Virtual Marketeers

Posts Tagged ‘Business’

I found a lot of really good information about marketing in a recent article, Build Buzz With a Business Blog, written by Susan Gunelius and published on Entrepreneur on the 25 June 2010, but I would like to expand on it a little.

Sales and marketing is extremely important to the success of our business, I feel though that an extremely important ingredient to ‘building buzz with a business blog’ might be added to take the concept that Susan has provided to the next level.

What is that important ingredient?

There are two actually that immediately spring to mind – focus and innovation!  We need to ‘create’ the buzz first, once we have the buzz we can build on it further:

• Establish yourself as an expert in a particular field.
• Provide confirmation to your readers that you know and understand the topic.
• Make the predominant focus of your blog the topics covered within that particular niche.
• Think outside the box – continue to learn new ideas and try to be creative in how you implement these ideas.  Don’t stay stagnant, continue to learn, move, shake and grow.

Do you think that the customer or reader will be interested in our sales pitches unless they see us as a trustworthy and reliable source?

Do you think that it will predominately be the new reader or the returning reader that will likely purchase the product or service?

Without focus and innovation I feel that it is unlikely that our readers will become intrigued by or stay interested in what we have to say in our blog and the information that we post there.

I would love to hear your thoughts on how to create or build ‘BUZZ’ with a business blog.

I’m sure that a few of you have had times when you realised just how human you are and how easy it is to make such a small mistake in your writing or maybe have an error in judgement in a business decision we make (I know I have)… maybe you sit there pondering what to do.

I find that it is much better to *blush* admit to the mistake straight up.  We are all human and we all make mistakes, even in business.  No point in pondering the what ifs… because we can’t go back when we have already moved forwards.

The funny thing is that sometimes making a mistake or having an error in judgement can work in our favour.  “How would that possibly work in my favour?” you are probably thinking.

• Proof that you are human just like everyone else – which can be a really good thing at times.
• Gives the opportunity to work through a problem and learn new things.
• Encourages for you to feel humility and therefore be sympathetic to others needs.
• Possibility to maybe leverage new business or personal projects on those newly learned skill, the ones that have been learned through their mistakes.

Sure, there are positives and negatives to making mistakes.  I prefer to look at what positive has come from the mistake or error in judgement – and look forwards, rather than looking back.

Would love to hear your thoughts on whether mistakes are a good or a bad thing… or maybe a bit of both.

Deciding on a Niche Area for Your Business can be a Really Excellent Marketing Tool!

• It allows for your business to establish credibility in the field of choice through:
  -  Developing knowledge and understanding of the needs of the clientele.
  -  Being able to focus your research and training toward a particular area.

• It increases your ability to provide a quality and timely service.
  -  Good quality and timely services means happy customers.
  -  A happy customer means more referrals.

• It helps in managing expenditure, as your business will direct their purchase choices more towards servicing that area specific.
• If you own a website or blog, then your ranking will likely be higher in the search engines specific to your particular area of expertise.

The Value of Credibility

When making purchases most customers will weigh up the perceived value, or the worth of that item:

The definition of value from define.com is “The property or aggregate properties of a thing by which it is rendered useful or desirable, or the degree of such property or sum of properties; worth; excellence; utility; importance.”

The definition of credibility also from define.com is “The quality of being believable or trustworthy.” On reading these definitions, would you agree that value is very much interrelated and interconnected with credibility?

To illustrate this, if something went extremely wrong with a product, and it was published on the news and the impact of this ‘fault’ spread to the outer ends of the earth, then I would suggest that this company has lost credibility in the customers eyes.

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If you’ve seen the movie Sliding Doors and you understood the concept, then you are likely to understand the concept that I am about to explain.  This movie is about there being two sides to every story and also helps us to understand that things can very easily change… doors open and close all the time.

It is basically to say that if we were to get up 5 minutes late (as an example)… then who knows, that 5 minutes might be the cause of that series of unfortunate events that followed.  It could invariably be the difference between catching or missing the train, not because you were necessarily running late, but because various stumbling blocks were put into your way because of the time that you were passing through.  You missed it by only a second, which then is then likely to have a major effect on the upcoming events for the rest of the day.

If you think about it, this concept can be applied to many parts of our life.  If you ponder a bit on the broader concept surrounding this one, then it will help you to understand what I am going to speak on next.  I would like to discuss today the concept that life is always subject to change.  This applies each and every moment according to the decisions and choices that we make.

In particular I would like to discuss a bit further those things that have impact on our lives, that are subject to change… those things that are either going to catapult us forward, or hold us back in business and also in live:

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Communication!  What a difference one word can make!

I find it somewhat amusing that the structure of a sentence; maybe a missing comma… or an added, forgotten, or changed word can make such a difference to the meaning of that sentence. It has the weight of possibly making or breaking communication lines between two or more people.

When things are misinterpreted, then it leads to further frustrations as the misinterpretation takes on a life of its own. It might have the weight of upsetting the person in receipt of the communications… or maybe it will end up snowballing as they follow what they perceive as your recommendation or instruction. Arghh!! I’m sitting here with tense shoulders and knots in my stomach just at the thought of it!!

