This guy is so amazingly creative! With just a tiny ad and $6 he landed the job of his dreams.
October 27, 2010 By
13 Business Blogging Dos and Don’ts For Creating Relationships
There are thousands of blogging dos and don’ts. This list is specifically for business bloggers and is focused on dos and don’ts that help build relationships with your visitors.
Dos
1. (An obvious one.) Do have an opt in and an RSS feed so people can follow you or choose to hear from you again. Even better, offer something for free when they subscribe. I suggest having both of these. Some may just want to subscribe to your RSS, so offer both.
2. Do put Archives & Categories in the sidebar or footer. Many times when visitors come to your blog they want to know what else you blog about. Give them easy ways to browse so that you can engage them and keep them there longer.
3. Do define your area of specialty so people know exactly what you do. If your tag line is too general, you won’t capture your audience’s attention. Be specific. It pays.
4. Do create banners/ads for your own products/services. This tells people what your business offers. Products you sell are your business. Featuring other people’s products suggests that they are the expert, not you.
5. Do highlight other places you’ve blogged at. This reinforces your expertise and builds relationships with other bloggers.
6. Do invite guest bloggers to post. This also helps build relationships with other bloggers and shows visitors that you are part of a bigger community and that it’s not just you (solo-preneur). It’s a bonus to show different points of view and get free content.
7. Do show social proof (ie: number of subscribers, testimonials). Showing social proof lets people know what others think of you.
8. Do reply to every comment and use plugins to notify commenters of responses. One plugin for this is called “Comment Reply Notification.”
Don’ts
9. Don’t have ads for other people’s stuff if you are selling your own. You’re basically telling your potential clients to go somewhere else. Of course, if you’re not selling anything yet, then creating something to sell should be a priority and until that day, using affiliate products is fine. But not for long 
10. Don’t stop and start. Keep it consistent. Create an editorial calendar and schedule posts ahead of time. Inconsistent posting is like not calling a friend for a year and expecting your friendship to remain the same.
11. Don’t make it difficult for visitors to get your free stuff. Make it easy to download or view videos. Having optins that are only available to subscribers makes your readers jump through hoops. Most of them will give up rather than subscribing. Let them decide to subscribe after they decide they enjoy your offers.
12. Don’t sell in an email. This is slightly off topic, but emails and blogging shouldn’t be about selling. That’s what landing pages/sales pages are for. Definitely link to those pages from a blog post, but don’t try to sell right in the middle of your blog.
13. Don’t be anonymous. Have a great “about” page that shows people who you are and or what your business is all about. Be unique and original. No one likes boring.
There you go. Now start developing relationships with people that come into your virtual world.
December 28, 2008 By
How To Snatch The Golden COIN!
COIN – Circle Of Influence Networking.
On a regular basis, I am on the look out for new opportunities for companies and individuals within my circle of influence. Whether they are located within my immediate market, across the continent or around the world, I am keeping their best interests in mind. As you might imagine, I speak with CEO’s from many different types of companies all the time. If for instance, I speak with a manufacturer, I immediately curious as to who supplies their pallets or wood packaging? I have a client contact who does that. What about corrugated packaging? Looking to tie the knot, perhaps it would benefit you to speak with Atlanta’s ONLY Intimate Bridal Salon? No matter what the situation, I love the idea of my clients doing business together.
I subscribe to a service that looks for news sources. Whenever I spot a topic that a reporter is looking to research and one of my clients would fit the bill, then I pass it on. I consider these efforts part of my overall marketing strategy. One thing that it helps to spur is additional business. It keeps me on their radar. We are referring each other. Much of my new business is from referral. I see it as a two-way street.
Don’t forget that branding is all about the relationship. Take a look at your typical week. I’ll bet that you too trip over situations where your customers could benefit. Take for instance a retailer – if you’re smart and you’re building a customer database, find out what they do. Imagine if you were able to link them up with an opportunity? How golden would you be to them?
If you send out a monthly html newsletter to your list, feature a customer. It’s the little things that make a huge impact. When you’re in their company, pay close attention to what they’re saying about their daily lives. An irritant might possibly be addressed by someone within your circle of influence. What you will definitely find happening as a result of this, is that your customers will start looking out for you.
None of us are any different – we are all looking for new business. Ask your customers what they’re looking for?
Make COIN pay off for you!
November 25, 2008 By
Quality. Service. Value. Who needs them?
It’s time to stop beating your chest in your marketing.
There are some words, like quality, service and value that are so overused in marketing materials that consumers just tune them out.
