Thanks to HubSpot for getting me on my soap box today...
While we feel that exclamation points give emphasis, always take an extra second or two to think about how your use of that most over-used punctuation will be perceived. Does it come across professional in the context of your writing? And in that light, I personally cannot think of a situation where two exclamation points will be more effective in directing your reader to take action than one. You have more tools in your arsenal, like bold and italics. Hell!... use all three at once before you use multiple exclamation points, I say.

click on the image to enlarge.

by Rebecca LeClaire - Website Design Company Consultant and Startup, Online Business, SEO & Marketing Consultant

I hadn't been to the dentist in over 20 years...
I will pause and let you get over your shock. 
I have always been a vigorous brusher; my breath generally smells good and from the looks of my teeth, I figured they were fine. Since I turned 40, I have started to take my health a little more seriously, and as I am making all my children go to the dentist, I figured I better be a good example now. To my delight I have no cavities and my pearly whites are in great shape. However, the technician did have to spend a good amount of time cleaning in between my cuspids (as it was pretty obvious I'm not much of a flosser, like hardly ever). I just try to brush so hard the bristles get in between my teeth. NOT GOOD ENOUGH I am told. I was thinking I can't be worse than average - they must see this all the time, after all studies conducted by the American Dental Association have shown that 51% of Americans fail to floss daily, and 10% never floss at all. While it is true, I had good company in my bad habit, the dental technician shared a fact with me that has never left me. She said that not flossing your teeth is really not ever brushing a third of your mouth, and added, "that's pretty gross, isn't it?" Gulp! Well, I can tell you that that statement alone prompted me to go out and buy myself some floss, and while I still don't floss every day I think about what she said with a twinge of guilt when I don't!
Now, don't you wish that you had something so compelling to tell people about your product or service that would make them believe they needed to make an instant purchase like that?

I have thought about that exchange a lot, as a marketer there is not much that happens in life that I can't observe and apply to what I do.  I think that models help people when they are trying things for the first time.  I like to think of coming up with compelling content as the "Dentist Test." I ask myself, can I come up with a combination of images, statements, questions and facts that will change the perceived need and purchasing behavior of my client's target market, just like my experience with the dentist did for me?

What about you?
The Model

• Have you experienced something behavior changing in your life?
• Can you pinpoint the catalyst?
• Can you re-create that feeling for your potential customers regarding their need for your product, service, or experience they may have if they use them?
  
• How would images, statements, questions and attention-grabbing facts be put together and then built upon each other to create that?

Let's Break It Down
To delve into this model further, download a chart and series of social media posts that can be made from the above content. Learn about Soft Facts and H​ard Facts and how to use them.

Would you like more help coming up with marketing content for your business? Schedule a Brain Storming Session with Rebecca LeClaire HERE.

by Rebecca LeClaire - Website Design Company Consultant and Startup, Online Business, SEO & Marketing Consultant

There has been a big shift in Google’s logarithm in recent month's that you should know about.

And that is guest blogging and especially blog post listing (listing the same blog article on article sites) no longer has the link power it did before.

Quite frankly, Google is all but ignoring it now.

And that is why some of you have seen a drop in or no progress from it.

Also, this is why getting your Google Authorship set up on your blogs is so important, if you have a lot of content out there, you want Google to recognize the content on your own website as yours, otherwise it may be ignored like your other duplicate articles.

I wouldn’t say completely throw it out –  but here are some guidelines I would follow:

1. I would look at guest blogging as a marketing tool instead of a search engine ranking tool.  It can still gain you exposure on more heavily visited sites and clicks on your website.
   
2. Try to write blogs for other sites that are not already on your own – this can be tough, but at least re-work the verbiage.
   
