General Musings

How Instapage Taught Me The Wrong Way To Handle Customer Concerns

August 15, 2017 By Tyson Downs

TLDNR: Instapage Raised Prices, Added Features & Limitations. Their Customers Raised Concerns To The Announcement, Instapage Deleted Concerns From Their Blog, And Banned Customers From Commenting

Unfortunately in the past week or so, I’ve been on the receiving end of a perfect example of ‘what not to do’ if you want to build a raving fan base.

I’ve been a customer of the landing page software Instapage for about two years now.

Up to this point, I’ve had little to no issues.

Just minor stuff that they’ve always taken care of relatively quickly.

In a nutshell:

I pay them $233 per year so I can create beautiful landing pages easily and in a relatively short period of time.

For example, here’s one I’ve created for myself. Not bad huh?

dental marketing landing page

Anyway, overall good software, which I’d recommend previously.

Recently, they decided to add some features, add some limits to the number of landings pages, raise prices, and really do a complete restructure of their price plans.

No big deal, right? Happens all the time.

I get it.

That’s business.

I have absolutely no problem with that.

In fact I support them.

They are investing in their business, and doing what they can to grow.

Based on my usage, my increase would have been about 10x, so instead of paying $233 per year, I’d be paying about $1356 per year. (This was originally going to be $2500+ per year for a comparable plan, but they made some changes it looks like to their pricing plans due to customer feedback-kudos to them)

It’s likely that I wouldn’t have stayed a customer because of this huge increase, but, I’d have considered it, and weighed the pro’s and con’s of staying vs going somewhere else.

When Instapage announced this change on their blog, there was a lot of upset people. I can understand that.

I have 93 total pages, 77 live pages.

The amount of time it would take to reconfigure everything for all of these client campaigns, design the pages in a new platform, etc. would be considerable! So, I get it that people are frustrated.

And people vented.

Nearly all were polite and upfront and just expressed their concerns about what this means for their business.

By far the biggest concerns people had was over the limit to 50 landing pages. It’s hard to run an agency or even to be a freelancer with a few clients and stay under 50 landing pages.

But that’s life, right?

Up to this point, no biggie.

That’s business. Take it or leave it.

Here’s where Instapage ran into a problem:

They started deleting any comments from their blog, deleting comments from paying customers, if they were in any way critical of the new pricing.

via GIPHY

Here’s some of my comments that were removed:

It’s their blog, they can do what they want with it, right? Sure.

But, when paying customers, the customers that allow them to even be posting on their blog in the first place, have valid concerns, and they delete them, well, there’s no denying, that is bad business.

To take it one step further, they are banning people (paying customers) that voice concerns. Banning them from commenting on their blog!

Instapage banning customers

Instapage can do whatever they want with their business.

Just like I can do whatever I want with my business.

But to treat people a customer in this manner, it’s just disappointing.

It isn’t something I’d expect from Wal Mart, let alone an industry leader in their field.

Sweeping things under the rug and not addressing valid concerns is one thing, but completely dismissing these concerns is something else.

Looking For Instapage Alternatives?

Some of the more popular alternatives you could use instead of Instapage would be:

Unbounce
LeadPages
Thrive Themes
Active Campaign
Wishpond

If you want to read about more alternatives to Instapage, check out this post from Adespresso.

Should You Start a Customer Loyalty Program?

September 4, 2016 By Tyson Downs

Most local businesses have expanded their marketing efforts in an attempt to increase their customer base. One of these growing marketing methods has been customer loyalty programs.

These loyalty programs typically offer some type of incentive to customers who use the business’ services on a regular basis. Example can include discounts on purchases or services, or special, exclusive pricing, or maybe points that can be redeemed on future in store purchases.

Customer loyalty programs typically include some type of card that keeps track of purchases. These purchases can be used to further market to these and other customers and to help improve the effectiveness of that marketing. Some of the newer loyalty programs include redeeming points through SMS (text messaging). These programs allow store’s to send a discount or exclusive coupon through a message on their phone. These are becoming increasingly popular, partly because of the low cost to run, no physical cards to distribute, and partly because consumers often prefer this method.

If you don’t currently have a customer loyalty program, I’d highly suggestion considering implementing one. Just remember, the goal of a loyalty program should be to increase sales to your business, not to cut into your margins. A customer loyalty program can effectively be put in place as part of a diverse marketing plan.

Don’t Want To Lose Your Business? Then Pay Attention To This.

August 26, 2016 By Tyson Downs

The advent of the internet has made the world much smaller. Just think about it. Before the popularity of social networking and other communication avenues the internet provides, reviews about a company were hard to come by. Typically somebody would make a decision on who to hire either from word of mouth, or advertising (radio, TV, print, etc.). But how did you truly know a company was reputable and would do a good job? Chances are, if you hadn’t spoken to somebody about it then you didn’t know. You were taking a gamble. This is no longer the case.

The absolute most important piece of online marketing is your reputation. Just ask this Virginia Contractor who lost an estimated $300k because of ONE bad review on Yelp.

Let me explain.

In a study by the law firm Moses & Rooth, they asked over 1200 people in the United States the following:

When you need to find a specialty lawyer how would you start your search?
If you search for a specialty lawyer on the internet what is most important to yo
u?
If you searched for a specialty lawyer on Google, what would do you first?

