Marketing

What’s your purple goldfish?

January 11, 2012

Get your free copy of Stan Phelp’s book!

A few years ago, I met Stan Phelps, another marketing guy, online (I think he commented on my blog and we started chatting via email) and before I knew it — we were friends.  He was just dipping his toe into the blogging waters and I tried to be helpful along the way.

Fast forward to today, January 11, 2012.

Stan’s first book, What’s Your Purple Goldfish*, is being released today.  I’ve read it and know you’re going to love it.  Really love it.

I’m also very humbled to say that Stan asked me to write the forward for his book.  So I can think of no better way to introduce you to Stan’s excellent book than to share with you a bit of what I had to say.

“…He understood that marketing is about being so remarkable that people can’t help but talk about you.  That if you absolutely delight someone – they will not only come back but they’ll bring friends.  They become your sales force.

Stan delivers this marketing truth over and over again in this book all wrapped in the idea of lagniappe.  What’s so awesome about the whole notion of marketing lagniappe is that it not only teaches us what to do but more importantly, it reminds us that it must be done from the heart.

True lagniappe can’t be faked or forced.  We banter the word authentic around too much these days.  But for lagniappe to work, it must be just that — real and offered without expectation of anything in return.

In other words – you do it because you want to, not because it’s in a marketing plan document or because your ROI calculator told you it would generate a 42.36% return. (And no…there’s no such thing as an ROI calculator!)

As you read the stories that Stan has collected for this book, I think you’re going to be amazing at the creativity and generosity that many businesses have and in the end, I suspect you’ll be inspired to let your inner spirit of lagniappe loose.

You’ll probably fill up a notepad with ideas of how you could do a little something extra to enchant your customers.  When you’ve turned that corner and are thinking about them rather than what’s in it for you – you’re truly ready to practice lagniappe.

I honestly believe that the guys in the white hats do win in the end.  And companies that embrace the belief that if you give first and you give generously – you will earn customers for life are marketing’s good guys. This book shows us time and time again how to make that happen.

In the end, this book is Stan’s own lagniappe for all of us.  A genuine gesture of sharing what he truly believes with the hope that it is of great value to us.  I’m so happy for you that you’ve found Stan, his book and are about to receive a gift that could, if you let it, change how you do business forever.”

True to his belief in lagniappe — Stan is making it possible for you to enjoy his book for free.  (You can buy the paperback version here* if you’d like to go that route)

Option #1:  If you own a Kindle and are an Amazon Prime member, you can download the book for free by visiting this page.  This offer is good for the next 90 days.

Option #2:  You can download a free copy from Scribd by clicking here.

Option #3:  You can buy a paperback copy here (only at this site) and if you email your receipt to Stan (click here to do that) then he’ll send you a signed paperback and a little surprise for free.

The book is well worth the $16 and it’s a freaking steal for free.  Get it however you choose to — but get it.  And as you read it, hopefully the marketing lagniappe stories will inspire some lagniappe of your own.

Go on… get the book.

*Amazon affiliate link

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Marketing insights question: What do you really sell?

November 29, 2011

What do you really sell?

Over the next few weeks, as we head towards 2012, I’m going to write a series of posts that are designed to get you thinking about your business in a new/fresh way.  I’m going to ask a single question in each post — but I’m warning you, these aren’t slam dunk questions.

I’m hopeful that as you ponder my question — it will give you some ideas for making 2012 a break out year for your organization.  If nothing else — this exercise should fine tune some of your marketing efforts.

What do you really sell? Do you understand what your customers are really buying?  Odds are, it’s much more than the “thing” you sell, whether that be a pair of glasses or accounting services.  Look beyond the tangible or what you list on an invoice.

Do you really sell peace of mind?  Or a competitive edge?  Are your customers’ buying the reassurance of your years of experience or your ability to nudge them out of their comfort zone?

Before you can effectively help someone buy – you need to actually understand what you’re selling.

If your honest answer is “I’m not sure” then it’s time to break out the trusty telephone and invite some of your best clients (the ones you’d like to replicate all day long) to lunch.  Ask them why they buy from you.  What is the ultimate value you provide to them?  Why would they tell your competitor “no thanks” even if they offered a bargain basement price?

