Branding Your Surrogacy Agency

Once again I go to the Internet to say what I want to say to you without the writers cramp. My brother, Derrick, is in the branding and marketing business and he quotes this topic over and over to big and small businesses alike. I found this article on www.MoreBusiness.com. It's all true especially with a surrogacy agency. Please use the word 'services' wherever it says products...you will see that it reads the same way!

http://lamotheservices.com/

How Can Branding Help Small Businesses?
An effective branding strategy creates a ‘pull’ for your products. (Services) This eventually is very rewarding financially since you save a lot of time and money that would otherwise be spent trying to ‘push’ your products.(Services) Read on to realize the effectiveness of branding for your small business.

Branding your products, your business - and even you - basically means that you are assuring people that whenever they buy any of your products and services, they are assured good quality and great service.

It means that they not only are buying your product (and Services), but also getting peace of mind for years to come.

Branding the Right Way

Proper branding will ensure that people want to be associated with your company. They will feel proud and happy after buying your products and will also want others to know that they have purchased your products. Simply printing your logo in every place possible does not ensure branding.

Following up with other marketing strategies and delivering quality products to match your branding strategy will ensure that your name is on customers’ minds when they set out to purchase a product.

Building up a brand name takes time, effort, and a great deal of patience. You must know what products your customers want and need. You must also be able to deliver them consistently. Your strategy will depend on the type of product you are manufacturing or marketing.

Once you start marketing your product and get some market feedback, then the next step is to analyze the information (negative or positive) that you have received. Conducting surveys is a great way to get the most unbiased information.

Surveys can also give you insight as to what your customers really want and expect. Once you have that information, don’t just sit on it – follow up with a concrete plan of action.

Be Aggressive – And Smart

Develop and promote your company logo and slogan aggressively. Price your products competitively and increase your market presence by advertising in any medium that fits in your budget. Some inexpensive forms of advertising are print media, such as flyers and brochures, and the Internet.

You should print your logos, slogans or any other punch line wherever possible including business cards, letterheads, invoices - and even on the emails you send out.

Along with great marketing, your sales should also increase. Increased sales are necessary if you want your brand name to become well known. Your customers must be happy with the quality of your products and services. If they are, they will slowly link your product with your logo. This is how you will know that your branding efforts are working.

Once your target audience is made aware that they are at an advantage when they buy your products rather than those of the competition, then they will prefer to purchase from you.

Be Consistent

Your branding efforts should be consistent - and once your brand name is embossed in the subconscious minds of your target audience, then you will have succeeded in branding your business. You will then be able to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Branding is not easy, especially for small businesses with limited budgets. However, persistence backed up by good quality, great customer service, effective advertising will yield results.

Your Web Site: Your Largest Marketing Tool

The computer age is here and with it is a great vehicle for marketing your services. Because you are not selling a packaged product, you don't need to store inventory but what you do need is a great web site. Here are a few things, in Q&A form, to think about before you dive in:

Q: What is my market target for my site?
A: People who have a computer and researching Surrogacy and ART. Assume that they Know Nothing!

Q: Do I need a High Tech site?
A: No, you need something that is memorable, easy to understand, and easy to navigate.

Q: Do I need to spend a lot of money on my site?
A: I don't think so. There are several places on the net that will let you design your site using their templates and host it besides. It is pretty easy to use one of these sites...Or you can hire LaMothe Services to teach you how to make and maintain your own site. http://lamotheservices.com/

Q. How do I market my site?
A. This goes hand in hand with marketing your business. I will get into more detail later but the most common ways are using the search engines, link and banner exchanges, and placement of your site address on your other marketing materials.

Q. Should I have a banner ad made up the same time I have my site made?
A. It's a good idea and be sure to link it color and design-wise with your site. Think about what you actually need to have on the banner...your logo? your phone number? your web site? your motto? You have limited space so really think of what you want to put on your banner ad.

Look around at some of your competition out there and what they have on their sites. What do you see? What "feeling" do you want your visitors to have regarding your agency the minute they see your home page? Do you want to have photos of the women who have signed on with you to be surrogates? Do you just want to have descriptions of who is looking to be matched or do you want to "pitch" your business personally and have people call you directly? What about your fees? Is it better to list them along with your services and "weed out" people that can't afford to pay what you are asking or would you rather entice your prospective clients to call so you can talk to them personally and tell them exactly what you are willing to do for them.

