Monsters in Meetings – Part 6, Deadlocked Discussions

You thought you had an effective meeting until one participant disagreed with everyone else. Now the meeting is deadlocked. Here’s what to do. (This is the sixth of a seven part article on Managing Monsters in Meetings.)

Keywords:
effective meetings, bad meetings, business meeting, monsters in meetings, problem participants, facilitation, steve kaye, facilitator, leadership, one great meeting

This one creeps up on you.

And if you let it continue, it will ruin your meeting.

At first it seems that the participants are working toward an agreement. They raise concerns. Then they explore the concerns. It all seems normal.

But it keeps going.

In fact, it expands. And soon you have an argument where neither side will let go. Your meeting is now stuck in a deadlock.

So how do you fix it?

Approach 1: Form a subcommittee

Ask for volunteers from the opposing viewpoints to form a subcommittee to resolve the issue. This is a useful approach, because: 1) The issue may require extensive research, which is best completed outside the meeting, 2) The people who caused the deadlock will be responsible for solving it, or 3) The effort to resolve the issue will test its priority. That is, if no one wants to spend time finding a solution, then perhaps the issue (or at least the controversy) is unimportant.

Ask for a subcommittee by saying:

“There seem to be concerns about this issue. Rather than use everyone’s time in the meeting, I want a subcommittee to resolve this and report back to us. Who wants to be on it?”

Of course, if no one volunteers, that ends the deadlock. Then you say, “It seems that we lack support for this issue. In that case I want to return to our agenda. The next item is . . . .”

What else can you do?

Approach 2: Ask for an analysis

If a minority obstructs resolution, ask them to analyze the issue and propose alternatives. You can say:

“Some of you seem to view this issue differently. Could you help us understand your position by preparing an analysis of the issue with workable alternatives?”

As with a subcommittee, this approach will either uncover essential considerations or test commitment. In either case, it moves the deadlock out of the meeting so that you can proceed.

Notice that each of these approaches begins by acknowledging the truth, which is, a deadlock exists. Then it puts people to work on resolving the deadlock.

There’s one more point.

Leaders work in a world of gray. In this case you have to allow some disorder and disagreement during the meeting as part of achieving a result. And you have to monitor the level of disorder because if it goes on for too long, you will have to intervene.

It’s like recognizing that your car is about to run out of gas. This means it’s time to buy more, rather than sitting there, holding the wheel, pretending that everything will be okay.

Use these techniques to put your meeting back on track.

This is the sixth of a seven part article on Monsters in Meetings.

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Hook Up Your Prospects

The illustrations and the content that you put inside your brochure can be your bait in reeling prospects to contact you.

Keywords:
brochures, printing, services, digital, color

What’s a girl to do? Fashions change so fast these days that even the sharpest person can barely keep up. Trends sometimes come and go in a couple of months, leaving people broke – and worse out of style. Thus, it pays to shop wisely by checking out a guide to what’s on the cutting edge this season. This is what most people do nowadays – they make informed shopping decisions. And how do they go about it? Well, for one they do comparison shopping and they get hold of brochures where they can browse through the latest in fashion today.

So let’s say you own a boutique offering teen fashions. Because kids today are very conscious of what they wear they tend to buy clothes and accessories almost every month. This is a great opportunity for you to acquire a lot of customers. And if you have an attractive and stunning brochure, chances are a lot of teens will visit your store and buy your products.

Have you ever wondered why car dealers let you have the key and take the car for a spin? Or why when you are in the middle of a good television show and then suddenly they would cut the show for a few minutes and run the ads? Well, these people know that once you have driven the car or watched a few parts of the show, you would see how good the car or the show is and buy the car or stay for the rest of the show. This is one way of letting you take the bait and soon you will realize that you have been reeled into buying the product.

Advertising today is not much different from before. There may have been major changes in the way products are presented but the people are the same as they have always been. Give them a free spray of your perfume and they will buy the bottle. Give them a few chapters of your book and they will buy the whole selection. And give them a taste of your cookie and they will buy a dozen. Whatever you are selling, people will respond better if you give away a portion, a free sample or a free taste.

This is just the same as creating a funky striking brochure. The illustrations and the content that you put inside can be your bait in reeling prospects to contact you. Letting them have a look at what you have to offer can interest them to buying the clothes in your boutique or the perfumes in your store. Just remember to be gentle and simple as you can. This can greatly help you in getting those teens flock your chic boutique.

