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How to Select the Right Marketing Strategy for Your Business

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I’ve probably had more conversations about this topic with clients than any other: What marketing strategies should I use to market my professional services?

These days, there are more options to market yourself than ever before. And you may have a tendency to look for something quick and easy that will generate a never-ending stream of new prospective clients.

I wish that solution existed. Some of the newer methods of marketing, such as YouTube videos, are very powerful, but extremely difficult for the average person to pull off successfully.

Over the years, I’ve had tremendous success with three primary marketing activities. And I’ve also helped a whole lot of clients implement these strategies successfully as well. Nevertheless, for all of them it can take a tremendous amount of time and energy to get consistent results.

Here are the pros and cons of each strategy and my overall recommendations about how to integrate each one into your overall marketing plan.

Networking and Direct Outreach

This strategy about building relationships with others in your field who can connect you to prospective clients. This means having conversations, attending meetings (individually or in groups), and doing follow-up. Sometimes it means reaching out directly to those in your network (including LinkedIn), being proactive, and exploring possibilities for projects.

Pros: Networking is the most concentrated, focused, personal kind of marketing. And if you do it well and consistently it can be extremely effective in building strong relationships and trust with your business associates and prospects.

Cons: The downside of networking is that it can drain your energy. This is a particular issue for introverts like me. And networking only enables you to reach a limited number of people.

Recommendation: Start marketing your professional services by meeting as many people as you possibly can – face to face. Join organizations and associations and then learn how to use LinkedIn to connect with new prospects.

Speaking (Live and Webinars)

If you want to gain a reputation as an expert, nothing is better than speaking. And it combines the best of networking and writing, in that you are connecting with people directly and also sharing your valuable expertise.

Pros: Speaking can quickly establish you as an expert. And you can immediately follow up with those in your audience.

Cons: The downside of speaking is that, for many people, it comes with a high fear factor, therefore a lot of people avoid it.

Recommendation: As your network expands, start to find audiences to present your ideas through professional associations, chambers of commerce, and other groups both offline and online. Learn the skills of giving a great presentation and of following up with your audience members.

Writing

Publishing articles and books have always been a good way to market professional services. It establishes your credibility. And with the expansion of various platforms on the Internet, such as Medium, and tools such as WordPress, it’s easier than ever to put your ideas out there.

Pros: There is no better way to get your ideas out into the world and in front of a large number of people quickly and at virtually no cost.

Cons: The downside of writing is the sheer volume of online material. There are so many articles published online these days and sent out by email that it can be hard to break through. And yes, writing is a lot of work and takes lots of time.

Recommendations: You should publish an online newsletter and blog as soon as possible. Work at growing your list and you’ll expand both your reach and credibility. Note that this can take years, so you need to be patient.

This is the fifth of five articles about the 5 Pillars of Marketing, my marketing model that helps get your marketing on track. 5 Pillars article here.

Social Media (supplemental strategy)

For independent professionals, social media is a fast and easy way to communicate about what you’re up to in your business. It’s worth the time to set up LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Pros: It’s easy to set up social media accounts and start posting and linking almost immediately.

Cons: It can take a long time to gain traction that results in any new business. And it can also eat up a huge amount of time.

Recommendation: Think of social media as a supplement to networking, speaking, and writing. It can increase your visibility and credibility among those you already know.

All of these marketing strategies take time to master and don’t yield immediate results, but in my experience, the time and effort you put into them will reward your investment many times over.

Perhaps the biggest mistake you can make in marketing your professional services is implementing these activities randomly and superficially. For success, you need to do all of them regularly and frequently. And for that you need a solid, step-by-step plan.

Cheers, Robert

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Source by Robert Middleton

Views: 1

November 12, 2022
Give Away Your Best MLM Success Stories

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Give away your best MLM success stories during special days throughout the year. Sounds crazy but if packaged right and promoted to deal with pain points you could see a boost in business. You can bundle them or change formats of any of them. The best way is to find a mixture of formats and use them in your marketing plan during holidays or other special events. Why should you give them away? Holidays are often cash restrictive. This prevents prospect from spending money on things that may not have a high priority.

MLM success stories can break down walls

If your finding a lot of resistance in your day to day operations. You could offer something special to help gain business, especially if it’s around MLM success stories or events. The stories can make a difference between success and failure. There is a set up to the whole idea. It must have a good promotional length and should be easy to access and the material should be complete. These three areas are important to the execution of your promotional campaign.

The individual MLM success stories can include a variety of themes. You may want to run a single theme if you chose. Single themed stories are aimed at specific areas of a pain point in the person’s life. They can be done in most formats that include videos and eBooks. You can design a themed campaign for them that is separate from a multi themed set. Even though these sets can reach a broader audience that is looking for a generalized picture.

