Complete Marketing Systems

Overcome The Overwhelm In Social Media

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 15:15:31 +0000

Deciding which platforms you want to use on social media can very easily seem overwhelming. The list of possibilities out there of different places you can participate in social media are numerous, and could be as long as your arm if you started to make a list of all of them – especially when you start adding in all the niche topics and possibilities within your industry.

A platform really refers to the different social media sources you can be posting on. For example, Facebook is a platform, so is Twitter, and so on. So, it can be overwhelming thinking about all you have to do in your business and how can you add social media. And, then add the choice of which platforms are the best to be on for your particular situation can seem a bit daunting.

There are hundreds of platforms out there, but you only need to make use of a few to have a great marketing tool that will continually feed your business. Social media should be fun! Social media is about getting to know people, and letting them getting to know you as well. It’s like having conversations and this is a just another way to connect.

Social media is today’s front porch. In earlier times, neighbors and friends would sit on the front porch of their houses, with a glass of ice tea, and talk about the neighbors, or the kids, or what was going on at city hall, or whatever. They also talked about worldly things and happenings that were affecting their lives.

Now we converse with people through social media instead of on the front porch.

So, start to have fun with social media, and know that it’s perfectly ok to start slowly.

There are really 3 platforms you want to concentrate on, and for the majority of us, those are the only 3 we really need to be concerned about. You want to be on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. If you are a business or professional person you really want to be on LinkedIn because there is a lot of business for you there…if you use the right strategies and put in just a little bit of time.

You should also have your own YouTube channel (which now makes the big 3 platforms, 4). The advantage of YouTube is you can record video and it feels more like you are talking to people, they can see your face, and feel like they are getting to know you more.

Start with those 3 or 4, and don’t worry about all the other ones out there. Start with these and get these down so you are actually making money with social media.

If you are a business person, social media is just a different media.

You should be making money with social media, measuring your results, and know why you are using this particular media, which means you start with the end in mind and have a strategy – just like you do with all the rest of your marketing.

If you feel like you want to add platforms, you certainly can, but it’s best to start with these 4, move forward at a pace that feels right to you and then add more platforms as you get more and more comfortable with social media, and as you are making money with the ones you are currently using. Once you have mastered the money making strategies for social media, you can use them across all the platforms to continue to have success.

Marketers Have Success, Then Stop Doing What Worked

admin — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:15:20 +0000

It doesn’t matter what level of marketer you are, you either have already, or will at some point in your career, make this mistake.

You are going along and things are going pretty well. You’re in the middle of a marketing campaign and you’re getting good results with what you’re doing. You get through the entire campaign and have tremendous results – better than you ever got before with any program you’ve done.

The next time you want to market that exact same program, you do something completely different, instead of going back to the campaign that was successful the last time, and doing it again, you try something new. You develop a whole new campaign; new mail pieces, new emails, new everything. And, when this campaign isn’t as successful as the last one, you wonder why.

As the old wise man says, if it isn’t broke, don’t fit it!

Part of this need to develop something new and different simply comes from being an entrepreneur. It’s just in your nature to try new things – you get bored doing the same thing over and over again, so you develop a whole new marketing campaign.

Not surprisingly, your new campaign doesn’t get the same outstanding results you had before, and most of the time you won’t be able to figure out why.

Or, maybe you got great results with the new campaign you created, and that’s what we all hope for, but you spent a lot of time and money you could have been spending on a totally new product, seminar, launch, etc.

It may seem simple, or even too easy, but the smart marketer continues to do what has worked in the past. Do it over and over again, until the results begin to diminish – at that point, you know it’s time to start testing other marketing methods, developing new marketing pieces, marketing in another media, etc.

Go back into your business and look at things that worked in the past, see if you’re still doing them, or if you have abandoned them. If there’s a reason to have moved on to something new, then that’s great, but if there isn’t you want to consider pulling that old campaign off the shelf and doing it again.

Don’t stop doing what works, if it works, do more of it, to a new list and/or to the same list. Keep doing the things that are working while you’re doing new things. Don’t abandon the tried and true programs you’ve already invested time and money in to make successful.

