Marketing for Solopreneurs

Too Many Blogs, Too Many Posts?: Busy Readers and Fatigued Writers

Where is it written that blogging is rewarding only when you post 5-7 times a week? The experts tell us that more is always better. But I've never been convinced.

Since I started this blogging thing, I've subscribed to six of my favorite blogs. They range from daily posts to once a week, 1-2 times weekly and twice a week, all the way to no particular schedule.

That means I read between 34 and 40 posts a week. And I am on the conservative side with my RSS feeds. I only subscribe when I positively can't do without a particular blogger's wit and wisdom.

Imagine Reading Hundreds of Posts a Day

Some bloggers (admittedly hard-core subscribers) are receiving 50, 100, 200 posts a day.

But are they reading all of them?

A few days ago, one of my favorite bloggers, James Chartrand from Men with Pens, announced that he was cutting back his posts from daily to three a week.

He wanted to know what his readers thought about his decision. Know what? Of the 60+ responses, more than 90% said, "Yippee!"

Did it mean they didn't like his posts? On the contrary. Most said that the posts were of such high quality that they wanted more time to read, to ponder, to take all the ideas in.

And one reader even said that the fact that the posts were piling up, with no time to properly read and digest them, brought him to such a state of frustration that he actually unsubscribed!

What's the Answer?

When it comes to posting, I think it comes down to the question: Are you a full-time blogger or do you have another business to run, too? Certainly some of us can't spend every waking hour blogging.

But even more important: Don't your readers have other things to do, too? Like serving their own clients and customers. Making a buck. Paying the mortgage. Hanging around enough so their kid still recognizes them.

What I've figured out: I blog when I have something important or interesting to say. May be three times a week. Most often it's once or twice a week.

Tell me. If you are a blogger, do you post five days a week? If so, is it a difficult schedule to keep? Are you finding enough unique and useful things to say?

And if you are a less frequent blogger, how's that working for you?

If you are a reader, do you find time to read a blog that has daily posts? Or do you like less frequent posts with time between to "ponder" the ideas?

I really, really want to know how you feel.

A Solopreneur's Dream: Free Publicity

I signed up for a free service three weeks ago that's kind of amazing. You might have heard about it. It's called HARO (Help a Reporter Out).

NYC PR expert Peter Shankman started it because " a lot of my friends are reporters and they were calling me all the time for sources." He got tired of going through his contacts all the time, so he thought he would just start e-mailing the requests he gets from journalists looking for people to profile or quote in their stories.

He started it on Facebook, but they cap e-mails at 1,200 and he had to find another venue. Now his list is 20,000+ and growing. Seems there was a need.

The list comes out three times a day and the journalists write for big-name magazines and newspapers all the way down to blogs and websites.

Though some of the requests are aimed at consumers ("Looking for Moms for Makeovers") and can be offbeat ("Brides with Multiple Wedding Dresses" and "Scary Bosses"), many are a good fit for solopreneurs and small biz owners.

Shankman's only rule for responding to a reporter's query?:

You must promise that you will not e-mail a reporter with an off-topic answer that doesn't match what they are looking for. In other words, don't try to wiggle in to get coverage for your business when you don't really have what a reporter needs. Fair enough.

A piece of good news: Recently the format changed so queries (reporters' requests) are now by category, saving even more time when scanning the lists.

Some recent requests/needs:

• networking pro's to offer ways to leverage networking for career advancement
• solos and small biz owners who have outsourced their marketing
• tax experts to advise on late-year tax savings moves for young people
• interior designers with ideas for high-end green/eco-friendly home products
• businesses with user-friendly, well-designed websites for review in column
• biz owners with social media success stories for radio show
• businesses that have switched from PCs to Macs
• real estate agents who have participated in a real estate auction
• massage therapists who have a successful private practice

The list goes on and on.

A couple of things: Some reporters have a specific geographic area they want their sources to come from. But if they say, "no specific geographic region," go for it. And, if someone says they are "pitching a story, that usually means they have not sold the idea to an editor yet, so keep that in mind.

The best way to experience it is to sign up at one of two places, at which time you'll start receiving the e-mailed lists three times a day.

For sources (if you are a business looking for some publicity):

www.helpareporter.com

For reporters/writers/bloggers:

www.helpareporter.com/press

I'm on both because I am a small biz owner and I also am a reporter for a couple of newspapers and a business journal in the Seattle area.

