Fast, cheap, and out of control: how to promote your business, project, or nonprofit
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It used to be really hard to communicate with prospective customers.
You had to buy something expensive, like advertising, or do something complicated, like PR. Or you sent out lots of direct mail, which is expensive and complicated and horrendously wasteful. (Only 97% of our junk mail was thrown away! Fabulous success!)
We don't live in that world any more.
In the words of Internet sage Doc Searls (in an amazingly prescient column about internet marcom written in 1995):
To the energetic individual or company, the opportunities look infinite. Maybe everybody can thrive. Maybe everybody can participate. And maybe [governments and giant corporations] will find [they] can't throw [their] weight around-because this is something like outer space and everybody's kind of weightless here. All that matters is what you . . . contribute and how well you contribute it.
Today you can connect with millions of potential customers . . .
. . . practically free.
You can blog, you can create Web sites, you can contribute to forums and social media communities.
You can subscribe to a ten-week e-tutorial on 21st-century marketing.
What do you need to do all this? An Internet connection, a halfway decent computer, a few resources for things like cheap professional photography.
Oh, and there's one more thing that comes in handy:
You need powerful writing.
But some of us could see something different. There was something new called the Internet. It was just words back then, no World Wide Web. But we could see how powerful those words could be. They moved people to action. And a single writer, if she was good enough, could move hundreds, then thousands of readers.
It was obvious that some day we'd be able to easily reach millions of human beings all over the world.
Becoming a strong writer isn't all that easy. Learning to write well is like learning to play music well. It takes time and dedication, and the knack comes easier to some than others. But any of our lives (and businesses) can be enriched by learning something about the craft and art of writing.
Resources to improve your marketing writing
The nuts and bolts of writing don't change much. Here are a few useful resources. (If you have a favorite you don't see here, let me know about it in the guestbook below!)
The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition by William Strunk Jr.
E.B. White is still one of the great stylists of A more...2 points
Persuasive Online Copywriting: How to Take Your Words to the Bank by Bryan Eisenberg
A useful guide to getting to your reader's emotion more...0 points
The Copywriter's Handbook, Third Edition: A Step-By-Step Guide To Writing Copy That Sells by Robert W. Bly
The classic guide to copywriting, now in an entire more...0 points
The Adweek Copywriting Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Powerful Advertising and Marketing Copy from One of America's Top Copywriters by Joseph Sugarman
Great copy is the heart and soul of the advertisin more...0 points
You need new marketing communication techniques.
We were being overwhelmed by sales messages, so we started to tune them out. Tivo let us skip over TV commercials. And we had a "mental Tivo" that filtered out the rest.
Godin reminded us we could actually entice people into wanting to hear from us. But we had to provide something of value, we had to provide it up front, and we might want to give some of it away for free. We had to create relationships with customers, and that conversation went both ways.
We didn't talk at our customers any more. We engaged with them.
Godin talked about turning strangers (in other words, the entire world) into friends, then friends into customers, then customers into crazy loyal fans who tattoo your logo on their foreheads. Or at least their biceps.
Benefit from the mighty Seth wisdom
Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
Amazon Price: $13.62 (as of 07/10/2009) 
Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas
Amazon Price: $17.13 (as of 07/10/2009)
The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
Amazon Price: $10.15 (as of 07/10/2009)
Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
Amazon Price: $19.00 (as of 07/10/2009)
The Big Red Fez: How To Make Any Web Site Better
Amazon Price: $9.56 (as of 07/10/2009)
So how exactly do you do all that?
Here are a few of the easier possibilities.
(Don't get too stressed if someone is already doing one of these in your business space. You're always going to have competition. Find a niche, find an angle, or just find a unique voice. Find a way to do it cooler and better.)
Print or email newsletters. They have to be interesting and they have to be good. They can't be self-serving (or at least be subtle about it). But well-written information that benefits your customers will create warm-chocolate-cookie feelings that help customers like you, trust you, and enjoy buying from you.
(Here are two posts I wrote to give you a big jump start:
Email Marketing: How Not to Look Like a Dirty Rotten Spammer
What is an Autoresponder and Do You Need One?)
Blogs. Once again, they have to be interesting and they have to be good. What could you riff on every day that would help your prospects and customers? If you're a real estate agent, could you start a blog on relocating to your city?
Articles and tip sheets. There might not be something new to say every day about your business—that's ok. Think about publishing useful articles. If you're a tire store, how about a free PDF (downloadable from your web site) on everything there is to know about snow tires?
Static Web sites. There's still a place for these! You don't need to be a developer or an expert to build a strong Web presence. Click the Contact Me link below my picture (upper left side of the page) if you want to throw around some some ideas!
Squidoo lenses! Squidoo can be a powerful tool to make your other marketing materials work harder. They're easy to build—but solid content and a few special tricks will make them much more effective. Contact me if you'd like some help beefing up your lenses!
Plant a Web garden. You can use a variety of Web 2.0 sites to circulate your content around the Internet. This is a great strategy to support a static site (always link back to your own site, if you have one) and generate lots of Google goodness. Here's a blog post I made on tending a Web garden.
