ProfitMeister Founder completes the Ultimate Blog Challenge
October 31, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Never, since starting the ProfitMeister blog in 1996, have I blogged for 30 straight days.
The Ultimate Blog Challenge proved itself motivator enough for that to happen. I finished. I graduated a better person. Let me explain.
In summary:
I found discipline. In spite of the commentary in my head about my posts, I continued, posting through doubt and questions each of which stopped me previously.
I found momentum. The exercise of a daily write with the #blogboost tweet forced production. I couldn’t let myself down. I chose to complete my personal challenge.
I found a way. The editorial calendar of my 45-day plan opened my mind; it was no longer a question of what I would write. Instead, it was when. Many of my posts were written early in the day. A couple of times, however, I forced myself to finish a post as my final exercise of the day.
I found feedback. Responses from other members of the challenge caused me to delve deeper, think more clearly and in the end, write more. I appreciate input even more, thanks to the comments I received. Thanks to those comments, I made and will continue to make specific changes on my blog.
I found inspiration. Because of UBC I read new posts, discovered new topics, met new friends. I moved outside my comfort zone, even if for just a bit.
I found results. I discovered, thanks to looking at Google analytics, which posts got more readership and when.
I found celebration. I’m proud to say I finished.
Bottom line: I made it! Thanks to Michelle and Michele for putting the idea out there and encouraging all of us to get it done. Woooo Hooooo!
Today’s topic is not connected with my 45-day step-by-step marketing master plan, except that finishing any plan is a necessary component. For those who are following this series, I’ll complete it in a slightly less intense mode. I’ll blog three times per week beginning tomorrow.
Audit Your Website and Upgrade Accordingly
October 30, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
A student mentioned “The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles,” by Steven Pressfield. I owe a debt of thanks for the suggestion. Like many entrepreneurs, I look for signs. I opened the volume to a sign, an excerpt from page 154:
“The Territorial Orientation
4) A territory can only be claimed by work. When Arnold Schwarzenegger hits the gym, he’s on his own turf. But what made it his own are the hours and years of sweat he put in to claim it. A territory doesn’t give, it gives back.
Your website is important territory.”
As I prepared this post, I noticed something on my own site: the old company name (Connecting Point Communications) showed at the top of a lesser page more than nearly a year after I’d changed my brand. I’d missed it.
That, more than any admonition I might make, says it best. Audit your website.
Make certain that every link works. Dial every phone number. Click every icon. Have a professional proof each sentence. Review the privacy policy and make sure it’s still so. Check the copyright.
Ok. You probably get those pieces of an audit. (I digress. Here’s a post I wrote a couple of years ago about Internet Respiratory Infections.) The words “Audit your website” from a marketing pro are comparable to the doctor who says, “Take two aspirins and go to bed.” Without action, both are meaningless commands.
You know bigger challenges exist. A website is a 24/7 storefront. Some questions to uncover your challenges include:
1. Does the content of my website work for me? Still?
2. Is the structure good so that visitors can quickly and easily navigate each page? Have I looked at this navigation in different browsers?
3. What am I asking my visitors to do? Is the message clear? Do the results prove it? What do my analytics show?
4. Is the design up to date? Have I upgraded photos, and graphic presentation elements?
5. How do I know what’s true now?
Good luck with your audit. Let me know how it goes.
Need a different approach to your marketing? Today’s topic is day thirty of a 45-day step-by-step marketing master plan. Choose to take your business to a new level topic by topic, day by day, with specific actions, based on clear worksheets. Act now to maximize your time and return on time invested. As a result, you’ll be in an entirely new position this time next year.
Lateral collateral?
October 29, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
In football, a lateral pass is a sideways or backward pass. Similarly, lateral collateral refers to materials that send your message sideways or backwards.
You cannot afford to let such a mistake sink a potential sale. Enhance your credibility by eliminating lateral errors like these:
-
- Obviously outdated pictures
- Generic clip art
- More than one version of your logo
- Unmatched logo colors, graphics, fonts
- Incomplete materials (address missing, website missing, etc.)
- Inaccurate personnel summaries (personnel no longer with the company)
- Product sheets with old, discontinued items
- Paragraphs that no longer accurately depict your company
- Outdated company profiles in directory listingsSpelling errors, typos or omitted words
All materials must carry “the look,” making for a consistent presentation of your company and your brand. From letterhead, postcards, magnetic signs, nametags and internal communication, products to collateral pieces and external communications like advertising, website, customer service communications, co-branding communications, direct sales communications.
