Atomic Penny

You step into the local coffee shop for a tasty beverage. In a corner of the shop is a one of your customers sitting with a friend of hers. You don’t see then and they don’t do or say anything to approach you or get your attention.

However, the customer sees you and tells her friend about your business relationship. What will she tell her friend? What do you believe she should tell her friend? Are they the same thing?

That is peripheral marketing, the stuff that happens right outside your field of vision that can affect your business.

What are you doing to influence your peripheral marketing?

POWER ON–Mark

Are you trying so hard to get customers by creating a need or or sending a message that you lose your focus on the objective?  As an example, Chrysler is advertising during this years Super Bowl on February 7, 2010. While the commercials during the Super Bowl generate great buzz, I believe the lesson here may be relevance. The company, according to this article, is rumored to be featuring the Dodge Charger, a 5 year old car.

What message does Chrysler/Fiat want to send? Is the company moving forward or standing still? While the commercial may be the best received ad of the day, the message is that they haven’t changed.

I am hoping for something that really pushes the edge of the box, not just the accelerator.

POWER ON–Mark

Join me on twitter @atomicmark #atomicpenny

Low sales, no leads, meager commissions, few customers.

You have put a whole lot of effort put into sending out mailers, buying a bigger banner, announcing a new sale. Since that didn’t work I am sure a program of TV and radio will do the trick. Set up a Facebook fan page or even twitter. You are doing what all of your competitors are doing and all getting pretty much the same result. You can’t win on price, someone else will always meet or beat your price. Sooner or later your budget for marketing and advertising will run dry. Now what?

Albert Einstein is credited with giving us this gem, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

What are you doing differently? Think about it.

POWER ON–Mark

Maze Dwellers, Desk Sitters, Lizard Brainers and the rest of us now have a guide to break out! Seth Godin has done it again with his latest book, “Linchpin”. Release the passion that you already have and make your passion visible to others. Seth has provided the tools and the vision to move to your higher level. Make your life your canvas and share your passion. While painting your masterpiece, you release what you can and should become. Let the real you emerge to reach your full potential, and become what you deserve. “Linchpin” will be your guide, and lead you to becoming indispensable.

POWER ON–Mark

Bonus Links:

Book Reviews

Buy the book here!

It is funny how you remember certain things. I remember sitting the back porch with my parents watching the Apollo 11 moon walk. I remember making a u-turn at college when the Challenger explosion was announced. I also remember I slightly “bumped” a car when I was making that turn. To be honest I didn’t leave a note. I seem to recall his Subaru was already in worse shape than my Pinto. Yes, a Pinto.

Keywords: Apollo, Challenger, Pinto. Three simple words that have vivid memories about specific events in my life. Not life changing in any way, but memorable and indelibly etched in my past. What do they bring to mind for you? If you use a search engine, Apollo brings up 41,500,000 references on Google, Challenger-19,800,000 and Pinto-37,100,000. Think about Challenger, is it a spacecraft, a contestant, a car, a participant in a race, a politician or a school?  Pinto is even more generational in the 70′s it was a car, the 80′s a movie character in “National Lampoon’s Animal House”, the 00′s a baseball player or an actress in an academy award winning movie; “Slumdog Millionaire”. Or it was a bean that has been eaten for generations.

Specific things  mean different things to different people. When developing a SEO program you need to keep that in mind. If you are too general you spend too much money chasing after dead ends, too narrow and you have nothing to show for your efforts. Be smart, take it to another level. MAking your search parameters will yield very different results;  Apollo 11 (10,100,000), Challenger Explosion (324,000) or Ford Pinto (682,000).  While you as a user know this, when you create your SEO you program, you may tend to forget in order to reach a wider more diluted audience. If you use the correct words for your SEO program, you will find the correct group of potential customers. If using SEO as an option in your marketing program, be generally specific. Also don’t forget to be unconventional. While the Apollo 11 was the first to land on the moon, Apollo 17 was the last lunar mission. You don’t want to be first or the last, but you want to be easy to find and memorable.

What will be memorable about your SEO strategy?  And how will you get there without spending a mint? I have some ideas, and I am sure you have some great ideas, drop me a note and we can chat about it.

POWER ON–Mark

mark@atomicpenny,com

I am a big HUGE fan of acronyms. It is not the acronym itself, but the puzzle of figuring out what it stands for and how the acronym applies to you and your situation. At a recent gathering I had been asked to present on a way to grow sales and improve individual customer relations. Not wanting to rehash the same old, same old, I decided to present it as a way to become a legend in your own company, a way to gain F.A.M.E.:

Find–Go out and find the people, situations and interactions that will not only help you be successful, but in which you can        reciprocate. There are millions of customers waiting for, almost begging for an interaction. If you don’t do it through a personal  interaction, the customer will find someone who will. Once you find her, accelerate to her to be of assistance. Now as a company with hundreds, thousands or even millions of customers, you personally cannot help every one. You can however, put in place a system that can be replicated and reinforce the customer interactions.

