3 Basic Marketing Strategies You Really, Really Need to Succeed

Posted on December 29th, 2009 by Sandy Reed

Christmas is behind us for another year.  It’s time to take a deep breath, relax, and stop and appreciate yourself for what you’ve done to make your friends and family happy.  It may have been giving gifts, giving financially, or just giving of yourself.  In any case, you’ve given of yourself mentally, emotionally, and physically; and you may be feeling a tad bit depleted about now.

Getting back to working on your business can be a tough transition after the holidays.  As you think about what new business building strategies you want to implement in the coming year, don’t forget about what could be the most important strategy of all – a new way of thinking. 

It’s now a well known fact that if you keep thinking the way you’ve been thinking, you’ll keep getting what you got.  If you didn’t end up the year where you wanted to be, it may be time to “get back to the basics”.  Here are 3 time-tested strategies you can use as you go through the New Year.

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Keyword Research – More Critical Now Than Ever…

Posted on December 18th, 2009 by Sandy Reed

Google® recently unveiled their “real time” search.  This means information marketing is becoming more available than ever before.  You post your information on sites such as Facebook®, MySpace® and Twitter® and it will pop up in a “capsule”, a section of the main results page that automatically finds your search terms within seconds after it shows up in the web index.

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Tis the Season When Your Clients Expect Deals…

Posted on November 12th, 2009 by Sandy Reed

The nations #1 retailer, Wal-Mart, announced that in order to avoid a stampede of customers on Black Friday it will keep most of its U.S. stores open 24 hours, beginning the day-after-Thanksgiving.  Last year there was such a mad dash to get to the after Thanksgiving deals that one of its temporary employees was trapped behind a door and asphyxiated.  It’s hard to imagine saving money could be that critical to the buying public, but apparently that is the case.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term “Black Friday”, it’s the day after Thanksgiving when all the retailers hope to have so much business that it puts their business back into the “black” on their financial statements.  In other words, they hope to be making money – not losing money for the year.

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Build a Better Business – Give Up the Copy-cat Syndrome by Being Authentic

Posted on November 5th, 2009 by Sandy Reed

Did you ever feel like big brother was watching you every day?  I did many years ago when I worked as a manager for a large corporation.  Even as a management employee I felt like just  “an employee”.  When you can’t even go to the bathroom without someone noticing you’re gone, it’s tough to feel a sense of ownership.   But as a business owner it’s a whole new ball game.  Not only do you get to call all the shots, you have to be authentic and draw upon all your creativity to set your business apart from others in your field. 

As good as being your own boss sounds, with that freedom comes a big responsibility to you and to your clients.  No longer can you count on some company’s brand to bring in the big bucks.  You’re on your own, and you have to learn how to create your own brand and marketing strategies.  It’s up to you to make your business work.  You can get a business degree and hire good coaches and advisors, but at the end of the day it’s only you and your creativity that is going to make your business successful or not.  So, what makes some businesses work and some not?  Frequently it comes down to getting past the fear.  It comes down to not being afraid to put who you are front and center knowing that some people will like who you are, and some people won’t…

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Soulpreneur® Marketing 101

Posted on October 2nd, 2009 by Sandy Reed

GoldenRetrieverandPupsBandWJust the idea of marketing is enough to make some business owners run for cover!  “Who can be bothered when there’s so much more to do that’s really productive”, you might ask.  The real truth is if you don’t get good at marketing your business, you may not have a business very long…  As Jay Abraham says, “The fact is, everyone is in sales.  Whatever area you work in, you do have clients and you do need to sell”. 

The purpose of marketing is to connect you to another person, one with whom you wish to create a symbiotic relationship that includes the ability for you to earn income, and for your prospective client to receive a product or service that will make it easier, more enjoyable or more productive for them to live.  Marketing is reaching out to your ideal client in a way that compels them to contact you to hear more about your products or services.  If you touch your clients on an emotional level in this process it’s even better, because in reaching them emotionally you begin building a relationship even before they have talked to you personally.

