Today, I attended my first Lakeland Area Chamber of Commerce Schmooze a’Palooza and I am so glad I did! This “power networking” event, held at Florida Southern College in the Eleanor Searle Drawing Room, brought together about 50 of Lakeland’s shakers and movers to promote our businesses – to “sell the sizzle” – and enjoy lunch together.

We gathered in the elegant drawing room on the architecturally-awesome FSC campus about 11:30 this morning where a buffet of salad, grilled chicken, roast beef, pasta and steamed veggies awaited us. I started building my power for the event with some cheese and crackers while meeting some of my fellow Lakeland Chamber members and staff – many for the first time since I am a fairly new member. The Chamber of Commerce’s Vice-president for Membership Development Terry Ottinger and Communications VP Aaron Bates, along with our host – Account Executive Amy Wiggins (reach her at 688-8551 ext. 229) – greeted me and made me feel right at home.

Jessica Gutowski, standing-in for AllSolar’s Dillon Daniels, joined me at my table since we already knew each other from another event. Jessica is a real talented, young up-and-comer in the Lakeland biz world – a recent FSC Public Relations grad working on the Gow Field campaign for mayor.  Sitting to my right was Adam Baust of the Welborn Companies’ Adminstrative Service Offerings, who is opening a new branch here in Lakeland to help local businesses with their accounting, payroll and tax matters. Keiser University‘s Director of Student Services Ryan Reis joined us, as well, and we got got to talk about helping students develop practical business experience through intership and portfolio development with Lakeland companies. I taught at [then] Keiser College in Melbourne, FL and am really excited about mentoring local students. After a nice lunch to power-up for our presentations, the ever-effervescent Amy Wiggins got things sizzling.

At the Schooze a’ Palooza, each attendee gets to stand up and give a 30-second “elevator-pitch” for their business to the crowd. It’s a great way to hone your presentation skills! I enjoyed watching my fellow Chamber members give their pitches. The event gave me a chance to hear local enterprises’ marketing messages and get to know some of the people that are active in the business community. Its a real whirl to go through almost 50 marketing pitches in less than an hour and ‘where the rubber meets the raod’ in marketing. In the marketing world, you are competing against so many messages for attention and to gain interest in about half a minute. YOU GOTTA MAKE IT SIZZLE!

As a local internet marketing consultant, I analyze marketing messages for a living. As a prospective consumer, I want to know what’s in it for me as quickly as possible. This was a wonderful way to take a look at what I do – and how I present my business to prospects. After all, my job is to get your BEST prospects to visit your website and BUY your products and services. I better be able to deliver a clear, compelling message myself!

I recommend that local business join the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce for opportunities like this. If you are a member, I recommend attending the next Schmooze a’ Palooza. In the meantime, if you’d like a few tips you can use to develop or hone your 30-second elevator pitch email me and I’ll get those out to you. It really is a vital skill for anyone who needs to explain what your business does. I’ll be working on my elevator pitch to make the best impression – to make it sizzle – at ALL of the events and encounters here in Lakeland this year.

OK, so you decided to start your blog as part of your internet marketing campaign. You’ve installed WordPress, chosen a theme and started blogging away. You are marketing online and ready to increase your profits. Good for you!

How, you want your best prospects to visit your blog on your website, look around, comment on your blog, sign up for your website newsletter and, eventually, become a customer – RIGHT? That’s alot to ask, but not unreasonable. What’s unreasonable is expecting it all to happen right away. And, it requires a systematic approach. First things first.

The BEST thing you can do to your website blog is to PING! Pinging is basically sending a signal to blog directories and other websites to let them know you’ve posted new content on your blog. Sending pings is a great way to get your website blog indexed in search engines and spread the word so that your potential customers can find your content. It’s really the fastest and easiest place to start promoting your blog, your products and services and your small business. Best part about it is that it doesn’t COST you anything to do.

However, you must do this the right way or you can end up hurting your website and blog presence in the ever-growing-and-becoming-much-more-important blogosphere.

