Why Have A Marketing Plan?

I’m going to continue posting the materials from my Udemy.com online course entitled The Marketing Plan Seminar so that my followers can get a feel for the kind of work that I can do for them on a consulting basis. If you can’t wait for the installments to be posted you can order the complete course at http://udemy.com/The-Marketing-Plan-Seminar. In the mean time, I hope you will enjoy each small installment and give me a call if doing so triggers something for you where I can be of help. Enjoy!

Why Have A Marketing Plan?

Why A Plan? — This image goes with the accompanying video that is part of the online Marketing Plan Seminar. This is slide number 4.

Here’s another question for you and this one is not rhetorical at all. It outlines why you really need to have a formal marketing plan. Have a look and a listen.

If you don’t have a plan it is nearly impossible to reach your goal successfully. Your plan supports your vision for your business and charts the path to lead you from where you are currently to where you want to be.

November 27, 2012November 27, 2012

Where Is Your Marketing Plan?

I’m going to start posting the materials from my Udemy.com online course entitled The Marketing Plan Seminar so that my followers can get a feel for the kind of work that I can do for them on a consulting basis. If you can’t wait for the installments to be posted you can order the complete course at http://udemy.com/The-Marketing-Plan-Seminar. In the mean time, I hope you will enjoy each small installment and give me a call if doing so triggers something for you where I can be of help. Enjoy!

Where Is Your Marketing Plan?

Here’s a bit of a rhetorical question for you. And in the accompanying video I explain what I mean by that. Have a look and a listen.

It really is critically important that your plan be formal and published. Formal makes it more concrete and publishing it so that others can see it, review it, question it or suggest improvements to it helps create buy-in and helps make you accountable for its implementation.

November 25, 2012June 9, 2015

10 Reasons Not to Hire an Expert

$Calvin & Hobbes - Math Homework$ I’ve been curating a lot of articles lately and re-posting them for the edification of my friends, fans and connections and several of those posts have been lists of 5, 10, 12, 20 or more things you can do to improve your business, life, social media strategy or anything else. In fact a lot of experts say that the titles for your posts should have numbers in them and that lists make for good content. So here’s mine!

1. You know more about the subject of how to solve a given problem than anyone else possibly could. Especially someone from outside your organization who lacks the in-depth participation that you have in the original creation of the problem.

2. You know that an outside expert will ask you a lot of irrelevant questions in an attempt to get to the root cause of your problem and you really don’t have time to answer a bunch of those kinds of questions.

3. You worked with an expert once that your company hired to solve a problem that you couldn’t solve on your own and that expert simply presented your solution to management in such a way as to get it accepted while giving no credit to you.

4. You can’t pay an outside expert $125 an hour to quickly provide recommendations to solve the problem you’ve been wrestling with for weeks or months and that has been preventing my ability to grow my business. Too expensive!

5. You’ve been doing things this way for years and the last thing you need is some wise guy in a suit with a briefcase coming in here to tell you that there might be better ways to do things. So what if you’re working 60 hours per week? You don’t need any help.

6. Strategy, schmategy! You’ve just got to get the message out to everyone possible that they are just dumb if they don’t buy your product/service. Don’t these experts realize that you wouldn’t be in this business if you didn’t know what you were doing?

7. You don’t need some expert telling you that what you’re currently doing isn’t working as well as you’d like it to. You already know that! You just need to work harder at what you’re doing and get your people to do so as well.

8. You’ve heard all about this “working smarter” stuff and you just don’t believe in it. The old ways have always worked for you in the past and all of this newfangled stuff is just going to make more work for you.

9. How can anyone without detailed knowledge of the ins and outs of your particular business help you by showing you how generally successful goals, strategies and tactics that work for others could work for you?

10. You don’t have time to talk with any experts. You’ve got too many problems of your own to solve!

Hope you enjoyed this. Isn’t is amazing how many people — not you, of course — fit these examples? As always, I’d love to have your comments — pro or con or just plain different. Thanks for reading and don’t be shy.

November 25, 2012

Is Social Media a Passing Fad?

I’ve been reading a lot lately about predictions for the coming year. Many of those predictions have to do with social media — whether or not it will stay relevant, whether or not anyone will figure out how to really measure its return on investment (ROI), how many social media “agencies” will survive, etc.

These are interesting questions and remind me of days past when similar questions surfaced and when there were as many answers and opinions — mine among them with this writing! — as there were people brave enough to venture them.

How do you measure the impact of social media expenditures on your bottom line? Do you have real numbers in terms of dollars spent vs. dollars gained or in terms of debits and credits or do you just know that social media is working for you?

