Visco Marketing Blog

Part of the journey on the way to being a founder is listening to the voice of your customer. Look at your brand through the eyes of your customer. You need to understand why your customer is investing in your brand. Listening to the concerns of your customer is also important. Taking your customers for granted should never occur. Good customers invest in you and stick with you through the hard times. Let's not forget word of mouth!  Your loyal customers will speak good of you and attract others to your business. Customer-centric is to create a customer experience and drives growth. The five things you want to do be customer-centric: Treat customers as assets Align intentionally around customer experience Build an active customer listening path Deliver consistent and reliable customer experience Create a culture of accountability around customer experience Getting to know your customer's expectations is ideal. Not taking customers for granted is the key. Customers are loyal whe...

Linkedin is a platform that is online and is considered a professional networking site. Linkedin is utilized to make business connections and grow your network of contacts. It can also be used to find jobs and it can be used by businesses to find prospects. Essentially, it is like an online resume. I started using Linkedin years ago but did not put much effort into it.  To me it was another social networking site, and I was not into it. As the years have gone by I have added my Linked in page.  I have added my work history, degrees and skills.  By doing this I have connected with individuals in my field of work and have learned from them. As we discussed this week, Linkedin is also being utilized to advertise and promote businesses.  This is a great idea. The growth of Linkedin and the amount of people that utilize the platform, imagine the audience you can reach through this avenue. Networking online is a service that will grow and become a  must have to advanc...

In the previous week, we discussed adapting the artificial intelligence. Today we will address adopting artificial intelligence. When adopting artificial intelligence, it gets you more involved. One needs to be a realist and know that artificial intelligence is a way of the world today. Adopting artificial intelligence is advocating for it. You must be able to support your organization and assist in its growth. The greatest use of artificial intelligence is the collection of data.  I have not thought much about technology enhancements and how this effects my world. I work in healthcare, and I am surrounded by new technology and new ways of doing things, such as robotic surgery and robotic nurse assistants. These advancements will only get better and more improved. I am truly enjoying learning how this affects me and has me interested to learn more.  In the short four weeks I have attended this class, I have learned how to create a blog, a website and a google ad. I am embracin...

The goal of marketing is to draw in new customers and make a profit! In order to have successful marketing you need creative marketing. There are 7 steps to successful marketing: Find the inherent drama within your offering - Something about your product must be interesting. Translate that inherent drama into a meaningful benefit - People buy things based off of benefit, not features. State your benefits as believable as possible - There is a difference between honesty and believability. Get people's attention - Grab the attention to the potential customer. Motivate the audience to get involved - Tell your audience to visit the store or make phone call or visit a web site. Be sure you are communicating clearly - Make people understand what you are telling them Measure your finished advertisement against your creative strategy - Use your strategy to guide you. You need to remember to be more creative than your competition. Your idea needs to be creative. There are ways to be creativ...

 After sharing the secrets of guerilla marketing in the last post - you are now ready for a marketing plan.  You need to start with the plan and commit to that plan!  In order to come up with a plan you must research, attend to all details, and give it deep thought. Positioning; what does your product offer and what does it intend to do for your customers?  That is what your thought process should be asking. You must identify all of your target markets.  Since there are several markets your product can target, Guerilla Marketing  mentions four emerging markets that can not be passed up.  This includes older people, women, ethnic groups, and small businesses.  Identifying the market is key.  When you decided who you will be targeting you must clarify your position.  You must ask yourself four questions: Does it offer a benefit that my target audience really wants? Is it an honest-to-goodness benefit? Does it truly separate me from my comp...

Still on your journey to be a founder?  The climb is still going even though you have endured some road blocks and difficult times, but you pushed on. Yuu decided on the market of your product and now you will need to focus on taking it to camp.  This is a critical step in the journey.  You need to make sure your product fits in the market. Focus on your distribution channel. Does your product satisfy the market? Mapping out your potential buyer is important.  Do your buyers use an online market, resellers or direct buyers?  Once you figure out the map of your buyer you understand their engagement.  Tracking data utilizing metrics is helpful. You can utilize lifetime value of customer (LTV), cost of acquiring customer (CAC) and payback period.  LTV is the gross profit of each customer over the customer lifetime. CAC refers to the marketing and sales cost to get that customer. And Payback period refers to th time it takes for a customer to pay back acqu...

In an earlier post, I shared how to set-up a google domain and website.  Super easy! In order to get traffic to my new site, I will create a google ad to my site:  www.viscomarketingconsulting.com. Step 1: Visit Google Ad site: www.ads.google.com. Step 2: You will click the blue button for new campaign. Step 3: Enter the name of your business - click next.  Then enter the website they will be taken to - click next. Step 4: What is your advertising goal?  I chose more website sales or sign-ups . You can choose what you wish.  When you click next, you will be taken to the website you want your potential customers to visit, and click next. Step 5: Google will then ask you if you would like google analytics on your site.  This helps track clicks and where your potential customers are going.  You will click Get Started, if you wish to add analytics. You then pick the account. Step 6: Setting up your analytics on your website.  Of the two options to add...

