Author Archive

I'm a time management wannabe. Overall, I do pretty well at managing tasks, deadlines and projects for my clients, but I'm always looking for a system or better way of thinking to be more productive overall, especially at running my business. From Franklin Covey to Getting Things Done, I often get on a productivity bandwagon — determined to develop healthy habits to gain more control of my work and family life.  But alas, I fall off the bandwagon after a few months because, well, the systems just seem too hard.

I met recently with productivity training expert Maura Thomas of RegainYourTime.com.  She challenged my thinking.  It's not time management that I crave, it's attention management.  As Maura explains on her website:

It’s now widely accepted among researchers and scientists that constant multi-tasking even makes us worse at multi-tasking!  The more we do it, the worse we get…at everything.  The problem is that we have become so accustomed to instant gratification of our curiosity and our mental whims, that we have undermined our own ability to focus.

Many of the marketing and social media programs I teach and coach my clients to use require managing multiple projects and objectives – on top of their "day job."  I'll be exploring ways to help them not just manage their time, but also their attention.  Take a look at this video from Maura and visit her web site to learn more.

I'm amazed at the incredible buzz that flight attendant Steven Slater's "take this job and shove it" stunt on a Jet Blue airplane created. There's even an animated video out there depicting the event because no one (at least that we know of) captured the incident on their mobile phone.

It's a lesson for businesses large and small that in this era of social media, a story about your company can go viral before you even have a chance to decide what to do.

I'm often asked by clients or workshop attendees about using a blog to manage crisis communications. I'll turn to what Jet Blue did in this situation as a case study. Their blog post helped stem a tide of negative online buzz according to a Fast Company report.

Here's the Blue Tales Aug. 11 post:

Sometimes the weird news is about us.

It wouldn’t be fair for us to point out absurdities in other corners of the industry without acknowledging when it’s about us. Well, this week’s news certainly falls into that category. Perhaps you heard a little story about one of our flight attendants? While we can’t discuss the details of what is an ongoing investigation, plenty of others have already formed opinions on the matter. Like, the entire Internet. (The reason we’re not commenting is that we respect the privacy of the individual. People can speak on their own behalf; we won’t do it for them.)

While this episode may feed your inner Office Space, we just want to take this space to recognize our 2,300 fantastic, awesome and professional Inflight Crewmembers for delivering the JetBlue Experience you’ve come to expect of us.

Short. Sweet. Simple.  And it even had a bit of an attitude and a dose of humor.  Brilliant.

I recently posted a comment and a question on the popular video blog, shama.tv, asking Shama Kabani to comment on the ultimate blogging question I regularly get asked.  "How often should I blog?" (Truth in the room: I actually teased her about not updating her own blog as often as she advised on her web site.)

Shama has become a popular online marketing "guru." I tend to use that term sparingly, because there really are very few such experts in the world, but I think my colleague Shama is one of them. So it was an honor that she answered my question on her show. But now, it's pretty clear from the date of this blog post that I'm a blogging slacker too. Busted! Or, am I?  Hmmm.

Click on the image below to see her answer at shama.tv and tell me what you think!

I finally gave in to the craving for latest Bright Shiny Object, the iPad. It's being shipped right now, so I've been googling just about everything I can to learn what to buy for my new baby's arrival: a keyboard, a case, how to use it for business, and more.  In my cyber-meanderings, I came across this YouTube video about a guy who built an iPad into a kitchen cabinet.  Quite clever.

This kitchenPad actually is pretty cool, and while I'm very tempted to build something like it in my kitchen, I'm not quite geeky enough to do it (and my wife would think I've gone over the techno-edge).

However, the video did inspire me to come up with the notion of "iPad Marketing 101:  Four Lessons for Small Business Marketers."

