The Ten Top New Years Resolutions for 2010
Every year it seems that the same Top Ten New Year resolutions crop up. Why? It’s obvious. Because they are just so hard to keep! I have trouble keeping my resolutions, but this time I’m determined to finally do better.
Success is not an accident, it begins with a well-conceived plan. You can and will achieve more in the next year than you have in the past ten with a disciplined plan of action. By investing your efforts into a New Years Resolution, you give yourself a launch pad for starting your new year and your new life.
This year I’m determined to try harder and I plan to succeed. The only two resolutions listed below that I was able to keep in 2009, were to organise myself and to get more exercise.At least I made a great improvement over my 2008 attempts. As for smoking, I hope that you have better luck than I do!
My list includes many of the items listed below, but this Lens is not about my New Years Resolutions, but the Top Ten Resolutions. Here’s the list.
- 1. Stop smoking
- 2. Get Fit
- 3. Lose Weight
- 4. Enjoy Life More
- 5. Quit Drinking
- 6. Get Organised
- 7. Learn Something New
- 8. Get Out of Debt
- 9. Spend more time with the Family
- 10. Help Others
So, that’s the Top Ten New Years Resolutions. Write them down and see how successful you are at keeping them. I hope that you have more success than I’ve had in my resolutions over the years. Happy New Year!
How Much Would You Pay For 2 Seconds?
With direct mail how much time do you think you have below the eyes of your prospect before they decide to take action or chuck it in the garbage. Let me tell you its quick, REAL QUICK. You need to grab their attention fast and compel them to read on.
How exactly can you do that? You don’t want to go through the trouble of designing, implementing and the overall cost of a campaign all for it just to end up in the garbage. So what can you do with your direct mail piece to smack your prospect across the face and get them to take action?
Personalize, Personalize, Personalize
People are much more likely to read a piece of mail that contains a personalized marketing message as opposed to a general marketing statement found on most direct mail pieces. Variable Data Printing now allows businesses to personalize thousands and thousands of mail pieces with minimal to zero extra effort and cost.
Personalizing your direct mail piece is the surest way to draw attention to your mail piece. When it comes to direct mail the longer the eyeballs of your prospect stay above your marketing piece the better chance you have of ringing in a new sale.
Another great marketing nugget brought to you by
The Print Concierge
Are Your Marketing Dollars Creating One-Time Customers Or Customers For Life?
New leads, let’s face it, they aren’t cheap. In most cases, you will get more return from your marketing dollars spent generating repeat business than from new lead marketing efforts. You still definitely need to have those new leads coming in, but you should also make sure that you’re not neglecting those who’ve purchased from you in the past. With today’s digital marketing tools you can do both inexpensively and effectively.
Connection. If you had to describe in one word why the Internet changed everything, it would be connection. Business and personal relationships have changed due to the Internets ability to instantly connect people through email, websites, and social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
However, this global connection has created a problem for the local business in their local markets.
Why?
1. Traditional print advertising is becoming less effective.
2. Most people have thrown their Yellow Pages away and search online.
3. Newspaper’s readership is down.
4. With Tivo and DVR’s, many are skipping commercials.
5. Search results are dominated by large companies.
6. Searching for new customers?
Let’s face it, the Internet has become today’s yellow pages. It used to be that a local business had to be in the yellow pages to be found. Today, 97% of people who are online search online to find a source of local products or sources. Eighty-two percent of online searches result in offline actions, such as a call or visit. Bottom-line - 6 out of 10 result in a purchase.
Did you know?
1. 97% of people with online access will research products and services online before they purchase?
2. 55% of all searches are done with an intent to buy?
3. Of all local searches, 8 out of 10 will visit or call a store or business and 60% of those result in a purchase.
“I have a web presence you say?”
The real question is not do you have a website, but how are you driving potential customers to it? Is it a tree in the forest? It is hard to stand out in the crowd. And believe me it is a crowd. There are 1 TRILLION web pages today - and growing every day. How can your products and/or services stand out when your potential customer is online searching?
A website and online marketing, such as Search Engine Marketing, are typically not inexpensive. Or is it? What if I told you it could be as little as a cup of Starbucks/day and with GUARANTEED RESULTS. Stay tuned, let me show you how affordable it can be for your business.
“But I am in the Yellow Pages or the newspaper you say”.
Traditional advertising, in today’s highly competitive marketplace, has proven to be inefficient in helping many small businesses grow. Newspaper and Yellow page readership continues to decline, while their cost to run ads goes up. Google and other online search engines are today’s yellow pages. The questions we have to ask ourselves are:
Why advertise in a declining market? And
Why spend more money to reach fewer people?
Keep Your Best Customers Buying from YOU
Budgets these days are tight and it’s important to know both that your marketing is working and to capitalize on your repeat business. Your best customers didn’t become your best customers from one small sale. Being great at what you do is not always enough to keep the customers that you have earned.
