Home Wealth Project
Extensive Research On How To Build Wealth From The Comfort Of Your Own Home.
Camcorder Secrets Revealed
May 21st
Discover Everything Youll Ever Need To Know About Camcorders And More With This Definitive Enthusiasts Guide.
Camcorder Secrets Revealed
You will be judged (or you will be ignored)
May 21st
Those are pretty much the only two choices.
Being judged is uncomfortable. Snap judgments, prejudices, misinformation… all of these, combined with not enough time (how could there be) to truly know you, means that you will inevitably be misjudged, underestimated (or overestimated) and unfairly rejected.
The alternative, of course, is much safer. To be ignored.
Up to you.
View full post on Seth’s Blog
Expose Yourself!–”Navigating the VCP Process(R) to Networking” Series
May 21st
TR Garland (pictured with me in the photo below) is a friend of mine and co-author of one of my most recent #1 best-selling books called “Building The Ultimate Network.” He’s also considered a top trainer for the Referral Institute. For some time now, we’ve both observed a need to drill down on one of the most important and foundational concepts to networking – The VCP Process®. Four months ago, we started a much-anticipated 12-part monthly series of blog posts which addresses this and contains some very timely information for networkers across the globe. Today, we’re proud to share with …
Read the rest…
Why You Should Read Engagement Marketing
May 21st
Engagement Marketing: How Small Business Wins in a Socially Connected World is the new book about how to get and keep customers by engaging with them.
I love the premise of this book because it is utterly realistic for small businesses. Engagement marketing, according to the book, is the art of “getting new customers through your existing customers, while driving more repeat sales at the same time.” It’s about serving your existing customers well, and deepening your relationship with them by engaging on social media and online. The outgrowth is a stronger customer bond and more satisfied customers. That leads to natural word-of-mouth — and more repeat business and sales to new customers who learned about you through existing customers. And in fact, referrals and word of mouth are how many small businesses get new business today.
The second thing I like is the marketing blueprint that the book lays out. Chapter 1 starts with the “engagement marketing cycle” — a framework for growing sales with the help of social media. Think of it as a 3-step process:
- Step 1 is that you provide a great experience to existing customers — the book calls it a WOW! experience. As the book points out, customers unfortunately have come to expect mediocre service and the bar is low. Small businesses, being nimbler and able to make changes more quickly than larger companies, are in a better position to make changes to create exceptional service.
- Step 2 is to entice customers to stay in touch. This is about persuading customers to opt in and stay in touch — whether through email marketing or via social media such as Twitter, Facebook or Google+. When customers want to stay in touch, you are able to keep that great experience alive and stay top of mind.
- Step 3 is to engage people. Engaging people means sharing content on your blog or social media channels that inspires followers. It’s about interacting with followers on those channels through encouraging them to participate. It means holding events or doing surveys — activities that actively involve them.
“Developing this cycle until it’s a well-oiled machine,” says the book, is what will lead to more sales by increasing repeat sales and referrals.
Everything in this book is practical, including a chapter on overcoming common obstacles. Obstacle #3, for example, will resonate with many business owners: “I don’t like imposing on people.” But as the author explains, one way to overcome that is to focus on creating great “enticement offers” such as a coupon or free report to persuade people to sign up for your email list or follow your Facebook account. Then you’re not imposing – you’re giving people something they want.
There’s even a Quick Start Guide and a Glossary to help you get up to speed quickly on the sometimes baffling terms (like “hashtag’” or “plus one”) in social media.
Most of the book concentrates on pointing out techniques to help you learn how to engage people through social media, email marketing, blogs, events and other activities. And that’s the third thing I like about Engagement Marketing. Intead of talking in generalities, the book explains what types of content to share on social networks, the types of activities to perform to engage with people on social media — and similar useful lessons. It can help you put the building blocks of a social media strategy and action plan in place. It answers the “why” and also the “how.”
The book is filled with examples, including screenshots and images. Examples are ones that most small businesses could attempt on a small budget or with a small team (or even no team). The book avoids one of my pet peeves: using big-budget corporate marketing campaigns as case studies. While I appreciate that Ford may be doing brilliant things in social media, a Ford marketing campaign will be so out my company’s budget that we couldn’t hope to emulate it. Small business examples like the ones in Engagement Marketing are more useful.
