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Kevin C. Whelan

Marketing Strategy Advisor and Mentor

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Marketing Consultants

May 7, 2022

The power of “memes-as-marketing”

Memes are an incredibly powerful form of communication.

They allow ideas to replicate and spread virally using a combination of wit, creativity, and repetitive visuals.

Just look at how well they perform on social media.

And if you can learn to harness the power of the meme, you stand a much better chance of getting your ideas to spread.

…but only if you know how to do it.

This Monday (sorry for the late notice!), I’m going to do a live interview with someone who has mastered the art of the meme, Dagobert Renouf.

He’s been able to grow his Twitter following (30k followers) and his logo business dramatically over the past year since starting to create publish unique startup memes almost daily.

If you want to explore the art of memes-as-marketing, for you and your clients, be sure to register for Monday’s live interview.

You’ll be able to ask the strategic and tactical questions needed to learn exactly how he does it.

No plans for publishing the recording yet, so be sure to tune in—even if you’re just listening in the background.

I plan to leave no stone unturned.

Register here if you’re interested: https://lu.ma/dagobert-renouf

May 6, 2022

Customer surplus and price-to-value-ratio

When you price your services, there’s something called customer surplus to consider.

Customer surplus, in this case, means the amount of profit your customers gain after deducting your costs.

Not all profit is financial, but it’s easier to think about it in financial terms.

On the one hand, you want to price your services high enough to attract people who need and value the outcome of your services.

People with the highest needs want to buy expensive solutions because they need them to work. Higher prices are both a signal of quality and they allow you to invest the resources to do great work.

On the other, you don’t want to price too high or you risk capturing too much of the customer surplus, making your products and services less compelling.

It also makes you less likely to be referred because the price to value ratio after an engagement wasn’t high enough to have people rave about you.

You also can’t drop your prices too low or your ideal customers also won’t buy it because, profit aside, they want and need something of quality that will actually solve their problems.

So should you price your work? Give this a listen to unpack the concept some more.

May 5, 2022

Live Interview: Memes as Marketing + Twitter Growth with Dagobert Renouf [RSVP]

This Monday, May 9th at 8am PST/11am EST/4pm UK, I’ll be chatting with Dagobert Renouf about how he grew his Twitter following to 30k followers and his startup, logology.co.

Why should you attend?

Dagobert publishes a daily startup meme he creates himself and gets tons of engagement each time. He’s a cult favourite. And for good reason.

He’s also highly interactive with his followers and startup community at large, adding insightful commentary—not just generic replies.

​Dagobert is worth following and learning from if you want to grow your audience on Twitter and other platforms. My plan is to dig out the gold in his head so we can all learn from his success.

​We’ll get into the specifics of:

  • ​His overarching Twitter strategy
  • ​Why he believes memes as a marketing tactic works so well
  • ​How he comes up with his meme ideas each day
  • ​How he actually creates and publishes his memes
  • ​His approach to engaging with accounts—small and big—at scale
  • ​The tools he uses to manage Twitter as a power user
  • ​How he’s grown his logo design business with this strategy
  • ​And a range of other topics!

​There will be time for Q&A toward the end and throughout the conversation. The style will be relaxed and informal.

​Please attend live if you’d like to ask questions and attend. I will record this webinar but not sure if/when/where I will publish it.

​This event is open to the public, so you’re welcome and encouraged to bring a friend!

Register here: https://lu.ma/dagobert-renouf

May 3, 2022

The medium forms the message

I’ve always been a little vague in my mind about whether my daily writings are emails, blog posts, or something else.

My workflow is to publish to WordPress and have it auto-send to my email subscribers (you) via ConvertKit and RSS.

I also share it in the Mindshare community to engage in conversations with members when they find topics interesting.

So does that mean my posts are blog posts, emails, or community content?

In my mind, I’m writing letters to my subscribers.

They’re conversational. Designed to get you thinking about one core idea without a lot of fluff. It’s almost like a running dialogue with you, my reader.

If I wrote with the intention of creating blog posts, they would take a much different form and serve a different function.

The medium forms the message.

Start with the intended medium and let the format flow from there.

May 2, 2022

A list of ways to sell your head—not just your hands

There are a wide range of ways to sell your expertise without actually doing execution work for your clients.

And the great thing is, a lot of this is accessible to people who are just starting out. It’s not just for the most seasoned veterans out there.

We can all teach something, right?

Below is an incomplete list ways you can sell your expertise separate from your execution.

My goal is to help get you thinking about what’s possible for you.

