I love YouTube. Let me be very clear. jump on the YouTube band wagon. Go to YouTube and watch some of the more popular videos. Some of these videos get hundreds of thousands to millions of hits. If you are not using YouTube to promote your service or product, you are seriously missing out. YouTube is free and with a small investment in a video camera or web cam, you are ready to go. Just ask Kimbo Slice what video marketing and YouTube has done for his career. Here are some online video marketing strategies to take your business to the next level.

Go viral. You want people to pass your videos along through word of mouth and email. To do this, the video must be memorable and entertaining. You clearly want to ask everyone you know to pass your videos along.

Make your videos meaning clear and keep it short. Get to the point quickly. The videos should take less than 2 minutes. It is better to have a series of short videos than a few long ones.

Be your unassuming self. If you are funny be funny, If you are warm and passionate be warm and passionate. Don’t hold back on what makes you unique.

Include your website URL. Keep a small version of your web address on the bottom of the screen throughout. Also add a larger version of it at the very end.

Make sure that your viewers see themselves and not you. Your viewers are more concerned with their own success than with your credentials.

Capture your audiences attention as soon as possible you have less than 10 seconds to do this.

Show them don’t tell them. Give them a vivid emotional compelling reason to keep watching.

When people ask me what kind of business they should start, I always ask what their hobbies are. Running a successful business is hard enough and if you are not passionate about what you are doing it is even more difficult. I was listening to a Tony Robbins CD and one of the exercises was to think of ten ways to make money. I was stumped. I could only think of one or two ideas. I put it on the back burner and let my

When I started my mobile DJ business I was only thinking about weddings. I have since expanded to corporate events and private parties as well as school dances. I recently bought an X box for the purpose of hosting rock band and guitar hero parties. Then I got the idea to host a battle of the bands at a local pub. This further advertised my DJ business. I have recently been asked to do custom music mixes for dance recitals. If you keep an open mind and focus on your passions and skill sets, starting a successful business becomes easier and much more rewarding. Follow your passion not your pension and the money will come. Good luck and have fun.

Business Classification: Franchise.
Description of Operation: Windshield repair.
Franchised units 15 in 3 states
Company owned units 3
In business since 1997
Franchising since 2003
Franchise fee $10,000
Territory code 1
Capital requirements: $12,000 – $45,000
Financing NO
Training and support provided YES

What is web 2.0? It is the greatest thing to happen to the small business owner. Now the little guy can reach as many potential customers and clients as traditional Madison Ave marketing firms. To understand how this can be true, you need to know what web 2.0 is and how to apply this technology to your business. Web 2.0 is not a singular technology. It is more of a philosophy. It is a new approach to how various websites are built. Early Internet users searched the web for information. That is not enough for the modern internet user/customer. The current trend is for people to want to interact with others on the internet; social media websites facilitate that connection. Imagine my surprise when my grandma sent me a friend request on facebook!

Imagine an independent film maker making a movie that millions of people can watch over the internet. Oh yeah, i forgot to mention there is no movie studio or corporate financing involved. What about an unsigned music artist selling millions on his own without major label distribution. The following story shows how a beginning wedding photographer can book more jobs using social media.

Susan, A wedding photographer from Los Angeles, used myspace.com to run a unique referral program. She used an old real-estate investment technique called bird-dogging and applied it to her business.

Bird-dogging is when an investor pays a third party a commission for finding a very good deal on a house. Susan did this on a large scale using her social network.

She sent a message out to over 1000 of her of Los Angeles myspace friends saying that she would give a $100 commission to anyone that successfully referred her to shoot a wedding. Her average fee is $2000 per wedding. A five percent referral commission isn’t to bad. Some entrepreneurs adjust there price by the amount of the referral commission so no profits are lost.

Susan may get more referrals than she can handle. In this case she can out source the jobs she doesn’t have time for. She is now diversifying her wedding photography income by referring her overflow referrals.

Web 2.0 and social networking helped Susan supercharge her business.

The biggest challenge for any small business is finding new customers. There will always be an abundance of prospects as long as you know where and how to look.

Prospects will not fall in your lap. You have to go out and get new business. There is no way around it. They will not find you just because you have a website. That would be the virtual equivalent of prospects and customers knocking on your house door. This article will show you an effective and fun way to generate your own pool of fish.

Some entrepreneurs buy their school of prospecting fish from a data collection company, but the best pool of fish to prospect from is the one you create your self.

Today we will focus on the Survey Method. A team of Network Marketers created a health and wellness survey of only three short questions. The survey form had a place for the prospects name, phone number, and e-mail.

When Joe, the leader of this Team first heard of this method, he thought no one would ever give him their full contact information. Maybe an e-mail address and a fake phone number. He was about to get a lesson in prospecting psychology. It is human nature to accept an object that someone is handing you. It is a reflex. If you hand someone a pen and paper and ask them for their contact info, they will instinctively take the pen and paper. The key to this type of survey method is to ask them for a favor.

