We were psyched. Epson had decided to sponsor us for BlogWorld, which meant we had an all expenses paid trip to Las Vegas! Being dutiful and frugal bloggers, we elected to stay in the Sahara.

Or as we now call it, the “Suckahara.”

Upon arrival, my check-in was fast and efficient. The room looked fine. BUT THEN (enter daunting music: DUN-DUN-DUNNNNN)

• Someone went into Shannon Hutton’s and my room and rifled through her personal belongings.
• Lorna Doone Brewer and Tamara Berry found black mold on the wall.
• Other Sparkpluggers found stains eerily resembling blood.
• The hotel messed up our reservation about 100 times. Wendy Piersall and Amber Watson-Tardiff got pissed.

Several of us, over the weekend, attempted to talk to management about the unacceptable situation. I even gave it a shot. I told the man at the desk what had happened. I told him someone had been in our room. He didn’t even look up. No apology, no recognition, no “quelle horreur!”

Ok, Sahara, you may be the cheapest room in town, but you have a thing or two to learn about customer service.

1. You should be online. Just by searching, you would find dozens (if not THOUSANDS) of complaints about your service. This is your opportunity to do something positive to change people’s opinions.
2. You should react. In case you were gambling during Customer Service 101: the customer is always right. Especially when it comes to blood stains and break-ins. An apology, free dinner, gambling chips…anything can help when you’ve pissed people off that will blog about you.
3. You should train your staff. To be nice. Not to break in rooms. To clean off murder scenes.

That being said, you could all learn a lesson from The Sahara. Be nice to your customers or they will blog about you.

A while back, Wendy Piersall, our Sparkplug CEO, wrote an amazingly popular post, Top 10 Internet Home Business Ideas You Can Start and Run in Your Underwear. Starting an internet business is one thing, but marketing it is a whole other animal. So I decided I’d piggyback Wendy’s post with some tips for marketing and promoting each type of internet home business.

1. Affiliate Marketing. As per Wendy’s definition, this is when you “Promote other company’s products and services on your website. When a sale is made, you get a commission.“

• Marketing Tip: Social networking. Make a name for yourself in your niche (and yes, have a niche as far as the products you sell as an affiliate), and establish yourself as an expert via Facebook, Twitter, etc. Link to your affiliate sites there without being obtrusive.
  • Also establish a strong contact list of people who will regularly buy from you. Develop an email campaign that will provide useful resources in addition to your affiliate products.

2. Blogging. You’re reading this blog, so I’m going to assume you know what a blog is. You should write at least 3 times a week (although Technorati says 10 times a day brings great success. I’ll just trust them on that)

• Marketing Tip: I suggest a diverse approach:
  • Link to blog on your primary website, if you have one.
  • Create social networking accounts (see above). The key is developing conversations that will make people want to visit your blog to get more of your awesome advice.
  • Add link in your emails (in signature, in newsletters).
  • Add link on your business card.
  • Talk to people about your blog.
  • Get listed on blog networks.
  • Comment on other related blogs; include link in signature.

3. Ebay and Auction Selling. Wendy says this is, “Selling or reselling products via an online marketplace like Ebay, Amazon Auctions, or Craigslist. You can sell used goods, buy goods wholesale, or use a drop-shipping service.”

• Marketing Tip: Within a given auction, link to your other products to increase sales amounts.
  • Include link to auctions in email signature.
  • Participate in forums and blog comments in industry you’re selling items for. Include link.
  • Develop contacts and send email notices when new products are selling.
  • Consider Google AdWords or other internet advertising to drive traffic to your auction.

4. Ecommerce. The difference between ecommerce and auctions is that you’re selling products on your website and getting all the money rather than sharing it.

• Marketing Tip: I suggest a lot of the tips from the Ebay one as well as:
  • SEO. Make sure your site has descriptions and keywords behind the scenes and in the copy that will help search engines direct people there.
  • Get listed. Find directories for your product and get your link there.
  • Talk to bloggers. Ask for product or website reviews from bloggers in your industry. When they link to you, traffic will follow.

