duct tape marketing

Orange County Blogging for Business Marketing MeetUp

Are you part of the Orange County Duct Tape Marketing Group yet?  Our March topic is Blogging for Business!

If you’re not blogging about your business, you are missing out on one of the most effective and affordable ways to promote your business online! Blogging is the foundation of social media marketing, providing fresh conversations. In this meeting, you will learn why blogging is should be a foundational part of your marketing mix. We’ll also discuss:

• Why blogging is an extremely effective marketing strategy for small businesses right now.
• Finding keywords that will bring the most traffic from search results.
• How to develop persuasive, compelling content in just minutes.
• Leveraging your blog to influence friends in online social networks.
• How to develop persuasive, compelling content in just minutes.
• Etiquette, tips and tricks that make you look like a pro!

Why should you attend?

Blogging is an easy and fun way to promote your business - BUT if you don’t have your blog set up right, you won’t be getting the full business benefits.

Register to learn about Blogging for Business

MEETING AGENDA:

5:30 Welcome and Networking - Appetizers Served
6:00-7:30 Marketing Meeting
7:30-8:00 Wrap Up

Come mingle with other small business owners, marketing and sales professionals as you learn how to apply Duct Tape Marketing’s principles to your business. Veteran marketing professional, Adrianne Machina of Tornado Marketing, an Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach, will facilitate a discussion on the practical steps you can take to market your business affordably and effectively.

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Is your business on the road to hell?

 You know the road I’m talking about - it’s the one paved with good intentions.

 Remember how before the New Year you promised yourself you’d commit to growing your business in 2009?   You’d start an email newsletter.  You’d start a blog.  You’d do monthly mailings. You’d start calling 5 customers every Friday.  Whatever your promises were, are you doing them?

 It’s February now. 

The truth it’s oh-so-easy to be well-intentioned, but lack the structure and commitment to achieve your goals. 

How can you get that grow-your-business marketing structure?  You need to create a marketing system and hold yourself accountable for executing to plan.  How can you do that?  You can:  

• Hire a marketing coach/consultant. 


• Buy the Duct Tape Marketing System. 


• Buy Marketing Plan Pro. 


• Put a big calendar whiteboard on your wall. 


• Write your tasks in your day planner. 


• Put your daily tasks in Microsoft Outlook.

There are lots ways to get structure - you just need to figure out what will work for you.  Because - without structure - you will never be consistent with your marketing.  It’s just too easy to put off  marketing tasks and focus on the other 99 aspects of your business.  A structured marketing system tells you exactly what you need to do every day, every week and every month to bring in a steady stream of clients.

I don’t want to see you on the road to business hell.  That’s an awful place where creditors are calling, payroll is late, and you have to make hard choices.  It’s not too late.  It’s never too late.  I’m sure you’ll agree with me that the road to riches - or even just a smooth and steady predictable road - is a lot more fun!

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OC Duct Tape Marketing Meetup

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Wordpress Websites from Duct Tape Marketing

What’s a Wordpress Website?  A Wordpress Website (also called a blogsite) is a full featured, search engine friendly website that just happens be built on the world’s greatest blogging software (WordPress).  Just today Duct Tape Marketing has announced the launch of their turnkey Wordpress Website offerings. 

I’m so excited about this offering because it makes building a website so affordable!  If your website is sooooooo 2000, the Duct Tape Marketing Blogsites offering gives your business the web presence you need, a blog, and a way for anyone in your organization (especially non-techies) to update and expand your website as your business and marketing needs grow.  These Wordpress Websites are available for one fixed price - and custom themes are available!  

Why would you consider Wordpress website?  Three reasons.  

1.  Wordpress websites look great - very web 2.0, have the hipster “cool” factor;

2.  Wordpress websites are incredibly inexpensive; and

3.  Wordpress websites are really, REALLY easy to update!  If you can use Microsoft Word, you can use a Wordpress website.  Duct Tape Marketing takes care of all the administration and hosting, and the set up is completely turnkey.  If you have the content ready, you can be LIVE in as little as 14 days! If you need help with writing persuasive website copy, we’re here to help.   

Go check out the Wordpress Website templates Duct Tape Marketing has posted.  Remember you can always get something custom made if needed!  Contact us here at Tornado Marketing if you have any questions!

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Building Trust, Small Business Marketing in a Recession

Do you believe me when I tell you that your small business should be marketing in a recession? 

Maybe.  Maybe not. 

It depends on how well you know and trust me.  If you are new to reading my blog, you might think, “Yeah right. Of course you want me to be marketing.  You’re selling marketing services.  Sheesh….” But if you know, like and trust me BEFORE I tell you you should be marketing in a recession, you are much more likely to trust my advice.  

TRUST is a major component of any decision.  Read Stephen M. R. Covey’s “The Speed of Trust” for a much deeper illustration of this principle.  Anyone marketing and selling for a small business - especially in professional services - needs to pay attention to building credibility, not just bringing in leads.  It is extremely difficult to build trust just by telling people they should trust you.  You need to SHOW them they should trust you.  How do you SHOW trust?

1.  Show studies, statistics, measurements.  If I show you that - ”According to a study by the American Business Press of the 1974-75 recession, companies that did NOT cut their marketing budget increased sales by 200% two years later, a fourfold difference over those who did cut their budget.”  - I’m backing up what I’m saying with numbers.  You can go read the study results for yourself, and know that I’m not making it up.  Here’s one PDF from Create-Demand.com called Marketing in a Recession.

