Archive for What’s in it for me?
New business secrets to increase revenue
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So the carbon tax was in the news again yesterday – this time because it’s likely not to be the huge cost (revenue earner) business (government) thought it might be. But the sad truth is that businesses have incurred higher bills for all sorts of things since its introduction – despite warnings and prosecutions from the ACCC regarding price gouging.
And when costs go up almost everyone starts wanting to drop costs. But let’s face it, there are only so many costs you can reasonably trim, before you lose the ability to actually run your business properly. So if you’ve gotten to the end of your cost-cutting rope – what else can you do?
What about increasing your revenue via new business?
Yes, even in tough(ish) times there’s always more new business to be found. Regardless of good times, tough times, GFCs, etc there’s always someone doing well.
But, if there’s so much new business out there, why then, do so many business owners hate ‘doing’ new business?
Business owners hate being rejected
The reason, research tells us, is because most of us fear being rejected. Yep, me too.
And we give up too quickly. Actually the statistics on how quickly sales people and business owners responsible for new business give up are alarming, but I digress.
One of the biggest reasons we’ve all had miserable experiences with new business in the past is because we’ve focussed on the wrong thing – getting our customer to buy what we’re selling; not selling what the customer wants. Yes, it’s a fine distinction, but it’s a really important one.
It’s not that your product or service isn’t the best in the world – it’s just that your customer, isn’t really that interested.
Customers aren’t interest except in themselves and WIIFM
So if they’re not interested in your product or service – what are they interested in? How do you build new business?
That’s easy – your customers are interested in themselves. Your job as a business owner/service provider is to answer their most critical question – “what’s in it for me?” or WIIFM. If you get your answer to that question right, you’ll have no shortage of new business opportunities.
Next blog post we’ll look at how to put the WIIFM principle to work for your business.
If we can help you better address your customer’s WIIFM needs and build your new buisness portfolio, we’d be delighted to help.
2013 marketing predictions debunked
Posted by: | CommentsI’m just reading through Hubspot’s 2013 marketing predictions. I got to number two – Inbound marketing to business grows enterprise wide and had to write this. This is NOT a prediction. It is something that smart business owners and good marketers have known for an incredibly long time. Let me explain.
According to the prediction – marketing will no longer sustain its own department. Um, yes it will – someone (call it marketing, communications, PR, sales) has to do a lot of the work, ensure that the messaging is correct and consistent and have a plan in place to keep the effort going, which is key to the success of all marketing efforts.
BUT they are right in that good marketing is organisation wide. Ie: it doesn’t matter what the folks in marketing or sales do or how good your website or systems are, if;
- anyone in the service or customer support chain doesn’t care about the customer or is having a bad day or
- the shopfront or office ‘feel’ is off or
- the product or service doesn’t live up to expectation or
- the after service support either doesn’t exist or is painful for the customer (or someone else in the chain if you’re a manufacturer).
If your customer is experiencing either pain or even just a disconnect anywhere in your touchpoint process, very likely there are choppy waters ahead (and there’s a solid prediction for you).
Hubspot say this prediction is being driven by the customer being in control. Nope that’s not right either. The customer shouldn’t control your business (it is after all YOUR business) – BUT they should be at the very heart of all things that you do. And smart marketing people and business owners have known that for a very long time too.
To be fabulously successful (whatever that means to you), your business needs to revolve around WIIFM or the 5 most important words in the English language – What’s in it for me? from your customers’ perspectives – through every step of a customer’s interaction with you (from materials, websites, forms, reception, sales, media stories, product/services, customer service, after-care). If it does, you can pat yourself on the back for apparently ‘being ahead of your time’. If you’ve been doing it for a decade or longer – no doubt you’re running a spectacularly successful business.
It is however, harder to get WIIFM right than it might seem on the surface. Lots of clients have told us that they find it hard to get out of their own way enough to see what dealing with the business is like from a customer perspective. And let’s face it, when you’re writing materials, designing your interior or talking about your wonderful product or service, you want to spending time on your favourite subject – you (and that’s okay by the way – everyone does, but it’s not what your customers/clients need to feel/see/experience).
