Good Ideas are Worth Copying!

In marketing, there are few original ideas.  Every designer or writer gets inspiration from somewhere. According to the author of Ditch the Dusty Widget every small business owner should adopt this strategy when it comes to developing their own marketing material.  She suggests:

In your “Best Practices” hard file, you should collect those types of marketing tools that spark ideas for how to market your own business, or that simply grab your attention and strike you as really well done. Even if the advertisement is for a furniture store and you sell fishing gear, keep the ad if it contains imagery, style elements, a unique offer or some other clever marketing technique that you could repurpose for your own needs.

In addition to hard copy, I recommend collecting websites as well. I have document where i post links to sites I consider worth saving.  Maybe they have a cool layout, fun headline, or maybe the site is just a great resource for inspiration and new ideas.

Save the good and the bad…  whether you are going to do the creative work yourself, or turn the project over to a professional firm, knowing what you like and don’t like on the front end will make the process much smoother, with the end result something you are really happy with.

Entrepreneurial Behavior Can Be Learned.

In a recent post on Duct Tape Marketing, small business expert John Jansh argues:

Many of the traits that make up the entrepreneur are ingrained as habits, I suspect, knowingly or unknowingly, by our well intentioned parents and caregivers.

So this raises an interesting question.  If you didn’t grow up in an entrepreneurial environment, can you be a successful entrepreneur?  I think you can, but you have to recognize the skills and traits you didn’t see modeled when you are young, and find a way to model them now.

For example – i come from a family of teachers and social workers.  I know how to tell a good story, and break down complex ideas into manageable bites, but I still wrestle with skills which come easily to the natural entrepreneur.  So how do I compensate?  I hang out with entrepreneurs who do have that background, and hang out with the, observe how they approach their business.

Read the rest of John’s post

Deliver Relevant Content!

Jason Kintzler has written a terrific post for PR pros and amateurs alike.

He suggests when you put a pitch together, think like an editor. Write about ideas that are fresh and relevant?  Include details the editor will need to turn out a solid article, such as contact information for interviews, hi-res images and links to supporting material.

If you do your job correctly, your pitch not only isn’t spam, it’s content.  Read the rest of the article

Need help with your next press release?   Contact Roundpeg Today! 317-69-1396

Move Marketing to the Top of Your To-Do List!

Do you have all the business you need?  This week, and in your pipeline?  If the answer is yes, then you can relax, skip this blog post, and work on something else.

If not pay attention.  -

• MARKETING is an important activity – It is what will feed your pipeline.
• MARKETING is not just advertising – it is networking, direct mail, email, blogging, and much more.
• MARKETING does not have to be expensive or time consuming
• if you are serious about your busienss – MARKETING is mandatory.

In a recent post on Duct Tape Marketing John Jansch says:

Marketing is and must become a habitual activity in your business. You must live by the marketing calendar or die by the lack of time available to complete the greasing of the squeaky wheel.

So what is your habit?  Do you set aside time weekly to evaluate what is working, and why your phone is or ins’t ringing?  He goes on to suggest:

The only way to find time for marketing is to plan for it. Create a marketing theme for every month of the year and then build marketing activities on a daily and weekly basis around the theme.

I loved this idea – It allows you to tie all the pices of your marketing together.  Messages you create in blogs can be used in newsletters, and emails.   A little planning goes a long way to making it easier to manage your marketing.

On-Line and Off-Line Work Together

In a recent post, Small Busienss Marketing Expert – John Jansch of DuctTape Marketing asked the question Are You Too On-Line?   My immediate reaction was surprise… his title made it seem as if he was backing away from his solid support of on-line strategies.

But he didn’t disappoint me.  He goes on to reinforce what I have been telling my clients for a long time, the on and offline strategies compliment each other.  While your website is the center point of your marketing it doesn’t stand alone.    You can not run your entire business from behind your computer screen.

Examples of how to blend the elements

1. Get out! Network then bring the cards home and send an email or better yet, MAKE A PHONE CALL ( for you Gen y’s and Gen next in the audience, some people actually talk into that device you use for texting)
2. Send targeted direct mail, and drive traffic to a personalized URL more information or even order fulfillment

For other ideas, read his origianl post:

The new small business marketing masterpiece: wallet mailers

As companies shift more and more of their marketing budget to the internet, direct mail while more expensive, will become more effective because people receive less.

You will however continue to need to find creative ways to get noticed, one suggestion my Intern Emily found – wallet mailers.  check out the article by Dave Russell

Read full article

It is Not How Much Money You Spend

When I was the brand manager for Bryant, I had a significantly smaller budget then my Carrier counterpart, so I learned to do more with less.

Those same techniques serve me well today as a small business consultant, helping my clients find creative ways to reach their customers. Charlie Cook from the Marketing Insider has written a good post on the topic. Yes he is promoting his book, but his advice is solid:

Give something away for free

Use publicity to attract attention

Use eMail appropriately are all solid pieces of advices.

Remember, when it comes to marketing, it is not how much money you spend, but how well you spend it that makes the difference.

Looking for more specifics check out Promotions on a Shoestring on September 23rd at Rainmaker University.

Overloading on Social Media

Getting involved with Social Media is like boiling a frog. If you put a live frog in boiling water, he will jump out. If you put him in cold water and heat slowly, he will never notice, and you get frog legs for dinner.

