Strategy

Somewhere, there’s a trash can with your money in it.

Money TrashLet me ask a question regarding your marketing initiatives that might be of a sensitive nature for some:  How much of what you have planned for in the way of campaigns, media channels, tradeshow activity, collateral, etc., is a holdover from last year and the year before and the year before that?

Now, how many of those activities are part of “status-quo” thinking – it’s just what we’ve always done? How many of these things are ineffectual?  In today’s world of measurement metrics, internal analysis and ROI’s, some people would say non-producing activities would not be tolerated by upper management. Well here’s a news flash…these initiatives not only show up year after year but they’re staunchly defended by…upper management.

So why do companies keep investing in these programs and activities? Well, the thinking goes:  “We’ve spent $ XX,XXX (and maybe another X) into this. Plus we’ve already invested XXXX hours into the program. We can’t stop now or we’ll have lost everything.” All that’s being done here is engaging in the sunk-cost fallacy that describes the tendency to throw good money after bad. Psychologically, the more you spend on something, the less you’re willing to let it go.  But truth be told, once your money is spent, it’s gone. It has no relevance. What counts in terms of getting where you want to be tomorrow, is what that investment is worth to your organization today. It’s important not to consider past costs when making planning decisions, but to make decisions based on future costs and benefits.

There’s something else that marketers do that’s almost a bigger of waste of money than investing in ineffective programs and it’s really the genesis for this blog. What I’m talking about is the total lack of effort that’s put into making programs resonate as well as they could.

We all know that well-planned, well-executed strategic marketing is a lot of work. But then, so is filing for bankruptcy, selling off your assets and shuttering the business – which is the alternative to putting in the required effort. That makes me wonder why companies bother to invest in marketing activities and then put nearly zero effort into executing them. The creative is boring; the strategy is half-baked; the lackluster results are acceptable. This is just throwing good money after bad!

I stumbled onto a great example of this while clicking through the online exhibitor’s list for an upcoming industrial B2B trade show that covers a huge range of industrial services and equipment.  Reading the self-authored company descriptions posted by each exhibitor,  I was shaking my head in disbelief.  Here are just two examples, and believe me, others were even less informative:

“Manufacturer & supplier of Cable/Wire Harness Assemblies, Power Supplies  & Fans with Value-Added Capabilities.”

“Precision CNC turning and machining. Design and manufacturer of custom rubber products.”

There were literally dozens of entries like these and they were all written by the companies themselves! And they were free! The more I read, the more dumbfounded I became. Unique selling proposition? Strategic positioning?  Differentiation? Okay, let’s shoot lower. Let’s try for just a coherent company description.  How is any potential buyer supposed to even understand what value these companies could offer to them from those descriptions?

Trade shows are no small financial and time investment. Consider the possible costs: exhibitor fees, booth purchase, collateral materials, promotional giveaway, travel, meals, and man-hours spent on show logistics and for staffing the booth.  So why then would any company that commits to a trade show deliberately and willfully flush that investment away with company descriptions like this:

“Extrusions – profiles large & small, tubing, rod, bar stock, co-extrusion, drilling and forming. Thermoforming. Pressure forming – deep draw, sheet thickness .030 – .500, high volume, long or short runs.”

This isn’t even a company description. It’s a list of processes, none of which are unique to this company! You may be thinking, “Rolf, you’re being too hard on these people. They’re doing the best they can.”  Yeah, …NO.

Here’s a company description from another exhibitor at the same show:

“Recognized as one of the largest & most reliable service bureaus in the country, [Company] offers clients high quality/low cost tooling & manufacturing. We offer full service to assist our clients from concept through production, and have nationwide locations to serve you.”

At least it’s coherent.  This probably took the company rep who (possibly, late at night in his/her hotel room) wrote it in all of about five minutes. Maybe the rep even copied it from the company brochure. The funny thing is that lazy marketers are often the first to wonder why their budgets and customers have disappeared.

Marketing is hard work. But that isn’t an excuse for not putting in your best effort.  Or calling on professionals who know how to weave words into dollars.

While the above examples were for a tradeshow, throwing good money after bad certainly applies to other types of marketing initiatives as well, from ads to email campaigns.  As a marketing firm ourselves, we don’t treat anything we do for our clients in a ho-hum fashion…because our clients deserve to get their money’s worth.  Which is a lot more than what many companies do for themselves.  Time to stop spending good money after bad.

Lights, Camera, Boredom!

VideosI saw a video over the holidays and it got the better of me so much so that I have to say something because these types of videos just need to stop being created by “marketers.”

