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Entries Tagged as 'Passion'

Marketing insights question: What’s your legacy sentence?

by Drew McLellan

December 28th, 2011 · Business owner/leader stuff, Passion, Strategy

legacy
What’s your legacy sentence?

Over the next few weeks, as we head towards 2012, I want to get you thinking about your business in a new/fresh way.  I’m going to ask a single question in each post — but I’m warning you, these aren’t slam dunk questions.

I’m hopeful that as you ponder my question — it will give you some ideas for making 2012 a break out year for your organization.  If nothing else — this exercise should fine tune some of your marketing efforts.

What’s your legacy sentence?   If a customer/potential buyer was going to describe your business in a single statement, what would it be?  Imagine yourself at a networking event and someone says…what do you do?

You can either say, “I’m a financial planner” or you could say, “I help women in transition get on firm financial footing.”

The first option tells me your profession.  The second tells me 1) who you serve, 2) how you add value, 3) what to ask you next (as opposed to just saying, “oh, that’s nice.”)

Which one would you want people to repeat as they introduce you to someone new?

Whether you’re talking about your personal brand/reputation or your company’s reputation — the rule is the same.  You need a single sentence.  Mary Stier wrote a blog post about this and she quoted Dan Pink‘s book Drive, saying:

“In 1962, Clare Boothe Luce, one of the first women to serve in the U.S. Congress, offered some advice to President John F. Kennedy. ‘A great man,’ she told him, ‘is a sentence.’

Abraham Lincoln’s sentence was: “He preserved the union and freed slaves.”  Franklin Roosevelt’s was ”He lifted us out of the Great Depression and helped us win a world war.”

Luce was worried that Kennedy’s attention had been splintered and he wouldn’t be able to solidify the nation’s definition of his presidency.

How about you?  Are you marketing messages laser pointed to a single sentence or are they scattered all over your features, benefits and copy hyperbole?

What single sentence can you use in person, on your marketing materials, in sales proposals, and in all of your sign offs and signatures?

 

Stock photo courtesy of BigStockPhoto.com

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Marketing insights question: Who is your ideal customer?

by Drew McLellan

December 6th, 2011 · Customers/Clients, Passion, Strategy

bigstock Mayan Masks Artifact 6904017
Do you really know your ideal customer?

Over the next few weeks, as we head towards 2012, I want to get you thinking about your business in a new/fresh way.  I’m going to ask a single question in each post — but I’m warning you, these aren’t slam dunk questions.

I’m hopeful that as you ponder my question — it will give you some ideas for making 2012 a break out year for your organization.  If nothing else — this exercise should fine tune some of your marketing efforts.

Who is your ideal customer? One of the biggest mistakes most businesses make is that they cast too wide a net, when it comes to prospecting.  Not all money on the table is good money.   We’ve all had a bad customer.  But if we’re really honest, we’ll admit that they weren’t a bad customer.  They were just bad for us.

Assuming you have a finite marketing budget or that you still haven’t figured out how to extend the day past 24 hours — you have to make some choices.  So why not target the very best possible customers?

Your intentional marketing efforts should be laser focused on those people/companies who are ideally suited to benefit the most from your offerings AND bring you the best benefit (profits, repeat business, referrals, longevity etc.) back to your organization.

Are you running around like Chicken Little, trying to make sure that everyone and anyone knows about your business?  Do you spend marketing dollars on long shots and Hail Mary passes?  If you are — stop it.  Now.

Instead, invest that energy into discovering who your best customer is.  Describe them.  Be able to tell me what matters to them and how they get their kicks.  Know what they drive and why they chose it.  When they go to a restaurant, do they pay attention to the fat content of the offerings, the prices or if there’s a 16 z steak on the menu?

Once you really know who they are — you’ll know how you can help them.  Talk to them about it.  Help them a little so they get to know you before you ask them to buy.  Tell them stories of how you’ve helped other people.  In other words — market to your best customers in a way that creates trust and familiarity.  have you noticed how your best customers end up being your friends?

That should tell you something, shouldn’t it?

Unless you have an unlimited marketing budget and time on your hands – you can’t afford to waste one minute or one dollar on anyone who isn’t ideal.  So figure out who that is…. and stay focused on the people/companies you can help the most.

 

Photo courtesy of BigStockPhoto.com

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What Josh Groban can teach us about marketing

November 7th, 2011 · Marketing, Passion, Storytelling · 12 Comments

Josh Groban, the master marketer If you also follow me on Twitter or Facebook — odds are you know that I have an 18 year old daughter who loves Josh Groban and his music. This past summer was all about Josh for the McLellans.  We saw his concert in 3 different states, culminating in front row [Read more...]

What can the average Joe learn from Steve Jobs?

October 10th, 2011 · Business owner/leader stuff, Love affair with customers, Passion · 8 Comments

I can’t remember a world mourning the loss of a business leader like we’ve witnessed this past week after the announcement of Steve Job’s death.  The fact that FEEL the loss, that we GRIEVE this man’s passing and that we WORRY that no one can take his place tells you something. What other business leader [Read more...]

Do you take yourself seriously?

October 7th, 2011 · Agency life, Business owner/leader stuff, Innovation & Creativity, Love affair with customers, Passion · 5 Comments

At McLellan Marketing Group, we live by our core beliefs.  One of them is: We take our work seriously.  Ourselves… not so much. Let’s be honest here.  None of us save lives every day.  (Okay, if you actually do… you have my permission to skip this post) Sometimes, I think we need to just get [Read more...]

What are you doing to generate word of mouth

October 6th, 2011 · Customers/Clients, Love affair with customers, Passion, Storytelling · 11 Comments

  Amazon’s Vine program We all know how awesome word of mouth is.  We know it beats any mode of advertising and that over 90% of consumers say it’s the most compelling factor in their decision to buy. We all want it.  We want our customers to go skipping down the street, singing odes to [Read more...]

Customer service case study from Jeff the cabbie

September 18th, 2011 · Customers/Clients, Passion · 9 Comments

… meet Jeff the marketing professor! From on outset, I knew this was going to be a different sort of cab ride.  I walked out of the hotel and just like it has happened hundreds of times before…magically, the taxi appeared. But from that moment on, it wasn’t a ride, it was an experience! The [Read more...]

THE best customer service tip ever

August 31st, 2011 · Customers/Clients, Passion · 25 Comments

… stellar customer service = pinky swearing I’m going to tell you THE secret to incredible customer service, customer retention and word of mouth referrals. It’s quite complicated so you’ll want to print off this post and hang it somewhere where you can refer to it every day. If you’ve got music playing or some [Read more...]

Taglines that stick

May 5th, 2011 · Branding, Copywriting, Passion · 3 Comments

  I think most taglines used by businesses today are a cop out.  They feel good but promise nothing. A reader wrote and asked if I’d talk about the other side of the coin – what makes a tagline great? Creating and using a strong tagline takes real courage.  A tagline that will last for [Read more...]

Walt Disney’s marketing tips

January 24th, 2011 · Branding, Love affair with customers, Passion · 9 Comments

My greatest teacher when it comes to all things marketing was not a professor or professional mentor.  It was Walt Disney.   Somehow, in the midst of ROI, measurability, counting clicks and studies that can track a person’s eye movements to see what part of an ad captures their attention first — we have forgotten [Read more...]