Teaching Your Business to Market Itself. For so many small business owners generating leads, converting customers and creating a predictable flow of business is a constant battle. February 25, 2010 While there are many reasons for this, the primary one is that most small businesses focus all of their marketing attention on selling when they should really focus every fiber of their being on creating a better customer experience. The best way to generate more leads is to create a customer experience that makes people talk. The best way to convert more sales is to create a customer experience that puts sales and marketing on the same team. The best way to create a predictable flow of business is to create a customer experience that builds trust over and over again.
The logical path There’s a simple definition of marketing that I’ve coined after years of working with small businesses. Plug the gaps Almost every business I encounter attempts to move from know to buy, without addressing the phases in between or after. Process and product. Product / Market Grid. The product/market grid of Igor Ansoff is a model that has proven to be very useful in business unit strategy processes to determine business growth opportunities. The product/market grid has two dimensions: products and markets. Over these 2 dimensions, four growth strategies can be formed: - market penetration, - market development, - product development, and - diversification.
Market Penetration Company strategies based on market penetration normally focus on changing incidental clients to regular clients, and regular client into heavy clients. Market Development Company strategies based on market development often try to lure clients away from competitors or introduce existing products in foreign markets or introduce new brand names in a market. Product Development Company strategies based on product development often try to sell other products to (regular) clients.
Diversification Company strategies based on diversification are the most risky type of strategies. Ansoff Matrix Personal Ansoff. The unforgiving arithmetic of the funnel. One percent. That's how many you get if you're lucky. One percent of the subscribers to the Times read an article and take action. One percent of the visitors to a website click a button to find out more. One percent of the people in a classroom are sparked by an idea and go do something about it. And then! And then, of that 1%, perhaps 1% go ahead and take more action, or recruit others, or write a book or volunteer.
One percent of one percent. No wonder advertisers have to run so many ads. The common mistake is to reflexively come to the conclusion that the only option is to make more noise, to put more attention into the top of the funnel. A few ways to deal with the funnel: Acknowledge that it's there. Top 10 Ways To Grow A Loyal Community & Increase Conversions! | TheBizc... 13 Tools to Help You Become a Master Marketer. Last year, I spoke to author, Entrepreneur.com writer and social media expert Starr Hall. We discussed who the best people were to target and how to use all of my platforms and relationships to get the best coverage and promotion.
In talking about people to target, Starr said: “Make sure they are master marketers.” That really got me thinking about people in my networks who have a great brand, credentials and credibility, degrees and accomplishments–but aren’t engaged in their own self-marketing and promotion. They are not taking the lead on branding themselves through online communities, email marketing or at least a Facebook page.
In today’s business paradigm, combining the two worlds (in-person and online) and all of the platforms that afford us free access to people all over the world is a must. Here are 13 tools I have used to become a “master marketer.” Image from Ivan Montero Martinez/Shutterstock.
Location Based Marketing. Mobile Marketing on the rise. Marketing Blogs. Jay Conrad Levinson Speaks: Guerrilla Direct Response. The overwhelming fear of being wrong. She didn't vote because she was afraid her candidate would lose. He complains that the blog is being published too often and doesn't want to read some of the posts if he's not going to be able to keep up with all of them. They don't want to buy insurance for their business because the policies are too complicated and they might buy the wrong one. The family doesn't travel by plane any more because the whole endeavor is filled with apparent pitfalls.
He doesn't want to buy the book because he might not like it. It's better to waste two or three hours doing something he's certainly not going to like instead. She calls a meeting and then another meeting because it's easier than committing and just saying 'no'. Better not to hire a coach or go to a therapist or even pick a doctor, because you might discover that you've been doing something wrong. They sell more wine in places where there aren't so many wines to choose from, because complicated selection processes make it easier to buy nothing. What (people) want. Early To Rise | The Magic Formula. Through juniper and sagebrush and parched grasslands. Past herds of mule deer, elk, and pronghorn antelope. On and on, we drove… into the primeval forest of southeast Oregon. I took last week off. Really off. Along the way, we stayed at some very remote locations, including a motel across the Nevada border that I remain convinced came straight out of an episode of Scooby Doo.
