Sharing Marketing Tips, Resources and ideas is what business is all about and what this blog strives to offer. Marketing Coach & Consultant, Allison Bliss (www.allisonbliss.com), helps you find articles, services and tools to increase profits, save time and grow your business.

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Allison Bliss Consulting is a Marketing & Communications Agency for corporations requiring an outsourced marketing department, creating branding, strategies and website, social media & promotional materials . Marketing Coaching rescues business owners who are completely bogged down with their day-to-day survival, and often lack the knowledge or perspective needed to reach their target market: Resources, Websites, Optimizing, Promotional Material, Connections, Sales training, & total support.

After all, ignorance is expensive, but “Knowledge is Bliss.“

How much more success would you have if you had time to do all the marketing, branding, outreach or activities you know you should?

Today, I’m offering a few more of my favorite time-saving tools so you’ve time to improve your marketing.

If you’re spending lots of time marketing with no results in sales, then it’s time for a marketing consultation.

Let’s make sure your tactics fit your goals and your tools (website, blog, social, brochures, articles, etc.) are really effective. If you need help, just call for a free 15 minute evaluation. 510-879-7600

TIME SAVING TOOLS

As a creative person, I come up with a dozen ideas an hour, don’t you? Ah, where to put those ‘sticky note’ ideas?

How to remember everything? Can it be categorized by project? Yep! Welcome to the free tool, Evernote. Now you’ve saved an hour searching through notes for that one item you wanted.

Does it seemingly take 20 emails to schedule with friends, meetings, volunteer activities, or just life in general. What if you could do it all on one screen and share that info?

Welcome to Doodle.com. Scheduling all in one place. Ah, that just saved you 45 minutes!!

Here are several more useful resources and tools?

We invite you to subscribe to click on our easy “Subscribe by Mail” option to get our blog with more free tips, tools, resources or ideas to build your business.

Of course you don’t have time to read every single post! Just take what you need.

Knowledge is Bliss, after all.

If your business can be found amongst the zillions out there, you’ll be able to help more people and make more sales. That’s called “Positioning” in Marketing . Since most of us are simply bombarded with information, it’s critically important to establish positioning to get found.

While most people think about branding their business, building a great product or service, getting it promoted to their clients, this elusive “positioning” is most often lacking in marketing.

Examples of company “positioning”

Some great examples of positioning are Verizon’s “Can you hear me now?” campaign demonstrating their differentiation by having better cell carriers conversations. While this was their branding message, they also stood out and got attention because so many cel carriers at the time had awful reception.

Not the first light beer, Miller Lite positioned itself as the calorically correct choice and won huge market share as a result. Amazon is positioned as everything book-related (and now expanding to, well, everything. Can you see how that’s weakening their positioning?).

But how can you position your company if you’re a small business, or entrepreneur, like my new client who offers astrological readings? She wants to build her business, but her market doesn’t understand why they should pay for her readings instead of any other astrologer’s ; they don’t know how she’s different or special.

The trick is to handle positioning the same way large corporations do- just spend less and be smarter!

Often I find that trying to create positioning for one’s own company is like doing brain surgery on oneself: We just don’t have the perspective ourselves. In an attempt to help you get started, follow these quick tips to learn some techniques for positioning;

1. Visit your competitor’s websites to see what they offer. List the value and qualifications you offer that are different. Add those differentiators to your promotional materials.

2. Brainstorm with your vendors. They will often have a perspective that you don’t about the unique talents or service you offer.

3. Review your testimonials. Do any ‘keywords’  jump out at you that explain how you’re special or really different? If so, promote those assets!

4. Get professional help from a marketing pro who knows how to define and analyze your positioning for you. We have a positioning package called “Knowledge is Bliss” that brings you significant impact and can often increase earnings by thousands of dollars right away.

What do companies experience?

“I’m so delightfully surprised by the extent of the impact that your ‘Knowledge is Bliss’ package has had on my business – it’s far more than I had originally anticipated. I’ve noticed that I’m several thousand dollars ahead of my earnings last year resulting from your marketing advice.”
– Kathleen Kline, Kathleen Kline & Associates

But what about the astrologer?

Part of our solution for her will be to feature her far deeper psychological ability to interpret Astrology and actually use that information to solve issues in one’s work or personal life.

