Do It! Marketing Blog: Marketing for Smart People™

I get questions. Some are smart and some are... not so smart.

This one is not QUITE worth the Marketing Jackass Award - but it's close. 

And now without further ado, here it is - THE Dumbest Marketing Question of the Week (yes, it's only Wednesday but I have a high level of confidence that it won't get any worse THIS week)...

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From: Joe Blow <joe@JoeBlowCompanyShallRemainNameless.com>
To: david@doitmarketing.com  
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 4:54 PM
Subject: David, may I borrow your mind?  

David,  

We all appreciate and can feel the power of social media. My question is, if I do not care about impression national wide / long time brand build, what's the best way to move products? Just simply sale it.  

-- Joe
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First, this gent wants to "borrow my mind." That's a compliment I suppose. Some days, I'm not sure even I can use it to best advantage. Tell you what, Joe -- it's yours. Be my guest...

If I don't care about impressions nationwide - Hello? This guy sells a product. A great product. A product sold on the web. GLOBALLY. Yet the premise of his question is that he doesn't care about impressions nationwide. This is problem #1.

I don't care about long time brand build - WHAT?? So you want the slam-bam thank-you ma'am instant sort of branding, name recognition, word-of-mouth referrals, and raving fan base, right? Coming right up... How about a zero-calorie Big Mac to go with that? And some non-addictive cigarettes? This type of wishful fantasy thinking is problem #2.

What's the best way to move products? Just simply sale it? The best way to "move products" and sell more is to make impressions nationwide, become known as the "trusted brand" in your market, focus on a niche to generate a raving fan base over time, and let your customers spread the word about how ridiculously AWESOME your product is. Missing this fact ("as obvious as a ham sandwich" as Alan Weiss likes to say) is problem #3.

The second best way (and it's a FAR DISTANT second) is to invest in a LOT of direct marketing and buy a LOT of advertising. 

I'm not being a smartass - really - because if you have the direct marketing and advertising budget of Bose, Gevalia, or Tempur-Pedic - be my guest. Spend hundreds of millions of dollars. But here's the rub: THAT will take YEARS too! And a whole hell of a lot more dollars.

You can do it my way. For 95% less money. Starting right now.  

Your call, Joe. 

What do you think? Please share your responses in the COMMENTS area below...

Guest post by Diana Urban

Some of the benefits of having a business blog is that you can generate leads from qualified prospects who visit, establish yourself as an industry thought-leader, and build business relationships in the blogosphere. This is most effectively done if you identify the persona(s) you're targeting and establish your voice when launching your blog.

The first things to consider are:

• Who are you writing for?
• What are you writing about?

• What are the current hot topics in your industry
• Common topics that personas in your industry enjoy reading
• Gaps in topics that you can cover in your blog

• Develop a reputation in the blogosphere as a thought leader
• Generate some site traffic through any link to your website that you can leave in the comment
• Get the blogger's attention, which is useful later when you are initially promoting your blog and building links
• Get comfortable projecting your voice and joining the conversation happening on the web
• Over the course of a week or two, as you continue to read blog articles and leave comments, you should start to get a pretty good sense of what other bloggers are saying, the kind of content people in your industry like to read, current hot topics, etc.

As a marketing coach, I did some work with the owner of a catering firm who wanted to systematize his company’s sales and service operations by writing an easy-to-use, reader-friendly but detailed procedure manual. Not compliance or transaction-related, but just the day-to-day “how we do things around here” kind of manual. A snapshot of the cultural DNA, if you will.

So far, so good.

He saw immediately how this manual could raise the bar on everyone’s performance at his company and make smarter marketing, excellent customer service and savvy selling a consistent, always-on capability, and not a once-in-a-while accident!

When we started talking about the way his employees handled inbound telephone calls, he wanted to label that section, “Answer the Damn Phone” because so many of his people considered phone calls an interruption and they were always complaining about getting their cooking, prep, and delivery tasks done while “the damn phone” was ringing all the time.

Hmmm… can you see where this is leading?

You should worry a lot more about business that falls through your fingers than business that you don’t win.

It’s the missed sales opportunities that cost small businesses more money than the customers they compete for but don't close.

See if you can spot the missed sales opportunities in the following two stories from my colleague Ed Peters of the 4Profit Institute. (Hint: it won’t be difficult!)

