Get Slightly Famous

Cultivating Referrals as a Marketing Strategy

Why are referrals so powerful? As warm and fuzzy as it sounds, people like to do business with those they know, like and trust. Remember: we are all people first, and business people second.

When a prospect comes to you by referral, they are more predisposed to want to do business with you. A referral is, the opposite of a cold-call-- an endorsement from somebody who already knows and trusts you.

The easiest route to referrals is realizing this principle and cultivating referrals with those who know and trust you. This includes satisfied clients (both active and inactive), business associates who know you personally and anyone who trusts your firm, and the quality of your work, enough to recommend you to others.

“Focus on the incredible contribution or benefit your product or service made possible. Never focus just on the generic commodity value of what your product or service does,” says Jay Abraham, author of Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got (St. Martins Press, 2000).

“Instead, look at each and every client as a dear and valued friend. A lifetime friend, because that is precisely what your client is to you: dear and valued friends. After all, they’ve befriended you and your enterprise; they’ve trusted you with critical and intimate buying decisions that impacted and affected their very security, well-being, comfort, happiness, or prosperity. They trust you. They depend on you.”

Get On The Program

You don’t have to be a professional speaker to pursue speaking opportunities. There are plenty of clubs, organizations and professional associations eager to establish relationships with speakers who can present useful, interesting material to members at meetings, seminars, conferences and workshops.

According to Dottie and Lilly Walters, authors of Speak and Grow Rich, there are more than nine thousand speaking opportunities on any give day in this country. Although many of these are at larger venues, there is a tremendous amount of speaking opportunities at the local level among local business and community groups.

Start with organizations where you are already a member. Expand your search by strategically targeting groups that reach your target market. Make a few phone calls. Talk to your clients and customers; ask around to learn which organizations they belong to that offer speaking opportunities.

Make sure you consult the Encyclopedia of Associations at your local library. This directory will help you compile a list of local and national professional and trade associations likely to provide speaking opportunities. And don’t overlook local community colleges and continuing education programs, many of which provide ample opportunities to speak.

Keep in mind that many programs are scheduled from six to 12 months in advance, which means you should start early.

Online PR and SEO go hand in hand

I recently came across Lee Odden being interviewed about the comlementary role of online public relations and search engine optimization. Odden is President of TopRank Online Marketing, a search marketing agency specialising in search engine optimisation, online PR and blog marketing.

A recognised industry expert, Lee publishes MarketingBlog.com and has been cited by major publications including U.S. News and The Economist and speaks at numerous industry conferences. Here's a snippet of this interview...

Marketers seem to finally be realising that online PR and SEO go hand in hand. Can you sum up the opportunities?

Public relations and search engine optimisation are intertwined in many ways. A common crossover is with linking. The best links which are most often editorial in nature are often the most difficult. Coveted link sources include major online publications, educational or government web sites. The pitching of stories to journalists common to media relations is directly related to pitching for linking opportunities on some of the more difficult sites. Getting a contributed article into a prominent online publication can drive traffic, build credibility and associate link popularity.

Another crossover point deals with press releases, their distribution and the syndication of content. A press release is a document like any other that can be indexed and algorithmically categorised and ranked. Optimising press releases for keywords as well as for the people that will read them allows the release additional exposure from search queries on news search engines. Press releases that are easier to find get picked up more often and when those releases contain links to the company web site, it can send traffic and link popularity.

To read the rest of this article, Click Here

Anatomy of a Major Media Placement

I've been working with a BizExchange, a local barter exchange that I've belonged to for 3 years. As a Client, I advised BizX to make their member recruitment efforts easier and more effective by generating targeted media coverage that, aside from attracting reader/prospects, could be used to as reprints to aid in their sales efforts.

Because business bartering is a relatively new concept for many businesses, barter education is the cornerstone of our efforts. Media placements serve as an educational, credibility-boosting tool. To this end, I am helping BizX target strategic industries where they'd like to generate more members. By targeting trade magazines in the restaurant, printing and contracting industries, we are already lining up contributed articles about business bartering that we will write and submit for publication.

Here's our most recent success story: a major story in the Oakland Tribune that ran this weekend. This placement has already resulted in several inquiries that are likely to become new members.

Ask yourself: what value would it have for your business -- in leads and sales credibility -- to appear in major media that reach your prospective clients and customers?

