The First Step of Your Marketing Strategy
Your primary marketing mission should be to add value to your customers. Everything else will fall into place. When the focus of your marketing strategy is to add value, you naturally align with the needs of your customers. No longer is your sales department the ‘enemy’, but a team of trusted industry advisors. When a customer or prospect feels valued, they seek you out. What a powerful position to be in. — About the Daily Marketing Minute The Daily Marketing Minute is my project for the last quarter of 2014. Each day, I will deliver bite-sized, fat-free nuggets of sales and marketing insights. In an increasingly noisy sales and marketing world,…
How Closed Customers Can Help Craft Your Marketing Strategy
Notice I didn’t say new customers. Or prospects. Closed business – people that actually pay you money for your products or services – should have the biggest impact on your go-forward marketing. Those who have opened their checkbook, signed the dotted line, and accepted the handshake have great insights that you need to acknowledge. Why did they choose you? Where did you hit a home run? What made you stand out — good and bad — from your competition? This is one of the most treacherous times and one of the best times to let your closed customers influence your marketing strategy. But (and it’s a big but) you have…
This Line of Advertising No Longer Exists
The line between traditional advertising and digital advertising is beyond blurred — it no longer exists. And you don’t have to choose between traditional and digital. They should support and promote one another for greater impact. Regardless of platform, your marketing strategy is to strengthen your brand’s relationship with customers. — About the Daily Marketing Minute The Daily Marketing Minute is my project for the last quarter of 2014. Each day, I will deliver bite-sized, fat-free nuggets of sales and marketing insights. In an increasingly noisy sales and marketing world, it is easy to lose track of why you do what you do. Ultimately, I believe that relationships will transcend the daily grind we face…
Better Ways of Connecting with Customers
“One way or the other, we’re in the ideas business.” – Peter Coughter, author of The Art of the Pitch As a brand, you must continually find better ways of connecting with customers: Tell stories and make it personal Defy conventional and create an exceptional experience Show up when things are good The “customer service” department should be called “Customer Experience” and be obsessed with it Focus on simplicity At the end of the day, the customer does not care about you. They care about them. The sooner you accept this, the happier you will be and the more money you will make. — About the Daily Marketing Minute The Daily Marketing Minute is…
Long-form Content is the New Ad
Long-form content is the new ad. Brands are content creators now, and they could learn a thing or two from the film industry. Content creators are actually storytellers. They give the viewer/reader/customer a reason to stop what they are doing and focus. They give a reason to care. Focus your efforts, not on advertising, but engaging the customer through vivid stories and experiences. Your brand message will resonate much deeper. — About the Daily Marketing Minute The Daily Marketing Minute is my project for the last quarter of 2014. Each day, I will deliver bite-sized, fat-free nuggets of sales and marketing insights. In an increasingly noisy sales and marketing world,…
Unsatisfied is Lazy
Services like Netflix and Amazon offer so much streaming content, they’ve changed everything about how we pick what to watch. It’s smart to click through videos until you find something you’ll love, and it feels inexcusable to spend time and money on anything you won’t. There are so many reviews, ratings and recommendations out there that getting stuck watching something unsatisfying seems not only tough, but lazy. There’s a simple reason for this: Expectations shift when we feel we can make more informed choices. And there are so many reviews, ratings and recommendations out there that getting stuck watching something unsatisfying seems not only tough, but lazy. – Mónica Guzmán Likewise,…
Personalized Marketing: Opportunities Abound
We live in an exciting era. As humans, we still want to connect and share our experiences, meet new people, and deepen our relationship with those already in our circles. We must balance our privacy (which is unique to both users and publishers), as well as our desire to be accepted and approved of. Marketing will continue to become more personal. Brands must adapt a scalable 1:1 marketing strategy and consumers’ needs will continue to evolve. These are real human needs and, as a result, creates limitless opportunities for technology and online marketing to connect. — About the Daily Marketing Minute The Daily Marketing Minute is my project for the…
Hello, My Name Is…