After a competitive review, some analysis and brainstorming we may define her positioning in some way which I can only guess right now just to give you ideas:

• “Astrology with a depth of interpretation you can actually apply to your life’” or
• “Deeply useful understanding of your life”
• “Far more insightful reading fusing archetypal Psychology with traditional Western Astrology” (ah, but see- that’s  a method, not ‘positioning’. yes, it’s a complex concept)

Or, we may find the her ideal highly intelligent client relates to something else entirely. Which concept do you like?

We’ll feature her positioning and give you her link in upcoming posts. Please share your ideas with her in the comments below. And if you want a reading, I’ll refer you, naturally.

How is our company different?

We actually have experience with the bottom line responsibility- making profits: not just cute websites, brochures, social media or publicity tactics in marketing. We help companies earn more profits & grow their business and pick the right marketing to build that growth. “Knowledge is Bliss. Ignorance is Expensive.”

I need your help – your insight, experience and knowledge.

Can we use our facebook or other easy-access tech to help us save time or coordinate our busy lives?

I want to hear your experience or ideas. (please comment below to do that).

As a marketing agency consulting CEO’s & business leaders, I find that all business leaders need to save admin time so we can focus on marketing and more importantly, having more time to focus on our clients.

HERE’S THE QUEST

Last night I raced to San Francisco across a jammed Bay Bridge to teach a class for my favorite microenterprise training company, the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center. Turns out, the class was cancelled and I never received the email. Ah well, that’s life.

Am I the only one this has happened to? I think not!

Have you found great online tools that might solve this? Would you share your suggestions to save us all time at work.

ONE TIME SAVING IDEA

Thanks to my colleage Joshua Zerkel of Custom Living Solutions (Prez of Professional Organizers Assoc.), I learned about “Doodle” – a super easy way to schedule meetings online. I even use it w/ friends to schedule walks, events, etc.

Through online tools like this, the ‘training coordinator’ (admin) can send notices to the whole group so they’re auto-delivered via email, saving her valuable work time.

Plus as a participant, I could go to this site to double check status before wasting fuel and my time in case changes were posted.

SECOND IDEA

Could one setup a facebook page for communicating with groups? For example, could the training coordinator set up a  page for business that posts times, reminders, updates for both the businesses being consulted and for us consultants advising the businesses?

Could we all then ‘friend’ that page so we’re notified if there are changes, updates, info to review, etc? Wouldn’t that save everyone time and potential missed emails? (sure it’s still email notification, but facebook does seem to reliably deliver emails).

Is facebook the best ‘tool’ for this? Or is this even allowed on FB? Just seems like it would save time, efficiencies, and have a central place for updates for everyone that way. It would save admins (or anyone coordinating meetings,events, etc.) time by only posting to one website which notifies everyone at once of updates.

What am I missing here?

OR IS THERE A BETTER IDEA?

Please post your great ideas, comments, tools, or corrections to my likely misassumptions by clicking on ‘comment’ below. There are many readers who could really value from your input.

As a marketing agency, we encourage you to put in a 5 word only plug for your business if you take time to leave a comment, too!  [as an example, here's my plug: "solving business & marketing quests"].

Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge. After all, knowledge is bliss!

I’m always curious about our cultural tendency of hero worship for sports icons, politicians or celebrities. Having worked with each of those categories of people during my years in film & tv, I found that usually their depth of soul or knowledge wasn’t as impressive as the entrepreneurs I now serve.

What about those innovators who are really changing our world with at least as much talent, discipline and hard work as anyone else- artists & entrepreneurs?Why don’t we ‘hero worship’ them?

ENTREPRENEURS CHANGE THE WORLD
While artists (writers, musicians, filmakers, photographers, etc.) expand our thinking, it’s our risk taking entrepreneurs who make vital changes to our lives: just think how much time is saved with entrepreneurial invention of cel phones or email communication. Or how easy it is to find answers on Google than it was just a relatively few years ago. Why don’t we worship the artists or philosophers who stimulate entirely new ways of thinking that change our lives, our world?

WHO ARE ENTREPRENEURS DESERVING THIS HERO WORSHIP?
While Google gets the press, there are many worthy entrepreneurs I get to meet in my work. I look forward to featuring a few in this series of “ENTREPRENEURS: DESERVING HERO WORSHIP”

“MULTIPLE KINETIC SYSTEMS” , HUNTERDON, NEW JERSEY
Tucked away in the pharma belt of New Jersey are four entrepreneurs who are taking on conventional medicine by offering a brand of innovative “five level” treatments healing patients in ways that allopathic doctors simply have no training for, no knowledge or experience. Connecting physical, neuro, holistic dental, and even family constellation therapy their methods are delivering significant patient results. One of their philosophies: “love is all”. Begs inquiry, doesn’t it? Details and articles on web. Learn tips on their facebook page. I’m honored to help their company and learn from their entrepreneurial spirit.

