The Marketing Mix | official blog of the Marketing Mentor community

More creative & productive away from home?

Welcome to Week 22 of my adventure as a member of the Marketing Plan Group. In my posts, I talk about my voyage down the road of self-employment as a website copywriter, my achievements and roadblocks along the way, and what I’m learning from my group experience.

The other day, I went to Dublin airport and worked from there. I wasn’t flying anywhere, I just went. (I felt like a latte and Starbucks is hard to find in this country.) Amidst the hustle, bustle, and suitcases, I got a deliciously-worth-the-trip latte, sat at a little table, and got more work done in 3 hours than I have in 3 weeks. No joke.

It was ridiculous. Creative words were flowing from my fingers. Projects were getting started and finished.

What could it be about the airport that made this happen?

I have a feeling that it was the change of scenery. The energy. The strangers to occasionally glance at. Being away from desk, my coffee maker. Being out of my element.

Does being out of your element make you more creative and/or productive?

Furthermore, do productivity and creativity go hand-in-hand?

It seems to me that creativity and productivity are different, but they do go hand-in-hand. It seems hard to have one without the other – at least in my definitions:

More creative: Having new ideas that flow from you. Being inspired.

More productive: DOING, instead of getting distracted, starting into space, or moving slowly.

I think the airport supplied both of these important ingredients. It will need to become part of my routine. (But not too routine; I don’t want to dilute the power!)

What’s your most productive and/or most creative place? Are they the same – or different?

Reduce tax-time terror

We love June Walker, tax and financial advisor to the self-employed, because of her expertise when it comes to indies. Her material is consistently helpful, and we’re happy to see she’s just come out with a new tool.  It’s called The Confident Indie, and it’s a series for the self-employed.

June says:

The Confident Indie series will help you build your indie-confidence. The first of the series is Five Easy Steps. Just take those Five Easy Steps and you'll have mastered a manual recordkeeping method. And you will simplify tax time, lower your tax prep fees, and reduce tax-time terror.

Read more about this tool here, and sign up for her newsletter here.  

5 online marketing tips to get more from current clients

Your current clients are probably your number one fans. But all too often, they can be forgotten about once they’re on-board. Here is a guest post from Michelle Strassburg, co-founder at Wood and Beyond, that discusses ways to keep your current clients working to your advantage:

5 online marketing tips to get more from current clients

Online marketing is often looked at as a means to drive web traffic in order to increase sales. However, the truth of the matter is that for many brands, from new to well established increasing sales is possible through their existing customer base. So before you invest resources gaining external traffic, look at your own customer base. Here are 5 tips to get you started: 
 
1. Communicate effectively -In order to make the existing customer base spend more and thereby contribute to increasing sales, the brand must be heard through actively communicating its marketing messages. In the past, this meant sending a newsletter or two, but nowadays communicating with the user base is done using social networks from a facebook fan page to the brand's twitter account.    
 
2. Listen carefully - At the end of the day, existing customer base can be used to increase sales only if the service is outstanding. No one in their right mind would recommend, buy from or even read a communication from a brand which suffers from poor service. Listen to your customer base, encourage feedback and most importantly react quickly. 

It’s not too late to start your marketing

If you missed the boat on the 2010 Marketing Plan + Calendar, you're in luck because it's never too late to get on track with your marketing.

The Start Anytime Marketing Plan + Calendar is now available! It guides you on how to use all of the same marketing tools to effectively grow your business as the 2010 Plan, only the Start Anytime version allows you to fill in your own dates. That means you can start today. Details about the Start Anytime Marketing Plan + Calendar here.

If you have the plan but are still finding it difficult to follow by yourself, why not do it in a group, which automatically provides the accountability that's missing? The next Marketing Plan Group starts on Wednesday, March 3rd , and it will help give you extra support and structure to keep you on track. Details here or fill out the form here.

Eye-stabbing newsletters. How to avoid them.

Welcome to Week 21 of my adventure as a member of the Marketing Plan Group. In my posts, I talk about my voyage down the road of self-employment as a website copywriter, my achievements and roadblocks along the way, and what I’m learning from my group experience.

This week, my group started working on newsletter ideas. And to be honest, I dreaded this assignment. Why? Because most of the time, I’d rather stick a pen in my eye than read a newsletter.

With that said, I have found Ilise’s approach with the un-newsletter to be more refreshing. (An un-newsletter is quick and to-the-point.) I know that many of Ilise’s clients have been able to create awesome newsletters by following the un-newsletter model. One that I just read, which absolutely cracked me up, was from Conrad Winter, the backpocket copywriter, called: Will Drinking Help your Writing? I just adore the humor and the personality that shines through. I’m signing up to see what he comes up with next.

In one of Ilise’s recent blog posts, she linked to this article about why it’s important to blog as yourself. I loved it. It makes me want to newsletter as myself. I want to have a personality. In a recent blog post I wrote for Market It Write, I talked about how I’m too old for my short mini-skirt. Probably too risqué for some, but if people don’t like how I write, they shouldn’t hire me, right? My goals are to have personality and to be memorable – even if it’s not cutting edge, educational or earth-shattering.

