In “Misleading Marketing,” Keith Ritter tells the story of the public bind that AT&T has found themselves in. Unfortunately, many businesses are probably just as guilty of marketing their products in a misleading way, but the spotlight has been shined on AT&T for their recent data plan blunder.

AT&T is currently guilty of offering unlimited data plans to customers, only for the customers to later find out that their data speed was actually being cut back once they passed a limit of data usage. The FTC is currently suing AT&T for falsely misleading customers, and while AT&T has yet to deny these allegations, they are certainly not taking responsibility for their actions. In fact, in a way, the company is placing blame on the customers, admitting that they should’ve known that these potential limitations would be set.

Keith explains how wireless companies may use “traffic shaping” to manage heavy traffic and heavy bandwidth, but that uneducated customers would have absolutely no idea that they would be facing data limitations.

Siding with the customers, Keith goes on to say that if you’re running a business, your focus should be on honesty – since that is the best policy, isn’t it?

The post AT&T’s Marketing Woes appeared first on Successful Startup 101.

Are you the captain of your business’s marketing ship? Have you braved the sea of demand marketing? Onboardly has created an infographic entitled “Keep Your Marketing Efforts Afloat with Demand Marketing”, giving you the blueprint to creating your own seaworthy demand marketing vessel.

Demand marketing is the perfect combination of PR, social media, and content marketing. This infographic takes each sector of demand marketing, and illustrates how each are integral to the success of marketing, and how they all work together to cut through the waves and currents that marketing departments encounter.

Credits to www.onboardly.com

The post Keep Your Marketing Efforts Afloat with Demand Marketing appeared first on Successful Startup 101.

The team at SuccessfulStartup101 hopes everyone is having a productive week! For this installment of the best of GaryVee, we’re going to start with Gary’s article “May the Fifth Be With You”. Gary begins by saying that this week we watched as hundreds of brands jumped on the #MayTheFourthBeWityYou Star Wars meme in order to boost their social media numbers. To Gary, it make one thing clearer which is that marketers ruin everything a phrase he often uses. Gary says that as going with the trends becomes the norm, it becomes more and more difficult to bring the attention to your brand. And the Star Wars holiday that brands tried cashing in on the other day got mostly lackluster reactions because the trend just wasn’t contextual for the brands.

Gary says that instead of trying to compete with all that noise, it would be better to look at the days of the year that your brand can “own” and your brand only. Better yet, why not make up your own day? To conclude, Gary says he hopes brands and marketers are listening and will start moving in that direction.

In the video “I Love Social Media Because It Sells Stuff” Gary talks about how he always knew that his “thing” is sales. He said that he was able to transform his father’s wine business into a business worth many millions of dollars in just five years. He said that he has always been an early user of social media and gave some examples of the various social platforms he used before most people had even heard of them.

Gary says that he loves social media not because it’s cool but because it sells stuff. He explains that most businesses are making the mistake of trying to sell their goods on places where they cannot get people’s attention when they should be using social media as that’s where people’s attention is these days.

The post Gary Vaynerchuk’s Weekly Wrap-Up (5/7/15) appeared first on Successful Startup 101.

By Kemya L. Scott

We live in an exciting time where video is more simple to create and easier to watch and interact with on any device. What’s more, marketing studies show that video converts at higher rates than other types of content. Video means better user engagement, more sharing, more commenting, and more sales. The benefits of adding video grow daily:

• Get your point across more easily – If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth a million words. You can get across a point, a “how to”, or an explanation of anything in a video much easier than you can with written text.

• Engage your users better – google Search loves videos. You’ll get more visitors to your website by using original videos on your website due to that fact. Plus, once your audience is there, they’ll spend more time on your site watching videos than doing other things. They may even share your video on social media. According to Zuumsocial.com, video is the most shared form of content on Facebook.

• Video drives more traffic – Naturally, due to coming up more in google Search, and being shared more than any other form of content on Facebook, it just makes sense that the next benefit is that you’ll boost your traffic by including video on your website.

