Blog - Page 158 of 181 - McLellan Marketing Group

How would you tip the scales?

March 24, 2007

It’s the biggest sales job we have to do — sell ourselves.

We’re:

One of two agencies up for an account
One of two finalists for a job we really want
One of two small businesses pitching for a big new client

You know that the decision makers are in the final phases of weighing their options. Might be a few days, might be a week, might even be a month.

How do you stay top of mind? How do you let them know you really want the job/account? How do you demonstrate you’re the right choice? How do you balance the scales between looking too eager versus nonchalant? Or do you do nothing and just let your interview/proposal speak for itself?

How do you make sure that you stand out from the crowd?

Flickr photo courtesy of buggs.

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Hurry up to help a grad!

March 24, 2007

Earlier this month I posted a request. Help me help the newly emerging college grad .

Let’s save them from all those horrific mistakes that leave us shaking our heads.
Let’s guide them by sharing our own war stories.
Let’s inspire them with words of wisdom.

In short — let’s get them a job!

I am compiling all of the great comments (and tracked back posts if I can find them throughout the blogosphere) into a free e-book that we’ll make available to any grad who wants the download.

We’re going to start assembling the e-book at the end of the month, so you have a few days left to get your comments in.

Come on — someone helped you once upon a time. Time to return the favor.

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Give a little

March 23, 2007

Go on… give a little.

I promise you — if you give generously, without asking what’s in it for me — you won’t believe the rewards that come your way.

Lewis Green of bizsolutionsplus shares his thoughts about giving back…and has some interesting research statistics on how being selfless might pay off for your business.

Want some recent examples of how good giving back looks?

Gavin Heaton’s Servant of Chaos. He’s approaching his 500th blog link and in true Gavin fashion, he’s made it about giving. If you’ve never linked to him before and you introduce your readers to his thinking (a good idea anyway) and make a comment on his blog you might be the lucky 500th blog! If so, you’ll get to a guest post on Gavin’s blog and have the chance to introduce yourself to his many readers.

CK of the infamous CK’s Blog is on round two of her incredibly successful book club via Marketing Profs. The book this time is Al & Laura Reis’ The Origin of Brands. Whether you have read the book or not, jump into the lively discussions. What’s amazing about this is that everyone is giving. CK moderates and orchestrates the whole thing. The authors participate in the discussions and share their insights (when was the last time you got to brand banter with two best selling authors?) and Marketing Profs makes it all possible.

So what do you say…what could you give?

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In the pink or just ick?

March 23, 2007

Every time I walk by these at Target, I sort of shake my head. Do women really buy pink tools? Are they insulting? Empowering?

I understand the power of marketing directly to women. But I also understand that the danger is crafting women-centric marketing messages is that the kiss of death is to talk down to the audience. (In fairness…pretty much the kiss of death no matter who you are talking to.)

But don’t these tools somehow suggest she’s not quite up to the man’s set? (or is that my own biased filter talking?)

If you sold hand tools and your target audience was women — how would you sell them?

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A bit of Walt Disney’s business philosophy

March 22, 2007

When asked his feelings about being bottom-line driven, Walt Disney replied: "If we take care of our guests and our cast members, the rest takes care of itself."

What do you think? Too simplistic? Right on the money? Have a different take?

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Want to author a business book?

March 22, 2007

Knowledge@Wharton is announcing a novel initiative in book publishing.

The project, tentatively called We Are Smarter Than Me is an experiment to see whether a large community of business people can jointly author a book of the same name. Pearson will publish the book later this year.

The book focuses on ways in which companies are learning to leverage social networks and the power of communities to improve their performance by allowing customers or others to take over functions typically performed by experts.

Every contributor will be credited as an author, and will help direct royalties to charity. While several readers have already signed on, they’re looking for more participants.

I’m going to jump on board — how about you?

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How do you fuel anticipation?

March 21, 2007

Anticipation. (For the 30+ crowd, you should be singing by now.)

What a powerful and often over-looked marketing tool. How could it enhance our customer’s experience? Think about these buying situations:

A couple books a cruise 9 months in advance.
A client gets fired up during the discovery process but must now wait 3-6 weeks for a logo design.
A bike enthusiast puts in his order for the new Harley which will be off the line in 15 months.

Let’s face it, we want them to be counting the days. To be watching the clock. To be talking about the pending delivery to their peers and colleagues. We want them to be hungry for the pay off, right?

Here’s my question to you — how do you keep a client’s enthusiasm bubbling while you are back at the shop, toiling away? This is a question we still wrestle with at MMG. We’re not as good at this as I’d like us to be.

