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The first thing you do when you sit down at the computer
Jan 12th
Let me guess: check the incoming. Check email or traffic stats or messages from your boss. Check the tweets you follow or the FB status of friends.
You’ve just surrendered not only a block of time but your freshest, best chance to start something new.
If you’re a tech company or a marketer, your goal is to be the first thing people do when they start their day. If you’re an artist, a leader or someone seeking to make a difference, the first thing you do should be to lay tracks to accomplish your goals, not to hear how others have reacted/responded/insisted to what happened yesterday.
View full post on Seth’s Blog
Sales and Marketing Go Together, But They Are Not The Same Thing
Dec 5th
Marketing is the business of promoting your product or service and connecting with your clients. It’s also the tools and the process that you use to get the buyers’ attention. Marketing is a conversation, and the better the communication, the better the relationship.
What is your marketing message?
Pay attention, because it’s wrapped up into everything that has anything to do with your business. Your logo, sound bites, Web content, press releases, website design and business cards all communicate a message about your business to your clients. And since these elements are saying so much about your company, you need to shape that conversation into something that matters.
To make the most of your marketing, Ivana Taylor suggests that you jumpstart your marketing with these four mix-and-match power tools:
- a logo package,
- a top 10 article,
- a WordPress blog and
- an email marketing account.
She includes software suggestions to help you maximize your logo package and key ideas for using the “top 10 article” to generate leads for your company.
She also shows you how to transform your B2B website into a customer magnet because, as Ivana puts it:
“Your website is a huge budget-friendly untapped resource that you’ve been ignoring for too long.”
While her article targets the industrial and manufacturing sector, the website is a major marketing tool for most businesses – especially since the Internet is the modern-day Yellow Pages.
But marketing is only the first half of the equation.
I have noticed two things:
- some small business owners ignore their marketing, and then wonder what’s wrong with their businesses;
- others fail to master the sales process and also end up confused.
Marketing gets the attention, but your sales process advances the relationship by turning potential clients into customers.
Sales and marketing work together. The stronger the marketing, the easier it is to sell. But no matter how great the marketing is, sales is a process that has to be acknowledged, practiced and honored with repeated execution.
Diane Helbig shows us how not to approach a sales pitch. At the core she suggests that we get training:
“Whether you work for a company or own your own business, sales is a critical part of your success – or failure. You owe it to yourself to be sure you are trained effectively.”
But after we get the training, she tells us to practice on “non-ideal” clients. “Practice on the companies or people with which you don’t necessarily need to score a deal. You’ll be more relaxed, and you’ll get the chance to work out the kinks of your communication” before you get to your crucial prospects.
Following her process has the benefit of calming your nerves. Practice, and then deliver.
Image from Frannyanne/Shutterstock
Sales and Marketing Go Together, But They Are Not The Same Thing
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to All the Google Plus Hype
Dec 3rd
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to All the Google Plus Hype
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
I suspect my friends camped firmly in the Google+ part of town won’t like hearing this, but one of the benefits of Google+ is that Facebook got better.
Sure, you can claim, and you would be right, that many of the recent changes at Facebook are in response to Google+ features, but that’s the very nature of competition now isn’t it?
It’s not my intent in this post to promote Facebook or even analyze Google+ as much as to point out some recent observations based on my own experience.
I joined Facebook in 2007, just after the f8 conference announcement that non-edu stalkers (I mean people) could join. For some mild entertainment you might check out this post – My Daughters Are So Pissed.
In the time since joining, I’ve amassed somewhere around 3700 “friends” and with the subsequent launch of pages, over 14,000 fans. One of the big changes announced as part of a fairly significant recent Facebook overhaul is the ability to create “public” status updates and the ability for people (non friended) to subscribe to those updates.
In just over a month, I’ve already amassed around 3700 “subscribers” and, perhaps more significantly, traffic to my site from Facebook has skyrocketed. In addition, engagement on my “personal” profile, the feed that public subscribers have access to, has also increased dramatically.
Facebook doesn’t break things down on personal profiles to the level that would allow me to be certain where the new traffic and engagement burst is coming from, but a scan of the feed tells me that the public subscriber pool is a very important new source of Facebook traffic and engagement and is one that marketers should start to understand and embrace.
