Now, I was hoping to write a very happy marketing tip this week as we all still had big hopes for Team NZ winning the America’s Cup. But it wasn’t meant to be ...

In business, we deal with disappointments too. There seem to be a few patterns on how people deal with failure or
setbacks. 

Most successful people have setbacks and they use these
experiences to improve.
To name a few famous people: Steve Jobs was fired from
his own company; Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison; and Abraham Lincoln failed in business, had a nervous breakdown, and was defeated in eight elections. So how did all these people achieve such extraordinary success?
 
Positive attitude

Successful people have a highly positive attitude and bounce back when they experience a setback. I’ve seen people go bankrupt and manage to build up a very successful business again. 

They see the glass as half full instead of half empty.

Positive people see setbacks as learning experiences. We all have them, so you may as well learn the lesson and move on! Don’t be deterred by them or let it undermine your confidence… 
 
Take Responsibility
 
You are responsible for your own actions. Take responsibility and learn from your mistakes. If you do, you will do better next time. 
 
‘Experience comes after you need it!’ So see your setbacks as experiences and move on. 
 
Accept yourself and be good to yourself 
 
Always show loyalty to yourself. Embrace your weaknesses and shortcomings, but work to turn them into strengths. You cannot control the negative opinions of people around you, but with self-acceptance, you can block out the noise. 
 
Trust your gut feel
 
Make your decision based on experience and listen to your gut. We all have been in situations where we didn’t follow our gut and (hopefully) have learned from that. 

Continue on your path with integrity using both your heart and mind to guide you back to success.

So, always focus on the positive, take responsibility, be loyal to yourself and trust your gut feel.
 
Till next week, Marijke

I recently read that people process images 60,000 times faster than text and 90 % of information transmitted to the brain is visually based. 

Most businesses rely on images to sell their products.
Whether you operate a tourism business, a landscaping business or a retail store, you will probably have great images!

Pinterest (pronounced like “interest” but with a “p”) is a virtual bulletin board that lets users share inspiring images and links. When shared the images are called “pins” that can be placed on thematic “boards” that users customize for any topic. Pinterest is all about curating images.

Who is using Pinterest?

Pinterest is the fastest growing social media network ever, currently with over 70 million users.
Pinterest users are predominantly female. In fact, women account for 70 % of Pinterest users and are about five times as likely to use the virtual scrapbooking tool as men, the largest gender difference of any social network.

This is a good thing! As women are the main decision makers in deciding where to go on holiday and what to buy for their family (even cars!), they are the ones you want to reach. They also tend to do a lot more online research on any purchases than men.

Pinterest users are also a little bit older, although the core demographic is 18-34 year olds, representing 56 per cent of users.

Pinterest is also a great tool for (tourism) businesses. I found this site on Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/visitmysmokies/
 
What a great way to group images! Would this look good for your business? On the Pinterest website, this is where you can get started: http://business.pinterest.com/

Give it a go!

Till next week, Marijke

I recently attended a business and marketing conference in the US. There were some amazing speakers and I got a lot out of it.

The speakers were obviously given the database of conference attendees and a number of them have started to send me their e-newsletters.

One of them sends me a lot of emails, almost daily in fact. It is interesting (about social media) but it’s just too much. I can’t handle that much information every day. I just don’t have the time!
So I’ve unsubscribed...

Do you have a database of (potential) customers you keep in this with?  If so, good for you! Great even! I do encourage you keep in touch with them. But make sure you don’t overload them with information.

There is no rule of how often you should send your
customers an e-newsletter. That depends on the amount of information you provide, how often your clients may buy from you and the type of business you have.

You may get daily emails from ‘deals websites’ that
provide daily specials. And you may be fine with that. Or a quarterly update with specials from a resort you’ve visited in the past. That’s ok too.

But if this resort started emailing you daily or even weekly, you may find this annoying and you decide to unsubscribe.
So, to ensure the people on the database don’t unsubscribe and get more people to subscribe, ensure that you:

• Provide relevant information to your subscribers


• Don’t overload them with information (less is usually more – you can always
  provide a snippet with a link to more information)


• Ask them how often they’d like to receive your e-news (if you’re not
  sure)


• Test! Try sending e-newsletters more or less frequently and see what
  happens.


• Check the statistics of your newsletter: the open and click rates. This will
  give you an indication of how many people actually read your newsletter


• Plan your e-newsletter schedule and make it a regular event. If people
  subscribe to your e-newsletter, they are interested in what you have to say and
  expect to be sent something!
  

This “Weekly Marketing Tip” is sent to you once a week. I only send you 1 tip that you can quickly read it and use in your business.  I try not to overload you with information.

Till next week! Marijke

Last weekend, my neighbour told me about the video clip below and that I just HAD to see it. (you'll like this if you're a dog lover!) Check out the video, then read on!

You have to admit: this is very cute! Well, over 29 MILLION other people thought so too!
Yes, you're reading this correctly... this video has received over 29 million views!!

That's what's called viral marketing. One person sees it and passes it on to their friends, and these friends pass it on to theirs and so on. 

OK, this is nothing new, we know how Youtube works and we get these types of video links sent by our friends all the time too!

My question is: how can you make this work for your business? Imagine 28 million people seeing a video you posted on Youtube with something that's worth watching! If these people are also your target market and a percentage buys your product or service, what would this do to your business?

Here are a few tips (when uploading a funny or 'entertaining video):

• Put an advert relating to your business at the start of the video. This is
  perfectly ok! (we're used to it...)


• Or put a link to your website at the end of the video.


• Use keywords for the title that relate to what your audience will be using
  to search for your video


• Keep it short, around 2 minutes for an entertaining video is
  perfect!
  

A few more things to think of:

• is your video entertaining (is it funny, cute?)


• are your providing something exciting or surprising?


• is it something new?


• is it genuine or spontaneous?


• are you targeting a niche audience?

Note: it doesn't need to have tick all the above boxes, but it does need to appealing enough for people to want to see it AND pass it on to others!

So, get your video camera out (or even a cell phone will do!) and keep an eye out for something worth filming, 
especially if it relates to your business.

I'd also like to hear your success stories! Email them to: [email protected] 

Till next week, Marijke