Sandra Martini's Success Strategies

Marketing Mess -- Making Clients Do The Work

I don't know about you, but I love to have fresh flowers on my desk and around my house.  In fact, few things make me happier than having plants of all types around me.

Having spent last week in a rather sterile conference room during an intensive workshop on leadership, I ran out this morning to pick up a bouquet for my desk.

As I walk in, the clerk (who, in this case, was also the owner) was very friendly asking how she could help me, what I'd like, etc.

I gave her my parameters: around $20, colorful and no roses...other than that, she could do whatever was best for her inventory.

As she's puttering about putting my order together, she asked where I worked. 

I mentioned that I was self-employed and worked from home...her first thought was that I was a stay-at-home mom.

So I explained what I do and she immediately began telling me how hard business is right now with the recession and people not wanting to spend money, or at least not spend money on flowers.

She wrapped up my order (I'd also gotten a few neat cards) and I decided that, rather than pop in for flowers when the mood struck, I'd be a lot happier to have them automatically each week.

So I asked if she could automatically deliver a bouquet to me every Monday and I'd give her my card to keep on file.

Now everything's been great up until this point.

Credibility GONE – Are you risking yours by doing this?

Click here to listen...

Imagine your excitement: You just gave up your credit card info and plunked down money on a product from someone you've been following for a while, maybe even someone you've bought from before and really admire.

You're enjoying that instant post-purchase euphoria -- after all, THIS is the product you've been waiting for.

A week goes by. . .no product.

"It's okay", you tell yourself, "there's a reason they call it 'snail mail' after all".

Two weeks. . .no product.

"It will be here any day", you tell yourself, excitement starting to wane just a little.

A month. . .still no product.

Now you're getting worried. You email the company who tells you that it's not quite finished or is at the printer's and will ship in 2 weeks.

Another month goes by. . .no product and no communication.

Now you ask yourself: "Is there even a product?"

Another email to the company and another promise that it will ship in "2 weeks".

Another month and still no product, no communication.

At some point, you start to lose faith. All the good will that this company/entrepreneur has built up through their ezine, Twitter and Facebook connecting, f'ree teleseminars, etc. is quickly dwindling.

All because someone didn't plan properly (I'm assuming that when this happens, it's not malicious and is simply a case of poor planning).

As a consumer, your options are simple:

1. Ask for a refund or
2. Write the company owner and ask for an update then decide whether to stick it out or ask for a refund
3. Decide how this will affect your relationship with the company going forward

As the business owner who created the product, you have a lot more work to do:

1. Start to repair the damage done to your, and your company's, reputation by PERSONALLY emailing everyone affected with an apology and update (it's the least you can do).
2. Offer your clients something for their inconvenience -- a bonus product, a 15-minute call, whatever you feel is appropriate for the situation.
3. Ship the darn product -- move Heaven and Earth to get that product priority mailed, at a minimum, immediately and with a note of apology.
4. Figure out what went wrong and fix it so it doesn't happen again. . .ever! After all, you've spent countless hours building your reputation and now you need to repair it.

Many business owners frequently sell products before they're finished -- after all, it helps with the production and marketing costs and lets them know how much inventory to order.

Whether or not I agree with this practice, doesn't matter.

What does matter is that if you choose to do this, you want to be sure you know the ACTUAL date of shipment and stay in frequent communication with your clients so they know what's going on.

Make It Real -- My Request to You

There's so much talk about business owners being "authentic" and "in integrity" and that's great -- it makes us all feel warm and fuzzy inside.

However, there are times when the reality differs from the intent, no matter how good the intention was.

My request to you is to PLAN and remember Murphy's Law and plan some time in for mishaps, delays, etc.

Practicing Extreme Client Care(tm) means underpromising and overdelivering whenever possible and it's this which will gain you the love and trust of your clients.

Confusion over CAN-SPAM law

I've noticed a bit of confusion about the CAN-SPAM law after my Marketing Mess: 16 out of 21 business owners are guilty post from yesterday. 

This post should serve to clarify at least some of the confusion as the "CAN-SPAM" (you would have thought they could have come up with a better acronym for a NON-spamming law) law was updated last year so that:

Marketing Mess: 16 out of 21 business owners are guilty

It's no secret that I like to send cards to clients and colleagues on their birthdays -- I'm known at our local Hallmark store as "the card lady" since I buy birthday cards there in quantity.

In preparing to send some cards out, a member of my Team was getting me addresses for the ones I don't already have and noted something rather disturbing:

16 out of the 21 business sites she checked had NO address contact information.  That's 76% of the business owners she checked.

Why does this count as a "marketing mess" you ask?

Paint & Makeup are doing it -- are you?

While watching a bit of tv this weekend, I noticed that everyone's jumping on the "do once, get maximum results" bandwagon:

1. A commercial for paint which does the work of paint and primer so you have to put on less coats.

2. Yet another commercial. . .this one for makeup which does triple duty as coverup, moisturizer and sun protection.

So let me ask you. . .is your work doing at least double duty?

