3 Reasons to Write a Book and Market Your Professional Services

I'm writing a book for a client who does management consulting and training and he's going to use the book as a calling card to show his expertise to the decision-makers at companies he approaches.

The book will be available in print and e-book format.

Benefits of writing a book to market your professional services are many:

Unique Qualities

You demonstrate your unique qualities and that's important in a crowded marketplace like Los Angeles. Just think how many management consultants exist in Los Angeles County and Orange County and the Inland Empire.

The consultant I'm working with wants a 110-page to 120-page book. Yours doesn't have to be that long.

Real estate agents can write up books that are 10 to 20 pages long to list what they know, why they love real estate, and demonstrate their knowledge of a local market.

Stories

Books are great ways to tell your company's story. Remember the adage "Facts tell and stories sell." Books let you package your informational knowledge and reach the audience with an emotional punch to demonstrate how you uniquely solved a problem.

Stories draw in the reader and if you're trying to teach principles or raise the prospect of changing a culture.

Lasting Message

Well-written books have a lasting message and show why you're passionate about your industry.

Books are also likely to get passed around and they should be written with your contact information to aid in word-of-mouth marketing.

You can also sell books and recoup some marketing costs or even produce another stream of income.

Marketing tips for Twitter

Here is a free marketing tip using Twitter.

Twitter is a viable marketing tool yet it must follow the rules for all social marketing:

Offer valuable how-to information
Talk about other businesses, too
Re-tweet posts from other users
Offer humorous tweets (posts)

Here is a loose formula that I've read about and have seen others follow when using Twitter.

1) Send about 7 - 10 msgs a day when you Tweet. Maybe more when the time is appropriate.
2) Tweet on at least 3 different days per week. Preferably 5 days per week.
3) Make 1/3 of Tweets about someone else, 1/3 your business, 1/3 helpful insights

What should your Return on Investment be when using Twitter?

I have 530 followers and counting on Twitter.

When I write an article on one of my sites, I put the link into Bit.ly and then go to Twitter.

After I post on Twitter, the immediate click through number on Bit.ly is about 1.5% of my Twitter followers.

Scott Allen is a social media and former About.com guide whom I've been following for a few years. He says about 2% return is likely.

An encouraging stat is I'm beginning to see more clicks on Bit.ly for old Twitter posts.

Twitter is a viable marketing tool but don't just talk about your business and make sure you offer valuable information for others to read.

Click here to read articles on business resources around So Cal

Is Traditional Media Relevant in Today's Market?

Is traditional media relevant, or still important, in today's market?

Marketing decision-makers know how online social media is . . . choose your word: exploding, dynamic, raging, or ubiquitous.

The need for this post came to mind when I was on Twitter, @donsimko, and saw a Tweet from @barbomalley. She's the Associate VP Communications at the University of Akron. Btw, I like "post" more than "tweet."

She linked to a free webinar of the Public Relations Society of America sponsored by Vocus Communications with the title "Does Traditional Media Still Matter?" The webinar is Thursday, August 13 at 3pm EDT.

Does traditional media still matter?

Since I enjoy asking assessment questions, ask yourself:

• Have you read a newspaper in the past 48 hours?
• Have you read a magzine?
• Did you receive "junk mail" at home today? Or in the office?
• If the phone is considered traditional media, have you received a sales call in the past week from home improvement companies?
• Have you received a sales letter at work in the past 10 days?
• Are there billboards in the city where you live?
• Along the beaches, do airplanes fly with their banners flailing behind?
• Do you see ads on TV?
• When did you last listen to the radio?

Traditional media still has a vital role to play. Rather than set aside one medium in favor of another, understand the uses of each medium and the best ways to utilize them to send out a corporate message.

Effectiv marketing strategies understand that target audiences need a media mix, or marketing mix, to maxmize reach.

The benefits of interactive media include more accurate measuring of behaviors and responses.

But traditional media still has relevance. It certainly matters.

Marketing Tool: Your Bio Part 1

Using your personal story or bio to market a company, service or products is a smart move.

Here's one reason:

It immediately sets you apart from the competition since no one has a story like your story.

Your story, and as I wrote in a post on March 18, your reputation for service, will do far more to generate positive word-of-mouth referrals than all the time spent on social networking sites or purchasing expensive media buys.

This post is part 1 of a lesson marketing your story or bio with Gayl Murphy. You can read Part 2 here.

