There’s this mentality in marketing whether traditional or social that as long as things are moving or action is being created then that’s success. Too often we mistake moving bricks for building something. I had this conversation with a friend and how some people are so satisfied moving bricks. They like the notion that they are doing something and if questioned about their involvement they can always say they’ve been doing the hard work of moving bricks.

In marketing we can associate the hard work of being on the networks, sending out emails, adjusting landing pages, or even a mailer; these are the bricks. We can spend days and months moving bricks and telling ourselves that we are busy and that we are doing something of value. Working away until we are tired with our pockets turned out thinking how worthless it all was to spend that time and money working so hard. Many might think they spent their time building something but they only moved bricks from one place to another, maybe stacking them a little gaining some attention but never really seeing anything materialize.

Many in our industry talk about strategy and discuss how it’s so over done and for many that would be true but strategy is what holds the bricks together to make something of value. And while mortar never makes up for the majority of a building it is what holds everything together to make a structure strong. There are plenty of people out there who will sell simple “Marketing 101″ as strategy but there is a difference in having a plan that when executed correctly will make long lasting changes for a business.

When we talk about strategy with a client it isn’t telling them they should be on social networks or should redesign their website it’s examining their business as a whole and evaluating how they could best compete in the existing landscape. We break down every aspect of marketing and compare what they are currently doing and how we could improve or change it to help their brick laying be more effective. Every client is different and what they seek is different and to simply apply the same strategy to every client is absurd but many “experts” will do that all day long. There is something to be said about solid strategy that can help build something because it puts all of the pieces together to actually make something, to achieve a goal.

We can spend all day being involved online and offline but without a plan we are just creating busy work for ourselves. It’s easy to get lost in the mundane, safe busy work that comes with marketing but it takes real leadership to choose a plan and move towards it using the tools at hand. That is the difference between moving bricks and building something of value. Strategy and leadership will always tell us how to build something amazing, then it’s a joy to move the bricks because we know what we are building and why we are doing it.

When email newsletters were new design didn’t matter, it was the novelty of the medium that gave function and created value. As time went on and people began to figure out the game and everyone became email marketing experts the system was flush with people who really knew nothing. Businesses began questioning the system and wanted answers to real problems bubbling to the surface. Problems that could not be solved by simply throwing in a picture or fancy text. Design now needed to be implemented. Design has always been late to the party but it is a guest you don’t want to snub or forget is coming. When the party starts everyone is excited that the party is going on but as everyone talks over one another it’s design who doesn’t have to say a word to stop you mid sentence.

This isn’t to say, like so many in the design industry will say, that design is everything. Design accounts for a very small aspect of everything you’ll ever do but just because it is one of the smallest aspects doesn’t mean you should ignore it.

As businesses realized they needed to incorporate design into their email newsletters there was a stroke of genius that ignited theory and implementation. I’m not sure what it was called but I call it designing the destination. I’m sure someone else’s called it that, I just haven’t heard it. The theory is simple; if it clicks (linking out of the email) it should look good. An elementary theory overall but when you think of what’s most important it is usually the least designed aspect of our efforts.

To borrow from the food adage that we first eat with our eyes, we make instant decisions first based on looks. We will decide a company’s affluence, ability, empathy, customer service, competence, trustworthiness, confidentiality, and security first by looks. Great design is always coupled with follow-up. It will matter not how amazing anything you do looks if you do not follow up with the call to action the design helped to create. Email newsletters learned this the hard way. Many businesses would experience amazing click-through rates with well-thought out design but would find abandonment rates surged as well. When no one follows up it creates insincerity and false hopes to your customers.

For our ultra-connectivity through social media, design and follow-up are severely lacking.

3 Ways to Do a Better Job

1. Work backwards; what does your client ultimately want from you? Design that.
2. Remove your ego; show competence and confidence in a different way.
3. Give a damn about your client; when you care about people, people care about you.

Image taken by Trey Ratcliff.

