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Courage and conviction

April 5, 2022

We’ve spent the last two years living in fear. We’ve been afraid of COVID. We’ve been afraid of clients leaving because of COVID. We’ve been afraid to raise our prices even though our employee costs are going through the roof. We’ve been afraid to ask our team members to come back to work or to the office. We’ve been afraid that if we don’t bend to employees’ demands, they’ll leave, and we won’t be able to replace them.

On top of all that, we’ve feared the political unrest. The economy. Our ability to pivot.

That’s a whole lot of fear.

We’ve made so many decisions based on fear – and the worry that accompanies those choices add to the weight. The uncertainty swirling around us creates an environment of constant unease.

If you’re like most business owners and leaders, you came into 2022 feeling exhausted and worn down. Even if 2021 was a successful year for you by all measures, it still felt heavy.

The combination of two years of fear and worry, in my opinion, is the source of that exhaustion. Living in fear and carrying all that extra weight is exhausting. We’ve earned the weariness we are experiencing. As a business leader, it’s almost impossible not to be constantly second-guessing yourself. Constantly looking around to see what everyone else is doing. And constantly looking over your shoulder.

No wonder you’re so worn out.

If I had the opportunity to set a universal resolution for business owners and leaders, it would be that we all would choose to push aside that fear and go back to leading with courage and conviction.

I know it’s easier said than done. I know your fears are based on real risks. I know the challenges we’ve been facing since 2020 aren’t going away soon.

But I also know that you can’t lead from a place of fear and inspire anyone. Especially yourself. I know that you had the courage to start your business or take that leadership role. I know you wouldn’t be running the business you’re running today without having a bagful of courage. And I know that even over the past couple of years, that courage has seeped past the fear now and then to help you find the right path.

Here’s what we know. Uncertainty is part of owning or running a business. It always has been and always will be. Granted, no one ever expected COVID-level uncertainty, and hopefully we’ll never experience it again. But we are in a new season with COVID, with the employment situation and with clients.

Let’s not show up in 2022 the way we’ve had to show up over the past couple of years. We’ve survived that and it’s time to go back to our roots. Leading with courage and conviction.

What does that look like?

It looks like trusting that our instincts are usually right and that what we offer has value and our clients appreciate it and us. It looks like when we focus on how we can better serve our clientele and make their lives simpler and easier, it almost always pays off. It looks like a conviction to create an amazing environment for our team members but also recognizing that we’ve survived turnover in the past and we will in the future.

It looks like knowing that we win more than we lose when we step up with confidence and lead with conviction. Are you in?

 

This was originally published in the Des Moines Business Record, as one of Drew’s weekly columns.

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Keep your eyes on the ball

March 29, 2022

Despite the craziness of the last 25 months, it’s so easy to allow complacency to sneak into our day-to-day thinking. You’d think after the pandemic and how every organization had to pivot in some way that we’d be on guard and ready to accelerate at the first sign of market erosion or disinterest.

But the truth is that we’re tired. We’ve been pushing nonstop for those 25 months. We’ve been in constant motion and most people are looking for a soft place to land. A place to slow down. It’s so tempting to look at the marketing and communications strategies that are going well and we think, “I can coast on that. We deserve to catch our breath.”

That’s exactly what your competitors want you to think. They want you to ease up. Especially where the work you’re doing is working. That’s actually the very spot where complacency can do the most damage. When we’re getting it right.

As marketers and business leaders, we’re always looking for the next fire to put out. When things are going well, we believe we can move onto the next fire and just be grateful that something is working the way it should. But that lack of attention and protection over what’s working means that it can begin to get tired or expected.

This is why we need to stay vigilant.

I just read a really insightful book called “Be Vigilant!” by Len Herstein. Herstein was a brand marketer for many years and then he launched Brand ManageCamp conferences across the U.S. In one of the most interesting career pivots I’ve ever seen, Len went on to become a reserve deputy sheriff in his hometown to round out his work. In his book, he explores the idea of how both police officers and business leaders must stay vigilant or else they put themselves in harm’s way.

One of the takeaways of the book for me was the realization that it’s where we are most successful that we’re also most at risk. It’s so easy to take our best-selling products or services for granted. When we have a waiting list or people are willing to pay a premium for something – it’s clearly working, so why rock the boat?

That’s the thinking that we’re at risk of giving into. The idea that we have the luxury of taking our foot off the gas is a fallacy. Especially for the products and services that are in high demand. We should be thinking about how we magnify that demand, not just ride the wave.

