Blog - Page 163 of 181 - McLellan Marketing Group

How much is a house?

February 21, 2007

And will you honor that price, no matter what?

I can hear you now…how many bedrooms? Ranch or two-story? Brick or siding? Finished basement?

What if I wanted a price without answering any of those questions, because I didn’t know the answers yet?

Welcome to working at a marketing agency.

One of the most frustrating aspects of how prospective clients select their agency partner is the question "how much will it cost?"

Now don’t get me wrong. Clients have a right to know how much something will cost. But often times the question is asked before the details are known. It really disrespects the process AND the product.

This is one of the reasons why RFPs are such a bad way to choose a partner. They almost always are a price war game. In which the client is the biggest loser. Because they very rarely end up buying what they put on their shopping list. And yet, that was what they based their decision on.

Sure…some agencies deliver cookie cutter products. Swap out a few words, a logo and voila, a brochure is born. They can publish a price sheet (which I have seen) and live by it.

But any agency worth their salt delivers a custom product/service every time. Working with an agency is about collaboration. We need to get inside your head. Inside your employees’ heads. And inside your customers’ heads. We want to tug and push against ideas with you. We want to explore, dissect, twist and turn.

Then, we’ll know enough to recommend that your house be a 3 bedroom ranch with a walk out. And tell you how much it will cost to build and maintain.

Mark True just wrote a great post with the added bonus of some excellent links that extend the conversation. He asks the question — are you ready to hire an agency or to engage with one? A subtle difference, but a very important one.

You hire a cab. They deliver a commodity. Don’t reduce your agency to that.

Engage with your agency. Let them engage with you. Then let the building begin!

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A rose by any other name…

February 21, 2007

A conversation with a client about naming a business and a post by Iowa attorney Rush Nigut got me thinking. There are few marketing decisions that can be as personal and subjective as naming a business. There is no ideal “right” answer which only makes it a tougher call.

Here are some Business Naming Basics.

No one is going to, for the most part, do business with you or not do business with you, because of your name, unless its so stupid or so offensive that you shouldn’t be in business anyway.

Yes, it is a very important decision. But it’s not life-ending. Should it be easy to remember and spell? You bet. But that’s more for memory recall than creating preference. Remember, any business name is an empty shell. You are going to attach meaning to it by how you conduct business, how you position and market yourself and how you treat your clients.

Choosing a name because it starts with an A is only a good choice is the name you would have picked anyway starts with an A.

If you are going to market yourself, the Yellow Pages becomes a support vehicle, especially in today’s digital world. You’re better off picking a name you like…and then doing a good, clear yellow page display ad than banking on the A listing. Or worse, being AAA Plumbing or A+ Plumbing.

The name of your business is far more important to you than it is to your customers.

They want to know what you do and how you do it…and really, unless it is offensive, don’t care about your name. So, positioning statements and how you market yourself become very critical and much more important than your name.

Make it simple to say. Make it simple to remember. If at all possible — let it help define who and what you are/do.

Your name is just the beginning. It is more important to pick one and get going on the marketing than it is to search for the perfect name.

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JetBlue goes bold and delivers on their brand

February 20, 2007

We’ve all seen the news stories, outlining JetBlue’s woes in the NE part of the US this past week. I don’t know about you, but I just chalked it up to the airlines industry and their seemingly endless distain for their customers.

So I have to say, JetBlue’s Founder and CEO David Neeleman’s announcement of their new Customer Bill of Rights surprised me. Why? Because it actually has teeth. Real consequences for real customer problems.

Listen to how Neeleman’s set the stage for the release of the Bill of Rights.

The actual Bill of Rights is lengthy (Download Bill_Of_Rights.pdf) but here are some of my favorite guarantees:

If your flight is delayed (prior to scheduled departure) longer than 4 hours gets you a voucher in the amount of your ticket.
If you get bumped from a flight because they overbooked it — you get $1,000. Cash.

All of that is really great, but what I love most about what they did was issue an apology. It starts like this:

Dear JetBlue Customers,

We are sorry and embarrassed. But most of all, we are deeply sorry.

Really, when someone messes up, isn’t that what you need and want to hear? The combination of the sincere apology, the explanation of how it will be different and the guarantee of how it will be handled in the future is a pretty potent punch. I have to say — bravo JetBlue.

By the way, this is all retroactive. It’s going to cost JetBlue about $30 million just to compensate those who got caught up in last week’s mess.

So what do you think will happen next? Will the other airlines react at all? Will JetBlue re-gain the confidence of their customers?

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Tell your story

February 20, 2007

You might remember a post in mid-December talking about how McLellan Marketing Group and some MMG friends (see here for the complete list) were banding together to adopt a charity for an entire year. We’re promising over $75,000 worth of services and goods.

Let me bring you up to date.

We received over 50 applications
It took a couple weeks to wade through them all
It was incredibly difficult to choose. Without exception — each charity is doing amazing work and changing their corner of the world.

So in the end, how did we choose the 2007 recipient of the Charity of Choice grant? All the applicants gave us the information we asked for. They provided financials, letters of reference, board lists, possible conflicts. But the winner did something beyond that.

They told us stories. They allowed us to "meet" the kids that they served. They brought the facts and figures to life. We could envision how this charity changed lives. And how we could be a part of that.

There’s a lesson in their wisdom for all of us. Don’t get so bogged down in the facts that you forget to tell the story. That’s where the sale will be made.

We’ll be using YESS and our work together as a living marketing lab here on Drew’s Marketing Minute so stay tuned. And don’t be surprised if I ask for your opinion now and then. I’d be stupid not to take advantage of your brains!

