Don't Believe the Hype!

I think the worst thing about hypey marketing trends is that they rob people of an opportunity to connect to what really matters. Marketing can be a platform for both sharing and receiving pertinent information and inspiration. But more often than not, the advertisements and websites we see every day are either a generic description of services or an effort by advertisers to lure us away from our intuition and brainwash us into buying something we don't really want or need.

What is Compelling About Hype?

Many people who come to me for help with attracting their perfect customers have been told that their marketing must be slick, professional, and targeted to a specific audience, but they haven't been encouraged to create authentic marketing or share things that are important to them. In fact being personal and vulnerable has been seen as antithetical to professionalism. Even though we have created our businesses as a reflection of our true purpose, many of us strip our marketing of any passion and fall in line with the trends. When we do this, we are holding back what is most compelling about our business.

How Will They Know You When They Find You?

Just imagine your perfect customers who are out there seeking you right now. They are not just looking for that specific set of services or products you are offering. They're looking for someone they can like and trust, someone who understands their problems and can relate to their goals and aspirations. They are looking for the real you. But if the real you is not showing up in your marketing, your perfect customers will not recognize you when they find you. They will only recognize you when you are transparent and real as you market yourself.

What Makes You and Your Perfect Customers Tick?

Recently I hosted a Branding from the HeartTM retreat on a beautiful property in Santa Rosa called Mystic Oak Gardens. I invited a circle of entrepreneurs to come to this cozy setting and share what makes them tick. We all brought good food and we sat in front of the fire drinking tea and sharing our souls. The tears flowed as we touched each other's hearts and acknowledged each other's struggles, our successes and our dreams. We shared like this all day and long past the originally scheduled ending time. As each person spoke, we all paid rapt attention because we were interested, drawn in and inspired by what was being said.

Vulnerable Marketing?

So I asked them why would we not share like this in our marketing? Why would we put forward some generic, polished sales message or image and leave hidden what is most compelling and inspiring about us: our true purpose, our real passions? It may feel uncomfortable at first revealing our vulnerable selves, but as we continue to share, we can build a network of connections who really get us and want to work with us for who we really are. They want to work with us because we are simpatico.

These are our most perfect customers, the ones who are on the same path in life. As we become more authentic in our marketing and share from the heart with those who are attracted to us, the more we realize that what makes us tick is what makes our perfect customers tick. We are here to help each other continue on the right path and shine our true light to the world.

In my next article, "Blogging from the Heart" I will write about how to use blogging as an authentic marketing tool that attracts your perfect customers online. Please follow or subscribe to this blog to be notified of new posts as they arrive.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Magical Marketer Julia D. Stege, MFA helps people attract their perfect customers with a unique combination of Law of Attraction, wildly attractive logos and websites, and smart Internet marketing techniques. If you're ready to start attracting your perfect customers now, get Julia's free Magical Marketing Toolkit at http://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com

Are You Ready to Shine?

Today I was just relaxing while my husband played guitar and the melody he was playing was so true to his real spirit, that tears came to my eyes. I was inspired by the sweetness of his expression and by how well it radiated his true essence. It was pure and authentic and that opened my heart.

While I sat there feeling the music, I started thinking about the challenges we all have faced recently, and the music had washed it all away in a moment of pure expression. I get that way when I'm creating artwork, writing or expressing myself in some way. The inspiration in the moment is all that matters and the bad news slips away. I want to be this inspired all of the time. Don't you?

A New Paradigm for Marketing

Marketing is a form of expression and it too can be this inspiring, this true and pure, and yet still be effective and create sales. I want to participate in a new paradigm for marketing that is authentic inspiring to me and others. Marketing doesn't have to be about hype or 'being professional.' We dont' have to worry about 'turning people off' because those people are not our perfect customers. We want to attract people of like mind and heart so we can all forward our missions together and with greater power. We can shine our true light out to the world and not only will it be effective, it will bring abundance beyond measure.

Now is the Time

Have you heard the news lately? Lots of doom and gloom. I guess that sells papers and advertising, but it doesn't speak to the truth about the opportunity of this moment. While some of the big corporations fail and old structures reveal their instability, there is a new kind of opening available to those who are willing to explore a different way of doing things. Many of my mentors and colleagues who have been promoting a more conscious approach to business, they are thriving more than ever now, and I have to say my business is doing very well too. I believe the reason we are thriving is because we have been willing to take a risk and put our true selves out there and go for our dreams. We have had faith in our offerings and a willingness to be vulnerable and authentic.

So Are You Ready to Shine?

