Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach to other professional speakers, CEOs, and business owners - and certainly from my own experience - I can safely say that too often, we get caught up in trying to get everything just perfect.

While you are working on “perfect,” someone else with “just okay” is raking in all the money. 

Face it - Reading the next book, attending the next seminar, or trying the latest software alone will do nothing for you. This is the classic "Ready, Aim, Aim, and Aim" syndrome. Always aiming and never pulling the trigger.

The key lies in taking action. I would like to invite you to try a technique suggested by my colleague Michael Masterson—the Ready, Fire, Aim technique. Do something; even if it is wrong, go ahead take the shot -- screw up.

At the very least, you are moving in the right direction.Fellow speaker and prosperity guru Joe Vitale says, “Money loves speed” those who take the swiftest action make the most amount of money.

Go ahead -- DO IT, and once you're moving, then worry about making it perfect.

Let's take the specific context of internet marketing as an example. And we'll start with your e-zine or blog...

In its simplest form an e‐zine or blog is all about information. Give your reader the information he wants to read about, and he will reward you with his trust and eventually his money.

There are five phases for any Internet marketing entrepreneur. In phase one, you read and study Internet marketing, go to conferences, devour e‐books and courses. At this stage, you are thinking about internet marketing all the time, yet you are not actually in it yet—not actually doing it. You don’t have a list, product, or the infrastructure in place to do business online.

In phase two, you dip your toe in the water—developing a product and making a few sales. The income is not significant. Except now, the idea of making money online is no longer merely a dream, an idea in your head. It’s reality. Making your first few sales will energize you and propel you forward to phase three.

In phase three, you develop more products, build your e‐zine subscriber list, and start making a significant spare‐time income online. Maybe it’s a thousand dollars a month in sales. Maybe it’s a thousand dollars a week. It’s not enough to live on, yet. But the extra money allows you to buy nicer things and become more financially secure.

In phase four, you reach a point where your Internet business makes enough money for you to live on—enough for you to quit your job and leave the rat race behind forever. For some people, this might be $2,000 to $3,000 a week in net online revenues.

In phase five, you double or triple the size of your list, add more products make more deals, and start making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, or even a million dollars or more. You become an Internet millionaire.

The problem is that the large majority of people who explore Internet marketing never get past phase one. They get addicted to reading “make money on the Internet” materials and attending conferences and tele‐seminars on the subject. But they never actually do something.

No matter what the marketing strategy, tactic, or business development effort - get going with baby step... RIGHT NOW.

You want an inbound link back to your blog or website? Great - leave a comment below with your reactions to the "Ready, Fire, Aim" technique - and you'll have DONE something to build your business. Do it!!!

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, I can tell you that Networking is one of the most misunderstood marketing terms there is.

Professional speakers, consultants, coaches, and independent professionals either love it or hate it - and no matter which camp you find yourself in, there are probably some misconceptions and misunderstanding that are preventing you from making networking as fully effective as it can be and should be to help you grow your business.

Networking: What is it?

• Meeting people at events, mixers etc. (the obvious first step)
• Goal: move it to a different level, namely...

Power networking

• Introducing people to each other (Netweaving)
• Having breakfast, lunch, coffee or dinner 1-on-1 to build new key relationships
• Meeting people in organizations (civic/social; religious; recreational)
• ASKING people to introduce you to someone
• Doing favors for people for no reason (random acts of networking kindness)
• Asking others for help and resources
• Bringing a group of your own together for brainstorming, mastermind group, etc.

Maximize Your Affiliations

• Friends, neighbors, church, hobbies, past bosses and colleagues
• Speakers Bureaus, meeting planners, training companies, event producers
• Your Professional affiliations (trade, professional, civic, etc)
• Other colleagues outside of your peer groups such as NSA (speakers), IMC (consultants), or ICF (coaches) 
• Your Industry affiliations within your target industry groups

Your Keys to Networking Success

• Over deliver make them look like a genius for referring or connecting you
• Lead and get involved (raise your visibility and credibility within each group)
• Serve on committees, projects, and bring “outside” ideas to solve big problems
• Become known as a connector, a hub, and a linchpin
• Give three times as much as you hope to get 

My advice for both emerging and experienced professional speakers is to "invest in the relationship" with meeting planners and conference producers. What do I mean by that and why is it important for your success?

