Resonate with Prospects by Staring with Why not What

What messages are you using when you are “selling” your services?

·         We get great results;  you provide your clients/prospects a tally of your results

·         We have the best resources and executives; you provide their bios to demonstrate credentials

·         We are a full-service business law firm – seamless services for all your needs; you provide a firm overview and demonstrate the depth/breadth of services

·         We build relationships that drive results; you highlight your clients via client testimonials

The Golden Circle by Simon Sinek

Are these key messages differentiating?  Not likely.  We all know that if we can better communicate how your executives/associates are superior to the competitors we will have a leg up at winning more business from clients or prospects.

The issue is that the market is cluttered with messages and few standout.  There is a concept called “The Golden Circle,” created by Simon Sinek, that really is golden.  The concept demonstrates that a small change in how you think, act and communicate can make all the difference in how your clients/prospects will perceive you – and it will make an impression that stands out.

The Golden Circle is about the process of differentiation.  It is the difference in approaching your business from the perspective of What/How/Why versus Why/How/What.  Think about it: everyone knows” what” they do and this is the easiest to communicate – thus most of what lawyers use in their key messages (more rational, but hard to differentiate).  Some people know how they do it.  However, very few communicate “why” they do what they do and this is the key to make a connection that more readily leverages trust and loyalty (the part of the brain that controls decision making).

Can you define your "why"?

·         WHY does your organization exist?

·         WHY does it do the things it does?

·         WHY do customers really buy from one company or another?

·         WHY are people loyal to some companies, but not others?

If you don't know why you do what you do, odds are your customers won't either. Any company can compete on price, quality, service and features ... and we see them as commodities.  I encourage you to learn more about how to market using why versus What - video a video:  TheGolden Circle.

Enjoy!

Right + Left Brain Marketing

We've all taken the psychology class in college, so understand that there are differences in how people think.  We know right brain personalities are more creative (interprets information intuitively, visually and emotionally), where left brainers are more analytical (logical, rational, sequential, verbal and textual).  Why is this important in marketing?  How a marketer thinks will impact the type of campaign he/she develops.

The emotional part of the brain and the rational part of the brain work together, and it is this commingling of emotions and reasons that marketers need to understand in order to position their brands and build messages for greater success.  For a marketer to succeed, both sides the brain needs to be "exercised" to be effective.

Marketo recently posted an interesting infographic on the differences in how marketers think.  I enjoyed this and wanted to share with you.

Click Right Brain/Left Brain Marketers to see the full graphic.

To read more visit :

Left/Right Brain in Direct Mail

Left/Right Brain in Content Creation

Changing the Marketing Mix

2012 is finally here and marketers are using a combination of innovative efforts to impact their target base.  We know that when crafting and executing marketing strategies, we need to keep in mind the changing PR, media and market landscapes and their relationship to human behavior.  With this in mind, new and time-tested marketing initiatives are taking the forefront in this years marketing mix:

Photo from luigi diamanti

Direct mail is making a comeback. We have seen a steady decline in direct efforts in the realty and credit card areas over the last 12 to 18 months. However, effective direct mail (for the right products) will once again take an active place in the marketing mix.  Consumers are being inundated with electronic communications so marketers are trending to use direct mail in strategic ways to increase visibility.

Digital takes new front role in the marketing mix. While direct mail may be making a comeback for targeted efforts, marketers are seeing a big shift happening – a shift that will most likely continue throughout next year. Companies and organizations are now, finally, giving digital marketing channels precedence over traditional, analog media. Of course an integrated marketing approach remains key, but digital comes first, both in strategy and in budget.  Social media will continue to increase in importance, and the use of items such as QR codes will continue to be explored as venues to target digital.

Bundling will increase as marketers get smarter about pre-packaging products and services based on customer needs and problem-solving opportunities.



Video usage among B2B companies will increase, with far more value-added content and fewer boring demos. Cisco predicts that 80% of all Internet traffic will be video by 2015.   If you’re not learning about how to use video to grow your business online, it’s time to get started.  Consider video presentations about your business and services.  Go for quality and differentiate yourself from your competition early in the game.  Video brochures, video newsletters, and regular video communications on your web site will identify your business as progressive and “in touch.”  

 Mobile continues to impact how people interact with companies.  Over the past year, mobile devices have led both technological and marketing innovation. Google states that 79% of smartphone owners use their mobiles to aid in shopping and 74% make a purchase as a result. Smartphones have revolutionised how we interact with content on-the-go and in 2012 the mobile device will continue to play a significant role. In particular, mobile devices could reinvent the remote control for connected TVs.

