What do you think you need more than anything else to attract more of your ideal clients?
Many people will say, "better information to show me how to do what works."
Others will say, "more motivation and drive to implement what I already know."
Another common answer is, "more time to fit marketing activities into my schedule."
And lots of people will say, "I need better goals and more clarity about what I want to achieve."
In writing this ezine/blog for the past 20 years I've talked about the importance of all of those.
But I'm finally understanding a factor that is much more important: good habits.
Over the past year, I've been a big advocate of the writings of James Clear. He writes a blog about success and habits. And he just came out with his first book, Atomic Habits, which is fantastic.
Even though James isn't a marketing expert, I'm convinced he's right when he says that the ultimate determinant of success is building positive habits.
This idea is simple but true: Self-employed professionals who establish regular marketing habits have a much better chance of succeeding than those who don't.
And the crazy thing is that the four items - information, motivation, time, and goals - I mentioned above don't actually make a huge difference.
Information. These days, we have access to more information about marketing than ever before in history. And much of it is free and instantly available through a Google or YouTube search.
The problem is that most of us have not established a regular habit of studying what we need to know to become better marketers. The information is useless unless we become proficient at implementing it.
And even if we pay good money for courses and programs, much of it goes to waste. I just learned recently online that 97% of people who buy a course online never complete it.
Motivation. If we measured motivation by intention, we are all motivated. Don't we all want and need to grow our businesses? But we keep getting distracted and don't follow through on our intentions. Again, the issue is poor habits.
Time. If only we had more of it. But unsuccessful marketers have just as much of it as the most successful ones. The key is that they dedicate more time to implementing regular marketing habits.
Goals. Nothing wrong with goals except that they are only a starting point for success. And they can get us stuck in the future, instead of doing what needs to be done today - the routine marketing habits that we perform every day or week.
"A habit or system beats a goal every time." - James Clear
The research is in and the conclusion is clear.
Establishing positive and consistent marketing habits have a bigger impact on marketing success than anything else.
We may have great information, high motivation, lots of time, and clear goals, but unless marketing activities are performed regularly and habitually, the chances of success are slim to none.
The question you should be asking is, "How do I start establishing better marketing habits?"
James's Atomic Habits goes to great lengths to share a multitude of ways to become an expert habit practitioner. So I highly suggest you get his book. It could be the most valuable 'marketing' book you'll ever read.
But let me also give you my perspective on what it takes to establish new marketing habits.
The C - SPAT Model
This is a model I came up with for one of my marketing programs.
Coaching or Context. A coach declares the game, how it is played and how to win at it. And this creates the context in which you play the game. It helps if you have an outside source that can hold you accountable to play by the rules necessary to succeed.
This principle is why when you're working with a coach or in a program that you suddenly find it's easier to take action and form positive habits. The context of the game helps shape your behaviors.
Notice that all professionals such as doctors, lawyers, and accountants go through rigorous training in the form of a professional school and internship. And in this context, professional habits and protocols are established.
As independent professionals, we'd all prefer to do things on our own, charting our own direction. That's nice, except that it doesn't always work very well, does it?
Study. A big part of the game is study and learning the body of knowledge necessary to perform effectively. Again, the information required to be an effective marketer is readily available, but you need some assistance in sorting the wheat from the chaff and studying what is most useful.
Planning. All successful marketing needs a plan. The alternative is implementing random marketing activities with little structure and direction. So it's not how much you know, but how you put what you know into action.
Action. Success doesn't come from being busy or doing a lot of things, but in doing the right things at the right time. This is where establishing regular marketing habits comes in.
To some, it might be writing an article once or twice a week. For others, it may mean setting up more meetings with networking contacts. Or it could be booking regular speaking engagements.
The secret to making this work is to leverage the first three steps of the model - Coaching, Study, and Planning, into marketing Actions that you perform as consistently as possible.
Tracking. What gets measured gets done. And when we fail to measure, habits don't tend to stick. When we measure and track habits, the chances increase dramatically that they are performed consistently.
It can take some time to establish positive habits. You know that's happened when you don't even have to think about it anymore; you just sit down and write that article every Monday or make five calls to prospects every week.
And when you're in action like this, you create a feedback loop, learning what works the best and what doesn't. This enables you to fine-tune and adjust over time until your marketing habits become more established.
So, stop putting so much attention on searching for the "perfect" marketing strategy, getting motivated, finding more time, and setting goals.
