If you only had an albino raccoon.

Raccoon Photo

Who else do you know that owns an albino raccoon? Think of the exclusivity!  You could charge a small fortune for people to see this amazing mystery of nature. There’s clearly no competition.

Unfortunately there’s nearly no market, unless you’re a dad driving through the desert in the American West with kids under the age of 12 who need to stretch their legs after a long ride.

Marketing isn’t just about creative pictures and words, it begins with a business goal. If your goal is just to make a handful of girls happy each year, an albino raccoon is a perfect product. If you want to build a larger business, you need an army of albino animals, plush toys, and a popular kids cartoon.

Ask yourself, what is your business about, and then you can figure out the price, the place, and the promotion.

For the record, despite the pleas from my daughters, I did not pay to see the raccoon.

Scoreboarding Your Lead Generation Efforts

Generating leads is just one role of the modern marketer. They also need to show what they’ve been able to generate to show their continual value to the organization. One way I’m going to do this personally is through a regularly published scoreboard (probably weekly) to all of my sales people and my executives.

Pinterest is a great resource to find inspiration for many things, but did you know you can find some great scoreboards that other designers have created? Here is my board with a bunch that I like on Pinterest.

How do I keep my regular clients if my product changes?

On a recent road trip through Moab, Utah (a place we’ve been several times before), my 18-year old son was upset with some of the changes—new hotels, new (more) tourists, new restaurants. Some would call it progress. My son called it destruction. Destruction of what the city’s “product” used to be—small, remote, undiscovered.

Their product (the town culture) seems to change every time we go there—probably at a faster pace since the days when it was a dusty trading post in the early 1800’s—even though the population is only about 5,200 people. But in many people’s eyes, it has changed too much.

What about changes that some people think are improvements? Like new restaurants, or the elimination of the uranium mines? If the product stays the same forever, will it be a product people will want to continue to use? It’s a fine line!

If your iPhone never changed, would you ever buy a new one? If your car was still a horse, would your life be as productive? If your favorite vacation spot grew too touristy too fast, would you keep going back?

Certain products need to be updated to keep their clientele and some should stay the same. Remember the New Coke disaster? Before you make a change to your product, think first about your raving fans because they’ll promote you all day long if you make changes that will improve, not take away from their lives.

What is the definition of a qualified lead?

Qualified leads mean different things to different organizations. If you do a lot of live events is someone qualified if they register, if they attend, or if they raise their hand for more information after the event? Or something else?

What about people who attend a webcast? Do you qualify them simply by their attendance or a combination of attendance, request for more information, company size, geography, title, and industry?

What about inbound phone calls? Do you account for the type of request or just immediately qualify everyone and pass them along?

Let’s make one thing clear, you do not want to deliver unqualified leads your sales team because you want to make sure they are following up on all of your hard lead generation work. If you deliver undesirables to them, they’re going to lose trust in the lead flow and then, when a good lead comes in, it will be ignored.

I recently found a great article on this topic, “What is a Marketing-Qualified Lead?” It’s worth bookmarking to review from time to time to make sure your lead gen is organized properly.

Some of the highlights:

  • Define the profile of the lead you want (name, title, organization, etc.)
  • Organize your channels (inbound, events, etc.)
  • Identify the actions the person needs to take to be qualified
  • Make sure your sales team agrees with the definition of a Sales Qualified Lead and a Sales Qualified Opportunity
  • Keep the lead qualification process simple

 

 

 

 

 

Cool Marketing Idea (Weekly Winner)

I really love it when someone proves basic marketing principles, like the concepts I discussed in my previous post about Market, Message, Media.

I recently received a box in the mail (yes…snail mail). Inside was a retro red viewfinder and three slide discs. How can you NOT take a minute to look through this. I did. I looked at it all—primarily because I thought it was a cool marketing piece. But then I realized they were smart and that they did their homework.

They found out who I was and a potential problem I may have (the Market). They wrote great copy to get my attention and their website was spot on (the Message). And then came the Media.

The viewfinder was great. But this morning I received an email with a customized video for me by a sales rep. The video wasn’t a finely polished piece, but that worked in it’s favor. It seemed more authentic, more natural. In the email were a list of dates and times that he’s available for a meeting. Great touch.

In the end, their marketing did two things really fast through some shock and awe. It informed me of their services and it persuaded me to call. Essentially, it got exactly what they wanted from me—a meeting. I’m talking with them later today.

 

Marketing Basics (part 1): Market, Message, Media

I was hooked instantly. Marketing 101 at the University of Utah was what launched my formal interest in the world of marketing and advertising. My professor talked in simple terms, sharing core principles that I’ve never forgotten and that I use to this day.

Understanding the basics of marketing are a look into the life of your potential consumer. First, you need to understand who the person is and the problem they are trying to solve (the Market). It could be a manager struggling to find solutions to keep a highly valued employee from quitting (perhaps something like Jhana could help), or a teenage girl who is looking for a modest prom dress (they actually exist!).

Once you understand who you are trying to reach, and their circumstance(s) you can look at how you talk with them (the Message). I’ve subscribed to Geoffrey Moore’s formula of building an effective value proposition in his book Crossing the Chasm (a must read). It’s a simple template that gets right to the point.

For  ____________ (target customer)
who ____________  (statement of the need or opportunity)
our (product/service name) is  ____________  (product category)
that (statement of benefit) ____________ .

As an example:

For content marketers
who are struggling to find proven methods of lead generation in their industry,
our service is the first open-collaboration library of marketing strategies and tactics
that break down results by target segment.

With your target market and your value proposition in place, you can start looking at the communication channels to reach them (the Media).

It seems that everyone jumps to this step first. Big mistake. You want to understand what establishments your prospects frequent—Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, the New York Times, Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and Barstow—and then build your communication strategy. This will save you time, money, and a lot of wasted resources.

Market. Message. Media. These are some of the basics of marketing that I’ll be exploring in depth in future posts.

Finding Your Purpose

Regardless of the path that winds through your life and your career, it will unquestioningly have its twists and turns. Some will take you down fun and exciting trails, and some will lead to impassable cliffs. In both cases, it’s critical to understand your purpose and where you want to go.

“This is the true joy in life,
the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one;
the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap;
the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.”
—George Bernard Shaw

Marketing is in my blood

I grew up in a house filled with marketing.

Literally.

Dad worked in television for 43 years and it seems every evening we discussed principles of advertising, critiquing tv ads, or discussing new products he’d seen. CBS paraphernalia was everywhere in our house, and I’m lucky enough to have a box of autographs from nearly every popular actor in the 80’s who had shows on CBS, including Tom Selleck, Walter Cronkite and the entire cast of M*A*S*H.

It’s safe to say that I like marketing. No, let me rephrase that. I really like marketing. I think about it, I read about it, and I research it every day. More importantly, I’m lucky to have had the privilege to practice it every day for nearly 25 years in my various careers.

Inspiration for my entire career has stemmed from a single quote that I found when visiting the Ogilvy & Mather offices in New York City many, many years ago.

Raise your sights! Blaze new trails! Compete with the immortals!
—David Ogilvy

Dad died last year, but my goal is to carry on his drive and love of marketing and to pass along same passion he instilled in me. So let’s work together to blaze new trails and discover new ideas to make a difference in our tribe.

Thanks Dad.