Is Your Marketing Hurting Your Business

Are you struggling to find a consistent marketing plan that feeds your spirit and authentically expresses who you are? I know the feeling; marketing is often the hardest part of our businesses but yet the most critical. 

I’m writing to let you know about a FREE call I am hosting on Tuesday, February 9^th on Powerful, Authentic, & Easy Strategies to Put More Soul Into Your Marketing, So You Can Serve More, Profit More, and Be More!” 

In this free call I’ll share with you some of the major shifts in turning points that dramatically changed my marketing and increased my results. With only a few simple changes in both mindset and perspective I quickly began to grow my business and it happened rapidly.

I believe you can do the same thing, and I’m super excited to share with you these powerful, authentic and easy strategies to get you started.

Join me on Tuesday, February 9^th at 4pm EST, 2pm MST, 1pm PST for a free call that will change the way you market your business.

Register and find out more details here at http://www.andreacostantine.com/soulcall

Social Networking Tips & Strategies for the Entrepreneur

When I recently surveyed my subscribers I was flooded with questions regarding social media, everything from how to make it effective, how much time to spend on it, and tips to automate. Here are a few tips and strategies that will help you your social media marketing efforts become more effective.

Can I link my Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In account? Yes, you can! You can link all of these accounts together, there are a few ways to do this. One of the easiest (and it’s also free too!) is www.hootsuite.com – it’s very easy to add all of your networks and then post in one place. This allows you to schedule and automate your status updates. The second free option is www.tweetdeck.com another tool I use daily. This doesn’t allow you to schedule your posts but you can see what’s happening in Twitter, Facebook, and Linked In all at the same time.

How often should you promote your upcoming events on social media and where? Personally, I post my events to all of the sites that I use: Facebook, Linked In, and Meetup. I also put them on my website. I generally start promoting them (lowers cost events) about a month in advance and remind people weekly at first, and then as we get closer to the event every couple of days, and finally every day for the last few days leading up to it.

What is a post of value on social networking sites? I encourage clients to use the 80/20 rule. 80% sharing information, resources, and inspirational messages or personal content and 20% marketing your services and your offers. What’s of value? Well, that’s for you to decide. The #1 rule is to keep your content related to your target market. Don’t try to talk to everyone, instead focus on the key people and share what they’d be most interested in. Me for example, I wouldn’t post information on being an employee, getting a job, or interviews because it’s not my target (soul) market.

How do I put together an effective social media strategy?  First, you need to know who you are marketing to – who is your target market? Too general of a target market makes for tough social media marketing. Second, create a plan and stick to it. Consistency is key here. Commit to 20 or 30 minutes a day and instead of just window shopping join in the conversation and engage your contacts.

How do I offer products and services in social media without sounding like an ad?  Well, if you follow the 80/20 rule above and you aren’t selling all the time, it’s okay to offer your services. A few tips though, in Facebook don’t sell to someone in your friend invite and don’t immediately sell to someone who you just friended.  In twitter, don’t use an auto DM to sell to new followers.

Evaluating social media – is it working? Here’s the thing, social media works – however, I don’t believe it’s an overnight cure to your marketing problems. It won’t bring you a flood of new customers overnight and it won’t fill your pipeline in 30 days. The key is consistency, it took me about 7-8 months of consistent social media marketing to start seeing a return on my investment. You have to build trust, and sometimes it takes a little longer in social media. Now that people know, like and trust me I have an easier time being successful in my social media marketing, but I caution – this isn’t an overnight fix. Give it time, it’ll work if done effectively!

I’d love to know what other questions you or what comments you want to share about these tips. And if you like this post, don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed.

Why a Prosperity Mindset is Essential for Your Business

Owning a business means that we take on many roles from the marketer, web developer, admin assistant, etc., but the one essential role that we must adopt in order to succeed in our business is the role of developing a prosperity mindset.

Have you ever met the entrepreneur who was once extremely passionate about the work they were doing, but somewhere down the road they had too many failures and now have trouble believing that they can be successful, that they can make money in their business, and can really thrive.

This mindset is detrimental to the entrepreneur for many reasons.

First, it actually repels clients and new business. Individuals with a poor prosperity mindset tend to have a negative undertone to what they are doing, perhaps they’ve even lost belief in their ability to create. Positive, prosperity focused individuals on the other hand completely exude confidence because they aren’t worried about getting clients to pay their bills.