Looking for a great example of someone who does do it well? It won’t shock you to discover that Disney is always working on improving in this arena. Most people book their Disney vacation at least 6+ months in advance. They have an extensive Vacation Planning Kit, which includes a DVD that I guarantee you gets watched many times before the actual journey begins. By adults and kids alike. But they decided that wasn’t enough anticipation buzz.

So, they’ve just launched their new Customized Maps which allow you to create your family’s personal journey through each of the theme parks. After you’ve spent time deciding which attractions, shows and restaurants you want to visit — they will send you 5 full color 14" x 20" maps that are made to your specifications.

Wow.

Add up the time spent choosing the locations, marking each map and then the time studying the maps once they arrive. That’s building anticipation!

Fair enough, we’re not Disney. But it is a very potent reminder that even though we have a client’s money — we still need to search for ways to keep them at the edge of their seat.

How do you keep your clients psyched up while they wait?

Flickr photo courtesy of Mike ~heart~ Tiffy.

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Are we playing the wrong role in our stories?

March 20, 2007

Think back to the days when you played pretend. Given a choice between safety pinning the towel around your neck or being the damsel/dane in distress about to be rescued, who did you pick?

I don’t know about you, but I was all about being the "Toweled Crusader!" (I never wore the rubber gloves, I must admit!) It was much cooler being the smart, strong, resourceful one. Wasn’t it?

It still is today.

I’ve talked a lot (and will keep doing so) about the power of storytelling. One of the ways that many of us tell our stories is through case studies and testimonials. Most often, because we want to demonstrate our capabilities, we assume the leading role. Client X was struggling with Y, but we swooped in with Insight Z and their sales tripled.

Sound familiar? Basic story construction, right? We have a hero, a problem/villain, a victim and a glorious solution.

Uh oh. If we’re the hero, guess who we’re casting in the role of victim? Yup. Our client.

Remember that the goal of the case study or testimonial is to get prospects to identify with the clients in the story. "Wow, if they can solve that problem, they can probably tackle mine too," is what we want them to think.

While the prospect might identify with the challenge and be heartened by the solution, do they really want to see themselves in the victim role?

If we gave them the same choice we had as kids, would they opt for hero or victim?

What if we twisted our tale in those case studies or testimonials, so that our clients were the heroes? We shift to being the glorious solution. (Not a bad role to play) But we give the credit, spotlight and heroine’s role to the client. They are smart enough to see the problem and devise a solution. And, in the end, everyone lives happily ever after.

Perhaps it’s time to re-write the stories.

* This post was inspired by a chapter in Harry Beckwith’s You, Inc. I am telling you — you’ve got to read it!

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Learn about one of the most powerful marketing tactics known to man!

March 20, 2007

When was the last time you sat down and wrote a thank you note? To a customer? An employee? A vendor? (Thank you note…in the mail. The old-fashioned kind.)

It’s time to get to it. You will be stunned at the impact.

Gratitude is one the most powerful marketing tactics known to man. You get more business when you demonstrate that you have the grace to appreciate what you’ve been given.

Now you know the secret. Use it wisely!

P.S. I will never hire someone who doesn’t take the time and have the manners to send me a thank you note after the interview. If they don’t send one when they’re trying to get a job, they’ll never send one to a client.

Flickr photo courtesy of pinkbelt.

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Does Twitter have to be useful?

March 19, 2007

Maybe I’m missing the point.

You cannot throw a cat without hitting a blog talking about Twitter. Everyone seems to have pretty strong opinions about it. It seems to be a love or hate thing.

A couple Twitter bits of love:

Kevin Lim’s Theory is the Reason goes into incredible depth on its who’s using it, why they’re using it and how to use it better.

Tara Hunt of Horse•Pig•Cow exalts Twitter for helping her keep grips on her thoughts, activities and friends.

A bit of Twitter disdain:

Kathy Sierra’s Creating Passion Users suggests that Twitter is further strain on our already stretched attention spans and ability to focus.

Darren Barefoot at DarrenBarefoot.com takes a shot or two at Twitter and then does a very funny look at what Shakespeare’s Twitter entries might look like.

And now…love or hate, people are working hard at justifying Twitter’s existence by morphing it into a business tool. Mike Sansone has an interesting idea over at Converstations about how to use Twitter for finite teams.

Even Technorati’s Buzz TV is getting into the conversation.

Here’s my question. Why?

Are we at a point where we can’t just enjoy it as both a distraction and a diversion? That it’s a link to our friends and colleagues and sometimes they say something interesting and sometimes not? It’s fun. Sometimes its serious and sometimes it silly. In the week that I’ve been using it, my friends have made me laugh out loud and stop and think.

I’m not so sure it needs to be anything more. At least not for me.

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