Erich Stauffer

Category: Marketing

  • What is a Full-Stack Marketer?

    View at Medium.com

    I would consider us nearer to full-stack marketers than any one thing, but wonder if this article is just a result of the difference in cultures between SF and the Midwest. Although I can think of exceptions, most non-employee consultants claim to be ‘full stack’ around here even though few are. Whereas most employees are more pigeon-holed and do more or less only a few things – such as sales or product management. I’m not sure either one is better or worse than the other. They each have their place: smaller teams need a more rounded guy, but larger teams can afford less rounded specialists.

    From Justin, “I think the SF/Valley/Startup culture difference shifts the relevance of this article significantly for us.

    I think on a strict application level, we are neither a building founder or a selling founder. This article very narrowly targets the discussion on a startup that develops “Valley” tech. We serve (varying, and at different individual mixes for each) marketing functions for our customers – but here’s the rub: it is usually for a product and company that already exists.

    Now, in a sense, we are the product. For me, my product (design services, my reputation, a valuable solution pitch) is really just me. And while I will call that product the same thing, the actual product has great variability with each customer (or with each job of the same customer). I’m really just building a business on a talent, but I don’t have a building founder (because there is no focused product that the company markets).

    Additionally, in a loose application, I don’t feel adequately talented (nor interested) in the full-stack of marketing duties. That is why I would love to have two roles on a full-stack marketing company: creative direction and visual design (creating things by pushing pixels, vectors, typography, and layout).

    That said, I can take away a good point from this article, my business can neglect neither the product (sharpening my axe, identifying services [and means of delivery for those services] that I should pick up to serve my market better) nor the selling (pitching, building rep, demonstrating work I have done).

    With that said, the next six months are critical to me: in that time I will decide to try to continue independently, join a small company or cooperative, abandon design and focus entirely on writing, or (dark horse) go to seminary.”

  • 5 Ways to Get Your Staff to Blog

    You’re not the only one with a blogging problem. Here’s how I’m overcoming the problem in the organizations I serve:

    1. Separation of duties: keep the writing, editing, picture creation or capture, posting, and promotion processes separate. Even if they are all done by the same person, you’ll get better results if they are all done as separate tasks.

    2. Internal interviewing: get staff members to interview other members about the topic and include the best excerpts as quotes in the blog post. This has a secondary effect of getting everyone more invested in the process.

    3. Schedule time for blogs: when leadership allows staff to block off time for blogging activities, the results are two-fold. It allows dedicated time to achieve the stated result and let’s the team know that management is aligned with the outcome.

    4. Measure the metrics: publicly record and distribute to the team the metrics you want to improve. For example, if you want more blog posts, track “# of blog posts per month”. Replace the metric with whatever element you want to improve.

    5. Make it interesting: attribute goals and rewards for stretch goals based on blogging metrics. For example, if “# of blog posts per month” exceeds the stated goal, the team gets to go out for lunch together ‘on the office’ as a fun gift.

    Need more tips on blogging for business? Need some help writing blog posts for your business? Email me.

  • The Skinny Coconut Oil Story: History vs Story

    When a company is asked to provide their story, they typically tell their company’s history, but what people really want is their company’s story. What is the difference between history and story? Let’s look at some examples:

    Company History A

    Founded by field service experts in 2001, Field Service Management Software offers solutions that enable end-to-end field service operations. Our comprehensive suite of integrated products provides intelligent and automated field service scheduling, partner management and real-time wireless communications for mobile field service resources.

    Company History B

    Our story starts three years ago with two brothers, two backpacks, and one wild adventure…an adventure that would open their eyes to healthy foods around the world. With their hearts set on exploration, Luke and Matt Geddie ventured through Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, India, and Vietnam with a desire to see and experience everything nature had to provide.

    Both of these examples are stories about how the company started. It may be interesting to some, but it fails in one big way: it doesn’t make the reader the hero of the story. Let’s see how we could write it differently:

    Company Story A

    Originally developed for one of the largest companies in the world, this exclusive software is now available for small business owners like you. Get the power of enterprise-grade field management software you deserve at a price your company can afford.

