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5 Reasons Why the Fortune is in Your List
Guest Author: Jessica Swanson
You’ve probably heard time and time again the old marketing adage “the fortune is in your list.” Whether or not you’re familiar with this motto, the truth of the matter is that there is truly no better way to build your small business.
No matter what small business you operate, you need to take the time to build a targeted list of interested prospects and satisfied customers. The most effective way to accomplish this is to have a simple opt-in form on the first page of your website that offers your prospect a free and valuable gift in exchange for their name and email address. This gift can be a special report, ezine subscription or downloadable ebook.
Once a prospect has supplied you with their information, you’re able to continue to market to them over and over again. Here are five ways to market to interested prospects who have agreed to receive additional information from you.
1) You are able to keep in front of your prospects.
In today’s noisy and chaotic world, your prospects need to see your offer between seven and twelve times before they even take notice of you. That means you must keep yourself, your brand and product or service in front of them as much as possible. Obviously, you don’t want to spam them or aggressively shove your offer down their throat. You simply want to let them know that you are available as a solution to their problem.
This can be accomplished through automated email marketing and/or ezine marketing. If they receive interesting and informative information from you several times each week, they’ll begin to take notice of you.
2) You can continue the conversation to build your expertise.
It’s crucially important that you market to your list in a variety of ways. If your prospect receives articles, blog posts, podcasts, ezines and press releases from you, it won’t take long before they conclude that you are an expert in your particular field.
Once you’re perceived as an expert, your prospect will see you as their “go-to” person. Your goal is to position yourself as the only person that your prospect will approach once they’re ready to make a purchase in your particular niche.
3) You are able to invite your prospects to special events.
Once you begin building your list, you should invite your prospects to important events and promotions that highlight your product or service. As an example, once each month, I offer a free webinar to all prospects who are part of my list.
Those who decide to attend my webinar receive a valuable training session on a free marketing strategy. This, of course, continues to build my reputation as an expert in my field. At the end of the event, my attendees are given the option to sign up for one of my products or services.
4) You can send out coupons, promotions and special offers.
When you have a list of prospects who are interested in your products or services, you can periodically entice them to do business with you by offering coupons, promotions and other specials. You can extend one-day only discounts, free trials or complimentary consultations.
Oftentimes, it simply takes an enticing offer for those “fence-sitters” to cross over to the other side. Experiment with special promotions and track which ones bring in the most sales.
5) You can sell additional products and services.
Not only do you want to build a list of prospects, you want to have an additional list of your current customers and/or clients. Research suggests that 20% of your satisfied customers will purchase from you again if they have the opportunity. Since your current customers have already decided to do business with you, they already trust you and are much more apt to purchase from you again. So, make sure to present them with plenty of opportunities.
Ultimately, a list of targeted prospects and current customers is your small businesses greatest asset. Your list allows you to increase brand awareness, continue your conversations, position yourself as an expert and offer special incentives to both your prospects and current customers. It won’t take long before you realize that your fortune does indeed reside in your list.
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Jessica Swanson, “The Shoestring Marketer,” has helped entrepreneurs, all over the world, explode their businesses using cutting-edge, proven and completely free marketing strategies. To receive your FREE Shoestring Marketing Kit, which has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, just like you, learn the exact techniques for marketing their businesses for no-cost, visit: www.ShoestringMarketingKit.com
What Losing Weight and Marketing Have in Common
Guest Author: Jessica Swanson
Have you ever struggled with losing those last ten, twenty or even fifty pounds? If you’re like most Americans, the constant battle to lose weight is a full-time job!
Here’s my own personal “weight” ordeal. I was always naturally thin and one of those people who never had to worry about my weight, until last November.
Then I had my appendix out. I gained ten pounds instantly and diet and exercise didn’t help a bit. (And believe me, turning forty wasn’t exactly making things any easier.)
So, over the past several months, it’s been a constant battle between me and those stubborn, little ten pounds. Unfortunately, it seems like the pounds are here to stay.
But, I’m the first to admit that I have plenty of excuses as to why I can’t lose weight. I’m too busy with work, I don’t have time to make a healthy lunch or I’m just too tired.
In my constant battle to lose weight, I’ve noticed that there are more similarities between marketing a business and losing weight than I could have ever imagined.
