The 15 Minute Marketer: Make It Easy or They’ll Run The Other Way

“Hello.  You’ve reached ABC restaurant.  If you get this message during normal business hours, we are either on the other line or helping a customer. Please call back in a few minutes. If you get this message after normal business hours, please leave a message and we’ll call you back.”

Guess I need to sharpen my ESP skills!

I’m looking for a specific item from a particular company.  The item costs about $4.  I’m told by the sales gal that they do indeed have this item, but it’s only available as a gift if I buy $50 worth of that company’s product. She spends 5 minutes explaining why I can’t get this as a stand alone item — it would mess up their inventory tracking system since the item doesn’t have its own SKU number, and it also wouldn’t be fair to the manufacturer.

Excuse me?? 

I find this elusive item in an outlet type store.  I approach a cashier to pay.  She tells me that I need to stand on the one line that feeds into all the payment stations.  There are a least a dozen people in line for 3 registers, all with a number of things in their arms.  I say, “This is only one small thing for under $4. Everyone else has a lot to purchase. Don’t you have a check out line for just a few items?  Can’t I just pay quickly and be gone?”  She says, “No. That’s the rule.” I decline to wait 20 minutes to make a $3.79 purchase.

In the time it took to have that conversation, she could have completed the transaction.

I’m on a business trip and looking for a rental car.  I call Enterprise because they can pick me up.  They’re very busy and take my number to call me back.  After several minutes I call back; they are still busy and promise to get back to me as soon as they can.  It’s getting close to the end of the day when all the rental companies close down, so I call another company and get someone to drive me there.  On the way, the gent from Enterprise calls me back, apologizing for the delay. When I tell him I couldn’t wait any longer and have made arrangements with a competitor, he says, “OK, great. As long as you’re taken care of, that’s what’s important.  I hope you’ll give us a call next time.  Is there anything else I can do to help you before we hang up?”

I’m staying at a hotel for a conference that has promised free WIFI, but their system is down with a part needing replacement. Due to miscommunication among the staff, I’ve spent hours trying to fix what has turned out to be their problem. I ask to see the general manager, who makes time for me right away. He listens fully, apologizes for the inconvenience and misunderstanding.  “What can I do to make this better?”  he asks.  “Well,” I reply, “I’ve got some critical time sensitive things to complete. I’ve had to rent a car so I can go somewhere that has Internet access since you promised I’d have it here and you don’t.  How about paying for the rental car?”  “No problem,” he says, “Just get me a copy of an invoice and we’ll take that amount off of your bill.”

The biggest lessons you can learn about business are from your own experiences.  No matter what field, good outcome or bad, if you take the time to observe, consider and adapt, you’ll learn essential fundamentals that will put more money in your pocket.

So, do you make people jump through hoops or is it easy and pleasant to for them to connect and transact? Which kind of business owner are you?

The 15 Minute Marketer: ‘5 Reasons Why Writing Is An Essential Marketing Skill

Whether you’re an expertise-based entrepreneur or a brick-and-mortar small business owner, being able to communicate well in writing with potential and current cusomters is an absolute must. 

Whether you like to write or dread it, if you want to be a successful and profitable business owner, you MUST be engaged in a continuous conversaton-in-writing with the kinds of people you want to attract and keep as customers.

Writing is the primary way we stay in touch with, serve and grow our “tribe”.  If you’re an on-line company, it’s about e-mails, signature files, bios, web sites, sales letters and blogging.  Others who have more traditional types of businesses often use mailers, print or email newsletters, and “sales brochure” web sites (these don’t work really well, but that’s a whole other article!).  [NOTE:  Many off-line businesses can get great ides from the on-line folks, and vice versa.]

Unless you’re among the lucky few who have the means to hire a professional copywriter, here are 5 reasons why EVERY business owner needs to continuously learn and keep working on their busines copywriting skills.

1.  According to marketing guru Dan Kennedy, after doing business with you for a year or two, there’s a good chance that customers will move on to someone else in your field UNLESS they percieve they have a relationship with you. Good writing is one of the primary ways to express your personality and individuality to lots of people at the same time. The more you reveal deliberately chosen aspects of yourself, the more they’ll want to stick around.

