Monopolize Your Marketplace - The New Rules of Marketing

What On Earth Is A “Hopper System”?

Randy Martinsen — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 18:32:56 +0000

This is the first in a series of newsletters to help you understand more clearly what a “Hopper System” is.

The word “hopper” is defined in Webster’s dictionary as, “A usually funnel-shaped container in which materials, such as grain or coal, are stored in readiness for dispensation.” For the purposes of this discussion I want you to think of your database of clients/customers, leads, and prospects for your business as a “hopper”. The purpose of a hopper is primarily to facilitate communication with contacts on a regular, systematic basis. The communication is primarily aimed at educating them about what you do in specific, quantifiable terms and to educate customers and prospects about why YOU are the obvious choice when they are ready to buy whatever it is you sell. The hopper allows you to track clients, leads, and prospects; customize communication to all or some of them; and make mass communication inexpensive and efficient.

A “Hopper System” is NOT simply a contact relationship management system (CRM). Most businesses and sales people these days use a hand-held device that may be synchronized with the list on a computer program like “iCloud®” or “Microsoft Outlook®”. The problem with using these applications is that it is difficult to automate the sending of communications on a consistent basis. Yes, it’s possible to customize these applications, or purchase “add-on” software to help you. However, the effort required is often so demanding that most people either give-up or find it far too expensive to maintain that they just don’t use it.

Requirements For A Contact Database To Be Called A “Hopper System”

There are several requirements for a contact management system to truly be considered a “Hopper System”. At a minimum, you must be able to do the following:

Enter and track the name, title, business or affiliation, phone, fax, address, email, and source of each client, lead, and prospect using database management software.
Uses “work-flow” technology to automate marketing campaigns, including assigning activities to other team members within your organization as the sales/marketing process moves forward.
Broadcast email messages, newsletters, and fully executed HTML documents via email to some or all contacts on a regular (weekly to monthly) basis. You can still call it a “Hopper System” if you have to manually initiate the “sending” of the messages, but as you grow your business it really needs to be able to send them automatically.
Broadcast email so that ISP’s and individual anti-SPAM programs do not identify the messages as SPAM. Due to the volume of email communication associated with hopper marketing, your emailing activities may be identified as SPAM and may be blocked by SPAM filters and ISPs in future mailings. This is done through “opt-in” technology with a Hopper System.
The ability to identify if a contact has “opted-out” of your marketing campaigns. We recommend you have four “opt-out” types. One each for e-mail, fax, phone and mail. There are serious legal consequences for businesses who continue to send unsolicited marketing materials when a contact has told you not to send them any longer. It’s not enough that you remove the contact from your hopper, because if for any reason the name gets added back at a later time and you end up sending marketing materials to a person who opted-out earlier it can bite you!
Broadcast email messages without having more than one personal email address listed in the “send” field of each email message.
Backup the database regularly to separate data storage files. There is truly nothing more painful to your marketing efforts than to lose your database with no way to recover it.
Email the database (name and mailing address fields) to a mailing house if one will be used to process print mailing campaigns. To save time and money, a mailing house should be able to handle mailings to one name as well as thousands of names.
Customize database fields in order to track business specific information important for marketing and operations.
Broadcast fax from the database directly, or by using the database fax information through a 3rd party application.
CAUTION – Specific regulations effect broadcast faxing. This database requirement is not a specific endorsement or recommendation by AMG to broadcast fax. However, broadcast faxing may be an effective part of an overall marketing strategy provided such activity complies with current regulations.
Send and receive email (preferably using a REAL internet domain name e-mail address that you own, and is business oriented). You just won’t be perceived the same way if you use one of the free e-mail services, or one with your internet service provider’s domain.
Uses “Cloud” technology. There are many options today that enable you to access your database via the internet 24/7 from anywhere in the world with internet access.
Does order processing through automated work-flow, and is able to interface with your accounting system while keeping details of all transactions.
Is flexible and scalable. It needs to be flexible so you can make it work for all your business contact management needs. It also need to be able to grow with your business as you grow. Conversions from one system to another can be incredibly painful and time consuming.

Our next article will cover the differences between simple e-Blast systems and a true Hopper System.

If you’re interested in a demo of our AMG Hopper System, click the link and let me know – I’ll get it scheduled for you as soon as possible. FREE AMG Hopper System Demo.

Email Marketing – Preview Pane Madness

Randy Martinsen — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 01:11:24 +0000

Three advances in email clients are combining to deliver a triple whammy to email marketers: the preview pane (horizontal / vertical preview pane), which allows a reader to view just a narrow strip or square of an email message without actually opening it, and a blocked-images feature that prevents images from downloading unless the reader requests them. The third is mobile phone views are significantly reduced when you use table formats with photos in your email marketing.

Our study of business-to-business readers shows a majority are using both the preview pane and the default blocked-images function to decide whether to open emails and to block unwanted downloads of photos that tell the sender the person opened the email.

Used individually, each one is probably throwing off your open rate and preventing users from seeing your most critical information. In tandem, it means your email performance will be reduced significantly if you don’t redesign your emails to deliver key information as quickly as possible.

In fact, you might have only 2 to 4 inches of space to tell your story and persuade viewers to open your email to its fullest depth.

Although this has implications for both business- and consumer-focused email marketers and publishers, the problem is especially acute for B2B emailers because a significant portion of their readers likely are using the two email clients that combine preview panes and blocked images: Outlook and Lotus Notes.

Some email industry observers have even attributed a recent drop in open rates to more widespread use of blocked images, because open rates are generally counted when a small, clear image within an email message is called from a Web server.

Still, B2C publishers and marketers can draw parallels from the findings. Several consumer-focused desktop email clients, such as Eudora and Outlook Express, also use preview panes and image-blocking.

While most Web-based email clients don’t use preview panes, Yahoo! Mail is now a Web client that behaves more like a desktop client, including the use of a preview pane. Yahoo! Mail and other Web email clients also use image blocking as a default setting, requiring users to change a setting in order to view images.

These findings have serious implications for email publishers, advertisers and marketers. However, a combination of quick fixes and longer-term remedies can counteract the double whammy of preview panes and blocked images.

Preview-Pane Survey Findings

In a recent survey, we asked whether their email client has preview-pane and/or image-blocking features. We also asked whether and how they use either or both of these functions.

Here is what we found:

More than 9 of 10 email users have access to a preview pane, and 7 of 10 say they frequently or always use it.
More than half of those who read email in a business-oriented client such as Outlook or Lotus Notes do not see images in email because their clients block them.
However, 3 of 10 readers have manually changed their email settings to allow downloading of images and graphics.
87% percent of survey respondents read messages in either Outlook or Lotus Notes, the two clients that block or mangle images by default.
75% of email readers who use the preview pane use it in a horizontal format and most often see either 4-5 inches deep of content (44%) or 2 to 3 inches (41%).
Vertical-pane users see more content, but there are fewer of them (25% of all preview-pane users). Pane widths used most often by this group are 4-5 inches (46.9%) and 6+ inches (26.5%).
Nearly half of email readers look at just the first few lines they see in the preview pane to decide if they want to continue reading the message, but 32.9% will read the whole message, even if they have to scroll through it.
The sender’s name and/or address remains the most important factor readers look for in the preview pane when deciding whether to read further or open the email (60%), followed by the subject line (54.3%), the headline (53%) and any teaser copy (30.3%).
Preview-pane users are less likely to download blocked images and graphics when reading an email in the pane. Half of those who open email messages said they always download blocked images, but only 34% do in the preview pane.
Email users are most likely to download blocked images in order to make the email easier to read (80%) or to view images, charts and graphics than to view advertisements (10.1%).
Only 31% of email users say they always or frequently add the B2B newsletters they asked to receive to their safe-senders list or address books in order to avoid losing them in bulk or junk folders.

