A Story That Illustrates the Real Power of Live Meetings

December 22nd, 2011blog0 comments

A couple of years ago, at a national convention of retail dealers, a young man named Chris, who owned a struggling dealership with his brother, decided to attend convention for the first time. His brother was the main stakeholder in their store, and had done very little to implement the programs and best practices they received through the corporate headquarters, and Chris intended to end their license in the company after convention.

Having never attended convention, Chris knew almost none of his 450 fellow attendees, and felt very isolated and unengaged as a result. As luck would have it, however, on the first evening of the convention, the company had hired a nationally known hypnotist, Ricky Kalmon, as a featured part of the evening’s entertainment. He invited the entire audience to enter into hypnosis, and under hypnotic suggestion, invited those who were willing to come to the stage and participate in a series of activities that released inhibition and opened up creative action. Chris was one of those who were willing.

What happened next was nothing short of a miracle for Chris. For the next couple of days his fellow dealers were coming up to Chris telling him he was fantastic, asking if the hypnosis was real. Chris’ instant celebrity status made him a part of the group he had felt isolated from. Suddenly people knew Chris’ name and he was one of them. Chris made friends that year. Instead of leaving the company, Chris returned to his store and began implementing many of the programs and best practices he had learned. In fact, Chris and his brother watched their once struggling store begin to flourish.

While not every attendee has the type of experience Chris had; no webinar, no email campaign, no online training can create that type of transformation. There is no equivalent alternative to live meetings for creating emotional engagement, consensus, and persuasion. Even the activities that may seem like “fluff” when used judiciously enhance that important payoff. In fact, the payoff of live events is critical to the success of business.

Slide-Slapper Anonymous — Do you qualify?

November 16th, 2011blog0 comments

Audiences are fed up with incessant slide-slapping (more commonly known as “death by PowerPoint”). Yet, an increasing number of presenters can’t seem to stop.  It’s some weird addiction – one slide feels so good, 50 must amplify the effect.  Yet it’s the audiences who truly suffer.

Knowing you have a slide-slapping problem is the first step to getting the help you need. So how do you know when you are just over-sliding, or have truly descended to the depths of slide-slapping? The best course of action, if you think you may have a problem, is to abstain from using slides at all. However, there are a few questions that indicate it may be time to get help:

1. You have more slides than minutes in your presentation.
2. You need your slides to know what you are going to say next.
3. You spend more time creating your slides than working on your presentation.
4. You don’t understand the difference between your slides and you presentation.
5. If you could be at the meeting, your audience could just read your slides.
6. If your laptop or AV doesn’t work, you can’t present.

If any of these apply to you, it’s not too late. Many others like you have gotten help, and remained free of slide-dependency. They have realized that speaker support is really just that – speaker support. In the process they discovered that it is their knowledge that is of primary importance, and in order to communicate it clearly, they must give more though to the structure of their message, not the media.

The Three Myths Behind Low-Cost Marketing

June 22nd, 2011blog0 comments

Like every other good or service available today, marketing is being asked to do more, more, more — for less, less, less. As marketers, this constant pricing model pressure often leads to self-pitying complaints about becoming “just another commodity” where our pricing overshadows our creativity, our results, and even our value as advisors.

However, our clients might suggest we are as guilty of the reverse psychology – refusing to acknowledge that marketing is NOT a “one-size-fits-all” service either. If it were, there would be no need for VistaPrint, or for BBDO, for that matter.  If it were, then John Smith dba John’s Big Idea Company would be able to pay the same for a website and SEO as Reebok does. 

So, here are the three myths we have uncovered our clients and ourselves unwittingly subscribing to in regards to low-cost marketing, and the truth that will set us free from them – allowing productive marketing to flourish at new heights of success:

MYTH 1: Somebody Can Do This for $X. Well, okay, you caught us. That’s not really the myth, because if you have decided you need a newsletter 6 times a year, as well as 12 direct mails, and you have budget of $2000 for writing, design and printing of 400 of each of those, you might just find someone to do it.  Hope that works out for you.

