Scrappy Marketing Solutions Blog

Digital Dimensions Column Discontinued

I just received notice from Craftrends that, effective immediately, my Digital Dimensions column has been discontinued due to "changes in their editorial lineup", though they are "open to occasional technology articles for the scrapbooking section", so I am welcome to submit proposals.

SO, if you know of anyone looking for professional editorial content on marketing in the digital age, particularly to a crafting audience, do let me know, or feel free to mention my name.

Changes for Scrappy Marketing Solutions

FYI - I have decided to take a step back from consulting projects for the time being, to concentrate on writing for magazines and blogging projects.  What I'm really looking to do is increase my involvement in contributing to a magazine, working more on the editorial side.  I'm also looking to create a comprehensive corporate blog marketing campaign, perhaps guiding a team of bloggers to share company insights and branding efforts. I have some ideas that I'm eager to share with direct sales companies, particularly.

I am sorry for the inconvenience this may cause scrapbooking business owners - I know how limited the pool is for scrapbooking-savvy marketing professionals.  In fact, if anyone knows of anyone else who offers scrapbook marketing services, especially press release writing and editing, I'd love to hear about them, because I'll need to offer referrals.  Feel free to leave a comment below, or email me privately.

Holiday Promotion Case Study: Digital Scrapbooking Day!

I admit it.  I made the whole thing up.  A complete fabrication.  Scrapbookers all over the Internet completely bought (and bought and bought...) into it.  And yeah, I'm pretty proud of myself.

Sometimes it pays to be a guinea pig.  I've always been a bit of an "early adopter" - finding out about new technologies and ideas, and trying them out at the beginning of their popularity (though I realize I'm no Connie Bensen - she's a Web 2.0 animal!)

This past February when I heard an interview with Publicity Hound Joan Stewart, I knew I had found another idea I just had to try. 

She was talking about how niche holidays can help generate a lot of publicity for a brand or company.  My marketing brain went nuts, and I couldn't wait to email my client/friend, Susan, at Triscape, makers of FxFoto.   In fact, here's a snippet of the email I sent her on 2/8/07:

"I did some quick research and we can do this -- you need to start and host Digital Scrapbooking Day.  No one has "proclaimed" this day yet, so we can just pick a day and call it.  It will be a day to create awareness of and celebrate the capabilities of digitally enhanced scrapbooking -- from editing your photos to printing out your journaling to finding inspiration online to creating fully digital layouts."

She responded back not two hours later, and we began to work.  Deciding when to hold the event, what it would "officially" celebrate, who should be involved, who to contact, how to make it "official", etc.  So many details.

Despite how it may have seemed from newsletters announcing website & blog events last week, it’s not that Digital Scrapbooking Day “caught on so quickly” - it really was a 9 month process. You really need at least that long to get widespread coverage, because all the various participants need time to plan.  Print magazines need usually 3-6 months lead time to include content, sometimes more, if they want to work it into the editorial calendar.  In the scrapbooking industry, local and online stores sometimes need about the same amount of time to work something in to their class calendars and newsletters.  Blogs can be updated more quickly, but if the bloggers want to work up resources to produce something in conjunction with your news, they'll need some planning time too.

So yes, I "made up" Digital Scrapbooking Day, but there was a lot very real work involved, and I certainly can't take credit for all of it...

Switching from WordPress to Typepad

If you read this blog via a blog reader (i.e. Bloglines, Google Reader, MyYahoo, et al), you may not notice, but I have switched from using WordPress to Typepad.  To be honest, I got tired of continually having to update the WP program every time a new security patch or version came out - it's a rather lengthy, tedious process.  I've been using Typepad for over two years for The Blog of Me and Scrapbooking Industry News, and even started this Scrapbook Marketing blog there, but...yadda yadda yadda...I've moved my marketing blog back to Typepad. 

I redirected the Feedburner feed to pick up the Typepad feed, so hopefully my subscribers will find that a seamless transition.  Just tonight, I redirected the ScrapbookMarketing.com URL from my servers to Typepad, so that will take 24-48 hours to propagate. (During that time, you won't be able to access anything with the ScrapbookMarketing.com URL).

