More about Ilise here.
More about Peleg here.
More about Colleen here.
If you still don't have a web site, don't be ashamed.
Just realize that there are really simple ways to create a phase 1 site so that you can have the online presence that legitimizes your business.
A few clients in our "Feet to the Fire" Group are looking for templates to use.
Here are a few we know of:
Do you know of others?
Do you have experience and opinions on these? If so, please share it in a comment.
We at the Marketing Mix Blog were thrilled to see that our pals at Emma got a mention in this month's Inc. Magazine along with a nod as best design email provider.
No news to us, of course—Ilise sends out Quick Tips via Emma, and I use Emma for my own 99.99% non-sucky newsletter, communicatrix | focuses. Everything about the Emma experience is stylish and a prime example of good branding practices, from the copy on the website to the very consistent look across their communications. If you're not a designer like me or Peleg, they'll still whip up a tasty-looking template for you, either from materials you give them, or thin air.
But they especially shine when it comes to customer service—I've been told they fight over who gets to talk to me when I call! And hey, even if it's not true, what a great story, huh?
If you're interested in using Emma, consider signing up through Ilise & Peleg's affiliate link. They get a little bump, and you'll get 20% off your Emma service forever!
As for me, I just get that warm, fuzzy feeling of steering people in the right direction.
Following along? It's time for the third of 12 podcasts covering the chapters of the Peleg's and Ilises new book, The Designers Guide to Marketing and Pricing.
This week, part two of my interview with the mixmasters themselves about best practices when it comes to finding great clients and prospects.
Listen online to all the episodes here.
Subscribe via iTunes here.
Subscrive via RSS here.
While I'm not exactly a shy, retiring wallflower, I've also never been one to toot my own horn. Not, at least, without encouragement and/or provocation, which is one of the reasons I starting working with and still like hanging around Ilise and Peleg.
But at a great conference recently, I discovered an amazing thing: you don't need to toot your own horn if other people will do it for you. Not only that—it's far, far more effective that way.
Here's the thing: I"m forever praising other people to the rooftops. Not to get something from it (although the warm, fuzzy feeling is nice) but because it feels great to introduce other people to something or someone I'm seriously digging on. And while my friends are wonderful and say nice things about me, this was the first experience I've had where someone not only said nice things, but nice things that were dead on target with my personal brand and the message I'm trying to put out there.
In this case, it was a good friend whom I've known online for a while but who I met in person for the first time that weekend. And while I couldn't say for sure, I'm guessing it was just that same kind of excitement over meeting in person that triggered the exuberant blathering: we couldn't shut up about how great the other was.
I saw it again recently on the blog of another new online friend whom I truly hope will become an offline one. Pam Slim wrote a fantastic article about asking for help: how to do it specifically and well. And in it, she also describes the kind of person you want to help: someone who's doing kickass work, trying to change the world, and busy working, not running around with a hand out, asking for favors.
So who have you talked up recently? What have you done that's worthy of being talked up? And how are you making it easy for people to do it?
Here is a rare chance to clear out those spare printers or pick up some great design books and extra sets of Pantone books on the cheap!
As some of you may know, Top Design has become a virtual agency which means we’re moving out of our building and have a ton of stuff to unload. We have a boatload of goodies like cool furniture, book cases, design books, cd's, printers, kitchen supplies and desks to part with, so together with kernspiracy we're hosting a group Designer Garage Sale!
We'll also be having networking potluck BBQ, so feel free to come by just to say hi and bring along your favorite grillables, side dishes and BBQ accoutrements! Street parking is bountiful. We’ll provide the hot dogs.
Got Stuff to sell? Bring by some of the things you want to unload. Books, CDs and anything you think that falls under the category of “nice design stuff” (we leave it up to you to be the judge...). Bring a folding table or a blanket to place your stuff on and join the party! If you’re planning on selling, please send me an email at peleg AT marketing-mentor DOT com so we can reserve a space for you.
Hope to see you this weekend! Here are the details:
Designer Garage Sale
Saturday, May 10th 2008
11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Top Design
11108 Riverside Drive
North Hollywood, CA 91602
AND PS – tell your friends!!!
Last week, Crain's New York Business hosted one of their regular networking breakfasts, this one on the Business of Arts and Culture, a target market that several of my clients are pursuing. So I suggested to each that they attend. Three of them did and told me about it afterward. What I found amazing was the Rashomon effect -- how different was the experience of each of them, from, "There was no one to network with" to "I can't believe how many good prospects were in the room." I asked one of them, Jezra Kaye of Communicate with Power and Ease, to write about her experience and here's what she wrote. I hope it inspires you as much as it inspires me.