Inforgraphics is becoming more important in strategy formation.  Infographics is the way we consume information.  Analysis of consumer segments is becoming forefront in creating marketing strategies that are more efficient.

Here's to pushing our efforts forward and becoming more valuable to our organizations.

Other Resources 

15 Business and Marketing Trends that Matter by

2012 Technology trends in Marketing

Kathryn_anastasio@yahoo.com



Targeting: Don't Forget Generational Impacts

Photo from Sheelamohan

As we know, the key to successful marketing is understanding how we can help achieve a firms business objective.  As marketers, we must identify who we are marketing to and what channels/messages resonates with them.  Part of this analysis takes into consideration how generational differences impact our marketing efforts.

Each generation has their own characteristics and understanding these can be of value in our execution of marketing tactics that lead to an increase in successful outcomes.  Generational marketing involves identifying and understanding how the beliefs, attitudes, emotions, needs, and interests of each generation influence their decisions and behavior. And effective implementation of generational marketing practices is key for targeting member segments of all ages.

• Traditionalists/Silent Generation (born before 1946) survived the Great Depression, WW2, Korea, Gandhi’s assassination and the rise of labor unions.  They are loyal, desire to leave a legacy, value personal relationships, follow rules and have faith in institutions.  Values of company are important.
• Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) are just beginning to move out of midlife and into the early stages of elderhood. The broad generational personality that Boomers experience orients toward vision, values and spiritual discovery.  They are hard working, competitive and desire to put their own stamp on institutions (are free thinkers).  Image is important and they also put weight in value (not price sensitivity).
• GenXers (born between 1965 and 1981) are just beginning to move out of young adulthood and into midlife. The broad generational personality that GenXers experience orients toward liberty, survival and honor. They are resourceful, highly adaptive, self-reliant, skeptical of institutions and independent.
• GenY/Millenials (born between 1982 and 2000) are just beginning to arrive as young adults in the American landscape. The broad generational personality that Millennials experience orients toward community, affluence and technology. They are globally concerned and aware, cyber-literate, collaborative/group oriented, and vocal.
• Homeland Gen (born after 2000) are just arriving as a new generation. They share the same broad traits with the elders, currently 67-84 years old. This generational personality orients toward pluralism, expertise and due process.  They are tech-native, media-smart, artistically inclined, integrated and pan-cultural.

In order to market effectively to a generation you must find a way to grab their attention in channels that they use and with key messages that hit their core values.  Generational determined lifestyles and social values exercise as much influence on buying and purchasing as more commonly understood demographic factors like income, education, and gender do--perhaps even more.

Marketers that take generational impacts into consideration are more successful in their channel marketing efforts and contributing to more bottom line results.

Read more at:

• General Article on Generational Marketing
• Business News Daily - Bridging the gap between Gen X and Y
• Bloomberg BusinessWeek - Generation Y
• Tips on Generational Marketing (video)

Kathryn_anastasio@yahoo.com

True Value: Measuring Marketing (Part II)

(Part II of a two-part post)

Photo from jannoon028

As started in my last post, measuring marketing performance has always been a challenge to marketers due to the vast number of mediums to execute against, as well as determining what metrics are meaningful.  Marketers have come a long way; today, marketers have the ability to capture data elements from almost every stage of the buying process from awareness to satisfaction. As a result, we face a flood of data, making the identification of meaningful data overwhelming.

As marketers do better jobs at measuring their efforts, they are using KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) more religiously. KPIs are quantifiable measurements, agreed to in advance, that reflect the critical success of a firm, group, practice, product, etc.   KPIs for marketing vary according to specific areas of responsibility, but are essential for valuing effectiveness of initiatives.

What you Can Measure

The question I get a lot is "what can you actually measure?"  You can measure almost all of your efforts - the key is your objective for using a medium and setting KPIs to measure effectiveness of marketing mediums in achieving your objectives.  Below are a few examples of areas that can be measured - just the tip of the iceberg.  I stress, it is important to set objecitves for your efforts, otherwise you will not know what initiatives to execute and what to measure.

