Category Archives: Marketing

by Gail Martin | February 1, 2012 · 9:51 am

Six Ways to Make Your Book A Reality This Year

By Gail Z. Martin

So you want to write a book? Congratulations. Now it’s up to you to bridge the gap between “wanting” and “doing.”

The hardest part of writing a book is making the commitment to set aside the time to do what needs to be done. That’s not just the writing; it’s also making sure that it’s proof read and as well-edited as possible. If you decide to go the traditional publishing route, you’ll need to research and pitch your proposal to agents, and once you sign on with an agent, he/she will then pitch your proposal to publishers. It can be a lengthy process.

If you decide to self-publish, you’ll need to format the book properly, determine things like cover art, and decide whether you’re going to do a paper book print-on-demand or just create an e-book (and handle the conversion, either or both ways). There will be plenty of research and decisions involved. And once your book is complete, you’ll need to plan for promotion, even if you have a traditional publisher. Writing the book is only the beginning!

Still want to do it? Good. Here are six things you’ll need to do to make your book a reality this year:

Set aside time each week to write, and set a weekly goal of how many pages you want to write. You may not always reach your goal (or you may even exceed it sometimes), but the goal keeps you on track. You can always do more, but try not to do less.
Start researching now. Start learning about what agents and editors do, what types of ebook formats are out there, how print-on-demand works and who the major players are.
Think about how the book fits into your business, and whether you’re willing to change your business model to take full advantage of the book (for example, adding speaking engagements to your calendar, making time to create and send press releases, write articles, be a guest blogger or pitch yourself as a radio guest.
Make connections with other authors and ask plenty of questions to see how they got published, what they would do over, and what they’ve learned the hard way.
Consider using a “book shepherd”, someone knowledgeable about the publishing industry who can help you finalize your book, determine your publishing options, and even pitch it to agents if that’s the route you want to go.
Take a hard look at the time and effort you’re willing to put into this project, as well as the money you can invest. The price of book publishing has come way down with print-on-demand and ebooks, but it still requires some investment to hire a book shepherd, get an editor (if you self-publish or need help with the fine points of grammar and punctuation), format your book and create a cover (if you self-publish), and promote your book.

Writing a book is a fantastic step toward achieving your dreams, promoting your business and exploring your creativity. Make this the year that you make your dream come true!

“Like” my Thrifty Author page on Facebook and enter for a chance to win a prize package of author resources: The Thrifty Author – https://on.fb.me/srVa13

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by Gail Martin | January 18, 2012 · 9:33 am

The Wisdom of Crowds—WWW Style

By Gail Z. Martin

Foursquare is an intensely local social media application that makes going about your business or going out for the evening a shared experience treasure hunt. Foursquare users use the site and text messaging to share their current location as they patronize businesses, retailers, entertainment venues. They can become the “mayor” of frequently-visited sites, and can gather their friends to join them on a spur-of-the-moment basis. Foursquare rewards users who are out and about in their local area—and the local companies they frequent benefit as well.

Groupon subscribers can sign up to get special online deals from local businesses. Subscribers indicate their local area and their willingness to receive emails and social media alerts to short-lived discounts from local merchants. Companies sign up to provide limited-time special deals that are only available via Groupon. In some cases, deals are only available if a specified number of people show up to claim it. Groupon makes bargain hunting fun and social while retaining an intensely local flair.

LivingSocial is another site that offers a daily deal from local businesses with up to 90% off the regular price. Once a subscriber buys the daily deal, he/she has the opportunity to forward the deal to friends, and if one of those friends also buys, the original customer gets the deal item for free. It’s a fun way to publicize specials while encouraging customers to tell their friends about your company.

Yelp, Local.com and Citysearch are other sites that capitalize on the concept of “local.” Not only can they help others to find your company more easily (both online and in person), many of these new locally-oriented sites also encourage customers to rate their recent experience. Don’t let that scare you off. If you provide good service and a good product, you have reason to expect most of your ratings to be positive. Those that aren’t positive provide valuable feedback for you to make improvements, and a highly visible arena in which to demonstrate your great customer service to woo back a less-than-thrilled former customer.

Your neighbors, customers and prospects are online, and they respond to businesses that reach them where they spend their time. Customers also like getting relevant messages and discounts when they’re on the move. Create your own highly local online PR and marketing strategy and reap the benefits!

