MarketingMel

Who's your target audience?

Last week I had the opportunity to hear marketing guru Chris Cavanaugh of Magellan Strategy Group in Asheville, North Carolina speak to our Northeast Tennessee Chapter of the AAF (Ad Club). Chris is a highly experienced marketer and the former Vice President of Marketing for the Biltmore Company who now finds himself in the role of helping clients with agency reviews.

Chris began his presentation with his definition of marketing and his trademark phrase: “Create a dissatisfaction with the status quo.” I love this!  As a professional communicator I have always considered myself a change agent. In addition to sharing some amusing stories about agencies that simply overwhelmed the client with  Too Much Information.  (“We stayed up all night drinking Red Bull to prepare for this presentation.” Really? You look like it!) Chris provided these tips to help you as a professional communicator stand out among equals when competing for work:

1. Proofreading is fundamental. (Once a presentation for a major pitch contains typos you are sunk!)
2. Do not pretend to be what/who you are not.
3. If you need it back, don’t send it.
4. If the client can’t read your presentation while sitting on the sofa, don’t send it.
5. Awards are nice when sales are up. What are you going to do for the client?
6. Anticipate objections. (He gave an example of an agency that met potential objections head-on and won the business.)
7. Ask about how much of a factor price is.
8. Know your audience. More and more you are targeting the “Purchasing/finance guy,” not the “cool” marketing guys. (Thanks Chris for the idea to use the skateboarder image!)
9. Eight is too many to take to a presentation. You’ll overwhelm your potential client. Chris has even seen a team leader interrupt his presenters. (Cringe.)
10. Be relevant. (His example: a firm that understood the importance of mobile marketing four years ago.)
11. Demonstrate trust.
12. Give people a reason to see you are different. (Reminds me of my previous post about Youngme Moon’s book, Different.)
13. Use photos and stories of your people.
14. Present case studies: State the problem, how you solved it and what the results were.
15. Have insight into the target audience.
    

    It's never wise to burn bridges

16. Don’t burn bridges. If you don’t win the business remember, don’t take it personally.
17. And finally, my favorite: It’s always a people business!

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Editor’s Note: This post is by guest blogger and friend, Cathy Rodgers of 7wavesmarketing.

Everywhere I look, it seems the same message is being told: “invest in content,” “know who you are trying to reach,” and “the story is important.” Telling the story of what goes on behind the front door of a business is something we’ve been saying since the beginning of 7Waves. There is something unique about each and every business and there is a story that needs to be told. I invite you to take a fresh look at your business from the outside and ask yourself, “what would people want to know about my products, my place in the community, or the dedication of the founders and work team”?

Here are a few points of inspiration to help you further your brand or that of your client, along with a few suggestions for experimentation.

1. Nourish your brand: Have a brainstorming session with your team on how to boost the level of visibility and awareness in your community.

2. Find the story: Go back to the beginning and find the reason for the start of the business. This can be the foundation of a new press release or a blog article.

3. It’s more than a logo: A business continually creates and lives their brand. It’s more than a strategy or plan, it’s even beyond a vision statement – it’s about articulating passion for your own products and services.

4. Form a Partnership: One of the best examples for a partnership between a non-profit and for profit business I’ve seen was formed during a local political campaign. A local business already sponsoring a non-profit organization chose to enhance their visibility at a scheduled walk which included a table where most companies set out flyers, banners, and giveaways. In this case, the table was occupied by a political candidate, and the sponsoring company got two for one.

5. Tell your story with photos: It’s been proven that entries or posts which get the most comments on Facebook have photos. Photos create enthusiasm for a brand, make others want to be at an event, or desire the benefits of a product.

6. Promote others: Success stories not only promote your clients, but can attract future business partners, while creating good will for your business.

7. Social media: The story should be told in different ways across all researched mediums (and choosing your channels depends on the audience). For instance, if your audience is on Facebook, then you need to be there. – If you think your audience is on Twitter, then do an experiment for a set period of time and see if developing relationships there is worth your time. – No matter what method is chosen for brand promotion, it’s important to have the website and blog as the home base of operations.

So what’s your story?

Cathy Rodgers is the owner of Seven Waves Marketing, a social media, public relations, and online marketing company. She focuses on website content and Facebook strategies, and has more than 20 years of freelance writing experience for prominent newspapers, business publications, websites and nonprofit organizations.  Visit Seven Waves Marketing or look for @7wavescathy on Twitter. 

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Ben Mezrich with 7wavesCathy and MarketingMel

I had the great fortune to meet some of the world’s social marketing thought leaders at IMS ’11 Boston. One of those was Ben Mezrich, a true raconteur and author of the book The Accidental Billionaires which formed the basis for the movie, The Social Network. Mezrich, unlike the other presenters who used all kinds of glitzy power point presentations, simply stood on the stage and told stories. The audience was mesmerized.

He said that he was not an “overnight sensation” as some would portray him, rather he has been writing since 1995. He shared with us how the fact that he did not know how to drive limited him to certain neighborhood pubs in Boston. With his writer’s powers of observation he watched at one pub as numerous M.I.T. students handed over $100 bills to the bartender. “I don’t know about where you live, and in Las Vegas they come out of the ATM machine, but in Boston people don’t use $100 bills. So I asked the guys where they were getting them.” Thus began the story of  Bringing Down the House a tale of MIT students who game the Vegas blackjack tables. “Blackjack is beatable,” asserted Mezrich who even traveled to Vegas with the hard-working (but now banned-from-casinos) students who practiced up to three hours a day to beat the odds.

Because of the fame he gained from that book (he accidentally hung up on Kevin Spacey thinking he was an MIT student playing a prank) people began approaching him with story ideas. One such person was Eduardo Saverin, Mark Zuckerberg’s now famous Harvard room-mate and business partner. “Why should I write fiction when non-fiction is this good?” asked Mezrich who had almost completed his book when a court ordered Saverin to never speak with him again. “For five percent of Facebook I wouldn’t speak to me again either,” Mezrich noted.

With tales as colorful as his book and the movies that follow, I can’t wait to read Mezrich’s next book, Sex on the Moon, a story of astronauts who, let’s just say do some interesting things with moon rocks. Since fact is stranger than fiction, guess we’ll all have to read the book won’t we?

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“In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.” Coco Chanel

Coco Chanel

This is the second in my series of blog posts from the Inbound Marketing Summit which I recently attended in Boston. I had the privilege of hearing some of the world’s marketing thought leaders including Youngme Moon, chair of the Harvard M.B.A. program and author of the book, Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd. Here is a video that beautifully sums up her philosophy.

Youngme told those in attendance that in order to be different we must learn to say “yes” when others say “no.” She used both Ikea and Mini Cooper as case studies showing examples from the hilarious Mini Cooper ad campaign. She said at a time when Americans were all driving gas guzzling SUV’s, Mini Cooper came on the scene and flaunted its tininess. She provided an interesting twist on the age-old advice to listen to your customers. “Customers will tell you how to improve, not how to be different,: she said. “They look at what’s offered by your competitors. If you want to be different you must resist the temptation to over-listen to your customers.” Citing twitter as a “different” example she asked who would have thought a 140 character limit would become such a popular social media platform? “Different and crazy can look the same at first. To be different is to be alone.” She concluded by urging us all to be passionate in business because, “passion is contagious.”

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