Have you ever thought about what your life would have been had you made that different choice? You know the one I’m talking about; the one that you lay awake at night and work out various scenarios about. What would have happened had things turned out differently?
Recently I sat across the table from a brand new marketing client and watched as her face went pale recalling the choice that she had made in the past several months concerning her business. It was not a pretty sight.
She recalled how she had decided to place all of her ‘proverbial eggs’ into that one hole ridden basket. You see, her company had been dying a slow death. Sales were lagging and she didn’t know what to do. So she decided that she had to do something. That something was a decision that fed the wolf that was at her door.
She decided to drop all print advertising and rely totally on word of mouth and hits on her website. This would have been a great idea had she had customers that were crazy wild about her service that would tell everyone they came into contact with about her and march them arm in arm to her business and a website that was SEO’d to the hilt for those customers who searched the web for her specific keywords. Neither was the case.
She felt good for the first couple of days thinking to herself how she had saved herself some money that could now be added to her bottom line. Then reality set in and her bottom line bottomed out.
No one new was coming into her store. To make matters worse, when her regular customers did come in they commented on how ‘quiet’ it was in the store and ended up leaving without making a purchase.
By the time she realized her mistake it was too late. To recover from one week of not advertising takes a good 4 weeks. Why? To understand the repercussions you have to understand why you need to advertise.
Reasons to advertise
1) To keep your name out in front of your customer, future customers and competition (nothing travels faster than a rumor that since they haven’t seen you advertise you must be shutting down)
2) To promote new products and services to your customers, future customers and competition
3) To show your employees that they are part of a thriving company that is always looking for more customers so that you can continue to pay their wages. Even lazy employees start worrying about their jobs when no one is walking through the door.
4) Showing people who have a vested interest in you like your investors, bank president, father-in-law that you are promoting your business so that you can make good on your note (this equates to if you don’t advertise you must not really want to be successful – something about seeing their investment promoting itself gives them the warm fuzzies).
5) You advertise to reach your competitors customers. Why is this important? You never know when they become unhappy. They need to know who to go to when times get bad with their current supplier.
Do you need more reasons to advertise? Let’s face it, my new marketing client had made a terrible mistake and almost didn’t recover from it. It took her three months of really, really low sales to begin to turn things around. Today, it is almost back to normal. Customers still walk in asking if things are picking up and she is still working to overcome the negative rumors of her demise. Eventually she will be able to put this behind her. It was a tough lesson to learn about Marketing the Invisible.
Monday, September 20, 2010
The Sky Is Falling
We all remember the story about Chicken Little and the infamous acorn on the head that became a piece of the sky and quickly turned into a disastrous outlook on life.
How many of us are guilty of the same ‘falling sky’ mentality? How many of us are too ensconced in all the negative talk about the economy, the environment and the selling out of America by our elected politicians to have a positive outlook on our lives (both personal and business)?
I have always believed that you make your own economy, you chart your own course and you set your own sails. One of my mentors, Jim Rohn, said it best when he said ‘not to wish that it were easier, but to wish that you were better’.
So many of us are complaining about the state of the economy in our own county without really understanding that it is what we have made it by our own choices. It doesn’t have to be that way. When we are all trying our best to make a living here locally we should be helping the other guy make a living locally also. I think that every elected official and anyone that gets a paycheck based on the tax dollars of our local citizens should have to purchase everything locally unless they can’t find what they need here.
Ridiculous you scream!? I don’t think so. We pay taxes so that our city and county officials can have a job. Many of our local merchants work all the time just to make ends meet and then are slapped in the face by the very people that their taxes are used to pay when that money is spent with a merchant outside of their respective cities and county that they serve. What is wrong with this picture?
Everyone is screaming that the economy in our local communities has really dipped. Really? What would happen if everyone that relied on the taxes produced by the local economy had to spend their paychecks in the same local economy that supported them? Did you know that for every dollar spent in a locally owned independent store 68 cents returns to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures? If you spend that in a national chain, only 43 cents stays local and if you spend it online or outside of your area NOTHING comes home. Try taking 68 cents out of every dollar out of your paycheck, throw it away and see how long you can have a roof over your head. The same thing happens to local business owners, cities and counties.
Not guilty of spending money outside of the city or county you say? What about that website you had designed by that out of state entity? What about the online office supplies that you are ordering for your city/county office? What about going out for bid and awarding the bid to an out of county contractor when you could have chosen one just as skilled but they were a little higher? What about treating your staff to a retreat or brainstorming session in a great hotel OUTSIDE of your own county. Shame on you!