(Excerpted from the brand new book 30 Days to Online PR and Marketing Success: The 30 Day Results Guide to Making the Most of Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and Blogging to Grab Headlines and Get Clients by Gail Z. Martin)

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by Gail Martin | January 11, 2012 · 9:32 am

Social Media Becomes a Local Resource

By Gail Z. Martin

Google AdWords offers specialized services to target customers within a 20-mile radius from your business. AdWords permits you to add or exclude areas, and can integrate your targeted AdWords campaign with text messaging.

Facebook can serve as a showcase for your community activity. When you host an event that benefits a local charity or sponsor a local sporting team, promote before, during and after the event with updates, photos, Web video and testimonials. Encourage attendees to become part of an ongoing conversation. Many companies successfully use their Facebook page as an instantly updateable second Web site to let their community know what’s going on and to share information and updates.

Twitter has been used by local charities to mobilize volunteers for projects or to alert donors to immediate needs. Animal rescue groups and humane societies have used Twitter to match shelter animals with new homes. Schools have demonstrated Twitter’s ability to alert parents to unplanned closings or to request badly needed supplies or last-minute parent volunteers. Businesses tweet about their upcoming live entertainment, dinner specials, or daily discounts.

Twitter can also help you promote upcoming local events, share photos and video via links, and give your online press releases a broader readership as you tweet news and provide links to coverage you’ve received in local online publications. Your blog can also be an effective part of your online marketing program by sharing the story behind your achievements or by providing deeper insight into what’s happening with your business, which deals and events are coming up, or the news of your industry as it impacts local customers.

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by Gail Martin | December 28, 2011 · 9:29 am

The Local Side of the World Wide Web

By Gail Z. Martin

So much as been made of the opportunities opened up by the Internet for companies to deal globally (or at least, outside their local market) that many companies don’t realize that the Web has a local side as well.

Your neighbors and customers, as well as prospects in your geographic area, go online as part of their everyday routines. They read online newspapers and magazines, search for information with Google, shop from online retail and wholesale stores, and download books, music and software. If your business isn’t part of the range of information they see when they go online, you’re missing out on sales.

Some business owners feel that by having a Web site they’ve done what’s necessary to attract their online neighbors. But most Web sites are fairly static. Few businesses update their Web sites with the frequency with which social media sites, online newspapers and magazines or blogs add new information. Internet search engines favor recency and relevancy. That means that information bubbles to the top of search results when it is very closely related to the search term (thanks to keywords) and recently posted. The twin factors of recency and relevancy often work against Web sites because most sites don’t change frequently enough.

Here’s where online PR and marketing can play a huge role in assuring that your business gets it share of attention from local customers.

Online PR about the local activities your company sponsors can help your business connect better with local customers. Does your company host special events such as educational seminars, workshops, or grand openings? Do you participate in community programs, such as sponsoring Little League or holding a charity food drive? Do you offer daily or weekly specials or have live entertainment? If so, these are all very locally-focused reasons to post online PR.

Many companies send press releases to their local offline newspaper or to local paper magazines. True, some of these publications also have online related sites and some of those local press releases may find their way onto the Internet. But many companies forget to target their news to online-only local publications, which means they are missing out in two ways: they miss readers of the online publication and they fail to derive benefit from the search engine hits on their name/topic.

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Tagged as 30 Days to Online PR and Marketing Success: The 30 Day Results Guide to Making the Most of Twitter, Big Dreams and Hard Work Blog, Facebook, Gail Z. Martin, internet, Linked In and Blogging to Grab Headlines and Get Clients, online neighbors, online PR

by Gail Martin | December 21, 2011 · 8:29 pm

THE POWER OF “LOCAL” ONLINE MEDIA

By Gail Z. Martin

Many people resist integrating online PR and marketing into their promotional mix because they see themselves as “local” businesses. Yet online PR and marketing can be intensely local, depending on how the strategy is focused.

True, your company may not be interested in wooing customers that are thousands of miles away, or perhaps you’re unable to provide your service or product long-distance due to licensing restrictions or the tangible nature of what you’re selling. But don’t forget—the people in your local area go online every day to get information, and when your business is absent, you’ve taken yourself out of their decision-making process.

Creating a local-intensive online PR and marketing presence requires focus. It also requires understanding how to use online PR and marketing tools to reach a geographically defined audience. In addition, it requires that your content and online activities all underscore the local nature of your business in a way that converts the people in your geographic target area into customers.

