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7 Reasons You Need a Mentor for Entrepreneurial Success

Mentors. They've been there, done that and have seen it all. Yet, a woeful number of entrepreneurs start their careers without one. In an age where instant gratification is glorified, it's unsurprising that many entrepreneurs and young founders do not seek out a mentor as hard as they try to find a co-founder.

While arguments abound on why entrepreneurs do not need mentors but should only follow their own instincts and gut feelings, most successful tech titans have founders who had mentors. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg was mentored by Steve Jobs. Jobs was mentored by Mike Markkula -- an early investor and executive at Apple. And Eric Schmidt mentored Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google.

Like most startup founders, I didn't start with a mentor. I got into the industry and had to look up to someone who is well known in the field. This is not as effective as working hard to get a mentor to guide you while you run your business -- but it's better than nothing. Having been in business for more than seven years, I've realized the importance of having a business mentor.

Here are seven reasons having a mentor is important.

1. Gain experience not shared in books.

Experience is a very expensive asset -- yet it's crucial to business success. There's only so much about a person's experience you can gain from books. It's an unstated truth that most authors do not feel comfortable revealing everything about themselves in books. Some personal experiences may be too intimate to be shared, yet how they dealt with it can help an inexperienced entrepreneur's career.

Mentorship is one guaranteed way to gain experience from others.

2. You're more likely to succeed with a mentor.

Research and surveys prove that having a mentor is important to success. In a 2013 executive coaching survey, 80 percent of CEOs said they received some form of mentorship. In another research by Sage, 93 percent of startups admit that mentorship is instrumental to success.

Your chances of success in life and in business can be amplified by having the right mentor. The valuable connections, timely advice, occasional checks -- together with the spiritual and moral guidance you will gain from having a mentor -- will literarily leapfrog you to success.

3. Network opportunities.

Aside the fact that investors trust startups who are recommended by their friends, a successful mentor has an unlimited network of people who can benefit your career. Since they are already invested in your success, it only makes sense for them to let you tap into their network of people when the need arises.

This is an opportunity you cannot tap into if you do not have a mentor.

4. A mentor gives you reassurance.

It has been proven by research that a quality mentorship has a powerful positive effect on young entrepreneurs. Having someone who practically guides you and shares your worries with you -- often placating your fears with their years of experience -- keeps you reassured that you'll be successful.

Self-confidence is very important to success as entrepreneurs. A 2014 Telegraph report revealed that having a high self-confidence contributes significantly to career success -- more so than talent and competence. Mentors have the capacity to help young founders tap into their self-confidence and see every challenge as an opportunity.

5. A mentor will help you stay in business longer.

When you imagine the number of businesses that fail, you'd wish a lot of business owners had mentors. According to SBA, 30 percent of new businesses may not survive past the first 24 months, and 50 percent of those may not make it past five years. However, 70 percent of mentored businesses survive longer than 5 years.

6. A mentor will help you develop stronger EQ.

Does maturity bring about a higher EQ in entrepreneurs? Emotional intelligence is crucial to entrepreneurial success. When a young entrepreneur has a more mature and successful mentor who advises them, they are likely to have greater control over their emotions.

We all know that a quick way to make a business fail is to mix it with emotions or make crucial decisions based on emotional feelings. Situations like this can be curbed as mentors will help show you how to react in given instances.

A story on Business Insider reveals how Schmidt worked with then inexperienced Page to manage the affairs of running a fledgling startup. An inexperienced CEO often makes decisions based on emotions, but one with a mentor like Schmidt is able to overcome critical hurdles by making smart decisive judgments.

7. Encouragement.

Enduring the consequences of failure on your own can set you back and impact your productivity. In hard times, having a mentor will help you keep your head high. Young entrepreneurs often deal with depression when they are unable to meet their goals and expectations. The impact of depression on entrepreneurs is often underreported. But entrepreneurs without mentors bear the brunt the most.

A mentor who has experienced the highs and lows of running a business is in the perfect position to give positive and soothing words of advice to you when things refuse to go your way. And not only do they have the right words to share, they would also have ideas to help you navigate your way to success.

