Successful Blog

Book Review: Content Code, by Mark W. Schaefer

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I suppose it was Mark Schaefer’s responsibility to write this book after he set off the earthquake that was his original post about “content shock” last year. He terrified huge swathes of marketers who were happily cranking out useful, relevant content and hoping for the best. After all, what can a small business or entrepreneur do when they’re up against big brands with agency resources, editors, and video crews?

According to Mark’s newest book, The Content Code, the secret is that content marketing doesn’t end when you create the content. That’s only the beginning.

Content Code book, by Mark W. Schaefer

Mark is, at his heart, an excellent teacher, and that shines through in this very approachable book. Each chapter lays out one of the ways you can “ignite your content” and crack the code.

He explores concepts like how to differentiate your voice, get attention for your brand, and be the go-to resource for your customers.

He has actually lived through the experience of cultivating his own community and successful consulting business, so he is speaking from direct knowledge, not from hypothetical concepts.

Here are the six factors of the content code:

  • Brand development
  • Audience and influencers
  • Distribution, Advertising, Promotion, and SEO
  • Authority
  • “Shareability” embedded into each piece of content
  • Social proof and social signals

There are so many concrete ideas for you to implement, but here are a few great ones just to whet your appetite:

  • Get emotional. Find a way to weave inspiration, laughter, awe, or entertainment into your next blog post.
  • Don’t abandon your older content. That great thing you wrote two weeks ago is still relevant and engaging, and useful to your customers, right? Build in a mechanism where you can re-share older content down the road, and watch it get shared more! Go one step further and re-share content that accrues lots of shares the first time you post it.
  • Comment on new research or ideas. Many of your readers want to share your content because it makes them helpful to their own readers (double karma). Be the one who reads the whole trend report for your industry and makes incisive commentary first.

I strongly recommend this book for anyone involved in marketing, regardless of where they are in their career. There are tidbits in the Content Code for the new marketer as well as the seasoned veteran.

Get the book now, before your competitors do.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Disclosure: I was provided with a digital copy of the book for review purposes.

Do You Have the Right Brand Promotion Mix?

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marketing-words-blackboard-shows-selling-promotion-and-sales-100211117Are you looking to grow your company, gain exposure to the media and market your business to a specific clientele?

If so, you’re going to need to carefully plan exactly how you should go about marketing your business. There is no “one size fits all” method, but rather a mix of strategies that work together to give your business the type of growth it needs.

Popular ways businesses go about marketing include networking with other businesses and individuals in the area, asking for referrals, using free forms of advertising (such as Craigslist), developing an online social media presence, placing ads in the newspaper or print media, creating a mass email or text message list, offering deals and specials, donating to a local charity and more.

There are hundreds of ways to market your business, but the trick is finding a mix that works best for your specific industry.

Get More Social

Social media is quickly rising to the top when it comes to marketing. Not only is it an effective way to advertise for nearly all businesses, regardless of industry, but it’s also a free way to advertise.

To market via social media, you first start out by setting up your business accounts on various social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn and more.

Then, start networking with other business and individuals, post information on your company including any specials or promotions you have going on, interact with customers and start developing a following.

Finding the Right Combinations

While growing your online presence is one of the best ways to market your business, it shouldn’t be the only way. A business that markets well knows that it’s a combination of marketing strategies that are the most effective.

The article “Integrating social media, text and email” suggests that the best social media marketing strategy incorporates text messages and email marketing into their plan. Instead of having three separate plans, it’s best to have them work together to form one larger marketing campaign.

So how do you get all three to work together?

A few ideas include asking customers via email to “like” your Facebook page, getting customers to “opt in” to your text message service by offering a discount on your product or placing a “subscribe to my email” option on all of your social media accounts.

By offering discounts or free products to the customers and making it easy for them to share and follow you, you’ll have a much better chance at growing a following and gaining customers.

Once you’ve combined your social media marketing strategy with your text and email campaign, you can begin to seek out other ways to advertise.

Its trial-and-error, as some methods will work wonderfully and others will crash and burn. Your strategies will also change over time as new and improved ways of marketing come on to the market.

Be flexible and be willing to try a variety of methods in order to figure out what works best for your business.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Sarah Brooks is a freelance writer living in Charlotte, NC. She writes on a variety of topics including social media, small businesses and personal finance.

Sales – The Best Way To Do It

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By Lindsey Tolino

Sales gets a bad rap. It’s kind of earned it.

We’ve all experienced pushy sales people – ones who didn’t listen, ones who weren’t trying to serve you, ones who were trying to pushing you to buy so they’d get their commission.

No solicitors allowed

It’s off-putting to say the least.

We’ve gotten sales really backward. It shouldn’t be a pushy job. It shouldn’t be dominated by sales people’s self-interest.

Sales should actually be quite the opposite: Sales should be a position of servanthood.

