Make More Money From Each Of Your Ad Dollars

If you’re like most small businesses, you’re spending quite a bit of money on display ads, direct mail and/or PPC and possibly even relying on these ads and sales letters for all or most of your leads.  For maximum profits, small businesses should build and implement multiple streams of lead generation, but if the majority of your marketing budget is tied up in ads, it’s still possible to literally double your business without spending any extra money.

How?

By optimizing your current ads to increase the response you get from them.  To help you get started, follow these 11 time-tested laws to boost the response rate of your ads and sales letters.

The 11 Time-Tested Laws of High-Response Ads

Law #1 – Include Coupons and/or An 800 Number – Coupons increase your response rate for several reasons.  First, people like to save money and so take notice of coupons.  Include an expiration date to improve your response even more.  Coupons are also powerful because people tend to cut them out, thereby increasing the likelihood they’ll see your ad again later.  As far as a call-to-action goes, not many are more powerful than 800 #’s because they encourage people to make a free phone call, which research shows they often do.

Law #2 – Use 8, 10 or 12 Point Font Only – Fonts are rarely the make or break reason for your ad getting read, but it can have some impact if you use the wrong font.  Don’t try to get too cute here.  Use a font type and size that people are accustomed to reading in the publication you are running the ad with.  Typically these fonts are between 8-12 point and in a more popular font style like Times New Roman, Verdana and Tahoma.

Law #3 – Don’t Use Capitals – Using capital letters throughout your ad actually makes it harder to read because the typical human eye is used to reading text with mostly lower case letters.  Instead of taking chances on ideas you aren’t sure will perform, stick to the laws that are time-tested.

Law #4 – Don’t Use Pictures – Display ads are expensive and to get a good ROI, you must use your space wisely.  Unless your products must be seen, use the space instead to deliver benefits that persuade the reader to take your desired action.

Law #5 – Give As Many Details As Possible – Having trouble filling your ad with valuable details that translate to benefits?  Ask your customers why they buy your products and services and fill your ad with benefits culled from their feedback.  The more you tell your prospects why they should buy from you, the more you’ll sell.

Law #6 – Use Facts & Figures – Today’s consumers are blind to outlandish and unproven claims; if anything, they work against you because you sound like everyone else.  Claims of superior service and great quality are vague and in reality are already expected from consumers.  Instead, fill your ads with specific figures and the facts to back them up.

Law #7 – Use Positive Language – Negative language has a way of lingering in the consumer’s mind.  Instead of using negative language to describe your products and services, always focus on the positive results they provide.  For example, a chimney cleaner should promise a warm, smoke-free house rather than removing all the dirty soot that’s clogging their chimney.

Law #8 – Focus On Solutions, Not Prevention – Consumers rarely look far enough into the future to worry much about preventing problems that may or may not arise.  Focus on helping them solve the issues they have now.  Focus your ads on promising these solutions and your responses will skyrocket.

Law #9 – Promise Free Trials & Samples – One of the easiest ways to get people to read and respond to your ads is to offer a free trial or sample of your products and services.  It will cost you some money to give your goods away, but if they are as good as you say they are, you’ll make far more profits in the long run from repeat customers and is actually the cheapest way for you to build your business.

Law #10 – Use A Headline – Headlines are by far the most important part of any ad, sales letter or commercial.  More than 4-out-of-5 people read the headline ONLY.  Without one, you may as well be throwing away your advertising dollars.  Come up with some headlines that promise your most important benefit to your ideal prospect and see which one works best.

Law #11 – Test Everything – Think your ad is as good as it gets or that testing isn’t worth the time it takes?  Think again.  Every aspect of your ad should be tested, one at a time.  This includes your headline, call-to-action, guarantee, free offer, P.S., time limit, font and anything else you can think of.  No matter how satisfied you are with your ad’s response, testing will help them improve.

