Strategy Archives - Page 17 of 53 - McLellan Marketing Group

What can Google teach us about marketing?

September 9, 2010

That's exactly the question that Aaron Goldman asked…and the answers he discovered turned into the book, aptly titled, Everything I Know About Marketing, I learned from Google.

Aaron put together a video specific to you — the Marketing Minute audience. (One of the lessons is about being very relevant to your audience and Aaron is walking his talk by speaking just to you….) You'll love the Marketing Minute rap he does at the end!

This book is an excellent read — smart, great examples and lots of applicable, customer-centric ideas.

If you want to peek into the pages a bit before buying, check out the book's website or you can grab the free e-book that gives you a very good taste. But don't be fooled by the smart content in the e-book. You're still going to want to read the whole book!

Grab the book here (affiliate link) and steal the best of Google's marketing ideas.

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Marketing tip #87: Don’t start in the middle

August 30, 2010

This past Thursday, I was a panelist for a MENG (Marketing Executives Networking Group) webinar with my cohorts on MENG's Social Media Council of Advisors — Mack Collier, Paul Dunay, Beth Harte, Amber Naslund and Joe Pulizzi.

During the Q&A portion of the webinar, someone asked: "We have a small staff and a very finite budget. Which would serve us better — Facebook or Twitter?"

I'm guessing that's one of the most common questions on the minds of marketers today. I know I need to jump into the social media waters…so which end of the pool should I choose?

Unfortunately, it is the wrong question. Actually, that's not quite accurate. Sooner or later, it will be the right question. But it's being asked in the wrong order. It's not about the tools. It's about the marketing strategy — just like it was long before any of us knew how to tweet.

Here's the right questions in the right order:

What do I need to accomplish with my marketing efforts/dollars? (Goals)
How will I meet those goals? (Overarching strategies)
What do I need to do to successfully execute those strategies? (Tactics) This is where the "would Facebook or Twitter be better for us" question belongs.

Let me give you an example. In the current marketing plan for my agency, McLellan Marketing Group, one of the goals is to generate more inbound leads/inquiries. In other words…have the prospects come to us.

Under that goal, one of the strategies is for me to speak at 10-15 national conferences a year.

Some of the tactics to achieve those strategies are:

~ Engage speakers bureaus to represent me (off line)

~ Have a speaker's video that people can view (online)

~ Use Twitter and Facebook updates to let people know I am speaking somewhere…to encourage attendance at the conferences and to remind people that I am available for speaking opportunities (online)

~ Mostly accept speaking engagements where there are potential clients in the audience, not my marketing peers/colleagues (off line)

Etc. etc. But can you see how much simpler it is to answer the question…when you know the answers to the questions that come before?

Don't start in the middle. As Stephen Covey has taught us…start with the end in mind. Know what you need to get done…then decide how to do it.

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Marketing question #91: What’s changed?

August 22, 2010

As I was replenishing my dopp bag (here's why it's called that) so that I can maintain my "pack in 10 minutes or less" standing, I noticed something different on my deodorant.

Check out the sticker on the cap. "Sized for airplane travel." Good to know. Now, if I'm just taking a carry on bag, I don't have to get one of those travel sized deodorants.

But the truth is…the only thing that's changed is Arm & Hammer added the sticker.

They didn't change one thing about their product or packaging. It's the same deodorant they've been selling long before 9-11 and all the new TSA security measures.

They were just smart enough to ask "what's changed? What in our customers' lives, in our society, in the world has changed?"

And now they're capitalizing on it.

Most of us sell/make a mature product or service. Whether you're an accounting firm, sell fresh fish or consult on IT security — odds are you've been doing it awhile. And to you, it's business as usual.

But stop and ask the smart marketing question. What's changed? Are your customers worried about something new? Are they bound by some new rule? Do they suddenly have new options? Has your industry been labeled as "green" or "luxury" or something else?

In most cases, business owners/leaders are so busy keeping their noses to the grindstone that they don't look up to explore the changing landscape. Don't get stuck in that trap.

Look around. Notice what has changed. (And I promise you….something has!) and then ask the important follow up question — how can you take advantage of that change?

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Marketing truth #3: There is no silver bullet

August 11, 2010

I hate to break it to you, but there's no magic marketing tactic.

There's nothing you can do once or twice and voila, you have customers.
You can't change gears every time you turn around and hope to build up awareness, let alone the desire to try your product.
You can't chase every shiny new object, thinking it's going to make you an overnight sensation.

Folks — marketing is not about a silver bullet. It's not that sexy or that complicated. Marketing, whether you want to hear this or not….is churning it out, day in and day out. It's about being disciplined enough to create a plan and then work the plan. Long after you're bored with it.