3. If you do want to include articles you have written on both your site and another, mention in your byline (which should include a Google Authorship link to your Google Plus profile) of your blog where else the article can be found and a link. (if it is a higher ranking site)
   
4. DO NOT accept guest blogs on your own website unless there is something "in it for you" and the subject matter is related to your website, and the person writing the article is legitimately in the industry they are talking about. (otherwise Google views this as spam)
   
5.  ONLY guest blog on sites that are related to your industry or subject matter.
   
6. ALWAYS make sure a link to your website is included in your article on another website.
   

The absolute best thing you can do right now is write great original content on your own website and keep your SEO efforts updated with your goals and trends in your industry so you are including the right keywords in your SEO listings and on your website.

Writing naturally from your heart and about what you know is the best way to find keywords people will search for – talk like you talk and like the people who call or email you talk. 

HERE is a good article by Nate Dame with some good strategies to use. Contact me if you would like help in implementing these or other ideas we could brainstorm around this new change in SEO.

by Rebecca LeClaire - Website Design Company Consultant and Startup, Online Business, SEO & Marketing Consultant

Recently, there has been a buzz that Facebook's popularity and usage is waning from the flood of teens leaving it for instant messaging apps, instagram, etc.
Global Web Index's research tells a different tale.
Is your business really trying to reach teenager's anyway? If not, it makes sense to stick with who is still King! If you have room in your budget to branch out, this report may help you decide where.

Starting your own business often involves working from home with one piece of personal technology.
If it goes down, you go down.

How many days have you felt energized and had a list of tasks you were going to complete, and then your laptop or PC freezes up? Hours are spent restarting your computer and running your anti-virus scan. Good-bye day!

I have had countless telephone calls that go like this; "My computer is so slow all of a sudden; I don't know what is wrong. I have my anti-virus on all the time, and it hasn't detected any problems. I just don't know what to do." I ask, "do you have Windows or a Mac?" The reply has always been... "windows."
9 times out of 10 I can guarantee you do NOT have a stealth virus wreaking havoc in this situation.

I experienced this very thing after purchasing a brand new souped up Dell laptop that would be able to handle all of my Internet usage and design programs for my business. I was angry, when soon after, my computer had hard drive errors and was running soooo slowly. I had already experienced a devastating virus with my old PC and was able to save my files, with what is now the only anti virus I will ever use, so I was pretty confident it was not a virus. I got help from Dell's technical support and they too confirmed it was not a virus. I was then introduced to System Mechanic by iolo and my problems were solved. 

I had no idea that with a Windows OS, the programs that you add and run may not be compatible with each other or Windows. When this happens, it creates system clutter and hard drive errors. When too much of this builds up, your system shuts down. I would liken it to cholesterol build up in human arteries - your computer has a heart attack! Just like if you knew you had a heart condition, you would take the right medication (having needed beta blockers myself in the past) or even require a pace maker, so too you need to protect your investment in your technology. In my opinion, if you are using a Windows Operating System, you have to use a "data blocker" or a "space maker." (sorry, I just couldn't resist) ...'cause that day full of obscenities being proclaimed, and trying not to pound your computer too hard, and then pounding your computer too hard, and wishing you had kept up your warranty... is coming.

*Rebecca LeClaire has partnered with System Mechanic since she depends on this product and recommends it often.

by Rebecca LeClaire - Website Design Company Consultant and Startup, Online Business, SEO & Marketing Consultant 

Find Rebecca On Google

I turned 40 a week ago. If you've turned 40 already, you get it, it's a big deal.
Generally for women it can either be a time of despair at the aging process, or for most of the women I know, a time to celebrate coming into one's self, knowing and being happy with who you are, and taking on a new chapter in your career and personal life.

I found myself in a predicament a few months back as I was planning my birthday festivities.
I was enjoying one of the most rewarding years of my career and planning to expand in a new territory of services. I was feeling whole in every aspect of my personal life and enjoying a schedule that balanced my family's needs and my aspiring goals.

And then it happened...

I found out I was pregnant. Pregnant for my 6th child at 40! Can you say TIRED? I had finished having children 6 years ago and was relishing my second year of school day hours solely devoted to growing my business. Not only that, my husband and I had decided that the market was right to put our house on the market and finally build on our dream plot of land. Morning sickness, house showings, blueprints, moving into a much smaller temporary rental and added hours of extra school drop off/pick up ensued. I found my entrepreneurial energy draining.

