Barbara Walters Price

Who Needs a Resume When You've Got This for a Cover Letter

via Huffington Post via Buzzfeed

Check out these "Cheap Online Tools to Build Your [Web] Business"

Don't be dissuaded from viewing this powerpoint deck (by Elizabeth Yin of Launchbit) by thinking "I don't have an online business." Several of the tools featured are useful for the websites of "brick and mortar" businesses as well.

Also, if you're thinking about a micro-site to support a specific service or product, several of the resources listed might be helpful. (For examples of micro-sites built by Mercer Capital, see www.buysellagreementsonline.com and www.bvreviewershandbook.com.)

Or, you might be thinking, "To heck with this career. I'm going to start an on-line business." Well then, this powerpoint deck really applies to you.

In any case, take a look.

Elizabeth Yin - Start it Up: Cheap and free tools to build your company

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Should You Rent a Chief Marketing Officer?

In this post (4 Reasons That Rent A CMO Makes Sense - Enterprise Value), Josh Patrick poses a sensible solution for a problem many small businesses, especially small professional service firms, have -- The firm is not big enough to support a full-time CMO but it needs those skill sets.

Josh's solution -- rent a CMO, or hire a CMO on a contract basis.

This can work for many firms IF you are clear on the following when vetting a contracted CMO:

• Their industry experience. Make sure that this person understands your industry and has a track record of success in your industry - not tangentially related to your industry.  
• Their marketing experience. Some people have, say, 20 years of cumulative experience and some people have, say, one year of experience 20 times. Do you see the difference?  
• Understand what kind of help you are seeking.  If you just need help with a marketing tactic or two, that is a very different thing than help devising your marketing strategy based upon your business goals and then delivering a plan to meet those goals. 
  
• Their marketing expertise. See the bullet point above. No consultant can have expertise in everything. Make certain that their expertise fits your needs.
• Realistic expectations  You, the client, are the biggest part of the marketing equation. In a professional services firm, marketing is not something you can totally outsource. You have to be an active partner. Before you hire any consultant, determine what success looks like.

What have I missed in this list?

Source: Stage 2 Planning Partners Making Your Life Better Blog

A Free (for now) Search Engine to Help You Improve Your Email Marketing

At Jay Baer's Convince & Convert, I found Emailium in his post "Eureka! A Free Search Engine That Will Juice Your Email Marketing." 

What is it?

Emailium is a free (for now) search engine of top emails from the leading retailers and other major senders of digital communication.

Potential Benefits

What are the potential benefits of checking Emailium out? Per Jay:

Considering that just about every company of every size sends email to its customers, this post probably applies to you.

• Do you need design inspiration? Ideas for how to make your emails look snappier, with more compelling layouts?
• Do you want to keep tabs on your competitors? What emails they are sending, and when?
• Do you want to monitor the email behavior of an industry? To determine what trends exist in marketing, offers, timing, and sequencing of emails?

If any of those appeal to you, I recommend you check out Emailium.

For a basic description, read the rest of Jay's post.

What Does Emailium Do for Professional Service Firms?

I poked around Emailium for a bit. For the majority of professional service firms, the most immediate benefit is inspiration for email design and layout.

Many of us won't find our direct competitors here and the industry search categories listed are a bit to broad for us. However, a bit of study of campaign timing and layout can be useful for us.

Check it out and see if it might be helpful for you.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Content Marketing But Were Not Afraid to Ask

As a follow on to yesterday's post which discussed content marketing and gave you a few content marketing resources, see CMI's "50 Questions Answered About Content Marketing." Enjoy.

"Thought leadership marketing is shaping up like an arms race, with no apparent goal except keeping up with the competition by churning out more of the same."

Great article by Michael W. McLaughlin on thought leadership (Is Your Thought Leadership Strategy a Waste of Time? via RainToday).

His point is basic but glossed over by many hyping this marketing tactic - that is content marketing (i.e., being recognized as a thought leader) is hard. 

Michael notes that pumping content out to the market that does not address your customer's needs, is old thinking, has no call to action, and has no support for the assertions made is not only bad marketing, it's a waste of time.