So check HARO out. Any organization with the tagline, "Get Sourced. Get Quoted. Get Famous," can't be all that bad.

Multi-Sensory Marketing—A Tale of Three Little Customers

Recently, I returned from a business networking event frustrated. It was an evening event, promising good food and fun after a two-day conference. After the last session, many of us had dropped our nametags in a big box for recycling. After all, we live in Seattle. Who could not be green-friendly?

That evening, with the loud chatter of people trying to be heard over the raging music, I felt like something was off. I just wasn't in top networking form—not in my element.

Several conference attendees, who I had seen but not had the chance to mingle with, introduced themselves, but their names just didn't stick.

Why? Because like 60% of the population, I am a visual learner. I see someone's name printed once, and I will remember it. I hear it spoken five times, and each time, it flies right out of my brain. I need that nametag.

All the time, people—your customers included—are giving you clues about how they process information, how they prefer to be treated, and how they want you to communicate with them.

The problem, of course, is that not all customers are the same.

What if, by understanding the different ways your customers take in information, you could learn to communicate on a deeper level, reaching each one with more effective marketing messages?

Well, you can. Really, you can.

People Think in Different Ways

Back in the 1970s, a linguist, a psychologist and an anthropologist walked into a bar. Oh, wait, wrong story.

Actually, what these three researchers did was conduct a ground-breaking study on how successful people communicate and learn.

Out of it came a new theory: Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). It's a fancy name for the idea that we all experience the world through one of three sensory systems: the eyes (visual), the ears (auditory) and the hands (kinesthetic). And the way we are wired to send sensory information to our brains determines how we think and behave.

Today, NLP is used by:

• entrepreneurs to improve their interpersonal skills.
• salespeople to develop rapport and understand the values of their clients.
• mental health professionals to inspire their patients to make changes in their lives.
• real estate agents to improve their communication skills.
• trial lawyers to win courtroom verdicts by understanding non-verbal behavior.

What's all this got to do with marketing? For starters, knowing which one of these three styles your customers fit helps you use the right communication style for each one.

And if you learn to market and sell using all three styles, well, you're way ahead of the game. Because you'll be reaching each customer at a deeper level.

I used NLP in my teaching days and can say that without a doubt, it helped me deliver multi-sensory lessons that hit all the learning styles of my students. It really works.

The Three Little Customers

When you are meeting with a client, you can learn much about how they think and receive your sales messages by watching the way their eyes move before responding to a question. Not to get too technical on you, but in NLP terms, these are called Eye Accessing Cues.

Business communication experts often tell us to maintain eye contact during conversations, but if you ask a visual or auditory thinker a question and they look away, it's not a sign that they suck at networking. It might be that they are just processing your question before giving you an answer.

Let's look at the three customers—how to tell their sensory style and how best to sell to them:

The Visual Customer: Show Me

Thinks in pictures. In school, this was the kid who reacted to a teacher's question by looking up, above her head. Sometimes the teacher would say, "Well, the answer isn't on the ceiling!" But for that kid, the visual thinker, it was.

Does it drive you crazy to go to a networking event where no one is wearing a name tag? You are probably a visual thinker.

In the general population, approximately 60% of people are visual thinkers.

How to Tell: When responding to a question, looks up and to their left (remembering visual images) or up and to her right (constructing new images). May use words such as: imagine, focus on, point out, see, blind to, get a picture of, review.

How to Sell: Don't stand too close; they need a full view. Use image-rich language and materials, such as brochures, photographs, fliers, and Power Point slides. Match their thinking style by saying things like, "I see what you mean." Or, " Let me take a look at that and get back to you."

The Auditory Customer: Tell Me

Retains content better when hearing it. May repeat back what you said because they need to process it. Might look beyond you or close their eyes to listen to your words. In college, this was the student who could listen to an entire lecture without taking notes.

Do you prefer the phone to e-mail? You might be an auditory thinker.

In the general population, 20-30% of people are auditory learners.

How to Tell: When pondering a question, looks straight to their left (remembering auditory sounds) or straight to their right (imagining a sound). May say things like: talk through, tune in, listen to, ring a bell, explain, hear me out on this, keep telling myself.

How to Sell: Speak clearly and in complete sentences. Pause so they can process your words. Allow time for questions and answers. Match their thinking style by saying things like, "I hear you" or, "We're on the same wavelength."

The Kinesthetic Customer: Let Me Feel

Enjoys hands-on stuff. Wants to touch and feel. Likes to move. May fiddle with pens. Might pat you on the arm when talking to you. Doesn't want to let go when you shake hands.

