I regularly consult to small business owners who have marketing, brand management, sales, public/media relations and internet marketing dilemmas. They detail the problem and I find a solution.
This is the basis for my new book which aims to show micro, small and medium sized businesses real-life strategies and tactics that have worked. Practical and tactical, not theoretical.
If you have had a problem in the above categories and have found a solution that worked for your business, then I'd like to hear from you. In 250 words or less please briefly outline;
Your business: The problem you faced: The solution that worked: The results for your business: The timeframe ie: 6 months.
All details will remain confidential. Your details will not be shared or sold to anyone. Promise. Your business details and web address will be included in the book, with your permission.
Leave a message for me here with 'Business Tactics' in the subject line and include your e-mail address or contact me on twitter - hotpepperchick.
I look forward to hearing from you. Cheers - Penelope
If ever there was a case for PR versus Advertising then this is it.
Within one week, a media release I sent to just two local media (the major print daily and one television station) has exploded globally.
If you don't know the name Kaleb Bussenschutt then just 'google' him. You'll find 20,900 online entries, mostly from media outlets across the world and in numerous languages. And that's just today - tomorrow there will be more.
Kaleb Bussenschutt is a cheeky and active 5 year old boy - my friend's son - who can not eat; food makes him violently ill. So he is fed through a tube directly to his stomach - 20 hours per day. I am undertaking the pro-bono PR for Kaleb and a charity bike ride initiated by his parents, Melissa and Scott Bussenschutt. Kaleb's Journey hopes to raise $100,000 by inviting bike riders (and sponsors and support crew) on a Melbourne to Adelaide bike ride in February 2010.
The money will be used to rasie the awareness of Kaleb's condition, connect him with other children with this rare condition (Kaleb has never met another person with this condition), and send him to the USA to meet specialists and other children. Can you help?
Kaleb lives wearing a back-pack that contains his 'feeding machine' so he can run around and ride his scooter. But when he has to shower, he hangs his machine on a hook close by. When he goes to bed his machine is on a stand, like a drip, next to his racing car bed.
Kaleb can only go swimming when he is not attached to his feeding machine (a window of only fours per day) and he can't play 'rough and tumble' games because he has a surgical 'peg' attached to his skin linking his stomach to the external feeding tube. If that get's damaged Kaleb will be in a lot of pain, and danger.
Kaleb can't eat his own birthday cake, or share sweets with friends. He can eat ice, water and a certain brand of lemonade (the same HUGE brand that, as yet, have refused to support Kaleb with supplies of lemonade or even a discount). But he can't share colored pencils or crayons just in case there is some food residue form another child and Kaleb puts his fingers in his mouth; which is what kids do, right?
Kaleb misses BQ chicken, salami and cheese the most. He doesn't know if he will ever taste food again. Right now, he eats ice at the table when his family eats.
He can't enjoy toasted marshmellows on schools camps or a hot dog at the football.
He doesn't know if he'll ever have his first beer (when he's of legal drinking age) or if he can take a girl out on a date for pizza or ice-cream.
He can't even enjoy a picnic for two.
Could you face a lifetime of not celebrating life's milestones with something to eat or drink? You'd struggle, right?
If you have kids, if you know kids, then help Kaleb live a life as normal as yours. Send support through making a comment here or blog about him or visit Kaleb's website ' Kaleb's Journey' and let us know what you can do, or if you'd like to donate.
Help Kaleb live a normal life - the sort of life you and your family enjoy!
Please make a comment here of support, ask a question if you'd like, tweet, blog and show your support for Kaleb Bussenschutt.
Secrets to Affiliate Millionaires – 6 Winning Attitudes for Super Affiliate Marketing Entrepreneur
Have you ever thought why you are failed whereas other affiliate marketing entrepreneurs are successful in promoting the same markets and affiliate products you do? Regarding to the investigation, the significant key to your success for the different between successful and failure is yourself.
Thus, you have to improve yourself in order to succeed in any kinds of business. Within this article, you will discover and learn how to improve yourself as a super affiliate marketing entrepreneurs and learn top inside personal attitude of super affiliate marketing entrepreneurs.
1. Self-Determination. The first personality attitude is the determination. You have to push yourself moving forward toward to your goals. As an affiliate, you have to set up your goals, plan your works and push yourself toward to those goals. Without this personality attitude, it appears that you will not move forward or closer to your goals and succeed in affiliate marketing business. However, to setup your goals, you have to set them up as smart, measurement, achievable, and realistic goals.
The secret to affiliate millionaires is to push yourself to work out as your plan. You have to keep yourself stay in the path toward to your goals all the time.
2. Positive Thinking. Many studies reveal that there are two groups of affiliate marketing entrepreneurs: (1) people who can do anything and (2) people who can not do anything. Those studies also reveal that all successful affiliate marketing entrepreneurs are in the first group, people who can do anything. It appears obviously that you are what you think and choose you are. If you believe in yourself that you can succeed in the affiliate marketing business, you will definitely successful in this business.
