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Companies don't find customers. Customers find companies. The rules of marketing have changed (or maybe they've just become clearer). The way you go to market must also evolve. It has never been more important to Be Visible in order to Get Found ... and to get people buzzing about your company -- or your community -- and its offering. Create high-powered visibility that leads to lasting success. We'll show you how. Read on ... |
| Attraction Marketing Creates Opportunities for Brands to Succeed ... |
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 Attraction Marketing combines personal branding, target marketing and strategies for putting your brand's energy into the marketplace in a way that attracts the types of people and opportunities that you need to be successful. It is a very dynamic process that works for company, product, place and personal brands.
Strong brands are clear, confident, consistent and they communicate in a clear and confident manner consistently, online and off. That consistency builds trust and it is trust that builds long-term customer relationships. Attraction Marketing projects a brand's best strengths into the marketplace, taking direct aim at the best prospects for your offering. It is very powerful and very effective.
An important step in Attraction Marketing comes after a company 'Flips the Switch' and starts projecting its brand and its message outward. Social media marketing makes it easier than ever to reach out to the types of people whom you want and need in your life, whether they are potential customers, partners, investors or vendors. Social networking tools are attainable, accessible and affordable for companies of any age, size or location and for individuals of any income level. They are a great equalizer that can help level the playing field in a highly competitive marketplace.
Now here's the very best part: Having a fully-branded, socially-ready online presence has never been more affordable. In this issue, you'll read about the debut of four tiers of Online Marketing Solutions from Herlife Publishing which all begin with the development of a fully-branded, semi-custom website that is blog, social media marketing and e-commerce ready and capable.
Branding expert Lori Martinek travels the country to speak to business and entrepreneurial audiences on how to put the power of online marketing and social networking to work for their companies. Call her at (623) 537-0888 or email her at ljm@pplusonline.com to learn more about Attraction Marketing and to discuss your interests and needs. |
| Taking It On The Road ... |
 On the Local Scene .....
Lori Martinek was the featured presenter at the Greater Phoenix Chamber's Back to Business Series event on May 7, where she presented Creating A Winning Online Brand to eager-to-grow Phoenix area businesses.
Then it was on to Illinois on May 20, where Lori was the keynote presenter at Lake Land College's Social Media Conference. She stopped in Effingham IL the next day to present at an event sponsored by the Effingham Chamber and First National Bank of Dieterich.
Coming Up on the Calendar ... Lori makes a return engagement at the Governor's Regional Development Conference in August, where she will present Be the Bulb! Achieve the Visibility and Success You Want For Your Brand to community representatives and government officials from throughout Arizona . Learn more about that statewide conference here ...
 In October, Lori travels to Reno, NV to present Doing More with Less: Using Web 2.0 for High-Impact, Low-Cost Marketing at the International Economic Development Council's 2009 National Conference. Creating a strength-based, highly visible marketing campaign is no longer a luxury, it's a survival strategy. As communities slash budgets and their local and regional newspapers close, many marketing campaigns are cut back and marketing partners are lost. Social media is quickly changing the landscape of how business decision-makers and the talented workforce access information on your community and interact within a community. Lori will discuss how economic development organizations can embrace social media as an important tool to support local companies as well as to attract companies and/or talented workers to their communities. Read about the IEDC's largest event here .... |
| Introducing Fully Branded, Socially Ready Online Marketing Solutions ... |
 It has never been easier to put technology to work to present your brand in new and interesting ways and to keep it looking fresh and current, both online and off.
Implementing an integrated marketing strategy that reflects the ongoing evolution in information gathering, shopping and buying habits is essential for success in today's highly competitive marketplace.
Your strategy must begin with a website that goes beyond merely good to great. Truly effective websites are true to your brand and its message and (because of that) they are also relevant to the prospects and customers whom you want to visit ... linger ... and return. Websites like these are fully-branded and socially ready for blogging, permission marketing, social networking and more. They REACH out to prospects and PULL them in, and then they encourage them to stay connected and involved with your company.
Introducing Online Marketing Solutions (OMS) from Herlife Publishing: affordable fully-branded, socially-ready online products that are designed especially for Entrepreneurs, Business Owners, Authors and Small Publishers, including:
- Branded Website Solutions
- Blog Templates w/RSS
- Online Branding Tools
- Social Marketing Tools
- Branded Social Profiles
- Print Marketing Tools
Herlife OMS deliver a valuable, discernible difference: Expert Branding Strategy, built right in and offering the competitive benefit of 30 years of high-level branding insights and experience. The result? A professionally branded, social media-oriented website that outshines your competition ... at off-the-shelf pricing! Here's another great benefit: VALUE. OMS pricing ranges from $1,295 to $2,695, with streamlined production and scheduling. Learn more about the OMS offering here. Then share the news with the enterprising companies that you know. |
| MindingHerBiz Helps Women-Owned Businesses Grow ... |
MindingHerBiz, the Phoenix-based women's mastermind group founded by Lori Martinek, works with female entrepreneurs to help them think through the challenges and opportunities of business ownership. Experts in marketing, branding, law, accounting, human resources, retail, operations and technical systems and support brainstorm with female business owners to develop strategies that can move their businesses forward.
