Tag: small business tips

Posted on in 4- Thursday - Infinity Customers, Creative, Customers, marketing, Real world, Sales, Success tips, Tribe Building

TribeologyBlog.com – Episode #594 – How Can a Blizzard Be A Customer Reward?

Quote: “No matter how much is spent, visiting a business must be rewarded.”

Thursday: Infinity Customer

 

So we’re having a little blizzard here today in Minnesota… that really has nothing to do with this blog except I’m very tired of snow (and it’s only February) – and yet the snow keeps coming. We were very close to breaking the all time snowiest February, so as long as you’re that close you might as well beat the record, right?

Record broke. Now I’m over it.

However, I’ve had two great posts today with nice engagement because of the snow. I’ve also got a little Summer Fever going on with the weather – so weather can be a great draw for your business. But, you need to plan ahead. I’ve already got the following on Facebook and on my email so it’s easy for me to do a quick interruption to their day to just say “hi” and lead the group in a joint complaint about the weather.

That’s what I want you to be able to do to. When you plan ahead and build a list of customers that know, like, and trust you… you’ll be able to complain about the weather with them! Haha

Here’s my real point.

When you have a business in the real world and you customers stop by you are able to have a dialog. With them, IN PERSON. They walk in your door, shake off the snow, and you can comment on the weather.

When you’re online, you need to take a proactive step and send out a “one sided” thought about the weather. Think of it like they did actually just step in your store and you’re commenting… and ice breaker so to speak.

This is how you reward customers for visiting you online.

It seems funny that a “complaint” about the weather is a reward and yet… there it is. When we complain about the weather it gives us something to bond about.

Granted, one of my posts was for a nationwide following, and it still worked. Why? Because there are active TV news reports about the Snowmageddon we are having here in Minnesota. This can actually be MORE impactful because someone sitting in Florida will show their co-worker the photo, or even share with their friends because they have a “local” connection.

It’s all about making connections.

You can and must make connections with your online visitors. If you have a website, give them an area to come back to again and again… this is a blog. A place of new information.

If you ship merchandise, reward them with a note or small gift. Do something to wow them. This is how you reward!

Rewarding can be bad weather, new information, or even a gift. But never silence. So just because there are no door bells alerting you to a visitor doesn’t mean you’re off the hook for reward marketing.

It actually will separate you from the rest of your competition and is one of the best ways to build your infinity customer.

Show them love!

 

#doinginfinity

Tomorrow… come back for my episode on “Big Cash Small Change”!

PS:  Like my vibe? I want you to join my tribe!
Free Gift:  Here’s a FREE guide to show MY results from using Infinity! 

Infinitypreneur.com

 

Infinity Marketing Machine Daily Topics:
Monday – Character (Subject Matter Expert)
Tuesday – Content & Consistency
Wednesday – Midweek Motivation
Thursday – Infinity Customers
Friday – Big Money
Saturday – Try This!
Sunday – Week in Review

 

Posted on in 2-Tuesday - Content & Consistency, Blog content, Business owner motivation, DoingInfinity, marketing, Real world, Success tips, Tribe Building

TribeologyBlog.com – Episode #556 – Go To Your “Go To”

“The road to success and greatness is always paved with consistent hard work.” DJohnson.

Tuesday: Content and Consistency

 

I have nothing to write about… I don’t want to write anything… UGH, no one cares if I write something… I’ve got other things to do.

Have you ever used one of these excuses?  Be truthful!  You have.  I know I have.

I’ve felt like this as recent as last Saturday!  I just felt like I had NOTHING to say.

But guess what?  When you decide that your tribe is important, you don’t get the luxury of breaking consistency.  Now, that doesn’t mean that you will have a “jump out of bed, throw open the curtains, and yell ‘Hello Morning, here’s a big hug”

Heck no.  When you make the commitment to consistency with your content, you must be consistent but there will be moments when you want to pull the covers back over your head and hide from the sun.

However, just because you want to… doesn’t mean you can.  You made the commitment to consistency so here are two tips to make life a little easier on those “I don’t want to write days.”

  1.  Predetermine your “schedule” for example, I have one “topic” for each day of the week, and on that day you will find a post that relates to the topic.  If you are writing more than once a week, have a theme for the day.
  2. Create a fall back list.  Something you can dig out of the vault and find inspiration.  This can be your company history, highlight your services, answer the top 5 questions clients ask, talk about an award you won.  Make a list of 10 items.  You will appreciate having this list.