For the next few weeks, I’m going to focus on areas where we simply, from a marketing and communications point of view, can’t afford to drop the ball. Where we must stay vigilant. Next week we’ll dig into this idea of how do we focus even more on our best performing offers and how do we add even more value so the demand skyrockets in the next year.

I’m not suggesting we don’t slow down and enjoy. But, we can do that and still keep our eye on the ball so we’re set up for a strong and profitable second quarter.

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How to leverage your client satisfaction survey

March 16, 2022

In the last couple of columns, we’ve been exploring how to actually launch a client satisfaction survey that will yield insights, client retention and love, and maybe even some new opportunities.

This week, I want to wrap up the topic by focusing on how to encourage your clients to participate in the research, what to do with the results once you’ve tallied the responses, and how use what you learned as not only a way to improve your business and your relationship with customers, but also as a sales and marketing tool.

When it comes to encouraging participation, the most important element is one covered in the first column on this topic. When you reassure your customers that you’re going to report on the results and how you’re going to make changes based on their feedback, they’re going to want to participate.

But you’re going to need to tell them more than once. Give yourself room to remind your clients two to three times about the opportunity to complete the survey. You should deploy multiple channels of communication. Don’t count on email alone. An actual letter or phone call will go far in getting their attention and making it clear that you’d really value their input.

Once you’ve persuaded your clients to make the time and you’ve closed down the survey, you’ll need to review the findings to get a sense of what everyone thinks. This isn’t always easy. But keep an open mind and dive in. You’ll be glad you did after the sting of the first bits of criticism dies down.

First — Listen. No matter how good your business is, there are going to be some painful truths revealed. You need to be open to hearing the feedback and, most important, deciding how to respond. Not responding isn’t really an option, if you’re going to honor the promise we talked about a few weeks ago.

Second — Implement change. Figure out how you are going to turn your learnings into action and make modifications based on what you learned. Sometimes the change is recognizing that a certain type of work or client isn’t a good fit. It’s not always about changing who or how you are. But know what you’re going to implement, so you can share it out.

Third — Communicate. To your team and your clients. Here’s what we heard. Here’s what we are changing/doing or here’s why something is going to stay the same. You want to reward your clients for taking the time to share their experiences by demonstrating that you not only heard it, but you took it to heart. That’s why they’ll do it again when you ask. And you’ll get full credit for being eager to get better. In some cases, this might save a relationship. In others, it just increases their confidence in their buying decision.

Fourth — Leverage. Here’s where the data can actually be a sales and marketing tool. Use what you learned to spotlight what your company does well and where you got high marks. This isn’t just about how to get better. It’s also about recognizing where you already are doing a killer job and merchandising that. It’s an opportunity to remind your clients of your full suite of services and how good you are.

You might consider using some of the input on your website, assuming you asked permission during the survey. Let your customers tell the world just how good you are.

Consider doing a client satisfaction survey once a year or every 18 months. Every time you do it, you’re going to learn and get better. And deepen your relationship with your clients.

There’s no downside to making the investment in doing a client satisfaction survey and doing it well.

 

This was originally published in the Des Moines Business Record, as one of Drew’s weekly columns.

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Client satisfaction can be measured

March 8, 2022

In last week’s column we started the conversation about how important it is to understand how our current customers are feeling about our work, our people and our value. And yet customer satisfaction surveys are rarely done well.

We’ve all been on the receiving end of bad customer surveys. They ask us too often. They ask us the same questions every time. And we never hear back or see any real reaction to what we shared.

No wonder the completion rate is so low, and the input is so tepid.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Customer satisfaction surveys, when done well, will give you a competitive advantage in terms of both client retention and new customer acquisition.

So how do we conduct our research in a way that ultimately serves both our organization and our clients?

Last week we covered:

• Invite your customers to participate and tell them what you’re going do with what you learn.
• Strongly consider getting both qualitative and quantitative input.

This week we’ll cover:

• Determine the timing.
• Be thoughtful about the questions.

 

Determine the timing: This is one of the aspects most organizations miscalculate. Most ask too often and risk fatiguing their customers. This is especially true if you keep asking the same questions repeatedly or the survey is too long.

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to the frequency question. If you want to stay on the surface and ask simpler, shorter questions, you can risk asking more often. But if you want to dig deeper and ask your customers for more information, you’ll need to ratchet back your frequency.

