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4 Tips to Small Business Marketing on a Shoestring

Monday, February 15th, 2010

So you are a small business. If I ask you what your marketing budget is – does your answer sound like: “What marketing budget?” If that’s the case (or if you said, “pretty small”…) you need a dose of guerrilla marketing – or marking tips for a shoestring budget.

Following are some tips that will help you get new customers and clients – and get them to take action – without breaking the bank.

1. Word of Mouth Marketing

Once your business is up and running, tell everyone you know – friends, family, business colleagues and acquaintances, essentially, anyone who will listen. Describe your business to them – what it does or offers. You can even offer them an incentive – like a discount on your products or service or even a cash commission. Nothing wins over allies like cold, hard cash…

2. A little Public Relations

A lot of folks believe that Marketing and PR are one in the same. Not quite…

There are a few differences: Marketing is paid-for exposure under a company’s direct control, while public relations was free exposure.

Marketing has at its core a desire to reach consumers and make them think, believe or do what you want. Public relations is more focussed on influencing reputation, whether corporate or personal.

There are several ways that a small business can generate good Public Relations – using press releases, media events, even getting yourself exposure in local media. By positioning yourself (and your business) as experts in your arena – you suddenly create a lot of value for yourself to the local media.

3. Social Media

If you know anything about me, you know that I believe no business (large or small) should be without a social media marketing strategy. I suggest that you focus your attention on this power trio: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. They are a great way to create new relationships and deepen existing ones. They allow you to highlight new products and company news. They also provide a great platform for customer feedback. And remember I mentioned “Word of Mouth’ efforts above? These sights give your friends, connections and followers the opportunity to tell their friends about you.

4. Email Auto Responders and Newsletters

No business website should be without an email capture – right there on the home page (and every page, if you ask me). Put you signup form right in front of your site’s visitors. Don’t make them click for the privilege! Yes there was sarcasm… Statistics show that every time you make a visitor click a link, 50% don’t do it. And if you have other links on your page, you reduce the odds further.

Good, they’ve signed up, now what?

A regular Newsletter is a great marketing tool – it let’s you reconnect with existing contacts on a regular basis. This accomplishes two things: 1) It acts a a gentle reminder about your business and service, and 2) You can offer specials that get them returning to your site and/or physical location. Pretty cool, huh?

My suggestion for an email service provider is MailChimp. They are great, they automatically clean your list and provide a nice easy way to create beautiful newsletters.

Best of all, until you grow over 500 subscribers, their service is free!

Tags: email auto responders, Facebook, guerrilla marketing, LinkedIn, marketing on a shoestring budget, marketing strategy, newsletter, PR, public relations, shoestring budget, social media, social media marketing strategy, Twitter, word of mouth marketing
Posted in Doing Business Online | 1 Comment »

Twitter To Find A Job?

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Are you on Twitter? If you are, you certainly know that you are not alone–32 million others are tweeting right along with you. But did you know that you can use this awesome social media tool to help you find a job? A recent Yahoo! HotJobs poll showed that only 8% of respondents have used Twitter to help with a job search. Considering the state of the job market today, don’t leave any stone unturned if you are out there looking for a job.

Dan Schawbel, author of “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success,” shares some tips to help you use Twitter to raise your professional profile and put your job search on the fast track.

1. Brand yourself. Instead of just jumping in, Schawbel says, “Before using any social network, create a single, unified social-media strategy, so that your brand remains consistent throughout each network that you join, including Twitter.” He recommends using the same professional picture or avatar and user name, a consistent bio, and a “personal brand statement” that explains what you do and who your audience is.

2. Fine-tune your Twitter homepage. Twitter has some great tools that you should use to make sure that your Twitter homepage looks professional. Schawbel: “Just like your other social network profiles, your Twitter profile should be completely filled out. This includes your full name, location, a biography, and — the single most important element — a single link to a site of your choosing. I recommend directing people to a blog, your LinkedIn profile, or a site that you feel best represents you. If you really want to take your brand to the next level, then a custom Twitter background, which you can make using twitterimage.com or twitterbacks.com, is required.”

