Personality Marketing Get more business, more easily, with more fun, by being 100% YOU!

Sound marketing advice can be found in the strangest, and oldest of places - in this case, one of Aesop’s Fables.  In case you didn’t know Aesop was an Ancient Greek slave and story-teller - so we’re talking about marketing advice from about 600 BC!

I’m always trying to encourage you to put some personality into your marketing, and this story perfectly illustrates why:

“An old man and a young boy were traveling through their village with their donkey. The boy rode on the donkey and the old man walked.

As they went along they passed some people who remarked it was a shame the old man was walking and the boy was riding.

The man and boy thought maybe the critics were right, so they changed positions.

Later, they passed some people that remarked, “What a shame, he makes that little boy walk.” They then decided they both would walk.

Soon they passed some more people who thought they were stupid to walk when they had a decent donkey to ride. So, they both rode the donkey.

Now they passed some people that shamed them by saying, “How awful to put such a load on a poor donkey.”

The boy and man said they were probably right, so they decided to carry the donkey.

As they crossed the bridge, they lost their grip on the animal and he fell into the river and drowned.

The moral of the story?

If you try to please everyone, you may as well just kiss your ass goodbye.”

OK - honesty moment.  That’s not the original wording, but it made me smile more!

And the point made by the original wording of the moral is as true now as it’s always been: “PLEASE ALL, AND YOU WILL PLEASE NONE.”

Are you trying to please everyone?  Or are you being uniquely you - and attracting the kinds of customers and clients that love you for that?

Posted under Marketing

Came across a great blog today: http://www.smallbiztrends.com/

They asked their readers/contributors for their top marketing secrets and compiled it into a free report, which I’d like to offer you today.

It’s completely free, and you don’t need to register to download it: 100 Best Kept Marketing Secrets

There’s a lot of common sense in there, as well as some suggestions that I’ll be taking up. 

Have a read - it’s worth your time.

Posted under Marketing

I came across a blog post today about how some small (and not so small) businesses are absolutely killing business and projecting a very ‘penny pinching’/mean attitude to their customers:

“…as I was checking out, I noticed a sign that said $5 minimum on all credit/debit card transactions. But…the movie is only $4. So this means, a person can’t come in and get 1 movie (which is what I would normally do) and pay with their card. I don’t even know how to spend $5. 2 movies is $8!

I suppose their logic goes something like this…our merchant account fees just raised by $.10 per transaction. We just can’t afford for people to swipe their cards for less than $5 anymore. Besides…maybe this will motivate people to get more than 1 movie. So, we’ll make more profit because we’ll pay less in fees, and rent more movies at once. Great idea!

Well, I think that’s a real bad plan. I doubt it’s going to motivate many people to get more than one movie — in fact, I think it will cause people to choose to just “skip it” all together. If it were me (and it probably won’t be, now that I know their new policy), I’d be ticked off, out of principle. And I very rarely carry cash. I would probably leave. For me, crappy credit card policies cause me not to do business with places.”

The post goes on to give some really good ideas about how they could have structured it to add value to the transaction, and the customer, and encourage/incentivise (rather than force) the customer to spend more money.

I agree with everything they say - I get really turned off by penny pinching policies like this too.

Full blog post is here: http://www.gravitationalmarketing.com/observation/2008/3/27/how-not-to-make-a-profit.html

Posted under Marketing

Just out of curiosity I thought I’d see how long it took for a post to show up in Google.  I posted a cartoon with the title “I like the sound of Dilberts Marketing Biathlon” at 12:30:38 pm.  It appeared in Google less than 15 minutes later!

Just goes to show how fast ‘blog and ping’ (a standard feature of Wordpress, just with a larger list of ‘targets’) can get you ranked!

Posted under Marketing

A little light relief for a Friday:

:-)  I love that!

Posted under Marketing

OK, OK - I know.  You might be thinking I’m rather over-using these guys as an example, but I really do think they ‘get it’ far more than 99.999% of small businesses out there.  (And no, I don’t get anything for recommending them or talking about them).

So why another post about Clarity?  Well, despite their excellent site, they’ve been rather tardy in getting the stuff to me.  And, until just now, I’d had no explanation of why.  Not good (sorry John!)

But when I got the explanation, yet again, it manages to be personal and leaves me with a warm feeling.  Compensates me without being asked.  Manages to get in a plug for another site of theirs.

