Archives for February 2015
Your difference is your branding strategy.Ā | Sally Hogshead – 3 tips and what it means to you today.
Today is day three of the 2015 Traffic & Convention Summit that CEO, Christine Kelly and COO, Thomas von Ahn are attending in beautiful San Diego, CA. They're listening and participating in dynamic, thought provoking workshops that will provide value to their clients and teams across many industries. One of the guest speakers at the summit is Sally Hogshead, CEO of Fascination Laboratory. Fascination Laboratory is an innovative branding firm that aids professionals and organizations with linking key branding perspective of how the world sees them, not how they see the world. This information can aid professionals and organizations with essential perspective that shift their brands to dramatically. Your difference is your branding strategy andĀ is a reflection of Sally Hogshead, Fascination Laboratory –Ā 3 branding tips from the most successful brands on how to stand out.
- Focus on your differences. Rather than focusing on the strengths of an organization, product or service,
One of the guest speakers at the summit is Sally Hogshead, CEO of Fascination Laboratory. Fascination Laboratory is an innovative branding firm that aids professionals and organizations with linking key branding perspective of how the world sees them, not how they see the world.
one should focus on the specific differences. Differences are unique selling factors that make the experience with different than with the competitor. This analysis helps to share a keen understanding of the unique identifier that customers can expect when doing business with oneās firm. The differences can, in fact, become the bread and butter of an organization and make customers wait to experience the service or product because of the sheer value and uniqueness of an organization. Seth GodinĀ may refer to a similar concept, the Purple Cow. People will stop and observe a purple cow because it is an anomaly. What is your anomaly? - Differences donāt have to be big. Even the smallest variance can be the difference between doing business with a selected firm or not. The unique selling and value is the difference that will make people wait for the product or service. The differences do not have to be large. It could be something as simple as additional service or method used to create a more customer friendly experience. That experience yields dividends in customer optimization, loyalty, and profitability. The key is to be able to identify the differences, and remember that differences are not your strengths, but rather what the customer experiences with oneās firm compared to that of another. It is the āahaā this is so much better factor. That factor is the icing on the cake that keep customers coming, referring, and your lines ringing. Identification and delivery of those differences are paramount. Likewise, knowing the actual differences and communicating that with customerās helps oneās firm to educate, partner, and grow with customers. How do your differences measure up?
- When you own that difference, youāre more valuable, and people seek you out. Being the oddball out used to pose a problem, today it is the solution. The unique differences a firm provides to customers that
others cannot be a profitable solution that aids in a win-win situation for participants. The key is to identify, recognize, and confidently share that difference. As such, the difference speaks through actions, not through words, but through tangible actions and experiences. These actions in turn influence a firmās audience rating and selectiveness. The more valuable the differences, the more people will come to seek out solutions from oneās firm. The more value, the more the differences are shared, and the growth of a firm can be limitless. How valuable is your difference and do people seek you out?
This week is at the 2015 Traffic & Convention Summit is a full of thought provoking analytics, opportunities, and experts across a variety of fields. This post is a reflection of concepts not shared at the summit, rather via an online video by one of the subject matter experts. Take a moment to ponder the findings of what successful brands do to stand out, and identify the gaps that your firm can do to improve capitalizing on your unique differences.
by Katie Doseck PhD MBA
Chief Visionary and Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve | Viral Solutions LLC
Katie Doseck, PhD MBA | Chief Visionary & Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve. I catapulted my experience with extensive education, trainings, and personal coaching; earning a PhD in Organizational Management with a specialization in Human Resource Management, MBA in Organizational Leadership, and BA in Law & Liberal Arts. Subject Matter Expert (SME) areas: Human Resource Management, Employment Law, Organizational Change, Change Management, Resource Planning, Strategic Planning, Talent Management, Selling & Sales Management, Training & Development, Decision Making Models, Project Management, Customer Relationship Management, and Motivation. Dr. Doseck is based out of Logan, Utah.
Your difference is your branding strategy.Ā | Sally Hogshead – 3 tips and what it means to you today.
