Category Archives: Marketing

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Rinse and Repeat: Your Content is Evergreen

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What’s the purpose of your marketing campaign? Is it about branding, to make your company name, primary product, or service, memorable in the minds of clients and prospects? Or are you going head-to-head with a competitor and looking to gain or retain market share? Maybe your goal is to expand into a niche market, where you’ve discovered that your product or service is gaining traction and could have potential for more sales?

For every marketing tool that you use—display ad, social media, press release, newsletter, podcast, white paper, webinar—-you create content that costs time, bandwidth and money to produce. Why limit its use to just one platform? Your content is a versatile asset that can be recycled through multiple formats. It is evergreen.

Like a big holiday feast, when many dishes are served and preparation time is longer than the usual weeknight supper, don’t waste the leftovers. Instead, make note of what’s popular and serve it up again in another setting. You’ll not only deliver powerful content to new groups of fans and followers, growing your audience, you’ll save time as you do. Let’s talk possibilities.

White paper slice and dice

Can we start by defining the document? A white paper is written to promote a certain product, service, technology, or methodology and persuade current and prospective clients to believe that it’s useful and beneficial. White papers are stealth sales/ marketing documents written to entice potential clients to learn more about and eventually buy the product, service, technology, or whatever. They are designed to be used as a marketing tool in advance of a sale, to inspire curiosity, trust and demand.

White papers are typically 2000+ words in length and that makes them ideal candidates for content recycling. Selected paragraphs of your white paper can be edited and reused as (one or more) blog posts or newsletters. Your white paper can also become the core of an e-book that you can use in a call-to-action appeal on your website and social media outlets, helping to move prospects through your sales/ marketing funnel and grow your email list as you do.

If contacting media outlets is part of your campaign, a paragraph or two of your white paper might be used as the key message in your press release. If you can schedule yourself into a webinar or podcast, your white paper can provide your talking points.

Blog or newsletter recycle

If you’ve received lots of likes or comments on a post that you’ve written, you might extract a few sentences to create interesting social media posts that you can drop into one or more platforms. Your evergreen blog or newsletter content might result in two or more good social media posts that bring new and relevant info to your fans and followers. Or, you can repost an entire blog or newsletter in one or more of your social media accounts.

You might also be able to recycle a blog topic on a blogging platform, e.g., Medium. You’ll find a few of my posts in Lioness Magazine https://lionessmagazine.com/, a digital publication whose target audience is women entrepreneurs. I’m paid (very modestly) for published articles.

Consider diving into your blog and newsletter archive and updating a topic. Last December, I did exactly that when I realized that a 2019 post on writing a press release is evergreen. I updated with current info and expanded the topic to discuss creating an up-to-date press kit. I sent the article to Lioness Magazine and thank goodness my editor was pleased and agreed to publish it.

You can also turn your newsletter or blog post into a video. You wouldn’t just read it, but rather go on camera and discuss how what you’ve written is useful and actionable and will help viewers make money or operate their business more efficiently. Upload the video to your website, YouTube, Twitter, or other social media accounts.

Finally, you can reconfigure your blog or newsletter, or white paper, into a Power Point presentation and upload it to LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, or your website.

Webinar and podcast encore

If the program host will agree to send you the link and you have editing skills, this feast will yield high-end leftovers. For the price of an email address (that grows your list), visitors to your website, YouTube account and other social media can be greeted with an enticing call-to-action, an invitation-only rebroadcast of the entire podcast or webinar. You might also edit a tempting 3 or 4 minute audio or video clip to upload and make your CTA even more appealing.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Patty Duke (1946 – 2016) starred as both Patty and her identical cousin Cathy in The Patty Duke Show (ABC-TV September 1963 – April 1966).

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Is It Time for a Price Increase?

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We’re here to talk about pricing today, a favorite subject of mine, but I admit the process is tricky. Pricing is more important than you might think because if you don’t get it right you either won’t sell much, because prospects and customers feel you’re too expensive, or you’ll sell but won’t make as much money as you could, because you’ve priced too low. Pricing B2B services can be a challenge. You can’t walk into a couple of stores or check on line and comparison shop your competitors, so competition-based pricing doesn’t work. Value-based pricing is the best option for B2B services.

So that you can at least maintain, if not increase, profitability in these unstable times, business leaders and owners would be wise to evaluate the pricing of their products and services and make adjustments when necessary. Revenue and profit are tied to more than sales volume. The most important driver of sales revenue, after ensuring that production or acquisition costs are covered by the price, is the value that clients assign to your products and services. I suppose that’s another compelling reason why B2B services are most successfully priced according to the value and ROI they bring to your customers.

Conducting basic market research will help you discover or confirm the purpose, must-haves, priorities and ROI that drive the confidence in and sales of your products and services. As usual, knowing the customer means everything. Whether you get them on the phone or take them out to lunch, speak to three or four of your best clients to determine which outcomes and benefits, tangible and intangible, matter most. You want to obtain insight into how your products or services bring ROI to clients. Once you understand what your offerings enable clients to do, align your price with the value they bring. Furthermore, include in your marketing messages those benefits that clients with whom you’ve spoken indicated are the most highly prized.