I could have panicked, had I not learned a very valuable lesson in my early days of start-up. Back then I was balancing 4 toddlers/babies, 2 with special needs, and an urgency to create income for their uncertain futures. And that lesson is one step and one day at a time. It is what I call "little by little". It may sound cliche, but sometimes you have to make a plan as to how you are going to carry it out for it to really manifest.

What is it that is overwhelming you? Do you have extenuating circumstances in your personal life or unexpected set backs in your business? Does this have to mean you abandon your goals because they are now impossible?

Ask yourself these questions:

• Before IT happened, were my goals a reasonable path for building my business?
• If time were not an issue, would I still be able to achieve my goals given the resources I still have?
• Is my great idea, still a great idea even though IT happened?

If your answer is yes to these questions, read on...

Little by Little
It comes down to mathematics really. Your goal for your business may now take a longer time to achieve, but if you break it down into denominators for each day you will have a plan to make it happen.

Example 1: Let's say you need to launch a new service or product, and you know that you need to grow your contact list to reach a particular demographic about it. First, choose the best platform for reaching that audience, let's say it is LinkedIn. Now, every day, just make 3 connections on LinkedIn with your target market. (If you need help developing a strategy for LinkedIn email me for my Top Secret method of making meaningful business connections with people you don't know) In 4 weeks you will have made close to 84 connections, give or take for those who ignore you, but perhaps even more given how social media site connecting snowballs.

Example 2: Maybe your idea hasn't materialized yet. Allow yourself 30 to 60 minutes a day to research implementation. The rest of the day is devoted to working the business you already have and taking care of your new responsibilities/extenuating circumstance. When you have exhausted research and are ready to start implementation, do just one thing day, or take one day a week to do one thing if they are significant tasks, that will get you closer to launching.

Make Contingency Plans
When your startup stands on uncertain ground, but you are still committed to making it work, exercise the skill of filling in the blanks of this sentence:
If _________________ happens, I could do this __________________ or I could do this _________________.
Anticipating different scenarios and knowing what step to take next without displaying shell shock will allow you to still appear to be in control to your current clientele however small it may be.

Always keep in mind, on average, businesses make more money from repeat sales than new sales. Maybe another "little by little" could be how can you make slight improvements to the experience of your current client base, they may be just the people to buy into or cheerlead your next level of business.

by Rebecca LeClaire - Website Design Company Consultant and Startup, Online Business, SEO & Marketing Consultant 

I believe that blogging is one of the many facets of a good SEO plan, not only that, it is essential.

Any business can have a blog. You may not believe me, but I mean it!
You may say, "Rebecca, I sell nails, how much can you say about nails?" And I will tell you in the last 5 minutes I just thought of 10 ideas for your blog about nails. I am always available to brainstorm blogging content ideas for ANY business. OK? So, no excuses!

Why do I feel this way so passionately? Here are the SEO Benefits of utilizing a Blog:

1. New content is important for SEO to show the search engines your website is active and not abandoned. Regularly posting blogs takes care of that. Blogging once a month is my suggested minimum for the busy entrepreneur.
2. An easy to use resource to create more pages and links on your website.
3. A blog allows for a variety of key words and phrases to be associated with your website's products and services.
4. An opportunity to create inter-linking to other pages on your website that correspond with the context of the blog post (an essential element of an SEO sound website).
5. Links and content to post on social media that drive traffic to your website. You can link the same blog post more than once on social media by using multiple status updates that highlight different points in the same blog post. 
6. Content that keeps giving and giving - A well written blog post brings traffic to a site month after month.

So now that I have convinced you that you HAVE to have a blog, here is what you need to know to make it great and bring your website traffic...

