Strategy Archives - Page 35 of 53 - McLellan Marketing Group

When’s the best time to chase new business?

August 23, 2007

2007 has been a good year for many businesses. Studies are showing consumer optimism and spending are up. B-to-B reports are saying that businesses are also spending with renewed confidence.

You may be one of the lucky companies that's feeling pretty good about the work you have piling up. Customers are aplenty and the register is ringing. In fact, you are probably so busy you just don't have time to think about marketing. You'll get back to it when things slow down. Right?

Wrong. Really wrong.

The time to aggressively market is now. Why? Somehow we forget that client acquisition is hardly an instantaneous event. If we wait until we have extra time or really need the cash flow – we're in trouble.

The best time to reach out to potential new customers? It needs to be a constant part of your day. Every day. The challenge is to automate your efforts so that no matter how busy you are, it does not stutter or stop. So how do you go about making marketing part of your routine?

Identify at least one marketing tool that you can commit to for the rest of the year. It might be a monthly sales postcard to dormant customers, hosting a 4th quarter seminar aimed at your target audience, or a push in your print ad schedule.

Next, do something that locks you in. Print the postcards. Schedule the seminar and publicize the date. Sign a contract for the print ads. Do something that commits you. No matter how busy you are.

Is it enough? For most businesses, no. But it's a good start.

Create a stack of impressions

August 20, 2007

Who gets tired of your marketing messages first?

You do.

Long before your target audience has completely absorbed your key messages, you are so sick of them you just have to freshen them up. Right?

Don't.

Your target needs to hear the same message 8-13 times before it even registers with them.

How high do you let messages stack up before you get distracted/bored and change things up?

How close were you to the magic 8-13 times and maybe your first sale when you changed gears? When in doubt….leave it alone.

Plug into a wealth of networking advice

August 15, 2007

Have you ever wondered how Seth Godin or Guy Kawasaki build their networks? Or Joe Vitale or Scott Ginsberg? Me too.

Good news for us, so did Josh Hinds. He went one step beyond wondering. He asked. His blog, Business Networking Advice.com is a treasure trove of brief interviews with a who's who of the business world. Each interview explores the person's viewpoint on networking, asks for some pointers and success stories.

None of them are a long read, but they are all good reads. Josh kindly decided to include me in his series. You can read more about my take on networking, if you'd like.

I decided to turn the tables on Josh and posed a few questions of my own.

Q. When did you start your interview series and what prompted it?

Josh Hinds: One of the topics that I speak to groups and companies on is networking –creating win, win relationships — both personally and professionally. Initially I was going to use the site to feature mostly my own articles on the topic, but then the idea struck me that it would be a whole lot more interesting to reach out to others who were getting the whole "effective networking" thing right — so I decided that in addition to my own articles on the topic I'd feature the short interviews. I actually started BusinessNetworkingAdvice.com in August of 2006. When it comes to personal development I've always held to the belief that you have to really stay plugged in and learning on going — doing the interviews have helped me a great deal and of course I always learn something useful with each one as well — even if it's just another take, or validation for something that I already believed to be true.

Q. Are there any themes you see among the answers that really resonate with you?

Josh Hinds: That's a great question. Within about the first several interviews I'd done a pattern began to show up and continues — that is givers gain — but you can't go into a situation where you just met someone and expect to get something from that person right off the bat. It's all about building rapport with the other person. Creating value in their eyes first, then as time goes by there's a better than average chance that you'll be in a position where that person will help you if they are able to. Again, the key is that you don't come from a point of what can I get from this other person — but rather, what can I do to serve this person I've just met (or the people who are in my "network").

Q. Who is the one person you'd like to interview but haven't snagged yet?

Josh Hinds: I'm not sure I have enough space to list everyone I'd love to interview 🙂 Two that come to mind though would be Zig Ziglar and Jack Welch (former CEO of GE). Zig Ziglar has a quote which I absolutely adore and try to live my life around — it goes like this: You can have everything in life you want, if you'll only help enough other people get what they want" — talk about a philosophy that would serve anyone well. I think it would be particularly fascinating to get Jack Welch's take on networking — to have risen to the level he did as CEO of GE I suspect he could teach us all quite a bit about networking and building professional connections.

