Linkedin's New "Profile" Feature - "Relationship"

Have you gone into your Linkedin Directory lately and seen what's new on the profile pages of your connections?

There's a fun, but also very useful, new feature with which you can assign all sorts of information to your connections!  You can find it by going to your directory and bringing up the profile page of any random connection you have.  Underneath their profile image you will see two tabs ... 1) "Contact Info" which has always been there, and 2) "Relationship" - the new feature!

Think you'll find it very robust. Using will enable you to see when you last contacted someone in your network and you can even add notes, set a reminder and jot down other useful information.

When you click on "Relationship" several options immediately appear for your use:

1. Notes - here you can enter any info you like!  No one can see it but you. 
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2. Reminder -  this feature makes it easy for you to stay connected with your network. You can type in what you need to remember and then choose to have an alert sent to you in one day, one week, one month or even set up recurring reminders!
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3. How You Met - Store the details of how, when and where you met your connections and who, if anyone, introduced you. Great for putting who may have introduced you or who you had in common when you first met. 
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4. Tag -  Assign any category you desire to your connection.  You may later do a search by the tags that you create as you build your communications with the members of your network.

What do you think? Would love you to share ideas you may have for its use?  Just leave a comment below.  My favorite  part is the "tag" capability.  Love to see how my network builds out by interest and types of businesses! The "tag" feature will let me do that!   Again, let me know what you like best!

Keep your business garden growing ...
margie
www.todaysway.net

5 Marketing Ideas For The 5 Final Weeks Of 2014

Wow ...

Can you believe there are only 5 full work weeks left in 2014 and that includes this week?   It's true, and with that you have to look at the marketing opportunities, of course!

The abruptness of it all hit me while having my morning coffee, but  taking pen in hand, here are 5 marketing ideas that came to mind.

1. Implement A "Drip Marketing" Campaign.
   Wikipedia defines drip marketing as a communication strategy that sends, or "drips," a pre-written set of messages to customers or prospects over time, usually via email.  Sounds perfect at this time of year for those who deal with healthy eating, exercise, finances, relaxation, psychology, travel, etc.  Create a "drip" campaign that will guide your prospects and clients through the holiday season as appropriate for your industry.
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2. Create A Gift Certificate or Shopping Coupon
   Most people think "retail" when gift certificates and/or coupons are mentioned. If you are a retailer, make sure you have your own gift certificate/coupon for year round use, but also become creative for the holidays.  See if you can partner with an associated business for a package gift certificate/coupon that will make both or you (or as many businesses as you include) more successful and attractive than going solo.
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   Gift certificates and/or coupons are also very useful for professional service providers.  Given the number of entrepreneurs that exist today,  the gift of a  coaching session, tax appointment, even a small insurance policy or stock certificate could be welcomed with open arms!   Think of what you might be able to put together that would work for  the recipient of the gift and how the gift might introduce your services to both the recipient and the gift giver for ongoing business.
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3. Gather Email Addresses
   No matter what type of business you are in, gather everyone's email address all the time.. Retailers, it just comes naturally with every purchase you receive, but even more so during the holidays.  So easy to ask to use for follow-up, special dates, anniversary/birthday reminders, refills, new items etc.  For everyone else the holidays make it much easier to ask for one's email address just because it's the holidays!  Say you want  to include them on your holiday mailing list. At the same time ask if you can also stay in touch with them throughout the year, via email. A very easy way to get permission!!  
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4. Share Your Favorite Non-Profits.
   People love good things!  The holiday season is a perfect time to let people know what your favorite non-profits do and for you to tell your story about why you support them.  It will strengthen your bond all the way around and also help your favorite non-profits.  Love and goodwill ... sounds like the holidays to me!
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5. Review Your 2014 Marketing Strengths and Weaknesses
   Grab a cup of coffee or glass of wine and review your business over the past year;. What were your strongest marketing efforts and what were your weakest.  What will you let go of and what do you want to work on. Use your best and your worse to carve out your marketing direction for 2015.  Now is the perfect time for getting all your thoughts together. Come January, you'll be too busy!! 

Hope some of these look enticing to you and will propel you forward during these last five weeks! You are welcome to add some more of your own. Please do!

In the mean time,
Keep your business garden growing ....
margie
www.todaysway.net

How Easy Is Writing Online For You? Do You Feel Like Yourself?

Writing online can be intimidating.  You are speaking to an individual reader multiplied by many, many, many more!  It's a very intimate connection to a huge audience!  Simply like nothing else you've ever experienced!

It's no wonder that many find it difficult to be just "themselves' when writing online.  It's a skill that definitely does not come naturally to many, yet, the more natural you can be via your online communications, the more opportunity you have for creating online relationships that trust you and believe in you.  

Let's just look at writing.

• When we write it's just us speaking so it's very easy to come across as talking "to" people.  But. that doesn't work so well online.  You can get by, but it's not the ideal for maximizing your opportunities. 
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• Also, when we write, it's easy to talk about yourself and write from your very own perspective. That doesn't work so well online either. Your writing style appears to be a presentation, possibly staged, cold,  resembling a term paper or research report ... definitely not authentic nor natural.

