Here's another in my series of marketing and business book reviews - but not just any old business books.
Fire starters...
Game changers...
Show stoppers...
Books that will transform the way you think about your work, about your business, and - yes - about your life.
Ready? Take a look...
What do you think? Please leave a COMMENT below to share your experiences with this book, with this author, or with other game changing books that YOU recommend...
Tags: marketing for speakers, marketing speaker, marketing success, thought leadership marketing, professional services marketing, trusted advisor marketing, branding, big business, professional speaker marketing, marketing coach, marketing strategist, marketing for authors, marketing for consultants, doit marketing, do it marketing, business book review, brand strategy, business, best business books
If you're interested in marketing success, business success, and life success - well, there are a lot of so-called experts out there.
Many are called. Few are chosen.
I've made the choosing easy for you...
p.s. The best thing about them - none of them would CALL themselves a "guru" - they simply consider themselves lucky to be sharing their insights with others who can benefit.
Here they are in no particular order (although each of them is truly #1)
And here are eight more for good luck... (Yep, you get more than 29. See? Underpromise and overdeliver!)
Bookmark this blog post - stay connected with these people - implement their big ideas - and you WILL profit, prosper, and succeed.
What do YOU think? Please use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, insights and recommendations on the people who have made the biggest impact on YOUR professional success...
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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!
Tags: marketing for speakers, marketing speaker, marketing strategy, marketing success, thought leadership marketing, professional services marketing, trusted advisor marketing, marketing expert, entrepreneurship, professional speaker marketing, marketing ideas, marketing coach, marketing strategist, motivational speaker marketing, success tips, speaker marketing, marketing consultant, marketing mix, marketing for authors, marketing for consultants, doit marketing, do it marketing, doitmarketing, sales and marketing, marketing tips, success
As a marketing coach who works with thought-leading executives and entrepreneurs, I conduct between 4-7 sales conversations every single week with new prospects.
Some of these folks know me from having heard one of my marketing keynotes, seminars, or teleseminars.
Others are total strangers.
You are probably in the same boat if you're an independent professional, consultant or high-fee trusted advisor...
As a point of reference, my prospects are looking for coaching or consulting around a variety of issues like:
In all of these cases, I field questions very similar to the questions YOU must get from your prospects:
Here's the Killer Sales Question that will take your prospecting to a whole new level by getting to the REAL root cause of these types of questions...
Are you ready?
Jot this one down, 'cuz it's a keeper...
YOU: "I understand your question and you'll get my answer in a minute. But first, let me ask YOU a tough question... It sounds like you're not sure if this program will work for you. So are you having doubts about ME -- or are you having doubts about YOU?"
More often than not, this one question will turn the entire selling conversation into a much deeper, more meaningful dialogue around expectations, client responsibilities to implement, previous disappointing experiences they've had with other trusted advisors, and so on.
The moment someone mentions a negative previous experience with a trusted advisor of any kind, I stop the conversation dead in its tracks and ask this:
"When you say you were disappointed in your previous marketing coach, how much of that was on YOUR side of the equation, and how much of that was on THEIR side?"
NOW the real truth comes out - they'll admit that they THEMSELVES were partially (or mostly) responsible for the disappointing results.
Either they didn't implement, or they had crazy expectations, or they weren't fully committed to the relationship, or they kept some key information secret from their trusted advisor which hamstrung the work, etc., etc.
You would be amazed to discover how often bad client behavior is attributed NOT to the client, but to the trusted advisor brought in to fix the situation. It's a classic case of "shoot the messenger" mentality.
My answer? I shoot the prospect. I say, "Well, it sounds like you've been pretty badly burned in the past. We're probably not a fit since you have such a bad taste in your mouth from working with other people like me. If I had your horrible experience, I wouldn't hire me either! I don't want to waste any more of your time. Thank you for this conversation and I'm sorry that we won't be working together."
If they push back on this and they want to re-enter the sales conversation, great...
And if they don't, great! Let them go. They are not a good client for you.
That's just the plain, hard truth.
What do YOU think? Use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, insights and recommendations on this topic...
Tags: marketing for speakers, marketing concept, thought leadership marketing, professional services marketing, trusted advisor marketing, sales prospecting, marketing coaching, professional speaker marketing, marketing coach, marketing consultant, marketing for consultants, doit marketing, do it marketing, sales and marketing, small business marketing coach
You'll remember from the introduction to this Business Blogging 101 series, I mentioned the three BIG problems keeping you from doing a better job of leveraging blogging into business:
1. You are unable to write QUICKLY.
2. You are unwilling to write BRIEFLY.
3. You are inefficient at IDEA CAPTURE.
Good news for you - #3 is the final topic we'll tackle today and you'll become an idea capture ninja before you're done reading this post...