Invest in the relationship with meeting planners means it’s not always about the money. Most good conference producers and meeting planners consider themselves in the speaker marketing business, the speaker visibility business, the speaker credibility business. When I spent a year working "on the other side of the desk," I was thrilled to work with some incredibly accomplished and successful speakers – CSP’s, CPAE’s – because they SAW that fact.

The company I worked with had 350,000 subscribers and sent out over 10 million emails a month. If you were one of my speakers, that’s the scope and scale of reach you got from us. Your topic, your credentials, your website. 700,000 eyeballs. Do the math. (And see my note at the end of this post if you'd like to get in on this yourself!)

Today, as a speaker marketing coach, many of my professional speaker clients ask me "How do I establish visibility and credibility with my target market?" THIS is precisely one of the best ways!!

Don’t get me wrong – our speakers got paid – but it was a lot less than you might get for a corporate keynote. I know that and you know that. Put your ego in the back seat for a minute. Be willing to invest in the relationship Because if you do a great job the first time, meeting planners and association executives are often in a position to…

a. Raise your base fee

b. Revenue share with you

c. Publish your articles in hardcopy publications, websites, and blogs

d. Publish and distribute your manuals, training guides and e-learning tools

e. Promote you any way they can

For example, I had speakers start doing audio conferences for $500, and then gradually, as the relationship evolved, move up to getting over $40,000 in royalties and revenue share in a single year from our various projects together. On the other hand, if as speakers we ask for all that up front, we won’t get it.

My advice to you at the beginning of any relationship with a meeting planner or event producer is Recognize the marketing/PR value, and let the relationship develop. To adapt a favorite saying, “Do what their audience loves and the money will follow.”

NOTE: You can find a whole lot more of these "information publishing companies" that produce audio conferences, webinars, live events, and niche hardcopy and online newsletters by visiting their professional association, the Specialty Information Publishers Association (SIPA). Perhaps one or more of these companies would make the perfect partner for YOU to expand your thought leadership platform - and get known, get booked, and get slightly famous!

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If you're an emerging or established professional speaker and it's time raise your marketing game, it's not too late to join the Speaker Profit Blueprint program...  everything has been recorded and transcribed for you and our live sessions continue through May 4, 2010. Contact me to see if joining this program might be a fit for your speaking/consulting/coaching business and your specific goals.

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Professional speaker video tips

As a marketing coach for professional speakers, I often share the sound bite "No Video Beats A Bad Video." That simply means you want to get a GREAT professional speaker video. But how?

First, watch lots and lots of them. Go to speakers bureau websites, go to top speakers websites – make a list of what you like and what you don’t like. Then look at where you are in the marketplace and ask “What are MOST of the NEXT level speakers doing in their videos?”

Plan out your professional speaker video carefully – you can actually storyboard it shot by shot using something as simple as index cards or Post-It Notes. When you have a VERY clear idea of exactly what you want viewers to experience and how you want to present yourself professionally, go get it done.

The mistake I see a lot of speakers make (and even some top professional speakers openly admit this) is that they made their demo video too early – before they were educated consumers. They didn’t know what they didn’t know and that made it very hard for them to truly collaborate with their video professional.

Understand that most of your money will go into editing and post-production. Don’t skimp on quality and do get the best professional help you can afford with both the shooting and the editing. Your cousin Vinnie’s $500 camera may be good enough for posting short clips on YouTube, but it’s not good enough to represent your professional work when your livelihood depends on it. Do it once and do it right.

Bonus tip: Many meeting planners like to hear a short audio program before hiring you. Record a high-quality 15 or 20-minute audio program, post it on your website and let planners hear a good opening, some solid content, and a strong close. It’s a great way to get yourself 90% booked before the planner even picks up the phone to call you!

Two more quick tips: 1. Record everything you do and then cut the best stuff together. 2. Getting good visual quality is easy; it’s more important to pay attention to the sound quality of your video – meeting planners WILL watch less-than-ideal video with good sound, they definitely WON’T watch good video with bad or garbled sound.

