Marketing Archives - Page 35 of 67 - McLellan Marketing Group

How sharp is your pricing strategy?

April 21, 2008

We’ve talked many times about pricing strategy but here’ s a little twist.

What does your pricing strategy say about your brand? Are you like everyone else…$9.99 instead of $10? Or register for our webinar by May 25th and get $200 off!

How about the early bird discounts at conferences?

Lots of sameness. Not right or wrong. Just the same as everyone else. How could you modify your pricing to reflect one of your brand’s values?

Walmart is by far the world’s largest retailer, with the promise of the lowest possible prices. Their current tagline is "Save money. Live better."

Walmart promises that they’ll sell us stuff as cheap as they possibly can. And they demonstrate that by not using the $9.99 standard price point but instead we’ll find items marked $9.83 or $19.67. Those pinpoint prices speak volumes. Without saying a word, Walmart is reminding us of their brand.

They’re using price as a tangible demonstration of the company’s commitment to their brand promise.

Pricing is one of the many tools of brand design and management. Your strategy should be as much about your brand as it is about your costs of goods or any other operational consideration.

How do you using your pricing strategy to reinforce your brand promise?

Are you really going to buy something from me?

April 18, 2008

You get a call or an e-mail. You resist the urge to jump up and down. Boy, this one sounds good. They fit your client profile and they contacted you. Their buying signals are flashing like the Bat Signal in the sky they’re so blatant. You know you could truly help their business.

You might as well print off the contract now, right?

Not so fast, my friend. Any of these ever happen to you?

They already know they want to hire your competitor but need to demonstrate they’ve done due diligence by getting a few bids.
They’re using the "put it out to bid" pressure tactic to get their current provider to snap back into order.
Their RFP is awfully detailed — they’re fishing for free ideas so they can do it themselves.
You’d be their 4th or 5th (fill in the blank with your profession) in the past few years.

So how do you figure out if they’re really a buyer? Here are some signs that you can at least put the champagne in the fridge to cool:

Do you have access/time with the CEO and other top leaders? If not…odds are whatever you sell isn’t a priority for the organization.
Are they used to paying for services like yours? In the same price range? You don’t want to be the one to break in the new kid.
Does your sweet spot match up with one of their biggest pain points? They’re going to want pain relief and look for a partner who can promise them that, via pat experience or great ideas.
Are they the ones driving the process — being flexible about getting together and reaching out for more information, a demo, etc.?
Are they quick to answer e-mail, return phone calls, get you data that you requested?

If you answered yes to all five does it mean you are on Easy Street? You know better. But at least it means the opportunity is probably a good one. Now, it’s up to you.

Dear soon to be college grad

April 17, 2008

It’s April. Which means that all of you seniors who are graduating in a few weeks are getting a serious amount of pressure from Mom and Dad to send out those resumes.

And so you will. I thought I might offer a few helpful hints.

Do not address your cover letter to the entire company, i.e. Dear McLellan Marketing Group. If you don’t have time to find out the specific person to send it to, don’t send it. And if you do get their name, for the love of Pete — spell it correctly. If you can’t get my name right, do you really think I’m going to let you loose with one of our clients?

The time to start looking for your first job is not in April of your senior year. I know it’s too late for you but warn your little brothers and sisters. Tell them to start engaging in conversations with the companies they might like to work for when they are freshmen and sophomores. Then, by the time they’re seniors — these companies will be helping them find a job. Who is helping you?

Spell check. Then, read your cover letter and resume slowly and out loud. Find is not spelled fine. Again…do I want you writing to our clients?

I know it’s a common mistake, but when you say my resume is attached — attach it.

Cutting and pasting is tempting. I cannot tell you how many times I have received a cover letter addressed to another agency or agency principal. Odds are she got mine. Odds are, neither of us are going to hire you.

It’s tough enough to get a job in this field. Don’t let laziness or sloppiness make it even harder for you. I know you think the above is an exaggeration but I just deleted an e-mail that made 4 of the 5 listed mistakes. All in one cover letter!

Want more….read this free e-book written specifically for college grads and this post on what I would do if I were a college grad, looking for that first job.

Last piece of advice — hang in there. It’s as much fun and as rewarding as you think it will be.

Okay, I lied. One last thing. If you are going to try to impress me with your creativity — then A) Be creative. and B) Don’t let spelling and punctuation errors spoil the delivery.

