By this point, you’ve developed a list of ideas for potential marketing tactics, and you’re now ready to begin weeding through them to find those that you think are most likely to work for you.

Tools to Help You Plan Your Marketing

When you begin brainstorming the possibilities for promoting your business, things can start to get overwhelming and confusing. It’s a good idea to find a way to track and organize your options and then begin prioritizing them into a plan of attack.

One of my favorite tools for this kind of brainstorming is mind mapping tools like bubbl.us. I use a mind mapping system from Todoodlist, which is what I used for the sample plan included below.

I begin by putting my business name as the central box, and I then add my options for marketing around it like spokes on a wheel. This gives me a full overview of the possibilities and allows me to move them around into a logical order.

Some of the marketing tactics you select might already be in the works, like blogging or sending out a monthly newsletter. I like to distinguish those by color so that I know I need to do them on a recurring basis (for this illustration, I used blue for recurring tasks). I then add related tasks to those tactics in a lighter shade of the same color.

The next thing you’ll want to add are all the new possibilities you have for marketing your business. I begin by adding those in all the same color (yellow). At this point, just add them all, and you can narrow them down later. If there are steps that need to be completed in order to set up any of the given tactics, add them as connected steps under the task so that you’ll know what needs to be done to get started, and so that you can organize all those stray notes and ideas into actionable steps.

Then begin narrowing your options by eliminating those that are not well-suited for your situation or business, require more resources (time, money, people) to get off the ground than you currently have available, or that you otherwise think are not a good fit at this point. If you want to keep them for future use, change their color to something less prominent (like gray), and that way, you can pull them into your plan down the road.

For the remaining tactics, select those that you want to implement right away and that will work alongside the recurring tactics you already do. Denote those with a new color (red). You should be left with:

• Your current, in-progress marketing tactics (blue),
• The new marketing tactics that you will begin implementing now (red),
• The new marketing tactics that you will begin implementing soon (yellow), and
• The someday/maybe tactics that you want to hold off on for a while (gray).

Implementing Your New Marketing Plan

Now that you have an easy-to-follow chart that encompasses your entire marketing plan, you should be able to quickly refer to it on a daily basis and begin carrying out the strategy and tactics you’ve developed for your business.

I always start by running through my current, in-progress tactics (blue) in a clockwise fashion (I organize them by priority and/or frequency).

Once I get through those tasks, I begin with the next-in-line priority tasks and tactics (red). Ideally, there should only be one open tactic and one open task under any given tactic,  so that you stay focused and moving the top priority elements of your plan forward. As you complete tasks, delete them. As you integrate new tactics into your ongoing plan, change them to recurring (blue), and then select your next tactic to be bumped up and integrated (for this example, “PR/Media” would be next in line).

In essence, you want your entire plan to be straightforward and to provide you with an obvious and visual plan of attack. When you open this plan, for instance, you would know to start with the recurring tasks (post your blog entry for the day, write/publish any guest posts or your newsletter, and do some online networking). Then you would move on to the marketing tactic you’re trying to employ next (your podcast), which means your next step is to decide on its format. Using this illustration, go to blue first (recurring), red second (to integrate now), yellow third (next-in-line priority), and then gray if you decide to use those tactics (someday/maybe).

By creating this kind of plan, you’re able to avoid over-committing or getting sidetracked mid-stream, and it allows you to remain focused and consistent, while still being able to explore other options and remain current and relevant. You’ll have a clear plan of attack at the start of each day that allows you to see your progress and move your business forward.

Good luck with your marketing!

What tools and techniques do you use for planning and implementing your marketing plan?

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Before you can begin any kind of marketing or promotion, it’s important to have a firm grasp of the purpose, mission, and values you want for your business, but for the sake of this post, we’ll assume you’ve gotten that far. You know your unique selling proposition, your target market, and what your business represents. Now you just need to find a way to create a more focused and consistent plan for increasing awareness and, ultimately, finding more customers and clients.

Finding Your Marketing Strategy and Tactics

One of the hardest things about marketing is selecting the overall strategy and individual tactics for promotion. There are hundreds of ideas; narrowing them down can be a challenge, especially if you’re new to marketing.

One of the best ways to get your initial direction for marketing online is by looking to other successful companies or entrepreneurs and learning from their experience. For example, if you want to build a blog, find a few bloggers that you admire and follow, and then dig back to the very beginning of their blogging days. This will take a bit of time, since most successful blogs take a while to establish. If they’ve published two or more posts per week, it might take a while to get back to their very first post, but keep digging!

Once you reach the beginning, get ready to take notes. You’re going to begin going through all their posts looking for clues as to what has made them such a success, and here are a few things to look for as you go.

• How often do they publish to their blog? Weekly? Twice-weekly? Several times daily?
• Are their posts long or short?
• At what point did they starting getting consistent comments, and when did their comments start to steadily increase? Was there something that they changed or were doing during those times (and the months before) to generate those comments?
• How is their site laid out, and do you notice anything about their site that might be particularly helpful for capturing visitor attention and converting them to subscribers or customers?
• How has their writing evolved over time?
• What kinds of posts do they regularly publish? Interviews? Advice? How-to articles?
• Many bloggers tend to create “How I Created a Successful Blog” posts, once they reach a certain level of success. Keep an eye out, and if you find this sort of post, pay close attention to the blogger’s advice, and then think of ways you might be able to apply that advice to your own marketing efforts.

