Become Employable, Surviving in 2009

Local Professionals Join Together To Present Free Become Employable, Surviving In 2009, Seminars

Fort Wayne, IN – In today’s struggling economy, unemployment is a growing problem in the U.S., with more than 12 million people – ranging from high school graduates in traditionally blue-collar jobs to executives with PhDs – currently without jobs. To address this problem locally, two upcoming Survive in 2009, Become Employable Seminars are being planned to help jobless individuals cope with their unique situation and prepare for their future careers. Unemployed individuals from all types of careers and educational backgrounds are invited to attend the Survive in 2009, Become Employable Seminars.

The seminars, which are free of charge and open to all unemployed individuals from the tri-state region, will take place from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the following dates at these designated Fort Wayne locations:

• April 8 at the Fort Wayne Campus of Trine University, 9910 Dupont Circle Drive East, Suite 130 (located off of Dupont Road at I-69); and
• April 13 at the new Holiday Inn Fort Wayne at 4111 Paul Shaffer Drive (located off of Coliseum Boulevard near IPFW and across from the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum).

There is a website www.BecomeEmployable.com. The content of the new site will be user driven and allow members to visit, comment and add their own content. Also, new information will be posted about the events and future events.

Technorati Tags: jobs,Fort Wayne,Northeastern Indiana,job seekers,careers,unemployment,employment,Indiana

CareerBuilder: Special Offer When You Buy Our New Job Search Handbook

Career Building: Your Total Handbook for Finding a Job and Making it Work

From the editors at CareerBuilder comes a no-nonsense handbook that walks workers of all ages through the entire cycle of finding and keeping a job — from résumé samples and thank-you notes, to tips on job hunting and working in the Internet age. Whether you've been working for five — or 50 — years, this is the total package for an endless market.

 

Order Career Building Today and Get 3 Résumé Snapshots FREE! ($49.99 value)

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Fort Wayne - Job Seekers

Become Employable Seminar

View more presentations from Joseph Dager .

Slideshow on the upcoming seminars that a group of us are putting on in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Technorati Tags: Fort Wayne ,Job Seekers ,Career Opportunities ,Get Hired NOW!

New Get Content Get Customers Out Soon

 

Excited to show you the new cover for the revised and updated paperback version of Get Content Get Customers (Turn Prospects Into Buyers with Content Marketing), which will be available in bookstores on May 22nd.

And, by the way, the paperback does include new case studies and has a few expanded pages on social media content marketing.

I really believe that anyone passionate about a topic should write a book. If that's you, check out this post I wrote a while back - "10 Keys to Writing a Book when You Have No Time to Write a Book."

This is from Junta42 blog, and written by Joe Pulizzi.

Diving into the social media network - Job seekers

I don't recommend Social Media for all job searches but it is one method and one place that you should have a presence. It is also intriguing looking at how other people are using other media. It may give you a unique idea to apply to a letter you are sending out or to talk about at your next social event. You are attending social events?

Nevertheless, he’d been building his on-line network for well over 3 years for marketing and branding purposes. Tom lost his job last Thursday. He shared his three-day step-by-step play, into his job hunt:

1. Created a “Hire Tom” web page associated with his blog.
2. Contacted close friends and associates via e-mail
3. LinkedIn was the next stop.
4. Twitter is the next stop for Tom

Read the entire post from Judy Martin at WorkLifeNation.com. A good resource for you. Or join our BecomeEmployable Site.

Visit Become Employable

Technorati Tags: WorklifeNation,Director Tom,Twitter,LinkedIn,Become employable,Social Media,job seekers

Brand Yourself before your Non-Customers do!

I was just reading an article written by John Jantsch that he posted on Could Your Brand Stand a Personality Upgrade? on the HP Small Business Marketing Guide. He discussed Small Business branding and encouraged you to work at it much harder by identifying it more clearly to your customer base.

Don’t be a big fat zero: It is pretty scary to brand yourself. You always feel like your limiting yourself and as a result try to be everything to everyone. And as a result, your are nothing to no-one. A ZERO! Another alternative is to to leave your customers do it. That perception, is of course probably the most correct one. I have recommended before, go call 10 of them and find out what your brand is. A word of caution is that it is very difficult to change this image and if you so choose to try, it is expensive. I have written several posts on this.