Yes, you may be responsible to make certain quotas. But your job isn’t to sell indiscriminately to hit quotas. Your job is to serve people.

Your job is to serve people by finding those who need your product, serve them by informing them about your product, serve them by respecting their decision to buy or not buy your product, and serve them being a resource after they decide to buy or not buy your product.

Things get all messed up in sales when you put your interests first. Potential customers can tell if you’re selling just to make money. It’s incredibly unattractive. Not only that, you create way more work for yourself than you need to.

You know it’s better to have solid, consistent relationships with your customers than to be scrambling to find new prospects because you’ve treated past customers transactionally.

Yet, we tend toward transaction. Why? Why would we sell ourselves short of a solid relationship for a quick, one-time transaction?

It’s ultimately not because we’re selfish. It’s ultimately because we’re fearful. We don’t trust the process. We fear that we may not have enough for ourselves. So we go out and try to make a quick sale to take care of ourselves, instead of trying to serve others. Our scarcity mindset pushes us toward putting our own interests above others’.

Let me explain. If you put a small pile of food in a field and release a bunch of dogs that haven’t eaten in a week, there’s likely going to be fighting over the food.

But, if I take away the food bowl from my pit bull while she’s eating, she won’t become aggressive or fight me. She’s still interested in it. She wants it back. But she trusts me. She’s fed twice a day without fail. She knows I’ll give her food, even if I have to take it back for a moment because I forgot to put her medicine in it.

The first set of dogs have been conditioned into a scarcity mindset. My dog hasn’t. The great news is, we’re not dogs. We may have been conditioned into a scarcity mindset, but we can refuse to keep that mindset any longer.

We know that serving people is better for them and better for us in the long run. We can choose to sell to people out of a desire to serve them excellently and not out of our own self-interests. When we choose that, we create more sustainable relationships with the people we serve, which benefits us as well.

Refuse a scarcity mindset. Sell out of a desire to serve others. It’s better for all of us.

Author’s Bio:Lindsey Tolino is small business management consultant that uses her intentional creativity to make businesses better. She serves business owners with her words at ToBusinessOwners.com. Follow her on Twitter @LindseyTolino or connect with her on Google+.

Image info: Royalty-free image by Mark Brannan. (http://www.freeimages.com/photo/622720)

Helping our “invisible” community

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This blog and community is about the “doers.”

Yes, we share a lot of food for thought as you build your business, but the goal is to stimulate action.

Today’s post highlights a man of action who is also a member of our community– Mark Horvath, founder of Invisible People, a nonprofit that uses social media to help change the story of homelessness.

In 2010 a film production company followed Mark around to produce a documentary on his work and homelessness.

@Home movie Mark Horvath
The good news, well great news actually, is that the movie, called “@home,” will be airing on PBS in 35 States starting 3/25. The not-so-great news is that there is zero promotion or campaign to accompany the film.

When Mark agreed to participate in the film it was with the hope that there would be an awareness campaign to accompany the movie. As he put it, “the last thing I wanted was a film that ended the conversion after the movie was over kind of like ‘homelessness sucks, but lets go get ice cream!'”

For whatever reason, neither a campaign or promotion of any significance has happened.

The current plan is to try to remedy the lack of promotion with some grass roots effort, and Mark has been inspired by a successful project from 2009 (called Twestival). For that project, Amanda Rose started a grassroots movement that was truly amazing. Her community crowdsourced tweetups (do those even exist anymore?) in 202 cities around the world and raised huge money for charity:water.

Some of the events were pretty significant, while some were just a few people gathering at a bar or restaurant. It showed how social media can be used to organically organize people to gather for a purpose and have impact.

This is where Mark needs our help.

At the end of this post we are listing cities, stations and times. If you live in one of those communities and are a make-things-happen type person, it would be awesome if you (or a team of you) would start promoting the PBS airing and make some kind of an event happen.

If you want to make it a fundraiser, PLEASE PICK A LOCAL HOMELESS SERVICE to benefit. It’s important to fight homelessness at a local level. Plus, supporting a local homeless service would just be a better fit for any local event.

The point of this movie is just that – create a conversation on people experiencing homelessness.

Mark has made available a couple of resources that can support your efforts to spread the word. One is a study guide for the film, created by Seattle University.

@home-discussion-guide

He also has a website called InvisiblePeople.tv where he highlights the stories of specific homeless people in our communities.

Anything you can do to help spread the word about this important film, and Mark’s vital work, would be much appreciated.

