Why would a business owner pour all his/her money into Facebook ads to the detriment of say word-of-mouth marketing that’s making up 80% or more of their business? Is it because it’s more comfortable to run ads from a computer instead of shaking hands, answering hard questions from customers and asking for referrals?
Everyone can start a business nowadays; it’s never been easier. But will all these individuals really be able to build and maintain a sustainable business? Statistics show that the majority will fail. Therefore the question comes down to, how do you stack the odds in your favor?
Are you struggling to find the right tax advisor? You’ve worked with different accounting and tax advisors, you’ve outsourced this task to bring it back in-house again after being let down by different tax professionals and agencies and now you feel disappointed, disillusioned and clueless where to start looking for the ‘perfect’ fit.
Battery vampires, data gatherers, addiction boosters – these are some of the commonalities of today’s social media apps. Does this also apply to the big family of Facebook apps? The final decision as to whether you need or want to have all of them installed on your phone is totally up to you.
Trying to sell to the unsellable is a total waste of time. Willing to leave the room AKA end a sales pitch early in the game and walk away without a deal requires a great level of self-awareness, an in-depth knowledge of who exactly you want to work with and lots of confidence.
I’ve written about fundamentals at length. Understanding this concept at its core is crucial, yet few people do so. Those who do, accomplish what the many consider outstanding, unimaginable, and sometimes mystical.
Dan Kennedy had a massive positive impact on me. He defies the odds of conventional wisdom and provides you with wisdom that you can draw from for many decades to come. Dan Kennedy will always be my marketing mentor, a legend and true maverick.
My latest Facebook Advertising Workshop in London (UK) has revealed some interesting new insights to running digital advertising no matter the platform. It has also unveiled a better understanding of what drives human behavior.
Don’t let losing your health be the so called ‘desperation factor’ that pushes you to finally change your life. It’s so much easier to keep the car on the right path while adjusting as you move forward. Whether you take full responsibility or let the government, some fancy doctor or pills dictate your life, is entirely your call.
You’ve been led for centuries to believe that human uniqueness is wonderful when it benefits society, however it’s detrimental when it’s deployed for your own good. Are you battling to fit in into society, school, the entrepreneurial lifestyle, some crazy fashion trend, or other ‘fill in the blanks’?
Don’t let common myths and misconceptions stop you from writing a book. Don’t let other people’s good opinions infuse self-doubt and shatter your confidence. Write your book. Leave a legacy worth sharing.
It’s been almost a decade since I grabbed my microphone and recorded my very first podcast. 400+ episodes later I’m still in the podcasting game and have no intentions to turning a back on it.
Contracts come in different shapes and forms. They go from simple to overly complicated, from oral to written; from loose to legally binding and enforceable agreements. And then, there’s trust.
On the way back from my recent Facebook Advertising workshop in Berlin I reflected upon the mistakes that popped up during the sessions. Some of these mistakes were common, whereas others were directly correlated with the level of know-how each participant had.
When it comes to burger or fries you automatically think of McDonalds, Burger King and other similar chains. But what if your business has burgers and / or fries, too? What if you have several burgers but no sides in your portfolio? And what about those businesses which focus entirely on fries, shakes and muffins without ever considering adding a burger to their menu?
Who doesn’t love some marketing quickies that you can understand on the fly and more importantly, apply effortlessly? Sorry to disappoint you, but that’s not what today’s post is about. Quick fixes seldom last. And most things you acquire effortlessly, you value less.
Why do the wealthiest people on this planet meet in person and close deals behind doors? Why does the Elite hang out in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum (WEF) or at the Bilderberg conference? There is one type of interaction that trumps all other methods combined and has the most powerful sales impact.
These actionable tips will help you transform three common Facebook Advertising challenges into opportunities for growth to ensure you get great recurring results consistently over a long period of time.
Mass marketing or personalized marketing? What’s it gonna be? Are you going to blast out your posting to the masses or will you deliver individualized messages to your most relevant audience? Sometimes you can do both whereas other times you’re better off with the latter.
Having all your revenue coming from one source is a huge risk. Using a single sales and/ or marketing channel to market your business is a fatal mistake. Single-source dependency aka over-reliance on any one thing can ruin your business. How many sources do you use to promote your business?
The sales cycle is probably the most important part of a business cycle. You can be a master in lead generation however, if you don’t turn those leads into paying customers, you might as well call it a hobby instead of a business.
