Shortfall Marketing

Recently I had a business owner email their list saying that they were a little short when it came to tax time so they were going to open up access to a product that basically wasn’t taking on new clients in a bid to get those extra dollars for their taxes. Whether that was a story to pull on readers heart-strings or an actual reality (from what I know I think it’s real) it’s something that we can all learn from for our businesses and our marketing.

Of course the first thing that came to mind when I read the email was awe that we live in a day and age where you can send out an email or a social post and the money just rolls in. It really goes to show how much has changed in the world over the years that a business can recognize that they’re short and in a matter of hours or days they can do something about it, instead of hoping that someone will wander through town and decide they want the product or need a service and just get lucky that any extra money came in, or knowing that you were really in trouble and not having any really good options at your disposal.

But as anyone who has tried this method before knows, it doesn’t always work. I’m sure most if not all of us have sent out promotional emails and posts and heard back less than crickets about our offer. But let’s assume that we are targeting the right people with our offer (i.e. we’re in touch with people who live in our service area or love a specific sport or live where it snows or have kids etc.). If you’ve got the right people targeted and you don’t get a response then two big reasons why they aren’t buying come to mind: they don’t really know you or your offer isn’t the right value. The first reason has to do with one of the foundations of successful marketing: consistently engaging with your people. If they hear from you twice a year maybe they’ll be so excited by what you have to share (i.e. a Black Friday offer), but chances are just as good that you’ll have missed out on the sale because they went with someone else who they know/like/trust more. And with the value question, I totally understand the feeling of panic when you’re short on finances, but putting out high-end offerings and hoping that you get people willing to break out the big cards doesn’t often work, especially if you don’t often offer big packages or it costs more than people would easily hand over in a short amount of time (most people don’t have money for a big theme park trip or home renovation just lying around as “extra” in that months’ budget). I’m not saying that big ticket offers are a bad idea, they’re not, just that they can be hard to sell in this type of situation, even when you manage to clearly communicate the value.

So the next time you’ve got something going on in your life, don’t be afraid to be a little vulnerable with your audience, especially if you generally do share some personal information with them. Also, take time to celebrate the gift of being in business when we are! Finally, are you taking advantage of all the opportunities that are available to you? Are you showing up for your customers in such a way that they will show up for you when you need them to? If not, start today.

A Little Good (Business) News

If there’s one thing I know it’s that everyone can use some good news. How often does your business share good news with your customers? I know I personally chose the charities and non profits that I support based on who actually follows up with donors and shares where their donations are going to and the difference the organization is making in the world. I buy products from stores and sellers who not only are committed to product quality but also make a point in giving back when they can. I know I’m not alone in those choices either, countless customers also state that these things are important to them.

Do you know how often you’ve lost a customer simply because you didn’t bother to keep them in the loop on anything more than what you’re selling (if that!) or that you need more money? It really comes down to a question of once you’ve conquered product/service quality what efforts do you make to remind customers that you’re there? Because people are easily bored and easily distracted, people like to try new things, people do shop around for price so they may not just shop with you if a product is available for less elsewhere that isn’t a big inconvenience for them to buy it there, needs and priorities change, and people are constantly dealing with all manner of challenges, changes, issues, concerns and struggles, so if you don’t make any or sufficient effort to connect with them, they’ll shop wherever is easiest, quickest, cheapest or most interesting to them at the moment.

Whether you keep your supporters and customers informed daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, it’s really easy to come up with a little good news. You can share good news about what’s going on in your business like new milestones you reach. You can share customer stories as they have to do directly with your business or organization or as they have to do with the greater community. You can share employee stories about good things that they’ve seen or things they’re loving in the business right now. If you’re a local business or organization you can share about good news in the community. And the best part is because you’re reminding people that there’s still good in the world and that good things do happen, they begin to associate your business with good news and a bright spot in their day and look forward to hearing from you. Do you include good news in your marketing and business communications?

Leaders Who Listen

There are so many things that can trip you up as a leader, or make it much harder for you to be the leader that you could be. One of the decisions leaders face is accepting the fact that there’s no way you personally can know everything that’s going on in your business. You can’t be everywhere at once, can’t do everything every day, and can’t be every person at every level of your organization. Even if you’re a solopreneur or running your own business, it’s been a very long time since one person has done it all or knew it all (hundreds of years maybe even). So if you look at most businesses, the leaders who are able to say they really have their finger on the pulse of the business are those who have a team that keeps them updated on the information they need to know, including information that may have either slipped by them or they don’t even know to ask about but is really important to know.

