JM Marketing Solutions, LLC

Using the ‘+’ for Your Biz

Julie Myers — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:20:02 +0000

Heard Chris Brogan talk at the Social Media Success Summit 2012 about Google+ for your biz.

Had to pass along some good nuggets to get you thinking. Me? I’ve been kind of avoiding it … mainly because it’s just one more social media platform to learn and spend time on.

But as I tell others: find what’s going to work for your business; that may include Google+ or it may not. At the very least I’m educating myself so that I can help others, like you, make that decision.

So, why might Google+ be good for your biz?

60% of Google + users log in every day.

80% engage on a weekly basis.

Okay, so you’ve got my attention …

Google+ … part of the Google family. Post publicly on your G+ page – whether it’s your personal or business page – and it seems to get indexed quicker into Google. That means you have a better chance of the #1 search engine finding you.
Using videos? What kind of comments do you get on YouTube? Share those same videos on G+ where there’s less of a teen user base. See if you start getting better quality of comments.
Search. Who you search + how many circles matters. +1 links rank higher in search results … adding a +1 button to your website means visitors can +1 your pages helping you get found.
Grow relevant audiences. Great place to not just focus on your buyers but also referrers. Grow the people you’ve done biz with in the past. Use circles to group those on your page making it easier to target the right message to the right audience.
Be yourself or your biz on Google+. One more way to connect. Best use right now of a biz page may be more as a billboard and business card. Another place to represent your brand – who you are, what you do – and how to get those conversations started.

What’s the biggest opportunity? Your ‘About’ page. Make sure it gives users the right information. Make sure people understand how to do business with you. What you do. Who you sell to. How people contact you.

While Google+ is quickly growing, one of my takeaways from Chris is that it’s not the number of users on a platform but more about how you reach the people you need to reach. Google+ may be one way for you.

Want to discuss the best ways to reach the people you need to reach? Let’s chat over coffee (tea for me!).

I’m still working on it, but love to connect with you on Google +

Credit to the sources:

Social Media Success Summit 2012
Chris Brogan, www.chrisbrogan.com

Google Tools for Your Small Biz

Julie Myers — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:50:26 +0000

97% of online consumers search for local businesses online before buying …

77% of consumers go to the internet to search … period.

And, 1 in 5 searches are local.

Google tools help your business get found …
locally and across the country.

Are you putting Google to work for your business?

Google Places. 20% of searches on Google are related to location. Google Places creates exposure for your business … gets you found on Google.com and Google Maps … and it’s free.

Make your business distinctive. Stand out. Add photos, video, promotional offers.
It’s where people can go to review and give you recommendations.

Adwords & Adwords Express. 94% of consumers research products online … 60% use search engines as an online shopping resource … Consider adding paid search as a way to get found quicker for those keywords you want to rank on.

While paid search advertising isn’t free, Google has made it easier to manage.

Focus on local search with Adwords Express. Show your ads only on Google and Google Maps in a certain mile radius around your business. And, once set up, you don’t have to manage it on a day-to-day basis.
Looking for wider coverage? Get regional, national or territorial coverage on Google Search and Google’s display network with Adwords. Plus its integrated into mobile devices.

Webmaster tools. Where the “crawling” occurs.

Want to find out how Google sees your site? Using this tool it’s easy to access reports on your pages’ visibility.
Learn more about links in and out of your site. Plus find out more about what queries drive traffic to your site.

This may sound like an ad for Google, but why not take advantage of some free tools and at the same time put the power of Google to work for your business.

But no matter what … Be patient. There are no silver bullets … it takes time for Google to see your site, to find you, to index it. The key: Set realistic expectations.

Let’s chat more over coffee (tea for me!).

How to Focus on What You Do Best

Julie Myers — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 20:32:39 +0000

Q1 is done … are you focused on the right things?

As a small business owner, I’m responsible for everything. From bringing clients in the door to billing all the way down to filing everything away. It’s a lot to balance. The things I need to do to grow my business are the very things that seem to get deep-sixed … but that’s changing.

I’ve learned to let go of “stuff” … focus on the pieces that make sense.