Instead, use the C - SPAT approach to establishing positive marketing habits.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10105413
Showing posts with label online. Show all posts
Showing posts with label online. Show all posts
Friday, 15 November 2019
Tuesday, 12 November 2019
Different Types of Direct Marketing Lists
Direct marketing delivers your marketing message directly to a group consumers or businesses on a personalized level (such as a telephone call or via a personal email message). It's a form of marketing that provides the recipient with a direct call to action. The following are the three main types of direct marketing.
Mailing Lists
Direct mail is one of the most common forms of direct marketing and an essential part of an integrated marketing campaign. Companies promote their products and services with a provocative mailer. Direct mail campaigns provide your prospects with a tangible piece of mail to read at their leisure. Direct mail campaigns are extremely effective and when they are personalized and customized to a specific target audience can have great response rates.
Telemarketing Lists
Telemarketing is the process of calling prospects on the phone to promote your products or services. This can be done using your own sales staff or by subcontracting out to a call center. Telemarketing is vital in creating brand recognition, building customer relationships, nurturing leads and of course, closing sales.
Even with its bad reputation, telemarketing still plays an important part of any direct marketing campaign. Telemarketing is personal and interactive, and capable of providing an immediate response. As effective as telemarketing is, you need to be sensitive to your prospects' willingness to receiving unsolicited phone calls.
Telemarketing campaigns work best when the telemarketing lists are highly targeted, with accurate data that matches your current customer's profiles.
Email Lists
Email marketing is an effective way of reaching out to new prospects or following up with existing customers. Email marketing is extremely versatile, and you can easily customize your marketing messages to various market segments, or for prospects in different stages of the sales funnel.
Email marketing can be used to nurture customer relationships, provide company and product information, drive website traffic and to promote direct sales. The emails can be as elaborate or as simple as needed.
Most people check their emails on a daily basis, making email a very effective marketing method for your business. However, email marketing should be used responsibly, and it is extremely important to have your customers' consent before sending emails.
The most successful direct marketing campaign will use a mix of marketing methods. Repetition is very important in any type of marketing efforts. The more you can get yourself out in front of prospects, the greater the chance of being remembered. Try a direct mail campaign with a telemarketing follow-up or an email blast in conjunction with a direct mail campaign. A Multi-Channel campaign also allows your prospects multiple ways to communicate back to you.
Regardless of the method, the key aspect in any direct marketing campaign is the ability to target the marketing message to a specific audience. With properly defined target market, you can deliver your message directly to those who have a greater probability of purchasing from your business. This allows businesses of all sizes focus their marketing budget and resources where they're most likely to get results.
It's very important, before starting any direct marketing campaign, that you understand the different regulations governing each method of communication. The responsibility is yours to make sure you are compliant. Legitimate list brokers and managers should be able to confirm that the lists they are providing comply to the various rules and regulations. If you are uncertain, do not hesitate to ask.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10142808
Mailing Lists
Direct mail is one of the most common forms of direct marketing and an essential part of an integrated marketing campaign. Companies promote their products and services with a provocative mailer. Direct mail campaigns provide your prospects with a tangible piece of mail to read at their leisure. Direct mail campaigns are extremely effective and when they are personalized and customized to a specific target audience can have great response rates.
Telemarketing Lists
Telemarketing is the process of calling prospects on the phone to promote your products or services. This can be done using your own sales staff or by subcontracting out to a call center. Telemarketing is vital in creating brand recognition, building customer relationships, nurturing leads and of course, closing sales.
Even with its bad reputation, telemarketing still plays an important part of any direct marketing campaign. Telemarketing is personal and interactive, and capable of providing an immediate response. As effective as telemarketing is, you need to be sensitive to your prospects' willingness to receiving unsolicited phone calls.
Telemarketing campaigns work best when the telemarketing lists are highly targeted, with accurate data that matches your current customer's profiles.
Email Lists
Email marketing is an effective way of reaching out to new prospects or following up with existing customers. Email marketing is extremely versatile, and you can easily customize your marketing messages to various market segments, or for prospects in different stages of the sales funnel.
Email marketing can be used to nurture customer relationships, provide company and product information, drive website traffic and to promote direct sales. The emails can be as elaborate or as simple as needed.
Most people check their emails on a daily basis, making email a very effective marketing method for your business. However, email marketing should be used responsibly, and it is extremely important to have your customers' consent before sending emails.
