Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

Yesterday, you were promised some thought-provoking questions for creating your best 2012 - and here they are. Once again, these are from the Soul Purpose Institute and they struck me as especially relevant for business owners, entrepreneurs and independent professionals.

Not only will these questions help you clarify your goals, focus, and themes for 2012 - they will also help you narrow down your choices, remove some overwhelm, kill some unnecessary "shoulds" in your marketing mix and generally help you focus on what matters most to your business, professional, personal and financial success.

13 Questions for Creating Your Best 2012

1. What would you like to be your biggest triumph this year?
2. What advice would you like to give yourself?
3. What is the major effort you plan to do to improve your financial results?
4. What would you be most happy about completing?
5. What major indulgence are you willing to experience?
6. What would you most like to change about yourself?
7. What are you looking forward to learning?
8. What do you think your biggest risk will be in 2012?
9. What about your work, are you most committed to changing and improving?
10. What is one as yet undeveloped talent you are willing to explore?
11. What brings you the most joy and how are you going to do or have more of it?
12. Who or what, other than yourself, are you most committed to loving and serving?
13. What one word would you like to have as your 2012 theme?

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Please use the comments area below to share your 2012 successes, goals, plans and strategies. What's working? Where could you use a bit of help?

Want to kick it up a notch in your business for 2012 and tackle your most important marketing, sales and business growth TO-DO items all in a single, super-focused day? Check out DO IT DAYS and join us for the next one.

This just came across my email inbox from the Soul Purpose Institute and these 14 questions struck me as a powerful marketing concept to help you close out your 2011 and prepare you to launch into your next level of success in the new year.

I'll post some equally powerful questions about your 2012 - tomorrow!

1. What was your biggest triumph?
2. What was the smartest decision you made?
3. What one word best summarizes your 2011 experience?
4. What was the greatest lesson you learned?
5. What was the most loving service you performed?
6. What is your biggest piece of unfinished business?
7. What are you most happy about completing?
8. Who were the three people that had the greatest impact on your life in 2011?
9. What was the biggest risk you took?
10. What was your biggest surprise?
11. What important relationship improved the most?
12. What compliment would you liked to have received?
13. What compliment would you liked to have given?
14. What else do you need to do or say to be complete this year?

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Ready to launch your speaking, consulting, or solo professional practice into its next level of success? You'll get 30 days of specific tools, tactics, templates AND the structured day-by-day guided implementation to remove the overwhelm and make it "paint-by-numbers easy" -- Details are waiting for you here: http://www.SpeakerLiftoff.com

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Got 2011 thoughts and reflections to share? Use the COMMENTS area below and...

Marketing Mix: Happy Holidays!!

Happy Holidays to all our friends, family, clients, and colleagues like YOU who make the world a better place through your speaking, consulting, training, coaching, generosity of expertise and trailblazing thought leadership.

From all of us on the DO IT team -- All best wishes to you for wonderful holidays and a prosperous 2012!

-- Catherine, Katie, Liz, David and all the marketing elves

Marketing Concept: Viral is for morons. In general, this is true - and with professional services marketing in particular, it is VERY true. 

How many times have you heard professional services marketing ideas like:

• We'll make a funny YouTube video ...and it'll go viral!
• We'll post a really controversial/ snarky/ edgy blog ...and it'll go viral!
• We'll create a really cool ebook ...and it'll go viral!

The Ugly Truth About Viral Marketing

So... What do you think? Use the COMMENTS area below and...

Every consultant, expert, and professional services firm leader needs to establish their thought-leadership in order to stand out from the crowd and be heard above the noise. 

There's no room for the "Same-O Lame-O" dry boring MBA PhD guru guy or gal. Their days are over and their influence and impact are declining... daily... and dramatically. 

So that means that every day you wait to claim your place among the thought-leaders in your industry and in front of your target buyers, you're losing time AND money. 

Don't let that happen to you.

The good news is that independent research with over 200 buyers of professional services shows that at any given moment, between 52%-72% of them are willing to change professional services providers.

Across all service areas, more than 50% of purchasers could be considered Switchers, open to changing providers, ranging from 52% Switchers for Legal Services to 72% Switchers for Management Consulting. ("How Clients Buy" 2009-10 survey)

Additional research from the Wellesley Hills Group entitled "What's Working in Professional Services Lead Generation" surveyed over 700 firms and showed that the #1 source of leads is "Warm Calls to Existing Clients" - No surprise there. If you're great at what you do, the old adage applies - "your business comes from your business." 

The #1 source of NEW leads for NEW business for professional services firms, however, may surprise you: it is "Speaking at conferences, trade shows and seminars."

Put these two pieces of research together and the dramatic discovery you'll make is... 

You're never more than one good presentation away from generating new clients and new revenue.

So the question is... How successful are you at the #1 strategy of lead-generating speaking to drive credibility, visibility and revenue in your professional services practice? 

And do you do it "once in a while" with mixed results or has your professional services firm nailed down a process, a speaking "system" and a targeting methodology that consistently puts you in front of the right groups in the right rooms with the right people to say the right things in the right ways to reliably generate new revenue for your firm?

