Marketing strategy

Microsoft Convergence 2010 is right around the corner.  I’m looking forward to a great trip to Atlanta — and hope to see you there!

Whether you’re showcasing your Microsoft Dynamics ISV products with a tradeshow booth at the Expo or you’re a Microsoft Dynamics VAR bringing customers, or you are a customer, independant consultant, etc., my feeling is that if you are going to spend the time and the money, you may as well do it right.  You need a strategy in place!  

Step One:  Build Pre-Show BUZZ!   Let people know you are attending and why they might want to meet with you.  I see some companies doing a great job of building pre-show buzz!

• Rock-N-Rave and The Spot are two consortiums of Microsoft Dynamics ISVs who have put together the “IT” parties for Microsoft Dynamics GP partners and customers.  Both have put together a professional looking website, and have been promoting the event through email and the social media sites:
  • Follow Rock-N-Rave on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.  
  • Follow The Spot on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (no account, but use the hashtag #thespot2010)
  • While I’m sure they don’t have quite as many followers/fans as they would like — I know they’ll get a fabulous turn-out for the event.  Social media marketing is just starting to catch on in the Microsoft Dynamics community. Perhaps Rock-N-Rave and The Spot should make it interesting by having a bet on who can get the most Facebook fans?! Throw down a challenge and see who rises to the occasion.
• I see others who just want “a select few” attendees sending out promotions for their parties and dinners as well. The point is — you can’t wait until the show date.  People’s schedules will already be filled.  You need to give advance notice whenever possible.

Step Two:  Pull Your Look Together!   Make sure all your employees have current business cards (AND that they bring them along).  Shine up your website.  Shine your shoes while you’re at it…. Set yourself up for success.  Make sure you look as good as you are!

Step Three:  Be Prepared for Follow Up.  Follow up is THE most important thing you can do.  Don’t leave it as an after thought.  Know exactly how you will follow up with the people you meet at the show.  Will you send a hand-written note? Will you send follow up emails?   What will your follow up offer be?  You should know this NOW so that you can execute on your plan immediately while the leads are hot.  Leads grow colder by the day…

P.S.  If you want to meet up at Microsoft Convergence in Atlanta — either to discuss marketing or to taste test favorite beers, give me a call at 949-357-6356.  See you soon!

How would you make Americans care about African girls?

What if YOU were charged with ending poverty in Africa?

Tough job, right?  The task seems daunting, overwhelming, and frankly impossible.  Many Americans take the stance that Africa’s plight is just “not our problem.”  Even if we did care, what could we do?  We’re a continent away…and besides we have our own problems, our own bills to pay.  If YOU were in charge, how would you go about changing that belief?

Watch  The Girl Effect . 

The Girl Effect is trying to eradicate poverty in Africa, one girl at a time.

(Go visit The Girl Effect website now before reading the rest of this post – I swear it wraps into a marketing message!)

Take note of how The Girl Effect is going about accomplishing their mission.  They used video.  Told a story.  They made the message personal.  Made it simple.  Made it easy to digest.  Touched people’s emotions.  Asked their audience to take just a small step.  Even the opening page of their website makes you make a decision, invites to you get involved.

Now go back and start thinking about your own business.  I work with clients every day who are selling incredibly complex products and services.  They’re faced with the same challenges in getting people’s attention. They’re faced with the same challenges of  boiling complex concepts down in to simple messages. 

So many don’t. 

And when complex solution providers fail to make their messages personal, simple, emotional and compelling, their products and services don’t sell — at least not as fast as they would like, driving up the cost of sale. 

Use the The Girl Effect website / video as a reminder to make your marketing messages personal.  Make them simple.  Easy to digest.  Touch people’s emotions.  Tell a story.  That’ll put you on the right track.

And if that doesn’t do the trick, see if you can get Oprah, George Clooney and Angelina Jolie to endorse you. 

While getting people to “buy stuff” is at the heart of most marketing efforts, I believe that most small businesses and all professional service firms would benefit from thinking of marketing a little bit differently.

But before I explain, I want you to do this little exercise:

1. Think of the last product or service you bought that made you really mad.
2. What was it that made you so upset?

For me, it was a car I rented.  I asked if I could keep the car for an extra day at the same rate and the gal at the desk said “SURE!” but when I got my bill, the extra day was double the price.  Customer service’s response?  “Sorry ma’am.  The price is right there in your contract.”  Why was I so upset?  Because they didn’t properly set my expectations.  Sure, I should have read the contract, but I trusted their representative to give me the right answer.

In the scenario I just described, the car rental company did make the sale.  They did keep my money.  But am I happy?  No. Will I be more wary of that company next time? Absolutely! So did they do an effective job of marketing to me?  I say NO!  I have lots of choices in car rental companies, and I’ll just take my business elsewhere.

So back to my original point, rather than just thinking of marketing as just a means to a sale, I’d like for you to think about marketing as a way of setting expectations.  Many times it means having to lower expectations.

Yes, marketing may mean LOWERING expectations.

If you want happy customers, you need customers who understand your limitations.  Too often, sales people feel so pressured to make a sale that they’ll do so at nearly any cost – but for small businesses, and especially in consulting type of organizations, this short-term sales mentality hurts your overall profitability.

How do you know if marketing is not properly setting expectations?

There are five clear warning flags that indicate that your marketing message and the reality you are delivering to clients is out of sync.  You can either fix your marketing or fix your delivery – but ignoring the problems will not make them go away.  It’ll just make it worse.

If only the warning signs were this obvious!

The 5 Warning Signs Are:

1. You’re seeing more returns and complaints.
2. Customer satisfaction ratings are dropping.
3. Referral sources and repeat business is drying up.
4. Your delivery team is getting  “burnt out” on impossible demands.
5. Company morale is down the tubes.

If you see yourself with any of these 5 problems, there’s no time like the present to get started on the solution.  I can’t fix delivery.  I can’t make you a better consultant, accountant, dentist or lawyer.  Maybe you can’t either.  But you can fix how you represent yourself.  This is why I am so passionate about authentic marketing, truly representing your strengths, and finding your ideal client who sees that what you do best fits with what they need most.

Every marketing strategy needs to begin there, by knowing – Who’s your ideal client? What makes you different?

Any tips to share?  How do you set expectations up front  – and still make sale – so that you get raving fans?  I’d love to hear your ideas on this.

Public speaking is a phenomenally powerful marketing tool. 

I often tell clients to join local and trade associations – which is a good marketing strategy in of itself.  But the power of belonging to a group is multiplied tenfold if you can share your knowledge, get up and speak in front of the groups you belong to.  Public speaking provides a golden opportunity to market your business – but it’s often overlooked as a marketing tool because people fear public speaking.Â

You have to remember that polished public speakers aren’t born that way. They take steps to develop their public speaking skills.

Tonight, I’m giving Toastmasters Speech 10 – fulfilling my requirements to become a Toastmasters Competent Communicator.  When I joined our Mission Viejo Toastmasters Club I was a decent speaker – but I had…um..ah…you know…like, I mean I had a lot of bad habits. (Well, hopefully not THAAAAT bad!)

When you speak for business, you are usually critiqued on the content of your speech.  In Toastmasters, the focus is on the delivery of your speech.  You may be surprised to learn that MOST of the professional public speakers you hear have been in Toastmasters – or had some other formal training in public speaking.   I joined Toastmasters to get rid of those bad habits so I could take my business to the next level – to do more public speaking and more group training sessions (which I’m now doing quite frequently!).   

I can say with 100% certainty that the Toastmasters training has paid off for me.  If lack of polish or public speaking confidence is holding you back, I encourage you to check out Toastmasters.  It’s fun. It’s affordable.  And it really can change your life.  To find a club near you, check out Toastmasters International.  If you’re near Mission Viejo, CA, you are welcome to stop by our Mission Viejo Toastmasters Club meeting tonight at 7:00.

You know I’m a big fan of “systems” – accounting systems, marketing systems – pretty much anything that will make life faster, better and more organized.

I feel compelled to share this brilliant marketing / operations strategy Walgreens just deployed.  When I went to pick up my prescriptions this month, I was offered an auto-refill service.  What a idea!  It’s so brilliant and completely obvious that some Walgreens executive is probably knocking his or her own forehead with a big “D’oh!” With one minor change to their business strategy, Walgreens has been able to:

• Create customer loyalty – having an auto-refill service ensures customers will be coming back to Walgreens, not flipping between various pharmacies.
• Improve customer satisfaction - They’ve taken the task of calling in a refill off my plate – what a convenient time-saver for me!
• Increase revenue -Just this small adjustment of shortening the fill cycle by having patients come in every month like clockwork means more money for Walgreens. Not only are patients coming in more frequently, but they’ll probably pick up a few items while they’re there too.
• Reduce employee stress and administrative burden – I’m sure I’m not the only one whose occasional lack of planning has become Walgreen’ rush job. By creating this auto-refill option, employees can forecast purchasing, and fill schedules.

So if this idea was so brilliant, so obvious, why didn’t they think of it before?

I suspect Walgreens has had the idea for a long time but they didn’t have the systems in place to implement the idea.  If your business isn’t booming with business right now, I encourage you to take a hard look at all of your business systems.  Accounting. Sales.  Marketing.  Operations.  Sometimes minor tweaks can provide major benefits.  

My challenge for you today is to ask yourself, “What changes can you make today that will provide on-going benefits for many years to come?”  If you can’t think of anything on your own, ask your customers.  When I do customer interviews for my clients, we often uncover those “D’OH!” strategies.  Of course we should be offering service X!  Of course we should be highlighting product Y!  It’s amazing what you can uncover.

My friend Richard, who has a blog at http://rddinmv.blogspot.com sent me this beautiful and timely quote today.

I will be like the rain drop which washes away the mountain;
the ant who devours a tiger;
the star which brightens the earth;
the slave who builds a pyramid.
I will build my castle one brick at a time for I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking.

– Og Mandino

When we realize the power of consistency, we can do anything we set our mind to.  When you decide that you really are devoted to growing your business, it will be by focusing on doing the right things every day, every week, every month and every year. 

Before you know it, you’ll have strong marketing muscles and a booming business.