I will be touching on these topics frequently. A great web site is one step closer to showing the world how responsible, organized, and dependable you are. Remember, YOU are the agency!


http://lamotheservices.com

Starting Your Surrogacy Agency, Do You Need a Partner?

When starting any business the thought of a partnership may cross your mind, if even for a minute . Would it be a relief to have someone by your side to share the responsibilities or a burden to have to ask someone else what they think should be done?

When Surrogacy Consultants of Florida, LLC was first started in 2003 I was leaving the employment of an attorney's office and was thinking that I could offer a better service than what I had previously experienced both in the workplace and as a past surrogate. Everywhere I turned people said that I should open a surrogacy agency. I had worked on the "inside" and had met Intended Parent's and surrogates who believed that I had what it took to walk someone through an entire surrogacy program. I was affiliated with professionals who said that they would support a surrogacy agency. As a matter of fact, SCF was the first agency in Florida that was not connected to an attorney's office. Purely independent of Clinics and Psychologists as well, meaning that we were open to working with all ART professionals nationwide. Any IP who had a favorite Clinic could come to us and be matched with a surrogate and return to their own Doctor for treatment.

I decided that operating a Surrogacy Agency the way I envisioned it should be run would take more then just one person and I asked one of my friends, a surrogate and strongest supporters, Sita, to be my partner. She said yes and we were off and running.

What YOU need to do is decide what your vision for your business is and what you are willing to devote to it. Are you basically wanting to control every aspect of the business including start-up finances, book keeping, marketing, advertising, recruiting, management, materials, media, invoicing, all phone calls, filing, Internet web sites, e-mailing, interfacing with professionals, attending conferences, printing, attending meetings and follow up, etc.? I sure didn't! Having someone else to share the burden can be invaluable. Do you want to work 24/7? You will if you are alone. What if a family member is sick and needs your undivided attention? What will happen to your clients then? Family vacations might be a thing of the past if you don't have someone to cover for you. I think you can see which side of the fence I sit on here. I know wonderful small agency's run by a single person but they have to outsource (hire an answering service, a book keeper etc.) and limit their services and the number of clients they can take on so that they can give quality time to their customers.

Before you think that you can start up on your own and then add someone I would think again...that is HARD. Adding a new partner after start up, one who didn't go through the growing pains with you and did not risk any financial investment, may not have the commitment to the company that you have.

This is your ultimate decision...GOOD LUCK!
http://lamotheservices.com/

5 Tips for Writing Comments that Build Your Blogging Brand in part by Ryan Biddulph

Whether you have a skillfully-branded blog, stellar online reputation or are a green blogging newbie you can build your blogging brand through commenting.

The secret is no secret. Move your attention from getting backlinks to adding value to posts. Move your focus from driving traffic to building friendships with authority bloggers.

