Strategy Archives - Page 34 of 53 - McLellan Marketing Group

Harry Beckwith’s genius x 40 (part 1)

September 11, 2007

If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know I believe Harry Beckwith to be a modern day prophet. Or at the very least, quite brilliant.

Beckwith has mastered what I stumble with every day. He tells stories that illuminate.

He does it in plain language that everyone can grasp and apply to their business.

In his most recent newsletter, Harry Beckwith's Invisible Ink (subscribe here) Harry talks about his fascination with what motivates people.

He goes on to say that he's come to 40 conclusions surround this question. I thought I'd share some of them with you. And maybe if you like them, I'll share a few more tomorrow.

Your biggest competitor is not a competitor; it's your prospect's indifference.
Your second-biggest competitor is not a competitor; it's your prospect's distrust.
Your biggest obstacle is whatever stereotype your prospect has formed about you and your industry.
Prospects decide in the first five seconds.
Prospects don't try to make the best choice. They try to make the most comfortable choice.
At heart, every prospect is risk-averse, and risks are always more vivid than rewards.
Beware of what you think you know or have experienced; memories fail people constantly.
For the same reason, beware of what others say they know or have experienced.

So what do you think? Ring true for you? Had you forgotten some of these truths?

BrandingWire: IT Services

September 10, 2007

As you no doubt remember by now, once a month I join some other branding experts to tackle a marketing/branding problem ala the BrandingWire collaboration.

This month's BrandingWire takes a slightly different twist. A Canadian IT company has asked for our help. So we wade into the B-to-B world.

Here's a quick peek at them:

Offerings (according to them):

They'll do just about anything from proactive maintenance to 24/7 trouble shooting to setting up new users, buying equipment or helping you with software decisions. They are also getting into Green IT – from managing energy costs to eliminating packaging waste.

They are (my words, not theirs) like an IT department who happens to office outside of your workspace.

The money part:

You can engage them in one of two ways. You can buy a maintenance contract or buy their hours ala carte. The contract gets you a discount on services rendered.

Target:

As you would guess, businesses who use IT but are too small to have their own internal department.

Conundrum (again, their words):

It's difficult to convince small businesses that our services are worth the amount we are charging – however, to draft a legal document, they're more than willing to a pay a top notch lawyer $500/hour. Customers view IT issues as a pain (i.e. my email is down again) instead of as a critical part of their business (ie. without IT, we can't function as a company).

Customers just don't always understand the value of IT services.

Drew's take:

Ahhh, there's the rub. We don't get to decide what our customers should value. It's annoying, but true. We have to figure out what they need/want. Once we serve up that…we provide value. We can provide it but we can't define it.

But there's a flip side to this truth as well. Our clients should provide value to us as well. For it to be a long-term relationship of value, both sides need to benefit and feel good about the value they both give and receive.

But let's look at the client's side of things first.

One of the most significant keys to smart branding is knowing the heart and mind of your customers. Once you really understand where they're coming from…you can talk to them from that place.

Without talking to them (which is dangerous at best) here's what I suspect the IT customers feel.

They're scared of IT. They know they can be crippled by a virus or something else they don't understand.
They hate being so dependent on someone outside of their walls.
They're embarrassed that they don't know more than they do.
They hate the down time when they do have a problem.
They don't understand it, so paying for it scares them. (Am I getting taken?)
They don't want to pay for something they don't need. That's why the contract scares them. Are they just spending money they shouldn't?
They're petrified that something catastrophic is going to happen and it's going to cost them an arm and a leg.
They've been taught that extended warranties and maintenance contracts are fool's gold and benefit the seller much more than the buyer.

So that's where they're at in terms of IT in general. But how are they feeling about the IT company?

One of the IT company's stated goals is (in their words) "help our clients understand why our services are worth the price tag."

That's a little worrisome to me. Again, we're doing this in an artificial vacuum. My guess is that they have a mixed clientele. Some who should be clients and some who should not. And it's the who should not's that are causing them trouble.

But, if we were sitting in the room with the client, I'd ask them to describe the clients who don't object to the price structure. I'm guessing they have some. Then, we'd profile those clients based on industry, size, type of work the IT company does for them, scope of the projects, clients that can make a fair and reasonable profit from, etc.

When we were done, we'd have built a profile of the types of businesses that are a good fit. Good from the IT company's perspective in terms of retention and fair profit. Good from the client's side…trusted advisor, a value, and someone who relieves their worries.

Then, we'd go through their client list and score each client against the profile. Anyone who got a C or worse should be weeded out. They're not a good fit.

