The Marketing Mix is the official blog of Marketing Mentor and the community that's sprung up around it.
We're devoted to helping small business owners, freelancers and independent professionals grow their businesses into thriving enterprises.
Feel free to join in the conversation: leave a comment, send us an email. Or, if you're an MM client, past or present, with the blogging bug and/or great stories to share, let us know—we're always on the lookout for guest bloggers!
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ILISE BENUN is the founder of Marketing Mentor, and has been teaching people to promote themselves and their services since 1988. Author of 4 books and many, many more articles, Ilise has been self-employed for all but three years of her working life.
COLLEEN WAINWRIGHT, a.k.a. "the communicatrix," is a Los Angeles-based writer/designer/consultant who helps entrepreneurs define and market themselves. She is a devoted adherent of the Marketing Mentor program as well as living proof that by gum, the stuff actually works.
Although our economic climate is changing and we’re facing some
uncertain times, many creative agencies are still thriving. I’m writing
an article for an upcoming issue of HOW magazine and would love from
you about what you are doing, or what you set in place, to weather the
storm. Are you doing anything different with your marketing? Are you
managing your finances in new and creative ways?
Email me your
thoughts (peleg AT marketing-mentor DOT com) and you just may see yourself featured in the article!
If you’re looking for a good place to visit on a regular basis for business articles and ideas check out the newly launched CreativeBriefcase.com. You can find a range of business articles targeted for creative professionals, newbies and veterans too. The membership site includes hundreds of articles about accounting, business planning, client relations, employees, pricing and marketing (with a few articles by Marketing Mentor too!). The site also includes a business directory of essential resources for all areas that can support your creative business. Check it out and let them know Marketing Mentor sent you!
A couple of weeks ago I was invited to sit on a panel of design experts and talk marketing and self promotion at the big AIGA Promo Show. This Orange County event drew top talent from the area and was moderated by Bryn Mooth, editor of HOW magazine. Check out this 8 minute clip of us discussing what kind of marketing materials are effective and what works for leave behind? I promise some interesting ideas and insights. More clips coming soon!
If you are a creative solopreneur or the owner of a design firm and want to improve your financial growth, don't miss this special live event with Marketing Mentor co-founder Peleg Top. “Running a profitable design business in challenging times” will be presented together with Mary-Lynn Bellamy-Williams, founder and CEO of FunctionFox.
This presentation will help move the financial state of your business to the next level. Whether you are running a solo business or a small creative firm, this seminar will give you some great tips and fresh ideas about creating more profit from your business.
You will learn:
How to understand and implement key metrics and formulas
How to determine your billable rates
What your firm should be billing based on your staffing
The difference between performance-based and value-based compensation
How to talk to your clients about money
How to get your client to reveal their budget
What to say to build trust with your clients and charge the fees you want
Join us for this not to miss event! Admission is FREE with your RSVP | Space is limited to 50 people so act fast as this event will sell out.
Thursday, November 6, 2008 7:00 pm BlankSpaces, 5405 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles
At one point one of the attendees asked John, “What do you look for when you receive a marketing piece and what do you usually get?”
John shared with us that most of the design firms that contact him take a lot of time talking about themselves—their accomplishments. Very few actually talk about how they can help him with his needs.
“I don’t really care what you have accomplished for other clients or what awards you’ve won," he explained. "I want to know that you care about what it is I need and that you do exceptional work.”
Do your marketing materials focus on yourself or your client? Are you sending a message that says “I care about what you need help with and here is how I can help you?” Something to think about.
Our good friend Cameron Foote, editor of CreativeBusiness.com newsletter has been conducting an annual survey on current business conditions for a few years now. The next survey will be published in his December issue. If you are working in the creative industry as a freelancer or if you are an owner of a small creative business you are invited to take part in this free survey.
I think the timing of this survey is perfect. Over the last couple of months all we have been hearing is how bad the economy is getting. Everyone is worried and anxious with the current climate. But the reality for our industry may be different than what the media is portraying. The people I have been talking to that have a well-oiled marketing machine are doing just fine. In fact, business is growing and they are happy with where they are.
I invite you to take 5 minutes and answer this quick survey. Your participation will help us all learn more about what’s going on out there.
Results will be published in the November/December issue of the Creative Business newsletter, and made available to other respondents on request. (e-mail requests to mail AT creativebusiness DOT com after December 1st.)
Do you have a favorite marketing or business book that you love? The one that changes your thinking about your business, the one that had a bunch of A-Ha moments or the one that you keep referring to over and over? We’d like to know! Post your top 3 favorite books here and we’ll compile a list of the most recommended books and post it on our site.
I was reading a fascinating statistic the other day.
Every second, 14 Nokia mobile phones are sold. And Nokia is not happy about it.