What can you to today to forward your purpose some more? Who can you let know about your heart-felt offerings? Go out there and shine like the crazy diamond you are, and watch what manifests!

Obama Tweets on Twitter! How About You?

Barack Obama is widely known as the Social Networking candidate. Last year he recruited Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes to build his own social network My.BarackObama.com , he was the first of all presidential candidates to capitalize on the strength of his Facebook groups and now he is by far the most popular person on Twitter.com, now surpassing Digg founder Kevin Rose by over 13,000 followers.

This is significant news for anyone studying new internet marketing trends. Obama has been successfully using these social networks to mobilize millions of people and raise tens of millions of campaign dollars. He has unearthed the power of Facebook (where he has over 1.3 million supporters) to organize real-world events and gain the Democratic Party nomination for president over Hillary Clinton, the former party front-runner. Some predict he’ll be able to use his advantage on social networks to beat out McCain come election day.

What Does This Mean for You?

Social Networks are not just for kids or political candidates. Business people can use these fun free tools to network with friends, associates, colleagues and family, and passively market to these folks just by adding short updates, links, and posts. Just as Obama (ok, Obama’s aids do the actual work) uses Twitter to update contacts on what he’s doing and where you can learn more about it, you can use Twitter to let followers know about your latest blog post, what you’re doing in your business right now, or your latest sale. After I publish this blog post, I'll surely go to my Twitter account to announce it and post a link.

Similarly, on Facebook it’s easy and fun to stay in touch with people without inundating them with emails. I’ve used Facebook as a tool to follow up with people I meet at business networking events as well as a fun place to connect with old friends.

Hey, if you’re on Facebook or Twitter, let me know and we’ll connect there! Once we're connected, send me a note if you want to learn more how to use these tools to your advantage.

Want to learn how to use Social Networks to Attract Perfect Customers Online? Check out my upcoming 10 week webinar for web-challenged individuals. I’ll be offering a free introduction to this webinar on September 19th to show folks how I got to page one of google in 22 minutes by sharing myself authentically online. See details at http://www.graphicgirlz.com/teleconference.html

Don't Bother with Internet Marketing

...Unless you want to attract perfect customers online.

You can probably tell I've been listening to those Marketing guys again, the big gun types who psych out their customers with reverse psychology. I know, I know, but I couldn't resist trying that one. But seriously, despite their often distasteful techniques, I always learn new things from these fellows, and I'm grateful they are so free with the latest internet marketing tips. I feel it is my role to glean the best from their strategies and translate them into a more authentic, softer marketing style that is palatable to my perfect customers.

The fact is, more and more consumers are going online for major purchases, including for vendors and service providers of all kinds. It is becoming more and more important to be online for our perfect customers to find us, and to be online in a big way, in more than one place. The more Internet pages we can create, the more easily folks can find us.

So the question becomes, which Internet properties are the best to use?

Thanks once again to my Marketing Shark buddies for answering that question for us.

Do You Squidoo?

Have You Created any Hot Hubs?

Have You Tweeted a Perfect Twoosh on Twitter?

Are you LinkedIn?

If this sounds like a bunch of gibberish to you, you're not alone. But these are some of the Internet properties I use time and again to get to page one of Google and attract my perfect customers online. Chances are if you haven't heard of these sites yet, others in your industry haven't started using them in their internet marketing strategies either.

The time is ripe to get on board with these free sites and start sharing about what you have to offer (authentically, of course!)

But Silly Rabbit, Aren't Social Networks for Kids?

Some of you are thinking, "well, my kids use these sites, but I wouldn't know where to begin to use these for business." Others are thinking, "I use social networks and read blogs for fun, but how can I turn that into profit?"

The fact is that billions of dollars have been spent making the new social networks fun and easy enough for a child to use. As business people, we can use this to our advantage in our Internet marketing, even if we are "Web Challenged."

Because Google and other search engines tend to rank these sites well, linking to your main offering site or blog from these sites will help your search engine ranking dramatically.

See How it Works For Yourself in my Free Webinar

If you'd like to see first hand how I'm using these social networks to attract perfect customers online, come aboard my next Magical Internet Tour and see "How I Got to Page One of Google by Sharing Myself Authentically."

The Magical Internet Tour is coming to take you away on Friday, August 22 from 9 - 10 am pacific time.

To register, email webinar@graphicgirlz.com with the subject "Register Me in Free Webinar 8_22_08" Learn the Steps in My 10 Week Webinar Intensive [more info http://www.graphicgirlz.com/teleconference.html]