Here are a few lessons I’ve learned in the past several months:
1. It won’t happen overnight.
Whether it’s losing those last fifteen pounds or moving your small business into the six-figure mark, there’s no such thing as “get rich quick” (or “get thin quick”). It’s going to take effort.
Decide right now that you are not going to expect a miracle. You are simply going to work hard and do whatever it takes to succeed.
2. It’s all about forming good habits.
If you want to lose weight then you have to form healthy habits because there’s certainly no magic cure. At the end of the day, it’s all about exercising and refraining from eating three extra brownies for dessert.
It’s the same with marketing. If you want to succeed, then you have to write that blog post (even when you’re not in the mood), write a press release (even if you have a headache) and put together your sales letter (even if your favorite TV show is on).
3. Think long-term.
Patience, perseverance and tenacity are the name of the game. When it comes to dieting, research suggests that slow and steady weight loss (no more than two pounds a week), helps individuals keep their weight off long-term.
It’s the same with marketing. If you make a point to engage in some form of marketing every single day (even if it’s just a quick thirty minutes), the possibility of success greatly increases. Your marketing motto should be “slow, steady and always moving forward.”
So, at the end of the day, both the expansion of our small business and the reduction of our waist size is up to us. We need to decide that we are going to attack and conquer by understanding that nothing happens overnight, forming good habits and thinking long-term success.
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Jessica Swanson, “The Shoestring Marketer,” has helped entrepreneurs, all over the world, explode their businesses using cutting-edge, proven and completely free marketing strategies. To receive your FREE Shoestring Marketing Kit, which has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, just like you, learn the exact techniques for marketing their businesses for no-cost, visit: www.ShoestringMarketingKit.com
Drive Your Way To Social Media Success
Guest Author: Jessica Swanson
I have a sixteen year old daughter, Alex, so you know what that means. Yep…learning to drive.
And, let me be the first to tell you that it’s no easy task being the proud parent of a child with a learner’s permit. The first few driving lessons were filled with tears, frustration, arguments and hands thrown dramatically up into the air. The bottom line is that it wasn’t a pretty picture.
But, through A LOT of patience and persistence, we’re slowly, but surely, almost to the required 50 hours so that she can take her driver’s test and become a bonafide Illinois state driver.
And, since I’ve had hours of time to contemplate life while Alex drives me through the streets of the Chicagoland area, I’ve also decided that learning to drive and learning social media are really the same process.
1. Practice makes perfect. You can read all you want about how to drive or how to become an expert in social media. But at the end of the day, it’s all about “doing it.” You’re not going to learn Twitter from a book; you’re going to learn Twitter once you actually get on Twitter and start Tweeting.
2. You’ve got to rake in the hours. Many small business owners mistakenly believe that they’ll jump into social media and shine brighter than the North Star. But, after the first few days they’re horrified to find out that they didn’t generate any followers, friends, connections or (gulp) sales. So they walk away in disgust.
Social media takes time. It’s not an overnight solution. However, if you consistently and diligently put in the hours, you’ll be rewarded with loads of followers, friends, connections, leads and yes, sales.
3. Drive through your frustration. During the initial phases of social media, there’s a learning curve. (Think back to those first days of driving!) You’re going to feel like a fish out of water, gasping for air. The third day my daughter had her learner’s permit, she backed into a bush in our driveway and swore that she was never driving again.
However, you have to drive through those feelings of inferiority and frustration. That’s the only way that you can make it to the other side.
So, go ahead and dive into the pool of social media. But, if you don’t want to drown, practice, rake in the hours and drive through your frustration. It won’t take long before you’re a bonafide social media expert.
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Jessica Swanson, “The Shoestring Marketer,” has helped entrepreneurs, all over the world, explode their businesses using cutting-edge, proven and completely free marketing strategies. To receive your FREE Shoestring Marketing Kit, which has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, just like you, learn the exact techniques for marketing their businesses for no-cost, visit: www.ShoestringMarketingKit.com
Who’s Jumping On Your Small Business Bandwagon?
Guest Author: Jessica Swanson
I want you to think back to the mid-19thcentury for just a minute.
Envision the P.T. Barnum and Bailey Circus marching through your streets. Cymbals are clashing, horns are blaring and the circus workers are sweeping cheering bystanders into their decorated bandwagons.