In the beginning of email marketing there was this influx of activity, books, seminars, and courses on the subject, all of them signifying how to avoid taking the tedious time of earning the sale. But then after many spam protections and laws went into place many people had to reconsider their humanity. How should we treat our customers or leads? This isn’t to say that there are people who haven’t received the message yet but they don’t believe maintaining their humanity at all in their business. I believe it isn’t just something we should ask ourselves but a bearing on where we decide to take our business when presented with multiple options. Do we take a high road and preserve our customers’ sensibility and trust or the low road and attempt to maximize profits? Is this to say that there isn’t a happy medium but only a lonely road of high moral and ethical ground? No. There is most definitely a middle-ground which can be attained. Marketing to people through social channels should look more organic and grow out of existing customers.

Email marketing is the older sibling to social media marketing, they left some important lessons to learn.

They want information on what you sell.

Ensure they know what it is you sell, very plainly and concisely.

They want to hear from you.

People click the Like or Follow button because their interested in what you have to say.

They don’t want to be sold on the company.

They know who you are, now tell them why they need you.

They want reasons to stay in love with you.

My father told me that falling in love is easy, it’s staying in love that’s difficult. Sound business advice in my opinion.

Reward dedication.

They don’t have to follow you, they have other things to do in their life.

Make it easy to connect.

If you wanted to respond, it was simple and natural.

Be authentic.

People can see through bullshit, just stop it.

Driven by stats.

Human behavior drives stats, if you don’t have the desired stats, change what they’re clicking on.

Give hope.

Deliver what they’d hoped for.

We must never forget our humanity.

It’s funny that even in our attempts to filter out what matters most to us we still find ourselves inundated with useless noise requiring us to separate the chaff from the valuable information. I began looking into what I do on a daily basis for listening services and general search alerts, even though I’ve been able to reduce a lot of the chatter I still find myself passing by or looking over the relentless data because it is no longer relevant. Then it dawned on me that even though I was effectively eliminating the noise I was neglecting to adjust for constant relevance. Relevance is much more difficult to monitor and adjust than signal-to-noise ratios. Just like hearing, we don’t listen to the same aspect of our surroundings all of the time, we are still looking for what is relevant for us. Sometimes that means widening our scope to hear it all and sometimes that means pin-pointing our focus to only hear one specific thing.

In the world of social web listening a big factor is being able to cut down the signal-to-noise ratio and while this is an ever important aspect to daily business life it isn’t where we should stop. Relevance changes for many businesses on a daily basis, you may be seeking one segment of a market but then your competitors make a shift and that changes things for your business, this makes new things relevant and others obsolete. How often are we adjusting what is relevant? Not just what is keyword is relevant.

Being able to focus what people are saying in your most obvious categories is great but is that relevant to your customers. Is the industry creating the buzz and traffic of keyword searching or is the customers? To give an example, for our industry of design, I could search for people wanting to change designs but the problem is I have to filter through the chatter of every other design company talking about how customers should be using design in their business. This almost eliminates the value I would receive by that type of keyword searching and filtering. If I adjust my relevance to find people who are seeking to set up their own website or who are commenting about industry news sites that cover design then I am instantly limiting the amount of noise and increasing my relevance factor. This allows me to find the exact type of potential customer rather than the hundreds of thousands of people who are simply talking about design and websites.

This is the difference between listening and finding relevance amongst your data.

It seems that everyday that spammers, scammers, and low-lifes are vying for you attention, your misdirection, and naivety. These marketers are always attempting to trick you into clicking and buying their piles of worthless subscriptions or product. However, it’s not just the slimy marketers that are attempting to maneuver you into their sales funnel. Many upstanding companies use these marketing techniques to ruse you and many other companies into buying their product or service. It’s amazing that no matter how many times you are presented with these tricks of the trade we all say, “Who would do that, don’t they know it rarely works?” However, marketing tactics, strategies, and campaigns wouldn’t continue on with shadiness if they didn’t work. But just because they work doesn’t mean it’s right or truly effective in the long run. Just because you gain customers due to a campaign that tricks people doesn’t mean that they are happy or that they will continue to be a customer. With this type of marketing you’ll find that your attrition rate will always continue to rise no matter how many people are schemed into buying your crap.