So what did I do on Saturday to get a post done?  Well, I went to my “go to” photos of “try this” things I’ve found at businesses, and the candy one inspired me.

The “go to” list works, create one!

 

#doinginfinity

 

Tomorrow… come back for my episode “Midweek Motivation”!

PS:  Like my vibe? I want you to join my tribe!
FREE GIFT! Grab your “Best and Simple Social Media Planner” to help with your Content and Consistency!

Infinitypreneur.com

Infinity Marketing Machine Daily Topics:
Monday – Character (Subject Matter Expert)
Tuesday – Content & Consistency
Wednesday – Midweek Motivation
Thursday – Infinity Customers
Friday – Big Money
Saturday – Try This!
Sunday – Week in Review

Posted on in 4- Thursday - Infinity Customers, Business owner motivation, Customers, infinity marketing machine, marketing, Success tips

ProfitCenterCoach.com – Episode 438 – Are You Marriage Material?

“Become the person who would attract the results you seek.” Jim Cathcart

Thursday: Infinity Customer

Have you ever wondered why the football captain and the cheerleader date?  Look at it either way… he has become the person that is attractive to her… OR she has become the person that is attractive to him.

Either way… one has the personal characteristics that are attractive to the other!

This is also why the nerd doesn’t date the homecoming queen.  Albeit smart, the nerd does not have the characteristics the beauty queen desires…

What does this have to do with being an Infinity Customer?

You (your business) needs to develop the characteristics that attract your tribe (customers).

It really is that simple!

You are going to become the attractive object of desire for your audience!  You’ll do this by creating content that is so absolutely amazing that your tribe says “heck yes! I’ll date you!”

And then you consistently provide this amazing fantastic and stupendous content on such a regular basis that your tribe says, “The more I learn about you the cooler you are!”

This builds your trust to a point where your tribe says, “I just can’t live without you”

And finally… when you finally get down on one knee and propose your special offer for them to buy…  they say, “YES!  Of course  YES!”

Except that… just because they married you… you don’t get to ignore them by reducing your amazing content.  You want them around for INFINITY!

This is the real key to the Infinity Marketing Machine.  You are committed to keeping the fire going after you exchange rings!  When your tribe sticks with you through bad (content) days… you’ve got a special relationship… you have an Infinity Customer.

Awwwwe…. SWAK – XOXO – ❤

Tomorrow come back for this week’s episode on “Big Money Small Change”!
PS:  Like my vibe? Join my tribe! start here! 

Infinity Marketing Machine Daily Topics:
Monday – Character (Subject Matter Expert)
Tuesday – Content & Consistency
Wednesday – Midweek Motivation
Thursday – Infinity Customers
Friday – Big Money
Saturday – Try This

Posted on in 5- Friday - Big Money, Blog content, Content, email marketing, infinity marketing machine, marketing, Success tips, Two Minute Commute

Episode #312 – You’ve Gotta Start, Just Write.

“Waiting for perfect is never as smart as making progress” Seth Godin

When I made the jump to create my Infinity Marketing Machine there was a lot of “chicken and egg” going on — I really didn’t know where to start.

So I just picked one and started.  And that’s my advice to you… just pick one and start.

It gets to be an overwhelming task to switch your effort from traditional marketing to “new marketing”.  After all, it’s comfortable to spend money on advertising, knowing you’re doing something.  But the concept of not spending money and instead focusing on developing relationships is terrifying.

I look at it like the decision I made to quit running ads in the yellow pages.  Remember that big book of telephone numbers?  It’s was 5″ thick!  You’d place one ad, once a year, and the phone would ring.  But about 15 years ago, Google made a paper yellow pages obsolete. It was a hard decision to stop placing an ad in the yellow pages.  Some of this is due to the sales person calling and following up and following up again. But, there comes a “common sense” time when you simply realize it’s silly to continue the same path.  That’s when I made the leap and quit placing the ad.

Well, the Infinity Marketing Machine is along those lines.  You hear the success stories of other people and you know you’ll have success, but you have to make that decision to start.  The starting is hard, you are completely unsure of the best path.  You have some of the moving pieces because you already send sales letters or you have a beginning of an email list.  But really abiding by the content and consistency rule is hard to wrap your head around.   I mean, what if no one likes what you write?

Don’t worry about that!  Just write.

Being consistent only depends on you.  You’re the one that sets your schedule. Pick a day/time that you will be able to post without fail.  You see, it’s not my perfect schedule that needs to be followed, it’s your ability to make progress.