What’s This Got to Do With Internet Business? During this otherwise disconnected trip, I continued to check my e-mail whenever I managed to get access to the Internet — and I wasn’t surprised to get three requests for help in starting an online business. “I have a 40-year-old daughter living in California. In an average month, I receive a number of similar e-mails. That’s akin to asking me for help in deciding where to go on vacation. “You want to know where to go on vacation?
“Huh?!” Not everyone’s cup of tea, I know. Grasping at Soap in the Bathtub And this is where I can help you… 1. 2. Don’t let that hold you back. Make Money Online: Breaking Into The Top 20 Internet Marketers With No List | Money Dummy Blog. Posted by John Paul Aguiar in Internet Marketing Yea, I know that title is hard to believe, trust me I wouldn’t have believed it myself before Saturday. I have been in the Internet Marketing for about 4 yrs, and doing pretty well with it, but I believed that to do REALLY well you first needed a big list or have to be close to the top marketers.
Now as I said in the title, I do NOT have a big list… I actually have always known the importance of building a list, but I never made a strong effort with it until few months ago. I’m also not close to any top marketers, (wish I was..Haha) If you’re a blogger and wondering what this has to do with you, trust me, it has EVERYTHING to do with you. As a blogger that wants to make money online, you will need to Think Like A Internet Marketer to be successful.
Ok back to my point All this changed for me on Saturday when I got an email from John Reese with his TOP 50 AFFILIATE LEADERBOARD. As you can see I made it into 19th position, which for me is HUGE! Top 50 Places To Advertise Your Website For Under $25 | Money Dummy Blog. Posted by John Paul Aguiar in Traffic Today I wanted to share my Top 50 places to advertise your website or sales pages. People are always asking me where I advertise, and where they can advertise that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg and a few fingers..lol, so I decided to put together this list for you. I have personally advertised on most of these, the rest were used by close friends/biz partners that I trust. They are all great for generating traffic to your website. Don’t let the cheap prices of some of the sites fool you, THEY ALL WORK! I used these sites when I didn’t have a lot of money to put towards adverting, and I still use about 20 of them today just because they work.
Tip: Some of these sites I used to help me to break into the Top 20 Internet Marketers Nice problem to have..right? None of the website links below are affiliate links, I didn’t want to take away from any one site or have you lose an opportunity with a great site. . - $10.50 – 2,500 Visitors. SEO & Social Media Marketing Guide ::: THE Internet Book for small business. How Bloggers Can Use Book Reviews to Connect With Experts. Are you looking to get the attention of experts in your industry? Who writes the books your readers like to read? Experts do. And when these professionals share their knowledge in a new book, there’s one thing they highly covet—book reviews.
In this article I’ll share the power of a book review and how you might be able to review a brand-new book . Why book reviews are powerful As a blogger, you’re likely seeking hot tips and new ideas to share with your readers. First, book reviews highlight new ideas your readers can act upon . Here’s an example review we did of Scott Stratten’s book UnMarketing. But a second (often overlooked) advantage is the attention a comprehensive review gains from the author. At Social Media Examiner we’ve been able to get the attention of high-profile individuals by simply reviewing their books .
For example, authors often share the review with their fans and sometimes these experts have agreed to participate in our events. What makes for a good review? How to Tweet for Traffic : Andy Jenkins Blog | Irreverence Rebellion and interweb marketing. Twitter is special in its own little way. So special in fact, that it managed to give Google a run for its money through its real time capabilities. That’s just the tip of the iceberg though because it can do a lot of things for Internet marketers as well. In this post, I’ll be talking about how you can use Twitter to drive in the lifeblood of any online business: traffic.
True enough, any Internet marketer will tell you that Twitter is mainly used to generate traffic – what they don’t always tell you is how to do that effectively. Obviously, I’m not one to keep good things to myself, so in the spirit of sharing, here are my tips on how to drive traffic with Twitter. Optimize your Twitter profile – Besides the information you fill in upon signing up for Twitter, you should consider customizing your background image. You can also still post personal tweets for your personal profile. Now you don’t want to start promoting your website if you don’t have a sizeable following yet. The Secret Behind David Ogilvy’s Brilliant Headline Copywriting. “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”~ David Ogilvy David Ogilvy is one of the greatest ad men ever.
