New Year's Day. Everyone rushes to launch programs, products, start losing weight, study more, download books to be a better parent, be more, do more, live more productively. But don't let the new year start off like a release button at a horse race. Your business should be in it to win the long game. In this episode, Catherine walks you through a step-by-step process to help you bring your best tactics with you from 2016 into the new year, ditch the rest, and craft three key marketing messages in a specific way that will relieve stress on your company and align with your ideal customers. Don't overthink it. Simplify it. Here's how you can...

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"You need to think about your business as a long-term legacy, not as a short-term solution to pay the bills."

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FOR A LIMITED TIME: You can still download the 2017 Marketing and Profit Planning Guide for free at http://www.brightplanning.com/welcome-mat

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PLEASE SUBSCRIBE and REVIEW the Bright Planning podcast so your fellow business owners can find it.

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Questions? Email us at: [email protected]

Have you ever been to a conference, a networking event, a business mixer, or a group where you left thinking, "Darn! I wish I had _____ [FILL IN THE BLANK HERE]!"

Today you'll hear tips on how to leverage your personal brand at events.

This episode is specifically tailored for conference or event attendees, NOT for events you are hosting yourself, or sponsoring or co-hosting. These tips will help you get warmed up before the event, work the floor during the event, and successfully follow up with people afterward.

During this episode, Catherine covers tips for:

Gaining clarity on your goal before the event

Why reputation is everything

How to interact with attendees before the event

What should go in your 'event prep' box or bag

Methods to virtually and physically interact with people in ways that matter

How to nail your elevator pitch

How to use business cards and information in a fresh way

Why the little details matter, from the way you dress to the way you follow up

What NOT to do when live-tweeting an event

Why sales and marketing shouldn't be your primary goal

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QUESTIONS? Email: [email protected] with "question for the podcast" in your subject line

SUBSCRIBE for your free 2017 marketing & planning guide: www.brightplanning.com/welcome-mat

Copywriting is an art and a science, but it isn't as holy and untouchable as you may think. If you're a business owner who feels overwhelmed or nervous at the idea of writing your own web copy or sales copy, these few secrets will help you through it.

Catherine takes you through her method of "bar stool storytelling," how to audit your web copy (while listening to this podcast!) and a few other tidbits that can help you tweak your content to even see sales results...this week.

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We want your thoughts, reviews, and questions.

LEAVE A REVIEW ON iTUNES--AND SUBSCRIBE TO GET NEW MARKETING EPISODES ON THE GO.

QUESTIONS? Email: [email protected] with "question for the podcast" in your subject line

SUBSCRIBE for your free 2017 marketing & planning guide: www.brightplanning.com/welcome-mat

Catherine recorded this episode from her car.

It's Thanksgiving Week! Which means you're going to be inundated with blog posts and videos and social graphic posts that remind you to be thankful in curlicue Serif fonts. It's a little cheesy, but it's actually the bestselling marketing secret of some of the most successful companies in the world.

When you look deeper than the customer's lifetime value, you begin to see the people who have built you up to where you are.

It's here where even the most well-meaning entrepreneurs (from side hustlers to CEOs) can fail. The waving wallet is always beckoning, asking to be front and center.

Time to step up your game and hold yourself to a higher standard when it comes to practicing gratitude in your business--standing with, and for, your customers and clients. But how? And what does this have to do with marketing? In this episode, Catherine discusses: stuffing her face full of food, family, the scarcity of time, what gratitude actually means, how to make gratitude part of your communication and marketing strategy, and the questions to ask yourself that really matter in the end.

We want your thoughts, reviews, and questions.

LEAVE A REVIEW ON iTUNES--AND SUBSCRIBE TO GET NEW MARKETING EPISODES ON THE GO.

QUESTIONS? Email: [email protected] with "question for the podcast" in your subject line

SUBSCRIBE for your free 2017 marketing & planning guide: www.brightplanning.com/welcome-mat

What a week. In the wake of the election, our nation is poised to face a lot of challenges and changes in the coming months and years. While it may feel overwhelming, it's important to pick an issue to focus on in order to maintain energy, resources and stamina. The same goes for business and marketing. In this short episode, Catherine discusses the importance of being honest with yourself as a solopreneur or small business owner, facing your limitations, and how to handle two important assets that determine the future of your business.

