Five Tips to Inexpensively Increase Your Marketing in Tough Times

Five Tips to Inexpensively Increase Your Marketing in Tough Times

Experts are saying that most recessions only last 18 months which means that this crazy “sluggish economy” should be ending soon. So then what! So now what! What have you done to continue markeing your business in Tough Times? Research studies have proven that those businesses which continue to market through a recession will grow 50% and those who do not will either not grow at all or not be there when economic situation improves.

So you are saying to me, "but I can barely pay administrative costs and it’s tough to make payroll even for my administrative assistant. I have had to make cutbacks and tighten up, there’s nothing left for marketing." Well, did you ever hear that when the going gets tough, the tough get going????
Can I throw some other trite sayings at you?
Think outside the box.
Find a quicker, more effective way to market.
Get out of your living room, there’s no business there.
Action cures just about everything.

Here are five ways to increase your marketing without expanding your budget

I. Increase your networking, find synergistic events and get out there—miracles don’t happen in your living room.
Sign up for newsletters that tell you about events in your local area.
In Pittsburgh—Pittsburgh Business Times, City Paper, City and County Websites. Many of these events are free or low cost, you will know which ones work out for the best Return on Investment if you have to pay for them.

II.On line free marketing:
Merchant Circle, you can almost create a mini website
Craig’s List—check out announcements and Notices, Shows and Events, Clubs, Garage Sales, Fundraisers, Graduations .What works for you to expand your potential customer base?
Craig’s List—Services and Small Biz Ads
Open Directory or Dmoz, takes a while to get your website approved by volunteers but let it sit and percolate while you do other things.
Restaurants can advertise on LocalWineEvents.com for free in your local area
SuperAds.com, choose the free listing, you can upgrade later when the economy gets better if you feel the need.


III. Word of Mouth:

Offer Perks to Regular Customers to Get the Word Out, use referral marketing. It helps keep your steady customers happy, let’s them know they are important and there is no source of new business like a satisfied customer.

IV. Use Social Media, Blog, Talkcast, Social Networks

Blogging, Talkcasting and Social Networks can give you an opportunity to do some shameless self promotion by setting your self up as an expert in your field. With all of the options out there and money tight you need to be the “go to person” in your field.
Some tips for Social Media
· Don’t always tout your business, offer good information and then give people a call to action, a subtle suggestion that if they need additional information they can call you.
· In your social networking offer free seminars, do them on line as webinars or hook up with a businesss that needs to promote itself also and hold it there for free. Everybody wins. You get your expertise out to some new clients and your non-competitive venu gets exposure for their business.
· Good partners are salons, spas, small restaurants (some like Panera have free meeting space that you can reserve.) Anyone that has a space that can accommodate about 30 people is a good candidate.

V. Many small businesses do not know that you can get some free advertising on Google, using Google Local or Google Maps. Google is looking to increase the value of their local search and their mapping application, so they have a simple way for you to tell them some information about your business, and now they are infusing those results into their main search engine
Things You Need Before Starting Your Free Advertisement
· A description of your business
· Your phone number, address and any other contact info you want to advertise
· A logo or image that represents your business (some people use a picture of their office, store or restaurant) If you are a consultant and a good in person networker, it's best to use YOUR picture.
· A coupon or special offer you want to advertise (Google also lets you add a coupon for FREE if you want)
·
Step-by-Step Guide to Free Google Advertisement
1. Go to www.google.com/local and search for your business to verify it is not yet listed with an advertisement.
2. Go back to www.google.com/local and click on Add/Edit Your Business at the bottom left part of the page.

Whatever you do, know that your clients and your neighbors are watching you. You can be the impetus for not just building your business during tough times but also inspiring others to do the same. The trickle down effect is that businesses on the same perverbial street corner who are doing business makes that street corner a hub of activity and in tough times prospects and customers want to be where the action is.

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:
© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2009, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeer

Blog: http://www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.com/
Or on its unique radio channel at:
http://www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com/
Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.
Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to and advocacy of small businesses.
Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/joannequinnsmith

Phone: 412-628-5048

Monday Morning Marketeer, To Tweet or Not to Tweet Your Blog!

To tweet or not to tweet, your blog! It’s not Shakespeare but if you quote him and add his name, many people will follow you. Also if you can tweet out someone else’s tweets that have a RT directive and if you can tweet out people to follow so that you can make new friends, why wouldn’t you tweet your blog.

With the clutter of your prospects and client’s e-mails keeping conscientious e-mail readers like me up at night, Lord knows you have got to engage your readers somewhere else besides e-mail, so why not tweet?

The idea by all means is to tweet valuable and interesting content so if your blog has valuable and interesting content, and I am sure it does or why would you waste your time on it then twitter tout it. By all means cast out your line in the Twitterville fishing hole and hope that you catch some extra fish, that is readers.


Tweeters converted to readers are not a bad thing. Do I sound corny? Am I making light of twitter? Well, yes and no! Just the idea of twitter and that little blue bird and 140 characters, come on—it’s a veritable microwave marketing miracle. And thereby twitter is by nature a light subject although not to be made light of in marketing. So go on, you know you want to, tweet your blog. And also if you are not using everything in your arsenal to develop your presence on line and in the social media world then someone should give you a swift kick in the trump, not Donald but a twitter double entendre.


Instructions from Twitter Feed:

Tweeting your new blog posts is a great way to engage your readers, and something that most serious bloggers have already espoused. An easy way to do this is through Twitterfeed, which automatically updates Twitter with each new blog post. Here's how to set it up: Head on over to the Twitterfeed site, click Sign In with OpenID or create an account with your e-mail address and a separate pass code. Then type in your Blogger blog's URL. Once you've registered you'll then be taken to the New Feed page where you can start linking blog feeds to your Twitter account.First click the Connect your feed to Twitter Account button, which will prompt you to enter your Twitter login credentials to authorize Twitterfeed's access. You will get a nice little confirmation once you've successfully linked up your Twitter Account.Next just enter a name for your feed, as well as your blog's Feed URL into the form. If you want to customize your feed's settings you can modify frequency, add prefixes, and even create keyword filters. Otherwise you're all set—Create Feed button and your Twitterfeed is enabled.You can always come back later to the Twitterfeed site and modify your feed settings, as well as look at click-through metrics for existing feeds.

http://twitterfeed.com/

Great article at Buzz.blogger.com


“John Merrick and Soren Jordansen just released a tool called Tweet My Blog that makes it easy to automatically post new updates to your blog to Twitter.com using a WordPress plug-in.Tweet My Blog provides a way to link your blog postings to Twitter so your followers there will be informed each time you update your blog.They also provide a widget that you can add to your blog that takes the information flow the other way. You can show your latest tweets on your blog.The use of both the plug-in and the widget completes the flow of information between Twitter.com and your blog and provides more links to what you are writing about, and this should increase the number of people who read your blog. If they then decide to follow you on Twitter, you should see an additional increase as more people learn about you and what you are doing.Both the plug-in and the widget are provided for free, at least for now. John and Soren are both good at earning an income, so I don't know if Tweet My Blog will continue to be free in the future. Maybe it will, maybe it won't.”
Dimitry says:
“Here is a great free tool to get this done and also schedule future posts: http://www.blogomator.com/”
MLM-Branding-Specialist says:
“I think it's a great idea, and even before I know of this plug-in I was doing so. The fact is, if you're active and informative you're usually able to build up a following on Twitter before you can for your blog. In this way, Twitter can be used to stream in new readers, and can then be used for conversation surrounding your latest blog post.”
Now the Monday Morning Marketeer and the ever so subtle self horn tooter in me says don’t be Marlo Thomas in “That Girl” and always be tweeting or pimping your own stuff. I know I am dating myself but then I am also known as “The Techno Granny.” So get over it. And speaking of getting over it, if you are going to tweet your blog, you also need to get over yourself.
You need to do things like ask questions and give tips. You must chronicle important events and projects in your community and of your friends and associates. Cross promotion of other people makes you a resource and if the people you promote are smart they will reciprocate. Everyone wins. It’s a veritable Twitter Economy. Oh excuse me, that is probably someone’s twitter name or an already taken hashtag.
The clue here is to keep everything related. If your Twitter account is business-related, keep it professional. Don't add in random tweets about personal life. “I scratched my arm just now” is not only not going to make sense three months from now, but it also is not very interesting right now. The more relevant and related your content is, the better it's understood and the more followers you'll gain! Also remember one thing and that is all of your tweets, including your blog appear in Google and search engines under your name, yes your name.
Here’s some info right from the delicious blog
Aug 7 2009
“Sharing Made Easier: Email and Tweet Your Bookmarks
Earlier this week Delicious released a series of significant improvements and each day this week we spent some time exploring each of these improvements. This post concludes our series of deep dives.A part of the fun of discovering something new on the Web is sharing it with friends. We’ve made it easier to share your bookmarks on Delicious when you use our Firefox extension or bookmarklets. Instead of copying and pasting an URL, you can now email or tweet your bookmark directly from Delicious.
How it WorksPreviously, sharing a bookmark with another Delicious user required using a particular syntax or copying and pasting the URL into an email or tweet. Now, you can share it directly when you save or edit the bookmark. To share a bookmark, simply add recipients in the new Send field when you save or edit the bookmark. Click the Send field and you will see the Send tab with social network options.
For Twitter UsersIf you use Twitter and want to send bookmarks to your Twitter feed, associate a Twitter account (only a single Twitter account can be associated at one time) by logging into Twitter under the Twitter panel. You have the option to send all your saved bookmarks to Twitter by selecting the “Tweet all bookmarks unless private” checkbox when you add the Twitter account. If you’ve selected this option, your Twitter account will appear by default in the Send field.”