You will be amazed at what you hear.  We’ve done this over the years at MMG and heard things like:

• “Because I know you won’t have your hand in my pocket all of the time.”
• “You don’t just preach social media, you guys actually do it.”
• “I don’t think they’d care as much about our business as your team does.  You all act like you own the joint.”
• And one of my favorites was “Because I don’t just need an agency, I need a thinking partner.”

Can you see how those answers would alter the way we market our agency?  Do you recognize some client worries/fears in those responses?

You’ll find your clients’ answers to be even more insightful because you’ll get to have the follow up conversation as well.  Listen so hard it hurts.  The learning will be huge!

And in the end, you will know exactly what you sell!

 

Photo courtesy of BigStockPhoto.com

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How did your Black Friday behavior compare?

November 27, 2011

Check out this infographic (from mashwork.com) on what was expected this Black Friday.

How did your behavior and choices compare?

Most of these predictions were compiled using Twitter conversations from September through November 17th of this year.  Makes you wonder what marketing intelligence you might gain with a few targeted Twitter searches.

black friday infographic 2 resized 600

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How do you sell what no one wants to buy?

November 14, 2011

How do you market stuff no one wants?

Most of us don’t have the luxury of selling ocean front property, the coolest laptop, the latest in tractor technology or porsches.  But in most cases, while it may not be sexy to many — someone really wants it.

But how do you sell something that no one has any enthusiasm or interest in buying?  You know, things like…. funeral services, trauma clean up or bankruptcy law services.

Granted…when someone has lost a loved one, had a horrific accident in their home or can’t survive their financial crisis — they need to talk to you.  But it’s not something they’re looking forward to doing.

How do you market to them prior to that triggering event so that when an event occurs — they know about your company, your offerings and you, at the very least, are on their short list of potential vendors?

When you sell something that people dread having to buy, the psychology of that dread is pretty straight forward.   Something very bad has to happen before they’d need to buy something from you.  And odds are that bad thing would have to happen to someone they love.

Focus on the emotion: 99% of the time people don’t want to buy what you sell is because of the emotions attached to the purchase.   You are not a want.  Sooner or later — you’re a necessity.

So in your marketing — paint me a picture of how you help your customers get over the very thing they’re afraid of.   This means you have to truly understand the psychology of your customers at their point of purchase.  Once you do, think through every touch point of the purchase cycle and make sure you’re focusing on getting them through the event.

This isn’t the time for being fuzzy with your message.  Directly acknowledge that you understand their pain/fear etc.  and show them how you’ve  built your business to ease those emotions.

Go with a prevention message: One of the best ads for a funeral home I ever saw was an ad with an anti drunk driving theme.  The basic message was — don’t drink and drive, we’re not that anxious to see you.  it made them seem very human and caring.

If your product or service only comes into play when something bad has happened — one strong marketing tactic is to help people avoid that bad event.

Offer/sponsor a financial literacy class or promote a suicide hotline.  But do something that actually helps people avoid you.  Those who aren’t so lucky will remember that you were compassionate enough to try and help.

Demonstrate on a small scale: Usually, part of what makes people dread buying from you is the enormity and finality of their situation by the time they get to your front door.

But you can show off your skills on a much less scary scale.  For example, if you clean up trauma scenes — think of the stains you have to remove.  Blood, body emissions, etc.

Is there a way you can demonstrate those abilities — but on a less scary scale?  Kick off  a series of blog posts or post card tips that talk about how to remove tough stains like blood.  Show us you know your stuff — but slowly and in less dramatic applications.

Find your influencers: Often times, people are a bit numb at the moment they need to buy these sorts of services.  They are on auto pilot, due to the emotions they’re facing.  So people like attorneys, police officers, hospice centers etc. are often guiding them through the process.

Find out how to genuinely connect with these influencers.  Give them information, materials, etc. to help them get a person/family through that moment in time.  Be truly helpful and they’ll remember you at the point of referral.

The over-arching message here is — you have to be part psychologist to sell what people have no interest in buying.  You are often meeting them at their most vulnerable moments and they need you to help them feel safe and cared for.

The upside of all of this is just that.  You are meeting people in their worst nightmare.  If you can truly serve them well, help them with not only the mechanics of what you sell — but more importantly, walk through the nightmare with them — that’s very noble work and you should take great pride in it.

