I know you’re thinking that 2010 is so far off, but it’s not. With the whirlwind of parties, potlucks and days off, the new year will be here before you know it. That’s why I’m working on my marketing and business plans for next year.

I have to confess: I’m a hypocrite. In the past, I have harped on having a marketing plan, but all too often I have let my own slip by and not get updated. For 2010, with all the changes and laser focus I’ve had that you’ve witnessed in my Branding Friday segment, I knew I had to get an updated plan.

First, I broke down my business into categories that make me money (or will soon):

• Consulting
• Marketing EggSchool

Then I listed those things I do that don’t directly make me money:

• Blogging
• Speaking

I took speaking off the table for now, because I would like to do it to make money, but at this point I need to focus on the things that are a bit easier. I don’t want to have too many areas to focus on or I will certainly lose focus.

Under each category, I described my plan. How will I market my consulting practice? My ecourses? I need a separate and very different plan for each. This year I will be writing more whitepapers (see Connecting Brands with Bloggers as my first one), attending the right conferences and continue to build Susan Payton as The Marketing Eggspert.

I’ll do a better job of measuring my efforts and dropping what isn’t working. I will check in quarterly and update my plan as it evolves. Will you do the same? Let’s hold one another accountable this year and make sure we stay on target.

Egg recently released a new whitepaper called The Importance of Connecting Brands with Bloggers. If you’re not already working with bloggers to expand your visibility online, I recommend you read it.

You know I’m all about bloggers. You know I’m a strong believer in the fact that they can help you find brand evangelists and new customers. But did you know I help my clients through Egg connect with bloggers? We’ve helpd PicClick, the visual online eBay auction site, get the attention of fashionistas. And when Glitch Gear released its new line of Left 4 Dead apparel, we connected them with gaming bloggers.

And we get results. The blogs that write about our brands have gotten them hundreds of new visitors to their websites. Couldn’t you stand a few more visitors?

Download the free whitepaper now.

When I attended Type A Mom Con, I got to connect with Chef’s Requested, a company that produces really good steaks. I’d reached out to them for GiveDaddy, hoping to do a few giveaways with them. Gary Whetstone, the guy in charge of their marketing, was at the conference, which spoke tons about how his company views the importance of bloggers and social media. Score.

I got some steaks to review and we are currently doing giveaways of the product. Let that be my disclosure. I get paid in steaks. The products are excellent, and I wish they sold more variety in my area. (Still, Gary was nice enough to mail me some of their fabulous 100-calorie steaks). I didn’t used to eat red meat, but now, thanks to Chef’s Requested and a really good cook for a husband, I am a steak monster.

Just today I noticed that Chef’s Requested is holding a contest. The winner will receive $1500 to attend a blogging conference of her (yes, her.) choice.  They outline the rules here on Facebook. I love this. It shows again that they know that bloggers are key in helping them build their brand. And I certainly don’t mind passing it on to you.

If you’re a blogger, enter the contest. If you are a steak monster, buy the steak.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Sponsored Tweets. All opinions are 100% mine.

I’ve been working with Sponsored Tweets for a while now, occasionally tweeting out a relevant tweet for an advertiser. It’s painless, easy and lets me make a little bit of pocket change. Let me explain how it works.

Companies are looking to reach a wider audience. What better method than through Twitter, the viral social media tool? If you’re a die-hard Twitter fan like me, you know that sometimes when you post something of interest, others will retweet it. It can spread like wildfire that way.

So as a Twitter user, why not make some money by spreading the word about quality advertisers (and every advertiser I’ve tweeted about has been a good one; no crappy spam tweets)? Getting started is really easy.  Just sign up for sponsored tweets and start looking for good opportunities to tweet. You can set how much you make, although Sponsored Tweets gives you a suggested rate based on how many Twitter followers you have.

Once your account reaches $50 you can cash out. It couldn’t be easier.

Something I really like about Sponsored Tweets is that it requires you to disclose in the tweet that it’s sponsored. You can’t even submit your tweet unless it meets their stringent disclosure requirements.

If you’re on Twitter, check out Sponsored Tweets and sign up for sponsored tweets.

Regular readers know I’ve been working to brand myself as of late. That has included being a marketing resource online (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook), developing online courses on marketing, and of course, blogging.

One thing I swore I’d never do is teach. Blame it on my stint working as a preschool teacher. There’s just something about getting in front of a group of people (potty trained or otherwise) and claiming to be the expert that never appealed to me. Until I became the Marketing Eggspert. And basically, that’s what I’m doing. Standing up and saying “I’m the expert. Listen to me.”

