How those employees look, act and perform their job functions speaks volumes to customers, prospects and even the other employees.
As I was driving into work this morning, I was behind a car with the vanity plate NAWTGRL. At first I just laughed to myself but then I got to thinking about the consequences of a license plate like that.
Putting legalities aside…let's say that you had interviewed a woman and found her to be qualified for a client-centric job opening. She would be out and about on your behalf (in her vehicle) and clients would not only see her but probably ride in her car to meetings, lunches etc.
In your mind, as the interview was winding down, you were thinking that she might be a good fit. But as you walked her to the door, you noticed her license plate — NAWTGRL.
Would that influence your decision to hire her and have her represent your organization?
How do you balance a prospective or current employee's right to express themselves (vanity plates, tattoos, hair color/style, piercings, extreme (either side) political opinions/signage in their office, etc.) or do you think that has no business being a part of your hiring decision?
I don't know the "right" answer — just curious to hear your thoughts.
Running a website can be a challenge. But today, having a website that works hard for you 24/7 is a business given.
Here are three things every business owner must have on their website.
Call to Action
Visitors need direction. With ever-shortening attention spans, you have moments to engage your visitor and guide them to the next step in the sales process. Determine what you want your visitors to do (submit a contact form, sign up for your newsletter or purchase your product) and make sure you have a prominent call to action on every page of your website. This could be your phone number in the header, a newsletter sign up form or a big green “Buy Now” button. Whatever it is, it needs to be obvious.
A clear call to action isn’t just about adding a big button, it’s also about reducing clutter. Strip away any irrelevant content and links, and stick to the essentials.
Compelling Copy
Copy is what helps drive your visitors to take action. Without an effective headline or explanation of your value proposition, most visitors won’t make it past the homepage. Compelling copy should be short, simple and motivating.
Short – As I mentioned earlier, your visitors have a limited attention span. Try to communicate your message with as few sentences as possible. When paragraphs are unavoidable, use headlines, bullet points and section headers to organize text.
Simple – Use simple language and short sentences. Every message should be boiled down to its core, avoiding industry jargon and acronyms. Always write as if you are speaking to a class of 6th graders who have never heard of your product or service before.
Motivating – Your copy should drive action! Replace dry mission statements and boring product specs with emotion and humor.
Consistent User Experience
Creating a “consistent user experience” is a little less concrete, and in some cases more difficult to achieve, but it is an important concept to be aware of. User experience is the way users feel about your company while interacting with your website. Several factors influence user experience:
Design – Your design should reflect your brand. It should also resonate with your prospective customers. For example, a home improvement website targeted at middle-aged men, should “feel” like a place where men want to buy tools, tile and hardwood.
Credibility – Design also plays an important role in website credibility. It may be shallow, but a visitors first impression of your company is formed within seconds of landing on your homepage. Credibility isn’t just about having fancy seals on your checkout page, it’s about creating an environment that is transparent, professional and forthcoming.
Ease of use – Visitors should be able to navigate your website without getting frustrated, lost or confused. This includes adhering to web standards, providing clear, consistent navigation and creating an intuitive user interface.
Getting Started
Not sure where to start? Fortunately there is an abundance of affordable, easy to use online tools that can help you identify areas of your website that need immediate attention.
UserTesting.com (starting at $39/user) offers videos of real users completing tasks on your website.
Concept Feedback (starting at $99/expert) provides website evaluations from experts in design, usability, strategy and copy.
ClickTale (paid plans start at $99/month) allows you to watch your visitors browsing your website, as well as analyze heatmaps and conversion funnels.
Have a tool or technique of your own? Let us know in the comments!
This guest post was by Andrew Follett, the founder of ConceptFeedback.com, a website feedback tool offering fast, affordable website evaluations from design, usability and strategy professionals. Evaluations provide specific recommendations to grow revenue and increase conversion rates. You can follow Andrew on Twitter, or by reading his website optimization blog.
Note: The Concept Feedback links are affiliate links.
Selling has always been tough. But with the economy, changes in buyer behavior, the web, social media, sales enablement tools, and increased competition — holy buckets!
To make 2011 a year of growth and prosperity, the folks at RainToday, voted the Top Sales Resource in the world in 2010, are opening enrollment to their popular Selling Consulting Services with RAIN Selling online course next week.
