Marketing is a verb . . . .

Does everybody knows your name?

Did you know that marketing is a VERB? The verb is perhaps the most important part of sentences. A verb or compound verb asserts something about the subject of the sentence and express actions, events, or states of being . . . Marketing sounds like a verb to me!

When you market you share all you can about your business, your offerings and your services. You express action through creating marketing, advertisements, and promotions. Without a verb in a sentence, could we understand the statement or question? Marketing is a verb. Marketing connects people with your business. Could we connect our businesses with clients and customers without marketing?

Do you have a business without a verb? Hmmmm . . . . Today is a good day to develop some verbs!

This is my own kind of beautiful . . . Dream Your World!

I am Lisa Henry-Harper . . . Digital Content Producer & Visual Storyteller

Learn more about my marketing coach services and mentor-ship program for entrepreneurs, start-ups and boot-straps. Visit CrowBeautiful.com

Keep it Moving!

Does everybody know your name?

Why waste time on projects or marketing that isn’t making you money? Once you realize this fact; halt and work on a campaign that will. Marketing is trial and error. Keep it moving!!!!

My number one phrase is “get creative”. . . . I love ideas and believe ideas are the seed of success, however it is best not to get tooooooo attached to a great idea. Sometimes great ideas are born before its time. Doesn’t mean it’s not a fantastic idea. I encourage you to keep it in your marketing treasure chest, but keep it moving. That great idea will be ready when the time is right, but in the meantime . . . Keep It Moving! . . .

 

This is my own kind of beautiful . . . Dream Your World!

I am Lisa Henry-Harper . . . Digital Content Producer & Visual Storyteller

Learn more about my marketing coach services and mentor-ship program for entrepreneurs, start-ups and boot-straps. Visit CrowBeautiful.com

Is Marketing Expensive?

Relationships are Life’s Chocolate High!

Does everybody know your name?

How expensive should your marketing be? This is an important question. Many do not want to spend a dime on their marketing. I was that person years ago, so I know exactly the feelings and hesitation for spending a certain amount on your marketing.

I have come to know that cost has nothing to do with how much you spend. It has everything to do with the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. What if you spend 5,000 to run 2 weeks worth of marketing and you realize a 12,000 profit in that week, you have marketed inexpensively. Cost is not the issue, it is how effective it is for you.

Do your homework to insure that the marketing and advertisements you choose to share your business and your offerings will be effective. Analyze, review, take polls before settling on a marketing avenue and shelling out the bucks. Feel good and have faith that what you choose to spend on your marketing will be effective and be inexpensive to you, no matter the amount you pay.

This is my own kind of beautiful . . . Dream Your World!

I am Lisa Henry-Harper . . . Digital Content Producer & Visual Storyteller

Learn more about my marketing coach services and mentor-ship program for entrepreneurs, start-ups and boot-straps. Visit CrowBeautiful.com

So you want to be a Rainmaker?! (Re-Post)

 

I heard the Rooster Crow Beautiful and became a new Creation . . . .

Does everybody know your name?

Rainmaker may refer to

• Rainmaking, attempting to artificially induce or increase precipitation
  • Rain dancing, a ceremonial dance that is performed in order to invoke rain
  • Cloud seeding, dispersing substances into the air that serve as cloud condensation or ice nuclei

The “Rainmaker” is any person who attracts and establishes long-term business relationships with clients and/or desirable contracts. It is not enough to create a marketing plan and pay attention to your marketing only Mondays and Thursdays. Becoming a rainmaker takes willingness, persistence, patience, and the ability to accept and mold to change. It requires evolving your state of mind and continually building your staff through constant business development.  To build anything worth having requires work.

Rainmaking does require a ceremonial dance. Establishing business relationships of respect and confidence with your target audience and local community is a ceremonial dance, a journey of building trust that you will do the work they are paying and entrusting you to do.

Bringing business in the door that surpasses financial expectations is awesome, however it does not indicate a “Rainmaker” Once the client or contract chooses your services, does your work live up to the expectations that were presented by you or your staff? Business development should come before a marketing plan is put into action. Poor service does not a “Rainmaker” make.

So you want to be a rainmaker? The next question I personally ask myself, when I’m tired or must work with obstacles is, “What are willing to do to get what you say you want?” You cannot skip or ignore the dance if you want rain. You can change the style of the dance, the tempo, or the venue but rainmakers dance.

Becoming a rainmaker is a journey, whatever business you are in. Setting goals, working your business vision everyday and adapting to change are necessary to become a certified “Rainmaker”

 

This is my own kind of beautiful . . . Dream Your World!

