MARK YOUR CALENDARS: Monday, August 18th, Noon (CST)
The Marketing Twins are offering a FREE marketing coaching program, sponsored by Duct Tape Marketing, Monday, August 18th, Noon (CDT). Randy is Fort Worth’s only Duct Tape Marketing Authorized Coach. This FREE conference call is an interview between John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing and Stephen M.R. Covey, the son of Dr. Stephen R. Covey, the author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey is the author of The Speed of Trust. Covey will speak on the importance of leadership, trust and authenticity between you and your customers.

We will be sending out another announcement as the date gets closer on how to register but go ahead and mark your calendars now to reserve the time in your busy day.

If you missed it, learn more about doing GREATER THINGS by linking over to our latest blog posts on how small businesses can be involved in charitable giving. (PART I and PART II)

Did you miss the article about the politician who let’s his supporters make their own campaign signs, giving them the opportunity to tell the world why they are voting for him? There’s application for small business. Are we willing to let other people be our advocates - do we trust them enough to speak on our behalf? Gone are the days of tightly controlled messages. In the open source world of the internet, we must embrace the idea that the world is already talking - but are they talking about you?

Want to do GREATER THINGS today? Help an orphanage in Africa by August 15th!

This is a continuation of our series on giving, stewardship and charitable giving (go to Part 1 here).

Today, we want to highlight some of the organizations with whom we work. You can read more about these organizations at our stewardship and charitable giving page on our website.

At the end of each quarter, The Marketing Twins at 1429 Creative give a portion of our quarterly sales to one of the 3 charities listed below.

Christ’s Haven for Children (Keller, TX)
Christ’s Haven for Children provides a warm, loving, Christian environment in which children in need of basic care can grow physically, emotionally, and spiritually to become productive citizens in society. The Marketing Twins at 1429 Creative offered a monetary donation at the end of 1Q08. To accompany the financial gift, we offered the organization 5 hours of FREE marketing support that they can use whenever they need it.

Our Father’s Children - Royal Family Kids Camp (Hurst, TX)

The mission of of OFC is “reaching out to abused and neglected children - bringing hope to the future, one child at a time.”  Under the umbrella of OFC is a unique opportunity for kids who are desperate for HOPE!  The week-long camps called “Royal Family Kids Camps” are wonderful opportunities to touch the lives of kids who have been ravaged by horrific environments.  Donny, the other Marketing Twin, has been involved in RKFC for a decade - he has participated in the camps each summer for a majority of those years.  Last month, Donny and I took a day away and spent the afternoon assisting the camp throw huge birthday party for all these kids - for most of them, it was the only birthday party they had ever experienced!  Dancing, cake, swimming, bounce houses, rock climbing walls - it was a blast, and even more fun to see the faces of the kids light up when they got their special gift box with their name on it!  These are unique and important occasions and we are eager to continue supporting Our Father’s Children and RKFC!

Village of Hope Orphanage
(Benin, West Africa)

For almost a decade, my wife and I were training for and serving as missionaries in Benin, West Africa.  In addition to making a number of great lifelong friends (on another post, I’ll have to share about how we adopted our 4th child from Benin), we became good friends with a local orphanage and its director.  They are a local organization with little or no outside support - they are a private institution that needs help!  When you visit the Village of Hope (the kids called it “Villope”!), you hear the heart-wrenching stories of kids who have been sent to the orphanage because their parents have HIV or have died of AIDS.  And a number of the kids have been rescued from child trafficking efforts to take the kids into enslavement of the cocoa fields in other parts of West Africa.

My wife and I will be returning to Benin to visit in late August.  We will be visiting many friends but will also spend some time at the Village of Hope.  We have launched a campaign to raise $3000 to assist the orphanage with money to feed two meals a day to the 75+ kids and help them enclose their kitchen.  Right now the kitchen is a traditional outdoor African kitchen nestled under a thin sheet of rusty tin near a mango tree.  While functional for most African families, to feed 75 people in these conditions (especially during the rainy season) is an overwhelming challenge.  We have set up a website where you can view pictures of the kids at the orphanage.  Please consider as well joining us in reaching our goal of $3,000.  We are over half-way there because of the generosity of friends and clients of ours!  You can donate online at www.BeninKids.com.

