12 Minutes

Jul 15 2011

Blogging Basics – Part Two

Note: 12 Minute Marketing Co-Creator Rick Strater returns with Part Two in this Blogging Basics series.

My 2 Cents on Why Blogging Rocks

The benefits of blogging are numerous. In fact, considering the possibilities, it becomes unclear why people doing business on the Internet would prefer a website over a blog.

First of all, blogging allows you to create a conversation. That’s HUGE. By allowing comments, you are able to engage your readers.

Additionally, in many cases you will find that visitors return to monitor new comments on a given post. Depending on the popularity of a particular post, you might find people returning to comment on other comments, thus creating a lively debate and racking up page views.

Page views I might add, that are vital if you ever plan on making cash from your blog.

Secondly, blogging allows more freedom than having a website. You can vary the topics on your blog as much as you wish, plus you can vary the length of your posts. There is no reason to bore your visitors with the same information day after day; blogs allow you to spice things up.

Plus you can fiddle with your writing style and approach from time to time and get away with it, while any changes in tone or style would immediately stand out like a sore thumb on a static website.

Thirdly, the most popular blogging platform – WordPress – allows for a multitude of plugins with which you can add additional functionality to your blog.

(Editor’s Note: Of course we talk about WordPress in the 12 Minute Marketing program. A lot.)

You can add anything from an online contact form to creating a custom site-map for search engines. Some plugins will add visual changes, while others will simply work behind the scenes to make your blog more efficient.

Trust me this is uber cool when it comes to increasing the usability and functionality of your site. And your visitors will love the results!

Fourthly, blogs possess an RSS (real time syndication) feed. As a result, every time you add new content, a number of services are notified of the update, resulting in attention from the search engines.

Additionally, this feed can be routed to your Facebook or Twitter account, allowing you to share your blog updates on your status without even logging in. Visitors can subscribe to your RSS feed to stay updated on new content, or even subscribe to the comment’s RSS feed to follow new conversations.

BONUS: the structure of blogs make them search engine friendly by nature, which means it’s ten times easier to attract search traffic than it is with a static site.

Finally, the blogging platform makes it possible to change the appearance and layout of your blog in seconds. No really, seconds.

You can change the colors, the sizes and the layout of your sidebars by simply selecting a new theme (template set). This, along with adding plugins, can be done from within the admin area of your blog – something which is not possible with any other website built on any other platform.

(Editor’s Note: We use The Thesis Theme for WordPress – that’s an Affiliate Link.)

Ease of use and convenience is – of course – an important factor for many people. While it does take some time initially to set it up and install your preferred plug-in’s, etc, adding new content afterwards is as easy as pie.

The best part is that you can add all this new content, tweak a new appearance and install new plugins, without any knowledge of FTP (file transfer protocol) or PHP (the coding language on which WordPress was written) required. Pure heaven for you techno-phobes out there.

The WordPress platform is continuously being improved. Every few weeks there are updates available for the platform itself, as well as frequent available updates for plugins and themes.

Updates can be done in a few clicks from inside the admin area – something which again is just not possible with your typical static website.

Considering all the upsides, it is sometimes hard to see why anyone would still prefer to waste their time with the old school static sites anyway.

Apr 25 2011

Communicating Real Value

What's it worth?

What DOES value mean these days? Saving a few bucks? Or giving you something that creates worth?

Everyone has a different connotation when they hear the word “value;” and, for this youngster, growing up in Northern Indiana, mine was shaped by a place called “Value House.” (Rather obscure, this reference – couldn’t even find Value House on Wikipedia.)

Value House was a catalog showroom. They had a catalog and you could order from it and have something delivered to your home. Or, if you prefer, you visit the store and see what’s there. If you ordered something, you took a slip up to the front and waited…then, a few minutes later, they delivered the goods. Someone from the backroom pulled the item off of a shelf and the item went on a conveyor belt and then it was yours.

The problem? Value was an adjective, or a noun. Not a verb.

The House of Value (Value House) created the sense that you were going there to buy something of limited value. And, since the stuff was aimed at middle-class folks like me, then it was obvious that “value” included toys, games, sporting goods and those sorts of things.

How do you “value” (verb) your services, and how do you communicate that value?

As you would expect, we have a couple tips. 3 of them, in fact…

1. Value is, to you, henceforth and forever more, a verb.

I value your services. I value your time. I value you.

Example: When you’re doing a speaking gig, what value do you place on it? Is it “my honorarium is $500?” Or $5000?