3. Build your audience. Don’t think you know anyone on Twitter? Think again. “A percentage of your friends, family, and previous coworkers are already on Twitter,” says Schwabel. “You can easily import contacts from most Web-mail programs or find people using Twitter’s search engine and invite your network onto Twitter with an email invitation. Then, use Twitter search to locate people in your industry, follow them, and interact with them through a series of tweets and ‘retweets’ over time.”

4. Start tweeting. Not sure what to tweet about? “Tweet what you know”, says Schawbel. “The more you tweet about what you know, the more you’ll become the go-to person on that topic in the Twitterverse. The key to building an audience is to remain interesting to your current followers so that they retweet your messages and more people discover and follow you. And, again, by constantly following more people, namely the influencers in your industry, and pushing out relevant tweets, your audience will grow rapidly.”

5. Don’t be shy-let people know you are looking. There are a few ways to let your followers know that you’re in the market for a new job. “First, revise your Twitter profile to call attention to the type of job you’re looking for. Second, customize your Twitter background and add in text that talks about where you’re headed in your career. Finally, you can send a tweet after you’ve built your follower count, which states your expertise and the type of job you’re looking for,” he advises. To get a job you may have to help others find them too. “If you discover a job lead on Twitter and it’s not related to what you want to do, passing it on is an effective way to network.”

Tags: "Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success", Dan Schwabel, employment, job search, social media, social media tool, Tweets, Twitter, Yahoo!HotJobs
Posted in Doing Business Online | No Comments »

Case Study: How Aaron Patzer Made $170 Million in Two Years

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

In 2007, Aaron Patzer launched Mint.com as a user-friendly alternative to Quicken. Now, just two short years later, Intuit, which makes Quicken, paid over $170 million for his website. So how’d he do it?

Let’s take a look shall we and see how we can apply this to your business. Inc Magazine offers 5 quotes from Aaron. I’ll dig a little deeper into what he said and give you a few ideas of exactly how these concepts can apply to you and your business.

AaronPatzer

Create a product that makes the difficult & boring easy & fun

“What set us apart from 95 percent of other start-ups is that we served a real need,” Patzer says. “Personal finance is so complex and too difficult for most people. I was frustrated with the existing tools and found out that others were frustrated as well.”

Volkswagen is using this idea in an ad campaign to help our environment: http://www.thefuntheory.com

How can you attract new customers/clients by making something fun. Adding a coupon to your website or maybe a game or puzzle to solve for a prize discount. Think about this one and get your creative juices flowing!

Business_and_internet_concept

Choose a market that’s really, really big. What’s the word? (BIG)

“There are 250 million people worldwide who already use online banking,” Patzer says. “With our 1.5 million users, we’ve barely scratched the surface. Intuit made a billion dollars on its tax business alone and that’s a once-a-year thing. People do online banking every day.”

Or target a niche market the is BIG enough. Of course it would be great to score that $170 million home run – that’s why we think big. But if you target your niche thoughtfully – always delivering your value to the marketplace, you can always target a bigger, wider market at any time!

money

Develop a business model that actually makes you money.

“Our product is free, but we make our money by helping people save money,” Patzer says. “We understand where people spend their money so we can say, ‘You should refinance’ or ‘You should change your auto insurance.’ The only ads people see on Mint.com are ones that will save them at least $50. Financial institutions then pay us for new customers.”

On the surface, this one seems like a no brainer. That is why we are in business – to make money. But if you are spinning your entrepreneurial wheels, not making money, it’s time to get a better model.

How can you improve your model so that it delivers maximum value to your customers and maximum dollars to you?

post-no-bills

Don’t pay for new customers/clients. Ever.

