Monday Morning Marketeer

5 Tips to Start a Marketing Plan for Your New Fiscal Year

2011-09-25T19:19:00.001-04:00

Hosted by: technogranny
Title: Monday Morning Marketeer, How to Start Your Marketing Plan for 2011
Time: 01/24/20

Hosted by: technogranny
Title: Monday Morning Marketeer, How to Start Your Marketing Plan for 2011
Time: 01/24/2011 11:00 AM EST
Episode Notes: You never thought of doing a marketing plan for the year, shame on you! It's not too late. The snow has not thawed yet and guaranteed you will still have a few days where you do not feel like going out of the house, so let's get started with the basics, where do you start? And how do you make it sticky? Or how do you make sure that it is something you can and will follow?

Sticky and Stickiness are ways to describe marketing ideas that hold a certain value in a user’s mind. Within that value, the ideas must be worth enough to be shared with friends and family.
The concept of sticky marketing came from Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point“. Gladwell discusses product epidemics and tipping points being made up of 3 Laws:
1. The Law of the Few
2. The Stickiness Factor
3. Law of Context
“The Tipping Point” illustrates that products and services if presented right, and under the right circumstances, can be irresistible and sticky.

The clock is ticking,
is your plan ready?

Whether you are reading this at the first of the year or the end of it, the clock is ticking. Have you ever heard that having no business plan is like having a plan to fail? No matter when you are reading this, there are only a Only a few more hours until the clock strikes IMMINENT, yes imminent and that is what time your failure arrives without a marketing plan. Soon you will fin yourself in another month, another quarter, another year without a marketing plan. Do you know what you want to accomplish this year and what about the next and the year after that. This is not And I’m not talking about your year-after-year resolution to that becomes a wish list at the end of the year that your fairy godmother did not grant. Have you taken the time to sit down and truly figure out what you want to achieve for you and your business in the next months, next quarter, next year?
This is not you writing into your to do list or on your calendar:
Here is a list of generic goals.
A.. Get my business in shape
B. Outpace my competitior
C. Find more clients
D. Make more money
But how are you going to get there?
The buzz word now is “sustainable business.” If you are jumping on this buzz like it’s the train to success, which it is, you must understand the importance of planning. However, that’s often easier said than done. Hectic schedules and day-to-day business tend to get in the way. Again it is biblical, “Write your vision on tablets.”
Have no fear! Even if you haven’t put a strategic marketing plan in place for 2011, it’s not too late to get started now. So, what are you waiting for? Here are simple five steps to kick you into high gear and help you develop a marketing plan that will generate results for your business.

1. Start with goals
Before you can put a plan in action, you need to know which direction you’re headed. Although this may seem like an obvious step, it can be often overlooked.

Sounds elementary, but
you have to set goals!

Take the time to write down specific, measureable goals for your business. Start with the larger goal in mind. Then, take it down into bite-sized chunks and look at what benchmarks you need to achieve on a monthly basis to accomplish the overall goal. Not only will this exercise help you determine the best marketing strategy, but it will help hold you accountable along the way.
I will give you an example from my own seminar, Monday Morning Marketeer™ This is part of my Dreamweaver Marketing Associates plan which is by the way the parent company from which I run both my full service marketing company and all of my information products and media.
Goals from my Dreamweaver Marketing Plan Example:

to garner additional listeners and sponsors for my radio shows
To diversify products and add new ones that will augment my online platform and my business
To create more stable income with diversification
To increase my list and sphere of influence
To keep my online identity fresh

I am not going to bore you with the bite size chunks that I broke these down into. Everyone has to start somewhere and this is where I started.

2. Self Evaluation
The best marketing strategies in the world can’t help a business that doesn’t have a killer product or service. Before you do anything else, make sure you’ve got something spectacular to offer your customers.

What do you see when you
look in your business mirror?

I know, I know – we all think our own business is the best thing since sliced bread. But, ask your customers. Do they feel the same way? Does your product or service solve their problems or give them the results they’re after? Do your customers receive top-notch service?
If you’re not sure about the answers, talk to your employees and your customers. Getting their honest feedback will likely highlight some ways you can improve your offerings and make your business shine.
Here’s what I did in my Dreamweaver Marketing Associates Plan with regard to my media offerings:
Looked at my editorial calendar and how I could beef up my calendar for
TechnoGrannyShow
PositivelyPittsburghLive
Monday Morning Marketeer
Professionals with Impact
This all feeds locally into PositivelyPittsburghLiveMagazine.com
So I looked at:
· Web Statistics including hits, click throughs and unique page views
· Did my clients find the Pittsburgh Internet Radio and TV channel easy to use?
· Did they even understand its purpose?
· What could I do to augment content?
· Could I turn my current listeners and viewers into advocates?
· What did they think I should add?
· How did they think I could improve?
· I turned my listeners and readers into marketing constultants. I asked them what they wanted, what could be better, how could I fix it. And guess what? I also took their recommendations.

3. Master the basics
There are a couple of marketing basics that are so essential, it’s like milk and bread. Branding and a websites fall into that category. If you want to move the needle for your business this year, you must have these in place.

It's simple, just do it!

Your brand has not only to be exciting but also rock solid. This is an integral to a successful business. More than just a logo, a brand is the personality of your business. In other words, your brand communicates who you are and what makes you different from the competition. If you haven’t nailed down your brand message, now is the time. Don’t wait another year to get this right.

In today’s digital world, an amateur website just won’t cut it anymore. A well-written, user-friendly website is a must for businesses. In a world that’s constantly competing for eyeballs, make sure your site hits the mark and doesn’t leave them quickly moving on to the next one.
These are some methods that I used in my Dreamweaver Marketing Associates. I decided that I needed to Promote my business by increased Internet marketing.
These are areas that I will share my ideas with you for various niches in the media portion of my business:
· Every Monday at the beginning of my show, PositivelyPittsburghLive I do the “local good news.” I decided not enough people were listening and so I had my blogger put together the news in blog format with links back to listen and planned to blast it out to my list every Tuesday. The goal was to get 20% additional listeners and it is working, every month.
· The Roving Pittsburgher™ is another segment on the news which listeners really seem to like, even my guests who I force to listen to it before their roundtable interview on PositivelyPittsburghLive. This is where I tell listeners where I , my good news reporters and other PositivePittsburghers have been the week before. Decided that this had to become more organized and profitable so I did a few things. I purchased domain names and negotiated a new website, put a system into place to get more tickets for events and more dinner invitations. I also have plans to institute a monthly video contest where viewers can send in their own pictures which my staff will turn into a video. The plan for the following year is to send out
the Roving Pittsburgher Report on Wednesdays.

· Post Script PPL .
In order to raise the number of listeners and hit to my PPL Mag I needed a vehicle. So I invented the PPL Post Script in which I would send out all of the syndicated show links that were archived in the previous two weeks. This increased listeners. This is a Thursday blast.
· To further interest local listeners I developed Positively Pittsburgh Live Perks™ This is a blast for channel owners on PositivelyPittsburghLive to put out special deals for PositivelyPittsburghLive listeners on DreamweaverMarketing Associates mailing list.

4. Make Sure You Get Noticed
Social media is definitely the new kid on the block. But before you rush off to sign up for a Twitter account, take a look at your current marketing efforts and determine what is working well for you.
For instance, if word of mouth is your top business generator, build a referral strategy that rewards your biggest fans for spreading the word. Or, if your email list responds well to your campaigns, look for ways to grow your list by encouraging your readers to share it with their friends.
Whatever it is, continue to focus your energy in this area and look for ways to amplify it.

Start some fireworks
about your business!

Oftentimes, the most profitable marketing effort we can employ is by taking a strategy that is working really well and turning up the volume.

If you have a mobile phone use down time to communicate on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, even Sprouter and what I am doing now in New Media, TalkShoe, also Blogger
I have Ning Network for Positive Pittsburghers and two Sundays ago sent out 1700 invitations to join. :My newest strategy is to offer a free gift to everyone on the site once we hit each breakthrough goal for membership. I have enlisted clients and local vendors to provide the gifts. No cost for me and good public relations for them.

5. Stretch yourself
Once you’ve hammered out ways to improve already successful strategies, you can begin to venture into uncharted territory. Social media is the considered marketing frontier for small business and it can be a great way to engage customers, generate leads and provide customer service.

The reward is in the stretch!
So wake up!

