Category — Marketing Mistakes and Solutions

Yogi Berra, Hall of Fame baseball catcher, is famous for saying things that seem silly at first. When you think about them for a while, they make a lot of sense. Here are some marketing lessons we can all learn from him.

“When you come to a fork in the road, take it”

Pick your path, don’t try to go down two roads at once. Find your niche, and your passion, and pursue it. Yogi is passionate about baseball, and has enough World Series championship rings for each finger on both hands. When you love what you do (and focus your energies on doing it), you will succeed.

“If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.”

Make a marketing plan, and follow it. For example, write an ebook to build an audience, have them sign up for your newsletter, and then eventually purchase other products or services.

“It gets late early out there”

The Web has sped everything up. Wait too long to respond to a customer complaint or a service problem and the twitterers will let you know. If you don’t post on your blog for three weeks, or answer comments, readers will go elsewhere.

“That place is so popular, nobody goes there anymore”

When you lose your focus, you’ll lose your customers too. Starbucks built an image and a “tribe” by brewing coffee that was different from ordinary deli coffee, offering more ways to customize it, and a welcoming atmosphere. Then, they expanded too much, tried to overcome it with discounts, and now… well there are more interesting places to get coffee in New York (with beans that have been roasted in the last 10 days, or coffee ground to order).

What do you think? Is Yogi right?  Am I?

Photo compliments of orlandk

I recently read a memoir (Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All, by Christina Thompson).

In the book, one of the author’s professors complained that she’d failed to say anything new about “‘the intertextual process of establishment of authority via discourses of experience or empirical observation.”

She was also guilty of “presenting empiricism ‘as a form of simplicity,’ rather than as ” ‘a metaphysically complex mode of representation.”

Apparently, this means that she’d taken the words of the writers she was studying at face value, rather than critically. It makes my head hurt.

Take Microsoft’s web site (please)

It says, “Introducing WIndows 7.  Your PC, Simplified.”

Is it?  I can barely read the text on the windows home page because it’s got white type on a background that shades from dark green (OK) on the left to yellowish-green on the right.  The type on the right is illegible.

Then, there’s a box that says compare versions (there are three). Click on that and  you get to a box that lets you compare Windows 7 to XP and 2000.  Not what I thought I was getting.  I expected to see the different versions of Windows 7.  Had to click another tab to see that.

Apple’s site is different

Apple’s web site says, “…Snow Leopard makes your Mac faster, more reliable, and easier to use.”

There are large images, and lots of white space.

It’s easy to read.  Easy to find what you want.

Yes, the technical stuff is there, but it’s presented in a way that’s easy to understand, even if you’re not a geek.

Educating your clients

Take a look at your marketing materials and your emails to your clients.  Are they full of  technical terms like CSS, standards-compliant, and HTML 4.0?

Instead of dwelling on the technical stuff, tell the client that the template they want isn’t good for search engines and will hurt his ranking on Google.

Skip the usability explanation and talk about how making his site easier to use will improve sales (confused or frustrated prospects will leave without buying anything). 

If people can’t read the text, they won’t know what the client offers.  If they can’t find products, they will be unable to buy them.

That’s language any business person can understand.

Image compliments oftowodo

1.  Never explain you you’re doing

You’re a professional.  Doctors don’t explain, why should you.  The client doesn’t need to know why you’re charging, or what your process is, just that you’re doing it.

2.  Don’t put a blogroll on your blog

It takes up too much of your valuable real estate.  Why, you could put more ads there instead.

3.  Hire other people to write all your posts

Your own voice, views, and opinions don’t matter.  Besides everything that you could say has already been said.

4. Replying to comments is a waste of time

Interacting makes you seem approachable (who wants that)?

5.  Use lots of fancy words on your web site and your brochures

Write desiccated instead of dry and obstreperous rather than disruptive.  Acronyms are good too.  Don’t spell them out and never explain what they mean; they’ll show your prospects how smart you are.

6.  Freebies are for sissies

Don’t give anything away or do anything for free (ever).  It will just cut into your profits.

7.  Make your products appeal to everybody

The more average you are, the more money you’ll make.

8.  Advertise to everyone

Your products and services are great.  Everyone will want them.

9.  Ignore emails from your contact form or ebooks

If they really want to reach you, they’ll call.

10.  Do everything for free

Eating is overrated.  So is sleeping indoors.

11.  Never share your ideas

Don’t even tell your partners or your vendors.  Someone might steal them.

12.  Turn off all your social networking tools

Disable Add This, Bookmark, Twitter, and Facebook, on your blog, LinkedIn and web site.  Don’t let anyone share until you have a private forum or something to sell.