I try my best to spend my money locally. Granted sometimes the product or the service that I buy may be a few dollars more than what I would pay outside of my county but I know that my money is being used to help another business owner stay in business.
I think that all public officials should take an oath to not only serve their constituents but to also support their constituents. After all, the local business owners are the first people those same city and county officials look to for donations of space, time, talent and money.
I can’t tell you how many times I have been approached by someone running for office, a team or some other association that wants something for free and then spends money on products or services outside of our county. That’s just not right!
The buck doesn’t stop there. Merchants, if you are asking others to buy from you, you must remember to buy from local merchants also. Your own mantra should be ‘I shop local so that others will shop local’. We must all commit ourselves to spending our money locally whenever we can. I’m not saying that you can’t spend money outside of the county but what I am saying is to make a concerted effort to at least look for that product or service in our county first.
Many of you may be saying, ‘yes, but I just can’t find what I am looking for close to home and I have to go into another county’. I know that may be the case in some instances but let’s face it, have you tried getting a local merchant to order it for you, have you exhausted all your resources to try and fine it locally? If you don’t support the merchants that are here they may not be here much longer.
In defense of our non-local consumers, some “merchants” are guilty of not having the ‘service’ mentality that some of the larger stores have in the bigger cities. They aren’t open when they say they are going to be open and they aren’t willing to work with a customer when it comes to pricing or special orders. The inventory looks as if it has been on the shelves for years and the store is not as clean as it should be. The counter help isn’t as knowledgeable or friendly or even present. There, have I covered it all? Oh wait, one more thing. Their would-be customers don’t even know they exist … because their marketing – or lack of marketing – ‘worked for them 10 years ago and it should still work for them now. After all, EVERYBODY knows they have a store’. These are not the merchants that I am asking you to support. These merchants don’t have a business, they have a hobby. They will be open until the day they decide to start another hobby. I am referring to serious business owners who are doing everything in their power to entice you into doing business with them now and in the future.
Support these local merchants so that we can make our own economy and not have to be concerned with the economy that ‘others’ want to control for us.
Whenever you have a choice --- please shop local!
How many of us are guilty of the same ‘falling sky’ mentality? How many of us are too ensconced in all the negative talk about the economy, the environment and the selling out of America by our elected politicians to have a positive outlook on our lives (both personal and business)?
I have always believed that you make your own economy, you chart your own course and you set your own sails. One of my mentors, Jim Rohn, said it best when he said ‘not to wish that it were easier, but to wish that you were better’.
So many of us are complaining about the state of the economy in our own county without really understanding that it is what we have made it by our own choices. It doesn’t have to be that way. When we are all trying our best to make a living here locally we should be helping the other guy make a living locally also. I think that every elected official and anyone that gets a paycheck based on the tax dollars of our local citizens should have to purchase everything locally unless they can’t find what they need here.
Ridiculous you scream!? I don’t think so. We pay taxes so that our city and county officials can have a job. Many of our local merchants work all the time just to make ends meet and then are slapped in the face by the very people that their taxes are used to pay when that money is spent with a merchant outside of their respective cities and county that they serve. What is wrong with this picture?
Everyone is screaming that the economy in our local communities has really dipped. Really? What would happen if everyone that relied on the taxes produced by the local economy had to spend their paychecks in the same local economy that supported them? Did you know that for every dollar spent in a locally owned independent store 68 cents returns to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures? If you spend that in a national chain, only 43 cents stays local and if you spend it online or outside of your area NOTHING comes home. Try taking 68 cents out of every dollar out of your paycheck, throw it away and see how long you can have a roof over your head. The same thing happens to local business owners, cities and counties.
Not guilty of spending money outside of the city or county you say? What about that website you had designed by that out of state entity? What about the online office supplies that you are ordering for your city/county office? What about going out for bid and awarding the bid to an out of county contractor when you could have chosen one just as skilled but they were a little higher? What about treating your staff to a retreat or brainstorming session in a great hotel OUTSIDE of your own county. Shame on you!
I try my best to spend my money locally. Granted sometimes the product or the service that I buy may be a few dollars more than what I would pay outside of my county but I know that my money is being used to help another business owner stay in business.
I think that all public officials should take an oath to not only serve their constituents but to also support their constituents. After all, the local business owners are the first people those same city and county officials look to for donations of space, time, talent and money.
I can’t tell you how many times I have been approached by someone running for office, a team or some other association that wants something for free and then spends money on products or services outside of our county. That’s just not right!