But, before you take the plunge, do your research. Determine what you want to accomplish through social media. Find out where your customers hang out on line and where they go to get their information. Also look at what is working well for other businesses in your niche. A misguided social media effort will suck up a lot of time and produce little in return.
Determine your goals because your return on investment will not always be in dollars. It could be in visibility, additional hits to your website, additional inquiries. These are my goals for my internet radio shows.
· Additional listeners
· Additional visibility
· Give out good information to create credibility
· Build relationships to increase customers
So with that in mind I certainly hope you will use the share button to pass this blog onto friends and also that you wiill listen to MondayMorningMarketeer™ or one of my other four internet radio shows.
You can listen to a fifteen minute audio version similar to this blog at:
Monday Morning Marketeer, How to Start Your Marketing Plan for 2011

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:
© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2011, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://mondaymorningmarketeer.com
Blog: www.mondaymorningmarketeer.com
Or on its unique radio channel at:
www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com

Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.
Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to and advocacy of small businesses.
Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mondaymorningmarketeer
Phone: 412-444-5197

MondayMorningMarketeer Market Data, Five Things to Determine, Three Reasons to Bother

2011-09-12T12:34:00.000-04:00

Market Data, Five Things to Determine,

Three Reasons to Bother

Prepare Market Data Like You Would a Recipe,

Recipe for Strategic Marketing Success

You have got to know the lay of the land in order to prepare a good marketing strategy. Like any good recipe you have got to have the ingredients and a process for preparation. Your strategic marketing recipe should be based on good data. Good data collection should be used to start your strategic marketing planning process with data about your industry and specific market, and about your customers.

First is the data collection process. The data that you will need to collect is:

Strategic Marketing requires good data!

· Industry and market data

· Customer behavior data

· Online monitoring Data

And then you have to turn that data into good information that can help you in the strategic marketing process to turn suspects in to prospects and then clients and to turn activity into business.

· You will want to collect data that reflects market research that you have conducted for the marketing plan.

· What is Market Data? it’s data from Studies, surveys, market demographics and sales data

· If you don’t have a large budget you may want to start with Census Bureau for Your Local Community, Use Industry Data, if you are starting anything to do with Food Service, US Food and Hospitality Industry. Do a Google Search for instance on Manufacturing or the Fashion industry

· Great site:

http://www.grabstats.com

Some Statistics Categories from this site

· African-American Statistics (223)

· Background Music Statistics (21)

· Charity / Non-profit Statistics (53)

· Dating / Relationship Statistics (26)

· eCommerce Statistics (116)

· Green / Environmental Statistics (50)

· Hip-Hop / Urban Statistics (17)

· Homelessness Statistics (34)

· Internet Usage Statistics (142)

· Mobile Industry Statistics (13)

· Movie Industry Statistics (39)

· Music Industry Statistics (139)

· Online Advertising Statistics (42)

Think you might be able to find something here?

· ___________________________

Five Things You Need to Determine

1. Determine the market, past present and future

· Preparing the target market section of your plan

· The outdated and overused way of marketing is to create a product and then try to figure out how to sell it. In this fast paced world where we now do business, that just does not work. Before you even begin producing your product or designing your service you must be certain of sufficiently large, accessible, and responsive target audiences.

Investors want to know that you
have a sizeable enough market.

· If your market isn't large enough, you can't reach it efficiently, or if it isn't ready for you, your business will fail, no matter how good your business concept.

· A concise description and thorough understanding of your target market will give you focus when developing your product or service, designing your marketing plan, and forecasting sales and expenses. Potential investors want reassurance that you not only have a sizeable market but that you will have a platform from which to reach that market. It’s also important to investors that you comprehend the opportunities and limitations of the market.

· You say, why is she talking so much about investors, I am going to bootstrap this myself. Well unless you are not going to invest in your own business, you are also an investor. You are investing your time, your income and your ideas and dreams. You need to make certain your target market is definable and reachable.

· When preparing the Target Market section of your written strategic marketing plan you need good solid data with the right focus. To get you started focus primarily on these three areas:

• Description
• Trends
• Strategic Opportunities

2. Who owns the current market share for your product or service?

Ask these questions: Who are the current players?

Who would be your immediate competition? Please don’t tell me there is none, this is 2011 there is competition everywhere for everything both on and offline.

3. Look at market trends, have there been any recent shifts?

Has a big player gone out of business?

Know the recent market shifts!

Has technology changed the playing field?

Have celebrities changed their style or buying habits?

Has a movie or documentary created a trend?

What are they talking about on Twitter, FAcebook, LinkedIn, Four Square,

Check Out Google Trends and a publication called Ad Media.

Also check out the website of the Newspaper Association of America

http://www.naa.org,

Some of the things they are talking about on their front page:

o Retailer Consolidation: A Shift In Buying Power .

o Multi-Channel Advertisers: Clicks And Mortar Plus .

o Opportunities: Emerging Players With Unique Needs

o Competitors: Traditional And New .

o Population Changes: Workers And Customers

Of course they are talking about the traditional media business but you can get an idea of how to organize your research.

4. Develop Pricing Strategy

Look at your costs. Consider material costs and labor costs and overhead costs.

What are your competitor’s prices? What would you have to charge to operate at a particular gross margin?

Establish pricing techniques and brief description of these techniques.

Establish both retail and wholesale costing and pricing

Establish if you are going to price below the competition or

Establish value for pricing above the competition

Will you have multiple pricing strategies for different layers of your business.

Although your pricing strategy may be based on a strategy devised by industry standards you should study this plan and the strategies used by competitors. That way you will acquire a thorough understanding of how to price your product, and you can determine if your prices are in line with competitors, if they are in line with industry averages and what adjustments you can make to bring them in line.

The key to success is to have a well-planned strategy, to establish your policies and to constantly monitor prices and operating costs to ensure profits. Keep abreast of changes in the marketplace because these changes can affect your bottom line.

What’s the acceptable gross margin for your particular industry? This is very important to know, it is a great success indicator if you can operate within it.

5. Use the data to Develop an Effective Promotional Strategy

· Advertising Media

· print media (newspaper, magazine, classified ads, Yellow Pages advertising, brochure)

· radio

· television

· networking

· business cards

· Ad specialties such as tee shirts, hats, buttons, pens

· Online media

· E mail Marketing

· Ezines

Develop a promotional strategy that uses various media for promoting your business. Monitor the different media identifying those that most effectively promote your business. Concentrate on developing material for these formats that clearly identifies your services, its location and price.

Three reasons why you want to take the trouble here:

This data will help convince bankers and investors that you understand your industry, your local business conditions, and your realistic profit/growth opportunities. It will also help you in making key decisions in your business as you go along, develop and grow.

Research, Market, Test for a Strong
Plan!

Here are three great reasons to invest the time in market research:

1. Create a stronger business and marketing plan with compelling, accurate financial comparisons for your industry.

2. When you decide to grow and need investors or bankers, this will improve your chances when applying for loans, opening new accounts, or working to fund your business through angel investors or venture capitalists.

3. If you know your competition you will know where the pitfalls lie and will be able to determine your financial success and also possibly determine their weak points.

Watch for upcoming E-book on this subject, “Choosing Your Customers, Marketing to Them for Life.”

Additional information at: info@mondaymorningmarketeer.com.

Expected release date September 1, 2011.

You can listen to a fifteen minute audio version similar to this blog at:

Monday Morning Marketeer, 5 Types of Marketing Data, 3 Reasons to Bother

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:

Listen at: http://mondaymorningmarketeer.com

Blog: www.mondaymorningmarketeer.com

Or on its unique radio channel at:

www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com

Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.

Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to and advocacy of small businesses.

Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mondaymorningmarketeer

Phone: 412-628-5048

MondayMorningMarketeer, 9 Marketing Objectives to Pursue in Your Strategic Plan

2011-09-05T23:20:00.000-04:00

9 Marketing Objectives to Pursue

in Your Strategic Plan

Many crazy scenarios come to mind on this one.

Would you ever take off in a plane without a flight plan? How about calling the travel agent to book a trip and asking her for a ticket. When she asks where you want to go you say, “I don’t know, anywhere?” Or how about the gal that walks out the door one day and decides to find a husband, no plan, no criteria, no idea of what she is looking for, she’s just going to marry the first guy who asks her. (Actuallly this last one probably happens more often than we can recount here.)

You should by now have done some research and discovered who your target market is and you should have some market data so now you can make some educated decision on what your goals should be. Your marketing objectives should be the means to achieve your sales objectives. You should come up with marketing objectives that address every group. Your marketing objectives should follow the same rules as the sales objectives, and be measurable. Even non numbers people like me will have to come up with some quantifiable goals that can be measured later to see if you reach them.

So here are tips for the goals and marketing suggestion portion of your plan.

1. Segment Your Target Market

You should have marketing objectives that address each group in your target market. Each demographic in your target market should have a predefined message. If you are selling cell phones to teenagers and parents and seniors, the message is definitely not the same. I read an article recently about a Las Vegas resort that targets toddler to 92 years olds. What do you think, is the message unique for each market?

2. Good Data is a Good Goal

For this reason, you need to have good data about the sizes of your market, potential market, and your current customer base. To this data, add information such as recognized opportunities, your customers' buying rates, and other behavioral issues. This information will help you estimate the numbers you need to attach to your marketing objectives.

For example, imagine this scenario:

a. You know your 2,500 customers each bought an average of 2.5 of your widgets last year.

b. You've also identified a new market of 3,500 potential customers (at your current market share percentage) that you're estimating will buy an average of 2 widgets each for the year.

c. In addition, you've identified an opportunity to add a service contract for customers that would cost 10% of the product cost.