The most successful direct marketing campaign will use a mix of marketing methods. Repetition is very important in any type of marketing efforts. The more you can get yourself out in front of prospects, the greater the chance of being remembered. Try a direct mail campaign with a telemarketing follow-up or an email blast in conjunction with a direct mail campaign. A Multi-Channel campaign also allows your prospects multiple ways to communicate back to you.
Regardless of the method, the key aspect in any direct marketing campaign is the ability to target the marketing message to a specific audience. With properly defined target market, you can deliver your message directly to those who have a greater probability of purchasing from your business. This allows businesses of all sizes focus their marketing budget and resources where they're most likely to get results.
It's very important, before starting any direct marketing campaign, that you understand the different regulations governing each method of communication. The responsibility is yours to make sure you are compliant. Legitimate list brokers and managers should be able to confirm that the lists they are providing comply to the various rules and regulations. If you are uncertain, do not hesitate to ask.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10142808
Tuesday, 5 November 2019
Will Power And Self Discipline In Your Online Business
In your online business, there are quite a number of things that you have to master in order to be successful, but few can compare in importance to will-power and self-discipline. You are going to be tested in so many ways, while building your business that you are going to need these two qualities so important in your life almost every day. It is no good carrying on procrastinating and taking no action about different things that we all know are absolutely necessary in your online business.
So often you may want to do things that you know are beneficial and important for your business online yet, if you do not actually take action to get them done, you see that time carries on regardless and very little is achieved. This sort of thing happens to most of us, especially when we lack will power and have no self-discipline. So keep reading because I will cover a few ways to develop will power and acquire self-discipline.
I don't want you to keep wishing you had will-power and self-discipline. Instead, I am going to show how to get these qualities to make a great difference in your life. When you start eliminating the habits that stop you from going forward, like laziness, excessive eating, smoking and procrastination, you will be on your way to recognize that you are getting more will power and self-discipline. Having more of these qualities is absolutely necessary to do well in your online business.
But how do you get will-power, how do you begin to understand will-power?. Well, if you think, like many people do, that will-power is something very arduous or difficult, or that you have to tense your body and brain to express it, you are mistaken. Don't believe it because I am going to show some strategies that will convince you it is not difficult to develop will-power.
When you don't value insignificant, unnecessary and unhealthy ideas, feelings, actions and reactions that don't empower you, you are showing you posses will-power. This energy is stored inside you and can be available any time you need it to accomplish anything your want.
We will cover later some exercises you can do to gain a lot of will power, but now let us talk about self-discipline and why you need it for your life and your business. You could say that when you make decisions for your business and carry them through to fruition, you have some self-discipline because you have not allowed instant gratification and pleasure take you away from your desired course. Indeed that is a good definition of self-discipline because your actions allowed you to stay with the course that you selected before-hand.
Is this skill useful and required in everyone's life? Absolutely! Without it, as we touched before, you would not stick with your decisions and would have a hard time achieving your goals in business. When you have it, your actions, thoughts and behaviour are in line with a better and more fulfilling life because your inner strength and will power overcome addictions, and other negative traits like procrastination, laziness and lack of focus, to allow you to achieve whatever you want to do in online business.
So why would you not develop self-discipline? You do know how useful and required it is for success in your personal life and of course in your business world too, so fortify it, embrace it and develop it further. Remember that lack of discipline may lead you to failure in reaching your goals. But on the other hand, actions described above that demonstrate you have self-discipline, leads to self-assurance, inner strength and self-regard, as well as to complete satisfaction and happiness.
There are lots of issues and challenges along the path of success, accomplishment and wealth in business and you want to rise above all of them to become successful in whatever you do. You want and need to have perseverance, persistence and sheer will power in order to also overcome other negative traits like smoking, drinking, eating disorders and other damaging habits like drug addition, procrastination and laziness.
Here is what self-discipline can do for you, in addition to those qualities mentioned above:
• It allows you to regulate and control anger, indecision, appetite and various other natural responses.
• You can eliminate many types of temptations which you do not need like gossiping or gambling, overeating or watching too much television.
• It can certainly rescue you from throwing in the towel when things are tough in the business world or in your personal life, by giving you the strength to keep going.
• With it you can get great relationships with others, by not feeling easily hurt or disturbed with what sometimes people do or say to you.
• It gives you better control over the need to accomplish the goals you set for yourself in your online business, as well as having total control over your responses, needs and thoughts.
There are so many more qualities that self-discipline can bring to you...
