Life itself is only a vision – a dream…

Category Archives: Marketing, Advertising, SEO & SEM Discussion

As a natural unprofessional professional, you never have to push your talents (past experiences, certificates, degrees, etc.)on to other people. If you choose to do so, people will naturally assume otherwise. Sure, you have to market your skills, and when it comes to that, let your past customers/clients handle that work for you. And when you are officially invited for a meet, you are already recognized as a known expert in your field, which is enough in its own right.

See yourself as a specialist, a consultant in your own unique point of view. Sure, you will teach even though you are not a teacher. In this information age, people want facts right now, not wrong later, so feel free to explain what you bring to the table and explain how you can show quantifiable proof.

How come small businesses prefer not to spend time working the social media angle like their big brand counterparts? Social media is a very important tool in this growing digital age for many reasons. No matter the lack of labor involved to keep a few social networking profiles up and running, at least take the time to put a static page on Google+ or Twitter. Even if you don’t have massive ad budgets like Sprint or Verizon, try to follow their lead as much as possible so you create a local, home-brewed version of the same tactics.

Have a look at the following to know what you, the owner, must keep in mind to drum up more business:

Why did you start a small business?

World-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) is the only way to draw real genuine attention to your business. The Internet generation of now makes most of their buys based on what their friends have to say about it on Google+. Social media is the smartest way to spark an authentic and lasting relationship between you, the business, and your customers. By taking the time to really know and understand your buyers through social networking, it will gradually lead to more sales in the long run. The key is to leave a lasting impression on the collective consciousness of humanity so that it will manifest in their everyday realities.

Here are some tips and tricks to do just that…

Thanks to Internets, social networking sites (Google+, Facebook, and LinkedIn) are forever changing the world we live in and experience. The key to it, although quite mysterious, is to add your social media efforts as a part of search engine optimization (SEO). By doing so, you’ll not only increase your marketing efforts, but you’ll also amp your awareness as well.

If you don’t know what search engine optimization means, it’s just about making your site attractive in the eyes of Google and Bing. Usually, it means that you’re content is one of a kind and regularly updated, has the right titles and tags, and having higher ranking sites link back to your company’s website. With all the social media growth in the past five years, it has now become the de facto to include social media activities (Google+ updates, Twitter tweets, Facebook likes, etc.) as a part of your long-term business plan(s).

What does the consumer think of when they hear the word “brand”? Most people think of a logo, slogan, or catchy little jingle from a commercial. While these are all things are all important in propagating the brand image, they are not the brand itself.

Your brand is who you are as a company. It is what you do and how you do it. Everything you do should reinforce what you stand for as a brand.

Who you are

Think of the brand that farmers put on their cattle. While it may seem cruel, branding cattle served a very functional purpose. It was a mark of distinction. It was a way to separate your herd from the farmer next door’s herd.

There is no doubt that being a small business owner is more work than any full-time job. Not only do you have to manage the business, it is up to you ensure the business keeps growing. This involves wearing a number of different hats, including being your company’s sales representative.

When faced with a limited sales budget, many small business owners turn to cold calling to drum up new clients. The main issue with cold calling—aside from being a general annoyance to both caller and receiver—is its relatively low success rate.

There is another way to generate business, and it is far more productive than having your ear pressed against a phone all afternoon. Every business person knows about networking, but it may not be exactly what you think. It is about more than business relationships; it is about getting out from behind the desk and building a community.

These tips that you’re going to read about are all a pretty neat way to bring in more people using social media. But keep in mind, a great social media campaign is planned with years in mind, not something short and quick (aww yeah, ladies) at wooing the masses. Ready? Well here we go…

Know what you want

Do you want to bring in people so they buy from your e-commerce site? Will you be drumming up leads for a professional business? Or maybe you want to increase your brand awareness? Know what you want before you take it any further.

Know the customers/clients

Think about this quote… “Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.” This is so true for any generation. There are thousands of companies around the world bringing this philosophy into reality. Their entire product line is fighting for the people’s attention right alongside of yours, and the people aren’t going to stay up all night waiting for your company to magically appear in front of them. When you’re offering something to the world, you need to take the initiative to make your brand known to them and you must trigger an emotional response to make them want whatever you’re offering more than they need to hold on to the money they have, or the option of spending it on the business down the street.

The only way you’ll come out ahead is to be unique, always. This is the single most important point to consider. It’s about offering products and/or services that no other living soul has even thought of yet. The majority of companies out there just mimic what’s already live and play follow the leader, especially when you see it from the viewpoint of the people at large.

