Twitter, Flickr, blogs, Facebook, Youtube, Linkedin,
Squidoo, Stumbleuponit, Digg, Delicious, Slideshare and a thousand other
Internet based social media have suddenly appeared and left marketers
with a myriad of new options, too many on which to get a handle, and
very little know-how.
Marketing managers are trying to find the business
rationale for putting resources into social media marketing. Most
companies that are wrestling with the Internet in general, and social
media marketing in particular, are still stuck in the old marketing
paradigm consisting of interruption marketing where they throw cash at
adverts that have massive scope but only has real relevance to a tiny
percentage of their actual target market.
More and more consumers are rebelling against
interruption marketing and, with the innumerable tools available today,
can screen them out. Today's consumer wants relevant information in a
specific format. Knowledgeable companies are embracing the internet and
all its components, including the ubiquitous social media. Those that
haven't considered social media marketing risk ending up in marketing
purgatory - having no visibility and no relevance to their target
markets despite budget spent on marketing.
Why use social media?
Internet advertising sales in the UK overtook television
advertising for the first time early in 2009, making it the nation's
biggest advertising medium, according to new research conducted by the
‘Internet Advertising Bureau' and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Internet
advertising sales rose to £1,75 billion (about R19,4 billion) giving it a
market share of 23,5%. TV advertising dropped into second place with a
21,9% market share. The UK's advertising market has experienced one of
the world's most aggressive expansions, and this is due to the level of
the increased usage of Internet based marketing, the main driver of
which having been search engines, particularly Google.
The numerous reasons why companies should consider social
media include:
Rapid brand building online;
Generating quality sales leads;
Building a database of qualified prospects and
regularly communicating with them to create top-of-mind awareness with
decision makers in the target market.
Social media can be very successful but it is not just a
matter of having a website presence and hoping that your target audience
is going to stumble upon it. Social media has to be planned as part of
the total media plan and actively executed. Care has to be taken to use
social media as a tool to communicate with the right people who will
make buying decisions.
"The trick to being found on the internet is to have
relevant keywords that your target market is typing in and to have high
rankings on the top search engines, Google in particular. More than 60%
of searches are conducted through this search engine. And, if your
company isn't on the top 10 of the search engine rankings for your
keyword phrase, you're losing out. Studies have revealed that if your
website is number one on Google for your particular keyword phrase,
you'll get a 27% click through to your site and if you're number two, a
mere 12%. Number ten, gets you just over 2% clicks," says business
generator, Jacques de Villiers, a specialist in social media and
Internet marketing.
How to get into the ‘Top Ten'
In order to get a top 10 ranking on Google, and
ultimately to claim the number one spot, you will need to get other
websites to ‘vote' for your company's website. In other words, the more
relevant websites your URL is on, and the more popular they are, the
more chance your company has of claiming a top ranking. But, it is
difficult to get links onto popular websites. It is time consuming and
often doesn't yield enough return on investment in relation to the time
spent. Social media can solve this problem as links back to your website
can be created for free on a daily basis.
The cornerstone of every social media marketing campaign
is a blog. A blog can be created and posted everyday with a link back to
the website. That's 365 links every year. This will multiply when there
are teams of people blogging every day turning that into thousands of
links. A free blog can be set up in less than 10 minutes through
www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com. Some blogs can be attached to the
company website, resulting in every blog posting creating another page.
It is now also possible to brand a blog with the company logo and give
it a URL of choice.
Another criterion for getting great rankings from Google
is the size of the website. The bigger the website, the more weight it
has according to Google, its mandate being to present relevant content
to its audience. If the website becomes a massive resource of relevant
content, it'll move up in the rankings. Google also looks for activity
on the website. Therefore, adding at least a page a week to the website
will have a substantial effect on where it is listed.
Be consistent
However, it is important to have clear social media
policies in place to ensure one consistent message.
Press releases could be posted on the blog using tools to
ensure a wide spread of the article across the internet. Some of these
tools include Twitter (www.twitter.com),
Linkedin (www.linkedin.com)
or Facebook business pages (www.facebook.com). Suddenly, one
article will result in three links back to the website. In addition, you
can film someone talking about the key points of the blog post and get
it onto Youtube (www.youtube.com),
the second biggest search engine in the world which is owned by the
biggest search engine, being Google.
Although finding the right social media vehicle for your
company can be overwhelming, the trick is to dip your toe into the water
and take on one a month. This way, it is possible to build a lasting
social media strategy that will directly reach decision makers in the
correct target market. A good social media strategy can see your brand
growing innumerably and the generation of many appropriate leads.
