Did you wake up this morning thinking, "I really need to buy insurance today."

Probably not. Nor, in all probability, did you wake up thinking, "I need to buy a new widget (of any sort) today."

Yet marketers seem convinced that buying their product or service is your dominant thought all day, every day. This is evidenced by the types of ads, sales letters and website content we see all around us.

But what we do wake up thinking is, "I really need to solve this problem today."

The lesson here is that if the insurance sales person or the widget marketer would think in terms of solving my problems, they would be a lot more likely to get me to buy their product.

There are things that keep us all awake at night. A marketer's job is to find the people who are worrying about a certain problem and show that what they sell is a solution to that problem.

I read a tag line recently that said, "No Pain, No Change."

If we do not position what we sell as a solution to someone's problem, we are unlikely to get them to change what they are already doing.

The simple fact is that all any of us really sell are aspirins.

Our prospects do not want to hear about the pretty coating we have over our aspirins. Nor do they want to hear about the attractive bottle we package our aspirins in. And they do not even want to hear that our aspirin company has been in business for 100 years and has won all kinds of awards for our pretty, attractively-packaged aspirins.

They just want to know that our aspirins will make their pain go away.

It really isn't any more complicated than that.

All this came to mind recently in two conversations I have had recently.

Yesterday I met with a lady who sells a service that offers a wide variety of protection services for families and businesses. She was having a difficult time getting to people to see the need for this service, mainly because they had not had this particular type of headache before.

But the more I questioned her, it came out that one of her company's main services was to protect people from identity theft. She was really knowledgeable about identity theft becoming the fastest-growing crime in America. She also informed me that the number one target for identity theft is now children, because they might not discover the theft until they reach college age.

So I pointed out that this identity theft protection was her "low hanging fruit."

We discussed a workshop she could put together about identity theft and present to parent-teacher organizations, retirement communities, civic organizations, etc. In other words, educating people about a headache they don't yet have, but could have very soon.

Another conversation I had was in a question-answer session after talking about LinkedIn (and social media in general) to a local chamber of commerce group.

One lady, who worked for a printing company, asked about broadcasting information about the printing business to her connections on LinkedIn. After shuddering slightly, I suggested instead that she identify her top customers by industry and address their reality. What problems (headaches) do these businesses face that her printing services can solve?

In other words, address her customers' realities. Don't focus on what you want to sell, but on the pain they are experiencing. Offer solutions to their problems, even if these solutions do not directly relate to selling printing services.

The whole concept of content marketing is about addressing the needs, problems and goals of the people you are trying to reach. This kind of content builds relationships, trust and credibility.

In other words, never lose sight of the fact that all you really sell is aspirin.

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Recently I have noticed a growing backlash against the concept of Personal Branding. Several people on Twitter have rightly pointed out that (at least the way many people are practicing it) personal branding has become little more than snake oil salesmanship.

My first thoughts were that these critics were just uninformed. Personal branding, as I have been using it in this blog, is a good thing. It is a way to get the word out about one's skills and expertise.

I am a veteran of sending out lots of resumes and getting little or no response. I am also a veteran of feeling frustrated because I was very good at what I did, but felt I had no way to get the right people to know about me.

Finally, I am also a veteran of old-style techniques of marketing my services as a business person (I still have nightmares about making 200 cold calls a day). I knew there were people who needed my services, but was unable to be found by these potential clients.

Personal branding is the tool to let people who need your expertise find you.

One of the most life-changing books I've read in my life was Robert Bly's How to Become a Reccognized Authority In Your Field - In 60 Days or Less. Bly opened up a new world for me, a world that opened my eyes to the world of how to leverage your skills and become a widely-known expert.

The bottom line is that personal branding without expertise IS hype and IS deserving of the criticism I have been reading about.

Which leads me to my definition of personal branding:

Personal Branding is becoming a recognized expert in a certain niche by producing content that demonstrates knowledge and adds value.

I am not an advocate of Hollywood-style branding, in which someone seeks to become a celebrity simply by being a celebrity. I think of this as the "Paris Hilton method of personal branding."

I suspect this is where the backlash and criticism is coming from. The Hilton method is not, to my mind, really personal branding at all. There is no substance to this kind of name recognition.

In contrast, think of a politician you regard as someone who is a person of integrity and public service. (Try really hard, I'm sure you can think of someone you respect).

When you vote for someone in an election, you vote because of two things:

First you choose this person because of name recognition. This person has done something to get herself on your radar.

