How to Sell More in 5 Steps: The Essential Guide to Marketing

Posted on May 26, 2012 | In Guest Appearances

So, you have a product or a service to sell. And you know who’d benefit from buying it.

Are you constantly hiring more people due to the overwhelming amount of orders you’re getting?

If not, then check these five steps of marketing to see where you’re going wrong.

Honestly, if you have something to sell that’s worth buying, there’s no reason you couldn’t sell more of it.

Or do you use any of these excuses?

  • “People don’t understand the value of my product.”
  • “They already own my product.”
  • “They’re using my competitors’ products.

These are all excuses and the five links in the chain of marketing will get you past them.

The links aren’t clearly separate; instead they all work together and build on top of each other. And you can’t skip any of them if you want your business to succeed.

Read more…

3
Comments

The Sexier-Than-Money Rewards in Doing Business

Posted on May 24, 2012 | In Guest Appearances

I’m guessing  a lot of you are just like me.

You got a blog or a business set up. You feel totally hyped and inspired. You have tremendous dreams for your own life.

Of course, with all that said, this is probably what you really want most: Money.

With money, and lots of it, everything would be good. Your business wouldn’t be so challenging, and you can definitely enjoy a better lifestyle.

So money is all there is, and that’s all you want and should be working for right?

Wrong.

Is money all there is?

“But hey!” You’re thinking, “I’m running a business! Not a non-profit, volunteer-work, organization”.

And also, we ALL know there’s more to life than just money, but money is still important. It’s already set in this world and without it, we most likely can’t survive, much less lead a comfortable lifestyle.

We aren’t hippies. GET REAL!

Let me be real…

Read more…

15
Comments

What David Ogilvy Can Teach You About Marketing

Posted on May 22, 2012 | In Guest Appearances

David Ogilvy, the “Father of Advertising” as some have described him, was a well-known and very successful advertiser in the middle part of the 20th century. Actually, Time magazine called Ogilvy “the most sought-after wizard in today’s advertising industry.”

Quite the curriculum vitae, I’d say.

Ogilvy started an ad agency named Ogilvy & Mathers, and while he died in 1999, he’s left a legacy of great advertising and marketing advice-much of which is still useful to marketers today.

I’ll let Ogilvy speak for himself, through popular quotes and quips of his, but this post will hopefully help you understand marketing and advertising from another perspective altogether.

Read more…

15
Comments

Everything I Learned About Building Relationships I Learned from My Teddy Bear

Posted on May 20, 2012 | In Guest Appearances

Teddy bears don’t talk, nor do they form relationships with sentient beings. So how in the heck can they show us how to build a new friendship or a new connection?

Before I answer that question, let’s think about it.

Have you ever felt animosity toward a teddy bear? Likely not, because they’re so darn lovable. Would a teddy bear let you down in a time of need? Doubtful, because they’re dependable.

But have you ever, for even one second, hugged your teddy when you needed a friend? Guilty as charged – there are few who could resist a teddy’s warm, fuzzy charms!

So, in order to make new friends and strengthen ties with existing ones, you have to be like your favorite teddy bear at the core: you must be approachable, dependable, and willing to dish out warm fuzzy feelings whenever necessary! Think you can handle it?

Start the process by asking yourself the following questions:

Read more…

15
Comments

7 Steps to Launch A Profitable Newsletter In One Week

Posted on May 18, 2012 | In Guest Appearances

One of the biggest lies in marketing is “the money’s in the list”.

It’s simply not true. I once had a list with over 25,000 subscribers and it didn’t make me a dime.

Why? Because I never built a relationship with them. I basically sent them ten pitches in a row and hoped they’d buy.

That hurts to admit, but it was a valuable lesson. And once I provided useful content – instead of hammering them with pitches – things began to take off.

People actually read my emails, took action on my advice, and bought what I recommended.

Now I’d like to share with you the exact autoresponder series I used to build long-lasting, profitable relationships on autopilot.

After all, the money’s not in the list… it’s in the relationship.

34
Comments

Nandos: Rock Star Marketing Skills, Dinky Judgment

Posted on May 16, 2012 | In Guest Appearances

One of the funniest commercials in the history of the world was discontinued on television due to death threats issued by an angry militant youth groups in Zimbabwe against Nandos execs and customers.

The South African based fast food chicken franchise, Nandos, produced a commercial of marketing genius that makes fun of just the wrong person.  The commercial is a hilarious portrayal of the Zimbabwe despot Robert Mugabe, and his sentimental feelings towards his fellow despots who have passed on.

The ad uses the Mary Hopkins song “Those Were the Days My Friend,” to display Mugabe gleefully romping around with his fellow dictators.  But hence, the glee is short lived for Mugabe, as he comes to terms with the reality that his friends are all six feet under.  The commercial features such bloodstained dictators as Muammar Gaddafi, Mao Zedong, Saddam Hussein, and Idi Amin (well, the people in the commercial are just actors).  At the end of the tragic commercial Mugabe is left to eat his meal alone.