5. Arts and Crafts. I wish I had skills in this department…

• Marketing Tip: Take photos of your handiwork and post on Flickr. Then network with other users, just like you would on Facebook. Make sure to include a link to your website where people can buy.

• • Ask bloggers to review the products or give them away in a contest.
  • Develop a blog to keep people that are interested in your crafts engaged. Link to selling site.

6. Internet Research. What? They pay for this? I do this for free every day!

• Marketing Tip: list your services on Craigslist with an introductory price. Once the client is hooked, raise your rates!
  • Bid on jobs on Guru and Elance.
  • Get contacts at local law offices, etc. and call them offering your services.
  • Offer monthly specials via email to contacts with discounts on stuff you’ve already researched (if you’ve already developed a database of Florida lawyers, sell this over and over to whoever wants it for cheap!)

7. Freelance Services. Wendy says, “Providing professional services such as copywriting, design, photography, illustration, and programming usually billed on an hourly rate.”

• Marketing Tip: first read Freelance Parent for great advice.
  • Become a Guru Vendor to increase jobs you’re awarded.
  • Post services on Craigslist in multiple cities.
  • Network locally and spread the word.
  • Develop AdWords ad for services.

8. Recruiting. It’s hard to stand out as a recruiter. It’s really all about relationships.

• Marketing Tip: network online and locally. Develop relationships with people. Take them to lunch. Show your worth.
  • Write a blog or articles that show you as an expert. Include case studies of your successes.

9. Consulting. This is what I do, so I have a lot to say.

• Marketing Tip: this, too, is about relationships. People hire my marketing firm because I’m the person they know in marketing.
  • Build those relationships in Facebook, Twitter, and local networking organizations.
  • Establish yourself as the expert (or in my case the Eggspert) everywhere.
  • Write books or ebooks.
  • Start a blog or write articles for online.
  • Get in the news.
  • Make sure you show up in search engine results.
  • Create an email campaign to stay in touch.
  • Ask for referrals from clients.
  • Attend conferences.

10. Virtual Assistant. Again, build relationships.

• Marketing Tip: Post services on Craigslist.
  • Join VA associations. Affiliate with the well-known ones.
  • Educate people who don’t know the benefits of a VA.
  • Write a blog.
  • Post ad in local paper or on bulletin board announcing your services.
  • Post ad on AdWords.

Whew! What a list! And this is by no means exhaustive. Just a few tips to get you started. Want more ideas? Email me at susan at eggmarketingpr.com.

My readers seem to like my press release posts, so I wanted to share some of my past posts on how to write press releases. If there are other aspects of online press releases you want to know about, please leave a comment and I’ll cover it!

Press Releases in a Technology-Driven World

Press Release 101: 24 Reasons to Toot Your Own Horn

Learn Press Release Secrets PR Pros Don’t Want You to Know

Do Press Releases Need a Facelift?

April Fools’, Talk Like a Pirate Day and Other PR Ploys

Bloggers: The World’s Most Overlooked PR Pitch

i Heart PRWeb

Why You’ll Never Get on Oprah…and Why That’s Okay

And if you want to learn how to write press releases, check out my ebook, Do-It-Yourself Press Releases.

If you’ve been reading my blog for very long, you know I’m a big fan of networking both online and in person:

• Small Business Marketing Tip #5: Marketing Your business with Creative Networking and Volunteering
• Small Business Marketing Tip #6: More ways to Market Your Business with Networking
• More Networking for Your Business

But while I’ve done it on a small scale locally in Orlando where I live, something magical happened this weekend at BlogWorld 08. I met so many amazing people, famous in the blogosphere and unknown (and in the middle). While I have some clear plans to work with some of the people I met, others are a question mark. And that’s ok. Because now that I’ve made the contact, if I or they ever have a project that would be good to collaborate on, it’s that much easier to connect.