Today is day three of the 2015 Traffic & Convention Summit that CEO, Christine Kelly and COO, Thomas von Ahn are attending in beautiful San Diego, CA. They're listening and participating in dynamic, thought provoking workshops that will provide value to their clients and teams across many industries. One of the guest speakers at the summit is Sally Hogshead, CEO of Fascination Laboratory. Fascination Laboratory is an innovative branding firm that aids professionals and organizations with linking key branding perspective of how the world sees them, not how they see the world. This information can aid professionals and organizations with essential perspective that shift their brands to dramatically. Your difference is your branding strategy andĀ is a reflection of Sally Hogshead, Fascination Laboratory –Ā 3 branding tips from the most successful brands on how to stand out.
- Focus on your differences. Rather than focusing on the strengths of an organization, product or service,
One of the guest speakers at the summit is Sally Hogshead, CEO of Fascination Laboratory. Fascination Laboratory is an innovative branding firm that aids professionals and organizations with linking key branding perspective of how the world sees them, not how they see the world.
one should focus on the specific differences. Differences are unique selling factors that make the experience with different than with the competitor. This analysis helps to share a keen understanding of the unique identifier that customers can expect when doing business with oneās firm. The differences can, in fact, become the bread and butter of an organization and make customers wait to experience the service or product because of the sheer value and uniqueness of an organization. Seth GodinĀ may refer to a similar concept, the Purple Cow. People will stop and observe a purple cow because it is an anomaly. What is your anomaly?
- Differences donāt have to be big. Even the smallest variance can be the difference between doing business with a selected firm or not. The unique selling and value is the difference that will make people wait for the product or service. The differences do not have to be large. It could be something as simple as additional service or method used to create a more customer friendly experience. That experience yields dividends in customer optimization, loyalty, and profitability. The key is to be able to identify the differences, and remember that differences are not your strengths, but rather what the customer experiences with oneās firm compared to that of another. It is the āahaā this is so much better factor. That factor is the icing on the cake that keep customers coming, referring, and your lines ringing. Identification and delivery of those differences are paramount. Likewise, knowing the actual differences and communicating that with customerās helps oneās firm to educate, partner, and grow with customers. How do your differences measure up?
- When you own that difference, youāre more valuable, and people seek you out. Being the oddball out used to pose a problem, today it is the solution. The unique differences a firm provides to customers that others cannot be a profitable solution that aids in a win-win situation for participants. The key is to identify, recognize, and confidently share that difference. As such, the difference speaks through actions, not through words, but through tangible actions and experiences. These actions in turn influence a firmās audience rating and selectiveness. The more valuable the differences, the more people will come to seek out solutions from oneās firm. The more value, the more the differences are shared, and the growth of a firm can be limitless. How valuable is your difference and do people seek you out?
This week is at the 2015 Traffic & Convention Summit is a full of thought provoking analytics, opportunities, and experts across a variety of fields. This post is a reflection of concepts not shared at the summit, rather via an online video by one of the subject matter experts. Take a moment to ponder the findings of what successful brands do to stand out, and identify the gaps that your firm can do to improve capitalizing on your unique differences.
by Katie Doseck PhD MBA
Chief Visionary and Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve | Viral Solutions LLC
Katie Doseck, PhD MBA | Chief Visionary & Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve. I catapulted my experience with extensive education, trainings, and personal coaching; earning a PhD in Organizational Management with a specialization in Human Resource Management, MBA in Organizational Leadership, and BA in Law & Liberal Arts. Subject Matter Expert (SME) areas: Human Resource Management, Employment Law, Organizational Change, Change Management, Resource Planning, Strategic Planning, Talent Management, Selling & Sales Management, Training & Development, Decision Making Models, Project Management, Customer Relationship Management, and Motivation. Dr. Doseck is based out of Logan, Utah.
Mobile Marketing Automation Penetration Expected to Triple This Year
According to a new report from Venture Beat Insight, mobile marketing automation (MMA) could triple in size by the end of 2015. While the MMA market is only about 1.5 percent penetrated, there are expected to be some pretty significant leaps taken in the industry this year.