• Videos are fun – You don’t have to just do serious “how to” videos on your website. You can get creative with explainer videos, and other types of video to make them funny and interesting while also being effective and informative. Use your imagination when creating videos. Today, due to the awesome technology available, ordinary people have the equipment needed to make really good videos. But, you can outsource video creation inexpensively too.

• Differentiate yourself from your competition – Maybe your competition is already doing video, maybe not. Either way, once you create videos, your audience will see how you are different in a way that they may not have realized before. You can feature yourself in videos and build relationships with your audience in a whole new way.

• Videos encourage repeat visitors – Like regular blog posts, a regular video series will increase repeat visitors. As you create a content schedule, your website visitors will enjoy being notified of new additions to your videos, thus increasing their returns to your website. More returns equal more purchases.

These benefits make it clear how important it is that you start thinking of adding video to your websites. Here are some tips to ensure that they work for your users.

• Use HTML5 video tags – Prior to the advent of HTML5, you could only add video using a plug-in of some kind, typically involving Flash. This often meant that many people could not view your video, especially if they were using a mobile device that did not allow Flash. On the other hand, HTML5 has multi-browser support and is the most efficient way to display videos on your website.

• Use plug-ins – If you’re not sure how to code things yourself, you can use certain plug-ins if you use WordPress. A great plug-in to ensure videos can be seen is to use Video.js, an HTML5 video player for WordPress. This can be the best of both worlds. You’ll have HTML5 and Flash available.

• Use YouTube – If you want to be really simple, and don’t mind having YouTube branding on your videos, just upload them to YouTube first, and then use their code to embed into your website. This can actually be an effective way to get new traffic from YouTube directly to your website.

• Use google Plus – Using google Hangouts, you can create wonderful videos that you can then upload to your website using either YouTube or other methods mentioned in this section. People love to watch videos with many people talking about a subject of interest to them.

• Ensure that your video has meaning – Don’t just throw up meaningless videos; have a point in each video that you create. Along with a reason for being, have a planned call to action for every single video that you put on your site.

• Keep videos short – Do not put super long videos on your website, as a rule. You can create longer videos if you want to, but in general make them 30 to 60 seconds long. If you want to create longer ones, make them for eCourses or membership websites, and not for the general population who tires quickly with too much information.

You don’t need complicated equipment to create effective and well-made videos. You can use software such as Camtasia Studio, Microsoft Movie Maker, iMovie for Macs, your iPhone, your webcam, and more. You can find what you need from free to very high priced. Take a look around at the different choices, and use a trial run out the free options before spending money.

About the Author

Kemya L. Scott, marketing and social media strategist, teaches her clients how to build a digital presence and increase revenue. Known simply as “Miss Kemya”, she uses a results-focused, “how to” approach when creating effective strategies so clients enjoy tangible results quickly and easily. Connect with her at misskemya.com.

The post Why Your Business Can’t Ignore Video Any Longer appeared first on Successful Startup 101.

There are so many platforms for marketers to reach their audience through, and according to freelancer.com’s data scientists and their research studying jobs, the trends in the marketing field are still continuing to shift.

The results from their studies are showing trends including the decrease in utilizing Facebook for marketing; the fact that content-related jobs are still one of the most important pieces of the puzzle, such as driving traffic and keeping the consumers involved; and the consistent battle for the reigns between Apple and Android.

Apple/Android Battle Heats Up

Nobody is a stranger to the epic battle that has been going on between Apple and Android. As the two corporations compete for complete control over the mobile market field, studies are showing that the new Apple Watch getting thrown into the ring is definitely causing an uproar in the mobile community. While the numbers are increasing for Apple, the company still trails behind Android.

In fact, Android is still one of the preferred operating systems chosen for connectivity in everyday places including the workplace and home.

Social Media Takes a Hit

The social media bandwagon is finally beginning to slow down. Now that Facebook has begun changing algorithms, marketers are starting to see the negative (-2%) results of this change – and finally realizing that it’s time to start marketing beyond Facebook. This means less social media marketing and more email marketing, etc.