Take Disney for example. They are the self-proclaimed “most magical place on earth” but their 2009 third quarter sales don’t reflect it. Revenue was down 9% to $2.8 billion, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Now they’re boosting their marketing efforts to their previous attendees to increase revenue. They know these families have shown an interest in the past, so Disney is “nudging” them to come again with Free Dining Plans, 3 nights free hotel stay incentives and the “play free on your birthday” campaign, just to name a few. They have the room to make these great offers because of the much higher response rate when promoting to their past customers.
With all of the competition out there today, you need to constantly remind your customers that you are the best at what you do. Direct mail paired with a consistent email campaign, such as an electronic newsletter (E-newsletter) is an effective way to remind your customers about your products and services and how they’ve trusted you in the past! And it can accomplish two more important strategies:
1. Give to get.
2. Front of mind marketing.
What do I mean by give to get? Give away your best ideas and tips that are important to your consumers. Any advice or tips on making the budget go farther in today’s consumer climate can make your communication piece valuable. The result is that your mail or E-newsletter will become a “welcome guest” not an “annoying pest” to your list.
What is “front of mind marketing?” It has to do with finding ways to keep your product and company in the forefront of your prospects/customers mind so that when they need what you do or have, they think of your company first. In other words a prospect or a customer”
remembers you or your company.
remembers what you do.
is thinking about whether you can solve his/her problem.
would call you not the competitor first if they thought you could meet their need.
What is the penalty for failing to stay front of mind? Someone else gets the business. How do you stay front of mind? There are active methods like sales calls; and passive methods like advertising and marketing such as direct mail or newsletters.
Front of mind declines over time just like many things in nature. When you leave the prospect or they leave your store you immediately begin to decline in their front of mind thinking. So to bring your company back to front of mind you need regular touches. One inexpensive step (and it shouldn’t be the end all-be all) is a newsletter.
I know what you’re thinking, that’s a big task. MDC Group can help. We offer services that will do all the “heavy lifting” when it comes to creating and sending newsletters. An E-newsletter program for as little as $199.95/month (check-out www.enewslettersmadeeasy.com ). Couple this with our guaranteed first page Google ad presence for less than $200 (check-out http://johnsr.putsyouonpage1.com/25 ) and you can solve to big marketing needs for very little investment. Give us a call at 1-888-851-0466 x 104.
Top Ten: Christmas Quotes
Christmas creates a happy and pleasant atmosphere for most people, but the Christmas atmosphere can be hard to describe in words. Here you have a series of great quotes about Christmas phrased by famous people.
1. Agnes M. Pharo
What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace.
2. Carol Nelson
Christmas is a time when you get homesick - even when you’re home.
3. Helen Keller
The only blind person at Christmastime is he who has not Christmas in his heart.
4. Harlan Miller
Probably the reason we all go so haywire at Christmas time with the endless unrestrained and often silly buying of gifts is that we don’t quite know how to put our love into words.
5. Shirley Temple
I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.
Shirley Temple
6. Norman Vincent Peale
Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
7. Mary Ellen Chase
Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.
8. W.J. Cameron
There has been only one Christmas - the rest are anniversaries.
9. Larry Wilde
Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall.
10. Charles Dickens
I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.
Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer
The Chicago-based Montgomery Ward company, department store operators, had been purchasing and distributing children’s coloring books as Christmas gifts for their customers for several years. In 1939, Montgomery Ward tapped one of their own employees to create a book for them, thus saving money. 34-year old copywriter Robert L. May wrote the story of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer in 1939, and 2.4 million copies were handed out that year. Despite the wartime paper shortage, over 6 million copies had been distributed by 1946.
May drew in part on the story “The Ugly Duckling” and in part from his own experiences as an often taunted, small, frail youth to create the story of the misfit reindeer. Though Rollo and Reginald were considered, May settled on Rudolph as his reindeer’s name.
Writing in verse as a series of rhyming couplets, May tested the story as he went along on his 4-year old daughter Barbara, who loved the story
Sadly, Robert Mays wife died around the time he was creating Rudolph, leaving Mays deeply in debt due to medical bills. However, he was able to persuade Sewell Avery, Montgomery Ward’s corporate president, to turn the copyright over to him in January 1947, thus ensuring May’s financial security.
May’s story “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was printed commercially in 1947 and in 1948 a nine-minute cartoon of the story was shown in theaters. When May’s brother-in-law, songwriter Johnny Marks, wrote the lyrics and melody for the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, the Rudolph phenomenon was born. Turned down by many musical artists afraid to contend with the legend of Santa Claus, the song was recorded by Gene Autry in 1949 at the urging of Autry’s wife. The song sold two million copies that year, going on to become one of the best-selling songs of all time, second only to Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas”. The 1964 television special about Rudolph, narrated by Burl Ives, remains a holiday favorite to this day and Rudolph himself has become a much-loved Christmas icon.
Luke, Chapter Two
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”