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Video Marketing Benefits for your Offline or Online Businss

Brand Reputation: People prefer to do business with those they trust. Video helps prospects get to know you much more easily than ordinary words can, and once they get to know you, they’ll hopefully learn to like and trust you, as well.

Low cost: Video marketing is cheaper than other methods of advertising. When you compare the cost of video with the value, you will find the expense is minimum and the results are better. You have to create it once then it can be viewed anytime and as many times as your audience may want.

Apart from the crowd: Video marketing is easier and more affordable

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What is the source of your Limiting Beliefs

What is the source of your Limiting Beliefs on Mindset Monday
Limiting beliefs come from an actual place in your lifetime experience. Entrepreneurs often fail because they cling to limiting beliefs they’ve been conditioned to hold.

Limiting beliefs come from experience, and they can often come from very early life experience. They can even come from early childhood education. Generally speaking, society doesn’t raise children to become adults who think like entrepreneurs. In order to fit into society as adults, we are conditioned to think in more fixed mindset terms, especially as they relate to intelligence, money, and authority.

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You can spread your messages just by podcasting!

I have been spreading my Solopreneur Success Strategies podcast through Libsyn (libsyn.com) using their RSS feed which can be sent to a variety of destinations.

I have a podcast feed at iHeart Radio

I have a podcast at iTunes

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/solopreneur-success-strategies/id1120757762

I have a podcast website at Libsyn

http://janegardner.libsyn.com/podcast

I have a podcast on Soundcloud

I have a podcast at Google Play for Android phones

Listen on Google Play Music

Go see what a Google Play Podcast looks like here!

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No More Used Car Salesman

In recent years, the Internet has changed the world of marketing. Marketers can no longer use the same techniques today that worked yesterday. The attitudes and behavior patterns of your customer have changed, and to be successful you have to change with them.

Don’t Believe the Hype

Over the last few decades, consumers have endured a flood of sales and marketing material. They’ve been inundated with ads everywhere they turn, and each marketer tries to shout over the others for their attention. As a result, people have tuned out. They don’t believe in exaggerated language or hype anymore.

No More Used Car Salesmen

The online versions of used car salesmen have gotten a bad rap because of their hard-sell tactics. These tactics make them look like opportunists out to make a quick buck with little regard for their customers’ best interests. Consumers are no longer responsive to this approach. They’re smarter shoppers today, and they understand when they’re being manipulated.

Today’s Marketing Is about Relationships

The salespeople of the past saw a customer as a way to make a quick sale. The marketer of today needs to build relationships. The goal is for the customer to see you as a trusted friend and a valuable source of information. People want to feel like part of the brands they love, rather than just a number in a company’s marketing game.

The key to building relationships well is to focus on your customers’ needs. Listen closely to them and understand their problems and desires. You can then offer the products and services that customers are already actively seeking, rather than trying to convince them to buy products they never wanted in the first place.

Content Marketing

The way savvy marketers reach their audience online today is through content marketing. Customers are looking online for information, and you can be there to provide it. You build your expertise by providing answers and become, in customers’ eyes, an authority in your niche. This engenders trust and builds relationships. The resulting sale is a natural outgrowth of the relationship. Prospective customers visit your site because they know you’re offering what they want.

Two-Way Communication

Older marketing channels like television and print media went one way – from the marketer to the customer. Today’s communication goes both ways. It’s just as much about listening to your customers as talking, and in fact, probably more so.

Customers today are proactive in going out and finding what they want. Internet users aren’t passive like TV watchers. If you’ve listened well, you can create and provide them with the information they’re looking for, before anyone else.

Making It about Them

Today’s marketing is even more customer-focused than that of the past. It’s not enough for your website or marketing materials to boast about your company’s successes. Marketers have to emphasize tangible results their customers will get from the product or service and back them up with evidence supporting their claims. If you do your homework and know your target market well, it’s not hard at all to do this effectively. Offer what they need and invite them to join the dialog.

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What an Online Marketing Video can do for your Business

What an Online Marketing Video Can do For Your Business
Online video marketing has become the latest epidemic when it comes to marketing tools. In fact, it has gone viral. If you haven’t given online marketing videos a try yet, you should, as there are plenty of benefits you can enjoy and increased sales are one of them. Let’s look at what your video should accomplish for you.
It Should Introduce You
A video is a powerful tool that allows you to present a polished you. You can polish your online marketing presentation and then create a flawless delivery that puts in you in the best light with your potential customer.
Establish That You are an Expert in Your Field
When you create your online marketing video you should focus on showing your viewers your expertise. This is much easier to do with a video than text content. Adding videos that establish you as an expert to your website, blog and/or email marketing can be highly beneficial.

