- Part 12

The “Seminar Business Card” Design Revealed

By Alex Mandossian

business-card-photo My central premise about running entrepreneurial-centered business is that “Every business is an information marketing business.”

And the most fundamental and practical business building tool entrepreneurs have at their fingertips – especially at seminars and networking events – is their business card.

Because seminars provide the ideal networking climate of face-to-face conversations, your business card, if designed properly, can become a persuasive leave-behind to build your brand and expand your marketing reach.

I believe every entrepreneur must have two business cards. One for everyday use and one for seminars and networking events.

The purpose of your seminar business is to inspire, motivate and even persuade the people you meet to follow-up with you and take action.

To make that happen you need compelling content and even an irresistible offer (on the back of your card).

The problem is, most business cards I encounter are nothing more than mini-billboards with basic information. They’re information tools, but not marketing tools.

Take a moment and picture yourself at a seminar or networking event. You’re excited to be there. You can sense the energy from the other attendees in the room. And you have a stack of your own business cards to hand out.

During each face-to-face conversation you have, there’s typically that awkward moment when [Read more…]

Do You Measure Your “Critical Drivers” Daily?

By Alex Mandossian

tom-peters “Drivers” are key metrics that can expand (grow) or collapse (kill) your business or any business. Critical drivers are those key metrics, tested and tracked daily, that assist you to anticipate the future.

As I once heard Tony Robbins say, “Anticipation is power.” And I agree. When you look into the past – each day – you can predict the future of your business.

I’ve read many business management books over the years and one of my favorite quotes comes from Tom Peters says, “Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast.“

The age-old management adage, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” was probably first uttered (and discovered) by some bazaar merchant thousands of years ago in Babylon.

Yet it’s still positively accurate today!

In my experience, the easiest step to improve any business to begin measuring the critical drivers in the business and then celebrate and amplify what you want to see more of. Case closed.

For retailers like Sam’s Club, a core critical driver may be the “dollars-per-square-foot” generated in each store.

For a real estate management organization like Remax, it may be the “number of new agency offices” opened each month. For an insurance agency, it may mean the “dollars-per-policy” generated, or the “revenue-per-agent.”

The species or types of critical drivers you want to measure is [Read more…]

The 3 Common Mistakes Info Marketers Make

By Alex Mandossian

marketing-mistakes These 3 common mistakes come directly from the 20 Biggest Mistakes Info Marketers Make distributed by my good friend, Bret Ridgway at Speaker Fulfillment Services.

“It’s what you learn after you think you know it all that counts most.” That’s what Harry S. Truman once said. Legendary college basketball coach, John Wooden, was also known to say it.

It’s true. No matter how great of a marketer you become, it always pays to take a mental check that you’re avoid to make the most common mistakes.

That’s why I recommend you study these 3 mistakes and then get the full list of 20 mistakes from Bret.

Mistake #1: No “upsells” with your online offers

When you’ve worked hard to attract qualified prospects to your website(s), it pays to make them a second or even third buying offer. That’s called an “upsell.”

Some marketers call them “cross sells” and others call them “revenue bumps.” I call them “cost-reducers” because you automatically slash your customer “acquisition cost” every time a visitor buys more from you during the same buying session.

Mistake #11: No “post-purchase” autoresponder series

It’s mind-boggling how many gifted marketers fail to focus on motivating their initial buyers to consume their purchases faster. Teach them to consume with a 3 to 7 part follow-up (post-purchase) autoresponder series. It costs you nothing to implement and your return-on-investment may shock you!

Every product is a “consumer” product. Look, if your [Read more…]

Vote For The “Tagline” You Prefer Most

By Alex Mandossian

Recently I changed the “look and feel” of this blog. Although I’m happy with the graphics, I think my tagline on the banner can be improved.

It currently promises this:

“Practical Marketing Tips for Information Publishers, Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurial CEOs”

leaning-to-right This morning I crafted four more tagline ideas which I feel better expresses the “promise” of this blog. Take a moment and “comment” on which of these four choices (A, B, C or D) you like most.

A: “Proven Strategies for Entrepreneurs Who Want to Get More Done – Faster, Better and Easier”

B: “Tested Marketing Tips That Boost Your Profits and Productivity – Faster, Better, With Less Human Effort”

C: “Practical Ideas for Entrepreneurs to Get More Done – Faster Better, Easier”

D: “Principle-Centered Strategies that Boost Profits and Accelerate Productivity”

Feel free to add your own ideas if you got a better one. Any suggestion will be most appreciated and I plan on changing the existing tagline by the end of this month.

Please vote in the Comment Section.

The “Countdown Timer”

By Alex Mandossian

stopwatch One of the best ways I know to boost my productivity on workdays is to utilize a countdown timer during prime time hours.

I define Prime Time as my personal productivity time without any interruptions. It’s that sacred time of my workday that gives me the freedom to focus on the critical activities that only I can do.

A prime time segment for me is 50 minutes in duration. I turn off my phone, shut down my email and lock my office door to prevent all disruptions.

I set my countdown timer to 50 minutes and then I get busy.

