February 19, 2009

How To Annoy Your Customers

I sometimes wear ties. Mind you, I'm dragged kicking and screaming into the ancient and abominable art of male torture through neck binding, but I still occasionally put one on. And I get bored with them, so I'm always on the lookout for good looking ones.

So when I saw a Facebook ad offering Four Quality Ties for $1, they got my click.

(Notice that they specifically say "No hidden fees!" in the ad.)

By doing so I got wrapped up into one of the best examples of how to deceive and annoy your customers that I've seen in weeks.

The landing page seems well designed with a photo at the top, 18 ties that you can select, an order form on the bottom left and testimonials on the bottom right. The bottom of the page even has a guarantee and trust-type seals.

No mention of shipping charges, no mention of any other obligations. It appears on the surface to be a program designed to allow customers the ability to buy a sample of their wares at an inexpensive price.

It looked good, I was about to reward good marketing with my order. I was about ready to start choosing ties, when I noticed that you are required to check a box stating that you have read and agreed to their terms & conditions. I click that box, and the real deal is reveled:

Now I get it.

First they want $14.95 for shipping and handling. I can reluctantly accept that, even though I know real shipping is only a fraction of that amount, because I'm only paying a buck for the ties. I'm still getting a better deal than in a store.

But then I get into the fine print. By buying I'm automatically enrolling in a Wholesale Discount Club for "just $7.49 per month, billed annually." So if I don't tell them within 14 days from my signup date (note, if shipping takes a week, it's only 7 days from receipt,) they're hitting my card for $89.88. For that I get nothing other than the right to buy more ties for $19.99 each (probably plus $14.95 s&h, so they're probably $35 ties.)

Interesting deal - I've gone from an expectation of spending a buck plus some probably outrageous shipping costs to forking over $90 to have the privilege of overpaying for ties for a year. (I'm assuming these ties are of the quality that you would pick up at a Wal*Mart, not a fine men's store - admittedly, I could be wrong.)

But more importantly, they promised me "No hidden fees!" and a relationship I could trust. What I got was clearly not what I had expected.

I'm sure their refund and chargeback rate is astronomical.

Notice that I didn't provide their company name or URL here - I didn't want to inadvertently send them any business!

Lessons to be learned:

1. Don't lie. Lying is bad.

2. If you want to build an offer for something that will be in addition to your advertised offer, don't slide it in on the sly, tell your customers about it, and sell them on the benefits of your offer. Be explicit, and sell it, don't do the bare minimum to pass a legal challenge.

3. Recognize that in today's world the consumer has a voice and that voice can be VERY effective in driving people away from you. Do you want people talking about how horrible you are to deal with, and how you ripped them off, or singing your praises. It's up to you!

Needless to say, I didn't buy any ties from this company. I wouldn't recommend that you do so either.

Even if you're forced to practice the abominable act of male neck binding...

Posted by Don Crowther at 12:50 PM | TrackBack

February 03, 2009

How To Profit From Obama’s Economic Stimulus Program

It seems you can’t turn anywhere today without bumping into talk of economic stimulus. Whether you’ll be entitled to some of that money or not, you can use it to build your business.

How? Through using it to get more PR!

Here are some story pitches that astute marketers like you can use the economic stimulus talk and Obama’s new Presidency to build your publicity:

• Right now, before it’s set in stone, pitch a story about how the plan will affect your business. That pitch could show how you would benefit from it, how you wouldn’t, how you should get it, or even how it will be a waste of money in your industry.
• Pitch your corporate environmental policies and improvements. Tell reporters about the changes you’ve made and how they will affect your bottom line. Show how they will increase employment, and how they will impact the environment, especially if those changes cut greenhouse emissions. Remember that those emission reductions don’t necessarily have to come from you, they can come from suppliers, customers, or even from the eventual disposal of the product. The extra work to calculate those numbers will be worthwhile, because they will likely be a lead element to your story.
• Pitch any new U.S. employment initiative you participate in, even if those initiatives just preserve a job that might otherwise be lost to foreign workers. Again, remember, those initiatives don’t have to be just within your company. If you order a new machine that replaces one on your shop floor, you may not add a job, but the manufacturer of that machine may, and there’s a story there! Clearly communicate the number of new jobs, or the number of jobs preserved in your pitch, don’t leave it up to the reporter to do the calculations. And don’t be afraid to make estimates and assume that the money you’re spending won’t trickle down to others in the economy - the government accounting offices are!

• Pitch the direct results from bailout funds and economic stimulus plans. Recognize that you don’t have to be the direct recipient of that check to have a pitchable story. For example, if you run a corporate cleaning service and one of your clients is able to keep you on because of receiving bailout funds, you’ve got a story of the job gains (or prevention of losses) that result.
• Pitch the human interest side of the housing crisis on your employees. Tell the story of your employee who was at risk of losing his home because he couldn’t to get his adjustable rate mortgage refinanced. There’s one story, especially if your company somehow helps him out. But if the bailouts or new policies enable him to actually renegotiate his loan, you’ll have another opportunity to pitch the story.
• Pitch the potential of troops coming home from Iraq. Show the advantages of having 3 of your employees return to your workforce after their stint in Iraq.
• Pitch your usage of technology. As the media focuses on this most technologically savvy presidency ever, story opportunities exist for those who use similar technologies to build their business, avoid laying off people, or maintain their customer base.
• Pitch your company’s volunteerism efforts. Let the media know about the employee that you loan to the United Way for 3 months each year, the employee who gets half a day off once every two weeks to serve as a big sister, or the Saturday when your entire workforce helped clean the local homeless shelter.
• Pitch your corporate giving. If your restaurant gives your leftover food each night to the homeless shelter, you donate x% of profits to charity, or you give your used cars to the Lung Association, there’s a story there. Some would say that in publicizing your giving you are defeating the purpose. So, instead of strutting your contributions, use them as a way to challenge other businesses and individuals in your area to do the same.
• Pitch your contributions to schools. Donate computers, teach reading skills, have your finance VP teach a high school class how to balance their checkbooks. Then tell the media about your story.
• Pitch how your latest book fits into and supports or disagrees with one of the Obama Presidency priorities.


• I could go on and on. The key is to look at the policies and focuses of the new administration and the economic stimulus plan with an eye towards how you could spin them into a story about you or your company.

One point - most of the examples listed above show how you fit into the actions of the new administration. But there is an opportunity to do the exact opposite - to show how you are opposed to or your actions are against those policies. But be aware, you’re more likely to get stories picked up that show how your company fits into those policies as opposed to fighting against them.

Remember also, the media wants to localize the national happenings by showing how local companies and individuals are affected by them.
Regularly brainstorm how your company can fit into a story on that subject. Then, when you’ve got a great, logical fit, pick up the phone and tell your local newspaper, television and radio station, and bloggers about the story. In your pitch, don’t focus on how the story is will be good for you, tell them how it will fit the interests of their readers, and you’ve likely got yourself a story on your hands!

Convinced that you need to pitch a story, but don’t know how to do it? Check out Secrets of Perfect Pitching.

Posted by Don Crowther at 03:10 PM | TrackBack

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 | TrackBack

Watching A Marketing Genius At Work

In every industry there are a small number of true geniuses who quietly but effectively drive the industry. Those are the people you want to follow and get your hands on everything they have to offer.

One of those players whom I deeply admire is named John Reese. John is a brilliant marketer who works alone in his Florida estate, yet quietly pockets several million every year from his efforts.

The thing I like most about John is that his mind just doesn't work the same way that most people's do. He looks at the world and sees things that others simply don't consider. Oftentimes, those things seem simple on the surface, but have an incredible level of power if you truly consider them.

John recently published a Special Report that absolutely blew me away. And I wasn't alone -- tons of people rushed to his blog to say how this one Special Report had a profound impact on them and the way they look at marketing.

Because I am constantly on the look-out to share great information with you, I got ahold of John and asked his permission if I could send this Special Report issue to you .

It is just that good!

John said 'no problem' and is letting give you a copy of that report.

BUT...

I need to WARN YOU about it before you read it...

1. It contains some very controversial information that some people in the marketing industry are probably going to get 'mad' about. But John gives his honest opinion about something (to do with niche
marketing). I agree with him and appreciate his outlook on it -- and I'm sure you will too.

2. This Special Report also contains something John calls a 'brain dump' exercise. I really want you to pay attention to it and actually do this exercise. (You will get A LOT out of doing it.)

3. This report focuses on Internet marketing, but the principles he teaches in it apply to all kinds of marketing. Besides that, as you know, I strongly recommend that each of you have at least one web site to market your business online!

Visit the link below to check out this Special Report. Please do not pass it around unless you ask John for permission first. (I had to ask him to get special permission just so you could have it.)

By the way, at the end of his report he suggests that you view an online video. I'm the "star" of the 7th scene that shows up in that video. Not my best moment ever captured on film, but...

Go Here To Read This Report Right Now

Posted by Don Crowther at 02:07 PM | TrackBack

Toys R Us Soon Will Be Toys Rn't Us - How NOT To Brand Your Business

Toys R Us, that bastion of toy-dom, with 1200 toys stores, has now decided that they need to dump their toy business so that they can focus on their more profitable baby business.

We could point out lots of negative lessons one could learn from the incompetence that Toys R Us's management has repeatedly shown over the last 5 years - like the importance of creating efficient supply chains, dealing with inventories (have you been in a store lately - they've got inventory coming out of their ears in everything except what you want to buy!), watching and creating trends, creating advertising that makes people want to buy, positioning yourself as a specialist against the -Mart generalists, figuring out how to properly market stuff online, etc. (Can you tell that I sold my stock in this company a decade ago in disgust?)

But one thing I can't let pass without at least throwing out a comment is the stupidity that most people have when it comes to branding.

I constantly see people try to brand the wrong thing.

For example, they try to brand their own name - professional firms are famous for this - think of all the legal firms that have 5 people's names in their title. But what happens when one dies, or worse, forms his own firm, or worse yet, gets involved in some scandal. I don't know the legalities of law firm naming, but if you are working hard to brand your own name, I invite you to strongly consider focusing on a company name - it removes lots of risk and it makes it possible for you to sell your company at sometime in the future.

In other words, brand your company, not your name.

Another mistake is that people sub-brand spin offs under their main company name. This is Toys R Us's problem. They decided to call their baby store Babies R Us, which has it's advantages, but now things don't look as rosy. First, there's all the ridicule that Toys R Us will take in this change. Second, what happens when the company that buys the toy division decides to cut costs to create profitability, creating dirty, understaffed, scantily-stocked stores, closing locations, and firing people, a situation to which the profitable baby company will remain associated in the customer's mind. So, I don't see the Baby division staying strong for long.

I invite you to consider the Procter & Gamble model. You probably have dozens of P&G products in your home without even realizing that they are all made by the same company. Why? Because each brand stands on its own.

Thus Oil of Olay can shift its brand to just Olay and not affect the main P&G brand. Or P&G can sell off brands or whole divisions, have a wonderfully performing brand or one that's dying without having spillover into other products.

It's a great way to build a business, because you operate each business in its own silo, protecting the whole.

Of course, there's a downside, in that it's hard to bridge the success of one onto another, but I believe the upsides outweigh the downside.

Think about this very carefully. You need to build a brand, but branding decisions have decades-long effects - don't make them lightly.

Need help in branding your company? Check out our powerful audio CD Brand Your Business and Make Your Profits Explode!

Posted by Don Crowther at 02:03 PM | TrackBack

August 05, 2004

How To Get People To Recommend You To Others

My daughter received a most interesting phone call the other day.

It was from a woman who wanted my daughter to baby sit her kids. Unfortunately, Megan was unavailable, so she had to decline.

But then the call got interesting, (keep in mind that Megan had never yet done any babysitting for the caller.) "You'll probably get a call soon from a couple of other people to whom I've recommended you."

Wait a minute - she's being recommended to other people. But she's never actually baby sit for the person who is recommending her!

How did this happen? It all started with a babysitting job she had done for yet another person, who had such a great experience that they started talking about her with their friends.

Then, (key here) on the basis of that good recommendation, the hearers are telling their friends about her too.

That's word of mouth...

And that's golden!

What created this onslaught of chatter?

My daughter's pretty bright. She recognizes that it's much more fun to actually do stuff with the kids when she baby sits than to lay around and watch videos with them. So she takes projects, activities, books and a head full of ideas along with her when she goes out to baby sit.

Plus, she genuinely loves kids, and they love her back.

So when the parents come home, they find their kids hugging Megan and gushing about all of the cool things they've done while their parents have been away.

Some kids even go so far as to ask their parents to go out again tomorrow night so they can have Megan back to baby sit.

For the parents, Megan provides not only child safety while they are away, but a benefit that's much more important.

Megan does what they (the parents) would do if they had the time, the focus, and the energy to actually do it themselves. She, for that 4 hour stint, is the parent they wish they could be all the time.

So they pay her more, AND they ask her back.

(By the way, after Megan told me this story, she said "and I bet that I'm going to read about myself in your next newsletter, right?" Ah, the disadvantages of having a writer for a dad...)

This reminds me of one of my pet peeves. For some reason, so many businesses run things the way they (the company) want it to be done, not the way I want it to be done.

They forget that I'm the customer, that I pay their salary. And that it only takes one negative experience for me to stop paying their salary.

Take banking for example. For some reason, the banking community has shifted their entire mind set from "We're honored to safeguard your money" to "Holding your money for you is such a pain that we're going to charge you every place we can to take it out on you!" Whatever happened charging more to loan out your money than they pay you in interest, thus making money the old fashioned way?

This is a whole industry that just doesn't get it!

But there's at least one bank that's figured it out. Commerce Bancorp Inc., in the New Jersey/New York area seems to get it. (Yes, they're involved in a scandal right now, but that has to do with some stupid decisions, and shouldn't denigrate the core business point that I'm citing here.)

Their President, Vernon Hill, believes in "wowing the customer"

Here's what he does - he looks at banking from the customer's eyes, then makes his decisions based on what the customer wants, not what the bank wants. For example, they flout industry norms by keeping their branches open weekends and evenings, putting branches in the places where people shop, and eliminating the "annoying fees" and "stupid rules" found at other banks.

That's my kind of bank!

Has it worked? Well, their stock price is up 135 percent in the past five years, its deposits have grown by an average of 39 percent a year over the last five years; and assets rose 38 percent last year, to $22.7 billion. Revenues jumped 31 percent last year, to $1 billion, and net income increased 34 percent, to almost $200 million.

I'd say it's working.

Babysitting, banking - how does this apply to you?

It's pretty simple. Are you giving your customer what *they* want?

I bet that if you were to call 10 of your bets customers, 10 of your occasional customers, and 10 of your past customers and asked them a very simple question, you would find out some very interesting things about your company.

The question? "We're trying to improve. What bothers you the most about working with our company?"

And now, here's the key. After you gather this data, you have to do something about it!

It will probably involve some training, possibly some readjustment of personnel, some rule changes, some systems changes, and some attitude adjusting. The first place the attitude will need to shift will probably be in your CEO's office, then it needs to visibly filter throughout the organization.

Ask yourself - how can we change so that we give our customers a solution that is better than the one they would created if they had our capabilities.

When you're able to do that, taking their whole customer experience into consideration, you'll have come a step closer to entering the great company hall of fame.

Think about it.

Now let's shift this from a management point of view to a public relations one.

As a PR practitioner, you have a customer you need to serve - your contact at your targeted media source. You provide that person a service, they pay you by running your story.

Are you getting the kind of pay you want from that customer?

Perhaps you need to change the way that you service that customer...

Carefully consider your last 20 interactions with media personnel. Did you give them what they wanted or did you give them what you wanted them to receive?

Did you (to use the babysitting analogy) do for them what they would do if they had the time and the energy to actually do it themselves?

Were you available when they called? Did you give them the information they needed? Did you give them the additional golden idea that shifted their story from good to great? Did you leave them "wowed"?

Maybe that's why you didn't get the story!

Need help? Check out our audio CD Secrets of Perfect Pitching and How To Be an Expert Spokesperson That the Media Love

Then go make some changes!

Posted by Don Crowther at 12:19 PM | TrackBack

July 01, 2004

Sell More Products and Services by Getting and Giving Powerful Testimonials

Don't just ask people to do business with you. Give them a reason to do business with you. Offer a third-party endorsement from someone who is delighted with your product or service.

They're called testimonials, and they're a free and powerful tool in your publicity arsenal. Yet they're one of the most underused and misused marketing tactics.

Time and again, I see people offering great testimonials at their web site and in their e-zines and marketing materials. But they never mention the name and company of the person giving it. "Gee, I wonder if they just made up that quote," I say to myself. Or they use somebody’s initials, as if the person offering the testimonial needs to go undercover. Why do they even bother?

If you're going to do it, do it right. Here are tips for getting, giving and using testimonials in your marketing and publicity campaign.

How to Gather Them

- Just ask! As soon as you know someone is delighted with your product or service, ask for a testimonial. don't wait a month or two. By then, they may have forgotten how pleased they were.

- Use a phrase like this: "I'm so glad you liked our service. Your compliment means a lot, and testimonials are one of the most valuable marketing tools I can use. May I use your comment as a testimonial?"

- Be relentless about gathering testimonials. If you get into the habit of doing it, before long, you'll have lots of them, and you can pick and choose, depending on how you want to use them.

- Keep your eyes open for complimentary e-mail messages that can be turned into testimonials. Every time someone sends me an e-mail saying how much they like my newsletter or other products, I ask them if I can use the quote with their name and company. So far, everyone has said yes.

- Ask for them at your web site and, in exchange, offer people something for free if they provide one.

Want to know more?

Download Special Report #31: Sell More Products and Services by Getting and Giving Powerful Testimonials

Posted by Angie at 07:01 PM | TrackBack

The Power of Differentiation

I don't fly first class. And I'm 6'4" tall, so coach class seats and I don't get along very well.

So it is normal for me to look with some trepidation at the 4 hour flight like the one I'll be taking tomorrow to a speaking engagement in Los Angeles.

But not this time, because I get to fly my favorite airline - Midwest Express Airlines.

Now, those of you who don't live in the Milwaukee, Omaha, or Kansas City may not recognize Midwest Express. That's too bad, because you're missing out.

Midwest Express ( http://midwestexpress.com ) is one of those rare airlines, offering: - 100% first class seats - Real food! Crab, steak, champagne for breakfast (I'm still trying to figure out who would want to drink at that time of day!), and other delightful food, served on china. - All at coach prices...

- And cookies baked fresh on the plane during the flight.

Freshly baked cookies? Yep - Chocolate chip

You see, Midwest Express needed something to differentiate themselves, to make themselves clearly different than everyone else. Lots of other airlines can duplicate a 100% first class plane. So it had to be something they could own, something that would stand out.

And in a touch of brilliance, they came up with chocolate chip cookies.

So sometime about 3 hours into the flight tomorrow the cabin will be slowly filled with the aroma that reminds you of Mom, comfort and home as the cookies bake.

And they taste really good too!

Those cookies have created not only a great deal of brand awareness for Midwest Express, but a great deal of publicity too.

I can tell you, that I'll even pay an upcharge (not too much, but some) to fly Midwest Express, especially on long flights. And I know that I'm not alone. Now that's marketing!)

Some other examples:

- I know of one high-end women's clothing boutique that has high tea every afternoon. Not just tea - but the good stuff, like crumpets, cucumber sandwiches, etc. To their customers, they're a destination, the place to be at that time every day when they are in town.

- Gubernatorial candidate from Ohio, Tim Hagan, has come up with a powerful tool to not only get publicity, but votes. He does it with his website parodying the AFLAC duck and his opponent Governor Bob Taft at www.TaftQuack.com

In this website, Mr. Hagan shows Internet commercials, asking a duck, wearing Gov. Taft's face with a bill in place of his nose, some of the campaign's challenging questions. For example, when he asks why Gov. Taft has no specific plans to overcome the budget deficits, the duck shouts "duck" and falls off the screen, then pops up again, and says "TaftQuack". I encourage you to visit -it's significantly more entertaining than it sounds.

Besides generating a lawsuit from AFLAC, this commercial has done wonderful things for Mr. Hagan's candidacy. He's generated 1.2 million visits, and it has helped him to gain between 8 and 11 percentage points in the polls. Now we don't recommend creating lawsuits, but the campaign does indicate that the publicity about the suit has generated even higher levels of buzz about the site and his candidacy.

It's also gotten him media. The site (and it's commercial) have appeared in media throughout Ohio, has been on "The Tonight Show" twice, and the Fox morning news.

The key is to have something that is visible, recognizable, ownable and reproducible, that's consistent with your desired image. By doing so, you can have a consumer and a press gold mine.

Want more information on how to make an impact? Review our special reports #5: How to Identify Story Ideas Within Your Company or Organization #9: How to Snag Free Publicity for Your New Business and the Audio CD/Cassette Brand Your Business and Make Your Profits Explode!

Posted by Angie at 06:58 PM | TrackBack

June 29, 2004

PR Apologies

Have you ever purchased a GM vehicle that was built during the 80's or 90's? Once, I bought a 1989 Pontiac Grand Am. It was in good condition when I purchased it. However, over the course of one year, the paint began peeling off like bad wallpaper, the radiator needed to be replaced, sensors went bad, and the cruise control died. Not all GM cars had those problems. In fact, in my mind, GM is a great company that has problems like everyone else. But there's an interesting PR lesson to be learned from something they are doing right now.

You may or may not be aware that GM is now apologizing for their lack of quality over the years through two-page spreads in major newspapers around the US and on their website.

You can read about their "Road to Redemption" here: http://www.gm.com/vc/story/home_flash.htm

They said that there has been a great turn-around and that GM is well equipped to be the best car manufacturer around.

According to their ads, thirty years ago they were a great company, but in the last 20 years they fell apart. I quote "The hard part [was] breaking out of our own bureaucratic gridlock," the ad copy states, and "learning some humbling lessons from our competitors."

And it took them 10 years to learn the lessons! During which time they did nothing other than tell us that things had changed.

So, what they're saying is that I was a sucker for buying any GM car made in the last 20 years.

And they're sorry about that.

But not sorry enough to refund my money, just sorry enough to try to convince me that they're doing better.

When I heard this, my thought was, "That's interesting, but haven't I heard this before?"

Jump back with me 20 years when we heard Roger Smith, GM's chief executive calling 1983 "the turnaround year we have been working for."

Now jump to 1989. Roger Smith and GM President Robert Stempel stated that a "turnaround" in "product quality" and "customer service" had been underway for "some time."

In 1990 Stemple assured us that GM's "entire focus" was on customer satisfaction. Meanwhile GM's share of new-car sales fell from 44 percent of the U.S. market to about 35 percent. Apparently the car buyers missed that press release.

In 1991 GM fired Stemple and announced that "fundamental changes" in its business were underway.

In late 1994 GM claimed that it "had 'absolutely' turned the corner."

And so on.

GM's market share is now 28% of the domestic vehicle market, not even counting the imports.

So what's going on here?

GM"s trying to spin the story.

Rather than telling us what they've changed, they are trying to appeal to our emotions to make us believe that quality is actually better.

What lessons can we learn from this?

1. Apologies can be a serious blunder in the give-and-take world of public relations. . Why? Because apologies are almost always viewed by the public as a ploy to get something - usually to get us to believe a lie.

Now, there are times when apologies are exactly what should happen. I'd like to hear an "I'm sorry" from Worldcom for chewing through $5000 of my IRA. If you emit a cloud of toxic gas that kills everyone in Philadelphia, an I'm sorry would be a classy (though not necessarily legally recommended) move. Johnson and Johnson was brilliant in their apology for the Tylenol tampering - but note that it wasn't their fault, it may have been preventable by them, but they didn't do the crime.

But most of the time apologies don't get you any advantages.

2. Actions have more power than words, especially if your actions in the past have belied your words.

In other words, stop telling me that you're working to make a better car, make a better car!

3. Emotional appeal, unfortunately, does sometimes work.

Some people are going to buy into this and actually buy a GM car.

Sometimes, these appeals are exactly what's needed, especially when the facts are consistent with the emotions you are trying to create. Pres. Bush's post-9/11 urgings that the world was not over so people should go back to buying, traveling, etc. was a good example - the world is not over, and things did look up, for awhile, at least.

I can tell you this, I've got two cars that need replacing in the next 6 months to a year. GM's not yet at the top of my list. Let's see if they can change my mind about that by then, but to do that their actions will have to live up to their words.

Want to be prepared for your next interview to make sure that you're ready for every question the reporters might throw your way? Try Questions You Can Expect Reporters to Ask During an Interview

Or to prepare for a news conference: The Press Conference: When to Hold It and How to Do It Right

Posted by Angie at 05:50 PM | TrackBack

June 25, 2004

Building PR Into Your Company From The Ground Up

There is a great little Chinese restaurant here in Racine by the name of Main Moon. Their restaurant is no more than 15 feet wide at it's largest point - it's literally a hole in the wall place. Yet, they truly understand the principles of PR and testimonial marketing.

For example, the walls on both sides of the nook where the cash register sits (and where you stand while ordering and waiting for your order) are covered with testimonial letters. One set features money from countries all over the world, where people have written little notes on the pounds, the pesos and the yen praising the food of Main Moon. There was even a note that was written on some money from England with a talk balloon coming out of the queen's mouth that said, "How long will it take to get a delivery to the castle?" and "When will you be opening a branch in London?"

Another section has pictures of families eating their food, with pictures of each kid and short testimonials from each family member.

Another has pictures of people winning prizes at Main Moon's thank you for your business bash several years ago. Each time you came into the restaurant you could enter the contest, for some major prizes like 4' tall Chinese porcelain vases. Each winner has their picture shown and a testimonial.

And there's another section of pure testimonials, where it's clear that some of the families were trying to outdo each other in their praise for the restaurant.

Plus there's the dog statue - our town held a Dog Days of Summer activity, modeled after Chicago's cow statue event, where different dog sculptures graced our streets. They were auctioned off at the end, and Main Moon bought one. So that dog stands in the restaurant, beside a clipping from the paper that day, with the first 5 paragraphs of the front page story being about Main Moon.

Why did Main Moon get the lead in the story? After all, this is the home of Sam Johnson, founder of Johnson Wax and one of the richest men in the world, and he and his family bought a number of those dogs.

It's simple - Main Moon made sure that the reporter knew their story. The owner really wanted this dog, because it was her son's birthday, he was born in the Chinese year of the dog, and this was the one that would best fit into their restaurant. Their story gave the human interest twist that gave life to an otherwise boring story about a charity auction.

Plus, their food is great and reasonably priced.

Needless to say, I've never been the only customer in Main Moon, at any time of day or night. There aren't many restaurants that can say that!

Testimonials can be a powerful tool in marketing your business. Are you using them to the fullest extent? You may want to check out our special report
Sell More Products and Services by Getting and Giving Powerful Testimonials

Here's another example.

In New York City, a restaurant owner wanted to increase his revenue by increasing his public relations.

There are thousands of restaurants in New York. How could he possibly stand out among all the rest? Simple...

He came up with the idea of naming the tables after notable celebrities and media personalities. This was a stroke of brilliance! After bestowing the honor of having a table named for them, he would invite the guest of honor to dine at that table, thus bringing tremendous publicity when the celebrity would talk about it. And remember that this is New York, which has a number of famous media personalities, well known for their gregarious natures, so his restaurant was mentioned literally dozens of times by each announcer. This brought a whole lot of people to his restaurant, gave him loads of free advertising, and his goal was achieved. But it did not end there.

Continuing on, he would name a new table and release another press release to achieve just as much publicity as before. His restaurant has become very popular because he thought ahead of everyone else and realized that public relations was the thing to build his business, not just advertising.

So, when people come, they oftentimes will ask for the table of their favorite personality, further cementing the PR tactic.

How can these examples apply to you?

--First please take note that both of these companies have focused on building PR into their company from the ground up. They understand that if you want to get publicity, you've got to think and act differently than companies who don't. Then implement those ideas into your business!

--Take time to brainstorm every day! Thinking originally must occur constantly! After you practice, you will discover that there are literally thousands of applicable ideas that would work wonders for your business.

--It doesn't have to cost money to be extremely effective. How much did it cost to name a table? Perhaps enough to put a small plaque over the table.

--If it has never been done before, then there's two possibilities: One, there's a reason why it has not been done, or two, nobody else has thought of it. Maybe you should do some research when you do finally hit that idea.

Here's a couple of additional resources that you may find helpful:
The Fastest, Cheapest, Easiest Ways To Publicize Your Small Business--Even If You're A Solo Entrepreneur

Brand Your Business And Make Your Profits Explode

Posted by Angie at 02:59 PM | TrackBack

Downshifting...Focus from War to Economics

While the war with Iraq is nearly finished, the conflict in Iraq is just getting started. But, that means that the media needs something else to gripe about. What else in this world can be focused on that will surely generate anger in the hearts of viewers and readers? The answer is in their pocketbooks! The economy! Everybody loves a good roast, especially when it involves their hard (or hardly) earned cash. When it comes to money, some people will do anything (just watch reality tv some evening, and you'll catch on quickly to this concept).

Did you watch last night's episode of the war? I didn't. Not that it has become routine. War is never routine. But you can only analyze a bomb crater so many times. The shift in the media will soon focus on the unfortunate plight of the economy. It's in sad shape, and something needs to be done about it. Some of you are thinking, "Yeah, so?", while others are thinking, "Ooooh...opportunities...". Let's do some enlightening.

When the focus changes direction, companies will be scrambling to show the world what they're doing to make the economy grow. This can be done in several ways:

1. Philanthropy - How are you helping those that are less fortunate?

2. Hiring - What jobs have you created that are building your business and helping the locals?

3. Low prices - Were you forced to drop prices during a pitiful economy? Are they still low, in an attempt to bring up sales and consumer spending?

4. New products - New products are often introduced at a point when confidence is high. When confidence is slow, a new product may be just the remedy to bring people back to your stuff.

5. Joint ventures - Two heads are better than one. Are you working with other local companies to get a boost on the economy?

6. Enduring the pain - Did a lot of your competitors go out of business in the economic fray of the early 2000's? Are you the only one, or one of a few left standing? Capitalize on that.

7...

It's not going to take long for the focus to move on. Decide now that you are going to take advantage of the change and bring some money in. After all, public relations applies to all economies whether Iraq is packing evilness, or the world is in a state of total melancholy harmony. It's just easier to do when people are comfortable spending money while toppling dictatorial regimes in overly arid conditions on the other side of the world. That being said, get to work, but don't be too loud. The next news feed showing a really deep crater is coming on...

Posted by Angie at 02:32 PM | TrackBack

Symbolism and What It Means

One image stands out as being rife with symbolism, that of a US soldier placing an American flag over the head of Saddam Hussein's statue as they prepared to pull it down.

When that flag was placed on the statue, it represented something. To some, it represents that the USA has taken a major step towards removing oppression and the threat of mass destruction through terrorist organizations. To others, it represented the threat that the US could, at any time, step in in and take over their country and change their way of life.

I can't help but think that someone in Washington, either in the White House or the Pentagon, was the cause of the change of that flag from an American one to the Iraqi one. We'll probably never know, but I wouldn't be surprised to someday hear that it took about two minutes after that flag went up before the joint chiefs heard about it, who called Tommy Franks, who called... until a radio message was heard in the vehicle to "get that flag down now!"

Unfortunately for American interests, it's not the picture of the Iraqi flag, but the one of the American flag, that's getting all of the press and air time in the Arab press.

Symbolism is powerful. People may not remember facts, but they distinctly remember symbols, especially images. Symbols carry with them all of the history, background information and emotion of the event that created it, plus everything else that has been associated with it since. Why do you think flag burning is such a hot issue?

Can symbols be powerful in business? Absolutely. And they can be good and bad.

How many of us who have travelled overseas were grateful to see the famous "Golden Arches" to get some good old "American Food"?

How many of us know the Enron logo today, that never knew it in the past?

There are a number of places where symbolism can be used to create and build an image:

1. In logos and on packaging -

I remember back to the days when I ran part of the Depend(R) brand (you think that was bad - my first job out of grad school was associate brand manager for New Freedom - guys, that's like Kotex!) I learned a lesson about symbols there as we placed a symbol on the package that showed our leakage-prevention system, and how it increased sales by double digit percentages just because it was there. The most interesting part of this story? Due to production issues and running out of old packaging, the feature advertised by the symbol had been in an increasingly-large percentage of the product for 4 months before we actually talked about it on the package, with no corresponding increase in sales. But when we put the symbol on the package, sales spiked.

2. In key communications from the company -

A company known as stodgy and old-fashioned can gain significant mileage through a video or annual report showing their modernistic new building and sparkling-clean robotic production line

The Verizon "can you hear me now" guy (have you seen the one with the monkey and the banana? Great spot!) is a symbol, as is Walmart's maruding happy face. But it doesn't have to be a character. A jingle, a logo, an image, even Circuit City's building are all symbols in their commercials.

3. In their joint ventures, promotions and implementation of corporate strategy. McDonald Douglas, Lockheed and Boeing mean patriotism and American military might here in the US. But for many foreign governments, they mean a great source of military hardware. In other words, these powerhouses have done a great job of communicating to Americans that they support American interests, while at the same time selling weapons that could potentially even be used in battles against American forces in the future.

One other thing about symbolism - it can be created, or it can be borrowed. Holiday sales, back to school promotions, putting an American flag in your window, using the name of the local community, etc. are all examples of borrowed symbolism. Even the minivan commercial uses Celine Dion's song, her face and even her son as a symbol.

What symbols are you using today?

More importantly, what symbols could you be using to build your image with the press and the public?

How could you integrate those symbols better throughout all of your communications with the public?

Posted by Angie at 02:06 PM | TrackBack

War Time Advertising

The situation in Iraq and around the world is quickly becoming more volatile. Regardless of your position for or against the war, I think most of us agree that it's coming. So how do we do our job during time of war, when the media and the public's attention (at least during the initial stages,) will be focused on the deserts of Iraq?

I read an article yesterday saying that most of the national advertisers have contingency plans in place to pull ad spending when the war starts. This is understandable, not wanting to get burned with their humorous ad running right after an image of guns firing, or worse, dead bodies. There are several examples of companies who got burned during Desert Storm, and they don't wish it to happen again.

In addition, it's clear that the media will be focusing on the war for the bulk of their news coverage, especially TV news. For two to three days once it begins (CNN and Fox probably longer), all the networks will go wall-to-wall. If the war progresses quickly, wall-to-wall coverage will last longer. Once wall-to-wall coverage ends, two thirds or more of network news time (probably 20 minutes out of the 24 available in each national newscast) will still be devoted to various war coverages. This clearly means that many stories that would be run in "normal" times, don't stand a chance of getting air.

So, do we just close up shop until the war ends?

The answer, as usual, is "it depends." We lean towards "probably not."

If you are trying to get coverage of hard news stories, it probably won't happen during the initial days of the war. So if that's your stock in trade, I recommend that you don't waste your time, at least not on a national level.

However, if you're presenting anything other than hard, national news, you've probably got an excellent opportunity to get on air once the war starts.

Why? Because all of your competitors (read: anyone else who also wants news coverage) is going to stop pitching stories because they think they'll never get on air.

Leaving you a slightly more open playing field.

Let's look first at the national media level...

We've already written off the network news. So consider newspapers.

Most national newspapers will be running extra content on the war. But, they will still need to produce food, entertainment, people, business, home, lifestyle, health, senior, auto, and other sections. So those editors/reporters will still have deadlines to meet and pages to fill. Don't pass the opportunities to submit stories to those sections. The competition will be far less than the normal level.

Non-news national magazines, because of their long lead times, will probably ignore the war almost entirely, so keep pitching them just as you normally would. This is especially true with trade magazines.

Now let's consider the local level...

The tips above are certainly relevant. Local feature editors will probably be even more starved to fill their non-news sections than the national editors. In fact, this would be a great opportunity for you to get coverage in papers that are not local to you, but where you can pitch a local slant, so look at opportunities to pitch many local and regional papers with your locally-slanted stories.

Another opportunity is to deal with the generic issues that the war produces. Concepts like stress relief, teleconferencing, Internet marketing, airline travel, personal safety devices, national security products, emotional health, family togetherness, dealing with fears, communicating with friends and family in foreign lands, hydrogen cars, etc. will all be of interest to feature reporters during the war.

Another key is to localize the war. Show how it fits with your company's products or services. If people are sending your gift baskets to troops, you've got an opportunity. If you're providing counseling services to kids at school or families of overseas troops, you should certainly be on the phone to the reporters even before the action starts.

Part of the challenge, especially with this divisive war, is to get publicity without hurting yourself. For example, if I was running a company in a highly anti-war community that had a contract to produce weapons or food for the military, I would have some discussions about whether you believe press coverage would be helpful or harmful given the current political situations.

One other way to generate publicity around this issue is to write letters to the editor to express your point of view. Again, the same caveats mentioned above apply. http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=67264

So what do you do if your phone does stop ringing and your opportunities to pitch die off?

Don't sit around wringing your hands and worrying. Business will be back soon.

Simply change your focus from short-term to long-term projects. Write those strategic documents, create the new product, do the marketplace analysis, and call the key non-media people who can make a long-term difference in your business.

In other words, do those things that never seem to get done because the phones keep ringing and the short-term demands keep demanding.

Use the time to kick your business to a higher level, so that you're already there once the war is over.

That's what we'll be doing...

Here are some resources to help you in this process:

How To Get On Your Local News Tomorrow

How To Write How-To Articles For Newspapers, Magazines, and Trade Publications

How To Use Newspaper and Magazine Editorial Pages

Posted by Angie at 12:52 PM | TrackBack

Reason-Why Advertising

I would like to introduce to you one of the most interesting stories of advertising that has ever happened. This happened just under 100 years ago.

It was six o'clock on a May evening in 1905 when John E. Kennedy sent a note up to A. L. Thomas, the senior partner of the Lord & Thomas advertising agency.

Thomas was just getting ready to leave the office when the messenger brought him the note. It read as follows: "You do not know what advertising is. No one in the advertising business knows what advertising is. No advertiser knows for certain what advertising is. If you want to know, tell this messenger that I should come up. I'm waiting in the lobby downstairs. "

It was signed: "John E. Kennedy." Thomas read the note with an amused smile then handed it to Albert D. Lasker, the junior partner in the firm and said to him, "Well, you have been asking this question for years and nobody has yet satisfied you. Maybe here is the answer...You see the man."

Albert Lasker saw Kennedy that night. It wasn't until 3 o'clock in the morning before they left the building. And when Lasker left that night, he had the answer to what advertising was. What Kennedy told him that night was simple. Advertising is SALESMANSHIP-IN-PRINT. And as Lasker said at a meeting with his agency staff in 1925:

"It was that in 1905 when Kennedy told it; it was that before anyone had ever told me, and it will always be that, and nothing else" (from The Lasker Story As He Told It)

Kennedy had been in the Canadian Northwest Mounted Police and had become interested in advertising. He told Lasker tales about the long, lonesome days and nights in the snowy emptiness of Northern Canada and how he spent them in meditative concentration isolating the fundamental concept in all of advertising, which was COPY, and how he had discovered that selling copy that got results was characterized by Salesmanship-In-Print.

Was Kennedy right? Was this new insight the key to effective advertising? Kennedy's experience with The Regal Shoe Company, Post Grape Nuts, Postum Coffee, and Dr. Shoop's Family Medicine Co. proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he truly had isolated that fundamental concept. After that fateful meeting with Lasker, Kennedy joined Lord & Thomas and became the highest salaried writer in all of advertising. One of his first jobs was to put his write down his principles so they could be taught to other copywriters in the agency.

Today, the only documents that survive with Kennedy's name on them are: Reason Why Advertising, The Book of Advertising Tests (which is basically the same as Reason Why Advertising but with a couple added chapters - one of which being purely promotion and non-instructive in nature), and this one, Intensive Advertising. The value of the information you are about to gain is limited only by the extent to which you use it. Many have made millions by following these principles. Many more have lost millions by ignoring them. Which path you choose is entirely your own. The fact that you have this report in your hands and are reading it is a good sign. Have fun and prosper.

You can purchase this product from us for $29.95 by going here:
Reason Why Advertising

Posted by Angie at 12:37 PM | TrackBack

June 23, 2004

Differentiation, Part Two

It's amazing to me how many companies have never thought about the need to create a differentiation between themselves and their competitors. They simply say, "here's what I make, now let's go sell it."

In fact, as I speak to audiences all around the US I often ask the managers in the room to write down what differentiates them from their competition. Most struggle, then finally write something down. I then ask those in the audience who said what makes them different from their competition is "quality" or "service" to raise their hands. Invariably, 90% of the hands in the room go up.

For some reason, we in America, have bought into the idea that we can be superior to our competition by producing high quality products and giving great service.

Let's think about this for a minute. High quality essentially means that you give the customer a product that meets their needs - that does what you say it does, doesn't break, looks nice, fits specifications, etc. Service means that you do what it takes to develop and maintain the relationship both before and after the sale.

Here's my real question -

Isn't the process of providing great quality and service just giving the customer what they want?

So what we as American businesses are really saying is that we think we can actually compete by giving people what they want?

Wait a minute! How demeaning! Have we really shrunk so far that it's actually possible to have a competitive advantage based on simply filling people's needs? I hope not!

And think about it, differentiation based on quality and service is almost non-defensible. It's incredibly difficult to hold an advantage in those areas for any significant period of time.

Just ask the airline industry!

So, let's probe deeper into the subject of differentiation:

It's key to understand that differentiation focuses on getting people to buy your stuff/services over your competition. But it's also the process of promising the consumer something for which they would be willing to pay extra to possess.

So one key is to make sure that your target marketplace really wants what you are promising to provide them.

For example: if Cadillac were to create a car targeted at little old ladies who only drive it to church on Sunday, they may decide to offer an engine that can do zero to 60 in 4.3 seconds with a top speed of 190, but the target little old ladies audience (with a few exceptions, like one of the ladies in my church) won’t see enough value in that feature to be willing to pay extra to get it. And that engine probably won’t cause grandma to pick up a Caddy instead of a competitive big fancy car.

So it’s important to know the purchase influencers for your selected target market. This comes through a combination of both qualitative exploratory research and quantitative verification research. In other words, the best way to find out this answer is to ask your target market what they want. And it’s important to realize that there are multiple factors that influence buying behavior:

Cultural: While working on Glade about 10 years ago, I discovered that there was a huge fad at that time among the Hispanic community of putting a golden crown that was also an air freshener in the back window of their car. I thought this was a small idea, until I saw the sales numbers - huge! But non-Hispanics never bought them. What cultural needs can you fulfill?

Demographic: People of different age groups have different needs, often for the same product, like size of vehicle

Lifestyle/Psychographic: Think of the difference in type of home people buy who are focused on social standing as opposed to those who are cocooners

Buying-Decision Process: How many times have you seen purchases made by corporations that didn’t make sense until you realized that politics made a big difference in the decision? I’ve had to hire the same top-of-the-line packaging firm 3 times now in my career, over my profound objections, because their work isn’t that creative, and it's certainly not worth the 300% premium you pay over other more talented firms. But I had to do it because someone in management wanted to protect themselves from blame. Similarly, it's been said that you can never go wrong hiring IBM. Can you become the "safe" solution to a problem for your industry? You may cost more, but they trust that you'll give them a good product.

Global vs Local: People in Europe have a totally different mindset than US consumers and African ones. Products designed to sell on a global basis must take this into account (that’s why most marketers don’t recommend a single-product strategy.)

Differentiation - finally

Now that we’ve defined our segment, and determined its unique needs, it’s then time to differentiate your product. Differentiation is the process of creating and marketing a set of meaningful differences to distinguish your company’s offerings from those of the competitors.

One great way to do this is through a perceptual map. This is one of the coolest tools to come out of market research. It shows the different attributes that consumers overlay on a given product group and shows where the various brands are in relation to those attributes. Key in looking at a perceptual map is to find major areas where no competitive brand is located. That area is an unmet need. (For more information on perceptual maps, try doing a search on Google, there's lots of good info there!)

Perceptual maps are wonderful, but they’re expensive and time-consuming to produce. So the poor man’s method involves qualitative research to determine key product attributes, followed by quantitative research that measures how well each of the competitive brands measures up against those attributes. This will also show where the gaps are.

Another approach is to look at your current product offering. What are your competitive advantages? These could be product features, warranty, local manufacturing, customer service, speed of delivery (I have one client who has built her entire successful business on the fact that he can deliver a complex metal part in 4 weeks while everyone else does it in 8 - and she gets a premium for doing it), personnel, channels of distribution, brand/product image, etc. I recommend that you create an exhaustive list and keep it on file as you may be able to use different attributes at different times with different customer segments.

Once you have the obvious points done, it’s often valuable to look at the less obvious, possibly even the areas where you are technically no different than your competition, but nobody owns that space yet. For example, consider "Columbian Grown Coffee". Lots of coffee is grown in Columbia, but only one company owns that positioning. This is a great way to differentiate a commodity product. Your tea leaves could be "lovingly hand picked", your wheat could be "grown in America’s heartland", toilet paper can be "squeezably soft" your gas could be treated with "engine cleaning additives" even though all gasoline is. What’s important is that everyone may produce it the same way, but if one player in the market positions against that attribute and actively promotes that they offer that feature, they can own it and be perceived as superior to the rest of the category in the consumer’s mind.

Then it’s important to develop the reason why you are different. I call this the elevator speech. If you’ve only got 20 seconds in the elevator to pitch your product to your biggest potential customer, what one thing do you say? That then becomes the core of your differentiation strategy, and the one upon which you base your positioning efforts.

Posted by Angie at 11:09 AM | TrackBack

June 21, 2004

The Good, The Bad, And The Atrocious

Every now and then, a commercial of such great quality is aired on television that people just can't get enough of it. Then there's the rest of the time. Many should have just been left off the air.

I was watching TV just the other night and saw one that fit the latter category.

First, some historical background:

A long time ago in a land far from here, there was a group of angry Greek soldiers. They were strong soldiers with quite a few kills under their belts, but the holidays recently over and they were getting bored. So they decided that besieging a city seemed like a great way to lose those extra holiday pounds. They encircled the city of Troy, and settled down for the evening.

The inhabitants of Troy were not pleased by the appearance of their new neighbors, but defended themselves properly over the next few days after having checked with their lawyers to make sure it was justifiable self-defense. The Greeks refused to give up, since they just finished building a new Starbucks in their camp. After some flaming arrows had been shot, it was determined that a conflict had officially begun. Since Kofi Annan hadn't been born yet, the feud lasted for a few years, until one day some buddies of a Trojan named Yorba decided that he would like a cake with a beautiful maiden jumping out of it for his birthday. They sent their order out by carrier pigeon.

One of the Greeks, seeing this tasty pigeon flying overhead, put an arrow through it and started de feathering it for lunch. He found the note and got an idea. What if they were to fill the order for Yorba's birthday but to replace the beautiful maiden with a warrior instead. Then someone suggested that a whole army would certainly do better than a single warrior, even if he was a WWF heavyweight champion. So they quickly constructed the wooden horse, slapped some frosting on it (your history book didn't mention the frosting? Oh the tyranny that comes from revisionistic history!) and pulled it up to the gates of Troy then jumped into their ships and sailed off. The Trojans, seeing what they thought was Yorba's birthday gift arriving, quickly pulled the wooden horse into the city. At the stroke of midnight, the Trojans were rudely awakened by the sounds of Greeks slaughtering people and breaking porcelain dishes in fireplaces. Troy had been taken.

Today, Trojans, like everyone else, are fighting for the public's attention. The other evening, I was watching television with my family. At the commercial break, the first commercial scene turns to a young couple on a park bench. They say a phrase or two, then in a flash, superhero music plays, and out jumps TrojanMan! It's a guy wearing a giant condom costume! I don't know about you, but isn't there something really, really wrong about a guy running around town in a condom costume?! I think I would call the police, and I certainly wouldn't accept anything from the guy. Needless to say, the couple's smiles are from ear to ear (probably because they couldn't keep a straight face) as they yell "Thanks TrojanMan!" At the end of the commercial, I was laughing so hard, I was in danger of bursting a lung. What was the company thinking??!! Now, I'm not saying that the maker of Trojan is a bad company. But, I am saying that they will probably need to do some serious damage control to fix their reputation after that commercial.

Now, the company that makes Trojan certainly wants a good image. But, as good taste would dictate, giant condom costumes running around in public places just really drops a bad image.

Don't jeopardize your image in an attempt to make something memorable. It's not worth it, and in the end, you will probably lose more business than it generates. Want some tasteful suggestions?

- Be careful with humor. Humor is great in the right doses. But overdoing it, or using humor that is crude or somewhat questionable wont earn you any points.

- Take an objective point of view from several people. That should set things on the right path.

- Don't allow your creativity to take away from the message intended for the audience. If they walk away shaking their heads wondering what that was advertising, you're on the wrong wavelength.

Use these wisely, and you should be able to avoid the fate of others.

Do you struggle to get good publicity? Some people do. And, it's not a bad idea to learn some lessons from other's mistakes.

I can promise you that getting some great publicity will be a far better investment of your time and resources than creating an ad that will be laughed at and ridiculed. One great tool to help you do that is to pick up a copy of our ebook Media Relations Power. It's one of our hottest selling products. Here's what's in it:

Special Report #2: Questions You Can Expect Reporters to Ask During an Interview (Including Nasty, Hostile Ones)
Most people focus so hard on getting attention, that they forget the true battle is knowing what to do when you're in the spotlight. Before you do your next press interview (or allow your CEO to take an interview) prepare by studying the 26 quick tips in this Report. Includes common questions reporters will ask you, and recommended ways you should answer them.

Special Report #5: How to Identify Story Ideas Within Your Company or Organization
How do you get news when you don't have a new product or earnings report to talk about? This Report will inspire you with 30 time-tested tactics that are proven to work.

Special Report #12: 52 Tips for Kick-Butt News Releases (and Bonehead Mistakes to Avoid)
Even if you have something newsworthy to talk about, 99% of the time reporters will ignore your releases (unless you're already incredibly famous.) That's because most press releases are written in a manner that doesn't sound interesting to reporters. This Report gives clear you instructions on how to write a must-read press release.

Special Report #4: How to Write Crisp, Compelling Letters to the Editor to Promote Your Product, Service or Favorite Issue
It's very easy to get your letter to the editor published in a major magazine or newspaper (such as your local newspaper, or even the biggies like Business 2.0 or The Washington Post), if you know how to write one properly. This Report includes a template for a great letter as well as useful do's and don'ts.

Special Report #6: How to Write "How to" Articles That Position You as an EXPERT
Reporters love to quote experts in their stories, radio talk shows seek out guest experts, conferences are always looking for expert speakers ... and once you appear as an expert on one of these venues, you'll often gain new clients. Plus, you may be able to raise your prices without hurting sales. This Report gets you started.

Special Report #7: How to Write the Perfect Pitch Letter That Convinces an Editor to Write About You
Press releases are not enough. In fact you can get a lot more media attention from a pitch letter. (Reporters love a good pitch letter.) This Report helps you create one that really works.

Special Report #25: How to Pitch Reporters Over the Phone and Make Every Second Count
What should you do when a reporter says, "No thanks" or "Not right now"??? Yes, there are ways to continue the conversation and ultimately get media attention. However calling to say, "Did you get my press release?" isn't one of them! Learn why, and learn what you should say on the phone in this Report.

Special Report #26: How to Make Your Story Pitch Stand Out in the E-mail Jungle
The average reporter gets more than 200 emails a day. Some get more than 500. They only have time to read and digest a fraction -- and an even tinier fraction ever turn into stories. This Report explains exactly how you can make sure your emailed story pitch can have the greatest chance of success. (Frankly this particular Report alone is worth the cost of the entire Media Relations Power book.)

Special Report #24: How to Create Media Publicity at Trade Shows and Conferences
Learn what you should do before the show, at the show and afterwards to get the most bang for your booth (or party) buck. Plus, this Report also tells you how to get media attention if you're attending but not exhibiting at a conference.

Special Report #23: Profitable Publicity Tips to Jump-Start Your Consulting Business
Report Author Joan Stewart brings a wealth of hard-won personal experience to this detailed Report which includes tips on how to use speaking gigs to land more clients; when to send your photo to reporters; how pro bono work can turn into paid engagements; and how to form strategic alliances with other consultants so you all get more work! It's a must-read for anyone considering becoming a consultant.

Special Report #14: How to Piggyback Story Ideas onto Holidays and Anniversaries
Many media outlets run "round-up" features around holidays and they are always looking for fresh new items to include. This Report tells you how to get yourself or your company included. Plus you'll also get tips on taking advantage of a corporate anniversary for publicity's sake.

Special Report #16: How to Write Tip Sheets That Catch the Media’s Attention If you don't have time to write a book or long articles to get attention, a tip sheet is your next best bet. Plus, you can probably whip together a tip sheet in under an hour. This Report tells you how.

Special Report #1: Damage Control: How to Keep the Media from Making a Mess of Your Story
Ouch! Even if you're not Enron, sometimes news stories can reflect badly on you. This Report includes 17 useful tips on how to avoid being misquoted, handle tough on-air questions, and make sure the facts about you are represented as accurately as possible. Plus you'll learn what to do if a story comes out that's either wrong or possible libelous.

Special Report #18: Clever Contests That Will Tempt Reporters to Call
This Report includes an even dozen inspirational tips and ideas for contests you can run to get media attention either locally or nationally. Web site contests included.

Special Report #19: How to Use Polls, Surveys and White Papers That Brand You as an Expert
Reporters love official-sounding numbers, charts and factoids. This Report shares the secrets of how to create them, and how to draw traffic to your Web site with them too.

Special Report #22: How to Create an Online Media Room and Keep the Media Coming Back
A recent study found that 87% of Fortune 500 Web sites had inadequate press areas. (Even Amazon's press area includes some of the most common mistakes!) This report helps you avoid the common mistakes and create a press area that works for you, without costing a lot of time or money.

Special Report #28: How to Get Booked on Radio Talk Shows, Give a Great Interview and Get Invited Back
How would you like to be featured as a guest on a radio talk-show that commuters listen to intently as they drive to and from work? Radio drive time is invaluable exposure. This Report helps you get it.

Special Report #32: On the Air: How to Create Valuable TV Coverage
This Report includes quick hands-on tactics to pitch TV talk shows, TV news assignment editors, and even get your own cable show.

Special Report #30: Briefs, Fillers & Quizzes: The Shortest, Easiest Articles you'll Ever Write
Are you already writing regular articles or an email newsletter to get attention? If so, sooner or later you'll probably experience "writing burn-out." This Report helps you over the hump with ideas for easy-to-write articles that readers love.

Special Report #35: How to be the Local Angle to National Stories
Want to make your news pitch "irresistible"? This Report tells you how to get national news coverage as a local or regional source.

Special Report #13: How to Recycle Your Publicity (for Serious Publicity Hounds Only)
Wonderful -- a reporter just did a glowing article all about you. Now what? This Report includes 16 classic ways you can re-use that article to get even more attention and benefits from it.

This ebook is great. I recommend them to anyone who is even remotely interested in building their business through free publicity. Don't try and cut corners, and then spend a bundle of money. You might end up with the TrojanMan quality of commercial or write-up. Aim for great publicity, and follow the steps in these reports, and you will do well.

You can get this ebook at: http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=64056

Posted by Angie at 05:35 PM | TrackBack

Whom Do You Trust?

Within almost every town or city, there is a section where you just don't go. Sometimes, nobody really knows why. Perhaps it's just rumors. Usually it's because of your fear of the people in those areas. They may be out to mug you, rob you, beat you, or just scam you. Let's talk about scams.

We hear about scams on our daily news all the time. Everybody fears them and nobody wants to be a victim of a scam.

Unfortunately, in the business world, especially if you do business online, there's not a lot of information that's readily available to help keep you from getting caught in a scam.

There's word-of-mouth, which everyone agrees is a powerful tool for building trust, but far too frequently, there's simply no word-of-mouth out there about your business. Therefore, your potential customers have no word-of-mouth to rely upon.

So the challenge for us as businesspeople is to create positive word-of-mouth.

Certainly the first step is to offer great products and services backed up by superior customer service.

But by doing this, you're still relying on others to communicate the good things about your company.

Is there any way to control the process, so that you determine what word-off-mouth people receive and when they receive it?

There is one way - through testimonials!

A well written testimonial gives the buyer a certain amount of faith in your product, even if unconsciously. At the same time, it improves your image. Buyers will recognize that others have purchased from you and were satisfied.

Sort of like word-of-mouth!

How do you get those wonderful testimonials? Simple. Ask for them.

- Ask for them on your website

- Watch your email box for messages that may contain compliments. Ask the sender for their permission to use it.

- Place a customer satisfaction form in all products you send out.

- If a customer tells you to go ahead and write it yourself, BE VERY CAREFUL! What you write has to be a reflection of what they really would say. This could be dangerous but it can be a great opportunity to say what needs to be said in a way that sometimes you can't get from others.

- Always include the name and company and/or location of the person giving the testimonial. Don't use anonymous quotes. They raise suspicion and look fake.

Just remember that testimonials help buyers relate to the experiences of others. If you demonstrate that others were happy, then chances are, the buyer will be too.

There are a lot more ways to get and use testimonials that is not listed here. But, it is in our special report #31.

Posted by Angie at 04:51 PM | TrackBack

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