Can You Create A Diagram Of Your Online Marketing Strategy?

Hi everyone ...

If you were asked to sketch a diagram of your online marketing strategy could you do it? 

If yes .. congratulations!  You "know" what you are doing or worse case, you know what you are "trying" to do with your online business activities. 

If no .... you are not alone.  It's not a good thing to be in this situation, but again ... most business owners have no idea of how to even begin diagramming their online activities.  When I ponder as to why this is, I come up with too much, too fast!  

Websites grew on businesses very slowly.  It took a while for businesses to know why they needed a website and what they would use one for.  Many businesses dived in with one before they had a clue why, but it all sorted out.  I would say that now, 10 -12 years later,  the majority of business owners with websites know WHY they have one and what it is used for. 

One-to-One email grew with more and more popularity. Believe it or not, it wasn't "that" long ago that you had to ask business owners if they had an email address, let alone what their email address was.  But slowly "all" got in sync with the shift to email and here we are today with email often the preference over the phone and our US Postal system going bankrupt!! 

Newsletters became the next popular resource. Newsletters require ongoing work by users so were implemented by fewer. For a long time it was the one "optional online resource" with the website and 1-to-1 email being "must haves!" 

BUT THEN ... the blog got brought back to life (blogging was actually the very 1st resource, but that's another posting!) .. and with that micro-blogging was born with twitter being the most well-known example of micro-blogging.  Social networks began to bloom,  Fast Pitch was my 1st ( long before facebook was a twinkle) and we all remember My Space (enjoying a rebirth of sorts lately)  and oh soooooooooooooooooo many more sites!  They all were created with or adapted themselves into having a micro-blog feed. 

All of a sudden chaos!  What was a controlled implementation of online resources became an onslaught!  Could they all be useful? If so, can I choose some? Do I need all? How do I use them?  Do I have time?  and so many more questions, confusion, and lost direction surrounded us!

The answer to all of this is different for each and every business out there!  Even if a selection of businesses are benefited by the same selection of resources, their individual use of each resource could vary in large degrees.   Does this make it easier or harder?  Probably more time and attention up front but then easy sailing into all the new and expansive opportunities online marketing brings to all businesses!
The key to the success of all of it is the "basic communication" that occurs on or via chosen resources.  1-to-1 email and newsletters brought the term CRM (customer relationship management) to the front of marketing objectives.  The internet could collect user interests and buying habits .. the computer could store and sort the gathered information ... the basic seeds to grow solid business relationships were able to be planted.  Online communication resources are today the fertilizer and water to have those seeds grow into solid, trusting and loyal customers for new, repeat and referral business.  I often tell business owners to look at online resources as employees and "hire" them accordingly by job description! 

Do you agree? What are your thoughts? Please share.  

Also know, if you need some help making a diagram of what you are using, that's what I do! I help businesses sort it out and come up with what's best for you! 

From, 

Keep Your Business Garden Growing! 

It's Mid Year, Got Your Blogging On Track?

Hi there ... 

This posting is titled as such because out of all the communications we should be doing for our businesses, blogging seems to be the largest challenge for many of us.  And, I am wondering why! 

Don't look now, but my own frequency in blogging is way behind what it should be. The mind tells me I don't have time, but in all truth, of course I have time, we all have the time!   So what's our problem?  

Do we think they won't get read? Won't count?  One thing for sure is that if they are not written, they absolutely won't get read nor count. The internet is magical and it always amazes me when I look at my blogging stats. Someone out there is reading my stuff.  They will read yours as well ... trust the internet! 

So why aren't we blogging more? There are lots of blogs out there so they must add value to a business. Those of you who know me, know that a blog to me is "water cooler conversation." It's where your prospects and clients can get to know you and the behind the scenes thinking and activities of your business. It's the back door to your business ... the real stuff!   In that sense, it should be easy to create even a daily blog ... an ongoing dialogue with your market!  A great thing! 

How about this?  Let's make a promise to each other that we will "give our best effort" to maintaining our blogs!  If you need more incentive check out my Keep Your Garden Growing Newsletter/Mailing for this week.  It includes 9 ways that blogging helps your business grow. Also, if you haven't created a blog yet, Today's Way is happy to help you.  We provide 1-on-1 training for both blogger and wordpress blogs! 

Also, please share what you think keeps you from blogging!  If you don't know for sure ...guess! Maybe we can bounce off of your thoughts till we nail down what the block is. Time to help each other grab onto and use this fantastic resource for our business success.  Let me know!!  I welcome your input. 

Keep Your Business Garden Growing! 

margie

Writing From The Heart!

Hi everyone...

Today our Garden Club call was about heartfelt writing. It was a great call and after it ended  I did a few exercises of my own while out walking that I thought I'd share.

First, just a quick review of being heartfelt.  Basically, it is just taking the time to "process" the layers that are part of every experience we have each day!  Sorting out the many moments that are within a single moment. Our "brains" focus on assumed and "out of habit" communications whereas our "hearts" provide depth and meaning, emotion and authentic communications.

So here's a quick exercise to let you experience the difference!  First focus on your mind and look at something.  I chose a tree.  Pay attention to what you brain feeds back to you about the tree or whatever object you choose.  Next, focus on your heart and look at the same object.  What does your heart feed back to you? Is it different information?  Bet you it is!  Now try it by thinking of an event. Then try it by thinking of a person!  Let me know what happens!!  Can't wait to hear your input. Hope it opens up lots of ideas for heartfelt writing experiences!!

You are also invited to join us on a Garden Club call every Thursday at 4PM!  Recordings may also be found on the right side of this blog. Listen to today's call now!