The Elements of an Effective Blog:

1. Content that is relevant to the website's subject matter. You may get offers for reciprocal guest blogging. This will only benefit your website's SEO if the subject matter of either party is related to the respective website.
2. Good grammar and spelling. A visitor will instantly write off the entire business being represented by a blog if the writing is poor and has mistakes. I recommend using Grammarly to avoid this, this service not only catches grammar and spelling errors; but also catches plagiarism (or what is word-for-word already on the web, which you definitely want to avoid...) and gives suggestions for better words to use, or "context-optimized word choices" to make the author sound more scholarly.
3. Original content using YOUR voice. In my experience, my clients who have the most effective blogs are ones written in their own voice describing their own experiences. I have determined, by watching their key word/phrase statistics, the reason for this is they are using natural language and therefore, using more commonly used keywords and phrases used in search queries. Given Google's latest Hummingbird algorithm update, which is focusing more on "conversational phrases", it is so important to speak like both the expert AND the lay person. DO NOT use farmed content, or content that you can pay a service to give you that is not going to be unique to only your website. Google's previous Panda algorithm update focused on fighting just that.
4. Links to other pages on your website that will generate income (specific service and product pages). These links should be embedded in content that makes those services and products more relevant or needed to the reader than when they first visited your website.
5. Content that is engaging. Not every blog post needs to be mind blowing, and it is completely appropriate to have posts that are just updates and announcements about your business or events. But, creating compelling subject matter is most effective. (See the Compelling Points / Statements / Questions section below)
6. A great title and clever tags. Title's should be eye catching and descriptive to draw the reader in. Tags should be thought out - pull keywords from the blog post and also think of how someone might type in a search query to find the answers contained in your blog post. If locations, famous people or hot topics are addressed in the blog post, be sure to use those as tags.
7. When a blog post is about an event or the location of your business, use geo-targeting. This means include the location (and date if applicable) in the title and content. Search Engines are very location driven and if you can include a location, the blog post will get location relevant ranking.

         Geo-Targeting Title Example:
         Join Mary's Flowers at the Farmer's Fair in Crabtree, MI on June 1st, 2013

Compelling Points / Statements / Questions
For examples of how to come up with compelling points that may generate discussion and get people to think about your offerings or share your blog post to more prospective visitors, I recommend this podcast by Deborah Darling from The Presentation Pros. Listen to it HERE.
(this podcast is about face to face presentations, but everything can be applied to blog posts)

Compelling points/statements/questions can even be something that create conversation with differing opinions, but allows you to display your expertise by what you bring to the discussion.

Can you do anything more to get your blog noticed besides having one and writing effectively? ...Maybe even on a high ranking site like "The Huffington Post" or a well known online magazine related to your industry? Yes! That may take some specific Blogging for SEO and Marketing efforts. If you would like to discuss how or hire someone to help you, contact me, I would love to talk about it!

by Rebecca LeClaire - Website Design Company Consultant and Startup, Online Business, SEO & Marketing Consultant

I remember so clearly getting my issue of "Entrepreneur Magazine" in June of 2012, and opening it up voraciously ready to devour its pages while I enjoyed a drink and grilled on my deck. It's kind of a ritual of mine; I call it "Mama Time", to me it is the ultimate way to relax after a long day of trying to juggle running my own business from home full time and my brood of kids at the same time. No one is allowed to disturb me until supper is ready - the deck becomes a NO DRAMA zone. No bubble bath and bonbons for this girl - just give me my business magazine, my vodka martini and my grill and I already have a buzz before my first sip. Well, on that June evening my great mood was diffused when I read these words;

Now, if you read my last article about trust you would know I would agree with the last two sentences, but the premise of this article caused me to pause. Being a woman entrepreneur, collaboration is a real buzz word among women and I had been sold it was the way to go. We are told to support each other, not to be the mean girl or hater and support each other's efforts. There are thousands of women owned business websites with directories, forums, support groups; you name it... and you will find competitors shoulder pad to shoulder pad on them. But, does this really help anyone? Had I embraced the wrong direction for building my business and the entrepreneurs who entrusted their online businesses to me? Did this mean I was actually a failure? How could two failures create a success? After my temporary philosophical crisis and most likely the need for another drink once the kids went to bed, I set out to figure this collaboration thing out... because I had to admit I had seen plenty examples of collaboration gone wrong, leaving the business owner feeling isolated, taken advantage of and that they can't trust anyone. Here is what I have concluded through observation and my own experiences...