But how can you develop these inner qualities of will-power and self-discipline? Well, will-power can be obtained gradually and it all depends really on your desire to get it.
And you do not require huge monumental feats of effort to achieve it. Don't believe those who tell you that to get will-power require you to go through great suffering or physical mutilation.
In fact, anyone can become powerful with will-power simply by the challenge of eliminating everything that you know is harmful for you in many areas of your personal and business life. By giving up adverse and useless things that take your time to make you weak, you gain in strength according to how many of these bad habits you can stop. Repeating this process is the challenge you need to make your life more absorbing, gratifying and interesting.
The will-power that you want is not something that can be achieved in one day. You can only developed it bit by bit, over a period of time and it is something that doesn't depend on feelings, emotions, un-focus enthusiasm or even optimism. Instead this gradual ability, developed over a period of time, if it turns into a habit, it is something so special that you can use over and over again whenever and wherever you require it.
This training of the will-power extends or inter-relates with self-discipline since the taking of gradual steps to obtain will-power requires another great quality as we've covered before called self-discipline. So, carry on this way because with self-discipline you also get self-control which is another way of calling self-discipline.
Using self-control wisely is one of the most important tools you can have for self-improvement and for accomplishing success online.
What else does self-control do? It can do a lot of things really, like keeping under control any self-destructive, addictive, compulsive and obsessive action. It can enhance the sense of personal mastery and balance over your life. And it can remove any feelings of weakness and being too dependent on other people. It also enables you to take control over your life. And there are many other qualities that self-control brings to your life.
Self-control also has to act against many obstacles like truly understanding what self-control really is about; or about deficiencies of the desire to alter and improve. And it has to act against solid and uncontrolled emotional responses. Also, do not allow self-control to be considered a restricting and unpleasant activity.
How do you develop self-control? You first find out what areas of your life need more self-control and these could be: Drinking, Betting, Smoking, Obsessive behaviour, Eating and then attempt to identify emotions that lack control, like being angry, dissatisfied, sadness, resentment, delight or fearfulness. See if you can isolate the thoughts and emotions that push you to act in an unrestrained manner.
Here are a few exercises that you can do to gain will-power, self-discipline and self- control: A) Refrain from saying things that are offensive or negative to other groups of people. B) Overlook the gossip useless pages of newspapers. C) When you desire to eat unhealthy meals, discard the thought and prepare yourself an alternative healthy one. D) Try not to drink your tea with sugar for a week if you normally take sugar with your tea. E) Get up straight away at the set time to do it, instead of thinking about it. F) Develop the habit of finishing what you started.
But there are so many more things similar to those above to create an unstoppable muscle to develop your inner strength. The point here is that you do not want to continue making your life hard by doing the things you don't like. Consider instead making your life 'easy' by doing the things that most people think hard to do. These skills are vital for your will-power, self-discipline, your personal life and your online business.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8001352
So often you may want to do things that you know are beneficial and important for your business online yet, if you do not actually take action to get them done, you see that time carries on regardless and very little is achieved. This sort of thing happens to most of us, especially when we lack will power and have no self-discipline. So keep reading because I will cover a few ways to develop will power and acquire self-discipline.
I don't want you to keep wishing you had will-power and self-discipline. Instead, I am going to show how to get these qualities to make a great difference in your life. When you start eliminating the habits that stop you from going forward, like laziness, excessive eating, smoking and procrastination, you will be on your way to recognize that you are getting more will power and self-discipline. Having more of these qualities is absolutely necessary to do well in your online business.
But how do you get will-power, how do you begin to understand will-power?. Well, if you think, like many people do, that will-power is something very arduous or difficult, or that you have to tense your body and brain to express it, you are mistaken. Don't believe it because I am going to show some strategies that will convince you it is not difficult to develop will-power.
When you don't value insignificant, unnecessary and unhealthy ideas, feelings, actions and reactions that don't empower you, you are showing you posses will-power. This energy is stored inside you and can be available any time you need it to accomplish anything your want.
We will cover later some exercises you can do to gain a lot of will power, but now let us talk about self-discipline and why you need it for your life and your business. You could say that when you make decisions for your business and carry them through to fruition, you have some self-discipline because you have not allowed instant gratification and pleasure take you away from your desired course. Indeed that is a good definition of self-discipline because your actions allowed you to stay with the course that you selected before-hand.