Be aware that there is no single answer to some of the questions listed above. If you can find a successful blogger who advocates short daily posts, I guarantee that you can find another who prefers long articles posted weekly. The key is to find an approach that you think will work best for your situation, personality and style.

Also, a note of caution, you’re not looking to copy any other blogger (in fact, that would be a good way to fail). You want to be original and unique with your business, so the point of this exercise is not to copy anyone else, but rather to emulate the marketing strategies that they’ve used to build their blogs. Think of these bloggers as mentors and role models, not people to clone.

Brainstorming Your Options

As mentioned, the options for marketing and promoting a business are virtually endless, but here are a few that I like best:

• Blogging, guest blogging and article marketing
• Podcasting and video casting
• Interviews and appearances for relevant websites and media opportunities
• Online networking

Once you have some ideas for potential marketing tactics, you’re ready to begin weeding through them to find those that you think are most likely to work for you. In next week’s post, we’ll discuss tools to help you with tracking and organizing your options and then begin prioritizing them into a plan of attack.

What tactics do you use to market your business now, and what ideas are you thinking of adding to the mix soon?

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Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. — Thomas Edison

There comes a point when being a business owner gets really hard (and I mean really hard). You’ve come up with your big idea, you’ve done all the initial legwork to set it up, and now comes the hard part: Getting the word out about your business and, more importantly, hanging in there while you get the word out about your business. The hard part now becomes not giving up too soon.

The Real Work

When you start a business, when you start a new product or service, when you launch anything really, that’s when you feel like you’re working really hard. That’s when you’re willing to stay up late and get up early to get all the groundwork completed so that you can start making money. As hard as it can seem during this time, you generally know what to do, or you can at least figure out what to do, and you just plow through getting the work done. Then you finish the work. (Cue sound of crickets.) Now what?

All right, now you figure out that you need a marketing plan. Great, that gives you something else to do! You finish the marketing plan and begin implementing it. (You believe in this plan. You’ve given it a lot of thought. You feel really confident about it. It’s going to generate the business you need.) You run through your plan for several days, maybe even several weeks, and then … nothing. Nothing happens, and in our instant-gratification-seeking world, this is where things start getting testy:

• When you’re over the rush of your big idea,
• When you’ve completed the work of creating it,
• When you need to pay the bills, and
• When it feels like you’re sitting on your laurels.

When you’re doing all that initial setup (building your website, creating the product, etc.), it feels like real work. Marketing doesn’t feel like real work, and it gets harder to justify and explain to those around us, particularly those who don’t have businesses. Marketing? What’s marketing? Building a website people get; that sounds like real work. Marketing? Marketing on Facebook and Twitter? All right, now you’re just playing around. Those are the conversations you have, both with yourself and with others, for justifying what you’re doing.

Writing posts for your blog, replying and posting on social networks, doing interviews, commenting on other sites and forums, searching for opportunities to guest post — all these things don’t feel like work, but they’re very necessary for building a successful business, and sticking with these activities for the bulk of your time each day for the six months or year it’s going to take you to gain some traction seems impossible.

Not Giving Up

So, how do you do it? How do you avoid giving up too soon?

1. You make a commitment. Do you want to do this? Are you willing to bet the next 6-12 months of your life on it? You have to be willing to say, “This is my commitment. These are the milestones I intend to reach. This is my intention.”
2. You maintain discipline. Each and every day, you have to say, “This is what I’m committed to doing. These are my top priorities.” You have to focus on what you believe to be the “highest and best use” tasks that will get the word out about your business and start generating income for you. You stay focused, not only on what you’re going to do, but also on what you’re not going to do (compulsively checking email, surfing the Internet, taking a dozen breaks each day, etc.).
3. You trust your plan. You’ve given a lot of thought to the best way for promoting your business, and now you just have to believe in it. Don’t keep switching plans and changing things up. It’s going to take time to see results. Give yourself at least a 90-day test with your current plan before doing any tweaking.
4. Be willing to stay up late and get up early. Although it’s not easy to think about, success isn’t just going to be handed to you. You’re going to have to roll up your sleeves and do the hard work to get things going. No one’s going to do it for you. As you start to get more successful, you still have to continue getting the word out, and juggling priorities can be a challenge. Know that handling incoming work and generating opportunities for future work are equally important.
5. Find support. Get an accountability partner to help you stay the course. It’s a lot easier to waiver when you don’t have someone else holding you responsible and accountable for your original plans and intentions.

Finding a way to hang in there and not give up on your vision can be the hardest thing you ever do to see your business to success, but you have to figure out how you’re going to stick with it for the time it will take to gain some momentum and start seeing results.

In the past, how did you find ways to hang in there until your idea took hold?

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1. Run an interview series on your blog, video cast, or podcast.

It might seem counter-intuitive to provide promotion and publicity for others when you’re trying to provide it for yourself, but in reality, an interview series can actually accomplish both of those goals at the same time. Decide on a great topic that’s relevant to your target audience and that you’d love to get the perspectives of others on. For example, if you are a virtual assistant, you might run an interview series on the topic of getting things done.

