Strategy Archives - Page 31 of 53 - McLellan Marketing Group

Lewis Green: What makes you special?

November 27, 2007

If you are a small business owner, an entrepreneur or a consultant, you likely understand that customers have expectations and they expect them to be met. Therefore, in order for you to differentiate your business, you need to find a niche, which can be difficult as seldom do we sell products and services different from our competitors. Furthermore, even if we believe our products and services are better, it is nearly impossible to create that kind of customer perception, as again, they expect products and services to be good to excellent. So what to do?

One way to overcome the differentiation challenge or what I prefer calling the "what makes you special" opportunity is to focus on the "who" (customers)" not the "what" (your products and services). By doing so, you can create a customer experience that is unique to your business, and cater to those customers who want and need that experience. Of course, before you do any of this, you must understand who your ideal customer is and that should be done as early as possible in your business's life.

My business employs several well-thought out strategies to exceed our customer's experience expectations. They include, but are not limited to, the following:

We guarantee our services (marketing and communications). If we do not achieve the goals that were set before the job started, our customers keep a substantial sum of money, which is deducted from the final payment. Risky but our customers love it.
Our clients deal only with me. No matter how large or how small the client's business, every client talks with me and I am their Account Executive. It's time consuming but we also promise that every client is treated as if they are our only client. We have to keep our promises.
We are a values-based business and every decision, everything we say and do, is filtered through those values. That means we only work with clients who have similar values, which sets up a model wherein we and our clients work well together and are a good fit.

Well, that is how we strive to be special.

It works for us because we have a clear understanding of where our business is going, how it is going to get there, and what clients we are going to work with along the way. Some of you may find our strategies unwise and some may relate to them.

Feel free to share. We all can learn from each other through the comments section. How do you differentiate your business? How would you advise others to show their specialness? What works for you and what does not?

P.S. Drew, thank you for letting me to talk with your readers. It is my honor. And readers, I hope I delivered the quality you have come to expect from Drew. He is a tough act to follow.

Drew's Note: With over 30 years of corporate marketing experience, Lewis Green jumped the fence and opened his own agency, much to his clients' good fortune. Lewis' 5th book, Lead with Your Heart has just been released and Lew blogs to boot. Just like his book title, Lewis leads with his heart and is clearly one of the good guys!

Connie Reece: Think Small for Big Results

November 25, 2007

One word of advice for Drew and family as they enjoy the annual pilgrimage to the wonderful world of Disney: steer clear of It's a Small World. Talk about things that are “sticky” … you don't even have to get on the ride. All you have to do is walk in front of the Small World pavilion and that annoying theme song will be stuck in your head for days!

At Disney the tiny animatronic dolls representing countries around the world have been a phenomenal success. What about your business? Are there small things you could do to produce big results?

Recently Hugh McLeod wrote about using micromedia for micromarketing the new labels for South African wine Stormhoek. Previously the company has sponsored large celebrity-driven geek events; now they're about to host a number of small, intimate gatherings—and they're using the microblogging service Twitter as the promotional vehicle. (Note: the offer is limited to UK Twitter users, so don't bombard Hugh with requests from other countries or through his blog. It's not that small a world yet.)

Why the switch? Here's what Hugh said:

When we sponsor large parties, nobody notices, talks about, or remembers the name of the wine that was served that evening. With smaller parties, the opposite is true. People seem truly appreciative that a commercial wine business would go to all that trouble, just to reach out to so relatively few people. But why not? From trying to connect with people on a much more intimate and human level, we have far more stable and stronger building blocks to create a community around our brand.

Stormhoek's mass market is everyone who drinks wine, and the label is sold in major retailers. However, their primary marketing venue has been the blogosphere. Now they're further refining a niche market strategy: find small groups of wine drinkers among early technology adopters (i.e. Twitter users), send sample bottles of wine for those who want to host a dinner party, and generate word of mouth buzz.

