Are you Marketing Smart

October 17, 2012

Marketing Smart by my friend John Gumas from Gumas Advertising is a collection of proven strategies and tips to help you take on your competitors and win!

The book is straight-forward, pragmatic and actionable! Be prepared to dog-ear, highlight and nod your head as you read.  You know I don’t love books that tell you what you need to do but don’t tell you how to do it. No worries with this book — every page is a how to primer!

Marketing Smart is written specifically for those professionals who are creating marketing strategies/tactics for Challenger brands — fighting against a bigger competitor who is likely to outspend them every time.

John’s got tons of practical counsel on how those Davids can take their Goliaths and win.

As you know, I like to ask the authors a few questions when I’m reviewing their book.  Here’s what John had to say about Marketing Smart.

If you had to describe the content of your book in a single sentence (no run ons) what would it be?
Proven marketing strategies and tips designed to help Challenger Brands maximize their promotional efforts so they take on their larger competitors and win!

What one book that you’ve read do you wish you could claim as your own?
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

In your opinion, what is the one trait that all uber successful business people possess?
Drive

What’s the biggest business mistake you’ve ever made and what did you learn from it?
Recognizing opportunity. It only knocks once, so I now make sure I analyze everything as that potential big opportunity.

Why did you have to write this book? What truth or insight was missing from the human consciousness — that you’ve now answered?
I felt there was a real need to write a marketing book designed specifically for Challenger Brands. I wanted to provide proven and practical advise in a step by step format that they should put into use immediately.

After someone is done reading your book — what do you hope they do as a result?
They understand what being a Challenger Brand really means and they learn the strategies needed to be a successful Challenger Brand Marketer. And as a result, they’ll refer back to Marketing Smart for real answers and “how to advice” for years to come.

Ready to take on your Goliath?  Get your copy of Marketing Smarts here.

 

 

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The power of we

October 15, 2012

Today is Blog Action Day*.  What does that mean? It means that thousands of bloggers from over 108 countries will come together today to blog on a single topic.  Ironically — this year’s topic is the power of we.

The essence of Blog Action Day, really.

Each blogger shares his/her own slant on the theme…with the hope that together we can raise the consciousness and the conversation on this one topic.

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I am a huge proponent of the power of we.  I believe it should be a marketing staple — in every company’s plan/vision for how to connect with potential customers, employees and their community.

Here are some examples that I can point to that every business could modify/borrow and apply to their own marketing efforts:

Crowdsourcing:  Why create it all yourself when you can work together and do something far greater than any one individual could accomplish?  Together with Gavin Heaton, I have co-edited 3 editions of the Age of Conversation book series.

We brought hundreds of marketing bloggers together and asked each of them to write a single chapter in the books.  Together — we created three books that look at how the digital age is changing marketing and our world.  We also promoted the book together — raising over $40,000 for charities around the world.

Could you create a crowdsourcing project with your best customers?  Or invite prospects to join in too.

Give your audience a voice: Once or twice a year, I survey the readers of this blog and ask them what they’d like to know more about. They literally help me create my editorial calendar.  By creating content that lines up with their needs — I not only provide more value but I am also more likely to retain them as readers.  (And potential clients)

Many businesses are afraid to invite customer opinion because they might hear bad things.  I think that’s crazy.  Far better to hear about it and have a chance to either change it or explain it — than not to know until you lose that customer.  If you’re not surveying your best customers every year — you need to.  If you aren’t sure how to do it — reach out to me and I’ll tell you how we can help.

Partner with someone with different skills/talents: Throughout my career, I’ve worked at huge (Young & Rubicam) agencies and small (my own — Mclellan Marketing Group) and realize that one of the best aspects of being in a small agency is that we can’t do everything in house. So we have to seek experts to partner with.  That means we are always delivering the highest value to our clients and we’re getting smarter by hanging out with them too.

Identify an area where your business is a little light or your expertise isn’t as deep. Then go find a partner whose skill sets and values compliment what you’re already doing.  You don’t look like you have a deficiency — you look like you are well connected and are committed to bringing excellence to your clients.

I’m curious — how do you employ the power of we in your business?

 

 

 

*Founded in 2007, Blog Action Day brings together bloggers from different countries, interests and languages to blog about one important global topic on the same day. Past topics have included water, climate change, poverty and food with thousands of blogs, big and small, taking part.

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Video can make a prospect’s concerns go away

October 8, 2012

Video is a very useful medium that most companies underuse. But when they are used…they’re typically used to sell or teach.  All of that is well and good.

But I think you might be missing the boat on an opportunity to make your prospects concerns go away.

I’m in Arizona for 10 days — a mix of working with clients and speaking at a conference. I didn’t want to pack enough clothes to cover all 10 days so I decided to pack for 5 or 6 and hit a laundromat on my day off, in between meetings.  I know…the glamours of business travel!

So now it’s Saturday and for me, it’s “find a laundromat” day.  I’m in a city I don’t know and I’m heading to a laundromat, which is usually not a high end consumer experience.  So I have some concerns.