The secret to affiliate millionaires is to change your thinking to positive. You have to change the way you think in the business. Of course, everything has two sides: good and bad. It is absolutely great idea to underestimate the obstacles and try to find out the solution rather than giving up.
3. Self-Motivation. There are many obstacles to become a super affiliate marketing entrepreneurs and success in affiliate marketing business. The real key to pass those obstacles is your self-motivation. You have to motivate enthusiastically yourself to move forward and solve all possible problems in your affiliate marketing business. You have to build, run and grow your affiliate marketing business every day with your highly motivation. With the highly motivation, you will definitely become a super affiliate marketing entrepreneur and achieve your goals.
The secrets to affiliate millionaires are to: (1) enjoy what you are doing and (2) motivate enthusiastically yourself all the time.
4. Eager to Learn. Obviously, to become a super affiliate marketing entrepreneur, there are many things you have to learn to achieve and succeed in affiliate marketing business. For example, you have to learn how to start the right affiliate marketing business, how to build and grow your online business in the right way, how to build your own affiliate website and how to drive traffic to your website. With your passionate and eager to learn, you will boost skyrocket your knowledge and know-how in order to success in the affiliate online business. Otherwise, you will be far away behind your competitors.
The secrets to affiliate millionaires are to: (1) learn everything you have to know for your affiliate marketing business and (2) learn from other experiences and success stories.
5. Patient. The affiliate marketing business is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It will not come to you overnight or several weeks. You have to be patient with your goals, plan and strategies you implement for your affiliate marketing business. Without the patient or faith, you will give up too quickly in this business. Many studies reveal that all successful super affiliate marketing entrepreneurs are willing to work extremely hard and expect the results in the long-term.
The secrets to affiliate millionaires are to: (1) think about the consequence of your action today and (2) keep your eyes close to your goals and action.
6. Consistency. The last personality attitude for becoming a super affiliate marketing entrepreneur is to be consistency. The consistency will definitely lead you to success in any kinds of business. You have to work out your plan year after year, month after month in order to ensure that you reach your goals. It will be there absolutely!
The secrets to affiliate millionaires are to: (1) conduct the fixed affiliate marketing plan for your business and (2) improve your self-discipline for yourself and affiliate marketing business.
Final thoughts, the major different point between successful affiliate marketing entrepreneurs and failed entrepreneurs could be the personality attitude. It can generate a huge different in the long-term affiliate online business. In this article, you have learnt how to become a super affiliate marketing entrepreneur through the personality attitude and success in affiliate marketing business.
All you have to improve are: (1) self-determination (2) positive thinking (3) self-motivation (4) eager to learn (5) patient and (6) consistency.
Learn more secrets of how to become a wealthy affiliate millionaire. You will discover up-to-date affiliate information, top profitable recommended online affiliate marketing programs, do effective research, improve continuously your home based affiliate business, learn how to make big money online from home over $5,000 a day and participant with other successful affiliate marketing entrepreneurs. You will discover great tips on internet affiliate marketing for your highly successful.
Also, you will save your time and money for your trial & error. Join now – get the full access to unlimited business and revenue ideas, detailed reviews of your sale letter, candid critiques of your website design, traffic campaign strategies proven to attract buyers and tricks to increase your sales by 400% or more! You will discover and learn proven moneymaking secrets to instantly increase your sales over $10,000 per month or more!
Read more valuable articles, news and up-to-date information about home based affiliate business at: http://www.zMillionDollars.com/blog. You will discover a wealthy of informative about how to start, build, run and grow your home based affiliate business.
My thanks to Guest Contributor Siripong R. or zMillionDollars who is a recognized authority on the subject of building super-profitable affiliate marketing business. His website, www.zMillionDollars.com, provides a wealth of informative articles and resources on everything you’ll ever need to know about affiliate marketing business. Grab free special reports at: www.zMillionDollars.com/free-report.
I was contacted via e-mail today by Jen Harris at Global Talk Radio. She advised that I could post media releases for FREE and also host my own radio show. For a complete ego-maniac like me, the thought of hosting my own radio show was just tooo attractive.
I logged on, signed up for free and posted my first media release - about the launch of my new book 'Underdog Marketing' and why it's such an excellent DIY resource for any business owner, business manager or student of communications.
And guess what? It got posted! So here's the link to Global Talk Radio as I think they deserve a plug. I'm working on my own radio show as I have always wanted to go on the air (I'm in print and on TV so why not radio?). My vision is to have a live radio show that provides heaps of genuine resources for business owners - marketing, PR, sales, branding, finance, insurance, internet marketing, etc - and have guests talk about their specialty and have listeners call in with their business/marketing/sales dilemmas.
