I think most of us business owners are done for the year and gearing up for next year. If you haven't started planning your marketing activities for next year, now is the time to get squared away.
Successful business owners are planners. It's important to get your business strategy down on paper and review your plans quarterly, making adjustments along the way. Maintaining a marketing calendar helps you execute your marketing efforts and keep you focused on your goals in a structured and thought-out manner, making your job much easier.
If you decide to fire yourself as the Marketing Director of your business in 2011, I am here to help you find the right marketing vehicles to promote your business.
Good luck to you in 2011! May you prosper and live life abundantly!
On Monday, November 29th, I went to see Roger Waters at Staples Center. For those of you who don't know Mr. Waters, he was a founding member of the band Pink Floyd. My friends and I were in a suite straight across from the stage - what an incredible view.
This post is about marketing, I promise.
The stage was set up like a partial wall with blocks missing. My impression was that, hey, he's playing songs from The Wall album - this makes sense. However, what he did with that wall during the performance was the most visually stimulating thing I've ever seen at a concert.
After the first couple of songs filled with pyrotechnics and crashing planes, he stepped up to the microphone and told the audience that he had done some calculating back in his dressing room and realized it had been 30 years, ___ months and ___ days since he had performed The Wall in Los Angeles. It was at the Sports Arena. People cheered and I'm willing to bet many of them had attended that performance.
The smell of pot was wafting through the Staples Center. I watched in awe as the wall became a projection screen. Perfectly timed with the music, the images flashed before my eyes sprinkled with quick audio and visual clips of Martin Luther King and past presidents' speaking. There were B-52 bombers dropping religious, Mercedes and Shell symbols, pictures of people who perished because of war, common graves and starving children.
One video clip in particular really hit me hard. An American girl was sitting in her classroom clapping to welcome a mystery guest. Then, slowly, there was a look of shock that took her over as she recognized the person who just walked in the door was her dad, still in his fatigues, who had just come back from the war. She slowly rises, hands over her mouth, and stumbles into his arms.
The images continued through the performance - answering questions that he asks in the song "Mother", goose-stepping hammers, Pink Floyd icons as the wall was gradually built... together, the all told a story and no one left that concert with some level of awareness.
Yes, it was a million-dollar production with a huge crew, lights, music, imagery, flame cannons and a really tall wall that came tumbling down at the end. We may not have this at our disposal, but it helped me to remember there are many marketing tools at our fingertips that we may not be using to tell our story.
Video commercials posted on websites and social media sites are becoming more and more popular. It's because a video is worth a thousand printed words. Combining images, music and well written scripts, you have a chance to impact your audience like never before.
If you want to take your marketing to a new level, video commercials will do just that. I know an amazing videographer. Let me know if you would like me to put you in touch with him!
As some of you already know, I've joined forces with a team of Internet marketing professionals that compliment my services. We call ourselves "Marketing Marvel" and launched our branding at Tru Networking Group's Vegas Night Mixer at Sutra Lounge last week.
In addition to my social media services, Marketing Marvel also offers web hosting, website development, logo design, search engine optimization and video commercial creation.
For a limited time, Marketing Marvel is offering a "Business Builder Bundle" for only $999.00!
What does this bundle include, you ask?
The bundle includes registration of one domain name, three months of hosting, three-page website (customer to provide content and images for website pages), unlimited email addresses, three variations and revisions of logo design, search engine optimization of up to three key words (one per page), two hours of video recording and editing and development of a Facebook business page, Twitter account and Linkedin profile.
Of course, Marketing Marvel can develop your web page content and you may also receive additional logo variations and revisions for $75 per page/variation/revision.
Most people spend much more than $999.00 on just a web site! If you are interested in taking advantage of this great bundle, please contact me at patty@marketingmarvel.com. Offer ends 12/06/2010.
I would like to personally invite you to the True2Life Vegas Night Mixer at the Sutra night club in Costa Mesa, CA (Triangle Square) on Thursday, November 18th. I will be exhibiting there with many other businesses and 11 local restaurants.
Come for the networking, stay for the Vegas-style table games and dancing later on in the evening. Please bring the tickets I have included with this letter. They will get you in the door for FREE if you arrive before 5:30pm. After that, the cover charge is $10 per person with a ticket. Without a ticket, the cover charge is $20.
There will be raffles throughout the event. Even if you are not exhibiting, you are welcome to contribute raffle prize to help promote your business.
You may bring along your business partner or a fellow business owner. If you need tickets, please let me know how many and I will make sure you get them. It would be great to see you there. Your appearance and testimonial at my table would be greatly appreciated! I will return the favor by introducing you to everyone I know there!
As I was telling my colleagues at the Huntington Beach ABWA Wavecrester's last night, there are three times that you shouldn't post on your social media sites. I call it the Social Media A.D.D. syndrome. Let me explain:
A = Angry If you are feeling strong negative emotions about something, it's probably a good idea to take some time to meditate, take deep breaths, go to your happy place, BEFORE you sit down to compose a post. The world does not need more hate - we have plenty of that already. I'm all about being passionate about something you deeply care about, but please be responsible about how you share it.
D1 = Depressed Going beyond the fact that people really don't want to hear your problems, let's talk about what you're putting out there. Remember that phrase your mom always said, "Misery loves company"? If you're unhappy, the best thing to do is surround yourself with people who are happy and make you laugh. Post something negative and you will probably get a bunch of people feeling sorry for you. Does that help? Does it solve your problem? No. It just makes you look pathetic. So, share your issues with a professional if you must, but your social media site is not the place for "poor me" behavior.
D2 = Drunk Ah, yes. I'll bet a good percentage of you are guilty of posting while under the influence of alcohol. I see it now: You're in a bar with a couple of friends and you want to make the other friends who flaked on you jealous of the fun that you are having without them. So... you defiantly decide you'll post a picture of the "good time" with some select comments on your handy-dandy smart phone. Oh, how you laugh... until you see it the next morning and realize that 235 people you're connected to on Facebook saw your clever post. Quick, delete it!! Alas... it's too late. You've already received 24 comments on it, one of them from your 13-year-old daughter who just shared it with her friends.
I've seen them all. I'm sure you have too. When you come across that hate post, poor me post or I'm going to regret this later post, make a mental note of how it makes you feel (i.e. disgusted, embarrassed for him/her, intense disagreement) and resolve not to follow in the same footsteps. If I fall into any of these categories while in a weak moment, I encourage you to throw this blog post in my face. I'll do the same for you.
I think most of us business owners are done for the year and gearing up for next year. If you haven't started planning your marketing activities for next year, now is the time to get squared away.
