November 5, 2009
- Marketing Ideas – 50 Simple Marketing Ideas You Can Use To Grow Your Business
Grow Your Business Online And From Home
Work-at-home entrepreneurs have many choices when it comes to marketing. Below you'll find 50 simple ideas that you can adapt to your own needs.
Some ideas are geared toward online audiences while some target your neighborhood and involve getting to know local businesspeople.
It's a good idea to choose a few methods from each category and make them work for your own business. Give each one a try to see which works best for you and your business.
Online Marketing Ideas
1. Start a Blog and write 2 – 3 times a week. Start simply at WordPress.com or Blogger.com.
2. Post articles online that others can use with your byline and signature information – visit EzineArticles.com.
3. Regularly comment on blogs that relate to your business – you can find some great examples at AllTop.com (which list the top blogs in the world and divides them into categories for easy searching). (In fact, look for my RaisingGreatFamilies.com blog there! We're proud to have it listed.)
4. Visit Meetup.com and instigate a gathering relevant to your line of work OR join an existing group.
5. Check out Podcamp.org or Barcamp.org to see if they work well for your business.
6. Create your own Facebook profile.
7. Join groups on Facebook that relate to your business and post regularly.
8. Create your own Facebook PAGE and use it like a mini website to promote your business.
9. Become a source on HelpAReporterOut.com.
10. Suggest a story about work-at-home entrepreneurs to a blogger or offer a post for other people’s website by joining BloggerLinkUp.com.
11. Write an ebook and offer it for free on your own website or Facebook Page.
12. Send a press release about your business to PRWeb.com or PRLeap.com.
13. Reply to questions on Wiki.Answers.com and similar sites.
14. Open a Twitter account and send 2-3 tweets a day about what you are doing in your business.
15. Distribute monthly eNewsletters to your clients (having captured their names on your website or Facebook Page).
16. Put your business in both online and print directories.
17. Use Google to search for forums that are in your niche (use your keyword followed by the work “forum” to find these) and become involved with the chatter on the forum (NEVER “sell” on these – participate and leave your name with your contact information below it).
18. Write pieces for other companies' eNewsletters.
19. Keep in touch with classmates through Facebook.
20. Search Twitter for people who tweet about your type business and begin to tweet back and forth with them (find them using keywords at Search.Twitter.com).
21. Optimize your blog by using keywords in the titles of your posts.
22. Videotape short weekly talks and publish them online.
23. See if Affiliate Marketing is right for you – search Clickbank.com.
24. Trade blog ads with other work-at-home entrepreneurs.
Neighborhood Marketing Ideas
Read more on Marketing Ideas – 50 Simple Marketing Ideas You Can Use To Grow Your Business…
September 29, 2009
- Marketing Lessons By Charles Seymour Jr – The Universe Model
Your own website is at the center but Facebook is VERY important!
People ask me HOW I do WHAT I do when it comes to Social Media Marketing, Online Marketing, Direct Response Marketing, Video Marketing and Email Marketing, and how I advise my consulting clients.
Here is a short video to show what I call the Universe Model of Marketing:
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My Main Website is at the center like the Sun is at the center of our Universe.
Surrounding the Sun are Planets that point into the Sun (like Facebook, Facebook Pages, Hubpages, YouTube, Forums, Other People's Websites.
And pointing to the Planets from even further away are the stars (and in this analogy, these are Twitter, Article Marketing, and Bookmarking Sites, to name a few)
Watch this short video as I show you WHAT and HOW I do my marketing!
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Now YOU Can Learn How To Use Facebook MUCH Better!
Facebook is becoming more and more important. If you want to learn how I do what I do (and even more!), you should look at these free videos and pdf files presented by Robert Grant and Ian David Chapman. These two really Get It… and they're helping LOTS of people already (as their materials will show you).
If you want to tell other people about this (and make some money from your efforts), click here:
Let Me Learn About The Affiliate Program These Two Have So I Can Earn Some Money – I'll Click Here!
If you aren't interested in making money but you want to use Facebook better in your marketing, click here:
Now's your chance – I can't guarantee this material will be available past the end of this week, so go take a look right now.
Read more on Marketing Lessons By Charles Seymour Jr – The Universe Model…
August 31, 2009
- Twitter For Business – Use Twitter To Help YOUR Business: NOW
Use Twitter To Spread Your Word Of Mouth
Some people lead the dance, some follow – and some have to be taken onto the dance floor kicking and screaming.
This is not a surprise for those of us working in Social Media Marketing, but it's still a surprise to me to read this.