I have personally looked through the entire course, listened to the audio files, watched the webinars…and done some of the exercises. I can tell you — this is good stuff.
Special Drew's Marketing Minute Deal to Enroll in Selling Consulting Services
I’ve worked out an extra special deal for you. When you sign up within the next 2 days, here’s what they’re going to do:
~ Reduced tuition for the first month: Tuition for the program is $149 / month. They’re offering you the opportunity to try the program out for just $97 for the first month. For just $97 you’ll gain access to the first few lessons, forums, and February’s live Q&A coaching call. The entire program takes 4 months to complete.
~ Free copy of How Clients Buy Professional Services Benchmark Report: As an added bonus, when you sign up for the program, you’ll also receive a free copy of How Clients Buy Professional Services Benchmark Report (a $345.00 value), absolutely free.
Best of all — you get to check it out for 30 days and if you don't like it – Cancel with no obligation, don’t pay a penny, and keep all the content from the 1st month.
To take advantage of this extra special early enrollment deal, you must sign up in the next 2 days. Click this link: Selling Consulting Services and click the “Sign Up Now” button.
Here’s just some of what you’ll learn in this comprehensive program:
How to keep the front end of the pipeline full with qualified prospects while maintaining your practice with active clients
Step-by-step how to lead masterful sales conversations in any situation
The real deal with objections and how to overcome them (often it’s not what you think)
Follow-up techniques that turn prospects into clients
The 4 things to do when clients pressure you for lower fees
3 keys to developing a winning value proposition and describing complex services in a non-technical way to get prospects excited about you and your services
Questioning strategies and techniques that allow you to uncover the full set of needs and provide maximum value
How to make the business impact of your services clear so you can sell more with less buyer resistance
Why buyers want to pay more for your services
Your step-by-step guide to creating proposals that win
How to bring in a predictable flow of profitable new clients
You too can start feeling more confident and comfortable with your selling by enrolling in this program.
Remember, when you sign up you’ll immediately gain access to the first lesson, the members-only forums, 8 months of instructor-led coaching teleseminars, and RainToday’s popular How Clients Buy Benchmark Report (a $345.00 value). Check it out now: Selling Consulting Services.
Full Disclosure: While RainToday has offered to pay me a small commission if anyone signs up for the course, I am sharing this with you because I think you’ll find tremendous value in it. Otherwise, I wouldn't put your trust on the line.
Recently, three big brands have made the shift to a new, simplified logo. Each provided some rationale for the new look — but I'm curious what you think about them. I've placed the old logos on the left and the new on the right.
So — what do you think? Good choices? Bad? When does a logo have so much equity and recognition that you can go ahead and alter it? Or perhaps — if it has that much value, you should absolutely leave it alone?
MailerMailer released their 10th study about 6 months ago on e-mail open rates and some of the findings are worth thinking about.
As you can see in the chart below, the average unique open rate is dropping. Image blocking, the increased use of mobile devices for e-mail and list fatigue were listed as key reasons for the drop.
One of the more ponder worthy facts was that the day with the highest open and click rates is Sunday. (with Tuesday in 2nd) I found myself wondering if that's the day business people clean out their inbox to get ready for the week.
When they looked at open rates by industry, no surprise — medical was at the bottom of the barrel at 7.3%. Sadly for me and my brethren — marketing was right there with the magic pills at 7.4%. Ag had the highest at 25.3%.
E-mails with shorter subject lines were opened 52% more than the long-winded versions.
So…how might you tweak your e-mail strategy to take advantage of these results? Here's what we're going to do with our weekly e-newsletter:
Stick with Tuesday deliveries
Shorten the subject lines
Keep sharing value and not being self promotional
Maybe mention a tractor or crop now and then! (not really!)
My agency, McLellan Marketing Group's, bank has a branch near our house, so I am usually the official "deposit the checks" guy at our company.
Like most bank drive throughs, they have a commercial lane on the far left and then several "everybody and anybody" lanes to the right of that. The branch I go to is no exception. Except that their drive through isn't straight — it's curved to the right.
So already my car needs to be at an angle to reach the commercial window. Add to that, they've installed a big pole so drivers don't get too close to the building and damage their cars or the building.
