|
|
Like this article? PLEASE +1 it! |  |
|
marketing Tagged Articles
|
Successful Internet Marketing Doesn’t Just Happen
| |
| Building a business online can be more challenging than many people may realize. Successful Internet Marketing doesn’t just happen. You need to be focused and committed and above all, you need to have a well prepared plan in place before you begin. |
|
|
Success model: Targeted marketing of investment goods and long-lasting consumer goods
| |
| Still quite often ‚Marketing‘ is misunderstood to be ‚PR‘ only. For many industries like apparel, food or even automobiles this is true, to a certain extent. Not so for investment goods or long-lasting consumer goods. |
|
|
3 Tips For Marketing Through The Noise
| |
| Every single day, consumers are exposed to over 3,500 advertisements in magazines, newspapers, billboards, television, radio and the internet. As a marketer you have an incredibly difficult task to accomplish: you need to find some way to get through all the "noise" and grab your prospect's attention. |
|
|
Why a business card should matter to you
| |
| If I meet you for the first time, chances are, I will forget your name and whom you work for within a short time frame. The one thing I will most likely keep will be your business card. When you hand me your business card, it tells me not only who you are and what you do but it also tells me whether or not you are worthy of my business. |
|
|
7 Essential Homepage Tips To Ensure That Your Site Converts Traffic Into Sales
| |
| On average, you have roughly seven seconds to get your message across before the end user abandons your website for one of your competitors' sites. We have created simple guidelines for what should and, more important, should not be featured on your homepage, so that you can convert regular traffic into revenue. |
|
|
Bonehead Advertising Ploys
| |
| If you really listen to the advertisements on TV, you can either get a lot of entertainment or get pretty sick. The material is full of claims that actually lower the trust in the product or service being sold. Sometimes I wonder who thinks up this garbage. If the objective is to get us to buy more, then why do the moguls of advertising put out this material? |
|
|
Creating the Success Mindset
| |
| There is a reason that professional athletes visualize hitting a basket, sinking a putt, or hitting a homerun, they are aligning their thoughts and beliefs with their actions. The combination can be formidable. It is the secret to success in business and in life.
|
|
|
How Do Internet Marketers Make Money Online?
| |
| How do Internet Marketers make a lot of money online? You can forget about spending just an hour a day at the computer and then taking the rest of the day off. There's much more to it than that. Some internet marketing programs promote the ease and speed with which you can earn an income, but it doesn't happen that way.
|
|
|
Effective Networking = Business/personal Success
| |
| I quite positive I am not the first and will not be the last person to tell you that you can accelerate your business and personal success by effectively building and maintaining your network.
“You need to network more,” anonymous Marketing consultant.
“Stop cold calling, start networking,” anonymous Sales Trainer.
“Go to more networking events,” anonymous Chamber of Commerce Executive Director.
“Pass out more business cards,” anonymous Professional Association President.
|
|
|
How To Create Ad-Copy That Sells
| |
| Whether you are writing ad-copy for a sales brochure, website or email campaign, it’s essential that you have four key elements in place. Although these four elements are fundamentally different, when combined, they produce a highly effective marketing message. Once you are able to master these important techniques, you will have the recipe to create ads that sell. |
|
|
Marketing In A Recession Benefits Small Business
| |
| When consumers turn on the TV or listen to the radio, they get bombarded with the words, recession, TARP, unemployment, foreclosures, and other less than positive descriptors. No wonder small businesses are fearful of their long-term viability. But there is one thing small businesses can do to take control of their future. They should increase their marketing efforts. Spend money on marketing because that is the one thing that will increase their chances of surviving the recession. |
|
|
High-tech Marketing – is it the corporate patsy?
| |
| Is the head of marketing in the most vulnerable position in the company? A look at some of the underlying issues. |
|
|
Ten Tips For Writing Copy That Sells
| |
| If you’re going to write an ad that generates a dynamic and powerful response, follow the ten tips to ensure your success. |
|
|
The Keys To Getting The Most People On Your Teleseminar As Possible
| |
| As a promoter of real home business opportunities, the teleseminars you host need to have people on them. How do you promote them properly? One of the best ways to promote is to combine email marketing with a teleseminar registration page so that you can maximize the amount of people on the call. |
|
|
Building Powerful Relationships With Your Prospects
| |
| Most small business owners expect their prospects to commit to a serious relationship with them before they even know them. However, before your prospect makes a commitment, they want to get to know you. Here are ways to accomplish this. |
|
|
Branding and the Smaller Business
| |
| You all know that the big guys invest big bucks in marketing their brands. Whether it’s Pepsi, GM or FedEx, everything they do goes toward making their brand irresistible to their target market. Without deep pockets, what’s a smaller business to do? |
|
|
Doing a lot for a little
| |
| You can do a lot of marketing for a little investment, if you’re ready to do most of the work yourself. |
|
|
Break Away Marketing
| |
| Are you still marketing your service/product the way you have been for years? The same way your competitors are marketing theirs? Are you marketing the “industry way”? If you are, how can you expect to get break away from the pack? |
|
|
Ten Steps to Web Marketing Success
| |
| We’ve recently noticed more and more articles, blogs and promotions touting all the new ways to market your website. “Buy into our secret system and you will be guaranteed top Google results!”
We’re sorry to say, it just ain’t so. |
|
|
Will it blend?
| |
| Have you seen that wild page on YouTube for the kitchen blender from BlendTec? More than 25 million people have visited that YouTube page to watch their blending antics. Over 3 million references to it are now on the web, not to mention that the question “Will it blend?” has become a household phrase. All from a small company out of Utah. |
|
|
Seven Ways to Tackle a Marketing Headline
| |
| There are a number of standard headline formats that copywriters have used for years that consistently work. Substitute your product, service or benefit in place of my examples, and see if you get a good working headline. |
|
|
Keeping Your Distance: Marketing With a Twist
| |
| A number of years ago, we had a client we just loved. What we liked so much about him was how much he appreciated us. Out of the experience came a marketing method that has worked better for us than most other approaches. |
|
|
Overcoming Doubts - Doing Business
| |
| Prospects have doubts; they get cold feet. Doubts are barriers to doing business. One of the best uses of your time is removing those barriers. It's a tough job but, in marketing, you've got to do it.
|
|
|
Visibility Actions and Value Tactics for Service businesses
| |
| Do you have a hard time hunkering down and marketing your business? Is it hard to know where to start? Will it be a waste of time and money? Scary thoughts. |
|
|
Four Success Characteristics plus two
| |
| What was the difference between a marketing failure and a marketing success? It's rarely how smart you are. It's not how good your product or service is. It's usually a combination of skills, behaviours and attitudes. |
|
|
Emotional Marketing, Part One
| |
| Emotional Marketing is the most powerful approach to marketing you can imagine. It's about connecting with your prospects where they hurt. They're annoyed; they're anxious or close to rage about something that you can do something about. Emotional marketing, done well, sends a message that validates their feelings. He/she who validates the feelings of another is that person's hero. |
|
|
Emotional Marketing, Part Two
| |
| In another article I talked about Emotional Marketing. I concluded it by saying that once the prospect has indicated an interest in what you do, that it wasn't the moment to pitch your service or outline all your product offerings. In fact, it's not even time to try for an appointment. In this article, I'll talk about the next step. |
|
|
5 Steps to a Successful Continuity Program
| |
| You understand that having a continuity program ... or several ... as part of your marketing funnel is an excellent way to increase profits and build a stable income. But how do you create one that will actually attract new subscribers and maintaing membership on a regular basis? |
|
|
Breaking Down Goals For Success Into Manageable Steps
| |
| Chunking. This tool is a valuable resource for helping to develop the mindset for marketing success. It is extremely versatile. Chunking is effective with breaking goals down into easy manageable steps for success. You can also use chunking to clear blocks and work through resistance. |
|
|
Where's your Media Kit?
| |
| I'm sure you've heard the term "media kit" before. It's something the big companies all seem to have. And it seems that it's something only they need. Not so! |
|
|
Gain a client. Keep a client.
| |
| I'm sure you've heard the aphorism that "it takes six times the investment to gain a new client than it does to sell to an existing one". In general, that's true. But what's not said is, how you go about keeping those clients in order to sell more to them? |
|
|
The Sky is Falling-Run and Hide?
| |
| Ever since the financial sector crisis in America began, there's been a cloud of pessimism and fear reaching over the land. Here in Canada, I listen to business people talk about recession. Businesses big and small are cutting back on expenses, laying-off staff. The talk is even gloomier in the States. Many younger business people seem completely thrown off balance, while those of us a little older, look to be hunkering down to wait out the coming storm. What a great opportunity. |
|
|
Secrets Of Wealthy Work From Home Entrepreneurs
| |
| There are lots of work from home entrepreneurs, online these days. And that amount is increasing at a phenomenal rate. Some are very new to the internet business game, while others have years of experience. Most are experiencing little or no success, while others are, at best, have become moderately wealthy. |
|
|
Some Holiday Traditions and a great Christmas Bread to Try Out
| |
| Most everyone who celebrates Christmas or other holidays around this time of year have traditions they preserve. If you have small children in the home, it is never too late to start celebrating traditions no matter how big or small they may seem to you. For your children who are already overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of the season, taking out some quality time as a family to decorate, bake, sing or any other number of things can make the season even more important to your children. My holidays are better because of my son, my dog, Mo, friends, family and this gift from God: Cattle on 1000 Hills. You will not find me on this site as I have enlisted the help of a friend to share his phenomenal story.