Last week, I attended an expensive breakfast event sponsored by Crain’s New York Business. It began with a half-hour for networking, but (like a true subconscious resister), I managed to show up 20 minutes late. With only 10 minutes ‘till the program started, most people were already seated and most tables were already full.
I’m too late to meet anyone, I thought. Can I go home now?
Only the memory of the money I’d spent (and not wanting to look like an idiot to Ilise!) kept me from walking back out the door. I found an empty seat, sat down, and soon discovered that the man sitting next to me was (a) delightful and (b) a potential client.
Crain’s high-level panelists started talking. And, lo and behold, twenty minutes later, a friend of mine we’ll call Nellie slipped into the room, looking flustered, frustrated... and really late.
I sought her out when the program were over and, as I’d expected, she said, I’m so upset that it’s too late to network. Let’s find a Starbucks and hang out.
If I hadn’t just been through that same riff, I might have bought it. Instead, I looked around the room and noticed that many participants were lingering.
How can it be too late when there are still people here? I asked. And then, finding the courage to do on Nellie’s behalf what I probably wouldn’t have done for myself, I said, Let’s meet some people and then go for coffee.
We dutifully separated and hit the room. She met two new contacts, including one of the event speakers. I met two great people and reconnected with an acquaintance. Finally, the room started emptying. On our way out, Nellie and I stopped by the ladies room, where we met another fascinating attendee, chatting with her all the way down to the street, where business cards were exchanged all around.
So if you’re like me and always asking, Can I go home now??? maybe the answer is: As soon as you’ve met just one more person.
Because it’s actually not too late!
There are clients and there are C-L-I-E-N-T-S.
Ilise and Peleg are masters of unearthing the latter. Part of it is probably just an uncanny knack, but an even bigger part of finding great clients and prospects is, in fact, quantifiable.
In this second of 12 podcasts covering each chapter of the new book, The Designers Guide to Marketing and Pricing, I interview the mixmasters themselves on best practices when it comes to finding great clients and prospects.
Listen online to all the episodes here.
Subscribe via iTunes here.
Subscrive via RSS here.
Last Friday, I gave the first workshop of our book tour for the Jersey Shore PR & Advertising Association. (For more details on the book tour, click here or here.)
The topic on Friday was pricing, which is apparently something a lot of people want to talk about. The room was fuller than they expected and I didn't have enough handouts! Nevertheless, it was a very lively discussion --- in fact, half way through, I almost abandoned my material and just let them ask questions -- but then I thought better of that and continued with my presentation.
Here's something I realized as I led the discussion: many pricing questions actually point to marketing problems. In other words, the solution to many pricing challenges is marketing. If you are marketing well and properly, many of the pricing challenges you face go away.
For example, Joanne Thweatt asked "How do I prevent my clients from falling off their chair when I tell them my prices?"
My short answer was, "Qualify your clients better by discussing money way up front (in the very first conversation). And, get better clients who understand the value of your services and are willing to pay for it."
How? Do more proactive marketing. Choose your clients and woo them. Don't worry about being a pest. Just qualify them well and show you why you think you're a perfect fit. They won't all turn into clients but at least you'll be in the driver's seat and you won't be liable for broken bones due to high prices.
Any other ideas to prevent broken bones?
If you've heard me speak about creating your 10-word blurb, then you've probably heard me refer to a lawyer who doesn't just say he's a lawyer, but instead says he practices, "Hoboken law" (which usually piques the curiosity of his listener -- which is exactly the point of a 10-word blurb.
Well, last week I ran into that lawyer (Frank is his name) and we chatted a bit about marketing, of course. And he told me that his best marketing tool is his dog, Roxy. He displays a photo of her on his homepage and when clients call they tell him they called him instead of another lawyer because of the dog! "We like that you have a dog on the web site," is literally what they say.
That's when I remembered seeing another dog on a web site for a design firm, Blackwell and Co., not too long ago. (Check out Gracie Lou, Morale Officer, here.
So now we're revamping the Marketing Mentor web site and I wonder: Should we include my dog, Charlie and Peleg's dog, Sabrina in our "Team" section? What do you think of that when others do it?
Also, you can read Dog as Marketing Tool Part 1 here.
Clients sometimes tell me that the reason they don't like getting into conversations is because they don't know how to get out.
So in Chapter 5, What to Say In Person, on the Phone and Online, of our new book, The Designer's Guide to Marketing and Pricing, we offer a few simple ways to politely extract yourself from a conversation.
When this mini-article was posted on the local blog here in Hoboken, one reader suggested using "Stop Talking Business Cards", which I have never heard of.
Any other techniques to add?
A series of posts documenting Marketing Mentor's search for a new tagline and what happened when we opened up the discussion to the Marketing Mentor community.
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