Episode # 23 Permission Based Marketing with Ingrid Cummings
About a year ago, Ingrid Cummings invited me to be a guest on her radio program Rubicon Salon. In the course of the hour, we talked about marketing, social media and staying ahead of your competition in an economic downturn.
While the entire program is too long for More Than a Few Words, I thought it would be fun to share a few excerpts over the next few weeks.
In this segment, we talk about the shift in marketing strategies, from push to permission based and the challenges and the rewards for business owners who adopt this approach.
From the interview: “While the medium has changed, the fundamental methods have not. It is still about identifying your customer and talking to your customers in the places they are most likely to find you!
Click here to listen to the interview.
Marketing Drip Campaigns
Around the world, large canyons exist because of the steady drip of water. The small, but constant impact wears down the rocks, eroding the surface, and cutting a path where there wasn’t one.
The same process works in customer interactions. It is easy for a prospect to miss or ignore one message, a consistent, small campaign, of email, print, or some combination of both, can wear down objections and open up a door to a sales opportunity.
At roundpeg, I have been experimenting with targeted drip campaigns or marketing sequences. This is a process in which I identify a small audience with a common interest, send them a series of messages over time on a specific topic. We have been really pleased with the results of our first camp How to Write a Business Plan in Ten Weeks. As a result we have added programs on Web Design, PR and have several more in the works.
I spoke recently with Barb Jones of Stellar Infusionsoft Coaching about our experiments with Marketing Drip Campaigns or Sequences as she calls them. It was fun to be the interviewee not interviewer for a change!
If you are still sending mass emails to thousands of people, you are probably being ignored by most of them. Now is a good time to consider an alternative, more focused approach. There are a number of tools which will help you create campaigns like this.
For small business owners, we recommend AddressTwo. It is what we use, and have found the ability to do both email and print campaigns from the same data base a real plus. And in the interest of full disclosure, we are a partner provider for AddressTwo, so we can help you get started.
“For larger firms, with more robust requirements, Infusionsoft offers many terrific features including extensive customization, templates for both emails and sequences, and trackable links that allow you to adjust to every choice your prospect/client makes or doesn’t make.”
This decade is about personalization, so consider using a drip campaign to personalize your email.
Episode 22 – But it is My Business
I am interrupting my series on small business planning, to include an interview with my friend, Laina Moloski dropped by the other day to talk about all the new changes at C & S Consulting which include her new books, and new web site. 
In this first podcast we focus on her new book: But it is My Business in which she shares tips and realistic ideas for small business owners.
From ideas on how to terminate employees to tips on sales and planning, Laina approaches the process of owning a business with humor and serious advice.
The book will be launch on March 30, but it is available now for preorder at http://candsconsulting.biz/
Episode 19 – Coaching Strategies for Small Businesses with Deseri Garcia
My friend Deseri Garcia of Vida Aventura is a coach, trainer, motivator and leader. We share much in common, including the title, Past President of Rainmakers. The shared experiences make our conversations interesting and fun.
Recently Des stopped and we talked about Coaching, and why a small business owner might turn to a coach.
Click here to listen to the Podcast.
Episode 18 – Robby Slaughter and Productive Networking
Robby Slaughter of Slaughter Development, an Indianapolis based productivity firm stopped by and shared some networking productivity strategies for small business owners. We talked about how to decide if you are in the right room, open a conversation, and make networking a part of your ongoing marketing activities.
To hear our short conversation check out the podcast now.
Click here to listen to the interview.
Animoto – Cool Image Display
At Rounpdeg we are always looking for new tools to add features to the websites we design for clients. The criteria:
- Easy to use – Even though our skill set has grown and we can usually figure out how something works, we won’t use plugins and features which are not easy to use. Why? Because most of our small business clients come to us for web sites which they can maintain. It doesn’t do any good to end up with a simple website, with the most interesting feature something we can not edit
- Free is great! But not all our tools are free. We often try free versions, and if they add value, we will upgrade, and offer our clients the opportunity to use our subscription, or get one of their own
- Compatible with Wordpress. We stopped designing traditional static websites two years ago, and have never looked back. The plugins have to work flawlessly with Wordpress, or we won’t work with them.
So in our quest for new and cool plugins, I have one I think is going to be a favorite. It is called Animoto. It converts simple photos to a cool interactive slide show. Check out the video I did with images of my husband’s art.
The thing I liked best, was how quickly I was able to put this together. Of course I am hooked, and will probably pay for the upgrade so I can create longer videos, and even some without the Animoto logo. But in the meantime, this is really cool!
Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.
Episode 16 – Team-Building Activities for Small Businesses with Deseri Garcia
Deseri Garcia of Vida Aventura is a coach, trainer, motivator, leader, and most of all, Des is my friend. When the weather is nice, we have walking one-on-ones. Instead of sitting in a coffee shop or office, we put on our walking shoes and hit the Monon for an hour. The experience is productive in so many ways.
But the weather has turned cold, and so we had to move our conversations indoors. So when Des stopped by recently, I thought it would be fun to record our conversation for my podcast More than a Few Words.
In this segment, Deseri talks about Team Building, and what small business owners can do to improve the performance of their team!
Click here to listen the interview.
Episode 15 – Marketing by The Numbers with Howard Cox
I am excited about teaching Marketing by the Numbers with Howard Cox of Somerset CPA’s later this month. And so when Howard came in to talk about the program details, I thought it would be fun to put together a quick podcast to give people a feel for what we would be covering in the program. 
One of the reasons I am so excited about team teaching with Howard is that I have always felt good marketing is all about the numbers. While the creative execution is emotionally based, the decisions of how much, when and where should be financially based.
Click here to listen to the interview.
If you would like to Join Howard and I for the FREE seminar on January 26th fill out the form below. When you do, you will also be given an opportunity to download our LifeTime Value of a Customer worksheet.
Episode 14 – Robby Slaughter – Five Box Approach to Productivity
I recently had the chance to sit down with Robby Slaughter. Robby is a productivity expert, and one of the most interesting people I know. His job to to inspire change and productivity in others.
One of the most helpful things we spoke about in our conversation was his Five Boxes Approach to Productivity. In this process, you divide up the contents of your desk, and place it in five boxes. You give yourself permission to only work on or fight with a select subset each day. To learn more about this concept, listen to the podcast now.
Click here to listen to the Interview.
Episode 11: Magic Weight Loss Plan
Happy New Year! – It is New Year’s Day, and all across the county, as people wake up, they make their resolution to lose weight. ( Again) But how will it be different this year?
I suppose you are surprised to see this topic on business blog. But it isn’t really all that strange. Why? Because the same techniques and discipline required to lose weight can be applied to your business.
In the last year, I have lost some weight and in 2010, I am going to apply those strategies to my business.
Want to learn the secret and how it will apply to your business success in 2010? Listen to today’s short podcast.