Social media has created the biggest self-employment boom in recent history. Virtually anyone can lay claim to being a social media “expert,” as they did with website search engine optimization until Google foiled them and created the current content craze. I have personal and business/company/fan pages on Facebook, Linkedin, Google+, XeeMe, Biznik and several others. I know how to use promotions and advertisements on most of these platforms. My website has all the requisite social media buttons and even uses a WordPress Facebook plug-in for you to leave comments — which I hope you will, by the way — on articles such as this one.

So am I a social media expert? I certainly don’t pass myself off as one, even though I think I know more than enough to be a little dangerous! But what I most certainly don’t know is how I would measure my effectiveness as a social media expert were I to take someone’s money to do social media implementation and optimization work. So I don’t do it. I do higher level strategy work and farm out the implementation to people who have actually helped my business increase its revenues through their improvements to my social media efforts.

Most of my clients are small companies — one to a dozen or so people who have had no formal marketing strategy training r whose marketing manager got the job because he or she knew how to use Facebook and Linkedin a few years ago. I help them figure out who their real target markets are, what messages will resonate with them and what media is most likely to be most effective in delivering those messages to those markets. It may sound simple, but it isn’t. And I normally do recommend that they invest in social media to at least some extent simply because they “have to have a social media presence” in this day and age to be considered a real company.

But am I giving them good advice? I think back to why we attended trade shows when I was in the electronics and software businesses. We had to be there because our competition was there. Until we became successful enough that we could afford not to be there and to let our customers and prospects know that it wasn’t due to lack of money or customers that we were foregoing our future trade show appearances. We were going to use the money for something that would benefit them more than our fancy exhibit booth and lavish hospitality suite. And they respected that.

Trade shows didn’t die, of course. They still have their niches and their purposes. But they have changed dramatically. And I think our fascination or even obsession with social media may become subject to similar pressures in the future. Because if you can’t measure the ROI for an activity, the bean counters are going to make sure that it is severely curtailed if not completely eliminated.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic and will share them with the “gurus” of social media to whom I am connected. Thanks for reading. I hope you found this content useful.

November 15, 2012November 15, 2012

It’s a Small World (After All?)

I had the opportunity to participate in an Executive Briefing breakfast meeting this past Tuesday and one of the participants was a man named Dale who was, of all things, a veteran of the electronic automatic test equipment (ATE) world, a world that I inhabited many years ago.

We spoke about how there were 10 big ATE companies in the 70s and 80s and 50 medium sized companies and literally dozens of small ones — his among them. Today there are two, maybe three big ones, a few medium sized ones and very few small ones. A lot of that has to do with the implosion of the technology world that occurred in the early 2000s, but a lot of it also has to do with a shift in test methodology whose creation I sparked.

Once upon a time I thought it would be good to teach electronic designers, who once worried only about function and not mundane things like manufacturability, testability or yield. So I wrote the first book and ended up traveling the world teaching and preaching DFT, as it was then called. And I had fun, fame and respect from the electronics test community. “Rambo” of testability. “Pope” of testability. Those were heady days.

You have probably never heard of IEEE-Std-1149 or boundary scan — the so-called “dot one” standard. These are terms that are familiar only to those involved in the design and test of the integrated circuits. But that standard is incorporated in the integrated circuits that are used in virtually every electronic product you use today — including the device you are using to read this post. I literally changed the world of electronics test.

Creating the IEEE standard became a crusade of sorts for me. The standard got co-opted by some very large companies with their own agendas and thus my one truly altruistic act ended up killing my DFT seminar business. Go figure. No good deed goes unpunished!

I tell this story only to illustrate that change happens. In the technology world, in the marketing world and in our own lives. And we can either adapt to those changes or we’re out of business. I (thankfully) had other things to teach, preach and sell and had supporters who appreciated my high technology hardware and software technical and marketing skills and whose support has gotten me to where I am today — a consultant who can share his marketing knowledge — for a price — with those who appreciate that wisdom and the love with which it is shared.

Do you have a crusade within you? A passion to change the world in whatever way you can? If so, share it with us. If not, let us help you create one. Because it truly is through the passion of individuals that we create change in the world. Let us hear from you in the Comments section and thanks for reading.

November 2, 2012November 2, 2012

Why, How and What

I had the opportunity recently to view a TEDx talk by Simon Sinek on the topic of how great leaders inspire action and it really got me to thinking about why I do what I do and how the approach Simon describes might work for you as well.