If you’re going to honor your commitment to report back on what you learned and how you’re going to make changes based on their feedback, you need to build in time for that as well.

There’s a happy medium between too often and too infrequent. This should not be a one-and-done effort. You do want to get regular feedback, but just what regular means in your specific case will be dependent on the depth of the questions, the length of time you expect your clients to invest in responding, and the products or services you sell. The more considered a purchase, the less often you should hit your clients with a request to give you feedback because odds are they don’t buy that often.

Be thoughtful about the questions: Engineering your questions may be one of the most difficult elements of creating an effective customer satisfaction survey. Rather than creating a list of the usual items, begin with understanding what you are hoping to discover.

Are you trying to identify problem areas that are eroding your market share? Are you looking for innovative new ways to delight your clients? Are you wondering why you aren’t getting more repeat business? Start with some specific information you’re looking to garner and construct the questions accordingly.

Beyond that, consider asking yourself questions that might lead to a more customized and unexpected line of questioning. Start with out-of-the box questions like these:

• What problems are we aware of that we haven’t been able to solve on our own?
• What product or service is unprofitable for us?
• If we could stop doing or selling something, what would we want to stop doing or selling?
• What do our top 20% of customers always buy?
• What do our top 20% of customers never buy?
• If I was selling against us, what would I say?

These are just samples to get you thinking a little differently about what you might ask – and more important, why.

In next week’s post we’ll talk about how to encourage participation and how to use your survey results to market your company.

 

This was originally published in the Des Moines Business Record, as one of Drew’s weekly columns.

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Creating the promise for your prospects

February 22, 2022

Over the last couple of posts, we’ve been exploring some marketing ideas for delighting your team and your current customers.

In this final column of the series, we’re going to finally turn our attention to the group that most organizations start with: their prospects. Now that we’ve taken care of the employees who help us earn and re-earn our clients’ business and the people who are already giving us money, we can focus on new customers.

When it comes to marketing to prospects, the rules have changed. Instead of pitching our wares, now we earn trust and make promises based on our ability to be helpful and align with the potential customer’s current and future needs.

As I’ve said in many previous articles, we’re not driving the buying decision or timetable anymore. Even if you’re in an industry that is driven by discount offers or sales, the game has changed.

So what can we be doing to woo new clients?

Double down on being genuinely helpful: There’s a difference between actually trying to be helpful versus feigning helpfulness as a marketing ploy.

The difference? The depth in which you give. A blog post with some superficial information is a marketing ploy. A detailed white paper or YouTube video series that teaches everything you’ve got is genuine helpfulness.

Your audience will know the difference. Given how much anyone can find online these days, superficial doesn’t cut it anymore. If you don’t dig deep to truly be helpful, they simply keep moving.

Identify the three to five biggest pain points or blind spots that your customers have and address those with meaningful, practical information that your audience can put to use immediately without buying anything from you. You’ll not only earn their trust and confidence, but you’ll also have impact before you’ve even made a sale.

Show them the results: After the last 2 years, everyone is a little unsure. About just about everything. We’ve had the wind knocked out of our sails more than once since the pandemic started. If what you sell is a considered purchase, buckle in because your audience is skeptical about pretty much everything right now.

One of the most reassuring things you can offer them is proof that what you do works. Introducing them to current customers who look a lot like them and are struggling with the same issues is a smart way to earn their trust. Both the 2020 and 2021 editions of the Edelman Trust Barometer, which surveys over 30,000 consumers every year, make it clear that consumers trust people who look and sound like them.

Let your current clients provide testimony to the work you do, the products and services you offer, and what it’s like to work with you. Ideally, they’ll speak candidly about what they like and don’t like about working with you.

Resist the urge to edit out the less than ideal comments. That just makes their commentary even more believable. Think about your own experience with brands. Even when it comes to the brands we love, we typically don’t think they’re perfect. Odds are the customers who love you most might still have a tweak or two to suggest. Airing your own foibles is a smart way to earn a prospect’s interest and confidence.

Both of these tactics are all about brand and trust building. By focusing on the prospect’s needs and struggles as opposed to pushing or pitching what you have to sell, you can demonstrate how you approach working with a new customer. You are making it clear that your attention will be right where it belongs: serving your clients’ most pressing needs.

 

This was originally published in the Des Moines Business Record, as one of Drew’s weekly columns.

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How can you delight your clients in 2022?

