marketing

I'm currently reading The New Community Rules: Marketing on the social Web by Tamar Weinberg. She's got a great list of techniques and tactics for composing blog posts. Here's the summary of her advice:

• Use visual elements to capture attention.
• Keep it clean and to the point.
• Link to appropriate sources.
• Write powerful headlines.
• Provide reader-friendly lists.
• Write informative how-to articles.
• Use storytelling to your advantage.
• Use interviews to encourage engagement credibility.
• Write reviews of relevant products or services.
• Use regular features to build a following.
• Listen to your readers.
• Don't abandon your readers.

Check out Tamar Weinberg's personal site for more on blogging and the social web and her book site for reviews and links to media coverage of The New Community Rules.

I have a lot of different email addresses. I like being able to respond from a single email program (I currently use Thunderbird) and also from a Web mail account when I'm away from my computer (I currently use Gmail). Some of my email accounts are simply forwarded to my primary email account, but sometimes I like to keep each of the accounts separate. For these accounts I've configured Gmail to collect my email from each of my full email accounts. This is especially handy if your main computer is set up to collect the email directly into something like MS Outlook and you want to be able to read/send mail while on the road by logging into your Gmail account.

I used the following steps to set up the email collection:

1. Log into Gmail. Click on the "Settings" links (top right). Choose "Accounts and Imports" tab.
2. Scroll down to "Check mail using POP3." Click on "Add POP3 email account." A new window will open.
3. Enter the email address that you would like to read from your Gmail account. Click "Next Step."
4. Enter your username, password and the POP server (usually something like mail.DOMAINNAME.com). Depending on how I want to process the mail I sometimes leave a copy of the message on the server. I do, however, always add a "Label" for incoming messages so that I can easily see which emails are sent to each of the (many) email accounts that I have. Once you've configured the settings the way you'd like click the button "Add account."
5. Gmail will then try to log into that email account with the user name and password you've provided.

Mail collected using this method is generally picked up by Gmail once an hour. You can force Gmail to collect mail when log into your account by going back to the settings back and clicking the link "Check mail now."

To send emails as the new email address click on the link Settings, navigate to the tab labelled, "Accounts & Imports" and choose "Send Mail As..." Follow the on-screen instructions to validate your email address.

The Internet is full of useful tips on just about any topic you might be interested. Today I was looking for information on technical writing and stumbled across a business guide written by an Israli technical author. The report, How to Attract and Convert More Clients–Back to Basics, by Hillel Porath has a few rough edges but it also has a great list of follow-up tips that will help you make the sale as you convert your prospects to clients.

1. Ask your prospect when would be a good time to follow up. Then follow up as often as they say you should.
2. If your prospect is local, ask if it's possible to visit their office. Face to face interactions are very important.
3. If you are sending your prospects email, follow up. The first follow up should be at least two days after your initial email and the second email should be at least three days after that.
4. The reason for follow up is because your prospect is busy. The purpose of a follow up contact point is to remind your prospect about your call and to get them thinking about buying from you.
5. Be direct in your follow up. Ask your prospect if they received your previous email and then ask a follow up question. The prospect should not be the one leading the conversation. You called, you lead.
6. Listen to your prospect's tone of voice if you are calling on the phone. Match your tone to their rhythm.
7. You never know who is going to buy. Don't pre-judge people and omit them from your list of follow ups.
8. Whatever follow up strategy you have—stick with it. Of course you can modify your strategy if you need to, but get the foundation right (and consistent) first.
9. Always make sure the company you are contacting actually needs your product or service.
10. "Don't go chasing birds in an open field." If someone is not interested and you see they don't have a need for your service, leave them alone and move on to the next prospect. You will never catch the birds you chase in an open field.

You can download the full report from Promoting your business at elephant.org.

Not all effective marketing campaigns use a single business at their centre. More and more I am seeing industries engage in, "co-opetition." I was first exposed to the ideas only a few years ago at a tourism conference. In co-opetition several businesses within the same industry will pool their resources to promote their business.

For example: the golf courses locally pool their marketing resources to create a single promotional piece which explains how Owen Sound is a golf destination. It promotes the whole range of courses and gets avid golfers to the area where they may play a few courses rather than just one. I think it's a fantastic idea and I know there are other industries that take advantage of this kind of co-opetition.

Is your business one that would benefit from aligning itself with others?