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8th
APR

The Cobbler’s Children Must Have New Shoes

Posted by cgseo under Social Media

The Cobbler’s Children Must Have New Shoes This content from: Duct Tape Marketing The title of this post borrows from the folktale about the cobbler who was so busy making shoes for his customers his own children went barefoot. Of course the parallel to small business is certainly relevant, although it goes beyond simply being too busy, often it is just matter of not understanding the importance being a model for your work. Do you set a good example by being a product of your work? Can you show proof in your own business that what you are pitching works? Do the results you achieve for your own business act a magnet for those seeking the same results? I state often that the definition of marketing is getting someone who has a need to know, like and trust you. Putting out great content, ads and sales presentations is a tremendous way to create awareness and teach prospects that you get their challenges, but trust building is where the real sale happens and few things build trust faster than deeds. It’s one thing to say you have the tools and experience to help a small business owner build thousands of back links to help their SEO efforts – and in fact, maybe you do – but what message are you sending when that small business goes to your site and finds through a link:http://www.yoursite.com/ search that you only have a handful of sites linking back to your site? If a small business is looking to hire a PR firm isn’t it logical that they would look to find one that’s really good at generating their own PR? On a recent morning run in my neighborhood I passed a crew painting a house and took notice of the fact that all of their trucks and trailers were freakishly spotless and freshly painted and decorated. I don’t know, but I’m thinking that’s who I want to paint my house. Not every business can be a demonstration of their product or service, but like the painter above, you can send signals that build trust and show you actually believe in what you stand for and promise. How many web or graphic designers have killer sites? How many electricians build every new gadget into their own homes? How many coaches hire their own coach? – that should be the first question you pose to a prospective coach. There are so many practical reasons for doing what I’ve suggested here, building trust being chief, but it also helps you build a better internal culture, makes you far better at talking about results you experience, allows you offer positive proof without even trying, and helps you evolve and refine your own set of tools and processes by constantly field testing in your own private lab. If you don’t believe in what you do enough to do it yourself, why should anyone trust that you could do it for them – no matter how busy you seem to be. So, how do you practice what you preach? Image credit: Retinafunk Related Posts: 5 Questions You Should Ask Every Customer What's the Definition of Marketing? Stay Out of The Bad Part of Town What Part of NO Don't You Get? Consistency Builds Trust Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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5th
APR

Document, Delegate, Dominate

Posted by cgseo under Social Media

Share Document, Delegate, Dominate This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Mostly I write about marketing here so when I seem to stray off topic you can bet it’s related to growing a small business and sometimes that takes getting your house in order so you can effectively market. The most common reason business owners tell me they can’t get around to marketing, particularly some of the newer social tactics, is time. They’re already working 80 hours and week and can’t seem to find the time to squeeze more stuff in. While I get that completely I would also suggest, from experience, that you must find ways to create systems and processes that allow you to effectively delegate most of what you do today if you are to have any shot at growing a business that helps you get what you want out of life. Plain and simple, your business will suck the life out of you if you allow yourself to stay buried in the doing it work of making it, fixing it, shipping it. The secret to getting yourself high enough out of the routine and focused on the strategic, the marketing, the innovation, is to document and delegate your success systems. I know that sounds really boring, kind of like creating an operations manual, but if you don’t do it nothing will change – or worse yet, you’ll abdicate work to others and risk sinking your brand completely. Much of the success of your business may reside in the heads of your key employees. So, what happens when they leave? Do they take your processes with them or do you have them documented in a way that others can quickly learn? Want to hire as you grow? I wonder how much time you’ll save training that next employee with a set of documented routines in place? Documenting the functional processes of your business doesn’t have to be painful or complicated. Taking a couple simple steps and making them part of your routine may be all it takes. Once you get in the habit, you’ll reap the rewards long-term. Create a functional org chart - even if you don’t have people for boxes you have the boxes so identify all the functions in your business List the processes – start making lists of all the processes needed by each function (this will grow and change but get the biggies down) Start creating checklists – process documentation can be as simple as a list of five things to check off, don’t over complicate this Create an online manual – use wiki technology like Central Desktop that allows you to create and organize your success manual from your web browser Get the entire team in – get everyone working in your business to contribute their processes and get in the habit of documenting as they go You’ll need to trim and adjust your manual from time to time, but simply starting down this path is going to show you what a freeing step this is. And, when it comes time to sell your business your documented processes will be one of the most valuable assets you have to offer. Related Posts: The Technology of Delegation Naming Your Stuff Makes It Feel More Important Offer Proof With Checklists 5 Questions You Should Ask Every Customer Successful Marketing Requires Behavior Change Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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3rd
APR

