2011 Marketing Calendar

The last two weeks of this year are dedicated to reflecting on the last 50 before them. I’m also gearing up for 2011 by getting a lot of things on my schedule that so that I can hit the ground running. One tool that is going to be important is my Marketing Calendar. Like many of you, if something isn’t written down, it’s not likely to happen because I will be thinking about other things! This lifesaving document will be with me at all times so I can know at a glance what I need to be working on each week to keep my business moving forward.

The calendar should be a working document and change as your business changes. I will be updating and evaluating mine each month or so, and know it will keep me organized and on track with my marketing to-do’s. During 2010 I watched people use a wide variety of marketing techniques and will try some on for size. Not all may be right for me or for my target clients, but I plan to try some new things to see which ones suit us.

If you are in the Shreveport/Bossier area, I invite you to come to my in-person Marketing Calendar class this year. If you are interested in a virtual class, leave me a comment as I will be scheduling one soon. And I’ll be offering some one on one time with those who want some assistance in getting their marketing calendars put together.

Here’s to a bountiful and joyous 2011!

A Blog in the Closet

A new blog. There, I’ve said it. It’s what I want for Christmas. This is a nice blog, but there are a lot of other things I want to talk about that aren’t “business” related. So I believe I am going to keep going here, AND start another blog. But my fear is that somebody will laugh at what I have to say, or no one will comment, or any number of other reasons people don’t do things!

When I started my business several years ago someone asked me what my long term goals were for my business. And I quietly answered that one of my goals was to have a blog that a lot of people read every day. I hadn’t thought of that until recently, and I would really like to try and talk about some other things that are going on in my life. My plan is to start writing over “there” and get going and then come back and tell you about it. You won’t mind, will you? In the meantime, I’ll be chatting along right here and it will be just like always.

Here is my plan:

• Finalize the name of the blog and get the right URL.
• Create my blog with the Builder theme from ithemes.
• Start blogging.

I think that’s it. It’s mostly still in the uncongealed stage (like Jello), but I’d really like to get this baby up and going soon. Just wanted to tell you what is going on in my head these days. Now it’s like I’m committed.

Co-Working on a Broken Laptop

Today is a big day at UnCommon Sense Marketing! I just put the final touches on the premier issue of my marketing newsletter. Thanks to my new VA, it’s coming to an email inbox near you. Like many of you, I receive newsletters from other people and enjoy what information I can, when I can. So, maybe you’ll like what I have to say each month.

Here’s something else that’s new: a new office space that I am working from 2 or 3 days each week. It’s a co-working space downtown, and totally awesome. It’s in an old warehouse with great brick walls inside and high ceilings, open seating with movable wood walls to separate desks as needed. In just a couple of hours each day I can get through a lot more work than if I was at home. Well, I could if my old laptop was acting right.

A couple years ago I took my laptop in to have the geeky boys clean off a bunch of trash and it came back in a somewhat compromised condition. That’s what led me to purchasing it’s big brother last summer: the nice desktop. (oooo!) That relegated the bad laptop to it’s backpack in my hall closet. Bad Laptop. Until my new, glorious office appeared. Bring out the laptop and try, try, TRY to work. PLEASE! So, after much cursing and rebooting, I’ve determined that either I need to reload everything on my system or buy a new laptop. Stay tuned to find out how this ends.

(Oh, in case you want to read my new monthly newsletter, you can go to my website and sign up. Love to have you!)

Using Videos As Marketing Tools

Last week I had the opportunity to speak to a group of Realtors in California. Mostly the subject was how to use Facebook to market their businesses, but it seems like my conversations always stray to using videos. Any business could create videos that would be helpful in building a relationship with their clients. People love to watch videos, and they help build that Know-Like-Trust factor that I always talk about. When I can SEE you it makes you more real, more authentic. I can relate to you better. And then I might be more inclined to listen to you and ultimately buy something from you. Remember, people buy from people they like.

Here are a few examples of things you could do.

• Video tour of your business. Lots of times people are uncomfortable about just walking in the door. Help them feel more comfortable by showing them what they will see. This works great for a restaurant, church, attorney, or mortgage lender.
• The realtors could walk through the houses that they have listed and point out really neat features
• Video testimonials from happy clients
• Demonstrate your products if applicable. Sometimes a technical explanation is easier if you can show somebody how something works.
• Introduce them to people in your office who they talk to, or who make their products, or who provide the services.
• Create a video of works in process – great for builders, designers, artists
• Instead of writing your blog or tips, create a video occasionally and let your followers watch you tell them the information
• and lots more! During my sessions with clients we really come up with some interesting ideas during brainstorming.

