Author Archive

I’m afraid I’ve neglected the Marketing with Moxie blog for several weeks (don’t do that – it is not a moxie thing to do!).

So, to get things back on track with moxie tips, tool and tactics I’ve come across lately, I’m going to re-post some links from the Weekend Favs post John Jantsch featured on his blog yesterday– a post that he did even while on vacation!

HP MagCloud – publish, print and ship anywhere in the world. Very cool service from HP that allows you to upload PDFs or publications and print them for distribution. (HP is a client, but not for this division)

MarketMeSuite – very complete social media marketing dashboard that looks just right for small business management.

Ultimate Guide to Facebook Marketing – ridiculous list of links related to all things Facebook for marketing from Copyblogger.  This is a great resource that also came across my dashboard this week.  I’ll be speaking to the Cedar Park Chamber of Commerce in a few weeks about Facebook for business, and I’ll cite this as the ultimate resource page for all things Facebook marketing.

Next week (May 17-21) is National Small Business Week and to celebrate I’ve got some great resources to help you grow your business. It’s business owners like you that are going to help turn the corner on our economy, so why not take some time to really focus on your marketing next week?

Free Online Webinar:  How to Create a Marketing System that Produces Consistent and Predictable Results, or what I also call The Seven Steps to Small Business Marketing Success. You have two opportunities next week to sit in on Seven Steps online seminars from the comfort of your desk. Even if you’re familiar with the Seven Steps, these are new and improved, so you’re sure to learn something new.

Tuesday, May 17
3-4pm Central
The Better Business Bureau in Austin has invited me to share the Seven Steps as part of its National Small Business Week activities. I’ll be giving away a copy of John Jantsch’s book The Referral Engine to one lucky winner. Sign up today!
Click here to reserve your webinar seat.  Space is limited!

Wednesday, May 18
Noon-1pm Central
Duct Tape Marketing Author John Jantsch will also be sharing his Seven steps workshop in a national webinar in honor of National Small Business Week. John is going to give away five copies of his book Duct Tape Marketing to five lucky attendees and everyone that signs up will also receive a bonus gift valued at $250.  I’ll be sitting in on the call too!
Click here to reserve your seat.

Can’t make that time work? Sign up and we’ll get you the recording and your free gift anyway.

Happy Small Business Week!  Now go give yourself a pat on the back!

I happened upon a fellow marketeer today who appreciates the fine points of marketing with moxie.  Heather Stephens is a full-time mompreneur who specializes in teaching others how to market a home based business online with a family by their side.  Read her post…

I like your thinking, Heather!  It reminded me of my very first Marketing with Moxie blog post, which I re-post today as a tribute to all of you with marketing moxie!

mox·ie (mŏk’sē) noun Slang

Here’s my semi-regular weekend round up of links and articles of interest.

Facebook Tools For Building Brands

Great post from David Carr at Brainyards on InformationWeek.  I’ll be looking into these tools for my Facebook page.

Coworking, Online Social Collaboration Create Community

David Carr mentioned Moxie Marketing in this piece as a connector for Mavenlink and Link CoWorking. Thanks David! I agree that coworking spaces and online collaboration are a great fit.

5 Businesses Where Being ‘Green’ Is Easy and Profitable

Nice article on Earth Day by Stephanie Taylor Christensen of Business News Daily. How green is your small business?

If you’re an entrepreneur or small business owner in Austin, don’t miss this year’s RISE conference the week of March 7. Created originally in 2007 by Roy and Bertrand Sosa as a week-long, free “un-conference” for- and by- entrepreneurs in Austin, Texas, RISE has now grown into an ongoing annual program that leverages its proprietary web interface to provide one-of-a-kind resources and experiences to entrepreneurs worldwide for free.

There are dozens of sessions to choose from in locations all over town ranging from bootstrapping your business to sales training to the kick-off event with Robert L. Johnson founder of the RLJ Companies and Founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET).

Of course, I hope you’ll join me for one of three sessions I’m hosting on Monday March 7 at the Better Business Bureau Conference Room on La Posada Drive:

8-9:30 am:  Seven Steps to Marketing Success

10-11:30 am: The Social Media Pyramid: Unraveling the Mystery of Social Media Marketing

12-1:30 pm:  Winning the Local Search game PLUS Teaching Your Business to Market Itself with Referrals

See you there!

My semi-regular weekend roundup of marketing stuff with Moxie that I came across recently.

Facebook Business Page Upgrades

Mashable’s Vadim Lavrusik posted a good review on the new features Facebook launched last week for “Fan” or business pages.  One of my favorite improvements is the ability to post comments and likes under your business entity, rather than just your personal name.  Read more.

50 Places to Find Images for Every Small Business Need

From Small Business Trends:  ”Your blog posts, your marketing materials and your website all need images. As a small business owner, you probably think that photos come with an expensive price tag, but they don’t have to. In this post, we highlight 50 image sites and services where you can get photographs and types of images for free or a low cost.”  Read more.

