Blogs have gone to the dogs. Literally.

Actress Glenn Close, who launched a pet supply business called fetchdog in October 2007, created the Lively Licks blog.

On Lively Licks, Glenn interviews celebs such as Martha Stewart, Debra Messing, and Ted Danson about their dogs. She also responds to reader questions about dog care in a “Dear Abby-esque” manner. If you want to learn more about dog smell, dog hair, and dog sleep issues, Glenn has the answers!

Glenn’s blog is fully integrated into her fetchdog Website, and contains handy links for subscribing via e-mail or RSS feed. An attractive photo banner pictures her with her dogs, Jake and Bill. My only critique is that the type size on the blog is too tiny for my getting-older eyes.

Glenn is going to strike gold by enhancing her Website with a blog. Dog lovers, Glenn Close fans, and curiosity seekers alike will check out her blog, maybe leave a comment, and feel a part of the doggone community. Of course they’ll be tempted to purchase a $145 Crypton couch cover for their pampered pet. Or maybe an $8 tug toy.

This is the first article in a continuing series that examines how blogs are transforming the way we do business.

Next up: a magazine editor who recently “converted” from traditional publishing to blogging.

Tags: Blogging, fetchdog, Glenn Close, HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, Lively Licks blog

Lesson # 4 in Daniel Franklin’s 10 Marketing Lessons is obvious, but it’s often overlooked: Tell everyone about your product. Everyone. Everyone. Everyone! (Yes, I’m repeating myself at the risk of being crude—thank you very much Paul Simon.)

People or companies wanting to promote themselves often focus their energy primarily on mass media—getting the word out through radio, TV, newspaper, the Internet, direct mail, etc., while neglecting their friends, family and neighbors. Why? They think friends and family represent only a small number of people, and what difference can that make? All. The. Difference.

As we talked about earlier, the average person’s influence is 250 people. If your product is strong, those people will tell people who tell people, who tell people …

During the past year a book called The Shack has rocketed up the best-seller list. It’s already sold over 1 million copies. So the publisher must have spent beaucoup bucks promoting it, right? Uh, no.

The book was self-published. And the author’s entire marketing budget was $300. But he told people, who told people, who told people.

To achieve sales success with your company or product do the following: Make a great product. Tell everyone. Everyone.

Also in this series:

• 10 Marketing Lessons from a 12-year-old Entrepreneur
• What’s Your Passion?
• 5 Tips for Becoming an Expert at Your Craft
• 5 Ways to Stay Motivated
• Get Them in Your Gravity Well

Tags: grassroots marketing, HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, marketing lessons

We’ve been exploring 12-year-old Daniel Franklin’s 10 Marketing lessons and today we’re going to expand on lesson # 3: Building a customer base by giving away product. While the idea isn’t new, it’s recently hit pop culture in a major way.

Radiohead received a massive amount of media exposure when they offered a limited time, “pay as much (or little) as you want” for their album, In Rainbows.

More recently Suze Orman offered a limited time, free download of her new book, Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny. (It’s since hit the bestseller list.) And these are just two examples.

Giving away a free album or book might seem counterintuitive, but it made it extremely easy for a potential paying customer to sample their product. Daniel gave his pens away to teachers for Christmas presents. Do you think those teachers talked about it? Are you kidding?

Marketers like Daniel know giving away free product can lead to powerful, positive word of mouth. Marketers call this a gravity well, or marketing funnel.

The top of the funnel is wide; it’s easy to get into. As you go deeper the funnel narrows, and once you reach a certain point, the product(s) is no longer free. Can you stop once there are costs attached? Of course. But if you like what you’ve seen and sampled so far, you’re much more likely to pull out your credit card than if you’d never entered the Gravity Well in the first place.

Laura and I have a friend, Randy Ingermanson, who developed a brilliant method for developing novels called the Snowflake Method. Thousands of fiction writers have downloaded Randy’s pdf file for free. What does Randy get? Names. Randy teaches fiction writing and markets to those thousands of people who were enticed by his Snowflake Method. Simple? Yes. Strong results? Yes.

Does this mean we’ll be giving away free resources here at He Blogs, She Blogs? Absolutely. Not only through our blogs, but with downloadable content (which will appear soon.) Does this work for any product? Just about. No, car dealers can’t be giving away free cars, but what about free oil changes? Or car washes?

