Hitting the Streets

When it comes to effective real estate prospecting, I keep reminding myself that although there is great value in blogging, SEO optimization and the like, there’s really no way to get around the fact that you need to be out on the pavement, meeting folks, listening to them and, where the opportunity presents itself, finding ways to serve.  Oh, and along the way, you might even have a chance to help people with their real estate needs!

Part of the challenge to us fortunate, self-employed people is to avoid being too comfortable.

Homer at Home

It’s all fine and good to be able to sit around in your Homer Simpson lounge pants all day (for you ladies, that would be the Pink Bunnies) but the truth is, you need to get up early, get dressed like you were going to meet someone and start with a solid, positive routine.  We seem to think that just because we can’t be seen that people can’t tell how professional or unprofessional we are.   The other day I was on the phone with someone and as soon as the conversation began, I could tell that they were having a bad day (or maybe this was just the norm for them- not sure.)

In any case, you know when someone is glad to be talking with you and conversely, you can tell when they’d just as soon be playing their Nintendo.  Guess what, when you’re dressed like a slob and your hair is a mess, people can tell!  What I’m trying to get across is that it’s like Ricardo Montalban used to say, “When you look good, you FEEL good” and feeling good about how you are presenting yourself goes a long way toward connecting with a potential client!

[Via http://russjgordon.wordpress.com]

Diva Galore is in...

Is Hot and here to Stay

The new year will continue to expand with these digital styles where the ad represents power and trendy social influence. Be ready to see this style explode in popularity. If you a large corporate board, consider going out-of-the-box with this style. Hooks well with social media and captivating audiences….

Brand Guy Blog

[Via http://brandguyblog.wordpress.com]

4 Steps for Successfully Selling Photo Prints

Wedding photographers run hot and cold on whether they should offer inexpensive digital printing, or even compete in that arena.  Some argue to control all printing.  Others say to give images on disc to the customer.    Brian Mullins of Brian Mullins Photography offers these 4 steps to successfully selling printing in the digital age.  For him the clincher that works is an irresistible call to action that brings in the orders.   Printing In a Digital Age, from Brian Mullins’ blog

As a wedding photographer who prints a lot of his own work, I have a lot of other photographers say they think the market is dead for it. I wanted to, hopefully, explain how the market for selling prints is not dead, just greatly different then it was 10 years ago. Digital printing, cheap digital printing, is offered at every corner store. I highly encourage my clients to use these services for exactly that – cheap prints. However, cheap prints also have little color control, little to no quality control and the materials/inks they use are just what you think they are – cheap. However, professional labs or printing your own using pigment based professional printers is a great supplement to the corner store.

I offer my wedding, portrait & commercial clients high-end printing using custom paper and pigment based inks that have an archival lifespan of 300 years. Obviously my clients photos are extremely important to me so I have gone to great lengths to learn how to print my own so I have complete control of the quality, the materials and the end product.

How has my customer response been? See a few orders below (Received in one weeks time):

(A commercial Order)

SUBTOTAL: $1,022.95

SHIPPING & HANDLING: $0.00

SALES TAX: $79.28

TOTAL: $1,102.23

(An order from a wedding guest)

SUBTOTAL: $182.05

SHIPPING & HANDLING: $6.00

SALES TAX: $14.57

TOTAL: $202.62

(A social event order)

SUBTOTAL: $349.30

SHIPPING & HANDLING: $6.00

SALES TAX: $27.54

TOTAL: $382.84

So how I do it (i.e. – the good stuff):

1 – Talk to your clients. 

When talking with my current or potential clients, I find out initially if they are interested in prints from their event. This can be a casual conversation or a direct question, whatever works best with your style. I always want to discuss the difference in printing & professional finishing from a commercial lab vs your local Walgreens/Costco. They key areas I discuss are quality of the print (the professional finishing I do to ensure its quality), the additional options I can offer (paper types, inks, etc) and, most importantly, the materials used (I print my own with archival papers and inks giving me a 300 year print life).

2 – Give your client a way to order.

I use business cards with my logo on the front and instructions on how to access the images on the rear. These are then laid around at the site in different places where people can pick them up. I also keep a few on me for when people ask but I never, ever will hand a card to someone unsolicited.

3 – Have a good photocart setup.

I use Redcart but smugmug, photocart or any other solution will work. It needs to be personalized, easy to navigate with the ability to save favorites and have easy payment methods. I have a $25 minimum order amount on my cart that many labs require as well.

4 – Have a call to action!

Let me say this again.. GIVE YOUR CLIENTS & WEDDING GUESTS A REASON TO ORDER! When I first started doing this, my print sales were poor at best. A tip I read on the Digital Wedding Forum did made a HUGE difference. Offer a 25% discount within the first two weeks on all prints. I cannot stress this enough.. without this my gallery traffic was great but had very little in the way of actual orders.

None of this is rocket science and i’m sure it’s no big secret, but professional printing services is still (mostly) in the realm of professional photographers and if you are not offering this service to your clients, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to not only provide your clients professional grade prints, but a growth center of your business.

[Via http://photobiz-infocus.com]

Top Ten Easy Marketing tasks you can do now

Who says scientists can not sell? Here are 10 easy marketing ideas, from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology today in our monthly Marketing Action Group of a group of people:

1. Listen to (and pay attention! Ask) your customer's problems. They are the evidence that can help them solve these problems. They also for your article, voice and electronic communications theme. Did not invent these things – listen!