Source : http://entm.ag/2bdJUAf

You Won’t Be Successful Online Without Mastering These 7 Skills

I get that most people don’t want to spend all day every day learning how to be a web developer but these 7 skills are absolutely necessary if you want to earn good money on the internet.

1. SEO

I’m a huge advocate of SEO. SEO is amazing because if you can get to the top of Google, you can get free targeted traffic to your website all day.

And because those people are searching for what you offer, that traffic will convert.

But how do you master the art of SEO? There are many resources out there that will teach you SEO. I’ve personally been doing SEO professionally for 14 years and the person I trust the most to give you the most up to date information that is working right now is Brian Dean at Backlinko.

He gives no-nonsense training and backs it up with data. In other words, he’s not guessing.

One strategy that I invented myself and have been seeing a lot of success with is what I call building link maps. This, in essence, is the art of doing link building and then building links to those links (link stacking) in a strategic way so they become more powerful.

2. Email Marketing

It has been proven over and over again that nurturing leads through email will dramatically increase your conversions. People like Ryan Deiss teach very specific methods on how to do this.

There are a few good email marketing platforms that will make your job a lot easier. Here are the tools I actually use:

Aweber – I use them to collect email addresses and send out follow up emails automatically.

Mailchimp – these guys have pretty much the same features as Aweber.

Lead Pages – these guys have pop-up windows to collect emails that have been tested and proven to increase subscribers.

SumoMe – similar features to Lead Pages but they do have other tools as well.

In my own businesses, I have seen email follow up increase conversions over and over again and in many different niches. This is something that will mean more to your bottom line than anything else.

3. Evaluating Potential

If you’ve ever spent any time over at my Prosperity blog, you know that I love buying undervalued websites. I am only able to do this if I can evaluate the potential of a website and understand that it is actually undervalued.

Even if I’m not buying a website, if I’m starting an online business from scratch it is the same principle. I always look at what the market looks like, and then I look at what the competition is doing online. Are they proficient in SEO? Do they understand basic internet marketing principles?

When those key indicators match up, I know the potential is there and I feel confident moving forward. If the competition is extremely knowledgeable and deeply embedded in the industry, I will typically move on.

On the other hand, when I find a website that is trying to sell donkey socks, I am able to filter that out quickly because

4. Backend Website Administration

I hesitated including this one in this article because let’s be honest, you started falling asleep as soon as you read the heading for this section.

The reality is, if you really want to be successful online you must get a sound base in html. You must learn how FTP works. At the very least you need to become a WordPress master.

You also need to become proficient in working with images. I use a program called Fireworks from Adobe, but many people use Photoshop as well.

If earning a living online is something you are really serious about then you need to learn how to be a webmaster. Youtube tutorials need to become your new best friend.

5. Increasing Conversions

The only thing better than getting more targeted traffic is taking the traffic you already have and getting more of those people to give you money.

The reason this is so great is because it is completely in your control. If your website converts at a typical 1%, all you would have to do to double your revenue is to increase conversions to 2%. Easy.

How do you do it?

Split test, split test, split test. Also known as A/B testing, this means you show one version of a page to half of your visitors and show another different version to the other half. Then you see which version generated more sales.

I bought a website with traffic one time and just made a few (but significant tweaks) to the site and in less than 30 days the monthly revenue jumped by 968%.

Google Analytics offers a free AB tool in their software. There are other paid options but I will typically just use Google’s AB tool.

6. Pricing

If you don’t price a product or service correctly, this can quickly put you out of business either because you’ve overpriced your product and don’t get any sales or because you’ve underpriced and can’t cover expenses.

You must learn how to arrive at the perfect price so that you maximize revenue and customers. After all, it is so much easier to sell to a previous customer than to a new one. Maximizing number of sales along with revenue is extremely important for the long-term growth of your business.

This goes back to the testing part of this article. You need to test different prices to see which one performs better. This is not something you should guess on. There is too much at stake.

Get the price right.