So brainstorm. What can you give away to get people entering your Gravity Well? All ideas welcome.

• 10 Marketing Lessons from a 12-year-old Entrepreneur
• What’s Your Passion?
• 5 Tips for Becoming an Expert at Your Craft
• 5 Ways to Stay Motivated

Tags: 10 Marketing Lessons, Gravity Well, HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, Randy Ingermanson

I just finished reading Home to Holly Springs, the latest installment in the best-selling Mitford Series. Jan Karon has a rare gift for creating characters so real, you feel as if you’ve known them your whole life. She’s one of the few authors who can—in the course of one page—elicit both laughter and tears from me.

Her books harken back to the good old days of literature, when conversation was king and relationships ruled. Her characters engage in sparkling, unembellished dialogue that speaks for itself.

In this excerpt, Father Tim advises his two new buddies, T and Ray, what to name the product they’ve just created—a Kudzu-based cream that makes hair grow on bald spots:

T stooped over the chair and pointed to the top of his head. “Feel this,” he said.

He raised his forefinger and felt it.

“Fuzzy.”

“Dern right. Fuzzy as a peach. About a week, an’ we got fuzzy. It’s gon’ work.”

“Good timing. I might have a name for you.” He’d finagled it out of his feeble brain one night at the hotel.

“Shoot,” said T.

“But remember I’m a preacher. I’m not a marketing maven.”

“Yeah,” said Ray, “but bein’ a preacher puts you in sales, an’ that’s good enough for us.”

“Let’s start with packaging, so when I get to the name, you can, you know, imagine the way the name will look to the consumer.”

“Good deal,” said T.

“A white tube.”

“We’re with you,” said T.

“Blue lettering. I read a study that said men like the color blue—has authority.”

“What about women?” said Ray. “We don’t want t’ lose out on that demographic.”

“I didn’t get that far,” he said. “But I’ll keep it in mind. For the lettering, I’d use bold type. Sans serif.” He’d done pew bulletins, he knew this stuff. “Sans serif is more contemporary, though I’m a serif man, myself. Okay. Here’s the name…”

You could hear a pin drop.

“Mo’ Hair.”

“I don’t get it,” said Ray.

“Try again,” said T. “If you don’t mind.”

“Okay. You’ll like this. Hair to Spare.”

“Man! said T. “Hair to Spare. That’s it. I like it. I really like it.”

What did you learn from this snippet?

• In what part of the world do you think the story takes place?
• What do you learn about each of the characters?
• How old are the characters?
• What kind of a relationship do the characters have with one another?

Now, let’s examine Jan Karon’s dialogue-writing technique:

• How often does she include an attribution? (the “said so and so”)
• In what part of the sentence does she include the attribution?
• How often do the characters speak in incomplete sentences?
• How often does the author insert narration? How does the narration move or slow down the dialogue?

Does this dialogue “work” for you? Why or why not?

Tags: dialogue techniques, HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, Home to Holly Springs, Jan Karon

Here’s what’s been happening on our clients’ blogs lately:

San Francisco Flower & Garden Show

• Flower & Garden Show makes big move to San Mateo in ‘09
• May gardening classes, tours, and events in Northern California

Rich’s for the Home

• Hot tub maintenance tips
• The role of music in outdoor entertaining

Puget Sound Sewing & Craft

• Confessions of a craftygrrrl

Alderbrook Properties

• Recycling program for compact fluorescent bulbs
• Farmers’ markets on the Olympic Peninsula

Northwest Flower & Garden Show

• Did you know that your garden furniture talks?
• Benefits of using seaweed in your garden, and other tidbit

Tags: Alderbrook Properties, business blogsNorthwest Flower & Garden Show, HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, Puget Sound Sewing & Craft, Rich's for the Home, San Francisco Flower & Garden Show

In our last post, we discussed the importance of practicing your craft daily. But how do you stay motivated to practice?

Success magazine offers five tips:

1. Write out your goals and refer to them often.
2. Exercise – it revs up your energy level.
3. Imagine something you’d like to be doing when you finish your project and make the task a priority.
4. Keep a photo of your goal in a place where you will see it often.
5. Sleep – six to eight hours of sleep per night fuels inspiration, clarity, and helps maintain healthy eating.

