Local Customers might be sitting right around the corner and not even know you are there. Why? because there are now at least 40 major local search engines and aps that people turn too for advice, and those sites are waiting for you to tell them about your business.
Much like using social media, a Local Reach marketing program has to address so many different issues it might not be cost effective for the owner or an employee to handle it. What do I mean that Local Reach marketing might not be cost effective? We know that local businesses must have local customers right?
What I mean is that an effective Local Reach Marketing campaign, that is a campaign designed only to touch potential new customers, and past customers within a small area, like one to five miles from your business. According to a friend of mine who has a UPS store, he needs to have 50,000 people in his local area to reach out and get 400 to 500 regular customers. As we all know in business, reaching 1% of any market and getting them to become a customer can be tough.
Local and Mobile marketing campaigns can help, but if not executed well, they can be a time killer. Let's take the UPS store as a "for instance". If the owner knows that a lot of people send easter baskets and he wants to run a 25% off easter basket packing special, will it be worth his time to log into 40 websites or more in order to run that special? Probably not.
The time spent posting the special to all those sites, just isn't worth it 80% of the time. The problem is of course you can't ignore those sites either. I've posted about studies on the effects of Yelp! alone. A business that doesn't pay attention to Yelp! doesn't do as well as a business that does.
So what is an owner to do? Well here is my plug. The Bourquin Group now offers a local listing service with a single interface to update nearly 50 different websites and aps. On top of that, we'll review everything you post and let you know if there are things that should be changed. We'll even build the foundation of your local and mobile presence for you.
Business success comes from spending your time and your money right. If you aren't sure if this service is for you, send me an email and I'll run a free report on your business. We are also offering a special deal on a trial version of our Local Reach Marketing program.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
How Do You Focus? You Can Ignore The Noise, or Remove The Noise.
Focus is an elusive skill that business coaches, managers and leaders speak about like it is something you can buy in a vending machine and just have it. You know and I know they are wrong. You have experienced focus though and that is what makes it such a mystery to most people.
In the movie "Robin Hood" with Kevin Costner, Robin of the Hood is shooting an arrow at a target and the Maid Miriam attempts to distract him. In the military, our instructors would bang trash can lids together while we were trying to shoot at targets up to 400 yards away.
The effect is the same, the marksman's concentration is broken and the target is missed. The military teaches this skill to help soldiers survive combat. When you learn to tune everything out and stay on target while things are blowing up all around you, you have the best chance for survival and eventually success.
Life is no different no matter how hard you try to make it different, there are distractions attempting to move you from your target all the time. That is assuming you have a target. If you don't have a target, you need to get one or you will be wondering where it all went. Make sure it is a big target and you hit it dead center. In life you are always working to survive and achieve success. We all might have a very different view of success, but we are trying to achieve it nevertheless.
Discipline is another misused term attempting to teach focus. Will Power is another. You just can "will" the other guy to quit throwing grenades at you any more than you can "will" your office worker to stop interrupting you.
So what is "Focus" really and how do you do it? Gary Keller shares his thoughts about in his new book "The One Thing", now available on Amazon. Gary says that if you are truly focused, chaos will follow because you are letting the noise go unheard. The noise will just get louder until you attend to it.
I learned early on that I don't like mowing grass unless it is a huge piece of land and I can do it on a tractor with music and take hours to get it done. My first home had a little yard, and it drove the neighbors nuts that I didn't mow it or keep it up. Yes, for a short while I was "that guy" on the block.
The difference is I was focused on something else. That something else allowed me the money to put in a bent grass front lawn and have a guy stop by every three days to keep it flat like a putting green. Now I was "THAT GUY". I didn't mind being the latter, and eventually most of the neighbors stopped by for a practice putt and a few even introduced themselves. Several thought I bought the house from "that guy" who didn't keep up the yard. It made for some interesting conversations.
I learned in the military how to see through the noise quickly, find the target, get to it, and move on. It is a skill I admit that I have had difficulty teaching. With the help of Gary Keller's "The One Thing", I have quickly seen the flaw in my teaching and corrected it. It is amazing how one little piece of the puzzle can make the picture so much clearer.
The ability to do this is a cornerstone to success, and considered a "secret" by many. While this isn't "The Secret" it is definitely a key ingredient without which focus and therefore success are elusive. You will find it makes most people irritated because they can't do it, and they'll try to add noise.
When you learn the skill of always working on The One Thing, you get a lot more done in a lot less time. When I was still being paid by the hour, it was like punishment, I just kept getting more work. When I got smart and kept raising my rates until it hurt, my bosses were happy to see me leave at noon and get off the clock. Eventually I learned to charge for the job. The hardest part is not letting them see how quickly I get it done.