When you start on this journey it will be messy, but when you start… that’s the important thing! Capture emails and begin a weekly newsletter.  Then just keep going and add more pieces as you go along.

Don’t wait for perfect, it will never come!  Start, make progress, and I bet the vision you have of “perfect” right now will change into something completely different two months from now.  But the most exci

Big Money Small Change Success
Character + Content/Consistency + Goals/Motivation + Customers =
Infinity Marketing Machine

PS: thanks for reading!  I really appreciate you being here.  Make sure to “like” this post… and follow me! (and please do me a favor… if you want more great ideas like the one in this post, just fill out this form and I’ll send them to you…  start here

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Action Steps
1-  Decide the day of the week and time you will be sending your email newsletter!
2- Install my free app! (SmallBusinessClubApp.com)

Podcast:
Listen to Episode #312 of the Two Minute Commute audio blog Podcast

 

Infinity Marketing Machine Daily Topics:
Monday – Character (Subject Matter Expert)
Tuesday – Content & Consistency
Wednesday – Midweek Motivation
Thursday – Infinity Customers
Friday – Big Money
Saturday – Try This!

 

Posted on in 2-Tuesday - Content & Consistency, Blog content, Content, Creative, marketing, Social marketing, Success tips, Two Minute Commute

Episode #297 – Wear Your Life Jacket To Work! What?

“Let’s make a special effort to stop communicating with each other so we can have some conversation.” Mark Twain

Are you ready to stop communicating?

That’s a bizarre concept to wrap your head around, but it’s vital to the core of social marketing.  You are no longer communicating, you are conversating.

Get it?  haha

When you create a post, you wnat to be in the mind set of conversation, not communication.  You want to have a conversation which is less about the proper grammar and punctuation, and more about the exchange of ideas!  You can conversate with ease on social media!  This includes your blog.  It’s the ability to intertwine your personality with your behind the scenes stuff that happens around your business.

However, this is different from your website, you still want to communicate there. Since your website is your online home and remains fairly static you should represent your business in the voice of your advertising.  You want to be serious and present your information with integrity.  I guess you can think about it like how a teenager communicates with his parents and how they “conversate” with their friends…  it’s two different styles of language.

Same for Social Media vs. website pages.  As you are creating content that helps explain the “how and why” of your service… keep structure so it is timeless.  Use your post that is fun and timely to direct traffic to the page on your site.

For example, write a page on your website that addresses how to pick a proper life jacket.  Go into detail about different sizes and styles along with proper fit.  Then… use a social media post to emphasize “Wear Your Life Jacket To Work Day” by being silly.  AND yes… this is real, I did not make it up. “National Wear Your Life Jacket to Work Day” is the Friday before Boat Safety Week.

Big Money Small Change Success
Character + Content/Consistency + Goals/Motivation + Customers =
Infinity Marketing Machine

PS: thanks for reading!  I really appreciate you being here.  Make sure to “like” this post… and follow me! (and please do me a favor… if you want more great ideas like the one in this post, just fill out this form and I’ll send them to you…  start here

**************

Action Steps
1- Yesterday, your task was to write your top six reasons to pick you over your competition and then make a page about each of the 6… today, come up with a fun/conversational type post to link to ONE of the 6!
2- Install my free app! (SmallBusinessClubApp.com)

Podcast:
Listen to Episode #297 of the Two Minute Commute audio blog Podcast

 

Infinity Marketing Machine Daily Topics:
Monday – Character (Subject Matter Expert)
Tuesday – Content & Consistency
Wednesday – Midweek Motivation
Thursday – Infinity Customers
Friday – Big Money
Saturday – Try This!

 

Posted on in 1-Monday - Subject Matter Expert, Blog content, Creative, marketing, Planning, Sales, Two Minute Commute

Episode #296 – You Need to Package Your Knowledge… Here’s Why.

“Success isn’t about the end result, it’s about what you learn along the way.” – Vera Wang

Happy Monday!  Subject Matter Expert Topic Day.

So what is a Subject Matter Expert?  I like to say, a Subject Matter Expert is Everything You need to know about being a Subject Matter Expert you learned IN A HS Clique” or INAHSC – in other words, “Influencer, Network, Ambassador, Honors, Study and Credentials”.

What does this mean?

Well, in regards to our inspiration for today – you are a Subject Matter Expert because of what you’ve learned along the way, not because you are a “success” – rather, you are a success because you share what you know.

