Reading and writing

Yeah, I read a lot. This is a picture of just part of my personal library. If you enjoy reading -- and writing -- you have a powerful competitive advantage. You should put these skill and interests to work for your business.

Most readers of this blog will not need or want to read as much as I do. After all, you are unlikely to consider writing as your trade. Then again, if you are reading these pages routinely, you know the value and power of the written word. Even as electronic and visual media have increasing role -- and accessibility -- in marketing, you can still absorb more information, sustainably, with words than with other media. (Obviously visuals can appeal to your emotions, and provide great demonstrations, but words still communicate abstract ideas and thoughts most powerfully.)

In fact, if you are an architectural, engineering or construction professional or trades person, if you are a reader, you have a powerful competitive advantage if you can convert your reading into writing. Succinct and informative articles in relevant trade journals and publications create credibility and relationships; both in writing them (your research opens the door for contacts you would not otherwise achieve) and in the distribution achieved to your readers.

Original, informative and educational content on your website will, of course be more powerful and effective for readers than the traditional platitudes and brochure-type imagery -- and if you update your site frequently with this original content, your search engine rankings may soar.

Finally, you might dare to tackle the biggest writing challenge -- the book. Earlier this year, I set a goal to have the first draft of my first book (naturally, the topic is construction marketing) ready by Christmas, and I'm on track to achieving the goal. Every day I set the alarm for 5 a.m., and complete about two hours writing and editing before everyone else awakens.

If you want to write a book, of course, you need to learn new skills and have patience and organization for a long-term project. Writing coach Cindy Shearer helped out at the start -- now the editing task passes to my wife, Vivian. As things progress, I expect the edited draft will be ready for layout and pre-press production at the end of January 2009, and then the manuscript will go to the online print-on-demand service. (Since my business is publishing, I'll self-publish this title -- using the wholesale print-on-demand service which allows for truly reasonable production costs (but you need to have qualified people familiar with the process of preparing and designing printed materials available to use this printer -- it isn't for amateurs.)

One great thing about effective writing is you can often recycle the same material in different formats and environments, allowing you to multiply your marketing impact for the same effort.

If you can/enjoy writing, do it.

The marketing process

Mike Burgelin sent me this email yesterday:

Hi, my name is Mike Burgelin owner of EmployeeLeasingQuotes.com. I would appreciate any linking opportunity from your site. We work with small business owners, primarily in the construction and trades industry. Our job is to help them find an employee leasing company that can lower their workers’ compensation costs and handle all the non-profitable tasks of dealing with payroll along with other employee related administrative headaches. I would also be open (if you are interested) to writing articles in these specific areas for your site. I currently write for maintenance magazine for my marketing business and have been designated an expert author by ezinearticles.com. Thanks for any assistance you can be. Please contact me if I can help you.

My initial reaction: Achhh, another person, seeing our high Google rankings, seeking to piggyback on this web presence for some free publicity. And indeed, I'm pretty sure this is what Mike is seeking to accomplish.

But I took some time to dig through his reference points, to this article list in Maintenance Supplies Magazine, and some of the writing is actually quite good. For example, note this quote from Cold Calling: The Wrong Approach.

As a distributor, you have salespeople cold calling on you. How do you react? How much time do you give the salesperson? Let's assume you need office supplies, ink cartridges for your copiers, etc. Will you take 30 minutes to sit with the salesperson? Do you think you will even keep their card?

An alternative

On the other hand, would you open a letter hand-addressed to you from the owner of the local office supply business? What if this person explained who they were in the community, provided a list of local customers and presented a few free tips on how you could save money along with a great business offer. Do you think you would remember their name? Would you be more open to a conversation with them?

I agree with Mike 100 per cent.

So I dug into this a little further, and discovered Mike's other site, Marketing Formulas, Inc., which has some useful articles and insights.