They found that 44% of individuals using the internet to find a specialty lawyer are looking at reviews. They also found that when somebody searches for a lawyer in Google, 46% read reviews of your former clients.

You can read the entire study at their website.

In a study from Oct. 2010-April 2011 by Bright Local, they found:

67% of local consumers will read reviews prior to purchasing a service.
69% of local consumers trust reviews online as much as a recommendation from a friend.
49% of people are more likely to use a company with good reviews

What This Means to You & Your Business

All the other marketing that you may be doing, SEO, PPC, Direct Mail, TV, Radio, etc. could all be compromised if you have bad reviews online. If even 50% of people that become aware of your service search for you online and see the bad reviews, what effect would that have on your business? You are essentially spending money to simply expose the skeletons in your closet.

Before you start spending money on those other marketing methods, make sure your online reputation accurately portrays who you are and the quality of service you offer. You may be able to outrun the bad reviews in the short term, but in the long run, they will take you over. You can do this by hiring an online marketing company that specializes in healthcare SEO marketing such as Titan Web Agency, or you can manage it yourself.

What Is The Key To Success?

July 11, 2016 By Tyson Downs

All too often when I start helping business owners to increase their online presence, I hear an all too familiar story: “I did SEO it doesn’t work” or “I have a website and it doesn’t make me money, so it doesn’t work”. Effective SEO, done periodically or on an inconsistent basis will not get you the results you want. Hiring a cheap web guy to build you a website for $299 will not get you the results you want.

Consistently moving your business forward is what will make you successful. That means that even though you don’t see results right
away you stick at it a bit more. Even though you don’t immediately make money after putting up your website, you keep marketing it. Even though your rankings aren’t where you want them to be, you keep working at it.

Nobody hit a home run in their first at bat. Nobody hit a three pointer on their first shot ever. You need to learn, and grow and build upon your successes if you want to succeed. If you first direct mail piece bombs, so what! You just figure out a way that doesn’t work, not test some more to find out what does work. If you have the funds, hire a professional to help you.

As an example, Social Media Marketing takes a lot of effort. You need to consistently post status updates. Engaging status updates with images to connect with you readers. You may not notice much going on the first week, the first month, the first six months, but if you stay the course, you will start to reap the rewards. Many times those rewards may be indirect such as an increase in search engine rankings.

But whatever you do, do not give up, do not stop marketing, do not tell yourself that everybody else has it wrong and this internet stuff can’t help your business. It can help your business. It will help your business if you consistently use various, strategic, effective marketing techniques.

Need help? Let me consult with you to help you grow your business.

Essential Tips For Effectively Managing Your Employees

May 23, 2016 By Tyson Downs

If you want your company to run successfully, you need to be able to manage your employees both effectively and efficiently. Without a smooth running team, your company will not be productive and you will keep running into problems when it comes to delivery and employee cooperation. A good management team should be in place at every business. This management team is responsible for keeping the company moving forward and motivating employees to be productive.

There are certain ways you can manage employees more effectively to get better results out of them. Proper management will build trust in an employee-manager relationship and your employees will learn to trust the management team and know that upper management is keeping their best interests in mind.

Trust is Essential

Trust is an essential quality that must be present in every employee and management relationship. Without trust, there is nothing; similar to a relationship. Some things you should consider when you are thinking about building trust in your company is whether you always uphold promises, whether or not you are honest and fair in all of your dealings with employees, and do you evenly focus on the strengths and weaknesses of both management and employees.

Management who deals with every employee in the same manner will earn more trust than management who plays favorites or only hands out free passes to certain individuals. Stay consistent and your team will continue to produce.

Open and Positive Communication

Every employee wants to know what is going on in the company and will feel part of a team when announcements and communication occurs. Not only expressing what is going on in the company, but also allowing employees to feel like your office door is open is a great way to boost employee satisfaction.

Employees want to know they can communicate with the management team when needed. Managers who have a productive and happy set of employees are ones who have open feedback, offer criticism, take criticism, and also initiate communication with their employees.

Feedback; Take it or Leave It

Employees want feedback from their boss and they do not want to have to constantly ask for it. When an employee submits a project, acknowledgement or a well done is perfect. Employees feed off of the encouragement and feedback that the management team gives.

This also helps employees strengthen their skills and learn where their weakness is. An employee cannot learn from a mistake if they are not shown.

Motivate your Employees

A great management team will motive their employees to keep pushing forward. Support is also a way to help motivate employees. If you see an employee struggling to get something done or you know that they are backed up on their work, offer help. This will show them you care and it will also push them to keep moving forward.

Incentives are a great way to motivate employees to be productive and push forward. These incentives can be for reaching milestones during a huge project or even for selling the most product during the quarter.

Showing your employees that they matter and showing appreciation will boost the company morale and will also create happier employees who are glad to perform work. Creating a supportive environment with plenty of feedback and communication is key to effectively managing your employees.

Having an employee handbook will help detail out everything you expect from your employees. Each employee should receive a copy and sign something stating they understand their expectations and the rules of the company. A great management team will have an employee handbook in place. The SBA, U.S. Small Business Administration, has detailed out what should be included in an employee handbook. Check it out here.

What are you doing to build employee morale?