Viral Marketing: Can You Help Find Bride 2.0?

My friend & mastermind colleague Ciara Daykin has launched an amazing campaign to find “Bride 2.0″ — this is a great example of viral marketing at its best.  Be sure to follow this campaign so you can learn about how to launch your own program to change the world (and up level yourself in the process).

Here’s the annoucement, their amazing video, and how you can get involved in the movement!  

The search for Bride 2.0 has begun. Can Web 2.0 and social networking stimulate a struggling economy, make 3 brides social media super stars and prove that by simply asking for help the internet and wedding related communities will step up and lend a helping hand? Check out this cool video to learn more about this concept:

 

This concept is the brainchild of wedding planner Ciara Daykin. Visit her website at http://www.planetplanswedding.com to sign up for her free report “10 Individuals Who Changed The World With One Idea” (and it’s not the regular crowd you might think of at first).

Don’t forget to join the facebook page Planet Plans Wedding to get involved in this social experiment.

 

How Much Money Are You Leaving on the Table?

Guest post by Sandra P. Martini, The Automatic Business Coach

The majority of small business owners work their tail off. They spend thousands of dollars attending workshops and seminars convinced that the latest one will solve their problems or they’ll meet *the* client they’ve dreamed of; they spend hours upon hours working in their business wondering why the phone’s not ringing and they’ve produced information products and now wonder why they’re not “waking up to find they’ve made money”.

Do any, or all, of the above describe you?

If so, you are working hard, but not smart. You don’t have a consistent system in place to determine which of your activities are worthwhile and productive as opposed simply keeping you busy and wasting your money.

The following is just a few of the business statistics you MUST track in order to succeed:

1. Your sales — both number and amount.

How much money did you bring in this month, this week, today and what did they purchase?

How many items IN TOTAL were purchased?

For example, I offer coaching services and also sell information products for home study. It’s important to know what percentage of sales comes from the different products or services you offer.

2. Your UNIQUE website visitors.

How many unique visitors came to your website this week or month?

Note that this is not the number of “hits” which is a much greater figure. You want to know specifically how many UNIQUE people came and visited your site and any website tracker can tell you this.

3. Your new ezine/email newsletter subscribers.

How many people signed up for your ezine or email newsletter this week?

4. Your conversion rates.

Here’s where we bring a little math into the picture:

* Sales Conversion Rate: Divide your total sales number by the number of unique website visitors. 

For example: if you had 100 unique people visit your website and you sold 70 items, your sales conversion rate is 70% (70 sales/100 unique visitors).

* Ezine Conversion Rate: Divide your total new ezine subscribers by the number of unique website visitors. 

This will tell you how effective your website or opt-in box is with respect to getting new subscribers.

* Value Per Visitor: Divide the total money you made in a given week (or month) by the number of unique website visitors for that same period.

You now know how much each unique visitor is worth you.

5. Your expenses.

Not only do you need to track how much money is coming in, but how much is going out.

What percentage of your gross income goes out in fixed overhead expenses each month? Is there anything you can do to reduce this number without sacrificing service?

The above are just a few of the key metrics you must know in order to gauge what is/is not working in your business. Without tracking, you can’t improve your methods AND your income!

I’ve combined all of the above (and a few more) into a “Strategic Marketing Report” which my team prepares and sends to me each Monday morning - I never have to think about it and getting it on a consistent schedule allows me to make the best decisions for my business on an ongoing basis.

My Request to You

I ask that you know, at a minimum, your website statistics and, if you don’t currently know how to get this information, to contact your webmaster as most hosting sites include this as part of the package.

Once you know HOW to get these numbers, it’s time to put a system in place (whether you or a virtual assistant) to track these numbers on a regular basis so you can continuously improve everything you’re doing.

And if you’re feeling too overwhelmed to begin? You’ll want to learn more about “Strategic Marketing - Sandy Style” and having a customized strategic marketing action plan complete with systems for you to implement “done 4 you”.

©2008 Sandra P. Martini, The Automatic Business Coach & Mentor. Get Sandra Martini’s FREE “5 Simple Steps to Putting Your Marketing on Autopilot” e-course/audio mini-workshop and her FREE small business success how-to tips at www.SandraMartini.com

Photo courtesy of emdot on flickr.  