Source:
Success magazine April/May 2008

In This Series:

• 10 Marketing Lessons from a 12-year-old Entrepreneur
• What’s Your Passion?
• 5 Tips for Becoming an Expert at Your Craft

Tags: becoming an expert, HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, Marketing, motivation, Success magazine

Whenever people learn that I’ve written a couple of books, they respond, “Oh, I’ve always wanted to write a book about ________.” (fill in the blank with the topic you’ve dreamed of writing a book about)

I’ve heard that:

• 81 percent of Americans feel they have a book in them.
• 10 percent of that 81 percent actually write the book.
• 1 percent of that 10 percent work up the courage to pitch their book to literary agents and editors.
• 1 percent of the “pitchers” get offered a book contract.

Why do so few people pursue their dream of writing the next great American novel?

Simple. They’re not willing to practice the craft of writing.

They may think they are willing; they may say they are willing. But then they settle down in front of a computer screen and face that irritating, blinking cursor, they stare at it for a few minutes, then sigh and announce, “I have writer’s block.” Or… “I’m waiting for the muse to strike me.”

I believe this reluctance to practice one’s writing stems from our school days, when we slogged through countless English classes and were forced to write all those boring essays (I can claim this with assurance, because I used to be one of those rotten English teachers who assigned the boring essays). Most people with a high school diploma assume they can write as well as the next guy. Who needs to practice?

Imagine asking an athlete, “Why do you need to practice?”

They’d look at you as if you were crazy!

Of course athletes need to practice; many of them practice their sport several hours per day, seven days a week, year round.

Why should writers be any different? Why should roof builders and software developers and chefs be any different?

No matter what your passion, the only way you’re going to become an expert at it is to practice, practice, practice.

Here are five tips for building a habit of practicing:

1. Schedule daily time—whether it be 10 minutes or two hours—for practicing your craft.
2. Find a mentor. This person should be more advanced than you at your craft, and should be willing to encourage you, scold you, and hold you accountable.
3. Brainstorm fun ways to practice: attend a conference where you’ll meet others who share a mutual passion for your craft; enroll in a class where you can brush up on the latest techniques.
4. Set measurable, attainable goals. Instead of saying, “I’m going to write the next great American novel,” say, “I’m going to write 300 words per day for the next five days.” Remember, it takes about six weeks of regular practice to establish a habit.
5. Reward yourself for meeting your practice goals. After X hours of deliberate practice, allow yourself a special treat. Make sure that treat is something that highly motivates you to practice!

What craft are you going to commit to becoming an expert at? Make your public commitment right now, right here, and start practicing!

In this series:

• 10 Marketing Lessons from a 12-year-old Entrepreneur
• What’s Your Passion?

Tags: becoming an expert, HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, Marketing, practice, Writing

As Laura points out in her post, “10 Marketing Lessons…”, our boy Daniel “recognized his gift/aptitude for working with wood.” Sounds obvious doesn’t it? Admit what you’re good at and go do it. The problem? Most people can’t remember what they’re good at, and most don’t go and do it.

We get so caught up in the life-river—jobs, relationships, paying the bills, catching a movie to dull the longing inside to do something relevant—that we bury our dreams and try not to admit they still exist. We end up surviving life instead of living it.

You want to rediscover your gifts? Your passions? These questions will give you a start:

1. If money wasn’t an obstacle (let’s pretend you just scored $10 million in the lottery) what would you do with your life?
2. What would you do with unlimited time?
3. What did you love to do as a kid?
4. If you had to list 25 things you want to do before you die, what actions would be on that list?

A friend of mine is very successful at a high paying job, but a vague dissatisfaction flits around him. Two weeks ago I asked what he’s passionate about. Without hesitation he said, “Travel.”

My friend has a great sense of humor, people warm to him immediately, he has a great business mind (i.e., he knows all the deals and tricks of travel) and he’s been all over the globe. And, get this, he gets five weeks vacation a year.

Is it as obvious to you as it was to me? I suggested he put together travel groups four times a year, during his vacation weeks, and see what happens. My wife and I would join him on a tour in a second. I’m betting a lot of other people would too. Goodbye mundane job, hello passion.

A fundamental of marketing is having a true fervor for your product. We’d love to hear about how you discovered your passion, and what you’re doing about it.

In this series:

• 10 Marketing Lessons from a 12-year-old Entrepreneur
• 5 Tips for Becoming an Expert at Your Craft

Tags: Discovering your gifts and passions, HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, Marketing

“My friend’s brother is in the newspaper—he’s even on the front page!”

