The Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing: WRATH

We all agree that the customer is king. But we sure don't always act that way.  There's lots of way we're tempted to put other things ahead of the customer.  Let's talk about the Deadly Sin of...

CUSTOMERS!  GAWL!!

WRATH: Hating your own customers

This is a big one, and it manifests itself in many ways.

Do your employees make fun of your customers?  I mean, more than just the "oddball" story now and then (we all have those).  Check out this guy here: Undercover Boss: Boston Market interview with Ronnie.

It is impossible for a culture that values customers and is customer-focused to have people believe this about their customers.

There are a number of "I Hate My Customers" blogs out there, mostly from people in service and freelancing industries.  I have empathy - I've worked those jobs myself - but it just shows you how pervasive this problem is out there in industries that depend most on excellent customer service and being customer focused.

I think, however, this attitude flows into the marketing and advertising industry and permeates our marketing campaigns.

How many times have you attended a gathering of marketers, get talking about customers, and heard a lot of negativity, especially if the customer base isn't "cool" enough?  Too old, too poor, too suburban, too rural, too uneducated, too "low brow", too [insert whatever human characteristic you disdain here].

How many marketing leaders have you met that can discuss marketing campaigns for hours, but do not once mention what the customer wants and needs from his or her organization, or how customers are delighted by what they hear and see from the company?

How many product and campaigns have been launched with zero prior customer research and testing?

How many sponsorships have been created, not because customers have a connection with the person, event or cause being sponsored, but because it was something the marketer personally liked or benefited from?

If you or anyone in your organization regularly bad-mouths your customer base, never listens to customer feedback (or dismiss it), and does not keep the needs of your target audience in mind in all you do because you think it's stupid, uncool, or worthless... you should look for another line of work.

Because being wrathful towards your customer is a sin.

For other sins, check out LUST and GLUTTONY and GREED and SLOTH.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing: SLOTH

Customer centricity is a big topic with marketers.  Yet, it seems like we have to constantly talk about it, because we're not actually doing it.

I'll have you know, I'm the hardest
worker in this forest.

We're getting tempted into committing the Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing.  Today, let's dial it back a notch....

SLOTH: Doing just enough to not completely suck

I'm using "sloth" in the meaning of plain old "lazy".

We know that our web site could be easier to use for our customers, but we just aren't willing to put forth to effort to prioritize it.

We understand that our customers dislike our customer service process, but it's too hard to get everyone in the organization together to improve it.

We know our customers really prefer to use a specific technology, but it's just too hard for us to figure out and use.

We can't be bothered to properly onboard our new customers and thank them for their business, say, via email or direct mail.

We certainly never take the time to recognize our current customers for their loyalty.

It's just too hard to figure out - we just can't afford to take the time and effort.

And it probably wouldn't matter anyway.  Our customers wouldn't notice these things - we'll just make the same amount of money (or less, once we make these efforts).  They only care about getting the best price, nothing else.

Of all the sins, this one is my favorite  - or rather, the one that annoys me most.  It seems to be the easiest to solve on the surface, but I think it's the hardest to actually fix if you've really settled into this mindset.

Of course, this apathetic viewpoint in regards to customer engagement also creates a company culture that is averse to innovation and risk.  That's a fast way to kill a company.

For other sins, check out LUST and GLUTTONY and GREED.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing: GREED

Are you really customer centric, or is it just lip service?  Perhaps you've been tempted into the Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing.  Today, here's a big one (and it's very, very common)...

GREED: Squeezing customers out of every cent

Customers are just lining up to give you money.  They love your product or service.  They rave about you online.  You're the very best, and your customers just can't get enough of you.

I HAS ALL THE MONEYS!

So, now's the time to try to monetize that love in order to increase your sales margin - after all, they love you, they won't mind paying more!

So, maybe you raise your prices a little bit. And that works. So let's look for more ways to nudge that margin up a little higher...

Maybe you issue "basic" versions of your product or service, but to get the newest, coolest best, most fun stuff, you have to purchase additional items, or content, or products.

Maybe you make it difficult to redeem offers, or change the value of points in your loyalty program to make it harder for customers to redeem rewards.  Think airline rewards programs where they blackout the most popular travel dates, make sure that the number of points needed to redeem for popular routs is so huge, only the very best customers can "afford them.  Or again, let's pick on the airlines and think about how much they charge for wifi service.

Think about hotels where you are charged for every single thing, including a bottle of water that costs less than a dollar retail.

