Drew McLellan, Author at McLellan Marketing Group

Don’t get brand sabotaged (Todd Hogan)

November 25, 2009

Drew's Note: As I try to do on many a Friday (or Thanksgiving Wednesday!), I'm pleased to bring you a guest post. Meet a thought leader who shares his insights every day. So without further ado…Todd Hogan.

Again, enjoy!

Monitoring your brand online can be a serious effort – the number of channels and outlets you need to track, the anonymity of potential brand attackers or even promoters, the speed with which fallacious information can spread and ruin the value of what would have once been a carefully planned and thoughtful brand approach.

It all makes for a challenge if you want to build your brand and not watch it be built for you (to either your detriment OR benefit). I think that's what Drew was talking about in this post re: fear.

To do a good job keeping abreast of your brand and promoting your brand's champions or quickly responding to brand threats, you could use paid real time monitoring services like biz360 or radian6. They make sense if you do have a very large brand – they can be great tools. But what if you aren't ready to spend the big bucks yet still want to influence the direction your brand is taking online?

At real time search engines like Surchur (here are some others for you to check out) you can track the majority of what you'd find on the elite brand monitoring services – all for free. Here are 3 tips to using a real time search engine to keep your brand image well above board:

Daily monitoring: Because the real time web is just that – real time – and it moves very quickly, waiting a week or two to check on your brand can be a disaster.

It's much better to respond to a potential threat with a real conversation (a topic for another post) immediately rather than weeks after a comment, tweet or post has lambasted your latest campaign. Enter your brand in a real time search engine a la this Nike example and see your brand as it is happening on the web. You'll likely be surprised where your brand is turning up.

Keep on top of all media types: Blogs, tweets, news, videos – they can all be an outlet for customer expression, and a place for your brand to find life or possibly get squeezed.

That's why we recommend you do more than just look at Twitter Search or your favorite blog search engine. Your customers will communicate according to their preferences and never fit into the neat little box we'd all like. Make sure to find a real time search approach that gives you a view on as many online methods as possible.

Automate the process: Though many of us can be disciplined and take the time everyday to check our brand, it helps to put in place an automatic method for being brand informed.

If your favorite real time search engine has an RSS feed you can follow add that to your favorite RSS reader or homepage like Netvibes. Make that your start page so that every time you open your browser you'll get the chance to see how you?re being talked about on the web. You can see an example at surchur using our previous example of Nike by visiting this link and see how quickly you can get a summary with a feed reader or feed enabled homepage.

Take your brand seriously and build it by managing the real time discussions that are taking place about you – not letting your worst detractors destroy your image with a few random tweets, posts or comments. Also with Surchur's newly released social platform it's easier for our users to influence the search results by voting or commenting — engage the surchur community to vote your brand up and establish yourself as a positive contributor on the social web.

Todd Hogan is the founder of surchur.com and builds and manages a large portfolio of social media and search websites in collaboration with designers and developers around the world.

Every Friday is "grab the mic" day. Want to grab the mic and be a guest blogger on Drew's Marketing Minute? Shoot me an e-mail.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

Don’t play chicken with your pricing

November 23, 2009

Remember the old game? You'd aim your bike or your car at another bike or car and barrel towards each other. Whoever swerved before the collision was "the chicken."

Lots of businesses play the same game with their pricing. They lock on with a prospect and offer up their price. The prospect says something to the effect of…."we really want to buy it, but that's a little expensive. What can we do about the price?"

The metaphorical headlights are in your eyes. You want the sale. You know you can do the job well. So maybe if you knock a few dollars (…or hundreds, or thousands) off, you can earn their business and prove to them how good you are.

Stop right there.

If you do that once, you'll be asked to do it every time. By playing chicken and being the one to swerve, here's what you've communicated to the potential buyer:

My prices aren't firm — you should always negotiate
I wasn't being as fair with you as I could have been…I had some pad in my pricing
I don't have enough confidence in my product/service to sell it for full price
We don't believe in our own brand — we're willing to compete on price

Do you really want to communicate any one of those things to your clients and prospects? I doubt it.

Instead, here's how to handle price objections.

First — price fairly. To them and to you. Be confident that you can over deliver on the price paid and be a genuine value. Don't price to be a loss leader or get in under the other guys. Charge what you are worth but with a nod of consideration to the market and being competitive.

Second — never apologize or over justify your price. You can't do either without sounding defensive and you have nothing to be defensive about. And once you've lowered your price — you will never be able to charge full price again.

Third — acknowledge their concern by helping them stay within budget. Try something like…."I completely understand your budget constraints. If you only have $5,000 to spend, let's look at our proposal and see what we can modify (# of options, turnaround time, features, add ons, etc.) to get you down to your ceiling." In other words….take something away or somehow modify your proposal to accommodate their budget.

This is you respecting your original pricing AND respecting their checkbook. In our experience, 90% of the time, you will not lose the sale. They'll either opt for your modifications at their reduced budget (if their budget constraint are real) or they'll end up accepting your original proposal (if they were using budget as an excuse to try to get you to reduce your price.)