2.  Many business owners work in fields with large numbers of other professionals who, on the surface, all look pretty much alike.  Even modestly Well written marketing materials in your unique “voice” help you stand out from the crowd.

3.  Most people don’t take the time to pay attention to their writing, and so it winds up sounding generic and vanilla.  Sometimes there are glaring mistakes that give an unprofessional impression.  Even as little as an hour or two a month dedicated to sharpening your writing skills will have a huge impact.

4.  We’re all busy and overloaded with more and more information.  People only visit a web site for a few seconds unless something captures their attention. Articles, letters, e-mails, blog posts, newlsetters et.al. will wind up in the trash unless you grab your readers’attention with your headlines and first couple of sentences. You CAN learn how to do this well enough to get the results you want.

5.  Everyone’s tired of fluff and BS. Time is precious. We long for things of substance, authenticity and worth.  Write well so that you can deliver the brilliance within you that will serve others and enable them to transform their lives.

This week, use your 15 Marketing Mambo minutes every day to get in the habit of capturing ideas: 
1. Get yourself a great looking little note book and cool pen.  Carry them everywhere.
2. Start noticing stuff that happens around your brilliant topic(s). It’s kind of like buying a red car and then noticing all the other red cars on the road.
3. In your little book, jot down your observations, ideas, ironies, annoyances around this subject.  Let it flow.  Start with simple words or phrases to remind you. Be free, be bold, be honest. NO judgment — capture it all.
4. Watch what happens and write that down, too!

The 15 Minute Marketer: Make Time For Your Most Important Client

One of my oft-repeated ‘mantras’ is that the most important job of every business owner is to market their business.  When I ask entrepreneurs about their biggest challenges, one of the most common things I hear is, “I just don’t have the time to do marketing!”

 

How do we find the time to do what is THE most critical element in the continuing success of our companies? 

It’s all about creating new habits of thought and action, one step at a time.

 

There will always be urgent and important items that require our attention.  There’s a never-ending stream of e-mails to answer, phone calls to make, bills to pay, topics to research and meetings to attend.  If you keep expecting to ‘find’ the time — you won’t. The key is to adjust your thinking:  it’s about MAKING the time. 

 

When we attract a new client, we delegate tasks, postpone reviewing e-mails and eliminate all other distractions so that we can focus completely on their concerns and goals. We must begin to treat ourselves in exactly the same way — in essence, to realize that we are our most important client.

 

When you make a commitment to a client, don’t you keep it?  When you’re meeting with them, you set aside specific, uninterrupted time completely dedicated to them, right?  It’s time to think of yourself and your company as deserving — and needing — the same treatment.

 

Here are two suggestions for your 15-minute-a-day Marketing Mambo activity for this week:

 

First, to create a new thinking habit, it helps to observe your beliefs and attitudes.  Pay attention to your self-talk whenever you think about marketing or someone mentions it.  What are you saying to yourself? It even helps to write these thoughts down.

 

Often a shift in language — even one word — can change everything.  For example, if you’re thinking, “I can never find the time!” notice that.  Catch yourself, and ask, “OK. I’m going to MAKE time this week for marketing. What needs to happen for me to do that?” Take a moment right now and consider both of these self-talk options. 

 

Which one is energizing, hopeful, action oriented, promises possibilities?  Which one shuts down thinking, closes off opportunity, derails problem solving?

 

Changing behavioral habits CAN be accomplished, step-by-step.  Start by looking at your calendar for this week.  Come on, grab that day timer or open up your Outlook!  Block out 2-3 small segments — 15 minutes each — during which you will ABSOLUTELY COMMIT to working on your marketing. Pretend these slots belong to a brand new client who is paying you the highest fees you have ever received. 

 

The specifics don’t really matter — do some reading, start revising your bio, make a list of e-zine topics — just as long as you are focusing on taking actions that directly relate to marketing YOUR business.  And, to help you keep your commitment to yourself, share your intentions with someone who will hold you accountable — a business buddy, coach, assistant.  Set yourself up for success by telling them what you’ve scheduled.  Promise to let them know that you’ve kept your appointment with yourself and share what you’ve done. Request that they follow up with you if they don’t get your report. Often, just knowing that someone else is expecting to hear from us propels us forward!