The net result of this is… their commercial window is a pain. I can never get quite close enough to the drawer (even when it's fully extended) to comfortably put something in it or take out my receipt. More than once on a windy day, the receipt has fluttered off and I have had to chase it through their parking lot.
We have banked at this particular institution for several years and I have probably been in that drive through a few hundred times. Every time, I grumble to myself about how much I hate the drive through experience. But, I endure it.
I take pride in the fact that I'm a bit rebellious. That I don't always follow the path well taken. That my 7th grade teacher told me I was incorrigible, even though looking back I am pretty sure she didn't mean it as a compliment. My point being — I don't think of myself as someone who is afraid to question or disregard rules on occasion.
Which is why this story is embarrassing to tell.
The other day, as I yet again approached the drive through, FOR THE FIRST TIME, it occurred to me that I didn't need to use the commercial lane. I could use any of the drive through lanes…and the rest of them are straight and utilize the tube/chute thing rather than a drawer with a paperweight in it.
I pulled into one of the "everybody and anybody" lanes and had a lovely drive through experience. Duh!
For years, years mind you, I have been gritting my teeth and enduring the frustrating lane. All because it had a sign over it that said "commercial" and we're a commercial customer.
My point in telling you this story?
Human beings, even incorrigible ones, typically do as they're told. We are all, even me, rule followers by nature. We want to get it right.
From a marketing perspective — this is wonderful news. Couldn't you use this truth in selling and improving the customer experience? For example:
~ On your website, use this truth to control how people navigate through. Use prescriptive commands on buttons to guide them exactly where you want them to go so they don't have to click around looking for something.
~In your bricks and mortar establishment — use signage and other prompts (Disney uses different colored walkways and other tricks) to drive traffic in the right direction and to show a customer when they've strayed off path.
~ In a B2B environment, using checklists and other guides to prompt clients to advance through a project faster and more accurately (good for you and for them).
Bottom line — while it may not be the most flattering of human truths, the fact that people are a bit sheep-like can actually help you create a better (and maybe even WOM buzz worthy) experience for your customers.
But, as in the case of our bank — you can also inadvertently create a bad experience too. So…be mindful of the prompts you've already created. Do some of them need tweaking?
Last year I told you about JWT's (J Walter Thompson) Top 12 Trends Report for 2010. It's by far the most comprehensive and helpful of any of the trend pieces we see this time of year.
I had a chance to ask Ann Mack, JWT's Director of Trendspotting a few questions about the report. As you can imagine, I'm sure she was crazy busy as the report has just been released. So I am grateful that she took the time. Here's what she had to say:
Q1. What trend is the most surprising to you/your team?
If there are two trends that stand out to me this year, it’s our Eat, Pray, Tech trend and our De-Teching trend—they both address our increasing dependency on technology but from opposite angles.
Eat, Pray, Tech speaks to the fact that high-tech devices and services (and the skills to use them) are fast becoming as integral to people as food and clothing. In an interconnected, tech-driven and -enabled marketplace, the latest technology is becoming more than just a luxury or a guilty pleasure.
At the same time, as our dependency on technology rises, so too will our desire to dial it down. De-Teching speaks to the idea that more people will log off—at least temporarily—or engage in one tech activity at a time in an effort to re-engage in the offline present and/or to rewire their brains to be more effective.
Q2. What trend do you think has the most significance for small business owners?
One of the trends that is significant to small business owners is Non-Commitment Culture—the idea that people are increasingly opting for choices that require a less permanent commitment because they are reluctant to commit to discretionary or big-ticket purchases. Consumers will be more likely to rent goods, buy them one year and sell them the next, or share them with friends.
Small business owners can take advantage of this trend by working within this non-commitment culture—helping to enable the sharing/borrowing of their products or lowering the commitment required to buy into their products and services.
Otherwise, they will need to provide incentives to counteract these consumer leanings—by offering added value (such as cutting-edge technology, a more green product, customization options, etc.), by helping to allay the risk around long-term commitments or by showing why long-term commitments can be worthy investments.
Q3. What trend do you think has the most B-to-B relevance?
