by Amber Miller | Jun 30, 2014 | Marketing
10 years ago today, I decided to stop being afraid and take a leap of faith…
Afraid of what others thought of my business ideas.
Afraid of what others might say if I “quit my cushy corporate job”.
Afraid of could I really be my own boss?
Afraid of – well, being afraid of my dreams.
For years, I wanted to start my own business where I could take my passion for technology and love for systems and bring them to those who also shared my dream to be their own boss.
I quit my corporate job 4 times in 2 years. Yes, 4 times! Each time I was asked to stay, for more pay, for more time off, for more, well whatever. And each time my head said yes, but heart said no. I tried working part-time the first year of my business, until I realized yet again, I was being “afraid” to completely step into it and I was NEVER going to find my purpose if I didn’t “go for it”. (more…)
by Amber Miller | Feb 18, 2013 | Blog, Infusionsoft, Marketing
Today I am happy to share with you a guest post from someone you definitely need to know…and WATCH! She knows her stuff (plus we share a love for automation and Infusionsoft!) Take it away Michelle…
We know that Infusionsoft makes marketing easy. From segmenting your list to automating nurture sequences, you have a streamlined way to interact with your market and build relationships with prospects.
But the success of every marketing campaign begins with its content. In order to convert, your campaigns must strike a chord within your target market and invoke a desire to act—and quickly.
Develop a marketing campaign that pays off—these campaign tips hit the mark every time:
Research Your Target Audience
The target market for your products or services is the target audience for your marketing campaign. To sell to this group of people, you need to know them inside and out by understanding their hopes, desires, fears, and needs. Audience research should include…
- Surveys, which you can give through emails, on social media, or as part of your sales process. Be sure to up the odds that clients will complete your surveys!
- Direct questions, which you can ask in person (at events or places your audience frequents), on social media, on blogs, or through email. Spend time making sure your questions are clear and will elicit useful answers.
- Conversations. In person, through social media, or otherwise, take time to interact with your audience. Listen what they have to say. Get off topic. You’ll discover valuable information you may never have thought to look for.
Develop Your Message
Once you understand the very soul of your target audience, you need to develop a marketing message that speaks to its hopes, desires, fears, and needs—or some combination of these. This process may take a little time, but nailing your message is worth the effort—your audience will respond when you hit the right nerves.
Once you decide what you want to say about your products or services and how you want to say it, it’s time to get the message out there. Depending on how you can best reach your target audience, you may want to consider…
- Pitching story ideas (related to your offerings) to various publications that your target audience reads.
- Buying ad space (online, on the radio, in the newspaper—wherever your research points you).
- Designing emails and newsletters that get the word out.
- Setting up a booth at an event where members of your target audience will be present.
- Spreading the word through affiliate marketing.
The right message in the right place will connect with members of your target audience—getting to this point, though, will take some time!
Master the Art of Timing
You don’t want to launch your perfect wrapping paper campaign the day after Christmas. Timing, of course, plays a major role in whether or not your message and location are appropriate.
The good news is that if you’ve done your target audience research well, you should be in touch with seasonal fluctuations on your target audience’s wants and needs. And in the 24-hour marketing world of the Internet, you can even tap into the subtle ways time of day might impacts them!
Put It All Together
Hitting these three notes just right takes more time and energy than substituting some guesswork. But if your goal is a bigger return on your marketing dollars, precision is the way to go.
For more valuable marketing advice, check out Michelle Salater’s no-cost content marketing training series.
About Michelle: Michelle Salater is the CEO of Sūmèr, a full-service copywriting firm and an award-winning writer and content expert featured in Entrepreneur Magazine, MyBusiness Magazine, M.O. Online, and Entreprenista, among others. She also connects with a worldwide audience and shares her expert advice via her radio show, Business Confessional Talk Radio.
by Amber Miller | Nov 4, 2009 | Blog, Marketing
With email deliverability at an all time low these days, it is easy to see how postcard marketing could become the next big thing…again. Postcard marketing via snail mail has and continues to be a favorite marketing method of mine.
Here are a few reasons why I like postcard marketing:
- Postcards are less disruptive and intrusive than e-mail, since many consider email spamming as an inconvenient way to get unsolicited information. Postcards also enjoy less competition.
