Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

Do You Want To?

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norm!
Norm refused to get out of the car to go to the park the other day.

I’m pretty vocal about not being on Facebook which means that when I talk with clients or colleagues and they talk about what they should be doing, my first question is “but, do you want to?”

I had this conversation yesterday with a small business owner who was trying to figure out HOW to set a blog on their site. I asked, do you want to blog? And the answer was (as I expected) no. There’s a difference between what you need to do for your business and what you think you should do for your business. If writing on a weekly (ish) schedule stresses you out, then maybe a blog is a bad idea. Maybe harness that power to one great post that becomes your monthly newsletter. If Twitter stresses you out then just don’t use it. You’ll find clients other places, I promise.

As a small business owner you need to do what works for you. Having a blog is great, I use it as a way to help readers get answers to marketing questions and to see a bit of the method to my madness. But if you hate writing then don’t do it. If your target market isn’t hanging out on Pinterest then don’t worry about not being there.

Here’s a New Years Resolution you can keep: Before you start anything NEW ask yourself “do you want to?”

December Decisions for Solo-Preneuers

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norm picking the perfect treeThe end of the year can cause a lot of anxiety for many small business owners. We’re trying to squeeze all we can out of the year, wrapping up projects and getting prepared for the big exciting projects coming in the New Year. From a marketing perspective there’s a few decisions you have to make as well that I thought I’d remind you of. Don’t stress out – none of these are required, all of them are worth making sure you consider!

  1. Your December Newsletter – if you send out a regular newsletter, when should you send it out? The last week of the year is often a dead time to send newsletters since so many people are on vacation. And how far into the week before Christmas can you send out a newsletter? My suggestion is to send it by the 21st. If you don’t send a regular newsletter – consider sending out a Happy New Year email newsletter in January when inboxes aren’t quite as clogged (wait till the end of the first week of January so inboxes are cleaned up from vacations)
  2. Client Gifts – If you plan to send gifts to clients make sure you have them ready to send by the 2nd week of December and hopefully get them sent out that same week. Pro Tip – I like making a donation in my client’s honor, no one needs more stuff, and this is a thoughtful way to show your appreciation and give to an organization (CPA husband tip: donations are tax deductible!)
  3. Holiday Cards – I was labeling holiday cards today to send out to our friends and family and I know many businesses also send out email or mail holiday greetings – if this is on your to do list get them in the mail at least a week before Christmas to ensure delivery. And if you’re card is more general or you prefer, aim for Happy New Years and mail them out the week of New Years when you might be less busy!
  4. Prep for Early January – If you’re taking time off at the end of the year – make sure to consider what tasks you typically accomplish at the end of the month and beginning of the month. Make sure to do these in advance if you can, or add them to the top of your to do list when you return to your office!
  5. Take a Break! I’m a big fan of taking time off, especially if my clients are. I know that most of my clients will be on vacation and taking time off the last two weeks of the year, and I plan to take most of that time off as well. It’s certainly not required, but if your schedule allows, take some time to rest so you aren’t exhausted in January!

What other year end tasks and “December Decisions” do you have?

5 Ideas for Better Speaker Follow-Up

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norm being difficult
I didn’t have a good pic for this post, so here’s Norm being a puppy

I was talking to a friend of mine a while ago about speaking and list growth. She mentioned when she talks she encourages attendees to go to her website to signup and download her giveaway and get added to her newsletter. Then she mentioned her conversion isn’t great for this. So we talked about an alternative to get more subscribers to her list when she speaks. Here’s what I suggested:

  1. Ask for a list – When I speak at an event I always ask for a list of attendees WITH email addresses. Let’s be honest, email is the currency of choice (besides cash, duh) when speaking. If I can’t get a list of attendees (which is OK) I ask if I can have a signup form passed around or I will do a drawing for a free phone consult or something along those lines. Pro tip – MailChimp has a sweet app you can download to save yourself a lot of time. 
  2. Pitch the follow-up email – When I speak I mention that I’ll send them a couple of things in the follow up email they’re going to get. “If you give me your card and write X on it, I’ll send it to you after the event.” “I’ll send you an example of this after the event, just make sure to give me your card.” Let them know they’re going to expect something after your talk.
  3. Write the follow-up email before you talk! You know exactly what you’re talking about and what you’re offering or pitching at the event. Save yourself the time and energy and write that follow-up email before you walk into the room. You’ll thank me later.
  4. Get that follow-up email out within one day – Ideally you’ll have time that afternoon to input all the emails into your newsletter program and hit send. If you’re using the MailChimp app it ‘s super easy to do this, if you have a box of business cards to input, turn on some Housewives, pour a “reward” drink and input those bad boys!
  5. Do the Follow-up – People this isn’t hard. If you’re speaking at an event make sure that if someone asks you for something specific or wants to buy into your program but has questions, DO your follow-up. Once you hit send on that email you’re going to get responses, so make sure you have time blocked out to do the follow-up from your event.

What other follow-up best practices do you have when you speak?