Calling All The Ladies to Action

Calling All The Ladies to Act
Scott Dennison
07-15-08


I thought I'd let you know that no matter what you read in the newspapers or see reported on TV, you STILL have an opportunity to create a business even more magnificent than the original dream of what your business could be.

Women in our society (perhaps even more than men) have a lot on their plates. By now you know that there's more that goes into making a business successful than simply having a product and taking it to the marketplace.

Just recently I was asked to bring some of KeyThing's tools and strategies to the Women's Business Empowerment Summit in Scottsdale, AZ. I'll be speaking at this really amazing event sometime during the weekend of 8/1-3. I cannot wait to get there and take the pulse of the empowered business women at this pivotal point in history.

The host of this event, Lynn Pierce told me "this year we're helping women move beyond your current level of success by bringing you the tools you need in every area of your life, going to "The Soul of the Career Woman"".

Wow - how cool is that. This one's for the ladies. I hope you will go, so we can talk about your business and look for ways that KeyThing can assist you with your goals.

Want some interesting stats? Check these out:

According to The Center for Women's Business Research:

* 9 out of 10 women business owners want to expand their businesses
* In the last 2 decades women owned business have grown at double the rate of all firms.

And not surprisingly...

* 81% of women owners of firms with $1 million or more in revenue belong to formal business organizations, associations or networks.

As a woman in today's hypercompetitive worldwide marketplace, are you aware...

* Women own nearly 10.4 million firms employing 12.8 million people and generating $1.9 trillion in sales?
* According to a Wells Fargo/NFIB study 61% of businesses never make a profit?
* SBA statistics show that 1/3 of new business don't make it past the first two years and 56 percent are out of business within 4 years?

At the same time, in addition to networking with like minded women, what do you think is one of the biggest differences between those $1,000,000+ businesses and those that fail? Or better said, do you think these entrepreneurs had a proven step-by-step plan for creating a successful business?

Most likely not. But then, the sad fact is...
You can't learn how to be a entrepreneur in college.

But you can watch, listen and learn from the experienced women business owners at the Women's Business Empowerment Summit in a couple of weeks.

If you want to learn more - go here. There are some great preview teleseminars going on right now and they're free to attend.

I'm even being interviewed this Thursday on the 5.5 ways that you simply must be using video in your online business. Join in, get some new ideas. You'll be glad you did.

~Scott
KeyThing Marketing Technologies

Happy Juneteenth - celebrate your freedom to achieve!

Happy Juneteenth - celebrate your freedom to achieve!
Scott Dennison
06-16-08


Did you know that Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States? I didn't until today. When you think about it, what could be better cause for celebration than this.

You see, from its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond.

Now, Juneteenth commemorates African American freedom and emphasizes education and achievement. In my opinion the world is better when we all embrace education and achievement, right?

There is also a very important business reason why I mention this occasion. One of our newest clients has just taken delivery of our newest technology. This technology makes the world flatter and significantly smaller, yet its not the kind of whizmo gizmo that causes Wall Street to cheer. But you will.

You, the readers of this blog will cheer. Why? Because most of you are running or working for small businesses. And small businesses have smaller budgets than big corporations. Typically, advanced technologies such as this are unaffordable to the small business owner. Not this one.

With our newest technology, which we call "StreamPaste" you are now able to instantly connect to your audience LIVE from your website.

Conducting a live event? Add one line of code to your site and direct traffic to that page and at the appointed hour you will be there live!

With a chat mechanism, you can take live questions and speak on camera to a worldwide audience and actually be there. I'm talking about zero emissions and zero travel expense for you or your attendees.

The best part is - you can afford it. Anyone can. Sell seats to the live event and you can make big profits from this.

So what's this got to do with Juneteenth? The celebration emphasizes education and achievement. KeyThing's newest achievement makes it easy and affordable for content providers to educate people everywhere and help them achieve more success. Now that's worth celebrating!


~Scott
KeyThing Marketing Technologies

While the cat is asleep...

While the cat is asleep...
Scott Dennison
05-19-08


...the mice have more time to play, eat and create havoc. Normally the expression begins with "while the cat's away", but today its more appropriate to state that the cat is not away, but ASLEEP.

Which cat? Who are the mice? What are you talking about Scott?

The roaring lion (the cat) of our economy is very sleepy if not outright sound asleep. At least there is a belief that this is true. After the past many years of largely uninterrupted growth, everywhere you turn is talk of recession. Some go so far as to say "depression".

I say nonsense.

Even when the topic of conversation is recession, its clear that Americans are being lulled to sleep by all of the news about it - even though the current "slow down" does not remotely meet the requirements of recession (2 consecutive quarters of negative growth).

This is a time for you and I to be mice. Play, eat and grow your business like you never have before, while your competition is asleep. Since the cat is asleep, you can work uninterrupted without fear of being eaten alive.