I’ve made my business a priority and equal (or almost!) to the clients I work with. If I don’t, then business stays static … a straight line. I put my business “stuff” on the calendar of activities alongside my clients.

The key: focus on what you do best.

Free yourself from the things you don’t like to do or, quite frankly, shouldn’t be doing.

Where do you start? It’s easier said than done, but start by asking some questions…

What do you spend your time on? Identify everything down to the most mundane thing.
What are the 3 to 5 things that you are awesome at? Where is it that you totally rock?
What are the things you dislike doing … that need to be done but get postponed?
What are you doing that generates income for your business?
Bottom line, how much are you worth an hour? What do you bill your time out as? When you think of it that way, should you be spending your valuable time filing?

Think delegation. Talk with your employees. Maybe this is the perfect time to rewrite someone’s job description … give someone the opportunity to grow and stretch their wings.

Or maybe its time to hire new or on a part-time basis. Or outsource to a contractor with the right skill set. I trained a client how to handle maintenance on her website. When it came time to update, she realized it wasn’t something she wanted to do so she hired it out … back to me.

Setting boundaries has enabled me to focus … its also liberating and lets me think outside the box. Making me more valuable to my clients. How about you? What will help you focus on growing your business?

The Arts Council of Johnson County

Julie Myers — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 08:55:37 +0000

Embracing its role as a “hub” for the Arts in Johnson County.

After a two-year conversation, it came down to a simplistic solution: a new website. One that enabled the council to better communicate with the Arts sector and speak to the value they bring to the community.

A site that would become more of a marketing tool, an extension of the council, to share and reach a much broader audience.
A site that would help push The Arts Council to the forefront and step into the role envisioned by the Board – a central resource, a “hub”, to the community for all things Arts-related.

The result: www.artsjoco.org

The Challenge

The Arts Council website portrayed more of a corporate look – very staid and professional – lacking the creativity, vibrancy and visual nature you might expect from an “arts” organization.
The site itself wasn’t meeting the needs of the core audience – artists, art educators and art organizations.
Key features were hidden or not easily found such as the Calendar of Events and the Donate button. And it was difficult navigating through the council’s main program pages, The Shooting Stars.

The Solution

Updated the brand identity to unlock the vibrancy of the council, including a new creative platform, logo and brand standards.
Created a message platform and defined the brand position, pillars and personality; marrying a more conversational tone with the new look.
Built a site structure to make it easier to find key information, made the resources and cultural activities sections more robust, and added a blog.

Creative Partnership

Project Lead: Randy Braley of Braley Consulting / Randy Braley Photography.

Creative Platform, Logo and Brand Standards: Clifton Alexander & Chase Wilson – Reactor Design Studio

Content, Page Layout and Messaging Platform: Julie Myers, JM Marketing Solutions

Website infrastructure: Caroline Braley

5 Reasons (And More) to Use LinkedIn

Julie Myers — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:32:47 +0000

Why use LinkedIn?

Lots of reasons … these were just the 5 that came to me first!

Connect with your current customers and reach out to prospects.
Announce new products and services.
Research companies and find people in your network who can help you connect.
Build awareness.
Establish your expertise and credibility … build a trust factor.

If that’s not enough …

LinkedIn is the largest network of business professionals … enabling you to “hang out” where your target audience is.
LinkedIn users focus primarily on business when on the site … the average household income is $109k per user with 45% of users being business decision-makers.
The primary reason business users and owners are on LinkedIn is for business development – making deals and making money.

And that’s just the beginning of why you’ll want to use LinkedIn …

What’s Your Goal?

Best practice is to determine what your goals are before getting started. Have a strategy. Know what it is you want to get out of LinkedIn, who you want to meet and why.

Where Do I Start?

The first place to start is in setting up your LinkedIn Personal Profile. These are just a few best practices and recommendations that I hear quite frequently.

Your Personal Profile IS Your Professional Identity.
Be clear about who you are, who you help and how you help.
Optimize your profile … use appropriate keywords that are relevant to your specific business.
Connect with people … when people find you, you want to appear to be well-connected.