I’m talking about poorly conceived and produced online videos that we find on countless company websites and social media channels which are completely ineffectual.  You know the kind of video I’m talking about: it starts off looking like it was homemade and it never gets better; the on-camera ‘talent’ has none; it doesn’t know when to end; there’s an information overload going on which leads to boredom; no clear understanding of who the audience is; and most importantly, the “WOW factor” is completely hidden or missing.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what some companies have haphazardly slapped together in the name of “meaningful content video.”

As we all know, online video content has just exploded over the past couple of years and it’s going to keep getting bigger in the foreseeable future. For example, did you know….

  1. Each day, over 100 MILLION American watch online videos, an increase of 43% since 2010.
  2. About 46% of people say they’d be more likely to seek out information about a product or service after seeing it in an online video.
  3. 70% of B2B marketers use some form of online video with their overall strategies.

Yet we still have too many companies that create and post videos which are visual train-wrecks that unfortunately their customers and prospective customers will see.  With that in mind, and so that the next video you develop has a chance to be all that it can be, let’s talk about what good videos have in common:

  • Good videos contain real content
    • Good content should be engaging, relevant, and appropriate for the audience. Good content takes a stand. It has a voice, a point of view. It may be informative, useful, or funny but it always leaves you wanting more. Is the storytelling or narrative coherent and does it hold your attention? Does the content stay with you long after viewing it? Is the video like that of a woman’s skirt – short enough to be interesting but long enough to cover the subject?
  • Good videos are truly interesting from the viewer’s perspective
    • Internet viewing has created a world of people with ADHD.  Viewers will click the second they lose interest, so you have to hold their attention on every frame. Your scripting has to be based entirely on the viewer’s wanting to know “what’s in it for me?”  I’ve written about outside-in thinking.  Here’s where it really comes into play.
  • Good videos know who their audience is
    • Determine who you’re speaking to with the video. Are these new website visitors? Are they returning customers? What’s their mindset? How much do they know about your product or service already?  What do you want them to do next? What are their demographics?
  • Good videos have a purpose and know where they’ll “live”
    • Prior to the video having been developed, company/agency folks have decided how they want to share the video given their communication plan and goals. Synergies between different online social media channels (Facebook, YouTube) and other uses (emails, blog posts, landing pages, registration pages and corporate websites) have been determined…as have offline uses. Shooting and editing a video only to then decide what to do with it then creates unnecessary messaging and expense issues.
  • Good videos are leveraged
    • Good videos have relevant keywords incorporated into their descriptions and postings to insure they come up when searched.  Website or landing page URLs have been imbedded in the video for users to click (remember you WANT them to do something, right?).  The video is promoted through various means ranging from PR releases to e-newsletters, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
  • Good videos have high production values and a consistent look/tone/feel
    • Cheap-looking productions imply cheaply products from the company.  There is a level of production value that really good videos simply don’t dip below.  The audio and camera work for good videos is such that one can easily understand what’s being said and view the video without feeling the need to click away due to poor audio or shaky camera work. On-camera talent is professional. Users can easily spot a poorly done video, and if your video is not well produced, it suggests that you do not value your product/service.  Also, a consistency of look and branding in your video to the rest of your marketing efforts is a must.

So whether you’re creating a testimonial, promotional, “how-to” or other type of video, the idea is to make sure that people find it interesting, worth spending the time to watch and that it leads to the desired next step. Repeated viewings of your video generally indicates a positive overall experience. Repeatedly having your video, or future videos, being ignored means, well, you know what that means.

How to get Unliked out of a relationship

“Be interesting, be enthusiastic…and don’t talk too much.”                                                                                                                               – Norman Vincent Peale

How-to-Unlike-a-Page-on-Facebook-TimelineLike you, I’ve given companies, associations, causes, etc., permission to send me information on topics, product information and promotional offers. I knew going into this that some of these companies would be smart enough to know how to market online to their permission-based group and others wouldn’t have a clue. And I’ve been right on both counts.

Permission-based marketing is now at the heart of relationships between companies and their customers and prospects. People opt-in to receive your emails, “Like” your company on Facebook, subscribe to your website’s RSS feed or your You Tube channel, or follow you on Twitter or LinkedIn. But having permission to market to someone isn’t a license to bombard them with marketing messages.

In fact, not knowing when to “zip it” is a classic marketing mistake that too many marketing people make. If marketing is about building relationships with customers, over-marketing is the best way to kill the relationship and send the customer or prospect heading for the door. Just recently, yesterday to be exact, I came across a really interesting study entitled “The Social Breakup” prepared by ExactTarget, a company that provides clear evidence of what happens to customer relationships when the marketer comes on too strong:

  • 91% of consumers have unsubscribed from permission-based marketing emails
  • 81% of consumers have either “unliked” or removed a company’s posts from their Facebook.

