Sarah's Nursing Business

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more and more dynamic as algorithms are no longer just being programmed and run, but instead are taking in data and altering themselves as they learn new things. They are able to collect the information that results and then adapt themselves to achieve more results. They are learning from their mistakes much like our human brain does. As this continues to advance and become more prevalent, it becomes increasingly important to learn more about AI. I remember recently at my workplace, they had a cyber security issue. Someone was able to tap into the hospital network and collect a bunch of data. I am not entirely sure what data they accessed, but it was a large security breech. Not only that, they created a headache that lasted for well over 72 hours. The information technology (IT) was able to quickly identify the breech and shut it down. In doing so, they also had to shut down the registration system because the attack was embedded within it. Ev...

 Overall, I feel like my ad campaign was successful in teaching me a lot of things. I had no interaction with Google Ads prior to this course. Now I feel like I could run an Ad Campaign with little difficulty. Tailoring it to turn profits may take some more time, but I feel like overall I was pretty successful. I'm not sure how many impressions and clicks people usually get in 10 days, but I was happy with the amount I received. Above is the final count. I ended up spending $45.05 in total. Over 61,000 impressions and that got me a total of 152 clicks on my ads. I initially had a $7 a day limit set because of the slow start with clicks in the first 24 hours but when it began to pick up that is when I backed off to the $5 a day that my professor suggested. It is pretty impressive how fast the price ads up when the clicks start rolling in.  I did find the app helpful in keeping an eye on things. It is very user friendly. You can easily change any of the keyword themes or quickly...

When I first kicked off my ad campaign I had very little interaction in the first 24 hours. For my class the professor established that we must spend $50 on the ad campaign. I did not think anything of this price, until I only had one click in the first 24 hours that only amounted to under $2. This made me worry. So much so that I actually shot a message over to my professor to ask what I was supposed to do if my ad campaign did not reach $50. I mean in reality, I cannot make people click on my ad, right?! He was very understanding and offered help in altering my campaign. After a few tweaks and a little time the clicks and impressions really started to pick up. With the addition of the negative keyword themes (I talked about this issue in a previous post ) it really targeted my intended audience more and showed my ad to those that were truly looking for books and not for wine, which was helpful. Another thing that I did was change my campaign destination. I originally had my campaign ...

With marketing, it is important to not overlook the impact that a personal letter can hold. Think about all of the mass junk mail that you get that is addressed to current resident, or someone else entirely with the option OR current resident underneath. Where does that mail immediately go? In the trash at my house, or if we are being responsible, the recycle bin. An informal mass letter or email just does not get very far.  For the guerrilla marketer, a personal letter can come with a big pay off. Engaging the customer with personal details lets them know that you are paying attention. It also tells them that you are invested in them as a person and care about what they have or what they need. You are able to captivate the mind of the reader and when they feel a sense of loyalty it will bring them back to you time and time again.  It is important to include as many details as possible when writing a personal letter. Do not leave generic descriptions or generalized statements...

Where does the whole process lead? To the global stage. In order to make it, you have to comprise a competent team that will get you there. Then you cannot leave your team behind, but rather you must take them with you. But do know that it is not all about your team. It is also about your customers. Ultimately, it is your customers who built your business by investing in your products and services, so take your customers with you to. Learn about your customers. Know the ins and out of your customers, what they want and need from you. In every aspect of your business you should ensure clarity and efficiency in each of your core practices. Implementing things that are important to your team and keep everyone in sync and on board with a shared and common goal. Help them to believe in what you are doing. By involving all of your staff and customers, you will attain your goal at a much faster pace.  Bringing everyone along with you can be accomplished through the implementation of cult...

As you continue to look into and learn more about artificial intelligence (AI), be mindful that the journey should be never ending. It is important to keep up with the news and continue to read more and more about AI and its developments. When seeking out AI information do it through different avenues. Access books, local courses, and online, to see what is the best fit for you and your learning needs. There is a multitude of books that you can access to gain better understanding. If books aren't your thing and you require a little more structure, it may be beneficial to take courses in AI. Courses have the potential to greatly increase your AI expertise. A structured course can help to explain and develop AI understanding better than self instruction can. You can connect with and possibly gain a mentor through a class as well.  Gaining local access to courses is also important so that the people you connect with are in your community and more easily accessible. Look for well deve...

When you are aligning your strategy with process and measurement, accountability and alignment become two of your best traits. A properly aligned strategy can be effectively executed. Without the alignment there is no way to execute a plan time after time to produce results. Accountability is simply making sure that people deliver on what they said they would do. This is where it becomes important that everyone knows what their job is and what they are responsible for so they can complete their designated tasks and no part is left behind. All tasks are important and must be completed as a whole to execute the strategy. Designing your strategy comes from focusing on what you are best at. So take a step back and think about what your company does really, really well. You will never be the best in every category, but you can certainly be the best at one thing and overwhelmingly known for it. Recognize what your best strengths are and then design your vision and strategy around it.  W...

When committing to a marketing plan it is important to understand that getting the best price is not always the goal. Rather you should focus on spending your money in a place that will turn out the best profits. Not to say that you should not try to save money, but that is not the only goal. One way you can decrease the cost of your marketing is to design a campaign and stick to it. Chances are you will get tired of your campaign long before your prospects and customers will, but do not just change it when you are bored with it. Instead, you should let your accountant guide you on when you should change your campaign. Your accountant will know how profitable your campaign continues to be and when the money stops flowing in they will be able to alert you to it. Another way an entrepreneur can save some money is through bartering. Will everyone need what you are offering? Definitely not, but they will know someone who does. Just maybe you can connect people and swap out products and ser...