|
|
|
Direct Mail, A Numbers Game
| |
| Seven seconds, one percent, 3000 addresses, thousands of dollars. Direct mail. It’s a numbers game. |
|
|
Market Your Blog To The Masses
| |
| Are you looking for an effective way of enhancing your online business? Would you like to get more customers for your online services and products? You can definitely do so by making use of blog marketing. This consists of nothing more than putting up relevant content, about the services/ products that you offer on your website, so as to market your online business! |
|
|
What’s Your Marketing Number?
| |
| If you run your own company, you know how easy it is to get overwhelmed by all the day-to-day tasks to keep your business on target. But what about the employees in your company? How do they know what to focus on? |
|
|
Marketing The Invisible
| |
| Most people have no idea how much effort it takes you to do your work. Whether you’re a gourmet chef, a house painter, a web designer, or a graphic designer – the work you do is invisible. People judge its worthiness not on your effort, but on the result. Can you (and should you) market your invisible work? |
|
|
How To Select Products For Your eBook Business Funnel
| |
| There are many people who launch their eBook business by selling a number of unrelated products. This is a funnel not a public library! You need to have focus in your marketing. The entire point of the funnel is to use related products and services to move your customers through the wide part of the funnel so that they do business with you in the deep, tight, highly customized and high price point areas of online business opportunities. |
|
|
Boosting Holiday Sales – 5 Mistakes to Avoid
| |
| How to make money with the holidays.
|
|
|
How To Generate Your Own High Quality Leads For Your Online Business
| |
| Network Marketing the old fashioned way requires a person to make a list of as many friends and family and friends of friends and family as possible and try to persuade them to buy into your business. There is no reason why this wouldn’t work but who wants to hassle people who just don’t want to be hassled when you can work smarter, and easily get your leads to come to you. After all, we are just trying to help our clients so it does feel a lot better when our clients actually need and want the help!
|
|
|
HyperRealism As a Motivating Factor In Web Video
| |
| If there is one thing every Web business executive can agree on, it's that websites need to motivate people to act. That action can be to place an order, send an email, pick-up the phone, or maybe just join a mailing list, but whatever the intended response, your website must cause a reaction. It's a case of simple cause and effect. |
|
|
What's Your Excuse for Not Using Data Mining?!
| |
| In an earlier article I briefly described how data mining and RFM analysis can help marketers be more efficient (read... increased marketing ROI!). Data mining and RFM can significantly help with all direct marketing efforts (multichannel campaign management efforts using direct mail, email and call center) and some interactive marketing efforts as well. So, why aren't all companies using it today? Well, typically it comes down to a lack of data and/or data mining expertise. Even if you don't have data mining expertise, YOU can benefit from data mining by using a consultant. With that in mind, let's tackle the first problem -- collecting and developing the data that is useful for data mining.
|
|
|
How Mini Courses Work For An Internet Marketing Business
| |
| The mini-course is an effective tool in the hands of an internet marketing business owner. Of course, it is only effective if you know all the different steps involved with actually setting one up.
|
|
|
How Internet Marketing Education Can Be an Ideal Business Opportunity Online
| |
| For those people who are now enjoying the success of their internet marketing businesses and are actually making a lot of money just by being online and by working a few hours on their computer in the comfort of their home everyday, what is the next step for you? |
|
|
How Running an Internet Business Education Venture Can Make You Money
| |
| With the current economic crisis still far from being solved, more and more people are turning to the internet for solutions to their problems with money and with generating enough income to support themselves and to support a family. Going into internet marketing with the hopes of raking in the dough to help them survive is something that a lot of people try but actually fail to really succeed at. If you are an individual who has had a head start when it comes to internet marketing and you feel that some of the things you know can actually help people succeed in this industry, then maybe you should consider putting up an internet business education site that teaches people the rudiments of internet marketing, for a fee of course. |
|
|
How To Grow Your Twitter Followers
| |
| Twitter is a great tool to get your target audience discover you, your business and your blog. It helps establish a link between you and your audience in a non-threatening way and can be a great part of your online marketing and social media marketing. |
|
|
What are the new ways to promote your business?
| |
| Over the last year or so, lots and lots of new ways to promote your business have appeared. Some of these were there before, but they’ve now become mainstream and have opened the doors for smaller businesses to compete with larger businesses for the first time. And they all have to do with advances in technology. |
|
|
Business to Business PR
| |
| Good public relations is much more than creating a great image and generating stories in the media. It is also paying attention to one-on-one PR to make the sale when a prospect calls. And for many businesses, that is the most critical public relations a company can have. |
|
|
How to Find a PR Firm That's Right for You
| |
| Hiring a PR firm sounds easy, but is it? |
|
|
Marketing in Tough Economic Times
| |
| Marketing And PR Are Often The First To Go When Times Get Tough; Does This Make Sense? |
|
|
Cut Costs and Add Value to Your Marketing at the Same Time
| |
| With the sluggish economy, companies have to cut costs, but that doesn’t mean decreasing the ability to market effectively. |
|
|
How To Hire A PR Firm
| |
| 10 Tips to Help You Find the Right PR Firm to Represent Your Company or Organization |
|
|
Nonprofit PR Marketing With a Mission
| |
| Successful nonprofit organizations understand that to attract funding, they must promote their agency as a brand, just like commercial enterprises. Every nonprofit should create and implement a public relations / media relations program to let potential funders, supporters and volunteers know who they are and what they do. This is a must for effective fundraising. With all the nonprofits in the country, getting media exposure is competitive and not an easy task. But it can be done as this article outlines. |
|
|
Reputation Preservation in a Crisis
| |
| Every company and organization should have a crisis communications plan in place. The risk of not having one is just too great, for you never know when or how a crisis will strike. And every crisis has the potential to put your reputation at risk. Here are some tips on how to create a plan. |
|
|
SmartPR The Future of Marketing
| |
| In this rapidly changing, technology-driven age, with new trends emerging virtually daily, every company must approach their marketing in the most strategic, smartest and cost-effective manner possible. Gone are the days when a company can simply buys ads and wait for the cash register to ring. Today good marketing requires an intimate knowledge of your target markets and how to best reach them. PR is fast-becoming the marketing system of choice, and SmartPR is the only way to go. That is what we do for our clients. And it works. |
|
|
When Hiring A PR Firm Think Small
| |
| More and more companies are opting for small PR operations rather than large PR firms. The primary reason is cost. There are many one and two person shops who have the experience of senior-level PR pros, but don't have to charge the high fees because they don't have the high overhead. So why pay for your PR firm's fancy offices and get junior account executive experience when you can get a seasoned pro for less money. It just makes sense. |
|
|
Winning Outside the Courtroom
| |
| How A Solid Litigation PR Strategy Can Assure Victory, Regardless of What Happens in the Courtroom |
|
|
Top 10 Marketing Success Secrets for Businesses
| |
| If you want to market successfully, you need to communicate successfully. For example, when pitching a TV show, you want to generate interest in your company, whereas the producer wants good ratings. It's not much different when you speak with prospective clients, you want to interest possible clients, and they want to know how you can solve their problems, or add value to their lives or businesses. With that in mind, the following are my top ten marketing success secrets for businesses: |
|
|
Top 10 Marketing Success Secrets for Businesses
| |
| If you want to market successfully, you need to communicate successfully. For example, when pitching a TV show, you want to generate interest in your company, whereas the producer wants good ratings. It's not much different when you speak with prospective clients, you want to interest possible clients, and they want to know how you can solve their problems, or add value to their lives or businesses. With that in mind, the following are my top ten marketing success secrets for businesses: |
|
|
Top 4 Reasons Why You SHOULD Be Affiliate Marketing
| |
| When it comes to making money online, there are always plenty of ways to do so. I can't think of an easier and more practical way to "get into the game" than using affiliate marketing. People from all walks of life are reaping major benefits simply by promoting products/services that other marketers have taken the time to create. I would like to discuss some of the main reasons that I use affiliate marketing and why I think you should do the same! |
|
|
Creating Your Marketing Plan for 2010 for your Self-Storage Facility
| |
| Have things changed in today’s economy? Some say yes, some say no. I, for one, believe that marketing is one of the most critical aspects that will determine your success or failure in this business, or any business, no matter what the economic climate may be. Furthermore, it never ceases to amaze me that when occupancy is low, and traffic is down, some companies decide to actually decrease their marketing efforts; the very thing that brings customers in the door! With that in mind, I encourage you, no matter what your occupancy, or the current economic climate looks like, to set aside a budget of roughly 6-8% of your gross projected annual rental revenue for marketing and advertising to build your marketing plan around. |
|
|
The Magic and Mystique of Branding
| |
| Think your company or organization is too small to establish and promote your brand? Think again. Even small companies, that serve narrow audiences, can benefit from creating and promoting a brand identity. |
|
|
The Currencies of Trade
| |
| Every Franchise system should have a clear understanding of the following concepts. In addition, they should have a clear marketing strategy to help their Franchisees communicate to customers and prospects about how they will deliver these currencies as they operate their Franchise. |
|
|
Advertising, Marketing and PR: What's the Difference?