Make a list and check to be absolutely certain no part of your brand is derailing your communications. You can make this kind of collateral material audit easier if you resolve to set up a digital file for all materials.
Keep one master, up-to-date folder. (NOTE: For consistency, make sure all employees can access these materials on a shared drive.)
How do you avoid lateral collateral? Ever had a collateral mistake torpedo one of your sales?
Need a different approach to your marketing? Today’s topic is day twenty-nine of a 45-day step-by-step marketing master plan. Choose to take your business to a new level topic by topic, day by day, with specific actions, based on clear worksheets. Act now to maximize your time and return on time invested. As a result, you’ll be in an entirely new position this time next year.
Autopilot Anyone?
October 28, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
I put off writing a post about automating your web presence because I have a love/hate relationship with automation.
When it works, automation goes unnoticed in my life. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the fact that posts show in Google Reader, for example. I enjoy using a single dashboard, such as Ping.fm, to conveniently post to several social media sites. I don’t give a lot of thought to the mechanics of how it happens: it simply works.’
But, when automation doesn’t work, it’s beyond frustrating: Facebook pages with feeds that fail to update, automated notifications that never get through, emails that never arrive, software that doesn’t sync, auto unsubscribes that won’t. I could go on and on.
Once I give my attention over to what’s wrong, I can’t help but imagine dozens of additional problematic scenarios before it’s fixed. I named this process “terriblizing.”
Many people spend more time terriblizing than the time it takes to move a project forward. (Count me guilty on that one if technology is involved.)
As I considered the list of terribles, I realized another side of automation causes me to think twice about using it: I’m referring to the robot portion of automation: autopilot.
Yes, I know automation can augment your presence on the web. But misused, automation is worthless, insulting and ignored.
How many updates do you see repeated in multiple channels? Read it on Facebook, then on Twitter, and then LinkedIn too. Is there a real person behind the message? Does it make sense to say the same thing multiple times?
Are you scrambling to do everything? Guilty of beginning a blog and then dropping it for a full 30 days with no post?
Does automation bring you focus and then overwhelm as a result?
Are your sales messages automated?
Do you tweet questions when you’ve no intention of responding?
Once I realized the “why” behind my nagging sense of unease with automation, I started making some changes.
As of today, my Twitter account no longer sends a canned automatic message when someone follows me. I promise to look at my new followers and engage the ones I relate with.
My Ping.fm group is no longer selected by default to post on the big three social media networks. Instead, I promise to more carefully consider my updates and post them differently for each channel.
I haven’t tackled Facebook yet, but those automated postings that don’t update are going away soon!
I’ve only just begun. In fact, I just reorganized my Google reader with some new folders!
There are dozens of tools to help you automate your web presence. Just don’t forget, it’s all about people and your relationships in the first place.
Need a different approach to your marketing? Today’s topic is day twenty-eight of a 45-day step-by-step marketing master plan. Choose to take your business to a new level topic by topic, day by day, with specific actions, based on clear worksheets. Act now to maximize your time and return on time invested. As a result, you’ll be in an entirely new position this time next year.
Review Twitter Profile for Strong Presence
October 27, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Building a good Twitter bio takes thought. Even though you have only 160 characters, you may be challenged to fill in your profile quickly and effectively without pre-planning.
Before beginning, make a determination about your strategy.
Is your Twitter account primarily for business or personal use? Your answer will affect how you begin to build brand. For example, if you’ve elected to use Twitter for business, you may want to use at least one keyword in your profile.
Include these items in your Twitter profile:
What you do or what problem you solve
Personality
Personal or business comment
Exclude these kind of things for stronger Twitter profiles:
Sales pitches
Religion, politics, sex
If you’re unsure about how your Twitter stacks up, grade your Twitter account. What grade did you get?
Need a different approach to your marketing? Today’s topic is day twenty-seven of a 45-day step-by-step marketing master plan. Choose to take your business to a new level topic by topic, day by day, with specific actions, based on clear worksheets. Act now to maximize your time and return on time invested. As a result, you’ll be in an entirely new position this time next year.
Ruthless Reading Saves Time
October 26, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
No shortage of content exists: books, magazines, white papers, newspapers, case studies, websites, and more stack every office and most homes. Unless you read ruthlessly, you probably feel overwhelmed. What does ruthless reading look like?
Pare the magazine to what interests you. Tear out the articles you think you may want to review. Cancel subscriptions that no longer interest you.