I really have to chuckle: Hollywood is all a buzz about The Twitter Effect.
Where the heck have they been?
Don't they have anyone on their staffs who understand Social Media?
(OK, I admit it: I ALMOST said "don't they have anyone on their staffs under the age of 30, but since I passed that milestone years ago and clearly know how to use Social Media, I won't continue that stereotype any longer!)
Newspapers Tell About Hollywood's Fear Of People Who Send Tweets
Did you see this article in your local paper? (You DO still read the newspaper, right? If Baby Boomers are part of your market you should – THEY still read papers almost as much as they read online information and watch nightly news.)
The headline was, "Hollywood a flutter about the 'Twitter Effect.'
It's as if Hollywood producers just woke up.
Didn't they see all the reports about Iran's election when the population sent messages around the world? Don't they believe the reports that people like Proctor and Gamble (you can't get much more "main stream" and "institutional" in advertising than P&G) are using Social Media? Don't they see that the "kids" are using text messages in the THOUSANDS each month, going one on one with their friends… and then using the same texting technology to use Twitter to go one to MANY?
So… what is Hollywood so afraid of?
YOU. Me. And THOUSANDS like us being able to communicate freely and within seconds of discovering what we like or dislike.
WHY are they so afraid and what happened to make them stand up and notice?
Read more on Twitter For Business – Use Twitter To Help YOUR Business: NOW…
August 20, 2009
- Marketing The Arts: Combust Premieres in Swarthmore, PA USA
Social Media Marketing – Tell All Your Friends and have them Tell All THEIR Friends
How does the word get out about a music group that is just starting?
The same way it does for one that has been around for a while: tell the world about them.
Read more on Marketing The Arts: Combust Premieres in Swarthmore, PA USA…
August 17, 2009
- Blogging – Lessons Learned From The Movie Julie and Julia starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams
Blogging – Find something that inspires you, write about it, KEEP writing about it, and Be Consistent
I'm a man whose passions run deeply and I'm not afraid to show them.
Family, theater, marketing, movies… I care deeply about each one and when it's time to talk about them, share my feelings, laugh or cry, I do it with gusto! (Wow, where did "gusto" come from – it just seemed like the right word, though I don't use it often!)
I LOVE going to the movies. I enjoy theater – I enjoy DIRECTING theater, I enjoy directing and seeing MUSICAL theater most – but MOVIES really take me away like nothing else.
They transport me, make me think, help me laugh and cry, and make me feel great just as I need them.
They give me freedom to dream like little else does. And then chat about them when they are over – share my thoughts with whoever went to the movies with me or with my folks when I see them in church on Sunday.
And I learned years ago that if no one wants to go with me, I'll go alone: I really do love to watch movies.
And there is a ritual that accompanies me every time I go to a movie: I need something to eat and drink, I need to sit near the back of the theater (dang that motion-sickness I feel as a passenger in a car that affects how closely I can sit in a movie), and I love to laugh out loud when something amuses me – doesn't matter if the theater is full or nearly empty, I really enjoy myself!
Friends have often told me that though they never saw me in the theater, they knew I was there – I have one of THOSE laughs…
Why do YOU see certain movies?
Have you ever stopped to think WHY you see a certain movie when you do?
- WHY does it draw your attention at that very moment?
- WHY do you feel compelled to see it?
- Why does it call out to you, make you reach for your wallet, and then get you to empty a large portion of your wallet for the ticket and refreshments.
August 5, 2009
- Podcasting – Podcamp Boston 4 Filled With Great Content
Podcasting – creating audio or video articles or reports to share with people over the Internet.
Four days on the road – creating videos, audios, making notes for written pieces, and it will all help my many businesses because creating better marketing pieces gets the word out about what I'm doing.
I'm been blogging, podcasting, and creating interviews for years. My first feature-length videos were mostly creating in a question-and-answer format based on an NBC TV reporter I liked who took his (then movie-film) camera into Vietnam and captured some terrific documentaries.
That's how I see much of my work.
As a pro photographer, I'm an historian with a lens. In my Spotlight series of videos I'm an interviewer. In my podcasts I'm often following an outline, but then just talking or interviewing.
So, when the chance came to stretch my own thinking and abilities AND get the chance to return to Boston (where I went to Tufts University as an undergrad AND where our older daughter, Stacie, still lives), I jumped at it.
Some of the topics will include:
– How do we measure the impact of social media?
– What's a video Yankee Swap?
– How can we throw media professionals a social lifeline?
– How do you sell social media services?
