Marketing Eye received a ranking last week on Twitter and it had me thinking...
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Expert Marketing Blog - Small Business Marketing - Page 12
Day 1: loads of emailing.
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In the past week, we have been organising media interviews for a financial services firm. Our inhouse PR expert is very talented and well-connected, and has organised more than 13 interviews for an international money markets expert. The thing is, this was done, all without using their media kit. Why? Because it is a bit out of date and doesn't represent the company and how forward thinking the company really is.
This got me thinking. What should go in a press kit (or media kit) in 2012? Are local companies in Atlanta and Georgia for that matter, ensuring that their media kits are up to date? Do they really know how to make a media kit stand out from the crowd? Is there someone in Atlanta helping them with their media kits?
Here are some things you should be considering;
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This got me thinking. What should go in a press kit (or media kit) in 2012? Are local companies in Atlanta and Georgia for that matter, ensuring that their media kits are up to date? Do they really know how to make a media kit stand out from the crowd? Is there someone in Atlanta helping them with their media kits?
Here are some things you should be considering;
I have tossed and turned throughout the night deciding how much I should share on what I am doing with my business on this blog.
There are many reasons for this; namely, is that I don't want to give too much away in case, heaven forbid, someone copies.
But I have this blog, which many wonderful people read, and it's very real. It tells it how it is. If you read the blog daily, you would pretty much know who I am, what I think about business and be getting a fair share of stories that may or may not relate to your own small business experiences.
Last week, I talked on how to get your business to the next level. Well, I am there. I have had enough holidays, and I am completely and utterly committed to taking my business to the next level. My enthusiasm for Marketing Eye and what it has to offer is contagious. I know this because every meeting I have of late, people make comment.
Marketing Eye is successful in Australia. I am proud of its accomplishments and what it provides the businesses we work with. We are innovative to a point, that many of our competitors copy our website word for word, our service offering and as much as they can - our spiel. But they are never going to be us as we will always be the innovator, the thought-leader and the risk taker.
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There are many reasons for this; namely, is that I don't want to give too much away in case, heaven forbid, someone copies.
But I have this blog, which many wonderful people read, and it's very real. It tells it how it is. If you read the blog daily, you would pretty much know who I am, what I think about business and be getting a fair share of stories that may or may not relate to your own small business experiences.
Last week, I talked on how to get your business to the next level. Well, I am there. I have had enough holidays, and I am completely and utterly committed to taking my business to the next level. My enthusiasm for Marketing Eye and what it has to offer is contagious. I know this because every meeting I have of late, people make comment.
Marketing Eye is successful in Australia. I am proud of its accomplishments and what it provides the businesses we work with. We are innovative to a point, that many of our competitors copy our website word for word, our service offering and as much as they can - our spiel. But they are never going to be us as we will always be the innovator, the thought-leader and the risk taker.
I am officially in love! Seriously. Pinterest.com is by far my favourite social media network - ever. I can sit there all day long looking at the art on my Pinterest.com pinboard and still never get bored. It is like being in the most extraordinary gallery, that transcends anything you have ever experienced before. And, there is something for everyone.
Making Hitwise's Top 10 Social Network list beating Linkedin and Google is no easy feat for this unassuming social media platform that is the newest social media platform in town.
It is the best platform for business today particularly small business - especially if you are a visual person and your small business clients are visual people too.
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Making Hitwise's Top 10 Social Network list beating Linkedin and Google is no easy feat for this unassuming social media platform that is the newest social media platform in town.
It is the best platform for business today particularly small business - especially if you are a visual person and your small business clients are visual people too.
per·fect/ˈpərfikt/
Adjective: Having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be.
Verb: Make (something) completely free from faults or defects, or as close to such a condition as possible.
Noun: The perfect tense.
Nobody is perfect. I know. I have worked hard to be more 'perfect' in so many ways and have learnt the hard way that that is not possible. No situation in life is perfect. It can be good or even great, but not perfect. No human being is perfect. No house is perfect. No business is perfect. No animal is perfect. No holiday is perfect. No experience in life is perfect.
Perfect is not attainable, but being better is. Improving your status quo through dedication, perseverance, focus, compromise and a big picture view, can help you get your world closer to 'perfect', but don't be disappointed that you never get there.
In every businesses life, there comes a time when you decide whether the business has 'legs' to grow further.
Marketing Eye has hit this point many times and each time we have done a situation analysis and made business decisions on where to go. Right now, we are in expansion mode with the US market firmly in our sights, targeting places such as Atlanta.
If you are in this position, think about what your Big Hairy Audacious Goal is and work out how realistic it is given your current resources and capabilities. Things to consider include;
Expand into new markets
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Marketing Eye has hit this point many times and each time we have done a situation analysis and made business decisions on where to go. Right now, we are in expansion mode with the US market firmly in our sights, targeting places such as Atlanta.
If you are in this position, think about what your Big Hairy Audacious Goal is and work out how realistic it is given your current resources and capabilities. Things to consider include;
Expand into new markets
Ending any relationship is difficult and it creates emotions that most of us don't know exist.
But at the end of any relationship whether it is with a supplier, client, employee, friend or partner, is really the beginning of something new and exciting. It just sometimes takes people longer to get over the last relationship than needed.
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But at the end of any relationship whether it is with a supplier, client, employee, friend or partner, is really the beginning of something new and exciting. It just sometimes takes people longer to get over the last relationship than needed.
"Oh, they're just the tech geek in the office. They fix things".
The rise of the tech geek in the world of marketing has been fast and furious. In fact, they have become more important to marketing than marketers themselves. How the world has changed!
