because all marketing touches the customer "direct"ly

My Creative Director and friend Michael McCormick (Guts of a Burglar blogster) needs a new car (at least I think so). His Ford Explorer is 12 years old, runs like a top and still looks pretty good … on the outside.

The inside is a different matter entirely. Passengers have to fly their legs over the Sirius antenna wire; the spots and stains are, well, spots and stains. The A/C in the back doesn’t work anymore and the vehicle is almost ready for its confirmation or bar mitzvah.

When Michael got this Explorer back in the late ‘90s (it’s his second one), I went with him to the dealership in Queens. He told the saleslady what he wanted, and she asked him what color he liked.

Anything you have is fine, he said. She and I looked at each other in disbelief.

Anyway, I thought the Cash for Clunkers program was a heaven sent opportunity for Michael to get a new ride. He disagreed. He thinks his Chuck (the Truck) is barely broken in. The tires are new, the brakes are new, the oil’s been changed and fluids checked every 3,000 miles. Yada yada.

It took me a while to understand his real reason.

For weeks I encouraged him to go to see the new cars. He wants an Explorer but the closest Ford dealership closed and they don’t make Explorers anymore, anyway.

So, I went to tweetdeck and started asking around. @ScottMonty, Ford’s Twitter spokesperson, gave me some recommendations. Another friend suggested the Flex and sent me photos. No buying action. I asked Michael why he wasn’t moving on this.

Turns out he really and truly doesn’t think taxpayers should be subsidizing his new car. Hmm. Hadn’t thought of that. And, he pointed out, a new vehicle cost a lot more than $4,500, perhaps around $25,000 more for what he wants. Why spend all that dough when he doesn’t need a new car? Men are soooo logical. It’s frustrating. But I already knew that. The new insights this whole episode provided got me thinking.

Not too long ago, the only way Ford could show its cars was in print or television advertising. Now that’s all changed.

What we see on TV or in ads is one-way communication, the company talking at us and controlling the flow of information.

Now we control the flow of information and we can find what we want, when we want it and consult with friends and family and experts along the way. I’ve known all this in theory and in making smaller purchasers for quite a while, but it’s a different matter to experience the whole process for a big ticket item (like a new SUV) in the real world of actually buying it.

In the meantime, people haven’t stopped looking for authenticity. And marketers are paying serious attention to what’s going on in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. On the web, customers can find anything, competitive prices, colors, and visit a website and buy anything in a NY minute.

Except, of course, Michael. He’ll be driving that car and me – and, horrors, clients – into the ground. Eventually, he’ll chat with a few friends and head off and buy a Flex or Edge or, who knows, a Club Cab F-250 – purple with a yellow interior, that some dealer happens to have on the lot and ready to roll.

A therapy dog can be any breed from a teacup Yorkie to an Irish Wolfhound as long as it’s calm, tolerates other animals and loves to be petted by strangers. They’re great at places like old folks’ homes, hospital wards for kids with long term illnesses, even prisons. Therapy dogs are happy to see you, whoever you are.

I have two cats at home that I think of as therapy animals. Mortimer, huge and orange with an extra toe on each of his four feet, loves everyone; Lucy, small, black and white, and younger likes three people plus Mortimer – and in the whole world that’s it for objects of her affections.

When we had an office near my apartment in New York, I used to bring my cats to work but now that we’re in our Hollywood, Florida marina office two and a half miles from home, I can’t do that anymore.
But I do have Cappy.

Cappy’s a Maltese Terrier who belongs to Bruce and Lara, a nice couple from New England. They sailed into the marina (our office is on the second floor of the Harbor master’s office) a year and a half ago and took a more or less permanent lease on a slip right outside my office window.

They live in their sail boat, and they share our huge downstairs terrace with us and people from other boats. It’s a very collegial gathering and was somewhat staid until Bruce and Lara brought home a tiny white bundle of fur. Cappy.

Dogs need somewhere to run off their leashes but you can’t take a dog off the leash in the marina. So Cappy comes upstairs to run around our offices. And run he does. Nonstop for the first 5 minutes, ripping figure eights around tables and chairs, racing after the balls we throw him for him.

