I’m going to have to listen to the teleconference again to get it all, but so far, here are the top 5 ideas I will use today when I Twitter.

1. Be “super authentic.” Even if you posted a photo, your followers are still dealing with an entity. Stay away from anything phony, pushy, or fake. Good example of an authentic voice(s): @backstage5thAve

2. Find the right Twitter rhythm for your audience. It might be OK to Twitter frequently, depending on who follows you. Or they might prefer once a day. Ask for their input and judge by their interaction and response.

3. Be interactive Twitter users are not passive. Especially females who prefer opportunities for self-expression. Offer inside information, run competitions, and request support (how about a prop scavenger hunt?). Note: this may not be the best way to do your fundraising. Find out more before you ask for $$.

4. Offer VALUE to your followers. The Guthrie Theater has 3,000 followers. Obviously, they can’t personally interact with each one. So, they must be offering powerful value. @GuthrieTheater

5. Thank your followers. As soon as possible, Direct Message them with a PERSONALIZED message.

Callie…your ideas were fantastic. Thank you.

For more about this teleconference, search #tcgcall on Twitter and you’ll find all the responses and links.

Here’s another example.

Broadway Producer Ken Davenport has created a list of “10 Audition Tips for Actors.” But honestly, they could be titled “10 Life Tips for Everyone.”

How can you improve YOUR auditions?

Here you go…

On Friday, their advertisement took over my usually personalized “welcome page” promoting their “Mars Real Chocolate Relief Act” and offering FREE, REAL chocolate.

And I’m supposed to say “no” to that? Well, I did…for most of the morning, but just like when a bowl of peanut M&Ms is sitting in the office, the chocolate sirens started to sing to me in the afternoon.

So I clicked on the link and signed up to get my free chocolate goodie. And Mars had my personal information. How harmful could that be, really? Chocolate junk mail? At least it would go to the top of the stack!

But then…they took me to the personalized M&M page where they were selling all sorts of designs that can be printed on those lovely chocolate pieces. I especially liked the Gold and Silver dusted wedding M&Ms.

How thrilled would your customer be to get a small bag of M&Ms in the mail from you with your logo on it? Imagine the positive brain association: think of my business, think of chocolate, think of my business, think of chocolate. SWEET! In so many ways.

So…two cool things in that Chocolate Friday campaign: Mars can account for their online advertising dollars with a customer name for every coupon they send out and we all get a sweet promotional idea for our businesses.

Irresistible!

During the week of July 6 -13, the top national radio advertisers were:

1. Geico
2. Home Depot
3. Safelite Auto Glass
4. HD Digital Radio Alliance
5. McDonald’s
6. Farmers Insurance
7. Verizon
8. Wendy’s
9. Wells Fargo
10. AT& T

If they are using, maybe you should, too.

Source: Media Monitors

There are too many newsletters out there and I just finished reading one of the WORST ever. It looked great (they used one of those neat-o professional templates), but when I started reading, I became appalled — and then angry. The copy was poorly written, unclear, cluttered, and just plain BORING. They took me from interested to embarrassed for them to pissed that my time was being wasted in five seconds.

It had “we have to do this cuz everyone else has a newsletter” written all over it.

Newsletters can be a great way to build a stronger relationship with your customers/audience/donors, but is it really right for you now?

PLEASE, ask some questions first:

1) Who will you speak to? And do they really want to hear from you? Why?

2) Do you have a good writer who will create the content? (I mean good. Not just your sister-in-law who writes a great Christmas letter or the summer intern).

3) Who are you sending it to and how often?

4) Could an e-coupon be more effective to meet your goal? How about a blog?

5) Do you have enough interesting content? (including photos, graphics, topics, and links)

A newsletter tells your STORY. If you don’t have a story yet, don’t waste your time. If you do, be very careful how you tell it. We love stories, but they must be compelling. And short! (It’s no coincidence that an American author — Edgar Allen Poe — invented the genre of the short story).

Time is the new money these days and your readers don’t have it to burn. If you waste their time, they will resent you for it. You probably won’t get a second chance to reach them.

If you INSIST on a newsletter, at least get some advice on how to do it well. Start here:

Nonprofit Expert.com: Nonprofit Newsletters
Bring Your E-Newsletter from Snoring to Soaring
Does Your E-Newsletter Need a Makeover?
How to Write Inspirational Articles for Nonprofit Newsletters
How Effective is Your E-Newsletter?
How to Compose an Effective Newsletter

And finally, if you do create a newsletter, USE all the analytic tools available to track how many folks open it, delete it, spam it, forward it, click-thru, etc. This is where you get to be a scientist again.

Do the work and you’ll make it powerful. Otherwise, I’d rather nap.

I want to scream: Don’t piss your marketing dollars away! That money comes from your hard-earned profits. Can you afford to kiss it goodbye?

I didn’t think so.

Make that marketing money count by doing a few things:

1) Don’t spend money just because you LIKE the salesperson. If their product doesn’t work, don’t USE it. You earned that money and you should spend it the best way possible for your business. If you don’t like a salesperson and you want to use that station, publication, whatever, call their sales manager and ask for a different rep. Yes, it’s OK. I promise.

2) Unless you ARE your target customer, don’t buy media just because you watch/listen/read/use it. Put yourself in your target customer’s shoes. What do they listen to? What social media do they use? What do they read? How else can you capture their attention?

3) Do a little research. Don’t let anyone walk in your door or place an order without asking: “How did you find out about us?” And write it down. Pretty soon you’ll get a clear picture about which marketing method is paying off. Maybe that coupon will be more effective on your web site rather than in print. Or try both and see which get returned more often. Be a scientist and figure it out.