Think about coupons that are only good on a very small select product line - one that isn't very popular - or they're only redeemable by jumping through a lot of hoops.

Think about paying for video games that, in order to get the very best equipment, you must buy it (and these are not free games to begin with, mind you)...

Think about airlines charging a couple of dollars for a snack that would cost less than fifty cents retail.

You don't think that customers will ever get tired of being squeezed for all they have, do you? Everybody loves to be met with a hand out for their cash every time they interact with a company - right?  Especially if you're a top brand!

Come on, there's no way they'll go to a competitor that doesn't charge them for every enhancement to the basic product.  They wouldn't possibly be interested in a loyalty program that actually rewards them for being loyal customers, would they?  They wouldn't be drawn to change to a new company by coupons that are easily redeemed for stuff they really want?

Surely not.

For more deadly sins, check out LUST and GLUTTONY.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing: GLUTTONY

We love to talk about the customer, don't we?  But ARE we really customer centric?  I don't think we are, because we get tempted into committing the Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing.  Today, let's talk about...

GLUTTONY: For new customers

Delicious, delicious new customers.

It's easy to believe that our product or service appeals to everyone.

I once was told by someone that we should mail everyone in our database because even though many segments had never demonstrated any interest in a particular set of products, they might want it someday.

What we do or sell is just so incredibly awesome, it'll make everybody's life better, right?  Only a crazy person would refuse to buy our stuff at such incredible prices.

So we go after those new customers, chasing them down, finding the new markets, growing the new customer base.  All we have to do is get customers to buy our product or service once, and they are our customer for life.

Heck, many, if not most, marketers are measured and directly rewarded on this key metric - growth of new customer bases - and they spend a majority of their time chasing after them as a result.  So we go further afield to grow our customer base, sometimes at diminishing returns (but that's okay - new customers are new customers and growth is growth, and that's all that matters).

We get so wrapped up in this - new customer bonuses and rewards and the like - that we end up completely ignoring them once they are captured as existing customers.

Our rewards, our focus, and our metrics all say that new customer acquisition is the single most important part of marketing.

Hey, if existing customers are locked out of the best deals and offers only available to new customers... what's the harm?  They love us, they would never switch or abandon us, because we're just so awesome.  And if they do, well, we'll just replace them with new customers!  Problem solved!

Well... let's ask the cable and dish companies about that, shall we? Goodbye Cable TV

Great job, guys - continuously raising rates for existing customers, only offering deals for newbies, and poor customer service allowed services like Roku, Apple TV and others allow folks to just quit your business outright.

I know someone well who works for a small company with this attitude - once they close the deal with a new customer, the idea of treating customers well, offering rewards, and the like, are completely out the window.  The only real rewards in that organization is to close the deal with new customers.

They don't even measure the loss of existing customers (and they're bleeding in that regard) because nobody in the organization, especially not sales or marketing, is rewarded for keeping or growing existing customer business.  Do you think this company is going to be around long, or grow big?

So look at your own organization. Do you reserve your very best deals ONLY for new customers?  Is that an industry standard, like the cell phone industry?  Are you teaching your customers that loyalty means nothing because you'll always get a better deal as a newbie somewhere else?

Gluttony for new business will KILL your business in the long run.  The solution, of course, is moderation - you need new business, and you need to retain and grow existing business.  Do both, and make sure both are measured in your metrics and sales/marketers are rewarded for both.

For more deadly sins, see LUST.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Marketing: LUST

I've read and heard a lot of folks in the marketing game discussing the fact - and it is a FACT - that the customer should always be the primary focus of your marketing efforts.

Insert Customer Here.

This is always a hot topic - on blogs, in magazines, at conferences, with consultants and speakers and what have you.  There is little disagreement on this point - customers rule.

If we all agree on this, why are we constantly talking about it?

Perhaps we are finding it so hard to make this fact actually be the truth in what we do on a daily basis.  We are certainly are talking the talk, but the walk... not so much.

It just seems so hard to keep the customer front and center in practice! How do we allow ourselves to become distracted from our customers and what they need from us?  What temptations are thrown our way to cause us to make other things top priority?

Temptation leads to sin.

Deadly sins.

That's what this series is about.   Today, let's start with a big one.

LUST for technology

Many, if not most marketers are early-adopting and high tech.  We got smart phones early, we were playing with QR Codes and NFC and mobile technology of all kinds while most people still thought the Motorola Razr was a pretty neat phone (and for the record - it was pretty neat, and I still miss mine).  We're always looking for, and are excited by, the next big thing.