About the Author
If you or your company are one of the hundreds of thousands of small businesses usiing Constant Contact, then the author’s name is likely familiar. Gail Goodman (@Gail_Goodman on Twitter) is the CEO of Constant Contact (an occasional advertiser on this site). Goodman architected her company’s expansion from an email marketing provider, to one that now includes tools for social media marketing, surveys, event marketing and mobile marketing. She brings vision and subject matter expertise to this book.
Who Should Read Engagement Marketing
This book is ideal for a small business or non-profit with anywhere from 0 to 100 employees, and even larger.
I highly recommend reading Engagement Marketing if you:
- are scratching your head trying to figure out why your organization should get involved in social media, or
- are already convinced of the value of social media, but you just want someone to explain how to integrate it with the rest of your marketing and develop an achievable strategy, or
- want someone to demystify social media and show you and your team how to jump in and get started.
Why You Should Read Engagement Marketing
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Article Research Finder Software
May 21st
Rapid And Easy To Use Article Research Software For Internet Marketing, Article And Ebook Creation. 4 Unique Bonuses Including Ebook, Ecourse And Audio Http://www.articleresearchfinder.com/affiliates- Tools Include Banners And PPC Keywords
Article Research Finder Software
Electricity4gas – Electric Car Conversion Manual
May 20th
We Have Proof Of Sales. Affiliates Converting At 5% (1 In 20 Visitors Purchase) Or Better. 75% Commission. $33 Per Sale. Big Market With Easy Sales To Be Made. Affiliate Tools At Http://www.electricity4gas.com/affiliates.html
Electricity4gas – Electric Car Conversion Manual
Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking
May 20th
Great marketing strategies never go out of style for a reason – because they WORK. Word of mouth is one of those strategies. It doesn’t cost a fortune and it works like crazy. Then, when you add the latest social media tools, you have word-of-mouth marketing on steroids.
Enter Andy Sernovitz (@sernovitz) , the leader of SocialMedia.org, the community for social media leaders at the world’s greatest brands and WordofMouth.org, where marketers and entrepreneurs learn to be great at word of mouth marketing. Andy taught word of mouth marketing at Northwestern University (home of the great marketing guru Philip Kotler for all you die-hard marketing enthusiasts) and he also taught internet entrepreneurship at the Wharton School of Business. Whew – that was a mouthful. To this mix, get ready to add Word of Mouth MarketingL How Smart Companies Get People Talking.
I received an advanced review copy and couldn’t wait to dig in because this is one of these books that I would buy without blinking an eye because it’s also got a forward by Seth Godin (@ThisIsSethsBlog) and an Afterword by Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki). It’s like getting three great marketing minds in one book! Who could resist?
What makes Word of Mouth Marketing Worth Reading?
Every time I receive a book (especially one on a topic I’m nuts about) I ask myself three questions:
- What sets it apart from the myriad other books on the same topic?
- Who will get the most out of this book?
- What will they get out of this book that will make their business more profitable?
Hopefully, my telling you this doesn’t make my future reviews predictable, rather my intent is to let you know that I read all of these books with a critical eye for usefulness and practicality.
With that in mind, let’s get to answering these questions for you.
What’s Word of Mouth Marketing Got that other Word of Mouth Marketing Books Don’t?
For starters Word of Mouth Marketing is written by a subject matter expert who happens to be a great writer. This is a big plus in my book. Sernovitz has both practical and academic experience on the topic and does a brilliant job of balancing his knowledge and experience with good writing that you will understand and implement without too much effort.
Rounded corners. I know this seems silly to bring out in a book review and might only be relevant to those of you who purchase the book in physical form. But the first thing I noticed is that it had rounded corners and a cover with texture. When you open the book, you’ll notice that there are wonderfully engaging and interesting design elements sprinkled throughout the content. I’m mentioning this because it proves some of the philosophy in word of mouth marketing – give them something to talk about.
