The Marketing Mix | official blog of the Marketing Mentor community

Guest Post: The Linchpin to Self-Promotion

Today's guest post comes from Lea Ann Hutter, principal of Hutter Design here in Los Angeles. Lea Ann, another graduate of the Marketing Mentor program, is currently a participant in Marketing Mentor's new Monthly Marketing Group Check-In (PDF with info downloadable here). If the wisdom in this one little nugget is any indication, I'm guessing that the collective intelligence of the group must be pretty staggering.

I think the #1 thing that prevents people from effectively promoting themselves is their inability to answer the "What do you do" question. If you can't clearly describe what you do, then no one else can either. A clear blurb not only informs others, it guides the way you think about yourself.

A very good tip Ilise gave me a while back was asking, "How does this get me to my goal?" I believe that self promotion fails without a blurb that a person truly believes in and is committed to. Once you have that, it's the guideline that everything grows from and is measured against. It's the heart of all answers to all questions.

This is how I'm feeling about my choice to specialize in web UI. It has given me new purpose, direction and focus. I'm passionate about it.

Time

How much time should you be spending on your marketing?

That's a question I discuss with every client, especially when the marketing starts to work and the work starts coming in and the need to market feels less urgent (which is what happens when you start marketing your services regularly).

Lots of people assume that once you get your brochure out or get their web site up, you can cut back on the marketing. But that's not true.

That's when you should definitely not stop, in only to prevent the Feast or Famine Syndrome from setting in.

Some people have dedicated Monday as Marketing Monday. Anyone out there have another system in place that works?

Don't bury the lead

Last week, as I was reviewing all sorts of email messages, email newsletters and articles for clients, I kept noticing that not much thought had been given to what order the material was presented in.

In any communication, but especially with email messages or email newsletters, you should always put the most important point you want to make or topic you want to address at the top. You must assume people aren't going to scroll down. If they do, that's great. You can even encourage them to do so by having your first line be a one-line summary of what's in the message.

For example, cartoonist Lloyd Dangle sent out a message to his list in which he wanted to talk about the Licensing Show this week and his new book, Troubletown Told You So. So here's the way he started his newsletter:

"Dear Blank,
Lloyd Dangle here. In this message: The Licensing Show, Dangle live-blogging, and two new books..."

To read the rest, click here.  And you can read Lloyd's blog here.Check out his hysterical live blogging last week at the The Licensing Show where he connected with a lot of great prospects, too.

The benefits of captive conversation

For all of you who don't like to chat on airplanes because you don't think you'll ever be able to get out of the conversation, read this. (Free NY Times registration required).

Marketing liveblogging!

Our crazy cartoonist client, Lloyd Dangle, of Troubletown fame, is blogging live from the Licensing Show in NY, where he is marketing his art in real time.

He's drawing pictures of the buyers, the artists, the corporate types, and describing the whole scene the way only Lloyd can.

Check it out here.

Entry-level permission marketing

In a recent email tip to my list, I made a recommendation that the best way to get permission to add someone to your email newsletter list is to ask:

"May I keep in touch with you by sending you my Quick Tips from Marketing Mentor (or fill in the blank)?"

Most people will say yes, but some, for whatever reason, will say no.

When they do, don't be offended and don't stop the conversation there. Instead, use this reply:

"I'm sure you get a lot of email but I want to stay top of mind in case a need comes up,
so how do you prefer I stay in touch?"

That way, you find out their preferred mode of communication and you can use it with their blessing.

Seating latecomers quietly after the show has started

While my 2 1/2 years of blogging seems to brand-newbies like an eternity, the truth is that I came late to the web 2.0 party.

Because I'm a big nerd, it was no hardship spending loads of time getting up to speed, so for someone my age (46 in September!) who's not particularly smart nor well-versed in Things Technological, I'm fairly conversant in this medium after a fairly short time.

But every once in a while, I run up against something that reminds me both of how little I know of this new world, and, more importantly, how other people may need even more catching up than I do.

There's a delicate balance between continuing the conversation that's already in progress and helping loop in the newcomers. You don't want to p*ss off your core audience by spending too much time and ink on the people who are just joining the conversation, and yet you want to do what you can (well, at least I do) to make everyone feel welcome. (Except jerks. Jerks can go start their own blog/website/podcast/whatever.)

What got me thinking about all of this was a recent post of Seth Godin's about "rifting"—his term for the unique ability of certain visionaries to find the hidden chasms between what is now and the way things will be and bridge them. He brought it up after reading a "small-minded" post on Steve Jobs, a "rifter" whose latest visionary item, the iPhone, drops next week. And then he quoted himself from an article he wrote for Fast Company, back in 2000.

It wasn't a "dig me" citation. It was a legitimate quote, visionary in its own way (it was written pre-iPod, if you can remember that far back), and in support of both Jobs and Godin's thesis. And it also served to catch me up—me, and a bunch of other latecomers to the party.

Aside from reinforcing what's so tremendously wonderful about the web in general, the post got me thinking specifically about ways of serving up information that make it easy for people to get caught up quickly, or to dive in and do some useful preliminary exploration.