Read more about the selection Download yess1.pdf

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Everyone’s a twitter about Twitter

February 19, 2007

Twitter, by their own FAQ definition is "a community of friends and strangers from around the world sending updates about moments in their lives."

After watching it for a week or so, I decided to give it a try, as you can see in the right hand column of this blog. Like it or not, you will now be able to peek into the deep and dark recesses of my mind. Best tie a rope around your waist so you can pull yourself out when you’ve had enough!

What value does it bring? Why does it matter? Why would I add it to my world?

I can’t tell you yet, because I don’t know. There is something incredibly interesting to me about sharing both the mundane and the monumental moments that, in a flash, are gone.

When I did a Google blog search, I discovered that lots of people have already been talking about twitter. So I thought I’d give you a snippet of their perspectives.

David Armano (Logic + Emotion) wonders if Twitter will be polluted by product placement.
Kathy Sierra (Creating Passionate Users) who makes the argument that our brains just can’t take much more.
Robert Scoble (Scobleizer) is all about maxing his Twitter contact list.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You can also go here, here or here.

From a personal perspective — it’s almost like having a secret friend you can whisper to. Of course, you need to remember that your secret friend is a blabbermouth and anyone can listen in.

From a marketing perspective — what do you think it says? I wonder if it is more evidence of how, in this uber connected world, many people feel even less connected and less heard. Or perhaps it means our blended obsession with technology and instant gratification has taken on a whole new level.

What do you think it means?

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:60 ticks marketing tip: Left is perfectly right

February 18, 2007

Grab it fast…it’s gone in about a minute. A :60 ticks marketing tip is 150 words or less…so read it in a minute and implement it in the next!

There is a myth that goes like this…print ads located on the left hand page or in the back of a magazine or newspaper will get substantially lower readership.

Like most myths, there’s not much truth to it. A recent study shows that there is less than a 2.1% difference in average reader interest for left versus right pages. As for front versus back of the book, the difference is only 3.2%.

Not surprising, the #1 factor in influencing readership is creativity. How interesting and useful is the ad? In the end, it’s about what you have to say and how you say it.

So, next time you are placing an ad, worry less about where you put it and more about what you put into it.

That’s it…go put it into action!

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The secret is out — blogging conference in Chicago!

February 18, 2007

We’re having a Successful-Blog conference in Chicago and you are cordially invited.

This conference has been designed especially for relationship bloggers. The way this came together is quite unusual. Some might even call it remarkable Four separate groups of people, independent of each other, had the idea of having a Chicago event that drew from the community of Successful-Blog. We got the four groups together and made it happen!

Interactive presentations on publishing, design and branding, tools, analytics, social networking, marketing, and coaching — all from the perspectives of the relationship blogger and the audience.

You can register for the conference here. And better hurry — we’ve only got 250 slots!

Speakers include:

Phil Gerbyshak, Make It Great!

Liz Strauss, Successful Blog

David Armano, Logic + Emotion

Terry Starbucker, Ramblings from a Glass Half-Full

Rodney Rumford, Podblaze

BenYoskovitz, Instigator Blog

Drew McLellan, Drew’s Marketing Minute

Chris Cree, Success CREEations

Scott Rafer, MyBlogLog

Janice Myint, Technorati

Wendy Piersall, emomsathome

The conference will kick off with Christine Kane’s special brand of music.

Come join in the conversation! I can’t wait to meet you!

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Is everyone singing the same song?

February 18, 2007

This week, randomly stop 5 of your employees and ask them to describe your company’s brand promise in a single sentence.

If your own choir isn’t singing out of the same songbook, how do you expect your customers or prospects to understand why you should matter to them?

Flickr photo courtesy of MoToMo

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Psst, it’s a secret!

February 18, 2007

It’s going to be worth the wait…12 hours before I can tell! Check back for details.

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Maybe I’m doing it wrong

February 17, 2007

Let me stitch 3 disparate thoughts together to lay the foundation for this post.

One of the most important marketing lessons we work to teach clients is – it’s about them (customers/prospects) not you. Rightly so – our community/audiences are asking “what’s in it for me?” every day.
My feed reader is bulging and it was time to prune.
I believe that blogging is about giving. Value, information, insight, support, a sense of community. If you do that regularly, the money will follow.

As I was pruning my feed reader, I found myself asking – what have I gotten out of this blog? How have I been engaged in conversation? What have I learned? What have I been invited to share?

The blogs who got deleted from my feed reader were the ones who seems much less interested in helping me and much more interested in putting their hand into my pocket to sell me their new book, new e-course or new whatever.

Maybe I am doing it wrong.

I don’t post ad nauseam about my book. I figure you can see the graphic and you’re bright enough to know if you click on it, you can buy it.

Maybe I’m doing it wrong.

I don’t blather on about e-courses, speaking fees, seminars, or blatantly ask you to hire me. I believe if my content is worthy and I fit a need that you have – you will seek me out for those opportunities.

Maybe I’m doing it wrong.

Whenever I reference my company, my family or some other aspect of my world – I do my darnedest to relate it to yours in a meaningful way. On rare occasion, it isn’t about business — it’s about life. I’m okay with that. But, I never just lob up a sales pitch.

Maybe I’m doing wrong.

The question I ask myself before I hit save on any post is a simple one. Have I provided value? If the answer is no, or you sure have – value to you, big guy – then it doesn’t belong on my blog.

Maybe I’m doing it wrong.

If I am…so be it.

Especially in a medium that I think is all about community, connections, relationships, sharing, listening and reaching out – I want to provide an easy answer when any reader asks “what’s in it for me?”

I can’t think of anything more embarrassing (for me) than to be deleted because I was too busy selling to be of real value.

How about you? Are you doing it wrong? Are your marketing materials all about you? Be careful – it’s all to easy in these days to be pruned.

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