This is why it’s important to utilize the knowledge you have, all the education, experience, and recognition you’ve received to craft it into a message that followers find useful.

Therefore, positioning yourself as a Subject Matter Expert is like baking a cake – you have all sorts of ingredients mixed together!  But putting it in the oven is the important part.  You take all of your ingredients i.e., education, credentials, awards, and experience – mix them together – then put it in some sort of oven, meaning a blog, podcast, or vlog!  Your audience gets to enjoy the outcome!

That means you decide how much “subject matter expertise” you have… really, you do!  The reason I say this is… you can have 100% experience, like 50 years experience… including formal education, ongoing continuing education, and awards, BUT you don’t share your gift with the public, you may have subject matter expertise, with zero subject matter status.

I’m a big believer in the new information society and that if you do not position yourself online with a legacy – you are doing yourself a disservice.  think about all that you do, right now… all of your knowledge and experience you have acquired over the past month.  Would ANYONE else find it useful?  Now, add in the last 12 months… you have so much to document and share… AND if you switch jobs, sell your business, or in other words, change your money making endeavor, if you have built a Subject Matter Status independent of the way you earn money, you get to take that with you to jump start the next phase of life.

This is so important. People hesitate because it’s new.  They don’t understand why this is very important or the understand it’s important but just don’t start. I think of it like a daily resume.  Normally you don’t update your resume until it’s needed, well… Subject Matter Status is a daily, weekly or monthly current thing.

Once you start, you’ll be glad you did!

Big Money Small Change Success
Character + Content/Consistency + Goals/Motivation + Customers =
Infinity Marketing Machine

PS: thanks for reading!  I really appreciate you being here.  Make sure to “like” this post… and follow me! (and please do me a favor… if you want more great ideas like the one in this post, just fill out this form and I’ll send them to you…  start here

**************

Action Steps
1- Imagine you are talking to a customer about your business, why should they choose you?  Make a bullet point “top 5” reasons to pick you over your competition.  Once you have the top 5… write a one page paper on each bullet point.  You now have 6 pages for your blog!
2- Install my free app! (SmallBusinessClubApp.com)

Podcast:
Listen to Episode #296 of the Two Minute Commute audio blog Podcast

Infinity Marketing Machine Daily Topics:
Monday – Character (Subject Matter Expert)
Tuesday – Content & Consistency
Wednesday – Midweek Motivation
Thursday – Infinity Customers
Friday – Big Money
Saturday – Try This!

Posted on in 1-Monday - Subject Matter Expert, audio blog, Blog content, marketing, subject matter expert, Two Minute Commute

Episode #278 – Time to Pick a Niche.

“Your Niche Needs a Subject Matter Expert”

Happy New Year!  With the New Year, I’m getting crystal clear… that’s why today’s inspiration is so short.  It’s quick and to the point.

Why should you position yourself as a Subject Matter Expert?

Because your niche needs one!

There are other reasons that will come along with the need which include credibility and traffic.  As you position yourself as the expert you will gain credibility.  This credibility brings traffic.

I also recommend that you create this Subject Matter Expert status outside of your business.  The reason is, your business website will build it’s own credibility by listing it’s services, including testimonials, and real photos.  The problem with most small businesses in their “about us” section they’ll talk about the business but forget themselves!

People do business with people.

Therefore, you’ve got to talk about yourself.  You need to use the resources you have online.  When you take the time build your Linked-In profile or and the page on your website, or you take the time to develop a blog, you will elevate your trustworthiness.

Now… here’s why today’s inspiration is important.  The internet is very crowded.  There’s still room for growth, but you need to be focused.  If you sell evening gowns, pick a specialty.  You can still sell all formal gowns – but there is a difference in prom dresses, wedding gowns, and cruise wear.  Decide what it is you want to be a Subject Matter Expert in and go for it with laser precision.

And if you need one more reason to be a Subject Matter Expert it is… to prevent someone else from being it!

Happy 2018!

Big Money Small Change Success
Character + Content/Consistency + Goals/Motivation + Customers =
Infinity Marketing Machine

PS: thanks for reading!  I really appreciate you being here.  Make sure to “like” this post… and follow me! (and please do me a favor… if you want more great ideas like the one in this post, just fill out this form and I’ll send them to you…  start here

**************

Action Steps
1- Pick 4 areas that could be a niche for your business, then pick one!  Start… go for it!
2- Install my free app! (SmallBusinessClubApp.com)

Podcast:
Listen to Episode #278 of the Two Minute Commute audio blog Podcast