Second, it takes away the “neediness” in your marketing. Freeing up the energy around needing clients allows you to actually be of service to others, trusting in the principles of prosperity and knowing that money comes from God but through people. This allows you to disconnect from needing clients, but creates room for more expansion because you are trusting in a higher source.

Third, it helps you followed inspired action instead of self-initiated plans. Having trust in an abundant Universe means that you won’t feel the need to put stuff out there that wasn’t truly an inspired action because you know that there is plenty for all of us. Inspired action leads us to what truly brings in results, and when you can clear the energy around a scarcity mindset this will completely open the door to abundance.

I’ve had trouble in this area myself, but over the past year I’ve learned to work on my mindset of prosperity knowing that it is just as essential as knowing how to market my business, and do all of the other roles, if not more important. Just recently I realized that I was being tapped to help people with this as well, seeing how intimately it ties into the success of your business. That’s why I developed the Prosperity Circle, a supportive group of like-minded people who are committed to increasing their consciousness and the consciousness of those around them to adapt a greater mindset of abundance in all areas of their life. I highly encourage you to check out the details of this program today, and join me on this incredible journey into prosperity! www.andreacostantine.com/prosperity

Hiring Out Your Social Media Marketing (And a few social media tips in general)

With social media being all the latest rave and the “wave of the future,” many people are turning to find outside sources to fulfill this sometimes time consuming marketing strategy.

Because this has been a service that I have offered to individuals, I wanted to check out some of the other people in the marketplace who are taking this task on, and alarmingly I found some scary stuff.

I wanted to write this so you knew what to look for, what to ask and inquire about, and how to do your due diligence so you don’t just get someone who is playing all day on social media and not truly strategic about it.

First, take a look at their personal profiles. Do they have a lot of connections? Are they active? Do people respond to what they say, are they in the conversation?  I’ve seen a lot of “Social Media Experts” who only have 200 friends on Facebook. This seems a bit ironic to me, but maybe they fall into the trap of doing it for others but not taking the time to do it for themselves. While this could be true, I’ll let you make the final call.

Second, what do you get? The other day when I was searching around I saw that one company charged $150 a month for one posting per day. Here’s the thing, one posting may day be good, but what else does that include. Are they getting into the conversation for you? Re-tweeting others stuff and acting like you? Or is this really just a one line post every day? Personally, I think you need at least two posts a day if not three. Social media moves so fast that people are often not seeing what you are posting – just be sure to keep that in mind.

Third, are they strategic? The more the merrier right? Wrong. It isn’t a race to the highest number of followers, friends, and fans – it’s about the quality of your connections. You can easily get connected to 10,000 people on twitter, but are they paying attention to YOU? Don’t get caught up in the popularity contest of how many, instead think about quality vs. quantity.

While there are no definite ways of tracking your social media return on investment, it does help to promote you and create brand awareness. If anything, (hopefully) it’s helping people define you as an expert and experts get noticed.

 

 

I started my business and the phone’s not ringing – now what?

It’s amazing that most of us started our business and through our extreme passion and excitement about doing the work we love, we somehow believed that just starting our business would make the phone ring. Unfortunately, it rarely, if ever works that way.

Despite how incredible your product or services are people simply don’t know you exist, just because you do. That’s why consistent and effective marketing is critical and even then it doesn’t all happen overnight.

The first thing you can do is go in with a plan and stick with it. Allow yourself room to change it if needed, but find some marketing strategies that you can do consistently whether face to face networking, social media, writing articles, or blogs and then do them.  (If you need help coming up with a consistent marketing plan and you live in Denver, check out my marketing workshop next week. www.andreacostantine.com/marketplan )

Let go of the outcome. As hard as it may be don’t allow yourself to get down when you do send out a blog, an email and a post and no one responds. Marketers have always said that it takes anywhere from 9 to 27 times of seeing something before they actually make a decision. That’s why it’s key to develop a prosperity mindset. (Enter link here behind those words www.andreacostantine.com/prosperity)

Seek support. The worst thing you can do is get stuck in your head, all alone and not see the opportunities that are right in front of you. When we don’t have the proper support to reflect back what’s really going on in our business then we get stuck. And being stuck isn’t a good place to be in. Gather up some friends, hire a coach, find a mentor – do anything to get that support.

Keep Evolving. Everything changes. Have you heard that quote, something like the only thing that never changes is that there is always change. This is so true, especially for entrepreneurs. Allow yourself to go with the flow and allow your business to lead you or really God/Spirit/Source for that matter.

