(Photo by Andréanne Germain)

Have you been contacted by an organization who is pitching a seemingly great offer: they’ll produce your own radio show and/or invite you to be guest on someone else’s show? It sounds like fame has finally come knocking on you door, or has it?

It seems that all you have to do is simply talk, and people will listen (and your notoriety will grow). The radio station will handle the distribution, scheduling, and technology. You’ll simply need to find topics to talk about and/or guests to interview, and away you go. If it sounds too good to be true, it’s because it is.

Radio stations (whether online-only or broadcast) make money from advertising. For you to get on-air, the money needs to come from somewhere (hint: the radio stations are contacting you to help them make money). So, your first goal is sponsorship. If you already have great relationships with other companies that love your “brand”, then sponsorship may be relatively easy for you to achieve. However, for most of us, sponsors will care about a few things: the number/demographics of your listener base and how the sponsors will benefit. But if you’re just launching your radio show, you don’t have any listeners, so you’ll likely need to self-fund the radio show initially.

Your second goal is listeners. The radio stations will push your message to their existing subscriber base, but that’s likely not to help you much. So, you’ll have to market the show yourself (or hire someone to help you). And with increasingly more competition for listeners, getting sufficient listeners to interest sponsors is hard work (even for the seasoned professionals).

If you’re asked to be a guest on a radio show, ask if there’s a fee involved. A number of organizations offer the “opportunity” to interview you and broadcast your interview in a number of different channels. But it’s ultimately a pay-for-interview model, where the production values of interview isn’t being controlled by people who necessarily place your needs first.

Getting a show on the air may be a nice addition to your professional portfolio (and your ego), but these days it’s easy for people to produce and distribute their own podcast using desktop software. And because it’s easy, it’s not as unique as it once was. If you’re thinking of working with these radio stations, do your homework. Talk to hosts who have shows similar to yours, and carefully listen to their experiences and expenses.

(Photo by Rob DiCaterino)

One of the keys to giving a great speech is to share your passion. Your passion is infectious, and your audience gets to vicariously experience your story. But if your speech isn’t well thought out, your talk may become rambling, and make your audience very frustrated. They can feel your passion. They know you have something exciting to tell them, but they can’t “get it”. And they want to. Here are some tips to keep you on-target:

• Start at the ending. What is the key one or two points you want to leave your audience with? What is your call-to-action (what you want them to do afterwards)?

• Start at the beginning. Where in the landscape of your story do you want to start? Why there? How does this starting point related to both your ending and your audience?

• Build a bridge. Scattered-brained people get distracted on their journeys – often going on a lot of side-trips that somehow turn into digressions. Stay on the highway of your talk’s focus. If you do take a side-trip, it must be informative, and come back to the highway for a good reason. Too many side trips and the audience loses the feel of the highway. There are great storytellers that can string together a number of side trips into a journey (Malcolm Gladwell, for example), but it’s a rare skill. Keep your message clear so your audience will remember your story.

• Refer to your notes. If you get nervously distracted during your talk, have some notes to remind you of the key landmarks you want to visit. Don’t do any extemporaneous speaking. It’s likely to get you in trouble.

Give your audience the gift of a clear, well-understood speech. They’ll likely want to come back to you for more information later.

(Photo by Joanna Penn)

If you’re like most speakers, when you’re preparing to give a speech you’re focused on memorizing your speech and your delivery. You  know that a great speech is a gift to your audience. But there’s also a way to give yourself a huge gift as a side-effect of your speech.

Before you take the stage, think of a single word that conveys an personally important aspirational meaning to you, for example: confidence, joy, breathe, smile, or success. It’s important that it’s a single word, since you literally only have a second for this technique. Choose a word with a positive connotation that’s truly important – something that you want more of in your life, or a feeling that you want to convey to your audience. Got your word?

As you come onto the stage, remember your word fondly. Don’t force the word through mentally gritted teeth. Smile inwardly. Think of the experience of having more of this word in your life. Now begin your speech.

As your speech has natural breaks for you to breathe or for people to applaud to show slides, remember your word again.

As you end your speech (or even, after you give your speech and before you leave the stage), remember the word again. Don’t force this drill. Remember, it’s a gift you’re giving to yourself.

