Tuesday, September 21, 2010

3 Keys to Making Marketing FUN!

One thing my peeps tell me time and again is that they hate marketing, it's a drag, they feel overwhelmed, and it's not at all fun! Since part of my business mission is to help conscious entrepreneurs to create a marketing plan that is fun, fulfilling and sustainable, it hurts to see so many of you suffering over your marketing. So in effort to aleviate your pain, here are some essential keys to making marketing fun.

First Key: Share What's Most Important to You in Your Marketing!
One reason marketing is such a drag to many people is that they are using outdated marketing techniques that feel alienating, embarrassing, and hypey, including using scripts written by others (ie mentors), competitive language, and fear mongering. Authentic marketing is more effective for attracting perfect customers, so you want to dive into your soul and discover what's most important to you. Write blog posts, ezine letters, or website copy that reflects your passion.


Second Key: Connect with Perfect Peeps that You Love!
Marketing is a hassle when you don't like the people you are marketing to. It seems obvious but I remember a time when I was so nervous to go to networking events because I didn't like anyone there! Finally it dawned on me I should network with people I like. Then I'm much more bubbly, happy, smiley, and attractive! To attract more folks I like, I use the Attraction Plan and clarify who I want to attract

Third Key: Do What Brings You Joy!
I am always looking for ways to integrate what I love to do with marketing. One of my favorite things is to wander around Sebastopol placing my post cards, brochures and/or fliers arond in cafe's and on bulletin boards around town. I also meet and greet with local conscious entrepreneurs to expand my local network, and I love attending business breakfasts with other local entrepreneurs (ones I like!) When I am happy and uplifted, I am a magnet for what I want in my life.

When I'm having fun, I'm more likely to attract my perfect customers! Please share what you love to by commenting to this post and if you have questions about how to market yourself while you're doing it, I'll answer!


Julia Stege is called The Magical Marketer because she helps conscious entrepreneurs to attract their most perfect customers with a unique combination of intuitive branding, wildly attractive websites, law of attraction principles and social networking strategies. Download Julia's free Attraction report and instructional videos at http:://www.MagicalMarketingToolkit.com.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

What's Your Online Marketing Vibe?

"You can control your vibration. And when you control your vibration, you've controlled everything that has anything to do with you." ~ Abraham-Hicks

A lot of conscious entrepreneurs don't like computers, or going online at all. If you feel this way, you're not unusual. In fact there appears to be a trend toward thinking of going online or working on computers as 'anti-spiritual.' It's almost seen as a virtue to avoid electronics as much as possible.

Many of you only go online to do your 'due diligence' in getting the word out about your business. But did you ever stop to think about how your resistence to computers and the Internet effects your marketing efforts? If you've got bad vibes around computers, those bad vibes will impact the effectiveness of your marketing.

If like attracts like, then when you're being resistent, either folks will resist you, or you will attract resistent folks! To attract our perfect peeps online, we must make the effort to raise our vibrations before we go out to attract potential customers and spread the word about our offerings.

Here are some Vibe Raising Tips for Internet Marketers:


Tip #1) Check in to how you're feeling before you go online. Take note of any negative thoughts you are having about the computer or your ability to use it effectively and let them go. Take a deep breath and center yourself.

Tip #2) Focus on what results you want from your activities. Close your eyes and imagine some perfect interactions that may result from your internet activities. Picture your perfect customers finding you and contacting you. Feel what it's like to have a perfect customer call you ready to get started.

Tip #3) Limit your online activity to short periods with a specific focus. For instance take 15 minutes to expand your network, or 1/2 hour to schedule several days of Tweets. This way you can avoid burn-out and be more productive in the time you do allot to online marketing.
When you take the time to be conscious of your own vibration and how you are feeling as you market, your marketing efforts will become more attractive and you'll be a lot happier with the results!

