Hot Ideas & Hot Air

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!

In a recent blog post, Ten Marketing Lessons from the Barack Obama Presidential Campaign, David Meerman Scott did a fantastic job of explaining how Barack Obama had used new media and sound marketing principles to win the Presidency.  In fact, David Meerman Scott goes on to say:

In my opinion, Barack Obama is the most successful “new marketer” in history.

Wow, MOST SUCCESSFUL new marketer in history - that’s praise indeed!  With an election that was so incredibly close, new media made the difference in Barack Obama becoming our 44th President of the United States. 

Obama

For those of you who like the hard statistics, you *HAVE TO* go check out the post by John Quily called  Barack Obama vs. John McCain’s Social Media and Search Engine Scorecard.   John Quily’s charts and analyses show that Obama DOMINATED all aspects of the social media and search engines - MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Technorati, Google, Yahoo - in fact McCain’s only statistical online “win” was on Yahoo News, driven by traditional news sources.  Go check it the Presential New Media Scorecard for yourself! 

So do you really think that new media can’t work for YOU?!  How many times have you been **THAT CLOSE** to signing a deal, but they chose “the other guy” because of some slight preference.  Learn from Barack Obama, elected our 44th President of the United States of America - largely due to his success in online marketing.  He rallied his tribe of followers, and got them involved. He tweeted, and emailed and texted.  He solicited friends.  You can do that too!

Being the new media superstar that he is, I wonder if Barack Obama will survive giving up his Blackberry - and ALL email?!  I know I couldn’t run a company without these tools.  How will he run our country without them?!  Perhaps it’s time that policy changes.

What’s a Wordpress Website?  A Wordpress Website (also called a blogsite) is a full featured, search engine friendly website that just happens be built on the world’s greatest blogging software (WordPress).  Just today Duct Tape Marketing has announced the launch of their turnkey Wordpress Website offerings. 

I’m so excited about this offering because it makes building a website so affordable!  If your website is sooooooo 2000, the Duct Tape Marketing Blogsites offering gives your business the web presence you need, a blog, and a way for anyone in your organization (especially non-techies) to update and expand your website as your business and marketing needs grow.  These Wordpress Websites are available for one fixed price - and custom themes are available!  

Why would you consider Wordpress website?  Three reasons.  

1.  Wordpress websites look great - very web 2.0, have the hipster “cool” factor;

2.  Wordpress websites are incredibly inexpensive; and

3.  Wordpress websites are really, REALLY easy to update!  If you can use Microsoft Word, you can use a Wordpress website.  Duct Tape Marketing takes care of all the administration and hosting, and the set up is completely turnkey.  If you have the content ready, you can be LIVE in as little as 14 days! If you need help with writing persuasive website copy, we’re here to help.   

Go check out the Wordpress Website templates Duct Tape Marketing has posted.  Remember you can always get something custom made if needed!  Contact us here at Tornado Marketing if you have any questions!

Do you believe me when I tell you that your small business should be marketing in a recession? 

Maybe.  Maybe not. 

It depends on how well you know and trust me.  If you are new to reading my blog, you might think, “Yeah right. Of course you want me to be marketing.  You’re selling marketing services.  Sheesh….” But if you know, like and trust me BEFORE I tell you you should be marketing in a recession, you are much more likely to trust my advice.  

TRUST is a major component of any decision.  Read Stephen M. R. Covey’s “The Speed of Trust” for a much deeper illustration of this principle.  Anyone marketing and selling for a small business - especially in professional services - needs to pay attention to building credibility, not just bringing in leads.  It is extremely difficult to build trust just by telling people they should trust you.  You need to SHOW them they should trust you.  How do you SHOW trust?

1.  Show studies, statistics, measurements.  If I show you that - ”According to a study by the American Business Press of the 1974-75 recession, companies that did NOT cut their marketing budget increased sales by 200% two years later, a fourfold difference over those who did cut their budget.”  - I’m backing up what I’m saying with numbers.  You can go read the study results for yourself, and know that I’m not making it up.  Here’s one PDF from Create-Demand.com called Marketing in a Recession.

2.  Don’t believe your own press - or at least don’t expect others to believe it.  When I hear someone say (about themselves) that they are a trusted advisor or similar self-serving talk, I can’t help but smile and think about Garrison Keillor’s ficticious town of Lake Wobegon, where “all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above-average.”  (Can you tell I grew up in MN?!) The point is that we all think that we’re above average, but 50% of us are wrong.