To introduce yourself to an individual of perceived power, work to quickly show interest in his wellbeing. The first step is to show you care. Don’t sell yourself, give of yourself. — About the Daily Marketing Minute The Daily Marketing Minute is my project for the last quarter of 2014. Each day, I will deliver bite-sized, fat-free nuggets of sales and marketing insights. In an increasingly noisy sales and marketing world, it is easy to lose track of why you do what you do. Ultimately, I believe that relationships will transcend the daily grind we face in sales and marketing. Every day, I’ll share insights and tips to grow your…
How Much Time Does It Take to Find a Solution
When your ideal customer has a problem, how long does it take for her to find a solution? Does she know whether you offer such a solution? Does she go to Google? A phonebook? A friend? Regardless of the needs of your prospect, you should work diligently to sympathize and give her the answer as fast as possible. — About the Daily Marketing Minute The Daily Marketing Minute is my project for the last quarter of 2014. Each day, I will deliver bite-sized, fat-free nuggets of sales and marketing insights. In an increasingly noisy sales and marketing world, it is easy to lose track of why you do what you do. Ultimately, I believe that…
S is for Social Listening
Interruptive sales strategies suck. No one wants to get your generic, unsolicited email or phone call. You don’t need to wish for a way to gauge interest in your product or service. Social media was made for listening. It offers a gold mine for sales people to listen for folks who need their services. Prospective buyers are taking to social media to talk about their interests, pain points, frustrations, wants, and needs. Start listening for leads. — About the Daily Marketing Minute The Daily Marketing Minute is my project for the last quarter of 2014. Each day, I will deliver bite-sized, fat-free nuggets of sales and marketing insights. In an…
Battles Make You Better
In business, the battles are many. You will be tempted. You will be tested. Finances. Plans. Products. People. Partnerships. They will all create friction. The beauty, though, is the strength of the plan that emerges at the end. Don’t fight the friction. — About the Daily Marketing Minute The Daily Marketing Minute is my project for the last quarter of 2014. Each day, I will deliver bite-sized, fat-free nuggets of sales and marketing insights. In an increasingly noisy sales and marketing world, it is easy to lose track of why you do what you do. Ultimately, I believe that relationships will transcend the daily grind we face in sales and…
We Use Only The Worst Quality Ingredients
These words have never been used in any marketing campaign promoting goods. Who would use the worst? In a world where your competition uses “the best quality ingredients” and offers the “best customer service” or provides the “best value”, you must position yourself as the natural alternative to “the best”. Interview your existing customers, they have great insights on why they chose you. Do more of that. — About the Daily Marketing Minute The Daily Marketing Minute is my project for the last quarter of 2014. Each day, I will deliver bite-sized, fat-free nuggets of sales and marketing insights. In an increasingly noisy sales and marketing world, it is easy…
Starting With a The End in Front
“Everyone is our customer.” These words are figuratively inscribed on the hearts of nearly every client I’ve worked with. The problem, however, is that not everyone is your client. In fact, a very small subset of ‘everyone‘ is even eligible to buy from you. Define your exact ideal customer and remove every possible objection they have. Be their best friend and most trusted advisor. Bonus points for creating your anti-customer. Know who isn’t a good fit for you and move on. — About the Daily Marketing Minute The Daily Marketing Minute is my project for the last quarter of 2014. Each day, I will deliver bite-sized, fat-free nuggets of sales…
Your One Thing
Steve Jobs famously concluded Apple release events with “One more thing.” Where the tech giant would often introduce a revolutionary product that upended the existing market (the iPod was a “one more thing”) Rather than attempt to duplicate Apple’s one more thing, focus on your one thing. What is your reason for being? Choose your one thing and beat everyone else at doing it. Whether you bake biscotti, sell magazines, or create head wraps, build the best freaking one thing you are capable of. About the Daily Marketing Minute The Daily Marketing Minute is my project for the last quarter of 2014. Each day, I will deliver bite-sized,…
The Value of Values
The topic of core values, mission statements, purpose statements, etc has been beaten to death; and I am sure your organization has some semblance of these tucked away somewhere. More important to the actual values, however, is the alignment to those statements. Without a unified vision, your organization will fall into the trap of trying to hit multiple targets with one arrow. About the Daily Marketing Minute The Daily Marketing Minute is my project for the last quarter of 2014. Each day, I will deliver bite-sized, fat-free nuggets of sales and marketing insights. In an increasingly noisy sales and marketing world, it is easy to lose track of…