Anyone who receives a B- or better should be cultivated and nurtured.

We'd do the same thing with their prospect list. There's no reason to waste time and money talking to prospects that are not a good fit.

Once you know who to talk to and how they're thinking and feeling, deciding what to say to them comes much easier.

I will leave those details to my BrandingWire compadres. Check out their posts and welcome our three guest bloggers as well!

Olivier Blanchard
Becky Carroll
Derrick Daye
Kevin Dugan
Lewis Green
Gavin Heaton
Martin Jelsema
Valeria Maltoni
Drew McLellan
Patrick Schaber
Steve Woodruff

Our guests for this month:

Matt Dickman

Chris Brown

Cam Beck

A quick trip around the blogosphere (9/9/07)

September 9, 2007

Mike Sansone of Converstations introduces us to what he calls our blog’s baseball card, a new tool called Xinu that lets you check all your web stats at a glance.

Josh Spaulding put together an extensive list of on-line tools and resources. My favorite — GahooYoogle.com which allows you to search both google and yahoo at the same time and see the results in a split screen.

WebLiberation Army is holding a contest. You could win a free video to promote your business on the web. Hat tip to Freaking Marketing, where I first read about the contest.

Arun Rajagopal conducted a 10-hour social media tour. Wonder what social media actually means and what it might mean to your life or business? Let Arun take you on a guided tour.

Do blogs make e-newsletters obsolete?

September 7, 2007

Here's the question. Now that we have blogs, should we still have e-newsletters?

My friend Dawud Miracle raised the question and paints a picture that suggests that e-newsletters are really thinly veiled tricks to capture e-mail addresses and sell products. Blogs on the other hand, according to his initial post, are less intrusive and give the reader more control. He's generated quite an interesting collection of responses.

Here's mine.

With all due respect, who died and made us King? That is so 1980’s. We are not in charge anymore. The consumer is.

My agency has had a e-newsletter since 1999 and we have thousands of subscribers. They seem to like it.

I have had a blog for less than a year. Have a good number of subscribers but certainly not the thousands that the e-newsletter has. The blog subscribers seem to like it.

Some of the e-newsletter subscribers have opted to also sign up for the blog and visa versa. (I try not to use the same content).

If we have learned anything in this era of citizen marketing — we don’t get to decide. We offer up value in a variety of media and let the consumer choose which option works for them.

And if we think that e-newsletters are more sales driven — we are crazy. I have seen blatant blog posts that practically begged for work. I’m not saying that is bad…but I saying we are deluding ourselves to think of one as a sales tool and the other as an educational vehicle. Both…can be both.

As long as we have subscribers to either vehicle, I will keep writing them.

So what do you think? Are they mutually exclusive tools? Does one replace the other? Is one medium more geared towards a sales pitch?

Do we or should we choose for our readers/prospects/customers?

Don’t leave THIS out of your media releases!

September 7, 2007

In today's age of the digital media release, I find this statistic from BusinessWire amazing.

Less than 1% of press releases submitted contain hyperlinks.

Adding a hyperlink does several things for you:

It adds valuable links back to your website or blog
The links are SEO juice
You shift your media release to a useful, connective tool for consumers
It allows you to enhance the story with background or related information
It opens the opportunity to communicate with your audience

Make a rule for yourself right now. You will not send out a media release without at least 2 outbound links. But don't overdue. Anything more than 1 link per 100 words runs the risk of being labeled as link spam.

Write for real people

September 5, 2007

Whether you are writing a brochure, a radio spot or a blog post – you are writing to a specific audience. And in reality, in most cases, multiple audiences. The more clear you can be on who you're talking to, the more clear you can be in your language, examples and tone.

Here's one of my favorite "tricks of the trade" when it comes to writing. I create my audience from a composite from bits and pieces of the real people who engage with the product or service. From those seemingly random facts, I concoct a 3-D, multi-faceted person.

I literally can picture them in my head. I know enough about their job and their lives to be able to relate to them.

Think of this as the poor man's persona.

Here's how you do it. Let's take this blog as the example. When I sit down to write every day, who am I writing for?

I know that I have several sub audiences here and have detailed personas (too long for this post) for each. But, let me introduce you to them.

CMO/Director of Marketing at a medium sized company: Ian is either on his own or has a small staff. He's inside a B-to-B company and is pretty savvy in terms of basic marketing. But he needs help creating solid strategy, staying on course and executing the marketing plan.