If you’re following along with the many holidays throughout the year you may know that Purim is on Sunday. It’s the remembrance of when Queen Esther chose to be courageous to speak uninvited with King Xerxes I in order to save the Jewish people, her people, from destruction at the command of an official named Haman (it’s a story that also appears in the Bible). Whether you’re leader of just a few people or enough people to fill a nation, most leaders would not want to lose a significant percentage of their people essentially overnight. So whether the King didn’t understand what the edict he had signed meant (the context) or just didn’t read it, it took Esther’s speaking up to get him to understand the consequences of such a law and save the Jews, and as a result there’s now a celebration each year of this event.

At the center of all of this is trust. King Xerxes I trusted the wrong person and as a result almost got the Jews killed, but fortunately it’s not usually that dire for the rest of us as leaders. That said, we do need to be smart about building relationships with and putting trust in people who can help us get the information we need to know with the appropriate context. Maybe that looks like a daily/weekly/monthly email from each of your managers or top leaders or whomever is in a position to get a lot of information and be involved in different day-to-day aspects of the business. Maybe it’s a subscription to a few newsletters that help you stay on top of what’s changing in industries that affect your business including marketing and legal from experts that you trust. Maybe it’s monthly meeting with certain stakeholders to make sure that you haven’t missed anything they deem super important or noteworthy or go over things they see to be potential or current issues that may or may not be being addressed.

Most of all, don’t forget to listen and hear what your people have to say. If you’ve entrusted them to take a leadership role in some aspect of your business and then asked them to keep you in the loop, don’t be dismissive or ignorant towards the invaluable information they send your way. Maybe you’ll have to work with them a bit initially to establish how much detail you need on various reports or updates, but that little effort is worth it to get the information you need to make the big decisions and be prepared for how things may be changing or may need to change. How do you stay updated about everything going on in your business and the business world?

Businesses that Give

It’s the season of giving and I hope that you’ve set your business up for success in the last weeks of the year and that these holiday shopping days have been all that you hoped they would be so far with people buying gifts for others (and themselves). I know many businesses do (steep) discounts during this shopping weekend, which customers obviously appreciate, but is there something else you could give them in this season of giving that they would really appreciate? I don’t know about you, but from all the shopping I did recently as well as the shopping I do locally for groceries each week, there are a few things that I would appreciate more than the discounts (although those are very appreciated of course).

You know one of my biggest issues is with the information aspect of things. I can’t tell you the number of times I backed away from buying something because of a price discrepancy, lack of price information all together, or insufficient advertising (i.e. size or features or aspects aren’t what I want but the ad was vague enough to interest me into checking it out). I want to shop with businesses that I don’t have to question the receipt each time and wonder how I spend all that money. I want to shop with businesses that keep me updated on all things in multiple ways like social, newsletters and/or text messages if that’s what I prefer. I want more people shopping with me who are qualified and ready to put money on the table, not people who I might get lucky with that would buy an alternative item to the one that they came in hoping to buy but wasn’t right for them. I want people who return fewer things because they didn’t have any confusion over what was being offered or how it looked or worked. I want to be known as the business that gets it right for their customers, that customers have an easy and consistent shopping experience with, and a business that customers consistently recommend people back to because of the experience they had with me and with what I offer.

I mentioned the other gift I want to focus on today in that last little bit: consistency. Like you probably do, I shop with certain stores because I know that consistently they’ll have the product I want in stock at a price that’s fair and it’s a good product. The same is true for service providers: we work with the same ones over and over when they’re on time, do quality work, and do it at a fair price. I think you can follow the important thread here: I’m not looking for or expecting businesses to all be top tier or exclusive, I’m just expecting them to provide what they are supposed to provide in a quality manner at a fair (fair to both of us) price. Is it fun to have a surprise or two along the way? Absolutely. I was thrilled to walk into several stores over the past few months and be surprised with exactly what I wanted but the internet didn’t tell me they had in addition to the other things I came there to buy. So while a surprise or two occasionally is great, there are great benefits to being consistent and reliable for shoppers.

So this holiday season as shoppers give you the gift of their funds, what gift will you give them? And will you make it a gift that keeps giving to them all year long or just in the holiday season like the special deals people shop now? I’ve seen in businesses across the whole spectrum that those who give back to their customers in multiple ways during the whole year more consistently make sales and have more repeat customers, and that’s a gift I certainly won’t turn down, will you?

