Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Don't Give Up On Your Business or Your Marketing

Have you ever given your all to something, experienced some delays, encountered disappointments, and then given up? What about when it comes to marketing your business? Do you sometimes get frustrated because the results you want aren’t coming to you as quickly as you’d like, despite the fact that you bust your butt to see results? Do you then start to doubt yourself, your skills and talent, your ability to succeed?


You’re not the only one. I know I’ve been there more than once since being self-employed. I have been tempted to quit on projects or promotions that weren’t going strong on more than one occasion. And I’ve even contemplated given up on self-employment when the chips were down and times were tough.


I know it costs money and sometimes its a sacrafice but Don�t Give Up Too Easily (Clients Are Just Around the Corner) 


Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. — Thomas Edison


There comes a point when being a business owner gets really hard (and I mean really hard). You’ve come up with your big idea, you’ve done all the initial legwork to set it up, and now comes the hard part: Getting the word out about your business and, more importantly, hanging in there while you get the word out about your business. The hard part now becomes not giving up too soon.


THE REAL WORK


When you start a business, when you start a new product or service, when you launch anything really, that’s when you feel like you’re working really hard. That’s when you’re willing to stay up late and get up early to get all the groundwork completed so that you can start making money. As hard as it can seem during this time, you generally know what to do, or you can at least figure out what to do, and you just plow through getting the work done. Then you finish the work. (Cue sound of crickets.) Now what?


All right, now you figure out that you need a marketing plan. Great, that gives you something else to do! You finish the marketing plan and begin implementing it. (You believe in this plan. You’ve given it a lot of thought. You feel really confident about it. It’s going to generate the business you need.) You run through your plan for several days, maybe even several weeks, and then … nothing. Nothing happens, and in our instant-gratification-seeking world, this is where things start getting testy:


When you’re over the rush of your big idea,
When you’ve completed the work of creating it,
When you need to pay the bills, and
When it feels like you’re sitting on your laurels.





When you’re doing all that initial setup (building your website, creating the product, etc.), it feels like real work. Marketing doesn’t feel like real work, and it gets harder to justify and explain to those around us, particularly those who don’t have businesses. Marketing? What’s marketing? Building a website people get; that sounds like real work. Marketing? Marketing on Facebook and Twitter? All right, now you’re just playing around. Those are the conversations you have, both with yourself and with others, for justifying what you’re doing.


Writing posts for your blog, replying and posting on social networks, doing interviews, commenting on other sites and forums, searching for opportunities to guest post — all these things don’t feel like work, but they’re very necessary for building a successful business, and sticking with these activities for the bulk of your time each day for the six months or year it’s going to take you to gain some traction seems impossible.


NOT GIVING UP


So, how do you do it? How do you avoid giving up too soon?


You make a commitment. Do you want to do this? Are you willing to bet the next 6-12 months of your life on it? You have to be willing to say, “This is my commitment. These are the milestones I intend to reach. This is my intention.”


You maintain discipline. Each and every day, you have to say, “This is what I’m committed to doing. These are my top priorities.” You have to focus on what you believe to be the “highest and best use” tasks that will get the word out about your business and start generating income for you. You stay focused, not only on what you’re going to do, but also on what you’re not going to do (compulsively checking email, surfing the Internet, taking a dozen breaks each day, etc.).


You trust your plan & your marketing consultant. You’ve given a lot of thought to the best way for promoting your business, and now you just have to believe in it. Don’t keep switching plans and changing things up. It’s going to take time to see results. Give yourself at least a 90-day test with your current plan before doing any tweaking.


Be willing to stay up late and get up early. Although it’s not easy to think about, success isn’t just going to be handed to you. You’re going to have to roll up your sleeves and do the hard work to get things going. No one’s going to do it for you. As you start to get more successful, you still have to continue getting the word out, and juggling priorities can be a challenge. Know that handling incoming work and generating opportunities for future work are equally important.


Find support. Get an accountability partner to help you stay the course. It’s a lot easier to waiver when you don’t have someone else holding you responsible and accountable for your original plans and intentions.


Finding a way to hang in there and not give up on your vision can be the hardest thing you ever do to see your business to success, but you have to figure out how you’re going to stick with it for the time it will take to gain some momentum and start seeing results.



(We would like to thank Amber Singleton)

Monday, October 25, 2010

How do the 3 Florida Candidates for U.S. Senate measure up on their ‘Brand Visibility’?

Myself and my partners at howsociable.com decided to use sociability metrics to see where each of them stands. I believe that social media visibility is very important to the corporate world and Yes, politics too. We all know how social media played a huge role in the 2008 Presidential election.

I am fairly certain that Marco Rubio will be the next Senator out of Florida and it’s who I support, and here are the results.

