Lakeshore Garden Space

 Tony Rubleski, MindCapture Group

Following are 3 smart strategies when marketing in a recession:

1. Focus more marketing dollars and attention on existing clients. Beside referrals, here’s a quick Mind Capture reminder list of zero and low cost strategies you can do to stay in touch with clients and key referral partners:

*Use a monthly newsletter or eletter to keep people updated
*Send a press release to your local media monthly or at least once a quarter
*Update your website with great content to educate and serve clients and prospects
*Host a client appreciation event with key business partners
*Send your top clients a thank you card or note of appreciation for their business
*Partner with a non-profit in your community that needs funding and positive PR
*Have a sale or special event exclusively for your best clients
*Sponsor a chamber of commerce event and invite key clients and prospects to attend as your guest Read the rest of this entry »

 By Tony Rubleski, MindCapture Group

We live in an interesting age. We have more information and resources available than at any other time in history, yet most people feel overwhelmed or flat out lost as to how to use it to their advantage. Humans at their core absolutely dislike and rebel at change. There is another way. Those that thrive on change in this age of information and media overload have developed powerful new thought patterns and beliefs to make information a tool of opportunity and abundance, not a handicap. Read the rest of this entry »

TONY RUBLESKI, GUEST BLOGGER

I’m often asked by challenged CEO’s, VP’s of sales and marketing, and non-profit leaders within many organizations the same question when it comes to marketing. “Tony, how do we get people to pay attention to us?”

This to me is often a three, five or ten year problem in the making that I can’t solve with a simple five-minute solution. I often throw back when asked this the question: “How are you tracking and handling leads?” I do this not to confuse, but more importantly to get a quick read on a potential problem that’s much deeper than the best marketing could ever help to solve. Read the rest of this entry »

 TONY RUBLESKI, GUEST BLOGGER

Yes, the famous quote from former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has been on my mind lately when I meet with business and non-profit leaders to discuss marketing strategies and the present state of the U.S. economy. I get various reports from many of them on how sales and profits are doing. Many economists are now saying we’re in a recession and that the future is grim. While my opinion is just that, I want to push you to think differently in a market that has obvious challenges and opportunities at the same time.

So let me ask you a direct question: What is your business or non-profit doing to not just maintain but grow right now? This isn’t a practical joke. I’m going to jump on my little soapbox with this blog post today because frankly, I’m getting tired of the fear and excuses being made by people from all sectors complaining about the economy, gas prices, inflation, and most of all their sales. Read the rest of this entry »

TONY RUBLESKI, GUEST BLOGGER

I’d like to share with you Five Proven Ways To Stay In Touch With Key Customers, Prospects and Referral Partners

I’ve been traveling a lot lately and I wanted to give you an in-depth article of immense value, if applied, to make up for lost time.

I’m absolutely amazed at the large number of businesses that take their customers, prospects and referral partners for granted. In the non-profit world the same mentality is often seen in relation to donors, volunteers and key board members. I know I sound like a broken record to many loyal readers of this blog, but here are three key reasons why tightening the bond of communication with those who influence, shape or spend money with you is a smart marketing strategy: Read the rest of this entry »

TONY RUBLESKI, GUEST BLOGGER

Here are three timeless marketing principles that work despite recessions, wars, the media, election year slogans and attempts at social engineering (I couldn’t resist sounding a little ’snobby’ by using big terms.) to bring you down and hinder your ability to grow and prosper:

1. The power of stories. For fear of sounding like a broken record to some of you, let me hammer home the point again that using stories in all of your marketing efforts is a wise idea. In the age of fragmented and sped up communication, the lost art of storytelling can give you a decided advantage in the competitive market place of ideas and influence. In the age of digital use video, audio and blogs in addition to your other marketing avenues to spread the story.

