Marketing Maestro

In my last post about our social media success I referred to connecting with a potential client on LinkedIn. Yesterday, she emailed me to thank me for my help and to share the news that she is now formally a client. 

Here is part of her note:

"...I am excited to have this opportunity and I wanted to take the time (a little late, but still sincere) to say thanks for making it happen."

How often do your clients send you a note like this?

The lesson here is that people do business with people who care.

Yes, we went beyond 'the call of duty,' but this client took the time to reach out and connect.  Would every employee here do the same thing?  I would like to think so, but I realize that might not be the case, which is the reason for this posting (this story will be circulated around the office).  Everyone needs to be reminded that 'going the extra mile' does pay off. 

So have you done your 'job' today, or did you go beyond your expected role?

Last week was great!  It felt as if a lot of hard work was really starting to pay off. Here are 5 highlights that made my week so great!  Each is related to social media and search marketing (SEO).  Let's start with the #1 highlight of my week:

1 - Google Search
Friday I get a call from a woman who mentioned that she found my phone number after searching Google for Trump and Tax Liens.  I have been working on my own personal SEO for a while now, but never thought I would be part of a result for Trump and Tax Lien.  For all those who say SEO is not worth the time or money I say think again.  After directing this woman to the correct person she learned about some of our other training (she had no idea existed) and is probably going to enroll in a program.

2 - Active Rain and Blog Commenting
We discussed Active Rain once before and for the last few months I have been actively participating in the community.  Just last week one of our clients who uses the site posted a blog and mentioned our training.  I of course took the opportunity to comment back and initiated a dialogue.  The client then responded back.  A perfect example of successful relationship marketing using social media.

3 - WSJ and SEO
We posted a blog to the Trump blog titled Accidental Landlord-How Does It Happen?. Based on an SEO recommendation we changed the original title.  Wouldn't you know it but the next day the WSJ ran an article with almost the exactly same title.  How is that for timing?  

4 - Found New Resources
Twitter is another social media site I have been using.  Based on some of the relationships I formed by following and reading content I hired one of my "social media friends" to help us with a few projects and have been exploring and talking to a few others.  Social media does work if you contribute interesting and useful content.

5 - LinkedIn and Trump U Client
As much as I enjoy social media connections I do try to consider the connection request before accepting a new connection.  To me it is not about how many "friends" I have but the quality and usefulness of the connection. Last week one of our clients sent me a request.  I didn't know who they were but they took the time to explain who they were, why they wanted to connect, how they found me etc.  I accepted the connection and started a dialogue.  This student was attending a training in San Francisco so I reached out to the instructor and asked that they make a connection.  This student was very happy to receive the extra attention and sent me a follow up note with valuable feedback about her training.  This once again proved that social media does have a business purpose.

Bonus item:
And this week I hit a personal milestone for this blog's subscribed reader base.  Thank you all for subscribing, reading and commenting.  If I can help you out with any marketing just leave me a comment and I will do my best to address your situation.

Big Take Away (in case it wasn't clear)
Participate in social media.  The time spent will help grow your business and build your reputation.

Do you have any social media success stories you want to share? 
 

What do the price of postage stamps and the price of gas have in common?

Not much, but when the price of gas goes up $.01 it costs the post office around one million dollars. 

The US Postal Service recently posted a $1.1 Billion loss for their 3rd quarter.  A portion of this loss is blamed on higher fuel prices along with a number of other reasons having to do with mail volumes and the economy.

What does this mean for direct marketers?  Well, since we can't control the price of gas we need to prepare ourselves for a postage increase next year.  Another increase is expected in May 2009, with the amount to be announced in February.  The good news if any is that any increase will be limited to the rate of inflation.

If you use direct mail to market your business you should keep mailing (assuming you generate a positive ROI on your efforts) and start thinking about how another increase will impact your marketing efforts.  What other marketing channels produce an acceptable ROI?  How can you reorganize your marketing plans to maintain your current mail volumes?

Let me know what you're planning to do if the price of postage goes up again.

I was recently interviewed by eMarketing and Commerce magazine about Trump University's secret to online success.   The interview is now online. If you are marketing your products or services online (which you should be) it is worth checking out their site and considering a subscription.

If you have any specific questions about anything covered in the interview leave me a comment and I will do my best to respond.

Enjoy.

As a marketer I get requests from sales teams all the time.  We need more leads!  The only issue with this request is that the number of leads is only half of the equation.  The number to focus on is your conversion/close rate.  From that number you can work back and determine the optimal number of leads needed to hit sales goals. Of course, the quality of the leads is important and sales teams often use poor quality as an excuse to explain for their lack of sales.  Most of the time these sales people are in the wrong job and don't realize it.  Those folks just want to take orders and have the sales come to them.  We use the term 'sales leads’ for a reason.  A sales person needs to 'lead’ the prospect to buy.  

A friend of mine pointed out the movie/play Glen Gary Glen Ross and this one scene about “what it means to be a real estate salesman”.  This play was later turned into a film with this scene written specifically for Alec Baldwin. This scene is used in a lot of sales trainings along with Hard Ball Selling techniques.  Many companies are against this style of forced selling but it is still a great scene and makes you appreciate every lead you have.   It has some vulgarity so if that makes you uncomfortable don’t watch. It’s pretty intense.  If you haven’t seen it, enjoy.

So before you ask your marketing team for more leads take a second and ask yourself  - Have you done everything you can to sell to the leads you have?

For a great example of how a simple idea gets messed up by having too many people providing creative direction without clear goals and objectives take a few minutes and watch this video.

Enjoy.

We have done our share of book marketing but today a book ad caught my eye.  The title of the book How To Get Rich by Felix Dennis (founder of Maxim magazine) just comes right out and says what the book is all about.  The ad's headline is You'll Never Get Rich Working For Your Boss.  Who wouldn't stop and read that ad?  It is very direct and to the point and hits at the heart of the subject matter. This book like so many of the others in our industry shares the author's secrets on how he made his fortune.

The question remains whether or not people will choose Felix Dennis's book over a Trump book.  What do you think?