The Marketing Mix | official blog of the Marketing Mentor community

Cheat Sheet for Marketing Mentor Coffee Break on Blogging

Thanks again to everyone for participating in Peleg and Ilise's first Marketing Mentor Coffee Break. Notes are going up a bit late because—I kid you not—my G5 decided to take a header into Nowheresville early Friday morning. See? Computer malfunctions happen even to blogging geniuses (said with tongue FIRMLY in cheek).

Anyway, here's a roundup of some of the resources we talked about during the call, as well as answers to a few additional questions that came in over the transom...

Elsewhere: a morning-start poll

Productivity/balance guru Jason Womack, a new acquaintance (real-life, anyway—I've "known" him around the blogosphere for awhile) has a deceptively simple poll up at his blog right now: how do you start your day?

The choices are pretty standard and simple. You know—check inbox; check voicemail; meditate and send greeting cards to five friends, colleagues or loved ones.

Of course that last was not really part of the poll. But someone had done it as a write-in in the comments section, which Jason had designated as the "other" option. And it made me think: how different would my life or my business be if I not only sent out five personal, handwritten notes per day, but did it before I did anything else—if I used it to set the tone for my day?

You can take the poll here, if you're interested. Jason is collecting info to add to one of his seminars, and it will help him out.

But I'm curious now—what things do you all do differently, either to set the tone for your day or to shift your mood to a nicer or more productive one? One of my newer techniques is to make sure my work area is clear between every project I work on during the day; I also started lighting a candle at my workplace to indicate the start of work.

Do you have any rituals you've picked up over the years? How do they help you?

Wanna learn how to blog like us?

If you subscribe to the newsletter, you already know about the monthly conference call series that Peleg and Ilise are launching tomorrow, "Coffee Break with Marketing Mentor."

But if (for some mysterious and strange reason) you're not a subscriber, there are still some spots left for the call, which is happening tomorrow, Thursday, April 26, at 1pm Pacific Daylight Time.

The first topic is...blogging! And (DRUMROLL, PLEASE!), I'll be the guest on the inaugural call, answering all your most burning questions about how and why to blog. There will be lots of information, especially for those of you who are considering whether to blog, but unsure of how to start. I assure you, I was a total non-geek when I got started two and a half years ago, so I know the feeling!

If you'd like to get in, send an email to Ilise with the words "Blogging Call" in the subject line, and she'll put you on the list and send you the info you need to dial in.

Guest Post: Sometimes, marketing yourself is a snap

Today's guest post comes from copywriter Mistina Bates of Market It Write!, a Marketing Mentor client who recently gained an interesting perspective on creative marketing for entrepreneurs...via plans for her own wedding!

I've been thinking about your advice to give prospects a taste...

Specifically, this week I received an email from a talented wedding photographer who is setting up in Central Park one weekend day and offering a free engagement shoot.

Having only started the wedding planning process, I've been amazed at how blatantly the wedding industry strives to rip off couples. Yet this photographer (one of the pricier services) is spending one day of his life to provide a free service to his target audience. He takes 30–45 minutes for the shoot and posts the photos on an online gallery, where couples and their families can buy the photos or part with no obligation. Naturally, he hopes that once people see how fabulous they look through his creative lens,
they'll want the same effect on their special day. And he's probably right. (I absolutely loved his portfolio.)

I've been marveling at how fresh, innovative and USEFUL this marketing tactic is--especially within an industry known for gouging clients at every turn. He's making a small, but significant investment with a tremendous upside potential.

Of course, savvy photographer Christopher Duggan has a blog, too—another relatively simple, nicely authentic way to get you in touch with people who might benefit from your services. You know we're big fans of blogging here at The Marketing Mix!

More on home page optimization

Continuing the discussion about homepages, today I was talking with a client about search engines and he mentioned that his homepage, while clean and concise, doesn't have enough text for the search engines, which give better rankings for more keyword-rich text.

That made me remember a technique I saw used a while back. It's a homepage that looks like it doesn't require scrolling, but if you do scroll, you see that there is plenty of text there, but that text is for the search engines.

The site is here.

And there's a great article from Heather Lloyd-Martin about how to write keyword-rich homepage copy, here.

How do you use LinkedIn?

Most business people have heard of LinkedIn, the online business community of more than 8 million people, but not many know how to use it.

Some of our Marketing Mentor clients have been experimenting with it, so we're gathering together some preliminary "best practices" on how to use LinkedIn.

First, here's an example of a profile (mine!) on the site: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ilisebenun

I wrote about LinkedIn in a recent Quick Tip from Marketing Mentor here.

