MDS Resource — Digital Ad Agency

Tag: prospects

  • Top Ten (10) Excuses NOT To Write Your Blog

    Blog Writing Is Marketing Local Business Online
    Blog Writing Is Marketing Local Business Online

    Blog Writing Is Marketing Local Business Online

    Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Of Excuses …

    Truth be told, all of the excuses listed below I have used myself.  Yes, I’m as guilty — perhaps, more guilty because of my vocation — of irregular blog writing as many of you dear readers perusing this post.  Writing my Blog is Social Media.  For my Blog to be found I must publish.  Search Engine Marketing assumes that my online marketing words can be found; therefore, blog writing is essential to my business success.

    Knowing that it is human nature to avoid the unknown, those things in life and business that we do not understand, I, too, have procrastinated and equivocated.  Today, Labor Day here in the USA, I want to take a few precious minutes to explore the very best, World Class excuses for not sitting down once or twice each week and scribbling to the world why, O why, are we in business?

    Without Further Ado, Here Is My Top Ten List Of Blog Writing Excuses:

    1. I don’t have anything to say.

      Really?  How do you sell anything?  What do you want to say to your Best Customer when she’s sitting eyeball-to-eyeball with you?  I know that you are passionate about what you offer; and I know that you will have a great deal to say to every eager Prospect ready to buy what you do best.  Suppose you said some of this online.  Furthermore, suppose somebody new reads your online words.  Is it beyond reason that some of them will be influenced by your words, and ask to buy from you?  Blog writing is nurturing your relationship with your marketplace.

    2. Nobody wants to read my blog.

      Rest assured, everybody is an authority in something — even you.  Regardless online or offline, marketing your business requires you to build a relationship with each Prospect, nurture those relationships, and to service those relationships throughout your business life.  Every relationship begins with a single conversation.  Some will listen, some are not interested — that is the way of business.  When you speak to a larger audience, what happens to the number of your listeners?  What larger audience opportunity do you have than blog writing?

    3. I don’t like to write.

      Do you like to write sales orders?  Will you write a proposal for me?  How do you feel when you endorse a check?  Writing is an extension of what you have to say.  When you are comfortable with speaking with great Prospects, the words drip easily from your tongue.  Record your best sales presentation.  Listen to yourself.  How does that story you tell your Customers affect you?  Put it down in writing a few hundred words at a time.  Tell your story.  Your Customers love your story and they’ll read your blog writing.

    4. I don’t have time to write a blog.

      OK — time is of the essence.  Do you have time to write orders?  Do you have time to cash checks?  If you find a simple method of attracting eager buyers who come to you to buy what you offer — will you find time to sell to them?  Would you rather cold call or be found? I’m betting that when you sharpen your sales tools by honing the persuasive story you tell … I’m betting that blog writing will be well worth your time.

    5. My industry/company does not allow self promotion.

      Actually, this can be one of the most challenging hurdles.  For example, Financial Services professionals are subject to stringent regulations from the SEC and FINRA, and their broker/dealers and compliance departments may choose to restrict rather than interpret rules.  Nonetheless, I find no shortage of commercials advertising one Financial Services provider over another.  Find a way to express your personality, your trustworthiness apart from your limited business persona.  When was the last time you bought from somebody you didn’t like?  Blog writing is telling your story.

    6. I’m afraid I’ll lose my privacy.

      Yes, it’s true.  Those words you publish online are likely to live forever — and I do mean longer than your human life.  You are a professional, and I’m asking you to keep professionalism in mind while writing your blog.  Professionalism with personality … this is what makes your business better.  This online universe is forcing us to be better businesses.  Step up and be the personality for your business.  Make your Customers so excited about you that they advocate for you in public, too!

    7. My customers don’t read blogs.

      Really?  Are you willing to bet your business on this assumption?  Yes, it’s true, some people aren’t online often or ever.  However, it’s very easy to demonstrate that millions of people are searching online for what your business offers.  Google measures over One Billion online searches each month for products and services that the searchers can find locally.  When was the last time you sold to a prospect from the Yellow Pages?  One person reading your blog might tell ten people about you — but, only after your blog writing …

    8. My business cannot benefit from a blog.

      Are you sure?  If you want to be successful in this Online Age, you must step up and be a thought leader.  The easier it is for Prospects to choose among competitors the better those competitors have to get to keep playing.  Practice makes perfect — we’ve been told this forever.  Your Blog is a tool.  Blogging gives voice to the marketer inside of you.  The more stories you tell, the better and more persuasive they become.  Your blog writing shall become an influential book about you and your business.

    9. I’m afraid of bad blog comments.

      Blog writing is a subset of Social Media, which, by definition, is social and public.  Blogs are most effective as discussions.  When readers actively participate, you have engendered a conversation — so much more than a one dimensional monologue.  As in real life, you will disagree with some, and some will disagree with you.  Focus more on gathering Testimonials, and less on trading widgets and widget services for money, utilizing widgets and widget services as a means to Testimonials.  Won’t business be more fulfilling and everybody win?