That’s where an external marketing agency can help – they’ll be able to see things you might not and/or that you might have been willfully blind to in the past. You might also consider going down the path of using a mystery shopper service too (especially if you’re a volume business like travel, tourism, childcare, gyms, retail or healthcare). Both bring different strengths to the table and both can highlight places where you might be losing new sales or losing longer-term customers. And getting and keeping customers makes for stronger businesses.
So if you’re looking for better 2013 marketing predictions for your business or you’d like to answer WIIFM better or your business needs a customer-focussed marketing makeover, we’d be delighted to talk to you. Feel free to get in contact or join us on Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter.
Networking that builds new business
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Now BNI* gets a bit of a tough wrap. Yes, it’s a bit old school – some might even say ‘blokey’. Yes, it’s pretty formal and you have to play by their rules. Yes, it requires a serious time commitment. Yes, it costs a bit of cash to join.
BUT…
Done properly, it can also deliver some very significant benefits to your business.
As business people, and even as consumers, we prefer to do business with people – not brands, businesses, products, etc. And we have to know, like and trust those people in order for us to usually give them our business.
I was a bit grumpy when my old group (called a chapter) closed back in February after only 7 months of membership. I even complained to the founder in the US, Ivan Misner – who to his credit – engaged in some fairly robust conversation about some of the politicking that had gone on in the closing process – as did the Australian Director.
At the time, I felt like I was losing my ‘business family’. A bunch of men and women that I’d been having breakfast with each week for 7 months. They knew me and they were getting to know what my business could do for them. And they’d started to give me referrals to other business people they knew.
It worked. Even after the group was closed down, I still continued to receive referrals to qualified leads (Ie: people who wanted to do business with me, based on the strength of their relationship with the referrer and who were more or less ready to start their projects) from my former group members.
A bit of searching was required to find a new BNI group to call home. Some groups would have been great, but the marketing seat was already occupied and other groups seemed not to ‘fit’ what I was really looking for. Maybe that’s a chic thing, but for me ‘fit’ was critical. How could I do business with people I didn’t warm to, much less had to like and trust?
I also belong to a women’s business club She Business – which is an altogether different kettle of fish. We all joined to get new business, but what we actually got from our She membership was a business education, a bunch of like-minded women – the same ones we see on a regular monthly basis and we partner with each other to hold ourselves accountable for moving ourselves and our businesses forward. In other words, we’ve developed business friends.
That’s not to say that you can’t build a business without joining a BNI group or She Business – absolutely you can and many people do. But, if you want your business building to be a bit easier and maybe even a bit more fun, find yourself a group of like-minded people who meet regularly, commit to getting to know them and be open to what happens. Be patient – the business will come.
* For those of you who’ve never heard of BNI, it’s a business networking club where only one person per profession/trade can join. Most run at breakfast time and you’re pretty much required to go once a week, bring referrals and meet up with at least one other member a week outside the breakfast meeting. Onerous maybe, but it works. My ROI has been spectacular around 20x my paid investment in my first 9 months (and many of those clients have become ongoing clients).
Kristin Austin is a marketing & communication strategist and trainer who’s been doing the marketing ‘do’ for almost 20 years. She loves creating content and campaigns that drive engagement (using WIIFM) and capturing customers for her really lovely clients. She can be found hanging out in social media-land – for her clients’ benefit of course when she’s not working on client campaigns, strategy or writing them content. You can follow her @glitteratichic or connect on LinkedIn. If you’re not on social media and still want to connect - she’s happy to talk marketing and business boosting over coffee.
Social media is NOT your marketing plan
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In a world of immediacy, there is nothing like social media. But let’s be clear here, as much as I might love using it as one of the tools to build my business and that of some of my clients, it is just a tool or a channel. And just one of many at that.
Social media is very far from being ‘the answer’ to every business’ marketing or customer acquisition problem.
I would even go so far as to say, if anyone tells you social media is ‘the’ way to go - RUN! Why? Because there is no ‘the’ tool, channel or answer when it comes to marketing.
To say one way is the best way is incredibily limiting at best and potentially dangerous advice at worst.
Every businesses needs the right tools and unless you know your market (ie: your customer) intimately and the channels they consume (ie: media/mediums) are not completely fragmented like most are, you’re going to need a host of ways to connect with your customers across several touch points.
