Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

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!

Here's the first in a 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...

No step is too small...

No effort goes unnoticed...

So just TAKE the first step...

MAKE the initial effort...

Because action gives you traction. 

Two quick things for you:

1. NEW Group on LinkedIn for "Professionals Who Speak"- if you're a speaker, author, independent professional, corporate executive or entrepreneur, the conversations, resources and people you'll connect with here are top-notch.

We are up to over 300 members in just over 5 weeks. Great community and great content is being posted and discussed daily.

Join us here: http://bit.ly/LI-ProSpeak 

2. We still have a few seats open for next week's zero-cost teleseminar called "Product Development Roadmap." If you or someone in your circle is looking to write a book, produce audio, video, or online assets, package a coaching or consulting program, or otherwise "productize" your expertise, this may be worth a look. Especially because it's FREE...

Register here:

http://www.doitmarketing.com/product-development-roadmap 

Have a great weekend!

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, my clients often ask me for advice on sales.

Naturally, this makes a ton of sense because the MORE and BETTER marketing you do, the FASTER and EASIER your sales process becomes. 

BUT... 

Nothing frustrates me more than when my clients DO a lot of the great marketing we work on together ONLY TO BLOW IT during the sales process!

So... don't let this happen to YOU. 

Let's talk about what you need to close the deal: the steps you need to get from the first solid marketing conversation to the final signed contract.

Depending on your particular business, this could take anywhere from 10 days from first contact all the way up to a year or more. The sales process can be a long and winding road.

BUT there are several factors totally within your control that make it go faster and easier.

The most important one - by far - is asking smart questions early and often.

Think about it: delays in your sales process come from one main source...

Surprises.

You don’t want surprises on their end - and they don’t like surprises on your end.

Each surprise or question or unexpected element can add anywhere from a week to a month to your sales process - and you don’t want that.

Understanding this, you’ll want to ask them some key selling questions early on in your conversations and throughout at every major step and milestone.

Let’s cover them together now so you can begin using these 21 killer sales questions to close more deals - more easily and more often.

1. If you were to decide this is a good idea, how do you buy things like this?
2. How do you implement?
3. What should I know about your timing? Signoffs?
4. When do you budget for things like this?
5. Do you think this deal is going to work?
6. What’s missing or what should we add?
7. Are you going to pitch it?
8. What else do you need to see from me?
9. Can I help you put together some numbers?
10. Do you have some numbers I could include?
11. Who else besides you will be making this decision?
12. Are “they” going to like it?
13. WHAT are they going to like?
14. WHAT are they going to push back on?
15. What else is going to be in our way?
16. How would YOU respond to that?
17. What answers do you need from me to so you’re prepared to answer their questions?
18. How much detail do YOU want?
19. How much detail will THEY want?
20. Are there any surprises we should be prepared for?
21. If this were just you and me, how excited would you be to move ahead on a scale of 0-10?

Hint: If they answer 9 or 10 - you’re good; If they answer 7 or 8 - ask, "What would need to change to get us closer to 10?" If they answer 6 or less, you have a problem. Go for no with “I don’t think we can make this work. Do you?”

Be relentless and follow up like a friendly bulldog.

Never let an active prospect get more than 10 days away from you.

Always show up in their world like a happy squeaky wheel: Circle back. Send more value. Ask more questions. Offer more engagement. Invite further dialogue. Come back with more ideas to genuinely help them. 

More and better and faster sales will follow.

I guarantee 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!

In Part 1 of this article, I shared the seven challenges that most speakers, authors, experts AND thought-leading corporate executives face when trying to boost their visibility and credibility as professionals who speak. 

Here are a few recommendations to upgrade or fix any gaps in your speaker and expert brand so that you are positioned and ready to approach more and better speaking venues to showcase your expertise.