The buck doesn’t stop there. Merchants, if you are asking others to buy from you, you must remember to buy from local merchants also. Your own mantra should be ‘I shop local so that others will shop local’. We must all commit ourselves to spending our money locally whenever we can. I’m not saying that you can’t spend money outside of the county but what I am saying is to make a concerted effort to at least look for that product or service in our county first.
Many of you may be saying, ‘yes, but I just can’t find what I am looking for close to home and I have to go into another county’. I know that may be the case in some instances but let’s face it, have you tried getting a local merchant to order it for you, have you exhausted all your resources to try and fine it locally? If you don’t support the merchants that are here they may not be here much longer.
In defense of our non-local consumers, some “merchants” are guilty of not having the ‘service’ mentality that some of the larger stores have in the bigger cities. They aren’t open when they say they are going to be open and they aren’t willing to work with a customer when it comes to pricing or special orders. The inventory looks as if it has been on the shelves for years and the store is not as clean as it should be. The counter help isn’t as knowledgeable or friendly or even present. There, have I covered it all? Oh wait, one more thing. Their would-be customers don’t even know they exist … because their marketing – or lack of marketing – ‘worked for them 10 years ago and it should still work for them now. After all, EVERYBODY knows they have a store’. These are not the merchants that I am asking you to support. These merchants don’t have a business, they have a hobby. They will be open until the day they decide to start another hobby. I am referring to serious business owners who are doing everything in their power to entice you into doing business with them now and in the future.
Support these local merchants so that we can make our own economy and not have to be concerned with the economy that ‘others’ want to control for us.
Whenever you have a choice --- please shop local!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Does Advertising Work?
I wish that I could take credit for this little poem but I can't. I found it on the website of another marketer, Rick Tracewell (www.ricktracewell). He says that it is a famous poem but I can't seem to find the author of it. In any case, it makes sense.
Why Is It?
A man wakes in the morning after
sleeping on an ADVERTISED mattress,
under ADVERTISED sheets,
and in ADVERTISED pajamas.
He washes his hair with an ADVERTISED shampoo,
cleans with an ADVERTISED soap,
shaves with an ADVERTISED razor,
using ADVERTISED shaving cream,
and puts on ADVERTISED deodorant.
He pulls on ADVERTISED blue jeans,
an ADVERTISED shirt and ADVERTISED sneakers.
He'll drink ADVERTISED coffee after
his ADVERTISED orange juice, cereal and
toast (from his ADVERTISED toaster).
He will drive to work in an ADVERTISED car,
sit at an ADVERTISED computer,
in an ADVERTISED office chair,
and write with an ADVERTISED pen.
Yet this man hesitates to ADVERTISE,
saying that advertising
does not PAY.
Finally, when his UNADVERTISED business goes under,
he then ADVERTISES that it is FOR SALE.
Why Is It?
Why Is It?
A man wakes in the morning after
sleeping on an ADVERTISED mattress,
under ADVERTISED sheets,
and in ADVERTISED pajamas.
He washes his hair with an ADVERTISED shampoo,
cleans with an ADVERTISED soap,
shaves with an ADVERTISED razor,
using ADVERTISED shaving cream,
and puts on ADVERTISED deodorant.
He pulls on ADVERTISED blue jeans,
an ADVERTISED shirt and ADVERTISED sneakers.
He'll drink ADVERTISED coffee after
his ADVERTISED orange juice, cereal and
toast (from his ADVERTISED toaster).
He will drive to work in an ADVERTISED car,
sit at an ADVERTISED computer,
in an ADVERTISED office chair,
and write with an ADVERTISED pen.
Yet this man hesitates to ADVERTISE,
saying that advertising
does not PAY.
Finally, when his UNADVERTISED business goes under,
he then ADVERTISES that it is FOR SALE.
Why Is It?
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Testing Out My New Blog Aid
Image via CrunchBase
This will probably spoil me. Someone will soon have to design a program for publishers to use that will do for print publications that are uploaded as pdf's online as Zemanta does for blogs. Hint! Hint! Hey, if you know of one out there please let me know.
I leave you with my new tag line. "Do what you love, love what you do and always be marketing!"
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=d9b1a8db-f10f-415c-be56-c2f7af3a82f1)
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Giving Up On Television
May 1st was the first day of my self imposed – well sort of – hiatus from television. On the prior Thursday my 28 month old Phillips 42" LCD-HD went out and never came back. After calling Dell (from whom I bought it) and then Phillips (who manufactured it) I was told by both parties, 'sorry, nothing we can do about it.' My big question to Phillips was that why does a TV that I paid over $1200 for die in 28 months time? Silence on the other end of the line. I started Googling Phillips and I quickly realized that I would have been better off Googling them 28 months ago and not buying the TV.