1. Set up a blog idea file in your email account. I filter everything through Yahoo! Mail and here's a shot of my "Blog - Best of the Web (BOW)" folder that sees a lot of action every single day. Drag, drop, captured!!
2. Use the Notes feature on your smartphone. I'm an iPhone guy myself but here's the idea that will work on any smartphone or tablet device...
3. Use a task manager on your computer, phone or tablet - handy for portability across all devices you use - and make a TO DO entry called "Blog fodder." Here is what mine looks like on the terrific to-do/task manager called Wunderlist:
4. Carry a notebook and pen. Everywhere. All the time. Yep, seriously. Pictured below is one of my favorites - the Dot Grid Journal from The Creatives Outfitter.
5. Keep a trusty pad by your bed. In the nightstand, on the nightstand, under your pillow, doesn't matter - but late at night, early in the morning and sometimes at 3am is when you WILL get your best ideas. And if you don't write them down, they are gone, baby, gone... I like these "NOTE TO SELF" pads from http://www.knockknockstuff.com:
6. Carry a pocket video camera. Sure, you have your phone. But if you want HD video, external mic capability, and some special features, why not keep one of these in your briefcase like I do? See a celebrity at a conference? Three-minute video interview - BOOM! See something amazing on the street or while traveling that's worthy of a video blog? Two-minute video blog - BAM! Lots and lots of ways you'll be able capture ideas with this little guy. I own this Kodak Playtouch which runs less than $90 and shoots in 1080HD. Awesome...
7. Use micro-notes. In addition to my main notebook you see pictured above, I also keep an "Action Cahier" which is a much smaller notebook. You can throw one of these in your car, one in your bag, and keep one around the office for jotting quick blog ideas, questions, brain blurbs, blog titles, subject lines, all sorts of random and useful idea-starters. If one of these is always nearby, your next brilliant idea doesn't stand a chance of escape!
Tags: business blogging, blogging 101, marketing speaker, marketing coach
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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!
Tags: marketing for speakers, marketing speaker, thought leadership marketing, professional services marketing, blog, trusted advisor marketing, blogging for business, marketing expert, marketing coach, marketing strategist, speaker marketing, marketing for authors, marketing for consultants, blogging 101
Guest post by Janet Aronica
Creating consistent and helpful blog content is a great way to build community and trust around your brand for your prospects.
It's how you draw the right potential customers to your website.
But cranking out daily content is challenging.
How can you keep the blog post ideas flowing? How can you keep the content fresh and prevent yourself from re-hashing the same old thing?
Here’s a brainstorm of some ideas to get you started, or just keep you going...
1. Do a screencast with Screenr of your product and share it on your blog.
2. Show a step-by-step guide on how to do something in a screencast, how-to video, or show the steps in a series of photos.
3. Create a music video for your company and post it on the blog.
4. Share a cartoon or create an original one.
5. Write a how-to article. Give instructions with screenshots or photos on the steps someone needs to take to do something.
6. Point out common mistakes in your industry and offer solutions on how to fix or avoid them.
7. Offer a list of benefits for doing something.
8. Share a list of some things to avoid.
9. Relate your how-to content to a current event or a celebrity. Example: “Five _____ Lessons from Lady Gaga” or “What the Election Teaches Us About ____”
10. Take the contrarian position – Find someone else’s article that you agree or disagree with. Introduce your blog post with what you specifically agree or disagree with it, and support your argument with a few concise points.
11. Do a weekly or daily links-roundup of relevant news for your community.
12. Find tips in other content, create a list of those tips and give links to those articles as the sources.
13. Share an excerpt from an ebook or white paper with a call to action to download it for the rest of the information.
14. Share an excerpt from an upcoming webinar with a call to action to get the rest of the content in the webinar.
15. Share your slides from a recent presentation.
16. Share conference takeaways.
17. Do a round-up of last year’s/last month’s/last week’s most popular posts.
18. Re-interpret existing content: Collect the top motivational YouTube videos for your audience, top ebooks, top webinars or infographics.
19. Create a Slideshare presentation of new statistics related to your space and share that in a blog post. Tag the Slideshare presentation with relevant keywords for your company to leverage SEO benefits of the platform.
