I’m not sure how your weekend went, but I  spent my Fri night getting hot and sweaty with a room full of ladies. Ok, so I paid to get in there. Wait, this blog post sounds just WRONG!  It was actually a Bikram class or Hot Yoga, where you basically do yoga for an hour and a half, in a room that is about 100 degrees.  That’s absurd, I know.

But I tried it, and liked it for the most part. Personally, I think the 1 1/2 hrs is about 1 hr too much and despite what some yoga guys think, “It’s not ok to just wear your whites tighties in class”. But the concept is great, the heat loosens your muscles and teaches you to breathe more effectively.

This is not a blog post about fitness, though I welcome any comments about Bikram if you have tried it or are interested. I actually wanted to tell you about a Marketing breakthru I had in class, somewhere between the downward bending dog and the one legged chicken (ok, that one I made up, what’s with me and one legged animals?)

I realized that myself and 20 other people just paid $15 bucks (plus $3 for water and a towel) to sit in a hot ass room and stand on one leg. Why, because we want to be fit and we are willing to go to great lengths to get there. So for all you personal trainers out there, you are not trying to sell ice to eskimos. People want to be in shape, they think about it all the time, they even dream about it. You have what they want, all you have to do is be the answer to their needs.

Anyway, I gotta go ice down, I think I pulled something:)

Keith

Let’s be honest, life is challenging. It always has been and it always will be. Some people smack challenges right in the face and accomplish amazing things, and others let challenges determine the outcome of their lives. In this instance, when I say accomplish amazing things, I’m not talking about making tons of money. (although that can be a great accomplishment) Im talking about doing something that can inspire even perfect strangers.

On sunday I was on youtube I was watching my weekly inspirational video. Usually, I will watch Jim Valvano’s espy speach “Don’t Give Up, Don’t Ever Give Up.” If you haven’t seen it, I recommend you google it. Anyway, after watching it, I saw a headline that really caught my eye. It read, “Armless Swimmer Dominates at Meet”. I kid you not, this young man with no arms out swam everybody and won. Chills covered my entire body and I felt an instant surge of adrenalin. This is one of those “amazing things” I was referring to earlier. This kid, who’s name I don’t even know, has impacted my life. That is special. Watch it, and do something amazing!

Many of you are now on board with email marketing, building relationships with your customers via email. This is a must for anyone that is serious about growing their business. Well written, purpose driven emails are the easiest, most affordable way for you to gain trust and loyalty from your customers. If you are not regularly communicating with your customers, you are missing out big-time.

Here are just a few of the many benefits to email marketing.

It’s Easy - Though writing may be hard for some people, and there is definitely great skill involved, it sure beats traditional ways of keeping in contact with your people. A simple contact management software will sort your customers on lists, all you have to do is create a plan and take a few minutes to write an email once a week or so.

It’s Cheap - In the past, most businesses owners neglected to stay in contact with their customers because it was too expensive. Sending direct mail pieces can be expensive and who has the time to call of our customers (although, now a days a quick thank you call would work like gangbusters)Email management softwares like constancontact, or icontact are very affordable from ($0 - $20) per month. The cost varies on the size of your list.

It works - Turn on your tv on any given night and you will find at least one sleezy reality show. (Stay tuned for “Who Wants to Marry an Internet Geek?”) People love to watch other people live their lives, in fact… they spend more time watching then actually living their own lives. Your customers will like to hear from you (if you have something of value to say), they will listen to your stories about your children or what happened to you on the way to the office. As time goes on, they will “get to know you” and they just might like you (aka. buy from you)

Again, you can’t just send an email an expect people to fall in love with you. There are things you need to know:

People are bombarded with email, you need to make them look forward to your emails. Here a re a few tips.

• Provide Value - If they feel like they are learning from you, they will read your emails. If even one of them “seems like a waste of time” you will lose them.

• Use Great Subject Lines - Make them interesting but not misleading (I will create an entire post about subject lines later)
• Be frequent, but not too frequent - There are many schools of thought on this but I feel that more than 2-3 times per week is overkill. There’s only one person or company that emails me everyday and I still read it, and that is because there content is very good.

So if you aren’t using these email marketing techniques, you better start soon.

If you already are, you need to learn how to improve your techniques and strategies. It is an ever-evolving practice and you must stay ahead of the game.

Best of luck, please comment with any questions or points of interest.

Keith

I’m not sure how well I can write, because right now my adrenaline is thru the roof. That was one of the best Superbowl finishes in history. (Even better that the Pats lost:) sorry New Englanders)

The commercials however were a huge disappointment. I give E-trade two thumbs up for being creative with the talking baby and go-daddy was brilliant telling people to go to their website to watch their “real commercial”. The Doritos commercial and maybe one of the Bud Light commercials were ok. The rest were terrible from a marketing perspective. All that money, so much lost opportunity. It just amazes me to think that some head honcho in the marketing department approved some of these ads.

Where was the call to action? Yes, I know many of these companies just create these ads for brand awareness. I promise you this, give me 2 million (apx cost of a superbowl commercial) and I will give you more than just brand awareness. Did you see the Audi commercial, where it appeared they were trying to insinuate that some guy’s car got “whacked”… I can tell you that I’m no closer to buying an Audi after watching that commercial.

The moral of the story is, no matter how big of a company you are you need to use your advertising dollars to generate more business not just make people laugh. At the very least, do what go-daddy did and drive millions of people to your website.

Overall, great game and great outcome (for me anyways) Feel free to comment on your favorite commercials or anything else for that matter.

Can’t wait till baseball season…

Keith

I was sitting here over the weekend, checking emails and thought to myself… “man, I have to get out and do something today”. It also reminded me of a funny email skit by this great comedian named Jim Gaffigan.

Have a look at the video, you will get a good laugh out of it. But first, I wanted to ask you one question… “What are you really selling in your business?” The obvious answer is personal training, right? WRONG! You can make descent money selling “personal training”, but a hell of a lot more money selling “life changes and body transformations”. In other words, I see too many people not emphasizing the benefits of their services. People aren’t interested in buying your service, they are interested in buying the benefits of your service. Remember that when you are writing copy for your website, creating ads, slogans, and meeting with potential clients.

Ok, that’s enough school for today. It is Saturday for crying out loud. Check out the video!