The Navigator

Posts Tagged ‘business’

1. & 2.  Branding Goes Social

For 23 years, Pepsi has spent millions of dollars on SuperBowl ads.  In 2010, they stopped.  Instead, they are opting to spend the 20 million dollars on a social media advertising campaign called “The Pepsi Refresh Project”.  Not only is this giving Pepsi a boost to their image with the concept of doing good in the world and making a difference, it is providing the opportunity to create increase brand awareness, results that can be tracked and will generate demand for their product – all through the use of social media.

There are two trends in one here that can’t be ignored.  One is the desire for a greater world full of promise and hope.  Especially big with the baby boomers, a company who shows they have a desire to be of service and support others is the company that will most likely get the business from others.

The other is the ever-growing, probably never-going-away social media craze.  With budget cuts coming going deep, why not capitalize on what you have that’s free?  If you’re department or company doesn’t have a page on Facebook or a Twitter account, you may be missing the boat.  With just the right amount of nurturing, you can serve both employees, customers and potential customers alike.  If you have a minute, check out one of my last articles on how to do social media right and begin growing your number of fans now.

3.  Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is all about driving traffic to your website through the use of social media and other forms of advertising AND getting them to buy.  Up to 70% of all leads who visit your site are not ready to buy.  So how do you stay engaged with them in the hopes of turning them into a purchasing customer in the future?

Creating the ability to capture their email address as a way to share information with them in the future is one way.  Remember, though, you need to stay in contact with them regularly (I recommend 2-3 times a month) AND it can’t just be about getting them to sign up for a program.  Nobody wants to feel sold to all the time.  It’s about sharing information you think they might be interested in.  80% of your content shared should be education, tips, information on trends, etc. versus telling them about an upcoming program you want them to participate in.  This is what builds relationships.

Curious how you are doing as far as driving traffic to your site?  Checkout websitegrader.com and get your website evaluated for free.    If you don’t get a great score, don’t panic.  Find someone who is knowledgeable in this area to help boost your site ratings.

4.  Marketing Directly to Your Target

This is the way it has always been, however, with all the information coming at people all the time it is more important than it has ever been before.  You want to make the most of your time in front of your target market.  In addition to your brochure, consider sending out flyers and updates to those who have signed up for similar programs in the past rather than everyone.

Segment out your mailing list is key for this trend.  You might choose to have a list for people with preschoolers and send out an email once a month with an activity they can do at home, something about a park facility and an educational piece about why it’s important for children to spend time outside.  After you’ve filled 80% of the email with this type of content, add a promotion for an upcoming program.

5.  Automate, Automate, Automate

Use an automated system like MailChimp, Constant Contact, Hootsuite, TweetDeck, etc. to automate some of these tasks so you can do a group of them at once and then sit back and enjoy the benefits.  Just remember, it’s all about authenticity and transparency so don’t automate everything.

If you have any questions about any of these trends or are in need of additional resources, please let me know.  I can be reached at michele@lodestonedynamics.com or 763.633.9364.

I spent Thursday at a great Conference offered by WIN (Women in Networking).  This was my first experience with WIN and it was a great one.  I met several members who were so nice and welcoming and I had a blast interacting with them throughout the day.  The conference content was great too.  I attended three breakout sessions: one on marketing, one on increasing profits and one on networking.  All perfect for what I need in my business.  Sometimes it’s hard for me to attend these types of events because I am an introvert by nature.  I know how important it is to get out there so I can build relationships with others so I step out of my comfort zone and do these kinds of things alone.  I occasionally will sign up with a friend and I love being able to experience something new with them and yet, for my best interests, it’s great to go alone and meet new people rather than having a tendency to stay in that safe zone with a familiar face.

How do you network?  What organizations are you a part of that you enjoy?  I’d love to hear about them.

Recently Mashable shared these great videos for small businesses owners and I couldn’t resist sharing them with you.  Great lessons!

http://mashable.com/2009/11/14/small-business-video/

If I was only able to share one thing about marketing, this would be it.

In all of my research, education and experience, it boils down to this.   Customers love consistency.  They need it.  We often think they like change such as flyers that look new and fresh each time.  The truth is – they don’t.  Think about major companies like Northwest and Delta who merge.  These two companies took months to make the transition and Northwest just recently took the Delta name and logo.  They let their customers know for months that they would be making changes long before they actually made them.  If they hadn’t, they ran the risk of losing many customers.

It doesn’t matter what field you are in, customers don’t like change and any change must be implemented gradually to be effective.  Having the same look to your brochures, flyers,  website, etc.  creates branding and customers begin to identify with that brand.  Even a color change can cause confusion.

When you develop your marketing plan,  come up with a look you are comfortable sticking with.  Include design elements such as where your logo shows up and the colors that you use  every time in everything you print.  One of the things I did when I worked at Elk River Parks and Recreation was have templates created so all flyers were consistent in their appearance.  I highly recommend this, not just for marketing, but also because it saves time in the creation process and fewer details are overlooked.  To be honest, it’s one thing I haven’t done in my current business that I will be implementing here soon.   I’m not sure why I haven’t because I know how much easier it makes everything.

Additionally, take a look at the next several months or even the next year.  What advertising opportunities do you have that you can always do?  Do you have a calendar of events on your website that you keep current?  Do you take out an ad, not once in a while, but on a regular basis in the local paper?  Do you send out a newsletter regularly?  Whatever you include in your marketing plan, include it without fail.  People will come to expect it and watch for it.  Partnered with consistent looking materials, they will begin to recognize your brand and take notice every time they see you somewhere.  Over time, you’ll be able to watch your numbers improve in all your opportunities.

