Marketing Mishaps: Using an Old/Poor-Quality Headshot

Marketing Mishaps: Using an Old/Poor-Quality Headshot

A real estate client of mine recently told me that he’d been advised by a veteran REALTOR® that “only rookies put their photos on their business cards. It’s just not professional.” I couldn’t disagree more. Granted, you need a professional headshot to convey a professional image, but in this day of two-dimensional marketing mayhem, a photo of you with a warm smile and an approachable look can go a long way toward setting the stage for the next step: creating the relationship.

I have a real-life example. Several years ago, I walked into an event and, on seeing one of the vendors, had the feeling, “I know this guy. Where have I met him before?” Turns out, I hadn’t ever met him – but he’d been advertising regularly for months in a newspaper I read, and he used his photo in his ad. A small, black-and-white photo in an ad that might have measured 4 inches by 1.5 inches. And still, on seeing him in person, I felt like I already knew him. That’s the potential power of a good headshot.

A few tips for making the most of your headshot:

• Make sure to drink lots of water and be well rested on the day of the shoot. Nothing will diminish your natural glow faster than tired, saggy eyes or pale skin. If need be, use a disappearing concealer to minimize bags under your eyes.
• Ladies, your makeup should be clean and natural looking. Overdoing it can make you look garish or clownish. You want to enhance your natural beauty, not attempt to hide perceived flaws.
• Avoid getting  a new haircut right before the shoot. Wear a style that is flattering and comfortable for you.
• Wear solid colors that are neither too bright nor too pale. Avoid white. Choose colors that compliment your skin tone, as this will help accentuate your natural features. Make sure your clothes are well-pressed and in good shape, as a stray thread or missing button may be more noticeable than you realize. Wear items that make you feel great and naturally relaxed.
• If you usually wear glasses, keep them on for the photo shoot. A good photographer will be able to adjust the lighting to eliminate glare.
• Limit the jewelry, making sure it is not distracting or overly shiny. You want the focus to be on your face, not the accessories.
• A warm smile is important – but be yourself. Open eyes and an honest, real look are better than a forced smile.

Most importantly, your headshot should LOOK LIKE YOU! How often have you seen a picture on a card, Web site, or other piece of marketing material that looked like it must have been 20 years old? This is not honest and it’s not helpful. Give people an honest impression of who you are by using a current photo that best represents you.

·        Spending the time and money on a quality headshot is easy to put off. Rather than hiring a professional, we get a friend to do it in the front yard, with our prize rosebushes as a backdrop. The problem is that the shortcuts show. According to Tiffani Smith of HeadshotPhotographerMatch.com:

The fact is that the greater the value of products or services that you offer, the better your image needs to be. Grainy, dark or outdated photographs tell prospective clients that you're not operating at the level of excellence that they are looking for and your business loses out on potential profits.  It's time to take your business brand to the next level and seek out a professional headshots photographer.

And for some final words about your professional image, read Seth Godin’s blog, The Power of a Tiny Picture.

This is Day 19 in the 60-Day Content Challenge. See you tomorrow for the next post!
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Sign up today for Laura's next workshop, Want to Charge More? Start Writing! Or e-mail your questions on making the most of your marketing strategies - to Laura.

Marketing Mishaps: Failing to Be Media Savvy

Marketing Mishaps: Failing to Be Media Savvy

Many business owners and entrepreneurs I meet seem quite reluctant to embrace traditional media as a way of promoting their businesses – primarily because they perceive it as too difficult, or too much work. The fact of the matter is that, with the exception of breaking news and sports, virtually everything you see reported in the traditional media outlets (TV, newspapers, radio, magazines, and journals) was pitched as an idea by either the reporter/editor/program coordinator or by the source themselves. Why shouldn’t you be that source?

Still, business owners are hesitant to send news releases or contact the media, seeming to have the attitude of, “They won’t want to talk to little old me.” As Cher said to Nicholas Cage in Moonsruck, “Snap out of it!” You’re right – they won’t want to talk with you if you approach it with that attitude. But if you change your approach and believe that what you’re doing and the things you have to say matter, the media may very well want to talk with you.