Plan and measure for success for MLM success stories

Plan your MLM success stories campaign carefully. The stories are the end product and are given away for free. This doesn’t mean you can’t link them to an email list. You may be able to link them to a social media follow and like. If you use WordPress, keep an eye out for new tools that can help. The end goal is to drive success in all areas. You could and should like premium content from your freebie in order to create a strong path for the visitors to follow.

Always check your analytics for information regarding to the success and of your campaign. Measure the visits to the bounces and take a snapshot before launching the campaign. This can help you adjust and realign your efforts. Check it at least once a week and take a snapshot often as well. Especially if you are running a quarterly campaign.

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Source by David L. Feinstein

Views: 1

November 12, 2022
Grief And Loss Healing Actions – Not Unkept Promises

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When grief and loss smack you in the face – what do you do? There are five needed keys to help you heal your sorrow circumstance. It is vital to have a certain attitude and follow a proper beneficial path. The following five keys are essential enabling action solutions to help you reconcile your grieving, gain back your happiness – and again be engaged in a more fulfilling and wholesome life.

Key #1 Do What You Say You Will Do

“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.”

~ Carl Jung

There have been times in life for each of us when we have not done what we said we were going to do. In retrospect perhaps the reason we didn’t doesn’t matter. Yet, now, in times of horrendous grief what you say you are going to do really matters. What you are in your new-you-grief-loss-circumstance is determined by what you say you will do. Choose carefully.

Key #2 Follow A Beneficial Path

At first a grief healing path may appear to be fully and permanently detoured. As stifling grief and loss happenings encompass your life. Hope and joy can temporarily disappear. Yet, happiness and joy are within your grasp. There really is a blue sky behind every dark ominous cloud of sorrow. Unwanted circumstances cause you to wonder about life and the future. Sorrow and loss situations can cause you to search for understanding, strength and will. As you wonder and search for new understanding you will discover a new purpose, a helpful path. Life’s detours provide you with meaningful innovative potential assistance. A beneficial solution healing path is essential to your wellbeing.

“The key to success, and to happiness, is being fully engaged in life – leading yourself with inspiration and committed action – setting your own fine and honorable example.”

~ Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You can discover beneficial inspiration and an action path to follow. Every success experienced is dependent upon on your actions. Choose your path for hope and peace.

Key #3 Don’t Make Excuses

Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.

~ George Washington Carver

Unwanted and annoying grief causes change. Often grief conditions can bring you feelings of hopelessness and uncertainty. Your healing journey is a grief reconciling expedition. Failing to take steps to disallow permanent mourning to remain can detour your healing efforts. An excuse only satisfies the one making an excuse.

No excuses – seize the moment – your challenge is to grow by establishing new harmony and reconciling your sorrowful circumstance. Now is the time to discover a new fulfillment in living and loving your life. Growth requires you to use your inner most potential to find new purpose and happiness. Consider how you can grow emotionally and spiritually. What specific actions can you put in place? Can you be more diligent in your efforts? Recognize that personal grief can provide avenues to inspire and lift you. Make a list of 3 things you can implement into your daily activities to inspire more direction and hope. Decide how you will use those 3 things to grow in happiness and hope now! Begin today!

Key #4 Make A Unwavering Commitment

The words: “If It Is To Be It Is Up To Me” ring true to life and your success in meeting challenges. Once you make a personal unwavering commitment to take specific actions you will become aware of potential possibilities and solutions to heal your grieving. Beneficial solutions will appear. You can discover the essential wisdom, strength, and insights if you seek them. You will discover immediate resources to help you overcome your loss and sorrow.

Key #5 Seek And Engage In All Beneficial Sources

Many will seize each moment of possibilities and opportunities. They will live their life to the fullest. Why don’t you? Today can be your new day. You can gain transformative insights to help reconcile your grieving. Seek healing sources and engage in all solutions beneficial to you. You can heal your grief and have new peace and hope. You can survive and thrive after grief and loss.

“When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that… [God] is able to make a way out of no way, and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Don’t forget God as an additional inspiration and strength in healing your grief. For some – at the time of serious sorrow – the first place they turn is to their God. Others fail You can discover the essential wisdom, strength, and insights if you seek them. You will discover immediate resources to help you overcome your loss and sorrow. Commune with God nor do they seek additional inspiration and strength and help from their God.

Today ponder deeply what you can do to make your life happier and more joyful. Write down five actions you can take to contribute to your well-being. Always take into consideration any limitations you may have. Then realize you have within your grasp the power to say: “This I am today; that I will be tomorrow. Joy and happiness is within my reach.” Embrace all positive available social media, technology, internet, and all other beneficial and essential resource solutions.

