PRACTICE MARKETING blog

Ok, so you decided to bite the bullet and shell out the investment for a trade show exhibit. You got yourself a nice backdrop, table display, handouts, etc. You showed up on time, and “manned” the booth from opening to closing waiting for people to walk up to you. Now I’ll bet you’re very disappointed with the results. What did you miss?

You’re not alone, and indeed there are more than a handful of reasons you got far less response than you were hoping for. One of the biggest is – you didn’t bother to tell anyone you were going to be there! Why? Because you assumed your reason to exhibit was only to get new prospects – and – that it’s the show’s organizer’s responsibility to provide you throngs of fresh walk-up prospects.

Trade shows usually require a large investment of your time & resources to exhibit, but only a very small portion of the exhibitors do everything possible to leverage that investment.

The first leverage point; In advance of the show - invite everyone, everyone in your contact database, everyone in your customer database, everyone in your prospect database – in short everyone you know, & let them know you’re going to be there! Not only that, but provide them dates & times, where you will be located on the floor, and MOST IMPORTANTLY – WHY they should come to see you at the show! And equally importantly – WHY they should bring a friend!

Exhibiting can be your big chance to present yourself in person, to provide a temporary “store front” if you don’t have one, and to create “buzz” around you and your brand. Exhibiting helps you forge new relationships, reinforce existing relationships, and provide a high impact platform to grow you business and your brand IF well planned and leveraged. Inviting anyone, and everyone you can think of (in a compelling way of course), is just one of your key leverage points.

Mark V. Bullock Partner/PMA PracticeMarketingAdvisors.com

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Marketing Thumb-rules #204: Dedicate at least 20% of your productive time to marketing.

Most of my clients are so busy and so successful that marketing time seems to "get in the way." But marketing is about planting seeds that will bear fruit in months down the road. 20% is about 1 day a week, or about 1 full hour every day. For those of us who are regular networkers, bloggers, e-newsletter/article writers, etc... this comes easy.

In bad times, we are too desperate to plant seeds; we need to eat the fruits today. In great times, we seem too busy to plant seeds; we're stuffed with the fruits today. Thus, most professionals yo-yo between feast and famine. The smart ones make marketing a consistent habit, and enjoy pleasurable practice growth continuously.

Your first step? As another Marketing Thumb-rule says, "You have to block the time." Staring at our calendar, it's chock-full... then skip ahead 2 or 3 weeks... and now start to block out time with specific Marketing Action Goals. Hold yourself accountable, or bring in a Practice Marketing Advisor to map the plan out and hold you and your staff to task.

For more thumb-rules, visit MarketingThumbrules.com.

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Last Thursday I was invited (again) to be the final speaker in this season's series of business seminars at the Half Hollow Hills library in Dix Hills, Long Island (NY). I've attached the handout I used - feel free to print it out and follow along this full seminar! Ask your questions as comments below.

You may notice the handout is missing "Question 14" - or really the second worksheet... The Marketing CheatSheet™.

Well, if you want to know EVERY marketing channel & collateral for traditional AND on-line marketing --> Order an audio-book (or my NEW TEXT BOOK, 365 Marketing Thumb-rules™) and I'll give you the Marketing CheatSheet™ FOR FREE!

In the meanwhile, use the worksheet along with the video seminar and grow your practice to the next level... post questions/comments by clicking Comments below.

 Ebook: Download | Hits (755)

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Personal branding and marketing is all about relationship building. After all, most of your business probably already comes from referrals. But we all have dormant relationships; most likely, more than those which are active. So how can we light the fire under these relationships? And how can they inspire us to refer them more business?

Relationships are built on our three C’s: Our charisma, our character, and our competency. Our charisma is the personal magnetism, charm, and attraction that is not so readily explainable, but we all know it when we feel it. There are ways to improve our charisma as Vik’s audio-book “Magnetic Personality” details.

Most of our relationships are character driven. That is, our personalities (our “outside character”) match. We like each other; we have similar values, hobbies, and style. We enjoy playing golf with each or grabbing a drink after work. These business relationships quickly turn into friendships. Good times are had by all, but then we realize that we’re not doing much business together.

We’ve all had experiences where we like the guy, but wouldn’t necessarily do business with him or her. Perhaps we don’t trust in their capabilities or workmanship; what I call their “inside character” traits. Or, maybe we already have a worthwhile (economic) relationship with a competing professional.

They say they are different, but we’re not sure exactly how. So we don’t refer them any business. Or maybe we’re that guy: We say we’re different because we’re reliable and put relationships first. But doesn’t everybody seem to say that?

We’ve all put up with professionals who rub us the wrong way or lack people-skills, but definitely do a great job. So we give them our business and refer clients to them (we warn them first). We put up with their character faults, because they are so highly competent.

Of course, the best of both worlds is to be a highly-competent professional who has mastered the art of relationship building. And they are the rainmakers who seem to do a bounty of business, make a lot of money for everyone around them, and have friends for all the right reasons. We are all working toward being this way.

So as we work toward building relationships, we have to work toward making them productive. That is, as we showcase our fun personality, we must showcase our expertise. We must showcase how our expertise is different from the next advisor, and how our expertise is better for our target market.

Here’s a Marketing Thumb-rule to (re)brand yourself: Replace your boring 30-second “elevator pitch” or networking message, with a 1-line Catchphrase: It should Short, Memorable, Appealing, Repeatable, and Timely.