There are plenty of apps that already use MMA for boosting monetization, including some of the most popular mobile games available for download. Other major brands like ESPN, Starbucks and more use MMA practices to increase their mobile engagement. However, there are still a lot of app publishers that arenāt completely clear as to what MMA is, which is what has prevented that significant growth before now.
The simplest way of explaining mobile marketing automation is that it involves a combination of old-school customer relation management, modern app analytics and web-based marketing, all re-thought for use on mobile devices. It involves tracking analytics down to the level of each individual user.
Deliver your marketing message direct to the smartphone of your audience in ways you never thought possible.
Just a few of the most popular MMA features that you might be familiar with include:
ā¢ Push notifications (could include sounds, badgers or other alerts)
ā¢ Segment targeting
ā¢ Email campaigns
ā¢ In-app messaging
ā¢ Cohort analysis and user profiles
ā¢ Surveys, ratings, feedback and promotions
ā¢ Targeted in-app incentives and rewards
Mobile marketing automation allows marketers to focus on specific locations, analyze the behavior of individual targets on your website, social media and apps, map content for your consumers based on the āstages of buyingā they go through and more. You are able to set limits on the amounts of messages that get sent out to your customers so that they donāt get overwhelmed, or set specific times for when messages will be delivered.
Basically, itās a new level of connectivity between marketers and customers thanks to the availability that mobile devices provide. Best of all, you can set your MMA systems up so that customers can opt in, meaning that you wonāt be harassing customers that arenāt interested in getting mobile messages from you.
So, you can see why this year is expected to be a huge year for mobile marketing automation. The last several years have seen a big growth and evolution in the mobile device world, and marketers are catching up. Those businesses that get on board with MMA this year will truly be on the cutting edge.
A Reflection of the Digital Marketer Business Blog Success Story
As mentioned last week, Viral Solutions Queen Bee Christine Kelly and Chief Elephant Slayer Thomas von Ahn are attending the sold out 2015 Traffic & Conversion Summit this week in beautiful San Diego, CA. This week they will be interacting, learning, and strategizing concepts presented at the summit. One of the presenters at the summit is Ryan Deiss, Founder and President of the Digital Marketer.
This post takes a reflection of the Digital Marketer business blog success story from growing a zero dollar to multimillion dollar blog. The remainder of this post hit home on the main success factors that Ryan Deiss identified as critical to the monetary and industry success of the Digital Marketer.
- Sell. Blogging is more than just sharing content and contributing to the body of knowledge on a particular topic. One of the success fac
We help overwhelmed small business owners duplicate themselves ā so business can be fun again.
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tors that Ryan Deiss discussed was that his blogs sold stuff. Keep in mind that the Digital Marketer has several different blogs in different industries. One of their most successful blogs is www.SurvivalLife.com that produces over a million a month.
- Test. Data doesn't lie. Data can be misinterpreted and misunderstood, but it doesnāt lie. The people reviewing the data can lie about it, but the facts are the facts when it comes to essential data about the productivity, profitability, and effectiveness of your blog. Identify the critical success factors of your blog, monitor the data, if the data isnāt performing test new strategies until you find one that is performing, and then continue to monitor that data. Testing is an art. In fact, the Digital Marketer has invested over $15,000,000 in testing and understanding metrics. This doesn't mean that one needs to invests tons of money into testing, but what it does mean is that testing is quintessential to success and sustainability within the blogging environment.
- Authority. Blogging doesn't require that you do all of the work, create all of the content, and constantly be adding to the content. Rather, you can position your blog to be the authority on the particular topic or market. Ryan Deiss mentioned Oprah Winfrey, she is the authority on many areas and brings content that was created by others into once spot and shares it with her audience. She doesn't create it all. No, she identified her topic, experts and created a plan to share that knowledge through the use of her authority. As
While building our business, we used many tools available from the software industry. Tools such as SalesForce, ACT!, Jeffrey Gitomerās Ace of Sales, Excel spreadsheets and enough other items I could name ā that right now are making me ill thinking about. We are business minds first. We found Infusionsoft as our solution to our problem. We have become Infusionsoft experts, by building our business with this amazing tool, our certifications only reinforce it. Infusionsoft is a type of sales and marketing software that helps owners of small businesses to track their leads and stay organized. We work with you to help you develop the best plan with your business and help you get set up with these services, optimize them to fit your needs and give you any other assistance you need to get started. You can either have us help you implement your Infusionsoft strategy or let us take the keys and do it for you.