• Website – ensure you develop KPIs for analyzing your success (hits, page vies, time on site, number of downloads, etc.).  These will help determine if your online efforts are yielding results that help you with your objectives.
• Social media – based on your objectives you can measure your blog subscribers, email subscribers, Twitter followers, Facebook fans, YouTube subscribers, SlideShare followers, social bookmarking followers/friends, etc.  If you keep track of your community stats you can analyze increases or decreases and where you need to spend more time.
•  Advertising – the hard one to measure, especially for B2B - as most advertising is to increase awareness.  To be most effective, ensure you have a call-to-action on advertising to provide easy connections for access to information.  For B2C, the call-to-action is critical (phone number, web address, promotion code, toll-free number, etc.).
• Direct Mail/Collateral – targeting is key for measurement in this area as it is voluminous - especially for B2C.  Ensure you know what you are measuring so you know if the piece is effective.  A few tracking ideas include, response rate (via use of personalized URLs, campaign page on website, use tracking codes on coupons or reply cards/forms/envelops, use specific toll-free numbers for a campaign, create a specific e-mail address for the campaign, etc.).  
• Events - remember that there are event metrics as well as post-event metrics. You can measure desired vs. actual attendees, evaluation of attendees, sales that the event helped generate, number of attendees followed-up with, business generated from event, etc.
• Public Relations - the key is how these are helping reach set objectives of the organization.  Examples of KPIs: Number of articles, subscribers, posts, visits, number of 500 word+ features, cover stories, executive quote inclusions, company and executive profiles, percentage positive/neutral articles, comments in Twitter, number of negative @messages, etc. 
• Client Satisfaction - companies should set their KPIs for understanding clients' impressions of our product/service.  KPIs can also uncover needs or areas for up-selling/cross-selling business.

Examples of specific KPIs:

• Account Expansion -   Measures the increase in business from existing clients
• Acquisition Cost - The cost of a single response to a promotion or total cost divided by total number of responses
• Customer Churn - The retention to attrition ratio in a given period
• Lead source – when a deal closes or sales are made, determine where the buyer originally made contact (via event, direct mail, newsletter, etc.). This can help identify channels that work more efficiently than other channels for business acquisition.
• Market Share - Product or service sales as a percentage of the sales across all competitors
• New Customers -  Percentage of new customers over existing client base
• Price Sensitivity - Price flexibility of each product per market segment. How much are people willing to pay for the product in given industry, geography or application based on survey results.
• Reach - The percentage of potential ad viewers who will be exposed to at least one ad in a given period
• Sales Per Customer - Number of sales made by a given customer in a given time frame

Marketing is more than an expense to an organization - it is investment that should lead to increased opportunities for revenue generation.  As marketers, it is our job to help demonstrate the effectiveness of our strategic initiatives and execution of tactics.  Here's to planning and analyzing the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Other Resources:

• CMO Guide to ROI - this is a 55 min presentation that provides some good insights
• Developing KPIs to measure marketing effectiveness
• Examples of KPIs - General examples as well as by industry, function within company

kathryn_anastasio@yahoo.com

True Value: Measure Your Marketing Effectiveness (Part I)

Photo from Renjith Krishnan

Marketing is not just an expense to an organization – it is an investment.

(Part I of a two-part post)

Over the last 20 years, the range of marketing options and opportunities for marketers has expanded dramatically.  Once there was only a limited choice - print and TV.  Now there is a whole range of media from direct mail to video to new technologies (social media, QR codes, etc.). As marketers, we know that executives are asking us to justify the effectiveness of our efforts - demonstrate the ROO (return on objective) or ROI (return on investment) of how we spend a company’s marketing dollars.  With the proliferation of new marketing mediums to invest in, marketers struggle to understand which options deliver the greatest returns. So, how do marketers approach measurement?

As a marketer, my success with measurement is in defining relevant metrics and measurement criteria to demonstrate the value of my efforts to help advance business objectives.  The metrics must correlate the marketing activities (cause) with the marketing performance, financial results, and customer impact (effect). 

The Foundation

A successful metrics framework is used to understand the correlation of marketing campaigns to defined corporate goals and objectives. For any measurement to be meaningful, you first must define goals and objectives of the business and determine how marketing can build strategies and tactics to help advance the businesses objectives.  Prior to embarking on new marketing initiatives, develop a plan with specific, quantifiable objectives, e.g., achieve $5 million incremental sales, 10,000 inquiries, 10 percent of coupon redemption, receive 15 percent increase in web traffic, sell-in displays at XYZ account, etc.

Second, ensure you have a way to “measure” your efforts.  Develop and utilize a customer database that captures promotional responses, website registrations, advertising and trade show inquiries, etc.. Ideally, the database should integrate with your corporate information systems to report sales transactions, purchase history, new customer gains and losses (acquisition and retention), and other detailed information.  Consider testing your metrics to ensure you can gather the information that will be beneficial to driving business.