Instead of occasions for celebrity-sightings, the small dinner events are likely to stimulate conversation about the quality of the wine and its unique marketing strategy. Stormhoek is hoping to build brand evangelists and to develop a loyal community among a relative handful of people who have a proven habit of answering the question: What are you doing? (Twitter's raison d'être.)

What lesson can you learn from Hugh McLeod and Stormhoek? Can you pare down your marketing budget while beefing up results through smaller, more targeted campaigns?

Drew's Note: Connie Reece blogs at Every Dot Connects and is the the founder of Reece & Company. When it comes to mixing social media principles with PR and marketing tactics, Connie is one of the experts. I had the privilege of meeting her at SOBCon '07 and she's the real deal.

Roberta Rosenberg: Re-framing the Fruitcake: Taking a Fresh Look at Your Product/Service Marketing

November 24, 2007

I teach an online course for budding copywriters. One of the examples I use as illustration of "the big marketing idea" is that of a Texas bakery who had a perception problem. Their product was delicious. Their delivery was speedy. Their customer service was impeccable. Customers loved the product and purchased these baked goods via store and catalog faithfully, especially at Christmas.

At this point you're probably thinking, "Okay, Roberta. If everything was so great – product, delivery, customer service, loyal customers — what kind of major problem could this bakery have had?"

Your tip-off is the title to this post. The Collin Street Bakery of Corsicana, Texas made fruitcakes and they still do. They've been making and selling fruitcakes for over 100 years. Now I'm not exactly sure when the holiday fruitcake became a favorite Christmas time joke gift (like The Singing Bass plaque from a few years ago), but it has. You know it and I know it.

In fact, when I did a Google search for "fruitcake jokes", Google returned 342,000 references. That's a lot of references, especially when compared to "latke (potato pancake) jokes" which came back with only 81,100 citations.

So what do you do, how do you sell profitably to new customers, when your main product is a holiday joke?

YOU CALL IT SOMETHING ELSE!

That's what Garry Hennenberg, master copywriter, did. With a flick of his pen and a click of his keyboard, fruitcake became (drum roll, please) "Native Texas Pecan Cake!" (cue rim shot!)

Now that's genius. The bakery's holiday direct mail promotion waxed strong and poetic about this delicious taste treat, so perfect for holiday gift giving. I'm sure it used much of the same advertising copy that it used before. But by calling fruitcake something else, the entire sales promotion/the marketing argument was completely re-framed for the prospect market. Rather than get sidetracked by "fruitcake as gag gift", prospective customers could be encouraged to give "Native Texas Pecan Cakes" as a gift from the heart.

And if you're wondering, yes, this promotion sold a LOT of fruitcakes. Like I said, pure genius.

How many slow moving products or services are you sitting on that couldn't benefit from a little re-framing of your own?

Jonathan Winters, a comic madman and another genius to my mind, was known for being able to take any object handed to him – a broom stick, for example – and within seconds, he'd transform the stick into a cane for an old man, a rifle for a soldier, a cigar for a giant, and so forth to the delight of his audience.

Here's another example. Arm & Hammer, the baking soda manufacturer, has been around for over 155 years. In the last 50 years they've marketed the heck out of that humble little yellow box of baking soda Grandma used to bake us cookies and with the power of re-framing, turned it into a marketing juggernaut. We've got it in our refrigerators/freezers/litter boxes as a deodorizer … we use it as a safe, effective, eco-friendly cleaner … heck, we even brush our teeth with it to make our smile a little more sparkly.

And it's all still just baking soda.

Jonathan Winters re-framed a slim stick of wood and made his audience see Babe Ruth at the plate, ready to let one fly toward the bleachers.
Arm & Hammer "re-framed" baking soda and made it a personal/household staple and they're still finding new ways for consumers to use it.
Collin Street Bakery re-framed their fruitcake from holiday gag gift into a native Texas delicacy that folks just had to have and give.