Stop spending a fortune on underperforming ads and sales letters.  Even when the economy is down, your ad responses don’t need to be.  Follow these laws religiously and invest time into testing and improving your ads over an extended period of time (forever) and you’re business will grow all by itself without spending any more money than you already are.

Looking For A Guaranteed Way To Improve Your Ads?

Let Prevail PR do it for you.  We guarantee we’ll improve your ads and boost their response to generate more money than you paid for this service within 60 DAYS or we’ll refund your entire purchase price.

We Either Make You More Money Or We Give Your Money Back.  Simple As That.

Facebook Can Help You Build Your Brand

No matter what type of business you are in, it’s virtually impossible to go a day without hearing something about social networking in general and the largest social network of them all, Facebook, specifically.  A big reason Facebook has become so commonplace is that small businesses just like yours have jumped on the social networking bandwagon and are now actively spending time and money on building a community around their products and services.

Wondering why you too should join in the social networking exodus?  Below, we’ve outlined 25 strategies you can start using today to leverage the power of Facebook and the hundreds of millions of users who use Facebook everyday.

25 Strategies For Building Your Business Brand On Facebook

1.  Create An Engaging Profile – Before you set out on the Facebook frontier, spend some time thinking about your goals and the ways in which you’d like to interact with your customers.  Then spend time creating your profile so that it drives traffic to your targeted landing pages or other useful information.  Be sure to fill out your profile completely, including uploading a picture of yourself.

2.  Add Relevant Friends – The more friends you have, the bigger your marketing results will be.  Search for those in your target market or those you can create joint venture or networking opportunities with and add them as friends.  Try to limit your list to those you have time to build relationships with or who will gain value from being your friend.

3.  Join Groups – There are literally millions of groups on Facebook, many of which can help you grow your business.  Do your homework and find groups where your target customers congregate or where key players in your industry exchange information and join them.  Once you’ve been accepted, be a valuable member of the group by providing unique insight or tips on getting the most from your products and services.

4.  Start A Group – Once you’ve become a member of Facebook, you have the ability to create a group for anything you can think of. Be creative and create groups for collecting market research, for building an affiliate network or for offering exclusive promotions for your products and services.

5.  Comment On Other Profiles – Facebook is about building relationships. One way you can do this is by commenting on other profiles and offering advice or links to helpful information.  By commenting on other profiles, you also greatly expand your visibility to other Facebook members.

6.  Syndicate Your Blog – Another way to expand your visibility is to syndicate your company blog on your Facebook profile.  By syndicating your RSS feed in your profile, it will update automatically every time you update your blog, saving you time and publishing your content to another audience.

7.  Announce Events – Your Facebook profile is also a great place to announce and promote your company events.  By doing so, you can also allow people to RSVP and leave comments before and after the event all in one place.

8.  Arrange Meetups – If you’ve done well building a local following on Facebook, you can invite your friends to meet ups where they can mingle and talk with other fans of your business.  This is also a great way for you to spend some time with those who are most passionate about your company and put in some valuable face time.

9.  Get Feedback – Because Facebook profiles are inherently interactive, they are a great place to get feedback from your customers on specific topics like customer service and satisfaction of your products and services.  Be creative and find out how you can do a better job providing value to your customers and they’ll thank you for taking the time to ask them for their opinion.

10. Grow Your Traffic – In some circumstances, you may find that your Facebook profile gets more traffic than your actual business website or blog.  Instead of looking at this as a problem, take the opportunity to funnel that traffic to your website by including links to special offers or new articles on your blog.

11. Promote Your Social Bookmark Submissions – If you’ve submitted your blog posts to social bookmarking sites like Digg and Stumbleupon, promote these links on your Facebook profile through status updates.

12. Stay Informed On Your Industry – Facebook has a treasure trove of market information for just about every industry.  Search around and visit profiles, join groups, comment on fan pages and participate in discussions on key topics in your industry to stay more informed than your competition.

13. Post Jobs – Even if your business is local in nature, you can find incredible talent on Facebook that can help you build your business.  Be creative with your marketing and outsource individual tasks to other members that match your criteria.  Review their profiles to find out more about potential candidates, including what other people they’ve worked for say about them.

