Marketing in a Slow Economy

Are there specific things you can do to market your business and grow market share in a down economy?  Of course there are.  The proper approach is to put on a show… to be in charge, to lead.

When you go to Las Vegas, Penn and Teller don’t ask you what sort of lights you want, what tricks you want to see and how long the show should be.  They put on their show.  If you don’t like it, that’s fine.  Plenty of other people do.  As a result, they win.  They get to do their work, their way. And they profit from their confidence.  So: 

1. Have an actual marketing plan. That is, a plan to carry out specific marketing activities. Most professionals have no plan at all. Nothing! We wait for referrals and perhaps call up past clients to see if the have any work. A plan is a definite strategy developed for the purpose of connecting with new prospects and
converting them into clients. What’s your plan? 

2. Accelerate and multiply your marketing. Most businesses cut back on marketing when the economy slows. If you accelerate your marketing, you will be more visible than ever. You don’t have to do expensive activities, you just need to be out there more. Networking, speaking, events and teleclasses are all relatively inexpensive. Get out there, don’t hide!

3. Deliver programs, not services. The best way to market and sell an intangible service is to make it tangible. Don’t just sell “management consulting services.” That’s too vague. Create programs that have very defined parameters and promised outcomes. Sell this program at a fixed price with clear deliverables and guarantees. Increase your perception of value.

4. Be willing to negotiate. It’s always better to sell “something for less than nothing for more.” Your clients are going to be looking for deals as well as great value. For instance, let them know that you’ve re-structured your services so that they will need to invest less if they are willing to do more of the implementation.

5. Go to the bottom line. All professional services need to be seen as an investment, not an expense. But that needs to be more than a cliché. How exactly will your services pay for themselves?  If you can document increases in revenue or decreases in costs, you’ll get the attention of prospects. But you need to prove it. Do
some case studies of past clients showing the bottom-line value of your work.

6. Work on your mindset. This might be the most important of all. Negative external circumstances tend to trigger “Constrictive Marketing Mindsets.” That is, you start buying into the bad news and you start to panic, avoid taking action, and retreat to a place of worry and paralysis. Question those negative mindsets and find your place of power and innovation.

What Lies Within YOU?

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson

So, what lies within you?  Your knowledge.

It is unique, powerful, and exclusive only to your personal experiences.  Establish yourself as a subject expert because there are some people interested in every subject and every side of every subject. By establishing yourself as a subject expert, you will make yourself known to not only your current customers, but potential customers as well.  

When you are an expert, don’t be afraid to express your opinion. It’s better that some people follow you and some people refuse to follow you than no one knows who you are at all… the very definition of brand integrity.

 

10 Ways to Survive Office Politics, Part 2

Continued from last week: 

6.  Be a straight arrow.  The best way to keep out of trouble politically is to be seen as someone who doesn’t play office politics- in other words, a straight arrow.  Do what you say you’re going to do, alert people to problems, and admit your mistakes.  Others will respect you, even if they don’t always agree with you.  More important, you have a lower chance of being a victim of politics.

7.  Address the “politics” issue openly when appropriate.  Many times, when I begin an engagement with a new client, I sense anxiety on the part of the client’s staff.  To address this issue, I tell people at the first “all staff” meeting that I’m not there to get people fired.  I’m there to help the organization function better and position itself for more profitability and growth.  It might not completely allay their fears and suspicions, but at least I’ve brought up the issue and addressed it. 

Think about doing the same thing if you believe politics is an underlying theme at your firm.  Tell people you’re only interested in getting the job done.  Unless you bring the matter up, there’s no chance at all that they will believe you.  So, if a co-worker is unavailable, and you have to act on that person’s behalf, consider saying to that person, “I had to act because of your absence.  I wasn’t trying to go behind your back and I wasn’t trying to show you up.”

8.  Document things.  Nothing saves a job or career more than having a written record.  If you believe a matter will come back to haunt you, make sure you keep a record of the matter, either via email or written document.  Documentation is also an effective way to highlight your own accomplishments, which can help you when your performance evaluation is conducted.

9.  Set incentives that foster teamwork.  If you’re a manager or senior executive, take a close look at your incentives.  Are you unwittingly setting up your staff to work against each other?  Do your metrics address only individual departments, or do they also address how departments could benefit the larger organization? 

For example, suppose the marketing department launched a new customer acquisition campaign… a campaign that costs the company twice its annual budget.  However, that measurement only would neglect to account for the five-fold increase in sales contracts from the year before.  Give all employees incentives based not only on department results but on organization results as well.

10.  Set an example for your staff.  People in your company look to the leadership team to see how to act.  Do you want your staff to refrain from negative politics?  Do you want to see collaboration and teamwork instead of petty rivalries, jealousy, and back-stabbing?  Act the way you want your staff to act, and they will follow you.