WordPress comes with built-in ping features. However, they don’t really work that well as the default and you really need to optimize your blog ping system. The best tool you can get (and one of the few plug-ins I use here) is MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer. It’s easy to install and use and really makes a BIG difference in getting the results you want from your blog. (If you need help with this, just ask me by email or call me direct at (863) 668-1086)

Your pings can get you:

Indexed right away in search engines

Traffic coming immediately to your website

Listed in blog directories so SEEKERS can find your website

Get other blogs to find your blog and mention your posts

Get good links that add to your Google Page Rank and bump you up in the search results

How, once you’ve got it installed and activated, you’ll want to add some ping sites to your list. Here’s the first twenty I have on my list:

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://api.feedster.com/ping

http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping

http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2

http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php

http://www.blogsnow.com/ping

http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi

http://coreblog.org/ping/

http://ping.blo.gs/

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://topicexchange.com/RPC2

http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

http://api.moreover.com/ping

Getting your BEST customers to visit your website and Buy your products and services is the goal of an internet marketing campaign. Your Lakeland business can use more customers, right? So what are you waiting for? This is your invitation to maximize your blog by using ping optimizer. It’s easy, fast and no cost other than a few minutes of your precious time. It’s definitely worth your investment!

This is a great start. You can discover more by searching the web or you can just email me and ASK for a list of more ping sites I use. I add new ones all the time and am glad to share them with you!

New Feature Article on Lakeland Internet Marketing

By Jack Duncan, internet marketing consultant, Radiance Road Marketing, Lakeland, FL

The successful business in your market continues to take advantage of opportunities to seize more of your potential customers and a larger portion of those customers’ wallets. They are watching their profits grow while having more time to enjoy life’s bounty. Meanwhile, your business struggles to maintain cash-flow to keep afloat. Why?

There are two basic reasons…

continue reading

Read More Marketing Articles at: http://www.radianceroadmarketing.com/articles.html

The cool weather is finally here and feeling the change in the seasons always motivates me to try some new things. Cruising the info.super.web this month, I’ve added some blogs to my good info list that you might find helpful to your business or personal development.

Here’s the list I’ve devloped for ROCKTOBER -

For non-profit organizations:

Future Fundraising Now – How to do fundraising right. Starting now.

What this blog is about – The future of fundraising is not about social media, online video, or SEM. It’s not about any technology, medium, or technique. It’s about donors. If you need to raise funds from donors, you need to study them, respect them, and build everything you do around them. And the future? It’s already here.

A true professional continues to learn and to grow. Developing our sales skills translates into more $$$. In this economic environment increasing lead conversions is vital to growth. The most productive part of my professional development has been reading books and applying new strategies and tactics in the field. Although I have read a lot of books on sales, I keep rereading a few key works because they still provide valuable guidance. Over the next few months, I’m going to share these classics with you. Here is my favorite (read that as most valuable) classic:

How I Turned Failure to Success in Selling by Frank Bettger

Frank Bettger’s book, How I Turned Failure to Success in Selling, describes in detail his rise from getting fired from his job as a baseball player for being ‘lazy’ to traveling the lecture circuit with Dale Carnegie as one of America’s top sales coaches. Along the way, he adopted proven techniques developed by business leaders from Ben Franklin to Brian Tracy to improve his performance. His story is not only inspirational – it serves as a practical guide to systematically increasing your income.

After getting sent down to the bush league for appearing lazy, Bettger decided to start acting enthusiastic on the baseball field and soon found himself playing for the St. Louis Cardinals with virtually no other changes in his performance. Although a broken arm ended his sports career, he learned to apply some key principles he learned on the diamond to build a highly successful sales career.

Although Bettger’s career spanned the early part of the 20^th Century, this is still considered one of the top sales manuals today because people don’t change. He lays out systems for tracking the efficiency of sales contacts and planning techniques that are easily adapted to a computerized world. But most of his strategies still prove effective without any alteration.

At one time, my sales manager suggested that I read this book. As I began to try some of the methods, my sales increased. Some of the ideas seemed outrageous, but I gave them a try. My own successful experience lead me to share this book and demonstrate the methods to agents in the field. One new agent used this guide to rack up the second-best record in our county her first year, beating out several seasoned pros.