This as good news, don't you think?

There is a small group of marketers at the top who are thriving like never before. One of our clients, Yanik Silver just had a session with his Maverick Business Adventures group, where they met up to strategize, then play over the past weekend.

Doing a day of zero-g flight, then flying in helicopters and fighter planes is not cheap - but you know what? Yanik was not afraid to sell it and he found nearly two dozen individuals who were ready, willing and able to buy it.

But wait, what about the recession?!?

Bunk! There's a perception that things are bad, and if you let it, that perception becomes your reality. As you believe, so it will be for you.

So while the masses of companies and business people are stuck in a mental downturn, you can and should shake off that belief and pursue your dream. No matter what they are reporting on the news, people are still buying what they want as well as what they need. If you offer something that people want or need, you can do well. You just have to believe you can.

When everyone who believes in the recession wakes up, you may already have reached that big goal and be living your dream.

~Scott
KeyThing Marketing Technologies

Nothing New Under the Sun?

Nothing New Under the Sun?
Scott Dennison
05-05-08


Before I begin, let me wish you a happy "Cinco de Mayo!"

Perhaps you did not know that this Mexican holiday celebrates the beginning of the end of the war against foreign occupation and was first observed on the 5th of May in 1862. The holiday has been celebrated for over 145 years, so there's nothing new about it.

Interestingly enough, I don't recall ever hearing about it until Corona Beer became popular and Cinco de Mayo became a marketing event built around beer.

Sort of like St Patrick's Day. Now, any sober adult knows that there is historical significance to St Patrick's Day, (St Patrick being the patron Saint of Ireland and one of Christianity's most widely known figures) but here, in the US, it is being used more and more as a marketing event and an excuse to have a party.

Nothing new about that. When times are tough, none of us needs much of a reason to party.

What's any of this got to do with marketing? Besides the idea that just about any holiday is a great reason for you to communicate to your customers, you've no doubt heard the expression that "what's old becomes new again, if you live long enough", right? You understand this well if you have teenagers who begin wearing similar styles of clothing to what you wore in high school.

Well in marketing, it's much the same way. The challenges we all face in email marketing have lead to a resurgence in direct mail. Direct mail has been around for generations and is responsible for many a fortune being made in business, but when email marketing became popular, direct mail sort of fell out of vogue. Now its back in a big way. In fact, I'm in the research and planning stages of selling our services through direct mail.

Another example is that just last week a well known marketer built a product launch around concepts he is promoting known as self-liquidating offers. Yet, self liquidating offers have been around for ages. This is a sure fire way of getting leads where the cost of the marketing is paid for by the prospect, thus resulting in "free" leads. The costs of the campaign becomes self-liquidating.

There is nothing new about this except for the fact that someone well known has revised the marketing campaign and is promoting it as a "new idea".

As NBC once said about re-runs, "if you haven't seen it, it's new for you." The fact is, it's still a re-run.

Another example is taken from our own business. Online video is hot. There are many creative marketers looking for ways to promote it and profit from it. Underneath it all is the basic truth that online video helps people who buy online to like and trust the business owner a little bit more.

This is the major point I want to make, there is nothing new to the idea that people do business with people that they like and trust. But if you're not using online video in ways that make sense for your business, then giving it a try will be new for you... so celebrate!


~Scott
KeyThing Marketing Technologies

Increasing conversion rates on your site - Here's how!

Increasing conversion rates on your site - Here's how!
Scott Dennison
04-29-08


The power of a simple conversation sometimes can be astounding. The words in a song might inspire you to take action. Maybe its a line in a poem. Or even a chapter in a book. You never know, when you are on the search, when the key will arrive that opens the locked door. Or from where it will come, either...

Recently (yesterday, in fact) I had a scheduled call with a senior executive from a very successful Internet marketing firm.

He was telling me a story, and concluded by saying "that's when I fell in love with article marketing." Now I do some article marketing, and I know that virtually every one of the most successful marketers do so as well. However, I don't get quite the results that I've heard reported elsewhere.

In fact, I'm not sure I can tie even a single user to any articles that I have published.

Then in this conversation, I was reminded of the fact that "if its not working for you, check the headlines you have selected! People respond to headlines (the promise) and are enticed to go through your information from there. Some will respond by taking your suggested call to action, be that to subscribe, visit your site, buy; whatever.

You see, I have written over and over and over about the power of video on your site. And it is powerful. One of our clients saw his conversion rate increased to almost 8% of his list (from the 2-3% normally considered to be good).

But do people really care about video? Or do they respond better to words like profit, increased conversion rates, increased transaction size and the like?

I think its the latter. And I intend to do better going forward. You can expect to hear more from me about what video will do for you, than about video itself. And I'd like you to write me and tell me how I'm doing.

Oh, and as to the headline I've chosen for this post today? Just read over this post a few times and you will know what to do to increase your conversions.

