2009 November | Small Business Marketing Blog | Glazer-Kennedy Insiders Circle

Archive for November, 2009

Be Your Own Santa Claus

By: Dan Kennedy on: November 30th, 2009 2 Comments

I am writing most of this on what is now – to me, inexplicably – called ‘Black Friday’, the day after Thanksgiving.

This year, some $400-Billion to $450-Billion will be spent on holiday shopping and holiday related purchases; travel, in spite of the recession, unemployment, etc. – booming; hard for me to see what’s “black” about it, in general.

Of course there are (always) people bringing up the rear economically, some chronically; others temporarily experiencing adversity; and I think I do my part for those in the latter group.

Locally, where I live, I contribute significantly to a ‘Baskets Of Hope’ privately run charity, that provides food, toys, clothing, etc. to needy families; I contribute to two food banks – I think everyone who can should, in some way, reach out to those with needs and difficulties.

Anyway, this was once a very special Friday, when it seemed everybody in this area trekked to downtown Cleveland, for the arrival of Santa at one department store, Mr. Jingaling at the other, tree lighting on Public Square.
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A few Cool Image Optimization Tips

By: Brian Horn on: November 25th, 2009 3 Comments

An often-overlooked SEO strategy is image optimization.

Get more visitors from image searches by using text to describe your images.

Its an insane drain on a computer to “read” a picture. Google would have add massive amounts of servers if they wanted to automatically read images.

Just not worth it.

Google even acknowledged this problem, and went so far as to launch an Image labeler game which pairs contestants against each other to describe pictures.

This was interesting to me for about 5 minutes before my ADD kicked in…you may be able to last longer….but I wouldn’t waste your time.

The easiest way is to make your images visible to search engines is to use text to help describe them.
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Stop Moaning About Cheap Price Competitors…and RAISE Yours!

By: Dan Kennedy on: November 24th, 2009 7 Comments

In the 1930’s, immediately post-Depression, small grocers believed it impossible to compete with the giant A&P chain, so they sued, and ultimately got The Robinson-Pittman Act Of 1936 passed by Congress – and it’s still in law today.

It says that volume discounts given by manufacturers cannot exceed the cost savings gained by the manufacturer by delivering the large volume order. And now a group of 160 tire store owners have filed an anti-trust complaint in federal court against Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, AutoZone and thirteen manufacturers, based on this law, claiming the manufacturers are selling to these chains too cheaply.

See, and you thought if you owned your own business you could sell or not sell to anybody you darn well pleased at whatever prices you chose.

Ha! I hear business owners complaining about Wal-Mart specifically, big competitors and price cutters in general, all the time. Their woe-is-me whine that they can’t compete on price. And they’re right.

So, dunderheads, compete on some basis other than price. Sadly, we’ve nationally sanctioned the idea that losers who can’t compete should get to drag the winners into court and just steal the money. Hey, you: do NOT let yourself get sucked into this kind of Loser Thinking. It’s a dead-end.
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Is Your Small Business Marketing Wimpy?

By: Dan Kennedy on: November 20th, 2009 4 Comments

Donald Trump says “e-mail is for wimps.” I’ll leave that for another time, but I couldn’t resist mentioning it.

Another type of business wimp seems to be the employer controlled by and fearful of his own employees. I actually hear employers say:

“My employees won’t let me do that.”

Incredible. But, by far, the largest population of business wimps is what Zig calls “professional visitors” – salespeople who show up but never ask for the order.

Along this same vein is an ad that doesn’t sell anything.

The ad wimps out.
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Stupidity or Laziness in Your Small Business Marketing?

By: Dan Kennedy on: November 19th, 2009 12 Comments

The incredible stupidity, cheapskatedness, laziness of business owners is most visible in their consistent bizarre behavior regarding present customers vs. new customers or prospects in their small business marketing.

They are loathe to spend money and time on the people who have already proven they will patronize them and, in fact, do patronize them. But always willing to pour time and money into chasing the next new customer. They are in ardent, sweaty, drooling lust for the next new conquest, completely uninterested in the already conquered.

There are many reasons for this far too numerous to analyze here. They range from perverse human nature to economic ignorance to boredom to foolish belief in customer loyalty and on and on and on.