Implications for Email Publishers and Marketers

Any company that sends informational or commercial email is being affected by the use of preview panes and image blocking, whether its recipients use both functions together or just one.

Business Media/Newsletter Publishers: Get Horizontal

Our survey shows the most valuable real estate in a newsletter has shrunk significantly, to just the top left 2 to 4 inches, the only area visible in both horizontal and vertical panes. (Assuming the newsletter is published in a Western left-to-right format.)

Because most survey respondents say they use the horizontal pane, it makes more sense to redesign the newsletter template with a horizontal layout for both content and advertisements, with content organized in sections that are wider than they are deep. Your MYM Headlines are most important here!

Horizontal design isn’t enough, though. Publishers need to review all the existing information they pile up at the top of the page. How much of it is essential to reading, and what could be relocated to an administrative center at the bottom without affecting usability or functionality?

Also, publishers need to rethink their ad strategy, especially use of images and ads that are more than 3 or 4 inches deep. It’s probably time to return to three earlier ad-format concepts:

Text ads instead of or in addition to ads delivered in images.
Horizontal banner ads instead of skyscraper (vertical) ad formats.
Selling lower-position text ads that run deeper in the copy instead of bunching image-based ads higher on the page.

Advertisers: Death to the Skyscraper

Our survey’s findings mean two things to advertisers: text ads and banners.

The “skyscraper” ad format — typically one column wide and 4 to 6 inches deep — had a big debut several years ago, because it came at a time when most email clients had finally gotten HTML right, and banner ads’ effectiveness was waning.

However, preview panes and image blocking combine to hurt skyscrapers as well as other alternative formats such as vertical rectangles or full-width ads that are 4 or more inches deep in B2B publications.

With a preview pane, the reader sees only a fraction of the ad, possibly not even the most crucial part like a feature, benefit or offer. With image blocking, a blank area appears in place of the ad. When the preview pane and image blocking are used together, readers see a whole lot of nothing.

Because only 10% of the survey respondents who download blocked images do it in order to see ads, advertisers will need to rely less on using live images (linked to their Web sites) to convey product information or offers. Instead, they should add some well-written text that can tell the story if the user doesn’t download the image or could intrigue the user enough to download it.

Also, advertisers can investigate opportunities in newsletters that sell second or third-position ad space, which place ads deeper into the copy and usually cost less than top-position ads.

That appears to conflict with the previous advice to place key information at the top of an email message. However, the survey results show email users will scroll in the preview pane to read content they find interesting. So, the more motivated and engaged readers will see those lower-position ads. Again – Use your power headlines!

Our own B2B advertising experience in email newsletters reinforces that. We find top banner ads draw more clicks, but a lower-position text ad draws more conversions, particularly when the offer includes a free download, and the content looks more like the surrounding editorial copy.

Corporate Communications/Newsletters: Compel to Click

Corporate publishers don’t face the same advertiser pressures as business news publishers, but the imperative to offer more compelling content in a small space is the same. That means corporate publishers should redesign the newsletter format into one that breaks copy down into chunks of information 2 to 4 inches deep.

Once again, the most valuable real estate in the corporate newsletter format will be the top left section, where the horizontal and vertical preview panes intersect.

Think of the preview pane as your teaser area, to place “In This Issue” information that will grab the reader’s attention and compel them either to scroll or click to stories or fully open the email.

Although it will still be important to convey your company’s name and brand identity, those concerns become secondary to getting readers to scroll down to your key content or open the message to its full width. Remember it’s not about branding, it’s about the message.

Examine your masthead for extraneous or administrative information that you can relocate elsewhere, such as an administrative center at the end.

Action Steps to Implement Survey Findings

For many email content providers, accommodating the new reality in the way email readers access information may require a total redesign of the email if it relies on large images, ads or long copy blocks in a vertical format.

Following are some recommended fixes you can take to make your email more preview pane/disabled image friendly:

Re-design the top of your emails so that key content can be viewed in the preview pane even if images are disabled. Content-oriented newsletters should include headlines or “In This Issue” teasers. Newsletters with banner/images-based ads should consider switching to text ads and content teasers. E-commerce and other promotional-type emails should summarize or highlight the key value proposition, offer or products right up top.
Study your click-tracking reports, or use other software that maps out where readers are clicking most often. Those are the links that need to be highest in your newsletter.
Move less critical administrative information to an admin center at the end of the newsletter, especially if it draws few clicks per issue. But consider keeping or including text links to key actions below your “In This Issue” or teaser text. In our newsletters we have seen a fairly high number of subscribers clicking the “View Web Version” link so we kept that. Again, most readers aren’t interested in how pretty it looks – they are interested in content – specifically – “how will this content benefit me”?
Your from and subject lines become much more important in this new reality. Sixty percent of readers said they consult those to decide whether they’ll scan the message in the preview pane or just delete it without a glance.
In this format, the from and subject lines become the top two points of a triangle, with the third point being the top of your newsletter. All three have to work together to snag a reader’s eye.
Remember that email clients vary in how they show from and subject lines in the inbox.
Use both text and HTML in advertisements, logos and branding messages rather than live images linked to your Web site, such as JPEGs or GIFs. You’ll still be able to deliver key information even to readers whose email clients block images.
Yes, blocked images affect your open rate, and based on our survey results it could be significant. Most email marketing software tracks opens using a clear 1 X 1 pixel gif that counts the email as being opened when the image loads from the server. So it is conceivable that image blocking may have contributed to a drop in your B2B open rates of 10-20 percentage points during the last few years. And yes an email that is viewed in a preview pane DOES count as an open, if images are enabled.
Along the same line, use alt tags that describe an image’s content or action. Though keep in mind that most ISPs and email clients that block images also don’t render alt tags. If you need help with how to do this I can help you.
Review your HTML coding to make sure it complies with W3C standards.
Review how well your format complies with the quirks and nonstandard rendering of Lotus Notes. Our statistics show that 8 percent of our readers use Lotus Notes; depending on your B2B readership your Lotus Notes subscriber base might range from a low of 5 percent to as high as 25% if you reach a lot of Global 2000 and professional services firms.
Eliminate skyscraper or vertically rectangular ads that go deeper than the pixel equivalent of 3 or 4 inches.

Whether your email subscribers are B2B or B2C, use of the preview pane will only continue to increase. We highly recommend that you take action now to redesign your emails for a world of blocked images and small preview panes.

For assistance on how to make your email marketing work better, contact me.