– What is the future of writing in social media?
– How can you build community for the enterprise?
– Can you measure social media interactions in a meaningful way?
– How do you start with SEO?
– How does social media figure into the future of documentary film?
Read more on Podcasting – Podcamp Boston 4 Filled With Great Content…
July 15, 2009
- Social Networking – How Do YOU Stack Up?
Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn – What Do They Say About YOU?
Social networks – Yep: believe it or not, people study what people are doing on Social Networks.
And you can just imagine: when they study something, they find results and then work to attach meaning to them.
Such is the case of the Social Network Survey that Anderson Analytics produced, as reported in Advertising Age.
You've been analyzed, your likely interests prodded, your buying habits studied, and your media consumption ranked.
For example: They ask if you use Twitter. If YES (whoops, I DO), then you are more interested in SEX than the average Facebook, MySpace, or LinkedIn user.
If you like LinkedIn (I still haven't quite figured out how to make it work, other than asking people directly for help), then you're more likely to watch soap operas.
Is MySpace number 1 for you, then you probably don't like exercise.
Wow… all that from asking a few questions and tabulating the results?
Which Social Network You Favor Says A Lot About You
Did the information above surprise you?
Read more on Social Networking – How Do YOU Stack Up?…
July 6, 2009
- Blogging For Business – Turning Your Words Into Gold
Write A Blog For Business – It Can Be Fun And Profitable
Search engine optimization for blogs is easy to do if you follow a few rules.
To make sure that your main website gets noticed and your content absorbed, you need to attract search engines which then attract people who will read your posts.
When you become an expert (at least PERCEIVED to be an expert as your knowledge grows), people will arrive at your site to find out what you say.
And when you follow a few rules, you will turbo charge your work at home, get people AND Google to find you, and turn your words into gold.
Search engines (let's read that GOOGLE, as well as others) LOVE fresh content. Blogs are easy to update and add fresh content. And these days, Current Content will have a great impact than scholarly content that has been on a website for a long time.
Static isn't good. Current is.
Follow these rules to improve your blogging success:
1. Create a list of at least 50 keywords that apply to your business.
2. Each time you write a blog post, write on ONE topic… THIS post is about Blogging (it's not about guarantees or offers or direct mail – it's about writing a blog).
3. Write at least 2 times every week – you aren't creating huge novels, just some blog posts of great content. And as #2 said, keep the topic to ONE of your keywords and be sure to explain it fully.
Read more on Blogging For Business – Turning Your Words Into Gold…
July 2, 2009
- Nonprofit Marketing – Spotlight on Lawrence Edw. Wilson III
Larry Wilson's Extensive Marketing Career Prepared Him Uniquely For The American Baptist Foundation
Larry Wilson and I go back a LONG time.
We both earned our MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1975. We worked closely on a huge theater production in the Harold Prince Theatre of the Annenberg Center on the University of Pennsylvania campus and the great Broadway Producer-Director, Harold Prince, came to one of our rehearsals and spoke to the cast after.
Read more on Nonprofit Marketing – Spotlight on Lawrence Edw. Wilson III…
June 29, 2009
- Business Marketing: 5-Step Formula to Add 6 Figures to Your Business THIS YEAR & Re-Ignite Your Passion While You Do It
Create A Side Business To Produce 6-Figures Annually
I’m a marketer and have been marketing ever since I left Wharton Graduate (of the University of Pennsylvania) in 1975 with my MBA in marketing, management, arts administration.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in personal sales. A billion or more dollars through my marketing skills. And a life-style that allows me to select the type work I want to concentrate on.
And since earning my formal degrees, I’ve been a student every day – learning from the best people I can find.
Two of them are Dave Dee and Alexis Martin Neely. Learn About Dave & Alexis Newest Information – Click Here!
I am mentioned in more of Dave’s products than any of single individual. I was just listening to another of his very helpful products about email marketing and he mentioned me quite prominently and read some of my materials. He has done that on other occasions too.
Why is that?
Dave and I share a love of learning: learning from success, and then sharing those successes with others.
And I pay him when I learn from him. And he pays me when I help get people to learn from him. We know that what we pay for, we appreciate even more, and we work hard to use the information we learn.
Like me, Dave & Alexis help business owners, like you, who've already figured out how to bring revenue into your core business; leverage your business SYSTEMS, processes, and intellectual property; and then take what you’ve learned to help other people.
And if you learn how to do it and work at it, you can turn your “sideline” business into a 6 figure (or more) profit center within your business (by packaging the way you do things in your own business and licensing your way of doing things to non-competitors in your industry).