The car dealer spends $50,000.00 a week on newspaper, radio and TV ads to bring in new customers but God forbid he spend a couple hundred bucks on a mailing or a couple thousand bucks on a party for his present car owners.
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Owning Page 1 of Google for Your Name

By: Brian Horn on: November 18th, 2009 11 Comments

Do you Google yourself?

How many of the listings on page 1 are about you?

How many are about some other tool that just happens to be blessed with the exact same name as you?

If a potential client or customers is researching you, the first place they will go to (in most cases) is Google. Of course, your website should be there, but what are some other easy ways to own the 1st page with more content about you?

It’s actually not terribly hard, and it doesn’t require a whole lot of work.
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Entrepreneur Success Stories from the Info-SUMMIT

By: Mara Glazer on: November 17th, 2009 7 Comments

Last week at the 2009 Glazer-Kennedy Info-SUMMIT, I had the pleasure of interviewing successful entrepreneurs Mike Capuzzi, Donna Krech, and Ari Galper. Each of these entrepreneurs shares with me their secrets of achieving success in their niche/market and how they have maintained success in the recession. Watch the videos below for a glimpse into the mind of these powerful business people.

Mike Capuzzi

Mike Capuzzi is the inventor of CopyDoodles and the Glazer-Kennedy Independent Business Advisor in Philadelphia, PA. Visit him on the web at http://www.copydoodles.com.

Donna Krech

Donna Krech, also known as “the hope giver”, is a fitness, life success, and motivation expert. Visit Donna Krech on the web at http://www.donnakrech.com, http://www.thinandhealthy.com, or http://www.weightlossbusinessnetwork.com.

Ari Galper

Ari Galper is the creator of Unlock The Game™, a new sales mindset that overturns the notion of selling as we know it today, and ChatWise®, a truth-based sales methodology that uses live chat to create trust with online visitors. You can visit him on the web at http://www.unlockthegame.com or http://www.chatwise.com.

Mara Glazer, daughter of Outrageous Marketing Guru, Bill Glazer, is the Facebook Face of Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle™. She takes her fans, followers, and friends on a behind-the-scenes look inside the Insider’s Circle. Follow her on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/maraglazergkic or on twitter@maraglazergkic (http://www.twitter.com/maraglazergkic).

Rigging the Game in Your Favor

By: Dan Kennedy on: November 16th, 2009 5 Comments

A study of all the Presidential elections in which there have been televised debates concluded that the men who get elected President are the tallest and exhibit the most testosterone. You can think about that, decide if you agree, and draw your own conclusions about 2004’s debates and election.

But it made me think that, in many cases, success winds up being predicated purely on only two or three or four key “X-Factors.”

And I think most people mush on through their small business marketing activities without ever giving much thought to what the few, critical success factors are, and focusing on those.

I’ve also observed a single, universal success factor.

Rigging the game in your favor.
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Shout It From the Rooftop

By: Dan Kennedy on: November 13th, 2009 6 Comments

It’s funny how problems change.

At one time, my biggest challenge was making money. This year I paid considerably more in taxes than I once had as my hard-to-imagine-hitting income goal.

These days, neither I or most of my clients and coaching members seem to have any trouble in the income department.

The biggest demographic trend we’re all adjusting our small business marketing to is mass affluence. For most of my clients, businesses I’m involved in, and personally, our biggest problem is spending money productively.
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No Magician Has a Greater Power Than Yours

By: Dan Kennedy on: November 12th, 2009 6 Comments

When you get your wake-up call at some Disney hotels, you hear something like: “It’s 7:00 A.M., have a magical day in the Magic Kingdom.”

No need to rely on Disney or anybody else to give you a magical day. You can create them for yourself at will, in your small business marketing or your own personal life – although, truth be told, in the imaginary Magic Kingdom or your own, the very best of days only has some magical moments or hours, some mundane ones and usually, some not so good ones.

Several years ago, in horse-racing, we had a magical night. Carla, my step-daughter Jennifer, and her three sons, Joe, Luke, Zach, all here to see one of our young horses run an amazing race, come from behind and win in dramatic fashion.

Then get their photo taken in the winners’ circle. Also that night, our 3-year-old trotter and priciest pacer (he a $75,000.00 critter) both finished 2nd in special stakes races, picking up about $45,000.00 in winnings combined, racing as good as they could possibly have raced.
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