About the author Chris de Villiers is the executive director of the Marketing
Association of South Africa. The Association endeavours to ensure that
the marketing industry speaks with one voice on matters of regulation
and legislation, and promotes the professionalism, credibility and
authority of the industry. For more information, call +27 (0)12 844
1123, email info@marketingsa.co.za
or go to www.marketingsa.co.za.
I spent many a Christmas holiday on my grandfatherʼs farm in Loeriesfontein, 100 kilometres from Calvinia, in the Northern Cape, South Africa. The farm was typical of most farms in the hot and dusty rain-deprived Karoo. It was unrelenting, unyielding and fit only for sheep, ostriches and the toughest human. Not much grew on it except quinces, the hardiest of weeds and the toughest of shrubs.
When I looked at my grandfather, the craggy lines spidering across his face told the story of hardship and suffering. And, sometimes in an unguarded moment, heʼd drop his pose and let me look into his piercing blue eyes and into his soul. Even at a young age I could fathom the undercurrents that that ripped through his soul - regret, hopes dashed, dreams downscaled and sorrow for potential unfulfilled.
I remember sitting on the verandah with my grandfather at the end of dayʼs play. Watching the sun set over the majesty that is the Karoo. Him with a brandy and Coke and a cigarette dangling from his lips and me, sipping homemade ginger beer. This was a time for reflection for him. Sometimes when we sat together, weʼd see a wall of rolling dark clouds flooding out sheets of rain, 50 kilometres away as the crow flies. It seemed to fence us in, the lightning strikes keeping us corralled in our little space in the world.
Every so often a couple of errant raindrops carried by a gulf stream wind would splutter onto the verandah. This would give my grandfather cause to look up to the heavens with hope in his heart that the rain would finally bless his farm and his family. Almost every time his hopes were dashed as the rain disappeared like a mirage in a desert. Heʼd look into his glass, sigh and take another sip of brandy. The drink and smoke at the end of a dayʼs work seemed like his only pleasure in life. That, and playing rummy with me after church on a Sunday.
My grandfatherʼs farm was a typical Karoo farm, on the edge of the rain. His farm had massive potential to grow any number of crops. But the rain fell just out of reach from where he farmed. He knew that if the rain would just fall on his farm, it would be an outstanding success. But, it seemed that he was always destined to be at the edge of the rain, never able to claim the riches and success that were rightfully his.
Iʼm not saying that there was never any success. There were islands of happiness that popped up in a sea of struggle. Then everyone was excited. Grandmother could buy a new dress from the shop and not have to make her own. I could go to the local shop and buy real sweets. A delightful change from the dried fruit that was my sweet staple. These islands of success and happiness were rare and fleeting. But those rare and fleeting moments were vital to grandfatherʼs survival. They gave him hope and kept him in the game. And because of those moments he never gave up on his family and on his goals, as downscaled as they were. He died at the plough, bent but never broken.
It has occurred to me that many of our lives are like that Karoo farm. Weʼre on the edge of the rain. We can see and taste the rewards that life offers us. We just canʼt seem to get them, can we? We know that we have all the potential in the world. We know that if we step out of the desert into the rain, weʼll get the sustenance we need to succeed. Most of us never get into the rain, do we? Itʼs almost as if weʼre boxing in a weight class above our own. We go through the motions, slogging and slaving, hoping for that break that will change our lives forever. Our squandered potential fuels our disappointment even further leading us to live lives of quiet desperation.
Have you ever asked yourself why it is that even though you work yourself to the bone and do things right, you still donʼt get the life you want and deserve? It must have occurred to you that there must be an easier way. Iʼve posed four questions that I hope will raise an internal debate in you and get you to pay attention. You and I know it is when you donʼt pay attention to whatʼs happening in your life that you feel serious pain.
You donʼt know why youʼre here
To get absolute clarity in your life, you need to know what your purpose is on this earth. Youʼve got to start living on purpose. Too many of us have no idea what we are meant to do with our lives and leave ourselves open to the vagaries of fate. You may be one of those souls that finds it exciting to live in a whimsical fashion, with unpredictability as your partner every day. Itʼs just not a great strategy to help you find direction in your life. Because once you know who you are, what you stand for and what youʼll accept and not accept, life becomes a lot simpler. Your purpose can become your North Star, always guiding you in the right direction.
