Marketing Muse from Silver Square

Do you need an Avatar?

I recently read an article about ways to spruce up your website. I was a little surprised about the push for creating and using an Avatar.

If you're not familiar with this, an Avatar is an animated "person" like something you would see on video games. These Avatars can be your online sales person, greet your visitors or explain your products or services. One such company noted in this case study was a coffee shop who created an Avatar twin of the owner (you can submit your photo and create an Avatar in your likeness). Her Avatar helped increase sales by 20 percent within a year. Hum.

When you start putting numbers like that in to the game, maybe we should take these Avatar's more seriously? Or maybe it's just me? I haven't taken them seriously, yet...

Give your site a test-drive with an Avatar of your choosing, or of your own similar features. SitePal is one site that will allow you to create your Avatar and give it a voice for a low monthly fee. Let me know if you see a 20 percent increase in your online sales!

A must read recession story

I have read and am currently rereading Jack Canfield's The Success Principles and came across this story. It's a good one and timely for where we are now and how it relates to marketing and sales. Enjoy the story, then think of how you can do something similar.

Success Principle #1 Take 100% Responsibility for Your Life

"You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself." - Jim Rohn, America's foremost business philosopher

The story as told by Jack Canfield:

I've heard there is going to be a recession; I've decided not to participate.

A friend of mine owns a Lexus dealership in Souther California. When the Gulf War broke out, people stopped coming in to buy Lexuses. They knew that if they didn't change their response (R) to the event (E) of nobody coming into the showroom, they were going to slowly go out of business. Their normal response (R) would have been to continue placing ads in the newspaper and on the radio, then wait for the people to come into the dealership. But that wasn't working. The outcome (O) they were getting was a steady decrease in sales. So they tried a number of new things. The one that worked was driving a fleet of new cars out to where the rich people were - the country clibs, marinas, polo grounds, parties in Beverly Hills and Westlake Village - and then inviting them to take a spin in a new Lexus.

Now think about this... have you ever test-driven a new car and then got back in your old car? Remember that feeling of dissatisfaction you felt as you compared your old car to the new car you had just driven? Your old car was fine up until then. But suddenly you knew there was something better - and you wanted it. The same thing happened with these folks. After test-driving the new car, a high percentage of the people bought or leased a new Lexus.

The dealership changed their response (R) to an unexpected event (E) - the war - until they got the outcome (O) they wanted... increased sales. They actually ended up selling more cars per week than before the war broke out.

Websites on phones

Have you ever wondered what your website looks like on a cell phone or PDA? Here is your chance to see your site, your competitor's site, whatever site you wish. Skweezer is a service that allows you to put in any URL and see how the site appears on mobile phones. It's pretty interesting. Take a look.

Three ways to figure out your target audience

Pick where you are....

A = You're a successful business owner who consistently performs marketing activities and understands the value and necessity of regular, effective marketing

B = You're a business owner who thinks about marketing when sales, cash or business gets slow

Which did you relate to more? Many business owners fall in to the B camp more so than A because they are still trying to run each and every aspect of their business. They still haven't hired the admin support they should have, they don't see the value in spending money unless they have to, and they are still the "lead" sales person for the company. If this is starting to sound more and more like you, maybe you should read the Four reasons you should outsource your marketing and look in to finding an assistant!

Another reason you fell in to the B category is that you just don't know who you should be marketing to or what you should be doing with them. Let's look at the who.

Always look at your current customers, but just that 20 percent that make you the most money (and probably annoy you the least). What about them is a characteristic you can find in others? What size of business are they, what do they sell, who do they sell to, how many employees do they have, and then look even deeper. Why do you connect with this client? Do you have the same values? Do you have the same business philosophies? Make a list of as much information as you can muster.

The second big thing you need to look at is yourself (your company). Know who you service best, why you service them best and how much time and money it takes to find, secure and service one account.

And lastly, if you're really stumped, survey your top clients. I would recommend hiring this service out (we can do it for you). You'll get candid responses and that's what you want. You can also use this opportunity to gather testimonials, which are an underutilized marketing activity.

Five things you should know about your prospects

When you take a look at your target market list, don't forget these five key points. They are somewhat forgotten when it comes to "marekting" to your target audience.

1 - Manage Expectations - I have found it's typically harder to manage expectations than it is to manage the project. You must figure out where the line is. Ask your prospect or client how they like to work, how much detail they need to receive, how often they want to get updates and how they want to receive those updates. You master the expectations and you'll master the job.