When announcing price increases, it may be useful to explain your increased costs and how long it’s been since your prices have been adjusted. Don’t shy away from highlighting how much your clients have raised their prices. For clients who may be struggling, consider “grandfathering” to continue the pricing for the product or service they buy most often. You could also soften the blow of price increases by designing product and service options to accommodate price-sensitive clients. No-frills, economy versions of your offerings may be welcomed by some. Consider also indirect price increases, such as adding surcharges for expedited shipping, longer payment terms, rush orders and for performing small projects.

Charging one price for your products and services is, in fact, limiting for both you and your clients. The buying decision may be simpler, but it leaves no room for clients to upgrade and you to bring in additional revenue from upselling.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: The banker from the board game Monopoly ™, which was patented by Parker Brothers in 1935.

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Eyes On the Competition

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As was noted in three or four recent posts, business data and other forms of business information, which may consist of the observations and predictions of researchers, journalists and other experts, have always been an essential resource for business owners and leaders. As we move through the 21st century, data-driven decision-making, enabled by powerful software programs and artificial intelligence, has become the hallmark of responsible business management.

Chief among the market research that every successful business owner or leader must do is assess the competitive landscape in his/her marketplace. Questions you’ll want to find answers to include:

  • Who sells products and services similar to your own?
  • Who are their customers?
  • What is the estimated size of their market?
  • Who dominates, how and why?
  • How do the marketplace leaders attract and retain customers?
  • What is their price range?
  • How successful are they?
  • Can you launch your venture alongside these competitors and achieve sustainable success?

Mapping your competitive landscape also includes identifying direct competitors, meaning companies whose services and products closely resemble your own and indirect competitors, that is, those whose products and services present an alternative choice within a similar price range that can be sold as a potentially satisfactory solution. Understanding the difference between direct and indirect competitors can be simplified by comparing the process to shopping for a Valentine’s Day gift.

The chocolate shops are all direct competitors, with price as a potential differentiator, because chocolates are more or less interchangeable. The same can be said for florists. But chocolate shops and florists are as well one another’s indirect competitors within a similar price range because for $50.00, you can buy either a nice bouquet or a nice box of chocolates.

Start your investigation with a key word search using terms commonly chosen to describe your company’s products and/ or services to see who appears and how they rank. Whoever makes it into the top 10 are the most successful of your competitors. You can also check out member lists at the business and professional groups you’ve joined (yet another reason why business associations are a good investment). Visit the websites of the top 4 or 5 competitors in your search, along with their social media pages and Yelp reviews.

Make note of speaking engagements made by the principals—-host organization and topic, along with company participation in local charity events and business awards and nominations received. If successful competitors have done any of those things, don’t be ashamed to follow with a me, too.

Popular products and services

Knowing what sort of products and services are best-sellers for your top competitors is tremendously useful intel and will enable you to make smarter decisions about building your solutions and making your prospect’s hot buttons blink.

So try to figure out what competitors sell the most, what sells the least for them and what’s somewhere in the middle. Keep the best sellers in mind as you design your services, perhaps adding a differentiating something extra to create more value in a way that’s affordable for you, or that you can sell at a premium.

Finally, watch for what gets revised and what gets dropped. Notice how products and services are described and positioned and, if possible, priced. Learn from competitors’ mistakes.

Leadgen strategies

Absolutely, spend time analyzing the website landing pages and social media accounts of your major competitors. You want to know how they keep their pipelines filled and how they persuade prospects to remain on the buyer’s journey. What informational goodies and special offers have they sprinkled into their TOFU, MOFU and BOFU ( top, middle and bottom of the funnel)?

You may find the inevitable free-for-the-price-of-your-email-address e-book or highlights of a keynote speech delivered at a popular conference. You’re looking for inspired, desirable content choices that you hadn’t thought of, so you can offer something similar as a way to engage prospects and stimulate lead creation.

Blog and newsletter content

Pay attention to topics that are most often covered and those that are infrequently discussed. Notice also if certain topics are spotlighted during particular months. Observe which types of posts are often shared on social media and note which platforms are most often used (and which ones used the least). Your objective is to help yourself plan a content marketing strategy that features topics of interest to prospective readers and simultaneously support the premise that you are a reliable source of good information and a capable professional.

If you’re feeling more curious, use a traffic analysis tool to search for the blog-related URLs in the Top Pages list. Analyze their unique page views and visits, conversions, traffic sources ⁠— make note of all the data that’s presented. Publishing a respected blog or newsletter could become an integral building block of your success. .

Selling points

What objectives emerge as the core purpose, the main problem-solving motivation, that your competitors speak to when communicating to prospects—on their website and social media platforms, in case studies, and testimonials and in their newsletters and blog posts? What do they aim to help their customers achieve when making the case to do business with them? What descriptive language is used? Also, what benefits do they emphasize to persuade prospects to reach out to them?