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The rise of the tech geek in the world of marketing has been fast and furious. In fact, they have become more important to marketing than marketers themselves. How the world has changed!
Saturday night I attended a 30th birthday party for a dear friend of mine. The theme was nautical. After weeks of racking my brain as to what to wear, my friend and I ended up settling on being Boat Captains.
We had only one hour to spare on Saturday to put a costume together, so we headed to a costume shop and purchased a hat. Cheaper than renting it we decided.
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We had only one hour to spare on Saturday to put a costume together, so we headed to a costume shop and purchased a hat. Cheaper than renting it we decided.
As a marketer with 20 years experience, I am always trying to figure out the psychology behind why a client picks one logo over another, or one way of doing things over another.
Sometimes, they have insight that perhaps marketers do not. Mostly, they just like a particular colour, font style, identity mark or a way of doing things that may not quite be up with the times.
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Sometimes, they have insight that perhaps marketers do not. Mostly, they just like a particular colour, font style, identity mark or a way of doing things that may not quite be up with the times.
I was thinking... when you have stars in your eyes, anything is possible. In every aspect of your life, if you walk around with stars in your eyes, it opens the world to possibility beyond anything you can ever imagine. While this is contrary to what most people believe on the topic of people who have 'stars in their eyes', there is some justification for what is popular opinion.
Dreamers are something that like entrepreneurs, should be applauded. They make our world much more interesting. Every great idea started with someone dreaming it. But there is a difference from being a dreamer to being someone who has the ability to be successful.
What is the value of writing content? If content is king... how is this defined? When content is written well and tells a story or a message that people resonate with, it is KING. But what happens when it doesn't. When content falls prey to audience misconception or to a swing in favour because your opinion or comments differ from the opinions of your audience?
Olympic swimmer, Stephanie Rice, was innocently tweeting backwards and forwards to a friend and used a word that may be seen as deogratory to people who are homosexual, and all of a sudden she was 'on the nose'. Ousted. Gone.
In Kyle Sandilands latest rants, he said one thing that went a little too far, and all of a sudden, he too has fallen prey to the swing of the public and more importantly, the sponsors who subsidise his wages.
Content management, whether it is in the written form or through a media platform like radio, television, podcasts, webinars, youtube or any other media of this type, needs to be managed.
The written form for small businesses covers custom publishing, custom media, customer media, customer publishing, member media, private media, branded content, corporate media, corporate publishing, branded media, your website, your direct marketing campaigns, blogs, landing pages and more.
What is content marketing?Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer action.
What content marketing is not... is it does not 'sell' in a direct manner. It is un-interrupted marketing. It provides knowledge and explanation driving customer and prospect loyalty.
This marketing blog is a clear example of how content can work for an organisation. It provides information on 'real life' small business operations whether it be how we work with customers, marketing, employees, mentors, finance or expansion. It travels through the daily grind of being an entrepreneur and dealing with real emotions that at times goes up and down according to how the week flows. It is often raw with experiences or up-beat with positivity. The marketing blog uses examples of people that I interact with in business and in life and it cover how your personal life influences your business life.
How can you improve your content marketing immediately?
"Develop case studies and put them online, write a blog, use mobile enabled web outreach with website landing pages, video, advanced search engine optimisation, digital content and be sure to measure through analytics the results. How long are people reading your content? What is more popular?
Hiring a professional writer or a journalist to help you develop content that is readable will be beneficial to any business who is choosing to produce high quality content.
IN TODAY'S COMPETITIVE ENVIRONMENT... IF YOU ARE NOT CONTENT MARKETING, YOU ARE NOT MARKETING. THINK ABOUT HOW YOU CAN DO THIS BETTER.
Mellissah Smith, in Atlanta.
My high school friend rung me last week as I was driving out to Palm Beach and asked if I could be a business mentor to her. She was happy to pay me market rate, and would require a few hours of my time a month. It needed to be in a business environment and she would like me to be hard on her.
The latter... very easy for me as I am a seasoned professional on being hard on people when they need a kick up the bum or a little push in the right direction.
Then, today, my mentor rung me. Not to give me a kick up the bum, but to ask me how I am going. As I explained the latest developments in my business and a little update on my personal life, I was able to hear out loud what my dreams are for my business and how I planned to execute them. I couldn't very well just give him an overarching view like I can with my employees. He wanted to know exactly how I am going to make it happen. Am I going to enough meetings with the right people? Have I done enough research? Is it financially viable? Have I run it past some other people we mutually know that are very smart in business? What do I want the outcome to be? Do I realise how much work is involved?
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The latter... very easy for me as I am a seasoned professional on being hard on people when they need a kick up the bum or a little push in the right direction.
Then, today, my mentor rung me. Not to give me a kick up the bum, but to ask me how I am going. As I explained the latest developments in my business and a little update on my personal life, I was able to hear out loud what my dreams are for my business and how I planned to execute them. I couldn't very well just give him an overarching view like I can with my employees. He wanted to know exactly how I am going to make it happen. Am I going to enough meetings with the right people? Have I done enough research? Is it financially viable? Have I run it past some other people we mutually know that are very smart in business? What do I want the outcome to be? Do I realise how much work is involved?
It takes just 30 seconds for someone to have an impression of you. And... they say first impressions count.
Since light travels faster than sound, you are always seen before you are heard. It's the quick impression someone has of you that can be the lasting one.
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Since light travels faster than sound, you are always seen before you are heard. It's the quick impression someone has of you that can be the lasting one.