That's why most companies don't do it well. When you boil it down — it's kind of boring. Sure, it's fun to brainstorm a new ad campaign. But that same campaign isn't all that interesting 24 months later.

Let me tell you a little story to illustrate my point. We have a client who has a product in a very competitive niche within the over the counter pharma category. Lots of Goliaths in their hen house. Our client is the David in this story. They'll never outspend their competitors.

Several years ago, they decided that having a presence in key trade shows where their referral sources (docs, pharmacists, nurses, etc) flocked was going to be their #1 effort. They've not wavered from this strategy.

They've tweaked their booth, their "come to the booth" enticements and their follow up, as they've learned. But they've stayed the course. In the beginning, they didn't attract much attention. But now, their key referral sources seek them out at the shows. They come to ask about the product or tell a success story. Then our client stays in touch with these contacts all year long. The relationship that is born at the trade show is nurtured and then renewed at the next show.

The benefit of this boring "do the same thing over and over" method of marketing? They're enjoying double digit growth. Double digit. In 2010. When most OTC pharma products are struggling to hold onto the marketshare they've had.

Oh wait…did I mention that they're the most expensive product in the category?

If they only did shows every once in awhile, would they be enjoying this success? No.
If they had rushed to social media and abandoned the old fashioned trade show tactics, would they be enjoying this success? No.
If they'd tried trade shows for a year and then given up, would they be enjoying this success? No.
If they "winged" their marketing efforts, never doing any budgeting or planning, would they be enjoying this success? No.

Stop looking for the silver bullet and roll up your sleeves. Marketing is hard, sweaty, dull, often boring work. The silver lining? Most of your competitors won't bother.

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Blogger outreach code of ethics

July 9, 2010

Do you want some free publicity?

The 2010 version of "let's get an article in the newspaper, because that's free!" is "we'll get bloggers to write about it!"

Not a bad PR strategy. In fact, when employed correctly — it can be an awesome one. It's the "employed correctly" part that people seem to bang their head against the wall on.

For many of you, this should be part of your marketing efforts. But, you can't and shouldn't just fumble around in the dark. You need to do it well and correctly. Otherwise — the blogger will give you what you don't want — bad ink. (Check out this blog…it posts examples of bad pitches! And show you how to do it better.)

A few years ago, the folks at Ogilvy PR created a Blogger OutReach Code of Ethics that I think is still incredibly relevant. Here's a bit of it:

OUR APPROACH

We reach out to bloggers because we respect your influence and feel that we might have something that is “remarkable” which could be of interest to you and/or your audience.

We will only propose blogger outreach as a tactic if it complements our overall strategy. We will not recommend it as a panacea for every social media campaign.

OUTREACH

Before we email you, we will check out your blog’s About, Contact and Advertising page in an effort to see if you have blatantly said you would not like to be contacted by PR/Marketing companies. If so, we’ll leave you alone.

We will always be transparent and clearly disclose who we are and whom we work for in our outreach email.

If you tell us there is a specific way you want to be reached, we’ll adhere to those guidelines.

We won’t pretend to have read your blog if we haven’t, and we’ll make a best effort to spend time reading the blogs we plan on contacting.

In our email we will convey why we think you, in particular, might be interested in our client’s product, issue, event or message.

NEW! As available, we will provide you with links to third party information/blog coverage of the campaign we are pitching to you. (via Web Strategy with Jeremiah and MC Milker)

Our initial outreach email will always include a link to Ogilvy PR’s Blog Outreach Code of Ethics.

That's just the start of it…check out their whole code by clicking here and decide how much of it you can modify, use, and borrow. If you're going to reach out to bloggers — do it well and responsibly. You can gain an influential friend…and some valuable ink!

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock.com

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Marketing shouldn’t be about shortcuts

July 7, 2010

Remember that one essay test you took in school. You meant to study. But for some reason you just didn't have the time. Truth be told, you didn't really read the book. But you skimmed over the Cliff Notes. And you did repent in the end — cramming the night before the test.

Sure, sure…you should have started cramming a few days earlier or at the very least, not so late that night. With the radio on.

Do you remember what you got on that test? I'll bet you weren't happy with the grade.

Shortcuts didn't work in school and they don't work in marketing either. I have yet to see a marketing department or agency that had a drive-up window.

I get why it happens. There's an almost constant demand on CMOs and marketing directors to produce results. And no agency worth their salt doesn't want that too.

But there are some pretty important aspects of your business and products/services that need to be understood before we just whip up a brochure or direct mail series.

We aren't doing the strategic thinking and planning just to get our jollies. We have a responsibility. We owe it to you. Because you're about to spend a lot of money. We want to make sure you spend it right.