 

Photo courtesy of BigStockPhoto.com

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What Josh Groban can teach us about marketing

November 7, 2011

Josh Groban, the master marketer

If you also follow me on Twitter or Facebook — odds are you know that I have an 18 year old daughter who loves Josh Groban and his music.

This past summer was all about Josh for the McLellans.  We saw his concert in 3 different states, culminating in front row seats, backstage passes (see the picture of my daughter and Josh) and him wearing a t-shirt that she gave him on stage during the encore.

I tell you all of this because as we’ve done our family Josh Groban deep dive, I couldn’t help but notice something:

Josh Groban is a brilliant marketer.

You may not like his music (seriously, what’s not to like?) but you can take emulate his marketing prowess, no matter what you sell.

He has build a solid marketing foundation: Josh has all the usual things you’d expect a singing sensation to have these days.  A robust website, an active fan club, lots of Josh Groban personalized items (Yes, we do have a pair of Josh Groban flip flops at our house), and plenty of ticket giveaways on radio stations etc.

Lesson for us: While the marketing foundation might not be sexy — it’s necessary.  You can’t start off in the middle.  Build a rock solid foundation and then grow from there.

He gives his best customers exclusive content/access: He gives fan club members exclusive access to front row seats.  He also offers $25 tickets for all students at every show, which is not advertising anywhere but on his fan page.

For every concert, he selects one local fan club member to be his “road reporter.”  That person gets back stage passes, a press pass (to sit with the media during the concert and have special photo taking opportunities) and gets to write a review of the concert — which is posted on Josh’s website.  As you can imagine…every road reporter includes the photo of themselves with Josh.  Do you think that drives some traffic to the page?

Lessons for us: Rewarding your best customers transforms them into fans.  Fans who brag and spread the word.   That’s marketing you can’t buy, but you sure can influence and encourage.

He uses social media to be a real human being, not a robot: His tweets are his own and often, not about his music or singing.  (One that amused me was when he was trying to imitate the sound of a train)   He hosts webinar/chats with his fan club members and he really does just hang out and talk with them.

He does some crazy stuff on YouTube like this cooking show video.  He also did a couple where he interviews himself.  He’s goofy.  Which makes him very real and very likable.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFMMRJ9K5u0[/youtube]

Lessons for us: I don’t care if you’re a huge brand like Nike or a local shopkeeper — people want you to be real.  They want to like you.  But they can’t do that if you hide behind corporate speak or “official statements.”

He shows his heart: Josh launched a foundation years ago, but really has sharpened the focus of it to raise money for arts organizations for kids.  It might be a youth symphony, buying instruments for a disadvantaged elementary school or a theatre camp.  At every concert, he talks about his Find Your Light Foundation, offers his fans a chance to text in a donation and introduces a group of kids from that local city who are benefiting from those donations.  It’s all very nicely handled.

Lessons for us: Your customers want to know that you stand for something.  And if you truly show them your heart, they’ll join you in the fight.  Look at what Avon has done for breast cancer.  That’s not the company doing it — it’s their loyal customers.  Who are even more loyal because they share a passion now.

Bottom line — if a 30+ year old singer can launch a marketing tsunami mostly through gile and technology — so can you.  What Josh reminds us is — if it’s real, people gravitate towards it.

Thanks for the lessons Josh…and for the summer that will live in Mclellan infamy!

 

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Don’t have the time to do marketing

November 2, 2011

I don’t have time to do marketing

If there’s a common theme in the conversations I have with business owners, it’s that they don’t have the time to consistently market their business.

We might be talking about  sending out a customer e-newsletter, participating in social media, attending an important trade show or updating their website.  The specifics don’t matter.  They just simply don’t have the time.

I get it.  The whole 24 hour in a day thing.

I ask them if they have time to serve their clients.  And they say, “of course… I have to do that to stay in business.”

I ask them if they have time to send out bills to their customers.  And they say, “of course… I have to do that to stay in business.”

You find time to do what’s necessary.  If it has to get done, it gets done.

Ahhh.  So it’s not that you don’t have time.  It’s that you don’t consider marketing a necessity to stay in business.  Now that’s a very different conversation.

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But where do you find all the content?

