Posted By Amanda Collins on March 22, 2011

Regularly, I can be heard “pitching” newsletters to audiences: when I give my 30-second commercial or talk to people in one-on-one meetings. I’m sure they think it’s because I will make money off their business, and while that’s part of it, the benefit to the client is HUGE!

If you’re not familiar with Constant Contact, you should be. They were one of the first online newsletter services. One of their best speakers is Ron Cates, based here in Phoenix. Ron speaks to audiences around the country on social media and email marketing, and he always shares amazing success stories using the medium. Businesses that do this right can drastically improve their profits, sometimes with just one email.

Each time I send out an email, I see nearly immediate results. Because I include a number of links (to blogs, social media, and my websites), I can track my click-throughs on Constant Contact. My website hits spike for a couple of days after I send a newsletter. I also get responses to them, usually about the monthly picture of Patrick or something personal I’ve shared. For instance, my January newsletter went out as Patrick and I were driving to Disneyland for my 40th birthday, and I received a number of birthday wishes from my clients and prospects.

Newsletters don’t always turn into immediate business, but because people are hearing from me regularly, I remain top of mind. In January, two prospective clients who had been receiving the newsletter for a year or more called and became clients. Then, in March, the newsletter was shared by a prospect—and the person who received it became a client.

If you’re not putting out a monthly e-newsletter, you’re missing an amazing opportunity to connect with your client database. I see results monthly in the form of new business, repeat business, and referrals. It’s a cost-effective method of marketing, and you can create a number of lists with unique content and calls to action. If you’re confused on how to get started, let me know! A monthly newsletter written, designed, edited, and sent is just $99 (plus the cost of your Constant Contact subscription).

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Tags: constant contact, cost-effective marketing, monthly newsletter

Posted By Amanda Collins on March 9, 2011

I love Facebook. I’m on it all day long when I’m on my computer, and I check it when I’m on my iPhone outside of the office. However, the quick updates sometimes make for lazy typing. But wait…is that laziness or ignorance? I’m starting to think it’s the latter. I’m talking about how commas are just ignored on Facebook.

Poor commas. They used to be one of the most OVERused punctuation marks with people using them way too often. These days, though, it seems as if people are forgetting these little hooks that add clarity to your sentences and make reading easier. Nowhere on Facebook is this more evident than on the wall of your friend who’s celebrating a birthday.

One of the best things about Facebook is its ability to connect us with friends far and wide. With that, we get these great reminders of upcoming birthdays. This is where I see most of the issues with commas. Here are two examples where the comma is MIA:

Happy birthday Joe!
Thanks Amy!

In each instance, there should be a comma prior to the name. Why? These are fragments, meaning they’re lacking a subject, verb, and object—which add up to a complete sentence. If you read them as if the missing part is replaced, you may get:

I say happy birthday, Joe! (correct comma)
Joe thanks Amy! (still no comma and incorrect)

Unless you’re speaking in third person (“George is getting angry!”), you probably won’t speak the way the second is written. Instead, you’ll say “Thanks, Amy!” which is correct.

Grammar is confusing; there’s no doubt about it. But if you just remember that a name in a fragment like this typically requires a comma, you’ll be good. One way to do that is to put the name first, which is pretty clear (kind of as in a letter):

Joe, happy birthday!
Amy, thanks!

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Tags: commas, grammar

Posted By Amanda Collins on February 14, 2011

If you’re holed up looking at your computer for six, eight, or ten(!) hours a day, you’re bound to come across some stumbling blocks from time to time. Who among us hasn’t experienced writer’s block? In fact, too much of beating your head against that immovable wall and you may be edging closer to the dreaded burnout!

So how do you combat those blocks that are bound to rear their ugly head and get in the way of your writing process? Well, one great way is to monitor yourself. If you’ve been writing for more than an hour, take a break. Get up, walk the dog, make a cup of tea, or call someone. Do something that doesn’t involve writing for a bit.

There are definitely here-and-now fixes to clear your brain and get you back on track, but also consider the long haul. If you find that you’re experiencing writer’s block more often than you can count, it might be time to really clear the cobwebs and reboot your system. A vacation seems like the obvious solution, but not everyone has the resources or free schedule to just drop everything and go. When you have to work, here are a few hints to keep the wheels turning productively.

Take One Day Off Each Week
If I’ve done it, I know you have too: we end up working so consistently that we find ourselves asking, “Weekend? What weekend?” Deadlines, demanding customers, and paperwork can keep us in the office way too long to be healthy. Do yourself a favor and take off one full day each week. Whether you just veg in front of the TV or do something fun with family or friends, do something other than work (or thinking about work!).

