If you’re looking to find out what typical open rates are for various B-C or B-B email marketing, you should pick up the 2009 Email Marketing benchmark guide. It’s full of interesting information regarding email marketing trends. Since Astonish Results does a fair amount of B-C email marketing in the insurance vertical, it’s a great resource to see how well we’re doing. In many cases we’re above the averages. That brings me to my next point. Not ALL email messages are created equal. There’s a great rule you can apply to email marketing (and all marketing for that matter) called the 40/40/20 rule. The rule states that the bulk of response opportunity in any Read more [...]

Check out this great blog post and video from www.seomoz.com on link building. This confirms what I’ve always know; there is NO EASY way to build search rank. It takes time and focus. Link building is especially difficult and must be done carefully. You should focus on your business partners as those who should link to you. Just give them a reason WHY. I also ran across this great interview with Matt Cutts who heads up the Webspam initiative at Google. Seems like something you’d want to pay attention to in regards to link building. Check out the interview here http://www.stonetemple.com/articles/interview-matt-cutts-061608.shtml. Read more [...]

A Google Alert is a great service Google provides which can keep you informed about any topic you choose. I have my name and “Astonish Results” as keywords. Any time these keywords exist on a website, in the news or in a blog, Google sends me an “alert” in the form of an email. To get started go to http://www.google.com/alerts and enter your search term (keyword) and your email. Google will begin delivering these alerts the next day. This a great tool for SEO to see if your site is getting indexed for certain keyword terms or for reputation management (see what others are saying about you). Read more [...]

Every once in a while I pick up a book that really resonates with me. The author brings out an idea that confirms what I’ve been thinking and gives me further clarification on those thoughts. “Mastering the Rockefeller Habits” by Verne Harish is one such book. Harish describes three habits which Rockefeller applied to help Standard Oil grow. There are so many truths in the book to choose from, so I’ll just pick a few that really spoke to me. Habit #1 – Priorities As a company grows, the owners must work harder and harder to communicate the major priorities to its staff. Harish provides some great tools to aid in the communication process. He boils business down into Read more [...]

It’s Christmas Eve.

I’m taking this time to reflect on the events of the year.

I’m extremely grateful for the people in my life and the opportunities I’ve been blessed with. My involvement in Astonish allows me to interact with some incredible people (both employees and customers). Their positive attitudes and desire to grow motivate me to continue to give 100%.

I’m looking forward to an incredible 2010, filled with more growth, challenges and excitement.

Astonish Results, a digital marketing and training company focused on helping Independent Insurance Agencies, FIND, SELL and KEEP more customers profitably, announces the latest upgrade to its digital marketing system. We’ve developed and incredible set of tools which automate hundreds of tasks and save agencies considerable time and money. This new set of online tools is designed to help agencies find, sell and keep more customers with less effort on the agents part. Our new system is designed to be highly scalable, flexible and accommodate the incredible growth we’ve been experiencing. Agencies are literally doubling in size in less than two years by using the Astonish Results system. This Read more [...]

Think about how a sophisticated political campaign operates. There is a clear and concise message about the candidate. Every member of the team understands and can articulate that message. Political types call these “talking points”. Now think about your company. Does everyone on your team know who you are and what you do? If asked, would each employee give the same answer? Can they clearly articulate the benefits of working with you (i.e. why should a customer “vote” for you?). Realize this; every employee is part of your sales team whether you like it or not. One of the principles at Astonish Results is “Everything Speaks”. Your company inspires trust, when Read more [...]

I just picked up “A New Breed of Leader” by Sheila Murray Bethel. In it Bethel talks about 8 qualities that matter most in the real world. The first on the list is competence. Bethel defines competence as, “doing the right thing, the right way, at the right time”. What a great definition! At Astonish Results, I’m always looking to improve my leadership skills. Bethel gives some questions you can ask yourself to judge your competency. I’m going to begin using these to judge the results of my leadership. #1 Can I clearly describe the competencies we needed to implement the project? This is a great question aimed at making sure we actually have the gifts and abilities Read more [...]