Reuse and redistribute the things you already have. You don’t have to use them in the exact same format, but why make new when you can reuse what you already have. Sometimes a new headline on a mail piece that is proven and has worked in the past is all you need.

Instead of constantly coming up with new content, use what you already have. What have you done recently that you can use in a different media to create a new product? Have you done a teleseminar? Could you use that to make some CD’s and a transcript for a new product to sell to your clients? You could, but do you?

Book Review of “We Are All Weird” by Seth Godin

admin — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:15:01 +0000

Seth Godin is one of my favorite authors, and not just because “We Are All Weird,” like most of his other books, are relatively small and easy to read, but because he always make me think a little differently about things and it’s also outside the box thinking…which I like a lot too.

This little book is all centered around the concept that mass is no longer scalable and even though we did business this way for a long time, it’s not what’s working now or what will work in the future. Mass was the way we used to be able to reach the middle which was the largest portion of the population, but now, the opportunity is really is selling to and even becoming “the weird.”

Now, we all want more information, more choices, more freedom, and more interaction. As the population changes, and wants different things those who are flexible and willing to adapt to these changes will make the most money and have more chances to serve their clients.

Weird really means you have made a choice and that you have stood up for what you believe in and for what you want…I think based on this definition, we should all be weird! Weird is about making a choice!

The rise and popularity of the internet alone has given everyone a lot more choices than we’ve ever had before. And, if you believe the internet is still in its infancy, like many do, think about how weird it’s about to get with more and more choices for all of us all the time!

And, what’s really cool about all this for business owners and entrepreneurs is that it makes our marketing far more efficient.

We all want what we want, and it’s getting easier and easier to get it…and to provide it too.

We can all now profit from being different…I, for one, like that idea…how about you?

To purchase a copy of this book click here: We Are All Weird

Are You Missing These Hidden Streams of Income In Your Done-For-You Services?

admin — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:45:38 +0000

If you do any kin d of done-for-you services, maybe you provide a newsletter for your clients, or write blog posts, or articles, any kind of marketing via social media, event planning, direct mail, or anything where you provide the service for your clients, you should look to see if there are ways you can utilize the media for yourself.

For example, if you are providing a done-for-you service, like a newsletter, which has a wide audience, you need to think about ways you can carve out some real estate on that newsletter where you can have your information.

Let’s say, you’re doing a done-for-you service of a newsletter, for a group of dentists, all over the country and they’re handing their newsletters out and sending newsletters out to their clients, we’re literally talking about thousands of people getting this information, all over the country. What kind of space can you carve out for yourself, maybe it’s a space that’s two inch by two inch square, or bigger, the size doesn’t really matter. The point is that you can now promote something you’re doing, a service, or another done-for-you service that you provide.

Somewhere on there, you should have your own real estate, so people know that you’re the one who’s actually putting that newsletter together. Let’s face it, a dentist has patients who might be business owners, who might know someone who is looking for your services, or even want it for themselves. This is a great way for you to very inexpensively own a piece of that newsletter, to advertise your done-for-you services.

Another big thing to think about, even if you aren’t a done-for-you business, is how can you own your own media? A newsletter, TV station, online Web TV, online radio show? How can you own media that sends information to your clients that you control?

That’s the key, you now control it, so now you can do some added promotion, and you can talk to them about the things you have going on in your business.

Stretch your imagination and think about the ways you can add to other people’s promotions, or things you’re already doing that you can include – areas where you can promote what you’re doing. Especially in the done-for-you business, but there are more than likely areas in your own business where you’re missing the boat on this as well – areas where you can be making more money for really no additional work on your part, and you should be taking advantage of those.

Are You A Student of Your Business Or Are You Missing Something?

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:45:37 +0000

Are you a ravenous student who just can’t seem to get enough books, tapes and courses in your niche, field, or in some topic area that makes a big difference in your business? Or, is the idea of reading a book, listening to an educational CD or DVD, or going to a seminar or workshop, to learn, appalling to you?

If you’re reading this, it’s more likely you’re a ravenous student who just can’t seem to get enough, you devour books, you’re constantly listening to educational or self-help materials (even when you’re exercising or on an airplane), and you invest mightily in yourself.