Check this out. See if you can spot the errors (both in the video and description). Instead of helping himself by going above and beyond, he’s just proven that he hasn’t even mastered the basics.

How do you listen to your customers?

April 15, 2008

Ask any executive or business owner if it’s important to them to listen to their customers and you will get an enthusiastic "of course!" Then, ask them what programs or tools they have in place to listen. Suddenly, for most companies, the silence is deafening.

You might hear suggestion box or a customer service toll free number or even an e-mail address. On a rare occasion, you might hear customer satisfaction survey or personalized follow up phone calls.

But, I suspect it will be a rare company that says "RV."

Yes, RV.

The folks at Freshbooks (a web-based time tracking and invoicing tool) decided to hit the road. For two weeks, they lived and traveled on an RV as they toured 11 cities in the southern U.S. Along the way, they stopped to host BBQs, met customers, and hung hangover kits on the hotel doorknobs during SXSW.

This is a company that gets customer engagement. They didn’t sit back and passively wait for a customer to shoot them an e-mail or take an online survey. They got up and went to their customers. Literally. They didn’t do a hard sell, they let their brand’s personality dictate how they interacted.

No wonder 99% of their customers said they’d recommend them to a peer.

This worked because:

It was fresh and different
The company was making the effort — not asking the customers to do the work
It had talk value — people told this story over and over
It was true to Freshbook’s brand personality

The RV/road tour isn’t the right answer for everyone. But aggressively listening is. So…what’s your best, most talkable listening tactic? If you don’t have one…get any ideas from the Freshbooks gang?

Alltop names Marketing Minute an “all the top” resource

April 12, 2008

In mid-March, Guy Kawasaki launched Alltop, a news aggregation site that provides “all the top” stories for forty of the most popular topics on the Web.

The headlines and first paragraph of the five most recent stories from forty to eighty sources for each topic are displayed. Alltop stories are refreshed approximately every ten minutes.

A good metaphor is that Alltop is an "online magazine rack" that displays the news from the top publications and blogs. Their goal is to satisfy the information needs of the 99% of Internet users who will never use an RSS feed reader or create a custom page. Think of it as "aggregation without the aggravation.”

Drew’s Marketing Minute is considered one of the top resources in the social media category. You can find the entire list of topics on their home page. You’ll be amazed at the diversity — everything from dads to venture capital and just about everything in between.

It’s a slick tool and gives you access to many resources at a glance.

Around the horn: 04/10/08

April 10, 2008

"Around the horn" is a baseball warm up drill that has the infield players simulating the path a ball would take during a double play. In my case, I’m using the term to share some of the best posts I’ve seen recently.

"You’re not all that." A great line from Andrew Clark’s post on 15.5 ways to be more creative over at Brand Chef. Check out his very helpful list of creativity triggers. I especially recommend #10 and #15.

Lewis Green offers up some insights on how to increase sales and marketing’s effectiveness in your organization. As you would expect if you are a regular reader of Lewis’ work — the post is very thought provoking and insightful.

Can seeing the Apple logo actually make you behave more creatively? Robyn McMaster explores this question, in relation to an article from the Journal of Consumer Research. Together, they conclude that even the briefest exposure to well-known brand logos can cause people to behave in ways that mirror those brands’ traits.

Want to squeeze even more out of your Google searches? John Jantsch over at Duct Tape Marketing offers up 10 of his favorite web site and SEO shortcuts. By adding what Google calls an operator followed by a colon you can get some pretty interesting research done very quickly, according to John.

Nuisance or Friend – it’s up to you

April 9, 2008

Every day, I get a call from someone saying, "Hi, I’m just calling you back to see if you want to do business with me." Okay, they don’t quite say it in those words, but that’s what they mean.

I’ve already spoken to them. I know what they do. And if I had needed it, I would have called them. They’re offering no new information. But, I got put on their calendar for a call back or follow up e-mail.

Now they’re just being a pest. I understand they’re just doing their job, trying to make a sale. Here’s the problem. We live in a "what’s in it for me" world and I am as jaded as any other consumer. When they call with "are you doing any printing that we could bid on" they aren’t thinking about me. They are thinking about their own sales goals and needs.