Imagine the possibilities when put the power of re-framing to work for your own product/service marketing. I can't imagine a better time than right now. (Now will someone please pass me another piece of ~~fruitcake~~ …, er Texas Pecan Cake. I'm starved! :=)

Drew's Note: Roberta Rosenberg is one of the first bloggers that I really got to know and she is wacky, witty and about as smart as you get. She's had her own copywriting business for years and blogs at the Copywriting Maven. Roberta, as you might surmise, is the first of the good guys who is in fact, a good gal. (woman, lady…you know what I mean!)

Matt Dickman: A solid, digital foundation is the key to new media success

November 23, 2007

Pardon the idiom, but if you don't have your marketing ducks in a row it's hard to make a move into emerging media.

Too many companies try to jump to Web2.0 and skip many important steps in the process. This makes for a hard sell internally and an even more awkward transition.

This post focuses on what you're already doing online and how to make a smooth transition to 2.0.

For the sake of this post, I'll assume you have a website. You've probably invested a pretty good amount of time and energy into it as well. But for most marketers, once a site is up and running, it is often left unattended.

Technology and design patterns change constantly, if a site has gone more than 18 months with no changes it's probably stale.

The best way to create a strategy to take advantage of the concepts behind Web2.0 is to build a solid foundation in the following areas. For each area, I will show how to get up to speed and set up the foundation for a 2.0 move.

User Interface: As I mentioned, design tastes and patterns change constantly. If I asked you to describe the visual essence of Web2.0 I bet you would say things like, "shiny", "plastic" or "chrome". The real shift in the next version of websites is a move more toward application-like interfaces. Technology like AJAX and XML is making it easier for designers to make the web work easier for users. Instead of making people step through multiple pages of a form, it can load questions dynamically on one page. Users can move content around a page to see what they want where they want it (think iGoogle).

The value proposition here for the users is that they click less, get more and connect with you faster. Take a good look at your homepage.

What can you change today to help people connect with you?
Is the contact information obvious?
If you provide them a lot of data, can they manipulate it and take it with them in the way that adds the most value?

Have you sat down with a customer and used the site to see how they do their job? Getting the experience right, making sure that every click adds value and letting people take it with them are great starting points to push into Web2.0.

Engagement: This goes along with user interface. Engagement is the new metric buzzword. Page views and clicks are becoming less valuable as more ads are blocked and less pages are created. Engagement is spoken of in terms of time on site, repeat visits and content creation.

Engagement, however, is unique from site to site. What is considered engaging on a blog is not what is engaging on a manufacturing or a non-profit site. Don't be afraid to create your own set of metrics. Look at what is valuable to you and what is engaging to the user and build something new. If you're using message boards on your site maybe a new metric is "comments per thread".

Customer Service: This is the most overlooked opportunity on 99% of sites out there.

If you have an email on the site that goes to customer service, what is your policy on response?

What is the message that is sent to the user?
Does the policy include a personal response or a form letter?
Is it easy for users to reply back or does it go to a trash bin somewhere in cyber space.

Every single contact point is a sales opportunity and too many go unanswered. If you have a customer service email or contact form, make sure it's routed to a service rep. Set expectations and communicate them to the users (response in 24 hours). Create a template that has re-contact information as well as a brief marketing message. Unanswered emails are deadly in a 2.0 world.

They turn into angry blog posts, message board threads and a rallying point for people to gang up on you. Once the emails are returned you can move on to more advanced community-based support.

Business Support: Let's face it, most sites out there are not e-commerce driven, but they all have a business purpose. Brand awareness, information dissemination, regulatory compliance, etc. What is the goal of your site? Do you have multiple goals? Are you accomplishing them? Here is a drill that I use to visualize the contrast between where companies place their value on their site and where users actually spend their time.

