Do your customers like you?

Posted on May 21, 2010 
Filed Under Business & Startup, Just for Fun | View Comments

Did you watch the Heroes vs. Villains Survivor finale last weekend? If you didn’t, stop reading now then come back when you do watch it cause there’s a spoiler coming up.

People are saying that this year’s season was the best ever. I might have to agree, even though Colby didn’t win and how can you not love that smile?

Anyway. If you watched the finale, you know that Russell was sitting there thinking he had the whole thing in the bag. He brought Sandra and Pavarti to the finale with him (as if he really believed it was him that was in charge of the game) because he assumed he would have all of the jury’s votes because he was “obviously” the best player of the three.

What he didn’t take into account, however, was that nobody liked him. He screwed over every person on the jury and they hated him.

He really believed that the deceiving way he played the game would be rewarded. His strategy centered around lies and betrayal and not everyone respects that as much as he thought they would.

At the end, Sandra won. She always seemed to know what people were thinking. She knew where she stood and everyone else playing knew where Sandra stood. She outsmarted them all and she can be proud of the game she played.

That being said though, if I were on the jury (maybe someday), I would have voted for Parvati. Not only did she work her butt off during the entire game, but you can’t possibly discount the greatest move in Survivor history – giving not one, but two hidden immunity idols away to her fellow teammates during a tribal council to keep all the villains safe. It was simply brilliant.

Now where was I going with this again?

Oh yes.

Remember when I said how Russell assumed everyone would put his name down?

They didn’t. Not one single person thought he deserved their vote for one million dollars.

And what does this have to do with business?

Well. How many assumptions are you making today in your business? Is your process streamlined – as streamlined as it could possibly be? Are your clients’ needs being met? Are you meeting their expectations?

Do they like you?

How do you know? Unless you’ve asked them recently, that is. So have you?

If Russel had considered the fact that everyone on the jury could possibly hate him, he may have changed his strategy and who knows? He could have won.

I challenge you this week to implement a step in your process to ask your clients how they enjoyed their experience dealing with your company. You’ll learn ways to improve the way you do business and you might even get a client testimonial or two in the process!

I’ll be working on mine this summer while I’m in the process of doing a little business revamping…you heard it here first.

Branding lessons from a 5-year-old

Posted on May 13, 2010 
Filed Under Branding, Graphic Design, Logo Design | View Comments

As a mother to two little girls, ages 5 and 13 months, I am simply amazed every single day by what they know, what they learn, and how their personalities progress. It’s like getting a surprise everyday…whether it’s something good or bad.

Just over the past few weeks, my pre-schooler suddenly started having real conversations with me…not the usual one-word answers when I ask a question, or her ignoring me when I’m asking her to do something she should have already done. So this past weekend I was in total awe of her while we were on our way to my surprise Mother’s Day picnic.

We’re riding along in the car, the girls are in the back, and the baby drops one of her toys on the floor. We’ve had this toy since my 5-year-old was a baby so it’s nothing new. It has a cloth strap with Velcro that you can strap onto a stroller, shopping cart, or whatever. The strap is white with black, outlined circles scattered around. My preschooler said, “Mommy, did we buy that toy at Target?”  As I turned around to look at it, I said, “I don’t remember sweetie.” She immediately says, in an authoritative voice, “Mommy, I KNOW we must have got it at Target because it has circles just like Target.” I looked at my husband and told him I felt a blog post coming on!

Remember when my daughter mentioned the circles on the toy and immediately associated it with Target? The circles on the toy were not red, they were black. There are also other colored circles that resemble a target. She knows her colors, but she does not know how to spell other than her name and a couple of other short, easy words. She knows Target because we shop there a few times per month. But the fact that a 5 year old can associate thick circles with Target stores says a LOT about branding. It’s way more significant than her recognizing a McDonald’s from a mile away…which she can because of the big, yellow arches towering over everything else in sight and the fact that she would probably eat there every day if we let her.

Another example that didn’t hit me until this weekend with the whole Target branding was a few months back, when she was still 4, told me daily that she wanted Yelly Kelly shoes. I had no idea what she was talking about and started doing research online for these shoes that she saw on TV. I couldn’t find anything and then remembered that sometimes she has a problem correctly pronouncing certain letters. After a few days I thought, oh they must be Jelly Kelly’s because she sometimes pronounces the letter “J” like a “Y”.

So I did some more research and came up with nothing. The only thing she could tell me about them was that they had Strawberry Shortcake on them (one of her favorite characters) and sparkled like jewels (she is her mother’s daughter!) Finally one day I happen to be in the room with her when the commercial came on…for Lelli Kelly. The commercial featured a few young girls sporting the adorable Lelli Kelly shoes with a cute little ditty that my daughter had been humming for weeks. They have a ton of styles from hi-tops to boots to sandals to pumps.

