Right Speech by Thay
‘This is the third Dharma talk offered by Thay at the Open Mind Open Heart Retreat, given in the War Memorial Gym of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, on Thursday, August 11th, 2011. Thay speaks about Right Speech, the practice of speaking that goes in the direction of non-discrimination. It is an instrument we can use to restore communication. When you sit down to listen, you say, ‘I listen like this with one purpose: to allow him or her to speak out and to suffer less.’ He shares about the experiences of Israelis and Palestinians practicing together in Plum Village, and how they learn to listen deeply to one another. Thay continues through the Noble Eightfold Path, discussing Right Livelihood and then the four practices of Right Diligence: 1) refrain from watering negative seeds, 2) embracing negative seeds with mindfulness so they go back down (changing the peg), 3) inviting the good seeds to come up, 4) allowing the good seeds to stay a long time.’
Small Business Home Page Design Tips
Digital culture and technology web site Mashable.com recently posted a blog titled “8 Tips for Small Business Homepage Design.”
I recommend it, and decided to post my own version with different approaches to some of the key concepts that are based on my experiences developing sites for small businesses.
1. Keep It Simple – Quickly and clearly communicate your product or service, and benefits to target customers. Provoke a positive reaction with design (image, color, layout, concept, etc.). Avoid flash and clutter.
2. Avoid Scrolling – Instead create and link to separate category and/or detail pages that provide relevant information and benefits.
3. Tell Your Story With Links – Be sure to provide links to relevant and current information that tells your story. Link to about, product or service, and news content that quickly and clearly tells what your business is about. A critical question to answer when writing content for your site is “So What?” – or – “Why would anyone care about what I am offering?” Continue Reading →
Social Media Not Big With Small Businesses
A recent eMarketer article revealed that 43% of small-businesses feel social media is not necessary to their business. 50% said the marketing tool they could not do without is word-of-mouth. Read the article.
Successful small businesses consistently deliver value and superior service, and they do it one customer at a time. They are heavily reliant on the personal perceptions and viral impact of their customers.
The most effective marketing tactics for small businesses help build on personal interactions with customers and enhance service delivery. The best small business marketing tools deliver personalized communications at low costs; and help collect, segment, track and use detailed patron data consistently in marketing communications. Database driven web sites, web analytics, and email marketing are all highly effective and widely used by small businesses. Solutions that allow small business users to take advantage of advanced features while hiding expert requirements and complexities will thrive.
YourSpace: Your Personal Marketing Profile
In a recent FastCompany piece by Gina Trapani titled “Work Smart: Claiming Your Name on the Web,” the author makes the following statement about creating one’s personal profile on the web, “To make yourself findable, claim your name in Web search results by setting up pages with information you’re comfortable sharing.”
The part about posting pages with “information you’re comfortable sharing” is key. The web today is a double edged razor sharp sword that advocates unlimited freedom of information and speech on one edge, while viciously cutting away basic freedoms when used as a highly monitored, mined, and scrutinized spying mechanism (as it is today) on the other.
Bottom line? Anything you post on the web is accessible to employers, colleagues, friends, family members, enemies, police, and other governmental and private agencies – without your approval or knowledge. Continue Reading →
The Marketing Divide
Just like in society where we have a class divide — The Have More’s, The Have’s, and the Have Not’s — there is a class divide in marketing between large enterprises and small to mid-size businesses.
Digital technology and the Internet have totally transformed every aspect of marketing from content creation to analytics. And, each marketing function has multiple skill sets required for effective implementation. This complexity is confronted and mastered with glaring success by large enterprises. But for mid-size and small businesses this complexity makes ROI virtually unattainable.
The real bad news for smaller enterprises is that they are offered limited tools that are sold as marketing solutions. The classic example is in the email marketing arena. Literally dozens of services offer “email marketing” that’s “easy-to-use.” But they tout their ability to tell their users who read their emails, or who clicked on a link as marketing. It’s not. Continue Reading →
HTML5 and CSS3: To Use Or Not To Use?
A majority of current customers cannot take advantage of new HTML5 and CSS3 web sites. Businesses want to deliver a rich online experience to users with the latest technologies. But care must be taken not to negatively impact the experience of core customers who cannot yet benefit from these new technologies.
Presently, support for HTML5 varies widely among browsers. A suggestion, for now, is to focus HTML5 and CSS3 development on mobile applications. Continue Reading →
Email and Traditional Marketing Are Preferred Over Social Media
Traditional marketing delivers better return on investment (ROI) for retailers than social media.
A recent study by ForeSee Results shows that social media is a still maturing marketing medium, and that traditional marketing, including email marketing, are preferred. Continue Reading →
What Is An Email Marketing System?
The term email marketing system typically refers to web-based software that sends bulk email to target audiences. Effective uses of email marketing software include sending sales and promotions, customer service, and customer support email communications to opt-in lists of subscribers.
The software uses a database to store contact information, campaign statistics, and message history. The software interface has features necessary to manage email campaigns such as email setup and sending, adding or importing contacts to receive emails, reporting and tracking functions such as how many people opened an email, how many emails bounced back, and how many people actually clicked links in an email. Continue Reading →
Integrity: A Blinding Force
Alex Bogusky
It is telling to read the thoughts and opinions of MDC Chief Miles Nadal, Fast Company, and other media and industry “experts” on the exit of super creative Alex Bogusky. Specifically of note is the fact that none of these consumed minds appear remotely capable of seeing the real and obvious reason for Mr. Bogusky’s departure – MDC would not embrace the core values and integrity that Mr. Bogusky held, put forth in his work, and made his work unique and valuable. They catered to the fears of their clients, and their fears of losing them instead of asserting the awesome results they were delivering and using that as a platform for new directions. They would not change!
So, as with all of life’s expressions, Mr. Bogusky will move on and find a way. And you can bet MDC’s fortunes will quickly align with those of every other ad biz in these challenging times.
Integrity and a willingness to change, to do what has not been done, will always lead and prevail – though resistance may make the journey longer.
The Sales Process
Most small business owners like to (and do) focus solely on daily business operations and serving existing customer/client demands. But it is critical to your success to focus on getting new business from both current and prospective customers in order to sustain and grow your business.
The selling process has six key steps. Virtually every sales interaction will follow these steps, whether it lasts several minutes or several months:
- Prospecting – Find Customers
- Attract – Making Initial Contact
- Inform – The Sales Presentation
- Engage – Overcoming Objections
- Close – Closing The Sale
- Follow-Up – Service and Support After The Sale
As you develop a sales process that is right for you and your business, here are some other pointers to keep in mind: Continue Reading →
