This is a great video, it has a thirty second commercial at the start, but it is really worth watching.
In Bozeman, Mont., Anders Lewendal is hard at work building a home he hopes will be a blueprint for creating jobs in America.
Lewendal, an economist turned builder, is constructing a house made entirely from U.S.-made products. Everything from the nails, screws and bolts, to the steel, staples and bathtub is made in the United States.
“Every piece here is made in America,” he said.
Lewendal is convinced that if every builder bought just 5 percent more U.S.-made materials, they would create 220,000 jobs. The Boston Consulting Group agrees, confirming that Lewendal’s numbers add up.
Business owners can easily get stuck in a vicious cycle: Business isn’t so good. They can’t afford to outsource their marketing. They do it themselves, results remain poor, and business remains not-so-good.
How do business owners get out of this vicious cycle? It’s not easy, but it’s simple: they make a decision to get serious about their marketing before they lose their business altogether. If you’re a business owner finding yourself in this rut, here are some ideas to get you started:
1. Define your audience. If you try to market to everyone, you end up marketing to no one. Who’s your target market? Once you’ve figured this out, you may discover you don’t have to spend as much money on marketing as you have been.
2. Find a copywriter. Ask other local business people or do an online search. You can work with someone locally or long-distance, as you prefer. Fee structures vary. After you’ve interviewed a few, it’s best to choose one in the mid-range. Highly paid copywriters are the best, but a lot of their cost is simply their fame. Don’t choose the lowest bidder—you’ll get what you pay for.
3. Get a website! It’s mind-boggling that some business owners still don’t “get it” that a website is absolutely essential. Many potential customers want to “check you out” before they call you or come into your place of business. If they can’t, they may well go to your competitor instead. It’s really not a highly technical task anymore, but if you don’t have the skills or the time to do it yourself, outsource it.
4. Put an opt-in box on your website. Collect names and e-mail addresses. Keep a list. Then keep in touch with your list. It’s that simple.
5. Have a call to action. This can work in harmony with the opt-in, such as “download your free report,” or separately, such as “call for a free consultation.” But be sure to tell your website visitors what you want them to do.
6. Give them free information. It may seem counter-intuitive, but giving away information accomplishes two things: it establishes you as an expert, and it makes people feel indebted to you. Free information can take many forms. Ask your copywriter about it.
7. Take advantage of free publicity. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and several other social media tools are free. Learn how to use them.
8. Leverage testimonials. The first thing you need to know is that you (almost) never use a testimonial word-for-word. That would be akin to recording a real-life conversation and transcribing it as-is for dialog in a novel. (It really doesn’t sound very good.) If you do not haves testimonials (maybe you’re a new business), your copywriter can help you work around this.
9. Leverage customer complaints. Complaints are not all bad! Among other things, they tell you what you need to improve. While an unhappy customer spreads the “bad” word much farther and wider than a happy one spreads the “good” word, you can turn an unhappy customer into a happy one.
10. As a local business, you can create a “coupon swap” program with another local business and double your potential customer base.
11. Ask your copywriter what kinds of marketing collateral would benefit your business. White papers, news releases, fliers, brochures, postcards, and many others are all in the repertoire of any good copywriter.
These are all ideas I thought of in just a few minutes. If any of them sound mysterious to you, it’s probably because you don’t have the marketing expertise that a copywriter has. And that’s fine; you’re not expected to. That’s what copywriters are for.
Get serious about your marketing. Talk to your colleagues, log on to Google, do whatever you need to do to find a copywriter who will make your marketing work…before your business becomes another victim of the vicious cycle.
Lisa J. Lehr is a writer and copywriter living in Grass Valley. She can help you promote your business with a full range of online and offline marketing pieces. A member of Empire Toastmasters, she’s available to speak to your business or professional group. Visit her website www.justrightcopy.com for more information, opt in for the message series, and receive a free Marketing Guide.
—
Lisa J. Lehr
I write words that make you money–just ask me how. www.justrightcopy.com
Visit my website and sign up for my fr~ee marketing tips.
New! No~cost Marketing Guide now available at my website.
