Entries Tagged 'Small Business' ↓

I’ve become quite a bit more active on YouTube recently, creating a series of videos featuring me, little cartoons, and delivering presentations.

Whilst wandering around the favorite videos of some of my newest YouTube friends, I discovered something that reminded me of some of my earliest education in psychology: the “art”, as it were, of brainwashing.

Watch the following video from the creator of a popular MLM (Multi-Level-Marketing) program and notice the unusual use of the word “prompting” at time marker [0:29].  I had never heard this term used in this way prior to watching this video:

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I just spent the weekend in Orlando and had the most amazing time. I met some fantastic people and was able to pick the brains of so many wonderfully skilled and caring people.

Having the skills without the caring doesn’t matter.  I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have a drunk derelict who would give his life trying to save mine administer CPR than a triple PhD who’s motivations are purely selfish.

Without further ado, here are some quick tips on improving your marketing from some of the top marketing folks around:

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A faithful reader sent me a link this morning to a website he found particularly distasteful and YOWZA - he was spot on , as they say across the pond. So a big thank you goes out to Lucas Black of London, UK whose blog can be found at http://www.SometimeSpace.co.uk/

Now, this retailer, oddly enough, is quite the effective marketer, due to her nationwide television adverts, traveling double-decker billboard bus, and tons of free press and huge buzz about her unique style, not to mention, her quite effective marketing techniques.

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The other day I was driving around looking for some neat shops in the neighborhood that might benefit from online marketing (who can’t, right?) and stumbled across some signage that was really surprising, not in that it had a typo (which happens more often than you’d imagine) or that it was in disrepair (a big problem with the Florida sunshine), but that they completely missed their mark.

Here’s how…

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I’ve been working my tuchas off for the past year or so, taking marketing classes, actually doing work and so forth, so I haven’t really been able to contribute much to my Blog.

Working long, long, hours in Orlando for the past 3 months or so, it wasn’t until very recently, I even spent a moment (not asleep) at the hotel.  When I did, I was studying, or programming, or something similarly productive.

If you’ve been working with me on the marketing front for any length of time, you’ve noticed I constantly mention how the most effective marketing motivator (for adults) is sex.  If you can find a way to squeeze sex into your marketing message, you’ll suddenly find customers.  To summarize, "sex sells".

Here’s why…

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I’ve been setting up a lot of WordPress blogging sites over the past week or so.  Some are for me, some are for clients, etc.  But, in my goals to optimize them (boy is WordPress ever configurable!), I’ve noted that I need to change quite a few things to maximize the placement of these pages in the Search Engines.

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I wholeheartedly agree with the Woody Allen Quote that I’ll paraphrase for my purposes "90% of success is just showing up."

Something I tell my clients regularly:  Do something to market your business — ANYTHING.  It’s better to mail a low-budget direct marketing letter to a small list than it is to wait forever to get the time to make the perfect letter, and to budget enough to mail it to tons of people, etc.

As it stands, so many small businesses end up in "analysis paralysis", doing nothing while they look for the best way, rather than doing something.  As a result, once you get off of your butt and actually do some marketing, you’re narrowing your field of competition significantly.

Your results from a bad marketing campaign are bound to be astoundingly better than the results you’ll get from no campaign.  Well, it would seem I’m wrong again,  there ARE exceptions to every rule.

So, there’s something I have never mentioned, because I assume everyone understands this…

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We just got back from seeing ICE! at the Gaylord Springs in Kissimmee, Florida (right next to Hollywood, FL – just outside of Orlando, home of Disney World) and man, oh man, have I brought back a ton of real-world lessons on marketing from the big boys. If you can only work out ways to apply but a few of these multi-million dollar tools to normal businesses, you’ll be well on the way to sharing a similar success.

It’s going to take me a little bit to gather my notes and work up all of my thoughts on the lessons I’ve brought back into a cohesive package, so I’m going to drop another little nugget of wisdom on you.  This is a simple and fundamental concept any business can apply to their marketing, and every business should.

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What’s worse than not having a web site for your small business? Wasting money on a web site that doesn’t generate more business…

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As the school year resumes as well as the rebirth of my blog, my thoughts center on a little observation I’ve made about something that separates the groaning and droning masses from the few top achievers out there.

Perhaps this is so profound it should be a sign in every small business. School does not teach practical life lessons in this regard, and frankly, it’s a little disturbing.

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