Too many times people want to categorize what is shady, what is slimy, what is ineffective; they list rules, guidelines, manifestos and claim this will fix the problem. The problem isn’t that we all ignore the rules, it’s that we aren’t relating enough, we aren’t reaching out with genuine concern for our potential clients. It’s seems all too easy for this to be the fix, for this to be the answer to this epic problem of people increasingly ignoring the messages of marketers. I’m not saying that knowing this and practicing this is simple or easy to scale but it is a much better approach that helps customers become loyal fans not because they just buy the product or service but because they love the people behind it and that’s why they stay and hand over their money.

Often, marketers feel that it’s all about giving away free samples or some type of value based freebie which lures them in. How many times has that ever worked out for both parities in the long run? Most of the time the potential customer takes the free product, not because they necessarily saw value or quality, they saw free and that’s what drew them. I’m in no way worthy to speak on the subject of business and the basics of how businesses work and succeed but I’m pretty sure that at some point in a businesses life it must actually sell something to make money. I’ve always thought that how the economy of business works, you have a product or service and you want to sell it to me who obviously needs it and in turn I give you money. But with so many online properties (businesses) giving away free crap they begin to cheapen the customers that they might have had if they had only taken the time to relate and reach out to them rather than con them into using their free sample. Now I’m not saying that giving away free samples is wrong or incorrect but you know what I’m talking about. Those gimmicks that say you can win money if you tell the company how much you love them or tell five other people and you’ll get free product. Those gimmicks and the like are the ones that bring down the entire industry of marketing.

It’s amazing how many marketers are solely interested in moving the needle purely based on the now, how well the trick worked, basically. They aren’t measuring the customer sentiment from beginning to post-purchase. And if they are, it seems only to validate that the scheme worked today and it was successful and that they should dump more money into that avenue. At some point though for marketers, there has to be a line drawn in the sand with those who give a shit about their customers and those who don’t. If we lead with how our customers feel about us when we do this, then I think we can eliminate many foils that might reach our brain as an amazing trick that will convert millions of dumb, sheep-like people into purchasing machines.

So I know that right now you’re asking who are you to tell me how to market and how not to market. And I know you’re totally asking yourself who they hell is the design company think they are by telling marketers how to “truly” do it right. First, by no means are we saying our methodology or approach is the only one or that it will make millions with the click of a button. Second, we aren’t marketers, we are designers who understand people and we get projects from a lot of marketers. We have designed a lot of stuff that has worked well, and we have had a lot more that have not. Now one might suggest that it isn’t the message but it is the designer, sure, you might be right on a few projects. But we have found that when we have suggested new options to our clients and they embrace them and worked together to make it hit the right corporate marks, that’s when we found that there was something more than a witty, flashy, exhilarating design or well-planned marketing trick. That’s when we knew there was more to this marketing arena than just stupid advertising banners, websites, giveaways, and email newsletter asylum.

There is a better way to communicate with customers and it has nothing to do with what platform you use, what cool presentation or call to action you show them.

It’s called being human.

I then thought about these chefs and their cookbooks that they sell every twelve months and why people buy them. What gives them an edge? What defines them as special or the real thing? It can’t always rely on their celebrity, it can’t only rely on the ingredients required. So what is it that draws people to repeatedly buy cookbooks that are written by the same chef who only explores in detail one or two cuisines?

I broke down what I believe to be the key to successful chefs and successful cookbooks and why they become successful outside of celebrity. First, let’s break down the aspects of most cookbooks. They always have ingredients, measurements, awesome photography (food porn), a reason to make the book, and finally certain techniques and skills you’re going to need to accomplish the recipes successfully.