But second, and just as importantly, you choose this person because you perceive this person to be the better person to deliver the results you desire. You regard this person as capable, knowledgeable, and good at her work.

It is this second factor that is missing from some efforts to establish personal brands.

So how do you establish this perception of expertise? My answer is to produce content. Content, whether in the form of a blog, a book, podcasts, speeches, public presentations, teleseminars, or videos, establishes a person as knowledgeable within a field.

If you want to establish a real personal brand, do so by producing information that solves your audience's problems, helps them achieve their goals, educates them, and helps them make better decisions.

In the world of social media, few people have achieved more celebrity and more of a personal brand, than Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary began his video blog, Wine Library TV, in February 2006. Today he gets over 80,000 visitors a day.

Gary began his video blog because he didn't think he had the patience to stick with a written blog. Every episode showed Gary in his cluttered office in his family's wine store discussing a variety of topics about wine. He would do tastings and discuss which wines might go well with certain occasions.

These short videos propelled Gary into a major star. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Business Week and the New York Times. He is also a much sought after speaker for many business events.

But at the core of his celebrity is content. Gary has consistently built his personal brand upon information. He has created a huge body of work that you can find on a variety of platforms, both online and offline.

If you are starting out, I would suggest that you begin with a blog. Whether you choose a written blog, a video blog or an audio blog (podcast), produce content that will appeal to your audience and solve their problems.

Over time, you can spin and re-purpose your blog material into other forms of content, such as a book or public presentations.

And what if you are not already an expert in your field? Use your blog as a platform to learn more about your topic. As you write about it in small doses, you will find yourself reading, researching, talking with others, interviewing experts, and becoming an expert yourself.

So to the critics of personal branding, I would suggest that branding by producing quality content is a far better way to reach clients and employers than by sending out resumes or direct mail. It is a give-to-get philosophy that builds a brand by adding and creating value to the very people you want to reach.

Or would you rather go back to cold calling and mailing 10,000 resumes?

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I was just talking to a lady I met at a local networking group about how to use social networking to promote her business. The nature of her business prevents her from engaging in a lot of common marketing approaches because it happens to be very heavily regulated.

She is a financial planner who works for a large financial services company. If you are familiar with this industry, you are no doubt aware that everything, I mean EVERYTHING, she wants to send out (direct mail, advertisements, public speaking engagements, and everything she puts on the web) must be first approved by her company's compliance department.

I suggested that she talk to her compliance officer about starting a blog devoted to the needs of female business women. It would be a blog about topics like:

• How to succeed in business,
  
• Time management,
  
• How to attract business,
  
• How to advance in ones' career,
  
• How to balance work and family life,
  
• Leadership and management skills,
  
• Case studies of successful business women,
  
• and maybe, just maybe, an occasional (compliance approved)article on financial planning topics.
  

Think about how this focus differs from the approach most business take when they start producing content.

• A computer company would usually spew out articles about their products and the technology they are so proud of.
  
  
• A law firm would be expected to bury readers under profiles of their lawyers, their long and prestigious experience, the areas of law they specialize in, ad nauseum.
  
  
• A cell phone manufacturer would often tell us all about their products, complete with pictures of attractive people enjoying talking to each other.

In other words, the traditional approach is "look how great we are," "look at how great our products are," "let us tell you about how much better we are than the competition."

Which brings me to two recent articles I have read by the two authors of the great book, "Get Content, Get Customers," Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett.

The first article, Newt Barrett's Give Your Marketing Real Depth to Deliver Offline and Online Results features Best Magazine from Best Buy.

While Best Magazine does mention products, it has the look and feel of an airline in-flight magazine. It has articles about things that are of interest to Best Buy's very best customers.

Much like the type of blog I suggested to my new friend.

Joe Pulizzi's article, Custom Print Magazines - Why Can't MasterCard Produce Inc. Magazine? is about the value of custom print magazines.

Joe was lamenting the fact that top brands like MasterCard, Verizon or AT&T are missing the opportunity to publish magazines like Inc. (which is apparently one of Joe's favorites). He cites a statistic that reports 80% of consumers prefer to receive company information in the form of educational articles.

Another statistic he cites is that readers spend about 25 minutes looking through a custom magazine. Can you imagine your customers spending 25 minutes looking through your company's marketing materials in their present format? This is the power of providing information that addresses a target audience's reality.

By reality, I mean that your typical prospect is not spending her days and nights thinking about your products. She IS however, spending her time thinking about her work, her family, her relationships, her problems, her dreams, and her goals.