The thing I have learned over the years, working with CEOs and Presidents and now meeting blog celebrities, is that everyone is just like you. I was a little nervous meeting these people (you may not know them if you’re not following the new media/Marketing and PR 2.0 niche, but they’re pretty well known):

• Brian Solis, blogger at PR 2.0 (here’s my interview wit him)
• Chris Brogan, social media guru
• Gary Vaynerchuck, crazy video blogger at Wine Library TV

But they were totally cool. So I got my confidence up and walked right up to these guys:

• Darren Rowse, one of the world’s best known bloggers @ Problogger (I had the balls to ask for an interview. He even gave me Australian Tylenol).
• Timothy Ferriss, author of 4-Hour Workweek

All weekend I was on cloud 9 from meeting these awesome guys and having real conversations with them. I learned so much, and I realized I can reach that level of expertise if I want to (not sure how I’d feel about people taking my picture all the time). And amazingly enough, most of them were willing to help me with projects. How great is that?

So my wrapup is that networking is, again, about that conversation. It’s about seeing how you can connect with people. I only met people I read online or who I have interest in. I didn’t meet them to say I met them. I met them because I’d love to be on their radars, and oh my gosh, yes, Darren, I’d love you to offer my clients’ products as an affiliate!

So in networking, think about what you bring to the table. As someone said at the conference, don’t come to a party and drink all the beer. Bring a six-pack. If you go into it with an open mind and heart, you’ll be surprised what you’ll get back. If you go into it wanting new business, you’ll be disappointed. Marketing karma, baby.

Here’s a great post by Teresa Morrow on Sparkplug CEO with tips for networking for your business.

If, a year ago, you had asked me what I thought of Southwest Airlines, I would have told you I did my darndest not to fly them. Checking in took forever with the crowds (a testament to their low prices), they herded us onto the plane helter skelter (some of us like order and seat assignments) and all that fluff about their flight attendants being humorous? Didn’t see it.

But my answer has now changed, I am happy to say. I flew Southwest to BlogWorld 08, thanks to Epson, and here are the highlights of my trip.

• Checking in curbside in both Orlando and Las Vegas was effortless. It took all of 5 minutes each time.
• Each flight leg arrived early, by 15-20 minutes (perhaps this is built into their strategy? Plan to take longer so customers will be pleasantly surprised when you’re “early”?)
• While there was no hula hooping, the flight attendants were very friendly, as if they actually liked their jobs. There were a few bits of humor thrown in that made the trip enjoyable. Oh, and check out Wendy Piersall’s flight. Her experience was a leetle bit different from mine…in a good way I think!
• Even though they didn’t offer a meal for my 5.5 hour flight (a bone I pick with all airlines) their snacks were more than just the old standby, peanuts (although why you thought peanuts would be cute to pass out at BlogWorld I will never know).

So now moving on to the fact that Southwest was a sponsor of BlogWorld. I’m always keen on large corporations sponsoring blog events. It shows that they understand that bloggers have a place in spreading the word about a given brand. I spoke to Brian Lusk at the booth, and he told me they have a blog written by people throughout the company. And indeed they do. Here’s a hilarious video from the winner of Southwest’s Ultimate Blog-O-Spondent Contest.

I’m happy to give two thumbs up to Southwest. Not only have you cornered the customer service market, you also are ahead of the flock in recognizing bloggers as a means to spread your message. Just like I did here!

Is cold calling part of your company’s routine? How’s that working for ya? Probably not so good.

Cold calls have been around since…well, probably since telephones. Why would you think such an archaic method would work for so long? Times are a’changing, my friends, and marketing ain’t what it used to be.

Today’s hot topic, thanks to HubSpot, is Inbound Marketing vs. Outbound Marketing. Think of them like this:

Outbound Marketing: your little sister or brother, or the annoying kid from down the street. He/she just won’t leave you alone! Just like My Buddy, everywhere you go he’s gonna go. Outbound never changes your mind about anything, and in fact turns you off.

