Your flagship product

What's a flagship product?

A flagship product is a product or service that you and your business becomes identified with. It's something that communicates a concept or a solution that people automatically and favorably associate with you.

What a flagship product does is give you and your business instant credibility. When people purchase your flagship product, they are more likely to buy other products and services from you.

A flagship product should have the following characteristics:

What to Do About Social Media Overload, or How to Network Online and Still Have Time to Run Your Business

LinkedIn. Facebook. Twitter. YouTube. MySpace. StumbleUpon.

And the list goes on. With so many options available today, it’s easy to experience social media overload.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m a big fan of social media and how it can help you generate buzz and develop your business. But it can be overwhelming, even addictive for some. With new social sites popping up every day, how do you make the most of the opportunities social media provides and still have time to run your business?

Here’s my advice:

Marketing your business with your mouth

Promote yourself to the masses by becoming an expert speaker at your target market's events.

It's always amazing to me that when I speak at an association meeting, conference or breakout session at a convention, people always come up to me afterwards to inquire about hiring me. It doesn't matter what the audience size is--it always happens.

Which got me thinking: When I make a sales call on a prospect or customer, I'm really making a similar presentation--with one exception: The audience size is one. So speaking in front of any larger audience is basically a mass sales call. And the best part of that is, you're able to make your pitch at one time to an audience made up of dozens or even hundreds of potential customers. >>>

Crunch Time - 8 cheap Marketing Tactics

Your business may be on a budget, but you can still pump up your visibility.

These 8 proven tactics will get you noticed on the cheap.

more ....

Video - Seth godin: sliced bread and other marketing delights

In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to just ignore the ordinary stuff. Marketing guru Seth Godin spells out why, when it comes to getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones.

Instant Fame: How to Pitch Editors and Producers

Instant Fame:
How to Pitch Editors and Producers
to Get Immediate Press Coverage
with Pam Lontos, CSP
Wouldn’t it be great if the media called you every day wanting to quote or interview you? You’d never have to pay for advertising. Your name would be in major outlets tied to your expertise, granting you celebrity status and raising your fees. However, most of us have to work to get anyone interested in what we have to say. So how can you propose yourself as a source without alienating key media players?

Pam Lontos has learned from decades of pitching her clients as valuable resources. She’s discovered what works and what doesn’t work. She knows what will help you get in a producer or editor’s database and what irritates them. Her strategies have helped her clients get not only immediate coverage, but long-term exposure as well.

You will learn:

• how to start the telephone conversation to interest the editor/producer and what will cause them to hang up
• the most common mistake speakers/trainers/consultants/authors make when connecting with the media
• what you need to have researched before you pick up the phone or shoot off the e-mail inquiry
• how to wrap your expertise around breaking news or current events
• how to follow up without being a pest
• what TV and newspapers look for that’s different from magazines

Register or order the CD or MP3 recording. Note: people who register for the teleseminar will get the MP3 recording of the session for free.

Special Report: Marketing Wisdom 2009 - free download

Download Your Complimentary PDF of Real-Life Lessons Learned

This free copy of the Marketing Wisdom 2009 report comes from Sherpa who produce a constnt flow of marketing case-studies and practical know-how. It features a new collection of some of the best real-life lessons learned last year by marketers worldwide.

Click to download your PDF

Thanks to the hundreds of MarketingSherpa readers who contributed stories on email, search, social media and much more for this seventh annual report. The Editorial team pored over those stories to come up with the "best" test results and practical advice at big and small organizations alike.

And a big thank you to Omniture, which is covering the production costs for this report for the fifth year as a service to the marketing community.

That link again.

They do ask one thing with their reuse policy: Please do not cut, edit or otherwise alter the Wisdom Report in any way when you distribute it. Thanks - and enjoy the wisdom you will receive in this Special Report.

47 ways to help you keep your New Year resolutions

2009 promises to be a year of profound change. Millions of people around the world are having a tough time, but periods of dramatic upheaval are also the best time to start or grow a business. Extraordinary times create extraordinary opportunities.

