Let’s talk about YOUR product development strategy. This is about creating products with intention. And let me back up a step and define what I consider “creating a product” to be.

It could be you wanting to write a book, produce audio, video, or online assets, package a coaching or consulting program, or otherwise "productize" your expertise. It does not necessarily need to be a product you hold in your hand, although sometimes it certainly is.

Quick story. I was working with one of my clients who was a very gifted speaker who had been working a long time in her niche. She would go from keynote to keynote, seminar to seminar. Finally, she got tired of having 100% of her income tied to her personal time, attention and presence.

She said to me, "David I need products. And I have a crazy busy schedule coming up over the next 2-3 weeks with good opportunities to be in front of LOTS of potential prospects."

Mind you, she was NOT speaking to audiences of thousands – her typical audience was probably like yours – between 50 and 250 people at state and regional conferences.

She asked me, “What’s the easiest product I can create?” And we decided that the easiest product for her wasn’t a product at all – it was to package and sell access to her time and expertise. Later, products could be developed as a standalone revenue stream. 

So we created a single 8.5 x 11 piece of paper. Long story short, she emerged from those 2-3 weeks of speaking engagements with over $20,000 of coaching and consulting clients.

The point: your product strategy needs to fit YOU – your personal strengths, preferences, and the needs of your particular business.

If you love writing strategies, focus on writing products.

If you love coaching and consulting, develop coaching and consulting products.

If you love training, develop training products.

If you love video, develop video products.

The key to your product development game plan is to make it Easy, Effortless and Enjoyable.

_______

Want to kick your product development into high gear? Good news - the next Product Development Toolkit program launches on March 5 and we still have a few open seats remaining at Early Bird prices. Program details and registration info are online for you here. 

It's OK not to blog daily. 

It's OK to blog daily. 

It's just NOT OK not to blog. 

Ya dig?

Tags: Marketing coach, blogging for business, marketing for speakers, marketing for authors

Leave a COMMENT below with a link to YOUR blog and let's send some Google juice your way. (Fair warning: No spam links or Gucci handbags or MLM offers please.)

If you are looking to write a book, produce audio, video, or online assets, package a coaching or consulting program, or otherwise "productize" your expertise, keep reading... you'll like this post. 

You're getting a simple, repeatable process for guess-free product development that ensures you only create products that your target market will be eager to buy.

Here is your 7-step process in a nutshell: Scan, Survey, Analyze, Productize, Test, Package, Deliver.

Scan is step 1 and it's simple – do a competitive scan and see what else is out there that solves – or claims to solve – the same pains, problems, heartaches and headaches as your brilliant product or program. We’ll come back to that “claims to solve” issue a little later. But you have to know what alternative and competing products are out there. Otherwise, you’ll have a very hard time with articulation and distinction.

Survey is step 2 – you must survey members of your target market. When I work with folks individually or in groups, we do a very detailed survey step and you get models and templates of surveys that I’ve used and my clients have used with great success. The questions are simple – which of these aspects of the problem are most urgent for you? What are you looking to solve? What have you tried to solve it so far? Why hasn’t that worked? What would a “dream solution” look like that addresses everything you need solved?

Analyze is step 3 – this is where you collect and collate all the data you’ve received using simple tools like Survey Monkey or Zoomerang.com. I also strongly recommend more personal interviews during the analyze step where you can spend quality time with folks in your target market and learn more intimate details of what they are up against when dealing with your area of expertise. You need to go deep here – find the issues behind the issues. Surface the deeper needs that lie beneath the waterline of the iceberg that everyone else is claiming to help them with. This will put you miles ahead when it comes to offering what I call the “Ah, at last” solution.

Step 4 is Productize – this is where you start to put the pieces together. There are 2 parts to productize – one is writing zero-draft marketing copy. This is the skeleton of bullets, sound bites and short phrases that capture what your product does, what it means to them, why it’s FSB – faster, smarter, better than anything else out there. The second half of productize is to put the skeleton product out there – what I call the bones of your product – the snippets, scripts, tools, templates, worksheets, checklists, forms and other raw material – powerpoints, pdfs, whatever you have to throw at this thing, just make a big folder and put it all in there. Just do THAT, and your product will be between 50%-80% done.