The banks keep on trying to get our money one way or another. It’s great when the government goes after these guys. After all, don’t forget that the mess we are in with our economy is due strictly to our illustrious banks and Wall Street.
“Attorney General Kamala D. Harris announced a $90.8 million national settlement, which includes some $6.3 million for California agencies, with the multinational Swiss bank UBS AG over allegations of anticompetitive and fraudulent conduct in the municipal bond derivatives industry.
“This financial fraud harmed school districts, cities, state agencies, and non-profit groups,” Attorney General Harris said. “The multi-million dollar settlement provides restitution to those victimized and sends a strong warning to anyone contemplating similar scams.”
California participated with federal agencies and 24 other states in the negotiations that led to today’s settlement. In addition to the approximately $6.3 million in restitution, California will be entitled to a share of the $2.5 million civil penalty and $5 million in investigation costs that UBS has agreed to pay.
Under the settlement, UBS agreed to pay back a total of $90.8 million to local and state agencies nationwide, as well as to non-profit groups, that had municipal bond derivative contracts with UBS, or used UBS as a broker, between 2001 and 2004. That restitution is part of a $160 million settlement package that includes federal agencies.
Municipal bond derivatives are contracts that tax-exempt issuers use to reinvest the proceeds of bond offerings until the funds are needed, or to hedge interest rate risk.”
In an earlier post, I talked about the importance of auto responders: those little automated messages that your website visitors get when they opt in to (i.e., put their name and e-mail address in the boxes) your website. In doing some outreach to local businesses recently, however, I discovered that not only does the average local business not have an auto responder series…they don’t even have a website!
Grass Valley-area businesses, the 21st century is calling: you need a website.
These days, getting a website up and running is not a major project that you need to budget thousands of dollars for. You have many options with a range of prices and skill requirements. Check out XSitePro, FrontPage, Dreamweaver, and Godaddy’s Website Tonight. You can even set up your website as a blog using WordPress and choosing from their many free themes; you also have the choice of installing the blog directly on the domain name and forgoing the “Wordpress” extension. If you can’t (or don’t have time to) do this yourself, hire a teenager or someone from Elance.com.
Once you decide which way to go, the important thing is not flashy graphics or the latest technological bells and whistles, but good content. You’ll need plenty of informative material that establishes you as an expert in your niche. Besides making you look like a genius, free content has the desirable effect of making people feel indebted to you. End result: when they need your product or service, they come to you, not your competition.
Articles, down loadable free reports…free content takes many forms. And don’t forget the opt-in—that’s how you stay in touch with your prospective customers and maintain that top-of-mind awareness. [link back to article on ARs]
Now, how many Grass Valley-area business owners reading this will decide that this is the final piece of convincing evidence they needed to put up a website? And how many of them are your competition?
Lisa J. Lehr is a writer and copywriter living in Grass Valley. She can help you promote your business with a full range of online and offline marketing pieces. A member of Empire Toastmasters, she’s available to speak to your business or professional group. Visit her website www.justrightcopy.com for more information, opt in for the message series, and receive a free Marketing Guide.
—
Lisa J. Lehr
I write words that make you money–just ask me how. www.justrightcopy.com
Visit my website and sign up for my fr~ee marketing tips.
New! No~cost Marketing Guide now available at my website.
Yes, we know. The economy is bad. Recovery may be on the horizon, but no one really knows how close. Or if we can “hold out” till it happens. Yet we can each take some actions to position ourselves in the best possible way to survive a weak economy—and be at the front of the pack when it improves.
Dr. Ivan Misner, founder and chairman of BNI (Business Networking International), the world’s largest business networking organization,says that during an economic downturn “you can actually prosper…while everyone else flounders in fear.” He tells of being at a business mixer in the early 1990s, “right in the middle of a nasty recession.”
As he looked around the room and listened in, he noticed that “while nearly all were commiserating with one another, very few were actually networking and working on seeking new business…,” which, of course, was the purpose of the mixer!
So, while we can’t control the economy, we can control our response to it. Dr. Misner goes on to say, “During the last recession, I watched thousands of businesspeople grow and prosper…because they
consciously made the decision to refuse to participate in a recession. They did so by developing their networking skills and learning how to build their business through word of mouth.”
