Aletta de Wal

Put complete contact info on everything.

I know, I know. "I do," says you. You sure?  

You'd be surprised at how many people don't do this. REALLY.  Go back and look at your marketing stuff. Website, emails, postcards, print ads, business cards. All of it.

Do you give people complete contact info so they can find you easily?  Your name (or company name), phone, email, web address and if applicable the address of your business (or the address of the place you want them to go to for whatever it is you're promoting)??? 

You'd be surprised at how hard people make it for other people to buy something, get somewhere, or inquire. I get emails and postcards from fine artists inviting me to their new show and how it's in such-and-such a city. Great. No state, no address, just the name of the city. You gonna make me go Google it just to see if it's in my area and where the gallery is?  Sheeshh.

Other people say, "I only need to put my website address, they can find the ways to contact me there."  Oh really? What if they get the urge to contact you and are not near a computer? What if they prefer the phone over email? Do not make them work just to contact you. Give them a few ways, you'll be glad you did.

Oh, and don't forget:  What I do for a living is support YOU in becoming more successful. Need some great postcards, business cards, a website, ezines? I design em, I set em up, I send em, and even if you just need help managing what you already have, I'm here to help with that also so you can get back to doing what you do best. That's why I say "We create time and space for you to focus on your vision. Then we'll help you get there."

As always, all my best to you and yours,

And here's me making it even easier to contact me:  (310) 649-4434 or  robin@sagaradevelopment.com

I'm not talking about trips to Paris here people, I know times are tough, I'm talking about small investments in your business and your future. This is for those of you who say:

• I can't afford to spend more on marketing my business.
• I can't afford to have you help me with my marketing and website plans.
• I can't afford to invest in getting some coaching.
• I can't afford to (you fill in your favorite "I can't afford it.")

First off, don't tell me you can't afford it and then tell me in the same breath that you just got back from a vacation in Europe, ate dinner at Chez Costsalot, or whine to me about how your new $40,000 car is on the blink.

Don't get me wrong, you get to do whatever you want with your money. But, please don't complain to me that you can't afford what we're offering and then try to "milk me like a cow" to get free info and advice. I see this happening a lot these days, not just to me, and I get the impression that the people doing it think they can build a business, make a career, or get an education by juicing this person a little bit, then the next person, taking a free intro class, etc. You cannot nickle and dime your way to the top. It does not work.

So, please, remember that I and others like me provide services and the benefit of our experience and expertise so you can do better in your life and business. It's how I make my living and your investment will go a long way towards a better and more prosperous future for yourself.

I AM happy to give you the first 15 minutes for free, or even a free 30 minute consultation if you request it so we can talk about how I might be able to help you. No, I'm not gonna tell you how to do it all yourself, that would be a waste of time for both of us. Your time is best spent growing your business, not spending hours setting up and maintaining your web, marketing and administrative stuff.

Okay, whew, I feel better. Now back to work...

However, I received some emails from readers that sent up some red flags.  One reader said that she was considering stopping (or cutting back on) email newsletters to her mailing list because it was costing money and not making money. Another reader wrote that he was going to quit a marketing campaign because after one week because it wasn't working.

So let me talk a bit about those "rules for success" I mentioned in the original article.  It's important to be realistic about potential results. It's important to not stop something before it has really had a chance to succeed.

1. Some business activities are not meant to be money-makers, per se. They're part of marketing. They serve other purposes, like reminding people that you're there, letting them know what's new and exciting, and giving them information, tips and other things that they find valuable so that they will also find YOU to be valuable and worth paying attention to. It helps build and maintain those oh-so-important relationships with your customers and clients. If you stop you'll save a few dollars, but you'll also fall off people's radar and they'll forget about you. Sure, you can cut down on costs and save some money by working smarter (ask me about this if you're interested), but as I advised the reader who wrote in, it's not a good idea to stop. Just look at it differently and revise what makes it a success.

2. When setting "rules for success" be realistic. One week probably isn't enough time to accurately judge a marketing campaign. On the other hand, doing something over and over for years with no results isn't good either. I once had a client who mailed letters to purchased mailing lists as part of his marketing. He did it for years, and never got one response. When I asked him about it he said, "Maybe this time it will work."  It didn't. Go figure.

So, give it enough time so you really know if it's working or not. Disneyland can tell right away if ticket sales are up. For the rest of us, it can take weeks, or months, to see a result from our efforts.  Don't expect miracles. It takes time, and a sensible plan, to see results. THEN, if it's not working, stop.

Got questions?  Feel free to email, or better yet, post a comment on the blog.

All my best to you and yours!