1. Be an innovator. Apple is not the best-selling brand of computers, but they keep launching products that create entirely new categories. From the Macintosh to the iPod and now, the iPad. They are always innovators — never imitators. What new category or customer service process can you innovate in your business?
2. Build partnerships, then set them free (mostly). The myriad apps available for iPhones and now iPads is mind-boggling. Apple opened the App store, coining a new term and spawning a new industry of developers who piggy-back market to a rabid group of consumers. Yes, there are critics who say Apple controls too much software development, but the underground apps industry for "jailbroken" iPhones has no one to thank but Apple for its success. How can you leverage partnerships with your suppliers, vendors and customers to help generate demand your brand, product or service – in their voice?
3. Don't be boring. This video (and if you search for iPad on YouTube, you'll see hundreds more like it) have created an incredible buzz of free product promotion. What can you do to make your customers buzz about your business?
4. Harness Vox Populi – The Voice of the People. I was going to write "harness social media," but anymore, social media marketing is as essential to your business' survival as having a telephone number or a mailing address. The marketing funnel is broken. Through YouTube, Yelp, Blogs, Twitter and other social media tools, your customers have the power to define your brand reputation faster than a high-powered Madison Avenue ad campaign. They are vox populi – a Latin phrase that literally means "voice of the people." The term has historically been associated with broadcast journalism's "man on the street" interview. But now more than ever, the vox populi are out there in cyberspace, without anyone controlling what they say about your business, or how they say it. Start listening now to vox populi about your business by creating a Google Alerts Search today. Then get out there and spread your own social media voice by commenting, liking, rating and more.

Hmm. I watched that video again. Anyone have a jigsaw I can borrow?

I'm talking to a Greater Austin Chamber "Building Blocks of Business" session today about social media. It's so tempting to get into tactics right away.  I typically get questions like "How often should I blog?" or "What should I tweet?"  I believe small business owners and marketers need to think strategically about social media before they ever start to discuss tactics.

1) Integrate – Don’t treat your social media activity as something separate from your other marketing initiatives. Feature links to your social media profiles in your email signature, on your business cards, in your ads, and as a standard block of copy in your weekly HTML email newsletter. In addition, make sure that links to your educational content are featured prominently in your social media profiles and that Facebook fan page visitors and blog subscribers are offered the opportunity to subscribe to your newsletter and attend your online and offline events. Make your social media profiles a part of your address copy block and you will soon see adding them to all that you do as an automatic action.

2) Amplify – Use your social media activity to create awareness for and amplify your content housed in other places. This can go for teasing some aspect of your latest blog post on twitter or in your Facebook status, creating full blown events on Eventful or MeetUP, or pointing to mentions of your firm in the media. If you publish a bi-weekly newsletter, in addition to sending it to your subscribers, archive it online and tweet it too. You can also add social features to your newsletter to make it very easy for others to retweet (tweetmeme button) and share on social bookmark sites such as delicious and digg. I would also add that filtering other people’s great content and pointing this out to your followers, fans and subscribers fits into this category as it builds your overall reputation for good content sharing and helps to buffer the notion that you are simply broadcasting your announcements. Quality over quantity always wins in social media marketing.

3) Repurpose – Taking content that appears in one form and twisting it in ways that make it more available in a another, or to another audience, is one of the secrets to success in our hyperinfo driven marketing world we find ourselves. When you hold an event to present information you can promote the event in various social media networks and then capture that event and post the audio to your podcast, slides to Slideshare, and transcript (I use Castingwords for this) as a free report for download. You can string 5 blog posts together (like this series) and make them available as a workshop handout or a bonus for your LinkedIn group. Never look at any content as a single use, single medium, act.

