Fountains of Marketing

From a visual and aesthetic view, a fountain possesses grace, beauty and artistic appeal.
Viewing your business as a fountain implies you are all over the place without any specific focus. First you go this direction and then reverse ninety degrees. Even though there are many different approaches to the same business, attempting to pursue each separate direction simultaneously spells disaster. Successful business ventures require focus.

Apply this concept to marketing your business. Dabbling in pay per click, Google or Yahoo becomes a fast way to spend tremendous amounts of money. Google advertising requires concentrated analysis and focus. Your keywords must match the copy in your ad as well as the web site to which they lead. Most internet patrons possess a lightening quick “delete” button as well as a “rapid fire” back button reflex. Unless you are leading the clicker in precisely the path they desire and expect you are instantly history. You are ejected faster than an umpire ousting an argumentative player from a ball game. “You’re outta here.”

Not only does the internet patron reject you, but so does Google. Google changes their algorithms every four to six weeks. Since the FTC landed solidly on Google’s case in about October of 2008, they have been warning web site owners on a regular basis. This “slapping” procedure by Google has intensified to epic proportions throughout 2009. Unless the keywords tie perfectly to the ad and to the web site, Google unceremoniously ejects the web site. A slap is minor; Google simply suspends web sites now. No appeal, no discussion, no traffic, you are gone.

The multidirectional fountain approach may have worked in early 2008 and previously, but not any more. Keep it tight and consistent or forget it, you are off of Google.

Take a hint from Google; they are teaching a solid lesson. Learn one form of marketing. Become an absolute consummate expert at pay per click and give the internet searcher exactly what they desire and expect to see. Follow exactly the same theme from beginning to end. Google is sophisticated and precise. The learning curve becomes more extensive and more expensive for Google because you are aiming your marketing arrows at a moving target. Dabbling with Google becomes a rapid way to lose money. Learn it or don’t do it. Dabbling in Google is like dating a harem; sooner or later you are in big trouble.

Google represents only one form of marketing. If you currently have a less generous marketing budget, consider articles, blogs, press releases, social network sites and video. Once again each of these requires focus. Spreading your time, energy and marketing dollars by dabbling in several forms of marketing simultaneously yields more expense and frustration than positive results.

Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Linked In, Direct Matches, Digg, Delicious and Squidoo are only a few of the plethora of social networking websites. Each of his has their own special niche. Each requires a slightly different technique in order to maximize the potential. The one element in common is that they are social networking sites. Attempting to approach them as a bull in a crystal factory and immediately hammer people with your business opportunity will also trigger the rapid fire back button or the lightening strike of the “delete” button. They are social sites. Once a rapport has been established and interest generated, mentioning your business opportunity becomes acceptable and perhaps even welcomed. Skill and patience are necessities with social sites. Another good news aspect of social sites is the low to zero cost.

Google and Web 2.0, social networking sites, present opposite ends of the expense spectrum. Just like the fountain sprays water in 180 or 360 degrees, so marketing falls into each stream of the display. The secret is to pick one stream and perfect your skill before moving on to another stream of water from the fountain. Focus and concentrate.

Fountains represent lovely visual appeal but utilizing that approach as a new marketer yields financial disaster.

For additional tips on marketing and specific focus on each method, join me at www.Elaine4Success.com.

Success is Failing Forward

In John C. Maxwell’s book “Failing Forward” he dispels the myth that failure is a bad thing. The man who has never made a mistake is taking orders from the one who made several mistakes. Sometimes what appears to be a failure at the moment is simply success trying to be born in a bigger and better way. When I have failed, and yes I have many failures, it generally meant that I was not thinking big enough. I simply needed to tweak my thinking and action.

There is the story of a man who made a fortune in oil by going back to wells others had abandoned and drilling just a little deeper. There is the story of a man who stopped just three feet short of one of the biggest gold mines ever discovered. Edison, one of the world’s greatest inventors, successfully identified 10,000 ways that the electric light bulb would NOT work before he discovered the one that did work.

Major league baseball players expect to be out every two out of three or three out of four times at bat. Pro football quarterbacks know that some passes will be dropped or intercepted or even caught out of bounds, but they don’t stop throwing. The pass that results in a first down or a touchdown makes up for the ones that were not successful.

In my own home based business I have reinvented my strategy many times. Not every Google campaign worked. Not every web page design attracted leads. Not every print ad resulted in sales. Did I stop marketing and give up? Absolutely not. When my pay per click campaigns with Google were costing more than the sales they were generating, did I say Google does not work? Of course not. I decided to change my landing page, change my ad or change my keywords. Sometimes I changed all three. The secret there is to only change one at a time. Otherwise you will not know which change made the profitable difference.

When Google changed their rules, and they do change their rules ever four to six weeks, I added article writing to my marketing arsenal.

I am a hiker. Sometimes when I am making a long climb and my legs are complaining, do I turn around and quit? No because I know I am closer to the top than I think. We have a winding road in Steamboat which we lovingly call the “run of the false summit.” Every time we come around a corner, we think this must be the top. Unfortunately, there is another switchback and then another before the top. It is not a point to stop, but a reminder to keep pushing forward just a little longer.

Remember, whether you are an inventor, a major league ball player, a hiker, a runner, or a marketer, one monumental success makes up for several temporary setbacks. The key is always to learn from your failures. When you use mistakes or failures as learning and growing experience rather than a defeat, you actually progress forward.

Notice I said learn from each temporary setback. When you view them as learning experiences on your way to small successes, and even greater success, the temporary defeat does not faze you. Or at least not for long. When you view every experience as a learning experience, it becomes a college classroom on life. When you view a failure as a failure, it becomes a failure.

Sports, business and even our personal life presents us with challenges. Some of those challenges become victories and some become learning experiences. It all depends on your attitude and how you view your present and your future.

My college professor told me something I have never forgotten. Even though that was 40 years ago, the message is still valid today. “You can have ten years experience or one year’s experience ten times.” Use every situation as a learning experience and you will have ten years experience.

The attitude of a winner, the attitude of a professional, is to continually learn and grow. Developing a learning mindset rather than a failure mindset will propel you through life in an upward spiral toward success. Any other choice but learning and growing and you will defeat yourself. Do an attitude check on yourself right now. Are you failing forward toward success?

Come visit me at Elaine4Success.com and together we will propel you toward success.