I thought it fitting to give thanks to those of you whose blogs I read… I can’t fit in everyone, so if you’re not here, you’re not forgotten! (Try looking here.)

Thanks to Mike for the inspiration to just get started blogging — and for the nudge to move my office to Des Moines. Looking forward to more from the original blog coach!

Thanks to Adam for his networking inspiration. Through you I have met many fine folks! Let’s all take a note from Adam and look around to see who needs to meet whom. (Is that proper grammar? My grammar is horrible.)

Thanks to Drew for his daily dedication to help us all improve our marketing habits and be better customer caretakers.

Thanks to Joanna for finding some great digital marketing examples that inspire!

Thanks to Tom for showing us what corporate video can do for a brand. Tom is a master videographer and it shows!

Thanks to the folks at NewTeeVee for their daily dose of web video news and what-have-you.

Thanks to Nalts for being nuts. Your grasp on the juvenile helps keep me from growing up completely.

Thanks to Dreamhost for being transparent when things go wrong. Wish all ISPs were so brave.

Thanks to Andy for your efforts to create technical unity to the Central Iowa Blogger folks. Without you, I’d have to subscribe to many more RSS feeds.

Thanks to Michael for your marketing insight. All too often I find myself either nodding my head in agreement or banging my head in realization that I have much work ahead of me.

Thanks to Matt for a never-ending supply of techno marketing information.

I’m not sure why you’re so lonely, Patrick, but I do enjoy reading your marketing insight!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

1. Introductions

2. Presentations

3. Invitations

4. Testimonials: Customer testimonials are not only a powerful way to build trust with potential customers, but they’re a great way to reach out to your existing customers and show them that you are serious about earning one from them — it also gives you an opportunity to discuss any reasons why they might not be willing to provide you with one!

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing believes that “…when a prospect reads a credible comment from another person, endorsing the promise of your marketing message, it does have an impact.”

Written testimonials are very effective, it’s true. However, by using Video testimonials, you allow potential customers to see and hear — and trust — what your existing customers have to say about you and your business.

I posted before about how video can be a great way to introduce yourself… but there is no denying the fact that an introduction by a third party is much more effective. Imagine, video testimonials allow your best customers to make introductions for you! And best of all, they can easily be shared with others at the click of a mouse — spreading them to people you may never have reached otherwise.

In a recent newspaper article, sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer said it simply, “In VIDEO format, customer testimonials are the single most powerful sales tool on the planet. They provide the proof that you can only brag about… Without video testimonials you are alone in the selling process. With them, you will have one thing the competition won’t have — the order.” (emphasis mine)

What story do your customers have to tell about you?

Additional reading:
Drew McLellan on making your clients the hero
Alfred Rocks! - by Andrew B. Clark

Next time: announcements 

I just found out a client (who registered their own domain name) neglected to renew it at the end of the term…

My hope was that it was in time to retrieve it out of what I call domain purgatory — otherwise known as Redemption Period — for a few hundred bucks. Unfortunately they were too late for that one too.

Now it seems that some Chinese company hailing from the Bahamas has squatted it. It will be interesting to see how much they want to charge them to get it back. First selling us all lead-laden toys — and now this? Geez.

The moral of the story. Do not let that domain expire! If you want to keep it, put it on auto-renew or something. And it wouldn’t hurt to buy American made products — but that’s another post for another blog.

I’m off to check my registrations ASAP!

I came across a really great tool that I plan to start using on a regular basis to help me post video to more than one video sharing site… get this… by uploading ONCE!

Yep, you heard right! Just upload video to TubeMogul and it takes care of the rest, by automatically posting the video to many other sites. What a time saver! Each video upload takes several minutes, and to post multiple videos to multiple sites, well the math quick turns against us.

As of right now, they support the following video sharing sites: Google Video, Metacafe, MySpace, Revver, Yahoo!, AOL Uncut Video, DailyMotion, YouTube, Crackle, Imeem, StupidVideos, and Veoh. They keep working to add more, so it’s going to get even better over time.

Check it out: TubeMogul.com

Continuing my “web video focus” on the seven types of online video marketing…

1. Introductions

2. Presentations

3. Invitations: Recently I received an invitation in the mail to attend a charitable event. The invite was simple enough — date, time, location, brief mention of the reason for the event… but after reading it I was left feeling a bit puzzled regarding what the particular event was about, let alone why I should attend.

As business folks (and especially non-profits) we all periodically send out invitations to events, open houses, dinners, speaking engagements, etc. My question is, does the recipient really know why they should attend, or what to expect when they do? Do these invitations do much to inspire or excite people about the event?

In my view, it’s not really a problem of the message so much as it is the fact that the invitations are limited to one medium — print. Don’t get me wrong, I like printed invites. They’re handy. You can hang them on the fridge, or pin them on the bulletin board. Print is limited, however, to a very finite amount of space, so the message has to be very concise.

This is where I believe video can augment printed invitations, and in many cases can replace them altogether. Video invitations can do the same things paper can (who, what, when, where, why) but also improves the message in several ways:

1. Personal - Video invitations can include a very personal message from key people within the organization. Whether it be lighthearted or serious (depending on the spirit of the event) video helps the recipient make an emotional connection to the event.
2. Inspirational - Especially in regards to charity events, people want to be inspired to attend and inspired to open their checkbooks. So much more can be done to inspire attendance by using video.
3. Excitement - It’s difficult to get excited about an event by reading about it… but to visualize it — that can generate some excitement. I think you probably see my point by now… but you can show much more visually with video than with print.

Sound like it makes some sense? I’d be interested to know what you think, and would be thrilled to hear from someone who has tried it!

Next time: Testimonials