Category — Selected by Jodi

You’ve heard it countless times. You roll your eyes.

You think, oh Gawd, not again! They’re throwing off my design. It’s gonna look dumb. Why oh why do clients do this???

Here’s the Secret

It’s not that they’re foolish or have no appreciation for design. It’s just that they’re human beings.

The Sweetest Sound (or Sight)

Dale Carnegie said that “a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” “The average person is more interested in his or her own name than in all the other names on earth put together. ” It’s a proven way to get better responses, whether in marketing or in conversation. You wouldn’t turn around if someone yelled, “Hey you,” but you would if they called your name.

It works for logos too. They want the logo big because it’s their name, or their identity, or their company (that they worked so hard to build). They have an emotional relationship with the logo (just like with their name).

So, the next time someone wants the logo bigger, be patient (and understand why they’re asking).

Photo: mijori

This sign for free beer is  a great way to attract attention.  If you give away free samples, you’re showing  proof of your skills, establishing trust, and building authority.

You don’t have to be in the beer business (or a bar owner), to do this.

Here are 27 things you can do to get more leads, build your reputation, and spread the word about your services.

Offer Free Information

1. A free newsletter – use it, and a how-to guide, to build up your email list. Put sign-up forms throughout your web site.

2. How-to guides – take something your customers find difficult, and break it down into easy-to-follow steps (like setting up a blog).

3. Checklists – following a list always makes things easier. Create them for video production, printing a brochure, or producing a Web site. Share them with your clients.

4. Tutorials – video demos, printed instructions, or a series of free lessons.

5. Software demos.

6. Mini-reports – Combine several blog posts on a related topic, post the report, and allow it to spread virally.

7. Run a survey on a topic important to your industry, gather the results, and report the results to your customers, your newsletter readers, or your blog readers.

8. Free trial (or a free, limited version of a paid product).

9. Free special report with a snappy title (little known ways to cut design costs)

Social Marketing

10. Start a blog (if you don’t already have one).

11. Answer questions on industry forums like Creative Cow or LinkedIn’s Advertising and Creatives Groups.

12. Join with other bloggers in your niche and share comments and guest posts. Take turns commenting on each others’ blogs and spreading the word (with cross-links and tweets).

13. Subscribe to other blogs in a feed reader (that’s the big orange button on the upper right of this blog).

14. Set up a Technorati account. It will make your blog more visible and help drive some traffic.

15. Create a series of podcasts (you can talk yourself, or interview someone else).

Online Marketing

16. Hold a webinar. Make it informative, not a sales pitch.

17. Free gifts. Add extra free bonuses to your paid products (receive $247 in free bonuses with your purchase). This works offline too.

18. Write a press release and release it through PR Web.

19. Track your promotions, both online and offline (yes, it’s my direct marketing genie coming out of its bottle). You’ll know which of them worked.

Offline Marketing

20. Band together with other people. Exhibit designers can work with companies that create videos for conferences.

21. Show appreciation with a thank you. It’s a small human touch your clients will appreciate.

22. Keep in touch. Send notes on silly occasions (National Ice Cream Cone Day!).

23. Freemiums – nonprofits have been sending trinkets for years (light catchers, stickers, address labels). Add a small gift to your invoices. Or, throw in some “free soup” as an extra treat when you do a project.

24. Offer your services for free to a non-profit in a bind (the publicity can lead to paying contracts).

Viral Marketing

25. Make a funny video.

26. Enter that funny video in a viral video contest.

27. Run a contest. Offer a service for free to a few lucky winners. Spread your name (and build your list; make sure you get permission).

Photo:timusan

You probably know about how email marketing can lead to big profits.  It’s cheap to use, targeted, and easy to do.  Just type in your message and hit send.  Right?  Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that.

Before you start, there are four things you should know about that can drastically affect the results you get.

1. Deliverability

This is the percentage of people on the list who actually received your email.  If nobody gets your email, they won’t open it, read it, or buy anything.

Why email bounces:

• a bad address  (just like snail mail)
• an ISP with a bad reputation
• spammy content (make millions, free satellite TV, weight-loss pills)

Protect yourself by using a reputable company to deliver your email, cleaning your list regularly, and checking your content for content that can trigger a trip to the spam folder.  Use double opt-in (asking first for the email address and then for verification) to stop spammers.

