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The last couple years it seems like every time I see Gene Simmons on TV or hear an interview with him I take away a ton of ideas and information. Back in my day, KISS was a hot property, it still is today. Here’s a little quote I found from Simmons, I thought you may […]
I’ve been swamped the last couple weeks doing consulting work for a number of businesses and organizations. I’ve also been putting together a new workshop on integrating online marketing in an offline bricks and mortar business or service. Frankly I was shocked to find most business totally unaware of how to use online marketing to […]
This past week I got a phone call at 7am, waking me from a dead sleep, been a bit under the weather the last week and actually ha d overslept for a 9am appointment, so waking me up was a good thing. Half asleep, I find myself smack-dab in the middle of a reporter calling […]
Here’s a rare midweek update. But I found this such a great example of a teaser, very short 30 second video I just had to post it right away. This is from my friend Dean Hankey and I have no idea what it is leading towards, but if is very captivating. Teaser ads and publicity […]
Further discussion on the importance of having integrity in your business. Bookmark It Hide Sites $$('div.d117').each( function(e) { e.visualEffect('slide_up',{duration:0.5}) }); […]
This week find out a key business success truth. Bookmark It Hide Sites $$('div.d116').each( function(e) { e.visualEffect('slide_up',{duration:0.5}) }); […]
This is a lesson in persuasion. No NLP tricks, no clever word word play, just a sincere, direct approach to persuade a hard nosed politician. Back before Fred Rogers was well known as “Mr Rogers” he had a passion about his beliefs. There are so many lessons in this 6:50 minute clip on so many […]
I’m in a series (not by design) on selling, and building relationships with clients and customers. As things always to to go, when I focus on a subject, then amazing things just drop (not! It’s the law of attraction working) into my lap for topics. This was delivered by fellow marketer Tellman. I almost passed […]
When you think of value, what comes to mind? Generally a good deal, something worthwhile to you. Seldom do we look at value as something “we” bring to the table. In public relations, attempting to gain publicity for ourselves, business or product and in marketing those same things it is vitally important they we be […]
What works best in marketing and PR? When you think of all the hundreds of effective ways to market your business and build your image for you, your product or service, one thing keeps coming to mind… persistence! 80% of what is done in marketing, is a total waste of effort and time. PT Barnum, […]
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I’ve been swamped the last couple weeks doing consulting work for a number of businesses and organizations. I’ve also been putting together a new workshop on integrating online marketing in an offline bricks and mortar business or service.
Frankly I was shocked to find most business totally unaware of how to use online marketing to get customers and clients into their businesses. Many when i asked about their web address they gave me a blank stare or said, “well, we’re on Facebook.” When prompted further, about how that was working, again a blank stare… no clue.
I’ll admit that Facebook seems to be the 400 pound gorilla in the room at the moment, few have really found how to make it effective. I was involved recently in a roundtable tele-conference recently and after almost two hours little headway was made in how to effectually use this “new” networking for business other then to keep customers and clients informed of what you were doing in hopes that you will be “TOM” (top of mind) when and if they need what you offer. Oh sure a couple people said they had gotten some sales from the social networking, but in the end you have to weigh time and profit investment to see if it is really an effective use of your resources.
I’m not dismissing social networking as not useful, it is, but as a direct put money in the bank marketing tool, it seems to be passive income at best.
So, what does work? As I said eariler it amazed me how many busiensses I’ve spoken with, either don;t have a hosted website or have a website that is not effective in getting leads, let alone driving traffic… thus the upcoming workshops I plan on doing both locally in person and as teleseminars for my more distant business friends and family.
In the mean time, take a long hard look at your website, (if you have one), does it invite people to want to get to know you better? Do you have a method in place to even know who they are and be able to stay in touch with them? Do you have offline methods that effectively drive people to your website? If you honestly look at your site and can’t answer yes to these questions then your leaving a ton of money on the table everyday.
I’ll be writing more on this and giving some principals that you can easily intergrate in your marketing without spending a ton of money on more advertising, in fact I’ll be showing how to reduce your overall advertising budget 25 to 75% while finding hidden marketing assets in your business.
This past week I got a phone call at 7am, waking me from a dead sleep, been a bit under the weather the last week and actually ha
d overslept for a 9am appointment, so waking me up was a good thing.
