Posts Tagged ‘Bay Area Marketing Consulting’

I am a “stick to the basics” marketer when working with small businesses. Chasing too many opportunities to communicate with a diverse set of target markets (which contradicts the whole idea of a “target market”) dissipates impact and drains away frequency. Without frequency, of course, there is no impact!

In order not to drain your marketing of impact, never add more than one new element to your marketing mix at a time! Focus your scarce resources on making that one new marketing avenue work well before diverting energy to a different opportunity. Too many small business people lose focus and chase new ideas like a butterfly flitting from place to place. You will note that it takes the butterfly a long time to get from point A to point B. Using a butterfly approach to marketing bogs you down the same way.

You have my permission to ignore “great new marketing tools” until YOU are ready to fully take advantage of the benefits they offer, having fully investigated their offering, and what it truly takes to make that new tool work effectively. NEVER commit money, time and energy to a new tool based solely on the advice of the person selling it to you!!! (This seemingly obvious mantra is ignored by more small businesses than anyone can count…)

For more on my marketing mantras, please read my most recent Forbes article. Let me know what you think in the comments section (here or on the Forbes site.)

Image credit: ebusinessunit.com

 

I spent this Saturday walking through the gritty details of how to blog better, with a man who has made a career of it: Bill Belew. Much as psychiatrists keep themselves in therapy to stay sharp, so a blogger like me needs to reconnect to the top blogging artisans to keep my small business marketing skills sharp.

What did I learn?

• Stop writing novels for posts. Short, to the point, intriguing content, consistently delivered, attracts the site traffic (classic SEO practices)
• Write more often. This goes hand-in-hand with “stop writing novels.” If I write more concisely, I will have more time for other posts, driving up quantity. Quality is important, but quantity is KING.
• Link every post externally and internally. Do not be afraid to link to “fellow competitiors!” Connect yourself to bigger influencers in your specialty. Use technorati.com to find these thought leaders and raise your own authority.

Bill went through over 20 key elements of a great blog post, but these are the key steps that I need to practice and internalize to make my own efforts (and efforts done for my clients) more effective.

I can’t wait to get started implementing these ideas in my own blogging. I am re-energized!

I also met a number of great people pouring their passion into their businesses or social missions.

Look for more insights from this workshop over the next week or so. And let me know if one of these insights clicks on a light bulb for you.

Image credit: www.billbelew.com