All that’s left is editing, pruning, organizing and sequencing. Again, we have a system and a method for doing this, which you’ll gain access to if we work together. You’ll get more details on that later. (No pressure - I'm not selling it to you. It just happens to be awesome.)

Step 5 is Test. Testing is critical for 2 reasons – first, you’ll test your beta product with real, live prospects. The sound bite is this – "I’m in the process of developing a new product to address problems X, Y, and Z. Because you’re someone whose opinion I respect, may I send you the beta or draft product? I’d love to get your advice, insights and recommendations on how to make it better and more valuable."

You’re doing two things in this step – you’re doing live ammo testing AND you’re doing pre-marketing to folks in your exact target market. Sweet!

Step 6 is Package. The packaging step is both internal and external – internally, you are packaging up the final product. Edits, revisions, improvements based on your surveys and feedback. You’re making important enhancements that will make your product both more saleable and more valuable.

Externally, you’re working on the physical packaging if it’s a product (things like book cover design, CD or DVD packaging, graphics, and so on) and the marketing packaging. You’re revising your Zero-Draft marketing copy and making adjustments to what you’re promising to solve based on the feedback and the urgencies and priorities you’ve uncovered in your target market.

Finally, Deliver is Lucky #7. It’s game time – you’re primed, your pumped, your packaged. This is where you begin to offer your product for sale. It’s back of the room sales, online sales, you start to bundle and supersize your product with other products or programs you’re already selling. And, of course, if it’s a coaching or consulting package then you are literally also starting to DELIVER the program with your first batch of clients and customers with whom you’re working.

This process is simple – but not easy. Each step can take you anywhere from a week to a month, or sometimes more. You may need various people on your team to help speed the process. A ghostwriter, editor, graphic designer, web master, audio or video editing folks, a fulfillment company. When I work with people in the Product Development Toolkit, we work through all of this together to take away the overwhelm.

Another bonus that you’ll often find is that as you work through this process, you’ll sometimes come out the other side not with ONE product but possibly with TWO or THREE products.

The process lends itself to that. Maybe you end up with a version for men and for women. Or for salespeople and sales managers. Or for leaders and team members. There are often two or more sides to any type of product or program and these naturally emerge from the product development process as you’re going through it.

I’ll give you an example from my world.

When I wrote my first book, it was called Relish. It was a book about success in different areas of life - personal, professional, business, career, relationships, etc. As I was writing it, it started getting very top-heavy on the business side. I then realized I had enough content for two books, not one – so I published Relish and Relish for Business.

Same thing happened a few years later when I wrote my book Unconsulting. It was written for consultants, entrepreneurs and executives. Then I realized, I was writing and talking a lot with executives who hired consultants. So the second book project emerged, and this was actually my first book with a real publisher, HRD Press. That collection of advice to executives became The Manager’s Pocket Guide to Using Consultants. So just remember to be open to that possibility of your second or third product naturally emerging from your work on the first one.

Good news - and shocking coincidence: The next Product Development Toolkit group program begins February 5.

But it's not for you.

You wouldn't like it.

So don't even bother going over there to that page.

It is meant for OTHER people, not you.

Seriously. 

Whew - that was close!! Now please feel free to LEAVE A COMMENT below to share your experiences with developing high-value information products that package and promote YOUR expertise...

In Part 1 of this article, I shared the seven challenges that most speakers, authors, experts AND thought-leading corporate executives face when trying to boost their visibility and credibility as professionals who speak. 

Here are a few recommendations to upgrade or fix any gaps in your speaker and expert brand so that you are positioned and ready to approach more and better speaking venues to showcase your expertise.

