Sharing Marketing Tips, Resources and ideas is what business is all about and what this blog strives to offer.

In this blog by expert Marketing Coach & Consultant, Allison Bliss (www.allisonbliss.com), you’ll find articles to help you understand marketing:

• what works and what doesn’t,
• ideas to create ads that work,
• resources that save time & money,
• publicity tips;
• some do’s and don’t's,
• plus how to find help from a Marketing Coach or with our agency’s Marketing Services to help every aspect of marketing your business.

We are all learning in this adventure called “life” so please share your opinions, experiences, frustrations, successes and knowledge with our readers. After all, ignorance is expensive, but “Knowledge is Bliss.”

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.

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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!

_______________

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.

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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.

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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!

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As a successful, hard-working entrepreneur, you’re tasked every day with making smart decisions that pay off and get the job done.  In order to this, we know that using the BEST business tools can skyrocket your productivity, save you time, money, and help avoid hassles and headaches down the road.

That’s why we’ve put together this list of our favorite resources that will help you grow your business:

1. Our Blog: We update our blog often with specific and useful information for entrepreneurs – from how to get more clients through “vertical marketing,” to truths and tips on using social media for swift results!  This blog has relevant and timely information at no cost to you.  If you haven’t already done so, subscribe today and start receiving tips for working smarter and boosting your income.

See how our readers are getting results! Recently we conducted an experiment with one of our blog posts and invited readers to ‘ask for what you want to find if you’ll get results in one week.‘  By leaving comments and engaging in a ‘conversation,’ fellow entrepreneurs asked for leads, shared new resources and generously gave ideas for helping one another grow their businesses.  The response was astounding!  In just one week, 50% of the participants got what they asked for.  Check out Results In One Week!

2. Sending Emails to a Large List? You cannot send emails to hundreds of people through Outlook or they will be tagged as ‘sp^m’ by your recipient’s server, which would be a very bad thing.  Vertical Response is a low-cost, pay-as-you-go program that allows you to send large quantities of email without getting tagged as a sp^mmer.  And, get this, it only costs about $30 to email 1,000 people.  Now that’s leverage!

This powerful email tool also allows you to send your ‘designed’ e-newsletters.  Or you can just broadcast a plain, text-only email message to your entire lead list.  As a smart communications tool, Vertical Response will help you manage your email marketing efforts with ease and efficiency; giving you reports on the crucial aspects of email marketing: delivery rate, open rate, click-through rate, & unsubscribers. This valuable data helps you improve your marketing in the short and long term.

To get a step-by-step process for creating email campaigns that work, get our special report: 11 STEPS TO BUILD ENEWS CAMPAIGNS | cost: $12.99

3. Need a Website or Internet Marketing Advice? With all the ‘noise’ online, how can you be sure your website will get found?  And once people find you, will they buy from you?  These are the top concerns of every smart entrepreneur.  To ensure you have a website that gets results, we’ll either build you a fully functional and search-optimized site, or conduct a web marketing review of your current site.  Expert advising with a sales and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) evaluation can uncover all kinds of missed opportunities, or recommend small adjustments that can dramatically impact your bottom line.

Recently, we had the opportunity to work on the website of one of our heroes, Chip Conley, of Joie De Vivre Hotels.  If you haven’t read his book, Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow, we highly recommend it.  Check out his Peak Organizations website to learn about their Peak Trainings, and get some inspiration on leading your own organization.

What was their experience with our service?

“Allison Bliss used a combination

4. Filemaker Pro. Like many entrepreneurs, we’re always juggling multiple projects, with multiple deadlines, involving multiple stakeholders who perform multiple tasks — all at the same time! But rather than pulling our hair out and losing sleep, we easily keep track of all those activities using a database called  Filemaker Pro. This robust program allows you to custom tailor project notes, and efficiently track your marketing campaigns and sales activities. And that makes you better at what you do.

There are many database programs to choose from, but we find Filemaker Pro to be the most adaptable for just about any type of company.  To get you up and running quickly with it, we can even train you to use it and add custom marketing fields, too.

6. Creating Breakthroughs. You will not find this marketing tool anywhere else!  We’ve just launched our novel ‘‘Creative Strategic Walks!” service this month. And…It…Works!!

These revelatory (and fun!) sessions literally take entrepreneurs out of the office and out for a walk along the water. Walking together with a marketing strategist to guide the conversation, the exercise and fresh air combine to increase your endorphins, foster more creativity and clarity, and set the stage for breakthrough ideas to emerge.

I’ve noticed over the years that when I’m  outside in an informal setting with clients or colleagues, we’re able to stimulate our imagination and innovative thinking. Some of the most successful ideas we’ve come up with for clients and colleagues have come from these ‘Creative Strategic Walks’.