Marketing News magazine made 5,000 telephone calls to Yellow Page advertisers requesting price information on a particular product.

Here’s what they discovered:

• 56% didn’t answer within eight rings
• 8% put the caller on hold for more than two minutes
• 11% couldn’t provide the price information requested
• 34% provided the price and then hung up
• 78% did not even ask the caller’s name

 Ask yourself:

• Have you ever studied how your phones are answered?
• Who is answering?
• What are they saying, doing, and asking on the initial call?

Here’s a missed sales opportunity up close and personal: A few weeks before Ed moved, he called six banks that were within walking distance of his new office. He told them he’d be moving two business and two personal savings and checking accounts, and two other accounts for his kids. He told them that he did not want marketing brochures but a personalized response to his specific business and personal needs.

RESULT: Only two of the six banks responded! And the two that did sent -- guess what -- their marketing brochures!

He needed a bank fast, so he called the two banks that responded. One promised to call him back but never did and the other one put him in contact with their relocation department (where he should have been referred in the first place). Guess who got Ed’s business?

Questions for you:

• Do you respond to all qualified requests for information?
• Do you respond promptly?
• Do you respond accurately and give a personalized response, or does every request get the same off-the-shelf response?
• Do you follow-up after every request?

What's been your experience with inbound calls and inquiries? Please use the COMMENTS section below and...

As a marketing speaker and marketing coach, my clients often ask me to critique their Professional Bio.

Whether YOU are a professional speaker, consultant, coach, author, or professional services firm owner - your Bio is one of your most powerful marketing tools that will make or break your future clients' perception of your expertise.

Writing an effective, attractive and client-magnet bio is hard.

Here's what you must NOT do:

• Be boring
• List achievements and awards out of context
• Brag
• Come across as a corporate stuffed shirt or pompous twit
• Trot out a bunch of acronyms, jargon and consultant-speak
• Preach
• Tell us about your awesome vacations, Harley collection, adorable kids, and scuba diving prowess

Without further ado, let me present a Professional Bio I recently came across from a consultant with the Tom Peters Company in the UK that I found quite impressive and that you might consider modeling into your own. My comments are numbered and explained below:

Like you,(1) leadership expert and business author(2) Robert Thompson has seen the word leadership defined numerous ways over the years. Is it charisma and positive thinking? Pinstripes and red power ties? Decisiveness? Is it all about the situation? Is it meant only for the chosen few who rise to the top? Or, is there a different story?(3)

With over three decades of executive coaching, speaking, and most importantly, real-life, in-the-trenches business experience, his view is radically different.(4) Robert appreciates, and shares with listeners, that leadership is a moment-to-moment choice and not about title, tenure or position. Leadership is for everyone, everyday. It's how we should live our life.(5)

Robert, sometimes referred to as the “Provocateur” for his ability to stir up a group(6) or as the “People Whisperer” for his coaching skill that brings out the best in people, is known for his practical, street-savvy style; Robert's fusion of real-life stories and his conversational techniques connect with his audience at an intimate, intense and individual level.(7)

Robert has served as a senior consultant with the U.S. based Tom Peters Company for several years. He is a Certified Master Facilitator of the The Leadership Challenge Workshop™, and continues to work with the best and brightest in the leadership development field. (8)

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1. The most powerful word in marketing is YOU. Starting the bio with "Like you..." is flat-out brilliant.

2. Label yourself immediately. Prospects need to know your expertise upfront and you get 2 seconds to position yourself. Put "_______ expert" in the first 10 words of your bio.

3. Using engaging questions in your bio is something you've probably never considered - and it WORKS. People judge you MORE on the questions that you ask rather than the statements you make. Add questions to your bio - it's a kickass idea!

4. Buyers are lazy, busy and befuddled. One way to make yourself come across as "different" is simply to claim it! "His view is radically different" works. I also recommend the phrase "Unlike many consultants/ speakers/ fill-in-the blank..." (Ex: "Unlike many marketing coaches, David Newman shows you exactly what to say and how to say it, what to do and how to do it")

5. Philosophy sound bites that serve as a preview of your thinking. Consider these "bullets without the bullets." They share snippets of what you'll share and implement with your future client in a conversational way.