Guess the biggest reason people break up with companies? (Drum roll)…Too much marketing. The study showed that:

  • 54% of consumers unsubscribe when emails come too frequently;
  • 63% of customers have “unliked” a company on Facebook due to excessive postings.

On that note, let me tell you a quick story about an industry association I did some freelance consulting for. Within their business specialty, they were the largest association in the country but people were increasingly not renewing their membership. After talking to the marketing department and executive management, two recommendations were made: 1) Cut in third the number of emails and direct mail pieces that were being sent out; 2) Find out why people were not renewing. Well, they didn’t like the first recommendation but did ‘humor’ me by taking my advice about doing the research.  When the member survey report was finalized it said that the #1 reason for members not renewing was a direct result of their being really bothered by the sheer number of emails they were receiving. Guess what the association did? They disregarded the research and went back to doing what they were doing…no lie!

So, how do you know when you’re over-marketing and about to kill a customer or prospective relationship? It can be a fine line, but here are some principles to guide your marketing planning to avoid this costly error.

  1. Ask your customers. The best way to understand how customers and prospects feel about the frequency of your promotions is to ask them. If most tell you the frequency is “about right,” then you’re on the right path.
  2. Measure your opt-outs. Count the number of people who are cutting off their dialogue with you by unsubscribing to emails, unfollowing you on Twitter, and unliking you on Facebook. If the numbers are escalating, over-marketing could be why.
  3. Understand your customer relationships. A customer who rarely or sporadically orders has a different relationship with your business than one who orders all the time. Regular customers might welcome frequent promotional emails with special deals, but sporadic customers are more likely to be turned off by too much marketing.
  4. Follow your own firm. Opt-in to your own promotions to put yourself in the customer’s or prospect’s shoes and find out what it’s like to be on the receiving end of your promotional messages. If even you get tired of hearing from your company, you’ll know it’s time to turn down the volume.
  5. Deliver more value. People may opt-in in hopes of getting deals from you, but a lasting relationship between a brand and a customer goes beyond special promotions. When you deliver content, insights, access, and other exclusive advantages that only those who have opted-in can receive, you create real reasons for the relationship to flourish.
  6. Coordinate your efforts. If there’s a few departments in your company sending out emails, Tweets, and Facebook posts to customers and prospects, this lack of coordination can create some permission-based chaos. In order to avoid over-promoting, set some boundaries and coordinate your efforts.
  7. Compare with that of your competitors. Take a look at the marketplace to get a handle on the volume or permission-based marketing activities. If you’re marketing much more frequently than your competitors, you could be the smartest marketer in the bunch or the one that people hesitate to start a relationship with because you talk too much.

At the end of the day, people opt in because they want to hear from you. But if you disrespect the relationship by coming on too strong, customers and prospects will flee. Treating your customers and prospects well is common courtesy; treating their permission to market to them as a gift is even better…it’s a smart marketing strategy. Have a wonderful holiday season.

Looking Back to the Future

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”  – Soren Kierkegaard

The last quarter of 2012 is almost history and as we welcome 2013 in just 33 days from today, we hope for a future that is successful, rewarding and where dreams will be realized. Having seen the start of more than a few “new business years” during my career, I’ve learned that you can do one of two things in preparation for a new business year. You can yet again try to create a brand new marketing strategy for the coming year or you can pause, look back and do some serious reflecting, resolving to change, or improve some aspect about how you will initiate your future marketing campaigns.  For some people, looking back over the past year may be something better left in the rearview mirror; on the other hand, burying your head in the sand can be seen as the primary ingredient in a recipe for another disappointing year…and you know how much the CEO/President/Owner/Founder loves that kind of thinking and pending poor results. So before one celebrates the dawn of a new year…take time to ask yourself what are you going to do to change? What does success in 2013 look like to you and your executive management team?

Speaking for myself and our firm, the end of each year is met with a healthy dose of optimism for the coming year. We see 2013 through a lens of hopefulness, that things will indeed get better. Is that just us or will you and your organization also view the coming year with a level of anticipation that you haven’t had for a few years? Hey, it’s been tough for most everyone out there but let’s remember that at least a few organizations — perhaps your own competitors — have fared better than most despite hard times. They’ve not wasted a good recession by sitting still. So what have they done to plot a course for a more optimistic and profitable path for success in 2013?

Depending on marketplace factors coupled with how well you were able to strategically position your company, the past year was either seen as a success or another year of disappointment. Success if you were able to grow your share of the proverbial pie (maybe at the expense of your competitors) or be sufficiently positioned to stay in business to fight the fight for another year. Or disappointment if things didn’t turn out so well because…(you can fill in the blank). The question that begs to be asked here is, how much last year’s success or disappointment was because of something you had no control over, such as good luck or bad luck, and  how much was because of something you did or didn’t do given how the marketplace was shifting?  I’ve found through personal experience this is the time to ‘come clean’ and be honest with yourself.