We are thankful that you have allowed us to share some of what’s important to us.  These are the greater things that we all need to be doing (you choose what causes resonate the most with you).  It’s more than just about profits, making money and building bigger businesses.  Those are the means by which you can impact your local community and the world.

At the end of the day it feels good to give back. It feels good knowing we make a difference in the life of a child.
We use our resources to positively impact our world. And to us…
that’s doing GREATER THINGS!

-Randy

PS - Would you seriously consider a small online donation ($25) to support the Village of Hope in West Africa?  The children would be so grateful.

PART 1 of 2:

Does your organization or small business give to charity? Do you have a special cause that is important to you? An LA times article points that charitable giving is “on a roll” in small business. But are you participating?

There are a number of reasons to give charitably. First of all, I think we can assume that most people and small businesses who give charitably do so out of genuine concern and care. Sure, there are those who do it for exploitation or egotistical reasons. If you are a Kingdom business, you know the dilemma - do you give charitably and even share your vision with others, or do you wrestle with letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing (Mt 6:3 from the Bible)?

David Frey, in a recent post on his website, says this:

Many savvy small businesses are affiliating themselves with charities to market their businesses. Not only is it a primary means for developing a powerful network but also it helps others in the process. People like to associate themselves with businesses that support causes, which help disadvantaged people in a meaningful way.

At 1429 Creative, the Marketing Twins refer to our stewardship vision as doing “GREATER THINGS”. On our stewardship page on our company’s site, we like to encourage small businesses to do such things in a variety of ways:

• Sharing your success to impact your community and the world.
• Rallying your team behind a passion greater than your organization itself.
• Differentiating your organization by focusing on selfless acts of community service.
• Generously giving back of your resources so others can move forward.

If you are genuine in your concern for the charities or causes that you support, I don’t think you need to worry about your customers thinking you are arrogantly bragging. We live in a generous nation (maybe not generous enough, but still, we’re by-and-large a giving culture when we see real needs). I believe when you act responsibly with what you have received, your customers and prospective customers will appreciate your willingness to use your resources to benefit others. Just don’t give to that end: don’t give to impress. Give out of your heart and a generous spirit and you will receive the proper recognition as a secondary benefit (the first benefit comes from giving and helping others). Tax deductions are another side benefit, but I would implore you to make sure that’s not your primary reason. You will not receive the true benefit and blessing of your giving if that is your primary motivation. Your generosity won’t inspire anyone and your customers will see right through it (authenticity speaks volumes!). Give to give. Give to participate more responsibly in your local community and the world. Doing GREATER THINGS is not equivalent to GETTING TAX DEDUCTIONS.

Stay tuned in a couple of days and I will outline what the Marketing Twins are doing at 1429 Creative in the way of GREATER THINGS.

Give generously,

-Randy

GO TO PART 2: 

* In the comments, let’s hear YOUR practical ideas on giving. What are YOU doing in your corporate giving? Is your small business or organization giving to a certain cause? Remember, it’s not always about money. You could be giving your TIME as well to various projects. This is not boasting; it is an opportunity to learn how to give better. Please offer a link to any sites that you think speak positively to small businesses about giving.

1429 Creative is a faith-based creative team in Fort Worth, Texas.

Are you a Do-It-Yourself kind of person? In your business or organization, do you like to have your hands in all areas of business (accounting, payroll, benefits, taxes, banking, etc…)? Are you the DIY type who feels capable of handling these things? Some of us are, some are not. And even if we WANT to do so, sometimes we simply lack the time to do it ourselves. Or we must admit that sometimes our expertise is just short of being effective with our time, so we’d be better off outsourcing or paying someone else to do it for us.

As marketing coaches, we enjoy helping people on all points on the spectrum. Some just need the right tools and a little training. Others want to outsource their marketing completely. But the majority would like to have full control yet enjoy the opportunity to learn how to do it themselves and do it in the most effective way possible. They just need to be able to go somewhere to find the right tools, the right plans and even obtain a little counsel from someone trained to help. (isn’t this how we approach our runs to the local home improvement store?)

