The 5 Social Media Tools Small Businesses Need Right Now

Amber MacArthur

Jan 29, 2010 -

What social media tools are early adopters raving about so far in 2010? Foursquare is a mobile app that allows you to check-in with your friends when you arrive at a certain location. Blippy is an online tool that tracks your purchases and shares them with your personal network. Layar is an augmented reality (AR) browser that makes it easy to create AR experiences for handheld devices.

However, you can forget you ever heard of any of these services because if you’re a small business kicking off your online marketing strategy, there are five tools that will get you pointed in the right direction. While these tools aren’t all you need forever, they are all you need right now to build your business’ basic social infrastructure online. Think of them like the frame of a new house: they provide the initial shape and security so that you can easily build on top of them.

1. NameChk. Early in 2009, Nielson Online released a report stating that social networking was, for the first time ever, more popular than email. According to the study, almost 67 percent of web users accessed online communities in 2009 compared to 65 percent of web users who accessed email. Since this milestone, companies have launched even more social networking websites. Step one is to choose a username on these websites. At NameChk.com, you can find out what names are available. This is a quick way to secure your company’s presence on the top social media sites, even if you’re not ready to use all of them just yet.

2. Twitter. Twitter, which allows users to share 140-character messages online, was the social media darling of 2009. This year, one of the web’s most popular tools continues to be a must for any small business. When signing up on Twitter.com, make sure you do a few things to ensure your success. Customize your Twitter background with your company’s brand. Commit to tweeting, which is the verb used to describe sending messages on Twitter, at least a couple of times a day. Subscribe, or in Twitter’s terms “follow,” your existing customers and any potential customers.

3. bit.ly. In August 2009, eMarketer.com reported that only 16 percent of professionals engaging in social media measured the return on investment of their social media programs. As soon as you launch any online marketing initiatives, use a tool like bit.ly to track your link traffic. Although bit.ly is most often used on Twitter to shorten long domain names, these same shortened names can be distributed on other social media websites. With bit.ly, you can track your traffic based on time and date clicked, and geographic location. Keep a tally of these stats in a spreadsheet, where you should also record community involvement and visits on your other online sites.

4. Wordpress. The first blog appeared online in the late 1990s—making blogging one of the oldest social tools on the web. Although it’s an oldie, a blog is still a critical part of your social media strategy. Think of your blog like a jumping-off point for all of your digital marketing. Wordpress is a content management platform that makes blog publishing easy. Unless you have someone in-house to set up your Wordpress blog, you’ll want to choose the hosted solution at Wordpress.com since it doesn’t require any manual setup. (Although I’m focusing on Wordpress as a blogging tool, it is also an excellent platform for your entire website).

5. Facebook. With 350 million users worldwide and 1.6 million active “pages” on Facebook, this social media tool is a must. Sign up for a free Page, which will make it easy for your small business to share a public profile with the world. Unlike a personal account, a Facebook page doesn’t require as much maintenance. For example, you don’t need to accept friends (or fans) on a Page—it happens automatically.

Once you start to use these tools, assign someone within your organization to act as the community manager (if you’re a one-man or one-woman business, this manager will be you!). This person will control your online voice. With all social media sites, you get back from them what you put into them. In other words, it’s critical to start, follow, and take part in ongoing conversations. Finally, track your successes and take small steps to grow your social media presence as required.

Amber MacArthur is a social media consultant, speaker, and author of Power Friending: Demystifying Social Media to Build Your Business (June 10, 2010 release).

What are your goals for the new year?

A Business Perspective
By Ray Silverstein

If you’re like most of the business community, 2010 represents a welcome opportunity to turn the page. Needless to say, we all hope that the new year will usher in brighter days.

However, hoping and wishing are not enough. It generally works out much better if you also do something. Like figuring out what you want to accomplish this year and determine how you will make it happen.

In other words, do some serious goal setting.

Here’s the secret to effective goal setting: regardless of your goal, there’s only one way to achieve it, and that is to create a practical, step-by-step action plan.

You probably already know what you want, in sweeping terms. Now, frame it in concrete, measurable terms. Studies show that when businesspeople set measurable goals, they are more likely to attain them. That means not just describing your objective, but identifying the resources, time and dollars you’ll need to invest in order to achieve it.

It’s a step-by-step process.

Step 1: Get it in writing
It’s common knowledge that every organization, regardless of size, should have a business plan, marketing plan, sales plan and financial plan. You’ll note the common word in all this activity is “plan.” Goals are nothing more than what you plan to accomplish.

Now, record your goals in writing and start filling in the blanks between Point A—where you are today—and Point Z—where you want to be. What will it take to get you there?

The act of capturing your ideas on paper, or in a PC file, will force you to think in concrete terms. It will also spark additional ideas; write them down as they come to you. This is the birth of your action plan.

Step 2: Assign due dates
Break your plan down into baby steps, then assign a realistic due date to each step. Determine how you can measure your progress each step of the way. These measurements are your reality check.

Step 3: Define your investment
How much will each step cost, in terms of dollars, time, research and energy? Can you delegate certain steps to your employees? What resources can you draw from, and what additional resources will you need to acquire?

By following these steps, you’ll eventually have a complete action plan. Don’t tuck it out of sight in a drawer; keep it where you can refer to it. Make regular appointments with yourself to ensure you stay on track. Is there someone with whom you can share it? Accountability can make an enormous impact.

Remember, your action plan is a work in progress. Give yourself permission to make changes as you go. That’s okay. It means you’re working on it.

Set SMART goals
If you haven’t set formal goals before, try using the SMART goal-setting format. With this process, goals should be:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Realistic
T – Timely

In other words, state what you want. It must be something achievable. Frame it in a way that allows you to measure your activity. And include a goal date, or a time period in which you’ll accomplish it.

Whatever you do, steer clear of BHAGS: “Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals.” Focus on close-in goals that you can attain in the course of a year or less, right now, under current economic conditions and using current resources. Otherwise, you may be overwhelmed and if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Remember, goals are a lot like elephants, and there’s only way to eat an elephant: one bite at a time.

ROCK STAR

Jan. 28
SHINE ON

If you are part of a sales team, one of your most important duties is to excel at professionalism and production, setting the highest possible standard for others to emulate.

The struggling team members don’t need you to downplay everything to make them feel better about themselves.

They need you to shine on, giving them inspiration to reach the same level of success.

Celebrate every accomplishment and share your achievements in a way that makes them glad to know they have a real selling rock star on the team who can show them how to do it too.

That doesn’t mean brag about how great you are, or constantly ask others why they aren’t doing as well, or put them down for under performing.

Just continue to be the best, and shine on so your team can start shining as well!

© 2010 YOU ROCK!™ Communications

Three Life Lessons of a Lost Dog By Mariel Hemingway

We turned around, and Bindu was gone.

One minute he'd been there, looking at me with pleading eyes. The next minute, he'd vanished into thin air.

My little Yorkie's frightened face popped into my head. From the second we'd arrived at Healthy Family Farm, he'd been acting funny.

Normally, Bindu is a confident creature. I've seen him growl at Great Danes and give Dobermans a hard time. He must think that he's a much larger dog. So I thought nothing of bringing him with us on our trip to the farm.

The Healthy Family Farm - an investment of mine - is a model of a truly healthy farm. There, goats, chickens, turkeys, sheep, pigs, horses, and Scottish cows are raised with love and compassion. I believe that being connected in some way to a farm or a local farmers' markets sends a strong message that you care about your food and where it comes from. Not only that, it also shows that you care about who is providing nourishment for you. Bobby and I had journeyed to the farm to show our friends Arnel and Karyn how important and wondrous our farm is.

We'd pulled up to the big barn where the goats get milked and where raw cheese and yogurt is made. Brave little Bindu jumped out of the car to explore. But instead of feeling in charge of this new place, he was surrounded by potential danger. Everywhere he looked, paws, legs, and hooves were hemming him in.