 

Ep #65 Turn Your Ideas Into a Money Making Brand

Elizabeth invites Kim Castle, Co-Creator of BrandU and Co-Author of Why BrandU; Big Business Success No Matter Your Size, who speaks about turning your business ideas into a marketable, money making brand. 

Kim shares what branding means to a small business owner, how branding applies to solo entrepreneurs and when to begin the process as well as where to draw the line between your personal and business brands. 

Elizabeth answers a listener question about the different business entities you could choose for your business, then shares her Entrepreneur’s Success Tip of the Week: Should you Participate in the Recession?

For more information about Kim and to receive her free reports including 15 Mistakes That Kill Business Success visit BrandU.

Click Here to Download the Show!

Article Marketing: How to Build a Highly Qualified & Powerful List With Your Articles - Fast!

Guest post by Lisa Angelettie

The one thing I find when working with clients is that most don’t really understand the value of their articles. Most people simply think that their articles will serve as backlinks to their websites from directories or as additional information for web visitors to read while visiting their website. Well, that’s sort of right - but not the whole story.

One of the most valuable benefits of writing articles for your business - is the fact that your articles will attract people who want to learn more from you and/or are ready to buy from you.

Think about the last time you bought an ebook or home study course, chances are that you read something that the owner of that business wrote for free. You liked what you read. Wanted to learn more. So you listened to the writer’s call to action, and visited their website, then opted into their free newsletter or subscriber list. And perhaps you even bought one of their products.

But let’s take an even deeper look at that…

Let’s apply those same techniques to your own business. Say you decide to write an interesting article on one aspect of your business tonight. You give it a great keyword rich title and you publish it on your blog. Someone who is interested in your niche, finds your article and is very interested in what you had to say. They want to read more free tips from you - so they want to know - what they should do next. This is how you begin to build your list. Make sure in order to get more tips from you - that they have to opt-in to your subscriber list.

Hopefully at this point you have carefully directed them with links to more articles that would peak their interest even further or you are sending them a regular ezine or autoresponder series. Now you are building trust and credibility. These are the things that begin to qualify your readers.

In fact, some will be so inspired by the information that you have given to them for free, that they can only begin to imagine what kind of information you will teach them if they paid for it!

Remember these important things:

1. Don’t worry about writing technique. Just write an article with a compelling story about your business.
2. Create a way for readers to ask you for additional tips and information by adding a “resource box” at the end of your articles.
3. Make sure you have other articles written that further develop a topic of interest in your business. Readers love to read article sets or series.

Implementing just these three ideas will help your list grow dramatically, because you will start to produce more articles when you stop worrying about how they sound, you will have the reader take action by opting in, and you will keep them interested by offering them more to read on your topic — which begins the long-term action of successful entrepreneurs — relationship building.

About the Author:  Several years ago, online entrepreneur and author Lisa Angelettie MSW, “GirlShrink,” helped herself get noticed and attract buzz in the over-crowded self-improvement market by using articles and other content to triple her list and her traffic. She has been making money online ever since. If you’re ready to learn how she did it, grab her free report: 3 Simple Secrets To Making Money Using Articles…How To Explode the Income In Your Business by Harnessing The Power of Article Writing & Marketing! - over at http://BoostIncomeArticles.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lisa_Angelettie ::  http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Build-a-Highly-Qualified-and-Powerful-List-With-Your-Articles—Fast!&id=876032

Ep #61 The Ten Commandments of Small Business Marketing Success

Elizabeth welcomes David Newman a nationally acclaimed small business marketing expert, author and speaker who shares his 10 Commandments of Small Business Marketing Success. David discusses his list of marketing must do’s, how you can implement these commandments in our current economy and how your mindset can affect your business. For more information about David and to join his free small business marketing resource site, visit the Small Business Marketing Center.

Elizabeth then answers a listener question about collecting from clients and customers who aren’t paying their bills and shares her Entrepreneur’s Success Tip of the Week: The Art of Relationship, Second in the Series The Art of Social Networking.

Click Here to download the show~

If you are one of the first 10 Radio Show Listeners to email David you could win a free 20 minute Get Going Marketing Strategy Consultation to help grow your business. There are specific instructions for the email discussed at the half hour mark of the radio show.

The Great Fear of Niching… and Why You Need to Get Over It!