If yes, great - welcome to the 1% club. If not, we should talk. Call me at (610) 716-5984 or drop me an email (david@doitmarketing.com) and let's have a conversation about how you can do a better job of generating more leads, better clients and bigger revenues every time you stand up to speak. 

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!

Marketing Concept: Headlines eh? Doncha love ’em.
Guest post by Andy Maslen

Most copywriters, while happy to plough on through dense thickets of body copy, will do almost anything to avoid sweating over the really hard work: the headline. 

Over the years, many copywriters, myself included, have offered up rules, regulations, mnemonics and other helpful guides on the ‘best’ way to write headlines. 

Here’s a summary of some of the more useful ones. 

Michael Masterson 

The ‘4 U’s. 

Your headline should be:    

1. Useful   

2. Unique   

3. Ultra-specific   

4. Urgent 

“How to…” solves the first U. 

If you can’t substitute another business name or product for yours in the headline, you have the second U down 

“Save £34.97’ is more powerful than “Save money” for the third U. 

Using “Now’, “Right away” or a deadline covers the fourth U. 

Sean D’Souza 

Ask a question in your headline. People love being asked questions and can’t help starting to think of the answer. 

Get their curiosity buzzing. We’re hard-wired to solve problems. Ever see a chimp fishing for termites with a leaf mid-rib? 

Focus on the problem, not the solution. “Why should you be the only one in your street with tired, sad-looking windows?” is more powerful than “Acme double glazing makes your windows sparkle”. 

Brian Clark

Brian borrows from the late great Maxwell Sackheim for the classic: Do you make these [number] mistakes in your [activity]. 

You could say… 

Do you make these 7 mistakes in your blog posts? 

Do you make this fatal mistake when pricing your work? 

Do you make these three wealth-destroying mistakes when picking stocks? 

Headline writing IS hard. But it’s also fun. If you’re stuck for ideas, read a book, like the three guys above have done; or read a blog; or Google it; or go back to your product and dig deeper.

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!

Publisher: PR News | Authors: Lori Zetlin and Jeanne Tee

Guest post by Steve Markman

Marketing mix: Your marketing and PR efforts should be in the forefront of your organization, given today's competitive climate and the uncertain economy. Standing out from the crowd, regardless of your organization's industry, is a huge challenge. How can you meet this challenge?

Many organizations have recognized the value of holding seminars at which their executives make presentations. The problem with these seminars is that, more often than not, the attendees are existing customers, clients or individuals who are already familiar with the firm.

Companies need to expose their expertise to prospective customers and clients. What is a proven method of accomplishing this objective? By speaking at public forums - at conferences, seminars and forums held by independent event organizations, associations, professional and industry trade groups, and academic institutions and think tanks - enormous exposure is created.

There is much evidence in the field of professional services marketing that speaking in public forums often results in new business, by providing increased awareness of your company in general and specific subject areas in particular, to an audience of your potential customers or clients. Presentations about industry trends or "how-to" talks can make a large impact on your audience.

Speaking opportunities for consulting firm principals, corporate executives and entrepreneurs represent a strong marketing, public relations, and business development tool for the following reasons:

    1.    Attendees get to learn about your firm's expertise firsthand and can interact directly with your speaker immediately before or after the presentation. An attendee asking for a business card can be the first step to obtaining a new client. The press in attendance also present opportunities for added exposure. 


    2.    Gaining increased visibility in vertical/industry sectors or broad-based areas that your firm has determined is in need of greater exposure. This can be an established line of business where your firm speaks from a position of strength and is known as a "go-to" firm for a particular area. Conversely, presentations can cover an area that is just getting off the ground or at an early stage in its development and needs some fast exposure to let your potential customers know about your newly offered products or services. 


    3.    Your company gains "advertising" by having its name and your executive speaker's name published in the agenda of thousands of brochures and promotional announcements mailed or e-mailed by event organizers.

What should your professional services firm be doing to get your executives and managers out on the speaking circuit? Take the following eight steps:

    1.    Decide which product or service area(s) your firm should be targeting for increased visibility. Make sure that you have executives in those areas committed to the idea of making public presentations. Some will resist the idea of taking time away from other business activities so make sure that you have their full support. 


    2.    Get the right speaker on board. Proposed speakers should be experienced executives and, preferably, experienced speakers. Small-to medium-sized organizations should nominate their CEO or other senior executive. Large organizations can also nominate staff at the director or manager level, depending on the criteria of the speaking opportunity. 


    3.    Speak to the right audience. Thoroughly research the events for which representatives of your firm can be proposed as speakers, as solo presenters or as panelists. There are so many events taking place on so many topics, frequently simultaneously, that you'll need to choose diligently in order to maximize the time and expense associated with speaking. Identify speaking engagements whose audience represents the customers and industries your organization wants to reach.


    4.    Develop a proactive speaker placement program. It's fine to evaluate unsolicited speaking opportunities. However, having someone dedicated to the task who will aggressively identify opportunities, develop relationships with event organizers and write and submit speaker proposals, should lead to an increase in the frequency of speaking engagements and thus increased visibility for the executives participating and the firm as a whole. 


