Canadian Small Business Women

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Influencer Marketing: Getting Celebrities to Talk About Your Brand

CHuntly

Whether you were aware of it or not, influencer marketing has always existed in some form. Perhaps it was a famous actor pictured at your new favourite restaurant, or maybe it was that athlete that just happens to drink your favourite sports drink while they’re working out. Influencer marketing is when you get certain individuals who have a large circle of influence (AKA people listen to everything they say) to endorse your brand. The goal is to market to them with the hope that they will tell their followers about you.

While influencer marketing has existed for a long time, it has evolved significantly with the introduction of the internet and social media. While an influencer used to be an individual such as a trusted newscaster, actor, or musician, an influencer now can be a blogger, a YouTube star, a popular Instagrammer, and others who use social platforms to build up a celebrity status.

While influencer marketing presents certain challenges such as potential costs (nothing is ever free!) and contractual demands, if used wisely, it can extend your brand’s reach further than you initially thought possible. Most consumers look to people they know for reviews and opinions before they make decisions, which means that having someone else talk about how great you are could have a greater impact than if you market to them directly.

If you are considering an influencer marketing strategy, here are a few things to keep in mind:

  1. Set clear strategic goals: You need to know what your goals are for your influencer campaign. Are you looking to sell product? Are you looking to generate some buzz? Or perhaps you are looking to build an army of consumer brand ambassadors. Whatever your goal, you will approach the strategy differently. It also helps if you can be extremely clear when interacting with influencers so you can identify exactly what it is you want from them.
  2. Be realistic about your budget: In most cases, influencer endorsement will cost you. Certain celebrities command up to $280,000 per branded Instagram post! Influencers will all work within different price points, so you need to define your budget ahead of time to see what influencers you will be able to work with and what the scope of work might look like.
  3. Relevancy is key: Make sure the influencers you are working with target the same audience you do, otherwise your message will be lost. It has to be a good fit for the brand because the influencer is meant to act as an extension of you.
  4. Proper etiquette: When reaching out to influencers, you would approach most of them using the same outreach etiquette as you would the media. However, certain influencers may work with talent management companies that you would contact.
  5. Track your results: Once you reach out to an influencer, the onus is on you to track when they talk about your brand on social media and when they write about you. How many times was the post shared? Are you joining in the ensuing conversation? What is the reach of each influencer that wrote about you?

Candace Huntly is the Founder and Principal at SongBird Marketing Communications, an award-winning agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making the approach unique to you.

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The Invisible Stone: Why We Sometimes Stumble In Seeing The Results We Want!

yvonne

In my life, as well as role as a business coach and change consultant, I often come across some ‘invisible stones’ and barriers; I face it sometimes, and I see clients facing it as well. I see situations whereby we are subconsciously not taking responsibility for our actions, and it becomes the invisible stone that causes us to stumble and prevents us from moving forward be it in our lives or businesses.

I was once part of a project that was not moving forward. The project manager and team blamed the leaders for lack of strong leadership and decision making; and the leaders blamed lack of strong project management and employee resistance to change. Standing on the outside, and looking in without any personal agenda, I was able to see things differently. And one thing that was very clear was the ‘lack of ownership and responsibility’. This scenario is very typical in not one, not two, but many organisations.

When we think we are in the right, and someone else is to blame, it makes it more difficult to achieve any goal individually or collectively.

If you are facing chaos on your tasks right now, or finding it difficult to move forward on a personal or business goal, stop for a second and reflect on the below questions.

Be it on a colleague, coworker, friend, partner, parent or the economy, ask yourself:

  • Am I laying the blame at someone else’s feet for why things are not going well?
  • Am I blaming someone else for why I’m not getting the results I want?
  • Am I taking ownership and responsibility for everything that pertains to me and my way of managing my business, or am I holding others responsible?

Consciously or even subconsciously, it is easy to lay the blame somewhere else. Are you blaming your past for lack of progress? Are you blaming a bad economy for your present situation? Are you blaming your parents for something they did or did not do? Are you blaming your race or gender for lack of opportunities?

While I would love to empathise with you, that will not change the situation. Empathy may help you feel good temporarily, but does not get to the crux of the matter or produce results. Whatever situation we are facing, someone else has faced it and is facing it, and yet has not let it hold them back.

We can choose to take ownership for the type of results we want, or fill our minds with why it is someone else’s fault why things are not moving forward as desired. When holding on to a Blame Mindset, which I talk about in my book, The Change You Want, it is difficult to move forward. There will always be that invisible barrier holding us back.

There will be many situations we face and encounter that are out of our control, but how we react, and our attitude is fully and well within our control!

Here are some suggested steps you can take.

  1. Refuse to allow the actions of others demobilise you, stop the blame.
  2. Reflect on your current situation and determine what is within your control and what you can empower yourself to do.
  3. Take ownership and responsibility for your current situation and open your mind for help and to various routes on how to move forward.
  4. Focus your energy on the positive, and on equipping yourself with the skills and resources to help you see the results you desire.

“When you blame others, you give up your power to change.” – Robert Anthony

To learn about Yvonne’s latest book on Changing your Mindset for greater results, visit http://www.oliveblue.com/changeyourmindset/

Yvonne is an Author, Speaker, Change Consultant & John Maxwell Leadership Coach who is passionate about working with Individuals, Entrepreneurs and Organisations to help implement change they want and achieve their goals.   

She can be reached at: www.oliveblue.com . www.facebook.com/oliveblueinc . www.twitter.com/oliveblueinc.www.youtube.com/ChangeYouWantTV

Benefits of Experimentation For Every Industry

Tamara high res 1

Many years ago, I was involved in a high leveled art program. Everyone who was apart of the program was given their own studio, freedom to structure their workflow and access to anything from a photography dark room (Yes, it was that long ago) to oil paints.