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Source by Duane Marchant

Views: 1

November 12, 2022
Successfully Resolve Customer Service Problems to Retain Customer Loyalty

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It seems that as our technology improves, the business/customer relationship is declining. With online technical and sales support, the personal side of customer relations is not as prevalent. There is no longer any loyalty to a business and its products and services. This trend can cause a significant decrease in sales. One way to counteract this trend is to resolve customer service problems successfully and efficiently in order to retain customer loyalty.

The following list outlines simple but effective methods of successfully resolving customer service problems:

Create a Customer Complaint Department: The best way to deal with customer complaints effectively and efficiently is to have experts who are able to manage irate customers with their problems

Be Polite and Courteous: If a customer walks into a business or calls, it is important that the customer service representative takes the time to show that they care and are willing to listen and help. Empathize with the customer’s problem. An angry customer will calm down if they feel they are valued and respected. Be positive.

Record the Problem: Writing the complaint down and the actions that will be taken helps avoid any misunderstandings. It also shows the customer that the matter is important to the business.

Provide Solutions or Methods of Resolving the Problem: Don’t list business policies and practices. This will only infuriate the customer. Work with the customer to come up with a solution that will satisfy the customer. If possible, don’t pass the problem off to another representative or transfer the call to someone else. If you do, make sure the new representative has all of the pertinent information so the customer does not have to repeat himself.

Empathize, Don’t Apologize: A direct apology will assign blame to the company. It is better to empathize using such phrases as: ‘I am sorry you have had such a difficult time with our product.’ It will show that you care about the customer’s situation. Try to understand the customer’s feelings and point of view. Understanding will go a long way in satisfying the customer.

Keep Your Promises: Make sure that you don’t make promises that you can’t keep. It will reflect badly on the company and make you look incompetent. The customer will also appreciate reliable service.

Produce Positive Results: Always follow through with your plan to resolve the problem. Bad or poor quality service will cause you to lose customers. The key to maintaining customers is to always follow through with your promise.

Offer loyalty Incentives: If the problem cannot be adequately resolved, offer a customer an incentive so they will continue being a loyal customer. This can include giving them a replacement product or service along with a gift or discount on their next purchase. Everyone loves free things. It will make the customer feel appreciated.

Think of customer complaints as lessons for improving customer care. The solution to great customer service is being able to identify the type of customer you are dealing with. To reap the rewards of customer loyalty, the customer needs to be put first when there is a problem. Showing the customer you care and are willing to resolve the problem efficiently and effectively will go a long way in retaining customer loyalty. Customer loyalty cannot be established immediately, but the investment is well worth it. A happy and satisfied customer is essential to achieving a successful and long term business.

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Source by Amy Nutt

Views: 1

November 11, 2022
How to Kick Start Your Day With Healthy Habits

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An integral part of human behaviour is that knowingly or unknowingly, we operate our system under habits. These habits are an intrinsic part of our daily existence. So, when you make a conscious effort to start your day with healthy habits, you are actually in a process to make our life more meaningful, nourishing and active. Nutritionists advocate making these healthy habits a part of your everyday ritual and seeing you transform your life for a better future. Here is a list of a few healthy habits to kick-start your day.

Get Up Early-

Make a powerful habit of getting up early in the morning as there is something magical about the morning hours. Steer away from the practice of snoozing your alarm clock every time it starts ringing. Waking up early is an important habit which can set the tempo for your entire day. Once you make a dedicated effort to accomplish this goal, you would realise how much extra work you can fulfil with the extra time found in the morning.

Meditate-

Once you have learned to wake up early in the morning, now you should focus on some concentration building ideas to set your intention for the day. Performing meditation for 10-15 minutes can be good practice to train your mind and emotions. It teaches to react positively to challenges which you may experience during the day.

Meditation also gives you a bright idea of how to go ahead with the day. When you breathe deeply during meditation, you let all your worries leave you far behind and experience inner peace. The silence of meditation has a remarkable effect on your mind and soul.

Hydrate Yourself-

Top and famous nutritionists also suggest beginning the day with a glass of water with honey as it helps you to rehydrate your body. Since you have woken up after long hours of sleep, your body may experience dehydration early in the morning. Drinking a glass of lemon water also cleanses your system and removes the toxins from your digestive tract. Moreover, lemon is an excellent source of vitamin C; it helps to combat obesity and freshen breath.

Exercise-

A workout session in the morning helps you to stay fit and active throughout the day. You can opt for yoga, brisk walk, cycling, a quick set of sit-ups and push-ups, jogging or swimming. It also keeps you safe from many deadly lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension, heart ailments and obesity. You may take the help of a trainer to decide the right type of exercises keeping in mind your body structure and other health condition. Exercises improve the oxygen and nutrient level in your blood and energise your mind and body.

