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7 Reasons Why Your Online Marketing Isn’t Working and What to Do About It
Mutli-tasking and driving is not a good idea. Yet, many webpreneurs take to the streets of online marketing trying to do it all at once. The first mistake I’ve seen my fellow diva speaker, author and coach webpreneurs make is they rush around doing all sorts of different marketing activities without thinking through what they really want to do, who they are, who they enjoy working with, what marketing they enjoy and which they hate.
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. ~Albert Einstein
As if that wasn’t enough, they stick to this same crazy cycle even though they know it has not worked, expecting a different result. If this is you, I’d like to lovingly, but firmly say, STOP IT! 
I have met too many talented and phenomenal women with their businesses parked because they can’t crack the code of the marketing matrix. So, if your marketing is not pushing you forward, look for these signs and begin correcting them immediately to turn things around.
- You are not committing to your business
Networking, attending trainings and events are great. But, if you are doing so much of it that you can’t commit to a weekly standing meeting with your team to keep things in motion, you are not committing to your businesses success. Ask yourself “What do I want to accomplish with this activity”? If it does not offer any tangible or leverage-able return, don’t do it. - You have no marketing plan
This is the #1 offender. You can’t have a viable business if you don’t know where you are or where you are headed. Your direction will change with the wind and you’ll never get your business off the ground. You need to know who you are targeting, what you are offering, what makes you unique and so on… Once you know what your goals are, you can allocate your resources more wisely and see results faster. - You are focusing on “tactics” not “strategy”
This is a symptom of not having a marketing plan. Yes, you need a list, to leverage social media and a host of other things. But, jumping in with no strategy to guide you is like sky diving without a parachute. (wait for it…Yikes, that is some scary imagery!) - You have too many coaches in the kitchen
There are some great coaches out there, you may be one of them. But, if you are leaning on the guidance of more than one marketing coach (STOP). Its distracting. As a matter of fact, if you have been in business for more than a year without results, take a break from your coach. Odds are your brain is full of knowing what to do, but your business is empty of application. Go backward to go forward. No matter how many group intensives you participate in, unless you are moving, you’re wasting more time and money. - You are spending too much time & money trying to find a magic bullet
The magic pill does not exist. Back away from the buy button open up your hard drive and start putting your previous investments into action in your business. Most marketing programs offer great information but fall short on implementation support. Instead of spending money on more info programs, use it to pay someone to get things done for you in your business. - You are seeking perfection, not progress
Another thing that stops success in its tracks is perfectionism. When the perfection monster creeps in, reach for authenticity. Your eblast might not be exactly how you want it. Send it and speak to your list in a way that conveys your hesitation but demonstrates your commitment to action. Your eblast will improve. But, instead of dying in some remote corner of your auto-responder, you can build connection while making progress. People appreciate knowing you are a real person, not a robot. - You’re addicted to last minute marketing
It’s amazing. I have presented clients with no brain-er, plug- n- play schedules to jump start marketing and visibility momentum and somehow they managed to wiggle out of it and call me a week later in a panic because they have not communicated with anyone in months and want to do a product launch. If you think you are frustrated with the momentum of your online business, try standing in the shoes of your support team. If you have no focus or discipline in your business, you’ll find you are tripping over yourself trying to get to success. And, if you are not careful you can kill the morale of your support team or lose them.
If you see any of these symptoms in your business, now is the time to turn things around. Remember, marketing online is a moving target, so you have to stay flexible to keep up with the changing trends and buyer’s reactions. Take some time to get to know your business intimately and create a strategic plan that informs how you spend your time and resources on marketing activities.
Do you have anything to add or any unique challenges you’d like to share? I’d love to hear them.
Until Next Time,
Warm Wishes for Your Marketing Success,
Kenya
Feedback is the breakfast of Champions ~Ken Blanchard
I cherish your feedback and want to make sure the information I provide is nourishing! Please let me know if you enjoyed this article and share any insights or question you have by leaving a Facebook comment below.
Rock Their World: 7 Ways to Wow Your Prospects & Customers with Your Content
Oh My Gooodness! I recently caught a rerun of one of my favorite shows growing up, the sketch comedy show “In Living Color”. It didn’t disappoint. Jamie Fox’s hilarious character Wanda always had me rolling on the floor laughing with her “I’ll rock your world” line.
