Successful Marketing for your Online Business

When you are building an online business, use several methods of advertising to successfully market your business to people who are likely to be interested in it. Effective advertising contains content that is relevant, showcases your business’s best products and services, and presents an offer for the potential customer to act on right away. Use a combination of methods to get your name out, get previous customers to return for additional purchases, and convert new leads into customers.

Targeted Advertisements
Rather than focusing your marketing on general advertisements, use the targeted advertising systems on websites like Facebook and Google to reach customers who are most likely to buy your services or products. When you create an advertisement, the system allows you to select some key words or demographic features that will define who sees the advertisements. For example, on Facebook, you can target advertisements to people of a specific age, gender, location, or who have a particular interest listed on their profile. Google’s targeted advertisements are largely based on what a person searches for or what key words are in emails they send or receive. Because these advertisements are significantly more likely than regular ads to be seen by people who are interested, they are an effective way to generate business. People can click right over to your online business and buy something right away if they are interested.

Social Media Presence
Create a profile for your business on each of the major social media outlets. In particular, you should have a Facebook page and a Twitter account. On your Facebook page, post photos and videos to help potential customers get a better feel for what your business offers. Also include special coupons that people can only access if they “Like” your business page. Interact regularly by posting updates on your business page’s wall and responding to comments and questions that other Facebook users post to the wall. Use your Twitter account to distribute quick updates about specials to your followers. If they retweet these updates, their followers will see them as well, which can quickly get out news to people who have never heard of your business before.

Email Newsletters
One of the perks of an online business is that people are always just a few clicks away from buying your products. Draw your business to people’s attention regularly by sending out email newsletters with information about sales, new products or services, and useful information about using your products or services. Build a mailing list for your newsletter by gathering email addresses for past customers, including an area on your website where visitors can sign up for your newsletter and by purchasing leads from reputable sources. In each newsletter, include easy links to purchase featured products or services on your website. If you can get people to click through to your website at some point while reading the newsletter, they are likely to browse and may make a purchase.

Search Engine Optimization
When your website shows up in search results from search engines, this is effectively free advertising to highly interested individuals. Therefore, when building your website, focus some of your attention on search engine optimization. This is the practice of using keyword phrases in your website copy, headers, web addresses and page titles to make it more likely that the pages will show up in search results that use those keywords. Having other websites link to yours also increases its search rankings. If you have no experience in search engine optimization, hire a service to help set up your website to get as much traffic as possible.

Regular Blog Updates
Write a blog on your business’s website and update it regularly with posts that are relevant to the people who make up your primary client base. Rather than writing about your products in a promotional fashion, just write posts that provide valuable information that is of general interest to people who would buy your products or services. Of course, when it comes up naturally, you can mention products and services, but you should focus mainly on writing useful content. This will help your business website to show up more regularly in search results, get links from other blogs and to get return traffic from people who bookmark the blog and read it on a regular basis.

Sponsored Blog Posts
Most people read at least one or two blogs on a regular basis, and they usually trust the opinions of the blogger and are willing to take recommendations from the blogger. Therefore, one highly effective way to market your business is to have a blogger mention it in a post. Contact bloggers who write about topics related to the products and services you sell, or who you expect have readers who would be interested in your product, and ask them to write a sponsored post. This is one in which you provide the blogger with a free product or service, and in return, the blogger reviews it in a post dedicated solely to your business. The blogger also links to your online business so the readers can buy from you if the review gets them interested.

Business Cards
Even though your business is online, you should not neglect regular print-based business cards, which are still a highly effective way to get the word out about your business. In addition to carrying some with you at all time to give to anyone you meet who expresses an interest in your business, you should also give business cards to customers who buy from you. If you sell items that you ship to people, include a business card in each order so the person has a visual reminder of your business to find you again next time. You can even include an extra card so the person has another to pass along to a friend. Business cards can also help encourage word-of-mouth advertising that occurs when you or someone else gives your business card away.

How Content Marketing Defines Your Internet Niche

The Internet is designed to share information. It is used for education, advancing new ideas, expressing personal opinions, enhancing name brand recognition, and promoting the sale of products or services. Article marketing sites, also called article directories, help improve the efficiency of this communication process. They establish a number of dedicated marketing outlets. Each article directory provides a multitude of users with the opportunity to give free information in exchange for valid Internet backlinks.

When successfully applied, content marketing is an effective means for expanding your business outreach. It can attract qualified Internet leads, establish long-term customer communications, and be used to define your precise market niche. Companies and individuals post articles that are specific to a given industry or targeted market niche. When the content of the article successfully:

• Engages the desired reader base your company prospers
• Relays relevant information your name brand identity expands
• Establishes a sense of honest information exchange, you gain a reputation for providing expert advice in a given field.