Lastly, just remember the phone will start ringing but it won’t if you just keep staring at it. Take inspired action, have faith, and keep your dedication and perseverance high.

 

Some of My Favorite People From 2009

I wanted to share some of the incredible people that I was able to work with in some way throughout 2009. These people have all brought something incredible to the table and I’m delighted to share them with you.

Alexi Sebasttien; Rock Your Life Purpose: Alexi was a coach of mine for the first half of 2009, during that time I was   going through some very tough growing pains. Through working with Alexi I discovered how to more effectively share my message and uncover my lesson of apathy. Alexi helps people discover and live their life purpose at the same time as knowing how to overcome the one little thing that shows up over and over again (your life lesson). Mastering your lesson means mastering your purpose. You can check out Alexi’s work here http://tinyurl.com/bq4k2j

Sabrina Risley; Behind the Moon:  I met Sabrina late in 2008 and she proved to be my biggest power partner of 2009. A woman who knows how to make networking effective and who knows the power of referrals, she’s a definite giver. Her business helps small businesses network and grow their business using the motto “Grow Your Business By Helping Others Grow Theirs.” This year she has over 12 networking groups in the Denver area, plus referral groups which are similar to a leads group but without all of the mandatory requirements. Find Sabrina at www.behindthemooninc.com

Lisa Shultz, Women, Wine & Wellness: Here is another fabulous lady, introduced to me by Sabrina Risley. Lisa and I quickly hit it off mid-year and we are now partnering up on many projects one of which is an inspiring and empowering book of stories for women, by women. (You can find out more about that book project here www.andreacostantine.com/book). Lisa’s also a giver and an incredible networker. She knows how to acknowledge people, stay in touch, and pass referrals. She never ceases to amaze me how fantastic she is at being a go-giver! Her business women, wine and wellness is a networking group for women to connect and be inspired. Check out Lisa’s work at www.womenwineandwellness.com

These are just a few of the people who have been influential and inspirational to me in 2009, some of my other important people include my sister, Kimberly Costantine of www.thaiworksdenver.com, Julio Blanco of www.envisionlifeworks.com, Nan Elzinga of NuSkin, Christina Schultz of Core4, and many more!

What Matters Now? by Seth Godin (Free)

Guest Posting by Lynn Terry of ClickNews  

“More than 70 extraordinary authors and thinkers contributed to this book.

It’s designed to make you sit up and think, to change your new year’s resolutions, to foster some difficult conversations with your team”…

Free download:
What Matters Now

On this New Years Day I sat down to read the new anthology put out for free by Seth Godin just a few weeks ago. It’s a collective work, with a goal of getting it in the hands of 5 million people.

The free download is an 82-page PDF, titled What Matters Now, full of “things to think about (and do) this year”. Each page features a contribution from one author, some in text and others in drawings or images.

It is short, fun and completely engaging!

It is laid out in a way that is fun to flip through, and easy to print things that really stand out to you to keep for inspiration. There are tips for speaking, tips for being inspired and motivated, tips for setting and achieving your goals… it’s an incredible collection of work.

Here are more than seventy big thinkers, each sharing an idea for you to think about as we head into the new year. From bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert to brilliant tech thinker Kevin Kelly, from publisher Tim O’Reilly to radio host Dave Ramsey, there are some important people riffing about important ideas here. The ebook includes Tom Peters, Fred Wilson, Jackie Huba and Jason Fried, along with Gina Trapani, Bill Taylor and Alan Webber.

Lynn Terry is a full-time Internet Marketer with over 12 years of experience in online business and marketing. ClickNewz is where she shares news on the latest eBiz trends and marketing strategies, as well as her unique case studies, creative ideas & personal reviews… http://www.clicknewz.com/ 

The Customer Service Experience – Why It’s So Important Even in Your Small Business

Not too long ago I had to take my car into the dealership to get serviced. There was a recall and I needed some standard maintenance and I’ve always just taken it to a local dealership. I drive a Nissan, which is just a regular everyday brand of car but that’s beside the point.

I took my car in and was greeted pretty promptly and let them know that I would just wait to have it serviced, I’d brought my laptop and will take any opportunity at uninterrupted working time. So I ventured into the waiting room……iirkkkkkk. Stop right there. This is exactly where things went south.

