Posts tagged as:

marketing

Why I Love Billboards

by Daria Steigman on August 29, 2011

Billboards, Advertising, Customs and Border Protection, Human TraffickingI love billboards, and not just because dozens of South of the Border ads have given me and millions of other drivers cheesy entertainment while driving up and down I-95.

Billboards work.

In an era when we’re constantly on the edge of sensory overload, very little unwanted information seeps through. I tune out extraneous stuff on Web pages, rip ads out of magazines, mute TV ads, fast-forward through commercials while streaming video-on-demand, and pay for ad-free premium Spotify.

But I see billboards. Clean Bathrooms Next Exit. Best Morning Drive Station. Outlet Stores 20 Miles. Free Wifi, Heated Pool, Kids under 12 Stay Free.

And Slavery Still Exists.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection last month launched a human trafficking awareness campaign. I hadn’t seen or heard anything about it–and it’s a topic that I pay attention to. Then I rode by a “Slavery Still Exists” billboard at a busy intersection in Atlanta.

Billboards aren’t right for every business or every ad campaign. But sometimes old-fashioned, low-tech, can be a very effective way to grab people’s attention.

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Is Your Business Responsive?

by Daria Steigman on August 8, 2011

business, customer service, lead generation, Independent Thinking, Steigman CommunicationsWhen I moved into my condo, it took me a couple of months to find a tile guy to replace my kitchen floor. The job was “too small,” one contractor flat out said to me.

When I was writing articles for an insurance company, two brokers and one attorney (the company’s contacts) kept agreeing to phone interviews and blowing me off. “They’re hard to nail down when they’re busy,” sighed my client.

When a friend was looking for a company to build a fence, one contractor showed up nearly an hour late (with no “heads up” call) just to write an estimate.

When another friend was looking for a handyman, she waited two weeks for a callback because the guy came highly recommended. She hired someone else.

Hubspot recently pointed to data from Harvard Business Review that found:

Companies that try to contact potential customers within an hour of receiving queries are nearly 7 times as likely to have meaningful conversations with key decision makers as firms that try to contact prospects even an hour later. Yet only 37 percent of companies respond to queries within an hour.”

While not everyone needs to have a 60-minute window, every business has to be responsive.

Customers have choices. I wonder how many of the folks my friends and I contacted are still in business today.

Is your business responsive?

Photo by Darwin Bell (Flickr).

Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!

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Why I Don’t Have A Marketing Blog

by Daria Steigman on July 19, 2011

Marketing, blogging, Independent Thinking, Steigman CommunicationsMy target audience isn’t marketers. It’s businesses.

There’s nothing wrong with marketing blogs. Or PR blogs. Or blogs about kittens.

But too many business bloggers are really just writing for themselves.

What challenges do your clients, customers, and/or prospects face? Are you helping them move forward today?

If you’re blogging about kittens, I hope you have a pet store, or sell pet supplies, or at least have a business model with some passing reference to furry little feline creatures. Otherwise you have a hobby blog and not a business blog.

 Photo by Eran Finkle (Flickr). 

Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!

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Don’t Write This Sales Pitch

by Daria Steigman on June 21, 2011

sales, marketing, Independent Thinking, Steigman CommunicationsTechnology makes it too easy for stupid people.

Too cheap and easy to find you. To reach out to you. To spam you with their junk.

Take this pitch that I received yesterday (illogical sentence flow and poor punctuation included):

Daria, What makes an association truly world class?

The ability to communicate and educate your members to give them the competitive edge needed.

You can achieve this goal while also reducing your costs and putting your information flow into hyper speed with [company]. We will demolish the barriers of time, distance and cost.

Your Association’s mandate is to inform educate and offer a constructive platform for peer information sharing the only way for you to truly fulfill this mandate is to partner with [company] at NO cost to your Association…

With over 10 years’ experience delivering content through webinars on behalf of the world’s leading organizations [company] is here to assist your Association.

There’s so much wrong with this.

1. I’m not an association. Nor do I work for one.

2. It assumes every organization has the same core mission or objectives.

3. Is says nothing about what my challenge might be–or how this product might help me address it.

4. All this gobbledygook is about Webinars? Seriously?

5. It was signed by a “VP, Business Intelligence.” Need I say more?

Every time I saw the words “your Association” I thought that someone had intended them to be a placeholder for an actual company name. Not that this would have helped.

The bottom line: Be relevant. Be targeted. Be literate. Don’t write this sales pitch.

Photo by Leland Francisco (Flickr).

Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!

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Talking Enchantment: 6 Takeaways From Guy Kawasaki

by Daria Steigman on June 1, 2011

enchantment, business, branding, Independent Thinking, Steigman CommunicationsGuy Kawasaki is a born marketer. But he’s also an entrepreneur who’s smart, personable, answers his own mail (and his tweets too), and is at times utterly enchanting.

Kawasaki came through Washington last week on his Enchantment book tour, dropping off books for everyone and sharing his tips for how to enchant people. He offered a lot of great advice–and I thought I’d share my top 6 takeaways.

1. Don’t Under-Dress or Over-Dress. Instead, assess the occasion and dress in a way that says “we’re peers.” (Of course, even if a company is business casual doesn’t mean you should show up in khakis for an interview or that first business meeting.)

2. Trust Your Customers. Amazon, for example, lets you return an e-book for up to a week. Potomac River Running suggested I take my new running shoes home and try them out on a treadmill. Guess where I don’t shop: companies that have restocking fees on returns.

3. Think Mantra, Not Mission Statement. When did you last buy a product or donate to a cause because of buzzwords and other blather? Kawasaki’s advice: use “short, sweet, and swallowable” language.

4. Nobodies Are the New Somebodies. I’ve quoted Kawasaki on this before, but it is worth repeating: you have to “enchant all the influencers.” Focus too much on titles, and you just might miss the person with the real influence.

5. It’s Not About Parts. Storytelling matters–and so does how you tell your story. Kawasaki pointed out that talking gigabytes is meaningless; telling me how many songs (or photos or videos) I can store provides context. I’m reluctant to purchase a Verizon mobile broadband plan, for example, because no one there can tell me how much 3 GB, 5 GB, or 10 GB correlates to how I use the Web.

6. Enchant Down. Kawasaki said that you have to “be willing to do the dirty jobs” so others know you don’t think you’re better than they are. There’s a whole TV show built around doing the grunt work. Enchanting down actually goes hand-in-hand with #4, as they’re both about valuing people.

What’s your best tip for being enchanting?

Photo by Unlisted Sightings (Flickr).

Have you signed up to receive the Independent Thinking newsletter? Now’s the time! Once a month I’ll send you exclusive, subscriber-only content highlighting interesting articles I’ve found, as well as tips on marketing, social media, and how to grow your business. Sign up today!

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