Two Hat Marketing -- Would YOU Do Business With YOU?

I always say: The Experience is the Marketing

What’s Your Free Soup To Go Strategy? http://ping.fm/srz3s

Is Marketing Keeping You Awake At Night?

I just read some interesting results from a recent study by Warrillow & Co. I have no idea who they, but their name sounds important.

The Warrillow study, conducted in March, compares small business fears with pain points:

"They are the nagging concerns that a small business owner can't quite put his/her finger on. They are the powerful uncertainties that keep entrepreneurs awake even when they are exhausted from a day's work."

And as the chart below indicates, the list of greatest fears is quite different from the most important pain points.

Interesting how their top pain point correlates with their top fear point, don't you think? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you are good at marketing, you're probably also getting sales. I understand sales can ebb and flow, but let's be frank. If you suck at marketing, your sales probably suck, too.

If there's one consistent theme I pound into my clients' heads, it's this: your primary daily function is MARKETING. I don't care what you produce and sell. I don't care if you have the greatest mousetrap ever invented. If your market doesn't know about it, you are out of business. If you are marketing to the wrong market or the wrong buyer, you are out of business. If your market doesn't agree they have a need for your product or service, you are out of business.

If we're in business, then it stands to reason we should all be students of marketing. We should always be working to get better at it. Most business people I've been around (not just small businesses) stopped learning anything new when they garnered their diploma. Most business owners haven't even studied marketing!

What have you studied lately that's expanded your knowledge of marketing? What new idea have you tested? Be a student of marketing.

I promise you'll sleep better.

Do You Have a Big Hairy Audacious Offer to Get Me Back?

I just received a VERY interesting letter from the Hyatt Gold Passport program.

Apparently I haven't been spending enough time at their properties lately and they want me back! That's very exciting.

I get stuff like this occasionally, and I have to tell you that usually the offer is pretty lame. You know what I mean. A pizza chain wants me to order for delivery again, so they "offer" free pepperoni on my next pizza (large only, does not apply to mediums)! Or a dry cleaners gives me a FREE shirt cleaning (when I bring it in with five other shirts). The offers are almost always bogus and worthless to me.

But Hyatt has caught my attention with their effort to get me back. Here's what the letter says:

Dear Mr. Steve A Miller,

We would like to help you experience all the benefits of your Hyatt Gold Passport membership, while welcoming you back with the warmest Hyatt hospitality. Please enjoy this exclusive offer with our compliments.

Enjoy USD$200 off your next stay at Hyatt.

USD$200 is a pretty good offer, is you ask little old me. The only catch is it must be for a minimum two night stay. You know what? I can live with that catch. The letter goes on to say i can use it for dining, golf fees, spa services and even my accommodations (I'm pretty sure that's my room).

I'm seriously thinking about taking them up on this offer. Why? Because it's a Big Hairy Audacious Offer, that's why. And in this recession, I think this is a great example of a company going above and beyond...thinking way out of the box (who came up with that stupid phrase anyway?)...doing what it takes to get some serious attention from customers...and making something happen.

Cash for Clunkers did this. Hyatt's doing this. I'm practically giving away valuable marketing advice in my $47 12-week Marketing Stimulus Package. And now Hyatt has spurred me to think of what else I can do.

What are YOU doing?

An example of using Social Media in the B2B world

Yesterday I did a webinar for the Association for Manufacturing Technology about how businesses could use blogs and YouTube as marketing/communication tools. One example I gave was the ability to produce personalized, one-to-one messages for clients and prospects.

Immediately after the webinar I received an email from one of the attendees asking a couple of questions. Recognizing this was a great opportunity to show an example of what I talked about, I recorded the above video. I recorded this, uploaded it to YouTube, and sent it less than 10 minutes after receiving the questions. Compare this with a regular email response. Much more powerful and effective, if you ask me.

BTW, if you haven't seen my Marketing Stimulus Package, I do talk about using Social Media. You can check out my seven free videos and then decide if you want to subscribe to the twelve lessons.

How business models help generate business plans

How Business Models Help Generate Business Plans /Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog/ - by: Alexander ... http://bit.ly/Lc3DD.

Marketing on the Evolving Sources of Information

Just heard about this post on Kevin Meyer's Evolving Excellence blog regarding social media marketing:

http://www.evolvingexcellence.com/blog/2009/07/marketing-on-the-evolving-sources-of-information.html

Thanks to Sean Blechschmidt for passing this one on to me!

My Country Club is Going Out of Business and It's Their Own Fault

My country club has me STEAMED.

First off, let's establish the fact that most country clubs in the U.S. are in financial difficulty. The recession has been particularly bad for this industry because, for the most part, membership in a club is discretionary spending. We don't NEED country clubs.

But our club is now in very serious trouble because it's losing members at an alarming rate and, IMNSHO, probably won't last in its current form for much longer.

The problem actually began about four years ago when the "leadership" decided we needed to drastically change our membership structure. Up until then we were like most country clubs -- your membership was forever. You couldn't walk away from it when you pleased. You owned a share of the club and if you wanted to leave, you had to find someone who would take over your share. Back in the hey-day of private clubs, shares could be very expensive (some clubs initiation fees rose into the six figures) and there might have been a waiting list of eager prospects to take your place.

No longer. The waiting list is gone and initiation fees have plummeted. Many clubs, mine included, had waiting lists to LEAVE the club.

