The results of traditional marketing have long been tracked and no one questions that having a creative TV commercial for your business that runs during a popular show or on a sports network during an important game gets your message out to the masses rapidly, but where are the profit margin numbers for Facebook or Twitter?  We can track clicks on many on-line banner advertisements and the traffic to our websites and blogs, but unless you are paying for an ad on Facebook you are left with only the weekly report of how popular your business page is, so how do you know?  The truth is that right now you actually don’t know for sure other than the incredible testimonials that small businesses with no advertising budgets have shared with others on how they have grown their business from a grass roots campaign on Facebook and Twitter.  My own company has had great success through social media marketing and I am presently helping many of my clients go boldly forward with adding this to their marketing mix.

When I hear from local businesses that they do not have time for social media marketing or they doubt the impact of using Facebook or Twitter, I am reminded of the early years of my selling TV commercials in the local market to the owners of car dealerships.  I had  a tough time convincing the owners of car dealerships to consider running TV ads on the local cable channels like CNN, USA and ESPN because they were convinced that all they needed was a newspaper ad since they saw many of their customers bringing in the ad when looking at cars.  How could a customer  carry the TV commercial in the door to prove the effectiveness of television advertising to the car dealership owners?    I needed to help them see that an ad with  “site, sound and motion”, that didn’t cost more than what they were spending in the papers,  could be very powerful in helping to sell cars.  Do you remember in 1998 when Volkswagen reintroduced the “Beetle”, they used television ads that moved people and got them excited again about the VW Bug which had tremendous impact on selling a retired old brand of automobile in a new fun way!

So, like the local auto dealers years ago who struggled with taking some of their advertising dollars from the newspapers and boldly buying commercial time on ESPN, USA, CNN and other great networks, today you have to ask yourself why you have not jumped in to using social media marketing with your traditional advertising.  If you need to have years of statistics to prove that this will enhance your brand and ultimately help you to sell more of your products, then you may find that you miss your window of opportunity to get out ahead of your competitors and gain market share.  And, by the way, the local car dealers who moved quickly years ago in buying cable TV advertisements saw that they did significantly better than the ones who only used the newspaper.

All my best to your success!~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

The key to marketing is to help people remember YOU and to connect what you do with something they need or want!  A picture in the business section of the newspaper, a press release or an ad in the paper is just a small part of the strategy that smart business owners employ.  It is the additional press that comes from strategically using Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and other sites to bring that one article or photo to the attention of others in a way that shares a story about your business and why doing business with you is special.  Never over look the power of having business friends via Facebook or Linkedin who share your message and recommend your work.  Just by stating that they are a client is their own endorsement of your brand! And, the newspapers understand this and that is why they have created their own “Fans or Like” pages on Facebook and have set-up on-line articles that can be shared quickly and they encourage their readers to post their own views and comments.   On-line banner ads that link directly to a business website and the new commercial video ads are starting to get the attention of the business community and their potential clients.  Newspapers, once thought of as a thing of the past, are stepping up by using the internet strategically to get the attention of both the readers and the business community.  If you have not been in the paper lately, perhaps it is time to consider submitting a press release with a photo or taking out an ad that will be seen in both their paper version and on-line site.

All my best to your success! ~ Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

Like dieting, you understand the importance of taking care of your health and maintaining a healthy weight and eating right is all part of that.  Blogs are the same, they can have a tremendous impact for the health of your business in that it allows you to communicate and build a loyal following to the brand of your business without spending money on advertisement that most consumers are trying to avoid.  The blog gives you a voice and also consistent traffic to your website that could lead to more business and it also helps your site with popularity ratings which improves your status or ranking with on-line searches.  However, not everyone is blogging or those who are may not be consistent and this reminds me of dieting [something I have done most of my life without too much success].  Right after the New Year you meet so many excited dieters who have dreams of fitting in to a smaller bathing suit by spring or losing some weight and feeling healthier. The local weight loss groups are standing room only and the advertisement on TV is filled with the latest and greatest diets and exercise equipment that will bring you instant success on the road to being healthy, or so they claim.

Does everyone fail at diets or having a blog? No! The key to being successful at both is to develop a system that will work for you in that you incorporate the new activity in your daily life.  This blog post is being written at 5am and if I went to the athletic club I know I would find people working out before they are heading to work or at the end of their busy work day.  For the serious blogger and dieter, finding a time that works for your schedule to include the new activity helps you to be successful.  You have to plan for blogging even though the activity does not require much preparation other than having an idea to write about and access to your WordPress account or whatever program you are using for your blog.  However, please know that I have seen many serious minded business owners vow to post regularly on their blog and when I check their sites the last entry is far from current because it just has not become the priority to the day to day operation of their business.  To blog consistently you have to be willing to schedule time to write the post much like eating healthy or working out at a health club.  Unless you have been writing your entire life this new activity will be challenging on days that you are busy [what day are you not busy?] and on days when you are handling big projects with lots of added stress that inhibits your ability to come up with a new blog topic to post about.

