90 Minds Community

Hi everyone,

I'm doing a session called "DIY Marketing". The idea is to give you some ideas for ways to market your business when you don't have a lot of marketing resources (people and/or time) to work with. 

I'd love to hear any ideas of topics you'd like me to cover. No promises, but if you can either reply on this chain or send me an email at darcy@dabpartners.com, I'll try to work them in!

Thank you in advance, and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone!

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Darcy Boerio
darcy@dabpartners.com
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@Darcy Boerio I'm super excited you'll be presenting this year!  A few things I'd like to understand better (okay, maybe more than a few?)

1.  What social media accounts are must have and use vs. nice if you have time?
2.  What tools/apps do you recommend to handle distribution of content to multiple social media sites?  Put another way, if you write one-blog what the best way to get it posted in multiple social media sites is?
3.  What is the difference in using a hashtag vs. '@' mentions or do you need to use both?
4.  When you post a blog on your website for example, what are the dos and don'ts on tagging to take advantage of search engine rankings?
5.  Cold calling via email, good idea or waste of time?
6.  Marketing lists - a good idea to buy or better to generate your own with a good CRM system?
7.  What changes and updates should be made to our marketing and websites to address the California Consumer Privacy Act?
8.  If you had $1,000 for marketing, how would you spend it if you had never invested in paid marketing before?

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Moira Goggin
Executive Director
90 Minds, Inc.
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Adding to Moira's list

6a.  There are lots of firms selling contact lists with price points and variants all over the map.  What are some recommended sources for acquiring contact lists that are properly curated and reasonably priced?

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Jeff Mack
President and CEO
ICS Support
Redmond WA
425-820-6120
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-12-2020 20:33
From: Moira Goggin
Subject: "DIY Marketing" session at MOTM - what do you want to hear about?


@Darcy Boerio I'm super excited you'll be presenting this year!  A few things I'd like to understand better (okay, maybe more than a few?)

1.  What social media accounts are must have and use vs. nice if you have time?
2.  What tools/apps do you recommend to handle distribution of content to multiple social media sites?  Put another way, if you write one-blog what the best way to get it posted in multiple social media sites is?
3.  What is the difference in using a hashtag vs. '@' mentions or do you need to use both?
4.  When you post a blog on your website for example, what are the dos and don'ts on tagging to take advantage of search engine rankings?
5.  Cold calling via email, good idea or waste of time?
6.  Marketing lists - a good idea to buy or better to generate your own with a good CRM system?
7.  What changes and updates should be made to our marketing and websites to address the California Consumer Privacy Act?
8.  If you had $1,000 for marketing, how would you spend it if you had never invested in paid marketing before?

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Moira Goggin
Executive Director
90 Minds, Inc.
------------------------------

Kind of riffing off Moira's point #8 ... 

What is the most effective marketing strategy for an SMB? Is it content creation? Is it spending on Google Ads? Skywriting?​​

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Peter Wolf
Azamba Consulting Group
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skywriting is the secret!
I also think folks who attend this session will want to know the alternatives available for low-cost (time & $$) marketing. What are good, low-cost resources to help with this. How much must I do, and what should I outsource?

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Jerry Norman
President, 90 Minds
Smartbridge Partners
512.419.1444 x112
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-12-2020 21:40
From: Peter Wolf
Subject: "DIY Marketing" session at MOTM - what do you want to hear about?

Kind of riffing off Moira's point #8 ... 

What is the most effective marketing strategy for an SMB? Is it content creation? Is it spending on Google Ads? Skywriting?​​

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Peter Wolf
Azamba Consulting Group
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I just stumbled across this article. I think item #1 ( develop a strong buyer persona ) is something many partners overlook. ​More often than not it's "Ready, Fire, Reload" ( aim isn't part of the vocabulary ). I still see ( and hear about ) lots of partners pursuing any industry if they think there's a chance to close a deal when I think today's VAR does much better going after a defined market. 

If I was to think back over the past two years about the type of customer who was profitable and the type who was not it clearly points toward specific companies and industries that I have had great success with.

It's generally a combination of: 

- Industry ( that I have STRONG experience with )
- Customer size & disposition ( Have there been more than two VARS in the past 5 years? Does the contact spend the first 20 minutes complaining about having to spend money on consulting or licensing? If so, that's a red flag )
- Realistic budget
- Recurring service component

My criteria might be: 

- Is this work going to be recurring? 
- Can I tell at least two stories of customers just like this company that I've helped in the last 3 years? 
- Is this a project that I am confident I can complete successfully? 
- Are there red flags ( 2+ consultants within the past 3 years, complaints about cost, etc)

What does the above have to do with marketing? 

Until you know what type of company you are looking to service how can you develop an effective marketing plan? 

And you may say - well I'll just write a bunch of blog posts. And that will work unless you are writing on topics where you aren't an expert. For me, if I wrote about Job Ops it would be 100% useless if that attracted a lead since I do no Job Ops and would need to outsource virtually all the work both now and over the next year(s) for support.

So my TL;DR is: 

1. Define your market ( Buyer Persona)
2. Market to that persona










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Wayne Schulz - Schulz Consulting - 860-516-8990
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Wow, thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts! I've got some good ideas from this and would love to hear more from others. And one big takeaway I have is that we will definitely have to make this an interactive session so you all can share your insights with each other!

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Darcy Boerio
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 02-14-2020 13:43
From: Wayne Schulz
Subject: "DIY Marketing" session at MOTM - what do you want to hear about?

I just stumbled across this article. I think item #1 ( develop a strong buyer persona ) is something many partners overlook. ​More often than not it's "Ready, Fire, Reload" ( aim isn't part of the vocabulary ). I still see ( and hear about ) lots of partners pursuing any industry if they think there's a chance to close a deal when I think today's VAR does much better going after a defined market.

If I was to think back over the past two years about the type of customer who was profitable and the type who was not it clearly points toward specific companies and industries that I have had great success with.

It's generally a combination of:

- Industry ( that I have STRONG experience with )
- Customer size & disposition ( Have there been more than two VARS in the past 5 years? Does the contact spend the first 20 minutes complaining about having to spend money on consulting or licensing? If so, that's a red flag )
- Realistic budget
- Recurring service component

My criteria might be:

- Is this work going to be recurring?
- Can I tell at least two stories of customers just like this company that I've helped in the last 3 years?
- Is this a project that I am confident I can complete successfully?
- Are there red flags ( 2+ consultants within the past 3 years, complaints about cost, etc)

What does the above have to do with marketing?

Until you know what type of company you are looking to service how can you develop an effective marketing plan?

And you may say - well I'll just write a bunch of blog posts. And that will work unless you are writing on topics where you aren't an expert. For me, if I wrote about Job Ops it would be 100% useless if that attracted a lead since I do no Job Ops and would need to outsource virtually all the work both now and over the next year(s) for support.

So my TL;DR is:

1. Define your market ( Buyer Persona)
2. Market to that persona










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Wayne Schulz - Schulz Consulting - 860-516-8990
------------------------------