Wouldn’t it be great if there was one tool that let you market to (I mean, share with) your potential customers, anytime of the day or night?
Well, there is. In this video, I talk about the one piece of technology that you should invest in for your business.
And more importantly, I talk about what marketing is really all about.
Do you view marketing as sharing with your customers? Or as something else entirely?
Are you always marketing? Or not marketing enough?
Share your thoughts in the comments!
I am a huge apple fan..so no, it didn’t seem like a commercial to me at all. Its all true..I share so much of what I do online via twitter and FB..thanks to my I-phone ..It just has become what I do ..I don’t even think of it as marketing gimmick ..it seems natural and fun.Thanks for sharing your insights, Megan.
I TOTALLY agree with this. I have an iPhone and I have noticed that since I have had it, I already naturally AM marketing all the time. It just makes it easier and more fun. It doesn’t even feel like I am doing marketing tasks, it feels like I am showing everyone what I am up to all day. Other reasons the iphone is great – it takes awesome snapshots and videos, it is super easy and fast to upload those snapshots right to your facebook or blog, etc., you can accept credit cards with it, you can find any resource you need with it, you can respond to emails super fast, which customers LOVE, you can use other apps for financial tasks or even helpful apps for your craft (such as my weaving “treadling tracker”), tons of stuff. The list goes on and on. Worth the investment.
When I initially conmtmeed I seem to have clicked on the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and from now on every time a comment is added I recieve four emails with the exact same comment. There has to be a means you are able to remove me from that service? Thanks a lot!
I actually don’t have an iPhone (*hangs her head in shame) but I do have a nifty Android phone that I can do almost as much. I think the only thing I can’t do is Instagram.
Anyway, I am finding my way with how to use the phone for marketing. I forget to take photos when I’m out and about, but I use the Hootsuite App often and it works great. I also love being able to respond to email without the need to go to my computer at home.
I PROMISE that my next phone will be an iPhone. 🙂
I agree with your video but am new to the iPhone. Other than the hootesuite app (which is great) are there any other apps out there that help you to continually connect with customers? Thanks
Tanai – Hootsuite (or any other twitter app) is a great start. I’m using apps on the phone to create content and then to share it with my audience. Using the phone to take pictures and video is a great place to start. I really loving Instragram right now and Pinterest.
Megan, please excuse my ignorance:) I like what you’re saying and using the phone seems like a nice quick and easy way verses blogging which is extremely time consuming for me. However, can you clarify for me — when we use these ‘apps,’ are these things that people have signed up for? I’m sure I’m thinking wrong but I would feel as if I’m spamming someone or ranking up there with a telemarketer to be constantly bombarding someone with info about my products. Do people really like that?:)
Trishia
Hi Trishia – With any app (whether it’s a Twitter app, Instagram, Pinterest, etc) you’re only connecting with people who choose to follow you. So the first trick is to get followers. I start by finding interesting people to follow (plus my friends) and then seeing who follows them. You can also comment on other people’s posts, which is a great way to get more followers.
Can’t live without my iphone! Absolutely agree with your video. We took an awesome trip this summer to Alaska (which had nothing to do with my business- but a girl’s got to get away right). I took tons of photos and blogged through wordpress the whole time and it was so easy. That way I was able to keep my friends and family posted on what we were up to and who knows – maybe my customers were happy to see it as well!
Love hootsuite because you can post to several social networks at once. Love Square! And I think I just heard that Etsy released their official app – have to check that one out!
Great Video Megan.
Yes I agree and I also use the smart phone to swipe credit cards at events with the square app which is key!
Megan, can you please post a link to the other video you mention in this video?
thanks!
Yep, it’s http://marieforleo.com/2011/11/prevent-business-dry-spell/
(Meant to include it in the post – thanks for reminding me!)
Thank you!
a member of the choir. thanks for identifying this as marketing, and clarifying what it is!
i use twitter for the iphone, which i find is my best tool for connecting. facebook is easy to keep track of on it. etsy has a brand new, amazing application. i also use my phone for video and photography, pinterest, and mail chimp (for newsletters). i use ‘read it later’ to pull articles out of twitter, for example, and read them when i have a moment, when i might share, comment, go back to retweet, or bookmark. never mind email, phoning, skyping long distance & texting! i keep patterns i’m working from on the phone. i was astonished to find that i could crop and edit photographs i’d made on the phone, and i’ve just begun using autostitch for panoramas. most of my work is heavily based on images and text, so it is an amazing tool. having a horrendous sense of direction, it is also critical for finding events and meeting people i’ve connected with in new places! i would literally be lost without it. x!
Loving the smart phone … and am truly obsessed with my iPhone.
Beside all the things everyone has mentioned … I place a couple QR codes on the stand at events.
Huh QR code?
Those funky looking square Barcode looking things that point to a website/page.
People can zap it right there and then. They’re GREAT !
Generate your own QR code – http://qrcode.kaywa.com/
I too love my iPhone – way more than I anticipated when I got it! I got it primarily to be able to use the Square so I could accept credit card transactions at markets (that alone has allowed me to make well over 1/2 my sales in the past 6 months!) Like others have mentioned, I find myself naturally “marketing” more with this phone. I can also keep a copy of my costs/pricing spreadsheet so I can give on-the-spot quotes for custom orders when I’m away from my computer. Next step is to start using the QR codes!
If you are afraid of the cost, I found my phone for dirt cheep by shopping the refurbished section (I use AT&T on the new phone every 2 years contract). I got my 3GS for about $50. This could have been luck as this happened right before the 4G came out. But, I have gotten awesome deals on other phones this way that I would never have been able to afford otherwise. With a little patience (sometimes the phone you want isn’t always in stock as refurbished) you can get an awesome deal on an iPhone and you really can’t tell that it isn’t brand spankin’ new.
Megan this was great. I have an android with all the social media apps installed but I rarely use them as a means to market when I’m not at my computer. Definitely something to think about!
when i read the intro to this post i was anticipating a pitch for iPad. I have an iPhone and an iPad. But its the iPad that has been a real breakthrough technology for me. It does everything the iphone does. But the really powerful use for the iPad for me is ALWAYS having my complete portfolio handy to show people. you can of course do this with the iPhone, but how annoying is it to look at the little tiny images on an iPhone. The iPad is elegant, easy to carry, easy to whip out on a moments notice and the image resolution is AMAZING. And it is still new and novel enough to attract interest and attention.
I would love to know your thoughts Megan and thoughts of your followers. Pricey I know but for me, worth every penny.
Pretty great post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wanted to say that I have really loved surfing around your weblog posts.
After all I will be subscribing on your rss feed and I
hope you write again very soon!
Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you knew
of any widgets I could add to my blog that
automatically tweet my newest twitter updates. I’ve been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some time and was hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like this. Please let me know if you run into anything. I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your new updates.