Purple Diamond Marketing Blog

When was the last time you submitted a press release about your business that got published or a social media post or blog that got a large response, or delivered a 30 second elevator speech to a group of business owners that had people asking to know more? Your message must tell a compelling story or offer a message that attracts attention and stands out from the rest.  Message magic with your marketing will help you to jump ahead of your competition, but it does not require “magic” to get great results.

The key to having a marketing message that engages your audience and gets results for your business requires 3 things!  First, you have to know what 3 benefits your product or  service offers.  Having a clear understanding of what value you offer and what needs your business satisfies is essential.  Second, you must know who your true target audience is for this product or service and where to reach them to deliver your message.  Finally, the third component to creating a message that gets noticed is to have strong writing and communication skills or be willing to hire a professional writer or marketing professional who can help you in this area.

To have a magical message that stays with people is much like the 4C’s of Purple Diamond.  Clarity requires a clear message. The cut must be above the rest. The color is rare and equals great wealth and the carat weight is always up to you!  Contact Purple Diamond if you want to take your marketing to another level.

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Charlene St. Jean, Purple Diamond LLC

Many businesses have added a blog feature to their company website as a way to help with their on-line rankings with Google and other search engine sites.  Blogging is an excellent way to enhance  your on-line marketing, but the comments that are received from people who visit your blog might be hurting your rankings if they are from sites that have a reputation of spamming.  There are automatic spam solutions that are built in to many blog formats, but often there is still a small percentage of creative spammers who get passed these filters.  For this reason you should always make sure that you have turned on the comment moderation option so that you actually review the posters’ comment before accepting and adding it to your site.  Another way to cut down on SPAM is to not allow any hyperlinks in the comments left or have only people who actually are listed as approved followers be able to leave comments.

When the Purple Diamond Marketing Blog was first launched I had a limited understanding of what were true comments or SPAM and I quickly got excited by the volume of comments being left on the site. Thankfully, I am surrounded by technical expertise and I quickly learned that what I was accepting for comments to my earliest articles were clear examples of SPAM and that I was hurting my site in rankings.  My technical team added the SPAM filters and instructed me on the importance of only accepting quality comments.  How do you know if a comment is a quality comment or SPAM? Well, if the comment is a random comment that is not specific to the content of your blog article or it is an advertisement for a product it is safe to say that this is a spam comment and should not be allowed on your site.  Some SPAMMERS use more sophisticated programs and offer comments that might be linked to keywords in your article or on your blog so be sure that the comment has direct meaning to the posted article they have commented on.  An example recently that I received that was clear SPAM started off with this message: ” I always read jewellry related blogs, but your blog contains nice information about jewellry”. Beyond the spelling error of the word “jewelry” within this comment, anyone who reads my Purple Diamond Marketing Blog articles know that it has nothing to do with jewelry.  “Purple Diamond” is  the name of my advertising agency/marketing coaching business, but my messages are geared towards offering helpful information about marketing.

The key to successful blogging as a marketing tool is to build interest in your company and the readership to your blog while offering a platform to interact with existing and potential customers.  Comments that are posted that will pull down your rankings because search engine sites identify them as sources that are sending bulk junk messages to numerous blogging sites will detract from your sites ability to come up higher in searches.  Be sure to have SPAM filters in place and delete any SPAM comments that get passed the filters that do not directly relate to your article!

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Blog Blog Blog is it Blah Blah Blah? Do you really need to blog? If your company  does, are you blogging consistently or do you find yourself with limited time and no staff to help you market your business with blogging?  And, if you do blog consistently is your target market finding your blog? With businesses scrambling to end 2010 with as many sales as possible and looking ahead to 2011 to see what marketing efforts worked and what needs to be added for the New Year, I look at the Purple Diamond Marketing Blog to see if this was a productive use of my time.

