Strategy Archives - Page 42 of 53 - McLellan Marketing Group

In lead generation – branding matters

March 7, 2007

It’s sort of a duh, isn’t it?

If someone knows who you are, they are more likely to listen and be influenced by you. We covered that in the Don’t talk to strangers post. And yet, there are many out there who will tell you — branding doesn’t matter. Just go out there and sell.

RainToday.com ‘s new research report What’s Working In Lead Generation sides with me on this one. (Or maybe it is the other way around?)

The numbers tell the story. Those companies that have are better known have greater success in chasing new business. As we talked about in the first segment of this series, the research shows that companies are gearing up to be more aggressive out there.

So reality check here. Your competitors are going to be making more noise in the market place. If they are also ahead of you in terms of brand recognition, you’ve got some serious trouble on your hands. What can you do about it?

You can be brave enough to brand. Be willing to be something significant to some, rather than trying to be everything to everyone.
You can teach your employees about your brand.
You can teach your current customers about your brand.
You can introduce your brand to potential customers.

And then you’re ready to learn more from the research document. More insights from the report are on the way….

Note: The full RainToday.com report shares 6 key insights which I’ll be exploring over the next several days with you. In the meantime, if you’d like to download their free 21-page summary, you can grab it here.

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Play to your strengths

March 5, 2007

I’m not a native Iowan. I’ve been here for about 15 years and its a great place to raise a family, build a business and enjoy a quality of life that is tough to beat.

But as long as I’ve lived here, I’ve noticed that Iowans are constantly apologizing or putting down their own state. They lament that college kids seek the big cities and that there isn’t enough night life for the single set. Both true. And probably not going to change.

For years, Iowa has tried to overcome that perception (again — remember its accurate) with media campaigns and catchy slogans. Surprise — they didn’t work.

Why would you put the spotlight on a weakness and then shout "nuh uh!" and try to disprove it?

That’s why I was thrilled to see Patrick Schaber’s post about Iowa’s newest campaign.

For the first time that I can remember, the state’s push for people to consider bringing their business and/or their family to Iowa is not apologizing — it is celebrating all that makes it such a terrific place to live.

They’re running ads in magazines like Fast Company and built a pretty impressive website.

Also on their site is the creative, like this outdoor board, that they’re running.

The print ad series touts some of the perks of Iowa life and spotlights families who’ve made the move. This PDF ( Download haldeman.pdf ) talks about Iowa being the 8th safest state to live in. Not a bad message these days.

Another ad (–>) talks about Iowa’s reasonable housing costs. What makes this campaign so strong is that Iowa finally stopped trying to put lipstick on a pig. Marketing campaigns that make you something that you’re not but really, really wish you could be, do nothing but muddy the waters.

Congrats Iowa for getting it right!

Read what some of my fellow Iowans say about why Iowa.

Mike Sansone
Todd Mundt
Tom Vander Well
Adam Steen
Andy Brudtkuhl
Cory Garrison

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How to choose an agency: Meet & Greet (part 2)

March 3, 2007

You’re hiring an agency because you want results.

This is not about making your ads look prettier. This is about doing more business, smarter.

So, how do you choose the right partner? Eenie Meanie Mienie Moe?

Well, if you read my earlier post you know I don’t think it should be an RFP. But on the other extreme, it shouldn’t be just because your cousin works there either.

Following a simple process (simple to understand, but will take discipline and time to execute) will protect you from making an expensive mistake.

The phases of the process are:

Know what you want (ask yourself questions)
Do your homework (ask the prospective agencies questions)
The meet and greet (get together and ask questions)

There’s only one step left. But it’s probably the most important step of all. At this stage, any of your finalists are most likely more than qualified to do the work. That’s the easy part. But are they the right fit for you, specifically?

Let’s assume that all three agencies did a good job on their presentation. (If one bombed — eliminate them before this final step.) After the presentations, tell them you want to schedule an on-site visit. (Or you can schedule their presentations there.) Much like walking through someone’s house will give you an incredible amount of insight into their life and personality, you’ll find the same is true of agencies.