How do I find my purpose, you may ask? Thatʼs not an easy one, is it? Youʼve got to spend time with yourself and take a deep, introspective look at who you are and how you want to contribute. Hereʼs the nub of any purpose statement - your purpose is not to be happy. Your purpose is to make a difference in the lives of those around you. Because, it is only when you are making a real difference do you become truly happy.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to discover your purpose first before embarking on any kind of goal-setting exercise. Once you have your purpose all your goals will fall into alignment.
My purpose is: To help people live lives of adventure, destiny and purpose through my God-given talents of thinking, writing and speaking. I fulfill my destiny by inspiring people through my blogs, my writing, my keynote addresses, my seminars and my books. Every goal I set is aimed at achieving my purpose. When I make a difference in the lives of my family, friends and clients, Iʼm happy, fulfilled and contented.
Finding your purpose gives you the “why?”. One of the biggest motivators in your life is to have a “reason why?”. Why am I doing this? Why is this important to my family? Why is this important to my clients? Why is this important to my country? Viktor E. Frankl in his book, Manʼs Search For Meaning made a strong case for having a “reason why?”. Frankl, an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist was incarcerated in the Nazi concentration camps. He decided to study why some of the inmates seemed to succumb quickly and why others survived in one of the harshest and most inhumane environments ever devised by man. The short answer is that those that survived the Nazi concentration camps had a “reason why?”. They had an overriding goal that kept them going. It may have been to see their children again, to stay alive to bring their Nazi jailers to justice or any of a dozen reasons.
You donʼt know what you want
Once we have a “reason why?” ... we need to find ways of achieving it. The reality is that most of us donʼt really know what we want. We think we do, sort of. It is normally some kind of fuzzy Utopian ideal, isnʼt it? I want more money. I want to be happy. I want a nice house. I want a beautiful car. I want to live at the coast or in the mountains or maybe Monaco. I want a great relationship with someone whoʼll love me. I just want to be happy. And so on. It is exactly this kind of fuzzy, non-specific thinking that will get you less than desirable results. Until you get clear on what it is you really want, youʼll always be at the edge of the rain. You have to get real and specific about what it is you want. Once you crack that code the rain edges nearer to you.
How do you get clear on what it is you really want? Pick a day and closet yourself away from any interruptions - mobile phone, family, friends and work. Pretend that you have unlimited time and money. What would you do? What would you buy? Who would you meet? What car do you want? Write down a dream list. Donʼt be judgmental and say, “I couldnʼt get that”. Just write it down.
Once youʼve got your list, categorise it into short and long-term goals. I want to retire with R5-million cash in the bank is a long-term goal. I want to lose exactly 10 kilograms is a short term goal. Then, set SMART goals to achieve them (Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant (to your purpose) and time-based).
You donʼt believe that you deserve success
I believe that the biggest obstacle keeping us at the edge of the rain is that we donʼt believe that we are worthy of success and happiness. At the heart of this lies our self- image and self-esteem. Youʼve probably heard it more than a dozen times in your life, “Success is an inside job.” Well, itʼs true, isnʼt it?
Iʼll put it to you that whatever the circumstances in your life right now, youʼve created it. In fact, youʼre exactly where youʼre supposed to be right now. Your self-esteem and self- image are thermostats that regulate the temperature of your life. When you go above your perceived potential and worth, your thermostat will drop the temperature to what it has been set at. Letʼs say that 100 degrees is super hot (equate that with wealth, happiness, success, health and the like) and 0 degrees is really cold (equate that with failure and misery). Letʼs say that you peg yourself at 50 degrees. If you do this youʼll always get 50 degrees results. If you go over the 50 degree mark, to letʼs say, 60 degrees, your thermostat will kick in and drop you back down to 50 degrees ... your expectation zone and comfort zone. And when you get back into the zone, youʼre happy arenʼt you? The results arenʼt exactly what you want, but theyʼre results that fit into your view of the world and the value you place on yourself.
Let me give you an example. Imagine that you earn R5 000 a month. You decide to try your luck at a casino and win R5 000. Thatʼs amazing and can really help you. Guess what? Your car breaks down and you have to repair it. Guess how much it costs? Thatʼs right R 5 000. Your thermostat kicked in and brought you down to the level of your belief. Until you start getting a serious belief that you are worthy of success, youʼll always start getting the same results. I canʼt say it better than Proverbs 23:7, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”
Iʼve always battled at differentiating between self-image and self-esteem until I came across a book by James Arthur Ray called Harmonic Wealth. Ray says that self-image is the way you think about yourself and your world. Self-esteem tells us how we feel about ourselves and our lives.