The use of a Facebook profile for business purposes is still technically a violation of Facebook TOS, but there’s little denying this new tool could prove significant for marketers. I imagine the impact for high people such as, say, Robert Scoble for instance, who has drawn over 73,000 subscribers to date, has been hard to ignore.
Ironically, the addition of public sharing, a feature that runs counter to Facebook’s DNA is getting a great deal of user acceptance, while Google+ Circles, the noted Facebook killer feature, isn’t proving as significant as once assumed.
It seems that while we all say we want the ability to create different groups of people for different forms of communication in social networks, most of us are actually still publishing a large percentage of our updates to the masses.
While I initially created many Circles on Google+ and put in some work creating Groups on Facebook, I rarely segment my content on either. Now, this may be simply telling of how I use these networks, but a scan of my feeds shows me that I’m not alone.
Perhaps it’s simply a matter of laziness or a measure of the increased use of networks as broadcast and awareness creating platforms, but for now, Facebook has stemmed the tide of any sign of mass abandonment
Of course all bets are off this time next week or so as Google continues to find more and more ways to make Google+ part of how we communicate with all things Google in our lives.
View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
No such thing as business ethics
Jul 25th
The happy theory of business ethics is this: do the right thing and you will also maximize your long-term profit.
After all, the thinking goes, doing the right thing builds your brand, burnishes your reputation, helps you attract better staff and gives back to the community, the very community that will in turn buy from you. Do all of that and of course you’ll make more money. Problem solved.
The unhappy theory of business ethics is this: you have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profit. Period. To do anything other than that is to cheat your investors. And in a competitive world, you don’t have much wiggle room here.
If you would like to believe in business ethics, the unhappy theory is a huge problem.
As the world gets more complex, as it’s harder to see the long-term given the huge short-term bets that are made, as business gets less transparent (”which company made that, exactly?”) and as the web of interactions makes it harder for any one person to stand up and take responsibility, the happy theory begins to fall apart. After all, if the long-term effects of a decision today can’t possibly have any impact on the profit of this project (which will end in six weeks), then it’s difficult to argue that maximizing profit and doing the right thing are aligned. The local store gets very little long-term profit for its good behavior if it goes out of business before the long-term arrives.
It comes down to this: only people can have ethics. Ethics, as in, doing the right thing for the community even though it might not benefit you or your company financially. Pointing to the numbers (or to the boss) is an easy refuge for someone who would like to duck the issue, but the fork in the road is really clear. You either do work you are proud of, or you work to make the maximum amount of money. (It would be nice if those overlapped every time, but they rarely do).
“I just work here” is the worst sort of ethical excuse. I’d rather work with a company filled with ethical people than try to find a company that’s ethical. In fact, companies we think of as ethical got that way because ethical people made it so.
I worry that we absolve ourselves of responsibility when we talk about business ethics and corporate social responsibility. Corporations are collections of people, and we ought to insist that those people (that would be us) do the right thing. Business is too powerful for us to leave our humanity at the door of the office. It’s not business, it’s personal.
[I learned this lesson from my Dad. Every single day he leads by example, building a career and a company based on taking personal responsibility, not on blaming the heartless, profit-focused system.]
View full post on Seth’s Blog
One Thing About Marketing Strategy
Jun 22nd
One Thing About Marketing Strategy
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Marketing podcast with John Jantsch (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes or subscribe via other RSS device (Google Listen)
In the movie City Slickers Jack Palance’s character tells Billy Crystal that the secret to life is one thing. Crystal, of course, is left to discover what that one thing in life is on his own, but I believe the same is true for business. I believe the most effective marketing strategies, the one’s that I call real-life marketing strategies, hold together by focusing relentlessly on one simple thing.
That one simple thing can be an idea, like providing shoes to kids in need around the world as Tom’s One for One Movement does, focusing on simple, yet stunning design, as many people feel Apple does, or building a business by intentionally keeping things simple, in both products and processes, as I believe 37Signals does.
In all cases though, these companies accomplish many, many things, but do so first and foremost through the realization of one single-minded purpose. This single minded purpose is the filter for every business decision, hiring decision, product decision, and marketing campaign – and it often starts by simply realizing and capturing who the company is being at some point in time – the here’s what we really stand for moment.
Of course, finding and committing to a real-life marketing strategy – the one thing – isn’t enough. You’ve also got to find a way to make it part of the DNA of the organization. You’ve got find symbols and stories and metaphors that allow every part of your business ecosystem embrace the strategy.