Instead of your boring title or confusing designations, Personal Brand Marketing clients talk about the articles, audio-books, text-books, blogs, or other media that they’ve authored or been quoted by. Others offer educational tidbits (1-liners) that are counter-intuitive. If you have the right personality, you can take a commonly-used phrase or cliché, and play on it. Or coin a new word (a neologism), phrase, or jargon that is simply S.M.A.R.T..

See the video in the next post!

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Full "Web 2.0 Direct Marketing" panel seminar, hosted by the Direct Marketing Association of Long Island.

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Direct marketing is traditionally through regular mail, phone, and even fax. E-mail is also a direct marketing channel. More and more, direct marketers are integrating the on-line direct marketing channels.

Last Thursday, I was invited to address the Direct Marketing Association of Long Island (DMALI) on the direct marketing opportunities available through Web 2.0, blogs, podcasts, on-line communities, etc.

It was a 1-hour seminar with me and Abe Mezrich of Didit.com.

The full seminar will be on Google Video soon. The first 10 minutes is below. I cite the latest Nielsen ratings for on-line communities and blog platforms.

Of course, the 60-minute audio-book WEB MARKETING 2.0 goes into more step-by-step detail!

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Tradeshows are an excellent opportunity to be in a room full of the people you want to meet.  Ripped from the pages of my new book - more on that later - here are some do's and don'ts:

1) If you're gonna walk a show, DON'T sell to the vendors.  At least grab their card and call 'em later... reference that you stopped by their booth.  Keep their booth clear so they can generate business: ...a golden rule.

2) Set up during the time allotted: Many shows require you to set up the day before.  Do so.. and network with the other vendors.  Many small businesses set up their own booths.  And it's a great time to develop relationships in a laid-back atmosphere.  But DON'T distract 'em while they're working.  Or at least help out.

3)  Sell knowledge products at your table: Record an audiobook, produce a booklet for sale, or create a DVD... turn your presence into a point-of-sale, and make money while marketing.

4) Collect every business card and/or e-mail contact info: Obviously follow-up with those who show interest.  And the rest go on your e-newsletter database (hint: have one).

5) As a fellow vendor, meet'n'greet the other vendors.  Often, they make great prospects... or at least referral buddies.

We'll be at the NYC XPO on November 28th at Jacob Javits.  Hope to network with you there.

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Stop being all things to all people. Stop chasing more than 1 rabbit.

Targeting a market can be nerve-wracking to some.  'Decision' means 'to cut off.'  These are the strategic risks entrepreneurs are paid to take.  I've heard many different fears from my clients:  They feel as if they'd be alienating, forgetting, or leaving-behind some of their best clients.

But target marketing need not be a shot in the dark.  In fact, it's completely the opposite.  Picking the right niche should be a well-researched, and justified move.  I've identified 6 factors that can help you predict whether or not a tight-knit Community will spark word-of-mouth buzz for you; that's the topic of the "SALES MOMENTUM" audio-book.

But what's the first step?  Where should you start, as you try to figure out which target market is right for you?  The attached podcast gives you a head-start on the best decision you can make!

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [4:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (3775)

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Thinkin' of a master plan...

1) Befriend these 17 CEO's...

2) Add to Facebook...

3) Rule the world.

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You'll be able to see more of my short videos in weeks to come. For example, the "Podcasting by Phone" webinar I did on July 28 for PodCamp City On-line should be available soon.

While YouTube is the "google" of video sharing sites (literally), it's not the only one. You should distribute your videos to all the top YouTube competitors for maximum visibility.  And it doesn't take much time! Remember to keep your videos short:

1. According to comScore market research, the average watching duration was only 2.5 minutes.
2. Many sites have file size restrictions: Shorter video = smaller file size.
3. Quicker turnaround: Short videos can be posted more often, more consistently.

More and more "video blasters" or distribution services are coming out; each offers something different and better (distinctive value). It's annoying that you have to create individual accounts on the video hosting sites, but that's a one-time inconvenience. Here are 3 free services...

Hey!Spread enables you to blast your video to the most amount of (top) video sites (of course you don't have to spread your video to all of 'em):

1. YouTube
2. MySpace
3. Google Videos
4. Yahoo Videos
5. Dailymotion
6. Blip.tv
7. Photobucket
8. Metacafe
9. Bolt
10. Putfile

Vidmetrix.com enables you to blast to only the 7 top sites - YouTube, Myspace, Metacafe, Google, Yahoo, Revver, and Veoh. But more importantly, as their name suggests, VidMetrix also helps you track your views, comments, blog links that reference your video, and show-off your success through a metrics widget.

TubeMogul.com, measures like VidMetrix and focuses only on the top 6 video sites: YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe, MySpace, Revver, Yahoo!, and the annoying-to-use, but still popular: AOL Uncut Video. TubeMogul also allows you to measure the viewing success of your video across these websites, and even monitor other people's video viewing success (which comes in handy to keep tabs on your competitors or friends).

Since they're not necessarily mutually exclusive, used together, you'll be able to get your video maximum exposure and measure its success. If you know of other video distribution services, let me know.

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I just got this from LexBlog's blog. Public Citizen advocacy group issues a press release entitled, "Public Citizen Wins Injunction Against Unconstitutional Rules."