The Marketing Mix | official blog of the Marketing Mentor community

When is a recommendation a shill?

We got this question about affiliate marketing and recommendations from our web guru, Alan Seiden:

Q: I'm an affiliate of BlueHost and FastMail because I use and trust them. I'd recommend them in any case, so why not collect affiliate checks? I would like to display my affiliate links to these services (especially BlueHost) as much as possible. I am chagrined when people tell me they signed up for BlueHost but didn't know I had an affiliate link.

The question is, what wording could I use in my "sig file" so that the link is there but is not hucksterish? I want to preserve my dignity as a trusted source of advice.

Example:

Alan Seiden, trusted source of advice
phone#
email
blog: alanseiden.com
powered by BlueHost

Any thoughts?

Should you exhibit at a trade show?

Trade shows are great because lots of people in one industry come together under one roof, so it could be the ideal marketing opportunity.

But exhibiting at these events can be very costly. Plus, it isn't always the best way to meet your prospects.

Here is one simple way to decide:

• if your prospects -- i.e., the people you want to meet -- are the vendors, don't get a booth for yourself because you won't be able to walk the floor and meet them.

• if your prospects are the attendees, it makes sense to exhibit so a steady stream will come by your booth to chat with you.

Make sense?

The next challenge, of course, is to get them to stop at your booth and chat with you. Any suggestions?

Business Networking Int'l: Networking for the time-crunched

Lots of our Marketing Mentor clients are members of Business Networking International. They attend a weekly meeting in a non-competitive environment where the goal is not to sell to the people in the room but to sell "through them" to their network.

This works for some and not for others. I have never attended a BNI meeting but I did recently join the Breakfast Network here in NYC which offers monthly (instead of weekly) meetings, plus cocktail parties and educational events.

One business owner I met last week at the cocktail party told me that the best way to use the network is to meet with people outside the group, one-on-one, and get to know each other that way. But some people don't have time for that. In fact, for those who can't commit to lots of extracurricular coffee and lunches, BNI may be the best bet. Their weekly meeting allows participants to get to know each other better through the more frequent meetings.

The other side of cold calling

Two nights ago, at a networking dinner for the NY Chapter of the Usability Professionals Association, the conversation turned toward cold calling. Almost everyone at the table professed disgust for it. Most had never done it, of course. It's just the idea they don't like, which is understandable. So I tried to explain that the secret to cold calling is choosing the right prospects. In other words, do your research well enough so that the prospects you call do actually have a need for your services, although perhaps not right now. If they do, they will very likely be open to hearing and seeing more from you. Cathline Marshall of Studio K&M revealed that although she still doesn't like doing the cold calling, no one had hung up on her yet, especially when she asks, "Is this a good time to talk?"

And there were two Europeans at the table who shared some perspective. They said that in Europe, it's much less appropriate to just call a stranger and expect to develop a relationship with him or her that way; there needs to be an introduction of some sort.

So American cold callers out there, be grateful you're doing this in a country where people actually take you seriously if you approach them with respect. And you can literally generate working relationships as a result. I've been a witness!

Big goals come in small increments

One of the things I've learned about grand, sweeping goals is that they're best served by a series of small, worker-bee-type goals.

So if, heading into the fourth week of the new year, the bloom is somewhat off the rose where your big resolutions are concerned, maybe you can try applying yourself to a small one or two. Or, as so many motivational gurus and organizational experts put it, what one small thing can you do today—right now, even—that will bring you closer to your overarching goal?

Me? I'm writing this one little blog post, which is a drop in the bucket compared to that big, scary Book Project of 2007 that threatens to consume me.

(Seriously—what are you doing? I'd love to hear if and how people are breaking big goals down into digestible chunks...)

Guest Post: Contact Management Made Simple (and Affordable)

What’s the dirty side of marketing your small business? Taking a shower before a networking event so you don’t offend your prospects?

No. It’s something odorless and much more tedious. Contact management.

Listen up, small business owners: If you’ve been limping along with Excel to keep track of your prospects and clients because the last time you checked the price of ACT! you almost choked on your coffee; I’ve got good news for you. Contact management software doesn’t have to come with an exorbitant price tag - or a steep learning curve. I’ve been using Contact Wolf for over a month now, and I’m quite happy with it.