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What Marketing Can Do For You

Over the years, I’ve had dealings with some business owners who have a rather skewed perception of marketing. They think you throw a few ads out there, get a couple of press releases printed and voila! You’re a big success. Oh, if it only were that easy. (Although if it were, I probably wouldn’t have a job.) So realistically, what marketing can do for you? Read on.

Keywords:
Marketing, creative marketing, marketing ideas, marketing success, marketing strategies

I thought I would clear up some misconceptions about marketing in this two-part series: What Marketing Can Do For You and What Marketing Can’t Do For You. We’ll start with the positive.

Over the years, I’ve had dealings with some business owners who have a rather skewed perception of marketing. They think you throw a few ads out there, get a couple of press releases printed and voila! You’re a big success.

Oh, if it only were that easy. (Although if it were, I probably wouldn’t have a job.)

But there’s no getting around that to have a successful business, you need a solid marketing plan.

So what CAN marketing do for you? Increase your business – no question about it. You need to be marketing if you want to grow your business.

However (and this is a really big however) marketing is NOT going to result in overnight success. Marketing is about slow growth, building on last week’s success and forgetting about last month’s failures. (Or what you THINK are failures. It’s not uncommon that a campaign you think is a dismal disappointment may be what caused the next campaign to take off.)

Marketing is about frequency – about your target market seeing your offer over and over again until they’re finally ready to buy. Without that very important frequency, your business will start to stagnate and eventually die.

Now that doesn’t mean you won’t have a major success with a campaign. Even a massive, amazing, unbelievable success. You’ll run one ad or be featured in an article and wham! You end up with more orders than you know what to do with. While that’s a great shot in the arm, it probably won’t last unless you keep building upon it. Eventually the orders will dry up and you’ll be back to where you were before.

Marketing is also about being consistent. This goes back to building on successes. Your customers need to see your message over and over again. This builds trust and credibility. Plus, your current customers will also respond to that frequency. Not only will they not “forget” about you and go to your competitor, but it will help build their trust in you as well.

Lastly, marketing is about working hard. There’s no getting around it. To be successful means putting in the time and energy to continually market yourself. (You can also pay someone to help you with it, but basically it comes down to someone somewhere has to put in the time to continually market you.)

If you remember nothing else, remember this: If you don’t implement your marketing strategies, nothing is going to happen.

That last sentence seems obvious, but again, I’m amazed at how many people I run into who aren’t willing to do the work. They talk about it, but when it actually comes down to doing something, they somehow never seem to get around to it.

One way to overcome that is to plan on doing one task or a little marketing every day. Then it doesn’t seem quite so overwhelming. Me, I make a commitment to do X number of marketing tasks a week, regardless of how much time that takes.

Marketing is a commitment. There’s no getting around it. If you have a business, then you have no choice but to make a commitment to marketing on a consistent basis until the day comes when you decide you don’t want a business anymore.

Creativity Exercise – Make a Commitment

Since I’m interested in having all of you succeed, I want YOU to make a commitment right now to market your business on a regular basis.

Write this statement on a piece of paper, filling in your name in the proper place.

I, YOUR NAME, am making a commitment to market my business on a regular basis from now until I decide I don’t want to be in business any more.

Sign and date it.

I suggest posting it in a place where you can see it while you’re working. Or, if you really want to add some accountability to your commitment, tell someone about it. You can even tell me about it – just send me an e-mail at Michele@theartistsoul.com There’s nothing like announcing your intention to keeping you honest.

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How To Do A Teleseminar

If you are a consultant, business coach, teacher, professional, speaker, lawyer, direct marketer, or business trainer, you have knowledge and skills that can be of value to others and they’re willing to pay for that knowledge. Why not offer your services online? Here’s how to do a teleseminar.

There is plenty of money to be made teaching. And a great way to make an income is by teaching about something you love and enjoy. Teleseminars have a very high profit margin and th…

Keywords:
teleseminar, teleclass, teleconference

If you are a consultant, business coach, teacher, professional, speaker, lawyer, direct marketer, or business trainer, you have knowledge and skills that can be of value to others and they’re willing to pay for that knowledge. Why not offer your services online? Here’s how to do a teleseminar.

