July 1, 2009
Now that the summer has officially kicked off - it’s time to think about what you’re going to do for summer months.
I have a great suggestion if you want to rev up your marketing and your business - starting right now!
I’m the co-host and tour guide for the Marketing Summer Tour - a special 5 day telesummit featuring some of the most successful marketers and entrepreneurs who are going to share their secrets around marketing.
Come hear all this combined wisdom and instantly get the many Ready-to-Start-Right-Now bonuses so that you can start making powerful and profitable changes and improvements to your marketing.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed trying to figure out what marketing strategies will work in this ever-changing economy then now’s your chance to get headed in the right direction. The Marketing Summer Tour start July 20 and features 15 fantastic speakers including a Mystery Guest, who’ll help you rocket your marketing this summer so that you can make the last half of 2009 an unqualified success!
Hurry and sign up to take advantage of the Early Bird pricing and the chance to win an Apple iPod Nano!
See you on the bus!
June 27, 2009
The reason we have goals and objectives is so we know if we’re meeting them - or not. If you’re not, don’t despair! There are a few things that could be impacting this and you can tweak or change these.
Some questions to ask yourself:
- Have you been doing the tactics on your marketing plan consistently? Did you fall off of your plan?
- Does your plan have enough marketing tactics or are you relying on only one strategy?
- Does your marketing message come across loud and clear in all your communications (website, sales letters, emails, ezine, blog, etc.)
- Are you giving prospects enough different ways to reach you?
- Did you add any new services or products?
- Does your marketing plan have tactics that work off of and build on each other?
- Has your target market or niche changed? Is your marketing still aimed at the “right” market?
- Has there been any dramatic change in the competitive environment that could be impacting you?
- Where in the marketing process are you falling down? Attracting new leads? Converting into clients? Keeping clients?
- Do you need to revise or create new marketing materials? Update your website content? Do an overhaul of your ezine?
- Have you given enough time for the marketing tactics to work? Some tactics take longer to show results than others.
Incorporate regular assessments of your marketing plan goals and progress into your business workdays. There are lots of variables that can affect your success, and by being proactive you can keep on top of any changes, good or not-so-good, and keep heading upwards and onwards!
June 25, 2009
If we’re really honest with ourselves, we’ll see that at least part of the time, we are not really “driving” our business - it’s driving us.
If you sit back and took at look at the types of activities you do on a daily and weekly basis - you’d see that often its things, events and people that direct your day - not you.
These are many things that come up and hijack your time and energy. These kinds of situations are unavoidable but it’s how we deal with them or what systems we have in place to deal with them that lies within our control.
You have the power to decide what you do when. If someone calls, you don’t have to take the call (let it go to voicemail) or you can set up a time to talk to them when it would be more convenient for you. You don’t have to open that magazine now - you can delay it or delete it altogether (would it make a difference to your business if you never read it?).
When you start really controlling what you spend your time doing in the workday, then you’ll really start to see results. Because you’ll be concentrating on tasks and activities that can bring you closer to your goals (money or otherwise), you’ll achieve your goals quicker and with less stress.
Next time something comes in to disrupt you, sit back and take a few seconds to see if you dealing with it brings you closer to you want - or can you pass it off to someone else or deal with it at another time?
What are the things that “drive” you and your business? Is it always you?
June 23, 2009
It’s been really exciting working on the Marketing Summer Tour - doing everything from conceiving the idea, planning the event, contacting possible speakers, writing the webpage copy and marketing materials, coming up with the idea of Mystery Guest, doing the affiliate program and so on.
Of course I am sharing the work with my teletour partner Marty Marsh, but boy oh boy - I didn’t think it would be SO much work!
Sometimes it can seem like we’ve bitten off more than we can chew - as it’s the first time either of us have put on an event of this magnitude. But I’m very grateful that we had the guts to do it and the willingness to learn along the way.
Sometimes ignorance IS bliss and if I knew what was involved, I may have balked at the idea of putting on a week-long telesummit. Those little voices in the back of my head that tell me I don’t know enough yet or am not good enough yet would probably have drowned out my excitement about being able to help people on this larger scale.
Thank goodness for no foresight!!
We all battle those negative thoughts at some times in our business life and especially around marketing. But if I can do it - anyone can! Sometimes you just have to believe in yourself (and in your partner!) and tell those voices to go to h*ll!
That’s the only way we’ll be able to really grow our business and come to the aid of a larger number of people - and doesn’t that feel great?!
Have a great marketing day and don’t forget to let yourself think big! In fact, I would love to hear about the times when you played big with your marketing!
June 21, 2009
We’ve all heard the saying, “Work ON your business, not IN your business”.
What that basically means is don’t get immersed in the day-to-day details and administrative tasks that are part of your business, but instead make sure you spend time on activities that will grow, develop and enhance your business.
One way to ensure you make time to do this is to schedule a specific day into your calendar. Some people call these Business Development days or Business Planning days or Business Growth days. Whatever you call it, the important thing is that you schedule it AND keep that appointment with yourself.
Some people book off an entire day every week or every couple weeks. Other people find they like to schedule 3 hours every week or take a weekend retreat once a month. Finding out how long you need and want to take for the “work on your business days” will take a bit of time to determine. Also, if you’re moving into a bigger direction or it’s a difficult economic time, then you might want to allocate more time to these development days.
The important thing is that you DO these days - somehow, somewhere and sometime (preferably on a consistent basis!).