Do you play around with things on your desk and get fidgety if you can't get up and move around during an event or presentation? You could be a kinesthetic.

In the general population, 10-20% of people are primarily kinesthetic.

How to Tell: When processing a question, often looks down and to their left (engaging in self-talk) or down and to their right (recalling emotions and kinesthetic sensations). May use phrases like: hold on, put my finger on, strikes me, get a grip on, in touch with, sticking with.

How to Sell: Encourage them to hold your products. Let them feel the grain of the paper samples and thumb through your materials. Avoid long presentations because they tend to get antsy after 15 minutes or so. Pause so they can process their feelings. Say things like, "I'm feeling that you need…" Or, "Let's touch on that idea for a moment."

Try practicing on friends or family first. Watch where their eyes go before answering a question. Keep in mind that people's eye movements are rarely slow and deliberate. They are more like brief, subtle flicks, so it takes some time to read them.

Listen for the language clues described above.

What it all means

Knowing these basic NLP cues will not make you a mind reader, but it will give you some insight into the way your customer is thinking. Just remember: although most people have a prominent thinking style, they cannot be put into neat little boxes.

The key takeaway? Pay attention when developing your marketing materials.

For example, consider making your website truly multi-media, with podcasts, print copy, videos and other tools to help you build rapport, strengthen relationships and communicate more effectively with all your customers—no matter what their sensory style is.

Watch for MarketingYourSmallBiz.com's new multi-sensory website, coming on September 1.

Social Media Marketing and Lions

I'm a believer in nonprofits. Over the years, I've given time, money and professional advice to many fine organizations: programs in dropout prevention, hunger, homelessness, the arts, global relief and development, and others. I love them all.

A few weeks ago I was asked to speak on low-budget, big idea marketing at the local Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Someone who had attended liked my ideas and asked me if I would be speak on marketing the nonprofit at the Lions Club meeting.

Civic groups, and the Lions Club in particular, have their own set of unique problems. Their age demographic is skewing older these days. They are finding it harder to recruit young members. And donor fatigue, coupled with the current recession, are taking their toll on giving.

I decided to focus on relationship and social media marketing as a way to identify and cultivate donors, find new members and recruit volunteers.

As I spoke, I sensed that, though many of these Lions didn't relate to the Internet and Web 2.0, their minds were open and they were curious about new options for promoting their club and its work.

Getting noticed

Social media sites have great potential for helping nonprofits network, get donations and share on the Web. They give nonprofits a forum for meeting like-minded groups, for finding potential supporters and spreading their message beyond the immediate community.

One story I told was about a young (25-ish) woman who became excited about a theatre performance that would benefit a cause she cared deeply about. She announced the event and included a poster in her profile on Facebook. Her friends donated money. Friends of her friends told other friends. Before long, the donations were streaming in: viral fundraising.

I talked about the power of social media to get the press "on your side." One way is to look for people who work in the media on, say Facebook, or LinkedIn, and watch for causes or charities they are involved in. If it's a good fit with the mission of your nonprofit, contact them and explain your programs. They just might be interested enough to write a story.

Do you know a nonprofit that is using social networking sites to spread their message?

You may be involved with a cause that could leverage social media to grow their support and revenue. Or maybe one that's already doing it. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr. The possibilities are endless.

I'd love to hear what you think.

Oh. And I'd like to give a shout out to the Auburn Lion's Club, a fantastic organization (77 years old) that supports their community with hearing and sight care assistance, scholarships for kids, and other incredible programs.

Check out their site and you may just find you share a passion with them.

Cookies, Milk and Scraped Knees: What Your Clients Really Want

Ask any six-year-old what they need and how they're feeling. They'll tell you flat out.

"I want a cookie." (I'm hungry. I want something sweet and good to eat. I don't want to listen to you because my current need is more important than what you have to say.)

"That boy on the playground hit me. (I'm angry. I'm hurt. I want your sympathy.)

"I have to go to the bathroom." (I can't focus on anything you have to say right now.)

If you listen, they will tell you.

Don't you wish your customers would just freakin' tell you exactly what they need? Could it be that they are, and we just aren't listening?

