Margo DeGange's Blog

Online Marketing for a Higher-Thinking Brain!

Monday Message from Margo   

As long as your going to be thinking anyway, think big.  ~Donald Trump

You Can’t Just Transfer an Old Mindset to a New Medium

I saw a TV commercial the other day that was another piece of proof that there are still plenty of marketing decision-makers who just don’t “get” the “new” marketing (not so new anymore). The commercial—which showed one guy taking video of another guy so he could mischievously place it on YouTube—was another pathetic company attempt to prove to a new media audience that the company was “up on”, or savvy to, a new media world. In reality though, it showed that the company didn’t understand what’s really going on with marketing.

Just taking the same old “speak” about YOUR business and throwing in the fact that you have a Facebook account, a blog, or knowledge of YouTube doesn’t even begin to excite customers. It actually makes you look silly.

When I was in graduate school majoring in Adult Learning and Distance Ed, one of the things that was stressed (back when online education was just getting a real start) was that you cannot simply take classroom content and strategies and transfer them to the web. You had to know how to engage the learner with completely new tools and a totally new approach.

The same is absolutely true of the new media and new marketing. So many retailers and business pros think they can take a TV commercial and pop it up online (or at the very least, the elements of it). Not so. It just won’t work. The web is NOT TV. It’s a totally different animal.

Today’s It’s About Connecting, Relating, and Helping People to Decide

Today’s climate is not about getting a blog or a Facebook or Twitter account (and trust me, there are thousands more great social media sites we can become a part of) so you can transfer your old offline marketing model to the web to interrupt people and talk them into buying. Today is about relating, building relationships, educating, and delivering quality, helpful content and information WHEN people decide they need it. Showing people you know about or use social sites does not mean one bit that you are informing, engaging, interacting with, or building relationships with your prospects.

In this “new” era, we need to be available to assist people in THEIR decision-making processes. Some business-people actually love this idea, because it is totally in line with being a helpful professional. Some business pros have been living this way all along, and now the web provides a wonderful outlet for their exceptional business philosophy. Those who haven’t been this way have got to start doing so NOW.

Online, people are seeking information at the very least, and NO NO NO, telling them that you are having a sale is NOT the information they are coming to the web to see. EVERYONE is having a sale. However, not everyone is becoming a part of the prospects’ lives.

People are also seeking meaningful connection, and companies that get that will get more customers. It all begins when we seek to relate.

We don’t relate when we are slamming folks with “No Money Down”, “15% Off”, “Blowout Sale”, or even worse, “Respond by Midnight”. We relate by showing we understand some basic things, like:

What might be going on in the mind of the customer?
What need or desire might they be addressing?
What text might they be putting into a search on the Internet?
What are the many reasons they might be buying, and
How might they be seeking a better way of life?

We also relate when we communicate that we are O.K. with the fact that buying may very well be a bit of a process, and that we are not there to rush people, but to help, educate and inform them, not just about OUR types of products and services, but about the climate, opinions, uses, thoughts, and research surrounding them.

People Seek REAL People

Today, buyers want to do business with REAL people who they can relate to. Today’s buyers are super turned off to overly-polished companies and stiff, robotic, mainstream businesses that look like they somehow managed to survive Madison Avenue.

I could go on for hours. But instead, let me sum it all up by giving you a good number of bullet points for you to follow that will help you create a great interactive web-based marketing approach that your customers and prospects will appreciate and better relate to—one that makes you approachable, user-friendly, a relationship builder, and even a leader. It’s time for you to have a web presence that makes sense.

Basic Guidelines for Marketing Online

• The old rules of marketing wont work on the web. Forget about putting your TV type ad on the internet (on your website, blog, or social sites) expecting it to gain leads or sales. People on the web are looking for info, not ads.

• Instead of advertising, RELATE. Messages should be full of great content and useful information and not one way communication where you are TELLING people what YOU want them to know just so the will buy.