You’ve Got To Make The Product Interesting, Not Just Make The Ad Different

Randy Martinsen — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 00:08:55 +0000

Have you ever heard the saying, “If you want to know why John Smith buys what John Smith buys, you’ve got to see the world through John Smith’s eyes?” Well, first of all it’s true… If you want to know why John Smith buys what John Smith buys, you DO HAVE TO see the world through John Smith’s eyes. But here’s the thing — most companies know how to do it; they know how to look through John Smith’s eyes… but unfortunately, they don’t know how to communicate what they do well to their customers.

The problem is that while most businesses are very good at knowing what John Smith wants, they don’t have the ability to communicate via advertising and marketing their “inside reality” to the outside world, because they aren’t communications experts. They can’t take their good (or great!) inside reality and lead prospects to the conclusion… “I would have to be an absolute fool to do business with anyone else but you.” How to do that is what Monopolize Your Marketplace is all about.

Think about your business. Your ability to know what John Smith wants is what has made you as successful as you are now. I’ll assume that you have a good inside reality — good products or services, and that you fill a market need. You’ve probably been studying your market, your prospects, and your business for years, and you have solutions that add value to John Smith’s life. So why, then, aren’t you making all the money you should be!!!?? Because you’re an expert at what you do, but you’re not a communications expert. This is a critical distinction.

So you say, “Well, I’ll focus my efforts on marketing so people will find out about us.” Hey, there are a whole host of books, workshops, and trainers that try to help you improve your “outside perception.” You’ve got books like Guerrilla Marketing, Marketing Warfare, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing… and you’ve got sales and marketing gurus galore that all try to help you make your business look good to the outside world. The problem is, that none of these books or trainers pay any attention to how good your business actually is.

But see, as advertising guru Rosser Reeves once said, “To be effective, you’ve got to make the product interesting, not just make the ad different.” Listen to me repeat that quote: “To be effective, you’ve got to make the product interesting, not just make the ad different.” And that’s what too many of the books, gurus, and agencies don’t yet understand.

Go to an ad agency or a media sales rep and they’ll both say the same thing. They’ll say “Just say bring me any old stupid product or service, a big bag of cash, and we’ll guarantee that we’ll spend all of it.” They put all their creative effort into trying to make the ad different, with no thought for the inside reality of the product or service.

Do you think that businesses fail because of bad marketing? There is certainly a lot of crummy marketing out there. But the real reason businesses fail is because they either have stupid business ideas in the first place, or aren’t ready to innovate their business so that it stays fresh and desirable to their target market.

For example, let’s look at the dot-com failures in 2000-2002 – Nobody wanted to buy pet supplies from the internet, so pets.com failed. Nobody wanted to buy wine off the internet, so wine.com failed. And so on. But there were plenty of money grubbing ad agencies and media outlets willing to take those big piles of cash that were stolen from stockholders and utterly waste it straight into their own pockets.

If you lost money in the dot-com meltdown, guess where the money went! It didn’t just disappear! It went from your hands to the dot-com’s hands, who took their multi-million dollar cut and passed the rest to the ad agencies, who took their 15% plus creative fees and passed it on to NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, and every other media outlet who then took it and bought Ferraris, Lamborghini’s, Porches, and $11 million homes. So now you at least know where your money ended up! All based on sorry inside realities. Rosser Reeves probably turned over in his grave 1000 times during the dot-com boom!

Many businesses are failing today because they were too slow to change their inside reality to meet the changing economy. Look at real estate… According to the California Association of Realtors more than 57% of agents found other careers between 2006 and 2008, and since then 26% more have found other jobs. Those who have stayed and are making money are innovating their business and learning how to be good agents in a buyer’s market rather than a seller’s market. They are also seeking lower commissions and working to assist the failing mortgage banking industry to sell foreclosed homes.

You’ve got to work on both sides of your business — the inside reality and the outside perception. If you concentrate all your efforts on the “inside reality” but you don’t know how to do your marketing like I’m showing you how in this series of articles, you’re setting yourself up for frustration. You’ll be pulling your hair out trying to figure out where YOUR big bag of money vanished to, or you’ll feel like the “best kept secret in town.” Or if you’re focusing all your efforts on the “outside perception,” -maybe you get your hands on some advertising or direct mail books, or maybe you hire an ad agency or let a media sales rep help out — that could lead to problems. Now you’ll have customers that hate your guts because you’re selling them a lie! You’ve got to balance this out and solidify both sides of your business.

Here’s what I’ve found over all of the years of doing marketing. Most businesses could stand some improvement in both areas…. but they struggle the most with the “outside perception,” or in other words… they’ve built good, solid companies–they offer good value–but with all of the competition that exists, they have problems differentiating themselves in the marketplace. Like I said, they’re not communications experts.

Regardless of your situation, or where you’re at now, that’s what the MYM system is all about… improving both the inside reality and the outside perception of your company. Part of the system deals with innovation and how to make your business competitive from a product, operations, and management standpoint - Then the system also deals with how to communicate and do the marketing — whether that be print or TV/Radio advertising, direct mail, social media or whatever — so that it effectively separates you from your competitors in the minds of the prospects.

The great business philosopher, Jim Rohn, probably summed it up best. He says to communicate powerfully, first, you’ve got to have something good to say; then, say it well; and finally, say it often. Does that make sense to you? Have something good to say, say it well, and say it often.

Chances are excellent that you’ve already got something good to say, and if not, innovation is an inevitable byproduct of implementing the Monopolize Your Marketplace System. I’ll touch on innovation more later in this series. The MYM system then helps you improve the “outside perception” of your business, or in other words, how to say it well and say it often so people will instantly recognize you as the best choice. You become their no-brainer best decision.

Can you see why it’s imperative that these two factors be considered at the same time? Just teaching you how to innovate leaves you with a wonderful, innovative company that nobody knows about. Just teaching you sales or marketing or advertising techniques will drive in business that won’t stick around because there’s no value. You have to consider both the inside reality and the outside perception. This is the only program in existence that integrates these two important aspects of growing your business.

Stop and think for a minute: what is the inside reality of your business? What is the outside perception? Don’t consider what your current customers think about you so much — even though that’s important — consider most what your prospects think about you. Can they perceive that you’re any different or any better than their alternatives by looking at your ads? What about your brochures? What about your website? Chances are, they can’t. Which means even though your inside reality may be good, the outside perception is probably average, or worse… non-existent.

Go grab your marketing, look at your ads, take a look at your website, Is it instantly obvious specifically and quantifiably what makes you better and unique and different? Do you show your prospect how to judge your industry, what factors they need to consider when deciding, and how you provide value? You’ll realize as these concepts start to sink in that the crux of all the marketing problems that exist–including yours–can be wrapped up into one simple statement: Most company’s outside perception is not an accurate reflection of their inside reality. I’m going to repeat that one more time for emphasis: Most company’s outside perception is not an accurate reflection of their inside reality. What the MYM system does, first and foremost, is FIX THAT.

If you haven’t taken the time to check out our Hopper System (Contact Relationship Management System), go to http://www.mymconsulting.com/contact-us/ and let me know you want one.

If You’re So Good – Then Why Don’t Your Prospects Know It?