Frank Bettger taught me how to connect with people, discover their motivations, uncover and answer their true objections, then close the deal and get referrals. While it was somewhat uncomfortable trying new ideas, I never had to compromise my moral principles to make a sale. As a matter of fact, doing the right thing for the right reason helped to increase my confidence and personal satisfaction along the way.

I’ve learned to turn my failures into success by reading and rereading this book. If you are interested in earning more money and willing to follow some simple suggestions, then this is the one book you want to read this month. You can find this 192-page, easy to read paperback on my marketing books webpage for about ten bucks. And if it could net you ten extra sales during the next few months, wouldn’t that be worth your time?

New Feature Article on Lakeland Internet Marketing

Search Engine Marketing Helps Generate Traffic

By Jack Duncan, Internet Marketing Consultant, Radiance Road Marketing, Lakeland, FL

If you website is not getting the results you want, there are reasons. Internet marketing is no great mystery. The biggest reason your website is not generating leads is because your prospective customers aren’t seeing your site listing when they use search engines.

Are the Major Search Engines Indexing Your Web Site?

This is easy to check. Simply go to Google, Yahoo or Bing! and search. Start your search with your company name and see if your site pops up. Try putting your company name in quotes (for example, “Radiance Road Marketing”). This would eliminate all the chaff, such as listings where the terms ‘radiance’, ‘road’ and ‘marketing’ might turn up out of context. You can also add your location by… continue reading

Read More Marketing Articles at: http://www.radianceroadmarketing.com/articles.html

I really enjoyed my first Lakeland Chamber of Commerce Business & Breakfast at 7:30am this morning at Lakeland Habitat for Humanity 1317 George Jenkins Blvd.

OK, 7:30 in the am is a bit early for me to be out and about (unless I’m going to Disney World!), but this IS businees & BREAKFAST. Chamber staffers Amy Wiggins (membership account exec) and Christine Murphy (admin. asst) cheerily greeted me at the door and pointed me toweard the coffee <thank you>. There were about 40  of the other local shakers and movers grabbing some yogurt, bagels, sausage biscuits and the like while doing the morning networking thing.

I met local Realtor Janet Shearer (read her Polk County Real Estate blog here) and we talked for awhile. She just got her first internet marketing lead! It’s thrilling to meet sharp local entrepreneurs getting results from marketing online Keep up the good work, Janet!

The chambers’ Champions mentor newbie members like me and I got to visit with one of ‘em, Wade Altman, business support specialist with Superior Business Technologies. They sell and service computer systems, networks, telephone systems and security system for small businesses like mine. Good to know!

Claire Twomey, Executive Director of Lakeland Habitat for Humanity [contact her at (863) 682-3812], told us all about what the organization has done for low-income families here in the area. Did you know that the families have to work to help other families build homes FIRST? They also have to make a down-payment and get a loan, but Habitat makes it affordable for them to have a home. Claire said that they have helped 100 families so far here in Lakeland.

Our Lakeland Habitat is now offering more volunteer opportunities for churches and civic groups to get involved with their new A Brush with Kindness program. It’s a locally-operated program, Claire said,  serving low-income homeowners who struggle to maintain the exterior of their homes. Certainly, many of our local seniors and challenged citizens need this sort of assistance and it helps the entire community!

Unlike so many bailout and entitlement programs today, Habitat for Humanity helps people to help themselves. The organization has to buy land, materials and pay building contractors (like plumbers and electricians). And, they keep their administrative costs around 3% so donations mainly go to the actual program services in the community. If you are looking to get involved in improving our community, I would recommend that you check them out!

Claudia Tritton, business development director for the Lakeland Economic Development Council gave a stimulating presentation on how they are continuing to help the area grow by adding significant new businesses, keeping companies here  and helping existing businesses expand.  Some of their recent successes include WellDyneRx, Firmenich, Pepperidge Farm, Saddle Creek and GTECH Printing. Her excitement is contagious! Claudia reinforced the reasons I moved here and have made a commitment to grow my internet marketing consultant business here in Lakeland.