That’s Complicated

I’m all about keeping things simple (if you’ve been around here for a while this is something you know about me). But as much as I wish the world would just comply and do things simple for me, and everyone else who likes simple, the truth is that there’s a lot of really complicated stuff that goes on around us. It’s fascinating to me how it seems simple to say that we’re connected by the internet around the world, but how that actually happens is so much more complicated than it sounds. Whether your business works primarily with complicated things or you’re more about the consistently simple, from time to time we all have to deal with more complicated situations. So let’s talk about some of the things you can do to make those complicated situations a lot easier to deal with, if not as simple as possible.

Complicated becomes a lot simpler and easier to handle when you’ve got a plan. For those of us who struggle with timing/time, this is something that can help us too. Making a plan means that you’ve brought as much information to the table (or whiteboard, or digital ) as you can, spread it all out, put it in the most logical order, and made sure that information is available for anyone and everyone who needs to know it. Part of creating the plan is putting together a list of things you don’t know yet and/or don’t know how they’ll fit in but know they have to. Another part of the plan is gathering essential information that won’t change even if some other aspects of the complication do.

Complicated becomes a lot less stressful when you’ve been planning ahead. What does this mean? It means having a good team in place both directly with you and other people and businesses you know you can rely on, for example a moving company, a plumber, an animal expert, finance people, people in real estate, cleaners and organizers, automotive people, construction people, tech people and the list goes on. Planning ahead also includes setting aside time in your regular schedule to not only review and stay on top of all the little things that go on, but also to work ahead on things like taxes or maintenance or purchases you know are happening sooner rather than later.

Finally, and so predictably, complicated isn’t as complicated when you communicate. The longer you work with your team of people, the better you know how they communicate (or don’t) and how they deal with stress and big projects, and can do your best as the leader or manager to communicate more with those who need that extra input and attention versus those who can be given all the information and you just check in with them from time to time. But, regardless of whether they require more or less check-ins, your complications will stay complicated if you don’t keep people in the loop. Yes, there’s sometimes information that you feel people don’t need to know, but if you really trust your people, if they’ve worked with you for a long time, you have to make a decision on whether you would prefer things to go well and navigate the complications as successfully as possible, or if you want everyone to be really stressed and upset and frustrated with you for withholding what are really essential bits of information that will greatly impact their ability to plan, plan ahead or do their work.

The sooner you get your team in the loop on your complicated project, the more success you’ll have with that project as well as the more likely that everything else in the business will continue to run smoothly. What are your tips for navigating all things complicated and complex?

Real with Reviews

Have you had a less-than-satisfying cup of coffee recently? I had a cup at a friend’s house recently and it tasted like what some people think coffee always does: dirty water. It just didn’t have the robustness, the depth of flavor, or even the texture that a good cup of coffee has compared to tea. The issue wasn’t with the brand of coffee used or not using enough coffee, but with the machine used to make the coffee: a combo pod and pot coffee machine. While I haven’t done a broad survey of all the coffee machines like this it certainly would make me pause before buying one like it because it doesn’t make a cup of coffee like I enjoy. Could there be operator error? Of course, it’s possible that there’s a way to make a better pot of coffee with this machine that doesn’t seem obvious (other than using 3x as much coffee as you usually would so it’s more like coffee normally is or switching to stronger coffee). But if it’s not possible then if you really like making a pot of coffee, this machine probably isn’t for you.

When I bought my coffee pot machine several years ago now I don’t think I anticipated something like this being possible, and thankfully my machine makes a cup (pot) that I enjoy, but having had this experience if I were to really invest in a coffee machine in the future I would definitely do one thing before buying it (other than check the price): read the reviews. I doubt I’m the only one who has had this experience with this machine, and I’m sure that people would have posted about the issues they had or ways they worked around/solved the issue, and having read those reviews would either give me the knowledge to make the machine work for me, or the wisdom to go with a different machine.

Reviews are so important for not only the customer but also the business, so whenever I see a business that doesn’t show reviews on their website or clearly ignores reviews people post on other websites where the product is available it gives me pause. What is a company hiding that they don’t want people to know what others say about their products? Does it mean that a company doesn’t want feedback from their customers? Does it mean that the company outright ignores feedback? Maybe those latter two don’t matter a whole lot to you, but most of us like to stick with a brand when we find something we like, whether it’s a car, a beverage, a dessert or a hotel, and knowing that any issues that might have been reported won’t get addressed for future purchases might mean that you’re less brand loyal. In fact I decided not to buy something from a company that said they’re closing because I didn’t want to fall in love with the product and not be able to buy more in the future.