2. Write your plan and next year's sales call.You have the opportunity to work with hot next week's meeting? Writing, you will use to find out Who are the decision makers in formulating the Budget, the scope of the problem and how to ask them to take further steps. If you do not know how to do this, please give me an e-mail, I will help you through their thoughts.

3. Read the article marketing. Most non-market people who could not read through the marketing approach. Painless way to maintain the momentum, however, is a new article every week to read. Start here:http://www.turningpointemarketing.com/Free_Resources/Articles.html

4. Note that your marketing message around. See if you can pick WIIFM (What's in it for me?) And calls to action (you want to do). Practice thinking like a marketing.

5. If you want to manage others and work for your customers, your employees access to interested clients. In order to maintain fresh, and to demonstrate your commitment to customers. It also shows that customers have moreYour organization, and their sole representative.

6. Copies of these articles to your employees, ask them for the next meeting staff would be willing to understand the idea, leading to this statement. Ask the people to carry out a new task. Let us at the next session. Rinse, repeat.

7. Clause 3 or 4 questions of the investigation period is too short a dialogue with your target audience in a telephone interview about their struggle … What is a wish list of things …They want from you. Do not ask whether you want to buy your things. This is a task of a relationship, rather than selling. This provides much later. Ask others to cooperate with you to get two customers or potential customers and give them a call. Compare notes and discuss the outcome.

8. Think of a small solution, you can provide solutions to important issues. Small problems or small solutions. The key is to consider small. It was so scary that your customer "sample", and can be easilyThem to take the first step.

9. Oral practice positioning statement loud. To the mirror. In the car. In the elevator. If you do not know what is your positioning statement, which is a problem. Recommend me, I'll give you a hand.

10. This visualization thing one was successful. Really – is what to do professional athletes, speakers, performers and successful people all the time. Visualization, and now it will be.

The next time, when a scientist tells me that they can not be resolved,I know better. These ideas clearly proved that theory wrong!

[Via http://samplesalonflyers.wordpress.com]

Going Local: Have to Tap into Your Own Backyard and Find Local Clients

With all the talk about how BIG internet marketing and social media is for a business, we often forget that our own backyard contains plenty of hungry prospects looking for what you have to offer. The problem people come across though is where to find these people, and what backyard are they hanging out in – well if you know your market and have a good idea of who your “soul client” is the search shouldn’t be too hard.

First of all – to find local: network. Networking is an easy way to find prospects in your area. But choose wisely, you don’t want to end up at the Farmers Networking Meeting if you farmers are not your market. Find networking groups that attract your ideal client and go there. But remember, networking isn’t about selling your services it’s about building relationships.

Speak Locally. Speaking is another great way to reach the locals, if you can speak at the functions, associations, and meetings they attend or belong to you’ve just earned yourself a star position from being in front of the room. Speaking gives you instant credibility and is a sure-fire way of bringing in more clients.

Social Networking – Strategically! If local people are your buzz, be sure to use keywords that include your city and surrounding areas. Just because social networking is global, it doesn’t mean you have to be.

Partner up with key players. The fact is there are quite a few key players in every city, start hanging out where they do, initiate a conversation or a coffee meeting and see if there is a way to partner up and share in your resources. Key players are generally givers and have built a reputation on introducing others, connecting people, and growing their network. You never know, you could be offering the exact service they’ve been looking for.

These are just a few ways that you can grow your business locally, these also apply to national marketing strategies as well – but use them in ways that work best for you and your business.

Let me know what other ways you’ve found to strategically grow your local following.

[Via http://andreacostantine.wordpress.com]

5 Fantastic Facebook Fan Page Ideas to Learn From

So your business is on Facebook, and brand engagement is up thanks to some savvy social media strategy. You may even be interested in further distinguishing your brand by building a custom landing page for your account.

But what kind of value does a custom Facebook Fan Page offer? What are your fans looking for on a social network that they can’t get from your business website? For some insight, let’s check out how some big-name brands have stepped up their engagement by investing a little more TLC into their Facebook presence.

via 5 Fantastic Facebook Fan Page Ideas to Learn From.

[Via http://aaearhart.wordpress.com]

What to be excited about in Fedora 13

EVERYTHING!

No, the Marketing Team busted their butts [I actually was slacking off and don't think I contributed as much as I could have some I'm going to leave myself out of the celebration, there is still much work to do that I can take more credit for than I deserve ] and they have come up with a list of the coolest features that you can expect in Fedora 13 codenamed “Goddard” after “Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard (October 5, 1882 – August 10, 1945), U.S. professor of physics and scientist, was a pioneer of controlled, liquid-fueled rocketry. On March 16, 1926, he became the first person in the world to build and launch a liquid-fueled rocket” -wikipedia.

If you can’t tell from the artwork and the codename we are going for a rocket/space theme.

Here are the features broken down into groups based on who will be happiest to see it.

User: auto-print-drivers, langpacks, user management, color management,

network manager improvements, nouveau.

Dev: systemtap, python debugging, python3, netbeans

Sysadmin: authconfig ui, nfs, zarafa,

bfo, btrfs

Spins: moblin, soas, design, security

Here is the full list of features and how far along we think we are on them. It’s also a good place to do some reading up if you are wondering what all that mess above means.

[Via http://numberedhumanindustries.wordpress.com]