Then four years ago, my club's leadership (listening to a vocal, whining minority) decided to change the membership structure. For a $2500 fee, we stopped the "lifetime ownership" policy and became a "give us four months notice" membership. (BTW, my wife and I voted AGAINST that change.)

It didn't take a rocket scientist to see this change in membership also required a change in business model, strategy, and marketing. Unfortunately, there were no rocket scientists in our club leadership, so they simply stayed the course."We'll be fine. We're in the private club business!"

It was clear to me our club needed to develop an aggressive marketing strategy. I offered my services as a marketing guy with some modicum of success in both running my own businesses, as well as consulting for a few teeny, tiny Fortune 100 corporations. In addition, I recruited a few other entrepreneurs in the club to help.

Why? Because we knew that our club wasn't in the private club business. It was in the MARKETING of a private club business. In fact, it always WAS in the marketing business. And guess what? YOU are in the marketing business! You are NOT in the manufacturing technology business. You are in the MARKETING of your manufacturing technology. You are not in the framed art business. You are in the MARKETING of your framed art business. You are not in the utility truck business. You are in the MARKETING of your utility trucks business.

It's easy to forget this when business is good. We focus on operations, stay really busy, and just take orders. But when times get a bit lean, we freak out and scream, "WE NEED TO CUT COSTS!" And that's what my club is doing now. For several months we've been getting detailed updates from the board about how they're cutting more costs. No more free peanuts in the bar. Fewer staff on duty. Employees get their paychecks slashed by 10%. And now they've let the GM go.

The problem is you can never cut costs to zero. There will always be costs.

I started getting steamed four years ago when the club leadership ignored the warnings from the entrepreneurs. "Marketing is Job 1," we said. "Marketing is more important than ANY other function or department in the club," we said. But we were ignored. We're STILL being ignored and it's probably too late. My wife and I gave our four month notice.

What about you? Are you ignoring the importance of marketing in your business? No? Then tell me, how much time did YOU spend marketing your business today? What was the #1 item on your To-Do list today? What about #2? #3?

I Recommend a New Book

I just finished reading Mike Schultz and John Doerr's new book, Professional Services Marketing, and I liked it. It's not perfect and I don't necessarily agree with everything Mike and John say, but then if I did, one of us would be redundant.

From a positive side, my favorite parts offered advice for building your brand. This is often difficult for professional service providers to do and too many end up using the same old words and pablum that every other professional services company uses. As I often say in my own articles and speeches, markets tend to develop a central strategic orthodoxy. The authors invest a good portion of the book (six chapters) for why it's important to invest time in building your brand, how to define your own brand, and how to communicate that branding proposition to your marketplace. Good stuff for newbies and good reminders for us old dogs.

I do part ways with the guys in Chapter 13, On Being Unique and Other Bad Marketing Advice. Here's an excerpt:

The need for being different is so well accepted, it’s considered simplistic
to even make the case for it. Why make a case for something everyone
already knows? Many conversations on being different thus center more on
how to be different and how radically to be different.

That we need to be different at all . . . accepted without further thought.

Well, put some further thought in it. The pursuit of being unique and
different has done disservice to many a service firm.

Actually, I'm not convinced Mike and John completely believe their own argument. Maybe they're looking to say something a bit against the grain of conventional thinking that will get people talking. (It's working. I'M talking about it!) And I'm okay with that. Nothing wrong with stirring up a bit of controversy.

Another good thing about Professional Services Marketing for me will be it's shelf life. I can see using it as a reference tool in the future, rather than donating it to Goodwill, where most books go after I'm done.

So good job guys. I give it thumbs up!

(BTW, if you do buy the book soon, go to this page after your purchase, <http://professionalservicesmarketingbook.com/bonus-materials>. The authors are offering some bonuses to early buyers.)

3 Marketing Tips You Can Use Right Now

Looking for some marketing ideas to kickstart new efforts? Here are three quick tips:

Referral Marketing: Learn the Law of Reciprocity

Wikipedia defines this as "...responding to a positive action with another positive action." If someone does something nice (positive) for us, we feel a sense of obligation to return that favor.

This goes beyond providing a good product or service. You're supposed to do that. This is going above and beyond what's expected of you. Remembering a client's birthday, or even better, his or her children's birthdays. Knowing your client has a special hobby and sending an article or book you discovered. Acknowledging a promotion with a handwritten note or gift.

The important thing here is your efforts must be sincere and personal. Selfish, insincere motives are easy to see through and will only boomerang. Think about what you can do for your individual clients that goes outside your normal business relationship. The fact is people do business with people. People do not do business with companies.

Look at What Everyone Else is Doing & Don't Do It

A very high percentage of businesses tend to follow a common strategic orthodoxy in their markets? All too often we promote our businesses using the same benefits (Quality! Service! Price!) as every one else. Too often we use the exact same marketing tools as everyone else! ("Say, did you see that postcard the National Widget Company sent out last week? We should do one, too!")

If your competition is using postcards, you send balloons. If your competition is blasting emails, you send faxes. When everyone else is zigging, you zag.

Call Your Customers and Ask How They're Doing

Then shut up and listen. Let me repeat that. Shut up and Listen. Don't talk about your product or service. This is NOT a sales call. This is for them to talk. This is for you to learn something new about their business...to show that you care...to learn about their challenges, opportunities, & problems without being led by pre-designed questions.

If you bring up ANYTHING about your own business in the call, they will know it's a sales call and they will know you are trying to manipulate them.

Get more marketing tips and tools in my new 12-week email course. Click here for more information:

http://www.marketingstimuluspackage.com