Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

May 9 2013

posted by Guest Post

How Great Business Writing Gets Done Quickly

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is Steve Aedy – Enjoy!

Great writers know a thing or two about how great writing is done. After all, that’s their job. For you, the business owner or marketer who needs to do some writing, it’s helpful to know what counts for your particular needs.

I Think, Therefore I Have a Headache

Blogging for business is not like writing a great novel. It’s about getting to the point in as few words as possible. That means thinking, which is painful and annoying, but you have to do it.

“I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.” (Letter 16, 1657) – Blaise Pascal, The Provincial Letters

KISS: Keep It Short & Simple

Blog posts are “quick reads” and are often skimmed for key points by people who are very busy. Respect that fact. Format your work with headings and bullet points. Keep your word count at or below 500 words. This is truly a case of “less is more”.

“Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time is wasted.” – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Ham and Eggs Beats Eggs Benedict

Great authors know that simple is better, fewer words beat lengthy prose and it’s more important to not be misunderstood than to try and make yourself understood with a lengthy explanation.

“To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.” – Aristotle

“Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.” – George Orwell

“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.” – Thomas Jefferson

Ready, Fire, Aim

A business blog post has a specific target to hit. That target doesn’t always have to be a sales pitch or an attempt at customer retention. Sometimes, that post is just a statement of how your business does business or some other non-sales theme. The point is, write your blog post freely, then edit it to conform to your main point, which you discovered while writing it.

“I write to find out what I’m talking about.” – Edward Albee

“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” – E.M. Forster

Procrastinate Later…

This brings you to the most important point: write. Procrastination never helps, when it comes to writing. Despite the fact that what you start out with is less than perfect, write. Put down everything you can, then go back and cut out the fluff.

“Don’t get it right – get it WRITTEN!” – Lee Child

The Benefits of “Quick and Dirty”

Avoid the trap of “perfection”. Yes, you do want what you write to be good, but the beguiling temptation to craft exceptional prose is a time waster. This is NOT a novel, nor an excerpt thereof. Make it good and stop.

“Don’t try to be different. Just be good. To be good is different enough.” – Arthur Freed

Summing Up

The Marine Corps of the United States has a proven method of getting a point across to recruits:

I’m gonna tell ya what I’m gonna tell ya.
I’m gonna tell ya.
I’m gonna tell ya what I told ya.

Use this formula when crafting a blog post. After all, I told ya I was gonna tell ya what counts, right?

About the Author:

The article was written by Steve Aedy, who is a staff writer for Fresh Essays – a company that provides online paper writing service and editing help. He likes to write on social media, small business and education related topics. Follow him on Google+.

Filed Under: Blogging, Content marketing, Referral Marketing Tagged With: Steve Aedy, Writing

Apr 22 2013

posted by John Jantsch

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8 Tools I Use Every Day for Social Engagement

I get asked what tools I use for some of my daily social routines on a somewhat frequent basis. The other day I got that question and it dawned on me that many of the tools I’ve written about for the basic stuff have changed or evolved over the past six months.

So, I thought it might be useful to write a post outlining my current tool set for consuming, sharing and interacting online.

Alerts

photo credit: Wicked LIttle Cake Company

It seems to me that Google Alerts might be on the scrap heap over Google as it not only suffers from lack of innovation it just seems pretty lame in terms of what it picks up anymore.

I’ve recently gone to a combo of Mention and Talkwalker to get alerts for things like my name, brand, journalists and important phrases. It seems like they tend to pick out different things so the combination is very strong.

Content consumption

By now you’ve likely heard that Google Reader is shutting down. While this caused widespread panic and prompted lots of anxiety about replacement tools, the fact is the technology is pretty simple and this opened the door for some innovation in a long dormant space.

For now, I am sticking with Reeder, a Mac based laptop, iPad, iPhone app that relies on Google Reader but says it will replace the underlying technology. I really like the interface and love that I can interact with a piece of content in the app by sharing, bookmarking or saving in a variety of ways. I use it with Buffer to share lots of content to Twitter and Facebook.