"There are two things you have in business: money and time. Money is replenishable. Time is not."

QUESTIONS? Email: [email protected] with "question for the podcast" in your subject line

SUBSCRIBE for your free 2017 marketing & planning guide: www.brightplanning.com/subscribe

Facebook. Linkedin. Pinterest. Twitter. Snapchat. Instagram. Over the last year alone, we saw (and felt) big changes in these social media platforms. But whenever the rules are changed up, there is one thing that remains the same: the power of a good story. However, most businesses don't know how to tell stories on social media...and they're using the platforms all wrong.

In this 50-minute episode (Yes, buckle your seatbelts), Catherine goes into some crazy statistics and facts about each of these social media platforms. And she predicts (as well as recommends) different story-driven techniques you can use to wake up and build your audience in the coming year.

"Make the platform work for you, not the other way around."

NEED EXTRA HELP WITH YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY IN 2017? Learn more about the Done in a Day Service: http://www.brightplanning.com/marketing-consults/done-in-a-day-social-media-marketing-strategy-package

QUESTIONS? Email: [email protected] with "question for the podcast" in your subject line

SUBSCRIBE for your free 2017 marketing & planning guide: http://www.brightplanning.com/subscribe

All opt-in forms on websites are NOT created equal. If you want to grow your email list and you want that list to be specific and engaged, then it all goes back to strategically designing opt-in forms that get the results you want.

Gone are the days of the generic "sign up for our newsletter!" call to action. Unless you have a huge personal brand or corporate following, it pays off to niche down and get very smart about what you're offering to entice people to subscribe and eventually sell to them. In this episode, we continue along the theme of email marketing and discuss specific tactics for designing and writing opt-in copy that compels people to take action and sign up. This kicks off a larger, multi-episode conversation of how to get people to sign up for your list, stay on your list, engage with your emails, and share the love with their peers.

Now is the perfect time to SUBSCRIBE and RATE the Bright Planning Marketing Podcast on iTunes, Soundcloud, and Stitcher.

QUESTIONS? Get them answered in a future episode! Email: info@brightplanning (put "Question for podcast" in the subject line!)

BONUS: For Catherine's free 34-page marketing planning guide for 2017, go to http://www.brightplanning.com/subscribe

Get a head start on creating an extraordinary marketing experience for your audience in the new year.

RELATED EPISODES:

Episodes 10 and 11: "The Delicate Art of Email Automation, Part 1 and 2"

Episode 6: "How to Fill Your Sales Funnel With Interested People"

Episode 3: "Using Rewards In Your Marketing Strategy"

How do you know whether your marketing is working?

One of the biggest challenges with marketing campaigns is figuring out what to measure. But knowing metrics is crucial to your success and growth in revenue. It's unsexy, but necessary.

There are so many factors you can pull and measure across every point of your business, which is overwhelming. Stay away from vanity metrics, such as the number of your Facebook fans, or number of subscribers on your email list. When running a campaign, start with these five easy measurements.

SUBSCRIBE AND REVIEW ON iTUNES, STITCHER, AND SOUNDCLOUD.

Do you have a marketing question you want answered by Catherine on the podcast? Email [email protected] with "Question for the podcast" in the subject line.

For more help with metrics, marketing funnels, and revenue-generating copywriting, contact Bright Planning at: www.brightplanning.com

It's the episode you've been waiting for!

Maybe.

In Part One of this special two-part episode on the podcast, Catherine explained how to plan out and strategize your email automation for best results. In this episode, she explains three different types of automated email campaigns you can create to cut down HOURS of manually onboarding and educating prospects the same way over and over.

And pretty please: don't forget to subscribe, refer and rate the Bright Planning Podcast on iTunes!

Clients and business owners often approach me for advice when it comes to setting up and understanding email marketing automation. It's a great way to save hours for your business but still warm up your leads and prospective customers in a personalized way by giving them valuable, helpful information. In this 2-part series (Episode 10 and 11), we dive into how to plan your email automation, create the content you need for it, and the nitty gritty details of how to build it out in two of our favorite platforms. You'll also hear the pros and cons of our top four email marketing platforms so you can decide which one will be the best fit for your business stage, PLUS there's a free worksheet you can replicate to get a detailed overview and checklist for every marketing campaign you create.