Creating a tribe and leading them is how you make sales that matter in big ways.
The main thing to know about forming and growing your tribe is that numbers do not matter! They are a side thought. What matters is the quality of interaction you have with the members.
If you are serious about wanting to go tribal, you have to lay aside what you THINK you know about marketing, and learn a new and better way.
Consider getting out there on the web, or in your local neighborhood instead of hanging out within your 4 (or 400) walls. Check out groups with members who may have a need, desire for, or interest in your products. Join groups and contribute to them. Start and reply to discussion posts and forum questions, give great information and content, and be super helpful, not simply in your areas of business, but also in topics that you may have experience with. If you do have valuable input to share on a topic related to what you do, give the info without a sales pitch of any kind. If it is a local group that meets face-to-face, show up monthly or whenever they meet. Offer a valuable contribution—and NO, do not herald the link to your website or pass out your flyers or promote your next ad (It amazes me that most flyer or email campaigns are nothing but “buy this” blasts. There is no value to the recipient in that kind of silliness).
Within local gatherings and online forums, there will be a place and time to share your business contact information, so don’t try to infuse it into the conversations. Become a valuable part of the tribe rather than someone who showed up with a motive to just market to the tribe. Trust that if you become a giver, people will naturally want to know what you do and they will at some point want to do business with you. Allow yourself the process of becoming the “expert” in your field to the tribe members, rather than being a “salesperson”. Never throw your sales pitch. It’s ugly, and it is like spam. This will require “letting go” on your part but people will appreciate it.
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,
Monday Message from Margo 3-15-2010 “Comfort zones are most often expanded through discomfort.” ~Peter McWilliams
I would bet my 13 pound kitty (whom I love very much) that the first time you ever kissed someone, the first time you ever flew on an airplane, and the first time you ever got up in front of an audience, you were in a place of definite discomfort (I know I’ll get to keep my kitty with this one).
During your most nerve-wracking life moments, while behaving like an enterprising human being who dared to try something different, you allowed yourself to be in an unfamiliar and even scary position, in order to attain to something you thought of as positively wonderful, or to gain what you did not yet have, be it a special friend, an exhilarating life experience, or an exciting new client.
If you have developed and grown much as an individual and as a professional, you have embraced some meaningful measure of discomfort, and the degree to which you have allowed it, has determined where you are today.
On the flip side, have you ever met someone—and I’m talking grown-ups here—who thought that going to the UPS office to mail a box was a major event, or who stressed to the point of hives about having three people over for pie, or who went nuts and practically needed counseling because they had to call someone up whom they did not know? Successful T.V. shows like Seinfeld were built on psyches like this, and we find this kind of entertainment hilarious because we can all relate. We all know—YOU know—someone like this, someone who has not allowed discomfort to be a catalyst for growth. Perhaps it is a relative or long-time friend. Have you noticed that people like this, no matter how kind, loving, and sweet, never really get very far in life in terms of accomplishment and material reward?
Obviously, there is absolutely nothing wrong with not seeking prominence, position, professional accomplishment, material wealth, success, or financial freedom. Lots of wonderful people don’t, and have no desire to ever begin, and that’s fine. However, this is about YOU, not them. If YOU want to build these things—to whatever degree— you MUST get COMFORTABLE with the concept of DISCOMFORT. You must embrace it as a friend, as a fundamental, vital, and healthy part of living, and especially of growing! In order to get from one place to another, from one level of professionalism to another, from one life position to another, you MUST be willing to be uncomfortable, at least for a time.
Discomfort is without a doubt a wonderful thing. Being uncomfortable is the tension you feel just before the thrill of a new life ride or just before a fresh and un-chartered experience. Discomfort can be rather magical, IF you let it work for you. GET COMFORTABLE WITH DISCOMFORT, and be matter-of-fact about the fact that you will be uneasy, uncomfortable, and unfamiliar on many occasions as you develop yourself personally and professionally, and that’s O.K. In fact, it’s exciting!
What do you want?
You want something, or you would not be reading this. You want to expand yourself into the arena of fabulous possibilities and realities. Is what you want a bit of a reach, or is it way out there?
Reel it in a little at a time. Going for what you want does not mean you have to live constantly in discomfort, it just means you have to visit that palace now and again. Visit, stay for a while, gain some benefit, then sit back in a place of comfort once again. Then, go back and re-visit the place of stretching yourself—the place of discomfort. Repeat as necessary, and so it goes. Soon, being uncomfortable will actually be comfortable to you. You will relax into it, knowing that the unknown almost always unfolds itself in something wonderful, something that makes you feel that you are glad you ventured out.