My objective when starting my Purple Diamond Marketing Blog was to learn more about the process of blogging and see where it would benefit my clients.  This objective was successful in that I not only learned how to set-up a blog, maintain and improve my site, collect data and analyze  stats to determine the best times of day to post blogs,  but it also gave me insights to the number of hours necessary to produce and promote a blog.  All of this information I was able to pass on to my clients, use it to assist them with their own blogging, and also use as a revenue source with speaking engagements for Purple Diamond.

This is all great for my company, but can YOUR business benefit with blogging consistently? I answer this question with a question……do you have something of value to offer a targeted audience?  If you say no and do not believe you have a message to share about your business or product, then the New Year might be the year to contact a professional to help you determine if your business is viable in today’s market.  Beyond the obvious mechanical plus to blogging that you will be noticed more by search engines with a site that is constantly updating and adding new content,  blogging is a powerful way to reach your potential targeted market with a message they are choosing to hear over being bombarded with cold calls, email blasts, advertisements and other attempts to get them to notice your company or product.  If you consistently write and promote your blog to your targeted audience, the process of selling prospects your services or products gets easier.  Even if you call on a potential prospect that has never followed your blog, referring them to the blog and having them see a site that has numerous articles and positive comments about the content will increase your chances of landing the account.  You are able to offer detailed information as to why your product or service is the best choice.

New technology offers new ways to market your business.  As you plan the New Year and your marketing strategy for 2011 and beyond, it is really important that your business considers the new ways to market your message using this technology and what may have worked in the past.  So, my New Year’s advice to businesses that are not having the sales they wished they had, look closely at what is working and what you still need to add to your marketing mix!

With a flood of information coming to people daily via texting and tweeting, email marketing, posts from social networking sites and specific on-line groups, print ads and flyers,  radio spots, TV commercials, etc….the need for you to repeat your message again and again and again is more important than ever before in business! Even a mailed wedding invitation, as I found out recently when planning my daughter’s wedding, does not get the same attention it did in years past because our life has gone from highway speeds of 55mph to speeds that are dangerously reckless and cluttered with drivers who are busy texting while racing to and from life.  And, whether we agree or not with this new communication  lifestyle that is very cluttered, it doesn’t really matter, you still need to promote your business marketing message in a way that will be heard and produce positive results!

“Repetition is key!”, this is a well-known phrase that anyone in advertising will share.  Whether you are doing TV commercials or radio spots or any traditional form of advertising, the schedule’s effectiveness depends upon the message standing out and the frequency of it being heard or seen. It used to be standard that it took 3-5 times for a person to see a TV commercial before they recognized that they saw the spot…..that was when life was simpler and a person wasn’t multi-tasking while watching TV.  Today we are on Facebook, tweeting on our cell phones and reading emails all while watching our favorite TV shows so if you are using any of these ways to reach your potential market you need to understand that one message just won’t be heard.  Don’t think because you posted one announcement on your Linkedin page, created an event page on Facebook  or spread the word on Twitter that everyone knows about a business event you are hosting on a certain day.  You need to post the message many times in the weeks to come on many different social networking sites, hand out numerous flyers, email more than once about it, and if your budget allows it needs to be promoted on radio, TV and print!  Send that message “again and again and again” because repetition and a creative message is the only way to cut through the noise and flood of information that each person has in their life today.  Being nice and not wanting to bombard people with your message leads to poor sales or an event that is not well attended.  Leave the politeness to your competitor because the businesses that are succeeding get their message out by sending it over and over again.  Think of the TV commercials that you say you are sick of seeing….these are the businesses that are getting top sales.  You cannot afford to be shy in business.  If you have an important message you need to be ready to do all that it takes to be heard.  Use everything you can to reach potential clients on-line and in person and be sure to reach them more than once.  And, if you still have not jumped in to using the internet effectively to help promote your business be sure to contact a marketing coach who can teach you how to be successful on-line.

All my best to your success!