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Cleaning out the Clutter – Managing the Chaos

Posted on June 3rd, 2009 by Sandy Reed

I look around me and see the piles of paperwork in my office.  These are piles that I either didn’t have time to file before I moved on to the next “hot project”, or they are things I knew I’d get to right away – so why file them?  Yes, there are pilers and there are filers, and I’m definitely a piler at heart.  But it seems like I’m always trying to turn myself into an organized filer…

This may be a small issue to many people.  But there are those who understand that piles create clutter not just in your physical space, but also in your mind.  I find I feel more free and creative when my desk and office is relatively free of piles and clutter – or they are at least out of sight.

This is where my piling begins.  I’m in the middle of a project I know “needs” to get done right away.  Then the phone rings, my husband, and business partner, comes home and we have to talk about a job, I remember I didn’t get to the tax payment yet and it’s due NOW, the dog just barfed on the carpet, or the doorbell rings, and the piling begins…  When I get back to the project that “needed” to get done right away, the mail, emails, client folders, bills to pay, etc. have all snuck onto my desk somehow into piles…

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Faith – the Key to Transforming Your Business

Posted on May 9th, 2009 by Sandy Reed

 

Faith is defined by Dr. Ernest Holmes, the founder of Science of Mind magazine, as “an idea so inwardly embodied that the mind can no longer conceive of its opposite.”   But what if your business is struggling and you feel like you are living its opposite right now?  What if no matter how hard you try, all you see is its opposite?  When you have faith, such as Dr. Holmes described, you don’t have to “try” to have faith – you just have it…  Here’s an example.

When you get up in the morning do you “try” to have faith that the electricity will work so you can have your morning coffee, or do you know and expect that it will?  When you go to bed at night, do you “try” to have faith that the sun will come up in the morning and you will have all the air you need to breathe, or do you know without a doubt and expect to have a normal day with the sun coming up and air to breathe?

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Goal Setting from the Heart

Posted on March 6th, 2009 by Sandy Reed

It’s March already.  If you are a goal setter, you may be thinking about how you’re progressing so far.  Is life getting in the way?  I know it usually does for me.  I have my day all planned out, and then I get interrupted by any number of things that all seem important at the time.  When the end of the day comes and my to-do list isn’t done, it’s frustrating and disheartening.   So, how do you get to that elusive completion of your goals and intentions, in spite of interruptions?

When you are working on goals that motivate and energize you, the journey to completion becomes a labor of love, instead of a guilt trip.  Make sure you are working on goals that are important to you – that will enrich your life for the better.  Setting SMART goals will help you decide if your goals are the right goals.  SMART goals are:

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Marketing to Women Defying Age and Lovin it…

Posted on March 4th, 2009 by Sandy Reed

I read an interesting statistic in More Magazine recently that amazed even me.  The average number of American women who’ll turn 40 every single day of 2009 is…  5,732!

Women over 40 are a force to be reckoned with and should absolutely be addressed in your marketing plan, if you want to provide products and/or services that will add value to their lives. 

Since I fall into the “women over 40″ category, I can tell you that the marketing pieces I receive in the mail, and the ads I see on TV and in magazines appeal to me when they are aimed at me specifically.  I have no interest in reading Teen Magazine because I know what they have to offer will not be helpful to the issues I am facing as a middle-aged, baby boomer woman and business owner.

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Your Four Best Business Breakthrough Strategies

Posted on February 26th, 2009 by Sandy Reed

I read an enlightening story in Daily Guideposts recently about a child who was color blind. It’s hard for me to imagine going through life not being able to dress myself with coordinating colors of pants, tops, dresses, shoes, etc. But apparently there are many born with the inability to do just that.

This dilemma led me to think about what else is not the norm for the majority of the population, yet feels normal to some people who live with these challenges on a daily basis. I have lost the peripheral vision in my left eye. It feels so normal to me that I don’t even think about it the majority of the time. Like me, many people have learned to live with the inconvenience these types of situations cause — so much so that it feels normal. Would it be productive to stress and strain over it? Not likely.

When it comes to your business, what have you learned to live with that may feel normal, yet may not be the best, most productive way to grow a business? I have the ability to create websites, but it’s not my strength – it’s an ability. If I focus on websites, it keeps me from focusing on those things that are my strengths, like working with clients, writing, creating information products, and planning out my business.

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