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Tagged as Big Dreams and Hard Work, Gail Z. Martin, local business, marketing, online PR, promotional mix

by Gail Martin | August 31, 2011 · 10:27 am

One Day at a Time Marketing

By Gail Z. Martin

I’m a big believer in having a marketing plan, especially when it comes to being clear on your number one goal and your key target audience. It’s also important to have a vision for where you want your company to go, so that your marketing can help you build toward that dream. Being clear on the big picture is important so that you can make sure your efforts are all building toward a common end point.

But in other ways, marketing is a one-day-at-a-time activity.

When you attend a marketing event and chat with the people you meet, you’re making a marketing impact. The same is true when you send out an email, write a newsletter, or make posts on social media. Yes, your message should align with your big-picture goal. But at the same time, at a grassroots level, your marketing adjusts with the needs of each person you talk with or interact with online.

You’ve got to keep your balance between now and later in order for marketing to do its best work. Without keeping your eye on the long-term goal, you’ll never get where you want to go. At the same time, achieving that goal will come as the result of the accumulation of day-to-day achievements, messages, connections and proposals.

Planning is important, but a single day can upend the best of plans. A major announcement by a large company in your industry can completely change the playing field. Natural disasters can wreck supply and distribution lines, manufacturing facilities, or retail outlets, forcing you to re-think what you say and how you say it—and whether you can deliver your product at all. A scandal or crisis can hijack your news cycle, or, if it’s your crisis, completely derail your marketing message. What a difference a day makes!

On the plus side, inspiration strikes when it will, not according to plan. Tomorrow might be the say you get your million-dollar idea, or an insight into a brilliant marketing approach. On any given day, you might meet a new client who places a huge order, discover an amazing new online marketing tool, or find a new supplier who can make magic happen. So make your plans, but be open because marketing is always a day-to-day adventure!

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by Gail Martin | August 24, 2011 · 4:27 pm

Decluttering Your Marketing

By Gail Z. Martin

You hear all about organizing your office and your closets, but when’s the last time you decluttered your marketing?

Over time, many businesses hang on to marketing strategies that they’ve outgrown, or stick with advertising contracts long past they outlive their usefulness. Like the clothes in the back of your closet that don’t fit and are out of style, marketing clutter ties up space that could be working harder for you. Not only that, but outdated marketing probably isn’t representing your business at its best, and might be giving an outdated impression of your services.

How do you begin by declutter your marketing?

Start off with a check-up on your top business goals. Make sure that they’re in line with your current vision for the future. Now think about who the best audience is to help you reach those goals. Which of your marketing actions are helping you reach that audience with an up-to-date message? Those are the actions to keep. If you have other marketing that is no longer serving your goals, save time and money by canceling those actions and reassigning the effort and budget to more productive activities.

Now think about any marketing actions that may cost more than they’re worth. Look hard at special events, which can be a huge waste of staff time. For example, do you know how many hours it really takes to put on your annual golf tournament? How much are those staff hours worth in dollars? Does you break even in the amount of new business gained from the tournament? If not, it might be smart to retire the event and look for a new outreach. The same is true from tradeshows that you’ve been attending year after year. Do a cost/benefit analysis to see if the event is earning its keep.

Get rid of brochures with outdated addresses, business cards without email addresses or with incorrect phone numbers, and product information that is not longer current. Pitch out-of-date photos, video cassettes, audio cassettes and old trade show booth materials that don’t represent the modern version of your business. Purge your files of multiple copies of magazines and ditch old clipping files except for a few big national placements. Free up space on your hard disk by purging old client files, especially audio, video and photo files that slow down your system.

Start off the Fall with a clean slate by decluttering your marketing, and watch your results soar!

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by Gail Martin | July 27, 2011 · 10:54 am

Marketing Lessons from the Garden

By Gail Z. Martin

Does your marketing have blossom end rot? My tomatoes did. And I tried to fix them the same way I see business owners tackle marketing that isn’t working. I tried to figure it out on my own, while throwing out tomatoes that got a gray, yucky fungus on the bottom. I guessed at what was wrong, but it took me far too long to research my situation and find an expert to help. I often run into business owners who put up with marketing that isn’t getting results, but they resist researching their options, finding an expert, and investing a little money in a solution. Instead, they keep limping along on their own, still disappointed in their results.

Or is your marketing wilting? Some people are natural gardeners. I’m not one of them. My garden reminds me of the benefits of consistency, because when I forget to water my plants for a day or two (or three), they wilt. I know a lot of business owners in the same boat when it comes to marketing. They get enthusiastic and invest money, time and energy into their marketing—for a while. Then they get busy and the marketing goes on the back burner. It begins to wilt. When the business owner notices it again, the marketing is just a shadow of itself—and not producing nearly the results it could if well cared for.

