the business world.

Jay and Rich have purposely put this group of extraordinary business minds together and focused each expert’s content on ideas and advice that will quickly help any business out there that’s suffering from:

* Poor marketing * No distinction or preemptive advantage * Ineffective sales efforts * Poor marketing message * Lack of credibility, trust in marketplace * Limited capital to market.

The League of Extraordinary Minds brings together power-house panels of experts all specializing in one major business building skill. In each session, these different panels will talk about the most important profitability issues, challenges and questions your business is facing and they provide the most actionable answers, ideas and solution you’ve gotten from anyone, anywhere, ever before.

One panel consists of seven world famous marketers: Another has six celebrated mega-bestselling business authors. Another has internationally renowned legendary mastery in dealing with business competitors. Still, another is a legendary master icon in the field of persuasion and infamous prominent consulting giants who charge $250,000 a day to share their prized perspectives.

Hey, I even took the time to show you some of the extraordinary minds:

Why not see if Jay and Rich’s League of Extraordinary Minds six week experiment interview Brain can be just the solution you’re after? Remember, it’s totally yours, gratis, for the entire six week experiment/try-out period.

Jay and Rich can only accommodate a maximum of 1000 people on each one of the nine separate panel interview sessions they’re conducting. They’ve got over 150 other list owners, bloggers and major business publications all nominating and including people from their list to participate, too.

That means hundreds of thousands of people won’t get to hear any of those nine interviews, because they won’t get inside fast enough.

So, if you want to be one of the 1000 people who DO get to listen at no charge to all nine interview sessions over the next six weeks (for nothing), you need to register (no charge) right now.

Here is my cleverly disguised affiliate link: https://schefren.infusionsoft.com/go/loemo/autom8/ And yes, if you buy something from Rich or Jay in the future, I may receive a small commission for it.

P.S. You’d have to seek out additional products though because there’s no selling and no pitching whatsoever. It’s simply the most powerful business-building content you’ll ever hear, all focused on helping you and your business get back in the black.

The League of Extraordinary Minds

Jay Abraham and Rich Schefren are at it again!

Tomorrow they are launching what could be one of the most revolutionary mastermind groups and they are letting entrepreneurs and small business owners listen in for free. What does that mean for you as an affiliate marketer?

They have developed 14 profit touch points with residual income for years to come. Tomorrow I will be adding a post outlining a ton of insider information about The League but today’s post is short and sweet for one specific reason:

Launch day is tomorrow, October 15th so you need to Register as an Affiliate Now in order to ride this profit wave.

By the way, if you’re wondering if promoting The League is worth your time, take 5 seconds to view the Affiliate Document and check out 44 of the 53 Business Advisors:

What The Heck Is A Stick Campaign?

A few years back I was listening to one of Dan Kennedy’s CD’s while driving in my car. He introduced a simple strategy that when implemented, creates happy customers that continue to do business with you, over and over again.

Most businesses are familiar with the concept of a “marketing campaign.” We will do anything and everything to bring new customers through the door. Whether that involves 3 simple emails or 3 months of email, direct mail and phone calls, the price will be paid to acquire another customer.

This is where the average marketer quits and ends up missing out on a huge opportunity – repeat business. You see, it’s a heck of a lot easier to keep a client than it is to find a new one. Here comes Dan’s genius. He calls this next piece a “stick campaign.”

If you spend $20 in marketing to acquire a customer, the wisest thing you can do is to spend at least $2 to keep them. A stick campaign is much more than just delivering the purchased product or promised service. A stick campaign involves that extra level of service your competitors aren’t giving (or maybe they are).

Your entire objective is to create a warm and fuzzy experience that will build the relationship between you and your customers. I could talk for hours on this subject, but I’ll apply the K.I.S.S. principle here so that you can implement a simple and effective stick campaign in the next 5 minutes.

* Before I do that, please, please understand that a well designed html “Thank You” email is not going to be enough to trip the psychological switch of reciprocity.

Shortly after learning about stick campaigns another “guru” marketer who is a close friend of mine introduced me to a service called SendOutCards. Simply put, this solution empowers you with the ability to send personalized cards in your own handwriting and easily attach gifts on the fly, all with the click of a button.

This solution is really impressive and over the past couple of years I’ve had some unforgettable customer experiences by using it. It is simple, affordable and will allow you to master the stick campaign. Obviously personalized cards are also great for prospects, employees, partners, investors and outside of the business world, friends and family.

* FREE GIFT FROM ME TO YOU *
I wanted to do something special for our blog readers. So I arranged a personalized gift account for you with pre-purchased cards and postage so you can try it out for yourself.
Here’s the URL: http://sendoutcards.com/cardfreebie

I strongly recommend you send one card to a new customer and another card to your significant other. And don’t forget to come back and leave a comment about your card sending experience. If you focus on sending to give, the natural effect will not only result in repeat business, but an endless stream of referrals. Trust me, I’ve tested it and it works!

Best,

Jarrod

P.S. Are you using Infusionsoft? If so, I can help you integrate SendOutCards with Infusionsoft as an automated step within a multi-media follow-up sequence.