The waiting room was decorated circa 1979. Old terrazzo-like floors, cheap office chairs, and bright fluorescent lights and blah-zah-ness. Nothing great at all, in fact it felt like an old car wash waiting room. I’d been there before, but not since my own desires to create exceptional customer service for my own clients. With this new perspective, I viewed the room in a different light….from that of a potentially satisfied or not-so-satisfied consumer. I glanced around to see the coffee that came out of vending machine and the CNN (constant negative news) glaring on the TV. 

Since I don’t watch the news at home, I’m surely not going to watch it now. I made a comment to the girl next to me that we were feeding our hearts with too much negativity and as her four year old played around the waiting room I asked if we could change it. Luckily, the allowed us to do just that.

As I started up my laptop to hop on the internet and check the email, I get a secured internet notice. I walk up to the blank faced woman behind the plexi-glass and ask for the password. Defensively, she states how “the internet doesn’t work in here.”  Um, excuse me?

And then it dawned on me like a flash of customer service lightning from above, this place doesn’t care about me!!!!

As soon as I realized that, I knew that this would be my last experience here, I wanted to quickly find a manager or write a letter explaining how bad the service was and as you could guess when I got my “rate your customer service” experience note through my email, I told them it was obvious they didn’t care about the customer and do you think they contacted me about this? Absolutely not and it’s been over a month since I wrote my little opinion down and hit send.

I can almost guarantee the manager at the dealership is thinking “sales are down, inventory isn’t moving so we can’t care about customer service, we are barely making it.”  And that’s EXACTLY why I am writing this.

You see, I am not a complainer. This isn’t even complaining, it’s simply pointing out the obvious situation and cycle of doom as I call it. The dealership business is slow and hurting, they have poor customer service. Because business is slow they think they cannot focus on customer service because they don’t have the profit margin/income too, so they don’t. So the customer service stinks, business doesn’t get better, people continue not to spend their money there…. Do you see the cycle?

Your business is what you make of it. You can tell yourself that you cannot afford to focus on customer service and continue to get the same results you’ve always gotten or you can slowly and steadily increase the customer service experience so people will start to notice that you care, come back over and over again, refer their friends and never go anywhere else….it’s a choice and it’s a choice a business owner needs to make.

The problem is that many entrepreneurs and solopreneurs think the customer service doesn’t matter in their business, but it does and oh boy does it! People notice when you care or when you treat them as just another number. You can start implementing sensational service as I call it and it doesn’t have to cost you anything. You can start with just a thank you phone call if the letter and stamp is just too damaging to your cash flow, or you can simply acknowledge people and recognize them.

Sensational service will differentiate depending on what type of business you have, but if you start finding ways to implement it I can guarantee that the lull that you’ve seen in the past will soon be no longer. Service does matter, but you’ve got to be consistent and genuine with it.  Don’t send one card and say “I’ve tried that.” Create a service system that you stick with and watch your business soar!!!!

One great way to stay in touch with your clients is to use a system like Send Out Cards, I started using this program over the summer and absolutely love it. It makes service simple and easy. If you haven’t tried it yet, try a free card on me! www.sendoutcards.com/75485

Should I Keep Focused Through the Holidays?

The holidays are a busy time of year for people personally, but businesses (outside of retail) can have a tendency to slip back and take a break. The question is do you take a break during the holidays or do you stay focused? Here’s the flip side to both, figure out what’s right for you and your business and where you are currently to decide whether or not a break or focus is the better answer.

A break through the holidays: pros & cons

People tend to let their guard down through the holidays. They let their normal routine, diet, exercise, and work slack for a bit as the end of the year nears it’s a time that we allow ourselves to indulge in the cycle of the season and resting allows for this sense of completion before we begin a new year.

If you find yourself feeling fatigued, burned out, or just mentally checked out it may do you and your business good to take a break and rest during the holidays. Put your projects and plans on hold and trust that the New Year will bring a renewed sense of energy and focus.

The pros to taking a break is that you could start the year completely refreshed and refocused allowing you to move ahead with greater clarity, vigor, and strength.

The cons could be that the break will escalate and tumble into the New Year. Sometimes when someone takes a break there is a harder time to restart and get back to working on the projects at hand. This could delay New Year plans and leaving you feeling behind the first few weeks of the year. If you need an extended break you may do yourself a lot of good by taking it, just make sure to complete the cycle and plan for a cutoff date to ensure you get back to sharing your business with others.