But don’t be less then zero: I think the scariest part is leaving the branding to your non-customers. Now, let me do the math. Your customers in your target market is called market share. Your market share, more than likely is something less than 50%. Maybe 5%, if you are extremely successful. So, if you have not developed a strong brand, if my math is right, 95% of your target market is defining it for you. So, go read John’s post, I think you need to take hold of it and brand yourself with everything you got before someone else does

Technorati Tags: SMBmarketing guide ,Duct Tape Marketing ,Branding ,Target Market

This is syndicated from Business901"

Build a Referral Program for your E-zine

I have made just about every mistake possible in e-mail marketing and I am still learning. I have a list of 2500 but only get open rates of 20%. But I also have a client that gets open rates of over 50%. That list is only 600. Who has the better list? Without a doubt the one with 600 and it creates business. Why? It was created solely with direct sign-ups.

People want to increase e-mail mailing because it is free. But e-mail is not free. It takes effort, great content and current material. E-mail is struggling as a medium, it is still push marketing. But I have this junk mail theory, if it is cool enough, it is not junk. If an e-mail is worthwhile enough, it is not spam.

I believe an active small list allows you to target your message better and therefore have a more interested party. I would have a tendency to recommend not increasing their list but segregate it into more accurate groups. I think what makes a great list is creating more of a direct message to individual groups within the entire group. Than grow it by doing this:

A suggestion, create a referral program, it is referral week:
1. Segregate the list into groups.
2. E-mail only twice a month with more precise content.
3. Personalize as much as possible
4. Ask for referrals(forward e-mails) and if your friend signs up???
5. Become a guest writer on another's e-mail. Leave them write on yours. Each of you, of course would get a link to that persons. Ask for a signup to yours inside the post.
6. People that have customer traffic, create an offer to acquire their e-mail, especially at point of sale or a computer that could print a coupon.
7. Get and post testimonials about your newsletter, everywhere.

If they want to create a better list, make a better offer to get the name or better yet content that someone wants to read. If you want to grow your list do it from within not by trying to acquire more.

And then to start blogging.

Technorati Tags: E-zine,Email,E-mail marketing,Referral,Referral week,Referral Marketing

A Unique Thought from Six Pixels

 Excerpt from Mitch Joel @ Twist Image:

Do you really take the time required to think about what you are going to say, comment and respond to? Think about it. How much time do you spend looking at content, constructing your own opinion and expressing yourself? Stop for a minute. Don't read any further. And really think about it.

Social Media is (or should be) a conversation.

The community can ruin a good thing.

That simple act will change everything.

Why?

There's nothing wrong with participation through reading.

Correction: there's nothing wrong with participation through reading only if your opinion has already been expressed by someone else, or your take on it might add value and push things into another direction.

One of the main criteria for brands to have success in the new digital channels is their ability to add real value. Why can't the same be true for all of us?

 

All Core Messages are not Created Equal.

I wrote a post recently that All Sales Channels are not Created Equal and talked about the resources that you would have to commit to each one. But today I had an appointment with a new client and was discussing their Core Message and went through an exercise that I thought might prove useful. More importantly, I discovered that you can have more than one sometime and that All Core Messages are not Created Equal.

List your core messages, you can have more than one but keep it short and sweet.

1. Which one differentiates you the most?
2. Which one screams the loudest?
3. Who and what influences whom?
4. Which would could prove the most effective?
5. Which one has the highest risk attached to it?
6. Which one  has the Lowest Risk?
7. Which one is the easiest to support?
8. Which is the easiest to implement?
   1. In the short term?
   2. In the Long Term?
9. Which one is the most affordable?
10. Which of them is most recognizable to your customers?
11. what are the best vehicles to reach your audience or constituents?
12. Can you combine and optimize?
13. If you decide on more than one, what is the best timing to introduce each?

So what is your core message?

Technorati Tags: Core Message,Target Market,Sales Channels,Marketing Channels

How Cumbersome is your Project Management Tool

Here’s a quote from Plato: "The beginning is the most important part of the work."

A project needs to be planned, controlled, and monitored from its inception to its completion. In fact, all projects use a methodology of processes, procedures and templates. If you don’t think you have one, it really means that you have a poor and informal one. Do not confuse scheduling software with project planning!

If you need a project plan, there are three basic sources:

1. Build one yourself. You can build a custom campaign that perfectly reflects the philosophy and best practices of your organization. Many companies try this.