Half asleep, I find myself smack-dab in the middle of a reporter calling me about a show promotion were doing in a few days. She’s on deadline, and frankly if not then, then never, there (as usually is the case) no call backs, redo’s, or “Lets do lunch when I‘m awake”.
She began asking, of course about the show, me, but also the particulars about the date (one of several being promoted) itself. Just like a 24 hour fire fighter, you have to be instantly alert and have several interesting stories, while you shuffle for the info file, still half asleep.
The point is, you need to have this stuff as well rehearsed and embedded in your brain for instant access. No matter what business you are in, you need to be prepared with interesting “sound bites” that you can spit out without any thought what so ever. Having been in the entertainment business most all of my life, I can tell you from personal experience, It’s nothing to have a reporter walk up to you minutes before your starting your show or presentation… your mind is on the performance, not answering questions, yet the true pro can instantly go into interview mode and then walk out and entertain with no distractions.
If your in the insurance business lets say, and a reporter calls you asking about your view on a big insurance claim that’s in the news… do you have some quick answers, are you even aware of the breaking story? I know of a couple locale interviews that were done wanting auto repair “experts” thoughts on the recent Toyota recalls, frankly some were handled much better then others.
Have you positioned yourself as the “local industry expert”? If not it’s important for you and your business to do so.
Being prepared for that phone call or knock on the door, goes a long way to obtaining “expert” status with the media.
I have a friend and occasional client who is the CEO and president of a large well known non-profit. Over the years he has positioned himself as the, “go to guy”, the “expert” for his area and routinely gets calls from the media wanting his input on everything from the homeless situation, lead paint problems in the area, to the jobless situation. In fact he recently was interviewed by a German TV news program because of his “expert” positioning on the economy and how it is effecting US communities.
Good or bad you never know when the media may call or even come knocking on your door in “60 minutes” fashion… how are you going to react? Are you going to come across as the “expert” ready to answer any and all questions or are you going to come across as if your hiding something or worse yet just plan don’t know anything about your business or industry?
Here’s a rare midweek update. But I found this such a great example of a teaser, very short 30 second video I just had to post it right away.
This is from my friend Dean Hankey and I have no idea what it is leading towards, but if is very captivating.
Teaser ads and publicity work. Back in the 1950 and early 60′s I have ads from a special live horror show that was presented in movie theaters. The appeal was to mostly teenagers of the day. The ads were small, but simply said… What is the Big G? Then it had a picture of a monsters face but it had a black square covering the face. A little closer to the date of the show, it would have… Find out by attending (with the theater dates and times. This type of mystery ad was very effective in packing hundreds of teens into to the show.
This is a lesson in persuasion. No NLP tricks, no clever word word play, just a sincere, direct approach to persuade a hard nosed politician. Back before Fred Rogers was well known as “Mr Rogers” he had a passion about his beliefs.
There are so many lessons in this 6:50 minute clip on so many levels.
I’m in a series (not by design) on selling, and building relationships with clients and customers. As things always to to go, when I focus on a subject, then amazing things just drop (not! It’s the law of attraction working) into my lap for topics.
This was delivered by fellow marketer Tellman. I almost passed it by… glad I didn’t.
If you deal with people in any way, shape or form sells or otherwise, waste (again, NOT!) a mere 16:23 minutes and watch this video. Then go out and have an awesome day. I bet you, you’ll smile at somebody Monday morning, if not before… Really!
As an aside, now that you have watched the video, by the way you are really great and have something special for a lot of people… really… No I mean it!
Anyway here’s the story, a few years ago, Dean Hankey stayed with Sharon, Muffy and I for a few days, while we were working at a conference in Toledo. I mentioned to him, how I never got used to people not being real friendly here. In Dean’s wisdom, he said “Really?”
Yet I noticed that when Dean, a true total stranger in town, and I went to various locations around town, people would smile at him and he always had a kind word and often even engaged in conversations with these off Standish people… Dean didn’t have to say much for me to get the point, that “I” was the unfriendly one, not them for the most part. Oh sure your going to find that non-smiler here and there, but it’s YOUthat determines for the most part the mood that will transpire.
Lesson learned from the Dean. I now speak to, smile at, and often engage in conversations with total strangers, what a way (although not the main purpose) to network and get into interesting conversation with people who may at some point become a friend or client, or better still the ultimate, best of both.
