Marketing is a two-way interaction with the public, prospects, and peers to present them with the best face of a business. You do this to inform and persuade them of the benefits of dealing with that business.
Graphics
Relatives vs Family
RELATIVES are the people to whom nature ties you by blood and birth, marriage and DNA.
FAMILY are the people to whom you tie yourself with laughter, tears, experiences and love.
New Cam. Who Dis?
“New cam. Who dis?” Reconditioned Z6 II. Happy to take paid assignments.
Application of Power
The application of knowledge is power.
It Pays to Learn Lessons
I spent years forgetting the lesson of, “Test before committing.” I’m creating the card I’m planning to send out in January, and I had one test version printed at double the cost I’ll pay later on. Not only were the sides printed in the wrong directions (tops didn’t match), the images didn’t have enough white space around the edges – so the text on one side, and pix on the other, was cut off.
I’ve created a 2nd version, and ordered one more sample card – again, at double the regular price. If I have to, I won’t even mind printing a 3rd version.
For the first 10 years of doing this stuff, I would have wasted money and just ordered the entire print run. Lemme tell ya: being overeager is like sticking a long, dull knife in your own eye. Starting early and having patience alleviates that situation.
How To Save $485
I use an Epson WorkForce printer in my office. I bought it a number of years ago, when it was first released. It’s very handy, because it can print on paper up to 13 x 19 inches. That means I can make mini-posters for clients right here, instead of having them printed elsewhere.
Lately, I’ve been having trouble with the printing. Specifically, the black print head has been leaving blank streaks, and what is printed is faint. I’ve replaced the ink cart twice, and it still wasn’t any better. I went online to look for a new printer.
I don’t need a scanner or a fax machine, so the closest thing I could find is a refurbed version of the next model up. Cost? $500 – and that was for the “cheap” one.
While I was looking, I came across something I hadn’t really considered – a cleaning kit, consisting of an oral medicine syringe and some “special cleaning solution.” That and the instructions would only set me back $15. Oh – and a week’s wait for shipping.
Now, I’d wanted to reach under the head and wipe off the nozzle, but for some reason, I’d never considered washing it from the inside. And now that I knew about it, I didn’t want to wait, either.
Somewhere, we have an oral syringe we got for giving medicine to our cats. Couldn’t find it. So I looked online again. Most places had them for about $8 – plus a week’s wait for shipping. Damn!
Just for the heck of it, I looked on the Walmart site. Found a kid’s syringe at my local store for only $3. After a 20 minute trip, I was back. I went under my sink and grabbed a pre-mixed spray bottle of Simple Green. I poured that in a juice glass, and used it to give my black print head three squirts of cleaning goodness.
Today, my printer’s churning out some great-looking black pages. That means I can now send back a wheel that doesn’t fit my new car – that I waited a week for.
Yeah, I think we have a problem with shipping, at this point. But I digress. . .
Anyway, between gas, the syringe, and my purchase of a huge jug of Simple Green at some point in the past, I figure I spent at least the same on all the supplies, as if I had ordered the cleaning kit. So by spending $15, I didn’t have to spend $500 for a refurbed printer. Total savings: $485.
No Invoices Until At Least July 1st, 2020
This pandemic is hitting businesses across America hard. A lot of them are shut down, or have seriously limited their workforce. I am committed to doing my part to help.
First of all, I will not bill existing customers for any services until at least July first, 2020. Second, I have no intention of leaving you stranded – if you need work done, I’m happy to do it.
Final point – this is the time to invest in your marketing efforts. There are systems and tools that can help you find new customers, and even make sales. I can help implement these for your business. And while Agile’ is a boutique firm, working with a maximum of fifteen clients at a time, I have room for up to three new clients (who will also not receive invoices until at least July 1st), so feel free to pass along my contact info to someone who might need it.
We’re all in this together. I wish you health and happiness. We will come out the other side of this.