Have a Healthy Breakfast-

Breakfast is the most significant meal of the day. Since you eat the breakfast after long hours of sleeping, try to make it nutrient-rich and healthy. You can opt for eggs, sprouted beans, brown bread, baked beans, whole wheat chapatis, and fresh fruit juice. Top Nutritionists recommend never skipping your breakfast as you may end up with a craving for junk food which only provides you with empty calories.

So, these were, in brief, 5 healthy habits to kick-start your day.

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Source by Abhilash Tyagi

Views: 0

November 11, 2022
Breaking Down the Strip-Lining Sales Technique

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In our most recent blogs, we’ve been reviewing Negative Reverse Selling and how it is very effective in creating great bonding and rapport with sales prospects. Negative Reverse Selling is a way of saying and doing the opposite of what the prospect expects from a salesperson, disarming them and creating trust with them. One of its more compelling techniques is called strip-lining, a method of using reverse questions to get the prospect talking, and you keep “throwing more line and let them swim”. However, you need to do this step right or it could backfire on you. When you do it correctly, prospects feel like they are in control of the conversation, and you have a better chance of making a sale. Practice this step frequently in low risk situations before using it on your biggest and best prospects.

What should you practice? Getting the fit right means executing as follows:

• Neutral prospects get very hard strip-lines, such as, “It sounds like you’re very happy and I should leave. Before I go, what do you like about who you’re doing business with now?”

• Negative prospects get hard strip-lines, but not as hard as neutral prospects. For example, “Based on what you just said about your current vendor, it makes sense to me why you’re not interested in switching your business to another company. We get great feedback like that from our customers, too, but your vendor sounds really good at what they do. I don’t know if you can do any better than that. There doesn’t seem to be much opportunity for us to work together here, is there?”

• Positive prospects get strip-lines that are just a light tug: “Thanks for reaching out to us. I have to say, your friend Bronwyn gets almost all the credit for having a great experience with us. She was very good about explaining the application problem, and that really helped her have a happy outcome with us. Since I don’t know your application, I’m not sure if I can help you at this point. Could you be nice enough to tell me about it?”

In all three examples, you’ll find three components. Look at each of them, and you’ll see how strip-line responses are structured.

1. The first component is a build-up (a compliment or validation of the prospect’s point of view). In the above, an example of that was, “It sounds like you’re very happy.”

2. The second component is a takeaway (a conclusion that goes in the opposite direction to what the prospect expects). In the above, an example was, “… and I should leave.”

3. The third component is a question (a continuation of the discussion). In the above, an example was, “Before I go, what do you like about who you’re doing business with now?”

Looking at the example above for positive prospects, notice the buildup portion of the response validates how well things went “with Bronwyn” and gives most of the credit to her: “Thanks for reaching out to us. I have to say, your friend Bronwyn gets almost all the credit for having a great experience with us. She was very good about explaining the application problem, and that really helped her have a happy outcome with us.”

The takeaway portion includes words to the effect that you’re not yet convinced you can help the prospect. “Since I don’t know your application, I’m not sure if I can help you as well at this point.”

The third part, the question, is pretty obvious; you ask a question to start to understand the application, the problem, and ultimately the prospect’s pain: “Could you be nice enough to tell me about it?”

When you strip-line a prospect using all three components of the technique, you are likeliest to uncover the most meaningful information. You now know what a good fit looks like. What does a bad fit look like? Let’s say a prospect calls your office and says, “I’ve heard really good things about your company. A friend of mine, Bronwyn, told me all about you, and I’m very interested in doing business with you.” Obviously, that’s a positive prospect. It wouldn’t be appropriate for you to do a hard strip-line since the prospect is almost ready to buy. Saying to the prospect, “You must have used some other vendors in our space. Why wouldn’t you want to use them now?” will not only confuse the prospect, but would probably ruin the sale. So that’s a bad fit. Instead, you’d want to use the approach I shared with you above, the one that begins “Thanks for reaching out.”

Sometimes the prospect says something that more or less does the buildup for you. In that case, you don’t need to do it, but you still need to do the takeaway and pose the question. For example if the prospect says, “I heard really good things about your company,” you could strip-line by saying, “That’s nice to hear, but we’re not for everyone. Would you like to tell me why you thought it might have been a good idea to call, and hopefully we find out that we’re a good fit”?

In summary: Strip-line very hard with neutral pros-pects, even sounding like you are getting ready to leave the sales call or implying that you think the sales call is over; strip- line hard with negative prospects; strip-line lightly with positive prospects.