Doesn't it make sense to produce content that builds a relationship with her by addressing her reality?

My good friend, Bill Hurlbut, sells insurance. But he is very active on Twitter simply giving his followers information that help them. He very rarely discusses insurance (that's why we're friends). He builds relationships by helping people with the problems they are concerned with. (By the way, be sure to follow him on twitter, his user name is @billhurlbut).

So back to my new friend the financial planner. If she wanted to create a blog about financial planning, investments and insurance, she would not only have to constantly get approval from her compliance officer, she would also have a blog that would compete with every other financial services person in her marketplace.

By creating a blog about the needs and interests of her target market - professional business women - she can address their reality, and build relationships with them.

Even without pitching her services or products, she would probably attract visitors to her website and develop a following for her business.

One final resource before I close. Patsi Krakoff has produced a very helpful tool, which is a worksheet for bloggers. It is called Content Marketing with Blogs: The First 7 Steps BEFORE You Blog. This is a very good way to organize your thinking and approach before you get started blogging.

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I just read a great article by Craig Wildenradt in Copyblogger.com called "How the Authority Rules Report Brought Me 234% More Site Memberships."

Craig details the actual results he has achieved as a result of following advice given in Brian Clark's free ebook, "Authority Rules":

• 234% more members to his membership site.
  
• 62% more unique visitors.
  
• 48% more total site visitors.
  
• 100% more paying clients.
  
• 92% increase in visits per day.
  
• 12% increase in referring sites
  
• 113% increase in search engine traffic
  

What did Craig do? He first created a free ebook to educate people about his subject matter, along with a supplemental audio program. Next, he made the ebook available without asking readers to opt-in to an email list.

This last part might cause a lot of marketers to pause. Why give away free information without attempting to capture email addresses? Isn't building a list of prospects the be-all and end-all of online marketing?

Not always.

The mere act of requiring readers to submit an email address inevitably causes a large number of your potential prospects to turn away without downloading your information. People are so overwhelmed by the volume of emails they receive each day that they are reluctant to add to the avalanche.

Moreover, making your information available without attaching opt-in strings enables your "fans" to freely share links on social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook. This means that your information has a better chance of "going viral" and reaching a larger audience than you could ever reach on your own.

Giving your information away does a number of remarkable things for your business:

• It positions you as an expert in your field.
  
• It creates a bond with your prospects/readers who are grateful for your willingness to solve their problems.
  
• It triggers the "Law of Reciprocity" which creates a sense of obligation when people receive something free.
  
• Educated prospects are the best prospects of all. Ignorance and confusion are the ultimate barriers to buying. Your information removes these barriers.

Check out both Craig Wildenbradt's article and Brian Clark's ebook, "Authority Rules." Both are well worth your time and might just help you achieve the same results that Craig experienced.

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One of my favorite places to find information on the web is YouTube. I have found that you can find great tutorials on just about anything there.

Case in point: I just read a great article on Mashable called Top 7 Twitter Tutorials on YouTube, which is a collection of super tutorials on how to use Twitter.

Check it out at: http://mashable.com/2009/05/31/twitter-tutorials-youtube/

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One of my ongoing challenges when explaining how social media can be used as a business tool, is how to demonstrate a strategy that will deliver real results.

There are still a lot of business people who suspect that social media is a waste of time or a distraction from doing real business. And there is something to be said for this suspicion - especially if social media is is pitched as a "magic pill" for all manner of business problems.

To help me better explain social networking (which is the human behavior rather than simply the technology of social media), I put together the flow chart below:

1. Step one is to Follow. I am practically a broken record on the subject of following strategically. The eventual makeup of the people who follow you will largely be based on the people you follow.
   
   Many of the people you follow will, in turn, follow you back. For example: my most recent Twitter stats indicate that around 25 to 33% of the people I follow, will follow me back within seven days.
   
   But by following certain people based on the subject matter of what they write about, you learn more about that topic. You may also re-tweet much of the content these people send out, and will then show up on their radar.
   
   Strategic following can be done by looking for keywords in the Twitter stream, keywords on blogs, or by simply following the people who follow certain "gurus" on your subject of interest.
   
   
2. The next step is Listening. Not spamming. Not telling. Just listening.
   
   Follow certain blogs in your field of interest. Read Faceboook walls of the people you are interested in. Set up keyword search columns on Tweetdeck.
   
   Read what the people you are strategically following tweet about, or make videos about, blog about or post on Facebook and LinkedIn.
   