Spend Three Hours Each Week with Your Partner
If the label “workaholic” seems like a good description for you, chances are you’re not the only one who’s affected. Look to your significant other and check in. He or she will likely concur that some down time as a couple would be a great bonus. And this time together has two benefits: it improves your relationship while clearing your mind! And if you’re single, use those three hours to hang out with a good friend or try to meet Mr. or Ms. Right!

Spend Three Hours Each Week with Children
Just as your marriage/relationship can suffer when you’re experiencing work burnout, your relationship with your children can take a big hit. Plan a three-hour block of time to do something special with the younger members of your household. Go for a hike, visit the park, or do anything that would be considered playing. As adults, we often forget to take time to play, but your kids will get you back in line! If you don’t have any kids of your own, borrow some. I’m sure most parents would be more than willing to give up theirs for three hours a week! You’ll be the most popular person in your neighborhood!

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Posted By Amanda Collins on January 3, 2011

Each year, as we turn the calendar from December 31 to January 1, we are encouraged to create “resolutions” for the new year. Often, these take the form of losing weight or eating healthier, but what about your business goals? It seems that we purposely create objectives that are amorphous and, thus, challenging to measure. You can’t track what you can’t measure, so this year, give yourself a set objective that is just outside of your reach, otherwise known as a BHAG.

What’s a BHAG, you ask? Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal. I learned the term from Phoenix business coach David Hepburn, Jr., and it’s a good one that’s stuck with me. The idea behind a BHAG is not to set you up for failure. In fact, it has just the opposite purpose: a BHAG is designed to inspire you and encourage you to keep moving forward.

My current BHAGs include owning a home in a posh neighborhood of Phoenix and adding two contract employees to my firm. For both of these, I need to create more revenue opportunities, but that’s not really my BHAG. Making more money doesn’t inspire me in and of itself; it’s what that money provides that lights a fire.

So, to keep myself moving, I create regular, “tame” goals quarterly as part of my SWOT analysis. These smaller milestones are the steps that get me closer to realizing everything I want for my business and my life. They may include things like education, certification, the number of networking events to attend, and anything else that supports my BHAG for the year

I encourage you to sit down in the coming days and start to create some big, hairy, audacious goals for yourself and your company in 2011. And by all means share them! Once you have them out there, others can start to encourage you and remind you that—even on those dark days when nothing seems to be working—you have a reason to continue.

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Posted By Amanda Collins on December 20, 2010

As an entrepreneur, I have to “kill what I eat”—and if I don’t kill anything, I’m stuck eating Top Ramen. That fact can sometimes transform into approaching work with an “anything is good enough” attitude, but that’s not always what’s best for you, your business, or your clients.

Recently, I have found myself saying “no” to people more and more often. A lot of it has to do with the money being offered, but there are many times when I give away services or my time for free. Really, the truth of the matter is that I turn away work when it doesn’t resonate with the mission, or purpose, of my business.

Do you have a mission for your business? Mine is “To engage business leaders in the marketing-communications process, creating results through relationship development and consistent messaging.” Obviously, nowhere in there does it say I turn away opportunities, but if they don’t fit with what I’m doing and where I’m going, they aren’t good for me. Let me share with you some examples.

A while back, a client came to me through referral who needed some long-copy work for her website and email communications to support a teleseminar she was conducting. I don’t write long copy; I am a marketing writer and focus on short, concise, and direct messaging. I also didn’t like her product and felt that her approach was lacking integrity. At the time, I really needed the $1,000+ I knew this project would add to my wallet—but I turned it away. I chose to refer the project to a long-copy colleague who provided excellent service and made the client very happy.

Recently, a colleague came to me and asked me to do some writing for her clients as a vendor and wanted me to offer my services at a discount. Previously (when I was more desperate than I am now), I buckled and gave her a large discount off my listed prices. I subcontract often, and no one else ever gets a discount, so when she approached me this time, I was hesitant. First, my client base has improved since our first interaction. Also, she was slow to pay and to follow up with me, so I didn’t much like her business ethics. I thought about it and chose to offer her less of a discount this time around. When she came back to me about it, I was honest. I also suggested she might want to work with another writer.

In both of these cases, taking on that work wouldn’t have made me happy. I work for myself, so being happy in my job is pretty important! Happiness aside, however, taking on projects that I don’t like or that don’t resonate with my mission means that I will provide below-par quality, which will sully my reputation as a writer and business professional.

I encourage you to take some time to reevaluate your mission (whether it’s for your business or your personal mission as an employee) and be sure that the projects you accept fit with the direction in which you’re headed. If you follow that guiding light, you will find that you’ll attract better work that makes you happy and provides your clients with a reason to smile.