| |
| Sure, They Are Related ... But Each Serves a Different Function |
|
|
Dealing with the Current Downturn
| |
| The current economic times are challanging, but we cannot "throw up our hands" and just react. We need to take smart, measured actions. |
|
|
Employee Motivation Programs - Top Reasons Incentives Work
| |
| Employee motivation programs - more than likely you have know of them, however if you are not implementing them inside your small business, you are making a dangerous mistake. You see, while you will observe that these reward programs will require a monetary investment on your part, they might bring you incredible returns in the extended run. From incentives to unique prize giveaways, there are so many numerous ideas that you might get your own employee motivation program started and here are a few of the best reasons to do so. |
|
|
Good Public Relations is More Than A Good News Release
| |
| People too often believe that public relations is only for a mass audience. Not so. Good public relations starts with one-on-one relationships. |
|
|
Self-Belief
| |
| How bad do you want success? Do you want it more than you want anything else? Are you persistent enough to keeping pushing forward when you start to to lose faith? |
|
|
Where's Your Focus?
| |
| Negative attitudes spread through an organization like a virus. |
|
|
THE 2nd BIGGEST MARKETING WASTE
| |
| I will discuss what the 2nd biggest marketing waste is. |
|
|
The 11 Gold Mines In Your Customer List
| |
| The 11 Gold Mines In Your Customer List |
|
|
The Rule of 3 for Business Survival
| |
| Just like the 3 rules of personal survival, there are 3 simple rules a business can follow to ensure its long-term success. These rules will not only help ensure your business survival but will help it grow in the near future as well. |
|
|
Building Brand Awareness – Use all 5 Senses
| |
| There is a lot of advertising noise in today’s world. But, it is this advertising that builds company brand awareness. Given all this noise, how can a small business build awareness in its customers while not getting lost? Think about the 5 senses. |
|
|
There Is Such A Thing As A Free Lunch!
| |
| Do you know how you can build word of mouth buzz about your company and get a free lunch out of the deal. Use this great method for marketing your business locally. What is the worst that can happen; you get a free meal out of it? |
|
|
The One Key to Business Success! - And three simple ways to do it.
| |
| Want the one key to ensure your business success? Find it here – it may be simpler then you think! |
|
|
Meshing Customer Service with Marketing to Increase Revenue
| |
| Customer service has a bad reputation as its costs seem to be greater than its benefits. But, it does not have to be this way. There are easy ways to combine your marketing with your customer service to increase your business’s revenues and profit. |
|
|
Beware of the Dark Side - The Need For Competitive Analysis
| |
| Competition is an integral part of the marketplace - it fuels innovation, controls pricing, and creates better products. What's not to love, right? |
|
|
Adding Personality to Your Business is No Small Feat
| |
| Firms that operate with white-glove sterility and robotic auto-reply emails are a dime a dozen - and for some market segments, that may be just fine. For my dollar, I tend to prefer those product and service providers that provide a user "experience" - they provide a welcome respite from our daily lives, and leave us feeling good about our interaction. |
|
|
Standing Room Only - Should You Steer Clear of Crowded Niches?
| |
| The key to surviving in a crowded niche is focus. You need to focus on a particular portion of the niche. Maybe there is an area where your competitors are lacking. Focus on identifying the weaknesses in your competition, and make them your strengths. |
|
|
Are You a Purple Cow?
| |
| Simply put, if you want to stand out, be the purple cow. One great way to showcase your inner purple cow-ness is the free social media site known as Squidoo (which incidentally, is also the creation of Seth Godin). You can create a fully-featured webpage (called "lenses") which showcases your unique perspective on virtually any topic you can think of. |
|
|
Tagline, You're It
| |
| Your tagline is another facet of your brand. It is you - just as much as your logo, color scheme, and mission statement are. |
|
|
Profit Building Strategies - Leveraging Testimonials
| |
| Employing testimonials as marketing tools is both cost-efficient and smart marketing. Now, more than ever before, word-of-mouth referrals and endorsements can quickly take on mythical proportions, seemingly overnight. |
|
|
Profit Building Strategies - It Pays to Look Good
| |
| From the crisp lines of your logo to the personality you convey with your packaging, don't skimp on your overall brand appearance. Despite what your momma may have told you, what's on the outside really does count - at least when it comes to portraying your brand. |
|
|
What's Wrong With Classic? Acknowledging That New Isn't Always Better
| |
| As business owners, it is easy to fall prey to a culture with a short attention span. But change, simply for the sake of change, is never a good idea. |
|
|
Standing Out in Your Field - Focus On the Business Card
| |
| Few small businesses have the luxury of multi-million dollar ad budgets, or a staff of marketers to spin their brand on a daily basis. So how do you stand out in your field? |
|
|
Are You Water Cooler Worthy?
| |
| As consumers, we're bombarded with ad imagery on a daily basis. And while one might think that would automatically make us all experts on what makes for a great ad -- that simply isn't the case. |
|
|
Giving Customers News They Can Use
| |
| In times when your marketing budget may be tight, utilizing resources like your customer newsletter can pay dividends. |
|
|
When Words Are All You Have
| |
| Just what is keyword research and how can it help you? When searching a particular topic using search engines, people tend to use a handful of keywords to find content relating to that topic. When websites contain these keywords, the website achieves optimal rankings in search engine search results. This means more people will hit up your site. Keyword research is an integral part of your online marketing campaign. |
|
|
How To Build Wealthy Home Business Secrets Revealed
| |
| It is really possible that you can start from humble beginnings and become wealthy almost overnight. In fact scores of people are included in the millionaires club, while a few dozens move up to the big boys billionaires club every year. You can build a wealthy home business if you have the qualities that are essential for success. So whether you wish to earn six figure incomes, have multiple streams of income or residual income then the list of required attributes in building a wealthy home business can be group into five broad areas namely: desire, choosing the right business for you, attitude, marketing and leadership. |
|
|
TWO STEP MARKETING
| |
| Two-step marketing is a prospecting system where you break the sales process into two or more parts. It’s often the best system to use when the prospect needs to be educated before they will purchase, when you sell expensive or high risk products (investing, advertising, cosmetic surgery), or when it’s important for them to try out your product or service before buying. |
|
|
How do Seniors Sell their Homes today? At a Real Estate Auction
| |
| Facing what is perhaps the worst housing market since the Great Depression, most seniors will find it almost impossible to find buyers for their outdated homes. And, with the current glut of unsold houses in many markets, even reducing the asking price may not solve the problem.
So relying on traditional real estate sales methods to sell their existing homes has in many instances failed to produce results.
An often overlooked real estate sales strategy called “accelerated marketing” is gaining wide popularity with outstanding results. Accelerated marketing is a real estate auction strategy and makes the most sense in many situations facing seniors today. The home is sold “As Is, Where Is”. The Seller retains control of the transaction. Buyers like the auction method because they are buying at “true market value”.
|
|
|
10 Simple People Skills To Successful Management
| |
| Getting the best from your people is vital if you are to make the best progress in your business or organisation. Much comes from the way you interact personally and there are just ten key actions to take to build great, fulfilling and productive relationships... |
|
|
10 Steps When You Need Help in Your Business
| |
| You start off alone. Be it as a solo business owner or a manager looking after a part of a larger business. It gets busier, you get distracted from what you want to do, because there's only one of you and you've only got one pair of hands. |
|
|
Keepers of the Truth
| |
| Our audiences put their money where their beliefs are. Since those dollars represent the success we seek – let's follow them instead of our own assumptions. |
|
|
Marketing 101: Let People Know What You Have to Offer
| |
| What can you do this week to let people know about your business? Here are 11 tips to get you started.
|
|
|
Top Online Business Opportunities - Key Factors When Considering Partnering With One
| |
| Before you select an online marketing to join you may want to read this article, it will greatly aid you in your selection process. |
|
|
Family Businesses Face Unique Challenges: What Makes Them Different?
| |
| In matters of cash flow and marketing, a family-owned or closely-held business is the same as any other small business. But family-owned and closely held businesses also they have significant differences, especially when it comes time to talk about retirement, resale, or transitioning the business to the next generation. Here were some key points noted by the Family Business Institute on what makes family-owned businesses different: |
|
|
What is Your PR IQ- Part 1
| |
| Most people assume they understand the inner workings of launching a successful PR campaign. In fact, few do. With that in mind, the following are some tips that can hopefully increase your P.R. IQ. |
|
|
Creating Success through Emotional Marketing
| |
| Your message is what resonates with and sells your potential clients or customers. Whether they see your message on TV, in a magazine, on a blog or on Facebook is not nearly as important as whether that message strikes an emotional core in them. You want your target audience to feel; you want them to react which will in turn get them to act. |
|
|
Is Keyword Research really all that Important It surely Is
| |
| Stressing the importance of keywords in everything on the Internet that we do. From website copy to content for a article, blog posts' marketing online involves alot of print material all of this is keyword based and driven it is these keywords that allows the search engines to find your content and rank it based on how good of a job you did with your keyword research |
|
|
No DMs Please
| |
| I'm continuously shocked at the lack of just plain common sense (or common courtesy) from some Tweeps. |
|
|
Trial your adverts
| |
| If you advertise your business then you must trial your adverts and test to see which ones work the best for you.
By trialling your adverts you should agree on a design and more importantly the content of your advert and run each one for around a month at a time. At the end of each month change the advert to a different design and/or different content and so on. When you are testing your adverts you must make sure you take your marketing calendar data into account too.