The farm hosts not only stock animals, but a variety of others as well. Many of them run free in certain areas of the farm. Three or four Pyrenees mountain dogs who watch out for the cows and lambs came over to sniff Bindu. A pit bull and a Staffordshire terrier joined in. The terrier had been fighting the night before and had cuts to show for it. Passing goats tried to nibble at Bindu like he was an afternoon snack. Then approached two Emus, which are new to the farm. I'd never seen one up close before - they look dark grey ostriches. A particularly curious bird seemed to think Bindu was the most fascinating creature it had ever seen, stretching its long neck towards Bindu's face.

This sent Bindu into the high grass nearby with the frenzy of a whirling dervish.

I could see that he was deeply spooked. His mouth was wet with nervous saliva and his eyes were round brown orbs seeking refuge. Whenever any of us put him back on the ground he ran in circles, looking for safety. But since we plan to return to the farm frequently, I wanted Bindu to get used to the animals wandering around.

So when we headed into the chicken coop to check out all the happy truly free-range chickens, we left Bindu outside. I am fond of chickens, having raised them for a summer in my teen years. They are so funny to watch - especially the turkeys with their iridescent waddles, goofy faces, and heavy struts.

The time passed too quickly and suddenly I realized it was time to go. We had an appointment back in town, and we were about to be late.

That's when I first realized that Bindu had disappeared.

The farm teemed with animals. Where among the horses, goats, and sheep would a terrified little Yorkie hide?

For eight hours, we searched the farm and surrounding areas. But Bindu was nowhere to be found.

Eventually, we gave up and headed home. My heart was broken. Bindu had been my loyal partner for 10 years. He was the only dog I'd ended up with after my divorce. He was my source of comfort; I would rest my hand on his chest and feel his steady heartbeat to calm me when things got rough. When life was good, I could share my joy with him. He knew me and I knew him.

What if, I couldn't help but thinking, Bindu had been snatched up by a hawk or a coyote? What if he'd been trampled by a horse or been injured by a bigger dog? I knew these things could happen. Growing up in Idaho, I'd lost plenty of dogs to predators and careless drivers. I knew how unlikely it was that I would ever see my little Bindu again.

But I didn't give up.

On December 27, nine days after his disappearance, Bobby, Arnel, and I were climbing in Malibu Canyon when I got the phone call. A woman had found a small dog just minutes ago on a road near Healthy Family Farm. She checked his tags - and found our number.

Elated, we rushed to the farm. There was Bindu! Greasy and timid, but not skinny or hurt.

Thinking back on those difficult days without Bindu, the experience reminds me of several tried-and-true lessons. Lessons that apply not only to dealing with a missing dog, but to business and life in general.

Life Lesson #1. Take Action.

"Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit," said Conrad Hilton.

Whether you're searching for a lost dog, or trying to jumpstart your career, the best and only way to succeed is to take action. Sure, sometimes fear - of failure or success - can freeze you in your tracks. But nothing will happen unless you take steady strides forward.

I took an active approach to finding Bindu. Each day, I woke up with the thought that Bindu was alive and healthy. But having "positive thoughts" wasn't enough. Bobby and I headed back to the farm to scour the hills again. We stayed in our truck overnight, leaving the windows open so Bindu could smell our scent. We consulted a pet psychic, who suggested we place his bed on the ground and write a note welcoming him home. Our friend Lee Hiller made posters that we posted on trees and shoved into mailboxes. We offered a reward for Bindu's safe return. I told everyone I met - including all my Twitter followers - to keep an eye out for Bindu.

We did everything we could think of to bring Bindu home. Not only did it keep us busy, but I believe that everything we did put us a step closer to getting him back. In fact, the woman who found Bindu had heard about the reward we were offering. At the very least, our act of posting signs about Bindu made her aware that there was a missing dog, which may have made spotting him easier.

As Benjamin Disraeli said, "Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action." Whatever you are trying to do - for your personal life, for your career - you must take action. Wanting your life to change is not enough.

Life Lesson #2. Don't Try to Go It Alone.

Pride and fear can often make us reluctant to ask for help. But trying to achieve your goals by yourself often means that it will take you much longer to reach them.

When looking for Bindu, I was not afraid to ask anyone and everyone to help out. That first day, everyone at the farm joined in the search. The farm hands suggested that he might be hiding with the kittens under the barn. Others mentioned that he may have run off into the land at the back of the property. The farm owner's kids took up the search on horse back. Bobby and I trekked into the hills, shouting Bindu's name. We scoured the neighbor's property.

When that didn't work, I turned to Twitter. I told all my followers about Bindu's disappearance, allowing all of them to help. And while none of them found him, many sent me words of comfort and motivation to keep looking. Their thoughtful comments and suggestions meant the world to me, helped keep my spirits up, and compelled me to keep looking.

Yes, you can accomplish great things on your own. But why not cut the time it takes you to succeed in half by getting help and support from your friends, family, and colleagues?

Life Lesson #3. Stick to It.

You have probably heard the old story about Thomas Edison, who failed 9,999 times to invent the incandescent light bulb. But he kept at it, and eventually he succeeded.

You see, success does not come easy. You will falter. You will fail. But the only way to succeed is to keep moving forward. Now, I know that sometimes you will simply be on the wrong path. If you are tone deaf, for instance, you will probably never win a Grammy no matter how hard you try. But that doesn't mean you give up. You simply switch game plans.

"When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on," said Franklin Roosevelt. That's how I felt many times while searching for Bindu. When we were scouring the farm the day he went missing, I did not want to give up. But eventually I realized that he was nowhere to be found, not to mention that the darkness would make searching futile. So we headed home. But I didn't give up. With the help of friends, I kept thinking of new ways to bring him home.

And eventually, my persistence worked.

As a working mom, you may sometimes feel like I did the instant that I realized Bindu was gone. You may feel hopeless. You may feel overwhelmed. You may not have any idea what to do or where to turn.

If you apply the three lessons I shared above, you will be able to demolish those unhappy feelings. You will be able to achieve the dreams you have for yourself. And I am confident that you will find your own happy ending.

About US SAILING and the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics
The US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics (USSTAG) is managed by the United States Sailing Association (US SAILING), the national governing body for the sport of sailing and sailboat racing. The top boats in each Olympic and Paralympic class are selected annually to be members of the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics. US SAILING supports these elite athletes with funding, coaching and training. The title sponsor of the team is AlphaGraphics; other sponsors include Rolex Watch USA, Atlantis WeatherGear, Sperry Top-Sider, LaserPerformance, Harken, Team McLube, Bow Down Training, New England Ropes and Group Experiential Learning. Founded in 1897 and headquartered in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, US SAILING is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. US SAILING offers training and education programs for instructors and race officials, supports a wide range of sailing organizations and communities, issues offshore rating certificates, and provides administration and oversight of competitive sailing across the country. For more information about US SAILING, please visit: www.ussailing.org. For more information about the US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics, please visit: http://sailingteams.ussailing.org.

Getting Tough with your Customers!!

Things are tough all over—tough economy, tough business and often enough, tough customers. A tough customer can be someone who is highly demanding, simply impossible or even someone who seems like a great client until it comes time to pay the bill for services rendered. At one point or another, everyone in business is going to have to face at least one tough customer. In addition to dealing with the issue at hand, a difficult customer often raises an equally difficult question—what to do about it. There could be many different solutions depending on the niche market, but overall there are some standard ways in which companies can successfully deal with tough customers, regardless of the circumstances. Regrettably there will be times when there is no solution available that will please both parties and the best one can do is damage control. This is especially true if the client is demanding beyond reason with things such as deadlines.

Although the face of the market has changed dramatically over the past few years, one tenet of business still holds true: if a person is happy with your company, he is likely to tell one to two people. If he is unhappy, he is likely to tell 10 people. With social networking, it is easy to assume that those numbers could be multiplied ten times over.

