06.24.09
Posted in Marketing, PodCast, Public Relations, Social networking at 10:27 pm EDT by Michele PW
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Have you ever had done something you thought was a really good idea at the time and then it completely backfires on you?
Well, it happened to my good friend Nancy Marmolejo, Viva Visibility.
If you don’t know Nancy yet, you really need to. She is a social media rock star. However, sometimes even rock stars have days where the guitar is out of tune and the speakers catch fire and explode on stage.
Here’s the story in a nutshell. As you all know, social networking is pretty darn new and Twitter is the brand spanking new kid on that shiny new block. Because it’s so new, things like vocabulary and etiquette are still being hashed out.
It’s better coming from Nancy herself why she got so fixated on this, but she was busy telling people you “tweet” not “twitter” (including yours truly). She also decided to write a letter to Inc Magazine about this.
The result? Inc Magazine called her on it and, well, won.
Now I’m telling you about this for 2 reasons.
1. I’m quite excited I can now use “twitter” as a verb (I just hated saying “tweet” — I felt like I should put a chicken coop in my yard.)
2. Nancy handled the whole situation brilliantly. In fact, I would go as far to say this was actually a really good thing in the end.
So what did Nancy do? Well, to start she owned up to it. She didn’t try to hide her mistake or pretend it never happened (which is simply not possible to do in this day and age anyway.) She ‘fessed up.
Lesson #1 — if you make a mistake, and it’s a public mistake, just suck it up and admit it. It’s when you start lying and hiding that things get so out of control. Look at Bill and Monica. People lied, tried to hide things, and that just made everything worse.
By owning up to it, Nancy completely diffused any negative publicity around it. In fact, if you read the comments, most people didn’t think this was a big deal at all. (Which it isn’t — until you start hiding and lying about it. Then suddenly everyone wonders why you’re lying and hiding and it can blow up into a bigger deal.)
The second thing she did was write a very charming and witty blog post about it. Now, you might not be able to write a charming and witty blog post, but it might be worth it to find someone who can for you. She was entertaining about it, which again helped diffuse the situation and caused all her followers to rally around her.
Now, humor isn’t good for all situations. Remember the Tylenol and Cyanide scare? If the Tylenol CEO had come out with humor that would have been completely inappropriate. However, what he did do was immediately take responsibility, come up with a solution, and didn’t come across as defensive or trying to shift the blame.
Lesson #2 — if you’re going to take a stand, do it graciously. Don’t be defensive, don’t try and shift blame, and for heaven’s sake don’t be a baby about it. Do it with class and people will respect and admire you for it.
The result? Nancy’s post got TONS of comments, pretty much all of them supporting Nancy. She’s back on stage, bigger than ever, with her guitar all tuned up and brand spanking new speakers.
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06.23.09
Posted in Business, Marketing, Public Relations at 11:58 am EDT by Michele PW
Running a business isn’t easy. There’s so much to do, so much to keep track of, so much to learn. Worse, who can you trust? With all the information and so-called “experts” floating around out there, how do you know if you’re listening to someone who actually knows what they’re talking about or not?
Well, that’s why I created the Ka-Ching Community Calls. Each month I’ll be hosting a teleclass where I’ll be sharing powerful, real-world information on running a successful business. (As you know, not only am I running a business but I also continue to work with clients so I see first hand what’s working and not working in the real world.) You’ll either hear from me or I’ll be interviewing an expert (a real expert, someone you can trust).
And the best part? These calls are FREE. Yep. The Ka-Ching Community Calls are free for you. Just sign up here.
This month I’m so excited to welcome Shannon Cherry, APR MA, The Power Publicist
“The Endless Publicity Formula Attracting more clients, making more money for free” on Thursday, June 25,12 pm Pacific/3 pm Eastern
Are you getting all the clients and customers you want?
Are you tired of spending tons of marketing that doesn’t pay the bills, let alone give you the credibility you need to make more money?
Tired of seeing you competition get more recognition and attract more business than you do?
Then you need the power of publicity.
When people see you in the media, you become familiar - even famous! And it gives you credibility. When you are written about in the newspaper, or interviewed on TV or radio, you are news; and that’s better than any advertising you can buy.