At then end of each trial make a note of how many enquiries each advert received and of those enquiries that went on to converted into clients. As you collate this data you will begin to build a picture of which adverts work the best for you and use the ones that produce the most responses. |
|
|
Develope a marketing calendar
| |
| All businesses should have a marketing calendar!
So what is a marketing calendar?
During the course of the year you should track where your enquiries come from and which ones lead to customers. At the same time you should record which month the enquiries come in to your business so that you can build a picture of which months are your busiest and which ones are the least busy.
Once you have compiled this data you can put this into the form of a calendar and then use this to your businesses advantage. By knowing which months in the year you already get most enquiries; you can then plan further advertising in those months to really capitalise on the months in which your customers are looking to buy. |
|
|
There is Great News for MLM Opportunity Seekers
| |
| MLM marketing is widely recognized as the fastest growing industry in the world that can boast millionaires being made daily. |
|
|
If You Want Things The Way They Were…
| |
| If we want to regain the success of days past, then we need to change our marketing and how we go about doing it. The problem is that when things become challenging, there's a tendency to rely on what used to work. And here's what happens... |
|
|
You will Build Attention With Autoresponder Messages
| |
| How can you accomplish this with autoresponders? You must develop interest at a slow pace. Start with an informative message. This method of marketing is an art.a prospect should listen to your message for the period of seven times previous before they may pay for it. |
|
|
Marketing With Eco-Friendly Brochures
| |
| In a newly eco-conscious business world, an environmentally friendly image can make the difference between profit and loss. One of the quickest and most effective ways to let your customers know your business is environmentally friendly is using an eco-friendly printer for your marketing materials, especially for brochure printing. |
|
|
Famous Hair Accessories-The Women Inventors Behind Them
| |
| The personal stories of the women inventors behind the TopsyTail, Hairdini, FanTail, and Whirl-a-Style. How did they get into such a unique business? What traits drive their success? |
|
|
Three Marketing Methods for Three Types of Businesswomen
| |
| Because every business owner wants something different for her business, ultimately, each one will craft a marketing method that fits her short- and long-term goals for her company. |
|
|
The Best Time for Marketing
| |
| Marketing is not a passive activity. You have to keep the pipeline full. So, periodically, it is important to reflect and assess how to rejuvenate your marketing efforts. This lull between the holidays is a perfect time to focus on all the behind-the-scenes marketing activities that will make next year, your best year yet! |
|
|
Marketing Your Business - Getting Your Customers to Market You
| |
| Most everyone in business have nutted out a way of selling or they would not have survived to this point. There may not be a lot of science in the way they sell but, hey, when they can find an interested party it has worked so far.
And that may just be the point: Most of the people I know in small-to-medium businesses confess that when it comes to finding more "interested parties" to sell to - when it comes to marketing - they are almost totally at sea.
|
|
|
The Most Important Rule of Business
| |
| Discover a simple rule for massive success. |
|
|
Systems for Business Growth
| |
| What Are Systems?
Now, some people may think of "systems" as sets of technically sophisticated interacting parts, designed to accomplish some complex result (and, in some cases, they may be all of that) but in the vast majority of cases in business, systems can be simple, little things.
For example, you might develop "systems" for answering the phone, handling emails or running meetings. So, one definition of a system might be: "A plan for achieving a desired end result in an efficient and certain way."You may develop a simple system for answering the phone so that you consistently create a positive impression. You might develop a more complex system for opening your office in the morning so that no time is wasted; the alarm is turned off (saving a call from the security firm); your "Open for Business" sign is switched on (saving you |
|
|
How To Go From Down To Up, Fast
| |
| Yesterday was not one of my better days. Despite starting off the year full of excitement and hope, yesterday I was really down in the dumps. For starters, I caught a cold and didn’t have much energy.
Everything on my to do list looked like moving a mountain and I just wasn’t up to doing a thing. That useless feeling somehow went from being a momentary feeling to escalating into the entire year being a mess. |
|
|
Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions
| |
| Oooh, I’m so excited! I love this time of year. The New Year brings with it the promise of new beginnings, new adventures and new opportunities. Are you pumped about your resolutions for this year?
As you know, many folks struggle with keeping their New Year’s resolutions. It’s not that they are hard to set, but somehow hard to keep up with. One trip to the gym in January will tell you how many people have resolved to lose weight, yet another trip in March will show you how many have fallen off the wagon in just two months. |
|
|
15 Beads For Happiness
| |
| Thanksgiving is the American day to reflect on our blessings and gifts. It is a time for family and friends to gather together and name the things they are thankful for in their lives. What would happen if we did that more often?
A few years ago when I was in Greece, I picked up a string of beautiful red and silver beads. There are 15 of them, strung on a lovely silver chain and tied off with a silver tassel. The Greeks use them as prayer beads but I’ve developed a new use for them. |
|
|
What Can I Do?
| |
| I’m sitting in Barnes and Noble eavesdropping on the people around me. Yes, I do things like that because I learn a lot. Here is the conversation at the next table,
Woman in green, in response to a comment about a boss: “So, what are you going to do?”
Woman in red, sighing heavily: “I don’t know. What can I do? I’m stuck waiting for him to make a decision. I hope he does it soon. I wish there was something I could do.” |
|
|
Watching Valentina
| |
| It has been a fun few weeks around my house. I’ve had two lovely visitors from Germany, my girlfriend Valentina and her mom, Barbara. Of course, we’ve had a blast traveling around and seeing the sights of Virginia and DC and blathering away in our own bizarre mix of English and German. What struck me, though, was how much I learned from watching Valentina. |
|
|
You Don’t Always Have To Jump
| |
| As I climbed down the rickety metal ladder from the top of the Oribi gorge to the small ledge below, my heart was racing. Sure, I was secured in a study nylon harness, but my knees were shaking so hard I could barely walk. Adrenaline was coursing through my veins at breakneck speed.
From the bottom of the ladder, I walked out to the edge of the cliff and looked over the edge down at the river and rocks 33-stories below. |
|
|
What I Bought WIth $81,000,000
| |
| The other day I was driving 30 minutes to go to a client’s networking event and I saw a sign that pumped me up for the entire day.
It was the lottery sign showing the jackpot at $81million.
I started thinking about what I’d do with that much money |
|
|
Is It Okay To Aim Low?
| |
| This is a question I’ve been asking myself for a long time.
Self-help gurus the world over preach the virtues of thinking big, reaching for the stars, aiming high and stretching your limits.
But is that always the right thing to do? |
|
|
I’d Like To But…
| |
| There is a little phrase that I hear everyday and I’ll bet you do too. Maybe you hear if from coworkers, clients or even your kids. Maybe you even hear it from yourself.
Does it drive you as nuts as it drives me? |
|
|
Why Bad News Sells
| |
| I was having a meeting with the director of a division of child services for Virginia the other day and we got on the subject of reports about foster parents. She told me how disheartened she was that stories of poor care make the front page but stories like the one about a man in the Northern Neck who fostered a teen with AIDS through his last year of life go unnoticed.
A quick check of the headlines on any major news website confirmed her viewpoint.
That got me thinking about why bad news sells. |
|
|
How Much Is Your Career Worth?
| |
| I’ve been doing a lot of research lately into between people who make success look easy and those who work like dogs just to keep up.
Here are two of the things I’ve uncovered. |
|
|
What Is Under Your Covers?
| |
| My new client, Mark, just bought a new business. He was a homebuilder and since that industry wasn’t going too well lately, he decided to branch out into a line of kitchen renovation products.
His reasoning was that since he was used to talking with people about building $300,000 homes that it should be easy to sell $2500 kitchen accessories. |
|
|
Driving lessons
| |
| Thursday morning I hopped into a friend’s car at 5:30am Central European Time for the one-hour drive from Bocholt to Düsseldorf in order to attend a BNI meeting.
Since I haven’t driven alone in a car in Germany for over 20 years, I was a bit apprehensive. The night before I carefully mapped out the directions on Google, but lacking a printer I had only a list of directions and no overview map. |
|
|
The Three Second Miracle
| |
| Ever have those days when you are faced with a constant string of challenges, obstacles and set back on the path to your goals? Here’s a quick way to overcome every one of them in just three seconds (or less).
When you’re faced with a roadblock you mind automatically goes into assessment mode. That is, it looks at the situation and says “I can’t get past this.” |
|
|
Does Passion Have A Price?
| |
| If you’re like me, you’ve got a lot on your plate these days. We’ve recently added some new revenue streams to our business, I’m starting a non-profit organization to save homeless animals and I’ve begun dating someone who lives 4000 miles away. I’m also working on my golf game, walking my beloved dog and catching up with some very interesting brain research I’ve been studying. Oh yeah, and I’m learning Italian and German. |
|
|
Is The Economy Good Or Bad?
| |
| There is a plethora of economic data pouring in from around the world. Oil is at an all time high, the mortgage crisis seems to be larger than initially expected and the government doesn’t seem quite sure how to handle it. So what is a business owner (or salesperson) supposed to do?
In researching the Great Depression recently, I came across a statistic that said that more millionaires were made during that time than at any other time in history. Not flash-in-the-pan millionaires, but long-term successes. So what did they do that enabled them to flourish while others suffered greatly |
|
|
The Genius At Work
| |
| Ever wonder why 80% of businesses fail in the first five years? Many people would say it is because they are undercapitalized. Michael Gerber, the genius behind the best-selling “E-Myth” would argue otherwise.