THE PARADOXICAL COMMANDMENTS

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

— Kent M. Keith, Speaker and Writer Often attributed to Mother Teresa because she posted them on her wall

Keeping your skills sharp is smart. Even if you have help (like me!) to take care of your computing needs, YOU still need to have good skills so you don't end up spending three days trying to print out address labels. True story. Why on earth my client didn't ask me to do it I'll never know. Would have cost them, like, 25 bucks of my time. Go figure. But if you must do it yourself (and pay the opportunity cost), at least have the skills to do it in a reasonable amount of time.

No, you don't have to know everything but you should have a solid grasp of the basics. Take a computer class at a local college or learning center, go online and search for tutorials (hint: big time suck), get some of those Video Professor DVD's (I've used them, they work), or you can do what I do and learn everything from basics to advanced for just about any software on the planet by using the lynda.com video tutorials*.  Why? They're the best, hands down. I keep an ongoing monthly subscription to their service so I can learn anything I want for less than the cost of one training book from the bookstore. They do a fantastic job, it's deductible (!), and it's really fun too.

Of course, after you update your skills the very best use of your time is to let me help you so you can get back to doing what you love and what makes you money.

I'm just sayin.  ;-D

_____________________________________

FTC Disclosure: If you know me at all you know that I don't recommend something unless I think it's absolutely stellar. All of the resources I recommend are my favorite things, and with some I am an "affiliate" which means that I will earn a small commission for referring you to the resources. Those are marked with an asterisk.

It was a marketing symposium, at the Ritz Carlton Pasadena, about 20 years ago. Who knew they had a dress code just to check in (sheeshhh). Anyway, lots of heavy hitters in the marketing world, one was the VP of Marketing for Disneyland. She was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. She spoke little, and said a LOT.

In response to a very good question - "How do you know what will work, how do you decide?" - she gave some advice that I've carried with me for years and years. She's right.  And although it seems obvious, I watch my clients break this rule over, and over, and over again.

She told us that we'll never know what's going to work until we try it. Then she told us what they do at Disney:  They put their heads together and take their best educated guess. They set rules for results, what will mean that it's working, what will mean that it's not. They go with it. If it doesn't meet their criteria for success, they STOP. Even if they've poured tons of money into it. If it does work, they milk the heck out of it. Period. That's it.

Example of something that didn't work and they stopped: They tried a promotion where, oh what was it? Californians got a discount. Just show your drive's license and...  They set their rules for success, how many months they'd give it, how many Californian's, etc.  The results were not what they wanted, they stopped.  They did NOT keep trying to convince Californian's to come to Disneyland, they did not offer more, they did not lower the price. They just stopped.

Example of something that DID work and they milked the heck out of it: Y`all have heard of the Electric Light Parade? It started out as a temp gig to replace a parade that just wasn't ready for prime time. They figured it would be a short run, just to fill the gap. They gave it a couple of weeks. But people went WILD for it. I think it was ten years worth of wild, then they sold off the lighbulbs for $10 each when it finally wound down.  If memory serves, they even resurected the parade years later.

She emphasied, "Don't keep putting money into something that isn't working. It won't help."

Reeealllyyyy good advice. And yet I see people doing exactly that, over and over. And just like she said, it doesn't work.

I mention this because while I love supporting our clients with administrative, marketing and website services, I really hate to take their money when I realize that something they're doing isn't working well for them. And lately I've seen a lot of what that VP from Disney was talking about, so, ya know, I feel compelled to say something about it.

Need marketing or administrative support for your projects?  Need help just getting it going or keeping it going? Give me a shout via email - robin@sagaradevelopment.com - or just call me at (310) 649-4434.

All my best to you and yours,

Years ago, when I was an event coordinator for a restaurant I taught my staff the same thing. We were young, we made a lot of mistakes, but we really tried to make sure that our first and last contact with customers and clients were positive.  It's amazing how forgiving people were of the mistakes, and how they remembered those first and last encounters.

Okay, so what's YOUR gem?  Send it on over and we'll share it here so we all can benefit.

All my best to you and yours,



Now a word about those social networking sites:  Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others.  They sure are interesting, and fun, but boy-oh-boy can they eat up time.  Yes, they are very useful and can be a valuable part of your marketing strategies. But please remember that it's about marketing. If you want to go online and talk about your hobbies, your favorite recipes, or how you added a new porch to your house last weekend acknowledge it for what it is - something fun, something that can eat up a lot of time, as a hobby.  Yes, it's social, yes it's networking, but to have it contribute to your business marketing you need to be smart and strategic about it. 

