Alberta Business Marketing

Why it’s never a bad time to remember what your business is really about

Tags: business plan, Marketing Intel
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Nothing better than investing an hour with two of your best friends.  It is always great to have allies and friends across the globe who share the same mindset and goals in life.  This is what happened on July 28th, my good friend Daniel Gutierrez who hosts a business webcast each week on blogtalkradio.com invited me and my mentor Bob Burg onto his program.  Danny’s show is similar to what I do with the Ulistic Orange Files, a small business webcast focused on delivering practical business advice to small business owners globally.  I was blessed to be even consider by Danny for his show.

You can listen to Daniel, Bob and I by tuning into the recording of the show.

Besides listening to Bob and Danny speak on the Go Giver philosophies and the critical stratospheric laws of success.  I had 30 minutes to chat with Danny about social media and the future of online marketing.  Lots of stuff to cover and 30 minutes is hardly enough time to really dig deep into the key points that business must really look at in order to really hit a home run with social media and all their online marketing.

I did share with Daniel the importance of having your business plan and your marketing plan figured out first.  I may sound like a broken record here and I know I have mentioned countless times on my blog about the importance of your plans prior to moving to execution phase.  However, many still simply jump to execution and have no real business plan.

Another topics we discussed was the continued importance of meeting people face-to-face and how we can leverage social media and other strategies to enhance our overall business communication strategies.  Social Media doesn’t replace face-to-face, it enhances what we do today with our business communications and even those relationships outside of business.

I also shared with Daniel on the importance of your small business doing your homework before rushing out and hiring the first living or breathing social media consultant.  You need to do your homework and find the right fit for your business.

Thank You Danny and thanks Bob for being my partner in crime.

Tags: bob burg, Business, business plan, Business Success, Business/Finance, Daniel Gutierrez, Danny, Homework, Human Interest, Management, social media, social media consultant, Strategic management
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Why is football so popular?

Is it the brutal tackling, amazing catches and exceptional athletes?

This year I am volunteering to coach the Calgary Bantam Wildcats as an Offensive Line coach.  I played Defensive End when in high school, so it will be interesting to be on the other side of the ball for a change.  Football for those who follow this game closely must be approached in a strategic manner.  You can’t expect to take the field without a plan of how you are going to play the game.  The best teams throughout history have always used strategy to fight for every yard and to win championships.

Lately, I have been looking at social media from a very strategic approach.  I first started out with tactics and dismissed strategy, however as I mature as a business consultant who focuses on helping Canadian small business with Online Marketing, strategy is crucial to everyone’s overall success online.

Many Canadian, US and Tech firms simply attempt to leverage social media by going at it very tactically and I am not sure why online marketing often skips over the planning and strategy phase.  Perhaps it is the ease of access and even because it requires little or no financial investment to get started.  What a mistake as I have learned over my time in the industry.  Tactical is crucial during the execution phase however long before you send out a tweet, post an update on Facebook or write your first blog post you have to look at the strategical approach to social media.

Social Media is a relationship marketing tool and the best relationships are always part of your strategic plan.  Over the past few weeks I have spoken about the importance of a plan and what my friend Arlin talks about “The Four Plans That Change Everything“.

Do you have a business plan?  Many businesses don’t.

How about a marketing plan?  Nope, even more business don’t have a plan to execute their marketing.

Are you getting the results from your online marketing? Maybe it is simply a failure to plan.

Many businesses here in Calgary and across Canada are not getting the results they were promised by their social media consultant.  Why?  Because they have no plan to attack the market, just like in football…no plan, how can you ever succeed?

Yes, Social Media is exactly like Football.  You need to battle to develop every strategic relationship just like you need to take the field in football to win each series, each quarter, each half and then each game.

Need a hand planning your online marketing…give me a call 403.775.2205

Tags: 403.775.2205, Arlin, Business, business consultant, business plan, Business Success, Business/Finance, Calgary, canada, Defensive End, Facebook Inc, football, Internet Marketing, Management, Marketing effectiveness, marketing plan, Media consultant, Offensive Line coach, relationship marketing, relationship marketing tool, social media consultant, Sports, Strategic management, United States
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Nothing is more suicidal for a business than not have clear objectives and not having the plans in place to support you through your business journey.  My good friend and trusted mentor, Arlin Sorensen who guided me through my years as an IT Professionals talks about the importance of planning every day.  His basic four plans for business success is something I attempt to live by (doing an OK job with some).

I still run into many small businesses in Calgary with no business plan.  They have no clear objectives, they don’t know if they are on track and the worst thing is that they all have employees running around like chickens with their heads cut off.  Simply because the leadership team has no clear objectives, no destination in mind and no idea how they are going to get there.  Besides loosing tonnes of cash spinning their wheels they also run the risk of losing their talented staff.

Is this your business?

Is your approach to business this, let’s just shoot everything up against a wall and let’s see what sticks?  What falls to the ground we will dismiss and what sticks, “heck, let’s go for it”.  I would like to advice you, that approach may not be the best for you and your team.

Why do you come into the office each day?

Since my focus now in business is around your entire strategy when it comes to marketing your business online, I am going to practice what I preach and focus in on what I know.  However, I am also a small business owner and have been in organizations that didn’t have a business plan and people on the team were the “blind leading the blind”.  It is very frustrating.

Your online marketing must have clear objectives and be measurable.  Tweeting for the sake of tweeting may win you a tonne of followers on Twitter, but tweeting which is aligned to your business objectives may win you new business opportunities.  Do you see what I am getting at?  What is your blogging strategy, who does what and on what topics?  How do you know what you are doing is working?  Lots of questions to ask here.

Based on what Arlin has taught me throughout the years, I came up with four mandatory plans for online marketing success.

1. Your Business Plan – This is a must (fail to plan, plan to fail)
2. Your Marketing Plan – This is where you set all your marketing goals and where all marketing rolls up
3. Online Marketing Strategic Plan – What are the goals of your online marketing in relation to your entire marketing and business plan
4. Online Marketing Execution Plan – Who is responsible for what, what gets done and what needs to happen.

You can even break it down deeper that every aspect of your execution plan has a strategy and execution plan attached.  The message here is that you have to plan.  You must start with the end in mind and work back.  You need to constantly tweak based on your objectives and you can’t do that unless you measure what you are doing and taking ownership of your entire business strategy.

This is where our team at Ulistic comes in.  Enter, shameless self promotional piece…if your business simply needs some guidance on social media, online marketing, search engine optimization or any other marketing type of query answered…pick up the phone and call me at 403.775.2205 Option 2.

Tags: 403.775.2205, arlin sorensen, Business, business plan, Business Success, Business/Finance, Calgary, Management, marketing plan, online marketing success, search engine, search engine optimization, social media, social media part, Twitter Inc
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Unexpected events can deal a body blow to your business plan. How three Alberta companies coped with crushing setbacks. (Two even survived) by Andrew Mah In the summer of 2004, Rod Coulter was poised to become an entrepreneur. After 18 years toiling in greasy kitchens and dimly lit bars, watching and even helping friends and colleagues launch [...]

Tags: business plan, Management, Sales & Marketing, setback
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