Or, alternatively, are you performing a valuation that looks like this:

Number of people in the audience * their average hourly rate = value I am committed to providing.

We just ran counter to every single speaker argument we’ve ever heard. By design: it’s not what my time is worth as the speaker, it’s what your time is worth as the audience. Again:

It’s not what my time is worth as the speaker, it’s what your time is worth as the audience.

Think like this about your audience and, we assure you, you’ll end up with more random calls that say “Hey, we’d like you to speak to our audience. What’s your honorarium?”

2. Value Should Be Easy to Quantify.

Had an exercise this very morning that communicated, to me, the value of a specific service.

I spent 45 minutes (again) removing bad script from two sites that had been hacked. (This one and 12 Minute Marketing.) This is 45 minutes that I could have spent on a number of other things.

What if this happens again? Tomorrow? What if my sites are constantly under attack?

This isn’t the focus group price testing, this is, to borrow from Tim Ferriss, the “I have 50 units in my car, I need to move them now” testing.

45 minutes of my time * hourly billable rate of $250 = I will gladly pay more than that to be able to focus on other things.

It’s now so easy to communicate the value – because I now know what it’s worth.

3. Value Should Never Mean “Cheap.”

Don’t back down on this.

Also, don’t give us crap: “It’s a $997 value but we’ll give it to you today for only $3.99” tells me that you’re really bad at math.

If I, as the service provider, follow step 1, I know your time is valuable. If I follow step two, I know how to quantify the value you’ll receive.

So, with anything – a product, a service, a cup of coffee – I know that you’re getting your money’s worth.

Wait, doesn’t Starbucks do this really well? Communicate the REAL VALUE you’re getting when you walk into the store?

You’ll go really far in your own branding efforts if you start thinking about WHY you behave certain ways. WHY do you go to Starbucks when you know it’s more expensive than its competitors?

It’s easier said than done, right?

Maybe the easiest way to COMMUNICATE REAL VALUE is to provide something people will pay extra for through a top-notch brand experience.

Apr 19 2011

The 12 Minute Blog Post

As we keep moving 12 Minute Marketing through the beta-testing process, we thought we’d eat our own dog food.

Starting with this – become a more productive writer in 12 Minutes.

Our Snazzy Logo

Step one: Set the E.ggtimer. We have used this tool for a few years now. If it’s good enough for the uber-productive Tim Ferriss, then it’s good enough for us.

In this case, we set it for 12 Minutes. Really.

So how do you use this time to become a more productive writer?

One way that works for us is to find inspiration somewhere. (Sounds sappy – but it’s true.) Writing inspiration can come from just about anywhere. That stack of business cards on your desk. That 1995 Burger King Aladdin cup you’re drinking water from. That one book that you haven’t cracked open for ages – but that you keep on your desk because you know it’s darn cool.

Content can be infinite. Once you find the inspiration: FOCUS.

We like to come up with two disparate themes and see if they work together.

What can the sport of curling teach us about marketing?

Why does your daughter’s preschool artwork capture your attention?

Why can mobile apps teach B2B marketers about market penetration?

The important thing here is to use these 12 Minutes as a mini brainstorming session of your own. You’ll probably start a blog post, or a white paper, or an article – like we did with the curling idea above – and you may discover that the topic is not timely (Curling, Olympics, very 2010), or not relevant (my daughter’s artwork is awesome, but it captures my attention because she did it and gave it to me – not of interest to my readers, I’m sure).

You may pick one and decide to explore further – gosh, there ARE some mobile apps that might have B2B marketing relevance. Should I interview someone about the topic? Should I talk to a B2B marketer about their specific needs? Is the whole B2B space just so impossible to crack the code in that it’s not worth going down this road?

My own timer sits at 49 seconds. And I can’t guarantee that trying this exercise will give you inspiration. But if you set aside a block of time – 12 minutes, 2 hours, whatever works – you can become more focused and, thus, a more productive writer.

Beep Beep! Beep Beep!

Editor’s note: The writing portion of this post did take 12 Minutes – everything before the “Beeps” at the end was done. I added the visual and keywords and custom title tag afterwards.

Also, you can follow 12 Minute Marketing on Twitter and Facebook.

Apr 12 2011

Ignore Your Personal Brand at Your Own Peril

Mistake #5 in our Top 5 Small Business Marketing Mistakes special series. Plus some bonus material.