So I began to breakdown what makes a chef successful, which in turns helps a cookbook become successful. A chef has acquired skills, essentially the tools of their trade, they know how to use them with expert craftsmanship. Some are better than others in different areas but for the most part they are well equipped to handle the tools of the trade. Next, it is equally important for chefs to have an intimate relationship with the ingredients they use to make great culinary dishes. When they understand the building blocks of what makes great food and how to build on them they become more successful at their craft. To only know how to wield a knife or how to make great dough but lack knowing what tastes great is only half of the equation. Same if you know the ingredients to combine to make a great dish but lack the knowledge how to transform that raw product into a finished meal through timing, heat, prepping, mixing, and blending; you will inevitably fail. 

But when a chef can combine the tools, ingredients, and skills together that is when you begin to see what makes culinary art. I once heard that most chefs, whether they know it or not, are working from some modified version of recipes crafted from Larousse Gastronomique and Escoffier’s Le Guide Culinaire which are over 100 years old. So with thousands of ways to make the same dish all derived from roughly the same mother recipe how do chefs define themselves with new cookbooks. Partly, they continue their search to blend and manipulate skills, ingredients, and varying cuisines to make completely new, relevant dishes that make people excited.

This is quite the long way to make my point but here it is. Too many people focus on the technologies (skills, equipment, the knives and blenders) that they forget they need great content (ingredients, fresh and exciting). Also, many people only focus on great content but lack the technology to propel their ideas to the right people. It is truly the fine mix and constant reinvention of both worlds that help business succeed. How can you be an expert of one without understanding the other? Great communication artistry is never self-proclaimed and is always doing what they do because they are passionate about what the end result brings. Great results is the combination of great people who know how to help you connect to the right people at the right place at the right time. Don’t trust experts, trust passionate people who have the skills and ingredients. Like food, the best often comes from places you would never think of and are created by passionate people who commit their lives to giving you their very best.

Parts and Pieces

You’re building your network; it’s growing but now what? How do you manage it? Is your network balanced enough? I’ll tell you I’ve always had a problem maintaining an acceptable balance in my network. Mainly because I see my network in three categories: Information, Support, and Referral. It’s tough work maintaining all three categories at the same time but it is worth it.

Most people think that having a network is only gaining referrals however it is not the only network to work on. Obviously, the goal is to have a powerhouse referral network but that doesn’t happen without cultivating your other networks. To break it down quickly, there is a reason why you should categorize your network. First, it makes it easier to manage your network, if you need help on a project you immediately know who to access in your Information Network. Second, it provides balance to your professional life, giving you options when you need help from growing as a professional or getting a reference for a new vendor. Third, allows you to save time, you won’t have to search and call a bunch of people when you need something, you already know what everyone does and to what extent. Fourth, it allows you to assess strengths and weaknesses, enabling you to put people into situations that they will succeed in.  Fifth, it helps you remember everyone in your network, as you’ll constantly be referring to your network.

Definitions

So now you know why you should categorize your network, here are the definitions for each category. Information Network: your source of expertise and experience. Support Network: your source of help and encouragement. Referral Network: your source of business opportunities.

Information Network

What does your Information Network comprise of? Being a business samurai requires you to know certain important pieces of information. Whether it’s trends, issues, every changing technological and economic conditions; it keeps you on the cutting edge enabling you to always stay competitive. For instance, I am in the technology and design industry; I have contacts that specialize in technology and design, we share information helping each other when needed. I also have contacts that are not in my related field such as fashion who I speak with often to find inspiration and diversification. Having people at this high level of contrast enables you to refine who you are, where you are going, and how you can help your clients. Fortunately for me, my lack of knowledge is always one of my contacts specialties. It is one thing to have a large network; it is an entirely different thing to know whom your network is and how to tap into each other’s resources.

Support Network

What does your Support Network comprise of? In business we learn to rely on certain people, some who build us up and others who bring us down. Knowing the difference is an example of your business maturity. This part of your network should consist of people who respect, love, and think highly of you. These people like you for who you are not what value you bring them. Most often these people are not your ideal prospects nor are they your information powerhouse. They offer you emotional, practical, business, and/or financial support. They extend what many cannot and will not do for you; they give you their time. These people are the ones you’ll call on when you’re in need. They can also be your crutch when business is crushing you. It is important to remember that these people give a lot to you, never take it for granted, ensure they know how much you appreciate their time and advice.

Referral Network

What does your Referral Network comprise of? Sustaining a business through referrals is ideal but often never achieved because of the time and dedication required. A sale in referral marketing/networking is slightly more complicated as the prospect always comes from someone who tells them about you. That sale will depend on many variables; the quality of the referrer/prospect relationship, previous purchasing history, economic conditions, ease to purchase, and so on. Your Referral Network is the most profitable aspect of your network as a whole. It is important to know who your largest referral sources are, treat that relationship appropriately; don’t be a taker!

What To Do?

Remember to give back to your sources cultivating your network; don’t hunt it. Know that you may not fall into the same category that your source does. Such as you may be in an Information Network to one of your sources that is in your Referral Network. This path doesn’t create a large network quick but it does build a strong influential network that yields real results.

So what’s my call to action? Get off your ass, stop whining about the economy and cultivate the land you have and yield your own amazing results. You get what you put into it, everyone knows someone who can help somebody else.

Flashback

I’m sure everyone has been in customer service at one point in there life and I’m sure you have a small disregard for customers relating to those cherished moments.
 

Coming Back To Reality

For a software company, one of my clients, they despise the ringing of the phone. They think their customers are completely and utterly mentally deficit of creating educated, technically sound decisions. And after speaking with a few of them I would agree to an extent. However, their contempt seemed a little unfounded.

They spoke of how their customers called in aflame with rage that their humble software was not working as promised, hoped for, expected, or acceptable to general technological standards every other software company holds true to. I felt like I was put into quite the predicament, on one hand I was there to perform a specific service for my client, and on the other hand their customer service people were being relentless by only providing the bare minimum and urging customers to call back another day so that they would not have to deal with that exploding problem today.

My Rebuttal

So I questioned a few people asking them if they had ever purchased software that was critical to their business or existence. They quipped quickly absolutely not. I then explained, feeling like the wise sage who has overstayed their welcome that if you ever pay for something that is completely intangible that it is expected that it will work as promised. I further interpreted that when I was with another company and paid $125,000 for a custom made piece of software it was EXPECTED that it would work as promised. They of course clamored with shocked saying it was different. But they relinquished their spasmodic response with a simple, short-lived empathetic moment. They thought I was accusing them of being horrible people, I told them that they are reacting normal for people who get badgered for eight hours a day.

Focusing

I clarified my reasoning; I was not saying that it is the customers’ fault, nor their fault, nor the programmers’ fault. The fact was is that there were many issues that needed to be addressed. First, the software, it needs run stable, really stable. Second, the sales staff needed to address the customers’ expectation level; the sales staff was overselling what the capabilities were. Third, their knowledge base lacked the immediate defense materials to diffuse irate customers who meddled with their software inappropriately. Fourth, their customer service needed to put themselves in their customers’ position and realize that these people paid for the software they are complaining about. Fifth, the customer service staff needed to maintain the knowledge base as they would deal with the same problem for days before someone would write up a document to email to customers.

The Fix

These suggestions are not the only things they need to do but they were the most obvious that could be fixed relatively quickly. The lesson to learn here is that sometimes we get so wrapped up in going through the motions that sometimes the answer is right in front of us. For my client they continued to handle tech support calls and had considered adding more people to help with the volume of calls. The answer for them was to address the levels of connection they had with their customers and fix problems at each stage, which in whole fixed a much larger problem.

Big Idiots

The larger problem wasn’t that their customers were idiots; it was that they began to treat their customers like a number, a cash register who shouldn’t call when they have problems. It’s easy to get there because when you get in the rhythm of business sometimes you disconnect purely from the rhythm. I suggested that they stop for a moment and genuinely ask their customer how they are doing and shut up and listen. If we listen, we’ll most likely find the root to the problem their having. And yes, sometimes it’s because the customer is dumb but that doesn’t make their concerns invalid. It means we haven’t thought through our processes enough to make it error-free. It’s a learning process and one that never ends because as old users phase out, we are welcomed with new ones. It’s the right time to be human.

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Photo Credit - cambiodefractal ]]> http://www.coffeehouseideas.com/rage-against-the-customer/feed/ 0 http://www.coffeehouseideas.com/rediscover-your-business-elevator-pitch/ http://www.coffeehouseideas.com/rediscover-your-business-elevator-pitch/#comments Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:00:48 +0000 Justin Rasmussen http://www.coffeehouseideas.com/?p=154 What We’re Talking About

So if you don’t feel like reading the rest of this article, I’ll get right to the point, have the right elevator pitch.

Moving On

For the rest of you, there are plenty of articles floating around the internet that have bountiful amounts of information about creating a flawless elevator pitch. This isn’t about the mechanics but the quality of the content.

Break It Down

One of the central ideas to referral or relationship marketing is getting the right people to refer the right business to you. In order for them to give you the right referrals, they need to know exactly what you do.

What do you do? How and under what conditions you will provide your product and/or service? How well do you do it? How are you better than your competitors?

Know Thyself

Most people think they know their business, I mean after all it is your business. But you might be surprised how time can disconnect us from our own business. Or maybe you know everything about your business but are you communicating it effectively. If you can’t tell your potential sources what you do effectively then how are they going to be able to send you the perfect referrals?

Give The Pedigree Information

Why are you in business?

What do you sell?

Who are your customers?

How well do you compete?

This information is not only incredibly important to have answers to but you must be ready to dispense it at a moments notice. You don’t necessarily have to tell someone all of this information after you tell them your name but having an answer to a question is a lot more impressive than a blank stare or pregnant pause.

Real Life

Put it all together and practice saying it to someone, actually, practice telling multiple people. You should also practice your elevator pitch to an asshole. They’ll keep you on your toes, they’ll help you change and adapt at a moments notice.

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Photo Credit – Marco Wessel

When you mature your perspectives change, your physical appearances change, your taste in music changes, your style changes; in relationship marketing when your relationship matures it becomes profitable.

Worth Your Time

Profitability can be defined in multiple ways whether monetarily, mutually rewarding in referrals, or a place where both parties benefit from each other in some way. If a relationship does not profit you can guarantee that the relationship will not endure the test of time.

Proof In Numbers

What relationships do you have that are not profitable? How do you know? Are you measuring, using some form of metrics to help you make these decisions? Many people will immediately default to the de facto standard of profitability – money. That is not the only metric to use, I suggest keeping track of referrals received and given. Of those referrals what was the outcome of them. How hard did you have to work to convert those referrals to customers? Sometimes these are better metrics to help you decide whether a relationship is worth continuing to pour energy into. A relationship that is yielding poor profitability may not be due to the referrer but to you not effectively communicating to the referrer what your business capabilities are. This more often seems to be the problem rather than simply a relationship does not make enough money from the referrer.

See Clearly

Avoid being shortsighted during this evaluation period, it can seriously damage or hinder the development of the relationship. Consider all of the ancillary services or benefits a relationship offers you. I had a relationship that I once considered useless and was considering limiting my time spent on the development of that relationship. But one day I was speaking with a client of mine and found out that this other relationship I was considering limiting was actually one of the main sources of my income. At that point, I had to revise my standards for a profitable relationship. Profitability must be cultivated; it takes incredible amounts of patience and determination.

Many want to rush the process of profitability; I often get asked how quickly does it take for a relationship to reach the profitability stage. My answer is not a timeline but more of a gray area that is only understood when it feels right. It’s not entirely easy to determine when you’ve reached the profitability stage. Often times it depends on the frequency and quality of the contacts, and the desire of both parties to push the relationship forward. When the relationship feels comfortable, then and only then, can it transform into being a profitable one. If rushed, one party will feel awkward or weary of giving referrals to the other party; this can result in damaging the relationship.

The Bottom Line

Overall, this stage is vital to the success of relationship marketing but it is not the only piece of the puzzle to fit together. If anything, you should know and remember that all relationships must be cultivated in order to gain anything of value.

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Photo credit – aresauburnphotos