Some of the ways I've already implemented. Many are on the table, both for my own blog and website, and for The Marketing Mix blog:

• accessible archives w/ logical labeling/taxonomy
• links to helpful content, organized by category/topic/interest
• links to additional information about the blogger (bio, LinkedIn, etc.)
• links to the user's Flickr, del.icio.us, lists, etc.
• static pages with FAQ or other "evergreen" information
• static pages with 'white papers'
• great user interface that's fun and easy to use
• interior links in posts to similar content published previously (there's also a WordPress plugin that will dump these links at the bottom of a post automagically)

And of course, the trick to all of these things is to constantly (or at least, occasionally) review what you've got to see how you can improve on it. I keep a running "wish" list of things I want to do on my various websites, as well as lists of questions I can ask various gurus when I get the chance.

[For more on useful application of lists, check out David Allen's Getting Things Done, or the article I wrote about listmaking for last month's Networker, the online newsletter for Casting Networks.]

What kinds of things do you use to keep your content useful?

Leadership and the solopreneur

When I joined Toastmasters last September, I'd been flirting with the idea of speaking professionally.

I had already signed on with my local chapter of the NSA, the National Speakers Association, to get a handle on on the nuts and bolts of the business; Toastmasters was my (cheap) route to getting practice actually speaking.

A year later, I've realized that for a variety of reasons, professional speaking isn't for me. I've let my NSA membership expire without renewal. So why, oh why am I heading into my second term of volunteering as an officer of my Toastmasters club?

It's not for the social or networking opportunities; while I do enjoy the company of my fellow club members, I keep pretty strict boundaries around my time, and Toastmasters—at least, our club—is definitely not a hotbed of business activity. Part of my motivation is a desire to give back, the way I sense Ilise is doing with her budding political career. I've got some hard-won communications and organizational skills; it seems only decent and logical to apply them where I can.

But I'm not completely altruistic in my intentions. The truth is, in my 10 months of Toastmaster-ing, I've realized there are some gaps in my communications skill-set. Chief among them is my surprising level of discomfort leading a meeting. "Surprising" because of all those years in advertising, when it seemed that 90% of my job was about presentations and meetings, from one-on-one deals where I sold my art director or boss, to gigantic dog-and-pony shows in front of a roomful of franchisees.

As it turns out, a great presenter does not a great meeting leader make. Sure, I can make a persuasive argument and put on a good show, but turn a boring meeting into an interesting one? Or get a chaotic one back on track? Not so much.

Granted, in my day-to-day workings as a solopreneur, I don't have much call for using parliamentary procedure or even speaking to groups of more than two. But the more comfortable I get with all flavors of situations, even the arcane and remote, the more comfortable and secure I feel in my ability to handle any kind of contingency.

Or, to put it another way, leadership doesn't have to be about bringing a group of people up the insides of a ship to batter their way through a 1-inch hull to freedom; sometimes, it's about showing yourself the way.

The line between canvassing and marketing

A neighbor of mine here in Hoboken, a kid in his early twenties, was sitting on his stoop smoking a cigarette on election day this week when I asked if he was planning to vote. He said, "No." Of course, I asked why not and he said, "Because they called my cell phone." He doesn't know how they (the candidates) got that number but he didn't like it. "It's fine if they call my land line but not my cell phone." That's why he wasn't voting. He was getting revenge by withholding his vote. That really irked me.

Also on Election Day, when I was campaigning for the local city council candidate, some people on the street avoided me like they avoid the guy handing out flyers and coupons for the local gym (or girlie club).

People seem unable lately (or maybe I'm just beginning to notice it) to distinguish between marketers trying to sell them something and neighbors trying to involve them in the democratic process.

Then again, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there is no difference between the marketers (I am one of them) and the politicians.

What do you think?

Guest Post: Use Body Language to Make a Friendly First Impression

Frequent guest mixer Mary McCauley-Stiff of 5 Star Writing recently got some good input on what to do (or not) when it comes to non-verbal communication.

It's not what you say and it's not how you say it; it's all about the body language.

This is what I learned at a recent Technology Association of Georgia meeting for the Consulting sub-group. The speaker was Colin E. Blalock, CPA, PFS, and CFP (i.e., accounting super-guy). Over many years, he's gathered information on body language and applied it well during his time working for the IRS. (He now works for Jones and Kolb, CPAs.)

Here are some tips I picked up for setting a warm, friendly tone when you first meet someone:

• The common signal to indicate friendliness is the "eyebrow flash," commonly used before shaking hands. This is when your eyebrows raise and lower quickly. Look around and see how often people use this, especially when they first meet each other.
• While you're speaking, don't hold eye contact for more than 3 seconds — otherwise it's too intense. Always break your gaze downward.
• Never stand directly opposite an unknown male or adjacent to an unknown female. For men, start out standing by their side and slowly work your way opposite them. For women, start out standing opposite them and slowly work your way to their side.
• Tilting your head with a smile and eye contact indicates interest and warmth. This is especially useful when asking for help or cooperation.
• When possible, sit with your best side to the person you're speaking too. What's your best side? It's the side with the greatest distance from the corner of your outer eye to the corner of your mouth. To determine this, Colin recommends applying (unused!) dental floss to the mirror over your image, then measuring it.

If you'd like to learn more about how to interpret body language and make it work to your advantage, Colin recommends The Definitive Book of Body Language, by Allan and Barbara Pease and The Secret Language of Success by David Lewis (no longer in print, but probably available online).

(Editrix's note: David Lewis' book is available via half.com, here; if you're interested in further reading, Mixmaster Ilise Benun has a chapter on body language in her latest book, Stop Pushing Me Around, you may want to check out.)