by Francois Muscat | May 10, 2010 | Business Opportunity
I don’t normally blog about about what I do personally but the past 3 weeks have been really great. Being in the Internet Marketing industry allows me to travel and conduct my business from almost anywhere in the world.
Mighty Man Conference
It started with me attending the Mighty Man Conference outside Greytown with my son Francois Junior & son in law Nick. We were with a group of 16 friends amongst a crowd of over 250,000 “men”. Here is an aerial photo of the venue and the campsite. Just like Woodstock in the 70s.
One message that struck home was that we are all too busy in our jobs today and Angus Buchan said we should find more time for ourselves. He coined the phrase “I am to busy to be in a hurry”. I like that as it suggests one should not be distracted by rush jobs that always seem to take priority.
Orlando
Straight after the weekend my wife Marianna & I flew to Orlando where I was conducting a 2-day Internet Marketing training session for 45 USA Internet Consultants. We had a free day on either side of the training and went to Epcot & Disney when we arrived.
It was a great session and meeting the WSI Internet Consultants again just strengthens the networking opportunity that the WSI Franchise offers. We are indeed one big family and we freely share information that makes us stronger as a group.
After the training we were scheduled to travel to Bogota, Colombia for another training session there. In the morning before our flight I booked Marianna & I to do some bass fishing. Captain Skip picked us up and we had a great morning of fishing before our flight to Bogota. You can see who caught all the fish.
Bogota, Colombia
We arrived at Bogota late on Saturday and thank goodness we ordered transport from Carlos Sandoval of
Elite Car Service Bogotá. www.elitecarservicebogota.com. I can highly recommend his service. He fetched us at the airport, was really friendly and told us about travelling in Bogota on the way to the hotel.
The next day Hugo Valderrama & his son Carlos Valderrama fetched us from the hotel and took us on a tour of Bogota. They were such great hosts and made us feel so welcome that we definitely would like to go back to Colombia. Here is a photo of the Colombian WSI Franchisees.
And 60 seconds of Spanish introduction by Hugo Valderrama.
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After the training Karen Sullivan-Correa & her husband Umberto took us for dinner with Violeta Otava. We had a great meal and felt safe walking the 10 blocks to the restaurant. Colombia was a real surprise, the people we met were so friendly and made us feel very welcome. Marianna & I have great memories from here.
Johannesburg, South Africa
So straight back to South Africa to get ready for the Internet Marketing Summit and WSI Digital Marketing training at Montecasino.
We had 90 people attend our morning summit and we had some great speakers.
My good friend Jacques De Villiers, client and professional speaker was our MC and did a great job by taking the pressure of us and handling the event in a professional manner.
Ron McArthur, the president of WSI opened the event and presented some interesting statistics on the Internet.
He was followed by Michael Jackson, an International renown Keynote speaker and client of mine. Michael delivered a powerful keynote on “Change”. His presentation was well received and many of the attendees commented on the great value of his presentation.
Then it was my turn for the next 2 hours where I delivered an overall Online Strategy that every company can implement for success.
I covered the 3 essential requirements for the success of every business.
- Lead generation by using online strategies
- Online Credibility to end up being the company of choice
- Client Communication to ensure that you remain “Top of Mind”
I covered all the aspects of online marketing that I teach to WSI Consultants all around the world. If you would like me to present to your company or clients just contact me and I will be happy to do so.
Straight after the Summit I started the Digital Marketing training for the South African WSI Franchisees.
I really love working with our South African team as they are so positive and always willing to help each other. Together we are over 25 consultants and collectively we have great skills that we can draw on.
Shumbalala, Thornybush Game Reserve
As you can imagine I was bushed after this and need a break. Well, Marianna & I took Ron McArthur and his wife Debbie to Shumbalala private bush camp in the Thornybush Game Reserve. We had an unbelievable time and saw the big five, including a close experience with an elephant who took a fancy to me.
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Well that was a wonderful 3 weeks and I look forward to new adventures now that I am rested.
My next trip is to Toronto in June for 10 days, then Los Angeles & Australia. We will include a stop over in Hawaii and I am looking forward to that.
Thanks for reading my blog.
Kind regards
Francois
by Francois Muscat | Mar 5, 2010 | Business Opportunity
Rob has been a WSI Internet consultant for 3 years now and it just goes to show you what one can do when starting a WSI Internet Consult Franchise.
Just 3 years and he is up on stage teaching the rest of us on how to grow our businesses.
- How to leverage WSI Adworks to secure recurring revenue
- How to leverage Vertical markets
He shows us how to use the power of WSI Adworks for local search and get information such as date, time and a recording of the telephone conversation. A great way to measure customer acquisition..
I really wish we could get access to WSI Adworks in South Africa but it is only available in the USA & UK at present.
Once again we get the process that is shared in Search engine marketing, very valuable stuff.
7 Essentials of Search Campaigns
- Setup
- Budget
- Text ad
- Landing page
- Reporting
- Optimisation
- Keywords
Another interesting point Rob brings to our attention is to partner with other web & graphic designers and helps them add value to their client base.
This is the classic term of “co-opertition” that i experienced during my corporate days.
Building sustainable secure recurring revenue by developing trust and credibility with clients
Thanks for another great presentation and sharing with us.
by Francois Muscat | Mar 5, 2010 | Business Opportunity
Peter Rees a UK WSI Internet Consultant shares his process on how to engage with large British companies on a consultancy role.