Although, I am sure no one wanted Wanda to “rock their world”. With the economy all wacky, people are not spending as freely as before. Which means they need something to convince them to hit the buy button. Rocking the world of your prospects and customers could do wonders for your online presence and bottom-line.
1. Give em’ Something They Can Feel. Get Physical. Now that everything is “online”. It’s exciting to get things in the mail you can hold. Consider creating some tangible items to send prospects to make a favorable impression. Consider creating a marketing kit, sending a booklet, branded bookmarks or some other keepsake that gives your audience/customers something to keep you in the front of their minds.
2. Shower em’ with Some Love. Look to create opportunities in your business to thank your customers/prospects by highlighting them for their support. Get creative and be generous. Consider a using an eNewsletter spotlight, blog feature, complimentary interview, 6 series branded radio show, free limited time promotion, etc…
3. Show them it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Make being and insider an irresistible deal. Consider creating levels that allow prospects an exclusive look at the benefits of doing business with you. Keep current clients happy by giving them first dibs or sweet discounts on future products/services.
4. Make them Laugh. There’s no better way to connect with people than through laughter. With all the stuff happening in the world using humor to increase the appeal of your offering is a natural deal sweetener. Again, be creative.
5. Roll out the red carpet. Create an internal process in your business designed to make new customers feel like rock stars. They’re giving you their money, so why not invest some time and gratitude by rolling out the red carpet. Some ideas might be to create a complimentary gift basket, gift a book, discounted services, branded portable media player with exclusive training materials. You’ll have a happy walking billboard and a loyal customer for life! After all, who doesn’t like gifts?
6. Listen & make them feel important. As a woman, having someone listen to us is like breathing. Let your audience know you are paying attention. One of the most important things you can do is find ways to get prospects to talk about their challenges in their own words. The feedback is invaluable when it comes to creating products and services that are the perfect fit for wants and needs. Consider reading what they read, joining their forums or asking for direct feedback with emails or setting up a site specifically for this purpose ( try using http://www.askdatabase.com/). Other options may be listening with Twitter, Facebook or Google Alerts.
7. Keep it Fresh. There is nothing appealing about boring marketing emails, blogs and messaging that puts people to sleep. In this market, you can’t afford to blend in and play it safe! No one will pay attention. Mix things up by incorporating new ideas, messaging and technologies to help you stand out in the eyes and ears of your target audience.
If you want to be successful in today’s over-saturated online marketing place, you have to find ways to stand out. Use these tips as a starting point to craft a unique selling position that puts you head and shoulders above the crowd!
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Making Content Sexy: How to Create Fun Infographics to Boost Your Traffic and Brand Awareness
Sometimes pictures are not just worth a thousand words, they’re all you need to effectively educate your prospects and customers. Infographics make it easy to digest complex concepts and information. High in entertainment and informational value, they can become viral sensations that boost your traffic and brand awareness.
Think about how much more visibility you can get as a speaker, author or coach by creating infographics for your business.
Here’s a cool infographic I found that illustrates what inforgraphics are and how to create them for your business.
Created By Voltier Creative
Making Content Sexy: How to Create Online Content that Fits Your Business Like a Glove
I would start off by saying…predictably that I’m bringing “sexy back” to creating awe inspiring online content, but I’m not sure that it ever was a sexy aspect of growing an online business in the first place.
We all know we need to create content to effectively communicate with target prospects and customers, but keeping up with the content demands of an online business isn’t the most attractive task.
When we think about creating a profit-winning online business, we are naturally attracted to the headlines that sell us on fast ways to get clients and money. The problem is that while the methods we are hoping to install in our business worked wonders for the “cool kids” promoting them, they may not be the right fit for our business.
The best way to make your online business turn heads and attract cash is to add a content marketing strategy to your marketing wardrobe. And, it’s not an accessory. Your content marketing strategy should be a staple, like that little black dress or a great pair of jeans.
The #1 reason content is not a priority in most solopreneur’s businesses.