As a guerrilla marketer , there are many different marketing methods to choose from in order to promote your business. It is important to be selective about the methods that you choose and know who your target audience is before utilizing a specific type of marketing. By not being selective your un the risk of saying everything to nobody or nothing to everybody and you do not want that to happen. Know where your target audience is and tailor your approach to reach them with the method you choose. If you choose to utilize the newspaper for advertising, it should be eye catching, noisy, and to the point. If it does not cause a stir it is likely to go unnoticed. If you want to increase credibility magazines may be the best option. Readers are committed to particular magazines and becoming synonymous with them will increase your readability and credibility. As people interact with their magazine they are more likely to read every word within your add rather than just skimming over it. Tele...

When I was planning and preparing for my ad campaign, I was cognizant that there would be one major issue. I was not sure how to handle that issue, but thankfully Google Ads made it really easy to correct the issue. When initiating the campaign there was an option for keyword themes and negative keyword themes. The keyword themes is a list of words that you specifically choose that will trigger your ad when people search it. Google gives a list of suggestions based on what you are promoting when you sign up. The book that I was promoting with my ad campaign is titled Sweet Mellow Red. It is a nod to wine, but it is more specifically a book about friendship. When I loaded my target site Google Ads, as you can probably guess, gave a lot of keyword suggestions that would trigger when people were actually looking for wine. I deleted all of the wine suggestions and typed in more appropriate keyword themes. I thought that would correct the issue, but alas it did not.  After running my ad...

Ascend Your Start-Up takes us to the next step of product launch with discussion of aligning your product with the voice of your customer. This is done by taking a step back and really considering your brand through the eyes of your customers. Reviewing where you stand and where your product stands, gives you an opportunity to really align your strategy with your execution plan and further drive your brand. Acclimating is really taking the time to review what your customers are saying and what their intention is behind their words. How many times have you told someone as a customer that everything is fine or you are completely satisfied with a service they provided to you? I have so many times just to avoid the confrontation. Customers will lie to you and tell you that you did a great job or that everything is okay, but as a start-up who is building and developing a brand, it is important to listen. Listen to what the customers are not directly telling you. Listen to what they are say...

To become adept in artificial intelligence (AI) as Surfing the Tsunami suggests, you have to become involved with the development of AI. Becoming involved means that you work with the data and learn about coding, eventually writing your own code. Take your time throughout the process though. Become very goos at adapting first, then move on to adopting, and research some more before you move into the becoming adept phase of AI. It is all a process and there is not a time limit, but you should stay focused on learning and developing in AI and do not quit.  You really are not just stepping through the phases and leaving the others behind. Becoming adept is the development of knowledge and skill about AI and it is a continual and ongoing process. You should always be looking for and gathering more information about AI as this level suggests. Learning more and more and collecting more information will show you more areas of interest in AI. As your interest increases you will have more ...

My Google Ads campaign is for a local author friend of mine who released a book in November of last year. He is not big on marketing, actually hates it, so the stars aligned that I just happened to be in this class and needed a campaign. Previous to this campaign the only marketing he has done was a short Facebook ad run. There was no strategy or devised plan behind it, he just wanted to see what hits he would get off of the Facebook ad. The add did not prove to be very productive and that was a little discouraging. So my thought was, if I am spending fifty dollars what better way to spend it than on a friend. I did not know anything about Google Ads prior to this, but I found starting a campaign pretty easy. Setting the budget was straight forward. Adding images was a pretty easy process and it was made easier by also not having to worry about copyrights. The author did a good job providing me with photos. Google Ads also walked through the process of writing the ads pretty well with ...

Guerrilla Marketing makes it a point to let you know that creativity in marketing only has to do with one thing: profitability! You should not be after awards and recognitions with your creativity, but rather focused on how you can increase your profits. What is money spent on creativity of it does not turn a profit for your business? It is wasted money. At the end of the say, marketing that does not turn a profit is ultimately not creative at all.  There are ways to ensure you create a creative marketing campaign that sells. Focus on the inherent drama within your product offering. There has to be some drama with your product, something that makes it interesting. Once you know what that is, capitalize on it. Turn that drama into something meaningful. People are interested in what is beneficial about your product. Sell them on the benefits. State those benefits in a way that is believable to the consumer. Start with the drama and turn it into a believable benefit of your product....

 Moving on to the next stage in Ascend Your Start-Up focuses on how to move your product from being marketable to making it fit in within the market that it is being offered. Having a good marketing strategy will, unfortunately, only take you so far. Studying the market and have a go to product strategy that targets where your active audience is, is essential for selling your product within the right market. You should focus on distribution channel strategy. Having a solid channel strategy is a way to multiply your product sales and accelerate your revenue. You already know where your competitive landscape is, or at least you should by this point, so now you should get a good grasp on the distribution channels and the match has to be perfect. Do not get this confused with go-to-market strategy. A go-to-market strategy is the roadmap to launch your product, whereas, a product market fit is placing your product so that it satisfies the market in which you place it. Know that this pr...