Discount Store Mentality

More and more business owners and service industry companies are becoming victims of discount store mentality. As consumers, Americans have become spoiled and oftentimes unreasonable because there are places out there that offer fast service and deep discounts without necessarily considering the needs of the consumer or the quality of the products they sell. This is a generalization, but the trend is certainly worsening by the day. The discount store mentality is spreading like wildfire, even into areas that are not remotely related to retail sales.

Unfortunately this mentality encourages people to shop solely on price, and to cast aside loyalties even if it means sacrificing quality. However, the trend doesn’t end there. Because these large discount mega stores have tremendous leverage with vendors, they are able to drive prices to the lowest possible point making it difficult—if not impossible—to compete. Smaller companies do not have that kind of leverage, so their prices cannot be as low as the mega store. Still consumers have come to expect, and even demand, that kind of price point, even if it is completely unrealistic.

There is much to be said for being frugal and spending wisely. There is also something to be said for getting what you pay for, particularly in the printing industry. One of the key factors to maintaining a decent profit margin is finding a way to educate clients. Unless they are privy to the ins and outs of the business, clients can’t possibly know the cost of labor and materials that must go into each job. With tough customers, those costs may be a great deal higher, and somewhere along the way someone has to absorb that cost. Steven Haedrich of The New York Label & Box Works said that in some cases, the client will recommend using lesser ingredients to reduce the cost. While some printers will agree, his company will not.

“Pricing is our number one problem,” said Haedrich. “It’s causing long term problems.” For New York Label, integrity is worth more than saving a few cents. For example, clients will often tell Haedrich they don’t care if their boxes and labels match. For a company that has been in business since 1878, that mentality does not exist. “Some people don’t care,” said Haedrich. “They are driven solely by price.”

Stand Your Ground

There are times when it will be necessary to stand your ground when it comes to tough customers. Naturally, this should be done with effective communication and tact, but in the end, you have a business to run and must protect against profit loss. It took a while for my company to realize that there will be customers you don’t want, even if it means sacrificing income. Some simply are not worth the grief. For every difficult client in the world, there are most likely a handful of good clients just waiting to take his or her place.

It will be up to the business owner to determine which clients are worth keeping, hopefully with input from those who must deal with the client directly.

“The Challenge is not just serving customers…

• It's understanding customers.
• It's being prepared to serve customers.
• It's helping an angry customer immediately.
• It's asking customers for information.
• It's listening to customers.
• It's being responsible for your actions when a customer calls.
• It's living up to your commitments.
• It's being memorable.
• It's surprising customers.
• It's striving to keep customers for life.
• It's getting unsolicited referrals from customers…regularly!”

Rewarding Yourself
By Michael Masterson

Some success coaches suggest giving yourself big rewards for big accomplishments. You might, for example, re­ward yourself with a sports car when you make your first million dollars. But rewards like that never motivated me, because the payoff was too far in the future. What motivates me are smaller rewards for short-term goals. And I have a feeling that would be better for you, too.

Over the years, I've developed a reward system that works very well for me. Here it is:

• I keep a daily list of every task I want to accomplish. When I complete each task, I cross it out (or change its color on my screen) to "signal" that it's done. Making this little gesture is like a tiny shot of adrenaline. It picks me up and gives me energy to attack my next objective.

• When I sit down to work, I set an egg timer for 30 to 60 minutes, depending on my workload for the day. When it goes off, I reward myself for the work I've done in that half-hour or hour time period by getting up from my chair, walking outside, and spending a min­ute or two stretching out my back. Then I go back to work and re-set the egg timer.

• At 5:30, I take my laptop to the cigar bar down the street, and work on my writing there for another two hours. I look forward to this. I'm still doing work, but it's a reward because I'm doing it in a new place.

• After two hours of writing at the cigar bar, I reward myself by going home, breaking open a good bottle of wine, and having dinner with K.

These rewards, as you can see, are pretty mundane. But that's the thing about rewards. They don't have to be big or even special. They need only be enjoyable.

It would be easy for me to consider these little things -- crossing out each task as I complete it, taking stretching breaks, relocating to the cigar bar, going home for dinner -- as simply ordinary parts of my ordinary day. But by looking at them differently... by seeing them as rewards for specific, desired behaviors... they motivate me.

I think that is the key -- identifying little pleasures you already have in your life and using them as rewards to motivate yourself. It's easy to do once you recognize that these little pleasures are blessed gifts and you are lucky to be able to enjoy them. Be happy about that. Use them pragmatically.

Tracking Your Success: Why You Should Keep a Daily Journal

It may seem a self-centered pastime, but keeping a journal is actually an excellent career-building tool. It can help you figure out new directions for your life and then guide you as you go.

It can also be a very satisfying hobby. I've been keeping journals for more than 30 years now, and the pleasure of writing them has only increased over the years.

In my earlier years, I kept journals sporadically, usually when traveling or involved in some inter­esting project. I kept a journal for two years when I lived in Africa teaching English and philosophy at the University of Chad. I kept a journal twice during summer vacations -- once in the French countryside and another time in Rome.

But when I started writing ETR about 10 years ago, I began journaling every day. I have done so pretty much nonstop since then.

I used to write my journals in a leather book with a fountain pen. I liked the feel of writing out my words. And I enjoyed the way the sentences looked on paper. I also drew illustrations -- cartoons, caricatures, and scenes. And sometimes I pasted parts of letters or newspaper clippings or ticket receipts on the pages to remind me of important experiences.

Since my thumbs became arthritic, I can't write longhand anymore, so I use a computer instead. The result is not as aesthetically pleasing as the old leather journals, but I find that I write much more these days and I don't have to worry about losing the record of my life in some flood.

Over the years, my journals have evolved from the random observations of my first travelogs to a more formal but more comprehensive format today.

At the top of each journal entry, I keep my monthly, weekly, and daily goals. These I update daily, changing the color of the tasks from red to black as I complete them.

My most important tasks are highlighted in yellow. I make an effort to complete them first -- and when I don't, I work late until they are done. The less important tasks can be pushed to the next day or even the next week if necessary. I've found this simple system has greatly increased my productivity.

Beneath my goals, I include certain daily tasks that I consider critical to my personal development. I write a poem. I learn a new word. And I record a useful or interesting (to me) thought.

I've been writing poems on a daily basis for almost three years now. If I keep this up, I'll have written more poems than Emily Dickinson by the time I'm 65.

Learning a new word every day is simply fun. I make an effort to select only words I might possibly use. Esoteric words have only passing interest for me. I believe that a good vocabulary is a personal asset. It helps you communicate ideas with precision. It conveys experience and conviction. It gives you power. It helps you succeed.

It's not easy to come up with a useful or interesting new thought every day, but it has become much easier since I started doing it. I collect thoughts on business, on relationships, and even philosophical musings. These have been very helpful in developing essay and book ideas. And they make me a better conversationalist.

I transfer all my new words, thoughts, and poetry to separate journals. I edit them once a month and use them, as I said, for books and articles, as well as business memos.

Eighty percent of the good ideas we come up with are lost because we simply forget them. Entering them into a journal and then editing them once a month assures that most of them are remembered and profited from.

The next entry in my journal is a short diary of what has happened that day. I try to keep this short and sweet. I've found, from doing this so long, that most of my daily activities are not as interesting in retrospect as they are the day I experience them. The diary, I imagine, will be a source of pleasure one day when I am old or invalid. I'll reread all the days of my life.

Next, I edit something that I wrote the day before. Often, it's a poem or short story. But sometimes it's an essay for ETR. This requires a bit more mental acuity. After a half-hour of editing, I can feel the creative engine kicking into third gear.

Then I start my real writing. Fiction or non-fiction, this is the most important part of my writing day.

My journal is also the place where I track my health information -- my weight, my blood-sugar levels, my doctors' appointments and results -- as well as the progress I've made on other goals in business and my personal life.

