Author Archive for Patsi Krakoff – Page 82

4 Steps to Creating Massive Online Visibility

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Can your ideal clients easily find you when they go online to search for solutions to their challenges? Are you hard to find? Or do people tell you "You're everywhere on the Web!"

It's not difficult to create massive visibility on the Internet. It's free or low-fee. It's relatively easy, few tech skills required. (I know what I'm talking about cuz I'm a recovering techno-twit who was unheard of less than 4 years ago.)

I'm not a genius or a smooth-talking networking virtuoso. I haven't had large sums of cash to spend, nor do I understand how things work on the Web. Blogs, social sites, email marketing, autoresponders and digital downloads all work without me knowing how.

True, I did team up with a great partner (Denise Wakeman, co-founder of The Blog Squad) who's savvy and sometimes has to explain things to me ;-). But here're the things we do that many of our peers don't bother doing (or at least not consistently):

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Content Marketing: Is Your Blog Like a Hungry Dragon?

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Is Content Marketing with a business blog like a hungry dragon you must constantly keep feeding?

Denise and I were teaching better business blogging to a group of savvy professionals at Kim Duke's Prosperity Cafe yesterday. Kim, the Sales Diva, mentioned many of her people are intimidated by taking up blogging because of the fear of not being able to come up with good content on a regular basis.

When you think about it that way, yes, I can see where someone might imagine facing the daunting task of feeding the hungry blogging dragon every morning. You must write frequently, and provide valuable content otherwise your blog doesn't work like it should.

Denise and I tried to explain, it's really not that bad. And yes, you do have to feed the damn beast if you want your biz blog readers to keep coming back for more.

And then I read a superb post by the brilliantly talented Sonia Simone over on Copyblogger, The Matrix Guide to Content Marketing. Even if you're not a fan of The Matrix, think of the four quadrants used by consulting firms to look at 4 aspects of your business.

Everything you do with your blog and your business goes into one of these sectors:

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Best Books for Vacation Reading?

Books
I have a request for you, dear readers. I want you to suggest your favorite books to me, ones I can take on vacation to read, both for pleasure and for business. I am accepting nominations for 3 categories:

  1. Can't-put-down fiction
  2. Cutting edge executive/leader/business development issues
  3. Your favorite cutting edge marketing/internet/small biz books

Thanks! Just leave a comment and tell me why you like the book you suggest.

Best Books for Vacation Reading?

Books
I have a request for you, dear readers. I want you to suggest your favorite books to me, ones I can take on vacation to read, both for pleasure and for business. I am accepting nominations for 3 categories:

  1. Can't-put-down fiction
  2. Cutting edge executive/leader/business development issues
  3. Your favorite cutting edge marketing/internet/small biz books

Thanks! Just leave a comment and tell me why you like the book you suggest.

Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs: We’re number 3!

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We made the list of Top 42 Content Marketing blogs announced this week by Joe Pulizzi of Junta42. I have to admit, I’m tickled pink, coming in at #3 just after Lee Odden of Online Marketing Blog and Brian Clark of Copyblogger!

Big congratulations to Lee and Brian, and to all the 42 other fine writers/marketers/bloggers on this list. Be sure to bookmark these sites and subscribe if you want to learn the art of content marketing from the best.

I blush to think of being in the company of such marketing experts as Rohit Bhargava, David Meerman Scott, Seth Godin, and Michael Stelzner, all of whom I admire for the way they write and understand marketing in their niches.

Big thanks to Joe Pulizzi who leads the Content Marketing way by putting together a great list of resources for us all.

Here’s how the list was chosen according to their press release:

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Blogs Haven’t Replaced Email Newsletters

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Thanks for voting on the Vizu Poll about email newsletter formatting preferences. If you haven’t voted yet, please do. The poll is found if you scroll down a little on the right, in bright pink.

