Trends

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Tips to create a printed newsletter

E-mails are great, e-zines fantastic but printed newsletters keep your prospects and customers paying more attention to you. Yes, they are not free but they will bring you more ROI than the eletronic options.

Here are a list of things you need to put in place in order to have your enwsletter.

1. A overall template- You can find them online.
2. Use graphics to support the text and don’t over use them.
3. The first page must be compelling enough to make people open and read the rest.
4. Add boxes like ” What’s inside”. They work as teasers.
5. Big headlines to capture the eye
6. Do a newsletter every month
7. Each one must have an overall goal.
8. Include a coupon or gift certificate.
9. Add a tracking code to the coupon or gift certificate.
10. Print your newsletter with 4 pages- one page od 11×17″
11. Do it in black and white on white paper
12. Add standard information- name of newsletter, contact info, website, edition number.
13. Master powerful headlines
14. Mix short and long articles.
15. Make headlines and sub-headlines one font bigger and bolder.
16. Open sentence and paragraph must be kept short and very intriguing to pull them into the copy

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How to create a tag line

I don’t know about you but every time I go to a networking meeting and people start introducing themselves I go to la,la land. I try to pay attention but the messages are so ordinary that it becomes an impossible task.. They all go like: I’m a consultant…, I sell beauty products…, I’m a real estate agent…

All this becomes just noise.

So, when it is your turn, how do you get attention?

The answer is to simplify your message.

Look at the example of some big companies that have figured that out:

Avis- We try harder
Nike- Just do it
Coke- Just for the taste of it
Mc Donald’s- I’m loving it.

For you to reach the same level of communication you need first to be able to answer there 4 questions in just one sentence:

1. What the problem is
2. Who you are solving it for
3. Why you
4 How do you do it

Ask yourself what is the one thing you do that they would pay for. Something they want really bad.

I know it is not easy to get to one sentence only and it may take you a while but this is how it is done.
We need to know what is the one benefit I do in my work that solves on single problem that my entire market can understand and want to pay for.

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Find your ideal client- small business marketing

We can’t sell to everybody. We need to find our ideal customer.

For that you need to get inside the mind of your customer and be able to persuade, motivate and sell to them.
If you know who your customer is you can analyze , understand and connect with him/her.

Here are some questions you need to answer in order to profile your ideal client:

1. What brings pain to your customer?
2. What keeps them awake at night?
3. What do they fear the most?
4. Are there any new trends happening in their industry right now?
5. What do they desire?
6. What makes them angry?
7. What things cause them frustration?
8. Is there something specific about their personality?
9. Who else is selling a similar service?
10. How are they selling it?
11. What types of magazines, trade jounals, e-zines they subsctibe to?
12 What’s the average age?
13. What is the average sex, marital status?
14. what is their income level?

By answering these questions you just found a very valuable tool.

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List of promotion ideas

Here are a few points in a list of things you can use to promote your business. Copy and write beside each one and you will see a lot of ideas coming up. Ask yourself as you go through the list how you can use it to promote your business:

Articles
business cards
coupons
contests
centers of influence
celebrities
courses
card decks
calendar listings
direct mail
demonstrations
endorsements
feature stories
gift certificates
invitation only events, joint ventures
newsletters
presentations
publicity
restroom ads
Recorded phone messages
Strategic alliances
Online videos
Podcasts
Blog posts
T-shirts
Tweets

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Words to use in blogs and articles to help with SEO

Cool tip from Click News:

The following phrases will yield better results when using a keyword research tool like Wordtracker:

21. Learn ___
22. ___ tips e.g. Hair color tips
23. Fix ___
24. ___ list
25. List of ___
26. Numbers – this probably works best on keyword searched than social
media but wow, you find out a lot with a number. For example, “20
questions to get to know someone” is enjoying 923 searches according
to Wordtracker.
27. ___ checklist
28. ___ cheatsheet
29. Guide to ___
30. ___ ideas

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Creating an irresistible business promise

Every business needs a promise. An Irresistible promise sets you apart from the competition and makes people pay attention and get attract towards you. It also avoids your business to be perceived as a commodity.

An irresistible promise has an emotional connection.

Disney: Happiest place on earth

To craft an irresistible promise list all the problems you solve, 3 core values of your business and avoide common place words like health, organic, fair price.

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Business Storytelling

I like storytelling. I like the journey of the story, the surprises, when things go wrong, the possibilities for the end. I like the hero’s journey. That is one of the reasons I like NPR and Radiolabs. They are great storytellers. Storytelling is one reason why in our show we avoid telling at the beginning what we’ll talk about. Because in storytelling you don’t tell the end before it is time. Businesses need to incorporate storytelling. Some do it really well like Moleskine, Innocent drinks. Tom’s shoes. Do you use storytelling in your business? Stories create emotional connections and these connections will make people buy.

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Attention equals revenue

We hear a lot today about visibility and how it is important.
Visibility is crucial for businesses but the gold rush today is to get attention.
You can be visible to a lot of people but that does not mean they are paying attention. Visibility alone will not bring business, attention will. If people are paying attention in what you are saying, they are interested, they are more likely to take action.
The average American has today an attention span of 9 seconds. That is the same of a gold fish. It is not easy to sell to goldfish as you might imagine.
You need to be able to get attention, be interesting and relevant in order to have them buying from you.
Have as many friends, followers and viewers as you want but learn how to really get them paying attention to you and your business.