1. Do a website makeover. Hire a pro from Elance.com and ask them to work on a new header graphic for your website and do a graphic overhaul to make your site more visually appealing and professional. This should cost you less than $500 - sometimes as little as $300.
2. Need more testimonials? Look to your Linkedin profile - you may have some recommendations there that could easily be copied/pasted. Look in your paper files for written evaluations or letters/notes you’ve received. If you’re low on all of these... simply ASK people who know your work to write a few lines. Or help them out by writing it for them and inviting them to edit/tweak.
3. To get quoted in mainstream media and industry publications, you must, MUST join PRLeads.com - it is the fastest, cheapest and most reliable way to get quoted and interviewed by the media. You may also want to look into PressReleaseSender.com which guarantees online placement in over 100 high-traffic mainstream media sites.
4. For your blog, the simplest recommendation I can give you is - start. Your blog is truly the centerpiece of your online presence. Without it, you’re a nobody. Blog frequently - 2-3 times per week is ideal. Blogs can be short, medium or long. Doesn’t matter - just share insightful information, make smart recommendations, engage your readers and have fun with it. There’s no shortcut here. Do it now and you’ll thank me later.
5. Social media accounts are something that buyers are looking at more and more. Even though at the same time, people are starting to question the true ROI dollars-and-cents value of social media, it IS a metric and (like it or not - valid or not) buyers DO measure your credibility by it. So start using some social media automation tools like Hootsuite or TweetAdder and your numbers will start to increase more quickly and consistently.
6. Speaking is another must - as you know, a big part of my life is to work with both professional speakers AND professionals who speak to increase the quality and quantity of their speaking engagements. Buyers look at your speaking schedule as part of your overall platform - if you’re not getting out there, they’re going to think, “Houston, we have a problem.”
7. Interviews and profiles by other experts is easy - instead of seeking the media, spend part of your time BECOMING the media. In other words, YOU start to invite the thought-leaders and experts whom YOU respect to be interviewed by you. You can do these by phone or Skype or even email. The more you feature and leverage other people, the more your own "thought leadership platform" will grow.
8. BONUS: Creating and publishing original research, surveys and reports. This is so much easier than many people think. The bottom line is that experts do research. Something as simple as a LinkedIn poll or your own SurveyMonkey survey to collect and gather statistics, analysis, trends in your industry or in your topic expertise. It’s also a great excuse to get on the phone and reach out to your perfect prospects - not to sell them anything but to interview them for your research project. Rapport builds from there - relationships grow - and soon you’ll have the top 20 decision-makers in your field knowing your name and willing to take your call. THAT is the power of original research.

In this final installment of New Year Goodness... you're getting my top picks of marketing must-read info, strategies, templates and tools. 

Why?

Simple... 

So you CAN (and WILL!) make 2013 your best year yet. 

Is this just more smoke and mirrors and hokey motivation?

Nope - it's a 12-pack of "Real Deal" marketing tools that you can review over a weekend (ahem... maybe even THIS weekend?) and start to implement bright and early Monday morning. 

Ready? 

Here we go...

Most popular posts:

1. Marketing Coach: 17 Ways to Drive More Traffic FAST
2. Email Blast: Creating subject lines that pack punch
3. 23 things to say when you're asked for "free consulting"
4. Small Business Marketing Coach: Developing Customer Intimacy
5. Referral Blurbs - Marketing Coach Tip
6. Marketing Coach: How to Write Your Kickass Bio (12 Tips and Example)
7. Social Media Scripts: Tips from a Marketing Coach
   
   

Hidden treasures:

1. Marketing Coach: 33 Ways to Make 2013 Your Best Year Yet
2. Professional Services Marketing: Speaking to Attract New Clients
3. Marketing Concept: Use these headline techniques if you dare
4. 5 Signs that Your Prospect is Giving You Too Much Bullsh*t
5. Business Coach: 50 Reasons People Should Buy from YOU
   
   

Ah, heck - I can't resist giving you THIS one...

The (REAL) Idiot's Guide to Social Media Marketing

And one more for good luck:

Marketing Speaker Tip: Erase. Start Fresh. Kick Ass

p.s. As you review these, please share YOUR advice, insights and recommendations in the COMMENTS section for each of these blogs. Even if the posts are older, I always see new comments as you post them -- so I'd love to generate discussions with YOU on how you can max out these ideas in 2013 for YOUR business!

Inspired by my pal Michael Goldberg of Building Blocks Consulting - who wrote this post - here are the Top 5 things to get excited about in YOUR business for the New Year and all of Lucky '13!