Next step, set a target quantity of interviews. A good starting point would be 25, but you could go much higher  (“100 Business Owners’ Tips for GTD”). You want to do at least 10 interviews, because the more interviewees you have, the more people there are who will promote the series and the more attractive it will be to readers, viewers, or listeners.

The setup doesn’t have to be very complicated either. You could ask 100 business owners, for instance, one question through Facebook and Twitter, like, “What’s your best tip for getting things done?”

2. Hold a free (and irresistible) tele-seminar.

Think of an in-demand topic, something that concerns or interests a lot of people (one idea could be “Take Control of Your Facebook Privacy”). Consider sending out “formal invitations” to 50-100 VIPs in your network (making sure to let them know they’re your VIPs) and ask them to “bring a date.” The setup for this can be simple, too. A free conference line will fit the bill.

3. Arrange a “coffee date” or informal luncheon around a favorite book.

Pick a book that’s relevant to your target audience and set up a discussion or “one-day book club.” A great idea would be to get local sponsors, too. One business owner I know coordinated a luncheon at a local farm to discuss her favorite book.

If you’re really nervy and live in a good market for it, you could even try to coordinate a book signing, especially if it’s for an up-and-coming author who would love the publicity (and on that note, why not call in local press to let them know about the event?).

4. Hold a dinner party.

Invite 10-15 special guests who are nearby, maybe people who run complementary businesses to yours. If you want to keep the cost down, make it a potluck and ask everyone to bring a dish. Get together to brainstorm joint venture possibilities for marketing and co-promotions. You might even put together package deals and steep discounts when customers purchase something from every vendor in the group.

5. Coordinate a group-sponsored contest.

Put together a really awesome “business start-up” package or something enticing to your ideal audience. Then run a week-long event where folks tweet for chances to win. Get creative (the more creative, the better), because that means more interest and buzz around the contest.

6. Host a blog carnival or content round-up.

Remember those? Decide on how you want to set it up, set some ground rules , and then invite people to participate through Twitter and other social networks.

7. Go on a “promotional tour.”

You know how actors heavily promote their new movies in the week of their release? Why not set up a promotional tour for your business? Decide on a topic that’s relevant to your audience, one on which you’re very knowledgeable. If you’re a child safety blogger, for instance, there’s your topic. Contact 10-20 related and complementary bloggers and offer an interview on the topic of choice (so, if you’re the child safety blogger, contact 10-20 parent bloggers to offer up an interview on the topic of child safety).

In the week before your “promotional tour” begins, start internal promotion of the tour, mentioning that you’re participating in upcoming interviews on the topic on your blog and on social networks. As you do the interviews, link back to them, and at the end of the tour, send out a “round-up” blog post or email newsletter with all the links.

Promoting a business doesn’t have to be a dreaded chore and can actually be a fun way to interact with your target audience and fellow business owners. Instead of having to worry about direct mailers and business cards hitting the trash can, email marketing pieces ending up reported as spam, or being turned away from disinterested prospects, wouldn’t it be great to have folks saying, “I can’t wait to see what you come up with next!”?

What’s the most creative, buzz-worthy marketing you’ve ever done for your business?

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Focusing only on traffic numbers, instead of the concentrating  on sharing content and building relationships will send you down the path to burnout. Here at WebWorkerDaily, we have multiple writers contributing  to help keep the content fresh. But for one-person blogs, blogging daily works for some and not for others.

If I had been blogging daily since the day I wrote my first blog entry back in 2000, I would have quit long ago. I know this because I’ve been burned out by blogging many times — and I’ve never blogged more than a few times a week.

It’s natural for bloggers to want many people to stop by, read and comment. There’s nothing wrong with that. But there is something wrong with pressuring yourself to churn out content daily like a machine for the sake of traffic when blogging is just one of many things you do. If you do that, you’ll sacrifice quality and your mental state.

So how do you decide how often to blog ? What’s the magic formula? There’s no definitive approach to figuring this out. Instead, take time to ponder these questions to help you find what will work for your blog.

• Review your business goals. Increasing blog readership is a worthy goal, but how does the blog support your business’ goals? If your web site itself is the income generator, then you’ll need frequent fresh content. If the blog is for promoting you as an expert in your field, which in turns supports your consulting business, then you probably don’t need to blog daily.
• Know your audience. What jobs do your readers have? How much of their time do they have for reading blogs? How active are they on blogs and social media? What industry do your readers come from? Are they reading during the workday or after hours?
• Identify your contributors. Is your publication a a one-person blog or a group blog? Group blogs cut the chances of burnout.
• Look at the length of your posts. Some people with large followings write 1,000+ word posts; these people tend to publish less often. Readers may better tolerate daily posts when they’re shorter: 200-400 words. Some bloggers mix it up with longer posts on a weekly basis, with shorter posts filling in the other days.
• Check web site stats. After adjusting your blogging frequency, check to see if the stats have changed. Remember that while a change could be associated just with the frequency or posting, it could also be because the content quality or level of blog promotion changed.

If social media teaches us one thing, it’s this: There are no rules. This doesn’t mean all those “golden rules” and “commandments” are off the mark; these give folks an idea of what works. But blogging endlessly blinded to your goals gets you nowhere. Stay on the path and steer clear of burnout by knowing your goals and audience.

What other factors help you decide how often to blog?

Photo by stock.xchng user Jorge Vicente.