There is plenty of money to be made teaching. And a great way to make an income is by teaching about something you love and enjoy. Teleseminars have a very high profit margin and they are easy to produce. You can use the same information bundled different ways to create different sources of income. It’s the perfect solution for business entrepreneurs.

Teleseminars are an excellent way to promote your message, increase your credibility and make your mark as an expert in the field. Offering your potential customers a free teleseminar is a very smart and cost effective method of promoting yourself. Teleseminars that a customer pays for are an excellent way of distributing your knowledge to your paying customer. So how do you conduct your own teleseminar?

A teleseminar is a meeting between participants in different locations around the world that occurs over the telephone, and where all members can participate in the conversation just as if they were in attendance at a seminar. If you use video conferencing you will also be able to transmit video via your computer through a video camera.

The great thing about teleconferencing is that it knows no boundaries. Whether you live in Florida, Ontario, Russia, Australia, or somewhere remote in the great North, if you have access to a telephone you can conduct or participate in a teleseminar.

It’s always best if you can designate one person to set things up. That person will make the initial calls to each participant to let them know the time and date that the teleseminar will take place. That person should also be the person that initiates the calls to assemble everyone on the day of the seminar.

There isn’t a lot of equipment required. A speaker phone is a great way to let several people have access with just one phone, but it’s definitely not required. In more complex setups where there may be satellite connections or audiovisual connections, you may require a specialist.

Your need to have a well thought out agenda that stays focused and on topic. It’s always nice to give your participants a bit of a briefing prior to starting so they know what they can expect.

Make sure you speak clearly and address how you wish participants to participate. Is there an order of speaking? Is the floor open to questions at any point? Let participants know what is expected of them. Remember this may be a new experience for them.

You as the moderator should lead the teleseminar which means you’ll control the flow of the conversations, identify any guest speakers you might have, and open and close the teleconference. It’s your job to ensure things run smoothly and on time.

A teleseminar is one of the most cost effective methods of bringing a group together without the need for travel. It’s a convenient, cost effective tool that has great potential and is often overlooked.

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Trade Show Giveaways: What Works

You have your trade show exhibit ready to go, the trade show booth is set up, and your product is a winner. Now all you need are the customers. Standing room only, please. Right?

Well, for most trade show exhibitors, attracting customers is just as important as the product they are selling. Enter trade show giveaways! Trade show giveaways are promotionals tools (items, handouts, marketing materials) designed to attract customers, promote business, and help market a product…

Keywords:
trade, show, tradeshow, promotion, advertise, marketing, displays, booths, exhibits

You have your trade show exhibit ready to go, the trade show booth is set up, and your product is a winner. Now all you need are the customers. Standing room only, please. Right?

Well, for most trade show exhibitors, attracting customers is just as important as the product they are selling. Enter trade show giveaways! Trade show giveaways are promotionals tools (items, handouts, marketing materials) designed to attract customers, promote business, and help market a product after the trade show exhibit is over. By using these strategies, the goal is to bring business to your trade show exhibit, then give the customer something to remember your product by. Hopefully, the promotional item will be a success and your customers will leave satisfied, happy, and gladly telling everyone they encounter about your fabulous product and great free trade show giveaways.

There are some choices to make when deciding what promotional tools to use. Ultimately, the goal is to choose the promotional method that will attract the most visitors to your trade show booth, and make your trade show exhibit a success. You will also need to determine the amount of marketing dollars you have to spend on your promotional materials. If you are unable to afford what you believe is the best promotional or marketing tool available, then you may have to settle for other items until your budget allows you to expand in this area. Many promotional tools are designed to be kept by the customer, and to remind the customer continually of your products and services. This is accomplished through items that have been customized with your company’s information and logo. Items such as free pens, notepads, balloons, magnets, and key chains are perfect examples.

Another great and effective trade show marketing strategy is to have a raffle where the entrants are required to either sign up at your trade show booth (using their contact information) or leave a business card (you can set up a bowl or container to collect the cards), and then after they have enjoyed the exhibits, they will return to your booth for the announcement of the prize winner. The wonderful benefits from using this technique is that you have a book full of contact information and a container full of business cards that you may use in the future to contact these potential customers.