• Will it be clean?
• What hours is it open – can I go during daylight?
• What’s the neighborhood like?
• Is it crazy expensive?
• How many machines do they have? Will I have to wait?

So I turn to the digital yellow pages.  Now I am really flying blind. But, on one of the listings — the laundromat had a video. They showed me how clean it was. They showed me the neighborhood.  They demonstrated that there’s always a staff person on-site.  They even showed me how much the detergent etc. would cost.  Their video made my concerns go away.

It wasn’t the closest laundromat. But, because of the video I was happy to pay for a longer cab ride to go to Ginny’s Washhouse. Why? They’d nullified my concerns.

All the laundromats had text in their ads that said they were clean and safe. But only Ginny’s proved it to me by showing me that it was true.

How is this relevant for you? Your potential customers have worries about you too.  They might worry that you’re too far away or hard to find. They might be concerned that you’re too expensive or you don’t understand their industry.  But deep down inside, every prospect has a worry or two about you.

Some of them will show up anyway.  Or pick up the phone and ask about their concern. But many will simply fade away, not ready to proceed with that nagging worry in the back of their head.

The old marketing model would have been to put the spotlight on all that you do right and ignore those worries, hoping they’d go away. Today, we know better.

Attack those buyer concerns and worries.  Pull them out into the light and deal with them.  And a really powerful way to do that is with video. Our brains may believe bullet points and text but our hearts believe what we see.  Video packs a multimedia punch that can use emotions, strong visuals and even music to create a tone of reassurance and confidence.

Keep in mind that sometimes their fears aren’t as easy to visually deal with as whether or not the floors are clean.  You may need to use a testimonial approach where a current client looks into the camera and says, “I thought AB&C was going to be way out of my budget range so I was pleasantly surprised when I found out it only cost $X.”

Get creative — but get to their worries and answer them right up front.

 

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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.

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7 keys to compelling case studies

October 2, 2012

Why do case studies work so well?

It’s simple really. Everyone loves a good story. And there’s a reason why Aesop and others opted to teach their life lessons through stories that have been told and re-told for many years.

Smart parents know this trick too. They teach lessons to their children through stories of their own foibles, tough lessons and triumphs.

This same technique can deliver incredible results when it comes to your marketing as well. There are lots of different ways to use stories in your marketing efforts but one of the most compelling is through good case studies.

Case Studies are the marketing version of Aesop’s Fables. Stories told to make a point or teach a lesson that demonstrates the value of your product or service.

So how do you create a good case study? These tips will get you well on your way.

Case Study Tip #1:  Structure it like a story. Make sure there’s a logical flow.  Explain the problem (identify the villain).  Introduce your company/product (bring in the hero). Describe how the challenge was overcome (tell of the battle). Sum it up (give it a happy ending).

Case Study Tip #2: Include lots of details. Don’t just say, “We were losing customers.” Give specifics. Our sales were down over 42%. Just like a good fable, the details make it work. So be sure to talk about your initial goals, the exact steps you took, any pitfalls you ran into along the way, and of course, the results.

Case Study Tip #3: Use quotes to give your case study its authenticity. Be careful not to dumb them down so they sound generic. Or even worse, don’t clean them up so they don’t sound authentic. Remember, we all tend to write more formally than we speak. So the minute you edit their comments – odds are you’re adding formality. Use real people, real names and when possible, real pictures.

Case Study Tip #4: Don’t get stuck in a rut with your case studies. Most people present a case study in writing, on a plain 8.5” x 11” piece of paper. But you can approach it in a variety of ways. How about a video case study? Or an infographic case study? Have you thought about journaling through a challenge and letting the entire journal be your case study?

Case Study Tip #5: Let your customers do the talking. Your voice can outline the problem and tactics you took to attack the problem. But when possible, use your client’s voice to celebrate the successes and to talk about the outcomes, both long and short-term.

Case Study Tip #6: Visuals are key. Before and after shots, growth charts, photographs of the results and infographics are all really powerful ways to help your audience really capture the value of your case study’s outcome.

Case Study Tip #7: Make sure everyone signs off on it before it goes public. The power of a case study is that it reveals an actual problem and its solution. Some businesses may be reticent to air their dirty laundry. Before you pitch your case study to a reporter or post it on your website, get everyone’s blessing.

Case studies are incredibly compelling when done right.  If you’re lucky, you’ll tell a story that people will tell over and over.

What’s the best case study you’ve ever seen?  What made it so memorable?

 

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Search versus Social – which one wins?

September 29, 2012

If you’re wondering which is more potent — search or social media — as is often my answer — it depends.

The truth of the matter is that every organization should be thinking about BOTH because they are the yin and yang for each other.  Each feeds the other side of the equation.  When you write quality content about topics that your audience cares about (social) you attract readers, shares and you earn social proof of your expertise.

That content then begins to influence search for those key words and phrases that exist within your subject area and content (Search) and before you know it, you’re impacting Google and the other search engines — becoming more findable and attracting exactly the right people to your content.

Yin. Yang. The perfect combo. This infographic, developed by MDG Advertising really makes the point.  And should be hanging in your office to remind you to go for the one two punch of social AND search.