	Draw a map of your current site. You can use Visio, Word, pen and paper or anything else you have at your disposal. Just treat each page as a block and show them in their hierarchy.
	Now, create a copy of the map and color code each page so that is aligns with your business goals. For this example we'll say red is a top tier page that generates revenue, orange is a second tier support page, yellow is a third tier information page and blue is non-essential.
	Now, create a copy of THAT map (with the color coding) and roughly scale each section with your page view metrics so that pages with more views are larger and less views are smaller. Try to keep them in proportion. This is where people go on your site compared with your business goals. In our example, we need to create tactics that shift more views to the red blocks and less to the blue. (Note: you could also scale based on time spent on each page)

Hopefully these points shed some light and allow you to plan for growth into new media. Only with a strong foundation can you build to reach the next level.

What other points would you add to this list? What's on your must-have list to "graduate" from 1.0 to 2.0?

Drew's Note: Matt Dickman is an interactive marketing strategist with DigiKnow in Cleveland. He blogs at Techno//Marketer and is always the guy who offers a helping hand on projects big and small. Like Greg, Gavin, Cam, and Mark…he's a rock solid good guy.

Greg Verdino: Love Your Haters!

November 20, 2007

I've discovered a surefire way to get a room full of marketers to go quiet. Just bring up the notion of reaching out and bonding with the consumers that hate their brand the most. Just a few weeks ago, I suggested this very thing to a client. You could hear a pin drop in that room.

Now, I've written about the notion of "loving your haters" at my own blog and to me it seems like a no brainer. You seek out the people who are your most vocal detractors and you listen — and I mean really listen — to all the reasons they don't like you and how they think you might improve. You engage them directly, show them why you do things the way you do them, and make them full fledged partners in helping you turn around. You actually implement some of the things that they'd like to see.

At a minimum, you get some great ideas for how you can make your business better. Beyond that, you might even earn yourself some new customers, committed fans who feel like they were part of the solution.

After all, isn't that why people complain in the first place? Not simply to let you know you've let them down but also to prod you along the path toward better business. Right?
I admit that I live inside the social media "echo chamber" where any conversation — even disagreement (maybe disagreement most of all) — is good conversation. And I'll also admit that, out there in the real world, not every detractor has your best interests in mind; some people really do want to see you go down. But if someone has taken the time to let you know that you've let them down — by calling your customer support line, by writing a letter, by complaining to their sales rep or (increasingly) by writing a negative blog post, uploading a video to YouTube or starting a negative thread in an online forum — isn't that exactly the kind of person you should engage?

McDonalds did this very thing earlier this year, when they put together a small panel of health- conscious moms and asked them to provide their unvarnished feedback about the restaurant and its menu choices. Was this a risky move? You bet — after getting a bit of an inside look at McDonalds any one of these moms could have walked away with a worse impression of the brand, and gone on to tell their entire network of (real world and online) friends about it. But one look at the women's public and (to my knowledge) unedited journals show that the gamble paid off. That's some pretty powerful marketing, if you ask me.

And here's the thing — you don't need to be a Fortune 100 company to do this kind of thing. I'd bet that any business — no matter how small — can find five or six unhappy customers or (even better) former customers who left after a bad experience. Find them. Make contact. Bring them in. Let them know what you're doing and why. But most importantly, get them to talk about what they would do differently and how they think their recommended changes would benefit your current customers — and win you new ones.
What's the alternative? Let the feedback get worse and worse until you have a real problem on your hands? Sure, I suppose that could work…

So think about it — what are some of the ways your company can partner with its biggest critics to have real, positive impact on your business? And if anyone out there is already headed down this path, I'd love to hear your stories – I'm sure Drew would too.

Drew's Note: Greg Verdino is Chief Strategy Officer for Crayon and writes his own blog as well. Greg's blog is a great place to keep track of trends in media and marketing, especially in the arena of new media and marketing disruption. He's an in demand speaker and all around great guy.

Marketers are wishy washy on social media

November 19, 2007

According to a recent Coremetrics survey, titled "Face of the New Marketer" 78% of marketers indicate that social media initiatives give them a leg-up over the competition.

