Marketing Muse from Silver Square

Pull your print ads...

I'm going to catch a lot of grief over my opinion, but it's time someone put it out there.... if you're examining your 2008 marketing budget and looking through your ROI, my guess is you're not really sure what, if anything, your print ads did for you. You run print ads because you think you're suppose to, you're a victim of a stellar sales job or you're afriad your "awareness" will fall off the charts.

None of these three reasons are valid.

Print ads have a time and place and audience (here's my disclaimer) and yes, all businesses and cases are subject to the results you need to see to fulfill your 2009 business goals, but I'm fairly sure I could sit down with you and make a case for how you could spend your budget, hit your business goals and maintain a consistent marketing approach without print ads. Here are a few things to consider:

1. You can still speak to your 'print ad' audience through your magainze, newspaper, etc. through banner ads, special sponsorships, tradeshows or get really creative and make up a promotion

2. Use your Web 2.0 tools to devote time and resources at staying in front of your audience; it's much easier to trial and error here than testing print ads until you get the right offer nailed down

3. Awareness isn't growing your business. Sales grows business. This economy isn't the time to build awareness. It's the time to spend smart and make sure every dollar is producing a business result

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BookSwim, the Netflixs of book world

My husband recently subscribed us to Netflix. He adores a good movie. I adore a good book.

I was thinking there had to be something for us book people and there is - hit up BookSwim. Free shipping to and from, unlimted rentals and $10 a month. It even has textbooks on there so you're sure to find professional and leisure books alike.

My friend Nicole Bickett over at Organize to Optimize introduced me to Audible.com which is books on CD. Same philosophy, same great, low, monthly fee... first three months even lower fee.

I haven't decided which route I'll take just yet, but know one is in store for me.  

Buying habits as it relates to selling

I don't think anyone would argue with me when it comes to the fact that we are all often much more motivated to take action to keep out of pain than we are to take action to gain something in return. I have had this discussion with Aaron Prickel at Lushin and Associates and asked him to write a little bit about how this buy/sell relationship works. Marketing should always fit your specific audience and what you know about them and how they buy; then your marketing supports the sell.

Let me know if you would like to see more selling articles via this blog and maybe I can persuade Aaron to be a regular.

Do shopping habits impact selling habits?
By: Aaron Prickel, Lushin and Associates

With the buzz surrounding our economy these days, there have been a variety of interesting conversations. Just last week a good friend of mine informed me how he is “hunkering down” and will be more responsible with his money especially when it came time to shopping for specific items. He asked if I would be doing the same, “NOT A CHANCE!” I replied.

 

Why? Because how you buy is a direct reflection on how you sell. For those of us who are in a professional sales role, our job is to find prospects that we can help and help them discover why they need us.  f we spend a long time deciding whether or not we should buy something, visit multiple stores to make sure we get the best price or do additional research to ensure we are making the best decision…watch out!  You must be careful because prospects will provide the same responses when you are selling to them and you will justify it within your own head and agree with them. This is where sales cycles are extended, you lose business to a competitor because they “had a better price” or the prospect will disappear and you will never hear from them again. People who do not have a Supportive Buy Cycle accept objections, stalls, excuses and comparison shop stories from their prospects because they behave the same way when making purchases of their own.

 

There are several hidden weaknesses that affect those who sell, this is just one of them, however it is the most powerful. Statistics show when this is corrected salespeople can be up to 50% more effective. To find out how more effective you may be evaluate your own buying process. It will be a good indicator on why projects may take longer to close than necessary.

 

           

 

What is that one thing?

You have heard me say before that reading The Breakthrough Company was one of my best reads in 2008. Now I'm going to share one of the quotes from the book that, if done, could have a big impact on your business.

"Take 10 minutes right now and ask yourself, 'What one thing should I do tomorrow that will have the biggest positive impact on my business?' And then don't stop until it's done." 
        - Keith McFarland, author

Let me know your one thing and how you accomplished it and we'll share it on a future blog.

Pat, pat, pat

Everyone once in awhile you do a job very well done and you're proud of your accomplishments. While this happens often for us (shy, I know) it's not as often that we promote our work (bad, bad, bad).

