Monthly Archives: June 2011

Business, Marketing

Are Your Doors Open?

It seems such a simple question, but are the doors to your business open? Are you diversified in your advertisement portfolio or have you placed all your hopes and dreams into one basket? Just as with stock investments, the advertising for your business needs to be in more than one stream.

Socialize

Social media sites are a great way to get your business heard. From Facebook to MySpace to Twitter, these sites can help target a niche audience. Though powerful, this is just one stream for your ads. Create fan pages for your business. Make a twitter profile to promote. Are you your business? Are you your brand? These social sites are even more powerful. Build your brand and your web presence at the same time. A two-fer. Learn the edicate expectations of these venues and get started.

Search Engines (SEO)

Yes, the Google algorithm keeps changing and it does seem to be a moving target, but search engines are still a good way to drive traffic for your business. Don’t enter SEO alone, but be careful. There are many hucksters out there who will gladly separate you from your money and give you no traffic results. A good one? Start with LinkNetworker.

Articles

Article marketing is a bit of a hybrid strategy. Posting to numerous article sites not only builds brand awareness and expertise, but it also creates more links to your site which also increases your SEO. More than just words, it shows you and your brand in context and creates greater depth.

Success Training

Ok great, but what about personal development? What about working on me as my brand? Get some serious success training. Dani Johnson is a great resource for such training. Affordable and accessible, Dani’s style is down to earth and direct. Her story is incredibly inspirational. She helps many people in all lines of businesses.

Offline Marketing

Having an Internet based business is not a reason to forget about offline marketing. Who hasn’t heard those radio spots for some do-ra-me.com or work-hard-and-fast.com? This can be a great way to generate leads for your business. This may also create a chance to lead share, depending on the type of business you have.

Now how are your doors? Are they closed or way wide open? Diversify your ad streams and they will stay wide open.

Marketing

Seven Tips for Video Marketing

So, you want to get into video marketing. Getting a good camera is easy enough. Setting up a YouTube channel is not too difficult and there are many free themes and layouts available. Making your presence known by commenting on the videos of others, subscribing to other channels and finding favorites just takes time. But what to shoot? What about guidelines? What about getting a pro to do it? Well, here are seven tips of video marketing.

Know Your Audience

For whom are you making the video? What would they expect to see and hear? This is the first step. Do your homework on your audience. It will guide your content, attire, mood, tone and style.

Appropriate Location and Attire

If you ware making a video on how to rule the sand in beach volleyball, clearly wearing a three piece suit and white-boarding plays and techniques in a conference room will not be appropriate. On the other hand, if you are providing business advice or opportunity, an office space and business clothing will be expected. Choose wisely and keep your audience in mind.

Plan Your Words and Actions

Just hitting record and starting to talk over your topic will not get the response you want. You will tend to ramble and forget information. Plan what you want to say. Think about your topic and write an outline. Is the topic too large? Do you need to do more than one? Knowing your topic and what you want to say will help you determine flow and keep your audience’s interest. While writing every word may not be necessary, it can help. Practice your monologue. This will help your delivery, especially if you are nervous about being on camera.

Have Subdued Enthusiasm

Sitting there speaking as though you are a robot will not work well. Neither will speaking with so much enthusiasm that you come across as phoney. No puking into the microphone. Understand and practice the appropriate level of enthusiasm for your topic and audience. A video about new cheer leading moves should probably have more enthusiasm as a business opportunity, but keep it real. Boring your audience will turn them away just as quickly as lack of authenticity.

Be Yourself

Another layer to acceptance and belief by your audience is being yourself. You want to connect with them on your level, so don’t fake it. Don’t say you are an expert on a subject when you are not. Don’t make claims about yourself that are not true and don’t try to take on someone else’s personality. Light on a subject? Study up. Seek some advice and learn. After all, this is YOUR video, so own it.

Uniqueness

Unless your video is over some absolutely new discovery, chances are someone else (or many such) has do a video on the same or very similar topic. To be seen in all the noise, find a way to make yours unique. This can be done in the location, your delivery, appearance or approach. If appropriate, perhaps be silly: wear a brightly colored wig, film sideways, do it all handheld in first person, shoot in black and white, etc. See what others have done and let it inspire you into new directions.

Own It

Most importantly, take all the tips and own your interpretations. Make the video yours and yours alone. Own the results. Apply your stamp and let the world hear you.

This post can now be seen on YouTube: 7 Tips for Video Marketing

Business, Commentary

Do Your Business In 3D

It seems that Hollywood is a buzz with 3D movies these days. It is a bit of a hard sell to the public. Many are the interviews stating this is not the 3D tech of yesterday, this is better. Yeah, maybe. Makers of televisions are also starting to make 3D sets using various schemes, all of them expensive. Nintendo also makes a 3D DS. It seems all the world has gone crazy for 3D!

Your business should also be conducted in 3D. Yes, we do see in 3 dimensions, but here the D’s do not stand for dimensions. They stand for Drive, Desire and Determination. Some might call the the 3D’s of success. Perhaps others would label them as the 3D’s of sustainability. Whichever the label, they are three D’s that are necessary.

Drive
This is what gets you up you going. This is “thing” that pushes you, no matter what happens. Without drive, your business will stale, lose steam, lose power. It is the motivating factor. It is how you are in business.

Desire
Without desire, you have no why. You have no reason to be in business. You will be without direction and purpose. Without desire, there is no meaning to open your doors. There is no lasting value.

Determination
Feeling down? Very large obstacles in your way? Nothing but gloom and doom on the horizon? It is determination that applies the drive to the task; applies desire to results. Without determination, problems cannot be overcome as they will be seen as too large. It is determination that sees things through to the end. It uses the other two to keep going, to get results, to get success. It puts you back on course. It levels yours thoughts. It allows yourself to be moved.

The three D’s of business are all important and necessary. Together, they lead you to success. Miss just one and your journey will not be complete. They are intertwined and essential. They feed off one another. They make a whole. They blend to form a more complete result, steadfast and wrong. They are one.