The most common option is to brand yourself under a company, which works well when your company name is unique, brandable and broad enough to encompass a variety of products and services. This option works well for technology companies, for example, like Google and Apple.

Another option is to brand yourself under your own name. This is the way I ultimately decided to brand myself, but coming to that conclusion wasn’t quick or easy.

How It Works For Me

In years past, I tried to identify and promote each of my business ventures individually, but more recently, I asked myself what my main mission was for my work and business. I was able to succinctly say that my goal was to be a resource for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Once I realized that I had that one central objective, I saw that it really served as an umbrella for all that I do.

All of my work in some way supports small business owners and entrepreneurs. I have one site that provides articles and podcasts on issues related to small business owners, as well as products and services to help them along their way. I have a radio show that covers topics relevant to this same group, as well as a web design company that serves, for the most part, solo entrepreneurs. And, of course, I write for sites like this one on topics relevant to the group.

That unifying thread of serving small business owners and the entrepreneurial crowd shows itself in everything that I do, and usually, clients who work with me through one of my sites end up working with or following me through one or more of the others, so I decided to simply introduce myself under my own name. I changed my email signature, Twitter handle, Posterous handle, etc. to my personal name (or a shorter version of it), and now, when I introduce myself, my business card points people to my main web site (the domain is my name), which then links them to any of my business ventures that fall under the umbrella of what I do.

Instead of trying to wrap my mind around all the different products, companies, or spin-off sites that I develop, which will likely be an ever-growing and changing list, I now focus on thinking about what I personally want to represent and be known for: helping small business owners and entrepreneurs through a variety of resources, products, and services. People start with knowing me and what I do and then figure out which of the sites under that umbrella might help them.

Other Successful Examples

Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, and Gary Vaynerchuk are examples of successful entrepreneurs who identify themselves by their own names rather than those of their companies. They each have two or more sites, books, or companies underneath them and are considered experts in a particular area or niche. Seth Godin is known for marketing, Chris Brogan for social networking, and Gary Vaynerchuk for parlaying passion into business. Their followers know the niche that they serve, and they know them by their individual names first then that of their companies or products.

Michael Port is another example. He has his main, personally-branded site, MichaelPort.com, which directs visitors to any of his books and programs. People know him as a marketing expert, or maybe as the “book yourself solid” guy. They don’t necessarily remember every one of his books or products, but they know him and his name, and they know what he represents.

When to Go With Your Name

I think that if there’s even a remote chance you’ll start another business, sell your current one, or change directions, it’s probably better to go with your name over that of your company. This option works well for entrepreneurs and writers especially. If you think that you’ll start spin-off companies, products, or services and want to be known as an expert on a particular topic, then going with your name might be the easier choice when it comes to branding and promotion.

For me, it’s been much easier to promote myself, definitely, but I’ll also say that it seems to be a lot easier for new contacts to wrap their mind around what I do as well. They immediately see that I do a variety of things, all geared to help them as small business owners. It has made things easier to manage, and I’m much more confident in my marketing efforts as a result.

How do you promote yourself, as your name or that of your company? What made you decide to go that way?

Photo by Flickr user Frogman!, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Waiting to be discovered, however, probably won’t get your business to the level of success you hope to achieve. You can’t wait for people to stumble on your site, thinking that that’s going to be enough to generate the leads required to sustain your revenue goals. You have to be proactive. Here’s how.

1. Find a way to quell the nerves. This starts with being willing. I’ve approached many business owners in recent months to ask them to be guests on my blog, podcast and radio show. Most of them emphatically accept, but occasionally, I do run into people who turn me down simply because they’re too nervous. In many of the cases, I convince them to start with an interview for the blog, and if they feel comfortable moving on to the podcast or radio show from there, great, but if not, at least they’ll get the traffic from the article. Inside tip: Start small. Inch your way into bigger and more visible media outlets.
2. Be prepared. Another concern I run into when asking business owners for interviews is that they worry they’ll look or sound silly. What questions will I ask of them? What bio or leading information will I use for the article, podcast or segment? What photo of them will I put on my site? These are just a few of the questions I’m asked from prospective guests. Mostly, their concerns stem from wanting to control the image that is presented of them and their companies. I reassure them by letting them know that I intend to portray them in the best light possible. Inside tip: Be prepared. Create a media page on your site that houses this kind of information (topics you’re prepared to discuss, sample questions you can answer, your bio and your photo). From my own experience, I can tell you that the job of a writer or interviewer is hard enough, and any bit of information like this that you can provide will not only be appreciated, but will also be used, so you can better control the direction of your media appearances.
3. Take the initiative. I’m finding this out for myself, so I know other media outlets, reporters, bloggers, podcasters and anyone else who generates any kind of content on a regular basis are always on the lookout for great stories and great sources. With a business to run on top of that, it’s especially helpful to have someone approach me with an idea or source for an article or segment, but I can tell you that it doesn’t happen nearly as often as I’d expect. What does that mean? Most small business owners don’t think about approaching bloggers and podcasters to pitch their stories (let alone radio shows, magazines, and larger media outlets). Inside tip: Go for it!  Pitch your story to that blogger or podcaster. If their content focuses on the audience that you target, then you have valuable information that could be shared. Make their lives easier. Send them a quick note to say, “Hey, I’d love to be on your [blog, podcast, show, etc.]. I’m an expert on [your topic of choice], and I think it would be a great topic for your [site/program].” It’s really that easy.
4. Get help. If you’re still worried about tackling media and publicity for your company. Find an expert to help you get started. These folks often have direct access to the media reps and can help you get your foot in the door. Nancy Juetten of Main Street Media Savvy is a personal favorite and has an arsenal of free and reasonably-priced resources to get you started in the media.