Worlds Colliding has a lot of B-to-B relevance. It speaks to the borders between the online world and the physical world becoming increasingly fuzzy. Mobile gadgets are bridging the two worlds (the Web accompanies you and helps you navigate the physical realm), and all kinds of objects/devices are becoming Internet-enabled.
So not only will we have a multitude of connected gadgets (from e-readers to phones to televisions), but objects like fridges or even dog collars will connect to the Internet (alerting us that we need certain groceries, for example).
The latter is often referred to as the Internet of Things. Businesses will need to forge relevant partnerships with providers of applications, tools or devices to enable this merger of the online and physical worlds.
Q4. If you owned a business and had read the entire report — what two or three questions would you be asking yourself?
How can my business better reflect the lifestyle of the digital native so that it seamlessly bridges the virtual and real worlds (with little distinction in my communications, products, tools, etc.)?
What products or services can I offer to help people step away from technology (at least temporarily), focus on the offline present, mono-task or connect with others in the real world?
How can I endorse the non-commitment mind-set without hurting new, fresh sales?
Their full report is 88 pages and it's packed with not only the 10 trends, but they take each trend and dig into the following:
The trend itself
Drivers of the trend
How the trend manifests itself
Case studies and examples
Significance/relevance
Potential
Questions to get you thinking about the trend and your own product/service/business
It really is an incredibly insightful tool that will have you thinking differently about not only how you market your business but how you run your business.
Your brand is not your logo….your brand is not your logo. (tired of hearing me say that yet?)
Your brand is the essence of your business. From 20,000 feet — it is who you are, why you exist, the unique value you offer your customers, how you behave, what you believe in, what you promise and of course, how you keep that promise.
When you not only understand but can articulate all of that to a prospective customer, potential employee and your current staff and clients — you now possess one of the most potent tools a business owner/leader can imagine.
One of the basic tenants of any relationship is consistency. We trust the people and companies who behave in a way we can count on. Brand alignment is a powerful way to make a promise and then keep that promise — over and over again. Over time, that earns us the consistency badge which eventually leads to brand loyalty and referrals.
As 2011 kicks off — it’s time to examine your own brand’s alignment and decide if any aspect of it needs tuning up. There are many moving parts to a brand — and they all have to be in synch.
Your mission — why do you exist (from an internal point of view — why do you fight the fight every day?)
Your vision — how you want to change your corner of the world (from the world’s point of view)
Your tagline — how do you tell the world about your vision and promise? This is the first sentence of your elevator speech and how you get someone excited to work with/for you
Your visuals — if you had to describe your brand without words, how would you use colors, shapes, symbols etc. to do that. Here’s where your logo and color palette come in
Your touch points — in every way you come into contact with your employees, prospects and customers — how do you weave your brand promise and personality into those encounters. How do you add a bit of lagniappe that is uniquely you into each touchpoint?
We’ll dig into each of these aspects over the next couple weeks but for now, step back and look at the big picture. Is every cog of your brand working in perfect alignment with the others? If not, it’s time to make a change.
At McLellan Marketing Group, we don’t just preach this stuff, we live it out with you. In our own brand alignment check, we decided that our tagline needed a tweak. Back in 2003, when I bought out a business partner, we agreed that the company needed to be re-branded once the buy out was complete. In the agreement, we only allowed a couple weeks to get that accomplished.
We knew we believed that strategy was king. It drives marketing creative, decisions and direction. And one of our core beliefs is that passion cannot be ignored — so for the past 6 years, we’ve used the tagline “where strategy and passion collide!” Still as true today as it was back then. We believe there’s an energy that is created when clients with a passion for their work and customers get connected with the right strategy and with MMG.
But… as we “grew up” as a company we recognized that what we’re spectacular at is helping our clients forge lifelong relationships with their customers. That’s about brand, it’s about creating memorable experiences, it’s about being their hero and it’s about the notion that you have to keep courting your customers as though it’s your first date.
Which has led us to talking a lot about creating a love affair with your customer. We realized that when we introduced ourselves — that’s the line we were using to kick off the conversation, not our tagline. So as of a couple weeks ago, we made the switch. (And of course, will be continuing to change out everything over the next few weeks.) Our new tagline “Create a love affair with your customer” takes the strategy and passion’s collision and makes it very tangible. It makes the collision matter. It’s the why.
