THINKing

Do These 10 Things Today

Are you looking for ways to build your business? Sometimes we become paralyzed because there seems to be so many things we could and should be doing to market our companies. Longtime readers know I’m typically a strategy first guy, but sometimes you just need to do something to get  things rolling. So, here are 10 easy marketing ideas you can start on today:

1. Plan a speech

2. Start a marketing calendar, listing all of your scheduled events in categories like advertising, direct mail, networking

3. Write five thank you notes and send them to your best customers. Repeat tomorrow.

4. Review your LinkedIn profile (you do have one, right?) to make sure it is complete.

5. Connect with me on LinkedIn

6.  Sponsor a charity event

7.  Write a press release. See my article: 33 Reasons To Do A News Release

8. Sign up for my enewsletter on marketing

9.  Line up a college intern to help you with your marketing this summer. As a UNC-Chapel Hill grad, I suggest UNC’s intern program

10. Read my series on New Business

Got any more ideas? Comment, please.

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Time To Plan

There’s usually some downtime at work around the holidays. What are you doing with your break? I’m using mine to meet with clients and prospects and to complete my planning for 2010. Do you have a marketing plan for the year? What new items are you incorporating into your plan?

Here are a few things I’m thinking about for 2010.

How much should I budget – both in terms of my time and money – toward marketing and PR? Does it make sense to spend it in traditional marketing, in PR, in direct marketing, in social media or in some combination?

Have the media habits of my clients and prospects – marketers and HR executives in Fortune 1000 companies – changed? With which media are they spending more time and which ones have they abandoned? Where is their pain in 2010? Are they still short-staffed and looking for outside resources to round out their teams?

Based on some of the research I’m seeing, it looks like marketing budgets will be up a bit this year.  According to eMarketer,

Next year, while broadcast television, radio, newspaper and magazine spending continue to downsize, though more slowly than in 2009, online ad spending will enjoy a nice bump-up: eMarketer currently forecasts 5.5% growth. And the increase won’t all come from search—banner ads will grow 3.3%, and online video will jump by 40%.

This is shaping up perfectly for My Creative Team, since we have a great deal of expertise in the online environment and in developing flash animation and corporate video for online use.

LinkedIn now connects me to 52 million professionals. Is there a better way to utilize my nearly 600 connections on this social platform? How can I use LinkedIn’s advertising capabilities to reach my target audience, specifically the HR audience? We develop a great deal of employee communication and training materials for Nucor, and would like to expand into HR with other Fortune 1000 firms.

Does a My Creative Team presence on Facebook still make sense since we are focused on Fortune 1000 contacts?

Tell us what you are thinking about. We’d love to hear your thoughts on how you plan to market in 2010.

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Monologue Marketing

Monologue marketers – thankfully – are dying off, but there still are too many. What’s a monologue marketer? Here’s an analogy:

Someone comes up to you at a business event and says, “Hi, I’m Bob.”

You say, “Hi, Bob. I’m Harry. I’m 57 years old, married – have been for 28 years. I have two children, three grandsons, love hiking, canoeing, fishing, anything outdoors, really. I love music. I am a huge blues fans – Johnny Winter, Buddy Guy, Tommy Castro, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, BB Chun King and the Buddaheads.   I’m into wine. Reds are my favorites…Bob, where are you going?”

Do you get the picture? This is the  way too many organizations approach their marketing. Actually, this is a sales mentality, not a marketing mentality. This approach – dear friend – is not conducive to marketing or to sales.

Let me use an example of one of my clients to show how it should be done.

“Hi, I’m Bob. ”

“Hi, Bob. I’m Camstar. Are you in manufacturing, too?”

“Yes, I am. I work for a large manufacturer in North Carolina.”

“Really? We’re headquartered in North Carolina, too.  Does your organization use a manufacturing execution system?”

“Not right now. But we have been looking into manufacturing software.”

“Well, that is what we do. We have an enterprise platform that includes modules for manufacturing, quality, intelligence and interoperabilty. Are you involved in any of those areas, Bob?”

“No. I’m actually in sales.”

“Well, Bob it was nice talking with you. Let me know if there is anything I can help you with. Here’s our card if someone from your IT department would like white papers on the manufacturing software.”

Friendly, professional dialogue and no selling. Camstar got out of the conversation when it was clear that Bob wasn’t in the target audience. Are you a monologue or a dialogue marketer? Have anecdotes about either? Comments are welcomed.

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D.A.N.C.E. With Me

Recently, a client asked what he could do to help my business, but I wasn’t ready with the answer. A lot of us probably miss these opportunities because we don’t think through what we need and how to respond when someone offers to help promote us.

Let’s take a look at the D.A.N.C.E., a few simple ways you can enlist your network to help promote your organization.

Distribute and Display. Do you have literature or product samples that you can ask someone in your network to distribute for you? Perhaps you could ask them to place your information in their next client mailing, or hand out your brochures or samples at an upcoming meeting they are attending. If they have a high traffic office, ask them to display your products or material.

Arrange. Your contact knows a lot of people that you also should know. So, get her to arrange a meeting for you. It’s best if you can get your friend to accompany you to the meeting. This helps place everyone more at ease.

Nominate. There are all sorts of awards and recognition programs. Ask someone to nominate you for appropriate business and community service awards. Your local Business Journal has a number of awards ranging from Women in Business and 40 Under 40 to Diversity awards.