1. Books

Reading 'em. Writing 'em. Ebooks. Hardcopy books. All kinds of books.

As you may know, the DO IT! Marketing book is coming this summer from AMACOM and there's lots of cool developments brewing there... but let's talk about YOU... 

• Do YOU want to write a book? 
• Have YOU written a book that's under-marketed? 
• Do YOU have an ebook or information product that you're working on and just can't seem to finish?
• Do YOU have plans to develop a NEW book or information product - and just don't know where to begin?

Don't get stuck - let me help you take your first (or next) ebook, book, or information product over the finish line.

As for books to read - here are five recommendations for YOUR 2013 reading list:

2. Focus

Focus on a specific target market.

Focus on your "secret sauce" of expertise.

Focus on your most fun and profitable projects, prospects and programs.

And...

     Let...

          Everything...    

               Else...

                    Go...

3. Fitness, Toughness, Accountability 

As you may know, I've lost a tremendous amount of weight recently.

Sidebar: OK, my wife Vanessa HATES when I say that to people - it's 18 pounds in 90 days to be exact. (She thinks I make it sound like 100 pounds and she further thinks it makes people feel awkward when they haven't noticed. On the other hand, people whom I haven't seen in YEARS are shocked by my total weight loss of almost 40 pounds since 2008 - so to ME, it IS a "tremendous" amount!!)

The secret? The Charlie Newman hardass eating program plus twice weekly workouts at Nick's Gym.

What's the Charlie Newman program? Three things - all simple but not easy: 

1. No white stuff (dramatically reduce carbs, breads, sugars, etc.)
2. Drink a ton of water daily. More than is comfortable. More than is fun. More than you want to. Like you need to go pee 10 times a day. That is the right amount.
3. No food after 7pm.

The toughness comes at times like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve - when it's EASY (or even expected) that you'll go overboard and do things you should not do. Toughness says you don't go there. 

Accountability is the fact that I live with Charlie Newman - he's my son - and he SEES what I eat, HOW much, WHEN I eat it... and there aren't enough places to hide in our kitchen. 

So consider one of your goals - what's going to fuel YOUR fitness (financial fitness, marketing fitness, relationship fitness, physical fitness, etc)? And which kinds of built-in toughness and accountability mechanisms will you use to ensure your success?

4. Travel + Leisure

Yes, I mean both the concept - and the magazine. We get this magazine and it has opened my eyes to an undiscovered opportunity that YOU have if business travel is part of YOUR work...

In my work as a professional speaker and marketing coach, travel is a given.

How much you enjoy it and exploit it is 100% up to YOU... 

2012 trips have taken me to Columbus OH, NYC, Toronto, Denver, Shelton CT, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Atlantic City, and Winnipeg ("Brrr...") Future trips already planned for 2013 include Atlanta, Vancouver, NYC, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, and Chicago.

But there is a HUGE difference between the two words "trips" and "travel." You can take business trips and they look like this:

• Get to airport in your home city 
• Go through security
• Swallow stale air in thin metal tube for between 1-8 hours
• Land 
• Taxi to hotel
• See inside of hotel
• See inside of conference rooms
• Eat inside hotel
• Eat inside conference rooms
• Taxi to airport
• Go through security
• Swallow stale air in thin metal tube for between 1-8 hours
• Land
• Go home. Hug spouse. Kiss dog. Fall into own bed.
• Repeat as needed to meet your career or entrepreneurial goals

THAT, my friends, is not travel.

Travel is sightseeing, museums, restaurants, cafes, bars, shopping, exploring new places and discovering local experiences.

Question for you: How can you bake more TRAVEL into your TRIPS during 2013? I'll do my best - and hope you do, too.

Let's check in with each other over the next few months to see how we're both doing!

5. Giving away WAY more FREE stuff

Since November, I have made a commitment to sharing MORE experiences of value - for free - and making MORE profit-rich resources available - again, for free.

If you know me at all, you know I've always done this BIG-time. But I wanted to see what would happen if I ramped this UP to near-ridiculous levels.