Well good news! There is a systematic approach and it really is the only marketing approach that makes sense. You have payroll systems, a clear plan for your employees’ benefits, and you have probably sought out the counsel of CPA in developing a systematic way to budget and pay your taxes. Most small business owners outsource these functions not because they CAN’T do them themselves. With all the tools out there nowadays, small business owners are equipped to be DIY’ers! But the Do-It-Yourself approach says that you have time for all these functions and the expertise to do them right. If you don’t have the time for paying taxes or lack the know-how to properly prepare them, do you just float along without assistance or plan, crossing your fingers and hoping for the best??? Mostly likely not unless you’d love an audit.

A marketing colleague of mine and fellow Duct Tape Marketing Authorized Coach is quoted in a recent press release:

“We have found that many small business owners are spending way too much of their time doing things that are not part of their expertise,” said Troy Braithwaite. “If they are not experts in marketing and accounting, then it is not cost effective for them to be doing these things. Many small business owners don’t realize how valuable their time is and how affordable and effective it is to have marketing and accounting experts on their team.”

Troy is right. There is a systematic approach that works. It’s practical for any business. It’s simple to use and flexible. And it’s affordable. As Fort Worth’s only Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach, how can I help make you more effective?

-Randy

1429 Creative is a faith-based creative team in Fort Worth, Texas. 

OK, I finally get to use this picture. It’s kind of cheesy, but when you are at an exclusive training event with only 15 other licensed Duct Tape Marketing coaches, you’ve got to have your picture taken with a marketing guru! John Jantsch is the founder of Duct Tape Marketing. When we started our company and wanted to coach and train people in their marketing efforts, I could have re-invented the wheel. But when I read John’s DTM book, I thought “this is perfect for small businesses wanting to implement a systematic approach to marketing!” Like a good roll of duct tape, this system is practical, affordable and simple to use. And like John says about it in comparison to the favorite resource in everyone’s tool chest (duct tape), “it works every time you use it!” (somewhere out from the flat landscape of West Texas, my Dad is shouting “Amen!!” - man, that man knows how to use duct tape on everything!)

Don’t stretch the duct tape analogy so far you lose the meaning. I met a guy once who said, “well, isn’t duct tape just a temporary fix?” And another said, “but I don’t like to use duct tape, I prefer silicon glue.” OK - enough! The idea is NOT to focus so much on stretching the metaphor to apply in every situation. It’s designed as a way to make the brand memorable and to relate the systematic marketing approach to something alot of people use already in their everyday lives. If you read Seth Godin’s book, “The Purple Cow”, you’ll hear him refer to the purple cow a few times in the beginning. It helps grab your attention and make you want to ask more about it. But Seth talks about what the image of a purple cow represents, and that’s standing out as remarkable! After the first chapter, he rarely even mentions cows of any color! But it makes a point! John’s book and any of the Duct Tape Marketing resources do not consistently reference duct tape or perpetuate some sort of cheesy toolbox metaphor. The name goes only so far and gets you to see that just like duct tape is simple, practical and affordable (and really works in almost every situation!), this systematic approach will do the same (it’s simple to employ, practical and not just theory, and it’s affordable for small businesses)!

For more on Duct Tape Marketing, go to the official DTM site or to John’s blog. You’ll learn alot! There’s alot of similar marketing approaches out there, but if you were to GOOGLE “what is the best marketing system for small business?” - I think you’ll find that Duct Tape Marketing is one of the world’s most popular solutions for small business owners (see Google results here if you don’t want to type it in yourself). John also writes a regular feature article for Entrepreneur.com as well.

I am Fort Worth’s only Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach. I am one of only 3 in the entire DFW area, so if you are looking for someone to help coach you through the world’s most practical small business marketing system, contact me! Along with Donny, we are a faith-based creative team working with small businesses, non-profits, churches, startups, independent business owners - anyone who is trying to communicate to people about their product, service and message. The Marketing Twins at 1429 Creative offer a variety of training courses (some FREE and some low-fee) and can tailor make a coaching program designed around your budget and your needs!