• Don’t try too hard to gain people’s attention. Once someone comes to your site, you already have their attention. The question becomes, what will you do with it? The answer, ENGAGE THEM with GREAT CONTENT

• Don’t think people trust your advertising that touts your fabulous products and your fabulous prices. Trust must be earned. People to day have tremendous opportunities and a heck of a lot of choices

• Don’t be afraid to share. Tell folks all about your people, your philosophy of connecting, your manufacturing process, where the wood is grown that you use in your furniture, how you are helping to save the earth, how you helped a customer out of a big dilemma, how your mom show’s up at the office every Friday with eggplant parmesan for everyone, how much you love what you do, and how your products are so much more than just products.

• You are not in the driver’s seat (sorry, Charlie)! The person searching the web is. Don’t be fooled into thinking that just because you put an “ad” on the web, people will stop what they are doing to take a look at it. Instead, you need to have what people want and need precisely when THEY think they need it.

• People search the web when they need info. Your site should provide helpful content, not ads telling about low, low, financing or 15% off.

• Today, it’s about connection and building relationships of trust. Show your visitors that you want a relationship with them FIRST and foremost (yes, doing businesses like a girl)!

• Don’t try to sell the minute your visitors see your site. They are not there to buy YET. They first want information.

• PLEASE, don’t try to copy the advertising your competitors are doing. First of all, you have your own voice, so speak it. THAT’S what sets you apart. People want to do business with YOU because of your unique personality or position, not with a robot. Secondly, your competitors are likely doing it all wrong, EVEN if they have a blog, a website or use Twitter or YouTube.

• People don’t wait for you to “advertise” to them. They go online as an experience, looking for what they want to discover, learn about, and POSSIBLY buy.

• Provide useful reports, white papers, short videos, and even simple but informative e-books on your site for free. Don’t try so hard to be cute, clever, entertaining. If your content is awesome, that’s enough.

• Get to know the key words and key phrases your potential buyers are using to search information on the web (not necessarily the keywords and key phrases that industry experts use). Then, create content that will lead these “researchers” to your site.

• Don’t try to target the masses. Seek unique niche markets that value who you are and what you can do for them. They will be impressed that you cared so much.

• Don’t make the focus of your communication about selling your products. Make the focus meaningful interactions with others. The products will then sell themselves. This means, don’t focus on how great YOU are, focus on being a great resource for your desired customers.

• And finally, as I always tell you, BE YOURSELF and have fun doing it!

Have a Wild Week of New Marketing with a New Marketing Brain,

Margo

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Comments August 2, 2010

My 8 Proven Business-Building Tips

Monday Message from Margo   

“The good Lord gave you a body that can stand most anything. It’s your mind you have to convince.” ~Vince Lombardi 
 
This week I will share with you My 8 Proven Business-Building Tips that you can apply to your business (store-front or home-based) to build it to success. Most have to do with your mindset first, which in turn will direct your actions towards precisely focused effort to get you where you desire to be.
 
These practical and very doable tips are research-based and have been proven over and over again. They lead to success for the business professional who will practice them.
 
These tips are easy to put into action. 
 
  
1. When you are not selling, MARKET your business
 
If you do not have an appointment on any given day, market yourself during the time you would normally be on an appointment. Think about a person who is seeking full time employment. To be successful in finding a job quickly (which would in turn generate money quickly), a person seeking a job should make their full time job the task of getting a job. Similarly, if you do not have a client or a lead, make your full time (or part time) job the task of marketing to get leads and appointments. Before long you will have a steady flow of clients.
 
Create Awareness (market) by doing events related to your industry or niche, writing articles, or getting your materials out there in your community. A few examples from my previous decorating business include distributing flyers, doing decorating seminars for the public, partnering with a builder and putting over a dozen sample treatments in his showroom, and writing a decorating advice column every Sunday in the Home Section of an area newspaper in conjunction with a local real estate company, to name just a few. I got many exceptional leads and sales as a result of doing these tasks, and it did not take long at all.
 
2. DON’T pre-judge who you think will buy from you: Target your marketing but be good to EVERYONE
 
Market to your target groups, and then serve every one who comes to you from these activities. NEVER be hasty to judge a book by its cover (especially when that book approaches YOU)!
 