Peter comes from a strong IT consultant background and told us how he goes about researching and approaching these large companies.
His consulting revenue at least 5 fold and it’s all based on meeting regularly with with his client to guide them as their online marketing partner.
He used the words “We influence the direction of their online marketing initiatives.” This is a very important point that he raises as I have seen similar growth within my client base whenever I take the lead role and direct their online activities.
He shared the rest of his case studies and the monthly spend from them ranges from 280 pounds – 7,000 pounds.
In addition he shared his actual process of how to go about creating the audit and this just shows the value of attending these training sessions
One thing that he pointed out was that many of the websites were written in technical language and this was reflected in the high page bounce rate that he identified in the monthly reports.
The message here is that if you don’t measure you don’t manage, we’ve all heard that before.
His service covers:
- Reporting against KPIs
- Ad-hoc in depth analysis
- Managing Internet Marketing Campaigns
- Advising on SEO initiatives
- Advise on Social media
Analytics is the gold mine and you have to get hold of this information so that you can add value from the analysis.
Meeting regularly gives you the opportunity to help improve your client’s profile.
A great presentation and an inspiration to all of our WSI Internet Consultants
by Francois Muscat | Feb 10, 2010 | Business Opportunity
I am in San Antonio for a couple of days training WSI Internet Consultants on ways to generate leads in the online environment.
Times have been tough for business in both the offline & online world of marketing and many of us are looking for value and ways to eliminate the unnecessary expense.
Online and Website Marketing is a way to reach online communities via your website and convert prospects into buyers. All you need to do is to make sure that your services or products are considered necessary. You also need to market smarter during these hard times.
Online marketing is an effective and low cost way to increase your sales. Below are a couple of tips on how you can increase your sales online during a recession.
Call to Action
When new visitors arrive to your website, there needs to be a clear path to action. This must be visible on the home page and should be clear to the visitor in the first few seconds of arrival. Your visitors should always know what your website is about and what steps to do next.
Pay Per Click
Well written pay per click advertising campaigns can rapidly increase your sales. To do this, increase your advertising budget and target your advertisements around geographical or other demographics. Create your advertisements around each of your specific products and then make sure the advertisement delivers the visitor to the specific page where you describe the product with a clear CTA (call to action) to make sure the visitor takes an action.
Blog Marketing
This is a powerful marketing tool and I believe every business should have one. With a blog you can broadcast your marketing messages to every corner of the world thanks to RSS (Real Simple Syndication) and other Web 2.0 tools. Your blog can also build trust and credibility and encourage conversation with your targeted customer. People will buy from businesses that they trust.
You can use your blog to strengthen your relationships, build your brand, and develop a loyal readership and to get new customers. The key to effective blogging is to regularly write interesting original content that your targeted customer will be interested in. A major benefit of blogging is that it can dramatically improve your search engine rankings of your website.
Social Networking
Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to name but a few are great Social Networking websites and tools where you can engage with other people that shares the same interests. Social Media Marketing is powerful and if done correctly, can increase visibility to your products and services drastically.
There are hundreds of social networking sites out there; many are focused around a topic, interest or particular group. Find one that your targeted customer is active in and participate yourself. You need to do some research on this.
Stay in touch
Marketing to your past customers can also be a quick way to increase business leads and sales. Email marketing can keep them coming back to purchase other products. In most businesses, 80% of the sales come from 20% of the customers. Stay in touch with your biggest customers on a regular basis. You aren’t trying to sell anything, you are just touching base. You will be surprised on how much more business can come from this.
Leave a comment below if you require more information regarding online and Website Marketing.
by Francois Muscat | Feb 5, 2010 | Business Opportunity
I just landed in Atlanta this morning at 07h15 after a 17 hour flight on route to San Antonio to deliver Digital Marketing training on the 9-10 February for local WSI Internet Consultants.
Luckily the flight was empty and I had 3 seats to myself, so a quick sleeping tablet to knock me out was in order. Vishay Singh from Avax kindly fetched me from the airport as I am, staying over for the night. A quick shower and I was off to work in his office today.
Here I am in my Atlanta office:)
As you can see I am trying to switch over to a Mac and still have to carry my Windows machine as a crutch but after this trip I will have switched over to the dark side as my IT guy keeps saying to me.
Tomorrow I am a guest speaker to the WSI Atlanta Smurf club. Sounds strange but they are Internet Consultants.
Well its 02:45 South African time and I am still going strong. I always try & stay up as late as possible to sleep in the right time zones to combat jet lag.
I am looking forward to tomorrow as always. I really enjoy meeting other WSI Internet Consultants around the world. We are just one big family.
by Francois Muscat | Feb 5, 2010 | Business Opportunity
On the 24th February I will be conducting a training session for all WSI Internet Consultants in South Africa.
We have a great turnout and will be meeting at the The Helderfontein Conference centre in Midrand
We will be covering:
- How to conduct an online competitor analysis
- Preparing a cost effective online marketing proposal
- The benefit of online marketing education as part of the sales process
- Marketing your business with Blogs
I look forward to meeting all the consultants especially those who are travelling, Andrew Foye, Francois Bezuidenhout, Astrid Fenton & Johnny Da Silva
See you on the 24th
