If You Want to Be Heard, Be Real

Social networking platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have been a boon to both individuals and businesses that are seeking ways to strengthen their brand image and expand their market reach. However, the challenge for most is how to be heard above the noise.

When you consider that we’re bombarded by 3,500 to 4,000 messages per day from a variety of media sources, including social networking sites, how can we realistically hope to connect with the intended audience in meaningful ways so our message is heard?

In my opinion, there are three important ingredients to include if you want to develop a stronger online reputation and expand your target audience: Continue reading…

Want to Win a New Ferrari?

Want to win a new Ferrari? Guess what, me too, but this blog article has absolutely nothing to do with winning a new Ferrari. It does, however, have everything to do with driving more business to your front door!

This article is about the “power of the pen” or more to the point, the power of a well written headline and/or subject line to attract the reader’s attention and help improve your business results. In order to capture the reader’s attention the headline and related sub-text needs to draw them to the copy, so a connection is made that will motivate prospective buyers to purchase your product or service offer.

Ferrari Image

One of the most effective ways to do this is through the use of what I commonly refer to as “magic” or trigger words and phrases that grab the prospective buyer’s attention. Continue reading…

Do First Impressions Still Matter?

We have all heard the old adage many times over that, “You only get one chance to make a good first impression”. But does this really apply in business today?

This past Saturday I had the opportunity to speak to members of a national association at their annual conference on the topic of “How to Improve Your 30-Second Elevator Pitch”. One of the questions I asked the participants’ was “in a networking group setting today, do first impressions still matter?” Continue reading…

Business Survival Checklist

All business owners are looking for ways to improve top-line revenues, reduce expenses and increase profits in order to grow their respective businesses. However, the troubling economy and other factors have forced many of these same business owners to replace the word “grow” with the word “survive”.

The majority of business owner’s I have met with in the past all responded with the same answer when I have asked them, “what is the one thing that is critical to your business success”. The simple answer is “more customers”. More profitable customers are the life-blood for any viable business.

Every successful business has or should have a universal checklist of the things that are central to acquiring new customers, growth and yes, survival.

Here is the list of ten things that I believe should be included in your Business Survival Checklist:

  1. Business/Marketing/Financial Roadmap. What are your existing plans to deliver maximum ROI performance in the next 12-24 months, 3-5 years, 5-10 years and 10+ years? The roadmap for your business, at a minimum, should address the next two fiscal years. Don’t be too optimistic – it is much better to over-deliver on your projections than to fall short. Continue reading…

Social Media – What Is It?

Matt Krautstrunk wrote an article on social media recently titled “Where Is The ROI In Social Media?”. In the article he makes a great point that tracking ROI depends on your goals, and this certainly can apply  to almost anything in business. However, before you can establish clear-cut goals and track the ROI of social media, you first need to define it.

Social Media – what is it? It’s hard to talk about tracking the ROI of social media until you know what “it” is.

To help you define what social media is so it does not end up being “Golden Vaporware” where your business is concerned, start out with some limited trials and experimentation first, before launching any large-scale projects. From the initial trial results, you can make a determination on how to proceed and then develop specific goals and plans, before committing a lot of additional time, resources and budget.

Below are several questions to consider. The answers should help you define social media in the context of your business. Is “it” a (an) … Continue reading…

What Differentiated Value Is Really About

Recently, I had the privilege to moderate a Focus Small Business Roundtable: Strategies to Achieve Business Success. The Focus Expert Roundtable members included Mirna Bard, Jill Konrath and John Spence who all offered their insights on a variety of relevant subjects that I have summarized into a single topic for the purposes of this 5+ minute video.

 

 

 

I sincerely hope that you find this video to be informative and useful in addressing some of the daily challenges you encounter in successfully growing your business or practice. If so, please feel free to share this information with others.

Enjoy the journey!

John

 

COPYRIGHT © 2011 John Carroll

New 4Ps of Marketing: Part 3 of 4

Part 3 of the new 4Ps of Marketing focuses on Perception. Perception is the process by which people select, organize, and interpret information.  And therein lies the major obstacle for most companies when attempting to market to a broad, diverse audience.

What does your branding, advertising and marketing communicate about your company and your industry? The market perception of your brand or industry is extremely important, which is why industry leaders take extra steps to ensure that the general perception of them and their industry is positive.

To become a recognized leader in any industry you must develop a strong brand image, while building credibility and trust with consumers, particularly when faced with adversity. Example: Toyota and how they admirably responded to resolve the recent gas pedal recall problem and quickly restored consumer confidence.

Continue reading…

New 4Ps of Marketing: Part 2 of 4

Part 2 of the new 4Ps of Marketing focuses on Promotion, the only carry-over from the original 4Ps of Marketing, but with a twist. Promotion in today’s marketing emphasizes education and information much more to distinguish your brand and differentiate your product or service from competitive offers.

 

As you have experienced first hand, there numerous ways to advertise and promote your product or service depending on the media you select. Marketing companies, for example, rely heavily on Internet advertisement, special events, endorsements, and newspapers to advertise and promote their products and services.

The key question for any small business is where and how to cost effectively get across your marketing messages to your target market? For your small business, will you reach your target audience by TV, or radio, or on billboards? What about direct marketing, flyers, door hangers, or on the Internet? Those are a few of the more common advertising and media choices to consider to help you get the word out. Continue reading…

New 4Ps of Marketing: Part 1 of 4

In the past, the 4Ps of Marketing were most commonly defined in terms of Product, Price, Place (or Placement) and Promotion. However, a lot has changed since the original 4Ps were adopted, as a direct result of continued shifts in consumer buying habits, online shopping, social media, etc.

Randy Vaughn’s (Marketing Twins) definition for today’s marketing, “Getting people with a specific need or problem to know, like and trust you”, clearly reflects how much marketing and consumerism have changed over the years. Marketing in this new era has a lot less to do with product, price and place, and much more to do with people and other elements that influence buyer behavior to be covered in this 4-part article. Continue reading…

Are My Lips Moving … ?

Are my lips moving and no sounds coming out? That’s a question I am sure most of us have asked ourselves from time to time in attempting to communicate both verbally and in written form with our intended audience.

At times it can be hard to determine if your message is getting through all the noise, particularly when you consider that your prospects are flooded with more than 4,000 messages a day from various media sources.

So, how do you get your voice heard above the noise of the crowd? Continue reading…