 

In the safety lectures before flying, we’re told that if oxygen masks drop down we need to help ourselves first by putting ours on before we assist anyone else. A great reminder!

The 15 Minute Marketer: ‘Feature Your Benefits To Boost Your Business’

Imagine this:  You arrive home from a day out to find water leaking from under your kitchen sink and rapidly spreading across your newly installed wood floor. You grab your phone book and call a plumber, who happens to be in the neighborhood and shows up within a few minutes. So far, so good.

She sets her bulging bag on your counter, and begins to sketch out her background for you — when she first decided to become a plumber, where she received training, with whom she apprenticed, how long she’s had her business. Then, she opens her tool kit, and starts to describe in detail the purpose and function of each piece of equipment.  Meanwhile, the water continues to spread — now it’s approaching your new carpeting in the living room!

Aren’t you excited to learn about all these features?

Of course, no plumber in her right mind would behave this way — that is, if she wanted to have a successful business!  The very first thing she’d do is find that leak and stop it a quickly.  The benefits — of minimizing the damage to newly installed flooring, of saving the customer money, etc. — are evident, and need to be immediately addressed.

One of the fatal mistakes business owners often make in their communication and marketing materials is focusing on the features of their product or service rather than the benefits.  They spend too much time highlighting information that doesn’t address what their (potential) customers actually want.

Take a look at the e-mails, sales letters, web site copy, commercials, display ads, etc. that regularly cross your path.  How much space is devoted to describing features — business owner bio, company history, how a product works compared to a competitor’s, and so on.  As a potential consumer, how much of that matters to you?  If, for example, you’re looking for a business coach, do you really care which coaching school they attended or what their business philosophy is? What do you REALLY want to know?  For me, it’s usually about the kind of results they’ve helped others produce, and how their coaching will be of immediate help with the areas in my business that are either most challenging or in need of deeper skill development.

Now, here’s your 15-minutes-a-day Marketing Mambo activity for this week.  It’s a 2-parter. 

First, start studying others’ marketing material with a critical eye and hear.  Observe how they present benefits vs. features.  Especially interesting are successful infomercials — they wouldn’t continue to air if they weren’t bringing in the big bucks and tons of new customers. Look at the ads for Nutri-Systems, Pro-Active, and similar products.  Also pay attention to e-mails and sales pages of successful Internet marketers.  Look for the benefits — you’ll see them prominently highlighted in formats such as testimonials, before and after comparisons, and in sentences with lots of action words.

Part 2 is about YOU and your marketing materials.  Review your web site, e-mails, sales pages — anything you’ve put out there to attract new customers and keep current ones active.  Do your messages focus more on benefits or features?  What needs to be adjusted?

If you’re not sure what your customers want, what their most pressing needs are, find out!  It’s the only way to present the correct benefits that your ideal clients are looking for and are ready to spend money on acquiring — from YOU.

The 15 Minute Marketer: ‘One is the Scariest Number’

One of my most influential marketing mentors, Dan Kennedy, always says that one is the deadliest number for entrepreneurs. Think about it!

 

One big customer on whom you focus most of your time and effort.  One staff member who knows critical information or procedures.  One type of marketing all the time.  One revenue stream.  One technical resource person.  Only one way of delivering your service. 

 

What would happen if that big customer went away? If all of your time and energy has been spent on them, and you haven’t been doing much marketing because your revenue was great, WHAT NOW? Imagine the effect if your critical staff member became ill — even if only for a few days.  What if it were YOU — with all that information that’s only in your head? How would you keep your business going?

 

When it comes to marketing, the “one Factor” is critical. 

 

Are you using the same single marketing strategy over and over again and expecting (praying for!) different results? 

 

Are you relying completely on e-mail to get the word out about your programs or services? What about people who spend more time blogging or on social networks? Or those who are not as “plugged in” as you assume they are and let their messages pile up for days? 

 

Do customers have only one way to reach you?  Do you provide only one option on your web site or in your other communications for people to contact you?  How would clients with critical issues or concerns reach you if something vital came up that couldn’t wait?  How would a hot prospect who left their blackberry at home this morning know how else to reach you?

