The Marketing Mix | official blog of the Marketing Mentor community

Growing your business with marketing, week 35: The art of the conference

This is Week 35 of a 52-week project/experiment in DIY marketing. Armed with nothing but a copy of the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and my bare wits, I'm applying the skills you need to grow a business in real time, day by day, and reporting on them week by week. See the Project Companion Blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

The good news is that I've actually learned a few things from all of the mistakes I've made prepping (or not) for conferences and gigs in the past.

The other good news is that there's always room for improvement.

Jump over to the Virgo Guide to read about what I've learned (and still need to) in full detail; plus, an announcement!

Getting it done

Welcome to Week 34 of my adventure of following the Start Up Version of the Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar.  In my posts, I talk about my voyage down the road of self-employment as a virtual marketing assistant turned website copywriter, my achievements and roadblocks along the way, and I include a weekly recap at the end.

If I allowed myself to, I could spend months “fine tuning” this new copywriting website of mine.

This week, I vowed to stop wasting time and energy on the new site and I just did it! Here it is: www.connectwithcopy.com

Is it the best website in the world? No. Is it the most perfect domain name?  No. But it’s up and it works – and it will support my ongoing marketing in the way I need it to – at least for now. Like Ilise reminded me, business is always evolving and there’s no reason I can’t change it as I go along.

Now that my site is up, I can keep moving along in my marketing journey!

Is there anything you need to stop fine tuning and just finish?

Week 34 Recap:  This week, I sent emails to all of the prospects I’ve cold called so far. My emails covered four main points:  1) Hi, how are you? 2) I’m still here 3) Take a look at my new website 4) Do you need any help?  Four people wrote back and we started up conversations. One even got some prices. What did I learn? That keeping in touch is the way forward. So, here’s to getting it done, and keeping in touch! 

Follow CFC on Twitter

Here I am in sunny San Diego and the Creative Freelancer Conference starts this afternoon.

A few freelancers are already here and it's great to see some familiar faces. I can already tell it's going to be a great group, the cream of the freelance crop because those who, at a time like this, are choosing to invest in themselves and their business are the serious ones. And the serious freelancers are the most rewarding to work with.

There's still time to sign up and show up, in case things are a little slow this week. It is August, after all.

And if you can't make it, you can be with us virtually. Follow CFC on Twitter by searching for #CFConf at http://search.twitter.com

See you online!

My tribe

Earlier this month, Peleg blogged “Do you have a tribe yet?"

He also said that attending the Creative Freelancer Conference is a great way to find and/or strengthen your tribe.

I’d like to back him up: tribe is good.

I’ve been self-employed since 1987. Though I love my independence, I (and my business) do better when we have the support of “tribe.”

Every two weeks, for a couple of hours or so, I get together with my tribe for coffee. We talk about our opportunities and challenges. We talk marketing, strategy, and about projects. We talk about the economy and any other topic of the day.

My tribe knows what it means to own a small business. We all market and sell our skills every day. We’ve all met a payroll; we’ve all met impossible deadlines for impossible clients. In one form or another, we’re all facing (and overcoming) the same challenges.

It’s not that I lack motivation, or skills, or smarts. It’s that I’m more motivated, more skilled, and (frankly) smarter when I have my tribe behind me.

Sure, I can ask friends and family for feedback, but most don’t have the relevant experience and proven track records that my tribe does. I appreciate their support, but I’ll admit it: getting help from them is like sipping from the thimble of opinion. I want to guzzle from the fire-hose of wisdom!

Because we’ve met several times, we know each other and what we’re trying to do. When I get guidance, it’s practical, relevant and insightful.

They’re more than a sounding board. Since we don’t compete, we liberally “borrow” thoughts, concepts and ideas from each other. 

We’re also setting up joint ventures and cooperative marketing and advertising. Finally, because we’re becoming very familiar with what we all do, it’s easier for us to recommend each others’ services.

My tribe supports me, and I support them. Together, we all grow.

How does your tribe help you? And if you don’t have one yet, post a comment about where you are and what you’re looking for and maybe another reader will be able to help you? Why not use this blog as a virtual tribe?

Thanks to Luis Maimoni of Fresh Graphics in Long Beach CA.

Remember, we're always looking for guest posts: success stories, mistakes you've learned from, questions you're struggling with...  If you'd like to submit a post, get in touch!