 

10 Ways to Survive Office Politics, Part 1

I know this is a surprising topic for Wendistry, but being on-site in my clients’ offices and having to work alongside their existing staffs cause me to examine this issue more closely.  Office politics will never go away.  However, destructive office politics can demoralize an organization, hamper productivity, and increase turnover.  Here are some tips, applicable for both staff and management, on dealing with office politics.

1.  Live at peace with others.  The easiest way to avoid problems with politics is to get along with people.  I’m not saying you need to hug everyone and sing songs, and I’m not saying you have to be a pushover for everyone.  You can be pleasant and professional, while at the same time being assertive when necessary.  If you have a concern, focus on the issue, not on the person.  If you have to refuse a request, explain why and try to create alternative solutions.

Living at peace with others also means being careful about choosing sides during office power struggles.  Aligning yourself with one faction or the other will prevent you from working effectively with people from the “other” side which will hamper your productivity and thus your performance.  Instead, focus on your tasks, dealing with people in either faction on the basis of tasks alone and avoid talk on the issue that separates the groups.

2.  Don’t talk out of school.  Have people told you things in confidence?  Then, keep those matters to yourself.  Talking to outsiders about issues within your organization makes all of you look bad to that outsider.  Furthermore, your boss or your boss’s boss will not appreciate that behavior.  People will find out that you spoke about what they told you, and they’ll lose confidence in you and respect for you.

3.  Be helpful.  We all have responsibilities and objectives, and yes, those things should receive priority.  Nonetheless, if it doesn’t take too much time, being helpful to others can reap benefits for you.  Did your co-worker leave headlights on in the parking lot?  Is someone having trouble building an Excel macro?  If you can help that person, especially if you can do so without taking too much of your time, you benefit yourself as well as the other person.  By doing these things, you’re building political capital and loyalty. 

4.  Stay away from gossip.  “I never repeat gossip, so listen carefully.”   Nothing destroys the dynamics of an office more than gossip.  Just be sure you avoid the “holier than thou” attitude of lecturing your co-workers on the evils of gossip.  You’ll make them lose face, and they’ll resent you.  Instead, try subtly changing the subject.  Example:  Someone is talking about Jane’s problems with her child, of course, Jane is absent from the group.  Do some free association and try to come up with some topic that’s related to Jane or her child, but won’t involve gossip.  Then, make a comment about that new topic.

5.  Stay out of the “talk-down-the-boss” sessions.  Suppose your co-workers start complaining about the boss.  If you join in, it makes you look disloyal to the boss.  If you don’t, it looks awkward in the group.  What do you do?  As with the situation of gossip, try changing the subject by linking the boss to another topic, then talking about that topic instead.  Or, you could simply respond to your co-workers with a smile and a tongue-in-cheek, “Come on, aren’t we exaggerating?  (Name of Boss) really isn’t THAT bad.”  Be careful, though, because it could be taken as an admission by you that the boss IS bad.

Part 2 tomorrow…

 

 

BRANDING Insights from Rick Wilbins, American Airlines

As high fuel costs and service cutbacks beleaguer the airline as well as other industries, Conde Nast’s PORTFOLIO magazine conducted a Q&A Session with the Managing Director of Brand and Advertising at American Airlines, Rick Wilbins.  Here are his thoughts on strategies for engaging vocal and on-the-go audiences.

Q:  In a time of economic uncertainty, how does your brand look to connect with both leisure and business travelers?    A:  In difficult economic times, one of the things we’ve discovered is that people are looking hard for value in everything they purchase.  Part of our objective is to make sure that the travel experience with our airline is perceived as an improving value.  We realize the challenge of rising fuel costs and customers taking second looks at the necessity of some travel experiences… both issues put burdens on our people to continue to provide the best possible service.

Q:  Regarding these increasing costs: Given the recent consumer protests over airlines’ newly added baggage fees, how can a marketer develop and maintain brand trust?  The first priority is to help the marketplace understand the reasons for the fees- that there’s a business rationale for it that makes sense.  At the same time, it’s important to underscore product and service improvements, such as our new business class seat, to show that we’re continuing to make investments that improve the customer’s overall travel experience.

Q:  As consumers become increasingly vocal, what are some of the best strategies you’re seeing for engaging them in brand building?   A:  It’s vital that we start and maintain a dialogue with our customers and potential customers.  First, we utilize our website with an active opt-in program.  We’ve also introduced AA.com mobile and connectivity on our airplanes.  People who sign up for these options tend to be very interested in what’s going on with the airline and the industry.  In addition, we’re constantly surveying our customers to find out what’s important to them, and what is and isn’t working.  Every major corporation is doing it these days, but we believe we’re doing it more aggressively than most airlines.

