Communication

You Are Your Own Brand Ambassador

April 22, 2015 | Marjorie Saulson

It is always gratifying to read an article that confirms your own point of view on a particular subject.

Such is the case for me in the article You Are Your Own Best Marketer, by Gabriel Bristol, in a recent issue of Entrepreneur.

His first sentence sums it up: “No one will ever care about your career as much as you do.”

For the words your career, you can substitute other words, such as your family, your business, your reputation, etc.; but the point remains the same.

You are the one person who is in charge of your values, your goals, your choices, and how you present yourself in the world.

The totality of all of these choices tells people who you really are. Or, as I like to say, “You are a brand ambassador; and you, yourself, are the brand that you are representing.”

The questions we may want to ask ourselves are:

Am I representing myself the way that I want to be perceived by others?
Are there some areas where I can do a better job of it?
What steps do I need to take to be a better brand ambassador for myself?
What benefits will I enjoy if I actually take those steps?

To read Bristol’s entire article, click here.

Do you agree that you are your own brand? Please share your thoughts in our Facebook group, using the link below.

What Do I Write About Now?

March 25, 2015 | Marjorie Saulson

Anyone who has to write content on a regular basis, whether for a newsletter, or a blog post, or some other type of print material, periodically runs into a mental brick wall, where we ask ourselves, So what the heck can I write about now?

I stand in awe and amazement at people like Seth Godin and Ben Settle, who not only promote writing daily emails, but actually find enough interesting things to say, to do it.

My weekly blog post and email are about what I can manage.

And since I find reading everything that comes into my Inbox to be a daunting proposition, I use that reason to stick to my weekly schedule (except when I am promoting my free webinars, of course).

So it was a relief and heartening to me to read a recent article in Entrepreneur entitled How to Create Compelling Online Content That Gets Traffic.

In the article, Brian Dean lists strategies from five of the twenty-two innovators included in Mitch Myerson’s book, Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars.

The suggestion I found most compelling was Ultimate Guides.

Evidently many of us appreciate other people finding great resources on the web for us to use, given how busy we are in our lives.

According to a training I took, Lead Pages has found that these types of free offers convert better than any other type of freebie you could offer in exchange for getting someone’s email address.

You can read about the other four suggestions here

In the meanwhile, if you have any suggestions for topics you would like me to cover in my blog, I would certainly appreciate hearing about them. You can share them in the Facebook link, or email me using the form on my Contact Page.

Answering a Most Dangerous Question

February 3, 2015 | Marjorie Saulson

Do you hem and haw when you meet someone new who asks you what you do?

When you try to explain what you do, do you ever feel that your answer lands on deaf ears?

If you go to a marketing event with the idea of sharing information about your business, do you feel like you are either turning people off or boring them to death?

Or do you avoid networking events for any of the above reasons?

Becoming the effective messenger of your own message is one of the most important marketing skills you can learn; and yet this type of communication skill is hardly ever mentioned in the context of a marketing strategy.

Sure, we are told to go to networking events; but unless we have a successful strategy once we are there, a deadly combination of lack of skill, compounded by social anxiety, can scuttle our best attempts to connect effectively with people.

So here is one practical business networking tip that you can apply whenever anyone asks you what you do.

Don’t start the first sentence of your reply with the words, “I am …..”

It’s too easy to come across as arrogant or a braggart (and to feel uncomfortable with what you are saying) when you start talking about yourself.

Instead, change the entire focus of your reply from yourself to the people whom you help or serve.

Start your sentences with the words, “I work with …..” or “I help …..”

The rest of your sentences can then include the following 4 elements:

1. Whom you help
2. The problem you solve for them
3. The solution your offer
4. How the solution benefits them

For example, when people ask me what I do, I say something along these lines:

“I work with people who are nervous about using public speaking, networking and talking on the phone to promote themselves and their business, with the result that their income suffers. I help them to develop their own powerful message, and to gain confidence and ease in sharing it; so that they can attract their ideal clients, and exponentially increase their income.”

Please notice that I say something along these lines. I do not memorize a specific sentence. Unless you are a great actor, a memorized sentence (or elevator pitch, as it is often called) sounds stilted, inauthentic; and, unfortunately, boring. I’m a trained voice actor, and I bore myself if I use a canned response.

Instead, remember this important business networking tip. If you focus on remembering your 4 key points, you are much more likely to be able to use some or all of them to give an appropriate and effective answer when someone asks you what you do.

Please share your favorite method of answering the What do you do? question, and if my suggestions are helpful to you.

Are You Using Lucrative Language to Attract More Business?

January 27, 2015 | Marjorie Saulson

We all like to think that we make decisions based on logic and reason, but it is much more likely that we use our logic and reason to justify decisions we make based on emotion.

So what does this have to do with marketing?

Simply that if we want to appeal to potential clients and customers, we need to appeal to their emotions.

One of the things I learned in my many years of fund raising for various worthy causes is that the way to a person’s wallet is through his heart.

There are tons of worthy causes out there, but even a person with the resources available to Bill Gates has to choose which ones he will support.

Translating this to for-profit businesses, people buy what they want, not what they need.

My favorite example of this principle comes from the diet and nutrition industry.

No one really wants to give up all their favorite foods and replace them with veggies. Anyone trying to sell a confirmed sweet eater on a healthier diet is going to have a pretty tough sell.

Reframe that same program as a weight loss program; and all of the sudden, you’ve got a winner!

So when you sit down to plot and plan your marketing strategy, consider what the people who might buy your products and services really want, and structure your language accordingly.

Examples of this are all around us, especially in the advertising of major corporations. We may not have their research and marketing budgets, but we can certainly emulate their successful strategies.

I’d love to hear about some of your favorite examples of this principle.

When Is Narrow Narrow Enough?

January 20, 2015 | Marjorie Saulson

In my prior blog post, I wrote about how hardly anybody wants or likes to narrow their niche.

Online sales guru, Eben Pagan, has a video on the same subject, but in greater depth.

His starting point is the Pareto principle, which states that 80% of the results in any given area are produced by 20% of the people involved.

That being the case, narrowing your niche again and yet again, at least three levels deep, will provide maximum bang for every one of your marketing bucks (or efforts).

According to Eben, “We humans like to buy stuff that sounds like it was made just for our issue.”

Narrowing our niche so deeply provides just that effect in people’s minds.

Click here to see the video with all he has to say.

You will find a lot more of his goodies on this same page. Enjoy!

And do please let me know what you think of Eben’s ideas, and if they are helpful to you.