I know a business owner who spends hours (and hours) every day online sharing and talking to his "friends." Is he marketing?  Not really.  He thinks he is. Yes, he is building relationships but are these people his potential clients?  Probably not. They're his family, personal friends. I'm sure it does benefit his business in some ways, but my point is that he's spending hours doing it and NOT working on his business or marketing. A pretty high "opportunity cost" there.

So be smart about it, be strategic. Use it to announce that there is new info on your site, that you have a new product or service, or to share your thoughts and motivations behind why you love what you do.  Try to connect with people who might be interested in your products and services, think about them when you post to these sites.  It can be very useful in helping build those very critical relationships.

Will you sell directly through Twitter or some other site?  Probably not directly. Social networking sites SUPPORT your marketing efforts in the ways I described at the beginning of the class: They see your website, they follow you on Twitter or Facebook, it helps them remember you. It helps build relationships.

Okay, to sum up:

Remember, it's the multi-faceted approach that works. Assuming you HAVE a marketing plan!  You've absolutely got to have a good idea of what's out there for you to use, and then to think about what you want to do, where you want to go and where you want to be down the road one, two, three, five or more years from now.  Without some goals, an idea of where you want to go, you'll likely end up wandering around, not actually getting anywhere.

We see it all the time. Business owners go here and try this, go there and try that, it's called "ready, fire, aim" and it really doesn't work very well. It does, however, give the illusion of a life filled with purpose. 

Be realistic. Do a plan, you can change it any time you want. One of my favorite bloggers (Chris Brogan) did a great, short video about SMART goals, you can see it here: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/keep-smart-goals-in-front-of-you-overnight-success.

There is so much out there, be informed and choose what YOU think will work for you. Monitor it, if it's not working, stop.  If it is, keep going!

It's your business, it's 100% your responsibility.  Be smart about, be informed, and make good choices!

All my best to you and yours!

You're passionate about what you do, you've got a great product or service and you'd like to make more money at it. You want to do some marketing online, probably offline as well. How do you create what you need cost-effectively?

In a nutshell, I've got two words for you:  PLAN AHEAD.  That's the big secret (!) and it's huge money-saver, truly. Because when you don't plan ahead it costs so much more (twice, at least in my experience) than if you just did a bit of planning and thinking ahead.

Whether you do it yourself, have staff to do it, or you hire a marketing consultant to guide/advise you, you'll save tons of time and money if you plan ahead by documenting your company, your products and services as you go along, as they are created.

By "documenting" I mean keeping a record of it all, high-quality information and images that you can easily find.  Then when it comes time to create, oh, a website, online ads, blogs, printed materials like brochures, sales sheets, postcards, business cards, print ads and lots more, you'll be ready to go.

For products, artwork, anything you create you'll need professional quality images. No, I don't mean running past the thing with a cell phone and snapping a pic. I mean proper lighting, high-resolution, cropped, color-corrected, formatted and ready for use. Hire a professional photographer. It's your business, your livelihood, you need great-looking images. Do this now, do it as your products are created, don't wait. What you need might not be there in the future, and it will take a lot of time and money to go back and re-create the conditions you had at the time when it was all shiny and new (and in your possession).

Keep detailed descriptions of your products and services. The stuff you write, or pay a copywriter to write. Stories about your work, testimonials from clients and customers, articles written about you and that you write, all of it. Get it while you can, or, spend a lot of time and money retracing your steps and trying to recreate it or find it all after-the-fact when it may not even exist any more.

If you're a fine artist or photographer, same goes for you. Document your work as soon as it's completed. Again, this means professional-level digital photography or scans, and all the information you'll need to document your work, preferably on a spreadsheet but at least on a piece of paper in a file for each piece with your name, the name of the piece, the date it was created, medium, size, price you want for it, description of the piece including any interesting story about it and you, model releases, and so on.

That done, it's not a big deal to create your website, printed and digital portfolios, print, and other online materials from your high-resolution images and information. Everything, and I mean everything, starts from great images and good information. Get it done while you can, at the beginning. Keep it organized. You'll need it later, not only for marketing, but for copyright, trademarks, and patent applications as well. 

Remember, printed pieces required very high resolution images (large digital files). The web is different in that it requires very small digital files that still look great. Once you have high resolution images, you can create what you need for printing and online. 

Many of our clients have us create their printed and online materials for them (they remember about opportunity costs). They know how cost-effective it is (we're fast and use great online printers) and then they end up with professionally-designed pieces to use over and over and adapt for future needs.

By the way, when you create your marketing materials (or someone creates them for you), be sure to add those digital files and printed samples to your collection of images and info. You'll thank yourself later!

Next week, Part 8: How online marketing and social networking sites fit into your overall marketing plan.

All my best to you and yours this holiday season!