Get out there in your local community and network. At events, strike up conversations and be polite and kind to everyone that you meet. Even if someone is seemingly not your potential client, remember that people have bosses and acquaintances and relatives. People tell people, and people who cannot afford your services right now tell people who can. Someone who cannot afford your products now may be in a position to purchase them later, and they will remember how you interacted with them when they couldn’t buy.
 
One time, when I had a storefront design studio, a woman came in dressed in ragged jeans and a t-shirt, and from her appearance I absolutely assumed she was someone who could not afford my products and services. She just did not look the part AT ALL. I thought she was someone who was waiting for the bus or had missed it, and was just coming into my shop to cool off from the hot Texas summer heat. However, I treated her the same way I did any other prospect (or any person): I was kind, courteous, and gave her my undivided time and attention. Little did I know she lived in one of the biggest homes in the most “well-to-do” subdivision in our area. I ended up doing custom cornices for her very large family room and it was a wonderful job with a very nice profit.
 
3. “Losing” a sale is still a positive thing
 
When you lose a sale, you are a step closer to your closing rate goal. Remember that in order to have an optimal closing rate (60-80% for most industries), you will have to lose some sales. Even a lead that did not become a sale can lead to a referral sale if you remain professional and courteous. Think about it in a positive light. Hearing one “no” means you are much closer to the “YES”!
 
4. Our futures and fortunes are in the follow through!
 
Follow-up on ALL of your prospects, even the ones you KNOW (or rather, think you know) will not buy. Through your follow-up they will see that you care, and through your sincere communication, you may get the real reason for the lost sale. This gives you another opportunity to actually make the sale by helping the prospect to overcome any fear, misconception, or obstacle that was standing in the way for them.
 
Suppose you did not follow-up with a prospect because you just assumed they were not going to buy, so “why bother”. Then, that prospect suddenly realized that they could make the extra room in their budget after all. There is a very great chance that the prospect WILL NOT CALL YOU after the initial sales presentation even if they figured out a way to broaden their budget. Instead, they may just go forward until another buying opportunity presents itself, and someone else will get that sale. On the other hand, if you simply follow-up—perhaps a week later and then maybe again in a month or two— they may interact with you and give you their business. Our fortunes are certainly in the follow through.
 
5. Invest in your business
 
Make room in your business budget to invest in your business so it can grow. Allow resources for the development of new products and services, for education for yourself and your associates, for interesting projects, and for advertising and marketing. Perhaps you could invest in a joint venture with another business owner, or spend a little cash to delegate tasks. You could put resources towards things like search engine optimization for your website, a regular “advice” column in a local community magazine, some yard signs and door hangers, or .towards a company vehicle.
 
Having my car fully wrapped was a good investment for me when I ran my decorating business. I got a lot of attention with my bright and attractive colors, and many people stopped me in parking lots and garages for my business card even though my phone number was clearly visible on my car wrap. I think people just wanted to say hello and strike up a conversation because the wrap was so extensive, so colorful, and so interesting. It was always a lot of fun, and it definitely led to business and great profits, meaning it was worth the investment.
 
6. Know your competition, but do not obsess over them
 
Understand basically how your main competitors function, and have an idea of their products, services, and prices. Then, find what you do that they do not, and brag about it. Know your competition, but never be obsessed with them or give them even one minute more thought than is necessary to serve your clients. FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS on what you do well and who YOU are, and shout it out in your wonderful, unique voice! Do not get sidetracked and caught up in the kind of negative energy that comes from fixating on another person or business. Focus on your customers instead, and you will enjoy amazing freedom and greater success.
 
7. Give your business time to grow
 
Do not be pulled off sides by get-rich-quick schemes, and do not expect instant sales and referrals just because you are in business. You must nurture and grow your business, each day doing something positive and meaningful towards your short-term and long-term business goals (which means you must have them and know what they are). This type of effort will definitely pay off, perhaps a little at first, but be patient and faithful in the little and you will see exponential and expedited growth once it all starts to take effect.
 