His contributions to the marketing industry are incalculable. And anyone in advertising couldn’t imagine a world without his iconic ads. In his day, marketing budgets were spread amongst the traditional marketing outlets; magazines, newspapers and commercials, for example. But as we have transitioned into the digital age, what could we possibly learn from this classical ad man?
Appealing to Your Audience The above ad contains what is arguably considered the most famous headline of all time. “I don’t know the rules of grammar. Imagine this scenario: It’s 1958, Americans have been living in a prosperous post-war era for years, and the automobile is the ultimate rolling status symbol. Eureka! Lesson: His headline spoke the language of the intended audience. How to Dominate Your Niche. Www.jeffbullas.com/2010/09/10/69-ideas-for-your-blog-to-make-the-dead-take-notice/ I spent an inspiring afternoon with Charles of Cubic Promote who is one of my clients and we discussed how he could optimize his social media marketing including his blog. He is one very savvy businessman and is using his 23 blogs to optimize his website for search engines in ways that are producing top keyword ranking results. Just like our company his brands marketing strategy doesn’t rely on cold calling but inbound marketing by making his site so visible on the web that clients call him. ( by the way I hate cold calling, always have and always will).
This post started with an article earlier this year on “30 Tips To Make Your Companies Blog Rock” and I had quite a few comments by readers and so added more tips on other keys to making a blog successful. I then added to that post with some ideas from readers and more of my own with a post titled “50 Ways To Optimize Your Blog“. 1. Write about industry News – whats happening this week, this month 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. Top 3 Tips To Gain Trust From Your Tribe | Ashley U. Porter. Posted on 14. Apr, 2011 by Ashley Porter in Personal Growth “Aren’t you are more likely to do business with someone that you Know, Like, and Trust?” This can be fairly simple with your current contacts (also known as your ‘warm market’), because these people already know you, like you, and trust you… …But what if you want to expand your reach and meet new people, which is ESSENTIAL for business growth?
Here is where the ‘cold market’ comes in…these are new people who you have never met before in your life but you believe they could benefit from using your products and services. …How do you build the relationship even further? By gaining trust. The interesting thing, though, is that you have to be able to trust others, including yourself, to an extent before anybody can begin to trust you. This means: 1. 2. 3. What are your thoughts on building trust with those who you have business relationships with? Traffic Generation. How to catapult your Google rankings in 3 steps! | Marketing Results Blog. Photo by FireChickenTA99 If you are using online marketing, you want to be found, right? Everyone is looking for the easy way to do that. How do you make sure that Google finds you and that you can be found. I see this all the time in my career industry e-lists and with other small business owners. Everyone is looking for the magic SEO formula or optimization.
It comes down to everyone looking for the easy way to do things: Get great SEO, get rich quickly, and just make it easy. The easy way to success is hard work! I will tell you a little secret. I became busy and added several non-profit contracts as another revenue stream. I finally set up Propelling You to Career Success in January 2009 on a static site using Dreamweaver with the help of a web designer. All you want to do is attract new clients or customers, right? Design Resumes is now attracting new clients who find the site and me (Julie Walraven) easily through Google. Step 1: Comment on blogs Step 3: Blog regularly. 4 ways to grow a business.
Test and measure your marketing. As any marketing professional worth their salt will confirm, successful marketing is based around a process, where you ‘test, measure, test measure’ everything you do, until it’s as effective as you can get it. Here’s how testing & measuring works! You test (or try) a new idea and then you measure the results you get. If your business uses mail shots, test a new headline and measure what feedback you get. If, for example, your new headline generates a 10% increase in enquiries or sales – keep the new headline and dump the previous one. Then, test a different offer or guarantee in the mailing. If the new offer or guarantee increases your response rate by 20%, keep it. Over a relatively small number of mailings, you can dramatically improve your results.
This constant tweaking, based on testing and measuring, is how you improve your marketing results. Your aim is to leverage your marketing, so you get the best possible return you can. Paralysis by analysis Only change one thing at a time. An 800% increase in sales from 1 small change. Setting up Feedburner RSS and Email subscription for your blog. Increase your blog’s readership the easy way! Build a great client list with this 1 simple idea! Get more traffic from Twitter with these 6 great headline tips.