Other people helped script your self-image. Most of the scripting happened in childhood, didnʼt it? It has been said that from babyhood to around six years old weʼre in a brainwave state called Alpha. In this state we absorb information like a sponge. Who did we hang out with up until six? Our parents. Whether we like it or not, our parents are largely responsible for the way we turned out, arenʼt they? Whatever they told you, you absorbed and believed. If you had empowering parents who were focused on building a positive soul, youʼll probably find your view of the world is one of abundance. Of course, if you had a more stunted beginning, with parents whose pendulum swung more to the negative, your self view and worldview will be more defeatist.
Thus, the way you feel about yourself (self-esteem) is in direct correlation on how you see yourself (self-image).
Remember, even if you were brought up in a negative household with parents who didnʼt have the skills or knowledge at the time to empower you, you still have one thing going for you: Choice!
Og Mandino, in his book, The God Memorandum said: “I gave you one more power so great that not even my angels possess it ... I gave you the power to choose. With this gift I placed you even above my angels ... for angels are not free to choose sin.”
In my opinion it is a sin to choose not to live up to your potential. Even if you had shattered childhood, it is past ... choose to be a success rather than a failure. Choose to live a life of abundance rather than a life of lack. Choose not to follow the herd into mediocrity.
Learn from this apocryphal story . Two brothers were interviewed. One was a criminal, rotting in jail and the other was a successful, respected pillar of his community. When asked why he had turned out like he had, the brother in jail said: “With a father like mine, what did you expect?” It appears that the father was a total degenerate who had also spent time in jail and when it came to his children, he wouldnʼt have won a prize in Dadʼs Weekly. When the successful brother was quizzed as to why he had turned out like he did, his answer was: “With a father like mine, what did you expect?” Thatʼs the power of choice.
So, choose to hang out with the high quality people in your life. Choose to read inspirational books that will light up your path as you make your way through life. Choose an attitude of joy, abundance, appreciation and gratitude rather than one of desolation, despair and disaster. Choose not to let the challenges in life wear you down but rather shine you up like a beautiful diamond.
Choose to believe that you are worthy of having your heartʼs desire. Because you are.
If you still find this to be a hard sell, choose to start counting your blessings. Have an attitude of gratitude because whatever your situation is now, you still have a lot to be grateful for, donʼt you? You have more or less 100-million receptors in our eyes and 24 000 fibres in each ear - at the very least, be grateful for your sight and your hearing.
And, choose to grow. You probably already know that your results will always level out to the degree of your growth. If you donʼt grow in intellect, skill, self-confidence and stature, youʼll keep attracting the same results to yourself.
You donʼt want success badly enough
Anybody who has read anything by motivational guru, Anthony Robbins will have heard him say that there are only two things that motivate us in life: Avoidance of pain and achievement of pleasure. Most of us are more motivated by avoidance of pain, arenʼt we? We make sure we earn enough money so that we can pay our bond each month, pay the
kidsʼ school fees and so on. We know that if we lose our job that most of us are one pay cheque away from bankruptcy. This is what I call a fear motivator. We should rather look at pleasure motivation to sustain us. The attitude should be, “If I earn more money, I could have a better lifestyle for me and my family.”
Remember, that what you focus on is where your energy will go. Or as psychologist, Carl Jung put it, “What you resist will persist.”
If you want to succeed in your life, you have to be prepared to put in the work. If you donʼt take some kind of action towards your goals, no amount of visualisation and positive thinking is going to make it happen.
Once youʼve found your purpose and the goals that align to that purpose, youʼve got to get off your bum. Youʼve got to do the work. Youʼve got to put in the hours because nothing worthwhile ever came easy, did it? Top sports stars have a phenomenal work ethic. Most of them sacrificed a lot to get where they are. Dan Millman, ex-Olympian gymnast said, “Discipline brings excellence and excellence brings freedom.”
If youʼre a student, youʼve got to put in the work ... you have to study to do well. If youʼre a sales person, youʼve got to make phone calls every day and see prospects if you want to be a massive success. By working, we create more opportunities for ourselves; we get to pay ourselves more. But, most of us miss out on the opportunity and privilege to work because we donʼt have a compelling enough purpose and irresistible goals. When our purpose and goals are tepid, I guarantee you weʼll be lazy and uninspired. I love what Thomas Edison said about work: "Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
Take the Plunge
Make this the crucible moment that you get out of the edge of the rain. Take time to discover why youʼre here, what it is you really want, believe that you are worthy of success and work hard to get it. If you do that you will have a life of adventure, destiny and purpose. Take the plunge and live the life you were destined to live.