“All of our customer acquisition has been free — through social media, blogs, and the press,” Patzer says. “We don’t pay a dime for advertising. We also use business partnerships with Motley Fool and the credit-report companies. And Apple has given us a lot of free advertising as a featured application.”

This is my favorite! I love FREE stuff! That’s why I am active on the social networks and my blogs giving value away. I follow the Universal Law of Reciprocity. In your life how many times has someone given you a gift that you were anxious to repay? My guess – almost every time you receive a gift. We want to give back, return the favor. It is built in us naturally.

“One of the most potent of the weapons of influence around us is the rule for reciprocation. The rule says that we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us.” ~ Robert B. Cialdini, author of The Psychology of Persuasion

business_woman_with_group

Be a extremely careful about who you hire.

“In the last start-up I worked for, hiring was done haphazardly,” Patzer says. “We have a very rigorous hiring process. For tech people, we might screen 50 people and hire one. For all managers, we use a technique called top grading which reveals patterns in behavior. In the history of Mint, I’ve only fired two people and only one has left voluntarily.”

Bringing people onto your team is a big deal and should be treated such. Don’t hire someone just because they are cheap. This is not a good policy. People who believe in your mission will go the extra mile for you – be on the lookout for those people.

If you found this post helpful, please leave a comment or use the “Tweetmeme” button above to tweet it.

Thanks

Tags: $170 million, Aaron Patzer, blog, business modelsocial media, clients, customers, Intuit, Law of Reciprocity, market, marketplace, Mint.com, niche, Personal finance, Quicken, Volkswagen
Posted in Doing Business Online, Marketing & Promotion, Small Business Online | 1 Comment »

How To Use Twitter to Reach Local Customers

Friday, September 25th, 2009

Twitter is a great marketing tool.

Many people might make the mistake of thinking that it’s only for online businesses, but Twitter will bring a ton of business to a local brick and mortar shop. A friend of mine in Minneapolis Minnesota uses Twitter, very effectively, to get customers to walk into his shop everyday!

It takes a little effort to turn your Twitter page into a marketing machine, but there are a few of ways to make it happen.

First off, get acquainted with Twitter. There are a lot of great resources available online which teach the basics (including this blog).

So, who are all these people following your Twitter page? Followers are users that, in theory, like your content and want constant updates. The more followers you gain, the better your marketing. But if you want people to walk into your shop or take advantage of an offline offer, you’ll want to target followers who are a) interested in your business and b) live in your area. Wouldn’t you know… Twitter gives you tools to target these users.

Use the Twitter search to look for users in your area and locals who are interested in your business. Searching on Twitter requires some shorthand. For example: to search for users in your area, type in “near:Topanga within:25mi” or search for people in Los Angeles who like movies by typing in “movies Los Angeles”. When you start following some of these users, they will look at your Twitter page and likely start to follow you.

You can also stroll on over to the TwellowHood directory, which allows you to find Twitter users oin your area. Just use the map to drill down to your town and find out who’s there to follow on Twitter.

Once you have some of followers it’s time to begin promoting your business to them. Remember that your Twitter followers will get all your updates. Some followers even have it sent to their cell phones. This is how you can easily update all your followers on everything from daily specials, discounts, in store events, and coupons. Twitter acts as a real time messaging system, so you can even tell your followers about things right now.

Have your followers help you create a community. Give your followers rewards for passing on coupons, specials and offers to their friends with ReTweets. ReTweeting gets your customers doing your marketing for you. It is the ultimate Internet word of mouth and a great way to build relationships – after all, that’s what a community is built on right? What’s the word? Relationships.

Twitter is growing at an amazing rate. Leverage this tool to create some local buzz about your business. Twitter is free to use and easy to learn. Two of my favorite things Free and Easy!

If you found this article helpful, please add a comment or use the “Tweetmeme” Button above to Tweet about it.

Thanks,

Lennie

This post began as an article written by Jennifer Davey. She is a Small Business Coach and Marketing Strategist. Jennifer coaches small businesses, self employed professionals, and solopreneurs in strategies for getting clients and making more income.