Know what you have to sell!

Your marketing objective for existing customers could then be: To increase your current customers' buying rate by 20% and sell service contracts to 50% of those customers.

Your marketing objective for new customers could then be: Sell your widgets to 50% of the new market, create a buying rate within that group of 2 units per year, and sell service contracts to 50% of that group.

3. Marketing Goal of Your Website:

A large audience of fans or members

Establish success metrics for
your website.

Do not assume that if you build it, they will come, your goal for your websites should be:

a. Give good information that makes it a resource.

b. Make it interactive enough that it becomes “sticky” and people revisit

c. Use a blog to make it more interactive and “sticky”

d. Engage visitors through social media

e. Make sure your numbers are measurable and you get demographics and search results, a large number of visitors tell you if your goals are being met.

4. Marketing Goal for Sales of Products or Services

Yes this information has to be quantifiable but needs also to be set apart for various segments in the market place, you should have goals for and measure:

a. In person sales if you are brick and morter

b. Website conversions, those actually coming to your from your websiste.

Know when you have hit your
marketing bulls eye.

c. Social media sales: how many clients do you want to convert from your social media efforts such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook Fanpages

d. Direct sales, what is your goal for those you will set appointments with and call on

5. Marketing Objectives for Referrals from satisfied customers

Referral sales, how many sales should come from satisfied customers referring you. You should have a referral program in place and goals as to how many referrals you would like to have from each satisfied customer and also be prepared to reward them.

6. Goals for Leads to Potential Customers

Also if you have professional services businesses or businesses whose products or services are too complicated to be sold directly via the web. The object is to get interested visitors to minimally fill out a form with at least an email address so that the company can follow up and stay in touch or better yet get them to make an appointment to come in.

7. Establish Long-Term Marketing Goals and Work Backwards.

First you need daily short-term goals, but how will you know what they should be if you don’t know where you’d like to be three to five years from now? Once you have that big picture, then you can work backwards breaking this ideal scene down into short-term goals, defining these milestones that need to be achieved along the way to this long-term goal. You should keep a list of resources you need, set artificial deadlines for yourself and do the best to keep them. Also it’s important to follow an “ inch by inch” plan by breaking everything into bite size pieces.

Work backwards:

· Five years,

· Three years,

· Two Years,

· One Year,

· Six months,

· Ninety Days.

Remember the old adage, “Mile by mile,it’s a trial. Inch by inch it’s a cinch.”

Try limiting your ninety day plan to three specific goals that you want to accomplish. Write out each goal and put a due date next to it. Then write out each step that needs to be taken and what type of assistance do you need to accomplish it, what tools, what resources. Finally, take out your calendar and schedule in the time like you do your business appointments that make you money. This may seem like a passive activity but marketing is what is going to convert those suspects into clients by feeding your business pipeline. The way to stay on track with the commitment you have made to yourself by developing your plan is to put it in your calendar in indelible INK. No fair using white out.

8. Stay on Track by Staying Committed to Goals That Will Increase Your Bottom Line.

Beware of marketing goals that are just keeping you busy but don’t contribute directly to the long-term goas you have set up for yourself. Some people confuse activity with results, don’t be one of them. If you don’t believe your marketing goals are worthwhile, you won’t make the necessary effort to achieve them.

9. Start Your Day by Reviewing Your Marketing Goals.

Every morning review your goals. Keep them in plain view – by your desk or next to your computer. Having them constantly in front of you will keep you aware of opportunities that cross your path to help you achieve those goals. I like to keep them on the wall behind my computer and then I have three by five cards with one goal scattered around-in appointment books, books that I am reading, on the visor in my car and yes, on the bathroom and bedroom mirrors.

Watch for upcoming E-book on this subject, “Choosing Your Customers, Marketing to Them for Life.”

Additional information at: info@mondaymorningmarketeer.com.

Expected release date October 1, 2011.

You can listen to a fifteen minute audio version similar to this blog at: 9 Objectives to Pursue in Your Strategic Marketing Plan

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:

Listen at: http://mondaymorningmarketeer.com

Blog: www.mondaymorningmarketeer.com

Or on its unique radio channel at:

www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com

Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.

Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mondaymorningmarketeer

Phone: 412-628-5048

Monday Morning Marketeer, Ten Tips for Not Participating in the Next Recession

2011-09-05T22:14:00.001-04:00

No Recession Series:

Experts are saying that we are headed for another recession. Many of you are concerned that we are not out of the first one. I say, what recession? And if there is one, I am part of a growing number that refuses to participate in the academic and media manufactured recession.There are businesses out there that are thriving since the onset of the last recession and mine is one of them. This series of eight is dedicated to giving you information from myself and others who have refused to participate in the last recession and are definitely not participating in any future ones, real or manufactured.

A friend told me this morning that experts are prediciting another recession on top of the old one.

So I started to do some research on Another Recession in 2012 and this is what I found:

On July 2nd in a Telegraph article by James Quinn

Jim Rogers predicts a new recession in 2012

Jim Rogers, the market sage, has warned the global economy is just two years away from another recession, but remains ill-prepared to cope with the after-effects

However, he said that due to the extraordinary measures already adopted by central banks and governments around the world, the arsenal of available tools to combat the next recession is somewhat lacking.

Well hell, then I guess it’s up to us, the average every day entrepreneur to get ready.

Get out your parachute, you don't
have to go down with the
plane!

From Pajamas Media, Ed Driscoll.com, June 14, 2011

“David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates, says there is a 99% Chance of Another Recession by 2012,” in an interview with the Bloomberg news service, as spotted by Mike Shedlock, a registered investment advisor with a column at Townhall:

Bloomberg: How Certain are you that we may be headed for a recession

Who cares what the emperor is wearing.
YOU dress for success!

Rosenberg: I think that by 2012, I would give it a 99% chance. I say that because as an economist, you have to be part historian. When you have a manufacturing inventory cycle recession, they are usually separated 5 years apart. But when you have a balance sheet recession, credit contraction, asset deflation (for example residential real estate), the downturn tends to be separated every 2 to 2.5 years. … Economists call this a soft patch. It’s not like this is a soft patch. Basically, when all the stimulus is gone, you get to see what the emperor looks like disrobed. It’s not a pretty picture.”

Business can grow during
a recession.

Don’t know about you but personally I don’t care about the emperor robed or disrobed or how he dresses. What I care about is what I am going to wear to “Not Participate in the Recession.” I will tell you that the first thing I am looking to is to see how I am mentally and physically dressed to do battle with what these “experts” are predicting. Predictions are just that, predictions, a little bit of knowledge and the rest is smoke and mirrors. Only God and you can determine your future, so I think we should get busy proving that we personally are having Resurgences rather than Recessions.

Don’t Participate in the Recession Series

10 Ways to Draw a Line in the Sand and Refuse to Participate

1. Don’t absorb the news, yes listen, get the information, then turn it off. If you go to another

Broadcast and it says the same thing, turn it off again. Better you should TV Ellen

Degeneres, at least she is funny and upbeat. Also when you hear the commercials

About the recession that says, “Additional details at 11PM, don’t get sucked in, it’s just a rehash of the old stuff.” Do, however, listen to press conferences and messages from the president.

This is history and you will want to be able to tell our grandchildren, “I knew he was right.” Or

“If he would have asked me, I could have told him that wouldn’t work.” Trust me in these tough

Times you will rarely get the opportunity twenty years from now to say, “That’s why I voted for him.” Hopefully it’s not the president, just the times.

2. Find a good positive mentor who has also decided not to participate in another recession. Stay in close touch with that person because I can assure you that the media will bombard you with as much negative stuff as they can muster. Remember, they are in the business of making money and the majority adage is: “If it bleeds, it leads.” That stands for bodies and the economy. And the media will convince you that the economy is bleeding bullets.

A mastermind could be your saving
grace.

3. Also join a good mastermind group. Being an entrepreneur is a lonely business and sometimes just staying up late to forge new ways and ideas of doing things is not enough. You’d be surprised how fresh, non-compeitive eyes will help you to solve difficult challenges and find new ways to shore up old business and bring in new. My No BS Mastermind has been a God-send to me and is responsible for my business actually thriving in the “first recession” of this decade. We all refused to participate and all of our businesses are thriving.

4. Build a strong fence around your clients. Remember as I’ve said in previous Webinars, “Your best client is probably also your competitor’s best client.” Understand if you are concerned and you are a very positive person. (You must be because your are listening to or

Reading this, or both.) If positive person that you are, you are concerned, then your clients are also. Find ways to help them keep focused, on track and not panic.

5. That means keeping in touch. Ways to do this:

a. Newsblasts with helpful business tips, maybe even something that you are doing.

Encourage your clients to “swipe and deploy” as the Glazer Kennedy system advises.

Your customers may just be waiting for
the help you can offer.