Third, to improve the effectiveness of marketing you need to not only improve the measurability of your marketing programs, but also ensure you are measuring the right things. Don’t simply look at how much is spent.  Look at how the activity has helped you reach a goal that leads to bottom line revenue. Remember to figure out how to value a customer and how much to invest in acquiring and maintaining that customer.

Finally, ensure that you are reporting back on the effectiveness of your efforts - in aggregate and at a campaign/initiative level. Includes lessons learned and quantify, as you can, revenue that is connected to the efforts. Remember, it's not always a straight line between marketing and revenue, but measuring your efforts can help determine efficiencies of your efforts to help drive business. Marketers can't always draw a line between content creation and financial return. An investment in words, visuals and online media that drive site visits, Facebook fans, retweets, video views and positive ratings is not reflected on the balance sheet. But, that doesn't mean these activities are without measurable value. Instead, they are leading indicators that the brand is doing something to create value, and that can drive financial results in the future.

As there is a lot of meat to this topic, I plan to continue my thoughts in Part II (next week) - examples of what can be measured.

Here's to planning and analyzing the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Other Resources

• Measurement Cheat Sheet - great overview of B2B marketing measurements. 
• For a great “toolkit” for measuring marketing, visit  marketo .com  
• Marketing ROI Calculator for measuring the marketing ROI for direct mail or e-mail campaigns 

 kathryn_anastasio@yahoo.com

First Impressions: More than just Human Interactions

We have all heard this warning: "You never get a second chance to make a good first impression."  In business, a positive first impression is crucial for forging sustainable, long-term partnerships with buyers to keep it thriving. Businesses spend a great deal of time and resources on keeping their existing clients. Consistently, making a strong first impression is essential for gaining new customers and clients.

Photo from renjith krishnan

There are many aspects to marketing, but one of the most important is in being able to quickly capture the attention of potential customers and clients. The field of marketing relies on good first impressions. 

It is one thing to grab the attention of a potential client or customer and another completely to grab their attention for all the wrong reasons. The art of attention seeking, without being overly persistent or irritating, is an important art to learn- really capturing the interest of the consumer.

It is almost important that, after grabbing the attention of your audience, you don’t lose sight of what the product or service that you’re offering really is. This has been a common problem for marketers, and has given rise to the common customer complaint that while they were entertained by an advertisement or a gimmick they were left without a real understanding of what the advertisement was trying to sell.

Keep in mind your marketing first impressions:

• Brand – Do your key messages convey how your product/service will help your buyers (not just support your firm)?
• E-mail Marketing – Many firms deal with lackluster open rates of e-mail communications.  Are you subject lines engaging to your target?  The right message at the right time does little to benefit the brand if it is never opened.
• Website – Is your website easily navigated from a customer’s/buyers point of view? Is it easy for people to contact you if they have questions? Do you have a mobile viewable website for easy of today's technology savvy buyers?  Should you invest in a mobile application to ease the buying process?  What web/technology channels are important to your targets?
• Social Media - Do you need to utilize social media?  If so, are you posting consistenty?  Are your messages important to your targets?  Do your messages engage your targets or get them interested in a product/service?  As marketers, we need to determine what our strategy is for using social media and ensure that our first impressions are not hurting our overall brand and positioning.
• Collateral – Firms spent time and money writing, designing, and printing various pieces of collateral to communicate your firms products/services.  Does your collateral grab your viewers’ attention and encourages them to read the information you've worked so hard to put together? Or keep your business card in their files, bookmark your website, consider your proposal, or whatever the goal for the marketing piece may be? Are your "sales" material focused on benefits and ways your product/services help your potential buyers?
• Phone messages/Receptionist Greetings – Part of making first impressions include voice messages of the firm and how the receptionist answers the phone.  Are these consistent and professional?
• Store Layout/Displays – Is the design of your store or your display logically attuned to your buyers (not just appeasing to your design preferences)?  For displays, does it grab the attention of your buyer?
• Product Packaging/Signage –  This is critical for B2C.  Enough said. For B2B, are you bundling services to make the buying process easier for your buyers?

First impressions are important for your employees and your marketing efforts.  Here’s to making positive first impressions with your marketing efforts. 

kathryn_anastasio@yahoo.com

WHAT'S THE BUZZ? Overused Words Impact Differentiation

As marketers, it is important that we differentiate our companies in the eyes of potential buyers. A way we differentiate is through the words we use to communicate the benefits of the products/services our companies sell.  Choosing words that buyers connect to is essential for top of mind awareness and recall during the buying process.   The words are not only used in print, but also by employees when communicating the companies products/services.