I think it’s worth noting that many people have also started to embrace tools that surface content based solely on category or the recommendation of friends rather than sticking to content produced only in blogs they subscribe to. I’ve started to use a service called Newsle in this fashion.

Social dashboard

I have been an avid Tweetdeck user for years but recently made the switch to HootSuite. For me Tweetdeck was getting a bit tired in terms of innovation. While it took a little bit of time to embrace the somewhat more complex interface of Hootsuite, I’ve grow to like the tabbed profiles approach and the fact that you can get so much more information on individual profiles and tweets. I also like some of the integrations available. For example, with one click I can add people who I interact with on Twitter or that get added to a list, based on search terms in Hootsuite, to my CRM tool.

Social CRM

This last element is a crucial piece of the engagement puzzle. I currently use two CRM tools. I use Nimble for the daily interactions that I have or should have with clients, influencers, authors, partners and prospects for various types of projects. Nimble allows me to create a unified messaging platform that includes email and important social networks. This way I can view a record of what these important groups of people are saying and doing in real-time and what I’ve said to them over the course of many interactions. Access to this level of information helps turns transactions into trackable conversations.

In addition to Nimble I use Infusionsoft to run the many ecommerce functions of my business such as shopping cart, list segmentation, follow-up and email marketing in general.

The key to making this part of the communication cycle work is that most of these tools talk to each other and almost all are available in synced versions on the desktop and on a variety of mobile devices and tablets.

So, that’s it for now, until, well it isn’t. Always love to hear about tools you find useful.

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: Buffer, hootsuite, Mention, Nimble, Reeder, Talkwalker

Apr 12 2013

posted by John Jantsch

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Why We Need Each Other

Yesterday my friend Chris Brogan asked if he could write a guest post about what he’s learned growing his own business. I had already planned today’s post but was struck by the harmony of these two. If anything about this post resonates I invite you to read them both.

This past week I was treated to the exceptional gift of contrast.

Those that experience harsh winters are always more joyful about the spring than those that mostly live in warm climates around the year.

Without contrast it’s easy to grow complacent, or worse unsympathetic, while buried in a nice comfy groove.

photo credit: CR Artist via photopin cc

On Monday I spoke to hundreds of amped up social media types at a conference in San Diego, right down on the yachted waterfront. The bright and shiny twenty something crowd enthusiastically hung on most every word uttered as gospel by semi-quasi famous speaker after speaker.

The event was inspiring, I had a great time, but in some ways it possessed an energy that verged on naïvety.

You see, social media is still the new kid, although it’s showing teen tendencies. The new kid is confident, verging on cocky, but the new kid is definitely in fashion.

Less than twenty-four hours later I found myself in front of about a hundred small business owners of the main street variety in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The contrast could not have been sharper. Social media exists in Cedar Rapids, but a lot like a fence post or a handy shovel. It’s a tool, but you don’t exactly gush about it around the dinner table.

No, this group still gets a great deal from the local newspaper and the print shop. This group networks in person and relies on each other for referrals.

It’s worth noting that Cedar Rapids was also home of one of the worst natural disasters in the past century. Surprised? I mean you heard about Katrina and Sandy, but Cedar Rapids?

In the summer of 2008 the entire Upper Mississippi River Basin flooded and inundated ten square miles of Cedar Rapids, including the entire downtown of this community of about 100,000.

You didn’t hear much about this event. You also didn’t hear much about how they recovered. Neighbors helped neighbors, businesses adopted businesses, they said grace and they mucked out.

It’s kind of a Midwestern thing, just roll up your sleeves and get back to doin. It’s also kind of a true small business thing.

So here’s the point I’m trying to make.

We all need each other.

