Blogging Create a Voice of Authority! GET NOTICED!!

There are a lot of blogs out there and just as many “whys” for people putting them up. Most brick and mortar business owners here in Santa Clarita think, “why do I need a blog?” “No one wants to know what I am doing everyday” (same oppositions to Twitter when I introduced Twitter in my articles but hey now look at the amount of BIG businesses now on Twitter, not because of me but they see the usefulness!) Blogging for a business owner is not about what you ate for lunch or what you are personally doing (even though this does have a place in your blog). It is about VISIBILITY and we all want and need that! In your company blog you want to begin to create a voice of authority. You have categories in your blog – one should be tips or tools, one should be status or relationship centered, one could be personal, one could be events and so on! Blogs are very helpful to get information out there and gives you another outlet! Some examples – a realtor can create a blog that contains trends in the neighborhood, community events, and pictures and listings (yes those can be blog posts). A dentist can blog about tips to strengthen teeth and better health, about information coming from the “dental professional’s community”, and myths/truth’s to teeth cleaning. A Plumber can blog a weekly tip for fixing “small fixes” around your house, about water saving tips and tools, and about their involvement in the community. A company offering products can blog about the facts of using their products – not based on their self promotion but about facts they find around the world, blog about new techniques used to create what their product is, about their “customer of the month” and do some cross promotions, and of course tips and tools for their industry! Your goal is to start a way for people to look to you and your blog for answers! I hope you are starting to see some important reasons why and how to start a blog.

Blogging Build Leverage! GET NOTICED!!

Having a successful business is what we are all looking for, right? We each may have our own definition to “successful” but success is what we strive for! In working towards success we do a lot of things… network, advertise, get out in the community and volunteer, do “pro bono” work and so on. Each of these items brings attention to your business but each has a life span to it, would you agree? Each of those items are built around getting your business noticed, create longer term visibility, friendships and increase your business traffic but don’t you feel that a lot of the efforts, not to blame anyone are short lived, advertisements are read and thrown away, networking is a chat for that hour or two once a week, volunteering is one event after another – DON’T GET ME WRONG THEY ARE ALL VITAL AND NEEDED AND EVEN ENJOYABLE, DON’T STOP DOING THEM! But by starting a “web-blog” a “blog” site you give a longer life to your activities. Share an event, a meeting, a new relationship, a conversation and facts in your blog. Build leverage using this blog site and spot-light things you don’t want people to forget or things you want them to share! Start out by planning your blog in your head and on paper – do you want a specific “theme” or look to your blog – visit some blog sites and see the differences – start getting used to them!!!

Blogging Become the “Yapper” of the Internet and GET NOTICED!

In March of two years ago I did an article on “Why Blog??” I wanted to take a bit to revisit this idea.. blogging is getting more and more attention! We have all heard of Twitter, right? And if you have not – call me you MUST know what it is!! Twitter is a micro-blog and it is taking over! Static websites are becoming less and less featured by Google and other search engines because they are just that “Static” no movement, no growth, no sharing of new content! Of course you can pay for placement on Google and the others, but have you earned it? Are you sharing information?? Blog sites can be combined with the information from your static site it will just have a “blog” page that will be updated with information hopefully every week. I have a client, Casey Eberhart, that coaches people on “The Art of Networking” to build your reputation, your presence and your business (www.theidealnetworker.com) – his key point is, at a networking event is to find the “Yapper” (the person talking a lot, visiting a lot and making a point to be out there) well think of your blog site as the “Yapper” of the internet.. how is yours doing? In the next few weeks I am going to go over key reasons why to blog and some ideas of what you can blog about… I look forward to sharing this information with you and hope to create a lot of “Santa Clarita Bloggers” out there to build their businesses!

Branding…Are You Paying Attention to Your Branding & Marketing? Part Five

Planning for BIG in your business is not just about getting your vision in-line, your logo set, and your visibility out there it also has to do with getting rid of bad habits! Most of us know all about the clients we take on that are our friends, or referrals that came to us from special connections and we feel obligated to do our services at a lower price that what we advertise…no to mention what big businesses are doing in their marketing of products and services: businesses have set it up as a whole by inflating prices just to in turn offer a discounted price (which really is the actual price they wanted in the first place) and we the consumer feel like we are getting a deal.. wrong! And by doing this everyone now expects to get a “deal” on the posted price – scary! Stay consistent with your pricing and do not under-value your services or products!

• Discontinue to Service the “Break Even” Customers: While you are out there increasing your sales or client intake with these types of clients/customers you are NOT increasing your profits. You need to stop marketing to unprofitable clients/customers and you will have more time and resources for clients/customers that actually grow your business. Pay attention and keep strong about the value you offer you will attract those that truly respect and appreciate you and your services!

Need help with your marketing? Find a Virtual Assistant that specializes in Marketing…

Branding… Are You Paying Attention to Your Branding & Marketing? Part Four

Now that we are planning BIG.. do not let your past (or any future) failures stop you from launching new things. All companies, small and LARGE have had failures in a launch they have done.. if you let anything you have tried in the past that did not work out so great stop you from tying something new again OR the fear of failure stop you from trying something new you will not be growing BIG!!! Just a side note, do not launch too many things at the same time – one at a time and even one every 6 months should be your limit – you do not want to confuse your market, you don’t want to overload them and you defiantly do not want to not have enough time to evaluate the “success” rate of your product/service launch.