Let them know they can find some way to tweak what you are doing and they can do it also.

b. If they are close by, then stop by and visit, put it on your calendar, You don’t want

To show up one day to discover they are out of business.

c. If they are not close by put it on your calendar to call them.

d. While you are there ask them how you can help their business. Remember this may not always be a way for you to make money but a way to keep your good customers

in business.

e. Look to your sphere of influence to see who can use their services. Make a habit of referring them potential new clients. When you become a resource, you will discover that clients come back to you also.

6. Become a resource. This makes sense in any economy. When someone needs a plumber, a dentist, an attorney, be the first to respond with contact information. If you become a resource to others and for others those same people will do business with you or refer people to you. Keep a good data base filled with current vendors who can help others.

7. No business owner is an island and business does not exist in a vacuum. In many instances just the very exercise of taking your eyes off yourself and your challenges will help you with the ones you may be facing. Spend a couple of hours each week figuring out how you can help someone else and in the process you may find yourself helping yourself.

8. Show up in your community not just online but in person. Your budget may get tightened up for paid events but there are so many free things out there that you can do to keep yourself in the eyes of those who are doing business. Business does not stop in a recession, it just gets more selective. Show up and you have a better chance of being selected. My mother used to say, “Out of sight, out of mind.”

9. Don’t be in a rush to cut your prices. Guess what? There is a competitor out there in a bigger rush to go out of business than you are. Instead: beef up your customer service, add benefits to your product, add a new twist. If you are old enough to remember the nickel candy bar or even

the quarter candy bar, what’s the first thing the manufacturer’s did before they raised the price? They began selling a special edition larger candy bar. Then when you got used to buying that “better value” candy bar, they raised the price and went back to the old candy bar.

So don’t decrease your prices and if you must run a sale, run and “added value sale.”

10. Get back to basics. These are:

a. Great product

Getting back to basics can
increase your sales and save your
business.

b. Great support

c. Excellent customer service

d. Superior customer relationships

e. Being a resource in the community

f. Revisit old clients

g. Look for new ones and finally,

Heres’s a bonus tip:

When you know a competitor is going out of business, sympathize! Give a call, offer to service their remaining customers. But go beyond that, make arrangements to give them a percentage of any of those customers who come over to you. Be sure to get a home address and phone number so that you can actually do that. So many people when they go out of business still have loyal followers and when they can’t sell the business, these people will fall by the wayside. Also it’s tough starting over when a business fails and you may become their saving grace.

Watch for upcoming E-book on this subject, “Choosing Your Customers, Marketing to Them for Life.”

Additional information at: info@mondaymorningmarketeer.com.

Expected release date October 1, 2011.

You can listen to a fifteen minute audio version similar to this blog at: Ten Tips for Not Participating in a Recession

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:

Listen at: http://mondaymorningmarketeer.com

Blog: www.mondaymorningmarketeer.com

Or on its unique radio channel at:

www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com

Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.

Ten Tips for “Sharing the Love” in Your Marketing Plan

2011-08-20T14:24:00.003-04:00

2-14-11 Ten Tips for “Sharing the Love” in Your Marketing Plan

Make others feel important. Put them first. You need to make sure plan puts the WIFM, (What's in it for me?) thoughts in their minds. Emphasize the advantages you can offer them.

1. Guarantee, have you thought about what kind of guarantee you give your customers? 100% Money Back Guarantee and the conditions. The Amway Corporation does a great job of this. They guarantee that if you are not satisfied for any reason, they will not only refund your money but also your postage. http://www.amway.com/en/Support/Ordering-Product-Support/Satisfaction-Guarantee They give specifics as 120 days or 180 days. Not bad and very specific!

Customer Appreciation party theme from
Meetup.com

2. Customer Appreciation Days are great ways to show the love and add them to your plan. Banks and offices around the country do it, they have open houses and banks will put out cookies and coffee for their clients. Add something into your plan at least once a year, maybe quarterly, maybe even once a month. Keep it within your budget and understand your goal in doing this—keeping in touch with your client, letting them know you care and creating a fence around your herd of customers. One of my clients Villa Southside in Pittsburgh, Pa., just had a huge Customer Appreciation Day, Pig Roast and Luau. They invited both clients and new customers and all of the food was free. It was such a festive event, not only the customers were excited about it but so was the neighborhood and they not only pleased their old customers but added some new ones.

3. Loyalty Programs

Don't just celebrate birthdays!

We all celebrate special occasions in our lives including birthdays, anniversaries, and special holidays. Are you taking the time to get in touch with your customers and showing them you care about them whenever these special occasions occur? Do you send out cards and letters regularly?

Try this – remember the date they ordered from you, and celebrate it as an anniversary of your business relationship together. Similar to a wedding anniversary, the day your customer chooses you as provider to earn their business is a day that should be remembered. After one year, send your customer a special gift, a one year anniversary present, and profess your absolute appreciation for their business. Remember, they’ve given you one year of business if you want that relationship to remain strong, and if you want to earn more revenue, don’t ever forget their anniversary! If your budget is strong there are actually automated programs out there that can do this for you or put it into your calendar with automated reminders.

But remember, that’s just one day of the year. If you really want to impress your customers and keep them thinking, and talking, about you, you’ve got to do a lot more than that. Send them special cards and letters for celebrated holidays and occasions! If you consider the cost, it is a very small investment to make to completely earn and build a much stronger relationship with your customers. Show them you care so much about their business, and who knows, perhaps they’ll start talking about you to their friends. Send Out Cards is a great way to automate this and actually save money on it. The price of a card is much less than going to a card shop and they address it, mail it. You can even create a campaign. https://www.sendoutcards.com/ Remember now when you do your marketing plan to add the cost to your strategic marketing budget.

4. Be open to feedback. Encourage it. You need to be available to your customers. Automation is good, but make sure you answer feedback promptly and whenever possible with a personal touch. Send out periodic surveys and give a reward to those customers who fill them out. By all means, though do something with the information. You can create free surveys that will tally the answers for you at: http://surveymonkey.com the basic plan is free and I believe you can ask up to eight questions. If you need it, you can get the pro plan later.

5. Plan to Deal with problems and conflicts quickly and positively.

No one wants to deal with irate customers. Look at a problem customer as an opportunity to learn and grow, rather than as a thorn in your side. Your business will benefit from the experience. Analyze how the problem can be avoided in the future. Conflict resolution and customer service procedures should be part of your business plan. Everyone once things to always go great with customers but put a plan in place ahead of time in case it does not.

6. Give your customers special offers and discounts.

And this isn’t about your own special offers and discounts, but offers from your partner companies. Use the relationship you have with your customers as a way of introducing them to other products and services they might find useful. If you do this, keep the offers relevant, customize it to suit your customers, and don’t make it come off as SPAM! Offer them solutions to problems, and make it somehow connected to your own business and service but just make sure it is non-competitive to your business. I put out a PositivelyPittsburghPerks newsletter periodically where my online magazine clients or radio show hosts of my Monday night show, PositivelyPittsburghLive, can give a free or discounted offer to my online magazine vendors and subscribers. Create a part of your plan to allow for cross marketing with synergistic non-competitive businesses.

Be transparent! Make it easy for your
customers to contact you.

7. Your Service: Eliminate the customer obstacle course. If you asked many customers of businesses today they’d say that the obstacle course for figuring out who to talk to and how and when to get service is over-complicated, conflicting and just plain out of whack. Make plans in your plan to create several ways for

Your clients to reach you do business with you and communicate with you. Radio and TV stations are very good at this; they let you know who takes care of advertisement, distribution and news.

8. Your Website –find ways to make it clear, make information accessible, contact information on every page, Give good helpful content that helps your clients make decisions—not necessarily selling them. Here are a couple of good examples. A good example of a website that is really helpful: eHow - eHow is an online community dedicated to providing visitors the ability to research, share, and discuss solutions and tips for completing day-to-day tasks and projects. Guess how they make their money? Advertisement, they give out good information, people go there to get it and then other businesses pay to advertise. Could you possibly add something like this to your model?

9. Guilt Free Customer Service

Don't let your customers look like this, give them
a reason to smile!

There is a growing case of corporate memory loss that annoys and aggravates customers every day as they have to strong-arm their way through the corporate maze just to get basic things accomplished. Consumers have to fight for their rights with both many large and small companies. I just recently complained about a cell phone and all of the issues I had with it, what a hassle. I have a technology show, the TechnoGrannyShow with quite a few listeners; you would think they would want to make me happy not just as a client but also as a media person. They did not get it and when my contract is up they will not get my renewal. At all costs, put this in your plan, a guilt free customer service plan.

10. Share the love.—Get testimonials and use them

If your customers sing praises about your company, make plans to share it on your website. If you’ve made a customer happy, they’ll have no problem putting their name online for you. Customer testimonials are a great way to attract new customers. Determine how you will collect your testimonials. Maybe there’s an open-ended question on your survey or you can have an online form. Don’t be afraid to ask, but always make sure you do. Testimonials are a true testament of your love.