These are the scheduled showings of the film on PBS stations around the United States:

EASTERN STANDARD TIME
Wednesday, March 25 at 7:00 PM
Thursday, March 26 at 12:00 AM, 8:00 AM and 2:00 PM
Saturday, March 28 at 1:00 PM ET
WEDU – Tampa, FL NHPTV – Durham, NH
WPBT – North Miami, FL WNET – New York, NY
WUCF – Orlando, FL WNED – Buffalo, NY
WXEL – West Palm Beach, FL WMHT – Troy, NY
WJCT – Jacksonville, FL WXXI – Rochester, NY
WSRE – Pensacola, FL WCNY – Syracuse, NY
WGCU – Fort Myers, FL WCFE – Plattsburgh, NY
WUFT – Gainesville, FL WSKG – Vestal, NY
GEOR – Atlanta, GA WPBS – Watertown, NY
ALAB – Birmingham, AL WVIZ – Cleveland, OH
WGBH – Boston, MA WOUB – Athens, OH
WGBY – Springfield, MA WCTE – Cookeville, TN
MAIN – Bangor, ME WKNO – Cordova, TN
WTVS – Wixom, MI WETP – Knoxville, TN
WKAR – East Lansing, MI WLJT – Martin, TN
WHYY – Philadelphia, PA WHRO – Norfolk, VA
WQED – Pittsburgh, PA WBRA – Roanoke, VA
WPSU – University Park, PA VERM – Colchester, VT
WQLN – Erie, PA

CENTRAL STANDARD TIME
Wednesday, March 25 at 6:00 PM and 11:00 PM
Thursday, March 26 at 7:00 AM and 1:00 PM
Saturday, March 28 at 12:00 PM
ARKA – Conway, AR KENT – Lexington, KY
IOWA – Johnston, IA WYES – New Orleans, LA
WTTW – Chicago, IL KWCM – Appleton, MN
WSIU – Carbondale, IL KETC – St. Louis, MO
WILL – Urbana, IL NDAK – Fargo, ND
WMEC – Chatham, IL NEBR – Lincoln, NE
WTVP – Peoria, IL KERA – Dallas, TX
WTIU – Bloomington, IN KLRN – San Antonio, TX
WVUT – Vincennes, IN WMVS – Milwaukee, WI

MOUNTAIN STANDARD TIME
Wednesday, March 25 at 5:00 PM ant 10:00 PM
Thursday, March 26 at 6:00 AM and 12:00 PM
Saturday, March 28 at 11:00 AM
IDAH – Boise, ID SDAK – Vermillion, SD
MONT – Bozeman, MT KUED – Salt Lake City, UT

PACIFIC STANDARD TIME
Wednesday, March 25 at 4:00 PM and 9:00 PM
Thursday, March 26 at 5:00 AM and 11:00 AM
Saturday, March 28 at 10:00 AM
KUAC – Fairbanks, AK KIXE – Redding, CA
KAET – Phoenix, AZ KEET – Eureka, CA
KUAT – Tucson, AZ KNME – Albuquerque, NM
KOCE – Santa Ana, CA KSYS – Medford, OR
KQED – San Francisco, CA KSPS – Spokane, WA
KVIE – Sacramento, CA

If you have questions, or would like to help, you can contact Mark Horvath directly: info [at] invisiblepeople [dot] tv.

Is It Time to Rethink Your Marketing Strategy?

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sales-marketing-shows-selling-e-commerce-and-offer-100291369When it comes to the world of marketing, you have either got it or you don’t.

The “it” factor is do you have a sound marketing strategy in place? If you do, you’re likely reaping the benefits of such. If not, you are probably thinking about how you’re ever going to get your message out to consumers.

When you stop and think about it, today’s consumer gets marketed by a wide variety of brands.

In order for your targeted consumers to come to and stay with you, your marketing strategy must be informational, exciting and something that the competition isn’t doing.

So, is it time to rethink your marketing strategy?

Always Be Thinking Ahead

In order to keep your marketing game on top, remember these tips moving forward:

  • Your audience – Your marketing game can’t and won’t succeed if you do not have a clear understanding of your demographics. It only makes sense that if you are marketing financial retirement products (IRA’s, 401K’s etc.), you should not be solely targeting senior citizens in their 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and above. Sure, you may find some on the lower end of that age spectrum who are interested in some of your products, but your main audience should be those individuals in their 30’s, 40’s and even 50’s. People in their 20’s typically are not yet focused on their retirement years, but it doesn’t hurt to market them some information to at least get them thinking about the day they retire. Those a decade or two older should already be saving money and thinking regularly about being able to retire comfortably one day. Know your audience in order to increase the odds of more sales;
  • Your efforts – Yes, you likely have a busy schedule which precludes you from doing all you want in a workday, but that is no excuse for dropping the ball on your marketing needs. Make sure you set aside the required time and efforts needed to get all your daily tasks done. A typical day should include reaching out to current and potential customers, looking at new campaigns to pitch, networking, and staying on top of your social media game (see more below);
  • Your socializing – While many marketers already have a social media presence, others have been slow to move towards social networking. For those in the latter group, now is the time to get caught up. Whether you use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram or any number of other social sites, you need to be active. When you share and retweet worthwhile links from others, you not only increase the eyes to your marketing profile, but you stand to gain some potential new business. It is also a good idea to follow relevant people in the marketing industry (individuals, associations, trade publications etc.).