How do you schedule in your “work on your business” days?
June 18, 2009
You want to make sure you have a strong marketing foundation. These are the building blocks of any and all of your marketing activities.
The 4 components to your marketing foundation are:
1. Your target market/niche
Who is your message and marketing communications directed to? What is the personality of your potential customers? Who are the ideal clients for your service and products?
2. Your prospects’ and clients’ problems
What is the issue or concern that frustrates your prospects and clients? What’s not working for them or could work better? Why does your target market need your services or products?
3. Your benefits and solutions
What solution can you provide to alleviate your target market’s problem? What will your customers experience from working with you or buying your product? What are all the ways that your product or service helps your client? What are the actual results?
4. Your marketing message
Your marketing message is what you say to get people interested in your services. You want your marketing message to grab your prospect’s attention, show them how you can solve their problem, why they should trust you and why it’s in their best interest to do business with you.
Once you’ve got this marketing foundation laid down it makes doing a marketing plan much easier and quicker!
Can you think of anything that I’ve missed? Please let me know!
As kids the summer was when we got a break from learning but as adults, summer is sometimes the best time to “up our knowledge” - especially as small business owners. Summer is usually a bit slower for many small service businesses and we also tend to slow down a bit ourselves in summer. Must be a left-over behaviour from when we were young!
If you want to increase your knowledge about marketing your business for success and profit, then I’d love you to join me (and my co-host and tour guide Marty Marsh) on the Marketing Summer Tour!
It’s a week-long telesummit (July 20 - 24) that features 15 fantastic speakers, plus a “knock-your-socks-off” Mystery Guest AND many bonus products and a couple bonus calls.
For all the juicy, business-changing details, visit www.marketingsummertour.com . But hurry, there’s Early Bird pricing, a chance to guess the Mystery Guest and win an Apple iPod Nano, plus an opportunity to “pay” for your ticket with our affiliate program.
I hope to see you on the bus!
June 16, 2009
Sometimes it seems like I’m chained to my computer and this past week has felt like that! I’ve been very busy writing copy for emails, webpages and affiliate programs for the exciting Marketing Summer Tour that I’m co-hosting along with my friend Marty Marsh.
This is the first time that I’ve put on something so big (16 speakers over one week in July) and boy, is it a lot of work! It’s very gratifying but there sure are a lot of details to consider and cover off.
I’m so glad that I’ve got a partner (Marty) to help with the work but also to keep a positive and upbeat attitude when we run into snags…and it’s a guarantee isn’t it, that we will run into some!
That’s one of the wonderful things about being in business - getting to meet great people like Marty. I encourage you to seek out and consider joint ventures with other like-minded business people. The rewards are so great and it really can help catapult you into a “bigger” playing field by giving you the courage and confidence of having someone along with you.
Another of these people I’ve been lucky to meet is Usha Krishnan. She’s a great copywriter and has written for all kinds of different publications, blogs and websites. I encourage you to visit her website www.writechoiceforyou.com and check out her work!
I’d love to hear about great people you’ve met along your journey!
June 14, 2009
A useful and popular way to set up your product and service offerings is in the form of a funnel.
The idea is to keep moving people through your marketing funnel. Once they’ve given you permission to market to them by providing their name and email address, it’s up to you to woo them and guide them to a purchase.
You start with lead-generating products or services such as a free-giveaway, teleseminars, joint venture, ezine ads, blog, networking, podcasts, article marketing and speaking. When you do any of these marketing strategies, you must collect people’s name and email address.
You want to keep in touch and continue to offer value via: ezine/newsletter, contests, e-courses, free teleseminars, special emails, free reports, CDs, audio mini-seminars and so on.
Then you start introducing paid products and services. Once someone becomes a customer, you can start to upsell them with additional products and services that may appeal to them. For example, a monthly membership club or a home study course with CDs and a printed workbook.
At the bottom of your funnel you would have at least one big-ticket offer that only a few of your list will take advantage of but the return on investment for you is very high. Examples would be a year long coaching mastermind including retreats or a 2 day seminar/workshop for 100 participants.
You want to make sure that the shape of your marketing funnel is just right to help guide your prospects and clients through different levels and pricing of products and services. You want to have something to offer everyone in your marketing process, whether it’s a new lead, a first-time customer or a repeat client of yours.
June 11, 2009
Your marketing plan needs to be based on your objectives or goals. The tactics and strategies that you put in your plan are supposed to “do” something that in turn fulfills the objectives you’ve outlined.
It’s impossible to make up a map of where you want to go if you don’t know your destination! What objectives and goals you choose to focus on - both overall and for specific periods of time - will determine what you include in your marketing plan.
Your objectives and goals for your marketing plan can depend on many things:
- what stage of the marketing process you’re stuck in and want to zero in on
- what line of your business you are focusing on, i.e. specific products and/or services
- your financial goals and budget
- which target group or niche you want to appeal to
- introducing new products or services
- changes in the competitive environment
- going after a new audience or portion of your target group
- want to expand your reach into other geographic areas
- try out new marketing directions, i.e. put on a workshop, start public speaking, build an online presence, and so on
- changes in your industry
- your strengths and weaknesses - personally and for your business
- new opportunities that are offered or found
- change in your business direction and business model
Take the time to get really clear on what objectives you want your marketing plan to address and fix. This will help you pinpoint more easily which marketing tactics and strategies would be the best to include in your plan.
What are some objectives that YOU want to achieve with your marketing plan?
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