Moreover, what competencies do your competitors trumpet as a valuable resource that their clients prize and prospects desire? Is it a specialized academic degree, skills certifications, prior work experience and/ or prestigious client list?

Call-to-Action

What you want to know is how competitors sell their CTA. “Buy now” and “click here” are phrases you can think up on your own. The purpose of this research is to see examples of (presumably effective) CTA pitches, both the give-away info and what is said to create an appetite for it. The information offered should be something that prospects are likely to find useful, or somehow interesting and for some items they’ll be willing to surrender their email address to obtain it.

A free 30-minute phone conversation with you or a team member that will allow serious prospects to get insight and answers about how your products and services might help them achieve a goal or solve a problem should make a tempting offer. Click the link to learn more about effective CTAs (gotcha!):

https://freelancetheconsultantsdiary.wordpress.com/2021/04/06/a-call-to-action/

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Krystle (L, Linda Evans) and Alexis (Joan Collins) were eternal rivals and fierce competitors on the prime time soap opera Dynasty (ABC-TV 1981-1989)

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2022 Prediction: How You’ll Succeed in Business

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If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll acknowledge that the ground beneath us began to tremble at least two years before the coronavirus appeared and since its arrival, the instability has intensified. Unquestionably, the economic landscape has changed. As the global economy hungers for signs of a robust post-pandemic recovery in 2022, business owners and leaders have no choice but to adapt to the new reality in order to survive and thrive.

You are not in Kansas anymore. The assumptions and practices that were considered prudent even three years ago will fall flat today. Forward thinking business owners and leaders are taking a fresh look at every major aspect of their organization—sales, marketing, customers, operations, finance, HR / staffing and technology-—to reassess how each job function contributes to sustainable profitability, the brand and the values, vision and mission of the company.

Define the purpose of your products and services

We’re accustomed to communicating benefits—-use this or do that so your boss and colleagues will think you’re a genius and your company’s customers will be happy that their needs are being met. But defining purpose is subtly different.

To figure out purpose, you’ll need to understand the pain point, goal, or challenge that compels prospects to search your website and look for information they hope can move them forward. If you want to provide the information they’re looking for—-and you’d better!—-you must know what prospects have in mind, basically know what they need to resolve, when they reach out to your organization.

Define your customer segments

Regardless of the product or service based solutions that your company provides, there will nevertheless be differences among those who buy from you based on factors such as motivation, budget, maybe age or gender, maybe also geography or education level. The more you can discern those differences, the more successful you’ll be in bringing business to your door, both new customers and those you’ve retained.

Expectations and the journey

Marketing research experts agree that customers have high expectations these days; they’re quite used to getting what they want, the way they want it and when they want it. Maybe the expectations started with next-day deliveries? Whatever, it’s a thing now and you have to keep up. Your only option is to make each customer touch point with your company seamless, that is, easy, fast, meaningful and pleasant. You’ll only achieve that nirvana by:

1.) accurately communicating the purpose(s) of your products and services

2.) knowing the motivations and other defining characteristics of the various customer segments

The customer journey that your company presents requires intentional creation. So much is at stake, and first impressions matter. The information and call-to-action you devise to showcase its presence influences the prospect’s decision to further engage (or not), depending on its perceived relevance to the problem or goal the prospect wants to address.

Info that supports the purpose and efficacy of your products and/or services will be contained in a white paper, case studies, archived newsletters or blog posts, customer testimonials and your website’s “About us” page. Does the information that you make available effectively support the purpose of your products and services? If it doesn’t, rewrite or replace.

The Yellow Brick Road known as your customer journey must be seeded with a series of positive and relevant encounters with information that demonstrates your expertise and builds trust. Trot out the info equivalent of the Mayor of Munchkin Land, the Wizard of Oz and Glinda, the Good Witch to persuade prospects to do business with you.

Digital support

The very thought of incorporating digital tools can be intimidating but you can start small, so long as you start. Don’t imagine you must immediately dive into the digital deep end. You’ve been clicking on chat bots for 5 years, so why not put that AI-powered tool to work on your website?

Do that and visitors to your site will be favorably impressed with the sophistication of your company, which is a confidence-booster, and if you know your customers well enough to program in answers to the 6-7 questions they’ll most likely have, you will contribute positively to the customer journey. Other AI/ digital tools can take the form of marketing analytics that you sign up to access. As noted in a December 2021 post, Micrsoft Excel or Power BI, Python, Jupyter and Apache Spark are among the most highly rated data analytics tools.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Dorothy and Toto, the Lion, the Tin Man and the Scare Crow take the Yellow Brick Road into the Emerald City in The Wizard of Oz (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1939)

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Pro Bono Quid Pro Quo

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I’ve often recommended that Freelancers seek out speaking opportunities as a way to meet potential clients or referral sources, enhance your brand, add names to your mailing list to support leadgen activities and to generally build name recognition and expand your influence. Speaking before an audience, in-person or virtual, is a golden opportunity and, as noted, confers many tangible and intangible benefits. But the cold fact is, speaking engagements often do not pay, or pay only a modest amount.