    Company Story B

    When her son brought home a new type of coconut oil from Vietnam, she immediately noticed a difference. As a holistic practitioner who understood the power of raw, alkaline foods, she wanted to do everything she could to help other people like her get access to this new type of oil.

    History vs. Story

    What’s the difference between the ‘company history’ examples and the ‘company story’ examples? When companies are forced to fill out “About Us” pages and description boxes on social media, it’s easy for them to state facts, but what people identify with is stories – but in particular, stories the target market can identify with.

    In the first example, the software company is trying to invoke trust by saying they’ve been in business “since 2001”, but in software-years, that’s an eternity and it wouldn’t really matter if they had said “2011”. In the ‘story’ version, the focus is shifted more towards the value that the customer now can access. Something has been unlocked for them, something that’s precious and rare. They are now the hero for recognizing this exclusive opportunity to get “enterprise-grade software” that’s just recently been made available for small business owners like them.

    In the second example, the coconut oil company is trying to make the two, young founders be the hero of the ‘company history‘ by telling about their exotic travels through Southeast Asia, but this has nothing to do with their typical customer: a holistically-minded mother. In the ‘story’ example, the orientation of the story is flipped to be told from the perspective of the mother, who is more like the target audience. This helps readers identify with the story and they begin to think about how they can be a part of that story – to help spread the word about this new oil.

  • 10 Places to Submit Your eCommerce Product Online

    Looking for free publicity for your product? “Cool new product” blogs are one of the best places to do that. Here’s a list of the top 10 places to submit your e-commerce product online:

    1. Shut Up and Take My Money – http://shutupandtakemymoney.com/contact/ – home, kitchen, clothing, tech, gaming, toys, bacon/zombie, beer/wine, random
    2. I Waste So Much Money – http://iwastesomuchmoney.com/submit/ – apparel, fandoms, food and drink, for kids, for men, for pets, for women, gear and gadgets, home and office, nerdy, toys and games
    3. The Awesome – http://theawesomer.com/suggest-link/ – tech, wearables, leisure, art/design, living, rides, games, lux, music, funny
    4. In Stash – http://www.instash.com/contact – culture, tech, gear, living, rides, style
    5. The Manual – http://www.themanual.com/contact-us/ – fashion and style, living, food and drink, travel, grooming, and guides for men
    6. Cool Hunting – http://www.coolhunting.com/contact-us – design, technology, style, travel, art and culture
    7. Gear Patrol – http://gearpatrol.com/ (email tips@gearpatrol.com) – cars, culture, design, drinks, eats, sports and outdoors, style, tech, travel, and watches
    8. Gear Hungry – http://gearhungry.com/ (email gearhungry@gmail.com) – gear, tech, style, gadgets, food and drink, sports and outdoors
    9. Thrillst – http://www.thrillist.com/contact – food and drink, travel, recipes
    10. Outblush – http://www.outblush.com/contact/ – fashion, beauty, home, life
    11. Uncrate – http://uncrate.com/contact/ – gear, style, cars, tech, vices, body

    What’s an Example Email to Send Potential Bloggers?

    Hey [name]!

    I saw your recent post about [subject related to yours]. I’m a huge fan of your work and thought you might be interested in learning more about our product.

    I sell [product] and people love it. You can check it out here: [link]

    If you’d be interested in hearing more about it, let me know. You can reach me at [phone number] if you have any questions. I think your readers would love to try our product as well.

    I’d be more than happy to send a sample your way as well 🙂

    Talk to you soon,

    [your name]
    [contact info]
    [website url]

    5 Hints for Getting Potential Bloggers to Cover Your Product

    • Have an intriguing email subject that gets their attention and makes them want to open your email immediately.
    • Include a phone number they can reach you at in case they have any questions. This adds legitimacy.
    • Offer a product sample, even if you have to pay for it.
    • Add some personality to your email. Be yourself.
    • Follow up after a week if they haven’t responded.

