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John Jantsch Duct Tape Marketing (10 unread)

Create a Journalist Listening Station

Posted: November 20th, 2008, 8:16am CST by John Jantsch
This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Create a Journalist Listening Station

Garnering great press for your business is a powerful marketing strategy and as such, journalists should be on your radar as a target market. Now, instead of abusing them with buy (press releases) messages, how about starting by building some know, like and trust before you ever ask for the order - that’s just good marketing.

The absolute best way to do this is to become a resource to a select group of journalists that report on your industry or businesses in your community. As a resource your primary job is to help them do their job better by sending along industry information, adding to stories they write and commenting on potential resources and angles they might consider - nothing to do with selling your business or story.

If you do this I can almost guarantee you will start getting calls to provide quotes in stories as a reliable source.

Here’s how to make the job of journalist relationship building easier.

Use Google Alerts and Google Reader to track every story, blog post and mention your target list of journalists create and scan them in five minutes from one location (or, even have them sent to your email inbox as they happen in real time.)

Then you can visit your Reader page, see if anything from one of your journalists pops up and go make a relevant comment on their blog, drop an industry study in mail or suggest a follow-up angle to their story through a hand-written note. This entire process should take just minutes a day and can even be delegated once it’s up and running.

Some tech notes:
- Use quotes around full names to get best results - “bill smith”
- Check the RSS version to have it sent to Google Reader
- Create a folder in Google Reader just for your PR efforts so that you can store the results of your RSS alerts in one handy place
- Get in the habit of checking and responding at least several times a week.
Automating Social Media Activity

Posted: November 19th, 2008, 2:43pm CST by John Jantsch

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Automating Social Media Activity

Does automating some of your social media activity automatically make it, well, less social? That’s the question I’ve been batting around a bit with some social mediaists. See, I think that small business owners sometimes stay away from some new media tools because they seem like a lot of work with little immediate return.

I’ve long preached the middle ground that brings some relief for time strapped business owners trying to juggle it all and that middle ground includes the “smart” use of tools that help you get more done with less time invested.

Now, in most cases I suggest utilizing some of these tools in conjunction with good old fashion social networking that is individual and one to one. Automation is not a substitute, more of a supplement.

Here are a couple shortcuts and resources that come to mind.

1) TweetLater or EasyTweets - allows me to auto follow back anyone who follows me and auto send a welcome message via DM. - This one gets mixed reviews from Twitter maniacs as it can be abused - don’t use it to auto send your spam selling messages, use it to greet a new follower in a fun and engaging way. I get lots of messages back from my auto greets as many people don’t sense it’s an auto generated message. You’ve still got to reach out to people and connect, but this gets the ball rolling automatically and saves a great deal of time. (I’ll do a screencast on how to do this if I get some requests)
2) Twitter Tools - A WordPress plug-in that republishes my blog posts to Twitter, effectively letting followers know I have new content on my blog. Again, mixed in with twitter posts of a more organic nature this is a decent way to keep content flowing and generate some traffic to your blog.
3) Twitter application in Facebook - posts my Twitter updates to Facebook status. I seem to have a different network on Facebook than I do on Twitter so this helps spread the content. I don’t think this is a high level use of Facebook by any means, but I do get interaction from Facebook folks from this activity.
4) Feedheads application in Facebook - I read lots of RSS feeds and using Google Reader and the Feedheads application for Facebook I post my shared Reader items to my Facebook profile each day.
5) TweetDeck - Desktop application that allows me to show Twitter searches, DMs and Replies in one screen. There are any number of tools to get this done, but I like the interface of TweetDeck
6) Facebook Toolbar for Firefox - shows status updates of network in the background as I work. This can be annoying but it keeps you in touch easily with your network. I’ve snagged interviews with journalists looking for sources this way.

So, what are some of your socially accepted shortcuts?
Two Great Software Titles, One Great Price

Posted: November 18th, 2008, 10:33am CST by John Jantsch

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Two Great Software Titles, One Great Price

As you may know I have partnered with Palo Alto Software to produce a marketing planning software based on my Duct Tape Marketing System and book. The software is very practical and functions more like an action planning tool than a document creation tool. It is called Marketing Plan Pro powered by Duct Tape Marketing and early reviews have all been very positive.

I’m also a fan of ACT CRM software from Sage. There are lots of choices in this category these days but ACT!2009 is still one of my favorites for small businesses.

So, have I got a deal for you! Palo Alto has bundled these two great titles and is offering the bundle at $150 off the price to acquire the two separately.

Sorry for the overtly commercial message here, but I just had to share this with you.

Buy Marketing Plan Pro and ACT!2009 for $150 off
Reality Check with Guy Kawasaki

Posted: November 18th, 2008, 7:31am CST by John Jantsch

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Reality Check with Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki stopped by the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast to discuss his newest book Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition.

Reality Check is a compilation of some of Guy’s greatest hits, posts and articles, but it is not simply a rehashing. This format brings his down to earth style into much greater overall context. When you read one of Guy’s blog posts you get his thoughts at that moment, but a collection of his posts framed in a category, makes for a much more strategic read.

The thing I love the most about his book is that you can plop it open to any page and just start reading. You don’t have to read it cover to cover, every single page seems to hold a nugget of great, or at least amusing, advice.

Some of Guy’s gems include the 10,20,30 rule of presentations - no more than 10 slides, delivered in 20 minutes, no type smaller than 30 point. Or, sales fixing everything - get selling and worry about creating the sock puppets when you have cash flow. Go check it out!

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast is brought to you by att.com/onwardsmallbiz. Resources for the small business owner.
Free Social Media for Business ebook

Posted: November 13th, 2008, 9:09am CST by John Jantsch

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Free Social Media for Business ebook

You know I’m a big fan of the use of social media for marketing a small business. Having said that, I’m really a fan of social media done right for small business. That means that some of the tools won’t be right for you, the ways others use some of the tools won’t be right for you, but the power contained in the new way people expect to communicate - and therefor you must learn to communicate - is something that every small business must come to understand.

