Category Archives: Strategy

Apr3

The Beast and I

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The Beast and I

 

Keeping track of each of the 20,200 or so people who follow me on Twitter would be a 24/7 job if I had a couple of assistants. I don’t, so, naturally, the ones who stand out tend to get the most attention.

Drew Williams up in Toronto stands out.

Maybe it’s his “avatar”. It looks like this:

I vaguely wondered what it represented and I didn’t find out until just recently. It’s his Beast.

I found out the usual way – accidentally.

One day, I was ranting about problems with my so-far-unwritten new book. My agent had retired and everyone at my last publishing company was brand new. Help!

Drew, whose Twitter bio says “Happy to help you any way I can”, actually did help. He and his writing partner, Jonathan Verney, are nursing their new book through the publishing process. He told me they were working with McGraw-Hill; after some emailing back and forth, he sent me his editor’s name.

How nice is that?

I asked him about his book and he sent me a Preview, and I’m looking forward to getting a real copy when it comes out in July. The title is Feed the Start-Up Beast. A 7-Step Guide to Big Hairy Outrageous Sales Growth.

Drew and Jonathan write about patience, persistence and a Plan, all of which entrepreneurs (like me) need. Even better, though, is that the book provides a roadmap to success.

Feed the Beast isn’t theory. It’s real business through and through. But this is about how the Social Media world, especially Twitter, is a great place to meet new friends, like Drew Williams. And if you’re not involved yet, on a personal level, you probably should consider it.

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Mar28

Why did Bank of America sell me down the river?

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Why did Bank of America sell me down the river?

When I moved to Florida, a lawyer suggested that I get a mortgage from Bank of America. I took his advice and had no problems for 9 years, thanks to a great mortgage man at the bank.

Then, last weekend riffling through the papers on my desk, I came across a bland and eminently ignorable note from an entity named Green Tree Lending. The letter informed me that Green Tree now owned my mortgage. I thought I had never heard of Green Tree, but apparently I had.

Looking around for letters from Bank of America I found one that had slipped my mind completely. It mentioned that BoA was dumping me off to Green Tree. The letter was just one of an endless stream of impact-free communications Americans get these days. My first takeaway from all this is DO NOT GIVE SHORT SHRIFT TO MESSAGES FROM ORGANIZATIONS THAT CAN MESS UP YOUR LIFE.

I thought I knew who and what BoA was but I was wrong. I went online to see who and what Green Tree is. If you have a strong stomach, check them out yourself. You’ll find lots of miserable stories like this: WorldFreeNews.com

I’m not as horrified by Green Tree as I know I eventually will be. For now, I’m more horrified by Bank of America. There is something seriously wrong in the bowels of that formerly reliable institution. I have no idea what it is but I suspect it goes back to the disastrous government-driven policy of issuing mortgages to people who couldn’t possibly have paid for them and the blood-sniffing sharks that took advantage of it.

Or maybe I’m missing something. If you know what it might be, I’d appreciate reading about it in your comment below.

BTW I wonder why banks (like BoA) spend all kinds of money on Branding, and then let it fall apart. I wrote a piece about Brand on my Forbes column (Marketing Matters More Than Ever): Why Brand Matters and there I said, “In one sense, perhaps the most important sense, a brand is a promise.”

So what happened to the Bank of America’s promise to me?

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Mar7

To Blog or Not?

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To Blog or Not?

This is an odd post to be put up on my blog.

As many of you know, I also have a column on Forbes: Marketing Matters More Than Ever

There I write about how to make your advertising memorable, and why you should consider marketing to a niche (among dozens of other ideas).

Every once in a while I wonder about the value of these blogs. Do they really help generate business for my agency? I was discussing that very thought on The Jim Blasingame Radio Show. Here is the “tape” of that show (for your listening pleasure): To Blog or Not To Blog

Share your thoughts on blogging and please comment below.

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Dec6

Unaccountable Marketing?

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Unaccountable Marketing?

The other day, driving along I-95, I noticed a jewelry billboard. Young couple, nice ring, some hearts. It had a headline that said, “Love is in the air”. Nice enough, but I wondered who the advertiser was. I didn’t see a store name, a website, an address, nothing.

The next time I drove by, I looked for a store name. Lo and behold, there it was in dropout white type (on a gray background), small and off in a corner.

Why would anyone spend a ton of money on a billboard people can’t read?

And what ROI did they expect?

The ad looked okay, attractive even, but what good does that do when nobody knows who the advertiser is?

