Home Wealth Project
Extensive Research On How To Build Wealth From The Comfort Of Your Own Home.
Getting an Education Through Content Creation
Jan 3rd
Getting an Education Through Content Creation
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing
Many business owners, and certainly most marketers, have succumbed to the need to consistently product high quality, education based content as the foundation of their marketing efforts.
Without looking too hard you can see that many successful organizations lean very heavily on their content to generate and convert leads. In fact, the wildly successful online marketing service Hubspot appears to do little more than produce, aggregate, syndicate and promote useful content as a way to expose potential customers to their way of doing business. (Granted they do a lot of it.)
With content production comes work, however, and that’s the part that even marketers that realize how important good content is struggle with.
I’ve written many posts about tools that make content production easier and even where I find inspiration for things to write about, but there’s one bit of leverage that I’ve not shared that may help kick your content production into high gear.
What if you looked at content production as a way to get yourself educated?
See, I’ve found that one of the surest ways to get something done is to increase the payoff for doing it. (It’s sort of why after months of not being able to get our taxes organized we magically get it all done one day in early April – the payoff, or perhaps threat of fines, makes it a high priority.)
So, what if instead of always writing about the things you know, you chose to include writing about the things you need to or should know.
For example, as a business owner I need to know more about cash flow, balance sheets, profit and labor productivity. Not so much so that I would advise others on these things, but certainly enough that I can understand them, teach them to my staff, use this data to run my business and, in some cases, teach my CPA how to actually be an adviser.
So what do I do? I ask around and find what some are calling the best book on these matters. (Here’s the one I landed on: Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits!: 4 Keys to Unlock Your Business Potential) I read the book. (That part most people do) Then I find the author, interview him, create a podcast, and write about the very subjects I needed to know more about – an act which deepens my learning.
This is such a powerful way to learn what I need to learn, get advice from leading experts, and produce high quality content all at the same time.
You likely couldn’t make this your only content strategy, but you can certainly create a list of 8-10 topics that you need to know more about and go to work on finding someone that would be happy to teach you while you create content.
View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
Breezing Through The Fbi Hiring Process.
Nov 18th
Gives Tips And Techniques On Becoming An Fbi Special Agent.
Breezing Through The Fbi Hiring Process.
Through the Looking Glass
Oct 15th
I do tons and tons of chart cartoons, and I’m always on the lookout for different graphic takes on what is basically a few straight lines and an arrow.
So one day, I drew my line and decided it looked like a branch. I drew some more offshooting branches, some leaves, etc. . . .but the joke never quite materialized. Then I took another shot with the line as a flower, and that, unfortunately, just made things worse.
It had gotten pretty weird, pretty fast. But it was that surreal quality that finally suggested the caption above. It never exactly made sense, but at least the cartoon and I had come to terms with that.
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Cut Through the Hype: How to Create a Successful Marketing Plan
Sep 22nd
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the clutter of new tools and information available to small business marketers today. I’m sure at some point a small business will hear the following, whether at a conference, on a webinar or in a white paper:
- “You should blog!”
- “Are you on Twitter?”
- “What’s your SEO and PPC strategy?”
- “Are you doing email marketing?”
- “You need a Facebook fan page!”
- “Have you started automating your marketing and sales funnel?”
Cutting through all the hype to see what really works for your small business can be a challenge. When you focus all your effort on tools and tactics but don’t have a clear strategy behind your actions, some serious holes in your marketing and sales funnel will start to surface in three main areas. For example:
1. Lost traffic: How much traffic came to your website today and left without giving you their information? How will you ever follow up? This is a painful reality for many small businesses. Think of how much revenue your business is missing out on because you’re not capturing the traffic you spend big bucks to get.
2. Lost leads: Did you know only 10 percent of leads are ready to buy now? What about the warm and cold leads? More often than not, they get lost in the shuffle and are eventually forgotten forever. Many small businesses would love to follow up on every lead, but with limited resources, that can be a challenge. So, the goal is to close the leads that are hot now in order to drive immediate sales and to have a nurturing system in place for not-ready-to-buy-yet leads.
3. Lost customers: If customers feel indifferent about your product or service, they’re more likely to leave you for the competition. You pay all this money to get customers just so they can leave you for the competition down the road. Ouch!
If you’re experiencing any of the pains I describe above, than keep reading to discover the remedy.
