Marketing

http://onespot.wsj.com/law/2011/10/15/b94f8/you-need-a-core-story-for-successful

Business consultant, executive coach, attorney, and author, Alex Nottingham, joined Michael Gerber, author of the E-Myth, and Nick Nanton, Celebrity Attorney, in Las Vegas to share powerful strategies to help personal injury attorneys transform their business. The event was hosted by PILMMA, the Personal Injury Lawyers Marketing & Management Association.

The long awaited time has come for the Ultimate Makeovers application process to begin.

"The secret of business, especially these days, is to focus relentlessly on your unfair advantage - the thing you do that others don't." -- John Rollwagen, executive

This "unfair advantage" is another term for "competitive advantage."

A competitive advantage is something that you and your business excels in. It is not easily copied by competitors and the profit margin is very high.

Examples of a competitive advantage are Microsoft's operating systems, Apple's iPhone, & Google's search engine. Other companies compete, but are light years behind in function and marketing.

Ways to Determine You Unfair Advantage:

1. Ask yourself... [*]

What are my highest value activities?
What can my company do and only my company do if done well will make a real difference?
What is the most valuable use of my company's time?

2. Apply the 80/20 rule:

What are the 20% of activities that provide my company 80% of its results?

Once you locate your competitive advantage, you need to consistently exploit it! Talk about it, have your staff promote it, put it on all your marketing materials, and advertise.

If you do not have or plan to have a website, you are way behind the eightball!

That said, just having a website is no longer enough.

Internet Marketing will become the number #1 marketing method with 10-20 years.  For many, it has already become so.  One of our clients, a cosmetic dentist, was facing very difficult financial problems five years ago.  Within two years of a strong Internet Marketing campaign coupled with strong conversion processes and improved personnel, the company doubled its revenue.  It went from facing bankruptcy to becoming one of the top cosmetic dental practices in the country!

If companies can only take a small portion of the lessens learned from this dental practice, the payoffs can be outstanding.

Here are the 7 Aspects of a Formidable Internet Marketing Campaign:

Social media is the new craze, so is it for real or is it a fad?

Social media is "media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques."  Wikipedia.

Social media is broad.  It includes blogs, microblogging, social networking, and events.  It also includes Wiki sites, multimedia (like YouTube & Picasa), review sites, entertainment, and branding sites.

Some of the most popular sites are Facebook, Twitter, & Myspace.

Whether you like social media or not, it would be wise to take it seriously.  Facebook, for example, has now exceeded "the great" Google as the most visited website on Earth.  Facebook has over 222 million users, which is bigger in population than most countries!

In five years, it is predicted that social media users will eclipse one billion!

The Benefits of Social Media are:

Evolution of Media

Today's customer is becoming more sophisticated and requires additional input to make a decision. Company's must continually evolve to make an impression. Five years ago, just having a website was an advantage. Now, a website is common place.

To stand out, one must take the next step. The next step is to integrate multimedia into their website and marketing campaign. An excellent mechanism to accomplish this objective is an Electronic Press Kit.

The role of websites have changed over time.  Initially, websites were just online brochures created by a web designer once without client interaction.

Now, SUCCESSFUL (those that create more revenue) websites embody the following:

• Extension of business to client
• Ongoing content creation
• Compliment to other forms of marketing
• Integration of Multimedia
• Interactive

Audio Field: 

dynamic-website.mp3

There are countless reasons to retain a consultant.  Here are the top 7:

1. Objectivity. Often, employers and employees get bogged down in the day-to-day operations of their business. Emotions and power struggles naturally occur, which lead to biased decision-making based upon favoritism or fear. Another problem is groupthink. Groupthink is a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critical testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. Since a consultant brings an outside perspective, this allows for critical thinking and effective alternatives.

2. Energy. Work can sap group enthusiasm. Fresh ideas, creative suggestions, and effective facilitation, can recharge negative psychic momentum. Consultants can temporarily or regularly supplement groups with jolts of renewed vigor and spirit.

3. Specialized Skills. No individual, or for that matter consultant, is created equal. Each person has certain unique gifts and competencies. Therefore, one should seek a consultant that has those attributes, which the client is deficient in. Consultants bring to the table, as it were, specialized skill sets, but also general skills outlined by this writing. As the mastermind principle will demonstrate, clients will be able to take advantage of the skills of their consultants as if they were their own.

4. The Mastermind. Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, defines the mastermind as: “The coordination of knowledge and effort two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony.” Mr. Hill continued: “No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be liking to a third mind.” A consultant’s task is to facilitate the mastermind through bringing together his or her specialized skill sets and merging them with the client and the client’s organization. The mastermind relates to principles of synergy and collaboration, which allow for the improved ability to solve more complex issues.

The Internet has become a major forum where customers can search for businesses that fit their interest. In order for a customer to find a business, that business must have a sufficient web exposure.  This is accomplished principally through a company's website.  However, just having a website is not necessarily enough. The search engines seek new/fresh content arranged in ways that most fit a particular search.  Therefore, for companies seeking to improve their web presence, they must improve their relevance among the search engines. One mechanism to improve search engine visibility is to post press releases to one's website and submit copies to various press release websites.  However, it is not the quantity of submissions, but rather the quality of the press release and the press release websites where one is submitting.

I was amazed how quickly the press releases showed up in my search results!  Now, my patients can find me in places my website was not competitive in.

Dr. Mark Scheinberg
Cosmetic Laser Gynecology