Make that call with a smile on
your face.

11. Plan to: Pick up the phone and call your customers.

Today there are so many business processes that are automated, it seems that we have forgotten the importance of something as simple as sending a personal greeting to those we do business with. Is your customer worth a phone call, how much will that cost you? What can you do to instantly build a stronger relationship with them? Put this in your plan, a program to contact x amount of customers each week to ask, how are you doing, congratulate them on a success, wish them a happy birthday. Hey you might even ask how your service or product is working out for them. In this day and age, they will be surprised and delighted.

And what do you get out of this special gesture? For one thing, it is totally unexpected and comes off as a unique and personal approach, communicating just how much you care for your customers. Now how much value does that add to the relationship?

12. Plan: An amazing, entertaining and informative newsletter should be part of your marketing plan. Deliver it regularly.

Think about how many times during the year/quarter/month a customer needs you, or your products or services, and let that be your guide to determining how often to reach out and touch your audience. Think of this number as a minimum, and then build from there. Newsletters have always been used as a tool for businesses to stay in the minds of their customers. You need a newsletter that is engaging and fun and makes people want to open it.

If you don’t like to write, then add it into your plan to have a freelance writer or newsletter specialist to write it for you. Add their fee into your strategic marketing budget. You need a newsletter that is engaging and then add a touch of your company’s personality to it. A good newsletter is one that clients will take time to read and possibly forward to friends.

Print or e-mail newsletter makes no differenc
just so it gets read!

My company produces “done for you” newsletters with engaging content and the addition of your own dynamic story and offers directly from your company. For additional information contact me at: 412-628-048 or info@mondaymorningmarketeer.com

Since it is roughly six to 12 times less expensive to sell to an existing customer than it is to acquire a new one, the value of customer loyalty and repeat business is just too compelling to ignore. There are many more tips for sharing the love in your strategic marketing plan, watch for the upcoming E-Book?

Watch for upcoming E-book on this subject, “Choosing Your Customers, Marketing to Them for Life.”

Additional information at: info@mondaymorningmarketeer.com.

Expected release date September 1, 2011.

You can listen to a fifteen minute audio version similar to this blog at:

2-14-11 Ten Tips for “Sharing the Love” in Your Marketing Plan

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:

Listen at: http://mondaymorningmarketeer.com

Blog: www.mondaymorningmarketeer.com

Or on its unique radio channel at:

www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com

Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.

Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mondaymorningmarketeer

Phone: 412-628-5048

Marketing Plan Series, 50 Tips for Defining Your Best Customer

2011-08-07T20:56:00.000-04:00

50 Tips on Defining Your Best Customer

Marketing to your best customer means
major dollars for you.

Who Is Your Best Customer or Client and why should you figure that out? Well there’s an old saying in sales that fits marketing very well, “You won’t figure out how if you don’t know why!” Who are the customers that give you the biggest bang for your buck. This is the one who pays on time, uses you eclusively in all of your niche areas of expertise. This is a client with whom you have a great working relationship and you go out of your way to make sure they are happy at all times. They know that if they are in any way dissatisfied you will do anything within your power to fix it. For that reason they know you are the best solution for their needs and possibly others within their sphere of influence, so they will often refer other clients to you.

Here are some criteria for determining who your best customer is and how to service them:

1. Can you make them more profitable and make money yourself doing it?

2. Do you have automatic rapport that won’t take years to create

3. Can you help them focus their energies on their niche and what they do best?

4. Can you develop a fence around them as part of your herd as Dan Kennedy says, your best customer is also your competitors best customer

5. Figure out how to express to them what you do best

6. Make sure your best customer understands how you can help them

Why Define Your Best Customer in Your Marketing Plan?

Rather than wasting your time complaining that too many of your clients are needlessly cheap or are hard to sell to, ask yourself why you keep going back to these same people again and again, somehow expecting a different result than what you'd experienced before. It’s easy to say why you don’t want these customers, definition of madness is doing the same thing and expecting different results. What I just enumerated earlier can help you define them, now you need to target them relentlessly.

Some tips:

· Develop a profile of what you would consider an ideal customer.

· focus your efforts on attracting the attention of that kind of customer.

· Qualify your customers as all customers and clients are not created equal

· When you need revenue it’s easy to take on anyone you can get but it’s biblical, “Write your vision on tablets.” If you have a best client profile and stick to it, you won’t be tempted and also you probably won’t have those times either.

· Remember this: it pays to be choosy. Closing is faster and easier when you're only trying to sell a round peg to a round hole.

· When your target market is well-focused, you spend far less time struggling.

· Leapfrog over the competition by focusing on people you enjoy selling to.

· You'll reduce the amount of objections you encounter, and you'll gain more repeat sales because you'll be dealing with people who want to have a long-term engagement with you.

Once you have a profile of your ideal customer, the next step is to look at who you sell to and determine how many of them meet that profile.

· Are they solo entrepreneurs or corporations?

· Are they service or retail or manufacturing?

· Are they “b to b” or “b to c”?

· Are they government organizations or are they consulting companies?

· Are they international or they domestic?

· Are they all run by women or men?

· Are they for profit or non-profit organizations?

Once you've found the common thread that weaves together this "best of the best" customer list, use the same criteria when reviewing those who are in your prospect database. Dan Kennedy says, “Niche to get Rich.” If you are dealing with the same type of businesses your approach doesn’t always need modified, pitching and proposals are easier and the work goes more smoothly.

· If you have a sales force then you can sub niche. For instance you might divide your sales force accordingly

· To apply a tighter focus on targeting have them focus on sub niches.

To really make money, you need to niche market and
then niche your sales staff.

· One might focus on women business owners, another on non profits, a third on government organizations, get the picture.

· Each of your sales reps can have a different product and a different market, and then they can find ways to become specialists in one area.

A fan of Monday Morning Marketeer, Jim Loevner wrote in about how he got the job of desgining the Rosebud Coffee and Music Venue.

He says: “ In the Rosebud coffee and music venue job...not a very complicated story, really...and not sure how relevant for your peeps.

Buuuut...I assembled kind of a "thematic" package wherein I took a blank, new corrugated cardboard box (to match the Metropol people's industrial aesthetic) about 10" square...and filled it with coffee beans, sugar cubes and two vintage pink coffee mugs nestled within...along with my business card...tied it with jute string...and dropped it off in person for the owner, Robin Fernandez.

A day later, he called asking me to come down to speak with him and I won the job of designing Rosebud.

My outreach showed him that I ‘got’ where he wanted to go, stylistically. We'd made a connection. Clients want to know that you ‘get’ them, is what I'm saying, I suppose.”

This is a volunteered local example sent in to MondayMorningMarketeer. Can you figure out now why knowing who your best customer is might be helpful?

So how do you attract the attention of your ideal customers? In essence, find out where they hurt, or what keeps them awake at night. Most sales are emotionally based and the most powerful sales emotion is the avoidance of pain. Here are some things that may work for you:

· Focus on a specific geographic area

· Specific product

· Specific service offering

· Find the customers that you enjoy working with and that enjoy working with you.

· Determine your customer’s needs and concentrate on selling benefits that fulfill those needs.

Here are some other reasons for defining your best customers and your target market:

· For your business to succeed, it must have enough customers to buy the product or service offered.

· So you need to evaluate your potential customer base.

· Once you have figured out who your best customer, your target client is then you can customize your marketing messages and your products and services to those customers.

· Figure out whom you expect to be your most likely customers -- in other words, your target customers. Then tailor your marketing efforts, as well as your products and services, to those customers.

You can then tailor your products and services to better meet your customers' needs and desires
You can craft your marketing efforts to reach your most promising prospects.

· Besides, you can’t be everything to everyone and unlike some new entrepreneurs think. Defining a target market will not limit your business.

· Identifying target customers does not prevent your business from accepting customers that don't fit the target profile. If such a customer seeks your product or service, you will still be available. But you won’t waste your time promoting to suspects who will never become prospects.

· Defining a target market will save you time and money. Unless you have unlimited marketing resources, it's much more effective to focus your marketing efforts on potential customers who you have determined are likely to buy your product or service -- rather than wasting time and money on those who “might” become customers.

How to Define Your Target Market

In a nutshell, defining your target customers means identifying the specific characteristics of the people or businesses who you believe are most likely to buy your product or service. These characteristics are sometimes called a demographic profile. Common characteristics used to classify customers include:

· age

· gender

· income level

· buying habits

· occupation or industry

· marital status

· family status (children or no children)

· geographic location

· ethnic group

· political affiliations or leanings, and

· hobbies and interests.

Okay so now you are ready to create a marketing plan to reach your best client. Whether you use five or all fifty of the tips put forth in this blog, and there will be other tips in the upcoming E-book, you have at least figured out by doing some of the things suggested here, who you are marketing to, once you have figured out that you can work on a plan to design how.

