2. A Little About Me Launched my virtual assistance firm, BSETC (www.bsetc.com) in 2004 Have serviced over 300 entrepreneurs around the globe with their online business Currently have a team of nineteen service professionals
3. A Little About You Entrepreneur looking for clients. Entrepreneur looking for increased visibility. Entrepreneur unsure about where to start when it comes to marketing their business. Entrepreneur looking to sell products.
4. Marketing Starts With a Message Be really clear about your goals. Your goals will begin to paint the picture of what you need to do, where you need to start and what you need to achieve. Be really clear about your message. Make sure that your message clearly states what you do and what you’re about. Make sure it is consistent throughout your websites, blog, social media, branding and anywhere else you “play” online.
5. What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form. -- David Ogilvy
6. Telling You About Me is Just One Side Think about the conversation you are having with your target market: How can they get to know you? Where do you engage most with your tribe? How transparent are you in your activities? What sort of tools are you utilizing in your biz to help spread that message?
7. Why Effective Marketing Matters Shortens the “know, like and trust” timeline People buy from people, not businesses Your target market has to know you to be able to like and trust you Spread your message and solidify your brand out in your industry
8. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
9. What Does Marketing Today Look Like? Blogging Social media Speaking engagements Media (traditional or new) Connecting with your peers / industry Marketing (offline and online)
10. Blogging Create a blog that showcases your expertise and offers interactivity Create interesting, compelling and engaging blog posts by asking questions and encouraging comments Carve out a niche topic area where you can really showcase your expertise Spread the word about every blog post
11. Quick Blogging Tips With your blog, you can: Add articles you’ve written, or others have written, with relevant content to help build up a good resource for search engines. You can post your upcoming events or, events and promotions for your clients. Post videos to the blog as entries. Post your audio recordings. Use Posterous.com to post articles and resources from other sites around the web.
12. Social Media Focus on the primary three Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Create accounts in your name and your company name Use Tools to Keep Responsiveness High But Not Distracting Reach Out to People You Don’t Know
13. Twitter, Twitter, Twitter <3 Twitter can be an excellent source of leads! Use websites like WeFollow.com and Twellow.com to do searches for Twitterers. You can search on location, keyword and a myriad of other search terms. If you are looking for something specific like “real estate agents”, look up the associations on Twitter and see who is following them. You can then choose who to follow from that list. Once you are following them, reach out but NOT only about what YOU do to make money. Have conversations and build connections.
14. The Power of Facebook Facebook is second in my book to Twitter but it is still a very important tool to be using. Facebook’s power lies in its groups, fan pages and search functionality. Micro-communities exist within Facebook that you can become a part of and attract new business. The same rules apply here – take the passive marketing approach as opposed to the more aggressive approach.
15. Facebook Groups With Facebook groups, you want to seek out the people who would hire you for work. Look for groups with names that resonate with who you are seeking out. Answer questions. Provide helpful links, resources or links to your blog posts. Don’t join every group on Facebook. Join a few key groups and really maximize your relationships there.
16. Facebook Fan Pages Make sure to create a Facebook fan page for your business. Showcase your expertise and bring in your blog feed, if you have one. Post often to the wall to keep people up to date with what you are doing but keep it business related. If you attend events, upload photos / video and post those to the wall and tag people you’ve met in them. Add a Facebook fan page widget to your website.
17. Love for LinkedIn Setup your profile and make sure it’s as complete as possible. Frequent the LinkedIn Answers section and provide answers to questions that you can and do so often. Make connections via importing your email addresses / account and add the info to your website.
18. Real-Time Solutions Provide real-time solutions to people One of the things I’m seeing more and more often on Twitter is random project opps. For example, when I need something and don’t have that person on my team, I reach out to Twitter and ask for quick replies. Answer questions and create real results. A tip: use your blog! When someone asks a question, post the reply to your blog and then link the blog to them. Even better if you have a website that has the blog integrated.
19. Today, marketing is about engaging with the tribe and delivering products and services with stories that spread. -- Seth Godin, “Tribes”
20. Speaking Engagements Reach out to people hosting teleseminars, webinars and live events to ask to speak Speaking publicly raises your industry’s awareness about who you are Speaking publicly lends you credibility and showcases you as an expert Virtual events allow you to reach out without traveling to live events
21. Media (Traditional / New) Internet Radio Guest speak on someone else’s radio program Create your own online program at Blog Talk Radio Online Video Record videos for use on your websites, social media sites and YouTube Do live, streaming video using Ustream or Justin.tv
22. Connecting With Your Peers Outreach for Joint Venture Partners Find people doing something complimentary to what you do and pair up with them to offer solutions Joint venture partners can also become valued affiliates for your business and vice versa
23. General Marketing Tips One-to-Many Approach Your opinions, advice, answers and solutions should service many people – not a single client Reach out daily to people through social networks, e-mail and your blog Provide tons of free content to attract in more people who think like you do Reward the people who are consistent, reliable members of your tribe
24. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they don’t find them, they create them. -- George Bernard ShawQuoted from John Naisbitt’s “Mind Set!”
25. Engage With Me So That I May Engage With You @ErinBlaskie on Twitter www.erinblaskie.com and www.bsetc.com erin@erinblaskie.com
26. If you are not moving closer to what you want in sales (or in life), you probably aren't doing enough asking. -- Jack Canfield