And so lately, I have gotten into teaching seminars. I’ve done this online over the past few years, but never in person until recently. I was fortunate enough to participate with Microsoft Office Live and Kirtsy’s Hands on Small Business events, where I got a taste of in-person teaching.

Teaching a seminar or course is a great way to show your stuff, to establish yourself as an expert.

How you can teach a course:

1. Decide what you want to teach. It should be something you know intimately, and that provides others benefits. For me, it was using internet marketing to grow a business.

2. Find a venue. It may be the local university or community college (I went through Continuing Education). It might be the library or small business resource center. Ask your Chamber of Commerce if you don’t know where to start.

3. Introduce yourself. Send a brief email introducing yourself, mentioning your experience (again, briefly) and your interest in teaching a seminar on X. Ask if this is of interest.

4. Follow up. If you don’t hear back in a week, call the contact. They’re busy. Follow up to see if it’s possible to work with this venue to offer a course. It may be next semester before they can fit you in.

5. Start planning. Once you get your course set up, plan your seminar with a syllabus or outline. Market it. Reach out to the Chamber and any business organizations (the venue may also have a database of contacts they can tell), and invite them to your course.  Promote it up through the date. Facebook has a good tool called Eventbrite that you can use to get people to register.

FAQs

Should I charge for the course?

• This may depend on the venue. Most non-profit and government agencies (read: universities) won’t let you charge or promote yourself. You may just do it out of the goodness of your heart and then follow up with participants via email after. Your students will be impressed with you and will be more inclined to buy whatever it is you’re selling.

How long should my course be?

• Don’t keep participants longer than their attention spans can handle. I suggest 2 to 3 hours, with breaks. Provide refreshments to keep people happy.

What time of day should my seminar be?

• I held mine in the morning and had about 10 students. Many people expressed a wish that it was in the evening after work. Determine who your audience is and what their availability is. Or do 2 classes.

I recently wrote a tongue-in-cheek post about how to get your pitch trashed. I decided I’d draft a reply email that I very well may send the next time I get a horrible pitch. Here goes.

Dear [blank]:

Thank you for your untargeted pitch. I can see you don’t read my blog about PR and how to pitch. Although your brief mention of my most recent post shows you can indeed read.

Although I find your [boring news] fascinating, I don’t write about cars/dog grooming/IT. You would know that if you read more than one blog post of mine.

Perhaps you should read my blog. It gives great advice about how to pitch. Rule #1: don’t give a canned pitch to someone who works in PR. You will get called out. On the internet. By me.

Best of luck to you! Maybe I’ll see you flipping burgers soon.

Sincerely,

The Marketing Eggspert

What do you think? Too harsh??

One excellent way to reach your audience is to sponsor a blogger to attend a conference that caters to your target audience. I didn’t write much about it here because I was acting on behalf of GiveDaddy, but I was sponsored by True Lemon to attend Type A Mom Conference a few months ago. I’ll share my experiences now.

First you need to find a blogger that is passionate about your product. Or who can be. I hadn’t used True Lemon before working with them, but once I tried the product, I recognized it as unique to its industry, and I knew that other women would be excited about a zero calorie citrus product. So that made it easy. Search for your company name and see who is talking about you. You may have a brand evangelist you don’t even know about who would make a good candidate.

Next, find a conference that is a good fit for you. For True Lemon, a conference full of women and moms was ideal. It was a bonus that they all blog (more opportunity for them to spread the word). It may be a trade show or a technical conference, depending on your product and customer profile.

Now you’ll need to work out a package. If the blogger approached you about a sponsorship, she may have packages worked out in terms of what she will provide you. For True Lemon, I:

• Blogged about them using links before, during and after the conference
• Gave away samples
• Gave away bigger prizes
• Wore their shirt
• Took video interviewing people on their perception of the product
• Held a giveaway for non attendees on my blog at the same time

If you have samples, a conference is a great place to let them try it. If your product is bigger or more expensive, invest in some sort of promotional items that don’t suck and ask your blogger to distribute them. Contests are a great way to generate a buzz.

If you feel the need to draw up a contract, do so. Usually this is a pretty informal situation.

After the conference get a report back from the blogger on the feedback she received. Make plans and tweak what you did this time for the next conference. Find a way to measure results. How many people entered the contest? Did she bring new followers to your Twitter or Facebook account? More web traffic? Did she get business cards that you can use to send info to?