~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

This past Saturday my daughter was married at the Crestview in Woburn, MA and as I posted many of the photos of the day to my Facebook page I thought about how we planned the event so that it would be memorable to all who attended.  The bride’s outfit and hair a perfect picture for a magical day for all to remember, the special readings at the service, the funny jokes that were said during the vows,  the delicious appetizers and meals, the cake so pretty you almost didn’t want to cut it, the  white roses that were placed everywhere,  the music that got everyone dancing and commenting on what a great selection,  and as a lasting reminder beyond the photos each  guest went home with a favor gift of a horse and carriage frame that represented the fairy tale wedding that they just attended…..each detail planned for one special day so that the wedding would be one all would remember in a positive way! This is what GREAT marketing is all about…..being MEMORABLE!

How memorable is your business? When you attend a chamber event or reconnect with someone via the phone or on-line do they remember who you are or do you have to remind them of where you met? Can they say your tag-line or identify your brand from a few times of meeting you? Do you get phone calls, website visits, or orders after you have launched a marketing campaign? Though some of us prefer to remain private in our personal life  being memorable as a business is the core element to success.  You need to share the story of your company in a way that prospects will remember you. The best TV commercials or radio jingles are the ones you hear others recite from memory. When I walk in to a business function and several business owners recite my tagline of  “Success wears the Purple Diamond” and they comment on my purple outfit and then ask me about my marketing coaching services or the latest TV campaign I have done for a client I know that I am making a lasting impression. My brand of helping business owners be successful is catching on rapidly for a business that is just 2 years old.

So, if you are wondering if you are memorable as a business, test to see if you are by attending a networking event this week  in which you have had an opportunity to say your elevator speech and mingle with other business owners that you have never met for at least 20 minutes.  Leave the event with a handful of business cards. Wait a couple of days and then make some phone calls to see if anyone connected with you. If you find that you are spending more time on the phone reminding them of the conversation you had at the networking event or retelling them your name and all about your business then it might be a red flag that you are not memorable as a business or business owner.  If this keeps happening you may wish to consider working with a marketing coach to help you create a story about your business that will be memorable and lasting and have people wanting to call YOU!

All my best to your success!

~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

*Congratulations to my daughter Nicole and my new son-in-law Richard on their new marriage. The day, 3-6-2010,  was one I will NEVER forget!!!

Are you the first person to talk in every conversation? Do you think your listening skills are pretty good because you let the other person speak? If you are busy waiting to jump in with your own thoughts chances are you never heard anyone else’s conversation. The best business owners and sales reps have developed excellent listening skills. They understand that even the words people are saying may not be the complete message. Hearing the person’s complete message, recognizing body language that gives another message, and tracking the speaker on what they are saying by repeating their message back to be sure you are clear on what they are saying and validate that you are listening will help you to be successful.

The first year I was working in TV advertising I almost made the rookie mistake of “thinking” I knew what the client wanted to spend for his advertising campaign. I failed to do a complete “needs analysis” and my eagerness to please this important client had me create a proposal that was 10% of what he actually wanted to spend. Thankfully, I was with a more seasoned account executive who told me to keep the proposal in my briefcase and wait to hear more of what the client wanted for networks and what he wanted to accomplish with the campaign. I had learned so much from watching the other sales rep and from listening to the client that I never made the mistake of trying to “sell” a person again. My approach shifted to hearing more about their business and what they wanted to achieve. If what they needed matched my skills or what I had to offer then it didn’t require selling because it sold itself.

Listening is essential when you are with a customer, but it is also key when you are working with your banker, accountant, lawyer, marketing coach or business consultant. The professionals in these areas have so much knowledge that will benefit your business, but if you are too busy talking during your meeting or you choose to see yourself as knowing everything there is no room for growth. A person is not teachable when they believe they are already taught. I regularly attend seminars for marketing and advertising because I recognize that no one knows everything and to stay on top of my profession I need to be open to listening to others.

Finally, if you are not quite sure of what someone is talking about it is important that you ask questions. Leaving a room with a question still pending because you didn’t voice it will drain your energy with worry, limit the connection you have with the other person and keep you from gaining what you need to be the best at what you do. Listen and learn and gain the success you are looking for in your field!

All my best to your success!
Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”