As a seasoned professional with wisdom to share, you deserve to be paid for speaking engagements but unfortunately, that is not always the case. While occasional pro bono speaking engagements might be building blocks for your brand, it nevertheless makes sense to get some quid pro quo. Use some creativity and moxie to first, think about acceptable substitutes for money and then ask the organizer what can be done for you. In other words, redefine what it means to get paid and negotiate for an alternative form of payment that will compensate you for the value you’ll deliver. The alternative payment might be tangible or intangible. The idea is to not walk away empty-handed and create a win for yourself and the organizer.

As you consider what you may be willing to accept in place of monetary compensation, remember what is required to prepare a talk. Typically, a one hour program consists of about 45 minutes for the presentation plus 10-15 minutes allotted for your introduction and Q & A. Presentations require numerous hours to prepare—slides must be designed and created and maybe handouts, too. Practicing your delivery and figuring out how to best integrate the visuals can take three hours or more. You’ll want to negotiate for a fee alternative that for you will be a high-value commodity, even if it’s not money. Here are seven possibilities to consider:

Networking opportunities

There is value in relationship-building conversations with leaders. Request an introduction and 30 meeting with a leader or decision-maker within the organization to build broader deeper networks. This creates long lasting connections after your talk. Research the organization to help you prepare a list of questions you can ask and to also help you understand how you can be a resource to the organization and vice versa.

Testimonials

Ask an organizer in a leadership role to provide a flattering quote or endorsement that can be uploaded to your website or LinkedIn profile. If there is a heavy-hitter in the audience, ask the organizer to introduce you and ask if the VIP would be willing to supply a quote that you can record as a video.

Referrals

Request that if your talk receives positive feedback from the audience, you’ll be invited to speak again in 24-36 months. Or, if the organizing body happens to be the local chapter of a regional or national organization, ask your local contact to recommend you as a speaker at the regional or even national level. You can also ask to be referred and recommended to speak at a related organization or conference. The goal is to use this first opportunity as a stepping stone for upward mobility.

Discounted memberships and dues 

Many speaker series programs are hosted by organizations whose members and programs can provide networking and professional development opportunities for you. Consider asking to receive a waived or discounted one-year membership, to help expand your network, upgrade your skills and save money as you do. Or you might request comped admission to certain upcoming programs that you’d like to attend.  

A public speaking coach to build your skills

Ask your con if the organization has affiliations with professional storytellers or public speaking coaches. If so, request that the coach meet with you for an hour or two, to give feedback in advance of your talk. Or, ask for the coach to attend your presentation to evaluate you and provide verbal or written feedback. Using your talks as opportunities to improve your speaking skills is always a good strategy.

High-resolution event photos

Some speaking engagements are still virtual, but if your talk will be in-person , request that a photographer, if available, takes action shots of you at work, speaking at the podium and interacting with the audience. You might also request that the photographer take a headshot of you. High-quality photos are an important resource and images of you in action are especially valuable, but may be difficult to obtain. High quality, recent photos are guaranteed to be excellent additions to your print or online promotional materials, from website to media kit.

Social media boost

Ask the organizer to record the presentation, whether virtual or IRT, and send three of four five-minute highlight video clips for you to upload to social media. Teaser videos can also be used to promote your content and speaking style. Use the material as a demo reel to help solicit further speaking opportunities.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Former first lady of Argentina (June 1946 – July 1952), Eva Peron electrifies a crowd

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So What’s Your Lead Magnet?

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As Freelance consultants and owners /leaders of businesses of every size work to attract and retain customers and convert leads into sales obtaining contact information, particularly email addresses, is of paramount importance. Email addresses are a foundational resource and govern your ability to communicate with current and prospective clients. A healthy email list is remarkably valuable and building and maintaining a good list is something you want to do.

The challenge is, how can you obtain email addresses quickly and efficiently? You can buy email lists; you can use online services such as Contactout, Clearbit connect, Finder.io, Discoverly, or even Google, to help you find the email addresses of decision-makers you’d like to reach. The problem is that contacting those individuals would constitute spamming because they have not agreed to share contact information with you. Blindly sending promotional emails, or even your newsletter, to those who you assume are prospects, but who have never engaged with your company in any way, is a turn-off. Delete.

Building a money-making email list takes time, effort and ingenuity. To successfully obtain email addresses, it is necessary to create conditions that motivate potential prospects to surrender them. The original method by which email lists were built was through teaching or other speaking engagements. If pre-registration was required, voila, you harvest email addresses. Sign-in sheets that request emails were/ are another harvesting method. It’s a slow process, but the leads are authentic.