Randy Martinsen — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:35:57 +0000

Ever felt frustrated because your business is so good at doing what you do… but you still seem to be getting beat up on price all the time? Ever felt like “the best kept secret?” Do you notice that you don’t have much trouble closing the deal once you meet with the prospect, but fall short when trying to find those prospects to sell to? If so, don’t feel alone! This is a common situation in business–and I can explain to you exactly why it happens.

See, there are really two different sides to your business. First, there’s what I simply call the “inside reality” and second, there’s the “outside perception”. The inside reality has to do with all the things your business does that makes you valuable to your customers from a product, operations, and management standpoint. It’s what gives you a competitive advantage in the marketplace. The reason we call it the inside reality is because there’s a good chance that the reality of what you do, and the customers’ perceptions of what you do, aren’t necessarily the same. You’ll find that these two words–reality and perception–are very important to this process of winning in business.

The inside reality encompasses everything you do and everything you are that makes you good. It’s all your skills, your people, your expertise, your service to the customer–before, during, and after the sale — It’s your systems, your operational procedures, your commitment to excellence, your passion, and the way you conduct your business. Now you might think you’re actually better than you are, or you might not be giving yourself enough credit for the things you do well. But regardless, there is a reality of how valuable you are to the marketplace based on those things I just listed. That’s what we call the inside reality.

Think about your business. How’s your inside reality? You probably already know. If you asked your customers why they bought from you, they could tell you something quantifiable, specific, and instantly obvious. They could point to specific advantages of doing business with you and say “That’s why I do business here, that’s why I refer my friends to come here, that’s why I’m a loyal customer of this place, that’s why I don’t mind paying more here, that’s why I keep coming back.” That’s your inside reality.

This is what trainers like Stephen Covey, Tom Peters, and Michael Gerber are all about — innovating your business so it’s valuable to the marketplace. Tom Peters calls it the “Pursuit of Wow!” – Making your business good enough that your customers say “WOW!” Ken Blanchard in his book called it developing “Raving Fans.” And it’s imperative that you begin to innovate your company so that there’s a reason for people to buy from you. These guys do a great job of teaching you how to do those things – how to build the “better mouse trap,” so to speak, but here’s the problem: Just because you’ve achieved “WOW!” as Peters says, or Raving Fans for that matter, that doesn’t mean that customers are going to flock to your business. There’s still a job of marketing that has to be done. And that’s where the “outside perception” comes into play.

If the “inside reality” is about what you do and what you are that allows your business perform better, then the outside perception has to do with how customers and prospects PERCEIVE your company. The outside perception is developed by any and all interaction somebody has with your company. For your customers, they will draw on their past buying experiences to form their outside perception of your company. But here’s the problem. If your customer service is great and your customers love you, none of that means squat to a prospective customer if 1) they don’t know you even exist as an option, 2) they see your marketing and advertising and because of your lack of ability to market properly they perceive that your no different or no better or no worse than anybody else. Because of the marketing ineptitude of just about every company, the result is that almost invariably, your inside reality and your outside perception are different.

Look at the two ads here from the yellow pages for fencing contractors. I think you’d agree these look like fairly typical ads for fencing contractors. Let me ask you this–can you tell which of the companies listed in these two pages actually does the best job of building fences? Can you tell which one offers the best fence for the money? Can you figure out which one is most likely to do a good job for you, and which ones are potentially going to rip you off?

See, you can’t. It would be convenient if every business had complete honesty in their advertising. Wouldn’t it be great if there were headlines like, “We’ll be out of business by this time next year.” Or “Give us a check and you’ll never see us again!” or “Our fences were voted most likely to fall over and crush your children!” Unfortunately that’s not the way it works. We have literally NO IDEA what the inside reality of any of these companies is. We can only guess based on how we “feel” about their ads. Folks, you can do better than this.

See, regardless of how good you are, or how good your “inside reality” is, your prospect isn’t going to be able to figure it out based on your marketing. You’re going to appear, on the surface level–which by the way is the level the prospect is looking at, you’re going to appear to be just another company that sells whatever it is you sell. The prospect will more than likely be apathetic at best. Ask yourself this question–How many competitors, either direct or indirect, do you have in your business? Whatever that number is, that’s how many choices your prospects have, and how many businesses they have to sift through to try to make a buying decision. And that’s assuming they want to buy what you’re selling! Because of the large number of competitors, marketing has to 1) interrupt the prospect, 2) facilitate the decision making process, and 3) lower the risk of taking the next step in the buying process.

These newsletters talk a lot about what you need to do, but how you do it is not as easy as it seems on the surface. If you haven’t engaged with me yet, click here and tell me you want a consultation or a Hopper System demonstration, and I’ll help you implement these ideas into your business so you can begin to experience the power of this marketing methodolgy.

Marketing’s REAL Job

Randy Martinsen — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:32:33 +0000

What is the purpose of marketing anyway? I mean, what is marketing really supposed to do? I guarantee if I asked one hundred business people this simple question, I’d probably get a hundred different answers. That’s right. About a hundred! Some people would say marketing’s job is to get your name out into the marketplace. Others would say to position your company in the marketplace, or to build your brand name. Some would say to generate sales. Some would disagree and say that marketing’s job is not to lead directly to sales necessarily, but to generate leads that are then handed over to the sales department.

Still others would say “awareness, or in other words, to get people to remember our name when they go to buy” Then there’s always the group that just say marketing’s job is to “make money.” And you know what, even though all of these answers are different, they’re all partially right. I wouldn’t say that any of them are wrong. But here’s what I would say: All of the answers I just mentioned are actually results of what happens when you run marketing and advertising that is does what it’s REALLY supposed to do.

So, because the answer to this simple question is so vital to the rest of this series, and so vital to your RESULTS, I want to take just a few moments to solve this mystery and demystify this whole process a little bit. Here’s what marketing is supposed to do: Its purpose is actually three-fold:

Its first job is to capture the attention of your target market,
and second, to give them the hope that reading or listening to your marketing piece will give them enough information to–here’s the key word–facilitate…facilitate their making the best decision possible when buying whatever you sell. Or in other words, train and teach them how to make the best available decision.
Marketing’s third job then is to lower the risk of taking the next step in the buying process so you can further educate the prospect. The result of effective marketing that accomplishes these three objectives is that it should cause your prospects and customers to draw the conclusion, “I would have to be an absolute fool to do business with anyone else but you… regardless of price.”

Let’s take a closer look at these three things:

First, capturing your target market’s attention. This seems pretty obvious and pretty straight forward. But I can tell you this: there are right ways and wrong ways to do this, and I’ve got a specific formula that I’m going to give you later on that will ensure that you always do it the right way. It’s done the wrong way 99% of the time. We’ll get to that, but first let’s talk about marketing’s second objective, which is what I call “facilitating the prospect’s decision making process.” Do you understand that you’ve got prospects out there that need to buy what you sell, who are just starving and craving information? Because they’re not experts at what you do, they don’t know the parameters or the relevant issues surrounding the decision. They don’t know how to make the best decision, which leaves an opportunity for you to guide them through this process. Your job is “facilitator of information” to help them make the best decision possible. Now if the best decision possible happens to be buying from you–and it should be–then that’s all the better. You should think of yourself as the “fountain from whence all knowledge flows….” Or at least all of the knowledge germane to what you’re selling. I’ll show you how to accomplish that later on in this program. But here are the key principles right now:

See, regardless of what industry you’re in, all businesses, on a base level, want the exact same things… they want more new customers, and less competition. They want to keep their margins, have their marketing and advertising work better, attract and retain more loyal customers, increase the conversion ratios for their sales people…and ultimately, they all want to make more money. True enough?

