Business Development Training and Marketing Strategies

Twitter Is For Dummies. The “Non-Dummy Guide to Networking”

We all know what Social Networking is right?

Join Twitter or Facebook…spend a few hours a day on it,  develop a loyal devout following of “raving lunatic” fans…get rich…buy an island somewhere…retire…die happy…end of happy story.

Lately I’m getting e-mails requesting explanations of how to make money from Social Networking, I’m getting comments on this blog about it…I’m getting phone calls about it.

Are you getting the picture?

Companies are even devoting big chunks of their annual marketing budget to this stuff.

I went to a marketing webinar last week with a guy who claimed to have 35,000 followers on Twitter.

There was Q&A at the end.

I asked him how much money he’s made from Twitter so far.

The answer: “NONE” – But the potential is there.

Bullshit!!!!

I’ve read 40-50 articles and special reports  about the “business potential” of social networking.

How much have the authors actually made?

NOTHING!

More bullshit!!!

Are Facebook or Twitter profitable?

NO!!!

Does anyone reading this blog understand where Facebook or Twitter get cash flow from????

Does anyone understand their business model????

Okay…to be fair I decided to open a Twitter account. At the moment my profile on that account contains my name, my birthday and NOTHING else.

I get 4-5 requests per day to join other people’s lists as they have already become “devout followers” of mine (as if I asked them or gave them any incentive to.)

Presumably this is all due to our stated common interests.

How can someone have common interests with me when I haven’t described any common interests? For all these people know I’m an axe murderer!!!!

You will never market something to people that you know nothing about.

But….everyone on Twitter and Facebook et al is sure trying.

Instead of ranting about this further (in my opinion I’ve wasted my time writing about this and you’re wasting your time reading about social networking-especially if you’re trying to make money)…I’m going to do something useful…send you for another opinion!!!

Here’s a link to the BEST article on using socual networking that I’ve read so far and it’s written by a 15 year old kid  who happens to b e pretty smart little entrepreneur (he’s actually got two web design businesses operating world wide already.) I’m calling it the “Non-Dummy Guide to Social Networking:”

 http://asnio.com/twitter-gather-information/

Please take a few minutes to read it and save yourself the pain of looking back on wasted time and money spent on this craze and viewing it all with the same fondess that the “disco” embarrassment  is now remembered for.

Feel free to leave some comments below  if you think I’ve short changed the topic.

Me, I’m sticking with proven stuff that works like real conversations with real prospects and things like demographics and lists and that wastes a lot less of my time and money.

Until next time.

Popularity: 49% [?]

Marketing Your Services With Video and The Billy Mays “Effect”

Pitchman Billy Mays sold eveything from OxiClean to car Scatch remover.

Whether you loved his bearded face and loud sales pitches or hated them there is one thing that is certain…he sold hundreds of millions dollars of products throughout his professional career.

Most people reading this blog would put Billy Mays in the “hate” category because frankly…we’re far to”educated” (and our clients are also far to educated) to be persuaded by loud and aggressive salespeople and pitches right?

We “know” this to be a true  because you have scientifically tested it right?

Below is a link to a site run by Internet marketing guru Rich Schefren. Rich sells EXPENSIVE (as in $5,000 per year per participant) coaching programs to large and small internet businesses.

Rich always operated under the assumption that his clientele were all far “to smart” for the “slick” infomercial type of pitches that Billy Mays was famous for.

Just to “prove” his assumption right he decided to split test a video for a new product that he is in the process of launching.

You will be very surprised at what he learned:

Here is the link to the video and the complete explanation of the results:

Click  HERE to See The “Video Split Test”

Can we learn something about high value professional services marketing from this?

Leave your thoughts and comments below.

Until nest time.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Reader Survey Results Part 2 – What Readers Want to See More Of

Thanks again to all of you that participated my Reader Survey.

In my last article I reported  on the number one business concerns that all of you have out there right now.  Not surprisingly given the state of the economy, Finding New Clients came out on top with almost 81% of you rating this as your number one business priority right now.

I also asked readers what topics they would like to see more of on this blog and here are the top 5 results:

1.  Lead  Generation Strategies: 65.38%

2.  Personal Branding and Reputation Strategies: 61.54%

3.  Developing Effective Marketing Plans: 57.69%

4.  Differentiation and Positioning Strategies: 53.85%

5. Using Technology to Leverage Yourself: 50.00%

Here are some more interesting reader “facts’:

• 80.77% of you want to see more coaching resources such as videos, checklists and fast start packages.
• 61.54% want more resources that can serve as a a training foundation for others at your firm.
• 76.92% of you prefer “self” paced learning versus the “3 Day Intensive Blow Your Brains Out In the First 3 Hours” type of stuff we are all familiar with.
• 80.77% of you feel that web based learning is just as effective as work shop based learning (this is more bad news for the airlines!)

Well…I am going to do my best to deliver on these things starting with some changes that you’ll be reading about very soon.

Please leave comments if there are some topics/gripes/likes/dislikes in addition to what I’ve talked about above that you would like to see the direction of this blog moving in.

Thanks.

Until next time.

Popularity: 44% [?]

Reader Survey Results – Getting New Clients #1 Concern

As you all know I conducted a brief readership survey 2 weeks ago.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to respond.

I’m going to discuss the findings over several blog posts.

Not surprisingly Finding New Clients is the number one priority with 81% of respondents stressing this as their major business concern right now.

In second place came dealing with Price Sensitive Clients with 58% of respondents citing this as a major concern.

Third place was a three way tie  at 30% between Collecting Fees, Strengthening Client Relationships For The Long Haul and Raising the Quality of Your Client Base.

So what does this tell us?

In simple terms nearly all of you out there need Lead Generation Systems and….you need to look at your Client Relationship Management Systems .

New leads can be developed in a variety of ways   and is the surest route to getting a flood of new business in the door. Recession or no recession, the MORE people you contact that are capable of buying your services and paying for them…the more your bottom line will grow.

Most client relationship (including collection problems) are solved with one simple thing…..Client Communication.

Do you speak with your clients about things other than their bills and the project at hand?

85% of you DON’T in my experience.

Get to know your clients on a personal level. Understand their problems and their dreams. Send them helpful materials at regular intervals. Call them periodically just to say hello.

Obviously we can’t discussed Client Relationship Management and Lead Generation in one blog post (hell….I could make two weeks of seminars out of these topics)….but….one thing you can do right now is set up a good client and prospect communication system as I discuss in the article Seven Simple Things You Can Do to Build Your Business and Have Fun This Summer.

The simplest way to set up a good contact management system is to get a CRM program.

Set it up including your past clients, current clients, centers of influence and prospects .

Start communicating like hell (about things other then your bills) and watch your relationships deepen and strengthen.

Learn how to build a lead generation system and implement it.

Also…stick with the systems!

Communication will solve 99% of your client relationship and business development problems.

Get out there and touch somebody…business is a contact spot and you are in business…aren’t you???

Until next time.

Popularity: 60% [?]

Subscriber Survey

I am conducting a brief 8 question multiple choice survey to determine the best and most useful information to share with you over the next six months.

Please assist me in this project so that I may provide you with the right resources for the current economic situation that we all find ourselves operating in.

The survey will take approximately 4 minutes to complete and all responses are 100% confidential.

I will share (as my way of thanking participants) the overall average results of the survey with participants in 15 days so that you can benchmark your firm against overall averages.

Click Here to take the survey

Thank you in advance for your participation.

Warmly,

Patrick  McEvoy

Popularity: 16% [?]

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