So, if you’re not earning enough income, not sure why your clients don’t get the value of your offerings, or realize things just aren’t working for you, this just might be that magical answer you’ve been looking for!

7. Do You Need a Blog? When you’re using this medium the smart way, it’s a powerful marketing tool that reaches new prospects, provides value and education to your existing clients, and builds Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefits right into your website.

But technology and content seem to be the biggest concerns among our clients when it comes to incorporating a blog into their marketing plan.  Fortunately, we’re able to eliminate these worries through our Create A Blog Package. We’ll work with you on planning, design, and content, while making sure the technology and training are in place to ensure your success.

And if you want a first class education, inspiration and support for your blogging, I highly recommend my colleague, Cheryl Liquori’s Breakfast Blogging Club’ events. Don’t miss her terrific event coming up June 26th.

8. Article Marketing. Publishing articles online is one of the most effective strategies for marketing your business and sending traffic to your website.  And ezine articles is the best place to start.  Once your article is posted on this popular site, we’ve found that it’s often picked up and posted by numerous other websites as well.

NEW UPDATE 7/9:

9. Doodle.com allows you to schedule with multiple people without having to weed through dozens of emails to coordinate. So easy to use. Creates a form allowing invitees to schedule online, privately. Saves time!

10. Tweetdeck all0ws you to manage twitter- when you’re being searched, track categories, various communications all in one place. use on iphone or ipad, too. Saves time!

When you add an author bio at the end of your article with a link back to your website, you can really begin to improve your web traffic and getting found on Google.  Contact us to get dozens more smart resources for article marketing! Call 510-879-7600 or email to: abliss@allisonbliss.com.

LET US KNOW YOUR FAVORITE RESOURCES BY ADDING A COMMENT TO OUR MARKETING COACHING BLOG (click on ‘comment’ below).

Bookmark this page to find periodic updates. After all, knowledge is bliss!

Need more results from your marketing efforts? We have a full service marketing agency standing by to help you increase revenues with social media, websites, planning, marketing strategy, SEO and more!

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This week I’m featuring an article by top Director of Photography/Editor/Film & Video Expert Rick Wise. I’ve always admired Rick’s vast knowledge, mastery of film & video – both in lighting/shooting, his directorial abilities to know what works and what doesn’t, the ability to guide clients who’ve never worked in this surprisingly complex media through tough choices in editing, and his efficiency getting months of work done in just days. He teaches at the Academy of Art in San Francisco and is writing a book on lighting for film/video. (you’ll see his mastery in the video links at the end). This article summarizes his top tips for using video on your website. THANKS RICK!

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Placing a video on your web site or blog is a great way to introduce prospective clients to you and to your services. When well crafted, videos draw people in to spend time with you. As an added bonus, Google places a lot of value on videos and pushes your site up in its ranking so that a prospective client searching for your service is more likely to find you.

At first blush, making a video about you and your service looks like a simple thing to do. And in the hands of a professional, making a good video can be relatively simple for you. Yes, you can find a friend to slap something together. But to craft a video that both entices the viewer and promotes you and your service in a way that future clients will want to come to you, that’s not likely to happen by itself. After all, if you needed someone to work on your teeth, or paint your house, or give you legal counsel, would you pick just anyone to do the job?

Let’s parse that out a bit more. Here are some of the steps it takes to end up with a winning video:

• Identify what you have that sets you apart from others in your field. This can be a surprising difficult step. A professional such as Allison Bliss will help you enormously with this part of the process.

• Write an outline of points you want to make to support step one. You will likely want to include both testimonials of some of your clients along with a taste of what you do and how you do it.

• Write a script fleshing out the outline.

• Line up the people you want to video along with time and place. If you are shooting outside of your own place, obtain permits to shoot if necessary.

• Line up the video and sound equipment as well as the locations that you will need.

• Shoot the testimonials, perhaps at your place, perhaps elsewhere. To get five minutes of good testimonial footage it takes several hours and sometimes days of shooting. Capturing good clean sound as well as shooting people so they look interesting and inviting is an important part of this step.

• Shoot the sections of the video that show you at your work. Whether you are a dentist, a lawyer, a healer, a florist, or any other profession, there is always a way to make what you do look friendly, inviting, and professional. If you can get what you want by shooting ten times as much footage as you end up using, your are being extremely efficient.

• Find and shoot or obtain the right graphics.

• Edit. This can take multiple days, and many trials and revisions. In many ways, less is more. It is so much better to make a short, compelling video than a long one that bores the viewer. There is always a conflict between the desire to tell your “whole story” and the reality that at this stage no one really wants the whole story. What the viewer wants is a delicious taste of you. All the details will come later in person-to-person meets.