In this exclusive call for, you’ll leave:
* Thinking like a reporter to create newsworthy stories — even if don’t think you have anything to say
* Understanding the tricks to getting the media’s attention — and keeping it
* Armed with the tool to get publicity for yourself
* Discovering the secret to promoting your products and services, without feeling like a sleezy salesman
* And much more
Here’s that link again to sign up: http://www.kachingcalls.com
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06.19.09
Posted in Business, Marketing, PodCast at 3:15 am EDT by Michele PW
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It’s never a good thing when you rely on one stream of income. That stream dries up and you’re, ahem, up that creek without a paddle.
That’s why having multiple streams of income is so valuable. One stream dries up, you’ve got a few other ones to depend on.
(On another note, have you noticed how often money is referred to in water terms? Cash FLOW, multiple STREAMS of income or just income STREAMS. Just something to think about.)
But talking about multiple income streams and actually implementing them in your business are two entirely different things. That’s why today I’m going to share 3 quick and easy ways you can start adding more streams right now.
1. Information products. Creating a product based on your expertise is a fabulous way to start diversifying your income. This is especially good if you’re a service provider — now you’re providing other ways for your customers to work with you rather than them paying you to work with them one on one.
But creating information products doesn’t mean you have to sit down and write a book. You can do a teleclass or a series of teleclasses. Or maybe you do a video. Just make it easy for you to create. (The idea here is NOT to spend months or, worse, years crafting your product — the faster you get it done the faster you’ll make money on it.)
Still feeling stuck? Try this. What’s the biggest problem your customers come to you to solve for them? Can you do a teleclass or write a special report walking them through how to solve it themselves? Granted working with you would probably get the faster, better results, but remember not everyone has the money nor even the inclination (there are a lot of do-it-yourselfers out there, and you don’t want to exclude them from your customer base.)
2. Licensing or certification programs. Do you have a special process you take your clients through? Why not package it up and sell it to other consultants like you? Lots of people are looking for proven methods and systems they can add to their business income streams. So in essence you’re helping other people add income streams to their business while you’re also adding income streams to your business.
Now this one may not be all that quick to do, but I wanted to include it so you weren’t just thinking “info products” as your only option. Open yourself up to other options to making more money.
3. Offer advertising or sell other people’s products. With this one, you’re capitalizing on an asset you’ve built — your list. You have people who follow you, right? They’re on your list, they’re following you on social networking sites, they listen to your podcasts and/or teleclasses. Well, with this one you make money either by promoting someone else’s products and getting a commission, or you charge for advertising.
For advertising, think bigger then just selling spaces in your newsletter or web site or blog. What about offering sponsorships? Sponsorships aren’t just for corporate — they can also be your colleagues who want to reach your target market.
Of all the options, this one is definitely the fastest to pull together and takes the least amount of time for you to manage. However, if you don’t think it through, it does have the potential of diluting the impact you have with your list. If you’re interested in this option, do your homework. Find one or two people who have successfully offered this and ask them about it.
Above all, think creatively. There are lots of ways of reaching your target market, try a few and see what works for you and them.
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05.14.09
Posted in Advertising, Business, Marketing, Public Relations at 9:27 am EDT by Michele PW
In the book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” after Earth is blown up, Arthur (the main character) is presented with a small computer (not unlike an iPhone I’d imagine) with these words on the front — “Don’t panic.” Arthur finds this oddly comforting, even though Earth is gone and he is on a spaceship with a guy he really didn’t get along with too well when they were both on Earth.
Although no one said those words, that was the underlying theme of this past Dan Kennedy/Bill Glazer Superconference. Don’t panic. Yes we’re in a recession. Yes the government is doing crazy things. Yes we have pirates and pig flu and everything else. But you shouldn’t be panicking because it’s very possible for us to not just survive but thrive. (Hey, if Arthur can keep from panicking after watching the end of the world, we should have no problems.)
So what can we do? In a word — lots. Here are 3 things to get you started:
1. Don’t allow what’s going on to paralyze you. Over and over again we kept hearing stories about business owners who have just stopped doing anything. Whether it’s from fear or because they believe it’s not going to make a difference so why bother or they think this is smart to hunker down and do nothing while they wait things out, the end result is they’re frozen. And because they’re frozen, their businesses are dying.