1. Do a website makeover. Hire a pro from Elance.com and ask them to work on a new header graphic for your website and do a graphic overhaul to make your site more visually appealing and professional. This should cost you less than $500 - sometimes as little as $300.
2. Need more testimonials? Look to your Linkedin profile - you may have some recommendations there that could easily be copied/pasted. Look in your paper files for written evaluations or letters/notes you’ve received. If you’re low on all of these... simply ASK people who know your work to write a few lines. Or help them out by writing it for them and inviting them to edit/tweak.
3. To get quoted in mainstream media and industry publications, you must, MUST join PRLeads.com - it is the fastest, cheapest and most reliable way to get quoted and interviewed by the media. You may also want to look into PressReleaseSender.com which guarantees online placement in over 100 high-traffic mainstream media sites.
4. For your blog, the simplest recommendation I can give you is - start. Your blog is truly the centerpiece of your online presence. Without it, you’re a nobody. Blog frequently - 2-3 times per week is ideal. Blogs can be short, medium or long. Doesn’t matter - just share insightful information, make smart recommendations, engage your readers and have fun with it. There’s no shortcut here. Do it now and you’ll thank me later.
5. Social media accounts are something that buyers are looking at more and more. Even though at the same time, people are starting to question the true ROI dollars-and-cents value of social media, it IS a metric and (like it or not - valid or not) buyers DO measure your credibility by it. So start using some social media automation tools like Hootsuite or TweetAdder and your numbers will start to increase more quickly and consistently.
6. Speaking is another must - as you know, a big part of my life is to work with both professional speakers AND professionals who speak to increase the quality and quantity of their speaking engagements. Buyers look at your speaking schedule as part of your overall platform - if you’re not getting out there, they’re going to think, “Houston, we have a problem.”
7. Interviews and profiles by other experts is easy - instead of seeking the media, spend part of your time BECOMING the media. In other words, YOU start to invite the thought-leaders and experts whom YOU respect to be interviewed by you. You can do these by phone or Skype or even email. The more you feature and leverage other people, the more your own "thought leadership platform" will grow.
8. BONUS: Creating and publishing original research, surveys and reports. This is so much easier than many people think. The bottom line is that experts do research. Something as simple as a LinkedIn poll or your own SurveyMonkey survey to collect and gather statistics, analysis, trends in your industry or in your topic expertise. It’s also a great excuse to get on the phone and reach out to your perfect prospects - not to sell them anything but to interview them for your research project. Rapport builds from there - relationships grow - and soon you’ll have the top 20 decision-makers in your field knowing your name and willing to take your call. THAT is the power of original research.

As you know, most of my work is dedicated to boosting the success of entrepreneurial and executive speakers - meaning, both professional speakers AND professionals who speak. 

Whether you are a professional speaker, author, or high-fee expert OR a thought-leading corporate executive, your marketing success depends on developing a personal brand with some pretty serious horsepower.

Not necessarily superstar celebrity status, but you also can’t look like you’re fresh off the pumpkin truck.

So what does that mean?

Let’s do a quick audit of your assets and resources:

1. Is your website strong and credible with bold graphics and professional design?
2. Do you have an abundance of testimonials and third-party endorsements?
3. Are you regularly quoted in the mainstream media and industry publications?
4. Is your blog top-quality and updated regularly? (You do have a blog, right?)
5. Are your social media accounts current, updated regularly and growing?
6. Are you speaking regularly at local, regional and national events?
7. Are you getting interviewed and profiled by other experts in your field?
8. (Bonus) Are you creating and publishing original research, surveys and reports?

Now at this point, I’ve scared almost everyone... Sounds like an awful lot of work, doesn't it?

My encouragement to you is this - DON’T give up.

ALL of these assets and resources can be beefed up and made ready for prime time with a little bit of concerted effort and perhaps some outside help and guidance.

Tomorrow, I'll give you step-by-step guidance on how to get started on each of these.

Until then, please us the COMMENTS area below to share your insights and experiences building up your own levels of speaker marketing success...

In this final installment of New Year Goodness... you're getting my top picks of marketing must-read info, strategies, templates and tools. 

Why?

Simple... 

So you CAN (and WILL!) make 2013 your best year yet. 

Is this just more smoke and mirrors and hokey motivation?

Nope - it's a 12-pack of "Real Deal" marketing tools that you can review over a weekend (ahem... maybe even THIS weekend?) and start to implement bright and early Monday morning. 

Ready? 

Here we go...

Most popular posts:

1. Marketing Coach: 17 Ways to Drive More Traffic FAST
2. Email Blast: Creating subject lines that pack punch
3. 23 things to say when you're asked for "free consulting"
4. Small Business Marketing Coach: Developing Customer Intimacy
5. Referral Blurbs - Marketing Coach Tip
6. Marketing Coach: How to Write Your Kickass Bio (12 Tips and Example)
7. Social Media Scripts: Tips from a Marketing Coach
   
   

Hidden treasures:

1. Marketing Coach: 33 Ways to Make 2013 Your Best Year Yet
2. Professional Services Marketing: Speaking to Attract New Clients
3. Marketing Concept: Use these headline techniques if you dare
4. 5 Signs that Your Prospect is Giving You Too Much Bullsh*t
5. Business Coach: 50 Reasons People Should Buy from YOU
   
   

Ah, heck - I can't resist giving you THIS one...

The (REAL) Idiot's Guide to Social Media Marketing

And one more for good luck:

Marketing Speaker Tip: Erase. Start Fresh. Kick Ass

p.s. As you review these, please share YOUR advice, insights and recommendations in the COMMENTS section for each of these blogs. Even if the posts are older, I always see new comments as you post them -- so I'd love to generate discussions with YOU on how you can max out these ideas in 2013 for YOUR business!

Inspired by my pal Michael Goldberg of Building Blocks Consulting - who wrote this post - here are the Top 5 things to get excited about in YOUR business for the New Year and all of Lucky '13!

1. Books

Reading 'em. Writing 'em. Ebooks. Hardcopy books. All kinds of books.

As you may know, the DO IT! Marketing book is coming this summer from AMACOM and there's lots of cool developments brewing there... but let's talk about YOU... 