20. Ask a question on Twitter and share the results with a Storify embed.
21. Collect Tweets from a webinar or conference hashtag, show them off with Paper.li (as recommended by FitSmallBusiness.com) and offer your own takeaways in the blog post.
22. Respond to industry research with your own perspective. Offer a fresh angle to spark conversation.
23. Do a survey with Survey Monkey among your community members and create an infographic based on the results.
24. Do a poll of your Twitter community with a Twtpoll or your Facebook community with a Facebook Question and post the results on your blog.
25. Do an in-depth case study about one company, or offer a few examples of how other companies do something successfully.
26. Record an interview with an expert in your field and post it to your blog.
27. Get experts to offer a tip and do a round-up of their recommendations.
28. Feature guest posts from industry experts.
29. Publish responses to frequently asked questions about your industry.
30. Create a list of trends to watch.
31. Compare and contrast: Different products, different approaches, different companies, different people, different places, etc.
32. Do a review of other non-competitive products or services that your community cares about.
33. Be a journalist: Be the first in your space to offer industry takeaways about breaking news.
34. Explain what a current event or topic in the news means for your industry or community. Example: “What ____ Means for ____.” “Why _____ Matters for _____.”
35. De-bunk common myths.
36. Interview your favorite customer.
36. Post a Flickr slideshow of pictures from a recent event.
37. Run a contest and give away something relevant to your community.
38. Ask for guest posts from community members.
39. If you have company news to share, talk about it in a way that makes it about the reader. Example: If someone gets promoted, talk about how why were successful. Inspire your audience.
40. Publish a post relevant to the current season or holiday.
41. Outline the top practical use cases for your product, service etc.
Originally posted by our partners at Hubspot on the HubSpot Inbound Marketing Blog.
What do you think? How do YOU generate ideas for your blog? Use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, questions or opinions...
Tags: marketing for speakers, marketing speaker, thought leadership marketing, web marketing, marketing professional services, blog, trusted advisor marketing, blogging for business, marketing expert, writing, professional speaker marketing, marketing coach, marketing for authors, marketing for consultants, blogging 101, social media marketing, business blogging, marketing tips, public speaker marketing
As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, I've noticed that my clients and audiences are always fascinated by the topic of business blogging - specifically blog writing.
This week, we'll dig into Business Blogging 101 and you'll master the basics of business blogging. So stay tuned and please DO use the COMMENTS area of the blog to share your own blogging advice, insights and recommendations.
Let's dig in...
Simple, really:
1. You are unable to write QUICKLY.
2. You are unwilling to write BRIEFLY.
3. You are inefficient at IDEA CAPTURE.
Notice I didn't include the two biggies that YOU probably think are YOUR problem - 'cuz they're not. These are...
1. Inability to write. (That's a convenient BS lie/excuse)
2. Not having ideas. (That's another convenient - and bigger - BS lie/excuse!)
We'll address all of these business blogging challenges and more in this week's posts. So stay tuned for more Business Blogging 101...
Grab your FREE copy of the Platform Promotion Checklist!
Please use the COMMENTS area below to share YOUR biggest questions, stumbling blocks, or burning issues when it comes to blogging for your business...
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!
Tags: marketing for speakers, marketing speaker, marketing strategy, marketing success, thought leadership marketing, social media, marketing professional services, trusted advisor marketing, blogging for business, marketing ideas, marketing strategist, motivational speaker marketing, marketing for authors, blogging 101, marketing tip, social media marketing, business blogging
How to Generate 10X Traffic from LinkedIn in 10 Seconds - Wow, that sure sounds like a lot of over-the-top, frothing at the mouth internet marketing hype, doesn't it?
Well - in this particular case, the technique you're about to pick up does EXACTLY that.
Here's a quick video to show you exactly how powerful this 10-second tweak on your LinkedIn profile can be...
(Hit the "full screen" icon in the lower right for a bigger, sharper video)
Tags: Marketing speaker, marketing coach, LinkedIn, social media marketing
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What do YOU think? Please use the COMMENTS area below to share your tips about making the most of your LinkedIn profile...
Tags: marketing for speakers, thought leadership marketing, personal branding, linkedin, professional services marketing, trusted advisor marketing, marketing expert, professional speaker marketing, marketing coach, motivational speaker marketing, marketing consultant, marketing for authors, doit marketing, doitmarketing, social media marketing, public speaker marketing
Elevator pitches remain as critical as they have ever been - perhaps even more so given the increasingly short attention span we all seem to have. Here then is some good advice on how to create your own elevator pitch from Toby Marshall at Lead Creation.