The question to ask yourself is are you being a smart student, are you studying the things you need to be studying, reading the books you need to be reading, and listening to the people you should be listening to? At first glance, this may seem like a silly question, but if you look at it a little deeper you’ll find it’s a great question.

As an Information Marketer, Direct Response Marketer, Event Planner, and entrepreneur, I’m constantly investing in new materials to help me be just a little better, to learn the best, new way to do something, to get just one step ahead, or get just one new idea I can use.

Not too long ago, one of my coaches and mentors shocked me when she said to me “Stop reading marketing books, stop investing in those things, you know everything you need to know to be a world class marketer and stay in front of the pack if you never read another marketing book for the rest of your life.”

Frankly, I was shocked, because this mentor is an author, a reader, and a learner herself.

However, after some further examination and a few more conversations, I understood exactly where she was coming from. You see, we all have a tendency to become a little one-sided with the things we love and are good at, so that’s where we tend to stay.

Now, my coach wasn’t suggesting that we all go out and learn a new skill or try to strengthen our skills in areas that we don’t enjoy and are never going to be very good at (for that, the best advice I ever heard was from Joe Polish who says “strengthen your strengths and hire your weaknesses” – that’s great advice). Instead she was suggesting we all round ourselves out a little more.

For example, by reading fiction novels, copywriters improve their ability to write copy, by going to movies, we all allow our imaginations to soar, giving us fresh, new ideas for our business, and by adding flexibility training to their workout routines, bodybuilders and athletes, get bigger and stronger.

Speaking of bodybuilders and athletes, the one thing they are obsessive about is trying to make sure they don’t miss anything their body’s need. It’s not unusual for them to take handfuls of vitamins and supplements multiple times a day, and if you ask them about each one, they know what they’re and what they do for them. Most will also admit that they aren’t sure they need all of them, but they take it all because they don’t want to take a chance of their bodies needing something and not having it, or not having enough of it while they train, and as their bodies recover from the training.

As business people, we sometimes have the same philosophy – we feel as if we need to know everything and have to be able to do everything in our businesses in order for them to succeed. The exact opposite is in fact true in every case.

If we will focus on, and concentrate on, the things we do really well, and work to make them better, hire out, or possibly eliminate, the other things, we’d have more success, make more money, and have more free time to enjoy life and the things we’ve worked so hard for.

Being a student of your craft, of your niche, of your field, is very important, especially in today’s fast moving world. Make sure as you study and learn, you’re focusing on your area of expertise, but that you aren’t so focused that you forget the ancillary or secondary areas that are important as well.

One of the reasons we sometimes see weekend athletes pull muscles and have injuries is that while they spend time building the main muscles, the ones we all know the names of, like their pecs, quads, abdomen, biceps, and triceps, they don’t spend time working on building the secondary or supporting muscles that are also important.

It reminds me of the big, strong weightlifter, with the huge chest and arms but the toothpick legs. It always cracks me up, he’s unbalanced. It’s as if he doesn’t know he has legs.

Don’t be the out of balance weightlifter. Instead, be a well-rounded student of your niche and craft who gets all angles and all parts of it.

When you are the full-bodied athlete in your business who continues to get educated, grow and learn, you and your business will be more successful!

~The Basics of Branding~ Key Concepts You Must Know

admin — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:41:15 +0000

Many marketers and business owners understand Branding from the standpoint of other people’s businesses. From a surface point of view if you will. Say, McDonalds – Burger King – Coca Cola and Pepsi. For the business owner and marketer it can sometimes be very difficult to Brand your business and make yourself stand out amongst the crowd.

What is Branding, Really?

Simply put, remember the old cowboy movies when they would but their ranch logo laden irons in the fire? They would get them burning hot and grab an unsuspecting member of their cattle herd and burn them with the “branding” Iron. They could now easily differentiate their cattle from the next rancher’s cattle.

In business it’s not really that different! Branding is the process by which you differentiate your business from your competitors. Just as a brand will allow your cattle to be recognized among the rest of the herd, your business’s brand must set you apart. Although your name and logo are important features of your brand, there’s a lot more to it than that alone.

Your objective is purely to “Own” Your Category in the Minds of Your Customers.