2.Buy one. You might be surprised to learn that your plan when finished ultimately looks similar to most others that people use. That is why many consultants can help without having the intimate knowledge of your industry. However, you may think that you spend as much time with the consultant as you would have doing it yourself. I know I have, I been on both sides!

3.The hybrid option of purchasing a methodology and then customizing it to meet the specific needs of your organization. This gives you some of the benefits of option 1, while also taking less time, which is the major benefit of option 2. Many companies are choosing this option as a “Best of Both.” These pre-built methodologies can have many of your organization needs to be successful.

An existing methodology allows you to deliver an effective option practically immediately. I recommends the use of the hybrid option, which enables you to spend your time on the application versus building the plan to achieve the result. The simplicity of a single flexible model will create clarity for your staff and as a result better execution.

Great saying I head once and always remembered: How many good ideas have been wasted because of a poor plan!

I use these plans over and over again:

1. Marketing Plan Pro
2. One Page Project Manager
3. One Page Business Plan
4. Get Clients NOW!

Technorati Tags: One Page,Project Manager,Ten Step Project Management,One Page Project Manager,Marketing plan Pro,Get Clients NOW!

This is syndicated from Business901.

Top ten tips for incredibly successful public speaking

I've been to something like one hundred conferences and corporate events in the past several years as I travel the world delivering keynotes and running seminars. I've seen a few great speeches. Sadly, most speeches I see are not very good. Some are downright terrible.

I've been collecting some observations on what makes a good presentation and also drawing from my own experience.

Most of us have an opportunity to speak, perhaps at your industry event, or your company's sales conference, or to a local club.

Make the most of your opportunity.

1. Take it seriously.

2. Know the conference organizer's goals.

3. Tell stories.

4. Nobody cares about your products (except you).

5. Prepare and practice.

6. Don't use PowerPoint as a TelePrompTer.

7. Arrive early.

8. Bring an electronic copy of your presentation.

9. Don't go long.

10. Be aware of body language.

This is from Web Ink Now, and written by David Meerman Scott.

Obvious Adams - Mindmap

I am listening to Jack Trout’s new book "In Search of the Obvious" and he starts the book out with describing one of my all time favorites, Obvious Adams . What is so special about it? Take a look at this Mindmap that I created many years ago.

What better marketing advice can you get than this? Now if all of this would take a look at this simple approach would not marketing be that much easier. It used to be every time I closed a consulting arrangement, I would send them this book. Simple is as simple does, I tried to get my message out right away.

 

Technorati Tags: Obvious Adams ,Lean Marketing ,Product Marketing Process ,Jack Trout ,In Search of the Obvious

Top 5 Reasons a Good Idea - Product Launch - gets shot down!

5. Internal focus instead of external. Your engineers and developer are not all knowing, but your customers are.

4. Project Team: The resources that are built around a new project can get their ideas lost in the everyday shuffle.

3. Not funded properly: Yes, Guy Kawasaki can start things for pennies, but I can't.

2. Having a system in place: How many times does a good idea fail because of a poor plan.

1. Time: People just try to do things to quickly without having a good foundation in place. Creating linkage takes time.

Check out my Product Marketing Process.

Technorati Tags: Product Marketing,Product Marketing Process,Marketing System,Launch,Product Launch

Get Hired NOW!™ Program Launch by Business901

Fort Wayne, IN – Joe Dager, owner of Business901 has just launched a new version of the Get Hired NOW! Program as part of their core offerings. A proven program updated with the latest in web based tactics. Dager is an authorized facilitator in the Get Hired NOW program. Business901 is offering a payback of $100 if you don’t find a job in 90 days.

Get Hired Now!” is really a marketing system, designed to help overcome the most challenging issues in finding a job or switching careers. Participants in the program will find out what really works in marketing themselves, discover the missing ingredients that are preventing their success, and learn about new tools and tactics. The key to the success is the facilitator becomes part of the overall 28-day process providing the clarity and practical support needed for implementation.

“What’s different about the ‘Get Hired Now!’ program,” explains Dager, “is that it provides the job seeker with a simple, customized plan that they can begin taking action on immediately. Other seminars teach generic ideas and principles, but this program helps participants figure out exactly what to do in their unique situation. Once everyone has their own personal action plan, we meet as a group for the next 28 days, and I help each person implement the plan he or she created. I cannot guarantee anyone a job but what I am doing is providing my marketing  and web 2.0 skills to what I think is a worthy cause.”