Marketers are also beginning to notice that Twitter is suffering the most, with only a .07% growth, mainly because the social media platform is so easy for individuals to create fake accounts and spam. Pulling itself through the struggle, there is still hope for this social media site with the rumors of a ‘live streaming’ option, which will allow businesses to live stream events to their followers, which will ultimately be much more engaging to the customers.

Although social media continues to struggle, Pinterest is still hanging by a thread as marketers look for new ways to  advertise through the site.

content marketing Rules the Ring

“I told you so,” is being uttered by many loyal content marketers, as studies still show that content marketing is as effective as ever and is still being seeked out by customers all over the world.

Businesses are still doing whatever they can and hiring employees who know how to create engaging and effective copy, including email campaigns, websites and more. The job search is still strong for individuals who know how to properly create visual branding as well.

Though marketing trends can sometimes be hard to predict, freelancer.com is doing what they can to keep marketers in the loop by studying marketing trends, figuring out which direction the trends are headed, and ensuring job opportunities are available for employers and employees.

The post Marketing Trends Continue to Awe appeared first on Successful Startup 101.

It’s a brand new week which means it’s time for the first installment of GaryVee’s weekly wrap-up here at SuccessfulStartup101! To get the week off to a great start, we’re going to begin with Gary’s article “Hey, Marketers. Stop Treating People Like Sheep”. Gary begins by saying that as marketers, we’re told we need to understand entire groups of people and that people are like sheep and will buy based on whatever we say. He goes on to say that if it was that easy, marketers would be out of jobs. Gary says that people are not sheep and thinking that they are is an all-in, narrow-focused way of looking at things. He says that marketers should be giving people more credit than that and that marketing can clearly influence people. In order for your marketing efforts to pay off, you have to build credibility and give consumers good reason to buy from you rather than from someone else as that is how sales are made.

In his article “Being a People Pleaser is a Strength, Not a Weakness”, Gary says that viewing someone as a people pleaser often has a negative connotation attached to it as that person can be looked at as a pushover and someone who is too eager. But Gary doesn’t see it that way at all as to him, being a people pleaser is a strength, not a weakness. In fact, Gary says that when you’re focused on pleasing people, that trait should be viewed as being one of your greatest strengths and not a weakness because there’s nothing wrong with being positive and wanting to please. He continues by saying that being a people pleaser can become a problem when you don’t know how to ask for something in return. To explain, Gary says that when you give people something they need, in a sense they owe you. And they will be more willing to do something for you because of that. In short, it’s a give and receive scenario that’s as old as time BUT you have to ask as nothing will happen otherwise.

The post Gary Vaynerchuk’s Weekly Wrap-Up (3/9/15) appeared first on Successful Startup 101.

This week, we’re going to begin with Gary V’s video “How to Market a Small Business On a Limited Budget” because we know this is something many business owners struggle with. Gary was asked via Twitter for his marketing advice for small business owners with limited budgets. Gary said this is a questions he’s often asked and it’s also an issue he grappled with in the past. His advice was for business owners to close the financial gap by simply working harder and longer. He suggests spreading the message by knocking doors and getting out there and hustling.

Gary also said that content is a great ally to have and that in this day and age, it’s important to focus your energy on pushing out content. Even if you don’t have the money to hire content creators, editors, etc., you can still create content yourself by taking hours away from selling, staffing and all the other things you’re doing and dedicate a few hours a week into becoming more like a media company. He went on to say that every business needs to start acting like a media company as all companies need to create and share content.

In his article entitled “To Make the Sale, You Need to Go In for the Kill” Gary begins by saying that as a salesperson, there are lots of mistakes to avoid making. Going in for the sale too quickly, messing up the facts or not believing in your product are some of the mistakes you should avoid. But another problem that’s even more obvious and problematic is poor execution when it pertains to actually asking for the customer’s business. What Gary is talking about here is the actual transaction that happens between the salesperson and the customer. Gary says that the right approach to the salesperson/customer transaction is to go right in for the kill and not to tread around the issue. Be honest and upfront about what your goal is. In other words, ask the customer how you can get their business and then make that happen whatever it is.