The math is simple. The Internet provides an abundance of free information. Prospective customers seek advice from trustworthy sources. Successful content marketing enables you to establish yourself and your business as an Internet authority in a given field of expertise. It works just as effectively as display ads or PPC, but the cost of playing is much less expensive.

Content Marketing Enhances the Power of Internet Selling

In a recent thread on how to be successful on the Internet, the author penned an eight-word answer: “Produce great stuff and sell it to people.” These words read slick, but they over simplify a very complex task. Unless you are marketing a self-promoting, self-selling product or service, you must engage in some manner of active product marketing.

Reliable business leads are not always easy to generate. The Internet is bloated with information, misinformation and overstuffed information. The competition comes and goes but it never dies. Internet selling may involve the most competitive arena the marketing world has ever faced.

Content marketing provides a cost-effective solution to the greater demands that Internet selling places on modern businesses.

The Concept Made Real: Using Content Marketing To Increase Your Business Leads and Your Internet Authority

Okay. You are now ready to use article marketing as a means of promoting your website or blog. Every content marketing strategy must be designed to meet two primary goals:

1. Targeted Traffic: Whether it relates to product sales, membership promotions, or content subscribers, you need traffic that will remain on your site, return to your site, and eventually become an income generating client in whatever format you have set as the focus.
2. Relevant Links: Article directories are designed to enable you to generate relevant links to your website. These matters pertain to search engine optimized (SEO) keywords. The purposes for search engine optimizing your content falls under a separate subheading of this document. For now, just remember that content marketing helps develop relevant backlinks to your website or blog.

Knowing the purpose of content posting is only half the battle. You must also understand the principles of how to produce content marketing that actually increases your business leads and your reputation as an Internet authority in a your given field of expertise. Furthermore, you must learn what it takes to bring your posted directory content to the top of the search engines. Here are some questions that will help you get started in the right direction:

• What is your area of expertise, your market niche?
• Who is your target market?
• What should be the primary topic for your articles?
• Is your target market large enough to support multiple subtopics?
• What are the subtopics that you might use for additional articles?
• Who is your primary competition?
• How well are they performing in the content marketing field?
• What is your competition doing right?
• What are they doing wrong?
• Which, if any, of your competitor’s articles are making it into the search engines?
• What keywords are they using?
• What synonyms and acronyms can be used to create the same keyword effect?
• What related keywords are producing desired search results through the inline search engines on various popular article directories?
• How much time are you willing to devote to writing and marketing your content?

The Value of Search Engine Optimized Article Content

Perhaps you know the ins and outs of your business niche better than most people know the details of a well-watched classic movie. You can write about it. You can talk about it. You can express the details in terms that most people don’t even understand. Now realize the insufficiency of knowledge alone.

Content marketing is not about being discovered. It is about pushing your content to the top of the information chain. For this, you must learn to utilize the power of search engine optimized keywords. This is a critical line to success. In order to establish your mark as an Internet authority in any field, Internet users must see and read your materials.

Here are a few basic SEO tips:

• Keyword Research: Start by learning how to identify the keywords or key phrases that specifically define the content of your articles and your website. Measure the competition for those keywords or key phrases. Now pick your battleground with care.
• Keyword Tools: These are the doorways into your keyword research. Many Internet vendors present an array of keyword tools, include detailed “how to use” instructions. Start with the Google Keyword Tool.
• Keyword Strategies: This ties into keyword research. The number of free materials available on the subject of keyword strategies exceeds counting. But if you intend to produce content marketing that works, be sure to read up on keyword strategies.

Content Marketing Increases Your Business Leads and Your Presence as an Internet Authority

The conclusion to this discussion is obvious. The online evidence speaks for itself. Content marketing is a powerful and aggressive means for increasing your business leads and establishing yourself as an Internet expert in your given market niche. Don’t pass up this avenue to success. Even if you must hire a ghostwriter to clean up your content and to distribute your image to the article marketing websites, go for it. Content marketing pays off.

How To Clarify Your Business’ Mission and Vision

You need to compose two major statements, your vision and mission statements, to drive you toward success in achieving the things you want your business to accomplish. The mission statement captures what your company does here and now and helps you define how to measure whether you are successful. The vision statement, on the other hand, helps you to continually keep an eye on what you ultimately want your company to look like.

Writing these two statements early in launching your business will help define many other aspects of the way you operate and inform future decisions related to business strategy. In general, you should start by writing the mission statement and move on to the vision after you have determined your mission.

Mission Statement

Your mission statement is something that states what your company is about. Overall, your mission statement should reflect what your company cares about and what you are doing now as a business. You can also include one or more goals, but if you do, they should be short-term and very attainable.