Growing your business with marketing, week 34: It's all in the "ask"

This is Week 34 of a 52-week project/experiment in DIY marketing. Armed with nothing but a copy of the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and my bare wits, I'm applying the skills you need to grow a business in real time, day by day, and reporting on them week by week. See the Project Companion Blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

What do you do if you're not good at asking for stuff?

You look at why. You look at when you have asked, and when you haven't, and what's different.

You look at what it could do for your business or you or even the world if your "ask" got an answer.

Basically, you look. At least, that's what I did. And what I found wasn't particularly thrilling, but may end up being very helpful.

Jump over to the Virgo Guide to read the big, gory story in all its pain (and yes, some glory.)

Short and simple worked for me

Welcome to Week 33 of my adventure of following the Start Up Version of the Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar.  In my posts, I talk about my voyage down the road of self-employment as a virtual marketing assistant, my achievements and roadblocks along the way, and I include a weekly recap at the end.

Yesterday, Ilise sent out a Quick Tip about keeping it simple when you make cold calls so I decided to try an even shorter approach than my normal script.  (If you don’t get Quick Tips, sign up here, they’ll inspire you.)

This week, I didn’t know the names of my prospects. I found their websites online and couldn’t find contact info. So here’s my quick, painless and nameless script:

“Hi, my name is Deidre. I’m not sure who to talk to, but I write copy for websites– and I wanted to see if you ever outsource copy writing work?”

Of the five calls I made, I left two messages and spoke to three prospects. Here’s a recap of the in-person calls:

• One said, “Send your contact information over and we’ll be happy to keep you on file.” I tried to engage her in a conversation, but she sounded busy or rushed (but not rude). I thanked her and sent a follow up email. 

• The other two were extremely interested and very friendly. We talked about their businesses, my rates, and how I work. I sent them both samples. One wrote back and said, “the writing samples are extremely clear and focused” and he “would love to send some work” my way. He said he’s going to start promoting the fact that he can offer copy writing services to his customers, and that most of his customers “definitely do need better copy.”

I continue to be amazed at how responsive people are to my calls.

And this week, short and simple definitely did the trick. Have you tried short and simple? Does it work for you?

Week 34 Recap: It felt good to get back on the cold calling train this week. I had taken a short break to focus on getting my new copy writing website done. (Thanks to everyone who commented.)  It's still a work in progress, and I've called in some help to make the design look more professional. I'm still thinking about a name (and domain name), but I'm getting there.

Word-of-mouth ain't all that!

If I had a dime for every time someone told me they had the "luxury" of getting their clients through word-of-mouth, I would be rich! 

But is it really a luxury?

Isn't word-of-mouth really just taking what comes along?
Since when is that the best way to deal with your life? 

When you depend on the phone to ring, are you really in control of your business?
And tell the truth: are the people who call (or email) your ideal clients?
Are they the people and companies you'd be working with if it were up to you? (And it is, of course.)

And when the phone stops ringing, as has happened to a lot of us in the past year, is it still a luxury?
Or is that when you realize you better do some marketing? 

I guess today's post is just a poke at the mindset whereby you believe that answering the phone is better than dialing the phone.

These are initial thoughts for an article I'm writing for a new web site, 8020CEO.com. I'd love to include other perspectives. So tell me....

What do you think of word-of-mouth and why?

Why should they buy from you?

The answer to this question is known as your “value proposition.” Done right, it adds power and leverage to all your sales and marketing efforts. Done wrong, you’ll spend time and money saying the wrong thing to the wrong people, the wrong way.

To power up your value proposition, start with a clear understanding of your firm’s core strengths. Then, you’ll have to capture your prospect’s attention.

To get it, you’ll need to have a value proposition that speaks to what’s on their minds. And since they’re thinking about their customers, this means that you need to ask yourself. “What you can do for your clients’ customers?”

We’ve put this principle into practice at our studio, Fresh!, where many of our clients are professional service firms. Regardless of their particular area of expertise, they have one thing in common: they seek to improve their clients businesses in a direct way: making them more efficient, more profitable, boosting their revenues, cutting costs, etc.

We differentiate our marketing and design services — and add value for both our clients and their clients — by writing press releases documenting and publicizing the good news that results from our clients’ engagements (click here for sample).

When our clients make pitches for new business, they add value to their service portfolio by mentioning that they have a firm that will write up the expected bottom line improvements. Our clients win, their clients win, and hey — it’s billable.