Now is not the time to be doing nothing. Now is the time to be doing something. Lots of things. Like marketing. Lots of marketing. In fact, this is an excellent time to be marketing because your competition is probably panicking and frozen and hiding in a closet somewhere, so you have the chance to not only solidify YOUR position but take customers away from your competition.
2. Work harder. Ivanka Trump came and spoke to us, and the biggest thing I took from her is she works 16-hour days. Yes she’s rich. Yes she has a trust fund. Yes she’s in the family business. And she works her little tush off.
Now, I’m not necessarily advocating ignoring your family and your health and everything else and just focusing on your business. What I AM saying is if your business isn’t where you want it to be, rather than shutting down or doing less, try doing more. Whether that looks like hiring someone to do a marketing campaign for you or you get some systems in place to free up your time so you can focus on other things or you roll up your sleeves and do things you wouldn’t normally do, you might need to do more right now rather then less.
3. Fix any fundamental flaws. Dan said what’s really happening right now is the recession is exposing flaws in businesses that were always there, it’s just before the businesses were making money despite those flaws. So, again, don’t panic, don’t shut down, and look at this as an opportunity. You’re able to fix problems in your business so when we do come out of the recession, your business will be that much stronger.
And the most important thing to remember — don’t panic. You CAN not only survive this but thrive.
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05.05.09
Posted in Business, Copywriting, General, Marketing at 11:14 am EDT by Michele PW
Between deadly pig flu, government bailouts and pirates, talking about the recession seems almost anticlimactic – nevertheless I wanted to share something I learned from Dan Kennedy at the Super Conference.
Dan had a special session about Recession Rescue, which included a bunch of good info about thriving during this time (I’ll be sharing more in later posts). He had an interesting point I wanted to talk about today:
One of the main reasons why spending is down is because businesses have stopped asking for the sale.
Businesses all over have cut back their marketing and sales budgets because they think it doesn’t matter. “Why bother?” they say. “People aren’t buying anyway, so why bother trying to sell to them?”
Of course, as all good students of copywriting know, if you don’t ask for the sale, you’re not going to get the sale. So if you stop marketing and selling, people WILL stop buying. (Yes it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.)
And especially now, you need to sell and market even harder because people are more cautious with their money, so if anything you should be stepping up your marketing strategies and efforts, not cutting back.
When business is slow, there’s no question it makes sense to cut back on expenses. But cutting back on things that directly relate to income (i.e. marketing and sales) is not a smart business move.
What are your thoughts? Have you noticed less selling in your life? What have you noticed in YOUR business? Leave me a comment and let me know what YOUR experiences are.
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04.21.09
Posted in Business, Copywriting, General, Online Marketing, PodCast at 10:41 pm EDT by Michele PW
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Want to know the secret for creating promotional materials that make sales?
It starts with the headline.
You see, people are busy. They’re only going to take a few seconds to determine if they want to spend any time with your promotional materials or not (whether that’s an email, a web site, a sales letter or something else).
How will they make that decision? A big part of it will come from reading your headline. So if your headline doesn’t pull its own weight, your prospects will most likely simply move on.
So how can you craft a headline that persuades your prospects to keep reading? Here are 3 tips to get you started:
1. Put yourself in the mind of your prospect. Chances are, your prospect landed on your site because they have a problem. And they’re looking for a solution to that problem. And they’re impatient because they’re squeezing in searching for this solution in between taking the kids to dance class, sending a few last emails and figuring out what to throw together for dinner. (Okay, that was a very female-biased day, but men are equally as stretched.) So if they’re not feeling confident they’re going to find a solution, they WILL move on. And fast.
But, if you create a headline that embodies the solution, then they’ll probably stick around and keep reading. For instance, a headline like this:
Give me 3 days and I’ll show you how to make more money while working far less
If you’re considering writing a headline like this, then your prospects are probably completely overwhelmed, exhausted, struggling to get everything done and not making much money. See how the headline entices them to read on because it promises a solution?
Here’s another one:
Give me 3 days and I’ll show you how to lose weight without crazy fad diets, pills, hours of sweaty exhausting exercise or feeling hungry.
(Ah, don’t we all wish?)
Okay, so your prospect wants to lose weight and has tried a lot of things without success.
See how this works?
