For those busy business owners,
For those entrepreneurs still working a day job somewhere else,
For those non-profits busy with donor relations during the day . . . now there’s no excuse!

We have created 4 nighttime webinars to help you navigate the road of social media!

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All webinars begin at 8:30pm CST

Tue, Feb 16 – We’ll deal primarily with using your Facebook Fan page to attract customers and how to turn them in to revenue for your business. You will learn some pretty cool techniques on personalizing your Fan Page so it doesn’t look just like everyone else’s.

Thu, Feb 18 – Twitter is all about exponentially broadcasting your message – we’ll show you ways to do that, with simple tips on making your tweets “re-tweetable”; this is not a simple Twitter 101 class, but how to use it in a way that connects you to more people and using that network to make your business better.

Tue, Feb 23 – Linkedin is a powerful professional networking tool, yet most people ignore the 5 simple things you do to customize your Linkedin profile to showcase your expertise and credibility!  Your potential customers most likely have a Linkedin account – and you need one, too!  Learn to connect where your customers are.

Thu, Feb 25 – Online reviews are increasingly important to a business interested in local search. Review sites like Yelp!, CitySearch, InsiderPages and other more commonly known such as Google and Yahoo Local, allow your past customers to rate their experience and tell everyone else about it. Does this make you excited or very anxious? Learn strategies on how to obtain positive reviews from customers and what to do if you get a negative review (hint: don’t track them down and go to their house and chew them out . . . read about this in an article recently; it did not end well.)

You can have FULL ACCESS to all 4 webinars only $95. Individual sessions are only $35, but it’s like “buy 3, get a 4th free!”

Our webinar caps the number of participants for each webinar at 25 – so register now!

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-Randy & Donny

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Here are a few relevant articles about email marketing and Valentine’s Day:

Email Marketing Tips For A Valentine’s Day Sales Boost

Valentine’s Day Email Marketing Promotions

Valentine’s Day Email Marketing Tips

Valentine’s Day Marketing Ideas for Ecommerce

And finally, here’s a debate going into your romantic dinner out:

Twitter friend, marketing blogger and fellow small business marekting consultant, Jay Ehret, shares his thoughts on how Valentine’s Day should be viewed by the restaurant owner – and it’s NOT about making alot of money on Valentine’s Day but creating long-term customers.

Jay also shares a link to another article from a restaurant blogger, John Foley, who says Valentine’s Day is your day to make positive cash flow.

Which is it?  Does it have to be either/or?

Image credit: bitter tonic

Do you stand out in the crowd?  Do you look like everyone around you?  Are you remarkable enough that your customers are making remarks about you to their friends?  One of the death nails of any organization is to simply look like everyone else.  Your prospective customers are not interested in digging for hours to tell the difference between you and the other guy.  Their solution?  Compare you on the thing you certainly don’t want – price.

If you are in the process of developing your marketing kit, your advertising copy or writing the content for your website, resist the urge to sound so familiar.  Surprisingly, you will need to fight this urge, because it is everybody’s tendency to sound like everyone else – not because they want to, but because they don’t put the time and effort into the process of differentiating themselves.

Have you determined ways you are different.  Are you any different?

Dan Heath shares a good response to a reader’s question on how to “think differently“; you can also read an archived post from last year about how to set yourself apart from your customers by selling fruit baskets instead of just apples.  This is a strategy that will allow you to charge more as well because you are adding more value and exceeding your customer’s expectations.

BONUS: David Meerman Scott has written The Gobbledygook Manifesto to help you in writing your advertising or marketing copy – a must read if you want to make sure and not sound like everyone else!

Baby/Dog Image Source: naute.com

You will not resonate if you are bland.

One of the most overlooked principles by organizations is to forget that you must target your marketing and communication messages. If you are a small business, your messages will likely sound very drab and generic if they are not targeted at some specific segment. For you non-profits, the message resonates much better when the audience actually believes you are talking to them!

Some quick principles:

1. Work on using demographics to understand your target market.
2. Develop core messages that resonate with the needs of this market.  Speak their language.
3. Identify areas where you can provide a strong solution to their needs.  Don’t just develop a product.  Become the solution they can trust.
4. Set your price – if your identified segment won’t invest, decide if this target market is really your ideal client!

If you get off track, refocus and keep aiming.

Image source