Up Market |
- Project Sweet Spot: Meet Anne Van de Water
- Hospital Marketing
- Why Twitter Matters, Facebook Loses and How Pinterest Gets Our Attention
- Are You Crushing Your Creativity?
| Project Sweet Spot: Meet Anne Van de Water Posted: 28 Feb 2012 08:30 AM PST
While I would never discourage anyone from fulfilling a big vision or lofty goal, I very often need to help these bright-eyed, big vision world-changers to understand that, in order to be effective with their marketing and sales and create real reach and impact, they are going to have to get specific and narrow about who they are serving, and what practical, real-life problem they are solving for that particular group of people. Consider the example of my client, Anne Van de Water. She had been teaching yoga, nutrition and meditation for years, and was helping her clients with developing better daily lifestyle habits that, in turn, helped them look better, feel better and raise their consciousness. She was excellent at what she did and she knew it, and she also wanted to start impacting more people in a bigger way in line with her mission. Anne (like virtually everyone I work with) originally came to me with this sense of wanting to help everyone she possibly could with her expertise. At the same time, she realized that there was something she still needed to learn about effectively packaging and marketing her services in a way that people would clearly understand what she could do for them, and say an enthusiastic “Yes!” to engaging her and her services. I worked with Anne to help her understand that, by getting really specific and focused about who she is really on the planet to help the most, we could tailor her marketing to reflect a language that is so clear and compelling to those people that they will instantly recognize themselves in it, and know that she truly understands them and why, where and how they most need help, thereby greatly increasing the likelihood of recognizing her as THE go-to person to help them with that particular problem. We started by exploring who she wanted to impact the most – the kind of person that’s most magnetic and juicy for her to work with. It turned out that what lit her up most was working with already-successful leaders who were powerfully driven by their mission, but who were exhausted and burned out and had no idea how they could ever take on more in order to step fully into their larger vision. A great start. We then looked at the major transformation she would provide to those leaders. Given that she was so skilled at helping people create a shift in their energy and their consciousness through changing their daily lifestyle habits and routines, she realized that what she was really doing was helping these leaders to “raise their vibration to match their mission.” Without making that shift, they were never going to be able to fulfill their mission because they were currently physically, emotionally and energetically capped – and that was causing them a huge problem that they sorely needed to solve (and they knew it). Now that’s what I’m talking about! At that point, we had the foundation necessary – a specific and narrow target tribe, as well as a very real, painful and practical problem that they wanted to solve quickly. We designed her first program around those insights, and she put out an introductory offer to pilot the program with five new clients. Lo and behold, Anne sold all five spots at $1,800 each within 48 hours! Here’s what she said when that happened:
Nothing makes me happier than receiving emails like that! You can check out what Anne is up to, and how her marketing has grown to reflect these insights about her tribe and how she serves them at Vibrationtransformation.com. (You can even experience your own instant vibration transformation through the free gift that she offers there, if that calls to you.) The bottom line is: It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or what kind of product or service you offer or are thinking about offering, these basic rules of marketing and sales still apply: you need to get specific and narrow with your tribe, and identify the particular, practical and pressing problem you can solve for them, and you will be a long way to having clients literally lined up to work with you. |
| Posted: 28 Feb 2012 05:30 AM PST Marketing a hospital or health system is no different than "marketing" any other non-profit organization. |
| Why Twitter Matters, Facebook Loses and How Pinterest Gets Our Attention Posted: 27 Feb 2012 05:00 PM PST
The LOSERS Google+ If you’re a small business or start-up, I suggest you ignore it – it's still clunky and interaction across circles and peers is minimal. Simply put, the UI isn't structured well for deep user engagement. I understand there might be long-term SEO benefits, but until Google figures out how to build stronger value-add features it stands to question. My Google+ Business Page. Simply put, it's great for personal connections but is a declining value-add for businesses. The hierarchy of the News Feed has changed over time, making info posted more personalized by user subscriptions, lists and general consumption and engagement frequency levels with your page. With millions of personal profiles and business pages to consume, it's incredibly easy to get lost in the shuffle. I would maintain your page, if you already have one live. But if you don't, I wouldn't rush to build one unless you have a large amount of awesome, engaging content to share with users and followers. My Facebook Community Page. The WINNERS It's back. For me at least, there was a period that I questioned its value-add. Granted, I despise the bots and number of porn star