This is an excerpt from my presentation at Entrepreneur Magazine’s Boost Your Sales With Online Marketing Event in Chicago.

In this cluttered marketplace  it is more important  than ever to keep your message simple. People just don’t have the attention span to work hard at  understanding what you have to offer.   Consider Google’s core message as they sought out venture capital years ago.

“Google provides access to the world’s information in one click” .

Can you do that with your business?

I hope you join us at one of our live events or online programs (stay tuned for a new program)

To fully participate in online activities you will be called upon to answer questions, join in conversations, respond to comments, upload videos, audios, photos and more.  And, you should expect to be judged on more than just the content of your communication. Others will evaluate you based on their entire experiences – and this includes every single touch-point you have with them.

This means that if your photos and videos look amateurish, your profiles are incomplete, and your writing is slipshod it will reflect poorly on you and decrease your ability to reach your goals.

If you want to stand out in today’s over-crowded social media landscape, you must pay close attention to seemingly small details.

Because so many online marketers ignore critical elements, many of us have lowered our expectations. “Sloppy” has become too common, not the exception but marketers who go the extra mile to ensure that their communication is error-free and well written (or spoken) shine like bright lights in dark rooms.

Think of your online communication as you would a job application.

Your target audience is your prospective employer and your written, spoken, and visual communication is your resume – one that demonstrates that you’re qualified for the position you’re seeking.

It’s not a mystery that people rarely get hired when they submit resumes that are difficult to read, long-winded, sketchy, and filled with typos, misinformation, and grammatical errors. Careless resumes scream, “Slipshod work!” and few employers willingly hire people who aren’t careful.

Therefore, as you maneuver through the social media environment, keep in mind the Guerrilla Marketing principle that every single contact you have with the public is part of the marketing process and details – no matter how seemingly small – are extremely significant.

What details might you be missing?

Mitch Meyerson
Guerrilla Marketing Coach Certification

by Denise Wakeman

Before you get to the nitty-gritty of setting up your blog, there is some pre-work to do. This will ensure that you start right and put your best foot forward. If you already have a blog, review this list to make sure your blog is focused and on track to get the results you want.

1.  Before you do anything else, examine the reasons why you want to publish a blog. What’s the purpose for the blog?  How does the blog’s purpose relate to your business purpose?

2.  What are the business objectives or outcomes or goals you want from your business blog? Some people use a blog as a lead generator to build their database. Some are looking to build a visibility platform while others use the blog to develop content for other purposes like books, articles and programs. What do you want to get out of your blog?

3.  Who is your ideal reader? Who are you writing to/for? For most businesses I’ve worked with, the ideal reader is similar to their ideal client. It’s important to know your audience so you can meet their needs and address their concerns, challenges and what they’re looking for to improve their lives.

4.  How do you want your readers to feel when they read your blog? This may seem like a weird question, yet it will help you tap in to the emotions of your audience. Do you want your reader to be inspired, motivated and moved to action? Again, tapping into this will help you focus your content on serving your reader.

Inviting visitors to contribute and be a part of your website is a strong tactic in creating a profitable site and something that is easy to do. Conversation is a process for turning your website guests into interested prospects. It turns interested prospects into purchasers and turns purchasers into lifelong customers.

Invite your visitors to take action and do everything in your power to ensure that they take you up on your offer. Enticing customers with something that is free and part of your product is an easy opt-in conversation piece. For example:

-The attorney who asks prospective clients to call her office to schedule a free consultation.

-The weaver who wants his prospects to send for a free fabric sample.

-The dance instructor who invites her visitors to sign up for a free tango class.

All of these examples show an opportunity for conversation between you and your prospective buyer. Not only does this entice a customer to become more physically involved with your product or service, but it allows you to draw them in and see more benefits from your offer.

Another way to involve customers more closely (to increase the likelihood that they’ll return) is with interactive involvement devices like quizzes, surveys, blogs, and “ask” campaigns to engage your visitors.

Following up with customers, new subscribers, or anyone who shows interest keeps you and your product or service in the visitor’s mind.

Remember that there are many opportunities to engage your visitors through the internet. Take advantage of resources and connect with customers whenever you’re able to.

The following short story is a great example of how thinking “out of the box” can get you new business even in a tough economy.

A savvy restaurant owner knew the value of asking the question, “What other businesses do my customers patronize?“

Realizing that competition was fierce in their neighborhood this owner used imagination rather than pure marketing dollars to spread the word of her terrific food. Here was her Guerrilla strategy:

She distributed coupons for two free dinners to all the hairstyling salons within a one mile radius of the restaurant. Of course the stylists checked out the restaurant. Because the food was as fantastic as advertised … the hairstylists talked it up to every one of their customers at the salon! And as you know lots of information is exchanged at a local hairstyling salon or barbershop. News spread fast and her business became the talk of the town!

Creative huh? Ask yourself what other other businesses do your customers patronize and see if you can use this strategy in your business.

——–

Want to learn more low cost, high impact strategies for getting new customers and start a new business coaching others?

The next 12 week Guerrilla Marketing Coach Certification starts Monday January 11 at 7EST.

