Bulldog Marketing

Blog Improv

I want to start something new, and I call it Blog Improv. If you need a creativity boost when it comes to writing for your blog, I think you will like this. Basically, I will toss out a Scenario, which will be something that I saw or heard during the day. Then you will take that scenario, and write a blog post about it, relating the scenario to a topic that is of interest to your readers.

Are you interested? Heres how it works...

The Scenario
Yesterday when I was running I saw a girl who was about 10 years old riding her bike, and she was wearing a dress, which was distracting her, since she kept having to adjust it to keep it from blowing up towards her face.

My Blog Post
Title: You shouldn't ride a bike wearing a dress

Post:
Let me clarify that statement- You shouldn't wear a dress while riding your bike. ( I didn't want you to get confused thinking that the bike had a dress on). Now that we got that out of the way, What does this have to do with marketing and product development? Plenty.

The product development process begins with Planning, and knowing what to include in the planning phase is important. When you get an idea to create a product, here are some things that you should be thinking about:

1. Purpose- Why would somebody want this in the first place? What problems does it solve for them?
How do you want your customers to be feeling when they are using your product or service?

2. Pricing- How will your product be priced in the marketplace? Can you make enough Profit based on what you will sell it for, and the time involved?

2. Time- How much time will it take to create your product and get it to market? You will probably want to plan on about 10% more time than you think due to unforseen issues. As an independent professional, all you have is your time and your integrity, so don't waste either.

3. Resources- Do you have what you need in order to get this done? Resources include money, skills and expertese. If you don't have what you need, how can you get it?

4. What haven't you thought about? If you are planning on going for a bikeride on a sunday, and you wore a dress to church, do you have some extra clothes packed somewhere? When you plan for the unexpected you will always have what you need when you need it.

Get it? Check back for scenario's and I am looking forward to seeing all of your creative talents coming through the ethernet!

Why do bulldogs have short noses?

In case you have not seen one lately, I am posting a picture of a bulldogs nose. As you may notice, there isn't much of a nose at all on this dog. Working with client's this week, I think that I now understand the importance of having a short nose. Confused? Good. Let me explain...

Here is a typical client scenario. The conversation usually starts like this:

Me: So, we are meeting today to talk about your marketing strategy. Tell me about what you do, where you see yourself in the market, and ultimately where do you want to be in say, six to twelve months?

Them: Well, I'm in transition. I have a job that pays the bills, but frankly, I am bored and burnt out. I want to do coaching, speaking and write a book for Corporate Leaders like me, because I know I can help clients who are typically in Leadership positions since I am one of them. I know what they go through, and I have some unique solutions. I am really excited about coaching people so maybe I could just focus there, but how do I separate myself from all of the other coaches out there? Maybe I shouldn't even be doing this. After all, I have a wife, 3 kids and I have bills to pay. I would need to see a lot of people to get my income where it needs to be, but the more I stay at my job, the more frustrated I feel. I must be crazy for even thinking about doing this, it will never work.

Me: Well, lets not get to far ahead of ourselves yet, and back this up a bit. When you were talking about doing the coaching stuff, you were pretty excited about it. But when you thought about the marketplace, the wind kind of went out of your sails, and then you got sucked right into the cycle of doom. Is that accurate?

Them: Yes. That is what happens. I get excited, but when I think about everything else, I get very unmotivated.

Me: That is because your nose is too long. You are way to far ahead of yourself to stay connected to what is important, and the motivating energy that gets created from there. If you are ever feeling ovewhelmed or unenergized about something, you need to shorten your leash, and get focused on the next smallest step you can take to go in the right direction.
Bulldogs stay focused on what is right in front of them because that's the way they are engineered. Their necks are short, keeping their head and their heart close together, and their best sense of all, their sense of smell is just a little bit further out than that. This way, they survey the territory right ahead of them, staying aligned and on course. The best way to cover great distances is to take small strides, and be aware of your direction. This way, you will arrive at your destination full of energy and enthusiam, and ready for the next smallest step.

Technorati

OK. I have been doing more research, and figure that I can't bury my head in the sand like an ostrich any longer. I went to a great site called the blog squad and got an article on the 17 Mistakes Professionals Make with Their Blogs, and got busted with the whole blog directory listing and linking thing. So now I am going to venture off into the world of Technorati and see what happens.

Hopefully my blog won't blow up.

Look, it worked! I got a widget on here.

Creating Content is...what it is

You can go kicking and screaming all the way, or you can take a deep breath and decide that you are going to take the next smallest step and move in the right direction. Personally, I like to kick and scream a bit, then take the next smallest step. It seems to satisfy my whining inner child.

I may not be the only person who thinks this. In a recent post on Flyte New Media,Rich Brooks says that Content Creation can be Painful. ( I discovered this as I was procrastinating and spinning my wheels and decided to look at other blogs as a way to do "Market Research").

So many Choices...

As I dig deeper into the world of 'social media & social marketing' I realize that there is a lot of stuff to figure out. According to the experts, you need to syndicate your blog, optimize your site, add widgets, technorati tags, learn how to make money with google ads, and get people to link to your site otherwise you will feel like the biggest loser in bloggerville...or NOT.

I went down that rabbit hole only to realize that doing all those things is valuable, but you don't need to do them all at once. Maintaining a balance between writing useful content, and getting the word out through your network of friends, family, clients and prospects is a better use of your time. Once the word spreads, then guess what? People will know how to find you, without a lot of effort on your part. Keep yourself focused on one topic at a time, and go from there. Before you know it, you will have a content rich site that people would love to spend time on because it is a wealth of information. Guess what you can do then? You can hire someone to do all of that optimization stuff for you!

PS. Look! I have Technorati tags on my post! Wow!!