7. Monetization

When I am looking to buy an undervalued website, one of the first things I look at is whether or not I can monetize the website in a way that will either greatly increase revenue or at least give me a good return on my investment of time and money.

Any site can be monetized by putting Google ads on it, but to me that is short sighted thinking. It has been my experience that Google Ads have generated the lowest amount of income on websites that I have owned.

So you need to learn what people want and what they will pay for or how to find good affiliate programs that are worth promoting.

For example, I used to run a website that was a directory of lawn care companies in the US. I sold advertising on the site and didn’t make very much money ($30-$100 a month). I had awesome traffic from SEO and knew I should be making a lot more money than I was.

I created a “how to start your own lawn care business kit” packaged with everything a person would need to know to start their own lawn care business. I priced it $97 and people bought like crazy.

Once I started selling the kit, the website made me from $30k-$50k every year.

It was a powerful lesson on monetization. I learned that I should always be trying to come up with new and better ways to monetize websites that I owned.

So those are the 7 traits I think are most important to master if you want to be successful online. Am I missing something that has been critical to your success? Leave it in the comments below.

Source: http://bit.ly/1S3W90E

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7 Marketing Trends You Need to Know for 2016

Here are seven marketing trends to budget for in 2016 and to set up your team for success.

Mobile, video, and other marketing tactics that have been on the rise for years aren't really "trends" anymore. So, how many more trend articles do marketers have to read through that really just tell us what we already know?

Now, just because they're not current trends doesn't make them unimportant. Optimizing for mobile and including high-quality visual content and video in your strategy are still good practices. But to keep yourself and your company ahead of the competition, you need to analyze what's happening now, review your strategy from different perspectives, and prepare for what's to come.

To help, here are seven marketing trends to budget for in 2016 and to set up your team for success.

1. Writing skills and experience will be critical.

When the industry started shifting from print to digital, there was fear among English and journalism students that their craft was dying and no one with a degree in those fields would have jobs. And now with the rise in content, these research, writing, and editing skills are becoming increasingly important, especially when high-quality content is becoming the new SEO.

However, in its 2016 B2B Content Marketing report, the Content Marketing Institute found that only 19 percent of marketers would prioritize becoming stronger writers in the coming year. To keep up with other top content creators and publishers in your industry, encourage your HR team to recruit employees with these game-changing skill sets to build a successful content team, or start investing in education to help your existing team strengthen its writing.

2. Content marketing will enhance other areas of business.

Many people view marketing as the department that works solely to promote your company to your external audience, and while this is one of its key functions, it's not the only one. Content the marketing team produces will become an increasingly necessary asset to many other departments at modern companies, because those resources the team creates for external audiences are just as helpful for internal audiences.

For example, marketing team publishes a piece of content, our entire team is alerted. Because the content is created for your audience, including clients and prospective customers, your client-facing and production team members can use it to fuel their efforts, our sales team can send it to address common objections or questions, and your HR team can use it to train new team members about your processes. 

3. Personalization will prevail.

One of my favorite keynote speakers at this year's BOLO digital marketing conference was my friend and marketing trend expert Rohit Bhargava. During his speech, he talked about the growing importance of personalization and providing opportunities for clients and customers to feel like VIPs, and he used Disney's MagicBands as an example.

Instead of every visitor receiving the same band, each Disney MagicBand is personalized to that visitor's vacation experience. These simple gestures of personalization show that your brand cares about individual customers, and they're effective. In fact, my daughter didn't want to take off her band when we left Disney because it made her feel so special. Avoid generic templates and find ways-from simply targeting your messaging to sending personalized emails and gifts-to make each individual customer feel that special.

4. Industry authority positioning will become a must.

 Companies without thought leaders who provide voices and contribute to industry conversations are taking harder hits to their credibility than ever before. Executive branding and leadership positioning are no longer just nice to execute-they're becoming increasingly necessary. People want a connection to your brand, and they want to trust your leadership. The best way to establish this connection and trust is to create content that showcases your authority.