Why should you do an email newsletter if you’ve got a blog? When it comes to content marketing, you want to increase the chances that people will read what you have to say. You need both a blog and an emailed newsletter (or ezine).

Today I got Darren Rowse’s Problogger.net newsletter in my inbox and he reminds us that email newsletters are still a best practice of smart bloggers. Rather than repeat all his wisdom, here are the links to read a couple of his posts about this:

Email newsletters aren’t a thing of the past. Blogs haven’t replaced ezines. A newsletter gives additional information in a way that is different, more traditional.

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Ideal Format for Email Newsletters?

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Last week I asked readers to respond to a poll (see Vizu poll on the right) on their preferred formatting and distribution for emailed newsletters: plain text, HTML, or PDF versions. So far, half of responders prefer using HTML, and a third are using plain text.

There haven’t been any who say they prefer PDF, either sent as an attachment, or viewed as a page on their websites. I happened to know of several clients who are using PDFs for their newsletters, but looks like they didn’t vote.

Judging from the newsletters I subscribe to and receive in my inbox this 50%-33% split between HTML and plain text formatting is typical.

Here’s my perspective: if you want readers to focus primarily on your message, then plain text is valuable. If you also want to impress people visually with colors, logo and other branding elements, then it makes sense to make the most out of graphic design by using HTML formatting.

Can there be an ideal merge of both of these important elements – design for branding and showcase valuable content?

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3 Contest Winners Announced for ‘Make Me Think’ Ideas

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Cheryl, Kevin and Lisa@Serahs are winners in our contest to contribute ideas to the post 10 Ways to Write to Make Readers Think. And I’m throwing in a bonus question winner: Monica.

Please email me to tell me which book you want from the list of marketing books and where to send it.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to give ideas, they are all valuable. I’ll still send you a free book from the list if you agree to pay for the shipping. (Subject to what’s left on the list, of course.)

Email Newsletters: Best Ways to Deliver & Format?

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Ah, the eternal question of emailed newsletters: What’s the best format to send it so it gets delivered, opened, and read? Here’s what one of my Customized Newsletter Services clients asked in a recent email:

Dear Patsi,

There is a definite divergence of opinions among my colleagues about the best way to distribute a newsletter.

  • Some feel that the entire text should be in the email in html, eliminating the need for click-thru’s.
  • Some simply send a one or two sentence summary, with an attached pdf.
  • Some send what amounts to headlines, with a click-thru to the website where the newsletter is resident.   
  • Some send a one or two sentence plain text summary with link to the newsletter.   

Everybody seems to do something different. They all have a rationale for their decision. And all seem to have their limitations, as well.   

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Win a Free Book by These Marketing Geniuses

Books
Want to win a free book? I’m running a contest… The entries are fantastic already! Please join the fun…

If you’re new to marketing your business online, you’ve got a lot of learning to do. Fortunately there are a lot of books published now so you don’t have to spend a fortune buying expensive ebooks and home study courses. Here’s my list of free books you can win:

  • What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting by Ted Demopoulos
  • Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin
  • Email Marketing by the Num8ers by Chris Baggott
  • The Ultimate Guide to Electronic Marketing for Small Business by Tom Antion
  • Naked Conversations by Robert Scobel & Shel Israel
  • Publish & Prosper: Blogging for Business by DL Byron & Steve Brobeck
  • Advertising Headlines that Make You Rich by David Garfinkel
  • Writing White Papers by Michael Stelzner

I’ve got duplicate copies of these books and I’m cleaning out my book shelves. I’ve read everyone of these and they’re excellent. You should read them too.

How to win a book: Contribute to my  blog post below, my list of 10 Ways to Write to Makes Readers Think. I’ll pick three people from those who leave comments and send them the book of their choice from this list.

Or, take a stab at writing an answer to the bonus question in that post. Oh, and if you don’t want to contribute to the list, I’ll still send you a book if you want to pay the shipping. Just let me know which book and where to send it.