The Business Generator, Jacques de Villiers is a professional speaker, consultant and trainer specialising in employee motivation, marketing, public relations and sales. For more information or to sign up for the free 'Marketing and Sales Strategies' newsletter, email jacques@jacquesdevilliers.com.
For resources take a look at
NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to jacques@jacquesdevilliers.com
Stromatolites probably don't mean much to you. But they should.
It's thanks to these blob-like "corals" that we exist. The only trick a Stromatolite has is to produce tiny bubbles of oxygen. Bubbles
are produced by primitive algae-like micro-organisms called
cyanobacteria, which live on the surface of the rocks - about three
billion of them to the square yard - each of them capturing a molecule
of carbon dioxide and a tiny beat of energy from the sun.
The by-product of this simple process is the faintest puff of oxygen.
For two billion years this is all the life there was on earth. But in
that time Stromatolites raised the oxygen level in the atmosphere to 20
percent - enough to allow the development of other, more complex life
forms: like us, for instance. What's this got to do with you and me? Everything.
The lesson I've taken out of this is that even the smallest thing we do has an effect. Energy is neither created nor is it lost.So,
no matter what you do: marketing, prospecting, telephoning, making sure your
proposal is 100% correct, networking, setting goals, seeing people,
educating yourself, spending time with your children, being gentle on
yourself - it all has an effect.
Sometimes it seems as if our efforts aren't having an effect. But they do, no matter how small. So, in the words of Winston Churchill, "Never, never, never, never give up." I got the information on Stromatolites from Bill Bryson's enchanting book about Australia, Down Under(pg 387). This book finally puts to bed that Australiais just like South Africa (its not and Australians aren't like us). If you haven't already discovered Bill Bryson, you should. One of the most entertaining writers I know.
When Jacques de Villiers is not cribbing from Bill Bryson, you'll find him training, consulting and speaking.
NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online
as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the
author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to
jacques@jacquesdevilliers.com
I'm privileged to attract great clients to me. One of them is one of South Africa's truly inspiring business motivational speakers, Callie Roos. Every time I hear him speak or have a meeting with him, I go away changed for the positive. Below is an article that he wrote called On Track.
It was during my years in the South African Special Forces that I learned to track for the first time. In those days I was honoured to be taught and coached by some of the greatest trackers and survivalists this continent had to offer. Never did I realize that one day I will use those experiences and it will become an integral part of one of the most powerful metaphors that I would use for both the journey of life and business. The stories and principles of tracking and survival has led to what is today one of the most amazing experiences in the African Wilds for Businesses and their teams.
It was only later in my life that I really started to appreciate the art of tracking. To me this is the greatest of all arts simply because the great tracker needs to be in the moment where he integrates the micro world of the smallest detail with the macro contexts of reading all the signs using all his senses simultaneously. I soon realized that this is also true of business as much as it is true of the journeys of our personal lives. Although unique and different, we all have to deal with this tension of being in different worlds at the same time.
Ultimately, I guess, we have to figure out where it is we ought to be. But this is not where our energy is going, is it? No, our energy is going towards the ideals of the masses or to the ‘if only’ world. ‘If only’ I could be where you are, have what you have, etc. And then we miss the uniqueness of our own story. Then we become untrue to ourselves and we never become what we were meant to be. And I guess that we were meant to be real players who define our own future simply because we choose to leave a trail where no one has ever gone before.
I guess we are all trackers. Not only in the tracking of animals or people lost in the wilderness, but also as an art where we reflect on the journey of life. Think of it this way. Every time you stand at the cross roads of a great decision, or you have to respond to a defining experience, or a moment in life or business were you are just too scared to take the next step, you are no different from any great tracker in Africa. This is what tracking is ultimately all about. People like me and you who have learned to deal with the tension between the here and now and what is still to come. People who are not afraid to trust there intuitive gut more often and who can pick up the signs of a trail still to come.
I guess one of the biggest lessons that I have learnt from tracking in the African wilds is that the great tracker will function in two worlds all the time. The one being the track where he will focus on the smallest of detail and the other the trail where he will trust all his experiences and intuitive understanding of where the trail is still to go. I had to learn that this tension between where it is we are and what is still to come is fine. As a matter of fact we were created for this tension and we ought to be good in dealing with it. For me this has become the integration of all learning and intelligences creating meaning in life and business as I unpack the puzzle pieces of a trail still to come.