You might consider the following marketing touch points in your campaign (not in any particular order and the list isn’t exhaustive);
- Direct marketing
- Email marketing
- Events & expos
- Tradeshows
- Competitions
- In-situ, instore, on-pack or on-shelf promotions
- Actual sales calls (yep, remember those)
- Phone calls
- A smile from your receptionist & a reception area that’s not dark, dank or reminiscent of an ’80s gentlemen’s club
- Media/analyst/stakeholder relations
- Thank you cards
- Branded items like umbrellas, squooshy toys, etc even yacht sail branding if you can make a business case for it
- Training or speaking programs
- Advertising (TV, radio, outdoor, location- based , online)
- Your website (and on others via links, comments and
- Networking
- Brochures, flyers or any other printed materials
- Sampling programs
- and social media
What’s most important for marketing success is that you understand who your customer is, what they’re really after – ie – what’s in it (ie: your product or service) for them (WIIFM) and reaching them where the are.
There’s an old saying “fish where the fish are” – true then, true now. There’s no point being on social media if none of your clients (or potential clients) are there. Of course there are many, many people jumping on the social media bandwagon, but if it’s not a key audience for your business, put your energy into something that’s going to build your business. Start with the list above and go from there.
In terms of finding out how to reach those customers? Ask! Especially if your business has been operating for a while, ask your customers where they hang out.
Recently, as part of a rebranding exercise for an accounting firm, we asked their clients if they used social media and what platforms they used. Now, given these clients were business owners, I would have sworn blind that they would all have been on linkedin. But no, they’re all on FaceBook. So that’s where the client set up camp (in addition to a range of other marketing activities) - and their ‘friends’ came to play. Go figure – actually, the partners run an amazing business and their core brand value (as told to us by their customers in research) is friendliness – so being ‘friended’ on FB suits them perfectly. (Just as an aside, they also ranked very highly on professional advice too).
What it really comes down to, is find what works, for your customers, your business and your budget and do that. Map it, measure it and make it better each time. If we can help, we’d love to talk to you.
Kristin Austin is a marketing & communication strategist and trainer who’s been doing the marketing ‘do’ for almost 20 years. She can be found hanging out in social media land – for her clients’ benefit of course. You can follow her @glitteratichic or click on the LinkedIn icon on the right handside to connect there. If you’re not on social media and still want to connect - she’s happy to talk marketing and business boosting over coffee.
7 tips for winning pitches & presentations
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Two nights ago I had the great priviledge of being invited to speak to a bunch of small business owners in Sydney about building a better social media presence for their businesses. Rather than being all theory, we dissected the better things each of them could do on their pages and profiles to encourage people to connect – after all, it’s called social media for a reason and social = building a connection.
But this post isn’t about social media per se. Rather last night got me thinking about what constitutes a good presentation. One that people engage in as opposed to sitting there bored to tears (we’ve all been there!). So here are some of the rules that I play by when doing a preso whether that’s to a single business prospect, in a formal business pitch or to a room full of people.
- Understand what your audience is expecting. Are they expecting information, how-tos, pricing, practice? Deliver that and add some value just for good measure.
- Make it all about them. Even if it’s a pitch, it’s still all about them. That means starting with their problem (or if you don’t know their exact problem, start with common problems). From there you can talk about how you’d go about fixing it if you were them. Talk about research, your own or industry research – that’s how you prove your smarts. If you start with you, what you do, how long you’ve been doing it, some case studies, how smart you are, etc – you’ve pretty well bored them right up front (and you’ve got fidget central).
- Ask them questions. And be quiet. Let them know that this is a conversation, not a speech and you expect them to come along for the ride and participate.
- Use the names of those in the room. If you’ve got lots of people in the room for an event, talk to a few people beforehand, remember a handful of names and talk to those people and about their industries).
- Ignore powerpoint if you can. And if you must use it,
- Please DON’T READ off the screen. People in your audience can do that for themselves (and they’re done before you’re even half way through – more fidgeting).