Bonus from my friend Laurie Brown of Be Great on Camera - Get your free copy of The Top 10 Biggest Mistakes in Making a Video

And if you want a great resource for Professional Speaker Video in the Philadelphia area, you can't go wrong with my own video guru, Rob Kates at www.ProfessionalSpeakerVideo.com

What are your thoughts on how to put together a killer professional speaker video? Please share your opinions in the COMMENTS area below...

For professional speakers, consultants, coaches, independent professionals, and business owners, kickass public relations is often closer than you think.

It does NOT require an expensive PR firm or PR consultant - heck, it doesn't even take an expensive marketing coach - it just takes a simple public relations plan that you can execute yourself on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. 

10 can’t miss PR moves:

1. Write a book and get it published (Self-publishing is great - and get Steve Weber's Plug Your Book to maximize its PR value)
2. Write articles for any periodical, newspaper or magazine- (Contact editors to see what they want – they’re hungry for good content)
3. Produce and distribute your own Audio PPT presentation with voiceover track using Camtasia and share it on Slideshare
4. Stand out - quit looking and sounding like everybody else - have a contrarian perspective, a unique voice, and a strong opinion about your topic, industry, niche, and expertise
5. Speak to any group that will listen to you; the more you speak, the more you speak!
6. Hold a free teleconference and invite clients, prospects, and guests from the media (print, radio, bloggers, etc)
7. Join the organizations that your target customers belong to – and actively participate, offer to be their PR liaison, write their press releases, become the face and voice of that organization
8. Be a smart networker and network daily!!! (Never eat alone!) 
9. No boring business cards - no boring template websites  - no aol or comcast.net email address - LOOK like a credible expert
10. ASK!!!! Help, connections, and introductions are just 1 question away! 
11. (Bonus) Establish REAL relationships with journalists and reporters – they’ll ask YOU for help!
12. (Bonus) Take a giant shortcut by using www.prleads.com - tell owner Dan Janal I sent you
13. (Bonus) Comment on industry-leading blogs with insightful, valuable answers
14. (Bonus) Do NOT ask a marketing speaker or marketing coach who can't count for advice on PR

p.s. If you'd like some personalized help - and your very own customized email and phone outreach tools, social media scripts, a killer email signature file, a polished referral blurb and more, check out the Small Biz Outreach Action Packs.

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, I'm often asked for "key nuggets" for small business marketing success. Here's a short list for your consideration...

Rather than blather on in a long-winded marketing coaching session, here it is in bullet format. Quick. Simple. Just not easy!

Small Business Marketing 10 Commandments of Success

I. Take Responsibility
II. Raise the Bar
III. Dream Big
IV. Develop the Action Habit
V. Visualize your Success
VI. Associate with Winners
VII. Give Something Back
VIII. Embrace and be Flexible to Change
IX. Learn to Love the Process
X. Have Faith and be Patient

With so many other conferences being cancelled, cuts in travel budgets and staff reductions, we must do what is best for our institutions during this period where generating revenue and reduction in spending has become a top priority. We apologize for the inconvenience and will be keeping the AMMC ( http://artmuseummembership.org/ ) website live with updates on next steps.

We will also be posting the program, with the speaker's information, so that you can contact the person directly with your questions. We will continue to think of other ideas on how the website can be utilized.

Thank you!

The AMMC Advisory Committee
http://artmuseummembership.org/
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My take on this -- please re-read this sentence and look at the crazy backwards logic of it: we must do what is best for our institutions during this period where generating revenue and reduction in spending has become a top priority.

Hellloooooooo.... Isn't that THE #1 reason to have the conference - to HELP your members "generate revenue and reduce spending" while increasing ROI, serving THEIR customers better, and innovating with agility and new skills to combat the outside conditions that no one can control?

This is scary thinking, folks... I'm fully aware of economic reality, but this pretzel logic just makes me want to shout from the rooftops -- YOU NEED MEETINGS NOW MORE THAN EVER!!!!!

Good luck trying to figure out where to go from here ON YOUR OWN.

-- David