Okay this is the Monday Morning Marketeer again. Tweetfeed, TweetMyBlog, Blogomator, Delicious—these are all applications that will help you tweet your blog. Hello! All of these applications were developed just for you with your name on to help you turn your “followers” into readers, so now why aren’t you tweeting your blog????????? To Tweet or Not to Tweet, Your Blog! It may not be Shakespeare, however, “Methinks the lady doth protest too much!”

© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2009, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeerBlog: www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.comOr on its unique radio channel at:www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.comJoanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to small business.Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketerFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/joannequinnsmithThe audio radio talkcast of this show can be heard on Monday Morning Marketeer unique radio channel at http://positivelypittsburghlivemagazine.com, date of show 8-24-09

Monday Morning Marketeer, Brand Building with a Business Blog, 8-24-09

Title: Monday Morning Marketeer, Brand Building with a Business Blog Episode Notes: Using any type of social media for building a brand depends on a lot of elements: establishing credibility on the web and in person, establishing yourself as an authority and matching your social media persona to your web content to enable brand development. If you are using blogging as a part of your web marketing strategy then all of these elements can come together into an online brand that will persist off line also. Fifteen minutes of ideas to get your creative juices flowing to use your business blog to build your brand. EPISODE84 - Start Time (EDT): 08/24/09 09:00 AM EDTDuration (minutes): 30
Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeer

Third in a series on Business Blogging:
If you like the show you can subscribe to the feed at orange button that represents RSS and you will be notified of each new show.

Show Notes:

If you are using social media to promote your business then you need to find a way to make your brand universal by integrating all of those things into your blog. I like to add all of my other social media elements at the end of the blog so that readers know how to find my shows, how to follow me on Facebook, how to follow me on twitter and join me on LinkedIN. If you have listened before, these are my social media mainstays, Linked in, Twitter, Facebook and Blogging. You can only do so much but it all has to mesh.

1. So even before you start your blog, get all of this together and create a by-line. Use something that tells about you in addition to the name of your business. Mine is: “Monday Morning Marketeer, helping small businesses to jump start their business with gorilla marketing tips that you can do for free or with just your time.”.

2. All of your social media including blogging should have a purpose. The reason you blog is to establish yourself as a thought leader, monitor the marketplace, establish yourself as an expert and shape the marketplace. So the bottom line is that all other elements of social media should direct people to your blog. The end result of course is to turn suspects into prospects and get people to buy.

3. A good suggestion because most social media has limits on number of communication characters, so go to tiny url and create a customized short version of your blog. For this radio show, it’s: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeer Sometimes your name is too long and the idea is to keep it simple so when you do this be creative. I find that people trust vanity customized shortened URL more than one that has letters and symbols.

4. All products and services are not for all people, so you must as in all aspects of marketing determine who your niche customers are and develop a language suitable to communicate to the needs and behavior of your “best customer.” Also, keep in mind that every article you write, every video you record, every image that you post contributes to the whole picture of your business.

5. A brand takes time to build. The reason for that is because you have to establish some power elements that will stick in people’s mind. These elements must result in prospects thinking of you when your field or your niche is mentioned. You can’t expect to be recognized over night.
CNN.com is related to the news; think about what you have on your blog to help create a brand. It’s important to have a strong name for your web domain and then secure that name on as many social networks as you can.

First, I think it’s important to have a strong name for your domain.
Second, go and secure that name on as many social networks as you can. Once you are famous many people will try to take advantage of that and maybe damage your reputation.
Third, arm yourself with patience, passion, commitment and determination.

6. The same characteristic of a successful blog, consistency in posting will also help you establish the credibility of your blog. It doesn’t matter how many articles you post every week. What it matters is to be consistent. People have to rely on you for providing content.

7. I try to post at least once a week to all of my blogs because I also have weekly radio shows attached to all of them but if you have no radio show then I recommend that while you are establishing your brand, you should post at least twice a week. These are not news articles unless they are about you or your event but are articles that you write and publish on your blog. Things like 5 Ways for Entrepreneurs to Survive the Slow Economy or Tips to Running a Successful LinkIn Group. Tips and suggestions, “need to know” articles, “Did your know?” articles, ten mistakes not to make are all great ways to provide good content.

How and when do you create these articles? If you are truly covering the marketplace, you read articles all the week. While you do this I’m sure that ideas for new articles will come, so write the title and few ideas down. Then, at the end of the week, sit down, close the TV, cell phone, Internet connection and start writing. You write 3 articles (or 2) on a row. The idea is to write all the main articles for the week that comes.

8. Where do you get your ideas? When you read articles all week long do you sometimes say to yourself, that’s a great article but I can write a better one? Or you might decide there is something that person left out. It doesn’t always have to be an article if you get writers block. It can be a Power Point Presentation, a video, a podcast. I like to talk and write so I do both podcasts and articles.

9. You don’t always have to be pimping and promoting your own stuff. Between these main articles you can also publish news or articles related to other blogs. This is not necessary but if you have time you can go for it. If it’s something useful to your reader, they will thank you and if you have enough of your own content, you are still the expert.

10. Decide that you are as committed to your blog as you are to your business, follow these simple rules and add more as you learn where you are going with your blog; these are just some suggestions to get you started.

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:

“Monday Morning Marketeer, helping small businesses to jump start their business with gorilla marketing tips that you can do for free or with just your time.”.

© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2009, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeerBlog: www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.comOr on its unique radio channel at:www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.comJoanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to small business.Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketerFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/joannequinnsmithThe audio radio talkcast of this show can be heard on Monday Morning Marketeer unique radio channel at http://positivelypittsburghlivemagazine.com, date of show 8-24-09

Monday Morning Marketeer, Tweeting for Local Marketing

Tweet to Market to Locals

The Twitter social networking and micro-blogging service launched just over two years ago, has rocketed in usage numbers quickly, and recently turned red hot. There are four million connections between twitter users. It seems that a vast number of people are trying twitter but not many really know how to use it, as a matter of fact, yours truly is just beginning to learn herself.

However Celebrities have been quick to espouse twitter even having battles to see who can get more followers as in Ellen De Generes and Ashton Kutcher. There are articles and websites abounding on Twitter celebrites and twitter businesses. Other celebrities using Twitter: Britney Spears - With the launch of her new album, Ms. Spears is embracing the Internet with a redesigned website and the launch of a Twitter account. MC Hammer - Musician, pastor, rising Internet celeb - it seems MC Hammer pops up everywhere.