3.  Get others to say it for you.  Case studies, testimonials and referrals are powerful tools for building credibility.   Now more than ever you should be working to create enthusastic customers, and bringing in leads through referrals.  A third party voice is much powerful than your own.  Even been persuaded to buy something from an Infomercial?  Those infomercial marketing pros know exactly how to tug at your heart strings and purse strings using the power of the testimonial.

Now get out there and get marketing!  Use these credibility-building tips to boost your trust factor.  These tips will help you shorten your sales cycle and increase your lead-to-sales conversion ratio. 

P.S.  John Jantsch just sent me this offer:  For those of you who want to learn from the best, Michael Gerber and John Jantsch are running a marketing retreat up in Sonoma County November 13th and 14th.  As a Duct Tape Marketing Coach, I can offer you a 25% discount if you use purchase code EBMK1108 by midnight Monday, October 27th.  http://www.e-myth.com/seminars/ducttapemarketing/ If you decide to go, send me an email, (Email Adrianne Machina) and maybe I’ll shoot up there and join you for the marketing workshop and a glass of wine, two of my favorite things!

I can’t wait for Friday.  While not quite as exciting as Christmas, three of my favorite people will be on a call discussing my favorite subject - MARKETING!  More specifically, they will be discussing the marketing influence of tribes. 

Mark your calendar right this second - Friday, October 24th, at 10 a.m. Pacific Time - and Reserve Your Seat.

I’ll be shocked if phone lines aren’t jammed.  I consider all three of these men to be my marketing mentors, even if I really only know Seth Godin and Dave Lakhani through their books and speaking gigs.  I guess I must be part of their tribe. 

Seth Godin just released a book called Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us, and Dave Lakhani, who was raised in a cult, has written several books on persuasion, including Subliminal Persuasion: Influence & Marketing Secrets They Don’t Want You To Know, and of course if you read my blog, you must know John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing. 

We have always had tribes - churches, schools, community groups, but they’ve been organized around place. Today we have tribes organized around ideas and the technology to tie those ideas together like never before - but who leads a community like that? How do you lead a community like that?

Join John Jantsch live this Friday, Oct 24 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time as his discusses this very relevant topic with Seth Godin and Dave Lakhani.  Best of all, the call is FREE! How can you pass up hearing from this trio of marketing superstars, when all it costs is an hour of your time?!

Can’t make the live call? Not to worry. Go ahead and register and you’ll receive a recording link when the call is over.  Spread the word!

In my Duct Tape Marketing workshops and coaching sessions, we talk about the sales hour-glass, the marketing system that turns the prospects into tryers, buyers, repeat buyers, and raving fans. Well, this week John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing showed us exactly how that’s done!

Adrianne Machina, Duct Tape Marketing Coach

About 25 of of the Duct Tape Marketing Coaches descended on Kansas City, Missouri for a 3-day intensive conference.  Every one of us Duct Tape Marketing Coaches has at least 10 years of marketing experience, and yet every one of us was overwhelmed my the quality and quantity of fresh, compelling content.  We were all ”drinking from the firehose”, trying to soak up as much of the new information as we could.   How refreshing!  All of us have already bought into Duct Tape Marketing - but John inspired each of to reach for a new level of success with our businesses. 

The message here is that even if you have customers who have bought your products and services in the past, doesn’t mean that you can’t host sessions that will make them even happier and you even more profitable!  Sage and Microsoft Dynamics both put great importance on partner and customer conference because they know that bringing people together around a singular goal creates enthusiasm and energy.  Sure, you could learn the information over a web-conference, but it’s not at all the same.  Even small businesses can create excitement with lunch-and-learns, preferred-customer days, and similar in-person events. 

Of my many to-do’s for the meeting, is:

1.  Read Seth Godin’s new book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

2.  Tell all my friends to go vote for Canadian Duct Tape Marketing Coach Cidnee Stephen, so she and Sales Coach Kim Duke get picked up for a national TV show   http://tinyurl.com/446est  (And yes, Cidnee is that funny in person too!  Handcuffs …really? You decide, but I’m just saying that I gave them 5 stars.  Their show won’t be boring. That’s for sure!)

3.  Tell more people that if they don’t have enough, high-caliber clients today, then they absolutely must get started on the Duct Tape Marketing Guided Marketing Plan.  I haven’t pushed this program enough, but I will because THE RESULTS speak for themselves.  Not just my clients, but across the country, real struggling businesses are seeing real results by applying a system to calm their marketing madness. 

If you don’t want a California marketing coach, you can go out to the Find a Duct Tape Marketing Coach site and search for someone closer to you. 

I have tons of new information to share with you soon about the new offerings that are coming out from the Duct Tape Coaches network - but you’ll just have to wait - with eager anticipation, I hope!