Be consistent. Be consistent. Be consistent.

May 9, 2008

Same_2Add to that, be predictable.

Why?  It feels safe, trustworthy and comfortable.  And, it creates an expectation in a customer or prospect that you can successfully fulfill.

Always remember…you get tired of your message much quicker than your audience does. You may not even get noticed the first few times someone hears from you. You just have too much competition for their attention. After six or seven times, there might be recognition, but perhaps they don’t need you yet. Typically it takes 8-13 interactions for your audience to really register that you are talking to them.

But what would happen if you stopped talking to them after attempt #7?  Or if you speak to them differently each time?

We’ve been sending out a weekly e-mail marketing tip since 1999. We get calls from people who want to hire or interview us – some who have been putting our weekly e-mails in a 3-ring binder for several months or even a couple years, but they just hadn’t needed us until that moment.

Thank goodness we didn’t take them off the list after the first five contacts didn’t elicit a response!

Whether the magic number of contacts is five or fifty-two, make sure you are consistent and repetitive in your efforts to reach out for new customers.

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I want to speak like Steve Jobs

May 7, 2008

I  am invited to speak/share a nugget or two at 15-20 national conferences and conventions a year.  I get high marks and am invited back, so I must hold my own.

But I aspire to inspire like Steve Jobs.  He can bring a crowd to tears and cheers as he holds up the hottest new iPod, laptop or gadget.  I want to hold a crowd in my hand like that.

If you’re like me or you just want to improve your sales presentation skills, check out this video from BNET on how to present like Steve. 

What do you think?  How could you apply this to your day to day presenting opportunities?

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Portable smarts — at your fingertips

May 6, 2008

Bilde I’ve always loved trade magazines.  I love their focus, I love how bite-sized the information is and, I love that it’s off-line and tangible.  Portable smarts.  Love that.

So when I was approached about offering my readers free magazines, I was skeptical.  What was the catch?  Turns out there isn’t one. 

You get free magazines on marketing, promotions, branding, creativity etc.  They get more readers for their advertisers.  You get smarter.

Hard to argue with that equation.   So click here and check out the 500+ magazines, white papers, podcasts etc that are all available to you.  (As I understand it, some of these titles are only available in the States, FYI.)

I’ll feature a new title now and then, just to keep you plugged in to what’s available.

A side note:  I get a commission on the complimentary subscriptions which I’ll be donating to charity.

So….you get smarter and Variety, the Children’s Charity gets a little green in their pockets.  Sweet.

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Would we recognize your logo by its first letter alone?

May 5, 2008

How recognizable is your logo?  Have you created it in a way that over time, your clients might be able to ID it simply by seeing the first letter?

Try this test, put together by InthePictureDesign on flickr.  He grabbed some pretty well known logos and we only get to see the first letter.  Can you identify them?

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Need help?  Answers are here.

So…how would your logo fare in a contest like this?  I know you don’t have a Coke or Disney budget, but within your sphere of influence — how iconic is your mark/name?

Hat tip to Susan at BrandCurve for sharing this.

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Are our words fading away?

May 3, 2008

Erase There a roughly a zillion blogs and about a bazillion blog posts (these are approximations).  Those posts use a gazillion and a half words.  Every day.

Think of the words that seem to crop up everywhere.  Transparency, conversation, consumer generated, authentic, engaged, empower.  We could go on and on.

But here’s my question.  Are we using this words so often and in so many places that we’re wearing them out?  Are we reducing their impact and meaning?  Are we squeezing the potency from them?

Can words tire?  Can we tire of words?

Those are the questions I pose over at Marketing Profs Daily Fix.  Come share your thoughts.

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What are you overlooking?

April 28, 2008

Boardingpass Everyone is scrambling to find the next new thing in marketing.  How do we break through the clutter?  What high tech wonder can we harness to get our customer’s attention?  How can I be one step ahead of the competition?

Recently, I was reminded that sometimes we just have to look at things a little differently to find the answer.  No new medium, no new gadget — just seeing something that was in front of us all along.