Meatball Sundae
Or, how to not be totally clueless at New Marketing
If nothing else, you can chuck it at your boss's head if he won't listen to you.
Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?
Amazon Price: $15.57 (as of 07/10/2009)
Good blogs and sites about how to create more powerful connections with customers
Copyblogger
www.copyblogger.com
I was a fan of this A-list blog for about a year before I became fortunate enough to start writing for them. Solid content and good writing advice, with a focus on writing commercially viable content for the Web. An important resource for anyone interested in 21st-century marketing.
Seth's Blog
http://sethgodin.typepad.com
I get more ideas from Seth's blog than I can possibly use, which is kind of great.
Common Errors in English
www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/
Not a blog, but an immensely useful reference site when you're trying to figure out if it's backward or backwards, and whether it's ok to use the word impactful.
Merriam-Webster online
www.m-w.com
A very handy resource. This site is free, or you can subscribe to the excellent Collegiate dictionary online for $15 a year, which I think is a terrific bargain.
Book Yourself Solid (Internet marketing and more)
by Michael Port
His book is especially useful because he covers multiple strategies—face to face networking for people who are great at that, Web strategies for those who are a little shy, etc.
Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling
Amazon Price: $20.98 (as of 07/10/2009)
The remarkable communication blog
Learn more about how to promote your business without scams, spam, or sleaze, and about resources for launching your small business.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byHow to create great email newsletters
(without being a dirty rotten spammer)
Done wrong and your hard work just ends up clogging somebody's spam filters. No fun at all.
For more about how to create email marketing and email newsletters that work, check out my post on Email Marketing: How Not to Be a Dirty Rotten Spammer.
I've also got a free ten-part course on creating email newsletter content. You can sign up here: Email and Content Creation Class
Would you like a partner to help with any of that?
Right now, I'm mainly working on creating autoresponders (those are predetermined sequences of messages for your email newsletter) and "thank you" content to encourage folks to subscribe to your newsletter or blog. If you'd like some help with something like that, you can reach me at remarkable [dot] questions [at] gmail [dot] com. If you need someone in a quicker time frame, I may be able to put you in touch with a colleague.
The best way to get in touch with me or find out lots more about what I do is to check out the remarkable communication blog, which talks about all kinds of ways you can form better connections with your customers.
Finally, I invite you to subscribe to a free newsletter on improving your communication. It starts with a ten-part marketing tool kit to create marketing communication that is more personal, relevant, remarkable and powerful.
I absolutely never sell or rent my email list, and I won't spam you to death, either. Cross my heart.
Check out my new Wetpaint site
All about Permission Email Marketing!
Permission Email Marketing
The site is brand-new as of October 5, 2008, so I'll be adding lots of goodies and getting fellow contributors to weigh in. If you'd like to join the fun, you can email me at remarkable [dot] questions [at] gmail [dot] com and I'll add you to the contributor list!
How to give your favorite lenses extra love
www.lensroll.com
If you think this lens is rollworthy, Click here to go right to it on lensroll.com.
Whether or not you roll this lens, check out lensroll.com to find great lenses and recommend great lenses.
Follow me on Twitter
See you there!
Tweet! Tweet!
- soniasimone
- aka Sonia Simone
- 2,589 followers
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Talk to me!
Want more details? What would you like to see added?
I'm interested in building additional lenses, so if there's a topic you'd like to see expanded, let me know here! Naturally I also always welcome stars, diggs, lensrolls, and other random acts of kindness!
PeterPJ wrote...
Oh, wow! Here we go! I only just signed up, and here's exactly the kind of info I need. I like it! And I like the funky Sonia sight unseen! Straight-talking, and no visible bs!
Posted October 25, 2008
scss wrote...
This is such a great lens - really well done and tons of great info. I'm into marketing and sales, and just recently gotten into website building, social marketing and now Squidoos... the world just keeps changing on us... who'da thunk it? a few years ago...
I just had to give it a 5star rating!
Hope you can drop by some of my lenses sometime and say hello!
- Helene Malmsio
Posted May 31, 2008
miltski wrote...
Wow, what a Lens. An inspiring model of what all good lenses should be.
Posted May 04, 2008
Cindy G wrote
Wow! I'm so happy to have come across your lens. I'm still working on my first one... Of all the lenses and sites I've seen, this one is jam-packed with good content, and excellent links! I really appreciate the quality (and lack of hype,
Posted February 24, 2008
rms wrote...
Thank you for all the valuable information you share with us people who are still trying to learn their way around this topic! You are a treasure!
Posted January 15, 2008
alexkazam wrote...
Really useful and inspiring info-thankyou.
http://www.squidoo.com/magicmoney
Posted December 13, 2007
by sonia_simone
Writer, marketer, tinkerer, parent, human being, meditator, gardener, obsessive, bookworm, smartypants, idiot, knitter, bleeding heart, analyst, and w...
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