McLellan Marketing Group Archives - Page 2 of 3

Desperate makes us both feel cheap (pricing strategy)

October 5, 2012

Your pricing strategy should never be accidental. It’s a vital element in your marketing mix.

Let me give you an example: We use an outside vendor to provide extranet services for our clients. We’d been with them for over five years.

We recently discovered a better solution. Not only is it better, but it’s also less expensive. It wasn’t so much the fact that it was cheaper that sold us. It was the ease of use for our clients.

But cheaper doesn’t hurt. And this was cheaper by a couple hundred dollars a month.

When I contacted the old vendor to cancel our service, guess what their immediate response was. “We can match their price.”

What? So you’ve been overcharging me for years? Or you magically just had a price reduction to the very dollar amount of my new vendor and you were about to call and tell me about it?

We’re still leaving but now, instead of feeling a little guilty about leaving our old vendor, I’m feeling a bit used. If they’d valued our business – why didn’t they offer us this new price while we were still their customer?

Talk about leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

Dropping your price just to keep a customer is never a good strategy. It makes everyone feel a little cheap. In the end, no one wins and you can kiss any sort of recommendation goodbye.

Your pricing strategy is one of the key components of your marketing message.

It speaks about things far beyond your cost. It communicates value, customer attentiveness and how you view the relationship, both short and long term. It’s not something you should just stumble into. And it’s not something you should damage by mishandling a situation, like our old vendor did.

Social Media Primer – yours for the asking

September 13, 2012

There’s so much going on in the social media world — it’s hard to keep up. But don’t worry — we’ve got the answer for you.

We’ve created a new educational series called 60 Ticks to Social. (Drew’s Marketing Minute…get it) When you sign up, we’ll send you one email a week for about 18-20 weeks. Each email will give you a quick overview of some aspect of social media and sometimes it will also include a link where you can download even more info, if that would be helpful!

It’s 100% free — free of hype, free of jargon and free of any strings. We hope you’ll sign up, tell your friends to sign up and that, most of all, it will be helpful to you.

I promise — it will be worth the minute it takes to read it. If you’d like to sign up, all you need to do it click right here.

Content that your audience loves

September 8, 2012

I saw this on Scott Monty’s Facebook status…and loved it. I couldn’t track down the creator but if I do, I’ll update the post.

Just wanted to give you something to chew on over the weekend.

What clear signals do you suppose you’re missing?

August 8, 2012

I had a few little electrical projects that needed to be done around the house. So I turned to my Angie’s List favorites.

Once I found the right business, I had an array of choices in terms of how I wanted to connect with them. I clicked on the email icon and jotted a quick note, describing exactly what I needed to have fixed.

Within a few hours the electrician emailed me back with this message: “Sounds good Drew, give me a call to discuss.”

Um, no. I didn’t accidentally click on the email icon. I made a conscious choice. It’s not that I am anti-phone. Heck…ask AT&T how pro-phone I am. But, during business hours, I just don’t have time to talk to him. I’m in meetings, on the phone with clients and on the run. Which is why I emailed him to begin with.

What could have been an easy sale is now tangled up because he didn’t pay attention to the very clear signal I sent. I don’t have time to call him…so odds are, the work just won’t get done for a little while. A lost sale.

What clear signals do you suppose you’re missing?

How non-profits can get media coverage for their events

April 18, 2012

I was recently asked how a non profit can get one of one of their local TV stations to run PSAs to promote a fundraising event.

Here’s what I replied:

Most TV stations (and many radio stations as well) DO NOT donate a ton of time to run local PSAs because:

Although they are bound by law to run a certain number of PSAs, they are not bound to produce any (which is also what the charity wants them to do for them)
Very few local charities can afford (or bother) to produce a radio or TV PSA
If a local charity does produce a radio or TV PSA — they do it on the cheap and it looks it, so the stations don’t want to run it because honestly — they’re can be pretty awful
Every radio and TV station gets a ton of professionally produced PSAs, far beyond what they have to run
Another downside of running one local charity’s PSA — everyone else demands equal treatment and they simply don’t have the capacity to do it for everyone

So…first things first — local charities need to abandon the PSA idea. The likelihood that they would be successful is not very good and they’d have to put some serious money into the production of a spot to get the media’s attention and even at that — there’s no guarantee.

So — what can they do?

There are several ways to increase the likelihood that the media will provide some exposure for a non-profit event. But NONE of these come with a guarantee. And all of these might get you news exposure. Most likely, none of them will get you ad time.

