Connect On LinkedIn With A Personal Message

Connect On LinkedIn With A Personal Message

Social Media
Let's face it, to build your professional network you will want to forge relationships with people who you don't know personally. So why not use LinkedIn as a professional starting point? LinkedIn is designed for professional networking! Let's take a step back first. What are the rules of offline networking? You don't just walk up to a person and ask them for their resume and list of contacts do you? No, you introduce yourself FIRST. The same rule applies to making connections via LinkedIn, that is if you want to really network. Connect On LinkedIn With A Personal Message You don't want to go spamming people with empty invitations or canned messages to connect. You have to introduce yourself first! If you don't, you'll look like a lazy networker/sleazy salesperson who happens to be clueless about building relationships on social media.…
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Busy Is Not A Synonym For Productive

Busy Is Not A Synonym For Productive

Tips and Tools
I'm so busy. I have too much going on. I'm doing it all. Have you heard your entrepreneur friends express these sentiments at some point? Are you one of them? Whomever invented the solopreneur term was reading your mind weren't they? That pretty much describes your role in your business - you’re the CEO/ Marketing Manager/ Accountant/ Receptionist/ Coffee Maker/ Cafeteria – what a job title! I get it. But let’s be clear, people always talk about how busy they are, yet they never put the right words after the busy - running around in circles. Simply “busy” without a strategy is just that, “busy”. There’s a big difference between being busy and being productive. Busy In Not A Synonym For Productive How many people have you heard complain that they’re working very hard…
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How to Transform A Strategy into a Plan of Action

How to Transform A Strategy into a Plan of Action

Marketing Strategy
Strategy is a favorite word of many an entrepreneur, myself included. After all, you have to develop a strategy to accomplish pretty much anything right? Just as we use a planner to organize day, month, and year, we spend time putting together the right strategy for our business. A product launch. An event. You name it, and we develop a marketing strategy for it. But, what is a marketing strategy? What does a strategy do for us? Or better yet, lemme ask: how many times have you developed a strategy, only to proceed and stray away from said strategy as you go about achieving your goals? I've done it, too. You are not alone my friend. Do you get the strategy right? Is it laser focused, or do you struggle with…
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5 Ways to Get People to Buy Now

5 Ways to Get People to Buy Now

Marketing Strategy
Limited Time Offer! 75% OFF! Only 5 left! Message me to claim your spot! How many times have you seen these "hurry up and buy now" offers? How many times have you used them in your marketing efforts to get people to buy RIGHT NOW? As business owners (and/or marketers) it's our goal to sell. In order to run a business, we have to sell something. Sometimes, sales come easy and frequent. At other times, more often than not, we have to work for it! What?! Work for a sale? Yup, no matter how easy these internet marketers make this business of selling sound, those of us who run a business have to work for a sale. This can mean writing blog posts to reach our audience, conducting discovery sessions…
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5 Steps to Conquer Mount Blogger’s Block

Blogging
If you’re a blogger, excuse me, content creator, you like so many of us will eventually come across blogger's block. You will either stare at a blank screen (gasp) or have mess of notes that don't match any particular concept. A handful of random thoughts, headlines with no body text, half sentences, rough drafts, scribbles, notes on your phone, napkins, notebook, etc. – none of which amount to a decent blog post. Just plain muck. As I sit here,  I'm tweaking a list of draft blog posts, rummaging through all the various half-written posts I have. It's hard to choose just one to settle on, but I'm overdue on a post. So what better way to answer the "what to blog about" question than to share a few tips? Here are…
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Too Many Social Media Choices, I Can’t Decide!

Too Many Social Media Choices, I Can’t Decide!

Social Media, Strategy
I can’t count how many times I discuss social media with business owners and they feel like they can’t get the hang of a particular platform. Or they feel like they should be using them all, and they get completely overwhelmed at all the options popping up pretty regularly. Here’s my advice: don’t feel coerced into stretching yourself across all the social media platforms out there. You won’t have time to run your business! Here’s the one thing these business owners (and maybe you) don’t understand: Not all social media platforms are created equal. They each have a purpose, user group, frequency of use, their own language, etc.  Start with the most commonly used platforms and learn the ropes. Read some articles/how-to’s on each platform. Review the FAQs, user guides, and…
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Use Features and Benefits To Promote Your Brand

Use Features and Benefits To Promote Your Brand

Branding
*Are you familiar with developing a branding strategy? If not, I would suggest you go back to the first exercise in “Lay the Groundwork To Define Your Brand”? Complete the questions, and come back to this post. You’ll be ready to CONFIDENTLY tackle this next exercise.* The purpose of developing your branding strategy is to figure out how to best convey your brand attributes to your market. You've already taken some steps to lay the groundwork for your company brand - you've looked at your company name, logo, and niche right? Let’s take a look at the 20 attributes you listed when you went through the earlier post. Consider each attribute as a product/service feature of your brand. You can use a simple features and benefits t-chart to find the best characteristics to…
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Can I Find Your Product In Anytown, USA?

Branding, Marketing Strategy
Have you noticed how certain shoe brands are sold exclusively in limited retail outlets? How about clothes, ever notice some brands can be found all over the place, and yet others are only found in major cities? Notice how you can’t just go into your local office supply store and purchase a $2,000 gold-cased Montblanc writing instrument? Ok, then you recognize that where you distribute your products/services is an important component of a branding strategy! Did you know your branding strategy should help define your distribution channels? It should be a guiding principle when determining exactly how you want to position your product or service in the marketplace. This applies to both products and services alike. Here’s a few examples: If the Price Point for your product or service is…
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