Now I'm wondering how much to import from the WordPress blog.  There's an export feature within WordPress that is supposed to allow you to create an XML document that contains all the data from your blog, including past posts and comments, but my export document is erroring out.  I know I can post to the WP forums for help, but I'm wondering if I need to worry about it.

Do you ever refer to the past blog posts at my Scrapbook Marketing blog?  I've recreated all the Pages with my marketing consulting services here at Typepad, so I'm not worried about that.  Now I'm just wondering if I should take the time to research how to easily export/import the individual blog posts, or take the time to re-post them, one by one.

I still have access to all the blog content, so that's not a problem.  Just wondering if any of you have any thoughts.

Thanks!

Seeking Digital Scrapbooking Tutorials

We are currently seeking digital scrapbooking tutorials to post on the DSD event blog - you provide the tutorial, and we link the byline back to your site/blog.  If you would like to contribute a tutorial, please email it to digitalscrapbookingday/@/gmail.com. I'll be up front here - we would appreciate tutorials featuring techniques done in FxFoto, but we will consider other programs, in order to fully promote the digital scrapbooking hobby.

We would like to post the tutorials to DigitalScrapbookingDay.com, rather than linking out from the site to other sites.  If it’s already posted somewhere (which is fine), just send us a link to digitalscrapbookingday/at/gmail.com, and we’ll check it out. With your permission, we’d post it as is to the DSD site.

Deadline for submissions is 10/19/07.

I look forward to seeing your submissions!  Thanks in advance for your support.

Potential Topics (feel free to brainstorm your own):

Basics

• remove red-eye
• adding text
• crop/resize photo
• changing to B&W/sepia

Intermediate/Advanced

• adding spot color
• text on a curve/path
• digital tearing
• Creating your first layout in FxFoto

Hybrid Scrapbooking - some tips on just using the computer in general to enhance projects

• journaling & fonts
• organizing digital photos/memorabilia/kits
• scanning
• cutting down on 3D bulk
• creating sketches/plotting out design

Scrapbook Marketing: Using Press Releases

I just added another PDF of my most recent article, appearing in the current Scrapbook Premier (Sept/Oct 2006 issue): Grassroots Marketing: Using Press Releases to Promote Your Scrapbooking Business.

It's a quick little read at three pages -- offering advice on the Right Way and the Wrong Way to use press releases to promote your marketing message.  It even offers an outline for a potential information press release, so be sure to check it out in the Scrapbook Marketing Resource Articles archive!

Related resources:
Scrapbooking Press Releases and Media Kits

technorati tags: press+release, scrapbook+marketing, scrapbooking, publicity, grassroots, guerrilla

Get Marketing Consulting at MemoryTrends

MemoryTrends is now less than 20 days away (ACK!)  I am setting up appointments for one-hour consulting sessions during the show.

I will be at the show from Monday to Thursday, and available to chat with you about your marketing goals during much of that time.  I am teaching two classes on Monday, so there is that to work around, but Tuesday and Wednesday I have slots available.  I leave Thursday afternoon to fly home.

We can meet somewhere on the show floor, at your booth, in the press room (I'll have a press badge), or whereever is most convenient.

This is a great opportunity to really focus on your marketing goals -- in person.  95% of my consulting is done via phone and email, and works quite well.  But there's just something about a face-to-face meeting, where we can really toss some ideas around, and brainstorm, and come up with creative solutions to your biggest challenges.  Plus there will be all that super show mojo going on, with all those great products, people, and ideas gathered in one place... creative zing!

Here's how this will work -- to secure your appointment, click the link below and you will be able to register for a slot.  Once your registration and payment is confirmed, I will email you to schedule the actual appointment date and time.

You can arrange for an appointment here: Marketing Consulting at MemoryTrends. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Blog Marketing: Add Audio with Free Conference Call Recordings

I found a fabulous FREE resource I just had to share: Free Conference Calls with LiveOffice.  (via Lifehacker).  I used it the other night with 2 clients, each of us calling in from a separate phone number.  It worked great!  The call lasted an hour, and there was no interruptions, no static, nothing.  Just a good solid phone call.