If you’re marketing isn’t fulfilling expectations, take a cue from my garden experience and see if expert advice, investing in the right solution and making a consistent effort won’t turn your marketing around and make it bloom!

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by Gail Martin | June 29, 2011 · 10:03 am

Seasons and Cycles

By Gail Z. Martin

The world around us is a place of seasons and cycles. Spring, summer, fall and winter come with reassuring regularity. The moon moves through its phases month after month. Tides rise and fall with predictability. We plan our lives according to the seasons and cycles around us.

Business also has cycles. Every industry has its own variation of a sales cycle or a product lifecycle. Some businesses, such as those in the travel and tourism industry, may be very attuned to the physical seasons. Ski in the winter, go to the beach in the summer. Or, a business may be governed by more arbitrary cycles. Accountants are busy before April 15. Retailers gear up for back-to-school and the holiday rush. Other companies are driven by budget cycles or annual proposals.

Business owners are not immune to seasons and cycles. Think about the past year. Were there predictable periods when you knew you would be overworked or stressed out? How about periods where you could anticipate a chance to get caught up or catch your breath? Now think about how the seasons and cycles may affect your decision making and your accessibility as a manager, or your vision as an entrepreneur. During the crazy season, you may be moving as fast as you can, but are stress and fatigue hurting your mood, temper or decision-making ability? Are you as good a boss during the peak times as you are during the less crazed periods where you have more time to listen and the opportunity to deliberate on an answer? Does your stress radiate throughout the organization, hindering everyone else’s productivity and dampening the office mood?

When you stop to notice how business cycles and seasonal demand affect us as entrepreneurs, we see that we may have our own personal “hurricane season” with moody tempests or a “La Nina” firestorm due to frayed nerves and an over-extended calendar.

Once you understand and recognize your own personal seasons and cycles, you can start to take measures to keep storm season from becoming a disaster. Don’t be afraid to delegate more in order to give yourself breathing room. Get temporary help or interns. Make time even in the busiest seasons to take care of yourself with healthy food, enough sleep, exercise, and short relaxation breaks. Making a conscious effort to manage your storm season can have a huge positive impact, not just on your personal wellbeing, but on the mood and productivity of everyone who depends on you.

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by Gail Martin | June 22, 2011 · 10:02 am

Break or Take a Break

By Gail Z. Martin

I was behind someone in line a few days ago and couldn’t help hearing part of his conversation with his companion. What caught my attention was the man’s comment that he hadn’t had a vacation in fifteen years.

Wow. While I’m sure this man was proud of his diligence and hard work, I couldn’t help wondering how badly burnout might be affecting the value of his output. In my experience, you either break or you learn to take a break.

Now I know that with some of the ups and downs of the economy, “staycations” have replaced vacations for many people. The point isn’t about leaving town, staying in a hotel, or going somewhere exotic. For me, the essential point is to step away from the swift current of your busy life for even a day, an afternoon, a weekend and rest, relax and refresh yourself.

Some people like to brag that they are so essential, their business couldn’t last a few days without them. Usually, this means they have avoided developing procedures and delegating trivia, or that they have made themselves the roadblock, either out of a love of being important or the need to micromanage. Eventually, the stress catches up and the business is forced to do without them while the indispensable manager recovers from a heart attack or other stress-related ailment.

Other people have never learned how to relax. Maybe they were told that it was bad not to be active every minute–“idle hands are the devil’s workshop.” American culture has the unfortunate habit of undervaluing rest and restoration and overvaluing activity for activity’s sake. If that’s your hang-up, let it go.

When we allow ourselves to take a break, wonderful things happen that actually enhance future productivity. By taking a step away from the normal flow of things, we often gain new and valuable perspective. By resting, we preserve our health and prevent a longer, possibly destructive interruption due to illness. When we move outside our normal routine to go somewhere new, do something different or have a new experience, we become open to unexamined possibilities. And when our break frees up time for us to nurture our family and close friendships, we preserve the relationships that support us and enable us to do our best work.

This summer, make a commitment to yourself to take a break at regular intervals and see what new possibilities emerge.

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Category Archives: Marketing

Six Ways to Make Your Book A Reality This Year

The Wisdom of Crowds—WWW Style

Social Media Becomes a Local Resource

The Local Side of the World Wide Web

THE POWER OF “LOCAL” ONLINE MEDIA

One Day at a Time Marketing

Decluttering Your Marketing

Marketing Lessons from the Garden

Seasons and Cycles

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