Make a Plan
Let’s start by identifying your business goals. Next, map out what your current customer lifecycle looks like, and what your “perfect” customer lifecycle looks like. I find almost every small business can break its lifecycle into seven stages.
- Attract Traffic
- Capture Leads
- Nurture Prospects
- Convert Sales
- Deliver and Satisfy
- Upsell Customers
- Get Referrals
Call me old school, but I find it helpful if the business maps these seven stages out on a whiteboard. Start filling in the tools and tactics your business is using to push leads through to the next stage. In following this process, the inefficiencies in your system will become glaringly obvious. You’ll start to see where you’re losing leads and sales, when you’re missing out on referrals or even worse, at what point your customers are leaving you for the competition.
Now that the framework is in place, I want to give you some foolproof strategies you can use in these seven stages.
Attracting Traffic Strategies
Putting up a website doesn’t create traffic. You need to become a content machine. Write blog posts, create white papers, post videos and host webinars — and give them all away. The strategy here is to pull leads into your funnel with highly valuable content.
Don’t underestimate the power of social media. Monitor what people are saying about your brand or industry and use it as an opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions. Also, share your content on your social channels.
If you have a network of partners or brand advocates, reward them for referring business your way.
Lastly, have a SEO and PPC strategy in place so when people search online for your type of business, they find you easily.
Lead Capture Strategies
I’m going to say this once and only once: “Sign up for my monthly newsletter” is not a lead capture strategy—at least not an effective one. Capturing leads goes hand-and-hand with becoming a content machine. Give away free reports or a video series that is packed with education. You can try running a contest or hosting an online event like a webinar as well. Just make sure you are getting permission from customers to follow up. Set expectations right from the beginning on what you’ll be sending them and get them to opt-in so they don’t feel bombarded.
Lead Nurture Strategies
Segment your follow-up based on the behaviors and interests of your leads. For example, I suggest segmenting your content into three groups: new leads, hot leads and cold leads. You should also be paying close attention to how you got the lead in the first place. Did they watch a webinar on “Copywriting Tips for Small Businesses” or did they sign up for a demo or consultation? The content you provide to these three audiences is likely going to be very different because the prospects are at different stages of the buying cycle.
Sales Conversion Strategies
As a small business with limited time and resources, relying solely on your sales team can sometimes be a death sentence. Try automating some of your prospect follow-up. By doing so, you are able to monitor their level of interest by looking at behaviors like email open rates, report downloads and other interactions. You know that someone who has opened every email, watched every webinar and requested a free consultation is probably a prospect that’s ready to be handed off to sales to close the deal. Automating some of the communications helps ensure the quality of leads going to sales is high, resulting in better and quicker conversions.
Upsell and Referral Strategies
Small businesses are guilty of basking in the success of closing the sale and overlooking the fact that there are huge opportunities to upsell and get referrals. Here are a few different upsell strategies:
- Checkout upsell
- Post-purchase upsell
- Product-specific upsell
- Product-specific cross-sell
You’ve invested time and money in converting leads into customers and wowing your customers with your service. Now ask for referrals! Give them a free product or a discount for referring a friend. We all know some of the best leads can come from referrals.
If you follow even some of the tips in this article, I have no doubt that you can create a strategic marketing plan that cuts through the clutter and delivers the results you want to achieve. Here are a few extra tips for creating a small business marketing plan from a previously recorded webinar. It’s a valuable resource for getting results from your plan in 3 simple steps.
Cut Through the Hype: How to Create a Successful Marketing Plan
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
More Hot Small Business Contests, Summer Through Fall
Aug 7th
This list of contests, competitions and awards for small businesses is brought to you every other week as a community service by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com.
If you’ve entered and won a contest or award listed here, let us know so we can share your news.
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Small Business Influencer Awards
Vote before August 10, 2011
The Small Business Influencer Awards are going on right now. There’s still time to vote on the 520 nominees, through August 9, 2011. Weren’t nominated this year? Here’s what we suggest:
(1) Get behind a nominee or several nominees, and vote for them. And check out the Twitter activity by following the #SMBinfluencer hashtag. That way you’ll experience the excitement first hand.
(2) Join us in New York on the evening of September 13, 2011 for the Awards Gala, at the Auditorium on Broadway at NYIT.
(3) Mark your calendar for next May 2012, to start watching out for next year’s Small Business Influencer Awards announcement. We will do a call for nominations for the 2nd Annual Small Business Influencer Awards. This will be an annual initiative.