Lately, I’ve been paying more and more attention to this kind of thing- unaccountable marketing is a good way to describe it. Glamour magazine, has a lot of ads with no website, no phone number, no offer, and certainly no way to track results. Exposure is great, but how does anyone know if the investment was worthwhile? If you pulled the ad and saved the money, would it make a difference in sales?

Marketing should be about tracking results.

Unless the advertiser is extremely well known and has a gigantic budget, unaccountable marketing should not even exist. If you can’t track the results of your ad, then you should think twice before launching it.

Clients come to our agency, because they know that we are able to deliver results. It may take several tests of a marketing program before it becomes profitable, but in the end the client knows where their dollars have gone and their ROI.

Just like you keep your employees accountable; be sure to keep your marketing accountable, too.

Here are two things to remember about keeping your marketing “accountable”:

  1. Try to track results. This can be so simple: It starts by engaging prospects then moving them to a landing page (or micro site). A specific phone number, email address, or QR code. That way you at least get some idea where your customers come from.
  1. Creative is not everything. Yes, it’s great to have a cool looking ad, but it’s not the most important thing. If your customer can’t read it, it’s a wasted effort. Remember the 40-40-20 rule, a direct marketing principle that certainly applies here. Success is 40% offer, 40% list (or medium), and 20% is due to the creative. Our creative director tells me the real formula is 100-100-100. Everything has to be 100%.

If you have any thoughts on the subject, please comment below. I would be happy to hear what others have to say. Thanks!

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Nov14

Andrea’s 30-Day Challenge

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Andrea’s 30-Day Challenge

A Guest Post from Andrea Nierenberg

It takes 30 days to either break a habit or start a new one, I’ve read. In my Bikram yoga class- there’s a 30-day challenge now- where you attend a 90 minute class for 30 days straight and at the completion– you are clearly more fit, healthier and stronger.
In the last year- I have set my own “30-day challenges” to learn something new daily on building my business and expanding my knowledge on a variety of subjects.

Over a year ago, I decided to focus on Social Media, learning something new daily. All you need is your computer (with internet access) and a strong dose of discipline.

I had to get up to speed and with watching You Tube videos, reading blog posts, articles and Tweets, visiting Slide Share, I spent 15-30 minutes daily learning.

One month turned in to the next and before I knew it- a year had passed and I’m still repeating and continuing my knowledge by starting a new 30-day challenge each month. I know I don’t have to worry about the abundance of material that I can find. I have now also expanded my challenge to learning more subject matter- on my specific topics in my consulting practice– Presentation Skills, Strategic Networking and Business Development.

Recently, I was working with one of my Executive coaching clients, and his focus is on Personal Finance. He wants to be more competitive because he hadn’t taken many advanced classes in college. I decided to give him the 30-day Challenge in learning one new piece of information daily on Personal Finance. He is already into day 10 and says he feels more confident and knowledgeable and just by spending 15- 30 minutes daily.

This is what is great about the ‘challenge‘– set your goal and time frame and stick to it– If we can’t find 15-30 minute nuggets- start with 5 or 10 minutes. You will still be learning and focused.

So– take the “Challenge” for whatever you wish to keep improving and excelling in:

C—Carve out a specific time of the day for your ‘challenge work‘– I do mine first thing in the morning to start my day.

H— Hear yourself as you read out loud and then record a highlight of the daily information you are gleaning and then implementing.

A– Take action and start the process. Begin with a smaller time slot and then it can grow to 30 minute. Just begin.

L—Learn one new piece of information daily- and then share it with someone.

L– Really listen to the author or speaker you are learning from and connect with them.

E– Enjoy the process. It is fun when we are learning in life! Someone once told me that by listening to Italian for 30 minutes a day for 1 year, he felt comfortable speaking to people on his trip to Italy. He said he had almost become an “expert”.

N–Do not say “No” to yourself. If you miss a day- spend double time the next day. Reverse the letters of NO to ON– and find the time to continue your challenge.

G– Set a goal to accomplish. In 30 days, I will have mastered——- (fill in your goal) Very similar when people set a goal to lose a specific amount of weight in a certain time.

E–Envision yourself more confident and in control having mastered new material and knowledge to make you better at your work or in life.

We all make choices on how to spend our time– break this opportunity into a bite size nugget and see how you feel in 30 days. If you are like me and others I know- you will continue the challenge and keep going and growing.

If it seems so big and daunting- remember this saying—“How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!”

Contact Andrea Nierenberg at: andrea@nierenberggroup.com and read her blog at: NierenBlog.com

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