Your clients are more like six-year-olds than you might think. Think about it:

1) They need guidance. They're easily distracted because so much is happening around them. It's hard to focus. Too much noise: TV, billboards, cellphone, Internet, e-mail. Go ahead, take them by the hand. Lead them through your home page. Give them simple instructions, just what they need to know and no more. Tell them what you want them to do. Don't be like the parent who answers the child's question, "Where did I come from?" with a detailed explanation of conception, pregnancy and childbirth when they only wanted to know whether they're from New York or California.

2) They don't always understand what you're saying. When I was a first grade teacher, I asked my students to draw a picture of something that reminds them of the Pledge of Allegiance. I got a lot of flags and a couple of crudely drawn outlines of the United States and kids with hands over hearts. But one little girl handed me a crayon drawing of four witches in black robes and cone hats with brooms, standing on a hill. She had been reciting the Pledge every morning all year and thought that we were saying, "…and to the republic, for witches stand…" Make sure your customers understand what you are saying to them.

3) They want your attention. Make it easy for your clients to talk to you. If they are on your website, or reading your brochure, they can't just keep tugging on your arm until you answer their questions. And yet they may want your attention. Leave phone numbers and e-mail contact information. Make it easy for them to contact you.

4) They may say (or think) "why?" Ad executive Bob Hoffman said that when his daughter was small, she put every question through what he called "The Twelve Degrees of Why." Daughter: "Why do flowers have different colors?" Dad: "Um, to attract insects." Daughter: "Why do they want to attract insects?" Dad: "Well, they don't really want to, it's just that those that do tend to have more success reproducing." Daughter: "Why?" He said that after the twelfth why, you found out whether you really understood something or not. Same thing with clients. Going through this "why" process (some call it, "So what?") always helps us get to those deeper, core benefits of our product or service, the ones that will lead to the purchase.

5) They get confused by too many choices. Watch the difference in decision time when you offer a six-year-old five choices of ice cream flavors, compared to, "Would you like vanilla or chocolate?" It'll either take five times as long, or she won't be able to choose at all. A direct mail letter asks the reader to take one action, not five. Special offers on websites should highlight a deal on one product, or two at the most. Don't confuse your customer.

6) They want to know that you feel their pain. The child who fell down on the sidewalk doesn't want you to offer her a glass of lemonade. Not right now, anyway. She wants you to look at her bloody knee, tell her that you've done that before too, and, oh boy, does that hurt. Not until you recognize her pain (and give her a band aid) can she think about your offer of lemonade. In sales copy, tell your customer you've been there, you've experienced that emotion of fear or guilt or whatever feeling is behind the need or desire for your product or service. And you have a solution, a way out of the pain.

There's my take on what your customer really wants. I'd love to hear from you. Does it make sense? No? What do you think?

Data waves, dead surfers and marketing overload: there's too much stuff

There's a line in the romantic comedy, Duplex, where Ben Stiller's character asks his wife, played by Drew Barrymore, if the rent control laws in NYC mean that they can't evict their elderly, bothersome tenant.

She reaches to turn off the light on the nightstand. "I don't know," she says. "I'll have to look it up on the Internet."

That, my friends, is precisely the problem. The answer to that question is on the web, along with truths, half-truths, opinions and downright bad advice— on any topic you can think of.

The Internet, with chain after chain of entrancing links, is just a mouse click away.

Neil Postman, author, New York University professor and expert on culture and communication said:

Our defenses against information glut have broken down; our information immune system is inoperable. We don't know how to filter it out; we don't know how to reduce it; we don't know how to use it.

When did Postman make this sage observation? In 1990. 18 years ago.

Too much stuff

I'm feeling like information overload is a way of life.

The other day, one of my solopreneur friends said, "It's a huge time sink. At first I was enthused. Now I'm just overwhelmed. The tools like Google search have become less and less useful because there's too much stuff to search."

Speaking of Google, I did a search yesterday, using a few marketing-related terms. Here is what I found:

• 782 million results for marketing
• 21 million results for small business marketing
• 23,300 results for marketing for the solopreneur

Basex, a business research firm, predicted in December 2007 that the problem of the year for 2008 would be information overload.

In fact, $650 billion a year is the cost of unnecessary interruptions in work that result in lost productivity. The computing giant Intel estimates that each of their knowledge workers loses 8 hours of productivity a week to information overload.

What's the answer?

It seems that the challenge is not in finding things; it's in throwing stuff away, sorting and sifting through all the data streams to get to the gems.

A new wind's been blowing for a while. Even back in 1994, a few sharp people felt it. That was when Paul Saffo wrote in Wired Magazine:

An avalanche of content will make context a scarce resource. Consumers will pay serious money for anything that helps them sift and sort and gather the pearls. The future belongs to neither the conduit or content players, but to those who control the filtering, searching and sense-making tools.

