DIY Marketing » e-Course Lessons

Today’s Marketing Lesson…It Can’t Be All Work and No Play!

Dana VanDen Heuvel — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:49:20 +0000

One of the great advantages of being an entrepreneur, and likely one of the reasons that you chose to pursue your own business was out of a desire to play.

The opportunity to play with different business ideas.

The play time that you’ll have once your company is up and running.

The play or fun that you’ll have knowing that you’re working on ‘your own thing’ and not working for ‘the man’.

With all those elements of play, don’t forget about playing with your marketing.

Today’s lesson is all about play. The bottom line: If it’s not working, it’s time to play.

Learn more about how play and marketing fit together by signing up for what’s left of the Entrepreneur’s DIY marketing course. Don’t worry, you can have access to the previous content as well, but only through the end of the month! Just fill out the form below!

Days 11 – 13…Marketing Rest Days

Dana VanDen Heuvel — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:45:03 +0000

Even the greatest athletes in the world rest. There are 2 rest days during the Tour de France, for instance.

From 6/11 – 6/13, we’re having ‘marketing rest day’s.

We’ll be back at it on Sunday, June 14 as we preparing our marketing for the week ahead!

See you then.

Day 10…Meaningful vs. Mindless Marketing Day

Dana VanDen Heuvel — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:03:02 +0000

If you’ve ever read the book “Meaningful Marketing” by Doug Hall and Jeff Stamp, you’ve seen the comparisons that they draw between what makes up a ‘meaningful’ marketing approach and what constitutes a ‘mindless’ approach to marketing. Their book is one of my favorite marketing books of all time because it takes a look at over 2000 marketing articles and cases and draws out the statisitcally verifiable data points that illustrate which marketing approaches work and which don’t.

Today is all about taking a long hard look at your own marketing plans, campaigns and materials, as well as those of your competitors and determining how much is really meaningful and what’s just just mindless or meaningless.

Are you doing meaningful or mindless marketing? Sign up for the Entrepreneur’s Do It Yourself Marketing Month 30-day e-course to find out!

There’s still time to catch up if you want to get in on the program! If you’re still not signed up, you can join the entrepreneur’s DIY marketing e-course and get the free e-book “30 Ideas in 30 Days” today. Just fill out the form below!

It’s Day 9…Competitive Advantage Day!

Dana VanDen Heuvel — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:30:36 +0000

So much has been written about competitive advantage in that past few decades that it’s tough to have a new take on the concept. Not that a new take is what’s required, however, I believe that competitive advantage is a very evolutionary thing. In fact, I had a great professor at St. Norbert who told me that corporate strategy, in the way it was taught at the time (set it and sustain it) with 5-year plans and all that was mostly a load of crap and that emergent strategy (taking what comes into account and relying on real-time market intelligence more so than your 3-year old Five Forces model) was the way to go.

“An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.”
– Jack Welch

Looking back, I agree with him. Strategy, and to some degree, your competitive advantages must be emergent. You need a leg, or two, to stand on. However, you only should be standing on them for as long as it takes you to figure out which direction you should be walking (or running) to get to your next best competitive position.

Today we take a long look at competitive advantage, competitive strategy and all that it takes to keep you ahead of the pack.

Day 8 is Marketing E-course Review Day

Dana VanDen Heuvel — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:37:18 +0000

“Eat a live toad the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
– Unknown

I’ve had a few emails asking something to the effect of “so, this stuff is great, but how am I supposed to keep up?” We’ll take care of that issue today!

For the past several days, you’ve been fed a constant diet of marketing ideas, planning tips and action items. Some of them might seem out of order (like, shouldn’t we have done some segmenting, targeting and positioning somewhere in the mix here?) but I assure
you that in the order of DIY importance for every entrepreneur, there are multiple paths that you can take and this is just one version.

Let’s look at what we’ve done so far:

*** Day 1: Every Good [Marketing] Journey Starts With a Map!

*** Day 2: Does everyone know about you who should know about you?

*** Day 3: Time to work on your “number one, number two” strategy. Are you playing offense?

*** Day 4: Are you giving back enough of what you’ve gained?

*** Day 5: Friday is “make me a smarter marketer” day.

*** Day 6: Let’s talk about building your marketing database/list this weekend!

*** Day 7: 31 Ways to Build Your Mailing Database.

We’ve been through a lot already, and there’s so much more to go! I hope you’re all looking forward to a great month ahead!

Day 6…It’s ‘Build My Marketing Database” Weekend

Dana VanDen Heuvel — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 15:57:33 +0000

I know, I’m making you work weekends. I know that some entrepreneurs take weekends off, but many of us just can’t get away too long from a growing business. So, with that, let’s continue!

“The secret to getting ahead is getting started.”
– Mark Twain

I can’t think of too many businesses that wouldn’t benefit from some concentrated effort on building your house email contact list.

Contrary to some of the popular marketing press, email marketing is NOT dead and you need to be building your email list, now. You don’t have to commit to sending out a newsletter every week, or even have a newsletter in mind yet, but you do have to start building your list.

Today is all about setting up the tools and laying the groundwork for a successful marketing database & email list for years to come.

