Eggs

     I am behind on my posts due to personal issues. I will try to make them up. Last week I went to the LA2M lunch at Conner Oneal's in Ann Arbor featuring speakers Kentaro Roy and David Hardcastle of Kentaro Web Design + SEO. Interesting time and the material covered went along with the material in our class last week also. They topic is funnels.
     So, eggs? How does this fit in? I find myself taking the info I am reading and hearing and applying it to everyday life. I decided this week that I was going to try to find a local source for my eggs rather than the grocery store. So lets look at what I did from a search and funnel perspective. I started like most people do now, I searched for local eggs for sale in Belleville. It did not surprise me that little was found, the links were mostly stores. There were three that appeared to be farms but their sites were no help as far as eggs or prices.
      Next I went to the local papers where there was one ad and the price listed as $1.90 a dozen. Reasonable I thought so I went looking for it. As I looked I saw other signs in front of house, some listed prices, some didn't. I thought the prices listed were high, so I never stopped. I am not a real forward person so I did not stop at the ones that just said EGG FOR SALE. I didn't know what time of day they wanted to be bothered. I never found the one listed in the paper as there were no signs where the ad said they were and I did not call the number because I did not wish to bother people. At the end of the day I went to Meijer and bought what I always do.
     Compare this to the funnel. I entered the funnel in the Become Aware stage below. I became aware that I wanted a fresher local source for eggs than I currently had. So I began my Research. I tried most of the ways one can research today. I followed the path of least resistance, which is overlooked today in marketing. People do what is easier for them. I do not like bothering people, so without all the information I needed I was unable to make a well informed choice. So I Compared what I could. Again though it was not a fully informed comparison, so my results were poor. The information I needed was not there for me. I left the funnel in the middle of the Research.and Compare areas. This in my opinion is where most small businesses fall short. Not enough information is made available for people to make a choice to go to the Purchase part of the funnel. This is the goal yet we line up obstacles preventing us from getting there. The simplist obstacle to avoid id info. Go to your site and try to use it as a customer, you may be able to fix some issues yourself.

Personal Note

So, I have been sick for quite some time. I have not been able to function well. I had no health insurance so I went to the doctors sparingly. I was sleeping most of the days away and unable to even do daily things. I was vomiting daily and nauseous almost all the time. To be honest I thought I was not going to survive. I went back to school a few years ago when I was out of a job. Mainly I wanted to go back so my kids would see it is important. I am happy to say that my three oldest are now all going to college. I had however reached a point where I was praying to graduate before I died. So the end of the story is that I found out this week I am a diabetic, and it was not being treated obviously. After the first few days of medicine I have to say that my eye site has cleared, the sickness is gone, I have been awake for three days and slept only at night, and I am somewhat myself right now as far as my personality goes. I have no idea what will happen from here on but I am grateful to be where I am now. So how does this fit in with marketing.
First, it was an eye opener when I tried to get insurance. One of the rejections because of my preexisting conditions, I had a heart attack, launched some sort of list that said I was rejected and why. I received so many  mails, emails, and phone calls I just shut it all down.
Second, after I was diagnosed, I have spent the last two days trying to find an affordable way to deal with it. I found several ways that things are marketed in my search. Diabetes seems to be a big money maker. How do I know this? Count the4 number of adds you see in magazines, newspapers, television, and radio. They all tell you they can do wonders for you, and for cheap.........with insurance. The companies sell the glucometers for next to nothing. They will do you no good without the test strips, and lancets however. These will cost a lot I found. So if they can get you to buy their machine they have you for as long as you use it. You will most likely buy their accessories. There are others but I will go into some in other posts. Now I need to get back to concentrating on my Web marketing class. Till next time take care and love yourself.

Marketing

Since this blog is based mostly on the marketing class I think I will start out by sharing my OPINIONS on what that means. Marketing has always been synonymous with selling in my mind. While I have had my forays into the selling arena, I have never been successful at it mainly because I lack confidence, When someone says no I feel hurt and it makes it hard for me to emotionally handle the job. That being said, my views of what marketing is have changed.
Marketing as a whole to me is just a tool used to make the most possible people aware of what some one has to offer. It does not just have to be a product, but it could be anything from an idea to say, a blog. the manner in which people are made known varies also from phone calls to say, a blog. What I have begun to do is try to notice how my habits and thoughts are being used to make me aware of things around me. I will then talk about the effects. For example, when I went shopping yesterday I paid more attention to things from say the products placement on shelve to the colors of the container to the signage. All of these things go into how I make a decision,and thus it effects the companies products as a whole. More later.....

allensacco.com

This is my official internet presence blog. It will give me a voice and a place to post it. Since I am new to this I am sure things will change often and hopefully that will mean improvement. In general most of the content at this point will consist of knowledge I am gaining in a search marketing practicum I am taking at Eastern Michigan University.