These circus processions weren’t just for fun. P.T. Barnum trained his workers to attract paying customers with a razzmatazz of glitz and glamour. He was a masterful marketer and he knew a thing or two about getting customers to jump on his bandwagon.
If P.T. Barnum were to stand in front of you today, he’d most likely demand, “What are YOU doing to ensure that paying customers are jumping on your bandwagon?”
And, as you likely know, it’s not such an easy question to answer. In today’s over-crowded, wildly competitive marketplace, your prospects have the choice of jumping on a variety of band-wagons.
So, how can you ensure that YOUR band-wagon is the one they choose? Let’s take a few cues from Mr. P.T. Barnum himself:
1. Think big. As Barnum once said, “If I shoot for the sun, I may hit a star.”
Even if you’re a local mom and pop shop in Hicksville, Indiana, you can still think BIG. If your thinking is completely local-minded, you’re leaving good money on the table. How can you use the internet to capture more customers? How can you expand? How can you sell additional products and services to your existing customers? You need to think big to get big.
2. Treat your customers well. Barnum suggests, “Men who drive sharp bargains with their customers, acting as if they never expected to see them again, will not be mistaken. They will never see them again as customers. People don’t like to pay and get kicked also.”
As a small business owner, your customers are your greatest asset. If you treat them like royalty, they’ll remain forever loyal, purchase from you again and become your biggest fans. Insist on giving your customers more than they bargained for; in turn, your customers will make you a success story.
3. Get friendly with the media. Barnum knows that, “Without promotion a terrible thing happens…nothing!”
Barnum was a master of public relations. He knew that it was infinitely more important what others said about him than what he could say about himself. As a small business owner, befriend the media, send out press releases and get quoted in your local newspapers. Good PR campaigns have skyrocketed the profits of many small business owners.
4. Don’t skimp on marketing. Barnum warns that, “Advertising is like learning…a little is a dangerous thing.”
As a small business owner, you may find that marketing is last on your long list of “to-do’s.” But, if that’s the case, your business isn’t going to survive too long. It takes a persistent and consistent marketing campaign to gain visibility, generate leads and make sales in our over-crowded marketplace.
5. Work hard. As Barnum points out, “Ambition, energy, industry, perseverance, are indispensable requisites for success in business.”
Small business success doesn’t happen overnight. Ever. It’s an accumulation of dedication, hard-work and passion. Unfortunately, the high-rate of business failure suggests that many entrepreneurs give up when the going gets tough. If you’re determined to be a success story than promise yourself that you won’t give up.
As you implement a bit of P.T. Barnum’s philosophy into your small business, you’ll soon find loads of paying customers happily jumping into your bandwagon.
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Jessica Swanson, “The Shoestring Marketer,” has helped entrepreneurs, all over the world, explode their businesses using cutting-edge, proven and completely free marketing strategies. To receive your FREE Shoestring Marketing Kit, which has helped thousands of entrepreneurs, just like you, learn the exact techniques for marketing their businesses for no-cost, visit: www.ShoestringMarketingKit.com
Hardwiring That Can Lead to Bad Decisions
Scientists have identified five ways in which we are hardwired that strongly influence how we think and make decisions. We may not even be aware that we are using these shortcuts to make decisions because they are subconscious or intuitive to us. Becoming aware of our biases can help us make better decisions.
Rational versus Emotional?
Psychologist and political scientist Herbert Simon in 1957 laid the groundwork on the limits of rationality when he attacked classical economics and game theory. Simon’s work made it clear that we must take the real world’s messiness and irrationality into account when making decisions.
“Research indicates that people are myopic in their decisions, may lack skill in predicting their future tastes, and can be led to erroneous choices by fallible memory and incorrect evaluations of past experiences,” wrote psychologist and Nobel Prize laureate Daniel Kahneman.
Neuroscientific research also proves that the brain is influenced by subconscious emotional reactions from its more primitive centers. We’re not in control of our reasoning capabilities as much as we’d like to think.