You can do the right thing when it comes to marketing and branding, that is create valuable content for a relevant audience, onboard leads via Facebook ads and build relationships on LinkedIn — but if you can’t generate sales, you’re in trouble. Today I’d like to switch gears and talk to you about the sales process.
Getting the right customers through the door, hiring talented personnel, managing cash flow, putting marketing systems in place to be able to sell more products and services, reducing inventory… these are some of the small business challenges that you’ll encounter if you decide to embark on this journey and be your own boss.
Here are seven Facebook advertising tips that work this very moment. As things change and Facebook releases new features and campaign types, these tips need alterations, too. Ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus said that, “Change is the only constant in life”. If there’s one area this applies to more than ever, it’s social media.
This is the second part of the Cash Flow (CF) series. Today, we’re going to have a look at the second part of the equation, which if left unmastered, will cause major pain in your business, often leading to you being forced to shut doors. Practical tips to increase cash flow.
Cash flow (CF) is the Holy Grail. It’s the lifeblood of your business. Knowing how to pick the right mix of marketing tactics to boost your CF pot will be of tremendous value to the future of your company.
What’s one of the most enjoyable memories you have from visiting a restaurant? There were some amazing marketing recipes at play here that allowed you to remember this occasion and store it in your “magical experience” life drawer. Most things happened unconsciously, other you were more or less aware of.
For small business owners: discover the misleading passion vs. strengths idiom. Learn how to identify your unique strengths in business so that you can effectively sidestep obstacles, maximize outcomes and savor life’s amazing treasures.
For small business owners: discover how to gain competitive advantage by incorporating proven marketing funnels into your business. You see, most business people do not approach their business and marketing needs in an organized manner that is essential for setting them apart from the crowd.
For small business owners: discover the amazing power of Podcasting for your business. It has nothing to do with joining the current hype. It’s definitely not about adding one more instrument to your marketing toolkit and overloaded business schedule.
Discover the three most common marketing mistakes made by medical professionals and learn new marketing strategies and techniques that go beyond mainstream approaches.
For small business owners: discover the real power of Twitter for your business. It has nothing to do with mass marketing. It’s not about sending out a bunch of tweets or celebrating likes and levels of engagement.
For small business owners: discover how to use Email marketing – a supposedly dead marketing vehicle, to drive customer acquisition and retention, market more efficiently to a highly relevant audience and increase your return on investment.
For small business owners: discover how to use Live Events to get in front of a like-minded community of people that provides you with quick, valuable feedback so that you can scale your business faster.
For small business owners: discover how to use the eCommerce powerhouse Amazon Kindle to share your story, your valuable experiences and all the knowledge you gained during the journey while also making a profit.
For small business owners: discover how to use the most powerful social platform on the planet aka how to deploy Facebook advertising in order to boost exposure, onboard more of the right prospects and clients, and increase sales.
For small business owners: discover three actionable, results-oriented social media marketing tips that you can implement today to boost your presence on social media and get the most out of the specific networks.
In the midst of the most-recent recession, why couldn’t you find a parking place at the mall on a weekend or get into a good restaurant without waiting for hours? Why were there waiting lines at the spa and coffee shop? In this podcast interview, Krisz Rokk and award-winning business consultant Brian Gracon use best practices from recession-proof companies to discuss buying triggers and habits of today’s consumer.
Are there any parallels between extreme sports and business? And if so, what are some of the success principles that you can apply to strengthen your mental game and achieve breakthroughs in business and life? Take these 7 effective principles and apply them to increase your mental toughness and achieve breakthroughs in your business, professional career and life.
How can you use LinkedIn to build genuine and long-lasting business relationships? Is there a proven way for individuals and businesses to connect authentically on this social media platform? Here are five quick hands-on tips on how to build meaningful business relationships on LinkedIn.
How long can you afford to stay out of the Facebook advertising game? There are more than 50 million Facebook Pages but only 4 million advertisers on Facebook. Why is that? The answer to this question plus three deadly sins of Facebook advertising coming up in today’s blog post.
Do you have an international clientele? How do you manage business operations and finances without losing sight of all the atypical needs that business owners from foreign countries may have? These two online marketing tools will help you avoid outrageous bank fees when sending money abroad, closely monitor project performance, increase productivity and maximize outcomes.
Have you been to Disneyland? Disney World is a true marketing bonanza. It would be a crime to put Walt’s teachings into three simple marketing lessons. However, I do want to share with you the marketing lessons that most stood out for me because they can be applied to ALL businesses.