By Guest Blogger Erin Ferree, owner of elf design

Do you find yourself offering a wide range of products and services, trying to offer anything that you can to everyone that you meet?

I certainly did, when I started my business! I offered every service that I thought I could perform—from design, to CD burning, to printing (off of my home inkjet printer!), to typing and transcription. Once, I even helped a family pack for a move—I had the spare time in my schedule, and it paid a few bucks!

I thought that this approach would bring me more business. It certainly kept me busy—thinking up new services to offer, finding clients for those services, and learning how to do them. But being busy is different from being successful. Since I didn’t appear to be an expert in any of the services that I offered, I was not able to convince my clients that I should be paid well for then. After a while, I decided that this was not the best plan. Read more

Branding: 5 Tips to Quickly and Inexpensively Improve Your Brand Identity

Guest post by Kelly K. O’Neil, Award-Winning Business & Marketing Coach

In an overcrowded marketplace, if you’re not standing out, then you’re invisible. Establishing a brand is absolutely critical to long term, sustainable business growth – especially in service oriented businesses. The single biggest motivator in buying is not data, nor is it facts, it’s emotional response. People buy when they feel comfortable, when they feel they can trust you, when the process feels natural and reassuring, and when they come to the feeling that buying will make them feel good.

The best way to captivate your audience is with an authentic and powerful personal brand. The benefits of a strong personal branding will give you an edge over your competition and enhance your value in the global marketplace. Branding identifies and differentiates you, your business and your products and services so you stand out from the crowd and get noticed. Your brand could make the difference between prospects and customers.

Once you have a powerful personal brand, the next step is to consistently communicate it through your brand identity: logo, business cards, letterhead, web site, invoices and any other outward communications you have.

I strongly recommend that every service professional develop a powerul brand first. While that process is taking place, I wanted to provide 5 simple tips that can be implemented quickly to provide an immediate improvement in your brand identity.

1. Have a consistent Web address and email address.

If you own a web site, then you own a domain name and it is hosted with an Internet Service Provider. For example, my domain is journeyavenue.com. Call your service provider and ask them to set up your email account. I recommend keeping it simple – firstname@yourdomain.com .

I recommend including a signature block with all your outgoing e-mail. A signature block is a four to six line mini-advertisement at the end of the message. This can be easily done within the e-mail software so that every outgoing e-mail will automatically include a signature block.

Resource: If your ISP doesn’t provide this service, I recommend switching to an ISP that does. I have been very happy with MyHosting.com. Their plans are affordable and they offer email service if you don’t want to move your whole site: http://myhosting.com/email/.

2. Use consistent fonts on your site and in your materials.

Have you ever been on a Web site that uses unbearably small type, or tries to cram way too much information in to a small space? Each aspect of your customers’ interactions with your business, from awareness all the way through to sale, needs to be optimized for success.  Any difficulty they experience, at any stage of engagement, is likely to cause you grief.  

Web sites are now a key channel for people to interact with your company.  They have become an integral part of ‘the total user experience’.  However, they need special attention as human assistance is rarely available should your customers encounter difficulties. 

Ease of Use could be more broadly referred to as  “Make Every Interaction Simple’ because it encompasses the total user experience.  The actual use of your product or service is only one important factor contributing to your user’s overall impression of your company.  This impression is formed by everything that your customers see and touch - by every contact with your product or company, through any channel, and for the entire life cycle of your offering.

Consistency is one way to improve ease of use. I have noticed on several small business sites where the fonts are very inconsistent. They range in size and character type. My recommendation is to choose a font that is easily readable and widely available such as Arial or Verdana. People find comfort in fonts they recognize. If you choose a wild or funky font, your customers will spend more time focusing on the font than your message. Also, keep your font sizes consistent using a larger font for head lines and a smaller font for the body of the communication.

Resource: To see a complete list of fonts to choose from visit www.fonts.com . Just remember, if you send or view information digitally and the recipient doesn’t have your font, it will default to something else.

3. Use consistent color schemes on your site and in your materials.

We all love to be creative and colors are an excellent way to express your enthusiasm for your business. However, using a rainbow of colors in your identity is confusing and makes communication hard to read. I recommend choosing two or three colors that represent your brand and stick with them as accents. I don’t recommend using colors as font treatments regularly throughout your text. It makes the communication harder to read. If you want to highlight a specific communication try bold, italics or bullet points.

