by Kelly Andrew Brown July 31st, 2008
Ok, I’ve heard people tout the genius of viral marketing campaigns. But I’d never actually met anyone who’d created a successful campaign…until now.
Viral Marketing is a buzz word that’s been floating around the marketing world for some time now.
The promise?
Come up with a creative enough idea, upload it to YouTube and you’ll have a million in sales without spending a dime.
Pretty cool. But I’d never actually knew anyone who came up with something that worked.
Sure I might see something that was a funny video or an amusing diversion from the general malaise of a work day. But rarely was it something that engaged me enough to try their product or service.
It’s a question of balance.
One extreme produces a thinly veiled commercial that no one cares about.
Another - creates a wildly popular gimmick piece akin to ‘Disco Duck’ — with no substantive value added from a marketing perspective.
But the other day - a friend sends me an invite to Gamesnake’s MakeMeGreek.com.
Read more…
by Kelly Andrew Brown July 6th, 2008
If you’re like most of us, you have limited time to do your basic daily business and personal tasks, let alone take time for personal enrichment.
Yet, we know it’s critical to keep on top of the latest industry topics and skills to maintain a competitive edge.
Thankfully, innovative learning tools provide us a distinct and unique learning alternative.
Audio and video education can be wildly effective and efficient for personal and professional development. You can easily turn “task time” (commuting, exercising, chore) into learning sessions.
From learning new business theories or trying a foreign language, there are hundreds of educational subjects available. From a cost, time and convenience perspective, it’s certainly worth a try.
Here are a few tips to guide you toward the best sources and topics for your needs.Libraries:
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by Kelly Andrew Brown July 3rd, 2008
Have you ever had an innovative, unique idea come to you at the most inopportune time, only to forget it again? Or, perhaps someone has suggested a product or service idea to you, you know it could be cool, but you don’t have the ideas, structure or support to make it come to fruition?
You are certainly not alone.
The good news is that there is a way to make ideas come to life. A prototype, also defined as an “early example,” is actually the first stage of an idea into something tangible. To really get the input needed to grow your idea into something of market value, you can engage in a “protyping” process to connect with the opinion and feedback of potential customers and investors. This is what many startups do when kicking off their operations.
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by Kelly Andrew Brown June 7th, 2008
It sounds a bit like consulting-ese, but collaborative problem solving has become the hot new thing. Especially for entrepreneurs and home-based business owners, this type of Internet-based teamwork can be an easy and relatively affordable way to connect with experts for help around problems or ideas.
Enter IdeaConnection.com (www.ideaconnection.com), one of the leaders in this market. Using proprietary technology, it offers two methods for engaging experts in your problem solving initiatives.
The first option is for you to present your problem and choose problem solvers from a database, based on what they have defined as their areas of expertise and credentials. Twenty percent of that amount goes to IdeaConnection for administering the program; 80% is divided equally among the problem solvers you have accepted to work on the problem, payable only if and when you accept a solution.
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Planning on being an exhibitor at a tradeshow? If this is your first time doing a tradeshow, we thought it important to detail some key things to know and prepare for to ensure you’re investment pays off. Tradeshows are expensive, so make sure you get organized.
1. Once you’ve chosen a particular trade show to attend, plan your budget and book your space. Considering the amount of money you’re paying, it makes sense to try and get the best booth location you can. Usually you can see the map of the trade show floor in advance and identify two or three desirable locations. It’s usually better to try and get a booth on the end of a row. Try to be in a high traffic location, such as near an entrance or other item of interest.
Find out everything you can about your space, including where it is on the floor, what kind of other exhibits will be around it, whether it’s a high traffic or low traffic area, and the physical conditions of the booth space, such as lighting.
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Dedicating the time and money to sales and management training courses is not cheap. Courses can range anywhere from $500 to $3,000 and several weeks of night classes.
But will it be worth it in the long run? Will the confidence & experience (and contacts) you get be the best investment you ever made?