One More Tip

Fill out your profile completely. Having an incomplete profile – no picture, no summary, no recommendations, for instance – tends to reflect poorly on you and your business. Those that find you may assume you aren’t really there to participate.

LinkedIn … What a great tool to use, especially for making those business connections.

Find me on

How to Find Quality Leads in Your Sales Funnel.

Julie Myers — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 16:25:48 +0000

So, you’re generating leads for your business. Bringing business into the sales funnel. Are you assessing the quality of the leads before you follow up or assign someone to follow up?

Being from a direct marketing background, its’ one thing I learned early in my career … not all leads are the same. In fact, some may not even be a real lead … maybe they just wanted the freebie you offered.

So, if all leads aren’t equal
how do you prioritize them
for yourself or your sales staff?

Start by asking a simple qualifying question.

When does this company – your prospect – plan to start work or need your product or service? Is there some sort of foreseeable start? Or are they just really gathering information.

This simple question helps you start to define the quality of your leads by categorizing them into groups such as:

no time defined,
18 to 24 months,
12 to 18 months and
0 to 12 months.

You start to get a picture about where you might want to focus your time. But you could still spend a lot of time working the wrong leads. So, within these groups ask more qualifying questions … questions specific to your business, your lead time, where someone might be at in the buying process. Questions that will help you determine a lead’s quality.

Each qualifying question helps you determine which leads merit the most of yours and your sales staff’s time.

Coming up with a series of questions to qualify your leads can be fairly easy. It’s taking the time to do it and put it into practice that tends to be an obstacle. Keeping the process on the simpler side will help.

Now that you’re thinking about the quality of your leads, next step is how you plan to work them. Do you have a process in place? If not, let’s chat over coffee (tea for me!).

Face-to-Face with The Studio 56

Julie Myers — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 15:17:43 +0000

Social media is a great tool for your business, but I so do enjoy sitting down and talking with someone face-to-face when I have the chance. Gives you a chance to experience a person’s personality and get a sense of how well you might work together.

The one hard thing with face-to-face is finding a time to meet. Been trying to get together with a photographer I met last year, Diana Foster of The Studio 56. We connected through Facebook, which is a good place to start … and after a couple of reschedules, FINALLY we succeeded!

And I’m so glad we did, too! I had the chance to see her studio and her work … lifestyle photography and beautiful sets of fine art card designs using her photography. But the best was just having the conversation … learning more about her, her family, how the arts have played an integral role in her life, her philosophy around her photography.

She also shared with me some of what she does to build her business. She’s built a following with her blogs and on Facebook and Twitter as well. And Pinterest appears to be very promising, too.

She understands the concept of giving, of educating … helping you be a better photographer or giving ideas on how you might use photography personally or professionally. She’s got a wonderful sense of style that is calming and welcoming.

I walked away with several ideas bouncing around my head. And I also have a new resource to tap into when I hear of anyone who may need Diana’s talent.

In just one meeting she created a follower. How about you?

One-Word Theme for 2012: Focus

Julie Myers — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:33:22 +0000

I’ve been inspired these past few months by Facebook guru, Mari Smith. She starts the year by choosing a one-word theme to help guide her throughout the year. Thought I’d do the same and see how it goes!

So, for 2012, my one-word theme is: FOCUS. I thought and thought about it and everything just kept coming back to this word, this focus.

What will I use this for? What’s my plan?

Focus on better understanding the types of individuals and businesses I work with. Knowing what it is that I do best and supplementing that with the right virtual team to support my clients.
Help guide my decisions. Not getting distracted by those “shiny” objects. Knowing what my goals are and staying on track.
Focus on myself, my business. Staying top of mind. No more deep-sixing things I need to do to grow my own business.
Define business processes. Ensure I serve my clients in a consistent manner leading to higher productivity on my part.
Staying on top of current trends. What I need to know or learn to help others,

My ultimate focus: To help you put the pieces together to break through the clutter. Be found by those that need your product or service. To enable you to focus on operating your business.

What’s your theme for 2012? Maybe it’s not a theme, per se, but what are the key factors … those key words … that are driving your business plan? What will help you focus on growing your business?

