Mr./ Mrs. Business Owner It Is Time To Wake The F UP!!!
I can not tell you how many times I wanted to yell into the phone this week “Wake The F Up”, as I encountered many business people who just don’t seem to understand that everyone calling your business is a potential customer or may know someone who can use their product or services. In one instance I called Myotis Salon and Boutique at 9:30 AM and the gentleman answered the phone I introduced my self asking if I could speak to the person that handles the marketing and community outreach and was told you selling advertising I open at 11 AM you call back then. I found this to be strange as I know from my experiences the best time to discuss advertising and marketing is when you are not open so you can devote your time and attention to the conversation and be fully engaged. Think about it had the gentleman been open to receive or polite he would not be in this blog being used as a bad example of conducting business. He could have said sir I would like to speak with you however I am involved with a another project right now please call me after 11 AM. Remember it is not what you say but how you say it. I ask you do you think I am going to recommend his services to my female colleagues who could benefit from his services. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Mr./ Mrs. Business Owner It Is Time To Wake The F UP!
Advertisement Ideas:Your Business Doesn’t Have To Be Slow!
As I sell advertising for La Bonita Kidz and Teenz, www.labonitakidz.com, I hear over and over my business is slow I can’t advertise right now. I always think why is your business slow? The answer is simple because you are not advertising and you are missing opportunities. I also think the reason your business is slow is you are shutting out ideas because of your programmed response of I am not interested. By not being interested in opportunities and not advertising your business remains slow. The reality is that your business doesn’t have to be slow. You have the power to drive traffic by being creative and proactive. I have covered this in this blog on several occasions and those who have used some of the ideas have shown a spike in their business.
Having an awareness as to what is happening in the marketplace will help you to increase your business. Ask yourself what pain do I take away? After you answer this question then you can come up with a plan of action to promote yourself effectively and create a desire for your products or services. This month baseball season started and I began to think how can one capitalize on the fact that people are going to be following their favorite team for 162 games and how can I use this to my advantage? The answer was to promote things like Pitch Like An All Star, where I teach people how to improve their copy writing and presentation skills. Or Hit a Home Run With Your Publicity, where I teach people how to secure free publicity through effective media relations. By incorporating the baseball theme you create something that is relevant, entertaining, and resonates with your desired target audience. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Your Business Doesn’t Have To Be Slow!!!
This Sunday, February 3, 2013 millions of people will be gathering for Super Bowl Parties across the country. Have you created a way that you can leverage The Super Bowl to drive business to you this week? Have you planned a strategy to capitalize on people’s love for The Super Bowl? Every type of business be it life coaching, personal training, a restaurant, a dry cleaner, a doctors office, etc. can benefit from doing some type of promotion revolving around The Super Bowl and thus creating more brand recognition and more revenue. Think about it you are a life coach and seeking more clients, how about an ad campaign that revolves around the theme Score A Touchdown In Your Life With Life Coach _______. Begin a program by 2/3/13 and recieve $50 off of your program. You are a personal trainer you could do a campaign with the theme Hoist Your Own Lombardi Trophy when you enroll for a fitness and wellness program with________________. You have a restaurant and you can run a campaign Score An Extra Point With Our Desserts, receive one FREE Dessert with purchase of an entree. You are a dry cleaner your campiagn can be Look Like An MVP with __________________. You are a doctor’s office you can do a campaign Let Us Be The QB For Your Health. As you can see if you come up with a creative theme and then put advertising out there you will leverage The Super Bowl.
As a business you can leverage The Super Bowl by participating in POINTS FOR THE CURE!!!! The way it works is you have your clients/customers/patrons choose either The Ravens or The 49 ERS and they agree to donate $.25 (25 cents) per point that the team scores and then after the game they visit http://main.acsevents.org/goto/jdogglederman and make their donation mentioning your business in the comment area. You as a business then do a media release about how you and your clients/customers/patrons participated in POINTS FOR THE CURE and raised money for The American Cancer Society. You then do a thank you ad as part of your print campaign and thank everyone for supporting POINTS FOR THE CURE and helping to raise money for The American Cancer Society. When you leverage an event like The Super Bowl you can strengthen your brand and increase revenue. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Leveraging The Super Bowl
As you begin to develop you advertising program you must recognize your problem and understand how a properly planned and implemented advertising program will solve the problem. When I approach people to advertise with the many avenues that I represent like www.labonitakidz.com, www.miamifuryfootball.com, or www.spicemiami.com, I hear I am not interested or that type of marketing and advertising won’t work for me. That is a part of the problem as your lack of interest may have just cost you the potential to reach new people and thus strengthen your brand or you may have decided that it won’t work for you and lost out on an opportunity to work with someone who can make it work for you. I hear I can’t afford to ad more advertising at this time to which I say what if you were to cut what you are doing with someone else in half for example instead of a full-page ad with them runs a 1/2 page with them and run a 1/4 page with me and then you can run 1/4 page somewhere else thus giving you more exposure in the market place. I hear things are slow and I can’t afford to advertise. To this I say advertising should be done when it is slow and when it is busy as the consumer perceives that a business that is advertising is a strong business. So now what is your problem? Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: What’s Your Problem?