As Rev Robert Shculler is noted to say, “God loves you and so do I!” … Really we both do! Pass a few smiles along today and everyday.
- Rick
As always you comments, thoughts and suggestions are always welcome…. Really!
When you think of value, what comes to mind? Generally a good deal, something worthwhile to you. Seldom do we look at value as something “we” bring to the table.
In public relations, attempting to gain publicity for ourselves, business or product and in marketing those same things it is vitally important they we be the ones offering the value.
Most I’m sure are well failure with W.I.F.M. the most famous station call letters in history. If not WIFM actually stands for, “What’s In It For Me?” and this is the question every media outlet and every customer and client asks when they hear or see your “pitch”. If they can’t see the value of your offer, then your simply dead in the water every time.
I’ve seen it hundreds of times, where someone with lessor quality gets the media attention or the sale, and in most cases both, because they offered a better value then the other person. And, that value is not always price related, so I’m not suggesting that the person with the lowest price “wins” every time. If that were true then nobody would shop any place other then the dollar stores and WalMart.
Value can come in many different forms. Perhaps in attempting to get media attention for instance, your story presents more mass appeal to the medias customers then another story. The same is true however that if you are all set to have a story run and your states Governor suddenly gets indited, chances are no matter how much possible value you have in your story, the Governor’s story has more. That doesn’t mean your story will get bumped altogether, it may get moved or delayed… or yes it’s possible it will get buried and never see the light of day.
In the case of selling you, your product or service the same my hold true. If for instance a customer or client is all set to buy and they suddenly find out they have to replace a major item, no matter how much value you have offered you generally will lose to what is most pressing at the time.
This all sounds rather un-motivating but, I think it’s important to know why things fall through sometimes. There is an answer however. The answer is to keep your pipeline full, never let it empty, never put all your eggs in one basket, some would say. When the deal falls through, or is delayed for whatever reason you should always have enough other resources that it doesn’t sting for as long, or at all.
I know I have been guilty many times and I’m sure you have been in the same place, where your depending on that one “deal” and something happens. It can really knock you for a loop, unless you have plenty of other resources already in your pipeline, when you do, you simply say “next” and give it little thought.
So offer the best value you can (price dropping is not offering value, it’s the act of a desperate sales person) but more importantly have plenty of leads already in place.
Give me your feed back on this and what you would like to disscuss hear… it’s important to our continued growth, I really need to know where you are coming from, so I can offer YOU the best VALUE for your time spent here.
What works best in marketing and PR? When you think of all the hundreds of effective ways to market your business and build your image for you, your product or service, one thing keeps coming to mind… persistence!
80% of what is done in marketing, is a total waste of effort and time. PT Barnum, was once quoted as saying “I know half of the advertising I do to promote my circus works and half doesn’t, I just don’t know which is which!” I don’t know who first invented the coupon in direct marketing, however if Barnum had known of it, he sure wouldn’t have made a statement like that. Today testing makes it a bit easier to determine what works and what does not, but we’re still faced with doing the work to find that information out in the first place. If we continue to just sit around and think about what might work, have a fear of trying this or that, we will get no results at all.
Most give up way to soon, seldom is a complete direct mailing campaign fully completed, I personally have a half dozen web sites that are only half done, or need to be improved.
Persistence however is the key, keep it going, keep taking Action, keep moving forward. If you have true passion, you’ll try it, if it doesn’t get the intended results, make a change and try it again, until it works or you discover it was a bad idea to start with. Making small tests when possible is always the safest way to go. But keep in mind running out of steam is not the same as failing.
Just some thoughts, your comments are always welcome.
T. Harv Eker And His Millionaire Mind Intensive – Does He Really Know How To Help People?
In order to have success at anything, business, family, relationships, you have to have your head together.
Over the last few months I have studied a lot of this head stuff in preparation for some changes in my own personal and business life. A friend and associate of mine Scott Lowry of the Lowry Group turned me on to T Harv Eker.
I was impressed enough by the information he offers that I got Harv’s permission to add this video from a series for you to see what it takes to get the garbage out of your head so you can excel in all you do. Enjoy and learn. I would love, simply adore your comments and feedback.