My 15-year-old son handed me the paper. Sure enough, splashed right beneath the Sunday paper’s masthead, in full color, was a photo of the kid, with the headline, “12-year-old a Business Success.”

I turned to the “Money” section, where the story of Daniel Franklin, a sixth grader who carves and sells wood and acrylic pens, took up nearly the entire page.

As I read the story, I realized that young Daniel possesses business acumen we grownups can learn from:

1. He recognized his gift/aptitude for working with wood.
2. He practices his craft daily and has become an expert (he works every day after school).
3. He built his initial customer base by giving away his product (he gave the hand-crafted pens to his teachers as Christmas gifts).
4. He used grassroots marketing to get the word out about his product (his teachers told everyone they knew about the pens, and people started placing orders. Daniel also exhibits his pens at craft fairs).
5. He isn’t afraid to charge what his product is worth (Daniel sells his pens for $25-$40).
6. He markets his product (Daniel has business cards and a snazzy-looking Website – www.pensbydaniel.com – that includes a professional slideshow display of all his pens).
7. He makes it easy for customers to purchase his product (Daniel’s clean, easy-to-navigate site politely informs visitors exactly how to order).
8. He’s expanding his product line—but not too quickly. In addition to selling pens, Daniel offers a line of corkscrews and bottle stops, ornaments, and confetti lights. He’s considering branching out into bowls, vases, walking sticks, pepper mills, and pen kits
9. He’s investing his profits wisely (Daniel used his earnings to buy a lathe, and he plans to purchase more tools and maybe a computer).
10. He landed some great free publicity. A full-page article (accompanied by two gigantic color photos) in a metropolitan daily paper is most entrepreneurs’ dream. How’d he land such great publicity? Because (a) Daniel is unique, and (b) he’s the perfect subject for a feel-good feature. How many 12-year-olds do you know who handcraft high-quality wood pens? How often do you read a “good news” story that inspires people of all ages? This story offers both elements.
    1. What do I really enjoy doing?
    2. What special talents or aptitudes do I possess?
    3. What am I passionate about – what do I never tire of talking about it?

In the next few posts, we’re going to explore each of these 10 marketing lessons in more depth. We’ll provide you with strategies you can use to make the most of your unique talents and aptitudes.

Right now, ask yourself:

Quick, before you chicken out – tell us about it in the Comments area! It’s not bragging; it’s simply a matter of reaching deep into yourself and allowing your true desire to surface. Sharing your passion with another person is the first step of achieving your goal.

Source:
“Turning Out Something Special,” by Debra Smith, The Herald of Everett, WA, Sunday, April 20, 2008, p. E-1.

Tags: Daniel Franklin, Entrepreneur, Everett Herald, HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, Marketing

Just like Laura, I’m a sucker for a coupon. My wife and I didn’t use our Entertainment Book, but we did find a coupon last week for a new Sushi restaurant in our town.

Did you see the movie Defending Your Life from the early 90s? Albert Brooks (the voice of Nemo’s father if 1993 means kindergarten to you) and Meryl Streep starred. Not a blockbuster but there were some fun moments. Like when Albert Brooks enters a Japanese restaurant and every employee in the place shouts a greeting—in Japanese—above ninety decibels. That’s how we were greeted as we walked through the door. Very fun. They had us.

The service? Excellent. The food? Even better.

The kicker is when we paid our bill. The cashier looks at our coupon, which gives us either 15% off our bill or a free plate with the purchase of five, and says, “In this case, the 15% will save you more money so we’ll ring it up that way.”

Think we’ll be back? Think we’ll tell other people about the place?

Marketing 101 says word of mouth, on average, affects 250 people. (That stat comes from the average attendance at a funeral or wedding, equating to your circle of influence.) So by the time I stop telling my fun Sushi restaurant story, I’ll have impacted 250 people, influencing them to go there.

And Laura will have impacted 250 people, telling them, “stay away.”

So Laura was right in her post. She just didn’t take it far enough. For $14, her restaurant lost her business, but it also lost out on as many as 250 other potential customers. Let’s see, 250 x $25 average bill = $6,250. Pretty pricey choice to get that extra $14.00 in their coffer.

Marketing, like life, is a ripple out proposition. What is your business rippling out?

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Related Post:
Marketplace Manners: Rules for Serving…and Being Served 

Tags: HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, Marketing, word of mouth advertising