Most people incorporate testimonials into their marketing efforts. They can be one of your more powerful influence tools or they can be completely ineffective. The psychological key is similarity—here’s how: 1) The person who wrote it is similar to your target audience. One of the first things that people think when the read testimonials is how much the person who wrote it is like themselves. If I see a testimonial from someone who runs a manufacturing business, I will wonder how much the service provider could help me a speaker and consultant. Include as much information about the person who... Continue reading

1. Relate yourself to other things. Our memory systems are like filing cabinets. Get into existing files by relating to other things. For example, a financial advisor may say to someone, “You know how a car goes dramatically down in value the minute it drives off a dealer’s lot? I help people figure out when it’s smart to buy a new versus used car and all those other important financial decisions we need to make.” 2. Help people associate your services with themselves. We best remember those things that remind us of ourselves. The area in which you relate to... Continue reading

Although this post targets writers and aspiring writers, the advice can be applied to plenty of other business situations. 1. Treat everyone well at every step along the publishing path. That includes your beta readers, agents and their assistants, editors, publicists, and anyone else you encounter along the way. How well you write is important, but I genuinely believe professionalism is nearly as important. If you’re arrogant, entitled, unreliable, mean, petty, or refuse to be a team player, nobody is going to want to work with you. There’s a reason most authors’ Acknowledgements page is lengthy – they didn’t reach... Continue reading

Most of us have a pretty good idea of who we can trust and who we can’t. We choose to do business with those who we can trust. We may have times when we are misguided by a profitable opportunity and choose to do business with someone we’re not sure if we can trust, and this usually turns out badly. On the flip side, when people evaluate YOU to decide whether you are trustworthy, what do they think about? Here are the top trust factors to be sure that you are doing each: 1) Keep people in the loop. It’s... Continue reading

One of the challenges I hear most often from business owners is, I have no time to do the marketing I know I need to be doing.” So, I asked time management expert, Claudine Motto of Vistal Norte, to share some of her tips on making time for marketing. Enjoy the guest blog post! Larina **************************************** There is never enough time for busy entrepreneurs to do everything that needs to be done. But "no time" can easily become the default answer to everything we say we want to do but never seem to get around to doing. The truth is... Continue reading

Several of my marketing clients have told me that they detest networking. They tell me that they are introverted and don’t enjoy or feel comfortable entering a room full of strangers and trying to “work the room.” And the worst part about it? Self-promotion. When people are on the shy side, the least comfortable thing to do is to talk about is themselves. You do well speaking with people one on one and asking questions but when it comes to promoting yourself or your business, your discomfort rises. As a side note, this is not necessarily limited to those who... Continue reading

One of the most powerful laws of social influence is authority. We cannot help but to listen to people in roles of authority. In fact, authority is one of the most powerful building blocks of business relationships. We want to be associated with authority figures. We admire them and respect them. Being an authority can lead to people referring to you, media quoting you, and new clients hiring you. The key is to find the best relationship between being an authority figure and being likeable, approachable, and interested in others. Depending on your goal, you may favor one side of... Continue reading

I love color. It is one of my favorite parts of marketing psychology. I went to art school back in high school and studied art along with psychology and business in college. Today I paint for fun, but use color theory on a daily basis as I make my own marketing decisions and help my clients with their branding and marketing communications. I'd like to share how to think about the nuances of color to be sure you convey the message that you want in your marketing. How Colors Make People Feel The most important role that color serves in... Continue reading

Let’s face it: Effectively using social media is a substantial commitment of time, energy, and effort. The way to make your social media marketing pay off (with less time, energy, and effort) is to match your strategy with your personality. This will help you: 1) Use social media more regularly. We tend to do the things that feel like a good fit and avoid those that don’t. 2) Use social media more effectively. You’ll focus your efforts on the ways that you communicate best. 3) Use social media more powerfully. Your tweets, posts, comments, connections, etc., will have greater impact.... Continue reading

- 96 respondents, mostly in U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia; 72% service professoinals in growth phase of business - Primary areas of interest: getting referrals, gaining expert status, social networking - Most in need of expert advice, networking - Least in need of in-person conferences, technical assistance (not me! ;) - Most strongly identified with achieving as much as possible, being profitable, and making a difference Thanks to all who completed the survey! Continue reading

Your business makes the world a better place. You offer a valuable product or service that helps people make their lives easier, happier, richer, more fulfilling. What if your marketing did the same thing? What if the marketing itself improved lives? Do you think you’d approach it differently? Have more energy and excitement around it? For most people, marketing is a necessary evil. It’s something we must do to build our business or get new clients. We’d rather be doing the work of our business and helping clients than to spend our time marketing. What if, however, we shifted and... Continue reading

We know how powerful brands and social media both are. But why is this the case? Here's an interesting theory... Researcher Elizabeth C. Hirschman of Rutgers University School of Business theorizes that it's because of our evolution. As humans we have evolved to: 1) See ourselves as part of a group with a unique history. 2) Reach out to others who have the same values and traits as we do. 3) Create an identity within a branded community. Think about it, it's survival of the fittest: Those with the strongest community are likely to survive. I never really thought of... Continue reading