The post Gary Vaynerchuk’s Weekly Wrap-up: (3/2/15) appeared first on Successful Startup 101.

We’ve all heard the statement ‘there’s no such thing as a stupid question’ but nonetheless, many startup founders feel embarrassed for having to ask a question about running a business because they feel they should have most of the answers. If you’re in the process of launching a new business, you probably have many questions that you’re hesitating to ask because you think that others will view you as an incompetent person not fit for entrepreneurship. That’s why we’ve put together this article consisting of a few of the most common questions startup founders wonder about but are too afraid to ask.

Question 1: Why is making money the wrong motivation for starting a new business? Is this why so many startups fail?

Many startup founders wonder if they’re making a big mistake by dreaming of becoming rich. Of course, there is nothing wrong with planning on making money from your new business because after all, every business needs to make a profit in order for it to be viable. However, if your main motivation for being in business is to get rich rather than creating and adding value, then you’re definitely not on the right track. If your drive for money trumps your drive to create and offer innovative products/services that will add value to your targeted audience, then you may want to do a bit more soul-searching before you take the leap into entrepreneurship. In a nutshell, great rewards come to those who seek to give rather than get.

Question 2: Why is it so hard to come up with a great name for my new business? I mean, shouldn’t this task come naturally to me seeing that it is my idea and dream?

While some startup founders find it easy to come up with great names for their businesses, the truth is that this is something most people struggle with. A good way to come up with a great name is to begin by brainstorming several different names. Then run those names through google to see which are already being used. This will eliminate most of your choices. Your business name should be easy to remember and spell. It also needs to be interesting and relevant. Many startup founders over-think this process and end up with non-sensible names that have nothing to do with what they do. If you cannot come up with a good name, consider using a name consultancy service.

Question 3: How do I get people to buy my product/service? Is there a secret marketing technique I should know about?

Products and services don’t and can’t sell themselves. Sales happen because of one thing and that is marketing. Regardless of what you may have read, there is no secret to getting people to buy your product or service as it’s up to you to persuade them to buy what you’re selling.  Obviously you already have your product/service created but do you have a list of benefits written down that your product/service provides to your targeted audience? If not, do that as these benefits will become part of your marketing strategy. People buy products/services that solve their problems by making their life easier, safer or more pleasant. Once you get your products/services out there in front of those consumers most likely to benefit from them, you must then demonstrate via content how the things you sell solve the problems and issues your targeted market have. Your products/services must provide your target market with something of value and you must be able to explain how the things you sell actually do this.

The post Are You Too Embarrassed to Ask These Startup Questions? appeared first on Successful Startup 101.

Business owners who are just starting up their business should consider some strategies in order to increase exposure online. The number one way to capture leads is through website traffic. In order to convince people to click on a website, high quality articles are a must. Those who are able to update their website with useful content on a consistent basis should be able to capture plenty of leads.

Individuals who are focusing on creating high quality articles in order to generate plenty of traffic should consider a number of different options. They can either write articles themselves and promote them throughout the Internet or hire a professional who can write the content for them. Business professionals who have a lot on their plate often choose to hire professional writers in order to save time and create articles that give potential customers a reason to read them.

New business owners who are looking to start up their business on a shoestring budget won’t have many options available to them. They will have to create high quality articles themselves and promote them accordingly. The process for doing so is not as difficult as it might seem, however, it is time-consuming. When generating content, focus on creating interesting articles that will be read and shared by others.

High quality articles start with a captivating title. Articles that have a title that captures the attention of a reader will encourage them to click on it. Since most readers judge an article by its title, spend the necessary time creating something that is unique and gives them the desire to learn more. Those who are able to generate an attention grabbing title should be able to stand out from the billions of other articles on the Internet.

