Saturday 20 December 2008

Two Marketing Questions

1. How are you going to survive 2009?

2. What are you going to do to pull your business up, after 2009?

Thursday 18 December 2008

About Rod Sloane (@rodsloane)

Thanks for clicking the URL in my Twitter profile - let me give you a little background on who I am and what I do.


My name is Rod Sloane and I’m the man behind RodSloane.com and the @rodsloane twitter account.

You can read a little more about my story on Rod’s Marketing Story page - but let me take a moment to give you a bit of glimpse at who I am and what I do.

I’m a 50 year old Englishman living in Ealing, London. I am married to Mary and together we have a 17 year old daughter. Since 1999, I have been a full time marketing consultant.

My Podcast
I’ve been Podcasting since August 2008. My podcast is the Rod Sloane No Bull Business Radio Show. You can subscribe to my podcast from either the iTunes Music Store or my website.

on Twitter
You obviously have an interest in Twitter because you’ve clicked through on my Twitter Profile link. I’d enjoy connecting with you there via my @rodsloane twitter account.

If you follow @rodsloane you’ll get a variety of things.
Firstly you’ll see a glimpse of the behind the scenes in my work, life, speaking and reading. I share a little of what I’m up to, share links of what I’m reading, talk about posts I’m working on and give insight into the life of a full time marketing consultant.

My Book

I am the author of 121 Marketing Ideas to Grow your Small Business.
This is a practical business book that cuts through the clichés and attacks all the typical marketing wisdom that doesn’t work.

Connect with Me
Thanks for visiting my about page - if you’ve not already don’t forget to follow me on Twitter so we can interact there.

I’m also relatively active on other social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Ecademy.

Wednesday 17 December 2008

Leave the competition in the dust. How to get prospects and clients to think that you show-up everywhere

Earlier this year I wrote that if you wanted to be more successful in your marketing then you needed to double the times you made contact with customers and prospects.

If you made called them monthly, then you need to go to fortnightly, if your email newsletter went out twice a month then send it out every week. People need to hear more from you.

Well I got some criticism from some of you, that you would end up swamping, pestering and annoying prospects and clients. And I would like to take this opportunity to say that I was wrong, and if you follow my advice you might well end up dead-wrong in 2009.

You don’t need to double the times you make contact with the market.

You need to increase it by a factor of 10, 20 maybe even 100.

How?

Well

Don’t rely just on word-of-mouth

Don’t rely just on your sales

Don’t rely just on your marketing

Don’t rely just on your boss (even if that’s you) bringing in all the work

Don’t rely just on your website

Don’t rely just on your telemarketing

Don’t rely just on your email marketing

Don’t rely just on your speaking or seminars

Don’t rely just on your advertising whether online or offline

Don’t rely just on your clients and customers

Don’t rely just on your staff

Don’t rely just on your friends and family

Don’t rely just on your direct mail

Don’t rely just on your book

Don’t rely just on your podcast

Don’t rely just on your blog

Don’t rely just on hope

Don’t rely just on any expert or guru

Don’t rely just on me!

Don’t rely just on this message

Don’t rely just on one silver bullet angering all your prayers

What should you rely on? Well what worked in 2008 may not work well enough in 2009. You really need to get serious about this now.

You need to stop your marketing just turning-up and hoping for a response.

You, your philosophy and your business need to stop turning up and start showing up.

There’s a huge difference between turning up and showing up. It all has to do with your commitment and expectation. You are going to arrive and are going to show them your best stuff.

You need to show up offline more.

You need to show up online more.

I need to show up more.

I have relied too much on this message just turning up and achieving something. Come on Sloane, you can and must do better.

How can you do this?

Give your market, snack sized versions of your message.

Not the full Mars bar but the fun size.

I want you to show up more.

Let me tell you how I am doing this and what I want you to do and it won’t cost you a penny

First take a look at what I am doing on twitter.
What is twitter? It’s quite simply the most cost effective way there has ever been to me talk to people who want to hear your message. Better than SMS, text and email all combined.

Take a look at what I do with twitter here: http://twitter.com/RodSloane

Your end of year homework is to watch and understand what twitter is all about.
Don’t worry this will take time and a lot of head scratching.

Second, read my blog here http://no-bullbusiness.blogspot.com/

Are you blogging, if not why not?

Third subscribe to my podcast at the iTunes Music Store http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=296396362

Are you Podcasting, if not why not?

You, your message, your philosophy and your business need to show-up more. I need to show up more.

If you choose not to…you will become invisible.

If I can do this stuff, so can you or some body who works for you.

You need to show up more and get noticed.

You can do this.

It’s just “Simple Stuff, Done Daily, Makes Money”

I hope to see you more of you as you show up more in 2009.

Take the actions I mentioned above, they won’t cost you a penny

Friday 5 December 2008

Stop being such a Namby-Pamby in your Marketing!

This week I have been facilitating a How to Write Your Marketing Plan less than 3 Hours workshop.

One of the challenges that arose and that most businesses owners have is the creation of a strategic core message

What can you say that might raise the curiosity and cause the reader or prospect to stop and take a lot at what you have to offer?

Don’t worry this is what those big corporates pay lots of dosh to swanky agencies for. So how can you do without paying a Berkeley Square fee?

Ask yourself this question “What can you say that either you competitors can’t or won’t say?” Go on I encourage you to go for it. Stop using those namby-pamby cliché ridden terms and say what you want to say.

I don’t offer practical marketing.

I offer “No-Bull Marketing”

What can you say that either you competitors can’t or won’t say?

Say it, baby!