“A GENIE LIVING IN LOS ANGELES”, CALIFORNIA

Linda Salazar, author of Awaken the Genie Within, takes her background in filmmaking to help clients develop new life stories of their own through her coaching and books. Now that’s inspired entrepreneurialism!

She presents nationally to nursing and hospital organizations teaching her unique form of ‘geneology’ – magical techniques for practical wisdom. Her books remind us how to create new stories (or ways of being) that save our souls, stresses and life challenges, or cope with difficult people at work and keep our ‘gremlins’ at bay so our ‘genies’ can thrive.

She really walks her talk! I just haven’t seen her give up in the years I’ve been helping her promote her talents – I’ve learned so much about my own ‘gremlin’ by watching her ‘genie’ cheer us on.

Linda’s booklet 52 Tips for a Magical Marriage After Your Child is Born has great tips to keep a marriage joyous after the huge shift of having a child. I found it inspiring even for us animal parents. If you know an organization who could benefit from providing these books to their members/patrons, please let us know.

“SAVING CITIES FROM ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER” SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

Douglas Herring & Associates enables projects to get built for cities, counties or public agencies through planning their environmental impact to protect natural resources.  To me, Doug is another kind of genie who figures out how to  get their projects expeditiously approved and built through his high quality knowledge, planning and environmental analysis.

Better, he’s an avid hiker, biker and lover of our earth. Isn’t that someone who you want to protect our environmental rights with his complex analyses and planning? He’s one of those brave entrepreneurs holding onto a verifiably worthy business even in this slowdown of economic development nationally.

You likely won’t get to meet this unlikely hero at Douglas Herring & Associates unless you manage a city or county planning office, or a development project, but you can certainly email him at his website to let him know he’s appreciated!

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Here’s some earthshattering news: We’re moving our facebook page so please send us a friend request to our new page: http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#!/pages/Allison-Bliss-Consulting/137061816335959?ref=sgm.

We’ll let you know on facebook when the next hero worship series is posted! If you have some heros of your own worth sharing, please let us know by commenting below. After all, Knowledge is Bliss.

And if you are a hero-worthy leader, CEO or entrepreneur yourself and need marketing strategy or support, you’ll find information on our website.

Need some inspiration today for your business? Here are a few business leaders- just like the rest of us – who started as small, struggling entrepreneurs. Now they are leading organizations and truly changing the world.

I wanted to give a small tribute to them for the lessons they’ve taught me.

BRINGING HUMANITY TO BUSINESS

I was so honored to help Chip Conley and his team at Peak Organizations create their website. Here’s a leader who truly walks his talk. I listen to this short video when I’m struggling to find a creative solution, can’t find an answer, or need to be reminded that there are some, like Chip and his highly talented Peak Leader training teams, changing corporate culture by bringing deep humanity to business:

USING MUSIC FOR TEAMBUILDING & LEADERSHIP

Can you imagine a thousand corporate employees playing music, laughing and gaining some profoundly deep lessons on communication, or teambuilding together? Or having global leaders harmonize and resonate with their workforce? Don’t believe it? I didn’t either until I got to help (and learn from) my amazing  client Gary Muszynski of  One World Music.

As a thought leader in experiential training, Gary uses the performing arts to engage, enlighten, and transform organizations of all kinds, one beat at a time. Think it’s not possible? Watch their short One World Music video.

CREATING A CONSCIOUS CULTURE

Yesterday I got to speak with one of those truly thoughtful, kindhearted leaders whose firm, Nelson Cohen Global Consulting, seems to be readjusting how business is conducted worldwide.

His book “Riding the Tiger: Leading Through Learning in Turbulent Times” is described as providing “a rare opportunity to learn from a catastrophic event that shook the foundation of a thriving global organization”. His ingenuity and compassion for forming a ‘conscious culture’ speak through his work at many levels.

July 26, 2010

Contact: Allison Bliss, Allison Bliss Consulting: abliss@allisonbliss.com; 510-879-7600, www.allisonbliss.com

Oakland, CA – In response to American workers and entrepreneurs craving more exercise, and less time spent in meetings, this week Allison Bliss Consulting, a San Francisco Bay Area marketing agency, launches a service coupling business-building education with stress-reducing waterfront walks.

