Peter Drucker said
“What gets measured gets managed.”
True
But the important decision is
what to measure.
An author buddy told me
her contest promotion didn’t work.
Why?
Because she didn’t get a single entry.
When we dug into her site stats,
there was a clear spike in traffic
during the contest.
As increasing traffic,
not receiving contest entries,
was her goal,
she clearly met it.
The promotion was a success.
Look at what you’re measuring.
Are they tied to your goals?
The media is focusing on
the gloom and doom.
They may be right.
There may be a legit reason to be worried.
But when the big guns are promoting one emotion
(fear),
there is always a marketing opportunity
for small business
to promote the opposite
(hope).
Now, I’m not saying
stand up and say the economy is going to be fine
when no one thinks it will be.
That’ll make you look like an ignorant jack a$$
What I’m suggesting is
focusing on the positives
in
other areas.
For example:
On reader loops,
a lot of people are talking about the economy.
Heavy, depressing, tiring stuff.
I, instead, talk about the great books
I’ve read recently.
This positive promotion makes me stand out.
Seth Godin has a great post
reminding us
that when we stand for something,
we have to say no.
This is more challenging to do
when sales are not-so-hot.
It is, however, still necessary.
On my romance blog,
I have one regular reader
who is very much against eBooks
(yet she reads blogs, go figure).
Every month,
I give away an eBook
and receive an unhappy email
from this reader.
As a flag waving member
of the eBook community,
I continue to give away eBooks.
Sales for Breach Of Trust
are not great.
I could be walking away from a sale
by irritating this reader
but I can’t say eBook is the future
and then give away print.
No one would trust me
and we only buy from those we trust.
There was a huge bookfair in my city last week.
I didn’t have a booth but
I wanted a presence.
What did I do?
I walked up and asked a smaller booth
if they would like some free pens to distribute.
These pens had my logo and website on them.
After a couple tries,
a booth said yes.
Win-Win
The distributor had freebies
to lure participants in with.
I had click thrus to my site
for the next couple days,
all for the cost of some pens.
Cash and time strapped entrepreneurs
CAN have a tradeshow presence.
All you have to do is partner.
I had a new commenting software
installed on a group blog.
All the old comments were deleted.
I asked my fellow bloggers
if this was an issue.
The question thrown back at me was
“Can we retrieve them?”
Of course, we can.
Almost everything is doable
(barring the obvious – living forever, etc).
That isn’t the real question.
The real question is
“Is doing this worth the resources?”
In this case,
we decided it wasn’t.
I received an email invitation
from a professional body
for a relaxation seminar.
In bolded letters
was
“Dress Code In Effect.”
What dress code?
The business suits regularly worn
to these events
or the yoga pants
regularly worn to relaxation seminars?
Books such as The 4-Hour Workweek
stress supplying answers
before questions have to be asked.
These answers, however,
have to be clear.
Look at your FAQ’s.
Are the answers open to interpretation?
If so, consider re-writing them.
According To titanium ebay,
the average best time to end
an auction
is 11pm EST on Sunday.
But Skip McGrath cautions
this is not a hard and fast rule.
It depends on holidays, football games,
and most importantly, the target market.
School kids would be in bed by then
and
Seniors are also more likely to surf earlier.
“You need to make sure
you end your auction during a time
when your target market is online.”
This hold true for marketing also.
No sense marketing if no one is watching.
We often forget
that corporations consist of people
and
people are not rational.
They prefer buying from friends,
regardless of costs.
They like to earn bonuses
and will manipulate numbers to do that.
They only put the company first
when they personally gain from it
(that gain can be pride, financial, etc).
As business leaders,
one of our jobs is
not to fight it,
but
to align employees’ personal agendas
with the company’s.
Make the irrational choice
the rational one for the company.
I recently told
a gloom and doom person that
THIS
is the time to start a new business,
invest in a growing business,
launch a new product line.
THIS
is the time fortunes will be made.
There are a number of reasons why.
Seth Godin explains
about the pull back in competition.
A fearful competition means
they won’t try anything new
(so they won’t respond quickly
to your new launch),
they won’t advertise as much
(causing rates to fall,
perfect for cash strapped start ups),
they’ll order less from suppliers
(suppliers will be more open to working
with smaller businesses)
and the list goes on.
THIS is the time to start.
I’m currently designing some financial reports
for a security company.
I’m replacing another
very competent contract employee.
Why was his contract not renewed?
Because the internal I.T. department
wanted to do the task.
One employee told me
as he was setting up my log in’s
that there was big money in
learning that skill.
When an internal person
wants an external person’s job,
it is very likely he’ll get it.
The external person may have the skills
but
the internal person has the connections.
Will I fare better?
Perhaps
because I’m working for the finance department.
As far as I know
no one there wants my job.