2 - They Need You - Prospect Smith would not have found his way to you if there wasn't a hint of a need to fill. Figure out what they need and how you can fill the gap.

3 - They Don't Know What They Need - OK, you may say "Raquel, did you know what you wrote on number two?" and the answer is yes. Point three is equally as valid because sometime's people think they know what they want, but in reality, they don't know at all. It's your job to figure it out and provide the best solution. I'll have someone tell me they need to do some marketing. In their head, marketing means postcards. In my head, I begin to wonder, what does marketing mean to them, what do they expect this marketing to do for them and what do they have budgeted to spend on this marketing. Whatever those answers are may not equal the activity in your prospects head that it will in your head, so make them match and tell them what they need and why.

4 - They Get Busy - Don't assume that becasue you haven't heard from someone in a week or two or three that they don't need you or want to do business with you. They get busy and fall back in to the trap of daily activity and just simply forget about you. It's your job to keep in front of them so they don't forget.

5 - They Are Human - They are just like you and me. They have a life outside of work (or let's hope they do), they probably like to have fun, they like to accomplish goals, etc. so don't forget they are just people. No one you're calling on is worthy of the stress or anxiety you put yourself through to make a contact or get a sale.

Get started with article marketing

I have had two contacts this week tell me they would like to do more speaking engagements this year. Then they say, "how do I do that?" One way I think is a sure way to generate buzz around yourself, get your name out on the Internet and begin to build your subscriber list is article marketing.

Article marketing is a great medium of advertising yourself, your business and/or your services for many reasons. Let's look at three for today.

1 - Content, content, content - OK, if you've been reading my blog you hopefully already understand and have embraced the fact that I'm going to push content on just about all of your marketing steps. If you're working your marketing dollars online, you have to have good content. You can re-purpose your articles for your newsletters, your website or blog, in any workbooks or articles you sell, as well as use it for its main purpose of getting noticed. The content in your articles should be meaningful and relative to the audience you're trying to reach. All good things come back to good content.

2 - Once you have successfully posted your articles on other websites, ezines, social network sites and other web-based locations, and if your content is good, people will want to know more. They'll find you. This generates traffic to your website, your services and hopefully converts in to business which generates dollars in your pocket.

3 - When people like what you have to say and join your list to know more, you are building your subscriber database. Now you have your audience in a position to market to them as THE person they need for their next event. You have proved, through your content, you know your topic. You have proved, through your content, that you're credible. You have proved, through your content, that you can serve as a keynote speaker or a breakout speaker on specific topics. You have proved, through your content, that you're worth every penny you request for your speaking engagements.

Do you see a pattern here? So get started on your content and begin your article marketing. This small activity will do wonders for building your business in a manner that brings you closer to your goal of getting paid to speak ten times in 2008.

Chunk down your marketing goals

I have an exercise for you to help you keep your marketing goals on track. We perform this task for clients by building a monthly calendar, then, we montior the tasks and help our client's achieve their goals. However, sometimes even looking at something monthly can be overwhelming.

A recent visit with a client of mine, CJ McClanahan from ReachMore Strategies, proved there may be an every easier way to accomplish your goals. He suggests you look at your goals in a weekly task list. He must have known that monthly thing can still be challenging (since he is a coach, he probably knows a thing or two on this).

Here it is. A simple but effective exercise you can implement today:

1 - pull out your goals

2 - pull out a weekly calendar (if you don't have one, make one - print out ONLY one week)

3 - grab a Sharpie - they are much more fun to write with

4 - look at your goals, and create three to five categories in which your goals may fit, i.e. sales, marketing, admin, personal, team building, etc.

5 - list out three or four (only! no more than this) lines for each category; you'll fill with a goal task

6 - take one task you wanted to accomplish off your goal list and place it in a category; repeat until you have filled as many task lines for one week

7 - create a way to monitor your tasks - place a "completed" box at the end of each task so you can check it off once done (ah, the feel good check off the list action)

And there you go. A weekly way to monitor, track and accomplish your goals.

Book Review - The 4-Hour Work Week

I recently completed The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. It was a very good business book to read for a variety of reasons. Without giving away his book, here are a few top ideas you may want to review yourself.

Lots of disucssion about VAs in this book. VAs are your link to freedom, per Ferriss. It seems VAs, or virtual assistants, has been a buzz word the last two years. I originally heard it from a coach a little over two years ago. At first I thought it was definitely something I wouldn't want to do, however, I'm coming around. After having my business for almost eight years (March 2008 is our birthday!), I finally hired some help (the non virtual kind) and she has been a blessing. Now I wish I had found her earlier. So, look in on this VA thing. You may surprise yourself with how this could be a good thing for you. You can find some to assist with person tasks or professional tasks, or, both. There are professional VA Associations and independent VAs. Your options are limitless.

Another thing Ferriss points out is the obsurd amount of meetings we all attend on a weekly basis. I have a couple clients who are meeting happy. Some are very important meetings and I leave feeling much has been accomplished. Some, on the very opposite spectrum, are such a waste I get back in my car and say, why didn't we just chat on the phone for three minutes and wrap this up via phone? So, next time you find yourself setting or accepting a meeting invite, make sure it's time well spent. He believes no meeting is time well spent, but.....

Ferriss is definitely OK vagabonding. I kept reading this book thinking of Chris McCandless, the kid John Krakauer wrote about in his book Into the Wild (and in the back Ferriss even references Walden, you know, the classic by Henry David Thoreau, which was also inspiration to McCandless). My point here is that it seems to me that Ferriss promotes smart vagabonding, i.e. making and having enough to support your lifestyle but no more than is necessary. True. He points out the 80/20 rule often and in one of his challenges he says to go through your house and remove that 80% of stuff you don't use, don't need or didn't even remember you had! (I'm definitely not letting my husband read this book or that will be the ONE paragraph he'll want to implement immediately!)

And lastly, he believes in creating your 'dreamline' of activities so you keep those things you WANT to do in front of you at all times. This is a good one. I'm also a believer that you have to know what you want and where you want to go in order to make that happen. No idea or map, keep floating along in life. Ferriss points out he mastered multiples languages, won dancing contests and all sorts of things that would take a lot of time to master by replacing his work time with his 'dreamline' activities.

Overall, I'll give it a thumbs up. It helped me notice a few habits of mine I could adjust, gave me a new idea or two, and made me also equally realize just how blessed I am with just how I'm living my life right now.

Four reasons you should outsource your marketing

Many small business owners come to me for marketing help. They come because they have been trying to do all business operations, services, finances, marketing... and they just cannot do it all anymore. Then they talk to me about outsourcing the marketing part of their tasks. "Why should I outsource" is one common question I hear. I'll give you four good reasons you should outsource your marketing....

1 - Increases your energy and focus in other areas - I leave this one pretty blank until I figure out just what the person sitting across the table from me would be doing if they were not worrying about their marketing. Maybe you would sell more, maybe you would spend time on those "HR issues" your attorney has been telling you to handle, maybe you would focus on your company's culture or maybe, just maybe, you would take a really long vacation and enjoy some worry-free time with your family. Fill in the blank:  If I knew my marketing was working for me without me managing it, I would use my new free time to _______ . Time and energy from one area leaves time and energy for another. Just pick what that other one is and make it happen.

2 - Faster turnaround times - I have seen companies try for YEARS to put a marketing plan in place. No kidding. Years. Just hire it out and work through the process and mark it off your list. Marketing probably isn't why you went in to business, so don't spend one more minute distracting yourself from your real core competency.

3 - Hit deadlines - We have one client who brings us all their "really important" projects because they know we'll make sure they hit the deadline. Most agencies will have processes and teams in place to make sure your needs are met within your time frame. If you have not experienced your outsourcing to function like this, find another firm.

4 - Reduce costs - In many ways, outsourcing reduces costs. You don't have to pay benefits, you don't have to "try" something, you don't have to work on a design for months and still not get it right and you don't have to pay for time not spent on the hired task. Outsourced tasks get done and you pay for the time or service for that task. That's it.

Did any of these reasons jump out at you? Try this exercise... monitor your activities for one week. Write down all of the tasks you do. What of those activities was marketing? Is your time and money better spent on outsourcing those tasks? If you had zero marketing activities on there, but don't outsource or have an in-house marketing team, are you not doing any marketing at all? Is that a problem?

Consider if outsourcing your marketing is right for you. Contact us at Silver Square and give us sample scenarios you think you could outsource. We'll tell you if you're on track to eliminating marketing from your to do list forever.

Today is "geek" day...

Ok, this is very much just for fun, but it's also just really cool. I must be more geek than I thought.

This watch doubles as a memory stick! How cool is that? 2GB even! If you're like me, you're always needing to take data from one place to another, and, I have been known to leave my flash drive in a location OTHER than the place I need it. (in fact, I'm embarassed to say, it's like that right now) If I had this watch, I would always have my data.... maybe. I guess there is still room for human error.