Set Yourself Up For a Successful 2015
Next week marks the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2014. Wow! It is hard to believe that 2014 flew by with barely a wink and a nod! For the final quarter of the year, I am focusing my efforts on delivering daily, bite-sized nuggets of inbound sales and marketing insights for busy business owners and managers. In an increasingly noisy sales and marketing world, it is easy to lose track of why you do what you do. Ultimately, I believe that relationships will transcend the daily grind we face in sales and marketing. Each day, I’ll share insights and tips to grow your business and connect with your customers…
Beginners Guide to Content Marketing
There is a tremendous amount of buzz surrounding content marketing and its need within a brand’s overall marketing strategy. Doing content marketing is much more than publishing on your blog occasionally and posting your thoughts on social media. “Do stuff and maybe it will work” is not a strategy, it is a gamble. A risky and expensive one, at that. Even so, many brands have yet to create an effective content marketing strategy. What does such a strategy look like? Where are the examples of brands doing it well? This week, I will show you examples of an effective content marketing strategy and offer ways for you to craft your…
How To Reach Twitter Users Who Need You
Twitter is a great prospecting tool, but how do you use it to connect with new customers without coming off as spammy? According to a late-2013 study, 67% of customers were more likely to purchase from a brand they followed on Twitter. But what about connecting with those customers who are not following you? In a sea of noise, sometimes it is hard to stand out and not turn off prospective customers. Still, business owners seeking to build relationships can take advantage of the 271 million monthly active users on Twitter. This week, I’ll share some keys to reaching new, qualified prospects using Twitter. Service Over Sales The first key to reaching prospective…
4 Alternatives to Unnecessarily Hard Work
Here in the US, this day serves as the unofficial end of summer. Where school buses and shorter days wait just around the corner. Labor Day was first introduced to recognize the hard work – the actual labor – of the industrial revolution. Days were long. Work was hard. It was laborious. Seth Godin puts it well: In the old days, we could measure how much grain someone harvested or how many pieces of steel he made. Hard work meant more work. Now, we have confused the act of laboring in the field or factory with “hard work”. Often, work made harder through our own internal motivators. He goes on to say:…
Are You The Right Fit For Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing has radically changed the traditional sales process. The basic premise of inbound is reaching the right people, at the right time, with the right content. The idea of a sales funnel has been around since the late 1800s, we have adapted several iterations of this model; which maps the process a theoretical customer journeys through before making a purchase. The process, however, assumes that all prospective customers loosely take the same route. We know that not to be true. With the introduction of social media and the huge influx of technology, we now know that consumers and prospects are entering the buying process from many different channels and…
How Buyer Personas Help You Connect with More Customers and Close More Sales
Wouldn’t it be better if you knew what your buyer wanted even before they did? To be successful with inbound or content marketing, your brand – whether it is the sales team, marketing team, or social media team – your brand needs to deliver the right information to the right people at the right time. This requires an understanding of the specific process they will go through to make a purchasing decision. Such understanding will help you attract leads that are already in a purchasing process, increasing the number of leads that convert to paying customers. What is a Buyer Persona A buyer persona is a fictional representation of the real…
3 Tips to Convert Your Existing Website to a Sales Machine
In my conversations with brand owners and marketing VPs, many of them have indicated that their website is listed as an expense line item rather than an asset. Why? In today’s market, a website should be the most valuable salesperson on your team — and certainly listed as an asset. A strong, highly-optimized website is always available, always selling, and always attracting new customers. Here are three power-packed tips to making your website a sales machine. Website Visitor Flow When was the last time you took a serious look at your website? What about through the eyes of your visitors? I encourage you to spend time walking through your website…
