Category: Marketing

Most of us travel constantly
for business.
In every business trip,
there are blocks of unused time.

Or there used to be
blocks of unused time.

Not any more.

With Twitter and other social networking,
with detailed customer listings,
and contact lists of thousands,
there is always the opportunity
to meet with one more person.

I’m attending a wedding this weekend.
Having spare time,
I’ve sent out emails to reader/writer loops
and arranged coffee meet ups.
I’m also sitting down with booksellers.
The only unused blocks of time I have left
are those I wish to be unused.

There is NO wasted time
except the time you decide to waste.

In this great little F**kin’ slide show,
it is clear that social media
is changing the way
customers deal with companies.

The company folks
doing the talking
should also be the folks
doing the listening.
It is a conversation.
Customers expect two-way communication
with the SAME contact.

The other realization is…
social media is very, very crowded.
You can’t toss an average video on YouTube
and expect it to be watched.

It is challenging out there,
trying to get the attention
of prospects.
If you have their attention,
take good care of them.

A blogger sent me an email Monday morning.
I was sucked into a project
and because I wanted to respond
with a concrete idea,
I didn’t reply immediately.

I received a follow up email
from that blogger Monday afternoon.

Expected response time has
significantly decreased.
Customers, partners, vendors
want to hear back within minutes.

Magic happens
when customers hear back
within minutes
from companies they didn’t even know
they contacted.

A PF Chang’s customer tweets about lettuce wraps.
PF Chang’s responds
by sending her a free dessert and appetizer.
IMMEDIATELY.
That is the magic of Twitter.

Canada is known for being
a very union friendly country.
That is why what is happening
in Toronto
is so damn interesting.

Toronto the Good is right now
Toronto the Dirty.
The garbage men have been on strike
for a month.

Toronto isn’t going broke
like some cities in the U.S. are.
Toronto has a union friendly Mayor.
What the union is asking isn’t THAT unreasonable.
(I’ve seen higher demands settled quicker)

So why hasn’t the garbage strike been settled?

Because the public doesn’t want it settled.
Plain and simple.

The average Toronto resident feels
that anyone having a job,
any job,
(especially one
with pensions, job security
and a salary double the average)
should be grateful.

There is more pressure on City Hall
to NOT settle
than there is to settle.

What does that mean to you and me?

Now is not the time for public discussions
on your salary increase.
Public opinion is not on your side.
Negotiate your salary to the best
of your abilities in private
and keep the whines about 1% increases
to yourself.

My novel, Invisible, is a great romance novel.
I’m not shy.
I tell everyone it is a great romance novel
(and have the reviews to back that up).
Do I tell people that
it is the best romance ever written?
Nope.

Why?

Because it isn’t.
And even if it was,
I wouldn’t want to over promise.

Over promising is death in branding.
It raises expectations so high,
that customers are guaranteed
to be disappointed.
Disappointed customers don’t contribute to
positive word of mouth.
Pleasantly surprised customers do.

So yes, share your pluses
but don’t over hype.

Another romance author asked me
where I found such fun, easy going readers.
Her readers tend to be picky and uptight.

This isn’t about a secret source
of fun customers.
This about branding and positioning.

My friend is known for raising issues
and going on high profile vents.
She attracts people
who get heated about issues
and enjoy venting.

I don’t take myself seriously.
My books, no matter how angsty,
always have humor.
I keep my tone light and fun.
I attract people who appreciate that tone.

Both branding efforts work.
Both attract customers
but they attract different customers.

Everyone has problem customers.
I have a reader who,
after every new release,
comments on
how I shouldn’t release in eBook format first.

However,
if you have an issue with your customers
as a whole,
you have an issue with your branding.

The garbage collectors are on strike
in Toronto.
This is causing headaches
for residents
as they scramble for ways
to deal with their garbage.

Clever local businesses
are scrambling for ways
to profit from this opportunity.

A yard maintenance company
is offering to pick up
2 bags of garbage
a week for free
from customers
signing an annual contract.

A perfect freebie offer.
The residents not wanting
to hassle with finding a garbage solution
are
the residents most likely
to outsource their yard care.
They are also less likely
to bother switching yard care companies
once the year is over.

Short term offer
(the strike can only last so long)
to obtain a long term customer.
All because the small business was lucky enough
to be in a city
with the garbage men on strike.

Move quickly to
take advantage of local opportunities.

When I go to a website,
nothing irritates me
more than
a flash filled landing page.
I ALWAYS skip the intro
(if I can.
if I can’t
and I desperately need that site,
I’ll open another browser
while I wait).

I’m not the only one.
Entrepreneur.com lists
ditching Flash
as one of the top 6 Website Fixes.

Internet users value speed.
Much like clientk readers,
they want to get information quickly
and then get on with their day.

Anything that slows them down
while not adding value
should go.

Thursdays and Fridays during the summer,
Target sponsors free evenings
at
The Art Institute Of Chicago.

You wouldn’t know the sponsor
unless you really looked for it.
There are no signs at the gallery.
On the Art Institute site,
the only Target logo appears
at the bottom of the info page
and it is tiny.
Yes, the event is called
Target Free Summer Evenings
but Target could mean anything.

In a time of blatant promotion,
this sponsorship act feels genuine.
When people do make the connection,
they wonder
(as I did)
what else
the company sponsors
that is never advertised.

Is it as effective short term
as splashing the Target logo everywhere?
I doubt it.
But it DOES send a strong branding signal.

I sat in on a meeting
in which
an ‘expert’ said
“You can’t count on a viral marketing.”

True
but if your product doesn’t,
at some point,
go viral,
it won’t ever be successful.

If the only reason someone tries your product
is because you asked them to
directly
through marketing
(the seven to nine times on average needed
to convert a prospect to a customer),
the cost of the product is too high
to make a profit on.

You NEED that viral marketing,
that word of mouth recommendation,
to decrease your selling costs.

So yes,
don’t count on viral marketing
but please
design your product
to make viral marketing easier.
(Including designing tools
to help your existing customers
sell your product.)