Twitter is going the way of Face Book and LinkedIn, from a casual optin espoused by the younger generation, it has become a “must do” for business owners. For the newbies out there here’s a quote from the blog 10,000 words which is all about journalism:
"Twitter is transforming from gimmicky messaging tool to marketing powerhouse." — Caroline McCarthy, WebWare

Ever since Barak Obama used Twitter so successfully to update his in person appearances and other info, Twitter has taken off. You might say Twittr is the the social media this president didn’t invent but at least popularized. Someone has actually called twitter the telegraph system of Web 2.0.

Many companies are rapidly cluing into the promotional value, but smaller businesses appear slow to hop on the bandwagon.
Follow me at: @monmornmarketer

Here are a few tips on leveraging Twitter to help your locally-oriented business.



Not completing a bio

The cardinal sin of most new Twitter users is not filling out the small but important section that says a bit about who they are. It could be a simple as a name (or a clever alias for the secret agents or painfully shy) or even just a sentence or two. If your goal is to get the conversation going — which is the point of Twitter after all — a bio can be the icebreaker.
You can also create a catchy, creative one line bio about yourself, please do! Remember twitter is social networking in miniature.


Protecting updates, but complaining about no followers

There are a few reasons to keep your updates private: not wanting to share your personal business with the world, thwarting spammers, etc. But many twitterers forget that by blocking updates from public view, they are also blocking potential followers. It's a give and take situation, so you gotta give a little to get something back.

Learning to use twitter effectively can definitely help you keep in touch with clients, prospects, suspects and others who can definitely grow your business.

Here’s the sort of thing you’d love to see: a customer happens by your store and is fascinated with something there, and “tweets” a pic of it out to all his Twitter followers:
Even better, if they endorse the business to their followers, this becomes an online species of word-of-mouth-marketing. So, how do you encourage this to happen?
Believe it or not, many internet savvy folks use twitter like they use the yellow pages. They may tweet about looking for Pittsburgh restaurant that has Middle Eastern Food or great fried chicken. How do you find these people and answer them, check out Twitter Search. http://search.twitter.com/ This morning I checked in on Pittsburgh Marketing and found 15 posts, I did not find anyone looking for a marketing company but I was able to find 15 posts and monitor what some of my competitors are doing.

Be careful of spamming, it’s a challenge with e-mail and twitter might catch you also. You don’t want to lose your account because you answered a specific question by spamming with information about your business that simply was not applicable.

Here are some tips to using Twitter for Local Marketing•

I list my on line radio show topics each week with a link of course, if you are an entertainment venue or non-profit, you can list that weeks events, meetings, free webinars, be creative.

The benefits of following others and having them follow you is cross marketing, your tweets appear on their page and theirs on yours, So collaborate with some non-competitive businesses on your tweeting.

If you have a local blog, tweet each time you post to promote your blog. Be sure to use a shortened URL in the tweet! You can find these at: Tiny URL


Tweet out pics of special stuff going on with your store— things like new product teasers, celebs who visit your store, other interesting aspects of stuff your company does like charitable fundraisers.

If business is slow that day, how about tweeting out an instant coupon with an eight hour deadline or “ today only!”

How about Tweet coupons that encourage tweet users to retweet your coupons or information.

Once you’ve built up sufficient numbers of followers, use Twitter to perform quick polls about what products, features, services your customers would prefer. Cheap, fast input from your client base!

Don’t just follow these tips, check out the tweeters that have thousands of followers and swipe and deploy what they are using, once an idea is out there unless it is copyrighted or trademarked it’s pretty much public domain, just please do not plagiarize, use the idea and make it your own.


Please do use the Twitter Directory

• Tweeter Directory
• Twitter Tools
• Twitter Mobile
• Wikis & Blogs
• Cool Stuff
• Twitter Bots
• Search Twitter
• Statistics & Tracking
• Twitter for Business
• Twitter Services
• Twitter Graphics
• Twitter Sharing
• Twitter Groups
• Twitter News
• Twitter Fame

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:
© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2009, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeer
Blog: www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.com
Or on its unique radio channel at:
www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com
Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.
Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to small business.
Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/joannequinnsmith

The audio radio talkcast of this show can be heard on Monday Morning Marketeer unique radio channel at http://positivelypittsburghlivemagazine.com, date of show 5-11-09

Monday Morning Marketeer, Business Uses for Twitter

Monday Morning Marketeer, 6-15-09 Business Uses for Twitter

So all the TV commercials on twitter are leading you to believe it is just for teenagers or parents trying to be cool enough to communicate with their kids. But are there really business applications that can help you market your business?

In tough economic times, I hear business owners tell me that any interaction that they have on line or off has to have a direct result or some type of return on investment.

What business owners are finally beginning to realize is that even with your time you must be concerned about your ROI or return on investment. Even though Twitter is free it is different for every person, business, and situation as far as what you get back for the time you put in.

First you must look at your goals…
.What do you hope to obtain with your twittering, what ROI do you want from your time?

If you are investing time, when do you want a payback and what do you want that payback to be? Are you looking for something along the way? If you are a Machiavellian, you are always looking at the end result. Isn’t all business promotion about the end result? But there are purists who will tell you it’s all about the journey and that’s the beauty of twittering. It’s about building relationships. If used in a creative, entertaining and informative way, the realy beauty of twittering will unfold for you. The return on investment will be in the building of relationships, the cultivation of new clients, the extension of your network.

Every expert I know is touting Twitter as a social media tool that is evolving into an “everything tool”….business, research, news, events, communication, media distribution. So there is not much that cannot be done on Twitter….the only limit seems to be the imagination of the twitterer.

. For most users the real challenge is not in finding ways to use Twitter but in finding unique, interesting and follower garnering ways to use twitter.

Most Business Twitter users, if not all, are looking for exposure for a product, service, or cause. Quantifying exposure can be very difficult, because exposure is not just about purchasers, visitors, subscribers, or followers it is about quality. The measure is in the quality of your message, your followers, and your reach. How many people are being exposed to you and your message, who is sharing it, talking about it, who are your advocates?

From 50 Ideas for Using Twitter for Business
Chris Brogan, Community and Social Media blog
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business

Copied some of my favorites here. Not in chronological order.

“First Steps

1. Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)
2. Add a picture. We want to see you.
3. Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this doesn’t sell more widgets, but it shows us you’re human.
4. Share links to neat things in your community. ( @wholefoods does this well).
5. Be wary of always pimping your stuff. Your fans will love it. Others will tune out. “

Ideas About WHAT to Tweet, (also from Chris Brogan and not in order, just my personal favorites.)

1. Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”
2. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link.
3. Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.
4. Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
5. Tweet about other people’s stuff. Again, doesn’t directly impact your business, but makes us feel like you’re not “that guy.”
6. When you DO talk about your stuff, make it useful. Give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc.
7. Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things.

Try Not to Give Yourself the Crazies (again Chris Brogan) read the entire article for all 50 great tips at: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business

1. Learn quickly to use the URL shortening tools like TinyURL and all the variants. It helps tidy up your tweets.
2. Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community.

Sometimes I think this guy is an absolute genius, however my senior brain can only deal with a few tips at a time.

From an On Line Discussion “Brand Uses for Twitter.” (If you go to the entire discussion on Linked In, you will get some wonderful tips from actual users in the trenches.)

Adam Denison
We at General Motors (@GMblogs) have been using Twitter since January. During the North American International Auto Show in Detroit we did live "Tweeting" from the press conferences so people not at the show could see what was being said real-time. We've done this for other events as well.
What's been most successful for us, though, has been using Twitter for two-way communication with consumers. We usually try to Tweet some sort of question for our followers everyday. These questions can be vehicle-related (i.e. What's your favorite convertible?) or just for fun (i.e. What's your favorite roadside diner).
Adam Denison
GM Social Media Communications
@AdamDenison
@GMblogs

Ellen Gerstein
I'm @elleinthecity. I work for John Wiley & Sons, a publisher in the NYC area. There are quite a few Wiley people using Twitter. I'm in marketing, and I use it for finding new and creative ways to talk with my current and prospective customers. @chriswebb is an editor who is on twitter to find new authors. He also tweets as @wrox, one of our imprints, and uses twitter to talk with authors and customers. We both use it for instant market research ("Would you buy a book on X?", "What cover would make you more likely to buy this book", etc). I find myself becoming more and more reliant on it to conduct day to day business.