Oooooh, new marketing technology....

Additionally, new technology can provide significant cost savings and it's just very, very hard to say "no". The prime example of this is the adoption of social media over the last decade.

Are you sure - are you certain - that your ideal customer base is using, or will be using in the near future, these cool new tools?

Look at the epic fail of QR code adoption in the United States. For a while, they held a lot of promise (I was a huge fan), but the user experience, ultimately, killed it.  Most consumers didn't know what they were, why they should know, and what to do when they ran across them.  They're still out there and used by folks in some limited applications, but they'll never be the big thing we was hoping they'd be back in 2009.

Let's take social media - in 2014, it's universally believed that we must use social media for business, especially for customer service applications, right?  I'd bet that the majority of small businesses within a ten mile radius of me in Dallas-Fort Worth (not known as a technological backwater) aren't on Twitter and will not be in 2014.

Twitter will be eight years old this year, and yet, the dry cleaners and the restaurants and the accountants and the small mom-and-pop retail shops and the lawyers and the doctors and dentists and so on do not tweet, see no value to it, and have no interest in it at all, and they don't think their customers need them to join Twitter to be engaged and connected.

If you serve these sorts of businesses, then you need more tactics than trying to use Twitter as a tool to engage with them.

Chasing new technology while abandoning perfectly good and useful tactics - tactics that customers are actually using and are happy using - is probably not the smartest strategy. Your marketing toolbox should expand, versus making it smaller dropping channels than customers like.

Slow it down while customers catch up with you.

Don't commit the sin of Lust for technology, because you may miss out on connecting with customers where they are and how they need to be, versus the way you want them to be.

Got any stories when the shiny new object distracted you from serving customers?  I'd love to know!

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!

Everybody Is Not The Same: Basic Ways to Segment Your Database

Hello, Ms. Small Biz Gal.  You've built yourself a pretty nice database there.

You have a good clean list, you are recording basic info like important milestone dates (first date of contact, first transaction, last transaction, birth dates, anniversaries, etc.).  You can tell the difference between prospects and actual customers, and you can, in some ways, record sales to your customers.  (You're awesome, by the way - and miles ahead of lots of your peers.)

Let's say, for the sake of this post, that you're contacting all these folks via email, although this is valid for any of your channels in which you talk directly to customers.

Hypothetically, you're going to tell them about a great new deal you have going - you're going to give a discount to new customers. This is what you want to send:

Hello, new customers!  We're so excited about the opportunity to add you to our family, we'd love to offer you 10% off your next purchase with Ms. Small Biz, Inc! Offer expires in a week, so hurry in - we can't wait to see you!

Is this the right thing to send... to the entire database?  If you think about it, you know the answer - which is NO, of course not.  This is only good for your prospect list!

So why are you sending this out to customers that aren't prospects?  How do you avoid making this mistake?

The simplest answer is to use a very basic database segmentation.  And here it is:

Of course, for your business, what a "new" customer might mean may be slightly different, and the same with "lapsed".  And of course, you can sub-segment each group any number of ways, if you have the time, tools, and strategy to manage that complexity well.

In our hypothetical case, the email above can be sent to the prospects only, and not the rest of the group.   Simple.

Lots of people violate this every day, by not taking the time to create the basic segmentation above - I'm always surprised as I get this from people I think should know better (aka, other marketers).

Truly, without this basic segmentation, it can make your direct marketing far less effective.

So, Ms. Small Biz, take a moment and assign the segmentation to your database as noted above, and keep it up as you onboard new customers and as their status changes (yes, there are tools for this).

Need help?  I can do that, y'know.  Let me know!  Drop me an email!

Look at your calendar - it's 2014.

You're looking at your calendar and saying, "What? It's freaking November, you goofball!"

A party so good, you don't remember it yet.

Nuh-uh, my friend, Thanksgiving is but a pleasant memory, Christmas returns are underway, and you're not quite over that New Year's day hangover.  In fact, it's almost time for that NFL "Big Game" party (I hope it's featuring this team right here).

Because, in marketing terms, it's January (or even February or March), my friend.

If you haven't planned out January/February/March already (much less the whole year), you're already behind and you may miss critical deadlines for marketing things you want to do, including:

• Advertising in publications such as magazines
• Direct mail or catalog runs
• Display advertising
• Television and radio advertising

Look, you don't want to find yourself on January 2 saying to yourself, "Hokay, now what am I going to do now?"