   Not only will you learn more about your subject area, you will also be better able to contribute meaningful information and insights in a conversation with these people.
   
   
3. The next step is to Gather relevant content. The purpose is to find subject-specific information you can deliver to your own followers that solves certain problems, informs, starts conversations or helps achieve goals related to your field of interest.
   
   Social networking is all about giving others useful and valuable information. You cannot possibly produce enough of your own content to build a reputation as an expert in your field. But you can become an information resource to those who are interested in your subject.
   
   How do you find all this useful information?
   
   Set up Google Alerts to have new web content emailed to you each day whenever new information on your keywords is picked up by Google.
   
   Find blogs devoted to your subject on Alltop.com. Put the really good bloggers on your list to check on each day. Or better yet, sign up for their RSS feeds so their newest posts will be sent to you directly.
   
   You can also search social bookmarking sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, and many others. Just do a regular search for certain keywords and you will likely find a ton of great new articles and videos on these topics.
   
   Finally, search YouTube for great videos related to your field. You will be surprised at how many great tutorials are posted on YouTube.
   
   Whenever you find quality content, tweet about it. Write about it on your Facebook or LinkedIn site or mention it on your blog. In other words, share this content with the people who follow you on your various social media platforms.
   
   Why send out links to other business' websites? Because it will build your own brand as a provider of quality information on your topic. This is almost (notice that I said, "almost") as valuable as being a creator of quality information.
   
   Your goal is to position yourself as a resource, and gathered content works just as well as created content to achieve this goal. Your name will be associated with the quality of information you deliver, regardless of whether it is original to you or not.
   
   That being said, it is still important to create your own content. As important as positioning yourself as a resource is, it is also vital to position yourself as a thought leader. The next section will show how to do this.
   
   
4. Create content. Yes you should also create your own original content. As beneficial as it is to be known as a valuable resource, becoming a thought leader on your subject is the next step to gaining credibility and trust.
   
   Thought leadership need not be difficult. In most cases, creating your own original content can be just a matter of adding your own thoughts and insights to gathered resources.
   
   Some of your original pieces can begin with quotes or references to gathered content, but then you will add your own commentary. What insights can you add to a pieces created by someone else? What do you disagree with? What new direction does this information take you? How can you apply this information.
   
   By all means, make it simple. Create list articles on your blog. What tips or solutions can you offer people trying to solve certain problems.
   
   Create a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) that answer questions you have either heard or know from your own experience that people should be asking.
   
   How can you help people become better consumers of the type of service or product you offer? Give them quality information that will help them do this.
   
   Don't like to write? Create audio podcasts instead of articles. Record short videos (2 to 3 minute videos work best). Or just compile lists of links as resources for your readers.
   
   Once you have your own created content, do the same thing you do with the content you gather. Tweet about it, blog about it, write it on your Facebook or LinkedIn page.
   
   A good rule of thumb is that you will only send out one of your own created pieces for every ten or so links you send out that were created by others. Even occasional original content can help to establish you as a thought leader.
   
   
5. The final step is to Engage. Create conversations with others who are discussing your subject matter. Comment on blogs, retweet good articles, comment on Facebook entries, comment on YouTube videos, etc.
   
   If you find someone to be a valuable resource or thought leader on your topic, tell your own followers about this person. Compliment that person. Compliment a particularly valuable piece that person created.
   
   Use your social media platforms to ask questions or add your own insights about the things others have posted.
   
   If you have a blog, write trackback articles about another blogger's post that excites you. Don't feel shy about disagreeing, as long as you can do it without becoming disagreeable.
   
   Sometimes people ask questions on Twitter or LinkedIn that you can answer. By all means jump in and give that person your best shot. Send them links that will help them further.

The point here is that social networking really centers around sharing ideas, information and solutions. Add to the conversation but gather or create quality content so you will have something valuable to say.

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What good is having a website if people who want to do business with you cannot find your company online?

Studies show that 63% of potential customers go online to gather information before physically visiting a brick and mortar business. These are people who once looked for businesses in the Yellow Pages or newspapers. Now they look for businesses on the web.

The key to getting traffic is to have links that point to your website. LocalAdLink is a new service I've recently discovered that gives you an entire network of web links, making your site more findable to both search engines and people who want to do business now.

Here's how it works:



Online searchers are proven to be highly-motivated customers who are ready to buy now. If you would like more information, please contact me at either 817-501-6892 or by email here:
.

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