Let me ask you a question; “Are you attractive or interruptive?” And no I don’t mean you per se; I mean your blog, your website and your overall online presence in general. Are you attractive to your potential leads and customers? Or are you using interruptive marketing?

Interruptive marketing is far too common these days and the bottom line is that it’s ugly. What you want is attractive marketing. If you don’t know about attractive marketing, then it’s time to take a crash course since it’s one of the key components to having a successful marketing campaign today.

Alright so let’s get into attractive marketing versus interruptive marketing. The basic concept of interruptive marketing is that you grab a potential client’s attention away from something and bring it to your message, products or service. Some great and by this I mean horrible example of interruptive marketing are pop-up ads, spam emails and commercials on television that are 120 decibels louder than the program you’re watching. And if those annoy you, well, as a customer you should be annoyed. It’s horrible getting on to a site and seeing some pop-up that you have to ‘X’ out or cancel some kind of download or say ‘No’ to a subscription. Yet as marketers, many of us find these tactics completely okay.

But let me ask you, if you’re annoyed by them, then wouldn’t other people be, as well? Well, the news flash here, they are! And that’s probably not going to be good for your business in the long term, and knowing your customers and leads. Right? So why stick with interruptive marketing? What you should be practicing is the opposite.

Attractive marketing simply works alongside the content that your potential leads or existing customers are looking at. Instead of jerking or grabbing the attention away, it uses attention methods to get them interested in your company, product or services organically. It includes a whole host of techniques such as SEO, content marketing, or just about anything that could be labelled as inbound marketing or a lead generator.

So why use attractive marketing?

Well, of course the number 1 reason to use attractive marketing is that it simply works better. You’ve already figured out that telemarketing doesn’t work as well as inbound marketing. By that I just mean, if people were to call you instead of you calling other people right? So why would you still use other forms of interruptive marketing such as pop-ups.

Attractive marketing uses a slower process; it builds up a stronger relationship over time. One that will lower customer attrition and improve customer relation so it can take a little longer but it works a whole lot better. And this allows you more control over your price point since brand loyalty is a direct effect of long-term relationships even if you need to raise your cost after a while, your customers would be more likely to stick with you when they are brought on board through this method o marketing.

Moving forward, many people are already using forms of attraction marketing without even knowing it. But what if you want to make your marketing efforts even more attractive? Well the good news here is that all it really takes is a strong adherence to white hat SEO tactics to stay attractive in your clients’ eyes. Essentially you want to build your website and landing pages around your customers, focusing on giving them the best experience possible when they get there.

You don’t want to design or develop your website around your search engines. Instead, make them customer-centric. This alone will develop strong, attractive marketing techniques without you even having to try. Just keep your content fresh, informative and answer lots of questions. In fact, it may even make your FAQ pages obsolete or at least redundant when you’ve answered all your questions your clients might have in the content, and then you’re well on your way to attraction marketing.

Fundraising Auction Tip: You should always provide potential bidders with a printed Auction Listing of both your Live and Silent Auction items at any Fundraising Auction. A printed Auction Listing is vital for several reasons:

An Auction Listing informs bidders of the order of sale, and what is coming up next. If you keep your bidders guessing, they will simply not bid.

If bidders are not 100% certain of what they are bidding on, they will not bid. A printed Auction Listing should answer any and all questions about what is being sold in order to encourage bidders to bid as much as possible.

Bidders often need time to plan their bidding strategies, especially on multiple and/or larger value items. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.

Couples often need time to consult with each other about what they are willing to spend on something. A printed Auction Listing helps them to do that.

Potential bidders need to know the specifics, the benefits, and the restrictions on any item they are going to bid on, especially on travel and/or other higher value items. A printed Auction Listing should answer all of their questions, in writing.

After bidders see that they have lost an item to another bidder, a printed Auction Listing makes it easier for them to re-strategize on what else they can bid on.
Printed Auction Listings generally come in 3 forms:

Printed in the Event Program or Auction Catalog.

Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-inserted into the Event Program or Auction Catalog.

Printed on loose sheets of paper and hand-delivered to all attendees, or left on each dinner table in the room.
Auction Listings cost practically nothing to produce and they can make the difference between the success and failure of a Live and Silent Auction. You should never conduct a Fundraising Auction without one.

A Case Study

Let me share a real-life experience with you. Once I was hired to conduct a Fundraising Auction for a nationally renowned organization. The event was held in a major hotel, in one of the country’s largest cities, with several hundred “black tie” participants attending. It was an extremely professional event, with the music, singing, lighting, speeches, and awards all perfectly timed and choreographed. Everything was done to perfection… exception the Fundraising Auction.

Although I had signed an agreement to serve as their Auctioneer nearly one year in advance of the event, no one bothered to contact me for any advice or help. Approximately one week prior to the Auction date, I contacted the group to see if they had replaced me with another Auctioneer. But they said that I was still their man.

Upon arriving at the event I asked for a copy of the Auction Listing. I was told that there were none. I’m not sure whether they felt that the Auction Listing wasn’t necessary, or whether someone forgot to have them printed. This was never made clear. When I asked what I was to use at the podium, I was told to copy the list of Live Auction items from a committee member’s computer. It took me about 30 minutes to copy three pages of hand-written notes in order to prepare for my role as their Auctioneer.

I knew that they had created a PowerPoint program showing the various Live Auction items. When I asked whether the PowerPoint slide order corresponded to the order of sale I had copied from the committee member’s computer, I was met with a blank stare. The committee member left to check the slide order, and returned to let me know that the slide order did not correspond my notes, and he provided me with the correct slide order… hand-written on a paper napkin. This forced me to re-arrange my three pages of hand-written notes before taking the podium.