Hell, even their ‘email disclaimer’ has personality!  Check this out:

“Hello Gordon,

Well, first, thanks for the comments left with the order.  As the scribe responsible for the pleasing pages, I am much increased by your words.

In an oddly self-fulfilling model, here is that personal connection to which you aluded! 

But it’s not with mere pleasantries that I’m writing here.  Indeed, as my imaginary friend Gollum would say, it hurts us.  Hurts us it does, to write about this;

You’ll doubtless have noticed that you don’t yet have your ordered goodies in your hands.  Very poor show.  The order was delayed by a late arrival from the NTE5 manufacturers.  All very well, but we’re supposed to let you know if any kind of a hold-up becomes likely, and indeed usually do.  Not this time though I see, and you’ve been left squarely in the dark about where your stuff must have got to.  Very sorry!

I’ve just refunded the shipping charge to your card since we didn’t in fact, well, ship it.  Not in anything I’d call a decent time.

So, as a couple of us are in tidying up such loose ends this evening, you’ll get a “shipped” mail soon (or recently if Chris is faster than I am at

typing) when it’s completed, so it will physically leave here in tomorrow’s post.

Sorry again for the rubbish delay, and again thank you for your business - and comments! *pleased*

John

John Doyle

Director & Operations

Clarity

===============================================

Blatant plug for a web site from the Clarity stable (if you like that sort of thing): http://www.thebadwolf.co.uk

And our very good coffee drinking neighbours; www.scrapyardsculptures.co.uk

Email Disclaimers are such an ugly, unread footnote, and all too often are bigger than the e-mail itself! So ours is appended at; http://www.clarity.it/email.htm This mail’s subject to all the disclaiming therein.”

Again, a question for you.  When you screw up, do you hold your hand up, admit you’ve been rubbish, and offer unasked for compensation? 

Or do you  offer a ‘boilerplate’ apology like “We’re sorry for the late shipment of your order, and will endeavour to get it to you as soon as we can.”?

Or do you just hope the customer doesn’t notice and try and fix it quietly? (I sincerely hope not!)

Like John admits, the original service could have been better but you can rest assured whenever anyone asks where I got my stuff from, although I might mention it was delayed, I’ll also mention the apology and compensation.

Genuine recognition of a problem when it occurs, taking responsibility, and offering meaningful compensation can turn a potentially negative experience into a happy customer.

Do you do the same?

Posted under Marketing, Shining Examples

You might remember me talking about how I think Clarity IT is a shining example of the kind of marketing approach I’m talking about in the post “Getting a little Clarity in your marketing“.

Well, I just had my standard ‘your order has been shipped’ email, but I also got a more personal (and fun) email to go with it.  Yet again, a great illustration of how to communicate your personality to your customers:

“Dear Mr. Gordon Mullan,

Hello.

Your order’s been shipped.

Please take a moment to read the notes here too.

Even as you read this, postal and carrier workers will be dedicating their efforts to making sure your goodies arrive intact and with all haste.

YOU WILL NEED TO SIGN FOR DELIVERY.

If the Postie misses you he’ll leave a card with details of how to collect your package from your local RM Collections Office or request a re-delivery.

Recorded Delivery items are held for 5 working days, and Special Delivery items for 3 working days before coming back to Clarity.  Please note you will need to pay for the cost of shipping again if we need to resend an order which comes back to us.

*Larger orders sent via a carrier service operate slightly different pickup/redelivery arrangements - see your Missed Delivery Card for specific details.

Thanks very much for your business, and especially for your money.  What would also be great would be your repeat business in the future, your referral businsess from your mates/colleagues/kinfolk, and any well placed name-dropping in any forums you frequent.  “

Here’s a question for you - if you send out any kind of confirmation emails, do yours have this much personality?  If not, try putting some in - it all helps differentiate you from the next business along!

Remember - marketing isn’t just advertising.  It happens every time you have an interaction with the customer, even if that contact is automated.

If you use an e-commerce or shopping cart system, edit your confirmation emails today to put a little bit of personality into them - it only takes a few minutes, but it makes them seem that much more…well, personal.

(Not to mention more likely to get read!)

Go on - do it now.  The more personal and friendly you can make it, the better.

Posted under Marketing, Shining Examples