Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

Your Friendly Reminder to Be Consistent

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logoI was listening to The Nerdist Podcast as I was running errands this morning. It was a live episode so they were taking quements (it’s a question it’s a comment it’s a quement!) Someone asked about getting started and social contracts. Chris Hardwick (the Nerdist) said what ever it is you do, be consistent. Monthly podcast, weekly blog posts, bi-monthly newsletter, what ever social contract you make with your readers, listeners, or clients, be consistent.

I say this to my clients ALL THE TIME. Yes, you can have a blog, BUT you need to blog consistently. I encourage weekly posts, but with some clients it’s two or three times a month. It’s frustrating when it’s 4 weeks in a row and then nothing for 7 weeks. If you want your target market to start to look at you as an expert or thought leader or as someone who can commit and follow through, whatever you’re doing online needs to reflect that. Unfortunately the internet will let everyone know when your last update or post was, you can’t hide that.

If your new years resolution included “blogging every week!” and you haven’t since the 2nd week of January, figure out what you can truly commit to. Maybe a monthly newsletter is a better fit for your brand. Maybe a shorter Facebook post, or LinkedIn update is a better engagement tool for your network and your audience.

Whatever you do, BE CONSISTENT.

Save That Content!

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download iconThe other day I received an email from someone’s who’s list I’m on. In the email was a recipe that I wanted, so I copied the recipe into word to print it off (the email was long and had other stuff I didn’t want to print off). And it made me think: I wish it was a PDF. How easy would it be to PDF the recipe with branding and contact info included on it, so every time I use that recipe I think of the person/company?

I’m guessing you may not have a recipe you send out with each newsletter or post, but do you have a quick check list you’re including that could easily be branded and sent for easy download? What tips or tricks are your frequently writing up or forwarding to clients or contacts?

Make your resources easy to follow and make them easy to save and hold on to. In an ever increasing digital world, some people still like to hold stuff, and some people want to file it with the rest of their notes.

Ask Yellow Dog: Outdated contacts

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facepalm_picard2[2]Last week I received a few great marketing questions after I spoke at a luncheon. Here’s another great question I received that I think may be helpful for you…

What do I do about the piles of biz cards drawing slips and old mailing lists of companies we used to belong to?  I feel like I want to come clean with them and say I did not have a system and now I do. My current company has a monthly email that I ask people if I can add them to but I have not been good at adding them.

It’s never too late to come clean to folks and to reach out to them!  Here’s what I’d suggest:

Send an “announcement” email to your network, pull all those business cards & email addresses and everything and send one email to them (probably as a BCC email and probably you’ll have to do this in clumps) and let them know what you’re doing:

Dear (friends/ family/whatever),

I know it’s been a long time since some of you have heard from me, and I thought it was high time I sent you an update! As some of you may know, I’m working this this great product line and I’d love to share more with you about it…(a couple sentences about it, and a link to your sales page where they can learn more).

If this is of interest to you, I’d love to setup a time to talk about it. We also have a monthly newsletter that goes out and you can signup here (link to it) or just reply to this email and I’ll get you signed up. And if it not, I promise you won’t hear from me again about it!

(Signature)

It’s never too late to come clean, and as I always say: I can’t help you if I don’t know what you need or are up to!