1. Be Present
Take a deep breath. Your mind likely races to outcomes before you post a comment. You want traffic, or links, or any other self-serving outcome. Kick those thoughts out of your head.
Brand-building commentators are present. Being in the moment focuses your thoughts, feelings and actions on the process of building valuable comments instead of focusing on some outcome. Breathe deeply. Relax. Proceed to the next tip.
2. Write 5 to 6 Paragraphs
Treat comments like content. Publish mini guest post sized comments to make an impact. Length does not equal impact necessarily so create value along with depth.
Bloggers notice thorough, helpful comments because such comments add immense value/content to their posts.
Readers note such comments too. Expect to receive interview requests and guest post opportunities as well as increased traffic by posting thorough comments.
3. Be Nice and Personalize
Never troll. If you disagree share your thoughts kindly while acknowledging the points made by the blogger. Be nice.
In most cases you’ll agree with the post. Pick 1 or 2 points made – proving that you read the post – and expound on the ideas with your personal experience.
Address bloggers by name. Thank them for sharing their insight. Sign off with your name. The tiniest personalizing details make you stand out from the hurried, less than mindful crowd.
If you want to make influential blogging friends quickly address people by their first name. My first name is the best sounding word in my native tongue. You likely feel the same way.
4. Comment Only on Relevant Authority Blogs
Build your brand by associating with authority bloggers. Blogs like Daily Blog Tips are the perfect spot for publishing thoughtful, in-depth comments.
Follow the leader and comment on their blog. Impressed leading bloggers will form bonds with you and impressed readers will click your link to learn more.
Successful bloggers associate with other successful bloggers. Build your brand by being seen alongside authority folks from your niche.
Look at it this way; reaching a big audience requires you to hang with the big dogs.
Comment only on relevant blogs. Target incoming traffic and build mutually beneficial friendships with relevant pros. If your blog theme relates to blogging tips it makes sense to form a friendship with Daniel Scocco through blog commenting.
6. Comment on Every Post
Or comment on almost every new post. Program readers and bloggers with your valuable commenting message.
Persistent commentators appear to be all over the place. In truth they simply condition readers on a subconscious level.
Think of a TV commercial. Commercial advertisements tend to grow on you after repeated exposures. The same idea rings true for blog commenting.
Comment as much as humanly possible on authority, relevant blogs. Make an impact. Be thorough.
Your blog and brand will thank you.


Ryan Biddulph is an internet lifestyle junkie, freelance writer and blogger. He owns Blogging from Paradise.

10 Reasons Why You Should STILL Be Using Facebook (as found on SEO Chicks)

Since writing a few blog posts about the benefits of using Facebook for marketing, I have been asked; “Well, how do you do it?” There are no secrets to using Facebook, unless you are running illegal scripts. Depending on the reasons and types of markets you might be dealing with on Facebook, it’s really quite simple to utilize the social network as a marketing tool.

“Don’t hate on Facebook.” Give it a chance before you decide to curse it to hell as an annoying social site that is a waste of time. If you STILL aren’t using Facebook for yourself, you won’t be able to understand how to use it for anyone else.

Create your “internet marketer” profile. I prefer when people give it their own personal touch. Add some (and only some) albums of cool pictures for me to see what you are like. Myself among many others are dying to judge you. This sounds a lot worse than it actually is.

By now, you probably already know over 200 people on Facebook. Whether they are your actually friends, or authors of the blogs you read. The #1 Simple Step of Social Media Success is to connect with these people, according to Chris Winfield. Facebook makes it really easy for you, and separates these people into networks, and clubs. You already know who you should be conversing with. In most cases, networking professionals will accept your friend request.

Some of these people, you might not have gotten a chance to talk to at the latest convention and now you are looking at mobile uploads of their children. This really is a wonderful tool.

Here are 10 reasons why you should STILL be using Facebook as a Marketing Professional:

1. Join all the groups that relate to you and add connections: Start conversations with people you look up to in the industry. Possibly gain a friend request or two hundred.

2. Promote your blog or other blogs you are promoting on your profile, using BlogFriends. You spent hours perfecting the perfect blog post, now everyone knows.

3. Draw attention to yourself quickly: Upload a new album, post a note, poke people (occasionally), comment on everyone’s stuff. Being popular on Facebook can easily transfer over to real life.

4. Set up real life connections: Introduce yourself to your Facebook friends. Start a relationship. These people are also voters on Social News sites, and blog writers, and good people to know.

5. Research information for clients and Gain Knowledge: Dive head first into groups and read what people are saying about your clients. Excellent for those who are practicing Reputation Management. Read forums, participate, research, and get to work!

6. Network before big events: With SMX West coming up, there are tons of groups to join. See who will be there. Set up a meeting with these people by sending them a message on Facebook, or just simply join the group so people will know you will be there as well. Look at their profile, if they have recent news, you will have a conversation starter at the convention.

7. Update your Status: I hate to say it but those people who tie in their Twitter with their Facebook status are super helpful. If you become a regular status updater, people will always take interest in whatever your doing. It’s like reality TV. *Congratulations to Glen Allsopp who just PASSED HIS DRIVING TEST! 38m ago*

8. Applications Help: It’s true that many applications are annoying. But the Stumble Upon application is awesome! It shows on your profile and news feed what you are Stumbling, so this way everyone else knows, and will also stumble if they are interested.