    5.    Decide on the geographic area to target for speaking engagements - locally, regionally, nationally or even internationally. There are thousands of speaking opportunities held worldwide every year. 


    6.    Create high-impact presentations. Audiences want to get actionable information they can take back to their organizations. They don't want to hear that your firm is the leading firm in this or that subject area. A solid, informative presentation that covers applications or technologies and is not product or company specific will create instant credibility and obviate the need for a "sales pitch." A presentation that turns out to be a sales pitch will ensure low evaluations by the audience and a one-way ticket home from the conference organizer. The speaker who gives a sales pitch is duly noted and rarely invited back, oftentimes tainting the entire company in the eyes of the event organizer. 


    7.    Learn the process for submitting a speaker proposal to the event organizer - follow the format established by the organizer for writing a presentation abstract, submitting bios and speaker expertise, previous speaking experience information, and, of course, meeting the proposal deadline date. Make sure you tailor the abstract and the bio to each speaking opportunity so that they fit the objectives of the audience. 


    8.    Follow up continuously and persistently with the event organizer to help your company stay above the noise, since you will often be competing with several other companies for the same speaking slot.

By developing an effective speaker placement program for your organization, you will have taken a big step in meeting your marketing, PR, and business development objectives.

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Steve Markman is President of Markman Speaker Management (MSM) a Needham, Mass.- based speaker placement and conference development firm established in 1994.

Guest post by Rob Brown

Marketing coach tip: Let's talk about referrals. You do all this networking to either win direct business or cultivate relationships that will lead you to direct business. This second strategy is referrals.

The problem is that few people can tell you what a referral is.

Getting terms mixed up can make you sound a bit confusing when you ask for help. What you think is a referral might be a lead to someone else. You can see how it will help to get people on the same page. Would it help you to get a definitive answer on this?

Knowing exactly what a referral is should be the logical starting point in any guide on winning more referral business. Otherwise you ask 20 different people what a referral is and get 25 different answers!

See, many people mix up words like referrals, introductions, recommendations and leads. Then they wonder why the whole process is so confusing and why their customers and contacts struggle to pass them the business they want in the way they want it. So let's define some terms:

A LEAD. A lead is a contact that may come from any number of sources. This contact is generally not expecting your call. For example, if someone gave you a list of people who bank with a rival and are in your target range, you might consider that a lot of good referrals. Unfortunately, because the prospects are not expecting a call from you, it'sbasically not much better than a cold-call.

A RECOMMENDATION. A recommendation is something different. It's an endorsement to action. It makes you want to do something. It is similar to a referral, and makes a fine substitution. But all it does is tell you to call someone, go see that movie, eat at that restaurant. It is similar to a lead in that the person you approach still may not be expecting your call. A recommendation comes in the form of wise advice. The tone is ‘if you were me, you'd do this.' They have your interests at heart. Take action and you'll get good things!

A REFERRAL. A referral is a little more. It has more engagement and attachment from those involved parties. A referral is the opportunity to do business with someone in the market to buy your product or service who's been told about you by a mutual friend or associate.

"A referral is not a guaranteed sale. It is an opportunity for somebody to present their business where that presentation will be looked forward to with anticipation."
-- Dr. Ivan Misner, Founder of BNI

With a referral, you hope that when you contact them, they already know who you are and what you do. It is stronger than just a lead because the prospect has talked to your referral source and is generally expecting your call. Hence, they are referred.

AN INTRODUCTION. An introduction is simply the bringing together of interested parties. It's what you should do with a lead or referral. You've probably introduced people on email, by phone and of course, in person. When you bring people together, you become the social glue that oils the wheels of commerce. You are the catalyst that makes things happen. You are the conduit and the hub through which social capital travels.

When I talk about referrals , I'm expecting that you involve your referral sources as much as you can to bring about those introductions. When you do that, you're more likely to convert your referrals and keep everyone happy! A word of caution. Unless your network of customers and contacts are familiar with the word ‘referrals' and know exactly what it means and how it works, then we suggest you make ‘referrals' an internal word. Here is a great quote from Bill Cates, one of the top referral gurus in the USA.

'When we ask for referrals, what we really want is an introduction - a connecting to the new prospect. An introduction implies recommendation, but goes a step further and creates a connection. Someone can recommend us to someone, but not connect us to them. Likewise, someone can introduce us, but not recommend us. Which would you rather have? I'll take the introduction any day of the week. Ultimately, you should use the word that works best for you and flows most naturally for you. This way, you'll engage in the process more regularly.'

To recap... a lead is cold, a recommendation warmer, an introduction warmer still, and a referral the package of all three. So your mission is to generate a whole lot more of them for your business!

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Rob Brown is the UK's leading authority on how to perform better and win more business through networking and referrals.

Marketing concept for today: Storytelling for Business. This infographic came across my desk recently from the folks at Fathom Business Events. Whether your preferred method of telling your story is LIVE, such as speaking and seminars, or other online/offline channels, THIS is exactly what you should be spending your time doing:

What do you think? Please use the COMMENTS area below to (wait for it...) share YOUR STORY about how these strategies have worked for you!