Get one of the on air talent to participate in the event – hopefully you’ll get news exposure
Schedule the event during a slow news time (10 am on weekdays) and (Sunday early afternoons for the weekends)
Make it very visual, crazy or something people would love to witness (watching people play basketball is not such a thing. Watching people play basketball while riding donkeys — is.) and try to get news time — as opposed to advertising time
Have someone from the station (reporter, sales person etc.) serve on the event committee (this takes time to cultivate….these people know why they’re being invited) and hope they can be helpful to at least get news coverage

And there are three ways to pretty much guarantee coverage/spots run:

Partner with someone who advertises on the TV station and ask them to donate a portion of their buy to run spots for the event. Sometimes the station will (after they see their customer’s commitment to it) donate some extra spots.
Get the TV station on board as your media sponsor. This is incredibly difficult — because everyone asks them. The event has to be truly unique, have a very wide appeal (like Jolly Holiday Lights) and be able to become an annual event of significant size (like the Duck Derby). Every TV station probably has a half dozen of these each. They can’t really take on more than that and give each event what it needs. (disclosure: McLellan Marketing Group is very proud to have launched both of the mentioned events and negotiated their media partnerships)
Get a sponsor to buy a certain amount of media time (radio or TV) and ask the station to match or at least provide some bonus spots. (easiest and most likely to happen)

I know it’s discouraging but keep in mind that the media does not exist to give away what they sell.

They’re all incredibly generous to the community — but most communities simply have too many good causes and too many good charities. They simply can’t support them all.

(I know many of my readers serve on local boards and volunteer a lot of their time…so I hope this is helpful!)

Stock photo courtesy of BigStockPhoto.com

Build your key message hierarchy

April 9, 2012

When you get a chance to talk to a prospect — you want to make sure you talk to them about what matters. And if you’re not well prepared…that usually doesn’t happen.

Think back to when you were a teenager (or a pre-teen if you developed early) and were figuring out how to talk to that boy or girl you had a crush on.

Remember how your brain just fuzzed over when you got the chance and the next thing you knew, you were babbling something about how your cat was stuck in a tree, your grandma had a mustache and you didn’t like pears?

The same phenomenon occurs when we begin to talk to someone new at a networking event or a prospect who just called/walked in the door.

Without a plan, we babble.

The solution is an easy one. At McLellan Marketing Group, we call it your message hierarchy. Here’s fair warning — when I tell you how to do it, it is going to appear to be quite simple. You might even think “seriously Drew, that’s all you got?”

But I assure you, it’s harder than it looks. And it deserves some time and attention.

Assume you’re at a networking event, and someone you’ve never met before approaches you. They extend their hand and say — “Hi, I’m Bob. Nice to meet you. Tell me what you do for a living.” (I know…no one sounds like that but play along)

Answer these questions in this order.

If you could only tell Bob ONE thing about your business (a single sentence) that you hope he’ll remember forever and repeat often. What would you say?
If you discovered you had time for a second sentence, what would you add?
For some reason – you get a chance at adding a third sentence. What’s next.
Wow…Bob seems fascinated. Add another sentence about your business.
You’re on a roll! Bob hasn’t said a word…he’s so mesmerized. Add another sentence, quick.

You get the idea. It’s the first question that’s the killer. If you could only say ONE thing…and then had to walk away and that was all Bob was ever going to remember about your business — what would you say?

But once you figure that out — that’s golden. Now you know the key message you should always lead with. It doesn’t have to be the exact same sentence every time, but the message should be the same.

When you look at the answers to those 5 questions — you’ve build your message hierarchy. Think of it as a triangle, widening with every sentence. The most important point is at the top and then you add a layer underneath, over and over again.

Please give it a try. It’s tougher than it looks but it will help you stay on target no matter what marketing tool you’re creating.

Photo courtesy of BigStockPhoto.com

Can packaging help you sell in a new way?

March 27, 2012

How we package our products and services often communicates more than we think.

Sometimes — a fresh look at packaging can introduce you to a new buyer, make you more attractive to prospects you’ve known for awhile or reinforce a buying decision for your current customers.

I was in Walgreens the other day and a end cap display caught my attention. They were little boxes of pills but rather than being named/described as some generic brand — they were packaged according to why you might use them.

“Help, I have the sniffles.”
“Help, I have an achy body.”
“Help, I can’t sleep.”
“Help, I have a headache.”

I thought it was a brilliant strategy. Rather than get into a brand war with the category leader, why not just re-define how the category is packaged and go right at the consumer’s need. I’ll be curious to see how this new line sells.

We had a bit of the same problem at McLellan Marketing Group. Everyone assumed that we could only work with large clients with really big annual budgets. While we love those kinds of clients — we also love working with entrepreneurs and small businesses.