According to Michael all small businesses are failures and it is due to one, and only one thing. |
|
|
What If You Could?
| |
| As a student of psychology, I’m often fascinated by what makes the most successful people in America different than the rest. It is interesting to note that the top 20% of our citizens control fully 94% of the country’s wealth. So what is it that makes them soar while the rest flounder near the ground? I think I might have an answer.
I don’t think that millionaires are necessarily smarter or even more risk-tolerant than other people. I think they simply see more opportunities for wealth creation than the rest of us. They find more ways to win because they don’t worry about losing. |
|
|
A Lesson From My Dog
| |
| Many of you know that I am the very proud owner of a wonderful 8-year old Ibizan Hound named Gracie. We’ve had our ups and downs over the years together and I’ll admit she’s taught me a lot about myself and others. This past Fourth of July she taught me a great lesson about selling and owning a business. |
|
|
A Dream… A Vision… A Life
| |
| It’s that time of year when many of us are beginning to get really busy. Sales are picking up before the dog days of summer hit, kids are off on spring break and the longer days entice us to be more active. Since the weather is so beautiful this time of year, I have a task for you. But not just any task. This is one that will change your life forever if you do it right. Are you ready for the challenge? |
|
|
Two More Hours In The Day
| |
| How many times have you heard someone (maybe yourself) say, “I wish I had more time to do all the things on my list - there just aren’t enough hours in the day!” While it is true that we all get the same 24 hours to spend each day, there are great differences in the way we spend those hours and how much we accomplish.
Last week I talked about using Power Blocks to focus your energy into productive chunks of time. This week I want you to think about the hundreds of time wasters in your business that are keeping you from getting more done. Here are a few that might be killing your productivity. |
|
|
Power Block Your Way To Focus
| |
| I recently sent out a survey to my clients asking them about their top issues in 2010 and an amazing 73% said that “lack of focus” was a major hurdle facing them.
As an entrepreneur and self-diagnosed sufferer of “bright shiny object syndrome,” I completely understand. The inability to stay focused on my goals over the course of year has derailed my plans many a time. |
|
|
Should You Spend Time Planning This Year?
| |
| That seems like a silly question perhaps, but so many business people don’t bother really planning their year (much less their entire business) that I have to ask.
If you don’t have a plan yet, here a few of the best reasons to make time in the next two weeks to get one done. |
|
|
Are You Limiting Your Income In 2010?
| |
| It is planning time again! This time of year many of us are looking back at the past year and deciding what we are going to do for the next year. It is a time of reflection as well as a time to get excited about what the future holds.
I spend a lot of my time in December helping clients get strategic plans for the coming year in place. Each time I work with a new client, I am surprised at the way many of them have been to taught to plan and how those teachings keep them earning far less than they are capable. Here is one of mytop suggestions for planning for 2010. |
|
|
A Fast And Easy Way To More Abundance
| |
| I listen to lots of books on tape and I read pretty voraciously too. Sure, I consume my fair share of murder mysteries and fiction but many of my favorite books have to do with developing one’s mind and deliberately creating one’s future.
Recently I’ve been listening to a book called “Money and the Law of Attraction” by Esther Hicks. The very beginning of the book has two interesting questions; “Do you know what you want?” and “Are you vibrating at the right frequency to attract it?” |
|
|
Why Johnny Can’t Focus
| |
| In my roles as adviser, trainer and consultant I get to talk to a lot of people. Business owners, salespeople, other trainers, managers – you name it, I end up chatting with them. One of the questions I typically ask is “What is keeping you from living exactly the way you want?” and more often than not one of the answers is “I just can’t seem to stay focused on my goals.”
Lack of focus seems like an American epidemic and I think I have the answer to the problem. |
|
|
Three Lessons
| |
| Do you ever have one of those days when you just hit a rut? It’s like you can’t seem to make progress on your goals. No matter what you do, it seems like you’re either standing still or moving backwards.
I’ve had one of those weeks recently. All my goals seemed so far away and all I could see what how far short I’d fallen on some of them. Then three things happened which reminded me of just how far I’ve come. |
|
|
What Do You Do At 3:15am?
| |
| It is dark and rainy outside. I can hear the storm pounding the windows as I lie in bed unable to sleep. My dog is happily curled up next me and dreaming her doggie dreams of chasing (and catching) squirrels.
But I’m wide awake. |
|
|
Are You Folding Your Client’s Underwear?
| |
| I was having dinner the other night with my friend, Erin, who was complaining that she had to leave early so she could get home and finish doing the laundry. There was a pile of underwear sitting in a basket and it needed to be folded and put away. Erin really wanted to get it done before the next day when her husband and son would be using it.
I asked Erin what her family would think if she didn’t fold their underwear and she said laughingly they wouldn’t even notice; they’d be just as happy living out of a laundry basket. |
|
|
Where Is Your Attention?
| |
| I’ve been doing a lot of studying lately. For me that means reading lots of books, listening to audios and watching webinars and movies. It also includes studying people to see if the things I read about hold true in reality.
Here is one of the most important things I’ve learned in the past few months of study. |
|
|
The Orange Index Card Trick
| |
| I recently finished reading David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” and I have to say I found it very interesting. While I consider myself a very organized and productive person, I learned quite a few things from the book.
The most powerful thing I learned was to put all of my thoughts of things to do in one single place. I’ve always been a list maker and have most of the items in my head on the list but I didn’t have them all until I read David’s book. |
|
|
The Five Why’s
| |
| So, did you hit all of your goals in 2008?
If not you likely encountered some obstacles, either mental or environmental that stopped you. In order to overcome those obstacles it helps to understand where they come from.
Asking yourself the question, “Why is that so?” can be really helpful in getting to the root cause of your challenges and help you find solutions to them. |
|
|
How Travel Helps Your Sales
| |
| It’s no secret that I’ve been traveling a lot lately. In the past 4 weeks I’ve been in 3 countries and countless cities. In addition to having a great time, I’ve discovered that being away from the office has actually increased my sales. Here’s why.
Getting out of the office and recharging my batteries is, of course, a wonderful part of travel. A chance to get away and stop thinking about work is a terrific break for the brain. |
|
|
The Three Second Miracle 2
| |
| Ever have those days when you are faced with a constant string of challenges, obstacles and set back on the path to your goals? Here’s a quick way to overcome every one of them in just three seconds (or less).
When you’re faced with a roadblock you mind automatically goes into assessment mode. That is, it looks at the situation and says “I can’t get past this.” |
|
|
Let The Trapeze Go
| |
| Well here we are; it’s June already. So what have you done with your first six months? Given vacations, holidays, heat waves and other days off, most people only actually work about 10 out of the 12 months of the year. That means you should be at 60% of your total sales goal by now. Are you at 60% and moving forward daily?
Most salespeople I meet are already off target at this time of year. In fact, many of them have even started adjusting those lofty goals they set in January (remember those?) down a bit. Why does that happen to so many of us? And how do we change it? Let’s use a little analogy to clear things up. |
|
|
A Little Mistake That Could Cost You A Fortune
| |
| There you are, across the table from a prospect. It’s been a very good meeting so far and he seems to like you, your company and your product. You’ve asked some insightful questions and he’s given you frank answers. In response to his answers you’ve laid out an attractive solution to his problem and he seems interested. After you finish speaking, the prospect pauses a moment and then asks you the magic question. “So,” he says, “How much does the solution you’re proposing cost?” |
|
|
Get The Best Out Of Your Business
| |
| Have you ever wondered why some weeks are just better than others? Did you ever think that maybe each one could be better than the last one, on and on, forever? Here’s a tool for making that happen.
Get out a piece of paper and do the following: |
|
|
Four Words Can Make You a Millionaire
| |
| When you walk into my office, you’ll notice a few things right away. I’ve got huge floor-to-ceiling bookcases filled with business books of all types. There is a beautiful painting done by one of my dear friends. Of course, there is an enormous collection of elephants in all shapes, sizes and colors.
But there is one thing in my office that will make you more money than anything else. It’s just four simple words on my white board. |
|
|
Elephant Sized Changes at Dancing Elephants!
| |
| 2007 is here and with it has come a number of exciting changes at Dancing Elephants! We’ve changed physically and psychologically and we want you to be able to learn from our experience. It’s been an interesting few weeks around our office and we’re excited to share the changes with you. |
|
|
The Marketing and Sales Genius of Howard Stern
| |
| I doubt that MBA classes are being taught today about the marketing and sales genius of the Howard Stern Show. The reality there is probably more lessons to be learned in listening to two hours of Howard Stern than taking two hours of an MBA class. Who knew you could learn so much about business from a so-called shock jock. |
|
|
Are Your Arms Wide Open?
| |
| Do you ever have one of those weeks that just knock you for a loop? The kinds where it feels like you are a roller coaster? High as a kite on Monday, wondering where your next check is coming from Tuesday, feeling a little like you got kicked in the head by a mule on Wednesday, just doing your best to endure Thursday and then flying again on Friday? |
|
|
How Openness Yields Results
| |
| As you know, I had the incredible honor of speaking at the National Speakers Association Convention this past week. My topic was creating a one-page strategic plan in just 20 minutes and on one sheet of paper.
I speak on planning from a different perspective, that is, I talk about it from a right-brain or intuitive perspective, not the traditional “what I did last year plus 10%” route that many planning gurus take. |
|
|
How Much Is Your Sanity Worth?
| |
| I’m a pretty good handywoman and I know my way around my power tools. I’ve got all the tools needed to complete some projects around my house but I’m not going to use them. Instead, I’m going to hire my friend, Pete, the handyman to tackle these little jobs for me.
