The Downtown Women's Club womensDISH blog

Working Now To Enjoy The Holidays Later

Believe it or not, we are only a week and a half away from Thanksgiving. The holidays are about to hit, and as they usually do, they will hit hard.

We are going to be busy. We are going to be attending parties, shopping for gifts, traveling, and trying to fit in all those last minute details into our already overly packed schedules.

Before you hit the panic button and throw your hands up in frustration, take a deep breath and relax. There is still time! And thanks to technology, there are a few things we can do now in November to free up precious time in December!

Blog Posts

Start writing some extra blog posts now and scheduling them to publish on your blog in December. This way, if you want to take a long weekend and sip hot chocolate while watching the snow fall, you can do it without feeling like you abandoned your blog.

Newsletter and Emails

If you send out a regular newsletter on the 1st of the month, consider writing it now, uploading it to your autoresponder and scheduling it to be sent on January 1st. That way, your newsletter will go out on time, you can celebrate New Year's Eve with your friends and family, and even sleep in on January 1st -- unless you are going to get up extra early to kick start that new exercise regimen.

An autoresponder can help you with all the group emails that you plan on sending during December. If you plan on promoting something, go ahead and write the copy now, upload it, and have it sent the day you want. Taking care of email now may sound trivial, but those little things can add up.

Tweets

Yes - there are services out there that will let you schedule your tweets in advance! I will say that the whole idea of Twitter is being social, and while I do think it is a major mistake for people to use Twitter as an ad feed, I think it is okay to go ahead and schedule a few Tweets here and there.

If you're going to be driving through break neck traffic for 5 hours before you get to your aunt's house for holiday dinner, go ahead and schedule a few tweets for that day. You're going to be too busy driving to be tweeting, and once you get to your aunt's, you need to enjoy your family and the holiday. 

Thanks to automated tools and a little extra work, you can give yourself a fantastic holiday gift - the time to enjoy the holidays!

How to write an effective PR email pitch

I originally planned on writing a post simply griping about how my main email adddress has been rendered useless because someone put it on a media list and sold it to a number of different companies.  This stinks on multiple levels. First, I couldn't possibly respond to the sheer number of the emails I now receive.  Second, nary a one has been relevant.  This is a business and career blog and my other blog (http://topshelf.entrepreneur.com) is a business book review blog.  Yet, I seem to be slammed with multiple pitches a day about:

• beauty products
• computer hardware and enterprise software
• novels (including those for kids, young adults and science fiction) as well as cookbooks
• staffing levels in the health care industry.

And, this is just what I pulled out of today's trash.  I now spend half the day unsubscribing from these and deleting them out of my mailbox.  I've even created filters to catch the words "press release" and "for immediate release" so that they go into a separate folder as they come in. Unfortunately, it doesn't get them all.  Regardless, by next week, I expect I'll be sending them directly to the trash.

You can just imagine what I'm thinking about the PR industry each day as I delete 20 or so of these with my morning coffee.  And, I can't even print the words I often use to describe those PR spammers who don't have the courtesy to include an unsubscribe option. I've tried writing back to a few, but most don't honor my request to take me off their list.

Nevertheless, just when I was losing faith in the PR industry, I had two interactions in the past two weeks that gave me hope, and helped me boil it down to the two things you need to make a good email pitch:

1.  An "opt-out" or "unsubscribe" option.  This is a good reason to use a service that provides this.  Otherwise you can always do what this gentleman did below.

Somehow I ended up on the ABC-TV list re: upcoming shows, etc.  I got a few, then the gentleman from ABC included a nice note on the top of his next release asking "If you no longer want to receive these releases, please let me know."  I wrote him back and told him that while I personally found them interesting, I couldn't have them cluttering up my in-box so would have to unsubscribe, and thanked him for giving me the option. He then responded by obliging and thanking me for my personable response.  I haven't received a press release since, but it gave me another reason to like ABC besides Modern Family.

2.  Do a little bit of research and you won't need to have an "opt-out" option. just when I was thinking I was overloaded with books I needed to review for my book review blog, I got an email:

1. Addressed to me personally (with my name spelled right!);
2. That included a pitch for a book right in my sweet spot (networking/social media/marketing);
3. Mentioned my Top Shelf blog and the Downtown Women's Club (so clearly not a mass mailing); and
4. Was extremely brief, to the point and extremely well-written.

I include it below because I believe the PR industry takes a lot of knocks (some of it well deserved as outlined above), and doesn't get enough credit when they do a good job like below.  So, for our PR readers, take note (reprinted with the author's permission).

Hello Diane:

I am working with Maribeth Kuzmeski, author of The Connectors:  How the World's Most Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients for Life.  I was looking at your Top Shelf Reading Picks blog, and saw that you review many books on similar subjects to this book.  I would like to extend an invitation for you to review a complimentary copy of The Connectors.  Since you have launched your own women's social networking site, you understand the importance of building meaningful connections with others in business.  

Here is a quick description of her book:

...

Does this sound like a book you would be interested in reviewing?  If so, simply reply to this email and I will follow up with you to get you your complimentary book.  We are just looking for honest feedback, and we would value your opinion.

