Through the Eyes of the Customer: Marketing Best Practices

Marketing Best Practices

07/28/2015

Learn to tell your story.

Everyone has a story of how about they arrived at where they are today, but not everyone can tell it. And even if they can, not all of them do. A happy exception is the Smiling Cow gift shop in Camden, Maine.

The Smiling Cow has occupied the same storefront on the main street in this beautiful seaside village since 1940, and continues to be owned and operated by the family who founded it.

The story of how the business began is both entertaining and inspiring - you can read it here. What's unique about The Smiling Cow is that they make their story a central part of their business, by telling it in lots of places beyond just the "About Us" page of their website; they also broadcast it in this video on the home page, but they don't stop there...

In the back of the store, there's a hospitality deck that overlooks the working harbor. There are chairs for sitting and relaxing while enjoying the view, and a table with free tea and coffee. In a prominent place on the table is a stack of color brochures containing the story of the Smiling Cow. The Smiling Cow clearly wants people to know their story, and they make it easy and entertaining to learn.

They're proud of their story, and they purposely put it out there where more people will get to know it.

Why is this a good thing?

Well, for starters, everyone loves a story.
True stories provide an element of authenticity, and what business doesn't need more of that?
People like to buy from people. Stories humanize a business; when we hear stories about the genuine human side of the people that founded a business, and the trials and tribulations they went through to grow the business to the point where it is today, as customers - "fellow humans" - we're drawn closer to the business; we develop an affinity for it.

The point is this:

Learn to tell your story in a way that brings out the truly human side of your business.

Make it both genuine and entertaining.

And publish it in multiple places where more customers can get to know it.

Everyone likes a story.

What's yours?

Posted at 07:39 AM in Branding, Marketing Best Practices | Permalink | Comments (0)

03/30/2015

3 Reasons why Fresh Flowers in a Public Restroom are so Special

What's so special about seeing fresh flowers in public restroom?

They're unexpected. We don't expect to see something whose purpose is purely ornamental in a room whose purpose is purely utilitarian.

Flowers in a restroom are contrasting. Restrooms are places where an element universally considered vile is produced; something that's so fowl, it's immediately flushed upon arrival. That's a polar opposite to something considered universally beautiful; something often given as a gift; something whose aroma is so pleasant and admired that it's often reproduced in perfumes and air fresheners.

Flowers in a restroom are pleasant to look at. One cannot say the same for urinals, plungers and trash cans.

It's also these three elements - unexpected (surprising), contrast, and pleasing to the eye - that enhance the customer experience.

Tootsie rolls in a shipping container are unexpected. That's what I remember about unpacking my new telephone headset, from Headsets.com.

EOS Lib Balm is packaged in an egg-shaped container.

The iPod is pleasant to look at. That's what made it remarkably different (and more successful) than the other portable music players of its time.

Unexpected and contrasting make something easy to remember. And pleasing to the eye, or visual appeal makes something desirable in the moment.

If you desire it, and if you remember it, it tends to be a positive experience.

So, perhaps that's what's so special about fresh flowers in a public restroom - they create a positive customer experience.

How can you make your offering more (positively) unexpected?

How can you make it more contrasting to the senses?

How can you make it more visually pleasing?

Posted at 08:10 AM in Customer Experience, Marketing Best Practices, Retail Customer Experience | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

01/02/2015

A 2-Step Process to Writing a Perfect Elevator Pitch

"What does your company do?"

That can be a hard question to answer, because the question itself is vague.

So, the first thing that you need to do is re-frame the question by adding a purpose, like:

What does your company do to make the world a better place?
What does your company do to serve its market?
What does your company do to generate income?

Adding a purpose to the question will help you to create a response that's more meaningful and memorable to the asker.

The second thing you need to do is construct the answer using the Challenge>Solution>Outcome framework.

Define the challenge: What challenge organizations or people face, that your company helps them overcome?
Define the solution: What does your offering do to enable them to overcome that challenge?
Describe the outcome: What happened to the companies from using your solution? What results did they achieve?

