Tag Archives: Online marketing

Sharisax Is Out There

“Get Laid, Get Paid, and don’t Die” — What People Want

Leave a comment

I debated about using that title — and even asked my Facebook Friends for advice on the riskiness of a “risqué” headline. So we’ll see what happens:

Will I get more traffic?

Will I hear any backlash?

What will I learn from using a “racier” title than I might have?

What will YOU learn from the notes I took at George Kao’s latest free social media webinar?

trump tower

Blueprint for starting your own online business

Is it possible to know with any certainty

— BEFORE you start anything

— if it will work?

George Kao asked this question as he began his December 16 webinar featuring Internet Entrepreneur Clay Collins, who has started a business called Project Mojave to share his “vision for a world where every person can be their own boss and secure a healthy income while offering their greatest gift to the world.”

My Take-Aways

Most marketers do not fully understand how to get the most from market research.

STEP ONE: Your first research should be to carefully describe your Idea Client:

  • Develop a “Customer Avatar” – a picture of that ideal client.
  • When you plan your marketing message, aim it at One Specific Person. The key is talking to one person; you will sound more authentic, and others will want to engage with you as well.

How do you put together this Buyer Profile [as David Meerman Scott has called it]?

  • If you know where your demographic is, then go where they hang out. [i.e. Fish where the fish are.]
  • Then ask them questions:
  1. What is your biggest fear?
  2. If you could ask anyone a question, WHAT would the question be and WHOM would you ask?
  3. What product would you buy from me if I was the only one who could make it?
  4. How much would you pay for it?

“At the end of the day, people buy on emotion: they ‘Justify‘ as they buy what they want”

said Clay Collins, who suggested you then double the sum that they said they’d pay.

STEP TWO: Design your business around Problems, Needs, or Questions

  • If you can Answer a Question, you begin a relationship
  • If you can Fulfill a Need, you definitely get someone’s interest
  • If you Solve a Problem, you’ve got yourself a customer.

If you want to know where to find those problems, look to these areas:

  1. Relationships and sex
  2. Health
  3. Careers, jobs, making money

Clay:

“It’s all about Getting Laid, Getting Paid, and Not Dying.”

STEP THREE: Know the customer’s “Primary Driver”

  • Most people are driven by one thing.
  • Find out what it is: Ask them what they want and why. Then ask them the same question again . . . and again.
  • Then Speak [i.e., your message] to their actual, real experience in a way that they can visualize the result.

Howard Blum photo - click for website*** So here are those original questions:

Will I get more traffic?

Will I hear any backlash?

What will I learn from using a “racier” title than I might have?

. . . AND THE MOST IMPORTANT . . .

What did YOU learn from the notes I took at George Kao’s latest free social media webinar?

Interview

Give your Ideas the Power to Grow your Business

5 Comments

Thoughtful planning turns ideas into profits for small businesses, says Les Ross helps Why is it that 2/3 of small businesses fail within the first two-three years of operation?

One of the major causes for a company’s collapse is inadequate planning upfront, according to business consultant Les Ross, whom I first met this spring when he WOW-ed my SFSU advertising students with his Internet Marketing presentation.

Many students expressed their amazement at how web sites could be set up to operate on automatic pilot, maintaining customer contact and continuing to offer products and services for sale.

“Internet marketing allows the small guy to compete against the big guy — and not only compete, but outcompete — because there is no differentiation between a large business and a small one on the Web. Success is purely dependent first on the quality of the message and then on the follow-through. Product quality and customer service are essential.”

“The other remarkable thing is the ability to totally automate the entire sales and marketing process. It’s an effort to structure the system, but once in place, then it’s a process that builds on itself,” he explained.

Les has developed tools that allow a small business to grow under a structure that would easily allow its operational systems to evolve with growth. “Many small business owners put in basic systems and then when they reach a certain level, those systems cannot take them beyond that point, so the business stagnates or the owner must do a massive restructuring,” he said.

What typically is NOT planned for by many new companies?

They don’t understand their markets, according to Les.

“They run off with an idea that they think is so unique that no one has ever thought of it. And then, too late, they realize they are faced with stiff competition.”

In addition, many start-ups are inexperienced at financial planning and do not know how to identify the costs that their business will incur the first few years: “Coupled with inadequate marketing strategies, this is a recipe for disaster,” Les said.

Les is as excited as I am about marketing opportunities through social media platforms. That’s why he agreed to come speak to my class, and that’s why Les and I are starting a Social Media/Internet Marketing consulting business, which we are calling Performance Social Media.

“Some people think that you can only develop relationships face-to-face — and that you will never replace that experience. What they don’t realize is that the Internet offers opportunities to enhance your ability to offer information while you continuously build relationships.”

“With live exchanges, you have to manually follow up, and there is the danger that if you are overloaded, the necessary customer service actions for your ‘less important’ customers can be put aside.”

With an Internet marketing system, no customer ever falls through the cracks and feels ignored if you set up your system correctly to provide the information they want — it’s all on autopilot, according to Les.

Next post: In a PERFECT WORLD, how would you manage your Online/Social Media Presence?