Danielle Sullivan
“… thought I’d share a little about what our Baskin-Robbins team is doing to join the community and the results we’ve experienced. For about a year, we’ve been monitoring and working to build relationships with bloggers. We respond directly to bloggers posting about our brand, ice cream in general, or anything that might show them that the dialog we can engage them in will be meaningful and relevant.”
Danielle Sullivan
@BaskinRobbins


Some suggestions from the Monday Morning Marketeer for Business uses of Twitter:

• Running a half day special, tweet it!
• Interviewed on a radio show, tweet it!
• Send out your news!
• New product, tweet it!
• Brief Testimonial, tweet it!
• How about offering customers that give you a testimonial a gift certificate to tweet the testimonial!
• How about tweeting about the great things your B to B clients are doing?
• Tweet about your networking, business associates and strategic partner and if they are really reciprocal, they will tweet about you.
• Whatever you do, tweet at least once a week, put it on your calendar. I learned from my friend Heshe Segal of JetNetting Connections, not to follow people who do not update or haven’t in over a month.
• Do use a third party application to manage what you do, Tweet Later, Twitter Deck, HootSuite, try them out, see what works for you.
Just some ideas to get you interested in Twitter in hopes you will try it, you can hear additional tips and what others have said at:

http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeer


This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:
© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2009, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://tinyurl.com/MondayMorningMarketeer
Blog: www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.com
Or on its unique radio channel at:
www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com
Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.
Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to small business.
Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/joannequinnsmith

MondayMorningMarketeer, Business Blogging, Why and How

MMM 8-3-09, Business Blogging, Why and How

What is a blog?

It’s pretty well accepted that the word "blog'' is derived from the term "web log.'' In essence, a blog is a web page or site that's part online journal--hence the term "log''--and part open forum. Some bloggers post new updates constantly; others write updates weekly, monthly or only occasionally. The trick of course to successful business blogging would be to update regularly.
Most blog entries are short and sometimes include photos or links. The idea of a blog is to get your readers to interact so most bloggers allow comments. After all blogging is part of social media and that means comments are part of the social part of this definition.
The blogosphere (the network that contains blogs on the internet) contains blogs on practically every conceivable topic. Some blogs exist on the website of an individual or business, while others are hosted on public blogging sites, like Blogger (also known as BlogSpot) and Word Press. There are also many professional sites like Pro Blogger and most forms of social media allow you to blog. To name a few: LinkedIn, Facebook, Ning Social Networking Groups.

Why You Should You Have a Business Blog.

Why not is a better question?
First of all, it’s absolutely free advertising and in any economy, down or up, free is never a bad thing.
Second, you can engage with current and potential customers in a unique way with no pressure.
Third: You can communicate your strengths of your product or service, your expertise; establish yourself or your company as an expert in your field. You can also tout the successes and talents of top employees.
Fourth: You can often convey a better understanding of your business over what happens on the website or in often expensive advertising.
Fifth: This is a great cost free way to augment your marketing and advertising.
Sixth: A blog can help you gain insight into customers' needs and interests. You can then use this information to develop new products or services or fine-tune existing ones.
Seven: A blog can make your company appear more dynamic and personable. A website promoting your products or services is an essential marketing tool. But a blog, in effect, gives your company a personal voice, which also can help boost not just customer interaction but customer loyalty.
Eight, A blog can become a brand or can become a niche brand or service brand for your company,

Tips on Creating a Business Blog

1. You may not use it at first but please do choose a domain name that matches your blog and can be turned into a brand that is easy to type and remember.
2. Host your blog in the country that you are interested in doing business in and the language that you do business in.
3. Research keywords in your niche to find out the things that you may want to blog about and also what tags you want to place on your blog.
4. Consider basic SEO and make your content social media optimized
5. Then develop a strategy in how you’ll target your keywords
6. Decide what your goals are for your blog. Do you want exposure, do you want branding: Do you want to increase sales in services or products?
7. As you have a business plan for your business, develop a plan for your blog as to what types of articles you want to write pertaining to what your goals are and how you want to educate your readers.
8. Optimize for social media, search on social networks to see where they talk about your niche market
9. open an account on Twitter and join Follow Me on Twitter
10. Start developing content with great titles and quality information
11. Start marketing that content on social networks and article submission sites. Technorati is a great place to start.
12. Start building an audience, use your e-mail list to announce your blog and topics also use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter.
13. When you start receiving comments you can turn the questions you receive in articles, what a great way to target what your readers want to read.
14. When you start receiving comments it’s a sign that your audience is turning into a community
15. Start leveraging that community – offer them something so cool that they will go tell the others, a coupon, a free white paper, a special offer, a free seminar, a meet-up, use your imagination
16. Stick with your blog – it will take a while. Rome was not built in a day and neither was an audience, not even for the most talented celebrities, they all started somewhere.
17. Commit to publishing new content in a consistent way and at consistent times. Your readers will begin to expect it and if you do not they will go away.
What are your business blogging tips and suggestions?
Add your comments here or e-mail me if you prefer to be more private at: infoatmondaymorningmarketeer.com

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:
© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2009, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/33960
Blog: www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.com
Or on its unique radio channel at:
www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com
Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.
Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to small business.
Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/joannequinnsmith

MondayMorningMarketeer, "Crazy Saving" Twitter Tips

MMM 7-27-09 „Crazy Saving” Twitter Tips
Twitter Tips

Sometimes I hear of new technology advances and I scratch my head. I did that a few years ago when I first heard of Twitter. But about three months ago, I bit the bullet and started @mariamarsala Then a week later, 9 people were following me. I was amazed. Today more than 500 individuals, I'm thinking, based on the content, that they're business owners are following me.

So today, after 2 1/2 months Twittering or Tweeting (the jury is still out on the wording) I provide you with the tips and tactics I'm using, so that you too can meet me on Twitter!

1. Keep every tweet you post in your a MS Word doc to reuse.
2. Give yourself a break and schedule your tweets using http://hootsuite.com or http://tweetlater.com
3. Retweet the same message during the day because you don't know when someone will be reading.
4. Put PLS RT (please retweet) at the end of appropriate messages so that your tweets get re-tweeted. It's that old fashioned "call to action" stuff that helps spread your marketing efforts.
5. Put a link to your twitter account in your email signature line for those tweeters you email.
6. Add your twitter (and other social networking account) information to your website's "contact us" page.
7. Open an account on www.SnipUrl.com or http://TinyUrl.com to snip those long urls and monitor who clicks on which tweets. SnipUrl will allow you to follow retweets.
8. Instead of using the main twitter home page for your tweets, manage everything on tweetdeck. This application offers columns and is easier to keep track of who sent you a DM, sent out a tweet and included your profile as well as adding columns to track specific people or key words. This application is very user friendly and well worth it.
9. You can also use tweetlater to have a presence on twitter the entire day. It will look like you are active on twitter even when you are taking a day off by presetting tweets and scheduling them to go out at specific times.
10. Stay true to your twitter followers and add only people who truly add interest, remember when followers look at your page, they see the tweets of those you are following.
11. Check out: http://www.repeets.com/ -- interesting if you want to know the hottest topics and most common repeated tweets.
12. Also, if you really want to push twitter - post your twitter account everywhere - electronic signatures, website link, business cards, etc...
13. There are also some cool pre-built free tools like http://www.addthis.com/ to add to your blog/website.
14. The hash mark (#) before a word in a post allows you to tag that post for that word. However, in order to get tracked via a hash tag, you need to opt-in and follow http://twitter.com/hashtags. Once you’re following Hashtags, every time you make a post in Twitter and tag it with a hash mark like so: #iPhone, it will then show up as a real-time post on http://www.Hashtags.org.
15. Here is yet another site that you can use that makes use of hash marks. This site allows you to see who has been using the hash mark you enter within their posts and how many times they’ve done so. Note that when you visit this site you don’t have to enter the hash symbol (#) in the search box. http://www.hashtweeps.com/ Use this to track your progress, it’s important to get people to retweet what you tweet.
16. Hashmarks can also allow your tweets to automatically post to a particular group or a community website, be used to enter you into contests and serve other related functions.
Use a hashmark related to a public event that you attend (#eventname). Posting the name of the event with the preceding hashmark publishes your tweet to a related community website, So, they definitely serve a wide array of purposes.
17. Sometimes there will be a seminar that many people are attending and they’ll have a hash mark code that they use to identify that seminar. Sometimes people will have a tweetup locally where people on Twitter who live in the same location will get together. Then they’ll use something like #dmtweetup to identify that group.
18. If you’re interested you can also visit http://search.twitter.com/ and enter in a hashtag such as #protection and see all posts that have been made with that hashtag. Not just the ones from people you’re following.
19. Livestream launches Twitcam.com
Twitcam (http://www.twitcam.com) – powered by Livestream.
Twitters users need only to log in to twitcam.com using an existing Twitter user name and password and press the ‘go live’ button. Twitcam automatically detects the camera, creates a page and live video player for the broadcast, and posts the link in the user’s Twitter feed so followers can join in live.
Twitter-centric services for sharing photos and videos have been exploding and are in high demand by twitter users. Twitcam fills the application void for those wanting to stream live and chat with their followers with a single click.
The service is also interactive as it enables viewers to chat over twitter while watching the live feed. Twitcam is free and available today at http://www.twitcam.com.
Twitcam, which went from concept to launch in less than one week, was developed using the soon to be launched Livestream API (application programming interface).
The Livestream API handles live streaming scalability, server-based recording and player development. This frees developers to focus on the user experience and marketing their newly created service. With the Livestream API, other developers will be able to launch their own live streaming services in days.
Check it out ! http://www.twitcam.com
20. Have fun, be creative, act like a real person but also provide useful information