4) Lead generate – So many people want to generate leads in the wide world of social media, but can’t seem to understand how or have met with downright hostile reactions when trying. Effectively generating leads from social media marketing is really no different than effectively generating leads anywhere – it’s just that the care you must take to do it right is amplified by the “no selling allowed” culture. No one like to be sold to in any environment – the trick is to let them buy – and this is even more important in social media marketing. So, what this means is that your activity, much of what I’ve mentioned above, needs to focus on creating awareness of your valuable, education based content, housed on your main hub site. You can gain permission to market to your social media network and contacts when you can build a level of trust through content sharing and engagement. It’s really the ultimate two step advertising, only perhaps now it’s three step – meet and engage in social media, lead to content elsewhere, content elsewhere presents the opportunity to buy. To generate leads through social media marketing, you need to view your activity on social sites like an effective headline for an ad – the purpose of the headline is not to sell, but to engage and build know, like and trust – it’s the ultimate permission based play when done correctly.

One glaring exception to this softer approach for some folks is twitter search. I believe you can use twitter search to locate people in your area who are asking for solutions and complaining about problems you can solve and reach out to them directly with a bit of a solution pitch. People who are talking publicly about needing something are offering a form of permission and can be approached as more of warmed lead. The same can also be said for LinkedIn Answers – if someone asks if “anyone knows a good WordPress designer”, I think you can move to convincing them that you are indeed a great WordPress designer.

5) Learn – One of the hangups I encounter frequently from people just trying to get started in social media marketing is the paralysis formed when they stare blankly at twitter wondering what in the world to say. The pressure to fill the silence can be so overwhelming that they eventually succumb and tweet what they had for lunch. If you find yourself in this camp, I’m going to let you off the hook – you don’t have to say anything to get tremendous benefit from social media participation. If I did nothing more than listen and occasionally respond when directly engaged, I would derive tremendous benefit from that level of participation. In fact, if you are just getting started this is what you should do before you ever open your 140 character mouth. Set up an RSS reader and subscribe to blogs, visit social bookmarking sites like BizSugar and delicious and read what’s popular, create custom twitter searches for your brand, you competitors, and your industry, and closely follow people on twitter who have a reputation for putting out great content. And then just listen and learn. If you do only this you will be much smarter about your business and industry than most and you may eventually gain the knowledge and confidence to tap the full range of what’s possible in the wild and wacky world of social media marketing.

[Ed. note This post is an excerpt from the Moxie Marketing Maxims Newsletter.]

I’ve only recently become of an avid fan of Zappos, the wildly successful on-line retailer founded by Tony Hsieh. And I’m happy I did, pun intended. The company and its culture are fascinating. Zappos has become known for its great customer service and outstanding core values that make it one of theplaces to work. Next week, Tony’s book, Delivering Happiness will hit bookstore shelves. Summer’s a great time to catch up on your business reading. Click here to read an excerpt.

Keep Austin Happy. You’re invited to a Delivering Happiness Meetup

Moxie Marketing is hosting a Delivering Happiness Meetup in Austin Monday, June 7 at 6pm Kick Butt Coffee at The Triangle. For more info, click here. Or RSVP at the Duct Tape Marketing Meetup Group. Come for an evening of networking and meeting new friends as we watch the live book launch in New York City via the Internet. There is a grass-roots “Happiness Movement” growing across the country and Meetup Everywhere Groups are being called all over the U.S. to help launch the book. Is Austin Happy? Let’s find out.

Top Ten Reasons to Read Delivering Happiness

by Tony Hsieh on the book’s web site.

"Aw, nuts." We have to get that award entry in tomorrow. Why bother?  We won't win."

Perhaps you've had a similar conversation at your office. There are lots of corporate award programs — from your local chamber awards program to specialty awards within your industry.

Most award entry forms take a little time complete. Depending on the scope of the award they can be tedious, time consuming and there may be a science to getting your entry noticed by the judges. But it could be time well spent if you consider the effort part of your marketing strategy.

But we won't win

There is often a very small pool for awards programs, so your chances to win are probably greater than you think. Even if you don't win, being a finalist can still get your company attention. Just connecting with the judging panel can make an impact. I have served as a judge for numerous business awards, and I have frequently talked about the most compelling entries with colleagues, or even referred that company to them. That's great word-of-mouth marketing.

