Category Archives: small business marketing

Top 10 Content Strategy Tips From Andy Crestodina

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It’s true. I’ve been conspiring with Lennie Rose. To build up to the event on October 2nd, we’re posting top 10 lists on each others blogs, one tip per day. You’ll find my tips below and you can see Lennie’s content strategy tips on the Orbit blog.

So check back daily and you’ll see this list grow. Feel free to leave a comment and say hello, and hopefully, I’ll see a few of you at the Catalyst Ranch at the next Big Ooga!

1. Know who you’re talking to…

Web marketing is all about empathy. The more you can put yourself in the shoes of your audience, the more successful you’ll be. What questions do they have? What gets them excited? Worried? Where do they hang out? Who do they read? Who do they listen to?

This is the mindset of the content strategist: What questions does my audience need to have answered before they buy? Where are they asking these questions? How can I get there and provide the answers first?

2. Share with people who care…

Here’s a quick way to get your content in front of people who are interested: Visit FilterTweeps.com and find people who have the topic in the bio. If the post is called “How Wedding Planners Can Use Pinterest,” search for people who have “wedding” and “pinterest” in their Twitter bios (hint: there are 37). Pick a few with big followings and mention them when you Tweet the link!

3. Be Brief

Edit it down! Don’t use ten words if you can say it in six. Your reader is busy. Honor their time by being concise. Use short sentences. Short paragraphs. Even sentence fragments.

4. Internal links

Never miss a chance to link from one piece of content to another. Link from the blog post to the whitepaper, and from the whitepaper to the contact form. This is good for converting visitors into leads.

Also, whenever you write something, go back and look at older posts and find opportunities to link to the new post. The link itself should include descriptive text. For example, ”How to make a sitemap” is a better link than ”click here.” This indicates relevance and is good for SEO.

5. Get together…

According to the 2012 B2B Content Marketing Survey, live events are considered the most effective content marketing tactic. Remember, speaking is content too! So find a venue and invite your audience to network and learn from the experts (that’s you). When you meet people in person, you can build a relationship stronger than all those social media connections put together.

6. Take risks…

Try something new. Experiment with different tone, topics, tactics or frequency. What’s the worst than can happen?

…and every now and then, take a stand. Come out strong for (or against) something. It’s good show your readers what’s important to you. You can be sure than when you write an opinion that’s important to you, it will be in an authentic voice.

7. Set it and forget it…

Find every opportunity to put something on auto-pilot. Schedule holiday tweets a year in advance. Use Paper.li to auto-curate a weekly or daily paper. Set up a series auto-response emails when people subscribe to your newsletter or fill out your contact form.

8. Give people a reason to sign-up

If you’re newsletter sign-up box doesn’t tell people exactly what to expect and how often they’ll get it, can you really expect people to subscribe? Your email sign-up form should appear right next to the content, be visually prominent and set good expectations.

9. Post with pictures…

If your post goes live without a picture in it, it won’t stand out when you share it on Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn. If at all possible, create a diagram or chart. Use a stock photo if necessary. A great picture is interesting all on it’s own. Not sure where to find a photo? Try using the camera in your pocket!

10. Collaborate!

Find someone you like and come up with a writing project together. Take on a bigger content project and split it up the tasks. Combine your client lists and try a survey. Combine your contacts and hold an event. Or, post Top-10 lists on each others blogs and share with each others networks. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?

Join us tonight at Big Ooga!

Andy Crestodina

We’ll be turning attendees into kick ass content marketers, showing how to turn key messages into client magnets. Learn the skinny on how content strategy works with search marketing and social media.

Andy will be asking for a few volunteers to create an on-the-spot strategy for your company. If you’d like to be chosen, come prepared to answer this: “What questions does my target audience ask about my product or service?

If You Want More Clients Read John’s Story

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John’s Story And Why This Matters To You

I want to tell you a story about my client, John. His single goal is to get more clients. The only reason he’s marketing, the single reason he has a website and the one reason he’s on social media is to distill it down to ONE thing. To get more business and serve more companies.

My challenge was to help John find the most direct route.