8. Have fun and be the kind of person people LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to be around
 
When you leave the presence of others, they should feel better for having spent time with you. Who wouldn’t want to do business now and in the future with a fun, positive, fair, and caring individual? You cannot separate “real life” from “business”. We are who we are, and know assuredly that your business success will reflect the kind of person that you choose to be. It IS a choice!

Have a Wildly Successful Week,

Margo

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Comments May 31, 2010

Business HELLationships: The smoking, flaming, toxic interactions we can all live without

Monday Message from Margo   2-22-2010 

Here are two easy ways to tick people off:

1. “If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.”

2. “Staple pages in the middle of the page.”

 ~Author unknown to me, could be Joe Crawford!

Today, business is ALL about relationships, and here’s a secret—it always has been. Everyday, we are either connecting meaningfully with others and building solid communities, or we are burning our bridges behind us.

In the past, savvy business people valued and romanced their customers, while business folks who wanted to blow off relationship-building and still create sales could get away with it simply by doing radio, tv, and print advertising. Make the ad or commercial good enough, and you will likely make a sale. Not so anymore.

Some say business is really tough now, because of constant change and social media, and mostly because of the economy, but what propels the economy is our behavior. Economics is NOT just the study of commerce and society, it is the study of human interaction around commerce. It’s not the economy that’s going up in flames, it’s our relationships (business—and family, too). Good relationships drive business. If the relationships go to H-E-double-hockey-sticks in a red-hot handbag, so do our profits.

Our lives are supposed to be easier these days with the explosion of technology, but instead, we hustle about in the blazing heat of many moments, trying to get too much done in too little time, exhausted from stress, and even exploding on occasion with Tweet-rage while we Twitter and text at our desks, on the toilet, at the supper table, and half-way off the road in our cars. We think we are relating to others because we are Tweeting or typing or posting. In reality though, we are not even relating to ourselves and to our passion, or to our true personal mission that makes sense to us at our core.

Utterly consumed by what “the experts” say we should be doing, and by what other business owners say are acceptable practices, we let the REAL, quality relationships fizzle, not sizzle. We dish out another hot plate of self-serving information, unprofessional communication, or cheesy, sleezy devises to get a sale, as we unknowingly allow prospects, clients, colleagues, and even family members to run like H E _ _ or  fall by the wayside (preachy, I know—I just LOVE this stuff).

The constant heat and pressure to perform-before-thinking, and the frantic non-stop pace, has us force-feeding clients with unsolicited emails and low quality content  as we bite the heads off of our employees and spew flames at our sales reps. Somewhere along the way we just stopped breathing. When was the last time you took a normal, deep breath? How long has it been since you took a day off to just take stock of where you are, where you want to go, and how you want to get there? Getting there is 90% of the fun (and it is the essence of life—the journey, never the destination). Many of us have stopped relating. Instead, we are filling up with the toxic smoke of business (and personal) HELLationships.

We need to stop, identify what is important instead of just doing “stuff” (online or off), and we need to take a good, hard look at what we really want to build. Then, we can take back the torch instead of setting everyone’s universe ablaze with our mess and confusion.

I often stress WHAT we should do (like I just did a second ago). This time though, I think I’ll have us all take a look at what we often do with our communication that puts our relationships in the fiery pit, leaving us frazzled, almost penniless, and with dwindling customers and friends.

The Newsletters from HELL (instead of Heavenly Heralding)

These are newsletters that are sent but not with permission of the recipient, which is so hard to believe in this permission-based new media society. They are often industry specific. A vendor joins a trade association and for a few measly bucks, the trade association gives the vendor the right to blast the members. Problem is it’s unethical and often illegal. Neither the trade associations nor the vendors have permission to send the mail, yet it happens a mazillion times every day.