I am Lisa Henry-Harper . . . Digital Content Producer & Visual Storyteller

Learn more about my marketing coach services and mentor-ship program for entrepreneurs, start-ups and boot-straps. Visit CrowBeautiful.com

Databases Build Client-Relations (Re-Post)

Does everybody know your name?

Marketing effectively on low and no budgets REQUIRES a humble attitude and understanding what you are against. No one is going to waste time with people or businesses cash flow poor or seem to be going nowhere who are not humble and skilled. They must believe in you and your business concept.

Minds will be closed to your services or offerings. One must have a willing mind to receive and accept. Your attitude task is to help prospective clients in any way possible expecting to receive nothing.

A willing mind must accept you and clearly see that your circumstances are temporary, that you are temporarily without cash and start to believe in the services you provide. This is where database marketing is crucial to your business. The most important word in guerrilla marketing for this post is DATABASE.

Keeping a record to track clients, prospective clients, and important deadlines is a must. It keeps you in tune with your clients’ needs. A satisfied client normally is great for spreading how wonderful you are.

Businesses are different and have different needs and uses for information collected. You will have to decide how, when, and where this information is structured to benefit your business. I will use my experience only as an example.

When I first became marketing manager for a criminal defense law firm  I immediately noticed that the information the firm was paying someone to gather was not being used to its maximum. At that point, I had over ten years of commission sales, sales management, and management experience. I knew that the firm’s bottom line would increase with a few adjustments. Never had I seen a group of people fight change before on any marketing job, especially when profits may increase. After about a year of fighting, I set-up the database and began using it without approval or help from any staff member.

One Monday morning, the attorney came to my office closed the door and said, “Show me that thing. We took in five cases this weekend.” The irony of it, everyone got a raise that year but me. I didn’t complain to the attorney because it was his name on the door, he caught me as I was leaving one day and handed me a bonus. I received a bonus every 90 days after.

The information that the firm was paying to receive was now being tracked. I was able to track trends and properly prepare successful campaigns for popular arrest charges that occurred in different areas of the state. We were able to track who was coming to the county jail possibly to pick-up indictment papers or just been arrested. Usually most picking up indictment papers had already retained counsel and if not, the attorney knew then that a payment plan probably was not possible if they called the firm.

The database also helped to increase revenue on some cases. Before a prospective client was allowed to speak with an attorney in the firm, their information could be immediately verified while they were currently on the phone.

Sometimes a prospective client had separate cases and charges in other jurisdictions and the information was flagged. The attorney was able to ask the client if he needed representation on those cases along with the one he initially called about. The information that our attorneys could share with prospective clients immediately cemented the attorney-client relationship.

This is just a little information about the power of database marketing. It is important that you create one for yourself and your business. Your needs will be different. I created a prospective database for every product or service I sold or represented from furniture, prestige cosmetics, and had a database for district managers, whether they were my manager or not, helped me keep up with the politics of the businesses I worked for, equally important. A humble attitude and a well organized database are solid building blocks.

One more thing, gather database information yourself to ensure integrity. I know there are great information brokers and lead lists out there, however, how many of your competition purchased the same list? The more competition, the more time and energy you spend on courting prospective clients. Working a watered down list is time management suicide, especially for attorneys.

 

This is my own kind of beautiful . . . Dream Your World!

I am Lisa Henry-Harper . . . Digital Content Producer & Visual Storyteller

Learn more about my marketing coach services and mentor-ship program for entrepreneurs, start-ups and boot-straps. Visit CrowBeautiful.com

I Want Champagne, on a Beer Pocketbook!!

Does everybody know your name?

This is how I best describe how much I actually want to spend on marketing.

Marketing on a consistent basis can be costly in money, time and imagination. I have made my fair share of poor marketing choices that I would not trade for the world. I would not appreciate the knowledge received from them without those costly, COSTLY mistakes. This is what I learned from personal professional experience.

IMAGINATION is priceless when wanting champagne marketing and advertising on a beer pocketbook. Imagination is what keeps your marketing presence professional on low budgets. Imagination is key to achieving champagne success on a limited marketing budget.

TIME is the next important must have. Patience is a must building your connections and spreading your message via direct marketing, social networking, email marketing, events, etc . . . Some marketing campaigns incubate for three to four weeks and others must have a full nine months, so patience is part of the process.

Now speaking from personal experience, having patience with no operating capital to keep you floating is torture. If this is the case, stay on course because If it is to be, it is ALL up to YOU!  People respect successful results, they do not appreciate the efforts or the process to get there, so don’t look for accolades while building. Simply work your plan, only a few understand you do not have a champagne budget and what that REALLY means for you personally.

In the first consultation with entrepreneurs about their marketing, they have said or implied this message when asked what they expect from a customized marketing campaign. The first expectation of 80% of my first consultations: . . . I Want Champagne, on a Beer Pocketbook! . . . Translation . . . I don’t want to spend a lot of  money on marketing.