Discover what you need to know to get client’s, by reading Jennifer’s FREE report “What You Need to Know to Be Successful at Getting Clients”, available at http://jjscoaching.com/free-marketing-tips/.

Tags: Followers, marketing, marketing machine, marketing tool, Twellow, TwellowHood, Twitter, Twitter local search, twitter marketing
Posted in Doing Business Online | 1 Comment »

The Amazing Power of “HTTP://”

Monday, June 1st, 2009

Huh? What’s that? Or even “yeah, so what…”

How many times in an email, Facebook, Twitter or other sites have you seen a web address like this: www.govisitmysite.com and the damn thing isn’t clickable? A little annoying, right?

How many times have you copied and pasted the link?

My guess… very few. By adding these 7 simple characters, you unleash the mad, straight up power that is the INTERNET! You are leaving money, leads, customers, clients (and did I mention MONEY) on the table by not making your link clickable everywhere and anywhere you can!

NEWS FLASH —–> No one is going to take the time to copy and paste your link, EVER! (almost)

Err on the side of good business – use the http:// and your link becomes live: http://www.govisitmysite.com (this is an example only). Don’t leave prospective clients, customers and/or cash hanging on Facebook, Twitter and even in your email.

The other bonus is that you get those important backlinks to your site – without the http:// all you get is some text on another site…

Here’s a little experiment for you. Pay attention to all the non-working links you see, just on Facebook (especially on the person’s profile and their own link) and report back here. I would love and appreciate the feedback. If you found this post helpful, Please leave a comment!

Thanks and happy linking, Facebooking and Twittering…

Tags: clickable link, Facebook, Linking, Twitter
Posted in Doing Business Online, Facebook, Google, Twitter, Web Design | No Comments »

Connecting to Your Message

Monday, January 19th, 2009

Whenever I start talking about marketing to nearly all my clients, the first thing they say is, “I hate to sell“. We all sell. Whether it’s ourselves to an employer or prospective mate, or our products and/or services we are always selling. Yet we “hate it”. Why do you think?

Well I have an idea. When we think of selling one of the first images to pop into our heads is the shady used car salesman… So why does this bother us so? (and stick with us?). Maybe because the in-authenticity of the message and the incongruency of the messenger.

Used Car Salesman

So what do I mean?

The used car salesman is usually selling a car that he/she wouldn’t own themselves, heck, they’d probably not even like to ride shotgun… So the words coming out of their mouths is not in alignment with their true beliefs and it shows.

Consciously we might not notice this, but subconsciously we know they are lying. This, then, is the root of our “hate” for selling. We feel dirty, embarrassed and, frankly, like liars. Or at least we feel that this is how others will view us. And GOD knows we don’t want people to think we are used car salesmen (no offense to those who sell cars…).

Now let’s flip this around, shall we? What happens when you see a great movie or eat at an amazing restaurant and want to share the experience with friends? You gush, you are grounded and the AUTHENTICITY of your message is unmistakable. You are, in fact, “selling” the movie or restaurant “experience” to your friends. YES, SELLING! During this sales process you are congruent with your message and it resonates through you to your audience.

If you have a product, service or idea, that you believe in, that is great, don’t be shy. If it’s so wonderful why won’t you share it. Would you not tell your friends about the movie or dining extravaganza? Of course not.

The key is to find the truth in what you are selling. When what you are speaking aligns with your truth, it shows. Take a look at Oprah, Barak Obama, Ronald Reagan, JFK. When they speak/spoke, their message rings true through their entire being.

We can design the best website, the best power point, write killer copy, but if we don’t believe what we are saying, it ain’t gonna sell…

So in talking about authenticity of a message on Martin Luther King day, it only makes sense to honor a man who spoke his truth. Take a look at Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream” speech. Listen beyond words, see beyond the image, and truly feel the truth he was speaking.