1. Consulting/Coaching/Mentorship

  1. Retainers
  2. Project
  3. Single calls
  4. Private
  5. Group

2. Knowledge products

  1. Books
  2. Online Courses
  3. eBooks
  4. Audio courses

3. Live Training

  1. Workshops
  2. Cohort-based courses
  3. Webinars
  4. Seminars
  5. Conferences
  6. Speaking
  7. Individual training
  8. Corporate training
  9. Group training
  10. Lunch and learns

4. Memberships

  1. Content
  2. Community
  3. Coaching
  4. Hybrid

5. Masterminds

  1. In-person
  2. Online

6. Content subscriptions

  1. Paid newsletters
  2. Paid podcasts
  3. Physical newsletters
  4. Private podcast subscriptions
  5. Limited content series

7. Templates

  1. Checklists
  2. Creative
  3. Administrative
  4. Swipe File

You can mix any of these together or sell them separately to create an unlimited variety of products and services.

You don’t have to sell your expertise 1:1. The options are endless.

The more you can get your ideas out of your head, ideally within a framework or process (or multiple) you can own, the easier it will be to sell your knowledge independently of your hands.

It’s easier than you think to expand your offers. It might be more lucrative, too.

Start small, see what feels right for you.

May 1, 2022

Make the call

Sometimes, the best option is to kick the can down the road on a big decision. New information comes around and we’re glad we waited.

Other times, we just need to make a decision and run with it. The sooner we make a decision, the sooner we’ll have new information to work with.

If you’re going to kick the can, just don’t do it forever. It’s too easy to do that.

Make a call and adjust as you go.

April 30, 2022

Pricing based on how you feel

There are a lot of ways to price your work.

The one that will probably net you the most money in the long run is value pricing.

Value pricing means capturing a percent of the value you help create.

The problem with value pricing is it involves a more nuanced conversation. You have to be patient, ask good questions, estimate your costs, and be able to calculate potential ROI situations to find the right price.

It’s an advanced method but one to try out as you get further along with your career.

Until then, keep it in the back of your mind and use it to inform the direction of your prices.

Another way to price, one more common to a lot of us, is based on how we feel about our prices.

Feeling out your prices may seem like the wrong way to do it, but I think it deserves more credit.

The longer we do our work, the more conversations we have. The more conversations we have—and the more work we do—the more patterns we see.

Over time, our ability to feel out a good price becomes honed in.

The market gives you feedback, you see how long things take, you factor in the typical value of each result you produce, and eventually, your prices become obvious.

If you’re not sure where to price, pick something that feels right. Add a little to it so it makes you at least a little excited to do the work.

That’s your price. At least for now.

Have more conversations. See what results you get. Adjust accordingly.

Feeling out your prices may leave some on the table in the short-run, but it’s not a bad strategy if you keep evolving over time.

Pricing is as much about how you and your buyer feels as it is any logical metric based on estimated value.

April 29, 2022

“What if my marketing budget doesn’t allow me to implement your advice?”

Mindshare member, Sean, had an interesting objection while selling his advisory services.

This is a common question when selling advisory work, so it’s worth unpacking this and other follow-up questions Sean had.

“What if my marketing budget doesn’t allow me to implement your advice?”

In this episode, I talk about:

  • How to answer this question succinctly in your FAQs or sales conversations
  • The difference between cash flow/budget adherence and long-term ROI
  • Breaking out a spreadsheet to show potential cash flow scenarios
  • Comparing their other options, like agency, in-house employee, and DIY
  • Business model and pricing questions around advisory vs. managed advisory services

At the end of the day, your job is to get an ROI for your clients in a cash-sustainable manner.

If budgets are strict, your job is to work within their constraints.

But it’s also worth noting that sometimes, the ROI pays dividends over a longer time horizon.

The better you can prove a business case, the easier it will be to sell.

Listen to this episode for a more in-depth response.

April 28, 2022

What to watch for (and manage) in a new engagement

When you start a new engagement, two things are usually true:

  1. The client is excited about the future and you represent the key to their success. Hopes are at their highest.
  2. The client is equally nervous it won’t work, and are looking for any signs they made the wrong choice in hiring you.

The better you are aware of these two contradictory but normal emotions, the better you can manage expectations both ways.

And it’s so important that you do.

April 27, 2022

Tough love

To be a trusted advisor, you need to be willing to give tough love.

I mean that in two parts: tough and love.

Sometimes, your feedback will be tough.

Your clients may even resent you for a minute. It’s not easy to hear tough feedback, but your job is to speak the truth in service of their goals.

More often, though, you need to dole out the love.

Provide encouragement, build confidence, and lift up your clients. Sprinkle that stuff on liberally—we all need to build on our successes.

Most of us get very little positive feedback as it is, so we’re not even aware of the things we do well.

It’s your job to be their champion and advocate—just be sure to do it with kindness and tact.

You can’t help your clients without giving both the tough and the love.

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