Are you a card collector?

It’s been said (can’t remember where, but I am sure I read it) that a business card is one of the most effective marketing tools you will ever use. Certainly it is hard to imagine going through business life, or life in general without them. Indeed I was planning a quiet day recently and to my endless embarrassment I was caught without my usual supply when asked for one. Note to self: Make sure that never happens again.

So, on balance I agree that your card says a lot about you and your company. However…..I have been to numerous networking events where there was a lot of card collecting going on. In other words people handing out cards and taking them almost as if it were a game - who can give out and/or collect the most by the end of the evening.

Why are we exchanging cards

Try asking that question if you are genuinely not sure of the answer. Many times in the past I have been given a card BEFORE any connection was established or we had discussed where the relationship went next. Of course, cards allow us to connect after the event but, let’s be honest, how often do you go through your card collection and think: “Hmmm. I wonder who that was?”

Left Pocket, Right Pocket

Kevin has a great approach. If he knows why he has a card and what the follow up is it goes into his right pocket and then into his follow up process. Left pocket? Don’t know what the next step is, goes into a stack of cards with no detailed follow up.

Make sure you know why you might want to follow up with a contact. Find out what they do and what their concerns are - is that person a good target/prospect/referral partner/resource for you and what can you do for them? If you find that out at a network meeting, by all means swap cards and agree the next stage of discussion.

Then you will save on cards and make sure more of the ones you give out make it to the right pocket!

Who do you love to work with?

One of the most common mistakes we see small businesses make when they get set up is a head long rush to implement some marketing tools. It seems like a good use of time to get into action straight away. Most of us are “doers” and getting going on activity feels good!

However it is often the route to frustration and wasted money. Why? Well, activity is all very well but without clear focus it is often a wasted effort. If you are not talking to the appropriate audience, such activity is likely to be ignored. The frustration this causes can lead to frequent changes of tactics, more money spent in unrelated activity. This is what we call “episodic marketing” and commonly includes activity such as: brochure, website, direct mail, widely dispersed networking activity, joining of groups etc.

The starting point

It sounds easy, in practice it is harder. However you really need to define, specifically and in a targeted way, who you preferred clients are. Not necessarily the ones who pay best (although that may be part of it) but those you have a passion to help. Those that make your day, that you look forward to speaking with. You may be able to find them in your client base now (hopefully you have at least one!) but if you are new in business then it is those that you envisaged helping when you started out.

Spending some time on this will help you avoid the excesses of episodic marketing. When you know who you want to help you can define their problems, how your services make that better, where these people hang out, what they read, what they want and so on.

Sounds easy but it takes work! Spend some time defining who these people are and you won’t regret that time!

Knowing something doesn’t help your perception as an expert

I love to read. There is so little time and so much to read I always seem to have a pile of unread books to work my way through. There is a lot of value in the wisdom that comes from books. One of my favorites:

“Made to Stick - Why some ideas survive and others die by Chip and Dan Heath”

I highly recommend it generally, but it has specific relevance to marketing. In particular there is a concept that I see demonstrated again and again, called the “curse of knowledge”.  I paraphrase (and you can hear from the experts in their blog) but this curse is essentially this: when we know something it is almost impossible to remember what it is like not to know it. As a result we become poor communicators

When were you last confused by an “expert”?

In my experience this has proven true in marketing messages. Trying to demonstrate how expert you are by telling prospects all about you and the unique, technical things you do is a guaranteed turn off. If you are a financial planner I probably know that you are very familiar with your products and the state of the market (at least I hope so!). However a detailed explanation of everything you do is not what I am looking for and may actually repel my interest. Often this is the case with very knowledgeable folks with a great deal of experience - lawyers for example.

What about me?

The fact is most people are more concerned that you understand them, than that they impress you with deep knowledge of a particular subject. This can be a stretch. Of course you need to have that expertise to be effective but for a MARKETING point of view, showing that off is counter productive

The answer? You will be credited with a lot more expertise when you ask perceptive questions based on your knowledge that really get your prospect thinking, and shows them you understand them. To get there you need to understand the profile, preferences, hopes, fears and pain that your ideal client is experiencing. Tapping into this via insightful questions, and giving them information that helps them address it is far more effective than telling them all that you do and showing off how much you know.

Remember what it is like when you didn’t have the knowledge you have - does the jargon you use confuse rather than attract?

Are you prepared to give your message at any time?

I am struggling a bit this week as I just returned from a trip to the Philippines. Partly this was a vacation, partly a trip to see relatives and partly (the most rewarding part) was charitable work with a local hospital and school. This is the reason that there has been no blog from me for a couple of weeks. However, as always it seems, there was a marketing lesson I learned in an unexpected place. In this case, it was on a plane.

So, what do you do?

The flight from Kansas City to Manila is a long one. You can’t get there non-stop. We went: Kansas City to Chicago to Tokyo to Manila. I don’t know exactly how many hours that is in the air but it’s a lot. It was about 30 minutes before landing in the Philippines, around 27 hours since I last slept that I fell into conversation with the person in the seat next to me. She asked me the classic question: “What do you do?”