 

How many booby traps are there in YOUR business? Here are a few simple ideas to help you diffuse them.

 

1.  The more ways you give people to respond, the more likely the are TO respond! Along with an e-mail, provide a phone number, snail mail option, etc. in every message, display ad, flyer, letter, web page — in other words, every piece of communication.  Let people choose how they want to reach out to you.

 

2.  Deliver your product or service in more than one format. You can re-purpose the same content in several different media to address the variety of ways people learn and absorb information. Only doing one-on-one coaching? Start some groups; present speeches; write articles; interview experts; offer teleseminars. Got a weekly e-zine?  Start a blog or a podcast.  Create an Internet radio show (do it for free on www.blogtalkradio.com).

 

3.  Have a multi-option strategy for client attraction.  Are you a chiropractor who wants more new clients?  Expand your activities.  Join leads groups.  Participate in health fairs and charity events.  Give speeches at private health clubs.  Offer low cost high school sports team exams to PTA members.  Approach physicians in complimentary fields (orthopedics, podiatry, dentistry) and meet for lunch to discuss a mutual referral system. 

 

OK — now it’s your turn.  Use your 15 Marketing Mambo minutes every day this week to observe and notice where the “ONE FACTOR” is in operation in your business.  Which three items are the most critical?  Which one is the MOST important? What are your first 3 steps to address this concern?  When and how will you begin taking action?

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The 15 Minute Marketer – ‘4 Little Strategies for Big Progress’

There are certain truths about business — and life.  Like them or not, we can’t experience any real growth until we learn to accept and work with them.  Even the most brilliant marketing will not work well if your basic business processes and strategies are not in place.

Here are four focus areas to get you started.

* Expect Murphy’s law to throw a wrench into your day, and plan accordingly.
Many of us tend to try to cram as much activity into a day as possible.  The tighter the plan, the more items on the agenda, the greater the chance that SOMETHING will go wrong.  EXPECT and ALLOW for tasks and events to take longer than you’d like.

Factor a traffic jam into the drive time, plan for a slow line at the supermarket.  If everything goes smoothly, you’ll actually have a few extra minutes here and there to breathe a little!

* Hire or delegate your weaknesses.
If you’re great with numbers, fine, go ahead and balance the checkbook.  If not — hire a bookkeeper — or a cleaning service, landscaping expert, professional organizer or whatever else needs to get done that you don’t have the time or expertise to do.  If another person will be more efficient or effective than you, AND you don’t actually enjoy the task, delegate it!  Let go and give yourself more time and space.

* Become more deliberate in your decision making process.
Do you automatically say “yes” or “no” and later regret doing so?  Change your decision making pattern.  Practice saying, “I’m not sure, let me get back to you” when someone asks you to work on a project with them.  Repeat, “I need to think about that before I decide.”  out loud at least 100 times until it rolls easily off your tongue.

Ask yourself the BIG QUESTION: “If I say ‘yes’ to this, what am I saying ‘no’ to?  If I say ‘no’ to this, what am I saying ‘yes’ to?”

* Decide what is non-negotiable, then build your plans around those items.
Just as certain personal activities are daily absolutes (hygiene, eating and drinking, etc.), one of the best ways to make sure you accomplish an important task is to decide that it is non-negotiable — and then respect that designation.  Make up your mind that, no matter what, it WILL get done on this particular day or days — even if you need to let go of other “it would be nice to do” items. 

This tactic works really well with activities such as fitness programs and other “dream” projects that we often continue to put on the back burner year after year.  The key is invoking the same self-management capabilities — that self-discipline and inner strength — that we already use to keep ourselves on track with the other non-negotiables we’ve incorporated into our lives.

Take your 15 minutes a day this week and think about each of these four areas. What are the first 2 or 3 small steps you can take –  THIS WEEK –  to change things for the better? How will doing this strengthen your business?

The 15 Minute Marketer: ‘Know How You Shine’

I recently had lunch with a gentleman who, after careers in the military and private sector, is planning to take the plunge and launch his own solo business. 

