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Porch Your Elevator Pitch

By on February 23, 2007 in Marketing with 15 Comments

When it comes to building a team of contagious customers, don’t expect them to sneeze out your Elevator Pitch. Give them a Porch Pitch.

These days, elevator pitches are long-winded (see Wikipedia’s definition). They’re rarely transferable. If you’re going to build an army of contagious customers, you need to equip them with something they can remember.

Example:

Last year, on Brian Clark’s post How to Sell RSS (Or Where the Feed Fanboys Drop the Ball), I left this comment:

Elevator Pitch: If Knowledge is Power and Time is Money, think of Content Feeds as a way to gain Knowledge without wasting Time.

Porch Pitch: Gain Knowledge. Save Time.

Yesterday, I heard someone turn my porch pitch for RSS back into an elevator pitch – but that the length didn’t matter. What matters is he remembered it and delivered a rock-solid pitch on the benefits of Search Once and Subscribe.

Guy Kawasaki prefers Mantras Over Missions. Anita Campbell asks Can You Describe Your Business Strategy in Two Words? Your customers and prospects would probably applaud both articles.

Can you deliver your pitch on a porch? Can visitors to your blog or website immediately pick up on your porch pitch? Is your pitch something your customers and "sneezers" can redeliver to their audience?

 

Apple iPod a la Nope or It’s not a wePod

By on February 14, 2007 in Marketing with 6 Comments

I was all set to carry on Tim Johnson’s idea about sharing a soundtrack of my life. I was all set to download 10 songs on iTunes and share it in a future post…until I read about the worm in Apple’s core.

Apple has killed iPod Mondays, a weekly event of raving iPod fans who gathered to share their playlists. This is a diverse community, bringing together fans of all ages. It was contagious. But Apple doesn’t dig Brand Hijacking.

What I’d like to do is buy Apple a copy of the books, Citizen Marketers and Word of Mouth Marketing.

Looking at Apple’s point of view, the gadget is called an iPod – not a wePod. Maybe community-builder Clint should change the name to wePod Mondays.

As for the soundtrack I plan to share, guess I’ll use Rhapsody.

A Blogger, a Baker and a Relationship Maker

By on February 7, 2007 in Marketing with 12 Comments

Working with business owners looking to boost their bottom line, a lot of our conversation centers around their marketing plans and practices.

Last month, I had a new restaurant owner ask my thoughts on who he should network with. I suggested he find a cab driver, a hotel front desk clerk and a bartender. Each one of these professionals are already in the habit of sharing their opinions. Become best business friends with those folks.

That said, if you’re blogging and want to build business, create a few relationships (offline and online) with people that touch your target AND are in the habit of sharing their opinions.

If my target is retailers, I’m looking to hook up with a manufacturer, a distributor and a like-minded vendor.

If I’m a pet-sitter, find me a veterinarian, a pet store and the HR dept of the largest employer in the county.

If I sell sporting goods, team me up with athletic directors, coaches and distributors of apparel.

Think a bit outside of your target customers – on the fringe. If they blog – that’s a big plus!

Delexa: Sortable Rankings in a Mashup

By on February 3, 2007 in Cool Tools, Marketing with 0 Comments

Found a cool analytics cool tool thanks to Tamar Weinberg at 10e20.

Delexa,org combines search, rankings and sortable stats so you can research sites or tags. Here’s the page for ConverStations:

Delexa

That’s pretty neat when looking at individual sites, but I really like the sortable stats pages. No matter what industry or discipline you’re looking for, use the tag search to find sites ranked by Delexa, Delicious, Alex – and you can sort the results.

Dsort

Good stuff for marketing or blogging research and other analytics.

Engage With Your Marketplace

By on January 31, 2007 in Blogging, Marketing with 3 Comments

Cobweb_1 The conventional (cob)web sites we’ve grown accustomed to seeing is just one way to present your business. But in most cases, it’s static and impersonal…in many ways aloof (remember Info?).

Still, your (cob)web site is a way to deliver your marketing message on the web. Notice I said a way, not the way – as in the only way.

Your company web site is a series of web pages. Rarely updated (modified rather than added to). Visitors have to come to you. Little if any room for interaction.

Your company blog site is a series of web pages. Often updated (added to rather than modified). Content delivered via feed. Lots of opportunity for interaction.

Still, your blog site is a way to engage with your marketplace. Notice I said a way, not the way – as in the only way.

In the last few posts, we’ve used audio, video, photos, and text. And those are just (some of) the tools. How about the delivery? There are so many ways to tell your story…and you shouldn’t be the only one telling your story.

Blog Engaging with your customers and peers – and giving them opportunities and reason to share your story – allows your message to be spread to people who otherwise would’ve never heard of you.

Love is contagious. Don’t be afraid. Come out from behind that cobweb and let your customers love you. It’s really a picnic, ya know.