Um, that's us.

If you've ever felt you were barely holding on, on a crazy little surfboard with that gigantic wave of marketing information headed straight for you, we can help. We throw away the lame, useless stuff so you're just left with the best of the best. And that saves you hours a week.

Visit our brand-spanking new web site, MarketingYourSmallBiz.com.

Become a free member. Sign up for Marketing Hotspots, our weekly e-tips. Poke around the site a bit. Check out the member benefits.

You just may want to spring for a membership, with all the practical, use-today ideas and samples that come with it.

Oh, and congratulations to Amy Woidtke of EcoKind Design, the winner of a full one-year MarketingYourSmallBiz.com SoloSavvy membership subscription at our drawing at BizJam!

Amy's reaction was, well, typically Amy: "Holy smokes! Neato!"

Would love to hear comments on our new site from you, our loyal readers.

Sugar, caffeine and post-conference high's: 5 ways I'm following up after bizjam (and one thing I won't do)

I'm still wound up. The ideas were zinging. The air was crackling. We were caffeine- and Wi-Fi -hyped, bouncing off the walls with creative energy, like six-year-olds who had too much Halloween candy.

Now I'm back in the office and I'm supposed to shut up, pay attention and get back to my grown-up work.

Ah. The BizJam post-conference high. I have often wondered if someone couldn't just package all that excitement and deliver it in nice little doses over the next six months.

When I first get home, I'm giddy with all the possibilities. The what-ifs. The isn't-this-a-cool-idea and never-thought-about-that-one.

What do I do? Well, first I pick up Nuz, my 15-pound, odd-eyed Turkish Van cat, who jumps out of my arms and marches off, nose in the air. He's all offended because I dared to leave him alone for two days.

Then there's the mail. I sort through, tossing all the grocery ads and "You've been selected!" invitations from VISA.

Life gets in the way. There's a suitcase to unpack, a litter box to clean, laundry to do, e-mails to answer.

I made a promise to myself that this time I would do it right. Well, it's a week now and I still haven't done everything, but I'm working my list. Here it is:

1. Re-connect with attendees and presenters. I send e-mails to attendees I want to stay in touch with, briefly saying who I am again, something specific about our conversation and one thought on how we might work together (that's called a call to action); to thank people for stopping by our booth; and to connect with presenters whose sessions were particularly helpful. I mail hand-written notes to people who I connected with on a deeper level, who are potential new partners for cross-promotions. Nothing, I mean nothing, gets noticed more than a hand-written note. My friend, marketing mentor and networking guru Ilise Benun, in her BizJam session "How Not To Network," talked about the incredible impact a hand-written note can have.

2. Work my business cards. I put the names and contact info of people I met into my networking database with a brief note to remind myself of the nature of the connection.

3. Connect friends and colleagues with each other. I look at my new connections, as well as the reconnects, to see who might benefit from getting to know each other better. Then it's just simple e-mail to one, telling them I'd like to introduce them to the other, and why.

4. Blog and comment on other blogs. I'm getting pretty good at this, but it's a must-do after a conference. There are golden opportunities to give "love links" (connections to another attendee's blog in your blog posts), which helps both you and them. Biznik, the producers of BizJam, make this easy because they include links to other bizniks' blogs on their profile pages.

5. Keep my promises. All of them. And I'm not just talking biz-related promises, either. I'm sending links to marketing resources, but also a list of my favorite books to someone who is looking for books to relax with on a cruise and loves memoirs as much as I do.

6. What I won't do? I will not add someone to our weekly marketing e-tip list just because I collected their business card and e-mail address. I am amazed at the number of people who break this cardinal rule of e-mail marketing. Your e-mail will be spam unless it is permission-based. That means someone needs to have asked for it. I send a "glad I met you" e-mail and put a link to our e-tip at the bottom, but unless they go there and sign up, they won't receive an issue, not even one.

That's my list: 5 do's and one don't. I'm curious. What ways do you have of following up after a conference?

Networking at BizJam Seattle 08

A group of awesome networkers at BizJam Seattle 08

Jacob Sayles - Office Nomads
Susan Evans - Office Nomads
Brandi Pierce - A Shadow Web and Graphic Design
Chris Haddad - 6 Figure Samurai
Beth Yockey Jones - 6 Figure Samurai