It's a semantics thing - in laymen's terms
I think we don't quite understand what true collaboration is. Here are my laymen's definitions of the different words we use when we are talking about collaboration.

Mentorship - Party 1 shares successful ideas / processes / resources with Party 2. Party 2 learns how to run their business like Party 1. Party 1 is responsible for losses as a result of the mentorship.

Partnership - Party 1 and Party 2 share ideas / processes / resources. Both stand to gain when they are successful. Both parties are responsible for losses as a result of the partnership.

Collaboration - Party 1 and Party 2 share different ideas / processes / resources with each other. Both stand to gain something when they are successful. Each party is responsible for their own losses as a result of the collaboration.

Party 1 and Party 2 share different ideas / processes / resources with each other. Both stand to gain something when they are successful. Each party may or may not be responsible for their own losses as a result of the union. Both parties share what they create forever even if they no longer work together.
Oh wait... that's Marriage!

Based on my crude definitions; collaboration needs to be win, win or it is just a mentorship or unpaid consultancy. You need to have something to offer, and they need to have something to offer. The best collaboration would be where you are both bringing your best feet forward with the things you do best... because you are co-succeeding, not co-failing. For example, maybe one of you is an incredible in person networker and the other is skilled at technology and social media.

I have found collaboration to be nothing but a rewarding experience, but it is not something I enter into lightly and without great consideration. There are times when a collaboration seems like a good idea to an entrepreneur because there has been a failure and they have to do something to turn the tide. But, you, the entrepreneur, need to ask yourself if your investment of time, energy and resources would be better spent fixing what is broken first. Will what you do have to offer be enough? If so, go for it!
The most successful collaborations happen when both parties bring the full confidence in what they do best, and do it.

How do you choose a good collaboration? 

• Should you collaborate with competitors? I would say only if you are going to offer different things. Collaboration doesn't have to mean remove the veil from everything. That would be a full partnership.
  
• Consider your current clientele. Would what your collaborator has to offer meet needs of your clients that you currently can't? Would they even be interested in it?
• Consider you future clientele. Would what your collaborator has to offer attract new clients who would also be looking for your services or product?
• Is this person ethical? Do your homework. Make sure this is someone you want your business associated with. Read testimonials and make sure that they do what they say they do.
• Is it a win, win? What do you have to offer? What do they have to offer? If the scales of equality in effort or resources seem skewed, do you stand to gain enough to be willing to be the one who puts in a little more effort or investment?
• Is it a lose, lose? How much will you have to invest to make your offerings work together in a cohesive way? How much will they? Can you afford to lose that investment if nothing happens?
• Can you measure how you are helping each other out? Both parties having an affiliate program in place that measures sales and visits to each other's websites is one of the easiest and cost effective ways to establish a working collaboration. It doesn't have to be expensive to set up either. (I would recommend using YourSoft Affiliate Software; it is inexpensive and easy to implement.)

What do you think of my definitions? Would you explain the terms differently?
What have your experiences of collaboration been?

by Rebecca LeClaire - Website Design Company Consultant and Startup, Online Business, SEO & Marketing Consultant

There is a lot out there about how to gain the trust of your customers or how to create a trustworthy ecommerce website. We spend countless hours and dollars trying to figure out how to get customers to reach that state of "vulnerability" where they will buy what we have to offer, but do we ever think about whether we display trust in our target audience or consumer? Does your customer put a monetary value on the feeling of being trusted?

I started to ponder this idea recently when I had a very casual moving sale. I didn't want to haggle with anyone or make change; I just wanted to recycle some nice things as I tried to condense 8 years and 7 people into boxes. I set a table out in the front of my yard with a box that had a money hole on top of it and a sign that said "Everything at least $0.25. Name your price and put it in the box." The first day I made $14.50 and I sold only 3 items. This continued every day for a week, where I made much more than $0.25 per item sold. I lived in an average neighborhood with what I suppose has the average number of honest people as the rest of the population. As I put my marketing hat on and tried to attach some meaning to this phenomenon, my husband suggested that maybe people gave more than they were expected to because of the first foot of forward of trust in strangers made by me; perhaps it made them not want to take advantage of me in return.

