As we dance our way to my first blogiversary (Saturday the 15th) I want to spend this week honoring some people who have been in front of the line, leading the dance and keeping us on beat. Because I sure didn't get here alone!
Without a doubt, one of the most passionate dancers in my conga line is CK (Christina Kerley).
My blog was about 60 days old when my family headed out for our annual pilgrimage to Disney World. I decided to blog about it and created the Marketing Lessons from Walt series. CK saw the series and did what she did best — celebrated another blogger. In this case, the lucky blogger was me.
In her post, CK suggested I re-package the series as a downloadable PDF and if I did that, she'd don mouse ears to help me promote the PDF. And true to her word, she did. So many new eyes on the blog, so many doors opened. CK sets the example I try to live. Give just because you can.
I have felt her support and encouragement from our very first e-mail exchange. She is the real deal and she has played a huge role in my first year of blogging.
If you've joined in the conga line and notice that we move at a lively clip…you can credit that passionate pace to a woman whose heart is always focused on others first.
My way of thanking CK? I do my best to mirror the love and encouragement she shines onto others and hope she knows she inspires all of us to reach in and give a little more.
As we dance our way to my first blogiversary (Saturday the 15th) I want to spend this week honoring some people who have been in front of the line, leading the dance and keeping us on beat. Because I sure didn’t get here alone!
Without a doubt, the man in the front of my conga line is Mike Sansone.
My blog wouldn’t exist let alone enjoy even a modicum of success without Mike teaching me the dance steps.
A year ago, I barely knew what a blog was. I had no idea about the technology, the culture or the heart of it all. I’m a decent writer…but I was not a blogger.
I devoured Mike’s wisdom at Converstations and soaked up his how to’s and beware of posts. But even that didn’t make me a good blogger.
Then, my blogging coach Buddha (aka Mike) very slowly and patiently introduced me to the power of the connections, of sharing what I know and of building a community.
When I had no readers…he was there, cheering. When I got giddy over my first few comments, he was there, cheering. And today, as I round the bases and head for home, I know he is there, cheering.
He may not wear a funny hat with bananas on it (more of a do-rag sort of guy) but I know I always want him in front of the line, showing me new dance steps, introducing me to good music and encouraging me to find ways to get all of you to join in the dance.
The only way I can thank him is to do as he teaches and hope that my efforts honor him along the way.
As you no doubt remember by now, once a month I join some other branding experts to tackle a marketing/branding problem ala the BrandingWire collaboration.
This month's BrandingWire takes a slightly different twist. A Canadian IT company has asked for our help. So we wade into the B-to-B world.
Here's a quick peek at them:
Offerings (according to them):
They'll do just about anything from proactive maintenance to 24/7 trouble shooting to setting up new users, buying equipment or helping you with software decisions. They are also getting into Green IT – from managing energy costs to eliminating packaging waste.
They are (my words, not theirs) like an IT department who happens to office outside of your workspace.
The money part:
You can engage them in one of two ways. You can buy a maintenance contract or buy their hours ala carte. The contract gets you a discount on services rendered.
Target:
As you would guess, businesses who use IT but are too small to have their own internal department.
Conundrum (again, their words):
It's difficult to convince small businesses that our services are worth the amount we are charging – however, to draft a legal document, they're more than willing to a pay a top notch lawyer $500/hour. Customers view IT issues as a pain (i.e. my email is down again) instead of as a critical part of their business (ie. without IT, we can't function as a company).
Customers just don't always understand the value of IT services.
Drew's take:
Ahhh, there's the rub. We don't get to decide what our customers should value. It's annoying, but true. We have to figure out what they need/want. Once we serve up that…we provide value. We can provide it but we can't define it.
But there's a flip side to this truth as well. Our clients should provide value to us as well. For it to be a long-term relationship of value, both sides need to benefit and feel good about the value they both give and receive.
But let's look at the client's side of things first.