One-Word Theme for 2012: GROWTH

2012 … Planning Your Ideal Year

Julie Myers — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:47:38 +0000

It’s a new year! Time for new beginnings … clean out the old, dusty stuff, freshen up the tried and true, and add something new to the line-up!

Here’s a few ideas and statistics from recent blog posts I found interesting … hope you do, too.

Digital Marketing Budget Trends for 2012 (Infographic)
Looking for a little guidance on allocating your budget? Take a look at this infographic. Great visual aid … In general, online marketing is averaging 17% of a marketing budget overall. How much have you allocated to yours this year?

Just a few stats from the graphic that grabbed my attention.

35% of today’s consumers spend 180 minutes or more online today
20% of Google searches by month are for local businesses
57% of internet users search the web everyday
46% of daily searches are for information on products or services
By 2015, projected ad spending is $50 Billion – with mobile ad spending projected to be over $1.1 Billion
Over 75% of marketers plan to include mobile in their budgets … because in 2013, smartphone users are predicted to reach over 60 million
57% of companies cited company blogs and LinkedIn as the source for generating the most business

Source of blog and infographic: 6SMarketing

10 Trends for Online Marketers in 2012
My thoughts and takeaways from this:

If you’re not yet using it, find opportunities to test mobile in your marketing line-up.
Learn more about tablets and how they might fit into future marketing efforts for your business.
Small biz owners should continue to invest in nurturing and expanding their email lists and building a customer database.
Consider whether you need a way of accepting payment online.
Location-based apps like foursquare.com haven’t been a favorite of mine; however, I really like the frontflip.com app. Its fun – you scan the flip code, it unlocks a digital scratch card, you get to scratch and possibly win a prize.

5 Internet Marketing Trends for SMBs to Watch in 2012
Good post for the small biz owner to check out.

Small biz needs to be able to adapt to new ways of reaching customers.
Online reviews where the consumer is able to rate the service and product are not only a key source when gathering information; they are fast becoming more of an expectation.
Look at cloud computing alternatives. Dropbox is a great example. I use it with clients … easy way to share photos without clogging up my inbox, great place to store the images and so easy to access, too.
Happy to see this article point out site security for the small biz. It can happen to any size company and does. Changing passwords can seem like a hassle, but it can help protect you. Be aware – phishing scams or malicious emails happen all the time.

A fave blog of mine is Social Media Examiner with 30 Social Media Predictions for 2012 from the Pros
This blog post is loaded with ideas! Just a couple that are on the top of my list.

Tip #6 from Nichole Kelly. Look for and develop sustainable ways to create content. Tip #8 from Lewis Howes tells us consistency and unique content are key.
YouTube is coming more to the forefront (Tips #12 – Paul Colligan; #13 – James Wedmore). Video is engaging and can be lots of fun, too!
Tip #16 from Stephanie Sammons. “Find and focus on the tools that can make you more productive and competitive.”

What trends and predictions are you planning for? What are the new things you’re adding to your marketing line-up? If you need assistance in figuring out what to stop, start and continue, let’s chat!

6 Resources for Your Small Business

Julie Myers — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:51:45 +0000

What are good resources you’ve found in the last week? the last month?

Had a chance to pick up resource tips at a recent networking lunch. Wide range of suggestions offered up. So thought I’d share.

Zite. Free, personalized iPad magazine that understands what you like and gets smarter every time you use it. Check it out when you have a minute.
Referral / strategic partners. Find those offering complimentary services or products and develop a business relationship. Or ask others to be on your own strategic business marketing advisory board.
Vision boarding. Visualize your goals by creating a board with images relating to them. I’m told this is a real incentive to helping you reach your goals. See it and it will become real.
Local small business office. Find great resources to help you run your small business. The ones in Kansas and Missouri offer free counseling to small business owners.
Join.Me. So easy to use! Loved sharing my desktop with a client to do a show & tell on how to use the WordPress dashboard.
SallyAnne Design. Local Kansas City graphic designer. Able to look at my clients’ files, clean them up into more effective marketing pieces, and help get them print ready in no time … whew!

What would you add to the list?