I looked back at my recent purchasing experiences and I recalled a day where the concept of the producer exhibiting trust in the consumer made a big impact on my purchasing decisions.  One day, when I must have had an incredible amount of energy and lost my mind, I took my 5 children by myself to a tourist town in West Michigan along the Big Lake.  I was visiting the many curiosity shops, and as it goes with these kinds of towns, inevitably there is candy store. All of my offspring were sucking on old fashioned sugar sticks as I shop hopped. I was looking for a couple things in particular, only one I knew I was going to buy for sure... maybe a dress for my upcoming vacation (if I could find the right one at the right price)... and I definitely was going to have a fun t-shirt printed at the t-shirt place I had visited months before. When I entered the dress boutique, whose average merchandise price was $100.00, I made sure the owner heard me chide my children NOT TO TOUCH ANYTHING. He was very friendly, and started asking me about all of my kids and pointing out what I may like best. It seemed the thought that one of those sticky sugar sticks would get stuck to one of his silk dresses never crossed his mind, either that or he had a sign that said "you gunk it up, you buy it" that I didn't see.  I thanked him for his help and said I might come back today. Next, I made my way to the t-shirt establishment whose average merchandise price was $12.99, 5 little ducklings still sucking on their sugar sticks but almost done. I took two steps into the store, managed to get out my DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING and the shop keeper ran at me and said "out, out, no food in the store." He lost a guaranteed sale that day. I had no reservations, however, to traipse my brood back to the dress boutique and buy a dress at full price. Had all 5 of my children each got their candy smothered on a t-shirt, I still would not have spent as much on damages and the actual t-shirt I wanted as I did on the dress. But, the ornery store keeper didn't have enough trust in me as the consumer to do the right thing and it resulted in him losing a customer for life. 

So what am I suggesting? Throw caution to the wind, let your customer pay whatever they want and invite disaster to your physical inventory? (If you have read my previous articles on offering things for FREE you know that I am not.)

Consider the Priceline.com model... Have you ever done this? I recently needed to book a rental car for a vacation. I wasted way too much time looking up the same sized vehicle on every car rental company website that operated out of San Francisco. I perceived that I wasn't finding any better deal than anywhere else. I finally surrendered myself to Priceline.com figuring that at least if I could name my price I would have a chance at a slightly better discount. Following through on my mantra it never hurts to ask I named the price I was hoping to find in my previous search. I got a polite pop-up message that amounted to, "If wishes were horses we would be booking you on The Pony Express, lady - how about you try this slightly familiar price?" I could have booked my mid-sized sedan somewhere else at that point, but I appreciated the chance to try, the two dollars I saved and their honesty - so I pulled the trigger, reserved my car and blew the two dollars on upgrades.

To study further on this psychological and neuroeconomical effect read the works of Paul J. Zak, Ph.D. Specifically, in his paper "The Neuroeconomics of Trust", he surmised due to levels of oxytocin in the brain, humans who do not know each other generally can create temporary attachments. "It literally feels good when someone trusts you, and that good feeling causes most of us to be trustworthy... evidence strongly suggests that nature has designed us to be conditional cooperators... This positive feedback is how oxytocin facilitates bonding of mother to child, spouses to each other, and my experiments have shown, causes strangers who are shown tangible evidence of trust placed in them to temporarily attach to each other."

How can you deliberately display trust in your physical and online clientele?
How would this improve your long term customer retention and engagement?
Are you doing something that you may not be aware of that shows distrust in the consumer?
Please share your ideas!