Let's say that you sell CRM software. When someone asks, "What does your company do?" you can say (assuming a purpose of making the world a better place) something like the following:

[The challenge] "Today, more customers expect to be treated like VIP's, but it's hard for companies to give them personalized treatment.

[The solution] We developed a software product that helps these companies personalize how they each of their customers.

[The outcome] Over 200 companies have begun using our software to manage their customer interactions, and they report on average, a 22% improvement in customer retention. So, we've been able to help our customers give their customers a better experience, and keep those customers longer, to grow their businesses faster."

Using the Challenge>Solution>Outcome framework has an added advantage. I puts your response into the 3-stage story structure which will make it more memorable to the asker.

When someone asks you what your company does, do that someone a favor by adding a purpose onto their question, and then answer it by describing the challenge, defining your solution and describing the results achieved by your customers and their customers.

Now tell me, what does your company do?

Posted at 09:00 AM in Communication, Marketing Best Practices, Selling Skills | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

12/30/2014

What's the best way to reduce the cost of customer retention?

“If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it was, and always will be yours. If it never returns, it was never yours to begin with." - Sherrilyn Kenyon

Too many companies spend too many resources trying to keep customers that they should never have sold to in the first place. Many of those companies would be better-off shifting resources from trying to retain customers that are a poor fit, and use those resources to more carefully target and acquire customers that are a better fit for their offering. These ideal customers value the offering more, and are therefore less likely to leave in the first place.

Investors and strategists say that one of the first things a start-up should do before going to market is define its value proposition and its ideal customer. And most ventures will do that.

But sales reps can be quick to ignore the ideal customer profile and sell to any prospect with an ability and willingness to pay. An why shouldn't they? A sale is a sale, a dollar is a dollar, and a commission is a commission, even if a sales rep sells a round hole to a square peg.

But here's the problem: It takes time, money and effort to adjust a round hole to accomodate a square peg. But if you only sell to round pegs, there's no need to adjust the hole, and those resources are freed-up for more productive and profitable purposes - like sales and marketing intiatives to attract more round pegs).

So how to solve the problem?

Re-focus your sales qualification from "Can we sell our product to this customer?" to "Should we sell our product to this customer?" The traditional qualification process answers these four questions:

Budget: Does the prospect have funding avaialble?
Authority: Do we have access to the person with decision-making authority?
Need: Does the prospect have a need for our solution?
Timing: Does the prospect plan to buy now?

Adding a fifth criterion - Fit - will change the focus enough to assure that you're selling to the right customer:

5. Fit: Does the prospect match the criteria we've defined for our ideal customer?

By properly selecting each customer, you'll have happier customers and more advocates. You'll also spend less on implementation, customer support and customer retention. And that means more resources for attracting more of the right customers.

Why should you waste the effort driving square pegs into round holes, when a round peg is a better fit for your offering, and for your bottom line?

Posted at 08:52 AM in Best Practices, Lead Qualification, Marketing Best Practices, Selling Skills | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

11/09/2014

The Difference between Truth and Trust in Marketing

As customers, we want the truth.

The big sign said, "Domestic Passengers are Welcome to Shop Here."

So, I went inside, selected a bottle of my favorite bourbon, and brought it to to cashier.

She told me that I couldn't buy it, because I'm a domestic passenger.

"But the sign says domestic passengers can," I said.

As if on cue, she responded, "You need to read the bottom of the sign."

She was right - way down at the bottom of the sign, in a much smaller print was the message:

"Only passengers holding international boarding passes are allowed to purchase liquor and tobacco."

Never mind that 75% of their shelf space is dedicated to the stuff that the Welcomed Domestic Shopper can't buy.

Duty Free America lured me into their store with a cleverly-deceptive sign. Technically, the sign was truthful. The asterisk that followed the BIG WELCOME MESSAGE is the author's way of saying, "What you just read isn't the entire truth; if you want to know the entire truth, then you have to find and read the footnotes.