To effectively position your company, start taking advantage of your team's unique insights and expertise, and craft your messages into thought leadership content that establishes your company as the industry leader.

5. Add value for your audience and stop selling to them all the time.

Stop focusing only on making the sale, and start focusing also on delivering true value to your customers and potential clients. Whether this value is found in the quality of your content or in the experiences you provide, it's becoming more and more important for marketers to ensure that value is delivered to those who interact with their brands.

For example, on a recent call with Mura Experience Platform, a member of its team mentioned to me that a custom Cards Against Humanity deck designed for attendees of the Content Marketing World event with the Mura Experience Platform brand was one of their most successful marketing campaigns. This campaign was successful because it was original and delivered direct value to Mura Experience Platform's target audience. To keep up with competition, it will be important for marketers to take advantage of the rise in content to create and deliver value to customers.

6. Thought leadership is a new SEO driver.

Traditional SEO-using link building and keyword optimization to increase your pages' search results-is no longer your ticket to high rankings on Google. After Google's continued algorithm updates throughout the year, the search giant has begun rewarding higher-quality content with higher search rankings. Despite efforts by some companies and content creators to cheat their ways to the top of results pages, high-quality content prevails over the old keyword-stuffing tactics of the past.

For example, in my own writing during the past year or so, I've seen a dramatic difference in traffic to my own articles because my team and I have continued to perfect our content-creation processes to align with exactly what our target audience is searching for. Now when you search terms like "thought leadership speakers," you can easily find the article I published to my Forbes column. Because Google's updated algorithm recognizes that this piece of content was created to provide specific value to my individual readership, it rewards the article with a higher ranking to make it easier for readers to find.

As a marketer moving into 2016, your priority should be to provide the best possible content to your audience, not to publish junk content in hopes that it'll land you on page one. Trust me, when you create truly engaging, valuable, and relevant content crafted to serve members of your audience and what they're looking for, you'll earn that sweet spot at the top of the results page.

7. Full-service won't solve all your problems.

The best thing you can say to make someone lose faith in your company's credibility is "My company is great at everything." No single company is great at everything, and that's why full-service firms are becoming a thing of the past.

As the industry becomes more specialized, we'll see fewer full-service, best-at-everything marketing companies in 2016. Instead, focus your efforts on the one thing your company is truly great at and what your customers need and want most from you, and become the absolute best at whatever that is. You'll need to live and breathe that area, develop technology to support your efforts, and consistently innovate your products and services, but you'll ultimately serve your team and your customers better if you focus your efforts on the one thing that separates you from your competitors.

As this year draws to a close and your marketing team starts determining what initiatives will be valuable investments in 2016, a variety of content resources,marketing speakers, and other thought leadership resources will help point you in the right direction. Take the time over the holiday season to do the research and plan where your focus should be in 2016.

Source : http://bit.ly/21olt5h

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11 Ways to Use Platforms Like Medium to Build Brand Awareness

 

 

Thanks to platforms like Medium and LinkedIn, company leaders are sharing more and more high-quality content in an effort to get their brand in front of potential customers, hires and even investors.

The potential for exposure is considerable, but your success on these platformsdepends on both what you're writing and how you're sharing it.

Here, 11 entrepreneurs from YEC share their best tips for building brand awareness on publishing platforms large and small. Learn how they were able to engage on a human level -- not deliver another sales pitch.

1. Stop pitching and start interacting.

Social networks are often abused by business leaders who misinterpret their purpose to be used solely as an advertising platform. Advertising your business on a socialplatform isn't inherently evil, but your approach could make the difference between gaining or losing a customer. Use Medium and other platforms like it to engage, create rich, meaningful content and provide users with support.--Blair Thomas, EMerchantBroker

2. Mention other people.

Find ways to mention people. It's an added bonus if, by mentioning them, your post is shared with their audience, but the possibility that they'll re-post or respond is reason enough.--Andrew Namminga, Andesign

3. Be real.

People want to read about you, not about a marketing pitch for your company. So make your blogs personal! Most acclaimed TV shows and books are popular because of the character development -- you have to be willing to share your real story if youwant readers.--Elle Kaplan, LexION Capital

