WTF are Personas?

Personas are fictional versions of your ideal customers.

They are produced by analyzing your product range and identifying which human beings use which product.

Most companies will typically have around 8 to 10 personas.

Why you need them

You can’t use generic messaging anymore. Try to speak to too many people at the same time and by necessity you write for the lowest common denominator. The result is that your message reads like boring marketing bullshit.

Better to resonate with one than none

It is really hard for people over 40 to get this point. Our entire experience has been shaped by marketing through push channels: Radio, TV, Billboards, and the early Internet.

Marketing is now about pull – it is about putting the right language in front of the right customer and motivating them to pull it into their network.

It's about language

If you don’t know who your customers are, what they like, where they live, their aspirations, what they need and why your service affects them, then, what are you going to say?

That you're great? That you're the best? Do you really think they'll believe you? If you're not writing directly to them, using stories and language that they can relate to, why should they care?

If you’d like to learn more about using personas to drive your business – reply to this email and book a session.

Why you need an Editorial Calendar

Editorial Calendar?

Editorial Calendar

=

Marketing Plan

I know – you’re not a newspaper or a magazine – so why do you need an Editorial Calendar? Well, marketing your business is all about putting the right message in front of the right customer.

Specifically

This means getting an article about how wonderful and relevant your services are on someone else’s website, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter feed.

It’s about the humans

Behind every channel there is a human being – someone who is tasked with the creation and distribution of content. If you can offer them unique content that is relevant and interesting to their readership – you just saved them a lot of time.

It’s about relationships

You can’t just send an email to them and say “Hey, please let me use your online reputation, (which you’ve spent years building up) to market my business for free.” Like most things that we want from other human beings, you need to get to know each other first.

It’s about a plan

It can take weeks to develop a digital relationship: finding the target through social media, initiating contact, not appearing like a stalker, swapping email, sending the appropriate content, reviewing, editing etc. You need to be planning at least a month in advance.

It’s about your time

An editorial calendar forces you to focus on how you’re going to market your business and how you’re going to manage your own time. If you’re serious about growing your business you should start thinking about 2012’s editorial calendar in November.

If you would like some help, reply to this email and book a session.

WTF is Google+

WTF is Google+?

Google+ is a loud screaming

message that you need to be

involved in social media

It was about links

If someone linked to your online content it was a pretty good indicator that it had worth. Links (both number and weight) made up a large part of Google’s algorithm in deciding where you appeared in search.

It is now also about interaction

With the rise of social networks, people can interact with your content in many other ways: they can share it, like it, comment on it, tweet it, subscribe to it etc. For Google’s algorithm to remain relevant they have to factor this “Social” behavior into their search results

Participation

Building followers and contacts on social platforms gives you a group of people who can share your new content if they deem it good enough. Making sure the content is formatted appropriately for the platform will also facilitate its movement.

Not being part of these networks: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, & YouTube, will mean that your content ultimately performs worse in search and you become less visible.

What about Google+

The jury’s still out. I don’t see any need for it and rarely use it myself. However, when they launch Google+ for businesses later on this year, everything might change. For now, I’d recommend you sign up for a personal account to see what the fuss is about but I wouldn’t be spending a lot of time on it.

If you would like to develop a social marketing strategy, reply to this email and book a session.

WTF - Newsletters?

WTF - Newsletters?

You're reading this - 

Need another reason?

If you want to establish and maintain regular communication with your clients, reply to this email and book a session.

WTF is a phone?

WTF is a Phone?

A phone is the killer marketing

device of the 21st century

Image is important

Last week’s commentary on design highlighted how important “look” is becoming. With so much information, human beings are searching for non-verbal cues to indicate validity. Your imagery and videos become even more important

Convenience is everything

With the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S you can shoot quality photographs, edit and publish video, all with the same device and in less time than it takes to produce a quality blog post.

Those of you already writing to an editorial calendar; stop and think about that.

The new iPhone 4S

Sure your teenage son might be bummed that it didn't look different and maybe your IT guy is telling you to wait until next June, but do either of them actually run & market a business?

An 8 megapixel camera, improved lens, improved lighting, full 1080p HD video, image stabilization…this thing is better than most people’s actual camera. If you’re sitting on the fence about whether to buy one or wait – buy one.

Takeaway

The sooner you can get into the habit of recording great imagery of you and your business, both photos and video, the better your marketing efforts will be received.

If you would like to discuss how to embed video into your marketing behavior, reply to this email and book a session.

Why Design is important...

Why Design is important

94% of people online make their

mind up about you before

they’ve even read a word

It's the 21st century

This is the most competitive time on the planet, ever. There are more Attorneys, more Realtors, more Financial Advisors, more Consultants than there have ever been before, and we’re all adding information to the internet to reach new customers.

The Internet is a visual medium

People form an impression of your business in less than 50 milliseconds. They’re not thinking about what you’ve written, in fact they’re not really thinking at all. They’re making an involuntary subjective assessment based on space, navigation, imagery, colors, font size etc. This isn’t just true for your website’s front page, it’s true for your blog posts, your Facebook page, and even the short bio you have across professional networks.

Design saves time

With so much content to read and research, human beings are giving design a far greater weight in determining value than ever before. That first impression colors every subsequent decision they make about your information. You could be Mark Twain but if your content doesn’t look “right” there is a disconnect; at best people won’t believe you, at worst they won’t read you

They're thinking...

“If you can’t present your message in a modern and professional manner, then how good can your actual product be?“

Think about that for a moment.

If you would like to discuss the look of your digital footprint, reply to this email and book a session.