So I called J.D. Gershbein, one of the world’s leading LinkedIn experts to discover what LinkedIn could do for John.

After our private phone consultation I learned that LinkedIn is THE place to be if you’re a professional. If you know what you’re doing on LinkedIn you can find your exact right new client and close the business, meet valuable people and bring the virtual experience into real life.

If you know what you’re doing with your profile and how to work the site, you can attract the right new business to you.

The session was so illuminating and the directions were so clear that I said to J.D., “This is way better than any seminar or class, far superior to any canned product. This walk-through agenda with Q. & A. made it possible to gain your expertise.  We should share this. We should offer this to people in this way so they can learn how-to use LinkedIn too.”

Think about it – how many times do you have the opportunity to speak to a leader in their field and have them personally train you? (and live to afford it?)

So we are offering a new and exclusive LinkedIn Mastery 101 phone-in class that’s every bit as good as the $1000 training J.D. delivers to major corporations, C-suite execs and their teams but without the sticker shock.

The difference is, this is a LIVE phone-in session that you can do from the comfort of your desk. You’ll have the ability to ask as we go, to learn at your own pace..to really get the information.

The Date is Wednesday, August 22 either morning 10am-12 noon or 7pm-9pm evening.

If you would like to be part of this exclusive session and really learn a next level of mastery on LinkedIn, ACT FAST.

 
We are limiting classes to 5 participants per session so we can give you our full attention.

 
The Date is August 22, 10-12am or 7-9pm

 
There are only a few spots left.

 
To sign-up click here:  http://tinyurl.com/8c2shew

 

Please feel free to call with any questions! 773-549-4815

 

Ooga On!

 
LR

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A New Tagline is Refreshing – Creating Taglines That Stick

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A great tagline can reconnect you with the essence of your business.  More importantly, it can connect others to you instantly in a single turn of a phrase.

Changing your tagline is a relatively easy way to refresh your brand and if you haven’t revisited your own in a while, it’s worth evaluating.

Ask yourself…

Does my tagline pack a punch or is it a boring description of what I do? (Leveraging global dynamics)

Does my tagline say anything emotional or does it use nebulous words like: comprehensive?

Does my tagline have attitude? (American by birth Rebel by choice)

Does my tagline set me apart because it’s unforgettable? (Just do it!)

Does my tagline speak to how my customers feel, who they are or what they care about? (The Real Thing – Oh I get it! I’m the real thing and so is my coke. We’re all cool together.)

Is there something catchy about my tagline that causes people to rethink my brand? ( The future of awesome)

A great resource for understanding taglines and what they should do for you is at the Tagline Guru. http://www.taglineguru.com/nuts_and_bolts.html

It’s also fun to review some of the great taglines. http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2011/01/50-examples-of-catchy-and-creative-slogans.html 

This little change can give you a whole new insight into your own company.  It can guide you into a new brand positioning that is more customer centric, more genuine, less stuffy and more sticky.  By invigorating your tagline you can re-frame your focus and that’s a lot less work-intensive that a complete overhaul.

If you’re not feeling like a tagline genius, we’re happy to do it for you.

http://www.bigooga.com/creativeservices/

Lennie@BigOoga.com or call 773-549-4815

 

 

 

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Adverse to Risk? – The Shoe Story – This Entrepreneur’s Life

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Reading the Chicago Tribune business section I learned that Barbie, the world’s most popular doll, had lost her “Wow” and the president of her division at Mattel, Neil Friedman, had sent his team on retreat to go and find it.

They returned with a new slogan, “Dream Big In Pink Heels” and as soon as I read that I had an unquenchable urge to join their team.

The Green Shoe

I raced upstairs to my closet and pulled out my own pair of green heels, quickly drafting a note to the effect “If you can dream big in pink heels you can dream big in green. Please don’t pierce Barbie’s belly button until I get there. I can help you find her “Wow.”

Then I did the unspeakable, I put my green-patent, vintage stiletto shoe into a Stuart Weitzman box lined with hot pink tissue paper,  tucked my business card and a pitch letter into it and sent it to Mr. Friedman.

