Marketing - Raul Colon - photographer, digital marketer & writer living on the beach in Puerto Rico.

Interviewed by @CRCandelario an FIT Marketing Student

November 15, 2013 by Raul Colon

On occasions I get asked the question why do I choose to write and share my thoughts on blogs. I can keep the person for days talking about the benefits but here is a concrete example on the value of sharing your thoughts online and more importantly sharing your story.

My good friend Chris Brogan invited me to write for Owner Magazine where I have published so far two spanish articles “6 Consejos de Cómo ser Dueño de un NICHO” and “Conocer Los Ingredientes”.

Writing In Spanish Expanded My Network of Quality People

By writing in spanish I have connected already with some very talented people who wanted to read content in their native language spanish.

I also had the opportunity to meet and get a message from Carmen Candelaria a young student from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York who asked me if you could interview me for a school project.

Carmen is from our sister and neighbor Island the Dominican Republic and I was more than happy to accept to her interview.

Here is a full hour of some of me exchanging my thoughts with Carmen on how I see business should be conducted online.

We Need More Students to Follow Carmen’s Lead

I think more students need to follow Carmen’s lead and try to connect with those who like me are running projects and businesses.

If you are looking for a new team member to work on your marketing teams I highly recommended giving students like Carmen the opportunity to continue growing as professionals.

You can find Carmen Candelario on Twitter, @CRCandelario.

Once again thanks Carmen for selecting me to be interviewed.

Keeping the Opportunities and Income Flowing

August 21, 2011 by Raul Colon

We are living times where the economy is not at its best. There are less opportunities as jobs, projects, new clients and many others that are harder to find.

In my case I see how I started my business at a time where many established organizations disappeared and many others started their dive. I have survived barely for the last three year making huge personal sacrifices to keep my business afloat.

When I started my business I was full of energy although things have not gone how I pictured them I have to say I have even more energy and focus now than then.

I read on Chris Brogan’s blog that when things are tough there is always money circling and flowing around you it is just a matter of making sure you can tap into those sources and grab your share.

This really made me analyze the way I started my business and why I think I failed at doing that:

Trying to Grab a Large Client

Everyone dreams for that large client that will give you the opportunity for you to go on your own. Reality is that even when it comes you might need to have other income sources just in case that perfectly large client decides to eliminate the projects you are working on or replace you. When I started on my own I had a large project for a Financial Institution that was a key part of the Economy. When Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns disappeared there priorities changed overnight and my 9-month project ended being a 3-week project.

Not Diversifying Clients

Till this day I am resistant at taking one client that wants me their full time. I do run a business with a small number of clients, which periodically have needs. At first I stayed with two large clients that gave me projects when there projects where finished I ended up being on the bench without work for a quite a while. Now I have clients in various industries different sizes, which always have some type of a need.

Not Diversifying Services

If you only give a limited set of services and your client already received that service then you need to listen and see what other services your client might need at CIMA IT we offer help with Social Media and building your website but if you want to later on translate your website or run your efforts in another language then we can also be there to help you.

Services that Sell Once But Provide Many Times

I focus on building every proposal but I always look into my clients needs and try to identify what services I can provide that can be in a supportive role. So let’s say I sell them a website I also sell them a package to make sure they have someone making changes monthly to there website. It keeps there website fresh increasing the opportunities to gain more customers and it identify and steady income flow for my business which I only have to sell once.

Asking for More Business

So many of us including myself we fail so greatly at this one. In many occasions I get hired for something and I forget to identify what other services short term or long term we can provide. Never be afraid to ask if they need help right now in other areas. I think I do a good job at identifying other possible services I can offer but every once in a while I see someone else get’s hired for something I could have done. I can only blame myself for not listening enough to have identified the opportunity.

Helping others understand what you do

I have such a diverse service and product menu I work hard to have them understand it. Reality is that not all the time I get them to understand what I offer. So I make sure I at least clarify the services that have the most possibility of being sold like a website. When my new people ask me what I do I start off with saying I have an IT Solutions Practice and we do things as simple as building a website to helping large organizations have the adequate technology tools. There is a higher probability that these people know someone that needs a website than a large IT Strategy assessment. So that person ends up understanding part of what I do and in many occasions those people refer me leads.

Reach out to Friends and close contacts

Many people spend money in ads in the newspaper, print out flyers, shoot business cards to strangers, and many other practices that don’t work for me. In most occasions a good amount of my business is from having friends and close contacts identifying opportunities for me. Make sure you let everyone know what you are doing and how he or she can help you.

Overall these are one of the many things I do to bring income to CIMA IT Solutions Corp.

If you have a need for any of the following services or know somebody I can gladly offer a referral fee if you send them my way. Take a look and let me know how I can help?

photo credit by Eric__I_E

12 Reasons Why I admire the Groupon Launch in Puerto Rico

May 9, 2011 by Raul Colon

The last few days I shared the Video and Full Interview on Groupon’s Launch. We already saw Groupon’s first offer which myself and @lucymfel caught via Facebook:

Today is a big day for me because I will have an article posted on E-Turbonews where I interviewed the Director of Tourism of Puerto Rico and a few other posts on other blogs.