Fresh ideas from the best word of mouth marketing campaigns. Don’t underestimate the power of fresh inspiration. Because Sernovitz has been the CEO of GasPedal, a word of mouth marketing company and created the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, you can just imagine the connections and access that he has to the most successful word of mouth marketing programs and examples. My review copy didn’t have an index in the back so I can’t be sure that I’m correct on this – but I was THRILLED to see that Zappos and Apple and the several other over-used examples of great campaigns were NOT included in this book. Instead, you’ll find examples of companies and campaigns that might surprise you such as Dell and Microsoft MVPs.
Who Will Get the Most out of Word of Mouth Marketing?
Entrepreneurs, solo-preneurs, and micro-business owners will get THE MOST out of this book. The biggest challenge for you guys is that the book will throw case studies and examples at you and YOU will have to work out the details to implement them.
My recommendation is to keep a running list of ideas that you’d like to implement. Then when you’re done with the book, go through the ideas and choose the top 3 that interest you the most.
Then for each of those top three, take about an hour to plan exactly what you would do, what has to be done and who you will need to help you put the strategy in place. Once you’ve finished that, pick the one you can implement the quickest, easiest and cheapest way possible. If you just pick any of them and jump in – you will struggle or implement poorly and fail. That isn’t the author’s intention.
Marketing and product managers at larger organizations will enjoy the ideas and case studies. But you guys might struggle with getting some of the ideas through the approval process. I think the weeding-out and strategizing process I describe above is a good exercise for you as well. Your management team or board of directors is open to great marketing, but you will have to map out the process, the strategies, the resources, costs and outcomes that you’re going to track.
What are YOU Going to Get Out of Word of Mouth Marketing That Will Make You Money?
This book doesn’t just have case studies and ideas – it has checklists and plan outlines that will help you get your thinking in order. Not only that, but I’d recommend that you check out the additional resource web sites that Sernovitz includes such as: Word Of Mouth and Damn I Wish. Both of these sites are loaded with the latest thinking and ideas on word of mouth marketing.
What’s Missing That Would Blow The Roof Off Your Experience?
This isn’t really one of my questions, but it’s becoming something that I look for and notice when it’s missing in a book or an article – what’s missing that would blow the roof off my experience? Well, an index would be nice so that I can quickly find all the companies they listed and mentioned throughout the book.
This is getting really picky on my part. But I’m being THIS picky because there is SO MUCH great stuff in here, I don’t want anyone to fail at implementing any of these strategies. Maybe this would be a workbook or a course or something. I would love to have even MORE focus and hand holding on actually creating a word of mouth strategy. I’m thinking about getting people off of the LARGEST hump that they will encounter – getting started. I’m sure that when you read these ideas, you will get inspired and excited, but you won’t know HOW to begin or WHAT to do first. That’s what was missing for me.
Grab This Book And Go!
I don’t know about you – but this is a book I’m going to hang on to and keep close at hand. My hardest decision right now is whether or not to grab the kindle/digital version to keep on my mobile devices in case I want to refer to it to generate new and creative ideas.
If you’re going to have a word of mouth marketing book for 2012 – this is the one to choose.
Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Myspace PPC Cash Videos
May 20th
How To Make Easy Profits From Myspaces New Pay Per Click. Get Very High Conversions Because We Use A $4.95 Trial (full Commission On Both The Trial Payment & Full Payment 7 Days Later). Have A List? Contact Chadwarrior+cbaff@gmail.com For Templates
Myspace PPC Cash Videos
New! The Traffic Button – Massive Traffic The Easy Way
May 20th
The Traffic Button Unveils A Secret Traffic Stream That Few Marketers Know About – And The One’s That Do, Haven’t Shared The Secret Of This Web Traffic Gold Mine – Until Now…
New! The Traffic Button – Massive Traffic The Easy Way
A true story
May 20th
Of course, that’s impossible.
There’s no such thing as a true story. As soon as you start telling a story, making it relevant and interesting to me, hooking it into my worldviews and generating emotions and memories, it ceases to be true, at least if we define true as the whole truth, every possible fact, non-localized and regardless of culture.
Since you’re going to tell a story, you might as well get good at it, focus on it and tell it in a way that you’re proud of.
View full post on Seth’s Blog