Be proactive. Take charge of your company’s publicity. Find ways to get in front of new and bigger audiences so that you begin to grow your own following. It doesn’t have to be so intimidating, and if youl inch your way into it, you’ll be a media favorite in no time!

How do you proactively market and promote your company?

Photo by Flickr user hiddedevries, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

For a blue-eyed girl in my homeroom class

Trying to find the courage to ask her out

Was like trying to get oil from a waterspout

What she would’ve said I can’t say

I never did ask and she moved away

But I learned something from my blue-eyed girl

Sink or swim you gotta give it a whirl.

- John Michael Montgomery, “Life’s a Dance”

I’m surprised sometimes by business owners who turn down opportunities for promotion. We can all feel intimidated by the thought of putting ourselves or our ideas out there, but whenever that happens to me, I stop and ask myself, “Are you serious about this?”

If there’s one thing I’m figuring out, especially lately, it’s that you have to be willing to make the approach. You have to be willing to ask for what you want. Ask the person to be a guest for your blog or podcast. Ask to be covered on another person’s site or radio show. Ask someone to join you for lunch or coffee. Just ask.

Maybe they’ll say yes. Maybe they’ll say no, but who cares? There are a million other people to ask.

It’s nerve-racking, spine-numbing and absolutely intimidating to get out there and tell the world about yourself and your business, but at some point, you have to ask yourself just how serious you are and how willing you are to let go of your fears and inhibitions and just do it.

The point is, you’re not going to get anywhere by staying holed up behind your computer screen tweaking, thinking, lurking or waiting. You have to take the initiative. Marketing, promotion and publicity – it’s all intimidating, and very few people are comfortable with it. That’s OK, though. If you admit that you’re nervous, people will be quick to support you and will actually see you as a real person who messes up and has feelings and is just like them, and that’s what you want — to make a connection with others.

What’s the best thing you ever accomplished by putting yourself out there?

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It takes a while to appreciate the juggling you have to do as a business owner, but Larson’s quote wraps it up pretty concisely. Here are the three things you need to pay attention to if you want your business to thrive.

• Do what you do, and do it well. You might be a writer, a virtual assistant, or a publicist. No matter what your trade, work to be the best at it. Know your business, constantly improve, and have guiding principles that define how you work and who your ideal client is.
• Be systematic and consistent about promoting your business. The strategies and tactics you use to market you and your services or products are much less important than the regularity and consistency in which you do them. Pick the things that work for you, develop a plan of attack around those strategies, and take small and steady steps toward reaching your marketing goals on a daily basis.
• Nurture and grow your network. People mean everything to the success of your business. Take care of them. Surround yourself with clients and colleagues who inspire you to do your absolute best work, and then make it a two-way street. Be genuinely excited by their success, and they will be in yours.

As a business owner, it can be easy to neglect one or more areas of our businesses. We drown in the work itself and forget to take care of the people in our sphere of influence. We obsess over the marketing aspect at times, until our work suffers. The only way to lasting success is through taking care of all three areas equally.

How do you ensure that you take care of your people, your marketing and your business?

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There have been times when I’ve pulled out all the marketing stops and still had my newsletter outperform every other medium. I think there are a few reasons for this.

1. The people who are receiving your newsletter really want to receive it. I follow a lot of people on Twitter, but I subscribe to very few newsletters. The ones I do subscribe to generally get read quite intensively. Why? Because I’m interested in the message of that particular person or company, and I probably enjoy the format of that particular newsletter (layout, content, regular sections, etc.). When I receive one of these few newsletters, it’s like receiving one of my favorite magazines, and I enjoy browsing it cover to cover in hopes of finding one new nugget of information that might help me in my life or business.
2. You get their undivided attention. When I read a newsletter, I generally have waited until I have time to focus on it, as I do with my favorite magazines. I don’t want to feel rushed or distracted, so I’ll save it in my email box until I have time to look over it. Even though I may not read every single article, the ones I do read get my undivided attention, which means I’m much more likely to take action on the article than when I’m browsing news and blog feeds.
3. It’s more personal. Getting a newsletter is a little like receiving a letter in the mail, and even though you know that a lot of other people receive it, there’s just something more personal and inviting about a newsletter over a blog entry, podcast, video or tweet. Maybe because it comes to your private email box, you can read it privately, and then send a somewhat private message back to the sender, should you decide to do so.
4. The pump has been primed. Anyone who subscribes to your newsletter is already interested in you, your company and its services. If they’ve been waiting on the fence for the right timing to act on your offer, you stand a good chance of capturing their business when they are ready to act.
5. It feels like an inside scoop. For whatever reason, newsletters seem a lot more exclusive than blogs and other media. Maybe it’s the personal and private thing again, but whatever it is, readers feel like they’re getting first-hand information directly from the horse’s mouth. That provides two opportunities. One, they’re likely to be watching for sweet deals and offers from you and your company. Two, if they do get “juicy inside information,” they’re way more likely to spread it around than if it were in a blog entry “for all the world to see.”
6. They can be forwarded (and perhaps are more likely to be). While a lot of people understand about sharing blog entries with others, forwarding an email is dead simple, so it’s much more likely that a newsletter will be forwarded onto someone if the reader thinks the recipient will benefit from it.