So, on that note, here’s a short newsletter idea I came up with:

Subj: The cutest sneeze I ever heard 

I was buying some frizz shampoo at the pharmacy, and the guy behind the counter sneezed. Achoo. It was the cutest sneeze I have ever heard.  I’d never seen him before, but I felt immediately endeared to him. Most people are boring sneezers, but not him. His sneeze rocked my world.
 
The point is, different can be fantastic. Different endears people. Every person, every business, has something that will stand out in the crowd. What’s yours?  Find out, and tell your audience.
 
Don’t muffle your sneeze. Sneeze proudly. Sneeze loudly. Sneeze all over your target audience. (Ok, that’s gross, but you get the point.) 

If you need help, I can tickle your nose with a feather. (Or turn your ideas into words.)

So, what do you think? Would you want to read my newsletter about sneezing?

What has worked for you? What are you goals with your newsletter, and what feedback have you gotten from your audience?

And if you have any insight at all – into how to create newsletters that people want to read – please do share!
 

Attend the Small Business Summit with me?

We’re excited to be partnering again with Ramon Ray and his Fifth Annual Small Business Summit, to be held on March 16, 2010 at Digital Sandbox in NYC. Seth Godin is this year’s headline speaker, and if it’s anything like last year’s event, a fantastic day of sessions and networking can be expected.

Want my extra ticket?

I have an extra ticket for the event, and I’m looking for someone to join me. Send your networking or conference success story to me at ilise@marketing-mentor.com. The best entry wins!

The Basics of Search Engine Optimization

As a brand new guest poster to the Marketing Mix, I have browsed the blog and found very little mention to search engine optimization or SEO. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity for a very brief sort of crash-course in search engine optimization and link-building strategy.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization is exactly what it sounds like: achieving a higher ranking in search engines for targeted “keywords” or “search terms.”  In 2009, Google’s Market share was nearly 86% of all search engine traffic, followed by Yahoo and Bing.

What determines how high my site ranks?

Search engine ranking of a website is determined by both internal and external factors. Internal factors are things you can control with the look and feel of the website. Your site should look and feel clean and have clean forms and images. It should be tested with all browsers to ensure functionality. It should feel natural, with no forced external links.

One of the easiest ways to help your site rank for a specific keyword is to target that keyword in your domain in the first place. For example, if you sell recycled paper, the words “recycled” and “paper” should be in your domain somewhere. Generally, the shorter the domain, the better it will rank also.

6 Online Writing Mistakes

I know many of you are working on content for websites and online newsletters. If you want to keep your prospects from clicking away, check out this post Deidre wrote for the Market It Write Blog, called: 6 Online Writing Mistakes that Make People Click Away.

The Market It Write blog, brainchild of Marketing Mentor client, Mistina Picciano, contains many tips to help you “unleash the power of the pen.” Subscribe to the Market It Write blog here.

Do you know your numbers?

On the Creative Freelancer LinkedIn Group, I asked  if members "know their numbers" -- meaning what you owe, what you own, what you spend and what you earn. (This came out of an interview I did with Galia Gichon, of Down to Earth Finance, who will be speaking this June at the Creative Freelancer Conference.)

But no one answered my question, which makes me think the answer is "no."

Then I saw this article yesterday, which emphasizes that small businesses who know their numbers are most likely to succeed.

So I ask again, do you know your numbers and if not, why not?

Moving a pebble is easy - Part 2

Welcome to Week 20 of my adventure as a member of the Marketing Plan Group. In my posts, I talk about my voyage down the road of self-employment as a website copywriter, my achievements and roadblocks along the way, and what I’m learning from my group experience.

Last week, I talked about how steady progress is best in business. I know when it comes to big projects, like websites, it can be tempting to do all or nothing. But by doing a little something here and there, you'll have a better chance of staying current and keeping prospects interested.

Here are a few more tips on how to improve your website (without redoing the whole thing):

• Talk to your target market. I know the whole “target market” thing can be scary because we don’t want to rule everyone else out. But even if you’re not 100% committed to your target market, there are still ways to incorporate them into your site. You don’t have to say, “We only work with healthcare companies.” Try something like this: “We specialize in working with healthcare companies as well as small businesses and non profits.” Or, you can simply use language that resonates with your target market. You don’t have to say, “We work with non-profits.” Instead, you can use words like mission, cause, and support… Using their lingo is another way to talk to your target market without coming out and naming them.

• It’s a work in progress. Like everything about our businesses, our websites are a work in progress. They don’t have to be perfect. (Note to self: There’s no such thing as perfect!) A few small changes can make a big difference. I know it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that “everything” needs to be redone/updated/overhauled. But it’s easy to wait, and wait, and wait and before you know it, years have passed. Make the small tweaks when you can. Add website time to your calendar once a month so you can regularly update your testimonials, client list, and portfolio. Ask yourself: Have my services changed? Have my clients changed? How can I make this more powerful? Since each day is a learning process, there’s no reason your website should be set in stone (until you finally get time for the big overhaul.)

If you don’t have a website yet, but you need one fast, check out the new Website in a Week group. The next one takes place from Feb 15-21.