So my question is, if you were to send that email… Read the rest of this entry »

Maybe it’s just me that finds it to be quite stressful reading some (not all) newsletters and sales pages; or maybe you’ve had some similar experiences… I don’t know?

Both my personal and business experience tells me that [big breath] the “sign up right now, there is never going to be another offer like this, you are going to kick yourself if you do not buy it NOW” type of request that tenses up our shoulders and throws the butterflies around in our tummy are so not worth those feelings.

I have come to learn that when a person uses a sales pitch like this, there is a probability the person on the other end of the computer is trying to make you purchase with your emotions – on a whim!  This person really, really, really doesn’t want you to purchase with your brain, because there is a less likely chance of a sale right now.

With this tactic, these people might capture an instant sale with a good many of their customers, but I question how many customers will be repeat customers and whether there might be a bad taste left in the mouth if I was to knowingly push a sale onto a customer?

Got some thoughts on this?  I would love to hear your thoughts on how to best retain clients, and whether you would consider the “you must buy right now” sales pitch to be moral.
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I was brushing my sparkly teeth just a moment ago, getting ready for bed.  As I finished up I found myself standing at the sink pondering the thought of just how important it is for us, especially busy business entrepreneurs, to take good care when it comes to our health and wellbeing.

This afternoon, after a busy day in the office, I headed off to the dentist to honour my pre-booked dental appointment.  My dentist did a good check over and clean of my teeth for me.  It had been a bit too long since I had my last check and I realized this while I was there.

It might be uncomfortable getting these types of checks, and yes, it does take up invaluable time from your day – but as I see it, it is absolutely essential to attend health checks and specialist appointments on a schedule, or as the need arises.  It is really important to your family, to your business and most importantly to yourself.  I’m sure that you have heard all the raves about how important it is to eat right and exercise.  Well guess what, this is no different.

Take care of your body, it is one of your most important assets and it will thank you for it later.

Anyway, it must be time for me to go get some shut eye now, ready for another busy day.  Oh, and before I head off to bed, maybe I should write myself a note to contact my optician in the morning to schedule an appointment!

Cheers to a long and happy life for the all of us… good eyesight, and and of course bright and sparkly teeth

You might know the saying ‘Stop, Revive and Survive’. It’s a well known motto in Australia that reminds us not to drive when we are tired. It reminds us to periodically stop, have a break, stretch and maybe even stop for a coffee so that we can last out the journey.

This motto made me think of work. In particular it made me wonder how many people sit there for 12 hours a day or longer, in front of the computer without barely a break. It also made me wonder how many people work seven days, burning the candle at both ends so to speak. We can sustain for a time, but where does this leave us long term?

It is important for our health in so many ways to take a periodical break.  It could be to break for morning tea, lunch or afternoon tea.  It might be to go for a walk to the post office to post or maybe collect the mail, or to drop by the corner store to stock up on our milk supply… after all plenty of exercise and fresh air is great for an active brain!!

You are probably thinking here, but wouldn’t this mean that I would be procrastinating?
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Pondering on the thought of our own personalities and how they really do shape our business, career and our personal lives through the many choices that we make along the way.

One thing that really stands out in my own individuality is that I seem to be one of those people absolutely 100% made to work from home, in my own business.  I have been reminded of this time and time again throughout my life journey.  I love working from home, my focus is really good… performance is right up there; and so I tend to try to guide my business in this direction.

And yes, I have taken on roles working in an office environment.  Although I still do work that is very good, after a time I start to feel somewhat stressed and pressured by the experience, and this may in turn eventually effect my output, and my health and family life.

I see it as being a really positive and powerful thing that I am able to recognize this.

It’s interesting, I have some friends and work colleagues who, very differently to me have great problems with procrastination when they work from home.  They just can’t seem to be able to concentrate on the task at hand, and have great difficulty in achieving their goals.  They instead might find themselves doing the washing, or the ironing, or tidying an already tidy desk, just so that they don’t have to focus on the task at hand.

Again, it is really important for this person to recognize this so that they can guide themselves in the right direction.
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Maintaining a good reputation is so important in business; cause and effect.

In reading this article please have a think about whether those people added to your email marketing list have requested and confirmed their continued inclusion in your email marketing list.

If they did not have the opportunity to opt in to receive your emails, then the emails sent may be considered to be, and treated as spam email by the authorities.  I am talking actual authorities and whole police units set up for handling spam, and from what I have heard spam is not handled lightly by these authorities.

So that you and your business is not subject to these types of problems, you might like to now look at whether you have received the appropriate permissions from your readers prior to adding them to your list.  The absolute best way is by using an automated double opt in process through a reputable email communications web program, such as AWeber, iContact etc.

These programs sometimes offer feedback, prior to you even sending the email, as to whether the email content that you are about to send might be considered by readers to contain spam content, allowing for you to further edit it if need be.
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