While I am a big advocate for blogging, I think newsletters are an equally powerful tool that can be used in a slightly different way to leverage your marketing efforts.

Do you have a newsletter? How has it helped you in promoting your business?

Image from Flickr by mpclemens

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But how do you tap into this invaluable resource? It can be intimidating to go to others for help and can be perceived as pushy and self-serving if approached the wrong way. Here are a few tips to help others help you.

1. Embrace the idea of “paying it forward.”

People really do want to help you, which usually stems from them wanting to help everyone in their network. They ask what you do and immediately think, “Oh, you should meet [fill in the blank]!” Likewise, when you mention that you have a particular need, they mention several people you might consider and offer to connect you with them.

The most important thing to remember is that networking is all about adding value. The more you find ways to help those around you, the more opportunities will inevitably come your way.

2. Make it easy.

In an article on Techcrunch, Michael Arrington said “Those of us in a position to help entrepreneurs need to do more of it…But this is a two way street. Budding entrepreneurs trying to break down the walls need to grow up. Most of the time people don’t have the time to help you, and you shouldn’t aim hate at them for it. Instead, try a different angle or a different person.” This quote made me think of two things. Firstly, it’s important to remember that people are busy, so you need to make it so easy for them to help you that they can do it quickly and without too many steps.

For example, Betsy Talbot of Married with Luggage emailed people in her network recently asking for promotional help. She made it insanely easy by including links, as well as short and specific instructions for what to do with each of the links. She even included copy so that we didn’t have to come up with it ourselves.

3. Don’t be self-serving.

The second thing about Arrington’s quote that struck me was about trying a different angle. It’s easy to come at things from the wrong angle, and when promoting a business, that’s usually followed by rejection. If you always think of it as, “How can I get people talking about me or my business?,” then that means (a) you have to introduce yourself to someone without sounding like you’re selling something and (b) you have to somehow get them to feel compelled to mention you to others. If you think of it this way, it can seem purely self-serving.

Instead, find a way to help them, and of course, you have to always be sincere with your help. Maybe ask to interview the person for your blog or podcast, or if the person has written a book recently, offer to review it. By reaching out in this way, the person will actually look forward to learning more about you and your business, and if they enjoy talking with you, they may take the time to mention you to people in their own network.

The main thing to remember is that people are more than willing to help you. Most entrepreneurs are acutely aware of the value of networking, and successful ones understand that networking is all about helping others. Just remember, as Arrington said, it’s a two-way street.

What have been your biggest lessons in networking and helping others help you with your business? How do you make sure that you’re not perceived as self-serving?

Image from Flickr by crschmidt

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I recently spoke with Nancy Juetten of Main Street Media Savvy about how to overcome the fear of publicity. The great thing about the tips that she offered is that many of them are things you might already be doing to some extent, which makes the whole idea of publicity a little less daunting. By becoming comfortable with these tactics, you’ll start inching your way into the limelight, and you’ll gain more attention for your business in the process.

Create a Compelling Bio

When someone takes the time to visit your web site, “About” page or social network profile, you have an opportunity to connect with that person and say something memorable that will help you stand out in his or her mind. By sharing what Nancy calls “succinct stories, stunning results, sassy soundbites and social information to help ideal clients connect,” you’ll attract more of the right kind of clients to your business.

Start and Maintain a Web Site, Blog and Newsletter.

While there are tons of new social media and networking opportunities online, it’s important not to neglect your hub, your primary home online, where you have control over the message you put out there. You want to shine the best light possible on your business, and consistently maintaining a high quality web site, blog and newsletter provides a sound foundation to establish you as the “go-to” expert in your field.

Contribute to Online Networks, Forums and Blogs.

With the base of your content covered by your web site and blog, you can branch out and find new prospects and connections online through a variety of social networking platforms, as well as other blogs that serve your ideal client or customer. Find ways to regularly contribute in meaningful ways, and you’ll start to capture the attention of people who are interested in what you have to offer.

Explore Audio and Video

Perhaps writing is not your forte. Maybe you prefer communicating vocally or visually, in which case, a regular podcast or videocast might be right for you. For search engine optimization purposes, it’s important to continue to write relevant content, but a podcast or videocast can help you connect with a broader market by appealing to those who prefer formats other than the written word.

Write e-Books and Special Reports

There’s no better way to position yourself as an expert than to offer a variety of helpful content on your site, and e-books, special reports and white papers are great resources to add to the mix. The best part is, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel and start from scratch. Once per quarter or even once per year, go through your blog and collect articles that relate to specific themes. Then put that collection of articles into e-book format. If you don’t have the time, consider hiring a virtual assistant to put it together for you.

Host Tele-seminars and Workshops

Everyone has something to teach and unique experiences to share. Why not use this as an opportunity to reach out to more customers and clients? By providing occasional workshops and tele-seminars, you can highlight your expertise and perhaps prompt prospects who have been sitting on the fence to take action. Connect with other professionals who provide services that complement your own, and you’ll benefit from shared marketing and promotion of the events.

