Epiphany Marketing's Strategic Marketing Blog

One of the points that anyone marketing in the 21st-Century will reach is the moment known as “writer’s block.”

We know that we need to be creating great content and pushing it out — whether online, via e-mail or print newsletter, or through social media such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. But what happens when you start running out of ideas for content? It’s that moment when you approach the blank screen, the blank sheet of paper, etc.

We save our very best ideas for the members of our Strategic Marketing Program (who also receive mentoring, coaching and accountability for taking action), but let me throw out some real gems for you quickly:

1. Get to know (and then write about) the changing needs of your customers. As if the faster-than-ever changes in society and business that came with the 21st-Century weren’t enough, this economic climate has produced an even faster rate of change for your present and future customers. Note that this content is focused on their needs… not just on how you and your business can help.
2. Tell the story of your recent customer/client interactions. What were their unique needs? What problem(s) were they trying to solve? How did your team/staff/product/solution change their situation? If necessary, change names to protect the innocent (or guilty, as the case may be ).  But remember that the purpose of search engines is to serve up relevant information to the searcher… who just might be your next customer. (Not to mention that your newsletter subscribers & social media networkers are more apt to read a story than your marketing blather.)
3. Make a list of the top questions that your customers ask… and answer them. And don’t just put them on that FAQs page of your site. Tackle each one with a separate, unique piece of content… and make it interesting! Train your staff (or yourself, if appropriate) to make note of the new, interesting or unusual misunderstandings your customers have about your product or service. Chances are, you’ll learn something about what your prospects need (or more importantly, want) to know!

Bonus Tips

One concept we constantly drive home is… overdeliver! Exceed expectations! So… now that I’ve given you 3, here are some more!

1. In case you missed it, overdeliver.
2. Model what you hope to convey. The folks over at sitepronews.com published a great piece on content for social media in which they mentioned making numbered lists. Since they didn’t number theirs, let me summarize it for you:
3. Write compelling stories
4. Interview an industry expert
5. Spark a debate
6. Share your own knowledge to help others
7. Write numbered lists.

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Well 2009 is in full swing. My question for you is:

How does your pipeline look?

If you’re not satisfied with the number of new prospects or leads coming in to your business, it’s time to get serious about what you’re doing to bring them in. Here are 5 ways to gain new customers on a budget:

1. Get to the Top of the Search Engines
   In particular, pay attention to Google. Most strategies that help you get to the top of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) on Google will also work well with the others.  Don’t know how? Training is easy to come by these days, and you can do it yourself or put a member of your team on it. If you’re a salesperson, start blogging about your customers and their needs.
2. Make Use of Social Media
   Once the exclusive territory of geeks, social media is a now easier-to-use than ever before. Two important ones for connecting with people and creating exposure: Facebook and Twitter. The demographics will surprise you — chances are your customers, buyers, prospects, decision-makers, and champions are active. 2 tips: don’t commit these social media sins, and put a strategy in place to avoid the time suck.
3. Communicate Frequently With Customers (Past & Present) and Prospects
   Given the information overload we all deal with, it’s easy for the people you already have relationships with to forget about you. It’s not necessarily that they want to. They’re just as busy as you are. Obviously it’s possible to communicate too frequently, but chances are you’re to busy to do that anyway. Tip: make sure your communication has value.
4. Revisit Your Message
   How many aspects of your life can you count that haven’t changed substantially in the last 12-24 months? Chances are your customers’ businesses are the same way. Is your message out of date? Does it accurately reflect the way that your products and services serve your customers and prospects changing needs? Tip: the message you’re sending may not be what you think it is.
5. Ask Great Questions and Listen More
   Given the rapidly changing business landscape, you need to know — now more than ever — what your customers are thinking. Are they cutting budgets or changing spending patterns? What problems are they trying to solve? Take them out to lunch, out for coffee, or create reasons to get on the phone and find out what’s going on. What you learn will surprise you. It’s also a great time to ask for referrals — your lowest cost customers ever!

What strategies are you implementing right now to load up your pipeline with new business? Certainly, if you need help with these or other 21st-Century methods of keeping your pipeline full, we’d be happy to help. Our distance-learning hands-on training and coaching program is getting phenomenal results with our students.  Of course, consulting services are available as well. If you’re interested, drop me a comment.

By the way, we practice what we preach. I dare you to follow me on Twitter.

Today is actually the Feast of Epiphany, which gives me a great excuse to talk about why our company happens to share its name with the 12th Day of Christmas.  (If you, like the McKenzie Brothers, ever wondered, the 12 days run from Christmas Eve to Epiphany.)

First, a little background on the Greek word:

epiphaneia – lit. “upon appearing,” used to mean “manifestation”

We use it in English when we say, “I had an epiphany!” to mean, “the lights came on!”

