One Coach

Did you know that 22 of the top 100 Web sites in the world are blogs?

Amazing, but true!

If your target audience does not consist of online users, blogging might not be the best strategy for your marketing. However, most businesses can derive great benefit from using a blog.

And as consumers continue to get more “search savvy,” it becomes increasingly important to create and publish online content that is relevant to your target audience and easy to find.

Who reads blogs? Consider the following:

• Currently, there are more than 70 million blogs on the Internet, with 120,000 new blogs being created daily. Each day, people add 1.5 million new posts to their existing blogs.
• A recent survey indicates that 75 percent of blog readers are over the age of 30. So it’s not just teenagers or kids in college with too much time on their hands.
• Research also indicates that the median income for blog readers tops $90K per year. Blog readers are more affluent and organized, and they know how to research purchasing decisions online.

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Blogging used to require a fair amount of technological know-how.

Now, thanks to browser-based blogging softwares like Blogger, Wordpress or  TypePad, you simply type in your entries (called “posts”) and the software manages the publishing process for you.

To post a blog, simply log onto a blog software website with your username and a password.  The software then presents you with a simple form that asks you to state the title of your new post.  This is followed by a little box wherein you type what you want to say.

The box looks and works just like a word processor.  It offers bold, italics and underline formatting, and allows you to add links, images, audio, PDF files or Word documents.  You can even include online video from YouTube.

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To deliver effective product copy, you need to get in the following frame of mind in regards to your prospect:

• What are their needs?
• What are they thinking about?
• How do I express my product or service in those ways?

One approach that accomplishes this almost every time is hypnotic storytelling.

Whenever you tell a story, you are getting into the person’s unconscious mind. In many ways, you’re slipping past the radar, their defense system, and you’re getting the story to go in. Furthermore, humans make sense of the randomness of their lives by telling a story about it.

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Blogging offers an easy way to create powerful word-of-mouth “buzz” for your product, service or business.  But only if you use it correctly.

Most people approach a blog (short for weblog) like an online diary.  They write their personal thoughts, feelings or ideas about a particular topic or subject, and then sit back and hope people read it. 

In reality, a blog is far more than an online diary.  It’s a mini Web site that is instantly and easily updatable.  And because you do it yourself, a blog doesn’t cost an arm and a leg every time you want to update it or make a change.

Blogs offer three advantages for businesses with limited marketing budgets:

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Regardless of what’s currently going on in your life, and no matter what failures you’ve experienced, you are capable of greatness. Sometimes this requires a great deal of rewiring of your present beliefs to achieve a more positive perspective and put yourself in the direction of success, but you must go for your passion!

Now, where’s a good place to start or continue your advance towards greatness? Your marketing. Once you create or use marketing materials that grab your prospect, sucks them in, and compels them to read every word, you’re on your way to success. In this way, you’ll be able to cut through the thousands of sales messages they’re exposed to on a daily basis. You’ve got to differentiate yourself and infiltrate your prospect’s psyche.

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This post is the third in a series of excerpts from OneCoach CEO John Assaraf’s interview with business consultant Mitch Axelrod, author of The New Game of Business.

Companies like Federal Express, Amazon and YouTube get a lot of press for “changing the game” by revolutionizing their industries.  But those kinds of mega-success stories are few and far between.

Fortunately, you don’t have to completely reinvent your industry in order to be a game changer.  All you have to do is make a real difference in the marketplace.

For entrepreneurs and small-businesses owners, making a difference means setting a higher standard to which others in your industry have to aspire.  Rather than trying to copy what others in your industry are doing, you strive to make them play your game.

The hard part about becoming a game-changer is figuring out how to elevate your game in a way that actually sets a new and meaningful (to the customer) standard.  Most people are not trained to think that way.  Instead, they’re taught to follow someone else’s system and do what everyone else is doing.

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This post is the fourth in a series of excerpts from OneCoach CEO John Assaraf’s interview with publicity expert Paul Hartunian.

The primary goal of every press release is to get the reporter to call you for more information.  Therefore, your press release should never tell your whole story.

Why?

Because if you can tell your whole story in one or two pages, it probably means you don’t have much of a story to tell.  More important, if your press release tells the entire story, what motivation does the reporter have to call you?

When a reporter calls you for more information, that’s how you wind up getting on radio shows for an hour instead of two minutes. That’s how you get a full page in the newspaper instead of two inches in a column where they barely mention your name.

Your press release should seduce the reporter into calling you. 

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This post is the third in a series of excerpts from OneCoach CEO John Assaraf’s interview with publicity expert Paul Hartunian.

In the digital age, marketing should be done online, right?

Not when it comes to press releases.  As little as five years ago, e-mail afforded a great way to make sure your press releases got read.  But as the Internet grows ever more crowded and full of spammers, e-mail is becoming less and less dependable.  

If you want to reach the media online, set up a press room on your Web site where reporters can get the information they need.  But to get your press releases read, send them offline.

If you insist on e-mailing a press release, don’t do it yourself.  Instead, use an established online distributor such as PR Newswire or PR Web.

Why?

Because these sites have a high deliverability rate. Their e-mails get through because they’ve already made the arrangements to get them through, whereas you have not.  Plus, they have name recognition. When media outlets receive a press release from PR Newswire, for example, they know it’s legitimate.   When they receive a press release from “Joe Small Business Owner,” they have no idea who Joe is, so they promptly hit the “delete” button.

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This post is the first in a series of excerpts from OneCoach CEO John Assaraf’s interview with publicity expert Paul Hartunian.

Public relations is mandatory for small businesses, yet most small-business owners have no clue how to get it.

PR is essential for two reasons.

First, most small-business owners operate on a very limited budget, so they need to get the greatest value for their dollar.  Second, PR provides credibility that you can’t get from traditional marketing venues such as sales letters, advertising and Web sites.

When a story appears about you or your business in a newspaper or magazine, or on radio or TV, you get instant credibility.  People trust the information because it comes from a third party.  You can’t get that from traditional marketing, and you can’t get it anywhere else for free.

How to get publicity for your business

Every business can get publicity by following three basic steps.

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This post is the fifth in a series of excerpts from OneCoach CEO John Assaraf’s interview with Tony Rubleski, president of Mind Capture Group and author of Mind Capture: How to Generate New & Repeat Business in the Age of Advertising Overload. See the first post in the series here.

Your marketing efforts should have a constant emphasis on headlines – the headline has got to sizzle. If you don’t have a headline in your messaging, you aren’t going got be able to get the attention – the mind capture you are seeking. Who’s going to read your message or listen to it if there’s no reason to hook them in a short window of time?

Let’s imagine a dry cleaner looking to grow the referral side of their business (the best form of marketing hands-down). Starting with existing clients is always easier than trying to convert cold prospects, and few things are easier than when people promote your business for you.

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