Take a tour. Ask to meet everyone who would touch your account, from the front desk staffer to the accountant and everyone in between. What does it feel like to be there? What does the environment tell you? Does it all feel authentic or are they putting out the good china because company is coming? There’s a fine line here. You want to be treated as though you’re special. But, if you can’t sit on the sofa without a slip cushion — yikes!

Here’s the leap of faith. After you have visited all of the finalist agencies on their home turf — you need to trust your gut. Any of them would be more than competent or else they shouldn’t have gotten this far. But that’s sort of like saying your prom date was okay. You want (and deserve) WOW! Who was most engaging? Who seemed to "get you and your team" the most? Who did you trust? Who felt like they were blowing smoke up your skirt? Who felt genuine?

Who feels right. Remember — every buying decision is based on emotions. And this one is no different. At a certain point in time, you have to close your eyes, trust your gut and leap off the cliff!

Voila — you have a new agency. Congratulations to you both.

Of course — now the hard part begins. Building and maintaining the relationship!

The rest of the How to Choose An Agency Series:

Flickr photo courtesy of PeeJ0e

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A marketing tip from my Italian grandma: Give back

March 3, 2007

This post wraps up my marketing tips from my Italian grandma series. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have writing it.

No doubt you look at my last name and say Italian? But rest assured, on my mom’s side I’m your amico! Like all Italians, I had an Italian grandma. And like all Italian grandmas, she had an opinion about everything and wasn’t afraid to share it or the life lessons she had collected along her colorful life. What she didn’t realize is that she also taught me some great marketing tips that in her honor, I’d like to share with you.

My grandparents never had much money. They both worked in a clothing factory. They supported two kids (plus an orphan they took in for over 10 years) and did the best they could. No fancy anything. My grandma made most of her own clothes (which meant her polyester pants often matched her polyester shirts — see photo) and she’d cut up old panty hose and use them for rubber bands.

But when someone was in trouble or needed help — my grandparents were there. With food, shelter or whatever was needed. One of my favorite family stories was about their neighbors, the Bleiweiss family. Mr. Bleiweiss lost his job and was struggling to support his family. My grandparents knew he’d never accept money so they anonymously mailed him cash every week for months until he found work. It was money they didn’t really have to spare. But in their lives — you shared what you had. No matter what.

They did it without fanfare or the spotlight. They did it because it spoke of who they were as people. It was part of their brand.

Our companies need to step up to that example. I don’t care how new or small your business is — you can help someone. You can share what you have — time, talent, treasure (money). Serve on a board and share your expertise. Volunteer to sort food at a food shelter or serve a hot meal to the homeless. Tutor. Donate your product/service to a non-profit. If you have the resources to be reading this — you have enough that you can share.

You do it because it is the right thing to do. It’s always been my philosophy that if you give for the right reasons without looking for an angle or way to make money — the rewards will be there. Probably more than you could imagine or deserve. But it starts with a generous heart.

At McLellan Marketing Group, one of my expectations for every employee is that they are involved in some sort of community service. I could care less what the cause is. I care that they do it. And if an employee can’t embrace the idea of sharing of themselves, I know they are probably not going to be a good MMG team member.

Go on….share a little. Give back. It won’t hurt a bit.

Here’s the entire Marketing Tips from My Italian Grandma series, for your enjoyment:

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How to choose an agency: Meet & Greet (part 1)

March 3, 2007

You’re hiring an agency because you want results.

This is not about making your ads look prettier. This is about doing more business, smarter.

So, how do you choose the right partner? Eenie Meanie Mienie Moe?

Well, if you read my earlier post you know I don’t think it should be an RFP. But on the other extreme, it shouldn’t be just because your cousin works there either.

Following a simple process (simple to understand, but will take discipline and time to execute) will protect you from making an expensive mistake.