Another great idea is to use an attention grabber to attract customers to your trade show booth. This includes ideas such as: setting up a massage chair (sit back and watch how long the line grows as customers wait for their free massage), or even setting up a free food giveaway. These are just a few things you can do to catch the eye of the customer. Things such as free massages and food will help bring the customer to your trade show booth, and and a free promotional item is something they can take home with them to remember your company’s name.

Above all else, it doesn’t matter how many trade show giveaways, free food, or raffles that you have if you don’t have a ready-made script and properly greet all of your potential clients. When you notice a customer looking at your display, immediately greet them with a smile and start a friendly conversation with them.
Your products, giveaways, and tickets are there to work for you, but you must be the one to work them. If you need to have assistants help you, then by all means do so. You should never enter into a trade show exhibit without adequate preparation and help.

Remember that the most important giveaway that you have to offer all of your customers is your genuine smile and friendly conversation.

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Exploit Your Brand To The Fullest

A brand goes beyond a company name and tagline. It is a complete personality or set of values, sometimes even a story line, along with repeated visual, auditory and behavioral elements. When you decide to invest in creating a brand, follow these guidelines to ensure that you get your money’s worth:

1. Be distinctive. You’ll land your company in expensive legal hot water if you attempt to steal or encroach on another company’s identity. Apart from legalities, you tend to ge…

Keywords:
branding,business,marketing,sales,advertising,naming,names,trademarks,ads,logos

A brand goes beyond a company name and tagline. It is a complete personality or set of values, sometimes even a story line, along with repeated visual, auditory and behavioral elements. When you decide to invest in creating a brand, follow these guidelines to ensure that you get your money’s worth:

1. Be distinctive. You’ll land your company in expensive legal hot water if you attempt to steal or encroach on another company’s identity. Apart from legalities, you tend to get the most bang for your branding buck when you generate a powerful contrast with competitors’ images. Do something different.

Smartfood popcorn’s glossy black bags still stand out on store shelves as few other food products do. And what macaroni-and-cheese maker besides Annie’s offers free “Be Green” bumper stickers and information about the company mascot, a real rabbit named Bernie, on the packaging?

2. Repeat, repeat, repeat! The more times your slogans, logo, stories, colors, themes, values and other elements come before your intended public, the greater their effect. Normally, if you have XXXXX dollars to spend this year spreading awareness of your brand, you’re better off creating thousands of small impressions than spending it all on one blow-out event.

Think of the radio and TV ads that sing in your head while you’re trying to concentrate on something else. No matter how catchy those tunes, they wouldn’t do that if you heard them only once. The same goes for the world’s most creative bank logo. When prospective customers also see that image on magnets at their friends’ houses, on tote bags at the day care center, on thermoses in taxicabs and on the uniforms of the local softball league – then it’s really starting to make an impact.

3. Be consistent. Branding works best when you use the same colors, the same musical theme, the same company name and the same symbols in all company materials and environments. The store shouldn’t be called “O’Reilley’s” on T-shirts and “OReilleys” in the newspaper ad.

Sounds obvious, but even powerhouses like IBM have neglected this rule. In the early 1990’s, IBM had several hundred different logos and slogans circulating. In mid-1994, it laid down the law on which identity elements were authorized and which prohibited. Partly as a result, in 1995 IBM rose to the position of the world’s third most valuable brand from position number 282 the year before.

4. Be persistent. Those within a company will be tempted to change the image of a brand way before it’s time to do so. Never modify or update a central element of a brand just because you’re tired of it. If it’s working, it can continue working for decades.

Since the 1880’s, Ivory soap has successfully called itself “99 44/100% pure.” Marlboro has linked itself with cowboys since the 1950’s – and the brand has a current value of around $13 billion. Betty Crocker has changed her hairstyle, but she’s been wearing red and white since her first appearance on food products in 1921.

5. Don’t water it down. A brand must stand for something and must be linked with something specific in the minds of your public. When Packard, which had been America’s top luxury-brand car, suddenly announced in the 1940’s, “Now everyone can afford a Packard,” the company slid into deep trouble. Cadillac picked up buyers who’d previously wanted the cachet of a Packard.

6. Evolve as necessary. Brands may need to mutate when they’re perceived as misrepresenting a company that has changed or as out of step with the times. A dramatic example is the updating of Betty Crocker, who lost the original gray flecks in her hair over time and changed from homey-looking to dressed for success to more informally attired as society changed.

