Home Wealth Project
Extensive Research On How To Build Wealth From The Comfort Of Your Own Home.
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
The Thank You Economy: Show You Care for People Through Social Media
Mar 27th
A great doctor understands your medical history so he or she can give the right medication dosage when you are ill. If you’re a New York City foodie, you certainly enjoy great service at your favorite restaurants. And many people can recall a repairman simply because he always had the right suggestion for a household repair.
These examples demonstrate how and why customers chose small businesses to frequent. And if you ask New York Times bestselling author Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee on Twitter), he’ll tell you the instances of considering earlier experiences and how much the service provider cared, when deciding on future purchases, are blossoming.
His new book, The Thank You Economy, explains how this notion has become an online movement that rethinks business value offline.
If you were a bit overpowered by one of Gary’s intense online orations during his first book’s promotion (see Ivana Taylor’s Crush It review here), you’ll see a slightly softer speaking tone this time. It’s more like that seen on MSNBC’s Morning Joe (see a video here). I noticed it listening to him at a Barnes and Noble Tribeca book signing, which is where I picked up a copy of The Thank You Economy.
No less passionate, Vaynerchuk just has a different and very informed intensity. You will experience this tone while reading The Thank You Economy.
If you suspect social media has started a deeper revolution, read on
Vaynerchuk addresses 11 typical company hesitancies with deepening the customer connection using social media. He does not advocate specific tools, but digs into corporate concerns about return on investment, message control and consumer backlash. Check out his comment on the need for controlling the message:
“Business leaders consistently underestimate two things. First, they underestimate people’s willingness to forgive. They are afraid to put up fan pages because they think any negative comment is equal to a ’60 Minutes’ investigation showing the whole world how much they stink…. Second, they underestimate people’s [B.S.] radar.”
Vaynerchuk offers compelling support through data and large business examples. When customers complained that Ann Taylor LOFT’s new cargo pants looked good only on models, not real-sized women, Ann Taylor showed photos of its employees wearing the pants. The result? “… tons of comments from women thanking LOFT for listening ….” One customer did not like the pants, according to Vaynerchuk, but she respected how Ann Taylor LOFT handled the complaints.
Although he focuses on social media’s importance, Vaynerchuk tries to avoid rehashing other social media authors. On page 5 he claims the term social media is a “misnomer” of the new economic movement. Some points will sound similar, however, if you’ve read anything from those aforementioned authors.
But Vaynerchuk asserts that businesses are being humanized by social media, and such reimagined roles will become the essential way of doing business. Intellectual capital, accessible due to “a massive cultural shift” of Internet usage, powers why people love Q&A in Quora, read reviews on Yelp, and rely on Twitter for news about current events like the recent Egyptian unrest and the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
The Thank You Economy enlightens those who don’t rely on e-commerce and are semi-pondering what their place in the current economy is. For example, Vanderchuk nails it in describing how a B2B company is influenced by the culture shift as much as an e-tailer:
“Behind every B2B transaction, there is a C. The C in a B2B exchange – usually a purchasing manager, a purchasing agent or a buyer – wants the same thing as any other consumer when making buying decisions: outstanding product and service, and the reassurance that someone is thinking about how to best meet the person’s business needs.”
Vanynerchuk provides personal insights, such as his opening recollection of his dad’s liquor store manger’s refusal of a customer’s coupon request (“I went over to the manager and said “That guy will never come back.” I was wrong about that…. He came back… to tell us he would never shop with us again.”) He details how business should consider natural engagement to gain true success:
“One thing that is daunting to many about social media is that it requires you to throw away the script. The rules of engagement force you, or the person to whom you have entrusted your brand’s voice, to improvise, and be willing to go where the consumer leads you.”
In this world, context of relationship is king, not just content.
Like a fine wine, The Thank You Economy complements your social media or mobile ideas
If you already know that social media is important, this book is not for you, but it does complement other social media books (check out the social media book list) and enhances the “why” behind many Small Business Trends tips such as Lisa Barone’s 5 Things Learned from Twitter Stalking and T.J. McCue’s 4 Ways to Make or Save Money with a Smartphone. You can also pair The Thank You Economy with books like The Mesh by Lisa Gansky (see a review here) and even The Economics of Integrity by Anna Bernasek (book review here) to discover how true connection is creating renewed value from seemingly everywhere.
Vaynerchuk walks the talk throughout this book, ending with a series of suggested book covers submitted through a contest — very thoughtful that he gives props to every contestant.