Looking back at my own experience, one of my favorite ways to get away from these more stilted ways of writing was to pretend there was a person sitting with me at my desk.  I would speak out loud to this invisible person and write the way I spoke.. This worked really well.. 
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Next what I worked on was my online personality or style. That meant, to me, defining my perspective about my writing. I established in my mind my ongoing audience, who was in it, and what were their interests.  With this defined I could then "share" what I was writing with this invisible audience.  I could imagine their questions, ask my own questions, and achieve somewhat of an intimate ongoing natural conversational style.  

What it took to perfect and cement my own natural style was a daily blogging just to myself!     I committed myself to 30 days of blogging, just to me.  By the end of the 30 days both ideas and my writing were flowing.   Am also happy to say that was more than 3 years ago and all is still good! At least, I hope you'll agree!

Whether you do it my way or via a way of your own, do find your own natural style. Being natural allows more value to come from what you write.  You show more interest in serving and helping your readers.  You are sharing.  You are "with" your audience.
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Some of what we do at today's Way is to help people be more natural in their online writing.  If you think this is a challenge for you, think about getting yourself some help.  Very few can change their style overnight.  Your first step is to consciously want it and then step 2 - do it.  Practice will make your perfect ... and natural!
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Let me know your thoughts.  Leave a comment with your experience!

In the mean time ..
Keep your business garden growing!
margie

www.todaysway.net

What Are We Going To Do For Your Online Mktg Today? Do You Know How To Answer?

What Are We Going To Do For Your Online Marketing Today? How do you answer this question?  Do you know where to begin?

There are so many ways this question can be answered.  By now, just about all of you are a bit seasoned with online marketing but a lot of help and guidance is still required.  What seems to be happening currently is that what helps one does not help another.   Straight A-Z classes are not the answer for many. More targeted desires are out there, but do you know what help to ask for?

In thinking of ways to connect your need to a solution,  I was reminded of a hair cutter I once knew.   She would greet all her clients by saying, " Hello!  What are we going to do for your hair today?"   The replies she received were all over the place but, of course, all coming from women and men with hair on their heads.

Given that I am communicating with women and men, all of who are using online marketing for your businesses, I thought it might be fun to equate your marketing needs to what you might have a hair cutter do for your hair!  

Relax and have fun with the following, but also pay attention to it. It might give you some guidance on how to ask for the help you need.

Here we go:

• Hair Cut -  Your hair has gotten too long for how you think it looks best.
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  Online Mktg - You've added too many different resources and your communication flow has lost its shape. You need help getting back to your core mix of resources and maximizing their use.
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• Just A Trim -  You like what you've got.  You just need to catch it before it gets too long.
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  Online Mktg - You had a good mix of resources and knew what you were doing.  Things are just starting to get a little out of control. You are not up on the newest capabilities of your resources so not sure what you are doing.  Some training on just the "latest" ways to use what you've got would be great.
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• Hair Color -  You want to brighten up your hair color. Maybe add high-lights!  Hide the grey. Change the color totally!
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  Online Mktg -  Knowing how to add video would liven up your social media and other resources. How to add text to a photo also!  Some ideas on the text content of your postings could also add some new found "color" to what you are communicating and liven up your overall online presence.
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• Styling - You want a new look.  One that is best for your hair, face shape, etc.
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  Online Mktg -  You want a new look to your online presence.  Also some continuity between resources in look and "style" of text content.  Some branding and a better representation of your business.
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• Up Do -  Need to look especially lovely and "done" for a special event!
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  Online Mktg - How to get special attention for an event you are hosting or are a part of.  Use of facebook event and perhaps their "promote post" feature.  Twitter hashtag, Linkedin email, and other "special" ways to communicate a "special" message and/or event.
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• Straighten -  You want to remove the curl from your look
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  Online Mktg - You need to learn how to write content that gets to the point. You are too wordy, verbose.  Your posts are not being responded to. Your emails are not being opened.  Too much of nothing ... you need to get straightened out with your message.
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• Permanent -  You want to add some curl and body to your hair.
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  Online Mktg -  Training is needed for being more interesting online.  More accurate ways to connect with people. More body, quality content presented and written in an interesting way. One that readers will connect with!
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• Bangs Cut -   only your bangs need cutting
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  Online mktg - Need a spot check-in.  A quick "how-to" or refresher. Today's Way $1 per minute coaching is perfect for this!
  

Hope this was fun and I bet you can now come up with more on your own!  

The point of this post is that so many of your needs in implementing online marketing are specific to "you" and your business.  Here at Today's Way we welcome you to call and discuss what's going on and what we can do "together" to move you forward.  We tailor just about all that we do to each individual client.

Let me know your thoughts and also if you have some great thoughts to add to each  of the above "requests!"