Watch for upcoming E-book on this subject, “Choosing Your Customers, Marketing to Them for Life.”

Additional information at: info@mondaymorningmarketeer.com.

Expected release date September 1, 2011.

You can listen to a fifteen minute audio version similar to this blog at: MarketingPlanSeries: Designing a MarketingPlan for Your Best Customer

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:

Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeer

Blog: www.mondaymorningmarketeer.com

Or on its unique radio channel at:

www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com

Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.

Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mondaymorningmarketeer

Phone: 412-628-5048

MondayMorningMarketeer, The Folly of the Marketing Plan in Your Head or 7Things You Need to Know to Get Into Customer's Heads

2011-08-06T08:57:00.007-04:00

Hosted by: technogranny
Title: Monday Morning Marketeer-- Folly of the Marketing Plan
in Your Head

Or 7 Things You Need to Know to Get Into Customer’s Heads

Time: 02/07/2011 11:00 AM EST
Episode Notes: "My marketing plan is in my head, " you say.
Sure and so are the last two weeks, to do list! How many of those important, "to-dos" never
happened and what were the consequences. If there weren't any consequences, then you were just plain lucky or your "to-dos" just weren't that important.

There's a little more at stake with that marketing plan in your
head. The number one thing that you need "to-do" in your business is to market it. No matter how
sharp you think you are, please don't leave this important task
to your very fallible brain. Today on Monday Morning Marketeer, hear some tips to help you get
started. Listen to archive of this show at:

MondayMorningMarketeer, 7Things You Need to Know to Get
Into Customers Heads

It's in your head, now you have to get
it out on paper, a plan is no good
unless it's written.

I recently attended a No BS Marketing Meeting which I attend every month because it keeps me fresh with the things that I am doing. The moderator, Becky Ayres, asked how many people in the room of forty had a marketing plan. A few of us raised our hands and then a busieness owner in the back of the room said, she had one also but it was in her head! Wrong! Not only is this a really bad idea, it’s against biblical advice and that’s the best business guide I know of. Yes, I said it, the Bible is a great business guide. In the bible it says, “Write your vision on tablets.” I am not a biblical scholar just a follower and so I can’t tell you chapter and verse but I know that just like a contract keeps honest people honest, a business plan keeps a creative marketer on track. It’s only February, please don’t get to the end of the year analysis and remember all of the great marketing ideas that you had that you never implemented. Why? BECAUSE YOU NEVER WROTE THEM DOWN, SILLY! Am I yelling at you, yes I am!

One of the toughest marketing assignments is to write a marketing plan that is ambitious yet still attainable. Here are some simple things to do when you start your marketing plan.

Before starting on your written plan, you should answer the following questions:

1. What is the product or service you are selling?

Whatever widget you sell whether it be a service or a manufactured product, you need a plan to sell everything, and you need a segmented marketing message for each product. I do so many things that for a long time it was hard for people to understand what I really do, so I began segmenting my marketing for each of my products.

On that information highway you
have to have a division in your
marketing message to your
various segments of clients.

For instance if you are a consultant and you do public speaking, you have a book and you do billable hourly consulting but you also do group training, each of those is not only a tool to market you as a business/coach or consultant but also a product that needs promoted. So decide what it is you are selling, what levels you are selling it at, and how many different variations of the product you are selling.

2. Who is your market that will buy the product or service?

This is a tough one, let’s make a list for instance if I were to take this show and create information products who would I sell it to?

First of all, I would sell it to my current clients

Second, my listeners

If you think marketing is a game, then
learn to play chess, at least that's a
strategic game.

Third, others in the marketing business. Whoa, horse, you are saying, others in the marketing business? Absolutely, when you have information and if it’s not necessarily proprietary it is marketable to your competitors, maybe not the close ones, but if you make it public you can’t stop that but what about others nationally and internationally. It’s hard to keep that information private with the internet so you may as well make money on it.

Fourth, my blog readers

Fifth, attendees of my speaking engagements

Trade show attendees

Are you getting the picture?

3. What need does the above market have for your product or service?

Affordable marketing

Increasing their business

Becoming known as an authority

Getting internet visibility

Using social media to get their message out

4. What is the basic message that you would like to send to this market in regards to your product?

Don't let yourself be easy to miss, use
everything in your arsenal.

You are an authority at what you do or at creating what you sell

You have recommendations

You have endorsements

You have satisfied customers

You have a guarantee

On time, excellent quality

5. What is the best way of getting in contact with your projected market? (i.e.- T.V, Radio, Print, Online)

Where is your marketing dollar best spent

If you don’t have a budget then perhaps you need to learn as much as you can about online marketing and social media as you possibly can.

After answering the above questions you will ready to start on your marketing plan. When answering question five keep in mind your budget limitations as you do not want to set yourself up for committing too much money to advertising.

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:

© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2011, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048

Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeer

Blog: MondayMorningMarketeeer Blog

Or on its unique radio channel at:

www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com

Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.

Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mondaymorningmarketeer

Phone: 412-628-5048

5 Steps to Starting Your Marketing Plan

2011-08-04T18:52:00.005-04:00

Stickiness and sticky are ways to describe marketing ideas that create value in a visitor or user’s mind and keep them coming back for more. The concept of sticky marketing came from Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point“ “The Tipping Point” illustrates that products and services if presented right, and under the right circumstances, can be irresistible and sticky.

Your marketing plan needs to be both irresistible and sticky, not just to you. The old way of marketing was to create a product and then figure out a way to ram it down people’s throats, the new way is to niche your marketing to a particular group with a product that you have researched so they will buy it, utilize the presentation of good information to create trust and make sure that your message is crafted to your various audiences which may be diverse within your niche.

You can still finish the year strong with a
good third quarter marketing plan that
stretches into 2010.

As we approach the third quarter of the year, do you know what you want to accomplish in this last part of the year. The saying is, “fininish strong to start the new year even stronger.” So what do you plan to do in the third quarter to enhance what you did in the first quarter that will create a “sticky” marketing plan that will convert into customers and profit?

Please don’t tell me you want to do better, become more efficient, increase profits. If you have not quantified what you want to do and qualified how you are going to accomplish it, you quite simply have no plan.

You won't stress so much if you have a
great marketing plan in place!

Those serious about building a profitable enduring business understand the importance of planning. However, that’s not always the first thing on an entrepreneur’s agenda. But it should be. A famous general said, “If I had twenty four hours to save the world, I would use 23 hours to plan how to save it and one hour saving it.” Of course that’s a paraphrase. Crisis ensue, life happens and your planning time gets eaten away in the day to day grind of running your business. But, how much better and easier would your life be, if you put everything on hold and created a plan for your business and contingencies to deal with the emergencies and crises inherent in business and in life? Take the time to plan and I guarantee you will find a tremendously favorable answer to this question.d

So it’s the first, second or third quarter, what are you waiting for? An early plan, a late plan, any plan is better than no plan. You probably have heard before that no marketing plan is a plan to fail at marketing your business for profit. So here are five steps to kick you into high gear and help you develop a marketing plan that will generate results for your business

You can get there from here with
a map, your MARKETING PLAN!

I. Start with Goals
Before you can put a plan in action,

need to know which direction you’re

headed. Although this may seem like an

obvious step, it can be often overlookeTake the time to write down specific, measureable goals for your business. Start with the larger goal in mind. Then, take it down into bite-sized chunks and look at what benchmarks you need to achieve on a monthly basis to accomplish the overall goal.

Not only will this exercise help you determine the best marketing strategy, but it will help hold you accountable along the way.

I will share with you my plan for Monday Morning Marketeer as an example.

Example: My Goals for last quarter of 2011:

A. Garner 5,000 additional listeners for my radio shows and one weekly sponsor

Breaking this down I need more listeners and better Seach Results to attract sponsors

So these are the steps to get the listeners:

1. Bulid a Facebook Fanpage and start promoting it

2. Put together synopsis for a book on marketing

3. Began writing portions of that book on a regular basis

4. List MondayMorningMarketeer on additional internet radio directories

5. Update my blog

6. Ask people to follow my blog

B. To diversify products and add new ones that will augment my online platform and my business

Bite size planning for this:

1. Create or secure speaking engagements

2. Videotape these presentations

3. Turn them into online and DVD products

4. Create Click bank Storefront to sell these

5. Sell these on my website, blog and Facebook page

C. To create more stable income with diversification

Bite size again:

1. Secure paid sponsors for Monday Morning Marketeer, both synergistis and non competitive

2. Set up affiliate marketing for my products to have others sell them

3. Find viable products of others and create residual income by becoming an affiliate of theirs

4. Secure paid speaking engagements

D. To increase my list and sphere of influence

Bite size again with some cross over points

1. apply for awards for excellence in the online marketing field

2. Use social media such as LinkedIn Groups and LinkedIn Answers

3. Upgrade my tweets and create relationships with followers that I already have

4. Promote Facebook Fanpage

E. To keep my online identity fresh

1. Weekly Monday Morning Marketeer Show

2. Weekly Monday Morning Marketeer Blog

3. Nooks on series topics from Monday Morning Marketeer

Okay now believe it or not I just set up my third quarter goals and how to get there while writing this blog. See how easy it is?