So, how can remembering a single word change your life? While you’re onstage, your audience has given you a huge gift – their attention. This attention is a sea of opportunity for you energetically. Everyone wants to hear a great speech, so they’re sending you positive hopeful thoughts. By using an affirmation, you’re using helping to ground their energy in your personal growth.

If you’re not a “new-agey” person, who thinks this is all silly mumbo-jumbo, I encourage you to suspend your disbelief. Consider this story:

An American scientist once visited the offices of the great Nobel prize-winning physicist, Niels Bohr, in Copenhagen. He was amazed to find that over Bohr’s desk was a horseshoe, securely nailed to the wall, with the open end up in the approved manner (so it would catch the good luck and not let it spill out). The American said with a nervous laugh, “Surely you don’t believe the horseshoe will bring you good luck, do you, Professor Bohr? After all, as a scientist –”

Bohr chuckled.

“I believe no such thing, my good friend. Not at all. I am scarcely likely to believe in such foolish nonsense. However, I am told that a horseshoe will bring you good luck whether you believe in it or not.”

(Photo by Tyler Hoff)

“They say that the next must-have smartphone app is…” “They say that the best style for next season is…” Who are they and what voice should you use in your marketing?

If you’re a well-respected brand leader, than your voice is “I” or “we” (“I’m predicting that…” or “We will be focusing our next product line on…”). People want to hear from the leader what’s next straight from the source. It makes them feel part of the conversation. That’s why Facebook business pages for brand leaders are generally well-liked by large numbers – people want to be in the know.

If you’re just starting out then your voice is “they” (“They say that the best widgets are made by…”). Your voice doesn’t have authority, but you want to leverage well respected “names” to support your own voice. So you point to others for validation, and include your offering as part of the conversation (“…so that’s why we’re proud to offer you…”).

If you’re trying to create a social movement, your voice is “us” (“If you care about …. join us …”). You’re not establishing yourself as a leader, but you’re a part of the leading edge people who are already committing to take action.

If you’re trying to appeal to the leading edge influencers, use the “you” voice (“You are wise to notice that our new offering…”). Influencers want to see things first, so use a voice that recognizes their specialness.

If you’re trying to appeal to a mass market, use the “they” voice (“They know value when they see it”). Point to the leaders who already have validated it to have the “followers” feel like they’re not risking anything to purchase your product or service.

If you’re appealing to the laggers (slow-to-change), use the “us” voice (“Join us and see how much better…”). The late-to-change group want no risk, and easy adoption. Make your offering the obvious best-of-class choice.

They say that great marketing begins with a great offer. I say that great marketing begins from the right point of view.

(Photo by Polina Sergeeva)

If you’re just starting a new business, the biggest mistake you’re likely to make in your marketing is to be blind to the business landscape. You know what you’re offering, you know why it’s valuable, and you know why people need to buy it now. Or do you?

Odds are you’re too close to your business and too far from your client’s mindset. While you may think what you’re offering is the best thing (by far) on the market, your prospective customer knows nothing about you and doesn’t trust in what you’re saying. Being too much in your own world is a symptom of not actively being in a dialogue with prospective customers. For example, how often do you meet people face-to-face who may be interested in what you’re selling? When you do, are you focused on selling them, or are you asking them questions about their needs and their decision-making process? Are you listening to the words they use? Are you looking not just at what they say but also what they do (or have done)?

Before you launch your offering, have you tested your marketing on a wide range of prospective customers? Is your message blindingly obvious or do you need to help explain it so people “get it”? Are you testing not just with your inner (supportive) circle but also with complete strangers (who are more like your target market)? Are you not just getting nods of recognition but also immediate confirmation that you’ve hit the bullseye?

Are you having your peers compare your marketing efforts to those of your competition? Is your message more focused, better written, and graphically easier to understand? Is your call-to-action compelling? Is your value proposition crystal-clear? Is the next step you want your prospect to take clearly articulated?

If you find yourself getting frustrated that others “just aren’t getting it” – consider that you’re either ahead of your time or woefully mistaken. In both cases, you’re wrong. The market is right. If someone won’t buy what you’re selling, you’re better off finding out about it sooner rather than later. Don’t be blind to your own ignorance.

(Photo by Ramsey Beyer)

If your business offering is technologically based (ebooks, video, software, games, webinars, etc.), you might consider doing something very radical – giving your product away for free. This “Freemium” business model is growing in popularity for good reason – the best way to see if you like something is to try it (for free) to see for yourself.