Staying focused through the holidays: pros & cons

While a physical and mental break can do a lot of good, staying focused and completing projects from 2009 can also be extremely beneficial. Since the last few weeks of the year are pretty quiet as far as meetings, appointments, and scheduled events it could be an excellent time to ramp up your focus, get things completed and put away so you can start 2010 with a clean slate and feeling completely caught up and ahead.

If you’ve got the energy to keep moving forward and find yourself excited at all the white space on your calendar, it may just be the perfect time to wrap things up and stay focused. When the New Year rolls around things will pick up rapidly as the majority of people will be getting started again.

The pros to staying focused include a jump start on 2010, feeling complete with 2009 projects, cleaning your slate, getting organized, and going into 2010 with a bang!

The flip side, or the cons are that you could risk burning out and when everyone else is rearing to go in January you could be needing a break. It’s important that if you push through and stay focused during the holidays you still allow yourself the time to reflect on the successes of 2009 and feel complete with the year end. Be sure not to push yourself, instead just stay focused, work lighter and more determined days  seeing as how you’ll have less distractions coming in!

Whatever you do, enjoy the holiday season and start 2010 with whatever choice that feels right to you!

Do You Want to Leap in 2010?

As entrepreneurs we can have a tendency to do everything on our own and fall into the trap of thinking that we can figure it all out, do it all (from admin, to bookkeeping to marketing), and then we wonder WHY is everything taking so long to come together?
The trouble is doing it all on your own is a trap. And while it is quite possible to get it all done working 80 hour weeks, skipping vacations, and wearing every hat – it’s a dangerous path that leads to doubt, worry and worse yet – burnout.

The biggest problem entrepreneurs make is delaying getting support in their business until they can truly afford it – meaning their business is bringing in enough money to pay for all of the support. And while I agree to this to some extent being on a cash only budget myself, I know the danger it can have on a business owner.

You see, this keeps you in the trap of doing it all on your own and pushing and pushing until you get your income up where you want it to be, but the truth is that if you continue to wear all of these hats, do it all on your own, and never get support you’ll be stuck far longer than you need to.

Support ranges in a variety of ways, from hiring a virtual assistant to handle the admin tasks and the daily to-do’s in your business, to getting a bookkeeper or accountant, or hiring a coach and joining a mastermind group.

In April of 2009 I joined forces with another colleague and formed our first mastermind group. I’d heard about the power behind them and what it could do for support in growing your business. We gathered a group of 6 committed individuals and started meeting monthly, in no time at all we were all on our way to where we needed to be and continue to grow to this day.

At the beginning of 2009 I started off in a bit of a mess. I had no clients, no money, and was questioning whether or not I made the right decision by continuing down my entrepreneurial path – but my intuition told me to stick with it and keep moving forward. By mid-year my business began to dramatically change, I started seeing results, getting clients, and profiting.

I contribute that largely to a number of things. First and foremost the mastermind group, which has provided me the accountability and encouragement to push myself to the limits. And I am not talking about the physical limits, I am talking about my fears. They were there to cheer me on and encourage me to keep stepping up to the plate in which I’ve done every time I heard the calling.

In 2009 I had my first speaking opportunities, recorded a product (coming out soon), hosted a two day live marketing retreat (the Soulful Marketing Experience), and formed my own mastermind group for my clients. Along with having monthly marketing coaching clients, teaching social media workshops, and hosting and being a guest on multiple tele-seminars and internet radio shows. This year has truly been a “game changer” for my business and I know that 2010 will bring more success and allow the opportunity to serve more people as I share my message with the world in a bigger way and continue to step up to the plate.

Seeing the magnitude of my own transformation this year, I am thrilled about the upcoming Soulful Service Mastermind in 2010 that begins next month. I’m devoting the majority of my time to my mastermind members and committed to seeing that they achieve the level of success that they desire in 2010. I’ve created two group options so I can serve more people. Starting in January there will be a Denver local group and a virtual group.

Both of these groups have an incredible amount of time with me and are designed to give you all of the support you need in 2010.

If you’d like to hear the call that I hosted last week about the mastermind group, you can register to receive a copy of the recording at www.andreacostantine.com/success – you will also get the applications for the mastermind group, which the deadline is in TWO days, this Wednesday December 23^rd.

I’m looking forward to serving this gifted community of entrepreneurs and hope that you’ll be one of them!

In Loving Service,

Andrea Costantine