Your turn. Start thinking about all of those brand elements listed above. Is each cog in perfect alignment with the others or are they off just a little?
Want a tool to help you check your brand’s alignment? Here’s a link to the MMG brand criteria chart.
I suspect that many of you received iPads as holiday gifts this December. Now, you’re trying to justify to family and friends exactly why you need this absolutely awesome toy.
I have the solution for you. Here’s how you turn your iPad into the business tool you won’t be able to live without. Here are the apps worthy of your home screen.
As a mac laptop, iPhone carrying, iPad user — I give extra props to apps that synch between all of my devices in an effort to keep me organized.
I have not tried all the apps that exist. These are the ones that work for me. No doubt, your mileage will vary,
I’m not a tech support guy, so if I use the wrong terminology or can’t tell you how to get your iPad to do something — I’m sorry.
Most of these apps cost a few bucks.
Yup, lots of other incredible apps but I focused just on what’s on my home screen. In other words — work tools. I have 6 other screens of games, books, puzzles, movies etc.
This is the longest blog post I have ever written. Sorry about that.
With those disclaimers firmly in place — let’s dig in.
The dock is the little shelf at the bottom of your home screen. As you scroll through your screens, the dock stay in place. So this is the place for the apps you are constantly using. The iPad comes with Safari, Mail, Photos and iPod as the defaults on your dock. You can switch out the apps on the dock…and you can have up to 6 apps there.
So, on my dock:
Settings: (allows me to control all settings on the iPad) Comes pre-loaded.
App Store: (search, find and download apps) Comes pre-loaded
Safari: (web browser — you can synch your bookmarks on all devices through iTunes) (instructions) Comes pre-loaded.
Mail: (synchs with Mail app on my phone and laptop as well) Comes pre-loaded.
Things: (Task Management/To Do list) This is an incredible app. It synchs my To Do list on all devices AND iCal. Now this one was pricey at $50 but I don’t regret spending the money. I am not going to describe everything it does (check out their website) but it keeps me on task, on time and looking a bit less forgetful.
Reeder: – my feed reader. It synchs with Google Reader and lets me browse by feed, folders, starred items etc. It also sends posts to Instapaper, can instantly post to my Twitter or Facebook accounts. It was $4.99 (Reeder website)
Now, onto my home screen:
Dropbox: This is my universal file cabinet. (visit website) I can access any file in my Dropbox account (or upload a new file) from my iPad, iPhone or laptop. I can share files with other people (by invitation only) while keeping all the other files private. I literally upload my entire WORK folder from my laptop when I travel, so the laptop can stay at the office! (Free)
Simplenote: This is a virtual notebook — but keeps every note organized and tracks revisions to every note. (visit website) I use it to take notes in meetings, I keep my “Pack List” so I never forget anything while packing and it synchs between all devices. I can also e-mail any note to anyone in my contact list. Notes can be tagged and categorized as well. (Free)
Evernote: This is my brain’s junk drawer. It synchs on all devices. Anything I might want to collect/save (photos, text, audio files, audio notes that I can record on the fly, typed notes, screen captures etc.) It’s where I keep half-baked ideas, blog post thoughts, research tidbits etc. I love the audio feature. I can clip something on a website and then leave myself an audio note of why I am keeping it. I splurged for the premium ($45/annual) for the larger file upload size but I am guessing I could have gotten by with the free version. (check out their website)
FlightTrack: As the name suggests, this allows me to keep tabs on my (or family members) flights. It tells me what gate I need to go to, if we’re scheduled to leave on time, the on time percentage of my flight, trip time, gives me seat maps and terminal maps. If I am on a flight and wondering what gate we’re going to pull up to — or what gate I need to get to — it’s all right there. I went with the Pro version ($10) because it synchs with TripIt automatically, (FlightTrack website)
Log Me In: This allows me to access my laptop (or my Mom’s computer) no matter where I am. I can take remote control of the computer, transfer files between computers, print remote files to my printers at home or work, etc. I really got this to be my Mom’s tech support but it serves my purposes for work as well. They have plenty of free options and a wide range of paid options as well. (Review options here)
Keynote: Vastly superior to PowerPoint, this is the Mac’s presentation software. It allows you (with an adapter) to use your iPad and a projector to give presentations without laptop or other device. You can also create presentations on the fly. You can also save any Keynote presentation as a PPT if you want to. Drop and drag graphics, re-size elements with the squeeze of your fingertips — creating a presentation is actually fun! You can e-mail presentations from the app, print etc. (Read more and watch a video) ($10)
Pages: This is a beautiful word processing app. You can do much more than create plain documents though. With the tap of a finger, you can add images, charts, resize fonts, change fonts, etc. (Read more and see some samples) My only frustration had been that I couldn’t link Pages (or Keynote) directly to Dropbox but now I can. (read how you can too!) ($10)
Note: If you’re a PC user — I’d highly recommend Office-2 HD fro 7.99. It allows you to create, open and edit MS Word and Excel and save directly to Dropbox.
