Oh, those dreaded questions!
We all get them, and when it happens, most of us seem to have a real knee-jerk reaction.
What am I talking about? Questions we get asked about our business that pushes us over the edge. Questions like… “do you offer a discount?” or “would you share your secrets with me?” or maybe even “would you send me a list of your contacts?” Of course, the list of questions goes on and on, and they change just a little in context by industry.
When the question happens, how do you respond? A lot of times we don’t give these any thought until the negative thoughts pop into our minds at the time of the asking. And even then, we’re typically at a loss of words for a proper reply. In our minds, we might even be very furious that someone would be so bold to ask such a question and expect a reply.
That’s where the danger lies. You see, if the answers have not been developed and rehearsed beforehand, these little annoyances could eat up all of your energies (and sometimes your whole day).
Instead of spending time letting this upset you, prepare what you’re going to say beforehand. Here are some examples I use (and I typically make it fun and very casual). When someone wants to “pick my brain,” I have several “on the spot” answers ready. Depending on the situation, I will sometimes say, “now, I know that you know I charge extra for that.” Or I might even come back with, “I have no problem answering one question for you, but it has to be a yes or no answer.” And, depending on the person, I normally get a chuckle or two when I use these “canned” answers and the mood then turns light and friendly.
By doing this, I protect my energy and we both go on our merry ways. See how much better things turn out once you practice a more positive way answering those much “dreaded” questions?
Now for a great action step: write down the questions, that when asked, seem to upset you most. Now find a way to answer and react to each one that protects your energies and boundaries. Once you’ve created your list, rehearse saying each one until you answer smoothly. When you’re finished, resume being happy!
Here’s to your amazing success!
Carmen, “The Publicity Diva”
P.S. And if you would like help building your marketing strategies, just give me a call or send me an email!
4 Ways to Keep Blog Visitors Coming Back!
Blogging is the perfect way for businesses to share their expertise with their readers. When people blog, it means they keep an updated online journal, and typically share information about their industry or interests. Most companies blog as a way to help increase the amount of visitors to their web sites. For many bloggers, however, increasing traffic to their blogs is not their only goal. Most people that blog want to keep their visitors coming back for more, not just to visit once and never come back.
So, today I’m listing four key ways for you to use to keep visitors coming to your blog site (over and over again).
Blogging is rapidly becoming a marketing phenomenon. Blogging is a big business and many companies choose blogging as an inexpensive way to market their products or services. Blogging is often a much better way to maintain a web site and is typically a lot more interesting for readers and clients.
So, let’s take a look at some ways to make your blog a lot more effective and successful…
1. Update your blog:
The easiest way to keep visitors coming back is to update your blog on a regular basis. Readers return to blogs that are updated regularly. Some bloggers even update several times a week. Readers will tend to lose interest in your writing if they have to wait long periods of time for new material. Be loyal to your readers and your readers will be loyal to you. Also, since there are literally thousands of blogs available, if your blog is not updated on a regular basis, you will lose your readers to another blog. Another fun way to update your blog and keep your readers interested in your site is to include something fun for your readers to enjoy. That could be as simple as a joke or maybe a link to a humorous story you have found online. You might also try posting a trivia game, cartoons, videos, contests, or polls for your readers to enjoy on a regular basis.
2. Participate in web communities:
Participating in web communities or discussion forums and mentioning your blog whenever possible will help keep readers coming back to your site. In addition, you can gain new readers when doing this. You might even visit the blogs of other writers and ask them to visit your site in return. Leave nice comments about their site and invite them to your site, too. If you have mutual interests and the same type of readers, you could even write an article for each other’s site. This helps everyone. Your reader will appreciate interesting reading while you benefit from readers from the other site.
3. Understand your readers:
Another great way to keep blog readers coming back for more is to understand who reads your blog and write content that is targeted for them. This doesn’t mean that you have to write on only one particular subject, though. If you are a stay at home mom and write about your life at home with the kids, your loyal readers may not appreciate you writing about cutting edge topics in your writing. Remember, your readers are interested in the topics that attracted them to your site in the first place. You can gain a better understanding of your reader’s interests by including places for comments and encouraging your readers to leave a comment or contact you by email.