Here’s why… |
|
|
The End of Buyer’s Remorse
| |
| I’ve been doing a lot of research lately in preparation for a new online training course I’m developing and I’ve come across some very interesting ideas that you might be able to use in your sales process.
One of the most powerful is how buyer behavior has evolved over the past ten years and how you can adapt to and take advantage of those changes. |
|
|
Why I Hate Asking For Referrals
| |
| I just read an article in Entrepreneur Magazine by one of the most respected marketing folks in the industry. Normally, I really like John Jantsch’s work but I have to disagree with him this time.
John suggests that you should ask every customer for referrals to their friends. I think that is one of the worst mistakes a salesperson can make. |
|
|
Starting At Step 4
| |
| It happened to me again. I was meeting with another small business owner with exactly the same problem as at least 1000 others I’d met with.
In the course of our conversation, it became clear to me that she wanted to start at step 4.
|
|
|
Who Is Your Proud Family?
| |
| Once again I was on the couch at 5am watching Disney cartoons. I like to get up early and get a bit of work done before I go for a run. While I’m cleaning out the last evening’s email, I watch a bit of children’s television to pick up a life lesson or two.
This morning, I got a great business lesson from Lilo and Stich. |
|
|
I Can See Inside Your Head
| |
| There are tons of reasons why but one of them is my friend, Holly. She is an expert in marketing to women and one of the most well read people I know. When she and I get together, I learn so much, it boggles my mind.
A few nights ago we were having dinner, and sharing stories. In the middle of one, she popped out with the most amazingly insightful, simple phrases I’ve heard in a long time. |
|
|
Stop Networking!
| |
| Okay, I’ll admit, the headline is a little misleading, but I wanted to get your attention. What I meant to say was stop networking the wrong way and wasting time and money.
If you’re like many salespeople you’ve been to networking events and had some success. But are you having as much success as you can? Let’s take a look these six quick and easy things you can do to make networking a sure-fire way to fill your pipeline. |
|
|
Summer Is For...Prospecting?
| |
| Here we are at the beginning of summer, that traditional time when Americans leave their offices behind and head out to the beaches, mountains, amusement parks and other vacation hotspots, in search of a break from the 9-5 routine. As a salesperson, you might be tempted to slow down your prospecting activity because everyone seems to be on holiday. Instead, why not try these tried-and-true summer business builders. |
|
|
How To Make A Fortune With A Love Story
| |
| I’d like you to think about a company that you do business with that you absolutely love. Not one you just like, but one that you love to buy from. It could be a product supplier such as a clothing store or car dealer or a service provider like an insurance company or restaurant. Think of an interaction you’ve had with that company that stands out in your mind as a great customer experience. What did they do and say that made it so wonderful? |
|
|
How To Make Networking Pay Off
| |
| We’ve all heard that networking is a great way to generate business yet many salespeople don’t find it profitable. Why do some people make a great living through networking while others struggle to get even one sale from it? The answer is to understand the purpose of networking and use it to your advantage. |
|
|
If My Dog Could Talk
| |
| As I’m writing this article, my dog, Gracie, is curled up next to me on the couch, sleeping happily. So far, today, she has been on a long walk in the rain, chased squirrels in the alley, had a big breakfast, snoozed on the bed and had a few dog treats. Not a bad morning.
Over the last 10 years that Gracie and I have been together I’ve learned a lot about sales and life from her. Here are a few of the things she has taught me. |
|
|
Is Your Mouth Costing You Money?
| |
| I share an office with 7 other people, so you can imagine how much chatter, interaction and “sharing” goes on, whether I want to listen or not. Each day I hear what is happening in the other businesses through the walls and in the hallways.
As I was listening to one co-worker share her most recent interaction with a client, it dawned on my how powerful the story you tell impacts your listeners (even those who just passively overhear you) and your income. |
|
|
How To Eliminate The Price Objection Forever
| |
| There are two ways to make money in sales.
The first way is to be a low-cost provider and sell a high volume of your product or service.
The second way is to be a high-cost provider with large margins and sell few items, but make more on each one. |
|
|
What Are You Asking For?
| |
| A friend stopped into my office today and suggested I read the book “Women Don’t Ask” by Linda Babcock. While I haven’t read the book yet, the conversation got me thinking about success (of course!). |
|
|
10 Key Points: Writing E-mails That Sell
| |
| Do you want to sell through an e-mail solicitation? Here are 10 things you need to do when writing your e-mail to improve your sales results:
1. Focus on value. Make sure the e-mail offers a very clear benefit to the customer.
2. ... |
|
|
The Spirit Of Giving
| |
| The holiday season changes people.
Normally easy-going folks turn into store-storming gift scavengers and tight-fisted Scrooges find their hearts melted by the spirit of the season.
Even salespeople and business owners change their tune during the holidays. Rather than worrying about how much each piece of marketing will cost, they often dip generously into the company coffers and spend freely on fruit baskets and foil-laden cards. |
|
|
Grandma’s Lesson
| |
| Thanksgiving this year was a fabulous family affair. We had the entire crew of aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc. including dogs and cats romping around my aunt Cherie’s house. My grandmother was there cooking up a storm despite having had brain surgery to remove a tumor just nice months before. What a woman. |
|
|
24 Words That Will Change Your Business
| |
| Chicago in 1932 was a mess. The Great Depression had a firm grip on the city. Businesses failed one after the other and people lined up outside missions to get bread or soup as their only meal of the day.
At the Club Aluminum Products Company, things were dire. The seller of a new and expensive line of cookware, the company had seen its high pressure, door-to-door sales pitches declining in effectiveness. |
|
|
Competence Is In The Eye Of The Beholder
| |
| You’ve heard the old phrase, beauty is the eye of the beholder. Yesterday I got a reminder that competence, and other business success factors, are also determined by the customer.
I got a great referral from my friend, Rick. I’ve known him for years and I think the world of the work he does. We share clients fairly frequently so I wasn’t surprised to get a call from one of his clients, asking to work with me. |
|
|
The Gift Of Receiving
| |
| Every family has one. That one person who shoulders all the family burdens, keeps the family secrets and cleans up the family messes. The one who is everyone’s sounding board and shoulder to cry on. The one who remembers all the holidays, birthdays and anniversaries. The one around whom the family always gathers.
In my family, it’s my grandma. She has been the rock in my family for as long as anyone can remember. |
|
|
An Open Hand
| |
| Inspiration comes to me from the strangest places.
The other day I was watching “Clean House” a show I am addicted to. It is all about watching people let go of clutter and free themselves to function at a higher level. The hostes, Niecy Nash, is a very sassy woman who speaks real gems sometimes. |
|
|
Who Are You Talking To?
| |
| Twenty minutes after we boarded the plane, the pilot came on to tell us that there was a maintenance issue with the aircraft and we would be slightly delayed taking off.
The red-eye from San Francisco to Charlotte ended up being over an hour late leaving the airport, meaning many passengers, including me, were going to miss their connection flights. As I had no particular place to be the next day, I settled in to for a nap. |
|
|
What Is Your Word?
| |
| Every now and then I do something rare in my life. I step outside my tried and true shopping routines and I go someplace different for my supplies.
This week it was time to venture beyond my trusted Ukrops and go to Walmart for groceries. Now, you have to understand, I have a philosophical dislike of Walmart and all it does to local communities and suppliers. I believe in capitalism and Walmart’s right to do business as they see fit but I also believe in my right to object to their business practices by spending dollars elsewhere. |
|
|
The Zulu Salesman
| |
| In South Africa, we stayed at a wonderful game reserve called Zulu Nyala. Most of the workers there come from a local Zulu village and take incredibly good care of the guests at the lodge.
One man, in particular, stands out because he was such a great salesman. “Mike” works in the gift shop and is single-handedly responsible for making sure guest go home with plenty of reminders of their stay in South Africa.
Here is how Mike worked… |
|
|
Why Tom Is Going Out Of Business
| |
| It happens the same way every time we talk.
My friend, Tom, calls me up every so often to ask my advice about his business. Tom has been doing consulting for a little over two years now and his sales just aren’t where he wants them to be. He is barely making enough to take care of his family. Tom lives in constant fear that he won’t earn enough next month to make ends meet.
Each time we talk, I ask him the same question… |
|
|
How Much Does The Customer Experience Matter?
| |
| After watching Jeffrey Pine’s video on authenticity and the power of the experience, I decided to conduct my own personal experiment. My lab was the realm of beauty salons.
For the last five years, I’ve gotten my hair cut at a local salon known for its fantastic client experience. Total cost of a haircut there is typically $60.
Yesterday, I took my appearance in my hands and headed to the local discount haircut chain where I paid $5.99 (with a coupon) for a trim. |
|
|
How Buyers Make Decisions (Part 1)
| |
| Have you ever sat across the table from a prospect and wondered what was going through his head? Or perhaps you were creating an ad or marketing campaign and you thought, “Will this really appeal to my buyers?” If so, you’re not alone. |
|
|
How Buyers Make Decisions (Part 2)
| |
| In last week’s article, we discussed the importance of emotions in the buying decision. Remember, in order to make a sale you have to satisfy the buyer’s emotions.