But how do we communicate that to the marketplace? We repackaged ourselves.

We knew that this group of potential buyers had very unique concerns about working with an agency:

I won’t know how much it’s going to cost
I don’t have a big enough budget
I don’t know what I’d be buying

And we repackaged ourselves to eliminate those worries. We literally created packages — with a pre-determined monthly fee. Think of these packages as the garanimals of marketing.

The buyers can pick and choose from the menus and with our help, create a custom package that fits their business’ needs.

(You can download a PDF of the MMG packages for easier reading by clicking here)

But they have 100% control over the cost (because they decide which monthly fee they want to pay) and they can see all they get for their small budget and they know exactly what they’re going to get.

This packaging strategy has brought us a whole different category of clients — who are enjoying agency expertise at a price they can afford (and control!).

How could you re-package yourself or a particular product or service to either overcome buying hesitation, to introduce yourself to a whole new audience or to do an end run around the category leader?

Free isn’t necessarily cheap

March 5, 2012

I was having a brief conversation with @NealShaffer on Twitter yesterday and the gist of our conversation was:

Half of small & medium businesses are using social media for marketing (Neal)
Yes…but few are doing it well. They don’t apply marketing smarts (Drew)
True, but huge potential to maximize social business (Neal)
No doubt. But when done wrong, potential for damage is equally large (Drew)
I agree completely (Neal)

See — that’s the problem with free. Business owners (or many so called social media experts) look at the price of entry for having a presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest or (fill in the blank for whatever’s hot in SM) and they think….”you can’t beat free! Even if I suck at it, it didn’t cost me anything.”

Wrong. So wrong.

Would you buy a TV commercial that had misspellings? Or instruct the announcer to swear or say something off color? Or better yet…would you buy radio time and then not put anything there…so you basically bought :60 of silence?

Would you promise that your newsletter would be packed with useful information and then blather on about yourself, your sales and your products when you get around to sending it?

I’m sure you’re saying (or at least in my head) “No, Drew of course not.” So why in the world do you (universal you, not you you) do it on your social media sites?

We see unprofessional behavior on FB pages all the time. And abandoned blogs, Twitter accounts etc. And the biggest sin of all — being boring because you can’t stop talking about yourself.

Here’s the thing. People have gotten a little numb to selfish, self-centered marketing in the traditional marketing space. It’s not right, but it’s been going on for so long — we accept it as the norm.

But social media is different. Social media promises real people. It promises relevance. It promises a relationship. It promises timely interaction.

And if you violate any or all of those promises, here’s what happens:

The good feelings I had for your brand/company are gone
I feel like you lied to me/tricked me
I will simply choose to disconnect from you
I won’t be interacting with you anymore…which means my feelings for you have no chance at turning more favorable

Keeping those promises takes a lot of time. And keeping your eye on the big picture. It’s easy to get sucked back into old habits and begin marketing instead of connecting. If you really want your social media efforts to work, you have to make a big investment. No, it may not be money (unless you hire some help) but it’s a time crunch.

Maybe this analogy will help. When you do social media badly — you are basically enticing someone to come close to you with the promise of a gooey, fresh from the oven chocolate chip cookie and when they walk in and reach out their hand for the cookie — you smack them with a ruler, over and over until they leave.

The cost is huge. The damage is real. And too many businesses are stumbling over themselves as they rush to a “free” marketing opportunity.

So what does a small business do, Drew? you ask. (again, perhaps it all takes place in my head). You put together a social media strategy that is built on SMART goals and best customer personas.

How do you do that? Come back on Thursday and download the absolutely free 18 page e-book that walks you through how to build that strategy, step by step.

It’s a tool we use at MMG with clients every day. And we’re glad to share it with you. Really.

And….there’s not a sales pitch or MMG promo in sight. I promise. Would I offer you a cookie and then smack you with a ruler?

What should you buy from a social media savvy agency?

August 5, 2011

…buy the right help from the right agency

Okay…the other day I blew a fuse about social media consultants selling smoke screens and mirrors. (read my rant here)

Which of course begs the question — what SHOULD you buy from someone who actually has an expertise in melding social media into the rest of your marketing efforts? (And yes…at MMG we do all of this but so do many other qualified and competent consultants)

Strategy: Whether you’re pretty familiar with all things social or you don’t know your Facebook page from your Facebook status — it helps to have an outsider help you think through your strategy.

They’ll ask questions to get you really thinking about WHY you’re investing resources into social media and WHAT goals/results matter to your organization.

Measurements: A good social media strategist will help you determine WHAT to measure and HOW to measure what matters.