Charlie Crist (I)              Score 378

Marco Rubio (R)             Score 320    

Kendrick Meek (D)         Score  222

*The governor’s score is slightly higher because being the leader of a large state produces a lot of press releases and news that will always end up on internet feeds. Yes, there is a small margin of error when a name can be mistakenly derived from another word. Example: ‘Creative Partners Group’ will attach to the word “creative” and cause greater results. It is safe to suggest that the more unique the name of the brand is, the more accurate the results.





What is a good score?  If you are a local brand operating a local business, maybe state wide – the score of 30 or higher is fairly good. Anything past 100 is really good and beyond that is excellent.

If you are a national or global brand you should have a score of 1,000 or higher. For example: ‘Walgreens’ has a current score of 1,064 while ‘Facebook’ has a score of 31,274.




Here are some others:

Race for Florida Governor

Rick Scott (R)    Score 160

Alex Sink (D)     Score 200


Need to improve your brands visibility? We can help.                               Contact us at www.WhillyBermudez.com

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

What is a "Counterfeit Marketing Director" ?

Counterfeit Marketing Directors do Exist.

At a marketing conference in Chicago, a colleague stated what I have been saying for years.  The absolute worst thing for any business,  company of any size ( especially a start up or small company) is having someone with a title of Marketing Director or Marketing Manager that knows ABOSLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT MARKETING. Seems unlikely that this happens? Well, I will refrain from calling out several Miami based businesses that are lead by someone that is in this particular scenario.

The terms ‘Marketing Director’, ‘Marketing Manager’, ‘Brand Ambassador’, ’Public Relations Director’, ‘Advertising Director’, ‘Vice President of Marketing’, are completely over used and utilized in all the wrong ways by people that simply don’t know what they’re doing in this field. I don’t directly fault them; I give blame to the business owners or executives that do it to save a few bucks. Just because you can mobilize and organize people to perform tasks, or even fair well logistically- this has absolutely nothing to do with what a real Marketer should be doing. This title should be ‘Operations Manager’ or ‘General Manager’.
The reason why this is so significant is because having someone that isn’t knowledgeable on marketing means that the systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products will not happen or not happen properly. A good marketer can write and read a marketing plan. He/she can write and interpret R.O.I reports (Return on Investment), He/she has a good understanding of how social media works and gauge analytics.
If you don’t have someone that can do that and later translate some of the planning into advertising campaigns, well the climb is uphill and the fall will be steep. Yes, advertising and marketing is not the same thing. Advertising is a single component of the marketing process. It's the part that involves getting the word out concerning your business, product, or the services you are offering. It involves the process of developing strategies such as ad placement, frequency, etc. Advertising includes the placement of an ad in such mediums as newspapers, direct mail, billboards, television, radio, and of course the Internet. Advertising is the largest expense of most marketing plans, with public relations following in a close second and market research not falling far behind.
Friends, I’m all for employing people. We need to give people jobs, but we also have to place them in the right roles based on their talents and experience. Ready to put it to the test?
Yes, a degree in marketing is helpful. However, scholastic principals without a good knack for the business are the same as nothing. A marketing professional should be able to understand and execute all phases and components of Marketing. Those recently graduated should work alongside a seasoned professional that can be credited to developing a brands and writing plans. I know that more than anything else I have written close to 275 plans to date. I offer many services, but when everyone is sleeping I am writing plans or business plans for clients. It is the most difficult but it lends itself to the kind of ‘experience’ that I’m referring to in this blog. Not to mention that a really good marketer will be able to write your companies marketing plan all by him/her self. You put them to the test today. Ask them if they are familiar with these:
a.      ROI (Return on Investment)            
b.      Difference between Advertising & Marketing
c.       What are the basic marketing components?
d.      Where does your company rank in terms of Social Media visibility?
e.      Have you implemented goals to secure marketing partners?
f.      How far along are today's sales goals compared to last year?
g.      What is your client turnover rate?
h.      What is a Web site grade?
i.        What is Customer Acquisition Cost?
j.        What are conversions?

*Score:  If your “Marketing Professional” didn’t get at least 3 out of the 10… I consider that a sad state of affairs. Keeping this person in the Marketing Manager capacity is stunting your growth. There are many missed opportunities that sometimes are difficult to gain again.
If you are a business owner or a CEO, you owe it to yourself and the person to place them in their right capacity. You will get more out of them and they will get more out of their employment with your company.