Thanks to Josh for being the interviewee for a change and for inviting me to be a part of his stellar series.

Tell me again that branding doesn’t matter

August 12, 2007

For those of you still on the fence about the power of branding, check out the results of the study just released by Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. The full study will be released in the August issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The study finds that kids aged 3 to 5, when presented with identical foods — one in a McDonald's wrapper and the other without — overwhelmingly rated the branded one as tasting better.

Hmm. And if branding affects consumers that dramatically by the age of 3, how do you suppose it works after another 20-30 years of conditioning?

Still wondering about the value of investing in and building a consistent brand?

Related posts:

A must read book on branding

In lead generation, branding matters

This is your brain. This is your brain on brands.

Marketing Truth: People love themselves most of all

August 11, 2007

Here's the marketing truth. People love themselves. And in the end, trite as it has become "what's in it for me" is a very accurate reflection of the consumer's mind set.

Mike Sigers over at Simplenomics wrote about a fascinating study. One of the findings he sited was:

A study of college-aged women included this test: The women were given a pen and paper and asked to write anything they wanted.

460 of the 500 wrote their own name.

Wow.

And yet, time after time, marketers trip over themselves on this truth. Their efforts are almost insulting in an attempt to manipulate this attitude without actually understanding it at all.

Spike Jones writes at Brains on Fire about an Oakley campaign where the sun glasses manufacturer sent a 22-page booklet about their glasses and then asked the recipients to share the names of their friends who would also get the 22-page sales piece. The reward? An Oakley decal of course. Woo hoo.

What the Oakley example shows us is that marketers pretend to be thinking about the customer but they're really just looking in the mirror and hoping to see the customer's reflection in the background.

Not going to work, my friends. We're going to actually have to look away from the mirror.

Give a little

Newsletter No No's

Brilliant series on being successfully self-employed

August 10, 2007

Tony Clark has always been one of my favorite bloggers. He's a gifted artist. That would be enough for most people. But he's also an insightful and inspiring writer. (And a Disney fan, so that really puts him over the top!)

His blog, Success from the Nest, is much more than a hot bed of information and solid tips for the self-employed. Tony's posts and life/work balance, chasing your dreams, digging down deep to find the best of yourself, helping clients grow, and practical work tips are food for the brain and the heart of anyone out there trying to make a buck without selling their soul.

I always find something of interest on Tony's blog. But he's recently completed a five-part series called the Hierarchy of the Successfully Self-Employed. Whether you are self-employed or not — I promise you will find food for thought in this series.

It's about so much more than working.

Hierarchy of the Successfully Self-Employed (part 1)
Freelancing is for Suckers (part 2)
All the Aggravation of Employment, Without All the Perks (part 3)
You May Already be an Expert…You Just Don't Know It (part 4)
Gurus Share More by Doing Less (part 5)

Enjoy this series and if you're smart…enjoy Tony's blog on a regular basis.

Listen up (why your customers’ native tongue matters)

August 10, 2007

Have you ever been out in a public place, maybe enjoying coffee with a friend when all of a sudden, your ears perk up? You hear a familiar voice and you can't help but listen for it? Or you hear a phrase or word that trips off your own tongue on a regular basis?

It's human nature to be drawn to voices that feel familiar. Steve Lovelace from Build a Better Box has a great post about a study from the National Academy of Sciences about how infants respond to people speaking in different languages. The study suggests that even as young as five months, the infants recognize the tones and patterns of their native language and respond accordingly.

Customers are really just big babies. No, I don't mean fussy. I mean, just like the 5 month olds, they respond to their native tongue. But all too often — we don't write that way.

Look through your own communications pieces and see if you can spot one or more of the following:

Sales speak: "You can drive it home today!" Okay, yours probably aren't that blatant. But if it sounds like a slick salesman, it isn't going to fly.

Insider jargon: Do your materials look like an eye chart with all their acronyms? Are you sure your audience uses those same shortcuts?

Vague buzzwords: You know the words I'm talking about. Empower. Paradigm. Value add. It's not that those concepts are bad or irrelevant to your customers. But the words are so over-used that we assign very little meaning to them any more. Don't talk in generalities — be concrete.