With the goal of helping entrepreneurs flourish, the agency’s main consultant, Allison Bliss, takes clients outside for her “Money on the Move Creative Strategy Walks”. During the one-hour, marketing-focused walks, CEOs and business owners are guided to create specific and customized revenue-building strategies – even as they are being soothed by waves, or entertained by pelicans hunting along the Bay Area’s shores and beaches.

Clients who have taken advantage of this unique service have experienced vast business shifts, such as figuring how to create an extra $100,000 in passive income; how to reach an entirely new market to generate continuous revenue; and how to create a comprehensive branding strategy – all while indulging in some stress-reducing exercise.

“When we expand our environmental horizons our creative forces are stronger, and our resistance to business change is reduced. Thus, more success is possible,” Bliss states.

Participants depart with a recorded action-oriented plan to implement business-building ideas generated during the walks, which take place weekdays-only after work. Costs are reduced during the launch period this summer. Details can be found at: http://www.allisonbliss.com/wordpress/money-on-the-move-creative-strategy-walks/.

Agency Profile: Allison Bliss Consulting

2009 Woman-Owned Business Winner (presented by the Women’s Initiative) Allison Bliss Consulting is a Marketing & Communications Agency for companies requiring an outsourced marketing department, creating branding, strategies and promotional materials that incite business growth. One-on-One Marketing Coaching rescues business owners who are completely bogged down with their day-to-day survival, and often lack the knowledge or perspective needed to reach their target market or earn the revenues they need. Allison Bliss Consulting offers strategic marketing planning and resources such as websites, social media, website optimization, promotional materials, connections, sales training and total support. Contact Allison Bliss Consulting at (510) 879-7600. For updated news, special offers or resources, see the agency’s blog at: http://www.allisonbliss.com/wordpress/.

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It seems so unfair that the preponderance of news about Oakland is so awful, crime-ridden or disparaging. My friends, family and even some clients have a bit of trepidation about visiting our new lovely office in this so-unfairly-unappreciated town.

In an attempt to bring equity to our fair city, I wanted to show off some of the ways I find Oakland so beautiful. And I want to hear about your favorite places,events, hangouts or wonders of Oakland, too. (Either email them to me to post at abliss@allisonbliss.com or post your written comments below).

7/23/10: went for just a one hour morning walk around Piedmont district

organic market outside Kaiser

Loved that Kaiser, true to it’s clever branding allows an organic (tiny, but lovely) farmers market outside it’s hospital.

alley off Piedmont

Look at this darling greenery-lined alley off Piedmont Ave. Doesn’t it entice you down the path?

There are adorable tea shops along the shopping district

some strikingly colorful floral shops,

And some horrifying fashion, making me smile

fenton's

Oaklanders take pride in their famed ice-creamery, “Fenton’s”. I wonder why it’s so good?

window boxes

there are gorgeous neighborhoods, lovely homes with spectacular window boxes, and . . .

much more I’ll post later! Keep an eye out. Send me your faves!

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7/24/10: thanks to the brilliant photographer slash Director of Photography, Rick Wise, for these gorgeous shots of the beautiful Lakeside farmer’s market.

DO HIGHER REWARDS BRING GREATER PRODUCTIVITY?

Thanks to my genius organizational mentor and client, Gary Muszynski of One World Music for tipping me off to this great video on rewards and productivity.

This information fuels my passion for defining how our environment serves (or limits) our marketing and thus our ability to make money.

WHEN ENVIRONMENT AFFECTS MARKETING

While some people can work in a tiny cave surrounded with piles of paper, the rest of us get heart palpitations working like that. A professional organizer once told me those ‘messy people’ are the visual workers who feel that if their papers are out of sight, they’re out of mind.

Then, there are others of us who need a pristine workplace just to think clearly. Maybe it’s because we like to free our mind to float into creative tangents so need our space organized to keep us, well, grounded.

Why is it that our marketing and our businesses are so affected by our environment?

In fact, the study of architecture is all about environment and space,and  it’s psychological affect on humans in various functions from homes to workplaces.Gothic cathedrals, for example, were designed to have darkness on the ground floor and light spilling in from the clerestory windows high above to pull your attention and ‘elevate your spiritual thinking’ towards the heavens.

Psychologically similarly, if we’re not comfortable in our work environment, our likelihood of earning larger revenues or profits – or being most productive in the workplace diminishes greatly.

