bwagy

A great quote on the first couple of pages:

“business models are, at heart, stories that explain how enterprises work”

And isn’t that so true? Business models: a (hopefully) compelling & engaging story of how your business functions.

[They go on to say, strategy, is how you deal with competition].

Great book – pick it up if you can.

Great question Duncan asked me the other day, it’s a nice way of putting it, and answers the why, why we exist, why we do what we do.

As Simon Sinek discusses below, why we (as an organisation) do something is often underlooked, and those that understand why they do something perform magnitudes times those that don’t.

Give Duncan’s post If You Were a Charity What Would You Do? a read and watch Simon’s video below.

Given the huge amount of fun I had last time with Pay What You Want Marketing Advice  I have decided to bring it back for good.

Why did I do it as an experiment? To limit my downside of course.  As I found there was no downside, it was all a challenge and hugely fun.  So now it’s back…

For those who are new the gist is:

You email me with your problems, questions, questions on strategy.

Anything Internet Marketing related.

Who is this suited for? Any kind of business, maybe your a small business who hasn’t ventured online, a tourism business, owner operator, b2b, b2c….

You probably have made cuts of your marketing expenditure.

And so you should if it has questionable returns.

BUT with internet marketing you can measure your returns. Down to the dollar.

If you know how.

So to help clear misreprentations about it and encourage spending in internet marketing I am doing this.

The catch? Well the catch is I ask you to pay me what you think my information to help you out is worth to you. If its worth nothing pay nothing, if its worth $250 pay that. Up to you, no pressure, my aim is to help you.

I just want to repeat that, my aim is to help you!

Basically you email me ben@bwagy.com with the subject line ‘pay what you want’, I give you a hand, you pay me what you think it’s worth via paypal.  It is probably the best way to get advice from me without committing to a contract.

Please note a few things:

1) Give me some background information about your company, clients (in the email).  I can clear up to several thousand emails in a busy week so if you have all the information in the email helps me out (vs a web address for more info).

2) If I help you, could you post feedback in the comments below (good or bad, mostly good Im sure)

3) Forward to friends this post to help them out.

Some guidelines for internet entrepreneurs developing their early stage marketing strategy:

• SEO is about branding, it takes time, it does pay off, but don’t expect overnight success.  Expect months of hard work to recreate the apparent look of overnight success.
• PPC is great if you can sustain it.  Often you are developing or creating a segment of which it is hard to get a return on this initially.  If you are in the rare stance of breaking even or making a profit (whilst in startup mode) go horizontal, invest in MSN, in Yahoo.  Get their lower competition marketplaces to help you drive profit.
• Viral tactics are just as the term describes, tactics.  They help provide a short term boost, or add the icing to the cake.  Realise this and use it to your advantage.  Solid business growth still comes from delivering insane value to your customers and looking after them.
• Marketing results always take double the amount of time that you predicted, it takes time to refine your strategy, make the technological changes, talk to all developed parties.  However picking up the phone and calling your existing clients can be done today.
• Focus on building brand name searches, measure the numbers of visit by your brand, focus on pushing that.  No one can compete when people are motivated to look for you.
• Do not skimp on metrics, use Google Analytics, capture all that you can (helps for future analysis) but focus on the key metrics that drive your business today.  Match them to business objectives and real dollars in the hand. 
• Blogging will be your #1 Marketing Tool if you use it wisely, so only blog if you’re going to do a good job of it.
• Communities are fantastic but like blogging require a lot of work, if you are time poor this may not be your best approach.  It is better to not do it at all than do it miserably.
• The best people you can hire (if you need hire at all) come from referrals, they don’t need splashy websites to sell themselves, their clients sell them.
• Free is good, creating a product that people marvel you charge so low for it is better.  Case in point Basecamp.
• Stick to your strategy, it will naturally evolve over time but if you quit because you don’t get instant results you are following the path to mediocrity.
• ALWAYS (and I mean ALWAYS) question those that provide marketing advice, it helps you understand their thinking and helps them learn about you.
• Once you have your strategy get onto it, there are a thousand ways to skin a cat, focus on yours.  Marketing fads come and go.

And finally….Stop procrastinating and start now!  Many entrepreneurs know what they need to do, they just don’t do it, like this blog I just do it, not spend all my time talking ….

Viral activities are a dime a dozen.  Everyone giving it a go.  And that is great because they longer they keep at it the better they will get.

Often you will see a somewhat lame initiative go viral, or at least succeed in your perspective, you think hey i had a better idea.

But guess what?

They have much more momentum.  When Nike or Skittles does something cool, it is more likely to spread due to their momentum.

If I announce a project it has a higher chance of spreading than a blogger just starting out even if it is the same initiative.

Viral success = Momentum + Remarkability

If you don’t have momentum you need to really push the remarkability side.  You need to be doubly, triply, quadruply remarkable.

So don’t be disheartened if you haven’t had success the first time, keep giving it a go and remember the formula.

Over the last few days I have updated my Blogging Strategy.

With everything in life I research before leaping in.  I have been blogging off/on since 2003 so had the experience but I sought the ‘success factors’.

This updated revision covers what I have found by strategically looking at successful blogs and from my own learnings.

Sun Tzu said it best:

“All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.”

I have drawn all the tactics used by myself and other successful bloggers into a comprehensive plan of action.

Follow the 25 Ideas in this Blogging Strategy and you will conquer.

How much would this be worth to you? Well at only $2/idea I am selling it for $47 USD.

(Ok my maths sucks its actually $1.88 an idea)

Let’s say you waste 2 hours a week for the next month as you fumble your way through.  At $20/hour thats $160 wasted.  You could have bought the book three times over!

My challenge to you is to take just five ideas from this book implement them and you will recoup the investment (and compound it) month after month.

Just so your not going hang on Ben what about a freebie? You can get the first 10 Ideas here for free (and have been able to for 6 months or so).

As I really appreciate you all, my loyal readers, I will offer this for only $25 USD (approx 47% off) for 48 hours only.  After that it will revert back to the normal price of $47.

 Update: this has now finished and is available at the standard price.

You can purchase below by clicking the buy now button.  You will receive your copy from me personally via the email you specify.  

Why not buy a couple of licences? Send a copy to your top clients.  Help them help you.  

Simply select a different option from the drop down box.  Contact me ben@bwagy.com to purchase a higher number of licences. 

If you don’t think this is for you, thats ok, but if I’ve helped you with any of my blog posts a few retweets, trackbacks or helping me spread the word is much appreciated.

Update: Oh before I forget as is my new years resolution 10% of proceeds will go through to my Kiva account to help provide micro loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Are you planning ahead? or trying to build / create something new?

Quite often during this process.  I will say stop.

Take a step back.

Take an overview.

What happens next? What are the next steps?

Are we doing the best thing to make that happen? yes / no?

How can we make sure Step 1, sets up Step 2 and 3 (all in light of the bigger picture).

For example, I am doing a joint venture to do a series of workshops.

We wanted our selling point, so I took a step back and said, What is the conversation that’s going on in our target’s mind?

What are they going to say to their boss that makes them say yes I will pay for that.

Stop. Take a step back.  Think two steps forward.