2. Give them a time limit. If you were wondering in the above examples why I had a time limit in there, it’s because that resonates with people. Again, people are impatient. They don’t want to wait years or decades for the solution to take effect (even if that’s what it takes). They want to know the solution is within reach and it’s a manageable time frame. So if you can frame your solution around something that sounds doable (a couple of weeks, days or minutes are best yet if you can distill it that far).
3. Use language your prospects will relate to. Whether it’s language that resonates with your prospects (hours of sweaty exhausting exercise would probably resonate with prospects who don’t like to exercise whereas it wouldn’t with people whose hobby was running marathons) or using words like “Free” or “Guaranteed,” making sure you pick the right words can mean the difference from a kick-butt sales piece to a so-so one.
And don’t be afraid to simply tweak a couple of words. Sometimes that’s all it takes to tweak a word or 2 to transform a blah headline into a sexy, profit-pulling one.
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03.04.09
Posted in Business, Copywriting, Marketing, PodCast at 1:54 pm EST by Michele PW
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In the movie, The Prestige, one of the main characters dissects the elements of a magic trick.
You start by showing the object you’re going to manipulate in some way (i.e. make disappear).
You manipulate the object, in this case you make it disappear.
Then, you bring it back. This is the prestige. It’s not enough to make something disappear. You need to bring it back.
In essence, what he’s talking about is closure. You need to bring closure to whatever you’re doing or it will feel unfinished. This is true for a lot of things in life, including your marketing and copywriting.
How do you do this? Well, let’s look at how people buy. For the most part it looks like this: Read the rest of this entry »
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02.10.09
Posted in Business, General, Marketing at 8:12 am EST by Michele PW
If you remember nothing else in this article, remember this: even during the great depression, people still bought things. And not just food and necessities — lipstick and entertainment were hot sellers. (In fact, that’s where the cosmetic industry got its start.)
Why am I starting here? Because I know it’s easy to get caught up in a cycle of negativity right now but if you want to succeed you absolutely MUST rise above it. People are still going to buy no matter what the economy is doing. It’s YOUR job to position your products and services as the ones they buy.
So how do you do that? Here are 3 tips to get you started.
1. Dance with the one who brought you. In other words, now is not the time to abandon the marketing strategies and tactics that got you here. A lot of business owners will be tempted to cut back, especially their marketing. This is a mistake. If anything, you should increase your marketing now.
However, by increasing your marketing I don’t necessarily mean increasing how much you spend. It’s perfectly acceptable to find low-cost or no-cost marketing methods to still keep the momentum going. One word of warning — there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Chances are you’re going to pay somewhere, and that payment Read the rest of this entry »
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01.30.09
Posted in Business, Marketing at 8:47 pm EST by Michele PW
I love my iPod.
It’s funny because I didn’t think I’d be an iPod person. I got an iPod a few years ago because I wanted to put all those educational audios on it rather than carting around a million CDs. I didn’t think I’d be that interested in the music part.
Why? Because I never could get the hang of the whole music thing. I have such eclectic taste that radio never worked well for me — I found myself picking stations not because they played more of what I liked but less of what I didn’t like. I almost never bought records because for the most part I would like one song from a band and that’s it.
But that all changed when I started to get ready for my first marathon. I decided maybe I better bring some tunes to keep me motivated. I started going through the CDs my husband had (my hubby has about 400 CDs, the complete opposite of me) and loading songs. And I started downloading those 1 or 2 songs from other bands from iTunes.
And now I finally get it. iTunes has allowed me to finally create the mix I want. I mean, I can’t stand country (although I have 3 songs from Faith Hill) and I got a lot of 80s and hair bands (but there’s a lot of bands I can’t stand in those categories who will never be MPW iPod-worthy). My taste ranges from Boomtown Rats to Queen (lots and lots of Queen, they were an exception to the no-album-buying rule, but no “Another Bites the Dust” or “You’re My Best Friend”) to Def Leppard to The Guess Who to George Michaels (gotta love him) to even a Ted Nugent song. (My husband couldn’t believe I put that Ted Nugent song on the iPod. I’ve often thought someone should have a contest, can you guess which Ted Nugent song I have on my iPod? In fact, I think I will have that contest. If you email me the correct answer I’ll send you a digital download of one of my info products. But I digress.)