 Adapting Adapting to artificial intelligence needs to become common place.  With the expansion of AI to all areas of life, one needs to be aware and learn how to adapt. In the book, Surfing the Tsunami,  references smartphones and how we have become so dependent on them.  I started to think of my use of the phone.  My phone has the capability of opening my garage or tracking my children's whereabouts.  Not only that, it is used for everything else such as shopping and checking personal and work emails.  Our minds are always engaged. https://www.amazon.com/Surfing-Tsunami-Introduction-Artificial-Intelligence/dp/1976756340 Adapting to the growth of AI may be difficult and it has to be integrated into your life.  You can start the habits by utilizing a calendar on your phone to track your "things to do" and record events. Utilizing these tools will familiarize you to the technology available at your fingertips.   To become more adaptable t...

Creating a website has never been something I thought I would do.  In my Marketing and Branding class this is what I did!  I was able to create a domain name and create my own website.  The process was much easier than I anticipated.  I am going to outline the steps below and follow along to create your own! Check out my website here:  Visco Marketing Consulting Step 1: The first step is to create a Google Domain.  Visit this website:  https://domains.google.  Type in the name of the domain you wish to create and hit the search icon.  You will then be able to select the domain you wish to have.  (I chose .com). Step 2:   Once you select the domain you will then add to cart (pictured below in the right corner). Step 3 :  Once you click on the cart, it will open and you can select the registration fee.  I chose $12 for one year. Then you can select to have the privacy protection and auto-renew active.  I chose to turn ...

Still on the climb to being a founder.  The road to being a founder and creating your own start-up may be a lonely adventure.  One needs to be able to adapt along the way with many unforeseen changes and disruptions.  At times you do not know if you are making the correct decisions. You learn from your mistakes and find those around with experience and good reputation to work with. Deciding what category your product falls under will assist in a more graceful journey. You can ask yourself, are you solving a problem everyone in this category cares about? This entails understanding the market, distribution channels, market trends and where you fit in with all of this. A defined vision and goal will assist pairing with someone with the same vision.  There is a mistake when you hire friends and family and that is the mismatch of vision and goals. You need specialized knowledge with shared beliefs and care for customers. Those individuals that you pair with may not necess...

Artificial intelligence needs to be considered and not ignored. Be a realist.  Artificial intelligence is a part of life and will become increasingly involved with your daily interactions.  When analyzing the data you may want to ask yourself a few questions - Based on teh data, do you think it's possible to impact of artificial intelligence may be larger and more rapid than the impact from past technologies? Would you agree that everyone should take some form of action, such as adapting and learning more about artificial intelligence? If you are convinced you should take action, do you think it should be private or should you go public to convince others to take artificial intelligence seriously? Once artificial intelligence is taken seriously, one can start to learn the impact the data has on the future.  The future of job growth and the impact of having safety nets.  Artificial intelligence can disrupt the future and economy. A good example of artificial intellige...

The secrets of Guerilla Marketing.  Any business, small or large, can utilize guerilla marketing.  The goal is to maximize profits with low cost.  What are those secrets I mentioned?  There are sixteen words that outline the secrets: Commitment - Be committed to the project even if it is slow. Investment - Advertising is an investment of $ and investment of time. Consistent - Do not change your identity and messages. Confident - Potential customers must be confident in your product. Patient - Be patient while waiting for results. Assortment - Utilize several advertising methods and tools. Subsequent - Market those that have already become your client - return business! Convenient - Offer convenient access to products (store hours, website, method of payment) Amazement - Amaze clients with your advertising. Measurement - Measure the effectiveness of the marketing, eliminate sources not working. Involvement - Stay involved after a sale (mailers, customer invites to sal...

What is it about social media that everyone loves?  Is it the connection to others from the past to the present?  The means to share your life with loved ones who may live a far.  There are many reasons people utilize social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and even Tik Tok.  This is the very reason that companies utilize these platforms to reach many potential customers. Companies can reach millions of people, but at what cost?   Social media can be an extremely bad influence on young viewers and target certain demographics in hopes to make that sale.  The goal of that sale may be at the cost of young lives, humiliation and self-image.  Facebook and Tik Tok, for example, allows users as young as thirteen to create an account.  Tik Tok attracts these young users and in a way, exploits them which can result in detrimental behavioral effects.  Tik Tok is highly successful China based platform and attracts many advertisers to their platform...

