Successful Blog

Concrete Steps Toward Integrated Virtual Marketing

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Stuart Foster at The Lost Jacket has written a post recently about The Rise of Cloud Marketing:

“We’re all in.”

Cloud computing is a way of computing, via the Internet, that broadly shares computer resources instead of using software or storage on a local PC.

Microsoft has bet its future on this technology. You can find it being used to distribute .torrents, ease the pressure on servers and scale up and down appropriately. They’re “all in”, so why haven’t content creators jumped on board?

Fear and a loss of control.

The cloud breaks down and distributes and disseminates bits of information so they can be reassembled later in a more complete narrative. Marketing needs to work and think in this same way.

We can’t rely on our customers being able to see the entirety of an integrated campaign anymore. They’re far more likely to see bits and pieces of content here and there and only have a brief encounter with your messaging.

That last paragraph contains a powerful statement, and shows the inherent difficulty that businesses can have in creating marketing messages that are able to be used in different media. The difficulty is that one marketing vehicle, such as a 30-second TV spot, does not work on every platform. Sure we have seen this before, in a limited fashion, with the differences in print marketing vs TV or radio – but the entire game has changed now. Your marketing message needs to incorporate Social Media, web-based platforms, and mobile devices.

Half of my Marketing Budget is Wasted

social-media-marketingThe old cliche about marketing used to be that a business knew that part of the money and effort spent on marketing was wasted, they just didn’t know which part. A recent survey mentioned in the WSJ shows that this perception is still true in the days of Social Media:

…a separate survey of 500 U.S. small-business owners from the same sponsors found that just 22% made a profit last year from promoting their firms on social media, while 53% said they broke even. What’s more, 19% said they actually lost money due to their social-media initiatives.

The good news is that we can measure the effectiveness of these new media much better than the old media.

The bad news is that “…the latter survey’s respondents say it requires more effort than expected.” That’s right people, Social Media marketing is not a Golden Goose that lays marketing eggs for you. It takes work, it takes time. Engagement and relationship-building are the new means of marketing, even as the goal remains the same.

Find out where your customers are, then go there and listen, learn, and finally – get involved. Talk to them in their language using the tools that they use and you will have taken the first concrete steps toward integrating your marketing. Building a foundation that your business can grow on.

What Makes a Great Working Relationship Actually Work?

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Who Does the Work? Who Benefits?

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I’ve been a freelance writer, an online publisher, and a strategic consultant. I’ve handled a multi-state whole sale consumer products accounts, selling to big chains and to mom and pop stores. I’ve presented huge educational programs to state boards of education and made deals with publishers on four continents. I’ve built a successful conference and convinced big brand sponsors to partner with us. I led the strategy that turned around a failing company. Most of what I know about getting folks to work with me I’ve learned the hard way, by doing things wrong and adjusting out when those things didn’t work.

But I pay attention … especially to one question that makes a working relationship actually work.

Working relationships work because an exchange of value occurs. Value can be currency, time, resources, risk, or sharing a network. Somehow in the best working relationships a balance seems to keep itself, without any party too closely monitoring the score.

So if you’re looking to start a new working relationship, you might want to do a little more work before you event start.

  • Know what you offer to the partnership. What can you bring that I don’t have, but would help me to my goals?
  • Know what you ask of it. What could I offer in return that would do the same for you?
  • Make sure the two are balanced, aligned, defined, and limited in scope. “I”ll do X. What I ask is you do Y. Those two things should move us both forward. Would that work for you? We could try it once as a proof of concept to see whether it works.”
  • Then consider that a promise, a pact, a contract made in your words so that you work your butt off to keep to it.

Investors call that “share risk, share the benefit.”
Working partnership might think of it as “share the workload, share the win.”

It’s a great way to get everyone working at what we do well and still get everything done. It’s also a great way to make an offer to a new client.

What makes your great working relationships work?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

How to Promote Your Business Without Being Seen as a Smiling Shark

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Gotta Be Visible Authenticity

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The entrepreneurs and brand managers I work with both often start by asking how to use the social web. Their goal is to promote their business or their brand. The worry that seems consistently common in every first question is that they appear professional and helpful. No one wants to appear to be too aggressive in social web space.

How to Promote Your Business Without Being a Seen as Smiling Shark

When the wrong kind of promotion comes our way, it feels like we’re not being seen as people, but more like prey. Who wants to do business with someone that comes at us like a shark? No one in a marketing or sales role wants to be perceived like that.