For the novice, I usually suggest starting slowly. Read before you write, comment first, then try to create.  To be actively engaged in the Web 2.0 world, without being overloaded a reasonable goal is :1 or more blogs, an RSS feed reader, one microblogging identities and accounts on business networking, social networking and aggregators.  For a broader perspective on this check out the following posts:

• There is no social media overload - Louis Grey
• Justin korn – How to make sense of it
• Kyle Lacy and the 4 Touch Point Model

As a matter of fact, considering adding these folks to your “RSS Feed Reader” and check them out on a regtular basis.

What Is Web 2.0 And Why Do I Care?

Roundpeg Founder and small business expert Lorraine Ball will share her favorite strategies on how to become more productive using Web 2.0 tools  in a 90 minute Rainmaker University Class: “What is Web 2.0 and Why do I Care?”

The class will be held from 12:30 – 2:00 pm in the Yeager office buildings located at 11650 Lantern Road, Fishers, IN 46038.  The Fee to attend is $75/person.  Rainmaker members receive a discounted rate of $25.

For more Information or to Register go to: Rainmaker University

Less is More

When it comes to tagging your content for your blog or website sometimes “Less is More”  at least according to SEO expert Michael Gray. In a recent post he explains why fewer categories and tags make it easier for Google and other search engines to find exactly the right information on your website.

He suggests:

Don’t display full posts on your homepage or in your archives, only display the full content on the single post page.

Categories, Dates, or Tags, choose one and block google from crawling the others. I’m a big fan of using categories because it helps set up a SEO Siloing structure, but if you prefer tags or date based, go for it.

Limit the number of paths Google can use to find your content. If you choose categories as your primary structure keep your posts in a few categories as possible.

This is a great strategy for small business owners trying to incorporate blogging into their marketing mix.  It makes it much easier to find a few categories and post, post, post, rather then splitting hairs

And while I won’t be going back and redoing the hundreds of posts I have already written I will be taking a more streamlined approach to future posts.

Clients Want Shortcuts

In this day and age, we are all over stimulated and bombarded with information on every front.  Want more clients in this cluttered environment? Walt Goshert, small business marketing expert suggests creating building a step-by-step process into your marketing strategy that your clients will find you easy to work with and a refreshing change from the constant information overload.

Read more.

E-course for Small Business Marketing

Use the power of the internet to build your small business by offering an ecourse. An ecourse demonstrates your expertise on your specialty by teaching others about it. eCourses help establish you as a subject matter expert, keeping you in front of prospective clients, and increasing your chances of future business.

Read more.

Try, Measure, Adjust and Try Again

As a mediocre science student, the one thing I really understood was the scientific process.  This structured approach to testing any theory or idea made perfect sense.  Try something, measure the results, adjust your variables and try again.

In theory, this same process works for marketing.  Try a campaign, measure the results, adjust and try again.  The problem: traditional advertising is tough to measure.  How many of the phone calls you receive this week are really directly a result of the the advertisement you ran on Sunday?

The internet is a marketer’s dream! Rapid results, readily available from a wide variety of sources are at your fingertips on the web.

Bryan Eisenberg, author of Always Be Testing, shared ideas on this subject with John Jansch of of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast.  Some of the tools he suggested:

• Google Website Optimizer tests the effectiveness of one headline or offer from another.
• Google Analytics gives you a better feel for how people view your pages.
• You can access the workforce ofAmazon’s Mechanical Turk or UserTesting.com and get usability testing done on your web pages.

Take advantage of these tools to improve your site and on-line marketing.  Test, Test, and Test again!

It’s Not Just What You Say, But How You Say It!

Alexandra Brown, author of a popular small business marketing blog wrote a great post recently about how to create copy that sells.  Her suggestions work equally well for web copy, brochures, email or blog posts.

She suggests:

1. Be reader-centered, not writer-centered.
2. Focus on the benefits — not just the features.
3. Draw them in with a killer headline.
4. Use engaging subheads.
5. Be conversational.
6. Nix the jargon.
7. Keep it brief and digestible.
8. Use testimonials when possible.
9. Ask for the order!
10. Have your copy proofread!

To this list I would add the final copy check…   How many times do you use the words, you, your, vs WE, US, OUR, and I..   Customer focused literature, should be 2 x 1 2nd person to 1st person.  ( and our customers is still about you)

Write about what they need, if you get their attention, you will earn the right to talk about what you sell.

It’s Not Just What You Say, But How You Say It!

Alexandra Brown, author of a popular small business marketing blog wrote a great post recently about how to create copy that sells.  Her suggestions work equally well for web copy, brochures, email or blog posts.

She suggests:

1. Be reader-centered, not writer-centered.
2. Focus on the benefits — not just the features.
3. Draw them in with a killer headline.
4. Use engaging subheads.
5. Be conversational.
6. Nix the jargon.
7. Keep it brief and digestible.
8. Use testimonials when possible.
9. Ask for the order!
10. Have your copy proofread!

To this list I would add the final copy check…   How many times do you use the words, you, your, vs WE, US, OUR, and I..   Customer focused literature, should be 2 x 1 2nd person to 1st person.  ( and our customers is still about you)

Write about what they need, if you get their attention, you will earn the right to talk about what you sell.