So, what kind of emotions do buyers have? That is, what are the ways in which you can emotionally satisfy them? In order to answer that question, you must understand human motivation. |
|
|
How Buyers Make Decisions (Part 3)
| |
| In last week’s article we discussed the five basic human motivations and how to sell to an achievement-motivated buyer.
This week we’ll take a look at recognition-motivated buyers and how they like to buy. |
|
|
How Buyers Make Decisions (Part 4)
| |
| Over the last few weeks we’ve been talking about what motivates buyers and how you can help them make the best decision for themselves. Doing this allows you to make the sales you want in a honest, ethical manner and ensures that your clients are so happy they come back for more and refer you. |
|
|
How Buyers Make Decisions (Part 5)
| |
| For the last few weeks, we’ve talked about how achievement, recognition, and affiliation-motivated buyers make decisions. That was the easy part.
This week we’ll explore how control-motivated people decide what to buy. Read carefully - these are the tough ones. |
|
|
3 Easy Ways: Drive More Traffic To Your Site
| |
| Do you want to increase traffic to your website? Would you like to create a site that others seek out? The good news is that you can build your ranking in the search engines and elevate your status as a trusted resource simultaneously. That’s because you can build traffic by using articles you write (or are ghost written for you).
Here are three ways you can use your articles to drive traffic to your website: |
|
|
Is Your Job Title Holding You Back?
| |
| Take out your business card and look at your job title.
If you are a typical salesperson, your title is likely something like “Account Manager” or “Sales Representative”. If you are a business owner, you’ll read “Owner” or “President” on your card. |
|
|
Monthly eZine can add up to Monthly Cash
| |
| There are several advantages to publish your eZine.If the pros appeal to you,then publishing your own paperless newsletter will be great for you. |
|
|
Using Video Marketing - Generate Tons Of Traffic To Your Site
| |
| My article below will explain to you the massive benefits of a well run video marketing campaign. Every month in the US alone 30,000,000 videos are downloaded. This means that as a marketing medium, videos are one of the most influential items available for online success. Making and then distributing your videos to distribution sites or to your opt-in list has the potential to drive huge amounts of traffic to your website. |
|
|
Handy Tips to a Killer Marketing Plan
| |
| Planning your marketing strategy can be frustrating to say the least. With so many options out there, which ones do you choose? Which will work for you? |
|
|
Business-Building Lessons Learned in 2009: What Highly-Successful Small Business Owners Are Doing that You Can Do Too
| |
| I know some small business owners who’ve experienced unprecedented growth this year. I’m talking growth that would be considered stellar in a good economy. So, what are successful entrepreneurs doing differently?
|
|
|
Twitter Secrets and Tricks to Make Twitter Work for You
| |
| When I first started using Twitter to be quite honest, I tried not to ‘waste’ too much time on it because I just couldn’t see how I could make it work for me and my marketing business, until I did some of the training provided to me through my company back office. This article will save you loads of Twitter time and help you get the right followers to share tweets with while keeping a professional Twitter page at no cost. |
|
|
Keyword Research is the Pulse of all Online Marketing
| |
| Article stressing the importance of solid keyword research. keywords are what the internet and all of the vast universe of information on it are built upon. The search engine locate everything by keywords, the keywords are how your content is ranked by the search engines and how well you have done your keyword research will depend on your content hopefully making it to Google's first so it would be an accurate discription to say that Keyword Research is the Pulse of all Online Marketing |
|
|
Forum Marketing Secrets
| |
| An internet forum is an online discussion site, a modern equivalent of a traditional bulletin board. People who participate in an online forum can cultivate social bonds and interest groups for a topic may form from a discussion. |
|
|
Top 5 Ways To Annoy Your Prospective Customers
| |
| Do you know if your marketing efforts are backfiring on you? Look through the list to ensure that your well meaning work is actually causing you professional harm.
|
|
|
The Power of a Willing Mind
| |
| According to the Gallup organization, only 30% of employees are fully engaged in their work. That means 70% are merely earning a paycheck. What does this untapped opportunity cost an organization? And, why are so many companies oblivious to this loss? Are they blind to the unrealized opportunity that is left on the table daily? What would this extra potential do for us as individuals, organizations and even countries? Imagine the impact of fully engaged workforce on the economy. Consider the productivity and profit that is simply there for the willing organization to take. |
|
|
You Must Tell Your Story
| |
| You alone employ the life experiences that guide your skills, making your contribution literally priceless to the rest of us. We need your story–now.
Bring it out with shock-and-awe evidence and soul-stirring passion. You do not have to be a world-class orator or literary master. Rather, just be clear, concise, organized. |
|
|
Marketing and Twitter
| |
| Twitter was the one site that puzzled me. It’s not like any other site and I was baffled at how and why people had 15,000 people they were following. It felt daunting and overwhelming so I didn’t really jump into it full force. Since then, I have picked up a resource that has helped. Listed in the body of this article are a few things I learned. |
|
|
EMail marketing - How to be seen and not Spammed!
| |
| Email marketing is often looked at as a cheap way to get to thousands of potential customers. But if you don't do it the right way you can end up not getting read, or worse, getting thought of as a spammer. Here we look at some simple ideas on how not to fall into that trap. |
|
|
Email marketing – How do you start talking to your customers?
| |
| Email marketing doesn't have to be some mystical science that only a few people can understand. It's also not meant to totally overtake all your other forms of marketing, after all everyone can sometimes get a little sick of the amount of Spam that can build up daily. However, though careful use of your database and providing the right message targeted at that person often provides huge dividends. |
|
|
PPC vs. SEO – Which route is best for you?
| |
| OK, so you've got a website! Either it's been around for a while, just had a revamp, or is just freshly out of it's wrapper, whatever state it's in you know you need to promote it. But with the choices available to advertise online almost as varied as the number of websites around, where and how do you go about it. In this article I look at the two most popular forms of online marketing, Pay per Click, or Google Adwords to you and me and Search Engine Optimisation. |
|
|
Online Video Commercials are the future of internet advertising
| |
| In the last 10 years Internet advertising has grown at a tremendous rate until it’s become the largest form of advertising in the UK. However, with this growth we have also seen massive change in how we use the Internet to advertise. As people’s consumption and tastes have moved on, so has how companies use the Internet to reach us with their marketing messages. |
|
|
Social media provides perfect platform for video material
| |
| Video is widely used to disperse messages across a large audience about products and services. With social media such a productive trend at present, companies are expanding their marketing and advertising activities to deal with the growing demand of visual content online. |
|
|
Advertising, What's in store for 2010?
| |
| During 2009, the industry witnessed a few defining changes to the advertising world, none more so than online video and social media being established as marketing mediums. |
|
|
Using Social Media for customer relations purposes
| |
| One of the biggest attractions of social media to companies is the ability to efficiently manage customer relations.
Social platforms not only provide the opportunity to liaise with current customers, but also others who may otherwise be impossible to reach offline. |
|
|
How word of mouth online can trigger brand perception
| |
| We’ve all heard it – referrals are the best form of marketing, and you would probably be right to an extent.
Most people want to associate with a company they can trust and have confidence of meeting expectations. Give a customer great service, the chances are they may just tell their friends and influence them to try your services too. |
|
|
9 Easy Steps to Breaking the Blocks to Marketing Your Business
| |
| Once I made the choice to step out of the comforts of the office and create my own business, Mindset for Marketing Success, I knew change was going to happen. A complete overhaul in my thinking about marketing was necessary. |
|
|
Home Stagers: Compete With Virtual Staging and Fire Up Your Marketing!
| |
| Home stagers are facing new marketing challenges in the changing real estate industry. Virtual staging, a clever new way to stage homes, can splinter the market-share, but savvy stagers can learn to use the competition to actually grow their own business. Learn the secret of using the competition to fire up your marketing! |
|
|
Consistent Branding for Social Media Marketing
| |
| Most companies and business owners strike out into the great unknown of the online frontier without a social media marketing branding plan. It might seem unnecessary to most business owners; however, the creation of an online branding strategy is one of the most vital steps to social media marketing success. |
|
|
Six Steps to Harnessing the Power of LinkedIn
| |
| Energize your social media marketing efforts and make the most of your networking! One of the most popular social network groups, LinkedIn, is almost one of the most misunderstood. Find out today how to be a power user of LinkedIn with the "Six Steps to Harnessing the Power of LinkedIn!" |
|
|
Warning: U R Contaminating Your Marketing Pool!
| |
| Warning: Using Social Media without understand your ROI is both wasting money and Contaminating Your Marketing Efforts! Learn how to save time and money while receiving the most benefit from your social media networking. |
|
|
Four Worst Email Marketing Errors: Dont Let Social Media Ruin Your Email Marketing
| |
| Are your email subscriber leaving your list? If you are making these four email marketing mistakes, then you are wasting money and time trying to reach potential customers. Fix these email marketing errors now...before it is too late! |
|
|
Customer Service Stabbed Marketing in the Office with a Knife
| |
| Do you have a clue what is killing your marketing efforts? Whether you are a small business or large corporation, it is likely at least one of these customer service issues is planning the death of your marketing dollars! |
|
|
5 (FREE) Time Saving Social Media Tools
| |
| So many times, people embark on social media marketing with the idealist understanding that it is as easy as tweeting a thought in 140 characters or posting a few words to followers every few days. In reality, social media marketing involves more hand holding than direct marketing. Why, then, are literally millions of businesses joining the social media movement every year? Because, quite literally, companies can reach out to potential clients with less cost (provided they understand the time vs. money formula of social marketing) and gain market share through brand exposure.
|
|
|
Seven Deadly Video Marketing Sins
| |
| So you want to develop a Web video campaign to put on your website and add to YouTube and all the other Web video directories. Maybe you even want to create a new video micro site to promote that hot new product or service you're about to launch. You want it done right, professional, slick, and you want it to be effective. Well of course you do. |
|
|
Understanding Internet Marketing Risks
| |
| Despite rumors of all of the easy internet riches that await the entrepreneur, instant millionaires and DOT-COM legends, there is also a genuine ugliness to the web. Unknown to Internet marketing newcomers, the internet is not safe, and many considerations should be made to minimize your internet marketing risks. |
|
|
Marketing Like a Rockstar! Part 1
| |
| Everything I learned About Marketing, I learned From Paul Stanley of KISS!
