All kidding aside, what I didn’t realize is that developing an ‘elevator pitch’ is not so much about where it’s delivered as much as it is about knowing what your business does and being able to tell others. It’s about taking your company’s main focus out of the obscure recesses of your head and putting it into words for the world to hear. Come to find out, doing this isn’t always an easy task.

When the ‘time’ presents itself, and it will present itself, having a memorized ‘elevator pitch’ for your business will help you communicate what your business does and you won’t have to worry about going off on a long-winded, disjointed, tangent. In fact, a well constructed ‘elevator pitch’ helps others quickly decide whether or not they want to know more about your business. And the fact that you know exactly what to say when that ‘time’ presents itself, gives you a distinctly higher possibility of having your audience want to know more.

One thing I learned while writing the ‘elevator pitch’ for this website is that summing up what your business does is not all you will gain. The process of writing the pitch actually helps you realize what the one most important thing is that you want your customer to know about your business.

What is an ‘elevator pitch’?

An ‘elevator pitch’ is a succinct summation of what your business does. It should be easy to understand and should take no longer to deliver than it takes to ride an elevator to the top of a short building. It should be delivered in such a way that it excites the listener and entices them to want to know more.

How do you write an ‘elevator pitch’?

• Do not use a cookie cutter template that is easy to find on the internet. Make your pitch unique and give it personality.
• An ‘elevator pitch’ is not a sales pitch. Do not allow it to sound cheezy.
• Your pitch must be easy to understand by anyone, even your grandmother. Do not use acronyms or industry jargon.
• The core of your ‘elevator pitch’ should convey benefits to your customer. This is where you should explain why your business is unique and better than your competitors.
• Ensure it is no longer than 30 seconds. This will drive you to focus on what’s most important about your business in the eyes of your customer.
• Lastly, memorize it, rehearse it, inject passion, confidence, and personality.

Delivering your ‘elevator pitch’.

• Practice it, and then practice it again, and then again and again. Out loud in a mirror. Determine how it will be different when delivering it to different audiences and practice it some more. Get to the point where it rolls off your tongue naturally.
• Get over any apprehension you may have about ‘tooting your own horn’. Delivering an ‘elevator pitch’ about YOUR company is all about telling how YOU will deliver.
• Speak at a pace that shows calm confidence. People can be put-off when you speed through a rehearsed speech. Make sure it sounds natural.
• Remember the first rule of sales – ABC – always be closing. Give your speech to everyone, don’t save it for only those you think are customers, you never know when a potential customer is sitting at your table or…standing in the elevator with you.

An effective ‘elevator pitch’ is designed to give its audience enough information that they will know what you’re talking about and then have enough interest to want to know more. It should not overwhelm, intimidate, or make the other person feel dumb. And it should not be so detailed or long that they tune out.

Here’s version 2 of my elevator pitch for Internet Marketing Boomer and I still think it needs work, actually, a lot of work:

“I help internet business owners find success online by explaining and teaching online marketing concepts through the articles I post on Internet Marketing Boomer. I do that by examining, reviewing, reporting and recommending internet marketing knowledge products as well as writing about how to set-up an internet business and website, how to drive traffic to that website, and examining the different options people have to make money online. Basically, with what I write, I help internet business owners find the information they need to succeed online.”

The tag line I’ve developed for my ‘elevator pitch’ is:

“Helping internet business owners find the information they need to succeed online.”

Keep it concise, to the point, and easy to understand. Deliver it with passion, confidence and personality while keeping it shorter than an elevator ride up a short building. Do all that and you will have an ‘elevator pitch’ that not only helped you pinpoint what your business does but will allow you get a lot of people interested as well.

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Basically, you sign-up and then you add links to your favorite websites. You can categorize them with tabs across the top of the page. Each bookmark shows a screenshot of the web page. And that’s it. It’s that simple.

Here’s a screenshot of one of my categories (tabs).

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So here, in this post, I’m going to attempt to give you an overview and then I’m going to show you how to use Google Reader. Google Reader is my favorite free feed reader and I’m sure it will soon become your favorite as well. I’m going to take you through the steps to use Google Reader to bring information to you and make your time on the internet more efficient.