Tags: authentic, authenticity, Barak Obama, congruency, congruent, JFK, Martin Luther King, Oprah, Ronald Reagan, selling, truth, used car salesman
Posted in Doing Business Online, Marketing & Promotion | No Comments »

How to Market Like a Rock Star!

Monday, July 21st, 2008

Everything I learned About Marketing, I learned From Paul Stanley of KISS!

Not quite but I’ll tell you what. If you pay attention to any great rock front man or woman, you will notice a couple of very clever tactics.

Dateline Sunday July 20th… So there I was indulging in a guilty pleasure… Let me back up. The first concert that I ever attended was a KISS concert in 1977 when they were at their pinnacle (I have seen them 5 times since, twice on halloween!)

Like I said, guilty pleasure… So sunday I popped in a DVD “Kiss w/ the Melbourne Symphony. Kiss, the garishly made up rock band (with tons of pop hooks) with a symphony… Should be interesting, I thought.

It’s amazing what a different perspective will do. The DVD was tons of fun (guilty pleasure, remember…) but I noticed all the sales, marketing and trainer tricks that lead singer Paul Stanley was using and realized that all the great Rock Bands do this to create the rabid, evangelist seeking following.

Acknowledge!

The first thing any good Rocker will do is acknowledge the fans and thank them: Paul Stanley on the DVD, “We had offers from a lot of Cities to play with a symphony, but we had such a great time here last time, we just had to come back!”

Giving your audience ownership: “You made this song popular, we may have written it but this song is yours!” – Yep, Paul Stanley said this too.

Wow that’s powerful!

Setting the Context

If you’re going to sell, let the audience know and get their permission first.

Never, ever lay into your sales pitch without taking the time to acknowledge your audience and getting to know them first!

This was a Tweet I received (sort of, since I can’t find the tweet or who twittered..)

At a bar-b-que: Me: beautiful day isn’t it? Other guy: Heard of Amway? Never, ever, ever!

“We’re gonna slow this next song down a bit. Is that alright with you?

Permission marketing creates loyalty!

What’s in it for me?

Again any decent trainer or marketer will lay out up front what valuable stuff is coming for the audience. “Over the next hour (or whatever) I’m going to give you/tell you about these things that will rock your world!

Paul Stanley: “We’re gonna rock your asses off!”

Now, if you make this promise, you better deliver!

Involving your Audience – leads to inclusion!

Rockers do this: Sing alongs, clap alongs.

Here’s a great example of involving the audience. In the 80’s I saw Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin fame on tour solo. When it came time to play the Led Zepp classic “Stairway to Heaven” the singer on the tour took a break. On stage a single spotlight stayed on an empty mike. So what happened? A chorus of 15,000 + sang instead. Amazing! At that point, if we hadn’t already, we were all drinking the Koolade. Don’t leave anyone behind.

Leading Questions

“Do you wanna Rock?” – what a clever way to involve/include your audience. How about if you are marketing razors… “Has anyone ever cut themselves shaving?”

Demand a response!

Audience participation part deux: Ever heard this one? “Does anyone wanna ROCK!” then after the first response: “What?! I can’t her you!”. This, as any trainer will tell you is called “Demanding a response!”

Do you want to leave your audience out? Next time you are attending a sales meeting, seminar, teleclass, whatever, pay attention to the speaker for, in my opinion, a fatal mistake. The presenter/speaker asks a question and the audience doesn’t really respond but they move on anyway. Guess what, they just left all those non responders behind.

Go to one of T. Harv Eker’s, Tony Robbins or Alex Mandossian’s events and watch masters at keeping the audience involved at work.

Or just go to a great rock show! And when you do, pay attention, you’ll be surprised at all you can learn from a ROCKSTAR!

And remember, it doesn’t matter how many tricks you employ, if you don’t, in the end, deliver the promised “goods”!