• Do YOU want to write a book? 
• Have YOU written a book that's under-marketed? 
• Do YOU have an ebook or information product that you're working on and just can't seem to finish?
• Do YOU have plans to develop a NEW book or information product - and just don't know where to begin?

Don't get stuck - let me help you take your first (or next) ebook, book, or information product over the finish line.

As for books to read - here are five recommendations for YOUR 2013 reading list:

2. Focus

Focus on a specific target market.

Focus on your "secret sauce" of expertise.

Focus on your most fun and profitable projects, prospects and programs.

And...

     Let...

          Everything...    

               Else...

                    Go...

3. Fitness, Toughness, Accountability 

As you may know, I've lost a tremendous amount of weight recently.

Sidebar: OK, my wife Vanessa HATES when I say that to people - it's 18 pounds in 90 days to be exact. (She thinks I make it sound like 100 pounds and she further thinks it makes people feel awkward when they haven't noticed. On the other hand, people whom I haven't seen in YEARS are shocked by my total weight loss of almost 40 pounds since 2008 - so to ME, it IS a "tremendous" amount!!)

The secret? The Charlie Newman hardass eating program plus twice weekly workouts at Nick's Gym.

What's the Charlie Newman program? Three things - all simple but not easy: 

1. No white stuff (dramatically reduce carbs, breads, sugars, etc.)
2. Drink a ton of water daily. More than is comfortable. More than is fun. More than you want to. Like you need to go pee 10 times a day. That is the right amount.
3. No food after 7pm.

The toughness comes at times like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve - when it's EASY (or even expected) that you'll go overboard and do things you should not do. Toughness says you don't go there. 

Accountability is the fact that I live with Charlie Newman - he's my son - and he SEES what I eat, HOW much, WHEN I eat it... and there aren't enough places to hide in our kitchen. 

So consider one of your goals - what's going to fuel YOUR fitness (financial fitness, marketing fitness, relationship fitness, physical fitness, etc)? And which kinds of built-in toughness and accountability mechanisms will you use to ensure your success?

4. Travel + Leisure

Yes, I mean both the concept - and the magazine. We get this magazine and it has opened my eyes to an undiscovered opportunity that YOU have if business travel is part of YOUR work...

In my work as a professional speaker and marketing coach, travel is a given.

How much you enjoy it and exploit it is 100% up to YOU... 

2012 trips have taken me to Columbus OH, NYC, Toronto, Denver, Shelton CT, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Atlantic City, and Winnipeg ("Brrr...") Future trips already planned for 2013 include Atlanta, Vancouver, NYC, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, and Chicago.

But there is a HUGE difference between the two words "trips" and "travel." You can take business trips and they look like this:

• Get to airport in your home city 
• Go through security
• Swallow stale air in thin metal tube for between 1-8 hours
• Land 
• Taxi to hotel
• See inside of hotel
• See inside of conference rooms
• Eat inside hotel
• Eat inside conference rooms
• Taxi to airport
• Go through security
• Swallow stale air in thin metal tube for between 1-8 hours
• Land
• Go home. Hug spouse. Kiss dog. Fall into own bed.
• Repeat as needed to meet your career or entrepreneurial goals

THAT, my friends, is not travel.

Travel is sightseeing, museums, restaurants, cafes, bars, shopping, exploring new places and discovering local experiences.

Question for you: How can you bake more TRAVEL into your TRIPS during 2013? I'll do my best - and hope you do, too.

Let's check in with each other over the next few months to see how we're both doing!

5. Giving away WAY more FREE stuff

Since November, I have made a commitment to sharing MORE experiences of value - for free - and making MORE profit-rich resources available - again, for free.

If you know me at all, you know I've always done this BIG-time. But I wanted to see what would happen if I ramped this UP to near-ridiculous levels.

• Would I burn out? (No)
• Would you? (Not yet - but we're just starting)
• Would anybody come (Yes - see below) 
• Would there be anything left for me to monetize and sell? (Apparently)
• Would people tell their friends and colleagues? (Yes - and thank you!)

Early Results:

In November, I presented the "Marketing Strategy Blueprint for 2013." We had 169 people register for that info-packed training call and it generated $4500 of client work. Good for you - and good for me. 

In December, I presented the "Sponsorship Strategy Blueprint." We had 161 people register for that training call where I laid out my VERY BEST fee-paid advice with no holds barred. That call generated $8100 of client work. Again good for you - and good for me.

Coming up later this week, YOU are invited to "Your Speaking Business in 2013" with my friend and colleague Andrea Gold of Gold Star Speakers Bureau and author of "The Business of Successful Speaking."

Join us - you don't need to buy anything and there's no catch. If we provide value and you want more, you'll know what to do.

Questions for you:

• Are you strategically giving away RIDICULOUS amounts of value? 
• How could you give even MORE? 
• What could you do to AMPLIFY your impact with your target market? 
• Whose HELP do you need? Partners, affiliates, mentors?
• WHEN will you launch your "WAY More FREE Stuff" campaign?
• HOW will you measure its success?

What do you think?

Use the COMMENTS area below to share what YOU are most excited about in YOUR business for 2013 and...