We need social media’s enthusiastic curiosity and rush to embrace all things seemingly new. And, we need sturdy things that we can lean on when we’re unsure.

We need to help each other learn and grow and fall down and get up again.

We need doubt in order to experience faith.

We need despair in order to experience hope.

We need old in order to appreciate young.

And we need winter if we are to revel in spring.

We need hugs and handshakes as much as tweets and follows.

We need to feel and smell tangible if we are to summon the senses.

We need to attend

We need to craft

We need to muck

And mostly we each need each other in order to find some sort of rational center in it all.

Filed Under: Duct Tape Marketing, Social Media, Vision Tagged With: Cedar Rapids, Real Small Business, San Diego, Social Media Marketing World

Apr 11 2013

posted by John Jantsch

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What Digital Marketers Get Wrong

Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s post comes from @chrisbrogan

From the very first day I opened my first company, I knew that I was bucking trends. Or so I thought. You’ll laugh.

Starting Without a Storefront: Or So I Thought

photo credit: Atelier Teee via photopin

I launched my business without having a website. So what, you’re thinking. But all my friends and models to follow at the time were built online. I learned what you know: your website is often not your business.

Stay Close to Your Community

I went on to market strictly through the digital channel. I blogged mostly, and neglected the value of asking my customers and audience to consider getting my (now beloved) newsletter. So I went years without having a good solid list of people to reach out and connect with about doing business. I bet you knew that long before me, as well.

Measure What You Want to Improve

I love the social networks as a digital channel, and I continue to believe they have value in selling. But I’ve been strongly over-valuing them as potential lead generation for my business without doing that essential step that you know already: I haven’t measured. And the moment I did, I found some startling results. I don’t sell nearly as much via my social networks as I do via my newsletter. And yet, I was spending a lot more time there than I was on developing ways to improve the one high-performing sales and lead generation platform I had.

Quick note: I believe social platforms have a huge role in business-making. Only, my experiences with directly selling into them has been very lackluster. Instead, I share insights, and lead people gently to get my newsletter. And then that converts.

Relationships Are Everything

You know this because you’ve read the Referral Engine and you follow one of the best relationship guys in the world here. John works hard to nurture relationships with his community and his colleagues, and what I’d come to realize was that I was serving a small set of buyers (huge companies) and wasn’t making time to connect with the people who matter (like John). With that in mind, I’m working on some ways (low tech and eventually a little more high-tech) to make sure that I keep the people who matter to me top of mind, even when I get bogged down and busy.

But you already knew the value of relationships.

In Praise Of YOU and Your Smarts

So, in the end, I suppose why I wrote this post was to validate the great learning you’re getting from John and others here. Because I launched a digital-first business, I’ve had to backtrack and learn what you knew from the start. And I’m better for it. Thank you for sharing what you know with learners like me.

Chris Brogan is president and CEO of Human Business Works, a publishing and media company focusing on courses and tools for smart professionals like you.

Filed Under: Marketing Strategy, Social Media Tagged With: Chris Brogan

Apr 10 2013

posted by John Jantsch

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Why You Must Add Visual Content to the Mix

Look around these days and you’ll find it’s hard to miss the growth of sites and services that rely on the more visual aspect of our senses growing rapidly.

Sites like Pinterest and The Fancy rely on lots of pretty picture to tell stories and attract visitors.

Infographics and visualized data still attract lots of interest.

It’s a well documented fact that images get much more engagement on social networks like Facebook and Google+.

Even Twitter, land of 140 characters, has introduced a visually based service called Vine in an effort to grab a greater share of the eyeball.

A picture immediately lights our emotions and initiates a complex cognitive process that is a true wonder in the world of science.

The rise of the popularity of images in marketing and learning, however, may have less to do with the brain’s cognition powers and more to do with the reality of our own information possessing load.

Visual scanning has become a key web decision and filtering routine due to the sheer weight of what we attempt to consume.