Brainstorm for your mission statement by writing down all the words or phrases you can think of to describe what your company does now. What services do you have? What is your product like? What do people who use your products or services think of them? Your mission statement needs to address what your company does, who you do it for, and how you do it.

Also brainstorm at least one goal that you could include in your mission statement. You want the goal to be something that will move your business forward, is actually possible, and is specific enough so you know when you get there. For example, you might say that your goal is to have 95% customer satisfaction based on your feedback surveys.

After completing your brainstorming, combine these ideas into a concise mission statement. It should be no more than three sentences, or about 70 words. It can be as short as one sentence if you can fit everything in. You want your vision to use words that are easy for everyone involved in your business to understand, whether they are your business partner or the volunteer who helps you for a couple of hours every month.

When you have completed a rough draft, edit the statement to replace words that are unclear or are not specific enough for you to envision what they actually mean. Remove words that are filler or don’t convey anything useful about your business. Cut out everything except the essentials for the core of what your business is now.

Vision Statement

Your vision statement takes a step back from your current mission and asks the question of where you want the business to go in the future. This statement will help you set a trajectory and motivate you to continue going to work and putting your best effort in to propel your business to the next level. It is something you can show your employees to help motivate them to excellence in the workplace.

Brainstorm for your vision statement by closing your eyes for a minute and imagining what your business would look like in the ideal world. You typically want to think five to 10 years down the road to avoid getting stuck on short-term goals. Think about what products and services you will offer, what customers will think of them, and what significant change your business will have made in the world.

Distill the ideas you brainstormed into a word picture of your business in the future. However, write this vision statement in present tense. The idea is that while reading the statement, you should be reading a description of the business in the perfect world, and you should be able to see it in your mind’s eye. As with the mission statement, your vision statement should generally be 70 words or less. You want it to be concise enough to be able to recite to yourself anytime.

Edit your business’s vision statement by asking the question of whether it is unique to your business. If you expect that one of your competitors could have an identical vision statement, stop and consider what sets your business apart from the competitor. Think about what you offer that nobody else does, whether it is a unique product, superior service or a special personal touch. Work this into your vision statement so it is something that you are confident is unique to you and is something you are working toward that nobody else can do.

Concluding Tips

Even after writing your mission statement and vision statement, your work in these areas is not done. You must put them into practice to get the most out of these statements you worked so hard to create. Put your mission statement into practice by displaying it prominently on your website, in your workplace and on promotional materials. Your vision statement should be something you can recite from memory and use to help you make everyday decisions that will affect the future of your business. Your goal is to make decisions that lead you toward the scenario you outlined in the vision statement.

In many cases, you will end up revising the mission statement and vision statement throughout the life of your business. As the market changes, you may change your strategy and try to appeal to a different sort of consumer or go after a different market niche. In addition, you may find that you have reached the vision you set out and want to go farther, so you need to revise the vision statement to reflect the new goals. When making revisions, put the same energy and attention into these as you did on the initial statements, because your new mission and vision will continue to play a critical role in your business.

Tips to Increase Your Business’ Presence In Local Internet Searches

Do you remember searching for a local business, service provider or product using the yellow pages? Today, those massive, unwieldy tomes — with their tiny font size and finger-staining ink — have gone the way of the recycle bin, replaced in large part by online local searches.

In fact, 97 percent of consumers search for local businesses online and 20 percent of all online searches are locally focused, according to Google. From restaurants to print shops, hair salons to IT companies, law firms to mortgage brokers, the more-than 50 million local businesses listed on sites such as Google Places receive millions of page views each day.

Even if your business is purely online, local search marking is important because:

• Your customers are performing local searches
• Even if you sell nationally, you are still a local business

When you’re optimizing your web presence for search engines, it’s much easier to achieve high search-result rankings when you’ve incorporated local search terms into your online marketing strategy. For instance, a search for “attorney” brings up almost 400 million results; add “Seattle” to the search, and the results narrow to 53 million. Add the term “west” and the results plummet to 2.5 million.

Even if you sell your product or service at a national level, consumers tend to search for businesses in a particular geographic area.

Smart phone and other mobile device users also represent a growing market of local-search based consumers. In January 2011 alone, more than 77.1 million consumers accessed local content on a mobile device, an increase of 34 percent from 2010. These statistics indicate that more than 33 percent of mobile subscribers are local content users, a number that will continue to increase in coming years.

If your business isn’t listed on local search sites, you’re missing out on customers — and not just any customers. As a group, local search users represent well-informed consumers that tend to spend more. A 2010 study by Forrester Research found that more than one-third of customers do research online before visiting a local business. This group tends to not only buy what they came for, but also to spend — on average — $154 more on other purchases, a market that reached $1 trillion in 2011.

Today, the Internet has replaced the phone book as the consumer’s search method of choice. In order to remain competitive, your business must increase its online presence on local search sites such as Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Bing Local and Best of the Web.