Tags: Alex Mandossian, Jimmy Page, KISS, KISS concert, Led Zeppelin, marketing, Paul Stanley, permission marketing, Stairway to Heaven, T. Harv Eker, Tony Robbins, Twitter
Posted in Doing Business Online, Internet Marketing, Marketing & Promotion | 1 Comment »

The Business Value Of Social Networking

Friday, July 18th, 2008

Great interview on Forbes,com with John McCrea, head of marketing for Plaxo, which manages 40 million online address books, to learn why entrepreneurs need to get into the game, how to do it and where this is all going.

John McCrea: There are a few phases to social networking. The first phase was Friendster, MySpace and clones and it was pretty frivolous. Everyone connected as a friend. Strangers came together online. The second phase was about who you knew, maintaining and enriching your relationships. It was a way not to lose touch with people as you changed jobs or moved. The latest phase is an online representation of real world activity. Small and midsize businesses were always people who spent money on their Rolodexes and then on database software. They survive and thrive based on the power of personal networks.

I’ll point to Plaxo as a network address book and “Pulse” as an online service as examples. Plaxo was a precursor to an Internet-based service and it’s composed of members keeping up their contact information on their “implied profile page.” Even then, many users would share birthdates and would get e-mails about who changed jobs, whose birthday it is, etc. It allowed people to connect and send flowers on a birthday or congratulate someone on a new job. It made networking stuff easier to do and made a smaller businessperson appear well organized and thoughtful. Pulse brings the address book to life. Users can connect up with different services on the Web. They can share postings on Flickr or a blog, where getting an audience can be hard.

Truly it is about starting a relationship first. Nothing is more annoying than the guy (or gal) who upon the first meeting immediately bombards you info about the latest and greatest network marking company etc… Get to know me first is my policy.

Getting to know your customers and/or potential customers is the fiirst step in discovering their needs and how you can best assist them, solve their problem or ease their pain.

The Business Value Of Social Networking – Forbes.com.

Tags: Flickr, Friendster, MySpace, Plaxo, Relationship Marketing, relationships, Social Networking
Posted in Doing Business Online, Small Business Online, Social Networking | No Comments »

Does Your Small Business Convert Online?

Saturday, July 5th, 2008

What’s the average site conversion rate for a typical merchant today? About 2.4%. That’s pretty depressing when you think about it.

That’s the Lead question and answer in this intriguing article on TheMultiChannelMerchant.com. If you aren’t sending the right message, your Small business (or any business) will suffer the consequences online.

This really well thought out article talks about visitor personality types and how they respond to your website architecture. Pretty great stuff!

Before you begin analyzing the effectiveness of your content, you need to understand your visitors’ frame of reference. Every visitor does things for specific reasons. These reasons translate into four distinct preferences that explain the how and why behind what people do.

Once you understand the four basic personality types — emotional, logical, fast-paced, and disciplined — you can build perspectives or snapshots that give you insight into how your customers might want to purchase your products. From there you can adjust your site design, content, and creatives.

Your visitors fall into certain profiles that give you a better understanding of who each group is and what their mode of behavior is going to be:

Fast-paced or spontaneous visitors: Hip, stylish, and fun-loving, these people look for impulse buys and in-style products and services.

Emotional visitors: These people think in terms of family and relationships, and will look for what everyone else is buying, or whatever will most help them be socially involved.

Logical visitors: This group wants to drill down into the details of your products or services and compare and contrast options.

Disciplined or competitive visitors: These folks know exactly what they want and are on your site only to get it in a quick, methodical, and straightforward way.

The article go deep into the idea of designing a site for different personalities. Have a good read here.

Once you understand the four basic personality types — emotional, logical, fast-paced, and disciplined — you can build perspectives or snapshots that give you insight into how your customers might want to purchase your products. From there you can adjust your site design, content, and creatives.