At the moment the trap door of the mailbox swallowed my package whole I thought, What a great idea and went home to put the follow-up on my calendar.

A week later I called Mr. Friedman’s office and got his secretary.

“Hi, I’m Lennie Rose and I sent Mr. Friedman a package that must get onto his desk.”

“What is it?” she asked.

“It’s a shoe.” I said

“A Barbie shoe?”

“No, it’s my own shoe with a card and letter.”

“So it’s a resume? We’ll need to send that to HR.”

“No it’s not a resume, it’s a personal letter that Mr. Friedman needs to see.”

“He’s traveling for the next 10 days.” She said.

I asked her name. We hung up cordially and I followed up two weeks later.

“Cindy” answered, “This is Mr. Friedman’s office.”

“Hi, it’s Lennie Rose, is he available?”

“We got the shoe,” She said “and don’t worry, we’re putting it on his desk.”

For two weeks I waited and called again.  I got “Cindy’s” replacement who recognized my name and told me the shoe had gone down to PR.

My shoe has gone down to PR! Fabulous! I thought.

In retrospect this was a Cinderella Story– small time PR person gets shoe in door of major corporation and joins team for world’s biggest selling doll.

I had nothing to lose but my shoe.

The story captured the hearts of people I met for the next several months as we waited for the happy ending.

It came in the form of my shoe being returned with a letter from PR.  It rejected me from a job I didn’t apply for but complimented me on my taste in shoes.

I learned something valuable from that…

How to risk in green heels.

 

 

 

This Entrepreneur’s Life – The Elevator Story

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Entrepreneurs are puzzle-solvers. We take what’s visible and invisible and ponder, plan and experiment. Sometimes the plans work out fabulously..other times, not so much. Here’s a classic example of one of them.

Riding up the elevator to the management office of the John Hancock Center, they had agreed to meet with me over an idea I had for a holiday party for their building. It was to be a full-on experience.

The idea was born out of a need to promote my first book.

Parties with Panache (don’t laugh and definitely don’t read it) was about to be published and the best way I could think of to bring it to market was to host a party with panache.

This was a time in my career before I was a writer or a marketer.

As the wheels of imagination turned, I thought of hosting an elevator party in the John Hancock Center during evening rush hour with a cart of appetizers, chilled Champagne, a waiter, a strolling violinist and singers.

When the ordinary elevator doors swung open people would be surprised, served and serenaded.  Those who caught the magic elevator would be treated to the biggest party in the smallest space.  It would spark delight and ignite good cheer.

We’d keep the appetizer cart on wheels and race it from bank to bank so no one could catch us, even if they tried.  I’d buy a new dress, a formal gown. It’s just what exhausted professionals needed at the end of their busy day.

I outlined every detail of the party logistics down to my choice for caterer and when I finished with the presentation the management was silent…

“We have a problem with this.”

Of course you have a problem with this! I’m crazy! But at the time I made this up it seemed reasonable. 

“We’d like to use our own caterer.”

“Oh!” I said.

“And we’d like to extend it to the lobby where there is more music, food, drinks and a table to sell your books so that everyone in the building can participate.”

“Terrific.” I said, ” I love your ideas. I’d be happy to make all the arrangements.”

And that’s when they hit me with the Big One.

“We’ve been looking for a new idea for our holiday party and this one fits the bill… which is on us.”

To recap, I made up a party that had never been executed with a pitch to strangers who did not know me, to debut a book they’d never read, in a suit that was just SLIGHTLY out of character, with a background career as a Mom.

And not only did they say yes, but they paid for it.

It was a fabulous party and went off just as I’d imagined.  People had a blast.

So if you are reading this and you have an idea, I implore you to take it out for a run.  It may be crazy or it just might be brilliant.

Isn’t better to say to yourself, “I can’t believe I just did that!” instead of ” I could have been a contender”?

Go forth and be the puzzle-solving entrepreneur you were meant to be! If you don’t invent it, it may never happen.

The world needs your genius just like it needed the elevator party.

And the funny thing is, 20 years later, one of the singers found Big Ooga online not knowing it was me..and joined.