The difference might be organization. Bringing ideas to life takes more than just the thought and a hope. Scott Belsky has a formula in his book, Making Ideas Happen, that really hits the nail on the head.

Creativity X Organization = Impact

You might have the most genius idea in the world, but without organization you’ll have zero impact. Someone with less creativity with good organization will eventually have a greater impact.

Instead of trying to come up with that next great idea, I challenge you to work on your processes and organization. It takes both to make things happen!

1. Be helpful.

Many magazine editors, bloggers, and other journalists are inundated with pitches–most of them bad and self-serving.  Make yours stand out by being genuinely helpful.  Give the editors exactly what they are looking for-compelling stories.

2. Know the publication.

No pitch will hit the trash bin quicker than one that isn’t relevant.

3. Follow the editorial calendar.

Most publications have an editorial calendar available for download.  Many work weeks and months in advance and your pitch will have more sticking power if it is timely.

Have a story?  Get pitching!

Don’t underestimate the importance of being a participant in the space.

Sure, these sites will sell you banner space and access to their database.  But they also GIVE you access to join the space to make genuine relationships with your potential customers.

Share the passion, not the product.

You must have some passion about what you are trying to market.  Go into those niche spaces and avoid the sales pitch.

Be transparent.

When I say to avoid the sales pitch, I’m not saying be secretive or evasive about who you are and what you represent.  You want them to know who you are, who you represent or work for, and what you do.  Make that information available.  You want people to be able to contact you.  Just don’t make every single interaction about those things.

Are you ready to be where your customers are?

When someone asks you what you do for a living, what do you say?

I have to admit, when we first started Toolulu, my pitch went something like this…

“I work for Toolulu.  We’re an interactive marketing agency that helps build your presence online.”

And to no surprise, it wasn’t working.  People were often confused, and it would take me awhile to explain to them what it is we exactly did.  And part of this is because we were doing too much, we were a new company trying to figure out what we really wanted to focus on.  But now my elevator goes something like this:

“I work for an interactive marketing agency called Toolulu.  Recently, we helped a client increase their presence on facebook by 800%.  We weren’t seeing an increase in sales from the campaign so we took a look at the website.  During our usability testing we found that majority of their demographic was struggling with the checkout process on their website, many giving up.  Our web staff is now in the process of fixing this fatal error.”

By focusing on work that I’ve actually done, it gives the person I’m meeting for the very first time a visual of what I actually do.  I’ve also notice that it’s a great conversation starter as well.  Usually when I focus on work in our portfolio, they want to know more about the process and how it works.

Is your elevator pitch creating a conversation?  How can you improve it?

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1.  They put their clients first. They are available any time of the day, 7 days a week.  And if you’ve ever had need for IT support, you know this usually isn’t the case.

2.  Word of mouth. They remind me a lot of Zappos in their marketing efforts.  Instead of focusing on where they are going to spend their marketing dollars, they focus on their current clients and their clients spread the word for them.

3.  Keep building. They don’t let their business get stagnent.  They keep pushing for the next best service or formula to do their business.  Instead of saying, “We’re doing great, let’s lock and load” they stay on top of current trends and push to be innovators in their industry.

4.  Branding. They didn’t talk about this in the podcast, but just as a general notation, they have  great branding.  Their service cars are clearly marked, and are advertising for them on an ongoing basis.  They also have a great casual dress code where employees wear branded shirts out on the job.

What do you think other companies are doing right?  What are you doing to replicate this in your own business?

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Caterina is one of the co-founders of Flickr.  Her latest project is Hunch…described as Amazon recommendations for everything.

2.  Rashmi Sinha

Rashmi is the co-founder and CEO of Slideshare.

3. Mena Trott

Mena is the co-founder and President of Six Apart.

4. Zena Weist

Zena is a social media powerhouse located in the midwest (Kansas City).  She has been working in the business since day one and is a dynamic speaker.

5.  Jennifer Pahlka

Founder of Code for America and has been involved with the successful Web 2.0 and Gov 2.0 conferences.

All of these women are entrepreneurial rock stars…that just happen to be female.

Who would you add to this list?

1. Basecamp.  Interestingly enough, my former employer used this as a task manager and I HATED it.  I thought it was the worst thing ever.  A couple of months ago, Christy and I started seeing issues with communication breakdowns and efficiency and decided it was time for a task manager.  In our search, we tried a lot of different applications.  And nothing held a candle to Basecamp.  Turns out my former employer was using it all wrong, and wasn’t making the process as simple as it could be.  
2. Hootsuite.  I love having all of my social media in one location.  It makes it easy to update, and keep up with the conversation.  I seriously couldn’t live without it!
3. Quickbooks.  This is an affordable product that is great at creating invoices and keeping all the money straight.  An absolute necessity.

How about you?  What applications do you absolutely need or can’t live without?  We’d love to hear what saves you time and money!

We gave everyone stickers to go around and label everyone.  To label everyone with 1-2 words that describe them. 

Here are the words that people used to describe me. They are all pretty acurate— kind, energy, super mom, fashionable, etc… But, I really wish people would have labeled me social media, design, Toolulu. These are the items I really what I want to be known for on a business level.

To focus our branding in person and online is an interesting challenge.  How do you walk the line of promoting yourself, being personal, and engaging all at the same time?

Tuesdays with Toolulu on Craft Critique