One of the things I am adamant about, is that in today’s society, everyone is a media company. (Yes, Gary Vaynerchuk says this too).
If you are a car dealer, you are a media company that also sells cars. If you sell insurance, you are a media company, that also sells insurance. You get the idea. I believe you need to think like a media company. You need to create content that people want to consume. That act of acting like a media company will create an audience, and then you will be able to sell them something (or convince them of something). You will have gained their trust. I believe that.
But despite that belief, Hasseman Marketing has not consistently been acting like it. Don’t get me wrong. We create content. My hope is we even create content that our customers and peers like. But we have lacked the type of plan and consistency that I would like. So starting June 1st, my goal is to fix that. It’s time to up my game. And in this short blog post I wanted to outline my plan for what will be coming up the next 30 to 60 days. I would love feedback, thoughts and suggestions if you have them!
1. The DMJ Podcast is coming back: I started doing the DMJ Podcast at the beginning of this year on Mondays. My goal was to test it out and see if people enjoyed it. After the first 12 weeks of the year, I took a break. The feedback was good…so I am bringing this back on Mondays. It will be here on this blog and wherever you get your podcasts.
2. Delivering Marketing Joy: The staple of our content creation is our interview show Delivering Marketing Joy! That will keep coming and will be hosted at PromoCorner.com as it has been. If you have suggestions on guests, email us here!
3. Brand-ecdotes: Again, we played with this series and we want to bring it back. Here is a link to one of these. We welcome Promo Pros to weigh in on what they love about Promo. Let us know if you want to take part!
4. unScripted Podcast: This award winning podcast with Bill Petrie will keep coming at ya every Friday. It’s hard to believe we have done 100 of these! Don’t worry…more to come here.
5. New Blog Posts: This is the new curveball into the mix. Get ready for me to create a new blog post every business day! Some will be short. Some will be a bit longer. But the goal is to provide value to our customers, prospects and peers all of the time. And we think this will be a way for us to do that! So please check back. Read them. Comment. Give feedback. And by all means, help keep me accountable! Why would we do all of this? Because we believe we are a media company. Get ready for us to start acting like it.
Please allow me a “proud dad” post here. But I think you might get some value out of it as well.
My oldest daughter Skylar Hasseman is an aspiring dancer. She just finished her Freshman year at Kent State University (and did very well) but it struggling with the idea of whether to return. Like many young people (and not so young people) she is trying to decide which is the best path for her to reach her dreams and goals. So in working to build her own personal brand, she has decided to create dance videos that showcase her dancing and her choreography skills. (You can subscribe to the channel here).
Her first video went up last night and (again proud dad here) I think it looks great. You can check it out here.
But what does this all mean to you? Great question. I think she is battling with what many of us work on. How do we work toward our goals? How do we stand out in a loud world? What if no one likes what we are doing? You understand. If you are like me, you have heard those voices in your head.
So here are 3 Lessons you can learn from my daughter and her video.
1. She Chose Herself: Dance is something where you can wait your whole life waiting for someone to “choose” you. You go to auditions. You are judged at competitions. You wait to get chosen. She decided to take a different (or maybe just an additional) path. She created an opportunity to showcase her skills on her own.
2. She Took Action: How many times have you said, “I have an idea…” only to let it go because it might be too hard? It’s those ideas that you need to take action on if you want to stand out.
3. She “Shipped:” The project is never done until it’s out there. She could have waited to get one more shot. She could have continued to work and edit and wait until it was perfect. Instead, she pushed it out into the world. I am proud of that. This first project can be deemed a success. That’s great stuff. Now, if she wants to really take this path, she needs to create more and more consistent content to build her brand. Whether or not she does that is up to her. But what’s cool, is that she knows that now.