Entrepreneurs are idea people. They find creative solutions for problems that others merely complain about. And quite often, those ideas are incredibly newsworthy and interesting. But it’s a wide, wide, wide, wide world, and reporters and editors cannot be everywhere. So if you don’t let them know about you, how can they possibly cover you?

Some people choose to hire PR firms to do this work for them, but if you’re a small operation, that’s more than likely way out of your budget. It IS possible to get in front of the right reporter/editor/program coordinator at the right time to get into the media. You’ve first got to believe it’s possible – and then you’ve simply go to take action.

NOTE: I will provide a FREE tip about how to become a regular media source (value: $5,000+) to the first 5 people who e-mail me before Monday, 9 August!

Tools for Your Savvy Media Toolbox

Here are a few ideas you may want to pursue, with regards to making your business more media savvy:

• An up-to-date headshot. This is considered two years old, or more recent.
• A print-friendly logo. It's amazing the number of companies who do not have a logo, which goes a long way toward branding your business.
• A media kit. This tells them exactly what makes you a good candidate for a radio or TV show.
• Regular news releases. If you're not sending them regularly, you're missing opportunities.
• An “In the News” section on your Web site. If you've been mentioned even once, you should create this. Chuck Scott and Sheri Nordstrom Scott, former students from my Want to Charge More? Start Writing! marketing classes, have a great media room on their Web site. 
• A rehearsed 10-second, 30-second, and 60-second description of  what you do and why people should care. (When the time comes, you don't want to hem, haw, and um the reporter and/or audience to sleep.)
• An article marketing campaign. (The other side of being covered by the media is contributing your own articles.)

In future posts, we’ll explore a few of these concepts in greater detail. For now, you’ve got one assignment: Get your Savvy Media Thinking Cap on and consider getting into the media game. You’ve got nothing to lose – and absolutely everything to gain.

This is Day 18 in the 60-Day Content Challenge. See you tomorrow for the next post!
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Sign up today for Laura's next workshop, Want to Charge More? Start Writing! Or e-mail Laura your questions about making yourself more media savvy. 

Photos That Reenforce a Few Key Marketing Concepts

Photos That Reenforce a Few Key Marketing Concepts

It's Friday - so let's take it a bit easier today and examine a few photos that do a great job at illustrating a few key marketing concepts any small business owner would do well to remember.

Stand out from the crowd. It's essential that you differentiate yourself in some way.
This is most easily done by identifying your niche market, and then delivering
precisely what they need when they need it.

Take it offline. Online marketing is an important and crucial tool for the 21st-century
business. But don't neglect your offline efforts: postcards, printed newsletters,
handwritten notes, and lumpy mail. Why not brighten your clients' days
by putting a stamp on it!

When you go out to your networking events, you will captivate
more people by listening than you ever could by speaking.
So remember: Shut up and listen!
And ask good questions to indicate that you are.

Give more referrals than you receive. It's very tempting to go into
meetings with new people, playing tunes from the WIIFM radio station
(what's in it for me?), but if you attend events (and read, EVERYTHING)
with an ear to referring others, you will become known as a giver,
and, ultimately, find yourself on the receiving end of far more referrals.

That's it. Nothing outrageous. Hopefully nothing you haven't heard before. But some important marketing concepts that can always use some reinforcement.

Have any of your own images/thoughts/marketing tips to share? Please do so in the comments section below.

This is Day 17 in the 60-Day Content Challenge. See you tomorrow for the next post!
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Sign up today for Laura's next workshop, Want to Charge More? Start Writing! Or e-mail your questions on creative marketing strategies - to Laura.

Some Unsolicited Marketing Advice for an Old Town Scottsdale Eatery

Some Unsolicited Marketing Advice for an Old Town Scottsdale Eatery

I had an impromptu lunch yesterday at a new little sandwich shop in Old Town Scottsdale. Craving a burger, I'd been thinking the local Fudruckers would hit the spot, but I got there, only to realize that it, like another Fudruckers location close to me, had closed. So off I went, in search of something else ... which is how I wound up at the SandŸWichŸClub restaurant.