Anyway, so where am I going with all of this? Well, I read an article about how the music industry is having a heck of a time making money now — for a variety of reasons, but one of the main ones is because they can no longer make money the way they used to.
You see, as I learned in this article, the music industry is financially based on selling albums, not individual songs. In other words, they make money by cramming albums down buyers’ throats, even if those buyers only wanted 1 or 2 songs. Now with iTunes, buyers buy the songs they want, they’re not forced to buy everything.
And the music industry is having some problems adjusting. So that means I’m actually in the majority of music buyers rather than the minority. And that’s why iTunes is making money hand over fist (because they’re allowing buyers to buy how they want, rather than forcing buyers to buy how they want to sell to them) and the record companies still haven’t figure out what hit them.
So what does this have to do with you? Well a couple of things. First off, is your business based on a way of doing business that makes more sense for you (the business owner) or your customers? If you aren’t selling your products or services in a way your customers want to buy, you ARE vulnerable. Even if this is the “way it’s done” in your industry, you’re a sitting duck for an Apple to burst on the scene and take it over. (Note, if this is you, there’s a big opportunity here for YOU to be the Apple in your industry.)
Second, are there ways you can restructure your products or services to make it a no-brainer to do business with you? Is there an opportunity to sell to your customers the way they want to buy?
Remember, buyers always have the power. They can choose to do business with you or not. It’s up to you to decide if you want to make it easy for them or not.
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01.23.09
Posted in Business, General, Marketing, Public Relations at 9:12 am EST by Michele PW
Brace yourself. The Arizona Cardinals, known as one of the most woeful franchises in all of professional sports (not just football), has done the near impossible and is now headed to the SuperBowl.
They’ve been the underdog in every single one of their playoff games (including their home games) — they’ve been disrespected, dismissed and disregarded. In fact, they’ve even been called the worst NFL team to make the playoffs in history. (And if they win, I suspect they’ll be called the worst NFL team to win the SuperBowl.)
Yet they’re now headed to Tampa and the SuperBowl (where again they’re the underdogs). And, they’ve done with this a head coach who is only in his second year of coaching, a bunch of no-name players and a 37-year-old quarterback everyone thought was washed up years ago.
This is just such an incredible story to begin with, but why I’m talking about it is because there is so much you can learn and apply to your business. And if there’s anything you can take away from this story, it’s that anything is possible. No matter what your business looks like right now, no matter what the economy is doing, you CAN turn your business around. This is a story of hope — no matter what your circumstances currently are, you can change them.
So, what are the Cardinals’ secrets? Let me share two I’ve noticed –
1. They don’t give up. Actually there’s a story within a story here. Kurt Warner, the quarterback, was initially cut from Green Bay, no other team would take him and he had to take a job bagging groceries. But he didn’t give up, he kept plugging away, finally got signed on by the St. Louis Rams, took the Rams to the SuperBowl twice (winning once), before being cut by the team, had a forgettable stint with the New York Giants and again looked like his career was over until Arizona gave him a one last shot (the only team willing to give him one more chance).
And look whose laughing now?
No matter what everyone was telling him, Warner kept believing in himself. Just like the Cardinals. No matter what the rest of the NFL and sports media was telling the Cardinals, they kept believing in themselves. Actually, they did more than believe in themselves, they used all the negativity as ammunition to prove everyone wrong.
The entire team refused to stop fighting. They refused to listen to what was being said about them. In essence, they refused to lose.
So what is your attitude with your business? Do you find yourself saying things like “well, the media is saying we’re in a recession so I can’t expect to make any money or grow my business now?” Or “all these other businesses are shutting their doors, I guess I better follow their lead and just hunker down until the economy improves?”
Think about it. If the Cardinals had listened to what everyone was saying about them, and had believed it, then I wouldn’t be writing this article right now because some other team would be headed to Tampa. Instead, the Cardinals decided to go down swinging. Shock the world. Prove them all wrong.
And they did.
2. They play to win. Boy, watch the playoff games and you see those AZ coaches take some pretty gutsy chances. Some of those other playoff teams, well, those teams were playing not to lose. They took no chances and played conservatively.
Those teams are all staying home. (The Pittsburg Steelers, the other team going to Tampa, also plays to win.)
You got to play to win. You got to take chances. You can’t play conservatively.