Thanks for reading! Learn more at: www.WhillyBermudez.com

Monday, October 18, 2010

Choosing a Domain Name for YOUR Web Site

Web Presence (Domain Name)Acquiring a domain name is an important first step in building a successful online presence. Some of the most important reasons why individuals and businesses should select a good, short, and catchy domain name are:

  1. Improve Your Marketing and Visibility
    The right domain name allows customers an easy way to remember and find you. It's your location on the web. It's also your email address.
  2. Build Credibility
    Using your domain for your website and to personalize your email helps establish credibility and professionalism. For instance, an email address such as jen@WhillyBermudez.com is more professional than jen127@freeemailservice.com.
  3. Protect Your Brand
    Purchase the domain name that best represents your business name. Domains are valuable online real estate. Secure the right name and keep it out of the hands of your competitors.

    You may also find many attractive domains for your business. Securing more than one helps protect your brand and increase your reach. You can easily direct as many domains as you want to a single website.
  4. Acquire More Traffic
    Some domains already receive traffic. This traffic principally comes from direct type-in or referral traffic. Direct type-in is when an internet user types the domain directly into her browser, such as typing 'www.photography.com.' Referral traffic typically comes from links on other websites.
  5. As an Investment
    Similar to real estate, domain names are investments. Domain values increase daily. You
    yourself can make your domain name more valuable by building and marketing your website.




*Research confirms that domain names ending with .com verses all others are 80% more likely to achieve favorable results.


Latest Technologies

LATEST TECHNOLOGIES  

Advertising in traditional media will continue to decline in favor of less expensive, interactive tools and services. However, the most seasoned Marketer knows that combining old and new is the root of success.  

VIDEO PUBLISHING/SHARING- Producing a high quality or guerilla marketing style video can have a chance to be unique enough to go viral on Youtube.com and receive millions of views.

A video can also serve to be informative and instructional about a cause that others deem ‘interesting’ enough to viewers. Many companies are also uploading their videos to their websites to enhance their informative content.

MOBILE DEVICE APPS & TEXTING (SMS)- Everyone is now texting and relying more on mobile devices for news, sports, updates, keeping in touch, short form communication, and keeping with a fast paced business world. Today, mobile device applications are designed prospects immediately-no matter where they happen to be-this increases brand loyalty and keeps responders engaged.

We can use SMS Keyword marketing in all forms of media that in turn will provoke a simple text to be sent by a user to receive a discount, special, something complimentary, or for access to an event. Example: Text the word “Facebook” to 66431 now!
Mobile Device Applications can be designed to any specifications to accomplish an endless amount of functions and tasks. With a wide range of ‘Apps’ in existence, users can use their mobile device to make dinner reservations, buy movie tickets, or play online games live with others.    

BLUETOOTH PROXIMITY MARKETING- Bluetooth Proximity Marketing is an opt-in permission based method of delivering messaging to local Bluetooth enabled cell phones and devices within a range of up to 300 feet of a transmitting unit. It is an ideal marketing tool for: Retailers, Restaurants, Bars, Malls, Entertainment or Sports Venues, Amusement Parks, Real Estate, Auto Dealers, Trade Show Exhibitors, and others.

All types of image and audio files can be sent as part of a message delivered to users.

Search Engine Optimization – SEO - You can easily get confused by all the search engine optimization companies and SEO “experts” that offer SEO services. It's hard to know who to trust or what should be included in a SEO diagnostic initial process.
Good search engine optimization is very basic. A successful search engine optimization campaign will contain these essential components: Content, Site Design, Well-written Meta Tags, and Google Analytics.






Learn more at: www.WhillyBermudez.com 

The Communication Tools Are...

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION TOOLS  

Personal and non personal communication channels can be used for marketing communications. Within both of them there are many sub channels.

They include media, atmospheres, and events.





EMAIL MARKETING is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fund-raising messages to an audience. In its broadest sense, every e-mail sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing.

Whilly Bermudez utilizes an international Email delivery system (EDS) via SendStream’s servers which produce a 100% successful delivery rate of all emails sent to servers. We can send an email to 100,000 people or 1 million people in one process alone.  

WEB MARKETING (Search Engine Optimization – SEO) There is no clearer form for gaining visitors to a website & build your online presence than allowing your site to effectively show up on Google and other search engine results for maximum traffic. Optimizing a website involves editing content, creating relevant keywords, and other methods.

PRESS RELEASES- A press release is one of the best techniques for publicizing an event or calling attention to an issue. A well-written, well-distributed and well-timed press release is not difficult or expensive to produce, yet can be effective and useful for waging peace. Strong distribution will bring about national & international media attention and requests for interviews.

LIVE EVENTSLaunching and hosting live events can improve the overall effectiveness of the marketing campaign and even your online Social Media. Events are an information rich marketplace. The opportunities for networking and precious meetings are immeasurable.

DIRECT MAILSending a creative & informative mail piece or advertisement via the US postal service is one of the oldest forms of marketing-but still works like charm. Identify and reach specific target audience based on criteria such as demographics, income, age, etc. 

