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Network Marketing

social media is an ever evolving animal. It's one. I think that causes people more stress than anything because we feel like we cannot stay ahead of it. We can't we can't get it under control. This is I kind of feel like I'm forced feeding you an elephant today. I do just because it's a lot of information, but I feel like Social Media is something that you really have to break it apart. Somebody asked a really great question. Which ones do you get involved in and how do you know what's right again? Measurable results, things that you can see definitive progress is important. So so a lot of this stuff I talked about I don't even use. But they are interesting to note, and if you could find a way to implement them, great. But the majority of things like blogging, Facebook, post things like that and the things that are gonna be the solid part, so that kind of takes us into marketing on the level of print, marketing and community marketing, which I think is really important. Now we're about...

to go into some homework cares. So if you guys are out there watching We definitely want to get you ready to prepare with the pencil and pen for some homework. It's important to understand that creating a map the calendar is a road map to speak to, so to speak. But you also have to have a strategy, a concept, it was asked earlier. You know, how do you map out certain genres like seniors? We went through what I said. You know what? Just because seniors happen to be in these three months that you photographed them, there is something you could be doing every single month to keep your name in that genre and interesting. So what happens in marketing strategy combines all of the marketing goals into one comprehensive plan. So we have a clear picture on what it is we're marketing to know. We talked about this most of a shoot many different things. So I'm not just marketing for babies. I would say I'm marketing my studio, and these are the things that I tend Teoh gravitate towards. There's five steps that you should work on in order to create your marketing strategy. These are gonna be homework, and so you may want to start writing these steps down as I explain them, if you can. If you have the book, if you purchase the book on ladies, you have it. It's Page 37 39. You could just go and review that tonight. It's a whole lot easier, but the first thing you're gonna want to do is describe your company's unique selling proposition. It's called a U. S P. It's very, very well known marketing word. But this is the thing that sets you apart from everybody else. Once you understand what you are, then you can define your target market. You can start to look for that Judy, which we've kind of that sort of your homework already. So you're halfway there. Number three, right down the benefits of your products and services. If you don't know why it should sell, your client won't either. Four. Describe how you position your products and surfaces. What types of marketing campaign. This is where you're getting into the marketing side of it, and five. Define your marketing methods. Will you advertise? Use Internet marketing, direct marketing or public relations. So those are the five things that I would love to see in an outline. Easiest way to do this is to type it up. If you have the book, you can just cut and paste the questions and then fill them in. That's the easiest way to go. Understand that with this book, we want you to do the entire book. We're picking out things that are gonna help you build the foundation. Every single page in here, every single end of the chapter are full of the affirmations and goals. So we those you have this. I want you to go through the whole book step by step. It's built out to do this, but for those of you who are just jumping in, these five marketing strategies are going to create sort of that little road map. So once you get this done, we can start working on that marketing calendar, pull from that calendar and start implementing those ideas. So hopefully you guys all have that we have. Describe your company's unique selling proposition. Define your target market right down the benefits of your products or services, described how you will position your products or services and define your marketing methods. IE Internet marketing, direct marketing, our public relationships, relations. So with your with your strategies. These are ones that I would like to you to have done by tomorrow, or at least the outline done, and then you could feel it more. It's kind of like a business. Fine. This is ever evolving. I think you add to it, but this is definitely going to go into your book and segment out. OK, so a couple tips as's faras your unique selling proposition. This is what sets you out from the rest. Don't try to develop a marketing plan without one, really. When it comes Teoh the unique selling proposition I'm a baby photographer. So are 50 other studios in my area. So what's uniquely different about my studio? Is that the props I use? Is it the the final art products that we produce? Is it the fact that I would say one of the most interesting things about our studios? We do a lot of video work. I think we're well ahead of the curve in the video side of things. I think that there's sort of a little fear out there that I'm or the world is trying to push, that there will be no more photography. It will all be video. I don't believe that at all, but I think video adds an element that very few people could touch. Right now there is a learning curve to it. And I'm always one of those be ahead of the learning curve than behind the learning curve. We went digital, probably holy cow, probably 13 years ago. The original cameras that we were using I mean, people haven't even heard of things like the faux Vionnet was a laptop with a lens attached to it. And it started between 30 and $50,000 for one. So those types of learning tools are, you know, dinosaurs now and then. Of course, we were early, early digital. So we were the Fuji s ones. Fuji Ehstuhs. Then we went to the Kodak seven sixties. Then from there we went Teoh the phase one backs and those were 12 to $22,000 of peace. And at that time we had four of those. So So we were always on that early curve of learning. And, you know, it's one of those things that I believe that there was a cost or price. I paid for that. But there's also an advantage of being ahead of the curve. And sometimes you have to find balance between being too early and spending too much money and being too late and falling off the ball. I know Google Plus is a good example of one that I was told right out of the gate when it started that this is going to be huge and you should jump in on it. I missed the boat as Faras getting out there and getting my name out there and a lot of my associates, you know, who had 150,000 followers and I just missed that curve. So even now when we try to push Google, plus, we just don't see that curve that you would see if you were a little bit of head. So finding that line is really, really important. Number one. It's important that you budget and develop. You have a budget developed for your marketing fund. Marketing is an investment we're gonna talk about. How much in just a minute, revisit your marketing plan at least once every quarter. Are you on target? Do you need to revise it? That's where that calendar becomes so important is to me that's a roadmap for me, that I don't even have to think about the budget, because what happens is the flow is so continuous that I'm spending about the same amount of money each month on the printed pieces and things I'm doing. And again I'll cover what you what you should expect to spend marking. That's always question. People are always Our students are always asking me, How much money should I spend on marketing? The second, probably the bigger question, and that is how much money should what percentage they pay myself. So those are the two big questions. Good book to read is the 50 marketing strategies. 