Scientists have identified several hidden currents and forces that affect our judgment. They include:
Loss aversion – our tendency to go to great lengths to avoid possible losses
Commitment – our tendency to stick with the status quo
Value attribution - our inclination to imbue a person or thing with certain qualities based on initial perceived value
Diagnosis bias – our blindness to all evidence that contradicts our initial assessment of a person or situation
Certainty bias – where overconfidence leads us to discount inconvenient facts
Each of us is susceptible to irrational behavior’s irresistible pull. Only when we gain insight into our irrationality can we see the extent to which it affects our work and personal lives. Fascinating patterns emerge, and we can master our behaviors and decisions when we connect the dots.
Loss Aversion: The pain associated with loss is stronger than the joy of a gain.
For example, if egg prices go down, sales go up. But if egg prices rise proportionately, sales dip by 250 percent. This response contradicts economic theory, which dictates that consumers should react to price fluctuations with equal intensity, regardless of whether price rises or falls. In reality, we illogically overreact to perceived losses.
This also explains why people are much more likely to buy meat when it’s labeled 85 percent lean instead of 15 percent fat. Similarly, twice as many patients opt for surgery when told there’s an 80 percent chance of survival, as opposed to a 20 percent chance of dying.
Commitment: Wanting to stick with the status quo.
When we’ve invested our time and money in a project, it’s difficult to let go–even when things clearly aren’t working.
History shows us how hard it was for Lyndon B. Johnson and George W. Bush to find solutions to the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, respectively. They were strongly influenced by the forces of commitment and aversion to loss.
When CEOs and boards of directors are charged with making critical strategy decisions, determining the best outcomes often proves challenging when strong egos and competitive personalities are added to the mix.
Value Attribution: The brain looks for shortcuts.
It takes enormous energy to consciously work through all possibilities and risks when weighing important decisions, so the brain looks for shortcuts. But these shortcuts also present traps because they largely occur without our awareness.
Value attribution serves as a quick mental shortcut to determine what’s worthy of our attention. When we encounter new objects, people or situations, the value we assign to them shapes our future perceptions of them.
For example, when Joshua Bell, one of today’s finest violinists, participated in a field study for the Washington Post, people assumed he was an average street performer. While Bell, dressed in jeans and a baseball cap, played a $3.5 million Stradivarius, subway travelers rushed by without paying attention. Bell certainly sounded far from mediocre, but commuters attributed a value of lesser performance quality based on his appearance and that he was playing in a subway station.
The Bell experiment illustrates why we may turn down a pitch or idea based on appearances, rumors or any other peripheral value. It also explains why we may blindly follow the advice of someone who has been highly recommended.
Becoming aware of our brain’s tendency to make assumptions can help us prevent disastrous mistakes and missed opportunities.
Diagnosis Bias: The misguided first impression.
When we encounter new people at a party, we quickly diagnose them by placing tags on them, such as “approachable” or “standoffish.” This helps us quickly decide if we want to engage them in conversation.
By employing this mental shortcut, we can fail to see a person’s good qualities. Nowhere is this clearer than in job interviews.
Managers value their intuition and think they have a refined ability to truly see and understand an applicant. They overestimate their ability to form objective opinions and underestimate their subconscious biases.
The Certainty Bias: Overconfidence and certainty can create blinders.
After gathering as much information as possible and weighing all of the arguments, leaders must make decisions and embrace an attitude of certainty and confidence. Persuading others to execute the plans is the next step.
Certainty, however, can lead to other errors, such as failure to adjust plans, when required, and shutting out conflicting information. The only way to counteract the certainty bias is to encourage dissonance.
Perhaps Alfred P. Sloan, president of General Motors in its prime, said it best. After adjourning a meeting shortly after it began, he announced:
“Gentlemen, I take it we are all in complete agreement on the decision here… Then I propose we postpone further discussion of this matter until our next meeting to give ourselves time to develop disagreement and perhaps gain some understanding of what the decision is all about.”
Making More Effective Decisions
A recent Harvard Business Review article recommends a decision audit to identify key organizational needs, using the following short survey:1
How do your organization’s decision abilities stack up against the competition?
Quality: When looking back on critical decisions, how often have you chosen the right course of action?
Speed: How do you rate the speed of your critical decisions in comparison to your competitors’?
Yield: How often do you execute critical decisions as intended?
Effort: How much effort does your company put into making and executing critical decisions?
Reference
Blenko, M., Mankins, M., Rogers, P., “The Decision-Driven Organization,” Harvard Business Review, June, 2010.