Now - today - is the time to sit down, think about next year, and decide what your tactics and budget is going to be, and start engaging partners if needed.

Q1 is a period that is soft for many of us, so get on it NOW, because if you don't, you may find your leads and your business drying up, and you don't want that, do you?

Need help?  Drop me a note here: AbanicoMktg@gmail.com

Marketing Is More Than Leads

Even fictional characters know this.

When we talk "marketing" we usually talk about generating "leads", that is, new customers to our business.  It's where we spend the most of our time and energy.

This can be a huge, huge mistake.

There are more studies than I can count that show that retaining customers is cheaper than going after new customers.

Here's just a few I found with a quick search - check 'em out (but come back, will ya?)

http://www.customerforlife.com/blog/salesforce/2013/03/26/retention-vs-acquisition/
http://www.cmo.com/articles/2013/7/18/customer_retention.html
http://www.camfoundation.com/PDF/Cost-of-customer-acquisition-vs-customer-retention.pdf

The numbers vary slightly, but they all show a retained customer is cheaper than a new one.  I verified this myself in my days in the corporate world, so I know it to be true.

So what does this mean to you and your marketing plan?

While yes, you obviously need to chase leads and plan accordingly, you also need to plan and budget for a retention program for existing customers.

So what do you do with them?

GROW THE EXISTING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

Also known as upselling, there's several ways to incentivize customers to buy more:

• Perhaps they can grow the dollar value of each transaction but not change the frequency of purchase.
• Or, they can do the opposite - they can increase the frequency of transactions but the value remains constant. 
• Or, they can do both.
• Or they can increase frequency but reduce value per transaction (but grow overall revenue from the single customer).
• Or they can decrease frequency and increase value per transaction (which can also grow overall revenue).

You can try a variety of tactics - sometimes it's a loyalty program where you give a reward for increasing business.  This is the foundation of loyalty marketing and the real purpose of every loyalty program that exists.

USE THE EXISTING CUSTOMER BASE AS A REFERRAL SYSTEM

Most commonly, you'd see this as a "bounty" system, where a reward is given for so many referrals given to you by your existing customer.

If you use such a system, make sure the "hurdle" for rewards is easily reached and has enough value to be attractive (but it doesn't have to be crazy huge).  You can have more than one level or you can keep it very simple: "For (x) amount of referrals, you get (y) rewards".

You can up the ante for referrals, and if the referral becomes a paying customer, the reward is greater.

But there are lot of other ways to get your existing customers to sing your praises to new potential customers.  Ever heard the term "brand evangelism"?  This is a holy grail of marketing and advertising - think about the Nike customer who buys their branded gear and wears it out.  That's free advertising!

THE BEST RETENTION TACTIC OF ALL

Provide excellent customer service.  I've ranted on what this means before (here, here, and the saga of epic fail starting here) but just remember - it's your job to solve your customer's problem.  Do it promptly, with value, and with respect, and your customer will love you, buy from you again, and refer you.

So, as you're working your plan, do not forget to build in marketing tactics and processes to grow your business using your existing customer base.  It's cheaper, it's easier and you'll find it pretty rewarding.

Do you have a great can't-miss tactic to grow revenue and referrals from your current customers? Let me know!

FoM: Slay the Social Media Monster

There's dozens of examples out there about the ways brands (and individuals and celebrities) have had major screwups in social media.  Feel free to search for them if you're so inclined.

Bring it, Twitter.

Such tales might have put the Fear of Marketing in you - in this case, you're avoiding the Social Media Monsters.

You may be aware that there are "best practice"  (i.e. rules) for every channel.  And generally, this is true, developed over time and experience as these channels have been used, even though there's some debate on these.

Don't let these rules intimidate you or stop you from getting out there.

To paraphrase what I said in my FOM introductory post (right here) - making a social media post or a tweet or whatever is not like getting a tattoo.  It's here, and it's gone, just like that (and you can delete what you dislike if you really want to in the future).  It's so very temporary, it really is hard to screw it up permanently.

However, to avoid potential problems, this is the what you need to do:

• Negativity or sarcasm can easily go wrong, so I advise newbies to avoid it.
• Make sure you read it several times (watch for typos and grammatical errors).
• Get out there and try.  Just broadcasting things like sales or blog posts is fine to start.  You will get more confidence as you practice.
• If you post something you don't like, delete it!  It'll be gone, just like that!

You don't have to be a channel expert in, say, Twitter, to start tweeting for your business.  Just get moving.