~Scott
KeyThing Marketing Technologies

What I learned from Gene Simmons (the 'god' of Rock -n- Roll) about business

What I learned from Gene Simmons (the 'god' of Rock -n- Roll) about business
Scott Dennison
04-21-08


A couple of weeks ago, I had the good fortune to attend the Glazer-Kennedy Superconference in Nashville and one of the keynote speakers was Gene Simmons of KISS fame.

To be sure, some in attendance were there to revisit their youth, and revel in just being in the room with such a powerful presence.

I had an entirely different reason to sit quietly and write furiously while Gene spoke. The reason is that Gene Simmons is an incredible marketer. If you listened and were focused on the message, he shared more wisdom in a 90 minute session than many of the rest of the speakers did in 3 days combined.

Why would I say that? Because Gene Simmons is a "been there - done that" kind of guy.

Early on he said "life is about the pursuit of more" and then gave example after example of how that philosophy has played out in his life and his businesses.

He demonstrated that he was multi-lingual by speaking in Japanese, Hungarian, German, Hebrew and claimed to be learning Mandarin now. His reason? "When you embrace the dominant culture, you make more money."

I immediately made it a goal of mine to push ahead and begin to study one new language per year.

Gene also explained that his business success started with a childhood project in Junior Achievement, that all of his life he has been "a vampire" for information and that he "loved the library" because of all of the information available for free.

You see, KISS is NOT a rock -n- roll band, it IS a rock -n- roll BRAND! They have over 3000 licensed products bearing the KISS name, have sold over 75 million albums and over 400 million concert tickets and after 30+ years are still going strong.

However, for all the swagger, he still taught us all something powerful when he told a story about the first time he earned $10 million from a business deal and showed the check to his Mom. She said "That's wonderful son! Now what are you going to do?"

I'm encouraging you, as he did for us to "wake up everyday and try to break your own records". It's an objective of mine - to continue to push ahead, to pursue more and to break some records along the way.

KeyThing continues to innovate, improve and work at delivering best of class online video solutions to our customers, which include some of the biggest names in the world of Internet marketing. In case you did not know, we are not a online video hosting company, we are an online video solutions and marketing technologies partner.

We have learned that it's not only possible, its totally likely that you can be viewed as the best at what you do, if you work at it...


~Scott
KeyThing Marketing Technologies

5 more ways to use video on your site

5 more ways to use video on your site
Scott Dennison
03-03-08


Last week, High Tech (Andy) and I were in Los Angeles for the Bridging Hearts and Marketing event to present our VideoPaste solution to an audience of "heart based" marketers. These folks were from a number of fields but all of them were beginning to explore the possibilities of marketing their services online.

We focused our talks on the power of using social proof, in the form of video testimonials, and clearly demonstrated the difference between a written testimonial, one featuring a picture and one that uses video. In fact we showed all three versions of the same testimonial. 100% of the audience agreed that the video testimonial was by far-and-away the most powerful.

As you know I have been covering some of the many ways that you can (and should) be using video today on your site. Testimonials are but one of the at least 52 ways we have identified that you can use right away, at minimal expense.

Here are a few more of our favorites:

16) Do you share information? Are you a knowledgeable person that your audience/customer base should look to to keep abreast of new stuff in the industry? How about recording a quick "tip of the day/week" and send an email to your list to let them know where on your site they can find it? People appreciate this kind of information sharing and it also creates a steady stream of inbound traffic to your site.

17) When someone leaves your site - you can add a "pop-under" ad. I know that if you've been online for anytime, you have seen one of these. Why not add a video to it and talk to them sincerely. Perhaps even make an offer they can't refuse... Hey it worked for Brando in "The Godfather".

18) Do you have a customer support element to your business? Perhaps you find, as we do that many of the questions are repetitive. If so, then shoot a quick video to answer the questions and add them to your knowledge base. If you can use the same people who answer support questions in your business, even better. That will create a bond between your customers and your company's support staff that will be even more enduring.

19) When it comes to holidays - nothing says you care like a personal greeting. We had numerous Christmas videos sent along, but that does not have to be the only holiday when you send along a holiday video. With St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, done some green, click record on your camera and sell hello to your favorite people... your paying customers.

20) I tend to harp on the idea that all business, online or off is based on trust. In fact its my own personal soapbox. Want to let your peeps get to know you even better? To like and trust you even more? Share a personal moment with them. The "about us" page on your site might be a perfect place for a video like this. Speak to them in clear, measured tones; talk to them like an old friend. Let them look you in the eye and just watch what happens (sales will increase - I promise).

In just the last month I have shared with you 20 different ways you need to be using video on your site (not all of them at once, either). Just pick a few, give them a try, and write to me to report on your results. Of course if you're not already using VideoPaste.com, you'll want to get started. I'm guessing you'll be glad you did.

~Scott
KeyThing Marketing Technologies