How Does Local Search Work?

Simply search for information that’s linked to a particular geographic location, like a street address, a city, a state, a postal code or even an IP — Internet Protocol — number. The four major search engines — Google, Bing, Ask and Yahoo! — all offer local search features as part of their general search, as well as through specialized platforms.

More frequently — and significantly for business owners — search engines automatically include local content in general search results, even if the user doesn’t specifically request it. This is known as organic search. For instance, a general Google search for “Chinese restaurant” will generally include local eateries among the top ranking results. Though it may seem as though Big Brother is watching, this personalized local content is the result of geo-location.

When search terms include location cues, such as a city name, search engines automatically return localized information, or a local search. To use search terms for a local search, just add geographic information to a general search, such as “yoga studio Atlanta.”

Localized sites allow search engines to take an educated guess as to where a user’s computer is located. Countries often have domain extensions at the end of their web addresses, such as google.se. In this case, the domain name extension — .se — suggests that the user is located in Sweden. Some sites are localized to even narrower geographic areas, allowing search engines to assess the computers’ locations with some accuracy — and provide relative local search results.

Every computer has its own IP address. When computers access the Internet, IP addresses provide servers with a specific location to send the data. IP numbers are affiliated with certain geographic regions, often cities or states. Though it’s not an exact science, geo-location technology is improving, making it easier for search engines to automatically provide local content to searchers – and more important for your business to be accessible for both general and local-search users.

Local vs. Organic Searches

Though major search engines automatically provide local search content as a part of general search results — also known as organic search — they draw information for local searches from another set of data, known as indexes. Local indexes represent another way for you to localize your web site and reach more customers. In order to rank highly in organic and local searches, it’s important to increase your business’ presence in both organic search indexes and local search indexes.

Increase Your Business Presence through Local Search Results

One of the most effective ways to increase your local business presence is by adding business listings to the local business directories that feed search indexes. When a consumer enters a location-based search, such as “pizza Manhattan,” search engines pull from local indexes to provide geographically specific results.

Though there are many local search engines on the web, the “big four” include Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Bing Local Search and Ask Local. Each has its own process, policies — and sometimes fees — for listing your business, but seven simple listing tips can help increase your business’s presence on local search. These include:

1. Including a local phone number
2. Including a local address
3. Optimizing the listing description with target keywords
4. Adding videos to the listing
5. Adding photographs to the listing
6. Completing every section in the listing in a consistent manner
7. Completing local business listings on multiple sites

Always use a local phone number rather than an 800 number or a call center number when listing your business on local search sites. Though the exact specifics of search engines’ algorithms, or the data they use to create ranked results, are closely guarded proprietary secrets, many industry experts — such as David Mihm of Local Search Ranking — include local area codes among the top ten most recommended factors to focus on when listing businesses on local search engines.

Specifically, the phone number you list on your “place page,” or local search listing, should have a local area code that corresponds to your business’s address. Consistency is also important; the phone number you use in business listings should match the phone number you use on your business’s web pages.

Similarly, your business listings should include a local address that matches the address you use on your web page. A physical local address ranked first in the Local Search Ranking list of factors to focus on; address consistency was ranked fifth. If your business is located in a suburb, this could negatively affect local search rankings; consider renting a mail box with a suite number in an urban core to use as a business address.

Some local listing sites allow you to add text, like descriptions of products or services, to your listing. Use this opportunity to optimize the listing description with target keywords. Add as much relevant text as you can to your listing; this not only gives search engines more chances to find search terms, but more text provides more searchable content, which may in itself raise your ranking.

If local listing sites allow you to upload video or photographs to the listing, as Google Places does, take full advantage of the opportunity. Videos and photographs on place pages both add more content to your listing and increase the probability that search engines will view your business as legitimate. Add as many relevant videos and photographs as you can. Photos can be of products, staff, your business’s location; anything relevant that increases the possibility that local search engines will pick your listing up and add it to their index.

It may seem basic, but it’s important to complete every section in the listing. Sections give you the chance to get as much relevant content out there as possible. Include information such as:

• History of your business, including the year it was established
• Description of your business
• Staff biographies, including languages they speak
• Lists of products — including brand names — or services you provide
• Descriptions of products and services you offer
• Operating hours
• Types of payment you accept
• Any other relevant information that will help search engines and consumers find your business

Be consistent when entering information; provide the same information in each listing you complete for your business. For example, if your street address is “1234 Main Street Suite 100,” always write it that way. Don’t change it to “1234 Main St. Ste. 100” or even “1234 Main Street #100.” When it comes to local search rankings, consistency adds legitimacy, leading to better results.

