Archive for December, 2008

If you are still struggling to understand how social media marketing can help your business, watch this video by Perry Belcher called “How to Make Money With Social Media.”

Delivered with sweatshirt and whiteboard simplicity, Perry delivers a message that we can all understand – that you must understand –  if you want to take advantage of this new social media marketing opportunity.

In my opinion, social media marketing is even better than a party, because it keeps you connected even when the party itself is over.  It allows you to get to know what people really do, and to easily make and receive referrals.

Make sense?

Charities are hurting for dollars right now.  As more Americans worry about paying their mortgages, they’re watching their disposable income closer than ever – and that includes what they donate to charity.  My friend, fellow Duct Tape Marketing Coach, and the master of “good cause” marketing, Randy Vaughn, wrote a great post recently for the American Express Open Forum about Charitable Giving.  In his post he writes,

Give out of a generous spirit and you will receive the proper recognition as a secondary benefit (the first benefit comes from giving and helping others). 

He goes on to give 5 easy and fun ways that your small business can give to charity.   Both

you and the charity will benefit when you promote a cause that you believe in.  Plus, when you give back, you’re often humbled, left feeling extremely grateful for all you have. You might be struggling – but no matter how bad your situation is, some else is worse off.  I’m reminded of this email I received from a friend.

If you have food in the fridge, clothes on your back, a roof overhead,
and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank and spare change somewhere, you are among
the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.
And if you can read this message, you are more blessed than more than
the two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

For ideas on how you can give back, read the American Express Open Forum about Charitable Giving.

Are you having a hard time writing a tagline?  I’m a BIG fan of taglines, because they give you an extra few words to describe your company and what you do.  But if you read the taglines of many professional service firms, they begin to all sound alike:

• We believe in quality (or service or honesty)
• Your trusted advisor
• Your one-stop stop
• When experience counts

When you’re boiling down your entire company’s experience, it IS truly hard to pick just 3-5 words.  Believe me.  The trick is to pick the one thing that matters most to your company and try to distill it down to it’s essence.  Do you provide – Speed? Convenience?  Security?  Safety?  Start with ONE word that best defines you, and build from there.

Then to support your tagline, you need to build out your marketing story.  Tell HOW your tagline defines your differentiation.  If your “people make the difference” tell me how! Is it because they’re smart?  Do you have a story that showcases how smart they are?  Do you have a testimonial or case study where someone else will tell me how smart they are? Do they all have Ph.D.s from highly-regarded universities?  Give your buyers proof.

When we’re buyers of professional services, we know there’s a difference between companies.  That’s why some hairdressers, dentists, doctors and accountants are backed up for months, and others take walk-in appointments. 

When we’re sellers of professional services, we need to be able to articulate how we’re different than our competitors - and that begins with HAVING a difference.   If you don’t have a way to differentiate and dominate, you’ll be stuck competing on price.  And that’s a problem, because there’s always someone willing to lower their prices, and go out of business faster than you. 

Remember the olden days when you were taught your ABCs….meaning Always Be Closing?

Yuck!  Let’s change it to Always Be Contributing.  I know that sounds a little cheesy, but the truth is that referral marketing, relationship marketing, word of mouth marketing and social media marketing all depend on people LIKING YOU.  If they don’t like you, they’re not going to recommend you to their friends.  And they’re not going to like you if you keep pushing your agenda, and you never contribute anything interesting or meaningful.

You might be genuinely excited about what you’re offering! You’re not trying to be a pushy sales person.  It’s just that your enthusiasm is being misunderstood. (I’m sure we’re ALL guilty of that at times!)  If that’s the case, you can make a minor course correction.  But when people start avoiding you, stop returning your phone calls, and block you as a Facebook friend, you need a major wake-up call.  Let me bring  you some self awareness.  You are “THAT GUY” if:

• You never call your friends, clients or associates to say “Hi” or “How are you?” without leading with some “Buy This!” or “Oooh, I need a favor?!” message. 


• You give only with the ulterior motive to get something in return - “Buy-that-lady-a-drink!”


• You only ask self-serving questions on LinkedIn – Would you like a solution that does XYZ at a fraction of the price of our competitor? Oh, we do that!


• You only comment on blogs to say – “Great post! Come visit my blog at XYZ.com”


• You do all the talking – and not enough listening.  You don’t truly converse with other people. 


• You ask questions at a conference with the sole purpose of getting the microphone so you can tell everyone about your company.

All of us who are in sales and marketing walk a fine line between letting people know what we do – and shoving it down people’s throat.  (Do the former; avoid the latter.)  It’s OK to be excited about what you sell – you should be!  Just don’t expect everyone to jump on board before they even know you. Pay attention to the feedback you’re getting and adjust appopriately.

Contribute.  Educate.  Give.  Resolve to do one nice thing today without expecting anything in return. 

Always Be Contributing!

Some of the best things in life are free – and that includes some fabulous new small business marketing tools.  Some of these tools are free at the entry level, and once you fall in love with their offering you pay to upgrade – and others are just plain old FREE. I don’t know how they stay in business, but I’m not complaining!

For Small Business Press Releases

• http://www.PressReleaseGrader.com – A free offering from Hubspot, you can put your press release through their site to see how well it’s optimized for the search engines.
• http://www.PRweb.com – Publish your press release for as little as $80.
• http://www.PRlog.com – Publish your press release your PR for FREE.
• http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/Instant-Press-Release.htm - This tool guides you through the steps of writing your own press release. 

For Small Business Blogging

• http://www.Twitter.com – A free micro-blogging software tool.  How much can you say in 140 characters?
• http://www.WordPress.com – Hosting WordPress on your own site can provide your small business with great SEO
• http://www.TypePad.com – Starting at only $10/month, TypePad is a great option if you want to integrate with Vertical Response or other email systems.
• http://www.FeedBurner.com – A great way to get metrics about your blog, as you give people an easy way to subscribe via email or RSS.

For Small Business Organizing

• http://jott.com/ Call your phone to create lists, write notes to yourself, write blog posts, and send text messages to your friends and family.
• http://basecamphq.com/ Organize your projects online.

For Small Business Marketing

• Duct Tape Marketing Coaching Excellence Series Tape Hear John Jantsch interview a variety of small business and marketing gurus like Seth Godin and David Allen.  Free.
• VerticalResponse Get a free trial for this easy-to-use email marketing system
• Queensboro Shirt Company Mix and match as few as 4 shirts with no embroidery charge 
• Social Media eBook – Free from Microsoft
• And not free, but well worth the money for the do-it-yourself small business marketer, check out the new and improved Duct Tape Marketing Ultimate Marketing System.  The system is now broken into booklets, making it very easy to use.  And it’s only $399. 

I’m sure I missed lots of my favorite free small business marketing tools, but this is a good list to get you started.  If you have small business marketing tools you think other small business owners would LOVE to know about, add your suggestion to the comments.  If I get enough submissions and I pick your small business marketing tool, I’ll write a “Free Small Business Marketing Tools Continued” post giving you credit and a link back for the submision.  Share the free tools love!