TRUTH: Successful marketing is driven by budget and GOALS, not budget and TACTICS.  So, if you are finding yourself asking “Can you do this for $X?” ask yourself this question instead, “If I only have $X to spend to accomplish this, what approach will give me the greatest return? (thus building momentum for re-investment and growth.)”

 

MYTH 2: I Know What This Costs. Everyone has an idea what a website, email, postcard, video and ad spot ought to cost. Interestingly, a recent, informal poll indicates that the guesses are too high about 20% of the time, and too low the other 80%.  

TRUTH: There is no industry standard for what a particular deliverable should cost. In most instances you pay more for the following items:

1. Customization
2. Consultation / Strategy
3. Expertise / Track Record
4. Turnkey Approach
5. Complexity
6. Scale
7. And, often, but not always, quality

 

MYTH 2: You Get What You Pay For. Agencies – including ours, occasionally – are often guilty of perpetuating this myth. It’s true, there is a real value agencies provide through their creativity, strategic approach, expertise, extensive resources, and high quality product.   But not everyone can afford that approach – at least, not yet.

TRUTH: Marketing is an investment. There is no single right solution. Investing a percentage of the return you hope to see with a trusted partner is the surest way to succeed.

Jumpstarting Struggling Marketing Efforts

April 21st, 2011blog0 comments

Many organizations are scratching their heads these days and wondering why their marketing efforts aren’t paying off as projected. It isn’t that marketers have been sitting still, either. They’ve added all manner of social media to the mix, lowered their expectations for sales in light of the new era of “cautious spending” by both consumers and businesses, and looked for innovative approaches, such as live marketing and pay-for-performance, at every turn.

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How Do You Know When to Outsource Your Marketing?

April 7th, 2011blog0 comments

Marketing costs money. The question is always whether it is providing a return in qualified leads (keeping in mind that closed business is a sales issue, not marketing) that pays for the investment. The variations on how that return is generated through internal resources, entire departments, the use of agencies, or just a host of outside resources under internal direction, are endless.

So, the question about when to outsource vs. when to rely on your internal resources really comes down to three things:

1. What do you need to accomplish to grow your sales?
2. Do you have the expertise and time to accomplish your objectives internally?
3. Is it more cost-effective to put someone on staff, 40 hours a week, with taxes and benefits that that entails, or pay higher hourly fees by the project/retainer?

It is always possible for a slightly overworked internal marketing team to build the necessary marketing plans and get the deliverable out the door just in the nick of time. Likewise, it is not uncommon to find a department or small company that has come to rely thoroughly on that freelance web designer or graphic artist who seems to always get things done on a dime. The question isn’t really whether these approaches are right or wrong.

The question is: Are your marketing initiatives just getting by, or are they really working for you?

Here are the signs you need to look for that tell you it’s time to get outside help, at least temporarily:
1. SIGN ONE: READY, FIRE, AIM! If all your time is spent reacting to urgent, pop-up media and support needs, and very little time is spent planning and integrating, then it might be time to get some outside assistance. Marketing as an endless string of deliverables, without a clearly developed strategy is never going to provide optimum return for the investment.

2. SIGN TWO: BOLDLY GOING… If the best way to reach your target audience is through a media or channel your team is not familiar with, then at least for the short term, seek expert, outside guidance. If you are doing something as a one-time effort, such as testing out whether trade shows are a good channel, then engage a trade show expert to ensure the most effective execution.

3. SIGN THREE: EVERYBODY’S AN ART DIRECTOR. When marketing efforts are scattered among many departments or individuals, and do not present a coherent brand image, an outside consultant or agency can help bring order to the chaos with relative speed. Additionally, when the CEO (VP, or other high-level, non-marketing executive) is engaged in marketing in a hands-on capacity, it is time to get some outside assistance, so the CEO can focus on his/her overall business.

4. SIGN FOUR: SOMETHING’S NOT WORKING HERE! When sales have stalled, markets have shifted, or you are just struggling under that gnawing doubt that you should be getting more sales leads, but your tactics don’t seem to be working, then it is time to get some outside perspective, and support.

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