First, let’s take a look at why content doesn’t fit into the paradigm of most online businesses. It’s viewed as an ugly, messy burden.
Why?
The perception is that it takes too much time and or money to commit to. So, instead of investing in creating irresistible content, many webpreneurs settle for what called “11th hour” content creation. You get caught up in the technical details instead on developing a compelling message.
So, how can your change the way you look at content production to get it done?
Creating content for your online marketing is not something you can afford to ignore. The key is to not only find ways of making the content production process more enjoyable, but to ensure that the content you choose to create fits your personality, resources and appetites of your target audience.
Here are 5 ways to find the right content to capture your voice and passion.
- Identify what you are good at and feeling comfortable doing.
We typically procrastinate on things we don’t feel confident doing. If you like to write then blogging and articles are the way to go, if you hate writing, try recording mini interviews on topics in your expertise and get them transcribed. You can use the audio to create a podcast and the transcripts to create articles or ebooks. - Bring your creativity and unique personality to deliver your message.
As a speaker, author or coach, your personality is what will attract the right people to learn and buy from you. So, try to avoid any medium that will interfere with your ability to be your charismatic and authentic self. - Create a schedule for producing your content.
Schedule an appointment with yourself the same as you would with a client. Use that time to create your content. - Automate your publishing with set-it-and-forget-it technology.
Automating your content delivery will give you the freedom to focus on other aspects of your business. The editorial calendar plugin for WordPress is the best solution for putting your blog posts on auto pilot. - When in doubt…experiment.
Try out different types of content to find what captures your passion and interest. Don’t take on too much. It’s about quality and consistency…once you establish a comfortable rhythm, you can do more.
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Until next post,
Happy Wishing
~Kenya
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Content Chic Part 6: How to Carve a Unique Place in Your Market and Get People to Buy Your Stuff
Knowing who you are and who you serve is the most important part of your business. If you have skipped this step in setting up your online business you will find yourself chasing ghosts.
Some advice tells you to narrow your target customer as much as possible for the best results others may feel that the wider the net the better the chances of catching more sales. I’m not here to tell you which is best for your business, because each business is unique. What I do recommend is that you take a little time to think about who your ideal customer is, what unique value you bring to the table and all the ways in which your products and services benefit them…
Know the features and benefits of your products and services.
Sometimes we get caught up in the coolness (at least what we think is cool) of the features of our offerings instead of the benefits that will appeal to our target audience. Make a list of features then write down how each will benefit your client/customer. Sell the benefits when you are creating education and marketing messages for your target audience.
Know your ideal client.
I know we have all found ourselves at one time or another in a nightmare client relationship that we want out of. To help avoid this issue, it’s best to find some time to explore the ideal characteristics of your perfect client. People like to spend money with someone they like and trust and the pendulum swings both ways, from the consumer to you the service provider and back. Create an ideal client profile that outlines their psychographics and demographics.
Know your unique selling proposition.
This is the biggie. It’s important for us to have in our mind the gaps in our competition’s offerings or any holes that may exist in our market. By examining where your competition is falling short, you can improve your offerings and carve out a place in your market where you can stand out from the crowd. Make a list of some of the things that make your business a better choice than your competitors. Do you have a quick turn-around? Do you have an appealing guarantee? What is different about you that a client would benefit more from than your competition? If you have trouble with this exercise, it’s time to get creative and come up with something unique.
Lock yourself in the room for a day or give yourself a deadline to complete this exercise. The details may change as your ideal client profile is revealed. The point of this exercise is not to get it exact (although that works too), its simply designed to create a habit of thinking about your business in a more strategic way.
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The Joy of the Free Taste Series:The Art of Preparing Your "FREE Taste"
What are you serving your prospects for free that they’d gladly pay for?
Baskin Robbins has the perfect ‘pink spoon’ both literally and figuratively. You go in and in order to help you figure out what you want, they delight you with the opportunity to taste a variety of flavors for free. And-after your heavenly taste testing, there is no way you are leaving the store without a cone a pint or an account to have ice cream delivered to your door! Taste testing free ice cream is an automatic draw. But, what about in your web based business? We are gonna identify the 8 ingredients that make up a tantalizing ‘Pink Spoon’ recipe.