So what does play not to lose mean in business? I invite you to do this exercise for yourself, but here are a few ideas to get you started –
* Are you cutting your marketing budget to bare bones (or nothing at all)?
* Are you no longer investing in yourself (you’ll wait until the economy turns around)?
* Have you decided to start doing things yourself because you don’t want to pay someone else to do them?
If you answered yes to any of those, I would say you’re playing not to lose.
Now, I’m not advocating putting yourself in the poorhouse or running up a bunch of debt, but you have to be smart at what you’re cutting. Just doing an across-the-board slash of your marketing is not the answer. Strategically reviewing your marketing and cutting what isn’t working IS a smart thing to do (and you should do this all the time, not just when business is slow).
Deciding to do your bookkeeping right now because you want to save a few bucks is not smart. Should you really be spending hours struggling with something you’re not good at versus taking that time and focusing on your strengths and bringing more business in the door?
Yes it can feel scary. I’m sure it was scary for those Cardinal coaches when they chose plays that while could win them the game, it also could just as easily have blown up in their faces. But, I can pretty much guarantee they wouldn’t have won those games if they hadn’t taken those chances.
Remember, no one wins playing scared. Even if you fall on your face and the play completely backfires on you, you can’t stop playing to win. Because in the long haul, you WILL win more then you lose.
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12.19.08
Posted in Business, General, Marketing at 7:11 pm EST by Michele PW
For those of you who don’t watch professional football, let me give you a (very) brief synopsis so you have some context. (Trust me, this will be worth it.)
Brett Favre, who was the quarterback for the Packers and is considered one of the top quarterbacks ever to play the game, retired last spring, then decided to unretire last summer. The Packers sent him, well packing, to the New York Jets because they wanted to give their new, young quarterback Aaron Rodgers a chance.
Since then, the Jets (who were dreadful last season) have a winning record and are probably headed to the playoffs whereas the Packers are 5-9 (when last year they were 13-3 and almost made it to the Superbowl) and headed nowhere.
Now, before I go any further, I want to preface this as I’m a Packer fan, an Aaron Rodgers fan and a Brett Favre fan, so this is not an article about whether or not the Packers should have done what they did. Rather, this is an article about what (I think) happened and how you can use this lesson to be more powerful in your business.
So, what DID happen? I mean, while the quarterback is an important position, it’s still just one guy on a team (and football is a team sport). He’s not even on the field half the time. Is the quarterback really responsible for a team winning or losing?
And, for that matter, is Rodgers really that much worse than Favre?
I’ll answer the last question first. Actually, Rodgers has a higher quarterback rating than Favre this season. So at least in terms of being able to throw the ball, Rodgers and Favre are on par.
But what Favre brings to the table that Rodgers doesn’t (at least right now) is the legacy of what he has accomplished.
Here’s what I think happened. When Favre went to the Jets, the Jets suddenly got this boost of confidence they didn’t have before. Now they had a Hall of Fame quarterback on their team. Oh my gosh! This means they might actually win!
At the same time, the Packers lost that shot of confidence. I know Packers publicly stood behind Rodgers, and he’s done a great job, especially when you consider it’s his first season. But regardless, he doesn’t have the track record that Favre has. It’s not Rodgers fault, how on earth could he bring that same confidence to his first season? Favre didn’t have it either in his first season, in fact the Falcons traded Favre early in his career.
Now, a shot of confidence doesn’t sound like much, but the Packers have lost almost all of their games by less than 4 points, and usually lost it in the last couple of minutes in the game.
Okay, so how does any of this pertain to you or your business?
One of the traits I’ve noticed in my associates and colleagues is what happens after they break the 7-figure mark in their business. Something changes. There’s an air of confidence in them that I don’t want to say was lacking before, but it’s even more pronounced. Now, they know they can do it. Why? Because they HAVE done it. And all of a sudden it’s easier and faster to double, triple that and more.
The more confident they are that they can make that kind of money, the more effortless it is for them to actually do it.
To take it one step further, because they believe deep down inside they can easily make 7 figures, they DO make 7 figures. Much like the Jets now believing they can win with Favre whereas they weren’t nearly so sure without him, entrepreneurs who believe they will make that kind of money actually do.