Many years ago a major bank had a problem with their network and it was getting worse. I gave them my fee and it was half of what they already spent. I guaranteed I would correct the problem for that price or they didn't have to pay. When I arrived at the secret location that housed all of their network management systems, I listened to the problem for 20 minutes, asked two questions, had the programmer make one change and it was fixed.
It took 9 months to collect on the account because according to the network manager, I didn't earn it. He thought it should have taken days, and it made him look bad. Now I leave, go play and come back when I am 99% sure I have the answer in less than an hour.
I used to know a contractor who had a great saying. He told me "Do the deal, get a check, take a vacation, start over". If you think about it, that really says it all. While you do the deal, nothing else matters. When you finish the deal, reap the profits and enjoy a little make it up to the family in a big way, then do it again. This is a focused cycle of success. You can't do it all, all of the time.
If you really want to get things done, you need to learn how to ignore the noise or eliminate the noise so you can focus on your end game and actually reach a destination worth reaching. It isn't selling out, it is moving forward at the best of your ability. Move forward with your "One Thing".
In the movie "Robin Hood" with Kevin Costner, Robin of the Hood is shooting an arrow at a target and the Maid Miriam attempts to distract him. In the military, our instructors would bang trash can lids together while we were trying to shoot at targets up to 400 yards away.
The effect is the same, the marksman's concentration is broken and the target is missed. The military teaches this skill to help soldiers survive combat. When you learn to tune everything out and stay on target while things are blowing up all around you, you have the best chance for survival and eventually success.
Life is no different no matter how hard you try to make it different, there are distractions attempting to move you from your target all the time. That is assuming you have a target. If you don't have a target, you need to get one or you will be wondering where it all went. Make sure it is a big target and you hit it dead center. In life you are always working to survive and achieve success. We all might have a very different view of success, but we are trying to achieve it nevertheless.
Discipline is another misused term attempting to teach focus. Will Power is another. You just can "will" the other guy to quit throwing grenades at you any more than you can "will" your office worker to stop interrupting you.
So what is "Focus" really and how do you do it? Gary Keller shares his thoughts about in his new book "The One Thing", now available on Amazon. Gary says that if you are truly focused, chaos will follow because you are letting the noise go unheard. The noise will just get louder until you attend to it.
I learned early on that I don't like mowing grass unless it is a huge piece of land and I can do it on a tractor with music and take hours to get it done. My first home had a little yard, and it drove the neighbors nuts that I didn't mow it or keep it up. Yes, for a short while I was "that guy" on the block.
The difference is I was focused on something else. That something else allowed me the money to put in a bent grass front lawn and have a guy stop by every three days to keep it flat like a putting green. Now I was "THAT GUY". I didn't mind being the latter, and eventually most of the neighbors stopped by for a practice putt and a few even introduced themselves. Several thought I bought the house from "that guy" who didn't keep up the yard. It made for some interesting conversations.
I learned in the military how to see through the noise quickly, find the target, get to it, and move on. It is a skill I admit that I have had difficulty teaching. With the help of Gary Keller's "The One Thing", I have quickly seen the flaw in my teaching and corrected it. It is amazing how one little piece of the puzzle can make the picture so much clearer.
The ability to do this is a cornerstone to success, and considered a "secret" by many. While this isn't "The Secret" it is definitely a key ingredient without which focus and therefore success are elusive. You will find it makes most people irritated because they can't do it, and they'll try to add noise.
When you learn the skill of always working on The One Thing, you get a lot more done in a lot less time. When I was still being paid by the hour, it was like punishment, I just kept getting more work. When I got smart and kept raising my rates until it hurt, my bosses were happy to see me leave at noon and get off the clock. Eventually I learned to charge for the job. The hardest part is not letting them see how quickly I get it done.
Many years ago a major bank had a problem with their network and it was getting worse. I gave them my fee and it was half of what they already spent. I guaranteed I would correct the problem for that price or they didn't have to pay. When I arrived at the secret location that housed all of their network management systems, I listened to the problem for 20 minutes, asked two questions, had the programmer make one change and it was fixed.
It took 9 months to collect on the account because according to the network manager, I didn't earn it. He thought it should have taken days, and it made him look bad. Now I leave, go play and come back when I am 99% sure I have the answer in less than an hour.
I used to know a contractor who had a great saying. He told me "Do the deal, get a check, take a vacation, start over". If you think about it, that really says it all. While you do the deal, nothing else matters. When you finish the deal, reap the profits and enjoy a little make it up to the family in a big way, then do it again. This is a focused cycle of success. You can't do it all, all of the time.
If you really want to get things done, you need to learn how to ignore the noise or eliminate the noise so you can focus on your end game and actually reach a destination worth reaching. It isn't selling out, it is moving forward at the best of your ability. Move forward with your "One Thing".
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