I was recently asked what advice I would give to those who wanted to succeed and achieve their goals. I always take questions like this very seriously, because to be honest I think I’m still working to achieve the goals I have set for myself. However, I’ve been living by 7 principles since the day that my parents (mother and stepfather) moved us out of the trailer park.

Truth is I come from very humble beginnings and I remember them vividly. My father left my mother when I was very young. My mother had no formal education beyond high school, so she was required to work three jobs to support her two girls and even then those three jobs often didn’t make ends meet. We struggled and we learned what it was like to be poor. I was young, but I believe growing up in these circumstances and watching my mother do whatever it took instilled in me the drive that I have to succeed.  Since I can remember, I’ve lived by the following principles:

1. Principle 1: Never ever give up or count yourself out.
2. Principle 2: Strive to learn something new every day.
3. Principle 3: Keep the passion about what you do.
4. Principle 4: Be willing to share your knowledge.
5. Principle 5: Don’t rest on your laurels.
6. Principle 6: There is no job too small, there is opportunity everywhere – it’s your job to be aware of it.
7. Principle 7: Be willing to help others achieve their dreams.

Watching my mother struggle and do the best that she could I vowed that I’d always be able to take care of myself. I’ve done that. I always thought that I wanted to work in accounting, because it was secure and you didn’t hear of many layoffs when it came to number crunching. I wanted to take the stability route – but realized my passion was in something else… marketing.

The realization came from a gig that I truly started as a hobby in 1998 – it was a small Internet company, called The Mining Company. I agreed to write articles for $100 per month on how individuals and businesses could communicate using online technology – wow, who ever would have thought it would take me down the path it did. This opportunity, that I considered a hobby took my career path down a different road. I started to study consumers every day – what made them respond, what triggered the correct response and what did they want from companies that would make them buy. Over time I had learned more about the consumers mind than I ever would have had I graduated college with a marketing degree.

In 2003 I was accepted to write for the Marketing column for About.com, formerly known as The Mining Company and now owned by The New York Times. In 2009 I became a published author of Consumer Behavior for Dummies and all because I lived by the seven rules above.

The Facts: You can do what you put your mind to, if you are committed and you are driven there is nothing that can stop you; too many people give up too soon. I still write for About.com and now consult with businesses on using integrated marketing to reach potential customers and get them to respond by purchasing their products or services.

I even went as far as to write my own definition of marketing, because I felt the definitions that were used were too vague. My marketing definition:

“Marketing is the process of teaching consumers why they should choose your product or service over your competitors; if you are not doing that you are not marketing. It’s really that simple! The key is finding the right method and defining the right message to use to educate and influence your consumers.

Companies make the mistake of thinking that marketing is just “one” thing, but marketing is everything that the consumer encounters when it comes to your business, from advertising, to what they hear, to the customer service that they receive, to the follow-up care that you provide. It’s all marketing and creating the decision within the consumer whether or not to choose you initially or for repeat business.”

I’ve been blessed with so many opportunities from speaking, to being published by a top publishing company and under a recognized brand, to working with tremendous clients. My secret is that I strive to learn something new every day and I believe this makes me stand out in knowledge and from among my competition.

I have to admit I think I’m behind the times when it comes to implementing Google Apps for my domain. I decided this morning to make the move and so far — I’m loving it. I will not lie moving away from Microsoft Outlook took some work. I’ve been using Outlook for the last 10 years. I’m also the person that uses email as a file cabinet, meaning I don’t like to toss email. I’m always afraid that I’ll need an email the moment I delete it. Outlook would move at a snail’s pace on my computer and that could have something to do with working with 8 different applications at a time on a laptop. I also hated it when Outlook would crash; this always happened when I was mid way through a long instructional email that needed to be sent an hour ago.

How Did I Prepare for the Migration?

First, let me say don’t do it this way — I now have a Gmail account that houses much of my email that without a lot of sorting and deleting will clog up my Google App email, so for now I’ll need to do some toggling. I started by integrating my POP email accounts to see if I could get by without opening Microsoft Outlook for a month. Success! I’ve been contemplating the migration and after I made it a month I figured I could do it without too much pain.

I love the fact that I can use my personal domain on Google Apps for email, sharing information between users that I select and create collaborating groups that I see fit.

Why Gmail?

I have learned to love Gmail. It took me time to adjust from the Outlook system of Folders to the Gmail system of labels, but once I did it I loved it. It was as easy as creating filters and adding a couple of clicks to an email that arrived and now everything filters and files nicely. I also love the fact that Gmail is extremely accurate and easy to search; I’ll attribute this to the fact that it was built by the top search engine.

Staying Organized with Google Calendar

Google calendar is easy to use and it can be shared easily. It syncs well with my Palm Pre and I can access it from anywhere — that’s more than I can say for my Outlook calendar.

Documents Wherever I Go

I can’t say that I’ve completely migrated to the Google Document feature, but I’m working on it. I do love being able to gain access to documents from anywhere and the ability to share and collaborate with others. I’m still working on forgoing my Microsoft Office, just not quite there yet.

Managing My Contacts

Google also offers Google Contacts. Google Contacts syncs with my Palm Pre easily and Google will even suggest someone as a contact if I start to email them frequently. I’m loving this feature. It works seamlessly with Gmail and it isn’t the “resource hog” that Microsoft Outlook was.

My goal in 2010 was to create balance in my life and I have to be honest, I’m feeling much more organized with Google Apps. Success in marketing also requires a high level of organization, so I’m sold. The best part is it’s free for your personal domain and as long as you don’t go over 7 MB it doesn’t cost you a thing!