Q:  What advice do you have for brand marketers looking to best spend their tightening budgets during this turbulent period?   Demonstrating return-on-investment is absolutely essential; faith doesn’t sell in this environment.  So, the first step is to determine what ROI you’re looking to achieve and find a way to track it.  The second step is to understand the change in media mix.  There’s no question that the Internet and online advertising is changing the way we market.  But, putting too much emphasis on any one medium is a mistake.  Not understanding that all media need to work together is also a mistake.  The key is figuring out how to deliver truly integrated communications.

 

Your website… so FANTASTIC it’s invisible?

Imagine spending millions of dollars to come up with an amazing product… then shrouding it in invisibility.  Maybe the Navy Seals would appreciate this, but no company in its right mind would adopt a strategy tantamount to business suicide.

So, why is it then that so many bleeding-edge, ultracool, movie-like web sites are designed to be invisible to search engines, and ultimately, potential customers?  Why is it that companies spend oodles of money ato end up with a site that can only be found by employees and friends?  Why are so many web sites “cloaked?”

The only reasons I can think of its a lack of knowledge about best search practices or negligence on the part of creatives who believe designing for visibility somehow restricts doing great (and beautiful) work.  Honestly, the opposite is true… designing for visibility doesn’t restrict creative excellence, it enhances it. 

Check out someone who gets it:  Scott Ellis at BlackBox Technologies.  Yes, this is a shameless plug for the company Wendistry partners with on all technology-driven issues.  Frankly, don’t care.  They REALLY know what they’re doing and your company will be on display for all the world to see. 

 

 

Search Marketing Update, Part 3

Search engines offer tools to help advertisers gauge the costs of terms and the relative value of a bid.  Yahoo’s forecasting tool gives advertisers an idea of what average position (the goal being No. 1- the top of the search results page) the ad will get and how many impressions and clicks it will receive.  It also estimates the monthly investment for the bidder.

The tool now gives advertisers an option to target their bids by city or ZIP code.  (Previously, the most targeted a location could be was by Designated Market Area often including several cities.)  The forecasting tool begins with zeroing in on a locale.  The feature is designed to help local, small and service-oriented business target their campaigns.  When a customer searches for, say, a roofer in the 60601 ZIP code, the bidder’s ad can pop up on Yahoo.  Advertisers can choose from about 3,500 cities and towns across the U.S. and Canada. 

On Yahoo, the ultimate position of an ad is determined by the bid and by the relevance of the ad.  Theoretically, better copy will aid relevance.  The more customers click on the ad, the higher the ad will appear.  And, a higher bid may improve the ad’s position.  However, an ad cannot simply be bid to the top of a search.  An advertiser may bid $5 but end up paying only 50 cents.  Advertisers rarely pay the full bid amount. 

Search Marketing Update, Part 2

The No. 1 search engine is looking upwardly mobile.  Building on the popularity of wireless devices such as Apple’s iPhone, Google has rolled out a number of mobile ad services and applications in addition to its mobile platform Android.  In April 2008, Google’s DoubleClick integrated DoubleClick Mobile, an ad delivery system for mobile devices, into Google’s mobile ad networks, including AdMob and AdSense.

In 2007, Google generated about 99% of its revenue from advertising, primarily through its web-search advertising services.  Google accounted for 63% of US web search in August 2008, up 6.5 share points from the prior August.  With Google’s new mobile ad services, ad services in online gaming, and acquisitions of DoubleClick and YouTube, bet on more mobile and video applications and services. 

Search Marketing Update, Part 1

Who knew, when it was invented about a decade ago, that a simple little ad format matching text links to search queries would spur a $45 billion hostil takeover and prove the rock in an ad market of recession-rumor-fueled uncertainty?  Yet, that’s the power of search.

It’s a market so promising that it’s largely why Microsoft launched its failed bid for Yahoo earlier this year.  It’s also the only sector that’s continuing to grow double digits during the economic climate of recent months.  Because of how important search has become to marketers, Advertising Age’s DataCenter again has compiled a comprehensive guide which I will explore over the next several days.

According to ComScore, overall US search volume increased almost 20% over hte past year.  Search-marketing spending is expected to approach $14 billion in 2008.  So, where are all these dollars going?

Largely to Google, whose network snagged 72.2% of its advertisers’ search spending in the third quarter, according to SearchIgnite data.  That was down from the same period one year ago but up from the first and second quarter of 2008.  Yahoo came in second, with 22.3%, an improvement over 2007 that can partly be attributed to its Panama system, which has earned Yahoo more money per search.  Microsoft remained in third place, with 5.4% of spending. 

Search certainly is not recession-proof; nothing is.  And, it’s questionable how long search can continue to grow at such high rates.  That’s why it’s important for search engines to stake a claim in emerging, fast-growing areas such as mobile and local search.