Entrepreneurship
This is a wonderfully motivating video celebrating the entrepreneurial spirit.
What was old is new again
It seems we’ve come full circle when it comes to communicating with our prospects and clients. I noticed recently that I’ve been paying a lot less attention to online newsletters and those pretty HTML announcements that arrive in my in-box every day. There are a few exceptions of course. But for the most part I’m interested in the CONTENT of what is being delivered, not the design or graphics. When given the choice I no longer ask for the HTML version of anything - instead I choose the text-only version.
There was a time when it was unusual to receive anything but plain text into your email box. Then we moved to designing branded newsletters and “postcard-like” invitations that would capture the attention of our readers. Now, thanks to ever-improving SPAM filters a lot of those fancy invitations, announcements and emails aren’t even making it to our desktop. And for those that do get through the fire-wall, we’ve become jaded and tired of looking at all those designs. We just want the information - short, sweet and simple.
Playing on this hunch we recently experimented with a client that has been holding a series of seminars. As is typical, invitations had been sent out using HTML and branded design. But registrations were down and we were looking for a way to drive attendance. So we sent out another announcement about the event, except this was a simple text email. Read more
Lessons Learned in Failing
As a serial entrepreneur, Zephyr isn’t the first company I’ve started. Recently, I was interviewed by Tom Heath, a columnist with the Washington Post. He wanted to talk about another company I launched 2 years ago and recently had to shut down. Tom writes about successful entrepreneurs every week in his “Value Added” column. I wanted to take a different approach. I’ve learned a lot from projects that failed, and this was no exception. Any entrepreneur worth her salt has a couple of great mistakes under her belt, and this is one of mine. So I thought that his readers could learn from this story and take away some valuable lessons (just like I did).
I think he did a great job on the article, and I still think the business was a great idea. The problem is I fell in love with
the idea instead of the viability of the company. And I didn’t think through the aspects of fulfillment. In retrospect, I did all the things I tell my clients to avoid every day! It is common for tech companies to fall in love with the idea of the new technology and its capabilities without spending enough time evaluating whether there is a customer need and enough budget for the delivery, sales and marketing of the technology.
I have a lot more ideas perculating and I suspect there are several more startups in my future. At least I hope so! Every experience builds on the next. The lessons learned can be applied not just to how I run Zephyr, but also to my clients (present and future) who sometimes become enamoured of the idea instead of the business viability. At least now I can say “Been there, done that.”
Small Business Marketing
I was invited recently to speak on The Profit Partner program. This is a local television show focused on helping small business owners succeed.
Don’t Confuse Marketing with Selling
This month’s Fortune magazine has an article about how to manage your business in a recession. Like many other
articles, the writer mentions the importance of investing in marketing. “Kohl’s, the big retailer, actually spent more on marketing this past holiday season than it did last year,” writes Geoff Colvin. We’ve received several inquiries from CEOs of small and midsized companies that want to talk about implementing a marketing program to increase revenues. My first question back to them is usually a surprise. I want to know about their sales team.
- Do you have a strong sales leader?
- Do you have an established sales process?
- Do you track your pipeline?
- How many people sell in your company?
- Do you have a mix of hunters and farmers?
It’s not that we’re trying to be difficult. We just don’t want to waste your money and our time. If you don’t have a good sales team, a clear sales process, and a system to process leads through your pipeline, then spending money on marketing is going to be a waste. No deal was ever lost because a sales person didn’t have the right brochure. And (to my knowledge), no deal was ever won because the buyer saw a data sheet and yelled, “Holy smokes, lets go buy this product based on how great this data sheet looks!” (Although this would be really cool if it did happen.)
Building a Successful Marketing Dashboard
The marketing mix is getting more and more complicated. It was hard enough to track the results of advertising campaigns, tradeshows and direct mail programs. Now you’ve got search engine marketing, banner ads, pay per click advertising, social networking, mobile marketing and a plethora of other tools at your disposal. One thing that hasn’t changed though is the need to track your results, monitor the performance of your campaigns and measure the return on investment.
Marketing dashboards are a great way of measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of your marketing programs. Simply put, a marketing dashboard pulls all the key performance indicators (KPIs) that you are tracking for each marketing initiative and displays this information in a graphical format. It allows you to easily identify those KPIs that are not meeting expectations so that you can move quickly to adjust a poorly performing campaign. Conversely, you can also quickly identify the campaigns that are kicking butt - and put more time, money and effort into expanding the successful programs. In addition to providing both recognition and accountability for the marketing function, it creates a stronger argument for budget dollars and larger campaigns when programs are working successfully. Read more
Profit Partners
I was recently a guest on Profit Partners, a local television show dedicated to helping small business grow into larger ones. It was a great experience.
The Profit Partner Presents Kelly Harman from Innovative Video Productions on Vimeo.
Five “Gut Checks” for the marketing plan
This is the time of year when marketeers everywhere are putting the final touches on next year’s marketing plan. A good plan doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, the simpler the better. Every business I know is tightening the budget and looking for measurable ROI on every activity. So it makes sense to do a few things very well instead of a shallow attempt at 25 different marketing activities. Also, remember that a marketing plan is a guide, not a mandate. Things that appear to be a good idea now may not perform well when actually executed. Flexibility is key and data is everything. If you can’t measure what you do then you probably need to question whether it should be in the marketing mix to begin with.
With that said, here are some things we hope you’ve taken into consideration when finishing up your marketing plan for 2009:
- Collaborate with the sales team. Have you met with the VP of Sales and discussed the objectives for 2009? Have you attended the sales meetings on a regular basis? Do you know how the pipeline works and do you have a written agreement with the VP of Sales that describes exactly what qualifies as a lead from the marketing department? This way, you can avoid the conversation in July when you say you generated 2,000 leads and they say you generated 20. Read more
Growing in today’s economy
We’re getting asked by clients and prospects alike, “How do I protect my company in this economy?” If you’re wondering who is going to survive the next 12-18 months, look no further than your local trade publications, magazines, newspapers, and business events. Track who is advertising online and in print — who is using direct mail, cold-calling and e-marketing to generate leads. Who is knocking on your door or the door of your prospects. These are the survivors. Those that are continuing their marketing efforts and aggressively working on lead generation, prospecting and customer retention are the companies that will survive and thrive when we come out of these challenging times.How does this translate into actionable tactics for you? Here are some of the strategies we’re recommending to our clients and tactics we’re helping to execute:
1. Focus on your existing customer base first! These are the diamonds in your back yard so figure out how you can grow the lifetime value (LTV) of your client base. Read more
Ho Hum Women’s Initiatives
A well-respected, senior-level businessman recently asked me, “What’s a women’s initiative?” That is a good and honest question! Women’s initiatives have been initiating for decades now, so I’m surprised he had to ask; however, this businessman truly didn’t know. This lack of understanding is only one of the obstacles companies face when starting an initiative for their women.Women’s initiatives continue to crop up in corporations, professional services firms, non-profit agencies and communities. The intentions are certainly admirable, yet most women’s initiatives have the same Ho-Hum quality.
Here’s what I’ve observed about why these initiatives are often Ho-Hum: Read more