Pick up The Thank You Economy and you will win the “contest” for what matters most. As Vaynerchuk says, “If you succeed with social media, it won’t be because of the platform; it will be because you acknowledge that culture and consumer expectations can change.”
The Thank You Economy: Show You Care for People Through Social Media
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
Better Online Marketing Optimization Through Google Analytics: A Book Review
Jan 22nd
It’s interesting how a product or service that dominates a market becomes so familiar to consumers’ minds that its brand loses some of the cachet that motivates purchase.
We often say “Excel” without ever saying “spreadsheet,” let alone “Microsoft.” And do you say “tissue” or “Kleenex” in your neck of the woods? The more ubiquitous something becomes, the more likely it is to be taken for granted.
Google has such a challenge. Its successful domination of the search engine market has created a corporate directive to seek new growth opportunities and avoid losing marketplace buzz; Fortune magazine published a cover story on this buzz concern and Google’s strategy to expand beyond its core business. The end result has been new offerings and incremental services like Caffeine, Chrome, and a little ol’ phone operating system called Android.
Interestingly, one offering, Google Analytics, has similar dominance issues. It is on more than 62 percent of websites, yet its potency to manage marketing campaigns for small business owners is lost because many neglect to use its full capabilities.
Enter Justin Cutroni, Director of Digital Intelligence at Webshare. A veteran among analytics consultants, Cutroni gets to the essence of marketing with Google Analytics, a new O’Reilly guide for Web analytics users. I met Justin years ago through a Google Analytics Boot Camp training at Epik One, a Vermont-based analytics company. A wonderful strategist, he provides the right experience level in this book for those looking to know more than “What is a bounce rate?”
Better Web experiences through measuring data
The book is structured in a similar informational vein as Dennis Mortensen’s Yahoo! Web Analytics. Eschewing the basic how-to process — Google already provides a number of online videos and starter presentations — Cutroni’s Google Analytics offers techniques and topics for advanced usage without being overly theoretical or recommending actions that can only benefit an enterprise.
Cutroni tries to avoid bogged-down text — and succeeds. Google Analytics is a solid guide for small business technical workers who need a refresher on analytic technicalities, as well as an enlightener for business owners who need to understand how GA works and how the features link to your business. Cutroni covers it well at the beginning of Chapter 2:
“Google Analytics is a business intelligence tool and, because every business has different data needs, your implementation may be very different from someone else’s. Do not believe that you can simply slap some tags on the site and collect valid data. It is very rare that an implementation involves only page tagging. There are many configuration steps required to generate accurate, actionable data.”
Admittedly Chapter 2 is ultra-brief, but subsequent chapters offer distinct applications of Google Analytics features that will enlighten long-time users and new practitioners alike, such as reviewing the evolution of the tagging script and providing an overview of mobile tracking code in Chapter 3. Cutroni highlights integrated uses of the features, such as an explanation of marketing campaign tagging. There are also a few discussions you won’t find online, such as incorporating Google Analytics into CRMs and explaining of how tracking code functions on the server versus the browser. Topics such as the mobile tracking code expand on the functional impact to a site and give useful guidance such as the following comment:
“The mobile tracking code collects data at the server level rather than at the browser, or device, level. Because the mobile tracking code collects data at the server level, you must implement it in the language that you used to build your Web application. Google provides four mobile tracking libraries to make the process easier: PHP, Java, ASP and Perl.”
The segments on advanced techniques should be especially helpful for e-commerce companies and businesses with multiple domains. Here, Cutroni explains how analytics should work with existing systems, not just be a sole influence of decision:
“You should not use Google Analytics e-commerce tracking in place of an accounting or order management tool package. While the tracking is fairly accurate, there are too many external forces that can affect the data quality. It is best to analyze larger sets of e-commerce data and look for trends that provide insight into customer actions….”
What You Will and Won’t Get From Google Analytics
If a user is looking for more integration knowledge, the book does offer a number of excellent plug-in suggestions such as a code debugging tool, a regular expression diagnostic, and a keyword trend checker. There is a chapter dedicated to enterprise-level application that may not fit most small business needs, but it’s worth the page turns if your business is growing and more advanced measurement is on the horizon.
Cutroni’s experience and honest tone comes through at every turn, so readers can rest assured that they are receiving digestable information. One note: Google Analytics does not cover the subject of APIs, so developers looking for coding development information should stick with the Google Code site for how-to instruction. There is also some script discussion, but only a bit more compared to Avinash Kaushik’s Web Analytics 2.0.