Are you making these 6 marketing mistakes?

Click here to listen...

Many business owners, especially online, preach about “marketing with integrity” and “marketing authentically” and then immediately do things which, in my opinion, are exactly the opposite of what they preach.

Here’s just a few marketing mistakes I’ve seen in the last week which make me cringe:

1. Auto Sign-up.

I was virtually introduced to someone, we had a nice conversation and two days later I started receiving her newsletter.

Nope, I didn’t sign up for it and nope, she didn’t ask if I wanted to be.

2. “We only have 9, I mean 12, I mean 15 left.”

You know this game: Biz owner states they have only a “few” left and either the number keeps increasing or they’ve sold more than they said they had and it just takes reading their emails to know.

By the way, the same game is played with time: “offer ends Tuesday”, “whoops. . .make that Wednesday”, “did I say Wednesday”, I meant Friday”

3. Twitter Direct Messages.

Need I say more? Direct messages where my “new” friends are trying to sell me anything and everything. Can we say “unfollow” and quickly?

4. Twitterfeed Gone Wild.

Don’t get me wrong. . .I LOVE Twitterfeed, WHEN it’s used as a marketing tool and not the sole means of posting on Twitter using feeds from anything and everything.

5. Last Minute Everything.

You’ve received these messages – everything is last minute and “urgent” and requires your immediate attention.

You’re expected to drop everything to sign up for this “business and life changing” call or purchase this “amazing” product which must be done in “oops, an hour” because someone was too busy to share earlier.

HOGWASH! We’re too busy actually accomplishing things to put up with this BS!

There are times when we legitimately screw up and send things out late, but you know the difference between that and when someone does it consistently. And if you’re seeing it done consistently, you know what to do (unsubscribe!)

6. No Info, All Promo.

Business owners who don’t send out anything f’ree and informative, but rather just send out promotion after promotion or share so little through their ezines that they may as well not bother writing.

Make It Real – My Request To You

Take a good look at your marketing plan and calendar – if you don’t have one, now’s the time to put it together to help you avoid the above.

Are you guilty of any of the above marketing mistakes? If so, fix them. . .sooner’s better.

Are you putting up with any of the above marketing mistakes? If so, ask yourself if what you receive in exchange is worth the rest. If it is, okay; If it’s not, unsubscribe and move on.

Remember, as a business owner, your priority is to get the RIGHT things done in your business and anything which detracts from that needs to go away.

Act as if your business depends on it – because it does!

[SmarTiniTip] Is Your Writing Doing MINIMUM Triple Duty?

When it comes to the online marketing of your business, one of the best things you can do is write and distribute articles.

While many business owners are writing (think of all the ezines you get), many are only doing half the work when it comes to distributing their articles.

There are three main types of distribution:

What happens when you fail to track

For the past month I've been involved in a 30 day blogging challenge hosted by Connie Ragen Green and have been blogging right along.

"Right along"...today I counted my posts and realized that I'm falling far short of the "30 posts in 30 days" and since the challenge ends tonight, this is one goal that I won't meet -- well, I could, but then you'd be inundated with blog posts this evening and that hardly seems fair.

So what happened?

Quite simply, I didn't track my posts. I "trusted" that I'd reach 30 posts in 30 days in the normal course of running my business and didn't create a plan to ensure that I hit the target.

And the result...I missed my goal.

What aren't you tracking or planning for in your business?  And what results can you expect to have as a result?

Twitter Suspension of Accounts -- Were You Prepared?

Twitter was all a tweeting with the unexpected suspension of thousands of accounts yesterday -- it was a human error and has since been fixed, but leads me to a larger question. . .

Were you prepared for it to happen? Is your marketing diversified?

Much the way we prepare for disaster by backing up our computers and having health, home and car insurance, we need to be prepared for any one of our visibility and marketing tools to hiccup.

There are thousands of ways to get the word out about your business (a.k.a. "market it"), many of them low cost and high impact.  It's imperative to the success of your business that you don't put all your eggs into one basket -- even if the basket is big and includes all of social media.

Here are several ideas of ways you can get the word out about your business:

Marketing Mess of the Week: "Soft Selling"

I recently ordered a book from Amazon and the authors signed me up for their newsletter (nowhere on the page or anywhere else I looked did it mention I'd be the recipient of this gift).

Many of their ezines (I received every few days) were brief, largely talking about the importance of "soft selling" and "closing without selling" and generally okay reads. 

Then they started promoting an event and the emails became daily and more and more about how we have to stand up against those who "hard sell" by coming to their event.

Their brief articles about all the benefits of soft selling continued, even as they proceeded to turn into "hard sellers" when it came to the event.

I waited a week to see if the hard selling would stop or even ebb, but nothing...they continued pounding away and I unsubscribed.

Always remember, you have the power to vote with your dollars AND your inbox space!

My Request to You:  Take a look around your business. . .is there any place where you're not congruent, where you're not walking your talk? 

If there is, that's okay...until now...now that you know about it, it's time to fix it.