Miah's Journey

Passion

Are you passionate about what you do?

or do you and the people that you work with have the attitude described by Seth Godin below:

"People who don't care, selling products to people who care less."

Good Questions from Seth Godin

This is perhaps the greatest marketing strategy struggle of our time:

Should your product or service be very good, meet spec and be beyond reproach or...

should it be a remarkable, memorable, over the top, a tell-your-friends event?

Good Questions from Seth.

Marketing Audits

Have you done a marketing audit of where you spent your marketing $ in 2009 and based on that audit have you modified and updated your marketing strategy to maximize your businesses return on $ invested in marketing?

The goal of marketing should be to continue to build your companies brand, generate qualified leads, and help you build great products and services.  Seth has a great list of things marketers should know. 

If you don't know what you have done and have a plan to adjust you will not be as successful in 2010 as you can.  Below is a chart that I cut out of an article a couple of years ago from INC. magazine.

This company analyzed and adjusted.  To be successful you must do this on a regular basis.  There are great tools on-line to help you with building a budget and doing an audit.  Some of them are more complicated than others.  You do not need to make this a complicated process.  If you want some assistance from me just let me know.

 

Viral Marketing - Defined by the Master

Seth Godin describes his view of Viral Marketing here.  Seth is in my opinion one of the top marketers in the country.  Thanks for the info. Seth. 

Gaining Customers in a retention

Tips to do so from TechCrunch:

1. SEO – Customers actively use search engines to find relevant solutions. Keyword and organic search optimization is an inexpensive and effective means for gaining strategic presence.

2. Blog Relations – It’s not just about news and pitching the A-List, creating a consistent and visible brand requires the inclusion of the authoritative, peer-to-peer blogs that your customers and influencers read for information, help and perspective. Oh, and be wise about using embargoes.

3. Media/Analysts – Reporters and analysts cover your space and by simply writing about your company or product, they can position you as an option among your customers; especially when they’re researching options to validate decisions.

4. Direct Sales – Some of the most successful companies right now are concentrating on direct outreach to the decision makers instead of hoping to influence them from the sidelines.

5. CRM – Building a customer-focused business saves money and increases revenue. Focusing on customers and empowering them improves business processes, product development, and also offsets marketing expenses as “involved and participatory” customers transform from a cost-center into an active surrogate sales force.

6. Participate – Social networks are much more than mere time killers. Participating across the social communities where you’re customers and prospects are active and vocal provides a looking glass into their thoughts, requests, opinions, dislikes, and recommendations. It also provides you with priceless opportunities to combat negative perceptions while also positioning your company as a resource.

7. Thought Leadership – One of the best ways to demonstrate thought leadership is to actively share your thoughts where they count. Contributing articles and posts to industry publications, forums, and blogs increases visibility and unobtrusively contributes to your sales strategy by helping customers find you.

8. Blog and Blog Comments – It may seem trite or perhaps even worthless, but I can guarantee that finding the time to host and contribute to a blog that demonstrates the expertise of you and your team is priceless. People are looking for information and direction, not just from your blog but others as well. Go where they are and offer counsel, contribute to the dialogue and establish trust and authority in the process. Why wouldn’t you position yourself as a resource for your customers or prospects? Too busy you say? Empower your staff. Contract outside experts to contribute to creating a one-stop-shop for insight and direction—just be transparent about their involvement. It costs less than you think to build a community around your product, or at least what it stands for.

9. Network in the real world – Participation isn’t solely relegated to online networks. Opportunities to meet and cultivate relationships in the real world are abundant. Meetups, industry events, groups, unofficial lobbycons associated with your favorite events are continuous and more valuable with your involvement.

10. Involve Your Community – Save money and time by involving your customers in the development process of your new and iterative products as well as your go to market strategy. Alpha customers are often ready to assist with the validation of your business model and also the honest feedback associated with your product benefits and features.

11. Websites are not Just Web Pages – Your Website must make an emotional connection with visitors, while also conveying stories and value propositions that specifically capture the attention of your customers – otherwise, all of your hard work and investment of time and money in sales and marketing campaigns will generate traffic, but lead to a dramatically reduced conversation ratios.