The food was healthy and tasty and I had a pleasant experience. Yet I fear this little restaurant is not long for this world. What leads me to this stark prediction? For the 40 minutes I was in the restaurant - at the height of lunch hour - I was the only customer. Oh, there was a man who came in, stating that he was there to meet his sons. I (and no doubt, the proprietors) was hopeful for them. But shortly after he sat down, one of his sons wandered in with the announcement that the brothers had changed their minds and decided to dine next door. The bell on the door tinkled and hopes were again lifted when a couple walked in. However, apparently the restaurant was out of coleslaw - which was all the reason the guy needed to decide to go elsewhere. "Are you sure?" his female companion asked. "Yes. Come on, let's go."

Yikes! I'm no restaurant specialist like Madonna Kash, but my marketing mind immediately went to work trying to discern what the problem is - and what these owners can do to correct it.

The first thing to note is that the restaurant is doing a few things right:

• The have one of the most important things, a great location.
• They've got good food (at least the one meal I ate was good) in a nice atmosphere.
• They have a sandwich board on the street with their full menu posted.
• Their prices, while not low, are not by any means high.
• They have 8 positive reviews on Yelp.
• They have a frequent-luncher card - buy 8 lunches; get the 9th one free.

According to an article in Bloomberg Businessweek, about one in four restaurants close or change ownership within their first year of business, and over three years, that number rises to three in five. This failure rate parallels the national rate for all new businesses - and I'm guessing the reason is similar. People know a lot about their area of specialization, but they know very little about marketing.

Take some of the things the SandŸWichŸClub could do to improve their business/marketing:

• Understand the competition. While the restaurant is in a great location, it has no shortage of competitors. They lost no less than five customers today to nearby eateries. 
• Their Web site. The good news is that they have one. The bad news is that it's a single page that lists their menu. No interaction, no incentive to come back, and very little incentive to visit the restaurant.
• Social media. Jump in - as they appear to have none. There is one @sandwichclub on Twitter - but it has no followers, is following no one, has posted zero tweets, and has no public profile. So even if this is the same place (which I highly doubt), it's not doing them any good at all.
• Free delivery. Yes - this would cost some money, but with no fewer than 150 shops and galleries in the immediate area, and a handful of hotels close by, a stack of hand-delivered menus that promote free delivery might generate some noticeable new business.
• Postcards. For very little money ($211 for 10,000 postcards), they could print up postcards at GotPrint.com to take around to all the businesses and hotels just beyond the immediate Old Town area.
• Survey. It appears from the reviews on Yelp that many people, like myself, simply stumbled upon the SandŸWichŸClub. Once you undertake a marketing campaign, metrics are essential - so the owners must find out how each new patron heard of them. How? Simply ask them as they place their order.
• New counter help. OK - this one's not politically correct, but it may be a very real reason the restaurant is struggling (and that the couple from today decided to go elsewhere). It appears that the SandŸWichŸClub owners are a husband-wife team. It also appears from their heavy accents that they may be Eastern European. I ordered the Nicoise Tuna Salad - and even that small bit of communication was somewhat challenging for me because I had a difficult time understanding both the man and the woman. Scottsdale - particularly Old Town - is a big tourist town. While proprietor friendliness (which these people have in an abundance) is important, making sure that every customer can understand every word on the first try is imperative.

Perhaps I just caught the restaurant on a down day - but that was not my sense of things. It's just not a sign of a healthy sandwich shop to have ONE customer during the middle of the noon hour. Could these ideas help boost their business? Perhaps. Is there something in here that could help your business? Perhaps. If you take nothing else away from today's post, let it be the reminder that it takes more than a passion for your business to succeed. As master marketer Adam Urbanski teaches, "When you're an entrepreneur, you're in two businesses: the business you're in, and the business of marketing the business you're in."

Oh - and if you're in the Old Town Scottsdale area anytime soon, stop in and try out the SandŸWichŸClub, 4020 N. Scottsdale Road, Suite 102.

This is Day 16 in the 60-Day Content Challenge. See you tomorrow for the next post!

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Sign up today for Laura's next workshop, Want to Charge More? Start Writing! Or e-mail your questions on any aspect of marketing to Laura.