Now before you get too excited, I’ll admit I’m not a former ACT! user. I’m pretty sure that comparing the two programs is like comparing apples to oranges. But then again, my requirements were basic, and the learning curve for Contact Wolf is extremely short.

This was my “gotta have” list for a contact management program:

• Set alarms for following up with contacts.
• Merge data with Microsoft® Word for sending letters.
• Maintain history of communication with each contact.
• Create email lists.
• Costs less than $100. (Hint: Contact Wolf is much less than that.)

Contact Wolf has all the above. One additional feature that’s nice is the ability to track your personal contacts in a separate tab. Of course, Contact Wolf has a lot more great features, but I’ll let you check them out yourself. You can download a 30-day trial version. I suggest importing a small list of your contacts (Contact Wolf can import .csv files) to test how it will work for your own contact management needs.

Mary
Five Star Writing, Inc. 

P.S. I’ve been using another product from LoneWolf Software - Backup Wolf - on a daily basis for a month now. My backup process takes only a few clicks of the mouse. No more courting disaster by putting off those backups!

P.P.S. I’m not a LoneWolf Software affiliate, though if Ilise publishes this blog, I’ll probably wish I was.

Thanks, Mary! If any of you other Marketing Mentor clients out there have a great story, tool or tip to share, please email me or Colleen with it. Not only will you give back to the community—you raise your profile as a smart & helpful type!

If samples pay, get paid in samples

For the designers out there (and maybe even the writers), when a prospect says, "let me see your stuff" one of the best things to send (so that it thuds on their desk) is actual samples of work you've done for other clients.

But when I suggest that to clients, they often say they have only a few samples and none to spare.

So I wonder, can you negotiate into your contract with a client a certain number of samples for your own promotional purposes?

Track your interests effortlessly with Google Alerts

Back in my ad agency days, we subscribed to clipping services—you paid a hefty fortune, they sent you all the news in print on your items of choice.

Today, you can track virtually anything you want electronically for free with Google Alerts. Just go the the site (http://www.google.com/alerts) and plug in your specs for each search in the familiarly simple Google interface. You can create as many alerts as you want, elect how often to receive them and in plain text or HTML, and they'll be delivered right to your inbox.

I have alerts set up to track my name, a few topics of interest, and a slew of client and acquaintance names. A lot of repeat stuff comes up, but I also get new-news: someone writing about me or some cool, email-worthy news about someone or something else.

You never know who's saying what about you—or when it'll come in handy...

How to beef up your resume without lying

Most entrepreneurs don't bother much with résumés—one of the perks of working for yourself, after all, is that you don't have to look for a job. (Instead, you have to look for lots and lots of jobs!)

But it never hurts to refresh your résumé once per year, if for no other reason than to keep track of where you've been and come up with fresh language about where you are now.

So when my self-employed pal, Neil, sent along this link from LifeClever, I thought I should share. It lists some commonsense ways to make your résumé more attractive without the benefit of a graphic designer.

Of course, those of you who haven't made the leap to self-employment and want to keep market-ready might benefit from this even more directly!

Communications coaching at all price points

Ilise pointed me to this terrific article in last week's NY Times (free registration may be required to read, but it gets you access to 99% of the wonderfulness that is the NY Times online).

It's about the importance of public speaking—communications skills, really—even for people who don't consider themselves public speakers, and why many people are hiring coaches to help them learn to pitch, deal with customers or just get out what it is that they do (remember that elevator speech we talked about?) without stumbling all over themselves.

Coaching and classes can cost you big bucks, but considering what you stand to gain with good skills (or lose, for lack thereof), it could be a terrific investment in yourself and your business.

Of course, as the article points out, if you want to do it on the cheap, Toastmasters can be a great alternative. And I can attest to that: in just under five months, I've made huge strides in my speaking skills from weekly practice at it and great feedback.

"Um, Uh, Like Call in the Speech Coach," by Hillary Chura, NY Times, January 11, 2007