Finally, complete local business listings in multiple local search engine locations, including the big four — Google Places, Bing Business Portal, Yahoo! Local and Ask — as well as other important directories — such as Best of the Web, CitySearch and Yellow Pages — and review sites, such as Yelp and Urbanspoon.

The “Big 4” Local Search Engines

Each of the top four local search platforms has its own application policies and procedures. Some are free, while others charge a listing fee or upgraded services for a fee. The biggest, Google Places, offers free listings that include videos and photographs. Users must have a Google account to complete a listing and verify that the business is legitimate though a postcard send through the mail. You can list more than 10 businesses at a time using Google’s “bulk uploader” feature.

Yahoo! Local provides a basic listing service for free. Users must have a Yahoo! Account. If you want to add photos, business descriptions or tags, you must pay a monthly fee.

Bing Business Portal also offers a free listing service, including photographs and detailed business descriptions. Like Google Places, Bing verifies business legitimacy using the postal service or through your mobile phone.

Ask Local doesn’t operate its own local business index; rather, this search engine pulls data from CitySearch. In order to submit a listing, you must go through Universal Business Listing, a “point of entry” site that distributes listing information to search engines, online yellow pages, social networking sites, mobile apps, GPS navigation systems and 411 directory assistance. UBL charges a fee to create a listing.

Directories

The many directory sites on the web – such as Best of the Web, CitySearch, Yellow Pages, Super Pages, Merchant Circle and Manta, just to name a few — all offer listing services for local businesses. While many are fed data by UBL, others – such as Think Local, Localeze and CitySquares rely on both user data and business owner input.

Spend the time to consistently and completely fill out a listing as many local directories as possible. You’ll be rewarded with more links back to your business’s web site. As an added benefit, the major search engines perceive many these directories as “trusted” sites, which may boost your site in the ranking algorithms.

Review Sites

When listing your business on local directory sites, don’t forget review sites, such as Yelp, Urbanspoon and Angie’s List. In fact, Local Search Ranking lists Yelp as the most influential review site in the U.S. Again, placing consistent, complete information is key to increasing your web presence. Getting great reviews also helps.

Increase Your Business Presence through Organic Search Results

Following these seven simple tips can help increase your business’s presence in organic search results. These include:

1. Adding your full address to each of your businesses’ web pages
2. Mentioning your city and zip code in your text
3. Including a list of all the areas or regions you are interested in doing business
4. Adding your city name to meta tags
5. Including your city and state in the link text when you link from other websites
6. Creating a separate Contact Us page for each location you have
7. Adding keywords to your contact pages

The first, and perhaps most important, step in increasing your ranking in organic searches is by adding your full address to every single one of your business’s web pages. Many businesses limit their contact information to a single “Contact Us” page. While this page is necessary for users, when search engines crawl the web looking for content to present in search results, they’re more likely to “notice” sites with information that appears more than once.

Search engines also take prominence, or the placement of terms, into account. Place your address near the top of the page — a highly prominent placement — rather than in the footer — low prominence — whenever possible.

Use your city and zip code in the body of text. Add city and zip codes to headers and accentuate them with bold font. This helps search engines to find and index your local data and incorporate it into organic search results.

If you do business in more than one place, make this clear. Add a footer or sidebar that lists cities or regions to each of your business’s web pages. Make this geographic data even more search-engine-friendly by linking each city or region name to a page that contains specific information about that area.

Search engines also examine your site’s meta tags. Add the name of your city to your title and description meta tags to help search engines locate your business. Prominence counts in meta tags, too; terms near the front of a tag receive more search-engine attention than terms near the end.

You probably already know that linking back to your businesses’ web site from other sites is a great way to drive traffic; this practice can also increase your search result rankings. When you link back to your business’s web page from other sites, include your city and state in the link text. This gives search engines yet another way to pinpoint your location.

Though it’s important to include your address on each page of your website, tweaking your Contact Us pages can also help search engines locate your business. Make sure to create a separate Contact Us page for each business address you have. For example, if you have offices in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, create a page for each address.

Finally, add keywords to your contact pages. Keywords help search engines find and index your site, resulting in higher rankings. Choosing the best keywords is important; start by performing a keyword analysis. Your web site’s hit logs — also called access logs — may show you the keywords that people used when they found your website from a list of search engine results. You can also use Google’s free keyword tool to find common searches related to certain keywords.

When selecting keywords, keep types of locations in mind. Depending on the type of business you have, consumers may search at the state, city or even neighborhood level. For instance, many consumers would search for a yoga studio at the neighborhood level — “yoga on 7th Street” — rather than at the state level. In contrast, other types of businesses may warrant a search at the city level — “civil attorney Boston” — or the state level — “car insurance Ohio.”