It promoted me to look a little closer at what Nokia is doing these days with positioning themselves in the digital media delivery world now that iPhones are starting to take over the world. Nokia has been a world leader in mobile communications for many years and suddenly the rules of the game are changing. Nokia is realizing that it needs to position itself as a promoter of social networking, with photo and video sharing and games for users of its cell phones. The market is changing and it’s a new and unfamiliar territory for them. Mr. Tero Ojanpera, Nokia’s CEO, was quoted saying “Change is painful, but you have to figure this out in order to be successful. The question is, are you willing to play by the new rules?”
If a giant corporate company is having this big a-ha moment and shifting their products and marketing efforts, what are we, the small business owners doing to keep on top of the changes in the market today? I am realizing more and more the importance of teaching myself about all the online and social networking avenues out there to stay current and grow my business. A year ago I wouldn’t have cared about Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn but it seems that the world is moving in this direction whether I like it or not at a speed that is hard to keep up with. So am I willing to make the change? You bet. It’s an unfamiliar territory for too me but I am slowly getting more comfortable in it. Everything flows from the market and the market is saying “get active online!”
So how has this change affected your business? Are you getting more connected? Is it an unfamiliar territory for you as it is for me?
Some of you may think that on the hottest day on record in the city of Los Angeles I would choose to stay indoors and avoid the 105 degree sun, especially in the middle of the day. I would have probably done that if it wasn't for a marketing stunt that I was invited to participate in.
My husband sings with the Gay Men’s Chorus. Last week they received an invitation from Universal Pictures to join other choruses from the Los Angeles area to join voices and burst into ABBA songs in a middle of a Dodgers baseball game. Yes, you are reading this right. ABBA and Baseball. Two things you would never put together. But read on, it gets better.
The Chorus didn’t think twice and accepted the invitation. Lucky for me, Chorus members could bring guests to the event so here we were, about 30 guys on a bus to a 1:00 pm Dodgers game. On the bus we received a lyric sheet for 3 of the songs we were going to sing. You see, this little stunt was to promote and get a street buzz for the upcoming movie Mamma Mia! based on the songs of the Swedish super group ABBA. I do have to make a small confession and let you know that I really didn’t need those lyric sheets. I’ve been an ABBA fan since I was 10 years old and I must have heard these songs thousands of times by now.
When we arrived to Dodgers stadium upon exiting the bus we each were handed a Dodgers blue t-shirt with the Mamma Mia! Logo proudly displayed on the front. We found our seats and joined the other partners in crime. We now waited for our queue to burst into song.
No one in the stadium knew what was going on. This was completely underground and unexpected. When we finally started singing the first song, the theme from Mamma-Mia! Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at us. Soon after, big smiles and dancing in the aisles joined our singing. We sang and danced for 4 more times and every time we got a little louder.
This type of street marketing is becoming more visible these days. Companies realized that the power of a good buzz can get a lot more attention than a print ad or a TV commercial. So they are looking for creative ways to get people to talk. And if you think about it, a marketing stunt like this would be a much cheaper tool to use. If you think about it, this little stunt didn’t cost Universal much money in the big scheme of things. Buy a few hundred baseball game tickets, rent a bus, print some t-shirts and let the word spread out. I am sure this stunt will show up on YouTube sometime around the opening week of the movie and will get thousands of hits. That’s thousands of people who will be exposed to the same stunt and probably forward the video to a person or two. After all, everyone knows at least one ABBA fan.
(and for your viewing pleasure, here is a video clip of us singing):
Last Thursday I was invited to present a talk to a group of freelancers here in Los Angeles.
The evening was sponsored by Artisan Creative, one of the leading creative staffing agencies in town. The idea for this event came out of a lunch date I had over four months ago with Jamie Douraghy, the founder of the agency. I gave Jamie a copy of our new book and he was so impressed with the book that he immediately wanted to create an event around it. He thought it would be a great gesture to give a copy of the book to each of his talented freelancers who are signed with the agency.
Now, you may think that helping freelancers grow their own business could ultimately hurt his business down the road—after all, he needs this talent for his own business—but Jamie is a smart man. He knows the power of networking and good relationship. He is genuinely interested in helping others grow and succeed. He knows that other people’s success will only inspire more success for his business.
He invited me to give a talk to all his current and past talent that has been signed up with Artisan. I was impressed to see a nice turn-out considering there was a Lakers game on at the same time. Putting on this event was an internal marketing effort for Artisan. It created a stronger relationship with their talent and gave an opportunity for creatives to network and improve their business skills.
Thanks a million to Jamie and the Artisan staff for planning such a great evening. It’s no wonder they are the best at what they do!
A series of posts documenting Marketing Mentor's search for a new tagline and what happened when we opened up the discussion to the Marketing Mentor community.
Although our economic climate is changing and we’re facing some
uncertain times, many creative agencies are still thriving. I’m writing
an article for an upcoming issue of HOW magazine and would love from
you about what you are doing, or what you set in place, to weather the
storm. Are you doing anything different with your marketing? Are you
managing your finances in new and creative ways?
Last week I was invited to sit on a panel at the 
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