Hey, I’m all for a bit of luck but you probably don’t want to continue betting future success on lucky things happening in the coming year.

With this in mind, here are a few questions to ask yourself as thought starters as you begin the process of looking in the rearview mirror to last year and through your windshield to the next:

  • What marketing activities worked for you and which ones didn’t in 2012?
  • What 2-3 trends did you notice took place in your industry and outside of it that you need to incorporate into 2013 activities?
  • What 5 pieces of really good customer feedback did you receive this past year that you need to take deliberate action on?
  • Is there one part of your marketing activities that if it got more attention could yield better results?
  • What are the 2 mission-critical initiatives that absolutely need to be accomplished by June 30th?
  • What are the top 3-5 problem areas that could impact your bottom line or stunt the growth of your brand if you don’t tackle them now?
  • What are the 3-5 opportunities that could grow your bottom line, brand visibility and preference?

As marketers, one thing we know for sure is that change will not stop in 2013. The economy will continue to shift on us —hopefully with less drama. But by reflecting back on 2012, taking control of your marketing activities rather than being tossed around by the waves in the marketplace, along with thinking optimistically about what 2013 can hold, 2013 might actually be a year worth celebrating.  It will be for us and hopefully will be for you as well.

What Political Advertising can Teach B2B/B2C Marketers

I’m so glad it’s over. Probably like you, my home phone was being called at an increasing rate the closer that we got to Election Day. Candidate faces and names were everywhere and on everything from direct mail to lawn signs, outdoor boards to TV and radio commercials.  As annoying as it was, there were a number of messaging strategies and tactics that caught my attention because they were executed exceedingly well, which we as marketers should consider adding to our communication toolkits for use tomorrow, next week or next month. For as we all know, your customer and prospects are still being bombarded with marketing messages each and every day by both you and your competitors.

So let me share with you some strategies and tactics used by politicians leading up to November 6th  that are worth remembering.

1)      Understand the takeaway
Truth is, these folks do have some things to teach us marketers, particularly regarding messaging. They see the world a bit differently than we do, and use techniques most people didn’t learn in school or on the job, such as: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear. You can have the best message in the world, but the person on the receiving end will always understand it through the prism of his or her own emotions, preconceptions, prejudices, and existing beliefs. We focus too much of our energy on finding the best way to sell our message, and too little on understanding the filters consumers have as we deliver it. Political marketers care more about takeaways than inputs.

2)     Make it look good
Have you seen the biographic videos produced by the two Presidential candidates? They were extraordinarily well done. A number of other political ads were also well done from a storytelling and video perspective. They stayed on message knowing the one critical point (not 4 or 5 points) that they want to make sure was communicated. The videos were shot and narrated well. They didn’t hire amateurs to do their work but had expert writers and producers creating the content. Like with your business, there’s too much at stake to do cheap stuff because everyone knows what cheap means. People interpret what your company/brands stands for based on the quality of creative and the media channel it’s presented on. Don’t go out until you look good.

3)     Be the genuine article
Business marketing sometimes seems to stretch the truth a bit too much. When marketing messages are sufficiently public and sufficiently wrong, the press will get wind and call you on the truth of your marketing. Transparency of your brand could never be more important. It is less about giving the appearance of perfection and more about being genuine and human as we build relationships. While it’s critically important to tell your story and the benefits of your product or service, it’s not fine to lie about them. My mom use to tell me “Lies have short legs.” Meaning, you can’t outrun the truth …so don’t stretch it very far.

4)     You are who you say you are
In the world of politics, I would argue that there’s nothing as important as branding and having people recognize what the brand stands for. Brand consistency is always maintained.  Unlike politicians, too many companies struggle with this, swinging wildly from one branding concept to another. Everything from the taglines, to the logos, to the visuals has been choreographed beautifully. Get your branding figured out right now. Here are a few questions to ask yourself to determine if your branding is clear:

  • Could your customers tell you what your tagline is?
  • Could company employees draw your logo?
  • Can any employee explain in 10-15 seconds why your company can do it better than the competition?

5)     Be social..not antisocial
Politicians don’t just post stuff to their respective Twitter or Facebook accounts and hope people will read it. Rather, they actually engage with their social media audience. They post images and video. They have their immediate families and supporters use social media regularly. How is your company using social media to spread the good word about your company? I’ll be the first to say that spending a lot of time, money and resources on social media is not right for every company, maybe even yours, but without some presence, you’re letting the competition become more visible and be seen as a legitimate business partner at your expense.