So what can you do if you don’t get a lot of reviews? The first question of course is to ask if you’re doing anything to encourage reviews. Do you have an “add a review” button on the product on your website, do you send an email invite to your customers asking them to leave a review, do you invite reviews on social media, do you have feedback cards at any farmer’s markets or other events you attend and sell at? Which brings us to the second question: what if you’re doing all those things and people aren’t leaving reviews? There’s no shame or issue in having people test the product out for you as a study group as long as they provide detailed and honest feedback. Rarely is the relationship between the company and the customer shared with the review, so as long as you can get unbiased feedback that is detailed (not just “I like it”) and includes pros and cons, it’s worth sharing with your potential customers.

Finally, don’t feel bad about bad reviews. Are some dumb and just mean that a customer didn’t pay attention when they were making a purchase or are mad they did something to break the product and blame you? Yes. But many of them include details that are helpful to customers so they can avoid making a purchase they’ll regret. What have you learned from reviews?

How Do You Ask?

How you ask someone something can have a lot to do with your ability to be successful. You’ve probably heard the saying “You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar,” which is often said by parents and adults to kids in respect to how they say something. You’ve probably also heard a parent say to a kid “how do you ask?” (or said it to a kid yourself) with respect to asking politely for something they want that they can’t reach or would like. I don’t think that either of these sayings means that you can’t be passionate, honest or vocal about your opinions, needs, requirements and wants. In fact I don’t think we ask for or are passionate/honest/vocal about our needs, opinions, requirements and wants as often as we should be, and even more, I think that we do ourselves a disservice so often and set ourselves up for failure when we do ask or state because of how we do so.

For example every so often someone I know will text me and ask “Are you OK?” And my reaction each and every time as I read that text is “what do they know that I don’t know?!?!” Because when you ask someone if they’re OK, it sounds like something might not be OK and they (and you) should be concerned. What if instead you were to ask “How are you?” or “What are you up to?” or “How is your day/night going?” or “I just finished x, what are you working on?” or “Thinking of you, how are things going?” Asking any of those questions instead of “Are you OK?” will not only get a more cheerful response, it will also be less stressful for the recipient too and help with keeping the relationship healthy.

Of course this brings us back to the question of how good you are at asking questions. Because you can ask as few questions as possible, you can ask surface questions, you can ask deep questions, you can ask interesting questions, and you can frequently ask many questions for clarity or engagement or connection. I know it can be tempting to avoid questions because you might not be sure you want to hear what someone has to say, but that probably means you either need to find new people to talk with or you haven’t figured out what questions to ask and how to engage them so that you aren’t overwhelmed (or bored) by them.

I know that the success journey can be challenging enough, but it’s worth it to take the extra second or two to think about what you’re asking and how you’re asking it and if there’s a way that you can ask it better so that you can get closer to the desired result faster. What are the questions that stress you out and which ones have you found help move your success journey forward the best?

Answers for Success

Sometimes in our success journeys we get lucky and things just magically fall into place without us really knowing how we got from ‘point a’ to ‘point b.’ And occasionally that’s OK because we don’t have to know everything (it’s also not possible to know everything) and sometimes we’re just thrilled that it’s over and done and we can call it a victory and move on to the next. But most of the time we either need to know why or how things work as they work or we like to look back at the victory journey and analyze what worked and what didn’t so we know what to do or not do the next time. And of course if you don’t know how or why something worked or didn’t work, how can you do the same thing again or do something different the next time?

One of the success journeys we like the best is one we can replicate time and again with similar, successful results. Why would you want to do the hard work of figuring every step and aspect out every time, right? Yes, life is full of new adventures and new success journeys, but much of our lives are repetition because we just don’t move on to all new things immediately or all the time. Which makes it so frustrating when you go looking for answers to why something worked or didn’t work and all you find are more questions or you only get basic answers back that make you more and more frustrated and confused.

So the next time you’ve got the opportunity to help explain something to someone don’t be afraid to have two answers: the simple and short one, and one with more detail and depth for those who want or need it. It may turn out that having the more in-depth answer for them may be beneficial to you as well and give you insight that may benefit you now or in the future about an aspect of your life or your own success journey. You may not be able to fix what went wrong this time, but with your honesty, even if it’s tough, you can hopefully help someone do better the next time. Also don’t let yourself get so wrapped up in the success journey you’re traveling that you forget to pay attention to the details so you can document it so that you can replicate it or share with someone else how you were able to accomplish what you did. There’s no shame in writing stuff down or keeping it in a note app on your phone. It’s not a huge sacrifice or waste of resources if you do take notes, it’s not like you’re truly duplicating the journey or doing two trial runs at the same time which would necessitate twice the amount of resources you would need. What answers would help you get closer to success today?