9. Facebook is Improving: The ever changing controls are sometimes annoying but helpful. You can edit your preferences in the news feeds and see what you want to see. You can also control what people see about you with privacy and security settings.

10. Facebook Profiles Rank- If clients are looking you up, they might like the fact that your profile comes up (but they might not). In this case, it works the same as LinkedIn. So make sure to keep it as Professional as the business you run. *For example: While hiring, I did a search and found a possible employee Facebook page and lets just say they weren’t hired based on the profile picture alone. This could have totally worked in their favor, if I saw a nice clean page with nice comments from Coworkers, friends, a link to their blog, etc.

So… Why Not? It’s totally up to you how you want to use it. If you choose not to use Facebook, then don’t. If you just want to use to it watch what everyone else is doing, that is fine too. You don’t have to add every application, or give drinks to your Top Friends. You can totally make what you want of it.

I hope that this post helps people who are still “Hating” and helps them find success with Facebook conversations, like I have in many ways.



If you have any other reasons or ideas why Marketing Professionals should STILL be using Facebook, please let me know!

5 Reasons Why Repetition is the Key to Brand Development

Online brand development starts with the decision of what is the most appropriate identity for you and/or your business. The next logical step is to establish how to brand the identity you have chosen in a way that is effective and in alignment with what it is you do.

Quite often the best approach is develop a series of branding strategies that will make your efforts the most effective and your coverage the most extensive.

From this point on your focus will be to make sure your identity branding efforts are both as consistent and as repetitious as possible.
No matter how 'slick' or cutting edge your strategies may be, if they are not reinforced consistently they will do you little good. Ultimately the key will be in your repetition since this will be what eventually embeds the image you are reinforcing into the minds of people.

Here are 5 reasons why repetition and not necessarily the design of the strategy itself plays a key role in how effective your online identity branding efforts will be.

Expands Exposure

The greater the repetition the deeper the market saturation. This obviously leads to more exposure as your efforts begin to reach more areas of the internet. Much like filling a bucket of water, the more you put into the bucket the fuller it gets and so the same for your repetitive identity branding efforts.

Conditions the Mind

As more people begin to repeatedly see your brand in different areas online, they begin to form the association between the image itself and what you are branding.

This is simply conditioning people to automatically make this association and is exactly how branding strategies work towards the development of any brand. The more they see your efforts the stronger the association becomes, plain and simple!

Arouses Further Curiosity

If people see your image or brand often enough it is quite common for their own curiosity to compel them to seek further information on what the image represents.

Remember the whole point behind establishing a brand is to increase your marketing effectiveness and by getting people to visit your site you now have the chance to do so!

Brings Forth More Witnesses

This is the point where your repetition has saturated the market allowing others who may not have formerly seen your 'impression' a chance to view more about you. Quite often this occurs after others have referred them to do so due to the viral effect that is taking place. It is hard to avoid the 'buzz' about you when your image is seemingly everywhere!

Image Reinforcement

Your consistent repetition serves to only more firmly establish your identity. With each new effort your exposure grows and the association between what you are branding and the image you are establishing becomes that much stronger. This reinforcement is exactly how to brand yourself or business or even both online.

Brand development is a very important aspect of internet marketing because it helps make you more easily noticeable online. The process is actually not very complicated and starts with the determination of what is the most appropriate identity for what you do. From there a decision is made how to brand this chosen identity into the minds of others.

In most cases the utilization of multiple branding strategies is often seen as the best approach. No matter how dynamic or cutting edge your selected strategies may be however, effort will be wasted unless the image is reinforce as repetitiously as possible.

This simple act of repetition plays a key role in how effective your identity branding efforts will be, and the 5 reasons discussed above are testimony as to why. Without repeated and consistent reinforcement even the best strategies will fall short of making the impression you want in the minds of others.


About the Author: TJ Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina. For more tips about effective online brand development and to also receive a free instructional manual that teaches valuable niche research techniques visit: http://affiliatequickstart.com/.

Quick Tips for Surrogacy Agency Owners- Have Integrity

in·teg·ri·ty

inˈteɡrədē/

noun

1. 1.

   the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.