Joe and his team went to a college campus to try this new approach. Joe would ask students if they could spare a minute to help him with a simple three question health survey. The three questions were: Do you exercise? Do you take nutritional supplements? Do you think that improved financial health would help decrease stress in your life? The survey had lines for name, e-mail, and phone number. The team surveyed about 100 people in 30 minutes. Two days later, the team had a call party night to follow up with the people surveyed. The team discovered that over 90 percent of the contact information was valid. Lets say that only one person out of the 100 surveyed was interested in the product or business opportunity. That one new person has a referral network of his or her own. The result of one percent success could be thousands of new customers and team members over time. Not to bad for a 99% failure rate, and it only took the team 30 minutes.

]]> http://gorillazmarketing.com/archives/embrace-the-survey-method/feed 1 http://gorillazmarketing.com/archives/mobile-dj-marketing http://gorillazmarketing.com/archives/mobile-dj-marketing#comments Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:11:34 +0000 admin http://gorillazmarketing.com/?p=390

There are many great ways to go about marketing your mobile entertainment business. Which one you choose is a matter of personal preference. This article is designed to give you a new perspective on what is effective. In the spirit of  Gorilla (guerrilla) marketing, these techniques will be low or no cost.I went to a wedding extravaganza in downtown San Antonio last month and it was a very impressive showcase to say the least. Being in the Mobile DJ  business myself, I wondered how much a booth at an event like this would cost me. (You may be asking yourself why an established DJ would not already be participating in events like these. I will explain.) I did some research on the cost of this marketing strategy and found that the booth would cost in the range of $500-$2000 depending on the size of the booth and the features I needed. I saw three different Mobile DJ booths with beautiful displays. One particular DJ business has been successful for many years using this kind of marketing. However, it is not what I, or most Gorillaz would consider low-cost. This kind of advertising works well, but I believe that an experienced and motivated Gorilla can get the same if not better results on a much smaller budget, without the booth.

First of all, why would I pay up to $2,000 for the privilege of directly competing with three other impressive Mobile DJ businesses  just a few booths down from me? I can have my own personal Wedding Extravaganza every weekend for free if I embrace Cooperative Marketing. Let me give you a fun example of this type of marketing.

What exactly is Cooperative Marketing? Cooperative Marketing is when two or more business entities pull resources to promote their product and services in a non-competitive way. Otherwise known as Fusion Marketing.

Instead of competing with the DJ booths at the Bridal Extravaganza, I decided to partner with a smaller bridal boutique. The owner of the store agreed to let me set up one of my smaller DJ systems in front of her store. I came prepared with brochures  and business cards as well as a small dvd player set up to show my light show. This was also the perfect place to run a promotion to grow my opt in e-mail list.

How it works: A customer puts her name and email address on a card and drops it in a fish bowl for a later drawing. I use restaurant gift cards for my give aways. One DJ I know uses i-tunes gift cards.

It’s ok if they don’t book a wedding with you that day. You have their contact information. Send them a cool newsletter like the one you are reading now to show them all the great services you have to make their event a success.

This is a win win situation. The store benefits from the buzz of a cool DJ spinning music in front of her store, which draws more customers. The DJ gets his own mini wedding extravaganza without the competition or the $2000 price tag.

Social media gives entrepreneurs a way to network like never before.Never in the history of the world could we communicate at the level we are communicating today. But be warned, you only have a split second to make a good impression. Think about yourself surfing the internet. If something doesn’t interest you, how long do you stick around? Here are the seven must know secrets to success with social media.

1. Don’t Sell on twitter (or any other social site)

Leave your product and business at the door. This may seem counter intuitive but it is necessary. you have to build trust and confidence and that takes a little more time on line. Don’t rush.

2.Be fun. Don’t be a stuffy professional. People go to these sites for fun. Many business people go on these sites and try to look all professional in their suits. That is just boring. The goal is to grow your online network, not drive people away. Just have fun.

3.Be remarkable. Make people talk about you at the office water cooler on monday morning. A good way to do this is to dress fun in your pictures and videos.

4.Be helpful. Adding value to peoples life and truly serving is the best way

to create lasting wealth. Find a way to do this without pushing your products or business.

5.Be supportive. Negative people are not welcome on social media sites. Go ahead and look at the profiles of people with the biggest networks. None of them are negative.

6. Be controversial. (not negative) Don’t try to please everyone. Middle of the road is BORING and BORING wont build a huge network.

7. Be resourceful. Find funny material and links to share with your online network. People are drawn to the fun party guy. If you are not that person that is ok. Use other peoples humor. Try these sites.

digg.com

popurls.com

reddit.com

Remember to have fun.