More common now and in theory, a faster and easier leadgen method, is to somehow attract prospects to your website and social media platforms. Bringing inbound leads to one of your sites is a victory, but you still need a hook to persuade visitors to remain onsite and engage. To create that bit of magic, you need an appealing offer, a lead magnet. You also need to call attention to and sell your lead magnet with a persuasive call-to-action. See the link to review our CTA conversation.

. https://wordpress.com/post/freelancetheconsultantsdiary.wordpress.com/21655

A lead magnet is often content given away to someone in exchange for their email address. Instead of asking website visitors to buy your e-book, for example, tell them they can have it at no charge, if they kindly provide their name, email address and maybe also the name of the company for whom they work (or own) and their job title. You can do the same with other resources that may be considered valuable and desirable.

You must give customers a compelling reason to provide you with their contact information. Most people today are inundated with emails, so your lead magnet and CTA must be stellar to convince people to add yet another email to their inbox. Simply inviting people to add their names to your mailing list no longer generates the results it once did. You must give something of value in order to receive something of value.

What type of lead magnet should you create? Other than an e-book, you might also offer the results of a comprehensive survey that examined a hot topic, or a live taping of a webinar or podcast in which an interesting subject was discussed (and perhaps in which you participated). Other possibilities include:

  • A content marketing calendar
  • Your newsletter
  • A case study
  • You invite a client to tell the story of how you solved a problem and provided a solution that worked especially well
  • A white paper
  • The purpose of a white paper is to promote a certain product, service, technology or process that your company offers or plans to offer soon. The writer aims to (you) discuss and in so doing persuade current and prospective clients that the solution is highly effective and may be useful for their organization when certain circumstances, problems, or goals exist. A white paper is intended to provide compelling and factual or technical evidence that your offering (the product or service) is a superior method of achieving the goal or solving the problem. In general, white papers are written in an academic style and they’re often about 2,500 words in length.

Just remember that you’ll have to do more than dangle an alluring treat before your visitor’s eyes. it’s not just about the lead magnet. You’ll want to create a persuasive, come-hither CTA pitch that motivates readers to covet your lead magnet and hand over some personal information to posses it.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: The magic hand of Steve Spangler, the Science Guy on KUSA-9News in Denver, CO on February 25, 2019

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Client Testimonials: Cheerleaders for Your Business

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As you ambitiously devise and implement leadgen campaigns and branding strategies designed to keep your sales pipeline filled with prospects that you hope to convert into a few sales, it is easy to lose sight of a basic fact of marketing—your clients are the best promotional resource you’ll ever have. Satisfied clients can become your cheerleading squad and they have more credibility with prospects than any marketing tactic you could ever devise.

Today, there is so much sensory overload noise in the marketplace that Freelancers and other business owners are often best served by peer-2-peer testimonials to persuade prospects that doing business with your company is a safe bet. Unless you can afford to buy an ad during the Super Bowl, nothing has more credibility than from the trenches client testimonials, referrals, or case studies.

So how can you recruit a client to publicly recommend your products or services without seeming to overstep a boundary? Basically, you ask the right clients, you make it easy to say yes, you make the ask at the right time and you make sure that the end result makes the client and his/her organization look good.

Ask the right client

Obviously, your first job is to know which of your clients would make a good recruit for a testimonial ask. Recall clients with whom you worked over the past 2-3 years and for whom you’ve done an exceptional job in terms of beginning to end customer experience, delivering the solution and meeting, if not exceeding, all expectations. Most of all, the client has to recognize and value what you did on his/her behalf. In other words, ask clients who have plenty of good things to say about your company and the work you do or the products you sell.

Timing

Timing takes more than one form. One factor is, how far into the past can you reach to make an ask? Will it be awkward to ask a client with whom you worked, say, four years ago? The answer, I think, is that it depends. If you maintain contact with past clients, e.g., sending December holiday cards and perhaps also sending announcements about your appearances on webinars or podcasts, it will be easier to reach out and ask for a testimonial.

Another timing issue is to avoid the client’s busy season, or the end of the fiscal year, when the client may have deadlines to meet. To the best of your ability, avoid making the ask when your client faces time-sensitive, pressing work responsibilities.

The ask

The window between your last interaction with the client and when you plan to ask for a testimonial will impact your choice of communication. If it seems right to approach a client soon after the work is completed or the product purchased, including your testimonial ask in a post-sale client satisfaction survey will be perceived as a natural progression. Email the survey and encourage your client to share feelings about working with your organization, the products that were purchased, or the services provided.

Invite the client to provide more specific, detailed comments in the Testimonial Template that you embed in the survey. Note that comments may appear on your company website and social media sites.

To approach a client with whom you worked a year or more ago, it may be more appropriate to first call and discuss the testimonial ask and then follow-up with an email to confirm, with your Testimonial Template attached.

If your client prefers to make a video testimonial and you have the skills to record and edit the video, which should probably be no longer than 6-8 minutes, arrange to meet for the shoot. Alternatively, you might set up a videoconference call and record an interview with the client as s/he discusses the positive experience and great results obtained from working with you. Audio-only testimonials can also be recorded and they are likewise compelling. When using the audio or video options, send the Testimonial Template a week in advance and send it again 48 hours ahead of the recording session.