They’ve lost all meaning and credibility and using them can actually hurt you. They don’t enhance your message, they cloud it.
These words have been so watered down and are so generic that the consumer makes the assumption that you don’t really have anything to tout, so you’ll just pulling out the generic words to take up space.
That doesn’t mean you cannot market your quality, commitment to service or value.
Just find other ways to get the message across. Let your customers talk about your quality. Let satisfaction survey results brag about your high level or service. Do price comparisons or a 110% price difference refund speak to your value.
Live them. Just don’t use the words.
November 11, 2008 By
Who You Are, How You’re Saying It and Do They Care?
Your corporate brand essentially involves two parties – you and them. It is the key in marketing yourself to be sure that you are resonating with your target audience. It’s time that you did some key research from three strategic perspectives:
ONE: Tell us – who are you?
It’s important to know who you are. In the past companies developed mission statements to define who they are. Many times it was wishful thinking. I’ve helped companies determine their brand values and personalities to help them understand who they are. One good way is to ask employees and principals for their understanding of who they think you are. Be honest with this evaluation because you want a clear statement.
TWO: What are you saying you are?
Do a communications audit of your company? In your marketing materials, what is the message you are sending? Does it differ from the “who you are statement” in step ONE? Is your corporate brand image in line with who you say you are? Is your materials consistent in their delivery of the “who you are statement”? Consistency of message is paramount.
THREE: What are they saying about you?
What your marketplace thinks of you is your brand. What they understand about your products and services may be completely out of your hands. If you’ve neglected your brand, chances are your competition have defined you, and this is what your marketplace believes to be the truth. Doing a competitive analysis will also assist you in discovering your short comings and establish a position of message.
Taking these three perspectives together using triangulation, you can now determine where you are RIGHT NOW. Digging deeper, you can also discover situations, language and expectations your target audience desire from you. The answers to each of the three perspectives will clearly show if your brand is in trouble and they also provide a strong direction for marketing effectively.
October 26, 2008 By
Outsourcing: How to Read the Price Tag
Small business owners wear many hats: manager, buyer, accountant, you name it. It is impossible for one person to take care of everything, and the most commonly outsourced tasks revolve around marketing, branding and design. When first deciding to work with a professional, you are going to be looking at the price tag attached to the promised services. It may be shocking to some small business owners how much certain freelance or consulting services can cost, but there are ways to save.
Reading the Price Tag
Next time a consultant charges you $1000 a day, don’t fall over backwards. First consider the following: if you would hire a professional on a one year contract, the salary, taxes and benefits packages would amount to about $200.000 on average. Take into account the consultant only has a certain number of billable days a week, you are paying a premium for the flexibility of not hiring him on a full time basis. You end up saving on benefits, and you probably don’t have enough work to keep someone busy all year so hiring simply doesn’t make sense for your business.
Pricing is, or should be, based on what your best alternative is. In this case, your alternative is to hire someone for a longer term. Considering there are maybe about 236 billable days a year, you need to look at how much an employee costs you a day if you would hire him or her. Don’t just think salary; consider all other costs and expenses associated with an additional hire. You’ll see you still end up saving by hiring a professional for a short term.
How to Save on Freelancers
There are many freelancers who have ‘virtual networks.’ If you need copy writing services, design services, and printing, you could get all your services from the ‘same’ provider. Basically, a virtual network entails a connection between different freelancers who work together on multi-disciplinary projects. This way, they resemble a fully staffed advertising agency, but at a more attractive total price.
Like with anything, you could shop around for the best possible deal. What is important is to look beyond the price tag and see what a freelancer is made of: not everyone will be right for your project, and although price does play a role it isn’t everything.
What has your experience been with outsourcing? Have you looked for a freelancer only based on cost, or based on expertise?
October 17, 2008 By
What Motivates People To Buy?
One of the biggest challenges for business owners and marketers is to step out of their own shoes and slip into the shoes of the buyer.
You need to put aside your own bias and perceptions and always remember that when creating marketing messages, the bottom line is – you have to create the need in the potential buyer’s mind.
Always ask yourself — does my marketing answer the question:
Why should they exchange their hard-earned money for your product or service?
Having an understanding of the human psyche pays off here. It sounds deceivingly simple, but all human decisions are motivated by one of eight things.
- Time/convenience
- Money
- Recovering something lost (like youth)
- Sex
- Knowledge/self improvement
- Security/safety
- Comfort
- Care of loved ones
Knowing this, how could you change your communications to better trigger a response from your audience?