14. Connect With Industry Influencers – Connecting with key players in your industry is a good idea for all business owners.  Search for and add the key players in your industry as friends and then take the time to build relationships with them.  Provide them with valuable content they can share with their networks and they’ll return the favor.

15. Share Industry News – Building your reputation as a thought leader on Facebook is a powerful strategy you can easily implement without having to invest much time in Facebook itself.  If you’re already someone who knows a lot about your specific industry, share this information through Facebook and people will want to add you, growing your audience organically.

16. Provide Customer Service – Your Facebook profile is also a great way to enhance your customer service.  People can quickly and easily ask questions or leave comments and you can just as easily and quickly answer.  It also allows you to resolve these issues publicly, which likely will answer similar questions from other customers.

17. Project Communication – If you have a project with multiple workers, stay in the loop through Facebook.  You can easily use the wall in your profile to allow efficient group collaboration on any number of projects.

18. Pitching Journalists & Bloggers – Press releases not getting the job done?  Try pitching your story ideas to journalists through Facebook.  You may want to email them first to see if they are interested in getting story ideas in this manner before you try it.

19. Client Oversight – If part of your job entails keeping track of what people think about your clients, Facebook is a powerful tool.  Use Facebook’s search feature to find discussions or comments about your client’s company to find out what people are saying.

20. Competitive Research – As with client oversight, it’s an easy task keeping up with your competitors on Facebook through the use of the search feature.  Identify your competitors who are on Facebook and follow their status updates for an inside look at how they do things.

21. PR Tool – Sometimes bad things happen.  Instead of burying your head in the sand, be proactive and explain your side of the story and how you are going to be accountable.  Launch your crisis prevention campaign through a Facebook status update for an immediate jump on damage control.

22. Hold Contests – Everybody loves contests.  Hold your contest on Facebook to build excitement and grow your friend list.

23. Send Virtual Gifts – Show your appreciation for top customers, employees, vendors or colleagues with a virtual Facebook gift.  There are hundreds of options, allowing you to use this feature to give some well-deserved attention to valuable people to your business.

24. Install Facebook Apps – Facebook’s meteoric rise is due largely to the third-party applications that have made the site so versatile.  Spend some time looking over some of the more popular applications and think of new ways you can use them to build better relationships with your audience.

25. Advertise On Facebook – As time goes, on Facebook’s advertising platform has become as highly regarded as Google’s.  Built-in features allow you to target the exact audience you are trying to reach for a very affordable price and allow you to reach a larger audience than you are currently reaching now.

Depending on the time you have to invest in your social networking campaign, you may decide to only use a few of these ideas.  The most important things are to plan ahead, set goals and implement the ideas that will help you reach those goals in the fastest and most efficient manner.

All businesses are different and require different strategies, so don’t think that just because something hasn’t been done, it shouldn’t be done.  Get creative and be fun and you’ll not only enjoy the time you spend building your Facebook presence, you’ll also realize far better results.

Build Your Business Following on Facebook

As you can see from the graph above, Facebook continues to skyrocket in popularity.  What does this mean for your small business?  It means that your customers, vendors and industry connections are probably on Facebook and you need to be too.  To help you get people following your business on Facebook and start building your business following, we’ve put together these great tips that will have your network blossoming in no time.

20 Ways To Build Your Business Presence on Facebook

1.  Promote Your Facebook Profile on Your Website – One of the best and easiest ways to promote your Facebook profile is on your company website.  To do so, add a link or a badge on your site with the url to your Facebook account embedded in it.

TIP: Place your Facebook link in a prominent location.  The more people that see it on your business site, the faster your following will grow.

2.  Befriend Others – When you find other Facebook users that pertain to your specific industry, send them a friend request to ask them to add you as their friend, too.

TIP: Be sure to include a small note along with your friend request and let the person know why you think it would benefit them to add you.

