As a soap artisian and the owner of a natural skincare business I created from home, it's interesting to go out onto the streets and hear what people have to say about their skincare products. Did you know that most people are afraid of natural skincare? They walk by at the Farmers Markets and look at you like you have poison in your hands. But, what you really have is life in your hands. Yes, I say life. Think of all the reports you've heard online and on the news about chemicals and preservatives in your products. Now, think of all the different skin conditions people are coming up with. Does it make any sense to you that one would use a product that irritates their skin, let it get bad enough to send them to a dermatologist or practitioner for Meds and then once it clears up, go back to using their same old products? What kind of sense does that make? Absolutely no sense at all. It amazings me how they do this again and again, year after year. Until it is so out of control, they have no choice buy to invest in healthy skin. That's where the handmade soap comes in.
Let me take the label ingredients off of a bar of soap I have at home that has a great smell, but don't do the job I need it to do, and then I will give you ALL the ingredients of my Natural Handmade Soap. It's call Truth in Labeling.
Tone' is the soap I'm speaking of as Commericial:
Ingredients: Soap ( Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Palm Kernealate, Sodium Palmate, Sodium Tallowate, Water (Agua) Talc, Coconut Acid, Palm Acid, Tallow Acid, PEG-12, Fragrance ( ParFum) Sunflowerseedamidoprople ethlydimonium ethosulfate9 and Z) PEG-9 Glycerin Sorbitol, Soduium Choloride, Theobroma Cacaoz(Cocoa) Seed Butter, Propylene Glycol ( and) Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice ( and) Theobroma Cacao(Cocoa) Extract (and) Carica Payapa) Fruit Extract, Decyl Glucoside, Pentasodium Pentetate, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Titanium Dioxide......
Geez, it was hard enough just trying to type the words... Not to mention that the stuff is all chemical and preservatives that make it last for years. Why are you buy a bar of detergent. Why don't you just use Dish Washing liquid?
My Ingredients for EVERY bar of soap I make:
Olive Oil, Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter, Cottonseed Oil, LYE, WATER ( Could be Aloe Vera Juice, Fruit Juice, Milk(s), but mainly it's purified water. The ONLY item that makes my soaps less than 100% PURE NATURAL is the fragrance Oil I use. When I use Pure Essential Oils, they are then considered 100 % all natural Soaps. The use of earth clays, and natural food grade colors, and/or herbs are also all natural.
That's it folks.... Nothing else.... JUST PLAIN SOAP.
The best you can buy for your skin, and it feels so good on your skin, doesn't leave soap scum and you notice the difference after your first experience.
Get my soaps and other skincare products, ONLINE at http://www.aloeandherbsoapco.com
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--David Eissman, founder of Guaranteed Growth Systems
Most small business owners and independent professionals start their business primarily because they have knowledge and skills that are in demand. While they understand intellectually that they have to market and sell, often it does not translate on an emotional level. Many business owners tend to look at marketing as a necessary evil, and in many cases, have negative beliefs toward it. They could not stand to be hounded by those pesky salesman in their previous jobs and do not want to “become on of them.” As a result, the tendency is to focus on the aspects of our business that were the reason we chose to go into business in the first place, the actual application of our knowledge or skills.
What is a marketing mentality and how is it developed? There are three components that all link together.
1.) The first component is belief. What are the underlying beliefs that affect our mentality? It encompasses our attitudes, thoughts, fears, expectations, and lack of experience. Our actions are shaped by what we think about, what we assume to be true and where we choose to focus. If the thoughts are negative or avoidance minded then we will see marketing as undesirable and in some cases unethical. It will manifest in self talk such as: I don't deserve referrals, my marketing won't work anyway; I will look desperate; if my service or product is good the market will know that; I don't like networking; etc.
2.) The second component is behavior which is generally driven by our beliefs. The decisions we make every day are critical and negative beliefs about marketing affect the decisions that are made. For example, how often do we plan for the week and tell ourselves that on Tuesday we will focus three hours on marketing. Tuesday morning rolls along and we receive a client call or an issue or problem with an employee and then rationalize that the marketing must be put off because these issues must be dealt with immediately. The question is how often this is really true. In my experience working with clients the answer is rarely. Although we know that the marketing is important, we let our negative beliefs affect our behavior. Before we know it the pipeline is dry, and then some type of marketing activity is undertaken in an unplanned haphazard manner.
3.) The third component is relationship. In order to have consistent lead generation and sales there must be a relationship cultivated with an adequate amount of prospects. This is the main function of marketing. It is the adage of people to do business with those they know, like and trust. Without a consistent and systematic marketing plan, there will not be a sufficient lead generation process.
The linkage is very powerful. The beliefs affect the behaviors and the behaviors affect the ability to develop the relationships. The connectivity between these elements is extremely leveraged in both a positive and negative direction. When they are aligned, the results are extraordinary, and when they are not, the results can be devastating.