I’ve heard several people in my contact sphere say they’re refusing to participate in the recession. What if everyone refused to participate? We wouldn’t have a recession!
Dr. Misner concludes, “Don’t let a bad economy be your excuse for failure. Instead, make it your opportunity to succeed. While others are looking at the problems, those of us looking for opportunities
will not only get through a bad economy but will prosper.”
Here are some ideas on ways to find opportunity:
Invite people to meetings of your business or trade group.
Offer to speak at an industry conference.
Send out a mailing.
Begin an e-mail campaign.
Write letters to the editor.
Start a blog.
Submit articles to trade publications and online article sites.
Add an opt-in and an auto-responder series to your website.
If you don’t have a website, get one.
If you need to outsource any of these projects, do it.
Stay in front of potential customers. Whatever line of work you’re in, people still need your product or service. If you’ve made your name familiar to your target audience and established yourself as an expert in your niche, you’ll be the one they go to when they’re ready to buy—instead of your competitors. Your (former) competitors will be the ones commiserating about how the recession of the early 21st century ruined them.
Lisa J. Lehr is a writer and copywriter living in Grass Valley. She
can help you promote your business with a full range of online and
offline marketing pieces. A member of Empire Toastmasters, she’s
available to speak to your business or professional group. Visit her
website www.justrightcopy.com for more information, opt in for the
message series, and receive a free Marketing Guide.
—
Lisa J. Lehr
I write words that make you money–just ask me how. www.justrightcopy.com
Visit my website and sign up for my fr~ee marketing tips.
New! No~cost Marketing Guide now available at my website.
The first MC-12 Liberty aircraft lands after its first combat mission in June 2009 at Joint Base Balad, Iraq. U.S. Air Force
The MC-12W spy plane mission will be based at Beale Air Force Base, bringing hundreds of new airmen and greater economic impact to the surrounding region.
“This should be a shot in the arm for the Yuba-Sutter area economically,” said U.S. Rep. Wally Herger, R-Chico, whose office announced the mission’s placement Friday. “We are so excited.”
With the first plane arriving in May, by July the base will have up to seven of 37 total “Liberty” planes, while the others are deployed elsewhere. The planes fly at low and medium altitudes for reconnaissance and spy missions and are piloted, unlike the Global Hawks also based at Beale.
Brynda Stranix, president and chief operating officer for the Yuba-Sutter Economic Development Corporation, said she expects civilian staff supporting the mission could number another 150.
The mission will require 555 enlisted airmen, and Herger said he would expect it will require new civilian support staff as well.
She added her office will target the contractors, possibly as many as 120, who’ll be servicing the planes in an effort to get them to base their businesses locally.
“When you’re talking families, it could be up to 2,000 people who will be coming here as a result,” she said. Over time, everything from recreation to retail will see an increase in demand.
The fictitious Modern Widget Company in Grass Valley has a small staff of reasonably capable people who do pretty much everything. One day, Bob notices a leak in the restroom. “I can fix that,” he says, “and I’ll save the company a ton of money.” He goes the hardware store, buys some parts, and fixes the leak…or so he thinks. Next morning, when the staff comes to work, the toilet has crashed into the basement. You see, Bob didn’t know water was leaking under the floor, rotting out the floorboards.
Sally arrives, late and breathless, wearing a hat. Embarrassed, she confesses she’d cut her own hair. With an important presentation coming up, she didn’t have time to go to the beauty parlor. “It’ll grow out eventually,” she says, red-faced.
Jeff and his carpool buddy Jenny call to say they’re going to be late. They were on their way when they heard a strange racket coming from under the hood of Jeff’s pickup truck. “I can deal with that,” says Jeff. “Who needs AAA?” They might not make it in till afternoon.
What do all these people have in common? They tried to fix a problem themselves when they really needed the services of a professional. They ended up with problems far more serious and expensive to fix than their original problems. They suffered embarrassment, wasted time, and inconvenience.
Then one day the staff at Modern Widget Company is ready to launch their new Super Widget.
“I’ll do a website,” says Bob. “I’m a pretty geeky guy.”