Strip-lining is a great way to uncover pain because it’s extremely disarming and helps build trust. When you do it right, it doesn’t sound like you’re selling. Prospects feel like you truly embrace and care about their goals and pain. (As, of course, you do!) If you don’t uncover pain with strip-lining, then perhaps that particular prospect doesn’t have enough pain to do business with you. Strip-lining combined with other pain-finding Sandler approaches will put you in a different league from all those other salespeople who traditionally start with the hard sell, list off features and benefits, and offer prospects free quotes.

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Source by Greg Nanigian

Views: 0

November 10, 2022
Dealing With Customer Complaints – B.L.A.S.T

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In a restaurant, not so far away, in the not so distant future, a telephone rings, a customer complains… and the battle begins!

Handling customer complaints doesn’t have to always be a battle, with the right tools and responses you can use complaints to your advantage; to help you build your business. B.L.A.S.T is a great tool that is used by companies such as Yum! (Parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, A&W, and Long John Silvers). Training their employees in the basics of handling customer complaints. The acronym stands for:

Believe

Listen

Apologize

Satisfy

Thank

How does your company deal with customer complaints? The easiest way to find out is to pick up the phone and play the role of the complaining customer. What happened? If you were an irritated customer, would you return? Using the B.L.A.S.T guidelines, allows you to create a standardized method for dealing with your complainers and turning them into loyal customers.

Believe

This is the cornerstone of handling a customer complaint. Yes, the customer may be lying and be incorrect about their situation. It is important to understand that your customer believes that your establishment has wronged them.

Listen

Stop and listen to your customer’s complaint. I’m not certain whether it’s natural instinct or just plain stubbornness. As soon as a customer starts to complain, we start to think of how we will respond to the accusation before we are done listening, and too often the case, already have the response ready to fight back. Take a second, relax, and listen. On occasion a complaining customer will be rude, angry, and use vulgar language, stay the course and remain calm and level headed.

When the customer is done venting; in a calm, non-judgmental tone, repeat their problem. An example I used in my KFC for a mispacked order:

“What I hear you saying is that, you came in ordered and paid for 10 Pieces of chicken and when you got home, you only received 8, is that correct?”

By repeating the problem at hand, you’ve demonstrated your ability to the customer that you heard and understood their problem.

Listen and clarify. Never defend or justify. The customer doesn’t care if you were shorthanded or if you’re having a bad day, they only care that they get taken care of. No excuses, just solutions.

Apologize

Always apologize even if you did nothing wrong. From your customers’ perspective, they have a legitimate complaint, and they expect an apology. It could be as simple as “I’m sorry we’ve inconvenienced you.” or “I’m sorry I know how frustrating it is to buy dinner for my family, only not to have everything there when I get home” A sincere apology will usually diffuse a lot of frustration that the customer has. There is an exception to this rule though, if a customer calls with a critical complaint, such as food poisoning, don’t apologize, it may be construed as an acceptance of guilt, instead refer to your company’s procedures for such events.

Satisfy

Make it right. Ask the customer “What can I do to make this right for you”? Be the judge of what is fair of course, but allow them the opportunity to feel empowered over the situation. Many times they may ask for the problem be taken care of on their next visit or maybe that you talk to the person who made the mistake and correct them. We used a great system of sending out a personalized postcard apologizing for the mistake, it was a couple of handwritten sentences (yes, many times with spelling mistakes from my team members), but it was personal and always well received. We always gave them the unexpected as well, maybe a free dessert or an extra side dish just to show that we cared about them.

Thank

At the beginning, at the end, in the middle; it doesn’t matter, thank the customer for calling and complaining.

Why? With the simple act of complaining, your customer is telling you “I care about your business and your success”. They are giving you the opportunity to fix the problem and invite them back so they can give you more of their money. Puts a different spin on it doesn’t it? Thank them for giving you that second chance, for letting you know that something in your restaurant didn’t work like it normally does, for giving you the chance to make it right, and for the opportunity not to damage your reputation!

Reputation? I had to throw that one in. You work hard, day in day out, trying the best to make your business the best, and yet one unhappy customer can take it away from you. A happy customer will tell two or three friends about a good experience, but an unhappy customer will tell at least ten friends about their experience and it always multiplies through word of mouth. Case in point, when I moved cross country to my new hometown, I was at a Chamber of Commerce event and being the new person in the group, I introduced myself and what we did. No sooner than five minutes passed did I get a list of 10 restaurants in my area that in their opinion were in “need of my services”. Only one person gave me a good restaurant. I didn’t ask, I was told. To this day I still haven’t been to those restaurants as a customer, why do I want to give them my hard earned money, when they made my new friends unhappy? It may not be a rational thought, but it is human nature.