• Would I burn out? (No)
• Would you? (Not yet - but we're just starting)
• Would anybody come (Yes - see below) 
• Would there be anything left for me to monetize and sell? (Apparently)
• Would people tell their friends and colleagues? (Yes - and thank you!)

Early Results:

In November, I presented the "Marketing Strategy Blueprint for 2013." We had 169 people register for that info-packed training call and it generated $4500 of client work. Good for you - and good for me. 

In December, I presented the "Sponsorship Strategy Blueprint." We had 161 people register for that training call where I laid out my VERY BEST fee-paid advice with no holds barred. That call generated $8100 of client work. Again good for you - and good for me.

Coming up later this week, YOU are invited to "Your Speaking Business in 2013" with my friend and colleague Andrea Gold of Gold Star Speakers Bureau and author of "The Business of Successful Speaking."

Join us - you don't need to buy anything and there's no catch. If we provide value and you want more, you'll know what to do.

Questions for you:

• Are you strategically giving away RIDICULOUS amounts of value? 
• How could you give even MORE? 
• What could you do to AMPLIFY your impact with your target market? 
• Whose HELP do you need? Partners, affiliates, mentors?
• WHEN will you launch your "WAY More FREE Stuff" campaign?
• HOW will you measure its success?

What do you think?

Use the COMMENTS area below to share what YOU are most excited about in YOUR business for 2013 and... 

One of the many pleasures of writing a book is writing the Acknowledgements section where you get to thank all the folks who have helped you at every point in your journey, whether it was last week, last year or all the way back to your childhood.

As you may know, I'm finishing up the final edits on my new book being published by AMACOM next summer. The Acknowledgements section has been top of mind for me this Thanksgiving week. 

Personally, I can't understand authors who write a slim paragraph and then end with "I have too many people to thank and their names could fill this book." REALLY? If that's the case, why don't you at least TRY?

I sure did...  and to celebrate this Thanksgiving week, here it is in its entirety - LARGE, LOUD, and PUBLIC!

Acknowledgements

The first acknowledgement has to go to YOU—for buying this book, for reading this book, and for applying its strategies, tactics and tools to grow your business.

After you, it gets harder to count all the individuals, friends, clients, collaborators, mentors, trusted advisors, and supporters who have made this book—and all the rest of my work—so easy, effortless and enjoyable. Unlike some authors who don’t even try… here goes.

First I’d like to thank my parents for not having a stroke when I announced I was leaving the pre-med program at Franklin & Marshall College to pursue a career in theater. Thank you to Dr. Gordon Wickstrom who modeled the highest gift of catalyzing the best in others while making them feel personally important and professionally capable. What do you get when you cross healing with drama? Of course, you get marketing.

My amazing partner, Vanessa Christman, gets a ton of credit for sticking with her lunatic husband through thick (my waistline) and thin (my hairline). Without you, none of this would be any fun at all. Truly.

My two awesome kids, Becca and Charlie, Woofie the Wonder Dog, and Mimi the cat also went to heroic lengths to put up with me long before, during and after the writing of this book. I love you guys like bananas.

Professionally, the list is even longer. Big thanks to my book agent, Michael Snell. He does business the old-fashioned way and it works amazingly well for all concerned. I’m grateful to my pal Gene Marks for sharing Mike’s genius with me. At AMACOM, Ellen Kadin is a rock star. She knows what works and she makes sure I DO IT. Her steady dedication to our shared vision of a “business book with attitude” shows up on every page. Big thanks and kudos to the AMACOM design team for realizing that vision with the bold design of this book.

And for you aspiring or experienced authors – especially those of you who, like me, HATE to be edited – meet my editor extraordinaire, Christopher Murray. Chris “got” this book right from the start and was an amazing collaborator, organizer and advocate for the business-building ideas you are about to profit from. Find Chris online at www.ChrisMurrayEditor.com and put your project in the hands of a supremely insightful editor and the best friend your writing ever had.

I deeply thank Dr. Michael Ray of Stanford Business School for introducing me to the Creativity in Business MBA course that changed my life. The very best advice he gave me was, “Stop starting things and get more into DOING.” The DNA of Michael’s wisdom runs throughout my work, my life, and by extension, this book!