- If you’re using powerpoint or keynote or whatever technology – have pictures up and talk to those. Pictures say 1000 words
- Don’t be tempted to put up more than 6 lines of text And shrinking your text to less than a font size of 28 to squish it all in isn’t on either. 4-6 words a line is ample
- If you must use words, use them as punctuation
- Be on! No-one cares what happened earlier in your day or how bad traffic was. You’re there to entertain them (even if it’s a serious pitch). Muster all the energy that you have and take them on the journey with you.
- Have some kind of call to action at the end (yes, it’s almost always a sales call of some description), so encourage them to ‘do’ something as a result of your time together.
And above all, have fun. People engage more with the people they can see are enjoying themselves and are clearly engaged by what they’re doing.
Kristin is a marketing & communication strategist and trainer who’s been doing the marketing ‘do’ for almost 20 years. She can be found hanging out in social media land – for her clients’ benefit of course. You can follow her @glitteratichic or click on the LinkedIn icon on the right handside to connect there.
Vitamin ME…an intriguing concept
Posted by: | CommentsJust came across a very intriguing marketing campaign – a blogging competition called Vitamin ME for Queensland Tourism – where they aske
d people to lazily dream about what they’d do with a prize of $5000 to spend on a Queensland holiday – because after all Vitamin ME is one of those essential vitamins for human health (especially those of us that run businesses and have families).
So why is it intriguing as a marketing campaign? Because time and again, research into marketing techniques tells us that if you can get people to imagine themselves using your product (preferably with a smile on their face), you’ve installed a mini-memory in their brains – with as much WIIFM or what’s in it for me, as their brain can imagine.
Yes, a mini-memory (okay that’s my term – but it’s spot on). The mini-memory acts as a positive brand experience and means the next time I think about going on holidays, somewhere warm, my brain is likely to pull said ‘memory’ from the recesses of my brain and suggest that in fact, I liked it (ie: the thought of it) so much last time, I should go again (this time for real). Clever, huh!! It’s even more clever that they make you write it down (further strengthening the memory) and post it for the world to see – the joys of getting friends of friends to feel an emotional connection to for your product/service.
You can use this concept in your marketing too. It would work equally well as an email campaign, facebook, video, etc.
As for me – hmmmm. Dreaming about $5,000 holiday in Queensland ….
Warm breeze, lapping ocean, clinking of icecube melting slowly in my MaiTai – I look up to watch the birds play in the sky from my perch under the shade of a whispering palm tree, swaying gently in said breeze. I listen more closely…nope, no kids – seriously, I’m in heaven – actually on a far northern Queensland island just for couples.
Work – care factor of nill – wow did I really think that? There must be something in the water here – yes, it’s Vitamin ME – the little piece of me, that lying here without a care in the world, is giving back to myself.
Who would I take – my husband of course. He’d be thrilled to have me all to himself for a couple of days with no expense spared – just the two of us . Well, make that the three of us…now you’re wondering aren’t you…the massuer at the bottom of my deckchair who’s giving me the most wonderful foot rub. Ahhhhhhh blisss (now have drool all over the computer). Ooops but I digress – there are no phone/iPad/laptops in this memory.
All I have to do (listen to me – have to do – bah!), is relax, swim, dive if I’m feeling adventurous, eat magnificent food, drink beautiful wine and smile indulgently at Sven at the bottom of my deckchair. Oh, and order another drink. It doesn’t get much better than this.
Must look into booking a holiday in Queensland – bring on the Vitamin ME.
See told you it was clever….
Thanks for the gorgeous shot © Karen Struthers | Dreamstime.com – http://www.dreamstime.com/looking-up-into-a-palm-tree-imagefree339436
7 ways to tell if your marketing guru knows their stuff
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- Do you really want a rock star?
There are a myriad of people out there offering their services as marketers, content writers, web designers, social media gurus, etc. How do you know who’s the real deal and who’s not? Here are 7 ways to tell.
- The first giveaway is they call themselves a guru – or it might be an expert or a rockstar, superstar or something similar that shows you they have no idea. Because if they did, they’d know their business isn’t all about them, it’s all about you (their customer). Real marketers know the value of WIIFM or ‘what’s in it for me?’ from their customers’ perspective.
- You can check them out on linked in. If they don’t have 10 years of experience doing what it is that you’re hiring them for – be alert, not alarmed and find someone else.