This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:
© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2009, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/33960
Blog: www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.com
Or on its unique radio channel at:
www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com
Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.
Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to small business.
Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

Monday Morning Marketeer, Landing Pages, Ten Ways to Keep Your Visitors from Jumping

The audio version of this broadcast was perfomed on 4-20-09 and is archived at:
http://http://talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/33960

Has anyone ever told you that your list can make you king of the mountain or bottom of the pit! So how are you getting those names for your list, especially your e-mail list? Most experts will tell you that a landing page specifically designed to capture information is key to getting and maintaining that list.

10 Tips on Landing Pages: Keep Your Visitors from Jumping!

1.Follow the layout that works
My mother always used to say, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. So in other words, if you find something that works, be careful what you mess with. If it doesn’t call for fancy, don’t get fancy. Find a template that works for your industry, and duplicate it.

2. Research
Who are the people in your industry, sevice or profession? Google search to find landing page sites on their web sites. You can use Alexa to check out the pages ranking, someone once said anything under a million is good, closer to the thousands is biblical. The combination of this will allow you to see what works for your industry content wise. My friend Becky from Up a Notch Marketing, calls it "swipe and deploy." By all means do not plagerize, however you can certainly take the idea and make it your own. Keep the profile of your visitor in mind, when adding content, and target that specifically. Also remember to add keyword rich content.

3. Create a Great Offer

Everyone likes to get something for free. When you are giving something away to inspire prospects to opt in to your e-mail list, it disarms them to the fact that you are also trying to get their money by converting them from suspects to genuine prospects. But make sure it is something good. A great free report not only will get them to opt in but it may get passed around and get others to find you or opt in.

4. Don’t add what isn’t needed

Remember, the purpose of the landing page is to do one thing – and that is get the email address and name of the visitor so that you can build a relationship with them. Distractions can destroy your conversions. Don’t add any other links, and give them a clear message as to what you are offering, and why they should subscribe. That is your only purpose. The only way out, should be to leave, or subscribe.

5 Make sure they know you are a real person!

Don’t know about you but I really like to know what the person looks like that I am doing business with. I love it when you have to copy numbers and letters and the line above it says, "Just want to make sure you are a human." So by all means ad your picture, if it’s a kid-friendly business, add a family photo, so that prospects know that you know about kids. If you are a mechanic, a good picture is one of you working on a car. If you are selling speaker training that add a picture of your speaking. If you sell clothes, by all means add a great fashion picture.

6. Solve a Problem or Add the Benefits

A great way to get good conversion is to give useful information. Don’t always think of selling, think of what problem you can solve and give that information away. What problems can you solve? What amazing benefits can you provide? Why is this a can’t live without it offer? You want people to have an iron clad reason to opt in. You want people to love your solution so much that they want to know what else you know.

7. Visual Strategy•

What images make your add good visual excitement to your text?
• What is the focus of the page? (i.e. Where is the eye drawn to on the page?) That’s where you want your opt-in button!
• Is the focus on the correct section or item? If not, how can you change the focus? (e.g. change the colour of a call-to-action button to stand out from the page)
• Where is the eyeline on the page? (the eyeline is the line of site that the eye follows on the page when scanning it quickly – e.g. top left to bottom right, right to top left then down the sidebar, etc.)
• What do other MAJOR websites in your industry look like? Once again, look at the most successful websites and “swipe and deploy.” In many industries there are generally accepted designs for particular website types, like journals, newspaper sites, encyclopedias, forums, etc, and if you are designing one of these sites then you MUST take into account what is perceived in the industry to be a credible website.
• You want propects's eye, to go to the Opt-In
• . In addition, you want all critical information to be above the screen line or virtual fold (the bottom of the screen before scrolling).
• This is not the place for ads, sidebars, navigation bars or much of anything, except getting to the point.

8. No Spam Assurance

You want visitors to know you will not spam them or sell their information.
Make sure you make them immediately aware that you will not use their list for any other purpose than what they are opting in for. You won’t rent, sell, or do anything that would compromise your relationship with the person who now gave you their trust.

9. Opt-in K.I.S.S.

This as an acronym for Keep it Simple Silly! Remember to keep the opt in process simple. Make it painless for prospects to opt in. If you are using autoresponders as your campaign to keep in touch, just get email and first name. If you have a high-end product that may require some personal communication, then also ask for a phone number. But in general, less is more.

10. Time is Running Out!

You want the visitor to sense urgency, and pay attention to your offer, then they are missing out on some very important information. You must make the need for them to opt-in time sensistive and get them to feel if they don’t do it now, it’s going to go away. Limited time offer. Ten only or Free to First 100. Also, add additional opt-in bonus for a particular group. First 25 will receive exclusive report on…………… Not only will this increase your conversion rate, but remember everyone likes to get something for free.
Remember your list is king and a great, cohesive, urgency creating landing page can seriously increase your domain.



This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:
© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2009, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/33960
Blog: http://marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.com
Or on its unique radio channel at:
http://positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com
Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.
Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to small business.
Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

Merchandise Only or Store Credit for Returns, the Folly

For those of you would prefer to listen rather than read, this show was originally broadcast on June 8, 2009 and you can listen to archived version at:

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/33960

MERCHANDISE ONLY OR STORE CREDIT FOR RETURNS, THE FOLLY!

Let’s talkfirstabout the difference between advertising, promotion, publicity, public relations and marketing.

There is a famous saying that illustrates these differences:
If the circus comes to town and you paint a sign that says- “Circus Coming to Fairground Saturday,” that’s advertising.
If you put a sign on the back of an elephant and walk him into town, that’s promotion.
If the elephant walks through the majors flowerbed, that’s publicity.
If you can get the major to laugh about it, that’s public relations.
And if you planned the elephants walk, that’s marketing.”
If the town’s citizens go to the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain how much fun they’ll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions and ultimately, they spend a lot of money at the circus. THAT’S SALES!!!!!



I was inspired to do this particular show and interrupt my series on twitter because of an incident in a local store that happened to me this past week. Two weeks ago while walking in the Southside of Pittsburgh after dinner I found a delightful little store and was intrigued by the name. My female business associate and I decided to go in and check it out. On first glance it was a delightful store but for small women, actually perky teens and the adorable young women who stroll the club scenes at night in the Southside. Nothing in the store would fit us, but the costume jewelry was quirky, inexpensive and delightful. The shoes were a bit too high of a heel for us but the accessories were conversation pieces. The sales clerks were probably wondering what two senior citizens of such size and stature (to coin a phrase) were doing in their store.

