Professional Service Firm Marketing Tips & Strategies

Create and share screencasts with ease

Sometimes it's just easier to show someone what you mean rather than trying to explain it over the phone or in an e-mail. Jing is a tool that helps you do just that. With Jing, you can quickly make a video of anything on your computer, narrate what you are doing, and easily share it others.

There are several screen recording programs out there, but this idea of being able to quickly and easily share the videos with other people is what makes Jing different. After you record your video, you can upload it to their video hosting site,  ScreenCast.com. Once you upload your video, Jing places the URL to your video on your clipboard, so you can easily send the link via e-mail or instant messenger.

Jing is made by TechSmith - the people who make Camtasia Studio and SnagIt. Jing is free, at least for now. Their web site describes Jing as a project or experiment, something that will change over time.

Jing works both with Windows and Mac. You can read more about Jing here - and of course, they have videos you can watch as well.

Here is a link to a quick video I did with Jing to show someone how to find and load add-ins for the Firefox browser.

Every service should be this easy to try

A common tactic that we recommend in Duct Tape Marketing is to add the  ability to capture contact information in exchange for something of value to your web site. The service that I like to recommend for this is iContact (formerly IntelliContact) - I've blogged about iContact a couple of times in the past (here and here). There are several services available to help you build and manage your mailing lists. I like to recommend iContact because of the care they put into designing their user interface to make it easy to use.

They also make it incredibly easy to try out their service. You can sign up for a free trial account and using these videos you will be up and running in no time.

Tim Berry's Fidel Castro Story

While not small business related, blogging friend Tim Berry has a fascinating post on his blog in which he recalls his personal meeting with Fidel Castro and the time he spent in Cuba. His description of Castro as a man vs. what he created in Cuba is enlightening.

I've mentioned before that one of my favorite things about having a blog is getting to meet interesting people that I normally wouldn't run into any other way - Tim's one of those people. Thanks for sharing that great story Tim.

Affordable Coaching For The True Small Business

Sorry it's been quiet here for a while. I've been heads down working on a new project that I'm pretty excited about. It's called The Biz Academy. The goal of the academy is to bring affordable coaching to the True Small Business owner.

I'm in the process of working with my charter group (or Beta) right now. The plan is to open it up to the general public in a week or two.  I'll be posting more info here as I go along. In the meantime, here is a video that gives an overview of the program. If you would like to participate in the charter group, or would like more information, leave me a comment or send me an e-mail.

If you don't see a viewer above, you can view the video by clicking on this link.

Duct Tape Marketing Coaching Excellence Series

This month's interview on the Duct Tape Marketing Coaching Excellence Series features Tim Ferriss, author of the 4 Hour Workweek. This tele-seminar will take place next Thursday, February 21, 2008 at Noon (CST). Register today to save your seat for what promises to be a fun learning experience.

Do you miss previous sessions of the Duct Tape Marketing Coaching Excellence Series? Recordings of the previous sessions are available here.

The PayPal Security Key

I received my PayPal Security Key today, so I thought I would do a quick post about it for folks that haven't heard about it yet. Here's what it looks like (pen is just for size comparison):

The purpose of the security key is to add an extra layer of security for you PayPal (and\or Ebay) account. The key generates a temporary security code about every 30 seconds. During login, after you enter your user name and password, you will be presented with a new field asking for your security code. You can save time by adding the code to the end of you password when you log in.

Click here to see a video demo of the Security Key from PayPal

The security key costs $5.

Finding A Mentor Or Coach

Children of the blogosphere, lend me your ears <g>.

I am working on an article for my local business newspaper and I would like to get your opinion on the subject. What advice would you give a friend or colleague who came to you with this question?

I am looking for a business mentor and there are so many people who advertise themselves as coaches these days. How can I find someone who will is more of a mentor to meet my needs to guide my business to a new level?

Leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail with your advice.

Speaking In Plain English

I love this post about speaking in plain English from my fellow Duct Tape Marketing Coaches in Austin.

I don't know if it's just the practical nature of Duct Tape Marketing, but I had been thinking about the same topic last night as I crafted this response to a friend who mentioned that I didn't seem to fit into the CPA \ consultant stereotype:

"Regina, thanks for your feedback. I'm sorry it took me so long to respond, but I have been working on some well rounded, enterprise level, multi-tiered, multi-platformed, language agnostic, synergistic solutions, that are going to going to help take our thinking outside the box by shifting our paradigms and changing the way business is done in our industry.

Thanks again for your feedback. I appreciate your input. I'll let you know what I decide."

Now excuse me, I have to go brush my teeth now <g>.

Come Learn Business Plan Basics With The SHBC

If you live in the Kansas City area, come out to this month's Small &  Home Business Connection meeting and learn all about the basics of creating a business plan. Elisa Waldman of the Kansas Small Business Development Center (KSBDC) will be our featured speaker. As Elisa says,  whether you are new to business or have been in business for years, it is never too late to prepare a business plan. Elisa will teach us the basic components of a business plan - both for managing your business and to help obtain financing.

The KSBDC helps entrepreneurs and small business owners to start and grow small businesses in Kansas. they provide free, confidential, one-on-one business consulting.

These meetings have been filling up fast lately, so RSVP today.

Here's the meeting details, hope to see you there:

Date: February 20, 2008
Time: 11am - 1pm
Location: Bacchanalia Banquet Facility (click here for map)
Cost: $15 for members, $20 for guests when you RSVP and pay online at www.kcshbc.org. Buffet lunch included with the meeting.

Top Marketing Secrets of Experts

Anita Campbell, publisher of Small Business Trends, has compiled a list of Marketing Tips from various marketing experts (hat tip to John Jantsch for pointing this one out). I must favor the short, practical tips, because these two were my favorite:

Seth Godin, SethGodin.com – “Make promises and keep them. So obvious, it’s become a secret.”

Guy Kawasaki, Truemors -– “Do the opposite of what bloggers think you should do.”

I particularly like Seth's tip because to me it is a reminder of the importance of 1) focusing on the customer and 2) consistently executing on the "little things" makes all the difference in the world.

Read the whole list here and let me know which tips are your favorites.