There was a Live Auction Table with descriptions of the Live Auction items that were to be sold, but the table was not clearly marked, and it received significantly less attention than the Silent Auction Tables, which were clearly identified. Since the Live Auction Table was located adjacent to the “Raffle Table”, it appeared that most people thought it was part of the raffle and therefore paid very little attention to it.

According to the event program (which did not include an Auction Listing), I knew approximately when I was to begin the Live Auction. At the designated time the Master of Ceremonies announced the start of the Live Auction to the several hundred people in attendance, and introduced me as Auctioneer. As I approached the podium I realized that photographs of award winners were still being taken… directly in front of the podium where I was to stand… which required me to stand aside for several minutes until the photographers were done. Can we say “awkward moment”?

As the photographers cleared, I approached the podium and began my Live Auction introduction. Approximately one minute into my introduction, the “Raffle Committee” approached the podium and stopped my Live Auction Introduction in order to pull the 8 or 9 Raffle Winners. These drawings lasted about 5 minutes. Upon it’s conclusion I was allowed to resume the start of the Live Auction.

When standing at the podium two intense and extremely bright spotlights were pointed directly at the podium. The lights were so bright that I literally could not see the center 1/3 of the room. I could see the tables on the right, and on the left, but was totally blinded when looking straight ahead. It took perhaps five minutes before the spotlights were turned off.

While at the podium and describing Lot #1, I had to ask someone to start the Lot #1 PowerPoint Slide… because apparently no one was assigned that job.

So with only the Auctioneer’s verbal description, and a PowerPoint slide, it appeared that few people in the room had any idea about what we were selling… or when we were selling it… until it was announced by the Auctioneer. As a result, bidding was extremely light and the final results fell several thousands of dollars short of where they should have been
The learning experience is this:

The Live Auction is where you place your better items, and where the real money should be made at any Fundraising Auction. Let bidders know as far in advance as possible what you will be selling, and the order of sale, so they can get excited about the Auction, and plan their bidding strategy accordingly.

Auction Listings are absolutely vital to the success of both Live & Silent Auctions. In my opinion, revenues at this Auction fell thousands of dollars short of where they should have been, because no Auction Listing was provided to the guests.

If bidders are not perfectly clear on what is being sold, including both the item’s specifics, benefits, and restrictions, they will not bid.

When you have a committee of volunteers, especially volunteers having full time jobs and/or very busy schedules, the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer can help to keep the committee on track.

And once you retain the services of a professional Fundraising Auctioneer… use the services that you are paying for.

In my article, ‘The Job Trap’, I spoke of “Recurring Income Streams”, as a powerful tool for creating financial independence. What is clear merely having a job, as the singular income stream, will not lead to financial independence. What is also clear, the pursuit of financial independence, by creating wealth is not a hobby. Instead it is a committed fulltime endeavor that is rewarded with passive income that continues to flow, long after the work has been done. What is also clear that individuals who successfully are financially independent develop recurring income streams primarily through investments, real estate, and business ownership. For many people, lacking enough funds to begin investing, or purchasing real estate are difficult initial choices to develop recurring income. Therefore entrepreneurship, developing a business becomes a feasible initial income creating stream..Home Based Business: Passive Income StreamLiving in a highly charged technology age, has given rise to more people developing a home based business. With the power of the internet, literally developing an international business very possible. Additionally, the potential to generate thousands, and in some cases, millions of dollars in revenue is quite possible with a successful home based business. Without a doubt, you can make money online. And setting up a potential successful online business is possible with very little initial money. While the potential is great for a successful home business there are some factors that should be considered. If your entrepreneur money stream involves something online, are you looking simply to make money online? Or are you truly looking to develop a home based business? First impression it may appear that there really isn’t any difference between the two options. Opportunities to earn money online, are plentiful. They might include surveys, visiting websites, to name a few. These along with other similar opportunities result in earning money only when engaged in the money producing activity. On the other hand, creating a successful online home based business, requires work, similar to any business. Particularly in the initial stage of developing the business, putting in the work is vital to creating ongoing success. Here’s just some of the tasks: researching products, services that your business potentially will offer. Setting up your website, acquiring your own domain name, hosting for your website, etc… The great thing though is you potentially will be rewarded many times over for the work you performed. Just as there are many opportunities to make money online, there are also many opportunities that are excellent tools for creating a home based online business.Affiliate Marketing: An Online Home Based BusinessFor a newbie lacking experience in creating a business, and in particular an online home based business, affiliate marketing is an excellent choice to begin. Why? For several reasons. For starters, a product or services that is already in high demand now becomes available to your business to profit from. Additionally, when you place a link on your web site, and customers click to purchase, you won’t have to worry about shipping, collecting payments, or finding a payment processor to do that. In return for generating the sale through your site, you will receive a commission payment. Another bonus that a solid affiliate program will provide for your business, is the tools, training, and support to effectively market their product or services through your business. A real simple process, right? Wrong!!! Yes you simply find a company, join as an affiliate. But remember you’re creating a business, therefore work is required on your part. Choosing the right affiliate program for your business requires research on your part to find a company, product that you feel comfortable, with that you would use yourself, that you want to learn everything about it, and how to effectively market it. It takes work to increase your knowledge requiring having and developing a successful online business. While it is true, that many people who start a home based, especially, an online business initially in the infancy of development, generally start while yet still employed, and committed to family. Certainly the issue of committing to your business often get clouded. The truth is that in beginning, you must constantly be working on your business in some capacity if having a successful business and recurring income stream is important to you.