Blog - Page 161 of 181 - McLellan Marketing Group

Help me give college grads a fighting chance

March 5, 2007

It’s Spring. The birds will soon be chirping, the flowers blooming and the college grads descending like locusts on every marketing agency, marketing department and media outlet. They all want one thing — their first real job.

I remember how scary it was. 20+ years later, I shake my head at the mistakes the grads make while trying to vie for my attention. So I decided we (yes WE) could give them a gift that will put that digital camera to shame. We can help them get that job.

Here’s how you can help:

~ Post your answer to one (or more) of the following in the comments section:

How I landed my first job (war/success story)
What I wish I knew when I was trying to get my first job
My advice for someone trying to break into the marketing/advertising business
Words of wisdom about careers in general

~ Point to this post on your blog and encourage your readers to come over and add their 2 cents so we can gather even more answers and advice.

We’ll gather up all the comments, thoughts and stories and create an e-book for the grads to download and study. Who knows — maybe we’ll get some great employees out of the deal as well!

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

More

Play to your strengths

March 5, 2007

I’m not a native Iowan. I’ve been here for about 15 years and its a great place to raise a family, build a business and enjoy a quality of life that is tough to beat.

But as long as I’ve lived here, I’ve noticed that Iowans are constantly apologizing or putting down their own state. They lament that college kids seek the big cities and that there isn’t enough night life for the single set. Both true. And probably not going to change.

For years, Iowa has tried to overcome that perception (again — remember its accurate) with media campaigns and catchy slogans. Surprise — they didn’t work.

Why would you put the spotlight on a weakness and then shout "nuh uh!" and try to disprove it?

That’s why I was thrilled to see Patrick Schaber’s post about Iowa’s newest campaign.

For the first time that I can remember, the state’s push for people to consider bringing their business and/or their family to Iowa is not apologizing — it is celebrating all that makes it such a terrific place to live.

They’re running ads in magazines like Fast Company and built a pretty impressive website.

Also on their site is the creative, like this outdoor board, that they’re running.

The print ad series touts some of the perks of Iowa life and spotlights families who’ve made the move. This PDF ( Download haldeman.pdf ) talks about Iowa being the 8th safest state to live in. Not a bad message these days.

Another ad (–>) talks about Iowa’s reasonable housing costs. What makes this campaign so strong is that Iowa finally stopped trying to put lipstick on a pig. Marketing campaigns that make you something that you’re not but really, really wish you could be, do nothing but muddy the waters.

Congrats Iowa for getting it right!

Read what some of my fellow Iowans say about why Iowa.

Mike Sansone
Todd Mundt
Tom Vander Well
Adam Steen
Andy Brudtkuhl
Cory Garrison

More

What’s your personal tagline?

March 4, 2007

There’s a lot of talk these days about personal branding. Tony Clark at Success from the Nest asks his readers about their personal tagline.

It’s a great question. My answer? Gratitude. Grace. Give. (check out the comments for some insightful thinking.)

But let’s take a broader look at the question. If you own a business, how does your personal mantra/brand/tagline influence your business and its brand?

If you’re a one (wo)man band, that probably works okay. After all, you are your company. But how do you shift to it being bigger than you? Especially if one day, you aspire to sell your company.

So…what is your personal brand/tagline and how does it impact/influence your business?

More

Now I know I’ve made it!

March 4, 2007

When the porn guys want to trackback to you…boy oh boy, are you hot!

More

Blogtipping — March ’07

March 3, 2007

I am joining with my fellow bloggers in celebrating some new blogs that I discovered this past month. Sorry I’m a couple days late. It’s been a little crazy around the McLellan house these days.

As is the blogtipping tradition, (created by Easton Ellsworth) I’ll offer a few reasons why I like the blog and one suggestion for improvement.

This month’s nods go to….

My 2 cents is David Reich’s musing on marketing media, public relations and life. For a novice blogger, David is proving that for some people, it just comes naturally.

Things I love:

How you share your professional experiences and make them relevant to the topic at hand.

The insights are smart and accessible.

You use many different sources for inspiration and point us there as well.

Suggestion:

Okay, this is silly but make your visuals a little bigger. They get dwarfed by the text.

Soul to Soul is Madena Burman’s view on life, learning and leadership.

Things I love:

How much of your spirit and soul you put into every post.

You put a spotlight on your struggles and weaknesses just as often as your strengths.

How you share your faith in every post.

Suggestion:

Graphics to illustrate your point would be a good addition to a good blog.

On Copywriting is Ryan Healy’s look at the art and business of writing.

Things I love:

You write about more than writing.

You share yourself and your life with your readers — it’s not just business.

You’re book list is excellent.