One of our regular contributors, Mary McCauley-Stiff, wrote about it here.

Readers sent in these comments:

From Alan Seiden:

LinkedIn has a feature called "Answers" where members can share questions and answers
in their area of expertise. I've been hearing "buzz" about Answers. People are using it to position themselves as experts.

From Bill Weber:

LinkedIn seems like a very nice idea, but I've found that people don't check their LinkedIn mail very often (who has time to check another email every day?!?).  Mary is using LinkedIn to show how savvy she is. But I would bet that her new LinkedIn buddies, after the initial thrill of joining wears off, will hardly ever use it.

The bigger problem is when you want an introduction to someone in someone else's network. My experience is that people don't  "pass on" requests from people outside their immediate circle.

So the promise of opening doors through referral networks doesn't happen.   

If you want to reach someone, it's better to do a direct cold call than to wait for the "step referrals" to work.

And here are some articles passed along from others that shed some light on the actual nuts & bolts of the topic:

• From Success magazine.
• From Business 2.0.
• From Fast Company.

Can you add to our knowledge base? How do you use LinkedIn? What have we missed? Let us know in the comments or by email and we'll keep adding to the knowledge base.

Act your way to better networking

Last night, I went to a networking event sponsored by the casting website I write a monthly column for. It's not an event I expected to get any business from; mainly, I went because I was interested in meeting some of the people who did—and didn't—read the column.

Of course, probably since there was nothing at stake, I had one of the more interesting, engaging and informative evenings out I've had in awhile. I talked to only a handful of people, but enjoyed quality conversation with each of them, something that's often in short supply in "real" networking events.

Most interesting was that one actor I spoke to gave me one of the best tips I've ever gotten on networking—and he claimed to be horrible at it!

He and his friend had come there together, and sheepishly admitted to having met no one until I came up and introduced myself. Yet in the middle of berating himself for being a bad networker, he came up with the following amazing nugget: "Yeah...if I came here with, say, the intention of getting as many people to remember my name, I'd probably have no problem." He went on to say that in his 'day job' as a bartender, he consistently engaged people he wasn't particularly interested in because he had to in order to make money.

And I realized that a great "hack" for approaching an event I might be uncomfortable with is to treat it like an actor would: prepare, go in with an intention, and play that intention to the hilt, with all the various tactics an actor—or anyone really trying to achieve a goal—would. Or, as the saying goes, fake it till you make it.

What other "hacks" have you come up with to make networking more fun and less work?

Another take on cold calling, from the Brits

Here's a great article from Sunday's NY Times Week in Review section about what British are learning from American universities about fundraising. It's not so different from the cold calling you are (or should be?) doing, except the numbers are bigger.

"Asking for Money is So Appallingly American, Dahling" (free registration may be required)

The real learning comes in between the lessons

I spent the better part of the weekend at my local NSA chapter's two-day seminar on book writing. As I've mentioned before, often my takeaway from an event differs slightly from the authors' (no pun intended) intent. I did take away some good nuggets on writing and marketing a book, but there was lots of gold in between the "real" lessons.

For example, it's hugely helpful for me to see what works—and doesn't—in public speaking. Watching and listening to the speakers themselves was at least as informative as hearing what they had to say. Feeling my own reactions, the pull towards and the pulling against, drove home the importance of delivery better than any lesson could.

Similarly, while it's great to read about networking in books (and on blogs!), there's just no substitute for the knowledge I gain by doing. And one of the biggest things I learned this weekend was the importance of listening: one person I met who seemed like someone I'd recommend literally talked himself off my short list by not knowing when to stop!

On the other hand, if anyone asks me for a referral to an author's coach, Ann McIndoo is the first name out of my mouth. A terrific speaker with great content, she is also so wonderfully warm and generous, both on and off the stage, I'm sure she'd be a joy to work with.

What have you learned inadvertently? Was it as valuable—or maybe even more so—than what you'd come to learn?

Ilise on Buzz Marketing

Great tips and info on buzz marketing from Ilise, now up at Graphic Design magazine online, here.

Why buzz marketing? Why now? To quote Ilise from the article:

You see, trust is eroding. There’s so much hype and scandal in our culture that we just don’t believe what companies say about themselves anymore. Meanwhile, we do believe what others say about those same companies. Those “others” include the people in the media, our beloved experts and celebrities, but also friends and colleagues.

So, some good ideas about how to employ word-of-mouth. And you might be surprised to find some ways you're already engaged in buzz marketing.

Link to the article.