Blogs in Marketing Your Gen Ed Business

I use WordPress for this blog. Many have asked how to learn more about it. There is a little video talking about why you should use WordPress.com for your blog. Take a look. You can see it here.

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Business Card Design

The Hermit poet and I were discussing business card design last night. He was particularly pleased with how his new card as editor of Box Car Poetry Review looks. Mine is very basic so I took out my cache of your cards collected at conferences across the continent, and through daily business to look them over. Mine is OK but not stellar. Here are six ideas I think might improve our business cards and make them more usable. Of course the card will not compensate for a dirty shirt, or a dab of Dijon’s on your chin.

Nothing to do with Genealogy Education

The Hermit Poet performed recenty at a Vancouver arts community event. I’m proud to be a part of his life.

Getting Attention: The Core Concept of Marketing

Putting together a lecture tour is hard work. I only gave myself seven months lead time, a big mistake. You need time to build relationships with potential host genealogy groups. Its been claimed that the essence of marketing services like genealogy lectures and workshops is getting attention. Recently I learned about four main ways to get attention; clearly communicating your marketing message.

The four ways to communicate your marketing message are by communicating the following:

A Media Release Without Usual Media

When I was a young man about town, in my rock and roll days, promoting rock concert the success of press releases I’d written was determined by how many journalists deemed the releases worthy of their time and attention. And though I knew thed editors of both newspaers, and radio station managers and djs, they often had no time for my media releases

Prime the Pump

Here’s a piece of advice for genealogy speakers that may surpise you. When you find a column, article, or blog in an area similar to your expertise, you should write to the author and compliment them. one speaker reports that she begun doing this in earnest and was astounded at the results. The key, apparently, is to sincerely compliment them on something they’ve said, and offer to be a resource for them. However, you need to remain humble. Don’t promote yourself, your book, Web site or blog.

Seven Deadly E-zine Killers

Tommy Yan, a dynamic Asian-American motivational speaker has some interesting ideas on e-newletters to elevate them to a higher standard and motivate your potential and present clients for your genealogy speaking venture. Too many of those e-newletters or E-zines are 100% information free. Here’s Tommy’s seven deadly sins for e-zines

Build You Client Base With an E-newsletter

  In the last year or so I have been thinking about doing a free newsletter to serve certain potential clients. E-newsletters or E-zines can be a very simple way to add value to my services and keep my name and services before the public. Many professional seminar speakers have them, as do genealogy service outfits.

The Door Prize Gambit for Identifying Potential Clients

I offer a door prize at my presentations. Someone once asked if it was a real door. I wish I’d thought of that. I recently disposed of and old set of shower doors. No, a door prize is a prize for which anyone enterying the door at and event was eligible. Its not a raffle. Its a givee-away to wake up the people , add a little excitement and add value to the learning experience.

More Reasons to Blog about Your Speaking Engagements

Here are a few more reasons for you to write a glowing review of every lecture or workshop you deliver.

Content generation. By making notes about each speech and recording them on your blog, you are managing your content for future speeches and books. One speaker told me, “I can’t tell you how many times I referred back to old post-speech blog postings to help me with a current project.” I find that intriguing .

Attract new customers. When people read about how you helped a certain genealogy or historical organization, they’re going to say, “Hmmm…I wonder if he could do that for my group? Maybe I should give him a call…” And you’d better believe getting folks to call you about speaking is a whole lot better than making a cold call.

Customer service. By blogging about your speech, the venue, the client and the audience, you compliment your customer. think about that for a moment. Be sure to email your meeting planner contact and invite him/her to read the glowing post. And be sure to link to the host’s web site. It’s the best thank-you note in the world.

Credibility and celebrity. Blogging your lectures results in more credibility for you as a speaker, and enhanced celebrity status when you incorporate all these blogging ideas, especially if other blogs/Web sites link to your post.

So what do you think? I think I need more of these links back to my clients!