Accelerate–Move as fast as you can to help, assist or sell to the customer. Also accelerate away from those customers who will suck the life force out of you! You are in charge of the gas pedal, use it wisely. Once you accelerate to the customer, don’t be a stalker. Do what you need to do, do it well, keep in touch and find another person or company to build a relationship with. Then work to maintain that relationship

Maintain–Make the call, send a note, refer another client. Make sure the customer know you appreciate her business. Be sure to maintain that relationship. With a little time, you can do quite a bit. A customer only sale, a thank you note or a visit just to say hello goes a long way. Maintain the relationship in such a way that again, both of you gain from it. A word of warning, be sure to make the customer feel needed, but not in a desperate way. Desperation never looks or feels good. And remember to enjoy the interactions.

Enhance and Enjoy– Enjoy the reciprocal relationship you have created. Make an effort to include the customer in your company functions. Let the customer know that her success is your success. Depending on the customer,  include her in corporate events if possible. Brag about the customer and her accomplishments. Don’t brag about the size of the sale, but how both of you win in the interaction. Be genuinely please to see the customer and interact with her.  Make it a long lasting relationship based on mutual success and admiration. Enjoy the success both of you have. Besides her success can be your success.

Many times in sales and marketing it is easier to find a new customer than to help a current one. In the business climate we live in today, everyone is trying to win new customers, and some of them just may be yours. Make the extra effort and don’t give the customer a reason to leave, create a reason to stay. Not only will both of you be happier, you will claim the F.A.M.E. you so richly deserve.

POWER ON–Mark

I was reading this blog from Seth Godin and I just had to share. It gets to the point of what the customer really wants. Read the blog and let me know your thoughts.

When I posted this link it reaffirmed that what the customer wants is a special experience.  I personally am tired of hearing: sale, price, mark-down and closeout. What I want to hear is “Thank you for shopping with us”, “Yes Sir”, ” I can get that for you” and so on. I also started thinking about who does it right.

The Apple Store is an amazing place to visit. It is visually stunning, interactive and welcoming. You see no signs stating; “Don’t Touch”, “You break it you buy it”, “Backpacks are subject to search” or a scowling security guard. You are welcomed to browse, ask questions and touch stuff, lots and lots of stuff. Cool electronic stuff. iPods, iPhones, Macs, Macbooks and accessories. No one asks you to stand behind a rope or wait your turn. If you have an Apple product, make an appointment at the Genius Bar to experience another part of the experience. And if you need help all you need to do is ask. That is what I call an excellent customer experience. I enjoy just going in and touching.

Nordstrom is another retailer that gets it. While I admit that I dislike clothes shopping as much as I dislike visiting the dentist, Nordstrom makes me feel welcome.  I am willing to pay a little more to get clothing I know will last and can be returned if they don’t work out. Lastly, the associates at Nordstrom  will walk around the counter and hand you your purchase. While it is a little thing, it makes the experience a big thing.

As either a marketer or business, what can you do to make a small thing BIG?

POWER ON–Mark

I am not a humble person, I believe I am right almost every time I have an interaction. What I have also discovered, is that other people I interact with believe that they are also right almost all of the time.

If you are a paid consultant, you are paid to be right, but that does not always extend to other aspects of life and business. In business there is always an individual or group that knows either more or different information than you do. Pamela Slim, author, coach extraordinaire, mentor and blogger, has written about this subject. She is an expert in this area and really dedicated to getting aspiring entrepreneurs up and going. Her primary advice is to get a Council of Elders or a personal board of directors. I highly suggest checking it out.

Another marketing expert, Bryan Waldon Pope, wrote about resources available to assist in running your start-up. His information is part of his website at Marketing Success Institute. He provides a number of resources in his blog to help you start or grow your business.

So as you start running, growing or marketing your business. Take your blinders off, open your ears and above all ask questions.

I have found with some of my hiring and business practices it is best to ask those people who likely will give you the harshest criticism for advice. Friends and family will tell you what you want to hear, those who are are unaffiliated or more critical will tell you what our need to know. Be unconventional and ask for criticism, learn from it and grow your business to a higher level. Then make your critics your biggest cheerleaders by showing them you can listen and learn.

Bonus Sites:

www.escapefromcubiclenation.com

www.marketingsuccessinstitute.com

POWER ON–Mark

Have you budgeted your marketing yet? Here are a few suggestions to consider as you move into your 2010 marketing programs.

• Consider as many different options as possible. Think big, then find a way to make it happen without breaking the bank.
• If a program worked well in the past, be sure to update it and run it again. Don’t be afraid to repeat success. At the same time don’t repeat programs that did not work, even if your brother-in-law sold it to you!
• Be sure to include at least one community organization in your plan. Choose one that matches your business goals.
• Make sure your employees understand what your objectives are, utilize their strengths to enhance your marketing program.
• Review your website, make sure it reflects your objectives.
• Involve social media such as Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter. Learn about one or more of these if you are unfamiliar with any of them.

Above all, make wise decisions with your money. Be unconventional in your decision making. More importantly, be confident in your decision making, and always be open to suggestions. Advice is free, advertising isn’t.

POWER ON–Mark