This simple but essential piece of wisdom was coined by Jay Conrad Levinson back in 1984 in the first Guerrilla Marketing book.

In today’s post we are featuring perhaps the most important Guerrilla Marketing concept of all — every contact is marketing.  Enjoy the audio and article – and take action on the ideas!
(Click on the audio button right below)

Key Points:

• Marketing is EVERYTHING you do to promote your business.

• It begins the moment you visualize your business and continues up to, and long after your customers buys your products and services regularly.

• Marketing is always intentional and detail orientated, and overlaps to every single part of your business. It’s the way you pick up the phone, the care you put into your web page … its every contact.

• Marketing is a continual process that develops over time.

• The consistency of your marketing messaging is so important.

• In this cluttered marketplace you need to gain mind share so people remember you.

For the last 12 years the  Guerrilla Marketing Coaching Program has certified over 400 Guerrilla Marketing Coaches worldwide in low cost high impact marketing principles.  Become a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach for 60 % off for the month of November only. Click here

The truth is you can’t improve what you don’t measure. With that end in mind, here’s a template you can use to track and measure your marketing activities:

-> Click here to get your sample marketing calendar

Why have a marketing calendar?

A marketing calendar will help make all the elements in your program work well together. It enables you to plan your budget and helps you avoid unforeseen expenditures. It prevents you from engaging in hit-and-miss marketing. It protects you from marketing lapses. It aids enormously in planning. Clients who operate from one say that a marketing calendar is their most precious business asset.

Remember the ultimate goal of your marketing calendar is to create results. The Guerrilla marketer knows that results are based on intentionality, accountability and consistency paving the road to profits.

Become a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach starting September 27, 2011.

Joel Comm

Joel Comm is one of the world’s leading experts on web-based, money-making strategies. This is an excerpt from Joel’s chapter titled: Social Media Marketing Success Qualities in Success Secrets of the Social Media Marketing Superstars:

Social media, in particular, creates a unique context and mode of interaction. Just about everyone wants in on the benefits. Unfortunately, it’s also a particularly competitive environment; having the right characteristics, being determined and ready to act, is often not enough.

To succeed with social media, you also need the right information, and you need to be aware of what not to do, as well as knowing what to do. With that in mind, let’s review the top mistakes of social media marketing.

Mistake #1: Leading With Marketing Conversations

Many new social media marketers head into it as though it’s simply a place where they advertise themselves and their business. You see it happen all the time. People approach Twitter and Facebook, and they immediately friend people just to post links to their products and services. This makes it all about them, and they subsequently come off as being very selfish, and having an all-about-me attitude.

These people are missing the point, which is that all healthy businesses are built on relationships.

Using social media to advance your business goals does not change this fundamental rule. You must provide value for the prospect first. They will then, hopefully, become your customer.
There’s no better way to destroy your online reputation than to put your business on social media and just talk about yourself endlessly. People aren’t going to be interested. They’re not going to engage with you, and ultimately, you’re not going to make sales.

Mistake #2: Not Using Twitter Effectively

Twitter is the place where conversations are taking place, 24/7, 365 days a year. It is important to become relevant in the Twitter community and to seek to bring value by asking questions, answering questions, sharing news links, and sharing useful information in your particular market or niche.

After writing Twitter Power, I realized I had missed something key.

The mundane tweets actually connect us to people in a much broader sense than our more targeted tweets can.

They offer people a point of contact and a point of identification, which is really what we’re looking for in social media: relationships. We want to identify with people so that they like us for who we are, and they want to know us because of the value that we bring. They trust us because we’re the expert and then they want to do business with us. They want to pay us whether it’s a physical transaction, or for a product or service, or whether it’s just persuading someone to adopt an idea or a way of thinking. It is built on relationships. I call it the “like me, know me, trust me, pay me” process. It’s the key to building your business on a solid foundation and ensuring it’s there for the long haul.

Mistake #3: Not Having a Clear Goal

A lot of people just play with social media because it’s this new, bright, shiny object, but they don’t really know what they’re doing. By setting a goal, such as having more customers buying our products or services, we can then ask ourselves, “How can I leverage social media to make that happen?”

It’s no different than when someone walks into your brick and mortar store. If you greet them kindly, ask them how they’re doing, and get to know them a little bit, then you can serve their needs better. If they just walk in the door and you say, “Hey, you want to buy this?” you’re probably going to repulse them. It’s about building a relationship. When people keep that in mind and don’t look at it as a quick fix but as something more long-term, they realize that it’s not as much like visiting a website as it is like moving into a neighbourhood, creating relationships with your neighbours, and seeking to be an asset to the community.

It’s like Zig Ziglar said, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

That’s an axiom that proves true across the whole of human nature. Just because we’ve got cool technology with bright, shiny objects, doesn’t change who we are at our core.

I promise you the next 3 minutes will be well worth your time!

After you listen to this audio take a few minutes and craft your own Big Promise.

To get the entire 7 part toolkit free visit: www.Wcspeaking.com
and Craigs cool mini course for speakers

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Start A New Business Designed For Tough Times. Become a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach

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)

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

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.

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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.

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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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