Thank you to my pals from my corporate days: Sandy Frick, Trish Koons, Neal Duffy, Kim Nuzzaci and Benjamin Laden who were crazy enough to hire me, work with me, and recruit me away from one job into the next for a great 10-year run. I don’t know what you were thinking, but I’m grateful for all the fun we had “working for the man.”

Thank you to four very special people who helped me at every point in my entrepreneurial journey including the good, the bad and the ugly – in mind (Terry Fisher), body (Nick Odorisio), spirit (Scott Simons) and career (Ford R. Myers).

My involvement in the National Speakers Association (NSA) and Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS) has been an invaluable source of inspiration, insights and friendships. Thank you to my mentors, role models and friends Laurie Brown, Gideon Grunfeld, Michael Roby, Kirstin Carey, Steve Coscia, Avish Parashar, Michael Goldberg, Todd Cohen, Brian Walter, John Reddish, Marvin LeBlanc, Carol Fredrickson, Tom Stoyan, Toni Newman, Brian Lee, Scott McKain, Alan Zimmerman, Frank Bucaro, LeAnn Thieman, Thom Winninger, Patricia Fripp, Alan Weiss, Bob Burg, John Jantsch, David Meerman Scott, Brian Tracy, Randy Gage and Jeffrey Gitomer.

Thank you to my speaker bureau partners and friends – Andrea Gold, Shawn Ellis, Katrina Mitchell, and Nancy Vogl. You are the sharpest, most dedicated folks in the business and you model excellence and integrity in everything you do.

Thank you to my expert contributors: Jay Baer, Scott Ginsberg, Corey Perlman, Dan Janal, Mark LeBlanc, Barry Moltz, Mark Hunter, Henry DeVries, Tom Searcy, Melinda Emerson, Stephanie Chandler, Mary Foley, Gene Marks and Viveka Von Rosen. You are each superheroes in your own realm and I hugely appreciate your generosity of expertise.

Thank you to my colleagues in Vistage International, the world’s largest CEO peer group organization: Jose Palomino, Gerry Lantz, Chris Farias, Scott Messer, Brian Carney, Skip Lange, Carl Francis, Marcia O’Connor, Michael Gidlewski, Steve Van Valin and Jim Lucas. You’ve shared your insights and advice with me even when I didn’t want to hear it, didn’t follow it, and didn’t want to believe it. However, you were right four times out of five. I’m learning.

Thank you to my Do It! Marketing team members, past and present. Especially the uber-awesome Catherine Bernard, the ultra-amazing Katie Hanna, the super-productive Rachel Rodden, and Liz Crider aka “the one that got away.” I love working with you and appreciate you more than you know.

Thank you to my amazing clients. Man, when YOU work, this program works! I’m continually humbled and grateful for your confidence, your business, your friendship, and the credit that you bring to our work by DOING IT consistently, smartly, bravely, and quickly. You are the embodiment of my mantra that “Only action creates results.” Thank you for the privilege of working alongside you as you create your next level of success. 

Sooo... even if you're not writing a book at the moment, you will experience BIG gratitude if YOU write the Acknowledgements section of your (future) book. 

Let me know what you think in the COMMENTS area below. Happy Thanksgiving!

As a marketing speaker and marketing strategist, clients regularly ask me about the topic of company naming. And, naturally, people would like some free ideas for company naming, so for those folks, you can pop right over to this post. 

I'll wait... 

Oh, good - you're back!

The next question they ask is, "David, you've got a great company name in DO IT Marketing  (alternatively spelled DOIT Marketing or doitmarketing which is not correct but that's OK - you're cool)... how did that name come to be? 

Well... here's a confession. I'm sort of a company name change freak. Or I was very confused as a young child. Or I get bored easily.

Since 2001, when I started my entrepreneurial adventure, I've changed my branding more than is wise. Before DOIT Marketing, the company was known as UNCONSULTING. 

When I changed to that name, I took the opportunity to poke some fun at myself. After announcing the change to my email subscribers and all my current and past clients, I "hacked" my own website and replaced the content with some BIG graphical billboards.