Will some people take advantage of your kindness? Of course, a rule of thumb I used in my restaurant was:

First time shame on me,

Second time shame on me, but I’m watching you,

Third time… Shame on you and I will make the decision on how I will deal with you as a customer.

Keep track of who calls to complain, names, phone numbers for follow up, addresses for your postcards. Using a binder and tracking your complaints, you will be able to detect and deter those that would take advantage of your new complaint procedures.

Adding B.L.A.S.T to your expanding toolbox of customer service tools will help you in dealing with customer complaints and turn them around so they can tell their friends what great service you have!

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Source by Albert Barneto

Views: 0

November 10, 2022
The Five Pillars of Marketing Success

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Does the following give a pretty good picture of your current marketing activity?

You have a website but you’re not really satisfied with it. You go to networking events once in awhile. If someone asks you to give a talk, you’re happy to do it. You post on Facebook and/or LinkedIn semi-regularly. When you find the time, you send an article to those on your relatively small email list. You occasionally set up meetings with colleagues to explore opportunities.

Now there’s nothing wrong with any of those marketing activities. And usually, they will result in landing some new clients.

But this is not the approach that works to get a steady, predictable stream of new clients.

Please don’t tune me out here, thinking, “Well, I really can’t do more than this. I’m already stretched thin. If you give me too much to do I’ll get overwhelmed.”

I agree. It’s not that you need to do more marketing, it’s that you need to shift your marketing paradigm from one of “Randomness” to one that is “Focused.”

Random marketing is just that; it’s all over the place. You do a little bit here and a little bit there on an inconsistent basis. You are trying to keep your face, name, and message in front of your prospective clients but the results are unpredictable.

The Random marketing paradigm is not very effective because it doesn’t gain a lot of momentum. You don’t do enough of one marketing activity to grab the attention of your prospective clients and move them to take action.

The Focused Marketing Paradigm is very different. It’s based on repeatedly communicating very directly to your target market with a very definite end in mind. It gets the attention of your prospective clients and they ultimately take action.

The Focused Marketing Paradigm has Five Pillars

Understand and implement these five pillars and I promise you’ll see a shift in your marketing results.

Pillar One: Focused Goals

A Random goal is saying something like, “I’d like to attract a few more clients to my business.” Not very compelling is it?

A Focused goal is much more specific. “My goal is to land 3 new clients in the high-tech plastics business in the Houston area with an average project size of $30,000 each by the end of the year.”

The more detail, depth, and specificity about the goal, the better. You’ve really thought through what you want to achieve and also have confidence that you could deliver if you did reach your goal. It’s so real to you that you can taste it.

What is the Focused Goal for your marketing?

Pillar Two: Focused Program or Service

Random programs or services are generalized consulting, coaching or training programs. “I offer management consulting and training to corporations.” Kind of vague, right? But this is what I hear all the time.

A Focused Program or Service is more tangible. “I offer the high-tech plastics industry Management Acceleration Programs for emerging leaders in the industry.”

In my business, I’ve always offered programs: The Marketing Mastery Program, the Marketing Action Group, and the More Clients Club. And each program has very specific parameters, deliverables, and objectives. It sure makes intangible services easier to market and sell.

What is the Focused Program or Service you’re offering?

Pillar Three: Focused Target Market

In the above example, the target was the “high-tech plastics industry.” But it’s more common to hear things like, “I work with large companies who want to increase productivity.” This is too general and it makes it hard for clients to know if you understand them and can help them.

A Focused target market is where you are absolutely clear what kinds of people or companies can most benefit from your expertise. And then you articulate that clearly.

I worked with a financial planning company last year that targeted middle class families in the Buffalo New York area. Guess who they attracted to their practice? When people read about who they worked with on their website, they said, “That’s Us!” and called them.

Who exactly is your Focused Target Market?

Pillar Four: Focused Message and Value Proposition

A Random message or value proposition tends to be too general and can be hard to pin down. It avoids making a promise that is meaningful to the prospective client.

Messages such as, “We offer the best service in the industry,” or “Smart insights into great management,” are meaningless to your prospective clients. The value is not immediately obvious.

A Focused message or value proposition zeros in on exactly what your clients get and what it means to them. I admit that this can be the marketing pillar that is hardest to pin down. Ultimately you have to test a number of different things.

For the re-launch of the More Clients Club, my current value proposition is: “Everything Self-Employed Professionals Need in One Place to Attract More Clients.” And now, of course, I’m bending over backward to deliver on that promise.

And a marketing message or value proposition is much more than a sound bite. Your message must permeate every aspect of your marketing, from your website to the emails you send out. Your prospects need to be constantly reminded of the value you offer.

What is your Focused Message or Value Proposition?