3.  Promote Your Facebook Profile in Your Store – If you have a store, promote your Facebook profile at the point of sale.  Ask them to send add you as a friend on Facebook for special promotions and upcoming events.

TIP: If you can customize your receipts, add something like “Be our Fan on Facebook for exclusive discounts”.

4.  Promote Your Facebook Profile on Your Business Cards – Facebook is just as good at communicating with your customers as the phone and email, and in certain aspects, even better.  Include your Facebook link on your business cards with your other communication details

TIP: Be creative with your Facebook marketing by including fun or value. When you give your card to people, let them know why they should follow you and they probably will.

5.  Promote Your Facebook Profile in Your Advertisements – Your current advertisements are a great way to get your Facebook link in front of loads of people for free. It shouldn’t cost you anything to change your ad and you’ll get lots of friends just for including this little piece of information.

TIP: Remember value! If you have the space, let people know what they will get for following you on Twitter and you’ll see your conversion rates skyrocket.

6.  Promote Your Facebook Profile in Your Network – In today’s economy, it’s imperative to spend time networking with other business people in your market or industry.  Tell those you already know in these networks about Facebook and ask them to be your friend.

TIP: Be sure to ask everyone else in your network to become your friend. If they aren’t already on Facebook, invite them to join and to add you as a friend when they do.

7.  Promote Your Facebook Profile on Other Sites – Do you already have a MySpace, Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn account?  If so, promote your Facebook profile within these networks, as well.

TIP: Just like on your company website, promote your Facebook link in a prominent location to get the most attention.  Better yet, write a blog post or status update.

8.  Promote Your Facebook Profile in Your Email Signature – Email signatures are a great way to add some excitement to the end of your emails and one of the easiest ways to promote your Facebook link.  If you don’t already use a signature, typically all you have to do is add it in your settings.

TIP: Depending on your business, your email signature may be seen by a lot of people.  To increase these numbers, ask people to tell others about your Facebook link within your email signature.

9. Promote Your Facebook Profile in Guest Posts/Columns – One of the best ways to brand yourself as an expert is to write a guest post on other industry blogs or to write a column for an industry publication.  If you have these opportunities, be sure to mention your Facebook link.

TIP: A good way to leverage these opportunities is to invite people to get exclusive add-on material of the topic you just covered by following you on Facebook and then sending this information out in a status update or personal message.

10. Update Often – A great way to get more friends is to update your status with interesting things on a consistent basis.

TIP: Think of yourself as a filter for your market and provide updates about insightful topics in your industry.  The more useful you can be to others, the more likely they will be your friend.  Asking questions is a good way to get people to reply to your status updates.

11. Converse With Others – On the flip side, it’s also important to respond to other status updates and build conversations with others in your market.  It’s never good to be perceived as a “taker”, so take part instead.

TIP: The best replies are those that help solve someone’s specific problem.  Keep an eye out for problems you can solve that directly relate to your business.

12. Update at Peak Times – The majority of Facebook users are U.S. based and use the service during U.S. business hours.  Even if you have to take a five minute break during your workday, it’s better to update during business hours than after them.

TIP: Update about limited-time offers in your store.  Say something like “15% off product X for the next 2 hours only!” and then promote your sale through other avenues so that your customers understand they have to be your friend on Facebook to take advantage of these offers.

13. Organize a Contest Through Your Facebook Profile – Contests are always a good way to build excitement in your brand.  Promote a contest through your store, website and Twitter profile and name the winner in a Tweet.

TIP: Think about the type of prizes your prospects would find most beneficial and then offer them to the winners.  those that don’t win are a great pool of prospects for you to market to in the future.

14. Ask Specific Users to Recommend You – The more time you spend on Facebook, the more users you’ll find that share similar markets with you.  Ask these people to be your friend and then once you’ve had time to build a relationship, send them a message and ask them if they’ll recommend you to their friends.

TIP: If your business is strictly local, join up with other local businesses or those individuals who have some influence in your area.

