2010 August | Small Business Marketing Blog | Glazer-Kennedy Insiders Circle

Archive for August, 2010

Is It Choice or Necessity?

By: Dan Kennedy on: August 31st, 2010 6 Comments

You may remember an interview the late Tim Russert on ‘Meet The Press’ did with President Bush, where Russert asked him if Iraq was a war of choice or a war of necessity.

I have often used the language “on the business battlefield”, because for most entrepreneurs, there is, in fact, a battlefield, where we joust with clear and present threats to productivity, profit and peace of mind, shoot to kill distractions, and march toward uncertainty and sudden danger.

Like everyone else in America, the entrepreneur chooses his life and lifestyle. Ours is a war of choice, although arguably also of compulsion. However I would like to re-emphasize a warning about a new war of necessity for the business owner.
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Is It Time For You To Pull Off A Publicity Stunt?

By: Dan Kennedy on: August 30th, 2010 No Comments

I want to talk about one of my favorite, things…publicity stunts.

You probably remember that famous Super Bowl when Janet Jackson exposed her breast. Like President Bush, I’d dozed off during the game and I don’t have TIVO. What’s funny to me, is you’d think she and the nitwits at MTV/CBS had invented something. Lady Godiva rode stark naked through town on a horse.

Bill Veck sent a midget into bat. Joe Cossman had a train carload of potatoes delivered to the street outside ‘The Tonight Show’, when he was on with Carson, to promote his Spud Gun. These stunts are as old as, well, Lady Godiva. Nothing new here.
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2 Essential Tools

By: Dan Kennedy on: August 27th, 2010 10 Comments

Let’s talk about essential resources for everybody.

Lift A Finger.

A couple weeks ago, I got a FAX from a client for whom I’d done an ad. He wanted my thoughts on replacing the word ‘desperate’ in its headline.

Now, I’m NOT complaining about his request per se. Really, I’m not. He paid his money; it’s my job to re-write, not his. So no gripe about that. But it made me think (again) of the umpteen numbers of questions and requests I do get from Members that they really ought to answer for themselves.
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Buying Word-Of-Mouth Buzz

By: Dan Kennedy on: August 26th, 2010 7 Comments

“For a great time, call Bambi”

A new, “hot” trend in advertising/marketing is buying word-of-mouth buzz. There is a burgeoning industry, of agencies that provide armies of teenagers who go on social networking sites and promote products, movies, celebrities (without revealing they are paid shills).

The age-old ‘media’ of flyers handed out on street. Liquor companies hire teams of “Beautiful People” to descend on popular New York bars at prime time, all loudly ordering and extolling the virtues of some new booze.

One “expose” of these practices on NBC’s DATELINE , with an interview of a young guy running one of the agencies/companies organizing these fake word-of-mouth campaigns, took the position it was a deceptive method of marketing. And maybe it is. But we can also wonder if Tiger Woods really drives around in a Buick mini-van.
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Increase Comments on Your Blog to Boost SEO

By: Brian Horn on: August 25th, 2010 5 Comments

You run a great blog with lots of content but it’s rare that anyone comments on your blog posts. You need to run your blog a certain way if you want readers to take the time to leave their comments.

Increasing the comments on your blog can also give it a HUGE boost in the search engines. Google sees that people are interacting and assumes it is relevant and quality content.

Follow the tips below to get your readers involved on a steady basis. It’s never too late to start an interactive blog.

Shorten Your Blog Posts

There are many bloggers who write a full-length article for each of their blog posts. You risk losing a reader’s attention in the middle of the post if it’s too lengthy. A great tip would be to break up the article into different posts. Welcome your readers back at the end of each blog post with what you will be blogging about the next day. For example, you can end a post with “Make sure to come back tomorrow and find out why you’re killing all your indoor houseplants!” Create excitement on the niche you blog about and readers will take the time to comment on what you’ve written.
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Are You Boring Your Customers

By: Dan Kennedy on: August 24th, 2010 5 Comments

In the yesterday’s post, I talked about how the very make-up and personality of an entrepreneur can make them a huge success. Now let’s talk about your marketing; how much are you talking about what interests you vs. what interests…them?

