Posts from — May 2009

When my Dad owned a jewelry manufacturing company in New York City, buyers would come into the showroom and look at his current season’s merchandise.

That showroom was really beautiful, a lot prettier than our own living room at home. There were plush couches and ottomans, and sparkling showcases with
figurines in them.  Black velvet showed off his costume jewelry.

One time I asked him why he had such a fancy place, when we needed a new couch (so I could show off to my friends too).

He said that “you have to make your best customers feel special”. When you stop doing that, they start buying elsewhere. Actually, the relationship regresses and when you see the person again, there is an awkwardness. This happens when companies start changing who they think their target market really is.

I think that happened with Chico’s. They sell women’s clothes, and had lycra kinds of outfits in black and other colors that were easy to coordinate. I bought them all the time, because they don’t crease in my suitcase, and I can put them in the washing machine.

Then Chico’s started going after a younger demographic. They added linen clothes to their racks, and the Southwestern look that might attract new customers. What happened? They lost me, for sure, and lots of women like me who travel all the time.

Who wants a Southwestern look in New York City?

So, consider who your best customers are, treat them very well, and don’t go in some weird direction…hoping to find more customers, and then alienating me (a power shopper)!

When I give a speech at an event, I usually enjoy the talk, interact with my audience, and generally have fun. Afterwards, I get barraged with people giving me their business cards, and asking me for things…business, introductions, free books…even once a life insurance policy. All this happens in first five minutes as I’m walking  (usually hobbling carefully in high heels) down from the stage.

So, it is always especially refreshing when someone offers me something to help ME. That happened last night at our Board meeting. I’d mentioned we were looking for new office space, and after the meeting…Alex came up to me and told me that there is lots of very nice space in his building, and he’d get me the name of the manager and phone number, if I wanted. It was a nice gesture, with no ulterior motive on his part. And, I appreciated it.

The same thing happens on networking sites, like Twitter. Some people are forever hawking their products, and they do it every hour. Others provide value, like John Kremer. He sent me his Marketing Book Tip of the Week, and it is full of information for me. I never market any of my books, but he gave me some ideas I will try.

He also offers a Twitter Mania Manual, a full downloadable book you can get an use and it is full of great ideas. So You try it…give first, and then maybe give again…and good tings will begin to happen.

John Kremer, you’re great!

At my agency, we used to work primarily on direct mail programs and they worked for our clients. We rolled out huge mailings for Chase, American Express and lots of others clients. Then mailings got more costly, and we were paying more for each customer we were bringing in.

So, we started testing mail, then obtaining email addresses. We tested emailing people to visit us on Facebook, and then gave them special offers there. Little by little, over the last few years, we’ve gone from a direct mail agency, to an online group that builds websites, maintains the relationships our clients have iwth their customers via social media…and are testing some great new strategies. We’re having fun.

If we’d stayed in our old niche, we probably wouldn’t be growing as fast.

Then I read a piece about Newsweek reinventing itself in The New York Times. Their transformation is amazing: a new, smaller format, interesting new design…and a more afluent readership. They aren’t going to cover the big events any more (like the U.S. Airways flight that glided into the Hudson River). They are gambling on an audience that will pay more for a new “offbeat take” on events. Will it work?

Time will tell.

He was saying, that he hasn’t seen it pay out for anyone.

I mentioned that it takes time to build relationships and the people that hawk their sales all the time will never win. He thinks that it might be a “flash in the pan”.

Then I read about a great Twitter Pizza in the Pan story on a blog, and it said that… Naked Pizza has been blogging and trading stories on Twitter. They decided to find out at the register if it was actually helping them make sales.

So on April 25th, they worked on tracking and found out that 15% of the day’s business came from Twitter. Frank Reed at Marketing Pilgrim tells the story best. Read all about it.

See, I told you so, Dwain! I’m a Twitterite.

In the speedy way we work now, I get an email, respond in a second, and sometimes don’t take the time to think.

That happened to me last week, when I was invited to speak in Europe at a conference, and I was on a conference call, and perhaps my response was a bit curt. The sponsor of the event thought I was mean…and didn’t even appreciate her offer (which I did). I’ve been wanting to speak in Prague for a while, and when the invite came in…I just blattered out my questions. And, she was gone. I missed out, and felt awful about it.

My Mom used to say, “think before you speak”, and if you’re angry, “sleep on it” before responding. You’ll feel altogether different in the morning. And, I usually do that. When the poor Prague woman wrote, I didn’t.

Joe Biden also had a foot in the mouth disease last week when he accidentally blurted out that there is a secret bunker under the old U.S. Naval Academy. That is the bunker where they hid Cheney, when 9/11 happened. Well, it is not a secret anything anymore. If only he’d thought,, waited, considered before he said it. Michelle Malkin talks about it on her blog today

Guess we should all think about this on Twitter and Facebook… and email.

Many years ago, the Chairman of Ford of Canada called my agency in to his office for help. He needed to have more women in Canada buy their cars. They were losing market share to General Motors (who actually knew how to train their salespeople to talk to women in the showrooms).

We developed a curriculum approach to building relationships with the women. It began with a survey, and a nice letter from the chairman asking them to help him to do a better job.

It was signed in blue ink by the Chairman(of course it was printed), but it still looked authentic.

Then he gave them an offer of a book, Car and Truck Buying Made Easy…after they helped him out with the survey.

All of the names and answers to three questions were databased.

If they were going to buy a car in the next three months, we sent them a $200. gift certificate to come to the dealership near them, make the best deal, and then whip out this special certificate for additional savings. The other groups were handled differently, and all groups got a newsletter to “continue the relationship” with them.

Now, they call these kinds of programs “trigger mailings”. If I do this, then you mail me that offer.

I’m just wondering why more companies don’t do that. They have triggers on line, like offers that come popping up, when you abandon the shopping cart. They have trigger pop-ups when you are about to pay, and then there’s one more offer.

Why aren’t more companies doing this in the mail? In fact, why don’t they write to me, when I defect?

For instance, about 3 months ago, I stopped using my Mastercard to get American Airlines points. Why? Because I realized I don’t fly that much on AA, and I’d rather get some of the exciting gifts they offer on American Express Membership Rewards.

Maybe you should consider some small tests, with trigger mailings, and follow-up. Might work wonders for you.

The internet used to be a place where I connected with old friends (my favorite book marketer, now in N. Carolina), and loved ones (my cousin in Sarasota). I showed pictures of my cats on my Facebook page, and wrote about my miserable cold on Twitter. LinkedIn was the place I’d throw out any immediate business challenges (like someone took over our website, how do I get it back?) Youtube was where everyone showed their kids first steps.

People are still using it for all of that, but it has changed.  Now, it’s an open forum for people to talk about products or services and create followers and most companies are branding themselves in this huge arena of people. But, how are they doing that?

For the most part, they’ve relegated a techie person to craft the Twitters, the Facebook pages, and Youtube. They’re really missing the boat, I think. They should get their best salesperson, their best communicator and make that person their “unique voice” :

1. The voice should sound like real human being, and actually be one. That means he can talk about the company, but also add some personal things about his life, and maybe even some “inside stories” about the company.

2. The person should answer questions that people are asking about their company.

3. The person should not be an advertisement. He should just talk about people using their product or service (and maybe throw in some funny stories).

Most of all, there should be a strategy for the social media. Are you sending people from Twitter to Facebook, or Youtube to your website. I’ll talk about that more in my next Tip of the Week.