• Find the right music and obtain rights to use it.

• Encode the completed video so that it can be easily seen on your web site.

• Publish to your web site.

All of the above is labor, time, and equipment intensive. And that is why it is eventually going to save you both your time and money to hire a professional to craft this video with and for you.

Here are a few links to some sample videos.

• The first one is a video I edited to promote Gary Muzynski’s team-building service, One World Music, and is based on two-camera shooting at a convention site. Go to http://www.oneworldmusic.com/index.php, and click on the small TV screen to the right. The editing took about seven days with revisions. The shoot itself took a day.
• For a totally different style, a video with no words or “sell,” here’s “Kansas Harvest” that I shot and edited for a client who wanted to sell her farm in Kansas in a very different way: http://rickwisedp.com/RW%20Director/kansas_harvest.htm I shot this video and another one on location in Kansas over four days. I edited both over seven days.
• Finally, here are a couple of commercials I shot for broadcast: “Keds” (http://rickwisedp.com/RW%20Director/keds.htm) and “Box” (http://rickwisedp.com/RW%20Director/box.htm)

http://RickWiseDP.com

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Asking for help is so hard for most people. It’s easy to give but to ask – ah well, we need help with that. So, this week I’m using this blog platform to give my favorite clients & colleagues a place to test out a request for help.

I have confidence that at least one person will have a significant lead or fulfilled need within one week.

Haven’t you seen this past year’s economic depression cripple so many extraordinarily talented people who have radically struggled in their business? Some have lost jobs, homes, relationships, or their health.

Worse, the really worthy business owners have their confidence erode while forgetting the huge value they really offer their clients. We all go through this at some point in our businesses but to have it last for months depletes peoples’ ability to move forward. So, let’s all help each other instead.

This week let’s be insanely generous and share resources, ideas, actual referrals and connections. All of you who are invited have some genius to offer and are worthy of receiving huge rewards from participating. So, please join in.

WHAT TO DO

In the reply below, spell out clearly what you seek. Let us know how to contact you via email or phone. Bookmark this page so you can return every day this week to help someone or find out if your request was answered. Put out some good karma and participate!

HERE’S AN EXAMPLE   (BE VERY SPECIFIC)

Something I’m seeking: entrepreneurs leading organizations who need more clients or more funding who require help from the marketing & communications consulting (saving companies time & cost, bringing tools & resources) or the marketing services we offer: strategy & planning, websites, SEO, blogs, case studies, social media, promo materials or producing other communications. We have the teams to support companies with the ideal size of $1 million to $5 million (staff of 10-20) who haven’t yet hired a marketing director. We also support one person entrepreneurs with our consulting – details on website. Who do you know who needs our help? We can be reached via email: abliss@allisonbliss.com.

YOUR TURN. . .

ENTER YOUR REQUEST, YOUR LEADS OR SOLUTIONS FOR OTHERS IN THE ‘REPLY’ SECTION BELOW.

With hope & belief in your collective genius!

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Guest contributor Dale Marie Golden, VP of Alta Alliance Bank presents her vast experience with women and money. Want to know how she learned tough lessons which, in my opinion, vastly qualifies her to help women with money? Call her: 510-899-7536.

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On the topic of women in business and finance, I found it interesting that when I googled “mistakes women make with money” I found there were thousands of “mistakes women make with men,” “mistakes women make when dating,” and the most common was what “mistakes women make with sex.” Either women don’t make mistakes with money or the priorities are skewed a bit.

I think the number one mistake women make with money is that someone else will take care of it. According to The Female Finance Factor, “62% of women manage the family’s checking account.” However, I find the majority of women are still unclear of how the money is coming in and where it is going.  There is also the magical thinking that you will win the lottery or receive an unexpected inheritance.  However, the biggest flaw is the expectation that a partner or spouse that will carry you through the hard times.

Women on average live six times longer than men. Women many times find themselves with no retirement and facing college age children with elderly parents. Now if  your partner or spouse loses their job or dies many women are completely unprepared for the consequences.

So the number one advice I have for women is to take charge of your finances. Know what is happening on the very basic level of your checking and savings vehicles to the more sophisticated nuances of your investments. Indeed, knowledge is power and there are so many resources, including books,  seminars and the internet.

The number two mistake I think for women is the ability to care for everyone but themselves. Women indeed are the nurturers for their friends and families, yet many times they overlook themselves.

Financially, one of the most empowering things for women to do is to save. Yes, old fashioned saving.  It is crucial that women set up a savings vehicle, rather it be a regular savings, a money market, a short term CD or mutual funds. Depending on your risk tolerance each has the ability to have your money make money rather than sitting in a non-interest bearing checking account.