Is this skill useful and required in everyone's life? Absolutely! Without it, as we touched before, you would not stick with your decisions and would have a hard time achieving your goals in business. When you have it, your actions, thoughts and behaviour are in line with a better and more fulfilling life because your inner strength and will power overcome addictions, and other negative traits like procrastination, laziness and lack of focus, to allow you to achieve whatever you want to do in online business.
So why would you not develop self-discipline? You do know how useful and required it is for success in your personal life and of course in your business world too, so fortify it, embrace it and develop it further. Remember that lack of discipline may lead you to failure in reaching your goals. But on the other hand, actions described above that demonstrate you have self-discipline, leads to self-assurance, inner strength and self-regard, as well as to complete satisfaction and happiness.
There are lots of issues and challenges along the path of success, accomplishment and wealth in business and you want to rise above all of them to become successful in whatever you do. You want and need to have perseverance, persistence and sheer will power in order to also overcome other negative traits like smoking, drinking, eating disorders and other damaging habits like drug addition, procrastination and laziness.
Here is what self-discipline can do for you, in addition to those qualities mentioned above:
• It allows you to regulate and control anger, indecision, appetite and various other natural responses.
• You can eliminate many types of temptations which you do not need like gossiping or gambling, overeating or watching too much television.
• It can certainly rescue you from throwing in the towel when things are tough in the business world or in your personal life, by giving you the strength to keep going.
• With it you can get great relationships with others, by not feeling easily hurt or disturbed with what sometimes people do or say to you.
• It gives you better control over the need to accomplish the goals you set for yourself in your online business, as well as having total control over your responses, needs and thoughts.
There are so many more qualities that self-discipline can bring to you...
But how can you develop these inner qualities of will-power and self-discipline? Well, will-power can be obtained gradually and it all depends really on your desire to get it.
And you do not require huge monumental feats of effort to achieve it. Don't believe those who tell you that to get will-power require you to go through great suffering or physical mutilation.
In fact, anyone can become powerful with will-power simply by the challenge of eliminating everything that you know is harmful for you in many areas of your personal and business life. By giving up adverse and useless things that take your time to make you weak, you gain in strength according to how many of these bad habits you can stop. Repeating this process is the challenge you need to make your life more absorbing, gratifying and interesting.
The will-power that you want is not something that can be achieved in one day. You can only developed it bit by bit, over a period of time and it is something that doesn't depend on feelings, emotions, un-focus enthusiasm or even optimism. Instead this gradual ability, developed over a period of time, if it turns into a habit, it is something so special that you can use over and over again whenever and wherever you require it.
This training of the will-power extends or inter-relates with self-discipline since the taking of gradual steps to obtain will-power requires another great quality as we've covered before called self-discipline. So, carry on this way because with self-discipline you also get self-control which is another way of calling self-discipline.
Using self-control wisely is one of the most important tools you can have for self-improvement and for accomplishing success online.
What else does self-control do? It can do a lot of things really, like keeping under control any self-destructive, addictive, compulsive and obsessive action. It can enhance the sense of personal mastery and balance over your life. And it can remove any feelings of weakness and being too dependent on other people. It also enables you to take control over your life. And there are many other qualities that self-control brings to your life.
Self-control also has to act against many obstacles like truly understanding what self-control really is about; or about deficiencies of the desire to alter and improve. And it has to act against solid and uncontrolled emotional responses. Also, do not allow self-control to be considered a restricting and unpleasant activity.
How do you develop self-control? You first find out what areas of your life need more self-control and these could be: Drinking, Betting, Smoking, Obsessive behaviour, Eating and then attempt to identify emotions that lack control, like being angry, dissatisfied, sadness, resentment, delight or fearfulness. See if you can isolate the thoughts and emotions that push you to act in an unrestrained manner.
Here are a few exercises that you can do to gain will-power, self-discipline and self- control: A) Refrain from saying things that are offensive or negative to other groups of people. B) Overlook the gossip useless pages of newspapers. C) When you desire to eat unhealthy meals, discard the thought and prepare yourself an alternative healthy one. D) Try not to drink your tea with sugar for a week if you normally take sugar with your tea. E) Get up straight away at the set time to do it, instead of thinking about it. F) Develop the habit of finishing what you started.
But there are so many more things similar to those above to create an unstoppable muscle to develop your inner strength. The point here is that you do not want to continue making your life hard by doing the things you don't like. Consider instead making your life 'easy' by doing the things that most people think hard to do. These skills are vital for your will-power, self-discipline, your personal life and your online business.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8001352
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)