The Marketing Mix | official blog of the Marketing Mentor community

Mistakes real and fake

Last week, I accidentally sent an email message to a prospect that was meant for my assistant. This was a prospect I had been trying to reach, to no avail. But this time she responded right away to let me know that I'd made a mistake, which I appreciated.

Then she answered the question I'd been asking for a while. So my mistake prompted her to respond when nothing else had, which made me think....

I'm not advocating deception as a marketing technique, but what do you think of this idea for very special situations?

Forget about your day job

When I gave a talk last week for the NY Chapter of the Graphic Artists Guild, I, of course, extolled the virtues of having a clear answer to the question, "What do you do?" (what we usually call the 10-word blurb).

A couple of attendees, who are not yet doing their creative work full time, said they often feel compelled to answer the question truthfully; in other words, to talk about their "day job."

My advice?

You don't have to tell "the whole truth and nothing but the truth." While I am absolutely not advocating deception, I do suggest you carefully construct (with marketing in mind) an answer that will lead you in the direction you're headed, and answer that will help you build your part time or freelance business into something more substantial, if that's what you want.

That's what I love about being in business for myself: I get to decide (almost) everything, including how to answer the question, "What do you do?"

So even if most of your working hours are spent as a legal secretary, when someone asks what you do, talk instead about the work you want to do more of. That's the only way to get the word out about it and to find out if the people you're talking to are clients and prospects.

Pass this along to your prospects

One of the other speakers at the RGD Ontario professional development day on Tuesday was Kit Hinrichs, of one of Pentagram's San Francisco-based partners.

During his presentation, which followed mine, Kit told stories and showed pictures (which the 100+ designers in attendance absolutely loved!) about recent Pentagram work he's been involved with. One of the examples he showed was work from a journal he co-founded with the Corporate Design Foundation 10+ years ago called "@ Issue" -- a journal about the effective use of design in business.

I remember when this beautifully designed magazine was introduced and have always appreciated the mission: to help the business world understand design and to help designers understand the business world.

As I was listening to Kit's stories, it occurred to me that the material in this magazine is what many prospects and clients of designers need to read. So why not pass it along through your own newsletter -- with full credit, of course. There are interviews with top CEOs and articles about the effect of many popular brands in our culture. Here's the latest issue.

Subscriptions to the printed version are complimentary here.

27 trade associations to network with (and counting)

Here's one cool way to use Tadalist (which we told you about a couple months back) to keep track of your prospects' trade associations and networking events.

Julie Vail of Marquis Design, a Boston-based Marketing Mentor client who specializes in branding and special event design, researched her market and put together this list of 27 groups where she can find (and meet) her prospects.

Now her calendar for the next couple of months is full of networking.

If you can add to the list, go ahead and do so.

Can you trust word-of-mouth anymore?

In Monday's NY Times, there was an article about taxi drivers in London becoming pitchmen for an online gambling web site. They are paid to chat up their passengers and, if the passenger expresses interest in the gambling site, they can even pass along a coupon. This is being called "word of mouth" marketing. But I find it a little creepy.

So this morning, at a hotel in Toronto, I was having breakfast and chatting with the woman sitting next to me about getting back to the airport tomorrow. She reached into her purse and gave me the business card of a taxi service she recommends. "They're great and not expensive," she said.

This woman seems perfectly trustworthy and sincere, but, for a moment, I wondered if she is one of these "pitchmen."

What do you think of this? Will there be a time when we can't even trust the people around us?

The real measure of the Ad Age 150

Peleg sent me a link last week to Ad Age's "Power 150"—the top blogs on marketing and media as ranked by Todd Andrlik.

It's an interesting list, to be sure. Ranking is based on a "multimetric algorithm," as the about page explains: basically, an aggregate of points accrued via various measurements (e.g. Technorati ranking, Google Page Rank, etc.), with Todd's own subjective system used as one of eight metrics.

I guess I'm less interested in even a so-called objective ranking than I am in the outside-the-box thinking involved in coming up with the list in the first place. Andrlik has a background in PR and marketing, and is currently the director of marketing and PR for a large construction firm. He's created various social media outlets on their behalf, of course, but he's wisely out there building his own brand as well with his blog, Todd And; much like the King of Social Media (and one of the best networkers I've met ever), Chris Brogan, does with his own efforts, even when he's also working for someone else.

The point (to me) is this: in an era of unprecedented flux and uncertainty, you need to be putting a goodly chunk of time into building your personal brand. And the same thought applies to you as an entrepreneur: what are you doing to build the core message of you, and what you bring to the table? Not you in your capacity as design studio owner or copywriter or marketing consultant or (your-biz-here), but what you at your core stand for.