II. Look in the Mirror
The best marketing strategies in the world can’t help a business that doesn’t have a killer product or service. Before you do anything else, make sure you’ve got something spectacular to offer your customers.

Get your ideas for marketing from
friends, family, customers.

If you’re not sure about the answers, talk to your employees and your customers. Getting their honest feedback will likely highlight some ways you can improve your offerings and make your business shine.

Monday Morning Marketeer –Comment

These are some tactics that I employed with my overall company, Dreamweaver Marketing Associates Plan:

I looked at my editorial calendar and how I could beef up my calendar for all of my internet radio shows:

TechnoGrannyShow

PositivelyPittsburghLive

Monday Morning Marketeer

Professionals with Impact

III. Master the Basics
There are a couple of marketing basics that are so essential, it’s like baby formula and changing diapers. Branding and a websites fall into that category. If you want to move the needle for your business this year, you must have these in place. Figure out what your brand is, it is a company identity, a particular product or is it you. It took me a long time to figure out that all of my brands were rolled into my personal braning—me, Joanne Quinn-Smith, the TechnoGranny, SBA Journalist of the Year. Figure out where you are on this, ask you clients, friends and yes, employees what they thing the core of your brand is.

This is More than just a logo, a brand is the personality of your business. In other words, your brand communicates who you are and what makes you different from the competition. If you haven’t nailed down your brand message, now is the time. Don’t wait another year to get this right.

In today’s digital world, an amateur website just won’t cut it anymore. A well-written, user-friendly website is a must for businesses. In a world that’s constantly competing for eyeballs, make sure your site hits the mark and doesn’t leave them quickly moving on to the next one.

Okay now I am going to give you another example this is my methodology for promoting the identity of my PositivelyPittsburghLiveMagazine.com, Pittsburgh internet radio and TV network.

Because this is an online brand I decided to:

Promote the business by increased Internet marketing by

A. Positively Pittsburgh News Broadcast

Send out blast on Monday

B. Roving Pittsburgh Report...

1. Set up website

2. Get free tickets/ dinner

3. Monthly Video Contest

4. Send out blast on Tuesday

C. Post Script PPL .

Send Post Script blast out on WednesdayI call it the Best of Pittsburgh & Techno Granny

D. Positively Pittsburgh Live Perks

Send out blast on Thursday

5. Positively Pittsburgh Techno Granny Post Script

Hope this helps you to figure out what to do with your brand.

IV. Turn up the volume
Social media is definitely the new kid on the block. But before you rush off to sign up for a Twitter account, take a look at your current marketing efforts and determine what is working well for you.

For instance, if word of mouth is your top business generator, build a referral strategy that rewards your biggest fans for spreading the word. Or, if your email list responds well to your campaigns, look for ways to grow your list by encouraging your readers to share it with their friends.

Whatever it is, continue to focus your energy in this area and look for ways to amplify it.
Oftentimes, the most profitable marketing effort we can employ is by taking a strategy that is working really well and turning up the volume.

If you have a mobile phone use down time to communicate on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, even Sprouter and what I am doing now in New Media, TalkShoe, also Blogger.

I have Ning Network for Positive Pittsburghers and two Sundays ago sent out 1700 invitations to join.

The reward is always in the stretch
and the reward of a good marketing
plan is increased revenue!

V. Stretch yourself
Once you’ve hammered out ways to improve already successful strategies, you can begin to venture into uncharted territory. Social media is the considered marketing frontier for small business and it can be a great way to engage customers, generate leads and provide customer service.

But, before you take the plunge, do your research. Determine what you want to accomplish through social media. Find out where your customers hang out and look at what is working well for other businesses in your niche. A misguided social media effort will suck up a lot of time and produce little in return.

My goals:

Additional listeners

Additional visibility

Give out good information to create credibility

Build relationships to increase customers

Follow these simple steps in beginning your marketing plan and your reward will be seen in the return on investment of your time and effort by increased visibility and credibility. Later we will discuss converting all of this new found notoriety to cash.
Watch for the next in a series on Marketing Plans: "The Folly of the Marketing Plan in Your Head."

This blog is an adaptation of this live show at he beginning of 2011. Listen at:wwwpittsburghlivemagazine.com/broadcast.php?IdChan=3&IdItem=8.positively

Hosted by: technogranny
Title: Monday Morning Marketeer, How to Start Your Marketing Plan for 2011

Time: 01/24/2011 11:00 AM EST
Episode Notes: You never thought of doing a marketing plan for the year, shame on you! It's not too late. The snow has not thawed yet and guaranteed you will still have a few days where you do not feel like going out of the house, so let's get started with the basics, where do you start? And how do you make it sticky? Or how do you make sure that it is something you can and will follow?

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:

Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeer

Blog: MondayMorningMarketeeer Blog

Or on its unique radio channel at:

www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com

Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.

Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mondaymorningmarketeer

Phone: 412-628-5048

MondayMorningMarketeer, Six Trade Show Tips to Cultivate Internal Enthusiasm

2011-06-26T18:53:00.003-04:00

Monday Morning Marketeer, Trade Show Tips, Cultivate Internal Enthusiasm

Episode Notes: On my refrigerator is a hand made sign in a magnetic placard that says," Enthusiasm" This is not a once a day or once a week proposition. A millionaire network marketer, Dexter Yeager, said, "nothing happens until someone gets excited." Enthusiasm, excitement, these are things your exhibit personnel at trade shows must exude. But it's not something you can cultivate of a day or several hours during the trade show, it's a day to day, week, by week, hour by hour propositon. Developing an Enthusiastic Culture in and outside the workplace is not just a week before campaign, it’s a day to day, lifetime of your business proposition.

Listen to the Live Show at: http://www.positivelypittsburghlivemagazine.com/broadcast.php?IdChan=3&IdItem=11

Dale Carnegie, author of the classic book "How to Win Friends and Influence People," once said, "Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic."

3rd Annual NAWBO Day Program Cover,
What a Title for a Trade Show Conference!

1. You are the People You Associate With

Surround yourself with positive people. Optimism can be contagious. Gather up a team of happy-go-lucky, energetic people who will feed into your self-esteem and create some infectious positive energy. Ask your employees how you can boost morale. Get some input. Make the morale of your employees a priority everyday just not before and during a trade show.

Have a contest and if it’s just you, have your own contest and reward yourself for how much you get done.

Greet your employees every day with a smile and anticipate them smiling back.

2. Action Cures Eveyrhing

Get busy on a new project or tackle a big obstacle. There's no better way to breathe energy into a stale state than to start something new and exciting.

Seek out things that you and your company and employees are genuinely enthusiastic about.

What are the great things about your company?

For an example, an associate of mine was introducing herself as Five Time Past President of the Greater Pittsburgh Chatper of National Association of Women Business Owners. I asked her how much money she had helped to raise for small business owners and she then realized it was over forty million dollars. She got excited about that. She now introduces herself as a thirty year veteran business consultant who has helped to raise over forty million dollars in difficult loans for small businesses.

When analyzing my results as an internet TalkCast host I calculated that I had accumulated over 500,000 unique listeners nationally and internationally. I have also established the FIRST Pittsburgh Internt Radio and TV Network, PositivelyPittsburghLiveMagazine.com

A client Sanna Carapellotti put a former Super Bowl Champion Steeler to Sleep with her Sleep CD. When you can put a Super Bowl Champion to sleep with a voice CD, that’s something to get excited about. Everyone knows that better athletes need better sleed.

Don’t just put these things into your brochures but on your lips and the lips of your employees. Remember the apple does not fall far from the tree, what you are excited about your employees and customers will be too. Excitement is contagious.

3. Garbage In, Garbage Out

There are only so many ways to say one thing and countless motivational authors probably starting with “As a Man Thinketh, So Is He” promote the adage that: YOU BECOME WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THE MOST.

So send yourself and your employees a Thought for The Day

Make it mandatory to read something positive every day, Great Book, “Attitude Determines Altitude.”

Don’t like the menu in the cafeteria today, try to find something about it to be enthusiastic about. Even if it’s just that it’s hot and you don’t have to go out for it.
· Are you sitting next to a person you absolutely can’t stand? Use this time to get to know them better, you might have some common ground you did not know about.
· Yes, there is a downturn in the commodity and your competitors may be folding up, find the opportunity here.
· Need to cut costs, ask your employees to help you figure out a way to do that without letting anyone go.
· Here’s one for you, give an award for the employee who smiles the most both in front of customers and other employees. Let the other employees vote, bet you will automatically have a more enthusiastic environment. Great practice by the way for a trade show if they are doing it all the time.

4. Without Purpose You are a Ship Without a Sail

What is the purpose of your business, not just the profit motive.

