Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

Email.

We all get too much. 

We all spend too much time writing, replying, sorting and processing. 

Here's one tactic that will help you - in some cases, immensely.

It's a simple three-word email.

You'll get it in a moment... 

First, more about the problem... Face it: Sometimes you get caught up in replying to emails that do not need a reply. 

You leave open loops. 

You're not sure if NOT replying would seem rude. 

And sometimes you're replying to a reply, confirming a confirmation or thanking someone for a thank you. 

This type of email is totally unnecessary.

And, as you know, the best way to cut down on the number of emails you RECEIVE is to first cut down on the number of emails that you SEND. 

The second best way is to adopt an email template that clearly indicates you acknowledge the other person's reply and that you do NOT need further communication about it. 

Here's the three-word email I suggest you begin to use... 

"Awesome - perfect - thank you."

This email note does a few things for you: 

1. Makes it clear the message was received

2. Gives thanks

3. Makes it clear that no further response is needed WITHOUT being curt, short, or rude. 

My acronym for this email is A-P-T: Awesome - Perfect - Thank you

Try it and see if you begin to see a more streamlined email inbox with less back and forth, less wasted time, and less "email for the sake of email." 

Rock on - and leave a COMMENT below to share your success stories using this APT email...

Top 5 Tips for Twitter:

1. Listen and learn. As with other social media, the most important first step is to listen to the conversations. See what people are talking about in your industry on Twitter. The daily thoughts of so many people can be an incredibly rich source of new ideas for products and services.
2. Publish valuable news and information. Only after you've listened and understand the style and etiquette of Twitter communications should you consider creating an account and posting content. An easy starting point is to publish regular news and updates that you already distribute via other channels.
3. Distribute promotions. Some companies are finding that Twitter is an effective channel for sending out promotional messages. Timely sales and coupons are easy to distribute on Twitter, and the fast nature of the Twitterverse means that people can respond to the promotions quickly. Note: Keep offers and promotions to LESS than 20% of your tweets, otherwise you'll come off like a sleazy peddler rather than a trusted partner. 
4. Create or extend your brand personality. Ultimately, Twitter is far more valuable for distributing your brand personality than it is for merely delivering your content. Social media is social. Be a person first. 
5. Engage in conversations and customer service. Twitter is about conversations, not monologues. Twitter is about talking with people, not merely at them. Engage, thank, respond and reciprocate.
    

Top 5 Tips for LinkedIn:

1. Use LinkedIn Groups & stimulate new leads daily with value-first outreach.
2. Ask questions & build your credibility using LinkedIn status updates.
3. Create powerful events and promote them to relevant groups.
4. Run an advanced search to find buyers, prospects, and advocates in your target market.
5. Once you find leads, send personalized messages and connect 1-to-1 as real people, not as “targets.”
    

Top 5 Tips for Facebook:

1. Define your target market. Every online effort that will actually get you results starts with knowing exactly who your perfect clients are.
2. Connect with people in your target market. For every action you take on Facebook, ask yourself how doing this helps you connect and network with people in your target market.
3. Get and stay active. Facebook marketing will only work for you if you are active. Don't engage in "drive-by" activity and expect long-term results.
4. Share valuable tips and ideas. A big part of your Facebook marketing should be promoting and sharing your expertise – not pitching and peddling your wares
5. Start a Facebook business page. Start one if you don't have one yet. It's a great forum for discussion, answering questions, and building community.
    

Your Simple Social Media Marketing Plan:

Here is exactly what you need to do - step by step - to help you and your organization maximize the basics in your social media gameplan:

• Calendarize your social media tactics in less than 30 minutes a day
• Organize your social media priorities behind one of three main purposes (sharing resources, building relationships, engaging in reciprocity)
• Operationalize your social media game plan with time-saving tools such as TweetAdder, BufferApp, and ping.fm
• Leverage and grow the impact of all your social media efforts and assets

Remember – if you start small, stick to your plan and your calendar, learn as you go, and adjust your game plan based on your results, your social media strategies WILL pay off for you and for your organization!