Advertisement Ideas: Greetings, Salutations, And The Bottom Line
It was a Wednesday Morning a week before Christmas when I found myself out making sales calls for La Bonita Kidz and Teenz with the owner and ceo Shanta Tanksley as we are gearing up to launch the magazine in March 2013. We both knew it would be difficult as most business owners were not thinking of marketing let alone planning their marketing for the Spring of 2013. We encountered many people who seemed pre occupied who seemed to think that we were imposing on their day when in reality we were there to help their business. One particular encounter at Third Federal in Coral Springs, FL as we walked in we were immediately greeted with a women standing up and saying NO SOLICITING. My response was mam we are not soliciting we are meeting with local businesses to start to build a relationship so as to see how we can be of service and value to one another. I also made it a point that we could have just come into money and were looking for a bank. She began to explain that corporate instructs them to do this when it appears that someone maybe soliciting. She then gave us the branch manager’s card. Shanta said to me you are amazing you kept your cool and made a great point. We both came to the conclusion that many businesses are missing out on potential by not understanding how greetings and salutations affect your bottom line. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Greetings, Salutations, And The Bottom Line
Advertisement Ideas: Dominate Your Industry Like ESPN & CNN!!!!
When most consumers were asked to name their top sources for sports or news ESPN and CNN ranked in the top spots respectively. ESPN has built a brand that is synonymous with sports and has expanded through the development of niche markets with networks like ESPNU that focuses on college sports, and shows like Around The Horn, Pardon The Interruption, and Sports Center to dominate the marketplace and be the leader in their industry. CNN has become the #1 news source for people as they continue to meet the demands of their viewers. This led me to the question of How Can You Dominate Your Industry like ESPN and CNN? Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Dominate Your Industry Like ESPN, & CNN!!!!
Advertisement Ideas: How To Make Strategic Partnerships Work!!!!
I first learned the value of Strategic Partnerships back in 1989 as I was assisting with The Coral Springs Jaycees Spreading The Joy Program, which provided needy families with A Thanksgiving Food Basket and then took the children from those families on A Holiday Shopping Spree. The chapter didn’t have much money in the treasury at the time to fund the project. As a new member I spoke up and said “Have you ever done Strategic Partnerships,” they asked what they were and I explained that is when you ask those you do business with to support your charitable efforts. The answer was no and I said let’s start. They said you can try. I said okay and in 2 weeks I had formed 10 partnerships and secured over $3000.00 in in-kind and cash donations. I then took it to another level when I leveraged our relationship with the local KMART when I asked the manager about collecting in front of the store. The manager said yes and we collected for 21 days and collected another $5,000 in donations. That year we took 64 children on a holiday shopping spree. Those that supported our efforts saw The Jaycees return the favor as we supported the businesses that helped us. KMART saw the value of The Strategic Partnership and The Jaycees kept working with KMART until the store in Coral Springs closed. The question that I am asked often is JDOGG how do I make Strategic Partnership Work? Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: How To Make Strategic Partnerships Work!!!
Advertisement Ideas: La Grande Narnaja-What Is In A Name?
My Facebook feed was buzzing today as The New Year’s Eve Celebration in Miami, The Big Orange, was changed to La Grande Naranja. All the news outlets were seeking feed back and at first I thought why I are we worrying about the name when there are bigger issues to tackle. I then began to ask what is in a name and the began to realize that branding is an integral part of your business and you spent the last 20 years building The Big Orange so why would you change the name and begin with a new brand, La Grande Naranja, and I realized well most of the people in that area are hispanic and that is a primary target demographic and thus a name change can be used to attract more clients of hispanic origin. Better yet why not promote the event in both languages so as to attract a more diverse audience. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: La Grande Narnaja- What Is In A Name?