One of the most significant keys to smart branding is knowing the heart and mind of your customers. Once you really understand where they're coming from…you can talk to them from that place.
Without talking to them (which is dangerous at best) here's what I suspect the IT customers feel.
They're scared of IT. They know they can be crippled by a virus or something else they don't understand.
They hate being so dependent on someone outside of their walls.
They're embarrassed that they don't know more than they do.
They hate the down time when they do have a problem.
They don't understand it, so paying for it scares them. (Am I getting taken?)
They don't want to pay for something they don't need. That's why the contract scares them. Are they just spending money they shouldn't?
They're petrified that something catastrophic is going to happen and it's going to cost them an arm and a leg.
They've been taught that extended warranties and maintenance contracts are fool's gold and benefit the seller much more than the buyer.
So that's where they're at in terms of IT in general. But how are they feeling about the IT company?
One of the IT company's stated goals is (in their words) "help our clients understand why our services are worth the price tag."
That's a little worrisome to me. Again, we're doing this in an artificial vacuum. My guess is that they have a mixed clientele. Some who should be clients and some who should not. And it's the who should not's that are causing them trouble.
But, if we were sitting in the room with the client, I'd ask them to describe the clients who don't object to the price structure. I'm guessing they have some. Then, we'd profile those clients based on industry, size, type of work the IT company does for them, scope of the projects, clients that can make a fair and reasonable profit from, etc.
When we were done, we'd have built a profile of the types of businesses that are a good fit. Good from the IT company's perspective in terms of retention and fair profit. Good from the client's side…trusted advisor, a value, and someone who relieves their worries.
Then, we'd go through their client list and score each client against the profile. Anyone who got a C or worse should be weeded out. They're not a good fit.
Anyone who receives a B- or better should be cultivated and nurtured.
We'd do the same thing with their prospect list. There's no reason to waste time and money talking to prospects that are not a good fit.
Once you know who to talk to and how they're thinking and feeling, deciding what to say to them comes much easier.
I will leave those details to my BrandingWire compadres. Check out their posts and welcome our three guest bloggers as well!
Do something together that would eclipse what any of us would do alone
and the biggie — raise money for Variety, the Children's Charity. We set $10,000 as our first target for funds raised.
<60 days later….we have sold 1,274 books and raised $9,997.60. WHO will put us over the top? Can we get to our $10,000 goal before September 16th, the 2 month anniversary of the launch?
Whoever buys a book (e-mail me the receipt) between now and September 16th will be profiled on the Age of Conversation blog and no doubt, will get plenty of link love from the authors.
Mike Sansone of Converstations introduces us to what he calls our blog’s baseball card, a new tool called Xinu that lets you check all your web stats at a glance.
Arun Rajagopal conducted a 10-hour social media tour. Wonder what social media actually means and what it might mean to your life or business? Let Arun take you on a guided tour.
…are already in training. Sure, there’s MySpace and Facebook, but look out because here comes SugarLoot.com.
This teen-driven site hosts contests that encourage the kids to:
Upload videos
Upload photos
Participate on their blog
Create relationships that support mutual votes and “fan” rankings
The traffic numbers are staggering. Not only is this site attracting kids by the boatload, but it is also attracting advertisers. Prizes for the contests come from companies like Petco (cutest pets), Apple, Westin, M&Ms, American Express, JVC, Dell and others.
It’s also being used to hype upcoming movies. The Clique is a book series aimed at teen-aged girls. Through SugarLoot, they are running a contest where the grand prize winners will get to audition for a role in the movie adaptation of the books.
One of the contestants has over 18,000 views of her audition.
We McLellans were late to the party, but in just a couple days, my daughter’s audition has over 100 views. And we hadn’t even e-mailed the grandparents yet!
My point? If you think your business doesn’t need to pay attention to social media – think again. Tomorrow’s customers are learning it today. You’d better do the same.
