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What Every Marketer Can Learn from Fishermen

Posted on November 2, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

fishing boat There’s an intense discussion going on in a forum I belong to, about whether you need a niche or not.

Do you? Or is it just a lot of nonsense? Why is a niche important?

Here’s why:

MORE MONEY

That’s right. More money. If you specialize you get more money.

In marketing, we call it a unique selling proposition – it’s a fancy bunch of words for whatever it is that makes you stand out (Hint: printing business cards for any small business is not a niche).

The reason that many people recommend finding a niche is that it’s much easier to market yourself that way. Trying to be all things to all people will doom you to failure.

There’s a nail salon near my home that also offers video transfer services. Would you trust your memories to a nail salon?

Think Like a Fisherman

Say you’re a fisherman and you specialize in tuna.

If you want tuna, you figure out where tuna congregate. Let’s see, tuna. Well they’re fish, so that eliminates land masses. You need water.

Now, what kind of water? Not ponds, or lakes, or rivers.

Oceans! Which part of the ocean? Cold water? Warm water? Close to shore? Far from shore? Etc.

You narrow down your target, instead of spraying and praying and hoping to hit something.

You Can’t Catch Fish with Strawberries

Then you think, OK I know where the tuna live, where’s the best spot to hang out to find them? What do they want to eat? What kind of tackle do I need to catch them? What can I do that will attract tuna to my bait?

So, You’re Not Really a Fisherman

A few more practical examples.

Say you’re a wedding planner. That’s not a niche, but what if you specialized in interfaith weddings – and the special issues that arise when different beliefs come together? You could make a name for yourself, and probably charge more money too.

Or, the Virtual Assistant for video producers. If you focus on video, you can go hang out at video industry events, read video industry magazines, and fix yourself in people’s minds as the “go to” person for the video industry. If you know who you’re talking to, and what problems they have, it’s going to be much easier to solve them.

See how it works?

What strategies do you use to attract your own “tuna”? Share them in the comments.

Photo: DeusXFlorida

Freebie Friday: 102 Ways to Write Great Headlines

Link

The headline is the first thing readers see. It can make (or break) the rest of your ad, email, or post. But sometimes, you get stuck. Your brain is blank. You’ve tried 7 different ways to write great headlines, and still nothing.

If that’s you, you’ll love today’s Freebie Friday. It’s a list of 102 headlines from Chris Garrett. All you have to do is download it, pick one, and fill in the blanks.

How easy is that?

Get the list here. No signup or email required.

Announcing a Painless Way to Stretch Your Marketing Dollars

Posted on October 29, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

With all the cost-cutting and recession fears around, many companies (large and small) are worried about spending more money on marketing. This is actually the time when you should spend (or else you may end up out of business).

However, solutions to your budget worries may already be on your computer and in your files.

Take what you already have and recycle, reformat, or re-use it. It’s a good way to spread the word, save money, and save time (rather than starting from scratch).

Doing a free webinar? Record it and put it on your Web site. Or, include the link in your newsletter.
Share links to relevant articles or guest blog posts you’ve written.
Send (or post) links to interviews you’ve done.
Create podcasts from your speeches.
Turn a series of blog posts into free mini e-books

Even if you don’t have anything to recycle, there are lots things you can do for free. Check out these free online marketing tools and this list of ten free ways to market your business.

Freebie Friday is tomorrow.

Image: Chris Satchwell

Avoid These Seven Common Email Marketing Mistakes

Posted on October 28, 2009 by Jodi Kaplan

Email newsletters are a great way to keep in touch with your prospects, get speaking engagements, and establish yourself as an expert.

It can be really tempting to take shortcuts when you use email marketing. After all, it’s so easy. Email is also cheap to send! And you can harvest address without paying anything at all! Free leads!

Sure, email marketing is easy and cheap and can be a great way to market your business without busting your budget.

However, if you’re just starting out, it’s easy to make “newbie” errors.

Before you press that send button, here are seven common email marketing mistakes to avoid (and how to fix them).

1. Cold email marketing

This means sending your newsletter or promo emails to people who didn’t sign up for them.

That includes people in forums, people you met at events, people you’ve been working with on a project, and email addresses from project group emails. It also includes searching the internet for contact information or buying (not renting) lists of email names, then sending email to the people you find.

It’s technically legal in the US. However, it will be perceived as spam and perception is what counts. Think of it this way, the FDA tells us that irradiated vegetables are perfectly safe. Doesn’t matter whether they really are. Nobody wants to eat them.

Try it in Canada and you could be in big trouble. They’ve recently enacted a tough anti-spam law which requires implied (or express) consent for any contact. Implied consent can include handing you a business card or publishing contact information. Express consent is written permission. More on this on the Canadian fight spam website.

Whether it’s in the US or elsewhere, it’s also likely to get your email address blacklisted and your account suspended. Then, none of your messages (even the legitimate ) will get through.

2. Using cc to send marketing emails

You get an email addressed to you and 20 other people. The person who sent it ccd everyone, rather than bcc. Some of those names and companies look awfully tempting.

They could be prospects. You could sell them stuff!. It’s a bad idea. If you really think you can help them, ask for an introduction from the person who sent the email. A warm contact is better than a cold one.

3. Using Outlook for email marketing

Do not use Outlook (or Mail or Thunderbird) to send mass emails. You’ll have to add and remove names manually. It’s easy to make a mistake and cc (rather than bcc) your list or not remove people quickly enough.

Letting people who don’t know each other see each others’ email addresses is unprofessional and makes you look like a newbie. Don’t bcc either.

Instead, use an ESP (email service provider). They’ll automatically add subscribers who opt-in, remove people who opt-out, and make sure that your subscribers don’t see each other. You’ll never have to worry about sending addresses in the open by mistake, or to people who asked for them. I use AWeber (affiliate link) for this. Really, it’s worth the few dollars for peace of mind! Any of these services will automatically add or remove names, and include the opt-out link.

4. No affiliate link disclosure

In the US, you must disclose if you have an affiliate relationship. Even if you’re not in the US it’s a good idea (in my opinion) to disclose your relationships. And, you can have fun with it. I like to say I get milkshake money. Chris Brogan calls it beer money.

5. No address

To comply with CAN-SPAM, you’ll need a physical address listed in every email. A P.O. box is OK. Just include it in your email at the bottom. A reputable email service provider will do this automatically.

6. One email, eight topics

I know, there’s a big fight about short copy vs. long copy (for sales letters, for blog posts, and for emails). It’s not a new fight. However, it is true that it’s harder to read large blocks of text online. Keep it within a page or a page and a half (about 500-600 words). Break up the text into small bits so it’s easier to read.

If you’ve got lots of news, spread it out over several emails. Just think, this way you’ll have eight newsletters’ worth without any extra work.

7. Being irrelevant

You may be excited about your new cat, Miss Eartha Kitty, but your subscribers signed up for design tips. Keep your emails focused on what your prospects and clients want to hear from you. If you like, put Miss Kitty up on Flickr, and send the link to your friends.

BONUS TIP:

I looked in my spam folder some time ago and found a message from Technorati. Definitely not spam. I think the images were the problem. Check your outgoing messages (email newsletters) with spam checker or another tool to minimize the chance they’ll get stuck. And, send a plain text version (this also works better for mobile users).

And remember, be careful out there (bonus points if you can identify the TV reference).