Fourth — recognize that sometimes this is your brand's way of helping you recognize that this is not a good customer for you. If you just can't make the numbers work for them — they aren't your customer. Be gracious and if you want, even suggest some lower cost alternatives.

Bottom line is — don't de-value your work by playing chicken with your pricing. If you are good at what you do, about 20-30% of the time — people should push back on your prices a little.

I have a very successful friend whose philosophy is…"I want them to gulp a little when they hire us. We're an investment, not a commodity. Then it's our responsibility to make sure they come to believe their investment was a wise one."

A creativity whack for your head…and your iPhone!

November 19, 2009

Roger von Oech is responsible for whacking me upside the head more times than I can count.

20+ years ago, he created a fantastic creativity tool called A Creative Whack Pack. It's an illustrated deck of 64 creative thinking strategies that will whack you out of habitual thought patterns and enable you to look at your life and actions in a fresh way.

It's an awesome way to think different, to see something fresh and to get yourself unstuck.

Well, it's 2009 and so of course Roger has created an iPhone/iTouch app for thiscreativity powerhouse. And…he's given me 5 promo codes, so you can download it for free!

Here's how you can win. Leave a comment below and tell us one way you get your creative juices flowing.

I'll do the drawing on Friday Saturday morning so get those comments coming!

Also, check out what David Armano had to say about the app here and here.

UPDATE: First, be sure you read through the comments — lots of very good ideas on how to get those creative juices flowing.

Second…Congrats to the five winners of the promo codes: Tara, Michael, Patrick, Kare and Jason. I've e-mailed the codes directly to you!

You can put a dash of brand just about anywhere

November 15, 2009

There's nothing less interesting or more standard than a bar code, right? Not according to the people at Design Barcode, where the status quo is anything but!

Check out these jazzed up bar codes. (click on the images to see a full-size image in a pop up window)

Lest you think this is a new idea, apparently Rick Tharp was doing it (see his version) way back in 1986.

(Hat tips to Beverly Koehn and Beth Wampler for sharing this Fast Company article on the bar code designs)

Calling all art directors, designers and logo creators – win $250

November 13, 2009

I will try to make this brief. Last spring, I was approached by a company in the UK called Logo Inn who creates logos and identity packages online. They wanted to do a contest, demonstrating their services.

So I did a series of posts on logo design and offered one organization a chance to win a free logo….as long as the entire process could unfold here on the blog, so we could all learn from it.

The series looked like this:.

That last post was where things spiraled out of control. The city of Colfax (and most of my commenting readers) weren't crazy about any of the logos. So I sent all the critiques back to the logo company and then heard nothing. I've attempted to e-mail my contact there for several months — but nothing.

But I promised the city of Colfax a new logo and dang it, they're going to get one!

This is where you come in. My company, MMG could do it. We design logos for clients all the time. But instead, we decided it would be more fun and more of a learning experience, to open it up. So here are the "rules" as it were:

~ We're putting up a $250 VISA gift card for the winning designer.

~ Use the creative brief post to read about what they want

~ Download a PPT of photos from the town by clicking here

~ Read Colfax's reaction to the Logo Inn logos by clicking here

~ Submit your new logos (jpg format please) in BLACK AND WHITE ONLY to me (drew@mclellanmarketing.com) by Friday, December 4th

~ We will publish all the choices here (with a link to the designer's website/blog)

~ Colfax chooses a winner and you get a gift card before the holidays!

What do you say? You ready to show the world your work and help out a great Iowa town?

Turn your sales letters into workhorses!

November 12, 2009

Neil Sawers, a 25+ year corporate writing veteran can show you how. In his new book, How to Write Proposals, Sales Letters and Reports, he spells it out in easy to understand, follow and learn examples and guidelines.

But don't take my word for it. Listen to what the Midwest Book Review (one of the most respected reviewers out there) had to say:

"Examples, recommendations of common tools to organize one’s thoughts, and a sprinkling of solid business advice fill out this superb, easy-to-use guidebook recommended for business writers of all skill and experience levels."

If you buy the book by end of the day on Saturday the 14th, you'll only pay $10.37 AND you will get a bunch of bonus gifts. (click here to read about the special promotion and buy your copy!)

But wait….I have five copies to give away. I will draw for the winners Friday morning, so you'll still have plenty of time to buy a copy if you're not a winner.

To be eligible for the drawing, just leave a comment on this post!

Go forth and write well!

Update: The five winners are: Copywriting Maven, Director Tom, Larson Bennett, Kathleen the savvy VA and Erica!

5 ways to promote internal training and events

November 10, 2009

I had a meeting with a client this morning and one of the topics on the agenda was how could they better promote an internal training event that was optional for the employees.

When I asked how they would normally promote it, they said…we'd make up a flier with all the information and attach it to an e-mail. We'd send it out to everyone. We might send it out a couple times or ask their supervisors to also send it out.

There's nothing wrong with what they're doing. But, there's not enough right. You've got to toss a lot of messages and media into the blender and mix it all up — to try to reach everyone.