What is a ‘Pink Spoon’?
I must admit this was a concept lost on me when I put up my first website. It was beautiful to look at. However, it had the virtual window shopping effect;It was nice to look at but not worth taking the time to stop in for a closer look.
I spent, what seemed like, millions of hours trying to get it up and running for customers to preview my products and services. And guess what…they did not bite. Even when I learned more about marketing online and revamped my site, I was missing a critical piece…My Pink Spoon!
The ‘pink spoon’ is a clever play on a best practice process that goes by many names (funnel marketing, free line marketing etc…). Whatever you call it, it is a strategic process that compels customers buy by moving them through a series of offerings from free items of value, nominally priced products to high-end assets. The purpose of the ‘pink spoon’ is to establish the “know, like and trust’ relationship with your audience.
There are eight ingredients in developing an effective Pink Spoon or Sales Funnel:
(As outlined in the “Pink Spoon Marketing” System)
- Identifying Your Niche Market: Who are they? Where do they hang out? A good niche is specific and narrow. For example, “women” is not a great niche. “women business owners” is better. “women who own business coaching practices” is great!
- Elicit the Problems: Once you know who your target audience are, you can survey and engage them to find out what’s really bugging them in their market, what barriers they need to get over, and what’s stopping them from getting what they want out of their life or business.
- Find the Solutions: Craft ‘hardcore’ and ‘softcore’ products that resolve the challenges your research revealed. We’ll talk more about these later in the series.
- Choose Your Products and Your Packaging: Now, this is the fun part. Here ‘s where you will productize your solutions and decide what format you’d like to deliver them in. We’re exploring this piece later in the series as well.
- Generate Traffic with Integrity: Leverage cost effective and proven traffic generation methods used by the gurus. Over the course of this series we’ll take a look at what these are and provide you with some of the tools I use in my own business. (You’ll need to subscribe to the ‘Virtually Chic Newsletter’ to get the inside scoop).
- Continue to Convert Traffic into Prospects: Your we presence is all about driving ‘targeted’ traffic to a specific location,preferably a sales or opt-in page and trying to convert them into buyers.
- Strengthen the Trust Relationship : Once your targeted traffic takes the desired action via opt-in to your list or making a purchase, you want to nurture the relationship through consistent email messaging. The best thing to do here would be to use an autoresponder like aweber.
- Pursue a Bold, Outrageous and Provocative Position in Your Niche Market: Do you have a position, slogan, methodology that can turn heads or makes people think “What”? Explore what upsets you or what quirky personality traits you can inject into your marketing message to ignite interest, draw a tribal following AND STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD.
Next Post…
We’ll take a look at how to create an effective pink spoon and product all at once! Stay tuned.
P.S. Just so you know…My Virtual Genie is a compensated affiliate of the products/services mentioned in this post. Both are used in the development and operations in my business.
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Until next post,
Happy Wishing
~Kenya
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How to Organize Your "Virtual Closet" With a Online Standard Operations Procedure(S.O.P.) Manual
I don’t know about you but over time my closet can get pretty messy. Whether it is due to running late or flat out laziness, it is apparent that there needs to be some system in place to restore order and flow to my closet. Likewise, we accumulate lots of tools and processes that accessorize our online business and make it pop. And more often all the different pieces get buried, misplaced or lost in a pile of information.
So we find ourselves searching for logins, recreating documents and making things complicated all of which costs us more time and money than we bargained for. However, now all that is about to change with one simple acronym “S.O.P.”.
It’s never to early or too late in the year to get your “virtual closet” in order. by “virtual closet” I mean the internal processes of your business. Having a Standard Operation Procedure Manual (S.O.P.) in place can do wonders for your business.
Here are four ways you can benefit from having your own SOP in place.
- Systematize your business and increase profits: Lack of documented systems plague both online and offline businesses and become a drain on your time and profits. An online S.O.P. allows you to smooth out all the different processes or “hows” in your business and houses them all in one convenient place.
- Hire and train new team members in a breeze: Document your hiring procedures and cut or eliminate training time. New team members can simply log on to your S.O.P. workspace to learn the ins and outs of various organizational tasks.
