Archive for the ‘Small Business Marketing’ Category

Membership programs for peace of mind

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011 by The BuzzBooster Team!

As the New Year starts, you might be thinking of new ways to generate more income. You might be thinking of ways to add another stream of business income in your existing business or to start another business.
Start your research by checking member based programs. Member based programs bring stability and passive income which always brings peace of mind.

Member based programs allow you to:

First and foremost passive steady income

Work less and make more money

Stop trading time for dollars

Not have to work with problem clients

Run as a separate, automated business or

Plug into any existing business

Have a business running on auto-pilot

Have a sustainable, recession proof business model

Create as many streams of income as you want.

Stop worrying about bills every month

Save money to do things you love.

You have a business that does not run your life.

With a member based program, your clients are more loyal.

You can outsource, duplicate and repeat the member based system as many times as you want.

You multiply the value you deliver without you having to do anything

Member based programs allow you to leverage your most powerful of influences – social proof.

You can quite your 9 to 5

It is a platform to generate sales for other services and products.

We’ll have a webcast next week covering continuity programs and showing you how to start your own.
Register now for the Continuity programs webcast.

Tips to create a printed newsletter

Wednesday, December 1st, 2010 by The BuzzBooster Team!

E-mails are great, e-zines fantastic but printed newsletters keep your prospects and customers paying more attention to you. Yes, they are not free but they will bring you more ROI than the eletronic options.

Here are a list of things you need to put in place in order to have your enwsletter.

1. A overall template- You can find them online.
2. Use graphics to support the text and don’t over use them.
3. The first page must be compelling enough to make people open and read the rest.
4. Add boxes like ” What’s inside”. They work as teasers.
5. Big headlines to capture the eye
6. Do a newsletter every month
7. Each one must have an overall goal.
8. Include a coupon or gift certificate.
9. Add a tracking code to the coupon or gift certificate.
10. Print your newsletter with 4 pages- one page od 11×17″
11. Do it in black and white on white paper
12. Add standard information- name of newsletter, contact info, website, edition number.
13. Master powerful headlines
14. Mix short and long articles.
15. Make headlines and sub-headlines one font bigger and bolder.
16. Open sentence and paragraph must be kept short and very intriguing to pull them into the copy

How to create a tag line

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 by The BuzzBooster Team!

I don’t know about you but every time I go to a networking meeting and people start introducing themselves I go to la,la land. I try to pay attention but the messages are so ordinary that it becomes an impossible task.. They all go like: I’m a consultant…, I sell beauty products…, I’m a real estate agent…

All this becomes just noise.

So, when it is your turn, how do you get attention?

The answer is to simplify your message.

Look at the example of some big companies that have figured that out:

Avis- We try harder
Nike- Just do it
Coke- Just for the taste of it
Mc Donald’s- I’m loving it.

For you to reach the same level of communication you need first to be able to answer there 4 questions in just one sentence:

1. What the problem is
2. Who you are solving it for
3. Why you
4 How do you do it

Ask yourself what is the one thing you do that they would pay for. Something they want really bad.

I know it is not easy to get to one sentence only and it may take you a while but this is how it is done.
We need to know what is the one benefit I do in my work that solves on single problem that my entire market can understand and want to pay for.

Find your ideal client- small business marketing

Monday, November 29th, 2010 by The BuzzBooster Team!

We can’t sell to everybody. We need to find our ideal customer.

For that you need to get inside the mind of your customer and be able to persuade, motivate and sell to them.
If you know who your customer is you can analyze , understand and connect with him/her.

Here are some questions you need to answer in order to profile your ideal client:

1. What brings pain to your customer?
2. What keeps them awake at night?
3. What do they fear the most?
4. Are there any new trends happening in their industry right now?
5. What do they desire?
6. What makes them angry?
7. What things cause them frustration?
8. Is there something specific about their personality?
9. Who else is selling a similar service?
10. How are they selling it?
11. What types of magazines, trade jounals, e-zines they subsctibe to?
12 What’s the average age?
13. What is the average sex, marital status?
14. what is their income level?

By answering these questions you just found a very valuable tool.

