Tag: small business marketing strategy

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Sales & Marketing

Resultse21 3 Keys to Enjoying Summer AND Growing Your Biz

Who says you can’t do it at all?

Now that summer is here, the lure of playing hokey is warring with the responsibility of getting something done in your business.

But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if you could do it ALL — make money, grow your business AND have time to play?

Here are 3 keys to having your cake and eating it t/o:

1. Plan your time off.

Now I’m sure you already have your vacations blocked off, but what about afternoons off? Long weekends? Go ahead and plan those as well and get them on the calendar (because you know if you don’t plan your time off it’s not going to happen). Plus if you have time blocked off in your calendar then you can relax and focus during work time because you know you have your “play” dates already accounted for.

Not sure how much time off to block off? Well, there are a couple of things you can do. Do you have a big launch coming up this summer? You may not be able to take as much time off as you’d like, but schedule what you can and see what happens. Have you decided you’re going to “coast” this summer? Then definitely block off more time.

Or just ask your gut. How much time is your gut telling you to take off? That might be the easiest and more reliable way to figure it out.

2. Plan to WORK on your work days.

No screwing around here. You have your time off planned, so on the days where you’re scheduled to get things done, get things done. Because if you don’t, you’re going to be tempted to not take your time off, which means you’ve in effect “lied” to yourself, the Universe, etc. And how much time off are you really going to end up with if the message you’re sending is you’re not honoring your time off?

3. Change up your energy if you’re really feeling stuck or sluggish.

I get it. Just because the calendar says you must work doesn’t mean you’ll actually feel like working. So what do you do on those days where you find that pure willpower isn’t enough?

On those days take a break. Go for a walk. Visit a Starbucks. Blast a song on your iPod and dance around the house. Go outside and lay in the sun for 10 minutes.

The best thing you can do is move your energy around, either by exercising or a change of location or both. It doesn’t have to last long — even 10 minutes is enough. Just do SOMETHING. Chances are when you sit back down you’ll be able to focus on your work.

Above all, keep in mind why you have a business in the first place. Yes there will be times you have to put in long hours but you also need to balance that with time off. Chances are you didn’t start a business so you could work all the time but so you could work when you CHOSE to. Summer is a great time to remind yourself you have the power to arrange your work schedule to suit yourself, your family and your life.

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Business Ideas

What Dancing With the Stars Can Teach You About Business

In case dancing isn’t your thing, Donald Driver, wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers, won this year’s Dancing With the Stars.

 

Even if you’re not a Green Bay Packers fan, there are a lot of reasons to root for Donald. He’s the classic rags-to-riches story: Dad in jail when he was born, family was homeless during much of his childhood. He was a seventh round draft pick of the Packers and ended up becoming one of the most productive receivers in Packer history. (Plus he’s just an all-around really nice guy.)

 

But even though Donald is probably worth having an article devoted to him, that’s not why I’m doing it. Why I’m doing it is because the same strengths Donald brought to his career with the Packers is what ultimately was responsible for him winning Dancing with the Stars.

 

(Something for you to ponder: What strengths caused you to be successful in some other aspect of your life that you can draw upon for your business?)

 

What’s even more interesting is some of these strengths would also translate to the business world. Here are 3 of them:

 

1. Desire to win. By all accounts Donald is a really great, really nice guy. The first thing he did when he landed his first big contract with the Packers is buy his grandma a house and tell her she would never have to worry about money the rest of her life. He set up a foundation. He’s heavily involved in the Wisconsin community and volunteers his time as well as donating money for charity. He’s written 3 children’s books. His teammates love him.

 

But make no mistake — the man is a fierce competitor. That was on display front and center the entire dance competition. He was bound and determined to win and by God that was exactly what he did.

 

He wasn’t the best dancer — that was Katherine, the Welch Opera singer. If anything he was probably the most improved by the end of the season. But he was the most driven to win and if you could ever see someone will themselves to win something, this was it.

 

2. Know your strengths and assets and capitalize on them. Donald knew going in he had one GIANT asset — Green Bay Packer fans. You see, fan voting counts for half of his score. And he knew how loyal Packer fans are, and with no football to watch they would be watching (and voting) for him on Dancing With the Stars.