What about cost? We can’t afford to sponsor a blogger. The truth is: you can’t afford not to (I say that a lot, don’t I?). Think of it like this: if your company were to exhibit at the conference, you would spend probably $20,000 on a booth, marketing and display collateral and travel expenses. You can retain the services of a blogger for far less and probably get better results.

What do you think? Would you consider sponsoring a blogger as a new marketing tool?

I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to get around to reviewing Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s Trust Agents. This book, which I read a few months ago, is so chock full of good stuff, I don’t even know where to begin.

Let’s start with the authors. As you regular readers know, I’m a big fan of Chris‘.  He truly is all about the human connection, and he teaches readers how to focus on the human element in this book. Julien, I’m less familiar with. Still he’s in good company, and from what I glean, he’s more about the technical side of connecting people. Combining these two elements makes this book perfect (and all the awards it’s won are a testament to that).

This is already starting to sound like a sponsored review. But it’s not. Let’s just clear that up. I’m just a big fan.

Trust Agents talks about how to really interact with people in an era where we’ve got thousands of connections through social media. I know I’ve had trouble connecting. I already blogged about the 150 concept they discuss (and I’m not attributing it to them solely; if it’s been talked about in previous books, great. I just read it here first).  Chris and Julien encourage you to develop stronger relationships with a select few of your network rather than shallow ones with thousands.

They talk about making connections, and how being a part of multiple groups and networks helps you become what they call a trust agent. A trust agent is a person who shares and connects, is helpful simply because he should be, and delivers value without asking for anything.  I like that. I like to think I do that with this blog, which is designed to help entrepreneurs navigate their way through marketing on their own.

There’s just so much good stuff in this book. You’ll have to read it yourself. Here are a few takeaways:

• Be human. People would rather buy from a person than a company.
• Ask questions. Get to know people.
• Bury your agenda. If people see you as a trust agent, the sales and business partnerships will come.
• Give. Give. Give.
• Connect other people that can provide value to one another.

Hmm. This sounds a bit like Buddhism. Do good because it’s the right thing to do, not to seek a reward. I like it!

Have you read the book? How can you apply the idea of being a trust agent to your business?

As I’m shaping Egg Marketing & PR toward my new goal of focusing on consumer products, I realize I’m going to have to say no more. No to projects that aren’t a good fit. No to potential clients I know will be difficult to work with. This will be hard.

When I started Egg, I found myself an accidental entrepreneur. I had quit/gotten fired a bad job with a horrible boss. I started writing press releases. And stock tips. And emails. And resumes. And anything that would pay the bills. In some ways, I still have that mindset.

As an entrepreneur who is struggling (is there any other kind?), we tend to do whatever it takes. But is that actually detrimental to us? Everything I’m reading (including All for One) is pointing me in a single, focused direction. It’s urging me to shed the low-pay, non-focused efforts in favor of the niche I’m trying to create for myself.

And so, I will have to say no.

I will be more picky. I won’t sign up to market services (nothing against them, but it’s much harder to measure interest in something intangible than a product that gets bought off a shelf).  I won’t take on any teeny one-time projects. They don’t allow me to really help a business develop its brand, and the clients always expect too much out of a single press release.

I will look for projects with large budgets. With a desire to work with a marketing consultant long term. That understand that marketing doesn’t happen with a single email, press release or two weeks of social media. That it’s about long term commitment to building a brand.

And by asking for it, I will receive it. (cue heavenly music)

What about you? Could you stand to start saying no (I think no matter who you are, you could.)? I’m looking forward to saying no (unless you really really need a press release. Wait–NO!!!)

I’ve written about measuring ROI in social media before, but I just found a great article on the subject on Mashable by Christina Warren.

She points to a really fantastic presentation by Olivier Blanchard, which I will also use here:

Christina talks about goals, and the importance of having them before you even try to find your ROI. And it’s true. I know so many companies who want to get into social media because everyone else is. But why? What do you hope to attain by doing so? It’s not going to get you instant sales, so you need to be ok with using social media to build your brand and connect with your customers. If you think this is a waste of money, social media is not for you.

Assign a value to everything you do. If your Twitter reach is 5,000 people, that’s worth something. (not if you don’t interact regularly, though). If a Google AdWords click is $1, that’s a value. What’s a click worth from Twitter? Even if you start with arbitrary numbers, at least you’ve got something to look to for metrics. If you spend 20 hours on Twitter to get 1 sale, that ROI isn’t as good as if you spent 15 minutes crafting a custom email. Got it?

Here’s an interesting Twitter conversation I had with @jacobm on the subject.

What are your thoughts? Do you measure social media ROI? How?