We offer a FREE 30 minute consultation if you’d like to hear more about how we can help you develop a stronger and more effective marketing strategy for your organization. One of our favorite experiences is to sit down with clients who want to have us help them assess their past and current marketing initiatives (or lack thereof), and help guide them to a plan of marketing priorities that will bring them greater web exposure, more substantial leads, and relieve them of the constant hit-or-miss marketing strategy so often employed by small businesses. Especially if you are a Kingdom-minded business and want to do GREATER THINGS with what you’ve been given, please contact us to find out how we can help you do GREATER THINGS!

***

SPECIAL OFFER: If you contact The Marketing Twins by July 31 for your FREE marketing consultation, we will then give you 20% off any coaching program you decide is best for you! You can get a $600 coaching program for only $480 (special arrangements can be made to spread out the payments to help you manage your cash flow!) Or our more extensive STAR program (usually $1500 that covers 8-10 weeks and a host of amenities) could only cost you $1200! Once you have completed a coaching program tailor-made just for your business or organization, you’ll have the understanding of how to have a more systematic marketing approach for your marketing efforts!

***

TO CONTACT US: Go here!

- Randy, Fort Worth’s only Licensed and Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach

PS - This week at MarketingTwins.com, we’re gonna spend sometime highlighting our GREATER THINGS initiatives. We hope you don’t consider it braggadocious - we feel we have a stewardship responsibility with what we have been given. We will also hopefully have time to not just tell about what we are doing to give back, but highlight other businesses and organizations who have similar ideas about giving back to the community and to our world. We hope to use these posts as a way to inspire you to do GREATER THINGS and to show you how you can help us do GREATER THINGS!

PS 2 - Don’t forget the special offer: contact us by July 31 for your FREE marketing consultation and you’ll save HUNDREDS of dollars (20%) on any coaching program you decide will benefit most your marketing strategy!

PS 3 - How ‘bout something FREE today? Go to our FREE REPORTS page and download any number of FREE resources on a variety of marketing topics to help you in marketing your business or organization. They are absolutely FREE to download! Also, for FREE, would you sign up for our NEWSLETTER so you can receive additional marketing tips, news about upcoming workshops, and other critical marketing tools that will inspire you to do GREATER THINGS!
1429 Creative is a faith-based creative team in Fort Worth, Texas. 

Donny here - guest blogging for the day. Allow us to step back and have a good laugh at some funny church signs.

Not sure if this is a real sign but it made me laugh

Not quite the “invitation song” I would be looking for

Church 2.0?

If you are a church, non-profit or a small business and are struggling with trying to determine how your marketing can help you reach new members, new donors or new clients, contact us and let us help you.

We are Marketing Coaches and we are ready to help you with your marketing challenges. Got a lot of great marketing ideas but need help implementing them? We can help! Don’t have any marketing ideas and you’re in need of some inspiration? We can help there too!

At 1429 Creative, the Marketing Twins offer great coaching solutions for your marketing problems. Randy is the only Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach in Ft. Worth, Texas and one of only 3 in the entire DFW area!! To know more about Duct Tape Marketing, go here.

Lastly, check our our website or blog to sign up for a FREE REPORT on 7 Steps to Marketing Success!

Have a great day - now go out and do GREATER THINGS!

-Donny & Randy, The Marketing Twins at 1429 Creative

1429 Creative is a faith-based creative team in Fort Worth, Texas. 

The Marketing Coaching Series, offered by the Marketing Twins at 1429 Creative in conjunction with Duct Tape Marketing, begins in 30 minutes - at 12 NOON CST!

Have you enrolled yet? If you haven’t enrolled, email me right now and I’ll give you the call-in number - you may email me at:

randy [a t] 1429creative [ d o t] com

This is going to be a great call - David Meerman Scott is on the cutting edge of using online marketing tools to enhance your marketing strategies (blogging, social media applications, electronic news releases, etc…) If this is an area with which you are unfamiliar, or see the potential but haven’t really launched anything online, call in to this FREE CONFERENCE CALL. It’ll probably last about an hour.