Also realize that all prospects and customers all want the same things. They want to feel confident that their money has been well spent and their decision has been made to the best of their ability. They want the get the best deal, in terms of price and value. You never hear anybody say, “I shopped around to 8 car dealerships and negotiated the best deals possible in terms of how much car I got for my money, and finally decided to buy where I got the third best deal.” No! People intuitively want to make the best decision possible, and not feel like they’ve got to second guess themselves all the time.

So we have two sets of values: The business wants more customers and loyal customers and higher margins… and the customer wants to feel confident that he’s gotten the best possible deal, in terms of overall value. The process and principles that govern the matching of those two sets of values are exactly the same for every business. See, this is why we can work with thousands of companies a year in every imaginable industry, big or small. It’s real simple: all you have to do as the marketer is figure out what’s important to your prospects, educate them as to what constitutes the best deal in your industry, and then show him quantifiable proof that you actually provide that best deal, in terms of price and value, and communicate all of that to him in a way that he’ll pay attention to, believe, and take action on.

See, then the prospect gets what he wants from you: not just the best deal–in terms of price and value, but also the unshakable confidence that he’s actually made the best decision possible. The problem is, believe it or not, that most businesses come nowhere close to holding up their end of the bargain. Instead of using marketing to educate and facilitate the decision making process and build a case, most companies fill their marketing with self-serving hyperbole, fluff, and platitudes that are only a thinly veiled way to say “buy it from me because I want you to give your money to me instead of somebody else.” That’s why people become jaded and tend to resist marketing. They tend to either dismiss it or worse, become skeptical of it. But you don’t want to breed skepticism! You want your prospects to say that they’d have to be absolute fools to do business with anyone else but you, regardless of price!

So, after you’ve 1) gotten the target market’s attention, and 2) given them decision-facilitating information, then marketing’s third job is to give them a specific, low-risk, easy-to-take action that further facilitates their ability to make a good decision. What I’m saying here is you can’t cram everything that a person needs to know–you can’t completely facilitate that decision necessarily within the confines of an advertisement. There needs to be more information given–and we accomplish this via what we call marketing tools… which means putting things together for your prospects like reports, websites, audio CDs, DVDs, and so forth. I’ll talk at length in an upcoming article, but for now, let me give you an example to crystallize all this.

Have you bought a new home before? I mean a brand new home, from a builder? They have lots of different ways to advertise and promote, but one of the major places that builders advertise is in the Sunday Paper in the New Homes section. But if you look in that section of the newspaper, you’ll see that none of the ads there actually accomplishes what marketing is really supposed to do in the first place. By way of review, marketing is supposed to first, capture the attention of the target market, next, facilitate their decision making process by educating them about what they need to know, and finally, give them a low-risk way to become more educated and take the next step to further the buying process. But the ads you’ll find right now don’t do this. Instead, they feature beautiful happy smiling people, pictures of houses and floor plans, price ranges of homes, and maps to various neighborhoods. Here are some typical ads:

So take a look at these two ads: Neither of them do what marketing is really supposed to do. They don’t capture prospective buyer’s attention at all. At a glance, the ads look virtually identical, contain the same kind of pictures and words, and from the prospect’s standpoint ARE the same. There’s nothing to get their attention, no acknowledgement of what the customers needs or problems might be. Then there’s nothing in any of the ads to educate the prospect. There’s nothing to facilitate their decision making processes. There’s nothing to show them what they need to know… or tell them what the relevant and important issues to consider are.

How many things do you need to know when buying a new home? Are you an expert on lumber, plumbing, masonry, electrical, insulation, flooring, framing, roofing, finish out, and the 613 other relevant, pertinent issues involved with building a home? Of course not. And you won’t be after reading all those ads, either. You won’t even know the relevant issues at stake. I’m not saying every buyer wants to know all that stuff; what I am saying is that all buyers would like to at least be aware of the relevant issues that are at stake.

With these ads, all you know is that smiling people supposedly live there and they all have floor plans and maps to neighborhoods. All of these ads dropped the ball big time, and let me tell you why: Because prospective buyers want and need to be educated–so they can feel confident when making their decision–and nobody’s providing it. First one who does, wins.

Then there’s no low-risk way for the prospect to take the next step in the buying process. The only option these ads give is to come into the model home. You say, that’s low enough risk. The heck it is! You tell me, if you’re just thinking about buying a new home, and the only offer is to come to a model home that’s 45 minutes from your current house, and you know good and well that it is going to be fully stocked with starving sales people who are going to do everything in their power to force you to buy that home on the spot, is that low risk?

You say I exaggerate. You ever met the sales person who has to sit at those models all weekend long? 10% of them are wonderful, and 90% of them are starving and took the job because it’s the only thing they could find that had a $2,000 a month draw and they look at you like a big thick juicy steak to be devoured, not a prospect who wants to make the best home buying decision possible. I mean come on, who else is going to take a job that requires you work every single Saturday and Sunday? Even car salespeople get one weekend day off. All of the ads fail miserably on this level; as a result, they all get lost in the shuffle of all the other ads. I’m here to tell you that there’s a better way to handle this situation.

Why do you think that businesses always feel forced into a price competitive situation? If you feel like that’s the case in your business, like you’re always competing on price, it’s your own fault, period. Your lack of marketing ability has led to a situation where there are no distinctions, there have been no other parameters or relevant issues introduced that you’ve educated your prospects on, no offers to lower the risk of taking the next step. If you feel like you’re always competing on price it’s because price is the ONLY relevant variable you’ve given your prospects to consider, and from the prospect’s perspective, all things ARE equal, so they’d be a fool NOT to demand a lower price.

For a view of ads that have been proven to work click here to contact me. I’ll show you examples that we have developed that actually get results.

Think You Know Everything You Need To Know About Marketing?

Randy Martinsen — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:52:40 +0000

As you continue to learn how to improve your marketing so that it gets more results, I want to share a quick analogy that helps to set the proper expectations from our newsletters. If you’ve seen home remodeling shows on TV you’ll begin to see where I’m going. In one hour they show you how to rip apart the old house and completely remodel into a beautiful new one.

They take an arduous, time-consuming task like remodeling and make it look so simple that just about anyone could do it. Even people who don’t know which end of a hammer to hold watch those shows and start to think, “man that looks pretty easy. It only took that guy one hour to pour that cement, frame the living room, and tile that bathroom. I could do that!”

Well, obviously, it’s not always as easy as it looks. Getting from the “before” picture to the “after” picture takes a quite a bit of know-how, and a lot of hard work. There’s a big difference between knowing what it’s supposed to look like and knowing how to make it look like that.