The point is this: If your BIG MESSAGE requires footnotes to be true, then your BIG MESSAGE alone is not true. Make it true; customers deserve straight talk; we deserve plain and simple truth.

When it comes to sales and marketing, there are three types of Truth:

Plain and Simple Truth
Technically True Truth
Untruth and Lies

Customers are emotional beings, and therefore we only trust one kind of Truth, and that's Plain and Simple Truth. Technically True Truth makes us suspicious. And the third isn't type isn't worthy of discussion.

Is there any Technically True Truth embedded in your customer-facing messaging? If there is, consider replacing it wiit Plain and Simple Truth. While Plain and Simple Truth may not lure as many prospects into your pipeline, those of us that do come inside will more loyal, long-term profitable customers. As for the prospects that are turned away by the truth? They weren't going to buy from you, anyway. So why invest the resources in unqualified prospects?

What type of truth does your marketing speak?

And on which type of Truth do you want to build your reputation?

Posted at 10:46 AM in Communication, Marketing Best Practices, Reputation, Trust & Transparency | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

07/25/2013

Beer mugs, wedding rings, and true customer relationships.

Having your own mug in your neighborhood pub used to mean something; it meant that you were a loyal patron; it meant that you developed such a strong relationship with the pub owners that they made you part of their establishment. The mug on the wall in the pub was the ultimate bond between the customer and the service provider - call it customer relationship Utopia.

It couldn't be bought; it had to be earned. Over time.

Has all that changed? Has this former badge of loyalty and longevity been reduced to another item on the menu that any wannabe can buy?

That seems to the be case at Gritty McDuff's, one of my all-time favorite brew-pubs in Portland, Maine. When I first arrived in Portland back in the early 90's, there were a few dozen mugs on the wall behind the bar at Gritty's. As I recall, you had to "earn" membership in the prestigious "mug club" by patronizing the bar enough to develop a relationship with the bartender, who would in turn, set a side a mug just for you. Ah, the early 90's...

Fast forward to July of 2013 - I was in Gritty's with some friends from out-of-town. The collection of mugs on the wall had expanded to a few hundred not only behind the bar, but also on the ceiling above the bar.

"That's a lot of customer loyalty," I thought.

Well, not exactly. The rules at Gritty's have changed since the early 90's. Today, anyone - even the first-time tourist from far away - can buy into the mug club for a $75 annual membership fee. For that, they receive a mug, a baseball cap and discounted beer. Whatever happened to meaningful relationships???

Relationship-based loyalty had been reduced to a transaction that anyone can buy into.

In some ways, having your own mug on the wall after years of loyal patronage can be a bit like the wedding band on your finger, after years of commitment to your spouse. Both icons symbolize a mutual commitment, made stronger over time.

Think about your business for a minute...

Do you offer your customers any programs or symbols of loyalty? And if so, do you keep it real? Or do are you willing to sell-out, by allowing anyone to buy-in, without a commitment?

Truly successful businesses are built upon strong, time-tested customer relationships. If you express it through a symbol, be sure to keep it real!

Posted at 10:04 AM in Customer Loyalty, Marketing Best Practices | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

07/22/2013

The Value of Face-to-face Marketing in a Digital World

Is non-digital marketing dead?

Think hard for a minute, back to the days before we had an Internet; back to before we had tablets and smart phones and portable digital devices that let us broadcast our marketing messages to thousands of potential customers in a single click. How did we deliver our message? We had to rely more on face-to-face sales and marketing.

Just because we can sell across the Internet, does not mean that face-to-face marketing is no longer effective. Quite the opposite, in fact.

How savvy marketing sold me tires in a Post Office

Recently, I was in a post office mailing a package, when a gentlemen walked in and said, "Who owns the Chevy Avalanche outside?"

I told him it was mine. He handed me his business card, and told me that my front tires should be replaced - something of which I was already aware.

"We're just one mile up the road - stop in and we'll take good care of you."