Top 10 Facebook Page Contest
Enter by August 22, 2011
Social Media Examiner is accepting nominations for its “Top 10 Small Business Facebook Page” contest. Nominations are made via comment on this post about why you like the page you are nominating.
Winners will be selected based on the quality of their Facebook pages, the frequency and quality of their wall activities and fan engagement. Think part readers’ choice and part Oscars. In addition to online exposure, each of the top 10 winners will also get free tickets to Facebook Success Summit 2011—the web’s largest online Facebook marketing conference.
Avaya Small Business Innovators Contest
Enter by August 30, 2011
Do you have an idea that will change the way your business serves your customers? Innovation is the engine that makes every business more productive and helps it to grow. To enter Avaya’s Small Business Innovators contest, fill out their ROI tool and send them the results. Include how you would spend the savings over the next five years to innovate new ways to serve your customers, staff and suppliers. Grand prize of $50,000 worth of IP Office equipment and software and $5,000 cash. Five runner up prizes of $10,000 worth of IP Office equipment and software.
Supreme Studio Makeover Contest
Enter by August 31, 2011
MacMall’s second annual Supreme Studio Makeover Contest features $26K in total tech prizes for small businesses and creative studios, including highly sought after products such as: Maya 2012, Adobe CS5.5, HP Designjet large format printers, an HP 24″ DreamColor monitor, Microsoft Office for Mac and Apple Time Capsule storage units.
The Promotion Promotion
Enter by August 31, 2011
The UPS Store is launching an online contest to give one lucky entrepreneur a $50,000 marketing makeover. “Like” the UPS Store’s corporate Facebook page for a chance to win up to $3,000 in weekly prizes including AMEX gift cards, Square mobile card readers and more. See Facebook page for details.
Cleantech Open Idea Competition
Enter by September 12, 2011
The Cleantech Open runs the world’s largest clean technology business competition, and they’re looking for the best clean technology ideas from around the world.
Enter to win a prize package of services worth $100,000 to help you start a business to grow your idea. If your idea beats out the competition in the National Competition, you get to represent your country as a Global Ideas finalist at the annual Cleantech Open Awards Gala on November 17, 2010 in San Francisco. There, your idea will be presented in a five-minute pitch in front of a crowd of 2,500 investors, entrepreneurs, sponsoring companies, corporations, members of academia, press, and others interested in hearing your ideas and getting involved. The crowd will vote via text message for the “People’s Choice” winner.
Women Who Mean Business 2011
Enter by September 16, 2011
The Washington Business Journal announces the eighth annual Women Who Mean Business awards program. This award is designed to honor the region’s most influential business women. We’re looking for women from every industry and profession; women who’ve made a difference in their communities, blazed a trail for the rest of us and are leaving a mark on the Washington-area community.
Nominees must be female residents of the Washington area who are employed in the region.
A nominee should be an established business leader with a strong record of innovation in her field, outstanding performance in her business and/or a clear track record of meaningful community involvement.
Dream Big Grow Here Business Grant Contest
Enter by September 23, 2011
Northeast Iowa Business Network and MyEntre.Net, Iowa’s online community for Iowa entrepreneurs and small business, have announced the launch of the new “Dream Big, Grow Here” contest for small businesses in Northeast Iowa.
Applicants can submit a video or email about their business and share their dreams for how they would like to grow their Iowa company and what it means to them to be in business in Iowa.
Other visitors to Dream Big Grow Here will have the opportunity to vote on the ideas they like the best, with the winning entrepreneur pocketing $5,000 for their business. Regional winners can then go on to compete for the grand prize of $10,000 against the other regional winners.
ProjectREV
Enter by September 30, 2011
Project REV was launched in 2010 as a contest that gives small business owners a chance to receive a yearlong marketing makeover. Each participant is teamed up with a Deluxe marketing advisor and a business counselor from SCORE. At the kick-off event, the business owner will work with their advisor to analyze the business’s current marketplace situation and create a customized plan applying up to $15,000 in marketing products and services from Deluxe, including website design and hosting, branding, social media marketing, SEO, email marketing, and more. See website for more details.
To find more small business events, contests and awards, visit our Small Business Events Calendar.
If you are putting on a small business contest, award or competition, and want to get the word out to the community, please submit it through our Small Business Event and Contests Form (it’s free).
