Flash Bulb Moments

As I am Twittering around this morning a thread formed around building trust with clients & showing them the value of internet marketing. This is something I get VERY passionate about because I see the tangible results of internet marketing each any every day and how that relates to my customer - the small business guy who makes a living selling his widget. There are a few parts to this thought so bear with me...

Part 1. The Customer's Perception. "Trust Me," I say.

When kicking off the "internet marketing" phase for a customer's new website - the initial call sets the tone for the rest of your relationship with the customer. The message you need to deliver to your customer is that they need to be patient with you - and with the patience comes the results and with those results comes the trust that is so critical to your long-term partnership. Telling them it could take some time (and we are talking months not weeks) to ramp up - they dont like that. That's where the trust comes in... "Trust me, give it some time and let me do what I do best - you will see..."

Part 2. What Exactly IS Internet Marketing? "Fasten your seatbelt," I say.

A small business owner who is selling his wares has probably spent the last 30 years doing just that... Selling his wares... Now we are telling him - you need to keep selling your wares - AND you need to work your website. Many of these customers are challenged to even set up an email account let alone understand the meaning of a blog, online press (or social media) release, linking strategies, content development, search optimization - let alone the idea of doing online "social marketing". A VERY common thought I hear from customers is that "they are just trying out this online marketing thing - they dont think their customer's shop online" I love to prove that one wrong!

Part 3. The Flash Bulb Affect "See what you've done? Now let's try this..." I say.

Now here's the really cool part, and I get totally passionate about this. A challenging customer who didn't think we could make their online presence successful - starts to see some the sales come in, and starts to see other sites linking to him, his bounce rate is dropping, he's getting repeat business, and reaching audiences he never thought he could reach. These little instances are all little tiny flash bulbs that go off - one after the other. I think of those old camera's with the flash cube insert with the 4 bulbs - remember those?

Once that last flash bulb has gone off - they "get the picture". I had one of these light bulb moments today with a client and it just made my day. THAT is why I do my job with passion - I live for those moments.

Be sure you deserve the trust you are given.

There is no greater satisfacation for me than making my customers successful online (whatever that means for them). More so when that initial trust took a long time to earn, but once earned led to a beautiful working relationship and ultimately a professional friendship.

I am very passionate about the why's and how's of internet marketing and helping my customer realize the meaning of all it all.