Company branding is one of the most important components of any marketing plan, particularly when you are making an effort to establish your company’s position in the marketplace. Identity, differentiation, and reputation are all part of the company branding package.

A brand is essentially a way of communicating a promise or an exchange between you and your customers. It is a way of you communicating to your customer who you are and what you promise to deliver to them.

How your potential customers and existing customers perceive your company largely relates to how effective your brand is and how it is portrayed, recognized, respected and remembered in the community. A brand is so much more than a name or a logo.

One way to create a brand is to invent a new product or service. Being first to market is a huge advantage. However, that’s not always necessary. Most of us run businesses in categories filled with competitors. What’s the best way for us to create a strong brand?

One method lies in narrowing the focus of your business until you’ve created a new category you can be first in. Very much like niche marketing. Think focus. Create your brand that clearly identifies you and the promise it portraits to the customer.

Company branding helps your advertising. When people are familiar with your company name, logo, colors, products and your brand, they relate with feelings and emotions. In their minds if their experience is good, the buying decision is made easily and with little thought on the customer’s part. By recognition of your brand – they intuitively know.

This is helpful when you place a commercial or a print advertisement, as the people would easily connect to the company with this brand name. Then you can just concentrate on one thing – selling your products.

A word of caution! People buy based on emotions, feelings and experience. If the experience was less than great, your brand can work against you.

When people start recognizing your logo, and come to know the great products and services your company stands for, and then they will rely and associate with the products as well. Your brand is now solid and working for you.

You should create a niche for your business first, and then branding will be much easier. It takes a significant amount of effort to market your products well and your brand needs to be sustained over a relatively long period of time. Your brand should be used in nearly every aspect of your business to be strong. By everything I mean; direct mail, web sites, logos, staff, everything. Disney is probably the best study on branding.

Right from the very beginning, you have to work towards building a strong brand and creating brand awareness. If you have a strong brand presence, people will automatically be drawn to you when they are looking for that particular product or service. This is what every business aims to achieve.

Book Review of “Lightworker” by Sahvanna Arienta

admin — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:15:19 +0000

A few months ago, in a conversation with a group of women I love and respect, somebody said everyone in the group was a “lightworker” and made a special point to point to me and say, “you too Diane.” So, a few weeks later when I found myself in a bookstore (of course, buying books) I was shocked to find myself in front of a book titled “Lightworker,” by Sahvanna Arienta.

Well, it seemed it couldn’t just be a coincident, so I picked up the book and decided to go right to reading it. I have to admit that parts of this booked stretched me, but that’s what life and growing and staying open to new things is all about, so I kept reading.

The book is really about our energy and whether we bring light or dark to the world, especially in these rapidly changing times.

The part of the book that stretched me was when Sahvanna Arienta started talking about mediums, spirits leaving the earth and some of them being here longer than they should be, for a variety of reasons, and even attaching themselves to us.

In “Lightworker,” Sahvanna Arienta discusses how we get guidance from angels and how each of us have guides around us. Whether we are tapped into them and aware of them or acknowledge these things in our lives is another story.

When you think about it we all get downloads, have intuition and feelings all the time. Some of us are just more in tuned to it and pay attention to those messages than others.

I know one thing for sure, if I can help the world by spreading my light, and if somebody calls that being a “lightworker” then I’m more than ok with that.

To purchase a copy of this book for your library click here: Lightworker: Understand Your Sacred Role as Healer, Guide, and Being of Light

Are Your Marketing Messages Unclear . . . Are You Sending Messages About Cats To Dog Lovers?

admin — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:38:56 +0000

I received a gardening magazine and a chef magazine in the mail the other day. I have no idea why. I grew up on a farm so I pulled weeds and did yard work more than the average person. Now don’t get me wrong, I love a beautiful yard, flowers, and all that – as long as somebody else does the work. If it were up to me to take care of, I’d tear the lawn up, pour concrete, and paint it green – no fuss, no muss.

And, although I am a good cook, and enjoy doing it when I do cook or bake – mostly during the holiday seasons, there are about 1 00 things I’d rather spend my time doing than cooking.

