Market My Holistic Biz

How is Less Marketing More?

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There is a definite line between effective marketing and being a pest.  I was going to call it a fine line, but it really isn't.  It's actually a pretty blatantly obvious line when you apply common sense.

The same rules you learned on the playground apply to making and keeping friends when you're marketing with things like social media, email marketing and blogging.

• Have fun - don't be afraid to let your personality come through in your tweets, updates and blog posts.  It may take a little practice before you feel comfortable allowing your playful side into the office but, belive me, it can really pay off in terms of relationship building.  Authenticitiy is THE marketing buzz word of the day!

• Invite others to play - Internet marketing is all about interaction.  The more you encourage others to respond to what your doing by inviting their opinions, shared experience or welcoming support when you need it, the stronger the bonds you'll build.

• Share the ball - As important as inviting interaction is offering it.  Comment on blog postings and Facebook updates.  Reply when others comment on yours. No one likes to feel ignored or invisible and even the briefest acknowledgement will go a long way in warding that off.

• Tell the truth - And we're back to autheniticity.  Be real and you'll really make an impact.

• Don't be mean - Unless you're modeling your business on the FOX Network, negativity is a sure fire way to drive folks away from engaging with you in meaningful ways.  That doesn't mean you can't tell it like it is when you're having a rough day.  Just stay focused on trying to pull the best out of the worst of things.

Bottom line?  The secret to successful internet marketing (which I define as attracting the exact type of customer or client you are best suited to serve) is less bombardment and more consistent, authentic communication.  

Got a success story to share about how you've attracted a new client just by being you?  Why not post it here for everyone's benefit?

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Click on my Santa hat for a little seasonal fun!

Using the Facebook Event Feature without Annoying Your Friends

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If you’re on Facebook, you’re probably well acquainted with the Event feature - even if you’ve never created one yourself.

Countless invitations to events from people you barely know urging you to participate in things that have nothing to do with your business or your interests may be clogging your inbox.

This promotional plastering can make it nearly impossible for you to keep up with messages about stuff that really matters to you and may leave you with the impression that using the event feature to promote your products and classes is a bad idea.  It’s not.  It’s a very good idea.  As long as you remember this:

How-to without strategy is the root of all promotional evil!

With that in mind, let me walk you through the how-to of creating an event on Facebook.  There’s probably a bunch of ways you can get to the starting point, but I’ll show you the path I use.

• Click “Applications” in the lower left corner of your profile page or fan page
• Click “Events” (you’ll see upcoming and past events listed)
• Click “Create an Event” and the system will walk you through the process.

CAUTION: “Step 3 – Invite friends” is the place to exercise some strategic restraint.

Imagine a team – any group of people working as a unit.  For this example, I’ll use football. 

There is a quarterback who throws the ball with precision, receivers who speed to the ball’s destination and pluck it from the air, defenders who anticipate and block the opponent’s movement and running backs who weave in and out of mountain-sized men evading tackles like a greased pig at a country fair.

These guys are all experts at the “how-to” of their position.  But if they showed up on the field at game time and just started how-to-ing it all over the place without a strategy, they’d never win a game - even if, individually, they were more skilled than the opposing players.

What does this have to do with Facebook Events?

Even if you are hosting the greatest event under the sun, if you turn people off with the way you promote it, you’ll have a flop on your hands.  And worse, you’ll be training people to ignore you!

Use the invite feature sparingly.  Once is enough and choose when wisely.  Unfortunately, there is no hard and fast way to do this.  You have to develop a feel for it, but here are a couple of sample approaches:

• You could create your event, post it to your wall, talk about it in a conversational way to spark curiosity and interest once or twice a week and include a link to it some of those times, then send an invitation.  OR
• You could create your event, post it to your wall, send an invitation and talk about it. OR
• You could create your event, send an invitation, talk about it, then post it to your wall OR
• You could create your event, post it to your wall, talk about it and never send an invitation!

Notice in all of these options there was never more than one invitation in the mix and one of them didn’t include an invitation at all – some events may not warrant an invite!  Just promotion.

The bottom line:  Just like a winning football team needs a coach to strategically direct traffic on the field, so do your promotional efforts on Facebook and elsewhere.  Learn to be your own promotional coach or hire one so you can get the results you want.

A Big Email Marketing Boo-Boo

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I have a few email marketing pet peeves and if one of the biggest ones hadn't just landed in my inbox for the third time this month, you probably wouldn't be reading this right now. 

If just one good intentioned - yet misguided  - business owner makes a better choice before clicking 'send' as a result of this post, then it will have all been worth it.

Here it is: 

Receiving a business solicitation email (even from someone I know) that originates from a personal email account like Outlook or gmail and includes a list of the dozen or so others who received it is like nails on a chalkboard and here's why:

1. It completely violates the privacy of everyone on the list and makes them susceptible to receiving unsolicited email - something everybody just loves, right?


