Marketing

The First To Introduce

Garth Beyer

It feels good when someone tells a friend about a particular product or service and then notes that you were the first to introduce them to that product or service.

Businesses have a grand opportunity right now to leverage word-of-mouth marketing like this. Think of your business as the friend who was the first to introduce them and instead of to a product or service, to a definition, a way of doing something a certain way, a style.

Think what your customers Google and go to YouTube for, then create that content for them. YouTube is great for “How Tos,” but if they don’t need to leave your page to figure something out, you and them both win not only in that they stay on your page, but they will refer to you later.

Lands’ End does this by having a link to definitions of terms they use. Now when I’m out shopping with a friend and they touch a pair of pants saying “Wow, this fabric feels pretty high quality,” I can say, “Yea, those are chinos. It’s a twill fabric made 100 percent of cotton.”

“How do you know that?”

“I read it on Lands’ End’s website.”

This tactic is proficiently used by writers. Just about every writer’s website I’ve been to, no matter what they write on, they always have a blog post about “how to be a writer,” just in hopes to have some reader somewhere share a writing tip with someone else, referring to where they heard of the tip.

Of course, this isn’t exactly a tactic directly for making profits off your product or service, it’s more of a tactic for branding and getting your name out there. For some reason, though, there typically ends up being some type of correlation between your profit amount and the number of people who know about you.

 

Stay Positive & Do You Really Need Proof?

The Problem With Free Work

Garth Beyer

I’m working with a group to write  and create a new marketing/branding/insert-buzzword-here strategy for a 2 billion dollar a year profiting business. I don’t have an issue sharing the biggest problem with working with this client because my group is doing it for free.

The problem with free services like what my group is doing is you may – and it’s very likely you do – care more about the success of your effort than the client does. From your perspective of having nothing to lose, you can push boundaries, dance on the edge of remarkable and generally roll with any interesting idea you come up with.

From the client’s perspective, if they have nothing to lose, then why waste their time digging up extra information for you, loaning a few of their products to you or giving you a trial of their service.

I’ll show a perfect example below (spelling mistakes kept) from an email I sent to the client asking questions my group needed to know the answers to so we can reestablish the brand. Two takeaways. First, if they were memorable answers, you would be able to guess the brand, but I bet you can’t. Second, the client has given us nothing more to work from.

Is it stopping us? No. Is it holding us back from doing the best we can do. Definitely.

 

Stay Positive & Read On (founder’s name and business’s name altered)

 

Q1. Can you elaborate on Benjamin Gray’s statement that Le Croy makes customers feel “a little like coming home”?

Benjamin Gray just wanted to treat our customers like family and make them feel that Le Croy was a place for them to depend on for quality apparel.

Q2. What do you think is the “extra mile” you go for customers?

We make sure their products are top quality, we answer their calls, emails and social messages, if they have an issue we try to resolve it as quickly as possible, and sometimes we find someone that is not expecting to hear from us and surpise/delight them with new product or special items to say thank you.

Q3. Who are some influential people who wear your brand? Who in pop culture would you consider partnering with?

I don’t have the answer to this one today.

Q4. Can you list some causes your brand supports?

insert link to website

Q5. What are you currently doing with the email addresses you have of customers. Just a newsletter? Can you tell us more how you decide how often to send out an email regarding sales?

We send email daily, segmented by Men’s, Women’s, Kid’s and School Uniform. Home is a secondary message on many emails. We focus majority of contacts on driving sales for the business. Highlighting products that are relevant for the time period. We share promotions when they exist, we usually have 2-3 promotions a week.

Q6. What does wearing Le Croy clothes make people feel?

Clothes that make me look great, good quality, preppy dependable style, ties to nautical.

Q7. Why should the consumers care about Le Croy?

Releavnt styles, quality and great value.

Q8. What is the purpose of Le Croy’s PR Twitter account?

Le Croy has two Twitter account, one is the PR handle. The PR handle is to share news about Le Croy and events that Le Croy is participating in.

Q9. Lastly, we would like to know how each pair of insert company’s jeans is constructed. If you can tell us what materials you use? How the materials are acquired? Where the jeans are sewn together? As well as the creative process in designing the jeans?

I do not have this answer at this time

*To give the benefit of the doubt here. Perhaps this business is transitioning into a new economy layout and doesn’t have answers to the new untraditional marketing strategy basics. Regardless, telling us so would make it much easier to help them than acting like their brand is concrete and perfect.