Remember that smiling, happy faces will likely sell more. It’s not important to be fresh from the salon or have on your best duds, although a little comb through the hair wouldn’t hurt! Now put on that thinking cap and come up with some other great ideas. The videos needn’t be more than a minute and a half or two minutes long. Any longer and you will start to lose people.

Share some other good ideas with me in the comments. I need the love!

The Power of Speaking

Here’s what I love to do: speak to groups – any size will do. Just show me the front of the room, hand me a microphone, and I’m ready to go. Here’s what else I like to do: teach business owners things they need to know to help their companies.  The last 18 months I have done a lot of speaking and teaching. Hundreds of people have heard me talk about how to market their businesses using Social Media. It’s a hot topic everywhere, and it’s been fun to share ideas. There are always new things popping up since Facebook changes about every week. (Which I can appreciate from a technology standpoint, but it makes it hard for the average bear to keep their arms around!)

Here’s what I love about speaking to groups: people are pretty much the same everywhere. They are hard working, they have families that they want to spend more time with, they wish the economy was better, and they know they should be doing more marketing but aren’t sure how to go about it. They want to laugh at a joke, talk about themselves, and enjoy the company of others. What keeps them up at night varies, but something always keeps them up at night. There is some pain in his or her business and it is up to each entrepreneur with a product or service to offer to find out what that problem(s) is and help them find a solution.

If you aren’t speaking to audiences now, you might consider adding this to your giant list of to-do’s. Here are a couple of reasons why.

• Instead of one-to-one marketing this is one-to-many. Time well spent!
• This is a great way to be seen as an expert
• The questions participants ask will keep you on your toes and make you dig in deeper on your subject matter
• While you aren’t always “allowed” to sell, you do have the opportunity to talk about how you have helped other clients in your various programs, which gets the point across.
• You can build your contact list with people who have attended your presentations. I have a sign up sheet or do a giveaway for those interested.
• You make wonderful new business contacts who know a lot of people who need what you have to offer. Can you say “referral marketing?”

Every town has weekly or monthly networking meetings with various groups. Ask your friends which ones they belong to and ask if they will bring you as a guest.  You will have a chance to introduce yourself and that in itself could spark the interest.   Check in with your local SBA or SBDC and get a list of groups. They all need speakers regularly. Some will be free and some could be paid. To get started you will likely do a lot of free talks, but then your name starts to get around and the phones will start ringing. Meet the people in charge of putting on conferences, or volunteer to teach continuing education courses through your local University.

I’d love to hear where you are speaking. Leave me a comment, okay?

Getting it all done

Small business owners are drowning. They have too much to do and too little time to do it. They wear all the hats in their companies and often things just don’t get done. A typical work day is much longer than 8 hours, and more than 5 days per week is the norm. Until…they discover and implement the ideas I am sharing here.

1. Systems

Picture this: You want to send out a newsletter to everyone on your contact list. This should happen once a month, but because it takes so much focused time and you can’t remember all the steps, you end up spending more time than necessary, and are probably forgetting some things. Enter “the system.” If you write down all the steps you have to take to create the newsletter and file it in an easy to find spot, then next month, you pull the sheet and quickly go down through each step. No more worry about forgetting something. No time wasted thinking and rethinking. And the best part? Now you are ready for step 2.

2. Delegating

Once you have a documented system you can hire someone to go through each step for you. Any decisions that need to be made are documented with the way to make the decision. Once a month that person pulls the list of to-do’s for the newsletter and does this for you. Voila! Now, you can spend that time doing something at which you are brilliant and are making more money than what you are paying for the person now sending out your newsletter.

Next week I am thrilled to have my good friend Jessica Maes joining me as a guest for this month’s call. She knows all about delegating and will sharing lots of great information so that you can go from overwhelmed to in control of your time. Your business and your family will thank you! If you aren’t already receiving invites to my complimentary teleseminars, you can register here. Bonus: you will have access to all the MP3 recordings of each previous call in 2010.

Join us to learn how you can finally get it all done.

Blogging: Like Daughter, Like Mother

My daughter is a blogger – a great blogger. And she writes just like she speaks, which is perfect for me because it’s just like talking to her on the phone. She still has that smart-alecky tone, and somehow manages to capture the interest of many people each day. So my blog post today is going to focus on what she is doing right that is capturing everyone’s attention.

1. She knows her target audience very well. Her blog is on Runner’s World.com, and since she is a runner, it talks a lot about running, training, and racing. She also talks about something else that runners like: food! What she talks about gets people commenting.