Write for Others

Opportunities abound for writing content, whether it’s for the local media, business journals, or other blogs. Regularly post to free services like Blogger Linkup with the types of articles you can contribute, or subscribe to services like HARO (Help a Reporter Out) and watch for opportunities that apply to you or your business. You’ll soon find that you have more opportunities to write than you can handle. By contributing to other blogs that focus on the same audience, you can grow your own readership and potentially find new customers and clients.

Publicity doesn’t have to be a scary thing. In most cases, it involves doing things that you’ve already considered that don’t seem like publicity at all. Nancy suggests starting with five things you’re comfortable doing and then form a habit out of them. Once you establish well-formed habits with those tactics, consider adding a few more to the mix.

How do you consistently promote your business? What tactics have you found to be most successful?

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When I participate in a scheduled Twitter chat, it neatly sidesteps those barriers. I feel like I’m in the know and a real part of the conversation. Twitter chats reflect what I’ve always thought face-to-face conversations should be like. While online conversation means missing out on the personal connection of seeing others and their personalities, it’s worth shattering the barriers that come with it.

How Quiet Marketing Led to a New Career

I never considered having my own business because I feared the marketing aspect; knowing it needs to be a regular part of the job. I fell into freelance writing as a side dish to the entree that was my corporate job. Since I had the corporate job, I felt no pressure to do marketing or keep my client list full. Over time, I discovered that I could keep the clients coming.

In 2005, I made the leap to full-time freelancing. In four years, I’ve been lucky enough to keep roping in new clients and staying busy even when the economy fell in the dirt. So what worked for me? Referrals and social networking — even before people started called it social networking. I call it “Quiet Marketing,” because it doesn’t involve using my voice. It began with starting a blog in 2000, before most people had heard the term. I was interacting in online forums before the Twitters, LinkedIns and Facebooks moseyed onto the web.

How to Hit a Bonanza with Quiet Marketing

The key is to mix it up and cross-reference (link from one site to others.) If you’re still uncomfortable with social media, break out of your shell first. If you read WebWorkerDaily on a regular basis, you’ll be familiar with most of the tasks that make up Quiet Marketing:

1. Create a social networking plan, identifying your goals and strategies.
2. Respond on at least three different social networks per day, or a set number per week. Blogs count.
3. Share other people’s stuff. Karma pays.
4. Duck the hard sell, so you don’t scare your prospects away.
5. Change up your the type of content you post: share links, original thoughts, comments on other people’s thoughts.
6. Reference your own stuff seldomly.
7. Read up on what people consider social networking spam.
8. Remember to reference your email newsletter, blog, Twitter and other social network accounts. Mix! Mix!
9. Accompany links with short commentary to make them more meaningful. Stand-alone links don’t entice people to click.
10. Join chats and live conversations. Keep your name out there.
11. Avoid dominating chats and live conversations. Listening matters.
12. Respect rules and other people’s opinions. It’s okay to debate — just play nice.
13. Connect with people in your industry, not just your ideal customers. Competitors, too!
14. Keep a mindset of “building relationships” and ensure your constantly communicating valuable information. Prepare for no instant gratification.
15. Use snail mail. I hand write (complete with a pen and stationery) notes to my clients every year.
16. Send emails to clients to show you thinking of them or to check in with them. Stay “top of mind.”
17. Think before you post anything online. Even if you’re just having fun, do you want your future clients to see it?

I’ve been interviewed, invited as a guest expert, quoted in books and connected with editors, all thanks to my Quiet Marketing techniques. This by no means skipping face-to-face meetings and phone calls entirely. Quiet Marketing just offers options, especially for those who are shy or don’t like phone conversations.

What’s in your Quiet Marketing toolbox?

Photo credit: wawal

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Personal branding

Michael Port’s concept of personal branding starts with his belief that, “When you work with clients you love, you’ll truly enjoy the work you’re doing; you’ll love every minute of it. And when you love every minute of the work you do, you’ll do your best work, which is essential to [booking] yourself solid. Second, because you are your clients; they are an expression and an extension of you.”

The cornerstone of his philosophy is that “the greatest strategy for personal and business development on the planet is bold self-expression,” and many successful personal brands have used this very strategy to rise to the top.

The Food Network is filled with great examples of personal branding success stories using the “bold self-expression” strategy, and while the brands are very unique, they all attract their individual audiences by being exactly one thing — themselves.

Take three of the popular Food Network personal brands: Rachel Ray, Paula Deen and Emeril Lagasse. They each have individual flare and have used that individuality to create tremendous personal success.

It doesn’t matter if you like their individual personalities. In fact, the people who dislike them are probably as relevant to their branding efforts as their loyal fans. They boldly demonstrate who they are, like it or not, and that’s exactly what makes them successful.

As Michael Port says in his book, “In order to create a respected personal brand, you must be fully self-expressed. You can’t hide behind the shingle that you’ve hung over your door and you can’t water yourself down in any way, shape, or form.” That’s an important quality of the personalities at the Food Network; none of them are watered down. They’re bold, they’re in your face, and they’re successful.

