Category Archives: Marketing

Tools to Help You with Your Website


Posted by Amy Diederich

Happy Fourth of July!

Many entrepreneurs ask me questions about SEO and websites. This weekend while celebrating the Fourth I gathered with some fellow entrepreneurs and we discussed our websites. While I am no expert I love to share what I know and the tools I have found helpful.

One tool I love is Hubspots’s website grader. http://websitegrader.com.  This free site gives you up to date advice in how to improve your site. It assigns a “grade” which being a type A personality I love to follow the suggestions it provides to improve my grade.

Another site I like is backlink watch http://www.backlinkwatch.com. This site is also free and provides you with details on what backlinks you have and the page ranks of these back links.

Also check out www.Alexa.com. Downloading the Alexa toolbar allows you to see your traffic rank. It is a free tool that not only lets you watch traffic ranks for your site but others as well.

For  Ipad users and owners you should check out all the great SEO apps! For less than five dollars each you can get some great stats on your site. I love SEO Ranking. It tells me my keywords and how my site is doing for those words. There is also an SEO course. It contains short videos to help educate you quickly on how to improve your position in search engines.

What tools do you like? Please share. As entrepreneurs we often have to wear many hats. I know for this entrepreneur I am loving my new role of understanding SEO.


Social Media and The Entrepreneur


Posted by Amy Diederich

I read a statistic from Laura Dugan of Mediabistro about Twitter that surprised me:  92 percent of people have heard of Twitter but only 8 percent are using it.

I have found that I have met and networked with more entrepreneurs from my time on Twitter than almost any other mechanism.  I find myself wondering what percentage of the 8 percent using Twitter are entrepreneurs? I imagine it is a high percentage as I believe many entrepreneurs are often early adopters.

So please weigh in Twitter users and entrepreneurs!  Do you use Twitter? If so, what motivates you? Are you an entrepreneur?


Entrepreneurs who Start BIG


Posted by Amy Diederich

Over the last two weeks I have been inundated with stories of entrepreneurs who are Starting BIG! I find myself inspired daily by the stories I am receiving.  Many have overcome major obstacles. This week I featured one of those big stories as my pick of the week on Get Your BIG On. I thought I would share his story here as well. I am able to tell you a bit more about him in this post.

David Alan Slockblower (aka David Alan) is an inventor/entrepreneur/professional stand-up comic/artist who has had and lost millions. He has been featured in People Magazine, appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, the Joe Franklin Show, the CBS Early Show, and dozens of local and regional television news shows. He has fought and won a 13-year battle with alcoholism and drug addiction and have endured major surgeries to recover from near-total disability. This inventor and entrepreneur is launching a new product. The project is his patented EZ Shopper invention, which is something that literally EVERYBODY can use.

Additionally David says “After a 20-year failed marriage, I have been blessed to reconnect with “the one that got away” from over thirty years ago and am now happily married to her. With her love, support, and encouragement I have once again tapped into the flow of creative energy that had been dulled by drugs, alcohol, and depression. Good story, huh? Best part is that it’s ALL TRUE. In order to finance my current project/dream, my new bride and I have exhausted all of our resources, including her entire retirement account from a 20-year career as a published research scientist with Novartis/Sandoz Corporation. The project is my patented _EZ Shopper_ invention, which is something that literally EVERYBODY can use and benefit from.”

A common theme among the stories I have received is that once the entrepreneur commits completely to the project either financially, emotionally or both that is when it succeeds.

You can learn more about this entrepreneur who has overcome great odds.

links: http://www.ezshopper.us/

http://www.youtube.com/user/slocky1701?feature=mhsn

https://www.facebook.com/EZshopper

https://www.facebook.com/pages/EZ-SHOPPER-The-Complete-Pocket-Sized-Shopping-System


Building the Buzz


Posted by Amy Diederich

You have decided to start a business, you are excited about the prospect. You are passionate about your business idea. But there is so much to do. How do you make time to execute your business idea and market your idea at the same time. You may have limited financial resources or the resources you have you want to devote to your brick and mortar business.

The reality is you need to make time for building awareness. The good news is you can raise your profile for free! You can do so organically through interviews with news organizations, speaking engagements and building a reputation in social media. There are ways to do it as you are building your business.

Some ways to consider are starting a blogging about your business places like blogspot and wordpress are a great place to begin blogging. This is a free way to start to get the word out. It can work with your development of your business because you can use it capture and shape thoughts about your business idea best of all its only cost is your time. 

Another idea is twitter. You can begin to tweet about your business right away. You may also want to consider writing articles about your business concept, location, expertise, etc.

According to Hubspot “It is exciting to see inbound marketing growing as an industry. As this trends picks up, business owners, marketers and marketing agencies have the tough task of hiring the right people to help with inbound marketing for their business. This process is often further complicated by the fact that the recruiters are still in the process of learning about inbound marketing themselves.”

If time is in short supply check out tools such as Hootsuite. Hootsuite allows you to update several social media outlets at once. Some networking sites such as LinkedIn allow you to update both your LinkedIn network and Twitter friends at the same time.

So jump in and begin sharing your story!


My Formula for Entrepreneurial Success


Posted by Amy Diederich

Right Product + Market Opportunity + Committed Execution = Success

Many people ask me what is the key to my success as a business owner. I look to the formula that my dad passed down to me. He would say you need to have a product that people need. Elaborating that not only do you need a product people need but you need enough people to need it to make a profit. Mix in a passion for what you are doing and learning everything you can about selling, marketing, making and developing the product.

Harvard Business School professor Nitin Nohria along with William Joyce and Bruce Roberson studied 160 companies to look for common management practices that succeed and found a sound business plan is at the core of success. They found a strong grasp of business basics was the key to longevity and growth. My dad never went to college only trade school. He smiles when I share what the Harvard Business School says about success.  My dad is a smart man with a great deal of common sense.