I can’t stop laughing at this genius of marketing, but don’t take my word for it, check out the commercial…

21
Comments

Time To Put The “P” Back Into Your Marketing – It’s All About People

Posted on May 14, 2012 | In Guest Appearances

Zig Zielgar once said “If people like you they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you they’ll do business with you.”

Well trust is built on strong relationships and relationships are all about people.

Many large companies have built solid business models on this idea.

Starbucks built its success on good coffee. However the inspiration for the company’s coffee-bar format came in the early 1980s when their marketing director Howard Schultz, who had recently come on board, visited coffee bars in Italy and noticed the close rapport between customers and the baristas who made their coffee every day. Howard reasoned that if he could transplant that one-on-one relationship to America, Starbucks would thrive. And of course, he was right. It’s one of my favorite coffee houses to this day.

Why do we bother marketing? To tell the world about a great product or service we believe can and will help their business. What makes them listen and then want to buy? They’ve heard about you through someone they trust or they themselves trust you because you have taken the time to build a relationship with them.

We live in a super speed crazed age. Fast cars, fast food, fast internet, fast correspondence, fast websites and fast deals. Sometimes in the flurry of all things “fast” the personal touch just spins right out the window…

20
Comments

Tools, List Posts, Videos, and More – Best of the Web!

Posted on May 12, 2012 | In Best of the Web

Another month, and another Best of the Web round-up!

The last month has been really intense – between all the content that we’ve run on the blog (which is a lot), the webinars that I’ve been doing for our wonderful partners (over a dozen of them), and the interviews that I’ve been asked to participate in, it’s been crazy.

And on top of that, there’s my super-secret new project that I’ll be releasing to you (for free!) at the end of the month! ;-)

So yeah, it’s been busy, and it’s been hard to keep up with the rest of the blogosphere.

But just because I’m busy doesn’t mean that the blogosphere has shut down – not by a long shot!

So here are some of my favorite posts, articles and exciting other pieces of content from the last few weeks…

33
Comments

The ‘Slow Drip’ Method for Building a Massive Following

Posted on May 10, 2012 | In Guest Appearances

Facebook grew from around 1 million users to over 845 million in 7 years.

Amazon.com grew in five years to 10 times the annual sales of Walmart, Target, and Buy.com combined (not to mention that Walmart and Target – together, have had about 150 years of growth to get there).

When it comes to growth and results, we tend to be drawn toward those that are eye-opening, astonishing, and “off the charts.” We don’t care about companies like Walmart or IBM, or websites like Yahoo (at least not anymore), because their growth was the kind of slow and steady kind that doesn’t seem to impress us much.

Instead, we get excited about the businesses and websites that explode onto the scene, blowing their competition out of the water.

They seem to descend upon us like wraiths; from out of nowhere…

34
Comments

Mastering Differentiation: Become an Oyster of Your Industry

Posted on May 8, 2012 | In Guest Appearances

We all want our businesses to be successful. All of our hard work, sleepless nights, truly caring about customers, demanding high standards from the team…

People say “If you build it, they will come.”  Well they did, they came. But once the novelty wore off, what keeps customers from coming again? Coming often?

You do all the right things – great customer service, high quality products/services, friendly environment, decent location… But there are only a handful of customers who would really miss you if you go out of business tomorrow.

How did this happen?

You Need To Standout from Others!

If you haven’t heard of the hotel searching site Oyster.com, you need to check it out. Unlike many other sites in the industry, Oyster does not promote sales. The goal of the site is to help you pick the best hotel for your needs, unbiased by “limited time only” sales or other gimmicks…

11
Comments

10 Ways to Motivate Your Community: Reward & Recognize

Posted on May 6, 2012 | In Guest Appearances

For 13 years something has hung on top of my desk, right where I can see it. It’s a certificate recognizing my contributions as part of the Microsoft Regional Director Program, an honorary position was conferred to me based on my contributions to the geek community. Do you have something like this? Maybe it’s a [...]

13
Comments

Millions Of Peaches (How To Grow Market Size)

Posted on May 4, 2012 | In Four Questions of Marketing

Hi! :)

What a fantastic day to read a post that opens some ‘profit doors’, don’t you agree?

I gotta tell you, I’ve had an absolute blast with Firepole Marketing’s Profit Month. Like I’ve had so much fun writing about: how you should probably charge more, how you can keep costs on the down low, and how being different is the #1 reliable way to claim your share of the market.

I know I’ve shared some cool perspectives on economic growth, and the response has been great. I appreciate it all.

Which brings us to the last post in the series.

And it’s about peaches.

Sorta.

Imagine this:

14
Comments