The survey found that in the last 12 months:

31% of respondents have started a blog
25% of respondents have put in place an RSS feed

So far, so good — right? Well, here's the rub. They talk a good game, but they're not really putting their money where their mouth is. Just 7.7 percent of their total online marketing spend was allocated to it compared to 33 percent to online advertising and 28 percent on online promotion design and implementation.

In a completely separate study conducted by Gunderson Partners, they found that 45% of companies surveyed have allocated 10% or less of their budget to new media. The report goes on to say "Of the hurdles mentioned, nearly 40% cited insufficient knowledge [lack of metrics] and 33% stated not having enough time to evaluate [metrics]."

So what do you think? Are we just on the bleeding edge? Is it a matter of time? Or is there a flaw in the medium?

How confident are you in the value you deliver?

November 14, 2007

I've mused aloud on this before. It's an intriguing concept to me.

Letting our customers set the prices.

Mack Collier from Viral Garden reported on a band (Radiohead) that allowed fans to download their CD and determine what they were willing to pay for it. Interestingly, not only did their traffic have a huge spike, but they sold more of their boxed sets (at full price) than the downloads at any price.

The Springwise newsletter also reported on this trend by pointing to several restaurants like Melbourne's Lentil As Anything which also lets customers pay what they can afford or what they think the meal was worth.

Here in the states, we could visit the One World Café in Salt Lake City or the SAME Café (So All Might Eat) in Denver. An interesting note about these two restaurants. They've added some cause marketing to the mix, stating that the reason they're doing this is so they can feed those in need as well.

Hmm.

Does this idea only work with products that have a relatively flat price point? We all know CDs (or downloads of CDs) range from $10 – 20, usually. And dinner for 2 at an average casual restaurant is going to be somewhere around $25-40.

Does this concept hold as well for service-based businesses? Do I really have any concept of what it takes for an attorney to review a contract or for an ad agency to create a brochure? Would I have any idea what to pay an architect for drawing some blueprints of a new house?

What do you think? Would this work in your industry? Without a doubt, it is risky in any arena but it sure has a lot of buzzability around it.

Pricing strategy says quite a bit about your brand. What would this say?

Anyone willing to try it and be our case study?

It’s too much you – why you shouldn’t be in your own commercials

November 9, 2007

A day or so ago, I donned a Kevlar suit and stated the truth.

99% of business owners should not star in their own marketing – especially TV and radio.

As I predicted, the article generated many phone calls and e-mails. Lots of people took it personally.

Exactly.

You see, when you start in your own commercial, your message, by default, is about you. How long you've been in business, how many XY or Z you sell a month, that your granddad started the business at the turn of the century, etc.

Here is a harsh but true fact. Your potential customers could care less. They care about themselves. And what they need and want.

When they see a TV commercial or print ad or website – they want to see themselves. They want to see their problems solved or even better, averted. They want to see how their lives could be better, easier, faster, more posh or sexier. They do not want to see your grandkids. No matter how cute they are.

I mentioned that you look a little uncomfortable and stiff in your spots. But it's more than that. It goes beyond that fact that while you're great at what you do, what you do isn't acting in front of a camera.

It is much more than the reality that spokespeople are prettier than most of us average joes or janes. It boils down to a fundamental reality. Your customers are only interested in you because you can do something for them. That's why they will give you their most precious resources – their time and attention.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. Sometimes, you and only you can star in your marketing. We'll delve into that one next.

The Marketing Minute made the grade!

November 7, 2007

I’m always astonished at the amount of time some bloggers generously pour into providing resources for their readers.

Mack Collier has created the top 25 marketing blogs and now John Crickett over at Business Opportunities and Ideas has created the top 100 Business blogs list.

I’m proud to say that this blog is #25 on John’s list. More important…John has compiled an amazing list of resources for all of us. Even if you just explore one a day, you’ll have quite the adventure!