So, what can YOU do to start feeling that confidence about building a successful business? And knowing, deep down inside, you will break six or seven figures? The faster you can start feeling that, the faster you’ll start experiencing it.
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12.04.08
Posted in Business, General, Marketing at 10:12 pm EST by Michele PW
It’s an odd time of year. For some industries and businesses, this is their busiest season, when they make most of their money. For others, especially service businesses or B-2-B, it’s their slowest time of year.
But it doesn’t have to be.
If you’re someone who really would like to get more work in November and December to pay for those extra holiday expenses, here are 3 tips to get you started:
1. Don’t stop marketing. Does this sound familiar? You know your business is slow over the holidays, so you think “why bother” and don’t do anything. After all, no one is interested in buying services now, you might as well wait until January when people have their head back in their business.
So, you cut back or stop your marketing. And what happens? Well, business slows down. (Amazing, isn’t it?)
Then, if you’re one of those business owners whose marketing suffers when you’re busy, and you have a busy September and October, well that’s a double whammy. You’ve basically guaranteed a slow down in December and January.
I know, it seems like you’re competing with a lot of holiday advertising, and it’s true you are. But, because a lot of businesses stop marketing, it’s actually a pretty good time to get in front of your prospects because there’s less of that type of marketing going on.
2. Know what your prospects are thinking about and join in the conversation already going on in their head. So what they are thinking about? The holidays, right? That’s true, but they’re also thinking about what they liked or didn’t like about this year, what they want to be different about next year, etc. Even for people who don’t sit down and do formal planning, there’s still a feeling of closure (for the old) and preparation (for the new). If you can position whatever it is you’re selling to fit that, you have a good chance they’ll want to start the “new year off right” by hiring you.
Now, you might be saying, but everyone says something like that, won’t I sound like everyone else? Well, yes and no. Yes that’s a common message because it resonates so strongly with us as humans. But you don’t have to phrase it like everyone else. By stating it differently or coming at it from a different angle, that’s what’s going to set up apart from everyone else.
Which leads me to the last point…
3. Inject some urgency into your marketing. It is true that because people are spending a lot of money on holiday stuff, they might want to hold off on spending any money on their business until January (and they might not want to even focus on their business until January). Well, the new year is also a natural time to raise your rates. So, what better time of year then to encourage them to hire you NOW so they lock in the old rates?
The trick is to get them eager to hire you because they want their business to look different in the new year, and they better hire you NOW because they want to lock in this year’s rates.
And, you can take this one step further — if you don’t want to actually start the work until January (because you want some time off for partying as well) then have them pay a deposit in December or extend it somehow, where they get extra time for the same price. Now you have money now, you have work lined up in January and your prospects are happy because they’re getting a deal. It’s a win-win-win.
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11.08.08
Posted in Business, General, Online Marketing, Public Relations at 2:00 pm EST by Michele PW
I’m at the Dan Kennedy’s Info Marketing Summit, and the first presentation this morning was Dan talking about how info marketers should respond to this economy.
His view is the economy has changed…for the long haul. It’s not going back to what it used to be any time soon. We’re in a recession and it’s where we’re going to stay.
However, he also said this is the very best time to make money and find new opportunities. Because a lot of businesses are either going to give up or simply muddle along, not taking advantage of what this economy could give them. If you’re committed to being successful, this could be your time to shine.
It’s an interesting thought. A recession could be a gift. It could teach you how to be a better business person so not only you succeed during the recession but you’re then positioned for mega-success once the recession is over.
What are your thoughts? Are we really in a recession or will the economy bounce back quickly? And if we are in a recession, how do you think we should view it?
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10.28.08
Posted in Business, Creativity, General, Marketing, Public Relations at 11:25 am EDT by Michele PW
Just wanted to give you a quick heads up that my last preview call, 5 Secrets of a Successful Launch Campaign to Help You Sell More, is this coming Wednesday, Oct 29, at 4 pm PST/7 pm EST.
Here’s the link to reserve your seat:
www.michelepw.com/launch
This is the call where I pull it all together. I started with getting the leads, then moved to converting the leads with psychological triggers and now I’m ending with how to put it all together and successfully launch your product or service.