In this season of Independence Day, this could be the start of REAL independence in your life.
Here’s what I’ve learned through Dave & Alexis:
Read more on Business Marketing: 5-Step Formula to Add 6 Figures to Your Business THIS YEAR & Re-Ignite Your Passion While You Do It…
June 8, 2009
- Copywriting For Profit – Turning Your Words Into Gold
You, Too, Can Learn How To Turn Your Words Into Gold When Following Simple Steps To Profit
“Do You Struggle When You Write? Does It Seem Easy For Others But Not For You? Have You Dreamed About Turning Your Words Into Cash?” - Are you tired of spending hours on your website and blog and getting nowhere?
- Are you not building a relationship with people who might purchase something from you and they just pass you by?
- Are you losing money, taking steps backwards, and not growing a business that you have spent hours creating – making you nervous that you might lose your whole business?
Who Else Wants To Turn Their Words Into Emotional Responses By Buyers?
People often asked me, "Charlie, how can I write better so that after all my hard work, I can actually SELL my products and services?"
Like those asking me this, do you struggle when it comes time to write? Does it seem easy for others but not for you? Do you fear the time when you'll have something to sell but then you'll blow it when it comes to putting words in front of prospects?
You're not alone.
Other than Public Speaking, one of the things that most small business people fear is writing.
Even a blog like this one is a chore (painful chore!) for some people.
Believe me, I'm not a born writer. I didn't get A's in all my English classes. I haven't always enjoyed it or done well with it.
But once I learned how to do it, the fear fell away and my success started to rise.
After all, I sold more than $247 MILLION in real estate and most of it started with direct-mail pieces I sent out… so I had to be doing SOMETHING correctly.
Here's Why I Do So Well Now!
Several years ago I LEARNED Read more on Copywriting For Profit – Turning Your Words Into Gold…
June 1, 2009
- Social Marketing – You'd Think I Suggested PORNO The Way My Daughters Reacted
Even Old-Line Companies Are FINALLY Seeing The Value Of Social Marketing
OK… so they love to tease me. And I talk about marketing ALL the time.
One time, I even noticed that others at the table were each lifting their glass to drink at the same time. A bit odd until they did it over and over. And then I noticed that I was the drinking game – every time I said "marketing" or "Dan Kennedy," they took a drink.
So to have my two grown daughters (and my future son-in-law) teasing me at dinner wasn't odd… but they sure did overreact to what I had written.
We like to go out for dinner to celebrate, share time with each other, and welcome home a relative. This time it was Stacie's return from Boston (on her way to spend a few days in Washington, DC). So, we agreed to meet on a night when Liz and Chris weren't involved with The Sound of Music at Young People's Theatre Workshop (Liz helped direct and choreograph the production and Chris helps run the backstage area – and with EIGHTY kids in the show, the backstage NEEDS to be run!).
I sure took grief from them at dinner the other night. You'd think I had suggested PORNO by the way they reacted to one of my posts when I wrote on Facebook. We all cut short our posts to Twitter and our status on Facebook, but even acknowledging that, I don't see what is wrong with what I wrote.
Here's what I wrote before – see what you think:
Read more on Social Marketing – You'd Think I Suggested PORNO The Way My Daughters Reacted…
May 21, 2009
- Marketing Lessons From American Idol – Adam Lambert vs Kris Allen
American Idol is NOTHING if it isn't about Marketing – the whole thing is designed around making money… here are some lessons from the 2009 season
So… did the best man win?
Read more on Marketing Lessons From American Idol – Adam Lambert vs Kris Allen…
May 11, 2009
- Questions To Help Your Business Profit
When Preparing For A Consulting Meeting With An International Foundation, The Following Questions Were Asked
The following questions are modified for this post. But they are very similar to what I'm asking my consulting client.
Each of us needs to look at our business with fresh eyes (I guess that's why consultants like me get paid and why so many of us use Mastermind Groups to challenge our thinking and assumptions).
See how many of these can help YOUR business:
1. If someone is looking for you, what are they looking for? (Dig deep on this… if for photography, for instance, are they looking for pretty pictures OR are they looking to preserve memories. Are my marketing success clients looking for more leads OR are they looking to serve a specific market while producing 20% higher profits. See what I mean?)
2. How do you spread the word about what you do? What methods do you use to get the word out. Are you limiting yourself to ONE way of getting new business? Many of us feel that ONE is the worst number in business (one person inside your business knowing how to update your website, for example. Or one printer or one mail house – when they get busy or go out of business, THEN what do you do?)