“I’ll write a sales letter,” says Sally. “I majored in Creative Writing.”
“I’ll send out some e-mails,” says Jeff. “I like to do e-mail.”
“I’ll make a brochure,” says Jenny. “I’m a pretty good artist.”
So they did. How did their cobbled-together marketing program do, you ask?
It bombed. You see, Bob, Sally, Jeff, and Jenny made the same mistakes twice: they thought they knew what they were doing—but they didn’t.
If you’re offering a product or service, you need a professional marketing program to reach your audience and make them buy. Even the best product or service is only as good as your marketing plan. Run, don’t walk, to find a professional marketing writer—before you waste time and money, before you suffer embarrassment and inconvenience. And definitely before your business crashes into the basement…figuratively speaking.
Lisa J. Lehr is a writer and copywriter living in Grass Valley. She can help you promote your business with a full range of online and offline marketing pieces. A member of Empire Toastmasters, she’s available to speak to your business or professional group. Visit her website www.justrightcopy.com for more information, opt in for a message series, and receive a free Marketing Guide.
—
Lisa J. Lehr
I write words that make you money–just ask me how. www.justrightcopy.com
Visit my website and sign up for my fr~ee marketing tips.
New! No~cost Marketing Guide now available at my website.
One of the nation’s largest potato growers has been indicted by a Riverside County Criminal Grand Jury on charges of laundering campaign contributions in violation of state law.
James Larry Minor, 70, of San Jacinto in Riverside County, was arraigned at 10 in Department 52 of Riverside County Superior Court. The indictment charges him with conspiracy to violate the state Political Reform Act by donating money in the name of another, committing perjury, and filing a false document.
Minor is owner of Agri-Empire Corp. in San Jacinto, which ships millions of potatoes destined for fast food restaurants and family kitchens to supermarkets and brokers across the nation. Its predecessor, San Jacinto Packing Company, was founded by the Minor family in 1943 with an $800 loan.
Minor is accused of illegally donating nearly $40,000 in the names of family members (including his sons, daughter, son-in-law and daughters-in-law), friends, and business associates to the Jeff Stone for State Senate Campaign in 2009. The practice is known as money laundering because it is designed to hide the true source of campaign donations and allows an individual to exceed the legal limits for donating to a state political campaign. The limit was $3,900 in 2009.
Minor is also accused of perjury and filing a false statement in connection with his donations to the Committee to Elect Brenda Salas for State Assembly Campaign in 2006. The limit that year was $3,300, and Minor contributed a total of $26,400 in the names of others. Minor illegally filed a major donor statement with the Fair Political Practices Commission under penalty of perjury that failed to list any of those donations to Salas.
Minor faces a maximum sentence of four years and eight months in state prison, and a fine of $60,000 imposed by the FPPC.
The indictment, issued by the grand jury in December, will be unsealed at tomorrow’s court hearing.
The money laundering investigation was conducted by the Attorney General’s Bureau of Investigation and Intelligence. It was presented to the grand jury by Deputy Attorney General Alana Cohen Butler of the criminal division.
SACRAMENTO—United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Stephen Marich, 43, of Ely, Nevada, pleaded guilty today before United States District Judge Kent J. Dawson in federal court in Las Vegas to embezzling at least $3.7 million from the First National Bank of Ely over about 10 years.
Upon discovering Marich’s activity, the Bank of Ely promptly reported it to law enforcement and followed up with a thorough internal investigation.
The case was extensively investigated by the FBI. They have determined that Marich acted alone. This case is being prosecuted by Eastern District of California Assistant United States Attorney Matthew D. Segal.
According to the plea agreement, from the mid-1990s until about December 7, 2009, Marich was an employee of the First National Bank of Ely, most recently as a vice president. Marich admitted using his control over a treasury bill account to steal at least $3.7. He used the funds for his personal benefit and also to make transfers to offshore online gambling enterprises. According to public accounts, Marich was an Ely city councilman until he resigned during this investigation.
Marich is scheduled to be sentenced on May 11, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. The maximum statutory penalty for an embezzlement of more than $1 million by a bank employee is 30 years in prison. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.
