In marketing terms the accepted wisdom is that you should always ask your customers and potential customers questions. That way they are more likely to feel loved, wanted and listened to. However, in today’s ramblings I want to ask what are the questions we, as marketers, should be asking ourselves.
The obvious ‘marketing ‘ type questions are:
how can I make more sales
where can I find more potential customers
what can I do to reduce my overheads
how can I increase my profit margins
where can I find more products to sell
I don’t really want to touch on those today but here are some more intangible questions?
how can I become a better father/mother/wife/husband?
what is my purpose?
how can I break out of the endless cycle I’m in?
why can’t I lose some weight
These philosophical questions and many others, that we seem to shy away from or put on the back burner, are really quite valid and just the idea that we can and should think about them from time to time can be quite refreshing.
Tell us what your questions are and lets see what the world is thinking about!!
In our weekly discussions we’ve been concentrating on customer service and the ultimate customer experience. In a survey, the largest consumer survey ever, from 2001 the most important factor is overwhelmingly solving problems for them and helping them to make informed choices. Click the image to download the full summary.
One of the best ways to foster a healthy relationship with your customers is to use a regular, but not too frequent, Newsletter. Here is an example – again click to download.
I came across a really simple but sensible bit of information.
According to some well respected authorities web search engines are programmed to look for the following on every site, including blogs, and those sites that don’t have them all will be ranked less well than a comparable site that does have them.
About page
a privacy policy
a profile picture – a picture of the author creates confidence
easily-found contact info – physical location info – not full postal address but town and country is normally enough
Does your site have them? If not then you might want to look at it pronto.
The following social networking sites sites are all different and there are many that we could add but these are the ones we use regularly and we recommend them. One work of caution, from experience, only try one or two at a time as the potential for overload is huge. Do one thing well and then move on.
Digg: Create a news niche by uploading information that’s useful to you and to others who want your information. This is a great place to find like-minded individuals who are interested in your information.
Facebook: Not just for kids, this tool can help you create ‘Pages’ that relate to your business where you gather ‘fans’ like ‘followers’ on Twitter.
Flickr: Share photos of your products or services, staff, convention photos and get-togethers to show that you’re a pro and that you like to have fun as well.
Friendfeed: Create a private group for your company or colleagues to collaborate on a research paper, coordinate an upcoming event, or give status updates on the TPS reports. Or, use Friendfeed as an aggregate to feed from your other social networking tools.
LinkedIn: LinkedIn is the business social networking leader of the pack. While you may be tempted to use your business as the ‘name’ for your LinkedIn account, you might think about a down-the-road situation where you sell that entrepreneurial business. Be yourself at LinkedIn, state what you do, and put enough information in your profile to show that you own a business and that you’re a human being, too.
Twitter: Use Twitter to show that a real human lies behind your brand. Some social media pros suggest you use a photo rather than your logo for an avatar, but use what feels ‘right’ to you. A very useful feature of twitter is the twitter search facility – try it.
YouTube: This tool is a no-brainer for film companies, entertainers and politicians. But, you can use videos as how-to guides, information hubs and more to promote your business.
Delicious: A place where you can save online bookmarks which others can search – seems an odd way to do things but it also provides a source of backlinks to your website.
Stumbleupon: StumbleUpon uses / ratings to form collaborative opinions on website quality. When you stumble, you will only see pages that friends and like-minded stumblers () have recommended. This helps you discover great content you probably wouldn’t find using a search engine.
Ecademy: Create new contacts and friends, market your business for Google visibility, share your knowledge for opportunities to meet others and build your business with unlimited advertisements in the Marketplace.
The following sites are unproven in my experience – they may be very good – we’ve just not used them.
BizFriendz: Increase your online presence and your sales as well as develop new business contacts and partnerships through this social media platform. Earn money while you build your network through ticket sales for events you create and through first- and second-tier referral fees from others who join your network and use BizFriendz’ enhanced site features.
Biznik: If you hate isolation, need more clients and customers, want to raise your visibility and need help with certain parts of your business, then Biznik might be right for you. While LinkedIn provides a great venue to seek new work, Biznik is for sharing ideas online and face-to-face.
Cofoundr: This community for entrepreneurs offers a global environment for entrepreneurs to find co-founders, to build teams and to get advice. This is a public beta offering, so getting in on the ground floor might appeal to your entrepreneurial spirit.
DreamStake: This is a collaborative platform for “creative entrepreneurs” who want to meet up with other talented individuals with experience across a wide range of disciplines. Find funding, legal and marketing expertise and software and design development skills at this site.