Now we can’t help you lose 20 pounds or learn to play the violin. But if you want to increase your income, spend more time with your family, finally launch your online business, monetize your blog, or just get in better touch with your inner entrepreneur, here are some of the best Copyblogger posts of 2008 to help you do exactly that.

http://adjix.com/i7x

In Your Face! 10 Crazy Marketing Stunts

Say it loud and proud with these funky, spunky, cheap ideas to get noticed.

Marketing is made up of many, many, many things all working to support one another and to touch your customers many times. And yes--I meant to say "many" that many times. Marketing is a process, not an event; you have to think marketing all the time. Read on ...

Stop paying your business expenses

Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of GuerrillaMarketing, has created a report called

“The Guerrilla Balance Sheet”

which claims that businesses can turn their expenses into profit centers.

The idea is that if you profit at everything you do you’ll never run out of cash again…

Jay produced a video at http://www.consultpivotal.com/Afebene.htm

Do you think it’s possible?

The report certainly convinced me some of my biggest business and marketing expenses can be turned into profit centers simply and easily.

In fact, some of it I was almost doing!

This provided the missing piece...

I’ll be able to do a whole lot more marketing now…

So get ready to hear more from me...

Bronwyn Ritchie

PS According to Jay this is a continuation of a trend. It used to cost a lot to send a message to your target market...then came email which was free…and now you can actually profit off your marketing...

See for yourself at http://www.consultpivotal.com/Afebene.htm

Creating a Power-Packed Headline

Every part of your sales message is important. Your opening is crucial.

Your presentation of product benefits ... of proof and credibility elements ... of the offer and premiums ... of your guarantee ... and of your closing "ask-for-the-sale" copy are all critical.

But of all the things you do to produce a sale, nothing equals your headline when it comes to pushing response through the roof. In my 33 years in this business, I've seen great new headlines produce 25%, 35%, even 45% lifts in response and ROI.

Why are heads so important? Two reasons:

Read the whole article

Stop Paying Your Business Expenses?

Jay Conrad Levinson, the father of GuerrillaMarketing, has created a report called

“The Guerrilla Balance Sheet”

which claims that businesses can turn their expenses into profit centers.

The idea is that if you profit at everything you do you’ll never run out of cash again…

Jay produced a video at http://www.consultpivotal.com/Afebene.htm

Do you think it’s possible?

The report certainly convinced me some of my biggest business and marketing expenses can be turned into profit centers simply and easily.

In fact, some of it I was almost doing!

This provided the missing piece...

I’ll be able to do a whole lot more marketing now…

So get ready to hear more from me...

Bronwyn Ritchie

PS According to Jay this is a continuation of a trend. It used to cost a lot to send a message to your target market...then came email which was free…and now you can actually profit off your marketing...

See for yourself at http://www.consultpivotal.com/Afebene.htm

This video has people curious ...

Creating a Power-Packed Headline

By Clayton Makepeace

Every part of your sales message is important. Your opening is crucial. Your presentation of product benefits ... of proof and credibility elements ... of the offer and premiums ... of your guarantee ... and of your closing "ask-for-the-sale" copy are all critical.

But of all the things you do to produce a sale, nothing equals your headline when it comes to pushing response through the roof. In my 33 years in this business, I've seen great new headlines produce 25%, 35%, even 45% lifts in response and ROI.

Why are heads so important? Two reasons:

Read the whole article

Why marketing should make the user manuals!

From Creating Passionate users ......

Why marketing should make the user manuals!

Why do so many companies treat potential users so much better than existing users? Think about it. The brochure is a thing of beauty, while the user manual is a thing of boredom. The brochure gets the big budget while the manual gets the big index. What if we stopped making the docs we give away for free SO much nicer than the ones the user paid for? What if instead of seducing potential users to buy, we seduced existing users to learn?

Read on ...

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