Flipboard: This is a very cool app. It basically takes all your Google reader folders, your Twitter feed, Facebook news updates, magazine subscriptions, TedTalks videos, blog feeds, etc and presents them to you in a magazine format. This is a fantastic curator if you want to browse through all that matters to you, from an info POV. (check out their website) (Free)
HootSuite: This app allows me to update Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare on the fly. I can also schedule updates for minutes, hours or days in advance. it also synchs on all devices! (Hootsuite website) (Free)
Instapaper: This allows me to grab any page/s on the Internet and save them to read later. If there are links in the story — I can tap on them and connect to them via my browser or save it as a new document in Instapaper. This too synchs my devices and on the web. (Check it out) (Free)
GoodReader: The best app for reading PDFs on iPad, this tool also handles MS Office files as well as many audio and visual files. (Read more) ($3)
Print Central: One problem with the iPad is that once you have photos or documents stored on it, you can’t print anything unless you transfer the file to your main computer. Print Central lets you either plug in (with charging cord) to your computer and print directly from the iPad or hook up with any wifi printer without cords. (Check out the site) ($10)
BoxCar: This app pulls all your notifications (Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, and many others) and aggregates them all in one place. You won’t ever miss another direct message, notification or new e-mail. This is a huge time and embarrassment saver! (Read more about it) (Free)
iThoughtsHD: If you like to brainstorm or think in mindmaps, this is the app for you. It’s easy to use, integrates with Dropbox and gives you many options in terms of how you like to design and organize your maps. (Watch the video) ($10)
Time Master + Billing: In the agency world, we need to keep track of how we spend our time. This app lets me do that, no matter where I am. And it synchs with my iPhone, so I can keep records on both and they work together. This has lots of features I don’t use (like billing) but would make it even more valuable for a solo consultant or entrepreneur. (More info) ($10)
Calendars – Google Calendar Client: I’ve got calendars on Google Apps, iCal, my iPhone and my iPad. I need a program that synchs with them all, has alarms that work on all of them and let’s me view my entire team’s calendars individually. Yikes. That’s why this calendar app does the trick for me. It has a drag and drop events features, set repeating tasks, and invite people to events. This is a life critical app for me. (Read more about the app) ($7)
Netflix: It’s a very cool thing to have movies and TV shows on demand. The quality is excellent and you can either rely on iPad’s built in speakers or plug one in. Either way — it’s excellent in a hotel room, an office or airport. (You need a netflix account) (Free)
Square: Accept credit cards without having a merchant’s account or paying ridiculously high service charges. The account is free and they’ll even send you the credit card reader (plugs into the headphones jack) or you can key in the credit card number. Square even generates an instant receipt for you and the client. (see if Square is for you) (Free except for service fees)
Air Sharing: This app turns your iPad into a hard drive that allows you to connect with your computer, swap files, print, and much more. Think of it as a huge flash drive, thanks to Air Sharing. (Check it out) ($3)
At Bat (MLB 2010): Okay, you can’t work all the time. During pre-season, regular season and post-season, this app let me watch any major league baseball game being played — live. The app itself is free and gives you plenty of great baseball stats, updates, scores etc. The “watch any game” is an annual subscription. (Read more)
There you have it…now you can justify that iPad to anyone — it’s a business tool like no other!
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One of the most tangible and visible aspects of any organization's brand are its employees.