When creating high quality articles, focus on the end reader; however, focus on making it attractive to search engine spider bots as well. Business owners who understand that they are writing for both people and robots should format their article accordingly. Be sure to use keywords that will be able to draw in interested readers and show spider bots what an article is about. Those who place the keywords in the title, the introduction, throughout the body, and in the conclusion should be able to capitalize on the on page SEO of their article. Business owners should focus on using these keywords 3 to 7 times, depending on the length of an article.

Another factor that business owners must consider when writing high quality articles is that it is better to create an article that is lengthy, rather than short. Ideally, any articles that are informative should be at least 500 words, if not more. Those who are looking to write a lengthy informative post should aim to write articles that are between 1500 words and 2500 words in order to give readers a full understanding of the topic discussed. These lengthy articles are generally shared more often and considered more valuable by google‘s search engine ranking algorithm.

Business owners who are interested in purchasing high quality articles should understand that there are many sources available to them. However, not all of these sources deliver desirable content. Those who are looking for the articles that are written for $5 or less will likely receive dismal results. Business owners who demand excellent articles should expect to pay between $10 and $20 per article, while being able to receive content that is engaging and captivating.

As soon as a business owner has plenty of high quality articles, they now need to promote this content in order to capture traffic. Again, business owners have the opportunity to promote their articles themselves or hire a professional organization to do so. Experts in the SMM business generally charge a significant amount to promote articles. The truth is that the article promotion business requires a significant amount of work and dedication. Ideally, a business owner should promote their articles themselves, if they have the time to do so. This will enable them to develop connections with other business owners and initiate contact with their potential customer base. Those who are actively involved in this pursuit will be able to market their business as they see best and capitalize on the benefits of content marketing.

Business owners who focus on creating high quality articles in order to drive traffic to their website should be able to create leads and in turn, generate sales.

The post High Quality Articles Result In New Business – The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword appeared first on Successful Startup 101.

For this installment of Gary Vaynerchuk’s weekly content wrap-up, we’re going to start with his article entitled “What You Don’t Understand About Fine Wine Might Hurt Your Business” Gary talks about something he’s an expert at which is fine wine. He says that maybe the reader thinks that high-end wine is a total hoax; that it’s all made up and the entire market is a fraud. After all, he says, if you can get a decent bottle for $15, why pay more? Well Gary says that fine wine is just as much a hoax as the art world is – in other words it’s not. He explains by stating that if the demand for a product is high enough and supply low enough, the cost is driven up which makes total sense. It’s all about perspective, according to Gary but mostly it’s context.

In the video “Podcasting, Building Legacy & The Chamber of Commerce” Gary was asked whether there was a risk involved with giving away one’s best work for free. His response was yes, of course there is. He goes on to say that giving away amazing work for free has been his “gateway drug” to so many great opportunities. He says if you are going to give your work away for free, you’d better have a good strategy behind doing so. Gary says that everything he gives away for free has strategic purpose and that he understands why he’s doing it. Gary says that you have to receive some type of value for giving your work away for free. He goes on to say that if you do give your work away for free say five times, it may actually result in you getting value from it three of those times so don’t focus on the two times you didn’t.

In the article “The Ghost Is Growing Up: Why You Need to Pay Attention to Snapchat” Gary says that Snapchat is a platform that is quickly gaining traction, making it important for marketers to get into using this app before they miss their chance altogether. As a strong advocate of Snapchat since its early days, Gary says that when you see a platform gain 50 to 100 million teenaged users, that platform will eventually “age up”. In other words, those young people using this app will graduate and then start their adult lives and that Snapchat is going right along with them on their journey because it’s an app that allows them to communicate with the largest percentage of their social graph. Gary recommends paying attention to Snapchat’s Discovery feature and how people are consuming content there. He also says that if you are interested in marketing to 20 year olds over the course of the next two to three years within a mobile environment, using that cadence and feature set could very well be a great place to begin.

The post Gary Vaynerchuk’s Weekly Wrap-Up (2/19/15) appeared first on Successful Startup 101.