Feeling all alone trying to find the best way to market your business?

Whether you are trying to get new customers to grow your business, establish lucrative partnerships or even just get a job, it has always been important to know the right people. Having good products, skills, or qualifications, is all well and good, but unless you have a relationship with a person at a company you want to do business with no one will ever take the time to discover how great your products or skills really are.

With so many people and products competing for attention these days the only way to break through all the marketing noise is to go to a friend.

We all know this in our own lives when our first instinct is to get on the phone and call a friend when we need something.  It is so much more comforting to know we are buying a critical service for our business from someone we know than an anonymous web site.  Hiring someone who we already know, and trust, is far more preferable to taking a gamble with someone we have never met, who sent in a resume or a pitchy brochure.  It simply takes a LOT more effort from our overworked lives to do the necessary research to ensure that the supplier or job candidate is dependable.

This leaves business people or job candidates who don’t have those critical friendships at the companies they want to do business with in the cold.  Advertising and direct mail have become less effective. You’d stand as good a chance getting an interview for a job by placing your resume into a black hole as filling out a job application without being able to get through to the decision maker.

Unfortunately, all the new internet social media venues just make things worse. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs are creating even more noise. Whether you are a sales or marketing person trying to find customers or a job seeker looking for a job it’s become a Herculean task to stand out and be noticed.

Being successful is all about knowing the right people, and podcasting is the most effective tool there is for building relationships with the people you need to know. 

Podcasting to the rescue!

Podcasting pulls it all together. With a voice message, you do not have to have expensive equipment or be dressed in your best or feel uncomfortable in front of a camera. You can be in your PJ's with rollers in your hair and still be able to record a podcast. Then you write 250 words or less about the topic of your recording. Attach your recording, along with a picture that demonstrates your theme, save and publish to your website, and send it out through all your social media.

Check out the latest statistics. Podcasting is right up there with video now.( Podcasting has grown 105% since 2006 from 22% in 2006 to 45% in 2012. Likewise, the percentage of consumers indicating they have listened to an audio podcast has grown 163% from 11% in 2006 to 29% in 2012.) http://www.conversedigital.com/digital-strategy/podcasting-statistics-trends-future

Christine Till

The LinkedIn Marketing Mentress

www.marketingmentress.com

780-904-9557

To learn more about how you can successfully build relationships with people who can help you with your success, contact Christine Till, The LinkedIn Marketing Mentress at:

Twitter: @mktgmentress

Facebook:  http://bit.ly/SiftThroughtheNoise

Podblog:  www.marketingmentress.com

LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/christinetill

Sifting Through the Noise?

Is your online marketing so quiet that it is deafening you?

What do I mean by this? 

Is your absence from marketing online bothering you because you have no system in place yet? You have no website that is converting into sales for your business, or you have profiles set up online for some social media, but do not know what to do with them to get clients that pay you money for your skills and products? So, you try to do everything yourself and have no time to work ON your business. Where is that getting you? You know you need to be marketing online, but do not know where to begin. You have little or no marketing budget and wonder, "Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?" You wonder, "Where am I going to get the money to pay someone to build my website?" or you wonder, "Where can I find a coach who can help me get all my systems in place, including a website?" ...for free!!!

It is all screaming at you to get something done!!!

Many small business owners find themselves in precisely this position with their business. The big question is, "What do I do first?" Then the next question is, "How do I do it on little or no marketing budget?"

A few years ago when I was laid off my job in sales and marketing and found myself unable to get another job, I and was forced to start my own business in marketing. I searched through my strengths and what I was already doing to discover what I had that people would place value on. It took me some time to get all my ducks in a row, but I could never have done it without my mentors and coaches. The feeling of devastation was huge, because I wondered where I was going to find the funding to build the website I needed, to help me get my branding flowing. I needed to have the website, so I could have a central point for my blog. Little did I know that my blog was already in place with my website as my podcast site.

I would interview businesses and authors and chat about what inspired them to start their business or to write their books. It was an awesome time for learning and cultivating my brand. -And I didn't realize that I was branding myself every time I posted a blog on my podcast site.

As I attended networking meetings, I became known for my brand, The Marketing Mentress, and later the LinkedIn Marketing Mentress. I watched other people who seemed to be in a similar situation to myself and wondered how I could help them, so I wrote and published a book, "Fired at Fifty: Stop looking for work and discover what you were meant to do." In it, I shared lots of free tips to help people, who were solopreneurs. Later, I also helped contribute to another book, "Office for One", by Christina Hamlett. We both realized the needs of the very small business owners.

A major part of my arsenal is LinkedIn. This platform is the most professional business platform on the internet. It is where people go to do business. It is also where the people are who can afford to buy our products and services. The average age of people on LinkedIn is 43 years. The average income of people on LinkedIn is $125K annually. So, where do you think the people are who can afford to buy your "stuff". I now get most of my business through LinkedIn marketing.

Over the last several years, I have conducted webinars and workshops and one-on-one coaching sessions helping people with their LinkedIn marketing presence, but kept finding people who did not have a website that they could use to help with their marketing program. Since I was not a website expert, I searched for someone who could help my clients with their websites and branding and have now teamed up with Christine Untrathiner, who has the expertise I needed and wanted for my clients. 

Christine and I have pooled our strengths into a webinar series of six sessions to help the solopreneurs get their branding in place with a simple website and social media marketing. At the end of the six weeks, we are conducting a live event where we will be helping a select group put it all together with form letters and surveys and the online systems they can use as well as many tips and tricks to making their marketing sync together with their brand. 

In this live event, our attendees will bring their laptops and get to work putting the six weeks together with their own individualized marketing system.

Let us help you with your branding and marketing system. 

Register at: www.2cbusiness.com or https://2csuccess.eventbrite.ca

We look forward to seeing you at our webinar series and live events.

Christine Till                                                                                   

The LinkedIn Marketing Mentress                                                  

marketingmentress@gmail.com                                                      

www.marketingmentress.com

Christine Untrathiner
christine@pilotbrand.com
www.pilotbrand.com