The phases of the process are:

Know what you want (ask yourself questions)
Do your homework (ask the prospective agencies questions)
The meet and greet (get together and ask questions)

So, you’ve gotten back the written responses to your questionnaire. Using criteria you’ve already determined (the "right" answers to the questions you’ve asked) whittle the list down to 3 agencies. If you have to go bigger, no more than 4.

Pick a specific strategic, marketing-oriented challenge you’re facing. Invite each of the finalist agencies for a meeting. At that meeting, give them everything you’ve got. Research, stats, stories, sales figures. Whatever is relevant to this very focused issue.

Then, ask them to come back to you in a couple weeks with some ideas. Here’s where there’s a fork in the road. Some will tell you to ask for spec creative, marketing ideas, media plans etc. If you ask them for all of that and don’t pay them for their time — that’s robbery, in my opinion.

Agency people get paid to think and be strategic. So be reasonable. If you are not going to compensate them for their time — then just ask for enough to see how well they listen, what kinds of questions they ask and how they think.

Schedule in person presentations. At the presentation, you want to be watching for not only how they think but how they translate their thoughts to you. What are their ideas based on? How did they explore the issue? What ideas did they discard? How would they advise you execute? How well did their ideas match your culture and your brand?

Here’s another key to this part in the process. How well did they follow instructions? If you said no spec creative and they bring it any way — what does that tell you? How do they explain the deviance from your request?

There’s only one step left. But it’s probably the most important step of all.

The rest of the How to Choose An Agency Series:

Flickr photo courtesy of PeeJ0e

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Put on a different hat

March 2, 2007

You know, sometimes life takes on a little mini-theme. I have posted quite a bit lately about the importance of being able to put on and take off the many "hats" of your potential audiences as you craft a marketing strategy or message.

I was doing my daily jog through some of my favorite blogs and stumbled upon Roger von Oech‘s post "Change Viewpoints." Let me entice you to go over and read his post by sharing an excerpt.

"Whereas the first group asked, "What if we bury somebody alive?" the second group asked, "How can we make sure everyone we bury is dead?"

How can you not go see how that plays out?

As marketers — it is absolutely vital that we find ways and challenge ourselves to think differently, from different points of view. The faithful among you will know that I’ve been beating this drum quite a bit lately.

We’ve talked about the emotional truths that can be discovered by really walking around a question or challenge and seeing it from all angles. And we’ve explored how an insider’s view of things is, by its very nature, not a very clear or accurate picture. Donning another person’s "hat" and turning your view finder is a skill that far too few marketers employ.

Check out Roger’s post and if you’d be so kind — share some of your methods for making sure you’ve broadened your view.

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How do you chase new business?

March 2, 2007

A resource that I have enjoyed for a long time is RainToday.com. They describe themselves as "your online source for insight, advice and tools for growing your service business."

And they are certainly that. I almost always find gems of insight in their articles.

They have just released a new research report What’s Working In Lead Generation. (with the obligatory sub head: How to Spend Your Time, Energy & Money for the Best Marketing ROI in B2B Professional Services.)

They’ve been kind enough to share a press review copy of the report with me and over the next several posts, I’d like to share with you some of the wisdom their research has uncovered.

As we always should, let’s start with where we’re at today.

The report goes on to say that:

45% responded that finding a lead generation strategy, tactic, or offer that works well is "extremely challenging" or "very challenging".

84% of respondents reported that in the next two years they will increase their lead generation efforts.

What does that mean for us? First, everyone agrees that finding new business is no small or easy task. And to reduce it to that probably means you aren’t really doing so hot at getting it done. The second and potentially alarming stat says that the competition is getting ready to gear it up.

Are you ready? What is your lead generation plan? Is it automated enough that if you get busy — it keeps chugging along?

For many small businesses, this is the biggest challenge. They launch a lead generation tactic or plan and it works. Yeah! But also — Boo! Because the plan is too dependent on their man hours. And now the man hours are consumed with taking care of the new business they just generated.

Once they get that new business under their belt — the pipeline is dry again because they could only do so much and then the work got in the way of continuing to fill the pipeline.

What do you have in place to prevent that?

More insights from the report are on the way….