There will be downloads and podcasts and competitions and resources and advice and killer tips and proven formulas and fresh solutions - does that sound good to you? Listeners can ring live or they can leave their dilemma on my blog, and make suggestions for topics and guests and resources - oh LOVE IT! I'm getting so fired up, what do you think?
Please leave a comment; I'd love to know your thoughts.
Top 'Recession Busting' Marketing Tips for Small Business. Since I started providing these tips to my clients I have had every man and his dog ask me for a copy.
Cross-Promote: Link with a complimentary company and cross-promote your products and services.
Examples: a fashion boutique and a make-up artist; a delicatessen and a home wares shop. Think outside the square. A commercial cleaner and a chocolate factory? Think 'free samples' and being memorable. Add-Value: Instead of discounting an expensive dress, make a gift of a scarf, bracelet or pair of earrings. Instead of reducing the price of your service, offer an extra service for the original price. The gifted item or service will likely cost a business much less than providing a discount, and be valued more.
Permission Marketing: Your business will benefit from having a more credible profile and audience who invite you to talk to them about your products and services. Develop a simple online newsletter (e-news) or direct mail newsletter that provides interested parties with new, relevant and useful information that will benefit them.
Create News: Work effectively with the media and provide journalists with credible, newsworthy and interesting information suitable for their audience. Don't provide advertising masquerading as news; understand their audience and their needs. Provide an angle that informs, educates or warns. Hold an Event: Invite customers and potential customers to your office or factory for a tour followed by a light lunch or after work drinks. If you can't host people in this way, use a local hotel to host clients to a light lunch, or drinks & nibbles, provide information about your business and also get to know their needs better.
Speak in Public: Offer to be a guest speaker on your topic of expertise at a conference or business lunch. Service clubs often are looking for people to speak on interesting topics. Contact your local Business Enterprise Centre or Industry Association and investigate opportunities to speak to their members.
Call to Action: Whether it's an advertisement, brochure, flier, website text or direct mail letter, always include a call to action. Tell the recipient what you want then to do.
Examples: "Visit our website" or "Call us now" or "First 10 Callers Only" or "Order Now" or "Come and see us now". This simple addition will make a big difference.
Use the Internet: People will not flock to your website for no reason. Develop your online presence by having interesting content on your website that is up-dated regularly, an active blog, a relevant e-newsletter or media resource area, and submit material to online article directories. Join social networking sites, such as Twitter, Ecademy and MySpace but use them wisely. Get good advice from a credible internet expert, not just a graphic designer.
Ask Questions: Don't make statements about your products or service, instead ask questions.
Examples: • DON’T SAY “Our containers hold 500 and can expand to 750’ ASK “How much capacity are you looking for?”
• DON’T SAY “We have blue, green yellow, red, orange and purple” ASK “What color did you want?” or “What is your color scheme?”
• DON’T SAY “Our widgets are $100” ASK “How much did you want to spend?”
• DON’T SAY “This car is the best medium-sized car on the market today” ASK “How many people in your family?” and “What will you be using the vehicle for?” and “Do you drive mostly in the city?”
Extend Your Reach: Many businesses market only to their customers, yet there are other groups that can help promote you. Keep your suppliers informed of your business activities. Develop a list of people who can refer business to you and people who can influence favourably what customers think of you. Don't forget your staff; they can be your best Ambassadors.
Join the free Insanely Clever Marketing public marketing forum at http://www.dralexmarketing.com/forums and free e-news at www.underdogmarketingchallenge.com for awesome information & results. The new book 'Underdog Marketing' is crammed with step-by-step guides, killer tips, proven formulas and fresh marketing solutions. Buy now at www.underdogmarketingchallenge.com and have a copy delivered to your door.
Even your best friends won’t tell you. Sigh! You're tedious, tiresome and repetitive. Well, you're products and marketing tactics are anyway. Mark Twain got it right when he said that the best fruit is higher up the tree (or on the farthest branch). If it was easy everyone would have gorged themselves already – which is what they have been doing on the lower branches and on the fruit that falls on the ground.
If you stuck out your neck, what's the worst thing that could possibly happen? Something bad? …..or something very very GOOD!
I love Seth Godin because he gave us the Purple Cow.
Siimon Reynolds told us to Zig when everyone else Zags.
I love Ed Polish and Darren Wotz because I have 'That's Queen Bitch To You' on my desk which has daily reminders not to take life seriously. Today is "Does My Fat Ass Make My Ass Look Fat?"
Paul Arden suggests that whatever we think, we should think the opposite.
And my all time personal favourite – wish I had the balls to write a book entitled "How to Succeed in Business Without a Penis" as Karen Salmansohn did.