According to numerous others, Phillips is not the brand it used to be nor is it the brand of the future. They not only make a shoddy product, they don't stand behind it and worse yet, they don't care. Enough about Phillips; I will never, yes NEVER, buy a product made by them or linked to them in any way. That being said, I always try to look on the bright side of these challenges and realize that I would be much more productive if I quit watching TV altogether.
I didn't really watch TV in real time. I usually set my favorite shows to record and then play catch up at night or during the weekend. I do this to be able to blow through the commercials. I hope that Phillips is spending a ton of money on their TV commercials that others like me fast forward through.
Well, it's been three days and I'm not suffering too much. We do have an entire room dedicated to watching TV and videos so I will have to figure out another use for it. I am looking now to sell my beautiful albeit now useless theater seating. Will we replace the TV? Not right now. My experiment is in full swing.
Have I become more productive? Yes. Instead of catching up on 24, Desperate Housewives, Big Bang and the rest of my scheduled entertainment I spent the time building three websites, catching up on my social media and organizing my desk. I may even blog more regularly now. Who knows what I might be able to accomplish by giving up on television. After all, my trusted internet and computer are still up and running. Life is productive ... and good.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Can you text your way to success?
Latest stats on texting:
- 95% of all text messages are read within 15 Minutes
- 17% of all text messages are forwarded
- Text messages outnumber phone calls in the US
- 20% of people respond to a text message
- twice as many people use text messaging as use email
- 1/3 of humanity has mobile internet access
- 1.8 billion people will send a text message today (this includes me and probably you)
Saturday, March 20, 2010
21st Century Marketing – Free Ways to Jumpstart Your Online Marketing
Google Local Business Center: If your business is not listed on Google as a local business then follow the instructions on getting your business listed. It is free and is a fast and easy way to get noticed online. Make sure that you select the keywords that people will be typing in to the search engines to find you. To be found locally make sure that you put the name of your city and several cities where your local customers may be looking for you.
Something similar to Google LBC is Merchant Circle. It is dedicated to connecting Neighbors and Local Businesses online to help build real relationships between local business owners and their customers. To date, nearly 1,000,000 local businesses have joined Merchant Circle to get their business more exposure on the internet.
News Alerts: if you want to keep up with everything and anything that is being said about you, your company, your employees, your kids, etc. go to Google Alerts and follow the instructions. Each time anything newsworthy pops up that has this subject matter you will be sent an email. Great way to do early damage control or just make sure that nothing slips by you. You should set alerts to scan for your name, the names of your management team, your company name and the names of your competitors. Also, if you have particular brand name products that you want to keep up with I would set an alert for them also.
Reader: several to choose from but one that is free and does the job is Google reader. A reader is a program that will allow you to subscribe to certain online venues that have information of interest to you and to your industry. For instance, I can search for a particular topic, find websites or blogs that interest me and subscribe to them via my reader program. This will keep me up to date anytime anything changes on those sites. I just visit my 'reader' everyday and can read only those things that interest me and that will allow me to keep up with growing changes.
Just a few words about your website. Make sure that your website has all the WHY'S answered and that it tells a story that is understandable, relatable and makes people want to be a part of your story. One of the most overlooked things in website marketing is making sure that proper Search Engine Optimization has been done on it. In layman's terms it makes your website friendly to the search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing and allows people looking for your product or service to find you easier. Without it they will have to know your domain name and that really defeats the entire purpose of marketing to people who aren't familiar with you yet.
I think print advertising still works (I wouldn't be in publishing if I didn't) but only if it gets the attention of your customer, is located in a medium that your customers will read, and has your website on it. Also, remember you should answer a WHY question in your ad. The same goes for radio and TV advertising. Answer the whys, tell a story and drive them to your website.
So what is Marketing in the 21st century about? Marketing in the 21st century isn't any different than it was 2,000 years ago. It is still about answering the whys, telling your story and staying connected to your community of customers.
The only difference is that we have new ways to deliver our message.
I will leave you with this little bit of advice handed down to us from John Jantsch, Founder of Duct Tape Marketing. John said this just last month:
"Over time the single greatest opportunity is to rule the local search landscape. 20-30 year olds go straight to their mobile browser or Google Maps to find everything -- shoes, food, insurance, a dentist, you name it. If they don't find you by doing that, then you don't exist."
Make sure that your future customers can find you!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