February 15, 2022

In last week’s column, we focused on employee communication. Employees are an often overlooked audience that has a huge impact on your organization. I’m hoping you’re already putting some of those ideas into your 2022 plan.

This week, we’re going to focus on your existing customer base. Believe it or not, this is also an audience that is often underserved by your marketing. For most companies, the lion’s share of the marketing spend and focus is on the potential new customer. This can sometimes leave current clients feeling underappreciated or even feeling neglected.

How many times have you received something in the mail or by email from a company you do business with that is offering something better to new customers than what they’d give you, someone who is already giving them money?

Don’t kid yourself. Your customers probably have the same reaction. Or, worse, they feel like you just don’t care that much anymore. In doing customer satisfaction work for our clients, we sometimes hear things like, “When they were first pursuing our business, they couldn’t have been more attentive. But now, I haven’t heard from them in months.”

On top of all of that, it’s simply easier to get additional revenue from an existing client than it is to get a new customer. Every marketing dollar you spend on your current clients will go further because your dollar-for-dollar results will be better every time.

So how should you market to your existing customers in 2022?

Hand them the mic: I know it sounds counterintuitive to everything above, but invite your current clients to do a testimonial for you. This tactic checks multiple boxes. First, it’s a gut check to see which clients love you enough to do a testimonial. Second, it makes the customer feel good to be asked. Another benefit is that you’ll hear exactly what your clients appreciate about your work, and you’ll also notice what does not get mentioned.

It’s also a vehicle to subtly market to your customer. You could show them a list of the core services you offer and products you create, with brief descriptions or links to learn more. Ask them to choose any one, two or three topics for their testimonial.

The added bonus to this tactic is that it delivers against your potential client marketing need as well. Word of mouth is still one of the most effective tools we have.

Create an insider’s club: Everyone wants to feel special and appreciated. Your clients believe, whether they tell you or not, that they’ve earned some special privileges by being a loyal customer. Reward the behavior you want!

What might that look like? You can create exclusive content, offer holdbacks on research data, invite them to customer-only events, or give them early access to something spectacular. You can also grant them one-on-one conversations with your R&D team or a special sneak-peek breakfast with your CEO.

Another way to create this sense of exclusivity is to have your CEO send out a customer-only email or newsletter, filled with early releases, thoughts about what’s on your radar screen, and some trend data that would be very useful.

When it comes to marketing to your current clients, it goes far beyond just sending them your sales flier. Marketing to this audience should feel more like you’re whispering a secret in their ear or throwing them a special party. It’s a blend of appreciation and keeping them well informed about new ways you can be of service.

Find that right balance and deliver it consistently, and you’re going to be very pleased with the results.

 

This was originally published in the Des Moines Business Record, as one of Drew’s weekly columns.

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How will you connect with your employees in 2022?

February 8, 2022

It seems like just yesterday when we were all gladly waving goodbye to 2020, and yet in a blink, here we are. In the next several columns, I’d like to focus on helping you get prepped for coming out of the gate strong in 2022 by having a plan in place.

This week let’s focus on one of the most important and overlooked audiences – your employees. All too often how, when and what we communicate to our own team is an afterthought, despite the fact that they are often the conduit through which we communicate and connect with our customers. That feels very shortsighted.

All of that is true under any circumstances. But today, as every organization on the planet is struggling to find and keep good staff, it becomes mission-critical. If we don’t become an employer of choice, we’re going to struggle to even maintain market share, let alone increase it.

There are several key communications (I might even call them marketing) components to being an employer of choice. If you can’t give yourself top marks for each of these, they are worthy of some planning time as you look forward to 2022.

Values/mission: People want to work for companies whose worldview aligns with their own. Having some values on a wall or in your employee handbook isn’t enough. You should plan on communicating regularly about what those values and mission mean to the organization and spotlight all the ways you are actually walking your talk.

Beyond that, recognizing employees who exemplify those values and, equally important, not tolerating employees who behave in violation of them, is one of the most powerful ways to communicate that they’re more than lip service.

Where are we headed: Your employees want to know where you plan to take the company in the coming months. More than that, they want to play a role in helping you get there. They very well could have ideas or insights you need to actually get to the goals more quickly.

Setting goals that they can be privy to and sharing a progress update every month or quarter will help create a sense of teamwork and accomplishment when you hit the goals. It also reminds them that they work for an organization that is hitting its marks, which means more opportunity for the employees. In this ultra-tight labor market, that’s a good message to reinforce!