Standing out and marketing a business takes work, but many of the social media tools make that work much easier and, for the small business that gets that, creates a tremendous competitive advantage. In my ongoing effort to help small businesses understand, prioritize and use social media tools, I teamed with Microsoft Office Live Small Business on a new very practical e-book called Let’s Talk: Social Media for Small Businesses. It is available for download for FREE.
Is This a Skype Killer?

Posted: November 12th, 2008, 8:52am CST by John Jantsch

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Is This a Skype Killer?

Free online phone, chat and now video chat is a tremendous business and personal tool.

Skype pioneered the platform, but Google just launched it’s own version of voice and video chat that connects directly into Gmail. You can download the Gmail voice plug-in here.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never really worked Skype into my routine, even though many swear by it. I’ve already got so many Google services integrated into my day to day activities, that I’m guessing this will be a natural add-on.

Once you download the plug-in and log into Gmail you will be asked to verify your audio and video settings. Obviously you need a camera attached to your computer and those you want to chat with will need to set-up Video chat as well.

If you already use Google Talkr, you may have a head start on access to your connection.

Here’s a screenshot from Google Blog
Live Call with Guy Kawasaki and Penelope Trunk Today

Posted: November 11th, 2008, 12:11pm CST by John Jantsch

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Live Call with Guy Kawasaki and Penelope Trunk Today

Join Guy Kawasaki, author of Reality Check and Penelope Trunk, Boston Globe columnist and author of Brazen Careerist as we talk about whatever comes out Guy’s mouth!

Seriously, you need to read Reality Check and get in the right frame of mind and maybe some tough love in order to grow and business.

Sign-up here - and join us at 3pm EST today.
Be the Red Leaf

Posted: November 11th, 2008, 6:53am CST by John Jantsch

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Be the Red Leaf

So I come back from my chilly morning run and am greeted by the site of one lone red leaf popping out of a sea of green ivy and decaying brown leaves - and I can’t help but take notice.

Stand out - can’t help but take notice - of course, I immediately think marketing strategy.

Small businesses must be the red leaf. The market needs a way to differentiate all the green and brown leaves from one another so it uses price. Smart small business marketers, ones that can become the red leaf and place themselves squarely among the rest, stand out and compete on value.

Now, having said that, standing out is not simply about making more noise of being different for difference sake, standing out is understanding an innovation that a market needs and values and creating a brand that represents that message of innovation in every possible way.

Their are three kinds of research you should do right now if you aim to discover the best way for you to be the red leaf.

1) Study your competition - likely this will verify that everyone is saying the same thing and the opportunity exists for you to say something different.
2) Study difference makers in other industries - what do small business brands that you may already admire do that you don’t? Hire a coach who works with a different industry.
3) Talk to your customers - ask you ideal customers what you do that they value. Chances are it’s not what you think and greater chances are it’s what you need to tap as your essential difference.

Let me see if I can say this in dramatic enough fashion - you absolutely must tap or create a valuable point of differentiation and then build your marketing strategy around communicating that difference or your business will struggle to rise above the competitive noise.

Differences are everywhere waiting for you to claim them. They exist in the way you market, your products and services, in packaging of those products and services, in the delivery of those products and services, in narrow market niches, in your processes, and in your people.

When you find your red leaf and can honestly say you have no direct competition to speak of, you’re probably on your way.
A Mobile Marketing Primer

Posted: November 10th, 2008, 2:43pm CST by John Jantsch

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

A Mobile Marketing Primer

The mobile marketing frontier is moving ever closer to a marketing reality for even the smallest of businesses.

Marketing via text (SMS), location aware marketing, and getting your website in shape for mobile viewers are no longer areas to be ignored for a future day.

I visited with Kim Dushinski, author of The Mobile Marketing Handbook and MobileMarketingProfits.com to discuss what small business owners need to know now about mobile marketing on a recent episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast.

Text Message Campaigns - We focused on effective ways to create text message campaigns, the services you need to make your campaigns work.

Web friendly websites - Making your site more mobile user friendly is a big part of the mobile marketing strategy and tools exist that make it very easy to create simple, mobile browser versions of blogs and websites.

Location awareness - The fact that the phones are shipping with GPS capabilities makes it more important than ever that your business is listed and featured in the local search directories, such as Google Maps.

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast is brought to you by att.com/onwardsmallbiz. Resources for the small business owner.
Google Alerts to Twitter

Posted: November 7th, 2008, 2:32pm CST by John Jantsch

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Google Alerts to Twitter

A reader asked me how to get Google Alerts to post to Twitter automatically so I thought maybe others would like to know as well.

Google Alerts allows you set-up a custom alert notification anytime Google picks up whatever you track - name, product, company, industry, etc. Initially you could only get email alerts but now these alerts can come via RSS.

So, getting your Google Alerts to post to Twitter is pretty easy now. To get them to post to Twitter you need a go between like Twitterfeed.

1) Set up your alert and choose the “feed” option for deliver to - right click the feed link and copy the URL for the feed, it will look something like this
http://www.google.com/alerts/feeds/17750747914485789296/10802436034005942849

2) Then go to your twitterfeed account and link that URL to your Twitter account and you should be done. The posts will go to Twitter at whatever frequency you set up in your Google Alerts - daily or as they happen. This works equally well if you want to post your blog feed, or any RSS for that matter, to Twitter.

I don’t know that this is a great, primary strategy for Twitter use, but it can be a way to mix in some tweets, but beware, whatever Google Alerts catches will post to your Twitter stream unfiltered.