15. Use Facebook as a Customer Service Tool – Customer service should be one of your top priorities and giving your customers another way to contact you is a a good start.  Let your customers know they can send their inquiries through Facebook.

TIP: Use Facebook to build a better FAQ section for your website.  Ask your friends to send you their questions and see which ones get the most attention.  Then add the answers to these questions to your company website.

16. Send Valuable Content to Influential Members – Most influential members of any network are starving for more valuable content to recommend to their network.  Find those who are influential in your target market and send them articles and information their friends might find useful and allow them to share it with them.

TIP: Be sure to include your contact information in any content you send them.  The point of sharing this content is to get more traffic for your Facebook profile, which won’t happen if they don’t know how to find it.  For best results, create an additional report exclusively for their followers that they can access after following you.

17. Join The Get More Friends Facebook Group – Facebook has millions of groups you can join to expand your network.  One of the first you might consider joining is the “Get More Facebook Friends” Group.

TIP: Remember to always be a valuable member of any group you join.  If your sole purpose for joining the group is to saturate people with friend requests, don’t bother.  People in these groups are looking to build their followings too, so provide them useful content and help add value to their communities.

18. Use The Built-In Friend Find Feature – While you likely sent friend requests to your email contacts when you first created your account, it’s a good idea to go back through these accounts from time to time and add those you left out before or who have recently become new contacts.  Find this feature here.

TIP: Not all of your email contacts are good candidates for becoming your Facebook friend.  Be selective when you send these requests and try to keep your friend list targeted for business purposes.

19. Use The Search Box – Facebook’s built-in search feature is another great way to find friends related to specific industries or geographic locations.  Search for specific names, industry topics, locations near you or any other idea that may spring to mind.

TIP: Remember to always include a note with your friend requests letting people know exactly why you want them to add you and what you can provide for their community.

20. Ask Those In Your Other Social Networks To Add You – Facebook may be your first foray into social networking, but chances are you’ve spent some time on one or more of the other social networks on the internet.  If you have, ask your followers on these sites to add you on Facebook.

TIP: Remember your business goals.  Having 1000 friends that have nothing to do with your business is great, but having 100 friends that are specifically related to your business is even better.

Facebook provides a fantastic opportunity for your small business to grow and nurture a community around your products and services.  The most important thing to remember is to always provide value for those who have taken the time to add you as a friend.  By doing so, you’ll escalate your status as an expert in your field and garner invaluable goodwill and grow your reputation as a company worth doing business with.

If you’d like us to add you as our friend on Facebook, click here and send us a friend request.  You can also become a fan of Prevail PR here.

Set Up An Account & Grow Your Small Business

On The Largest Social Network In The World

While MySpace is credited for helping social networking go mainstream, Facebook broke the mold and turned the medium into a viable business model for internet and local small businesses alike.  In fact, Facebook’s growth has been so phenomenal over the past couple of years that it’s even been mentioned as a legitimate competitor to almighty Google.

Facebook’s growth is largely the result of building every tool possible within Facebook for individuals and businesses and allowing third-party developers create an army of helpful applications that make Facebook a fully self-contained destination. For small businesses, this means you can build a community, sell your products and services, find and hire employees, promote your business and network with your industry’s key players.

To help you get started taking advantage of all these great benefits, we’ve put together this easy-to-follow quick start guide to starting your Facebook account and finding your first Facebook contacts.

Step #1 – Go to Facebook and fill out the required information that includes: your full name, a valid email address, your chosen password, your gender and your birth date.  Then click sign up.

Step #2 – Next you’ll need to briefly fill out the Captcha information that helps Facebook reduce spam.  Then click sign up.

Step #3 – Once you’ve entered the correct Captcha information, Facebook sends you a confirmation email to the address you supplied.  Login to your email, open the message from Facebook and click the link contained within.

Step #4 – When you click the confirmation link, a new window will open taking you back to Facebook.  At this stage, you may get an invitation from someone who has already wondered if you were on Facebook and has done a search for you.  If so, either confirm or ignore these requests.  Next, click skip this step.