Cobweb Photo at Flickr by florriebassingbourn
Picnic Photo at Flickr by LetThemTalk

5 Reasons Your Company Should NOT Have a Blog…

By on January 26, 2007 in Conversations, Marketing with 6 Comments

Business folks I talk with are a bit surprised when I say, "You probably shouldn’t have a blog…yet." In most cases, it’s in response to these tactics:

  1. Hot Marketing Tool – Blogs can be Conversation Stations – a vehicle to engage with your customers. Using a blog as a soapbox for a marketing monologue will not only get discouraging fast, but could drive current customers away.
  2. Ghost Blogger – When a company says they’re going to have an anonymous writer for the blog, or someone writing for the principal face/voice, I start waving a red flag. Boo! on Ghost Writing
  3. Repurpose Content – A good idea if used sparingly and if you make the copy conversational – or take snippets from your brochures and white papers and expand on the thought. But if you’re going to use the blog as simply another channel for that dry material, think again. People don’t read your brochures (do you read theirs?), so why think they would read it on a blog? Remember, it’s a conversation.
  4. Old College Try – This is why I ask for a three-month commitment. The old college try is like sitting at the edge of the swimming pool and paddling your dangling feet. You never really went swimming.
  5. Won’t or Don’t Read Other Blogs – This could be a 500-word post on its own. Again, it’s a conversational tool. Blogging has two roles – just like any other good conversation.

If your blogging efforts tank, you look bad, I look bad, blogging looks bad…your prospects look elsewhere.

I think every company and business leader should be blogging (verb) right now – at least the reading and researching part.

I think every company and business leader would be wise to start working with a blog (noun) – at least behind a firewall or hidden from indexing and start working on their strategy and voice.

Look, the lightbulb wasn’t invented by someone just plugging an electrical cord into a candle. Look beyond what you’ve been doing to reach your customers. Be open to new possibilities.

I forget who said it, but remember this: If Union Pacific Railroad saw the potential of passenger transportation, maybe we’d be flying Union Pacific Airlines.

Des Moines: Hollywood Trendsetters?

By on January 24, 2007 in Marketing with 0 Comments

I had no clue that Hollywood looked to Des Moines for trends, but apparently they do:

Ghostrider Desmoines

On the left, Nicholas Cage appearing in Ghost Rider (watch the clip); On the right, John Robinson appearing in Caffeinate: Do More in Des Moines (watch the clip)

I wonder if John rides a motorcycle?

The Most Popular First Name in Business

By on January 17, 2007 in Marketing with 12 Comments

Thankfully, I’m no longer in a position to hand over my resume and hope someone hires me. If I were in such a position, I’d probably have to change my first name in order to find work.

Do you know what the most popular first name is in business today? I see it everywhere. Info. Contact Us: Info@mycompany.com.

There must be thousands of people named Info answering emails and phone calls, making sales calls and building meaningful relationships with customers.

I’ve asked a few business owners why they have "info" as their contact point. The answer? "We want to stay anonymous.  We don’t get much mail from our website anyway."

I wonder why. They probably don’t get many phone calls from prospects either.

Look, if your regular email is JohnDoe@MyCompany.com, and you want to screen the mail, use JohnQDoe@MyCompany or JDoe@MyCompany  Info doesn’t work here anymore.

Todd And Adds Power to Top Marketing Blogs

By on January 13, 2007 in Blogging, Marketing with 6 Comments

Power150_1 When I first heard about it, I thought, "Not another list." It’s not just another list. It’s a fantastic find – Todd’s blog and the list.

Power 150 – Top Marketing Blogs (and PR, Adverts, Branding) offers a lot of value. The feed button next to each blog makes it easy to subscribe to these sites. Todd uses four measurements(Google, Bloglines, Technorati, and his own) in an algorithm to come up with a Total Score.

I quickly found over a dozen blogs I’d not read previously – each with a solid voice. If you’re in Marketing or PR, Advertising, Sales, Branding, Blogging…grab the list and dive in.

Update: Sean Moffitt at Buzz Canuck shares a companion list – Canada’s 1% Blogging Army

Weiv Rouy Egnahc – Change Your View

By on January 13, 2007 in Blog Coach, Marketing with 5 Comments

Change Your View – You might find what you’re looking for (unless they find you first).

It happens way too often. Companies and business leaders see blogging from a technology perspective and run away. Or, they see it from a strictly from a marketing/PR perspective and send their customers running.

As a kid, I could spend hours playing those Hidden Picture games in Highlights Magazine. I got better at it when I would flip the page around. Often, what I was looking for would almost jump out at me – like it was finding me instead!

Findit           Flipit

Look at your blogging efforts from your readers’ perspective. Forget about the technology and just talk with them. Not so much in marketing-speak, but like they were sitting across the table from you.

When you approach blogging from the readers point-of-view, eventually you may discover that people are coming out of nowhere (and everywhere) – as if they were finding you…hmm?

Hint: Clicking on the first picture will take you to the game. The second picture will offer you a different perspective.

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