Here are some great idea starters to keep your marketing stories fresh, updated and increase the odds of customers, prospects and associates reading or listening to them:

*Before and after examples *Show you solved a problem *Client feedback or testimonials *Employee comments *Your work in the community/industry *Why your organization exists or mission *How your company started or key history or milestones *Updates *Positive articles or news stories about you or your industry

2. Good old fashioned listening to others. Forget focus groups. They’re too easy and often times the feedback can be skewed. Let’s get real. Pick up the phone and make a phone call. Simple, yet highly effective in the age of email, and printed surveys that most people never look at or rush through because they see little value in spending time to fill out. Humans talking to one another will give you feedback that’s priceless for both parties. Read the rest of this entry »

TONY RUBLESKI, GUEST BLOGGER

In my last blog entry I discussed my recent escapades to Disney with my wife and kids. I shared three marketing lessons with a promise to give you five in total.

I find myself in my scenic hotel room here in Colorado Springs about two hours away from giving a dinner speaking engagement. I wanted to reveal the remaining two marketing gems from Disney per my last posting.

4. Pictures to sell the experience. You’ve heard it before I’m sure, but let me remind you that a picture is worth a thousand words. Once case in point involves signage. The parks we visited all used vibrant and easy to read signage with pictures to direct, explain and guide you throughout the park. Many a retailer could pick off a list of brilliant visual signage strategies from walking through a Disney property to gather ideas for helping them attract and let people know how to find them or identify key in-store promotions and offers. Read the rest of this entry »

 Web link submitted by Amanda Chocko

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It’s the online equivalent of word-of-mouth advertising. And just like its offline cousin, it’s the most effective way to get new business.

This advertising mode is known as “link building,” and it involves getting other Web sites to link to your site. It’s like one of your neighbors recommending a good plumber or handyman; it carries more weight than if a person just stumbled across your Web site.

In today’s world, there is much more to good search engine listings than simply optimizing your site for keywords.

In order to keep searchers happy, search engines are always developing ways to make their results more relevant. In the last couple of years, links have become increasingly more important to the engines because they see links as an endorsement of your site by other Web sites. Think about it for a minute: Would you link to a site you didn’t like?

This concept is referred to as “link popularity.”

Based on the links pointing to your site, the search engines either increase or decrease how relevant your site is for particular keyword searches.

Obviously, you want to increase your site’s relevancy, right? Good. That’s the goal here: to make sure you start building the right kind of links for your site in order to improve your search-engine results.

To this day, the best way to build links is still doing it by hand. Here are the steps you should follow when building links: Read the rest of this entry »

TONY RUBLESKI, GUEST BLOGGER

I’m sitting in the Atlanta Bread Co. here in sunny Orlando and reflecting back on a week filled with fun, beaches and of course - amusement parks we visited. My wife always warns me to turn my marketing brain either off or keep it hidden from her when on vacation as I’m always observing things anywhere I go as they relate to sales, marketing or customer service.

I must tell you as a loyal reader of my marketing and motivation ideas, rants and wisdom (yes, I’m getting carried away now) that I risked life, limb and mamma’s wrath to bring you relevant lessons direct from the marketing front.

Temptation overcame me last Thursday and I couldn’t resist noting some great marketing taking place. As my wife, three children, mother-in-law and myself all waited in line last Thursday for a ride at Epcot, I could resist temptation no longer and I turned around slowly and grabbed a pen and receipt from my back pocket and carefully scribbled out five things on the back of a receipt that I noticed at Animal Kingdom and Epcot that were forms of great marketing in action. Read the rest of this entry »

GUEST BLOGGER, TONY RUBLESKI 

The setting: A marketing conference in Nashville two weeks ago. 1200 other entrepreneurs from around the globe and I were wrapped in a hypnotic spell watching a rock star perform with one major twist. Instead of our hands in the air clapping along to the music, we were all seated and writing down notes as fast as our pens and laptop keyboards could process marketing advice from arguably one of the top media stars walking the planet today. I’m talking about Gen Simmons from the classic rock band Kiss.

Gene’s band Kiss isn’t as popular on the current music scene as they were in the late 1970’s when the ‘Kiss Army’ was recruiting new fans faster than a politician can grab a check at a fundraiser, but they are still a huge business and his popularity is still strong. His fame and marketing prowess has allowed him to capture whole new generations of fans and lots of wallets for that matter.

Three BIG Marketing Strategies From This
Musician Turned Marketing Genius Read the rest of this entry »