Archive for the ‘Marketing Your Business’ Category

Hey Guy’s & Gal’s,

Lately I’ve been hearing a lot about the opportunity to advertise on Facebook. Though I personally do not use Facebook, and I think mainly do to a time constraint on mt part, I’d like to know if you my followers from twitter and readers actually use Facebook for advertising and how you think it has either helped your business or not.

In a recent article on EzineArticles by Louise Steiner on the 12 Golden Rules, and How to Create Effective Facebook ads, I though Louise hit the nail on the head, even for advertising in general. Read the rest of this entry »

Is Social Networking a Successful Marketing Tool?

Social networking seems to be a major part of the average business owners marketing plan. People are spending several hours per week (or day) updating their profiles, looking for connections tweeting, and more in the hopes of building their business.

While many businesses declare that most of their marketing success is due to social networking efforts, I am skeptical about the value found in these claims. Yes, I am extremely positive that there are a lucky few that have landed a great sale based on a connection they made through LinkedIn, or someone they “friended” on Facebook or something they tweeted about on Twitter. Nevertheless, the majority of us have not had this type of success.

Working with clients on their marketing plan, I have heard claims of great social networking success. When we drill down into the statistics of what was achieved, however, more often than not, the greatest success from these networking sites lies in the number of connections, friends and followers that have been collected. Generally speaking, no actual personal contact with these people has been achieved – in fact, most of the people on these lists are completely unknown to the account holder. We are making “friends” with people that we have never met, don’t know, and will, in all likelihood never meet. In some cases, we will never even know their real name!

If one of your marketing goals is to grow your social networking fan base, then by all means, count this type of activity as a win. If, however, you are interested in more traditional business growth as defined by increased sales, customer loyalty, an expanded customer base and better branding, then perhaps more effort needs to be put into other marketing outlets. After all, you may have tens of thousands of people following you on Twitter, but if your business doesn’t turn a profit, can you really say that this is a successful marketing tool for you?

Don’t misunderstand, I do believe that social networking sites have a place within a comprehensive, well-thought out, integrated marketing plan.

Active participation with people linking back to you and/or your posts are a great boost to your website rankings. These sites also give you the opportunity to brand your business at no cost to you. They can also be used to drive traffic to other marketing media in your arsenal (e.g. your website, a promotional event, a TV/radio/newspaper advertisement).

If social networking is a part of your overall marketing plan and your branding and message are consistent and professional within the parameters of those sites, then you can certainly glean some type of success from them. If, however, you just sit at your computer updating your sites and letting people know of your latest adventures in anticipation of your thousands of connections, friends, and followers to start doing business with you, then you may be in for a very long wait.

I’d love to hear your comments and your thoughts on how you use social media and what steps you take to make sure that it returns a positive ROI.

Have a wonderful day.

What No Sales?

Just recently I put on a birthday sale where I thought at least a few people would take me up on my offer, but low and behold not one single taker on over 1,200 visitors to the post that I put out last week.

And I made it real simple.

• 1. I had a contact form so everyone could ask away
• 2. had descriptions of all the products I was putting on sale
• 3. reduced the prices by almost 50%
• 4. and included the by now buttons

and low and behold still no takers.

Since I didn’t get any takers it got me to thinking if I was doing anything wrong. And to be truthfully honest with you I didn’t think there was anything wrong with that.

So I joined www.Fiverr.com and placed one gig and got one sale. Now granted, I only got $5.00 bucks for doing a custom twitter background, but a sale none the less.

Now don’t get me wrong I had a wonderful time creating the twitter background and I gained a new customer and a referral from that.

But it almost made me believe that you have to practically give away the farm in order to make any money. Now I know some designers and developers that are getting twice what I charge and they are in the same boat as I am, we’re just not making any money.

What gives?

What do I have too do to make any money from my services.

Can you help me solve my problem?
Hopelessly confused.
Tim

Hey Guy’s and Gal’s,

I hope your week is going well, I just wanted to drop you a quick note and let you know about a friend of mine that has some excellent thoughts and ideas on driving traffic to your blog or website,

Her name is Denis Wakeman, and she also has a 5 part Video Course that will really open your eyes over at http://masterbusinessblogging.com/

Here’s her article below:
Enjoy!

16 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog
You’ve got your blog set up and you’ve started posting pithy, useful information that your niche market would benefit from and enjoy. Days go by, you keep publishing, but no one comments and your traffic stats are barely registering. What do you do?

Like any website you own, you must do some blog promotion to start driving traffic to your site. Here are 16 steps, in no particular order of importance, that you can start doing now to get traffic moving to your blog.
Read the rest of this entry »

I am often asked how an individual can brand themselves and if personal branding is as valuable as corporate branding. Personal branding can single an individual out as an expert in their field, but are there downfalls to personal branding vs. company branding?

Truth is personal branding is easier than company branding. Why? Because if you believe in your talent, in your skills and ability – it’s easier to sell what you believe in. Your image is already created – you just have to market it. How do you market yourself? That’s easy. You must become:

A pro in your industry; an expert in your field.

With that said are there downfalls to personal branding? Absolutely. Unless you plan to work until your last living day, it will be difficult to transition the brand to someone else. After all you are the BRAND! If you are ok with the fact that in order to transition out of the brand you will need to create a new one that your consumers can grasp onto then personal branding may just be for you.

When branding yourself remember that you must create a strong and consistent brand. You cannot skimp just because it’s about you.

Strong brands are clear about who they are and what they are not; which is why branding yourself can be an easy process. You already know who you are and what you are not. Strong brands are also consistent; it’s easy to be consistent in who you are.

Let’s take for example Madonna. She was her brand. Since the start of her career she has had the ability to change consistently throughout her career. This made her stand out from among other performers. This in essence strengthened her individual brand.

By branding yourself effectively you will:

* Establish yourself as an expert in your chosen field.
* Build a solid reputation within your industry.
* Increase your notoriety and improve your perceived value in the marketplace.

The key to successfully branding yourself and doing it effectively is to first establish a personal brand identity. Once you have done that focus that message on who you are and what you stand for within your chosen field. Your final step is to get the word out through a variety of media channels that are viewed by the people most likely to be interested in your message.

As people begin to see your name and become aware of the benefit and knowledge that you offer, before you know it thousands of people will not only know who you are but they will begin to seek out your services and expertise. They will identify with your brand which is YOU.

I’d love to know your take on personal branding, please post your comments below.
Thanks again and have a wonderful day.
Tim