After the presentations, we were escorted out (Disney-style) through the “gift shop”.  The ReStore is Habitat’s thrift shop for building materials, furniture and the like. Yes, they even have the kitchen sink! And lighting fixtures, windows, doors, tile… WOW! I didn’t know this existed here. It’s a great place to shop for your next home improvement project and the money goes to a great cause, too!

I was really impressed by the business & breakfast event. I got to connect with some local business people. I learned more about our wonderful community – how we are helping each other and growing together. And, breakfast! All for only five bucks as a Lakeland Chamber of Commerce member…

Maybe you should call Amy at 688-8551 ext. 229 to find out how the chamber fits into your marketing plan. I’m really pleased how it’s working for me already! Tell her Jack Duncan sent ya…

If you have comments or a story to share about the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce, Habitat for Humanity or how we are growing as a community, please post it here [or you can call me at (863) 668-1086 anytime....].

Have a great day today!

Professionals develop business plans so they can grow their business in a logical and methodical manner. Part of the planning process includes marketing. Knowing what to do and prioritizing your marketing activities are vital to your company’s long-term success.

An effective marketing plan will certainly boost your sales and increase your profit margins, which is the goal of every business owner. Professionals know that planning is crucial to business success. A good, solid plan will also help you avoid headaches and indecision along the way.  Most importantly, it will help you to discover your best opportunities for success. It is a milepost down the road to success and, as such, care and time should be put into its development.

You must be able to convince customers that you have the best product or service for them at the best possible price. If you cannot convince potential customers of this, then you are wasting your time and money. This is where the marketing plan comes into play, and this is why it is so important.

There are numerous advantages you can extract from the marketplace if you know how. And the marketing plan is an excellent tool for identifying and developing strategies for extracting these advantages.

A few of the advantages are outlined below. Your marketing plan:

1. identifies needs and wants of consumers

2. determines demand for product or service

3. aids in design of products/services that fulfill consumers needs

4. outlines measures for generating the cash for daily operation, to repay debts and to turn a profit

5. identifies competitors and analyzes your firm’s competitive advantage

5. identifies new product/service areas

6. identifies new and/or potential customers

7. allows for testing to see if strategies are giving the desired results

Some of the disadvantages of the marketing plan are:

1. identifies weaknesses in your business skills

2. leads to faulty marketing decisions based on improperly analyzed data

3. creates unrealistic financial projections if information is interpreted incorrectly

4. identifies weaknesses in your overall business plan

The marketing plan offers numerous advantages; however, as you can see, there can be drawbacks. Remember, however, the advantages outweigh the drawbacks, so seek professional assistance when you are developing the marketing section of your business plan. It will be worth your investment.

Or FIVE MYTHS About Marketing Online

Lakeland businesses, like small businesses in towns all across the globe today, want to grow and make more money. As a small business owner, the internet provides a great opportunity to get your marketing message to your target market. However, there are some misconceptions about marketing online that may be keeping you from getting the results you want.

1. Build Your Website & They Will Come. If you’ve setup a website expecting visitors to flock to it just because it’s there, you’re probably disappointed in the results. You may have paid a website design company to build a site for you and it looks great. But how do people find it? Are you indexed in the major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s new BING? Why should they come? These are the major questions facing any small business owner here in Lakeland who wants to generate leads on the web.
2. A Web Site is An Online Brochure. Many owners simply put up a list of what they do and expect a visitor to be impressed. Many Lakeland plumbers, for instance, say that they fix a leak in a faucet or do toilet repair or install septic tanks. But WHY should they choose YOU over every plumber in Polk County that does the dame thing? What makes your plumbing company different? How do you benefit the customers more than any other plumber?
3. If I Submit To Search Engines, Customers Will Find My Business. Getting found by the three major search engines is important. However, it’s where you rank that makes a difference. If you aren’t in the top ten results for the term “Lakeland plumbing company,” prospects won’t be visiting your site. As a matter of fact, you are more likely to get customers if you are one of the top three sites (among other things). Search Engine Marketing is a complex process that requires more than indexing.
4. The Secret to Getting Customers Online Is…. There’s no secret. There is a PROCESS. It’s not easy and it’s not simple and it’s not over-night. Like anything else worthwhile, it takes time and effort and a proven method. First of all, it’s really like any other form of marketing. It requires a marketing plan. You have to use the basics of marketing and apply them first, then add the internet marketing techniques that work. There are a thousand books on internet marketing and all the good ones say the same things as the marketing textbooks: target your market, create a powerful marketing message, deliver the message to your prospects and motivate them to take action. It doesn’t matter if you are a plumber or plastic surgeon or a dentist or an air conditioning repair company – it works the same way. There is no magic software to get you to the top and keep you there.
5. Once You Set It – You Can Forget It. OK, internet marketing is not the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie, but you use the same basic techniques as Ron Popeil to market your business. Did Ronco make one commercial and play it once? Hardly. It takes an ongoing effort. Repetition works in marketing. Think of all the hugely successful marketing campaigns. They repeat the same message over different channels consistently over time. Marketing research shows that your customer, on average, needs to hear your message at least seven times for it to even make an impression. The internet, especially, is competitive. You can be at the top of Google one day and not there at all the next.