While social media serves up things to count, they don’t always count, if you know what I mean. That you have 1,348 Twitter followers may be important or it may just be a meaningless number.

A good strategist will help you determine not only what to measure but help you set up a comparative reporting system (we call ours The MMG Digital Footprint) that monitors your progress.

Mechanics: You don’t need to know how to code a blog or customize a Facebook fan page to build one into your marketing activities. Let your social media consultant either do the heavy lifting or supervise someone else doing it for you.

The great thing about most social media is that it’s plug and play but the truth is — it should all look and feel like your brand. Which means some customization is needed.

Content Massaging: Odds are you already have plenty of raw material for content creation. But it’s probably not written in the style, length or format best suited for social media.

Need a white paper turned into an ebook? Or a research report converted into an infographic? Let your social media agency take your existing material and get it ready for your friends and followers.

Coaching: Understanding that a touchdown is worth 6 points is very different from knowing the nuances of how to actually get into the end zone. Many companies fumble the ball (sorry — the last football analogy) by applying old school marketing behaviors to these new marketing tools.

Having someone at your side, teaching you how to navigate the new waters without making any faux pas. Remember…Google never forgets.

Systems: There are plenty of tools out there to help make your social media activities more efficient and easier to manage. Whether it’s setting up your listening post (it’s not just about creating content — you need to know what people are saying about your company, your industry, your competitors etc.) or scheduling your content’s publication (so you can time fresh content to appear when your audience is online) — your social media partner can help you do more with less effort.

Integration: Social media (like all marketing tactics) should not exist in a vacuum. It should fold into the rest of your marketing strategy and efforts. Otherwise, you are not stacking up your impressions and maximizing every dollar and every effort.

Of course, that’s just hitting the highlights but you get the idea. There’s plenty for an agency to help you with. But they should be behind the scenes…not front and center.

There’s no substitute for your smarts, years of experience or personality. That’s how your prospects meet your brand.

Promote your community via crowdsourcing

July 3, 2011

As many of you know, Gavin Heaton and I co-edited the Age of Conversation series of books — each one crowdsourced with help from marketing and social media practitioners from all over the globe. Each book is as unique as the contributors but they all three had some things in common:

The authors formed a community among themselves and I know for a fact that new business and personal relationships formed as a result.
The book benefits from the many authors all promoting it to their own networks and spheres of influence.
There is a healthy sense of competition among the authors — everyone wants their contribution to be deemed worthy when compared to the others.

We did it mostly as an experiment and a vehicle to raise money for some charities. But I think we were all astonished at the lasting value the books created far beyond the monies raised.

My agency, McLellan Marketing Group, took the same model and brought it to our community of Central Iowa (through our client BIZ-CI). Our goal in this case was to:

Crowdsource a book that would spotlight all of the professional expertise that existed in our area
Help fledgling businesses/entrepreneurs who couldn’t afford to buy the expertise have access to it
Promote some of our community’s business leaders by name/firm
Introduce our business community to companies that were considering a move to Central Iowa
Create connections among the business leader/authors

So we invited local business leaders to each write a chapter related to their area of expertise for the book How Business Gets Done: Words of Wisdom by Central Iowa Experts.

38 experts in some aspect of starting/running a small business all offering best practice counsel as well as pointing to some of their favorite resources.

You can get a Kindle copy by clicking here*.

Peter Korchnak, out in Portland, Oregon put together a very similar book called Portland’s Bottom Line. But they added a very interesting twist.

Korchnak and his co-editor Megan Strand organized the book into 12 sections along the triple bottom line of People, Planet, and Prosperity. The book explores how small businesses can effectively and efficiently shift toward sustainability and thrive. 51 small-business people from the City of Roses shared their experiences with sustainability in their companies. “The Portland Bottom Line” demonstrates how small businesses can innovate to put people before profit, help restore the ecosystem, and prosper.

The book is also a community benefit project. Contributors collectively chose, by vote, the local community organization Mercy Corps Northwest, which supports the launch and growth of sustainable ventures, to receive 100% of profit from the book’s sales.

To check it out, click here*.

In all three examples, the authors are held up as professionals who have something relevant to share. It adds to their credibility and who doesn’t like to say they’re an author of a published book?

What I’d love for you to do is take a look at these examples and then apply the thinking you the communities you serve/participate in. It wouldn’t have to be a city type of community. It could be a community that shares a passion/vocation like the Age of Conversation books did. The book could center around a common theme, skill, cause, interest or even something aspirational.

How could you use this crowdsourcing model in your business?

*Yup, an affiliate link. Peter sent me an advanced copy of their book to review. So did a bunch of other authors. But this book is worth sharing with you.

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