Tags: Marketing speaker, marketing coach, social media gameplan, top 5 social media tips, marketing for speakers, marketing for authors

What do YOU think? Please use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, insights and recommendations on effectively using social media WITHOUT going bonkers...

Do you sell to chief executives, presidents, and corporate bigwigs? 

If so, chances are good you're doing it wrong. Here's why... and later in this post, you'll get some tools to start doing much MUCH better FAST...

The reason you're not getting the appointments you want or capturing the interest you need from senior executives and CEOs is that you're selling functional ideas to strategic people.

The last thing - and I mean DEAD LAST thing - that any chief executive cares about is the "how" of solving a particular problem.

You've seen the cliche in a hundred different movies of the top dog barking at an underling in the board room - "I don't care HOW you do it. Just get it done."

But when it comes to selling, we sellers and marketers are soooo in love with our "How."

What you need to focus on is the "Why" and then immediately jump to results and outcomes. 

But not just ANY results and outcomes - the results and outcomes that your CEO prospects are publicly, permanently and strategically committed to achieving. 

Not sure exactly what results or outcomes your top executive prospects care about? 

Don't guess... educate yourself. 

Here are links to some online and offline resources (magazines, annual lists, websites, books) that you should buy, download, read and integrate into your marketing game plan so that you can sell much more effectively to CEOs and other C-level buyers:

ARTICLES and WEB LISTINGS:

Harvard Business Review - Top 100 CEOs

Fortune Most Admired Companies

Fortune Best Companies to Work For

50 Most Powerful Women in Business

2013 NAFE Top 50 Companies for Executive Women

BOOKS:

The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success

What Got You Here Won't Get You There

The NEW Secrets of CEOs: 200 Global Chief Executives on Leading

The CEO Code 

The moment YOU start talking CEO Language about CEO Problems is the moment you start to earn their attention, their trust, and - eventually - their business. 

Tags: Marketing speaker, marketing coach, sales, selling, CEO language

What do YOU think? Please use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, insights and recommendations on effectively selling to CEOs and corporate executives...

Here's a piece I submitted to CMO magazine. 

Wanted to share it with YOU first because, heck, you deserve to see it before a whole bunch of corporate dudes get their hands on this info, take it into meetings, and debate it for months before deciding not to implement any of it... Ya dig?

The lesson? Action creates traction... so GO, GO, GO!!!

Top 10 Marketing Secrets

1. There is NO secret - it's just hard work, good luck, and a great team
2. Social isn't marketing. Social is social. Marketing is marketing. Doing one and expecting the others' result is probably the #1 cause of heartaches, headaches and disappointment.
3. It's all about the basics - always has been, always will be. Now more than ever.
4. B2B and B2C are different animals - yes, really. Thus, genius in one can make for a train wreck in the other.
5. Marketing's main client is sales. Boom!
6. There is no industry or market sector where thought leadership isn't going to make a huge difference to your success. HUGE.
7. We've been saying this for a decade but still so few are doing it: stop "spreading messages" and focus more on starting conversations. Real, open, 2-way conversations with the public, the media, consumers, clients, influencers, and friends (real ones, not the ones on Facebook).
8. The more you rely on third-party platforms like Facebook, the less stable and more endangered your brand becomes. Build traffic on your own properties where you have 100% control of what's visible and what's not, who can see what and when and for how long, and how content and community are built and nurtured.
9. Good, creative, smart advertising has always worked. It's not about where you see it - it's about what you see. And how much it makes you think, smile and act.
10. Stop following the herd - we need more leaders. Stop reading Top 10 lists like this one - and start writing your own. Stop blathering on about your products and services - and start telling real stories about real customers making real improvements in their real lives because you were there. 

Does your dog blog? 

Yes? No? Not sure? 

Well, don't worry because mine does.

You're about to get 10 blogging lessons from my black Labrador retriever, Woofie, who turns 10 soon. (FYI her birthday is April 29 and she loves getting birthday notes by email. And she replies to every one!)