His favorite spot is under my desk where he might find a crumb or two leftover from my lunch. When he (and Bruce and Lara, of course) went up north for a few weeks, I was bereft. No Cappy.

It is interesting that a dog can cheer you up; as you laugh, the creative juices start flowing again. I’m thinking of giving him a job as our Growler in Chief. Last week he accidentally took a small chunk out of Michael’s right hand when they both reached for a tennis ball at the same time. Good thing Michael throws leftie.

Cappy doesn’t know it, and wouldn’t care if he did, but he’s a therapy dog. Thanks, Capster for making Lois Geller Marketing Group’s office (a.k.a. Cappy’s Run), a happier place to work.

Twitter’s site went down for a few hours the other day and within 15 minutes I started feeling the pangs of withdrawal. Why? My goodness, it’s just a web site for short messages, isn’t it?

As I thought about it last night – why am I so attracted to Twitter? – it occurred to me that the reason might lie in Twitter’s competitive value to small companies like mine. In an important way, it gives us a leg up on big companies.

A lot of corporations worry about Twitter. Many of them don’t want to tweet on their own because they can’t control the process tightly; maybe employees will give people a bad impression of their brand. So they turn to their large agencies for help in testing social media. The large agency gives the job to junior creative people who do the best they can. The problem is that they can’t come up with revenue projections for Twitter results.

But small companies can really go to town with Twitter marketing. They can be themselves. If they’re looking for local customers, they can find them on Search. So if, for example, I have a store that specializes in interesting kites, I can talk about all the people who fly kites, I can give ideas for parties, have kite flying contests and sell discount kites, Twitter invite only, say once a month.

After several months, I can track ROI on Twitter much more easily than a large company ever could. This means that small businesses can:

• Build a great big wonderful Brand and voice that sound like they come from a real person;

• Begin to develop really solid friendships.

I’ve been doing this for a while now and I’m seeing real value. And I actually do feel a lot like the man behind the curtain, the Wizard of Twitter, pulling all the right levers.

If you’re interested in a Twitter or Social Media Program, feel free to call: 646-723-3231 or to visit me, on Twitter, of course, at twitter.com/loisgeller

I was speaking recently at the Boca Raton Hotel, and one of the conference attendees said that most websites and blogs have deadly boring personalities. She said yours don’t!

It was a flattering remark, and I knew what she meant. The websites we create have something unique about them. Your eyes don’t glaze over when you see them, whether it is
for a dry cleaner or for an association, I think that:

Websites should be interesting:

1. They should look unique, have character, do something different than your competitors’ do.

2. Your “Stand out” benefit should show. If you’re the drycleaner that can get the ink off my linen jacket. Then maybe that should be featured in a museum.

3. You should ask for visitors’ email addresses, and give them something Free for it.

4. Your website brand should be the same as the one in your store, in your catalog…everywhere, so people remember it.

5. On this website, the dry cleaner is on a busy street, but you can always spot her truck with her Apthorp Cleaners brand on it…in all the traffic.

Continue the conversation with you visitors with a great e-newsletter or Tip of the Month…and remember to thank them at holiday time, birthdays, and odd holidays.

Call us about your website: Lois Geller: 646-723-3231

Lois K. Geller
President
Lois Geller Marketing Group
1400 Marina Dr.
Hollywood, FL 33019
P. (646) 723-3235
F. (954) 456-2877
Visit me at: http://www.joyofdirectmarketing.com
http://www.twitter.com/loisgeller

If you look real hard, you can see this lizard.

The Nike commercial that says, “Just do it” always makes me smile, because it sounds so easy…and in life few people abide by those words.

It has especially struck home recently, as we’ve had some people come and go, at my office because they just couldn’t get things done. There’s a great saying in the Dale Carnegie Course, “I know people in the ranks who will stay in the ranks. Why, I’ll tell you why, because they haven’t the ability to get things done”

Our art director is not like that and I’ll tell you what happened at dinner last night…

His friend was telling me an amazing story. Apparently Donald was out on his terrace, and cleaning off some foliage from pillars he’s replacing. So, he was up on a ladder, and noticed that there was a palm frond hanging over the top of the roof. So, he reached up to pull it down, and jumped when the frond, leaped back away from him. Donald saw that he had pulled the tail of a huge lizard, and he said he could feel (and hear) the thumps as the angry lizard marched up the rooftop.