Maximize Your SEO Benefits
In the past, as far as SEO was concerned, videos were actually a liability. But that is not that case any longer. Today, videos are more than fifty times more likely to be on the first page of a surfer’s search.

There are three main ways a marketing video can give you a major SEO boost.
1. There is far less competition with video compared to text content. There are millions of text pages competing for the top SEO ranking, but only thousands of video pages competing for the same space.
2. Videos are ranked much quicker than text content. It takes hours for videos to get ranked and weeks for text to get ranked. That also gives video the ability to be very current.
3. Videos often go viral. It is much more likely that a person will share a video than text. This is especially true when you put together a really good video.
Online video marketing is affordable, requires only a webcam, a microphone, and a good script to begin to enjoy the benefits. Take some time to fine tune your message and make it easy to understand. That way you’ll enjoy the greatest benefit.
Online marketing videos are the hottest tool business owners have at their fingertips. In today’s online environment a video is far more likely to lead to a sale than even the best text content.

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Your Inner Critic that you can learn to control on Mindset Monday

Once you can recognize the inner critic, you can learn to control it. The way that you interpret challenges, obstacles, or criticism that you face is up to you. But this is the most challenging step for most people. It is difficult to reframe the voice when you have well-grooved patterns.
The way to think about reframing is to imagine giving advice to a friend.
Naturally, you would never use a harsh, critical voice when trying to help a friend.
If you would never do this with a friend, why are you doing it with yourself?
We are generally harsher on ourselves than we are with others, so instead of talking to yourself, imagine that you’re giving advice to a good friend.
Now, imagine that you’re giving them advice and reframe the negative statement that was made
After reframing comes action.
What challenges can you take on in order to foster and nurture a growth mindset?
What challenges have you been avoiding?
Choose a challenge and try it again, but this time, turn your fixed mindset around.
Find a work-related or personal task that you’ve either been shying away from doing or that you feel you’ve failed at.
For example, perhaps you always put work first and your eating habits are not the best. How can you challenge yourself to create better eating habits?
Maybe there is a skill you’ve been wanting to learn such as cooking but the idea of trying again gives you a sense of anxiety.
There might be an important client you’ve been meaning to contact but shying away from.
Start with one challenge, and you can then apply it to the next challenge once you have success with the first.

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Reframe your Inner Critic on Mindset Monday

Your “inner critic.”
You most likely know this voice, even though you may never have identified it as an “inner critic.” The first step is to identify that voice and identify the times when you hear it. These are situations where you are brought back to a fixed rather than a growth mindset.
To do this, you simply need to practice awareness. Start by identifying the voice when you hear it. Next, try to remember what event preceded those negative thoughts.
It’s a bit like trying to identify what is causing a stomach ache.
You have to go back and try to remember what you ate just before.
If you’re not sure you’ve identified your inner critic yet, try looking for cues. For example, look for times when you find that you’re doubting yourself, saying something like, “Can I really do this?” Or be aware of when you’re focusing on failure rather than success; for example, where you’re worrying about what will happen if you fail at something.
A good place to look for your fixed mindset voice is any time you’re trying something new or challenging. These are the most common situations where this negative voice arises.
Now let’s reframe these thoughts.
Once you can recognize the voice, you can learn to control it.
The way that you interpret challenges, obstacles, or criticism that you face is up to you. But this is the most challenging step for most people.
It is difficult to reframe the voice when you have well-grooved patterns.
The way to think about reframing is to imagine giving advice to a friend.
Naturally, you would never use a harsh, critical voice when trying to help a friend.
If you would never do this with a friend, why are you doing it with yourself?
We are generally harsher on ourselves than we are with others, so instead of talking to yourself, imagine that you’re giving advice to a good friend.
Take each statement that your inner voice gives you and imagine if it were a friend, your partner, or a family member who was saying it to themselves. Now, imagine that you’re giving them advice and reframe the negative statement that was made.
For example
“Are you sure you can do that? You don’t have the right skills to take that on.” BECOMES “I’m not sure I can do it, but I can learn with practice and effort. ”
“What if I fail? I’ll be a failure” BECOMES “All successful people have failures. I can learn from my failure.”
“She’s a natural at business. Besides, her family runs a business. I could never be as good as her.” BECOMES “She’s successful in her business, and I can learn from her.”
For example, some Intelligence examples
“I can’t do that. I’m not smart enough to take that on.” BECOMES “I’m not sure I can do it, but I can learn with practice and effort.”
“She’s a natural at business. Besides, she has an MBA. I could never be as good as her.” BECOMES “She’s successful in her business, and I can learn from her.”
After reframing comes action.
What challenges can you take on in order to foster and nurture a growth mindset?
What challenges have you been avoiding? More next week
To learn techniques to have a success mindset, go to http://jgtips.com/smindset.