Overall, Google Analytics is the right book that can guide businesses that are beginning to create more elaborate websites or encountering e-commerce measurement concerns. Get this book to overcome analytic gremlins, and your business will certainly benefit.
Justin Cutroni writes a great blog on analytics called Analytics Talk. You can also follow him on Twitter.
Better Online Marketing Optimization Through Google Analytics: A Book Review
View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends
3 Steps to Improve Your Company’s Customer Service Through Social Media
Nov 30th
Think of Social Media as an Extension of Your Customer Service Dept.
I wanted to share with you an article that I found on the Amex Open Forum Website. The article, written by Alyson Shontell (Business Insider) really hit the nail on the head and has been my Social Media mantra for the last two years. Companies should view Social Media as an extension of their Customer Service Dept.
People are going to talk positively and/or negatively about your company, service or product – what makes this fact more important now than ever before is; they can spread their review of your company to thousands, perhaps even millions with a click of a button. Strategically, it makes sense to supply your customers with a place to voice their opinions and at the same time, supply yourself a place to openly address and resolve any issues. Social Media can be used to show your customers that you have nothing to hide and if problems do occur, you have the opportunity to address any issues and openly provide a solution.
“Here are three examples of Twitter being used for excellent customer service, and how your company can do the same:
Use Twitter to break down walls between unhappy customers and yourself, like JetBlue.
Airlines seem to make everyone angry these days. A few years back, customers were especially upset with JetBlue for extreme delays and poor service.
The solution: JetBlue, which was one of the first major brands to use Twitter, turned to social media to appease customers. Their CEO explains, “Our routes mean we’re really susceptible to weather issues, so if there’s a rash of delays, I can say [on Twitter], Heads up, everybody. When travelers have more knowledge, it helps them keep calm. That affects their dealings with people in the airports, which reflects back to them. It can change the dynamics in the airport, and that makes all of our lives a lot easier.”
In one particular situation, JetBlue responded to Twitter complaints about lack of heat on an airplane and a missing desk attendant. The airline tweeted a reply in real-time, coughing up a delightfully helpful response within minutes.
The lesson: Since Twitter is real-time, use it to respond to inquiries quickly. Says JetBlue’s CEO, ““That’s a clichéd phrase, but Twitter really is about tearing down the artificial walls between customers and the individuals who work at companies.”
Get a positive conversation started about you, like Toyota
Toyota has had a tough year. In late 2009 and early 2010, Toyota had to recall millions of vehicles for safety reasons. This resulted in a negative public opinion and decreased sales. To fix the damage, they turned to Twitter.
The solution: According to TechCrunch, “The Japanese auto giant has launched a branded channel on TweetMeme, in partnership with Federated Media, which aggregates and organize Twitter conversations regarding Toyota.
“Called Toyota Conversations, the site brings together the top stories being Tweeted about Toyota, from news articles to press releases. The site also shows visitors the most popular videos and images being shared about Toyota on Twitter. And the channel includes a Featured Tweets from Toyota’s Twitter account and press room as well as AdTweets, which are Tweetmeme’s retweetable ads for Toyota.”
The lesson: Don’t shy away from conflict. It’s often a good idea to start the conversation and let people vent. Plus, when you start the conversation, you get to be the moderator and control some of the information being discussed.
Respond to complaints instantly, like Comcast
Sports fans are passionate, so imagine sitting at home, eagerly waiting to see the Celtics play in a championship game, and realizing your cable is messed up. Not good. This happened to a well-known podcaster, CC Chapman, who Twitter blasted a complaint about Comcast.
The solution: Comcast handled the situation with urgency and timeliness. They sent a cable man to Chapman’s house and repaired the signal before the tip off of the next game.
The lesson: Set up digital alerts. When a customer needs something, you’ll know immediately and can be there to assist them. It sure made a great headline when The Globe wrote about Comcast’s excellent Twitter customer-service.”
The examples above, focus on Twitter but the same concept can and should be applied to all social media outlets. If you need expert consultation on your company’s social media approach, learn more about .Com Marketing’s Social Media Kick-Start tactic by calling .. 1.866.266.6584.
Read the entire Open Forum article here.
View full post on .Com Marketing Blog | Internet Marketing Trends | Interactive Marketing
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