Questions and quotes

Help clients to endorse your products and services by including a few open-ended questions in your Testimonial Template to get the ball rolling. Devise simple, direct questions that put the client in story-telling mode and will yield good quotes.

Ask the client to briefly detail the goal that had to be achieved or problem solved and why there was a need for the products or services that were purchased. Also ask the client to divulge if s/he previously used another company to obtain similar products or services and to provide insight into what motivated him/her to explore your company. Remember to ask the client to share reasons why your organization was chosen and not another. Finally, urge the client to discuss the experience of working with your organization, with an emphasis on expectations and benefits derived.

Client benefit

Your testimonial will be posted on your company website and on one or more social media channels—-remember to link the text, audio, or video back to your client’s website. Let the client know that you’ve provided these valuable back links by sending links to all platforms on which the testimonial appears. Informing clients whom you approach for a testimonial that you’ll provide this sort of publicity may yield a “yes” for your ask and put your venture on the road to obtaining the best endorsements available.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Cheerleaders in 1920s America

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Clubhouse: It’s About Networking

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As you know by now Clubhouse, the newest social media platform, is a live audio-only service that’s accessed through an app and was launched in October 2019. Clubhouse facilitates candid and compelling conversations between smart and interesting people and those conversations are intended for members only and are never recorded.

In keeping with its audio format, Clubhouse operates as an endless series of talk radio interviews (or podcasts, if you prefer) and group meetings that invite members to create virtual audio “rooms” and “clubs.” Clubs function to build communities within the platform—-audience development, in other words. Rooms are where audio chats take place and there are three types: Open, Social and Closed. Chats in the Social and Closed rooms are available only to members of the sponsoring club and Open rooms accept all parties.

Rooms are sometimes hosted by those with a following—thought leaders and opinion-makers, celebrities, venture capitalists, journalists and so on, but regular folks are also able to host a room. Each room offers its own format, an audio happening that may primarily attract devoted listeners or might bring in those who look forward to joining a lively discussion. Room events can be either pre-scheduled or surprise pop-ups. Rooms might hold just a small group, perhaps hosted by someone not well-known, while other rooms are led by marquee name players and draw dozens or even hundreds of listeners.

Clubhouse quickly grew in popularity during the early weeks of the coronavirus shutdown. Initially, the app could be downloaded only on Apple phones and membership could be obtained only by an invitation from a current user. The velvet rope policies proved to be a brilliant marketing tactic. Clubhouse became the darling of the A-list elite. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg were guest speakers. Oprah Winfrey, Mark Cuban, R & B superstar Drake and comedian Chris Rock were said to be members. I first wrote about Clubhouse in February 2021. https://lionessmagazine.com/clubhouse-an-audio-chat-platform-for-beautiful-people/

Clubhouse continues its upward trajectory, especially since Android downloads became possible in May 2021 and invitations to join are no longer needed. According to Quantummarketer.com, there are 10+ million users globally mostly located in the U.S., western Europe, Japan, South Korea and Australia.

Now I’m certain that you find all of this quite fascinating but you may wonder, is this new social media player worth your time? I think yes—-that for B2B service providers and start-up entrepreneurs, Clubhouse has the potential to be useful in your Next Normal networking strategy.

Because interactions are about listening and talking live and IRT, communication is enhanced. Furthermore, the profiles of all room and club participants are available, making the experience feel sort of like a big conference call, where everyone on the phone is vetted and circumstances confer a degree of credibility and trust. At least some people may feel comfortable enough to chance off-line conversations and open the door to building a relationship.

Time must be invested and goals defined, as is true with other marketing activities. Key word searches that describe your goals will help to locate clubs and rooms to visit. Develop a good profile (because it matters) and step in.

Look for room topics that will expose you to recognized experts in your field, to help yourself deepen and expand your knowledge and therefore enhance your credibility. Get the heads-up on developing trends on the horizon in your field. Raise your hand, ask questions and share experiences or insights that are relevant to the discussion. Become a regular, get known and facilitate relationship building. Popular clubs that might appeal to Freelancers and others in business are listed below.

But remember that Clubhouse is not about making sales, but about listening to insightful conversations and contributing to the discussion by sharing your own wisdom. By being an active, friendly, generous participant your networking can take you to any number of paths and can yield many tangible and intangible benefits. You can even choose an appealing topic yourself and host a room every now and again, to work on building a following of your own. You might even find a mentor or be inspired to become one.

Community Club’s main purpose is make Clubhouse a welcoming place for everyone. It’s the best club for growing a Clubhouse community. Members mainly talk about Clubhouse features, support topics and onboarding newbies.

Bitcoin is the biggest club about cryptocurrency on Clubhouse. Some members who are real professionals on Bitcoin, heavy hitters. Visitors will find open, friendly and enlightening conversations about Bitcoin technology, markets, culture and the ecosystem.