Inbound Marketing: Think of Inbound as throwing a bottle into the ocean. A very well-researched, highly targetd ocean. And instead of one bottle coming back, a whole slew come back. Is that a good analogy? It’s creating a demand and then sitting back and letting the customers come to you.

Hubspot has a great video to illustrate this point:

I’ve found it difficult to connect and really get to know my readers. I can tell you who I think you are. Feel free to disagree:

• Small business owner or entrepreneur
• Small marketing budget (or..budget? what budget?)
• Want to do-it-yourself when it comes to marketing, but need a little guidance from me.

Am I right? Totally off? Let me know! While my comments have grown since I joined the Sparkplugging network, I find it difficult to get people to respond to questions I ask. So, dear reader, don’t let me down! Tell me who you are and what you want to get out of this blog. I’m open to tweaking my content, adding new things, et cetera. But it’s all for you. If I don’t know what you want, how can I give it to you (a lesson you should learn about marketing. See my recent post What Las Vegas Strip Bootie Brokers Need to Learn About Shotgun Marketing)

And to be fair, I think I should tell you about me. Since, thanks to Epson I now am all about my new flip camera here’s a little video of me.

and conclusion:

(Thanks to Chris Brogan for making me realize nothing but good comes from being more personable on my blog. Now if he’d only read my blog!!)

Throughout the BlogWorld Expo, we heard the phrase “join the conversation.” I want to share what I learned with all of you, because it’s important to understand this when you’re developing your marketing strategy.

Marketing is no longer about one source (a phone book ad, a commercial, etc) broadcasting to many. You know this as well as I do. You HATE when advertisers push their products at you. So why use that method?

Now it’s about an engaged, interactive conversation. Between you and me about the amazing restaurant at the Las Vegas airport. Between your customers about a particularly good (or bad) experience they’ve had with your product. So there’s conversation taking place regarding your business…why wouldn’t you want to join in?

I’ve been really on the fence about Twitter as a tool, but after BlogWorld (you feel like you’re in every session even if you’re not if you’re following the people who are there) and after meeting).

Jessica Smith, fellow Sparkplugger and Twitterer extraordinaire, I now get it. It’s a network of conversations. And not all about what people are doing. There’s a lot of great stuff about blog posts worth reading, new businesses, news, you name it. And that’s just one channel.

I also learned a lot about Facebook from Shama Hyder. While I’ve had a profile that I have used to connect to old friends, I’m now looking at it in a new light. One problem I have is understanding who my audience is. With tools like Facebook and Twitter, I will be interacting with them so directly, I’ll know what they ate for breakfast.

So I’m so excited about what I learned at the conference, and I plan on sharing it with you over the next few days/weeks (I have a lot of posts to churn out while they’re still rattling around in my head).

But what I want you to think about is:

• Are you throwing your marketing message at people? Are they receptive to it?
• Are there ways you can participate in conversations in your industry? If you’re not ready to jump into Facebook or Twitter, consider these baby steps:
  • Joining networking groups within your industry. But you have to PARTICIPATE for this to work.
  • Serving on an advisory board.
  • Proving yourself as an expert that others come to for information.

These are just a few ideas. But once you start one conversation, you’ll find it easier to get involved in more. If you get on Facebook I think you’ll find people encouraging you to get on Twitter (and vice versa).

For people like me who work at home, I think joining the conversation is twice as important. We tend to get disconnected, just by the fact that we don’t have a water cooler to stand around talking. If you don’t get out and go to trade shows or networking events, it’s even more important that you join a conversation online. And I think you’ll be surprised how that develops into new clients.

I recently interviewed the author of Email Marketing for Complex Sales Cycles. We discussed email, spam and how to succeed at email marketing.

Marketing Eggspert: Why do you think some people send spam emails, ruining it for everyone else?

Winton Churchill: The vast majority of all spammers do it for financial reasons.  Unfortunately they’re able to convince people from companies who are not completely clued in to or subject to the various anti-Spam laws.  Furthermore most of these operators are able to cloak themselves and hide their identities from enforcement organizations.  Many spammers operate in or through countries where it is not a crime to send unsolicited e-mail in the volumes they send them.