October 17, 2011

 

Challenges related to a content marketing strategy

In August of this year, HiveFire surveyed marketing professionals to better understand the state of the B2B marketing landscape including what was really creating the biggest challenges, how they were choosing to market and what they saw on the horizon.  (get a copy of the survey results here)

One major theme surfaced from the results: content marketing (the creation and publication of original content, such as blog posts, photos, videos, website resource pages, case studies or white papers to enhance a brand’s visibility) is changing the way B2B marketers work. More and more marketing effort is being channeled towards content creation and curation.  But it’s not without its challenges.

Some of the more interesting findings of the survey are wrapped in the challenges of actually creating the content.  Few argue about the tactic’s value — it’s the how to get it done on a consistent basis that seems to be causing the most trouble.

Driving leads is the number one objective of B2B marketers but they are challenged with having the resources to accomplish this goal.
  78% of respondents cited driving sales/leads as the most important marketing objective for their organization.

But they have to do it without a lot of help: working with a limited budget (28%) and limited staff (23%) were the top two marketing challenges cited by respondents.

I think most businesses have more content than they know.  They just aren’t looking in the right places.  If you’re trying to implement a content marketing strategy — you can probably re-purpose content found in:

• Annual reports
• Sales proposals
• Marketing materials
• Sales presentations
• Orientation manuals (lots of good stuff about the company here)
• Sales fliers
• Instructional documents
• Emaiils to/from customers
• The FAQ section of your website
• Diagrams/charts of your product/service (think infographic!)
• Customer service manuals/instructions

And that’s just scratching the surface.  Remember — the content shouldn’t be all about you.  In fact, if it is — your audience will run kicking and screaming.  Broaden your scope by asking “what does my audience care about?” as opposed to “what can I tell them about us?”

By asking the right question — I suspect you just made finding content to share a whole lot easier.

Related articles

• Blog Posts Most Valuable B2B Marketing Content [Data] (hubspot.com)
• Content Marketing Needs More Than Content (customerthink.com)
• B2B Content Marketing: The Grande Guide from Eloqua (marketingtechblog.com)

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How to use Facebook ads

October 12, 2011

 

Facebook advertising best practices

For many businesses, advertising on the social network Facebook has proven to be a very successful model.  Facebook’s model is to be pretty rigid in terms of what you can and can’t do on your ad.  They’re all the same size and shape.  The format for all ads is exactly the same.  There are specific character counts for both the headline and the body copy.

So you have to work pretty hard to capture someone’s attention, considering all the sameness. The ads are inexpensive but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to do them well.  If you’re going to invest the money, be sure you consider these suggestions.

Start with the end in mind: Like any marketing, you should set your goals up front.  How will you define and measure success?  Know what niche you’re targeting and what you want them to do.

Decide – click or view: You can pay for Facebook ads in one of two ways.  You can either pay for impressions or for clicks.  If you’re just looking for awareness, impressions may make more sense.  If you want to drive people to another website or a specific product’s landing page, then clicks will work better.  (Do the math to double check your choice)

Already be there: Ideally, you would couple your Facebook advertising with a robust Facebook fan page.  You should also change the standard URL that Facebook assigns your page to a custom URL.  You can do this for free once you have 25 likes for the page.

Visuals: Facebook allows you one photo per ad.  The maximum size your photo can be is 110 pixels wide by 80 pixels tall.  You’re much better off to pre-size your photo yourself, rather than have Facebook do it for you.

You want to have a picture that pops off the screen and that’s tough at 110 pixels.  Be sure you choose a photo that is dramatic and isn’t too busy.  You’ll get bonus views if your image is unusual, very local (if that’s your target)  or even something shocking or impossible.

Hit the target: One of the biggest benefits offered by Facebook ads is the ability to hyper target your ads.  You can target by geography (down to a specific city), by gender, age, education, and even marital status.  Beyond that, you can also target your ads by keywords.  You can be so specific that, for example, the only people who see your ads are married women who live in Colorado Springs, are between 25 and 33 and love both black and white photography, horses and iPads.

What this means is there is very little waste.  You can pinpoint exactly who matters. You can also narrow the field too much. Be sure to think through those decisions carefully.

Less is more: You only have 135 characters for your body copy so choose every word with great care.  Don’t waste any words on giving them contact information (they’re going to click on the ad if they want to reach you) or details that aren’t critical to getting them to take that next step and click.  Like in all advertising – asking a question can be a very compelling way to get someone’s attention.