What makes Woofie such an authority on blogging? Well, it's simple really - she gets a TON of traffic. Every month, I get emails from GoDaddy, where her website is hosted, to the effect that her website bandwidth (5GB/month) has been exceeded. Sometimes by a factor of two or three!

Put simply: there's a chance that this dog's blog is more popular than yours. 

So to help you fix that, here are Woofie's guidelines for blogging.

And then leave a comment below with your questions, thoughts, and advice on the ideas above.

Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!

Late to the party but still ready to have fun... share smart marketing ideas... and put money in YOUR pocket...  

Please give a warm welcome to...

The Do It! Marketing podcast!!!

In this episode, my guest is author and professional speaker Jim Matthis. 

Jim is an international Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), business strategist and best-selling author. He helps business leaders who want to reinvent their businesses in changing economic climates.

Jim is also the author of the best-selling book: “Reinvention Made Easy: Change Your Strategy, Change Your Results,” and “Reinvention 101: Bold Ideas for Reinvention.”

Jim talks with me about the business of speaking AND how executives and entrepreneurs can punch through the noise and sell more effectively - even to prospects who are lazy, busy, and befuddled!

Listen in and then share YOUR advice, insights and recommendations in the COMMENTS area below... 

Where did that lead come from?

"It came out of the blue..."

How did that customer find you?

"They found us out of the blue..."

What made them call?

"They called out of the blue..."

How many times have you heard yourself give these types of answers?

Hmmm... me too.

Until last night when I was having dinner with The Hot One™ - aka my lovely bride of 27 years.

I was telling her about a brand new client and she asked me, "How did they find you?" and I instinctively answered, "I dunno - they found me out of the blue."

By the way, this is a terrible answer for a marketing guy to give.

I should know exactly how and why my specific marketing activities attract specific clients but I must admit things have been going fast and furious around here lately so I've lost track. A good problem to have - but a problem nonetheless...

Back to dinner with The Hot One™ - she looks over at me, pauses meaningfully and says... 

"There is no blue."

Ouch. And she's right. So she made me think harder - look harder - connect the dots - to where and how this client came to me. 

This is a terrific reminder for YOU, too... 

There is no blue.

So here are 12 potential sources of "blue" -- inbound leads, prospects and referrals. You need to work harder at identifying, specifying, and inquiring about these when GOOD prospects come your way. And even more so when - like in my situation yesterday - good prospects become clients!

1. Google (or other search engines)
2. Your articles in hardcopy publications (industry magazines, trade journals, association publications)
3. Your articles posted online (guest blogs, contributed columns, niche industry websites)
4. Your social media accounts (Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, etc.)
5. Your blog
6. Your personal network (friends, family, colleagues)
7. A referral (current client, past client, or non-client fan/influencer)
8. Directories and listings (online, offline)
9. Your speaking engagements (local, regional, national, fee or free)
10. Your videos (on your website or sites like YouTube, Vimeo, etc.)
11. Your teleseminars (the ones you host or where you're the guest)
12. Your media interviews (TV, radio, print)

Become fanatical about connecting new customers and clients to specific marketing channels. 

Put a sign up on your office wall to remind you if necessary... 

There is NO blue!

Tags: Marketing speaker, marketing coach, thought leadership marketing, lead generation

And then leave a comment below with your questions, thoughts, and advice on the ideas above.

Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!