Update to post: Just found out that SendOutCards was listed on Inc. 500’s list as well. They were ranked #158 and their website was ranked in the top 10 of all the 500 businesses. Read Here…

Inc. 500 | 3 Years Running

I still remember sitting in the company meeting when our President Clate Mask announced that for the first time, we were being listed in Inc Magazine’s list of the 500 fastest growing companies in America. A huge sense of accomplishment and excitement rushed over our entire team (which was much smaller then).

It’s rare that a person has the opportunity to be a part of something so big. As we continued on our journey of revolutionizing the way small businesses grow, we soon found ourselves on the Inc. 500 List for the second year in a row. Surprising to me, the sense of accomplishment and excitement at that time was just as grand as the first time making the list.

Here we are one year later. I’m no longer an employee but I heard through the grapevine that Infusionsoft would again, maintain its standing as one of the 500 fastest growing companies in America. Yesterday I saw an official press release and the most astonishing thing happened…I was overwhelmed with a sense of accomplishment and excitement, just like the two previous years.

As an Infusionsoft Certified Service Provider (CSP) and Certified Marketing Automation Coach (CMAC), I feel just as vested today in the dream, vision, purpose and mission of Infusionsoft. I know that they will continue to grow and accomplish many great things. I’m grateful for the crucial role my company is playing by helping businesses fix their follow-up failure and double their sales.

If you haven’t taken a serious look at Infusionsoft, do so now! If you have Infusionsoft and feel like you’re not getting 110% out of it, call us!

Best,

Jarrod Morris

P.S. If you didn’t see above, here’s the link to the full press release: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/08/prweb2745834.htm

Infusionsoft Summer ‘09 Software Update Introduces Customizable Dashboard and New Features for Increased Productivity

While logging into my Infusionsoft application a few days ago I received one of the infamous in-app notifications. It was a notice about new features I would be able to use in the next release. I clicked through to watch the training videos and was literally salivating when I saw all of the new reporting functionality I would have access to right from my dashboard. It seems like Infusionsoft is thinking of just about everything these days.

After the release last night my team and I jumped in to customize our dashboards. That’s right, the dashboard offers a flexible layout specific to each individual user. Upon logging in, I can now see the total number of leads generated for the day, week and month. I can view sales numbers, email stats and any pending fulfillment items. This thing is slick.

In addition, this product update includes improvements to the following dimensions of the Infusionsoft solution:

• Streamlined Follow-up Campaigns: makes creating campaigns easier with fewer steps
• Plug-in Management: allows admin users to view and purchase third-party plug-ins
• Improved Import Wizard: imports groups, companies, products and subscriptions
• Google Maps Integration: finds contact information with Google Maps
• Outlook Sidebar Navigation: links Infusionsoft and Outlook in real-time

To read the entire press release and view the videos for yourself, visit Yahoo News.

Best,

Marketing Mavens

Top Web Host For Entrepreneurs

After using 4 or 5 of the “top hosts” over the past couple of years, it has become blatantly obvious that one hosting company absolutely blows its competitors out of the water.

When speaking with other entrepreneurs and business owners there is one company that continues to pop up in most conversations…GoDaddy. I like to ask, “so why did you chose GoDaddy for your host? or Why are you going with GoDaddy?”

The response rarely has to do with features, thresholds or service. Actually, the response usually consists of three words, “I don’t know.” “Let me guess, you saw their Super Bowl commercial.” The common phrase, “sex sells,” has never been more apparent than in GoDaddy’s racy campaigns. The company is gaining popularity at a rapid rate (not necessarily on account of its product offering).

GoDaddy is definitely not the top web host for entrepreneurs. So who does Marketing Mavens recommend as the top web host? Hands down the award goes to BLUEHOST!

This post isn’t meant to be a moral slam against GoDaddy, so I’ll keep my opinion of GoDaddy’s Marketing & Advertising strategies to myself. BUT, a quick look at the raw thresholds will show you that what GoDaddy offers in the form of scandalous women, requires you to sacrifice in service.

That’s right. Those girls don’t come cheap. A decent portion of what you pay GoDaddy goes to ginormous advertising budgets as opposed to a better product and service.

BOTH: Unlimited external domains, subdomains, FrontPage, WordPress, Joomla, PHP, Python, Java, Ruby on Rails, and CGI.

BlueHost offers a live demo of their products prior to purchase.

GoDaddy also lets you test their products. Some benefits to GoDaddy is that they are an ICANN approved domain registrar, there are no long term contracts, and they offer discounts for 12, 24, or 36 months.

Here’s the biggest deciding factor for me though: in addition to a free domain for life and unlimited thresholds, BlueHost offers CPanel 11 (incredibly intuitive and user friendly) while GoDaddy offers their own heavily customized version of Plesk that is far more restrictive.

Take a look at how simplistic yet robust BlueHost’s CPanel is…

When making changes anywhere in BlueHost, updates are seen instantly. When making changes in GoDaddy, I would often wait hours for their systems to recognize the update. This just killed productivity.

There are even more arguments as to why BlueHost is the top host, but I need to get back to work – and so do you!

Best,

Jarrod Morris

While wrapping this up I want to be fair and open about other great hosts. Here are a few others worth mentioning: Host Gator, Lunar Pages, Host Monster, IX Web Hosting, Green Geeks, Just Host.