4. Include your best keywords:
You will gain readership and help keep your current readers by including certain keywords in your posts. If you have listed your blog on various search engines, these keywords will point to your blog when someone searches using your keywords. This is also a great way to get new readers interested in your blog and a good way for companies to increase traffic to their blog, too.
Blogging has become one of the hottest new ways to market online. In fact, a recent marketing poll revealed that company blogs have been responsible for attracting 46% more leads than any other online marketing technique. So, if you want to make your blog stand out from the thousands of other blogs, keep your readers interested and coming back for more by updating your writing regularly, participating in online communities, understand your readers and their interests, and include your most popular keywords in every post.
To your amazing results,
Carmen, The Publicity Diva
And, if you would like an expert to help you with your blogging tasks, contact me at Carmen@thepublicitydiva.com or give me a call at (281) 404-5019!
Creating drama in your marketing!
Have you noticed lately that in order to get the attention of a really large group of people, usually only requires the ability to create a lot of drama.
Even on TV, it seems like every new show that producers are airing combines a lot of elements that create as much “shock” value as possible.
And, don’t get me started on social media sites! People are posting way too much personal information (sometimes real, sometimes made up) and way too often. In fact, more times than not, the more often a person is posting, the more often they have trained their audience to ignore their messages.
Commercials, of course, have always used these techniques. The screaming, the jumping up and down, and the constant fighting… all trying to get our attention so we will buy, or watch, or become a fan.
The real problem is not all the “tools” we have to get our message to the masses. The real problem is in the message itself. Audiences are not paying attention to the drama anymore and those posting online are not that interesting to read about. Plus the audience that is paying attention is not creating the desired outcome (like purchasing our product or service).
Getting attention in itself is fairly easy utilizing all these tools, but creating the right kind of audience is harder. We all want the audience that will buy from us and have respect for what we do and that’s a whole different story. It seems the easier a customer is to get, the more likely they ‘re not the best ones to have.
Remember, it is possible to create drama and attract your buying audience at the same time. It’s just not always that easy. The key is not in the tools, but in having the right strategy and implementing that strategy effectively. Because the easier it is to get someone’s attention, the less that attention is worth.
Here’s to creating drama the good way,
Carmen, “The Publicity Diva”
Why do people become famous for short periods in their careers?
Have you ever wondered why some people become famous and stay that way for a long time, while others (seemingly just as talented – sometimes even more), experience more fleeting fame? Then you’ll want to read my answer to this very question that I wrote for the Task Expert site.
Here is my answer to this question:
First let’s look at the typical process of becoming famous. A person can be very talented in many ways and yet never become famous. The flip side of this can also happen, where a seemingly untalented person becomes famous and stays that way for a very long time.
Looking at these two different scenarios, you might wonder why one over the other, right? Well the answer often lies within the following factors – sometimes being in the right place at the right time, knowing the right people, just being very lucky, having more talent than others, etc., etc., etc. But the number one reason others become a fan is they like who you are. And knowing one’s appeal to others and then delivering whatever they find intriguing (and entertaining), will determine your staying power. Remember, your talent is whatever your fans believe it to be – whether singing, dancing, acting, or even being obnoxious. If they find you fascinating (and talented), it doesn’t matter what the rest of the world thinks. They will be true blue if you deliver whatever they believe to be worthwhile.
When you think back over history, there have been so many overnight successes that have not had true staying power. The ones that have stayed in the limelight for any length of time, have had a real understanding of their audience, why they are fans in the first place, and what keeps them hanging around.
Think of it this way – if a product has a high “supply and demand” ratio, it will no doubt be a highly profitable item to sell. The same goes for people – if others become a true fan and the star always delivers what their fans expect, their star power will continue.
Of course, the other side of the coin is the publicity side of things. Anyone in the spotlight that would like to stay there should know how (or hire someone who knows how), to mesmerize the crowd with mystery and plenty of public appearances. Getting in the news (whether in a good way or a bad way), is essential to becoming a star. But staying in the spotlight is even more crucial (and a lot harder to do).
