Here’s my free 50 minute lesson to start making Social Media (twitter, facebook, linked in) work as part of your overall marketing.

If you want the full Social Media Action Tool, it’s got lots more tips, tools and resources. Have some great ideas of your own? Please share them with us in comments below! Or maybe you have questions or quirks using specific Social Media platforms that you want help figuring out? Let us know and we’ll try to get you an answer.

After all, ignorance is frustrating, but Knowledge is Bliss.

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Thanks to Xplane’s terrific video on Social Media for this information which I believe is changing our ‘world order’ in marketing communications. Here are my ‘clif notes’ but the full video can be seen here: From Xplane: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8&feature=player_embedded#t=30.

Here are my clif notes pullled from this video:

This year advertising is in steep decline:

• print down 18%
• TV down 10%
• radio down 11%
• magazines down 14.8%

the number of unique visitors each month for major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS):

10 million

Meanwhile, digital advertising is growing rapidly:

• cel phone ads are up 18%
• internet ads are up 11%

The number of unique visitors each month on Social Media (YouTube, Facebook and MySpace):

250 million

If you want the full report, watch the video.

WHEN YOU’RE READY TO LEARN HOW TO MAKE THIS WORK:

Take a look at our action tool to show you how to set up social media to attract clients who need you! http://www.allisonbliss.com/services.htm#socialmedia.

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I loved my Joanne Black’s recent article on sales and social media, reminding us that human interaction is more important than bandwidth:

http://www.nomorecoldcalling.com/blog/back-in-the-black-newsletter/why-social-networks-won%E2%80%99t-build-your-business-september-back-in-the-black-newsletter/

We’d like to hear your comments on what your experience is with this?

May this knowledge bring you bliss.

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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.

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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So, you’ve done some great SEO (search engine optimization) to build traffic to your website. (If you haven’t, take a look at the bottom)**

But are you making the sales or growing your clientele? That’s what ‘conversion’ is all about. Converting visitors to take action, to learn more, and to make purchases of your products or services. (for marketing coaching or services from our marketing agency, email us exactly what you need).  But for converting visitors to buyers, here are a few tips we use and some we’ve learned from a few experts this week:

1. Be certain to add Google Analytics to your site so you can measure where your visitors come from, which pages are most popular, which percentage of visitors actually purchase items from you & other critical factors that can be analyzed to convert traffic to sales. Sign up for free at: http://www.google.com/analytics/sign_up.html. If you need our programmer to add this code to your website, just email us a request.

2. Build your Social Network outreach (twitter, facebook, linked in, etc.). It’s free, but you should devote a half hour daily to learn to maximize it’s potency for your business. We’ve a tool to save you dozens of hours by showing you exactly how to set up your social media to make it work for you: http://www.allisonbliss.com/services.htm#socialmedia. Is it worth 50 hours of your time to learn top techniques in social media? If not, you can get this action tool for only $17.

3. Create a blog, free report, ezine, downloadable pdf with instructional info, or free ecourses to test which work best to get your web visitors converting to purchasers?

Why?

If you add up the long term value of a typical client, you may find for small professional service businesses that they’re worth $4,000 over the course of a year.

If you’re only getting 1 out of every 100 web visitors to convert into a client you’re not making your ‘conversion tools’ work hard enough. Let’s say you test different tools (i.e.; a webinar instead of a free report, or ecourse instead of an ezine, for example) and increase your sales to a 3% conversion. You’ve just turned $4,000K into $12,000/yr. (thanks to internet expert & trainer Tom Antion for this lesson!).

4. Build your Affiliate income. Let’s say you’re a writer and I’ve got a great service that benefits your clients or web visitors so they  stand out from the crowd (that’s called “positioning” in marketing parlance). Perhaps you’d want to offer them this “Knowledge is Bliss Positioning Package” of ours for sale on your website – you’d help your clients so that your writing would be even more effective – without guessing at the positioning, too!

For each package sold through your site, you might receive a $200 commission. And best of all you helped your clients at the same time. Win-win, right? And you didn’t even spend 2 minutes doing any work. Ahhh, now you get the picture!

FREE TIP: The top affiliate sales experts recommend that the best affiliates sell ongoing ‘residual or continuous’ sales products – like classes or subscriptions for which people pay large monthly fees. That way, you get continual monthly commission payments. And over time, this adds up! But I suggest you start with products or services you personally recommend and know will help your clients.

So, who could you partner with that has these products on their site that you could be selling? Maybe you work with a transcriptionist who could help your legal clients. Or maybe you sell a series of CDs that train people on dog behavior tips and know a vet who would love to sell your CD’s on their website. Put some brainstorming into it and watch your income grow. Need help with that? Of course you can call us!

FREE TIP: if you need a super inexpensive, easy-to-operate shopping cart to make this work, I recommend this one. And I’m an affiliate so if you sign up through that link, I’ll get a small commission.

**still haven’t done the  SEO to build traffic on your website? Take a look at our 2 packages that help you:
Full service SEO package
Custom Website Review with Recommendations for Marketing Overhaul
What is your favorite income-building tip this month? What have we forgotten to mention that you feel is critically important? Let us know. We’d all like to hear your opinions.

Go forth and prosper: Follow Your Bliss . . .