But how do you mimic their efforts and create your own successful personal brand? That’s the easy part. Figure out who you are and who you aspire to be. Then figure out the conditions that must be met in order to always be representing that brand. Only work with clients who meet those conditions and are best suited to work with you. Never water yourself down. Never live outside of integrity. Be true to yourself — always. It’s the surest way to guarantee that you only work with ideal clients, meaning better service, better results, greater client satisfaction, and in the long run, a truly successful business.

How do you make sure that you only work with the most ideal clients for you? What methods do you use for interviewing and screening clients before taking on their work or projects?

Images from the respective web sites of Michael Port, Paula Deen, Rachel Ray, and Emeril Lagasse.

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Sound Transit, the agency that is building Seattle’s new light-rail system, is gearing up for the opening of the first line in a few days. It’s getting a lot of press coverage, but the marketing efforts are being supplemented with a special Twitter promotion.

Last Thursday, a hint was posted on the Sound Transit Twitter account:

I’m going have something pretty cool to announce this Monday! You’re gonna like it. Light Rail Fans Please Retweet!

Of course, people did retweet, and the news was picked up by the Seattle Transit Blog, which posted the rumor that there was going to be a ticket giveaway for the inaugural journey:

Ribbon cutting should be at Mount Baker Station at 10 am, and the inaugural ride should start there, for those who have tickets. Rumor has it that a giveaway might be what’s going on @ST_TravelLight on twitter. That’s also who you want to follow for opening day news.

Sure enough, on Monday, Sound Transit twittered:

Get a Link Inaugural Ride Ticket! Be @ Union Station (401 S Jackson St) Tomorrow 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. The 1st 100 people there will get tickets.

I was at Sound Transit headquarters in Union Station at the appointed hour. In the lobby was a line of about 25 people, with more trickling in. I got my ticket and left, but as the morning wore on, Sound Transit updated the Twitter account with the number of tickets remaining; they were all gone within a couple of hours.

This really was a brilliant promotion — simple, easy to implement, and cheap. Total resources needed: someone updating the Twitter feed, a couple of people handing out tickets at a table in the lobby, and some signs reading “Twitter Promotion” on the door. The tickets and accompanying informational materials had already been printed.

Yes, Sound Transit could have used other media (or even its own web site!) to get the word out. But by using Twitter, Sound Transit knew exactly how many people would get the notices (743), and so had a good idea of how many tickets were needed. So the line was manageable, and crowd control was not an issue. Beyond that, Sound Transit also knew that its Twitter followers are train and transit geeks. It couldn’t have asked for a better-targeted audience: one that’s very likely to say positive things about the new light-rail system.

I know that I will recommend similar promotions to my clients, and to some of the community organizations with which I work, in the future. And I’ll see you on the train on Saturday!

Have you used Twitter and other social media for small, informal promotions? How well have they worked for you?

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If you’re looking for another venue for promoting your services or investigating service providers to partner with, Qapacity is definitely worth checking out.

First, from the perspective of someone looking to sell their services, Qapacity presents a very attractive proposition. Basically, they give you a web site for free in exchange for your registration with their network. The web site they provide is designed to garner reviews from your current clients, in order to provide potential customers with testimonials about the quality of your work.

Upon signing up for Qapacity, you’re taken to your Dashboard, where you can fill in your profile details with the standard fare for social networks, and, if you want, offer a service to be added to Qapacity’s public listings. I noticed a strong resemblance to LinkedIn when browsing through the dashboard and profile options. When it comes to a site intended for professional networking, this is a good thing.

From the Dashboard, I proceeded to add a service to Qapacity, specifically my awesome freelance writing and editing abilities. The process was quick and painless, and once I’d provided a title, description and keywords for my service, I was able to specify a custom URL to point to my page under the “qapacity.com” domain.

You can customize your site’s content from top to bottom with Qapacity’s built-in WYSIWYG page editor, which also allows you to add modules. Modules available include video, maps, images, text and RSS feeds. You can add subpages that visitors can access via tabbed links at the top of your site, upload your own custom logo, and select from a few different themes and color combinations. It strikes me as a great way to set up a launchpad to refer people to from your Twitter account, for example, especially if you don’t have your own hosting and aren’t very comfortable with HTML.

As for sharing and promotion, which is the real purpose of the site, you’re constantly encouraged to either share your site via Facebook or email, or to invite other professionals to join in and grow Qapacity’s network. The idea behind the site, after all, is that you gather reviews and thus offer one-stop shopping for those looking for service providers.

From the perspective of someone looking for services, I found the interface to be underdeveloped. You can search for services by keyword, but there is no overall listing that you can browse. Some kind of broad categories and subcategories listing all services in that area would really add to Qapacity’s usefulness in this regard. Still, it was easy enough to find illustrators to work with for a promotional event I’m working on, but I had to know exactly what I was looking for to begin with.

Also, since Qapacity was originally a Spanish-language site, there aren’t many U.S. or North American-based providers available yet. Luckily with web work, that doesn’t always matter, but sometimes the language barrier comes into play.

Whether you’re looking to promote your own services, find a trustworthy provider, or find a partner for collaboration, any tool that provides meaningful connections with minimal investment is going to be useful, and Qapacity definitely accomplishes that goal. The major hurdle to success for Qapacity is getting community buy-in and promoting involvement, but the platform they’ve set up definitely encourages exactly that.

Have you tried Qapacity or a similar service? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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