 

And speaking of fan voting…

 

3. Ask for the sale. Of all the dancers, Donald was the ONLY one who would mug for the camera, mouthing about he wanted their vote and making a phone gesture with his hand. It was really cute and very inoffensive how he did it (so yes it IS possible to ask for the sale in an inoffensive and cute way) but the point was made. Vote for Donald.

 

The other couples would simply stand there and smile for the camera. Donald actively asked for the vote over and over. And it was even bigger than that — he tweeted about it, he put it all over his website. He worked and worked that asset, and I suspect his efforts also got him some votes from non-Packer fans.

 

And it was a good thing he did this — according to people who watch the show more than me, this was the most competitive Dancing with the Stars ever. The 3 couples were virtually tied with the judges’ votes. It was up to the fans to make the decision.

 

And the one they voted for was the one who asked for it.

 

To grab your FREE “Ka-Ching! Business Kit” with a FREE CD visit http://www.MichelePW.com/freecd

 

 

 

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Sales & Marketing

To Attend or Not to Attend — 3 Keys to Determine the Right Event for You

In case you haven’t been paying attention, there are more events out there then you can shake a stick at. And every time you turn around, even more events pop up.

For the most part, I’m glad there are so many events because there are many good reasons to attend them. The networking, the learning, the “getting out of your rut and exploring new ideas” and more. But the problem is, how do you decide which events are worth you spending your hard-earned money (not to mention your time) attending and which are the ones you should skip?

Well, I’ve put together 3 keys to helping you determine the right event for you.

1. First — ask yourself why you want to attend this event (or any event for that matter) in the first place. What do you hope to get out of it? Are you looking for business? Joint venture opportunities? To learn a new skill or strategy? To brainstorm some new ideas for your business? To just get away from your office and talk to people who “get it?”

Be very clear and very specific on what you want. Don’t be vague — if you’re vague you’re not going to have enough information to actually make the right decision.

2. Now, take a look at the event. If you’re looking for clients or joint venture partners, are those the people who will be attending? Will it be too small (or too big) for you to be able to do they type of networking you enjoy? If you want brainstorming or masterminding, will the right folks be there for that?

If you’re looking for education, is the event promise a good fit? Do you think you’ll actually walk away with the information you’re looking for?

3. Okay, so if you’ve gotten this far and the event appears to be a good fit, now I want you to take one final look to make sure attending this event is absolutely the right way to go.

If you’re looking just for information and have no big interest in the networking (or you don’t much like to network) is there a simulcast option or a home study course you could get instead? (You can also do quite a bit of networking on simulcast as well.) If you are interested in the networking, is this the absolute best event you should attend or if there a better option? And if this is the best option, should you simply be an attendee or would it be worth your while to upgrade your visibility to a sponsor package?

I’m not trying to talk you out of your decision with this third step, but what I AM trying to do is make sure you’ve thought this through so you aren’t disappointed. There’s nothing worse then spending all that time and money to show up at an event and realize either it’s not what you were looking for OR you should have made a different choice (for instance — you should have chosen a sponsorship option or a simulcast option).

So take a few extra minutes and just make sure this is the right decision for you.

And lastly (but probably most importantly) once you DO decide this is the right event for you, go buy your ticket and make your travel arrangements NOW. Don’t wait — get it done and move on to your next decision.

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Sales & Marketing

5 Reasons Why You Should Do a Product Launch That Have Nothing To Do With Selling That Product

When most entrepreneurs decide to launch a product, they’re mostly thinking about how many products they’re going to sell or how much money they’ll make during the launch.

Now while that’s a great reason to have a product launch, it’s actually not the only reason. In fact, I may go as far to say it’s not even the most important reason. Let’s take a moment and go through the top 5 reasons to have a launch that have nothing to do with selling that particular product.

1. You create visibility for yourself. Even a small product launch will create visibility and get people talking about you. After all, the point of a product launch is to create a buzz and get some of your free content to go viral. The sheer act of doing that builds name and brand recognition, which is key to growing a business.

2. You build your credibility. If your product launches include releasing free content (i.e. videos, special reports) or hosting a free call or webinar, how you present that information can go a long ways towards building your credibility. If you giveaway great content and people can experience for themselves how knowledgeable you are, your credibility will shoot through the roof.