Content marketing is all the rage now. Mercer Capital (the firm I work for) has been using this marketing tactic before it had a name, as have many professional services firms. We always called it educating our clients, referral sources, and our profession.

Twenty years ago, even ten years ago (that's how long we've been marketing with content), content marketing was much more effective than it is now. There are two primary reasons:1) the marketplace wasn't so crowded and 2) the internet was not being used as the powerful content delivery tool it is today.

This means you should read Michael's article and if you are using, or considering using, content marketing as a piece of your marketing plan, focus on producing quality content. It's hard. It's very hard. It's harder than it's likely ever been. But it's worth it if done correctly.

______________________

Other content marketing sites you might be interest in are:

• Content Marketing Institute
• The Content Marketing Revolution
• Content Marketing Today
• Hubspot

Numerous other websites discuss content marketing. For a list, download my whitepaper 25 Marketing Best Practices for Professional Service Firms. In it I list the 80 or so blogs I follow. Many of them might be of interest to you.

Also check out the book, Content Rules, by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman.

Marketing Info You May Have Missed

• How to Manage Successful Webinars: A Checklist - Marketo
• Three Traits Every CEO Needs - HBR 
• CPA Firm of the Future: Does It Look Like This? - CPA Success 
• Four Key Non-Verbal Techniques for B2B Sales Success - Developing Your B2B Sales Skills
• Traditional vs. Digital Marketing: A New Model Emerges - Hinge PSF Marketing Blog
• Five Things Noone Told You About Twitter - Sisarina
• When It Comes to Social Media, Stop Trying to Work the Room - Mark Schaefer's Grow
• Seven SEO Myths That Just Won't Die - Talent Zoo

Trust Centered Selling

I just found this presentation.  It is several years old yet the basic information presented - Trust Centered Selling - is still relevant.

For a good resource on trust selling, visit Charles Green's Trust Matters blog.

Trust Centered Selling

View more presentations from Mark Slatin

"Companies send silly greeting cards at Christmas time. People listen and act on specific situations."

This post from Sean D'Souza, How to Create The Accidental Evangelist, is a good one to read and internalize. Posted on his blog, Psychotactics.com, Sean does a good job reminding us that it takes listening to our clients (referral sources) and acting upon what we learn to create "accidental evangelists."

After Sean gives examples from Amex and a hotel, he writes:

Yeah, yeah, I know. You don’t run a hotel. And you don’t own a credit card company. And the options for you to create evangelists, accidental or not, are few and far in between.

Ok, so tell me another one…

Because you’ve not been listening. As in paying attention to your customers — because customers are sure telling you really important stuff all the time.

“Hi Jody,” they say, “Can we re-schedule our meeting, as I can’t make it today. My son is ill and needs to be taken to the doctor.” Or “Hi, Mark,” they say, “It’s my birthday next week, and my wife is taking me out to lunch, so….

... companies don’t listen. People do. Companies send silly greeting cards at Christmas time. People listen and act on specific situations. And when they (as in you and me, act) the customer is startled, bemused, surprised, excited and suddenly there’s a smile on the customer’s face.

Take a moment to read it and then follow his advice.

Recommended Remote Control for Speakers

I might be behind the times but I just found this remote control for speaking engagements - the Logitech Cordless 2.4 GHz Presenter.  It has all the bells and whistles that most other remote controls have. However, this one has a countdown timer (silent vibration warnings at 5 minutes and 2 minutes).

I've been on the podium and know the value of a good wireless device.  I love the fact that this Logitech model has a countdown timer on the remote.  Too many venues have the clock only on the lectern.  Good speakers, I believe, don't use a lectern but if the clock is either there or on your wrist, I will use the one on the lectern.  Having to circle back over to the lectern to peek at the time to make sure I'm where I need to be in my presentation just gives me something else to worry about.  When you are speaking, the only thing you want to worry about is delivering for the audience.

The Logitech is under $70.  Read the reviews here.

Hap Tip:  Found the device while reading the excellent book, Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun.