Marketing Maestro

I have been “playing around” with Twitter (you can follow me if you would like) for almost a year and there always seems to be something new coming out for Twitter.  In addition to meeting some new folks and following some interesting people there are some definite business uses for the application.

Twitter search allows you to track what others are saying about you, your brand, your company, your competition or whatever you think is important or interesting to follow. You can set up an RSS feed for your search term(s).  This will allow you to always be updated with what’s going on without having to remember to go back to the site (this is similar to a google alert as discussed in our first Marketing Tip - Monitor Your Brand Online).

You don’t even have to have a Twitter account to set up the RSS feed.  Go ahead give it a try.

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Every sales person I know wants more leads to work. Unfortunately, the number of leads is only half of the equation. The number to focus on is your closing rate. Of course, the quality of the leads is important and sales teams often use poor quality as an excuse to explain for their lack of sales. Most of the time these sales people are in the wrong job and don’t realize it. These folks just want to take orders and have the sales come to them. We use the term ’sales leads’ for a reason. A sales person needs to ‘lead’ the prospect to buy.

A friend of mine pointed out the movie/play Glen Gary Glen Ross and this one scene about “what it means to be a real estate salesman”. It was written by a playwright named David Mamet and hit Broadway in 1984 and won the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony. It starred Jack Lemon, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Al Pacino, and a ton of others. This play was later turned into a film with this scene written specifically for Alec Baldwin. This scene is taught in acting schools across the country as an example of how to properly perform a monologue. Funny enough it is also used in a lot of sales training along with Hard Ball Selling techniques. Many companies are against this style of forced selling but it is still a great scene and makes you appreciate every lead you have. It has some vulgarity so if that makes you uncomfortable don’t watch. It’s pretty intense. If you haven’t seen it, enjoy.

What is your sales process?

Everyone thinks they are a marketing expert (they probably are not) but everyone should not have a say in your marketing. Keep it simple and on point and you will see the return on your efforts.

For a great example of how a simple idea can go wrong very fast by having too many people providing creative direction without clear goals and objectives take a few minutes and watch this video.

How many people have a say in your marketing plans? Your creative? Your strategy?

Enjoy the video.

At Trump University I conducted a number of book marketing efforts but today a book ad caught my eye. The title of the book How To Get Rich by Felix Dennis (founder of Maxim magazine) just comes right out and says what the book is all about. The ad’s headline is You’ll Never Get Rich Working For Your Boss. Who wouldn’t stop and read that ad? Very direct and to the point and hits at the heart of the subject matter. This book like so many of the others in the wealth creation industry shares the author’s secrets on how he made his fortune.

Other then a good headline and title I wounder what else they have planned for their marketing effort. I wouldn’t mind seeing their marketing plan for this book to compare notes.

The question remains whether or not people will choose Felix Dennis’s book over a Trump book. What do you think?

Andrea Nierenberg is a professional networker. She has written a number of books on the subject and just the other day I started to read her latest book Savvy Networking 118 Fast and Effective Tips for Business Success. This book is for anyone who needs to grow their business, market themselves, get clients, sell anything or who just want to build a great network etc.

If you need a spark of inspiration you should pick up one of Andrea’s books.

The book is structured so that you can basically read from any page and get something out of it. Well item # 26 ‘Change Your Scenery’ was the one I picked today. The point is that we all need to get out of routines and do something different to meet some new people or have new experiences. Thinking about it I realized that I get energized when I get out of the office and break my daily routine. Even going to an industry conference is a great way to get the creative thoughts going again.

Now go out and change your routine…

Over the last few weeks I ran a multivariate test on one of our registration pages. The final results are still being worked on but some of the initial findings are worth sharing. Here are a few key areas everyone could probably benefit from when building out web pages or writing sales copy.

• Be very direct with your call to action buttons. If you want someone to register then say ‘register now’ not go, next, submit, etc.
• The most important element in terms of increasing conversion is to present copy in bullet points (or some similar format). Basically people don’t want to read. People like to get bite size chunks of information. Bullet points are easy to scan, read and remember.

Changing these elements has helped improve our conversion rate by up to 80% in some cases.

Note: These results are based on our user and test data and might differ for your business and site.

Have you tested copy formats or button copy?

How often do you hear an executive struggling with a marketing problem and not wanting to hire an agency or additional resources declare:

“We know our business better then any outside agency”

Of course not and that is exactly why you should hire an outside resource.  You know your business and how to run it but marketing your business is a different skill set.  If you run your own business you are probably too close to it to have a good perspective on driving new customers to your business.  You need outside advice and resources to help solve those marketing problems.  Don’t get me wrong business owners and executives should have marketing insight but you shouldn’t try to do everything on your own.

Does this mean you should listen to anyone who has marketing advice?  Probably not, since many of those people are probably trying to sell you something but if you have a few key resources you will be well served in the long term.

Let me let you in on a little secret (shhh). There are no business that are so unique that a good marketing person couldn’t find a hook to use.  Just hire a great marketer or marketing partner.

OK so this is not news to anyone….

It is however a sad statement of what we have come to expect when dealing with companies like Verizon who really don’t care about you as a customer or the business you represent. They don’t understand Customer Life Time Value. They care that their return policy says 30 days. No exceptions or any attempt to help you out. All you get is a half baked excuse for a service person who is half paying attention to you while she spouts corporate policy as she talks with a coworker.

These experiences remind me that if you have a customer in your store or on the phone, isn’t it easier to make them happy and ‘bend’ a few rules then to send them on their way angry. Remember a happy customer will tell 2-3 people but an unhappy customer will tell 10 or more.

OK so I am not ‘happy’ with Verizon Wireless and if I had access to a senior executive who showed an ounce of concern for their customers I would gladly buy them a few books on customer service and marketing. Seth Godin’s book, The Big Moo would probably make the top of that list. I doubt companies like Verizon could attempt to be remarkable at how they treat customers but if it costs less to retain a customer then acquire a new one why not take a few minutes to understand what your customers want.

On that happy note… remember without customers you have no business so keep the customers you already have satisfied.