HSCS-010 – 9 Cheap and Easy Ways to Energize Your Marketing

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There’s lots of opportunity to light a fire under your marketing efforts for the rest of the year as you plan for 2010. Here are 9 tips for 09/09/2009.

1. Get in sync.
   Lay all your promotional materials out in front of you — business card, fliers, mailers, website, online ads — and take a good, long, hard look at them. Do they make sense? Is it confusing? Do they look consistent?
2. Develop some interesting stories that tell how you helped clients succeed.
   Sounds better than tooting your own horn.
3. Play to your strengths.
   If 90% of your business is selling a particular service, then lead with that message instead of confusing prospects with a menu of services. Get your foot in the door before you cross-sell.
4. Experiment with something you are uncomfortable with.
   You might be surprised how you may connect with new prospects.
5. Get out and meet new people.
   I’m shocked at how many people I invite to networking events will not come, ever.
   You can’t afford not to!
6. Smile and dial.
   Dust off all those business cards you’ve collected and reconnect with those business contacts.
7. Become news worthy.
   Share an *interesting* human interest story that the Media might pick up on.
8. Build your Linkedin and Facebook contacts.
   Strive for quality, not quantity. Regularly let your contacts know what you’re doing. Ask for introductions, testimonials and opinions. Treat them as an advisory panel.
9. Spy on the competition.
   Okay, maybe that sounds a bit sneaky. But you should know what your successful competitors are doing right.
10. BONUS TIP: Hire a consultant.
    Seriously, find someone who can either do the work for you or teach you what you need to know to do it in-house. If you can’t afford it, suggest bartering for services.

Okay I know someone will say, what, why didn’t you include Social Media in the list. Truthfully, for newbies, I only advocate investing time in Linkedin and Facebook. Over time, as comfort level and experience increase, then there’s plenty of opportunities (e.g. Twitter) to experiment with and add to the marketing mix.

Thanks for listening/reading!

What do you suggest?

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I recently had the pleasure to once again speak with George from the One Minute How To podcast. We discussed tips for both marketers and consumers to keep in mind to help protect sensitive information.

Please check out the podcast episode. It’s only a minute.

Tutorial: How to Subscribe to a Podcast

Podcasts are a wonderful source of education and entertainment. Generally speaking, ordinary people like you and me decide that they have something to share and publish it online for others to enjoy. Community participation is what motivates podcasters to continue to publish content on niche topics. Read more

Build Relationships With a Live Broadcast Show

You may want to look at using TalkShoe as another tactic for your marketing mixed bag.

Basically, TalkShoe is a FREE service that enables anyone to easily create, join, or listen to Live Interactive Podcasts & Audioblogs.

These podcaster-hosted Talkcasts can be audio talk shows, discussions, conversations or monologues. Podcasters can also upload an existing pre-recorded podcast. Recorded Talkcasts can be listened to, downloaded, or subscribed to.

Friends and associates, as well as the general Internet surfer can find and join a Live Talkcast. It’s a great way to connect with people of common interests, and you might even make new friends. You can choose to talk (by telephone or microphone), text-chat, or just listen along.

It’s free, but for a fee, TalkShoe can provide more custom tailored solutions for more professional needs. (I.e. custom skinned interface, customer support during peak times)
The host interface may seem a bit intimidating, but it’s quick to understand.

IDEAS TO DRIVE YOUR BUSINESS:

• Create a recurring show (weekly, bi-weekly) at a designated time featuring you or a personality talking about success, big ideas — whatever is appropriate for your market or niche.
• Host an Ask the Expert style talk show and interview passionate enthusiasts.
• Have chats about exercise, recipes, healthy habits for managing/preventing a health condition sponsored by your brand.

Then allow the listeners to submit questions and/or speak real-time with the hosts.

When the episode is over, the file remains available on TalkShoe.com. You can do any post production you want on the source audio files and publish to a promotional web site, and place that feed on iTunes/major podcast directories.

BENEFITS FOR YOUR BUSINESS:

• Draw interested people to the event.

• Consumers can choose how much or how little to participate.

• Individual passion comes to life much better as audio than by reading chat logs.

• Consumers can decide to consume the media when-where-how they want it.

I hope you find this useful. Please contact me with any thoughts or suggestions.
Thank you.
-Roland

Carefully Choose Clients For Your Podcasting Effort

While listening to episode 36 of Podcasting Today, I heard a few good pieces of advice by Rob Walch of Podcast411.com.

The topic was dealing with stubborn clients and how to make a positive arguement for releasing interviews in podcast form rather than on radio. Radio interviews essentially dissappear the moment after being broadcast. However, consumers can find your podcast for years to come.

Also, to make interview(s) with the brand more genuine, avoid sales and marketing folks. While they may know the lingo, they tend to always be in sales mode and the conversation may sound less genuine.

Instead, reach out to interview the CEO, CTO or Product Manager. These people:

• have greater vision of industry
• understand the competitive landscape
• are familiar with the niche trying to be filled, and
• possess in-depth knowledge of the product or service.

How to Keep Your Audience Engaged

It can be difficult to get someone to listen to what you have to say. But it takes significant effort to keep your audience engaged, coming back for more and evangelizing on your behalf.

Scott Bourne posted a simple list worth checking out: Four Ways to Improve Your Podcast/Netcast/Webcast

Give Brand Evangelists Access to Your Assets

Here’s something extremely smart. A clever PR / marketer arranged for mommy bloggers and podcasters to come for a special day on the set at the CBS comedy The New Adventures of Old Christine, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus. They got to hang out on the set, mingle and have a Q&A session with the cast.

Why?

Because the protagonist, Christine, is a working mother. In fact, of the shows currently on air, it’s extremely rare to have a show centered around the character of a working mother where you actually see her also dealing with family and personal issues. Most of the time, you see the “working mom” doing her lawyer or doctor duties — no family in site.

Think about the after effect. Those mommy bloggers head back home, tell their respective audiences about the experience, more and more may tune in to watch. Get the picture?

So, embrace your audience or fan base. Throw them some swag. Create an event or special offer for them and their listeners.

It’s a great grass roots approach to spreading your message.

Check out this behind the scenes video by the Manic Mommies podcast.

-Roland

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