Keep Your Business Garden Growing!
margie

Do You Use "Call To Actions?" ... You Should!

What's a "Call To Action?"

You've probably heard of the term but do you really know what it means?  It's actually pretty simple .. a "call to action" is an image or line of text that prompts readers to take an action .. such as, subscribe to a newsletter, view a webinar, request a product demo, start a free trial .... all the more powerful when used with the words of "now" - "here" - "today"...etc.

It's important to know that they do work.  If you tell someone what to do, especially on the internet, readers and listeners will often do it!  In recent Twitter studies ... one of the stats showed that tweets that included, "Please Retweet" got retweeted 4X more than tweets without the call to action!

How many "Call To Actions" can you use?
People often create a mix of "call to actions" that span across different stages of the sales cycle.  And, you might now be asking, how do you create these unique "call to actions?"  You usually create them from just taking an educated guess, based upon previous information you know about your prospects.  You should have "some" idea of what they are looking for at each stage of your sale and also what you are looking for them to do at different stages of your selling process.

Where do you place "Call To Actions?"  You can place and use them everywhere! On social media, your website, blog, in your email signature, in your email message, on your voice mail, in a print ad.  Even in a presentation or just when out networking face to face!  Always have a "call to action" ready to use!!

Some guidelines to create the most effective "Call To Actions" include: 

*	Clean, concise and specific words
*	A sense of urgency! Be action - oriented.
*	Place them above the fold of the page, i.e. before scrolling down!
*	A relevance to the content on the page.
*	The benefits that come with what you sell.

Start randomly creating a few of your own! Make a list of all the actions you want your prospects and clients to take within our sales process for new, repeat and referral business!  Then assign them where they would best fit!  Keep them under your hat for spontaneous use as well.  

Best Ways To Use Twitter .. Now in 2013!

Hi .. 

Are you a Twitter user?  Long time? Short time?  Whatever the case, some interesting stats are giving us some defined ways to use Twitter!   This is great news because a lot of Twitter users are just shooting from the hip and that is never productive!! 

Let me go over some of the big ones ( for me, at least) and then if you want to know more, make sure you get on my newsletter mailing list. Will be detailing all of the recent stats in my next mailing!  The sign-up link is here on the right. You'll also find the links to my Garden Club calls. We discussed the Twitter stats in last Thursday's Garden Club and I will have the recording up later today. 

My favorite! Twitter is now defined as a broadcast medium with the ability to have interactive conversations.  Informative and "of value" tweets need only be broadcast to build your Twitter reach (number of followers).  Interactive Twitter communications are showing no added value in acquiring followers. This is huge for me as I have been trying, as when I first started with Twitter (when it began), to be interactive and it is just too large and overwhelming now to maintain that usage ... for me anyway. . The stats say that interactive works for the celebs but don't worry about it if you are a "regular" person.  

Along with the above, the most successful accounts, i.e. those with the most followers, had an average tweet count of 22 per day.  The take-away from this is to just know that unlimited tweeting per day is just fine!  Very few of us, if any, will do 22 daily tweets in the same account ... but its ok to go for it.  You would be in your reader's faces too much if you tried this on other networks.  So, from now on when using Twitter, let it rip!! 

Most unique! Place your links 25% in from the beginning of your posting.  Stats are showing more links are clicked open when placed there. Does that mean that people are too busy to read to the end of a 140 char posting? Maybe .. it 's a live feed we scan. So, give it a try.

And, along with the above, if you want stats on all your Twitter links, use bit.ly to shorten them. Open up an account (it's free) and keep track.  It's part of the fun of putting info out there!

Most interesting! The most retweets occur at 4:30 east coast time everyday. Also on Fridays at any time. They are assuming that the Twitter feed is less used during those time frames and the tweets get read more closely and thus readers have the time to retweet! Hope the above was informative. Again, if you want to know "all" the stats sign up for my newsletter or check the Garden Club recording. Both should be out later today! 

Keep Your Business Growing  ... 

margie

How Often Are You Blogging?

Blogging is such a mystery.  Why is it that we don't seem to have time for it when it is such a useful resource for building relationships? 

You may already know this but if not ....The history of blogging goes back to days of old when people kept diaries!  Fast forward to the internet -(from webopedia) the word blog itself is a play on the words Weblog, as most blogs will be displayed in a journal or log entry format.  Most are updated daily or at least more frequently than most Web sites are. Blogs often reflect the personality of the author or the company employees they represent. To this end the most accurate and fitting evolution of today's blog comes from online diaries where the diarist would keep an online journal of themselves.

In the business world, I've always referred to blogs as the "water cooler" conversation.  Think about your business having a big corporate office and potential buyers come to visit and take a tour. The water cooler is where they are going to get the "skinny" on what makes your business work,  The culture, energy, loyalty, fun, etc are all discovered by the water cooler!  Do you agree?  Do you have another comparison that makes good sense? Sometimes I'll also throw out that blogs are like going backstage at the theater .  another impressive layer of connectivity and relationship is created between you and your experience watching the play. 

When blog first became popular again within the last 10 years, microsoft had all their managers create a blog so that potential customers could get some direct and behind the advertising info on the microsoft products.  Blogs are where "reality" resides.  Just thought of this, but guess you could also relate blogging to "reality shows!" 

If you can keep these visions in mind you'll discover that blogging is such fun, gives you perspective of your day and work,  helps build trust & loyalty, and is good therapy on top of it all.  Your answer to the above "title" question will be "daily" and my bet is that you'll have more than one blog going and getting your voice out there!  Let me know!  

Who has some good blogging stories?  Please share if you do! 

Keep your business growing ... 

margie