1. A great ‘Elevator’ provides just enough information to hook the listener in and spark a conversation. It is just the beginning, not the close; think lead generation not sales.
2. It should be short—10 to 20 seconds. Our attention spans have become shorter due to fast-paced city living and Social Media.
3. Practice it by speaking out loud and standing up—never just write it and read it to yourself. Say it again and again in front of a mirror; then with colleagues or friends. Say it 20 times and you’ll then know it enough to improvise and vary it so it comes alive and doesn’t sound stale.
4. An ‘Elevator’ is not just for sales people or business owners. It’s also for people who have jobs and want better ones—that’s most of the population!
5. A great rule of thumb is to only use your ‘Elevator’ when asked the question. If you walk up to someone and start talking about yourself it’s usually a big turn off; most people would say something like “so tell me about you.”
6. Sell yourself, not your product or business. The other person needs to be interested in you before they will buy anything from you. The old adage that ‘People buy from people they like’ still rings true for B2B marketing
7. Elevators are never about closing a sale, despite the name ‘pitching’. In this Social Networking age, blatantly selling is less and less acceptable. Even at Chamber of Commerce meetings—a pure business setting—I run a mile from people who are all about themselves. Life’s too short!
8. It’s NOT your cold calling script (if you are still foolish enough to be doing cold and not ‘very warm’ calling!)
9. Use pauses to emphasize; it is not a race to get the words out. Vary your tone as speaking in a monotone bores people—it’s very common though, possibly because they themselves know the words are boring!
10. If you are in a business setting, think about how you can help the prospect achieve their goals. That may be the breakthrough you are looking for with your lead generation—thinking about the implications for them?
Note that there is nothing in the above about providing a case study. In my experience they will ask me if they are interested, once they have heard my ‘Elevator’. Also, including studies that are meaningful makes it too long, and you are likely to see their eyes start to glaze over! Just have a couple ready to go in case they ask, though.
The above rules will help you see much better results with your lead generation in all types of social and business settings; learning to change the pitch depending on who you are speaking to, and where you are speaking to them, is a huge advantage to you and your business.
Tags: Marketing Coach, 10 Golden Rules for Your Elevator Pitch, Marketing Speaker, Marketing for Speakers, Marketing for Experts
What do you think? Use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, insights and recommendations on the elevator pitch, otherwise known as your "verbal business card," "audio logo," "10-second introduction," etc.
Tags: marketing for speakers, marketing speaker, thought leadership marketing, trusted advisor marketing, marketing expert, entrepreneurship, professional speaker marketing, motivational speaker marketing, marketing for authors, doit marketing, doitmarketing, referrals, networking, public speaker marketing, elevator pitch
As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, I get a ton of questions about LinkedIn.
Although I'm no social media expert like my pal Corey Perlman, I have learned a thing or two about the REAL value of using the Skills feature on LinkedIn.
In case you missed it, here's my earlier post with a video that walks you through the REAL value of LinkedIn Skills and how YOU can maximize the connection value of endorsing the Skills of folks in YOUR network.
Below is part 2 of the series: Skills Shaping on LinkedIn showing you how you can decide EXACTLY which Skills are featured are on your profile, and how much you'd like to emphasize each.
After watching this video, you'll discover that YOU are 100% in control when it comes to your LinkedIn Skills: which ones you'd like to feature - and which ones you'd like to turn down or turn off - and why.
That's called "Skills Shaping" and you'll find it VERY handy...
(Hit the "full screen" icon in the lower right for a bigger, sharper video)
Are we connected yet on LinkedIn? If not, I'm happy to put my professional network at your disposal here.
(And if we ARE connected and if you're comfortable doing so, would you be wonderful enough to give some love to the Skills you see on my profile? Thank you in advance for your help.)
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What do you think? Please use the COMMENTS area below to share your experience and opinions about the Skills feature of LinkedIn...
Tags: marketing for speakers, marketing speaker, thought leadership marketing, social media, linkedin, linkedin skills, marketing professional services, professional services marketing, trusted advisor marketing, marketing coaching, professional speaker marketing, marketing coach, marketing for authors, marketing tip, social media marketing, inbound marketing, public speaker marketing
What do you think? Comments? Questions? Ideas?
Tags: marketing for speakers, professional services marketing, marketing expert, marketing coaching, small business marketing expert, professional speaker marketing, marketing coach, marketing consultant, marketing for authors, small business marketing coach