Don’t get fooled by companies that promise you a magic bullet to make your internet marketing successful. Many companies waste their time and resources by not having a solid internet marketing plan. They fall prey to gimmicks and scams and get-rich-quick schemes. If you don’t know how to market online, get some reliable information and maybe some help from a professional internet marketing company you can trust. Avoid the outrageous claims – like guarantees to get you to the top of Google. The only guarantee is that if you do the right things in marketing, the right way, consistently, you will become a competitor in the online marketplace.

Lakeland Internet Marketing Read More Marketing Articles

It’s time to take a step backward and gain perspective on this whole “business” idea.

I examine several companies in Lakeland every day to evaluate their position in our economic community. Some are wildly successful in their field and very profitable. Some are struggling. And some have recently gone out of business. As a resident of Lakeland and a small business owner myself, I depend on the success of our community in order to survive and thrive personally and professionally. As a matter of fact, it’s Polk County and the State of Florida, too.

Cypress Gardens just went out of business. Closed. No more visitors. No tourists to spend their money along Cypress Gardens Boulevard shops and restaurants. More jobs gone. More county and state taxes gone. The Butterfly effect will ripple through Winter Haven to Auburndale to Lake Wales to Bartow to Lakeland and beyond.

The problem with Cypress Gardens, as with so many businesses here, is perspective. What is important to YOUR business? Go ahead – make a list. I’ll wait.

Ask most business owners this fundamental question and you’ll usually get these responses: location, product or service, management, cash-flow, traffic, the economy, employees, customer satisfaction, overhead, pricing and market share. Sure, all those things are important to achieving business success. There is a crucial factor that most of us don’t really consider and it may be the MOST basic and important reason business succeed or fail: communication.

A basic college degree generally requires a communication class and I have taught many, many classes. I always start off with a simple definition of the communication process.

Communication requires a sender to form a message and deliver it through a channel to a receiver who must provide a response. Think about it. Does any business get done unless that happens? You can’t get a location or employees or a bank account or a loan or customers or market share or profits without communication. It doesn’t matter if you are a plumber or air conditioning company or a dentist or an attorney or Wal-Mart. How and what and when and to whom you communicate will determine your business success on a very basic level. What is important to your business?

Your business depends on your ability to send the right message to the right audience at the right time in the right way to get them to take the action you want. Who is going to be more successful in business: an owner who communicates well or one who does not? How well you communicate is going to determine your sales and your profits (or losses). If you’re not satisfied with your profits (I’m not), then maybe you need to take a look at that.

Easy question: What is the fastest growing means of communication in human history? You’re right – the internet. How important is THAT to your business? Is your competition taking advantage of internet marketing? Are YOU? Are you getting the response you want from your website? What can you do today to communicate better to improve your business?

I’d be glad to take a look at your website and offer three ideas for improvement at no charge. No strings. The only condition is that your business has to be headquartered in Polk County. Email me at info@radianceroadmarketing.com or call me right now at (863) 668-1086. You may not qualify to be a client, since I only work with a few, select companies, but your business is important to all of us here in Lakeland. I want to help you to succeed.

Lakeland Internet Marketing