UPDATE: Haley the make up artist logo

UPDATE: Major Labour Logo

Who are the rich?

I have a keen interest in the consumer behaviors of the affluent. I am a huge fan of Thomas J. Stanley who often writes books based on the wealthy. So who are the affluent? Hint: they are not the ones wearing $5000 watches, in that designer suit, driving luxury cars. First, how would you define wealthy?

“Wealth is not the same as income. If you make a good income each year and spend it all, you are not getting wealthier. You are just living high. Wealth is what you accumulate and not what you spend” - Thomas J. Stanley, the Millionaire Next Door.

I think the above quote is a pretty sufficient definition. Here are some traits of the prototypical millionaire:

• A businessman who has lived in the same town for most of his adult life.
• Owns a small factory, chain of stores or a service company.
• Lives next door to people with a fraction of his wealth.
• Has an average accumuated household NET WORTH of 3.7 million, yet has a (taxable) income of $131,000 (avg income $247,000).
• Lives well below their means. Meaning no designer suits, no $5000 watches, no current model luxury vehicles.
• 97% are homeowners and a minority only lease their vehicle.
• Many have advance degrees: masters, law, medical, Ph.D
• works 45-50 hours a week
• invest 20% of their taxable income each year.
• TIGHTWAD

I thought this was fairly interesting and insightful!

FREE metric tools for business

Marketing strategies should be measurable. I cannot stress this enough. It’s simple: why would you waste anymore time + money into a strategy that is not going to give you a return on your investment. It is also important to test the waters out before you proceed with the strategy with a full budget. For example, with facebook ads, if you set the ad to target women over 55 and initially invest $50.00 towards it and run it for a week or so (just to test it out) and you realise that 80% of the people clicking on your ad are women in their 70’s (yes older folks are on Facebook) then this will give you the opportunity to tweak the ad accordingly and re-evaluate the campaign. So here are some great FREE tools for business to track and measure your campaign:

• Links shortener: j.mp and bit.ly or google url builder - Use this url shortener for your social media and email campaign. Track how many people actually clicked on the links you shared on facebook, twitter or email campaigns.

• Google Analytics - Tracks how visitors interacts with your website. Where did they come from? How long did they stay on your site? What did they do on your site and did they complete the website’s conversion goal?

• Social Mention - Searches user generated content through social networks. It allows you to easily track and measure what people are saying about you, your company, a new product, or any topic across the web's social media landscape in real-time.

• Mail Chimp - Free email marketing platform. It is free up to 1000 subscribers, anything more than that you’d have to pay. Mail chimp takes care of your sign ups, unsubscribe and bounce backs plus you can track your campaign.

• Facebook Insights - like google analytics but for your facebook page. Tracks who is visiting your page and a great way to analyse your content. For example, what did you post that proceeded a spike in traffic?

HAPPY TRACKING! :P

Why market to women?

Most of my clients are entrepreneurial women, who essentially market to other women. As a result, I have done extensive research on the buying behaviors of women and how they differ from men. In retrospect, EVERYONE needs to learn how to market to women. Why?

• Women process information and make purchasing decisions differently than men
• They are responsible for 85% of all brand purchases.
• Women start businesses twice the rate of men. *lightbulb to those running B2B businesses*
• With couples, women have the veto power. If she doesn’t like it, THEY are not getting it. (this is true between my mom and dad, lol)

In advertising, you should note that men are a lot more receptive towards women design aesthetics, than the women are towards male designs. So in theory, male designed advertising out there are ineffective towards women. **  You should also note, that the advertising business is a man’s world, comprising of mostly men while the consumer economy is a woman’s. El problemo? I think so.

° 59% of women feel misunderstood by food marketers

° 66% feel misunderstood by health care marketers

° 74% feel misunderstood by automotive marketers

° 84% feel misunderstood by investment marketers

° 91% of women in one survey said that advertisers don’t understand them**

Not trying to alienate my male marketer counterparts, they are 100% perfectly capable of marketing to women but its clear that the further away you are from the target market the harder you would have to work to reach them.

*Compiled by Marketing to Women Conference (Including Yankelovich Monitor & Greenfield Online for Arnold’s Women’s Insight Team)
**Gender, design and marketing by Gloria Moss

Blogging = Great for SEO

Inspired by a recent social media workshop I took a la Kemp Edmonds decided to dip my feet in the social media (for business) waters by attaching this blog to my newly launched site - yay me! *golf claps*

In case you had made an assumption that I am a total novice (“What she’s a marketing consultant and she doesn’t have a blog already attached to her business? SHOCKING!”)  Here is a little 411, I have 4 years experience working in marketing and PR in the arts and entertainment sector and have a diploma in Marketing Communications and certificates in both Public Relations and Graphic Design. Recently made a decision to transition over from my stable paychecks and attractive health benefit to go into business on my own...SOLO (exciting). So this first post marks a momentous occasion as I (blindly, yet calculatingly) evolve from a confused young adult into a bonafide business woman - Kidding! I am blogging because it is great for SEO.

Which brings me to SEO tip number 1: BLOG.

As a web and marketing consultant it is almost criminal for me NOT to advise you to have a blog. With the right key words + constant blog updates, a well maintained blog can enhance your page rank. The almighty G (google) dislikes static web pages and blogging keeps your content fresh.

PS. I know my blog design is non sufficient, it will be fixed soon I promise.