5 Personal Branding Tips for Attraction Marketing Strategies

Hilary Media

Attraction marketing is a set of strategies used by entrepreneurs providing self-employment business opportunities, such as web- or home-based sales, to other entrepreneurs. Branding is the art and science of creating a recognized and singular image for a company or group of products. Personal branding is a crucial element of attraction marketing, giving potential clients a reason to seek out more information about business opportunities. Rather than actively soliciting new entrepreneurs for a business opportunity, attraction marketing strategies seek to attract potential client/owners to seek out a well-defined brand.

Be Clean Cut

Being clean-cut at all times applies to your personal appearance as well as the appearance of your web properties and marketing materials. If you are trying to attract entrepreneurial individuals to sign up for a home-based knife-sales program, for example, you are likely to make a deeper impression if you are dressed like a successful professional than if you dress like an average Joe. Similarly, a polished and elegant website can exude an image of success, luring potential clients to dig deeper into your marketing messages than they would with a cluttered and clumsy design.

Represent Your Brand

Craft your brand around your personal style as much as possible. Make marketing decisions consistent with your brand, even if your brand doesn't completely mesh with your personal style. For example, if you are most comfortable in jeans and T-shirts but you are marketing an opportunity to sell life insurance, wear a suit and tie to each meeting for maximum impact. As another example, if you prefer web advertisements to look more professional, but you are marketing a more youth-based business opportunity, make your advertisements more colorful and exciting.

Be Consistent

Be consistent in your messaging and presentation at every turn. Advertisements, marketing materials, video presentations and testimonials should all mesh with a single image, sending a single message. Do not allow a well-designed advertisement to lead to a poor-quality recruiting video, for example.

Be Positive and Practical

Find a good balance between positivity and practicality. If your website is stocked with positive promises of exponentially growing wealth, visitors are likely to become skeptical of the reliability of your claims. If there is no positive hype in your marketing presentations, on the other hand, people may not catch the enthusiasm needed to take an entrepreneurial risk. The same goes for presentations made in person. Exude positivity in your presentation and messaging, but temper your positivity with real-world insight into the challenges and hurdles that come with the opportunity. Being real and down-to-earth can do much to build trust with your prospects, who have likely seen a number of scams before finding your opportunity.

Build a Network

Building a network of successful clients who will spread the word about your business opportunity on their own can contribute to meeting goals of attraction marketing. A network of brand champions can do much to enhance a brand image, the same way a group of unsatisfied ex-customers can tarnish it. Offer referral incentives encourage your most successful entrepreneurs to bring their friends and family onboard, for example.

Top Ten Internet Marketing DON'Ts

Violate the terms of service of Google's Adsense program or spam the search engines via black hat techniques like cloaking or keyword stuffing. It's not worth it — the penalties are severe, and can include banishment.

Announce your web site until it is completed and fully functional. Take the time to identify the web servers, lists, and usenet newsgroups where it is appropriate to announce web sites. Consider encouraging colleagues to embed links to your web site in their web pages.

Make users register before they can receive information. Research has shown this approach repels many more people than it attracts. If you must require registration, request only essential details such as name and email address. Make sure your privacy policy is clearly stated and prominently posted.

Broadcast your message indiscriminately, unless you enjoy being flamed. Consider the case of Canter & Siegel, a Phoenix law firm that posted an advertisement for their immigration services to 9,000 Usenet discussion groups in the Spring of 1994. While they claim to have earned $50,000 from this approach, they also incurred the wrath of the Internet community, receiving thousands of flames and losing their Internet access provider.

Lose sight of the fact that it is the user, not the advertiser, who foots the bill for Internet advertising. Therefore, if you wish to avoid alienating a prospect, it is imperative that you treat this person with respect and courtesy. Don't insult his intelligence or waste her time.

Make your email messages or news group posts any longer than they need to be. Make your point clearly and concisely. If you are replying to another post, retain only the minimum amount of quoted material necessary to get the point across. You can make a product announcement, depending on the news group or list and on the manner in which it is announced. Discretion and courtesy are the keys.