The one thing I will say to those who have started a blog and now realize that you just are not cut out for blogging or do not have the resources to hire someone who will write your blog for your business, ask your web designer to remove the active link or tab on your home page to your blog.  Having your website indicate that there is a blog and allowing people to click on to the site and see the last entry was 6 or 8 months ago is not helping your business.  And, for those who are reading this and want to have a blog you have to know when you will have time to actually write the posts. You may love to work out in the early mornings which shows you can keep to a schedule and are committed to remaining healthy, but when will you write your blog posts to keep you business blog healthy and up to date? The key to success in blogging is having time in your schedule to commit to blogging or being willing, as I do, to get up early in the morning or work later in the evening to create a new entry to my blog.

All my best to your success!

~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

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!!!

Til this past week I didn’t honestly think anyone did this on their company blog, but I found out it is quite common and something that laws were created to protect….using other people’s articles without their written permission on YOUR blog .  Now, I am not talking about taking a short quote and placing it in your blog or adding a hyperlink to someone’s website where more information is found, I have seen blogs that people unknowingly grabbed an article of interest and posted the entire article in their blog with the name of the author listed.  YIKES!  If you are doing this you need to stop unless you have written consent from the author.  When I started my blog a few months ago I was actually asked by another blogger if he could grab articles to post to his site and I gave him written permission in an email as long as he gave me credit for the work.   I knew the purpose of my blog was to help business people be successful and having other bloggers post my articles would be in-line with my mission statement so permission was granted.  However, many bloggers are trying to build their own brand and traffic to their website and are not wanting their work posted as a way to build another site. So, there is a copyright law out there to protect them and was passed in 1978 that protects their written work that is posted on the internet even if you do not see a copyright notice and it has some heavy finds attached to it.  [note: I am not a lawyer so please review this with yours to verify this information and learn more.]

I am assuming many of the bloggers that I see who are posting other people’s work are not aware of the laws. They might be new to on-line social networking and have a Twitter account and see people Re-Tweet links or they are on Facebook and have used the share option to take what one person has posted and then re-post it on their own profile page, so they get the impression that everything on the internet is FREE and there to share.   Building your brand with a blog is powerful, but if you are using someone’s thoughts to offer information you are not helping your business. To gain market share and to be seen as a expert in your field requires you to have your own thoughts and offer your own expertise.  If the reason you are posting articles from someone else is because you are too busy to create your own, then I suggest you either get written permission from the author, make time for blogging by prioritizing it in your work week, hire a staff blogger, hire a ghost writer, or take the blog off-line until you have this problem solved.  The last thing you need is to ruin the business reputation you have built by using someone’s work without permission.

All my best to your success!

~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

All my best to your success!

~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

With easy-to-use templates and high quality printers, having a professional marketing brochure for your business is a smart investment provided you are actively giving the brochure to potential clients and placing them at key areas within your business community like the local chamber office. Be sure that your brochure reflects your company image and offers a marketing message that clearly defines what the benefits of doing business with you are, will hold the reader’s attention, has a call to action and offers all contact information. The brochure must compliment all your other marketing material including your website so be sure to match colors, themes, logo, tag-line, etc. If you are struggling with understanding your brand and your marketing materials look like they were thrown together without any rhyme or reason, please hire a professional who can make your marketing message effective and stimulate sales.

All my best to your success!
~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”

When I meet a client for an initial meeting I often ask them to show me what they have used in the past for marketing materials. We look at the website, business cards, brochures if they have them and anything that a potential client or current customer may see. That includes and email signature and company letterhead. If there has been an advertising agency or marketing firm affiliated with the client, there is a good chance that most of the materials carry the identity of the company in a consistent way. However, if the business has not had the expertise of a professional who understands how valuable it is to have all materials uniformed with their logo, Company Name, color & fonts, and tagline consistent, then we work on developing the “uniform” for their business and helping the consumer to see them, do business with them and remember where to reach them for future sales.

So, does your business have a consistent “uniform”? Quick check is to look to see if your business cards, letterhead, email signature and website all have the same logo, colors, tagline and fonts for the lettering of your business name. If you have a blue business card, but your website is brown and most of your marketing material is red…..YIKES, call me! That is equal to needing a trip to the emergency room because you have several broken limbs. You might have had a business that survived without consistent image and marketing materials, but look at the most successful businesses today and you will be able to identify their logo and products just by the packaging and taglines they use so why fight having this for your own business?

Increase the odds for success and contact a marketing or advertising agency to help you create your business identity and marketing message!

All my best to your success!
~Charlene

“Success wears the Purple Diamond!”