Learn More at: www.WhillyBermudez.com

Effective Social Media Tools (Sites)

EFFECTIVE SOCIAL TOOLS 

There isn’t any low cost promotional technique today, except social media channels, to promote, market, and flourish business by attracting traffic and building awareness. Using all or most of these channels ensures readers and visitors.

Corporations, individuals, communities, and almost everyone exhibits and enhances their online presence through these tools.





  1. Facebook Of the 33 million users, almost 60% log on to the site daily and spend an average of 19 minutes a day on Facebook. Once an exclusive online portal for college kids, Facebook now signs up over 150,000 new subscribers per day, of which 41% are over 30 years old. www.Facebook.com  
  2. Twitter- is a social networking and micro blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Currently there are 145 million users By March 2010, Twitter recorded over 70,000 registered applications, according to the company. In February 2010 Twitter users were sending 50 million tweets per day. In the first quarter of 2010, 4 billion tweets were posted.  www.Twitter.com
  3. YouTube- is the world’s most popular video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos. As of May 2010, 14 Billion videos have been viewed and 24 hours of new videos are uploaded to the site every minute, and that around three quarters of the material comes from outside the United States.  www.YouTube.com
  4. Blogger- is Google’s free toll for creating blogs. Blogger was ranked 16 on the list of top 50 domains in terms of number of unique visitors in 2007 www.Blogger.com
  5. Digg - is a social news website made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet, by submitting links and stories, and voting and commenting on submitted links and stories. The website traffic ranked 113th by Alexa.com as of September 1, 2010.  www.Digg.com     
  6. Flickr - is an image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to host images that they embed in blogs and social media. In September 2010, it reported that it was hosting more than 5 billion images.   www.Flickr.com
  7. Wikipedia - is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 16 million articles (over 3.4 million in English) have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. www.Wikipedia.com

Learn more at: www.WhillyBermudez.com 

Just a Little Bit About (R.O.I) Return on Investment

Marketing campaigns are investments. And like any smart investment, they need to be measured, monitored and compared to other investments to ensure you’re spending your money wisely.
Return on investment (ROI) is a measure of the profit earned from each investment. Like the “return” you earn on your portfolio or bank account, it’s calculated as a percentage. In simple terms, the calculation is ROI calculations for marketing campaigns can be complex — you may have many variables on both the profit side and the investment (cost) side. But understanding the formula is essential if you need to produce the best possible results with your marketing investments.


With solid ROI calculations, you can focus on campaigns that deliver the greatest return. For example, if one campaign generates a 15% ROI and the other 50%, where will you invest your marketing budget next time? ROI helps you improve your ongoing campaigns. When you tweak your offer or launch a campaign to a different list, you can compare ROI and focus on the version with the best performance.

Finally, ROI helps you justify marketing investments. In tough times, companies often slash their marketing budgets – a dangerous move since marketing is an investment to produce revenue. By focusing on ROI, you can help your company move away from the idea that marketing is a fluffy expense that can be cut when times get tough.
Before you begin
It’s a good idea to measure ROI on all of your marketing investments – If your sales process is long and complex, you may choose to modify or simplify your ROI calculations, but a simple calculation is more useful than none at all.
Confirm your formulas
There are several figures you’ll need for your ROI calculations:
  • Cost of goods sold (COGS): The cost to physically produce a product or service.
  • Marketing investment: Typically you’d include just the cost of the media, not production costs or time invested by certain employees; however, in certain cases it may be better to include all of those figures.

  • Revenue: It can be tricky to tie revenue to a particular campaign, especially when you run a variety of campaigns and have a long sales process. Your finance team may have some suggestions for estimating this figure.
  • Companies calculate these figures differently, so confirm the formulas your company uses — your finance team or accountant can guide you.
Establish an ROI threshold
Set an ROI goal for your entire budget and individual campaigns; set a floor as well. By doing so, you gain more power over your budget. If you project that a campaign won’t hit the threshold, don’t run it; if you can’t get an ongoing campaign over the threshold, cut it and put your money elsewhere.
Set your marketing budget
When you have an ROI goal and annual revenue/profit goals, you can calculate the amount of money you should spend on marketing – just solve the ROI formula for the “investment” figure. You’ll be more confident that you’re spending the right amount of money to meet your goals.
Calculate ROI on campaigns; track and improve your results
Tracking ROI can get difficult with complex marketing campaigns, but with a commitment and good reporting processes, you can build solid measurements, even if you have to use some estimates in the process.
Use your ROI calculations to continually improve your campaigns; test new ways to raise your ROI and spend your money on the campaigns that produce the greatest return for your company.

Learn more at: 

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