Perhaps of surprise to some business owners is that the Vancouver Business Journal wants to hear from you when you have news of interest to their readers. Unfortunately that does not include your special offers for Mother’s Day but it does include local angles to national stories, significant new sales orders, people news and other topics. To get the full list you will have to listen to the interview.

Of extra bonus is that to me he also sounds a little bit like Sean Connery. I’m not sure why as he isn’t Scottish (he’s of Irish descent) but there is something in his voice that evokes the Highlands. Perhaps I’m just losing my tenuous touch with reality or am in need of a vacation!

Don’t forget to visit the Vancouver Business Journal website to sign-up for their e-newsletter or to perhaps like me, to get your subscription to the printed paper.

Join myself and Jeff Schneider of Sandler Training for the first in a series of Sales and Marketing Podcast interviews recorded live and answering questions from the audience. Questions included:

• I do best when I have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with potential customers, yet I’m finding it increasingly difficult to get prospects to agree to a meeting. What strategies can I employ to increase my success rate in getting appointments?
• I find that when I meet with someone, I always give them the courtesy of speaking without interruption. How do I reasonably set up my prospect’s expectations for the first meeting - in advance, so I can maintain SOME control over the meeting?
• Without a lot of knowledge on the subject I am looking for a CRM software that I can us to track customers and sales information. Do you have any recommendations?
• How can we make sure everyone reflects and refers our business to others?
• And many more

Please join us for session two where we will answer your marketing questions on December 17th at 10:00 AM PST. Click here to register.

If you want to contact myself or Jeff you can do so at our main websites of:

Michael: http://www.marketaccelerators.com

Jeff: http://schneider.sandler.com/

So, sit back, grab a cocktail and listen to your own personal guide to the Portland Happy Hour Guidebook.

And don’t forget to visit the Portland Happy Hour Guidebook website at http://www.happyhourguidebook.com. This is the place to go if you would like to take advantage of Cindy’s book specials and read her blog.

1. What is PR
2. With the decline in the national media, why is PR still important
3. Examples of good PR campaigns
4. How to know if your PR is working
5. Top tips to successful PR
6. Should you be controversial to get PR?
7. PR trends

Casey has spent more than 12 years in market communications working with a variety of companies in different industries. He has helped develop some of the largest public relations and advertising campaigns in the financial services, consumer and technology industries including PR Week’s 2004 Campaign of the Year. At LT Public Relations, Casey oversees the strategic public relations efforts for national and local banks, credit unions, financial planners/investors, insurance companies and law firms.

Before forming LT Public relations, Casey managed many accounts for two of the worlds largest public relations agencies, Waggener Edstrom and Weber Shandwick.

Don’t forget to visit his interesting public relations blog. he can also be reached by phone at 503-477-9215.

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Marketing Plan Pro is now powered by Duct Tape Marketing. For a limited time you can buy it for $25 off!

If you would like to contact Jeff you can call him on (971) 227-3266 or contact me and I will give you his e-mail.

Andy has become an expert in pairing what is essentially referral marketing with Web 2.0 technology. With todays internet social networks, news can travel fast. If you have something that captures the interest of connected people, they share the information with each other in a viral manner. Andy’s methodology is that you should:

1) Find the people who will talk about you (not necessarily your customers - influencers also)

2) Give them a reason to talk

3) Give them the tools that help spread the message more quickly

4) Join the conversation and

5) Measure and track what people are saying.

(taken from www.wordofmouthbook.com)

This process is ideal for small business as many of the techniques are inexpensive. The main requirement is creativity and sometimes a willingness to step out on the ledge! Andy also has a consulting company called GasPedal

Some people see marketing as an expense but when you think about it, marketing is ultimately intended to help grow the business. It is an investment with an expected return. You can’t grow without marketing. That means in a recession if you want to maintain or grow revenues, you still need marketing. It is true that some marketing activities have a long term pay off but I would argue that most of these activities are the domain of larger companies. The marketing investment of small businesses usually have to pay for themselves more quickly.

In this interview with John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing and author of the book “Duct Tape Marketing”, John tells us that “The only thing you should do in good times or in bad times is the right thing. It is just that bad times have a way of getting your attention”. Never is this more true of marketing. So, kick back, forget worrying about a recession (if there even is one) and listen to this informative podcast.

Phil has a white paper called “Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them“. You can get your own copy by visiting www.fixadmistakes.com

What other topics would you like to see in these podcasts? Any suggestions on other people to interview?

I have been fortunate to be able to interview a couple of talented people to shed some light on the topic of radio advertising for small businesses. The first interview is with Lorna Dobberstein from KPAM radio (she was with KPDQ when this was recorded) in Portland Oregon. Lorna gives us some insight as to why radio can be so powerful. She also gives us information about how radio works and some best practices to consider.

If you wish to reach Lorna you can do through by contacting me and I will send you her contact details.

The second interview is with Phil Bernstein of Clear Channel radio whose stations include KEX-AM, K103FM, Z100 and others. Phil has been in the radio business for many years and has compiled a white paper called “7 Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix them”. Its not specifically about radio advertising but Phil obviously draws heavily from his experience in radio.

I think you will enjoy both these interviews as they are very informative.

Here is the first with Lorna Dobberstein. You may notice that I had a very heavy cold when we recorded this interview!

Note that this is not an AdWords “how-to” but more an overview of the concept and a way to approach AdWords which will increase your probability of success.

This podcast is a recording of the first in a series of 6 seminars and covers target marketing — picking your bulls-eye target. It introduces the concept of your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and that these are the customers you want more of. The seminar talks about how to identify your ICP and how to reach them.

Handouts are available with a summary of the key points and these can be found on the main Market Accelerators website. Many thanks to Spirit Media who made the recording. Bill Dolan introduces the podcast.

Note that this recording is almost an hour long so you may wish to download it to listen in your car! Comments are very welcome. I’ve just noticed that this recording is playing slightly slowly. If you download it (see link under this) it plays fine.

Liz also teaches at the Schulich Executive Education Centre at York University. She has taught undergraduate marketing and advertising at Mohawk College and George Brown College.

She was the subject of a W Network documentary and was named one of Canada’s Agents of Change by Strategy Magazine. She writes on marketing for Microsoft Small Business +

Liz’s website is  http://www.chrysaliscreativemarketing.ca