3. How do you find “new” people? What do these “new” people primarily want from you? Are you attracting people to you OR are you hunting them down and trapping them like in the old wild wild west? You need information working for you 24/7 and if you don't have it, let's chat about how you can GET it.
4. What words do you use to describe what you do or what you are looking for? Are you narrowly focused with your "keywords" or are you attracting people who use "long-tail search terms"? (Examples: Marketing Consultant is a HUGE term with lots of results. But if you provide services to Read more on Questions To Help Your Business Profit…
May 4, 2009
- Twitter For Business: Top 37 Steps You Should Take Immediately
Twitter, When Used Correctly, Is A Great Part Of Your Marketing System
Too many people don’t understand how to use Twitter for business, but that hasn’t stopped them from blogging about it.
Twitter, the micro-blog that lets you send 140 characters across the Internet to anyone who has followed you (and then be resent (ReTweeted) by others), is a highly-targeted tool for marketers – and it works well with other social media marketing tools.
For those of us old enough to remember party-line telephones, it’s like listening into the conversations of your neighbors and then adding to their chat only when you have something that applies to them. No need to send messages about photography to people interested in politics or television. So in THIS way, Twitter lets you laser-target your messages.
For me (and I admit there are other ways to approach this), I have 10 Twitter accounts, each based around specific keywords. For some of my accounts I’m building a list of followers who are interested in businesses I already have operating. For others, I’m building lists around topics that interest me and will figure out later how I will monetize them.
After all, having a LIST of interested prospects is the most important part of marketing and running our businesses.
So, with that as prologue, here are my top 37 steps you should take immediately to use Twitter for your business.
Twitter: Get Set Up
1. Set up an account at Twitter.com, using a keyword phrase as your username. You have 14 characters, so be succinct. (Two of mine are UltimateWAHDads and PhotoCharlie)
2. Add some personal information to it – people like to do business with people they like and they like people who are like them.
3. Add a photo – not one of you and you cat, not one that twirls around (I guess those folks are trying to attract more attention, but most people find them distracting), but one of YOU that shows you clearly.
4. Add your business’s website URL (you DO have a website, right? If not, stop this, find another blog about setting up your own website that includes a lead generation name capture form, and come back to this one!).
5. Step away from your computer, grab a pad of paper, and write down at least FIFTY keywords someone might use to describe what you do and use when they search for someone like you in Google. Most people skip this step and never come back to it… and then wonder why they aren’t successful.
Read more on Twitter For Business: Top 37 Steps You Should Take Immediately…
April 24, 2009
- Marketing Power of Bit.ly – Use Bit.ly To Shorten And Track Your Links
Sharing With My Mastermind Group, I Want To Be Sure To Share With You Too
Thought I'd follow up about Bit.ly since I'm using it extensively and it has taken me a while to figure it out.
1. Did you see that TweetLater is now using Bit.ly? Nice endorsement for this sweet F*R*E*E product that shortens your links AND lets you track the results!
2. I was confused about HOW I could FIND the metrics once I shortened a link and used it in Tweets, blog posts, etc. Then I discovered the SEARCH capabilities – if you put your Bit.ly link in the Search box and press Enter, you get the graphs of how well you've done. HOWEVER, that is only what has been done on TWITTER. Still good info, but not all the info I want.
3. THEN… probing further, I found out how to find ALL the results. Just add a "+" after the link and you get all the info. Really sweet.
For instance, if you click http://bit.ly/me7q, you go to my Lead Generation Video on Lead Generation. (It's a Lead Gen free giveaway magnet designed to show people some of my knowledge and trade this 68 minutes of jammed-packed info for their name and email address.)
HOWEVER if you click http://bit.ly/me7q+ (notice the "+" at the end), you go to the page of all the metrics. And they can be VERY helpful.
I used to use Ad Trackers in 1ShoppingCart all the time so that I could see how well my campaigns were doing. HOWEVER, when 1SC would screw up, not work properly, fight with Comcast (my ISP) and blacklist a whole section of the US (which I used to discover even when even they didn't know it had happened), I couldn't find any metrics AND my site would shut down because my links wouldn't work. I'm hoping that Bit.ly (without the possibility of email blacklisting since it doesn't send emails for people) will be much more reliable.
Now… how do you know what your Bit.ly link is when you have HUNDREDS or THOUSANDS (as I now do)?
Read more on Marketing Power of Bit.ly – Use Bit.ly To Shorten And Track Your Links…
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