I guess I'm thinking about it because I'm in the midst of some big shifts with my own work, and I've been really staring hard at the common thread running through the various businesses I've been involved in. I've moved from advertising copywriter to commercial actor to graphic designer, and I'm still evolving. But unlike my first two career rejiggerings, this one feels more organic and even less scary, largely (I think) because I've been "promoting" myself as the communicatrix for the past three years, and a positioning like that lives outside the narrow walls of my design work or my copywriting or my acting.

I think that's also why my newsletter, which I launched in May of last year, focuses on how to improve communication skills rather than graphic design issues. I've had a number of people ask why I don't put out something that promotes my business better; I'm beginning to realize that what I wanted was to promote me, or at least, my ideas. (Back issues here; signup here.)

What do you think? Do you use social media and marketing to promote your business or yourself? Or both? And how do you divvy things up, if you do?

Bonus Brogan linkage:

• Social media maven Chris Brogan's posts on personal branding...
• ...his 5 Starter Moves series on using social media to, um, get you started (includes link to get series as a PDF), and...
• ...some rockstar tips on buffing out your blog for the new year

Guest Post: Jump-starting ideas

Today's guest post comes from Peter Levinson, owner of LevinsonBlock LLC, a graphic design firm that has specialized in entrepreneurial non profits for over 20 years. It's a great, FUN hack for restarting the idea machine when it gets stuck in low gear.

I was designing a gala invitation concept for one of my clients. Not my favorite kind of project -- no real concept, horrible photos, and, of course, it needed to happen yesterday.

I had spent the previous afternoon at my desk trying to hammer out something, anything that could work. I looked at my scribbles the next morning -- there wasn't a winner in the bunch. I was stuck.

What to do? Road trip -- NYC style! I grabbed a pen and a notebook and hopped on the subway. On off-hours it is like a strange fluorescent-lit library. The rhythm of the rails focuses and relaxes me -- and it helps to be away from email and phone calls. An hour later I exit the train with workable concepts.

What do you think? Share your methods for getting un-stuck.

Visit LevinsonBlock's website here, or check out their newsletter archives here.

Chip Kidd on Design Matters tomorrow!

Just a heads up that Season 5 of Design Matters starts this Friday (Jan 18), 3-4 PM Eastern. Listen live when Debbie Millman kicks off the season with an interview of Chip Kidd. (You can also download the podcast free from iTunes.)

Debbie's live Internet radio show on Voice America Business combines a stimulating point of view about graphic design, branding and cultural anthropology. With over 150,000 listeners, it is consistently ranked among the top 100 business podcasts. Plus it's one of Peleg's favorites!

P.S. Debbie Millman will also be speaking at the HOW Design Conference in Boston in May.

Feb 11: Small Biz Tech Summit in NYC

For those of you in the tri-state area (NY/NJ/CT), here's an event I'll be attending on February 11 in NYC: The Third Annual Small Business Summit 2008 put on by my new friend, Ramon Ray, of SmallBusinessTechnology.com and columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine.

They're expecting 400 small business owners to this all-day event at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, so it should make for some good networking.

The early bird price of $99 is good until Feb 1st.

Here are highlights from the agenda:

Marketing in a Digital World: How Technology and New Media are Changing the Game.
The evolving technology landscape will ultimately impact the way you communicate and market to your customers.

Barry Moltz Entrepreneurial Expert, Author, Speaker and Angel Investor
Bounce! The Path to True Business Confidence. Learn how to view failure as a different kind of success

How to Transform Your Business in 40 Minutes
4 Experts, 4 Topics, 40 Tips in 40 Minutes

From the Trenches: Reinvention Case Studies

• Anita Campbell, Moderator; America's small business guru (thousands listen to her radio show; you'll hear her live)
• Laurel Touby, mediabistro.com
• Jennifer Walzer, BackUpMyInfo
• Nina Kaufman, Wise Counsel Press

Has anyone been before?

Post your articles on Biznik

Remember last year, when we introduced you to Biznik, the great new networking web site for independent professionals with the extremely memorable tagline: business networking that doesn't suck?

Well, they've just launched a new section on the site called "Learn," where members can not only read but also post their own articles.

So for anyone with material to recycle (especially the clients I've been nagging about re-using all that great email newsletter content into articles that can get more visibility and therefore increase your search engine rankings), check  out the how-to. or the section itself.