- It’s easier to read a postcard at a glance than to open an envelope.
- Unlike e-mail, postcards can take on any size, color, gloss or graphic and is even more personal and tangible than email communication.
- Another good and practical reason for resorting to postcards is that you can create, print and mail postcards without a big investment and are practical. This is practically so because you can use both sides of the postcard, although not every inch. You may use side like a poster or a picture display and the other for a few details. Or simply put an advertisement on one side and a personal message on the other, whichever suits you best.
- They are simple. This is so because it does not have a lot to it. Messages are timely, ideas straight to the point and messages brief and concise.
- Postcards are multi- faceted since it can double as a gift certificate, coupon and event ticket, among others. Recipients can then present the card to claim an offer or avail of a good discount as well as a good tool to measure effectiveness.
It is important to remember that although it is good to send out your postcards to the most number of people as possible, the effectivity of your mailing list will also determine the captured market you may end up with as you move on with your postcard marketing campaign.
Hope this helps!
Amber
With email deliverability at an all time low these days, it is easy to see how postcard marketing could become the next big thing…again. Postcard marketing via snail mail has and continues to be a favorite marketing method of mine.
Here are a few reasons why I like postcard marketing
by Amber Miller | Aug 23, 2009 | Blog, Entrepreneur, Marketing
I shared with you last week how much Dave Crenshaw’s Book and free videos on time management have helped me tremendously. It is amazing how much more I can accomplish when I am NOT multitasking…what a concept!
I was blown away when Dave shared these statistics with me:
– Most people lose 28% or more of their work day to interruptions and the recovery time from interruptions
– Most people can only work 11 minutes until being interrupted
– Most people report being stressed out and too busy, IN SPITE OF the technology that was intended to give them more time
I wanted to let you know Dave is offering a FREE webinar this week and you can bet I’ll be on it! I am continually amazed at how much FREE and useful content Dave always gives away.
Check it out! I’ve already saved my seat!
by Amber Miller | Aug 21, 2009 | Blog, Marketing
I was asked this question yesterday during a weekly call with a client. She asked, “with all different url shorteners is there a particular one you recommend?”. Great question – here is how I responded.
While I’m not sure about all of the url shorteners available right now, I can share with you the ones I use on a daily basis.
In the past, I always used tinyurl.com. They were the “original url shortener” and came around in 2002. They were for a while, the most known and widely used. I personally do not use tinyurl anymore because some of the other shorteners have come out with some great additional features – such as shorter urls (the whole point of a tiny url is that it is tiny!) and at the time of this post, they do not currently have a way to track your links for you. Tinyurl.com does provide a 301 redirect which is good. With a 301 redirect it tells the search engine that the url you requested to shorten has “permanently” moved to the original url – giving credit to the original url – not the shortened url.
As far which shortener I use for he majority of my clients? Well that would bit.ly.com and snipurl.com. Both provide shorter characters in the urls created, offer tracking, support Tweetdeck, Twhirl and Twitterfeed and allow sharing.
I also prefer to use the custom options and actually give my shortened url a real name at the end – instead of allowing the program to create a random one for me. ie – www.bit.ly.com/amber compared to www.bit.ly.com/X23df. But that is just my preference. I think it looks nicer in emails 🙂
Is there another shortener that you just love? Share it with me here, I’d love to know!
To Your Delegating Success!
Amber Miller
by Amber Miller | Jul 25, 2009 | Blog, Entrepreneur, Ezines, Marketing
What to look for when choosing your hosting company? This will all depend of course upon your specific needs, but here is my revised short list of the things I look for when choosing a hosting company:
1) Customer support via telephone. Are you required to only use a help desk or email to get support? For me personally, I like to pick up the phone and talk to someone who can assist me.
2) CPanel – do they have CPanel or another user friendly control panel interface? This can be helpful especially for those who are not very technical.
3) Fantastico – or the ability to easily install wordpress and other ecommerce and blog applications.
4) Backups. Do they backup your server? If so, how often do they back it up, how long is the data retained by them and is there a fee for them to restore.
and newly added #5 – drumroll please….
5) Email distribution limitations…what are they? You may not have a large list now, but hopefully soon you will and then will your growth be at their mercy? (learned the hard way with this one :))
To Your Online Success!
Amber
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