To me, your journal should be like your house. It should be filled with interesting things that reflect the person you are. I hate houses that are designed by professional decorators. You walk through them and they all look the same. You know the people who own them, but you can find no evidence of their personalities where they live.

Keeping a journal can help you change your life. It can help you do better work, achieve your goals, communicate with friends and family, and get your working day moving. And it's a ter­rific way to leave behind a record of who you were and what you were doing during your voyage through life.

If you are keeping a journal or thinking about starting one, here are three ways to make that journal work for you.

3 Powerful Ways to Benefit From Your Journal

1. Keep track of your goals.

If you keep track of your goals like I do, you will find that it is much easier to complete them. Every morning, all the tasks you want to do but haven't done yet are staring you in the face. They are shouting at you -- "Hey, lazy one... let's get to work!"

At the end of each day, note which tasks you've completed and which you've failed to complete. If you are failing to complete highlighted (important) tasks, put aside everything else the next day until you have taken care of those.

2. Stay creative and keep your writing fresh.

Writing in your journal every morning gets and keeps your creative juices flowing. You can record ideas for new products or services... draft memos to your team or letters to colleagues... jot down outlines for books you want to write... even practice your copywriting.

If you are a marketer, be sure to write marketing copy every day. Copywriter John Forde recommends writing three pages of sales copy a day. He says it will keep your imagination in top form. I believe he's right.

3. Remember things you've learned, books you've read, and observations you've made.

Whether you segregate your thoughts as I do, or simply highlight them in your diary, it's helpful to keep a record of them and then refer to them later.

I also record interesting facts and figures from my reading. (I make it a point to locate at least one useful fact or idea in every newspaper or magazine or business book that I read.) And I use my journal to list recommendations that I read or hear about: a new wine to try, a new book, a new CD from a favorite singer, a new restaurant, an exotic destination that I want to travel to.

It's amazing how much good stuff you can accumulate once you get into the habit of putting things that interest you into your journal and highlighting them for future use.

So those are three important benefits of keeping a journal -- but there are many more. A journal can also be a place to:

• Record snippets of conversations that you can use later when writing your next (or first) novel or screenplay.

• List reasons why you deserve a big salary increase (or reasons why you shouldn't be let go during your company's upcoming layoffs).

• Identify all your assets and their locations, so your spouse or children can get to them in an emergency.

• Index your favorite recipes, quotations, images, etc.

• Record the good deeds you've done and the blessings you've received.

Keeping a journal takes about 5 to 30 minutes a day -- well worth it when you consider the payoff: It will help you make better plans and accomplish more with your time.

And when you get much older, a journal can give you an unexpected bonus: hours and hours of fun, reminiscing about your rich, rewarding, productive life.

"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself."

Peter F. Drucker

The Secret to Making a Billion Dollars Without Offering a Single Benefit
By Clayton Makepeace

Love him or hate him, you have to admit it. Rush Limbaugh is a phenomenon.

He doesn't promise riches, better health, social status, to ease your workload, or get you dates.

In fact, he never offers anyone one single benefit or presents a single "Reason Why" listening to him or reading him will improve your life in any way.

And yet, 20 million Americans religiously tune into his radio broadcasts. Hundreds of thousands subscribe to his newsletter. And masses rush to bookstores and snap up every book he writes.

In short, Limbaugh has broken every "rule" of effective marketing. And he's become a billionaire (or darned close to it)!

How does he do it?

A year or so ago, he himself gave us the answer in his newsletter:

"The first year of my radio program callers would tell me how thrilled they were that there was finally somebody in the national media who expressed what they believed.

"For decades, conservatives had seen their values laughed at, impugned, run down. My radio program validated thinking that existed all over America...."

Put simply, Limbaugh makes millions because he offers his followers something they value more than money: Validation. And the emotional release it brings with it.

Until they discovered Mr. Limbaugh, his devotees were frustrated with politicians, the media, and the direction in which they felt our culture was headed.

But they had no voice. No power to change things. And, worst of all, no outlet for their frustration and anger.

The Astonishing Power of Powerlessness

Nearly all of us feel powerless at some time or another. That powerlessness causes frustration and even anger to well up. And unless we find an outlet for those negative emotions, they gnaw away at us.

Psychiatrists have long known that the feeling that we are not in control of things that directly impact our lives is a major cause of both aggressive behavior and depression.

And medical studies have even linked the frustration, anger, and rage that powerlessness causes with weakened immune response and frequent physical illness.

That's where Limbaugh comes in. He understands that millions of conservative Americans disagree with and are worried about the direction our government and/or society are taking -- and feel powerless to "make things right."

And his magic is in providing a much-needed OUTLET for those pent-up negative feelings.

• By acknowledging his audience's deepest and most intense emotions, he validates them.

• By expressing their feelings in ways that get heads nodding and listeners laughing, he gives his followers desperately needed emotional release.

• And his followers reward him handsomely by buying just about everything the man produces or plugs!

In short, like any good businessperson, Limbaugh provides a product that brings value to people's lives and that they're willing to pay for.

And although his product is both invisible and intangible, the emotional release he delivers is worth far more to his followers than the money they pay to get it!

Adding an Emotional Overlay to Your Sales Message Pays HUGE Dividends!

Now, you gotta ask yourself: If Limbaugh can make a gazillion samolians selling nothing BUT emotional release...

How much more money could you make by including an element of emotional release in your next promotion?

Every single grand-slam homerun promotion I've ever written has that one thing in common. Each one acknowledged, validated, and put my prospect's sense of powerlessness -- and his negative emotions about his powerlessness -- into words.

And by doing that, each of these blockbusters:

1. Provided an emotional outlet for my prospects that made them so eager for more that they bought my product and...

2. Positioned my ersatz author NOT as a salesman, but as the prospect's friend, advocate, and champion -- and, in the process, completely neutralized my prospects' "anti-salesman" defenses.

And you know what? This simple technique can work wonders for YOU -- no matter what you're selling!

• Put your sales copy into the voice of an advocate who acknowledges and validates your prospect's sense of powerlessness, his frustrations and his anger...

• Who provides an OUTLET for those pent-up frustrations by expressing them in ways that get the prospect's head nodding and even get him chuckling...

• And then does something even "The Great Rushbo" can't do. He demonstrates how the product will permanently relieve the prospect of those negative feelings...

And you've probably got a HUGE winner on your hands!

Four Steps to Breakthrough Bliss

Creating a sales message that harnesses this powerful technique is as easy as 1-2-3-4.

1. Identify the enemy -- and make it personal!

No matter what you sell, there's somebody out there in the same, a similar, or a competing field who's doing your prospect wrong.

In alternative health, it's probably dimwitted mainstream doctors and drug company fat cats.

In the investment field, it could be greedy brokers, idiotic self-appointed experts, and "talking heads" on TV shows.

In the personal finance field, it could be money-hungry bankers, heartless tax collectors, and everyone else who assumes that your money is really their money.

What enemy is making YOUR prospects feel powerless, insulted, frustrated, and angry?

Whoever it is, personalize the enemy. It's not half as much fun lampooning hospitals, drug companies, banks, and the IRS as it is skinning the jerks who run them!

2. Identify the things "the enemy" does that frustrate or anger your prospect, insult his intelligence, or render him powerless.

Does the enemy hide important information from your prospect? Does he lie to him outright? Does he treat your prospect as if he's a dunce?

Is he arrogant and self-important -- an authority figure just begging to be brought down a couple of pegs? Is he a sneak thief who nickels and dimes your prospect half to death?

List as many offenses as you possibly can.

3. Pinpoint how YOU feel about these kinds of people -- and how you would feel if someone did these things to you.

Then express those feelings more articulately and with greater emotional power than your prospect possibly could.

4. Position your figurehead and his product as being the solution to the negative things the enemy does AND the balm that soothes the negative emotions your prospect has about them!