Advertisement Ideas: How To Make Effective Marketing Choices!!!!
When you begin the marketing process you first understand the complexity of it and a great way to get a grip and make effective marketing choices is to us the 7 P’s Marketing Mix Below. When you know each phase and you truly analyze the plan you can then implement the plan and evaluate and adjust accordingly.
Advertisement Ideas Finding and Capitalizing On PR Opportunities!!!
I have posted this question before as I ask it on several occassions as I speak to people who may want to work with me and put my knowledge and expertise in this field to work for them. I have been developing ways to maximize messages for several years and I am always astounded by those who are not taking advantage of Public Relations Opportunities. This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend The Women of Faith Conference on Friday Night (10/26/12) in Sunrise, FL I was very impressed by World Vision and their presence at the event, I stopped by The Liberty University Booth to learn more about them. All the while I was loaded with literature about The Addict’s Mom (one of my clients) to hand out as I knew many of the 6,000 women in attendance may know a mother of an addicted child and may be seeking assistance for that person so I made it a point to talk to people and promote www.addictsmom.com.
As I left the Women of Faith Conference I began to think how many businesses missed out on an opportunity to promote themselves because they did nor know about the event or were so busy blaming the economy and other factors that they missed out on an opportunity to build their brand and strengthen their business. I then cam up with the idea to encourage everyone to visit www.womenoffaith.com and to see when one of theses events is coming to your community and how it can be a benefit to you and your business.
On October 27-28, 2012 I had the pleasure and honor of being The Public Address Announcer at The Sean Taylor Classic, The SUPER BOWL for Youth Football. As I announced the sponsors I began to think how many businesses could have benefitted from being part of this event if they had known about it. In two days over 2,000 people came through the gates to watch youth football. I had the opportunity to cut a video with the help of Generation Next and I immediately put it up on face book. As I have often said if make videos when ever you are at a special event and share them.
Advertisement Ideas: How To Find and Capitalize on PR Opportunities?
I am often asked JDOGG how do you find and capitalize on PR opportunities? Here are a few strategies that I have utilized to do just that.
1: Be aware of what is going on in your community and see if it is synergistic with your business and your message.
Look on the internet for special events in your area, talk to you customers about things they may be involved with and how you can be of assistance. Many times it is just being in tune and having a presence at events that will build your brand.
2: When you attend an event be prepared to do a quick video like this one.
3: Take photos and create a story to send to the media. For example the photo below with a brief story.
JDOGG Lederman Honors Community Leaders and Creates A World With Less Cancer And More Birthdays.
On March 24, 2012 The Unity Church Fellowship Hall was buzzing with joy as JDOGG Lederman hosted The Spiritual Entrepreneurs Visionary Awards, honoring outstanding community leaders for their service to the community. Proceeds from the event went to The Reaching Out To Cancer Kids Program of The American Cancer Society. 50 community leaders were honored and treated to a very special lunch provided by Subway and deserts provided by Chocolate Luxuries. The day consisted of fellowship and speakers on a variety of subjects. For more details about supporting events like this call JDOGG at 954-254-8227.
4: Find ways to provide products and services for events or how to capitalize on existing programs. For example The American Cancer Society has a program for Relay For Life, Stars and Moons, where merchants sell the Stars and Moons to customers/clients and the merchant displays them in their business. You can take a photo of the Stars and Moons with a caption (Insert your business name here) supports The American Cancer Society Relay For Life Program and recent raised (insert dollar amount) to help with research, education, advocacy, and services. “Our reason to participate in this program was driven by the fact that many of our customers have been touched by cancer and we felt this was an excellent way to give back while helping those affected by cancer,” said (insert name here).
5. Use your social media platforms to engage people and ask about ways you can be of service and value. Post how you are being of service and value to others.
Public Relations is not something that is done once in a while it is something that can be done everyday.
Every day you have something noteworthy happening in your business it is imperative that you share and capitalize on public relations. For example a local Dentist is opening up his practice from 8 PM – 10 PM on Halloween to x-ray candy, it is a shame that this has to be done. The dentist has been written about in several local papers, featured on the local news, and interviewed on the radio.
This chart will help you to find and capitalize on PR opportunities.