As I explore what makes a person both a success as an inventor and entrepreneur, I think that I have found another key! You must be highly smart but also have common sense. I am not sure the two always go hand in hand.

I look to the great inventor/entrepreneur Colonel Deed. He not only invented things but was called by Quaker Oats to improve functioning of a factory. He is an example of a highly intelligent man with good business common sense.


Does the Formula Matter or Is It the Brand that Counts?


Posted by Amy Diederich

According to a recent CNN article there is much buzz about a copy of the secret formula of Coke being released in the media.  However several experts indicate the formula does not matter.

“Today, anybody with access to a sophisticated chemistry laboratory could analyze the formula of Coke, but no one can call a product called Coke other than the Coca-Cola Company,” John Sicher, editor and publisher of “Beverage Digest,” told the paper. “The so-called ‘secret formula’ is a wonderful story of lore and mystery, but in reality, the value today is the brand, not the formula.”

Is this true? and is it true for your start-up? First let’s look at what is a brand? According to Wikipedia:

“A brand is the identity of a specific product, service, or business. A brand can take many forms, including a name, sign, symbol, color combination or slogan. The word brand began simply as a way to tell one person’s cattle from another by means of a hot iron stamp. A legally protected brand name is called a trademark. The word brand has continued to evolve to encompass identity - it affects the personality of a product, company or service.”

Ironically the first image that appears when you search the definition of a brand on Wikipedia is the Coke logo! This further begs the question is brand as important as formula for everyone or only Coke? Lets look further at the definition of a brand.

A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer (whether it’s a business, a buyer, a voter or a donor) doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that consumer.  Seth Godin

Several sources agreed with Seth’s definition. They stated that the brand is the emotional  response to a product.  So how does the consumer get this emotional response? From either advertising or direct experience with the product.  So for the start-up some suggest that demand creation is actually more important than your brand.

 ”When you’re small, nothing builds brand better than selling.” ~Tom Scearce of Scearce Marketing Group

Ah ha! The formula does matter! it is much harder to create demand without the right product. No demand no emotional response to the product.

The moral of the story you must have a great product to create the intrigue in discovering its secret formula! Your brand comes from the experience the consumer has from your product. A great formula creates a great experience.


Three People in this Romance


Posted by Amy Diederich

Yesterday I “broke” my website resulting in the revelation that I am in love with my business. Today I am dealing with the implications of breaking the website. One person it negatively impacts is my business partner. Since I love my business and am truly fond of my business partner, I thought I better read about how to make my partner happy. My research led me to read a great article called “Like Marriage, Business Takes Work” printed in the New York Times. I have never thought of my business as a romance until yesterday . Today I learned that I am not only in love but I am married.

In the article the author suggests that business partnerships are like marriages in many ways. Like marriages business partnerships often fail. So if my business partnership is like a marriage lets see what Dr. Phil says about a healthy marriage does it relate to a business partner? According to Dr. Phil:

•You get what you give. When you give better, you get better. This point seems to fit! When working with my business partner the better her ideas the better our conversation and the better outcomes we have in our business and of course the converse is true!

•If you put your relationship in a win/lose situation, it will be a lose/lose situation. Ahh, Dr. Phil you are so right! In the trials of our start-up, a loss for one of us is a loss for both of us!

•Forget whether you’re right or wrong. The question is: Is what you’re doing working or not working? Again Dr. Phil I think this is spot on for a business partnership. You should focus on your goal and work to get there.

•There is no right or wrong way to fix a relationship. Find your own way that works. But recognize when it’s not working and be honest when it needs fixing. In the New York Times article they state that most partnerships fail because of real business problems not interpersonal problems. The danger to the relationship lies when the real business problem causes communication break downs.

•Falling in love is not the same thing as being in love. Embrace the change and know that it takes work. Not sure about this point. Although it seems to address when work goes from the fun inventive part to the day-to-day routine part.

•You don’t fix things by fixing your partner. Agreed. Just like in marriage we should not try to change our business partner. Luckily for me my business partner does not need any changing!

•Intimacy is so important because it is when we let someone else enter our private world. Okay, this point might be a stretch when it comes to a business partnership however when you are working on someone’s dream business it is pretty intimate.

Dr.Phil’s next three points I will examine together.

  • You don’t necessarily solve problems. You learn how to manage them.
  • Communicate. Make sure your sentences have verbs. Remember that only 7 percent of communication is verbal. Actions and non-verbal communication speak much louder.
  • You teach people how to treat you. You can renegotiate the rules.

The last three points I will address as one. My take-away for entrepreneurs is that we need to treat our business partners well. We must communicate, communicate, communicate!

I cannot help but recall this Bible verse from my days in Sunday School:

A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.

I am glad I have a business partner and will work hard to make my business partner happy and our business flourish!


Partnership


Posted by Amy Diederich
“What is your strategy?”

Ted wants to start his own business. He has worked for a fortune 500 company for many years. He knows his job will be going away soon. His division was acquired by a Chinese company.  He is worried if he does his own thing will he be motivated. He also worries about what he calls “self-promotion”.

After we discussed his ability to self motivate-which was very high! We discussed marketing. We talked about all the different strategies for marketing. After brainstorming about his product, price, and placement he was excited to start. I found that what he called “self-promotion” was really selling. He has a fear of selling. He also has a negative perception of selling.
In my role of coach I talk to many people every day that have a negative opinion of selling. Wikipedia defines selling as the exchange of values. They further define it by saying, “Selling is offering to exchange something of value for something else. The something of value being offered may be tangible or intangible.”
Ted can easily articulate the value of his product. He has trouble asking for the thing of value from someone else.
I wonder how many entrepreneurs have this issue?