With bank mergers now epidemic, it’s crucial to try to keep brand equity going. When one bank does not simply swallow the other, designers have come up with elegant new combinations of old identity elements – one color from company A and one from company B, one syllable from each, a new shape incorporating symbols from both banks, etc.

7. Protect it. Registering a trademark gives you a measure of legal exclusivity on your brand identity, including sometimes even a color scheme, a product’s look and feel or an interior decorating scheme. Even so, you may need to police unauthorized usage of your brand elements by searching out offenders and sending cease-and-desist letters. Contact an intellectual property attorney for details.

Don’t let your brand name degenerate into a generic term. “Aspirin” used to be a brand name, as did “Escalator.” You may feel flattered that people are using your product, service or company name to stand for its entire category, but when that kind of usage becomes widespread it can open the door to competitors having legal license to trade upon the investment you’ve made in injecting that name into people’s minds.

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Planning a Team Building Weekend

How do you ensure that your team building event will actually do its job? Here are some tips to help you plan a corporate team building activity that will help your team pull together.

Keywords:
team building events, team building, corporate events

One of the underlying concepts of a team building activity is that it is designed to foster at team spirit among the participants, and help them focus on what they need to do in day to day work in order to function effectively as a team. So you’ve just taken your team out on a wild weekend of river rafting and wall climbing, and everyone’s returned to work energized and ready to tackle the latest project. How do you know if your team building event actually served its purpose?

One important part of a team building weekend that is often overlooked is the evaluation process. It’s not enough to plan a fun weekend and hope that throwing your project team into the mix will bond them into a working team. A successful corporate team building event must take into account the goals and needs of the individual company and department in order to bring the group together. Before choosing a team building idea, your event planning team (and of course you’re using a team to plan the event, aren’t you?) should carefully evaluate each idea to see how it fits in with the company’s goals.

How do you ensure that your team building event will actually do its job? Here are some tips to help you plan a corporate team building activity that will help your team pull together.

- Have a clear purpose for the team building activity.
Sit down with the project team leaders and brainstorm. Ask them to define areas that need work and skills that need polishing. Once you have a clear idea of what needs to be accomplished, you can choose events that fit the bill.
- Balance work time with fun team building events.
Skip the overworked touchy-feely trust building events and choose events that are fun for all. Choose activities where working as a team pays off – perhaps a scavenger hunt or a spy mission. There are dozens of team building activities that will challenge your group to become a team without boring them to tears.
- Make time to network.
Building teams starts with building relationships. Make sure that you don’t pack so much activity into your team building time that your group has no time to kick back and relax. Schedule in some unstructured time when they can get to know each other outside work time.
- Put together a follow-up action plan.
Don’t let the team spirit die when the team building weekend is over. Make an action plan that will be followed to put all the great ideas and plans into effect once you return to work.

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What P&G Can Learn From Network Marketing’s Biggest Mistake

As a fan of P&G and someone who’s been educating the Network Marketing industry for 17 years, my heart sank when I read about P&G’s latest marketing tactic – bribing women to use their friendships to sell soap.

NM has created an image of an industry whose people use and abuse their friends for personal gain. P&G has just created an army of 600,000 women who are using their friends in exchange for soap and coupons.

The NM recruiters’ pitch: Make money doing what you do e…

Keywords:
Kim Klaver, Klaver, Marketing, MLM

As a fan of P&G and someone who’s been educating the Network Marketing industry for 17 years, my heart sank when I read about P&G’s latest marketing tactic – bribing women to use their friendships to sell soap.

NM has created an image of an industry whose people use and abuse their friends for personal gain. P&G has just created an army of 600,000 women who are using their friends in exchange for soap and coupons.

The NM recruiters’ pitch: Make money doing what you do everyday – recommending things to friends. Just go to people you know and talk up products like you always do. Only this time get paid for it. You do it everyday. This is the same thing.

Who wouldn’t want to make money doing something they do everyday?

But 95% drop out. Worse, thousands of reps in and out of the business talk about their new status as members of the NFL – No Friends Left. They’ve used them up. So now they have no money, and no more friends.

Here’s the big mistake:

NO NM company I know of teaches people to tell up front that they’re selling the product they’re talking up. (Because that would contradict the recruiting mantra that they’re getting paid to just do what they always do.) So when the other gal gets enthusiastic and wants to get the product too, the truth comes out: “Uh, I sell it.”