12. Innovate – Always learn and improve everything in order to stay relevant.

The Napkin Sketch

There was a good article in the April 2008 issue of Fast Company called the Napkin Sketch.  It talks about how you should be able to draw your strategies and ideas with a simple napkin sketch. 

Managing E-Mail Campaigns

Dear Customer...Managing E-mail Campaigns. An article in the March 2008 Inc. Magazine about e-mail campaign tools.

Branding You

I am re-reading The Brand Called You by Tom Peters from 1997 that was in Fast Company.   It has some great information in it.

Notes:

• To start thinking like a brand manager ask the question - What is it that my product and service does that makes you different?
  • Write it down in 15 words or less
  • Qualities or characteristics that make you different from colleagues
  • What have you done that helps you stand out
  • What would your customers or colleagues say is your greatest strength?
  • What is the Feature / Benefit Model that you offer?
    • Deliver work on time
    • Dependable, reliable service that meets strategic needs
    • Anticipate and solve problems before they become crises
    • Save money and headaches by being on the team
    • Complete projects within the allotted budget
  • What do I do that adds remarkable, measurable, distinguished, distinctive value?
  • What do I do that I am most proud of?
  • What have I accomplished that I can unabashedly brag about?
  • What do you want to be famous for?
• What's the pitch for you/
• Sell the sizzle
• Market the bejesus out or your brand  -- to customers, colleagues, and your virtual network
• Branding campaigns - the first step is visibility
• How do you market brand you?
• Moonlighting
• Sign up for an extra project inside your organization
• Freelance project
• Teaching a class at a community college, adult education program, at your company
• Write an article
• Sign up to make a presentation or be part of a conference panel
• Everything you do matters
• The key to any personal branding campaign is "word-of-mouth-marketing"
• Your network of friends, colleagues, clients, and customers is the most important marketing vehicle you've got.
• What's the real power of you?
• Influence power
• Largely a matter of perception
• We live in a project world
• Ideal for growing your brand
• Projects exist around deliverables, measurables, and they leave you with braggables
• Resume should include
• Skills you've mastered,
• The projects you've delivered
• The braggables you can take credit for
• Constant updating to reflect the growth - breadth and depth of brand you
• What's loyalty to You?
• Not to a company but to your colleagues, team, project, customers, and yourself
• Grow yourself
• Promote yourself
• As long as you're learning, growing, building relationships, and delivering great results, its good for you and it's great for the company
• Free agency
• Treat your resume as if it's a marketing brochure
• Check with the market on a regular basis to have a reliable read on your brand's value
• Do you have a Brand User Group?
• Ask for honest helpful feedback on your performance, growth, and value
• What's the future of You?
• A career is a portfolio of projects that teach you new skills, gain you new expertise, develop new capabilities, grow your colleague set, and constantly reinvent you as a brand
• Career - What you want is a steady diet of more interesting, more challenging, and more provocative projects.
• Write your own mission statement
• What turns you on?
• Learning something new?
• Gaining recognition for your skills
• Definition of Success, money, power, fame, doing what you love
• Four things that you've got to measure yourself against:
• You've got to be a great teammate and a supportive colleague
• You've got to be an exceptional expert at something that has real value
• You've got to be a broad gauged visionary - a leader, a teacher, a farsighted imagineer
• You've got to be a businessperson - you've go to be obsessed with pragmatic outcomes
• Start Today

If you are interested in building your Brand this is a great article with a lot of information.  He has also written an entire book on it. 

Adding Value

Seth has a good post up about pricing and adding value.  He asks a simple question.  What would you do if you had to charge 7 % for your commission rate versus the standard 6 % in the market?  You should implement the answer to that question regardless of what rate you charge for commission.

Focus on the Reachable

I am a huge fan of Seth Godin.  I read his blog and have read a number of his books.  He has great insights into marketing and how to spread ideas. 

He has a great post on his blog today about focus on reaching the reachable customers and not the unreachable.  My favorite Quote is:

And yet marketers still start every meeting and every memo with ideas about how to reach the unreachable. It's not in our nature to do what actually works: start making products, services and stories that appeal to the reachable. Then do your best to build that group ever larger. Not by yelling at them, but by serving them.

As I am trying to implement a marketing plan for my company I am going to try and focus on reaching the reachable.

Thanks Seth.