Did you know that your email signature is the easiest, cheapest marketing tool in your toolbox?

Think of your email signature as your digital business card. You “hand it out” every time you contact someone. No printing costs. No awkwardness. (“Can I, uh… um, give you my card?”) Send an email and BAM. Digital business card, right in their inbox.

What you should include

What you should include varies based on your business and your goals. You don’t have a blog or a Twitter account? No worries. These are just some suggestions: Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever noticed how when you share a story with someone, it becomes their story too?

There is something validating when we can say, “Oh yeah, that happened to…” me, my friend, my brother, my dog, whomever… It’s a concrete way of showing that we can relate to what the other person is saying. And it can be really exciting to be the first person to share a story within your circle.

This idea was highlighted for me tonight. My wallet was stolen this afternoon. That’s a pretty simple statement, but the narrative of the events unfolding and the aftermath of it all is quite complicated. The story isn’t even complete yet. I have shared it with my immediate family, and then (somewhat without thinking) I posted it on Facebook.

As I lay awake in bed, unable to sleep, I realized that I am already tired of the story and regretted the Facebook post. I don’t know that I want to keep hashing it out with every person I know, because it’s tiring to keep reliving the experience. But, I know that the story will spread throughout my network, even though I don’t know that I necessarily want it to.

Read the rest of this entry »

As I mentioned in Monday’s post (“Anyone who says, ‘Looks don’t matter,’ is a liar”), my mom and I went to a spa last weekend. During my massage, the massage therapist and I were chatting a little bit. I think I said something like, “I bet after all this work, you’ll need to hire someone to give you a massage.” And then I laughed.

I should mention that, up to this point, I felt very comfortable and relaxed. The massage was going great.

And then, she started talking negatively about herself and her profession.

She went on for a good 10 minutes about how she’d never get a massage because all massage therapists are perverts. She would never let anyone touch her. She talked about how she was really bad at draping and that draping was the worst part of massage therapy school. “But, don’t worry, I’ve never exposed a client.”

I’m sorry, what??

This was my first massage (which she knew) and I had plenty of my own reservations about stripping down to my underwear and letting some stranger touch me. I had kind of gotten over it (she is a professional, it’s perfectly fine, I told myself) — until she starting talking down about herself and her profession.

What she said completely changed my experience. Her lack of professionalism made such an impression that it overshadowed her excellent technical skills.

What I learned

Business is about so much more than just the service you provide. I’m very conscious of my own short comings. I know I have highlighted them for clients on numerous occasions. Maybe it’s a fear of failure, so I feel like I need to warn them first, just in case I mess it up.

“Well, I’ve never done this before, but I’ll give it a try.”

I’m sure my clients are brimming with confidence when they hear that one. I’ve had a very good track record so far, and I took the job because — even though I hadn’t done x specifically before — I have the skill set to be able to successfully complete the job. My clients don’t need to hear my nervous inner dialogue.

Before I went in for my massage, the salon owner said very positive things about the masseuse. I felt completely confident and trusted her expertise. But, after hearing her speak down about herself and her profession, my opinion completely changed. After all, if she doesn’t believe in her skills, why should I?

What you say matters. No matter where or how you say it.

It is so important to pay attention to the language we use in person, on the phone, via email, on Faceboook, on Twitter — everywhere. It all matters. Off the cuff comments or random rants on Twitter still make an impression.

I have a tendency to do or say stupid things when I’m rushed or nervous. Since I can quickly compose and publish, I don’t always take the time to edit myself. But, I’ve realized that it’s important to take time and think about what you want your brand to say about you. Because we all have a brand, even if we don’t own our own business or have a logo.

What do you think?

I’m still discovering and developing my brand. Where are you at in the process? Have you had any experiences where a comment changed your perception of a business?

This week, I’m trying something new. Each day, I’ll write about a topic that I’ve been studying. This week’s topic: search engine optimization (or SEO, for short). Check back each day for a new post, or why not just subscribe to the RSS feed?

Many of the factors relating to page rank rely on the talent of your web developer, web designer and/or copy writer. Hiring these professionals requires a budget — but there are things you can do on your own, for free, to help your site’s page rank.

On Tuesday, I shared some tips and resources about how to improve your rank, which included the importance of inbound links. You can ask other sites to link to you, ideally with keyword specific text as the hyperlink, but you really don’t have any control over whether or not that site will actually link to you or how they’ll do it. So, how do you get inbound links?

You can create (some of) them yourself.

1. Create business profiles on sites like LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, etc. and fill out the profile information. Include a link to your business.
2. Publish articles anywhere and everywhere you can. A site like Biznik is a great place to get published. Demonstrate your expertise by writing a helpful article, with an extended byline linking back to your website.
3. Create an HTML signature to use in Web-based discussion forums that uses your name (or business name) as a link to your web site. Every message you post becomes a link to your site that search engines can index.

These tips alone aren’t guaranteed to move you to the top of a search — but they are especially great for increasing the page rank for your name or business name.

Other tips to drive traffic

These won’t necessarily help your page rank, but it will help drive visitors to your site, which will hopefully result in conversions (see Monday’s post).

1. Include links in your email signature. Don’t forget your signature from your Blackberry /iPhone/Smartphone. You send out 300 emails a day? That’s 300 opportunities to share a link.
2. Comment on other people’s blogs. People feel like they need to have a blog or “a Twitter” because “everyone has one.” I have a journalism background and I like to write — but I’ll be the first to say that maintaining a blog is challenging and time consuming. Reap some of the same benefits, with less effort. Read blogs that your prospects read and leave comments. Most comment forms ask you to fill in your web address, which becomes a link back to your site when you comment.

Up next:

In tomorrow’s post, I’ll share some additional SEO resources. Don’t miss it: subscribe to the RSS feed.