Underestimate the speed at which bad news can travel throughout the Internet, or the negative impact this phenomenon may have on your company. Intel made this mistake once, in ignoring the groundswell of customer anger about a flawed Pentium chip. This dissatisfaction originated in a news group and spread throughout the Internet like wildfire, ultimately forcing Intel to announce a recall.

- See more at: http://www.weblens.org/top_10.html#sthash.ruRyXirE.dpuf

Top Internet Marketing DO's & DON'Ts

Keep domain names short and memorable (if possible), and ensure that your web site address is widely published. Include it on stationery, business cards, brochures and advertisements, along with email contact information for key personnel.

Use a sig file. This little file goes at the end of every email you send, (except when subscribing to a mailing list). It is considered acceptable to use your sig for advertising purposes, but keep it brief. It should contain your company name, a brief description of your product or service, and the URL of your web site, if any.

Keep your web site simple and straight-forward. Resist the urge to glitz it up with gobs of bandwidth-gobbling graphics. Ensure that your site is constructed in such a way as to encourage repeat visits. A visitor who has to wait two minutes for a graphic to load is unlikely to ever return. Offer the visitor meaningful content, links to interesting sites, and regular updates.

Find a way to stimulate interaction with visitors to your web site. An email link is useful for this purpose, and not hard to establish. Consider creating an online feedback form -- this is a simple and effective way to conduct online market research. Informal polls are also useful for this purpose, and free online tools make them easy to create.

Consider news groups, mailing lists, and blogs important resources for gathering marketing-related information. Announce your product or service in a net.acceptable way and only in those places that welcome such announcements.

Consider creating a blog to promote your site, as WebLens has done here. The blogging phenomenon is fast becoming the leading edge of the new "social Internet" and blogs offer many marketing advantages over static web sites, including the ability to push content out proactively, instead of waiting for the world to come to them.

If you can't make the time commitment blogging demands — successful blogs require regular contributions — at the very least consider adding an RSS feed to your web site so visitors can receive updates automatically. Include a link to the feed on your site, and be sure to submit it to the various RSS feed directories.

Write good copy, scatter relevant keywords throughout, and take the time to learn about the other optimization techniques that will help your site rank high in search results.

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25 Astonishing Stats that Show Why Twitter MUST be Part of Your Marketing Strategy

When our customers come to us asking for some advice on how to market their website we always recommend Twitter as a great place to start. Twitter helped us get off the ground and continues to be our main source of blog traffic.

Not everybody is convinced about the benefits of Twitter though, so Twitter themselves created this infographic which highlights some astonishing stats about what Twitter can do for your small business.

Social Media Basics: What, When and How to Post on Twitter and Facebook

Are you using Twitter and Facebook to market your products and services? Are you posting the correct things in the right way at the right time?

What, when and how you post should be different depending on what your social media goals are according to Pagemodo. As they have detailed in the infographic below certain types of posts attractretweets and shares whilst others attract favourites and likes.

What are your social media goals? Take a look at the infographic and see what you should be posting.

Confab delegate dies in Abuja

The delegate, Alhaji Mohammed Hamma Misau, according to family sources, died Thursday  night at the National Hospital,Abuja.
Misau,a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG, from Bauchi State, according to his cousin, Barr. Mohammed Hamma, died after a brief illness at the age of 67.
The remains of the deceased were being taken to Misau, his home town in Bauchi State at the time of filing this report.
Hamma said the body would be buried according to Islamic rites shortly after prayer.
The late delegate was seen being helped to a seat by an aide last Wednesday afternoon, when he attempted to walk to where his car was park but suffered fatique.

Experts Sound Alarm Over Nigerian ‘Viagra’ Drinks

Lagos. Nike Ajibade and three of her colleagues sit on a Lagos pavement with small plastic bottles of liquids tucked inside weather-beaten plastic buckets.

The hidden bottles of so-called "viagra" drinks sell for about $2 (1.4 euros) and are much sought-after for their supposed aphrodisiac qualities.

But medical professionals warn that rather than enhancing sexual prowess, regular users could be putting their long-term health at risk.