50 Best marketing strategies for small businesses is kind of a fun, quick read something that I would highly recommend checking out just because this is a general marketing book. But a lot of times I find that I learned a lot more from outside marketing. Outside resource is then from within my own industry. When I say that the industry has been regurgitating the same marketing as have I understand been teaching for 15 years, I've been teaching a baby plan for 15 years. It's not hard to fill a room full of people that would still want to learn about the baby plan because they understand that there's something there that they need that they need a comprehend. So so outside industry is nice because you get a broader perspective of the public. In general, network marketing is in the top three things that I believe we dio. There's several ways to do this. Network marketing is working hand in hand with companies in your community to co create a more meaningful and personalized lasting experience. So in order to get started, we're gonna throw out a bunch of ideas for how you can start to work on network marketing. Now it can be relationship based or it can be displayed based. I will warn you that I your homework is going to be coming up. That's going to be outlining three locations that you could put a display in and duck and basically riding that plan just to give you a little heads up as you watch this next segment, is that the end? These would be great places to pull from, but as far as creating relationships in your community a great way to do that is joined a local business or a service group. You could sponsor a youth sports team or a league volunteer, your space or time to host a community event. One of the things I mean, there's all kinds of ways to do this, and we'll cover seven, several, several of them. You can teach a class. This is a very popular way. All showcase. Today you can attend your clients event. Sometimes you know if they're getting an award or they work in a charity, that's a good way to do it. They're always places of worship that have different ongoing service projects attached to them as well, or things like hosting a class field trip. Now there are lots of different things that we do in our studio, and they each have purpose. Like, for instance, we allow the local art schools to come in and we do a day seminar. Something really seminars a couple hours where the students come in with the teacher. These are all college students aren't students, and they get to watch a little presentation on what I do is a board portrait. Artists now 80% of the people in that room. I want to be fine artists there in art school when they want to draw pictures of trees and cows and horses and whatever. No offence to find artists, whatever they do, I don't know, or landscape or travel photography super popular for these poor young Children that are in art school. That actually think you could go out there and make $100,000 taking pictures of, you know, trees and landscapes and things and some will, by the way some will make it. But just like in the portrait world, not everybody will. So it's exciting to see them all saying there starry eyed and excited. And and I try really hard not to think about averages and percentages because I don't know who is going to be successful and who is gonna be the one that makes it. But as I sit there, I recognize that 20% of those people don't are only 20% of them actually relate to what I'm doing. So if I take two or three hours out of my day to teach this class knowing that really only 20% of them even care about what I'm doing What's the benefit? They're not parents. They're not. You know, they're not gonna probably come and be a client. 80% of them probably don't care about what I'm talking about. Why would I invest my time in those students? Anybody have a guess? I guess the mouth referrals? No, it's actually I'm looking at them as potential employees. So you talk about employees, But what better than an art school? These kids are all excited and have a fire lit under them, and they want passion. Most of these kids have the option of doing an intern program where they can get credit for school and work for you for free, which is really great. It's good for both of you. Do you understand that if somebody's gonna be an intern, they should be doing the work that they are interested in. An intern is not somebody that you have. Fold papers and stuff envelopes. If you're a photographer, then as in fairness, if you're gonna have somebody work for free for credit, they should be assisting you. That should be in the camera. Holding things and doing things is not free labor, and it should never be treated like free labor. They should be doing the work that you want, the advantage to you. Is there not costing you anything? You get that extra hand. So So That's so when I do those classes, I know darn well that 80% of them probably don't. They're interested, but not that interested. 20% of really interested and I can see them. The class they're usually starry eyed and like, get all excited and emotional when they see things. The end of every class. I always say, Hey, if anybody's interested in, we have some part time work. We do have an internship program, those stars and diamonds. Those few people will step up and say, Oh, I really love to work here. It's great because some of the best employees I've ever had have been interns. They might have, like a 90 hour program or a 60 hour program where they have to invest hours in our company. It's an internship, and then at the end of that I have the option of hiring them if they're interested in. If we're interested, If I don't like them, then I definitely could say Hey, great, great, 90 hours thinking about why you know and let them go. So So that's why now there are other things I do that aren't tightness silly into marketing like we have donated our time. Girl Scouts are a good example. They want to get their badges so they come in and they do a two hour presentation. Usually it's a very short photography what I do and then I'll do like a little model shoot where they get to take each