In the mean time,
Keep your business garden growing ..
margie

www.todaysway.net

The Easiest Way I've Ever Known To Ask For The Sale!

Hi everyone ..

This past week much of our discussion here on the blog has been about closing business.  It used to freak me out.  I could handle all elements of the sale but when it came to asking for the business, it felt like a huge wall went up between the prospect and myself.   

Then I was introduced to what was referred to as a track.  It worked like a charm and I have never looked back. 

It begins with your mindset.  Your objective going into your first meeting with a prospect is that you are looking for a "match" between their needs and your solutions.  As much as they are exploring you for your solutions, you are exploring them for being a good client.  To make this happen  you must ask lots of questions and receive lots of replies. Take the pressure off of yourself and enjoy the session.

Once you've done all your adventurous exploring you can see if all tallies up into a match for both of you. If so, have your prospect verbally agree that a match exists and that all the criteria is there for moving forward and completing a deal. Ant, at this time, the question you ask is, "what do we need to do to put this together?"  Or something similar, What needs to happen to have this up and running for you?  Let's make this happen! What do we need to do? etc.

If your prospect says,  "who do I make the check out to?" you are good to go!
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Otherwise sit down and together map out a timeline of what needs to happen. 
- Do you have a time line when all has to completed?
- Do you need to speak with other clients of ours?
- Also include what needs to be done from your side of the partnership.
This is also a great time to pre-ask common objections and get those answered early on.

Once you both have your timeline in hand it is all downhill.  You are working from a predefined agreement that makes calling your prospect quite comfortable,  asking how a certain task on the timeline is moving along quite comfortable, etc.

One additional thought.  Include in your timeline what you do after the sale.  State that your policy is to check in every so many months and get an agreement for that.  That way you won't feel awkward and like you are just calling for more business.   

All of this is just basic communications.   Finding a match between a need and a solution and identifying how to put it into action.  That simple. Nothing more, nothing less. Creating links for making a strong connection between the two of you.  Too often people think "sales" can jump over these links and that some type of hocus pocus makes it all happen.  Skip the hocus pocus and just lay out the details.
Both your prospect, now client, and you will be happier.

No more asking for a sale.  Start creating partnerships.

keep your business garden growing ... margie
www.todaysway.net

How Do Trick-Or-Treaters Get Their Candy? What Is The Process?

Do you live in a neighborhood where one house or maybe even one street attracts all the trick-or-treaters?  Why do you think that is? Probably because they  have the treats!  They are into Halloween!  The "get" the holiday!  They "connect" with the trick-or-treaters!

So, OK ... But then what?  The door is between the trick-or-treaters and the home owner.  What is the next step? All  the trick-or-treaters know the process for the sale.  They know that the process is, cry out "Trick-or-Treat" and magically, the door opens and the candy is given. Knowing the final process is what motivates the trick-or-treaters  to participate and get their candy.

Let's switch the topic to your business!  How do you attract all your buyers?  What gets them to your door?  Why are they there?   And once they are there, what opens the door. Do "they" know what the process is for making the sale happen?  You might get more people following through and doing business with you if you make your process obvious to them. 

How do you do this?  For the sake of this blog post let's stick to your website.  Here are some questions for you to answer.

1. Do you tell your website visitors, "How To Do Business With You?"
   Do you have a webpage that is all about "How to get started with us " or something similar?
   This is a page that tells your "shoppers" what steps have to take place in order to be a match for your solution.  It works very well with professional services.  It establishes what paper work, financial criteria, time frames, etc are required for your professional services to be delivered.  It lets the shopper know if you are right or wrong for their interests  It also helps you weed out those who would just be wasting your time if they got to you before seeing this page.  It makes it easy for your buyers to proceed and close a deal with you!
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2. Do you have a way for website visitors to let you know what they specifically need?
   Do you clearly state "click here to contact us with your specific  requirements?"  The "click" could take them to a form where they would be able to submit their criteria to you!  This is great for people who sell insurance or other services such as nutritionists  tax professionals, and many more.  This is opposite from No. 1 just above.  This "process" allows the shopper to tell you what they need and let you determine if you are a match. It also allows your shoppers to proceed and potentially close a deal with you.
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3. If selling via a shopping cart, do website visitors know how to purchase? Where to go?
   Perhaps you simply sell a product in a shopping cart on your website.  Is you shopping cart easy to find? Do you tell visitors its process, i.e. which credit cards you accept, purchase terms, the minimum order, return policy, quantity discounts, delivery time frames, etc?   And are your terms easy to see?  Make your process known!

 Bottom line ... if buyers know your buying process you will have more buyers!  Make it difficult to connect and/or not communicate the final steps and  they will go to the next website or just give up on making a purchase!  

While typing this I just had a group of little ones at my door.  All dressed up!  Bags for treats in their hands ,,, but they didn't know the process!!  (too little).  It was funny... I felt weird just giving them the candy.  Had to coach them to say, Trick or Treat!  It's the process!!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Keep your business garden growing ... margie
www.todaysway.net