- If you’re hiring someone to do your marketing or PR or content or social media – they must have a website and a blog and some serious social media stuff going on, preferably with some good testimonials to go with. They can still be bad and have some of this stuff, but they’re not going to be great without it. You might also want to check how they treat their staffers. Happy staffers are productive staffers. And really, you don’t want some poor intern’s blood on your hands, um I mean, project.
- Check their level of real expertise – real expertise is rounded. People with solid experience haven’t only ever worked in the social media arena. Or video (unless they’re film-maker) or websites (unless they’re a developer – in which case good luck because true web developers are creatures unto themselves and aren’t very people friendly – big kisses to all webdevs). Good marketers have created integrated campaigns using all the tools available to them. Not just one or two. They understand the core concepts of marketing, not just the tools.
- You’re told social media (or insert whatever technology is currently sexy) is all you need. Nope – that’s rather like one of those diets where they only let you eat meat or one type of fruit for weeks on end. Marketing, just like bodies, functions a whole lot better when there’s a variety of opportunities to get what you need. If someone spins this to you, run – in the other direction.
- If the term strategy means ‘doing stuff’ and they reel off a long list of actions they’re going to take – it shows a serious lack of understanding around strategic thinking. A good marketer seeks first to understand and goes from there – not seeks to figure it out as they go along. A good marketer has a tried and trusted process they’ll lead you through.
- They fling designs and colours at you without explaining why they’ve chosen that colour or picture – as it relates to your business’ brand essence (sounds wanky, but there’s method in the madness).
I’m sure there are lots of other ways you can tell – feel free to share below. And if we can help with your marketing efforts, call us (after checking linkedin of course) 
Five tips for standing out in a cluttered market
Posted by: | CommentsThese days with so much clutter in the market, how do you possibly go about getting you and your business front and centre. Here are five tips for you t
o consider.
1. Be different – but in a good way. You may have heard the saying that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Yes, there is – just ask Rupert Murdoch. Make sure that you stand out for the right reasons. Keep the WIIFM principle, otherwise known as what’s in it for me (from your customers’ perspective) at the centre of anything you do.
2. Do something great – either for a client, for your staff or for the world in general and let people know about it. Everyone likes to think that business decisions are based on rationale and logic. They’re not. Everyone – yes everyone, buys on emotion and then backs it up with logic. So do something authentic for you and your organisation that makes someone somewhere feel better about their day – again keeping the WIIFM principle top of mind. You might also want to have some logical reasons for doing business with you handy too. Customers like logic to back up their emotional purchase decision (yep – even the business to business buyers).
3. Keep it consistent - Make sure that every part of your business (and yes, that’s more than just your marketing materials) says the same thing. If you pride yourself on service, but it takes your receptionist 10 rings to answer, there’s an incongruity there. That incongruity makes people feel uncomfortable. If it happens enough, your customers will have a level of discomfort that turns them and their business away.
4. Do what you say you’ll do – so many people don’t. When something goes wrong (maybe it’s outside your control) that’s when keeping on keeping on really counts. After you finish swearing, downing a scotch, panicking, etc – sort the problem and get on with it. There’s no need to share the drama with your client – you’ll know you’ve gone above and beyond – bask in the inner glow of a job well done – problems and all.
5. Give good love – client love that is. Send thank you notes – yes lots of people say it and still so very few do it. Send something nice with your bills to your favourite clients. Send things for Christmas, anniversaries, birthdays, big wins, etc that you know they’ll like. I gave a client of mine who was very into beer, a beer tasting box – he loved it. Sure I could have got him a bottle of wine, but it would have gone either in the office kitchen or to his home relatively unappreciated. The trick to this is to pay attention when they speak.
If you have a tale about what you do to stand out, please feel free to share below.
WIIFM for membership drives
Posted by: | CommentsRecently I was asked to share some ideas for getting more members into a networking group – in other words getting the group more business.
Often when consultants are asked to share ideas, they rattle off their list of top 10 quicker than you can ask the question (oh how we love to share). However, usually that ends up with the group saying ‘oh we’ve already tried that” and the consultant either feeling sheepish or a bit miffed thinking, “well if it’s worked so well, why did you ask me!”