I happen to love big, gaudy, unique, conversation starting jewelry and I have four nieces of the size that this store offers to buy for. So despite not fitting the profile for their perfect customer, I would have been a great one, but not now. Why you are asking if the store was so delightful?

Well let’s talk about the famous quote that I started out with, that’s advertising. The only advertisement that I have seen for this store is its unique name which caused us to go into the store in the first place, it’s location, which is simply real estate on the Main St of Southside, and its delightful contents once you get in the door. It’s great prices and unique contents contribute I am sure to word of mouth advertising. Remember, word of mouth advertising is great as long as it’s good. One satisfied customer will tell one, possibly two people but a dissatisfied customer will tell ten or more, statistical studies have proved this time and again.

Did I mention that I brought a delightfully gaudy pair of huge sunglasses that not only keep the sun out of my eyes but are great attention grabbers? I probably did not and perhaps will not because of my bad experience from the second purchase that I made that day. I found a wonderfully designed bracelet that I thought would be great for my son’s girlfriend’s birthday. It was a unique, eye catching piece of jewelry and I was delighted with my firnds. Sunglasses for me and a birthday gift for son’s gal. I was definitely coming back as these two delightful finds cost me less than $20.00. I am sure the owner was happy also because I paid in CASH. Now if the story had ended here that would be a great example of PROMOTION.

However, the story does not end here. I wore the sunglasse and everyone thought they were delightful but I only wore them once so far because they are hot pink and I don’t wear hot pink every day besides I have a great collection of sunglasses. But the bracelet did not suit my son’s girl because it was too large and it fell off her arm. So I tried it on, it fell off mine. Then we thought it might be an upper arm bracelet and had several people try it on, to no avail. This gorgeously designed bracelet had a design flaw.

So I took the bracelet, with the wonderful little jewelry tag on fine white string still attached and the receipt to the store and the bracelet was in the original bag. I had in mind to buy a great pair of bright yellow and rhinestone earrings that reminded me of the fifties, retro jewelry and I am sure I would have found several other gaudy pieces of “must have” jewelery. I was not prepared for the “PUBLIC RELATIONS ” fiasco that ensued. The beautiful young, size two sales clerk told me she would be glad to exchange the bracelet for store merchandise or store credit but that I could not get my money back. Now mind you, when I went into the store I did not ask for my money back, but she pointed to a sign 5 by 8 in a picture frame beside where she was standing on the counter and obscured by the same kind of delightfully gaudy flowers reminiscent of the delightfully gaudy jewelry, in good taste, considering the contents of the store. But nevertheless the sign was very small and not in plain view.

When the clerk told me this I became a little less of my normally diplomatic self as she was telling me that she had tried the bracelet on with the same challenge but unfortunately the store policy was, Merchandise Ony or Store Credi for Returns and it was prominently printed on the sales receipt. Excuse me, correct me if I am wrong but doesn’t the customer get the sales receipt after the shop owner has already received your hard earned money? Some really bad PUBLICITY now began.

I asked the young size two sales clerk to call the owner, told her I was unhappy and that I had a several radio shows and that I would love to talk about what a wonderful store this was. She called the owner the first time in front of me and neglected to say anything about the radio show. Mind you the store had several customers now because it was a peak time of day. So I had a “spritied” second discussion with the size two sales clerk and asked her to call the owner again. This time she went to the back room to avoid the eyes and ears of the customers in the store. I am sure she left out the part about the radio shows and told the owner this “fat woman” who would probably never buy again in the store was causing a scene in this quaint, small little shop.

She came back with the great news that the owner said that the store policy stands and another admonition that she would be glad to exchange the defective bracelet for something else or store credit. Well by now I was definitely tired of being pushed around by this young lady who was only do ing her job and left the store with the knowledge that this was some pretty bad “MARKETING” on the part of the stores owner.

Now mind you, how many people would come into the store at all if there were a prominent sign on the wall that said Merchanside Only or Store Credit for Returns?
Not too many, but how many more people would be turned on by 100% Satisfaction Guarnteed or Your Money Back.

Now I do understand the reasoning behind this policy because of the area and its demographics of young, hip chics with champagne tastes and beer pocket books, however, there are also people like me who would spend and some 250,000.00 condo owners who would spend also.

This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:
© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2009, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/33960
Blog: http://www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.com
Or on its unique radio channel at:
http:www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com
Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.
Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to small business.
Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

MondayMorningMarketeer, Using Twitter for Local Marketing

Using Twitter for Local Marketing

For those of you who prefer to listen rather than read, this show was recorded on 5-11-09 and archived version is available at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/33960

The Twitter social networking and micro-blogging service launched only two years ago, has rocketed in usage numbers quickly, and recently turned red hot. There are four million connections between twitter users. It seems that a vast number of people are trying twitter but not many really know how to use it, as a matter of fact, yours truly is just beginning to learn herself.
However we should know what celebrities like Ellen De Generes, Ashton Kutcher know. There are articles and websites abounding on Twitter celebrites and twitter businesses. Other celebrities using Twitter like Britney Spears and MC Hammer- Ms. Spears has embraced Social Media with the release of her latest album with the launch of a Twitter account. - Musician, pastor, rising Internet celeb - it seems MC Hammer twitters pop up everywhere.

Twitter is going the way of Face Book and LinkedIn, from a casual optin espoused by the younger generation, it has become a “must do” for business owners. For the newbies out there here’s a quote from the blotg 10,000 words which is all about journalism:
"Twitter is transforming from gimmicky messaging tool to marketing powerhouse." — Caroline McCarthy, WebWare

Ever since Barak Obama used Twitter so successfully to update his in person appearances and other info, Twitter has taken off. You might say Twittr is the the social media this president didn’t invent but at least popularized. Someone has actually called twitter the telegraph system of Web 2.)
Many companies are rapidly cluing into the promotional value, but smaller businesses appear slow to hop on the bandwagon. Here are a few tips on leveraging

Twitter to help your locally-oriented business.
Follow me at: https://Twitter.com/monmornmarketer
Not completing a bio

The cardinal sin of most new Twitter users is not filling out the small but important section that says a bit about who they are. It could be a simple as a name (or a clever alias for the secret agents or painfully shy) or even just a sentence or two. If your goal is to get the conversation going — which is the point of Twitter after all — a bio can be the icebreaker.
You can also create a catchy, creative one line bio about yourself, please do! Remember twitter is social networking in miniature.


Protecting updates, but complaining about no followers

There are a few reasons to keep your updates private: not wanting to share your personal business with the world, thwarting spammers, etc. But many twitterers forget that by blocking updates from public view, they are also blocking potential followers. It's a give and take situation, so you gotta give a little to get something back.
Learning to use twitter effectively can definitely help you keep in touch with clients, prospects, suspects and others who can definitely grow your business.
Here’s the sort of thing you’d love to see: a customer happens by your store and is fascinated with something there, and “tweets” a pic of it out to all his Twitter followers:
Even better, if they endorse the business to their followers, this becomes an online species of word-of-mouth-marketing. So, how do you encourage this to happen?
Believe it or not, many internet savvy folks use twitter like they use the yellow pages. They may tweet about looking for Pittsburgh restaurant that has Middle Eastern Food or great fried chicken. How do you find these people and answer them, check out Twitter Search. http://search.twitter.com/ This morning I checked in on Pittsburgh Marketing and found 15 posts, I did not find anyone looking for a marketing company but I was able to find 15 posts and monitor what some of my competitors are doing.
Be careful of spamming, it’s a challenge with e-mail and twitter might catch you also. You don’t want to lose your account because you answered a specific question by spamming with information about your business that simply was not applicable.
Here are some tips to using Twitter for Local Marketing
• I list my on line radio show topics each week with a link of course, if you are an entertainment venue or non-profit, you can list that weeks events, meetings, free webinars, be creative
• The benefits of following others and having them follow you is cross marketing, your tweets appear on their page and theirs on yours, So collaborate with some non-competitive businesses on your tweeting.
• If you have a local blog, tweet each time you post to promote your blog. Be sure to use a shortened URL in the tweet! You can find these at: Tiny URL
• Tweet out pics of special stuff going on with your store— things like new product teasers, celebs who visit your store, other interesting aspects of stuff your company does like charitable fundraisers.
• If business is slow that day, how about tweeting out an instant coupon with an eight hour deadline or today only!
• How about Tweet coupons that encourage tweet users to retweet your coupons or information.
• Once you’ve built up sufficient numbers of followers, use Twitter to perform quick polls about what products, features, services your customers would prefer. Cheap, fast input from your client base!
• Don’t just follow these tips, check out the tweeters that have thousands of followers and swipe and deploy what they are using, once an idea is out there unless it is copyrighted or trademarked it’s pretty much public domain, just please do not plagiarize, use the idea and make it your own.
•

Please do use the Twitter Directory. These are the things you can find there:
• Tweeter Directory
• Twitter Tools
• Twitter Mobile
• Wikis & Blogs
• Cool Stuff
• Twitter Bots
• Search Twitter
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This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:
© Joanne Quinn-Smith 2009, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/33960
Blog: http://www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.com
Or on its unique radio channel at:
http://www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com
Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.
Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to small business.
Follow at: https://twitter.com/monmornmarketer

MondayMorningMarketeer, Using Twitter to Market Your Business

This show was originally taped on Monday Morning Marketeer on December 29, 2008 and archived at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/33960
This was the last show in a series on Web 2.0 and Social Media.