The kickoff seminar for Business901’s “Get Hired Now!” program will take place on March 23^rd and will repeat on every fourth Monday of the month. Follow-up sessions for program participants will continue through the next 28 days. The cost for the entire 28-day program is $229.99 per person, including a copy of the “Get Hired Now!” book,. To reserve, or for more information, visit http://www.business901.com/gethirednow.html

The program outline:

1. (3) 60 Minute Webinars in 1^st Week
2. (3) 45 minute Webinars in following 3 weeks
3. Real time support with e-mails
4. Initial and weekly review: 
5. Website for discussion and support.

About Get Hired NOW: The Get Hired NOW! program delivers the rapid results that job-seekers want. The program was developed by C.J. Hayden, MCC, and Frank Traditi, based on the best selling Get Clients NOW! program used by thousands of professionals since 1996. C.J. and Frank are business, career, and marketing coaches who specialize in helping professionals learn how to successfully market themselves. C.J. and Frank’s clients and students needed an easy-to-use program that would simplify the job search process, and help them get into action quickly. They developed Get Hired NOW! to fill the pressing need of these job-seekers find the job they want in less time.

About Business901: Joe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as target marketing and organized referral marketing. As a Facilitator of both the Get Hired NOW! And the Get Clients NOW! Programs, Joe provides practical, information-rich, immediately applicable direction that can profoundly impacts the success job seekers and professionals. His experience includes numerous start-ups, several turnarounds in variety of industries to include manufacturing, retail, and professional services. Joe was recently highlighted on the Business Week website as a featured contributor to the Business Exchange and is also a contributor to the American Express Open Forum and Palo Alto Software Blog forum. The Business901 blog and website is rated in the top 1% of sites worldwide.

 

Technorati Tags: Get Hired NOW,Job Seekers,Career opportunities,professional services,Monster,Career builders,employment

It is all about the marketing - Become employable in 2009 -

GET HIRED NOW!™

1. How good are you at marketing yourself?
2. Can you get found on the Web?
3. Do you know where employers are looking for applicants?
4. Do you know how to position yourself as the ideal candidate?
5. Do you know how to effectively network, online and offline?

What Participants Learn

1. Using the GET HIRED NOW! book as a text, participants learn a simple but highly effective cookbook approach, straightforward tips, and specific techniques like these:
2. What really works to market a service business, and what doesn't
3. How to diagnose what’s wrong with their marketing
4. How to design a marketing program that is suited to their personality, strengths and favorite activities
5. How to break out of "analysis paralysis" and determine exactly what they need to do first -- and every step of the way
6. How to overcome the fear, resistance, and procrastination that block effective action
7. How to create a customized, affordable, reusable, and realistic marketing plan
8. Ongoing support and encouragement to stick to their plan throughout the program

Program Structure and Agenda: During the first three sessions you will receive all the tools and training needed to design your individual 28-day marketing action plan. After that you receive 3 more sessions which is the real power of the GET CLIENTS NOW! program is in these follow-up group coaching sessions, focused on each participant implementing his/her action plan and being coached through any obstacles to success.  Business901 will coach participants on accountability to their plan, help solve logistical problems, provide assistance with overcoming fear, resistance, and procrastination, and acknowledge efforts and progress.

In addition to the six live webinars and coaching sessions, the program includes:

1. White papers and resources
2. Website where participants can interact, form referral groups and find additional training resources
3. Weekly email support between class sessions
4. Review of individual marketing action plans with feedback
5. All class sessions are recorded so participants who miss a session, or wish to review, may listen and review at their convenience.

The GET HIRED NOW! program is a marketing system that works over and over again. As people become more comfortable with marketing, they’ll set new kinds of goals and play with different strategies and tactics to increase their success. Though we cannot guarantee that you can get a job, we can guarantee if you complete the program, attended all the sessions and submitted all the course material and still not have found a job within 60 days, we will send you a check for $100. In addition we have a referral program that will be explained at conclusion of the 3rd session.

Check the entire program out at Business901-Get Hired NOW!

Can you use the Obama plan to be successful.

I am going to print a trillion dollars to make it through the next couple of years. That is good sound advice that I can give you and let YOU IMPLEMENT IT! If you pull it off, I can be the hero. By the way can I have a referral?