Our conversation was a great reminder about the first and most important step in starting what my good friend and colleague Milana Leshinsky calls an “expertise-based business”:  Before doing anything else, you MUST be absolutely clear about and be able to articulate the nature of YOUR particular brilliance.

My lunch companion understood the point, but he was confused about how to unearth this in himself. Here are some basic steps that will help you launch your journey of self discovery.

1. Distinguish between your gifts, talents and skills.  
Gifts are the particular brilliances with which we’re born; talents are how we refine them.  It’s the difference between the rough piece of driftwood on the beach and its texture once you sand it smooth. The clue here is passion.  My gift is my ability to connect and communicate with nearly everyone I meet.  My talent is in helping people connect with themselves, others and their communities through the coaching, consulting, teaching and writing abilities I’ve honed through the years.  I have a lifelong passion for this — I’m always energized and inspired doing this work. 
Skills, on the other hand, are just tasks that we’ve learned and perform well.  I know how to use my computer to accomplish all my daily business tasks.  For me, technology is only a means to an end — there is no passion there — just gratitude that my husband (the former geek) made me learn all that stuff. 

2.  Notice what comes easily to you.  We tend to assume that these things are just as simple for others.  This is often untrue. 
For example, I recently realized that I have a real knack for recognizing, capturing and organizing great ideas.  I also have been gifted with the ability to take complex and complicated processes, break them down into their basic and more elemental components and then teach others step-by-step how to do them.  Understanding that this is something that doesn’t come easily to many people has helped me to discover new ways I can be of service — I’m leveraging these capabilities into new revenue streams that will focus on content development for information products and marketing education programs. (Be on the look-out — these services will be available soon!).

3.  Seek feedback from friends, family and colleagues.
Ask people who know you well what they see as your gifts, talents and unique and strong capabilties and characteristics.  They’ll tell you — and the more people you ask, the more confirmation you’ll receive.

Once you know where YOU shine brightly, you can choose where to best focus your energies, develop practical ways to be of service, and seek out and attract those who want what you have to offer.

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THE 15 MINUTE MARKETER: You Don’t Ask, You Don’t Get

So many business owners are frustrated by the challenges of getting and keeping lifetime customers – the ones that like our stuff, buy it, tell their friends, and eagerly await new products.  It’s our ‘holy grail’ – what we’re all striving to achieve.

We slave over our sales letters.  We struggle with our web sites.  We try to perfect our products.  We plan every minute of a teleseminar presentation.  We spend hours crafting the perfect e-mails or articles for our subscriber lists. Often we do everything EXCEPT the most important action of all – WE DON’T ASK FOR THE SALE!  In marketing lingo, this is called “making the offer”.

A lot of us hesitate to directly ask our prospects and customers to buy.  There are many reasons for this – but WHY we do this IS NOT IMPORTANT. What IS absolutely essential is to notice that you’re doing it and figure out what you need to add, change or adjust so that you’re making offers more often.

The way you make an offer can be gentle, subtle, firm, excited, insistent, encouraging, etc.  It depends on what you’re offering, and in what context the message appears. Sometimes an offer is a suggestion, other times it comes with a dose of verbal tough love and a firm nudge in the rear end.  What matters most is that a ‘call to action’ appears frequently and prominently – and fits your business and your style.

So here’s this week’s “15 Minute Marketer” call to action:

1.  Pay attention to your actions and thinking around making offers and asking people to buy from you or become your customer.  Notice your self talk, where you hold back or hesitate, what kind of language you use, what feelings come up. Do your attitudes and behaviors encourage or block the actions you desire?

2.  Start studying how other businesses make their offers.  Pay attention to commercials and infomercials, display ads, web sites, e-zines, direct marketing snail mail, on-line sales letters, teleseminars, and so on. What’s clear and specific?  What’s vague and confusing?  Where are there no offers at all, and how does that affect you as the potential consumer?   Which offers are most compelling to you? To your potential ideal customers? What repels you? What resonates with you?  What helps you decide to buy – or not?

3.  Start a “swipe” file of offers that you think are good ideas that you might like to try OR are great examples of what NOT to do.

The more attention you pay to this vital ingredient in your customer attraction process, the more money you’ll make.  It’s that simple.