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Posted By Amanda Collins on December 6, 2010

I live in Phoenix, Arizona, the fifth-largest city in the US and arguably the small-business capital of the country. As a business owner, I do a lot of networking, averaging about three events per week (which is down from how many I used to do). Still, I have been amazed at the number of people who have no idea about things I take for granted to help grow my business or assist my clients.

I have been talking to a lot of people about networking—and the first thing I mention is NetworkingPhoenix.com, a monthly calendar of most everything that’s happening in the Valley of the Sun. The site has been in existence for three years or so, yet there are still a surprising number of people who don’t know about it. Whether you’re a business owner, business professional, or job seeker, you need to know about this site if you live in the Phoenix area.

What about in your area? Do you have a regional calendar of events you should know about for yourself or to share with your clients?

Another area where I’ve seen colleagues sorely lacking knowledge is in social media, which is no longer an option for savvy entrepreneurs and job seekers. I recently mentioned using WordPress to build a blog, and the person to whom I was speaking just looked at me with a blank stare. I’ve gotten the same response when I’ve mentioned HootSuite or TweetDeck, some applications to better harness the power of Twitter.

As a marketing communications strategist, I feel it is my job to know the latest and greatest in the industry. I attend free trainings and read about what’s coming down the pipeline so I know, but it sometimes feels as if I’m the only one. How can so many people be so ignorant of tools that can really help them, especially in this crazy economy? I find all too often that both job seekers and business professionals are going out into the world ill prepared to be successful. If you don’t know where to go or what to say, you’re just setting yourself up for failure. (If you aren’t sure how to network—another struggling point of many—this might be a worthwhile read: http://www.grammardocs.com/2010/07/maximize-your-networking/.)

No matter what you do for a living or whether you work for yourself or someone else, make a concerted effort to educate yourself moving into 2011. It can benefit you in so many ways, from increasing potential opportunities to improving your bottom line. And, hey, from where I’m standing, I think we could all use a little more on that line.

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Posted By Amanda Collins on November 29, 2010

While many business professionals, companies, and job seekers are on Twitter, I really wonder how many of them have a method to their madness. While Twitter can certainly be a way to keep up on the conversation of colleagues and friends, there’s so much more that can happen if the power is harnessed!

Google Alerts
Want to know what’s new in your industry? Google Alerts are a free notification system of the latest and greatest on the Internet. Search on keywords such as your name, company name, job titles, or more broad topics related to your industry. You’ll get daily or up-to-the-minute emails on news and blogs relevant to your keywords. Then, you can not only comment on the blogs, but you can also post links to your Twitter page so you look like you’re the first to know what’s new. It’s a great way to grab some RT love online.

Hashtags
If you’re new to Twitter, you may be wondering what that pound symbol (#) is all about. It’s a way that Tweeters have to denote keywords. As a user, you can go to Twitter Search and look up hashtags to see what’s happening now or in the recent past. One commonly used hashtag is #FF, which stands for “Follow Friday” and allows the Twitter community to share some worthy peers with their followers.

Twitter Keyword Searches
I don’t know anyone who uses Twitter through the Web these days. For me, Tweetdeck works great, although some like Hootsuite and some lesser-known applications. Tweetdeck allows you to run keyword searches in real time. If a search term isn’t pulled out with a hashtag, this is a great way to still find it. You can run your search to mirror that of your Google Alerts.

The Strategy
Once you are up on what’s happening within the Twitterverse and online through Google, what are you going to do with that information? The key is to not sell (or, for job seekers, blatantly ask for a job); instead, offer assistance and create conversations. That’s the key of social media: it needs to be social! If I see someone mention that she’s getting her résumé ready for a job search, I will offer to take a look at it for her (free, of course). If someone is preparing for an interview, I offer words of encouragement. You’ll engage and entertain folks, and you will likely see that your follow rate increases.

This isn’t a one-stop strategy, though. Once you start talking to these new people, you’ll increase your followers and may even learn their email addresses. That’s when you can work them into your drip-marketing campaign (you have one of those, right?). Although you may not get results within 20 minutes, by creating a community who sees you as the expert you are, you’ll build those results over time.

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Posted By Amanda Collins on November 22, 2010

Whether you’re a business professional, job seeker, or entrepreneur, you’re going to be asked, “What do you do?” If ever you’ve networked or been given the opportunity to share your worth in a “commercial,” you know that getting across a clear and concise message can be the difference between being asked for your card or being left in the cold.

It’s nearly impossible for me to share with everyone THE commercial that’s best for each industry or individual, but there are some general rules that you should consider when formulating your 30-second summary.