What’s the Twitter about Twitter and what is it? It’s a social media tool which enables people to post via instant message. Originally designed to help people stay connected it’s quickly becoming a tool used by businesses around the world. So how do you make twitter interesting and something to get your target audience to respond.

Some ideas to Tweak Your Twitter and get more tweets:

1. Drive traffic to your blog. Post a question on Twitter and include a link to your blog. For example. I would love to find out what marketing ideas people would like me to talk about on this show, so I am posting those questions on twitter and linking it to a blog post where respondees can post comments.
2. I always save my Pentecostal Moment answers that I put on blogs, they may eventually become a blog of my own. Going a bit further, how about driving traffic to your blog or webinar or talkcast or with a twitter post using some of the more interesting or unique comments to blog posts you’ve written or testimonials. These can start very interesting conversations and drive traffic to your blog and company website.
3. Announce contests – with a link to your website where the contest details are offered OR post a question and challenge someone to be the first responsd, give a prize for the first and the tenth respondee just like the radio stations or better yet direct them to a landing page with a free gift. Give them something related to your business for answering the question correctly first. If you own a restaurant you could give a gift certificate to the first person who answers the question correctly.
4. Share personal adventures which relate to your business. If You have a contest, event or promotion, post a funny picture of that event, this is a great branding tool and if it’s funny enough it can go viral.
5. Post interesting or thought provoking statistics, quotes, review of a book you have read or headlines and start a conversation. Remember no hard sell but during the conversation, you may find an in to link to your company website.
6. Make an announcement. Have a new wonderful product or service to share with the world? Use twitter to make an announcement – amplify the power of the announcement and post a code to give the first 5,10, or 50 customers a gift. Make it an event.
N.B. Remember to be subtle, don’t use overkill, make it interesting, no one likes to be blogged to, podcasted to or twittered to with nothing but advertisements about your business. Like any social marketing tool the key is to market subtly. No one wants to read an advertisement for your business – however it can still be a valuable marketing tool. Be creative, think outside the box. There are a wide variety of ways to make Twitter more than just a fun social tool, use it to build your business.
Now that I have got your interest how do you get started?
1. Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)
2. Add a picture. People want to see you.
3. People love to talk about themselves so don’t forget to talk to people about their interests.
4. Share links about other things besides yourself, interesting things in your community, books to read, blogs to check out, favorite web sites, tools people can use.
5. Chris Brogan Community and Social Media says, Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”
6. Announce New Products Twitter is an excellent tool for letting hundreds (or even thousands) of people know about new products you've made available for sale. Depending on the people who are following you, an unlimited number of consumers will instantly have access not only to a brief product description, but also to a link that takes them directly to the product page on your web site. Direct marketing is one of the best ways you can use Twitter to market your business. But you do need to build your list of followers, make friends, follow them and ask them to follow you on Twitter.
7. Advertise Discounts Microblogging doesn't make advertising discounts much easier except that Twitter offers the ability to include a link with every post. If you've decided to offer a discount on the products or services of your business, make a quick announcement via Twitter and watch the hits roll in. This means you never have to waste another opportunity to gain new clients.
8. Spread Ideas One of the easiest ways to use Twitter to market your business is to plan new seeds in the minds of your readers. Mentioning a simple quote or statement of fact can have a larger impact than a full article on your regular blog. For example, if you Have a dry cleaning business you may want to put out a quick tip to make the dry cleaning process easier. Then add a link to your dry cleaning business.


This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:
© Joanne Quinn-Smith, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/33960
Blog: www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.com
Or on its unique radio channel at:
www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com
Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.
Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to small business.
Follow at: Twitter.com/monmornmarketer

Monday Morning Marketeer, Marketing Cures When the Economy Has a Virus

This show was originally taped on www.talkshoe.com on 5-4-09 and archived version can be heard at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/33960 and also on PositivelyPittsburghLive's unique radio channel at http://www.positivelypittsburghlivemagazine.com


Marketing Cures for an Economy that Has a Virus ™


One good idea can cure or save a business when the Economy has a virus! Dan Kennedy, famed Direct Response Marketing says that one of the biggest mistakes you can make is not thinking of your business differently especially in a down economy. I invite you to use the grocery sale mentality, when there is a sale stock up!

Many of the recession-proof strategies financial advisors are preaching can and should be applied to your marketing efforts.Marketing in a down economy is more sense than dollars, pardon the play on words. Here are ten tips that can help heal your business in a economy filled with uncertainty. The certainty in your business should be that you are going to stay in it by continuing your marketing efforts.

Tip No. 1: Think About Your Long Term Goals

Someone once said, most people overestimate what they can do in six months and underestimate what they can do in two years. Most recessions usually last 18 months and you can survive those 18 months if your focus on your long term gains. As a Christian I am fond of praying, “Dear Lord, I am going to let you take care of provision while I work on prosperity.” Experts will tell you that those who cut their advertising budgets in a recession will hardly increase their sales by 50% in two years, while companies who continued to use advertising budgets have increased their sales by 200%. Don’t trust me, check out “How Advertsiting in Recession Periods Affects Sales, by the American Business Press. The best advice given is to continue to set goals and work continually toward them and each decision must carry with it the question, “How will this affect my business in two years or five?”


Tip No. 2: Don’t Overestimate and Underachieve

Most people overestimate what they can do in six months and understimate what they can do in two years. Instead, maintain a consistent and disciplined approach that always maps back to your long-term strategic goals. More than ever, right now you need to maintain a is laser focused on moving your target audience to action whether it is just getting additional info to store for future purchasers or just jumping in and becoming a customer. It is true that it is taking buyers longer to make purchases and they are more carefully considering them, so you be the one who gives them the information they need and want. Winners love a recesion because it helps them to fine tune and hone their skills. Jumping in and out of your marketing plan will only cause confusion to your audience and hurt your brand in the long run. Your goal should be to keep the clients you have and search out new ones.

Tip No. 3: Avoid panic, no room for primitive emotion here.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt at another crisis moment in history said. “All we have to fear is fear itself.” . Rather than making decisions based on panic, fear and the primitive fight or flight syndrome– which only clouds good judgment – focus on fundamentals of good business practice in promoting your product or idea. Don't pull the plug on your marketing, just fine tune and hone it so that you know that you are getting dollar for dollar back. Two cost effective ways to market in a down economy, the internet and direct response marketing.

Tip No. 4, Think About Your Business in Different Ways

Check out what non competitive businesses are doing, even consider forming a once a month master mind group with them. Are there things in their business that you can tweak to use in yours and vice versa? How can you help each other? How can you get fresh ideas without paying for them? How can you cross market with synergistic non-competitive businesses. For instance in marketing, I can cross promote with web designers, graphic designers, print companies, even some marketing companies who have different nicehs than me.

