Bulldog Marketing

Return on Investment

As independent professionals, we need to be thinking about the 'billable' hour as a key performance indicator. (I guess I did learn something from my process improvement training at GE).
One of the things that can boost your hourly rate is to create multi-use products, that will allow you to leverage your time and increase your reach within your market.
Enough of the corporate jargon, here is what this means, and here is how to do it:

1. Record Everything that you do.
For Example, let's say that you are going to do a teleclass. You invite people to be on the call, and you record the call. Now you can edit the call, and create a product that you can sell, a podcast or a 'talking brochure' that you can send to your prospects. I have a client that does this on a regular basis, and from one teleclass that he turned into a product, he has made over $8500.00 from the original 1 1/2 hours that he spent on that call.

2. Use the same information, but put it into a different format- from Audio to Print or Print to Audio.
If you are doing a workshop, you can record it, transcribe it, and create an ebook that you can sell, or slice it up into nice sized topics and post to a blog, create articles or use it for marketing material. If you have written a lot of articles, or blog posts, you can 'read' them to your prospects and clients and now you have audio files that you can sell and use as marketing materials.

Remember, as independent professionals, we really only have two things- our time and our ideas, and we shouldn't waste either one!

Seth Godin's Interview on Typepad

I listened to Seth Godin's, Small is the New Big interview on TypePad and if you haven't had a chance to listen, check it out. For those of you that are thinking, Hey, tell me what he said, here is the Bulldog Version ( kind of like cliff notes, but not as neat, and much lazier) on the stuff pertaining to blogging.

1. Blogs are very significant, not because of the technology, but becasue of their serial nature- the drip, drip, drip of information over time that creates 'truth' because it is too hard to keep checking up on yourself to make sure you are saying the 'right things' in the right way. Blogs cause people to be authentic and be themselves, and over time, through your blog people will get to know you, trust you and like you. And if you can do that with 50 people, 100 people, or 500 people you have the chance to build something that matters. (How cool is that)!!

2. Daily Candy, a very hip fashion site is a great exapmle of the power of what blogs do, even though it is a traditional website. Dany Levy who is the Founder, has built a 50MM company becasue she has built a list of over 100,000 who want to hear what she has to say on the latest fashion trends. She is at the apex of a group of people and is very influential. If she says something, attention is paid. There are people who want you to 'drip' information to them, to hear a little bit at at time, and they will be motivated to take action on your suggestions and ideas.

3. When Time Magazine puts something on the cover of their magazine, nothing happens, but when a blogger puts the right message, at the right time on their blog, things happen. Phones ring.

4. When you are tryng to impact a small industry, you don't need large numbers of people to influence that industry.

5. When Mike (from TypePad) asked Seth if he pitched his book, Seth basically said that he doesn't like pitching his book. If people want to read it, they can go online and read it off of his blog and the the Fast Company Website. What Seth said, and I think it is worth paying attetion to, is that He sells ideas. He loves it when people write to him and say, " I read something, and I did X just like you told me to" and the X that they did is something that he never knew about. He really enjoys it when he can be a spark and inspire people to do something differently.

6. Being Competent means doing things the way you have always done them. Being incompetent means being willing to fail. Basically, there is not much innovation in being competent, and the place for improvement is when you are willing to fail.

So what does that have to do with blogging?

7. If you are new to blogging, don't be afraid to get yourself out there ( See, I am not the only one saying that) . Be prepared to be wrong, and if you are, don't defend yourself, admit your mistake and thank your audience for pointing it out.

8. What is Seth's Strategy for blogging?
He posts once or twice a day, and gets up with an open mind, and takes a look at what is around, and what is blog worthy. He basically writes the post in his head, and doesn't really research his topic before writing it. When he sits down to write it, he types like he talks, and and wants his readers to feel like they are having a cup of coffee with him.

9. There is no manual for blogging YET, so you can't violate the rules. So you better get started now.

10. Find the small niche that you can exploit with the resources that you have.

THIS IS THE BIG NUGGET HERE:
If you have a small blog, don't write it and try to be a big blog. Do the opposite. Figure out how you can create a blog that can be the very best small blog of it's kind- so unique, so focused, so insightful, that a tiny group of people can't live without.
If you could do that, it probably won't be a small blog for long.

Now, remember, this is just my take on the podcast, and I am willing to be corrected if I got anything wrong.

Woof!

A great resource for coaches...

One of the best ways to get your name out there is to do what???? Write Articles! But once you write them, where do you send them?? That is a great question, and here is your answer...send them to
Free Coaching Articles

This looks like a great new service, with lots of open categories for you to submit your Topic Specific Articles.

Write on!

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").

Bark! With Purpose

In case you didn't know, bulldogs are not known as big barkers. It may be because they tend to be a bit lazy and with their short noses. barking is uncomfortable. I don't really think this is why. It may be because they don't really care about their 'families' and so they don't feel threatened enough to bark at anyone. This isn't why either, since bulldogs are one of the best breeds to have if you want to protect your family, and have a dog that is really loyal and caring. I like to think that bulldogs aren't big barkers because they bark when they have something to say, and when they do, they will get your attention. In a nutshell, Bulldogs Bark with Purpose.

Topic Specific Marketing

Wouldn't it be nice if your prospects could have a way to get a 'free sample' of your service, to help them decide if you are the right person for them?
Using a Topic Specific approach is the easiest way to get practice while building your practice, or create new products to create passive income. Hey, either way is better, right?


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