Got a Marketing Monster you want to slay?  I can help!  Drop me a note in the comments or email me at AbanicoMktg@gmail.com

The Fear of Marketing (FoM) - a series

If you're reading this blog (and thank you very much), you'll see me make "DOTC" posts - Doing it On The Cheap.  These posts are about the cheapest tactics I can find and have either tried myself or have found others doing effectively.

Oh, hi!  I'd like to talk to you about
my product and/or service!

Today, I'm going to start up a new series on this blog, based upon a speech topic I've been developing.

It's called the Fear of Marketing (FoM).  This comes from my experience in working with my clients, in my corporate marketing jobs, and observing small businesses around me.

I think that lots of us are just terrified of marketing!

Lots of us are are confused and overwhelmed by channel choices and best practice, or really afraid of making a huge mistake that will ruin our businesses, or, somebody will find what we're doing offensive or hurtful.

FoM posts will be about this - how to get over being afraid.

Because, my friends, you can't run or grow your business with no marketing.  Let me say that again.

YOU CANNOT RUN OR GROW YOUR BUSINESS WITHOUT MARKETING.

Yet, time and again, we avoid doing great marketing (or any marketing at all) because we're afraid.

Keep this one thing in mind, as you see FoM posts:

Doing marketing is not like getting a tattoo.  Most of our marketing is temporary and fleeting, to be published and forgotten as we come up with the latest and greatest.  It is the exceedingly rare campaign of any kind (great or awful) that is remembered past its execution period.

So don't let fear stop you from doing something potentially great!

Can't wait to explore this topic more!  Do you have any True Tales of Frightful Marketing? Have you ever let your fear stop you from growing your business?  Let me know!

Bombs Gone Wrong (Part 1)

On Tuesday, I wrote about marketing tactics, using the metaphors "farms" for slow growth long-term tactics, and "bombs" for short-term high-impact lead generation tactics.

I love the smell of marketing in the morning.

A bomb tactic will generate a lot of leads or attention or revenue, but the impact is very short-term. This would include promotions, events, sales, grand openings, coupons, sweepstakes, giveaways - anything that makes a big noise but has very little ongoing effect after the fact.

Setting off a marketing bomb is awesome and fun, but done poorly, it can be very bad news.  Setting one off the wrong way can at best waste your money, and at worst, damage your business (sometimes irrevocably).

Here's some examples of bombs going wrong.

Follow-Up Failure

You bought a booth at that big, well-attended, high-visibility expo.  You gave out a tons of stuff, collected a lot of leads, talked to a lot of great people, and got a lot of attention.  You just really had an awesome show...

... and then you just dropped the ball, as you did not plan time and process after the event to follow up and close with the leads.  Eventually, you might have gotten around to it weeks or months later, but by that time, it's no use, the "halo" of your event is now gone and those leads are now stone cold.

I'd bet this is the number one mistake we make with this kind of tactic - the lack of adequate follow-up.

When you set off a marketing bomb like an event, you MUST have a follow-up plan in place.  If you have to do it yourself, clear time in your schedule and put a process in place.

If you don't follow up, don't waste your time and money with the event.

Coupon Collapse

Or let's say you decide to send coupons out to drive business during a specific period.  Awesome, you have a huge uptick in leads, trials or sales during the coupon redemption period.

The coupon equivalent of the unmarked bill.

You didn't have in place a way to measure redemptions associated to sales nor did you plan out time after the redemption period to do this analysis.  So you're not really sure, objectively, what your margin erosion on sales associated to those coupons was nor what lift you may have had vs. a non-coupon redemption period.

Also, you decided to saturate the community with these coupons - and now, you've given away tons of margin without any way to follow up with the individuals who redeemed the coupons.

You've got to track what any tactic does for you!  You've got to have a way to follow up with customers!  Without that, you are just giving money away.

I'll continue expounding on this in Part 2 on Tuesday.

Need help with the issues I bring up here?  That's right up my alley!  Let me help - contact me today or leave a comment below!

Farming, Demolition, and You

When you "do" marketing, do you ever get frustrated when it takes a lot longer than you'd like?  Or how about the opposite problem - you do something that takes off so quick, it's hard to keep up?

Coming soon:  a fresh crop o' sales leads.

That's because marketing tactics (basically) fall into two categories.

Some tactics take a long time and lots of work to start generating leads, but when they do, they keep bearing fruit as long as you maintain and monitor them.  These tactics are "farms".