Creative Executive Officers is a guide to the business of creativity for artists and entrepreneurs. Topics are mainly about business advice, entrepreneurship and education. 

Future of Work is where to discuss earning a living—entrepreneurship, creator economy, gig economy, freelancing, creatives, startups, venture capital, business, tech, AI, health, wellness, personal development, the hustle and the self-employed.

The Hustler Club “Your daily dose of motivation” is where hard-charging entrepreneurs, hustlers and creatives discuss ideas and have from-the-trenches style conversations.

Marketing Club features conversations about marketing, advertising and making the most of Instagram. Group members are marketers, creators and verified experts. 

Start-up Club is the largest of the clubs and introduces impressive and successful start-up stars who share their secrets. You’ll meet founders, entrepreneurs, angel and VC investors.

Stock Market Moves welcomes experienced, successful stock traders and those who want to become just that.

Tech Talks. is said to not be your normal tech community. It is group for diverse individuals from all walks of life, diverse backgrounds, industries and departments. Their main purpose is bringing together a group of people to talk about the good, the bad, the technical and business side of tech.

Women in Business is the largest women’s club and they are committed to empowering women in all sectors of business. and entrepreneurship.

Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for reading,

Kim

Image: © Keystone-France/Gamma Rapho. Pirate radio hosts on the ship Caroline were rescued and brought to at the police station after the ship ran aground at Frinton-on-Sea, UK on January 20, 1966.

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10 Under $30: Holiday 2021 Client Gifts

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The holidays are knocking on the door and savvy Freelancers know to respond with a client outreach strategy that could generate referrals and repeat business. December is your big chance to demonstrate to clients past and present that you value them and would be happy to work with them again. Before November slips away, create a plan to send holiday cards to clients with whom you’ve done business over the past 4 or 5 years and as well to send a gift to those who’ve been active over the past 12 – 18 months.

Clients will be delighted to hear from you and flattery might get you somewhere! Your thoughtfulness is also a brand-enhancing, relationship-building strategy that sets you apart in the best way and can place you at top-of-mind when clients plan the logistics of future projects.

Start today and search for holiday cards that celebrate “the season” and will be appropriate both for business and for those who do not celebrate a holiday on December 25th. I highly recommend that you send a physical card, unless on your list there are those who work from home and may not receive forwarded mail from the office. You may want to design your own card through Uprinting, the UPSstore, Vista Print, Sir Speedy, or another reliable service.

Re: your client gift list, I suggest that you match billable hours to the amount you spend on the gift; you may choose to gift only those who’ve invoiced $1000 or so. No matter how modest the amount of money you spend, understand that the gift is an investment. Your card and/ or gift communicate to clients that you consider them important and that you are a consummate professional.

Amplify audio

You don’t have to be a video gamer to appreciate the benefits of having a sound bar mounted to a desk top monitor. Whether your client streams music or movies, attends or leads videoconference meetings, or occasionally appears as a podcast or webinar guest, s/he will want to clearly hear and be heard. $24.99 https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/cyber-acoustics-ca-2890-sound-bar-for-monitor-usb-2-watt/apd/ab768633/monitors-monitor-accessoriesFounder of FY #tabs_section.

Yummy honey

A flight of three two-ounce jars are the perfect introduction to this delicious, premium-grade, raw, artisanal honey. Add a teaspoon or two to a favorite tea. Include a dish on a cheese board spread and surprise guests with a tasty and unexpected condiment. The bees and the antioxidant rich honey that they produce are sourced from hives in Jamaica and other Caribbean islands. $14.99 for the box of three

https://www.ivyees.com/product/ivyees-honey-minis

Umbrella and art

Those who live in America east of the Mississippi River and have been deluged by more than their fair share of rainy days will appreciate an umbrella. This sturdy mini umbrella displays an eye-catching image of Vincent Van Gogh’s iconic painting The Starry Night (1889) and measures 48 inches across. It is auto open & close, includes a matching carrier and is delivered in a gift box. $30.00

https://mfashop.com/fashion/umbrellas

Bath and body basket

Whether your client WFH, has returned to the office, or does some of both, the intense focus required to effectively function in the pandemic business environment can be exhausting. Do your him/her a favor and enable a luxurious bath or shower ritual that promotes relaxation and even a good night’s sleep. This lovely gift basket contains 8 products that are delicately scented with white orchid fragrance and includes a shower gel, bath salts, body lotion and a loofah back scrubber. $27.99

https://lovery.com/collections/20-30/products/white-orchid-spa-bath-and-body-set-in-gold-basket?variant=12601117474870

Wine rack

An elegant, pyramid shaped countertop wine rack that harmonizes with nearly any kitchen or dining room decor. This compact and sturdy wine storage solution holds bottles in the horizontal position and discourages both the collection of wine sediment at the bottom of bottles and dry corks that may crumble when bottles are opened. $20.99

https://www.wayfair.com/kitchen-tabletop/pdp/mind-reader-pyramid-6-bottle-tabletop-wine-bottle-rack-mndr1563.html