Resource: To see the meaning behind specific colors, visit: http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

4. Print a professional business card.

Nothing against Vista Print or the cards with the perforations you buy at your local office supply, as I am sure there are some uses where they are appropriate, but do not use them for business. Primarily, your business card is an advertisement of your business. It is a representation of the value you will offer to your customers. Nothing says “Me-too’ more than a card that everyone else has and is being passed around. Also, it communicates clearly what you are willing to invest in your own business and some might make the leap that it is a symbol of what you will invest in theirs.

Resource: For really inexpensive cards , you can go to Kinko’s. For recommended designers , please contact UpLevel Strategies.

5. Use a professional head shot.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Make sure your headshot conveys your message and captures the essence of what your audience desires. If you are a success coach or consultant, make sure you are dressed professionally, and convey confidence and success.

Resource: A headshot doesn’t need to be expensive. If you know what you are going for and have a strong sense of style, go to your local mall and get your pictures taken. If you feel you need more professional direction, call local photographers and ask them for a complimentary consultation. Just remember to get the rights to your photo so you can use it anyway you wish.

Glossary

Brand: Your brand is the cultivation of a feeling. It is the emotional response of your customer to you, your company and its products/services.

Brand Identity: Your brand identity is the graphical and verbal representation of your brand. It is the way you communicate your brand promise to the world.

© Kelly O’Neil 2005

About the Author:  Kelly K. O’Neil, Chief Strategy Officer, UpLevel Strategies.  Business & Marketing guru Kelly O’Neil is passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed in business through her Business Mastery Success System™. She is the lead author of “Visionary Women Inspiring the World: 12 Paths to Personal Power” (Skyward, 2005) and is writing her second book Guerilla Business Strategy with mega-marketing genius Jay Conrad Levinson. Kelly’s company received several awards for her exceptional work including the PR Compass award for outstanding Public Relations, The ADDY Award for Branding and recently received the Purple Cow Award acknowledging her company as one of the Most Innovative Companies in America by best-selling author Seth Godin.

For more information, or to subscribe to O’Neil’s Arrive! E-newsletter filled with countless tips and resources for creating more profit in your business, visit www.uplevelstrategies.com. Please contact UpLevel Strategies at (408) 615-8150 for a Complimentary 30 Minute Strategy Session.

Ep #58 Emotional Copywriting

Elizabeth speaks with Carla Young, Founder and President of Tangent Ideas, Inc. a copywriting agency specializing in marketing communications to the new media. Carla shares What emotional copywriting is, Where & When you should start to implement this type of writing into your business and Why. Elizabeth answers a listener question about Where to begin your Social Networking and Web 2.0 journey and shares her Entrepreneur’s Success Tip of the Week: It’s All About the Relationship.

Click Here to download the show!

Carla has offered listeners of The Wealth Spa Radio Show a special discount offer for her upcoming The Power of Persuasion Copywriting Mastery program beginning in November.

4 Ways to Build Your Ezine List Without Spending a Dime

Guest post by Sandra Martini, the “Automatic Business Coach.”

There are thousands of ways to build your ezine, subscriber, mailing list, etc. . .some expensive and many not.

Today I want to cover the Top 4 ways I built my list. Each of the following items can be done without spending a dime. Creativity is one of the strongest tools in the entrepreneur’s toolbox.

1. Public Speaking

Public speaking is the quickest and easiest way for you to quickly build a list of raving fans. Read more

Ep #52 How To FINALLY Write The Book You’ve Always Wanted To Write (And Use It To Attract A TON Of Clients Effortlessly!)

Elizabeth speaks with Sophfronia Scott, Executive Editor of the Done For You Writing and Publishing Company who teaches entrepreneurs how to write and publish books to promote their businesses. Sophfronia shares tips on how writing a book can help small business owners and what the true purpose of your book is. Elizabeth answers a Listener Question on the idea of you as a business owner being an employee, what this means and how it works; and shares her Entrepreneur’s Success Tip of the Week, Time Perception #4 Managing ‘Multi-Projecting’.

 

Click here to download the show!

 

Sophfronia has offered amazing Free Gifts for our listeners and readers. Check them out at Done For Your Writing

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