Not quite but I'll tell you what. If you pay attention to any great rock front man or woman, you will notice a couple of very clever tactics.
Dateline Sunday March 22nd... So there I was indulging in a guilty pleasure...
Like I said, guilty pleasure... So sunday I popped in a DVD "Kiss w/ the Melbourne Symphony. Kiss, the garishly made up rock band (with tons of pop hooks) with a symphony... Should be interesting, I thought.
It's amazing what a different perspective will do. The DVD was tons of fun (guilty pleasure, remember...) but I noticed all the sales, marketing and trainer tricks that lea |
|
|
How do I use Social Networks for Marketing?
| |
| Social networks are the soil for planting your idea seeds. Some ideas grow quickly and flourish, others wilt and fade away. This article explains the power of social networks and how to build your social media profiles for marketing success. |
|
|
VIP Marketing Vehicle: Business Cards
| |
| The most used marketing vehicle is the most taken for granted. It's more than a business card. It maybe your only marketing touch with potential customers. |
|
|
Life in the Stream
| |
| Our audience is speaking to us, but are we listening? Twitter is. |
|
|
What is Google AdWords?
| |
| Google is the most powerful marketing mediums ever created. If you currently have an internet business or plan to start working online from home, Google is definitely something you want to familiarize yourself with. |
|
|
Direct Sale Marketing At Trade Shows
| |
| Your direct sales organization will find unlimited leads at trade shows and fairs. |
|
|
Best of the Janes: Marketing Methods for Success
| |
| Every type of business owner can benefit from using the marketing methods that are right for her. Different methods require different investments and yield different results. This article highlights various marketing systems and their benefits. |
|
|
Web Presence
| |
| How to maximize your business on the web. |
|
|
A Marketing Cookbook for Entrepreneurs
| |
| Most entrepreneurs simply don't see marketing as a line item that needs to be taken as seriously as, say, their annual equipment or supply budget, and that's a mistake. In over 20 years of working in this industry, I've confirmed that many entrepreneurs see marketing as an afterthought or a "necessary evil." Worse, many haven't mined the data right in front of them that could give them a blueprint for how to market to their best prospects. |
|
|
Where Has All the Trust Gone?
| |
| Americans, we the people, have become a distrustful lot of late, hardly surprising news given our Recessionary new world order that is rammed home daily in headlines detailing the failures, cover-ups, and worse, of corporate America and its leaders. |
|
|
5 Major Steps to Attraction Marketing from a Leader Listen Up
| |
| Attraction marketing is nothing more than being a major brand name or company. It all comes down to how attraction marketing is probably the single most reason so many people in the 1% of any venture or business are hugely successful. |
|
|
Stories to Tell
| |
| Stories are a powerful way to communicate. As little children we eagerly hopped into bed in anticipation of a great bedtime story. As school age children we would compete to see how many novels we could read in one summer away from school and homework. Then as we became adults, we dropped those habits and lost the pleasure the stories gave us. |
|
|
Marketing For Customers Is Just Like Fishing
| |
| Success in any business thrives or withers away based on its customer base. Whether the business has been in operation for decades or just a few days, drawing customers to your business daily is the prime objective. |
|
|
Promotional Giveaways are Smart Business
| |
| Whether you want to amaze people with upscale corporate gifts, or utilize the most cost effective branded giveaways you can find, promotional products can really make a big impact when used correctly. If you do the proper research ahead of time and focus on your target audience, your promotional endeavors should be a sure success. |
|
|
The New Rules for Successfully Landing Media Coverage
| |
| One of the upsides of the net, social media and blogs, is that you can now learn so much about writers, editors and producers that you are pitching. You can learn their interests and study their writings. Now, when you pitch a story, you can have a much better take on whether your pitch is appropriate or off-base. Instead of sending out hundreds of emails and packages hoping that a few hit the right target, the savvy approach is to pick a small number of media contacts, do your research and make more focused, targeted pitches. |
|
|
4 Steps to Ramp Up Your Marketing
| |
| Always a good strategy in any market, but especially in a slower one, we’re going to focus the sixth article in the ‘Riding the Recession’ series on ramping up your marketing. |
|
|
Features VS. Benefits-the Key to Jolting Your Sales NOW
| |
| Focusing on the benefits of your product and/or service is key to successful marketing. Learn how to increase your sales with these simple marketing strategy adjustments. |
|
|
What Does a CEO Do?
| |
| When asked what a CEO do the answer might vary from individual to individual, even among CEO’s themselves. The short answer is an easy one; everything. The long answer is as complicated as business itself. I hate complications so- as is my wont, I will try to break it down as simply as possible.
The term CEO stands for Chief Executive Officer, and that’s a pretty broad term- but it is accurate in describing all of the duties of the CEO. From marketing to sales and fund raising, the CEO is responsible for all aspects of a business. This is a pretty big job and less than 5% of all CEOs perform all their duties with any efficiency. The reasons are as varied as the responsibilities that come with the job description.
Most CEOs have the feeling that their job is fund raising, and while that is one important aspect of a CEO’s work the job |
|
|
The One Question You Can't Avoid...
| |
| Where ever you go in the future from a business function to a leisurely round of golf, your future success may depend entirely on one single question... It's the one question that you simply can't avoid. |
|
|
Go to MoSCoW and improve your marketing Copy
| |
| All requirements are important, but they are prioritized to deliver the greatest and most immediate business benefits early. Developers will initially try to deliver all the M, S and C requirements but the S and C requirements will be the first to go if the delivery timescale looks threatened. The plain English meaning of the MoSCoW words has value in getting customers to understand what they are doing during prioritization in a way that other ways of attaching priority, like high, medium and low, do not. |
|
|
BusinessTM: My Home Based Business Portal
| |
| Some words of wisdom from SEO Guru, Ryan Nelson, brought to you through BusinessTM, my home based business portal. |
|
|
Assumptions Anyone?
| |
| Social media gives power to our assumptions. If we're viewed as leaders in our fields - our assumptions are often taken as facts by our audiences. |
|
|
Internet Marketers Proven tips for Beginners
| |
| Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most important factors in your online marketing business. SEO is simply achieved by optimizing your keywords to bring your website up as high as possible in the natural or organic search engine rankings. This will guarantee you more visits to your website from people who specifically searched for your targeted keywords so you can be certain that these visits can be transformed into high quality leads which in turn can be transferred into higher revenue. |
|
|
Clarity Through Panic
| |
| June ‘04. I had just quit my job selling mufflers at Midas. I went for 6 weeks without making a single dollar. It was one of those wonderful warm summer weekends you get in the Midwest… yet it was as though I couldn’t sleep, eat or breathe. The pit in my stomach grew daily, I was terrified. I took a leap of faith, quit a decent paying job, to pursue a full time career in online marketing and almost like a little bird who decides to jump out of the nest a just a couple days too early, only to find the ground is patiently waiting to reach up and smack him in the face. |
|
|
Is your marketing focused?
| |
| How is your marketing doing in 2009? Have you increased it? We have just about completed the first 30 days and are you cutting back or moving forward? I am still talking to perspective clients that seem to lack direction. |
|
|
6 step process to Lean Marketing
| |
| In lean marketing a company should only have two components: An introduction to a new lead and the acceptance of an order. All other components would be considered wasteful and are candidates for elimination. |
|
|
A Little Law applied in Lean Marketing
| |
| A simple equation called Little's Law can tell us how long it will take any prospect to be turned into a sale simply by counting how many customers are in your funnel and how many sales we complete each day, week, etc. |
|
|
ANOTHER WORD FOR MARKETING - HOW ABOUT VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER?
| |
| I think the smartest companies ask their customers what the requirements should be for the product or service and then work backwards? The not so smart, designs a product/service and then figures out ways to market and sell it. Which one are you? |
|
|
Are you on the same path as your customer?
| |
| They usually have some type of marketing in place, and we are looking at improving the system not dismantling it. After the marketing calendar has been constructed, I start moving, sometimes just the post-it-notes from a chronological order to a marketing flow stream based on the customers' viewpoint. |
|
|
Build a Referral Program for your E-zine
| |
| I have made just about every mistake possible in e-mail marketing and I am still learning. I have a list of 2500 but only get open rates of 20%. But I also have a client that gets open rates of over 50%. That list is only 600. Who has the better list? Without a doubt the one with 600 and it create s business. Why? It was created solely with |
|
|
Start with Reality in your Marketing
| |
| When your business is in trouble it is safe to assume you have to do something different or you will get the same results. Change must occur. But what do you change to and how do you know that it is going to work. Most poor business decisions are because.... |
|