And right then the trust is broken.

“Ahh. So that’s why we had this chat and you said all those nice things about it…”

The next time, the friend doesn’t return the call.

Note: This reaction has nothing to do with the quality of the product. It’s having led the friend to believe they were just chatting the way friends do – using the transparent and trusted word of mouth channel – reserved for friends who speak with NO ulterior motive. See Wikpedia’s clear definition here.

P&G’s new tactic of bribing women to talk up products to their friends without telling could lead to the same erosion of trust among friends.

“We know that the most powerful form of marketing is an advocacy message from a trusted friend,” says Steve Knox, CEO of a P&G company doing this.

So they find the biggest talkers who, for a box of product and discount coupons, will chat up these products to friends, without disclosing a thing.

The tactic seems to be increasing sales significantly for P&G right now. But it may very well implode, and here’s why:

They conveniently leave it up to the bribed women to tell or not to tell. Those who don’t, and I expect that’s most because it changes the dynamic instantly, will have to deal with the fallout – the reactions of their friends who find out later that their recommendations were paid for.

If a friend of mine were talking up a product or program to me, and they were secretly bribed like this and didn’t tell me, and I found out later, it’s the last time I’d listen to them with an open heart and mind.

I do NOT mind people I know making money on me. I have helped them do it, by making sure they DID get paid for referrals that were worth money to me. But I want to know up front. So I can adjust my listening strategies. I don’t want to find out later, after I’ve already let my most vulnerable side respond to the (secretly paid for) recommendation of a then trusted friend.

P&G: Teach the women in these programs how to tell up front that they’re getting something from you to do this extra talking up of your products – they obviously weren’t doing it before (judging by the increase in sales.) You can accomplish much the same thing if you offer the language skill set to enable them to do that with their friends.

If you don’t, you risk getting the same image much of network marketing is stuck with right now:

P&G: the people who encourage their customers to use and abuse their friends for uh, well, in your case, a case of soap.

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Get More Traffic Than You Can Use

Generating excess traffic to your website is the key being successful online. This however is very delicate and hot subject for internet marketers, especially when it comes to generating free traffic, which seems to be the ultimate goal of all online entrepreneurs. But I can assure you that most sources of free traffic do not come free

Keywords:
business opportunities,work at home,business opportunity,home business,work at home business,work-at-home,business,home-based business,work from home,opportunities,affiliate program,business opportuni

Generating excess traffic to your website is the key being successful online. This however is very delicate and hot subject for internet marketers, especially when it comes to generating free traffic, which seems to be the ultimate goal of all online entrepreneurs. But I can assure you that most sources of free traffic do not come free at all. Did you ever calculate how much time you take browsing these sites, and as you might have already found out by now, in our line of business time can be more precious than spending a few bucks on advertising your business.

The best solution is to try and find a balance between these two forms of generating traffic. When you combine the best free traffic sources with some of the best paid advertising, you are on the right path to get a result. Me personally, I will suggest three methods that will boost your online traffic, and if you put your mind to it and concentrate to these three methods of advertising, the traffic you need will come. Let me give you a brief description of my favorite three methods which are: (1) Posting and Contributing to forums; (2) Writing and Distributing your own articles; (3) Buying and Writing Ezine ads.

1. Posting and Contributing to Forums

Please try to understand that these places are not for posting ads. The primary scope is to contribute with your questions and answers. Forum spam is becoming more common, and above all it does not go down very well. If you ask me too many once good forums have been bombarded with Ads posted by online marketers. Therefore, your no.1 goal is to visit these forums, read as many posts as possible, and when you think that you have a good question or answer, then post it to the forum. This type of attitude towards forums will allow you to build certain credibility in that forum, and only by giving an honest and well thought opinion on the topic discussed will generate interest in your business from other members. As you build your credibility, you will generate free traffic, and most forums allow you to post a link at the end of your post where you can promote not advertise your business.

2. Writing and Distributing your own Articles

Articles can give you that much needed advantage over your competitor, and a good reason to write you own is that these have the potential of becoming viral once posted. In truth and honesty, I can say that this is my no1 method of diverting free traffic to my site. It is important to concentrate on creating a 500 word article which is relevant to the nature of your online business, and then at the end of your article it is important to include a resource box that displays a link back to your own site. When done, post your article to article distribution sites, and also email groups. To see traffic from this method, it is important that you repeat the process continuously.

