Marketing to ‘Everyone’ or ‘Anyone’ Markets to No One | Peter Mehit

Growing top line revenue is survival. Without setting the table, you have no chance to make a profit, or even just stay in the game. With so much hype around the Internet and social media, more established forms of marketing are being discounted. Yet the elevation of social media as an end all, be all strategy does a disservice to those who must plot the direction of their company’s marketing efforts.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in small business where owners and managers are bombarded by sales pitches for different types of tactics. Some owners will be swayed by a good pitch and buy the tactic. Others will not feel comfortable and will not do anything. If neither of these persons has identified their customer, neither choice is helpful to their business.

Who is your customer? That is the single most important question you will ask in your business life. If you’re smart, you’ll ask it again and again because the answer is always changing. Most owners never ask it. The majority answer “anyone.” You can’t market to ‘anyone.’

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The awesome beauty of Jupiter captured by Juno, in 13 photos | Vox

jupiter
NASA

On July 4, 2016, NASA’s Juno spacecraft arrived at Jupiter traveling at a blistering 130,000 mph. Its mission — to orbit the gas giant closer than any craft had done before — was not easy.

Like Earth, Jupiter is surrounded by a field of magnetic radiation. But Jupiter’s is much, much stronger. If Juno didn’t hit a precise region at the poles where the magnetic field is the weakest in its entry, it wouldn’t have survived; the radiation would have fried the craft.

Juno hit its mark, and Scott Bolton, who leads Mission Juno, called it “the hardest thing NASA has ever done.” Since then, Juno has been completing an orbit of Jupiter once every 53 days.

In June, Juno’s mission was approved to continue through at least July 2021. After that, NASA can choose to extend the mission — or it could end it, plunging the craft into Jupiter’s gauzy atmosphere, where it would burn up. If this dramatic ending sounds familiar, it’s because last year NASA crashed Cassini, the spacecraft that orbited Saturn, into that gas giant. It was awesome.

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How the motorcycle industry is attracting new riders | Money CNN

Motorcycling in America is getting a makeover. Industry stalwarts and upstart competitors are trying to attract new riders who want something different from Harley-Davidson’s big burbling cruisers or screaming Japanese and European performance bikes.

The changes are in response to younger riders who are attracted to the efficiency and fun of two-wheel travel, but who don’t want to buy into all the “biker” baggage.

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Please, Please, Please Don’t Sleep in Contact Lenses, CDC Says | Live Science

It’s late, you’re tired, and the last thing you want to do is get out of bed and take out your contact lenses. If so, you’re not alone: Around one-third of people who wear contact lenses have reported that they sleep or nap in them.

But people who do this have six to eight times the risk of developing eye infections, according to a new report published today (Aug. 16) in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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How Observational Learning Can Have a Huge Impact on Productivity | Life Hack

Someone walks over, introduces themselves and raises their hand out in front of you. How do you know what you’re supposed to do next?

If this were the first time you saw this behavior, you wouldn’t have a clue.

If you were from an Eastern culture, you might go to bow toward this person. But you know what to do because since childhood, you’ve observed many adults shaking hands.

Observational learning is a learning theory in psychology that describes how we learn by watching and imitating others.

In this article, we will look into what observational learning really is and how it helps you learn and grow.

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Differences Between Trademarks, Patents and Copyrights | Business News Daily

Intellectual property might seem esoteric, but it’s important to protect it like you would any other asset. To do so, you’ll need to understand some basics about intellectual property rights first.

Two of the most common forms of intellectual property protections are the copyright and the trademark. While the two are often confused, they protect very different types of intellectual property. Learning the differences, and how you can use both to protect your own creative output, is essential to securing your assets.

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Top 5 Tips From Meeting Planners To Consider When Submitting Your Speaking Topic | Kerry Heaps

kerryheapsWe recently interviewed Meeting Planners about what they look for in a potential Speaker for their events. Here’s what they had to share about the submission process.

1. Pay attention to the submission process and provide what is requested. The questions and information that is requested is required for a reason. If you don’t provide what is requested and don’t get selected, that’s a pretty good indicator of why.

2. Make your topic and description summary SIZZLE. Write your summary and take away points as if you were going to market the class to your own prospects. This will increase your chances of selection, keep in mind that several professionals are contending for the same spot on the agenda, so make your presentation stand out.

3. Don’t write the Bio or description in first person. Keep your bio updated and make sure it’s written in third person. The same is true for your description, it needs to be written in third person for the Reader.

4. Keep your information updated. The contact information that you provide during the submission process needs to be kept up to date. Due to the nature of the submission process, it may be a few months before you are contacted with an offer. If you are sent an email that you’ve been chosen to speak, and it doesn’t reach you, the missed opportunity goes to someone else.

5. Adhere to deadlines. Once you’ve been selected and agree to speak, its imperative to follow the deadlines provided to you and to read all the information that is sent to you. Last minute changes happen, it is appreciated when you stay on top of things. Be proactive, not reactive.

Why your first impression of others is often wrong | Fast Company

The way that others evaluate you–your photo, résumé, tattoo, or first-date cardigan–follows the same process of placing marbles on a scale as soon as they get any information.

We form impressions of people the same way we form an impression of anything: As soon as our scale of marbles starts tipping one way, we begin to develop a hunch and then start gathering evidence to back that up by selectively picking up the marble that’s easiest to pick up.

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How A Startup Could Save America’s National Parks | Forbes

Parks Project is a new outdoor lifestyle brand with a sole purpose: save the U.S. national parks. After a weekend volunteering in the Santa Monica mountains, friends Keith Eshelman and Sevag Kazanci were struck by the challenges facing America’s underfunded and underappreciated national parks.

Inspired by their time working for social enterprise company TOMS, the two entrepreneurs set out to harness consumer power to help support some of the parks’ underfunded projects. Now having contributed over $200,000 to park partners and pairing up with 100 specialty stores, they are rolling out in REI stores nationwide this summer.

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Marketing to Gen X | Lydia Mehit

gen_x_silhouetteMany business owners think that EVERYONE is their customer, so they create a coupon, find a monthly delivery system (a coupon magazine or coupon mailer) and hope for the best. But, understanding your target customer can give you insights into how to price, how to promote, how to utilize media and what special offers will appeal to them.

If you are not in business yet, look at the neighborhoods where you are thinking of locating your business. What is the average age and income of the people in the immediate one mile radius? Check out the three mile radius also. If you have a retail business, the majority of your customers will be local to those areas.

If your answer is Generation X, have you made them the target of your marketing dollars? Do you know how to make your message resonate with them?

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