Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

I got a phone call a few days ago from my friend Steve who is a fellow independent professional. He said to me at the beginning of the call, "David, I'm calling you as a reference."

So I'm thinking, "OK, he wants to hire someone I've worked with or someone I know - perhaps even a client of mine whose testimonial he saw on my website."

I say, "Steve, what can I do for you?"

And then he mentions someone's name. Let's call this person Larry. Now I like Larry and he's a good guy - perhaps a little confused about his marketing and messaging... and frankly that's OK because Larry is NOT a client of mine (although I've given him plenty of chances!)

Steve stops me and says, "No, no... I don't want to hire Larry. Larry wants to hire me. I'm calling you to ask you what kind of client do you think he would be?"

Wow. It's not a consultant reference, speaker reference, or service provider reference - Steve was asking me (essentially) "Would this guy be a good client?" FYI Steve saw me connected to Larry through LinkedIn and some other social media sites.

Lessons for YOU:

• We live in a hyper-connected world
• People DO read your social media profiles
• People DO judge you on the "company you keep" both online and off
• If you're a pain in the ass - as a consultant, speaker, vendor, partner, OR client... word will spread faster than you can imagine
• The top people in their field (ahem, YOU) do not have the bandwidth nor the interest to work with folks who are a pain in the butt
• YOU can't afford to be a pain in the butt on EITHER side of the professional services buying equation

Comments? What do you think? Have you had some experiences to share along these lines? Would love to hear from you in the Comments section below...

Business Card Kung Fu

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, I often get asked about business cards - what should go on a business card? Do I use the back? Should it have my picture on it? What do I say? What are some good ideas for using my marketing "real estate" on the card?

Finally, we have some answers in Business Card Kung Fu - in the form of a funny, fast-paced 7-minute whirlwind tour of good business card marketing ideas.

Guest column by Lisa Sasevich

As a marketing speaker, during presentations I often have the occasion to mention other people. You have those opportunities every day too. You may do this through a success story one of your clients enjoyed or by sharing a quick anecdote.

In either case, mentioning other people can bring great rewards. Here are three categories of people to mention in your sales presentations, why you should do it and how it benefits you and your audience:

1. Your Mentors
When you mention your mentors, you establish the value of having a mentor. When you're on stage, your audience sees you as a role model. You inspire them. If even you have a mentor, the prospect would think, it must be worthwhile. Thus, by mentioning your mentor, you demonstrate that having one is worth the investment. And that subtly encourages prospects to consider more closely the possibility of having you as theirs.

When you mention your mentor, you also show your vulnerability. I've written before about the power of vulnerability and transparency for establishing a connection with your audience. You're saying to them, "Yes, I have accomplished a lot, but here I am. I'm just like you."

When you're being transparent and sharing your own growth, you're also establishing the credibility that you are an action-taking, decision-making person who invests in growth...just like you'll be recommending to them.

2. Your Clients
Success stories remind us all that we are capable. Success stories, before and after stories involving your clients, are particularly powerful because they clearly authenticate the transformative value of what you're offering. So, when you talk about the success of your clients, not only are you establishing your credibility as an expert who is showing people how to get results, but you're expanding what the prospects think they might be capable of. They're sitting there thinking: "If her client had that result, I could too!"

When you mention your clients, you also give them exposure. That's wonderful for your clients, who are grateful, and it also lets prospects know that you might be mentioning them in later talks.

By sharing the stories of your clients, you may even create a little healthy competition among new clients for success. Whenever I step into a new mentorship relationship, I always have that little thought, "I want to be the biggest success story they have!".... Don't you?

3. Other Experts
Some people don't want to mention other experts because they think it diminishes them, when the opposite is actually true. When you mention those high-level people, not only are you giving credit where credit is due, but you associate yourself and uplevel yourself with them. For instance, if you say that, "Dan Kennedy says that the fastest way to grow your business is to go on the road and speak," it puts you and Dan on the same level.

However...Don't Forget Yourself!
When you're mentioning others in your presentation, don't go overboard and exclude your own stories. They are powerful, too, for conveying your authenticity, vulnerability, and establishing your credibility. But beyond that, they create a feeling of connectedness with your audience by bringing you into intimate contact with everyone who's listening. As I've written before, that's powerful!

So, mention your mentors and other experts, share the stories of your clients along with your own, and, like your new clients, you'll find results beyond what you thought was possible too!

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Sales-from-the-podium expert Lisa Sasevich has x-ray vision for seeing the sales opportunities that exist in every company, and the creativity to convert them into gold! If you're looking for simple, quick and easy ways to boost sales without spending a dime, get your FREE Sales Nuggets now at http://www.theinvisibleclose.com/

Guest column by Karen J. Bannan

How long was the subject line in your most recent e-mail marketing campaign?

You may not realize it, but the number of characters you use can positively or negatively impact the success of your campaign, according to a new white paper released by direct marketing agency Epsilon.

The white paper, "Rethinking the Relationship Between Subject Line Length and Email Performance: A New Perspective on Subject Line Design," details some of the more important considerations that marketers should be thinking about, said Kevin Mabley, the company's senior VP-strategic services.

Here are four tips you can use to boost your subject line prowess.

1) Front-load your subject lines with the most important information.

It would seem like this tip is a given, but take a look at the messages in your inbox. As you'll soon see, it's a strategy that few marketers embrace. The biggest problem is with ordering information. If you've only got 38 to 47 characters-the average number of characters that show up in the subject line of 57% of all U.S. e-mail recipients' e-mail programs-you need to put the most important information all the way to the left.

Use urgency and relevance as your guide. Is your offer or newsletter timely? Put that right up front. Also, make sure your brand is in the first few words. However, if your company has multiple brands or categories underneath its umbrella, lead with what's most recognizable and important to your customer.

2) Keep the subject line as short as possible to convey the message.

Epsilon's research shows that shorter subject lines have higher click-through and open rates. Still, you don't want to go short for short's sake, Mabley said. Instead, you're looking to pack the most information you can into the smallest number of words.
And avoid words that have a sensationalist slant, such as "free" or "discount." "Don't just say '20% off your next purchase.' Your messages need to be rooted in your customers' expectations," Mabley said.

3) Don't forget to test.

This is another common suggestion, but one that still isn't heeded as it should be, Mabley said. "At the minimum, you should be performing an A/B test on every message that goes out," he said. "The general rule is you can test 10% of your list in order to figure out which option is a better one."

This is how you're going to figure out if your front-loaded data should be the brand name or the actual benefit to the recipient, and it's something that may change on a day-to-day and message-to-message basis, he said.

Your messages should also go through a spam filter so you know, on a scale of 1 to 100, how likely it is that an ISP will consider your message to be spam, Mabley said.

4) Dynamically personalize the subject line.

This is something that's simple to do, and shows that you know who you are e-mailing and what they are looking for. "Whether you use their first or last name or their company's name, it makes it more personal and provides better reception," Mabley said.

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

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