Bucca

With the advent of the online space the world of marketing that had previously existed has made a change. Your customers are smarter than ever before with access to more detailed information on the products and services that are available to them, and they themselves are becoming educated experts on the subject. Today’s marketing systems have made a move from telling to teaching. Prior to the internet it was sufficient to just get the word out about the product or service you sell. These days you need to go further… and your marketing system should reflect this dedication to going the extra mile.

1. Develop a Marketing System

With a consistent investment in marketing activities, you can ensure the steady flow of clients during good and bad times. Your marketing system should be focused on the education of your clients, as opposed to feeding them a sales pitch. In other words, instead of offering a brochure outlining the services you provide, write an executive brief called, "Triple Your Online Sales in Four Easy Steps - Guaranteed."

It is important to build your marketing system in a way that will allow for a variety of different methods to be used in gaining visibility and a standardized follow up method for interested prospects. Good examples of marketing tools that work include newsletters, blog articles, and white papers that drive people to your site, where you then offer additional valuable information and reports. Additional methods to gain exposure for your business could involve giving speeches at local organizations on a subject that you are an expert in, media stunts, and client referral programs. These approaches don't cost much to implement outside of time, and will improve your visibility in ways that your prospects appreciate.

Please don't claim that you don’t have the time, money, and expertise to do more marketing. Anyone can find 30-60 minutes a day to commit to marketing. Money is not a factor because many marketing tactics cost little to nothing. And there is plenty of material out there on how to market, all of which will cost you a fraction of what a new client is worth.

In coming installments I will go into greater detail on the marketing system in which I’ve chosen to implement for my own company Bucca.com… which you can then use as a model for establishing your own marketing system. OR if you’re interested in working with Bucca to build your marketing system feel free to contact us at 877.811.5039 or through our website.

2. The Power of People

Long term, it is fruitless to exchange your time for money. You can only leverage your own time and skills for so long before you will find yourself limiting your earning potential. A powerful tactic used by most successful operations is to make money by working with other people. For instance, you can develop a strong network of people who can refer business to you and you can refer business back to. Another option would be to build a network of complementary professionals you can use on large projects, and start to market more complete solution to your clients utilizing your new network. When you find that the time is right, hire contractors that you pay only when they work, as opposed to hiring a full-time employee to keep your business as lean as it can be, and in turn lowering business risk. Working with other people, in a smart way, both from a marketing and production angle, is important to building your business.

3. Million Dollar Solutions

Are you interested in operating a million dollar business? Then you need to develop a million-dollar solution. Stop only doing the small piece meal jobs for clients, and start finding ways to help the client solve their big picture problems. The better you understand the specific strategic problems your clients face, the better your chances of coming up with a million dollar solution. If you combine a million dollar solution with “People Power”, who can help you implement and market it, you’re in the sweet spot of business, and my guess is you will soon start to see success beyond your wildest dreams.

4. AND... Repeat

Some of the most successful companies that I know got that way by developing solutions that they could use over and over again. For instance, one web design firm I’m familiar with developed a website for a mortgage broker which they then sold over and over again to tens of thousands of brokers, with easy to implement changes from broker to broker. Similarly, other web design companies have created similar site for all sorts of industries: lawyers, doctors, home builders, fitness clubs, realtors, and shopping sites. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel when you can develop a repeatable solution, then customize it to specific clients. This method also dramatically increases your return on investment.

To compete effectively in the marketplace of the future, your business will need to focus more strongly on “The Market of One", or at least what I like to call micro markets of groups of ten or twenty, by offering ultra-customized, real-time, personalized content and services. In today's market of "Me", providing custom tailored advertising, services, and customized products will become imperative to the success of your business.

It's Personal

Personalization is all about empowering customers which means going further than lip service and the noise of crowd sourcing. Primarily, it's about listening to customers and providing an experinece tailored to them. In todays environment I've seen many larger corporations struggle with the concept of personalization. eBay for example, has proven to be set in its ways time and time again with its canned responses to customer service questions. The "Me" crowd is interested in one-to-one connections not one-to-robo-form communication.

Follow The Leader

In a recent Web 2.0 Expo held in New York, Jay Adelson of digg talked about the future of the company. He explains that with the digg of the future, instead of showing users the most popular stories, the future digg will make a guess about what a "Me" likes based on information mined from the demographic veins of social networks. This approach essentially turns every "Me" into a big Venn diagram of interests, and send them stories to match their interests.

The Hyper-Personalized Future

I'm confident that in the near future we will be utilizing web marketing strategies to become hyper-focused on "The Market of One" which will allow advertisers to promote hyper-focused messages to willing customers. Once you take away the idea of lowest common denominator mass market advertising and focus it down to "Me" and customized by "Me" the experience becomes much more pleasant. Once the "Me" start to see ads for things they're genuinely interested in, there is a much higher probability that the "Me" are likely to pay attention and in turn convert into buyers.

It Gets Physical

Now, taking the concept of hyper-personalization and think about how that will ultimately translate into the physical world. Technologies like RFID, Bluetooth, and mobile phones, make it easier than ever to bring that hyper-personalized experience to our physical surroundings. If a person with a Bluetooth enabled device passes by a billboard or some other advertising vehicle it's entirely possible that technology and personalization could kick in and generate a hyper-focused experience tuned to that "Me". Add in Geo Location and you can take that idea even further by proactively informing the "Me" of solutions to known wants and needs in the general area. For example, lets say that I've made it known that I am interested in a new flat screen television. I'm in my local mall and my geo location enabled phone informs me of a great deal on the Panasonic Flat screen that I've looked at in the past at the Best Buy store. Not only that but also points me in the direction of a Best Buy expert in the field who also has a geo location enabled device.

In closing I will leave you with a quote that I feel sums up the times we are in. It's not from some great philosopher or novelist, although he does have a book. It's a quote from american football player Terrell Owens when speaking to reporters in a post-game interview he reportedly said... "I Love Me Some Me" and even trademarked the quote late 2007. Now go out and give some love to "Me".

Aside from the argument of whether we are in a recession or not, its safe to say that just about everyone I know has the economy on their mind. Big picture, its certainly understood that there are signs of struggle, with banks failing and joblessness at its peak.

I've heard from many financial shows over the years that those in the know invest in the low, that is, when a stock is at or close to the bottom of its dip. One recent example of what I would categorize as investing in the low, is that of Warren Buffet's 3 billion dollar investment in General Electric recently. This got me thinking.... should we all be investing, not necessarily in the stock market but in ourselves and our businesses.

It's my belief that we can push through this mess by basically stepping on the gas pedal of innovative thinking and betting on the growth of ourselves and our businesses'. Making the decision to retreat or do nothing because we "fear" it could get worse, would be disastrous for each of us, the businesses we manage, and the economy as a whole.

First of all I want to tell you that most of these guidelines are mostly common sense, which at times seems to be in a shortage on the web these days. For the most part I’ve found that businesses either get the web or they don’t. In this post I will reveal a few simple rules, that if followed will allow you to successfully make a great website.

Content Is King

By far the most important aspect of any great website is original, credible content.

• Understand what your audience wants and give away that valuable, timely information.
• Your sites should be updated on a regular bases and needs to be well edited.
• Users don't read websites, they scan them.
• Split pages into chucks of content for quick scanning
• Link to only the best external sites and give descriptive text to give the user an understanding of the link prior to them clicking it.