Read with a highlighter – splash color across paragraphs that may be of interest later. Write in the margins. Use post-it flags to draw your attention back to your notes.
Scan indexes first and read only articles of interest.
Read a book out of order; read first the chapters that relate to your topic.
A good bit of business information continues to be written in pyramid form: lead paragraphs contain the most important details. Read those and get the overview of the article. Ignore the rest.
Set aside time to read for fun and read anything that you choose for that purpose.
Finally, read to better yourself. Facebook? Read the profiles of those you admire. LinkedIn? Same thing. Read, not to copy, but to upgrade your own efforts.
What are you ruthlessly reading today? And why?
Need a different approach to your marketing? Today’s topic is day twenty-six of a 45-day step-by-step marketing master plan. Choose to take your business to a new level topic by topic, day by day, with specific actions, based on clear worksheets. Act now to maximize your time and return on time invested. As a result, you’ll be in an entirely new position this time next year.
Rework Your Email Signature for Effect
October 25, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Your relationships depend on how people view you. An e-mail signature contributes to all-important online perceptions.
I believe a signature block is a mini billboard. For that reason, I’ve always been in favor of using a line above the name to tell more about what you do.
Example:
Do-it-Yourself! “Six-Week Marketing Master Plan”
An easy, step-by-step action plan to boost your business in one hour a day!
Mary Ellen Merrigan
505-280-9772Blog: http://www.ProfitMeister.com
http://www.MerriganGroup.com
http://www.sixweekmarketingplan.com/
Given the proliferation of clutter, I’ve re-thought that strategy recently. The signature above is quite long. It includes three different URLs and a selling message.
In the interest of taking my own medicine, something I frequently suggest on this blog, I offer the following streamlined guidelines:
- Use a professional signature block. Provide enough information for people to contact you: name, position, company and contact info. Granted, most of us have multiple emails, phone numbers, social media contacts and URLs. Pick one of each. Use colons and pipes to shorten your information if need be. Include your mailing address only if you expect a snail mail reply. Include a legal disclaimer only if your company or position requires that you do so.
- Avoid HTML. (Although it looks pretty, it takes forever to download on the mobile!) I don’t need your Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook profiles, either. Send me plain text. All too often, special stationery and graphics clog up the memory in my email program.
- Shorten or drop the signature block for replies.
- Select recognized fonts. Some fancy fonts don’t come through on all platforms. And a graphics-only signature is also problematic because it sometimes doesn’t come through at all.
- Use an e-mail address with your domain name if at all possible. Since not all e-mail programs include the address in the heading of the e-mail, repeat it in the signature block for convenience.
- Show your full URL rather than a hotlink for effectiveness.
- Don’t attach signatures. A v-card or signature attachment is frequently seen as spam. When in doubt, leave it out.
Example: My new signature:
Mary Ellen Merrigan
Smart Marketing Strategist | Merrigan Group LLC
505-280-9772 | MaryEllen at MerriganGroup.com | http://www.MerriganGroup.com
Blog: http://www.ProfitMeister.com
Take just a few moments and check your signature. How does it shape up?
Need a different approach to your marketing? Today’s topic is day twenty-five of a 45-day step-by-step marketing master plan. Choose to take your business to a new level topic by topic, day by day, with specific actions, based on clear worksheets. Act now to maximize your time and return on time invested. As a result, you’ll be in an entirely new position this time next year.
Transform a Paragraph into a Foundation
October 24, 2010 by Mary Ellen · Leave a Comment
Sooner or later you’ll need an “About our Company” paragraph. This might be a part of a directory listing or the final paragraph in a press release. Your goal is to craft a short emphatic segment that adds credibility and summarizes your business.
If you are a service provider, this paragraph is particularly important because it conveys the heart of your business. It can offer information on your clientele, your specialty or your website. It provides a description that can be easily added to other information and in fact often is.
In a press release, your “About our Company” may or may not be printed. The more specific you can make it, the more effective it will be for your business. One non-profit client focused on number of businesses served and jobs created as a result of their services. In several instances, this tag paragraph, as it is sometimes called was picked up and published.
Example:
About Merrigan Group LLC
Mary Ellen Merrigan of Merrigan Group LLC is a marketing consultant and founder of ProfitMeister, a blog for DIY smart marketing strategies. She has developed sales-building D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) smart marketing strategies for a wide range of clients. Speaker, author and consummate entrepreneur, Merrigan recently collaborated with freelance graphic designer Maria G. Nozza of Design and Thrive to produce a content-packed e-book, The Six Week Marketing Master Plan. Discover the right blend of old school and new marketing for your business. Discover a smart marketing strategist at http://www.MerriganGroup.com.