Where Has All The Respect Gone?

Would you say that your kids are respectful? I’ve been talking with several of my clients about the topic of respect recently and about how different kids today are in some ways than we adults were raised. I don’t think most of us who are adults look back on our childhood some 25, 35, 45 years ago and think we had terrible childhoods and that all our parents were evil, but we definitely were raised with the understanding that certain things were sacred to our parents and we didn’t do or go near, that we weren’t to sass our parents, that authority figures should be treated politely even if we were caught doing something bad, and that you either needed to find a good trade job or do good in school so that you could start supporting yourself as soon as possible. And while on one level it’s nice that parents are more friendly with their kids (and not just loving and guiding), many have lost the ability to command the respect that parents years ago did.

Yes, we do have to take into account that our lives are different today than they were however many years ago. We didn’t grow up with social media that allowed us to share our lives with everyone and anyone. We didn’t grow up with phones that went everywhere with us. We didn’t grow up with someone in a country thousands of miles away being easy to contact by video with a few clicks of the mouse or taps of a finger. We didn’t grow up with online shopping. So I understand that in many ways our worlds are night and day different.

But at the same time I think it’s healthy for everyone to learn what respect is, to know about (and respect) boundaries, to be put in your place on occasion even, and to learn how to respectfully disagree. And the biggest reason why I think we need to continue teaching respect is because the world should not be a free-for-all of people riding roughshod over other people. Respect isn’t about everyone deciding what’s “right” or “wrong” but about lines or limits being communicated and then not crossed because you respect those lines and limits. And when the lines or limits you communicate are in conflict with people in your life, then you both or all have to sit down and dive deeper into the limits and lines and really discuss what the issues are at hand or what the needs are so that everyone can come to a place of mutual respect and understanding and be able to live in community together.

What conversations have you had with your kids about respect and what is most important for them to understand about respect in your mind?

Communicate with Care

The other day I received an email from someone from one of my insurance companies. The person who sent the email is not someone I know (I know the people I have policies through/with), and while they included their name in the closing (and their email address is with the company so I know it’s not fake), they didn’t bother to introduce themselves as a secretary to the person I insure with or anything along those lines, or share how they got my information. They also told me to call them but didn’t include a phone number. It was 4 sentences long and read more like a blind pitch than something from someone I’m in an existing customer relationship with. There are lots of interesting lessons we can learn from this very brief marketing effort, let’s dive in.

One of your biggest responsibilities as a business owner is to protect your brand. If you’re in charge people expect to hear from you, not some random person who’s somehow associated with you. It’s one thing if you’re part of a team or the entire team is part of the brand, because then people know to expect communications from a variety of people: for example if you run a local coffee shop and you’ve got 5 main team members, all of those people could/should be involved in the marketing on a regular basis. But if you’re the face of the business/brand or if you are the business/brand, you should be the face of the marketing. If you are going to have anyone on your business/brand team do marketing or communication on your behalf, you need to introduce them so your clients and customers feel safe and continue to trust you with their purchases.

Second, the death is in the details. It’s really discouraging as a consumer and damaging to the relationship between a brand/business and a customer when the business includes incorrect or faulty details or doesn’t provide enough information for the customer to follow through on the marketing message. Whether you offer to buy the apartment a tenant lives in (they can’t sell something they don’t own), ask someone to call but don’t include a number, don’t follow through on a customer request to change subscription/account information, don’t carry a product you’re advertising, or don’t establish who you are and why you’re reaching out, not only are you wasting your marketing dollars, you’re decreasing the likelihood that your customer will continue to do business with you.

Finally, every single communication is an opportunity. You choose whether you want to blow up the opportunity, let it slide, push and push and push, or do your best to make it a positive experience for everyone. So while I’m sure you’re a famous brand and everyone knows everything about you, assume that they don’t and make sure you include all the relevant information about you and the next steps you want them to take. And if you’re not sure whether or not something needs to be included or needs to change, remember that the first rule here is that you’re human and you’re marketing to humans (not know-it-all gods or entities), so if you wouldn’t feel comfortable with receiving the marketing communication you’re sending out, it’s time for a reevaluation. What helps you communicate and market well both from a business and human perspective?