Lions, and Tigers, And Bears -- Oh My!

"Lions and Tigers and Bears - Oh My!"

Dorothy in the Land of Oz

"The Web, Social and Email Marketing -Oh My!"

Today's Business Owners

 

I know it seems overwhelming and downright scary, but for your marketing to start working you have to embrace and connect with prospects and customers on their terms. And today that is changing fast.

You have to make a decision that you need professional help. The cost of updating and maintaining your marketing programs will need to include this professional in the future.

In the past, (and maybe now) we spent money on Yellow Pages, direct mail, advertising firms, etc. What was the return on your Yellow Page costs? Now we have to budget some of that money on the professional web development companies to maximize our return on our marketing investment.

Website

Having a website doesn't cut it anymore. That's simply "table stakes". Your Website must :

1. Quickly communicate your Value Proposition and contain "Offers" that will get prospects to "raise their hands and ask for it". Inbound Marketing will provide prospects you can nurture over time.
2. Be Mobile formatted - 50% of adults own smart phones and your customers and prospects are using them for search and emails more and more every day. By 2014, mobile will be the "first screen" (i.e. overtake PC's as the vehicle to work online).
3. Search Engine Optimization - SEO - a must to maximize your exposure and drive people to your site and offers.
4. Local searches - Google Places and others that have set up websites for you but need to be populated, reviews and SEO performed to get you at the top of the lists.

Social Media

1. Facebook, YouTube, Linked In - you need to establish a presence and work these sites and to have a dialogue with your customers and build a "tribe". They also need to be part of your Website.  

Email Marketing, Blogging

1. Set up an account with an email marketing site like Constant Contact and begin to nurture both leads and customers with good non-selling information (content). You need to be sending out these short informational/educational TIPS (text and /or video) on a regular basis to build trust and be in prospects minds when they finally make a decision to buy. Mobile-formatted, of course.
2. Auto Responder - a site like Aweber can be used to take all new prospects/leads and put them automatically into a database and send out your TIPS in sequence to these new leads as they come on board.

I know you are saying "I don't know how to do all of this and I don't have the time to learn". It can't be done all at once. It has to be done a few hours every week and I really think you need to retain a professional web company that understands all of the above to do the heavy lifting.

You need to start with profiling your Ideal Customer/Prospect and writing down your Value Proposition. Then you can bring the content and messaging to the table and make sure you are delivering it in a way that maximizes your reach. (Click here for the recorded Webinar Marketing 2.0.)

Simple Facts about the world we live in:  

(An Excerpt from "The Professional Tradesman") 

• Mobile will be the "first screen" for all Web usage sometime between 2013-2015 (Gartner/Morgan Stanley) - which means mobile devices will finally overtake PCs
• 5.3 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide (ITU) - more than the combined penetration of PCs, landlines and TVs
• 50% of American adults own a smartphone as of February 2012 (CTIA)
• 29% of US adults own a tablet/eReader as of January 2012 (Pew Research Center)

There also continues to be tremendous growth in pretty much all aspects of mobile marketing tactics:

• Revenues from mobile apps will reach $46B by 2016 (ABI Research)
• Mobile video views increased 958% from Q2 2011 to Q1 2012 (Millennial Media Study)
• 20 million QR code scans were recorded alone in Q3 2011 - a 440% increases year-over-year (ScanLife)
• Almost 40 million US mobile users access social media sites daily (comScore)

Here are two simple steps to help get you started with mobile marketing:

1. Optimize for Mobile - make sure all of your Web content is "optimized" for the mobile environment; look-and-feel for smaller size requirements (e.g. easy to read text; no Flash; images that load quickly); but you also have to make sure your content is transformed into: quick answers, bite-sized units (e.g. 100-200 words) and easy-to-digest formats (e.g. audio podcasts and/or video)
2. Integrate - before you run out and develop a completely separate mobile marketing strategy and plan, take a look at your existing marketing programs and determine how you can start integrating mobile components; such as QR codes on print or collateral pieces or optimized e-newsletters so they are legible on mobile devices

I think it is fair to say that "mobile" is certainly here to stay, so make sure it is part of your overall marketing program moving forward.