For instance I help people “Get Their Google On!” I help people get found on the internet and they can afford to pay me, although I am not cheap, because of what I teach them to do for free and more effectively.

A Landscaper might be Beautifying America One Yard at a Time

Esspa Kozmetika in Aspinwall, Pa answers the phone, “How can I make your day a little better?”

5. Know What You Stand For

A great quote: “If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.” Eleanor Roosevelt

What do you stand for?

What’s your perspective, if it’s just to make money, then make it fast, sell the business and GET OUT!

Perspective is important to have a truly successful business. Both you and your employees need to know why you are in business. Does each employee know your mission statement? Before they go to a trade show, they should.

6. Transfer the Enthusiasm

So now you are saying, what does all of this have to do with a trade show. Well I guess what I am saying is if you don’t have these five things in place then SAVE YOUR MONEY. Don’t go until you do your homework. But if you are ready then don’t go without a promotion whether it is a really good deal or a great giveaway but Let Your Call To Action for Your Customer be YOUR PATH TO BETTER AND MORE BUSINESS. Do not go to trade show without a promotion about which you are absolutely excited that even the competition will have to get excited about and say, “Now Why Didn’t I think of that?”

Next time, what to give away at a Trade Show.

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:

Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeer

Blog: www.mondaymorningmarketeer.com

Or on its unique radio channel at:

www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com

Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.

Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mondaymorningmarketeer

Phone: 412-628-5048

8 Power Tips to Maximize Returns on Trade Shows

2011-06-25T09:10:00.000-04:00

8 Power Tips to Maximize Returns on Trade Shows

2nd Part in an 8 Part Series on Trade Shows and how to maximize the benefits of working the show. Why spend your money without an expectation of results? Next week Third topic in the series, Cultivate an Internal Attitude of Enthusiasm

Smiling NAWBO Board Members Modelling St. John Reseale Items
at 2nd Annual NAWBO Day, photo compliments of BlackTie-Pittsburgh

Listen to the audio version of this show at: http://www.positivelypittsburghlivemagazine.com/player.php?IdChan=3&IdItem=12

Why spend your money without an expectation of results? Record who you met, what their interest level was, where are they in the sales pipeline. This means giving something away to collect business cards and also FOLLOWING UP! What is your expected Return on Investment ? Have you thought about how you will track this? Just going for branding purposes is not sufficient any more.

1. What are your goals in attending and exhibiting?

· Do you just want to add to your list that you can market to?

· Are you looking to create relationships with potential clients?

· Do you want to set up appointments to get eyeballs on your presentation?

· Are you looking or realtime demos at the trade show?

· Are you looking for on site sales?

· How many active leads do you want to put into the pipeline

· How many names do you want to add to your e-mail list to keep in touch with?

2. Rehearse with your representatives ahead of time, do a little role playing, make sure they know what you are promoting, how to promote it and that they have some passion about what you are doing. I personally are very turned off by some interns or entry level representatives that say, “Our manager handles that, if you will give me your card, I will have them get back to you.” All representatives are not always going to know everything but they should know a good bit. Also teach them to say, “That’s a very good question, but I want to make sure that I give you the best answer, can I get back to you on that?”

3. Role playing is always good so that you staff is prepared in advance for these scenarios:

· engaging prospects on the show floor.

· How to handle your qualified leads,

· How to move those along who are not a good fit.

· Make things fun so that your staff will be light hearted and confident at the event.

· Teach them how to deal with a fumble ahead of time and get back on their feet.

· How to answer objections

· How to better interact with other team members

4. Some questions to ask yourself with regard to your staff:

· What is each staff member responsible for? Do they know their job for that day?

· You spent money on this trade show. Does your staff understand this is not a fun trip or just a day out of the office?

· Does your staff understand what is expected of them?

· You might think about giving them a trade show tip sheet or mini instruction page.

5. Reward those who exhibit for you at the Trade Show. Some ideas of actions that should cull rewards:

· Appointments set up

· Decision Maker Info

· Referrals

· Follow Up Request

Prizes.

Create a sales contest for closed sales or leads gained.

Ok, maybe you don’t have the budget to give away a Mercedes Benz or dinner at a five star restauarant but something that will get your reps attention and keep them focused on your goals for the show. It could be a gift card to a nice restaurant or retailer, a paid day off, or maybe a round of golf! You can have a winner for each day and/or an overall winner for the entire show. Creating competition amongst your staff to drive results is an excellent way to motivate the team.

6. Some tips for better staff involvement:

· Discuss your expectations in terms of gaining new leads and closing sales. Get everyone on the same page for a rating system for your leads to help everyone understand where the leads are in the pipeline.

· Set goals with your staff and get their commitment to reach these goals. Cover housekeeping rules such as being on time, on your feet, not eating in the booth, and the use of personal mobile phones in the booth.

· If mobile marketing is part of your show promotions this may be acceptable but obviously this is not the time for personal business.

· It is an exciting and fun time but it’s definitely not a vacation!

7. Connect your Leads to Performance. Some sales people confuse activity with retuslts. Once you get these leads into your pipeline. Track what happens to them, how many follow ups do you have scheduled, who wants additional information, how many sales were made, how many referrals did you get from the original leads.

8. Follow Up and Follow Through

Plan ahead of time how you will divide the leads. Address the distribution of leads after the show. Make sure you are up front with your crew about how leads will be allocated. Is it the top seller that day, does everyone keep the business cards they collect? If you are using a scanner, then you really need to have a plan for allocation ahead of time. Whether it’s based on their performance at the show or some other metrics make sure everyone is clear so there is no dissension amongst the ranks.

Be the First One to Be Accountable. Why would you take your team to a show and then not follow up with them later to see how they are helping you to get a return on your investment. Check with your team on how your new prospects are moving through the pipeline. Don’t micromanage but let them know that you’re there to lend your expertise to help move them from prospect to client! It may be that a team member can benefit from your seasoned talents. What benefits them in making a sale, benefits you. The first step in accountability is the boss’s accountablility to her staff.

What are some of your tips that you have used at a recent trade show? Please comment here.

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:

Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeer

Blog: http://mondaymorningmarketeer.com

Or on its unique radio channel at:

www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com

Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.

Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mondaymorningmarketeer

Phone: 412-628-5048

Monday Morning Marketeer, Five Musts for Trade Shows to Put Your Best Food Forward

2011-06-23T23:44:00.001-04:00

Hosted by: technogranny
Title: Monday Morning Marketeer, Five Musts for Trade Shows to Put Your Best Food Forward

Time: 11/01/2010 11:00 AM EDT Listen to the archived show at: http://www.positivelypittsburghlivemagazine.com/player.php?IdChan=3&IdItem=13
Episode Notes: The Bare minimum five things that you need when spending your already strapped budget to attend a trade show. Don't leave home without them or you might as well throw the money you spent on the show out the window of an expressway going seventy miles an hour.

1. Take your best people

Don’t send out the second string if at all possible. Remember for most prospects, this is their first contact with your company, their thirty second impression so to speak. Why waste your money sending in second or third string or interns. They will be little better than window dressing and probably not as attractive as store mannequins.

2. Have information about your product or service

My flier for Techno Granny, free stuff, and premium service

Always let them know, “what else you do”

Samples of “what else you do”

NAWBO Day program

Make sure you have an offer, TODAY ONLY, two week deadline, they will forget about you after that.

3. Have something for free to attract people to your booth or table

Demonstration: blood pressure scan, how to use quickbooks, 5 minute massage, galvanic spa treatment, chocolate dipped marshmallows that you dip yourself in the chocolate fountain as pictured here.

If you are selling jewelry have another vendor wear it at their booth and direct traffic to you

Candy is okay and you hope you can pitch them but if you can afford it a free ad specialty that will get them thinking about your business is a much better option.

Stress balls work great for alternative health or yoga practitioners.

Unique ad specialties can be found for your particular business, just google them or find an advertising specialty person in your area who will get to know your business and watch for unique items that help with your branding.

Computers, screen cleaner or canned air are great items because they are always used and most people don’t think to buy them.

Organizer, binder to keep all of your ad stuff in that you got at the conference

Business card holder for all of their conference cards that has your name on it

Pens are cheap and great but make sure that you get the kind that won’t dry up or leak, remember they are representing your business.

“How to Give Away” if you have no money, then follow up later, did you use my” how to.” This will only cost you your time to write it and then print it.

On the follow up call, you can ask, “Is there any way I can I help you?”

4. Have a way to capture contacts—give away

Give away something they will want, could be one of your products, make sure it is something you can upsell if you do that.

Make sure you get referrals out of it

5. Always work the front of the table not the back, from the back you are like the sales girl that seems like she really doesn’t want to come out from behind the counter to assist you.

6. Enthusiasm and excitement is contagious. Always be excited about your business. Remember, nothing happens until someone gets excited and it has to start with you.

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:

Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeer

Blog: MondayMorningMarketeeer Blog

Or on its unique radio channel at:

www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com

Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.

Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mondaymorningmarketeer

Phone: 412-628-5048