What are Facebook Instant Articles and more importantly, why should you care? The following three steps will help you become an official Facebook Publisher and thus join the ranks of large media companies such as the National Geographic or the BBC.
What are some of the biggest mistakes small business owners make? Does a small business in the US face different challenges than a small business in Europe or Asia? Is there a common theme aka pattern worldwide? These are some of the topics Krisz Rokk and multi-award winning speaker and investor Mac Attram talk about in this podcast interview.
What happens when you put your prospects, leads or customers through your marketing funnel? How do you facilitate awareness, interest, desire and action? We’ll have a closer look at the reasons WHY some marketing funnels perform extremely well while others fail and I’m also going to share with you two best practices – one from Amazon and another one from iTunes.
Is email marketing dying, transitioning or evolving? What’s the current state of SMS and mobile marketing? Krisz Rokk and serial entrepreneur Heather Havenwood talk about it in today’s StrengthInBusiness podcast episode.
Are you a savvy member of the small business community feeling totally overwhelmed and exhausted by social media, content marketing, SEO, pay-per-click and things of that nature? Are you desperately trying to keep up with technology and all the Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram craziness going on? Discover three common online marketing challenges small businesses face.
Do you have a formal referral system in place? What are the benefits of referrals, and more importantly, why do you need a process behind it? Consumers rely on word-of-mouth. Research shows that referrals and recommendations from friends, colleagues and other consumers trump every other source available.
What happens to your business when direct sales becomes less effective? What happens when people stop sending you referrals? The Parthenon Philosophy states that you build your business on several robust pillars or marketing profit centers. But which pillars?
Are you copying what seems to be successful? You see, modelling big business isn’t a good thing if you’re a small business. Big businesses have a different agenda and economics aka they operate with “play money”. Here are three common marketing mistakes for small business owners to avoid at all cost.
What Facebook marketing hacks do you use to improve your results and increase ROI? Put the following five hacks to work for you and use Facebook’s amazing targeting power to hand-pick your ideal prospects.
What podcasting system(s) do you have in place to support your growth? Do you have a checklist for creating and publishing a podcast? The following easy-to-follow podcasting system includes three simple steps…
Facebook carousel ads are outperforming link ads. You hear this statement over and over. Is it true? Will Facebook carousel ads outperform your link ads? Fact is, the Facebook carousel format is now available for organic posts. So, why not give it a go?
Kindle marketing made easy: The following 10-step checklist will help you publish your book on Kindle to position yourself as an expert authority, draw in quality prospects and make more sales. Amazon is the ultimate sales machine and Kindle is a publishing powerhouse.
Marketing fundamentals are boring and unsexy. So, why bother with the very basics of marketing when there’s a new tool waiting to be discovered around every corner?
Here are 5 essential questions to ask your customers now to get better results and grow your business. Gathering valuable feedback from customers will help you deliver a more targeted service.
Are you still focusing on good old TV and radio advertising? Do you run any YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook ads? These digital advertising tools will help you quickly analyze how some of the best brands are advertising on Facebook. Mock-up your ad before launching it on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
What is an ideal market? How do you pick a hot market? What about targeting? Discover the three mission-critical questions you need to ask yourself prior to launching your business.
What’s the deal with Facebook carousel ads? Why is this format so special, and more importantly, why should you test this type of advertising for your own brands and products too? Facebook carousel ads allow you to showcase more images and links in a single ad for the same price. Automatically show the best performing images first.
Is the eBook revolution just a fad? Are headlines such as “Amazon selling over 1 million Kindles a week” a thing of the past? What category is responsible for the decline of the publishing industry? Still worth joining the Kindle game? Loads of questions… and loads of answers presented as Kindle marketing tidbits coming up…
“Will Podcasting Hit It Big? (And What Is It?)” – This was the news headline back in 2005, at the peak of “podcasting”. Since, awareness for this “new” medium has been on the rise. In 2013 Apple announced that the iTunes Store had exceeded market expectations topping one billion podcast subscriptions. OK, so 1 billion…
Social media advertising is going to explode in the years to come. Facebook, Twitter & Co. are powerful players in the digital advertising game and their performance should not be taken lightly. If you’re tired of searching and identifying affordable keywords you can bid on to drive traffic to your website (i.e. landing page, sales…
What does your marketing mix look like? Where do you invest most of your marketing budget? Is it all sorts of marketing campaigns that take money out of your pocket, or do you focus on building modern marketing assets?