In the early Eastern Church, they used the term to refer to the “manifestation” of the infant Jesus to the Magi when they visited from the Orient. He “appeared” to the Gentiles in that moment. Church tradition uses the word “epiphany” to refer to a manifestation or appearance of supernatural beings — in particular Jesus Himself.

From the start of this journey, I wanted to create “epiphanies” for people. Moments when the work that we do would cause information and circumstances to come together in just the right combination to cause people to suddenly “see” what they needed to see.

Have an Epiphany

This has dual meanings for us as it relates to what we do:

1. It is our mission to provide top-notch training and coaching to small businesses, to salespeople, and to anyone who needs to attract new customers and prospects. In that process, we want them to have moments where they suddenly “see” (sometimes for the first time) themselves and their businesses in the correct light. It’s a beautiful thing when this happens — it sparks life, creativity and energy. They get fired up about their own businesses in fresh ways… and they do a fantastic job of communicating once this happens. This results in their future customers and clients finding out about them! That is a thrill!
2. Secondarily, when we provide consulting services and do other strategic marketing work (such as corporate vision, strategy, onsite training, copywriting, web architecture, social media innovation, etc.), we want to produce work that creates “epiphanies” for the past, present and future customers of our clients. In other words, the work that we do should cause the lights to go on for the people that our clients are reaching out to…  so that they suddenly “see” and become raving lunatic evangelists for our clients.

Having been in this business for over 10 years now, I can tell you that there is absolutely nothing like watching somebody “get it.” It’s thrilling to be involved in helping to make it happen.

So… no matter what you’re celebrating today (I hope you’re celebrating something… after all, it’s a wonderful, brand-new day!), I hope you have an “epiphany” today.

And if you’re in business or in sales and you need to do a better job of attracting the people you want to do business with you, then keep your eyes on this space. It’s my mission in life to help you suddenly have that moment where you say, “Aha! That’s what I’ve been missing!”

P.S. If you’re starting a business or considering changing your name, I can’t recommend highly enough having a name that carries some personal significance to you. However… I can recommend that you name it something easy to spell!

As salespeople and business owners, we’ve often been trained to communicate value. After all, if we don’t connect what we sell, produce and provide with the needs of our prospects and customers and do it in a way that helps them understand the return they should expect on their investment, we’re sunk!

But in times like these, it’s more important than ever that we communicate valuably!

What does it mean to communicate valuably? It means that the value is in the message. When you reach out to the people you’re in touch with — whether they are existing customers, suspects, prospects, or even the general public — make sure that what you’re communicating to them is valuable… to them!

Here are 5 ways to communicate valuably:

1. Find out what they need.  This can be time-consuming and demanding. But it pays off. When you are in touch with the needs of people, you can be best positioned to make yourself and your communications valuable to them.
2. Put a strategy in place to reach out regularly. We get annoyed when communicated with too frequently, this is true. But if your messages are concise and valuable to the people you’re reaching out to, then they will anticipate and even look forward to your messages. Whether this is done via e-mail, on the web, via voicemail, text message, Twitter, snail mail, or in person, having something valuable to say and doing it consistently helps build relationship, trust, and a desire to reciprocate.
3. Budget for it!  Treat this like an advertising expenditure: devote time, resources, and — yes, even money — to it.  Put a staff member on it (multiple staff members, if you can). If you’re a salesperson or a smaller company, then carve time out of your schedule on a regular basis to make sure you’re reaching out. The more you do this, the more efficient you’ll become at it. Learning how to use tools such as WordPress, RSS feeds, e-mail service providers, and even Social Media can have an astounding impact on your ability to reach out to more people in highly-targeted ways for very little cost. Many businesses are now wisely diverting money from traditional advertising methods to see to it that they are communicating effectively and regularly with audiences that are likely to produce new business.
4. Create feedback mechanisms. Hopefully it goes without saying that your communications should be highly measurable. Understand whether you’re reaching your target, whether they care enough to open/read/listen to/etc your communications. But, in this day and age, we’re without excuse if we aren’t going beyond measuring and tracking and into really listening.  Give the people to whom you’re reaching simple mechanisms to respond and let you know what they find useful, what they dislike, and what they want more of.
5. Reward those who participate in the dialogue. Amazingly, some businesses still don’t understand that if people care enough to provide feedback, it should be rewarded. Even if the feedback is negative and not presented in a constructive fashion, the point is that they cared enough to respond! Sometimes you may wonder why they cared enough. Find out! And by the way, the reward for participation should at the very least be an acknowledgment or a response. But you can easily go above and beyond… and you don’t always have to provide discounts, coupons, or the obvious financial incentives. Here are some ideas from Starbucks about creating rewards.

Do you have an intentional, strategic process in place to communicate valuably? If not, get busy! The marketplace rewards value. Make sure you’re delivering so they know who to reward!