If you found this helpful I hope you will retweet.

Although specific estimates vary, online researchers agree that email recipients make quick decisions on whether or not they will open and read promotional emails. Obviously, if they like, want, need, and/or are actively seeking the products being offered, they’re far more likely to open them. But emails come with their own special challenge, the subject line – that short, information burst that can make you or break you.

Like direct mail envelope “teasers,” emails’ subject lines must grab the recipients’ interests and increase the chances that they’ll open the messages. That’s why you’ll want to work on getting yours just right.

Start getting ideas scanning your own inbox. Jot down any that catch your interest and then see how you can tweak them to suit your needs. You can also look at headlines in your local newspaper, magazines, websites, and the like and see it you can covert any of those into intriguing subject lines.

Then use these tips to fine-tune your choices.

1. Keep them short and to the point. Less is definitely more in this instance, especially since overly long subject lines will get cut off from view anyhow.

2. Don’t divulge too much information. Add intrigue. Build curiosity. Make them want to open your email to find out more. For example:

- Zach, have you heard this yet?

- The Psychology behind the $40 Pet Rock Craze

- When $100 per hour is just okay

3. Use your recipients’ first names, unless it’s awkward or sounds forced. For example:

- John, will you help me?

- Mary, you’ll want to print this email.

4. Ask questions, such as:

- Is procrastination killing your business?

- Do you believe in this deadly marketing myth?

5. Include your product or service’s number one benefit and make sure it’s relevant to your target audience, like”

- One tip for losing ten pounds in one week

- 5 Free Ways to Sell More Houses

6. Avoid sending off “hooey” and spam alarms with exaggerations, or hints of high pressure sales tactics, such as:

- Triple your…

- My dear so-and-so

- Your e-commerce business

- Earn thousands at home

- Making Money the easy way

- Immediate action required

Adapted from Guerrilla Marketing On The Internet by Mitch Meyerson, Jay Levinson and Mary Scarborough

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by Craig Valentine, 1999 World Champion Of Public Speaking. He is the co creator of the World Class Speaking book and Certification Program. Get Your Free World Class Speakers Audio Toolkit

If you want to drastically improve your very next presentation, it is important to understand 4 of the pitfalls that keep most speakers in a ditch out of which they can never seem to climb. If you see where these traps are, you can easily avoid them. As a result, you will clear your pathway to a powerful and persuasive speech.

Here are the 4 costly mistakes:

They close their speech with the question and answer session

Never close your speech with the Q&A session, because people remember best what they hear first and what they hear last. If you end with the Q&A, you lose control over the last message your audience receives and much of your hard work is undone. It is still a good idea to have a Q&A session, but it is not a good idea to end your presentation with it. Instead, hold the session about 80-90% into your speech and then close the speech in your own powerful way.

They open their speech with a whimper

Most speakers open with statements like, “I’m so glad to be here. Thank you for inviting me to speak at this prestigious occasion. First I’d like to thank Bob…” What is wrong with that kind of opening? Frankly, it’s boring. It’s boring because it’s expected. Instead, come out in an unexpected way by jumping right into your message. Take the “sitcom” approach and start the show first and then transition to the opening theme song.

One good way to do this is to immediately dive into a story. That will catch your audience off guard and you will have their attention. Another effective way is to ask a question. For example, I start some speeches with the following question: “What do you think is the number one thing that stands in the way of most people living their dreams?” This immediately gets my audience’s attention and prompts them to think and to get involved with the speech. Questions work extremely well because they take your audience members from passive spectators to active participants and that definitely raises the energy. Once you finish your planned opening, it is then fine to go back and thank the people who brought you there.

They lip-synch

I once had a CFO of a biotech company say, “Craig, we need you to coach us with our presentation. We already have the presentation, but we just need to know what to say.” That might seem confusing but I knew exactly what he meant. He meant that the company already had a slide presentation but they needed to know what to say between those slides. Once I worked with them, they came to realize that they had to look at their major points first and then determine if slides were even needed to reinforce them.

Most presenters who use slides simply verbalize the same points that are made on the slide. The key to understand is this; if you say the same thing as your slides, then one of you is not needed! You are doing the equivalent of lip-synching your presentation. The best time to use slides is for real visuals such as charts, graphs, and diagrams that help clarify what you say verbally.

They don’t master the essence of public speaking

Bill Gove, the first President of the National Speakers Association, once said that public speaking is being able to “tell a story and make a point.” That indeed is the essence of public speaking. If you want to become the kind of speaker others line up and sign up to see, then make an effort to master storytelling. People make decisions with their emotions backed up by logic. Stories reach those emotions and get people in a frame of mind to take action. When you become a master storyteller, you help other people see new stories unfold for their own lives. Like the old saying goes, “Facts tell and stories sell.”

If you avoid the 4 pitfalls that trap most speakers and you work on the suggestions above, you will find yourself far ahead of most of the people who ever stood up to say anything.

Craig Valentine is starting a brand new Coach Certification Program for Speakers and Entrepreneurs September 21 For the Full Story–> World Class Speaking Coach Certification Progran