Effective Marketing in Five Easy Steps

He began prospecting by looking at the tires on the vehicles in the parking lot.
He identified a qualified prospect by noticing the worn tires on the Chevy Avalanche.
He approached the prospect by asking who owned it.
He his prospect by introducing himself, his business, and how they could solve my problem.
He offered a call-to-action, by telling me where the garage was located, and handing me a business card.

Do you take advantage of the opportunity offered by face-to-face marketing? It may not scale the way digital marketing does, but on a prospect-by-prospect level, it can be more effective for a couple reasons: A face-to-face conversation with a prospect provides more instantaneous and more extensive feedback to help guide the engagement toward qualification and a sale.

And there's another advantage: Since marketing has gone digital and mobile, companies seem to have backed away from this old-school marketing. Therefore, the people that do it, stand out - much like the hand-written thank-you note. Being rare makes it remarkable, and being remarkable, makes it more engaging.

How to get started:

Are you taking advantage of this new comparative power of face-to-face, non-digital marketing? How can you put this work in your business? Answer the following five questions will get you started:

Where can you find your prospects?
How can you quickly identify and qualify them?
How can you effficiently/effectively approach them?
What can you ask them, to engage them?
What's your call-to-action?

Posted at 05:00 AM in Marketing Best Practices | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

05/27/2013

How Gillette's "Kissing" Campaign Uses Classic Selling Tactics

It's been said that people buy based on emotions, and use logic to justify for their decisions, often after the fact. Most sales and marketing professionals know this to be true, and the savviest among us use that it into our sales and marketing messaging.

Gillette's current "Kiss and tell us" campaign incorporates this time-tested theory in a fun and memorable way. Before we go into the details of the campaign, let's take a quick look at the shaving market dynamics among young men - the future of Gillette's revenue stream.

Guys in their early shaving years are growing more facial hair, and hence, shaving less. That means fewer razor, blade and shave cream sales for Gillette. And since this demographic has more razor-buying years in front of them than any other male market segment, it makes strategic sense for Gillette to get these guys to change their habits, and start shaving more often. But how, especially when it's become so cool to be unshaven?

That's where the emotions come in. Remembering that buyers buy based on emotion, the best way to get a twenty-something to shave his face more often is to connect shaving more with something that he really cares about; something that he may not see as having any connection to what you're trying to sell him.

But that's where your job counts... to make that connection for him, and present it in a way that's so simple, it needs no further explanation. And provide statistics, to form that logical wrapper.

That said, what's the primary motive of young single men that shave less often?

Their careers
The college options for their yet un-conceived children
Attracting women

If you said "3" you're correct. While it may be socially correct to say "career," that's not the right answer. For men at that age, there's plenty of time to establish a career. Other needs must be satisified sooner.

Gillette sells shaving to these young men as a way to get more women. That's the emotional part. But remember, when you're selling, you also need to provide logic; sound, objective reasons for making the buying decision. And that's what Gillette does so well in this campaign: They combine the emotional appeal and the logic into a clear, uncomplicated message:

85% of women prefer to kiss a clean-shaven man.
2 out or 3 women said men will have better luck with them, if they are clean-shaven.
76% of women would give a longer, more passionate kiss to a smooth-shaven man.

Sure, the campaign may appear a little "tounge-in-cheek," but it beautifully exemplifies how emotions and logic can combine to pursuade a buyer. In fact, it can lead us to ask ourselves some important questions, to evaluate and improve our selling results:

Do you incorporate both the emotional appeal, and the logical support, in your sales and marketing messaging?

Do you know what the emotional factors are, that drive your customers to buy your products?

How can you appeal to those factors in your selling and marketing messages?

What logical components can you use, to justify the emotional decision?

Are there ways that you can combine the logic wtih the emotion, as Gillette has done, for a more compelling message?

Posted at 08:00 AM in Communication, Marketing Best Practices, Selling Skills | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

05/01/2013

The secret that some companies have discovered to win more customers

A few years ago, I wanted to have my house painted. I called three diffferent companies for estimates, and had the opportunity to observe how three different companies sold essentially the same product: a professionally-painted home.

Each company came well-recommended, and I was confident that I would be happy with the work of any one of the three. But the one that I ended up hiring was the one that required the least amount of effort for me to hire.