We had a great conversation but I am not sure that I answered her question very effectively even though I have been asked it hundreds of times and like to think that I am always prepared for it.

What’s the lesson?

My travelling colleague was based in Manila so may not have been a good target for me but her business was definitely one of my target types. I was so tired and not thinking in a business mindset due to the nature of the trip but so what? We were having a nice conversation and there was always the chance we could do business together and I allowed my guard to slip and was taken by surprise.

This is not a beat myself up issue at all. It is a learning point - you never know. You really don’t. The next person you meet might be your perfect client/referral partner/whatever. Make sure that you are always prepared to answer that question - it takes some up front work but it is well worth it.

What is the first marketing requirement for a business?

I think that the answer to this question probably used to be (and still may be): A brochure. For many businesses this was seen as essential on a number of levels. Most importantly it was the primary means to “get the word out”. Something tangible for our service business that we could leave with prospects/send to them/leave on the side at trade shows. Perhaps maybe equally important: It makes us feel good about the business - it is real and here is the proof.

What is it really saying?

Most businesses do a lot of things. Even with a clear idea of our ideal client profile, what we do for them and so on, it is very difficult to summarize everything in print. There is always something else, perhaps we add a service and then the brochure is redundant. What if we move? Don’t forget that we get the best deal on printing the more items are printed - so what do we do with the 5000 brochures we have left over when we move?

Thankfully a lot of these problems are minimized or avoided with the advent of the internet and our ability to get our message out that way. However, how many businesses simply replicate their brochure on line. So, even though we can now change the website as often as we want, are we making the same mistakes I often see in brochures.

What mistakes are you talking about?

A brochure can be effective but, be honest. How many times is it simply a list of services that relies on the reader to make the connection with their own business or personal issue? In an effort to make sure all the bases are covered brochures are often very wordy. Sometimes brochures are handed out with an apology and or disclaimer:

“This is a little out of date now as we have changed a couple of people and added a few services, but it should give you a good idea of what we are about”

The problem is that this is exactly the same issue that can befall a website. In other words it becomes an online brochure with no better insight for the prospect than a printed example - except more frequent updates. It still comes from the perspective of the business itself or, worse, the webmaster who controls the site. What is the fist page that most users are directed to? Yup - “About us”

I am not saying there is no need to define what and who you are as a business but it shouldn’t be the first thing, or the center of the site. Make sure that you have grabbed attention from someone who has landed on the site before you start telling them everything you do. How do you do that? Think in terms of your ideal client -what issues are they wrestling or struggling with? This will be a far more compelling reason for them to explore your site and discover your unique value.

Of course, you can also take that approach with a brochure - should you decide, after reviewing your marketing apporach that you even need one!

I have a very good friend here in Kansas City, Stephen,  who gives me loads of ideas for books that have really helped me in business and also personally. Generally speaking I agree with his (very educated) opinions but we do diverge a little when it comes to “The Four Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss.

What can you give up?

I encourage you to read this book even though I have a couple of issues with it! I went to one of Stephen’s book review sessions last week and it has encouraged me to re-read it to see what different aspects I can pull out the second time around. The key point I am particularly interested in is the concept that there are things that we should all give up to make our lives less cluttered and more rewarding.

In the context of marketing, what does this mean?

Is everything strictly necessary?

As much as I love books and thirst for knowledge, I can’t really agree with Ferris when he recommends going 5 days without reading, following the news etc. However in the marketing world there are surely a lot of things that we do that we could give up, or should at least evaluate as to their effectiveness.

So the simple point of this post is this: Take a look at your marketing activities - do you know why you are doing them and what you expect out of them? Can you point to the results and are you tracking those results?

Here’s the kicker - what would giving up those activities cost you? Is it really necessary that you do them yourself or can you outsource them?

I suspect there are a great many marketing things we do that are not particularly effective but we continue with them because they are fun, we can’t think of anything else to do, someone told us to etc. Make sure you know whether this is the case or not!

Maybe I should read the book again - perhaps I am coming round to it’s key message!

We are having a great seminar series running at the moment - group discussion is always so valuable, not least when it provides material for this blog! We are at the stage when we get to talk about moving from initial contact to gaining attention using that ubiquitous tool: The 30 second introduction.

How many versions should I have?

How many intros do you need? Here is the key: Figure out who the message is for - in other words what is the profile of your ideal clients? What do those businesses (or individuals) have in common in terms of their demographics/size/industry type and so on. This will form the first part of your message:

“We work with Fortune 500 companies” or “I work with small businesses and independent professionals in the service sector” are a couple of examples. You can perhaps vary your message around this theme (more on that later) but who the message is for should ALWAYS be clear.

OK, what do you do for them?

Think about the problems that your target audience is facing and will readily relate to. These are the issues they deal with and will gain their attention. For example:

“We work with small business owners and independent professionals in the service sector who want to grow but struggle to attract high quality clients consistently”

Now, you can vary the second part a little as far as the words go. Figure out what works best but you should be highly comfortable with the words. They should be things that you would say in a conversation or it won’t sound natural. However you may want to vary some of the words just so as you don’t sound like a tape recorder. Make sure that the core message is the same though!