followers. But generally speaking, Twitter has reclaimed its spot as vital-to-my-business. It is particularly useful because it provides an added source of new users and followers, plus you/me can more easily engage in a wide range of online conversations – specific to xyz industry, or not. My Twitter. While best for the B2B community, LinkedIn too has slipped into a promising spot of providing real value to acquisition and conversion efforts. LinkedIn Groups, specifically, is very flexible for your time management and business preferences – private vs. public profiles, monitored vs. not, sub-groups vs. primary groups. The UI has been very thoughtfully developed, and it shows. My LinkedIn Group. The ATTENTION GETTERS I join every one out there to say Pinterest is a must-have (beta test, at minimum) for your business efforts. Not only is it the fastest-growing site on the web right now, but the UI has also been built in a way that allows you to attract a broader range of followers than on Facebook (the “friends and family channel”). The key with Pinterest though is that you must have valuable content to share. The most popular, shareable pieces of content in the business community are: infographics, quotes, charts, and visualizations of awesome design techniques. My Pinterest. Chime.in I admittedly dabble with this one, but the concept is attractive to me that content (articles, links) can be posted to share across vertical communities (e.g. Technology, News) or brand-specific (e.g. Pinterest). It opens up a valuable way to attract new industry level audiences to items like white papers, blog posts, and press releases. The platform also has a unique engagement mechanism for how users participate – and recommend – posts you provide to the community with a "chime-in" alert system and expose of most "chimed" items via virtual news feeds. My Chime.in. Have other suggestions, or feedback? Take this survey to share which social channels you use on a daily basis. |
| Are You Crushing Your Creativity? Posted: 27 Feb 2012 01:30 PM PST
Are you burying your creativity under a pile of psychological rocks? You were born curious and creative. Our ability to play and follow our curiosity are threads of divergent thinking we demonstrate as children. In 1965, George Land, a general systems scientist, started a research and consulting institute to study creative performance. He studied the most likely people to exhibit genius level divergent thinking. Guess what he found? Ninety-eight percent of 1,600 children he tested in kindergarten exhibited genius level, divergent thinking capacity. What is scary is, in his academic research that followed those same children throughout their education track, the older (more educated) they became, the weaker their capacity for divergent thinking. Their capacity for divergent thinking shrank in direct proportion to their learning to search for and provide THE CORRECT ANSWER. What discovery is lurking just beyond your reach because you have a hunch you'd love to follow, but you are concerned about being wrong? What are you curious about and put aside because of what others might think? I'm not talking about risking life and limb here…or doing stuff that's morally repugnant. Maybe it's an idea you have that serves an unmet customer need? Maybe it's something that would alter the quality of your life?
Who is it you need permission from to proceed? What if you had a secret weapon that obliterated your concerns…before they became rocks? Are you willing to play? I have created a tool…a weapon you can use. It is a Permission to Be Wrong Coupon. LOL!!! Here is the offer and the fine print: Dear ____________________, I request your permission to be wrong. There is something I am curious about that I think is very important. I'd like the opportunity to explore it, but thought it would be helpful to discuss the conditions under which you would agree to let me explore it, knowing I might be wrong. What I propose to explore:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Terms or conditions you need to grant permission:__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Coupon expires_________________. Recipient acknowledges this is not a legal document but instead is an imaginative tool that facilitates a conversation… an opportunity to discuss the fear that accompanies curiosity when outcomes are hoped for but may be different than we intend. Requested by _________________ Date__________ Permission granted by: _____________________ Date____________
Silly? Perhaps. Far fetched? So what. This coupon represents the framework for a conversation we could have that sets up conditions and parameters that support our exploration, our curiosity. Don't bury your creativity! Instead of experiencing the weight of an unexplored idea turned to rock, set up the conditions and parameters that support your exploration, curiosity and creativity and that lead to discovery. Have some fun and print yourself a permission to be wrong coupon. Heck, print multiple copies. Maybe start by being really generous and give a coupon and your permission to someone you love. Or, get brave and arm yourself with your sense of humor and a coupon…and approach someone you want to elicit permission from to follow your hunch. What do you stand to gain if you put your fear at bay? |
Fear of being wrong and fear of being judged are like psychological rocks we carry when there is something we are really curious about, but reluctant to explore. Curiosity and a willingness to explore are gateways to creativity.| You are subscribed to email updates from Upmarket To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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