6)     Telling the story again and again
Why are some political ads annoying? Some of it is the content, but I think most of the annoyance is the quantity of political advertising as elections draw near. But politicians know one thing: without a communications budget that allows you to be out in the market in a way that shows you’re “a player”, you won’t get the job done. Far too many companies who do ‘invisible marketing’ base their companies short and long term success on thinking that customers will pick them over a brand that’s actively marketing and better known. The takeaway is that repetition is key …but too much repetition annoys.

As I said earlier, I’m glad the madness of the political advertising season is over but I’m grateful to have learned a few things because each and every day customers and prospects are voting who they want to do business with.  Let the winner be you.

Just how trustworthy are you really?

A friend and I were watching a football game on TV when a commercial came on for a paint retailer.  At the end of the commercial, my friend said “I don’t trust them for a minute. They don’t look or sound the part at all.” I started thinking about why some companies are trusted and others aren’t.  And so I’ll pose the question to you: in today’s marketplace, with people not wanting to be sold to but rather base their purchase decision on many other factors, is your company better off just selling products and services or selling trust along with your products?

One of the greatest demonstrations of selling trust came about years ago when Chrysler Corporation was being dragged back from the brink of extinction by its then CEO, Lee Iacocca. Chrysler was seen as having a flawed product and not to be trusted to build a good car. Lesser men would have resorted to selling at the cheapest price with giant discounts and 0% interest. They would have also gone down with the ship by making futile arguments about the features/benefits of the cars. Iacocca rejected this thinking and instead sold his personal guarantee…his promise…by saying “If you can find a better car, buy it.”

So then, what are the few key factors that will make your business such a trusted and relied-on presence in your customers’ lives that they will stay with you – and spend with you – for many, many years?

As I write this, virtually every advertiser, marketer and seller struggles in an un-trusting world. The public has very, very, scorched fingers and badly-bruised confidence. The temptation to overcome this mistrust with stronger product pitches, cheaper prices or deeply discounted fees – did I mention, cheaper prices – is enormous.  And dangerous. To do so worsens the fundamental problem of low trust and deprives you of the finances needed to effectively market at all.

Unfortunately, and we all see it in our personal and business lives, there are bunches of companies out there who are “hit and runners.”  They’re more in the business of getting customers to make sales rather than making sales to get customers. The first provides only income. The second provides income and equity. It’s sort of like the difference between dating and a long-term marriage. It’s about being there and having the other person’s back. That the other knows you care about them. That you find ways to stay interesting and relevant over the years. Sad but true, most marketers don’t really think about a long-term marriage with customers. They take it for granted or give it no importance. They’re focused on income not equity. Like you, I buy things from stores or service providers where not even a feeble attempt at creating an ongoing relationship is made. I think the thinking is “We did OK, he’ll be back.” Well, maybe and then again maybe not.

So, what can companies do from a marketing standpoint to start the process of building trust within the minds of their current and prospective customers?  Here are eight thought-starters:

  1. Be transparent in your marketing! Never promise anything you can’t follow through with! Don’t have a great offer but with a string attached that’s a deal breaker for most people.  Make it simple, straightforward and beneficial.
  2. Let customers know of organizations you are members of as well as awards/accomplishments your company has achieved. On your website, you can link to many of these organizations. A little bit of acknowledging someone else never hurts.
  3. Be involved with a worthwhile cause not because it might look good but because it’s important to help others. Find a cause that might be relevant to local needs (i.e collect old coats for the needy), or a cause that’s close to your heart (i.e. Special Olympics).
  4. Follow up with customers to make sure they are happy with your product or service. The worst thing that could happen would be for an unhappy customer to post a negative comment about your business transaction on Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, AngiesList, etc.
  5. Think creatively about what you can guarantee that will make you stand out. For example, tell customers you’ll return every inquiry within 12 hours or that all appointments will be met on-time. State some facts that distinguish you from the competition and fulfill them over and over again.
  6. Watch your language and avoid puffery. Your “state-of-the-art” new widget will not “revolutionize” business or “totally change” life as we know it. Consumers have seen and heard it all. You can also use humor to crack the trust wall so long as it’s on message and makes customers remember you.
  7. Treat employees the way you want them to interact with customers and you’ll be developing brand ambassadors. Everywhere employees go, they will talk up the benefits of your company.
  8. Be sure your marketing materials come across as authentic..not cheesy, cheap or full of clichés. Oh, and make sure that they look and sound better than your competitors’. People take their cues on whether to trust/do business with a company based on what the marketing/advertising looks like and where it’s placed. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish.