It was a long distance call (712 area code), but big deal.  You can get a toll-free bridge number for 8 cents a minute/no monthly fees, but free is pretty nice.

Here's the clincher -- besides being free, you also have the option to record the call (also for free). An hour later, you'll find an MP3 file of the conference call waiting for you on the Web site, with html code to put it on a website/blog, or the URL for an RSS feed.  How sweet is that??

Here... check out my husband and I trying out the recording feature:

Or just download the file here:
Enclosure

This will make recording interviews (and consulting calls) sooooo nice!

Podcast Marketing for Scrapbooking Businesses

I have been just dying to do a podcast again, and have been hungrily searching my schedule for the time.  With that driving desire in mind, I've been trying to figure out how to combine podcasting with my marketing consulting.  But I'm in a bit of a quandry there -- I started my scrapbooking podcast as a personal project, and developed a bit of a following over my four episodes.  The show is currently on hiatus, due to time constraints, and the need to make the most out of my time.  To brutally honest, I can't work it into my schedule as a volunteer project.  Compensated projects obviously take priority.

So I've considered offering a podcasting option to my marketing clients.  For a fee, I would record an interview which would highlight various features and benefits of the client's product.  I would do all the post-production (editing tasks after the recording), and post the interview to my podcast blog, and link to it on my other blogs, where appropriate.

But I have a few concerns I'd like feedback on before I officially add this to my list of marketing consulting services. 

I don't want there to be a conflict of interest, in that I have interviewed a few people already, but would now be doing it for a fee -- even though I'm providing the a service that the clients most likely don't have access to themselves (never having done a podcast before).  I also don't want listeners to feel like the show is a big infomercial -- though I think could assauge most of that concern with the questions I ask, and making sure I provide valuable content in the form of tips and techniques.  I would want to be up-front and "transparent" about my relationship with the interviewee -- that I'm working with them as a consultant, or that the company has paid a "promotional consideration fee" to "sponsor" that episode.  (That last bit sounds pretty good -- think that would work?)

What do you think?  Do you think clients might be interested in this service?  Do you think listeners would be put off by this idea?  Knowing I'm being compensated for the time it takes to produce such an interview? 

That issue aside, I found a neat podcasting idea that I think I will try at MemoryTrends next month: Create A Podcast Tour.  It's basically a "SoundSeeing Tour", kind of like you get at musuems and famous landmarks -- an audio recording walking you through each site as you come to it, and giving a little background along the way.  I could walk down each aisle, listing off which booths are to my right and left, who I see, making stops along the way to ask about new products and doing mini-booth tours and interviews.  I already realize this is ambitious, but how COOL would it be??  My inner geek is completely jonesing (<= mild language warning) to try this tour idea.

Any thoughts?

technorati tags: podcasts, podcasting, podcast+marketing, scrapbooking, scrapbook+marketing

http://del.icio.us/ScrapbookMarketing

Another del.icio.us idea -- I have recently started a new social bookmarking list: del.icio.us/ScrapbookMarketing.

This list will include links that will be of use to those interested in Scrapbook Marketing, such as local scrapbooking storeowners, independent scrapbooking instructors and consultants, scrapbooking manufacturers, and professional designers -- and perhaps anyone wanting to reach these audiences.

As I share resources on this blog, and with clients, I will post many of them on http://del.icio.us/ScrapbookMarketing.  You can even subscribe to the RSS feed here: http://del.icio.us/rss/ScrapbookMarketing

If you would like to contribute to this "social" project, please feel free to send me links that you have found helpful in your Scrapbook Marketing efforts -- articles on PR/marketing, small business resource sites, publications you read, local marketing tips, etc.

Ah, behold the goodness of folksonomy and Web 2.0!  :)

grassroots marketing, marketing ideas, PR 2.0, scrapbook marketing, social media