-Randy

In preparation for tomorrow’s Duct Tape Marketing FREE Coaching Conference Call (see details in previous post), if you have any specific question for David Meerman Scott about PR and Marketing Online, leave it in the comments. As an Authorized DUCT TAPE MARKETING Coach, I can try and submit any of your questions directly to John Jantsch who will be facilitating the interview with DMS. John is the founder and creator of Duct Tape Marketing.

So what question(s) do you have for David Meerman Scott? Leave them in the comments section. Again, BE SURE AND ENROLL so you can obtain the call-in information. Just click down below to the previous post about enrolling.

-Randy

On this Wednesday, July 16 at NOON (CST), the Marketing Twins at 1429 Creative are offering a FREE marketing coaching program sponsored by Duct Tape Marketing. This FREE conference call is an interview between John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing, and David Meerman Scott.

David is a thought leadership and viral marketing strategist and author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to use news releases, blogs, podcasts, viral marketing and online media to reach your buyers directly. I have heard David speak on numerous occasions and am currently reading his latest book (see the authors’ book blog). DMS is a brilliant marketing mind, and yet very practical for small businesses and even non-profit organizations. He keeps things simple, yet he is an excellent resource for understanding complicated online marketing and all the Web 2.0 tools available. As marketing coaches, we enjoy bringing you opportunities like this where you can sit at the feet of some of this world’s most innovative marketing leaders - and you don’t have to get on a plane and travel to some conference to do it! If you’ve never participated in a conference call of this kind, let this be your first. You’ll learn something new, I promise!

To enroll in this FREE coaching excellence series conference call, click here. Enrollment is necessary in order to obtain the conference call CALL-IN number and passcode.

These sessions usually last about an hour or so, so take your lunch hour this Wednesday and invest in yourself! Invest in your marketing!

-Randy, Fort Worth’s only Authorized DUCT TAPE MARKETING Coach

* To hear a 2007 podcast where David talks about new media tools, listen here. Or watch this YouTube video by DMeermanS.
** To understand more about what The Marketing Twins at 1429 Creative can do for you, see the previous post where we talk about how you will benefit from solid marketing coaching.

1429 Creative is a faith-based creative team in Fort Worth, Texas. 

UPDATE ON THE PREVIOUS POST: (see bottom of this post)

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HOW’S YOUR MARKETING GOING IN 2008?

So you’re past the first half of this calendar year … how’s it going?

Have you met all your 1Q and 2Q goals you set back in January?

Are you having the leads and referrals you need to continue into the homestretch of 2008? Profits like you want?

Are you in control of your marketing … or are you feeling OUT of control?

As an Authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach, I am equipped to coach you through a systematic approach to your marketing. One that will start by identifying your ideal client and a core message that zeros in on that target market. Then we’ll examine your presentation, your logo, and all your marketing collateral to see if it is tailored to reaching this same group (often we find that it needs an updated look or extreme makeover!) As we move into the area of online marketing, we’ll explore ways that you can harness the power of the internet to educate people about you and your products/services. We explore ways to use the web to get your target market to know you, to come to gravitate to you because you resonate with them, and then they become such happy customers that not only do they remain loyal, but they also become strategic referral partners! This is just some of what a marketing coaching program does for you!

Are these ideas that you could use some coaching with? As marketing coaches, Donny & I (The Marketing Twins at 1429 Creative) are ready to inspire you and coach you through the remainder of 2008 (and get geared up for 2009!)

I am the only Authorized Duct Tape Marketing coach in Fort Worth and one of only 3 in the entire DFW area. We are a part of a strong and growing association of marketing coaches around the globe who are committed to helping small business expand even in times of “mental recession” (quoting Dr. Phil Graham!) - to know more about Duct Tape Marketing, go here.

At 1429 Creative, we offer a variety of marketing coaching services, ranging from one- or two-session training huddles, to short-term coaching programs (anywhere from 3-12 months), and even long-term marketing coaching and consulting. We stand ready to come alongside you and your marketing efforts - and if you don’t have a Marketing Department or Marketing Director - as YOUR marketing coaches, the Marketing Twins at 1429 Creative offer you much of the same knowledge, skills and abilities without having the headaches of hiring a marketing department (and at a fraction of the cost!)

