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

A Large Order of Fried Customer Service at the BBQ House:

Monday Message from Margo   1-18-2010 

“When the customer comes first, the customer will last” ~ Robert Half

Over the weekend, my honey, my Dad, my daughter, and I went to an early dinner at a local BBQ house since we told ourselves that we were all craving steak. I think I started the rumor. I really wanted a steak.

Shortly after we entered the not-yet crowded restaurant, we stood in line (with no other customers in sight), and bent our necks way back, Texas BBQ style, positioning our heads so we could look up towards the big menu on the wall near the ceiling, and there we all stood!

There we all stood—looking, thinking, figuring, trying not only to decide what to order, but to make sense of a menu that was totally lacking in information and completely confusing if you were not a “regular”. It was obvious that the four of us were lost in BBQ space.

Straight across from us and to the left, stood at least five brawny apron-clad male meat-slicers, with fidgeting knives in hand and no one yet to wait on. Not one member of the he-man group even attempted to acknowledge or engage us, even though they could clearly see by the looks on our faces, by our quiet and embarrassed whisperings back and forth to one another, and by our lack of movement towards the ordering station that we were stuck, puzzled, and frustrated about how and what to order.

The store manager, also oblivious to good customer service (and the behavioral leader of the man-clan), stood among them preparing for the soon to come evening rush. To the right of them all, and straight across from us, were two cashiers. The one closest to us was standing dope-faced and under-enthused at her register, watching us like we were lunatics, foreigners, or possibly even vegetarians. Another cashier— likely the owner because of her over-exaggerated expression of self-importance— had just come up to the second register while on the phone, pretending to be super busy, getting something from the cash drawer, and purposely ignoring us (because if she acknowledged that she saw us, she’d have to wait on us).

Now, the four of us steak-cravers stood there for at least eight minutes, huddling and sighing, and trying not to look too much like idiots who couldn’t order a simple BBQ plate or steak. The real idiots, however, were the staff members, and particularly the main cashier (I always blame the management), who allowed us to remain confused and unattended for such a long period of time (an eternity in  the land of customers) without ever offering us assistance, asking if we had any questions, or helping us understand their “void-of-pertinent information” menu.

We stepped up to the register. We began asking questions to the numb, bland, expressionless and barely voiceless cashier who had been motionlessly watching us since we walked into the place. I think her name was Bambi, or Clueless, or something.

Her answers to our “what’s on the seniors BBQ plate”, “what’s the difference between a side and a side-order”, “what comes with the FREE buffet and what does not”, and “what comes with the 8 oz. steak dinner” confused us even more, and when we (mainly me) tried to clarify, she made things a lot worse, and a lot more confusing, and if that weren’t bad enough, she could utterly care less.

I finally ordered myself a simple burger instead of a steak because I was exhausted from being confused. She did manage to ask me if I wanted mayo or mustard, but she added a wide-eyed sarcastic expression as she asked (I guess she was getting annoyed at us being annoyed). “MAYO, not mustard” I said clearly, slinging my own version of her “Pissy Face” right back at her. She blatantly and confidently pressed a spot on her cash register and from there I walked off in utter frustration, leaving my husband, daughter, and dad to finish the rest of the ordering. At that point, it was every man for himself.

I’m a nice lady, but as I’ve said before, I am incapable of B_ _ _ S _ _ _! Just after I left the register, I politely but firmly spoke over the meat-slicing counter to the manager, “you’d probably have a nice restaurant here if your customer service was good”. Then I walked to my table without waiting for his response. I find when you confront people nicely but clearly, with a definitive statement, they respond, and they usually respond well. (A fantasy of mine is to some day be one of those secret shoppers who spies on businesses and then goes around informing management of all the wonderful things they can do in regard to customer care to turn their businesses around (you should watch Tabatha Coffey on the Bravo channel sometime)).

Not to be outdone by a measly former-New Yorker, the manager came to my table within two short minutes. He asked me my beef (I just had to say that) and I told him. He assured me this NEVER happens. He apologized and went on his way.

We got our meal and the food looked delicious. No complaints there at all, until I bit into my burger to discover that the passive-aggressive cashier had laid a double dose of mustard on me. I walked straight up to the manager for a fix (I was nice about it, I wasn’t going to give that woman the satisfaction of showing I was ticked). I even offered to let them just replace the bun so I could eat dinner with my family. I got my “new” burger, with mayo, in about 6 minutes. From that point on the meal was great and my husband gave me a big bite of his steak (it costs me half a cheeseburger).

Before we were half-way through with the meal, the manager visited us again with an offer for a FREE after-dinner fruit cobbler and ice-cream for each of us. I felt a bit on the spot—I was not looking for free anything, just decent service and help with the confusing menu. I started to say “no, that is not necessary”, but I knew the manager was trying to recover, and I KNEW my honey wanted that cobbler, so I obliged him. My skinny, type II diabetic father was also thrilled.

On our way out we kindly thanked the manager and said our warm good-byes. Maybe this was an “off” night for them all. Maybe the workers were treated by the management and by the owner the same way WE were treated by the workers and by the owner (the lady on the phone). Perhaps that’s why the workers had no enthusiasm or sense of customer connection.

