Marketing

9 Aug 2012

Your Story: Communicating Value First

By |2017-04-03T11:36:09-06:00August 9th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

We are in the process of building out our new Manifast website. This is not the Manifast tool which is already quite mature and powerful, but our marketing website. 

There are so many ways you could do it.

This is our approach.

Story
Communicate the Value First

Seth Godin talks often about telling a story; best story wins. Chet Holmes talks about focusing on a core story with market driven data in "The Ultimate Sales Machine". Bob Burg and John David Mann talk […]

26 Jul 2012

Little Things Matter: They Add Up to Big Things

By |2017-04-03T11:36:36-06:00July 26th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

I recently caught some of the speakers at Susan Baroncini-Moe's Guinness World Record attempt at the longest uninterrupted web cast. As of this writing she is allegedly the new record holder.

I happened to win a free copy of a book for being quick on Twitter (live Tweeting quantity). My closest competitor did taunt me mid way through (her mistake). Not that I am competitive.

It just arrived the other day in a standard brown envelope. Upon opening the envelope I saw this:

BizInBlue
Susan also […]

9 Jul 2012

Defying the Gurus- Don’t Pigeon-Hole Me

By |2017-04-03T11:36:59-06:00July 9th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Manifast, Marketing, Sales|

Marketing wisdom and search engine optimization techniques suggest narrowing the definition of what your product does so that it falls into one (or a few) categories and search terms that people would use to find it.

I get that people search for things based on what they already know.

What if your product or service defies easy categorization? For example, lots of musicians don`t fit nicely into one genre. What if your product or service spans multiple categories?

We built Manifast to help people to build their dream business and in so doing, […]

11 Jun 2012

Fascination, Value and Relationships – Day 2 of the Go-Giver Retreat

By |2017-04-04T15:23:36-06:00June 11th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Mindset and Motivation, Sales|

The Fascination Advantage

One of the speakers I really, really wanted to hear was Sally Hogshead. However, due to the events mentioned in my last post I unfortunately only caught the last 15 minutes of her presentation. I can say that her message about how to fascinate using the 49 personality archetypes is powerful.

Mine is the Veiled Strength (Mystique and Power) which is only loosely related to being a Ninja.

Despite missing most of the talk I look forward to further understanding her work and figuring out how to use my triggers to fascinate.

The Law of Value

[…]

17 Apr 2012

Mission, Purpose and a Video Challenge

By |2017-04-03T11:38:57-06:00April 17th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Manifast, Marketing|

I've been taking the words of wisdom from Carrie Wilkerson, author of "The Barefoot Executive" to heart lately. After all, she is a force of nature when it comes to getting things done.

The challenge was simple on the surface. Video blog. One take only. Talk about something you know (extemporaneously) for 3-5 minutes. Minimal editing.

Armed with an HD camcorder, a tripod, and some basic editing software this video is the result. There is something a little nerve wracking about actually recording yourself especially when you have no redo. It is much easier talking to real people, even a […]

27 Mar 2012

Our Secret Marketing Plan Revealed (Next Steps)

By |2017-04-04T15:34:48-06:00March 27th, 2012|Categories: Doug's Blog, Manifast, Marketing, Sales|

Last week I wrote a post called “Marketing Yourself Is Your Real World“. In it I included a diagram of our “Simplified Marketing Plan For Manifast” which was actually pretty complex even after being simplified.

Well we obviously can’t implement everything at once. So I put together the next few things that need to get done in card format in our actual Manifast tool (partial screen shot below) as a project (blue) and outcomes (light yellow). Still pretty aggressive but achievable.

Now it is action time.

Marketing Manifast - <a href= […]

22 Mar 2012

Marketing Your Product is Your Real World

By |2017-04-03T11:39:42-06:00March 22nd, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

12 years ago when we started our company, I thought that branding, marketing and selling were something that someone else would handle. Sure as the president of the company I needed to set direction, but the icky parts were going to be done by someone else and I could focus on the project work for clients; you know, "delegate".

Today I know deep down in my heart that branding, marketing and selling are your business. Building a business means dealing with those subjects head-on. You can delegate the work, but you should not ever delegate the strategy (or the […]

9 Feb 2012

The Paradox of Referral Fees

By |2017-04-03T11:40:07-06:00February 9th, 2012|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

Offering referral fees to others to send business your way is a two edged sword at times:

  • On one hand you can really increase your customers,
  • On the other hand you might not get the customers you really want or need.

Therein lies the paradox.

On The Positive Side

On the positive side you are offering a financial incentive to others to refer business your way. Your customers and "agents" can earn some cold hard cash sending business your way.

You hope that the person doing the referring is looking out for both your and the potential client's best interest in making the connection.

But There Is […]

1 Dec 2011

Buying Attention In Social Media – Does It Work?

By |2017-04-03T11:42:11-06:00December 1st, 2011|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Sales|

As soon as something becomes popular, someone tries to figure out how to make money on it. Nothing wrong with that… that is a free market in action.

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. are essentially free for the end user. The companies building and running them can't afford to do so forever without a revenue stream. So free means harvesting the data and selling it in some way, shape or form; and some advertising.

Businesses in general are experimenting with how to interact with customers and potential customers via these platforms. Some have been remarkably successful which is causing […]

9 Nov 2011

How to Create a Marketing Persona – Make it Personal

By |2017-04-03T11:42:56-06:00November 9th, 2011|Categories: Doug's Blog, Leadership, Marketing, Sales|

Whether you are talking about product (or service) development or your marketing strategy or sales tactics it is important to understand who your customer is.

This is where personas can help you.

You start by creating a specific and detailed profile of the people you want to reach. Then create characters (or personas) to represent those people. I really like the idea of treating them as real people as long as you can remember they aren't.

Harry Potter is a character in a popular series of books and movies. When you mention his name, you can immediately bring up a picture of him, […]