However, there was part of the program that was structured. It was the requirement to produce something that they called ‘Experimental Studio Research’ (ESR). This wasn’t the perfectly polished framed painting that you may think your mentors want to see – no. This was the process. The work that brought you to that finished piece. The samples of palettes that didn’t work. The sketches that never produced a finished product.

At first, I almost had to force myself to experiment because I was usually quite certain of how I wanted to work. But I learned valuable lessons by committing to ESR, and it is something that I have taken into every business I have been apart of.

The lessons translate to business so well because as we all know – there are no guarantees and it is inevitable that some things will work better than others. For the purposes of this article – the ‘Studio’ can refer to your industry and the ‘experiments’ are considered strategies that you implement and programs, products and services you offer.

For example, let’s use the coaching industry. You may try offering one-to-one intensive retreats for the first time instead of your 3-month group packages.  You have never marketed such high priced service so you expand to advertising in high-end print magazines instead of investing in just Facebook ads. After two months you haven’t gotten any sales of your retreat but have gotten 25 phone calls about your 3-month packages and requests for year-long programs. Taking the risk (experimenting) with a different marketing approach didn’t get the desired results, but there was unexpected benefits. The results of the ‘research’ of trying a different approach then led to business growth by finding the coach’s clients and what their needs are.

As you can see in the example – one important lesson is that: effort in one direction may actually benefit you in another area that you don’t necessarily expect. The key is to be open to the findings of the ‘research’ and less focused on the unexpected turns that will inevitably come.

Another lesson I applied through this concept is that the ‘process’ is valuable too. You may not only get unexpected business growth, but you may find unexpected skills and interests of your own that you can apply to the future of your business. For example, the coach we talked about before may have found out that she really loved the long-term relationship that she was able to develop over a year’s worth of services.

The value of perceiving things this way is that you can really avoid the ‘failure’ mindset. If everything you do is used to inform your next decision (Ie: NO one bought that program, or I got 400 new sign ups with the newest opt-in), it is all valuable. Knowing what didn’t ‘work’ is just as important as knowing what does.

I hope that reading this you have considered how your ‘experiments’ within your industry can still contribute to the success and growth of your business, even if you ended up not proceeding the way you originally thought.

 

Tamara is the Founder and Creative Director of Sweet Clover Studios. Where she provides resources, planners, learning opportunities and inspiration for other creative small business owners. You can also see her personal gallery of products as a surface pattern designer at http://www.SweetCloverStudios.com

Why We Keep Getting Limited Results, and What You Can Do Differently Starting Now in this Year!

yvonne

Have you ever wondered why you’re not getting the results you want despite doing your best or following the ‘guaranteed’ formulas and products everyone else is using and getting results?

Do you feel procrastination, lack of time, fear of failure or lack of finances is holding you back?

Or why when you have been working so hard to get promoted or kick-start your business idea, but still not happening?

Or you can’t seem lose weight and keep it off, yet others are experiencing great results?

It may not be what you think!

I too have struggled. I know the feeling. But thankfully my outcomes are now different because of the simple but foundational principles I was fortunate to apply, and I began to see fantastic outcomes; getting multiple promotions in my career, kick-starting my business and seeing the results and momentum build, and the hardest had to be losing up to 90lbs.

I have discovered from my life, and working with many individuals and organisations that a significant part of getting our desired results is not in finding the solution to the problem or knowing ‘how-to’, but lies with the person and mindset of the person who has the solution.

Have you heard the story of the two salesmen who were sent to a foreign place to sell shoes? The first salesman arrives and sees that nobody on the island wears shoes, and he immediately sends a message back to the office saying “Dead end. Nobody wears shoes here”. The second salesman arrives, sees the same situation and immediately sends a message back to the office saying “Magnificent opportunity! Loads of shoes to be sold”. What was the difference between these two salesmen? Mindset!

Yes, their mindset. Mindset is what differentiates two people with the same opportunity. Mindset is what allowed the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Walt Disney, Michael Jordan, President Barack Obama and Albert Einstein recognise opportunities that others did not, made them persist, and succeed in the face countless rejections, adversity and opposition. Mindset is also what finally allowed me achieve success using existing knowledge and ‘how-to’ information available in the public domain.

A right mindset is foundational to us getting and exceeding the outcomes we desire; it will turn things around and help us become creative in finding solutions to barriers such as procrastination, overcoming fear, finding the time and resources we need, and more.

In my book coming out soon on mindset, I go into more detail on mindset principles and examples that individuals like Walt Disney, Michael Phelps presently regarded as the greatest Olympian, and Nick Vujicic, born without arms or legs, have used to achieve significant success and how you also can easily apply these same principles to your specific situation and take your outcomes from good to great!

Please leave a comment below: Have you been successful in achieving your goals, what worked for you? Or what are you currently struggling with, and what barriers are you coming against?

Comment below. I would love to hear, discuss and share insights with you.

 

To learn about Yvonne’s latest book on Changing your Mindset for greater results, visit http://www.oliveblue.com/changeyourmindset/

Yvonne is an Author, Speaker, Change Consultant & John Maxwell Leadership Coach who is passionate about working with Individuals, Entrepreneurs and Organisations to provide the tools and help implement change, drive results and achieve their goals.   She can be reached at: www.oliveblue.com . www.facebook.com/oliveblueinc . www.twitter.com/oliveblueinc.www.youtube.com/ChangeYouWantTV

 

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