Create a list of the common keywords and work a few into the text on your “Contact Us” pages. Be careful when adding keywords, though; if density is too high, search engines may dismiss your site. Instead of packing your contact page with keywords, strive for natural-sounding usage.

In summary, with the phone book largely relegated to the recycle bin, more and more consumers are turning to online searching. If your online marketing plan doesn’t include local search strategies that influence the results of both local searches and organic searches, you’re missing out on a large customer base that’s only going to increase in coming years. Optimizing your web presence for local searches and completing multiple, consistent listings with local search sites, directories and review sites are activities well worth your time.Take advantage of these free and low-cost listing tools and techniques to increase your online presence — and grow your business.

Graham Shows How You Can Make It Happen

“The world is a collection of unlimited wealth and resources. Often, we limit our potential, moving in circles because of our fears. If we change our way of seeing the world, there is nothing we cannot achieve.”

When I heard Stedman Graham say this at this year’s Global Conference, the implications hit me like a ton of bricks.

Many people limit themselves because they are afraid, making it harder, if not impossible, to grow, both personally and professionally.

Ask yourself and be honest when answering, is something holding you and your business back?

This was just one nugget from Graham, but as the presentation went on there were even more, which really opened my eyes.

So while in Miami, I picked up a copy of his Best-Seller, You Can Make It Happen.

In You Can Make It Happen, Graham lays out his 9-step plan for success.

The book is straightforward and gets right to the heart of freeing yourself of doubt so you can achieve your full potential.

This book is a great way to lay the groundwork for whatever you want to achieve

Graham has been one of the United States’ most prominent business and community leaders over the last two decades.

He is the author of a number of best-selling books, in addition to You Can Make It Happen, the CEO of S. Graham & Associates, the founder of non-profit Athletes against Drugs. He is also well-known as Oprah Winfrey’s boyfriend.

If you only know of Graham from his relationship with Oprah, you are missing out on the teachings of one of the top motivators in the world and that was very clear to all in attendance just minutes into his presentation.

So click on the links above and pick up this important book today to learn how you can leave behind what has been holding you back.

Name Dropping Won’t Help Your Franchise Grow

There are literally hundreds of businesses named after the founder or owner but what if you buy into a franchise system that is tied to a particular person and something catastrophic, like a scandal or even a death, happens that negatively affects the way that person is viewed by the public?

A situation like this can be particularly damaging to a franchise that provides services that people trust and rely on. Recently there was a perfect example of what can happen to franchisees in this situation.

This May, Roni Deutch, a well-known tax attorney, abandoned her Roni Deutch Tax Center franchise due to legal problems, leaving dozens of franchisees in the lurch. These franchisees paid thousands of dollars in fees and royalties, only to be left with nothing to show for it.

Deutch began her franchise in 2008 as an attempt to capitalize on the, once positive, name recognition that she’d built through her more than 20 years as a tax attorney.

Deutch also used television advertising that was seen around the United States for the better part of a decade, using her name to help build that recognition and her brand, which must have seemed enticing to the people who joined her franchise system.

But, clearly Deutch was not in a position to create and build a franchise system the right way.

So what can we learn from this story?

First, if you are going to become part of a personality’s franchise, be sure you are going with a franchise you, and your customers, can trust.

Don’t just rely on name recognition and hope the franchise is run correctly. Talk to other franchisees and see what they have to say about the leadership and system of the franchise.

Finally, remember that one of the best indicators of success for a franchise is how long they’ve been around.

If it’s only been a few years and the name of the company is the name of the founder, you might be dealing with a vanity project rather than a proven system that works, so take your time, do your research and pick a franchise with a name that isn’t tied into the roller coaster life of one individual.

Does the Power of Your Vision Make You A Leader?

It’s been 100 years since he was born and more than a decade since he died, but David Ogilvy continues to influence the world we live in. Ogilvy was known as “The Father of Advertising” and he pushed the boundaries like no other advertising executive before him.

What Ogilvy did was make advertising interesting. He said, “You cannot bore people into buying your product, you can only interest them in buying it,” and if you look at advertising that came before Ogilvy, you can see that was a groundbreaking notion when Ogilvy came up with it.

But Ogilvy isn’t just an important figure because of the impact he made on advertising, he remains important because of the impact he made as a leader, not only changing the face of the industry he worked in, but leading the change of the society around him.

Much has been written about Ogilvy and he was, depending on what you read, a snob, a perfectionist, rude, impatient and even egotistical. No, Mr. Ogilvy was not a perfect person. But he was, in many ways, a perfect leader.

Ogilvy knew that if your ideas were powerful enough, you must lead, and his ideas were not only powerful, they were groundbreaking. He made advertising smarter, more interesting and something people would talk about at the dinner table.

Along the way he obsessed on details, he was certain about virtually everything and he had a huge ego, but he was also the smartest person in the room (when it came to advertising) and everyone knew it.