Allison Bliss Consulting
“Knowledge is Bliss. Ignorance is Expensive.”
Marketing & Communications Agency, Marketing Coach
1514 Gibbons Dr.
Alameda, CA  94501
Phone Number http://510-864-8500

Email mailto://abliss@allisonbliss.com

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As a Marketing Consultant and Coach, I’ve spent about a year trying to figure out if Social Media is worthy or a time-waster.

I’ve spent hundreds of hours learning, testing and tearing my hair out to learn Social Media (twitter, facebook, linked in) and taken workshops from the experts in the field in order to figure out how to make it work in one’s marketing.

Today, I launched an action tool that puts it all together to show you how to make Social Media Work.For about $17 you can learn, too: www.allisonbliss.com/services.
Let me know what you think, or what suggestions you’d like to add. After all, ignorance is expensive, but Knowlege is Bliss.

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Friday, August 8, 2008

Twenty years in business and I still find myself in the ‘entrepreneur’s dilemma’ – I have the time to make changes to my website, but not the money. Or when I have money pouring in, I’ve no time to improve my business.

I might get stuck on this issue and not do anything if I’d not seen it crop up and slap me in the face so many times. I’ve now learned to slap back.

While I put cash in reserves to try to resolve this dilemma, there just always seems to be more need than cash.

So, today I’m starting something new: I’m spending the money on items I need to improve at the same time I’m starting to put ‘out to the universe’ a request for more cash or income. I’ll let you know what works, if anything does.

And I’d love to hear how you handle this, too?

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from my old blog: Friday, July 31, 2009

WHAT IS YOUR EXPERIENCE?
What is your experience on the value of Social Media to your company (linked in, twitter, facebook, etc.)? I’ll share a tally of what I deduce from people’s responses here if you participate. Here are some of my thoughts: http://www.allisonbliss.com/newsletter/connections-and-internet-marketing.htmI’m dying to hear people are actually gaining business, not just branding, from all the time spent on Social Media.

MAGIC MARKETING PILL
We all want a magic pill for our marketing to burst through the roof, but the closest I’ve found so far is super smart, experienced, resourceful, action-based Marketing Coaching. There are those who swear a good website is all you need, or fabulous customer service, or the cutest logo – but that’s not the only answer, and in fact just too narrow-minded.

But if you find that magic pill that works for all businesses, by all means prescribe it for me.  After all, knowledge is bliss – but pills are easier to swallow :0
 UPDATE: we found people were wasting lots of time trying to learn social media, so we created an action tool to help them get on track: www.allisonbliss.com/services

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You can either make social media work for you, or spend days of wasted time trying to figure it out.I chose the latter til I really focussed on it. I used to laugh at all the time people spent tweetting & chirping useless information until I learned how to put those birds to work singing my song.

I’ve already met people doing fascinating work who are considering our agency for outsourced marketing services. And I just found them with a quick intro through ’social’, a the whizzes call ’social media’ channels like Linked in, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Some of my advisors have landed $300,000 projects, and others are building lists of potential clients they can deepen a relationship with to ultimately bring in more business. My personal favorite result of ’social’ was to find old buddies in the film industry and reconnect with them. I’m expecting to bring them some work at some point, too. So, connections are just everything.

Marketing is shifting as I write this and businesses who succeed are learning to create dynamic websites where customers are engaged & responsive. Businesses need connections to survive and that’s what ’social’ is all about.

Even for those of us with huge lists of connections, there is a whole different culture out there for us to reach.

How can you learn this, set up an action plan to get ’social’ in a week and start connecting?Take a look at our action tool on social media.
If there’s something you’re dying to learn, let me know and I’ll include it.

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Thursday, August 6, 2009

Let’s separate fact from fictional hot air about social media. Is it worth the time you invest in it? I get at least 4 invitations daily to learn how so-called experts manipulate SM to gain business, but when pressed find out they don’t actually close sales as a result. So, let’s share some honest experiences to get closer to the truth. May this benefit all of us!Here’s a survey so we can share our experiences (click on comments to reply):
1. What direct benefit has social media (linked in, facebook, twitter, etc.) brought your business?2. Have you generated actual income from your activities?3. Have you made contact with people that have directly benefited your business? If so, how did you benefit?4. How much time do you spend weekly monitoring your social media accounts?

5. What other value does it bring you?

6. What tips have you to share to help others’ experiences?

Here are my personal experiences (to get you started on some answers):
1. direct benefit? have found colleagues from my previous career in film/tv whom I’d lost touch with. Also was referred to some vendors to help my clients.

2. income? not generated income from this. have other marketing/sales programs for that.

3. benefit connections? yes, made contact w/ some who referred vendors to me. didn’t actually hire those vendors, but it helped me indirectly find those I did hire.

4. time? spend less than 1/2 hr. a week on SM (which may account for my lack of direct benefit, personally).

5. none, really. I already have a huge outreach list of those I enjoy, trust, educate or am interested in, so mostly find SM a duplicate effort.

6. tips? I always forget to check my inbox for messages. So, my tip is to email people directly. But those more expert than I tell me 70% of emails through Linked In get responded to vs. a lesser percentage of directly sent emails. Hmmm? Do I believe this? Not sure.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Let’s share our experiences because ignorance is a time suck and “Knowledge is Bliss”! Please be honest rather than pitching your vast SM knowledge and services.

Thanks in advance for your feedback! Allison Bliss

“To Live, Twitter Must Die” http://www.slate.com/id/2225283/pagenum/all/#p2

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