The blogs are listed in order of their Technorati rankings (T), their Alexa rankings (A) are show as well. The rankings are correct at the time of posting.

1. Business Opportunities Weblog T: 12 A: 16,213
2. Copy Blogger T: 36 A: 7,825
3. Seth Godin T: 47 A: 10,314
4. MicroPersuasion T: 169 A: 33,643
5. How To Change The World T: 180 A: 14,709
6. Duct Tape Marketing T: 215 A: 31,714
7. Freelance Switch T: 312 A: 10,638
8. A VC T: 1,226 A: 27,737
9. Rough Type T: 1,253 A: 69,429
10. Successful Blog T: 1,432 A: 44,935
11. Small Business Canada T: 1,517 A: N/A
12. David Allen, Getting Things Done T: 1,549 A: 53,592
13. Springwise T: 1,913 A: 23,858
14. Small Biz Trends T: 2,155 A: 63,364
15. Fast Company T: 2,310 A: 12,141
16. Instigator Blog T: 2,477 A: 58,816
17. Occam’s Razor T: 2,548 A: 45,541
18. Smart Wealthy Rich T: 2,879 A: 79,415
19. eMoms At Home T: 3,443 A: 27,125
20. Escape from Cubicle Nation T: 3,467 A: 202,751
21. The Marketing Technology Blog T: 3,496 A: 47,038
22. Business Pundit T: 3,724 A: 114,669
23. The Engaging Brand T: 4,404 A: 433,644
24. Influential Marketing Blog T: 4,779 A: 98,886
25. Drew McLellan – The Marketing Minute T: 4,820 A: 129,669
26. The Digerati Life T: 4,873 A: 53,353
27. Success From The Nest T: 4,908 A: 95,008
28. Business Blog Consulting T: 5,186 A:237,901
29. Church Of The Customer T: 5,576 A: 250,201
30. Todd And T: 5,643 A: 161, 019
31. Net Business Blog T: 5,936 A: 36,107
32. Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing T: 6,583 A: 92,784
33. Bootstrapper T: 7,497 A: 50,304
34. About.com Entrepreneurs T: 7,797 A: N/A
35. Blogtrepreneur T: 7,897 A: 53,011
36. Branding & Marketing T: 8,200 A: 710,326
37. Simplenomics T: 10,252 A:288,753
38. Freelance Folder T: 10,543 A: 63,590
39. HELLO, My Name Is Blog T: 11,395 A: 422,218
40. Self Made Minds T: 11,704 A: 39,719
41. Sox First T: 12,894 A: 994,161
42. Young Go Getter T: 14,239 A: 45,373
43. Trust Matters T: 15,462 A: 58,403
44. Small Biz Survival T: A: 18,074 A: 875,069
45. The Personal MBA T: 19,207 A: 142,649
46. The Entrepreneurial Mind T: 21,958, A: 155,166
47. Blog Business World T: 23,025 A: 252,405
48. Working At Home On The Internet T: 23,247 A: 423,900
49. Biz Informer T: 24,631 A: 904,745
50. EmpowerWomenNow T: 25,837 A: 117,085
51. Biz Plan Hacks T: 27,048 A: 1,335,732
52. CreateBusinessGrowth T: 32,949 A:197,290
53. Business Opportunities and Ideas T: 33,205 A: 282,805
54. The KISS Business T: 35,496 A: 621,082
55. Startup Spark T: 35,747 A: 386,949
56. Buzzoodle Buzz Marketing Blog T: 41,092 A: 467,418
57. MindPetals T: 41,714 A: 128,487
58. Marketing Deviant T: 43,764 A: 281,072
59. Go Big Network T: 44,842 A: 25,303
60. Cool Business Ideas T: 49,679 A: 187,126
61. Neville’s Financial Blog T: 52,048 A: 140,296
62. Atlantic Canada’s Small Business Blog :T 52,589 A: 795,253
63. College Startu p T: 53,143 A: 184,398
64. Reflections Of A Biz Driven Life T: 79,365 A: 361,398
65. Branding Blog T: 93,462 A: 1,110,518
66. Carnival Of The Capitalists T: 93,462 A: 1,897,375
67. Young Entrepreneur T: 104,933 A: 26,491
68. Marketing Genius T: 132,066 A: 2,222,119
69. Better For Business T: 137,774 A: 590,797
70. The Small Business Blog T: 140,824 A: 577,490
71. Focused Mind T: 162,356 A: 520,971
72. Small Business Tips T: 166,367 A: 74,005
73. Lifes Perspective T: 194,358 A: 179,801
74. Business Opportunities Blog T: 199,700 A: 832,678
75. The Savvy Entrepreneur T: 224,227 A: 391,147
76. Egg Marketing Blog T: 231,062 A: 740,867
77. The Franchise King Blog T: 273,240 A: 520,732
78. Small Business Entrepreneur T: 317,977 A: 883,094
79. The Great Startup Game T: 331,293 A: 421,492
80. Work At Home Start Up Guide T: 345,597 A: 1,190,178
81. Dorm Room Biz T: 360,865 A: 957,072
82. Startup Blog T: 377,609 A: 2,552,189
83. Open Innovators T: 395,824 A: 1,230,257
84. Get Entrepreneurial T: 437,475 A: 446,085
85. Bplans Blog T: 437,475 A: 1,373,525
86. Stuff4Restaurants T: 461,534 A: 298,982
87. Canadian Entrepreneur T: 484,461 A: 237,901
88. Strategize T: 487,964 A: 2,856,731
89. The Marketing Spot T: 587,893 A: 2,550,840
90. The Ravings Of A Mad Entrepreneurial Scientist T: 587,893 A: 566,836
91. More Than We Know T: 871,446 A: 2,964,420
92. Solo Entrepreneur T: 1,212,405 A: 471,491
93. Stuff4Business T: 1,391,575 A: 298,982
94. Consultant Journal T: 4,262,598 A: 667,342
95. Startup Addict Musings T: 4,446,976 A: 1,03390,690
96. Edith Yeung T: 8,911,336 A: 125,290
97. Boostrap Me T: 8,911,336 A: 550,348
98. The Selling Sherpa T: Not Listed A: 772,292
99. BizzBangBuzz T: Not Listed A: 1,484,797
100. The Freestyle Entrepreneur T: Not Listed A: 1,519,518