Photo from Idea Go

I recently ran across an article the highlighted words that are overused in the workplace and through it would be good to share some insights as a reminder of the key for differentiation.

“When business or industry terms become overused, people stop paying attention to them,” said Max Messmer, chairman of Accountemps.  “The best communicators use clear and straightforward language that directly illustrates their points.”

The market and workplace is overwrought with clichés, buzzwords and industry jargon, often leading to a “disconnect” between coworkers and buyers. A survey, funded by Accontemps, was conducted by an independent research firm - telephone interviews with 150 senior executives from the nation’s 1,000 largest companies. Executives were asked, “What is the most annoying or overused phrase or buzzword?” Their responses included:

• Leverage: As in, “We intend to leverage our investment in IT infrastructure across multiple business units to drive profits.”
• Reach out: As in, “We consistently reach out to customers impacted by the change....”
• Viral: As in, “Our video has gone viral.”
• Game changer: As in, “Transitioning from products to solutions was a game changer for our company.”
• Disconnect: As in, “There is a disconnect between what the consumer wants and what the product provides.”
• Value-add: As in, “We have to evaluate the value-add of this activity before we spend more on it.”
• Circle back: As in, “I’m heading out of the office now, but I will circle back with you later.”
• Socialize: As in, “We need to socialize this concept with our key stakeholders.”
• Interface: As in, “My job requires me to interface with all levels of the organization.”
• Cutting edge: As in, “Our cutting-edge technology gives us a competitive advantage.”
• Results:  As in, "Our product is top rated and provides you results that drive change."
• Innovative:  As in, "Our innovative approach to solving problems leads to faster implementation."

Other words that surfaced included:  Solution, synergy, paradigm, customer centric, accountability management, core competency, alignment and incremental. 

Everyone is guilty of using buzzwords from time to time.  The problem is that these generic terms force buyers to interpret what you mean when you say them.  Choose your words carefully!

Learn more

• To learn more about overused words with LinkedIn profiles, read an article on the FOX Business page. 
• For Press Releases, read an article by Adam Sherk.
• For general office communication, read an article on CBS Money Watch.com.

Here's to differentiation!

Kathryn_anastasio@yahoo.com

Be Proactive: Marketing Planning for Bottom Line Results

The premise of business is identifying the people most likely to hire you for your work or buy your products and develop a “relationship” with them to demonstrate why your services/products are a better solution for them over competitors.  The end result is a win-win situation for your business and your clientele.

Marketing is an important activity that helps businesses “sell” products/ services.  A marketing plan prepares your business to be proactive in what the market does. Without one, you end up reacting to changes and to competition, which means you are always a step behind those who are already prepared. A marketing plan is crucial to being ready to deal with the changes in your competitive landscape.  A marketing plan helps you stay competitive and focused.

Marketing Planning = Efficient Time Allocation and Increased Revenue Potential

Marketing planning is important to all size businesses.  Business generation efforts have greater potential for success when there is a plan in place.  A plan helps you evaluate and track ROI and effectiveness of strategies to help meet a business’ growth and financial objectives.  For long-term success, marketing planning should be focused at the types of clients you want to have and tie them into growth objectives of the firm.

Building a plan takes time, but has instrumental value when implemented.  Elements to evaluate when starting your marketing plan include:

·         Situational Analysis of company

o   Goals/focus

o   Target Audiences/Market (Who are your customers?  Who do you want to be your customers?)

o   Strengths/Opportunities

o   Threats/Weaknesses

o   Competitive Landscape

·    Marketing Strategy to achieve company goals/objectives (what marketing initiatives will do to help meet the business’ goals)

·    Marketing Tactics (recommendations for multichannel initiatives to drive results)

§  Mass marketing and niche marketing

§  Web

§  Social media

§  Print

§  Sponsorships

§  Events

§  Business Development/targeting initiatives

§  Pricing strategies

§  Advertising/Promotional activity

§  Internal marketing

§  Cross-selling/Up-selling

·         Marketing budget and resources needed to achieve marketing strategy

·         High-level implementation schedule and tracking milestones

Put your marketing plan in a three-ring binder. Refer to it at least quarterly, but better yet monthly. Leave a tab for putting in monthly reports on status; this will allow you to track performance as you follow the plan.

Overall, if you have a good marketing plan in place you will have a business that is in control of itself.

To view sample marketing plans templates visit:

• Quick MBA Marketing Template
• Legal Marketing (from Lawyer Biz Coach)
• mPlans - industry focused marketing plans
• One-page marketing plan