My Family Christmas Tradition is Weird

I have a special arrangement with Santa Claus.

I'm cool like that, yo.

Santa Claus made a deal with my family three generations ago that he would deliver our Christmas tree (versus our putting one up ourselves).  There are other holiday decorations, but no tree, all the way to bed time on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas morning, we get up to the beautiful, fully-decorated tree, with all the presents (previously hidden) arranged around it.  From nothing to everything, overnight!

Of course, since this deal is with my family, my husband insists that the lack of the childhood tradition of setting up and decorating the tree together as a family - stringing popcorn and such - is just plain weird.

From his point of view - and probably the majority of Americans - he's right, it is weird.  But it's only part of the story - why do we do this weird Christmas Tree/Santa thing in the first place?

I'm saying Grandpa would
 have been thrilled to get a saw.

You see, until very recently, my family was pretty darn poor.  We simply couldn't afford much outside of the basic necessities of life, and sometimes, not even those on a regular basis.  It was during this period that the deal was struck with Santa.

The reality was that my ancestors would wait for the tree lot to close on Christmas Eve, and they'd go steal a tree off the lot and bring it home.  They were often crooked, with bald spots and dropping brown needles.

By all accounts, it didn't matter - the kids always woke up Christmas morning with the most beautiful tree they'd ever seen.  This was the sign that Santa hadn't forgotten them, and that the spirit of the season wasn't necessarily about getting presents.

In modern times, we simply put up our artificial tree after our kids have gone to bed - so now, the arrangement is more "Santa sets up the tree" than outright brings it, but the core of the tradition remains.

When my older daughter let us know she no longer believed a few years ago, I let her know the full story, and why it's important to keep it in place.  We should remember and honor where we came from, and how we took something weird, and made it wonderful.

This blog will be on break over the holidays, and will return in 2014.  Thanks for reading, and I hope you have an wonderful (and weird) holiday!

Four Ways To Make A Coupon Rock

Many businesses depend on coupons as a part of their marketing plan. Rightfully so - they are wonderful drivers for many kinds of businesses.

Coupons can be used to drive traffic on certain targeted days or times of day, they are a great way to get new customers to try your product or service or introduce something new, and they can be a great way to introduce something new to your customers, and they are fabulous tools to capture customer information for future marketing efforts.

However, done poorly, they can be a colossal waste of time and money.

So, here's four ways to help your next coupon blitz work for you!

1) BARCODE THOSE SUCKERS

You will get sick of these
awesome little guys.

You have got to track your coupons - at a bare minimum, which coupons were redeemed, when, but ideally, if you have mailed/emailed them out, uniquely barcoded to each recipient of the coupon.

You have to make sure you understand exactly how many coupons were redeemed (and thus the cost or margin erosion) versus revenue collected.

You need to know that they were redeemed properly - for the right product, the right discount, and within the right restrictions (such as date and time).  You need to understand the positive and negative effect of the coupon on your business.

But it's incredibly difficult to do that if you don't barcode those coupons.  It's not hard to use a basic barcode, and at worst, you can redeem them "back of the house" post-sale to get the information you need.

2) CLEARLY STATE THE RULES ON THE COUPON

Sometimes, there are exceptions to what the coupon covers.  It could be a specific product or product line, time/day of redemption, etc.

Typical disclaimer?

Make sure those rules are CLEARLY stated on the coupon in nice big text, so that your customer knows the rules and won't be frustrated when they get to the point of purchase and the coupon can't be used.  This is especially important when there is a limited redemption period - both start and end dates (and times) need to be VERY clear.

Also, it's wise to state on the coupon that it has no cash value and that the coupon applies while supplies last (if applicable).  Your local jurisdiction may have other rules that you must comply with in regards to disclaimers, so make sure you know what they are.

3) KEEP IT SIMPLE, SILLY!

Don't get too cute with your exceptions and rules in order to try to maximize profits from the coupon.

Yes, really.

It's frustrating for your customers when they find out what they want or need isn't covered by the coupon, and it's difficult for your employees to enforce or explain.

I call this the "yeah but" problem - that coupon is valid, yeah, but only for (x), when you do (y), in combination for (z), when the moon is full, and if you're wearing a yellow hat.

So only make exclusions/rules where you absolutely have to - make it easy for your customers to redeem and your employees to explain.

Also, as part of keeping it simple, only have one discount per coupon - mixing messages is very difficult to understand and explain.

4) AIM AT THE RIGHT CUSTOMER

You wanted the standard target
image - DENIED!

My idea of roughing it is no room service, so I don't see the point of squatting in the dirty woods in the heat for days on end and using a bug-infested shack for a toilet for a vacation.  No, I am not what you'd call "outdoorsy". 

If you were a marketer, would you send me a coupon for a discount on, say, camping equipment or tents or maybe a free weekend at some camp site somewhere?  Please say "no"!

Yes, granted, it's possible I'd want such a thing as a gift for someone else, but don't bet on it!

Make sure you aren't sending coupons to people who have the highest likelihood to want your product or service - choose the method of distribution wisely. That way, the coupons will have the volume you're looking for, but also, the customers have a higher likelihood of return without a coupon in the future.