Saving money is actually easy when done automatically. If you set up auto pay to your savings vehicle  on a monthly basis – you will not even that miss that money.  Emergencies do happen and having some sort of savings plan can keep you from paying unnecessary high interest on a credit card. Also if you are a sole proprietor it is a way to automatically  put money aside for taxes and retirement.

Speaking of credit cards, they are a woman’s worst enemy. I know, because many times they have become my demon.  You pay off your credit cards and then in one fell swoop you charge it up again. It is the quickest way to get into debt and the quickest way to stay in debt.  Men and women tend to spend more when using a credit card, that is proven.

However, the mindset of many women is that they will just do this now because they know that big bonus is coming, or that big account is going to come through or finally that client is going to pay you. The majority of the time the big payoff is not as big as we thought and you are left with a bill you can’t pay off at the end of the month and an interest rate that is climbing astronomically!

If you can’t pay for an item now, wait until you can. If you can pay for it now, it’s fine to use your card and build your credit. If you know you don’t have that self discipline, take it out of your wallet and put it in a drawer now!

The fourth largest mistake is taking advice from a well-meaning friend rather than an expert. This ranges from the type of accounts you have at the bank, the type of mortgage to the type of  stock investment. Everyone can find a personal banker at their own bank.  Even the large banks have personal bankers, you need to ask.

One of the many advantages of a small bank is that the officers of the bank will be far more accessible to you. A personal banker knows what is happening in the community in terms of trends and is a good source for financial advice. You might be able to dabble with some stocks on E-trade, however sometimes you get what you pay for and it is great to have an expert help balance your portfolio.

The fifth mistake is women feel they are out of control with their finances. Many times talking about money becomes overwhelming. The best advice is to empower yourself and take control of your money.

You work hard for your money, don’t let it sit and not work for you.

If you know what you make and what your expenses are you are well on the way to not only budgeting, but taking control of where you can cut expenses, where you can save more and thus in the long run make more. Money can be magical, but it doesn’t necessarily come with magically thinking.

Wishing you well on your journey of managing your money. You deserve it!

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This post is to help my readers, clients and students to get a better understanding of techniques used by large corporations to identify their markets. Here’s a simple explanation of Horizontal & Vertical marketing.

Horizontal Markets

If you use a chart (sample below) to list in across a horizontal chart a possible market niche (or ‘market segment’) that is called your ‘horizontal market’. The sample below shows horizontal markets of ‘Teachers’, ‘Small business owners’, ‘Attorneys’ and ‘Realtors’. If you had a CPA firm that offered special tax law knowledge that benefited these markets, for example,  you could then establish these categories as your horizontal markets:

Teachers  l   Small business owners  l     Attorneys   l         Realtors

Over time, the CPA firm in this example would outreach to all of these categories to develop their clientele. This example presumes the CPA aquired special knowledge to help these market segments because they had an interest in doing so – that’s when marketing becomes blissful: helping those we care about.

Vertical Markets

Using the horizontal layout, we look at narrowing the markets to create niche groups of people underneath each ‘horizontal market’. This niche marketing makes it easier to focus marketing efforts on just a few specific categories of people.

Why is that important?

With limited resources, a growing business hasn’t time or funds to outreach to everyone who might ever use  their offerings, but can develop business more quickly by narrowing their focus. The purpose of targeting a niche market is to get known to that group faster, identify the people who need your product or services, learn about the issues they face so you can better help them, build a relationship to engender the trust for them to purchase your offerings – and then to do a great job helping them! Then word will get around to others in their niche that your firm is the one qualified to help them, so you’ll build business more quickly with those referrals.

As a CPA firm in this example, the valuable offering might be that the firm has special tax training that help teachers plan for retirement, or save taxes because that firm knows some unique write offs for their vertical markets. So, for the horizontal market of “teachers” this example might define these vertical markets:

Teachers

• Local K-6 teachers
• Preschool teachers within 10 miles of your office
• Business training teachers
• Special Ed teachers

Can you see how each ‘vertical’ is a specially defined group of people you can easily target: by renting a list of their names, by conducting internet or twitter research to find them, by networking with PTA’s or school organizations to identify the names and email addresses of your target group? Once you have this specific information, you can start to communicate with them, letting them know your firm’s unique capabilities to help them.

You’ll build your vertical market list for each of your horizontal categories, over time. Depending on your resources, it is generally easier and more cost effective to outreach to your primary targeted market first, and then increase outreach to other ‘verticals’ when you have more staff, time, money or resources to expand.

Here’s an example of a vertical/horizontal plan for a CPA firm:

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