6. Always promote your benefits, not yourself. I'm not crazy about these unattributed third-party references ("known as the Provacateur") but the saving grace is that they are framed in terms of benefit to the audience/client. This could be stronger if it said "The Financial Times called him 'the CEO's secret weapon'"

7. Love the fusion concept. It says subconsciously to your buyer - "hire this guy and you'll get the best of both worlds." It's also an implied differentiator. What are you a fusion of? And the masterstroke is that the fusion is also framed as a benefit to the audience.

8. He works with the "best and brightest" so YOU, Ms. Prospect, must be pretty sharp if you hire him. This implied compliment gets buyers to WANT to qualify to work with you. Nothing like a little ego boost for your reader as they cruise through your bio. This signals - again subconsciously - "I'm making a good decision."

9. Claim authorship. Calling his talks "conversations" is also a brilliant differentiator.

10. Name names. Client names are powerful. I do NOT like "His successes include" simply because it sounds like he's taking credit for the success of giant global corporations. A better turn of phrase might have been "Companies such as X, Y, and Z have partnered with Robert when they want outcome 1, 2 and 3." This might also be a great place to put in some testimonial snippets from execs inside these specific companies. Their words carry a lot more weight than his.

11. List your accomplishments in the REAL world. Speakers and experts are not hired for what they know so much as they are hired for what they've DONE. Connect who you are to what you do and your credibility skyrockets.

12. Creme de la creme. Board service and being seen as a leader among your peers implies that you are respected within your field and thus, you must be among the best at what you do.

Use these guidelines to turbo-charge YOUR professional bio right now and you'll thank me later -- DO IT!

And then leave a comment below with your questions, thoughts, and advice on the ideas above.

Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!

Yesterday, you were promised some thought-provoking questions for creating your best 2012 - and here they are. Once again, these are from the Soul Purpose Institute and they struck me as especially relevant for business owners, entrepreneurs and independent professionals.

Not only will these questions help you clarify your goals, focus, and themes for 2012 - they will also help you narrow down your choices, remove some overwhelm, kill some unnecessary "shoulds" in your marketing mix and generally help you focus on what matters most to your business, professional, personal and financial success.

13 Questions for Creating Your Best 2012

1. What would you like to be your biggest triumph this year?
2. What advice would you like to give yourself?
3. What is the major effort you plan to do to improve your financial results?
4. What would you be most happy about completing?
5. What major indulgence are you willing to experience?
6. What would you most like to change about yourself?
7. What are you looking forward to learning?
8. What do you think your biggest risk will be in 2012?
9. What about your work, are you most committed to changing and improving?
10. What is one as yet undeveloped talent you are willing to explore?
11. What brings you the most joy and how are you going to do or have more of it?
12. Who or what, other than yourself, are you most committed to loving and serving?
13. What one word would you like to have as your 2012 theme?

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Please use the comments area below to share your 2012 successes, goals, plans and strategies. What's working? Where could you use a bit of help?

Want to kick it up a notch in your business for 2012 and tackle your most important marketing, sales and business growth TO-DO items all in a single, super-focused day? Check out DO IT DAYS and join us for the next one.

Marketing Mix: Happy Holidays!!

Happy Holidays to all our friends, family, clients, and colleagues like YOU who make the world a better place through your speaking, consulting, training, coaching, generosity of expertise and trailblazing thought leadership.

From all of us on the DO IT team -- All best wishes to you for wonderful holidays and a prosperous 2012!

-- Catherine, Katie, Liz, David and all the marketing elves

Marketing Mix: Book Review of "PAID TO SPEAK" published by the National Speakers Association

PAID TO SPEAK is a virtual MBA in the business of speaking. From marketing to positioning to product development to platform skills, it's ALL in here. Well-organized, tightly edited, and with a logical flow from one part of the business to another, PAID TO SPEAK is also unique in that it tells it like it is. No sugar-coating. And no trying to fleece opportunity-seekers into believing the speaking business is a fast, easy, and glamorous way to make money. [It is NONE of the three!] 

Speaking professionally today is about thought-leadership, adding value to corporate, association, and entrepreneurial sectors, and understanding all the different ways that audiences and buyers want to access, use, and deploy your expertise. The book spans a wide range of business models, distribution methods, and revenue models. As it should - to reflect the current reality of many successful speakers (very few of whom have business models that look anything alike!) 