Step #5 – The more friends you have on Facebook, the more powerful it becomes.  To help you get started, Facebook allows you to search for your friends through your current email accounts.  To do so, click the find friends on Yahoo (or whatever email service you signed up with) button.  You can then go through and click on each of your contacts you’d like Facebook to search for and send an invitation from you to add you as a friend.

You can also repeat this step for each of your other email accounts (hotmail, Gmail, etc.)

Step #6 – Now that you’ve sent out a few invitations, you’ll want to start filling out your profile information.  Include your high school, college and company information and Facebook will also find friends you may know through these networks.  Click Save.Add as many as you like, however, be aware they will only become your friends once they’ve accepted your invitation.  Once you’ve selected all those you’d like to add, click Add as Friends.

You’ll also be asked to join a geographical network.  Choose your location and click Join.

Step #7 – That’s it.  Your brand new Facebook account is now set up and ready to go.  A popular first action is to let the community know what’s on your mind.  To do so, type in the information in the box and click Share.

Congratulations!  You’re now part of the largest network in the entire world.  Check out our other Facebook posts for tips and information on growing your network and getting the very most of your time.

If you’d like to join our network on Facebook, feel free to visit my profile and add me as a friend.

The Spotlight Is On… Pam Adkisson of Era Polley Real Estate

Spotlight’s On YOU Interview Questions

1.  What is the name of your business and what’s the story behind it? I’m a Realtor-Consultant for Era Polly Real Estate serving the Central Coast from Santa Ynez to Paso Robles.  I’ve been a Central Coast resident since 1981 and have more than 20 years of local sales and marketing experience in real estate, escrow and title insurance.  I have a broad network of builders, lenders, affiliates and community professional and personal relationships in both San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties.

“Let my industry knowledge and experience be your guide in Central Coast real estate.  I look forward to and enjoy making your real estate buying or selling experience smooth, professional and rewarding.”

2.  Interesting, interesting.  So tell us what inspired you to start your business? I’ve been an Assistant VP in Title and Escrow sales here on the Central Coast for over 15 years and a licensed Realtor for 20 years.  I made a career change in 2005 to real estate sales to broaden my professional horizons and to bring unique value to the local real estate industry.

3.  Touching, truly.  So what were/are the biggest hurdles you’ve faced so far? An exponentially changing economy.  A definite challenge to keep up with the market(s) and stay ahead of the curve.  I am definitely embracing internet technologies, seeing commerce heavily moving in this direction.

4.  And you’re still pushing on…there’s but one word: courageous.  What about this economy?  What are your thoughts about the business climate in SLO County? Experiencing hard times for some—others are not as affected by this downturn.  Agriculture and technology are high spots for us.  All others are taking a hit and probably will through 2010+.  Yet, looking at where we are located as compared to other locales, it’s worth hanging on for the ride!

5.  You said it.  Speaking of SLO County, some of my favorite things are the hidden jewels.  On the other hand, some things do not get enough attention.  Who or what in SLO County would you like to see get more attention? There are so many bright spots in SLO County and I think our Visitors Centers and Chambers do a GREAT job in promoting SLO County amenities.  I seem to hear a lot about North County Wine Region; not as much about South County/North Santa Barbara Wine Region promotion.

6.  Well that should get a little attention now that you’ve let the cat out of the bag.  See how good we are?  That question doesn’t count by the way, just in case you were counting.  We are almost half way done though.  SLO County has had some really great businesses that are no longer with us.  Which one was your favorite? Losing Mervyn’s and Gottschalk’s is pretty huge—not that these were my favorites, but in terms of them being large anchor tenants.  I am always sad to see boutiques go away anywhere…we lose the human touch.