Weekend Favs April Three

Posted by cgseo under Social Media

Share Weekend Favs April Three This content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr. Enjoy! Good stuff I found this week: Buddy Press – Social networking in a box. Build a social network for your company, school, sports team or niche community all based on the power and flexibility of WordPress. Woopt – Simple enough looking solution for web based mobile app development VaultPress protection and backup service for installed WordPress blogs built on the Automattic grid Image credit: der_rolli Related Posts: Weekend Favs March Six Weekend Favs November Twenty-nine Weekend Favs September Six Weekend Favs March Thirteen Weekend Favs February Six Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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31st
MAR

I Am Giving Away 250 Copies of My New Book for My 50th

Posted by cgseo under Social Media

I Am Giving Away 250 Copies of My New Book for My 50th This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Want to help me celebrate my 50th birthday? As you may know, I have a new book coming out in May. The title of my new book is The Referral Engine – Teaching Your Business To Market Itself and it’s officially on pre-sale today. I wrote this book because the power of advertising and elaborate marketing campaigns is on the wane; word- of-mouth referrals are what drive business today. People trust the recommendation of a friend, family member, colleague, or even stranger with similar tastes over anything thrust at them by a faceless company. As a Duct Tape Marketing reader and follower I want to let you in on my special 50th birthday celebration. (I know that’s pretty lame, but I thought why not, you only turn 50 once.) Here’s the deal. The first 250 people that pre-order a copy of my new book will get a second copy, perhaps to refer to a friend, free. And, you’ll get that copy about two weeks before anyone else can buy it. So, you give me a gift by purchasing a book and I give you a gift in return. Let’s call it a party! All you have to do to join the party is: a) Visit The Referral Engine web site at http://referralenginebook.com and choose your favorite online retailer and pre-order the book. (free book can only be shipped to US addresses and does not include Kindle orders.) You can buy your book directly from one of the following retailers – Barnes & Noble , Amazon , 800-CEO-READ or Indie Bound b) Send a copy of your receipt to – ReferralEngineBook@gmail.com c) Once you do you will receive a URL to fill in the shipping details for your free book (Should arrive around April 30th or so) d) Feel free to spread the word to friends, colleagues, Facebook fans and Twitter followers The early reviews for the book are very positive (I have a free chapter on the site if you would like to review before pre-ordering) and I think this topic is timeless and very important for marketers and birthday partiers alike! “Who knew that there’s a science to referrals? Not I–but now that I know, I want you to benefit from John’s expertise. In a sense, a cover blurb is the ultimate referral, and I’m here to blurb this book because it will help you succeed in business.” Guy Kawasaki co-founder Alltop Thanks for all of your past and future support Related Posts: Duct Tape Book Review - Shipping Now Free Friday Follow Giveaway #dtmfff Random Twitter Follower to Get Book and T-shirt The Referral Multiplier Effect A Couple of Random Referral Ideas Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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27th
MAR

Weekend Favs March Twenty Seven

Posted by cgseo under Social Media

Share Weekend Favs March Twenty Seven This content from: Duct Tape Marketing I have a weekend routine where I share a handful of favorite things I tripped upon online this week. I usually post about three and don’t go into much detail, but suggest you check them out. The image featured in the post is a favorite creative commons image on Flickr. Image credit: Good stuff I found this week: Firefox Personas – A new way to add branding and personality to the Firefox browser. You can pick one or create your own. Prezi – A very cool and totally new way to create and present ideas online. Your entire presentation goes on one large canvas so you can flip around, add ideas and relationships on the fly, and zoom in on detailed parts of any idea. Clickdensity – Heat map and web site usibility toolkit Related Posts: Weekend Favs February Twenty Weekend Favs February Twenty Seven Weekend Favs March Thirteen Weekend Favs March Six Weekend Favs March Twenty Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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