Don't Send Your Ducks to Eagle School

"The most important choice you make is what you choose to make important."

- Michael Neill

People are the most important ingredient of a company's success. Why don't we show "C Level" people the door? Why don't we take the time to really recruit and hire the best? We know right down to our core that one bad apple spoils the lot. We know it costs too much to make bad hires.

Like any other problem in your business there are best practices and processes to recruit and hire great people. It is a choice we make to first learn and then focus actions on the process.

I love Jim Rohn's take on it.

Don't Send Your Ducks to Eagle School

by Jim Rohn

The first rule of management is this: don't send your ducks to eagle school. Why? Because it won't work. Good people are found, not changed. They can change themselves, but you can't change them. If you want good people, you have to find them. If you want motivated people, you have to find them, not motivate them.

I picked up a magazine not long ago in New York that had a full-page ad in it for a hotel chain. The first line of the ad read, "We do not teach our people to be nice." Now that got my attention. The second line said, "We hire nice people." I thought, "what a clever shortcut!"

Motivation is a mystery. Why are some people motivated and some are not? Why does one salesperson see his first prospect at seven in the morning while the other sees his first prospect at eleven in the morning? Why would one start at seven and the other start at eleven? I don't know. Call it "mysteries of the mind."         

I give lectures to a thousand people at a time. One walks out and says, 'I'm going to change my life." Another walks out with a yawn and says, "I've heard all this stuff before." Why is that?

The wealthy man says to a thousand people, "I read this book, and it started me on the road to wealth." Guess how many of the thousand go out and get the book? Answer: very few. Isn't that incredible? Why wouldn't everyone go get the book? Mysteries of the mind...

To one person, you have to say, "You'd better slow down. You can't work that many hours, do that many things, go, go, go. You're going to have a heart attack and die." And to another person, you have to say, "When are you going to get off the couch?" What is the difference? Why wouldn't everyone strive to be wealthy and happy?

Chalk it up to mysteries of the mind and don't waste your time trying to turn ducks into eagles. Hire people who already have the motivation and drive to be eagles and then just let them soar.

All the best,

Rick Wallace

For more articles, audios and videos on small business issues, check out more articles on our website.  

Focus Until You Finish

"Rick is the catalyst that came in and got me focused on the Right Things and numbers. I had a good company but I was stressed out and always reacting. He got me focused, provided a system to ensure we "focused until we finished things" and the results are a doubling of sales and profits and a lot less stress. This is fun again."

- Keith Koetting , Owner North Texas Sales and Distribution

The best coaches in the world have a simple formula. They want to see numbers. They look at what activities created those numbers.They figure out what needs to be done to hit more of those numbers. They teach people to focus on what needs to be done.

It sounds painfully simple, but most people don't do it. They focus on other things, almost at random. They focus on other people. They focus on what other people think of them.They focus on their problems. They focus on their self-doubts. They do not focus on what needs to be done.

People failing at work do the same thing. If I'm feeling guilt or anxiety or anything unpleasant, I then focus on what might change this feeling. A chat with a friend?

A visit to an entertaining web site? A trip to the coffee and cookie room? An angry, lengthy email to some other department in the company? Just to get this feeling off of my chest? How about an early movie in the name of going "into the field" for the rest of the day?

After a long enough period of doing these mood-altering activities, I think something is wrong. I need some special new training to sell more. Maybe someone can come in and teach me Active Cognitive Control! Maybe they have treatment centers for chronic under-achievers. Or, even better, government programs.

They probably will someday. But the best ones will end up teaching you what you already knew at age six. If you want something, focus on it. Focus on it until you get it.

