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| Do You Really Know What Business You Are In? |
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Of course you do. You are a technician, professional service provider, or maybe a retailer right? BZZZZZZ…Wrong Answer! You are in the marketing business. The reality is that we are all in the same business. Our job is to get prospects and suspects to know, like, and trust us. Regardless of what service we provide, or product we sell we are all in this together. Without that, you don’t have a business. Often, small business owners ask me if I provide marketing coaching to their specific type of business. My answer, “Yes, I provide coaching to your business because you and I are in the same business”. If you are familiar with Pareto’s law (or otherwise known as the 80/20 rule) you understand that 80% of your results come from 20% of your effort, your clients, you name it… Here’s the problem… Many businesses forget that they are a marketing business so they go on spending 80% of their time DOING their thing and not marketing their business. No strategy, no plan, no time spent investing in marketing knowledge, diving into tactics without a strategy, and approaching each event as a one shot pony PR event. The result… Lack of leads, lack of revenue, and never truly achieving their dreams with their small business. It all starts with realizing you are running a marketing business. Sure your target, niche and message is different but the fundamentals are the same. If you really want to reach your goals in 2010, stop right now and think about how that one simple shift in mindset from doing your THING to building a marketing company will explode your growth this year. Remember, what you focus on will expand. Go Target, Attack, and Profit!
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(Jeopardy music playing in the background)
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Tags: | Go Big Or Go Home! |
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Are you going to GO BIG this year? Are you going to stretch yourself and see what you can really accomplish? Or..are you going to hunker down in your bunker and wait for the storm to blow over? Hopefully the former, and not the latter… Here’s the deal…As a small business owner and operator you have a huge advantage over the larger businesses in many ways. You can react quickly to change, create transparent relationships with you and your company and not just a brand. People like this, and so do your prospects. The marketing tools online have level set the playing field for the little guy, but you have to big, and think bigger than you are currently. You have the entire globe at your fingertips. They are looking for products and services from businesses regardless of location. The world is flat, and getting flatter by the day… THINK BIG, think about how your can morph your product or service and reach businesses outside your local area. Transform your business, start providing valuable information about your trade or skill. Open up opportunities for your business and listen to your prospects. Hopefully your marketing strategy for 2010 includes GOING BIG! If not, tear it up and think bigger, have some fun and challenge the boundaries of what your brain tells you is possible. And more importantly, quit listening to the bad news, fear mongering, and BS on the TV and focus on what you are going to get done in this new economy. Now… Go Target, Attack, And Profit!
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I have one question for you…| 3 Tips For Leveraging Social Media In 2010 |
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The problem is people immediately go straight to tactics and don’t look at the “meta” view of Social Media and how it fits into their overall strategy. Here are a couple things that we do know (regardless of whether you believe in Social Media or not): 1) Google and the other search engines can now index data in real time from your website, customer comments, competitors sites, press releases, and virtually anything else you will let them index. 2) Your prospects and customers are talking about products and services every day. 3) Your competitors are getting savvy and realizing that they can have their own “channel” to communicate with your prospects like the big boys in real time with total transparency. Let’s face it, one of your customers (satisfied or not) can go to Yelp.com and post anything they want about your company it can literally dominate the search engines in minutes. Scary? You bet. Especially if you aren’t tuned into what is being said about your company, your employees, or your product and services. You can’t hide in the sand, the MACHINE is just too powerful…I tell my clients to get on the wave, or prepare to get crushed. Here are three (3) tips that will help your business in 2010 regardless of how much Social Media you want to consume: 1) Listen – It is critical you leverage Social Media to determine what is being said about your business, industry, services, wants, needs, likes, and dislikes. By tuning into these conversations you will be well prepared to position your products and services against your competitors, but more importantly they will be positioned with “real” data. There has never been a more efficient medium to perform market research quickly for the local small business. 2) Your Name = Virtual Real Estate – Just like physical real estate, your name and your companies name have real estate online. You have two choices…You can claim it and control what is being said about you and your company, or you can let others define it for you. What would you rather have? Dumb question I know… 3) Go Global – If you are thinking local you are thinking TOO SMALL. Go global with your thinking. You have an entire world online to discuss your products and services too. Even local service organizations have figured out how to sell valuable how to information around the globe. The result…More local recognition. More expert status in their niche. And more importantly more business locally as a result. Get past the buzz and take some action in 2010. I guarantee you will see some results. Let’s make some profits together in 2010! Cheers,
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Happy New Year! I wanted to start the year off with a couple tips for those of you that haven’t jumped into the Social Media fray. With all the buzz in 2009 about Social Media, it has left many small businesses wondering where to start. For some, you are probably grappling with whether Social Media is a viable strategy for their business at all. When you think of Social Media, many small business owners immediately think of Facebook, Twitter, and Digg.|
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