The Marketing Mix | official blog of the Marketing Mentor community

How do I make social media productive?

Last week, I did a presentation for ASPP with Allen Murabayashi, co-founder at PhotoShelter, where we talked about marketing strategies for photographers and small business owners.

Allen’s presentation, Social Studies: Understanding Social Media for Business, shared some really good insight and guidance about how to use Twitter, Facebook and Blogs to achieve the marketing goals you have. One of the most important points he made (with which I agree) is this: "Having lots of 'friends' is useless if you cannot get them to do what you want them to do."

You can’t tell from the slides what a sense of humor Allen has, but if you couldn’t be there to hear the presentation, at least you can see what he was presenting with…

Check out Allen’s post (and slides) here: http://blog.photoshelter.com/2010/05/social-studies-understanding-social-media-for-busi.html

Personality over portfolio?

Sometimes, getting the work is more about knowing your market than anything else.

In fact, at the ASPP panel in Boston, we learned that art buyers sometimes choose their vendors based on personality over portfolio, which means you have to focus on the interactions as much as the pictures. That could even mean "friending" them on Facebook!

This is just one of the tidbits from the interview I did with Andrew Fingerman, VP of Marketing at PhotoShelter. Want to know more about how creatives can effectively market themselves (to get the work)?

Listen to the whole interview here: http://blog.photoshelter.com/2010/05/photographer-marketing-get-comfortable-with-self-p.html

(Even though we are talking about photographers, the concepts carry over to all creative pros.)

Also, if you’re a photographer in the New York area, join me and Allen Murabayashi, CEO & Co-founder of PhotoShelter, on May 26th, as we present an event for the American Society of Picture Professionals: Don’t be Marketing, Self Promotion & Social Networking.

Are you serious about having a website that is search engine friendly?

I’m back from the ASPP Reinvention Weekend in Boston where I met some amazing businesspeople including Allen Murabayashi, co-founder of PhotoShelter, a company that helps photographers get pro websites online in 5 minutes, sell directly online, and market themselves with social networks & SEO.

I love that their tagline is websites and tools for serious photographers because I also work with serious creative professionals. (I provide tools for creatives who are serious about growing their businesses.)

Allen was on a panel with me for the session, Click, Tweet and Repeat: SEO, Social Media, and Brand Management, and I was blown away by his SEO knowledge and insight on how to make your website search engine friendly.

He’ll be blogging about this topic here on the Marketing Mix soon, but in the meantime, check out PhotoShelter’s blog and their free reports.

Resources to help you manage your business

Have you heard about The AIGA Center for Practice Management?

The AIGA Center for Practice Management provides resources to help designers with the daily management of their studios. We address a broad range of internal business and operational issues, giving creative professionals important tools for success.

They cover topics like new business development, legal issues, project management, finances, HR, business plans & more.

Here are just a few of the useful articles written by Shel Perkins -- who will be speaking on the Art of Pricing at the Creative Freelancer Conference in June (register by April 15th and take advantage of the early-bird discount): 

• The Employee/Employer Relationship at Design Firms
• Be Smart About Student Internships
• Pricing Strategies for a Value Driven Industry

Check out what they have to offer here: http://cpm.aiga.org/

Where does your address belong?

Many solopreneurs I deal with work from home, which can make the sharing your address topic more sensitive than if you have an office address. Here’s a question I received from a client about whether you should share your address or not:

I have always had my address on my business cards thinking that my card is something I hand out personally (and where I usually go to if I need to know someone's address). I do not put my address on my web site as I have no control over who goes there and sees it. A few people I asked felt it was best to keep it off both places. Is the answer a P.O. Box?

Here’s my answer:

I think an address belongs on your business card since, like my client said, you choose who you give your business card to. It doesn’t necessarily belong on your website – especially if you’re concerned about privacy. On your website, it is however important to make your geographic location obvious so people can place you. I’d suggest including at the very least, your state, on your website. City and state is even better.

For years, I had my address on the Marketing Mentor website -- and I never had a problem. Or at least I never had any stalkers (that I know about). But I do have a very mean-sounding dog.

As for a P.O. Box – I had one for many years. In my experience, it doesn’t serve any use except collecting junk mail.

Do you agree? Disagree? Have another strategy that works for you?

Starting a Successful Link Building Campaign

In my previous post, I discussed the basics of search engine optimization and went over some practical internal SEO. Now we will focus on external SEO, primarily building a variety of different links for your website.

What are aspects of a successful link building campaign?

Link building is the process of reaching out to other website owners and bloggers and securing links back to your site. This can be done by simply asking for a link, giving away free content, exchanging widgets, exchanging links, and a variety of other ways. Google and most search engines have taken a strong stance on purchasing links and spamming, however, and your site can be removed from listings if found in violation.

What kind of sites should I target when link building?

Do you practice "emotional pricing?"

Last week I interviewed Mona P, a user experience freelancer who went out on her own just last year and is already making more than she did working for a consulting firm. However, she finds herself practicing "emotional pricing" instead of the analytical pricing she did when she worked for someone else and she's not sure yet if it's such a bad thing.

Listen to this clip, where she talks about understanding why it takes longer to get the work done, overdelivering for clients she likes and charging more when a client irritates her.

Do you do this too? If so, come out of the closet.

How to make yourself ask for more money

I heard a great tip last week from Monique Elwell, CEO of Conversify, a social media marketing start up.

Monique told me she got into the habit of buying a really expensive piece of jewelry right before going into a negotiation with a prospect or client. I asked her why and she said, "It made me ask for more, for what the work is actually worth, and prevented me from convincing myself that I shouldn't." Listen here.

Do you have any tricks like that?

Why you shouldn't "just email" your proposals

In a recent interview, Dana Manciagli, GM of a large division of Microsoft, shared how she likes to receive proposals. What does she recommend for the creative to make the most impact? Listen here to find out.
 
If you want to learn more, join me for tomorrow's webcast, Presenting Killer Proposals. Sign up here.

Can you deduct your pro bono work from your taxes?

Julie Rustad of 24-7 Creative Solutions writes, "I volunteer a lot of my time as President of Ad2 Tucson and also design for small non-profits. How can I not only help my community, but use this to promote my business more effectively? What about for tax purposes?"

So I reached out to June Walker, author of Self Employed Tax Solutions who is also leading an info-packed session called, "Money Saving Tax Solutions For Freelancers," later this month at the Creative Freelancer Conference (BTW: we've extended the early bird discount permanently so sign up here.)

She gave me a link to a page on her blog where she answered several questions on this topic. Read that here.

What other tax-related questions do you have for June? Post them here and we'll bring them to her at the Conference.