What does any of this have to do with the marketing topic of message to market match? Everything! If you owned a gardening supply company why would you want to waste money sending your (expensive, full color) catalog to somebody who has less than zero interest in what you’re selling? You wouldn’t.

And, the real question is how much money is this gardening company spending (wasting) sending the same (expensive, full color) catalog to potentially thousands, or hundreds of thousands of people who have no interest in gardening.

There simply isn’t a match in the product and the person they sent it to. No messages to market match in this case.

Would you send a dog lover and owner, who is allergic to cats, information about your newsletter on Persian cats, to try to get them to buy? Of course not. It seems silly to even suggest. But that’s exactly what the gardening and chef companies are doing.

The more targeted you message is to your market the more likely they are to buy from you – because they already have a keen interest in what you have to offer them. You have the advantage of entering their minds and having a discussion about something they are already thinking about and that puts you in a position of strength from the start.

By spending some time getting to know who your customers are, demographically and psychographically, you will save yourself thousands of dollars on printing and mailing that you won’t need to do. As a smart business owner and marketer, you’ll only be talking to those people who already have an interest in your area.

You Won’t Take My Credit Card, Why?

admin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:26:35 +0000

No, it wasn’t that the credit card declined. No, it the card wasn’t expired. Yes, it had my signature on the back of the card.

This frame shop didn’t take the type of credit card I was trying to use.

Ok, no big deal, I’ll use the standard MasterCard or Visa that every business takes so I can pay for the frame job and get on my way.

But no, now I have to hear the story about why they don’t take the card I want to use. I have to hear about how this woman’s mother had left her purse at a gas station when she was moving across country and didn’t realize it until she was 250 miles away and stopping for gas again. Well, this company was called to wire money and they wouldn’t do it, but another card did, so they stopped taking that card in their store. They called and cancelled the service. And, you better believe they told them why too.

Believe me, that’s the short story – I stood there for more than 10 minutes while she explained every detail of the ride and why her mother was moving, etc.

I find this kind of logic silly. I understand sometimes you have to make a stand about something – sometimes just out of principal, but when doing so could adversely affect your business, you have to put emotion aside and do what’s best for your business. What that old saying about cutting off your nose to spite your face?

And, who are you really hurting by doing something like this? The credit card company is hardly going to feel the loss of one little frame shop from a small town in Florida. The frame shop however could lose business by not taking this specific credit card – especially if it’s the only card someone carried.

Certainly as the owner of the store, you don’t want to be telling customers these kinds of stories. It doesn’t shed a good light on you or your business. This lady would have been better off to have just said they didn’t take the type of credit card I wanted to use and asking me if I wanted to use another credit card.

The real issue and thing to think about here is what message are you sending your clients. Also, sometimes it helps to examine your thought processes. Does what you’re doing make good business sense? Or, are you making decisions based on emotions that should be kept separate from the business climate (hard as that may be to do)?

Take some time every month, every week, everyday to examine your thought processes and see if what you’re doing makes logical business sense. If it doesn’t, don’t worry, just change what you’re doing, how you’re processing, and move forward making better decisions and choices.

Book Review of “A Dog’s Purpose” by W. Bruce Cameron

admin — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:15:48 +0000

Well, I told you I was going to do some different things and read some different books this year, and here is another one. “A Dog’s Purpose,” by W. Bruce Cameron, was a fun read and a great book with some real life lessons.

On a recent long trip, I read all the real books I had packed and needed another one, so I wandered into a book seller at one of the airports I was in and came across this one to read on the way up and down when I have to turn off my kindle.

I’m glad I picked this one up.

Without revealing the whole story, this book is about one dog’s journey through multiple lifetimes finding it’s (I say it because it the dog had different names and experienced being both male and female throughout the story) purpose each time.

This book made me laugh and it made me cry, it was sad and happy, but it also made me think about how so many of us strive and look and push trying to find our life purpose when it might be as easy as what the dog found multiple times in this great story.

Maybe, just maybe, our purpose is as simple as that we all are here to love unconditionally, to get along and to make the best of our circumstances, while striving to be the best we can be.

To Love And Be Love…seems like a pretty good purpose to me.

How about you?

To purchase a copy of this book for your library click here: A Dog’s Purpose