• Consider a survey asking hard questions about your service, showing you value the opinions of the end user.
• Make people feel welcome whether in person or online, learn what makes a welcoming website and facebook page versus a marketing statement.
• If you give quotes for your work, remember that just because you have to say no doesn't mean it has to be the end of a conversation; without being taken advantage of, be willing to negotiate so that everyone wins. Sometimes giving a little has large returns.
• With first encounters, smile warmly - in person and online (smile while you type, it really does influence the tone that you project in the written word)
• Reflect on how trust influences your purchasing decisions and try to ethically and genuinely emulate that. What is your trust language?

Need to brainstorm some more? Contact me, I would love to help!

by Rebecca LeClaire - Website Design Company Consultant & Online Business, SEO & Marketing Consultant
This article is featured On Simply Woman magazine - http://www.simplywoman.com/show-trust-drive-sales-rebecca-leclaire-explains/

This blog was originally posted on my website www.mcdesignservices.com on 02/16/13

There is a trend I have noticed emerging from social media for service businesses: we are giving too much information away for free. We lull ourselves into giving away services and expertise that we should be charging for. Before we know it, no one wants to pay for what we have to offer.

Does this sound familiar? You try to gain attention to your business by running a smart campaign where you offer  a sampling of your service for free - maybe it’s a free consultation or download - and the people who take you up on your offer enjoy it, but never come back for the paid service. Why?

Maybe they have gone on to someone similar to you for another free sampling? Maybe they feel they got exactly what they needed from the initial free service.

Maybe people have now come to expect to get something for nothing.

There is psychology involved in this. You have heard the saying “you get what you pay for”? What do you think people perceive they are getting when it is free? I think most of us assume that something that costs more must be worth more – we attribute expertise we may not even know about to the person who is charging higher than the other.   This is a psychological effect called prestige pricing, which points to a strong correlation between perceived product quality and price. The higher the price the more likely customers are to perceive it has higher quality compared to a lower-priced product. According to psychologist Dr. Peter Shallard, “Being expensive cultivates an aura of expert and elite status”… “setting your price is the psychological equivalent of setting the value of YOU. Your life, your work, that thing you’ve poured your energy and soul into.” He recommends you ask customers who don’t want to pay your set value what they are comparing your price to; you and they may find it is not apples to apples. When Shallard first asked this question he found out his life-changing services were being compared to piano lessons!

But, with a tough economy people have been forced to settle for less and to become used to it. And maybe we have convinced ourselves we are worth less in the process. So if you are going to offer something for free or discounted, what should you do?

• Always include the numerical value in your offer.

• Always include the time value in your offer - i.e., the actual time the service will take (example: a thirty-minute consultation for $30). According to a study from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, marketing time sells better than marketing money because our relationship with time is much more personal than our relationship with money.

• Make them pay a little. With even a small “buy in” made on the customer’s part, a psychological commitment is made. There will be a tendency to continue with the service because they are already invested and don’t want to feel they have lost that initial $5.00. This is known as loss aversion - studies suggest that losses are twice as powerful, psychologically, as gains.

• Make them pay more than a little, but include the original price. According to research by cognitive and mathematical psychologist Amos Tversky and Psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who also were the pioneers in proving loss aversion, creating an anchoring bias has a very strong psychological effect (the anchor being the original price in this example). If consumers are unsure about the price they will look around for comparative prices – you provide them with the price to compare with.

• Offer coupons. Your potential customers will feel they are getting a deal and you still get paid. Again, include monetary and time values in your offer.

• Social media posts that show you are well versed in your field – statistics, what famous people say about it/quotes, questions that get people thinking about their need for your service. Do NOT give away your service in bite-sized portions.
  

If you don't want to believe the psychologists, why not listen to conventional wisdom? This is just one more example of my belief that SEO and Online Marketing rules are like dating ... what is it your mother always told you about why buy the cow and giving away its milk?

Is this just a social media problem?
Was this caused by social media and or the economy?
What are your thoughts?


by Rebecca LeClaire - Website Design Company Consultant & Online Business, SEO & Marketing Consultant
This article can also be found on Simply Woman Magazine http://www.simplywoman.com/the-psychology-of-free-has-social-media-created-a-problem/