Oh, you want an alternative strategy, then deal with reality. Take you budget, reduce your s ales income, balance your expenses and get efficient so you can make money. The most important requirement to be successful right now is common sense. You are embarking on a journey that will make your company more successful than it ever has been. Start think like a turnaround, it is not hard, put yourself in survival mode now. Begin by asking 4 simple question:

1. Determine where you are at now in each category and from each perspective. The categories you can start with are Financial, Human Resources, Customer, Product/Services.

2. Create your vision. Where do you want to go and don’t be afraid to think long term. Where would you like to be in 3 to 5 years.

3. How are you going to get there? What strategies are you going to use. There is lot to this step and you may find out a few of these do not work but you must get them in place and carry them out.

4. Set your objectives and measure them. Hint: If you can’t measure them, quit doing them. This will be the one thing that will keep your on course.

That is it. Now, I could probably throw in action plans to carry out the objectives but here is the real secret: I just described the One Page Business Plan to you. Go out and build one for each department, for each person and your company will survive and you will not have to spend a trillion dollars to do it.

Technorati Tags: Obama,Budgets,One Page Business Plange,Turnaround

Referral Conversion System - Step 6

Step 6 - Referral Conversion System

Service, Product, Retail, Construction, Professional services, Employee, and Volunteer … it doesn’t matter. A referral system should include 7 basic steps that helps you identify and succeed in ways you never imagined. It is the basic understanding on how to apply the Referral Flood program to Your Business or Organization.Step #6 – What good are referral leads if they don’t become referral clients? You must map out a specific set of steps that will allow you to convert your referral leads. What I would recommend is developing a hour glass for this process just like you do a regular sales channel. If you do this, your steps in developing a referral client will become very clear. After a while, you will begin to recognize where the referral is entering your sales cycle at. Why is this important? If the referral is strong enough the prospect may already know, like and trust you. They may be ready for a trial offer. You may only confuse them by trying to build more knowledge and sending them additional information about your company. Understand the process and work it! A nice surprise would be that a significant portion of the sales cycle is skipped there by reducing your cost of sales.

Technorati Tags: Referral,Referral Week,Referral Flood,Conversion,Referral conversion,hour glass,sales funnel,marketing funnel

Lean your Marketing thru Referrals

I created a special offer this week for this program. Click to the event above and type in ReferralWeek. It will give you the special pricing. This offer expires Sunday.  This is a copy of the news release for the program:

Summary: Business901 has just released a 4-week program titled Lean your Marketing thru Referrals. This program creates a step-by-step, documented Lean Referral System based on your specific target market.

NEWS FACTS

• Build a Referral Program for your business
• Special offer in conjunction with Referral Week
• Duct Tape Marketing Referral Flood Program included
• Duct Tape Marketing Coach
• Lean Marketing Principles applied

Fort Wayne, IN – Business901 has just released a 4-week program titled Lean your Marketing thru Referrals. This program creates a step-by-step, documented Lean Referral System based on your specific target market. Develop marketing tools, letters, and offers that will help you generate a precise strategy for making referrals a core new weapon. The participants can use the templates to determine areas to differentiate their product, better define their ideal client and use present technology to accelerate the process. This program is being introduced in conjunction with Referral Week and will start the following week on March 19th. You can sign-up at http://leanreferralmarketing.eventbrite.com/.com There is a discount code of "ReferralWeek" that is available till the end of Referral Week.

The uniqueness of this program is that it takes the best Referral Marketing System developed by Duct Tape Marketing author John Jantsch and combines it with an authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach; Joe Dager. The principles are outlined in a 7-step process that will communicate the basic understanding on how to apply the Referral Flood program as part of a Lean Marketing Process. It offers several tips and tricks that will immediately jump-start a referral marketing program," says Dager. He adds, "The Lean Marketing aspect adds the value of concentrating on your customers needs and the benefits they receive. Ultimately what you are after is not a bunch of cold referrals but targeted referrals."
Make a Referral Week is an entrepreneurial approach to stimulating the small business economy one referred business at a time. The goal for the week is to generate 1000 referred leads to 1000 deserving small businesses in an effort to highlight the impact of a simple action that could blossom into millions of dollars in new business. Small business is the lifeblood and job-creating engine of the economy and merits the positive attention so often saved for corporate bailout stories.

