Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

And if you still don`t believe it here are comments from people who have done marketing mentoring with me:

http://www.ryze.com/posttopic.php?topicid=820690&confid= 2376 

 

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PS: Does the thought of marketing drive you to chocolate? I`m looking for a very special woman who loves her business but hates selling and marketing. Tell me about your business and your challenges and I`ll tell you how I can help you have more fun, feel more confident and make a lot more money. All my marketing mentoring clients get results. Visit me at http://www.MentoringwithDenise.com

Because this is a "community discussion" forum not a "you get to post free ads for yourself but not participate in a discussion" forum. So for all the people who are on SUN and are not established businesses such as yourself, I would be telling them that positive marketing is better than negative marketing. I don`t need to sell books to share that tidbit, and it`s not even an original thought ... it`s been said around here more than once, by more than one person. I`m not trying to attack you. I am just trying to open the discussion on marketing this way. Negative messaging, focusing on faults, etc - these are all things that I wished we would avoid in marketing as an industry.

To quote you,
 


I still stand by my earlier tip that you are linking to pages that other people can`t see. I`m sure you are very nice, and I`m sure you do help a lot of women. I never questioned that. I just wish that  your posts *on this board* weren`t full of stereotypes and negative marketing. I actually think the stuff on your website is better than this ...

and who says I am not your customer? With that attitude I am not, but I meet another 20-100 women every month through networking ... and I gladly recommend a lot of products to a lot of people, as well as buy several books myself to gain insight on to how to help others better. So never tell someone they are not your customer!

FWIW your website is not doing half of what it should for you either. I`d recommend CookieMonster`s copywriting article.

And here`s how a couple women responded to that same post in a different forum:

http://www.ryze.com/posttopic.php?topicid=820462&confid= 2376

 

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PS: Does the thought of marketing drive you to chocolate? I`m looking for a very special woman who loves her business but hates selling and marketing. Tell me about your business and your challenges and I`ll tell you how I can help you have more fun, feel more confident and make a lot more money. All my marketing mentoring clients get results. Visit me at http://www.MentoringwithDenise.com

I didn`t post this originally to discuss my marketing strategy and copy with you.  First off it`s not ad copy - it`s a post.  I posted it to discuss these issues of people who give their work away or don`t charge enough for what they do.  It`s rampant.  And I post things that the women who are in my ideal customer can relate to.  And they do.  If you don`t - that`s fine with me.  I`m not trying to appeal to the entire planet.  Your opinions are valid in your world experience but not to the women who come to me for help.

I teach both marketing strategy and copywriting and I have plenty of people who`ve built incredibly successful businesses with what they`ve learned from me.   I`ve discussed the premise for my work with lots of professionals from brand strategists and marketers to marketing pyschologists and the women who buy from me and what I`m saying is sound and valid for a very large group of women.  If it`s not for you - I`m fine with that.

You`re right I didn`t come on this thread to advertise myself - but if someone slams me - you honestly think I`m not going to stand up for my point of view?

The best way to prove that there`s validity to what I say its to show you there are people responding positively to the exact same messages that you are having a hard time with.  And the best way to do that is post a couple links so it`s in their words, not just mine. 

I`ve sold thousands of copies of my book to women in 12 countries and have amazing testimonials, I get rave reviews and standing ovations from groups that I speak to, and I get awesome reviews from the people I work with. 

You said that you were going to stop reading my posts.  That would be just fine with me.

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PS: Does the thought of marketing drive you to chocolate? I`m looking for a very special woman who loves her business but hates selling and marketing. Tell me about your business and your challenges and I`ll tell you how I can help you have more fun, feel more confident and make a lot more money. All my marketing mentoring clients get results. Visit me at http://www.MentoringwithDenise.com

I`m not "slamming" you, and I`m not saying you haven`t helped people.
It is not what I am saying at all.

I understand what Nikole is saying. When I read your original post yesterday I was a bit offended. I felt the post was demeaning. Granted I may not be your target audience but I still felt it reinforces a negative stereo type. If you were a man trying to help women in the same way and posted such comments I can assure you things would have gotten ugly. However, somehow because you`re a woman it makes it okay for you to suggest that only women get "upset" and "emotional" when their rate is being challenged.

This kind of reminds me of a Seinfeld episode when a dentist switch his faith and Jerry thought he converted just so he could get away with telling jokes about the religion.

Ladies - I`ve looked at your page and I see both of you are from northern California.  Land of empowerment for women.  That`s great and I`m happy for you.  If you feel my message reinforces an "untrue stereotype" then it means you`re totally unaware of millions of women all over the US and billions around the world for whom those words ring soooooooo true. 