This was an experience for sure, and easy material for today’s message, but really it’s a sad commentary relating to many of America’s small businesses. The country lacks customer service, business common sense, and sometimes basic brains.

The disturbing part about this scenario was that the food was really good, the restaurant was clean, the décor was fitting (if you like the county-rustic theme common to a BBQ place), and the prices were fair, but that was NOT enough. People want you and your establishment to be EXCEPTIONAL, to be AMAZING, particularly in the department of customer service. No one wants to pay for a bad experience. They may purchase it the first time through ignorance, but you can bet your 10-gallon hat they won’t come back.

The cheapest steak that night at our local BBQ place ran around 15 bucks, the most expensive around 30. The cheeseburgers were around 8. I went out to dinner looking for a steak, but in frustration and desperation, I ordered a cheeseburger instead. That restaurant lost at least 20 dollars on my sale alone, and my daughter opted for a salad, resulting in another loss in sales for BBQ HEAVEN (the name has been changed to protect the possibility of an innocent party). How many times a day, a weekend, a month does this happen at this establishment? Could their sales increase by 20, 30, 40 percent or more if they simply cared about each and every customer that walked through their doors?

Your Lesson and Mine

What about you. I know you may not sell BBQ, but how are you doing in the furniture department, the color consultation field, or in the wellness industry?  It doesn’t matter if you are selling food, fabrics, furniture, or fitness. Your customers must be KING.

Don’t be an example of poor customer care that shows up on somebody’s blog. Be that sensational business that everyone wants to talk to everyone else about, in a good way. When they want cheeseburgers, let them eat steak!

Have a Wildly Success and Customer-Focused Week,

Margo

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Comments January 18, 2010

2 More Fabulous Benefits When You Join the Decorators’ Alliance of North America (DANA)

 Monday Message from Margo      6-1-09

“Time is our most precious asset, we should invest it wisely.

 ~Michael Levy

This week, I thought I’d tell you about two (of the many) fabulous benefits that are now included in your Decorators Alliance of North America (DANA) membership. One of them is already in place, and hopefully you have been using it: A FREE MONTHLY online class (12 free classes each year just for being a DANA member) to help you save time in your business by reducing the learning curve and by reducing your research time on topics that interest you. These classes will also equip you with the ideas and motivation to get your business to a place of surefire success.

 The second DANA membership benefit that I want to talk to you about is an extremely valuable one in my opinion. This benefit is brand new (newer than the one I just mentioned), and it actually goes into play on August 1^st, 2009. It is designed to save you time, hassle, and money. It is FREE pre-written content each month that you can use for your customer newsletters, on your website, in your blog, or for handouts for your customers or events!

Each month the Decorators Alliance will send you out a newsletter (Not the quarterly DANA NEWSLETTER geared for Design professionals) called HOME DECORATING NEWS. This newsletter is designed for and targeted to homeowners. Once you get it—as long as you are a current DANA member— your are free to copy and paste any and all of the text from this newsletter for use on your business website, in your blog, and preferably in your own newsletter that you send out to the people on your list (and one of our upcoming FREE DANA monthly classes is on building your email list to make bigger, better, and more sales).

There are a few simple guidelines regarding this FREE content (free license). You can read about them on the DANA website, but in a nutshell, you do not have to site DANA as the author when you use the content but you cannot claim authorship by putting your name explicitly as the “author”, and, the FREE content is only the text, not the photos (although we will have a way you can purchases those if you want them, and we will also have upgrades you can purchase if you want us to do ALL of the work for you by sending the newsletter out to YOUR list for you with all of YOUR business info and logo on it).

So basically, with this FREE customer-friendly content we will be sending you each month in a sample newsletter, you can copy and paste the text, and you can use it just as we wrote it. ALL of the thinking, writing, research, and work has been done for you, and it is TOTALLY FREE with your DANA membership. We think you will LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this new benefit. Please email us and let us know what you think, and if there is a particular topic like Green Design, or Area Rugs for example that you would like us to have content on, be sure and let us know right away. Expect to get your first HOME DECORATING NEWS on August 1^st, 2009. If you have not yet started an email newsletter for your local community, why not start it August 15^th, and use the FREE content we send you to get going with that important marketing strategy? Your clients will love it and you will be sure to increase sales because you have an e-newsletter each month.

Just think, with this newest DANA member benefit, you will not have to come up with content each month to stay in touch with your customers and inform them on decorating tips and industry news they can use. We will share tips on design, color, fabrics, and trends, plus lots of other info—all designed to make you the hero in your customers’ eyes. BEST OF ALL THIS CONTENT IS FREE EACH MONTH TO YOU WITH YOUR DANA MEMBERSHIP. This one benefit alone is worth far more than your membership dues. This is important to us, because we want your DANA membership to really help you in your business. Between this fabulous benefit and the FREE monthly classes, you will be well-equipped for increased sales and wild success (by the way, if your membership is up to date, the link for your next FREE DANA online class will be sent to you on June 15^th—this is a 2-hour, 2-part class instead of a 1- hour class, and it covers both May and June. The topic is on increasing sales by giving decorating presentations to clients—hey, maybe you can use your FREE DANA monthly content to create your customer seminars!)

Have a wildly successful week,

Margo

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Comments June 1, 2009