The common “free” model is to offer a free trial to your service or a limited free access to your product (for 7-30 days). During the time people will not only get to try your product/service, but also see how you interact with them (customer support, online forums, etc.). The “try-before-you-buy” model is proven to remove the resistance people have to paying for something “sight unseen” (it’s not the same to try something with your own hands, rather than trust white papers and expert reviews).

A huge step up from this is to offer your basic product/service for free. Nada. Zilch. No fine print. You make money in upgrades from the basic service after people have fallen in love with it and need more. This is the current model for some email providers, video game producers, and software developers and more famously started with companies that sold razor blades (who gave away the razor, knowing you’d need to replace it with one of their blades). Giving away your product/service should only be done if the incremental cost to adding a new customer is basically zero: you’re only adding someone to your database and sharing a downloadable digital product link.

By making your business revolve around FREE, it’ll force you to be proactively listening to what people desperately need . You need to treat your free offering as if people are paying for it (keeping it up-to-date, bug-free, and visually attractive) – since it’s the first introduction to your business. But to convince someone to upgrade from FREE to paid should be carefully analyzed to identify the high quality solution to your customer’s “pain points” that they’ll pay for.

(Photo by epSos.de)

When marketing your product or services, your prospective customers are thinking about the risk of using or not using your offerings. If your offering is inexpensive, then the risk isn’t much. But the more your offering costs, the more fear your pricing might invoke. Here’s what to do.

1) Determine your competitive positioning. Are you charging a premium price for a premium offering or a low-ball price to attract attention? Are you offering similar pricing for similar value or high-end service for less?

2) Determine your customer’s risk of not choosing. We often get fixated on comparing our offering to our competition’s. But the truth is that your customer’s need may not be urgent, so not-choosing is a viable option. What’s the true cost for your customer of not buying now?

3) Determine your lifetime value. Are you trying to sell as many widgets to as many people as possible or are you trying to develop a long-term relationship with your customer to both spread the word about your offering and to have them come back when they’re ready for more of what you’re offering?

With these three pieces of information, you have the core to develop your fear/risk message. For example, if you’re pricing is competitive (or less than the competition), then the cost of choosing you is less. Your customer is thinking, “Is this really as good as the others?” Your message should logically present a competitive matrix showing how you stack up.

If you’re offering a premium product at a premium price, then the risk is a lot more. Paying more for basically the same thing seems quite risky/expensive, so your message needs to focus on calming the fear. “Yes our product costs more, and here’s why you’ll be glad you paid extra…” is the message you need to convey both logically and emotionally.

If you have a lot of competition, then psychologically most people will take the default choice – do nothing (studies have shown that the more options, the fewer the sales). So your message needs to convey two things: “Why you will regret not choosing today” and “Why our service is the naturally better choice”. You need to move your prospect to act now (because a confused prospect tends not to return to make a choice) and convince them why they’ll be happy for a long time (so making their decision will be rewarded both short- and long-term).

If your customer is fearful about the future, show them the way to achieve their dreams starting today. If your customer is fearful about the present, focus their attention on their future happiness.

(Photo by John Haslam)

Whether you’re starting out or have been giving speeches for a while, you’re likely want to have people in your audience take note of what you say. And people pay extra-attention to people who are experts in their field. So how can you establish your own guru-ness in your talk?

There are 3 basic ways to show you’re the expert:

1. Say “I’m the expert and here’s why…” This borders on boasting and requires the most confidence in you as a speaker. The key is to pick one or two expert credentials that your audience cares about, and not bore your audience with a recitation of your professional resumé.

2. Have others say “You’re the expert and here’s why…” This is the most familiar way people are introduced onto stage, “So-and-so has won multiple awards, been to the White House many times, consults with heads of state, etc.”. Even if this introduction was written by the speaker (for the emcee) it comes across as more humble. By leaving the bragging for others to do, you save valuable time in your speech to convey your big idea.

3. Show you’re the expert at something else entirely. Let’s say you’re giving a speech on designing buildings. While you’ve been an architect for 20 years, won multiple awards, and are highly sought after, what many people don’t know is that you’re also a quilter, who has (quietly) made and donated quilts to homeless people for years. If your speech can connect quilting to architecture, you’ve pulled off a double-win: you’ve both humanized your speech (sharing something special) and made your speech more memorable (if everyone else is talking about architecture, and your speech begins with quilting, you’ve got an immediate edge). By talking about something that you’re also passionate about, you clearly articulate your multiple talents.