Suggestion:

Any thought to adding some visuals to your posts?

There you have it discerning readers…until next month’s blogtipping adventure!

More

How to choose an agency: Meet & Greet (part 2)

March 3, 2007

You’re hiring an agency because you want results.

This is not about making your ads look prettier. This is about doing more business, smarter.

So, how do you choose the right partner? Eenie Meanie Mienie Moe?

Well, if you read my earlier post you know I don’t think it should be an RFP. But on the other extreme, it shouldn’t be just because your cousin works there either.

Following a simple process (simple to understand, but will take discipline and time to execute) will protect you from making an expensive mistake.

The phases of the process are:

Know what you want (ask yourself questions)
Do your homework (ask the prospective agencies questions)
The meet and greet (get together and ask questions)

There’s only one step left. But it’s probably the most important step of all. At this stage, any of your finalists are most likely more than qualified to do the work. That’s the easy part. But are they the right fit for you, specifically?

Let’s assume that all three agencies did a good job on their presentation. (If one bombed — eliminate them before this final step.) After the presentations, tell them you want to schedule an on-site visit. (Or you can schedule their presentations there.) Much like walking through someone’s house will give you an incredible amount of insight into their life and personality, you’ll find the same is true of agencies.

Take a tour. Ask to meet everyone who would touch your account, from the front desk staffer to the accountant and everyone in between. What does it feel like to be there? What does the environment tell you? Does it all feel authentic or are they putting out the good china because company is coming? There’s a fine line here. You want to be treated as though you’re special. But, if you can’t sit on the sofa without a slip cushion — yikes!

Here’s the leap of faith. After you have visited all of the finalist agencies on their home turf — you need to trust your gut. Any of them would be more than competent or else they shouldn’t have gotten this far. But that’s sort of like saying your prom date was okay. You want (and deserve) WOW! Who was most engaging? Who seemed to "get you and your team" the most? Who did you trust? Who felt like they were blowing smoke up your skirt? Who felt genuine?

Who feels right. Remember — every buying decision is based on emotions. And this one is no different. At a certain point in time, you have to close your eyes, trust your gut and leap off the cliff!

Voila — you have a new agency. Congratulations to you both.

Of course — now the hard part begins. Building and maintaining the relationship!

The rest of the How to Choose An Agency Series:

Flickr photo courtesy of PeeJ0e

More

A marketing tip from my Italian grandma: Give back

March 3, 2007

This post wraps up my marketing tips from my Italian grandma series. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have writing it.

No doubt you look at my last name and say Italian? But rest assured, on my mom’s side I’m your amico! Like all Italians, I had an Italian grandma. And like all Italian grandmas, she had an opinion about everything and wasn’t afraid to share it or the life lessons she had collected along her colorful life. What she didn’t realize is that she also taught me some great marketing tips that in her honor, I’d like to share with you.

My grandparents never had much money. They both worked in a clothing factory. They supported two kids (plus an orphan they took in for over 10 years) and did the best they could. No fancy anything. My grandma made most of her own clothes (which meant her polyester pants often matched her polyester shirts — see photo) and she’d cut up old panty hose and use them for rubber bands.

But when someone was in trouble or needed help — my grandparents were there. With food, shelter or whatever was needed. One of my favorite family stories was about their neighbors, the Bleiweiss family. Mr. Bleiweiss lost his job and was struggling to support his family. My grandparents knew he’d never accept money so they anonymously mailed him cash every week for months until he found work. It was money they didn’t really have to spare. But in their lives — you shared what you had. No matter what.

They did it without fanfare or the spotlight. They did it because it spoke of who they were as people. It was part of their brand.

Our companies need to step up to that example. I don’t care how new or small your business is — you can help someone. You can share what you have — time, talent, treasure (money). Serve on a board and share your expertise. Volunteer to sort food at a food shelter or serve a hot meal to the homeless. Tutor. Donate your product/service to a non-profit. If you have the resources to be reading this — you have enough that you can share.

You do it because it is the right thing to do. It’s always been my philosophy that if you give for the right reasons without looking for an angle or way to make money — the rewards will be there. Probably more than you could imagine or deserve. But it starts with a generous heart.

At McLellan Marketing Group, one of my expectations for every employee is that they are involved in some sort of community service. I could care less what the cause is. I care that they do it. And if an employee can’t embrace the idea of sharing of themselves, I know they are probably not going to be a good MMG team member.

Go on….share a little. Give back. It won’t hurt a bit.

Here’s the entire Marketing Tips from My Italian Grandma series, for your enjoyment:

More

How to choose an agency: Meet & Greet (part 1)

March 3, 2007

You’re hiring an agency because you want results.