There are some initiatives both in the United States and worldwide that should over time substantially reduce the volume of spam we all get.  Unfortunately, until a combination of new legislation and new technology fall into place and we’re all going to have to wrestle with the spam monster. It won’t change quickly…but is improving.

Fortunately many good solutions exist for filtering, rejecting, and otherwise dealing with spam.  I know in my own Outlook inbox I’ve managed to pull my spam documents down from about a hundred a day to about four.  Yes it’s aggravating, but I get so much benefit from the efficiency of e-mail communication that I’m willing to tolerate it at that level.  And it should only get better from here.

Marketing Eggspert: Can you summarize for our audience the special needs of complex sales cycles and why they’re important?

Winton Churchill: Well essentially my definition is a complex sale is one that occurs over time and requires that you form a relationship with your prospect or educate them to a certain level about an issue before they buy. Many years ago it made sense to send salespeople out into the field and have them knock on the doors of their complex sale prospects. Today that’s too expensive.  The biggest challenge that we face today with a complex sales cycle is getting the attention of our best prospects and then developing a relationship with them that builds the trust and respect required to close a complex sale. The special needs boil down to the ability to communicate en masse to your target audience in a way that they embrace and enjoy.  If you can’t do that, your sales process will become less and less effective.

Marketing Eggspert: Is email marketing changing with the ever evolving nature of internet marketing? How so?

Winton Churchill: When you have permission and communicate effectively, email is extremely powerful and reliable.  Getting that email address means you have a level of trust.

Not a week goes by that some email firm doesn’t offer a new tool, gadget or statistics capability.  I find that it takes a while to sort through these “improvements” to understand which ones can work to your advantage.  Many of these new improvements require an unacceptable level of “bloat” meaning that they can make your message difficult to display in the recipients inbox…so before you use a new tool or capability you must check for unanticipated consequences.

Marketing Eggspert: What are the top 3 mistakes people make with email marketing?

Winton Churchill: Mistake #1–Not targeting your message to your audience — we are all happy to read advertisements and promotional messages related to our fields of interest…the less related, the lower our interest level.  The most common mistake I see with companies today is sending messages to people because they can.  They don’t care if the message is relevant or welcome.  This is the old-style push selling and always unwelcome.

Mistake #2–Thinking that writing an e-mail designed to elicit a response and eventually a sale, is like writing an e-mail about a company vacation policy.  It’s not.  Writing copy is both a science and an art.  There is a very significant amount of science and if you don’t understand that you probably are going to waste all the money you spend on your list or irritate your prospects so severely that they ask you to stop sending them information.

Mistake #3 — Not thinking about the specific small step you want your prospect to take when they finish reading your e-mail. If you sell a $10,000 product  (or even a $20 product or service) it is very unlikely that your prospect will buy right away on the strength of a single in e-mail.  But they could begin an investigation process that could lead them to that conclusion.  Your job with each e-mail is to get them one notch closer to that decision to buy.

Too many e-mail solicitations today end with “…and visit our website for more information.”  The research is very clear on this…this kind of call to action is extremely ineffective.  You must be very specific about the next step you want your prospect to take. And that one step can’t make them feel like they’ve just been sucked into a sales process that unleashes a machine gun of emails on them.

Marketing Eggspert: What are your top 3 recommendations for people new to email marketing?

Winton Churchill: Recommendation #1-Focus on building trust with your first email campaign. The basis for all sales activity is trust.  The biggest mistake I see both new and “experienced” marketers make is trying to ram a sales pitch down the throat of a prospect before they have built trust.

Recommendation #2-Use a professional copy writer to prepare your first email campaign.  Writing for persuasion is very different than business writing. You have to do many things write and only 1 or 2 things wrong will doom your campaign to failure. If you haven’t studied copywriting in depth you will probably make one of those campaign killing mistakes.