Marketers must now use visual content strategically to invite those visual scanners to the party and simplify and illustrate more complex concepts.

An example illustration from Book Yourself Solid Illustrated by Michael Port

Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid, recently re-released his popular book as an illustrated guide – Book Yourself Solid Illustrated. The book takes the core concepts explained in oh so many words and turns them into pictures that “show” the concepts.

I think the work is brilliant and certainly pushes the bounds of a “how to” book to new places. Look for others to follow suit.

Every marketer should get this book and embrace both the concepts and the way the concepts are presented as a key demonstration of the role of sight in communication.

As with all things, however, balance is still crucial. It’s tempting to look at a site like Pinterest and think all you need are images. The fact is you still need a healthy blend.

Images are bit like pastries. They are very attractive and taste very good, but you can’t live on them.

How often have you heard these words uttered? “The book was better than the movie.”

Or as many rabid baseball fans will attest, a good radio broadcast of a game beats the television version any day.

The fact remains that words and sounds can paint a far more visually and emotionally appealing picture when used evocatively than, well, even a picture. The key is that pictures tell the story immediately, while words take far more time and effort.

It’s the careful fusion of words, sights and sounds that draw in all the senses and tell the complete story that marketers must strain to build.

Adding visual content as a strategic component of the marketing mix is now a must!

Filed Under: Marketing Strategy, Social Media Tagged With: Book Yourself Solid Illustrated, Michael Port, Visual content

Apr 8 2013

posted by John Jantsch

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The Problem With Content

I’m in San Diego today speaking at Social Media Marketing World. The message of content marketing has certainly taken root in the digital and social marketing space and as the message of content, content, content grows louder and louder so too does the level of frustration.

photo credit: Exothermic via photopin cc

Producing content actually requires some work. Producing lots of content requires even more work and, well, let’s not event talk about the work required to consistently product high quality content.

But here’s the semi ironic thing. The problem with content is not that you don’t have enough, it’s that you have too much. In an attempt to feed the content beast many marketers have lost focus on the narrative of who they are, why they do what they do and why their customers are attracted to their brands.

In effect, we’re attempting to write about everything and in doing so connecting with nothing.

Before content will truly serve as an effective community attracting and building mechanism, it must be laced with a potent dose of focus.

That’s not to say that a good 50 Ways to do X post won’t always draw eyeballs, but so will wearing a really short skirt into a bar – the question is, does that lead towards building a supportive community and achieving your objectives?

Content must spring from the one true thing your business stands for and become a story that becomes a greater narrative that lives on in your community with no real end.

You do this by telling fewer stories – over and over again. You do this by using clarity, the one real thing you’re business stands for in the mind of the market, as a filter for voice and message.

You solve your content problem when you use content to:

Narrow your focus to an ideal client’s unmet needs
Share stories that build trust and expose vulnerability
Help define problems your customers don’t know they have
Give your customers a way to collaborate and personalize
Help determine the real intent of your prospective clients

I happen to believe that the highest objective of any business is the building of a vibrant community. Start sharing less and focusing more on the content that signals why someone would want to join your narrative and you’ll start to witness how community actually forms.

Filed Under: Marketing Strategy, Social Media Tagged With: Content, SMMW13

I Think, Therefore I Have a Headache

KISS: Keep It Short & Simple

Ham and Eggs Beats Eggs Benedict

Ready, Fire, Aim

Procrastinate Later…

The Benefits of “Quick and Dirty”

Summing Up

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Tune In to the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast

Categories

I Think, Therefore I Have a Headache

KISS: Keep It Short & Simple

Ham and Eggs Beats Eggs Benedict

Ready, Fire, Aim

Procrastinate Later…

The Benefits of “Quick and Dirty”

Summing Up

Starting Without a Storefront: Or So I Thought

Stay Close to Your Community

Measure What You Want to Improve

Relationships Are Everything

In Praise Of YOU and Your Smarts

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Tune In to the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast

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