Thank you for your time.  I hope to hear back from you soon.

Sincerely,

Danielle Ackerman
http://www.redzonemarketing.com/

I had no intention of taking on any more books at the moment, but will make an exception for Danielle.  Her note made me realize that it's a lot of bad apples ruining it for the good ones.  Which is a shame, but because I'm now inundated with irrelevant, un-opt-outable news releases, I'm considering switching to a new email address, which will mean that 100% of email pitches will fall on deaf ears.  And, that's a shame.

Diane K. Danielson is the founder of the Downtown Women's Club and the author of The Savvy Gal's Guide to Online Networking (or What Would Jane Austen Do?) and The Downtown Women's Club Beginner's Guide to Facebook.

You Have To Know Who You Are

When it comes to marketing and advertising, the first step isn't creating a great looking website or flashy promotional materials. The first step is to figure out who you are, what your business is, and who you are trying to reach. Those questions can have many different answers - and those answers can greatly change the way you market your business.

Let's say you design hip baby clothes. It wouldn't make sense to take out an ad on a motorcycle website. Yes, some people who own motorcycles are parents, but people go to a motorcycle website to get motorcycle information.

It would make a lot more sense to take an ad out on a parenting website. The type of parenting site will make a difference. Remember - you make hip baby clothes. A website that caters to young, modern parents who  live in a more urban area will be your best bet.

Your website and marketing materials will also need to match the product and target market. Your business card should not feature a traditional blue and pink color scheme or bunny and bear motif. Your design needs to be edgy and scream the words "hip" and "modern."

On the other hand, let's say you are a freelance public relations specialist who likes to work with small corporations. These people are going to be more conventional and business-minded. The design should be somewhat classic and reserved, displaying a refined style.

It can be easy to get lost in these decisions. You may have a clear-cut vision when you start your business, only to have it become blurry as time goes on. Some people are afraid of losing clients or work, so they try to be everything to everyone. That cannot be done.

Instead, decide on exactly what work you would like to do. Then, define exactly who your 'ideal customer' is. One you know that, you can focus on attracting the clients you really want to work with.

Since you will be working on the tasks you actually want to do with the type of client you prefer working with, you will find yourself a lot happier. It will be a win-win situation!

DWC+ Teleclass Teaser: Blogging for Business

Last year, some people pronounced blogs as dead.  I refused to buy into that and in fact wrote a rebuttal listing all the facets of blogging that businesses had yet to leverage. I still stand by that post and that’s why I invited Andy Wibbels of SixApart, the company that produces Typepad to give us a little primer on "Blogging for Business."

Here’s a sneak peak at his slides below.  DWC+ Premium members who missed the live teleclass, will be able to download it from our DWC+ Teleclass library (along with over 50 others - a $1,500 value which is part of a $49/year DWC+ Premium membership).  Not a DWC+ premium member yet?  Join today by clicking here.

Just a note that the slides represent only 1/10th of the information Andy shared with us.  My favorite gem was:  “If you're not getting comments on your blog, you’re not being honest enough.”  So true. So true.

Blog Basics

View more documents from Erin Murphy.

Top Five Personal Branding Mistakes by Lyn Chamberlin

The following guest post is by Lyn Chamberlin or www.skyePR.com.  Read more from Lyn at her blog, The Brand Dame.

1. Your brand is all about you.

"What?" you say. "Isn't that what a brand is supposed to be about?" Yes and no. If your brand doesn't explicitly and implicitly tell customers and potential clients what you can do for them then it's not working as a brand. Think about FedEx.


Its promise to its customers is overnight delivery. Now, FedEx is a lot of other things, too. But when you think of the FedEx brand, only one word comes to mind.
 
2. You can write it but you can't say it.

Some people are as pleased as punch when they write a great paragraph about their professional service or product. But stick them at a Starbucks with a long-lost college friend and watch all those written words turn to garbled froth.


Your brand description needs to roll off your tongue as easily as it falls onto the page - sometimes with modification.
 
3. Now you see it/ now you don't.

You remember to brand your Facebook page but neglect your LinkedIn description. You haven't gotten around to writing a tagline (see #4), which would be very useful on your email signature. In fact, you don't have a carefully designed email signature at all. It's not enough to just list your phone and fax numbers.


 
4. Every great brand has a tag line.

It doesn't have to be especially clever or something you pay an ad agency gazillions of dollars to come up with. Just a line that you paste everywhere that describes what it is that you do Think Wal-Mart ("Save Money. Live Better") or Lowe's ("Let's Build Something Together").



Both of these not only tell you what the company does, but what it does for you, the consumer.
 
5. You don't have one.

I've recently come to believe that if you don't have a brand you really don't have a business at all. What's so magical about a brand? Nothing. Except that having one means that you have done the thinking necessary for customers to make the leap of faith required to pay you, to ask for the trust needed to choose you over one of your competitors. Being good at what you do is simply not enough. At least, not if we want our businesses to make money and to build a loyal following of customers who keep coming back for more.