This is not about making your ads look prettier. This is about doing more business, smarter.

So, how do you choose the right partner? Eenie Meanie Mienie Moe?

Well, if you read my earlier post you know I don’t think it should be an RFP. But on the other extreme, it shouldn’t be just because your cousin works there either.

Following a simple process (simple to understand, but will take discipline and time to execute) will protect you from making an expensive mistake.

The phases of the process are:

Know what you want (ask yourself questions)
Do your homework (ask the prospective agencies questions)
The meet and greet (get together and ask questions)

So, you’ve gotten back the written responses to your questionnaire. Using criteria you’ve already determined (the "right" answers to the questions you’ve asked) whittle the list down to 3 agencies. If you have to go bigger, no more than 4.

Pick a specific strategic, marketing-oriented challenge you’re facing. Invite each of the finalist agencies for a meeting. At that meeting, give them everything you’ve got. Research, stats, stories, sales figures. Whatever is relevant to this very focused issue.

Then, ask them to come back to you in a couple weeks with some ideas. Here’s where there’s a fork in the road. Some will tell you to ask for spec creative, marketing ideas, media plans etc. If you ask them for all of that and don’t pay them for their time — that’s robbery, in my opinion.

Agency people get paid to think and be strategic. So be reasonable. If you are not going to compensate them for their time — then just ask for enough to see how well they listen, what kinds of questions they ask and how they think.

Schedule in person presentations. At the presentation, you want to be watching for not only how they think but how they translate their thoughts to you. What are their ideas based on? How did they explore the issue? What ideas did they discard? How would they advise you execute? How well did their ideas match your culture and your brand?

Here’s another key to this part in the process. How well did they follow instructions? If you said no spec creative and they bring it any way — what does that tell you? How do they explain the deviance from your request?

There’s only one step left. But it’s probably the most important step of all.

The rest of the How to Choose An Agency Series:

Flickr photo courtesy of PeeJ0e

More

Put on a different hat

March 2, 2007

You know, sometimes life takes on a little mini-theme. I have posted quite a bit lately about the importance of being able to put on and take off the many "hats" of your potential audiences as you craft a marketing strategy or message.

I was doing my daily jog through some of my favorite blogs and stumbled upon Roger von Oech‘s post "Change Viewpoints." Let me entice you to go over and read his post by sharing an excerpt.

"Whereas the first group asked, "What if we bury somebody alive?" the second group asked, "How can we make sure everyone we bury is dead?"

How can you not go see how that plays out?

As marketers — it is absolutely vital that we find ways and challenge ourselves to think differently, from different points of view. The faithful among you will know that I’ve been beating this drum quite a bit lately.

We’ve talked about the emotional truths that can be discovered by really walking around a question or challenge and seeing it from all angles. And we’ve explored how an insider’s view of things is, by its very nature, not a very clear or accurate picture. Donning another person’s "hat" and turning your view finder is a skill that far too few marketers employ.

Check out Roger’s post and if you’d be so kind — share some of your methods for making sure you’ve broadened your view.

More

How do you chase new business?

March 2, 2007

A resource that I have enjoyed for a long time is RainToday.com. They describe themselves as "your online source for insight, advice and tools for growing your service business."

And they are certainly that. I almost always find gems of insight in their articles.

They have just released a new research report What’s Working In Lead Generation. (with the obligatory sub head: How to Spend Your Time, Energy & Money for the Best Marketing ROI in B2B Professional Services.)

They’ve been kind enough to share a press review copy of the report with me and over the next several posts, I’d like to share with you some of the wisdom their research has uncovered.

As we always should, let’s start with where we’re at today.

The report goes on to say that:

45% responded that finding a lead generation strategy, tactic, or offer that works well is "extremely challenging" or "very challenging".

84% of respondents reported that in the next two years they will increase their lead generation efforts.

What does that mean for us? First, everyone agrees that finding new business is no small or easy task. And to reduce it to that probably means you aren’t really doing so hot at getting it done. The second and potentially alarming stat says that the competition is getting ready to gear it up.

Are you ready? What is your lead generation plan? Is it automated enough that if you get busy — it keeps chugging along?

For many small businesses, this is the biggest challenge. They launch a lead generation tactic or plan and it works. Yeah! But also — Boo! Because the plan is too dependent on their man hours. And now the man hours are consumed with taking care of the new business they just generated.

Once they get that new business under their belt — the pipeline is dry again because they could only do so much and then the work got in the way of continuing to fill the pipeline.

What do you have in place to prevent that?

More insights from the report are on the way….

Note: The full RainToday.com report shares 6 key insights which I’ll be exploring over the next few days with you. In the meantime, if you’d like to download their free 21-page summary, you can grab it here.

More