Add Skills to Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn has added a beta tool to help you search for people (and list your own) by their skills. More and more, Linked In is getting it right with powerful new features to help you connect and grow you B2B business.  Read more.

I’ve been conducting kickoff workshops with a couple of new clients over the past few weeks. I’ve challenged them to begin thinking about their “secret sauce” — what sets them apart from their competitors. It’s something that every small business should think about. If you don’t really know what sets you apart from the competition why should anyone buy your product or service? If you think it’s quality or great service, think again. Those aren’t secrets to success. Have you ever met a successful business owner that admits “our quality sucks,” or “we have lousy service.” Everyone says they have those things.

Here are three keys to writing a recipe to make your secret sauce:

1.  Stalk the competition. Not in a creepy way, but in a way that really helps you fully understand what makes them tick. What do you admire about them? What are their weaknesses?  What can you do differently? Many business owners say they don’t want to do this — that they’d rather just focus on what they can do best and the customers will come. That’s like running a business with your blinders on. The competitor will leap ahead before you know what hit you. If you study and know what you can do better, that’s the basis for good recipe.

2. Listen to your customers. Ask them what frustrates them about doing business with companies in your industry – this can be an informal conversation, or in a survey.  Better yet, ask them what frustrates them about doing business with you.  Can you find a solution, process, outrageous guarantee — something tangible that overcomes this frustration?  Then do it.  Is there a gap or problem that you need to fix?  Fix it.

3.  Be consistent. Once you discover your secret sauce, be sure that you deliver it consistently and authentically. Slather it on! It can’t be a one-time promotion or a “bait and switch.” It should be part of your company DNA. Be sure every employees knows how to make the sauce and better yet, deliver it. Set expectations with your customers that they’ll get the secret sauce and your team will know they have to deliver it.

Here’s my weekend posting of stuff that’s “got moxie.”   Short blurbs of interesting stuff that came across my feed reader or to my in box recently.

For this post, I’m borrowing a couple of cool bits of info John Jantsch featured in his Weekend Favs post:

Fiverr – a marketplace where people all manner of services for $5. There are some really interesting offers for business and pretty entertaining read.

OnePage – interactive one page business cards for the web. You can create a page that lists all of the ways to contact you and then embed the card in multiple pages.

And this thought-provoking blurb popped up in my RSS feed reader this week:

The Certainty Premium – Good thinking from Seth Godin.  What’s the “ultimate promise” that could set your business apart?

Happy New Year!  I haven’t followed my own advice to blog at least once a week once your blog is up and running, so let this be a lesson to you – give your blog good care and regular feedings and it will love you back. I’m afraid this blog looks neglected right now, so I’ll give it a little love today.

With that sheepish disclosure, here are three items of interest that popped into my feed reader recently (bonus tip:  My Yahoo! is my preferred reader of choice for the way it aggregates the page with columns, is customizable in both design and content categorization, and lets me preview postings by hovering over the link.)

Act Your Shoe Size, Not Your Age: 3 Ways to Market Smaller in 2011

A flattering post for small business marketing from Marketing Profs.  Here’s an excerpt:

The bigger a business is, the more likely it is to struggle with the things that will spell success in 2011: The ability to market “real-time;” be quick and nimble; emphasize human-scale, one-on-one interactions; embrace simple social media approaches and the amplification effect you get when the right people start spreading their interpretations of your messages and content throughout their social graphs; and maintain a maniacal focus on super-serving niche audiences (or “microcultures”), as Greg calls them. Need help? Take a page from small businesses, which are typically more natural micro-marketers and are generally more open to serving niche audiences.

Click here to read the full post.

New Year’s Cleaning Tip:  Degrease your Laptop with Mr. Clean.

Huh?  Yeah, really.  I do find my laptop getting a little messy from time to time from finger prints, dust, etc.  Check out this post and video from Lifehacker.

What Should You Do the First Week of the Year?

Good advice from one of my marketing heroes, Steve Yastrow, on the first week of 2011 — or any week for that matter:  focus on your customers.   Read his newsletter article here.

A semi-regular Saturday round-up of moxie marketing links, tips and stuff on the web and my feeds.

Have you tried Google Hotpot?

Google keeps adding new ways to get customers to interact with your small business.  All the more reason to make sure your Google Place page is active and has offers to attract and convert customers.  Invite your customers to review you!   It’s not a Yelp-killer…yet.  Here’s a nice post.

Ten Things I Believe About Email

Don’t believe the naysayers that say email marketing is dead.  It is still one of the best ways to build lasting relationships. Here’s a nice post by Dylan Boyd with some classic email tips to help your program thrive.

Cheap Versus Expensive Copywriters – Which Should You Choose?

I’m asked a lot about the importance of good copywriting.  Skimping on copywriting is like filling your high-performance car with regular gas instead of premium.  It’ll get you there, but the ride isn’t as sweet or satisfying, and you might even have a few breakdowns.  Check out the CopySnips blog.