Testimonials. We believe in them.    August 24, 2010

Filed under: Testimonials — CaelanHuntress @ 6:10 pm

When talking to others about your business, you know how great you are. It’s easy to tell people how amazing your service or product is, but seriously, why should anybody believe you?

The fact is, you have a vested interest in convincing someone to do business with you. Your prospective customers know this, so they take everything you say with a grain of salt. But you know who they will believe?

Disinterested, third-party testimonials.

Clients who have worked with you in the past have a MUCH higher credibility in the eyes of your prospective customers. Harness that credibility, and put it to work.

Websites like Yelp and Angie’s List have codified the searchability of testimonials. By making it easy to review businesses, these websites have created a valuable database for anyone who wants to find out what people REALLY think about you.

Harvesting Testimonials

There is one surefire way to get testimonials: ask. Watch, I’ll show you how:

If you’ve worked with Spot Color Studio in the past, please take a moment to write a review of our services on Yelp. Thanks! (Seriously, click on it. Thanks.)

The best time to ask for testimonials, however, is directly after you have finished your business with someone. As you are wrapping up your interaction, if they say ANYTHING nice about you, ask for a testimonial. Here are some easy questions:

  • Thank you! Would you mind writing that on your letterhead for me?
  • Thanks! Could you post that as a testimonial on LinkedIn for me? (Follow up with an email reminder.)
  • Thanks! Here, I’ve got my video camera with me, would you mind repeating what you just said so I can have your testimonial on video? Say your name, why you hired me, and what the experience was like. Okay, action!

Using Testimonials Effectively

Keep your testimonials handy, only a click or two away. When someone is on the fence, they’re not quite sure if they want to do business with you or not, tell them this: “I understand your hesitation. Let me show you what some other satisfied customers think about my service.” Show them the testimonials, and you’ve got a new client!

Location-based advertising. It’s HERE.    August 17, 2010

Filed under: Social Media — CaelanHuntress @ 6:10 pm

The most effective question you can ask yourself about advertising is “When, Where, and How do my customers want to be contacted?”

It’s not about When you want to contact them. Or Where you want, or How you want. In the digital age, marketing is about what your customer wants. The old model of blaring out your message during commercial breaks, that doesn’t work anymore. Seth Godin put it best:

“Interruption Marketing is dead.”

Here are some clever new tools to advertise WHERE your clients are:

Mobile Marketing

You’re in a bar enjoying happy hour. The table tent has a simple message: “Text HAPPY HOUR to 41153 for a free order of chicken wings!” You text it, get a coupon, show your server, and BOOM! Free chicken wings!

Now, anytime your phone is within a 100-ft restaurant of that bar, you get a follow-up message: “Come in for a free order of chicken wings!”

Foursquare

This handy little app could be the next big tweet. Check in at a venue and earn points. The person who checks in the MOST at a venue is the Mayor, and gets a free treat anytime they visit. Do you want to be the Mayor? Your attendance is now incentivized.

Facebook

They should be making an announcement on geo-location on Wednesday, says Mashable.com. “Here I am” is easy to broadcast over social media; how can your marketing team respond with, “Now that you’re here, why don’t you buy this?”

Shorter is better. Especially with video.    July 29, 2010

Filed under: Video — CaelanHuntress @ 6:15 pm

Small Business Startup Packages

Everybody knows video is a gamechanger. But how do you incorporate it for your business, without a hefty budget to hire a big-time production studio?

Easy. Start small, but get started. Short videos are more watchable than long epics; when you surf online, do you click on those eight minute videos very often? (Only if you already know you are interested in the material, I’d bet.) But how many times, seriously, have you clicked on a thirty second video, from someone you don’t know at all?

If you want to gain the interest of new customers using video, keep it short. And powerful. And what is the all-time most powerful thing that can be said about your business?

A third-party testimonial.

You don’t need a fancy professional camera; you just need a camcorder that’s easy and accessible. The Flip HD camcorder is a fantastic piece of hardware; it’s smaller than a deck of cards and shoots an hour of HD quality video.

Keep this camera with you, and the next time that somebody says something nice about your business, ask if you can take a quick video testimonial from them. Give them an outline of what to say: their name, your business name, and why they thinkyou’re great.

Post this short video on your blog or Facebook fan page. It doesn’t represent a huge investment of time to watch. Complete strangers are willing to give it a shot. And a video testimonial has something that many flashy, high-end videos may lack:authenticity.

If you can produce video proof of authentic people testifying about how great you are, people will listen.