   "he is known to be a man of integrity"

   synonyms:

   honesty, probity, rectitude, honor, good character, principle(s), ethics,morals, righteousness, morality, virtue, decency, fairness,scrupulousness, sincerity, truthfulness, trustworthiness "I never doubted his integrity"

17 Twitter Tips (as found, in part, on DoshDosh)

As most of you already know, I 'do' social media for people in the Reproductive Industry. They are trying to reach out to other professionals (like I do) as well as potential egg donors or surrogates, intended parents and donor egg recipients. Sharing information and educating the public is another great reason for people to turn to social media in the first place. I set up businesses and individuals on the road to social networking success by placing bios and information about their business on places like Facebook, LinkedIN, Pinterest, and Twitter to name a very few. Needless to say they still have to USE these tools to get the most out of them. (but Lamothe Services can do that for you too!) Below is a segment on Twitter that I found that should catapult even the busiest executive into posting a 'tweet' once in a while.  

Twitter gives you a fragmented experience of opinions, events, news, ideas and feedback largely because its structured to accommodate non-contextual usability: You can easily follow thousands of users and listen in and enter into conversations conducted among multiple users at any point. And this is usually the case.

On the other hand, Twitter can be actively used as a tool to push out messages that capitalize on the attention you’re receiving from other users. Yes, I’m talking about self-promotion and marketing. This involves active user engagement.


1. Personal Branding. Twitter is a social media platform you can use to build your personal brand. It has the primary benefit of developing a casual persona and establishes you as a social personality that is connected and approachable. As Twitter adoption increases, new users will be drawn towards well established Twitter personas.

2. Get Feedback. Need an alternative perspective on how a website looks or the right course of action to take? Blast out a message asking for advice and you’ll receive replies from other users. This collective intelligence can be used as fodder for articles or projects.

3. Hire People. Need a good logo designer, marketer or programmer? Send out a message asking for recommendations. This is a very quick and easy way to hire freelancers or even companies based on familiar recommendations.

4. Direct traffic. Twitter can be used to get traffic to your websites or the sites of friends. If you ask your friends to tweet about it, the message will spread faster and further as other active users pick it up. There is a viral nature to all types of news, even on a site like Twitter.

5. Read News. Twitter users often link to useful sites or articles and can be a source of scoops and alternative news. You can also subscribe to Twitter feeds for specific websites/conferences, which allows you to receive and view content quickly. This is very useful for active social news participants.

6. Make New Friends. Like any other social network, Twitter has a built-in function for you to befriend and track the messages of other users. This is an easy way for you connect with people outside of your usual circle. Make an effort to add active users you find interesting. A Twitter acquaintance can be developed into a long lasting friendship.

7. Network for benefits. Twitter can be used as a socializing platform for you to interact with other like-minded people, especially those in the same industry. It can be used to establish consistent and deeper relationships for future benefits such as testimonials or peer recommendations.

8. Use it as a ToDo list. Use Twitter to record down what you need to do while you are away from the computer. Mark the tweet as a favorite to file it for referencing. Another alternative is to use an Online task management service that is synced with Twitter. One example is Remember The Milk.

9. Business Management. Twitter can be used as a company intranet that connects employees to one another. Workers can liaise with each other when working on group projects. Particularly useful when certain workers go out often in the field. Updates could be set to private for security reasons.

10. Notify Your Customers. Set up a Twitter feed for the specific purpose of notifying customers when new products come in. Customers can subscribe via mobile or RSS for instant notification. Twitter can also be used to provide mini-updates for one-on-one clients.

11. Take Notes. Twitter provides you with an easy way to record important ideas or concepts you want to explore further. Include links relevant to ideas you want to explore. Note taking can also be done offline via mobile applications.

12. Event Updates. Businesses can use Twitter as a means to inform event participants and latest event happenings/changes. This is a hassle-free way of disseminating information, especially when you don’t have the means to set up a direct mobile link between you and the audience

13. Find Prospects. Twitter can be used as a means to find potential customers or clients online. Do a search for keywords related to your product on Twitter Search and then follow users. Tweet about topics parallel to your product and close prospects away from public channels by using direct messages or offline communications. Discretion and skill is needed in this area.