Mistake #5…Ignoring YOUR “Personal Brand”

“Brand.” “Personal Brand.” Gee, which one to put in quotes.

Step one is to remember the following.

Your brand is NOT your logo.

Brand: A series of experiences, of expectations, of behaviors that people associate with your product or service. Or your company. Or YOU.

Your Personal Brand = the series of experiences that people associate with YOU.

When small business owners dive into social media, they start to find people finding them – whether they like it or not, and whether they’re prepared or not.

Your restaurant, your coaching practice, your real estate practice, your dry cleaning business…the list goes on…these things are extensions of you, the business owner. And the sum total of all that stuff you say and do online will be attached to YOU AND YOUR BUSINESS.

BUT, watching your P’s and Q’s – well, that’s what you do anyway with your business. If you think of your online social media marketing time as an extension of what you do at the front of the store (greeting customers, providing excellent customer service, making a great product), you’ll go far.

And so will your personal brand.

Final thoughts…Don’t Be Afraid…To Make Mistakes of Your Own!

One thing is constant – change.

Today’s Twitter is tomorrow’s MySpace. Or something else. We know that will change over time.

But there’s a constant set of behaviors, on- and off-line, that sets average businesses apart from stellar businesses. That keeps average people from breaking through and becoming huge successes.

Do we have all the answers when it comes to those behaviors? Heck no. And don’t hire someone who says they do.

BUT…

We’ve watched this space evolve – from small business marketing to social media marketing. From the “send out a bunch of emails” world of a few years ago to the “how many followers do you have?” world we’re in now.

Engagement Marketing, Authenticity Marketing, whatever you want to call it…it asks YOU to get involved. To have conversations. To share with others. To build real relationships. To get real.

Go get ‘em!

Apr 11 2011

Why Are You Doing This Again?

Continuing the discussion about Small Business Marketing mistakes. Shiny Object Syndrome gets in the way often. Here are numbers 3 and 4 of the 5 biggest.

Mistake #3…Not Knowing WHY You’re Using Social Media

Quick primer on the “Grand Slam” of Social Media Marketing:

Twitter: quick messages shared with the world

Facebook: everyone and anyone you’ve ever known sharing all sorts of personal and business stuff

YouTube: where the world goes to watch videos of all kinds

LinkedIn: a business networking tool that’s entirely online

Okay, now that that’s covered, do you, small business owner, know WHY you’re using any of these sites?

We had a chat recently with someone at a large company that we’ll call “Bob’s Fortune 500.” At Bob’s (for short), they were trying to figure out how to use Twitter to drive sales.

Sales of what? From whom? Who’s in charge of your Twitter time? Who’s gonna follow up?

Actually, the team at Bob’s deserves some credit. Not only did they name their company so that it’s near the top of the phone book, they also knew they wanted to sell SOMETHING using Social Media Marketing.

Some companies aren’t even THAT far along.

Smart companies – even really smart small businesses – don’t say “we need an EMAIL strategy.” They say stuff like “we need to drive more feet into the restaurant, even if we lose money, because once they try our Jambalaya they’ll rave about it and come back.”

THEN…figure out what to do with Social Media.

Mistake #4…Forgetting It’s NOT About You (with SMM)

“Engagement Marketing.”

Two-way sound to it, right? Me, customer, and you, company. Talking. Interacting.

Ignored by many, many, MANY small businesses.

Look, for instance, at the Twitter stream. Is it all a bunch of “broadcast messages?” Or are there “@ replies?” “RTs?”

When we’ve worked with Not-for-profits on their social media strategy, we’ll often advise the 30-day rule. Spend your first 30 days on any social media site just talking WITH people. About stuff that is not business-related.

Small business owners should consider the same. Getting into the habit of back-and-forths with people, of having a little (GASP) fun, of seeing what the world is talking about.

Once you form this habit of interacting and engaging, you will find that your Authentic Self shows through. (This isn’t mumbo-jumbo – if people can’t figure out what kind of person you are, they aren’t going to be all that likely to try your product or service.)

Twenty Mintues A Day Interacting, Engaging. That’s All We Ask.

This dovetails nicely with our next, and final mistake – one that can be crippling to any small business. See you tomorrow for that one.

Friendly reminder to check us out over at 12 Minute Marketing. More stuff like this. Delivered to you every day. The training you need, the bite size nuggets you have time for. Just the good stuff. Seriously.

Better yet…go here – special 12 Minute Marketing signup link – and use this code – davey – and you’re in for free for the first month.