First, the shoes she mentioned that had Strawberry Shortcake…didn’t have anything to do with the character at all. They simply had cute little strawberries all over the canvas shoes…another example of associating an item, the strawberries, with a character, Strawberry Shortcake. Needless to say my research on the shoes proved to be a disappointment for my daughter because I’m not willing to pay $70 for 1 pair of shoes for a 4 year old that she’ll only wear a few months at best no matter how darn cute they are. But one day we were at JC Penney’s to shop for a spring wardrobe and she spotted a pair of Lelli Kelly shoes…or so she thought. They actually weren’t Lelli Kelly’s at all, but Sketchers that looked very similar. But as far as she was concerned, they were Lelli Kelly shoes and wanted them badly.

In business, we are not only defined by our products or services and how we conduct our business, but sometimes business owners forget that our branding is just as important. It is all about the image whether you choose to believe it or not – even an iconic symbol that can be recognized worldwide like the red circles of Target’s logo. It doesn’t even matter if you use the product or service of a particular company because their image stays with you. If you see a swoosh symbol, chances are you immediately think Nike. If you see an apple, then you think…Apple of course.

Have you ever noticed that you recognize those companies by their icons alone? Nike and Apple don’t use their name in their logos at all, probably a couple of the only companies to do this, yet they are both recognized throughout the world. And if you visit Target.com, you’ll notice they only use their icon, not their name on the website.

So does your business need an iconic image as part of your logo? Not necessarily. There are plenty of well-renowned companies out there with textural logos: Google, FedEx and Yahoo to name a few.

Are you making the same mistake as many business owners do by trying to over-complicate things? Can you apply the wisdom of a 5-year-old into your business? Look at your logo from a 5-year-old’s perspective. Is it visually striking? Is it memorable? Is it simple? Because if not you should go back to the drawing board? Or, of course, I’d be happy to help!

By the way, my 5-year-old graduated from pre-school today and I am one PROUD momma!

In content delivery be the tortoise, not the hare.

Posted on May 11, 2010 
Filed Under Business Worx, Email Marketing, Marketing, Tips & Tricks | View Comments

Welcome to the last installment in a three-part blog series about how to ensure you’re reaching all members of your target audience, taking their content processing preferences into consideration. (Click here for the first installment and here for the second.)

Last Thursday I gave you some ideas of ways you can diversify the content you create for your business, in an effort to reach more members of your target audience and today I have some more suggestions for you.

To say that your business should encompass ALL of the above and suggestions I offered last week  might be a stretch…or is it? You’re not expected to create all of these forms of distribution in a day…a week…or even a month. Can it be done? Sure, but it isn’t necessary. Remember the Tortoise & the Hare? Slow and steady wins the race, and if you can begin incorporating just one new form of content distribution each month, or every other month, then you have a powerful, viral mechanism to grow your business, increase your subscribers, and build a following.

Diversifying the Content you Create

Posted on May 6, 2010 
Filed Under All About Business, Business & Startup, Email Marketing, Marketing | View Comments

On Tuesday we talked about the importance of keeping the content processing preference of your target audience in mind and how, for example, you are essentially blocking out those who don’t like ezines when that’s the only type of marketing you do. (Catch up by clicking here.)

Today I’m going to go over some different types of content you can create to connect and communicate with all of the different types of people who make up your target audience:

Now, in a perfect demonstration of how shorter entries are just fine, I’m going to leave you hanging here and you can come back on Tuesday for some more ideas. Really, do you have time to read anymore at my little old blog today anyway?

Didn’t think so! See you next week.

Are you ignoring a large segment of your target audience?

Posted on May 4, 2010 
Filed Under Business & Startup, Marketing | View Comments

Ever heard the phrase: “to each his own?” Well if so you should keep it in mind when working on your marketing and content creation strategies. Too often, business owners stick to what they know…what they’re comfortable with…without ever taking a minute to think about whether or not that’s the same as what their audience wants.

Marketing is not a one-way street and your audience does not fit into a tiny little one-dimensional box. Each of your prospects has their own way of learning, sharing and listening. It’s up to you to make it easy for your customers and potential clients to access your information, act on it, and more importantly, share it.

All Marketing Is Not Created Equal

Creating various forms of content is imperative to your business, but distributing content to your audience from different directions gives you a better chance of standing out from the crowd.

All Prospects Are Not Created Equal

There’s another phrase that I KNOW you’ve heard: “You can’t please everyone.” Ok, now I know I’ve touted this before when it comes to business owners trying to please everyone by doing everything themselves…you just can’t. It’s impossible. Your efforts are best served by sticking to what you know and outsourcing what you don’t. Otherwise you’ll never be truly happy in your business and you most certainly will never get ahead.

But in this case, you can throw it out the window because you actually can please your entire audience. How? By making sure you cover all your content bases so they are working together…in tandem…for your business and your target market.

Make it EASY for your audience to:

Because remember, your audience has its own preference of how to obtain that information.

20% of them might love reading electronic newsletters, 35% might go for RSS feeds, 10% might react to video, 25% may respond to social media connections, and so on and so forth.

If you’re only distributing an electronic newsletter once a month, where does that leave the rest of your audience?

On Thursday I’ll tell you about some forms of content you can create to connect and communicate with your audience. In the meantime, think about what you’re currently doing to market your business and how many different learning styles you might be catering to.

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