Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You’re only a stranger once.

March 3, 2010

Social Media List: Quirky Marketing, Promoting Your Business and Celebrations

teresa wrote this at 6:20 pm

A Weekly Series by Teresa Morrow

I’m Teresa Morrow, Founder of Key Business Partners, LLC and I work with authors and writers by managing their online promotion. As part of my job I read a lot of books (and I love to read anyway!). I am here to offer a weekly post about one book I am working with and one book I have put on my reading list. The books will cover topics such as social media (Facebook and Twitter), organization, career building, networking, writing and self development and inspiration.

Quirky Marketing Calendar

Business Marketing Calendar

This week I would like to start off with an ebook I have read and working with the author entitled Quirky Marketing Calendar: The Ultimate Ebook to Promote your Business 365 Days of the Year by Heidi Richards.

For every business owner using the special holidays and events is a creative way to help promote your business and a nice departure away from the traditional.

Here are a few of the suggestions to market your business in a Quirky way:

Did you know?

March 5th is Nametag Day – Want some media attention? Do what Joe Porcelli from Neighbors for Neighbors did. Joe wore a nametag every day for the entire year of 2007 and got coverage which sparked other companies to jump on the Nametag bandwagon. Wyndham Price Agency and the Norwich Bulletin of Massachusetts provided free nametags during the week leading up to Nametag Day. People dropped by Wyndham to collect their name tags and the Norwich Bulletin put a nametag ready to use right on their front page! There was a complimentary edition of the Norwich Bulletin delivered to all non-subscribers in Colchester . And the local Parks & Recreation hosted a wrap up Nametag Day event on Tuesday, January 23rd at the Colchester Youth and invited people to share their unique experiences of wearing the nametag for a day and meet new people too.

AND…

July is National “Doghouse Repairs” Month ~ Dog treats may be a hit with animal lovers. Give away cookies in the shape of a dog bone… wrap them individually in cello with a little bow,
add your business card and pass out at networking events or in your establishment. I purchased the dog bone shaped cookie cutter at a local craft store, took it to my local
grocer/baker and they made me 1,000 cookies for this promotion. I also took them on trays to local radio and TV stations delivered by a local actor in a “Scooby Do” - like costume.

About the Author:
Heidi Richards Mooney is an author, business coach &entrepreneur. Mother of 3– Jennifer, Alexis (deceased), and Suzannah, grandmother to 3 beautiful children – Devon, Madison and Logan, wife to Timmy and friend to many. Heidi grew up in California and moved to Florida in ‘74.

A writer, social media coach and entrepreneur, Heidi enjoys traveling to new countries, learning new cultures & sharing a woman’s perspective on marketing, leadership and running a business. She has written 8 books and co-authored 2, published and edited several ebooks and publishes a quarterly international magazine – WE Magazine for Women.
Heidi is the Founder & CEO of the Women’s ECommerce Association International (WECAI™) ~ a virtual organization of women in ecommerce.

You can pick up a copy of Quirky Marketing Calendar here.

Book Yourself Solid

Now is time for me to showcase a book I have not read but it is on my reading list. This week my choice is Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port.

Book Yourself Solid is a complete instructional guide for starting and growing a successful service business. It gives you simple, yet effective techniques for creating relentless demand and endless leads. It includes more than 200 proven marketing strategies for attracting new clients, earning more referrals, and building profitable, long-lasting professional relationships. If you want to take your service business to the next level, start here and Book Yourself Solid.

About the Author:
There’s nothing ordinary about Michael Port, at least, according to his mother. But others seem to agree. Day to day, he runs one of the largest and most respected coaching programs for small business owners in the world at Booked Solid University.

Michael has been called “an uncommonly honest author” by the Boston Globe and a “marketing guru” by The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of four bestselling books including Book Yourself Solid, Beyond Booked Solid, The Contrarian Effect, and the New York Times Bestseller, The Think Big Manifesto.

A few tips about networking from the book:
1) Do arrive on time. Port writes” This is not the time to stage a grand entrance by being fashionably late…”
2) Do relax and be yourself. He adds,”Contrary to conventional wisdom, you don’t have to fit in.”
3) Do introduce yourself to the person hosting the event. Port explains,”The person may be a very valuable addition to your network.”

You can get yourself a copy of Book Yourself Solid on Amazon.


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March 2, 2010

How to Enlist Awesome Sponsor Partners for Your Projects

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 7:50 am

The Art of Finding Great Partners

cooltext443809602_strategy

As the co-producer of SOBCon, a small event conference, I had to invent a few things about working with sponsors. It took a while to build and explain the value proposition for an event that only offers 150 attendees. Yet, those weren’t just any 150 and my goal was to entice, encourage, and enlist the most awesome sponsors to invest in making it work.

Last week I wrote a blog post about the 6 Cold Truths of Building Business. Two points in that list really apply here. Take a minute to go read it if you haven’t had a chance to; then come back here.

Learning the art of finding great partners might be the biggest value of my business career. I’m delighted to be sharing what I’ve learned about finding great sponsors with you.