On my journey I was honoured to learn from some of the greatest trackers this planet had to offer. In my early days it was people like Dewald de Beer and more recently the likes of Adriaan Louw, Robert Bryden and Andreas Liebenberg. All of them great in their own right, yet uniquely different in their approach. But the one thing they all have in common is that they are good at what they are doing. They all have an abundance mentality. They are always willing to learn from others and take input. All these are qualities for a great life and a great business.
What is it then that I know today of life and business that I learned from all of this? Simply this:
• It is possible to be ‘on track’ and by that I mean having experiences of more significance and true purpose. We can move beyond the survival mode even if it means we have to redefine success. The fact is that happiness is the result of true significance and not the other way around.
• The one intelligence we all have is that of the spiritual which deals with the soul of the system or organisation. Not only is it the most transformative intelligence, but it also plays with the boundaries of possibility. This is where we embrace the deeper meaning of the business and life. This is where we deal with the reason for our existence.
• For the African tracker it is easy to understand that there is no path and that we all lay a path in walking. For this we all become the navigators of our own journeys and we do play the role(s) that destiny has for us by simply being in the game of life. I guess that is a choice in itself: to play or not to play.
Today I understand that I also have consequence. ‘I am’. ‘I am’ a player with impact and every time I have an opportunity to be out there with people and teams on the track, exploring the ‘track of life and business’, we rediscover the real trail. It is ‘out there’ and it is waiting for us, yet we have to go towards it! All we have to do is to open our eyes and read the signs. For this we need to become real and reflect on reality first. For the rest we need to trust our gut and learn from all our lessons and experiences. After all there is nothing as powerful as our collective genius if only we can learn to share it in open and honest dialogue.
Before I share some of the principles of tracking with you in a series of articles still to come let me leave you with a final thought: “It is possible to advance to significance still in this life with both your business and your personal life.” I guess that if I have to start somewhere, I would start with myself first! Just a thought!
Callie Roos is a motivational speaker, teambuilding and leadership training expert in South Africa.
People often ask me: "What is marketing?" There are lots of definitions. Mine is simple - building a brand, generate leads and close deals.
Of course, choosing the right name for your company or product is probably a good first step.
When
you choose a company name, make sure you know the
history associated with the name, otherwise you could run into trouble.
A while ago I saw an advert for a parachuting outfit called Icarus. I
thought it was rather an unfortunate name for a company. As you know,
Icarus, the son of Daedalus (if you care --- he built the Labyrinth of
the Minotaur at Knossos and seriously upset King Minos), flew too near
the sun with wax-attached wings, fell into the sea and drowned.
Not a great safety record and not a name I'd highlight for a parachute
company. I suppose the lesson is to know your Greek before choosing a
name.
There's a number of companies that use Icarus as their name. Be careful not to choose names that failure can be associated to.
The Business Generator, Jacques de Villiers
is a conference motivational speaker, consultant and trainer specialising in
marketing, public relations and sales. For more information or to sign
up for the free 'Marketing and Sales Strategies' newsletter, email
jacques@jacquesdevilliers.com. For resources take a look at http://www.jacquesdevilliers.com http://www.successseminars.co.za
I received this article from Peter Carruthers of Business Warriors. If he were in the country (he's a resident of Norway), he'd be one of South Africa's inspiring business motivational speakers. The essence of the article is that as business people, we're pretty lucky to be doing business here. A real case for having some gratitude.
Some
years ago I wrote about a son who had been supporting his dad for many
years. The son's firm was failing, and he could no longer support dad
as well as before. Dad's response: Anger, mudslinging, and malice. The
son was buried in guilt.
Neither of them could see past the
immediacy. Neither could see that son had supported Dad for years -
without thanks. Dad wasn't grateful for the good years. just fearful
about the changes. Son could not see that he'd done good so far, and
that his own life had changed - for the moment.
After almost four years out of South Africa, I am seeing a lot of analogies. I thought an expat view might add some value.
I
currently spend about 4 hours each day talking to South Africans inside
SA. I live in Norway, after a three year sojourn in the UK. The reason
for this article is that I cannot help but see my friends getting all
frothy and side-tracked by Mr Zumas manhood. (My friends are mostly
white, middle-aged, and male, it seems. Like me.)
The present SA regime permeates each chat. If it's not love-kids, it's graft or incompetence.
Expats
are not allowed to say much about it, so we just listen. The moment we
dare say something happy about our current scene, we're seen to be
dissing 'the best place place on earth to live in'.