Tags: effective website content, marketing, Small Business, website architecture
Posted in Doing Business Online | 1 Comment »

9 Simple Steps to a Successful Facebook Event

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

One of the most productive things you can do on Facebook is to create an event. The numbers of Facebookers taking advantage of this great marketing tool are increasing every month. Your event could be a live event (a Business or Small Business mixer, a networking event or Seminar, etc), a teleclass or tele-seminar or even a recorded presentation. By using the Events feature to it’s fullest you can connect with huge numbers of Facebook Users. To make your event a super success follow the 9 SIMPLE steps outlined below.

To set up an event, just go to your Facebook profile and click the link in the left hand navigation area that says “Events” (it’s just below the search bar in the “Applications” area). Next, look for the button on the right that reads, “Create an Event”. Click it and your good to go.
On this next page you get to name your event. This is probably your most important step. You want to make the name of your event create curiosity and interest. Be clever but not too clever. The name of your event should leverage your expertise. People want to go to an event lead by an expert! Here’s your chance to be recognized as an expert which, in turn, breeds credibility amongst your Facebook peers. **One important note: Once you name an event, IT CANNOT BE CHANGED!
If you are using a Facebook Event to introduce your Business, Small Business, product or service, you want to make sure that you open your event to the entire Facebook community, you never want to limit the potential attendance.
List your Event Tagline, your Host’s name (that’s you or one of your groups) and the type of event planned (you have choices like “Party”, “Causes”, “Education” and “Meetings”). I like Education and/or Meetings.
Next you’re going to add the description of your event.The Event description is also a very valuable bit of real estate. You want to make it brief but full of the reasons why this event MUST BE ATTENDED! List the benefits for the attendees. There are 2 things you must accomplish in this brief event description:
1. ETR – Stands for Earn The Right – who are you and why should I listen to you.
2. WIIFM – “What’s In It For Me” – List the benefits for the attendees. You need to provide them with all the compelling evidence needed for them to attend YOUR event.
Make sure to fill out the rest of the required info on this page and click the “Create Event” button.Note: If your event is a tele-class, tele-seminar or webinar, list that in the Location Field.
On the next page, you will (yes, WILL) add a picture for your Event. No one is going to take you seriously and attend your event if you don’t bother to add a picture. Ask yourself: Would you?”
You are given a lot of other options on this page. Most of the defaults are fine but I would disable “Photos” and “Videos”. There is no reason that I can think of to allow others to post pics or videos on your event page. We want to limit distractions.Do however, allow posted items. If you can get people engaged and talking on your Event page, you mission is nearly accomplished!
Once you have uploaded your Event Picture and selected the rest of the event settings, you are ready to “Save and Continue”. (The blue button on the bottom…)
The Final step is to invite ALL your friends. Make sure you send along a message and invite them to share this event with others.

That’s all there is to it. Now go have a successful event!

Tags: Facebook, Facebook Event, Small Business, tele-class, tele-seminar or webinar
Posted in Doing Business Online, Facebook, Social Networking | 6 Comments »

New Website Design

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

All right, I have finally done it. In an effort to bring my clients great results, I have, for far too long, neglected this site. So, with a burst of energy, I did a major overhaul and full redesign.

I feel it is very representitive of my overall work and felt it was very important to showcase that work in a frame that did it justice.

I would appreciate any and all comments

Have a great day

Lennie

Tags: Lennie Appelquist, Web Design, website design
Posted in Branding, Doing Business Online, Web Design | No Comments »

Wordpress Beginner’s Guide

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

I am so happy to announce, that the FreeMarket Media Group e-book entitled “The WordPress Beginners Guide” is available. This e-book walks you step-by-step through everything you need to know about the WordPress blogging system.

Even if you’re not a beginner, this book is for you. Why? Because this book will walk you through everything WordPress’ completely revamped version 2.7 has to offer

There are a ton of content management systems out there but in my humble opinion WordPress has a leg up on the competition. On the Web you’ve always had really only two choices.