4. See what already works.

Scan the headlines and topics related to your field that get the most shares and exposure on Medium. The cool thing is that anybody can sign up and publish there. Unlike other open publishing platforms, they have an editorial team to highlight and promote the top-quality and most-shared articles. This is why you must get a feel for the platform then pounce on topics worth your investment to publish.--Joshua Lee,StandOut Authority

5. Use it for ideas.

Our company just completed a migration of our current blog content to Medium. We believe Medium's founders when they saw that it's not just a platform for publishing, it's a platform for ideas. My advice to believe them and engage appropriately. Since our transition, we've seen an increase in "full reads" (versus quick bounces) and are realizing significant conversion traffic to our website.--Hugh Weber, IOP

6. Add a CTA to each post.

While it's great to have lots of readers on your Medium posts, it doesn't translate into revenue or leads unless you're able to get them down your marketing funnel. Think about what sort of value-add you can provide that is related to your post. Is it a free pdf? A bonus video? An educational webinar? Make sure you think about the next stepyou want someone to take after reading your post.--Mattan Griffel, One Month

7. Provide results in advance of selling anything.

Platforms like Medium are powerful for connecting with and growing your audience. However, don't be fooled. These platforms are not to sell your products or services directly. Instead, focus on providing results and value far in advance of asking for a sale. Even then, do it indirectly. For instance, say you own a travel booking company -- leverage Medium to share tips and strategies on travel.--Obinna Ekezie,Wakanow.com

8. Make sure you're unique.

Look through the content that is already available when it comes to the subject youare writing about. Has another individual already expressed a very similar or identical opinion before? If so, make sure you are posting a unique viewpoint that will gain attention and shares. Your work will stand out through the platform and your time spent will result in heightened brand awareness.--Miles Jennings, Recruiter.com

9. Build trust through generosity.

Good content marketing is about generosity -- sharing your expertise, your methods, anything that could be useful to your audience. In a way, it's about relating to them as people. If all you do is sell, sell, sell, then your audience will see you for what you are -- a salesperson -- and trust will be broken. Be open, be giving and above all, provide value.--Rob Emrich, The Mobile Majority

10. Lead with authenticity.

Lead by being authentic. Understand the audience you're creating content for and don't be spammy. Teach someone something that inspires them, and then if they're looking to get in touch with you, they will get in touch. Don't use too many calls to action and that sort of thing. Be authentic to what the platform is, which is valuable long-form information.--Peter Sena, Digital Surgeons

11. Cross-post in relevant communities.

At June, we've been wildly successful in leveraging Medium's huge audience to build our brand awareness and increase conversions. But it wasn't enough to simply write compelling, valuable content for our niche. We decided to boost our exposure by posting our Medium links in other communities relevant to June. This move proved to be successful, amassing over 250k views in 30 days.--Zachary Burkes, June.

Source : http://bit.ly/1PYElCB

Marketing and Social Media News

5 Ways to Find More Time for Content Marketing

Let’s face it. You’re busy. You have a real estate business to run. The last thing on your mind is sitting in front of a computer and writing another blog post or article for your website.

Yet at the same time, you know you need to do it. You know how important it is to produce content on a regular basis, especially if you’re putting any effort at all into social media marketing.

In face, a recent study shows that 69% of home shoppers who take action on a real estate website begin by typing a local term into a search engine. Read that again and note that these folks take action!

Essentailly, some of your best, most active leads can find out about you through a Google search. And if you want to get found on Google, you need to product content. Lots and lots of content.

That's what content marketing is all about. It's as simple as it sounds; marketing to your specific target audiance using original, relevant,a nd audthentic content. And it's all the rage right now among some of the top producers in real estate.

So, at one end of the spectrum, there’s an ever-present need to publish more, write more, engage more, comment more, share more. And at the other end of the spectrum, there’s the fact that your day is already jammed packed as it is. Something has to give in order for you to move forward with your content marketing goals.