Others are quick hits for a big spike in business, but have little to no "tail" afterward, like a bomb going off.  These will generate a lot of leads quickly, but can't be maintained to continue producing leads (they must be replaced with a new campaign).  These tactics are "demolition".

Farming tactics include:

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

Demolition tactics include:

• Events
• Discounts, coupons and "sales"
• Sweepstakes, contests and promotions

A good marketing plan will include both categories of tactics, strategically placed in your marketing calendar, with the right measures and expectations in place.

Got any stories of the results of bombs or farms in your marketing plan?  I'd love to hear about it!

Burn Your Money

Mmm, tasty marketing fail.

Do it.

Put it in a pile and set it on fire.

I'm not kidding.  Well, kind of not kidding.

You are setting fire to your hard-earned cash when you engage in marketing tactics without a plan in place.  The big advantage of the burn-your-money school of marketing planning is at least you get a tasty toasted marshmallow in the process.

You see, it's very common for small businesses to do this - jump straight to tactics without any clear goals in mind.  It's easy to do - tactics take up most of the discussion in the marketing world.

But without a plan, you end up with no consistent brand position, different messages in different channels, no consistent idea of who you're talking to or why... it becomes a huge exercise in mystery and frustration and chaos.

It's no wonder so many of us get so irritated with marketing!

This is so easily fixed!

Simply take the time to sit down, evaluate who your target audience is, how you can serve them, how you can solve their problems, and what they need to know about you.  Articulate the "why" (why customers should choose you) before you go to the "how" (what you will say and where you'll say it).

The rest of the planning process is a lot easier and far less stressful once you do this.

And you won't be burning your money any longer!

Psst, I can help you with this, if you need a little guidance - drop me a note!

Leads to Nowhere

I'm a pretty active networker.

I try very hard to practice the principle of taking care of people I network with (assuming they will take care of me).  Part of that is that I try very hard to find good leads for the people I network with.

Note:  GOOD leads.

Sometimes that means that there is a person I network with that hasn't gotten a lead from me yet.  It's not that I'm not trying, I just haven't found a "hot" lead I think is worth his or her time.

Take my friend Eric Spawn.  Eric owns The Spawn Group, which does home remodeling and roofing.  I've known Eric for about a year and a half, and I like him a lot.

In the time I've known him, I've given Eric one lead.

One.

That lead didn't even lead to a job.  But I recommended Eric to someone I care a lot about, and I recommend him to you, too.  Remember, I take recommendations very seriously.

I am constantly looking for ways to get Eric a referral.  But I won't give him "leads" that aren't going to help him.  I like and respect him too much to waste his time.  I want to be sure that Eric has a good chance to turn a lead into business.

I'm pretty sure there's a good lead in here somewhere.

Sometimes, especially if you are in a leads referral group and are trying to "lock in" membership that requires leads to become a member, you grasp at straws, trying to think of ANY name to provide as a lead.

While usually this is well intentioned, what happens is that the person given the lead tries to develop it, and it turns out, the referral isn't really ready or willing to engage in business.  So it's basically a dead end.

So before you provide a lead, consider whether there is a reasonable chance that it will develop, or is it just a shot in the dark guess that it might work out.  If the latter - hold off, investigate it a little more yourself, and if you have a good feeling that it will turn into business, facilitate the introduction yourself.

Your referral partners will appreciate it - and do the same for you.

What do you think?  I'd love to hear from you!

Do You Even Rec, Bro?

Recently, a couple of very nice people sent me a mass message on LinkedIn asking me to provide a professional rating on some site they want to use.   It's basically for a site hosting an 'online business card' with ratings and such.

I'm not going to do that.

Of the two, one is a person I have some direct interaction with (i.e., I see them a couple of times a month or so at small business functions), and the other, not so much.

I have never done business with either of these people, and I don't know either well on a personal level.

No.  No I will not.

So to recommend or rate them (positively or negatively) would be disingenuous.

Or to put it more bluntly - it'd be a lie.

You see, when you recommend somebody, you are putting your own reputation on the line.

This is the same basic reason why, in leads referral groups, it can take some time to start seeing leads come your way (qualified leads, anyway). When a group member recommends you to a friend or customer, your performance reflects upon them, too.

And before you do that, you have to make sure that the person you're recommending is up to snuff and worthy of risking your own reputation.

This also applies to recommendations on web sites or in social media (especially LinkedIn).  I won't recommend anybody I don't know well, or I haven't worked with directly.

I want my recommendation to mean something.

So, do you even rec, bro?  If so - make sure it counts.