Pick One

Posted by on Nov 11, 2010 in Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, Social Media | 0 comments

As a business owner (you are a business owner whether you believe it or not), you have many options to market yourself.  You have the entire world of print, direct mail, you can telemarket, network in person, network over the phone, network on the internet, you can put ads on google, ads on facebook, craigslist ads, the list can go on and on.

The key to success in marketing is actually very simple.  Business owners complicate the matter because they are already usually doing several people’s job so they must master all of these “tools” as well.   In truth, it’s the business owner with focus that will ultimately win, this is especially true of our service industry and consultants.  The key?

PICK ONE.

Pick one “tool” and master that.

If you have a clear message and an easy way to do business with you (do you have a call to action?), then pick one of these and learn it inside and out.  Don’t stress out about foursquare or twitter or linkedin if you and your business has decided to be on facebook first.  One thing at a time.  Even if you hire a consultant like us, we’ll want to walk through each of the tools.  Each tool, has a different use and a slightly different audience.  You don’t communicate the same way on linkedin that you do on facebook or myspace.

Learn to let go of needing to be it all, and just master one, then you can move on to the next one.

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Myth 1 – Every Business Needs A Website

Posted by on Nov 10, 2010 in Featured, Marketing | 2 comments

You’ve heard it for some time now that you need to have a website if you are in business.  There’s a ton of myths like this one out there that are damaging for business owners.  These myths about websites, seo and social media make business owners stress out about having to keep up and put stuff out there that some times they are not even proud of.  They end up spending money on a website so they can slap it on their business card but never really think about what it is.  We meet with a lot of business owners and they all know that they can get business on the internet but no one explained to them that the website has nothing to do with it.

Let me say it again, Your Website Does NOTHING for your business!

See it’s not your website that does anything for your business.  I guess, technically, you could say it’s like an online brochure.  However, just like a brochure, a website is useless without the correct message.  If you don’t know what you are selling and who you are selling it to, then it makes no difference whether you have a website or not.

In fact, that’s why we don’t build websites, we build marketing strategies around the business owner’s passion.  The whole goal of most business owners is to do what they love (and make money).  If your website doesn’t communicate your passion and knowledge of your industry, product or service and doesn’t try to communicate to your customers, then it’s pretty pointless.

In fact, there’s a proven method that we use to help business owners.

  1. Discover your motivation
  2. Tap into your Passion
  3. Tune into your customer (WIIFM)
  4. Create what they want (Content)
  5. Deliver Value
  6. Convert the Customer into a Client (Turn it into a relationship)
  7. Build on that relationship (for referrals)

Interestingly enough, every one of these steps is amplified on the internet!

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