Lead with a Bang
Five seconds. That’s how long you have to capture a listener’s attention. If you’re starting with your name, you may have already lost them. Likewise if you speak too quickly or slowly. Instead, try a question or a statistic. “Did you know?” is a great lead-in to a commercial because it gets the brain engaged and wondering what will come next. When I give a commercial, I sometimes say, “95% of the people you meet while networking will never follow up with you.” If nothing else, I’ve made the audience think – and thinking is good to keep those ears listening to what comes next.

Choose One Focus Point
Too many times during commercials, people feel the need to share a laundry list of the ways in which they can help listeners. But, if you stop for a minute and think about it, the list is more about you and not about your audience. The whole idea of a commercial is to tell listeners how you can help them. A list of what you do doesn’t say that. Instead, choose one aspect of what you do. For instance, although I write and edit content for websites, blogs, articles, newsletters, résumés, cover letters, and bios, I just focus on one thing in my commercial. You can talk about your litany of services when you’re approached later.

End with a Memory Hook
“I’m loving it.” “You’re now free to move about the country.” “How do you spell relief?” Taglines are the way we remember big-name brands, so why not use one to differentiate yourself? Some networkers include their name or business name in their taglines, but make it short and memorable and you’ll have some stickiness. For some businesses in my local networking area, I can’t remember the name of the person but I can remember the tagline.

Keep It Simple, Stupid
Remember that acronym KISS? It completely applies when you have limited time to make a big impact. Even though you have 30 seconds, if you can share your value and have people asking more, go for it! Grab attention, stay on task, and wait for people to flock to you asking for your business card or résumé!

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Posted By Amanda Collins on November 17, 2010

Recently, I’ve been seeing a lot of misused words—on websites, emails, and social-media status updates. Writers have been using premiere (the first) in place of premier (the best) or then (a time) in place of than (comparison), just to name two misused words. Simple mistakes that could have been avoided had the writers only proofread their materials.

So that got me thinking…. We’re all writers to some extent, yet how many of us don’t take the time to either proofread our projects ourselves or have an editor take a second look? I’m the first to admit I’m not infallible, and often my brain moves more quickly than my fingers can type out the words. We all make mistakes. In most businesses, though, those mistakes may cost us opportunities.

Of course, if you actually hire a proofreader to look at every document you write, you might rack up quite a bill, not to mention pushing back your delivery date by a day or more. It is certainly one option, though, and you may consider it if you have a team. Perhaps one member of the team can be the designated proofreader.

Another (free) option is to proofread your materials yourself. It’s not quite as easy as giving everything a second read right after it’s written. Our eyes tend to see what our brain tells them is there, so they may miss something if you reread the project immediately after completing it. Instead, work into your schedule an additional day to step away from the project. Here’s how it works:

If you finish writing a proposal or other important document on Monday, put it away. On Tuesday, open it again and read it with fresh eyes. It’s a good idea to read it aloud—slowly—so you’ll hear any errors. Look at things you might normally miss, such as punctuation and capitalization. Some proofreaders read from the end to the beginning because misspellings tend to be more apparent then.

Although it may add a little more time to your schedule, putting in some quality assurance will pay off dividends for you and your clients. Remember, YOU are the expert and should catch any errors before your clients see them. They will thank you for it.

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Posted By Amanda Collins on October 25, 2010

If your business relies on how many clients you secure, it can be pretty stressful. No clients mean no money, right? For most of us, we find prospects through our websites, social media, or in-person networking. They provide us with the possibility of at least one closed sale – and more if those clients send referrals. However, what if you changed the way you found your prospects?

There are two ways to grow your client base: find more clients (aka bunnies) or find more referral partners (aka bunny farmers). Herding bunnies can be exhausting and time consuming, whereas finding some strategic bunny farmers can mean a pipeline that carries you through the down times.

When looking for your farmers, consider those who go after the same target market as you do but don’t compete. As a writer, I  partner best with marketing strategists, Web designers, graphic designers, and business coaches. Even other writers with a different focus are great referral partners. All of these professions work with and know people in my target market. Remember that this is a two-way street: not only can they send me prospective clients, but I can send them prospects as well.

Once you’ve identified your farmers, you need to let them in on your plan. That may seem obvious, but there are some people who naturally share referrals and some who aren’t quite as familiar with the process. When I started this approach in my own business, I created a bit of a referral advisory board consisting of various professionals who share my target market. About 10 of us meet once monthly as a group, and we are encouraged to have one-on-one meetings in the interim. The other benefit of this partnership is that I have professionals on which to call when I have questions or need support in my business. My referrals have significantly increased because of this approach, and I feel as if I’m part of a team instead of going forward on my own.

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