This applies if you're doing your own marketing too.

Getting ready to produce something. Are you sure you're not taking a shortcut?

If you can't describe how you are genuinely and relevantly different from your competitors, STOP.
If you can't describe your ideal customer, STOP.
If you don't have a broad brand/marketing plan so that you aren't operating in a vacuum, STOP.
If you haven't defined how you are visually going to communicate your company's offerings, STOP.
If you don't know how you're going to follow up on the leads the new marketing tactic generates, STOP.

Whether you're working with your internal team or with your agency – don't short change the process. If you do some strategic thinking up front and make some of those key decisions, the tactics and tools actually get produced much faster and much more cost effectively.

Shortcuts are never going to yield the results you want. Better to do it right than do it again. Just ask your former teacher who gave you the C.

How do you ensure that you're not taking a shortcut?

Note: This post is a golden oldie reprint of something I wrote in 2007. Just thought I'd share it again in case you forgot the lesson!

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Marketing tip #42: How to name a product

June 26, 2010

Over my career, I have worked with many companies and entrepreneurs to name their products, services and organizations. It's actually much more science than art — you need to have a very good understanding of what you are trying to communicate.

It's much more about tone than the actual words — that's the tough part to help clients understand. It's the feeling the name evokes — not so much the literal translation of each word.

Take the product above — Anti Monkey Butt Powder. Sure…they could have called it Chaff-B-Gone or something that was more clinical. But this company decided that part of its brand and its product was to have a little fun. They wanted it to pop off the shelf and for its packaging to be difficult to ignore.

I think they accomplished their goal. Now…why was this a good decision?

Their name:

Gives us an idea of how the product can help us
Takes into account the attitude of their core customers (bikers, people that work outside in the heat, extreme sports enthusiasts…and now they have added, new parents with their baby version)
Is memorable
Differentiates them from the competition
Gives us a sense of their corporate culture/attitude — what will they be like to do business with?
In today's world — you can find the right URL. (Hard to imagine that someone else hadn't scooped up www.AntiMonkeyButt.com already!)

Many business owners get hung up on the wrong thing when they're trying to name their company. It's not the specific words — it's the overall effect. If the folks at AMBP had worried about including the word "butt" in their name or debated if "anti" was a negative word….and they only wanted to create positive feelings — they would have ended up with a boring and forgettable name like Chafe-B-Gone.

But…they let the attitude, tone and message of the name carry their decision. They didn't over analyze or get too far into their own heads.

They trusted their culture and their brand. And created a very memorable name!

And if you're wondering if the Anti Monkey Butt Powder is just a gimmick — check out their testimonials. Pretty impressive.

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Give them your heart… and then your head

May 19, 2010

Clients have high expectations of us and rightly so. And I think that most companies (and employees) bust a hump to meet and exceed those expectations. But sooner or later, we're going to mess up.

It's inevitable. We're human beings and we screw up.

Whether we catch our own mistake or the client points it out — how we respond in those first few minutes will make or break the experience. I have always said — it's not the screw up, it's how we handle the screw up that matters.

Because we work our tails off to please and serve our clients — when we mess up, we're embarrassed and we are highly motivated to correcting the problem. So we go into "Fix It Mode."

Oops…we just made it worse. Yup… worse.

The client doesn't want you to fix it. Not yet. First, they want you to feel their pain. They want to know that you are sorry (you cannot substitute words here…the words are: "I am very sorry…") and that you are upset that you have let them down. In other words, it's time to eat some humble pie.

It's not that the client wants you to grovel or beat yourself up. But they're feeling pretty lousy at this point. And they want to know you're in it with them. They want you to feel as badly about it as they do. This is less about blame and much more about reassurance that when things go wrong — you give a damn.

Then and only then, can you go into "Fix It Mode." If you go immediately to fixing the problem and you're all logical and left brained — to them it feels like you don't care. You're just trying to get out of the jam you find yourself in. When you go right into "Fix It Mode" — it feels to the client like it's about you, not them.

And they really need it to be about them. (As it should be.)

But once you've demonstrated that you're sitting right there beside them and are feeling as badly as they are — then you can roll right into your creative problem solving and fix whatever is broken.

Ultimately, they do want you to solve it. But not before you've felt it. So remember…heart and then head.

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How to get more Facebook fans

April 13, 2010

I saw this promotion late last night as I logged onto Facebook and I thought it was worthy of sharing it with you.

Everyone seems to want more Facebook fans…but really you actually want Facebook fans who know a little bit about you or are willing to try what you've got to offer.

That's what makes this Kraft Macaroni and Cheese promotion so smart.