So, if you are in this quandary, what can be done about it? First, sit down and make a list, and inventory what your beliefs are about marketing. Be honest and list as many as you can. Then ask yourself about whether these beliefs are really true, or just simply a personal bias. Second, are you absolutely sure what you believe is true, or is it possible that it is not? Next, evaluate how this belief affects your behavior and what would happen if this belief is changed. Try to reconstruct the thought to a more positive mindset. The next step is to translate those new thoughts into new behaviors. One of the best techniques for doing so is to block out time on your calendar and treat it as if it were an appointment with your best client. You surely would not miss an appointment with your best client to deal with a task that was short of an emergency, would you? After a short time, these new behaviors will become habits and the rewards will follow.
If marketing is a struggle, it is absolutely critical to engage in this marketing mentality process. Many companies with great services and products go out of business because they could not implement a consistent lead generation system. Most often that failure starts with the lack of a marketing mentality. The great news is that the necessary mentality can be developed with effort, focus, and an open mind. You will be amazed by the impact on your business.
---Sources: Reprinted from John Jantesh’s Small Business Articles Duct Tape Marketing (www.ducttapemarketing.com). Written by David Eissman, founder of Guaranteed Growth Systems and the creator of the Growth Accelerator System (www.GuaranteedGS.com).
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By R. J. Talyor, product-marketing manager, ExactTarget
You get it. Email needs to be relevant, timely, and personalized, and it has to arrive in the inbox—not the spam folder. When an email renders, it should load images perfectly, guide the eye through stunning, effective design that drives subscribers to convert—download, purchase, whatever.
But effective one-to-one marketing is more than just email.
Don't get me wrong: Email is critical. If we've learned anything in the last decade, it's that email drives commerce and influences people, and it's a linchpin in marketing programs. In no way am I belittling the power of the email channel.
But as marketers, it's critical to build from—and with—email to create new, multichannel campaigns to engage today's subscribers. Here's why (and this is probably obvious): Your subscribers and customers aren't always staring at their email inboxes. Rather, they're also posting, texting, watching, commenting, and they step away from the computer sometimes, too. But we don't have (legal) methods to track them out there in the world... yet.
Enter digital one-to-one marketing. It can mean a lot of things, but for the purposes of this article, let's assume that digital one-to-one marketing means crafting an experience for an individual subscriber across multiple channels that guides them to a desired action.
If it's done correctly, a subscriber might not even realize that the experience was crafted by a marketer. When it's done correctly, the marketer is some sort of digital Hermes (the Greek messenger god who guided the dead to the underworld in addition to inventing the lyre; seems like the whole way to the underworld might have been a romp!).
In place of the lyre, you have a host of marketing channels as your instruments. Offline and online, you can create campaigns that include not only email but also text messaging, social networking, video, print, outdoor... and so on.
Like a marketer returning inspired from an industry event or conference, you should at this point of the article be exclaiming: Yes! I'm ready to go start taking one-to-one beyond email! Good! Here's how:
Step 1: Start Small
Email is proven. Channels like text messaging, voice messaging, RSS, social networking have not been explored, optimized, or tested in the same ways as email marketing. By starting with a simple mobile-originated text campaign that somehow links to your email campaign, you can gauge your customers' interest in communicating via that channel.
For example, you could ask that subscribers text their email address to a short code and receive a welcome email or email coupon as a response. If you don't want to start with text, consider social networking or using a Web experience that subscribers can find when they click through from an email campaign.
Take time—make time—to try a small campaign, gauge results. I bet you'll be hooked and want to keep trying new ideas.
Step 2: Strategize
After you've tried out a small one-to-one campaign that includes more than an email, consider how you might take it to the next step. Ensure that you have a goal in mind and measurements in place to review effectiveness.
For example, you might ask subscribers to click from an email to a personalized, dynamic Web site/URL that populates with offers or content specific to their interests. Or click from a social-networking call-to-action to a Web form that, when completed, triggers an email or voice message to them.
When you extend your data and personalization beyond email, your subscribers see something that appeals to them not only in one channel but across multiple. Yes, it takes some additional time to map out the experience, but the results are worth it.
Strategize on how you can leverage current data across multiple channels, then put it in action.
Step 3: Measure
Measurement seems to be the most obvious instruction, but it is also the most overlooked. Email marketers are now used to comparing open rates and clickthrough rates as measures, but expanding a program across multiple channels requires a more comprehensive look at the conversion funnel.
Remember that not all channels support the same measurement—for example, text messages don't offer an open, and in most cases a click, as metrics. Ultimately, you should be most concerned about conversions—did that one-to-one campaign result in the desired action?
One-to-one marketing is about (and you've heard this before) delivering the right message to the right subscribers at the right time—and through subscriber's preferred channel. Email isn't always that channel, but it is a piece in the puzzle. Push forward with that small one-to-one campaign that links up one or more additional messaging channels.
Keep the email campaign, but push out from the pack and add in other marketing channels to leverage your data and deliver on the promise of one-to-one. Go for it. You'll be surprised at the results.
---Source: MarketingProfs April 21, 2009 (www.marketingprofs.com). R.J. Talyor is a product-marketing manager for ExactTarget (www.exacttarget.com), Reach him at rtalyor@exacttarget.com.
I have decided 1 year ago to attempt to start my own line of clothes. I make clothes for myself all the time. But it has to be the exact umf that i need to say O K this is it. So far this is my umf
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