Enjoy the bounty!

Hey Good Lookin’ — should you really be in your own TV spot?

November 6, 2007

This might ruffle a lot of feathers, so let the comments fly. With very, very few exceptions (and I mean very, very) you should not be in your own TV spots. And in most cases, you shouldn't be in your own radio ads or voiceover work either.

I know…but you are different. People tell you how good you are.

They are lying.

They aren't being mean. They either have no clue how to evaluate if you are good or not, or they are being polite. Honestly, in most cases, they are being polite. Either way, you are not good.

You look uncomfortable. You sound uncomfortable. Frankly, you come off a little stiff and uptight.

If I have not brought a curse upon my house with the above statements, let me add this. Your kids and grandkids shouldn't be in your ads either. They may well be cute as a button but that doesn't mean it's a good choice.

I recognize how intoxicating the attention and comments are. "Hey, saw you on TV. You looked great!" But you are paying a pretty penny to garner a compliment or two, aren't you?

Let's try to be objective here. If you saw an ad where the spokesperson was awkward, uncomfortable, stiff or just looked amateurish, would that give you a sense of confidence about their product or service? You've got enough competition and obstacles when it comes to selling your wares.

Bottom line – don't let your ego or an overzealous sales rep tell you it's a good idea for you to star in your own commercials. Use professionals in your advertising. It's worth the investment.

Unless I know you. Then, you look great.

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