Tip No. 5: Diversify Your Marketing Efforts

Please do not put all of your marketing time or dollars into one basket. It’s the same as a woman dressing for a man who likes peasant dresses or jeans, she is turning off the guy who likes business suits or tailored pants. In the marketing world, you need an integration of several mixes. You may be able to substitute the large ad in the yellow pages or local paper for a smaller ad and the use of social networking sites for better results and a broader scope. A diversified marketing campaign built from a foundational strategy and supported by PR, online social networking, traditional advertising, and direct response marketing for example, is a safer bet and will deliver more bang for your marketing buck.

Tip No. 6: Winners Rush In Where Losers Fear to Tread

A recession is the ideal time to get the jump on your catatonic, penny pinching, time crunching competitors. Have you never heard the expression, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” That’s what winners do, they win. When the economy picks up again will you be ready, if have you continued your marketing even in tough times. Then you will leave your competition in the dust. When your competitiors cut their markeing efforts and you maintain yours, who do you think will be the long term leader?
With less clutter to compete with, you can and will gain market share, negotiate lower rates for your ad spends or secure added value from your vendors who value your business.

Tip No. 7: Don’t Fall into the Lower Price Trap

Think about why your customers buy from you:
Quality, reliability, trust, service? These are things you should upgrade, continue and sell because if you get scared and lower your prices there is always someone out there who will be in a bigger hurry to go broke than you and you will both lose. Figure out why your clients spend their money with you and why new ones will likely spend it too and then sell these points to keep in touch with reliable clients who will eventually come back and also to go out and get new ones. Judging from the ads on TV and on the internet and radio, there are people out there spending money, it’s your job to find them.

Tip No. 8 Don’t Wait for the Customers to Come to You

I heard a speech once where the multi level presenter was talking about contacts. He said you don’t make them in your living room in front of your TV. Right now many people are doing low cost or even free seminars with networking at the front and back end to lure attendees. Do attend and do build relationships. Relationships are what business is made of.

Tip No. 9 Keep in Touch With Clients and Prospects

It’s still about the numbers. You may have to make more calls to get less sales but perhaps right now it’s not about the sale, it’s about giving out good information and creating relationships. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care, just a brief call sometimes to ask another business, how’s business is and then listening may be the thing that gets that person to think about you when their budget loosens up. Stay in front of your clients with e-zines, newsletters, customer appreciation evetns, yes even when they are not spending money and this is the segway:


Tip No 10 Most recessions are inevitable because the cycle of things is that often a recession follows a boom, it’s that economic gravitational pull.

While recessions are an inevitable part of the business cycle, so are recoveries.Keep up your marketing efforts and when others finally emerge from the marketing sidelines they will find your company gobbled up market share, you'll be glad you listened to those who said don’t dump on your marketing efforts because the world has dumped on the economy.


This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:
© Joanne Quinn-Smith, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/33960
Blog: www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.com
Or on its unique radio channel at:
www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com
Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.
Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to small business.

MondayMorningMarketeer; Landing Pages, Getting Your Visitors to Opt In

MMM 4-20-09 Landing Pages, Ten Ways to Keep Your Visitors from Jumping


Has anyone ever told you that your list can make you king of the mountain or bottom of the pit! So how are you getting those names for your list, especially our e-mail list. Most experts will tell you that a landing page specifically designed to capture information is key.

10 Tips on Landing Pages: Keep Your Visitors from Jumping!
1. Follow the layout that works
My mother always used to say, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. So in other words, if you find something that works, be careful what you mess with. If it doesn’t call for fancy, don’t get fancy. Find a template that works for your industry, and duplicate it.
2. Research

Who are the people in your industry, sevice or profession. Google search to find landing page sites on their web sites. You can use Alexa to check out the pages ranking, someone once said anything under a million is good, closer to the thousands is biblical. The combination of this will allow you to see what works for your industry content wise. My friend Becky from Up a Notch Marketing, calls it swipe and deploy. By all means do not plagerize, however you can certainly take the idea and make it your own. Keep the profile of your visitor in mind, when adding content, and target that specifically. Also remember to add keyword rich content.
3. Create a Great Offer
Everyone likes to get something for free. When you are giving something away to inspire prospects to opt in to your e-mail list, it disarms them to the fact that you are also trying to get their money by converting them from suspects to genuine prospects. But make sure it is something good. A great free report not only will get them to opt in but it may get passed around and get others to find you or opt in.

4. Don’t add what isn’t needed

Remember, the purpose of the landing page is to do one thing – and that is get the email address and name of the visitor so that you can build a relationship with them. Distractions can destroy your conversions. Don’t add any other links, and give them a clear message as to what you are offering, and why they should subscribe. That is your only purpose. The only way out, should be to leave, or subscribe.
5 Make sure they know you are a real person!
Don’t know about you but I really like to know what the person looks like that I am doing business with. So by all means ad your picture, if it’s a kid-friendly business, add a family photo, so that prospects know that you know about kids. If you are selling speaker training that add a picture of your speaking.
6. Solve a Problem or Add the Benefits
A great way to get good conversion is to use your text wisely. What problems can you solve? What amazing benefits can you provide? Why is this a can’t live without it offer? You want people to have an iron clad reason to opt in.
7. Eye-line strategy
• What images make your content Pop?
• What is the focus of the page? (i.e. Where is the eye drawn to on the page?) That’s where you want your opt-in button!
• Is the focus on the correct section or item? If not, how can you change the focus? (e.g. change the colour of a call-to-action button to stand out from the page)
• Where is the eyeline on the page? (the eyeline is the line of site that the eye follows on the page when scanning it quickly – e.g. top left to bottom right, right to top left then down the sidebar, etc.)
• What do other MAJOR websites in your industry look like? Once again, look at the most successful websites and “swipe and deploy.” In many industries there are generally accepted designs for particular website types, like journals, newspaper sites, encyclopedias, forums, etc, and if you are designing one of these sites then you MUST take into account what is perceived in the industry to be a credible website.
• You want their eye, to go to the Opt-In
• . In addition, you want all critical information to be above the screen line or virtual fold (the bottom of the screen before scrolling).
• This is not the place for ads, sidebars, navigation bars or much of anything, except getting to the point.
8. You want visitors to know you will not spam them or sell their information.
Make sure you make them immediately aware that you will not use their list for any other purpose than what they are opting in for. You won’t rent, sell, or do anything that would compromise your relationship with the person who now gave you their trust.
9. Opt-in Basics
Optimize your opt-in by making sure you don’t ask for too much. If you are using autoresponders as your campaign to keep in touch, just get email and first name. If you have a high-end product that may require some personal communication, then also ask for a phone number. But in general, less is more.
10. Make it urgent

You want the visitor to think if they don’t opt-in, and pay attention to your offer, then they are missing out on some very important information. You must make the need for them to opt-in time sensistive and get them to feel if they don’t do it now, it’s going to go away. Limited time offer. Ten only or Free to First 100. Also, add additional opt-in bonus for a particular group. First 25 will receive exclusive report on…………… Not only will this increase your conversion rate, but remember everyone likes to get something for free.

Pop Quiz: Market Test and Revise
Make sure that you have a statistics catcher on your landing page with respect to the number of visitors, and the number that opted-in. Pay attention to this and redo and Your landing page should be a work in progress until it works. You should continue reworking your landing page until you get an opt in rate that is helping your business to grow?

These are some questions you can ask yourself about your landing page!
• Have you kept a singular focus so that your reader will not be distracted?
• Have you created a “can’t live without it” offer or reason for guests to opt in?
• Do you have all of the critical elements?
• Have you made sure that your visitors don’t have to scroll beyond the fold?
• Is there any information that you don’t need and is distracting?
• Is this page consistent with your brand?
• Does the whole page make sense and form a thought pattern that works?

Remember your list is king and a great, cohesive, urgency creating landing page can seriously increase your domain.


This blog post can be reproduced in its entirety with the following information:
©, 2009 Joanne Quinn-Smith, Monday Morning Marketeer™ 412-628-5048
Listen at: http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/33960
Blog: www.marketingmondaymorning.blogspot.com
Or on its unique radio channel at:
www.positivelypittsburghlivemgazine.com
Joanne Quinn-Smith is the Creative Energy Officer of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and an expert on Web 2.0 Branding.
Joanne has also been designated by the 2009 U.S. Small Business Administration as the Small Business Journalist of the Year for her work with information relevant to small business.