1. "The main ingredient of a star is the rest of the team." John Wooden
2. "Life is growth. If we stop growing, technically and spiritually, we are as good as dead." Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969) Founder of Aikido
3. "The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender." Vince Lombardi
4. "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition." Steve Jobs
5. “To be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting.” E. E. Cummings
6. "It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like 'What about lunch?'" Winnie the Pooh
7. "You cannot be afraid to be who you are. Live your values. Live your life. A woman confided to me about 'sneaking out of the office' to go to her child's play and I said, ' Stop right there! I have never snuck out of any place. I walk right down the center hall, and if somebody doesn't like it, too bad. Don't worry about me. I will deliver.' Just stand up, do what you need to do, and smile about it. Look them in the eye and say, 'If you don't like it, fire me, and I'll go find another job, because I'm talented enough and I'm committed enough." Shelly Lazarus, chairman, Ogilvy & Mather
   
8. "It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust, and sweat, and blood; who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while doing greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt
   
9. "No road is too long, no honours too distant, advance slowly and without losing heart, for victory belongs to the most persistent." Winston Churchill
   
10. "Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by his ability to climb a tree, he will spend his entire life believing he is stupid." Albert Einstein
    
11. "It is not my job to make mean people nice, crazy people sane, or stupid people smart. It is my job to find nice, sane, smart people, and do business with them!" Bob Loeffler, Fearless Agent
    

By the way, these quotes were originally posted in a thread of over 50 great quotations shared on the LinkedIn Group, Professionals Who Speak. Smart cookies in that group - please join us here:

What is YOUR single favorite inspiring quotation of all time?  

Please take a moment to post yours in the COMMENTS area below - it could be one of your own or from someone famous, past or present. Doesn't matter if it's more personal, more professional, for business or for life.
Let's hear YOURS...

Just came across this Facebook post from someone who shall remain nameless to protect the self-absorbed.

On the surface, this will look innocent enough. 

But a treacherous marketing gaffe lies in wait... 

Another victim is about to fall prey to the Social Media disease known as... 

[Drum roll]...

Social Me... 

Check it out and let's discuss... 

While I really value having connections on Facebook, I'm noticing that I'm not as active on my personal page and decided that focusing on my Public page will be the best use of my time and allow me to really connect more with people. So I am in the process of deactivating this page - if you haven't already, please 'like' my community page so we can still connect there: [link]

What's wrong with this picture?

Let's color-code it and you'll see how NOT to confuse "Social Me" with "Social Media"...

While I really value having connections on Facebook, I'm noticing that I'm not as active on my personal page and decided that focusing on my Public page will be the best use of my time and allow me to really connect more with people. So I am in the process of deactivating this page - if you haven't already, please 'like' my community page so we can still connect there: [link]

If you were keeping score, you noticed that there were 10 - TEN! - mentions of "I, Me, My" in this two-sentence post. 

One of the games I like to play with my marketing coaching clients is to take ANY piece of copy - a sales letter, a web page, a prospecting email - and totally REMOVE ALL "I, Me, My" language and translate it 100% into YOU and YOUR language, which is much more compelling to most of your prospects, readers, and fans. 

Here goes... 

The level of activity on this page has diminished so that the value you're getting is not at the level you deserve. Please click over to this new page [link] where you can tap into a much more active community, ask your questions, take part in value-rich discussions, get the answers you need PLUS you'll get access to valuable downloads, resources, and tools. See you on the other side!

Social Media... 

Did you notice the new score? 

Let's turn on the colors again and see how you did...

The level of activity on this page has diminished so that the value you're getting is not at the level you deserve. Please click over to this new page [link] where you can tap into a much more active community, ask your questions, take part in value-rich discussions, get the answers you need PLUS you'll get access to valuable downloads, resources, and tools. See you on the other side!

Old score (Social Me): 0-10. You lose! 

New score (Social Media): 7-0. You win!

What do you think? Please use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, insights and recommendations when it comes to Social Media vs. Social Me... 

And then leave a comment below with your questions, thoughts, and advice on the ideas above.

Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!

Forget about your cheap company pens... 

Trash your company logo coffee mugs...

Your personalized gift strategy is about to get a MAJOR upgrade so that YOU get 100 times more bang for the buck than you're getting now... 

And it's all about ONE simple shift... 

Watch the video to see how it works - PLUS you'll get three smart examples YOU can model from starting right now...

Tags: Marketing speaker, marketing coach, marketing tips, personalized gifts

What do you think? Please use the COMMENTS area below to share the most meaningful business gifts you've received - or sent!