Oh, and don’t think that because someone didn’t remove themselves from your mailing list, they APPRECIATE the mail you send them. I personally get a lot of unsolicited emails and campaigns that are humorously annoying 80 percent of the time, but I stay on the lists just to know what is happening in that portion of the industry, because I am a trainer and industry leader. I also stay because I get material for my writing (what NOT to do), and I stay because I know that I can simply delete the particular emails I don’t want, and  as soon as that tool (and I mean that in the most unflattering way) becomes utterly useless, I can unsubscribe myself. I am a little different from a lot of folks though, and most reasonable people (I am not necessarily reasonable) would just hit the REMOVE ME FOREVER and DON’T DARE SEND ME ANOTHER UNSOLICITED EMAIL link.

Other hellish-type newsletters are those that come weekly with no relationship-building content. Nothing is FREE. Every bit of “news” is news of a “special”, a “coupon”, or a “one time only” offer (until next time).  If you want to be amazingly loved while staying clear of looking sort of like the Devil, NEVER place a blatant add or a “BUY NOW” button in your regular email (a subtle, no pressure link to a product that opens in a separate page may be acceptable). If you want to email coupons and specials, reserve these for a secondary campaign that goes out monthly or twice a month so that the recipient knows what they are, and leave your main newsletter as a pure gift, FREE of charge and FULL of useful, inspiring, and helpful information.  

Fiery Fingers (in Lieu of the Slow and Steady Hand)

Slow down those hot little hands! I received a business email recently where the sender used shortcut lingo to communicate with me. It looked sloppy and unprofessional, and frankly, it seemed amateurish and immature. It may be acceptable for your teenager to email, IM (instant message), or text a friend using poor grammar and letters instead of words (I  dnt  kno  y  u  r  not getting this) but it is shameful for a serious business owner to do so, no matter how many peeps are doing it. Quit the TEXT SPEAK.

Then there’s the quick and easy text to customers. I don’t think it is a good idea to text a customer, but you may have a good reason for doing it (but again, PLEASE, refrain from the ridiculous TEXT SPEAK). Why not pick up the phone for a few seconds and let them hear your beautiful voice? You can also email them (and DON’T assume the email went through if you don’t hear back).

Oh, and business owners, you can save the earth from hellfire by NOT hiring  college graduates who cannot clearly and legitimately communicate to coworkers, leaders, and customers. The future of our economy depends on it. For an example of a real-life business complaint sent to Dell computers by a ridiculously ignorant customer (perhaps a college grad), click here, but wait until you read this entire message!

Igniting Rudeness (While Avoiding Good Manners)

Are you texting or Tweeting at inappropriate times, maybe while visiting with a client or sales person? Sort of rude, don’t you think? Delivery drivers and cab drivers are texting while driving. Trust me, I am NOT getting in THAT cab. Business associates tweet or text on the way home from the airport with their colleagues right beside them. We seek to strengthen a cyber-relationship when a REAL one is right in front of us.

Perhaps you do it while in a meeting or while listening to a keynote. There was a day when we would never have talked during a presentation because it was considered rude, yet somehow we have made it o.k. since no one can hear us “talking” under the table. Relationships are being built up or torn down by everything that we do or fail to do, and other people DO notice. We have allowed good manners and our high standards to fall like a drunk woman on crutches. Technology is fabulous, and can help us build wonderful relationships and strong businesses, yet we often use technology to intrude in our lives, rather than to enhance them.

Flame Throwers (in Place of Pool-Side Spritzers)

These folks burn you with their flaming one-liners and thoughtless, piercing quick words. Bosses, co-workers, and even customers can be flame throwers (by the way, those of use who are business owners should be especially nice when we are customers, knowing the challenges business professionals face). Flame throwers say such things as, “What the h e _ _’s wrong with you?”, or “If you had half-a brain you would…”, or “I will never shop here again”.

The Hot Head (Rather than the Warm and Fuzzy)

Hot heads speak before they think. They are like flame throwers, but their fury can go on and on. All anyone wants to do is get away from them. Hot heads often take things out on their families and assistants. Hot heads can brew for days, coming to work with a groan or a grimace instead of a warm hello. Hot heads cause business to plummet because no one in the office remains motivated, and even the nicest associates are distracted by bad feelings they often hold in. The customers as well as the profits suffer.