These made it look like some goon squad named UNCONSULTING had replaced all the blah-blah-blah marketing copy that you typically find on most marketing firms' websites with a wild-eyed manifesto for marketing revolutionaries. 

Here is just one of about six that I created before the launch of DOIT Marketing: 

People LOVED it. It was contrarian, startling, and funny.

A current example of this is the good people over at www.shitcreekconsulting.com. Also, very funny - and people share that link and tell their friends and colleagues. 

The problem is - people can't tell if it's a gag or a real consulting firm... 

Bummer. 

So they don't buy...

BIGGER bummer. 

And that was the same problem I had with UNCONSULTING. People chuckled - but they had no idea what the hell it was or why they needed it. And the clue was - they didn't need it. Why? Because I was articulating what I was the OPPOSITE of - like the Uncola - not what I was. 

So we changed it to DOIT Marketing almost 5 years ago and the difference has been profound. 

It says what it is - Marketing. 

It gives you a feeling - action, movement, and getting things DONE.

And it's a handy acronym for a small business marketing philosophy that is systematic, approachable and repeatable:

DOIT Marketing means Define - Organize - Implement - Track. 

There's even a handy dandy visual with a clear explanation of these four phases right on the DOIT Marketing professional services page here. 

So the next time YOU are faced with (re-)naming your company, your products, your services or your brands, don't be clever - be smart!

What do YOU think? 

Use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, insights and experiences on this topic...

1. Tweet more regularly about resources, tools and ideas that link back to your website. Use tools like Hootsuite, TweetAdder and Buffer.

2. Create short 2-3 minute videos on YouTube and make sure to add titles near the beginning and end of the video inviting viewers to get more resources from your website.

3. Also make sure to optimize your videos' titles, descriptions, tags and use your full url (meaning include the http:// part!) as the first line of your video description so people see it right away without needing to scroll down. Example: Business Card Kung Fu

4. Get to know Pinterest. It is the fastest growing social media site in history and it's also a lot of fun. Visit my free marketing resources page and grab a fresh hot copy of "How to Use Pinterest for Business." Example: http://pinterest.com/marketingexpert/  

5. Slideshare: You know you've got 'em - PowerPoints. PDF's. All kinds of goodies probably littering your hard drive and you're not take advantage of ANY of 'em as marketing assets. But sure enough, you can start a free Slideshare account, upload your favorite 5-6 PPT or PDF documents, optimize the tags, titles and descriptions, and BAM - more web traffic for you. Example: http://www.slideshare.net/doitmarketing

6. Build an about.me page that collects all your important web links and can serve as an online "business card" or switchboard to connect folks to all your social media accounts in one handy place. Example: http://about.me/doitmarketing

7. Build a brand reputation profile on BrandYourself.com. It's a great way to monitor your online reputation AND build Google juice so you are more visible, more findable and more credible to folks searching for your type of product, service or expertise. Example: http://bobgarlick.brandyourself.com/

8. Boost the impact and SEO value of your LinkedIn profile. My pal, LinkedIn guru Viveka Von Rosen has 12 kickass tips for you on 12 Ways to Spice Up Your LinkedIn Profile. Hint: You also totally need to pick up Viveka's book LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day.

9. Blog, baby, blog... Research from our partners at Hubspot proves that businesses that blog twice a week generate 60% more traffic and leads than businesses that blog once a week or less. Not every blog needs to be a novel. Short is good. Medium is good. Long is good. Not blogging regularly is bad. Ya dig?

10. Infographics. Love 'em or hate 'em - they're hotter than a Vegas sidewalk in August. How can you present a simple, visual, and valuable piece of content that your readers, prospects and customers would really appreciate? Example: 12 Home Page Must-Haves. 

11. Post to relevant LinkedIn groups. LinkedIn is THE social network for business. But all I see in your message stream is who you connected with yesterday, who you endorsed as a great accountant, and that you changed your photo (which is great because that brown tie wasn't helping you). Post LINKS to your great content. Post provocative, interesting questions. Post answers in relevant Q&A Discussions. 