7.  One way for your business to remain successful is by providing great value to your customers.  We’d love our readers to know something of value about your business.  Why do you think specifically people should do business with you, rather than say another local business or even the internet? We are blessed with professional real estate talent on the Central Coast.  Being a former VP in Title and Escrow, I have worked with the “best of the best”, co-founding two real estate professional masterminds here on the Central Coast.  Because of my long background in the affiliate industry and my real estate sales background, I am uniquely qualified to represent buyers and sellers because I am familiar with all phases of the transaction.  This creates efficiency and ensures a smooth, professional and pleasant real estate experience.

8.  Now that’s what I’m talking about!  Be proud of yourself.  So, SLO County is a pretty great place to live, but what about business?  To you, what is the very best thing about running a small business in SLO County? Although we are very regional, I really appreciate the unique subtleties in our ‘enclave’ communities.  The Central Coast has so many unique communities and microclimates.  As a 30-year Central Coast resident, I am privileged to work and play here.

9.  Good point.  I hope we all take the time to appreciate that.  But what about the flip side?  Outside of the current economy, what do you think is the very worst thing about running a small business in SLO County? Because we’re somewhat disconnected (the ‘enclave’ concept) we are divided in our efforts.  Cities and communities that are close to each other frequently compete for business, with the end result being an oversaturation of bureaus, task forces, and Chambers of Commerce overlapping in representation, confusing or drowning out the voice of small business.  I would like to see a more regional approach , ‘pull back the lens’ so to speak, get back to the basic appreciation of the entire Central Coast.  Especially with internet commerce a dominant competitor right now.

10. Your candor is to be admired.  High-quality stuff, really.  Since you are being so open, let’s take it back a little bit.  What were your parents like?  Were they entrepreneurs?  How did their traits help mold you into the risk-taking rebel that stands before us? My father and mother raised eight children – seven girls and one boy.  I am the oldest of the eight.  My dad owned a business and building in Southern California.  He was an entrepreneur and pioneering spirit owning (at that time) one of the longest running small businesses in the San Fernando Valley!  My mom is a social dynamo, a beautiful lady with a radiant and charming personality, and my dad was a headstrong, persevering and highly-ethical person.  I am proud to say that I am a hybrid of both!

11. With pedigree like that, it’s no wonder you’ve handled this interview like a pro so far.  Such ease.  So as a kid, is this what you wanted to do or is your perfect job still waiting for you out there?  What job would you love to do if you never had to worry about money again? I would love to be a skin care and cosmetic consultant in a charming boutique…seriously!  This is my passion to help other women find their glow.  I would love that job!

12. Hey, that was my dream job.  Guess I’ll settle for lowly interviewer.  Almost done.  Let’s see here.  If you had two final questions to ask, what would you ask?  Wait, that question was for me.  Ah yes, here we are.  If you could give aspiring entrepreneurs one piece of advice, what would it be? Be determined and positive, NO MATTER WHAT!  There are no failures, only lessons.  And be authentic.

13. Insightful.  I’m sure that’ll cut years off the learning curve for budding entrepreneurs.  So here we are at the final question.  You feel good about your answers so far?  Anything you’d like to change or strike from the record?  Well I bet you’re itching with anticipation right about now for the last question, so I won’t keep you waiting any longer.  Without further ado, the last question I have for you today covers local marketing.  It’s a tricky subject we’re all trying to master, so share with us the marketing tactics that have most helped your business succeed in SLO County? A back-to-the-basics approach.  With the internet and more sophisticated marketing concepts born daily, you still come in contact with people on some level every day.  Always leave them with something from you – a card, a notepad, a calendar – some token.  Follow up, re-touch them.  Practice that ‘elevator speech’ for what you do.  Just make it routine, like brushing your teeth.  And have fun!

That is the stuff of genius.  It’s a good thing my boss does the marketing around here because between you and me, I’m happy asking questions, collecting a check and leaving all that creative stuff to you smartsy types.  Speaking of, it’s closing time.

Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with us Pam.  If you’d like to contact Pam for your real estate needs, give her a call at (805) 938-7474 or visit Era Polly Real Estate for more information.