What Matters To Us May Not Matter To Them

I have a cautionary question for you, about your marketing; how much are you talking about what interests you vs. what interests…them?

It reminds me of Napoleon Hill’s story of Andrew Carnegie’s mother going into the store to buy a little furnace, getting the lecture on BTU’s, energy efficiency, quality construction – finally interrupting to ask: “Will it keep a little old lady warm?”
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Why You Need To Be Competitive

By: Dan Kennedy on: August 23rd, 2010 7 Comments

In my previous post, I talked about the image Las Vegas has and their ‘Awesome Power of Clarity’. I would now like to talk about how the very make-up and personality of an entrepreneur can make them a huge success.

After speaking to the sales force, I had dinner the other night with the owner/CEO of Entrepreneur Media, the company that owns Entrepreneur Magazine and its book publishing arm, Entrepreneur Press, is the publisher of the new editions of my No B.S. books.

This 60 year old guy drives race cars, hitting corners at 180 MPH, risking his neck, beating up his body, for no good reason other than the sheer joy of beating somebody.

His magazine has been targeting rival Inc. Magazine’s advertisers, and over the past year or so, has taken an impressive number of pages of ads away from Inc. – the way they measure market share. He is very “into” beating Inc., Fast Company. Basically, he’s “Into” competing.
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Learn How to Drive Your Business

By: Robert Skrob on: August 20th, 2010 1 Comment

Anyone can create a business, but few create businesses which generate millions of dollars. I’m not talking about a business that generates $1 million in annual revenue; I’m talking about creating a business that generates $1 million—cash—to you, each year.

It takes four things to build a business to provide you with $1 million a year in spendable, personal income. It just so happens, it also takes four things to drive a car. It will help me teach you by explaining these four things in the context of driving a car.

THE GAS PEDAL
The speed in your business is determined by the number of new customers you are adding every day, every week, every month, and every year. Your new customer acquisition is the “gas pedal” that determines the speed with which your business grows. How adept you are at putting new customers into your business will determine your growth rate. Similar to driving a car: the accelerator pedal determines how fast your car goes. While there are a lot of other factors determining whether or not you get to your destination, the gas pedal provides the speed for getting there. You must have a system for identifying potential clients and converting them into customers. Otherwise, it’s like going down the highway at 10 mph. You’re going to get there, but not very quickly. If you invest in building a customer acquisition system for your business, you will have the opportunity to quickly build a million-dollar business.
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The Awesome Power Of Clarity

By: Dan Kennedy on: August 19th, 2010 5 Comments

In Tuesday’s post, I talked about the unhelpful image called ‘ladder of success‘. Now I want to talk about another image…Las Vegas and their ‘Awesome Power of Clarity’.

I recently spent 7 days in Las Vegas. Where – construction is going on at rabid pace day and night, and I was told by one construction company owner: we cannot get enough workers, we are advertising for them nationwide and bringing them in from anywhere we can find them.

Where three major conventions were all there in the space of 10 days.

Where the bar at Mandalay Bay did $23-million in sales in 03, a freestanding steakhouse not in a hotel, $21-million.

Where money is flowing like water.

Why?
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Hell Must Be Freezing (and Why You Need to Optimize for Bing)

By: Brian Horn on: August 18th, 2010 5 Comments

It must be 15 degrees below 0 in hell…I’m actually focusing some optimization efforts on a search engine that is NOT Google.

For those of you who don’t know, Yahoo! and Microsoft worked out a deal so that Yahoo!’s organic and paid search engine results will be powered by Microsoft’s search engine, Bing.

The merger will mean that for the first time in many years there is a reason to not focus all of your attention on Google’s algorithm. Now Google will still account for 70% of all searches, but Yahoo/Bing combo will grab 25% of the total market share.

That being said, those numbers, small in percentage, still represent enough users to warrant your attention.

So by the end of October 2010, if you go to Yahoo.com to search for something, you’ll find the same exact thing at Bing.com.
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