• Use Failures for Knowledge and Growth Using Coke as anexample, remember when they launched “New Coke” in 1985.. what a bomb. It was quickly removed from the market and the old formula returned as “Classic Coke”. Sales for them increased and that failure has turned into a HUGE success for them.

Marketing niched Virtual Assistants are a great way to have support and to have a support person focusing on this area!

Branding…Are You Paying Attention to Your Branding & Marketing? Part Three

While focusing on your message and your plans.. how BIG are you planning for? Your dream of what you become should not be limited! A lot of times we limit ourselves and our growth simply by fear, fear of success. We are all warned of the “nay sayers” that run in our circles but we do not normally get warned to watch out for ourselves. We can single handedly crush our own dreams and plans.. do not stop yourself! GO BIG!

• Go Big or Don’t Show Up! Start small with a single mission – one that can be built on! Get your first product, line of service or store open and begin to firm up the foundation up. Once you have a following begin to venture out with another product, service or another store – remember large corporations like Coke started with one product and grew to over 450 brands – again look at Campbell, General Mills, McDonalds and so on – it all starts with one product but also with one BIG Dream!

There are Virtual Assistants that are niched in marketing and branding, if you are interested in meeting a VA in the niche please feel free to contact me and I am happy to make some connections.

Branding… Are You Paying Attention to Your Branding & Marketing? Part Two

So following up from last week, I hope you have your “first impression” down on paper.. does it fall in line with what you want your message and business to be all about? If not I will give you some information on branding and marketing I have found to be useful tips in hopes to help you get where you want to be ~ if it was right on the money, maybe some of these tips will add to your process you have out there already..

• Keep your Branding Strong! Define what your message is, what is it people will get from your product of services. Something like Coca Cola, it is built around fun, youthful times and carefree days.. Campbell’s Soup is built around comfort and health. It is clear by the slogan and their promotions what they are branding. Work on your slogan – come up with a few today. Post them on your wall, bathroom mirror or in your car where you can revisit them until one sticks out. Share with someone you trust and get their opinion.. see where this guides you.

There are Virtual Assistants that work with marketing and branding as their primary field of assistance, if you are interested in meeting a VA in the niche please feel free to contact me and I am happy to make some connections.

Who is GOOGLE pt 2, Google Alerts

First you might ask, “what is a Google alert?” This is a service that Google offers for free, it allows you to set up an account, choose topics that you would like to get alerted about when there is info on the web written about them. It is a great tool to have if you specialize in an area and want to keep up on what is going on out there about it and if you write content for a newsletter or blog! You can sign up for different variations of alerts, News, Web, Blog, Comprehensive, Videos and Groups: once you choose your variations then you niche it down even more by key words you want them to look for! It is a GREAT way to stay on top of things. The variations breakdown like this:
• News – the latest news articles that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top 10 results of the Google news search
• Web – the latest web pages that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top 20 results in a Google web search
• Blogs – the latest blog posts that contain the search terms of your choice and would appear in the top 10 results in your Google blog search
• Comprehensive – combines your results from the News, Web, and Blog on your search terms into one email alert
• Video – the latest videos that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top 10 results of a Google video search
• Groups – the latest “posts” in groups that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top 50 results from a Google group search

If you have a Google account you just activate the Google Alerts and set it up – if you do not have a Google account get one today, it is free and you don’t have to use Gmail because you sign up for one – you can register for your Google Account using your primary email addy as the registration email address. I highly recommend you try this out! When you set up your Google Alerts, be sure to do a comprehensive alert for your name and your company name – it is great to be informed of what people are saying about you… Be on the watch for next week and I will go over the new Google Buzz tool out there!

Be a Marketing Pal…

Marketing is every businesses challenge… how about trying to be a “Marketing Pal” with a complimentary company/product/service provider.

By combining your marketing efforts AND cross promoting to both databases will increase your (and their) visibility. By combining your marketing efforts you will also share the costs! Connect with a company/product producer/service provider that is not your competitor but has something that will compliment what you have to offer…. When each company shares the same message you all are exposed over and over again!!

Marketing plans can be one or even better several ways of reaching out to the community – print ads, flyers, direct mailers, greeting cards, post cards and so on…

Some examples might be – A Promotional Products Company connecting with a sign/banner company, maybe a florist connecting with different “facilities” or of course event planners. How about a clothing store connecting with a salon offering a whole new look! Reach out and experiment – see what works for you both. Be sure to get a solid strategy that works for both of you, put the plan and agreement in writing but most important DO IT.

Delegation… a Lost Art Part Two

Do you find yourself thinking I don’t even have the time in my day to delegate a task to someone… This is a pitfall many of us fall into. The truth is you don’t have the time NOT to delegate.

As a business owner your calendar is probably your most valuable tool. Notice I called it a TOOL – you need to use it that way. Schedule everything you have to do on the calendar that includes shopping, paying bills not just business meetings and networking! You will get a clear picture of the REAL amount of time you have in a day. Now while you are scheduling things – schedule in a block of time for delegating tasks, the beginning or end of the day is always best!

During this time you will focus on tasks you can hand out to others to complete type up an instruction email, include all attachments and don’t forget to include a date you expect this task to be completed – send it and consider that task completed! Your support team will get it done! It is important to make time work for you not you rush around trying to keep up with time!

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