There’s an article in this month’s issue of strategy + business magazine titled Eat Your Peas: A Recipe for Culture Change. The article chronicles Jamie Oliver’s (Food Revolution) struggle to change the eating culture in a small community and how he finally breaks through by focusing on one simple and digestible theme – peas.
Previous attempts to change behavior and implement his ideas around healthy eating met with fierce resistance until he made the entire strategy all about embracing eating peas. This “one thing” became the metaphor for the entire culture shift.
In this week’s episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I continue a solo discussion on this idea of real-life marketing strategy. Some of you may have guessed by my seeming infatuation with this topic that I may be working on something bigger related to this theme and you would be right.
I’m convinced there’s a book worth writing on the idea of creating real-life marketing strategy, the kind that amplifies why a business does what it does, the kind that demonstrate how a strong culture can become a powerful strategy, and the kind that suggests anyone, by embracing this idea of “one thing” can create a stunning brand.
So, tell me about companies that you think have this “one thing” down. Or, tell me what your one thing is and how you communicate it.
You can listen to the show by subscribing the feed in iTunes or a variety of other free services such as Google Listen (Use this RSS feed) or you can buy the Duct Tape Marketing iPhone app. (iTunes link – Cost is $2.99) or
View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
The thing that makes it popular…
Mar 3rd
might be precisely the thing that keeps it from working.
Chatroulette was popular because you might randomly see some horrible naked guy. It was like a train wreck attracting rubberneckers. But the very attraction that drew a crowd also ensured it would never be seen as a serious tool.
That kid in school that everyone cheers on as he works to become a class clown might appear popular, but it’s certainly getting in the way of his being taken seriously enough to get into college.
I’d argue that the same thinking applies to the way you first encounter someone. You can certainly be over the top enough to get a handshake or even a meeting, but the thing that got you that meeting might be exactly what costs you the deal.
There are a hundred ways you and your organization can become more popular, earn more clicks, generate more comments… but is popular what you’re after?
View full post on Seth’s Blog
Debit Rewards Becoming a Thing of the Past
Jan 19th
Image: Channel R/Wikimedia
Debit rewards will soon become a thing of the past–unless you use a small bank. A law that takes effect in July will cap debit swipe fees for banks that have more than $10 billion in assets. From Bloomberg:
Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., the world’s biggest payment networks, set rates charged to merchants when consumers use debit and pass that money onto the banks that issue the cards. For larger banks, a cap of a flat 12 cents instead of the average 1 percent of the purchase amount means about $12 billion in lost revenue, and a possible end or restructuring of debit rewards.
The Dodd-Frank legislation that overhauled the financial industry last year mandated setting a cap on debit-card swipe fees to help merchants who said they were powerless to negotiate rates with the payment networks. The Federal Reserve has until April to decide what the cap will be before being implemented July 21, 2011.
If larger banks do maintain some debit rewards, they may make changes including offering limited perks only to the wealthiest customers and requiring more spending or larger deposit balances to attain rewards, said Hewitt of Mercator. They may also end cash-back programs because they’re the most expensive and charge fees for use of debit cards, she said.
So far, swipe fees don’t apply to the credit card industry, meaning your rewards programs will stay intact for the foreseeable future.
Free checking is also becoming a thing of the past at big banks, many of which are now enforcing minimums that, if you don’t hit them, cost you fees.
View full post on Business Pundit
Is Crowdfunding the Next Big Financing Thing?
Jan 5th
Over the past few years, as the credit crunch tightened, we’ve all heard horror stories from successful entrepreneurs who had growing businesses but couldn’t get working capital, or saw their business lines of credit cut or their loans called in for no reason. No wonder many small business owners have become leery of traditional financing sources.
For small business owners seeking capital in a tough economy, will crowdfunding prove to be the next big thing?
Crowdfunding has some similarities to the peer-to-peer lending sites, such as Prosper.com, that arose several years ago, but some important differences as well. Both types of sites allow individuals to solicit financing from others for any purpose. But while peer-to-peer lending typically focuses on one individual lending to another, crowdfunding—as its name implies—aims to reach a funding goal by getting many investors to put in small amounts.
The Wall Street Journal recently took a look at the crowdfunding phenomenon, and talked to some experts who believe it’s about to take off. Using sites such as ProFounder.com, Peerbackers.com, Kickstarter.com and IndieGoGo.com, entrepreneurs can set up a profile that explains how much money they’re seeking and what it will be used for. Investors pledge money toward the goal. The sites make their money by taking a percentage of the investment.