Imagine how I’d welcome their call if they opened with "one of my clients is looking for an agency. I’d like to introduce you to them," or "I saw an article on branding that I think you’d enjoy. Can I e-mail it to you?" Rather than me being frustrated that they keep calling, now I’d welcome their call because I know there’s something in it for me, along with their sales pitch.

We shouldn’t be cold calling. We should be relationship building. And when we care about the relationship, we aren’t in it just for ourselves. Don’t pick up the phone without first thinking about the person you’re calling.

Demonstrate that you know their business and care about it by giving before you get. There’s no quicker way to shift from nuisance to welcome caller.

So come on, let’s create a list together. I’ll add responses/suggestions to the end of this post. What can you offer to strengthen the relationship? Industry news? A new business lead? An article of interest?

Are you saying too much?

April 7, 2008

One of the constant discussions we have with clients is that usually they try to say too much. It’s human nature I suppose. We want to tell a prospect everything and anything. it’s almost a reaction of panic. "What if I can’t get their attention again?"

Well guess what. If your initial communication is so jammed with information and facts that they can’t make their way through it, you won’t get their attention again. And frankly, you don’t deserve it.

Remember, that all buying decisions are emotion-based decisions. People have to like and trust you before they can need you.

We create emotional connections with people, places, companies, products and brands. We do that, little by little, over time. Getting to know someone isn’t an instantaneous process. It takes some time and patience. We learn new information with each meeting. The information beings to build up and tell a story.

If you are trying to drive one-time sales, then sure…cut to the chase. But if you want to create loyal, repeat customers — you need to let them get to know your product/service by telling them a little at a time. Not sticking a fire hose in their mouth and hoping they can drink it all in at one sitting.

We can take a page from the current political landscape and learn a little. There was an interesting article from Minnesota’s public radio that explored how part of what is working for Obama may be the fact that he isn’t saying much.

What do you think? Take a minute and look at your sales fliers, website, or print ads. Are you saying too much?

In great company!

April 5, 2008

Marketing Profs Get to the Point newsletter recently named the four blogs you should be reading.

I’m humbled to tell you that Drew’s Marketing Minute is on that list with some truly brilliant blogs. They are all definitely on my personal Must Read list! Along with this blog, Marketing Profs recommended:

Seth Godin’s blog: The granddaddy of marketing bloggers, Seth’s posts are usually pithy and to the point. He always delivers food for thought with a twist. And as further proof of his stature, his last name is unnecessary — he’s achieved Cher-like status!

Church of the Customer: It was reading Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell’s book Citizen Marketers that opened up many eyes to the power and the potential of social media. They tell great stories and are always worth the read. They are also very accessible and engaged with their fellow marketers.

Marketing Profs Daily Fix*: In a spirit of full disclosure, I am one of the Fix’s bloggers. But that not withstanding, editor Ann Handley has assembled an amazing and wide-sweeping group of marketing experts who explore every topic under the sun. There are often more than one post per day and you will be hard pressed not to find something of value.

As I said….this is a lofty group to be a part of and I’m grateful for the mention among these remarkable resources.

Note: The Get to the Point newsletters are a fantastic way to let them do the filtering and finding of exceptional information and resources. You can sign up for newsletters focused on: Small Business, Marketing Inspiration, Customer Behavior or E-mail Marketing.

You can sign up for the free newsletters on the Profs site. They’re going to be adding some additional topics (B2B Marketing, Marketing Optimization and New Media) but you can sign up for them now.

3 ways to make sure your advertising fails

March 31, 2008

No one likes to think about and surely no one likes to actually accomplish it — failure.

And yet day in and day out some business owners and marketing directors make some common mistakes that almost guarantee it.

Let’s look at three easy to avoid errors when it comes to traditional advertising.

Trying to reach more people than your budget will allow: For a media mix to be effective, each element in the mix must be substantial enough to establish retention. Too often, people sacrifice repetition for the sake of reach.

Assuming the business owner knows best: If anyone has a bias or a blind spot about a business – it’s the person who owns it. You’re on the inside looking out. You can’t possibly see yourselves as the consumers do. Find perspective. Talk to customers. Do some research. Ask an outside consultant.

Late week schedules: Everyone buys ads that run on Thursdays and Fridays. Which means you have to share the space/time. Imagine having 1/3 the competition for your audience’s attention. Sound good? Then, consider buying early in the week.

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