The Wax Blog

In honor of being incredibly lazy this week, here’s one of my fave 2009 posts – the last Friday of every month I’ll throw a repeat of one of the more popular posts, just in case you missed it!

A product, service or book is probably the greatest thing in the world – to its creator. But when an editor or producers says “pass” it’s the publicist who has to tell the client. Sometimes ZERO  media are interested. And for anyone who has written a book, started a business or provided a service, that can be a pretty personally hurtful message no matter how carefully it’s couched. For me, it’s the equivalent of having to tell clients “your baby is ugly” 95% of the time, without hurting their feelings. Nearly impossible. (more…)

There are a lot of business owners that despise marketing as much as some people despise working out. Just like going to the gym, it’s easier to stay on track if you’ve got a someone you’re accountable to. Some business owners use groups on social media sites like LinkedIn to ask questions and find guidance but I think it’s important to have a live person you know that can be a sounding board for your marketing activities. There are tons of great networking groups where you can find potential contacts. Here’s a list of some of the small business social networks you can tap into locally to help find your marketing workout buddy. (more…)

You don’t get big muscles after just one workout and you can’t expect big marketing results right away either.  Lots of small business owners worry constantly about the ROI of their marketing investments. Instead, schedule time to review the results of what you’re doing on a weekly or monthly basis, depending on your sales cycle. (For some of you online marketers it needs to be daily) Otherwise don’t worry about it. Trust your judgement!

If you’re not sure how to measure your results, go back to Step 1 and review. And please share with me any new ways you might be measuring results particularly with social media. We’re all learning on this one!

It’s important to change up your marketing efforts and try new things…without throwing out the things that work.One of the hardest things to measure is the synergy that develops when you combine marketing mediums. It’s the basis for integrated marketing communications (IMC) concepts but no one has really captured where the actual motivation occurs to get your customer to buy, call, whatever.  To keep tweaking your marketing recipe you constantly have to look for new ways to get your message out there…here are a few ways to do that each month that won’t take much time. (more…)

Marketing – as opposed to sales remember – is one of those proactive tasks that seems to get pushed aside for more urgent ones. An astute commenter in my last post mentioned you need to always be planting seeds for future business to grow. Just like your workouts if you put marketing time on your schedule each week and hold it sacred, you’ll see the benefits very quickly. Here are some tips for finding the right time to work on your promotions, social media, advertising, whatever you consider ‘marketing’. (more…)

How much time should you spend on a weekly basis doing marketing and promotion tasks? It will vary of course but there are some rules I’ve learned working with a broad swath of companies and industries over the past couple decades including B2B, B2C, online and retail.Feel free to poke holes in my theories here…but tell us all WHY so we can learn from your successes. (more…)

Wax Marketing mug to the first 5 who ID this photo

I got so many questions about my last post “7 Steps to Bigger Marketing Muscle in 2010″ I thought I’d give you some detail on each one of the steps.  Measurement seems to be really tricky for people – but it’s actually pretty simple. Once you have some basic measurements in place and you feel a need to go deeper, visit KD Paine’s measurement blog – she’s the real guru. I’d love to hear specific examples of how people are measuring their own results, so comment away! Here’s my quick and dirty take – (more…)

I  tell my clients that marketing is a lot like working out – you have to be consistent or you won’t see results. No one expects to see muscles popping out all over after one visit to the gym. For the same reaons you can’t expect immediate, lasting results from one promotional campaign. As you look toward 2010 and what will surely be a better year for all of us, it might help to build a marketing practice that looks a bit more like a workout schedule. Here are few ways to do just that. (more…)

There are so many books out there for business owners on how to do your own marketing and/or public relations. Frankly most of them say the same thing – know the reporter, don’t be too salesy, etc. Here are my top five picks – not only are these books current, they go into real tactics that you can use right away. I think if you read these books, whether you’re a  small business owner, author, entrepreneur…. you can  start promoting or upgrade what you’re already doing and get some results fast.

1. Obviously social media  is one of the best (and cost-effective) ways to promote your business, service, book, whatever.  The definitive manual (and New York Times bestseller) on the subject is Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. Smith and Brogan describe not only HOW to use social media, but WHY you want to use it and most importantly, how to measure your success.  The book covers the basics of social media so a newbie can learn but also dives into the more sophisticated aspects of the medium (more…)

I’m straying way off course and off schedule in honor of the 7th anniversary of Wax Marketing – today! My biggest lesson? Dealing with the big GWF – the gut wrenching fear that comes with owning a small business. I don’t think it’s good marketing strategy, or business acumen, or networks that makes or breaks a small business. I think it’s the ability to deal with fear.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, right?So the next time you wake up in the middle of the night worried about that big check you need to cover payroll – or  when half your customers decide your service is a “luxury” they can do without – try these and see if they work. Here’s how I’ve learned to deal with GWF  over the past seven years. I hope you’ll add your own fun tips and ways to get around it too! (more…)