I have clients in:

Texas, Florida, Missouri, Ohio, Montana, Washington, Minnesota, Hawaii, Wisconsin, Indiana - oh, and Canada and New Zealand.  That`s just at the moment.  Every one of these women have come to me because they started reading my posts and said, "My gosh, it`s like you`re telling me my life story.  You`ve never met me and you`re reading my mind."

I lived in San Diego for ten years.  I`m sure you must realize their is a difference in attitudes for and about women in Northern California than pretty much anywhere else on Planet Earth.   It`s very difficult to take a person out of where they were raised and their cultural surroundings and help them see things through a different person`s lenses - that comes from different surroundings and environment.  Despite your initial reaction to what I wrote there`s a huge group of women who read it and say, "Yep.  Busted.  That`s me." 

Additionally, extensive research into how our male and female brains function differently are at play here as well.  Maybe that information has been squelched in a feminist stronghold like San Francisco and Concord, but read "The Female Brain, by Louann Brizedene, MD (published in 2006).  You think what I write is offensive?  You`ll be REALLY jacked out of shape when you read that book - but it`s all based on very scientific research by a woman MD.  And her book is one of dozens I`ve read on Mars-Venus differences between men and women.  To say there are no differences in how women approach their business, marketing and selling is to ignore reality.  Maybe it`s politically correct for you - but I could care less about political correctness.  I care more about helping the people who need and want my help.

What I`m offering is one way - that I know gets women the results they want with their businesses.  Amazing transformations take place.  I attract the right people to me.  And what they need might be an attitude that you got growing up and totally take for granted.  That`s great for you.  It could be that StartUpNation is loaded with women from N. California and/or who are all empowered and making all the money they want for now.  I`m still too new around here to tell.  But my message inbox doesn`t show that.   

All the best,

Denise Michaels, Author, "Testosterone-Free Marketing" 

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PS: Does the thought of marketing drive you to chocolate? I`m looking for a very special woman who loves her business but hates selling and marketing. Tell me about your business and your challenges and I`ll tell you how I can help you have more fun, feel more confident and make a lot more money. All my marketing mentoring clients get results. Visit me at http://www.MentoringwithDenise.com

I`m not native to California and was empowered well before I reached San Francisco. Actually I grew up in a state that borders one of your clients. I just want to make it clear I`m not offended with what you do to help women build self-esteem, I just find the tone of some of your comments to be negative towards women in general.

What is a target market?  It`s a generalization about the type of people that will purchase your product or services - based on experience and based on buying patterns. 

It can be based on demographics - factors like age, income, gender, marital status, geographic area and sometimes race. 

And it`s also based on psychographics - which are more like attitudes and belief systems.   For example psychographics as seen in buying behavior (the part that market researchers measure) might be that two people have the same income and live in the same city - but one enjoys spending money on travel to exotic places and being an independent entreprenuer because they value that experience.  The other person is into having "the latest" whether it`s cars, clothes, gadgets, etc. and works 50 hours a week in a corporate environment to afford all those things.  Neither one is right or wrong - just different.  Psychographics can also be one person who sees themselves as spiritual and buys a lot of self improvement books and attends seminars.  Another one really isn`t into that and puts their priority on private schools for their kids.  

So, the factors that make up a target market are factors that may or may not fit you.  If they do fit someone - they look into it a little bit more.  If they don`t fit a particular person they usually just click somewhere else.   

But a target market is based on assumptions about a group of people - what`s important to them and how that`s reflected in their buying decisions.  If that assumption is wrong for you - fine.

Your attitudes and belief systems are that you`re in control, you`re confident and you have no problem with charging what you`re worth.  Great!  But it`s not how all women are.  In fact it`s not how millions of women are.  So, I guess that means if you went to Borders or Barnes & Noble you`d buy different books from someone else because they`re not written with you in mind.  Same thing.  But you probably wouldn`t be "offended" by the fact that those books are on the shelf. 

Is it even conceivable to you that there are women out there who have started businesses and then realize they need help in these areas in addition to marketing and selling?   

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PS: Does the thought of marketing drive you to chocolate? I`m looking for a very special woman who loves her business but hates selling and marketing. Tell me about your business and your challenges and I`ll tell you how I can help you have more fun, feel more confident and make a lot more money. All my marketing mentoring clients get results. Visit me at http://www.MentoringwithDenise.com

I think Nikole was right about trying to discuss this here with a different take on it. I`m sure that you have had many clients that find what you have to offer benificial.  I also know that there are alot of competent Women Business Owners, that can make decisions without getting emotional and that don`t feel that Men push them around. I think you`re  marketing message  dosn`t seem to be open for discussion in this forum, because you won`t allow it. I`m a Californian too,  now in Indiana with the same attitude. :)