What’s on sale this week? On more than one occasion, we’ve worked with a client who didn’t have a mechanism for sharing the upcoming ads or promotions with their internal team before they went live. Imagine how frustrating it would be to have your customers know more than you do about a current offer.

If this is your situation, solve it. Find a way to always share any marketing messaging or sales promotion with your team before it hits the streets.

Don’t just say it once: Whatever your most important messages are for your team, don’t fall into the trap of assuming they heard and retained it once you’ve shared it once. If it’s truly important, it’s something worth repeating. It’s also worth repeating in different ways. Everyone has a natural way of taking in information. If it’s really mission-critical, use a variety of communications tools – visuals, video, audio, etc.

If you want your team to accelerate their retention and understanding of a key company initiative or focus, get them involved in an activity around it. The more hands-on we are with ideas, the more we remember them.

As we begin 2022, one of the first commitments I’d like to suggest you make is to overcommunicate with your employees. Believe me, it will not be too much!

 

This was originally published in the Des Moines Business Record, as one of Drew’s weekly columns.

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Smart marketing on TikTok

February 1, 2022

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Understanding TikTok

January 25, 2022

TikTok is a short-form video-sharing app that allows users to create and share 15-second videos on any topic you can imagine. It’s such a phenomenon, it’s hard to fathom anyone in the U.S. not being familiar with it. But for many marketers over 50, you may not be as familiar as you should be with this app or its uses. Only 7.1% of TikTok users are age 50 or older.

We may not use the app personally, but as marketers, we can’t afford not to understand how the app works and its appeal to both its core audience and to brands.

Since its launch, the TikTok app’s popularity has been growing tremendously. In October 2018 it was the most-downloaded photo and video app in the Apple store globally, and it maintains that position today.

In the U.S. alone, it has been downloaded over 96 million times. It had about 1.1 billion active global users by early 2021.

The app has simplified video creation and sharing and taken it to the next level of easy and convenient. To contribute to TikTok, all you need to do is record anything — from a routine part of your day to a special event, or an orchestrated attempt at humor.

You can then post it instantly. Because of the 15-second length limit, neither the video creation nor the consumption of a video takes much time or effort.

Another feature of the app that adds to its popularity and usage is that the short-form video content is played as soon as a user opens the app. The videos start playing one by one and a viewer gets lost in a sea of video content. Due to the addictive nature of this type of content, it is very easy for people to keep watching random videos for hours. In 2020, the average user spent 21.5 hours a month on the app and more than 50 minutes per day.

Over 90% of the users use the app more than once a day, and 34% of the content creators on TikTok post at least one video per day. One huge advantage TikTok has over its competitors is that it can and does localize content.

The average TikTok user is a female between the ages of 13 and 24.

Marketing on TikTok is still in its infancy, which is an advantage to the early adopters. Brands, and in some cases their agencies, are eager to create the kind of content that gets clicks on TikTok. Conventional advertising that stresses a product’s superior features and benefits won’t work on this particular platform. Lighthearted, whimsical or funny campaigns set to music hit the spot. The ultimate goal is to go viral on the site, and in some cases, actually encourage imitations by other TikTok users.

One of the more universally appealing aspects of TikTok is how celebrities and influencers are using it. The app has paid partnerships with several celebrities around the globe, who promote the app to their audiences. The app uses these paid celebrities and influencers to create buzz around the platform and generate viral content.

The platform also launched TikTok for Business in June 2020, essentially an in-house marketing agency. A Shopify integration was announced in October 2020 to bring e-commerce into the app’s offerings.

By building these advertising and e-commerce functionalities, TikTok is clearing a path that will see the platform mature into a powerful social commerce tool as well as an epoch-defining creative hub. As marketers, we can’t afford not to have a handle on this important channel and how we can leverage its audience and functionality.

In next week’s column, we’ll look at some successful TikTok campaigns and why they worked.

This was originally published in the Des Moines Business Record, as one of Drew’s weekly columns.

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Don’t build on rented land

January 18, 2022

Imagine if you invested a few hundred thousand dollars in building your dream home only to discover that you didn’t own the rights to the land you’d built it on. And what if, after a few years of living in your dream home, the owner of the land decided to sell access rights to a highway developer, and you received notice that, unfortunately, they were going to have to either move or take down your house to make room for the new highway they’d had planned.

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