3. You build your list. Offering free content or a free call or webinar is a great way to build your list. Even if you have a small list there are ways to structure your product launch to maximize your list building. (Note — the end result may not be tons of sales but rather a big boost in your credibility and visibility not to mention more names on your list.)

4. You build momentum in your marketing and your business. Product launches take an enormous amount of energy to get off the ground. That energy has to go somewhere (remember the laws of physics — energy is neither created or destroyed, just transformed) and if done right it’s transformed into a huge momentum boost for your business. You’ll likely find marketing your business much easier after a launch — not just because your personal momentum is going but because your prospects are still “talking” about you and are more open to receiving your message.

5. You sell your other products and services. Remember all that visibility and credibility you created with your launch? Well, you likely got the attention of people who may not be interested in the specific product you’re launching but they ARE interested in YOU. Don’t be surprised if sales of your other products and services jump (this typically happens both during and after the launch).

Now, here’s the best part. If you do a product launch for reasons OTHER than a big payday at the end of the day, think about how good it will feel when you DO sell a bunch of products? One of the biggest reasons why product launches are so stressful and so discouraging is entrepreneurs put this big number out there on how many they want to sell and when they don’t hit that number, they’re depressed — EVEN though it may really have been a big success in other ways. So, if you flip it, you can relax during the launch, enjoy it more and be excited and grateful for whatever sales you make.

Food for thought.

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Sales & Marketing

3 Mistakes Conscious Entrepreneurs Make When Launching a Product or Program

Of all the marketing tools out there (and make no mistake about it, product launches are a TOOL — nothing more, nothing less) product launches have got to be the most frustrating, misused and misunderstood tool.

There is nothing that will bring an entrepreneur to their knees faster than a busted launch. Worse, even if the launch ISN’T a failure, it’s still the cause of more worry, anxiety and sleepless nights than any other marketing tactic I’ve ever seen (and trust me, I’ve seen a lot).

However, since launch failure certainly is one of the top concerns (not to mention a bad launch makes everything else look worse) I thought I’d take some time today to discuss the top 3 mistakes entrepreneurs make when launching a product or program.

Mistake 1: They rush into the launch.

Let me explain what I mean by this because it’s not as clear cut as you might think. While I do think giving yourself some time and space to launch something properly (especially when you’re doing it from scratch) is a good thing, if you have a big enough list to meet your sales goals, you can rush your launch as much as you want.

Where I see the biggest problem with rushing your launch (other than just keeping yourself up nights working on all the promotional pieces) is when your list is small and you are dependent on affiliates or joint venture partners to meet your sales goals. If this is the case, you are pretty much guaranteeing your launch will fail.

You see, affiliates and joint venture partners are busy people. They have their own products and services to promote plus they too have agreed to help other people. The less lead time you give them the more likely they will tell you they can’t help you promote.

However, there is another way to look at this, which actually leads into mistake number 2.

Mistake 2: They don’t know the numbers.

Here’s how this mistake plays out. You’ve been hearing about these 6 figure launches, but you’re just starting out — you don’t expect to have a 6 figure launch. You would be happy with 50 people in your program. And with 200 people on your list that should be doable, right?

Well…

You do the launch and end up with 8 people in your program. You’re crushed.

Now the reality is with your list of 200, that’s a 4 percent conversion of your entire list. You should be THRILLED with that conversion.

But, because you don’t know the numbers (specifically the CONVERSION numbers) you’re just looking at the end result — how many people actually bought. And if it’s lower than what you wanted (or expected) you’re going to be disappointed.

But if you know the numbers, then you’ll know going in how many people you can expect to buy. And you’ll ALSO know what to expect regardless if affiliates help you promote or don’t. And that’s a really powerful way to keep yourself from getting too disappointed or frustrated.

Mistake 3: They either give up or decide not to send “one more email.”

This happens if they either get too discouraged from lack of sales or they just start feeling “icky” about the whole launch. At that point, they just stop.

And when you stop, you’ve also just stopped getting any more sales. And even if you’re stopping because you’re feeling sort of icky, you’re probably going to feel even more icky when people stop signing up for your program. (You CAN cut down the number of emails, just as long as you know which emails to cut.)

So you need to know going in you’re probably going to feel like giving up somewhere in the middle. If you know this, you can stand firm when it happens and make sure you still send that “one last email.” (Who knows, that could be the email that turns everything around for you and to think you almost didn’t send it!)