Remember, your audience needs to hear your message 8-13 times before they notice that you're talking to them!

Here are some other ideas we came up with as we brainstormed:

Tease them: Don't give them ALL the information at once. Give them the bare bones (date, time, place etc.) but keep some of the details for the next communication.

Catch it on camera: Run around the office with a flip camera and record some people who know about the event. Ask them why they're excited or looking forward to it. Post it on YouTube, your corporate intranet or someplace else that employees will go see it.

Drip marketing: Remember….you want your marketing to be a drip, not a downpour. So why get 6-8 little tidbits of the content (think if it like a snack…which is how we like to consume information) and rather than send out one huge e-mail….once a week, send a tip tied to the content of the training.

Let them eavesdrop: Using BlogTalk Radio or Skype + Audio Hijack, whip up a quick 5-minute podcast with the presenter. Let the potential audience hear the presenter's enthusiasm and energy around the topic.

Make it personal: Draft a quick 15-30 second script and ask every supervisor to personalize it and then leave a voice mail for their direct reports….inviting them to the event.

What have we done? We've hit them with the written word, teased them with tasty snacks of content, let their peers and supervisor weigh in, used multi-media, and made it personal.

All for the cost of….$0. (Audio Hijack is $32 if you opt for that solution).

How could you use this recipe for things you need to communicate internally?

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

How do you see your clients

November 6, 2009

A client of ours, E-Myth Benchmark, who does excellent work with small business leaders (including yours truly) has this philosophy about their clients:

"Our clients are much greater than they know. It's our honor to help them discover that truth about themselves."

Imagine if every time you answered the phone, shot off an e-mail or met with a client, you were filled with that attitude. How might that change the dynamics of your relationship? How would a bit of reverence change your company's culture?

I've said it before….if you can't genuinely love your clients, you should fire them. They deserve better.

Free chapter chock full of marketing “ah ha!”

November 3, 2009

I love many things about blogging and social media. But the #1 reason I love it is because it has afforded me the opportunity to meet some really wonderful, smart people.

And sometimes it feels as though we’ve known each other forever. That’s certainly true for me of Gavin Heaton, CK, Lori Magno, Luc Debaisieux and many others.

But there’s this agency guy named Jay Heyman who lives in New York City — and he and I connect in a whole different way. For some odd reason, we end up writing posts on the same subject or about the same subject on a regular basis!

Which of course means that I think he’s brilliant!

Anyway…the guy who lives inside my brain wrote a book called All You Need is a Good Idea (same name as his blog) Well, now he has written a bonus chapter which he would like the readers of his blog to have for FREE.

It’s nine pages of rapid fire ideas…no theory or set up. Just straight marketing talk. You can download it here.

Graphic courtesy of Shutterstock.com

What I’m reading (11/01/09)

November 1, 2009

Sorry I've been lax with this feature in October. It wasn't that I was not reading….but I've been on the road and at conferences just about all month and I just didn't have time to get this post built.

None the less, here's what I've been reading these past few weeks and my take on each.

Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz (buy it here)

If you think you've already read this book — you haven't. Andy did a revised version in early 2009 and added lots of new case studies, worksheets and even some new chapters. So don't be fooled.

With all the case studies and worksheets — if you read this book and don't walk away with a huge list of action items…shame on you. This book is built to be more of a workbook than a text book.

It's light on theory, heavy on real life examples and ideas you can implement quickly.

Bottom line: Very practical examples. Lots of idea generators. It's not rocket science…and yet most people stink at it. Read the book so you don't stink too.

The Three Laws of Performance by Steve Zaffron & Dave Logan (buy it here)

The premise of the book is that there are three laws that will always affect performance…just like the law of gravity will always have an effect on if you're heading up or down!

The three laws are:

How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them
How a situation occurs arises in languages
Future based language transforms how situations occur to people

The authors recognize that businesses and their leaders face radical shifts in the corporate climate and confront pressing organizational problems. They offer communication-based solutions called the "Three Laws of Performance" that they believe can transform companies and individual relationships. They explain how to energize and sustain your organization by using candid language, open discussion, confronting past wounds and voicing a positive future vision.

Bottom line: Superb case studies and learning. You can't skim this one…it's a bite and chew thoroughly type read.

War in the Boardroom by Al & Laura Ries (buy it here)

Al & Laura Ries are fixtures in the marketing book genre. Their newest book, War in the Boardroom is going to keep them on top of the heap.

This book looks at why left-brain management and right-brained marketing don't see eye to eye and what to do about it. As the book jacket says…management deals in reality, while marketing deals in perception. And so the battle begins.

Packed with dozens of lively, real-world examples clearly demonstrating the difference between management and marketing — and where both groups have taken their brands for better or worse. And you'll want to read their predictions about some of today's marquee brands such as Google and Amazon.

Bottom line: You'll love the examples, stories and tone of this book. I have to believe you will see both sides of the argument a little differently after reading the Ries' latest hit.

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