Don’t forget the community service related awards, too. For instance, our local radio station, WBT has a hometown hero award. Client Bank of Commerce is the sponsor of this award.

Contact. Your network also can provide you with leads and referrals. Maybe he heard about plans one of his clients has for expansion. He could pass this lead along to you and direct you to the appropriate contact. Someone in your network could give you the names and addresses of people they think would be good prospects. Better still, they could make the first contact with the prospects and then provide you their information so you can follow up.

Endorse. Testimonials are a time honored method of getting others to promote your business. Ask your client if he would provide you with a quote on what he gained from your products or services. This endorsement can then be used in a multitude of ways from your website to direct marketing.

A good way to get others to D.A.N.C.E. with you is to do the same for them first. So, make a list of those who could help your business and then offer to help them first.

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Links – 4/9/2009

Today’s post is for sharing a few things I’ve come across in the past couple of days, and to resurrect a post or two from our dusty archives that speak to job-hunting. Let’s get going:

Even In Recession, There Are Jobs In Media

How Not To Get A Job With Social Networking

How Not To Get A Job

Remember, You Are Naked Online

Out Of Work? Don’t Be That Guy

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New Business 2009

Are you out looking for new business? Who isn’t? I wrote a series on the topic some time back. You may want to check it out if you missed it the first time around.

New Business Primer – Part 1 – Introduction to the new business primer.

New Business Primer – Part 2 – An organization’s brand identity must be a reflection of three things: market perceptions, the organization’s acumen, as well as its aspirations. Positioning is where these three elements overlap.

New Business Primer – Part 3 – My marketing mentor, Bill Loeffler, once said the the best new business program is doing great work for current clients. He was right.

New Business Primer – Part 4 – Let’s get past this strategic stuff and to the tactics that got you in front of prospects. First on my list of ways to get in front of prospects was referrals.

New Business Primer – Part 5 – Here is the best piece of advice I’ll ever give you, although at first blush it may not seem that astounding: focus. Did Harry say “focus”? Yes, he did. Wow, that’s deep!

New Business Primer – Part 6 – Let’s talk about social networks. In order to be most effective, you must select three to four networks and focus your efforts there.

New Business Primer – Part 7 – Cold calling is a waste of time and there are better ways to spend your time.

New Business Primer – Part 8 – Network It. Now that you have your client defined and you have looked at your list to identify those folks who can help you, you need to contact them.

New Business Primer – Part 9 – PR professionals know about reputation. But so often they don’t spend any time building their own reputation and brand. Step back and take a look at yourself as if you were a client.

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Socialize With Us

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, let me say I appreciate the time you spend with us and your thoughtful comments on this blog. We are here to listen as well as speak to our peers and customers. You can subscribe to our blog via Feedburner.

Beyond this blog, My Creative Team is sociable in other ways. So, feel free to join our conversation through our other social media vehicles. Here’s how:

You can follow MyCreativeTeam on Twitter, or become an MCT fan at Facebook. We have a Friendfeed, or you can stumble along with us via StumbleUpon.

My Creative Team’s award-winning monthly enewsletter, Think, is another way to follow us.  Sign up here.

We love social media and believe every company should be using these tools to connect with their key audiences. What do you think? How can we do a better job connecting with you?

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Social Media: You Are Wearing Me Out

Apparently, many people are tired of social media. According to a Synovate study about social networks,

We spoke with over 13,000 respondents aged 18-65 years in 17 markets around the world to find out who’s connected and who’s not, as well as attitudes and online behaviours. Some of what we found surprised us… like more than a third of social networkers say they are losing interest in social media. And how many people do not even know what it is.

Jay Small recently riffed on the topic. THINKing also has discussed the topic of social network fatigue before,

Like everything new, people will flock to it initially and then the ones from short-attention span theater move on to the next thing. Bound to happen. It does every time. But that doesn’t mean that social networks are a thing of the past. There still is value in them. I believe the biggest value is in those social networks that center on some niche. Smart marketers will develop their own networks. Think Apple. They had a network of brand evangelists before the term social media was in gestation.

Here’s my advice if you are going to be involved in social media, or anything for that matter: focus. Don’t try to be involved in every new network that comes along. I turn down requests everyday from someone trying to get me into some new network. Pick no more than four and work them.

What are your favorite social networks? Have you abandoned any because you are worn out on them?

UPDATE: I just ran across this and couldn’t leave it unremarked. Social networking has just passed porn as the most popular online activity.

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New Business Redux

Are you out looking for new business? Who isn’t? I wrote a series a few months back on the topic. You may want to check it out.

New Business Primer – Part 1 – A Primer

New Business Primer – Part 2 – Positioning

New Business Primer – Part 3 – Do Great Work For Current Clients

New Business Primer – Part 4 – Tactics

New Business Primer – Part 5 – Focus

New Business Primer – Part 6 – More Focus

New Business Primer – Part 7 – Speak Up

New Business Primer – Part 8 – Network It

New Business Primer – Part 9 – Build Your Brand

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Random Links – 7/16/2008

If you are marketing at C-level, you know how hard it is to reach the CEO. Good advice here on how to break through the corporate defenses to reach the CEO.

Is your blog a networking tool? Jennifer Gniadecki from Everyday Networker takes on the topic.

When old school brands like Sears begin embracing a marketing technique, its time has come. Read about the retailer’s foray into social media.

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