 

(Click here to download the full-sized version)

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They’ll buy when they trust

September 27, 2012

Here’s an equation that every business owner needs to understand.

Know + Like + Trust = Buy.

Whether you sell toothbrushes or multi-million dollar medical equipment and everything in between — until a customer:

• Knows who you are
• Likes who you are
• Trusts you

there is no purchase.  The depth of the trust required varies but there must be at least a base level of trust in place before anyone will spend a dime.

One of the things I love about social media/content marketing is that it is hard-wired to help savvy business people maximize this equation.

Know = search.  If I can’t find you, then I can’t know you exist.  Understanding how potential customers are using search when they want what you sell is vital to your business success today. Do you know what key words and phrases you should be mindful of? Are you creating content that will leverage that?

Like = social networks/blogs. When I hang out with you, in person or online, I get a sense of who you are and whether or not I like who you are.  When I read your blog, I begin to learn who you are and what you believe.  Are you out there, creating conversations and relationships?  If not — when are you going to start?

Trust = consistency online and off.  It’s easy to fake being nice, smart or helpful once or twice. But that’s tough to pull off on a consistent basis. We know that when it comes to our offline world.  And we’re learning it’s just as true online as well.  One of the greatest elements of having a digital presence is that it can quickly provide someone with a long term view of who/how you are.  That builds trust.

That equation lines up perfectly with how content marketing/social media is supposed to work.  When you create great, helpful content that aligns with how people search — you create that long tail effect that drives people to you. When you share it through your social networks and it’s done without being pushy or sleazy, people will come to like and respect you. Like and respect evolves into trust when you behave consistently in the same way.

Whether you actually sell online or you have a brick and mortar presence – using content marketing and your social media presence to move prospects along the spectrum of know, like, trust is just good business.

I’m curious — how are you building trust with what you do online?

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Get your brand on

September 20, 2012

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times — your brand is not your logo.  It’s so much more.

Want to explore what branding is really about and how it can completely change the trajectory of your company?  Then you need to get to Chicago on October 11th for my friends at The Brand Establishment’s one day seminar on brand. (read more here)

What We’ll Cover:

• Brand – The Most Oversold, Yet Least Understood Word In Marketing Today
• The Definition of a Brand – Finally
• 
Branding vs. Brand Development
• 
Where The Brand Lives
• Your Brand On Steroids
• Build From The Inside Out
• Your Brand Essence
• Internal Brand Strategies – Moving Every Employee From Hearing About A Brand To Believing There Is A Brand To Becoming The Brand
• Brand Management For The Long Haul
• Business And Brand Strategy Alignment
• Brand Touch Points – “Promises To Delivery” Mechanisms
• The Brand Establishment’s BrandLab™ Approach – Looking Through The Brand Lens
Brand Momentum – Monitor, Measure And Adjust
• The Strategies Behind Successful Brands
• Secrets Of Successful Brands
• Who’s Doing It Right Today
• How To Implement In Your Own Company

Presented by two of the nation’s leading brand experts, Jim Hughes and Tom Traynor; this seminar will provide today’s working marketing executives with the knowledge, tools and techniques needed to lead their organizations to greater profits and category domination, even in a slow economy.

At the end of this rigorous one-day session, you will be awarded a Level-One Certificate of Achievement from the country’s foremost authority in brand development, branding and brand management – The Brand Establishment.  (Read the brochure)

I know these guys and they’re the real deal.  So if you can get to Chicago (or are already there) this would be an eye-opening, business changing day.  Hope you make it there.

(Click here for more info, registration links etc.)

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The magic is in the media mix

September 18, 2012

The other day I got a direct mail solicitation from Google.  Yes, that Google.

It was a good reminder me (and now to you too) that none of us can afford to get lazy when it comes to media mix.

If the King of Online recognizes the power of a printed piece, then we should probably pay attention too.

We know that people need to hear our message on average 8-13 times before they even notice we’re talking to them. But, in this age of being fascinated with all things digital — we need to remember to keep focused on creating a media mix — and that means adding some offline efforts into your overall marketing plan.

In fact, some are arguing that the hottest “new media” in terms of performance is direct mail.  We’ve all rushed away from printing anything.  Which means the mailbox is a lot less cluttered than an email inbox these days.

Best of all, by mixing your media, you can use one to point to the other.  Your direct mail can drive traffic to your website.  Your blog or FB page can encourage people to request a product sheet or attend a meet up at a trade show.  (Oh…you’d forgotten that face to face is a media too, didn’t you?)

As you plan your next campaign, consider these “old school” off line tactics and see how you can blend them into your media mix — and connect them to your shiny new digital efforts.

• PR placed article in a trade pub — driving online trials
• Face to face meetings that result from an email invite
• Direct mail, driving them to an online video
• Voicemail message, inviting them to a webinar
• Radio spots inviting listeners to download a podcast
• Hard copy white paper/article which introduces them to your online library of content

I’m not suggesting that you always need to cross promote between on and offline.  I just wanted to show you what’s possible.  And how going old school with your media mix should be part of your plan.  I don’t care how hip and cool what you sell may be.

 

 

 

 

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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.

 

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