Introducing the new Pete the Planner website, videos and GreenCandy.com. These sites deliver useful and relevant information for the generation Y audience and the parents who dearly love them. The new Pete the Planner site was built to move away from the stylish yet hard to maintain image-based website to a new, sleek and streamlined site that the client can udpate on his own. Adding his podcasts, radio shows, news articles and keeping his blog up to date all takes him just a few minutes each.

GreenCandy is a completely new brainchild we helped Pete form and then turned it in to reality. The site delivers big impact for subscribers to learn all they need to know to get their financial house in order. Once you're in the site, you get a funny video that describes each pod (what we call the topics, which include things like debt, investing, risk management, etc.) and loads of super cool and useful worksheets that help generation Y tackle their financial goals.

Check it out and consider giving GreenCandy as a gift to your loved one for the holiday - it's a fun, interactive site that teaches you about money like you've never seen before.

When you're reading to create your own subscription-based site, videos and web-based marketing plans, drop us a line.

The branded pen that beats them all

Imagine you're at an upcoming tradeshow and you have a guy in your booth asking about your product or service. He asks more specifically "how does your product work?" and you couldn't be happier to demonstrate. You grab one of your pens - yes, a pen - and you pull out a mini banner that has each step of your product's process. Sweet! What is even better, the pens are not all that crazy expensive, so you can gobble them up just like you would a traditionally branded pen, but this time, it comes with a display screen. This really is the branded pen that beats them all (disclaimer - I have no idea how it actually writes, which would be a deal breaker for me, but it if fits your needs and budget, give it a try).

 

Here is one place you can find the pen.

Do you need to get a little satisfaction?

I love it when things begin from a mistake. The founders of Get Satisfaction started the company all from watching online users post and answer their own questions from a software release that was launched with a bug. Bingo - a new company was born.

Get Satisfaction helps companies collect, monitor and respond to audience feedback. As I have discussed before, consumer-driven content is where things are going. You should really take the time now to position your company to create means to not only directly interact with your audience but allow them the platform to speak and share collaboratively as well. I almost always take advice from a forum or a blog vs what the company is saying - it's more relative and definitely easier to find and use.

Check out the tool and see if it's right for you. If it's not, continue exploring how you can interact with your audience and use their feedback to help drive your site's content. Get on board and get a little satisfaction started now.

It's not too late to start your holiday email schedule

If it's important for you to sell a lot of product through your website for the holidays, I hope you have a great e-mail schedule planned to support your effort. If not, it's not too late, but you need to get started now.

Morley Brands, LLC hired Silver Square to get them through the holiday season with an e-mail schedule starting with Sweetest Day in October. We gave their e-mails a design format to be consistent throughout the season and have scheduled out products and offers now through the end of the year. Let us help you make your fourth quarter push with e-mail.

Out of the sponsorship box

When it comes to getting your message out to your audience, you have to look at all of your options and you need to look with your budget in mind. I like high impact and high touch options, just like we all do, however, those are often hard to find. When you look at sponsorships, though, you may be able to find all that you're looking for and possibly even more.

There are your traditional sponsorships that are within your industry - these are no brainers if the audience and budget work. Let's look outside specific industries and see what we find.

Are you trying to reach kids? Look at sponsoring easter egg hunts - in your own backyard or in someone elses! I'm betting easter egg hunts can be found all across the nation, so find one that fits your budget and audience scope and go. Looking to be in a top US city - go there via easter egg sponsorship.

During the summer months, there is always a community party or BBQ that brings thousands of people to some of the more major citys. The Kansas City BBQ contest brings more than 60,000 people to the event - maybe that audience is right for you.

Get creative with your marketing sponsorships and don't just think about how you can spend your budget within your industry. You may find that your best "shows" are the ones that have nothing to do with your typical way of reaching your prospect.

Need data? Use your social networks.

This is one of the most budget-friendly, green marekting tip I've come up with to date - so write this one down!

The next time you need data for a project, a question about a new idea, or a general marketing challenge or tip, look to your social network for advice. Posting a question or even a link to a full survey can be completely free (use an online tool like Survey Monkey) and you'll get feedback from marketing professionals thoughout the globe. Typically, your more professional social networking sites are better for this type of data collecting, however, it goes back to your audience and your needs.

As you plan out your next campaign or product launch, don't forget about the power of the Internet and use your social networks. Silver Square can be your guide and resource for implementing these practices in to your marketing strategy. Let us help you launch your next online wonder!