- Take a ‘real’ vacation and relax: With processes documented, you won’t have to worry your pretty little head as to whether things can get done without you!
- Operate your business outside of your head: Get all the sorted details of your business out of your head and into a place where delegation is made easy and seamless. If something happens to you, can your business move forward?
Click the image below to watch this video tutorial on how to “Set Up” your S.O.P. Manual for FREE online!
P.S. I am working on adding audio for those of you who’d like to follow along audibly. My kids just would not allow me the quiet to record for this release…boys will be boys, right?
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Until next post,
Happy Wishing
~Kenya
The Joy of the Free Taste Series: Filling Your Funnel
I recently posted a discussion “WHY BUY THE COW WHEN THE FREE MILK IS SOUR?“where I warned not to give away your “ninja secret” to your product recipe. The concept goes that instead of giving a way a full e-book on the “7 ways to do “X”, you simple reveal ONE powerful step in the seven step process and either have the visitor trade their e-mail or purchase the remaining piece. Some savvy participants asked how we could think outside this piece meal method and still deliver value to our prospects and customers.
The answer lies in your funnel. When you have a well developed product funnel, you have the leverage to move and shift things where they are the most effective. Not only that, you have the content to manipulate as well.
As early as 1996, savvy webpreneurs have been banking millions simply by employing this funnel method. By harnessing the power of the free offer, they have been able to achieve six, seven and even eight figure success while reciprocating with REAL not perceived value to their buying audience.
Who can resist a FREE smorgasbord especially if the grub is FREE! Have you ever gone to a catered event where the food spread was so unbelievable, you ended up patronizing the restaurant that provided the service? This is a simple example of how funnel marketing works. People get a free and/or reduced cost taste of what they can expect to get from buying at higher and higher levels. If what you are offering is good, they feel comfortable buying from you no matter the cost.
We all posses a certain power within us, a magic that not genie or magician can manufacture; this power is called determination. If
This Just In…
no one is going to buy from you if they are not convinced that your product/service will work for them.
It may take someone 7 – 8 times or more of visiting your site and nibbling on your free goodies before they whip out their credit card and buy some goodies. Even then, they may not feel comfortable jumping from FREE to a huge FEE. So, not only do you need to offer free things of value to your target audience, you need to have several different price points in between to give your visitors options that may fit more with their budget and circumstances.
In the world of online business you can find FREE stuff everywhere. The question is, as an online business owner are you providing an opportunity to get to know, like and trust you and your offerings?
Let’s walk you through the process of building your product funnel starting with the FREE TASTE.
Evaluating Your Funnel
So, let’s start with what ya got!
If you are a little lean on some or even all of the levels, not to worry, as you work through this process, you’ll have a solid funnel of products to get started on or even completed.
Unleashing Your Loss Leader
Your FREE offerings are represented at the opening of the funnel. Here is where you want to offer something of high value to your visitor for free. This product will be your “Loss Leader” or a product sold at or below cost.
Now why in the world would you want to do that? I mean after all you are trying to make money here, right?
Absolutely.
Stay with me now, because what we are creating here is a pricing strategy. Your loss leader will stimulate a hunger for more of what you have to offer. This is the first step of your visitor’s know, like and trust journey. Trust me this is a mutually beneficial process that will allow a deeper relationship to develop between you and your customers; here is where the real treasure lies.
Deciding on a Free Product
There are a number of ways to deliver your information for free. Here are a few digital formats to choose from.
- E-book
- Short Report
- Audio Interview
- Mp3 & Podcasting
- Mini-Ecourses
- Teleclass or Teleseminar Recording
- Top # List (You choose the number)
- Informational Video or Webinar Presentation
Of course you can offer other tangible free products. However, you will most likely fair better with something instantly downloadable. Otherwise, you could things could get expensive and complicated. That is if you don’t have the proper systems and team in plane to manage the back end. Try shooting for this a little further down the road.
Dos and Don’ts When Considering What FREE Product to Develop:
- Don’t use E-zines or Newsletters only for your freebie. Requires too much time to build and does not deliver instantly which could cause you to lose your moment to make an instant impression or connection.