But as promised here is the overview of Groupon Puerto Rico and the positive information I got from the interview with Felipe Lyon.

12 Reasons Why I Admire the Groupon Launch in Puerto Rico

Local and Hispanic Staff – they hired local staff that are from Puerto Rico and the only other candidate that is not Puerto Rican is Hispanic, speaks various languages, and I am sure can understand our culture better than a non-hispanic.
Local Office – You are going to be able to visit the Groupon office and have a tangible place where people who still have concerns with online companies can put their fears to rest.
Receives Direct Payment- Although they are using Paypal, you are able to pay directly with your credit card and not have to open a Paypal account. Correct me if I am wrong I still have not made a transaction.
Cost Effective Marketing Tool – Companies of all sizes can stop throwing away money with traditional media methods. Groupon’s model allows you to receive a profit or some type of income while committing the customers to visit the location and build a relationship with the company who sold them their products and services.
Permission based on subscription – I saw one of the Local Groupon clones spammed me and sent stuff when I had no interest in them. Groupon is such a solid company it is waiting for you to take advantage of the opportunity.
Not investing in Traditional Media – Being that they are such a solid online company, they are going to let the brand do its magic instead of pumping cash to the Traditional Media Titans which will gobble up cash without the adequate ROI. Other local businesses pay attention.
Users Are Key to the Content – Users primarily control the actions and the content. What other websites do you know that are business oriented and controlled by the consumers?
Full Functionality – We will have full functionality on their website and in the next few months they will be trickling in the rest of the functionality that is in beta.
In House Social Media Team – They control Social Media from the inside by an in house team.
Affiliate Program – Opens the door for people like me to make some income by referring traffic to the Groupon.com.pr site.
Quality over Quantity – During the interview Felipe expressed his focus on bringing the best quality stakeholders to the table and for me that is key!

Can you think of any more reasons?

Simple but Effective Advertising

April 8, 2011 by Raul Colon

A few weeks ago before I left for #SXSW I saw this individual with a shirt which really caught my eye. In Puerto Rico there are vendors at stop lights (then we wonder why we spend so much money) selling water and other snacks while people wait on the stoplight to give them a go.

I hardly ever buy a bottle since living in the tropics I always have enough water in my car to last me a few days. This time this vendor simple but very effective t-shirt caught our eye and we ended buying cold water (Agua).

His shirt relays a very effective message Agua $1. It states what he sells and at what price. I see many companies with simple products missing out on opportunities because they complicate what they are offering.

I am working on creating packages with pricing to offer to some of my clients via CIMA . If it only where that easy to convey what you sell with one word and a fixed price.

Here a couple of other ideas I found on Slideshare on simple but brilliant Guerrilla Advertisements.

50 Simple but Brilliant Guerilla Advertisements

View more presentations from Rogier van Wagtendonk

What products or services are you having a problem getting out the door with the adequate marketing? If I can be of help let me know. If you want to share any thoughts feel free to comment!

Throwing your Marketing Budget Down the Press!

February 20, 2011 by Raul Colon

I don’t buy newspapers locally since I end up finding out what is happening through twitter, facebook, and blogs like Poder5 which have earned my trust. In other occasions just by talking with someone offline I get news of everything else that is happening. Here in Puerto Rico many people buy the newspaper daily and there is another group that at least buy it on Sundays. My concern is that like many traditional media channels internationally sadly our newspapers are influenced by a selected small population on the Island. Objective journalism is not something you often see here and if you are small business you should clearly understand that. The larger companies leverage newspapers to keep the population and smaller competitors under there control.

What makes the situation even worst is how local newspapers are full of ads and hardly any valuable content. I had a friend that use to coach Radio industry executives in the sales aspect of their business by recommend them to carry copies of the newspaper. When a customer used the excuse they could not buy radio spots or ads because they had their budget already for newspaper advertisements they should bring out the newspaper and have the customer find the ad they bought.

It might sound like an easy task on a regular newspaper but when you see how many ads they fit in one edition you clearly get the point. If those customers had trouble finding the ad they bought imagine the effect it has when someone just browses over the newspaper trying to tune out the ads. I still see people throwing part of their marketing budget away without actually measuring how effective those ads are.

I think measurement is the biggest obstacle most companies have. No matter what size locally they are more inclined towards spending money on traditional advertising even if it brings them no result. They just clearly want to see there ad and logo on a piece of paper (if they can find it). Some of them actually put in the effort of finding their ad not realizing how inefficient it was to publish the ad in the first place.

When you look at the content these local newspapers provide I would clearly stay away from any advertisements especially if I have a limited budget.

What makes it more ridiculous is that they make people buy the newspaper?

I have a boycott on local newspapers for many reasons that I will discuss on other posts related of the lack of professionalism that lurks locally in this industry and how they try to intimidate any business that tries to call them out on what is wrong.

Stay clear of those individuals that have an offer you can’t refuse!

Are there other places where people and businesses throw their marketing budget away? What do you recommend to make sure you are placing your marketing money in the right place?