Thursday, May 6, 2010

Business Strategy Coach - Why Isn't My Marketing Working?

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Happy Cinco de Mayo...Celebrating All the Way Success' Anniversary. Awesome Year! Cheers and thank you for your continual support =)

Social Media Strategy Tip: How to Monetize Your Business Using Facebook

Internet marketing is now considered to be essential in the business world. With it, you will be able to get more clients and significantly let your business grow without spending too much money. Internet marketing is a new breed of marketing. It is very different from marketing on the real world and for most people, internet marketing is quite complicated.

If you don’t know how to market on the internet, the best way to start is by marketing on one of the most popular social networking websites available today, which is Facebook.

First of all, Facebook is primarily a social networking website that is designed to let people communicate with their friends in a dynamic way. It also serves a way for people to meet new people and establish new relationships.

For internet marketers, Facebook is packed with features that can be used to market products and services as well as their business website. If you are a first time internet marketer who wants to start easy, you might want to start with Facebook. You will see that Facebook will provide you with a lot of marketing potential and also help you let your business grow.

The great thing about Facebook is that it is steadily growing. Today, it already has an estimated over 400 million active subscribers. With this number, you will definitely be able to find a lot of people who will be interested in what you have to sell.

Also, Facebook has all the tools you need to market your products or services. Even if the tools and applications here are designed for communication, you have to consider that the main point about internet marketing is communication. Facebook has all the communication tools that you will ever need.

Facebook also launched its Facebook Ads feature. Here, you will be able to officially advertise or market your brand, business or products. You can even market your website here at Facebook Ads.

At Facebook Ads, you will be able to take advantage of its great marketing tools, such as the Advanced Targeting feature. Here, you will be able to target your niche market by age, gender, interests, location and more. This will mean that you will be able to easily target the clients you want. By having this feature, you will be able to quickly find people that may be interested in purchasing the products or services that you are offering.

The Facebook Ads will also provide you with Trusted Referrals. With this feature, you will be able to attach friend to friend interactions about your business to your ads. Facebook encourages word of mouth marketing. This is a great feature as people are more likely to buy a particular product that is recommended by the person they know.

Starting in Facebook Ads is very easy. The first is by pasting the URL of your website. After that, you will choose the audience you want. You can choose the age range, the location, education status, political views and relationship status. You can also include some keywords that will normally show up on interests.

After that, you will create the advertising where you will insert a title and a body. You can also include a photo if you want. The last step is by setting up a budget.

These are some of the tips that you should try to remember when advertising in Facebook Ads. By properly using it, you will be able to get your money's worth and eventually let your business grow.

For a free Social Media Marketing Strategy Session contact me at rmajorswildman@allthewaysuccess.com

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Small Business Strategy Tip - The Power of Buzz Marketing


Buzz Marketing is best defined as word of mouth. Much like Viral Marketing where the objective is to get people talking to other people about their experience you provided as a marketer, the big difference is the part where you get people talking is generally done off line. If you’re standing outside a movie theater and shouting about your product and maybe dressed up as your product guess what is going to happen? People are going to start talking to one another. Regardless if you tell another person there is some crazy man or woman outside shouting about something the goal has been met once one person tells another.

The best BM (Buzz Marketing) campaigns are those that do not come off as marketing campaigns. Ambient Marketing is loosely based on BM where you are simply there and making your presence known. Every Guerilla Marketing (GM) tactic contains elements of another GM tactic but each is different and used in a different way. If you’re thinking BM may not be the best approach to get traffic to your website or offline store then you are really underestimating the power of BM. By nature people are curious and gossipy. Why not let the most basic of human instincts do your marketing for you?

One of the draw backs to this particular GM tactic is that if you are a shy or quiet person then this may not be best for you as it generally involves making a mockery of yourself or at least being in a public place and doing something that will get people talking.

That is okay though. With the Internet you don’t have to be seen by anyone. You just have to do something to get people talking. Since VM (viral marketing) and BM are so close to each other on a principle level, you can start a VM campaign and reap the benefits of word of mouth. Refer to the VM section for a great way to get people talking about whatever it is you want them to.
Of course most BM campaigns don’t require you to make a mockery of yourself. A great BM tactic is to place fliers, business cards and or signs all around your town, city and or state. When one person sees the message you have 1% better chances of them telling another person.

When a hundred people see your message, grab your card or whatever you want them to do you have a 100% better chance of them telling just one other person which would be 100 people telling 100 people.

Are you starting to see how this could be great for your business? I thought so. Even if they don’t tell anyone, someone is still finding out about you. Buzz is best but just being is fine too.

Thus far, not one of these Guerilla Marketing tactics is going to cost you more than $20, often, it’ll be much less than that and the results will linger for a long while. The key to GM is to combine tactics since even when you combine five or ten GM tactics you’re still nowhere near the cost of say a TV or newspaper commercial that just blends the surroundings (not to be confused with Ambient Marketing although it contains AM elements).

People for the most part have grown to ignore commercials. How often do you actually leave the TV on the same channel when a commercial that doesn’t interest you comes on? Not very often. The people making the commercial you are ignoring could have just as easily and for less money (if any money) could have used a GM tactic that was sure to get your attention and at least get you to check out what they are promoting.

The next GM method I am going to speak about may require a little money and may be reserved for bigger companies or more established companies but it’s a great way to get people’s attention and works wonders for smaller or startup companies. Remember I said GM is not about money but time and effort but this particular tactic as I said may cost a little money but it’s well worth it compared to traditional marketing methods.