  • How to Get More Followers on Periscope: 5 Ways

    Periscope is the new video streaming service from Twitter. It lets you stream video live from your smartphone to anyone with the app or via their website (if published).

    But how do you get more viewers to watch your Periscopes?

    1. Make a title that intrigues people to watch (definitely don’t leave it blank)
    2. Make sure the “Twitter Post” icon is selected when you’re starting a new Periscope
    3. Encourage or incentivize people to like the Periscope by tapping the screen
    4. Follow more people on Periscope. Like Twitter, they may follow you back
    5. Instead of making it public, choose the private option and invite specific people to watch

    Periscope Followers

    How can brands use Periscope for marketing?

    • Have a celebrity “take over” the company Periscope for a live broadcast
    • Showcase company culture & the people behind the brand
    • Live Q&A sessions and instant feedback
    • Sneak peeks and teasers
    • Build and interact with community

    How are you using Periscope? Got any tricks or tips for use? It’s still a relatively new program so I’m sure there will be more new features and announcements to come, but for now, get as big a following as you can!

  • Beginner Business Blogging

    What is Content Marketing?

    Content marketing is about educating potential customers over time, gaining trust, and establishing credibility. It does this by creating knowledgeable, interesting, and shareable content of value to the reader.

    Content marketing is the act of creating stories to promote your business. Every blog post, tweet, or email you send out is an asset your business now uses as part of it’s overall marketing platform.

    Once a blog post is created it can be repurposed, cross-referenced, or re-used in a variety of different ways. For example, a blog post could be summarized in an email, and then further summarized into a tweet. In the same way, a series of blog posts can be strung together as a white paper, a special report, or an ebook. Images created for blog posts can be pinned to Pinterest or used in a Slideshare.

    What-is-Content-Marketing

    As the business owner or expert in your field, you have acquired a ton of knowledge about your craft – that’s very valuable information and people will look to you for insight. Content marketing is a way to educate and help your clients and potential clients – all while boosting your profile and enhancing the value of your product.

    Why Building a Platform for Your Business is Important

    Let’s say you’ve just developed an awesome new product or service and you want to let the world know about it. How would you do it?

    You could pay to put the message out in a newspaper or magazine, you could post it on Facebook and pay to have it promoted, or you could publish it to your own platform for free.

    Why-Business-Platforms-are-Important

    A “platform” is the collection of business resources you own for the purpose of promoting your business. The central hub of this collection is your website, but primarily, your blog.

    If you were to build a house, would you build it on rented land? Your best assets should be built on your own platform, not one someone else runs. Those other sites can point back to the blog.

    That’s why having a blog is so important. It’s a critical part of your overall marketing platform. It serves as the hub for all social media, email marketing, and other promotional activities.

    In other words, your blog is kind of like your business itself, and should reflect it.

    Why Do I Teach Business Owners About Blogging?

    I believe that blogging is the single most important thing a business can do to gain more customers, streamline internal processes, and grow the business. But why do we teach it?

    Business owners create jobs that help people take care of their families. Our mission is to help people make more money and the best way we can do this is by helping businesses grow.

    Why-Do-We-Teach-Business-Blogging

    I have worked with large and small companies. I understand what it’s like to be just starting out and what it’s like to grow as an established company.

    I also understand how powerful stories can be to communicate your company’s value to current and prospective clients and how blogging does that while building a community around your business. The best way to tell great stories is to have great stories and we want to help businesses and business owners share how great their story can be.

    I’ve taken our shared experiences in helping businesses manage people, processes, technology, and marketing to take your business to the next level – whatever that level may be.

  • How to Market Your Business in Less than 15 Minutes a Day

    I realize that not every business owner can afford to hire a full-time marketing person or spend a lot of time marketing themselves so I’ve created this guide that shows you how to spend the next two weeks taking small, bite-size steps towards marketing your business online.