 Coming in July: The MindingHerBiz website and a PR push designed to grow new mastermind cells throughout the Valley. Meet the other team members and learn more at the MindingHerBiz LinkedIN group here .... 
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| Straight from the Pressroom .... |
We've expanded the Herlife Online Media Center to include audio clips from Lori's radio interviews and press coverage. Stop by here to: - Listen to Lori's StartUp Nation interview;
- Read the coverage on the Lake Land Social Media Conference.
And coming soon:
Listen to Lori chat with David Drennon from the Arizona Dept. of Commerce on KFNN Radio;
Listen to Lori chat with William Bence on WCRA Radio;
Listen to Lori on the WEIU morning show.
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| What We're Excited About .... |
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Our rebranding project for the Arizona Small Business Development Center Network, which is about to move into its second phase. Up next? The development of a brochure ... an interactive e-newsletter template ... workshop marketing materials ... other collaterals ... and comprehensive identity standards that support the new branding strategy. The new umbrella brand will be used by each of the 12 SBDC offices in the statewide network. Learn about the AZSBDC network here
 The next issue of the Illinois weTRaIN network's e-newsletter, The Advisor, which we developed and produce. The first issue of the quarterly electronic newsletter debuted in March. We are also directing the outreach effort to promote weTRaIN and its vast member resources to agencies and companies throughout Illinois. Learn more at www.wetrainillinois.org
 The Harvard Economic Development Corporation's 2009 Community Profile, which we designed, researched and produced. You can read it online here. We are now working to implement a Retail Property Inventory which will provide listings for the HEDC's expanding online Land & Sites Database at www.harvardedc.com. Now in it's 8th year, our productive retainer agreement with the HEDC also includes the production of a monthly e-newsletter for site selectors and developers and the marketing of Arrowhead Industrial Park, which recently debuted its Phase III expansion. 
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| Be the Bulb! Is Now On Facebook ... |
Lori's first book,  Be the Bulb! is now available for sale online at both Herlife Publishing and on Amazon.com. We are excited about the early buzz and hope to build on that momentum using a variety of social networking and viral marketing tools.
Interested in creating a Facebook Page for your company, your products, your book or your brand? We can help. Just give us a call to discuss your specific needs. Presentation Plus offers full digital consulting and social media marketing support.
Social Media. It works. |
| Read Lori's Branding Blog ... |
Lori's Branded By Design blog offers insights on branding, marketing, creating greater visibility, using social media marketing effectively and more.
Lori's new blog, Be the Bulb!, The Blog goes beyond her book to provide strategies that ensure that your brand keeps shining brightly. Read Be the Bulb!, the Blog HERE
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What It Means To Be Social
Despite what you've heard, successful social media marketing is all about Quality, and not Quantity ...
Our social media workshops begin with a tutorial on basic branding strategy and target marketing. Why? Because social media marketing is all about people -- people as prospects, people as customers, people as referral agents. It really is all about them and not you.
Before you dive into social media, make sure you can answer these questions:
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WHO do you want to talk to?
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WHAT is important to them?
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HOW do they get their information? In other words ...
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WHICH blogs, websites and social networking sites do they use? and, therefore ...
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WHERE can they be found online?
Think about WHO you want to reach and then frequent the networks and blogs that your targets are using and reading. Place your brand and your message amidst the media that your prospects prefer. Why?
Because in today's marketplace, Companies Don't Find Customers, Customers Find Companies.
Use social media to Listen and Learn, to Engage with people (not numbers), and to Connect and Build Relationships. It's credibility, not salesmanship, that builds connections. Strive for quality (relationships) over quantity (sheer numbers) always. Gross visibility doesn't count. Those people who have 10,000 Twitter followers? Meaningless. No one believes for a second that they actually know who their followers are, much less anything remotely personal about them. (Or even that those 10,000 followers are hanging on their every word ...)
Marketing is a people business that is all about targeting prospects, not suspects. Prospects are people who you know could become customers for your offering. Suspects? They're people who MIGHT become a customer one day if you bombard them hard enough and long enough. Marketing to suspects is not cost effective in any economy. Always opt for a rifle versus a shotgun stratgegy. Why? Because it works.
Attraction Marketing utilizes target marketing principles to place your brand in the path of real prospects who could become real customers for your business. A brand has to be seen and noticed in order to be part of the conversation, and it has to Be Visible in order to Get Found. Put your brand where its best prospects already are. Do not force these people to go looking for your offering in unfamiliar places.
They won't.
We are business builders and branding experts who provide strategic expertise that identifies key opportunities to target, communicate and sell. Call us at (623) 537-0888 today to find out how we can help you and your business shine brightly during the coming year.
--- Lori Martinek, Branding Expert, Author and Social Media Marketing Consultant |
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When Is A PR Pro Really Necessary? |
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Professional PR guidance and energy is essential when:
- You're looking for startup or expansion funds and visibility will help lure investors (44% of companies in PR outreach receive funding within one to three months, according to Entrepreneur magazine);
- People are buzzing about your company or your brand and you realize that you need a pro to monitor and build on that momentum;
- Your industry or sector begins to 'tip' and is trending to become hot. You are in the right place at the right time and need to capitalize on the situation;
- You are ready to take your brand national, quickly;
- You are successful, visible and in demand. It's too much for you to handle -- and that's a great position to be in! | |
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