14. Provide Live coverage. Twitter’s message size limit prevents detailed coverage of events but it can allow you to provide real-time commentary which may help to spark further discussion or interest on the event as other Twitter users spread the message. Very useful for citizen journalism.

15. Time Management and Analysis. Twitter can simply be used to keep a detailed record of what you are doing every daily. This might be boring for others but this type of usage is useful when you want to analyze how you spend and manage your time.

16. Set Up Meetings. Twitter can help you organize impromptu meetups. For example, you can twitter a message while at a cafe, event or art gallery and arrange to meet fellow users at a specific spot. It’s an informal and casual way of arranging a meeting.

17. Acquire Votes. Send a link to your stories you’ve submitted in other social news sites like Digg. Sometimes your followers will vote up the stories because they agree with it. This allows you to acquire more support for your efforts on other social media websites

5 Essentials When Advertising Your Small Business

I am stuck in business mode....not only am I sharing ideas that work for all small business but what can work for an agency. Needless to say I am using "small business" loosely because look at the new numbers out there...the Infertility Industry is boasting that it's now a 4 BILLION DOLLAR business! Who is getting all of this money and are you feeling like all you are earning are the crumbs off this huge buffet? I think we are all aware that to actually be effective in the agency segment of the infertility business puzzle you have to have a few altruistic cells in your body...no one is going to be rich running an agency but a comfortable living can and should be expected. No one wants those looking for third party help to be viewed as Mr. and Mrs. Money-bags, because most IPs are far from rich especially after all of the treatments they have undergone on themselves! It's all so expensive! However, we as business owners need to find ways to reach out to our clients. Once they know of our existence then we can show them why we are the best "partner" for them to hire. Below are some advertising tips that you can put to work for you now or planning ahead for the holidays!


5 Essentials When Advertising Your Small Business
Posted by Suzanne Vara

Advertise your Business! Now is the time to plan to plan ahead and take your advertising campaigns off life support.

Advertising sets out to persuade people to buy your product or service by effectively targeting them where they reside. Traditional media (print, radio, TV) has often been called noise as it interrupts people when they are not wanting to watch or listen or see ads while relaxing. The same can be said for banner ads and pop-ups on the internet. While the internet does allow for targeting a specific group more closely, ads will reach people who have no need or interest in your product or service.

5 Essentials for Advertising Your Business:

1. Identify target market. Who wants and needs your product or service? Find out where they hang out and develop a plan around this. Use multiple mediums to see what work best. Teens still watch tv as they talk about the show they just wanted with their friends on Facebook!

2. Determine Budget. Be reasonable here. Remember you need a good balance of reach and frequency to get people to identify with your product/service and the make the decision to buy. Being top of mind never hurts!

3. Research and Determine Mediums. Get media kits and read through proposals you receive. It is very easy to get caught up in the number of spots and not realizing that half of them are in the middle of the night and on a sister station that is the lowest rated station.

4. Create Single Message. Focus on 1 product or service and how it will add value to the consumers life.

5. Design/Produce. Best advice here is to higher someone unless you are a graphic designer. Designers have the experience with where to best position, which fonts work best and overall layout. Your ad whether it is print, radio, tv or on the internet, is a reflection of your brand and the company overall. Let's make it a good one!

Taking the time to look at all the various mediums that are available will go a long way. Tight budgets do not allow for trying something and hoping it will work. Researching where your target market is will go a long way. Once you have that information, be sure to really look at the medium. If you don't make changes in your marketing now you may be left behind by your competition!

It's time again for START ART August 3-5 in Las Vegas, NV

The Annual REI Nursing Congress: Scientific & Therapeutic Approaches to Assisted Reproductive Technology (StartART) provides a unique and comprehensive educational opportunity for nurses, featuring critical updates on the latest advances in reproductive medicine from procedures and protocols to bioethical and legal issues. The goal of this annual congress is to provide late-breaking information, cutting-edge techniques, and best practices to improve ART outcomes. This goal is enhanced by the unique contributions that REI nurses make to the field of reproductive medicine through their skills, compassion, and caring.