Archives for June 2014

Go Where Your Community Is To Find Your Audience

June 24, 2014 by Leave a Comment

 

Go Where Your Community Is To Find Your Audience

Door County Sunset

I’ve been in Door County the last few days enjoying a quiet getaway with my wife. Since I was four years old, Door County has been a family vacation destination and one of my favorite things to do is visit the different artists and their galleries. 

Over the years, artists have flocked here because of the beautiful scenery. (The sunsets are amazing!) Another reason they’re here is because other artists are here, and so is an audience of art lovers. Door County is an artists’ community. Everyone has a chance for their work to be seen here. That doesn’t mean that every artist who opens up a gallery will be successful, but it does provide more visibility that other cities don’t.

If you want to be discovered, sell your wares, skills, or talents, you need to know where your audience is. Make it easy for them to find you. Don’t give people a treasure map with a bunch of clues. Give them the map where “X” marks the spot. In case you didn’t know, you’re the “X”.
Where are other people doing what you want to do? Find a way to get into that community. Not only will that community help you, but you’ll also be helping them. It takes everyone with a similar mindset to keep a strong community going, whether that’s a physical location or an online community.
It’s easier than ever to find your community. If you aren’t sure where to start go to Meetup.com and find a group that you’re interested in and join them the next time they meet. If there isn’t one in your area, start one.
As much as we say we’re independent, we value belonging to a group that feels what we feel and thinks the way we do. That doesn’t mean they can do exactly what we can do, but it means they “get” what we do.
Because you are unique, it makes it easier for you to stand out in your community than it is to stand out on your own.
The artists in Door County found their community and their audience. You can do the same. Find your community and our audience won’t be far behind.
Let me know how it goes.
Filed Under: Inspiration, Life Lessons, Marketing Tagged With: ,

Showing Your True Self to Stand Out

June 17, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Showing Your True Self to Stand OutI’ve been working on my resume since losing my job. One issue I had with it, is that it didn’t seem to represent who I was. I’ve been thinking about injecting more personality into it, and in fact, started doing that with my cover letter. I am more than a list of job responsibilities.  

This past week I went to a session by Joe Konop of One Great Resume. He verified what I had been thinking and gave me other useful tips. If you’re looking for someone who knows how to present yourself in the best light, contact Joe.

Here are a three key ingredients to show your true self to help make you stand out: 
1) You need to market yourself. Joe’s had a 20 year career in marketing, so when he mentioned this it made a lot of sense to me, being a marketer myself. You need to show why you are the best product on the market. You need to show what you’ve done before, but more importantly, what you can do for a new employer. They need to feel like they’re making a good decision to bring you on board. You need to quickly and accurately tell people who you are and what you do. Think of it as a tagline. What would your tagline be?
2) Showcase your strengths. Tell the story and give context around what you are really good at. Don’t downplay or diminish your talents. Joe explained that if you just say, “I wrote the newsletter” that doesn’t say as much as “I wrote a weekly newsletter that was 14-15 pages of original content that talked about new initiatives, company news, and new products, that was distributed to 20,000 people.” See how different those two descriptions are? Think of yourself in larger terms.
3) Talk about your unique talents. Joe talked about a client who said they were fluent in Chinese but they didn’t list it anywhere on their resume. That’s a unique selling proposition. Use it, flaunt it, us it to tell the world you’re unique!
What seems odd or different to you could be exactly what somebody else thinks is special. It reminded me of a time after college when I submitted a job application and filled out the Hobbies section by writing that I liked “collecting Beatles records, and watching the Simpsons.” When I went in for an interview the manager said, “Right off the bat, I have to say you scored points because I love watching the Simpsons too.” You never know what will make you stand out from the crowd.
These three ingredients have made me see myself differently. It’s made me update my resume so I’m able to market myself more effectively. Do these tips make you think differently about yourself? How do you present your true self?
Filed Under: Inspiration, Marketing Tagged With: , ,

3 Takeaways from Inbound Marketing Day

June 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment

3 Takeaways from Inbound Marketing DayLast Wednesday I attended Inbound Marketing Day at Potawatomi Bingo Casino in Milwaukee. What a great mix of local and national inbound marketing experts. I heard great presentations about content, landing page optimization, buyer personas, video strategy, and a lot more. 

Many of these ideas not only work in marketing but in daily interactions as well, whether business or personal.
Here are three key takeaways:
Dan Zarrella from HubSpot: How does your content help your fans build their reputation?
My two cents: The job of your content, or your company, is to help your customers look good to their customers. Content shouldn’t be designed to help you look good, although by helping them solve their problems you will.
What are your customers’ pain-points? What content can you provide that helps alleviate those pain-points?  If you can make your customers look like heroes, you’ll end up a winner.
Jeff Coon from Stream Creative: What makes you look like a rock star? Have signals in place to alert others. What are the symbols of trust in your industry? Add them to your content, your name, your brand, etc. If there are certifications, partnerships, or logos that show you know what you’re doing, you need to highlight them.
My two cents: What makes you stand out? There are certain things that give you instant credibility. For me, it’s having MBA behind my name. For your business, it could be “Best Places to Work” or a Better Business Bureau sticker on your front door. It could be words like Author, or Speaker. These words conjure up an image of you in the eyes of people that don’t know you. Use them to your advantage.
Ezra Fishman from Wistia: Think in terms of the Trust Bank. You are either building trust or spending trust. Using video is a great way to build trust. If you teach someone something in a video, it allows you to bring the human element in.
My two cents: We should always be giving to people without the thought of getting something in return. This builds trust. Then, when we truly need help from our customers, community, or our friends, we have enough trust in the bank to be fairly certain that they will help us when we ask.
Be yourself. Allow your personality to shine through. People like doing business with people, not brands. If they trust you, they’ll trust your brand.
Do you see yourself using any of the three ideas from Inbound Marketing Day? Let me know which ones you use. I’d love to know what success you have with them.
Filed Under: Customer Service, Life Lessons, Marketing Tagged With: , ,

How to Build Momentum

June 3, 2014 by Leave a Comment
How to Build MomentumI’ve been networking with at least one person for eight out of the last 11 days since my job was eliminated. It’s been good to connect with people who have offered their advice, support, and friendship. I’ve come back after each meeting with a burst of energy which carries me into the next day.
I feel I’m building on the previous days events. What I really need to do now is implement the things I’ve been talking about for the past 11 days. I sometimes think, “where do I start?” The answer is – anywhere. It doesn’t matter where you begin as long as you start something.
Start with something small. There’s a trick I use sometimes to write. I’ll say I’ll only spend the next 15 minutes writing. Then, once I’m writing, I’ll be so into it that I’ll cruise right passed the 15 minute mark easily. Surely, we can all find 15 minutes to spare. After all, 15 minutes is only 15 minutes.
Momentum is created little by little. The great thing about momentum is you don’t want to stop once you start. Jerry Seinfeld has a great method to keep the momentum going called Don’t Break the Chain. You mark an “X” each day on a calendar you finish your task. After a few days you’ll have a chain. The goal is to not break the chain. That’s how you get better, and getting better leads to success.
If we build momentum there’s no telling where that can take us. But one thing is for certain, we will be better tomorrow because of the actions we take today.
What tricks do you use to build momentum?
Filed Under: Life Lessons, Motivation Tagged With: ,