other's pictures or do something like that. What are the benefits of that? Are there any benefits of that? Well, you can imagine their parents have to drop them off. So if you would acquire that, their parents come in and have to sign some sort of piece of paper than they at least get into the studio. So here we are teaching for couple hours were engaging the kids, which is exciting, but more importantly, we're getting the parents in the door, so there are lots of ways that you can use teaching or reaching out in the community to actually create those relationships on. Those are the kind of field trips and classes and things that we do know there are some that are more successful than others. The Girl Scout thing. It's a good thing to dio very little, if anything has ever come of it. The moms air so like dropping off. Get out of here, Come back. We do it because it's just a good thing to Dio there other things that we do, where we know darn well we're getting the right people in at the right time, and we have a better, better up potential for connecting with them. Other things you can do in your community to get involved. You can join the chamber of Commerce. You can volunteer at local charity events. You can get more involved in your Children's schools. You can also show your neighbors you care about the people in your area and support the group growth in your community. Getting involved in local community events is very important as well. There's so many relationships to be had. One of the things that I've noticed in my life is it sort of follows my life cycle with my Children. It seemed like marketing was so easy and nothing. It's hard now, but when I had little kids, all my friends have little kids. It was easy to get clients now as I grew as my kids grew and they became high school since it seemed like high school seniors were more prevalent in my life. So I've noticed that you sort of ebb and flow with your own life cycle as to what appeals to you. I've noticed that I do more boudoir and pinup than ever, and a lot of it has to do with my age in my life cycle because I see a lot of women, my clients, that are my age. They have 34 kids. They're filling out of shape. They're not comfortable. They wanted to something sexy and special, but they don't feel like they can. And then when we present it to them and show them the potential, they get very excited. I remember being 20 something in the first person that ever asked me to do boudoir style images. I was so uncomfortable with it. I just I think I remember the 1st 1 I ever did. I turned down the 2nd 1 I was just so I couldn't do it. It was awkward and uncomfortable, and it just wasn't where my mind was I was a young mom with young kids and frankly, taking pictures of old, naked ladies wasn't really fun that I my old lady. I think it's something that now I want to feel good about myself. I want other women to feel good about their self, so we cycle through our own life's as well doesn't mean you disconnect like I still photograph a lot of babies, but I have to find new ways. It's not as easy as dropping my daughter off at school and telling all her friends were doing something fun. I have to reach out into my community a little bit more one of the things that I dio that I guess I have the benefit of doing. But start thinking outside of the box. In addition to my studio, I own a gym, and so I have a trainer that travels with me when I travel. But he also has a client base at home when he's home that he could work for him. So for me it was just easier to build. The chimp have that there are also other trainers now that rent the space as well, and they have clients. So one of the ideas I was working on both of those businesses trying to figure out how I could call market with them. And so we on Monday mornings we have what we call mother go story time, and we dio that Sisi, by the way up there really looks. But these women, we have this little program where they pay $10 during that hour they can go down to the gym and they can get a workout. And meanwhile, we are hosting a story Time up in our studio. Now that takes a couple hours. There's a little expense. We gotta buy some food and things, but you have to ask yourself, Why would see any do that? Like what? What's the benefit there? Well, we put it out in the public, and we tell people that this freeze basically it's free story time or they can pay for the gym service. So we're co marketing. These women are super excited, cause day care. When you want to go to the gym, it's really hard to get somebody to watch your kids. So now that's covered for them, so that alleviates a stress. They come into our studio. They walk through a studio. They talked to us. They go up, they check their kids in the whole time they're communicating with us. Were the same people. Every week. We market to different. You can only do it one month at a time. So they have four weeks that they could join us on DSO for four weeks. We get Teoh, bring them into our studio. Be good people. We got to take care of their kids. We gotta have fun. They have story time, Very safe. Very well taken care of moms. They're having a good time. You guys get where this is going. It's an incredible connection. These women typically want to continue the gym. They're gonna find a care. They want to have their kids. Portrait's taken. We use them for models. They sign up for regular sessions. So this has been a real win win now, not everybody. You don't have to own a gym to do this. You might be located near one. It might be something. You could have a trainer come in and maybe do some. You know, maybe we do a lot of park stuff. So maybe go out to a park and they meet their. They drop the kids off, meet at a local park. There are a 1,000,000 other ways to spin this, and we'll talk about it. But this is just one that again is very unique to my studio. Very few people could pull that off. We do it and we're known for it. And it's a lot of fun. And, you know, honestly, every Monday, Sisi, Helen and Aaron looks so forward to this. They're like these little crafty moms that, you know, they get all the fluffy stuff and all laid out and the kids have a ball and they put their hearts into it. And every mom that comes in knows it. They know that their kids are being well loved, and to me, that's more powerful than any postcard I could ever print. And so there are lots of ways you could do something similar that would apply to your business, the foundations of marketing the three things I told you earlier. These are truly the three things. If you were to ask me what I believe my success comes from, the three marketing strategies would be displays getting your workout in your community referral program saying thank you to the people who send people you're away and communications, which is keeping in touch with your clients through e blasts and newsletters. That has been for the last 20 something years, the same thing I dio over and over again. For the last 15 years, I've been teaching this over and over again because it works. It truly is the foundation of my marketing.