For your next speech, if you will be an unfamiliar face, carefully consider how you want to be introduced and remembered.

(Photo by Ernie)

When we reach out to our prospective customers it usually feels like work: identifying core needs, creating an appropriate message, spreading the message, fielding inquiries, and refining the message for the future. It’s work for you and it’s work for your prospects (they’re generally contacting you because you’re helping them solve a problem). What if you could make marketing FUN for everyone?

We know games can be fun, immersive, and naturally viral (in 2011, spending on US games totaled $21.6 billion). Gamification is the process of applying elements of game play to real-world problems (including your marketing efforts) using such simple techniques as: achievement badges/levels, progress bars, and user challenges. If you have a Facebook page, you’re focused on the number of likes/friends. If you have a cell phone, you might be focused on your Foursquare badges. If you have a LinkedIn profile, you may have been subtly coerced to complete your profile (seeing how close you were to 100% completed). We seek to get confirmation that we’re liked or authorities in our social circles. You can leverage this same feeling in your own marketing.

The first step is to create goals that your prospective customers care about: fame, reputation, (financial) reward, competition, charitable giving, etc. Ideally these goals should be in alignment with your company’s mission and offerings. If you’re not sure, ask your customers for input.

Create tangible milestones to achieve these goals (points, badges, trophies, etc.). The milestones should initially be easily achieved, then gradually stretched out to increase the “special-ness” of achieving the goals. If it takes just a few minutes and anyone can achieve the goals, then the achievement is a big deal. This is the essence of great game levels – make it easy for people to learn the basics, then ramp up the challenge to reward the efforts.

Now you need to create the game itself – the fun part. It could be a smartphone app that you give away, an online game, a treasure hunt, quizzes, etc. But it’s got to be fun to both play and fun to watch from the sidelines. Your marketing effort should initially be focused on creating the experience, but ongoing, it needs to be encouraging the spectators/audience. Make what people who play do visible and make your (social) marketing about cheering on those that are “daring enough” to play. By highlighting them, you both win.

If the game you create is fun in its own way (not just for a narrow audience) then you’ll likely get a viral bump, as people will want to share the fun with their friends. But make sure that the game aligns with your business model (and has measurable analytics), otherwise you’ll quickly find yourself spending time in the game business, but not growing your company’s success.

(Photo by Christine)

Doubt is like a psychological cancer. First you have a smidgen of doubt, then you’re starting to focus on the doubt itself, until it can take over all of your attention. But how can you control doubt in your own business marketing?

First, start with your existing business relationships. If a prospect has any doubt about your capabilities, unless you have a plan to address it, the doubt will become self-fulfilling. That means that if you have any doubt about your ability to take care of your customer, either get some colleagues to help bolster your weaknesses or focus on your unique expertise, and leave what you don’t do well to others.

When marketing your business, if you’ve ever heard a client say, “I wish I knew about you sooner” – it’s time to plant the seeds of doubt in your marketing copy. For example, instead of simply saying your printing business has the latest equipment and offers 24 hour turnaround, tell people how much stress they can avoid dealing with you. For example:

• Doesn’t your dog deserve Alpo?
• Cooks who know trust Crisco
• When you absolutely, positively have to have it overnight (FedEx)
• Invest with confidence (T. Rowe Price)
• Imagine it. Done. (Unisys)
• Always low prices. Always. (Walmart)

The key to seeding doubt is to be able to understand the #1 emotional fear of your prospective customers. What keeps them up at night? If you can touch upon the fear (either directly or by hinting at it), then your marketing will resonate inside them and cause an emotional response. To be effective, you need a one-two punch: raise the doubt and show your offering removes the doubt completely.

If you’re in the throws of doubt, here are some tips to get you out of the potentially paralyzing downward spiral:

• Is there anything I can do about this doubt? If there is, take action.
• Have any of my assumptions changed?. If you already made a choice based on available information, and those assumptions are still valid, then a rethink isn’t of any use to you.
• Is my current decision good enough? There may be lots of ways to solve a problem. Has the decision you made resulted in a solution that’s sufficient?
• Why now? Why has this doubt come to your attention now? Is someone trying to specifically influence you or did you just make a key realization?