Learn how to become a magical magnet for everything you want in Julia's upcoming workshop with energy balancing expert Deborah S. Myers, "Magic At Your Fingertips: Clearing the Blocks to Attracting What You Want in Your Business and Your Life" in Santa Rosa, CA on Mon. Sept. 27th. Learn more at http://www.magicatyourfingertips.info/


Julia Stege is called The Magical Marketer because she helps conscious entrepreneurs to attract their most perfect customers with a unique combination of intuitive branding, wildly attractive websites, law of attraction principles and social networking strategies. Download Julia's free Attraction report and instructional videos at http:://www.MagicalMarketingToolkit.com.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Does Your Marketing Look Like (Pardon the French) Crap?

Today I received a letter from one of my favorite multi-millionaire sales gurus and one of her mentees inviting me to a teleclass celebrating the end of "info-crap" style marketing and the beginning of a more authentic passionate approach to promotion.

I thought this was right up my alley, so I clicked the link right away.

Do you think I was surprised when I visited the sales page to find it used every "info-crap" design technique in the book to get us to opt in?

Yup, there was the red 24 point Helvetica headline with the cheesy clip art image next to it, brightly colored arrows pointing at the opt in box, no compelling brand image, not even a logo to distinguish this thought leader from the rest. And to be fair to this guru, I've seen a multitude of other really smart and helpful business advisors using these same design techniques on their sales pages.. Why is that?

In fact, I have heard several marketing gurus specifically say that good design doesn't matter, that compelling graphics are more expensive than they're worth.

Yet these same gurus will pay 10s of thousands of dollars to get their sales copy right. Where is the disconnect?

What I have found is that more and more of us regular business owners are just as tired of "info-crap" designs as we are of "info-crap" verbiage and offers. Many of us refuse to opt in to sales pages that use these design tactics based on our intuitive hit that these folks couldn't be a good match for us due to their 'push marketing' visual aids.

I understand that folks on a limited budget have a hard time affording a good designer, but these thought leaders definitely have the resources at hand, but obviously believe design doesn't matter.

So this begs the question: Why does design matter?

It's a difficult question to answer in brief, but I'll give it a try.

When talking about the importance of design, I like to give the analogy of a networking event, because most of us can relate to that. You would never consider wearing really garish clothing to go networking, and stand at the center of the room shouting at people. When we use bold, boxy, red fonts and flashing arrows, that's exactly what we're doing: shouting at our visitors to, "enter your email address here!"

Usually when going out to attract our perfect customers live, we consider our clothing, hair, makeup and accessories. We want to communicate something about ourselves by how we show up. We always do our best to select clothing that we like, that looks good on us, and that reflects our personality. Translating that to our marketing, we want our sales pages to feel like us, to reflect our unique personality and mission, and to compel people to take actions like giving us their email, because the idea feels right to them.

The bottom line is that visuals communicate on an emotional level. The design of a web page is often called the "look and feel," for this reason.

Here are three tips I have developed for creating sales pages with design integrity.

Tip #1) Choose your color palette to reflect your own aesthetic. Don't use red headlines just because all the sales gurus say they're more effective. Use colors that make you feel good and they will likely attract your perfect customers as well.

Tip #2) Use images that communicate your personality and purpose. I like to tap into my message deeply and then go on sites like www.dreamstime.com that offer free or cheap stock photography and search for images that feel good to me in that state. I am looking for images that reflect what's most important to me, that inspire thoughts that are in alignment to my purpose, and that are beautiful. I stay away from anything too cliche or sales-y.

Tip #3) Use minimalism whenever possible. One common complaint about web pages is that they are too busy, too wordy, too ugly, and too confusing. Using white space and keeping elements to a minimum allows the viewer to consume your content without overwhelm, thus retaining a connection to their own intuition. Since your perfect customers are intuitively drawn to you when you are authentic, portraying your personal style in your sales pages will magnetize them to you.

These tips will help you communicate who you are authentically rather than with strategies designed to brainwash, coerce, or even scare viewers into buying. You'll find that using these techniques, those attracted to you will be a much better match for you and your business.

Are you ready for marketing designs that truly reflect your personality and purpose? Julia D. Stege and her Graphic Girlz team offer one-stop marketing shopping, featuring Branding from the Heart, Wildly Attractive Websites, Law of Attraction Marketing and Social Networking Services. Visit http://www.graphicgirlz.com for more information, or call Julia at (707) 823-3316 to ask for a complimentary marketing strategy session.