The people who worked for him may not have liked him, but they loved him because they respected him, his knowledge and his vision.

What does Ogilvy’s story tell us about what it takes to make a leader? Often leaders aren’t made, instead people become leaders because they are in the best position to lead, whether it’s because they have the most knowledge, passion or attention to detail.

David Ogilvy had all three of those qualities and whether the people that worked for him liked him or not was irrelevant. They trusted his vision and his ability and their commitment showed in the work produced by Ogilvy’s agency over the years.

So if you are in a leadership position, ask yourself, does your team follow you because of your vision and ability, or because you sign the checks?

The Fashions Change, Target, Offer, Copy Remains

Are you a PC or a Mac?

We’ve heard that question since personal computing began to grow in popularity and in many ways people can be defined by which computer they prefer.

Or can they?

As you can see in this original PC vs Mac ad from over a decade ago, the perception is that the person that uses a PC is all business and no fun while the Mac user is creative, cutting edge and successful on their own terms.

Of course this generalization isn’t true. There are plenty of PC users that are a lot of fun and Mac users that can be buzz kills, but Apple wanted to appeal to a younger demographic and built an edgy, cool image of the Mac user, versus the stodgy, buttoned up idea of the corporate PC user, to grow their product.

The reason this campaign lasted as long as it did was that it worked. The target that Apple was looking to connect with didn’t want to be perceived as corporate types, even if they happened to work in a corporate environment.

Apple did a great job of understanding their target and building an offer they would be interested in through copy that connected with that target market.

But what made the campaign truly powerful is that, even as that target market got older (not too many people have the “casual Seinfeld-cut” anymore) they remained connected to the image of themselves as Mac users.

It wasn’t about the picture in the ad anymore. They remained loyal because being a “Mac” had become part of not only their life, but part of who they were.

The ultimate goal of marketing is to make it seem like a natural for customers to do business with you and unnatural if they don’t. Those loyal to the Mac would never convert because they are, in some respects, just as much a “Mac” as the computer itself.

Of course there are many steps on the path to brand loyalty that go beyond target, offer and copy. You have to have great customer service, deliver on what you promise and add value to your customer’s experience with your business to name a few.

But it all starts with target, offer and copy.

If your target is wrong, your offer doesn’t appeal to them or you copy doesn’t speak to their needs, you’ll never find the type of customers you need to build a strong small business.

Apple was able to reach their target market for more than a generation with this campaign and because they made those customers happy they built a loyal base that has helped make them one of the most successful companies in the world, even if that loyal base doesn’t think that “mandatory wacky watch” looks so cool anymore.

Is information that I find on the internet (by Googling) reliable?

The internet can be a fantastic source of high quality information, but it is also a place where anyone can say anything they choose about any subject.

There is no fact-checking for blog posts, and the ignorant and uninformed have the same right to speak their mind as the world’s experts, on any topic. Even competitors can easily pose anonymously as either disgruntled coach or a client. So use a little common sense. If you want the most reliable information, it is all at your disposal at the ActionCOACH website, the International Franchising Association website or any of the National Franchising websites.

In most of the developed nations in which we operate – franchising is heavily regulated. Which means that we have fully disclose on all the numbers and legal proceedings (existing and pending) on our business. Even though less than 20% of franchisors put in an earnings claim in their disclosure document – we do.

Our business has been around since 1993, and operates today in 34 countries. Every year – we are named in the Franchise Business Review Franchise 50 – 50 franchise concepts that rank high in franchisee satisfaction.

Our company gives back in a profound and lasting way to the Small to Medium Sized business community and their communities at large. This is best shown by three (of many examples). 1) The Indonesian government created an award and gave it to ActionCOACH for their contribution to entrepreneurialism and growth in their country.  2) Coaching for a Cause (our pro bono coaching program to charities around the world) in its first year (during an economic recession) helped non-profits raise an 2.5 million in charitable contributions through coaching them. Coaching has a compound effect, you cannot unlearn what you learn through coaching. So these non-profits have been taught “how to fish” rather than “given a fish” and will continue to apply lessons  learned via coaching year on year. 3) In Florida USA, a year-long study of businesses being coached by ActionCOACH showed an average $7.50 profit return for every $1 invested in 12 months.

ActionCOACH is the only coaching company who guarantees your coaching will be self-funding on or before the seventeenth week. If you really want to know about a company – you need to look at the source of the information. Is it reliable? We welcome you (in fact we insist) that you speak to our coaches and our clients. Only then will you be able to determine what a company and its people is really like.

So if the information is not true, why don’t you defend yourself in the blogs or forums?

In some instances we do, albeit not publicly.

To understand why we choose not to – you might want to read our 14 Points of Culture – especially our Communication point to understand why.