Doing what others have done will get you nowhere. If you don’t stand out from the rest, you’re like a grain of sand in the midst of grains of sand—you’re selling the same thing as the guy or gal next to you, and the most you can do is to drop your prices. This isn’t the way to go about it.

The power of social media in general has helped small business compete on the same level with all the big names out there. It has steamrolled the playing field when it comes to marketing more than anything else, and it’s one of the keys to growing a lasting business. On the other hand, the biggest point that’s often forgotten about is not how you go about delivering your message in the first place, but how you deliver the quality and value of customer service.

This angle of attack should invigorate you. The interwebs is changing all the time, and even though we’re all flooded with information, customer service is still something that’s forever. You’ve been at it since the beginning, and above all, you know how to always build upon it.

A blog helps any business to remain relevant in these ever-changing times and it gives Google something to munch on. The thing about it is, even though it kind of helps, is that there’s nothing really out there interesting or thought provoking. But have no fear, I are here.

It doesn’t matter if your own blog is a little behind the times, boring or let’s be real about it, kind of crazy, you can always improve your situation and come out ahead of the rest. Believe me when I say this, but you can do eeet! Here are some tips and tricks that you can work that’ll greatly better your blog situation…

Seeoh your titles

The world at large keeps shopping at Amazon, keeps listening to Adam Carolla, keeps using Sony Vaio laptops, and keeps on drinking really great coffee because they all either have great customer service and/or a solid product history. They believe in the brand, since they already know the amount of quality and value they’re getting, they trust in it, and they know it’ll be a pleasant experience for years to come.

If you’re going to create something with new media, you’re going to have to work with the same principles the big brands use to build a dedicated following. By attaching these mental links with the people that browse through your site, it helps to spread the word, it helps set you apart from the rest, and it helps you claim a piece of the market share pie.

Even though you’re not swimming in money like Scrooge McDuck, it shouldn’t really matter anyway when it comes to your marketing needs because it’s entirely free in today’s digital age.

Submitted for the approval for the Midnight Society, I call this story, “The Tale of Dream Marketing!”

*Tosses “midnight dust” from a medicine pouch into campfire*

Long before the Internet even existed, startups had only a limited choice when it came to marketing their product or service on the cheap, using either flyers or throwing a couple of dollars at a local shindig. Thanks to the tremendous growth of the net, you now only have to spend a few hours researching the latest marketing sites, register, add your info, search for existing contacts, add new potentials, join in on an existing group discussion(s), and presto blammo… marketing on the cheap.

Networking is critical to any business, big or small. It’s all about helping those who’ll help you down the road. On the other hand, the perks of networking are usually taken advantage of as a minority use the relationships for their ill-gotten gains. To distinguish yourself from that crowd, here are some tips and tricks you can use that’ll grow your reach the perfect way, the good way, the great way.

Keep at it

If you’re having a hard time bringing in new people, you should switch up the angle of your dangle (yeah, ladies). For example, how about playing with the words of your existing campaign message to something that’ll evoke a stronger emotional response from the reader. Different people think different things… some want to jump on opportunities while others want to stay away from them out of fear. If you truly know your people, then you can send targeted messages to X crowd while sending Y message to the rest.

Fighting to keep your customers is a part of being in the war of business, but what a lot of owners tend to forget about is how to grow their army, how to sway public opinion, how to leverage risk in their favor. Is it a good idea to create new products or add to existing features? Are contests a smoov move? What about changing the way you handle your social media campaigns? If you keep on reading this post from your number one site, detailedreams, you’re almost guaranteed to know what the people really want, what they really need.

Coupons and deals

Thanks to the tremendous growth of the Internet, it’s going to take so much more to stand out from the rest if you want to make your dreams a reality, which is a good thing in a big picture kind of way if you think about it. But when it’s all said and done, your inexperienced business blogger will have magnanimous projections for the future and assumptions that wither away as soon as they realize the amount of calories they’re burning isn’t really worth it to them. But for the few who have perseverance flowing through their veins and a long-term vision to fly past any minuscule goal, they’re the ones who are worthy of their dreams and goals.

Isn’t it annoying to be spammed by a website after you’ve bought something from them? In today’s digital age, it’s pretty standard to collaborate a list of e-mail addresses, subscribe them to your marketing campaigns, and then hoping that they buy something from you again.

Even though most business owners out there feel entitled to market the heck out of the those who freely give away their e-mail addresses, you shouldn’t give in to that kind of thinking because it could be just the thing that drives them away to another website.