Blowing Smoke (Replaces a Breath of Fresh Air)

Folks who blow smoke come awfully close to deceiving others to gain a profit. They play tricks while acting slick.

If every bit of business communication should be geared toward building trust, it makes no sense then, to lead someone to a baited hook, only to have to communicate a brand new message—about how they “misunderstood” your offer—once they bite.

A popular acne solution company has a commercial on XM Radio that seems to me to be vague and almost misleading. The say that “against the better judgment of their management team” (yeah, right), a million people can try the product for no risk, plus they’ll get free medicine. The wording they chose for the commercial makes you think you are trying everything with no money outlay. Once you call in for the FREE offer, you get the real story.

Public service workers are not exempt from blowing smoke. Cops do it too (maybe that’s why we call them “Smokey”). There are plenty of didn’t mean to speed speeders who complain that a cop “padded” the ticket a bit, putting them in another price category. There are questionable business execs just like there are questionable cops. The sad part is, people quit trusting.

Have you ever seen the seemingly never-ending landing pages or sales pages of some of the online information products out there? They don’t reveal the price for two and a half hours. Why? Because you are stupid, and if you know the price right off, you won’t buy the product. I say, just tell me the price and don’t waste my time. I don’t need your psycho-babble customer psychology tactics that you learned from your friend who sells info products (who learned it from his friend, who learned it from a guy that ended up never selling anything). Don’t play tricks. Don’t make an offer that YOU wouldn’t believe or buy. Don’t blow smoke.

Burning (Instead of Earning)

Some business owners place articles (or audios, videos, etc) out in the online universe to drive people back to their sites. Unfortunately, many of these articles require the user to give information such as a name and email address before the article can be read (or before the audio can be heard or the video seen). I say (and droves of “experts” will disagree with me), either be a help to me or don’t, but quit trying to force me to give you my email address, and don’t use the ridiculous excuse, “If they want the info bad enough, they will exchange their info for it”, or my favorite, “I am qualifying my leads”. No, you are pissing people off.

Give and let give. Be a giver and the universe (I think that’s really God) will help you in the future. Plus, your prospects will likely respect you in the morning.

So There

So there it is (not all of it of course), but enough of a fire extinguisher to keep you from the flames of business HELLationships. Think about where you are and where you want to go, and how you will get there. Use your time, technology, and your business model to build exceptional relationships that will support your business, your staff, and your customers for many years to come.

 Margo   

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Comments February 22, 2010

Thoughts on a Simple Business Plan and FREE Publicity!

 Business Bites from Margo      12-31-09

One of my students emailed me this morning about a business plan. One of the assignments from our 12-week online decorating program is to create a simple business plan (we guide you through it). So many people skip this exercise when going into business.  I think a creating even a simple business plan really helps you to think straight and helps you get very clear about what you want and where you want to go.

My student was concerned than her business plan was not perfect-that she may have “messed it up”. This is what I told her:

Just the very act of doing the plan, even if it is not perfect, will put you light years ahead.

Having your own business is so much different from working for someone else. The effort of getting your own leads is the difference. It is easier to sell (for many people) than to get leads.

You are doing fine. The main thing is to always do marketing–even when times are slow and you have few customers (especially then) because that is when most people quit. When the economy turns a bit, you will be ready, and when more customers start spending again, they will turn to you because you kept in touch and kept your name out there.

You should also be looking for free publicity, which is a big blessing when you are short on funds for advertising. Free publicity is like a third party endorsing you–more believable to customers–since it is someone else heralding your services and not you.

You can get free publicity by creating reports, white papers, and FYI articles in your field that educate and inform people, and then letting media outlets know about them. You should also do a simple press release every time you go to a show or training session. The public is always interested in such things.

Another idea is to do a few free informational seminars. One example , if you are a decorator, would be to do one on color in the home, and ask a local paint company to sponsor it (i.e. provide the place to have it). The media would be interested in that. Create a catchy headline.