A couple of years ago I served as a Communications Coach on MTV's hit show MADE, on an episode called Braniac. If you've never seen that show, it is a makeover-type show where a teenager selects a major life goal and gets coaching to achieve it. I think it sends a positive message and I recommend it to parents and teens. I'm concerned, however, about the impact of some of their newer shows. Let me explain... As business owners, marketers, and people who seek to positively influence others we have several tools of persuasion at our disposal. These tools are... Continue reading

If you're a women who owns a business (even if it's brand new), we'd greatly appreciate your input. Please complete this 5 minute survey and you'll receive the 60-minute information-packed audio interview with marketing guru David Meerman Scott, author of the bestselling book The New Rules of Marketing and PR. David generously conducted this interview with me just before the release of his book World Wide Rave. I just ordered and am dying to read his new book Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead. In this audio interview, you'll find inspiring, helpful ideas on: What has changed in the world... Continue reading

Is there are marketing activity that you avoid, but inside you secretly know that doing so would be the best thing you could do? For many of us, the dreaded, avoided marketing activity is public speaking. If you serve clients and your goal is to attract more clients, then I highly suggest you keep reading... I have never given a live talk and not gotten one or more clients from it. And I am far from the best public speaker. So, why is public speaking such a powerful way to get new clients? There are a few reasons: 1) As... Continue reading

I've sometimes gotten stuck on the most basic of things. When I don't know how to do something I tend to put it off. Maybe this is because we don't want to feel dumb (even to ourselves) or are afraid of technology. Or sometimes we think it will be expensive and we'll need to hire people. I've been influenced by all of these things. Many people are already recording and sharing their messages in audio and video. If you aren't ask yourself if you're like me and got stuck with the how-tos. If so, keep reading... The best way to... Continue reading

The other day I was speaking with a client who had an exciting opportunity: She was going to meet a major player in her field who could be a fantastic referral source for her business. The problem: This person could see her as competition. "I spent 2 hours thinking about how this meeting could go. I don't want her to feel like I'm taking away her business or that I'm competition. I really respect what she does and don't want to be offensive..." she told me. "I'm sorry to say this," I said, but what you need to do is... Continue reading

Are You Forgettable? How to Make Your Business Memorable It’s our greatest fear: We put a lot of effort into our marketing—we create an awesome website, go to networking events, write a blog, and so on--- but people seem to forget about us. Why does this happen? There are two reasons. The first is that you did not get into their memory in the first place.How do you get into memory? Well, one important way, which also happens to be the name of my ezine is to Stand Out. In psychology this concept is known as The Von Restorff Effect,... Continue reading

Your time is very limited. You don’t have hours each day to invest in posting updates in social media, reading dozens of emails in the list-serves that you’re on, writing articles and blog posts, and all the other things that you know you probably should do—if only you had the time. So, what do you do? It really depends on your current goal. The key is to invest your limited time in the marketing activities that are likely to help you reach your specific goal in the shortest amount of time. Here are some of the goals I’ve recently helped... Continue reading

I am a strong believe of the "most things in moderation" lifestyle. Generally my days have a great balance of time with clients plus time researching and writing, healthy nutritious foods plus favorite "treat" foods (usually ice cream), sitting plus exercising and running around... But for some reason I seem to tweet in binges. When I have Twitter on the mind, I constantly think of tweets, to the point that it's sometimes distracting because I'm trying to do other things. When I don't have Twitter on the mind, I don't tweet for weeks. Why? Any ideas? Any suggestions for what... Continue reading

Authors and Aspring Authors: Mark Your Calendars Now... On Tuesday May 4th at 1pm ESTI will interview Mark, author of Accidental Genius—Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content, former NYT writer, author of 5 books with major publishers, and former sales director (who sold over 1 billion dollars of books) for a wholesaler, on how to come up with a winning book idea. In addition to hearing my interview questions (I'm working on my next book idea, so I'll be asking a lot of specific questions), we'll have open conversation and answer questions from those on the... Continue reading

Most service professionals are attracted to the idea of creating an information product or a series of them. I consider information products things like books, ebooks, videos, audios, teleseminar recordings and transcripts, and other creative ways to produce your ideas so many people can access them. Information products are a great way to: Share your ideas with more people Help those who can’t afford to hire you Earn an additional stream of income Establish your credibility Free up your schedule so it isn’t booked solid each day People often call information products “passive income streams,” a term I dislike because... Continue reading

If your dream is to be a published author, I would be honored to help you. I’m teaming up with my own book coach, book positioning and writing genius Mark Levy, to offer a live workshop on June 4th in Philadelphia “How to Write a Book People Will Buy.” http://platformbuildingsecrets.com/bookworkshop You know me so let me tell you a bit about Mark in case you don’t know him yet. Here’s what some people who know a thing or two about marketing have said about Mark: “Mark is a genius…He see solutions where most people simply see walls...He’s a walking, talking,... Continue reading

Take this brief assessment to find out if you are currently attracting your ideal client. Answer with Yes or No…1) I can describe exactly who I work with in one sentence. 2) My description of my ideal clients gets at psychographics (motivations, drives, problems) rather than just demographics (age, geography, occupation). 3) When I tell people who my clients are, they say that is them or they know someone who it is. 4) My clients do not balk at my fees—or if they do, they say that I’m worth it and hire me anyway. 5) I get energized by working... Continue reading