"Sales are high because of good patronage," Ajibade, 27, told AFP. "Most of my customers are manual labourers who need to boost their energy in bed after a hard day's job under mostly inclement weather."

Hundreds of hawkers ply the bustling streets of Lagos and other Nigerian towns and cities selling such "viagra" drinks, despite their unknown and untested effects on the male sex drive.

"They are creating health problems for themselves," warned the dean of the University of Lagos' faculty of pharmacy, Olukemi Odukoya. "Unknown to them, some of these liquids have chemical substances which can cause liver or kidney problems, which are very expensive and difficult to manage."

A promise of sexual potency

Viagra, taken to treat erectile dysfunction, costs between $5 and $11 per little blue pill in Nigeria — way beyond the means of most people who live on just $2 a day.

As a result, that creates a ready market for cheaper, apparent alternatives.

Besides the locally produced $2 bottles, others are imported, including so-called Alomo bitters which come from Ghana.

The Ghanian liquid is a blend of rich medicinal herbs and roots that are believed to cure back pains and piles but are considered an aphrodisiac in Nigeria.

Bootleg versions of the drink — with 42 percent alcoholic content — are available in the local market for about $4 for a 750 milliliter bottle.

Such drinks — all with names promising a nirvana of sexual potency — flood the Nigerian market every day, mostly via the country's porous borders and seaports or past officials who turn a blind eye.

"I feel high and alright each time I have sex after consuming 'koboko' [horse whip] or 'kondo' [baton] drinks and my partner gives me a feeling of satisfaction," said one young motor mechanic after buying a bottle.

Similar "aphrodisiac" drinks are found in other West African countries such as Togo and Benin under names such "XXL," "Rox" and "Atomic," finding a ready market of young male consumers.

There is no official control and medical warnings against their consumption are regularly ignored.

Unknown health risks

A senior lecturer in clinical pharmacy studies at the University of Lagos, Aderemi Williams, said no known scientific studies have been carried out on the drinks.

But reports indicate they could be harmful.

Most have not been tested or approved by Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) regulator and accreditation can be faked by unscrupulous distributors.

"We therefore cannot vouch for their efficacy," said the agency's spokesman, Abubakar Jimoh. "We are really concerned about the distribution of these illicit drugs and we are trying our best to put it in check."

Health professionals warned that possible side effects could include anaemia, increased risk of cancer and stroke, cirrhosis and reduced fertility, as well as enlargement of the prostate gland.

"If they were good, we would have them on our hospital shelves, dispensaries and pharmacies," said pharmacist Kunle Abifarin. "And I am sure that most of them are not formally approved by the regulatory agencies."

Fertility problems

Nigeria has a wider problem with fake and adulterated drugs, with officials estimating that more than 70 percent of medication is bogus.

NAFDAC has arrested and prosecuted dozens of suspected dealers in counterfeit drugs and herbal products, destroyed seized goods and closed shops and warehouses where they were distributed, said Jimoh.

One University of Lagos clinical pharmacist said that instead of enhancing libido, regular drinkers of liquid aphrodisiacs may be risking their future fertility — and even life.

"They [consumers of the drinks] are only courting cheap death and creating employment for grave diggers," he added on condition of anonymity.

But Moruf Adeyemi, 29, a mechanic in the run-down Lagos district of Obalende, is unperturbed about the potential risks — and is convinced that they aid his performance in bed.

"Each of us has to die somehow. I don't believe the consumption of these sex-enhancing drinks has any side-effects," he said. "My wife commends my performance in bed when I take them and that gives me joy."

Nokia Unveils A Mobile Phone with 35 Days Battery Life

Nokia has unveiled a mobile phone priced at about N2, 700 that can last for 35 days on a single charge. Nokia unveiled the device this week at the ongoing Mobile World Congress 2013 event in Barcelona, Spain. The new handset Nokia 105 is a basic text-and-call phone aimed at mobile markets in the developing world
where electricity is an issue. Nokia discloses at the event that the phone will go on sale within weeks. It comes with a colour screen, built-in torch and an FM radio.
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Dora Akunyili's response to ill health

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