Focus on marketing always, and look for ways to get free publicity when times are slow. The main thing is to stay in the heart and mind of potential customers and their friends.

Have a Blessed New Year,

Margo

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Comments December 31, 2009

Is Marketing DEAD?

 Monday Message from Margo      8-24-09

 “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us.  We are dependent on him.  He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it.   He is not an outsider in our business.  He is part of it.  We are not doing him a favor by serving him.  He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.”     ~Mahatma Gandhi  
                                                                     

At a recent conference for media techies and internet design moguls, I heard a “supposed” business expert and opinion leader (someone I know personally) say with great authority, “MARKETING IS DEAD!

To hear him say that makes me wonder if he really knows what marketing (new marketing or old) is–which is to create awareness (or to tell a story in order to create awareness). In my more than 30 years of working in business settings, I realize that droves of people never really understood marketing, even before the new media and the high-powered acceptance of the Internet came along. Scores of business owners and marketing experts alike thought marketing was tv, radio, newspaper, and phone book advertising, or showing up once a month to a networking lunch, or simply doing a few business-related activities that got checked-off from a list.

Many of today’s so-called marketing “gurus”, who are now forced to factor the internet into their consulting practices, will give you the new list: 

• Create a website
• Get setup for online sales
• Use search engine optimization (SEO– and they probably don’t even understand SEO themselves)
• Do some online advertising (just switch from t.v and radio ads to online “stuff”)
• Oh, make sure you’re doing your share of email marketing, too!

Hey, I am not knocking these things, and they have their place of importance, but many marketers–even the ones who embrace The New Marketing items on the new types of lists– are still missing the boat big time–missing the big picture–just like they did in the past, only now, even the big picture is different!

They didn’t understand marketing then, so why should we expect them to understand The New Marketing now? The scary part is, many of the people saying things like “marketing is dead” are the very people “coaching” you on how to have a successful business. Entrepreneurs beware!

Listen, I don’t care if marketing as we once knew it turns into a big orange blob and falls off a corner of the earth, marketing in its truest sense will never be dead.

Marketing is still the art of building awareness, and it still involves everything you are and everything you do. HOWEVER, the RULES definitely have changed—NO–the GAME has changed as well as the rules!

What I do agree with in terms of what is dead is any business that tries to apply New Media tactics and strategies to an old business model, especially one that didn’t ever work in the past (trying to get Facebook and their blogs to work to make their old, stale business models fly). Like I say lately whenever I give a talk on New Marketing (quoting from an old but fitting saying and tweaking it to fit the day we are in),

 That new dog is your new, revised business model. In today’s world, you must redesign your business so that the new marketing strategies will work to catapult you into success. It is not enough to apply all the new toys and gadgets of the online world (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, interactive websites) to the old way of doing business and the old way of thinking. You must restructure the very foundation of your business so it works in today’s climate and culture. The good news is that you can!

The first step is understanding your customers and how technology has them thinking differently nowadays. You must know that they are connected to friends and colleagues like never before, and that they are savvy and smart and cutting edge. NEVER think your customers can be duped!

Spend your time creating friends and “community spokespersons” that are thrilled with what you offer them and excited to tell others through face-to-face opportunities, and more importantly, through new “virtual word of mouth outlets”. You do this by being amazing and remarkable–by going the extra mile and caring FOR REAL, by creating meaningful relationships, by giving things that were not asked for, and by standing behind everything you say, do, and sell. You also do this be being imaginative and finding ways to tickle your customers pink (which will ultimately tickle your wallet green), and you do all of this because it is the right thing to do. The money follows.

I have so much to say about The New Marketing, but start with the basics. Make your business amazing by being the company people remark to each other about. Then as you establish the communication channels and micro-communities– both online and off– where your clients and prospects will talk and interact with each other (and I can help you do this), you give them something to shout about, and good news they are eager to share on their virtual communication channels. That is the beginning of growing a business. Start there, and I will have much more for you in the weeks and months to come.

Have a wildly successful week, and customer communications worth remarking about,

Margo

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Comments August 24, 2009