His premise is that most marketing messages describe the “what” of a product — its feature and benefits. The message may also contain information on how the product provides what it provides. And it may even delve into why you are offering that product (or service) but by this time you’ve lost the attention of your audience and actually never really connected to their emotions in the first place.

I’ve often mentioned the need for messages that resonate. By this I mean messages that connect with the target audience on an emotional level. If you follow Cathey Armillos at all, you’ll recognize that she says the same thing. Purchases are driven by emotion and rationalized by logic. So it makes sense, doesn’t it, to start at the center and work outward if we want to be most successful.

Why don’t we do that? Because we weren’t trained that way. Marketing 101 gets us to convert features to benefits, of course, but it doesn’t get us to why we are offering this product or service in the first place or, more importantly, why a prospective customer should care about it.

Simon uses Apple and TIVO as examples of great successes and failures in his talk (which you can find here). Apple inspires enough people to be early adopters of its products to convince the early majority to buy them as well, even though it makes them out of the same materials that any other computer company uses. But it’s purpose is to change the way people interact with technology and it thus positions itself almost as a cause or a movement instead of as a commodity product manufacturer. Whereas TIVO, which arguably produces the highest quality video recording device, has never taken off because people didn’t believe that they needed it. It didn’t cause them to feel special through owing one.

I found that Simon’s remarks resonated with me and, if you watch the video of his talk I hope they’ll resonate with you as well. I know that I’ll think twice about whether my work with clients on markets, messages and media is helping them focus on working from the inside out — why first, then how and finally what — so that they can connect best with their prospective clients and customers.

As always, I’d love to have your remarks and opinions. Thanks for reading.

Scoop.it

October 30, 2012February 5, 2013

The Marketing Seminar/Workshop – Encore Edition

The Marketing Seminar/Workshop – Table of Contents

A live encore presentation of The Marketing Seminar/Workshop will be held on January 24, 2013, in Northeast Portland. It has been produced and will be presented by Jon Turino, an award-winning speaker and one of Portland’s premier marketing strategy consultants. Here’s the Table of Contents for the session:

Helping Businesses Grow Through Better Marketing Strategies

Jon Turino Marketing Strategy Consultant Portland, OR

Our Agenda for Today
- A short presentation by Jon
- Workshop session
Where Is Your Marketing Plan?
Why a Plan?
The Process Flow
Elements of a Marketing Plan – 1
Elements of a Marketing Plan – 2
Elements of a Marketing Plan – 3
Who Are We Trying to Reach?
What Message(s) Are We Sending?
What Message(s) Are We Sending?
What Media Should We Use?
Social Media Considerations
Converting Leads to Customers
Other Elements to Consider
Other Tools in Your Arsenal
Your Networking World
Some Networking Tips
What’s In It For You?
Let’s Get You A Plan! – Workshop Session

Registration information will be forthcoming soon.

Link to Event Page with PayPal Registration Here.

October 29, 2012October 29, 2012

The Power of “Why?”

I’m prompted by reading a recent post on LinkedIn about what to do when clients ask you to do something wrong to offer some simple advice as to how to get that client to reach his or her own “Aha” moment and abandon their folly.

Simply ask “Why?” And continue to ask “Why?” until you get the same answer a minimum of three times in a row. You may, at this point, be fairly confident that you’ve discovered the root cause of the clients’ need, want or desire. And the client may, by this time, achieved the desired state of realization.

If you are a parent you know just how aggravating the constant “Why?” question from your young children can be. “Why is the sky blue?,” when asked by a 5-year-old, can’t reasonably be answered with an explanation of the layers of the atmosphere and the behavior of light in that atmosphere. Because the child won’t understand that answer and thus you will be faced with an innumerable and unending series of “why”s which will only beget another innumerable and unending series of additional “why” questions.

Far better to say something like “Because that’s the color Mother Nature wanted it to be.” If you get another “why” to this answer you’ll have to come up with some simple reason why Mother Nature would do such a thing, but you are not, in this case, constrained by reality or facts. You can use whatever it takes to end the questions, including distracting the child from that train of thought altogether. By asking, for example, “Why do you like brown (or pink or green or yellow) ice cream the best? Shall we go get some?”

When dealing in the real world of business with presumably educated and intelligent adults, however, the above example won’t work very well. You’ll want to have the client come up with real answers to your “why” questions so that you can eliminate the superficial or fallacious reasons that led to the request in the first place. You might ask “Why do you want to paint the delivery van chartreuse when the company logo colors are orange and brown?” If you get an answer like “Because my new girlfriend thinks it would be cute.” you can ask “And why do you think cute will be better than businesslike?” or something to that effect.