I’m also going to do an article in the next day or two to show you how to use Outlook 2007 as your feed reader. Outlook 2007 is my very favorite feed reader and it’s the one I actually use. I chose to do my first “how to” with Google Reader because it’s free and available to all. Many people either don’t use Outlook or haven’t upgraded to the 2007 version yet, so I wanted to write for the majority today and the rest tomorrow. And just to add a note, any of you who haven’t upgraded your Microsoft Office from 2003 to 2007, in my opinion it’s worth the upgrade (and the learning curve as it’s A LOT different), just to get the feed reader in Outlook 2007. I love it.

Okay, now on with the topic of this post.

What is RSS?

First, in my simplistic way, I want to answer the question, “What is RSS?”. Well, the letters stand for Really Simple Syndication. And believe me it is simple and it will save you a ton of time. Basically, it allows you to bring content, like articles, blog posts, and other information, to one place where you can choose what you want to read. Instead of going to each site everyday, the content is shown in one place and you can read it in one place.

For example, let’s say you read your local newspaper, there are two blogs you absolutely love and try to remember to read everyday (like Internet Marketing Boomer?), and there’s a sports site that gives you all the scores in one place. Without RSS, you would go to each site to read the info you want to read. You probably have all the sites set up in your “Favorites” and just go down the list.

With RSS there would be no need to go to each site. You open your feed reader and all the new content for the sites you choose is listed. If the website owner chooses to have the full article fed to feed readers, you can read the entire article right there in your feed reader. If you prefer to go to the site, you can click the link in the feed reader that will take you directly to the article or post. This is especially helpful when there is no new content as you won’t waste time going to that site to find nothing new has been posted. To me, it’s like having all the news and information that YOU want to read brought to you each day in a nice neat package. You don’t have to fiddle around with the things you don’t care about.

Feed Readers

A feed reader is kind of like your email program, it’s the program that brings all the content to your computer, just like your email program brings you your email (that’s probably why I like to use Outlook 2007 for my feed reader, it not only brings my email but my feeds as well, and they all look the same, one place for everything). There are a lot of feed readers to choose from, some you can even pay for but it’s not necessary. In my opinion Google Reader is the best free feed reader available and actually, other than Outlook 2007, it’s probably the best available period.

Okay, now let’s talk about Google Reader specifically and how to use it.

What’s really great about Google Reader is it gives you the ability to share the content you think is good with your friends. However, your friends will need to know how to use the reader as well and I find that’s not always the case (that’s why I LOVE Outlook 2007 but I digress).

To set up Google Reader go to www.google.com. The link will open in a new window so you can come back here and follow the steps.

Click on the “more…” link at the top of the page and choose “Reader” from the dropdown menu.

If you don’t have a Google Account, you’ll need to create one at this point. I’m not going to explain that other than to tell you to click on the big blue button at the bottom right that says, “Create An Account”. After you’ve created an account and signed-in, you will be taken to the following page.

Next you’ll want to take the “Tour” and then “Get Started”.

Next go to your favorite site and find the feed link, the feed link will normally always have the orange button with the wave type lines on it. Additionally if the site offers a feed, you’ll see that button in the address bar:

On the following page you need to click on the Google button:

Next you’ll have a choice to add the subscription to your Google Homepage or your Google Reader. Choose Google Reader:

You will then be taken to your view or “reading” page.

As you add more websites, they will be listed in the left-hand column. Just click on the site you want to read and the articles show up in the right-hand column.

There are a lot of other features offered by Google Reader and I’m just covering how to get started. Be sure to check out any videos and help featured offered at Google Reader and before long, you’ll be an expert.

In a future post I’ll show you Outlook 2007 and why I love it so much. I’m going to be experimenting with screen capture videos so maybe I’ll come back and add a video to this post later today.

Hope this information helped you to understand RSS and how to use a feed reader, specifically Google Reader. As you can see it’s really simple, so don’t hesitate, go get your own Google Reader set up with your fave websites and don’t forget to include your’s truly, Internet Marketing Boomer. Here’s a link to our feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/InternetMarketingBoomer

Cheers!

Reba

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