Client attraction: Have your own TV show.

Friday, October 8th, 2010 by shahar

I had the pleasure of interviewing Stephanie DeGraw from PowerMedia Entertainment a few weeks ago.
We talked about the many possibilities that small business owners have to market their business with their own TV show.
It is a lot easier than most people think.
Listen carefully to this interview on Small business marketing with TV shows

Attraction Marketing: Create an Irresistible business

Thursday, October 7th, 2010 by shahar

Creating an irresistible business

You heard this one before: People are overwhelmed with information. Not only that, due to the recession, people are more anxious and more resistant to buy. They know we all have too much stuff and we don’t need more “stuff”.

If your services or products are seeing as “stuff” you are in trouble.

Add to this mix the fact that we are all ADD and just don’t pay attention anymore. In fact the average American adult has an attention span of 9 seconds. This is the same as a goldfish.

Yes, we are all selling to gold fish and they swim away really fast.

Combine the fact that people are not paying attention to the fact that they don’t want anything that is ordinary, that looks like more stuff and you find the reason why so many businesses are suffering.

The gold rush today is to get attention and to be found. Getting attention is difficult if you position yourself as a commodity. In fact, you need to work on your business and turn it into an irresistible business. A business that people notice, talk about and want to be a part of.

I know it looks like a complicated and expensive task but I can assure you this is not the case.

There are 7 components you need to make sure you have in your business and you will see how together they make your business irresistible to people, therefore attracting more and more clients with less effort on your part.

The components are:

1. Create an irresistible promise. A promise is not about how great you are but what do they get when buying from you. It needs to talk to an emotional level.
Ex: Disney promise is: The happiest place on Earth.

2. Unveil your core story. We as business owners need to master storytelling and need to have a story that will resonate with people. We need to be about something. People connect with companies that are about something they can relate to. Ex Thom shoes.

3. Find your unique voice. You need to find your voice in the crowd, need to show personality. Businesses that don’t have personality don’t do well in the new economy. you don’t need to please everyone, just the ones that would buy from you.
When marketing online choose a way to express your voice and become really good with the format. It can be audio, video or text. Ex: Innocent Drinks from the UK

4. Incorporate Mystique. Bring some suspense, tease with your audience. Leave some questions unanswered. The mind cannot live with unanswered questions, so they glue to you. Ex: The Coke formula

5. Become Uberpresent. Businesses today need to be everywhere. They need to be where their audience is. This is where you can use social media marketing and automation to do the work for you. Don’t forget to create a strategy that will not only create awareness but also conversion. Most businesses fail here. They assume that because social media marketing is free and seens easy to use all they need to do is set up accounts and give some tips. There is a lot more here and you need to design a path for people to buy or for you to build a list.

6. Incorporate business rituals. People stick to businesses that have rituals. Just take a look at multilevel companies and churches. Decide how you too can incorporate some rituals. Can be as simple as having an assessment before talking to a prospect.

7. Increase trust. You need to do everything you can to increase the level of trust with clients and prospects. People don’t buy if they don’t believe. Using testimonials is a good start.

These 7 components can change the face of your business and will create loyal customers and advocates that will spread the word about your business. To implement this system takes some brain power and testing but doesn’t cost money and will make all your marketing and advertising efforts more effective. Attracting clients is not about the tools you use but about the message you send.

Small business marketing with Kindle

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010 by The BuzzBooster Team!

E-Book Devices Expected to Reach 10 Million U.S. Homes 10.3 million U.S. homes will have an e-reader by the end of this year, Forrester Research estimates. E-reader owners buy an average of 15 e-books per year, and two-thirds of the e-readers already in owners’ hands are Kindles.
I love to read and think holding a book in my hand provides a better experience, but I have to tell you, I love my Kindle. It is a lot easier to travel and have my e-book reader in my bag, it is a lot lighter and in one small device I can carry several books, magazines and blogs I love to read.Allows me to consume information when I want, where I want and from different media options.
No wonder so many people are buying e-book readers. Some say by 2011 e-books will outsold paper books.