Classy note cards

Sometimes the best way to communicate is to go old-school and send a hand-written note. Give your clients the means to gracefully communicate with their own important prospects and clients and they’ll be forever grateful. This elegant, high-quality folded note card features a bold yet classic calligraphic initial embossed in metallic gold ink. The card is made of all-cotton ecru paper and is partnered with a matching striped metallic lined envelope. $26 for 10 cards and matching envelopes

https://www.crane.com/hand-engraved-script-initial-note

Panettone holiday

Celebrating the December holiday in Italy often means indulging in this popular dessert that originated in Milan. The exquisites cake is studded with raisins and candied orange peel and it pairs well with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla gelato (Italian ice cream). Suggest serving a cup of espresso for an afternoon pick-me-up, or aan after-dinner dessert with a glass of vin santo wine. $29.90

https://www.eataly.com/us_en/christmas-holiday-gifts/panettone-pandoro/classic-panettone-26-46-oz

Patchwork scarf

Take the edge off the winter wind with a warm, soft scarf that features a mix of muted pastel colors and a quilt-inspired design. Made of polyester-cotton-acrylic blend of recycled materials, it’s a cruelty-free alternative to cashmere that feels like the real thing.

https://www.uncommongoods.com/product/recycled-patchwork-scarf

Out to lunch

Make lunch time fun whether eaten at the office or on a quiet bench in a pretty park. Your client will be thrilled to grab this stylish and practical little lunch carrier from Kate Spade even if it’s packed with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on Wonder Bread. A coated linen exterior makes the tote easy to clean. The insulated interior protects the food. The gold top zipper pull is a flirty bow, the finishing touch of a pretty package. $30

https://www.katespade.com/products/out-to-lunch-tote/825466939622.html?

Giving good

GlobalGiving makes it easy and safe to support local projects anywhere in the world, while providing nonprofits with the tools, training and support they need to thrive. Inspiring and enabling your clients to give back may be the best holiday gift.

https://www.globalgiving.org/gifts/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsrCjm4WP9AIVNG5vBB1KQgIvEAMYAyAAEgJOGvD_BwE

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Holiday lights at Boothbay Harbor, Maine

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Online Reputation Management and Your Brand

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A business owner’s work is never done, it seems. Along with recruiting customers in an increasingly challenging business climate, fulfilling customer expectations, providing excellent customer experiences and instituting procedures that ensure pleasant and efficient after sale support when needed there is, as well, the responsibility to monitor and manage the online reputation of your brand, your business and you. Creating, enhancing and perhaps also defending the online reputation of your brand must be an ongoing component of your company’s PR and SEO marketing strategies.

Developing and nurturing an appealing and trustworthy brand for your enterprise has always been the cornerstone of comprehensive and effective marketing campaigns and strategies. The pandemic-induced acceleration of numerous online communication formats has compelled business owners and leaders to amplify the online presence of their brands in order to effectively compete.

As a result, it is more necessary than ever to carefully curate, align and script all marketing themes and messages used to promote your brands along with the associated image, audio or video content posted to an array of platforms. Business owners and leaders would be wise to actively shape and manage the online image and reputation of their brands to continually reinforce brand narratives and positive perceptions.

Online Reputation Management is now an ever more critical branding function, essential as you develop marketing and branding strategies that build name recognition with the power to attract customers. A trusted brand is a valuable resource and can create for your business a loyal troop of boots-on-the-ground influencers who are motivated to write positive reviews in online rating sites and dispense word-of-mouth endorsements that can make or brake your business. From the online content that communicates relatable brand stories that build trust and loyalty within your target market to search-friendly platforms and key words that promote your brand’s online visibility, you can create an electronic architecture that supports and sustains an appealing and confidence-inspiring brand.

To help your business overcome the multi-year impact of the coronavirus pandemic, do what you can to allocate resources to create and implement a robust Online Reputation Management strategy. For best results, assess the efficacy of your online branding strategies by employing the tactic of social listening.

The act of monitoring social media and other online platforms helps track mentions and notifications about your brands and facilitates quick responses to customer compliments or complaints, which are the building blocks of an effective engagement strategy. Social listening means discovering patterns and connecting the dots in the comments or questions heard in monitoring. Social listening reveals to you the big picture—not just the trees, but the forest—and encourages you to analyze the context and larger trends that surround those (online) conversations, so that you might discover opportunities to act that enable you to better speak to and serve your market.

The customer data and marketing platform Clutch.com recently reported the following:

  • 54% of digital marketers consider Online Reputation management necessary for the success of their company
  • Brands frequently utilize social listening, following the social media outlets favored by their customers, to gain insights into what is trending or waning in customer preferences and priorities
  • The primary benefit that companies gain from investing in Online Reputation management is growth in sales
  • 35% of businesses queried plan to allot more time and money to Online Reputation management

Thanks for reading,

Kim

Image: Fredric March as Dr. Henry Jekyll in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) directed by Rouben Mamoulian