You’ll learn:
* What a launch campaign is and why it’s so important when you’re introducing a new product or service to the marketplace
* What all successful launches have in common (so you know what you need to do to make yours a success)
* One BIG mistake entrepreneurs do when they create a launch plan, and how you can prevent it
* One BIG step that’s overlooked by many entrepreneurs (miss this and you could end up wasting a lot of time and have nothing to show for it)
* What you need to keep in mind during your launch so you get truly FABULOUS results
Here’s that link again to sign up:
www.michelepw.com/launch
If you’ve already signed up for either of my first 2 preview calls, you’re automatically signed up for this one as well. Watch your in-box for call-in info.
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10.21.08
Posted in Business, General, Marketing at 9:49 pm EDT by Michele PW
News Flash — the economy is bad.
Oh wait. You know that already? So, I’m not sharing anything new?
My good friend Nancy Marmolejo, VivaVisibilityblog.com, asked her social networking followers if people should be using the bad economy to market their products and services. The answers that came back were for the most part against doing that.
Well, that got me thinking. Is it a good idea to talk about the economy and get into the fear and negativity, or not?
The answer isn’t quite so straightforward. (Which you probably guessed.) But to explain, let me start by giving you some quick background.
First off, fear and negativity does sell. People will move away from pain more than they’ll move towards pleasure. And that makes sense, when you think about it from our cavemen days. We would have a need, maybe it was hunger, maybe we were cold, and that was what we focused on until it was satisfied (i.e. we looked for food or built a fire). But once we had that need satisfied, we didn’t keep focusing on it. We moved to the next pressing need, which maybe was running away from a saber tooth tiger or finding a mate.
We’re wired to deal with the pain first, until it’s solved, then we can tackle the next problem. We’re NOT programmed to keep focusing on something even after the pain has gone away.
Think of yourself right now. Let’s say your leg is NOT hurting right now. And it hasn’t hurt in a really long time. Are you doing anything right now to keep it from hurting in the future? (I’m guessing probably not.) And even if you do do things to keep your leg from hurting (i.e. exercise regularly) you would quit taking care of your leg that’s not bothering you in a heartbeat if, say, your arm started hurting.
Unfortunately, the economy right now is all about pain, so as a marketer you might decide to jump right up and start hitting the pain button.
Well…That may not be such a great idea either.
You see, most people are pretty savvy themselves when it comes to marketing. So if you blatantly get into that fear and negativity, especially if you then turn around and try and sell something, it will probably be a huge turn off.
But, there’s something else going on as well. You see, there’s another copywriting rule, which is whenever possible you should join the conversation in your prospects’ heads. What I mean by this, if your prospect is thinking at this moment about what he’s going to eat for dinner, your promotional piece should start out with some mouth-watering recipes. (By the way, this is why sending out promotional pieces that tie into the holidays work so well, because so you’re entering the conversation that’s already going on in your prospects’ heads.)
Now, if there are two things that are dominating many American’s thoughts right now, it’s the coming presidential election and the economy. The presidential election is a bit harder to work into promotional copy (besides you don’t necessarily want to turn off your prospects by getting into a debate about who you think should be the next president) but the economy is perfect. It’s got the fear/pain and you can’t get away from it.
In fact, it’s SO prevalent if you don’t talk about the economy at all, that doesn’t feel right either. Like you’re completely out of touch with the problems your prospects are going through right now.
So what do you do?
First off, make sure you understand where your prospect is coming from. And what I mean by that is HOW is the economy affecting your prospect right now? For instance, are you targeting a lower income prospect who is extremely worried about money, so that’s all their thinking about, or are you targeting a more affluent prospect where the economy is something to talk about, but it’s going to have to get pretty darn bad before it even starts to affect them? Are you targeting people who don’t want to focus on the bad but are making a pact to thrive no matter what the economy is doing? Are you targeting people sick to death of hearing about the economy and may strangle the next person who brings it up to them?
Once you know how it’s affecting them and how they’re thinking about it, then you can decide if and how much to address the economy in your marketing. Or if it even has a place in your campaigns. If you own a high end spa catering to a very affluent prospect, I probably wouldn’t say much (if anything) about the economy. And I certainly wouldn’t say something like “Bad economy sale — stretch your spa dollars for a limited time.” That is NOT the conversation your prospect is having in their head right now.
If you’re going to do it, make sure you do it smart. Otherwise all you’re doing is turning your prospects off.
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