Please note: The descriptions provided here are for convenience only and are NOT the official rules. ALWAYS read official rules carefully at the site holding the competition, contest or award.
More Hot Small Business Contests, Summer Through Fall
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Publishing Public Domain Books Through Amazon
Jul 21st
How To Make Money Online Quickly and Easily Without Having a Website or Having to Market a Product. Affiliate tools and banners available at http://publishingpublicdomainbooks.com/affiliates. html
Publishing Public Domain Books Through Amazon
Sales Are Through the Roof
Jul 9th
Let’s face it, a bad sales graph offers infinitely more comic opportunities than a good sales graph. There’s figuring out who’s to blame, what might have caused it, possible punishments . . . success is much harder, but a phrase like “sales are through the roof” is too hard to resist.
My initial take was to find a company or product for which sales going through a roof would be bad news. Maybe a roofer would have to redo previous work? Confusing. A sales manager who was afraid of heights? Meh.
But when I backed up and looked for an industry that quite literally had a product that went through a roof, I knew I had a good take on good sales.
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Explode Income Streams Through Self Promotion Via The Media
May 23rd
Publicity Boost. Premium E-book. Secrets that teach you how to gain masses of positive free publicity for your business through the media. Make More Cash, De-stress, Retire Early Written by Mark Aiston, who’s worked in the Australian media since 1984
Explode Income Streams Through Self Promotion Via The Media
Let Your Story Cut Through the Noise and Clutter
Apr 14th
“The universe is made of stories, not of atoms” ~ Muriel Rukeyser
On January 5, 2007, I was sitting out on my lanai looking out at the lake and golf course in Ft. Myers, Florida. I was officially and unexpectedly in between careers and jobs, living in a town where I literally knew one person. I had made a voluntary career transition in August 2006 and decided to embark on yet another adventure in my life–one that did not turn out the way I had anticipated.
I was stunned, uncertain and yet strangely excited. The question came into my head, “What do you really want to do, not what do you have to do?” I really wanted to start my own company using all of my gifts, talents, passion and expertise to help others and do what I do best: teach, guide and train. On February 4, 2007, I launched Train with Shane. I just celebrated 4 years in business.
That defining moment on the lanai led me on the most exciting, nerve-racking and challenging ride of my life.
My storyline?
“Deborah Shane is a tenacious ‘career revivalista’ who has transitioned through several careers. She has transformed herself from a rockin’ singer, published songwriter, teacher and award-winning radio sales professional to a gutsy author, entrepreneur, speaker, radio host and expert.”
We know that stories are the most powerful way for people to connect with each other. We all love stories because we all have them and can relate to them. The plot, the characters, the setting, the conflict, the resolution, the moral is the oldest from of telling and sharing experience, wisdom and history that we have. Today, storytelling is one of the most effective approaches to use in brand recognition and development.
Telling a story to drive home a theme or point is so powerful and lasting that it can cut through all the noise and clutter to grab someone’s attention very quickly.
Consider:
- The courage and perseverance of Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind adventurer to summit all seven of the planet’s highest mountain peaks.
- The innovation and vision of Ray Kroc of McDonald’s to revolutionize fast food.
- Sara Blakely getting over her fear of sales to make Spanx the success it is today.
There are thousands of these stories that come out of the lives of real people that drive home the lesson, principle and moment of clarity that come when we take that leap of faith to do what we are driven to do.
Here are 3 ways you can build a story and your brand connection with people at the same time:
1. Identify your life shapers and turning points. We all have specific moments in our lives when things shifted and changed–moments that shaped our ideas and were turning points in our lives. Think about five of those moments in your life and what lesson came out of each that makes you who you are today. Use that to craft a story.
2. Think of random situations or occurrences you were involved in or witnessed that greatly moved you and why. Craft a story around what you saw, thought, felt or learned.
3. Talk about things, issues, causes that you are passionate about and why. We all have charities, causes and things that we want to be a part of and align ourselves with. Craft a story around how these led you to do something.
What’s your story? Find it, tell it, share it and celebrate it.
Let Your Story Cut Through the Noise and Clutter
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Earn 65% Multiple products on how to make money through the internet
Apr 2nd
Great multiple products to teach how to make money through the internet. Includes E-Books, Videos, and Software. Everything can be sold with master resell rights, which includes pitch and thank-you webpages. Learn how to promote on the www. Earn 65% comm.
Earn 65% Multiple products on how to make money through the internet