(A) Become a coder and build a website or (B) use a content management system like Joomla and become a coder. But now with WordPress version 2.7 you can manage everything on your website from one simple administration area. Can you send an e-mail? Then you can use WordPress.

In this guide, I will walk you step-by-step through everything WordPress has to offer. But that’s not all. I have also included a special section in this book called “the keyword primer”. With the keyword primer you will learn how to leverage the power of your WordPress blog to get killer search engine rankings.

Packed with over 60 pages of information, including pictures that cover every step in the process, you will learn to quickly master your WordPress blog.

Isn’t it time to ramp up your presence online? The new paradigm dictates that if you want to do business online, you need a blog! Common wisdom also dictates that if you have a job an hour from home and there is no public transportation, you need a car. But first you need to learn how to drive. Consider this your WordPress blog “driver’s education”.

The developers of the WordPress blog spent over six months completely redesigning and re-engineering WordPress. So, if you’re a beginner, and you need tools to get you started, then this book’s for you. If you’re familiar with Word press and want to make the jump to version 2.7, without the learning curve, then this book’s for you too.

Because I want you to have this book, I’m gonna make a special deal. Looking around the Internet I found an outdated WordPress e-book for $97 and I’m sure it’s still selling. I found another WordPress tutorial e-book, yes, this one is outdated to, but you can have for just $40.32. Well, that kind of sucks doesn’t it. Just what we all want to do, go out and buy a beat up used car for more money than the brand-new one. So here’s a special deal, I want you to have the shiny new car. $27! That’s right, only $27. And the best news, once you buy, you get to download this book immediately and get your WordPress blog working for you.

Tags: blogging, business marketing, online marketing, WordPress, wordpress tutorial
Posted in Doing Business Online | No Comments »

How to be a Purple Cow

Sunday, March 2nd, 2008

Huh?! If you haven’t ever heard this term before, you need to run (yes, run don’t walk) and by Seth Godin’s book, “Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable”.

Imagine driving down a beautiful rural highway when suddenly you see the most extraordinary cow. He’s big, muscular, black and white (like most cows we see) – but he is truly remarkable, unlike any “normal” cow we’ve ever seen. Well, we take note. As we continue to drive we see a few more of these “remarkable” cows. As we see more and more of them, the become less remarkable until we no longer notice them at all.

No imagine that this cow is a bright shiny purple – I think it would be something that we’d never forget. This is exactly Seth’s idea.

I started thinking about Seth’s Purple Cow after reading his blog post titled “How to title stuff“.

He gives us 3 ways:

Pick a completely descriptive, generic, boring name that precisely describes what’s inside. Like “Shredded Wheat” or “12 Ways to Get Traffic to Your Blog. This is the one that Google likes. . .
Pick a more clever name that’s designed to entice the reader to read the subtitle, or the first few lines of your post. Your visitor likes this one. . .
Pick a name that gets talked about. To create a phrase that you hope will enter the vocabulary.

Now I usually try a combo of numbers 1 and 2, but number 3 is pretty powerful. Seth’s is famous for coing the “Purple Cow”.

Seth Says: Yes, that’s my strategy. My goal is to have people call something a Purple Cow or eviscerate the boss for suggesting yet another Meatball Sundae.

Yes, he coined the term “Meatball Sundae”.

If for some reason you don’t know about Seth Godin, you are doing yourself a disservice, seek him out, pay attention and learn.

Coming up with a clever title for something you are doing might be one way. Being innovative in the way you do business is something far more powerful!

In his book Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable, Seth Godin says that the key to success is to find a way to stand out–to be the purple cow in a field of monochrome Holsteins. Godin himself may be the best example of how this theory works: The marketing expert is a demigod on the Web, a best-selling author, highly sought after lecturer, successful entrepreneur, respected pundit and high-profile blogger. He is uniquely respected for his understanding of the Internet, and his essays and opinions are widely read and quoted online and off.”

Forbes.com

Posted in Branding, Doing Business Online | No Comments »

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