Odds are, branding is less familiar territory for him. He gets it but has no idea how to create it in a meaningful way that has depth, meaning and sticking power with his internal and external audiences. He needs a partner here who can walk them through the process and execution.

He also needs to be inspired some days. He has to champion everything inside his company and sometimes the CFO can be a real prig. Because Ian is so immersed in the day-to-day world of his job, he also looks to me to keep him current on trends and fresh creative.

Blogging is a some day for Ian. He knows he needs to get his company there but he doesn't feel as though he can sell it yet. It's too fringe still. He checks out my feed a couple times a week and then reads what's of interest to him. His typical comment is a question or clarification, which I love.

Small Business Owner: Poor Erin has to do it all. Her business is successful but she views marketing and advertising as a necessary evil. She's pretty savvy but still gets "sold" by a slick media sales person now and then. Everything sounds like a good idea, so how does she choose the best ones? It's not that she resents investing the time or money, but she wants to do it wisely.

She's the one that branding could actually make the most difference to, if she got it. With her limited budget and knowledge, differentiating herself from her competitors in a real, user (both internal and external) experience sort of way would generate incredible word of mouth, which will not only stretch her budget but also deepen the love Erin's customers have for her entity.

She is stretched so thin she could scream. She doesn't have time to read all the magazines, business books and keep up on the trends. So she's looking for quick reads that will teach her all the nuances she doesn't know and remind her of the ones she does.

She also needs to be reminded now and then that despite the long hours and frustrations, she worked hard to be able to have this life and there's a lot right with it.

She isn't quite brave enough to comment yet. But she shows up almost every day.

Branding/marketing Pros: Blogging or not, Patrick either works in an agency, consultancy, or at a high-level client side job. He loves marketing and branding. Loves to talk about it, loves to create it, loves to read about it and loves to surround himself with other people who share his passion.

He comes to my blog not so much to learn something new but instead, to share common experiences, poke and pull on fresh ideas and to tell war stories. He views us as kindred spirits and nods his head a fair amount as he reads what I've written. He's a frequent commenter and always adds value to the conversation.

What he hopes to find when he shows up at the blog is a topic to discuss or share ideas around. Patrick likes to talk about the industry and where it's going. He finds the blogosphere a way he can keep very current, so he can guide his clients better.

So now that I know who I am writing for – how does that influence my prose?

Whenever I have an idea for a post, I think about Ian, Erin and Patrick. I wonder if it will interest them. And I keep a mental tally. If I've written a couple pieces that week that I know are more up Patrick's alley, then I go out of my way to make sure I offer up something that Ian and Erin will particularly value.

I try to position my questions to entice them all to comment, even though I know Erin's a long shot. I figure even if she doesn't answer me on the blog, hopefully she's answering the question in her own head and that's helping her clarify her thoughts around the topic. I use my experiences with MMG clients to explore what might really be a hot button for Ian.

When I want to write something but it doesn't seem to really be something any of them would care that much about, I re-think writing it.

Understanding my audience helps me keep this blog (or a brochure, website, ad etc.) on the straight and narrow. It forces me to justify any detour that I'm thinking about taking. And, I think in the end it means I deliver my message in a way that keeps Ian, Erin and Patrick coming back for more.

Which is sort of the point.

Related posts:

Ease into the conversation – be a drip

No one is a demographic

Effective or stupid?

I’ll give you a toaster….

September 1, 2007

Remember when we were kids and banks would offer toasters, clock radios and stadium blankets in exchange for opening a checking account?

Well baby, we have NOT come a long way.

All too often, when a company tries to bribe potential customers with incentives, they fail to really understand the math that's going on in the prospect's head.

The key to developing a good incentive offer is understanding the value of what you are offering versus the cost of what you want in return. Check out my post at IowaBiz.com as we explore the good and bad of incentives.

Are you being held hostage by your web developer (part 2)

September 1, 2007

A couple weeks ago, I wrote a post asking the question “are you being held hostage by your web developer” which garnered some excellent and lesson packed comments.

They’re just too good to take the risk that you feed reader users might have missed them. So read carefully and heed their hard earned warnings.

Look for a web developer who gets both function and fashion

“Finally I would list to suggest to anyone looking for a web developer to look for a company committed to both Design and Development. Some companies do a really good job of creating a great looking or flashy site but it has limited backend functionality. A lot of people are tempted to go with a service because of the “look” they can provide. The most important aspect of “design” is usability across platforms and devices.

Look for a company who is committed to good programming practices that can accommodate future changes and security concerns. We are big believers in giving in giving our clients RSS functionality so their message can go to their customer/reader base instead of making them go to their site manually ever time.”