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such, she delivers specific information daily to her audience.
- Sustainable Market. If your objective is to make money via your blogging activities, it is essential to identify if your topic and market are thriving, niche, and provides some other value to an audience. If the life and sustainability of that topic or market isn't there, the money will not be there either. Identifying the size, management, and monetizing opportunities of the topic and market is essential.
In conclusion, success doesn't just happen. Success is purposeful planning, testing, monitoring, and adjusting of key actions with positive outcomes.Ā That intent and knowledge is the difference between just being and succeeding. For more information about the Digital Marketerās success story and tips, check out How We Grew a Blog from Zero to 6 Millionā¦Ā Strategizing doesn't have to be complicated, take some time out of your day to identify what you can do to improve the effectiveness of your blogging activities, explore resources and insights that may help you to trigger additional inspiration. Share your thoughts about the the Digital Marketer's success story of growing a business blog from zero to six million.
Ā by Katie Doseck PhD MBA
Chief Visionary and Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve | Viral Solutions LLC
Katie Doseck, PhD MBA | Chief Visionary & Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve. I catapulted my experience with extensive education, trainings, and personal coaching; earning a PhD in Organizational Management with a specialization in Human Resource Management, MBA in Organizational Leadership, and BA in Law & Liberal Arts. Subject Matter Expert (SME) areas: Human Resource Management, Employment Law, Organizational Change, Change Management, Resource Planning, Strategic Planning, Talent Management, Selling & Sales Management, Training & Development, Decision Making Models, Project Management, Customer Relationship Management, and Motivation. Dr. Doseck is based out of Logan, Utah.
Getting Great Employees for Your Small Business
It can be a tough sell to get great, qualified employees to jump aboard a small company that is still in its start-up phase. You donāt have as much money to offer as other larger companies, or the same types of perks and benefits, so you shouldnāt even try to compete in those areas. There are, however, certain selling points that small businesses have that larger ones donāt.
Here are a few points of emphasis to talk about when interviewing potential employees for a small business:
ā¢ Leadership opportunities. Small companies give employees a chance to jump into important leadership roles much earlier than larger companies, 
especially if the small company is a rapidly growing one. While you should never promise specific future roles, you should be clear that there are advancement opportunities within your company if they are able to prove themselves as an employee.
ā¢ Chance for growth. Not only do employees of small companies get to play a major role in the way the company grows in size and scope, but there are also lots of opportunities for personal and professional growth given the responsibilities they could assume right from the beginning of their employment.
ā¢ Close community. People want to work for a company where they like their coworkers and where there is a solid support system. If you can build a tight-knit community in your company, that will go a long way toward convincing good workers to come to you. You also shouldnāt underestimate the importance of everyone within the company having close access to you as the owner and leader.
ā¢ Creative freedom. Large corporations generally already have rigid policies in place, and employees are encouraged to not rock the boat. Small companies offer many more opportunities for risks and creativity, so bolder employees looking to be able to take chances will likely find a home in a small business.
ā¢ Flexibility. Again, all of the policies and procedures in place at large companies can be limiting, especially when it comes to flexibility. The flexibility of small companies creates a lot of opportunities for innovation and a potentially more relaxed environment.
Do these characteristics apply to your small business? Work with Viral Solutions to learn more about what you should emphasize about your company in the interview room with prospective employees.
Copyright 2015 Viral Solutions LLC
by Christine Kelly
CEO and Queen Bee | Viral Solutions LLC
Prior to joining Viral Solutions, Christine held executive leadership roles at some of the largest small business consulting firms in the USA. Her experience includes leading direct reports of over 130 remote sales agents who generated $38mm in annual revenue. She obtained her Marketing degree from British Columbia Institute of Technology. Bring her C-Suite experience to your small business. Although our company is virtual, and we can work with you wherever you are located, she is located in Denver, Colorado and owns a second home in Vancouver, BC Canada.