I am a big fan of word of mouth marketing.  I always gather (or give when requested) referrals from friends and family when I need a service or a product.  So it occurred to me why not let our customers do all the talking for us.  Last week we put together this video with one of our students.  She loved the StraighterLine program and wanted to tell the world about her experiences so we recorded her and put this up on YouTube / Facebook etc.  We did edit the recording to add some fades between her comments along with some music but her words are all original and unedited.

You can feel her passion and excitement about the online college courses.  Who would ever get so excited about college algebra…?  You just can’t make this stuff up.

When was the last time you let your customers tell your story?

What are you waiting for?

My wife has been trying to get me to join her gym for a while now.  Finally I said I would try it out if they had a day or week pass.  You know, get a taste of the place, the classes, equipment etc.  Free trials are very powerful for a number of reasons:

• You feel almost obligated to buy something after trying
• It shows people you stand behind your product
• In many cases you build a database for follow up marketing
• Who doesn’t like something free?
• They can create word of mouth marketing talking points

Have you ever not purchased some ice cream after trying a new flavor?  Anyway, you get the point.

I am amazed, baffled and in awe at the lack of marketing at my wife’s gym.  They don’t offer a free day, week, or class.  It is as if they don’t want new members. Gym’s (run properly) are profitable since the fixed costs are covered by the first X number of members and after that it is profit.  Let’s not forget most people don’t even use their memberships.  Oh yeah, and don’t most people join a gym because a friend or family member recommended it?  Marketing for a gym is probably “heavily weighted” to word of mouth marketing. So with all that said why not give out a free trial to anyone who asks?  Take it one step further and give your members 2 or 3 free passes to hand out to their friends.

Yeah I know there are a few people out there looking to take advantage of the system to get free stuff and never buy.  There are ways around every offer and I am sure you can find them all online but as a marketer don’t let the few cheats mess with your marketing or business growth plans.

Go out there and use your “marketing muscle” and give something away for free.  You won’t be sorry, the “exercise” will be worth the effort.

What can you give away for free to get people interested in your services/product?

How many holiday cards did you get this year?

Any stand out?

Will you remember any of them in 2 weeks? Next month? Next Year?

Don’t get me wrong sending holiday cards is a nice thing to do and many would argue is a good business practice.  I think if your going to spend the time and money on cards why not do something that stands out.  Be Remarkable and do something different.  How about sending a holiday card for a holiday you made up or a holiday not normally associated with sending cards? I bet you will stand out from the crowd.

I remember my grandfather once told my brother when he was first getting started in sales “send Thanksgiving cards to your clients and prospects”.  He was a smart man.  At the time my brother didn’t know what he was talking about.

Who sends Thanksgiving cards? Now every year he sends them out. Very few people that I know of send out cards but it makes perfect sense.  Wish people well for the holidays, thank them for their business and stay front of mind and away from the crowd. Could you do better?  Sure, don’t just sign your name to a generic card but personalize each note.

Do companies honestly believe I am going to do business with them if they send me a greeting card?  Seems like a stretch especially if they just drop a bunch of generic cards with a random signature on the card.  I am a big believer in relationship building and would much rather receive a personal note without a gimmicky or cliché picture.  I know, I know, it is the holiday season and I should lighten up.

If you are going to send me a card make sure it is personalized and stands out otherwise save everyone the time.

Hope you all enjoyed the holidays.

As a marketer I am probably a difficult critic of other company’s marketing. This is especially true when it comes to a new businesses whose survival is partially dependent on marketing.  In my opinion a new business owner should focus their efforts on marketing their business. Well it seems that is not always the case…A new restaurant named MocaBlue opened in my area. So being a good resident, I checked it out.  I won’t bore anyone with a critique or review (food was good, but pricey) but here are some quick marketing fixes they could implement to help them drive sales, repeat business, overall customer satisfaction and word of mouth marketing.

If you run a service or retail business feel free to take these and my other marketing tips and modify them for your situation.

• No email sign up – a new business should want to build a customer database (yes, even retail businesses)

• Grand Opening – it turned out the store was going to have a grand opening at some point in the future but there were  no signs or indications about this event.  Put a small card on the table with the dates and some reason to come back to the store.

• I’ll give them a pass on not being active on the social media front but most retailers can only benefit from having a presence in social media.

• No greeting by the owner.  The owner was walking around the store (working I am sure) but he should have stopped by every table to welcome and thank his customers for visiting his new business.  This is a great opportunity to make sure they are happy and if not, to get feedback.

• Give your customers something to remember  – it would be so easy to give every customer just  a little something unexpected for being one of the first to the store (this doesn’t have to last forever).  People love samples and remember when they get something extra and unexpected.  The marketing point here is that your customer will tell their friends.  Hey you won’t believe what XYZ store did.

• No suggestion box or request for recommendations – how many times do you get a small card with your check to rate the service or give feedback.  New establishments could use this more than most.  In my case there was nothing but a bill.

• No request or promotion to tell a friend etc – I took a risk and popped into a new restaurant wouldn’t you want me to help spread the word?  If it was my store I would give every person who stopped in for a meal a coupon to save 10% or a free appetizer that they could give to their friends.

The hardest thing for a business to do is get a customer in the door.  Once you have that customer do everything you can to add value to the relationship.  You have to start a relationship at some point why not do it on that first meeting.

MocaBlue, thanks for the case study I hope you succeed and improve your marketing.

Bon Apetite.

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.

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.

I get sales calls daily for every media and marketing company imaginable.  I am always amazed at how ineffective many of the sales people are when leaving messages.  Most people ramble on as if I care or have time to listen to a full sales pitch on a voice message.  A few just leave a name and number as if that will interest me to call them back.  I know it is bad form not to return calls.

Selling over the phone and leaving someone a voice message is marketing your business.  Take the same  time and effort you would use to write a great direct response newspaper ad, direct mail letter or email marketing message to craft a great voice message.

Here are some points to think about if you are  going to leave a sales voice mail message.  Implementing some of these ideas might improve your response rate.

• Sound interested in helping me and catch my attention (think headline, subject line)
• Show some excitement about what you are offering
• Give me something of interest or a reason to call you back (think offer or hooks)
• Leave me a way to get back in touch – yes people either don’t leave a number or read it off so fast that you can barely catch the number.  Would it be too much to ask for you to repeat the number if we never spoke before?
• Don’t leave me a message about how great your company is and go on and on for more then a minute
• Assume I know about my brand and company – I always laugh when people tell me about my company or repeat info from our site or marketing material
• And if you don’t get a call back it is not personal but that doesn’t mean I want you to call me every week until you catch me at my desk

I don’t mean to pick on sales people.  It is a difficult job but remember your target audience has a job they need to do too.  So before you leave your next voice mail message remember you are marketing yourself at the same time.

What else can sales people do to improve their sales and marketing messages when leaving a voice mail?