Keeping it casual is the best approach when it comes to marketing past buyers. See yourself as a business who doesn’t really need the money, but also at the same time you have to make it feel like the customer is going to miss out on such a great deal.

Marketing like a madman using social media outlets is something that a business of any size must do as long as you stick to some simple principles that don’t leave a negative impression. No matter how much you grow in revenue, your company is, and will always be a small business at heart. You’re still going to stay ahead of any upcoming trends in order for you to remain profitable, which is the soul of any successful entity.

Humanity’s up and down habits and the amount of information covering it has greatly improved the way people buy things. Your goal, as a business, is to know just how much those habits affect your bottom line by recognizing where people spend their time on the net. Your one of many top priorities is to keep your brand alive in the collective consciousness of human beings covering at least several generations.

Did you know there are hundreds of trade shows going on every year? I even bet that some of them, if not all of them, would work in favor of your business. Now before you get way ahead of yourself, it’s critical that you take the necessary steps in the right direction to get the most bang for your trade buck. If you decide to skip these very important tips, you’re just going to end up wasting your hard-earned dollars or forgetting to jump on key opportunities. On the other hand, if you hit it at the right angle (yeah, ladies), you’re going to realize that trade shows are just the thing that’ll boost you past your competition. Remember this post as you’re experiencing the trade show to help you seize the day and/or night…

I know we’ve all heard the chatter about people losing out in this economy, but nobody has thought about where all their customers went. And this got me thinking about the patterns of people in general.

When everything went to hell back in 2008, most people just shifted their spending habits. They pushed off luxurious buys a few months back or they started to buy the off-brand goods. Then, I went off on one of my Internet research campaigns to see how I can connect the dots better.

This is what I found…

You have to passionately care for your customers

Now that you know your loyal customers are a source for referrals and a great return on your marketing efforts, it’s safe to assume that your lost customers hold more value than new ones.

A lot of businesses start a blog and soon realize that there’s no traffic coming in. Even the big names out there with millions of dollars can upload their latest blog entries that no one ever reads. And there are a bunch of reasons why this happens: lack of fresh content, lack of tone, lack of audience insight, etc. On the other hand, the number one reason that you’re not bringing in the numbers is that the world doesn’t even know about you and your blog in the first place.

Just like any other business owner, I bet you’re dreaming up a bunch of ways to generate more buzz. And if you’re like most, you spend most of your time thinking about bringing in new  people than say, caring more about the people who gave you their hard-earned dollars in the first place. By slightly switching up the angle of your dangle, you’ll make marketing work in your favor, and it’ll save you quite the pretty penny along the way.

It’s about good vibes, man

When you spend the time reminding your existing customers what you have to offer, you’ll save yourself long nights clicking and clacking away at the computer in hopes of bringing in new purses and wallets. The reason you need to do this is that your satisfied customers will be more than willing to spread the great news about your product/service by word of mouth—which has been the best kind of marketing since the dawn of man.

In this day and age, plenty of new social media platforms our at our disposal if you really want to market the heck out of your  enterprise. Besides the traditional media outlets of days gone by, we all have the power to utilize the latest technologies to mass market our ideas: blogs, Facebook, Twitter, WholesaleForum, Digg, and so on.

With the playing field open to all, you’re next step is deciding which social media outlet you’d prefer to use that suits your particular needs, and then sync that account to automatically update the rest.

As a small business owner, you probably spam the same message across all platforms, which is still better than nothing, but not quite on par with getting the most potential out of calories burnt.

The biggest part of your business is bringing in much needed attention and partnerships that’ll help you survive through the slow times so that you’ll last longer than the rest. *breathes deep* As you finally come to terms with the fact that generating leads is all about being known, you’ll realize that you, as business owner, is actually all about being a social networking marketer at heart. The thought of you being sponsored by big name companies and working with the leaders in their industry is in the past since any business with willpower can, and will find new ways in getting their name out there by working prospects and existing connections.

Here are some tips to help you bring in new minds that’ll help you establish your business.

Generating buzz for your online business is an uphill climb that’s going to push you past your limits. Expect to make lots of goofs on your way up to the top, and you’ll even lose out on thousands by trying out ideas that’ll never work in the first place.

Out of all the new startup kids on the block, most will fail. And one thing that you’ll start to see that separates the winners from the losers is that the losers make horrible decisions when it comes to planning and promotion.

Here are a few of the no-no’s that you need to steer clear of:

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