Do you have imagination, time, and patience? If so, there is so much success headed your way marketing with a low marketing budget!!

This is my own kind of Beautiful . . . Dream Your World!

I am LISA LIFE . . . 🙂

Cut Back on Marketing? WTH!!

Does everybody know your name?

I have listened to three people who have businesses and mentioned that their plan of action due to the economy, (1) *is to suspend all marketing for a while, (2) *to cut back on the marketing budget, and (3) *to let the marketing company they hired go for about a month or so, until things turn around.” They said they are working out how they will in-house market until things turn around.

OK, I shall say it again. Cut back on marketing, WTH!!!!!

Marketing is the beginning, the middle, and without it, the end of your business. People forget quickly, they lose faith in you and your business when you drop off the scene, and your competitors will feast easily on your “should have been” client’s.

Cut back on marketing? You might as well cut your own throat NOW! Why wait three months from now, just cut it now before your phone goes dead, your front door starts collecting dust, and the employees that probably put the idea in your head to begin with, start looking for and find a better job. When the ship goes down, the only person that will be standing there is YOU. It ain’t no shame in laying off or implementing a run-and-go-get-it policy for your employees.

There is nothing more I will say other than, “Cut back on marketing? What the h….!!

This is my own kind of Beautiful . . . Dream Your World!

I am LISA LIFE . . . 🙂

Never Halt Your Marketing!

Does everybody know your name?

An IDEAL rule of marketing is NEVER halt your marketing. This is what I have been adamant about for years and have declared it shameful to even think about, however the question is, “How to re-prime your marketing plan?” after you have halted your marketing.

A positive attitude of PRESS and move forward are key. The following, details the challenges to re-prime your halted marketing.

Challenge 1:

Your audience forgets you fast! Without being in the eye of your audience daily, you won’t be remembered. The point of marketing and advertising is for people to know about you and your services.

Challenge 2:

Understanding that you will have missed opportunities because you are not in the game. If you are not playing in the game, there is no opportunity to win.

Challenge 3:

Your competition is picking up YOUR missed opportunities. The competition is creating relationships with potential clients or customers and in this economy establishing those relationships are marketing gold.

Challenge 4:

Starting over. You can’t start a business without marketing and you can’t maintain a business without it. Without marketing there is no business.  Once you stop marketing, time and money already spent to gain share of MIND is wasted and you have lost that share of mind to your competitor. Time to start over or repair broken client relationships.

When developing your marketing plan knowing these basic challenges will help structure your marketing campaign to succeed after you have halted your marketing. There will be many posts sharing how to overcome being out of the eye of your audience, so sign up to receive blog updates.

This is my own kind of beautiful . . . Dream Your World!

I am LISA LIFE . . . 🙂

Personally Develop: Become a Mental Athlete

Does everybody know your name?

Personal development is the core of creating, building, and sustaining a marketing plan/campaign on limited financial resources. The journey of a marketing war with low or limited resources requires heart, presence of mind and many compromises.

You must be a mental athlete. One that can move around the obstacles of limited resources. Personal development of mind and self fills the void of lack of financial resources, lack of objects needed, and pressures from those asking, “How, what, where, when, and why.”

It is never too late to learn, grow, and achieve. All things are possible, BELIEVE.  Bringing your dream into reality is work that is worth the journey. There is much trial and error developing, so be patient. This is what I remind myself to do daily.

This is my own kind of beautiful . . . Dream Your World!

I am LISA LIFE . . . 🙂

Be Persistent!

Does everybody know your name?

Persistence can be the greatest asset or your worst enemy. Dedication and persistence are necessary when marketing on a low budget. It is like watching water boil, it seems the water will never get hot, especially when finances are unsecured. However this is the normal journey of marketing on a low budget in the beginning.

To keep your eyes on the prize, surround yourself with people who will encourage and support you. Make a plan and follow it, however leave room to explore other opportunities that may arise. Be aware of negative influences, naysayers, and dream killers. Visions are to be believed or not believed when they are shared. If you share your vision with someone and they do not believe in your vision, thank them for listening and give birth to your vision. Just keep your mind focused and not allow negative influences to cause doubt. This includes friends and family also.

Persistence can be your greatest asset. Remember the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. The Tortoise knew he was not as fast as the Hare, but he believed he could win and with persistence he won!

Persistence can also be your enemy. There is such a thing of persistently riding a horse to death. Choose your battles, focus your energy of persistence in a direction that will benefit you and your business.

This is my own kind of Beautiful . . . Dream Your World . . .

I am LISA LIFE . . . 🙂
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