A while back during one of our Virtual Lodestone Networking meeting I shared some of my favorite tips and tricks of social media. I love sharing the things I come across that make my life easier so I thought I’d share just a couple here.

If you Twitter, think about using Hootsuite.com, a free site that allows you (among other things) to schedule out your tweets. This makes it a lot easier to be consistent – a very important piece of effective social media.  They just upgraded it and it has several new features.

Also, on Facebook there is a great Twitter application. When you install the application. It allows you to Tweet right from Facebook AND when you Tweet from anywhere, your Tweets show up on Facebook as a status update. But if you want to be able to be selective, try the Selective Twitter app.  This will only publish the tweets with #fb at the end of them.  This is a great way to manage your social media more effectively.

Most experts in social media will tell you to pick one platform and stick with it until you get really good.  Then add another if you choose.  These two tips will allow you to do both Facebook and Twitter without much extra work.  Let me know how it goes…

“Let the 80/20 Principle Pay Off for You”
by Ali Brown

It pays to play to your strengths. But how do you pinpoint the areas that will increase revenue and earn you more money? Simple: by following the Pareto Principle. Developed by Italian economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto, this short, simple rule states that 80% of our results come from 20% of our activity.

You may have heard that we wear 20% off of our clothes 80% of the time, and the same 80/20 rule applies to business. For instance, 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers. Conversely, 80% of your complaints come from 20% of your customers and 80% of the profits made in your industry come from 20% of the companies. The exact percentages may vary, perhaps 75% and 25% instead of 80% and 20%, but the concept remains the same.

By identifying customers and areas that are most valuable to you and your business, you can boost your bottom line without working longer or harder. In fact, you’ll be working smarter. At the same time as you’re finding your most profitable areas, you also need to think about those customers or products that are not performing well and may actually be dragging down you and your business.

For instance, if you own a secondhand music store, you probably have some inventory that is flying off the shelves and other products that just aren’t selling, no matter how low you price them. By dividing your products in categories (perhaps by music genre), you could see which items your customers are buying and which ones you should stop carrying. By matching your products to customer demand, you’ll be able to turn over inventory more quickly and make more money, all without adding more square footage or spending more money on advertising.

Here are some areas to consider in your own business:

*Employees – Who is your rock star salesperson and what you can you do to help them achieve even better results? Also, who is underperforming and might they be better suited to other tasks? Both are important considerations.

*Customers Calculate how much revenue you’re getting from each customer and subtract the cost of administrative time or other costs to maintain that relationship. Once you’ve figured out which customers are in your top 20%, you can make some strategic decisions about how to better meet their needs.

*Markets – If you sell products to different markets, evaluate these markets with the same principle you used for evaluating your customers. The markets that are earning you the most money should become obvious, so you can start examining the direction in which the company is headed.

Once you’ve identified areas that aren’t paying off, you have to be ruthless and kick them to the curb. Your business cannot flourish if you’re spending valuable time and resources on customers or products that are unprofitable. Once you make the strategic decision to cull wasted space and focus on areas that earn more money, you’ll have a much better chance of surviving, and even flourishing, in a competitive business environment.

© 2009 Ali International, LLC

Self-made multimillionaire entrepreneur Ali Brown is devoted to creating financial freedom for women globally through the power of entrepreneurship. To learn how to create wealth and live an extraordinary life now, register for her free weekly articles at www.AliBrown.com

If you are looking to make your life easier this is a tool you’ve got to check out. I’ve been using FreeConferenceCall.com for my teleclasses and it’s worked great.

They’ve just added this service which is very affordable. It allows you to send a voice message to a group of people at one time! So if you have a class, group, etc. that you need to call and give some information to everyone – this would allow you to do it with one phone call! What a great way to remind people about a meeting or give everyone a change in the program or whatever you need.

You can even schedule out your message to be sent in the future! I love it when my life gets easier.

Check it out here: https://www.simpleblast.com/default.aspx

Thank you to Alex McArthur, VP of Search Strategies at OrangeSoda, for the following tips:

1. Make sure your title tag relates to the content of your site.
2. Fill in your MetaTags.
3. Let people know about your site whenever possible.
4. Shorten URLs as much as possible. In other words, have URLs like www.lodestonedynamics.com/networking or /networking.html. Don’t have long ones that look like www.lodestonedynamics.com/01248974r3=?idvfhow.
5. Check your text. Have you included your keywords? Is your text about your business?

What changes can you make to optimize your site now?

Great site, shared by Andrea J. Lee in her recent newsletter: http://cooltext.com/

If you need to create custom buttons for your website or links on your blog, this will do it.

Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of sharing some of my favorite tips for social media on our Lodestone virtual meeting call. I love sharing tips that I find to make my life easier so I thought I’d share a couple here.

If you tweet, try hootsuite.com. It’s a free site that allows you, among other things, to schedule out your tweets. Consistency is one of the most important things in social media.

Another favorite of mine is the Twitter application within Facebook. This application can be found just by doing a search on Facebook. Once installed, it allows you to tweet from your facebook page AND whatever you tweet from anywhere shows up on your Facebook page as a status update!

Each month, our Lodestone members have the opportunity to be a part of these calls – a different topic explored each time based on what our membership needs. This is a free, exclusive opportunity for Premium and Associate members. If you are a healing arts practitioner and are looking to connect with others and receive support with your business, check out our website at www.lodestonedynamics.com! Special pricing is available through June 2009.

May your days be filled with joy, love, abundance and success!