Here’s the point: you’re not going to be a marketing genius after reading a series of articles, listening to a few CDs, or attending a seminar. Our marketing system is composed of multiple steps that are generally developed and implemented over the course of several months or more depending on the size and complexity of the project….just like completely remodeling a 7,000 square foot house would take longer than just laying new tile in one bathroom.

Each of the steps in the marketing system is multi-tiered and takes a lot of understanding and know-how to properly execute. We have spent thousands of hours perfecting this system to allow us to put your marketing together relatively quickly and easily. I don’t want anybody to be fooled into thinking that remodeling your house–or in this case, re-hauling your marketing program–is an easy process. It’s not. It’s easy to understand how it works, but it’s not nearly as easy to implement the strategies.

The purpose of this series of articles is NOT to train you on everything you need to know about marketing…instead, what we want to do in the time we have together is to educate you so you have a clear vision of what your marketing is supposed to look like…and just as importantly, what it’s NOT supposed to look like. I want to show you the steps and the processes and the formulas and the strategies to make it work. And most of all, I want you to see how powerful what I have to teach you is and to allow you to comprehend what the possibilities are for your company….and what a significant advantage you will hold over your competitors when you do.

So to that end, let me give you brief overview of what we talk about in these articles.

We talk about what marketing is supposed to do and why most marketing doesn’t do it. We’ll explain to you exactly why everything you know about marketing and advertising is wrong.

We cover creating strategic marketing messages and executing a tactical marketing program. What’s the difference between strategic and tactical marketing? Strategic marketing has to do with what you say and how you say it. It’s the content of your message and the positioning of your brand, company, service or product. When talking about strategic marketing, I’ll go into great detail about what we call the “Marketing Equation”. The Marketing Equation is the backbone of the Monopolize Your Marketplace system – it’s essentially a road map to ensure you’re always saying the right thing to the right people – every time you spend money on advertising.

Your tactical marketing program has to do with the execution of the strategic marketing plan. It involves every way you deploy your advertising messages and implementing a follow up system. We call the tactical marketing program “Franchising Your Sales System” because we show you how to systematize the entire process so that your marketing program is easy to implement and that it’s always consistent. We’ll cover principles of lead generating, marketing response tools, hopper systems, knock down lists, and referral programs. We’ll also discuss what we call Maximizing and Optimizing your marketing program–which are more advanced tactical execution strategies.

The distinction between strategic and tactical marketing is huge – and something you need to be thinking about anytime you talk about your marketing. Many companies mistakenly assume that when you talk about marketing, you’re automatically talking about tactical marketing–placing ads, generating leads, sending out mailers, attending trade shows, implementing a follow up system, and other lead generating activities. This is tactical marketing only. Most people fail to realize that the strategic side of the coin–what you say in your marketing and how you say it–is almost always MORE important than the marketing medium (WHERE you say it).

If you fail to make this distinction, then you risk becoming jaded toward some forms of marketing and advertising that should be a part of your tactical plan, but that you may eliminate because they haven’t worked for you in the past. When results are less than optimal, the tendency is to blame the marketing medium (the tactical part of the plan) without any regard for how good or bad the strategy behind that marketing piece was.

I’ve heard business owners say things like, “We tried radio and it doesn’t work for this kind of business.” Or, “We sent 20,000 pieces of direct mail and only got back 5 orders – it doesn’t work!” It’s possible the conclusion is correct, but just because it didn’t work, don’t assume that it won’t work if the strategic message is written correctly. Most people don’t have the evaluation tools and the know how to judge whether a poor marketing result stems from poor strategy or the poor tactical execution. You’ll be able to make those distinctions after listening learning the Monopolize Your Marketplace system.

You’ll see as we share these principles with you that we devote the majority of these articles to strategic marketing issues. Our objective is to teach you how to innovate your business and powerfully communicate your unique advantages to your target market.

You’ll discover as you read them that regardless of the size of your company, regardless of how big or small you are, regardless of your annual marketing budget, the strategies will always work because they’re based on sound principles. On a tactical, implementation level, big companies have different needs than smaller companies, but the strategies for a $200,000 one-man accounting firm are the exact same as those for a billion dollar multi-national accounting firm. Just take the time to read a few of them and you’ll see what I’m talking about. We’re different than most other marketing and advertising agencies because we have expertise in, and consult on both strategic and tactical marketing.

We’re only interested in helping businesses who want their companies to be the best they can be. We want people who have such a passion for their customers and dedication to doing things right that they’ll do whatever it takes to get good enough to deserve all the business in their area. That’s why we call it the “Monopolize Your Marketplace System”. If you’re not interested in growing your business you don’t need our services, but if you are serious about growing to fill all of your capacity we can help you get there a lot faster than you can without understanding and implementing these principles.

Remember that you can get the majority of the strategic principles discussed in these articles by listening to the 10-CD Audio Course, but these articles are designed to give you additional examples about how to implement them in your business. We think they’re valuable to every business, but always welcome your feedback so please tell us what you think anytime by going to our contact us page.

How Much Is Too Much?

Randy Martinsen — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:37:12 +0000

Give me the proverbial nickel for every time I’ve heard someone say “This advertising costs too much!” and I would be rich! Clients practically go into cardiac arrest when they find out it costs $32,000 a month to run 6 spots a week on the 6 o’clock news. It is pretty easy to get sticker shock when you see that a sixty-second radio commercial on a popular Los Angeles station could cost you a thousand bucks. Each. Or when you realize that a newspaper ad in your city barely bigger than a Hershey Bar will cost a couple thousand dollars. It’s easy to automatically think that’s a lot of money. Now here’s the important question for you, the advertiser: Does the ad actually cost too much?

So what’s the answer? The savvy advertiser will tell you that the cost of the ad is not the issue. What’s important is the return that the ad will bring. If you were charged even as much as $40,000 for a sixty-second radio commercial that generated enough sales to make you a profit of $50,000, then would the $40,000 be A LOT? The answer is NO! Of course not! You’d be a fool not to beg, borrow, or steal the $40,000 so you could make the $50,000 profit! Try getting that kind of return in the stock market! You’d have to invest in Viaticals to come even close.

So how do you think that these big companies can afford to spend a million and a half dollars for a thirty-second TV commercial during the Super Bowl? You know that an enormous amount of people will see it—enough to make the return on investment a good deal.

The point is simple; you’ve got to figure out how much money an ad will make you before you draw a conclusion of whether or not it costs too much. So how do you do that? It’s actually pretty easy. Here’s a simple process for determining the Return on Investment, or ROI, of an ad.

First, you’ve got to know how much profit you make on each sale. So if you buy something for $50 and sell it for $100, your gross profit is $50. With me so far? Step two is to figure out what your closing ratio is. If, on average, you close one sale for every four people who inquire, that’s a 25% closing ratio. If 9 out of 10 end up buying, then your closing ratio would be 90%. This is simple math. Now, figure out what your break-even is. Do this by taking cost of the advertisement and divide it by the amount of gross profit per sale. Remember, we already figured out what your gross profit is a second ago. So how much do the ads cost? If the ads cost $1,000 and your average gross profit is $50, that means you’ve got to make 20 sales to make back the $1,000—that’s your break-even point. In this example, it’s 20 sales. Fourth and last, figure out the number of leads you need to generate from the ad if you are to break even. To do this, you’ve got to know your closing ratio, which we just figured out also. Let’s say it’s 25%, or in other words, you close one out of four people who inquire. So if you close 25% and you need 20 sales to break even, that indicates that your $1,000 worth of advertising needs to generate 80 leads to break even.