4) Never place an ad without including an ACTION step and a DEADLINE. The Obama campaign raised a record amount of political contributions by making sure those two elements were in every e-mail they sent to potential donors. Tell them WHAT to do and by WHEN. Branding is fine when you are loaded, but until then, a specific call-to-action is better.

When you get rich and famous, you can afford to splash your marketing dollars anywhere you want. Until then, hold your water!

I once overheard a business owner say that never in his wildest fantasies about having his own shop did he plan for the armies of advertising and marketing folks who swarmed through his front door with every conceivable method of promoting his business – for a price.

I heard the same thing from an exasperated proprietor who hissed that he barely had time to run his business with all the sales people calling throughout the day (including me).

This reminded me of something my sister-in-law told me when I expressed my frustration about a personal relationship that seemed out of control. “You don’t just open up a relationship,” she said, “you manage it.”

Brilliant! That would also help my frustrated clients! Instead of feeling abused by marketers, they could manage those business relationships. How? Here’s what came to mind:

• Insist on setting appointments rather than being interrupted by a “drop in.” A kind request to return or call back at a different, pre-set time is a reasonable request.

• Limit the number of hours each day to be used for sales and marketing, but DO set them aside — getting the word out is crucial for business survival.

• And most importantly, do a tiny bit of homework* before meeting with any marketers, so you can work from a strong plan rather than from impulse or temporary insanity.

Happy and informed business owners are so much fun to meet with. They aren’t overwhelmed and cranky. Instead, they ask smart questions, they have clear goals, and they are much more creative. When you manage your time and your relationships, you create the time and energy you need to take your business to the next level of success.

*To receive a quick and easy do-it-yourself marketing plan, send an e-mail to Kelly Allen at kallen@kohoradio.com.

Today’s big news? We now have the largest generation gap since the 1960s.

From cell phones and texting to religion and manners, younger and older Americans see the world differently, creating the largest generation gap since the tumultuous years of the 1960s and the culture clashes over Vietnam, civil rights and women’s liberation.

A new study released Monday by the Pew Research Center found Americans of different ages increasingly at odds over a range of social and technological issues. It also highlights a widening age divide after last November’s election, when 18- to 29-year-olds voted for Democrat Barack Obama by a 2-to-1 ratio.

Almost eight in 10 people believe there is a major difference in the point of view of younger people and older people today, according to the independent public opinion research group. That is the highest spread since 1969, when about 74 percent reported major differences in an era of generational conflicts over the Vietnam War and civil and women’s rights. In contrast, just 60 percent in 1979 saw a generation gap…read more

The Pew Research Center is an amazing FREE resource for you. They continuously produce up-to-date reports that are easy to understand. You can search the archives, skim the executive summary, and study graphs to get a bead on your moving target.

Now, back to the generation gap. As you read about this new social divide, ask yourself some questions:

1) Where does my target customer fit in this generation gap?
2) What are the current perceptions about aging among my young, middle-aged, and older customers?
3) How can I increase demand for my product/service using this information?

Some examples:

• Maybe you should stop assuming your over-60 customers aren’t interested in outdoor activities and sports. This survey shows they are healthier than we all expected.

• Maybe your female customers define old age at a much higher age than you thought. Instead of treating them as “seniors,” offer the same services you would for a middle-aged client.

• The idea of travelling and doing volunteer work is more fantasy than reality for retirees. This kind of appeal will work better with middle-aged clients than with seniors themselves.

You get the idea…use this research to more effectively position your business with clients of all ages. Your potential for your success with this information is limited only by your imagination.

Here’s a link to the article. It has excellent advice for Twitterers at all skill levels.

And you can reach me on Twitter at @KellySales509

No way am I comparing your list of customers to Schindler’s list of Holocaust survivors, but the life of your business might depend on YOUR list and how you use it.

But let’s go back for a minute: are you even keeping a list of your customers? If not, you aren’t alone. And it might not be too late to start.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               A few years back,  I anxiously visited a wine accessory store hoping to sell some radio air time in order to get the word out about this cool place.  They had a great logo, an excellent location for locals and tourists alike, and had been in business for a year — but I had never seen a customer inside. This place needed to market itself. Badly. The hills outside of town were strewn with successful and popular wineries, so there was no reason it should be anything but bustling. I wanted to help.

Our conversation began the same way so many do. The owner expressed bewilderment about marketing: no idea what works, no time to figure it out, no money to spend, etc. I suggested he start with direct mail — a postcard with bulk mail postage can bring a big bang for the buck.

Trying to calculate the cost of a mailing in my head, I asked,  “How many names are on your mailing list?”

My stomach sank when I saw the look on his face. A year in business and no customer list? How had he stayed open for a year? He must have a “sugar daddy” paying the bills because the sparse merchandise displays didn’t look like they got that way from brisk sales.

“Do you keep a list of credit card purchasers?” I continued. Again, total bewilderment clouded his eyes.

I felt sick. Then sad. Not only for him, but also for that community. Such a shop SHOULD be in that town. It was the perfect idea in the perfect place at the perfect time.

But without a list, he was missing vital information that would help him survive (let alone thrive).

Remember your high school journalism class? Here’s what he didn’t know:

• WHO his customers are.

• WHAT they buy or would LIKE to buy.

• WHERE they live.

• WHY they came in.

• WHEN they made their purchase.

• HOW they found out about his store.

Just like a news reporter who fails to ask the 5 Ws and 1 H, this owner has no story to tell. And without a story, his business and his customers would continue to be strangers, bumping blindly into each other, occasionally completing a transaction, but not necessarily on purpose.

Your customer list is the MOST important marketing tool you have. Nothing else happens without it. Keep it, maintain it, build it, and work it.

In business, it could be a matter of life or death.