Location based marketing. Hmmm.    July 28, 2010

Filed under: Social Media — CaelanHuntress @ 12:23 am

The latest Mashable article on Foursquare quotes a Forrester’s study:

Forrester also found that location-based service (LBS) users are likely to be 19- to 35-year-old, college-educated males who are influential among their friends and family. These users generally do a lot of mobile-based web research when considering making a purchase, from a refrigerator or a car to a movie ticket or dinner at a restaurant. Their average household income is right around the six-figure mark — around $20,000 higher than consumers who don’t use an LBS.

If Portland is about anything, it’s local.  If you want to spread an idea that appeals to local influencers, mobile marketing could be an incredible way to do it.

You don’t have to sell to friends. So go make some.    July 27, 2010

Filed under: Networking — CaelanHuntress @ 6:14 pm

We like to network. It’s easy and fun for social people to go to professional networking events, hand out some cards, and have a good conversation with fun people. (And, it generally leads to business.)

While we were at a networking event last week, someone made a comment that has colored a lot of people’s perception of professional networking:

“I meet tons of people, but I don’t get anything done.”

If your process ends with a handshake and a trade of business cards, no wonder!

When meeting strangers, if you want to turn these new relationships into referral friendships, you have to genuinely make a friend. If you meet as many people as we do, automating the process helps. Here’s what we do:

1. Write a thank you note.

A polite email will suffice, but if you’ve gotten a handwritten note from someone you casually exchanged cards with, you know how sticky this can make you.

2. Connect online

Follow your new friend on Twitter. Read a blog post. Subscribe to their newsletter. I guarantee, they will notice that you stepped up to participate.

3. Provide Value

Send your new friend a referral, or clip a magazine article that pertains to their industry. Introduce them to someone in an overlapping business. Give them a reason to thank you, and when they do, it will likely be with something as valuable as you have offered.

Social Media DIY    June 24, 2010

Filed under: Social Media — CaelanHuntress @ 5:36 pm
IT’S JUNE!

June is Effective Communications Month, and we are celebrating it by showcasing one of the most effective modern tools for communicating to your audience – Social Media!
This also happens to be “Entrepreneurs DIY month.”  If you want to do all this marketing work by yourself, go to it.  If you want our help, we’ve got a crack team of design ninjas who can do this for you, so you can focus on what you do best – running your business.
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Platform Integration

There’s Twitter, and Facebook, and LinkedIn, and have you heard of Biznik yet?  And what is Plaxo?
There’s so many different platforms, the only fair way to treat them is with one single aggregator.  Update one social media account, that is hooked up to ALL of your other accounts, and EVERYTHING updates.
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2 Hours to Integrate
This takes an investment of time, and a moderate amount of tech-savvy.  If you don’t want to spend the 150 bucks to pay us to do this for you, here’s everything you need to do:
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Sign In Everywhere
Create accounts at every social media platform.  Using the same username and password may not be the best security, but it does make your life easier.  (Password tip: include the first or last letter of the website, before your stock password, and the password to every site is unique!)
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Aggregators
If you do plenty of blogging, you’ll like Tumblr.  They allow you to post videos, pictures, or text, and send it to Twitter and Facebook.
If you’re naturally more twitter-heavy, try out HelloTxt.  This sends your posts not just to Twitter, but to Facebook and LinkedIn too.
If you cast your social media net far and wide, Friend Feed hosts combines approximately 60 sites into one update.  What do you Digg?  What do you StumbleUpon?  What have you rented from Netflix?
The level of integration you choose will depend upon your personal integration–with your company, and your brand.  If you identify with your brand 100% personally, i.e. your name is your brand, then what you personally do online can be seen as an extension of what your brand does or likes.  If there’s a company, with it’s own name, that you’re trying to promote, then separate accounts for personal and business use are recommended.
(Ninja Marketing Tip: if you have more than one browser on your system, then you can stay signed in to each one as different users!  For example, Explorer can be for personal use, with Firefox for business.  This way, you stay signed in to all the right accounts on a single browser!)
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Timed Status Updates
Do you really have the time to be posting all hours of the day and night?  Of course not!  But you CAN set four posts to go out over the next two days.
You do this through delayed publishing.  Tumblr, Wordpress, and most blogs have this feature built in.  Before you publish a status update, you can publish ‘immediately’ or at some point in the future.  Take advantage of this!
The next time you set up a post, set up three or four more to go out over the next couple of days.  You can spend your time at the beach, knowing that your tweeting is automated by your own clever preparation.
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Do I have to do this myself?
Of course not!  Call our design ninjas at Spot Color Studio, 503.477.4355.  We can set up a cross-platform aggregator for you, on ten social media sites, for $150.  We offer ongoing social media marketing for as little as $50 a month.
When you call Spot Color Studio, we take your business message to the next level.