Visibility

When you do win, or you're named as a finalist, it creates a buzz. Everybody likes a winner. Even your competitors take notice. Many award events list all the entrants in their program. Your name listed there leaves the impression that you're a player. You can often buy ad space in the program, enhancing your reputation as a good corporate citizen for a pretty low cost.  Tie your ad message to your submitted product or service.  Go ahead, brag.

Impress customers and motivate employees

When you win an award, leverage it. Put the trophy or plaque in the lobby. Customers will take notice. Announce it in the employee newsletter and credit employees for their efforts.  You'll inspire workplace pride and boost morale. Some companies make winning an award a part of their business strategy. David Tripoli of Austin's Truluck's Seafood Steak and Crab House focuses on winning the Greater Austin Chamber's Business Award for Customer Service. And it has paid off.  He posted a badge on his website about the 2009 victory, and in an interview on News8 Austin (where he got more free publicity), David said, "When you walk into Trulucks, you see those awards displayed.  And they (our employees) know they did the hard work to earn that.  It really gives them a good feeling and we believe it helps us build our brand in the marketplace."

So go on enter!  And if you're in Austin, the deadline to enter the Greater Austin Business Award is June 11.  Check it out.

In my last post, I talked about the elusive definition of marketing and how most small business owners feel about marketing. They know they need marketing. They might even be doing it, but they're not sure where to begin or if it even works. The business owner who stood up to announce, "I hate marketing," identified his pain. But what is pain, really? Pain is a symptom.  It means something else is going on.  So what's really happening? Why is marketing such a pain for small business owners and entrepreneurs? Because they focus on tactics before developing a strategy. They don't have a systematic marketing plan. They throw money away on an ad campaign, a fancy website or some shiny new online gadget with out first understanding their customer's wants and needs. They don't know to get those customers to know, like and trust them.  But why do they do that? One reason is obsession over the product or service.

Keith J. Cunningham, the author of Keys to the Vault and a noted teacher on business mastery said in a seminar I attended recently in Austin that a key mistake business owners and entrepreneurs make is obsessing over their product. They focus on making it perfect or developing technical skills and ignore many of the building blocks of businesses, like identifying what pain their product will solve and understanding who their ideal customer is. They don't work to create a unique difference that makes them stand out in the marketplace or develop core messages to communicate that difference consistently.

Those steps are the keys to develop a marketing strategy. Sure, it all starts with a great product or service but that's not what people buy. They are looking for things that make you referable, like your incredible guarantee, your unique process, exciting packaging or great people. Those things make a buzz in the market place. If you've flown on Southwest Airlines you know what I mean. Getting from Point A to Point B is their product, just like American Airlines. Yes, Southwest did obsess over their product by buying only one type of airplane (the Boeing 737) and developing fast boarding systems to keep those planes flying, but everything was developed with the customer in mind and they infused their business with a corporate culture that emphasizes fun and rewards employees for delighting customers. Have you ever heard anyone go off about the crazy-fun flight attendant on American Airlines?

So, what's your business worth to you? Are you willing to slow down long enough to find a cure for your marketing pain? Or, do you think you don't have time for the "fluff" of creating a marketing plan? It takes time to get it right, and you might need a little rehabilitative therapy along the way. But if you develop a systematic, step-by-step marketing plan to grow your business and use it to fuel the right tactics, your business will be healthier and so will you. Done right, it will help you realize your business and professional goals.  And you'll know that when you see it.

Lyn Chasteen, the engaging publisher of the Austin Business Journal, asked attendees at a recent "Smart Series" breakfast the paper sponsors, to briefly introduce themselves before the morning's talk began. The topic was marketing, and I was the guest speaker. I sipped my coffee and nodded in affirmation as people stood up to give their 30-second intros. Many of them expectantly mentioned that they came to pick up some marketing tips. "Yes," I thought to myself, "I've heard these kinds of expectations expressed many times at events like this"  

I was surprised at one small business owner's blunt introduction. "I hate marketing," he said as the crowd chuckled. Yet surprisingly, he went on to describe how he had been growing his small business with some success since he started it several years ago. He obviously knows something about marketing, but if you pressed him to tell you what, he'd probably shrug his shoulders.