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Treat your Customer like a Friend on Solopreneur Success Strategies

With so many business run online today,
the personal touch of doing business is sometimes lost in the mix.
Everyone is so accustomed to emailing, sending in support tickets or leaving messages on an automated system,
that you forget that there are real people running the business.
If you can identify with this, maybe it is time to add that personal feel to your business. When was the last time you actually talked to a customer or send them a thank you note? Sometime ago I guess.
One place to start is by adding an About Page to your website and including your photograph. This immediately allows people to start connecting with you.
Your about page doesn’t have to be long, but it should include a little about your background, both personal and professional. A photo of yourself or even one with your family or pet makes your site more human.
If you sell products online why not start adding something extra into your customer’s receipts. This could be a link to your Facebook page or Google+ page. Encourage them to connect with you there and let you know how they liked your products.
Getting your face and name in front of your customers is important for several reasons. You want to build a base of repeat customers, but you also want your customers to refer your business to their friends. One way to encourage this is by going that extra mile.
This could be sending out a physical thank you note in the mail. Or just remembering your customer’s birthdays and anniversaries. If you run a local business why not phone a customer just to say thanks?
Setting up a newsletter is another way you can connect with your customers. In addition to using this letter to inform your customers of new products and sales, you can use it in a different way.
Why not encourage your customers to send in photos of how they used your product or service. People just love to show off photos, and depending on your business, this could work extremely well for you.
Another advantage of this is that it provides you with content for your newsletter. You could set up a ‘Customer of the Week’ event and highlight one person each week or month.
The main thing to remember is that your customers are real people and want to be treated as such. They want to know who you are and what you do, so why not give them what they want and expand your business in the process?

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Using Online Video to Get Your Message Out on Tuesday

Why You Should be Using Online Video Marketing
If you are just starting to dabble in online video marketing, this is a very wise business decision. If you still are not sure if this is the right decision, check out these three reasons why you should be using online video marketing and what you stand to gain by making this decision.
#1 Your customers are spending their time watching videos
Did you know that more than 4 billion views occur daily on YouTube?
It’s the second largest search engine with only Google ranking higher.
55% of people watch at least one video daily and 78% watch at least one video weekly. That information in itself should have you stoked to get that video up and enjoy the benefits.
#2 Your Competition is Already Benefiting from Online Marketing Video
Did you know that 81% of all senior marketing executives are using online marketing video? That’s up 11% from just two years ago. Don’t miss the opportunity that awaits you.
#3 Video is Easy to Search
When it comes to searching on Google 70% of the top 100 searches are videos. Consumers are seeking information on products and services and they are ready to buy when they find what they want. YouTube is the second largest search engine and so videos rank well and you have an optimum opportunity awaiting you with online video marketing.
Getting started with video marketing at http://jgtips.com/vs

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How to tell the difference between your Inner Critic and actual thoughts.

How to tell the difference between your Inner Critic and actual thoughts.
Your mindset and its beliefs can be totally unconscious.
It’s not always easy to identify them.
For many people, a negative mindset manifests itself as an “inner critic.”
This is an inner voice or private conversation that occurs in your mind
on continuous repeat mode behind your conscious thoughts
Excercise to become aware of your inner critic
Schedule 15-20 minutes today to do this exercise.
Make sure it is during a time when you have no distractions.
Close your eyes and imagine the type of life you’d love to have if anything were possible.
Does your ideal life include more vacations, more money, or better relationships?
Write down the characteristics of your ideal life.
For each characteristic, close your eyes and think about what each looks like for you. For example, if you have “financial freedom” as one characteristic, what does that actually mean for you?
Does that mean having your house paid for by the time you are 45?
Does that mean having your children’s schooling paid for?
Does that mean earning a six-figure salary?
Write these down.
As you are thinking about each of these, pay close attention to the thoughts that come. Are all your thoughts positive?
These could be thoughts like “I’ve got a steady pipeline of new business,
Or are there other intrusive thoughts that pop up?
These could be things like: “Yeah, right – incoming new business!
Who do you think you are?”
This is your inner critic speaking.
Write all of your positive and negative thoughts down.