Now I know that all sounds kind of complicated, but it’s actually pretty simple. We just calculated in the example that if the $1,000 ads can generate 80 leads, you would break even. That’s a return on investment of 0. Not particularly impressive, I realize… but hey, let’s START with breaking even so you know the bare minimum you can accept when running an ad. At least you didn’t come up with a NEGATIVE return on investment!

Now, what if your goal is to double your money? What would have to happen to your numbers? That’s right, you’d have to double your lead flow, or in this case, generate 160 leads instead of just 80. That means that if you generated 160 leads, you would generate a profit of $1,000—again, on $1,000 spent. In other words, you’ve doubled your money. Your return on investment is 100%. That’s pretty easy to follow, isn’t it? By way of review, what we’re trying to do is calculate your return on investment for your advertising.

Here are the four steps again. Think about your numbers in your business.

What’s your gross profit per sale?
What’s your closing ratio?
What’s your break even…in terms of number of sales needed?
How many leads does your ad need to generate for enough sales to break even?
What’s your return on investment on any given number of leads that you generate?

Now let’s take it a step further. Let’s figure out what’s known as the Lifetime Value of a Customer. What if your average customer brings you a $50 gross profit per sale like in the example we just went through? Is that the only time that customer will ever buy anything from you? How many times does that average customer come back in the course of a month, or a year? If your average customer shops with you one time a month and makes you $50 of gross profit every time, that customer is now worth $600 a year—in profit. And if you know that your average customer stays with you for 3 years, now that $50 a month client is worth a tidy $1800.

So now how much would you be willing to spend to accrue that client? What if those were your average numbers, $50 a month for 3 years. From the example earlier (Remember where we broke even with 80 leads and just 20 sales?) now those 20 customers would be worth an astounding $36,000 over the next three years. And it only cost you a thousand dollars worth of advertising. Now your break-even looks a lot better doesn’t it! If you could accrue a $36,000 annuity every time you ran a thousand dollars’ worth of ads, you should mortgage your house and spend as much money as possible on advertising!

Now, a couple of words of advice when figuring your return on investment for advertising. First, always estimate your numbers conservatively—or in other words, on the low side. Always figure on getting a lower number of leads than you’re hoping for and expecting. Always count on a lower closing ratio than you’re used to. If you calculate your numbers using conservative figures, then you’ll do fine if your results are actually lower than projections…and in the event that you do as well as you had initially hoped, you’ll just make more money than you expected.

Let me give you a real-life example to better illustrate ROI. There is a company who was promoting seminars where they would attempt to sell a service that cost $8,000. When they were starting to do advertising to promote these seminars, the question of how much budget should they allot came up. They wanted to start filling seminars within a week after starting advertising, so they decided that radio would be the best way for them to quickly get the message out about the seminars. When asked how many sales were they planning on generating, they said because of a unique financing plan that allowed them to sell their package on a low-monthly-payment basis, they thought they could sell at least 100 packages in that 5-week time period.

Well, 100 packages is a lot, and they were told that they would have to do at least $15,000 a week for the 5-week period to get the number of leads required to sell that many packages. The man got his calculator out and did some quick math and realized that he had to spend $75,000! $15,000 a week times 5 weeks! That number—$75,000—sounded so huge, it caught him off guard. His idea was to spend just about 5 grand a week, or a total of less than $25,000. Big difference. That’s called “sticker shock.”

So what he did was figure out the ROI, according to the steps previously explained. Again, first, figure out your gross profit per sale. His was about $5,000. Second, figure out the closing ratio. He thought his would be about 20%. So then, how many sales would he need to break even on a $75,000 advertising expenditure? Well, 75 thousand divided by $5,000 gross profit per sale is about 15 sales. Just 15 sales to break even. So if his closing ratio was 20%, he’d have to generate about 75 leads to break even. 75 leads on $75,000 in radio on the right station? Easily attainable. The last thing to do would be to figure out how many leads he’d have to get to reach his goal. His goal is 100 sales, and his closing ratio is 20%. That means he’d have to generate about 500 leads. That seemed fairly reasonable on a $75,000 budget. He’d generate a total gross profit on the deal of $500,000…and if you subtract out the $75,000 advertising cost, that’s still a healthy gross profit. His attitude toward the $75 thousand changed instantly.

Well, do you see how that works now? Just run through your numbers and you’ll know how much money is a lot of money when it comes to advertising. Then you can write all those big, fat advertising checks with a smile on your face.

(This article was originally published and copyrighted © by Richard Harshaw, and is re-published here with permission).

Should I Star In My Own Ads?

Randy Martinsen — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 01:51:38 +0000

Kip Lee’s business was rolling along just fine in Savannah, Georgia in 2005. He’d spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in the newspaper to grow his sunroom and window business and was just making the jump into television advertising. His first several commercials all featured a guy named Ron Sherman who worked for the production company. He had a great personality, a great stage presence, and came across as friendly, knowledgeable, and credible. The commercials worked okay. Not great, but okay.

I started working with Kip right about that time; I wanted to find out how he’d become one of the top sunroom companies in the country despite being in one of the smallest markets. As I was reviewing some of his marketing materials during a new client evaluation, one thing caught my attention instantly: his infomercial.

He’d created the infomercial almost as an afterthought because the production company gave him a good deal on it. It was only run early on Saturday or Sunday mornings and never really accounted for many leads or sales. But something was obvious to me within 30 seconds of watching it for the first time—Kip Lee was successful in his business because he had one of the most friendly, believable, huggable, teddy-bearish demeanors I’d ever seen. People could just feel his sincerity though the screen. When he sat down in someone’s home for a sales presentation, it was over. The prospect knew that this guy wasn’t going to lie to them; they could take Kip Lee to the bank.

Right there and then I told Kip he needed to become a star.

And a star he became. First we put him a series of TV commercials. Then his picture started going in all of his print ads. Before he knew it, people were recognizing him at the grocery store and in restaurants. “Hey, you’re that guy from TV!” Random strangers started to high-five him. He even signed a few autographs at a home show—a guy who sells sunrooms was signing autographs. Think about that for a second.

Apart from just being noticed, the advertising strategy was working for business too. As people started to see Kip on television and get comfortable with his “we take the risk out of home improvement” pitch, they began to believe him. It didn’t happen overnight, but Kip’s cost per lead started shrinking and shrinking and shrinking as his personal stardom was rising. After a while, he started getting plenty of calls even when his ads WERE NOT running. Not to mention friendly “hellos” from strangers while he was pumping gas.

So should you become a star in your ads, too?

There are a few things to consider before taking the plunge. Like anything else, there are pros and cons—and you’d be well advised to step into this arena with your eyes wide open.