You can, and usually without upsetting the client too badly, get to a good solution using this powerful technique. Give it a try the next time you are faced with a demand that seems unreasonable. And please share with us the results. Why? Because I’ll bet they’ll be enlightening and humorous at the same time.

You can see some examples of wrongheadedness at 15 Question Silent Marketing Test, which also includes a video. Thanks for reading.

Scoop.it

October 9, 2012June 9, 2015

Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should

Does the word oxymoron resonate with you? An oxymoron, for those of you not familiar with the term, refers to a concept that doesn’t really make sense.

Military intelligence is one of the favorites. So is jumbo shrimp. How about clean dirt? Or how about open secret, original copy, paid volunteer or vegetarian meatballs?

Two words that just don’t make sense when placed together. The illustration with this post showing a QR code on the screen is another interesting example that could be put into that category. Why would you send a QR code to a mobile device when the camera that could capture and process the QR code is on the back of the device? Because you can? Why would you include a QR code on your website then the person viewing it is already there?

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should!

I had the opportunity to hear Scott Stratten, president of Un-marketing, talk about these kinds of things on a webinar earlier today. Or maybe it was a rant. Or some combination of both. In any case it was very informative and entertaining and I encourage you to check him out at http://unmarketing.com on the web or at @unmarketing on Twitter. Because there’s more.

There were a lot of examples presented during the hour long presentation, many reminiscent of my blog post about businesses with “Please Use Other Door” signs on them. Scott didn’t mention them, but he did mention billboards containing QR codes that advised people not to text while driving. But trying to photograph QR codes while driving is OK? “Stop it!,” says Scott. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should!

How about putting together what ended up being an “award winning” advertising campaign using QR codes in subway stations where there were no signals for the smartphones to connect? What fools dreamed up and implemented such a campaign? And what batch of greater fools actually gave the company an award for a campaign that didn’t work?

Now I’m not ranting against QR codes in this post. They certainly have their place and can be valuable adjuncts to your messaging if used properly. What I’m trying to illustrate is that just because we have the technology to do these kinds of marketing “tactics of the day” doesn’t mean that we should do them. Especially if they don’t work!

Give some real thought to what you are trying to accomplish with your marketing tactics. Make sure that they fit with your overall marketing strategy. Double check them for soundness and examine them for functionality. Because you can spend inordinate amounts of time and money doing things that make absolutely no sense from an overall marketing standpoint and can even damage your brand or image.

Guess what happens when people try to use a QR code and it doesn’t work. They are much less likely to try it again. Guess what happens if they have a bad experience with your web site, your store entrance or your employees. They are much less likely to patronize your business again. So you are sabotaging yourself.

Think about it. Get third-party reviews from focus groups, advisory boards, consumer panels or marketing consultants before you implement a marketing tactic. And please don’t execute one just because you can, especially if you shouldn’t.

Your comment on my opinions are, as always, welcome. I’d love to hear from you and will share your comments with your permission.
Scoop.it

October 6, 2012October 6, 2012

A Marketing Sandwich

Sliced ham. Sliced turkey. Sliced Swiss cheese. Sliced bread. Scrambled eggs mixed with a tablespoon or two of milk, some cinnamon and some vanilla extract. Butter and a hot skillet. What are we making?

The list of ingredients isn’t very fancy now, is it? Some pretty basic ingredients to work with. We could make a variety of things with our ingredients. A ham, cheese and turkey sandwich, for instance. Some scrambled eggs and some cinnamon toast. How about some French toast? Or how about a Monte Cristo sandwich? Doesn’t that sound tasty?

And what does all of this have to do with marketing? Think about the list of ingredients as the raw materials of your product or services. Think about the recipe as the packaging and the finished product as the presentation.

How different is your ham, turkey and cheese sandwich from those supplied by your competition? Or your scrambled eggs? Or even your French toast? Ah, but a Monte Cristo sandwich? How many of your competitors offer one of those? How many restaurants for that matter?

Messages, media, markets. Monte Cristo sandwiches. It’s what’s for brunch today. Make sense?

Enjoy the sandwich. Add some syrup or jam if you like it with something sweet. Call me or take one of my courses if you’d like help cooking up your own better marketing strategies.

And please leave your comments. I will respond to them.

Chef’s Note: Mix the eggs, cinnamon, milk and vanilla together with a fork or a whisk. Soak the bread on both sides and cook on buttered skillet until golden brown on one side. Flip to cook 2nd side and add turkey, ham and cheese to sides already cooked. Then fold together to make into a complete sandwich. Flip as needed until cheese is melted and serve immediately with fruit, jam/jelly or syrup. Makes a very tasty meal!