Recommendations #3-Test, Test, Test: Start small with your campaign and test variations of your copy, subject line and call to action. Let your prospect base tell you what they like, you’ll be rewarded for your attention. Be sure you keep an accurate count of your client preferences.

Marketing Eggspert: Do you recommend entrepreneurs do their own email marketing or outsource it?

Winton Churchill: This is more a question of entrepreneurial style.  If you are “hands-on” you might want to try it on your own…some have the “knack” for writing copy, creating educational content, selecting lists, etc. But, if you don’t see good results right away, I recommend talking to a professional.

In the end it is all about how you want to spend your time and grow your business.  There are occasionally entrepreneurs that have a big success right out of the box.  They are a tiny minority. As a consultant I feel compelled to tell you the odds of getting it right before you blow a lot of money are pretty small.

As an example, I recently had a prospect come to me because they were frustrated that their email efforts weren’t producing good results. They has spent almost $4,000 putting together a campaign and had nothing to show for it.

We were able to suggest a different subject line strategy, change the email originator from a company to a person, slightly modify their call to action and their program began to work.

What is the most frequent mistake people reading your book are likely to make when they try to apply it on their own email marketing program?

They don’t quite understand what they don’t know and send out and email campaign that doesn’t do well. Each year we look at hundreds, maybe thousands of campaigns.  When you do that you develop a really good experience base for what works and what doesn’t. It is similar to finding a real good doctor.

In fact, we developed a service for our clients where they get a campaign all ready to launch, then they have us “score it” using a model we have developed.

We usually identify a few things that would severely limit the effectiveness of their campaign.  We typically make 3-6 recommendations on how to improve their campaign’s effectiveness.

We sell that service for $347 and offer it with a money back guarantee… if they use the recommendations and don’t see a satisfactory increase in their response we cheerfully refund their money.

This service takes everything we know about email and puts it at the point of greatest impact… so clients like it.

If readers would like to buy the book they can go here:

http://snipurl.com/emailbook

If they would like to see a table of contents and sample chapter they can go here:

http://www.churchillmethod.com/chapter

For more information, visit www.churchillmethod.com. Visit www.virtualblogtour.blogspot.com for the most up to date information. His full tour schedule is posted at http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2008/06/winton-churchill-email-marketing-for.html. Winton Churchill is offering a wealth of free gifts for every person that purchases his book Email Marketing. Visit www.churchillmethod.com/bookbonus for full details about how to download all of these free gifts.

So as I’m walking the streets of Las Vegas during BlogWorld 2008 with my Sparkplugging pals, we’re bombarded by people peddling flyers for strip clubs. And I’m thinking, “Wow. They really need to rethink their target market.”

For every 1,000 flyers they distribute, maybe what, 3-5 people buy in? The Las Vegas Strip is full of tourists. Anyone from 20-somethings showing off their cheap spandex fashion to retirees spending their IRAs. So why would someone trying to get people to go to a strip club pass out flyers to these people?

For marketing newbies, this is the Shotgun Approach. Sending out your message to anyone around, regardless of how well they fit into your target market.

Television is another great example. Sure, advertisers can target the type of person who watches Ugly Betty and attempt to cater the advertising during that show to appeal to that demographic. But in reality, of all the commercials you watch in a given sitting (if you even watch the commercials), how many actually stimulated you to go buy the product?

This is such a wasteful approach. So how could these Vegas vagrants do a better job getting their message out? Bootie Brokers, as I call them, would do better to pass out flyers outside other adult clubs (night or strip). That’s their market, so they’d have a higher rate of return.

That being said, how are you approaching your market? Do you know your market? Do you do your best to reach them directly or do you do whatever seems easiest, not caring about how much return you get? If B is your answer, do this experiment:

· Take the time to identify who your buyers are.

· Figure out how they like to receive their marketing.

· Use that channel to reach them, even as a test.

· Measure the results. How many sales did you make compared to how much you spent (time and money)?

· Now: do you prefer the shotgun effect or the direct targeted approach?