Note: The full RainToday.com report shares 6 key insights which I’ll be exploring over the next few days with you. In the meantime, if you’d like to download their free 21-page summary, you can grab it here.

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The romance is dead!

February 28, 2007

Ahh, the wooing. The courtship. The attention. The expressions of heartfelt love. A belated Valentine’s Day post? Nope. Just a reminder of how you behaved as you were chasing that potential client.

Until you caught them. Then the romance was over. No more flowers, candy, late night calls. Now it’s business as usual.

If this sounds uncomfortably like you — don’t worry. When you lose that client to the competitor who woos them away, you can always turn on the charm and find a new one. And so on and so on…

Or, here’s a novel idea. Keep the romance alive.

Cam Beck talks about this phenomenon over at ChaosScenario. As Cam always is — it’s worth the read.

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Are you brave enough to walk away from business?

February 27, 2007

That’s what branding is all about. Walking away from business.

The wrong kinds of business. The wrong kinds of clients. The wrong kinds of growth.

When you brand the right way — you boldly proclaim what you stand for AND by default, what you don’t stand for.

I think that’s one of the reasons why so many companies either brand very superficially (our people are our difference or our quality sets us apart) or they don’t brand at all.

Business leaders and owners focus on the bottom line. I’ve got no argument with that. But many of them are unwilling to say "thanks, but no thanks" to business that’s a bad fit. Short term gain, for long term pain. Branded companies are specialists, not generalists. They don’t have to be. Their brand attracts the right kind of business. If they let it.

Every business has a sweet spot. An ideal client profile. Every time they connect with this kind of client, everyone wins. There’s success, profit and everyone feels good.

A good brand attracts your sweet spot kind of client. But you have to be willing to say no to the wrong ones, to make room for the right ones.

Are you brave enough?

Flickr photo courtesy of Splinter Group.

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Extending your brand’s reach

February 26, 2007

Brand extensions are nothing new. The reality is, we see more bad ones than good. Want proof?

Cheetos flavored lip balm
Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover’s Soul dog food (bad idea and really long name!)
Starburst (yes the candy) shampoo, body gel and conditioner

There’s a great survey that is done every year by BrandWeek and TippingSprung (NYC branding agency) that highlights the best and the worst. A hat tip to Nancy Friedman’s post that reminded me of this annual brain food.

So what makes a smart brand extension?

Does it add value to the core brand?

Think of this a a math equation. Does A+B=C? If you take the core brand and add a new element, does it create something new that’s of value. One of the survey’s winners was the Red Cross who is now marketing emergency radios. You can see the logic and thought process that created the extension. Not only is the extension itself smart, but it reflects well and adds potency to the core brand.

The quizzical look factor.

You know that expression that a dog gets, when it cocks its head and looks confused? When you say, "hey, look Cheetos flavored lip balm" most people get that same expression. That’s a big clue that the extension is a disconnect. If the two elements are miles apart, it’s going to be tough to get the consumers to buy the connection.

Has anyone asked?

20 years ago, you couldn’t even find a Mickey and Minnie in wedding garb to use as a wedding cake topper. Today, Disney has a wedding pavilion on the grounds of Disney World and the bride can arrive in Cinderella’s coach, if she’d like. How did this come to be? Disney listened to its guests and their requests.

Just this week, in the Wall Street Journal, I read that Disney is now partnering with couture bridal designer Kirstie Kelly to create Disney princess inspired wedding gowns. Check out the Orlando Sentinel story here. (Download kellydisney.pdf )

How credible is it?

Here’s one where I disagree with the survey results. They lauded the Snoop Dog extension into pet products, like dog beds. I’m sorry but just because the man’s made up name includes the word dog does not make him a dog bed or doggie coat expert. Could he be a funny spokesperson for a dog bed manufacturer? You bet. But that’s different than the man opening a line of dog sweaters.

Brand extensions are tricky business. Bottom line — how does it strengthen your core? How does it introduce you to new customers who would find benefit in both the parent and the extension? How does it add value to your current customers?

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