Best life,
Steve Chandler

For more articles, audios and videos on small business issues, check out more articles on our website.  

Finding Passion In Your Work

   

Ask yourself: If you could do anything for 8 hours a day for the rest of your life, and money were no object, what would you do?  

I've told audiences and clients this many times over the last 4 years. I found myself, even as an executive in a great company with great people and great products, burned out and doing the same thing every day. I may have spent 10% of my time doing something I had a passion for, something where I thought I was adding value, something that was fun.  

I was in a position where I could let my boss know that and was replaced a few months later. Yes I could have gone and found another job like the one I had, and yes I fortunately had built up enough wealth to "do what I wanted to do" without worrying about the money.

However, it still took me time and a Coach (Steve Chandler) to decide what I really loved to do, what I had a passion for and then how to ensure that whatever new project I worked on going forward would allow me to spend 90-100% of my day doing something that I was passionate about. My WHY, my Core Purpose.

Mine? "Helping people exceed their expectations and reach their dreams." HOW? By learning, sharing the learning and creative problem solving. And where could I pursue those passions ----- Coaching.     

  

I love it, I'm passionate about it, and think I bring value to it. (And yes, after 4 years I'm earning as much as I did before.)

I know you may be saying to yourself "well I cannot afford to quit and do what I love. You and all these other people (below) had money, little responsibility and could just pursue their passions and core purpose."

Sometimes that comes as a tradeoff for pay, but spending 1/2 your waking hours doing something you love is often well worth it. And I'm convinced that the people who are best at what they do tend to be the ones that love it the most.

Here's the rub. If I had stopped and really thought about my Why (my core purpose) and the things I loved to do (my How), I could have found a way to pursue them 70-80% of my time in my old job. I just did not "know", consciously think about, and do my How each day. I could have found ways to do the things I loved to do and helped my team and the company "exceed expectations and reach their dreams." I could have learned, shared the learning and solved problems creatively in that position. I could have coached, instead of managed.  

You may be able to do that too. But first you need to understand, write it down and begin to pursue your Why and How.  

I'm not saying anything loads of great thinkers haven't already said. But sometimes it's important to remind ourselves why we're doing what we're doing, what do we really love to do and to take inventory of our dreams.

Below are some great quotes about this subject. Most of these people started with little and pursued their Why - their Core Purpose- and their success was because of it. Not the other way around.

"Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

  

   

"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."  - Theodore Roosevelt

 

"Hard work is painful when life is devoid of purpose. But when you live for something greater than yourself and the gratification of your own ego, then hard work becomes a labor of love." - Steve Pavlina

   

"Never work just for money or for power. They won't save your soul or help you sleep at night." - Marian Wright Edelman

   

"Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming." - John R. Wooden

"Dream big and dare to fail." - Norman Vaughan

 

"Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs." - Farrah Gray

 

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." - George Eliot

 

"Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears." - Les Brown

 

And in case you're a procrastinator like me, a bonus quote:

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now." - Chinese Proverb 

   

Rick Wallace

"Helping people exceed their expectations"

8 Keys to Entrepreneurial Success

When did you know IBM would become a colossus?

"The first day, I had a very clear picture of what the company would look like when it was finally done. I realized that for IBM to become a great company it would have to act like a great company long before it ever became one."

- Thomas Watson, Founder IBM

Barbara Corcoran took $1,000 and built a Real Estate company in New York that she sold for $60 million. She is one of the Sharks (VC investors) on the TV show Shark Tank. Here are her 8 Keys to success:

1. Baloney - power of information marketing
2. Demand - how to create it
3. Opportunity - expand before you're ready
4. Turnover - shoot the dogs early
5. People - expanders and containers
6. Gold - recognition is better than money
7. Culture - Fun works
8. Courage - you are worthy

Click here to watch her discuss each in detail.

For more articles, audios and videos on small business issues, check out more articles on our website.  

  

Rick Wallace

"Helping people exceed their expectations"