This is the first of an 8 part series on Lifestyle Marketing.
With a little patience and technical know-how, it’s fairly easy to build a website. The Internet is full of handy guides on it. If you don’t have the time to learn, the Internet is also full of people and companies eager to do the work for you. But now that you’ve gone to the trouble of building your site, is it doing what it needs to do to bring traffic in, or it is just sitting there in a sea of similar sites?
You need a reason for people to come to your site.
Marketing expert Andrew Davis believes he has a way to do just that. By creating valuable content on your site, you establish a brand and you can use that brand to sell your products. He cites Sesame Street and Disney as examples. By creating memorable stories and engaging characters such as Mickey Mouse and Elmo, both companies were able to leverage their content to sell millions of dollars in products.
on Tuesday, 05 August 2014.
Posted in Business Strategy
Twenty percent of your customers produce 80 percent of your sales. Named the Pareto Principle after Vilfredo Pareto, this concept is a simple yet powerful idea that can save you time, money and dramatically grow your business if used properly. Pareto, an Italian economist, noticed in 1906 that 80 percent of the land was owned by 20 percent of the population.
The interesting thing about this principle, or the ’80-20 rule’, is that it occurs with astonishing frequency in other situations. Twenty percent of your time will yield 80 percent of your results. Twenty percent of your products will create 80 percent of your revenue. The list goes on and on.
From a marketing standpoint, the applications are obvious. If 20 percent of the advertising efforts produce 80 percent of the results, then your marketing needs to focus on that 20 percent. If 20 percent of your webpages generate 80 percent of your traffic, then you need to highlight those pages to make them easier to find.
When it comes to customers, how do you zero in on your best customers, and more importantly, how do you find more like them? Using the ’80-20’rule allows you to develop more targeted marketing and more effective follow-ups so you can nurture sales.
on Tuesday, 22 July 2014.
Posted in Marketing Tips
Getting online customers to your website is one of the most important ingredients for growing your business, and when it comes to search engines, Google has the vast majority of the market share. If customers don’t know about you or can’t find a convenient way to reach you through the Web, selling your product or service becomes that much harder.
Google+ (Google Plus) is one of the fastest growing social networking sites available in today’s market. While it pales in comparison to the vastness of Facebook, Google+ is tightly tied to the Google search engine. Google+ has ‘+1’ votes, similar to Facebook’s Likes. Those votes let Google know that what you’re sharing is being read. Google+ profiles and pages can have a significant impact on search rankings.
Google+ separates itself from other social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter by offering increased SEO or Search Engine Optimization. Posts are crawled and indexed almost immediately, resulting in a greater likelihood of your page appearing at the top of Google search results when a potential customer begins researching a product or service.
on Tuesday, 08 July 2014.
Posted in Business Strategy
With the sheer variety of resources available online are many ways to get the word out about your product or service. Your official website, though a critical part of your online marketing strategy, is just one of many. Social media sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn, have become an increasing part of modern life. Smart entrepreneurs adapt.
According to Facebook internal estimates, the number of pages for small and medium sized businesses is close to 25 million. And there are over 750 million Facebook users daily.
With such a large environment, businesses have found that their sites and posts tend to get lost in the newsfeeds that users see. Since Facebook is a forum for people to share bits of their daily lives, the decorum tends to be a bit more informal. The professional appearance that companies use on official websites doesn’t always translate well into Facebook.
Many experts on social media recommend a more personal approach for a Facebook page. Rather than telling potential followers about what a great company you started, tell them the hardships you went through trying to found it, and why you did. Instead of posting about your company’s great relationship with the community, post a story about a community event you or one of your employees participated in. Celebrating company moments can help potential customers feel like they’re dealing with real people, not a company logo.
on Thursday, 26 June 2014.
Posted in Business Strategy, Marketing Tips
Are you a business who sells through a website, a retail/office location or a sales team?
Manage Your Leads. Grow Sales. Save Time. Get Organized.
23,000 thriving small businesses use Infusionsoft. Discover how Infusionsoft, the only all-in-one automated sales & marketing software built exclusively for small businesses, has helped them manage their leads, grow sales, save time and stay on top of it all.
-
Organize all customers and prospects with CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
-
Keep in touch & follow-up automatically with Email and Social Marketing
-
Get notified when prospective customers are ready to buy with Lead Scoring
-
Sell online using E-Commerce Shopping Carts
-
Increase sales while saving time with an All-In-One Solution
on Monday, 16 June 2014.
Posted in Automation News, Marketing Tips
How does your quality of life impact your business?
In an increasingly busy and chaotic world, stability has become a precious commodity. How do you find stability in a market that can change in the blink of an eye where the skills you learn are obsolete as soon as you’ve mastered them?
Pam Slim, award-winning author, business coach and creator of the blog Escape from Cubicle Nation believes she has some of the answers.
Your body of work extends far beyond your resume, she says. You are everything you do in life. For an individual, your body of work is everything you create, contribute, affect or impact. It is the story of your life and everyone you’ve interacted with along the way. For a company, it is everything they have contributed during their history, whether it is their products, services, idea or values.
on Thursday, 05 June 2014.
Posted in Life & Lifestyle
What's your business plan?
In 1845, a British expedition commanded by Sir John Franklin boldly set out in search of the Northwest Passage, a fabled sea route around the top of North America. The expedition was plagued by logistical problems from the very start.
The crew had little experience with the arctic. Other than Franklin, few among the officers were arctic veterans. Disregarding the advice of the native Inuit, crewmen were outfitted in uniforms far better suited to winters in Southern England.
In May, the expedition set sail from England never to return. Studies over the years have concluded that hypothermia, starvation and lead poisoning, along with inadequate clothing and supplies, lead to its demise.
While few of us have our hearts set on being arctic explorers, the fate of the Franklin Expedition serves of a poignant example of the importance of proper planning. It has been said that if you don’t know how to get there, it doesn’t matter what road you take.
on Thursday, 22 May 2014.
Posted in Business Strategy
You’ve tossed and turned all night. You’ve counted so many sheep you’re pondering whether to start up a farm. Just when you’ve finally drifted off, you hear the sound of the alarm clock going off. As you pull back the covers and put your feet on the floor you feel like an extra in an episode of ‘The Walking Dead.’
There's an important meeting today with some potential new clients. You need to be at your charismatic and problem-solving best. As you’re about to find out, lack of sleep can make a challenging but achievable task seem almost overwhelming.
You’re not alone.
Nearly one-third of adults report getting less than 6 hours of sleep a night, according to a National Health Interview Survey. And the habit seems to start young; a similar survey sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found only 31 percent of high school students report getting at least 8 hours of sleep a night.
on Thursday, 15 May 2014.
Posted in Life & Lifestyle