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I’ve found that the key to elegant and authentic promotion is being fully present in the conversation. Too often we start talking before we listen. Too often we haven’t fully considered what brought us to be interacting. Knowing who we are, what we offer, and how it fits our reader-customers before we even start a conversation can make promoting a blog, a business, or a brand as seamless as talking to a friend about how our day went.

These questions can get us to that information.

  1. Are you truly passionate and excited about it? If not, go find out how you can be. Be clear on what drives you.

    “Can I tell you why I’m so excited to be working with big companies on big ideas that connect people and change lives in ways that really mean something.”

  2. Can you articulate that passion and excitement? What words explain why you are willing to invest the time of your life building that blog, business, or brand? Be able to tell the story that connects you to what you’re sharing. People will identify with that.

    “Every day people I work with tell me that they think that what we’ve put together to connect with new business is going to be so much easier and so much fun.”

  3. Can you name and claim what you offer so that folks can attribute it you? Can you explain how your blog, your brand, or your business will change people’s lives in a clear and specifically good way? Give that a name so that the idea stick. Draw a picture with words and name that. Become the person who is the only one who provides that.

    “Folks who know how to talk about their unique value attract amazing people who want to be part of what they’re doing. Knowing what you offer is powerful.”

  4. Do you call folks to action and offer them an easy way to talk about what you’re building? Can you show them how joining you will make what they do easier, faster, and more meaningful? If you don’t tell folks how to join, be a part, they could think you don’t want them to. Gotta invite them.

    “If want you to talk about how to do that, it only takes about 45 minutes.”

  5. Do you invite people offer their experience? Do you ask folks how you might reach more people who could benefit from your brand, your book, or your product? If they offer suggestions, do you follow through?

    “If you were me, what would you differently to offer folks like more value in faster, better, more meaningful ways?”

  6. Do you ask people to talk about you? Do you give them ways they might do that, ways that make them feel proud for helping you?

    “So glad you found value, would you tell your colleagues about our work together? I’d love to help them too. We can all grow together.”

Not every questions fits into every conversation. The thing is that when we know ourselves, our business goals, how to partner and how to extend an irresistible offer, promotion gets to be as passionately authentic as the other parts of the work we do.

How do you make sure that your promotion is authentically you?

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

Buy the ebook. Learn the art of online conversation.

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Thanks to Week 228 SOBs

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Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

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

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

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

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lessons-of-failure
macalua
noupe
your-dose-of-lunacy

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.

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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

SOB Business Cafe 03-05-10

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Powered
Why is it that when it comes to conversation about social media, business-to-business (B2B) seems to draw the short stick every single time? As someone that does a lot of webcasts, blog posts and speaking gigs, the questions/comment that always comes up is, “what about B2B examples.” Fortunately for me, I’m able to mention companies like BreakingPoint Systems and Hubspot that do a great job tapping into the power of social media but I often wish there were more examples (with public results) that I could discuss.

Six Pixels of Separation
Imagine this scenario: you are walking along one of your favourite streets and you suddenly receive a text message on your mobile phone. It notifies you that your favourite fast-food burger chain has a joint just up the block, and if you come on in, they are willing to throw in a medium-size fries and bottomless jolts of free cola with the purchase of a hamburger.

Brand Savant
One thing that has become apparent to me over the past few months is that there are a lot of folks using social media monitoring tools to listen for brand mentions, but truly they are capable of so much more with a little forethought and planning.

Randy Gage
Do you hold back on things because you feel you aren’t worth the extra money? Does going for the luxurious choice bring up feelings of guilt?

I used to say these kinds of things were issues for people who grew up in the great depression. Then I came to realize that this was a problem for most people. It’s no surprise really, when you think about it.

Bawld Guy Talking
BawldGuy Axiom: When the farmer plants corn in the spring after proper preparation, tends his fields diligently, fertilizes as needed, and adjusts to any bumps in the road, he’s not surprised when he’s harvesting corn in the fall.

Related ala carte selections include

Social Media Enthusiast
Are there still companies who haven’t entered, at any level, the social web? Sure. But they’re so far to the right of the adoption bell curve, we’ve effectively entered the territory of the Amish. They might make awesome baked goods, but don’t know diddly squat about marketing a brand in the digital age.

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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