Wow, I couldn’t believe it. I would have moved out of the house the same night. I kidded them, and asked what the lizard’s name was. Donald said he had none. So, I named him Lizard Ferrer, as a take-off on the big investment bank, Lazard Freres.

I told my friend that I wanted to see what this thing looked like. And, first thing on Sunday morning, I received this photo of the strange looking critter. I was amazed at how beautifully Mother Nature had painted him, so he blends right in with the foliage.

And, I love the photograph so I thought I’d share it with you. And, I want to make the point that if you need to do something on that list of yours, get it done. Don’t think about, worry over it…or ponder too long. You might miss an opportunity.

Just do it!

This year I spoke about the power of Social Media, sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. One of the things I like about the social media world is that in many ways it’s like direct marketing on steroids – faster, more intimate, and easier-to-measure.

I was amazed that many in the audience didn’t know about Twitter or LinkedIn. Some had Facebook accounts for showing family photos.

I spoke about strategy and how to drive followers from Twitter to Facebook and then to your blog. As people get to know you, the more likely it is that they will do business with you, especially in b2b.
The title of my talk was How to get Tons of Free Advice on the Internet. I showed them how I floated questions on LinkedIn and received dozens of great answers from leading lights in our field.

My enthusiasm for this subject is over the top because I have a great time meeting people online. The Merit audience wanted to know the basics. I was amazed that with all of the publicity around these programs (how did Obama win the election? Social Media) that they hadn’t at least tested the waters. After all, it is all free.
My takeaway was:
· Many people in business are depressed. They’re worried about their companies and their jobs.

· They are waiting for business to come back as it has in the past.

· They are marketing conservatively, doing what they’ve done (just mailing less).

My advice to them and you:
· Develop the right attitude now! If you stay positive and keep on truckin’ – trying new ideas – something is a bound to work for you.

· If you just wait for business to come back, as it has before, it might not. Go after any piece of business that has a chance to pay off for you. (I call it the Dandelion Theory.) Blow out as many programs as you can, and one will take root. Maybe more.

· Now is the time to think creatively. Tell people about the benefits ofy our product or service, as if you were recommending it to a friend. Skip the rhetoric. Talk like a human being and tell your prospects why they should buy it now.

· Don Libey at the conference said, WAYMISH. Why are you making it so hard for your customer to buy from you? Make it easy on your website, on the phone, on your direct mail. Short is best.

And, let me know how you’re doing. Visit me at twitter.com/loisgeller at LinkedIn: Lois Geller, Facebook: Lois K. Geller and by email: loisgeller@loisgellermarketinggroup.com Easy, huh?

I used to see RAOK in my Tweet deck and I couldn’t figure out what it meant. Then it hit me: Random Acts of Kindness.

In real life we call them good deeds and I was reminded of one that happened to me years ago in far away California.

We were on our way to Woodland Hills to give a marketing seminar for our clients at Funrise. It had been a long trip from New York to LAX and I was starving. Whoa! Is that a Denny’s up there? Let’s duck in for something we can gobble down quickly.

And that’s where I met Tim Tallent, our waiter. He understood our predicament immediately and magically brought out our food right away, all the time talking good naturedly. He was funny, too, and by the time we left I felt as if I’d made a friend. Turns out I had.

Time gave me his card, and I gave him mine. When I got back to New York I decided to write about Tim in my monthly column for Target Marketing Magazine. It was all about how he lifted my spirits that day. I sent a tear sheet of the article to his boss, too.

Tim sent a Thank You note and seven years passed. Then yesterday I got an email from him. Click here to read it: Tim Tallent’s E-mail

All the best,
Lois
loisgeller@loisgellermarketinggroup.com

So now when I read the letters RAOK, I think of great people like Tim. Now it seems he manages the whole restaurant.

If only the lady behind the counter at Subway today had smiled and said something, anything, rather than slowly fill up all of her little silver trays with various Subway stuff, I might have ordered a sandwich and written about her today, too.