Epiphany Marketing's Strategic Marketing Blog

Whoops... I Goofed.

Today I had to eat some crow.

And I know you’ve been there too, so you know it just isn’t any fun. But I had to apologize today to thousands of people for completely dropping the ball.

In hindsight, it all seems very simple. People we’ve met through webinars we’ve done, relationships we’ve built, perhaps even those who have visited this very blog… they were all supposed to be getting our content via e-mail.

As it turns out, it simply wasn’t happening. We were building huge databases of people who should’ve been hearing from us… and they were getting absolutely nothing.

As you might imagine, it’s embarrassing for this to happen to someone whose business is built around helping other people develop communication strategies.

“Deliver value! Consistently! Develop a plan to stay in touch, and implement it!”

And while we certainly have been doing that… there were huge gaps in our business where it just wasn’t happening.

So… today, I have owned up to it, taken responsibility, and apologized. And we’re fixing the business processes that weren’t working properly so that it won’t happen again.

Perhaps you got an e-mail from me. If so, thanks for visiting here. I’m looking forward to having you join us for that exclusive webinar I told you about. If you feel the need to tell me how terrible it is that we goofed up, please leave a comment. I don’t delete even the negative ones (unless you’re just a spammer). Of course, all responses are welcomed.

If you’re here and you aren’t receiving e-mails from me… well, then I encourage you to sign up today. Not only will you receive valuable information on how to grow your business in this (or any!) economy, but I’ll also make sure you’re invited to our next private webinar.

We discussed previously that the last thing you want to trim out of your budget during a recession is your marketing.

Here’s some actual data (Hat tip: Rod Alan Richardson via Twitter @rodalan) on previous recessions that reveals some very interesting facts:

• maintaining your marketing budget helps not only during a recession, but afterward
• your ROI may not be as high during a recession, but your actual profits in other years may not be as high as you think
• market share is as important right now as profitability (more so, if you ask me)
• the idea that you can cut back “because everyone else is” is foolhardy

There’s quite a bit more data out there, but you can read the article to get it.

My point is this: cut anything… heck, cut everything, but don’t cut your marketing budget.

The Big Key

That being said: spend it more effectively. Gain the know-how to utilize and leverage 21st-Century technologies to get better results. Here are some tips:

1. Fix your website.  Look at 2 things: is it showing up when your actual prospects are searching Google and those other search engines (I’m sure there must be others).  And secondly: is it starting and furthering relationships?  (Hint: measure!)
2. Drop your print yellow pages ad.  With certain very specific exceptions (highly-niched specialty books that have actual users), you don’t need this.  Keep a listing, yes.  Don’t waste your money on display ads.
3. Buy internet yellow pages listings.  And other online local business search listings. Here’s how to not screw up: be sure you can track everything. Know which listing is getting you what results. Do not do this if you haven’t done #1 above.
4. Email. If you don’t yet have a database, start one.  Today.  Put a strategy in place to deliver value to your prospects and customers (hint: don’t be boring) on a consistent basis.  Then execute that strategy. Divert internal resources as necessary to accomplish this.
5. Manage your time with a hatchet. Figure out where your energies are being wasted and cut the stuff out of your schedule. Do it now.  You can’t be effective if you’re floundering around.

Want more?  Let me know.

By the way… if you couldn’t make it to our recent “Results Now Marketing” seminar, the DVDs are coming soon. They’re worth their weight in gold. Sign up to be notified over here.

Did you ever stop to think about the fact that “marketing” is happening all the time in your business — whether you want it to be or not?  Here’s an example to illustrate what I mean…

Picture yourself walking into a restaurant for dinner with your spouse.  It’s a reasonably nice restaurant with an energetic atmosphere.  There’s plenty of activity… you might even say it’s “alive” with excitement.  You’re looking forward to a nice meal.  After a friendly greeting and a brief wait, you are shown to your table where you sit down to look over the menus.  “At any moment,” you think to yourself, “someone will come by to take our drink order and tell us about the specials.” But you wait…

You chat with your spouse and even comment on how unusual it is for you to wait this long.  10 minutes go by.  A large group at a nearby table is served their piping hot meals.  Everything smells good.  People are talking and laughing and having a good time.  Your stomach growls.  You and your spouse exchange small talk and odd looks as you wonder aloud about the service.  You consider going to find someone to ask about your server, but you don’t want to ruin the evening for your spouse…

Ever had this happen to you?  Isn’t it frustrating?  At that moment when you’ve waited for 15 minutes and even tried to get someone’s attention, what message has that restaurant sent to you?

“You’re not important.”

“We don’t care.”

The business owners reading this are probably getting antsy.  Despite our best efforts, sometimes we inadvertently treat customers poorly and send them the wrong message.  We don’t intend to do it, but it happens sometimes.

This is one example of how we are always marketing in business.  In hundreds, perhaps even thousands of small (and big) ways, our business is constantly sending a message — to our customers, future customers, referral sources, and even partners.  My point — and one that my clients and students will tell you is one that I harp on — is that if you don’t intentionally design this message and execute a strategy for communicating it, then your chances of sending an undesirable one go way, way up.

What message is your business sending?

Too busy at work?  More than enough revenue?  Here are some ways you can keep those pesky customers and prospects away…

#1: Make Sure Your Marketing is All About You
After all… people who want to spend money with you want to understand how your products & services benefit them, so if you focus on you, your company’s history, your features, etc., you’ll be sure to keep people from bugging you.  Whatever you do, don’t use pictures of the people most likely to actually buy from you, and avoid connecting their needs and wants to aspects of your business most likely to appeal to them.  Instead, just subtly communicate the notion that you’re in business for your own benefit and that you really aren’t interested in customers.  They’ll smell this a mile away and bug someone else instead.

#2: Ignore the Web
If your website hasn’t changed since the Clinton Administration, you’re on the right track here.  Even better: no web presence at all!  If you must have a website, make sure it doesn’t show up in any search engines… and whatever you do: don’t add fresh new content on a regular basis!  You should convey to visitors that you might already be out of business just by the aged look of your site.  To support this notion, hire a neighbor’s kid to build it — especially if he/she has no design experience whatsoever.  Websites that have that “we don’t care” feel do wonders at keeping people away.  If you’re still having response from your site, just bury the information that your customers want to find and add some contact forms to your site that do nothing and go nowhere.  If you can get them to generate an error message, it’s even more fun!

#3:  Keep Your Marketing Efforts Unfocused
If people have a clear idea of who you are and what you’re all about, they’re much more likely to pester you.  So, make sure that there’s no unifying theme to your marketing.  Buy ads at random, and always let whoever who sold you the ad design it for you.  This way, all of your ads will come out looking different from each other.  Make sure that your marketing doesn’t target any one type of customer, and stick with the “shotgun” approach.  Otherwise, your marketing might actually connect with someone, and then they’ll show up or call, expecting service from you.