Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

Guest post by Sandy Barris, Fast Marketing Plan

Marketing Concept: Start writing like people talk or even better the way your prospects talk:

1. Use plain talk when writing your marketing, advertising or PR:
Please don’t try to be your fifth grade teacher or your college English professor.

Forget everything you ever learned in school about writing.

Fancy writing (big word writing) only draws attention to itself and not to the benefits you are using to persuade.

2. Try using short sentences and vary their length:

Don’t try to stick two thoughts into one sentence.

Use two short ones instead.

3. Use simple language:

Use the familiar word to the far-fetched.

Use the concrete word to the abstract.

Use the short word to the long word.

Examples of simple language:

Instead of this: Use this

• Encourage: Urge
  
• Continue: Keep up
  
• Supplement : add to
  
• Acquire: get or gain
  
• Along the lines of: like
  
• As to: about
  
• For the reason that : since
  
• In order to: to
  
• In the event of: if
  
• In accordance with: by, under
  
• Prior to: before
  
• With regard to: about
  
• Accordingly: so
  
• Likewise: and, also
  
• Nevertheless: but, however

You get the idea. KISS

4. Use personal references:

Examples: names, pronouns & human interest words.

The best words you can use are… "YOU" and "YOUR"

5. DON'T USE ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.

People recognize words based on their shape, not the actual letters in the words. All caps are harder to identify immediately.

6. Use a Headline

Your Headline is your Ad for the Ad.

The headline should invoke a "reflex reaction" from the reader.

Stop them dead in their tracks.

The reader should instantly understand what you're trying to say, and have enough information to qualify or disqualify himself from reading the rest of your marketing.

But hey, if your professionaly written and perfectly edited marketing is working, making you a small fortune, ignore this and keep doing what's working.

That's your quick marketing tip for now.

Use them and profit.

About the Author: Sandy Barris is the creator of Fast Marketing Plan which provides any business owner, executive or manager a simple, fast, easy and affordable online marketing and business management tool to create unlimited and complete Marketing Plans, Marketing Calendars and Marketing Roadmaps for use by almost any type and size of business.

"No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty."
– George Eliot  

"One must verify or expel his doubts, and convert them into the certainty of Yes or No."
– Thomas Carlyle  

The importance of “execution” is a business and marketing concept that has gained a lot of currency. At its core, it's pretty simple...

Execution is just a big word for DO SOMETHING!!  

In the old business world, the normal process for getting something done could be described as “Ready, Aim, Fire!”  With the quality movement and the other management fads that came and went during the 1980’s and 1990’s, the process became a little more involved.

Perhaps “Aim, Ready, Aim, Fire!” could describe the resulting corporate mindset: Document everything you Do, and Do everything that you’ve Documented.  That meant a lot of extra work and not much improvement in actual quality.

Then Tom Peters encouraged managers to adopt a new philosophy which he presented as “Ready, Fire, Aim” — execute on your ideas, and then refocus/refine later.  Today, successful corporate and entrepreneurial leaders need to be innovative, brave, smart, and fast.

Perhaps our new motto needs to become “Fire, Fire, Fire, Fire!”  

That means that “Ready” has to be built in - In the corporate world, it has to be built in to every department, every manager, every employee. In the startup and entrepreneurial world, "Ready" has to be built in to your venture - your ideas, your messaging, your services, your network.

"Ready" is the new status quo. And aiming is no longer a separate step.

Aiming is about creativity, scoping out the possibilities, and finding the next opportunity before the competition does.  Part of being Ready is, in fact, to always be aiming!

This is the only way that “Fire, Fire, Fire, Fire!” is ever going to work without descending into havoc.  

Yes or No? Fire!  

What do you think? Leave your comment below and... 

One marketing concept that a lot of thought-leading professionals wrestle with is headlines.

Well, this just came across my email from copywriting and
info-marketing genius Bob Bly:

***Words that work in headlines***

Here are some words and phrases that, according to advertising
great Ted Nicholas, work especially well in headlines:

Announcing ...

Secrets of ... 

Facts you ...

Advice to ...

Protect ...

Do you ...

Yes ...

Love ...

Hate ...

How much ...

How would you ... 

Only ...

Free ...

You ...

How to ...

New ...

Now ... 

Amazing ...

Breakthroughs ...

At last ...

Life ...

Discover ...

Bargains ...

Sale ...

Free...

Source: "Success in the Sun," Ted Nicholas seminar, Tampa, FL.

p.s. Bob and I are two of the seven experts in the Speaking Expert Teleseminar Series that just launched. You still have time to catch 6 of the 7 sessions LIVE. The best part? There are both PAID and FREE options so you get to choose which one works best for you. Hope you'll join us for the series. My session is on Feb. 14 ('cuz you GOTTA LOVE to speak!!)