Last week, Dale Denham announced his 4th Annual Online18 from PromoMarketing. On this list, Dale outlines his list of the 18 biggest influencers in the Promotional Products Industry…and our very own Kirby Hasseman was recognized as this year’s number 1 influencer. What an honor!In looking at the list, we also realized that these fantastic people have been our teachers and mentors over the past few years…and we wanted to outline some of the lessons I have learned from the #Online18.They Give First: If you look up and down this list, this group of people provides value to those around them. Whether this is through creating valuable content or by sharing the content of others, the Online18 “give first.” They are Connectors: If you look at this list of influencers, you will notice people who know people. More importantly, you have a list of people that are willing to connect people. They do not hoard relationships or business…they spread it. They Create: Though there is a different level of “content creation” up and down this list, the Online18 is a group of people that create. Whether it’s through blogging, video, Facebook, Twitter, etc. they share what is going on in their lives. In doing so, they create value for those that follow them.They Choose Themselves: It takes a level of bravery to put yourself out there. It’s easier to wait for someone to choose you. This group doesn’t wait for someone else to appoint them to create value…they take the words of the infamous Nike campaign and they “just do it.”They Engage: In addition to pushing out their own content, this group engages with other content. We all have “that voice” in our head that tells us we are not good enough. The Online18 understands that by engaging with others content, you validate and start to build relationships with them. So like, comment and share your way to growing your own network!They Curate: You don’t have to be the only content creator on the block. It can be totally appropriate to share other valuable content to your followers as well. You add value and credibility. You also have the added benefit of helping the content creator as well. The Online18 is a great list of leaders in the Promo industry…and you can learn a lot of all of them. But let’s not forget the one that put the list together…Dale Denham. Dale puts a lot of time in this list each and every year. And the secret of course is the real influencer is the one that gets to select the influencers. That’s a great lesson to learn as well!
It’s time for the latest Delivering Marketing Joy episode, and this time Kirby gives a call out for potential guests…and gives three tips on productivity! It’s a short and sweet episode that you won’t want to miss. So watch it here.As you can see from watching today’s episode, it’s a little different! First off, we are always on the look out for exciting guests for the show. We do Delivering Marketing Joy each and every week. So if you, or someone you know, might be a great guest, please let us know. Just email us here to let us know who to contact!But wait! There’s more! In addition to a call out for potential guests, Kirby touches on three things that help to create content or to get more done. Creativity: There is a common misconception about creativity. People believe that you have to be “creative on the spot.” It’s like when you meet a comedian and blurt out “say something funny!” This idea of spontaneous creativity takes away from the hours of work it takes to really create something. You have to create a lot of bad, in order to create the good. So just create.Squeezing the Most: The most impressive people tend to get the most out of every minute. If you have a gap in your schedule, you could check email or surf Facebook. We have all done that. But instead, try to milk 3 more calls out of that time. Get the most out of every minute and you will get a lot more done in your day.Consistency: If you want to create a brand, build a business or have success in sales, consistency is nearly always the key. It’s simple…but it’s not easy. Delivering Marketing Joy is no different. There are times when it’s a struggle to get a show out. That’s when you get creative to keep them coming. It shows respect to yourself and to your audience. The best of the best show up…every day.
It’s time for a quick does of Weekly inspiration and education. Each week Kirby takes a word and digs into it for a lesson on business (and sometimes, life). It’s the Weekly Word! This week the word is…Reaction.On the Weekly Word today we dig into the 3 R’s of Advertising and Marketing! If you create a campaign, you can measure the success with Reach, Recall and Reaction. Reach is simply how many people actually saw the message. How many people did it reach? Recall takes it to the next step. Now that they saw your message, how many people can recall the message…or who you are?But when it comes to what you really want with marketing and advertising, that is measured with Reaction. So for those of you that are yelling, “what I really want is sales!” Exactly. You want people to “react” to your message. You want them to pick up the phone (remember those?), come to your store, click on the link…and buy! Reach is important. Recall is better. But the holy grail of successful marketing and advertising is Reaction. If you want to dig into more on this (with case studies, etc) check out our blog on this here. Long story short, Promotional Premiums give you the best bang for your buck when it comes to reaction. Promo affects human behavior…and that is what you want. So the Weekly Word this week is Reaction.