Pillar Five: Focused Marketing Strategy

A Random marketing strategy is much like the collection of marketing activities I outlined at the top of the article. You’re just all over the place, throwing something at the wall, hoping it will stick, with no organized system or plan.

A Focused marketing strategy is more like a putting on a theatrical production. You have the script, the actors, rehearsals, and opening night, all executed on a strict timeline.

Two examples:

For my Marketing Mastery Program, I held a series of introductory teleconferences, invited those interested to apply for the program, interviewed each applicant, and then converted 50% into participants. Over a 6-week period, I filled my business for a full year – four years in a row.

A career coach in one of my programs recently filled her practice in three months with a focused campaign of personalized emails designed to get appointments with her ideal clients. Then she converted a large percentage into paying clients.

That’s the power of a focused marketing strategy.

You need to identify the right marketing strategy for your business, but even more important is the way you organize and implement the strategy.

Developing a focused strategy is the most complex and challenging of the Five Pillars. You can’t just put together something haphazardly and hope you get the equivalent of a professional Shakespearian production.

What is your Focused Marketing Strategy?

If you work to build a focused plan with these five solid pillars, your marketing will work better and faster, attracting more of your ideal clients, usually at a higher rate.

I recommend you work on one pillar at a time. Write them out and fine-tune them until you feel confident and excited about them. Yes, you will need to do some research and study to make sure your plan is viable. But this is certainly better than spinning your wheels with a random strategy that is going nowhere.

Cheers, Robert

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Source by Robert Middleton

Views: 0

November 9, 2022
Premium Email Marketing Tools For Business

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Email marketing is one of the ways to boost your business. Social media has become a platform for promoting trade, and email marketing help in that. Email marketing can be used to improve your services and app. "Email marketing is using the specific tools to send your advertising emails to a group of people." Its one of the easiest ways to make money. Marketers can send a targeted message to the intended group. Data regarding customer needs, products are, and then emails are sent to the specific customers. By email, the business can promote their services, offers and what new they have to offer. Transactional email, Direct email, Mobile email are the ways by which email marketing is done.

This is the cost-effective way, and it is cheaper as compared to others. Target customers are easy to reach within no time and as they are aware of the new things what business has to offer for them. Subscribers get the latest news and offer from the advertiser.

INSIGHTS ON THE TOOLS

There are various tools which help in marketing and making business an edge in the market.

Let's take a view at some of them

CAMPAIGN MONITOR is a template builder tool, and it assures that email can be read easily on mobile, so that customer or client miss no email. Like Google, Yahoo or any other email platform its uses the same interface so that the things don't get complex. You can upload HTML template and can format and edit when in need. Autoresponder can set only, and data segmentation ensures, that the email gets deliver only to the intended clients. Basic and Unlimited are the two packages which this tool offer.

VERTICAL RESPONSE helps to connect email campaigns to social sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook. It helps to communicate with a large number of audience. With the help of email building wizard, you can build your advertising drive and by freeform HTML customize it to make your list for company. You can use only text no images, and other statistics are required. Up to 4,000 emails can be sent per month.

BENCHMARK key feature is that it offers multiple templates for greetings, promotions and many other events. You can use HTML AND CSS to give it a personalized look. With the built-in spam filter, you can check for objectionable material in your templates. They even have a community where you can provide your views and design. Packages are there and start with 600 emails and increases further.

CAMPAIGNER tool has a lot to offer. It has more than 500 templates which are categorized as industry types and need. Contact management tool is one of the efficient features which it provides, where you can import your contact from the list. Un-subscribed email is automatically removed. In a way, this tool simplifies everything and give more than marketing. You can give a try with the free 30-day trial offer.

MIL CHIMP allows you to take surveys and send it to people to know the opinion of them. Use of survey techniques in social media makes the most out of your advertising techniques. You have the option to customize your list and know who has received the mail or not and will also come to understand that which campaign has received the maximum clicks. It offers the free subscription for 2000 subscribers.

GET RESPONSE This tool lets you efficiently maintain your contact list. You can edit your contact list. This tool track and lets you know who have subscribed, unsubscribed and clicked on links. It also gives you a report in pie and chart form and informs you about the mail it got delivered or not. Different packages are offered depending on the need.

LEAD PAGES helps you to create interactive landing pages for your sites where you have a choice to choose from 50 templates. They are in sync with best email providers. Business can make a mark within no time. Various packages are there for customers. Lead pages can efficiently transform your business quickly.

MAD MIMI Saves your time; you can clone your previous ad campaigns and make the changes according to your need. Old drives can be used in a way and if delete you can undo it also. The detailing features provide you with the information about the number of emails opened, shared, and how many people clicked on the link. By integrating with Google Analytics, it provides the statistics and clicks targeting.