Entrepreneur Connect: Create a profile, share ideas and make connections without feeling pressured to self-promote (which is discouraged at any rate). You also can create or join groups to network, create dynamic business-to-business relationships and get your creative juices flowing.
Fast Pitch: Fast Pitch provides a “one-stop shop” for networking and marketing. Increase your online presence with a 60+ page manual that shows you how to use Fast Pitch to its fullest potential.
Go BIG Network: Billed as the “Biggest Community of Startup Companies,” this social networking site offers ways to build a business plan, find funding, services and mentors. Think of this site as a Grand Central Station for entrepreneurs.
PartnerUp: This is another networking site for small business owners that offers material on how to build your business, learn more about being in business and opportunities to find a new business and even properties for sale or lease.
Perfect Business: Get the education and resources you need to succeed in business along with a venue that promotes meeting thousands of entrepreneurs, both novice and expert. Use this site to find potential business partners, clients and mentors.
Ryze: This social media platform provides a free networking-oriented homepage for you to use to make quality business contacts, deals and connections with clients, peers and friends.
StartupNation: This is an entrepreneur-to-entrepreneur site that helps self-starters get off the ground, market and build a business. This site also welcomes franchise owners.
StartupSpace: Develop a profile page for your business and invite friends to network. You can develop a blog, a group and/or a discussion and upload and share videos about your business and interests at this social network platform.
The Funded: This is an online community filled with entrepreneurs who research, rate and review worldwide funding sources. Share terms of service sheets, assist others with finding start-up funds and ask for help for your venture.
Upspring: Use this social media platform to promote your company and to increase offline sales, to develop new B2B contacts and to profile your business for online visibility.
Vator.tv: If you want to expand your video exposure beyond YouTube, try this social platform on for size. This is a place for emerging companies to showcase and market their goods and/or services. Get feedback; join the community and share news while meeting new entrepreneurs and customers.
Young Entrepreneur: If you’re a young entrepreneur, join over 50,000 other members to discuss start-up issues and more in forums, through blogs and by private messages.
Xing: Manage your business contacts along with seven million other members to this site. You receive a profile, a personal home page and messages as well as special limited offers on travel, electronics and more.
I get emails from people who want to know if Start Something Today accepts guest posts. The simple answer is yes but we are very selective. These guidelines are just that – guidelines – if you have an idea then e mail me and we can discuss it.
As a general rule I will only publish one Guest Post a week. So the next question is – What kind of content do we accept?
The general principle is that it has to add value to our readers. Things that are related to doing business – we even let you occasionally promote your own business. It can be related to business ideas, creative ideas, blogging, Internet marketing in general, and it can also be derived from your own personal experiences. There is no minimum length for your post, but usually the guest posts have over 500 words.
Guidelines
Your post must be original and must have never been published before on the Internet
You agree to not publish the post anywhere else (i.e., in your own blog or as a guest post in other blogs)
You can include up to two links in the byline, which will be displayed at the bottom of the post
You can’t use SEOd anchor text for your links
How do I submit my guest post? We prefer to set you up as a contributor or possibly an editor but that all depends on your content.
If you have a post that meets the guidelines above, you can send it to me on the email paulatstart-something-today.com – if you click on the guest writer image that will take you to my e mail. Usually within 48 hours I will reply stating if we will accept the guest post or not. If I reject your post, you are obviously free to use it in your own blog or to propose it as a guest post to some other website.
I was thinking this morning what I’ve learnt from the Christmas break – so here goes.
Fact – In Florida 24% of all mortgages are in default and 44% of mortgages are more than the homes are worth. What should I do with that stunning information?
That the work we’ve been doing on almost every website has resulted in an improved Google Page Rank – some now as high as PR3.
Tools – If you are operating in a niche then a very useful tool to monitor some of what’s going on around the world is a new tool by Google – It’s called Google Alerts - http://www.google.co.uk/alerts?
Ponder – That Global warming doesn’t mean everyone will get warmer – at the moment it’s between – 8C and – 2C in the UK and yet again the cold weather is exceeding all records
So that brings me back to an eternal question – two actually.
How can I play my part in being responsible on this planet so that everyone gets a fair crack at life?
Where are the opportunities in life that these changes will bring – how can we spot them? By the way many of these opportunities are not commercial but that doesn’t mean they are not worth pursuing.
As we near the end of 2009 and look forward to 2010 I thought it was appropriate to look at how we might form new habits to replace old ones. My inspiration this morning comes from reading a book called the seven habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey. This book has become a staple reference for me over the years as it contains such wisdom. If this book isn’t in your library yet treat yourself and buy it and read over the Christmas period.