Make your author righteously indignant. And explain why he is absolutely livid about the way the prospect is being treated.

Say everything your prospect would just LOVE to tell the enemy. If you feel it's appropriate, call him names.

In a promotion based on the Vioxx scandal, I had a sidebar with the headline: Modern-Day Murder-for-Hire Ring BUSTED!

Beneath that headline, I had pictures of the CEOs of Merck and Pfizer. Then the story (taken from The Wall Street Journal) about how they knew all along that Vioxx, Bextra, and Celebrex would kill people, but promoted them anyway just to make a fast buck.

Now I am NOT suggesting that you accuse your competitor of murder -- or say anything else that might get you sued for libel.

But to paraphrase Barry Goldwater, "Extremism in the pursuit of your prospect's well-being is no vice."

P.S. 2009 was my best year ever. By a long, long shot. My clients made money hand over fist and grew to beat the band.

• In December -- during the "dead" week between Christmas and New Year's Eve, we pulled in $1 million per day.

• In August alone, we generated more than $8 million in sales for one client -- the second-best month he's ever had.

• In five weeks in late February and March, we hauled in more than $16 million in sales -- about a half-million a day and $37 for every prospect and customer name in my client's file.

The best part? My clients paid me millions of dollars in royalties on those sales -- royalties that would make most small businesspeople turn green with envy.

As behemoths stumble, small fry find footing

By: John Rosenthal January 22, 2010

Creative destruction, as described by 1930s-era economist Joseph Schumpeter, is the process by which dominant companies are supplanted by those with better products or superior ways of doing business.

Though we tend to think of the S&P 500 as blue chip corporations that have stood the test of time, the average life span of companies on the index is just 12 years.

In 1987, when Forbes magazine republished its original Forbes 100 from 1917, nearly two-thirds of the companies had ceased to exist, and just 18 had managed to remain on the list.

As companies grow, they develop a structural inertia — bureaucracy, mid-level managers, bloat — that hinders a quick response to shifting market conditions. Smaller, nimbler companies adapt faster and grab marketshare while the behemoths struggle to turn their ships around.

Businesses tend to forget about creative destruction during heady economic times because freely available capital often forgives poor financial decisions. It's only during a downturn that businesses recognize destruction as the flip side of innovation.

"Cleaning house, careful management, eliminating activities that are no longer needed are part of the equation," says Sarah Kaplan, assistant professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and author of the 2001 book "Creative Destruction."

'RADICAL CHANGES'

The current economic climate, Ms. Kaplan notes, is "very dire, and the only silver lining is that it will force companies to make radical changes they'd be unwilling to make in more stable times."

Creative destruction will be very much in evidence during this downturn, which is expected to be the worst since Mr. Schumpeter's heyday.

Patrick Murphy, assistant professor of management at DePaul University's Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, also points to regime change in Washington and the aging baby boomer population as pivot points that could alter the commercial landscape.

"The stimulus package is the largest spending provision in history," he says. "The kinds of changes that are going to have to occur in the business community are going . . . to be similarly unprecedented."

It's not hard to identify the companies that stand to lose in this recession.

"Finding the winners is much more difficult," says Don Haider, professor of management and strategy at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

Still, we're going to take a stab at it.

Here's a look at three sectors dominated locally by a teetering giant — in retail, Sears Holdings Corp.; in media, Tribune Co., and in technology, Motorola Inc. — and a handful of much smaller companies that are rewriting the industry rules.

The small businesses profiled here are not likely to put Sears, Tribune or Moto out of business. And the odds that any of them will ever achieve the size and scale of these three titans in their prime are certainly long.

But the small fry might show those dinosaurs which direction to watch for the falling meteor.

Discover Your Talents

Thinking of yourself passively -- as being employed and, therefore, subject to the dictates of someone else -- can be fatal to your long-term success. In reality, you're the president of your own personal-services corporation. You're completely in charge of production, quality control, training and development, marketing, finance, and promotion.

Seeing yourself as self-employed forces you to recognize that you are also self-responsible and self-determining. That everything that happens to you happens because of your conduct and your behavior. You're in the driver's seat. You're behind the steering wheel of your life. It's up to you to decide how to utilize your talents and abilities in such a way as to bring you the very highest return on the investment of your time and energy.

No one else is going to do it for you. Others can help you, guide you, direct you, channel you, point you in the right direction, and even give you opportunities.

But in the final analysis, you're the boss. No one else can make the critical decisions that will determine your future and your fortune. To that end, here are four questions that you need to ask yourself on a regular basis:

1. What do I most enjoy doing?
2. How would I describe my ideal job?
3. If I could have any job at all, anywhere, what would it be?
4. If I won a million dollars in the lottery and I had to pick something to work at indefinitely, what would I choose to do?

To uncover your strengths and determine your unique talents and abilities, ask yourself:

• What have I been good at in the past?
• What things do I do easily that seem to be difficult for other people?
• In what areas of work do I seem to get the best results... and derive the most pleasure?

The answers to all of these questions will give you a good idea as to how you might increase your return on the energy you invest.

Then look at your current job, and ask yourself:

• Where do I want to be in three to five years?
• What kind of work do I want to be doing?
• What kind of people do I want to be working with?
• What level of responsibility do I desire?
• What kind of money do I want to be earning?
• What part of the country do I want to be living in?

Look at your work and at your life in general, and ask yourself:

• What kind of people do I admire and most want to be like?

• Who do I know, or know about, who is doing the kind of work that I want to do and is
  living the kind of life that I want to live?

• What changes would I have to make in my life to be like that person?

Remember: Whatever anyone has done, someone else can do as well. You'll never be exactly the same as another person, but you don't need to be. You can use the successes and achievements of other people as guidelines to help you decide where you want to arrive at the end of your particular journey. But you can be unique and different and successful in your own way.

As a result of your genetic structure, your education, your experiences, your background, your interests and proclivities, you're a unique and rare combination of talents and abilities. You can be extremely good at something. And it's your responsibility to find out what that something is.

Whatever you're doing today, it's nowhere near what you're really capable of doing. The key to a happy and prosperous life is for you to regularly evaluate your strengths and weaknesses, to become very good in the areas you most enjoy, and then to throw your whole heart into what you're doing.

The Law of Intention and Desire

The Law of Intention and Desire: Inherent in every intention and desire is the mechanics for its fulfillment. Intention and desire in the field of pure potentiality have infinite organizing power. When we introduce an intention in the fertile ground of pure potentiality, we put this infinite organizing power to work for us.

I will put the Law of Intention and Desire into effect by making a commitment to take the following steps:

1. I will make a list of all my desires. I will carry this list with me wherever I go. I will look at this list before I go into my silence and meditation. I will look at it before I go to sleep at night. I will look at it when I wake up in the morning.
2. I will release this list of my desires and surrender it to the womb of creation, trusting that when things don't seem to go my way, there is a reason, and that the cosmic plan has designs for me much grander than even those I have conceived.
3. I will remind myself to practice present-moment awareness in all my actions. I will refuse to allow obstacles to consume and dissipate the quality of my attention in the present moment. I will accept the present as it is, and manifest the future through my deepest, most cherished intentions and desires.

Jan. 21
TIME AFTER TIME

You want to know what really makes the difference between the rock stars of selling and the run-of-the-mill salespeople?

It’s not necessarily age, although experience is important.

Formal education isn’t the linchpin either, but a willingness to be a perpetual learner does help.

Ethnicity, culture, background....none of these really matter at all.

When it comes down to it, the only real difference between the best and the rest is their ability to keep going back time after time to make a sale. To put it simply, persistence is the key.

So, how persistent are you?

And just how persistent can you become?

AlphaGraphics News

AlphaGraphics: Make Your Brand Stand Out in 2010

SALT LAKE CITY (Grassroots Newswire) January 19, 2010 -

The business industry is full of competition, and now, more than ever, companies are finding that the need to stand out from the crowd is vital. To get professionals on track for success in the coming year, AlphaGraphics business centers are giving individuals tips on how to approach the year with a new perspective.