Acting Ability: You’d better be able to act if you want to be on TV or radio. Everyone’s seen the dope who gets on the tube and looks like a deer caught in the headlights… or worse, who sounds like he’s reading the cue cards word for word. To really pull it off, you’ve got to have enough personality to charm the crowd, enough acting talent to NOT sound stilted, and enough polish to be perceived as a pro. And trust me… DO NOT ask your spouse for an evaluation on this. Or your mother. Unless you want to turn out like the guy from Idol who sang “Let My People Go.”

The Fame Factor: Do you want to be recognized when you’re buying toilet paper at Costco? Splash your mug on the television for long enough and it’s an absolute certainty. You’ll start getting stares in parking lots, whispers at dinner tables, and points from children. I’m not saying the paparazzi will follow you around or that you’ll get $10 million for exclusive rights to your next baby’s photos… but you will be noticed and called out ON A CONSISTENT BASIS. Also remember that not everyone’s going to love you… some will think you’re cheesy or dopey or annoying. Are you ready to handle that?

Brand You: When you star in your own commercials, you become your brand. Yes, people might catch your company name, but they’re going to remember YOUR name more. This can be a positive, especially if you’re a likable person. But also think to the future—are you planning on selling your business at some point? If so, you’re really hurting the value of the company by wrapping its image up with your personal image. Just something to think about.

Starring in your own commercials can give your business a tremendous boost. I recommend it for people with the right kind of personality and who don’t have plans to sell their business in the future. Just always remember that fame is a two-edged sword—you might not like it so much once you have it. See you in Hollywood!

Fame is a bee.
It has a song–
It has a sting–
Ah, too, it has a wing.

EMILY DICKINSON, Fame is a bee

Reprinted with permission by Rich Harshaw

Recipe For A Marketing Disaster!

Randy Martinsen — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 01:49:27 +0000

The Cute Little Doggie That Drove A Company To Bankruptcy… TWICE.

Want a recipe for marketing disaster? Read on! I’ll serve it up for you just the way you like it… with all the juicy, dumb, dumb details. I’ll show you a company who messed this up so bad that their no-brainer-for-success business model crashed and burned and sent the company into bankruptcy… not once, but TWICE!

Could it really be the marketing that caused the company to experience such dismal results? Certainly there were other factors involved… but you tell me–if your company spent MILLIONS of dollars on advertising for which most people couldn’t even tell what was for sale, let alone what the value proposition was, do you think you’d be far from bankruptcy? Beware of the big, bad advertising agency that wants you to brand your company with something stupid like you’ll see here below.

The company in question is Berge Telecom (name changed (slightly) to protect the not-so-innocent). Their value proposition is very simple. Due to deregulation of the telecommunications industry, they have the ability to sell “Baby Bell” services for 15% to 30% less than the Baby Bell’s themselves. Make sure you understand that: they re-sell the Bell’s services–same lines, same network, same everything–just cheaper. No less quality, no less service (probably better service). It just costs less money. It would be like a new car dealership that opened and sold $25,000 Hondas, straight from the Honda factory, for $18,000 to $20,000. A no-brainer for success, right?

Wrong. Enter the bone-headed ad agencies. Let’s take a look at what they came up for this wonderful company.

The ad has a close-up shot of a frisky looking dog’s head holding a computer mouse in it’s mouth. It has a headline that says, “One Dot Com Minute.” And has some basic copy underneath that says, “Fess Up. Your office needs beefier internet access. So call Berge. We bundle router, line, service in one package, at frisky rates. We include the router, saving you hundreds. And we back it with 7-day a week tech support. Could it be any easier? Call Berge. We’ll come running.” Now remember this is for a telephone company that is trying to sell high speed, or what it calls quote unquote “beefier” internet service for less money than the Bells.

So what is the Activator in this ad? Is it the headline, “One Dot Com Minute?” No, it’s the dog. Remember that an activator is what snaps you out of alpha sleep and into beta alert mode. So you’re thumbing through the newspaper. If you’re somebody who’s interested in dogs–in either a positive or negative way–your reticular activator will signal your brain that there’s something on the page that’s familiar, unusual, or problematic. For most people, it’s familiar; or in other words, they like dogs, so their brain says, “Hey, look at the cute doggie over there on that page.”

Result? If you like dogs, there’s a reasonably good chance you will see this picture and it will pull you out of alpha mode and into beta mode, all of which will happen subconsciously, in a split second, without your being aware. Just like somebody calling your name in a crowded airport baggage claim area. It will force you to look at that ad and then your brain starts searching for additional, clarifying information. “What’s with the dog?” So you’ll read the copy to figure out what’s going on, and you’ll realize that it’s an ad for internet access. Then your brain will begin to short circuit. It’ll say, “dog, internet service, dog, internet service, dog, internet service.” It will struggle to make the connection as to why there’s a dog associated with internet service. See, these two things just don’t normally go together, so it’s a tough connection to make. It’s a false beta.

Now here’s a couple of distinctions for you. Number one, people who don’t like dogs aren’t going to look at this picture no matter what. Their reticular activator won’t flip the switch, so to speak. To them, the dog’s not familiar, unusual, or problematic, so it’s not an activator. So everyone who needs internet access and is not interested in or familiar with dogs will never be pulled out of alpha into beta to consciously see the ad and even have a chance to be sold. Do you see what I’m saying? Why would you put a dog as an activator for an internet service? Because the only people that you are going to reach with this dog are people that like dogs. Is it possible that people who don’t like dogs need internet service? I think it probably is. This is like driving to the corner 7-11 store via Branson, Missouri! You might eventually get there, but you sure traveled a long way to advance a short distance.

Well let’s see, some people do like dogs, so they’ll look at this ad and then they’ll see that it’s for internet service and certainly some people who like dogs will also need internet service so Berge will have a chance to sell to that subset of people. So here’s the question: Why wouldn’t you just go ahead and make the activator based on a hot button–something that’s important and relevant to everyone who needs internet service? A hot button for people who need internet service would be all of the problems that they would potentially be having with their current internet service, or lack thereof.

If you look in the copy, they talk about bundling the router, line, and service in one package. They talk about the availability of tech support, and they talk about saving hundreds of dollars. So I’m guessing some of the hot buttons would be, let’s see–not having the router, line, and service bundled, lack of available tech support, and costs that are way higher than they should be and could be. Now I don’t know if these are the actual, legitimate hot buttons or not, but I know on thing for freaking sure: the dog in this ad ain’t the prospects’ hot button! See, the dog is an activator, but not a hot button. I’ve taken the liberty to write a new ad based on the hot buttons we culled out of the text of the original ad. Notice how the hot buttons take the center stage now, and how the ad follows the formula of interrupt, engage, educate, and offer.

(This article was originally published and copyrighted © by Richard Harshaw, and is re-published here with permission).

The Cute Little Doggie That Drove A Company To Bankruptcy… TWICE.

Randy Martinsen — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 00:59:51 +0000

Wrong. Enter the bone-headed ad agencies. Let’s take a look at what they came up for this wonderful company.

(This article was originally published and copyrighted © by Richard Harshaw, and is re-published here with permission).