The key value in buying a copy of PAID TO SPEAK, dog-earing it, highlighting it, and taking notes in the margins... is that you will emerge from the experience with a wealth of information, some clear decisions to make, and a game plan to put it all together in a style and manner that suits your personality, your strengths, and your preferences. This is no "one size fits all" template for "THE" way to become successful. There are MANY paths up the mountain - and PAID TO SPEAK should be your personal handbook, guide, and reference to get you there miles ahead of the competition! 

Every consultant, expert, and professional services firm leader needs to establish their thought-leadership in order to stand out from the crowd and be heard above the noise. 

There's no room for the "Same-O Lame-O" dry boring MBA PhD guru guy or gal. Their days are over and their influence and impact are declining... daily... and dramatically. 

So that means that every day you wait to claim your place among the thought-leaders in your industry and in front of your target buyers, you're losing time AND money. 

Don't let that happen to you.

The good news is that independent research with over 200 buyers of professional services shows that at any given moment, between 52%-72% of them are willing to change professional services providers.

Across all service areas, more than 50% of purchasers could be considered Switchers, open to changing providers, ranging from 52% Switchers for Legal Services to 72% Switchers for Management Consulting. ("How Clients Buy" 2009-10 survey)

Additional research from the Wellesley Hills Group entitled "What's Working in Professional Services Lead Generation" surveyed over 700 firms and showed that the #1 source of leads is "Warm Calls to Existing Clients" - No surprise there. If you're great at what you do, the old adage applies - "your business comes from your business." 

The #1 source of NEW leads for NEW business for professional services firms, however, may surprise you: it is "Speaking at conferences, trade shows and seminars."

Put these two pieces of research together and the dramatic discovery you'll make is... 

You're never more than one good presentation away from generating new clients and new revenue.

So the question is... How successful are you at the #1 strategy of lead-generating speaking to drive credibility, visibility and revenue in your professional services practice? 

And do you do it "once in a while" with mixed results or has your professional services firm nailed down a process, a speaking "system" and a targeting methodology that consistently puts you in front of the right groups in the right rooms with the right people to say the right things in the right ways to reliably generate new revenue for your firm?

If yes, great - welcome to the 1% club. If not, we should talk. Call me at (610) 716-5984 or drop me an email (david@doitmarketing.com) and let's have a conversation about how you can do a better job of generating more leads, better clients and bigger revenues every time you stand up to speak. 

And then leave a comment below with your questions, thoughts, and advice on the ideas above.

Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!

Marketing Concept: Headlines eh? Doncha love ’em.
Guest post by Andy Maslen

Most copywriters, while happy to plough on through dense thickets of body copy, will do almost anything to avoid sweating over the really hard work: the headline. 

Over the years, many copywriters, myself included, have offered up rules, regulations, mnemonics and other helpful guides on the ‘best’ way to write headlines. 

Here’s a summary of some of the more useful ones. 

Michael Masterson 

The ‘4 U’s. 

Your headline should be:    

1. Useful   

2. Unique   

3. Ultra-specific   

4. Urgent 

“How to…” solves the first U. 

If you can’t substitute another business name or product for yours in the headline, you have the second U down 

“Save £34.97’ is more powerful than “Save money” for the third U. 

Using “Now’, “Right away” or a deadline covers the fourth U. 

Sean D’Souza 

Ask a question in your headline. People love being asked questions and can’t help starting to think of the answer. 

Get their curiosity buzzing. We’re hard-wired to solve problems. Ever see a chimp fishing for termites with a leaf mid-rib? 

Focus on the problem, not the solution. “Why should you be the only one in your street with tired, sad-looking windows?” is more powerful than “Acme double glazing makes your windows sparkle”. 

Brian Clark

Brian borrows from the late great Maxwell Sackheim for the classic: Do you make these [number] mistakes in your [activity]. 

You could say… 

Do you make these 7 mistakes in your blog posts? 

Do you make this fatal mistake when pricing your work? 

Do you make these three wealth-destroying mistakes when picking stocks? 

Headline writing IS hard. But it’s also fun. If you’re stuck for ideas, read a book, like the three guys above have done; or read a blog; or Google it; or go back to your product and dig deeper.

And then leave a comment below with your questions, thoughts, and advice on the ideas above.

Are you a DO IT freak? Welcome to the club!! Please use the social media buttons at the top of this post to share it with your network. YOU are a rock star!

Publisher: PR News | Authors: Lori Zetlin and Jeanne Tee