Blog - Bike Lane Business Development

Classic Blunder

from Content Marketing Institute

File under: Communication

Don’t be remembered like Ignaz Semmelweis.

Poor Ignaz fell victim to one of the classic blunders of communication. He told people what they were doing wrong, and his message wasn’t received. While another medical person at the same time was saying the same thing differently and got people listened to her, and it saved lives. You may have heard of her, Florence Nightingale.

If you can’t read the post right now, here is my biggest takeaway:

“People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they themselves have discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.” - Blaise Pascal

Read the article here https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2019/10/get-audience-greenlight/

P.S. The timing on this with what is going on in the world is serendipitous.

gif via Gify

What Gets Measured, Gets Managed.

Advertising

What Gets Measured, Gets Managed.

from Social Media Examiner

File under Advertising

Facebook ads (and social media as a whole) can provide a solid return on investment for small businesses that are looking to advertise. You can target them very precisely, and you can set the budget reasonably low.

Don’t fall into the trap of not measuring the performance of each ad, though. Social Media Examiner has a useful list of 9 things to measure to monitor the performance of each of your ads.

Read more HERE:

Photo by Isaac Smith on Unsplash

Avoid the Money Pit

Advertising

Avoid the Money Pit.

from Larry Kim on LinkedIn

File under: Advertising

The problem with advertising online is that you are afraid of it being a money pit. You aren’t sure that it will be seen by the right people or at the right time in their buying process. Do you have the right audience? Was it too broad, or was it too tight?

Using your CRM data is a great way to make your advertising significantly more effective. Here’s why:

You are confident that these people are interested in your product or service (since you have already had some contact with them because they are in your CRM)
Ideally, you have your data segmented. This allows you to customize an ad that will be more effective for each segment.
You can exclude other segments so that you know that the only people seeing the ad are the people most likely to click on it. This saves advertising costs because your ad is not going to ‘everyone.’

Making advertising more productive and making them less expensive at the same time? That is the perfect combination.

Larry Kim has a great article on how to do this. He has a lot of jargon in there, but I think that if you are new to CRMs or Facebook advertising, you can still work through it because he does a great job with the screenshots to walk you through it ‘Cliffnotes’ style.

Donut Run!

Self Improvement

Donut Run!

from Inc.com

File under: Feel Good Business Story

So David and Goliath walk into a donut shop…

It sounds like a joke, but it’s a true story. A great story. A summary wouldn’t do it justice, read it here:

Photo by Morgan v on Unsplash

It’s Like Looking Through your Competitor’s Back Window.

Marketing Tools

It’s Like Looking Through your Competitor’s Back Window.

from Moz.com

File under: Marketing Tools

Have you ever wondered what drives people to your competitor’s website? I have. Moz is an SEO company that has been very well regarded for years, and they just came out with a free tool for domain analysis.

According to MOZ:

“The tool is free, and showcases a preview of many top SEO metrics in one place, including:

1. Domain Authority
2. Linking Root Domains
3. # of Ranking Keywords
4. Spam Score
5. Top Pages
6. Top Linking Domains
7. Discovered and Lost Links
8. Keywords by Estimated Clicks (new)
9. Top Ranking Keywords
10. Top Featured Snippets (new)
11. Top Branded Keywords (new)
12. Keyword Ranking Distribution
13. Top Search Competitors (new)
14. Top Search Questions (new)

I’ve used MOZ and found it intuitive and user-friendly. I used the new tool to look at my competitor’s website. I saw what keywords they were ranking for, who’s liking to them, and how many clicks their keywords are getting (estimated). It’s an excellent tool to guide your marketing strategy.

Check it out HERE:

Photo by Jeff Hendricks on Unsplash

Write to your Mother!

Customer Service

Write to your Mother!

from Fast Company

file under: Customer Service

Treat customers like you would treat your mother. So write them a thank you note.