Want to get in on the program? Still not signed up? Join the entrepreneur’s DIY marketing e-course and get the free e-book “30 Ideas in 30 Days” today!

Day 5…”Make Me a Smarter Marketer” Day

Dana VanDen Heuvel — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:53:43 +0000

Now is a great time to take advantage of the overflowing bounty of marketing ideas and educational resources that exist on the Internet. Free webinars, websites and newsletters abound.

Today’s e-course email is all about raising the bar on our marketing education so that we can be more effective. Here’s a few useful resources:

>> AdAge Power 150 Marketing Bloggers – http://adage.com/power150/
>> MarketingSherpa – http://www.marketingsherpa.com
>> MarketingProfs – http://www.marketingprofs.com
>> RainToday – http://www.raintoday.com

Still not signed up? Join the entrepreneur’s DIY marketing e-course and get the free e-book “30 Ideas in 30 Days” today!

Day 4…Is ‘Giving Back’ Part of Your Marketing Strategy?

Dana VanDen Heuvel — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:18:39 +0000

“Money is like manure; it’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around encouraging young things to grow.”
– Thornton Wilder from “The Matchmaker”

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
– Winston Churchill

When in doubt, get involved. That’s my motto. You don’t think that you’re ‘getting enough’ from membership organizations, get involved. Not known well enough in the community (see yesterday’s the lesson from 6/2), get involved. Volunteering is a marketing tactic, and a wonderful one at that!

Great companies have always done this. They have always gotten involved in the communities that they serve to reap benefits way beyond their profits and market share. There’s something about the very fabric of communities that almost demands that entrepreneurs get involved at every level.

The question is, how are you involved? Did you know that ‘volunteering’ and ‘getting involved’ in local charities, serving on scholarship boards,
heading up a cause or steering committee and speaking and sharing your wisdom with local youth and service groups can pay huge dividends in
growing your business? If not, now’s a great time to start!

Still not signed up? Join the entrepreneur’s DIY marketing e-course and get the free e-book “30 Ideas in 30 Days” today!

Day 3…Are You Number One or Two? Entrepreneur’s Do It Yourself Marketing Month

Dana VanDen Heuvel — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:38:59 +0000

“Every GE business unit should be number one or number two in its
market, or else. Or else what? “Fix it, sell it or close it”
– Jack Welch

When I was in college, I was a huge fan (still am) of Jack Welch. While some other students were reading Sports Illustrated and People magazine, I was reading Tom Peters and other business authors that chronicled the trials of the business leaders they admired. Yeah, I was a bit of a geek…

Fast forward to today, and Welch’s 1980 mandate, done in an inflationary period during a recession like this one, is as relevant now as it was then. As entrepreneurs, our job is to get ourselves into the most relevant market positioning so that we can be one of the top few players in the market we serve. We need to be best in class, but only best in the class that we serve. We’re not trying to ‘boil the ocean’ here. (for your sake, I hope that your entrepreneurial juices are focused on creating blue oceans, if you were thinking of boiling any of the oceans.

Today we talk about marketing to those top spots and getting in front of the customer segments that matter most. This is one of the most important actions you can take. By defining the universe that you serve and seeking to be the best servant in the segment, you’ve set your course for long-term success and some short-term wins. (or, at least you’ll get some necessary course correction!)

Still not signed up? Join the entrepreneur’s DIY marketing e-course and get the free e-book “30 Ideas in 30 Days” today!

Day 1…Entrepreneur’s Do It Yourself Marketing Month is Underway!

Dana VanDen Heuvel — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:41:41 +0000

Maps encourage boldness. They’re like cryptic love letters. They make anything seem possible.
– Mark Jenkins, “To Timbuktu”

For every event that happens, there’s always a back story. I’m betting that for your company, there’s a great back story as well! For the Entrepreneur’s Do It Yourself Marketing Month event, the back story is pretty simple. I was taking some of my own advice about aligning my marketing with an existing event and searching for a ‘marketing oriented’ month, day or weekly holiday. Oddly enough, when searching in Chase’s, I found only one event with marketing in the title, and that was Entrepreneur’s Do It Yourself Marketing Month. Knowing many entrepreneurs that are on a DIY marketing budget, I though that this would be a perfect opportunity to put something together for them, and so many others like them who are in need of some marketing ideas and direction to keep things moving forward.

So, with that, let’s get on with the first day.

While I’m not going to release the entire contents of each course day in a blog post, I am going to give you a glimpse of what we’re covering on each day and give you and opportunity to sign up for the e-course, download the e-book and follow along!

Every good journey starts with a map…of some sort. Maybe, like perhaps your current entrepreneurial journey, the map was only in your head, but you had a map nonetheless. For those of you that know me, you know that I’m a huge fan of mindmaps. I use them for everything (including developing this program). On day one of the e-course, I offer you a couple of great Word and Excel documents as marketing plan templates to work through, as well as a couple of mind maps that I’ve found helpful in doing my clients’ marketing plans, as well as my own. These tools will help you along as you work through the DIY marketing month.

Still not signed up? Join the entrepreneur’s DIY marketing e-course and get the free e-book “30 Ideas in 30 Days” today!