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, my clients often ask me to critique their Professional Bio.

Whether YOU are a professional speaker, consultant, coach, author, or professional services firm owner - your Bio is one of your most powerful marketing tools that will make or break your future clients' perception of your expertise.

Writing an effective, attractive and client-magnet bio is hard.

Here's what you must NOT do:

• Be boring
• List achievements and awards out of context
• Brag
• Come across as a corporate stuffed shirt or pompous twit
• Trot out a bunch of acronyms, jargon and consultant-speak
• Preach
• Tell us about your awesome vacations, Harley collection, adorable kids, and scuba diving prowess

Without further ado, let me present a Professional Bio I recently came across from a consultant with the Tom Peters Company in the UK that I found quite impressive and that you might consider modeling into your own. My comments are numbered and explained below:

Like you,(1) leadership expert and business author(2) Robert Thompson has seen the word leadership defined numerous ways over the years. Is it charisma and positive thinking? Pinstripes and red power ties? Decisiveness? Is it all about the situation? Is it meant only for the chosen few who rise to the top? Or, is there a different story?(3)

With over three decades of executive coaching, speaking, and most importantly, real-life, in-the-trenches business experience, his view is radically different.(4) Robert appreciates, and shares with listeners, that leadership is a moment-to-moment choice and not about title, tenure or position. Leadership is for everyone, everyday. It's how we should live our life.(5)

Robert, sometimes referred to as the “Provocateur” for his ability to stir up a group(6) or as the “People Whisperer” for his coaching skill that brings out the best in people, is known for his practical, street-savvy style; Robert's fusion of real-life stories and his conversational techniques connect with his audience at an intimate, intense and individual level.(7)

Robert has served as a senior consultant with the U.S. based Tom Peters Company for several years. He is a Certified Master Facilitator of the The Leadership Challenge Workshop™, and continues to work with the best and brightest in the leadership development field. (8)

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1. The most powerful word in marketing is YOU. Starting the bio with "Like you..." is flat-out brilliant.

2. Label yourself immediately. Prospects need to know your expertise upfront and you get 2 seconds to position yourself. Put "_______ expert" in the first 10 words of your bio.

3. Using engaging questions in your bio is something you've probably never considered - and it WORKS. People judge you MORE on the questions that you ask rather than the statements you make. Add questions to your bio - it's a kickass idea!

4. Buyers are lazy, busy and befuddled. One way to make yourself come across as "different" is simply to claim it! "His view is radically different" works. I also recommend the phrase "Unlike many consultants/ speakers/ fill-in-the blank..." (Ex: "Unlike many marketing coaches, David Newman shows you exactly what to say and how to say it, what to do and how to do it")

5. Philosophy sound bites that serve as a preview of your thinking. Consider these "bullets without the bullets." They share snippets of what you'll share and implement with your future client in a conversational way.

6. Always promote your benefits, not yourself. I'm not crazy about these unattributed third-party references ("known as the Provacateur") but the saving grace is that they are framed in terms of benefit to the audience/client. This could be stronger if it said "The Financial Times called him 'the CEO's secret weapon'"

7. Love the fusion concept. It says subconsciously to your buyer - "hire this guy and you'll get the best of both worlds." It's also an implied differentiator. What are you a fusion of? And the masterstroke is that the fusion is also framed as a benefit to the audience.

8. He works with the "best and brightest" so YOU, Ms. Prospect, must be pretty sharp if you hire him. This implied compliment gets buyers to WANT to qualify to work with you. Nothing like a little ego boost for your reader as they cruise through your bio. This signals - again subconsciously - "I'm making a good decision."

9. Claim authorship. Calling his talks "conversations" is also a brilliant differentiator.

10. Name names. Client names are powerful. I do NOT like "His successes include" simply because it sounds like he's taking credit for the success of giant global corporations. A better turn of phrase might have been "Companies such as X, Y, and Z have partnered with Robert when they want outcome 1, 2 and 3." This might also be a great place to put in some testimonial snippets from execs inside these specific companies. Their words carry a lot more weight than his.

11. List your accomplishments in the REAL world. Speakers and experts are not hired for what they know so much as they are hired for what they've DONE. Connect who you are to what you do and your credibility skyrockets.

12. Creme de la creme. Board service and being seen as a leader among your peers implies that you are respected within your field and thus, you must be among the best at what you do.

Use these guidelines to turbo-charge YOUR professional bio right now and you'll thank me later -- DO IT!

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!

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

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!