Yesterday at the fitness center I encountered the beautiful people. You know who I’m talking about, it’s the women that put on the makeup before they go to the gym, they wear the most trendy workout clothes and they stand around most the time talking to their friends — well wait, I may have seen them workout (walking on the treadmill for 5 minutes). I love the beautiful people and maybe one day I’ll join their pact, but for now I go to the gym for a purpose other than socialization, to get sweaty, mess up my hair and make painful looking faces while lifting a 25lb dumbbell.

My point is that every business has segments of people that visit them for different reasons. Are you marketing to them? For example at the gym I noticed three segments of consumers. We have:

People like me — we go there for no other reason than to workout and put that checkmark by that daily goal. (Group 1)
The beautiful people — I described them earlier in this post. (Group 2)
Elderly couples — I love to watch them, so sweet to see people growing older in age, but still taking care of their bodies. (Group 3)

Each of the groups above could be effectively reached using a specific marketing message.

Group 1 — Marketing message regarding variety of equipment and classes without the need for vanity.
Group 2 - Socialization, child care and group activities.
Group 3 — Programs for active seniors that want a community center that cares about their health needs.

When we segment we are able to reach our target more effectively and draw in consumers from different groups by showing them how we can meet their specific needs.

If you haven’t done market segmentation in your business, I suggest you give it a try; you’ll be please with the results.

What creates customer loyalty in an instant?

Service. The type of service that you give your customers determines whether they will look for a new provider or stick with you. How is your customer service?

I know, this all sounds so basic so what’s the point? In the last week, I have experienced fantastic service and I’ve experienced service that made me so frustrated I wanted to throw up.

You see in today’s economy customer satisfaction is not enough - it’s all about the loyalty you build with your customers.

Recipient of Great Customer Service and Care

I had to take my car into be serviced, because the dreaded service engine soon light came on. I was in an accident 2 months ago and my fear was it was accident related. I schedule the appointment and arrived at the dealership. They ran diagnostics on the car and told me it looked like they would need to do a smoke test, rather than make me wait they reset the light told me I’d be fine and just call them when it came back on and we would arrange the service. They would also make arrangements with the body shop that fixed it, since it seemed to be accident related, to make sure I did not have to pay out of pocket to have it repaired. The light came back on 3 days later. They scheduled a time for me to bring the car in and would give me a loaner so I wouldn’t have to drive a rental car. I’m not a snob, but come on a BMW is not a Ford Focus. I dropped the car off on the designated day and my service advisor said that he’d call me later that day when the car was ready. He called at about 3:00 PM in the afternoon and told me they would not be done that day — but he had good news the cause of the “service engine soon” light would be covered under warranty. He called the next morning at 9:00 a.m. to tell me the car could be picked up. I arrived the pick up my car, it has been washed, cleaned and ready to go. There was no wait, it was as easy as exchanging the loaner car for my car, signing the paper work and driving back to the office.

Truth is the BMW dealership makes me want to always own a BMW. They’ve earned my loyalty. They always take care of me and make things easy for me and my schedule. Every time I leave the dealership I’m proud of my car because they deliver it in tip-top shape and looking beautiful. They simply go out of their way to create a fantastic customer experience.

Ready for my bad experience?

I purchase software all the time to stay on top of the trends and make sure that I’m being as efficient as I can be. I purchased a software item recently and it did not work according to what was advertised. I needed the software to complete a project and since it did not work I had to find another solution. This caused me to have to purchase another product. I wrote the first company regarding my disappointment, was answered 72 hours later with suggestions on fixing the problem. How many of you could wait 72 hours to solve a problem? I couldn’t which is why I had to purchase the second software product. I asked for a refund, explained the issue and the time sensitivity for a solution and I was told I would not get a refund — that was not their policy. I will not purchase another software product from them, I will not refer their products to any one and more than likely I’ll detour any one from purchasing from them. They’ve not only lost any chance at creating loyalty with a customer, but they’ve created the worst case scenario which is negative word-of-mouth marketing.

What can you do to improve your service and create customer loyalty?

Go out of your way and create an experience with each and every customer. Make them feel special not like a number. Do you need a little added proof that it’s worth it. Consider the benefits that come with loyal customers:

• Repeat purchases
• Increase the volume of what they purchase from you
• They will buy across your product lines
• They will excitedly refer people to you
• Your competition won’t be able to snag them
• They will always give you the benefit of the doubt even when something goes wrong

Do you have a story to share about your loyalty to a specific company? I’d love to hear it.

It’s true the buzz phrase of the year is “social media marketing.”

Recently there has even been a new term coined called “social influence marketing.”

Are you still at a loss of what social media it is and why it may be important to your business? I understand, so let me see if I can bring some clarity and demystify the phrase that often causes business owners to get a headache.

Think of social medial like this — you enter a bar and there are conversations going on at each table. You hear one conversation about work, another about a brand new vehicle someone purchased and perhaps the other is a business meeting where co-workers are discussing the latest strategy in their industry. Are you with me? If so, good — let’s continue.

Think of the sphere of social media has this bar. All of these conversations are floating around. There is a lot of information sharing, opinions being broadcasts and relationships being created. Does that help?

Now, I want to show you how big these spheres are growing by sharing with you some recent statistics that were reported by Econsultancy. These statistics are recent, it will give you a glimpse of how quickly social media is growing and the impact it is having on businesses today.

• There are over 20 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.
• One half of YouTube users visit the site at least once a week.
• There are over 250 million users on Facebook and 120 million of them log onto Facebook once a day.
• At least 30 million of the Facebook users access Facebook via their mobile phones.
• Over the last twelve months Twitter has broken the 1000% barrier of year-over-year growth.
• It’s estimated that there are 6 — 10 million global users on Twitter.
• Tuesday is the most active day on Twitter, followed by Wednesday and then Friday.

Do you still think you can afford to ignore social media marketing?