For our purposes, we will define the habit is the intersection of knowledge,skill and desire.
Knowledge is the theoretical paradigm, the what to do and why. Skill is the how to do. And desire is the motivation, the want to do. In order to make something a habit in our lives, we have to have all three.
For example I may be effective in my interactions with my work Associates, my spouse, or my children to such constantly tell them what I think, I may not even know I need to listen.
Even if I didn’t know that in order to interact effectively others I really need to listen to them, I may not have the skill. I may not know how to really listen deeply to another human being.
But knowing I need to listen and then have to listen is not enough. Unless I want to listen, unless I have the desire, it won’t be the habit in my life. Creating a habit requires work in all three dimensions.
I am not a Greek scholar but in many cases they have more words that occasionally are useful. For example their keywords for time chronos and kairos. The first refers to chronological time, such as when he checked the clock to see how long you have to wait for lunch or when you announced that dinner will be at eight o’clock.
Kiaros, on the other hand, reveals an event that happened at a particular point in time. If the 8 o’clock dinner turns out to be the most fun you had in a long time and you feel some relief from the pressures of your life, then it becomes kairos moments as well. Kairos refers to significant event — good or bad — that alters your life. Something happened or something was said that made an impact. It may have even made chronos seem to stand still.
Do you remember the day you were married? How about the birth of your first child? Think about a favorite vacation you took with your family. While these are all kairos moments you cherish. Some kairos events, however leave an impact because of the tragic consequences the death of a loved one, a divorce, an argument with a co-worker, the horrific events of September 11, 2001.
We humans are an analytical lot. What a kairos moment occurs, especially one that stirs up negative emotions, we want to study old events that led to this crisis with the hope of preventing a similar thing from happening again. We think that what we need to learn from our mistakes is how not to ever make that mistake again!
We are looking through the wrong end of the telescope. Instead of looking back at the event to prevent circumstances from converging in the same way again, we need to look forward to the growth that we can experience from it. Rather than focusing on what we want to leave behind from experience, we should be practiced about what we want for what from the experience as we move into the next asked of relationship or season of our lives.
There has been much talked about Mentors and their roles. However, how many people in business have one and really understand how to get the best out of them. Having a mentor is all about having a 2 way relationship, a conversation, that enables and facilitates accountability. A mentor is:
not all mentors need to look like this
approachable – can you walk with them or they walk with you
experienced
easy to talk with and listen to
often the one person who will ask the difficult questions
encourages self development
models good behaviour
hold you accountable for actions, choices and decisions
probably slightly disconnected from what you are creating
A mentor is not:
not infallible
is not a scapegoat for things that don’t go as we want
available endlessly – there has to be some movement
Mentoring is about one person helping another to achieve something of real importance to them. It is about giving help and support in a non-threatening way, in a manner that the recipient will appreciate and value and that will empower them to move forward with confidence towards what they want to achieve. Mentoring is also concerned with creating an informal environment in which one person can feel encouraged to discuss their needs and circumstances openly and in confidence with another person who is in a position to be of positive help to them.
Mentors are probably confined to helping in a relatively narrow area and you may actually have several mentors at any one time each of whom assists in a different area.
One concept of a mentor is a person who holds up a mirror and annoyingly asks those questions that you might not have asked yourself.
A mentor might be someone who is around for just a few short months or may be much longer term – it all depends on the area you are working in.
So the call to action for today is this. Who is your mentor? Do they know it? How often do you talk with them about the important things you are trying to create?
This site is about people, just ordinary ones like you and I, who do extraordinary things. Some start businesses, some start a charity, some just help people but one of the best examples is a lady called Erin Gruwell. Ten years ago (roughly) she was appointed as a new teacher with a class of what appeared to be hopeless write-offs in the Longbeach area of California. Her passion for teaching and getting the best out of this class became a story that has been published in books, made into a film and is now a growing world-wide movement. It is called the Freedom Writers Foundation and is just about the perfect example of someone doing what this site is all about – Start Something Today. She did and many children and youngsters have been the major beneficiaries. I applaud her and support her work – go and take a look too. Buy the film – if you aren’t touched at a very deep level I’d be astonished. If you fancy it you can make a small donation to the Freedom Writers Foundation – it would help many people.
In marketing terms the accepted wisdom is that you should always ask your customers and potential customers questions. That way they are more likely to feel loved, wanted and listened to. However, in today’s ramblings I want to ask what are the questions we, as marketers, should be asking ourselves.
For our purposes, we will define the habit is the intersection of knowledge, skill and desire.
