Category: Small Business Marketing

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Marketing with MindMaps

We use Mindmaps in almost all of our meetings and we just love it.

Mindmaps are visual diagrams to represent concepts or tasks that could be connected.

Its unique unstructured but connected nature makes it a great tool for any kind of brainstorming.
It can also be used for product creation, problem solving, site creation, marketing maps. identify audiences and ideal clients, product launches, sales funnels.
Helps you organize ideas. If you study consumer behavior, you can use this tool to see what is their connection (this would help you find other markets to the same product or service). You may also use it to find new opportunities for content development.

Mind maps are guarantee to improve effectiveness and efficiency in any small business. It can be one of the most valuable tools for small business marketing.

Here are some Mindmaps tools you can check:

Mindjet: Available for MAC and PC

Mindomo

Mindmeister

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We are all weird- a new way for publishing?

Seth Godin released today his new book We are all weird. He is also testing a new way to generate more sales for the book. I’ve pasted below his post about this strategy.
What do you think about it? I know I got my copy right away.
I agree with his point of digital printing. I used to be a die hard fan of paper books but today Kindle is my new best friend. I love the portability and the instant gratification.

Here is his post:

Special alert for Domino readers…

My new book, We Are All Weird goes on sale today. We only have 11,000 hardcover copies on sale at Amazon, with no plans to print more. I wanted you to have first dibs. (PS, Outside the USA? click here).

Why limit the number printed?

Conventional publishing wisdom says that the first 10,000 copies are the hardest. In fact, you don’t make money until after that. The goal is to prime the pump and then, if you get lucky, sell millions and millions of hardcovers, day after day, year after year. That’s what pays the bills at all the large publishing houses.

The thing is, digital is better at infinity than paper ever will be. Digital is easy to keep in stock, easy to replenish, easy to connect with. Paper, on the other hand, benefits from scarcity. If you know that there are only a few books and then they’re gone, you’re more likely to hurry up, more likely to grab yours now, more likely to treasure it once you get it. And in a digital world, a book that’s not worth treasuring is not worth owning, is it?

So the bet I’m making is that the scarcity of the hardcover will help you decide to read it right now. And I hope you will, because this is one of the most important books I’ve ever written. And then, after you read it, I hope you’ll share the ideas, perhaps loan your copy or encourage a friend to get the free Kindle reader and get the Kindle edition for herself.

If the hardcover is gone by the time you read this, I apologize, we did our best to guess how many would satisfy the first wave of interest. I think it’s inevitable that publishing is going to move in this direction–hardcover collectibles for those that want them, digital for those in search of the ideas.

Thanks as always for helping with these experiments in the form and content of publishing.

And tweet away at #weirddomino. Summary of a lot of this right here.

[Interesting aside: the scarcity of the book is changing the way I’m interacting with it. Usually, I hand out books like candy, because I can always get more. I’m feeling mysteriously scrooge-like now, though, wondering if someone is hardcover-worthy. Just like concert tickets to a sold out show, things feel different when there’s a limit.]

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Small business marketing: Sales strategies

There are 3 things you need to have in place 100% of the time to make sure sales are generated everyday. I like to make the analogy with gardening because they have a lot in common.

1. Seeding- you need to be prospecting regularly without being too much in your face. On this stage is where you can benefit a lot from social media. Beware not to make the number one mistake: water too much and ruin the seeds- or spend the whole day on Facebook, give too many tips or provide too much access to you.

2. Picking. There is a right moment to pick the flowers before they loose their momentum. Same thing here, there is a right moment to close the sale. Flowers won’t pick themselves and put themselves in a vase, clients won’t take action either without your help.

3. Keep them blooming. You want your plants to bloom again just like you want existing clients to keep buying. Long lasting prosperity is achieved by selling over and over again to existing clients. Too many times we invest to make a prospect become a client, so our first sale does not bring profits. By selling other solutions to them at different price points is where profit is made.

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Increase the level of trust

Increase the level of trust with customers and prospects is part of creating an irresistible business and attracting long lasting prosperity.

Here are a few things you can add to your marketing messages that will help build credibility and trust:

1. Your guarantee. Keep it simple, strong and straightforward.

2. Customer reviews.

3. Privacy policy: This is mandatory in online direct marketing.

4. Ratings/awards: make them easily accessible on your site.

5. Customer service: Don’t hide your customer service number. You can also add a live chat to your site or a helpdesk.

6. Membership and affiliations: we have ours at the bottom of the home page.

7. About us: tell your story here

8. Client list: complete or partial list shows depth and experience.

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Women in social media

According to The Guardian Life research institute, female entrepreneurs are three times more likely to engage in social networking than their male counterparts. Female business owners are more customer focused and more likely to incorporate a sense of community into their business plan.

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Keep control over your social media marketing efforts

This social media thing can be crazy and if you don’t know what you are doing can eat your whole time..

Here are some third party social media marketing applications that can make your life a lot easier.

1. Tweetdeck: Easy to manage YouTube, Facebook and Twitter in one view. You can manage people you follow in lists.

2. Ping.fm and Hellotxt; Update your status in several platforms. About 50 of social networks. Post can be made online or mobile.

3. Seesmic: similar to Tweetdeck but allows you to manage multiple profile accounts

4. SocialOimph: Allows you to postdate posts on Twitter and Facebook fan pages. Has many other cool features too.

5. 8hands: This is an aggregator that streams notifications in real time and where you get summaries and statistics on your social networking activities. It covers content from multiple accounts.

6. Chi.mp centralizes content and contacts. Good for people without a website.

See? Small business marketing online just became a lot easier.