This
weekend we will visit an American friend about 10 minutes away. It's
her birthday. We'll gather a few bottles of wine from the local
Vinmonopole. (The government owns the only bottle store.) A bottle of
Nederburg Baronne (the 2006 costs about R40 in SA) will cost R180 (for
the vintage harvested last December). We'll need three of those. Then
it's a taxi to visit them, and a taxi back, at R2000 for the round
trip. (Zero alcohol tolerance.) Each of these prices includes 25% VAT.
And that's after a 56% marginal tax rate.
Want to start a
business here? Setting up a firm demands an outlay of R140,000 - just
to get registered. (In contrast, it costs about R1000 in SA to get a CC
started.) Want to set up as a sole trader? That costs about R5000 to
register before you can issue an invoice. (Vs R0.00 in SA.)
VAT
registration kicks in as your turnover passes R80,000 for the year.
(Yet another layer of admin to enjoy.) I am not going to even talk
about the costs and duties around employing your first (until she dies)
staff member. It's just scary. And if Zuma gets involved, that's at
least a year of maternity leave.
Setting up in the UK is different, but also very expensive.
While
you're running your firm, you're trying to keep your home clean, your
clothes ironed, the supplies flowing, and the kids happy. Trying to
hold down a job (if you can get one) is exciting if the kids are off
school for any reason (holidays, snow, flu, or the UK paranoia of the
day). There is no cheap labour to help. A garden service in the UK, for
instance, will cost you about R300 to mow and trim a piece of lawn the
size of a moustache. At least Norway is covered in snow for half the
year so that's an expense we don't have to worry about.
SA has
an abundant supply of great drugs. In the UK they have a colourful
range of bottles of distilled water. Each pretends to be a cure for
something mild. Anything worse than a gentle headache needs a visit to
a doctor to get real drugs. And the moment you have a mild accident (a
sprained ankle, or a spear in the foot) that's the Emergency section of
your local hospital for a day outing, as well as a police
investigation. (There is no concept of an accident. it must be
somebody's fault.)
A friend of mine got a call from his sons
school a week or so ago. The boy had pointed a £1 toy plastic gun at
another kid and said "Bang. I shot you in the chest." Friends son
mentioned it to another kid. This was overheard by a teacher. That was
enough for a disciplinary hearing and formal warning. The only reason
the boy wasn't expelled was that nobody could prove anything. The kid
who brought the toy to school was expelled.
That's almost as
bizarre as the old gent sitting at MacDonalds who got hit on the head
by a sausage thrown by a 4 year old, as kids are wont to do. The old
gent laid a charge of assault against the boy and his parents. In
Norway, as in South Africa, the cops would see the humour and send the
man home on his zimmer frame. Not so in the UK.
While all of
this is happening, the government in the UK have had a torrid time of
it. They've bent the rules in ways the ANC wish they had the brains to
think of. Gordon Brown has spent about R500,000 per person in the UK
(still to be extracted in taxes) to bail out the banks, over which he
has as much control as I have over Zuma's winklepicker.
Speaking
of which, lets not get started on the extra-marital stuff. The only
reason that Bill Clinton didn't have relations with, by or through
'that woman' was because she had a big mouth. His lead has since been
followed by what seems to be most of the US senate. Confessions abound
in this new season of couch rugby. Watching the news is more
interesting than that wildlife show about Cougars.
So lets
get some perspective. South Africa remains a paradise to live in. It's
easy to create a business and enjoy a superb standard of living. It's
got some of the best weather in the world. It's got great food at
reasonable prices. It's got fine people who will help you out with all
the pesky life maintenance functions which take up so much time. And
they will do it for a pittance. The tax rates are survivable. And if it
all gets too much, there is always a beach somewhere.
In Norway
the beaches are covered with snow apart from a few months in the middle
of the year. And in the UK that beach, on both good days each year, is
covered by millions of large white bodies getting sunburnt before
overwhelming the health services.
Maybe the Internet is tad
erratic, but at least you don't get a great big blue screen censoring
your activities each time you want to see a scrapbooking site, the kind
of challenge that faces folk living in Qatar.
Now, what were you
complaining about again? Go grab a glass of Merlot, sit on the stoep,
and count some blessings. This is not the rehearsal and life could be
so much worse.
“If you build it, they will come.” This is the attitude of many
companies when they build their websites. They think that customers
will come streaming in and that a website will be a panacea for all
their financial woes. It may have been true when Theodore Roosevelt
uttered those immortal words about the Panama Canal, but it’s not true
for your website.