Guerrilla marketing is much needed because competition is getting better.  As a small company with little overhead for marketing, guerilla marketing is an asset.  When you realize many aspects of your business falls into the category of marketing, you will not see the difference between advertising and marketing. There are many avenues to utilize marketing, such as websites, telephone marketing, brochures, classified ads, direct mail, samples and much more!  In Guerrilla marketing, it is best to use a combination of marketing tools.  And you must utilize all opportunities available to you. To determine if you are marketing correctly you need to look for the seven danger signals:    My sales are driven mostly price.  Customers cannot distinguish my products from competitor products.   I use disconnected sales gimmicks.  I do not have a unified plan for imparting my message to my customers.  Most sales leads come from my sales staff. ...

Week 2 – Surfing the Tsunami Like mentioned in my previous blog regarding Artificial Intelligence (AI), AI is all around us.  You may also not be aware that it is exists in certain aspects of your life. Artificial intelligence advances year after year. Some examples more obvious than others. A good example of AI is Siri.  Talking to Siri – is talking to a computer.  This computer then utilizes the “cloud” and stored data to respond to you.  An example which may not be so obvious - did you know that Google piloted a self-driving vehicle?  To reach such great heights, one must understand how the software and hardware rely on each other, as one can not go without the other.  Computers are always thinking, just like the human brain and all the processing is happening in the computer chips.  Much information is flowing between circuit boards and chips to relay messages, essentially like a map.  One message must go to one destination first to achiev...

As I continue to read Ascend Your Start-Up by Helen Yu, I received a message that goes beyond the steps you must take when you consider your product.  Yes, we must ask ourselves the important questions: ü     What is the minimum viable product? Your product must be marketable.   You must also explain the problem you want to solve with your product. ü     How will you pilot your product? Take the problem you are solving with the product and conduct a pilot.   This pilot does not need to be extensive.   Start small and target a few potential customers. However, the loudest message I heard, is you need to learn how to adapt to changes throughout the process.  Sometimes you may feel you want to walk away and give up because it’s just easier. You take your life experiences and apply them to the journey.  It takes a person who has passion, perseverance, and hard work. Sacrifices need to be made to reach the peak of your journey.  ...

Guerilla Marketing? Is there such a thing?  There is and it does not follow the same agenda as your traditional marketing.  Guerilla Marketing has a beginning, a middle - but no end.  The business then chooses what works best for them and eliminates those that do not. Guerilla marketing focuses on profits and the customer, while utilizing psychology as a means to reach the audience.  It also focuses on growing your business in many directions, rather than linearly because growth is the main focus. Another aspect to point out is this type of marketing can be used for all companies, not just the big ones.  This also means that investing a lot of money is necessary.  If you're willing to put the time and energy into alternatives, it may not cost anything.

As I continue to learn new things in the business world and marketing realm, I am hopeful I can connect the dots between marketing, branding, and entrepreneurship.  Looking at differing aspects of marketing has been extremely enjoyable for me and keeps me interested.  My introduction to the book Ascend your Start-Up, by Helen Yu, I learn yet another aspect of business – the journey of starting a business and becoming a founder.  Ones journey to be a founder is different for everyone.  The reasons for the journey are different for everyone, which not everyone will understand.  However, the ride of the journey will be hard but can have high reward in the end.  In the book, Ascend your Start-Up by Helen Yu, begins to explain this journey and what one can go through, comparing it to scaling a mountain, which is very fitting for what struggles appear and what you can gain in the end. The first step of the journey is described as base camp – where you gather al...

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?  You are surrounded by it and may not even know it.  When you drink your favorite soda, it most likely got assembled by artificial intelligence on the assembly line!  AI is connected to automation, just like the assembly line or by data, which we don’t see as easily with our eyes.  When thinking of data as a form of AI, it could be the software created to analyze a certain set of data.   A good simple example is utilizing Excel to analyze statistical data that we input ourselves.   This is a form of artificial intelligence and is ever changing and getting more advanced every day.   Thinking in terms of the future, many processes may get changed and more automated, which means this will influence jobs and market growth.   Many individuals may have to evaluate which career to enter to help support the way of the future with a different type of skillset.   This makes me question – how can my job be ...

Hi Everyone!  Thank you for taking a look at my blog! My name is Tiffany Visco and this is my first blog! I look forward to creating an inspiring space for those new to brand and marketing, like myself.  I am currently a Registered Nurse Supervisor for five Occupational Health clinics in the Chicagoland area. I reside in a suburb outside of Chicago with my husband, two boys and my fur baby. My previous education fully encompassed Nursing so Business has been a whole new way of thinking for me.  I currently hold a Master's in Nursing Administration and looking forward to completing the MBA program.  One day I hope to be more involved with the business side of Nursing! Here is a picture of me and my fur baby, Storm.