2. Open rate

This is the number of people who open the email you sent.  You can increase this by:

• using a from field from a real person (your name or company name), rather than something spammy (Acai Weight Loss Marketing)
• writing a great headline that promises value and solutions to problems
• make the first few sentences worth reading, since many people read email with a preview pane

3. Click through rate

This is the number of people who click through to the Web site with the rest of the sales pitch and the ordering information.  Click through is affected by:

• copy  – building up the benefits, what people will get from your product, how you solve a problem
• the offer – what they actually get when they click, such as a free report, details about a conference, or a video
• formatting -  whether the paragraphs are long or short, if you used bullets, where the line breaks are

4. Conversion rate

The number (or percentage) of actual sales, leads, or opt-ins generated by the email.  Remember to use a landing page, not your home page, to make the rest of the sale.  The email “pre-sells’ the offer:  why you’re sending it, what you’re offering, what it will do for them, why they need to click now, what they should do once they get to the landing page.

Tomorrow, how to boost your email conversion rates and get more sales.

Photo:  wikimedia

The right headline can make or break or ad or your email.  There are times when the perfect headline jumps out of your brain and types itself out on the page.  Other times, it’s like slogging through molasses (no progress, and your brain feels like it’s bogged down in something sticky).

What do you do when inspiration fails to strike?  A recent post on Copyblogger got me thinking:

1) Let Google do the work for you

Try searching for your topic on Google.  See what ads or sponsored links pop up.  This can be a great source of ideas.  Plus, they’re already search-engine friendly.  Check the number of results to see how popular the topic/wording is.

2) Swipe ideas from banner ads

Someone else has paid for those banner ads to come up on relevant sites.  See what headlines they’re using, and adapt them.

3) Look at magazine covers

This works especially well with women’s magazines. They’ve been using attention-grabbing headlines for years.  Copyblogger particularly recommends Cosmopolitan, and I agree. You don’t even have to leave your desk; you can check out the latest covers at magazines.com.  Plus, if you’re a guy, nobody has to see you picking up Cosmo!

Don’t use the headlines directly, but modify them to fit. “Five Words That Get the Truth Out of Men” might become “Five Words That Get Clients to Pay Overdue Bills.”

4) Use a formula

There are formulas for this.  Direct marketers have been using them for years (because they work).

a) Set up a contradiction

“Earn Money While You Sleep”

b) Promise information
“How to Avoid the Biggest Mistake You Can Make When Buying a Camera”

c) Answer questions or objections

“10 Things You Should Know Before You Hire a Web Developer”

5) Look at newsletters you get from other people

I just got one titled: “Write a Profitable E-book in One Hour”

(This makes a promise, offers success, and sets up a seeming contradiction).

6) Keep a “swipe” file

Tear out ads from magazines, save direct marketing letters, print out ads you see online, and scribble down headlines from TV or a blog.  Keep them all in a big folder (virtual or actual) and pull them out when you need inspiration. Keep a small notebook with you to jot them down.

7) Don’t try

Sometimes trying too hard or thinking too much can freeze your brain.  Step away from the computer or the paper and go do something else.  Send an email to a client, take a walk, get coffee.  I often find I get great ideas walking down the street.

Oh, and if you think the headline in the paper is far-fetched, a few days ago I saw a cat chasing a dog the size of a Labrador.   This is a tough town.

Photo:plenty of ants

As promised on Friday, you don’t need buckets of money to run a successful marketing campaign. The photo on the right represents my entire budget for a marketing campaign several years ago: $100.

Here’s how I ran a successful campaign and only spent $75 (without social networking tools).

The Goal: 15 Attendees; The Budget: $100

My assignment was to promote a small breakfast seminar, with the goal of 15 paid attendees. With very little money, I had to think creatively.

Since the seminar was about selling financial services to Hispanics, I turned to my house list first, sending text emails to people who had attended prior events concerning either Hispanic marketing or financial services marketing. But, that wouldn’t be enough. I also sent a fax marketing sheet (you could do that then); still not enough.

Reach More People Without Spending Money

So, I found a way to reach out to more people (without spending money I didn’t have). I contacted someone who ran a multi-cultural marketing newsletter which went out to thousands of people. She sold advertising in her newsletter, but at $250 for an ad, or $900 for a solo email it was way over my budget. So, I negotiated a deal. She included the ad, in return for two seats at the table at the seminar.

I sent my emails and my faxes, and she sent her email to her subscribers.

Stop the Promotion:  We’re Out of Space!

The original goal was 15 people. We got 45. We had to start a waiting list. I had to cancel the last wave of promotions and stop marketing! There was no more space in the room, it was becoming a fire hazard.

I can’t share exact results, but attendees paid between $25-$45 to attend, so at 45 people, the ROI on my $75 investment was tremendous.

Partnering can give you greater reach, bring in new business, and save money. More ways to do this tomorrow.

Photo: kugelfish