Here are some of the activities I recommend you focus on if you decide to set aside prime time hours for yourself:

Strategic planning
Contract evaluation
Email/web copywriting
Critical thinking
Mind mapping
Curriculum design
Audio/Video production

Putting aside 50 uninterrupted [Read more…]

Why Multitasking Destroys Your Productivity

By Alex Mandossian

multi-tasking Most entrepreneurs I know are proud of their “multitasking” ability.

According to Wikipedia, “Human multitasking is the performance by an individual of appearing to handle more than one task at the same time.” The keyword that multitasking a myth is: “appearing.”

The term originated with computer multitasking – a CPU solves problems by scheduling tasks and switching from task to task until each task gets its turn.

The activity of switching back-and-forth may be a computer-friendly activity, but it’s anything but human-friendly when it comes to an entrepreneur’s personal productivity in the office or home!

Dave Crenshaw wrote my favorite book on the topic and I recommend it to any entrepreneur who still thinks and feels that multitasking is cool.

On page 29 in The Myth of Multitasking, Dave writes: [Read more…]

Email “FROM” Lines vs. “SUBJECT” Lines

By Alex Mandossian

email-box I’ve surveyed thousands of my students about my findings in this post, so please read it carefully.

Here’s the heart of the matter: Whenever you send an email message to your list, to your friends or colleagues, they privately ask themselves these 2 critical questions before taking further action:

1) WHO is this email from?

2) WHAT is this email about?

Test this premise with yourself. The next time you’re about to open-up and read email messages from your Inbox, what question(s) do you privately ask yourself before grabbing your mouse, clicking and reading them?

If you’re like most people I’ve surveyed, the answers are: WHO? and WHAT?

The WHO Question: Answering the WHO? question is easy because it involves the FROM LINE of your email messages. I recommend that your FROM LINE never changes. Here’s what mine looks like:

~ Alex Mandossian ~

Specifically, I put a tilda (“~”), then a space, then my first name, then a another space then my last name, then another space, then a second tilda.

That’s it.

I never change my [Read more…]

Rediscover the Adwords Learning Center

By Alex Mandossian

It’s no secret that Google Adwords can become a fast, easy and predictable way to attract targeted website traffic.

Like most marketing strategies, setting up an Adwords account is simple, but not so easy to master. That’s why I recommend you visit Google’s Learning Center.

In my experience, it is hands-down the single most cost-effective way to learn Adwords marketing strategies.

Click here to visit the Learning Center and you’ll find these 9 Modules:

1. Introduction to AdWords
2. Getting Started with AdWords
3. Targeting
4. Costs and Billing
5. Tracking Ad Performance
6. Optimizing Ad Performance
7. The AdWords Toolbox
8. Google Analytics
9. Managing Client Accounts

You can count on [Read more…]

Got “Affiliate Signup” Access On Your Blog?

By Alex Mandossian

alex-point-up1 Do you see Affiliate Signup button (the one I’m pointing at) on the upper left side of this blog?

I published that button a week ago (as an experiment) to test if I’d get a “passive” spike in attracting new Affiliate Partners and so far, I’ve doubled my daily Affiliate sign-up rate.

Even if this “doubling” effect doesn’t continue, “shame on me” for not adding that button to my blog sooner!

How about you? Do you have an affiliate program? Do you have a blog?

If you answered “YES” to both questions, then I encourage you to ask yourself this question before you put your Affiliate sign-up button on your blog:

“Do I want my Affiliate Program to be ‘closed’ or ‘open’?”

A “closed” program is typically only available to Affiliates who have also purchased one of your offers. An “open” program is available to anyone who is in good standing with you and wants to promote your offers.

For the first 8 years of my online marketing experience, I had a “closed” affiliate program. But it is now “open” as a result of wanting to build-out the AskAlexToday “outer circle” calls held on the first Thursday of each month.

Turning Pro: The difference between an “amateur” and a “professional” is $1. The moment you make your first dollar, you’ve turned “pro” from my point of view.

Since my goal to get you to “turn Pro” as fast as possible, I’ll [Read more…]

New Equation of “Personalized” Accountability

By Alex Mandossian

What makes good entrepreneurs great is accountability.

Accountability to their business, to their teams, to their vendors, to their families and to themselves. Accountable entrepreneurs are leaders. They don’t get in the habit of making excuses.

And above all, they have a burning desire and willingness to accept responsibilities with a “beginner’s mind” and do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Accountable entrepreneurs assume nothing and question everything. They’re fearless “truth-seekers” and chase advice from practically everyone around them – their colleagues, their team members, their customers and most importantly, their personal “Accountability Partners.”

Does this sound like someone you know so far?

If it does, then at this moment you have an opportunity of a lifetime to seek out one Accountability Partner or “AP” who’s life you can change and who will change your life, by simply meeting once a week, 52 weeks a year.

Accountability Partnerships (APs) are [Read more…]

The “Seminar Business Card” Design Revealed

Do You Measure Your “Critical Drivers” Daily?

The 3 Common Mistakes Info Marketers Make

Vote For The “Tagline” You Prefer Most

The “Countdown Timer”

Why Multitasking Destroys Your Productivity

Email “FROM” Lines vs. “SUBJECT” Lines

Got “Affiliate Signup” Access On Your Blog?

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