Patrick

Ask your developer for key information BEFORE you need it

“You should always get the FTP information, user name, password and hosting information in writing. Put it away somewhere safe.

I also provide clients with a CD back up of their site at least once a year or more frequently if they want one.”

Char

Don’t let them scare you into staying

“She has a very small business and a small footprint on the web, so the only way she’s getting all this spam is because her current website is plastered with her email address. But her company never told her this before, or advised her about how to prevent spam–despite the fact that her spam is incredibly high for what she does on the web–they happily let her get deeper and deeper into spam-hell.

And now that she wants to switch, they’re trying to frighten her into staying. Very frustrating!?

Katie Konrath

Be ready to do it yourself in a pinch

“Make sure you have someone in-house who can update, manage, and add content to the site. There’s nothing worse than having to rely on external sources for something you could easily do yourself.”

Ryan Karpeles

Don’t overlook blogging software as a website content management option

“For a couple of non-profits, I’ve built sites using hosted (free) WordPress blogging software (some of the templates are nicely set up to create pages/tabs that resemble regular websites). Tied into those sites are Google calendars (free), and storage of files at Box.net (free). I’m not a programmer, but with these kind of tools, as long as the web presence is not too extensive as far as information and use of forms, it’s do-able. And, of course, maintenance is a breeze – no need for a programmer, just train the user on how to use the free tools for administration.”

Steve Woodruff

Get references

“Ask around… a lot. I almost went with someone who was very nice and very helpful but in the end she realized her work and time might not be a good fit for me. She referred me to Mike Sansone and Sandra Renshaw. I consider that to be entrepreneurial divine intervention. With the right tool and their help, another star is born. Ask around…A LOT!!!”

Sherry Borzo

Ask smart questions

1. How long have they been in business?
2. Who are some of their other clients?
3. How do they deal with customer service issues?
4. What kind of training/information will they provide when the site launches?
5. Can you select the hosting provider, with their help?

Ian

You don’t have to be a techie to maintain your site

“It has mostly been said here but I want to add my vote for users insisting on control of their content. Simple software such as Contribute allows even the most tech-disabled of us to manage our content easily. And changing content frequently is the best way to grow visitors to our site.”

Lewis Green

Document your details

“In other words the vendor should supply a notebook of all critial passwords for everything about the network. I am a small shop (3 people) and when we build out a new network we supply all relevant info about their network.”

Loren Nason

Begin with the end in mind

“I always advise folks to make sure that whoever they select to develop their site or blog understands that it’s a marketing tool and should be an element of their marketing plan, not a standalone project. I just got a call from a company (referred to me by a client) to help them understand why their web site wasn’t coming up in the search engines. I took a look at the site and source code and it was very obvious that the site was not designed or developed with search engine marketing in mind (even though they told the client that SEO was part of the project).”

Debra Murphy

Thanks to all these experts for sharing their good counsel with us. Remember…there are lots of good web developers out there. Don’t settle for anything less.

It’s not art, it’s a website

What’s the matter with you people? You’re supposed to be marketers!

Product packaging — is it part of your brand or disposable?

August 30, 2007

A recent article in the New York Times focused on how product packaging trends have changed over the last 10-20 years. The trend, as late as the 90's was that companies would retain a packaging design for 7+ years. Today, the trend is less than 2 years. (To the left, Kleenex is now available in oval shaped boxes.)

The article lists many reasons why a company might shift packaging more often today.

Shorter attention spans of the buying population
The movement from container to a 3-D on-shelf ad for the product
Harder to expose audiences to mass media messaging, so have to grab them at the venue
Turning the mundane (tissue boxes, cleaning bottles) into decor
Trying to reduce package size/cost
Functionality (Coors label turns blue when it is just the right temperature)

An extreme example — Mountain Dew is changing its packaging 12 times from May-October. Wow. (see examples to the right)

So what do you think? Are they messing with their brand? Is this sort of revolving door packaging a good thing? Does it matter what the product is?

Related posts:

In the pink or just ick?

More packaging brain candy

Have you committed a Cardinal Zin?

We watch differently. We will advertise differently.

August 29, 2007

A recent study released by The IBM Institute for Business Value suggests that thanks to DVRs, we are actually watching MORE television. But fewer ads.

As DVRs and other technology allow us to skip over the :30 spot — you have to know that advertisers will find a new way.

What do you think that new way will be? Read more about the study and its implications in my post over at Marketing Profs Daily Fix.

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