Ever have a coupon that succeeded beyond your wildest dreams?  I'd love to hear about it!

The Old School's Demise Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

As a marketer, I'm always interested in the latest and greatest, the cutting edge, the newest, freshest way to "do" marketing.  I think, as a profession, we tend to draw people who are naturally interested in the shiniest, newest toys to play with.  It's interesting and fun.

Back in my day, we hit customers with baseball bats to
sell our products, and they liked it!

However, I also know that just because it's old or traditional, doesn't mean it isn't useful, valid, or relevant in my marketing mix.

I admit, I get my hackles up whenever I read generic statements like:

"Direct Mail doesn't work and is too expensive"
"Email is old-school and nobody uses it"
"Stop wasting time on promotional materials"

These are all paraphrased from a variety of sources that I've read over the past few months.  Sure, sometimes, people say this in order to be provocative and get attention (and views, shares, likes and comments).  But most of the folks posting this stuff probably believe it.

Some of us like to act like if it isn't on the cutting edge it's useless, and older tactics are so antiquated we might as well be using cuneiform on clay plates.

I'll grant that they could only be using technology less than 10% of the population uses in order to drive a gajillion dollars in sales. It's possible. Sure.

Did that sound a little skeptical?

Just because it's more than a year or two old, doesn't make it obsolete!  It's marketing, not a cell phone or tablet!

For example, I literally laugh out loud when people call email marketing "old school". I remember when it was going to be the absolute death of direct mail - which, by the way, was the cheap channel compared to broadcast and display advertising - and that was in this century, mind you.

Yet, I do still get lots of direct mail pieces in my mail box every day. Weird.

So let's say you keep chasing that shiny object and never develop skill in these supposedly "old school" techniques.

If you're not using iCrown©, you're a dinosaur!

What happens when you engage a company that doesn't have a sophisticated CRM software but still needs to do targeted direct marketing and customer relationship management right now? Do you know that you can do it without a CRM tool?  Do you know how?

What happens when you work with a business whose customer base isn't that wired?  Just because you're on Twitter and Tumblr and Snapchat and Instagram and whatnot, it doesn't mean your customer base is.

What happens when a massive system failure happens (and it will, my friends), and you can't execute a cutting-edge marketing technique?  What do you have as a backup plan?  How else will you reach your customer if you can't do it online?  Will  you just... not market?

I think you need to make sure you have more in your arsenal than only the latest and greatest.  I think you need to make sure you're not projecting your love of a new technology or technique onto your customers and clients.  I think you need to take another look at the old school, because they do still work much of the time!

Above all, keep this front of mind:  Tactics and techniques should always be 100% focused on what the customers want and need.

Sometimes, that means an old-school technique is the preferred and most effective method to use (usually, it's more complex than that, but still...).  Be open and prepared for that, as a marketer, and as a business owner.

Got an "old school" channel working wonders for you?  Don't know how to fix the CRM problem above?  Think I'm a crotchety old coot, waving my cane around yelling at you kids to get off my lawn? Let me know!

This Doesn't Have to Be Hard

It's not unusual for small business friends of mine to say, "Yeah, but you're a marketer - you're supposed to have a blog and a dozen social media channels.  I don't have the time to do any of that."

Does that sound like you?

And boom, there goes another Tweet!

Well, let me let you in on a little secret.  I'm a small business too, and like you, I don't have tons of time either.  I have my business, family and hobbies to balance (not to mention sleep).

I am writing this post on November 19, 2013.  I'm having to stay close to the house because both of my kids are home from school sick.  I had to cancel several meetings and appointments for today.

Note the post date on this post... see that?  December 10, 2013?  What am I, some sort of crazy time traveler?

Nope.  I'm making productive use of this unexpected unbooked time, by writing blog content and I'm scheduling social media through the first and second week of December. 

I use Blogger, and I can write any time (sometimes I have three to five posts in progress) and I can schedule my post far out into the future.  I can also schedule the associated social media mentions of my blog the same day, once the post is scheduled.  You can do the same with Wordpress and many other blogging applications out there.

I aim to post twice a week (Tuesday and Thursday mornings), but you can post less frequently than I do in many cases.  So I can write and set up posts now that I can post a month or more in the future.

This is especially great when you start developing content calendars and themes - you can easily pull together themed posts on your blog and in your social media all at once while the topic is top of mind.

A tool I swear by is Hootsuite.  I've talked about it before, and yes, I know there are more powerful tools out there, but I believe its simplicity for newbies is hard to beat.  Plus, it's free for less than five accounts.  Great for the most commonly used networks of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+.

I've been advising lots of businesses lately to try Pinterest in their social media mix, but you can't use Hootsuite to schedule pins.  There are tools out there, and here's a discussion you might want to read if you use Pinterest: How To Schedule Pins on Pinterest.

If you must do this stuff yourself, using the right tools, it isn't hard at all!

On a weekly basis, block out time for you to sit down and do this stuff (mine in Monday morning).