If that situation sounds like something you can relate to, keep reading, because I just might have your solution.

The bottom line is that you get out of content marketing exactly what you put into it. If you give it the necessary time and effort, then you’re going to end up with quality content that others will truly take interest in and share. If you slack on it, well, then don’t expect much.

In the worst case scenario, if you don’t do it at all, you’re just giving the competition a shot at stealing your customers by proving value and staying relevant.

But if you're willing to give it a shot, or you already are, in this artile, I'll share some tips and tricks that can make your content marketing activites even more productive.

Essentially, here are 5 tactics that I use to produce quality content on a routine basis, without having it take away from the other parts of running my business:

1. Start by blocking out time

There are 168 hours in a week. Can you find three of those hours for blogging? It really doesn’t look like much when you lay it out in that manner, but three hours is more than enough time to keep your blog current.

If it takes you an hour to write one blog post, you can knock out three in three hours. That’s pretty much every other day of the week. Not bad at all! We’re talking about less than 2% of your week. You know you have that.

Once you’ve found the time, make it sacred. Mark it in your calendar. Make sure you won’t be interrupted. That time is yours and yours alone.

2. Share what you're passionate about

Regardless of the type of real estate business you’re in, there’s always a fun, interesting, and relevant way to share it with the world.

Do you primarily focus on waterfront properties? Don’t blog about your listings; blog about luxury living. Blog about the latest home design trends for waterfront homes.

You have to think one or two degrees out from your product or service in order to come up with content that is relevant to a wider audience.

Nobody wants to read a blog about property listings, but many people want to read a blog about home design ideas, trends, events, and more.

Once you’ve discovered what you can talk about, keep a list of ideas with you at all times. I use Evernote for this. Anytime I have an idea for a blog post, I write it down. That’s where the idea for this post came from.

After a while, the question of “what should I blog about?” becomes trivial. You’ll have ideas for weeks worth of content.

3. Choose a medium that fits your style

Blogging is not for everyone. Some people hate writing. In that case, give video a try. Maybe you love being in front of a camera, where you can let your personality shine.

On the other hand, if you’re a very visual person, you might have better luck producing infographics, or slides. Believe it or not, you can very easily produce and share PowerPoint presentations that get more attention than some blog posts.

Whatever style you choose, you need to stick with it. And if you’re really feeling brave, give them all a try to see what sticks.

You see, choosing the right medium for your content is not entirely up to you. It’s up to your audience too. For example, many fans of video games would prefer to see a video review of a new game over a written review. You need to understand what your audience wants, and always give that to them.

Hopefully, once you start thinking about these things, you can find a common ground that both fits your style and the needs of your audience.

4. Repurpose your content as often as possible

What I mean by repurposing is simply taking your original ideas and generating many different forms of media from them. For instance, I love to take quotes from my blog posts and turn them into tweets. From one blog post, I can get at least five or six unique tweets that I can use throughout the week.

I could just as easily turn a written blog post into a slide deck to publish on SlideShare. Or, if you have a great video that you’ve just created, why not transcribe it into a blog post?

There are many ways to get the most out of a single piece of content. The more variety you have in your approach, the more traction it can have, since it’ll attract different crowds of people.

Lastly, by doing this, you’re truly maximizing your time, since you’re essentially producing multiple pieces of content all from a single idea. Talk about productivity!

5. Have fun with it

If you see content marketing as a chore, you’re never going to stick with it.

I look at each blog post I write as an opportunity to learn more about a specific topic that I may not be well versed in. I also look at it as a way to practice teaching a topic to others, and in that sense, I solidify my own understanding of the topic.

So, look for ways to have fun with content marketing. Challenge yourself to speak about things that you’re not an expert in, but that you know you need to get a grasp on. In that sense, content marketing does as much for you as it does for your business or your audience.

Is it working for you?

In conclusion, these are just a few ideas to get you thinking about content marketing in a different light. At the end of the day, you know you need to be producing content, so why not make the most of it?

Source :http://bit.ly/1ZvTdwH