This article got me thinking. In this digital world of social media and on-demand everything, analog stands out. Old “fashioned” means that it has been “fashionable” for a long time, and probably for a good reason. I rarely get a handwritten thank you note in the mail, and when I do, it’s refreshing and memorable. I’ve received three in the last five years. I remember exactly who they were from (two were from the same person), and they have had an impact on me.

I’m guilty of not sending them either, by the way. I’m not preaching. I’m applauding the people that do. (Hello, Moo.com?)

Read more HERE:

Photo by Álvaro Serrano on Unsplash

My new favorite tool

Self Improvement

You know this has happened to you, you see a link to something, and you open it, and the screen looks like the image to the left.

You have tons of ads. The article is only 25% or less of the screen. Then you have to close a pop-up subscription box as well as a chat box in the lower right corner asking you to chat with a company you have never heard of before.

Frustrating, isn’t it?

First - If you are guilty of this on your website...STOP!

It turns people off.

Second - here is what I do when I see something that looks interesting. I send it to Pocket. It’s a free tool that will give you the headline, strip away all of the stuff you don’t want so that it reads like a word document, and will tell you how long it should take you to read it based on word count. It will turn the above image into this:

The best part of this is that it is totally free and ad-free. There is a pro version, but I have yet to need it for purposes like this. I highly recommend this app! You can get the extension in the google store for chrome. It lets you save and send articles to the app with one click.

I often save articles on my computer and then read them on my phone later. In this cleaner format, I find that I read it faster, and I retain more. It’s the same reason I prefer my kindle to a tablet. There are fewer distractions.

Images from Pixabay

What is your Marketing Recipe?

Marketing Tools, Strategy

What is your Marketing Recipe?

from Copyblogger

file under: Marketing Tools and Strategy

Some of my favorite recipes came from the packaging of the product. I buy Domino Confectioners Sugar every time I make buttercream frosting because the recipe is right there on the package.

It worked for Domino, and it can work for you. What are your prospects explicitly looking for the most? Can you provide it for free? If so, you have a top of the funnel piece of content that can draw prospects into your audience. That is the name of the game, building an audience.

Picture that old cardboard cutout from the back of the box of Domino sugar you use as a bookmark in one of your cookbooks. Ask yourself if you have anything you could use that is 'cookbook bookmark worthy.'

Sonia Simone (@Soniasimone) at Copyblogger presents this as "advertising too valuable to throw away."

Read more HERE:

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

p.s. When my wife read this, she said, " I'm calling bs. How often do you make buttercream frosting? Why not use chili as an example? you make that all the time." I told her that was the exact reason to go with buttercream frosting. I remember how to make chili. I don't need a recipe. I need the frosting recipe, so I always buy the Domino brand because it's always on the package.

Treatable Small Business Disease.

Self Improvement

Treatable Small Business Disease.

from Inc.com

file under: Self Improvement

Small business involves a lot of DIY work. You spend a lot of early mornings and late nights trying to get your idea or project off the ground or to grow more.

Don't fall victim to what some experts call a treatable disease. I'm no expert and would not suggest any parallel with depression or other illnesses. Loneliness is something that you can fall victim to before you realize it's happening. According to people smarter than me, it can be severe.

Read more from By Marla Tabaka (@MarlaTabaka) from Inc. HERE:

Photo by Daan Stevens on Unsplash

Improve your Advertising Aim

Advertising

Improve your Advertising Aim.

from Social Media Examiner

file under: Advertising

Small business people often have very tight budgets, and advertising can put a real dent into any budget. At the same time, advertising is a quick way to get your message out to the right people. That’s one of the reasons I love Facebook advertising. You can keep the budget low and super target your audience.

One reason I recommend it is refining your message. See which words and images get people to respond. When you want to advertise on a different platform like Google or in print (some of it is in intensive care, but it is not dead). You will have a much better idea of what works and what doesn’t.

I’ve used it to refine messages for fliers and brochures because you can see what people are clicking before printing a brochure. It’s a useful tool in your business development toolbox.

Here are some tips from Facebook Advertising Experts at Social Media Examiner.

Read more HERE:

Photo by Franck V. on Unsplash