Sherice Jacob helps business owners improve website performance and increase conversions through her blog at iElectrify.com. She has a passion for the web, and is a strong believer that websites can be beautiful as well as practical, which is how she came to offer services like website reviews, design and optimization. Clients include government agencies, educational institutions, organizational projects and businesses worldwide. Sherice has an M.A. in Media Studies and is the author of Get Niche Quick!, a helpful internet marketing how-to manual for beginners. It is filled with the latest internet marketing information, including fully-illustrated step-by-step techniques that anyone can use to start doing business online.
Sherice enjoys writing, art, foreign languages, travel and world domination.
What are you working on right now
Currently, I’m working on launching a social manager service for the chronically overworked who don’t have the time (or inclination) to mess with Twitter, Facebook or YouTube, but they KNOW they need to. It’s an excellent way to get all that social marketing “stuff” taken care of while still reaching fans, friends and followers with messages that help build your business and win you loyal customers.
3 Trends that excite you
I love the concept of “customer-centric” businesses. Lots of people claim to put customers first, but these days, if they don’t live up to those promises, they’re outed pretty quick via a social networking firestorm. To me, it’s great to see people taking a stand and supporting businesses that give back – whether it’s standing behind their values or helping communities in need.
I’m always glad to see new internet startups, and I highlight them often in the Tools section of my blog. There are some great up-and-coming services out there taking full advantage of new technologies in the social and collaboration spheres and it’s just going to keep getting better.
I’m also a big fan of niche marketing. The new buzzword in marketing circles is “blanding” versus “branding” – too many companies out there all hawking the same thing and disappearing into the crowd. Yelling louder doesn’t get you noticed but differentiating from everyone else and just “being yourself” will put you right in touch with your ideal customer. It works like a magnet.
How do you bring ideas to life
I am very much a practical entrepreneur who always has to have a plan. I write new ideas down constantly in a little notebook I carry with me. Something about the action of physically writing it down (and not typing or texting it) makes it more tangible and do-able to me.
If I come across something I want to read later, I add it to my ReadItLater List for follow up. I do things in a very step-by-step, methodical way. I create an outline, do research, check out my competition — all that stuff, and then I try to formulate a plan that starts out like a ripple and ends up making a splash!
What is one mistake that you’ve made that our readers can learn from?
My biggest mistake, especially in the beginning of my business, was taking on every client who contacted me – even if they weren’t really that good of a fit. I’d read those marketing gurus who say “Fire your customers!” and I’d respond, “Yeah right, you’re not trying to scrape up enough change to pay your electric bill, pal!” but I came to realize that they’re absolutely right. When you fire the “wrong clients” you inevitably free up much more of your time and energy to work with the “right ones”. When that happens, the best clients seem to be attracted to you like a moth to light. It really does work out for you.
What is one idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Will somebody PLEASE invent a can that dispenses sour cream the same way a whipped cream can does? It’s a mess to put sour cream on your tacos with a spoon, and you end up getting bits of tomato and sauce mixed in the sour cream tub.
Why do I think that’s a good idea?
You try smearing sour cream on tacos with a spoon and tell me it isn’t!
What makes you different than your average web designer?
Anybody can put up a web page. It can even be gorgeous. But if it doesn’t do what it was designed to do, it will fail every time. That is why I pulled myself away from the “web design” crowd to focus more so on improving websites. A lot of sites are designed well, but when it comes to their content or their navigation or their call to action, it looks too much like an afterthought.
Remember, your committee/partners/managers/department doesn’t know “what works” on your web page — but your customers do. Helping you reach them and interact with them better is what I do.
What do you believe is your life’s mission?
To leave this world a little better than I found it. To help others reach their full potential and in the process, leave behind something that inspires and drives others to excel. My goal in life is to be a part of something larger than just myself.
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Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.