"It's time for change – and change can be good for your business," said AlphaGraphics CEO Kevin Cushing. "It's important that business professionals make smart decisions – now – especially when leveraging their brand. We have developed some easy tips to consider as they finish up 2009 and prepare for 2010."

Cushing has provided the following tips:

• Consider a New Logo Design. Your logo isn't just a stamp of your business name. It represents and brands your company, and is used to attract the attention of prospective customers. Consider making your logo fresh, modern and eye-catching with new shapes, fonts, colors and/or images that make it memorable and describable.

• Don't Think Direct Mail is a Lost Cause. Although it may be considered yesterday's way of advertising, direct mail is still an effective way to send your message to your target consumer audience, Cushing said. Before year's end, marketers will have spent about $149.3 billion on direct marketing, which accounts for 54.3 percent of all ad expenditures in the country, according to the Direct Marketing Association. Measured against total U.S. sales, these advertising expenditures will generate approximately $1.78 trillion in incremental sales.

• Explore New Advertising and Marketing Opportunities. Aside from direct marketing, the sky is the limit when it comes to communicating your business message through signage and printed materials. Whether it is an exterior sign for your location, a banner to display at conventions and trade shows, or flyers and business cards that can be handed out individually, take a look at the tools you are currently using and consider stepping outside of the box with new ideas to keep consumers engaged.

• Tell Your Customers "Thank You." In order to keep your company successful, it's important that you let your loyal customers know that you appreciate their business. Think about designing a promotional campaign that will give customers discounts on products or services, or give them a special thank-you gift branded with your company logo or a personalized greeting card.

According to Cushing, AlphaGraphics locations are focused on leveraging today's communications technologies to provide professionals with complete solutions for their marketing communications and document management needs. When it comes to revamping an organization's business image, Cushing says AlphaGraphics experts are with customers every step of the way.

"Our AlphaGraphics team at the various business centers are there to help customers throughout the entire process, from helping you come up with initial design concepts and choosing the right words, to printing your project and sending it out in the most timely and cost-efficient manner," Cushing added. "They can even help you store and archive everything – easily and efficiently."

When Your Customer Is Ready

Your customer is rarely ready now. They may be ready in time if you remain relevant; however, this takes work and care. Work is in the way you communicate and deliver what is valuable with your prospective buyer. Care comes in the way you own the problems your buyer has. It has much less to do with your desire to sell and everything to do with what is important to your customer. There is an old saying, “A carpenter doesn’t buy a drill. They are buying a quarter-inch hole.” That is results-thinking not features and benefits.

Assume that most people you first engage with are not ready to buy. You are out of phase with where they are at today more often than not. There is a setup which has to be addressed to prepare them to buy. This setup fosters trust and increases your value proposition. It is made up of the following:

1. Promotion: The marketplace is a super-highway of choices. There are too many good choices out there, and it is hard to distinguish what is valuable and what is not. Value is continually changing based on what is needed by the buyer. If it is not needed, then there has to be promotion to increase desire. Promotion largely focuses on the quarter-inch hole and driving home the message that you are the best way to make the hole.

2. Profiling: You get the wrong messages all the time. When you are marketed with cat food as a dog lover or junk food as a Whole Foods shopper, the seller missed big. They are selling on hope. They are hoping you are the one they are looking for. There are too many available and appropriate systems to make connecting the right message at the right time with the right person happen. If you invest in these systems and make them work, you are connecting. If you are ok with luck and knowing that 95% of your mailers, emails and impressions won’t work, then keep following the masses and keep wasting your bullets. You may not get a second chance to make a true connection.

3. Pain: This is where sellers make the biggest mistake. They have bad manners and start selling. Who cares what you have to offer if you don’t understand my pain? Did you bother to ask, and have you articulated? You must describe the pain concretely and specifically. This is both for the benefit of the buyer and the seller. The buyer feels you know their situation. You need to know their situation to be of value and service. Amplify the pain and spend 90% of your energy understanding and communicating this to the buyer. It makes selling a formality.

4. Proof: If you are telling the world how great you are, your credibility is low. If someone else is saying it, then you are positioned with a stranger perfectly, especially if it is the same pain story. Package the medium to share the story. Make the story the same as each of your prospective customers. It will go a much longer way investing in the stories made alive than puffing up your image.

Your prospective customer wants to buy. The question is whether it is from you or someone else who establishes trust by dating them and helping them become ready. Too many businesses misstep by how they approach and court the buyer. With so many choices, not doing your homework and setting up a one-to-one buying process only helps to strengthen your competitors’ appeal. Help your customer pick you by making them ready. It is all about buying. Leave the selling to the other guys.

Texting is not an option.

Remember the old days when you used to pass notes to friends or lovers? Those days are over. Forever.

Enter texting. It was huge in the rest of the world five years before the United States finally picked up on it. And now it has taken over. It’s instant, one-to-one communication. It’s better and more certain to get through than any other communication medium.

Do you text?

One of my youngest employees sent me a text to tell me, “You’re definitely the oldest guy that texts me.”

My granddaughters text me.
My daughters text me.
My customers text me.
My vendors and suppliers text me.
My employees text me.
My friends text me.
My answering service texts me.
Even the airlines text me about schedule changes and delays.

Not everyone texts – YET. Some people still have phones that have no keyboard. Oh, they will try to text. Their dialog goes something like this. “A,B,C oh crap a 2.” And phone companies are still making out of date phones with 1-2-3 keypads. And worse, people actually buy them!

REALITY: Every kid on the planet texts. Some more than a hundred times a day. Kids will text sitting across the table from one another. And they are fast. Thumbing at the speed of summer lightning.

As these kids enter the work force and increase their buying power, your business world will change. They’re going to text their bosses and the CEO. They’re going to make text sales calls. They’re going to text people they purchase from. AND they’re going to be great at it, and expect instant response from you – so you better be great at texting too.

I am hereby dubbing these young people the “Gen-Texters.” And I am trademarking that phrase as you read this. Unfortunately I have to email my attorney because he doesn’t accept text trademark requests - probably because it would screw up his billing.

Text Manners: “CU” is “see you.” I’m in favor of spelling out whole words. Maybe that’s a sign of my age. But it’s also a sign of my manners.

Texting takes time, and takes time to get used to, but once you do, addiction quickly sets in. I probably send 25-50 texts a day, and I’m probably on the low end of the texting scale.

It’s instant. And instant is the new ASAP.

If you don’t text, you’re turning a blind eye to society. A foolish one. And the OLDER you are, the more you should heed this. If you’re in your 30s or 40s why would you not want to text your kids, your employees, and your customers? If you’re in your 50s or 60s or older, why would you not want to text your grandkids?

My granddaughter, Julia, begins her text volley with “hi.” I love getting that message. My granddaughter, Morgan, texts me daily in text lingo with one thought or another (“CU 2Nite”). My granddaughter, Claudia, texts me when something great happens. She’s SEVEN. What’s your excuse?

Even idiots text. Ever see the car crash videos from people who can’t drive and add texting to the trip. Kaboom!

Here are a few more rules to text by:
• Short and sweet.
• Text when you need me.
• Be clear. Text full words.
• Be careful of what you say about third parties – they may be passed on or read or posted by others.
• Be responsive BUT not rude. Texting should be done when you have the private time and space, not in meetings or while others are talking (like you do).
• Be mannerly. If you want to respond to a text, and you’re in a conversation with others, ask for permission.

Join the revolution. As a nation, less than 75% are actively texting. But that’s a misleading number. More than 90% of kids text, while only 20% of people over 45 text. But those who do send billions of texts each month. If you’re in the group of the technologically deprived, you may want to look at an upgraded phone, and get into the 21st century.