We offer a FREE 30 minute initial consultation! We also are continuing to offer our 3-HOUR marketing audit, called ONE-ON-ONE, at the low introductory price of only $150. That’s not an hourly rate, that’s for a 3-hour session with the Marketing Twins for less than what most marketing coaches charge per hour! Starting in 2009, that fee will be going up to at least $300, so secure your spot now. We have limited times available each month, and only 2 slots remain for July. Sign up today!*

-Randy & Donny, The Marketing Twins at 1429 Creative

* If you secure a spot with us by JULY 31st, we’ll even do it for $125. Contact us for more information!

————————————-

** UPDATE ON PREVIOUS POST: I’ve been trying to give away a 10pk Memorex CD-R … oh, did I mention it comes with a $10 gift card to Starbucks? I’m serious! - if you are interested, see the previous post about how to make sure you get the goods! You gotta earn it!

1429 Creative is a faith-based creative team in Fort Worth, Texas. 

I am cleaning house! Actually, no I’m not. Just trying to get rid of this one thing (my wife has begged me to clean my home office completely, but to no avail!).

So, here’s the offer. Make a comment. That’s it.  If I appreciate the value of your comment on ANY of the posts on MarketingTwins.com (yes, go back into the archives if you want … I will get the notice that a comment has been made), I’ll get your address offline and mail these CD’s to you. They’ll hopefully serve you better than they have me. I bought them months ago and never used them. Now they are just taking up shelf space. And I need to share the love with someone like you.

Any takers? Just make a comment of value and I’ll decide by the end of the week.

Help me clean house!

-Randy

Today I had lunch with a marketing coach - someone for whom I have great respect and who helps me see what I cannot.  That’s one unique role of a coach, isn’t it?  The coach always sees the plays and formations easier than the players on the field.  They have experience and they have eyes to see what sometimes we can’t see when we are in the middle of the game.

Today I was inspired to try harder and work smarter.  I learned ways to make my own business more efficient and more profitable (and not always having to raise my prices just to do so).  I got ideas on how to better package my services so that they become resonators for our clients.  I was able to share my struggles, frustrations, fears and just admit - you know, even as a marketing coach myself, I don’t have all the answers.  This seasoned marketing coach not only admitted the same thing (which made me feel a ton better), but I also learned by sitting down with someone with greater experience and knowledge, I came away better and more inspired.  Energized.  Renewed.

So here comes the shameless pitch - I want to be that coach for you!  Yes, you heard me right.  Admittedly, I don’t have all the answers, but I spend most of my days working with a variety of clients learning what works and what doesn’t - gaining alot of experience that could save you alot of costly mistakes!   I spend the other part of my day studying marketing trends and trying to find ways to teach our clients about them.  (That sounds like a full day, but I still get to put on the husband and dad hats, too!)  So I believe I am equipped to help you go to the next level, rediscover your passion for being an entrepreneur or independent business owner, and reignite your vision for your small business!

The things I learned today, I am eager to pass them on to you.  Contact me and set up a time to talk.   We conduct a FREE 30 minute consultation over the phone or in person.  That’ll give us both a chance to see if we are fit.  Then we can proceed from there in mapping out a blueprint to your marketing success.

As a proud member of the Duct Tape Marketing Coaching Network, I look forward to sharing with you a systematic approach to your marketing that is simple, effective and affordable.  As one of only 3 DTM coaches in the DFW area and the only Authorized DUCT TAPE MARKETING Coach in Fort Worth, I am eager to get together with you.

TO CONTACT ME - CLICK HERE  (I prefer email because I can answer it at all hours!)

-Randy

* Thanks to my friends, Cidnee, Sandra and Ken for an inspirational day!

Clients often ask if they should renew their YELLOW PAGES ad.

Our response:

“Yes”

“No”

“That depends.”

Can you guess why and under what conditions we’d say these 3 responses?

Make a comment and let us here your opinion:

“Yes, because … .”

“No, due to … .”

“That depends on … .”

-Randy