The development of a system that will provide consistent long-term growth may be the single most important factor for your business. When asked most companies will agree that most of their business comes from referrals, as much as 50%. This 4 week program provides valuable material for developing a referral system and is implemented with a DTM coach by your side.
Week by week schedule:
Week 1 - Referral Assessment, Introduction, goal setting and action plan for the program.
Week 2 - Define Target Referral Market and Ideal referral candidates.
Week 3 - Create core referral message, offer and referral education system.
Week 4 - Create referral marketing tools and follow-up system and implementation action steps.

About Business901: Joe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as target marketing and organized referral marketing. As a certified coach of the Duct Tape Marketing Consulting organization, Joe provides practical, information-rich, immediately applicable direction that profoundly impacts the success of small and mid-sized businesses. His experience includes numerous start-ups, several turnarounds in variety of industries to include manufacturing, retail, and professional services to include marketing.

Referral Lead Offer – STEP 5 of 7

Step 5 - Referral Lead offer

Service, Product, Retail, Construction, Professional services, Employee, and Volunteer … it doesn’t matter. A referral system should include 7 basic steps that helps you identify and succeed in ways you never imagined. It is the basic understanding on how to apply the Referral Flood program to Your Business or Organization.

Step #5 – This is where you devise the creative offer that makes people want to refer you. Example: “Refer 4 people that become clients and yours is free.” There are numerous offers available but be creative. A gift certificate, dinner, and discounts can be great incentives. But know your audiences and try to be outlandish. The old adage of What is in it for ME, is never more important than right now. This single step may determine the success of your program so be creative, easy to understand, and something no one else would do.

This is from Business901.

Technorati Tags: Referral,Referral Week,Referral Flood,Core Referral Message,Lead Offer

REFERRAL PROCESS – STEP 4 - Education

Step 4 - Referral Education System

Service, Product, Retail, Construction, Professional services, Employee, and Volunteer … it doesn’t matter. A referral system should include 7 basic steps that helps you identify and succeed in ways you never imagined. It is the basic understanding on how to apply the Referral Flood program to Your Business or Organization .Step #4 – Most people when meeting with a potential referral source will not only increase the number but the quality of referrals if you educate them on:<?xml:namespace prefix = olstyle="text-align />

Whomakes a great referral.

What’s in it for them to provide a referral.

How to refer you.

The exact steps you plan to take with that referral.

If people don’t know who makes a great referral they will either never refer or pass you leads that are not qualified at all. I always likened it to buying a new car. You very seldom see one till after you buy it. Afterward, you see the car at every corner. If you tell people what opportunity it is, it may come knocking.

You need to provide an incentive to refer someone to you. Don’t just assume they are going to do it. But before you can construct an incentive, be sure to understand what may motivate them. Some people will be satisfied with recognition, others discounts on future purchase and others may want referrals from you.Many times people will misunderstand not only who to refer but what to say when referring you. Defining who you are to your referral partner is extremely important. Not being a client they may not understand exactly what you do. So to communicate that, the description must be short and to the point.It is also imperative that you tell people what you are going to do with the referral. They are not going to send their friends and family to someone that is going to relentlessly pursue them. Tell your partners the exact steps you will take and do them. It will go a long way in developing the trust you need.

Technorati Tags: Referral ,Referral Week ,Referral Flood ,Referral Education

No blog? Then you need a Google profile

Great advice from from Web Ink Now, and written by David Meerman Scott.

One of the currencies of social media is that when you participate, people find out who you are.

For example, when you leave a comment on someone else's blog post, you can link to your profile on the Web. All the blogging tools have a place where you can leave a virtual calling card – your own web URL where people who read your comment (especially the blogger him or herself) can find out who you are and perhaps contact you.

Most people link to their blog in that comment field.

However, most people don't have a blog. What the heck do you do then?

I've found an alternative solution that works very well.

Create a public Google profile for yourself and then use that as the URL that you point people to. You can have a photo, a bio, and contact details. It’s really cool and it is free.

Here is the URL where you sign up.

Here is what my profile looks like.

Once you've got a public profile, use it as your virtual calling card all over the Web. Just one example - link to it from your Amazon review page so the authors of the books you review can see who you are.

This is from Web Ink Now, and written by David Meerman Scott.