3. Buying and Writing Ezine Ads.

This is the method which is not free. However, this paid method of advertising works efficiently, because it is the most specifically targeted method of all three. Start by writing a good ad for your business, and link to your auto responder or directly to your site. The next step is to contact Ezines to place your ad. If you do a search for “ezine directories,” you will find enough lists to keep you busy for a long time. Once contacted, look for rates for both classified ads and solo ads. Solo ads are usually more effective because they out in a separate email, but for this reason they are more expensive. So make sure that you choose the right ezines which relate to your business and do not advertise in an unrelated ezine. Once this is done, you will need to track your results to see which ezines bring you the most and best traffic in order to repeat the process with different ads.

These three methods of generating traffic will keep you busy for a while, and if you do things the right way and most important of all stay focused, you will definitely see the traffic you need.

To Your Success,

Brian Camilleri

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How To Know If Your Business Card Stinks

If your business card isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do – helping the receiver remember you in a desirable way, leaving behind a strong, positive impression of you, your company and your product or service – then it’s a failure. It stinks.

And if you’re reading this article, it probably does. Stink, that is.

Wonder how can I make that prediction, without ever having seen your business card?

Two reasons.

First reason. People keep business cards that have value —…

Keywords:
business card, cards, marketing, advertising, small business

If your business card isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do – helping the receiver remember you in a desirable way, leaving behind a strong, positive impression of you, your company and your product or service – then it’s a failure. It stinks.

And if you’re reading this article, it probably does. Stink, that is.

Wonder how can I make that prediction, without ever having seen your business card?

Two reasons.

First reason. People keep business cards that have value — business cards that, in their minds, have information on a person or product or service that they find interesting or that they think they’ll need. It only makes sense, right?

In my opinion, such a business card may be ugly — or cheap — or ordinary — but if someone chooses to keep it (for legitimate business reasons, not for scratch paper), it doesn’t “stink”.

However, the vast majority of business cards are thrown away almost immediately. According to research I’ve seen, more than 90% of business cards are thrown away the same day they’re received. Less than 1% of business cards are kept more than thirty days.

True, some people throw business cards away because they save the information on them in an alternate format (such as an electronic business card scanner), but most are pitched because they’re of no value to the recipient.

In other words, they stink. They’re crappy. They’re literally worthless.

Reason two to believe your business card stinks.

I have no statistical data to back this up, but I’ve often noticed that many business people seem to be nervous or embarrassed when they’re actually at the point of handing someone their business card.

Maybe Ms. Business is having a great conversation with a potential customer. She’s really excited and enthused about the newest Wonder Widget her company manufactures, and her prospect is smiling and looking interested. But something happens when it’s time for her to hand over the company business card.

She grimaces. She hesitates. Her tone of voice changes. She makes some sort of offhand remark like “Well, here’s my business card.” Instead of eagerly, confidently giving someone this outstanding example of their company’s professionalism and credentials, this awesome, amazing business card — her whole posture and demeanor conveys a sense of embarrassment.

Or maybe you’ve felt it yourself — a mental twinge, or an inner voice that says “Maybe he won’t be impressed” or “My card isn’t as good as my competitor’s” — when the time comes for you to give someone your business card. Instead of giving someone your company card with poise and assurance, you feel reluctant to actually let someone else see it… and judge it.

After all, that card is your baby. Maybe you were instrumental in the creation of the card. Maybe you’ve had the business card so long that you’ve become attached to it. Either way, if someone throws that business card away, or casually stuffs it into their pants pocket without even looking at it, it feels like rejection. If they don’t appreciate the card, they don’t appreciate YOU.

So… if you’re worried that your business card stinks, so worried that you cannot hand it out without fearing that it will be found wanting, and if you haven’t had enough positive reactions to reassure you that your fears are groundless… it probably does.

Of course, there are objective criteria to use when evaluating a business cards’… er, “stink factor”. And varying degrees of “stinkiness.”

For example, business cards that are overcrowded, stink. Business cards that give you no idea what product or service you offer, stink. Business cards that waste the space on the back side of the card may not stink, but they’re certainly being underutilized.

And business cards that aren’t kept, remembered, and used by your customers or prospects, stink.

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