- Don’t use your “FREE Consult” as your freebie. It may be awesome to chat with you. However, this is not appealing enough to get visitors to bite. Plus, even if they did, imagine 100 people scheduling a free consult…not such a good idea huh?
- Don’t spend more than 4-5 hours creating your free product. If you spend too much time on a free product, you may want to take a step back to ensure you aren’t giving away the cow. Consider giving a piece of it away and developing it as a paid product. This way you can kill two birds with one stone!
- Do choose a format that brings out your inner gifts and talents. If you are a closet actor/actress try a product that incorporates video, if you got the gift of gab, try audio. Just make sure you enjoy the process!
Do poll or research your niche to find out what format they are most responsive to. This may even be a case of test, track and repeat until you find the on switch. If you can, it would be great to ask them directly (i.e through e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In, etc)
Next Post…
We’ll take a look at how to create an effective written free product . Stay tuned.
P.S. Just so you know…My Virtual Genie is a compensated affiliate of the products/services mentioned in this post. They are either used in the development and operations in my business or and endorsement of a trusted partner and market leader.
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Join the Virtually Chic Newsletter: The Joy of the Free Taste Series: Filling Your Funnel
Until next post,
Happy Wishing
~Kenya
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The Joy of the Free Taste: How to Give Away the Milk and Compel Customers to Buy the Cow
QUESTION: WHY BUY THE COW WHEN THE FREE MILK IS SOUR?
Okay, so the cow…yeah– not all that chic, but I thought he was cute! Anyway, it really drives home the message of the month which is exploring the art of the “Free Taste”. To break in the brand new year, I thought I’d start off showing you how giving away FRESH AND VALUABLE stuff can propel you to multiple stream success.
First, we’ve all heard the saying ” Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free, right? Well, in the online world, the virtual “free milk” is what fuels your prospects and customers to buy from you. The “free milk” I speak of represents your free giveaway. What are you providing your prospects to motivate them to buy from you? I should point out that it is important that your “milk” or freebie be something fresh and rich enough to fill your audience with useful information without rendering yourself and your products and services useless.
Now, if you have grasped this concept already, then stay tuned in this month for tips and tricks on making your offerings even more tantalizing for your list.
If you don’t have any “milk” to give away, Don’t fret. I’m here to help you milk your cow and quinch the thirst of your niche. Stay plugged in this month as we explore…
The Importance of the Free Gift in Your Online business:
Pink Spoon Marketing, Funnel Marketing, Lead Loser Marketing… are all fancy names to describe the free giveaway, which is the foundation of online business. As you’ll find if you follow this series, there are many other elements that accompany this feature. However, the free product is the draw.
Creating Your Free Sample
When choosing your freebie, remember strategy is key! Don’t go for a format just because of all the bells and whistles. Look for ways to create a sense of value. How do you do that? It varies. You can do polls, surveys interviews, contests and more to find out what’s really buggin’ your target audience. You can even draw on your own experiences. Whatever the means, the end should equal real value for your prospects and customers.
Building Your Relationship
Don’t expect people to buy something when they visit your site for the first time. It’s important to establish the “know, like and trust” factor in your communications. If your customers love you they will not only follow and support your message, they will WANT to give you their money! Think about the brands you swear by. What are the characteristics that compel you to buy only their products/services. Is it quality, service delivery, customer service, dependability…? Try making a list and determine how you can apply those characteristics to your own business.
A new author puts up a site to promote his book. He has a about me, product, and contact page.
What’s Missing?
Many beginning webpreneurs make the mistake of just thinking a contact page is enough. Having a site without any candy to engage the visitor can lead to you losing a potential sale forever. What’s more, a stale and ineffective “pink spoon” is another way to let a prospect escape.In the case of the author, even if the description of the book’s content is enticing, odds are it isn’t enough to convince the visitor to part with their hard earned dollars or even their precious e-mail address.
We are gonna be delving deeper into each of these issues this month. To be sure you don’t miss out, make sure your signed up for our monthly “Virtually Chic” Newsletter.
Next time we’ll explore the art of developing a compelling pink spoon and how not to give away the cow!
The Art of the Free Taste Series Blog posts will be delivered Mondays and Wednesdays.
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Until next post,
Happy Wishing
~Kenya