They made it easy for me to become a customer.

The more effort that a prospect must invest to become a customer, the less likely that prospect is to become a customer. Let's look at one company that has experienced exponential growth, in part by making it easy for their prospects to become customers:

Salesforce.com

For years, SAP and Oracle were the market leaders in CRM software. Until Salesforce came along and made it much easier to become a customer by eliminating many of the traditional barriers to buying and using software:

Enduring lengthy sales cycles aggressive software sales reps.
Handing over large amounts of cash to buy software licenses.
Buying and configuring computer hardware.
Installing the software on the hardware.
Configuring and customizing the software.
Using the software.

Traditional software vendors required the customer to leap five hurdles before arriving at their desired destination.

Remove the hurdles to buying, and you're making it easier for the customer to get to the point of being a customer, and using your product. That's exactly what Saleforce did - they removed those first five steps, and in so doing, became the fastest company in history to reach 1 billion dollars in revenue.

So, ask yourself the following four questions:

How many steps does your company require a prospect to go through in order to become a customer?
Which steps can you eliminate, by making some creative changes?
Which ones can you "hide" so that the prospect doesn't have to endure them?
Which steps can be combined, to reduce the prospects' perceived pain?

What companies have you bought from, because they made it easy?

Posted at 07:39 AM in Customer Experience, Customer Journey, Marketing Best Practices, Strategy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

03/29/2013

5 Marketing Strategies that Colleges use so Well

Every day when I go to our mailbox, there's lots of mail from the colleges and universities that my son has applied to. This has been going on for the past 18 months, and has allowed me to observe how colleges market themselves to prospective customers.

It's also given me a fresh look at how marketing best practices work, from a customer's perspective. Here are five key strategies, and how they can help any business attract more customers:

They sell to multiple decision makers.
Who are the different decision makers involved in selecting your offering? My son is deciding which college he will ultimately attend, but my wife and I will have an enormous influence over the decision. Colleges know this, so they sell concurrently to each of the multiple decision makers. Some mailing will be to "The Parents of" and some mailings are to the student. The messages are also different, appealing to our different motives.

How well do you segment you messaging? What are their buying criteria? Have you devised specific messaging for each of these groups of decision makers, to appeal to their specific selection criteria?

They keep the faucet flowing.
I've noticed that many colleges are great with "drip marketing." They'll send us something every month, which has admittedly kept some higher on our list.

How regularly do your prospects hear from you? Do you market through infrequent blasts, or do you make sure that your name is in front of them at regular intervals, to remain top-of-mind?

They vary the content.
One month, a particular college gave us an inside perspective of student life on campus. The next month it was about the worldly achievements of their faculty. The following month it was about their graduates' success in finding good jobs within the year after graduation. In other words, they kept it fresh and interesting. And it wasn't all glossy brochures; we've received several editions of the college's newspapers.

Do you vary the content in your campaigns? If you're delivering a message to your prospects every 30 days, are you numbing their minds with the same content, or do you give them something new to think about? Is your content so engaging that it leaves the prospect curiously anticipating "what's next?" much the way you do with your favorite magazine subscription?

They personalize the message.
Do you appeal to the inner human in your prospect? One of the more effective types of content are the truly personal ones - those handwritten notes that come from current students; like the english major who writes for the student newspaper, encouraging my son to give the school high consideration. Note: my son applied as an English major, with a focus on creative writing.

They synchronize their marketing to our selection process.
Within the next 30 days, my son will make his final decision. And we've noticed that many of the schools are sending us mail not just once per month, but now once each week. They're aware that a decision is looming, and it's critical to stay at the top of our minds. One way synchronize your marketing with the customer's buying process is increasing the frequency of the mailings.

How well do you understand your customers' buying process? Do you know exactly how and when they make their final selections? Do you market with this in mind? Remember, timing is everything. What do you do, to be sure that you're "in the room" when the final decision is made?

Posted at 08:50 AM in Best Practices, Marketing Best Practices | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

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