2. It's wicked unprofessional (as we say in the Boston burbs)


3. It's a violation of CAN SPAM law (the rules for business email communication)

Before I start getting hate mail about this, let me clarify some ways it is acceptable to use your personal email for business communication:

1. Sending a message to a current or past client or customer (as long as they haven't asked that you remove them from your mailing list)


2. Sending an informational or motivational message to the participants of a small group you're facilitating ("small" is relative but I'd say less than 15 people is a good rule of thumb)

The easiest way to use email for marketing the "right" way is through an email service provider like Constant Contact or AutoWeb Business.  It's inexpensive, law-abiding and will make you look way more professional.

If you want to "play by the rules" but aren't sure how to get started, I'll be happy to help.  In fact, Constant Contact offers a 60-day free trial and I'll even get you started at no charge if you like!  Just click this.

A Little Good, Clean Fun!

I struggled a bit while writing this because I have very strong feelings about the topic.   So I hope what follows doesn’t sound preachy.  That wasn’t my intent.

Earth Day is just ahead and thanks to Al Gore and global warming, it now gets more than just a passing nod.  It’s an unfortunate and ugly trait of humanity that it so often takes teetering on the brink of disaster for us to take corrective action.  But at least we have begun taking it.

Being good to the environment has always struck me as common sense.  I wasn’t raised on a co-op by hippies or anything.  Seems I was just hard-wired that way and I’m thankful for it. 

To me, throwing an empty food wrapper out a car window is the equivalent of tossing it on your dining room floor – both equate to polluting your living environment; the only difference is the amount of time and trash it takes before you wind up ankle deep in garbage and wise up to your own foolish behavior.

And the same principle seemed clear to me concerning business. 

I don’t think I’ll ever understand why, otherwise intelligent, business owners can’t see the counterproductive madness of disposing of toxins in the water that their customers drink, that their food swims in and which irrigates the soil they farm.  Heck, why not just cut to the chase and make the stuff into a sandwich spread or soda pop?  It follows the same logic, right?

Green is big business these days - and thank goodness, because it has helped folks to have a change of heart.  It would be nice if everyone did the right thing simply because it was the right thing, but I’ll settle for redirected greed if it means we get to inhabit the third rock a little longer.

Even teeny-weeny businesses like Planit Production can do our part to turn the environmental tide.  Here are some of the ways that I try to do my part with my business:

• My office is in my home: that means my VW Golf isn’t spewing any CO2 during my daily commute.  I just wear out slippers a little faster now.
• 97% of my business communication is virtual:  I use email and social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to talk with clients and colleagues.
• 99% of my banking and billing is virtual:  I pay almost all my bills and accept almost all my client payments via the internet.  This saves paper and reduces how often I have to run errands, thus reducing the CO2 emissions.
• 90% of my workshops are virtual:  I use the telephone and internet tools to conduct teleclasses and webinars.  Face-to-face experiences are important and still part of my business, but a much smaller part these days.

How about you?  I would really like to hear about the things that you’re doing to help heal our Mother Earth.  Even the smallest things matter and deserve acknowledgment, so please leave a comment.  It may inspire others to take action they may not otherwise have thought of.  We’re all in this together!

When Opportunity Knocks, Will You Open the Door?

What happens when you drop a pebble into still water?  A ripple appears as a tight circle at the point of impact.  This circle creates a second, larger one which in turn creates a third even larger circle and the effect continues until, at some point, the ripples are no longer visible to the eye and it appears that the impact of the pebble is complete. 

Not so - eventually, the transfer of energy that occurred when that pebble entered the still water will extend and reach all the way to the shore creating a tiny little wave washing over the sand and stones there. 

Just because the ripples are no longer visible to the naked eye doesn’t mean they are no longer having an impact.

The mortgage crisis began on Wall Street, where it first looked like some isolated corporations would take a well-deserved hit and pay the price for their greed. (Don’t get me started on the far-reaching tentacles of greed and the subsequent responsibility we all have in this mess. That’s not the point of this article.)

Here’s the point: all things are connected.  When the sub-prime mortgage bubble burst, somebody should have started passing out scuba gear to prepare the world for the tsunami of ripples that were on the way!

We’re in the midst of it now and while the current economic climate is creating hardship, it is, at the same time, ripe with opportunity.

It is wholly possible to take advantage of the current situation without taking advantage of people. In fact, now is a perfect time to help yourself by helping others.  Are you seeing and seizing the opportunities available to you in your field or industry? 

• People who can’t find jobs are starting businesses.  Do you have a product or service to offer these people to help them get off the ground?

• People are looking for ways to cut corners and save pennies. Does your product or service offer a way for either business or consumers to save money? 

• People need creative solutions and may be too overwhelmed by their own circumstances to figure them out on their own.  Can you offer some simple out-of-the-box suggestions to help consumers or business owners simplify things?

If you have ideas or solutions like these to offer, now is the time to shout it from the hilltops.  Now, more than ever, is the time to step up your marketing and PR.  Keep your solution-oriented thinking cap on and you will be able to turn this time of media-professed hardship into prosperity for yourself and the people you help with your solutions.  And I challenge you to start now!

Leave a comment and let the world know about one thing that you do that can help some one who may be struggling now.