Testing 1-2-3: One of the best things about Facebook ads are all the analytics they provide at no charge.  You can track and test your ads over and over again until you’ve reached the pinnacle of effectiveness.  Run multiple ads in a campaign and see how they perform against one another.  Watch for ads that start to slow down.  Change something simple like the headline or image to see if the ad’s activity picks back up.

Facebook ads can be a potent tool in your marketing arsenal so make the most of them by following these suggestions.

If you’ve used FB ads — what was your best secret?

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Are you a speed and sputter marketer?

September 30, 2011

Are you guilty of speed and sputter marketing?

I do a lot of driving.  Between work, providing my mom (3.5 hours away) with computer support and fetching my daughter every so often at college (2 hours away) — I’m on the road quite a bit.

I found myself wondering if I’d make better time if I used my cruise control on those longer drives so I decided to experiment with it.  (I know, I’m a wild man!)

I set the cruise 5 miles over the speed limit, which if you’ve driven with me, you’ll know is a little slower than I tend to drive.  So I thought it would take me longer to get to my destination.

Long story short — I definitely shortened my drive time when I used the cruise as opposed to me manually controlling the speed of my vehicle.

It makes sense — it’s easy to get distracted by other cars, something along the side of the road, the book on CD I’m listening to, a phone conversation etc.  And if nothing else, no doubt my speed is varying throughout the journey.

But with the cruise on — I’m absolutely consistent and incredibly steady.  It turns out – that’s the winning combination in terms of making good time.

Since this isn’t a car blog, you’re probably wondering why I’m sharing.  Well — it occurred to me that the same is true of marketing.

Most companies are speed and sputter marketers.  They get a great idea, have a lot of energy around it and blast it off.  But then they get busy and things get stalled.  That monthly enewsletter becomes a sort of quarterly piece.  The print ad series never actually runs.  And the customer survey is drafted or even deployed but no one got around to crunching the numbers.

Their marketing success is very hit or miss and is greatly influenced by lots of outside factors.  There’s no consistency.  And as we’ve talked about before — consistency breeds trust which is what leads to a sale.  (I know, like and trust you)

But if your marketing is on cruise control — that is to say there’s a process that keeps chugging along no matter how busy you are — your consistency will speak volumes.  You will be able to take advantage of the DRIP method of marketing that allows you to just keep a nice, steady stream of connectivity and relevant communication out there — tethering you and your audience to each other.

I can hear you now — how can we do that?  If it was easy, we’d never speed and then sputter.  I’ve got some ideas around that so stay tuned next week.

But for today — think about how your marketing/company is perceived when you stop and start all the time.  Is that who you want to be?

 

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With all due respect, what are you waiting for?

September 4, 2011

…what are you waiting for?

I’m all for having a plan when it comes to marketing.  To just start flailing around is usually a waste of money and opportunity.  But for many businesses, the need for a plan and the “right” time is just an excuse to do absolutely nothing.

I’m also absolutely positive that there is one marketing tactic that you KNOW you should be doing but for some reason you haven’t started it yet.

Maybe you don’t have the perfect name for your newsletter.  Perhaps you aren’t sure if you have the stamina to blog.  Or something might happen in the 4th quarter that would negate the momentum of the initiative (translation = you’re scared).

Just start.  Don’t put it off for another minute.

You are letting your head get in the way of your marketing gut.  Maybe you can’t explain why you know it’s the right choice or you have never done it before so you’re worried you’ll do it wrong — whatever is stopping you —  get out of your own way.

Call it a pilot program or a test run.  In your own head, make it sound like it’s no big deal.  However you have to psych yourself out/up — do it.

Marketing is an every day thing.  Not a special day thing.  It’s not the Thanksgiving china — it’s the Corelle dishes you use on Mondays (and Tuesdays…).  So get over yourself and just make this happen.

How can you actually get this done?

1. Starting right now — create a list of what you need to have/do to launch.
2. Set a date.  A firm date that you’re not going to miss.
3. Tell someone (your team, your boss, your customers) that you’re going to do it and when (i.e. We’re launching our company Facebook fan page on Oct 1!)
4. Create a reward for yourself/team to celebrate the launch (it can be as simple as ice cream cones to as big as a day off)
5. Start chipping away at the list.  Now.  Today.

You have 4 months left in 2011.  There’s always going to be a reason not to start.  Isn’t it time that you just did it anyway?

 

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