Learn more about using your bio to market your company among the media with Gayl Murphy, owner of Interview Tactics! If you're sitting down with a reporter or pitching your bio or personal story Gayl passed along these tips to follow:

1 You’ve got to PITCH IT TO PROMOTE IT, so you can TELL IT TO SELL IT. If you can’t tell your own story, who can? And who will…and WHY would you want them to? Only YOU can tell YOUR story!

2 Be as honest and upfront as you can with the person that’s interviewing and engaging you.

3 Relax, enjoy and have a good time. Being interviewed is supposed to be FUN. Whatever the circumstances, you get to be the star of THE ME SHOW starring ME, or in this case…YOU!

4 Keep this Interview Tactics! Report close at hand in your MEDIA BAG and refer to it often, because you’ll need it. REMEMBER: It’s the RIGHT TOOL for the right time. Why? Because you can't control the environment you'll be delivering your message in, and it's not a reporter, or decision maker’s job to show you the ropes, or help you tell it to sell it!

5 When you’re telling your story to the media, or any gatekeeper, your JOB is to capture their attention and imagination in the shortest amount of time.

The best way to do that is by using COLOR AND DETAIL. A good story is both the SIZZLE AND THE STEAK.

To set your story up, paint a picture with your words, using color and detail - and drop the other person in.

I would also add to Gayl's tips that CEOs or Executive Directors of organizations often try to sanitize their story. But I believe that people don't mind when we come across as human beings who try their hardest but also end up making mistakes.
Part 2 of Marketing Tool: Your Bio is here.

Remember, your bio is what sets you apart from everyone else in your industry and even within your company. Marketing your bio is one of the most unique marketing tools available for your use.

Your Most Important Marketing Tool

What's the most important marketing tool you can use?

Web site? No.

Twitter? No.

Direct Mail? No.

Personal Networking? No.

Answer: Your reputation!

I believe your reputation for providing quality service or a quality product at a fair price will generate the most valuable form of marketing and advertising: word-of-mouth.

Other forms of advertising and marketing are still useful. They can distribute your reputation faster, farther and to more of your target market.

If you have a good reputation then word-of-mouth multiples in effectiveness. If you have a bad reputation then positive marketing will get more expensive.

Reputations take time to build. Be patient. If you're new in business - like less than three years old - then make sure you've got success stories and satisfied customers who want to spread the word.

Paying for marketing help and advertising does offer strategic benefits, though.

I've considered calling this "Reputation Marketing."

What you're really trying to do is market your positive reputation and your strengths.

I've thought about this after working with Barbera Properties, a professionally run apartment rental company operating in Pasadena, South Pasadena, Monrovia and other nearby cities. They even have a video on their management philosophy.

Barbera Properties has a management philosophy that focuses on treating the tenant, or customer, as a partner. This means when a tenant has a service request the Barbera Properties maintenance team responds quickly instead of investigating to see if the tenant is actually telling the truth.

Certainly there are tenants who'll take advantage of the service and complain when it's not warranted.

But the response also results in good will and earns customer respect and greatly increases the chance to benefit from word-of-mouth marketing.

So the first rule of reputation marketing: provide excellent customer service.

Websites and Marketing: For or Against You

Websites can work against you in marketing if the message isn't clear and the path for visitors to navigate isn't clear, either.

Try this exercise for yourself to find websites you like and that appear to market a message or product effectively. Look up 3 - 5 sites you like. Look at them for color scheme, the way they're laid out, how the home page is segmented and the message it contains. How many columns is it broken in to? How much or how little copy does the home page have? How large or small is the company it represents - or can you tell?

By the way, I wrote this article on websites you might be interested in reading:

Traits of successful websites

Do the websites you're studying have a clear "call to action" for the visitor? Are there helpful links from one section to another? Are there elements on the site other than text and images? Is video displayed at all?

Hopefully, these questions will guide you in developing a web site for an effective marketing presence.

FINALLY. A MARKETING APPROACH THAT REALLY WORKS!

You want marketing to lead to more sales, right?

Sales is the lifeblood of a company and marketing must ultimately lead to more sales. But so often, it's hard to measure. Marketing can get lost in theory or the production of materials. Too often, sales become forgotten since sales and marketing are two different skill sets.

Growing your business and sales doesn't have to be difficult or expensive--if, you have the right marketing approach.

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