I love Vivienne Westwood because she doesn’t give a shit if people don't like her designs; there are plenty of people who think she's a genius. Bob Dylan wouldn't have won American Idol, Arnold Swartzenegger didn't bow to pressure to change his name, Ita Buttrose didn't lose her lisp (and went on to become Australia's most successful women's magazine Editor).
What's the purple cow of your business? Can you zig when everyone else in your industry is zagging? Can you make a really ballsy statement about your business?
If not then get off the stage! If you don't think outside the bx and stop doing what everyone else is doing, then you will be ignored on or off the stage. So you might as well make space for people and products and services that stand out from the crowd.
Be the best real you, not an imposter!
I'm going off now to add the title 'Queen Poobah' to my business card.
PS Buy a copy of 'Underdog Marketing' my new book - go on, live dangerously and spend a few bucks to get awesome results.
In a recent blog, Seth talked about marketing intolerance. But what he also says is this;
"Marketing is a complicated beast. It's not just advertising. It's stories that spread, it's editorial content, it even includes interactions and facial expressions. Marketing amplifies human nature. When someone stands up in front of a crowd at a political rally or in a church, they're marketing. And when a Hollywood filmmaker turns someone of a particular race or sexual preference into an object of ridicule or contempt, that's marketing too." Here's the link - http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Sub=198516
In my new book 'Underdog Marketing' co-authored with Dr Alex Davidovic, I write that you are in marketing mode the entire time even if you don't realize it. I place this type of marketing, as described by Seth, also as public relations – with media relations being only one component of that.
The previous chapters have concentrated on explaining communication and the importance of clear communication both internally and externally. The next two parts deal with Marketing and Public Relations, respectively, and they do work together.
Marketing is, in a nutshell, providing products and services to your customers better than your competitors do. Marketing is an umbrella under which all other activities – sales, public relations, advertising, special events, promotions – sit. But the art of public relations is the single most impacting element. Public relations activities will give you a higher profile and greater market penetration than any other single form of communication. Public relations also adds credibility to advertising.
Public relations is not media relations. Your business has a set of ‘publics’ that includes everyone who has anything to do with your business or anyone who sees or hears anything about your business. Therefore, we are surrounded by public relations threats and opportunities at every turn. And the cool thing about public relations is that, done correctly, it’s practically free.
When you attract media-related public relations you also attract credibility and a higher profile that most small businesses could afford to actually pay for.
In terms of your publics, you will market to them and you will provide public relations to them, regardless of what you do. Because your business cards, website, stationery, sales material, shop front, staff, uniforms, packaging, suppliers, family members, customers, will all be portraying your business in some way – so you might as well ensure that it’s positive, image-building and sales building, right?
Public relations is about image and reputation
Even if you have more work than you can handle, public relations in the marketing mix is not about sales; it’s about image and reputation.
So, you have more work than you can handle – for now. Will this trend continue? Will word-of-mouth marketing confirm that you are a great company to do business with? Will your products and services confirm that you are a credible business? Will the way staff and customers talk about you and your products and services serve you well? Or will it start to undermine all the business you have right now?
Because sales and business growth are two things; but sustainability, goodwill and having a spotless reputation are others. Advertising just shows people that you can talk about yourself. Positive public relations is third-party endorsement (media, customers, suppliers, influencers) that is 7 - 10 times more credible than advertising.
But far in excess of people looking to buy are people looking to be informed. And that’s what public relations does – it informs, influences, shapes viewpoints and creates trends.
When was the last time Paris Hilton paid for an advertisement?
Public relations is how you relate ‘publicly’ and ‘to your publics’. We all communicate, every day, to a variety of people. And in business that usually means communicating with known clients and unknown customers, staff, contractors, stakeholders, board members, government authorities, and even the media. These are all your ‘publics’. Public relations is how you project your image to anyone – and how your staff and colleagues project the company image.
Therefore, when you give out a business card, answer the phone, write a letter, respond to a complaint or issue a media release, you are engaging in a form of public relations. When it all goes pear-shaped, that’s when you need crisis communication – an under-utilized form of image and reputation saving. So it pays to recognize who are your primary and secondary ‘publics’ and develop a strategy around communicating with them.
Unlike Bridget Jones, we don’t all “just fanny around with the press releases”.
To purchase a copy of the newly released 'Underdog Marketing' click here and receive a special gift from the Authors. To subscribe to the Underdog Marketing e-news crammed with useful tips and featuring expert business videos, please visit www.underdogmarketingchallenge.com and also join our FREE public forum. Click on 'Forum'
Please follow me on Twitter now for more useful marketing tips
Author of 'Underdog Marketing' a newly published DIY book on cost-effective marketing, PR & internet marketing on any budget; business & media writer; public speaker; magazine editor; film director; business owner; traveller; dog owner; gym goer; daughter; lover.
I regularly consult to small business owners who have marketing, brand management, sales, public/media relations and internet marketing dilemmas. They detail the problem and I find a solution.