So, while we as marketers understand that we’re in the business of helping drive revenue for the company among other challenges, let’s not lose track of the fact that it’s always easier to derive sales from an existing customer versus that of a new customer. And that only happens if they trust you. And they’ll only trust you if you look and act the part. Don’t have your company be a “poser”…you’ll be found out!

It’s the sizzle that sells the steak…not the cow.

by Rolf Gutknecht, Agent of Change (c) 2012

A friend of mine sent me a video by email last week that, as a marketer, I loved. It was one of those ‘old school’ videos featuring “America’s best salesman”…Elmer Wheeler, who’s message is as relevant and meaningful today as it was when he delivered in the 60’s. After watching it a number of times, and because of the subject matter, it made me think of an interesting way to look at what the brand experience is all about.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW6HmQ1QVMw]

So here goes:

Imagine that you and your significant other decide to go to a well-known, fancy-schmancy steakhouse for a special night out dinner. Have that in your mind? Good. Now, picture another steakhouse of similar reputation. Both of the steakhouses prepare the same quality of steak but with one difference….. whereas the first restaurant makes a steak the way it’s supposed to be made (a thick clean cut, placed on the center of the plate) and presented with some tasty vegetables nicely positioned on the side and professionally put on the table, the second restaurant has a similar plate presentation but with no steak on it. Their steak gets delivered just a minute later on a hot stone tablet to your table…simmering and sizzling. The waitress presents the steak with elegance, and sprinkles some salt and pepper on top. While the aroma of the steak makes your mouth start to water and the sizzle gets your full attention, she begins to tell the story of the family who own the vineyard of the wine you selected. What a different brand experience that is! Same item, same quality, different way to engage the consumer. The difference isn’t about the steak but rather about the sizzle.

So why does the “sizzle” matter?

1. Anyone can make good steak

As we know, product or service quality is a fragile thing. No matter how many patents you have, how well you have integrated your supply chain and perfected your quality standards, no matter how much money you spend on R&D, anyone who really, really wants to go after you will eventually copy what you do or make and perhaps even perfect the product you so passionately protected.

2. The sizzle is a difficult thing to copy

Branding, brand equity and brand engagement are difficult to copy. They are strongly linked to your brand, and your brand alone. The depth of everything “surrounding” the product is complex, deep and interwoven with stories, emotions, associations, you name it…all those good things that make a brand unique!

3.      The sizzle adds the emotional layer

Back to the restaurant example: Guess what? People will come back for more. Not just for the steak, but for the feeling they get when they are IN that experience. Human beings thrive on emotions, and seek repeat of pleasure.

Now, I’m not suggesting for one minute to only focus on the sizzle. Without that good, juicy, perfectly cut and excellently cooked filet mignon steak there is no reason to add sizzle in the first place! The sizzle is the icing on the cake; without cake there is no need for the icing.

Selling the sizzle and not the steak is something good marketers have known since forever. Give your customers the meal that they desire…and they will come back for it time and time again.

Read before Burning – Ten Tidbits to Turnarounds

by Rolf Gutknecht, Agent of Change (c) 2012

I’m not sure about you, but in the deluge of emails that comes my way each and every day, it’s real easy start deleting them without even thinking about whether there’s content that might make my life and that of my clients easier and better. So, I stopped doing that about 6 months ago and now take the time to open each one and at the very least scan for interesting info. Maybe I’ll see something about trends, or research data, facts, or a tidbit about helpful hints. Without doing so, I’d miss out on stuff I should know about and, respectfully said, that’s probably the case with you as well.

Well, with your indulgence, I wanted to share with you 10 pieces of information that you may not be aware of which in turn will help you grow your business by seizing on untapped revenue-producing opportunities. So, here goes:

  • Recent stats released by Google show that 1 in 7 searches originate on a mobile device and of those, 1 in 3 are looking for a local business.  A report from IDC last spring forecasts that search traffic from mobile will surpass desktop and laptop based search in the next 2½ years.  With search and traffic trending toward mobile, what are you doing to ensure your online properties are constructed to support and look good on mobile devices? Opportunities could be lost otherwise.
  • Are you having trouble finding content for your blog and newsletters? Luckily, there is a host of free tools that can make finding content for your blog or email newsletter easier, regardless of the topic. But before you start using these tools, you’ll need a list of keywords related to your hot topics. The five free content sources that can inspire ideas for your email newsletters, blog posts, articles and other marketing materials are: 1) Google Alerts 2) Scoop.it 3) Alltop 4) Digg and 5) Delicious.
  •  Strategy = social media success. Research shows that organizations achieving the most success with social media are ones who select channels LAST. Instead, they formulate and follow a strategic plan, complete with objectives, target audiences, success metrics and more. Being everywhere is not the goal. Being effective at what you do is.
  • YouTube delivers more than entertainment. A well-executed YouTube strategy can actually drive business to your company and boost search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. As the world’s second largest search engine, YouTube is a smart option for extending your reach through a branded channel or sponsored advertisements (the ones that precede videos).
  • Email is the dominant digital communication channel of our day. According to ExactTarget’s 2012 Channel Preference Survey, email today is the channel they prefer for permission-based marketing messages. In fact, an overwhelming 77% of all consumers surveyed prefer to receive promotional messages from companies via email compared to 5% who prefer text messages and 4% who prefer Facebook. Today, if you want to drive retention and repeat usage, there isn’t a better way to do it than email.
  • Although affluent Americans are spending more time online and adopting mobile devices at an exponentially increasing rate, traditional media channels still have great reach among these estimated 59 million US adults with $100,000 in annual household income, according to an Ipsos MediaCT survey released in September 2012. And when it comes to ad receptiveness, the largest proportion of affluents surveyed said they were most receptive to ads on TV, followed by magazines and newspapers.
  • According to  eMarketer, tablet penetration will reach 29.1 percent of Internet users by the end of 2012. And according to another research study, tablets’ share of website traffic is on track to exceed the traffic of smartphones by early next year. Importantly for marketers, tablet consumers over-index among affluents: 60% of tablet users live in households with annual incomes of $75,000 or more.
  • The rise of mobile shopping has been a bit of a double-edged sword for some marketers, especially retailers. With shoppers able to comparison-shop on their smartphones while standing in the aisles, there’s been a troubling rise in “showrooming,” the consumer practice of checking out products in store, then buying the cheapest one online. The two biggest challenges brick-and-mortar retailers face are getting traffic and then converting the traffic into a sale. Customer loyalty programs and manufacturer supported/paid-for in-store merchandising are on the rise. Due to the competitive environment, retailers are likely to lean harder on manufacturers.
  • Baby Boomers make up approximately 40% of consumer demand and companies who see this audience as a big source of revenue are still relying on — and growing media budgets for — “old school” channels like newspapers, television and outdoor.  Online usage with the group is growing but “old” is still king.
  • Based on the results of Exhibit Surveys, Inc. Annual Trade Show Trends report,  81% of trade show attendees in 2011 had the power to make a purchasing decision or influence the purchasing decision and 35% of attendees reported that their intent to buy was more favorable after visiting an impactful company’s exhibit.  This means that for businesses that exhibit, the value of attending trade shows lies not only in meeting decision makers or influencers in the buying process but also in building brand loyalty and brand awareness.

As I said, it’s easy to delete a bunch of good information that comes your way because of time constraints, being short staffed or being overwhelmed with email after email.  But this is all good information that I received and looked over before I hit the delete key.  If you’ve read this far, you’ve made the same thoughtful decision as well.

Stand out, or don’t bother!

by Rolf Gutknecht, Agent of Change (c) 2012

We grew up with the belief that the best idea always wins. The best person always wins. If you build a better mousetrap people will beat a path to your door. That might have been true when the world wasn’t inundated with one sales and marketing message after another. But the fact is, today the best idea does not win. The best idea does not get credit and the best product does not win if nobody pays attention in the first place. (Take 5 more seconds and reread that last sentence and let it wash over you.)

It doesn’t matter how great your blog is if nobody reads it. It doesn’t matter how creative your ad is if you don’t have money to run it. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best food manufacturer, if nobody buys your products. It doesn’t matter if you’re the best hospital if people in need go elsewhere. It’s not about being the best. It’s about finding a way that you can take who you are, what you make, and what you offer and create a relationship with prospects and current customers that is instantly captivating.

Think of it like this. Imagine that on the other side of the door from where you are is where relationships happen, loyalty happens, sales happen, profits happen.  On the other side of the door, success awaits.  But to get there, we have to get through the door. And before we do that, we have to knock.  And if we can knock in a compelling, persuasive and interesting way and introduce ourselves, and if we provide people/customers with messaging and content that is instantly captivating, and if we knock in the right way, then the door opens and we get to go through to the side where all the good stuff lives. But to ignore the door that you have to go through is setting yourself up for failure.