Referral Week headed by Duct Tape Marketing

Leave it to John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing to make a Referral Week 2009 is March 9-13. This is one tiny effort to make a dent in this recession and shine a light on the efforts and impact of one small business helping another. A great list of sponsors to include the Duct Tape Marketing Coaches. Joe Dager of Business901, a DTM coach is proud to be part of this weeks referral and is offering his Lean You Marketing through Referral program at a special discounted rate. Type in the ReferralWeek in the code to receive special pricing. Information about Referral Week and the webinar can be found at www.business901.com.

The goal of the event is to generate 1000 referrals for 1000 deserving businesses. During the week this blog will be taken over by guest contributions and audio interviews with folks like Andy Sernovitz, Guy Kawasaki, Pam Slim, Rich Sloan, Anita Campbell, Scott Ginsburg, Michael Port and Jill Konrath all focused on telling you how to generate more business by way of referral.

In addition, A live web conference on Tuesday, March 10 at Noon CST featuring Bob Burg, author of the Go-Giver, Ivan Misner, founder of BNI and Bill Cates, author of Get More Referrals Now. This is the A-Team when it comes to teaching the strategies of referral!

Here’s how you do your part:

1. Think about the referral(s) you are going to make
2. Make your referrals - (you don’t have to wait until March 9 to do this
3. Visit the Make a Referral Week Referral Counter page and tell us who you referred and why in the comments - feel free to add URLs so others can learn about the business you referred.
4. Take in all the great educational content all week
5. Bask in the glow of small business coolness!
   

Thanks to all who have taken this challenge!

About Business901: Joe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as target marketing and organized referral marketing. As a certified coach of the Duct Tape Marketing Consulting organization, Joe provides practical, information-rich, immediately applicable direction that profoundly impacts the success of small and mid-sized businesses. His experience includes numerous start-ups, several turnarounds in variety of industries to include manufacturing, retail, and professional services to include marketing.

Technorati Tags: Referral Week. Referral Flood,Lean Marketing,Referrals,Duct Tape Marketing

All Sales Channels are not created equal

How do you go about creating sales channels and making them not competitive with each other. It is a pretty tall order in today's world and one that really takes quite a bit of time so that they and yourself are not competing with each other. The Channel Advantage is a good book to start with and can be found at bargain prices. Let me give a couple of suggestion from the book and a few places on the web that you can find information.

If you are trying to find the best way to take your product to market there is a U.K business link that you can take a survey to Identify Potential Sales Channels and it will give you a set of recommendations. It is only a 5 minute exercise and well worth it.

The Channel Advantage recommends using a 4-step process to evaluate and manage each channel.

It looks straight forward but in today's world I think it is missing one component. There should be 1-block on the bottom saying consumer and final price. Distribution is so good these days that the channels cross over so effectively that the consumer has to see the same price. Many times even when there is value added services being included. So, how many sales channels do you have and do they all end up with the same price to the consumer? Does your marketing plan cover the basics?

Technorati Tags: Sales Channels,Lead Generation,Channel Advantage

Referral Week - Headline Event

Ivan Misner, founder of BNI and author of Masters of Networking, Bob Burg, author of Endless Referrals and the Go-Giver, and Bill Cates, author of Get More  Referrals Now make up a panel of what may be the worlds greatest single collection of thought leaders on the subject of referrals.

The live web conference is scheduled for Tuesday, March 10th at Noon CST and will be hosted by John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing. To register for the conference - click here

The conference is the headline event of the educational component of Make a Referral Week.

Special offer on the Duct Tape Marketing Referral Flood Package.

Technorati Tags: Referral,Referral Week,Referral Flood,Duct Tape Marketing

The Businesscardless Office

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

The Businesscardless Office

Seemslike we’ve heard about the promise of the paperless office for about 10 years now, but in some circles of business, we’re not much closer to the reality of this than we were back then.

I think a couple things have slowed the crawl to this 1) people just don’t do a good enough job using the vast array of file saving, file sharing, and digital collaboration tools out there with ready access on mobile and portable devices. If you think about it, we don’t need much paper. 2) there’s still a desire for something tangible that only a physical document or magazine can bring. You can’t touch or smell digital documents so that makes them less real. I think this human need will make the creation of physical products, marketing kits and magazines a necessary part of the marketing world for some time.