While there is much more to the world of marketing, take a few minutes to review your current strategy.

If it is lacking in a defined audience, time commitment and a social component, work on those three areas to get your marketing strategy back on course.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Miguel Salcido has been a professional search marketing consultant for over 11 years. He is the founder and CEO of Organic Media Group, a content driven SEO agency. He also likes to blog at OrganicSEOConsultant.com and share insights into advanced SEO.

How to Kickstart a Product-Based Business

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This week I’m pleased to interview the two creative minds behind the Ryo adaptor (launching today on Kickstarter), Lori Liu and Kevin Lieber. Crowdfunding is a great way to road-test an idea, gauge market demand, and obtain financing for your project.

I thought it would be interesting to get the insider scoop on what it’s like to take the leap from idea to Kickstarter campaign.

Ryo adaptor

1. What are the backgrounds of your founders?

We are a team of four made up of a creator/entrepreneur, a legal adviser, an auditor, and a Youtube channel producer and host. It’s a good mix of creative talents and business acumen.

2. How did you come together for this project (since some are in New Zealand and one is in the US?)

The three of us in New Zealand are associates and we came together because we believed in Julian’s idea and also because we just wanted to go all in and take a real shot at creating something outside of our day jobs. We needed a US partner to be able to launch a US based Kickstarter project, so we pitched our idea to Kevin as he is active in the science and tech space and seemed like somebody who would be interested. Our pitch was honest and personal, and Kevin jumped onboard quite quickly. We’ve found that if you are open and honest with people, you will get the same back.

3. Any tips or advice on working together remotely with a business partner?

It really isn’t hard if everyone shares a common goal and is invested in the project. The logistics are a bit more difficult than working with local people, but we’ve found that there’s almost nothing you can’t sort out over email and Skype (of course, Julian had to fly over to the New York to shoot our video with Kevin). The only difference in working with a remote partner is that there needs to be a clear division of labour so that he can be a lot more independent in what he is doing. Back home we just tag team a lot and pick up the slack for each other whenever it becomes necessary.

4. What made you decide to use Kickstarter to get the product launched?

We are a small startup working on a very tight budget. Kickstarter is fantastic because it is basically free market validation, and it’s a great platform for newbies like us to build a following for future projects.

5. Any tips for someone considering going to Kickstarter with their project?

It’s still a bit early for us to be giving advice as we’re still testing the waters ourselves. Rather than a tip we can share the approach that we’ve taken with Kickstarter. We have invested a LOT of time and energy to create a good Kickstarter page. Everything from the video to the visual assets and the text has been created with the utmost care and attention to detail. We believe that while the idea itself is important and is obviously central to the project, it takes a good looking campaign page to give people that extra push to really want to check out what you’re doing. At this point we just really really really hope we’re right.

6. How do you go from product to business? Do you have a strategy in place for how you will scale and grow?

We have a business plan for taking the product to retail after the campaign. Of course that will depend on the success of this campaign. If we are successfully funded we will be able to do our first run of production and get the ryo adapter and kushi out to our backers. If we get a decent amount of funding we will be taking this to local retailers here in our relatively small New Zealand market. If we raise a significant amount of funding we will be well placed to take this to the larger retailers overseas. We have also looked into exit strategies for our worst case scenarios. We are all at pretty critical points in our respective careers so if we don’t hit certain targets, then this project will not be worth quitting our day jobs for. In this case we will have to look for a buyer to take over. I think if that happens the best deal we could reach would be agreeing to a majority takeover with the original founders taking reduced shareholdings as silent partners.

7. Can you share any tips from your marketing plan? Any successes so far?

I don’t think our success can be measured until we launch. As a startup we aren’t too focused on a commercially driven marketing campaign that shoves the ryo adapter down people’s throats. We really just want people to know we exist and we’ve basically tried to use every avenue available within budget. One thing we’re definitely limiting our spend on is banner and sidebar ads. It might have been good a while back, but if you think about the sheer number of startups we have today vying for ad revenue versus the slower growing target audience, it just doesn’t make financial sense. We were pretty blown away by how much these ads cost, the prices have been driven up by the fast growing number of startups and other ad sellers all chasing a limited pool of money.

8. Anything I forgot to ask about that you’d like to share?

Yeah, my credentials! I’m so new at this myself and I don’t feel qualified at all to be giving any tips. I hope my answers are of some value to your audience. You should hit me up again after the campaign and hopefully then I’ll have some gems to share!

I think that’s a great idea. Look for a followup article here, once the campaign closes!

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee