September 25, 2007

Using online video to promote a launch

Using outrageous online video to promote your business

When Andy Jenkins wanted to promote the product improvements in his online traffic and conversion training system called StomperNet, he decided to use a powerful new online tool - online video.

As a marketing professional, you're probably already aware that:

- Video is huge - YouTube is one of the top 3 sites in the world!

- Tons of people are accessing it - over 63% of those with broadband in the US are watching online videos, which has increased 18% over the past year

So how do you get your story seen in online video? One way is to add entertainment to your message, which is precisely what Andy chose to do.

I recommend you watch this video on SEO and online traffic building to see what I mean. It's clearly a spoof, but it's generating a ton of buzz online. Plus, he's also added another interactive tool on the page, to further involve the viewers.

Not badly done!

Posted by K at 02:47 PM | TrackBack

July 03, 2006

Creating Advertising That Offends Your Customers: I Don't Get It

I was shocked this week to see an ad by Ford for their Mustang. It shows a father and son in a dark parking lot. The son's driving, he peels out, runs a bit, then stops. The father turns to him and says "That's what I'm talking about. This is not a toy! Want to go again?" Both laughs and they peel out again.

Now I'm sure this ad strikes deep to the heart of a few fathers who want their sons to relive the father's teenage streetrodding experiences. And, when they dragged those fathers into focus groups the ad was probably met with applause.

But what's clear is that they didn't test the ad with others - the moms, the families who have lost a child to being hit by a teenage driver, MADD members, and those who look for our teenagers to be law-abiding. To them, this ad is not only offensive, but it constitutes "fighten words".

The ad has already been pulled in at least one market where recent highly-publicized teen accidents have raised awareness of the dangers of telling kids that it's ok to drive cars recklessly "as long as they don't get caught."

Want to judge the spot for yourself? Watch it here. It's the one with the grinning man's face.

This ad is just another in a recent trend towards offending one market segment while seeking to attract another. Carls Junior's Paris Hilton ad was one we recently commented on.

Sephora has recently done the same thing with coffee cups with a lipstick mark on the rim, making them appear to have been used.

Frankly, I don't get it.

This alls back to the ongoing disconnect we have in the marketing world, that the people who make the ads are not held to the same standard nor rewarded the same way those who pay for the ads.

Marketers get paid for delivering profits. Advertisers get paid for running ads. And what's worse, every time the marketers try to put some teeth or rewards based on profits into the advertising payment system, the ad world fights it tooth and nail.

Why? Because deep inside, most traditional agencies know that if their advertising was truly held responsible for delivering profits, they would actually have to produce totally different commercials than the ones they do right now.

Commercials that would contain stuff they consider boring, like competitive demos, direct response mechnisms, and heaven forbid, actual consumer benefits. Stuff that sales rather than wins awards.

No, it's far more fun to create worthless ads that "brand", "get recall", or "create buzz".

The problem is that most breakthrough, recall and buzz-generating ads don't brand at all, in fact people can't even remember what brand ran the spot. So they may be talking about the ad around the watercooler the next day; but since nobody can remember what brand ran the ad, it's an ad that sells the category, not the brand.

Another situation happens when people seek to gain extra attention for their ad by purposely creating a publicity-seeking element in the ad. Unfortunately, since most advertising isn't news, they have to insert some element that's way outside of norm, creating controversy, resulting in news.

Let's take the Ford ad for example. Yes, they'll get news, but the news will be that x group objects to the ad because it teaches kids that it's ok to handle this car in a dangerous way. The ad may get free exposure on the nightly news, but what's the key message the consumer will receive? "This car is dangerous for teens to drive."

Now, I can think of lots of messages I'd rather have in my potential consumers' minds than "this car is dangerous."

So, the next time an agency comes to you with a campaign that they claim is going to generate lots of publicity as a bonus, consider carefully the labels that campaign will attach to your prized asset, your brand.

In most cases, it's not worth it!

Want to know more about how to create incredible advertising that delivers profitable results? Check out Reason-Why Advertising and How Shall We Know Good Copy?

Posted by Don Crowther at 12:34 PM | TrackBack

June 30, 2006

Tips For Using People Photos That Get Results

Want to use a picture of a person in your marketing? Here's how to make your choice.

Psychological and marketing studies tend to reveal similar results, which state that when you choose a picture for an advertising or publicity campaign look for: (Please don't consider this sexist or get offended, it's what the data says)

- A picture of a woman (men prefer pictures of women, women don't care, pictures of women win)

- Mid to late 20's (something about the age your mother was when you first saw her - things get real Freudian here...)

- Attractive, though not necessarily sexy. Sexy turns women off, attractive appeals to both men and women.

- Dressed nicely, but not sexy. Same rationale.

- Smiling lightly, though not toothy grin. The best pictures are the ones where the model looks approving, like they're happy with you, not hitting on you, more motherly "I'm so glad to see that you're home!" looks that make you feel loved

- Ideally her body should be turned to a bit of an angle to the camera

- Most important - her eyes should be looking directly into the camera. The eyes are important. There's something, particularly in men (eye-tracking research) that shows that our eyes are drawn to eyes that are looking at us. So a model looking into the camera (especially if her body is turned slightly so it appears that she is having to work a bit to look at the camera, tying back to the previous point) draws your eye to hers. Side point here - really focus on the eyes in your pictures. It's possible to look at the camera without looking into the camera lens. You want them focused right on you. My friend describes it as "looking deep into your soul."

In short, study your possible pictures carefully. You should feel your heart do a slight leap when you see the right one. If it does, you've got a winner.

The biggest problem comes if your idea of attractive is different than the norm. Then you're in trouble, and you need to ask someone else.

Our tests show that you should lean heavily towards blondes and redheads. Brown's are generally too mousy and I rarely use black unless the hair is long and shiny. (Really detailed, and somewhat prejuidiced here, but this is important stuff - it's money in your pocket to get it right.) But be very careful that you don't get a platinum, or greenish, or bluish blonde. You're looking for the combination valedectorian and girl next door blonde look (but don't do those fashionable nerdy glasses, it destroys the eye thing and it denies believability.) Redheads must be natural red, not bottled. Even a freckle or two is good. No blown-back hair (much more common than you think, fans are a staple in most photo studios) because that look doesn't look natural.

What are the psychological drivers behind this? My personal theory is that it has something to do with young childhood experience of wanting mom's approval and later life experiences of getting checked out from across the room (hence the eye thing).

For examples look at the covers of the women's magazines (the masters of people photography) and you'll see these tricks over and over and over again, with the exception of the sexy rule. That's because sex is what women's magazines are selling - "buy this magazine so you can be as sexy as our cover model". So it works in women's magazines, and on clothing ads (look carefully at the ads in your Sunday paper, most of the high-end department stores really get this one and most of the low-end stores don't) but it doesn't work on other products.

I can't tell you how much what you just read is worth...

Want to know more about how to structure publicity photos? Check out How To Get Publicity Photos In Newspapers & Magazines, And On TV. It's chalk-full of tips to help you create killer publicity photos.

Posted by Don Crowther at 08:50 PM | TrackBack

New Program Simplifies Online Advertising

Those of you who have been in contact with me for awhile know that I'm a huge fan of pay per click marketing. It's one of the greatest marketing tools currently available to generate huge numbers of targeted potential buyers to your webpage or online sales letter.

One of the keys to success in pay per click marketing is running your ads on thousands, and in many cases, tens of thousands of keywords.

This strategy not only results in less expensive click traffic, but higher quality customers at the same time, because those who search for more specific keyword combinations tend to be farther along in the buying process than those who search for the generic term that describes the category.

Though this is a powerful, results-generating strategy, it comes at a huge price - the time required to sort though huge lists of keywords, culling out those that don't apply, and putting them into logical ad groups for keyword advertising.

Frankly, to do this process right costs between 5-10 hours of mind-numbingly frustrating work. Seriously, you can't hand-process keyword lists for more than about 20 minutes before your eyes start crossing and every line starts to look about the same.

As a manager of a number of high-powered, huge, expensive campaigns, I've done my time, spending far too many late nights slogging through yet another list.

If you've ever done it, you know exactly what I'm talking about...

So, you can imagine my excitement about two months ago as I talked for the first time with a guy I met on a pay per click teleconference named Richard East.

In that phone call Richard told me about a new program his team was creating that was designed specifically to handle the challenge of sorting through huge groups of keywords for pay per click and/or page-building programs.

I twisted his arm into sending me a copy, and was blown away. I was just starting the process of sorting through a 35,000 keyword project. Instead of doing it by hand, I ran it through Richard's program, and completed the entire keyword project, including culling out inappropriate terms, sorting the remaining terms into logical ad groups, and creating negative keyword lists in a grand total of...

(No, not the 10 hours of drudgery I had planned,)

20 minutes.

Yes, less than half an hour.

I instantly became a raving fan.

Then I went to the next step and started the task of writing ad copy for each ad group. I usually budget another 3-4 hours to do that process correctly, researching competitive ads, finding hot terms, and developing 2-3 test ads per ad group.

Again, Richard's program did much of the work for me, allowing me to complete that portion of the job in a fraction of the time.

I was in love! With a computer program. Scary thought! :<)

I'm so excited about this program that I have since worked directly with Richard and his team, making programming suggestions to turn it from a powerful tool into an ultra- powerful keyword processing monster, and even producing one of the audios he's using as a bonus.

Let's put it this way. I own literally every keyword research and processing tool on the market. And like you, most of them sit unused on my hard drive.

This program, Keyword Companion, gets used, constantly.

I can't think of a program that's done more to save me hours, frustration, and the few hairs I have on my head.

And I promise you, you will be too, whether you're a person who manages a single campaign or hundreds.

Can you tell that I'm a huge fan of this program?

Now, I have a confession to make. It's been a terrifically busy week here in my office, and I've blown it. This product was launched last Monday and there are several bonuses that expire by the end of this week, including a price increase. So, my gushing has peaked your interest in any way, I strongly suggest you check it out immediately, while you've still got a chance to get all the good stuff. Sorry about the rush... my fault.

Check it out!

Watch the videos. They'll show you what I mean. Pick up your own copy, and it won't be long before you too are in love...

With a computer program!

For more information on Pay Per Click Marketing, how it works, and how to use it successfully, check out The Pay Per Click Money Machine

Posted by Don Crowther at 04:25 PM | TrackBack

January 27, 2006

PR Lessons Learned From My Suicidal Fish

One of the most thought-provoking gifts that I received for Christmas was a male Beta Fish that I've named Alpha.

Alpha has a beautiful blue and red tail and long, gorgeous fins. He lives a tranquil life in an "office aquarium" literally a small aquarium with a plastic desk, chair, computer, and file cabinet built in. There's even a family portrait of several fish on the filing cabinet.

There's only one problem with Alpha - he's suicidal!

He refuses to eat... even though he sits there by the surface, oftentimes less than a 16th of an inch away from a piece of food, he refuses to take a bite!

I doubt it's the food - I've now tried 5 different varieties.

I doubt it's the water - we're on well water, so there's no chlorine to be found.

Alpha just seems to be so busy going about his fishy life, staring at his reflection in the corner, hanging out under the desk, even emitting his own fishy burps (they smell like salmon) that he doesn't have time to do the single most important thing to guarantee his future - eating!

As I've contemplated Alpha's plight, my mind looks my business and the businesses of many of my clients and friends...

And I realize that most of us are doing the same thing as Alpha, my suicidal fish!

We're so busy doing the things on our to-do list and cleaning out our in boxes, that we don't do the most important things that guarantee our futures!

Oftentimes when I am consulting or coaching, I ask my clients a very simple question. "What are the three most important things you could be doing to build your business?" I have them make a list.

Then I ask them a follow-up question: "How much time did you spend doing those things in the last 7 days? How about the last month?"

The answer is always revealing, and most of the time shocking.

The vast majority of people spend almost no time doing the things that will build their business.

And that's as suicidal as my beta fish refusing to eat!

What are you not doing that you really should be?

Let me just throw out a couple of things that maybe should be on your list of "as important to your survival as eating" list that deserve daily, or at least weekly attention.

- Talking directly with your customers - when's the last time you personally spoke to each of your top 10 customers? Your top 100?

- Working on differentiating yourself through excellence in your product. Of marketing's four P's (product, place, promotion, and pricing), product is the best one at creating lasting, real differentiation. (Remember that product is a generic term for whatever you sell, be it a product or a service.) You can have the best promotion in the world, the cheapest pricing, and the best distribution, but if your product doesn't stand up as being a better value, you're dead after the first purchase. What have you done this week to improve your product?

- Promoting your business - getting your differentiating message in front of more members of your target market is essential to growth. What new thing have you done to expand your reach or to improve your messaging this week?

Remember that part of promotion is generating more publicity for your company. One great tool which I recommend is Media Relations Power: 199 Ways To Get Free Publicity For Your Company,Cause, or Product
http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/adtrack.asp?adid=64056

- New products - this is where your future is created. Remember to focus on creating new products that are superior to the viable alternatives available to that target market. Again, you don't win on pricing or promotion, you win on product superiority. Kill all new product development that isn't looking like it will be superior to the competition.

I beg you - don't join my fish Alpha in his quest for early, permanent retirement. Remember that if you're not working on those 4 areas constantly, you're slowly starving your business to death!

Posted by Don Crowther at 12:13 PM | TrackBack

January 26, 2006

Very Cool Teleseminar

I have two very cool friends who I'm sure you would love too. Their names are Ed Dale and Frank Kern. Not only are they hilarious (especially when they're together), they're also incredibly successful. For example, last year they did a couple of projects together that ended up bringing in over three million bucks!

Frank and Ed have agreed to do a special teleseminar at no cost, in which they will give details (trust me, I've been on calls before with these two characters, and they really do tell you what and how they did it) about exactly what they did to pull that off. There will be no pitching involved, just pure instruction, (plus a few laughs).

There are a limited number of lines available for the call, so if you're interested, I recommend you reserve your spot on the call today by going here.

I'll be on the call - this one's too important to miss! I recommend you be there too.

Posted by Don Crowther at 03:53 PM | TrackBack

December 15, 2005

Two Holiday Gifts For You

The holidays are a time of giving, so here's two special gifts for you.

1. As you know, we run a gift basket site that sells high-quality, distinctive gift baskets like none you've ever seen before.

I'm sure that you still have a couple of people (or, if you're like me) lots of people on your list that you still need a gift for.

Therefore, I'm giving you a special last-minute discount as an incentive to try out our service.

Simply enter greatpr1219 as the customer code at checkout, to cut the price of your order by 10%

This is only good until December 19th.

Just take one look at them and I'm sure you'll see what I mean.

2. One of the most powerful gifts I could give you is the gift of knowledge.

So this year I've decided to combine with a group of Marketing Superstars to give you information designed to give you a bigger bottom line in the coming year.

Here's how it will work.

Starting the first week of January, for a total of 12 weeks, you will have the opportunity to participate in a weekly conference call packed full of powerful information on a range of key topics.

None of the calls will cost you a cent, other than long distance fees. But each one has the power to rock your world.

I'll be one of those speakers. In fact, I'll actually be doing two separate sessions, one announced, and the other which will be a surprise bonus later on, but that's actually a secret, so keep it quiet.

So, here's my second present to you - the gift of knowledge.

I can tell you, I'm going to be listening in on most of these calls. I believe you should too!

Tags: Gift Baskets, Gifts, Christmas, 12 Week Intensive, Holiday,

Posted by Don Crowther at 07:33 PM | TrackBack

November 23, 2005

Operation MoneySuck Hits Full Steam

The fact that holiday shopping is so key to annual retail profits creates some fascinating dynamics...

And, more importantly, some powerful marketing lessons for those astute enough to think about what they're seeing rather than just joining in the lemming parade to the cash register.

One of my favorite strategies is what I term Operation MoneySuck (OM for short).

This tactic describes the way retailers compete to get you to spend your budgeted holiday amount at their store rather than at their competitor's.

OM takes many forms, including:
- Door crasher events - with special prices only available between 5 and 11 am (Some stores even take this further, having some between 5 and 7, others 5 to 9, others 5 to 11, and you know when the really hot stuff is featured...)

The principle here is not only to get you to shop in their store first, but to get you locked into their store as you realize that the line's so long that there's no way you're getting to other store's specials before they expire, so you fill your cart with other items while there - sucking the money out of your checkbook...

- Pre-Black Friday specials - Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving, when the holiday shopping puts most retailers into the black (profitability) for the first time that year (a truly amazing concept - how can anyone operate at a loss 11 months of the year hoping to have a good enough holiday season to make it up?)

That's why you see great prices in the weeks before Thanksgiving, to draw your money in before the hotly contested weekend.

- Clean, open stores. Last year the fashion was to build shelves high and to cram the aisles with special displays so that you were forced to focus on the hot offers in that section of the store. This year, it appears that many retailers are doing the opposite, cleaning out the aisles, and shortening the height of the shelves especially in the entrance, giving you an expansive view of the entire store. It looks nice, and makes one want to buy!

Each of these has an application to your business, especially if you're not in retail. What is it? How can you use it to your advantage next year?

This year Wal*Mart introduced a new wrinkle to the OM tactics.

They used PR to pre-announce the specials they would be running on Black Friday almost a month in advance. They tied the story to negative consumer sentiments because of the price of gas and the effects of the hurricanes. Their message was - people are feeling so bad about the economy that we're going to offer them unheard-of prices...

And those specials sounded pretty good.
- A laptop computer below $300 (I'm not seeing evidence of that product in their ad so something must have changed.)
- An LCD TV under $200
- A digital camera under $100
- DVDs: 40+ titles under $3.50
- Nintendo Game Boy under $50
- Bundles of toys under $10, including Star Wars light sabers, Cabbage Patch Kids Newborn Doll, and Care Bears with DVD

They got coverage on most of the network news channels and many local channels.

And essentially locked many consumers out from buying these products in the weeks before Thanksgiving.

Now that's good strategic PR - they had a newsworthy story (great prices that hadn't been heard of before), tied it to a current event in the news, and localized it (Wal*Mart stores in many communities).

And, they kept consumers out of the marketplace for those and many other products until they saw what Wal*Mart was really offering.

Plus they're doing things well on their website too. Visit there now to see what I mean

If the site hasn't changed, you'll see some online specials, and below that the ability to see their Thanksgiving ad for your particular locale. Click on that, it's interesting.

This is another tactic in their strategy - giving you their ad information in advance to help to lock you out of their competitive stores (some of these offers are pretty good, I'm checking them out myself!)

How can you use this technique yourself?

A few ideas come to mind:
- Preannouncing the features of your new product weeks before launch, both generating enthusiasm for it and locking out competitive sales

- Announcing your trade show specials before the show

- Offering review samples of your upcoming new product to key media people and influencers weeks before launch to get the word out about your cool new features

- Offering 13th X free plans to cause people to buy from you rather than the competition

- Locking people into a membership plan, where they are promised benefits in the future if they will contractually commit now (CD of the month club or long term exclusivity agreements)

Want more ideas on how you can duplicate what Wal*Mart did and get publicity on the news shows? Check out How To Get On Your Local TV News Tomorrow

Tags:
Holiday Shopping
WalMart
Black Friday
Public Relations
Advertising

Posted by Don Crowther at 09:49 AM | TrackBack

November 22, 2005

Free Teleconference Service

I use conference calls all the time. I use them for promotional teleconferences and for 3-way (and sometimes 99-way) conference calls. I've found that they're a great way to conduct business between individuals scattered all over the place. I'm even going to be using them for family chats (because my extended family is scattered all over the place.)

I use them so much that I was considering leasing a full-time line.

But in my search for a great leased line (there's lots of options out there, of very varying cost and quality), I managed to cut a deal that I really like, and I think you will too.

I got a 99-person, unlimited usage conference call line that's totally mine and totally free.

Yep, I pay nothing.

And I liked the deal and the line so much, I got them to allow me to offer one to you too. And yes, you get the same deal.

It costs you nothing.

No catches, You don't have to listen to ads, or do anything else. You just have everyone on the call dial a certain number, put in a special code, and they're in the call. You can use moderator codes (that allow you to mute the sound from everyone else's lines except those to whom you've given the moderator code number), and most of the other services for which the big-buck lines are charging dozens and sometimes even hundreds of dollars per call.

What's the catch? How can they offer this great price? It's simple; they get small fraction of a cent payback from the long distance companies for every minute people spend on the line.

So everyone wins - you get free conference calling service, the provider gets paid for offering it, and the long distance companies get more billable minutes.

Even if you don't have a plan to use it right now, I suggest that you pick up an account today so that you have it when you need it.

Then maybe you could try it out with all of your family members over the holiday - everyone calls in and you can all chat together for a few minutes.

When you sign up you'll get your number, and a private code that's only yours to use. You never have to pre-schedule a call with the service. You simply have everyone call in and you're talking!

Plus this service works great for teleconferences too - you can put up to 99 people on the call!

Why pay hundreds of dollars per call when you can get it all for free? Check it out here

Posted by Don Crowther at 02:52 PM | TrackBack

October 20, 2005

More On Building Your Business Through Social Proof

Not long ago we talked about how powerful the concept of "social proof" can be to turn lookers into buyers.

As a review, social proof is the concept that we tend to be guided by what we perceive that everyone else is doing. So marketers who can demonstrate that others are also buying their products can tap into this innate behavior to spike their sales.

In that last post, I also gave you a link to obtain a recording of a conference call that my friend and mentor Jeff Walker did on the subject of social proof and how to utilize it to build your sales and profits. Since then, Jeff has also added a transcript of that 2.5 hour teleseminar that makes it easier for those of us who prefer to learn through reading to tap into his information. You can get your copy here.

As I told you last issue, Jeff's a master at using innate human behaviors to effectively market products. This week he's done something else that I think is brilliant...

He's created a contest giving away 3 copies of his product as the reward. Here's what he says:

"Now this isn't a random contest - to qualify for the contest, you need to post a comment to my blog and tell me WHY you need the course and WHAT you are going to use it for. If you look at the bottom right of this blog entry, there is a link that says "comments". Click on that link and type in your entry."

Now what do you think happened - did he get any entries?

At the moment, there are almost 300 entries on the blog.

You'll need to click on the comments link at the bottom of the "Contest" post to see the comments. BTW - you may want to enter yourself - but do it soon as the award's being made tonight.

Now, let's look at how this contest has influenced the behavior of his audience:

1. These entries provide another layer of social proof - people see that there are 266 other people who are interested (in some cases rabidly so) in picking up his product.

2. He's utilizing another behavioral tool called consistency and commitment- which states that people tend to behave in a way that is consistent with their past actions. So, by forcing them to think about why they really want his product, then asking them to couch that request in the most compelling way possible, Jeff has sowed the seed of a purchase in their minds. Now their minds will compel them into a higher interest level in the product, perhaps strongly enough to actually pull a card out of their wallet and pick up their own copy.

But wait, there's more. You haven't even seen the way he will be using scarcity tomorrow at noon to generate initial sales.

Jeff is providing us a free insight into some of the techniques that he and other masters use to build sales for products. I strongly encourage each of you, even if you're not interested in buying his actual product, to visit Jeff's site and sign up to get a copy of the transcript and audio files. This way you'll have a chance to watch how Jeff works his magic, creating a model that you can use to build your own business!

You can sign up here.

Posted by Don Crowther at 09:45 PM | TrackBack

October 07, 2005

How To Use Social Proof To Build Your Business

There's a marketing concept that you have never thought of that affects you almost every day.

It's called "social proof".

Basically, social proof means that we tend to use the behavior of others as an indicator of what we should do in a particular situation.

It's why teenagers who tell you that they want to be individuals, but wouldn't be caught dead in an outfit that didn't look like everyone else's.

It's why people are attracted to a line, wanting to know what it's for.

It's how we know what to do with the popcorn box at the end of the movie, how we know how to answer the telephone, even how we should eat, kiss, speak, dance, and treat others.

And social proof can be an extremely powerful tool in marketing. Whenever we can convince our target market that they should buy our product because "everyone else is doing it", you have a significantly higher probability of closing the sale.

Apple's is using social proof in a huge way in the marketing of their iPod. Frankly, you can get better products for less money, but Apple has been able to convince the world that the iPod is the MP3 player that everyone else is buying. They've gone so far as to actually institutionalize it as part of the youth and tech-oriented worlds.

And look what it's doing to Apple's bottom line!

Fashion marketers are another great example, They go to the magazines, the clothing chains, and the rockstars and convince them to include their latest trends in clothing looks in all of the articles and in their music videos... sure enough, within 3 months, you can't find a top that's long enough to cover the belly button of even the shortest of girls (I know, I have two tall teenage ones!)

So how can you make this work for you? I have an idea...

One of my best friends, Jeff Walker, is a master of this concept (plus several other key marketing techniques.)

And just a couple of days ago Jeff did something interesting - he held a teleseminar on the subject of social proof, interviewing 5 different marketers on how they have used social proof to kick their sales to amazing levels.

Jeff's not 100% sure of the number yet, but it looks like over a thousand people were on the line and he has received well over 100 different notes complimenting him on the value of this call.

It was so powerful (almost 2-1/2 hours of insight-filled discussion) that I decided that you need to hear it too. So, Jeff has agreed to give you a copy of the recording the teleseminar. Yes... give, as in it costs you nothing.

And the cool thing, is that this teleseminar recording contains pure information - no selling, no pitching - just good solid sales-building content. I can tell you, my notes from it are 5 pages long (you may be wondering why this issue of the newsletter is arriving so late in the evening...now you know!), and I still haven't finished listening to the entire recording yet.

I can't recommend it to you strongly enough. I encourage you to go to this page right away and grab your copy of the recording, because Jeff's threatening to pull it down within the next few days.

You can get to it here

It's great information at a price that can't be beat!

Now, it's time for me to get back to listening to that recording...

Posted by Don Crowther at 05:29 PM | TrackBack

September 08, 2005

PR Planning Case Study - Holiday Gift Guides

I've been working hard on preparing our promotional plan for our gift basket site, http://Corporate-Gift-Baskets.com for the upcoming holiday season. In doing so I realized that our PR activities would be a great case study for all of you to see. So, from time to time, I will pass along the steps we've taken and their accompanying results.

Basically, the issues we are facing in promoting this site make a great case study, because it has many of the same PR problems that you may also be experiencing:

1. It sells products that aren't particularly newsworthy, so there's no built-in reason for the media to want to write about us

2. There's a ton of competition out there, not only direct (in this case suppliers of gift baskets), but indirect (suppliers of other items that can be given away as gifts).

Sound familiar? I bet you've been frustrated before because you've felt that your products aren't particularly newsworthy and that there's lots of competition for the limited press space available in your category.

But we do have one advantage - we are the sole supplier of a very unique line of gift baskets. Unlike most gift baskets that get thrown away and forgotten as soon as the goodies are gone, these corporate gifts are based on high-quality art pieces and decorating accessories that the recipient will be proud to display in their home or office, so they will have cause to remember the sender for years to come.

So how does one generate publicity for such a company?

Lots of ways!

As we've been going through the process of putting together our PR plan for this season, I happened to be on the phone with my good friend Joan Stewart, and mentioned it to her. She immediately came up with a wonderful suggestion...

Holiday Gift Guides!

As you probably know, the media creates Holiday Gift Guides to help their audience find the perfect presents for people on their gift lists.

The real beauty of holiday gift guides is that this is the one time of the year when editors are actually looking for products that they can feature to their audiences. So, your product doesn't necessarily have to have a news tie-in, it simply has to be something that catches their interest and fits into their theme.

They're also a perfect PR outlet for gifts that are unique and different.

Products that get featured in holiday gift guides get amazing exposure, implied support from the media source, and can generate lots of solid sales.

After my conversation with Joan, I went out and researched the availability of contact lists for editors of holiday gift guides. Basically, I found two that you should know about. I've acquired copies of each, and recommend both as having good solid information.

The one thing I did discover, is that September 8th is late to start the process of submitting to holiday gift guides. We've already missed the deadlines for many of the longer-lead-time magazines. However, there are still many magazines still available, and most of the newspapers, TV and Radio have deadlines that are still in front of us. I've learned my lesson - start earlier next year!

The advantage of both of the sources that I'll give you is that each of them tells exactly how the editor of each gift guide wishes to receive your information. Most of these sources are looking for some kind of press release (usually via email with attached pictures) or media kits, and in my review so far, most of those who want to see the actual product don't request it until they have a pretty good idea that it will be included, cutting your raw prospecting costs.

I can tell you, however, that this isn't a simple emailing of a press release to tons of people. To get the best success, each of these sources should be handled individually, pitching your product to their specific audience, (using a boating slant for the boating magazine, etc.) and abiding by their specific requests on how they want to receive information and materials.

So plan to do some work. However, I can tell you, this is a great technique, and if you were to pick one of these up today and send out several hundred pitches, you're liable to get a number of good placements.

The Sources:

1. Book Marketing
This first source is focused primarily on those of you who wish to promote a book. However, if your product isn't a book, you can still get value out of this resource (most of the sources are for generic gift guides, not book-specific ones), so I encourage you to at least look at it to determine if it is right for you.

It's produced by Kim Dushinski and Tami DePalma, the people who focus on helping authors get publicity for their books.

This pdf-delivered product contains over 630 different holiday gift guides, compiled through published media calendars. Their contacts focus primarily on newspapers and magazines. Besides the contacts, you also get access to a teleseminar (which will be held September 9th), a sample cover letter, and probably the coolest tool - all of the deadlines in Microsoft Excel format presorted by deadline.

One catch - they're limiting the number they will sell, and they only have 14 of the complete package left (I know, it sounds like a trick, but I just got off the phone with Kim, who told me that this is a real number, so there's scarcity involved.) They plan to offer a lower level of product for the same amount of money after the first batch sells out, but at this point, I can't tell you what that product offering will contain.

This looks like a great tool that you should definitely consider, especially if you are marketing a book. Hurry though...

2. GiftList

It's always good to work with specialists, and creation of the holiday gift guide contact list is one of only two products that Amy Bates Stumpf and her staff does each year. She has a staff of phone researchers who rigorously call every single person on this list on a regular basis, updating their publication plans, checking their contact information, and verifying their preferences on how they want to receive the information. Their database is updated every week from May through September, so you can rest assured that it will be current and accurate.

Amy's product is provided to you in the form of a searchable online database. You can put in keywords, look at categories, check out specific media sources, even dates of last update. One other cool thing is that you can mark your list of targets and record the actions you've taken for each individual contact, which then gets stored in your own personal database (you're the only one with access to that information) so you can keep track of your promotional efforts in the same place where you gather the leads.

Amy spends a great deal of time editing the information, and I found that it's very specific, especially in the area of what the editor wants to receive and how they want to get it.

One cool thing from this product is that it also includes wire services (further increasing your effort / return ratio if you can get in), and top TV and radio stations.

Of course, it's got some areas of improvement. I'd love to see a list of deadlines, and sometimes the searching process doesn't deliver results the way that I think it should, but overall, this is a powerful tool that I definitely recommend to anyone who has a giftable product.

We'll let you know more about how our efforts work in getting into gift guides, plus the other tactics we pursue as we go forward. Plus, if you have any ideas of tactics we should consider, please feel free to drop us a line and we'll pass the best suggestions on (plus a link to your site) in future editions of this newsletter and on our site.

Let me know about your success too!

Posted by Don Crowther at 02:12 PM | TrackBack

August 27, 2005

Advertising For The PR Of It: How To Get Publicity From Your Advertising

Our recent article on the racy Paris Hilton ads for Carl's Jr. and Hardees brought a flood of responses from you, our readers. (Didn't read that article? You may want to do so before reading this - Paris Hilton Carl's Jr. Ad)

Most were strongly in support of our stance, but several asked some variation of the question "What about all of the free showings of the ad on the network and local news - aren't they worth a tremendous amount?"

On the surface, those showings literally added millions of exposures without costing anything, probably resulting in the advertising equivalent of quadrupling (at least) the effect of their ad expenditures.

Normally, that's a good thing, except when the conclusion drawn by those who watch the news report is negative.

From what I saw in my community, as well as from the emails that I received, there was a large percentage of customers who viewed that ad, either as an ad or through the publicity surrounding it, who decided to vote with their wallets and never darken the door of a Carl's Jr. or a Hardees again.

I don't know about you, but where I come from, offending customers is a bad thing!

Ah, but what about those who felt the other way and came in to eat because of that ad? Won't they balance out the group that decided to leave?

Sometimes they will, sometimes they won't. Let's look at the numbers for this particular ad.

In our last article we showed how the immediate results of running the ad lost CKE (the parent company) more in profits then they made in extra business. But the key in situations like this is to look at the period of time *after* they take an ad off the air. That's when you can tell whether the additional customers they added to the franchise outweighed those whom they offended.

So, I jump over to CKE's financial results and find...

That Hardee's sales actually dropped 1% in the month after the ad ran, Carl's Jr's remained flat.

So, you spend $10 million in advertising and non-working costs, get the equivalent views of running a $40 million ad campaign, and what do you get as a result? Flat results in one chain and a drop in business in the other. Meanwhile, McDonalds turned in a 4.9% sales increase. Yes, there are many things that drive sales, but if you're running great advertising, you should see sales increases as a result!

On top of that, consider that prior to the Paris ad, CKE's stock was trading at about $16 per share, now it's trading at $12. So, this ad contributed to a 25% loss in the worth of the company - flushing almost a quarter of a Billion dollars in company worth straight down the drain...

Did the ad work? No! And what's worse, those people whom they offended will be a drain on revenues for at least months, if not years to come!

This sounds like a good argument for firing their ad agency, CEO, and marketers. I don't know about you, but I think the loss of about a quarter of a billion dollars in net worth sounds like a pretty good argument for rolling a few heads... It's time for the ad agencies, managers and marketers of the world to be held accountable for their lack of performance and the stupid choices they make.

Sorry for the aside... let's step back and look at the bigger principles here.

The Bigger Picture

Is it a good idea to create ads that generate publicity? Is it a good idea to seek publicity for your ads? Yes!

Is there a better way to do it? Absolutely!

Let me give you an example. Not long ago a billboard appeared on a main street in my community. It was very simple - black type on white. It said "Your wife knows."

Within days I saw 2 mentions of it in the news section of the paper, plus a couple of letters to the editor. The paper called the person who placed the ad, who refused to tell what the ad was about and who had purchased it. He did, however, promise that the billboard would be updated soon to give more information. People were talking about it at work, and many changed their commuting patterns to be able to see the next chapter in the story.

A couple of weeks later the billboard was changed to read "Your wife knows. Your children know too."

Bang, it all started up again. The prevailing opinion was that someone was being warned that they had been caught in their nefarious dealings... More newspaper articles, and now it hit the TV news from Milwaukee, and created even more water cooler talk. I'm sure a few men had second thoughts about whatever they were doing wrong.

Then a couple of weeks later the issue resolved. The sign then read. "Your wife knows. Your children know too - the best place to buy a car," followed by the name of a local dealer.

A disappointment, yes, but it played out in conversations throughout our community.

Compare this campaign to the Paris one - both got publicity value that far exceeded their actual ad spend. However, the Paris ad offended many, while the car dealer one offended few if anyone.

Is advertising controversy a bad idea? Quite the opposite - just be sure that the controversy you create doesn't offend your core constituency. In this case I will define core constituency as those who represent the bulk of your sales, NOT as those in your target market.

That's where Carl's Jr. and Hardees went wrong. Their ads are targeting males 18-25, who like to eat large portions. To that audience, the Paris ad is probably pretty desirable :<). What the company's leadership is ignoring, however, is that their new 18-25 hungry male target market represents only a small portion of the people who actually eat in their establishments - that group's still families. So, in the process of trying to target a new group with their ads and product selections, they are killing off the very group that is currently paying their bills.

Don't get me wrong - marketing is the process of making choices, and sometimes you need to shift your marketplace out of one group into another. But in doing so, you had better be prepared for the inevitable loss of business that will result as you drive away your old business franchise.

And, you'd better make sure that the new franchise you're after will be more profitable than the one you're leaving behind, or you'll be really sorry in the end.

Far too many managers (and especially agencies) ignore these realities, assuming that their base will always be there, no matter who else they target in their future marketing efforts. They're wrong!

I have another client who regularly runs billboards and full page print ads supporting their political agendas. Their messages are always controversial, and they regularly get publicity for their ads. There are many who passionately disagree with the political stances represented in those ads. But in this case, controversy actually helps to build my client's base because those messages reflect the beliefs of their current followers AND they draw others into their organization who also support those causes.

Controversy can be a very powerful, and valuable thing!

There are several lessons to be learned from this:

1. Make sure that your ads don't offend your base, unless you really want to do so

2. All publicity is not a good thing - bad publicity generally hurts your brand by driving people away

3. You can be controversial without being offensive

4. Never make a change in target markets without clearly thinking through the ramifications of that change, especially the risk of losing your current customer base.

Do you have an advertising campaign that's not working for you? Give us a call - we've been creating profit-generating ads for over 20 years. Maybe we can do the same for you!

Want to know more about how to create powerful advertising that will put more profit into your pocket? I recommend two books. First is the classic John E. Kennedy book "Reason Why Advertising" which teaches how to create advertising that truly differentiates you from the competition.

Second, we recommend this one that teaches how to use one of today's most powerful online advertising tools - Pay Per Click Advertising.

Posted by Don Crowther at 01:41 PM | TrackBack

July 21, 2005

Beware the Trap of Publicity For Publicity's Sake!

When the marketers at CKE restaurants (Carl's Jr. and Hardee's) wanted to create a significant bump in sales for their $6 Spicy Burger, they decided to do what most marketers do - run an ad.

But not just any ad would do - they decided to run a music-video type ad starring today's most confusingly famous celebrity, Paris Hilton (who seems to be famous because, well, because she's famous.)

In the ad Paris is shown wearing a swimsuit and washing a Bentley, then herself, a little more Bentley, and a lot more herself. See it yourself at http://www.carlsjr.com/ontv (the actual ad that ran) or the extended-length internet version at http://www.spicyparis.com/ though you may want to make sure that neither your boss or kids are standing behind you when you do.

The ad that aired includes six shots of the hamburger in her hands (and one where she's eating it) for a grabd total of about 2 seconds hamburger exposure time after which the camera quickly reverts to more washing scenes. Then at the very end of the ad you get a mention of the CKE restaurant.

The ad has generated a significant amount of controversy, a reported 802% increase in web searches (though I seriously question how many people were coming to the Carl's Junior and Hardee's sites before...), 4 million hits on the spicyparis website, free showings on news shows, several petitions against it, and some franchisers refusing to run the ad.

So, unquestionably, it generated buzz.

Unfortunately, it did nothing for sales.

Let's look at the numbers. (Skim this part if you aren't a numbers person, but stay with me, because the lesson to be learned here is vital...)

It cost the chain $8 - $10 million to air the commercial, plus, probably another million or two in production, Paris's fees, and website production fees.

But what did it do for sales? Same store sales revenues at Carl's Jr. increased only 1.7%, at Hardee's just 0.7%.

Hardly the kind of boost one would want to see for a $10 million investment. Looking quickly at the numbers, Carl's Junior did $44.2 million in sales during the month, Hardee's did $47.0 million. So, applying the sales increase numbers, 1.7% means that ad generated roundly $750,000 for Carl's Junior and the 0.7% increase at Hardee's added roughly $325,000 to their sales.

Sounds like a great investment to me - Spend $8 to $12 million, get back $1.1 million in sales. And if you like those numbers, I happen to have a bridge that's for sale...

And keep in mind that the $1.1 million was top line sales increase, costs still have to come out of that number! Given that their actual net income percentage is 3.2% of net sales, that $1.1 million in extra sales only dropped $35,000 to their bottom line!

But what about branding? Isn't a 3-4% increase in restaurant traffic worth something?

Don't know, did those people who flocked to the restaurants buy anything? Doesn't look like it!

But what about the 4 million hits to the website? Yep, that's got to be worth something, until you think about what they really came for. Those people weren't hungry for spicy burgers, they were people hungry for something else altogether! To say nothing about the fiction of website hits versus traffic (be warned everyone, they're not the same. In this case that 4 million hits probably means 200 to 500k actual visitors.)

So, what's the value of buzz?

Answer - neither I nor anyone else can answer that definitively.

But what I can answer is that there's one thing I can measure - sales and profits.

Unfortunately, most buzz-focused campaigns don't pay back onto the bottom line.

And there's a reason. Pay attention now, because this is key.

Most publicity-oriented campaigns don't pay back in profit increases because they focus the consumer's attention on the buzz-generator, not on the product and why the consumer should buy from you.

This ad is an excellent example.

The ad hits your screen and you see 27 seconds of Paris Hilton, 2 of the burger (together with Paris) and 3 of the message and branding at the end.

There's a hint here - 27 seconds of splashing, posing, gyrating Paris, 5 of the product. Which do you think people paid attention to?

CKE got everything wrong - they shouldn't have paid Paris - they should have charged her for the advertising exposure. This ad didn't advertise the Spicy Burger, it was an ad for Paris.

And as much as the ad agency world will say that there's a residual rub off from Paris to CKE, the hard numbers clearly show that any rub off was only worth at most 10% of what they paid for that publicity.

As far as I'm concerned, this was a textbook case of failure, CKE should fire Paris, fire their ad agency, and probably should fire their CEO and ad department for being gullible enough to believe that an ad that only showed their product and brand for a few seconds could sell burgers!

OK, Don, calm down...

Key message - never, never, never allow the vehicle that you are using to promote your product (Paris) overwhelm your product itself (the burger). If you do, you're destined for failure.

Could this ad have been salvaged? I think so. Lose the car, lose the water, lose the gyrations. Show Paris sitting in the restaurant eating the burger with obvious delight on her face and in the sounds she's making. Let the camera romance her and the product. Maybe end with a drop of ketchup on her chin that she licks off. Hot music in the background. All of this is interspersed with the name of the burger, the name of the restaurant and their "That's hot" tag line flashed several times onto the screen.

You still get the connection between Paris and the burger. You still get the buzz, the attention, the branding and the website hits.

But this time the burger is the hero, not Paris. Consumers remember the product. Sales go up, money gets deposited in the bank, and you're happy.

Do the same in your advertising and publicity events, and you'll come out the winner!

It's your choice. Be wise.

Interested in knowing about ways to generate media coverage that really builds business? Check out Kick Up a Media Storm: How to Get Free (or Really Cheap) Publicity.

And for tips on how to properly build your brand, we recommend Brand Your Business and Make Your Profits Explode!

Posted by Don Crowther at 12:18 PM | TrackBack

December 23, 2004

The Power of Belief

I saw something amazing this week.

We were at a family holiday party, where the jolly fat guy with the red suit showed up for the kids. (No matter how you feel about Santa, holidays and their commercialization, stick with me here, as there's a lesson to be learned.)

As the kids were filing up for their moment with the big guy, I was watching Emma, the daughter of our friends. 4-year-old Emma was showing her usual shyness, hiding behind Dad's legs.

But then it was her turn for Santa. He held out his arms to her, and all shyness disappeared.

Her face blossomed, her head lifted, and her literally her entire posture instantly changed from shyness to joy as she stepped forward into Santa's arms.

Suddenly this man wasn't Don Briggs in a borrowed costume, he WAS Santa, and for 30 seconds little Emma and Don were in a totally different world.

What changed Don from the production manager at a foundry into someone with two very long lists, a factory full of short green men, and a remarkable mode of transportation?

Emma believed.

And that made all the difference...

I saw something else amazing this week.

Last Saturday was the final game of the NCAA Women's Volleyball championships.

Minnesota's Golden Gophers (I still am having trouble with the choice of a discolored rodent as a mascot) were playing Stanford's Cardinal (even though it sounds incorrect, it's Cardinal, not Cardinals). Stanford was seeded 11th, Minnesota 5th. Both had overcome amazing obstacles to get into this game.

Stanford's team had started the year projected to be a .500 team, winning only half of their games.

They did have an ace in the hole, Olympian Ogonna Nnamani was on their team, however one player doesn't make a volleyball team.

But somehow not only were they there in the NCAA tournament, they were in the finals.

And they won.

Afterwards, Stanford's coach, John Dunning, was asked what was the turning point for the team, when they knew this could be something special? His reply was enlightening:

"In mid-November, we had three or four wins, Washington, and a couple of others that we probably should have lost. When you're in that situation, the team that doesn't think they're that good starts to believe, and the more it piles on, the more it's like a snowball rolling downhill. By the end, we had a lot of momentum. We really believed we were going to win today."

Catch that? The key to their season came when the team actually started to truly believe that they could win. At that point, it turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy, with each win contributing to the belief (and conversely, each loss being ignored as not fitting into the reality of what the team was), until they became as difficult to stop as the snowball rolling downhill.

Belief is one of the keys of success!

Now, just believing isn't enough - I can sit here for 4 hours a day and honestly believe, vision and meditate on being a PGA-level golfer, but it's not going to happen because I only actually play golf 1-2 times per year.

It certainly helped that Stanford had an Olympian who could jump a good 12 inches higher than everyone else (making her spikes virtually unblockable) and send floor-cracking spikes virtually anywhere she wanted on the court.

In other words, belief has to be based on some degree of reality to work.

Conversely, if a belief contains no element of outrageousness, it will be virtually worthless.

And finally, you've got to work to make beliefs turn into reality. Hard.

Once you optimize the combination of reality and outrageousness, then process it through a filter of intense, real, constantly repeated and worked on belief, then you've got something going here that will truly rock your world.

Here's some thoughts on how you can use the belief principle to change your life. Consider:

1. How can you apply the belief principle in your business planning process for next year?

My business has shown remarkable growth over the last two years primarily through application of this principle. I set an outrageous goal, recognizing that I had the capability, but not knowing exactly how I was going to achieve the result.

I then focused on that goal daily, devoting time and effort to figuring out how to achieve it - telling my conscious mind that this was one of my key priorities.

This created a gap between existing systems and businesses and what needed to be achieved. My subconscious then strove to fill that gap (the subconscious hates unfilled gaps!) and kept feeding ideas to my conscious mind through random thoughts (showing, driving, mowing the lawn, dreams, anyplace where the mind is free and paper is not close at hand) .

Most of those ideas were bad, but enough of them were excellent to, once I acted upon them, create a major difference in the size and quality of my business.

2. How can you apply the belief principle to your relationships with those who are most important to you?

People become what others important to them believe them to be. Those beliefs, whether stated or implied, set up expectations, reward/punishment routines, and goals which become reality.

If you believe that your child will never be good at math, I can virtually guarantee that they won't be. The same applies to academics, behavior, choice of friends, and success in the job. Create an outrageous expectation, truly believe in it, then build them towards it, and you'll be amazed at the results.

There are few things more upsetting than to hear someone say negative things about their children, even in jest. Far too often, those negative words, spoken in jest, are the exact same ones you say later on in tears. Think about it.

By the way, this works on husbands too! ;)

3. How can you teach the belief principles to your children and the other youth with which you come into contact?

Children, and especially teenagers, need to know:
1. What these belief principles are and how to apply them,
2. That other adults whom they admire believe in them and their future.

Spend time to teach these basic principles to the youth you contact.

And then, tell them how much you believe in them - repeatedly, publicly. Praise in public, critique in private. There's nothing that changes a teen's mindset faster than to hear an admired adult give them specific praise in the presence of their peers. The public aspect makes the praise more real, and raises the expectation of not only the teen, but the peer group too.

Do this for a lifetime, and I can guarantee that there won't be an empty seat or a dry eye at your funeral.

And the world will be a better place through the lives that you've changed.

That's my holiday gift to you this year - the principle of belief. Try it - it will literally change your life.

Posted by Don Crowther at 11:18 PM | TrackBack

November 22, 2004

Using Scarcity Marketing To Spark Sales

The library at my kids' school does a very interesting thing...

They limit the number of books that the littlest kids can check out to one per day.

This strategy has both positives and negatives. For a kid like me, who had to be dragged away from his books to come to dinner, this is a major tragedy.

But for most of the kids, this is a major advantage.

It actually causes the kids to want to read the books faster so that they can come back the next day to get the other tomes that are clawing for their attention.

This tactic has a name - it's called "scarcity marketing." We use it when we tell people that:

- They can only have a certain number of an item

- There's only a limited supply available

- Something's only available at that price for a limited time.

You're going to see this tactic used liberally right after Thanksgiving. You'll see door crasher sales, while quantity lasts sales, and limited quantities available at this price.

All of these executions fall under the definition of scarcity marketing, but they're all usages that make people feel cheated because they're artificial. These tactics cause people to say "hey, if this product was $9.99 this morning, why is it $19.99 now? What changed? It's the same product that was on the shelf this morning, so why is it now worth twice as much?"

The best scarcity tactics are real, not artificially created.

It's a product that sells out because that's all they've been able to make so far. (The launch of the newest video game)

It's a product that is limited in availability by some set factor (seats in a concert hall, openings at a university)

It's a product that everyone understands is in limited supply (scratch and dent damaged goods, truffles, seats on flights into space)

It's a product that's artificially limited but for an understandable reason (I'm only selling 300 copies of this training manual to restrict this knowledge to a select few.)

True scarcity, properly marketed, incites action. It creates lines (literal door-crashers), thousands of people pounding web servers to buy before the first come first served sale ends, and most importantly, the ability to charge a higher fee than those who don't use this tactic.

It's also a great PR tool - True scarcity gives you the opportunity to tell the story behind the scarcity, while building the demand to an even higher pitch than before. It's a back-story paradise!

Think about it. How can you build scarcity into your marketing and PR?

Are you looking for more ways to get attention and to differentiate yourself with the public and the media? Check out Media Relations Power: 199 Ways To Get Free Publicity for Your Company, Cause or Product

Posted by Don Crowther at 02:14 PM | TrackBack

October 21, 2004

Systematizing Your Business

I love high school state tournaments. They're living examples of how people, when the pressure's on, can perform at levels they have previously only dreamed of achieving.

Last night I went to my daughter's state tournament volleyball game - not the championship yet, just the prelims, but it was still the state competition.

It also could be my daughter's last high school game, as she's a senior, and it's a single-elimination tournament.

The excitement was high as we walked into the gym. Prairie, my daughter's team, had played RLH 4 times during the year, and have never won a single game, much less a match. Our hopes were high, but expectations low.

Then we saw something we hadn't seen before - these girls were playing volleyball, real volleyball, the way it's supposed to be played. Oh, they've known the theories all season long, and had even shown moments of greatness prior to this game, but those moments always passed, and hopes were dashed.

But all of the sudden, we saw a Prairie team playing like they'd never played before. And then we looked at the scoreboard and realized a win here was possible!

The first game ended with Prairie on top 25-23. I was already hoarse from cheering. The Prairie side of the stands was rocking and rolling. (An interesting site as most of us were parents - picture a generic rock concert...or better yet, Mick Jagger in concert!)

The second game was neck and neck all the way, but Prairie lost, 26-24. That took all the steam out of the team, and they lost the third game 25-17. Now we were seeing the inconsistent team we had grown used to throughout the year.

In the fourth game of the best 3 out of 5 match, Prairie was behind 19-13 and we had just about given up. But then something happened. It started on the back line, with Prairie digging up virtually every spike sent their way, then it moved to the front line, where Prairie's blocks started working and their spikes started hitting the ground again.

Then something amazing happened. My daughter, who is excellent at blocking spikes but who had never yet this season really connected on a spike, let her body go do what it had been trained to do. She hit a sizzling spike that looked like something right out of a sports physiology textbook. The feeling was so unusual for her that she almost landed on her rear afterwards! The coaches and her father were practically in tears, seeing a whole season's work with a young woman with great potential finally appearing in a single quarter second of action.

Now her spike certainly wasn't the cause, but Praise went on to win the thrilling battle for game point, winning 30-28. By this time, we have no voices left, but the stands are definitely ready for the encore!

Unfortunately, Prairie's team's season ended 20 minutes later as they lost the last game of the match.

But through the tears of the teammates there was much joy. Yes, their season was over, but every girl on the court had finished their season with a phenomenal performance. What a way to finish!

It was almost as if each girl had relaxed into her game, and simply done what they had been trained to do.

I tell you this not to brag (though I'm pretty proud of my "little" [6' 17-year old] girl). I tell you this to bring up something that we don't think about enough in business.

The principle of systemization.

Virtually every one of us has spent time on a team or in gym class learning how to shoot a basket, swing a bat, spike a volleyball or throw a pass. These are physical skills, where we teach our nerves and our muscles the exact pattern necessary to execute the skill, freeing up the conscious mind to be able to make adjustments for that specific situation.

I played basketball in high school, and to this day, when a shot is going to go up, I automatically move to the most likely spot to grab the rebound, box out whomever's within range, time my jump, grab the ball, clear and protect it, look to the outlet pass and sprint down to the other end of the court. It's all on auto pilot, even when I shouldn't be playing that aggressively.

But that's just the way my body's been trained. I honestly have to consciously think to disturb and adjust those patterns.

What systems do you have in your business that allow it to function in a similar manner?

What systems can you create?

What projects take conscious, and even worse, management attention to implement which could be relegated to systematic processes that require little or no attention by your company's genius workers?

Or better yet, what situations can be automated to remove all thought requirements altogether?

What happens when you get a sales lead, an order, or a request for a press kit? These can all be systematized!

What happens when you come home with a pocket full of business cards from a trade show or convention? This can be systematized!

Even high-thought processes can be systematized to a degree. You can dictate which processes must transpire, which considerations must be made and which information must be gathered before a decision can be made, thus saving tons of time and improving the quality of your decisions in the meantime.

Think about this seriously - there are few better ways to improve your profitability...

Posted by Don Crowther at 04:42 PM | TrackBack

October 08, 2004

Schmoozing at Trade Shows

Trade shows are great places to generate all kinds of publicity.

Joan Stewart points out that among the thousands of attendees at trade shows, you'll sometimes find hundreds of reporters who are hungry for stories about new products and interesting people behind the products. But you must do your homework.

- Even before you pack your suitcase, know your goal. What do you want reporters to write about? Do you want to be positioned as the market leader in your category? Do you want attention for a new product? Once you've identified your goal, write a positioning statement that you'll use over and over again in your marketing materials, in your elevator pitch and in your media kit.

- Determine what you need to take with you to tell your story. You might need news releases, hard copies of photos, or photos on CD, testimonials from people who have tried your product, graphics, or comments from industry analysts. You'll also need print and electronic media kits.

- Before you arrive, or as soon as you get there, line up as many interviews as possible at your booth with reporters. It might be difficult to get reporters to commit that early, but try it anyway.

- When you arrive at the convention hall, learn where the press room is. Hang out near the entrance and introduce yourself to reporters coming and going.

- Call the trade show's press office and see what resources they have available for you. They might give you lists of reporters who have pre-registered for the event, along with contact information. The press office also might be able to set up a press conference for you.

Learn more great tips from "Trade Show PR: How to Rise Above the Noise Level," a one-hour teleseminar Joan conducted with trade show publicity expert Dan Janal, available as an audio CD.

Posted by Don Crowther at 03:17 PM | TrackBack

September 24, 2004

The Most Powerful Word In The Marketer's Toolbox

Want to know the most powerful word in the marketer's toolbox?

Contrary to popular belief, it's not "you" nor is it that off-cited four letter word that starts with fr and ends with ee.

The word is...

"Because"

Haven't heard that before? It's probably because most marketers are clueless when it comes to penetrating the psyche of the buying public.

Here's the way this concept works. You can have the best claims in the world, superior product performance, and the catchiest tagline, but it's all seen as useless hype to the consumer unless you add the word "because."

For example, "new ________ diapers virtually eliminate diaper rash because they have the new stay dry system that locks moisture far away from your baby's skin."

See what just happened - I just made a claim, then I told you why you should believe that claim. With one single word (because) I moved your attitude from skepticism to considering.

I stopped asking for your suspension of disbelief, and replaced it with a reason to believe. Now your thought process begins to consider whether my reason is valid.

In advertising we call this "reason why", and it's the most important part of any consumer communication.

It's what creates believability.

And it works because most advertising doesn't use it.

Consider the power of the following phrases:

Softdrink: "Slice tastes better because it contains 10% real fruit juice." (This claim created a $2 billion piece of business in an industry where virtually every new soft drink fails - because they don't use the magic word "because"!)

Airline: "You arrive fresh and well rested because we've put 6" more legroom between every row." (Hint, hint, airlines!)

Professional Speaker: "Your audience will retain of our information more because we'll give each one of them reminder emails for 6 weeks after our presentation."

Consultant: "You get expert advice because I will personally interview your team and prepare the plan, rather than utilizing brand new college graduates to do the work like most consulting companies do."

Versus:

Levi's: "A style for every story." What on earth does that mean?

United Airlines: "We love to fly and it shows." Who cares?

Pepsi: "It's the cola." Now that's a compelling way to make me want to drink your stuff. Whatever happened to the Pepsi taste test?

It's important to recognize here that the word "because" isn't the source of the magic. It's the fact that you're telling the reader why they should believe your claim that is. Other words can be used to convey the same thing.

But "because" does it better than almost any other word I've ever tried!

It's truly a tragedy that so many brands and companies either fail or don't reach their full potential because they don't get around to finding or communicating the "because" in their business. The result is gutless, insipid, useless marketing that's justified with the terms "image advertising" or the classic company-killing cop out term "branding."

If you want to build your brand, give your customers a great product, with a great benefit, and a thoroughly believable reason why I should believe that it's possible.

That builds brands, and creates millionaires!

What's the "because" in your business?

-------------------------------------

Now that you're convinced of the power of reason-why advertising (right?), let's take this discussion to a higher level.

The best way to capitalize on reason-why marketing is to find way to instantly, visually show the reason why your "reason why" delivers on your marketing claim.

One of the most powerful ways to do this is with a demo.

The best demos are short, visual, and clearly show how your product or service resolves a core consumer need.

And they're even better when they show the competitor's shortcoming at the same time.

I remember the 3 second demo that created the Poise brand of incontinence products (I'm proud to say I was the brand manager who conceived of and introduced that brand).

We put our product next to the competitor's product and poured blue liquid on each. The blue liquid bounced right off the competitor's product and flowed onto the table (a clear demonstration of how the competitor's product frequently leaks.) Our product instantly soaked up the liquid.

At the same time the consumer heard "New Poise pads help prevent leakage because they instantly absorb liquid..."

Now that created a stir.

People in the target market loved the ad.

So they tried it. It performed up to their expectations, and that 3 second demo (plus our other marketing) almost instantly turned Poise into a $100+ million dollar brand.

Demos can be filmed and shown in advertising, on websites and on a DVD that you mail to potential customers.

The best demos can also be reproduced on your potential buyer's desk. That creates a powerful, memorable sales call that tends to turn into an order.

The key is to create a demo that clearly shows how your product solves a major unmet consumer need. Demos that deal with unimportant issues lack breakthrough power and are of lesser value.

Do you have a demo that you could use to build your business?

Are you interested in more information to help in branding your business? You may want to check out our audio CD, "Brand Your Business and Make Your Profits Explode."

Posted by Don Crowther at 07:25 PM | TrackBack

September 03, 2004

Getting Thoughtful: Fire Your Clients

There's a concept that has been going around the business world for several years, called "Fire Your Clients."

Basically, this concept calls for you to, on a regular basis, fire a certain percentage of your clients, leaving a gap which will hopefully be filled with other clients who will help you to move your business to a higher level.

I have been doing this on a regular basis, even during tough times, for eight years now. I can tell you that this is one of the most powerful things you can do to build your business.

It's liberating, in terms of time, money, and most importantly, stress.

But I believe there's much more to this practice than most people have contemplated. Those who step beyond the concept of just dumping a few clients now and then to look at the "whys" behind that move can make some major differences in their business and personal life.

There are two basic principles that make this concept successful:

1. Busy isn't better

When we first start out in business we tend to go out and get a bunch of clients to generate the cash flow to pay the bills. Eventually we become terribly busy, so we hire people to help us be less busy.

But then those initial projects conclude, and we've got employees to keep busy, so we go out and find more projects to keep them working.

Eventually we drop into a rut of taking every customer and project that comes along, because that's the way we've always done it. As a result:

Profits go down.

Focus disappears.

And we get miserable...

2. Vacuums attract

I believe that there's an irrevocable law in the universe that vacuums beg to be filled.

That's why when we give, we receive. When we tithe we earn more. And when we dump clients, the phone starts ringing with new ones to take their place.

When this happens it's our job to make sure that the new ones we take on are better than those we lost. We need to make sure that these new clients are

- Easier to work with
- More profitable
- On focus with where we want to go with your company
- Knowledge creators, rather than knowledge suckers (they force us as an organization to learn, to grow, and to progress in our craft, rather than just sucking out more executions of the knowledge you already have.)

But now let's consider the vacuums attract principle from a different light. It's also important to recognize that while vacuums attract, you don't always have to fill those vacancies. One option is to simply say no, to run a smaller (but since you dumped your costliest clients) more profitable and stress-free organization. Another is to shift from the way you've always done business into some other way that helps you to take your business to a new level.

For example, I've long wanted to focus more on product creation, but never had the time, because I was too busy with clients. So last year I dumped half of my clients. As a result, I have created multiple new products, which have earned me much more money than the clients were paying. The vacuum still got filled, but because I refused to fill out from the outside, my inner self stepped forward and filled it instead.

And I'm much happier as a result.

Taking Firing To Another Level

In addition to firing clients, you may want to consider:

1. Firing half your employees.

Cull out the deadwood, give those remaining 50% raises, possibly do a few new hires at a higher level and kick your entire company's intellectual and performance capacity to a higher level.

And since you've dumped the clients, you don't need those employees working for you anyway!

2. Firing half of your products/services offered.

Products cost money to stock and maintain. Services have to not only be marketed, but provided. Pareto's principle will tell you that the vast majority of your products offered are generating almost no sales, but if you were to perform a true item-based P&L analysis, you would probably find that these items actually cost you money to stock.

Dump 'em, make more money. Turn your warehouse into a basketball court for lunchtime pickup games.

3. Firing half of your systems.

If you've never been to a seminar on lean manufacturing, you need to go, even if you're not a manufacturer. There are some powerful principles there that you need to understand. One of the elements of lean manufacturing is to conduct a value chain analysis - looking at each step in the process of moving a product from raw material to the customer, and assigning both a value added and cost to each of those levels. But it goes beyond the manufacturing floor to the office and other systems in your company. Most companies find that a huge number of the systems they perform all the time add very little value, while adding tremendous cost. Just think of all the reports you create that nobody reviews, the extra setups you perform that could go away if you batched processes or streamlined the setup, the marketing programs you implement that don't actually sell anything.

4. Firing half of your projects

Most companies have a number of projects their working on that have low probability of ever paying back their investment. Fire 'em and simply stop working on them.

I fight this one all the time. I'll get a bee under my hat and want to go pursue it, without logically looking at the payback that will result. So I stay busy working on worthless projects.

I've found that there's great value in having a sensible outside person who isn't afraid to say "Don, you're being stupid. Don't do that." In fact, I heard those very words from two of my advisors in just the last 3 days! (Those are the thoughts that triggered this very article.) It takes getting past your pride and saying - "OK, I won't, even though I want to."

Try it!
Perhaps firing half of these isn't the right number. Maybe it's three quarters, maybe it's 20%. But reduction, focus, outsourcing where necessary (someone still has to handle payroll...), can work wonders for your profitability, your future, and your peace of mind.

After all, isn't work better when it's fun!?!

Posted by Don Crowther at 04:57 PM | TrackBack

August 13, 2004

How To Focus Your Personal Genius

Ah, Wisconsin in August - lazy sunny days, hot muggy nights...

Wrong! Yesterday our high temperature only hit 60 degrees. And it's August! At this rate, it should be a very interesting February. Anyone here looking for some on-site consulting in some Southern state in February?

On top of it all, my wife and daughter are out on a canoeing trip down the river. Everybody's freezing, especially their hands, as most didn't think to bring gloves.

Things became particularly unpleasant yesterday when the wind picked up right after lunch, until someone came up with a bright idea...

They pulled out a tarp, hooked five canoes together side by side, had one person in each of the outside canoes hold up the tarp and everyone else laid down in the canoes.

And they went sailing down the river!

Not only did most of them enjoy being protected from the wind, but they also arrived at their overnight camping site two hours earlier than past years. And their muscles weren't nearly as sore as expected.

Now that's what I call effective usage of resources!

Another example, I have a process in my business that I run about twice per month. Unfortunately, it's always cost me about a day's effort each time I did that work.

Then a couple of months ago I decided to hire a programmer to automate and simplify the process. Total cost - $275, and now my day's worth of effort can now be done in about 30 minutes.

A third example, several years ago I made one of the best purchases of my life, a self-propelled power lawnmower.

Prior to that time it took me about 2-1/2 hours to mow my lawn. And since Wisconsin summers usually average 90 degrees and 85% humidity, and I'm quite allergic to the pollens kicked up in the process of mowing, those weren't my favorite hours of the week.

So why was my new lawnmower a great purchase? First, it gets the job done in about 1 hour. But second, and more important, now my kids could mow the lawn. Before they couldn't, because the lawnmower was just too heavy.

So, that one purchase not only improved efficiency, it enabled me to shift work off of my back and onto someone else's (to say nothing about the missing allergy symptoms). While my kids may not have appreciated it, that was a major win.

One of the people I really admire, John Reese (more on John in a moment) recently pointed out that "time is the only limited resource in marketing."

When you think of this, it really is true. Money and staffing clearly aren't limited - because if you've got a terrific marketing campaign that you can directly tie to incremental profits, you can always justify going over budget to spend more on marketing.

What really is most scarce in marketing is time. There's never enough of it in the marketing world. Marketing is one of those tasks that is truly never done and which expands everlastingly to fill the time allocated to its function. You can always do more research, more analysis, more thinking, more personal contacting of key people, more planning, more writing, and especially more testing.

So one of the most valuable things we can do is to perform a personal analysis on how you are using your time focusing on how you can use your time more effectively (the old sharpen the saw principle - spend your time sharpening your saw rather than working harder with a dull blade).

Some good questions to ask yourself in that analysis include:

1. How could you use your resources at hand to more efficiently do your job (the sailing canoe example)?
Some PR examples may include
- Learning how to better use technology to distribute press releases,
- Improving your organization system (perhaps by using a computerized system like ACT) to better sort your media contacts database
- Improving your tickler file system to better build key media and industry contacts
- Better prioritizing your time so that you focus first on those items that will deliver the greatest return
- Systematize the process you use to identify new hooks, leads and news stories within your organization to ensure that you have a constant stream of great new ideas to promote.

2. How can you cut the time it takes to do key tasks so that you are able to focus on other projects (the programming example)?
Some examples include:
- Having someone create a custom program to automate some of your most time-consuming tasks like report development, competitive tracking, scheduling, tracking, testing, etc.
Note that this process generates the exact same result with less time spent in creating that result.
- Analyze which of your tasks truly add value, and cut those that add the least. Its amazing to me how many people get a stack of printed reports from IT every day / week / month that never gets opened. Could those reports get eliminated, saving time and money?
Note, this process asks which results are most desired and focuses the company's resources against them, at the expense of those which are of lowest value.
- Learn to say no to those things which have limited potential to generate incremental sales, even if they're a favorite of the CEO or other key player, or worse yet, even if your company has done it that way for years!

3. How can you shift time-sucking tasks from genius employees onto others (the lawn mowing example)?
Don't take this wrong - because almost every employee has skills, possibly genius skills in certain areas. But in every company there are key players who possess genius skills which helped make the company what it is today. Unfortunately, this genius is usually rewarded with additional responsibility, which severely cuts into the time and energy available for those people to do their genius work.

Think about it - our very system of rewards in business operates backwards - we take our company's genius and dumb it down by insisting that the only way we can promote and pay more is for an individual to do more stuff that's outside the area of their genius. What a waste!

You're probably in this camp. You're a genius. But I bet that your daily responsibilities leave you only a few minutes per week to actually do what you're so good at doing.

And, face it, your company is suffering as a result.

When this is the case, you've got to shift the non-genius stuff onto someone else. That someone can be another employee, someone from outside your company, or a computer. It is vital that you, as a product creation genius, a key customer relationship genius, a people motivation genius, or a big picture thinking genius, stop mowing the lawn!

This is a huge piece of advice! Whatever "the lawn" is in your particular job, get rid of it. Someone else can do it, even if it is something that's really important. Shift responsibilities, hire someone else to do that other work, pave the stupid lawn over with green painted cement if you have to, but find a way to allow yourself and your company's other geniuses to spend at least 4 hours of every single day, doing genius stuff.

Please note: if you truly heard what I just said, 6 months from now, this concept has the potential to increase your bottom line by 25%.

It's that important.

So, now that you have this idea seeded in your mind, what are you going to do about it?

One of the things that we do is to work with companies and individuals who want to improve their results. We do this through consulting and coaching. If you're interested in substantially increasing your company and personal results, and you recognize that though the results will be significant, this process is not going to be cheap and is going to take some major changes within your company and personal life, call me (Don Crowther) and let's talk. You can reach me between 10 and 5 Central time at 262-639-2270.

Plus, here are some resources to help you better focus your energies against your public relations genius areas and to help you do your PR job more efficiently:

Press Release Templates: 10 Templates to Simplify Creation of Incredible Press Releases (decreasing the time required to create great releases)

How To Hire The Perfect Publicist (Shifting responsibilities onto someone else)

103 Sizzling Story Ideas From July Through December (Improving the process of generating new story ideas)

and its companion 116 "WOW!" Story Ideas From January Through June

Posted by Don Crowther at 02:10 PM |