My job in the 1031 exchange world

As I think I’ve noted, I have a full-time job these days (which explains why it’s been relatively quiet around Black Dog). Some people have asked me about the company I work for, so I thought I’d do a brief overview.

Balaya: a nice success story in innovation marketing

It’s great to see your friends succeed. It’s even greater to see your former students succeed. But it’s unbeatable when a friend who happens to be a former student knocks one out of the park.

I can’t take much credit for Seth Michalak’s success, because he was pretty bright long before he became my student a few years ago. But as his friend, I can sure as heck take pleasure when his hard work and innovation earns some well-deserved public validation, as it did the other day.

Slaying the credibility trolls

Sonia over at Copyblogger has a great piece on “The #1 Conversion Killer in Your Copy (And How to Beat It).”

What makes people almost buy? What makes them get most of the way there, then drop out of your shopping cart at the last second? What makes them stare at your landing page, wanting what you have to offer, and yet, ultimately, close the page and move on to something else?

It turns out there’s a hideous troll hiding under the bridge. Every time you get close to making a sale, the troll springs out and scares your prospect away. Get rid of the troll and your copy will start converting better than it ever has before.

The ugly, smelly, dirty, bad-mannered troll is prospect fear. And it’s sitting there right now, stinking up your landing page and scaring good customers away.

She does a great job of explaining where the “conversion troll” comes from, and she’s 100% correct. If you’ve grown up in this society, you have probably have a degree of well-justified trepidation about trusting the claims of those trying to sell you something.

I’d go her one better, though, because I feel like the principles she’s articulating when she says that “[t]rustworthiness, transparency, credible authority, lots of high-value content, and just plain old decency are your best weapons” apply to a lot more than the point of sale.

Accruit Exchange blog

Yes, it’s been quiet here lately. Anytime that happens you can bet it’s because I’m, you know, working for a living.

If you have a minute – especially if you’re interested in the world of financial services – have a look at my latest project, the Accruit Exchange Blog. It’s something of a departure for me industry-wise, but what an incredible learning opportunity it’s been…

Bad Business 201: answer the phone

A few months ago I was in job-hunt mode, and during that period I had chats with a number of companies around Denver (mostly PR and Marketing agencies). In August I accepted a new position on the client side, running a wide range of marketing and PR stuff for a locally based financial services firm.

One of my very top priorities (along with assisting the VP of Marketing with a full-blown rebranding and heading up a complete redevelopment of the corporate Web site) was leading the search for a PR agency. I’d talked to most of the shops in town while doing my job search, so I had a decent idea what was out there, and a couple of the places I had talked with struck me as strong possibilities for my new company. So I put them on my big list and then called them to see if they were interested.

Bad Business 101

My company is in the process of a major Web redevelopment, and I’m the point guy on the project. Among other things, it was my job to identify, solicit and make the hiring call on the vendor. I’m happy with the company we wound up with, but as the letter below indicates, it was an odd and frustrating journey. The names have been changed to protect the guilty.

_____

Hi Jeff. I wanted to get back to you on your recent bid for our Web redevelopment project. We felt like XYZ Interactive represented an outstanding development resource, and in the end I was convinced that you were the most capable vendor we solicited. Additionally, you came in with the lowest bid.

However, we decided to award the business to another vendor.

The American Way: the right playbook in a soft economy

You may have noticed that times are tough here lately. This guest piece from Marti Smith, who’s the VP of Marketing at Accruit, LLC, talks about how important it is to remember what made you successful in the first place. The article was developed with a couple particular industry audiences in mind, but the wisdom applies no matter where you are.

Good insight – pass it around.

* * *

by Marti J. Smith

In recent months we’ve seen a rash of foreclosures, banks and businesses closing their doors and the creation of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 (ESA) to help keep Americans and American businesses afloat. Wall Street has been up and down more than your window shades. This is not only a concern for small businesses – it has shaken the foundation of mid-sized and large businesses, as well. What does this mean to those who are impacted by a slowing economy in a flat-to-down market?

NEW URL FOR BLACK DOG – PLEASE NOTE

Hi folks. For the moment we’ve moved – to BlackDogStrategic.WORDPRESS.com. There’s some kind of weirdness up with my domain – it looks like it may have been claimjumped, although I’m still trying to sort out exactly how.

If this changes I’ll let you know. Sorry for the hassle.

Shout out: the Balaya blogger’s conference

I wanted to take a second to say hello to all my fellow bloggers participating in today’s Balaya conference in Savannah. I’m joining from Colorado via Skype and Tick-It, and am looking forward to learning more about developments with the company’s new social networking platform.

What I’ve seen so far suggests that Balaya has some interesting new ways of integrating the social media experience in ways that improve things for bloggers, users and advertisers.

I’ve written about Balaya before, and suspect I will be again…

The smartest shopping cart that ever lived

MediaPost reports this morning on an interesting new survey from TNS, which says that “sixty percent of shoppers across the globe believe that they will be able to pay for purchases using just their fingerprint by 2015, rated top by 25% of shoppers.” Never mind the chill that should send down the spine of anyone who values their privacy – we’ll deal with that another day. For the moment let’s have a look at what people expect from The Future^®.