Bartering gives businesses alternate way to pay By David Morrill, BUSINESS WRITER

WHEN Henry Vortriede opened Montclair Bistro about 20 months ago, he was confident it would succeed.

But to truly compete with the best culinary establishments in the East Bay, he also knew that his restaurant was missing one central ingredient: a state-of-the-art banquet room for corporate events and wedding receptions.

Vortriede had to have one, but because so many restaurants fail within the first few years he also knew that he couldn't risk burning through the Oakland establishment's cash. Especially when it would cost about $60,000 to build.

But Vortriede found another way to get his banquet room built. He turned to bartering — the practice of trading one business' service for another's in lieu of cash.

"Without having to use up our cash, we now have something that looks like a room you'd find at The Ritz-Carlton for the price of throwing a few parties," he said.

Almost everybody has heard of bartering, but not everyone fully understands it. Bartering is often misconstrued as another term for an "under-the-table" type of deal. But the kind Vortriede is involved with is 100 percent legal, and experts call it a legitimate tool to help a business grow. There are even exchange services that help streamline the barter process.

"Getting into barter is like a mini-economythat you join," said Steven Van Yoder, who barters his marketing and public relations services through his San Francisco-based Get the Word Out Communications. "When businesses find out there's a way to trade services, there's this suspicion that this is too good to be true, but really it is common sense."

To read the rest of the story, click here:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/business/ci_3925336

5 Tips to Make Adwords Work

I've been reading Brian Clark's Copyblogger blog for the past few weeks and have been impressed. Brian provides great, practical strategies that challenge assumptions and suggests ways to make your marketing more effective.

The following post about making Google's Adwords program offers a great approach: pull targeted prospects to your web site with strategically chosen Adwords, and begin a long-term relationship with these visitors by offering free, valuable content that will turn them into lifelong members of your Slightly Famous universe:

"The goal of pay per click advertising is to get in front of searchers who are looking specifically for what you have to offer. This takes careful keyword research, strategic bidding, and compelling ad copy just to get the click.

The problem is, that’s where most people stop.

They make the mistake of sending that targeted traffic to the home page of their website or blog. Even worse, they make no attempt to establish a relationship with those that don’t buy, so as to boost conversion rates for every dollar spent.

They make the mistake of sending that targeted traffic to the home page of their website or blog. Even worse, they make no attempt to establish a relationship with those that don’t buy, so as to boost conversion rates for every dollar spent.

So, if you’re selling products or services, it makes sense to make sales and build your fan club at the same time. Here’s how to boost your conversion rates from any pay per click campaign while also boosting your subscriber numbers.

The first thing to do is build a ultra-specific page to send the search traffic to, called a landing page. Depending on the variety of key words you are bidding on, you may even build several landing pages that each narrowly address the specific needs of that searcher...

The landing page does not sell your product or service. This is key. You instead offer a quality free resource –- a mini-course, ebook, teleseminar, or other type of tutorial that is directly related to what you are ultimately selling. By teaching people about the subject matter of your product or service, you are actually engaging in a highly effective form of selling, all while establishing a relationship...

You should explicitly inform your prospects that in addition to the free resource you are offering, they will also be receiving your email newsletter / blog updates. Make sure you make this part of your offer as enticing as possible. You’re delivering valuable, relevant content on a regular basis, right?

And there you have it. You’ll likely make some sales right away, but your real profits will come from the people who warm up to your offer thanks to the ongoing value you provide with your blog content...

You don’t propose marriage before you get a first date. And you likewise shouldn’t expect people to just automatically jump at the chance to give you money upon arriving at your home page."

Using Audio/Video on Your Blog

More on Ken McCarthy's System Seminar...

I spent time with Sherman Hu, an expert at all things multimedia on blogs.

Sherman's Blogging Secrets presentation covered the topic of adding video and audio to a blog to add marketing potential and to enhance overall visitor appeal and engagement.

Sherman Hu is an example of the new generation of Internet marketers whose work is right on the cutting edge. First, he mastered the 'old school' art of search engine optimization under the tutelage of friend and mentor search engine marketer Michael Campbell.

Then, when he discovered the traffic power of blogging, he poured himself into the new medium and has become one of the leading experts in the field. Sherman has also embraced the new Internet video technology and is using it to build an impressive info marketing business which has become the dominant player in a rapidly exploding new niche market.

Watch for Sherman's influence on this blog in the coming weeks...