Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

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.

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.)

---

What do you think? Please use the COMMENTS area below to share your experience and opinions about the Skills feature of LinkedIn...

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...

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. 

Marketing Coach: 6-Step Secret Sauce for Awesome Email Subject Lines

Guest post by Corey Eridon

How many emails do you receive every day? And across how many accounts? The Radicati Group reported that 1.9 billion non-spam emails are sent every day. Most people aren't reading every one of those emails (do you?), and the way people determine which ones to open and which ones to trash is by looking at the email subject line. It may be one of the smallest components of your email marketing strategy, but it's the keeper between the reader and your message. That's a pretty hefty 50-something characters.

As one of the most crucial parts of your email message, you should dedicate serious time to crafting that copy. But if you know the secret sauce for writing an awesome email subject line, you'll find you need less and less time as you practice and learn what resonates best with your audience. Next time you draft an email message, use this recipe to formulate a great email subject line that will help you get your message in front of more eyes.

The Ingredients

• Deliverability
• Actionability
• Personalization
• Clarity
• Brevity
• Consistency

The Recipe

Step 1 - Check for deliverability. There are two kinds of filters you need to get past: actual SPAM filters, and your readers. Readers have a BS detector up when checking their inboxes, and it's as sharp as a bloodhound's nose. Avoid spammy words like "free," "act now," and "limited time." Don't yell at the reader by using all caps, like "REMINDER," which is another spammy word that should be avoided. Also, steer clear of excessive use of punctuation marks such as dollar signs and exclamation points at the end of sentences.

Step 2 - Make it actionable. To have an actionable subject line, ask yourself one thing: does the reader know what he or she can do in the email? An email subject line is similar to writing a call-to-action; using verbs helps create the sense of urgency and excitement you want them to feel when reading your subject line. For example, a well written email subject line reads, "Meet the Legendary Ming Tsai at Blue Ginger," versus the less actionable "Ming Tsai at Blue Ginger." With the first subject line, I know I could do something in this email to help me meet Ming Tsai, as opposed to the second, where for all I know, Ming Tsai just went to Blue Ginger last night.

Step 3 - Personalize. The only way you can provide value to your email recipients is by knowing them...even just a little bit. And if you've segmented your subscriber list like every email marketer should, you do know something about your recipients! Your email subject line should reflect that you're sending something thatthey want. For example, a realtor may have a segmentation just for renters looking for an apartment in a certain zip code. Reflecting this knowledge in your subject line, such as "View a Vacant 2 Bedroom Apartment in Muskegon" will drive up the value of that email for the recipient.

Step 4 - Scrub for clarity. You know what your recipient will get if they open the email, but try to step out of your own shoes for a moment. Is it clear to an outsider? If your subject line is too broad, it won't resonate. This often happens when email marketers try to be witty with subject lines. If you can find a way to be clever and straightforward, go for it, but never at the expense of clarity. Can you further help recipients identify what the email is about by putting identifying keywords in the beginning of the subject line, alerting someone that their favorite item is on clearance? Include it at the beginning of the subject line.

Step 5 - Edit for brevity. You could write a haiku to your recipient, but it's to your benefit to keep the subject line as short as possible. A good rule of thumb is 50 characters or fewer. Not only do you want as much of it as possible to display in the email pane (especially on mobile devices), but people are quickly scanning their inboxes to decide what to read, and what to delete. The shorter your subject line, the less likely you are to get glossed over.

Step 6 - Ensure consistency. What the subject line promises should correspond with what is delivered in the email. Think about getting an email with a subject line that promises 75% off men's clothing, only to find out that it only applies to men's socks. The old bait and switch frustrates people and leads to lower open rates, lower click through-rates, and higher unsubscribe rates.

As with any recipe, testing is required for best results. Experiment with different verbs, reorder your words, and try different offers to see which ones resonate the most with your recipients.

Have you tested your email subject lines?

Use the COMMENTS are below to share YOUR email subject line secrets of success!

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...

Snappy.

Concise.

Quick.

Here's a video to demonstrate: 

The awesome Yosef Klein who works at Click and Market in my old stomping grounds of Brooklyn NY sent me the following picture of the poster he created from my blog post titled 101 Success Tips in 3 Words. 

Check this out: 

Isn't this what we are all after when it comes to marketing YOUR awesomeness? 

Don't YOU want people putting posters up in their offices of YOUR ideas, tips, content and inspiration?

Damn... I know I do... 

I know Yosef does...

And you probably do as well. 

So here are 11 observations, learnings and ideas for YOU to make this happen in YOUR business.

1. People love lists. 
2. People love encouragement.
3. People love brevity.
4. People love audacity.
5. People love connection.
6. People love visuals.
7. People love quirkiness.
8. People love insights.
9. People love personalization.
10. People love specificity.
11. People love fun.

And thank you, Yosef. 

Dude - you made my day, my week AND my month.

You rock.

I appreciate you. 

_______

Tags: Marketing Speaker, Marketing Coach, Word of Mouth Marketing

What do YOU think? Use the COMMENTS area below to share your advice, insights and recommendations on how YOU create content that is more shareable, more spreadable, more findable and more poster-ific!