Category Archives: Marketing Makeover

Lie: “If you build it, they will come.”

In most cases, most likely the case of YOUR business, or YOURSELF (if you are in transition), you can’t rely on this phrase that I think was made popular by the movie Field of Dreams.

Your stuff might be that awesome.

But no one will know about it, or care, until you invite them.

And the “invitation” will take more work than you think it should.

Awesomeness isn’t always apparent.

You must invite them, sometimes repeatedly (think:nurture and followup).

You must also think WIIFM = What’s In It For Me (them). In other words, you have to let them know WHY they will love it, think it’s awesome, want to come, etc.

I’ve seen many startups fail at marketing, because they think the product speaks for itself. I thought my resume spoke for itself.

What to do?

Pick up the phone. Write the emails. Reach out to them, invite them, and develop relationships.

Some of the relationships I started 6+ years ago, when I started my business, are finally seeing what I want them to see… six years later!

Tim Ferris / Charlie Hoehn on Marketing and Management

Leave a reply

I loved this post by Charlie Hoehn, who works with Tim Ferris, on how they marketed Tim’s book. Tim’s blog is well-known for his indepth posts, and this is one to print and refer back to anytime you think about doing a product launch or relaunch.

It’s long, so I’m going to just link to it here. It’s mostly about marketing, but there are some nuggets about how Tim “manages” Charlie that are also awesome lessons.

12 Lessons Learned While Marketing “The 4-Hour Body”

PR Firms, publicity, advertising, goals and LIES

Leave a reply

I started my business about 5.5 years ago. I envied any company that got ink on a magazine, newspaper, radio, TV show, etc.

Envied might be too light of a word. I was full-on jealous. I wanted it. I wanted the media to notice the amazingness that was JibberJobber. Life-changing. Made the old invention of sliced-bread stale and moldy. My new thing was so very awesome.

I was perplexed that media wouldn’t talk about. Local media, national, etc. No one would talk about JibberJobber. Even when unemployment went up, no one would talk about it.

Well, traditional media wouldn’t talk about it. I had many blog interviews, podcasts, blogtalkradio, etc. But I had people say “until I read about it in the Wall Street Journal or New York Times, I don’t care.”

I just didn’t understand.

And then I started to piece the puzzle together.

Traditional media has an agenda. They write what the *think* you want to read. They sensationalize. They dramatize. It’s not about NEWS, or what’s newsworthy. It’s about rankings, revenue, ads and your eyeballs.

Why write about a job website they can write about serious issues, like Lindsey Lohan?

After all, that’s what we want to consume, isn’t it? That’s what sells papers and magazines. Michael Jackson’s death. Princess Diana’s death. That is what we buy.

There’s another part of the equation, though. What gets printed has a lot to do with the PR firm. I knew PR firms would charge from a few thousand to ten+ thousand PER MONTH to get stuff in print, or on the TV. I didn’t have that type of money.

Here’s a MUST read article for any entrepreneur to better understand PR a bit: What some PR firms aren’t telling their clients

I’d like to focus on the last point: PR rarely drives sales.

After my LinkedIn book came out I had a choice experience. US News and World Report wrote a FULL PAGE article on me (that was in their print magazine). They had a photographer drive out to meet me at a conference I was speaking at. I was an almost-celebrity. I felt that finally, media was recognizing what I was doing. It was flattering, fun, awesome.

I did not see an increase in book sales or JibberJobber signups. I saw no measurable increase in anything in my business (I got one speaking gig out of it, which is great….). For a full-page article I expected much, much more.

And I got nothing.

Except the chance to say I was in that magazine.

My point? Be careful where you spend your money. You can spend A LOT on PR. And that PR might not result in anything more than bragging rights.

Someone tell me I’m wrong.

Corporate Branding: The Denny’s Brand

Leave a reply

What does the Denny’s brand mean to you?

To me it means “the place my wife doesn’t want to go.”

That says a lot, doesn’t it?

Check out this TechCrunch post: The Entire $1.65B Acquisition Of YouTube Took A Week, Was Negotiated At Denny’s

I’m guessing that was the largest business transaction that was negotiated at a Denny’s restaurant (happy to be corrected on that one). What a moment of pride, right?

But…..

Steven Chen YouTube founder and super-rich guy, said, about deciding where to have these secret negotiation meetings:

“We didn’t want to meet at offices, so we were like, ‘Where’s a place that none of us would go?’”

Ouch. Probably need to scratch that one off the Denny’s Accomplishments brag sheet.

Branding and Understanding

1 Reply

Last week I got an email from someone who used JibberJobber to help organize her job search. She gets that part:

“I appreciated your presentation, your tips and your enthusiasm. I used Jibber Jobber during my 7 month job search. It is an excellent tool and I enjoyed using it.”

Awesome!

Then, she said:

“I started a new job on October 3.”

Uh oh. This is usually where they say “I’m good now – see ya later!” I’m thrilled when my users get a job, whether they use JibberJobber or not, but I dislike how so many put their career management on hold while they have a job 🙁

But Colena GOT IT. Instead of breaking up with JibberJobber she wrote:

“Having attended your presentation, I now have a reason to continue using the tool even though my job search has ended.”

Let’s go back to the title of this post: Branding and understanding.

I want people to use JibberJobber to help them navigate (organize and manage) their job search.

However, many people somehow miss the idea that once they land a job, they could be unemployed fairly quickly, and they need to do stuff, like grow and nurture their network, and work on their personal brand.

The JibberJobber brand clearly conveys that JibberJobber is a tool for job seekers.

Does it stop there?

For many people, it does.

The understanding of JibberJobber is that it is for active job seekers.

But there are others who use JibberJobber as a relationship management tool:

happily employed professionals who know they need to be ready for a transition, even if the writing isn’t on the wall
unhappily employed professionals who are worried about a pending transition
freelancers and contractors who might have a day job, but also have outside clients they need to keep organized
Authors who are interested in self-marketing (since the publishing companies don’t do it for them), and recognize the value of a relationship management tool
Small business owners, like myself, as well as professional speakers (like myself!)
Songwriters, who recognize that getting a hit song depends on your ability to network, as well as your talent,
and many others…

Job seekers see one facet of the brand, and they understand some of the potential, thinking they understand all of the potential.

This is a HUGE issue for all companies… companies who have clients who don’t “get” what they do.

This is a HUGE issue for job seekers, who have branding issues.

How do YOU help your clients/audience understand your brand, your offerings, and your value?

This question can help your job search end faster, or help your company grow bigger.

Ignore it at your own risk.

Freemium Models: Must Read

1 Reply

I am doing some research on freemium models, and specifically the upgrade page (technically, I’m looking for design ideas to enhance the “user interface” (aka: UI)).

I came across an excellent must-read post for anyone who thinks they want to do freemium, written by John Greathouse, who was involved in the precursor (?) to GoToWebinar (BuddyHelp). I can’t find much info on BuddyHelp… but hey, that was internet eons ago.

Anyway, John writes How To Make Freemium Customers Generate Revenue For Your Startup. Go read it, as he seems to have identified a lot of pitfalls that you can avoid.