When you find you get a gift of extra time - like I did today - use it productively and get ahead of the game, if you can.

Need tips?  Maybe some help with a content calendar?  I can help - let me know!

Tending the Farm: Slow-growth tactics and why you need them

I've written about slow-growth marketing tactics a little bit before, mostly here, and we discussed short-term high impact tactics (and ways they can go awry) here and here.

Ooh, red delicious marketing leads - yum!

So let's talk about the slow-growth, long-term tactics I like to call "farms".  These tactics function as leads engines once they get going.

Think about your typical real-life farm - or rather, let's think about an apple orchard.

When you build an orchard, you have to find the land, buy the land, prepare it for planting, do the planting, tend the plants as they grow into maturity, fight off pests and disease to keep the trees strong, and eventually, the trees will bear fruit.  If you do a good job tending the orchard over time, they will reliably produce apples every season for you to enjoy.

Some marketing tactics are a lot like this orchard.  It takes a lot of work to prepare the environment and for the tactic to grow, but when it does, it will produce marketing "fruit" pretty reliably going forward, as long as it is properly maintained.

As I've mentioned before, "farm" tactics include (but aren't limited to) the following:

• SEO and web sites
• Leads Referral Groups
• Content marketing

In all of these, it is highly unusual that the tactic will reach its full potential in a very short period of time, so please, don't beat your head against a wall if they don't pay off quickly.  It's not going to pay off quickly, so don't set an inappropriate expectation for rate and timeliness of return.

You have to let the trees grow, and the fruit to ripen.  This takes a lot of patience, and when resources are thin, it's very easy to give up too quickly and waste your efforts.

Let's take SEO.  While there are times you will see rankings improve quickly, overall, it's well-known it takes time for a well-crafted SEO strategy to see results.  Check out what they say about it at the Search Engine Journal, HubPages, and for a more complicated viewpoint, here's SEO Theory.  If your search rankings don't improve dramatically overnight, it doesn't mean SEO doesn't work, or that the partner you're working with isn't good at what they do - it's simply the nature of the channel.

Leads referral groups and content marketing are the same way - it takes time to figure out what works for you, but when you do, they are reliable engines for leads and growth.

Having the appropriate expectations in place when you take on a "farm" tactic will save you a lot of frustration, worry, and money.  So if you need to build leads fast, don't expect these tactics to do that for you - set off a "bomb" like an event or sale instead (but don't expect a "bomb" tactic to produce long-term results).

A good marketing plan will include short-term and long-term tactics, as you need both fast leads ("bombs") and longer-term lead engines ("farms") to grow your business.

What's your favorite "farm" tactic, and how did you get it bearing fruit for you?  I'd love to know! 

FoM: Get It Done!

Have you ever missed a marketing deadline, because you had to get it just right?

Wait, is that carmine or maroon?
Our customers hate maroon.

You know what I mean... you spend hours pouring over copy, trying to get the phrasing just right, trying to find that perfect adjective or adverb, picking that right image, and finding the right color palette.  You look at it from every angle, making sure that every part of it is just so.

And you end up with a marketing emergency as you miss every production deadline. It's possible that this obsession with the minutia makes it too late to execute at all, wasting your time and money.

True story:

It's late March. We were getting ready to go to press with a postcard invitation to a gift giveaway taking place in early April.  Just as it was going on the press, I get an emergency call from the event manager asking if it was too late to change the piece.

Was there a problem with the gift?  A date change?  Legal problems?  Venue change?

No... you see, they'd been talking and they thought the piece was "too Christmas-y".

(We went to press as it was, and the event was as successful as projected.  And to the person who made that phone call - love ya!)

Hey, what's the word for "cool"
in Elvish?

Why does this happen?  Procrastination?  Indecision? Perfectionism run amok?  Yes, all of those, but I think this really happens because of fear.

Fear of saying the wrong thing the wrong way, in such as way to invite ridicule or blame, and ultimately, fear of wasting your time and money. Fear of appeasing a co-worker or boss.

It's the classic perfectionist's problem:  do it right, or not at all.

Well, here's the thing:  you just have to do it.  You have to do marketing.  You have to let your customers know when your next sale is, or how great that new product or service is, or how to reach you so you can serve them!  You do not have the option to skip it.

So, how do you get over your fear and just get it done?  Remember this:  It is highly unlikely any customer or potential of yours will scrutinize your marketing collateral like you do.

They will not notice if the color is slightly different than usual.  Their behavior will not change if you use the word "stunning" instead of "amazing".

You will obsess over it like a literature student's examination of "The Lord of the Flies" and speculate on the depths of meaning of every word ("What does the author's use of the color red here mean? Y'know the part where the stabbing is happening?"), every image, and every square inch.

On the other hand, your customer just wants to know what's going on, what's in it for them, and what they need to do to get it.

Yes, brand identity and style are important, of course.  But they aren't the ONLY item of importance, and when time is short, you have to go with the clarity of communication.

Don't let your fear keep you from getting out there and promoting your business.

Need help getting past the perfectionism?  Let me know - I can help!