Marketing - The Pedestal Group

The Many Reasons to Love the Phone

A friend of mine recently said that while the phone has always weighed 10 lbs for him, this year it has become about 35. I know that is the case for many of us and one way people have tried to combat that is by sending more emails. In fact, I get so many non-client-related emails anymore I had to restructure my rules to filter it for me. Now don’t get me wrong – I love email and it definitely is a great medium for conversations. In fact just this week I have formed a new relationship with an individual who is charming, witty, and really interesting all through email. But, I still love the phone. There is nothing like a phone call to strengthen a relationship, clarify issues and create new ideas.

Yesterday in a conversation with a client, we were talking about a difficult situation he handled well for a client. It was an interesting story and one we are turning into a case study. Just because of the way he said something about the project got me thinking about a different way to approach his work and we then had an entire conversation about how that change could really put his process on its ear but at the same time improve the service he offers. It was an exciting conversation! But it wouldn’t have happened if we had been on email or instant message because the way he writes is different than how he speaks so that idea never would have been triggered.

So how do you pick up the phone? Here are a couple ways to help:
1. Make a deal with yourself that you can’t (fill in the blank) until you’ve made X calls. That may be get a cup of coffee, read your email, respond to something, etc. Whatever will be something you wouldn’t want to give up.

2. Create your call list so that every 7-10 calls is one to someone who is fun. That might be a client, a networking partner, a vendor, etc. (it should be work related; after all, you are at WORK) but someone that will take your call and be interesting. That way when you make the next call, your attitude will come through.

3. Take a break – don’t spend 4 hours making calls straight. While you’ll get through your list, how likely is in that the call at the end of hour four sounds as confident and passionate as the first three did?

4. Don’t fall into the research trap. If you find you spend your mornings researching the people you are planning to call and then don’t get your calls done, try setting a timer. Identify the key things you need to know about the company or person and then give yourself a specific amount of time to find it. Whether you find it or not, make the call.

5. Create your call lists the night before. It can be at the end of your work day, but never make a list first thing in the morning. By the time you finish it you will have missed peak call times and other things will demand your attention.

Whatever you do, don’t lose sight of the value of the phone. It is a key tool to any small business!

Social Media – why and where

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Lately I have gotten a lot of questions about social media, where to be and why. So I thought I would hit the highlights here. And off we go!
LinkedIn – LinkedIn is a must in my opinion. Being out there so you can be found and find others is critical no matter what your business. I recommend getting your profile to at least 80% and joining a group or two that are relevant. Some of the people I have met in the groups are truly facinating!
Plaxo – I like Plaxo for the search engine optimization benefits but haven’t gotten as involved there as I do on LinkedIn. One extra feature I do like on Plaxo is they send you reminders of your connections birthdays.
Naymz – This one is also good for SEO but I haven’t found it really useful on a day to day basis. Definitely not a replacement for LinkedIn.
Ryze – Have not been impressed AT ALL. I found the people there have been weird and the site very unresponsive.

There are other places you need to list your business / profile so that you can be found.
Google business – Google offers businesses the ability to post a local business listing. These listings are guaranteed to show up on the first page of results for a Google search for your company so clients will always be able to find you.
Google profiles – Google also offers profiles of individuals and those are guaranteed first page results as well.
Wink – wink.com is a site that is trying to summarize people’s profiles on social media. It is a good idea to own your profile.
ZoomInfo – ZoomInfo currently allows you to claim your individual profile and say in the near future you will be able to claim a business profile as well. Be sure to set those up!

There are many other services out there under the social media header, but these are the primary places I recommend all businesses list under. While I personally like Twitter and use it to stay on top of trends, I still do not recommend it as a business-generating tool.

I hope this helps and if there are other sources you like, let me know and I’ll update the post!

I am NOT a social media expert!

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Every day in one of the blogs I read or somewhere on Twitter is a new article complaining about all the “social media experts” out there. There are evaluation tools, ways to discredit people, and scores of others telling you to talk to them. Fine. That’s not the point. I have never claimed to be a social media expert – that would be crazy. There are too many tools, options, approaches and ideas to try to master. What I can do is talk about how social media works with a marketing campaign to target specific audiences. And that’s the key – when you develop your marketing plan (and yes, you should have a well-thought-out plan), you should include specific areas of social media. NOT all of them!

The way I identify what makes sense for you is to first discuss who are your target customers or “buyer personas” as David Meerman Scott calls them. Who are we trying to find that is the right person for YOU to contact? Why exactly are they the right person? And these descriptions aren’t for general consumption. I would never post them on a blog because some of the ways we describe people may not sound flattering. If you are bad with people who are sheep, we aren’t going to look for followers. We’ll look for leaders. But we certainly aren’t going to build a marketing message saying “no sheep need apply” because people don’t think of themselves that way.

Next, we’ll find out where those people are. I mean, there is no point it trying to reach neurosurgeons through an on-line game. Just like you wouldn’t use a healthcare magazine to find a programmer to work on a manufacturing app. That sounds pretty obvious, but when it comes to social media, it seems like EVERYONE is EVERYWHERE. The reality is they just aren’t. And there are ways to identify the right venue.

Finally, we’re going to determine the right vehicle. Again, you wouldn’t advertise on a billboard to attract subway riders so use the same logic for how to communicate. Many of my clients need information that is more thorough than a blog entry or post somewhere and they like to print things so I write a newsletter. I am sure there are some clients that keep each copy and print it when they need to read an article again. There are others that read it on the screen and others that don’t read it at all (some on purpose, some who intend to get to it and don’t). That’s fine – I have other ways of getting to them as well. Most of the time it is by PHONE. My favorite social media tool, by the way.

So I am not claiming to be an expert so please don’t lump me in that category. I am just a person trying to help you market your business as effectively as possible.