So rather than bullishly come up with ‘the answer’, I asked the group what they’d done in the past so together we could get a better idea of what had and hadn’t worked before. Needless to say, some of what I might have suggested was on that list (just as well I asked, huh!!).
When we got to the bottom of what wasn’t working, some of the things that stood out were;
- Many of the group members were thinking about inviting their visitor from their own perspective - they had to get new members – which kind of smelled a little like the sales person that’s desperate to close the deal, any deal, just sign now, pleeeeeease?. That in itself is off-putting enough. Worse when you add they were thinking about themselves first and their potential fellow networker second (or maybe not at all).
- Some members of the group rushed in and asked anyone they came across rather than delving deeper into the other person’s needs to cherry pick those for whom the group would have been a great fit
- Whilst they were keen to share how great the group was, they were sharing what was good for them rather than the reasons their potential member might find interesting (things like a strong inner group of people in allied industries or the number of referrals group members gave each other or something else their guest might be really keen to learn more about).
In essence, what they’d forgotten about, in their desire to ‘nab’ new members was WIIFM for the potential member. Rather than appealing to their prospect’s business need, they were off on a rant about their own needs - so much easier to do, but so much less fruitful. In the end we developed a WIIFM list (almost like a list of selling points – but benefits driven rather than features) that they each felt comfortable using to talk about membership of the group.
What are they going to do moving forward?
- Ask lots of questions up front – so they can
- Assess whether the group might be a good fit for their ‘prospect’ – and if it is then they can
- Tailor their approach with information (and reasons to check the group out) that is meaningful to the ‘prospect’
WIIFM is simple stuff, but so few people remember to use it. If you’re part of a membership group, let me know what worked to get you involved, how you get others on board or where else you might use WIIFM.
Three top reasons to outsource your marketing effort
Posted by: | CommentsIf you’re anything like most business owners, you spend a lot of time thinking about how to get more customers through your door. Marketing is critically important to your business, but should you do it yourself or should you get someone else to do it?
Let’s look at the top three reasons to give the job to someone else.
1. WIIFM? – how many times have you been to a store, visited a website or sat through a presentation thinking “these people just don’t get it”. Most likely the reason was that they were talking seemingly endlessly about themselves – when what really matters to you is YOU. Certainly their product, service, etc might be of interest, but it’s what it does for you.
Throughout your whole experience with them, you’re trying to make what they’re saying apply to you. If all they’re doing is talking about themselves, you’re likely to dismiss what they’re saying as irrelevant. Only the better marketers know how to apply the WIIFM principles well.
2. Good marketers understand how to bring how to bring your best points to the front and centre of your customer’s minds. If you’re like many clients, you might find you’re too wrapped up in the detail of what you’re selling – or in love with your product. Which is great from a passion perspective, but often it means that you might be burying the most compelling reasons your customers need in order to buy from you.
A client and I were talking about a marketing piece he’d mocked up. After half an hour of talking me through it (it was a very busy brochure), it emerged the strongest reasons to buy were the free personalised trial and the product’s environmental benefit (which was exceptional).
After two brief looks at the piece whilst we were talking (which is sadly more than a customer will usually give a brochure), I found the FREE offer buried in the middle of page 2 and the environmental message was entirely missing. Needless to say, those messages are now front and centre.
3. Better outcomes. Working with an experienced marketer vastly increases your likelihood of achieving the outcomes that you’re after for your business. Don’t just look at their work from a ‘how it looks’ perspective – it might just be ‘pretty’ work. Ask them what it achieved for their client – you’re looking for answers like -” this campaign”…*
- uncovered 32 potential new pieces of business waiting to be signed
- achieved media coverage of $1.5 million
- became the top selling non-fiction book
- reported to be one of the most-successful infomercials of the year
- increased overnights to the destination by 20%
- changed the product from being an ‘untouchable’ before launch to rocketing it to number one in a reasonably mature category in six months.
Ask for hard numbers – if they can’t give you any – maybe it’s time to talk someone else.
* these are actual results from my real campaigns.
These are just the top three, but there really are loads of reasons to outsource your marketing – more coming soon. If we can help, please let us know.
