Lakeshore Garden Space

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 »

TERRY MADDEN, ADVISOR

I watch the political process with a mix of curiosity and disdain. It seemingly brings out the worst in people, be it politicians ranting back and forth, talking heads spouting opinions based on nothing, or average citizens writing to the local newspaper editorial page with over the top claims about what they “know” to be the truth. I am not naïve enough to believe that people’s opinions have not created controversy and conflict for more years than I have been alive. It does seem, however, that the stance of “my opinion is actually a fact and you are an idiot” has become increasingly more prevalent and it is disturbing.

Pulling this to a business discussion, this attitude is becoming more widespread in the sales process and I want to caution new and seasoned sales people alike not to fall into this trap. When I started in my career decades ago, the sales process was truly a process. It was assumed that any customer worth capturing was going to take a long time (months if not years) to land. Planning was based on this assumption. Today, the sales process is seemingly more event driven. Managers demand much quicker turning of accounts and are not willing to let time and relationships develop.

To shorten the sales cycle, many professionals are turning to negative campaigns. I am sure this sounds familiar. I have heard from a number of my contacts through the years that my competition has been less than flattering about the companies I have worked for. The premise is always the same. My competitions pitch will be “we are the best company in our industry and all of our competitors are useless and awful”. This is a foolish and, ultimately, failing stance. Read the rest of this entry »

 Web link submitted by Amanda Chocko

 Live It  Del.icio.us  Newsvine  Facebook  Digg This  Others

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 »

 MARK DE ROO, ADVISOR

It’s 3 a.m.  And once again, you’re awake.  Maybe, this is the third time you’ve awakened since hitting the hay.  And it’s not just tonite.  This has become a pretty annoying nightly ritual.

Maybe, it’s time to give Dr. Thomas Maas a call.

Dr. Maas from Cornell University is a so-called “sleeping expert.”  He’s written a book on the topic as well as providing tips on Good Morning America.  He’s also become an advisor to the mattress folks at the Simmons Company.   Yeah, Simmons as in the famed “Beauty Rest” mattress.

If you visit the Simmons web site, you’ll see a page on “Sleeping Tips” from Dr. Maas. Among his tips are some pretty basic suggestions as:
·    Taking a warm bath
·    Reducing caffeine
·    Not smoking

I suspect your Grandma  had these same words of wisdom.  What was noticeably absent, however, on Dr. Maas’ Top Ten list was “eliminating hassles at work.”

Say what? Read the rest of this entry »

PRANAY RAJGARHIA, ENTREPRENEUR

Let us discover the answer to the above question over many blogs. In the blogs I will outline what is needed when a manufacturer manufactures a screw as compare to software development or selection process for custom or off-the-shelf software. To avoid editing issues I will have two sections Manufacturing and Software.

On the surface the two looks to be the same. Following are high level steps for both:
Manufacturing:
1. Problem Statement: What is the screw need for?
2. Engineering to design screw: Specify material, dimensions, angles and more
3. Forecasting: Forecast the demand of the screw.
4. Costing: Calculate the cost of manufacturing the screw. Read the rest of this entry »

SHAWN PACANOWSKI, ADVISOR

According to a recent survey, more Americans believe it is harder to start planning for their retirement (30% surveyed) than it is to begin a diet (28% surveyed). For many small business owners and entrepreneurs this finding has held true. In the midst of financial strain and other associated stresses of launching a new business enterprise or keeping a current business viable, future financial independence is easily overlooked. The next best invention or business idea is the foundation for future retirement income—or so the thought goes. Seldom do most consider or believe they can save a little each year in a traditional investment account. Simply put: Saving isn’t easy. It takes discipline and knowledge.

Some statistics have stated a meager 23% of Americans age 55 or older have accumulated retirement assets of at least $250,000. That means 77% of Americans approaching retirement have failed to consider funding their retirement years beyond a Social Security check. That is a sobering thought. 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 »

RYAN WALLACE, ADVISOR

“People were meant to create.” I came across this statement in a book recently and it really stood out to me as I began to analyze what this statement truly means. Some people create relationships and friendships, politicians create confusion, artists create beauty, others create chaos, and we entrepreneurs create ideas that become businesses. Creating something is no easy task regardless of what it is you are attempting to create. Friendships take time and effort and politicians have a long road until they can truly figure out what they stand for. The question we need to ask is why do we need creation from people and where does it come from?

The mere idea of creating something excites me. I remember when I received my driver’s license, not just my permit allowing me to drive with mom and dad; but my singular license. As I hopped into my red Dodge Stealth and took off, I knew the world would never be the same. I wasn’t just excited to be “on my own,” but there was a sense of something new being born inside of me. I had the freedom to do much more than I ever had before, and with this new found freedom, I did exactly that. Between trips with friends, going to the mall, dating girls, and giving money to the state and insurance companies for fines, I was creating. Read the rest of this entry »