CONSTANT CONTACT Offers you several templates and lets you customize your own. It gives you the detailed report regarding the links and emails. Share on social media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn can boost your business and gives your site the heavy traffic.

TOUT APP is the best regarding functionality and features. It has a large variety of templates to choose from. Integration with CRM gives you the details of every email, how they are proceeding. It provides the transparency, and produce reports on which emails have been clicked, deleted, attachment seen or not. In short, it gives the detailing of each activity going on. This helps you to track your business and changes can be made accordingly as it keeps you aware of every situation.

Email marketing is one of the efficient marketing techniques to promote your services. Effective marketing can give you the higher sales for the business. In this competitive era, the company should be at the prominent methods to attract the audience and make a profit. Sending manual emails to a group of people is a complex task, and it is time-consuming. To save your time and get the desired result email marketing can help you to reach the heights. For any business to succeed the market should be analyzed considering the loss also. It's not necessary that by adopting email marketing, you will always get the positive result.

By proper study and the knowledge of audience can make your business flourish in the market. So opt for this services and let your business boom in the market.

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Source by Anjali Shukla

Views: 0

July 30, 2022
How To Heal Yourself & Begin To Move On From A Broken Relationship

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Are you newly single? Have you just come out of a relationship or marriage? Failed relationships can be painful and challenging to overcome. While the most common solution is to rebound into another relationship, these relationships rarely survive beyond a few months. And even if they do, they mostly work more like a compromise. The best way out is to take advantage of your new relationship status by learning from the past and recreating your life. A breakup or divorce can be a positive experience if you choose to learn from it.

Learn from a failed relationship and prepare to receive your future partner:

What's the lesson? Every failed relationship provides at least one significant lesson. What was it? Relationships typically fail either due to errors in choosing a partner or errors in behavior. Reflect and see where "you" made a mistake and decide to do something better next time. If you have multiple failed relationships, check to see if there is a pattern you can identify common to all of them. If you can understand your contributions to the failed relationship, you'd be in a better position to attract the right person and make it work!

Let it go. Unless there are children involved, consider ceasing all contact till you get over the hurt. Resist the tendency to "accidentally" run into them at your favorite hangout, send a late-night text message, or stalk them on Facebook. Take anything that reminds you of them, box it up, and put it in the garage. It is possible to be friends with your 'ex-partner / spouse' but it takes two very matured people to make that happen plus some healing time to reach a point where a healthy friendship can be maintained with no heart aches.

Forgive him / her for your own sake. It's an easy word to say, but challenging to do. Remember! There's no closure without forgiveness. Forgiveness is about freeing ourselves from the energy-draining quest for retribution.

Be there for yourself. It can be tempting to compromise on your hygiene, sit in front of the TV in your pajamas, and avoid the gym. However, it's important to continue taking care of yourself. Get a shower, spend time with friends that really care about you, and maintain your normal routine.

Get your life in order. Find a job you like if you don't already have one. Ensure your finances are in order. Get in shape. Feel good about your life and yourself before dating again. You want to have a great life to share with someone else, rather than find someone to fill in all the gaps and solve all the challenges in your life. Fix your life first! You'll be a much more attractive partner, when you do that.

Transform your space. Create a new environment at home. Move the furniture around. Renovate your home. Give yourself a fresh start.

Find a new hobby. There has got to be something you have always wanted to do. Now is the perfect time to do it! Take a photography class or buy a guitar. Join a dance class. Add something new and fun to your life.

Enjoy the freedom. Just enjoy the time, space and freedom of being single. Avoid starting a new relationship immediately. Spend more time with your friends and family.

Decide what you are looking for. Make a list of what you would like in a potential partner. Think about your past relationship experiences and put together a description of what you would like in a new partner. Also reflect on what that kind of person will be looking in their ideal partner. Work on yourself to develop those traits. Begin looking, but avoid straying too far from your list of requirements. Avoid falling into old patterns.

Take one step at a time. When you find a potential match, enjoy it. There's no rush. Take it slow. Neither be desperate for a commitment, nor commit too soon. Let it flow.

Moving on after a failed relationship can be especially challenging. Rely on friends and family to see you through. A breakup or divorce is an ideal time for self-examination and making positive changes in your life. There's no reason to be in a hurry to find a new partner. Move on from the past before jumping into a new relationship.

"Sometimes we must undergo hardships, breakups, and narcissistic wounds, which shatter the flattering image that we had of ourselves, in order to discover two truths: that we are not who we thought we were; and that the loss of a cherished pleasure is not necessarily the loss of true happiness and well-being. " – Jean-Yves LeLoup

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Source by Nidhika Bahl

Views: 0

July 29, 2022