Create a Buzz - Shawenon Communications Newsletter

SHAWENON COMMUNICATIONS

Effective Messaging

No. 38
May, 2009

Greetings!

As promised last month, our first article covers a way to use email marketing without committing to a regular newsletter. The second piece talks about creating a buzz and how you can get your message out in a variety of media.

If you wonder about the picture for the buzz article, the BarCamp event is in the circle, superimposed over a photo of the MASSMoCA site back in its factory days. Very creative--which is what the whole event was about.

Thanks for the feedback about my new photo that premiered in last month's issue. Two themes emerged. People missed my smile and suggested more colorful attire. Here's another photo. It's a bit too smiley, in my opinion. What do you think?

A round of cheers to our business partner Constant Contact. They are finalists in the Marketing/Customer Relationship Technologies category for 2009. The winners will be announced by the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX) on June 16th in Boston. Way to go CC!

In This Issue

Short Cuts that Work

Creating a Buzz

Web Tips

You Tell Me

Short Cuts that Work

There's nothing like difficult times to surface clichés. How many times in the past few weeks have you heard about opportunity in adversity or how the tough get going in tough times?

Many of my clients are finding this is a good time for email marketing and though some are launching e-zines, others are sending shorter communications. I call them e-postcards.

E-postcards

These are targeted messages of maybe 75 to 100 words with a few graphics and a catchy subject line. Abbie von Schlegell's was "All Hands on Deck." Abbie consults to not-for-profits and her message was about the challenges of fund raising in a hair-raising economy.

Within hours of sending this campaign, she had scores of responding emails and several phone calls. Granted there were some unusual circumstances. Her list is over 2,000 and some of the people who got her email had lost track of Abbie since she moved to the Berkshires two years ago.

Peter Coombs used the concept differently. He had facilitated a networking session at the Last Friday Mixer in Albany. To cement the relationships he formed there, he wanted to give the group some positive feedback and also let them know they would be receiving his recently launched newsletter.

Most important of all, Peter wanted to plug his upcoming workshop I Hate to Sell, but I Have to Sell. The e-post card subject line was "Lemonade Stand Follow-up." While this wouldn't mean anything to you, the exercise at the networking group was about a lemonade stand business. So this unusual subject had meaning. In fact, his opens rate on the e-postcard was nearly 55%, which is very good.

Multi-purpose

Peter's use of the card was ad hoc; Abbie's is part of an ongoing campaign. She and I have already discussed the next two e-postcard blasts, which will announce an added resource page on her Web site and promote a new service she's offering.

I use e-postcards when I've added a large number of subscribers to my monthly newsletter shortly after sending out an issue. My concern is that they will forget about me before they get their first newsletter, so I send a quick follow-up to remind them about Web Words.

These short mailings are good for new products or services, seasonal offerings or anything you want people to know about. Remember, Constant Contact charges by list size, not mailing frequency. So the only cost is the time it takes to put together a mailing. And if you don't want to do it yourself, I'm here to help.

Creating a Buzz

That was the title of my session at the first-ever Berkshire BarCamp held on May 1. Presenters got ten minutes of stage time in the cavernous main hall of MASSMoCA in competition with two simultaneous speakers. Thank goodness for Toastmasters.

The speaker instructions went out a few weeks before. "Limit your title to five words," it said. OK. I'm a good girl, so I gave them three. Two days before the event, I woke up with a plan. But first, what is "creating a buzz?"

Behind Your Back

Like any nice, catchy phrase, "buzz" means many things to many people. My Google research revealed that the term is used by PR people to talk about getting a strong campaign going in print and online. And by "word-of-mouth" marketing proponents, who specialize in viral marketing. My summary: "It's getting people to talk about your products and services behind your back." Talk nicely, of course.

I had an enthusiastic audience of around 30 people. The point of my session was to create a buzz. So at the closing bell, we all stood up and said together: "I'm creating a buzz by . . . ." Each person filled in the sentence with their own commitment to successful self promotion. We did get some attention.

Buzz Making

Here are some of the categories people listed in their effort to get their message out:

Create a YouTube video
Do a podcast
Update the Web site
Create a Facebook page
Set up a table at local events
Make phone calls
Email marketing
Post flyers
Face-to-face networking
Blogging
Advertising
Postcards
Publishing an op-ed piece

Want help creating your own buzz? Let us know.

Web Tips

Ever wish you could edit photos without a huge learning curve and the expense of Photoshop? Try Picnik, an online photo editor that allows you to crop, rotate, fix red eye and even add effects and embellishments.

For $24.95 a year you can get the premium edition with more of everything, except ads, plus upgraded support.

Picnik lets you get your photos from all sorts of places--your own computer, Facebook and Picasa to name a few. You can even create collages, something I hope I'll remember for the 2009 year-end letter to friends and family.

Snipshot is another online editor where you can resize photos for free, but you'll pay for the rest of the features. If you have a favorite online photo editor you love, please send the information and we'll mention it in a future issue.

And Finally . . .

Shawenon Communications collaborates with small businesses, solopreneurs, professionals and not-for-profits to get their messages across in the written word.

We specialize in electronic communications, including e-zines and other forms of email marketing, and Web site content. We also ghostwrite articles and other business communications. As a business partner, we resell Constant Contact's email marketing service.

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