    Day 0: Sign up for Instagram and fill out your profile with a short description and add your URL and picture. Post your first picture with relevant keywords as hashtags. Click on each of the hashtags you just added to your image and begin liking and commenting.

    Day 1: Take photos of your product or service. Take some as standalone images (just the product/service with a cutaway background) and in context (show it being used in some form or against a relevant background).

    Day 2: Post one the images you took on day 1 to Instagram. Add some hashtags. Click on the hashtags and like/comment on other people’s posts.

    Day 3: Create a blog post about how to do something with your product or how it solves a need or problem your potential customer might have.

    Day 4: Create an ad campaign on Bing Ads or Google Adwords to point back to the blog post, which points back to the product/service on your website.

    Day 5: Post more of the pictures from Day 1 on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook. You are now out of pictures and need to take more.

    Day 6: Take more pictures of your product or service being used. Be sure to include people’s faces, not just objects. People love to see people.

    Day 7: Go shopping for some props to use in the future when you’re taking more pictures or arrange someone to be in your pictures as a model.

    Day 8: Begin posting pictures from Day 6 and 7.

    Day 9: Research 10 relevant people to contact and store in a spreadsheet.

    Day 10: For each contact on your list, sign up for their email list, follow them on social media, comment on their blog or reply on social.

    Day 11: Choose one contact from the list to contact. Mention how you’re subscribed to their list and follow them on social. Ask them if they’d be interested in covering your product or service on their blog.

    Day 12: Review the success or failure from Day 11 and make adjustments. Choose another contact to reach out to.

    Day 13: Repeat Day 12 until all 10 people from Day 9’s spreadsheet have been contacted.

  • How I Use Instagram for Marketing

    Here’s a rough rule for using Instagram to market your product or business: 1x100x10. Post at least 1 picture, like 100 pictures, and comment on at least 10 of them – every single day.

    When adding captions to your own photo, use at least 1 relevant #hashtag, but 3 or more is better. The more hashtags you have, the more chance you have of being interacted with. This is because Instagram can only search hashtags, not text.

    How to find pictures to like?

    Know your keywords and use them to search for hashtags. Once you find a hashtag, click the ‘3 dash’ icon and scroll through liking rapid-fire. When you see a post you want to comment on, stop to comment.

    Comments aren’t just for talking to the original poster. They are also a great way to interact with other commenters – especially on a post that already has over 100 likes.

    You can add hashtags to comments on other people’s posts, but I haven’t seen this add that hashtag to Instagram’s hashtag search database. Only the original poster’s hashtags get added.

    How often should I post?

    Post at least once a day. Don’t always cross-promote on other social media channels – except for Tumblr – it’s cool because there is very little cross-over on that network.

    To cross promote to a Facebook page you manage, first add your personal Facebook account and then go back and change the setting to a page. You can do this in settings.

    You can only post from a mobile device and posts can’t be scheduled so you’ll need to get into a routine of doing it everyday.

    I do it either while I’m laying in bed in the morning, laying in bed at night, or while I’m doing something else. Want to follow me on Instagram?

  • Launch Sequences for New Products Using Email Marketing and Live Events

    “Launch sequences” is a marketing term for the process of building anticipation and a sense of urgency to buy a new product rather than simply ‘announcing the product’ once.

    Imagine you’ve just created a new product and you’re getting ready to let the world know about it. Instead of adding it to your website and sending out an email, you could:

    1. Start posting on social that there is a big announcement coming
    2. Have those interested in the big announcement sign-up to an email list
    3. Plan to have a webinar or Google Hangout event on launch day
    4. Send out the email letting them know of the launch event
    5. Have the event explaining the new product and give them a coupon that only works that day

    Email service providers like Infusionsoft have “landing pages” that can be created specifically for creating an opt-in page for this purpose, but you can also make your own using WordPress and Mailchimp or use a service like LeadPages.

    The key is to create a sequence that builds up anticipation to the announcement, drip out more information about the product over time, and then give a time-sensitive offer to close the deal. This gives you more time to convince and convert visitors into customers.