A lot of stars forget about their loyal fans after they become famous and disappoint the crowd one too many times. And if they are (or become) too difficult to deal with, a lot of opportunities will start passing them by. This is often when their popularity diminishes and their fans move on to someone that intrigues them even more. When this happens, the star often becomes frustrated as to why others are treating them differently and then become even more difficult to work with and start making unfruitful demands that drive their fans even farther away. The only tactic at this point is to implement a really good public relations campaign to regain their popularity. We call this “making a comeback,” and if done correctly, can be very powerful in regaining their fame (and that much prized fortune).
So, my advice for maintaining your “star power” would be – develop a strategy to stay on your fan’s radar and give them what they find intriguing that makes you a star in their eyes. And by all means, stay highly visible, in the news, and rub elbows with everyone that can help your career along. Always remember to treat people with respect, because this will get your foot in many more doors. Even if your “character” is being obnoxious when playing your “part,” doing so in front of those that can help you get ahead is just plain suicide to anyone’s career.
To your fame, or infamy, whichever fits you best!
Carmen Wisenbaker, “The Publicity Diva”
Does fear hold you back or push you forward?
How does fear serve you?
This question really comes into play for me at this time of year. You see, this is when I start forecasting next year’s marketing agenda and goals. And, of course, when I look at where I desire to be in the next 12 months, that’s when fear rears its ugly head. The first thing that pops in my mind is, “AACK! I can’t do that… I’m too scared to pull it off!”
Thankfully I’ve developed my “other” inner voice inside that “talks” to the other fear-stricken voice. This is the voice that helps drive me into completing my enormous tasks.
You might ask why this would be important. But, I know if I don’t act on some of my “To Do” list now, I’ll never get to where I plan on going.
If you ever find yourself in this dilemma, here’s a technique I use:
- First, I write down my goals.
- Then, I list all the tasks to complete each one.
- Next, I break these steps into “baby” steps.
- And finally, I jot down who I know that can help get me achieve these goals.
Of course, finding those that might be able to help is the most exciting part. The reason I say this is because I then start thinking of how I might be able to help them reach their goals, too. That’s when the magic happens! At this point it becomes a win-win for all parties concerned.
See, there it goes again! The fear is now suddenly gone! Bring on 2012, I’m ready for the thrill!
Can’t believe Christmas is almost here, either!
Carmen, “The Publicity Diva”
Is blogging a good marketing strategy?
To blog or not to blog, that is the question!
Seems like such a simple question, right? Those that have a blog (which is a web journal or web log… shortened to “blog”) will tell you that you should have a blog and those that don’t will tell you they’re useless.
Now I’ll admit, I’ve gone back and forth on this question, too. During my book tour, I added items relevant to what was going on in my world at the time. I’ll admit, I had a lot of hits on my blog with a lot of interaction with the readers. But after my tour, it was something I would only post to occasionally.
Working my blog from one extreme to the other didn’t really help keep my following either. But, I’m not so sure these readers were my audience, though. Most of my readers were those wanting to engage in conversation, but not necessarily about anything from a positive note.
So, you would probably assume my answer would be no… a blog is not useful for business. But to the contrary, I do believe blogs can be very useful in driving business my direction and help my site rank higher in the search engine rankings. But, this will only happen if you develop your strategy first.
Here’s what I mean – my blog was reflective of the platform I used on my book tour (which was about becoming famous). Had I used the same efforts to attract a different type of audience, I do believe it would have been more effective.
But, here’s the fact… you must look at a blog as a tool and add content your audience finds valuable.
I also think you should share your own personal style in each posting. Think back to Doogie Howser, M.D. on TV. After each episode, Doogie would type in his daily journal his reflections (and lessons learned) from that day.
Do this and you’ll hit gold!
Cheers…
Carm
(For those of you that don’t remember his show – the early years for Neil Patrick Harris, here is the link to the site: http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doogie_Howser,_M.D.)
Testimonials
“Carmen continues to astound me with her creativity. She couples inventive thinking with tried and true results. Carmen will add a great twist to any marketing plan!”
Lynn Beckwith
www.ThatCarLady.com
Like our Facebook Page
Connect With Us