On my NewsFeed page, I noticed this ad to the right. It offered me a free box of Mac and Cheese (hello…cheesy explosion to boot!) if I'd become their fan.

Now I will confess two things. 1) I really love Kraft's Mac and Cheese. 2) I would have never even thought to fan their page without this free offer. If the ad had simply said..please be our fan, I would have ignored it.

Lesson: If there's not a very apparent "something in it for me" we don't go around fanning pages.

So, I clicked on the become a fan button and was taken to their fan page.

I almost left because I could not see how to get my free coupon.

Lesson: Be blatantly obvious and then some. We are only going to look for about 5 seconds.

Fortunately, others had either been smarter or more persistent, so as I scanned the messages, someone had said – go to the third tab (wall, info and voila..free cheesy)

So I stuck with it long enough to click on the Get The Coupon button.

From there, I was taken to this capture screen where Kraft got the goods on me… my name, address (so they could mail me the coupon) and the holy grail — my e-mail address.

They also snagged a bit of demographics in the check boxes below.

Lesson: If you're offering something of value, don't be afraid to ask for something of value in return.

I'm betting they scored a huge number of new fans. And now for about the cost of a click, they are actually putting product in the new fan's hands. Think of what most businesses pay to get a consumer to give their product a try.

Compare and contrast this effort — where Kraft not only gets you to sample their product but also gets your contact information and some demographics to the lady standing in the grocery store, handing you a little cup of the mac and cheese.

How would you rate the relative value?

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Be a game changer like Keurig and the iPad

April 4, 2010

Every once in awhile, someone comes along and instead of just adding to the existing industry or category — they literally change it.

In fact, they change the entire game. They re-invent the way we think. They create a want or need where we hadn't even imagined one to be. They spark spin off products and offerings — from their own company or others.

Let's look at a of couple game changers and see what makes them so revolutionary.

Keurig's Coffee Maker: This amazing little device has completely shaken up the in home/office coffee making experience. Let's look at the problems it solves:

I make a pot of coffee but have to keep reheating it throughout the day so I can have a hot cup when I want it
I make a pot of coffee but almost always end of throwing away most of it
I want to enjoy a variety of coffee flavors but I don't want to buy a full bag or can of each flavor
Sometimes I want hot tea or hot chocolate and can't make either in my coffee maker

Now… this little device has not only answered all of those concerns but it's also launched all kinds of new products (K-cups, display holders for the cups, a carrying case for traveling with your keurig coffee maker, water filters, etc. )

Apple's iPad: Like about half a million other people, I spent a fair amount of time this weekend playing with my new iPad. I'm not going blather on about the coolness factor (although it is incredibly cool) but instead let's look at how this product is going to change our worlds.

The iPad is a computer, for all intents and purposes. And it's going to change the fundamentals of how we expect to interact with our computers from this point forward.

Kiss your mouse goodbye. We're all going to want to be able to just intuitively touch our screen and move files, re-size photos, click on items and scroll through multiple pages.
Want to see that PDF in landscape mode? Prefer to look at that photo vertically? Just grab your "computer" and turn it and watch what's on your screen rotate to accommodate you.
Want all of your entertainment completely mobile, with high resolution, great sound and full functionality? Now you can carry your movies (buy or rent), music, books and games. With lightening fast speed and impressive graphic capabilities — you're all set.

The iPad has been out for less than 48 hours and the accessories are already starting to fly off the shelves. Cases, keyboards, cords that connect cameras, screen protectors etc. I can't even imagine the apps that will be developed in the next few weeks and months.

Companies like Netflix, Amazon and many others are already re-tooling their offerings for the iPad, just like they did for the iPod.

But what about us? Of course…this needs to loop back around to you and me. Our companies aren't Apple. We probably don't have a huge development team working in the lab. So how can we be game changers?

If you look at the lists generated by the two game changers above, you'll see some common themes.

Both identified "annoyances" that everyone else dismissed as being "just the way it is"
Both looked at shifts in our daily life patterns and recognized a before non-existent opportunity
Both took time to observe and hear "I wish I could…" wants and figured out how to make them so convenient that they quickly became needs

What if you surveyed your best customers and asked these questions:

What are the three most annoying aspects of selling your house? (substitute your business appropriately)
Complete this sentence: When it comes to selling my house, I wish I could…. (again, substitute accordingly)

While you're waiting for their answers, ask yourself how your customers' lives have changed in the past 5 years. What do they do differently? What doesn't they do anymore? What are they doing now that they never used to do?

Take your thoughts….and combine them with your survey results. I'm betting in the jumble of truths are some ideas worth pursuing. Ideas that could be your game changer!

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