Now why is this important to your business? Because here lies a huge opportunity to market to all Kindle owners for free.

See the paragraph above where I mentioned I can carry in my Kindle books, magazines and blogs? Yes, blogs.

If you have one, you can submit to Amazon and have it available for Kindle owners.

People will be able to subscribe to your blog, free for 14 days and after that pay a monthly subscription to read your content. Amazon will share this subscription with you. Here is a revenue opportunity for your blog, but I think the best part is the possibility to reach an audience you couldn’t reach before.

In order to have your blog available for Kindle owners you need to go to Amazon, Kindle Store and then click on Blogs and set up a publishing account. After that you will need to provide some basic information about your blog like the RSS feed, how often you publish, what is the blog about etc.

Submit and after a couple of days Amazon will review and approve your blog.

You will be able to check later how many people subscribe to your blog. Note that the real reason you are doing this is because your blog will be on the search engine in the Kindle store and on Amazon. This is great in itself because is giving you visibility.

Don’t forget that your blog needs to be updated consistently.

A marketing tip from Chris Makel

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 by The BuzzBooster Team!

Since we featured Chris Makel from Radiance Marketing blog posts twice this week, we thought you might enjoy watching her while she gives you another great marketing tip.

Attraction Marketing: Marketing Transparency

Monday, August 30th, 2010 by The BuzzBooster Team!

This is a great post by Chris Makell that I’ve posted below on Marketing Transparency.

In my mail last week, I received an interesting letter from my Acura dealer. I purchased my TL 4 years ago and am proud to say it’s paid off! Yay!

Having purchased cars for over 20 years (yeah, don’t try to do the math…smile) I’ve never had this experience before. And I thought, if we as business owners used this level of marketing transparency with our clients, wow…what that could mean!

Let me share a bit of the letter so that you see what I mean. It begins:

“Dear Ms. Makell,

Acura realizes the more transparent the auto buying experience, the more enjoyable it is for our customers.” Ok, so you’re probably saying, “duh.”

But it goes on… “As a loyal customer of Acura (I do let them change my oil, only) you can expect to receive updated quotes periodically, to keep you informed of your options. When the time is right to upgrade to a new vehicle you’ll have all the information you need.”

Ok, again, you’re probably saying, Chris, makes sense…you may be ready to “think” about a new car since your car is now in it’s 5th year and they want to be sure you think of them! Obvious, right?

Do you do this with YOUR clients? I don’t…

This is an excellent example of follow up AND ensuring client loyalty. By connecting with me to let me know that THEY know I may be ready to purchase another Acura and providing me with great pricing options, I am more likely to return to an Acura model. I can tell you Toyota didn’t do that…

So, how can you make this “marketing transparency” work for you and your business?

Consider this… After you’ve concluded a program with your clients, or they’ve purchased a product from you, create a system to follow up or check in with them. Let them know what new programs your have or new products you’re offering. This could be as simple as sending a postcard, regular card, short note to see how your client (never a “former”, once a client — always a client) is doing or how they are still getting results from their time with you. Or you can simply give them a call to say hi, I was thinking of you!

How about letting them invest in a new program or product by giving them an “incentive” price based on their past spending with you? You can also give them one month free in a new program, or buy one get one free!

It’s simply letting them know that they are still top of mind for you. Clients really appreciate that!

Listen, what Acura doesn’t know is that I tend to keep my cars for an average of 9 years, but I am so impressed with this approach, that I immediately saw it’s value for my customers. I like my TL a lot — for me and I like this approach a lot — for my clients! Maybe you will too…

Attraction Marketing, How Vosges Chocolates becomes irresistible

Monday, August 9th, 2010 by shahar

Easy to be irresistible if we talk about chocolate. When we talk about chocolate companies it is another story unless you are talking about Vosges chocolate. This company understands attraction marketing, consumer engagement and the irresistible factor. Take a look at this video to see how Vosges incorporates mystique in its packaging.

Building trust in your business

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 by The BuzzBooster Team!

A lot of people think that building trust is difficult or is a long process. There are simple ways to build trust with customers and prospects. In this video Nash shows one way we do that in our office. Simple and effective. Building trust is a key component into making your business irresistible to people.  Remember that one of two reasons people don’t buy from you is because they don’t believe you. Easy to work on that one.