How to Enlist Awesome Sponsor Partners for Your Projects

How often does it happen that we get emails often from complete strangers, requesting our time, resources, or money that outline what our investment will do for person asking? For me at least, it happens more and more. It’s a sadly tuned request that only lays out the benefit to the person who is asking. No giver has resources to answer every one-sided request generously — it’s not good friendship or good business. How would the giver ever survive?

Whether you’re looking for a sponsor to send you to a conference or someone to support your newest project … you have to make it in the best interest of the people who might help.

Here’s how to entice, encourage, and enlist awesome sponsor partners for your project.

  1. Do your homework. Know what you have to offer. What about your event or project might be attractive to what sort of partner? Find out how folks value it. Be ready to walk in with an broadly sketched business plan that considers what the exchange of value will be.
  2. Choose your partners. Don’t ask everyone. Look at what you’re doing and find the ideal match for the event or project you’re building. It will be so much easier to connect and collaborate if you can explain to a potential partner how you already see them participating in a meaningful way.
  3. Start with asking them, “what are your goals for the next two quarters?” Then listen. Listening lets offers a chance to adapt what you’re doing to include something that fits the sponsor irresistibly.
  4. When you hear a goal that aligns with yours, suggest how you might be more efficient working together. Negotiation is aligning your project goals with the goals of the folks you want to buy in. Sit on the same side of the table and align what you want with where they want to go.
  5. Last word: Love your sponsors and the sponsors of any event or project that you enjoy! Sponsors make all of our lives easier.Talk about them. Write about them. Personally thank them for all they do for us! Give them lots of reasons to be pleased, proud, and ready to come back. You can bet that helps when we ask them to sponsor again!

A great example might be …
If you want a sponsor to send you to a social media (or SEO or education) conference or workshop, research to find a local business that wants to get involved social media. Ask for a meeting to discuss how you can help each other. You might suggest that they send you to the conference and that in return you spend 4 hours with their team teaching them what you learned.

Even if they don’t have the budget, you’ve made call on a local client who’s interested in social media (or SEO or education). You’ve started to establish yourself as an expert. You may find other business come from it.

Show how doing what you want will make them a hero, get them closer to their goals in ways that are easier, smarter, and more meaningful. Look for how you can make folks feel proud and smart to be a part of what you’re doing, you’ll find someone who wants to invest in what you’re doing.

I’m pleased to say that SOBCon2010 has an incredible list of sponsors, including Intuit, Allstate, ReveNews, Smart Brief of Social Media, and IZEA. Every one of them has been a pleasure to work with. We’ll be announcing a few others soon!

Any questions about getting awesome sponsors?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

Register Now!! for sobcon-vmc


Filed under Business Life, Comments, Successful Blog | 4 Comments »


March 1, 2010

What Makes a Blog Compelling?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 8:35 am

Talk to Me

cooltext443809558_authenticity

What will make a blog compelling to a user?

It’s a favorite question. Getting people to come and stay is what I do, and talking about it is almost as much fun. I might have said it in a slightly more corporate way, but what I answered was basically this.

Humanity is what’s compelling. We’re all hungry for a connection that makes us feel real.

Quality content that serves real human needs served up by a real human being is the combination of three things: head, heart, and practical meaning. Put them together and a blog — or rather one who writes it — can make a reader feel inspired, moved to action, and wholly alive.

People recognize the real deal.

Visitors to a barroom or a blog figure out quickly whether they get to be who they really are, and whether that’s okay with everyone already there.

Authenticity allows everyone to tell their own truth and feel valued for it.

When that “feeling valued” happens, we give back — in attention, participation, and loyalty. When we’re invested, we don’t walk away.

That’s the heart of compelling.

A compelling blog is human in every way.

What makes a blog compelling to you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

Register Now!! for sobcon-vmc

Recently, working with a client, I was asked the question,


Filed under Business Life, Marketing, Successful Blog | 17 Comments »


February 28, 2010

Half Empty, Half Full, or a New View on an Old Question?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 9:27 am

cooltext443860173_ive-been-thinking

about new views on old questions …

All we we’ve been looking out the window watching the harbor. It’s not completely frozen.

half-frozen_harbor_by_liz_strauss


Though I’d like to think that it’s a sure sign that spring is coming soon. With the temperatures sitting at the freezing point it seems that another cold snap could take the harbor back in short order.

I can’t help but think of the question about the half glass of water … is it half empty or half full? View the question from a different direction, it could be that the glass is the wrong size … The answer could be “full: if the glass were smaller.

It’s got me wondering how I might look at a half-frozen harbor with a different view.

New views on old questions lead to new answers. Ever solved a problem by changing your view?

Liz's Signature

Like the Blog? Buy my eBook!


Filed under Motivation/Inspiration, Successful Blog | 6 Comments »


February 27, 2010

Thanks to Week 227 SOBs

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 10:35 am

muddy teal strip A

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

Purple SOB Button Original SOB Button Red SOB Button Purple and Blue SOB Button
and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

muddy teal strip A


colderice
desert-book-chick
mindful-construct
social-media-24-7
viperchill

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

deep purple strip

Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss


Filed under SOB Business, Successful Blog | No Comments »



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