I know it won’t surprise you to learn that I was getting on a plane recently.  I had changed my flight so I was in the last group of people to be called to board the plane.  The line was moving right along and for some reason I noticed that people were actually looking at the gate agent.  They were having a brief exchange of some kind.  People were smiling.  "How weird is that," I thought.

As I got closer, I could hear the gate agent.  As he scanned each person’s boarding pass, he was greeting them by name.  He varied the greeting…"welcome aboard, how are you doing, good to see you, thanks for flying with us"….but he ended them all with the person’s name.

Here’s a guy who was creating instant customer impressions.  No marketing budget.  No memo.  No meetings.  He just realized that everyone’s name was printed on the boarding pass and he could use that fact to create a "talk about" moment.

Sure, he called me Andrew instead of Drew (I just assumed I was in trouble!) so it wasn’t a perfect execution.  And I’m sure he knew that every once in awhile he was going to mispronounce a name.  But he forged ahead anyway.  And it was absolutely noteworthy.

Our names have been on boarding passes for years.  This is the first time I have ever had a gate agent call me by name as I passed by.  It doesn’t have to be a big thing to be a remarkable thing.   Think of the thousands of gate agents who could have done the same thing, but it never occurred to them.

What have you overlooked?

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Are gas prices impacting your spending habits?

April 25, 2008

Picture_1 If not, you are in the minority according to research released today by Kelley Blue Book.

 

"Gas prices are already affecting vehicle sales in every segment, and traditional sport utility vehicles have been especially hard hit," says Jack Nerad, executive editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book. "Other industries will feel the pinch as consumers cut out life’s little luxuries like clothes, eating out and entertainment just so they can pay the fuel bills."

Check out the chart to the right to see the significance in the numbers.  The declines in spending are across the board — big purchases and small. 

6 months ago, 43% of consumers said they were not going to change their spending habits.  Today’s numbers show that almost half of those people have now changed their mind.

This is our reality, so it is certainly interesting from that perspective.  But let’s look at it as marketers for a minute.  The world has suffered recessions before and spending bounces back when the economy does, right?

But what happens when there is no bounce back?

Rising gas prices are not showing any signs that this trend is slowing down.  In fact, here in the US, a gallon of gas is expected to top $4 by summer and rise to $5.50 by 2010 and $7 by 2012.

So waiting it out isn’t the answer.  What do you think is?  How will you have to change the way you market your product or service?

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What social media tools are a must for business?

April 23, 2008

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If you could only use/choose (up to) 10 different social media tools to enhance your business/organization’s performance and ability to get the job done — which ones would you choose….and why?

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Be sure to build some fun into your brand

April 23, 2008

One of the things I enjoy about Google is that they understand that they don’t always to take themselves so seriously.

The way they play with their iconic logo/home page graphic is so smart and attention-getting.  The fact that they only do it for holidays is also brilliant.  Too often and it becomes common.  Here was their offering for Earth Day.

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How could you play with your brand in a noticeable, talk worthy way?

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How NOT to re-name your company

April 22, 2008

32336641 An Iowa based insurance brokerage called TrueNorth Companies recently announced to its staff that they will now function under a new name, Bearence Management Group.

All well and good, right?  No doubt they have given this a great deal of thought.  So let’s listen in as they explain their new name.  (I swear to God, I did not make this up.)

"Bearence is a word we’re still looking to define," company president Schwartz said, "but it obviously toys with definitions of "bear" and "bearing."

WHAT?  Ah, it gets better.  Here’s what the CEO added.

"We’ve grown dramatically over the last three years in Des Moines and feel our new name more accurately reflects our overall vision of redefining risk," Chairman and CEO Joe Teeling said.

Umm, how can the new name better reflect anything if you haven’t defined it yet?

The company launched a new Web site after a meeting with employees to reveal the new name and discuss the company’s future. 

I wonder if the employees could explain the new name to their leaders?

To add another layer of disbelief to this story — the site doesn’t seem to be live.  Staggering.

Re-naming a company isn’t something to be done lightly.   Or at the speed of light.  But even if you are going to do it without a lot of thought or time — please, have a clue what it means before you announce it to the media or your employees.

 

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