February 23rd, 2010
By Paul Entin
If you have a LinkedIn account then no doubt you’ve been asked by a colleague, friend or long-lost acquaintance’s nephew’s roommate to recommend his/her work, abilities and expertise. I’m not going to discuss here whether you need to provide a recommendation to everyone who asks. But if you decide to recommend someone, here is a guide to writing the recommendation quickly and easily.
1. State how you know the person and for how long – this enables the reader to assess and weigh the credibility of the forthcoming recommendation.
2. Tell a story that exemplifies how the subject person faced and successfully solved a problem. Focus on the highlights and the outcome, not necessarily on the chronology of events. This story may recount how you worked together to complete an especially grueling presentation on a tight deadline or it may recount how you observed the subject deftly handle a sticky Client or customer situation, for example. Or the story may describe how he/she worked a trade show booth with an impressive level of knowledge and enthusiasm that helped reap 50% more leads than at the same show the year before.
3. Provide secondary information supporting the story – this may include complimentary character traits that correspond to the lead story such as persistence, tenacity, poise under pressure and sound judgment.
4. Reiterate your willingness to stake your name and reputation on this person. If this makes you think twice, then you may be better off moving on to a different project or softening the tone of the recommendation. Remember, this is an online recommendation that will live on long after you’re gone. The recipient may someday republish your recommendation all over the Web, in a TV commercial or in his/her marketing materials. Be careful, truthful and precise about every word.
For a few examples, see my LinkedIn page.
Paul Entin is president of epr – Ideas That Click, Bloomsbury, NJ (www.eprmarketing.com). He may be reached at paul at eprmarketing.com or follow on Twitter @paulentin.
Tags: LinkedIn, recommendation
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January 6th, 2010
Green is a nice benefit but no competent manager is going to buy a product solely for its green benefit. They buy products, equipment and services either to increase sales or to cut costs, or both. A company I work with manufactures conveying equipment that enables converters to capture their waste paper, plastic and other materials and send them right to a baler for recycling instead of paying to have a garbage company pick it up and dump it in a landfill. It also permits savings in labor costs by automating an otherwise manual process. That’s the primary benefit behind their success – the elimination and/or reduction of costs. Secondary benefits include a cleaner, healthier workplace with improved indoor air quality and a leaner, more efficient process. That these systems boost recycling and reduce landfilling makes them a green product. But it’s not why their customers bought them and were they to focus marketing efforts on their green credentials rather than on the cost-savings that sparked their growth it would likely be to their own peril.
Green is nice and highlighting it can help secure exposure in the media but it’s not the most important selling point. If it is, and if it’s not enjoying a government subsidy, then it’s likely not yet a viable product.
Tags: converting, green, recycling
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December 22nd, 2009
First in a Series:
I’m often asked about how to get higher rankings in Google. Some people insist on spending large sums of money with search positioning companies that guarantee top placement fast only to get mixed results. I pay attention to SEO trends but I do not claim to be an SEO specialist. I have developed and fine-tuned a program over the years, however, that has been proven to increase Google rankings. It works because it’s not based on tricking, cheating or staying one step ahead of Google. Instead it’s based on taking full advantage of how Google was designed to work.
Google’s rankings – even with the rise of social media – are based primarily on:
1. The number links from other Web sites to your Web site
2. The relevance of those links to the search request
Therefore, if you want to increase your rankings in Google, you need to increase the number of links from other Web sites to your site, especially among Web sites that relate to your industry and you need to do this without trying to defraud Google.
One sure way to get links from relevant Web sites while ensuring you won’t be penalized is by placing relevant news releases and articles in print publications. That’s right… in print publications. Nearly all trade magazines archive the feature articles and news releases published in their print editions on their Web sites. And in nearly every case, they also include a link to your Web site. By placing a single, worthwhile news release in five or six magazines, we might secure five or six links. Do this once per month for a year and we might secure 72 or more links!
See example
Tags: google rank, news release, publicity
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December 21st, 2009
Forget about a “recovery”. Nearly every publisher selling ad space is claiming we’re “entering an economic recovery” or we’d “better get ready to advertise in time for the recovery” as if accepting the fallacy that the time to advertise is after the economy has recovered. Meanwhile, a small group of publishers is claiming that “the time to advertise is during a recession” and they cite studies and statistics to support their cases – and they are largely correct.
Like dollar cost averaging in a mutual fund whereby a constant amount of money purchases more shares when the price has declined, continuing to invest in high visibility marketing in the form of advertising, publicity and other vehicles during a slowdown yields substantial returns. Ads and articles running in thinner print magazines command more attention than in hefty editions, attention that is even more valuable if the competition has fled and retrenched. Online ads appear higher on the page for the same budget or bid amount. Plus ad rates are either reduced or can be reduced by a skilled media buyer. You can get more bang for the buck with less noise to drown out your message.
I’m not disputing the concept that investing in marketing during a slowdown yields a huge boost when the recovery comes around but my point is that there is no recovery coming around. The economic boom we longingly remember from a few years ago was artificially created by a series of government-driven policies involving interest rates, credit, taxation and other areas. Economic activity should not have been as brisk as it was. Therefore, to sit still while awaiting the return of another artificially created economic boom before taking action dooms your company to failure.
Instead, we need to operate not based on a hypothetical economic recovery but based on the actual economic conditions we face today and will likely continue to face for the foreseeable future. There is less low hanging fruit today than in the past. Each sale requires greater effort. More leads need to be generated to maintain comparable sales. More follow-up is needed to stay in touch as the buying cycle gets extended. More after the sale contact is needed to drive repeat business and referrals. Yet people and companies still need to buy things. They still need specialized services. The question is, “How will they know to buy them from you if they think you’ve disappeared?”
Tags: advertising, economy, marketing, recovery
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