A website is like a marriage … if you want it to be successful, you
need to work at it consistently. If it is neglected, it’ll wither and
die. In Google terms, it means your website ends up on page 1000 in the
rankings. Your website may as well be dead.
Besides not working on their website, companies make these two mistakes:
1. A graphic designer is in charge of building the website
They don’t involve their marketing specialist. They source the website
function to either a graphic designer or their IT specialist. So, they
end up with a beautiful and fully functional website with all the bells
and whistles, but few people visit the site.
Savvy companies make sure that their marketing specialist is the
architect of an Internet marketing strategy (there’s more to an
Internet marketing strategy than just a website).
A marketers hand at the tiller is important because marketers are
trained to ask the essential questions of a successful website:
- Who do we want to come to our website?
- What are we going to tell them?
- What do we want them to do?
2. Your website is too complicated to navigate (Don' make me think)
If your website is complicated and you make me think too hard,
you’ll lose me. Keep it simple and easy to use and I’ll hang out a bit
so that you have enough time to persuade me to do something that will
bring your company profits.
Road Map to Successful Internet Marketing (and dating Angelina Jolie)
If you’re at all serious about generating revenue from your website you
have to take search engine optimisation seriously. If you don’t have
any visitors, you can’t convert any sales. And, to get eyeballs onto
your website, you need to be in at least get a Top 20 ranking on
Google. The ultimate, of course is to get a #1 ranking on Google. This
is where you you start hitting the jackpot.
You’d employ the same strategies to get onto Google’s radar screen as
you would to get onto Angelina Jolie’s. Why would an Angelina Jolie
consider dating you in the first place (if she weren’t attached to Brad Pitt, of
course). She’s not going to hang out with you if you don’t have
charisma, if you’re unknown and unkempt, is she? She’s going to hang
out with someone that’s confident, charismatic, knows where he’s going
and how he’s going to get there, someone who is popular, and someone
that others will vouch for. Google works in very much the same way.
People have to be talking about you
Like Angelina Jolie, Google also likes to hang out with the popular
crowd. Google wants to know if you are popular and if you have
information that’s relevant to your target auience. Google is looking
for your URL(website name) to be on other websites. The more popular
the website is that vouches for you, the better chance you have of
getting ranked higher in the Google hierarchy.
You’ve got to be industrious
Angelina Jolie likes to see her man at work - it shows that he’s
diligent and productive. So does Google. She likes websites that are
worked on. The more you work on your website, the more she visits you.
And, the more she visits you, the more chance you have of raising your
Google rankings.
Size Counts
I’m not sure about Angelina Jolie, but Google definitely likes size.
The bigger your website the better. So, if you think you’re going to
cut it with a Readers Digest version, think again. Think Leo Tolstoy’s
novel, War and Peace. Remember, Google is a purveyor of relevant
information. The more information you can give Google on your specific
offering, the better. When Google sees lots of pages, she considers
your site to be a valuable resource site. This favours your website
tremendously.
Age is an Attitude
Why do some women date older men? They’re normally more stable,
credible and valuable. They make one feel safe. Google also likes her
men older. She likes a website that’s been around for a while and will
be around for a while. She wants to see stability, credibility and
value. This normally comes with age, doesn’t it? That’s why, when a new
website is born, Google puts it in a sandbox with the other kids so
that it can play. If you’re lucky, you’ll only get indexed on Google
six months after you make your new website live. So, don’t ever retire
your existing website, rather improve on it.
Romance is a Good Thing
Getting Google to rank you highly so that you get quality visitors to
your website is one thing, keeping them there is another. Sometimes
your visitors bounce of your site at a rate of 80%. This means that
they’ve spent less than 30 seconds on your site because it hasn’t
hooked them or the site is not relevant to their needs. That’s why you
should make your website sticky. Use persuasive words, words that are
compelling and words that get people to take action.
Follow these rules of copywriting and you should do just fine - State a
problem you can solve, make a big promise as to how you’ll solve the
problem, show a solution that will solve the problem … make sure it is
packed with reams of benefits, have testimonials, give a guarantee and
have a call to action.
If you want Google to help you achieve your business objectives, then
you’ve got to take Internet marketing seriously and see it as a
mainstream marketing discipline that will add profits to your business. About the Author
NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online
as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the "about the
author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint to
jacques@jacquesdevilliers.com
Well, there appears to me to my repertoire than just motivation and sales training. I recently won the Toastmasters, Division 74, Area H3 Humorous Contest in Midrand. But, didn't make it in the Division finals. The speakers were awesome. Here's a clip of my speech - The Right Wrong Turn.
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