Facebook Page Posts 04 – Media
In the earliest days of online life, the world was limited to text-only interactions. But the pace of technological advancement has been amazing these last 30 years. Now, many of us hold computers in the palm of our hands that are vastly superior to those early desk top units that squealed and screamed when connecting with another computer over a landline.
It was only a few years ago that watching a video online was frustrating, and posting a 30-second video required a thick manual, a ritual sacrifice, and the luck of the gods. Well. . . almost.
According to several studies, a plain text post now receives the least attention. In order for a post to grab eyeballs, at minimum it should have a picture attached. (A post no longer has to include text – it could be just a still picture, or even just a video clip, but we’ll get there in a few minutes.) This is why you might see a post on Facebook about almost any subject, and attached will be a picture of a pet, or a sunset, or a tree – something totally unrelated to the subject of the message. If you can get a person to stop and look at your picture, there’s a chance they’ll also read the text of your post.
The picture you add to your post doesn’t have to be a photograph. It can be a graphic – clipart, perhaps – with or without text in the image itself. It could also be all text, stylized in one or more interesting typefaces; you’ll often see those created for quotes. Whatever type of image you attach, try to make it directly related to your post. If you announce that your business now sells blue widgets, post a picture of a blue widget. Now taking appointments for plumbing visits? Show your workers in their best uniforms smiling as they step from a truck with your company’s logo on the side.
In between the still picture and a full-motion video is the “animated picture” – often a GIF (graphic interchange format) image. These are still pictures arranged into “loops” a few seconds long, where the subject is often funny and/or shocking. The use of GIFs has changed drastically over the last few years, and I could write a whole dissertation on their use in personal posts. For now, we’ll just say that Facebook considers GIFs a category of still picture, and they’re attached the same way.
As I said a few minutes ago, your posts no longer need to include any text. If you’ve got what I call a self-contained image – with a picture, some explanatory text, and connection information – then post that by itself. FB also allows you to upload video clips, and the same goes for video posts. If you’ve got raw footage you’ve shot with your phone, you’ll probably want to add text explaining the context of the video, and adding any commentary you think necessary. Of you can post a fully-produced video, complete with an intro, closing credits, and mood music. Producing video clips for your business is a completely different subject. I tackle that in another series of articles.
The one type of medium that FB does not currently allow in posts is stand-alone audio. So if you’ve got an audio podcast, or an audio recording of a book or article you’ve written, you’ll have to produce it into a video clip in order to upload it. Again, the specifics of this are beyond the scope of this article, but the “video” can be as simple as a single still picture (or multiple pix chained together) taking up the image track, while the audio track plays. You can find these type of videos on YouTube, often created by home enthusiasts for songs where there’s no video recording of the artist.
Currently, the maximum file size for a video uploaded to Facebook is 1.75GB, which at HD format is a run-time of around 45 minutes. However, you should keep video posts as short as possible. You’re pushing it with videos longer than 30 seconds. Only people who are surfing FB to relieve boredom will watch videos longer than a minute, and you’d better have completely unique content that people feel will change their lives if you post a video with a run-time over 5 minutes.
Regardless of the media you use, any post you make on Facebook or elsewhere should have a specific intent – a set goal you want to accomplish. The message should be crafted using the principles of immediacy and scarcity when appropriate. Any time your post attempts to sell, or you ask a question, give the reader the contact info or link needed. In almost all posts, you should tell the reader exactly what you expect them to do once they’ve read the post, and give them any tools they need to do that.
11 best business post types, worst to best
11) Text-only post – long
10) Text-only post – under 25 words
9) Text post with unrelated still picture
8) Audio post with still picture
7) Text post with related still picture
6) Text post with self-contained image
5) Self-contained image, no text
4) Text post with raw video clip
3) Long (5+ min) fully-produced video clip
2) Medium (around 1 min) fully-produced video clip
1) Short (30 seconds) fully-produced video clip