12. Don't ignore PR: Do everything you can to put yourself in a position to be quoted, interviewed, linked to, and featured in relevant blogs, articles, publications and newsletters aimed at your target market. If you're not sure where to begin, start with PRLeads.com and PressReleaseSender.com

13. According to my pal Jay Baer of Convince and Convert, text is going away. Everything online is moving to pictures and video. If that's true (and trust Jay - it is), then your two new best friends will be... 

14. Flickr.com: Post pictures of you, your clients, your projects, your meetings, your team, your best work. Don't be shy - Flickr is a great place to strut your stuff in an immediately impactful way. A picture is worth a thousand words, yadda yadda. Here's a great example from my pal Scott Ginsberg.

15. Animoto.com: Video, baby, video. Turn your photos, video clips, and music into stunning video masterpieces to share with everyone. Fast, free, and shockingly easy! You can use these for yourself, your products, your services, your programs and your ideas. You can also export your creations to YouTube and optimize them further there (See point #3 above.) Example: Top 10 Differences Between Girls and Bodacious Women.

16. Don't ignore email marketing. One of the most common reasons you may be losing web traffic is simply because people who know you and like you have forgotten about how awesome you are. Email marketing reminds them. Not sure where to begin? Start with a Constant Contact free trial. 

17. Never Stop Marketing. That's both a mantra and the website of my pal Jeremy Epstein. But my point is... Never stop experimenting. Never stop testing. And only KEEP what works for you and generates results. You can safely toss the rest.

Go about your marketing with a sense of positive skepticism. Just because someone else says a strategy or tactic is great, doesn't mean it's great for YOU. There is no cookie cutter. You are no cookie.  

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to read two closely related ones: 

Marketing Coach: "You Never Know" Will Kill You

Business Coach: 7 Keys to Help You Focus on Strategy Not Tactics

What do you think? 

Use the COMMENTS section below to share your insights, advice and recommendations...

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!

I just came across a website that claims to feature the Top 100 "Voices that Shape Opinion" - Grab a quick look here: http://say100.saymedia.com

It reminded me of a few years back when I was attending the 99% Conference and happened to strike up a conversation with Tina Roth Eisenberg, a sorta-cool, sorta-famous-in-that-indie-way designer and blogger. She is one of the Say 100 - http://say100.saymedia.com/design

Three things that made an impression on me when I met Tina:

1. She seemed like a nice, unassuming, down-to-earth person when chatting 1-on-1. She was no big deal to me because I wasn't one of her design groupies and she simply seemed like an interesting person among the 300 or so equally interesting people at the conference...

2. During this 10-minute coffee break, about a dozen people came up to her - interrupting our conversation - with that "Oh my god, it's HER" look on their faces... 

3. She interrupted OUR conversation each and every one of those dozen times to greet her fans - mostly strangers mixed in with one or two seemingly more meaningful acquaintances or friends...

So it became clear to me that among a certain subgroup of this conference, Tina WAS indeed a big deal. 

But she lost some points in my book by trading superficial fandom for the possibility of a new connection - even with a "nobody" like me. 

Truth is - put me in a different room, and among an equally teeny-tiny minority of folks, I am the one who is a big deal. But I make damn sure NEVER to treat a conversation partner the way Tina treated me. 

I've had a 5-minute conversation with a new friend at similar events while two, three or even four people start stacking up in my peripheral vision wanting a word with me. Know what I do? I ignore 'em. Politely but with determined focus, I continue my conversation with the person who was gracious enough to share THEIR time and attention with me. 

I'm a big believer in the notion of "love the one you're with" in a professional networking sense. Do anything else and you seem like a needy, egotistical goober who suffers from false celebrity syndrome (FCS - it's deadly). 

Here's my challenge to YOU - in the rooms where YOU are a "big deal," how do you treat your NEW friends, acquaintances, and networking connections?

Do you NEED to collect on every last drop of all that ego satisfaction?

Or are you willing to put your ego aside and act like a "regular person" when you may - or may not - be considered as such in the real world outside that room? 

If you're truly a big deal - regardless of the scope of that statement for you - are you kind, attentive and humble? Or is that just an act until YOUR fans start lining up and asking you to have their picture taken with you? 

It matters much more than a list of who matters. 

What do YOU think? Please leave your COMMENTS, thoughts and experiences below...