A crowdfunding site can be a great way to simplify the process of seeking financing from, say, family and friends. And until now, most business owners using the sites have been looking for very small amounts ($10,000 or less). However, according to the Journal, the sites are beginning to enable larger transactions as more business owners are turning to them.
Crowdfunding sites have their pros and cons. Like any other business tool, before you consider using one, you need to consider whether it’s a fit for your target audience. If your business’s target customer is younger and more tech-savvy—comfortable with the idea of “crowd”-anything—raising money from people who fit your target customer profile and can understand the profit potential of your business will be easier. On the other hand, if you’re trying to raise capital to start or grow a business in a more conservative industry, or if you’re pitching your elderly relatives to invest in your business, the crowdfunding concept is less likely to fly.
Crowdfunding sites differ in how they operate, but many do not release any funds unless the company’s target amount is met. At RocketHub, about 25 percent of small businesses hit their targets; at IndieGoGo only about 10 percent of projects do. Also keep in mind that, although sites do a preliminary background check of businesses seeking financing, they don’t take responsibility for the outcome or ensure that businesses deliver what they promise. This may make crowdfunding risky business for potential investors who are truly part of the “crowd” and don’t have some connection to you.
Have you used crowdfunding? What do you think of its potential for powering business in the coming years?
Is Crowdfunding the Next Big Financing Thing?
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Is There Such a Thing as Buying a Safe Foreclosure?
Dec 1st
This is a guest post by Global Finance School’s Aaron Huber.
In a recent article that appeared on CNBC “Is It Safe to Buy a Foreclosure?” the following advice was offered:
It’s safe to buy a previously foreclosed-upon house if title insurance is available on it, experts say….As long as the new lender and new owner have title insurance, the former owner can’t seize the home back. The new owner will keep the house, and the displaced former owner might be compensated with money.
This story was a real wake up call for me on just how far the housing market has fallen, even from other past post-bubble lows.
Back in 2007–2008, buying a foreclosure was something savvy buyers would look into in order to get a decent house at a heavily discounted price. Buyers at that time essentially had two options – buy a house from a previous owner or buy a bank-owned property.
Flash forward to 2010 and you’ll be hard pressed to find any home buyers who are looking at non-bank owned properties. The main reason for this that foreclosed properties have almost completely saturated the market.
Consider the following figure from RealtyTrac: In the US, one out of every 389 US households with a mortgage is in foreclosure. In the most troubled states such as California and Florida (which also contain a high percentage of our nation’s housing stock), the rate shoots up to one in every 79 homes.
With this in mind the article from CNBC should have been titled “How to Stay Safe When you buy a Foreclosure”, because if you buy a home, chances are it will be a foreclosure.
The crux of the CNBC article touched on the scary trend of new owners being sued by former owners who were given the boot by their bank without proper due diligence and legal procedures being followed. The huge “robo-signing” scandal may only be the tip of the iceberg. We’ll see the rest after Congress gets finished grilling mortgage industry and banking executives on what went wrong with their internal procedures.
Title insurance, as the excerpt above states, is probably the best solution to this problem. I have another solution: Don’t buy a house.
The real estate market is still a basket case. If you prefer not to get dragged down in complicated legal proceedings, you should simply look into renting.
I know, many people still claim that renting is throwing your money down the drain, but no matter how dysfunctional the housing market becomes – just when you think we can’t hit a new low, there it comes and takes everyone by surprise.
If you’re intent on purchasing a new house, you owe it to yourself to at least wait until the congressional hearings on the mortgage industry have reached some sort of conclusion. There are a lot of lawyers in the US and they are all salivating about being able to bring lawsuits surrounding the hundreds of thousands of foreclosures filed in the US since the beginning of the financial crisis. I’ll be sitting this one out on the sidelines from my rented apartment. Won’t you join me?
About the Author: Aaron Huber is a staff writer for Global Finance School. Global Finance School is a leader in producing interactive e-learning courses on finance, accounting, and economics.
View full post on Business Pundit
It’s one thing to hear it…
Nov 20th
It’s another to do something about it.
Is there anything at all for which this isn’t true?
Knowing the facts, the opportunity or even the process is merely a first step.
View full post on Seth’s Blog