Andhere’s the ultra cool thing - anytime someone that’s given you their contact info via dub makes a change, it’s automatically updated on your phone.

You can also create DUBIDs for products and services and allow anyone to request to have more information sent to their phone just by sending a text to the DUBID you create.

There are any number of ways to use this tool, and like other innovative technologies, its usefulness will grow with adoption, but DUB already syncs contacts and updates with Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Siebel On-Demand and SugarCRM and says it has Facebook and LinkedIn integration in the works,

Get Clients Now Answer Center

Look what has been added for this week. You should join this for a great source of articles every month and access to many, many more.

GET CLIENTS NOW! ANSWER CENTER
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• Where the Clients Are - Article by C.J. Hayden
  
• The Right Way to Market with Your Business Card - Article by Donna Feldman
  
• Boost Your Marketing with the Buddy System - Article by C.J. Hayden
  
• Why isn't Internet marketing on the Get Clients Now list of effective strategies? - Q & A by C.J. Hayden

Learn more about the Business901 28 Day Plans

Technorati Tags: Get Clients Now,Get,Clients,NOW,Answer Center,C.J. Hayden,28 day plans

Telling Stories

This is from Web Ink Now, and written by David Meerman Scott. I encourage you to read the entire story, A short excerpt:

For decades, traditional business-school-style marketing has stressed the "Marketing Ps" (Typically the four Ps are identified as Product, Pricing, Promotion, and Placement, although some say there are five or six Ps including others like Packaging and Publicity).

Anyway, if youre focused on the marketing Ps (choose any four), you're likely not marketing very well, because you're not telling stories.

This "Marketing P" approach is doomed to fail on the Web. Why? Because nobody cares about your products and services. Mumbo-jumbo about your products won't appeal to your buyers, because they simply don't care about you, your company, and what you do.

Success comes from the fact that people want to share stories with their friends, colleagues, and family members.

Telling Stories is an important part of the Duct Tape Marketing Catalyst program, take a look.

SPIDER Product Launch Program by Business901

News Release Issued Today

Fort Wayne, IN – This program is based on the Business901 SPIDER product launch template which will allow participants to organize their launch plans into a series of actionable items based on present marketing conditions and practices. The participants can use the template to determine areas to differentiate their product, better define their buyer persona and use present technology to accelerate the launch. Joe Dager of Business901 will launch this new product launch program called SPIDER with an introductory webinar on March 12. You can sign-up at http://productlaunching.eventbrite.com or review the product at http://www.productmarketingprocess.com. There is a discount code of "Spider" that is available till the end of February.

The actual program was created to provide businesses with everything they could ask for in terms of ongoing marketing support, guidance, accountability and know-how to help them overcome the challenges facing them in launching a product in 2009. “It is not your typical, Internet launch program. If you are looking for a web based product launched, this is not for you,” says Dager. He adds, “It contains a mix of products, services, an authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach to walk you through the process and the SPIDER Template to integrate your launch not only on the web but more importantly offline through your targeted industry.”

SPIDER is an acronym for See, Plan, Imagine, Design/Sell, Execute and Renew. Dager also added: “This is compilation of 30 years of product marketing launches in the process equipment field. I not only credit the Duct Tape Marketing System, which I use as an important part of process, but my recent training in the Effective Product Marketing program hosted by Pragmatic Marketing. This EPM seminar explored outbound marketing roles, priorities and processes that characterize market-driven technology companies.”

The SPIDER template also utilizes the newly formatted Ultimate Marketing System from Duct Tape Marketing. “We believe in installing a system,” says Dager. “Our experience is that a system will always outperform any other approach. We define your objectives; develop strategies to achieve them, than institute tactics to carry out your strategies. We deliver the package in One on One Sessions or you can even participate in group coaching.”

The program needed to be affordable, as well as a combination of powerful resources to truly give a business a track to run on as they moved from designing their system to building the components, to execution and finally measurement and re-implementation,” said Dager.

About Business901: Joe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as target marketing and organized referral marketing. As a certified coach of the Duct Tape Marketing Consulting organization, Joe provides practical, information-rich, immediately applicable direction that profoundly impacts the success of small and mid-sized businesses. His experience includes numerous start-ups, several turnarounds in variety of industries to include manufacturing, retail, and professional services to include marketing.

Technorati Tags: product launch,product marketing,pragmatic marketing,duct tape marketing,SPIDER Template