By starting with your core strengths and resources and working your way through to your clients’ customers, you’ll be better focused with all your marketing, and better able to close deals when you’re face to face with a prospect.

So — why should I buy from you?

Thanks to Luis Maimoni of Fresh Graphics in Long Beach CA.

Growing your business with marketing, week 33: Chunking time

This is Week 33of a 52-week project/experiment in DIY marketing. Armed with nothing but a copy of the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and my bare wits, I'm applying the skills you need to grow a business in real time, day by day, and reporting on them week by week. See the Project Companion Blog, A Virgo's Guide to Marketing, for in-depth posts, additional links and other marketing-related goodness.

I've tried (and failed) setting up a workable scheduling system a dozen times over—at least.

Among the various things I've tested and abandoned were:

• Scheduling like a lawyer, where I slotted myself down to the 15-minute "pod"
• Scheduling like a dentist, where I parceled my time out in 40/20-minute increments
• Scheduling like an actor/cowboy/hobo, where I plugged in my major, must-do's & deadlines, and just did everything else around them

The problem, of course, is that scheduling like a lawyer, dentist or actor works best when you're working in one of those professions; for me, in my new capacity as solopreneur wearing many hats, it was disastrous. I got a lot done when I carved my time up in tiny slices, put them in my calendar, and adhered to the program, but I quickly began to resent it. I didn't go into business for myself to boss myself around. And the actor/cowboy/hobo-style of scheduling, where I basically went where the gig was (or the free meal and ride, in the case of hobo-style scheduling), was wildly inefficient for managing the many, many things I've got stacked on my plate.

Obviously, if you're interested in a marketing calendar, you get that maybe there's something to this scheduling thing, and to doing work incrementally. But the work still needs to happen in a way that fits your specific needs. The marketing calendar this project is centered around may be the result of years of experience and lots of hard work, but it's still a serving suggestion, or a rough outline; even Ilise says adapting it to suit yourself is a good idea, provided you're not adapting your way out of the work altogether.

After wrassling with my calendar for years, I'm finally starting to settle into a kind of rhythm, and an understanding of what works and what doesn't. What works for me may not work for you, but maybe you'll find some new ideas, or some reassurance that you're playing in the right area for your own rhythms.

To read the rest of this post, including a breakdown of the various scheduling methods I've tested and how they worked in real time last week, jump over to the Virgo Guide to Marketing.

My new website

Welcome to Week 32 of my adventure of following the Start Up Version of the Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar.  In my posts, I talk about my voyage down the road of self-employment as a virtual marketing assistant, my achievements and roadblocks along the way, and I include a weekly recap at the end.

Finally, my new copy writing website is ready to be unveiled!

As you know, I’ve been working on this for weeks, and I’ve struggled through this process for a few reasons:

1. I’m not a website designer, so I spent a lot of time (and aggravation) creating this site. Yes, I saved money by doing it myself, but was the aggravation factor worth it? Probably not. I’ve learned that outsourcing your non-strengths is really a good idea.
   

2. It was much harder to write website content for myself than it is for my clients. The closer you are, the less objective you are, and the harder it can be.

3. As usual, I battled with the unattainable idea of perfection. Fortunately (for my mental health) I’ve decided on a new outlook on the issue: I’m never going be perfect. There’s no such thing as perfect. Some people will like the way I write and others won’t. The best thing I can do is be true to “my style” so my prospects will get a clear idea of it. Then at least they can base their judgment off of an accurate sample. What I'm saying is -- I toyed with the idea of making the site more this or more that, but I realized that more anything wouldn't be me. And what would be the point of trying to sell something that wasn't my style? The best I can do is follow my instincts and represent the kind of writer I am. I guess I got caught up in trying to be perfect. But I've realized it's much easier to just be myself.

So, voila! Here is my new website. It’s still a work in progress, but I’d love your input.

http://www.virtual-marketing-assistant.com/newsite/home.html

Any ideas for names? I called it “Copy that Connects” for now, which I like, but unfortunately that domain name is unavailable. Maybe something along those lines?

What works? What doesn't? What's confusing?

All thoughts and suggestions are very welcome and much appreciated.

Week 32 Recap: I've been glued to the computer this week working on this new website. I still made some time for Biznik, to follow up with past prospects, and for the two new prospects who found me online. I'm looking forward to getting this site officially up and running and getting back to my cold calling!