13.  Include a 5-page legal policy on your site

Require written permission before anyone can link to you.*

*I am not making these up. They’re real. Even the last one.

Image compliments of Ben Earwicker

No, not that word – I mean budget. Do your prospects give you odd looks when you mention it?

Sure, you’re only trying to find out what the right solution is. There’s no point recommending a Rolls Royce to someone in the market for a Hyundai.

The trouble is, that many prospects don’t see it that way. Especially if they’re small companies, they’re not used to buying marketing or design services.

They have no frame of reference. So, they wonder if you’re asking in order to squeeze as much cash out of them as possible.

Some ways to get around the problem:

Educate your clients

They know what houses, cars, and toasters cost, but not web sites or logos. Instead of pointing out your professionalism, or years of experience, talk to them in everyday language. Explain what you’re doing and why.

Discuss the effect that design changes will have on the amount of time and effort required to create a new web site. Be clear about what’s included in the estimate you give, and what will drive the price up. For instance, tell them that three design comps (choices) and two rounds of revisions are included. After that, it’s extra.

Be clear about the goals of the project and what’s included

Write up a creative brief (spelling out the market, the positioning, the intended audience, and the messages) and a project scope document – the assumptions behind the price, what the client will get, what you will do, a timeline, changes that could affect the price, etc.)

Create fixed cost products or services

A PC network tune-up (check for viruses, update software, run diagnostic software, optimize the machines). A new blogger package (get domain name, upload Wordpress theme, add 5 essential plugins, guide to how-to post/edit, upload photos). Spell out exactly what’s included, what the client gets, and how much it costs.

Use an “Olympic pricing” strategy

Michel Fortin recommends breaking your services down into three levels, with each one explained, so the client sees why the costs are different.

For instance, tweaking an existing landing page design would be bronze (lowest price).

Creating a completely new landing page, plus some general SEO suggestions, would be silver (higher price).

A new landing page, SEO ideas, and the order form, opt-in and thank you page is the gold level (highest price).

Got any experiences to share about asking for budgets? A lesson learned? Share them in the comments.

Image compliments of Randy son of Robert

This post is inspired by Bob Poole’s post yesterday (Did You Just Sucker Punch a Potential Customer?)

He compared spamming people (sending email to someone who didn’t ask for it, doesn’t want it, and doesn’t know you) to visiting a prospect and punching them in the nose when they open the door.

Not good.

So, a few words about permission, list “rental,” and list building.

You Need Real Permission

There are people (even consultants) who think it’s OK to spam a big list “just once.” Or, to use a two-year-old list that they inherited from another company. Or even that it’s OK to send unsolicited emails as long as they’re text, but not HTML (pretty pictures and fonts).

All bad ideas.

Using names you got from a directory, a contact form, or a carbon copy is not permission. The people on that old list opted in for a different company (not yours). Plus, the list that’s two years old is useless. (Jodi’s rule of lists: Lists are like fish. The older they are, the more they stink).

An out-of-the-blue email from a company they never heard of will go straight to the spam folder.

Yes, it’s technically legal to send email to people out of the blue (an odd quirk of CAN-SPAM is that it created more spam).

However, the people who get it will think it’s junk. They will bounce it, mark it spam, blacklist the company that sent it, and after a while the messages won’t get through.

What do YOU do when you get email like that? Do you smile happily? Or do you hit that spam button as fast as you can?

Is a sucker punch the best way to make a good first impression?

The Truth About Buying Lists

Most email lists for sale are garbage. The rented ones are a bit better, but they’re expensive. B to B lists can be up to $350 per thousand names (minimum order 5,000 names). If someone is offering to send the list directly to you, run away.

Reputable list owners have their emails delivered by a third party. If they’re offering to send three times in one month, run even faster. That list has been burned out.

There is NO such thing as a legitimate opt-in email list of 1,000,000 names for $100. They’re all lemons.

How to Get Permission

If you want to reach people, there are better ways than a sucker punch to build your list.

Here are a few of them:

• Write a helpful (not a sales pitch) article in a relevant magazine or newsletter (with a link to learn more about your services).
• Send out a press release.
• Offer a report of some kind (for free) to build up your list

How to Send Out Your Emails

Use a professional email service (like AWeber). They will manage the opt-ins, opt-outs, and the bounces. You can also get tracking data (showing how many people received your email, the number of people who opened it, and how many clicked through to your web site.

Plus, the delivery rate will be higher, as they’re a recognized, legitimate mailer.
There are more tips in my free Email Made Easy ebook. Download it here. No opt-in needed. Feel free to share it.

Image thanks to :  pamah