Texting is not a fad. It’s today and it’s the future. Harness its power in business, and while you’re at it, tell your grandkids that you love them.

How to Mess with the IRS

Date of Joke: Monday, 18th January, 2010 (Internal Revenue Service, an agency of the government to whom Americans pay taxes on their salary.)

--Always put staples in the right hand corner. Go ahead and put a down the whole right side. The extractors who remove the mail from the envelopes have to take out any staples in the right side.

--Never arrange paperwork in the right order, or even facing the right way. Put a few upside down and backwards. That way they have to remove all your staples rearrange your paperwork and re-staple it (on the left side).

--Line the bottom of your envelope with elmer's glue and let it dry before you put in your forms, so that the automated opener doesn't open it and the extractor has to open it by hand.

--If your very unfortunate and have to pay taxes use a two or three party check.

--On top of paying with a three party check pay one of the dollars you owe in cash. When an extractor receives cash, no matter how small an amount, he has to take it to a special desk and fill out of few nasty forms.

--Write a little letter of appreciation. Any letter received has to read and stamped regardless of what it is or what its on.

--Write your letter on something misshapen and unconventional. Like on the back of a Kroger sack.

--When you mail it, mail it in a big envelope (even if its just a single EZi form). Big envelopes have to be torn and sorted differently than regular business size ones. An added bonus to the big envelope is that they take priority over other mail, so the workers can hurry up and deal with your mess.

--If you send 2 checks they'll have to staple your unsightly envelope to your half destroyed form.

--Always put extra paper clips on your forms. Any foreign fasteners or the like have to be removed and put away.

--Sign your name in ink on every page. Any signature has to verified and then date stamped.

10 Great Copy Tips for Online and Offline Marketing
By Craig Huey, president of Creative Direct Marketing Group

Here are a few tried-and tested direct response copy rules that have been developed after decades of studying response rates to thousands of advertisements, marketing materials, direct mail packages, online initiatives, radio spots and television commercials. Following these rules will help get your response rates up and maximize your marketing return on investment.

1. Mark out all references to "our company" or "we believe."
Your prospects are not looking or waiting to read your marketing material. Therefore, your materials need to speak to their interests and their needs. If you write "our company" or "we," your prospects will perceive that the message is coming from your perspective, not theirs, which will decrease sales.

2. Relate your product or service to items in the news.
Test after test has proven that when you relate an item to something currently in the news, you get a higher response. The subject of the news story is less important than its timeliness, since the more recent a story, the more power it can bring to justifying why buying a product is important right now.

3. Stick to the facts.
Exaggeration can diminish your credibility and kill response. Mailing packages or online campaigns written using specifics and details without exaggeration get a better return. Generally, people can see through your marketing claims. It they are not verified with facts, figures and details, it will be noticed, and your response will suffer.

4. Enlarge type to make it easier to read.
Even if it looks really chic, if people have a hard time reading your message, they simply won’t. In fact, in tests that we've done, response rates have often been increased by simply making the type larger and, thus, easier to read. This is especially the case if you’re marketing to anyone over the age of 40, as older eyes make it harder to read, and many of these prospects will be reaching for their glasses.

5. Confront any negatives with positives.
If you're selling, for instance, a health supplement that hasn't been FDA approved, don't just sweep that fact under the carpet with an asterisk.* Instead, you could bill it as a benefit. "A product so revolutionary, the FDA hasn't even approved it yet!"

6. Make sure you prove why your products are unique.
Creating product differentiating is essential to garnering response. The ways you position your product using words and pictures are the only things that potentially separate it from the competitive marketing of every other similar product and service. It’s essential that a list of attributes that sound different or are different is clearly articulated.

7. Define your unique sales proposition (USP) at the start, in the middle and at the end.
A USP of two or three sentences helps your readers understand who you are and why it's in their best interest to respond. Your USP needs to be concise and clear, regardless of whether it's online or in print.

8. Clearly explain what your benefits are.
Most marketers just list features, but every feature needs to be turned into a benefit. It’s the benefit that the prospect is looking for. For instance, your customer will care a lot more about the rocket-powered (feature), antigravity (feature) car you're selling if you tell them they can "fly over morning traffic!" (benefit).

9. Position yourself or your company as an authority or expert with a solution to your target’s worst problem.
Every potential buyer wants a company that knows their problem better than anybody else out there and, therefore, has the best solution for it. To help position yourself as such, your copy needs facts, figures, specifics and details that reinforce the perception that you are the expert and the authority. Offer premiums that help reinforce your expertise. For instance, in your first mailing package, include something such as an article reprint or checklist that might help position your company as the expert.

10. Make not acting a losing situation for your prospect or customer.
Make sure your customer understands that there is a tangible consequence for not responding to your promotion. Whether it's a limited-time discount, a chance at winning a new car, or a product that will make them more beautiful, your customer must be made to feel deeply that something wonderful is lost if they don't buy what you're selling.

Sales Tip of the Day

Jan. 15
FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME

Every “first time” is special.

First car, first job, first date, first kiss, first home ... all of the firsts are remembered with fondness (well, maybe not your first divorce), mostly because you put so much effort into acquiring each one.

The same thing goes for the first sale you make to a customer. Because you pulled out all the stops to overwhelm the customer with service and appreciation, you set a very high mark that the customer expects you to hit every time.

Problem is, as we become more and more comfortable with a relationship, we relax. We don’t put quite as much effort into the second sale; even less on the third. And, before you know it, you are completely taking the customer for granted, which could lead to a sales divorce.

The challenge is to make sure every sale feels like the first time for your customer. Document the steps you take before, during and after the first sale, and make sure you repeat those actions every time you go for another sale.

Sure, it’s a lot of work, but isn’t a loyal customer worth it?

The Power of Persistence will Overcome Failure

Lessons in Leadership
By Roger Fritz

Persistence separates good intentions from results. It is the key to determining whether wishes ever become reality. The power of persistence depends upon an understanding and application of several commitments:

•Are you willing to constantly push yourself to do more?
•Can you be objective about yourself? Do you know your weaknesses and work to overcome them?
•Do you look for what’s wrong before finding someone to blame?
•Do you study to understand why good things happen?
•Do you set clear performance standards for yourself before you tell others what you expect from them?
•Do you insist that those who create problems are responsible for finding solutions?
•Do you change policies that stifle accountability?
•Do you avoid over-directing, over-reporting and over-managing?
•Do you know how to create a climate in which people will be self motivated? Have you done it?
•Can you sustain yourself over time with little praise or credit?

It’s better to avoid dragons than have to slay them

Somebody is upset and blaming you. What can you do?

First, don’t make excuses. They just provide more “fuel” for the fire.
Next, don’t get angry. If you flare up, it will only make matters worse. Instead, keep your voice at its usual level and slow down both your speech and your body motions. Be calm. Choose your words carefully. Don’t overreact.

Suggest that you sit down somewhere and discuss the issue quietly. Ask for more information. Avoid loaded language like “What a dumb thing to say” or “That’s a lie” or “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Don’t interrupt. Attempt to find a mutually acceptable solution to the problem. Ask, “What will make you happy?” Then ask, “If I give you that, will you give me this?”

Keep in mind, the goal is not always winning, but sometimes finding a solution you can live with.

Excuse makers don’t like to keep score

Rather than make excuses, it is far more productive to do some soul searching to discover why you failed to do whatever was expected.
Did you lack the resources needed? Should you have asked for an extension of time, more people to work with you, more money?

Whatever the reason, if you had communicated the need for additional resources early on, there would be no need to offer excuses now.

When you make excuses you are really trying to absolve yourself of responsibility. You are attempting to place the blame for your lack of achievement on something or someone other than yourself. Unless you break that habit, your ultimate excuse will be, “Nothing good ever happens to me, but I can’t help it.”

Coping with failure

The people who framed our Declaration of Independence granted us certain “inalienable rights”: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They said we had the right to pursue it, but nobody ever gave us any assurance that we would always be able to capture it.