Listen to your customers for awhile. Then, read your materials out loud. If they don't sound like your customers talk — re-write them. It really is that simple. Be sure you're speaking in their native tongue.

Are most businesses a little self-absorbed?

August 9, 2007

Do most businesses spent too much time looking in the mirror and not enough time thinking about and listening to their customers?

Check out my article on Marketing Prof's Daily Fix on how some niche airlines are breaking out from the crowd and join in the discussion.

Barry Bonds: Villain or Victim?

August 8, 2007

First some salient facts.

I have been a Dodgers fan since I was a kid. I bleed Dodger blue.
I have a real reverence for the game of baseball.
I believe that Barry Bonds used/uses steroids.
I'm disappointed that he's tainting the game.
I'd never been to Dodgers Stadium before.

So last Thursday night was a big deal for me. My first Dodgers home game. Accidentally, it was a big deal for baseball too. Barry Bonds going for the home run that would tie Hank Aaron's record. The game was sold out.

Before the game, I was adamant. My biggest hope was that Bonds did not hit his home run during MY Dodgers game. I didn't want it to taint the experience.

We had amazing seats. One row off the field, half-way between left field and third base. You couldn't ask for better. It started the top of the 1st inning. When Bonds came up to bat — the crowd booed and hissed. Not very sportsmanlike, but I understood their sentiment.

Bottom of the first, Bonds trots out to left field and the taunting got even worse. It was relentless and stupid. And with every inning (and no doubt, with every beer) it got louder and more obnoxious. Every time he made a catch, they screamed. When he waited for the batter to swing, they jeered. When he warmed up, they chanted obscenities.

And a very strange thing happened. I started to feel sorry for Barry Bonds. Did he bring it on himself? Yes. Do I think he cheated? Yes. Did I wish he wasn't breaking the record? Yes.

But, did he deserve to be screamed at while he tried to do his job? No. Did he deserve the racial slurs? No. Were the guys shouting at him insulting the game too? Yes.

There's an important lesson in this for all of us. It's easy to portray the competition as the villain. But that's a very fine line to walk. Comparisons are fine. But taking a shot that really hits below the belt can quickly transform your competition from villain to victim. Which turns you from hero to bully. Bashing the competition is never going to serve you, long-term.

All of a sudden you can shift the balance and once you don the black hat, it's pretty tough to take it off.

A side note: Barry Bonds broke the record tonight. While I have more empathy for the situation he behaved himself into, I can't say I cheered as he waved to the crowd. But I didn't boo either.

Have a hero’s heart — don’t overthink, just act

August 5, 2007

Cam Beck (ChaosScenario) has a very thoughtful post about the tragic bridge collapse in Minneapolis and the heroism that emerged. For him, it served as a reminder that as marketers, we sometimes go for the cheap pay off, rather than honoring the best of what humans can be.

In my comment, I made this observation. I think in moments of crisis (Mpls, 9-11, house fires) human beings don't think– they just react. And they react from a place very deep inside of them. Their true self. Their heart of hearts. And that's how ordinary people suddenly become heroes. Because they don't have time to talk themselves out of doing what is right and good.

I'm not just waxing poetic here. I think there is a rock solid marketing message in there. You know when companies mess up? When they over-think a decision. When they override their own instincts. When they suddenly worry if they're going to get into trouble. Let me give you an example.

We recently won a new client who told me an all too familiar story. They had a problem arise in their place of business and got some bad press coverage from it. Their first instinct was to have the CEO serve as the spokesperson and deal with the issue frankly and openly.

But, then they thought about it. And got some very bad advice from a PR professional who said the CEO should not be in any way tainted by being associated with this bad event.

What a crock. If they had trusted their gut and done what they knew was authentic to them — the storm would have passed quickly and been seen for what it was.

But instead, they over-thought the decision and made a complete mess of it. Because they ignored what their heart was telling them.

If you and your employees truly understand your organization's soul — you know what to do. In every situation. Stay true to that and be your company's hero. Don't think it to death. Don't wait for it to be perfect. Just listen to the company's heart and act.

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