    10. Blogging Return On Investment is too low.

      Granted, measuring Blogging ROI is problematic.  Measurement is your salvation.  If you do not measure, how can you calculate ROI?  If you do not know your ROI, how can you evaluate the value proposition?  In this online universe, eager Prospects are already searching for what you offer.  If they don’t find you, they will buy from somebody else.  When you place your story everywhere they are looking for you, qualified Prospects will come to you. What will it take for you to be found everywhere they are looking for you?  Writing your blog ensures your visibility.

    Whether you agree with items in this list — or you find this all hogwash — I implore you to comment below.  Tell us what you do — or don’t — get from blog writing.  We want to understand what it is about blogging that does not work for you or your business.  Furthermore, we want you to understand what you do not understand.  Share with us — we will listen.

    … Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
    I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

    “The New Colossus,” by Emma Lazarus

    How Will Blog Writing Change Your Business?

  • What Is Internet Marketing?

    Why does Internet Marketing matter to you and your Local Business?

    Welcome to the Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money Frequently Asked Questions Series, Part 2: What is Internet Marketing?


    Marketing Local Business Online Is Internet Marketing

    Previously, we discussed What Is Marketing? itself:


    “Marketing is a system the sole purpose of which is to communicate with the marketplace.”

    Marketing, then, is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.  The Marketing concept becomes a philosophy.  It makes the customer, and the satisfaction of his or her needs, the focal point of all Business activities.  It is founded on the belief that profitable sales and satisfactory returns on investment can only be achieved by identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer needs and desires.

    Let’s look not only at identifying customer needs, but also to satisfying them and anticipating them in the future.  The right product, in the right place, at the right time, at the right price …

    In that same spirit, Internet Marketing is a relationship between Business and customers and prospects that takes place in Internet Media, such as Search Engines and Web Pages.

    Furthermore, Online Marketing is a relationship between Business and customers and prospects that takes place in Online Media, including Email, Mobile Phones and Internet.

    As you recall, a Marketing Relationship is a specific conversation between Business and a market.

    Therefore, Internet and Online Marketing are relationships between Business and customers and prospects that take place in the New Media of today, and New Media of the future.

    Internet and Online Marketing are relationships between Business and customers and prospects — the only difference between these relationships and other Marketing processes is the Medium!

    What, then, is the Opportunity and the Potential offered by this unique Marketing Medium?  Let’s compare and contrast:

    • If a Medium has a continuously shrinking Market, the potential for doing Business in that Medium approaches zero.
    • If a Medium has a continuously growing Market, the potential for doing Business in that Medium approaches infinity.

    This, then, is the crux of everything we have to discuss in this and subsequent conversations.

    • If you want to grow your Local Business, you must participate in the largest and fastest growing Markets for what you offer.
    • If Business is not communicating with a continuously growing Market there can be no relationship with that Market and little or no Business comes from that Market.

    What Relationships do you want with your Market?

    Over 1 Billion Local Searches are performed every month on the Internet …

    … if your Customers do not find you, from whom will they buy ???

    The Internet is one of the largest and fastest growing markets in the known Universe.  Ecommerce and multinational companies have created extraordinary fortunes based solely on Internet Marketing.  Local Internet Marketing for small Business is quite a different animal, as we will discuss in subsequent conversations.

    To learn more about Internet, Money and your Local Business browse our Web Site and see if our ideas work for you and your Local Business.  Look for our further conversations and Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money !!!

    Marketing Local Business Online Is Internet Marketing

  • What Is Marketing?

    Why does Marketing matter to you and your Local Business?

    Welcome to the Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money Frequently Asked Questions Series, Part 1: What is Marketing?


    What Is Marketing

    David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, once remarked,


    “Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing people.”

    How can that be?  What is so important about Marketing?  Who are your Marketing people?  What benefit do they provide your Local Business?

    Peter Drucker, the father of Business Consulting, often admonished us,


    “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

    What do you have in your Local Business if you do not have customers?

    If you do not have enough customers, what changes do you need to make in your Local Business?

    Furthermore, after studying the most successful Businesses of all time, Peter Drucker observed The Purpose of Marketing:

    “Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two — and only two — basic functions: marketing and innovation.  Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.  Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”

    Successful Marketing is therefore a systematic approach to the MarketPlace:

    • Marketing is a System the sole purpose of which is to communicate with the MarketPlace.
    • Marketing processes are specific conversations between Business and a Market.

    Relationships start with a Single Conversation — Marketing Relationships are no different:

    • Every conversation is a relationship between Business and a distinct set of customers and prospects.
    • Every conversation takes place in a specific medium, whether print, radio, television or Internet.

    What Relationships do you want with your Market?

    • What conversations have you started with your Local Business customers?
    • What conversations have you started with fully qualified prospects?

    Will your best customers search for you?  Or will they go to your competition?

    Think about the conversation we started with you here a minute ago in this blog post.  What about our message rings true with you and your Local Business?

    To learn more about Internet, Money and your Local Business browse our Web Site and see if our ideas work for you and your Local Business.  Look for our further conversations and Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money !!!

    Marketing Local Business Online Leads To Success