Why is "marketing" a dirty word for many small business owners or their staff members who are in charge of marketing? I believe it starts with what we think, assume or fear marketing is — or isn't.  To digress on that line of thinking — marketing as a dirty word — I'm reminded of the phrase Supreme Court Just Potter Stewart penned in his opinion about obscenity in 1964:  "I know it when it see it."

As consumers or business owners, we intuitively know good marketing (or bad marketing) when we see it.  But we don't know how to define it.  Even for those schooled in the ways of marketing, it sometimes seems like a mystery.

CFO's think it's too expensive and doesn't help the bottom line. Sales people think it sucks and invent their own marketing materials. And the frustrated marketing manager is confounded when asked to demonstrate marketing's ROI.

So, what is marketing, exactly? As I shared with the group that morning, it might not be what you think it is. In part, that's because traditional definitions of marketing are wishy washy. Textbooks discuss the Four P's: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Webster's defines marketing as, "the act or process of selling or purchasing in a market." Yeah, that helps. The American Marketing Association, a really smart group, says marketing is "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." Now that sounds more like a Supreme Court opinion!

I like this definition, invented by Duct Tape Marketing founder John Jantsch:

"Marketing is getting people with a problem or need to know, like and trust you."

Simple and intuitive. Most people nod in agreement when I share that definition with them. It makes sense, and jibes with our experiences of businesses we admire and refer.

In my next post, we'll dig a little deeper on that definition and how to apply it to your business. In the meantime, I'd love to know what you think marketing is. Do you know it when you see it?

Elena's Place, Ruidoso, NM My eight-year old daughter recently commented as we were sitting around our living room, "Dad, there's no place in the world like Elena's place." I assumed she was talking about her friend Elena's house (and suspicious about what they might be doing there to rate such high praise).  But she was referring to a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant in Ruidoso, New Mexico, called Elena's Place.  We ate there during our Spring Break Ski Trip.

Why after all these weeks did my daughter mention that experience? Remarkable service.  It was exceptional.  We dined at Elena's Place after waiting for more than hour to be seated at another Mexican restaurant (Après-ski dining is crazy in that little town… restaurants get packed fast).   The crowd had just thinned out at Elena's when we walked in. Tina, the warm host/server welcomed us with a grand smile and directed us to a cozy table by the fire.

We inhaled tasty spicy-hot chips and salsa and relished interior Mexican food to die for (Elena, the co-owner with her husband, is from Durango, Mexico.)

But it wasn't the great food that brought us back the next night. It was actually a serving faux pas.  Tina enticed us to try their sopaipillas — a fried Mexican shortbread dessert smothered in cinnamon and honey.  We all shouted, "Yes" to her offer. But alas, "We're out," she said, embarrassed a few minutes later. She quickly scribbled on the back of a restaurant business card "good for free order of sopaipillas" and told us that she'd buy them for us… whenever we came back again, even if we didn't come in to dine, she'd give them to us anytime.

The following night it was the same scenario: Packed restaurants all over town. I fished the Elena's Place card from my pocket and called to see if they had seats.  Tina herself answered.  "Yes.  Hurry.  I'll hold a table for you!" When we arrived, there was a reserved card with her name on a table waiting for us.  We sat. We ate. We laughed at Tina's good humor and memories of her former life in Austin.  Tina introduced us to Elena and her husband Tom. And we finally gorged ourselves on those sopaipillas.

Here's the marketing lesson:  Don't be boring and aim to delight every client or customer.  People don't talk about boring businesses.  Even if you blow it (like not having sopaipillas) people will still like you if you treat them right, and they'll refer you, like I'm doing now.  Check out Elena's Place on Yelp.