2.  Don’t believe your own press - or at least don’t expect others to believe it.  When I hear someone say (about themselves) that they are a trusted advisor or similar self-serving talk, I can’t help but smile and think about Garrison Keillor’s ficticious town of Lake Wobegon, where “all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above-average.”  (Can you tell I grew up in MN?!) The point is that we all think that we’re above average, but 50% of us are wrong.

3.  Get others to say it for you.  Case studies, testimonials and referrals are powerful tools for building credibility.   Now more than ever you should be working to create enthusastic customers, and bringing in leads through referrals.  A third party voice is much powerful than your own.  Even been persuaded to buy something from an Infomercial?  Those infomercial marketing pros know exactly how to tug at your heart strings and purse strings using the power of the testimonial.

Now get out there and get marketing!  Use these credibility-building tips to boost your trust factor.  These tips will help you shorten your sales cycle and increase your lead-to-sales conversion ratio. 

P.S.  John Jantsch just sent me this offer:  For those of you who want to learn from the best, Michael Gerber and John Jantsch are running a marketing retreat up in Sonoma County November 13th and 14th.  As a Duct Tape Marketing Coach, I can offer you a 25% discount if you use purchase code EBMK1108 by midnight Monday, October 27th.  http://www.e-myth.com/seminars/ducttapemarketing/ If you decide to go, send me an email, (Email Adrianne Machina) and maybe I’ll shoot up there and join you for the marketing workshop and a glass of wine, two of my favorite things!

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Seth Godin, Dave Lakhani and John Jantsch on “Tribes”

I can’t wait for Friday.  While not quite as exciting as Christmas, three of my favorite people will be on a call discussing my favorite subject - MARKETING!  More specifically, they will be discussing the marketing influence of tribes. 

Mark your calendar right this second - Friday, October 24th, at 10 a.m. Pacific Time - and Reserve Your Seat.

I’ll be shocked if phone lines aren’t jammed.  I consider all three of these men to be my marketing mentors, even if I really only know Seth Godin and Dave Lakhani through their books and speaking gigs.  I guess I must be part of their tribe. 

Seth Godin just released a book called Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, and Dave Lakhani, who was raised in a cult, has written several books on persuasion, including Subliminal Persuasion: Influence & Marketing Secrets They Don’t Want You To Know, and of course if you read my blog, you must know John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing. 

We have always had tribes - churches, schools, community groups, but they’ve been organized around place. Today we have tribes organized around ideas and the technology to tie those ideas together like never before - but who leads a community like that? How do you lead a community like that?

Join John Jantsch live this Friday, Oct 24 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time as his discusses this very relevant topic with Seth Godin and Dave Lakhani.  Best of all, the call is FREE! How can you pass up hearing from this trio of marketing superstars, when all it costs is an hour of your time?!

Can’t make the live call? Not to worry. Go ahead and register and you’ll receive a recording link when the call is over.  Spread the word!

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Drinking the Duct Tape Marketing Kool-Aid

In my Duct Tape Marketing workshops and coaching sessions, we talk about the sales hour-glass, the marketing system that turns the prospects into tryers, buyers, repeat buyers, and raving fans. Well, this week John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing showed us exactly how that’s done!

Adrianne Machina, Duct Tape Marketing Coach

About 25 of of the Duct Tape Marketing Coaches descended on Kansas City, Missouri for a 3-day intensive conference.  Every one of us Duct Tape Marketing Coaches has at least 10 years of marketing experience, and yet every one of us was overwhelmed my the quality and quantity of fresh, compelling content.  We were all ”drinking from the firehose”, trying to soak up as much of the new information as we could.   How refreshing!  All of us have already bought into Duct Tape Marketing - but John inspired each of to reach for a new level of success with our businesses. 

The message here is that even if you have customers who have bought your products and services in the past, doesn’t mean that you can’t host sessions that will make them even happier and you even more profitable!  Sage and Microsoft Dynamics both put great importance on partner and customer conference because they know that bringing people together around a singular goal creates enthusiasm and energy.  Sure, you could learn the information over a web-conference, but it’s not at all the same.  Even small businesses can create excitement with lunch-and-learns, preferred-customer days, and similar in-person events. 

Of my many to-do’s for the meeting, is:

1.  Read Seth Godin’s new book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

2.  Tell all my friends to go vote for Canadian Duct Tape Marketing Coach Cidnee Stephen, so she and Sales Coach Kim Duke get picked up for a national TV show   http://tinyurl.com/446est  (And yes, Cidnee is that funny in person too!  Handcuffs …really? You decide, but I’m just saying that I gave them 5 stars.  Their show won’t be boring. That’s for sure!)

3.  Tell more people that if they don’t have enough, high-caliber clients today, then they absolutely must get started on the Duct Tape Marketing Guided Marketing Plan.  I haven’t pushed this program enough, but I will because THE RESULTS speak for themselves.  Not just my clients, but across the country, real struggling businesses are seeing real results by applying a system to calm their marketing madness. 

If you don’t want a California marketing coach, you can go out to the Find a Duct Tape Marketing Coach site and search for someone closer to you. 

I have tons of new information to share with you soon about the new offerings that are coming out from the Duct Tape Coaches network - but you’ll just have to wait - with eager anticipation, I hope! 

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