The reason is that we live in a world with ADD due in large part to the addictive nature of the Internet. The average attention span used to be 5, 10, 15 minutes, but now, the average attention span today is roughly 9 seconds. Nine seconds! Your brand might only get 9 seconds to communicate a message, earn a little bit of loyalty, build a little bit of trust so you can continue the conversation before your customer starts getting distracted!  Nine seconds isn’t a lot of time, so what could you possibly say in that time or less to get someone’s attention? I think it starts with presenting your message in a way that’s captivating in clever and unexpected ways. It grabs people’s attention and has them focusing on the message and not thinking about the other stuff that could come into their mind. They’re engaged…captivated. In doing so, you start connecting with them, which allow you to persuade them.  Get them to trust you.  Get them to believe you. Get them to want to connect with you. So when your competitor tries to pull them away, they stay loyal.

Having been in the advertising/marketing business for quite a number of years, working on Fortune 100 accounts and mom-and-pops, and everything in between, I’ve seen and learned a few things I want to pass along:  As a company, you have a choice. You must either have an enormous budget to make sure no one in your category can compete with you OR you have to captivate people’s attention. With a big budget you can drive awareness through exposure over and over again to make sure you get your message out in front of your customer – even if you have a boring message.  The other choice is if you don’t have the biggest budget (raise of hands please), in which case you have to have a captivating message so customers will pay attention, listen, remember and act upon it. What you can’t do is NOT have the biggest budget and NOT have a compelling, fascinating, attention-getting message at the same time. Then you fail and go out of business. That’s just the fact! My guess is that you could name a few companies in your business category that are no longer around because they were ho-hum..right?

Forgettable and boring marketing materials, tiresome page-turning ads  or lackluster customer service will not get it done. People forget stuff in under 9 seconds if it’s anything less than captivating, enamoring or entrancing. Ask yourself why it is that you remember some ads or marketing messages.  It’s not because they look or sound like every other company or ad or they use business babble that says nothing. Not a chance. You remember them because they had a strong, unexpected point of view and a distinctive message. They were captivating.

So, as you begin planning for 2013 and thinking about how to make it the best year yet, I’d ask that you reread the title of this blog and use it as the mantra for your future marketing initiatives. It’s that significant.

Is the best-kept secret in marketing YOU?

In my day-to-day work, I speak and meet with a number of companies that are really good at what they do.  In fact, some are just outstanding at their specialty or niche. The problem is that too few people know about them. You practically need to trip over them to know that they exist.

Almost invariably, the VPs of Sales & Marketing for these companies voice their frustrations over the fact that while the company is good at doing what they do, they’ve not grown sales, nor increased their customer bases or product volumes, nor enhanced their brand visibility as their executive management team would have liked. In many ways, their companies end up becoming their respective industries’ dreaded “best kept secrets.” If this sounds painfully familiar, let me offer up a reason why this has happened and how to avoid this trap.

First, one needs to remember that there are two different sides to your business.  One is what I call “inside reality” and the other is “outside perception.” The “inside reality” are all the things your business does that makes it valuable to customers and gives you a competitive advantage in the marketplace. It’s all your skills, people, expertise, service, commitment to excellence, passion, and the way you conduct your business.

I’m sure that if you asked your customers why they bought from you, they could tell you something quantifiable, specific, and instantly obvious. They might point to specific benefits for doing business with you and say,  “That’s why I do business with you, that’s why I refer my friends to come here, that’s why I’m a loyal customer, that’s why I don’t mind paying a bit more for your products, that’s why I keep coming back.”

The problem then isn’t your “inside reality” but the “outside perception,” which is how prospects PERCEIVE your company, if they perceive it at all. Very commonly, there’s a fundamental disconnect between your inside reality and outside perception.

See, regardless of how good you are, or how good your “inside reality” is, your prospect isn’t going to be able to figure it out based on marketing that doesn’t address their outside perception.  Take, for example, a bank that offers personal service.  Their inside reality is they greet every customer by name, open the doors as each customer enters and leaves, and offer individual financial advice based on the customers’ specific banking needs.  We’ll also assume their current customers are genuinely impressed.  But the outside perception of non-customer prospects is that all banks are pretty much the same and all talk about personal service while most don’t deliver on the promise – and it’s not really that important to them anyway.  Once a bank starts from that outside perception as the basis of their marketing, the solutions become entirely different.  And so do the results.  But the bank that continues to market based on such inside realities, especially in a non-creative or expected manner, will remain invisible to prospects because they’ve seen it all before.

You have to start by seeing your marketing through the eyes of a jaded, disinterested prospect who thinks they know all there is to know about you, or at least about the business you’re in.

So while “best kept secrets” might be seen as good for restaurants, traffic shortcuts and travel destinations, they’re NOT great for business.  Don’t get lost in the noise.  Whether it’s online, offline or thru social media channels, wave your ‘marketing arms’ and let people know you’re there.  Because being in business and not promoting your value as you should is like winking at a cute girl (or guy) in the dark. You may know what you’re doing but she or he sure doesn’t.

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