ARCHITECT’S INSIGHT ON PRODUCTIVITY AT WORK

I interviewed Suzan Swabacker, an architect with Aurora Designs about this who further explained that in workplace environments older workers generally like their privacy rather than cubicles where someone is watching over their shoulder. Countering that, younger workers seek fun at work. Think: Google or Pixar’s game rooms, or Clif Bar’s climbing walls.

Perhaps it’s building fun into their work so it’s a place where employees want to stay, or maybe the comraderie-building aspect of having games-at-work, but whatever the reason, that’s what forward-thinking architects are noticing when it comes to peak productivity.[Suzan had many more useful insights which I'll share in future articles on this topic].

A FEW TIPS FOR A PRODUCTIVITY-ENHANCING SPACE

I noticed long ago that a home office was a far more productive place for me than a sterile, cat-free space. I can work at 3am or 9am, depending on when I’m most productive. I get more done when not spending hours on office politics. I light cinnamon incense when I need an energy boost. My friend Pat Sullivan who runs the Spirit at Work Resource Center taught me to build a shrine on my desk to remind me of my deeper values at work.

What techniques do you use? I’m creating a list and want your ideas! I’ll credit you if you wish, too.

To make more money, create an environment conducive to productivity. Simple, right?

AN EASY ANSWER

To me, the penultimate productive environment is outside when you’re moving. I’ve noticed that when I have a client with a marketing dilemma based on resisting a needed change in marketing (oh boy, we all resist some parts of our marketing! Any bazillionaire will confirm that!), then removing ourselves from our normal environment and taking a walk stimulates our endorphins and creative breakthroughs.

WHAT YOU CAN SOLVE

While moving, we can propel ourselves to shift gears and open to the possibilities of:

• new branding that could radically help our company, or
• learning to conduct outreach to more lucrative markets, or
• imagining and talking through development of hundreds of thousands of dollars in passive income products, or
• calibrating instructions for employees so everyone is more satisfied, or much more.

I’ve combined studies of feng shui, architecture, interior design and successful entrepreneurial businesses into a dynamic and motivating presentation which looks underneath our marketing to find the roots of what is holding us back from top earnings, along with techniques to solve these issues.

WHAT ORGANIZATION WOULD BENEFIT FROM THIS PRESENTATION?

If you belong to an organization who would benefit from this presentation, let me know. I’m thrilled to share this with worthy people who work hard but just aren’t getting the results they should.

And if you want to experience one of our “Creative Strategy Walks”, just email our marketing line to set a date and time for your own breakthrough experience: abliss@allisonbliss.com. We can be reached at: 510-879-7600.

For fun, I’m bringing you an update from a “trendwatching” report I follow to stay current for clients:

June 2010 | Long gone are the days when ‘online’ was synonymous with social isolation and loneliness. In fact, we’re now witnessing the exact opposite: technology is driving people to connect and meet up en masse with others, in the ‘real world’. It makes for an interesting, easily-digested trend, begging to be turned into new services for your customers.

As predicted by digital gurus more than a decade ago, hundreds of millions of people are now living large parts of their lives online (and lovin’ it!). However, this has not turned entire generations into homebound, anti-social zombies (another popular forecast). Au contraire: social media and mobile communications are fueling a MASS MINGLING that defies every cliché about diminished human interaction in our ‘online era’.

So (for now), forget a future in which the majority of consumers lose themselves in virtual worlds, with cities dying and kids never seeing the light of day; expect people to mingle and meet up like there’s no tomorrow. A definition:

MASS MINGLING | Thanks to the online revolution, hundreds of millions are now actively searching for, finding, connecting/signaling, and staying in touch with likeminded souls in the virtual world. Constant updates, GPS and mobile online access is now bringing this explosion of dating, networking, socializing and mingling to the real world domain.

Here’s what driving this trend, in more detail (If you have all day to read the entire ‘trendwatching‘ report, take a look here:) http://trendwatching.com/trends/massmingling/.

People love to connect:

If you’re ready to jump aboard the mass mingling train, but don’t know how to get started, we created a social media tool just for this purpose: http://www.allisonbliss.com/services.htm#socialmedia

If you find this marketing trend briefing useful to your business, I invite you to subscribe to this blog and we’ll keep you posted on items we think are actually worth your time. Look at top right of page for subscribe button:

“Subscribe by Mail”

If you need marketing services, we’re standing by to help you! After all, knowledge is bliss!