The old model of sending batch email to a list is no longer effective — no matter how awesome that list is. And due to the huge success of this “oh so great model”, certain things changed. Gmail for example, has made unsubscribing from annoying emails a lot easier and other email providers followed… Fast…
Why do you blog? What’s your goal? Simply writing and publishing a blog post won’t get you very far. If you want traction and are looking to go beyond providing informational and educational material to your blog audience, you’ll need to change some things. To be able to get the results you want — provided…
The Internet is a great space — it allows individuals from all walks of life, as well as entrepreneurs and small businesses to compete with big budget companies and win. Actually, the less budget you have, the more you have to rely on your creative juices and a systematized process to manage information, leverage your…
WHO is buying from you matters more than WHAT they’re buying. This insight was a game changer for me. It shaped the way I do marketing and how I onboard my own clients. Fortunately, I learned this important marketing lesson early on thus enabling me to focus on building strong pillars for future growth and…
Paid tools are great… but “what if I’m just starting out and I don’t have the money to invest into all those fancy tools”? This is the “BUT” – question I received from one of our amazing readers after publishing the last blog post. It’s true, at least two of the Twitter tools I mentioned…
Yes, 140 characters can help you achieve unbelievable things. Twitter enables you to use shortcuts, omit needless characters and bylines, turn words into numbers, shorten links and show you’re a hashtag king / queen. On top of that, if you want to access relevant information FAST, Twitter is definitely the place to go. Well, all…
Facebook ads are a powerful marketing weapon when it comes to expanding your reach to highly relevant audiences. Provided you haven’t purchased your Facebook fans or email list using some scam tactics, and instead you’ve invested your valuable time and resources into getting to know the pain points, needs and wants of your target audience…
More than 60 million new posts are being published on WordPress.com each month. Wait a second, that’s just WordPress. Let’s not forget the other blogging platforms such as Blogger, Tumblr, TypePad, and Posterous. That’s overwhelming, right? This is where smart content curation can go a long way. Let me explain the concept quickly. The world…
Facebook advertising can help you drive targeted traffic to your website, get quality leads and make more sales. To squeeze the best juice out of your Facebook ads and stop spending more than you should on a campaign, you need to have the right components in place. There are plenty of experts and marketing pros…
Are you advertising on Facebook? Have you used Power Editor to set up your Facebook ads? Let’s say you’re not part of the crowd “I tried Facebook advertising. I spent $100 and it didn’t work. It doesn’t work for me and my type of business”. Say, you’re doing pretty OK on Facebook, however, you’re not…
Whether you’re a small business owner or a marketing pro working for a corporate – you use the same social media channels Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. The difference between the small guy and the big boys lies in the marketing tools they use. Corporates may afford to spend millions on fancy CRM systems but the…
Blogging takes time. First, you need to do some research in order to come up with a relevant topic. Then you need to write a catchy headline, use your knowledge and experience to compose a great article, source images and work out your SEO. Wait, that’s not all. That was just the creation part. Once…
Coming up with relevant topics and creating original, high-quality content can be a pain in the butt — especially, if you don’t have a proven content marketing system in place. However, it doesn’t have to be that painful process you need to go through every time you sit down to write your new blog post…
Podcasting is on the rise. Podcasts are undeniably popular, entertaining, educational and informative. On iTunes, podcast subscriptions top 1 billion. Obviously, podcasts are not exclusive to iTunes. Many other apps and services, so called podcatchers are eager to share the latest and greatest podcast episodes. When I launched my first podcast episode back in April 2012…
Have you ever thought of combining podcasting with your dental practice, travel agency, or real estate business? Well, that’s exactly what Jason Hartman did a few years ago. He used podcasting to spread the word, gain trust and position his real estate investing business strategically and intelligently. Obviously, it turned out pretty well for him…
How are you going to stand out from 347 million users on LinkedIn? What are the must-haves for a great LinkedIn profile? Your LinkedIn profile is a fantastic place to showcase your best assets and greatest successes. Furthermore, it’s the fastest way to make a great or not so great first impression. Whether it’s a…
One billion heartbeats… As humans, we get an average of 2.2 billion heartbeats out of our bodies and we live more than twice as long as our heart rates would indicate. When we exercise, our heart rate increases. When we are frightened, our heart races. When we listen to music our heart tries to sync…
The Babylonians were the most powerful state in the ancient world after the fall of the Assyrian empire. They built the most famous city in ancient Mesopotamia, in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and created the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Now,…