They heard about Age of Conversation and our goal to raise money for Variety, The Children's Charity as well as creating exposure to the ideas of 103 authors. They came up with an amazingly generous offer. Any (or all) 103 Age of Conversation authors have been invited to be a guest author on their blog.
Michelle and Christine made the offer, asking for nothing in return. But according to my theory…very good things will happen to them. The first being that the readers of this blog will check out Emerging Customer and enjoy its content enough to subscribe.
Thanks again to Michelle and Christine for helping tell the world about Age of Conversation and giving all 103 authors an opportunity to introduce themselves to EC's readers!
That you don't stop at just giving us the facts, you also give us your insight.
Lots of great current case studies in the posts.
Suggestion:
You don't seem to link out to other bloggers within your posts. I think that would make you much more findable and add even more depth to your analysis.
SpinningSilk Multi Media is a tightly woven blend of tips, stories and recommendations. Patrick and Heather Greer have grown their business from a moonlighting gig to a full-time thriving business.
Things I love:
The diversity of your posts.
How you share your own experiences and hard learned lessons.
Your natural, engaging style of writing.
Suggestion:
How about some visuals to illustrate more of your posts?
A relatively new blog on the scene, IowaBiz.com is a small business owner's dream come true. 12 experts, each with expertise in a different arena, offering their best counsel for building and growing a successful business.
There are some bloggers you'll recognize and some you should get to know. Every day, a new business insight in a different area. Chock full of smarts.
Things I love:
Clean, simple design. Easy to navigate and explore.
Love all the different blog authors and their varying styles.
Every day, a practical tip or insight. What's not to love?
Suggestion:
Get rid of that McLellan guy!
There you have it discerning readers…until next month's blogtipping adventure!
As fresh faces leap into the blogging waters faster than we can count them, it occurred to me that it's in everyone's best interest (and just good manners) to offer a helping hand to the neophytes. We're helping clients launch blogs on a regular basis and for many of them, these is new territory.
But I need your help. Someone helped you…now it's our turn!
Act as a living lab on how to write compelling blog posts
Demonstrate how to build a community
Teach marketing tools
Are welcome wagons – bloggers who spotlight newbies
The toolbox will now have a permanent home here at Drew's Marketing Minute. Watch for a button along my sidebar.
Feel free grab the button and share it with your readers as well. Hopefully, the toolbox will be a resource that bloggers new and old can find value in for a long time.
Special thanks to the contributors. If I missed anyone, please let me know and I will add your contributions.
It's time to start the countdown! 228 days until we all gather together to kick off the first of many Blogger Socials!
You. Me. And hopefully a hundred or more of our marketing blogger friends from all over the globe. CK & I came up with the initial idea. Then we tossed it out to you.
And boy, did you get busy! You picked the where. You picked the when.
Visit the event's official site www.blogger-social.com. Check out what you helped us plan. Find out how to register. Subscribe so you stay plugged in.
Together, we will make this a can't miss event. We're counting on your help.
To try to keep all the discussion on the event's blog — we're closing comments on these announcement posts. So come chat it up with us over at www.blogger-social.com.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkPrivacy policy
As we dance our way to my first blogiversary (Saturday the 15th) I want to spend this week honoring some people who have been in front of the line, leading the dance and keeping us on beat. Because I sure didn't get here alone!![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=6a02072e-98d6-4391-96d4-55747cd80768)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=32ec5d07-d0c5-4a6b-94ca-1de58844076e)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=dcb79da8-8e20-4b04-b935-96f05bb312d5)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=9e3e429f-011d-430e-a398-6b30b4220359)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=c0cadb16-15b2-4f9b-8b82-8ab80d4f7dbb)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=38b65cd0-9a27-4455-8324-459e204d6315)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=481c8b10-42ef-4917-85a4-1bd9eab40891)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a0f7d4dd-c7d7-44ac-90a7-8cf57f5cf28a)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=73915235-ee4f-43cd-9ec9-6430db180208)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=ae1f1246-cdb1-43f4-8dd5-939bcdea55a9)