Those of you who have spent time studying economics have no doubt heard of Michael Porter. In 1979, he was published in the Harvard Business Review with his ground breaking thinking about competitive strategy. You might be thinking — this is a blog about marketing — and you’re right –it is! But marketing strategy is inextricably tied to your overall business strategy— isn’t it?
You have one don’t you, I mean — a business strategy?
Well let’s assume you do — here is a refresher about things to think about as you plan your marketing strategy for 2011!
Let’s just try this exercise on for Read the rest of this entry »
Too often people fail to look at YouTube as a way to promote their business. Sure, if you’re a Rock Star, you’re there – but what if you are a Gem Cutter, or a Life Coach, or a web designer? Would it make sense for you to promote your business on YouTube? It sure does and here are 10 tips for how to get started:
1. Use your Keywords – yes, this is YouTube, but a little known fact is that it is the second largest “search engine” in the world – right behind Google. So if you want people to find you, use your keywords. Use it in the Title of your video, in the title of any articles you might reference, and in the YouTube tags that are available with each video. Read the rest of this entry »
Let’s face it! Some business ideas are better than others. If you haven’t figured out which businesses are likely to take off even in slow times, then you need to get the latest study that shows which of the industries are most likely to continue to make money in these times.
Yes, we’re all hoping that 2011 is going to be the best year in quite awhile, but one thing I know is this – the Calvary is NOT coming. You cannot sit around hoping – you’ve got to take action. Only action is going to make that hope come true – action in the right direction.
Here’s the bottom line – persistent action, along with the right idea will Read the rest of this entry »
In this economy it is easy, as a small business owner, to look at ways to save money. It is important to make sure every dollar is wisely spent and that means keeping the number of staff positions to a minimum.
Some of you have probably even thought about doing your own books! If you have, I’m sure your quickly relinquished the job back to your bookkeeper, coming away with a whole new appreciation for that vital role. But you don’t hire a bookkeeper and keep her on staff Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve been doing some “pro-bono” consulting work for a friend of mine who is just now trying to get her new business up and running. We were talking about the fact that she had a great idea – I’m not going to tell you what it was, because she’s still working on it and it has some pretty good potential.
She wasn’t keen on making up a business plan because she wasn’t looking for any start-up capital to speak of and she believed she had the plan in her head. But when I started asking some pretty basic questions, her plans fell far short. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m a huge Jim Rohn fan, and even in his death, his words are never very far from my sub-conscious. What he had to say about success and failure, was profound and I want to share them with you today.
This from Jim Rohn:
“Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. We do not fail overnight. Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices. To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgment repeated every day.
Now why would someone make an error in judgment and then be so foolish as to repeat it every day? The answer is because Read the rest of this entry »
I just got done giving three seminars on Social Media Marketing and the over-riding comments I received were:
I don’t have time
I don’t know where to start
I don’t know how to connect
If this sound like you, I’ve got five simple things you can do today to get started and be effective to help grow your business.
1. Develop your plan. As with anything worthwhile in life, you’ve got to set goals, write them down, and really understand why they are important for you. Take the time to think about what you want to accomplish using social media. Once you’ve done that, dissect why it is important for you to achieve the goal. Research shows goals are most often met if the REASON for meeting Read the rest of this entry »
Every good marketer has heard about the four P’s: Product, Place, Price and Promotion. It is the foundation for all marketing strategies ever concocted by old-line marketers. But what about today’s tech-savvy marketers? The names have stayed the same, but the promotion techniques have surely differed.
Promotions (think advertising) used to be done in various media: newspaper, radio, TV, tradeshows, flyers, brochures – it was all outbound. Marketers sent their messages out to the marketplace in hopes the marketplace would respond.
These days, savvy marketers are using Read the rest of this entry »
Amazingly enough, I still find businesses that do not have websites! I speak with business owners nearly every day, and I still find people who either don’t have a website at all, or do not have an effective website.
Some of these business owners don’t get why they need a website – they say, “We don’t really need a website.” And here’s what I tell them – “It’s not about YOU! It’s about your customers and your potential customers!”
These days people want to know who they are doing business with. They want to know your business philosophy, your experience, what to expect. They want to know that you can take care of their needs. At the very least, all businesses should have a presence on the internet if to do nothing more than Read the rest of this entry »
By now most everyone has heard about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), but what a lot of people don’t know is what it is, why it’s important and how to get it. Honestly, there are a lot pretty smart people who only think they know these answers, but Google keeps the “hows” under lock and key.
For purposes of this post, I’m going to give you the layman’s version of what it is, why you want it, and how to get it.
What is it?
Search Engine Optimization is the method of increasing a website’s value and in turn improving the website’s visibility to the search engines. In short, the higher your site’s value, the higher up in the search engine rankings your site will be. The higher the site is ranked, the more often it will appear in the top few pages of the search engines search pages. The thinking is that the higher you are in the rankings, the more traffic you get, the more Read the rest of this entry »
Those of you who have spent time studying economics have no doubt heard of Michael Porter. In 1979, he was published in the Harvard Business Review with his ground breaking thinking about competitive strategy. You might be thinking — this is a blog about marketing — and you’re right –it is! But marketing strategy is inextricably tied to your overall business strategy— isn’t it?