The formula for failure is clear: never accept responsibility.

When Naomi Judd was 17, she got pregnant and married her boyfriend. Five years later she found herself living 2,000 miles from home with two kids to support, no husband and no job. Without a car, she found a minimum-wage job as a receptionist within walking distance of her apartment.

She did things no one else wanted to do and was soon promoted. She quickly learned she was more capable than she thought and has proven it many times since. This is the same Naomi Judd who has won six Grammy Awards and sold over 20 million country music albums.

Failure results from the lack of achievement, but it can be predicted by lack of persistence.

Being instead of Doing

Try setting a different type of goal this year!
How many of you reading this have set goals for the year (or for the decade)? How many are thinking of setting goals? How many are perfectly content to just wait and see what life brings? And, how many are just shocked to be reminded that it's January already!

Whichever category you're in, you might want to look at goal setting a bit differently this year. Instead of planning what you intend to be doing, or hope to be getting (which is what we tend to do), what about setting goals for being? How do you want to experience the coming year? Who do you want to be? How do you want to feel?

It makes a lot of sense to start here, because after all, everything we ever do is an attempt to be a certain way. If we decide to join a gym it's because we want to be healthy, or fit, or attractive, or disciplined, or whatever. But, I think we often miss, or hurry through, the step of deciding what we want to be before we jump into deciding what we're going to do. So, here are other approaches you might incorporate into your goal setting this year:

* Different goals for different roles. Decide what's the most important state of being for each of the many roles you play in your life. Who do you most want to be in your work? Leader? Collaborator? Innovator? As a boss, what do you most want to be for your staff? Motivating? Instructional? Protective? And so on, as a parent, a sibling, a friend, a spouse, community leader, etc. Yes, no doubt you will be many different things in all your roles, but by choosing the most important one (or two or three if you wish) you will have already set your focus to make those stronger in the coming year.
* Past and present. Review how you are being in relation to your current life. Sometimes we get so used to being a certain way that we forget to make necessary changes. An example is the person who remains extra fearful and careful about money long after they've gone from poverty to financial success. Or how about someone who remains as nervous in doing a task the hundredth time as the first time. What ways of being just don't make sense for you any more?
* More or less. Consider some tweaks. Set some goals around what you want to be more of, or less of. More happy, less angry. More committed, less random. More tolerant, less judgmental. More emotional, less logical. Or more logical, less emotional. Etc.

Just by giving thought to some of these, you will mentally set some new intentions, and chances are all kinds of opportunities will start popping up for you to be the new way you want to be. And of course, you can also set more specific action plans for what you want to do in support of what you've decided you want to be. It will be a good foundation for any specific goals you've set or will be setting.

Just one more thing...is it really mid January already?!!

Top 10 Ways to Market your Business in 2010

Top 10 Ways to Market your Business in 2010

As we go into 2010, full of promise and change from 2009, it is time to think about economical ways to market your business in the coming year. In this internet, social media age, the old marketing plans can no longer be copied into the the new plans. Here are our top ten things us375.alphagraphics.com suggests that you do:

1. Update your Website- Your website is no longer a brochure for the company. The internet search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo have changed the rules. Your website needs to be searchable, it needs to have outside links refer to its content and it needs to be changed very frequently. If you have not had a major overhaul of your site in the last 5 years, its time to invest in a total makeover. Even if you do not make any major changes, the site needs to be editable by the Marketing Department or the owner. There needs to be a system of updating and changing the site on a weekly or monthly basis and having an easy to use edit tool accessible to the marketing people is a must. As discussed in the next item, the use of keywords is also essential for the search engine.

2. Invest in Search Engine Optimization- SEO is the word of the new decade in the marketing arena. For as little as $200 per month, you can hire a company to make your website land on the first page of any search. They do this by testing your website to make sure it has been optimized, by making sure the keywords are in the right place, by making sure that there is activity outside the website that points to your website such as blogs, news releases, email blast, etc. and they use tools to monitor your website activity. You may be able to do it yourself. There are many books written and being written on the subject.

3. Think About Search Engine Marketing- SEM is the sibling to SEO. When you do a search on Google, there are two distinct parts of the results page. There usually is a couple of listings at the top of the page and there are several listings to the right of the page. These are the sponsored links. If you click on one of the links, the sponsor will pay a click-thru fee, usually averaging about $3 per click. The other part of the page is the organic listings where SEO activities dictate the rankings. SEM is done by bidding on the keywords you want to sponsor with the search engines. With Google, you can bid on certain words using their AdWords feature. It is usually a good idea to hire a consultant to place the words for you and to monitor the results. You might also want to design different landing pages within your website for each category of keywords so that when the customer does click-thru to your site, where they land is relevant to the search term.

4. Send out Email Newsletters- This is an email world now. Monthly email newsletters are a great way to inform your customers and prospects about your business. You do have to be careful not to come across a selling a product or service too much or people will opt-out of future mailings. Emails that are informative and specific to what your customers want to know are the best types of emails. Occasional promotional postcard email blasts are OK, but do it too often, your will lose the ability to send future emails. Companies such as Constant Contact are perfect for distributing these emails. They have templates available and they monitor the email addresses for bounces and opt-outs.

5. Do a Demographic Profile of Your Customers- How would you like a listing of the companies or prospects that are out there that are exactly like your current customers. Well, it is possible to get this listing by doing a demographics profile of your existing customers. Once this information is put into the system, we can identify a listing of companies and prospects that have the same attributes as your existing customers in your market. This process usually runs around $1,000 to have done, but it will allow you to better target your market with a reduced number of mailed or emailed items.

6. Don't Forget Direct Mail- Direct mail is still one of the best ways of contacting prospective or current customers. Email filters and the rapid changes in email addresses reduces the overall benefits of doing email only. Using an efficient mailing list such as the one discussed above, greatly enhances your chances that the direct mail item will be read. We also use three-dimensional pieces and personalized url to improve responses rates on our mailings. Personalized url's (purls) are a great way to get your prospects or customers to go to a website to capture additional demographic information on that customer.

7. Write a Blog- Every company needs to have a blog. The best way to drive people to your company's website is to have them read your blog. As in the email blast discussions above, blogs should be informative and not promotional in order to capture and maintain a frequent audience. Starting a blog is easy. I started this one by going to Google and typing in "starting a blog". Don't worry that it appears that no one is reading the blog. Your readership will expand over time and it will be very beneficial with the search engines. Link your company website, your Twitter page and everything else within your blog. Just remember, link, link, link.

8. Be Active with Social Media- Most people understand Facebook and LinkedIn now. A lot of people do not understand Twitter and its benefits. "I'm sitting on a corner in Winslow, Arizona" does not appear to make a great business tool. However, using Twitter to make an occasional statement about something of interest in your business or industry will get you some followers. On Facebook, having a separate company page whereby people can become fans of your business has its benefits. Cross linking your website, your Blog, will enhance your readership and your search results.

9. Issue News Releases- Commit to issuing a monthly press release about something of interest that has happened to your business. This can be about a new product, a new piece of equipment, a move or something that one of your employees did. Before your do the first one, you need to develop a contact listing of your local media outlets. Once the news release is written then it needs to be distributed to the local media outlets as well as placing the news release on the wire. Putting the news release on the wire allows the release to be searched by the search engines and catalogued.

10. Go to Trade Shows- Re-commit to going to trade shows. At least plan on getting a booth at the local Chamber of Commerce Business Expo. Trade shows are an inexpensive way to get in front of prospective customers. The use of large format graphics and brochures helps to make your booth pop. Capture business cards of prospects by offering something of value such as a prize or free service.

We are positioned to either providing the above listed services or to helping you to contact a company that provides the service. We would be happy to meet with your to plan out your full year marketing plan.

You can reach us at LaGrange Park at the following websites:www.us375.alphagraphics.com