Conclusion
Start planning your communications foundation today. Develop your “About Our Company” paragraph — you’ll be prepared for virtually any opportunity.
Need a different approach to your marketing? Today’s topic is day twenty-four of a 45-day step-by-step marketing master plan. Choose to take your business to a new level topic by topic, day by day, with specific actions, based on clear worksheets. Act now to maximize your time and return on time invested. As a result, you’ll be in an entirely new position this time next year.
Consider a Reach Out and Connect
October 23, 2010 by Mary Ellen · 3 Comments
Twenty-three days ago when I began the Ultimate Blog Challenge, I only knew that I had 31 days of posting in front of me. I was so inundated with my own anxieties I didn’t even think of the positive possibilities that could come of my work.
Since that time, I’ve met my goal of posting daily. My Google analytics show that readership of my posts is up. In addition, I’ve developed new commentary for a Smart Marketing Class with UNM Continuing Education. As a bonus benefit, I’ve met new friends online.
Yesterday’s post, “Bye, Bye Boring Bio!” resonated with Nancy Juetten, author of the book by the same name and the Main Street Media Savvy Blog. She called me, in part to discover why I used her title.
Bye Bye Boring Bio, available on Amazon.com, includes worksheets questions and exercises designed to assist solopreneurs in communicating. Prior to the call, I’d not heard about this book.
I found myself analyzing the Saturday interruption, thinking about what I liked:
Nancy sounded approachable, knowledgeable and interested in why I wrote a post by the same title as her book. She put me at ease.
Our conversation introduced me to an affiliate program that could potentially be of interest to me and my target audience.
While she could have been nasty, accusing and mean, Nancy created an opportunity for me to recommend and refer to her. Her easy style caused me to want to know more about her business.
I’ll used this story (and recommend Nancy’s book in the process) when I talk about Google alerts, networking on the Internet, and responding to potential copyright problems.
If ever I have a conflicting post online, I’ll consider responding in similar fashion as a result of this experience. Thanks, Nancy for being a positive role model.
“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” – Carl Buechner
What I didn’t like:
My impatience. Had I googled this post’s title prior to posting, I probably wouldn’t have “gone there.”
How does this square with your experience?
Need a different approach to your marketing? Today’s topic is day twenty-three of a 45-day step-by-step marketing master plan. Choose to take your business to a new level topic by topic, day by day, with specific actions, based on clear worksheets. Act now to maximize your time and return on time invested. As a result, you’ll be in an entirely new position this time next year.
Bye, Bye Boring Bio!
October 22, 2010 by Mary Ellen · 4 Comments
The simple bio is one of the most necessary and difficult pieces of collateral to create.
I labored over several versions, all less-than-stellar.
My friend and marketing troubleshooter Mary Schmidt advised me, “Write like you’re talking with me over cocktails.”
“Thanks, Mary. Good advice, but I don’t have a clue what that means.” More failures. Then another call.
Mary encouraged me. She questioned, she suggested (Although I begged, she didn’t write the darn thing!). She eventually coached me to a finish far stronger than my beginning.
Thanks to Mary, I experienced the difference between a story and a stiff recitation of achievements.
Instead of a glorified resume, I developed a piece that resonated with my small business customer.
I understand the agonizing effort it takes for most entrepreneurs to write about themselves. Funny, starting made all the difference.
If you’re upgrading your bio or working on your first one, my advice is to find a friend. Let your friend coach with questions like these:
How did you discover your passion?
Is there a funny story in your past that put you on your path?
What words do your clients use to describe you?
Why do you do what you do?
Or, assign yourself homework such as:
List five key phrases you’d use to tell a reporter about yourself.
Conduct an interview with yourself – who, what, when, why and how.
Imagine you’re reporting on your life-to-date. Tell us about three big defining decisions.
Write a story about one book, movie, mentor or quote to impact your life.
Once you begin to work, write a biographical sketch of 600-700 words. Refine it by reading aloud…first to yourself and then to a good friend or partner.
See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?
Need a different approach to your marketing? Today’s topic is day twenty-two of a 45-day step-by-step marketing master plan. Choose to take your business to a new level topic by topic, day by day, with specific actions, based on clear worksheets. Act now to maximize your time and return on time invested. As a result, you’ll be in an entirely new position this time next year.
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