Is your business irresistible? The art of client attraction

Monday, July 19th, 2010 by shahar

Today is not enough for a business to provide good information, an experience or good customer service.

With the amount of noise you face every time you try to promote your business, it takes a lot more to get attention.

It does not matter the midia you are using to promote your business, they are all crowded and offer so many distractions. Especially if you are using social media as the only marketing approach. Social media offers so many distractions that the attention span of the average person is only 9 seconds. That is the same attention your gold fish will give you. So, if you want people to pay attention to you, come to you asking for your products or services and advocate for you, you need more. You need to become an irresistible business.

In order to become irresistible you need to make sure the following steps are in place:

1. Have an irresistible offer

2. Unveil your core story

3. Create your unique voice in the market

4. Incorporate Mystique in your busienss

5. Be Uber-present always

6. Define rituals for your business

7. Increase trust

By making sure you have all these steps in place you create what people will find an irresistible business.

I want to show you some examples of companies that do this well and show you how to apply these concepts in your business.

The Be Irresistible! The art of attracting and keeping clients webcast will be the way we will show you how to be perceive as the only desirable business in your industry.

Join us by registering here: Client Attaction Webcast

Client attraction and Online Visibility

Friday, July 16th, 2010 by The BuzzBooster Team!

We did a great webcast on client attraction and online visibility and as a test we livestream at the same time. We still have to fix some kinks in the process but if you want to watch the video on client attraction is it is here for you:

Client attraction seminar

Online advertising versus Phone book ads

Monday, July 12th, 2010 by shahar

Yellow Pages vs. Online Advertising (”Let Your Fingers Do The Finding”)

• Yellow Pages are difficult to track and have limited tracking options. Online marketing offers extensive tracking options.
• Yellow Pages reach can only go so far and if you advertise in more than one directory it can get very expensive. Online marketing has an unlimited reach and is very cost effective.
• You can only change your advertising message on a yearly basis with Yellow Pages. You can change your message online at any time.
• There are over 13 billion searches on the web/month and growing. Yellow Pages receive an approximate 1 billion references/month and is losing more and more customers that advertise in the Yellow Pages every year.

Don’t forget we can help you with local marketing.

What to look for when outsourcing small business marketing

Thursday, July 8th, 2010 by shahar

Outsourcing marketing efforts has become an essential aspect of business strategies. After all, you should focus on what you are good at and outsource the rest.

Outsourcing allows a company to put more focus on product development and overall operations. Many marketing agencies can often provide the same service as an in-house marketing department, but at half the cost.

By outsourcing you gain the following:

  • Specialized skills and expertise
  • More time- your most valuable asset
  • More implementation
  • Fast results

Every time you hear outsourcing marketing you think about how expensive marketing agencies are. Don’t forget that there are some Marketing companies that specialize in small businesses, just like BuzzBooster.  They are not in the business of selling you on expensive advertising, they focus on other strategies like internet marketing, direct response marketing and social media marketing to bring you more exposure and more results.

Here are a few  questions that should assist you in finding a marketing agency that is right for you.

  • Area of ExpertiseFind out what their expertise is in.  What do they focus on? Here are common areas of expertise:
    • Search Engine Marketing and Optimization
    • Branding
    • Positioning
    • Affiliate Marketing Development and Management
    • Marketing Strategy and Plan Development
    • Internet Marketing Strategy and Plan Development
    • Lead Generation
    • Sales and Marketing Campaign Development
    • Marketing Classes, Seminars, and Workshops

    Figure out what areas you need help in and look for consultants with expertise in those areas.

  • Training/EducationWhat type of training and/or education is important to you. I will tell you that education is important, however experience and hands-on expertise can far out weigh education when it comes down to success in marketing.Ask for case studies, referrals, and experience in the areas that you need assistance in.
  • Company AchievementsWhat are the notable achievements that the marketing consultant has achieved. What work are they most proud of?Ask them to show you examples of campaigns they run for other clients.