Those who step outside of their recognizable zone of comfort, and stretch themselves to higher elevations, will likely enjoy a richer life, more embellishments, a deeper connection to others, and even better coffee than the average Joe.
In this day of constant innovation, quick change, brilliant ideas, new marketing, and new media, we have ample opportunity to be in discomfort every time a groundbreaking social media outlet comes onto the scene, every time an amazingly helpful technology breaks through the e-curtain, and every time a colleague asks us to be involved in a project we don’t yet understand. WHAT WILL YOU DO? Will you embrace them, engage, learn, and come to higher ground, knowing discomfort is just a small part of personal growth and business improvement? I’ll bet my kitty’s collar you will.
Go ahead and open yourself to discomfort. Make your life a NO WHINING ZONE, and allow the things that take effort and a sprinkle or two of uncertainty and nervousness to be a regular part of your professional protocol. Occasional discomfort is a very small price to pay to live an amazing life—to find your dreams right here in this comfortable place of reality.
“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),
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks…You need a new dog (or a brain transplant for your old one)!
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,
It’s time….to move, to transition from a place of basic personal and professional development, to a position of true personal strength. It’s time to put YOU on the map!
I have a lot of fabulous info and tools to share with you— to get you in motion, to get you strong, to give you peace of mind, and to help you create a FULFILLING life, a THRIVING business, and SOLID relationships. This is fitness for the soul.
It’s time for ALL of us to finally just be ourselves and contribute meaningfully AND powerfully to the world through who we were meant to be and what we were meant to do. You don’t need a hook or a gimmick. You just need to be YOU, and be it full throttle! There is no other you, and THAT is where YOUR power lies!
It’s time to get EMPOWERED——to STOP the ridiculous game of trying to please everyone else, be something you are not, or do it someone else’s way.
You CAN have a great life, a great business, and great relationships, but it starts with getting real and getting to where you are comfortable flowing in YOUR personal power and YOUR area of influence—not someone else’s.
I am living my DREAM. My dream is to be a true encouragement and inspiration to others, to have control over the way I use my time and my resources, to fully enjoy the experience of life, to love my work and my contributions, to be blessed economically, and in doing so to know I am a success.
I will help you find YOUR voice, YOUR passion, and YOUR creativity! YES, you have all of that within you RIGHT NOW. I write with YOU in mind. My entire goal is to empower you to embrace your life and live it fully and exceptionally, while touching the lives of others, being and feeling like a TRUE success, and having loads of fun.
I’ll help you grow your business, connect with others, be a giver, be a better person, grow personally and professionally, increase profits, understand the New Media and New Marketing Mindset, and enjoy your life with more authenticity, more time for what matters most, and more energy. I want you to live YOUR dream.
Please stop by often for words of empowerment and substantial tools you can use to continuously keep you on the track of being YOU, living your life and running your business the only way it will succeed—by YOU embracing YOU, and giving the real YOU to others!
First Law of Bicycling: No matter which way you ride, it's uphill and against the wind.
Tao Quotes
People in their handlings of affairs often fail when they are about to succeed. If one remains as careful at the end as he was at the beginning, there will be no failure.
September 10, 2010 1771 Mungo Park 1927 Gwen Watford 1914 Robert Wise 1938 David Hamilton 1939 Cynthia Lennon 1950 Don Powell 1957 Siobham Fahey 1958 Chris Columbus 1960 Colin Firth
Designers' Camp
Twice-a-year online event for interior decorators and designers. Learn and network from your home or office. Save on travel. Improve your business.
Let's Talk About Decorating
Pre-made decorating seminars. Give customer presentations with ease. Gain clients fast. Script included.
Margo DeGange
Embrace your opportunities and live your dream. Resources and products to improve life and business.
Pre-Written Decorating Articles
Hate to write? We’ve done the work for you. Pre-written decorating articles. Use on websites, blogs, as handouts, and for flyers.
Pre-Written Decorating Newsletters
Need an E-newsletter, but hate to write? We do it all for you, and send them too, from YOUR email address! Exciting content, pictures, and tips. Gain MORE clients FAST.
The Deccorators Alliance of North America
Professional affiliation, industry certification, continuing education, and business support for the interior decorating and design trade.
Trunk Show Success System
Learn to do fabulous decorating trunk shows—put a trunk show system into place. Gain followers and see profits soar!
Margo’s Reflections 
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!