How to Convert Your Sales-Oriented Pipeline to a Customer-Oriented Pipeline
Today’s consumers are entering the buying process much more educated and from a number of entry points. Some will come to your brand based on the recommendation of a friend, others will see a sponsored social media post, others will come in “cold” from a generalized search engine query. Your sales process must be able to accommodate these various entry points and anticipate the needs of these folks. The hardened sales process of yesterday will not work for today’s buyers, and certainly not for tomorrow’s. With some simple steps, such as defining your customer’s buying process, behavior monitoring, and measuring; you can begin to create a sales pipeline that is more…
How I Work: My Toolbox For Marketing a Modern Business
Running any business is challenging. Running an agency like Never Mind Marketing is even more complex. We essentially help 21 different companies run their marketing departments at any one time. Keeping track of campaigns, goals, challenges, personas, communications, and upcoming projects for 21 different teams means we need to have our own internal process locked down. Add to that my self-diagnosed OCD and tech-ADD (meaning I want to try everything to see if it will make our process more efficient), my team has their work cut out. I regularly get inquiries from our clients about how to improve on their own internal business processes. The questions range from managing email…
A Stellar Example of Inbound Marketing Practices at an Offline Event [Interview]
As you can imagine, my excitement and passion for effective marketing does not stop at the door or at the end of the work day. As my family can attest, I am always looking at creative and efficient marketing tactics. I love understanding what works and what doesn’t. The other day, I was speaking to a very good friend (and loan officer whom I highly recommend, by the way), Mandi Atkins, about an event that she participated in. The event was a Veteran’s Resource fair specifically designed to provide area veterans resources available to them. Mandi was asked to participate because of her knowledge and experience helping veterans qualify for…
Blueprint for the Perfect Blog Post
Blogging is one of the easiest and fastest ways to build a loyal following and increase revenue for your brand. However, many folks find it hard to get started because they don’t understand all of the elements of effective blogging. The truth is, we are uncomfortable in the uncertain. I’d like to help take some of the discomfort out of blogging and show you the perfect structure for your blog post. The Perfect Blog Post Blueprint Post Title Your blog post title should always contain your targeted keyword or phrase. In this post, for example, the targeted phrase is “Perfect Blog Post” because I know many of my readers are…
7 Tips for Writing Blog Headlines
As I’ve talked about before, blogging is – by far – the best way to gain new website traffic, capture new sales leads, and better the business relationship with your existing customers. One area I see every blog writer struggle with, however, is writing good headlines to break up their blog posts into manageable chunks of information. Studies have indicated that a reader will make a decision to keep reading within 8 seconds of landing on your page. That’s not a lot of time! To get their attention in the first place, you must have a catchy blog content divided into easy-to-digest sections. Here are some tips on how to…
How Writing Your Blog is like Driving To The Gym
When thinking about how to market your business, the options can seem almost endless. Between the constant wave of information about when and how to post to social media, blogging, automated marketing, providing excellent customer service, plus the many other facets to go into building a strong brand, it is easy to get overwhelmed. So where do you start? What should you do? Don’t get discouraged, becoming a proficient marketer can easily be broken into smaller, more manageable steps. Marketing your business is much like starting any new habit. It requires intent, purpose, and discipline. I once heard a great phrase about staying motivated to working out: Put your workout…
How to Start Your Professional Social Media Presence
By now, I’m sure the need for social media in your business is apparent. That said, a recent survey indicated that only 6% of businesses were successfully using social media to generate sales leads for their brand. If you are a part of the staggering 94% not using social media (or not using it efficiently) to generate sales leads, there is still time to create a plan and expand your reach. Social is a platform that has completely changed the marketing landscape for both large and small brands. Never before have businesses had the opportunity to experience a two-way street of communication between themselves and customers. Q: Why should we…
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