Three Things to Consider When Choosing a Social Media Strategy

Catherine Weber, CEO, of Weber Media Partners  (and one of my advisors) is asked all the time how to approach social media as a small business owner.  Catherine has boiled it down to three questions:

1. What are you trying to achieve? Branding? Leads? Direct sales?
2. Who are you trying to reach? Consumers? Business people? Others?
3. What resources do you have?  People? Time? Money?

She recommends you answer these three questions before launching into the social media realm.

For more insightful thought leadership, see Impressions Through Media, the Weber Media Partners blog.

Susan C. Hammond

www.schammond.com

DWC+ Webinar on Email Marketing by VerticalResponse

This month VerticalResponse sponsored our weekly teleclass where they taught us how to create cost effective, high impact email campaigns.

Which celebrity best represents your brand?

Earlier this spring we had No Time Marketing expert, Alyssa Dver, present an outstanding DWC+ Teleclass on marketing.  One of the most provocative questions she posed was if you could have a celebrity spokesperson represent your brand, who would that be? 

While you should all work this out for your own companies, we thought we'd ask our members who they think it should be for the Downtown Women's Club.  We put a few names who spring to mind below, but feel free to suggest more in the comments below OR share your ideas about who your own"celebrity spokesperson" would be and why!

Online Surveys & Market Research

 

We actually think that our ideal spokespeople are our very own members!  If you have a DWC networking success story, we hope you'll share it with us by clicking here to enter our DWC Networking Success contest.  All participants will be eligible for a drawing for a $25 gift certificate and other prizes.

Celebrity Apprentice contestants should read the womensDISH

I know I already wrote sbout Celebrity Apprentice's double firing this week, but I had another thought which pertained to social media/markting: Too bad the Celebrity Apprentice teams didn’t read the womensDISH, or they would have known about Lena West’s seven tips for making a video that has the possibility of going viral.

This week's task:  Make a viral video to promote ALL small & mighty laundry detergent.

Clint Black’s team:  A poorly written/acted play off a dirty joke where the “wife” in the video was a sex bomb who clearly hadn’t had children. [Couldn’t find the video … maybe too lewd for even youtube? or did fans even know that it wouldn't be "viral".]

Melissa River’s team:  A funny video of Jesse James being washed by midgets with foul mouths. 

Result: The ALL marketing execs hated them both. 

What happened?  They didn’t follow Lena’s tips.  Here’s a recap of Lena's 7 items that can help make a video go"viral"  (although as she points out, no one decides in advance what will be “viral”):

1.    Free and short.
2.    Can't force behavior change, but it does allow for it.
3.    Not just entertaining, but people need to see themselves doing it.
4.    Feeds off how people naturally operate.
5.    Scalability has to be hardwired into it
6.    Facilitates easy sharing.
7.    Leverages "Other People's Social" (i.e. social capital)

Basically they all tripped up on 3, 4 & 7 because the target market is busy moms.  Neither video had a realistic “mom” character and neither showed a scene depicting what a mom might be able to see herself doing.  Also, neither one is likely to encourage a busy mom to forward to a friend (#7). 

While the Jesse James one was actually amusing ... it was more "guy" type humor ("little people" who curse), and hey, before this season of Celebrity Apprentice, I had no clue how adorable and smart Mr. Sandra Bullock was. (I'm still rooting for Jesse to win!)

So, what could they have done?  My 30 second reaction was simple:  animals and kids.

Put a toy poodle in the washer, have it come out a large, standard poodle.  Put a black kitten in the washer, have it come out a panther.  Put an annoying text-messaging, acronym-spouting teen in the washer, have him or her come out a 20-something with a briefcase … then some sort of tagline like “New All, powerful enough to transform your wash … although there’s no guarantees re: your teenager.”

What would your ideas have been?

Launch a "viral marketing" campaign? You wish!

I had a great opportunity this week to see one of my favorite pals, Lena West, ceo of xynoMedia Technology, speak at the Business of Community Networking conference, hosted by the World Research Group.  Lots of great stuff out of the conference so more to blog about later.  But, Lena's talk stood out in my mind because she started out by scoffing at the idea that you can "plan a viral marketing campaign."  Really, how silly is it to think you can predict what catches on online and what doesn't. 

It kind of reminded me of the time when I was a VP of marketing and posted a sign on my door that said "There is NO such thing as a Marketing Emergency."  

But, back to Lena and viral marketing. While she dispelled the notion of being able to control what goes "viral," she did give us some terrific guidelines to ensure that any online campaign we launch does not automatically disqualify itself from being viral.

Here's a list of Lena's 7 items that might help make your next online marketing efforts "viral":

1. Free and short.
2. Can't force behavior change, but it does allow for it.
3. Not just entertaining, but people need to see themselves doing it.
4. Feeds off how people naturally operate.
5. Scalability has to be hardwired into it
6. Facilitates easy sharing.
7. Leverages "Other People's Social" (i.e. social capital)

One example she used that fit the mold was Blendtec Blenders:  "Will it blend?"

For more from Lena, check the Lipsticking blog (about marketing to women) and her Tech Forward blog at Entrepreneur.