Are you ready to solve complex problems with everyday materials and become the next MacGyver of marketing resources? Unlike MacGyver, you don’t really need to possess an encyclopedic knowledge on marketing to achieve your goals but you certainly have to tap into your resourcefulness. So, how can you accomplish this task? Whether you’re new to…
Are you a business owner or marketing professional looking for new ways to generate leads? Do you want to get more customers through the door without overspending? Well, it’s time to use those marketing resources more wisely. Whether you are a marketing pro or an entrepreneur, you’re constantly looking for potential clients. No clients means…
Facebook ads are freaking awesome. Whereas Justin Timberlake can only bring it back a limited amount of times, you can use Facebook ads to onboard sexy clients over and over again. Sounds good? A couple of months ago I shared three effective Facebook marketing tips you can use to create highly targeted Facebook ads that…
Getting customers through the door, putting a powerful marketing message in front of the right people and picking the right marketing channels — all at the same time, can be challenging indeed. Inviting the right prospects to visit your virtual home aka your website, blog, or social media profiles takes the concept of customer acquisition…
Where should you promote your new piece of content? What are some of the most effective marketing channels to reach the right prospects? Which one is “better” than the others? There are so many attractive ways to bring in the audience. Some channels bring more visitors than others. And some of them convert better than…
Do you love to go to business networking events? What do you do when you realize you have little to nothing in common with those around you? Do you get rid of your business cards and leave the party? I’ve attended a few business networking events myself. Whether I was in Europe, USA, Asia, or…
What’s the most effective type of marketing? Is it creating content for humans, or writing for Google’s search algorithms? If your content strategy is tight to Panda, Penguin & Co. – well, good luck with that one. If on the other hand, you’re interested in sharing genuine, high-quality content that helps your prospects and customers…
We all know that the Internet, the rise of Facebook, Twitter and all those other social media platforms have changed the way we do business. The marketing landscape continues to shift and budgets aren’t exactly exploding – to say the least. With all this, it has become quite difficult for marketers to know how to…
Speed seems to be everything in today’s fast-paced and ever-connected world. Feeling rushed and overwhelmed? Are you missing out on being part of the conversation because you’re too slow? Is real-time marketing all about responding quickly to the latest trends and events? If you take a good look at social media conversations that are taking…
What online marketing tools do you use to build your landing pages? Are you still heavily involved into coding and customizing to make the page look professionally designed and optimized for conversions? If you love to code and have the tech know-how required to do so, I’m not here to stop you. For those of…
What do you need to be successful in eBook marketing? Content alone won’t make it. Marketing and promoting your content across multiple channels to expand your reach, influence, and credibility is as important as writing an engaging story. Social media has changed the way we consume content. Nevertheless, the rise of YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram…
Why still bother with the old-fashioned channel of word-of-mouth marketing when you have Facebook, YouTube & Co.? Do most of the independent workers aka solopreneurs really get their gigs through social media? Nothing could be further from the truth. In today’s digital world one might think that most independent workers get the vast majority of…
Would you like to improve your Facebook marketing strategy and increase conversion rates? Are you wondering what marketing tactics the pros are using to generate consistent returns by targeting Facebook’s 1.32 billion monthly active users? It’s time to shed some light on the subject. In this blog post you’ll discover three high-impact Facebook marketing tips and…
Google’s Keyword Tool used to be my first go-to keyword research site. The tool was intuitive, easy to use and quick. But things have changed in the online world and the much-loved keyword tool has now been replaced by the Keyword Planner. Today’s online users are sophisticated and savvy thus making it a lot harder…
Every social media channel has its own personality. Facebook may require more casual blog posts while LinkedIn a more formal approach. You can update your Twitter account several times a day while you only post one or two pins to Pinterest. So, what’s the appropriate social media etiquette on these networks anyway? We all know…
How would you feel if you’d have an arsenal of deadly online marketing weapons that gives you a competitive edge in the market and a better chance for profitability? Would you like to boost your Google branding without overspending your marketing budget? If you have read Jay Conrad Levinson’s Guerilla Marketing book, you already know…
Finding the right information in this loud and crowded online marketing world can be tricky. It’s hard to figure out what’s what and more importantly, who to trust. Searching the web for marketing blogs to find reliable tidbits on SEO, social media, email marketing, or PPC can be very challenging indeed. Where can you find…
New media marketing aka online marketing requires a different approach from brick and mortar businesses. This can be challenging and often times quite overwhelming. While many entrepreneurs and small business owners are conscious of the fact that marketing principles don’t change, they don’t know how to cope with the massive shifts that are taking place…