2. She is very personable and authentic. Her personality comes out loud and clear. She isn’t fake, and she let’s people see into her life just a little to let everyone know that she’s a real person. Your blog should reflect who you are. If you are inauthentic-that shows-and people will not be drawn to you.

3. She includes pictures whenever possible. Everyone loves to see photographs of what other people are seeing and doing. That makes the blog post much more compelling and entertaining.

4. She keeps the posts short. Most are only a few paragraphs. She says what needs to be said, throws in her “carrie-isms” and is done.

5. She gives comments on other blogs, and therefore, other bloggers comment on her posts. A normal day would have 15-20 comments on her post. That’s really great! You’ve gotta build that circle of blog support. Find blogs that have similar themes and/or audiences and become of part of their world. Comment (genuinely) and build relationships with other bloggers. They will reciprocate. That’s part of the cycle.

It makes me so proud to have a little blogger in the family!

Things I’ve Started Lately

Working from home is great. I’ve been doing it for 15 years. It gave me the wonderful opportunity to spend more time with my kids when they were growing up. My husband has worked from home for 20 years, so we have learned a very different life style than many couples. He’s the perfect work at home type. He gets up early and starts making calls and doing his paperwork, emails, etc. He does everything he needs to do in a very short time and then starts making calls if he is hitting the road. He makes great use of his time.

On the other hand, my day doesn’t go anything like that. I ease into my work day after breakfast, working out, Bible study and maybe some chores. I’m using a new Power Hour technique that seems to be going well. (As wife and mother it’s hard to not look around and be distracted by all the stuff that needs doing around the house.) So, I use my little timer set for 50 minutes and get to work fast on client work. As soon as the timer goes off I take a 10 minute break to walk in the yard and pull a weed or two, maybe knit a couple rows on my current project, or flip through a magazine. At the end of 10 minutes I go back to work again for another 50 minutes. I find that I am getting more done in a shorter time frame. Maybe it’s because I know I will get “me” time filled with activities that bring me joy. I do NOT use those 10 minutes to do chores, check email, or make phone calls. Only things that I consider fun. Now, if you consider chores fun, then by all means scrub a toilet or throw in some laundry!

One more thing that I started is my Gratitude Journal. Each night right before bed I take out a pretty journal book and nice pen and write a few sentences about what I am grateful for. It has really opened up my awareness and I am seeing the fruitage of this lovely new activity. During the day I find myself looking for good things and seeing how I can express gratitude for so much more happening, whether in my life, or the lives of others. You should try it!

What new things have you started lately that you want to share?

Horrors! It’s April Fools Day.

From Christmas Eve to today it has been one short streak of days running into each other. Okay, maybe it slowed down a couple weeks ago, but mostly for 90 days straight. During that time I’ve done lots of listening and exploring to learn more about myself and my business. There have also been things going on at home that required lots of energy, and frankly, my blog just had to take a little recess during all of that. Maybe you have experienced times like this? Thank you for humoring me during this time.

Yesterday I heard someone talking about recognizing the cycles in our businesses. She went on to say that it might take a couple of years to know when the peaks and valleys might occur for us. In my head I added: so adjust your marketing accordingly. This was an interesting revelation to me. I hadn’t considered that my own business might be cyclical. But it makes perfect sense to me and we all need to examine what is going on in our client’s lives that would cause this. No need for panic, just be prepared with different programs or things to do to keep moving ahead. Is it time for a teleseminar or a new product launch? Time to focus on social media marketing, creating videos or writing more articles?

In closing, here is a book recommendation that looks very promising: The Magic of Thinking Big, by David Schwartz. Gina Bell was telling me about it – it’s about creative thinking. One of the points is to believe “it” can be done. When you believe, your mind finds ways to do it. (Whatever “it” is for you.)  I love that!

The New Face of Marketing

This week is so exciting for me – in a stepping outside my comfort zone kind of way. My new 2010 series of free monthly teleseminars starts on Thursday, and I am so thrilled with the prospect of doing this that I’ve kind of got butterflies already! I am meeting a number of great people during this process, and I’ve gotten tons of welcome advice and assistance in putting it all together. Each month I’ll be sharing a lot of information about marketing your business, and often the topic will be related to social media. This link has all the details about the first call.

If you have questions about why you should be marketing with Facebook, I’d love to hear from you! Leave me a comment and I’ll address that on my call this week. Or if you have other marketing questions, let me know those, too.  That might wind up being a great idea for another month’s free call.

Now, back to the Olympics…