One thing is true: no matter what business you are in, who your customers are, or what the size of your business, the fact is that you and your employees will need some sales skills. The truth is that it is not always the best company in the industry that captures the largest market share. Often, the company that is able to best get the word out about what the company has to offer is the one that captures the largest share of the business.
We’ve put together some thoughts around this to help you decide for yourself.
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by Kelly Andrew Brown April 26th, 2008
My wife & I have recently started a new project, opening the first co-working facility in Northeast Ohio.
Working out of my home for the past 5 years has been great and all. But for many reasons (which you can follow on my new blog (www.officespacecoworking.com), we felt the need to find a place where I could work outside the home.
Long story short, I wanted individuality without isolation, as Susan Evans of Office Nomads might say.
That said - when launching a new business venture you’re faced with a ton of questions.
For us these questions included:
- Would you be interested in this?
- What would you expect to pay for this service?
- What would you expect in the way of amenities?
- How often would you use it?
On the other side of the equation, we had several business questions we wanted answered before we laid down money on anything.
- How big of a facility should we get?
- How long did it take you to break even?
- What will the utilization % be?
Finding Answers To These Tough Business Questions
by Kelly Andrew Brown April 20th, 2008
For many entrepreneurs, attending trade shows and seminars is a treat. They become an easy favorite because they are so interactive and pull the daily “solo” life out of the routine. One can meet with customers, competitors, vendors, partners and like-minded individuals. It can be a real opportunity to facilitate a 2-way dialogue in real, living color.
Ultimately, you’ll hope to make the trade show an effective sales tool for your business. But how do you know if attending it is a good investment of your time and money? From our experience, here are a few tips to consider and to help you choose the right tradeshow for your business needs.
1) Set clear goals for your participation.
What do you want to get out of it? Do you intend to meet new vendors, customers or competitors? Are you just looking to learn what’s new and hot in the industry so you can stay ahead of it? Are you hoping to launch a new product and trying to get ideas? Just make sure that your goals are clear – and that will help you figure out what to attend.
2) Do your research.
You want to choose a trade show that best targets the audience that you want to reach, and best suits your participation goals. Find out what the particular trade show’s objectives are, and investigate and evaluate the show’s audience. Also, see if you can get a list of the previous year’s exhibitors and list of attendees. That will help paint a better picture of the types of folks you’ll encounter.
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by Kelly Andrew Brown April 19th, 2008
Ryan Donahue is the founder of HourTown, which is quickly becoming a leading online scheduling and marketing system for small business owners.
He has more than 10 years of experience in the design of consumer Internet applications and a strong track record in developing tools that help to bridge the gap between technology and small business.
As a founding member of the PayPal design and user research group, Ryan is a highly sought-after expert in user-centered design methodologies.
Ryan has consulted a wide range of Silicon Valley investors, non-profits and startups, helping them to design products that better meet the needs of their customers.
by Kelly Andrew Brown April 12th, 2008
I’m honored to have two guest gurus this week - Jimmy Vee & Travis Miller…authors of Gravitational Marketing.
Jimmy & Travis took a $200 investment & turned it into a multi-million dollar marketing firm. They train & consult entrepreneurs, small business owners & sales professional…bringing a unique spin to the same-old-same old ’safe’ marketing strategies recommended by traditional consultancies.
Some Take Aways:
- Authenticity is key if you’re marketing message is going to hit home. Find your strengths and make those the focus of your marketing efforts.
- A shoe string budget can be your best asset. By limiting your spending you’re forced to edit your efforts to those items that will give yout he biggest bang for the buck. It forces creativity and gets rid of a lot of the noise surrounding traditional marketing efforts
- Position yourself as an expert. Don’t wait for someone to come and pin an expert button on you, you can do it yourself through blogging, through social media, through publishing.
- Determine who you want to attract. You can’t do busieness with everyone , so determine who most wants your product or service and target them specifically.
Learn more at their Web site: www.gravitationalmarketing.com