Business coaching and the essence of our company is about growth, forward thinking and positivity. What is truly unique about our business is our culture and the people. We have a belief that action truly speaks louder than words. So rather than spend time on the fruitless endeavor of convincing anonymous haters and cyber-bullies – we created a forum for people to ask questions of our Founder, Brad Sugars directly. We have regular webinars with our coaches so people can find out direct. You can even find many of us on Social Media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn including executives.

Our CEOs will speak direct to any person interested in becoming a coach or being coached who may have concerns. Unlike the anonymous posters – we are not hiding. We figured if intelligent and genuine people were truly concerned with anything they read online – they would ask us and our team so they can come up with their own opinion.

Is Seattle’s Best Good Enough?

When I first began with ActionCOACH, one of my first tasks was to oversee the rebranding of the company from Action International to ActionCOACH.

We did a lot of work to finally decide on the new company name, logo and colors, surveying 100,000 business owners and letting them choose the company’s new image.

I don’t believe in focus groups and we didn’t use them for our rebrand for a number of reasons.

Participants often try to please the moderator or the other members of the group, so they may hold back or say what they think others want to hear rather than give their real opinion.

Companies have less control over focus groups than they do over a one on one interview, where they can ask focused questions and get real answers.

A focus group is a small group. I chose to find out opinions and hedge my bets by talking to a target audience of 100,000.

“They (focus groups) just ensure that you don’t offend anyone and produce bland, inoffensive products,” Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, Jonathan Ive says and I think he’s on the mark.

A big part of rebranding is the company’s new logo but typically logos are designed by creative people who aren’t necessarily interested in creating the best logo or design for generating leads or sales.

Instead they want to create something that feeds their inner artist and many businesses have lost a lot of money by doing just that. Award-winning logos that nobody connects with and don’t stimulate people to buy happens when art wins out over proper research.

Ideally, rebranding is done to build recognition and better connect with a company’s customer base and target market. But too often rebranding seems to be nothing more than an excuse to undertake another project, or, to put it bluntly, busy work.

The latest company to undertake a major rebranding that is completely underwhelming is Seattle’s Best coffee.

Seattle’s Best is in a difficult position because they are owned by the same parent company that owns Starbucks, so they are competing for wallet share within the same four walls as one of its biggest competitors.

So how do you build a brand when you’re in that position? They began by naming Michelle Gass President.

Gass is no stranger to the corporation as she had been brand manager and global strategy chief at Starbucks. Her goal was to bring focus to Seattle’s Best, which hadn’t been performing as expected.

Gass has made some significant changes to the brand, including separating the five basic styles of coffee the company sells into numbered packaging to help explain the differences between them to customers.

But if you look closer at the new packaging, you will see their new logo, which I simply don’t like. I know I can’t be the only one that looks at that logo and wants to donate blood.

You can find plenty of other people who don’t like the new look by just looking for Seattle’s Best on Amazon. Included among the comments were two that stood out to me.

“Seattle’s Best has obviously been taken over by idiots. That’s the only explanation for this new change in product look… Are they trying to market coffee to grade school children? The new product presentation in bright colored, ugly bags with huge numbers on them is so unsophisticated and juvenile that it boggles the mind as to how this piece of rubbish got rubber-stamped by any executive who loves coffee,” said one comment.

Meanwhile, another brought back visions of one of the greatest rebranding fiascos in history, saying, “…it makes me wonder if corporate is purposely trying to kill off SBC (Seattle’s Best Coffee) or create a media fiasco like Coca-Cola did with ‘New Coke’ in the 80′s.”

As you can see, the new logo is sterile and simple and who, exactly is it supposed to appeal to? Is it a logo for a premium brand or does the logo and new packaging make the brand look like any generic brand one finds at the local supermarket?

“People don’t drink no-name colas,” Gass said, “But lots of people drink no-name coffee. That’s because no one’s come in and said, ‘Don’t accept a bad cup of coffee’.”

I find that statement perplexing to say the least, especially when the new look is generic and has removed the traditional aspect from the look and feel of the brand.

(Also, I don’t believe people choose no-name coffees. We ran out of a premium brand at our office recently and my team definitely knew they weren’t drinking the good stuff.)

Rather than a new logo, I think Seattle’s Best needs to find a better way to differentiate itself from Starbucks and other major coffee brands.

Brands, especially food retail brands, need to concentrate on brand experience as much as taste profiling.

In Australia, coffee shops are influenced by European cafes. You can go there to eat a real meal and even take a client there. There don’t seem to be many places like that in America and that would seem to be a perfect niche for Seattle’s Best. In fact, McDonalds is testing this with their McCafe line of coffees.

So rather than changing what was an effective and attractive logo, change the customer’s experience at Seattle’s Best.