**What do you think Le Croy could have done better to give us what we need to develop the best marketing strategy for them? What critiques do you have for my group and I? Share your input in the comments section below.

Add All The Public Relations Curb Appeal You Want

Garth Beyer

You’re a realtor. If the house is a log cabin and you’re trying to appeal to a more modernistic Le Corbusier-type of consumer, sprucing up the curb, the walkway, the mailbox won’t do it.

Companies who are labeled with a target consumer, don’t often grab hold of someone new outside of the described (and perceived) demographic. (And that’s okay!)

Apple might pick up some 60+ year olds, but do they really contribute to the success of Apple?

Hot Topic might get a preppy teenager to come in the store by advertising polos, but is it a smart use of space for the possibility of reaching a different demographic member?

Lands’ End might try appealing to a younger generation of women, but will the advertising strategy work?

Many businesses throw themselves under the bus by trying to be something they are not, by trying to wiggle their way into the minds of a different demographic. What happens? They end up ignoring the strength of the tribe they already have. Curb appeal may grab the attention of difference consumers, but at the same time it confuses your current ones.

At some point you have to realize you need to create a new product to reach the new target audience (if that’s really what you want). At some point, no amount of curb appeal will attract the number of new customers you hope for.

My advice when you know you’re at the end of the rope, tie a knot.

Praise your current market. Instead of paving a new pathway to the house, add more to it. Give back to existing customers. If your business is a traditional one, drop the idea of a mobile app and revert back to rewarding those who share through word of mouth and refer you to friends.

Apple is successful because they admire the early adopters. Hot Topic is still open because everything is still black and they have CDs. Lands’ End will grow more if they create a referral program for consecutive consumers rather than telling 20-year-olds what they should be wearing (without changing the style of the product, merely its curb appeal).

I’m a PR strategist who prides himself in being honest. Can you get new customers? Certainly. Can you get the number of new customers you want (or will need once you start confusing your existing/returning ones)? No.

Sometimes it’s easier, better, cheaper to build a new house than to add to the curb appeal of the one you own. (Especially when the one you own is beautiful as it is!) Plus, it’s more fun to create a new product that fits the target audience you want than to stretch the fabrics of the current product. Sooner or later, it won’t fit your consumer base, and that’s when you crumble.

 

Stay Positive & Tie A Knot And Show It Off

The Problem With Free

Garth Beyer

You can push out sweepstakes for winners to win free X for a year. You can put out samples after samples, which, by the way, customers never call them samples, they call them free X. You can also give away a free X with each purchase.

You may make friends, customers, clients, by giving X away for free, but the ones you make won’t come back when X is no longer free.

Instead of giving free X’s to strangers, give X along with Y and Z to those you know will be back and those who have come back for X before.

Treasure the friends (customers, clients) you have now and more trustworthy ones will come knocking. And by trustworthy, I also mean those who benefit you as well, those who show up to pay, to give in return to what you offer, not to take free handouts.

 

Stay Positive & Are You Marketing To The Right Friends?

Who Are Your Sponsors/Investors/Donators

Garth Beyer

My SO and I listen to the same radio station. She mentioned to me the radio station is asking for $2,000 donations. The two grand donation can be given at once or over a period of a year. She thought it was a lot to ask of people to donate. Why not ask for smaller donations so more people will be willing to pitch in, she suggested.

She’s right. They would get more donations if they requested a smaller donation and reached out to more people. But why? Why spend more money on advertising to the mass who may or may not donate a little bit to the radio station when the radio station can meet their yearly goal with a handful of large donations. It’s truly niche marketing.

If Ferrari really wanted to (heck do I wish they would), they could cut the price of their cars to a quarter of what they are now, sell a ton and still make loads of profit. Why, though, when they can produce a few hundred cars and sell them at high costs.*

Even certain news organizations could put ads on their sites, put up paywalls and charge submission fees for freelance content, but why when their journalism is so thorough and desired that they can meet their expenses just by asking for donations.

I think there are grand benefits in figuring out how much it is you want to make from an idea, invention or business and how exactly you want to make that much. You can follow the steps of selling a product or service and charge what everyone else is charging in hopes of gaining the attention of the mass public. Or (or!) you can find the condensed group of people who will pay top dollar for what you offer.

Might be worth mentioning there is a profit differentiation between the two methods. I think you can figure that out for yourself, though.

 

Stay Positive & Remember, The Less There Are, The More You Can Focus On Each Individual

*Quality of course matters. Yamaha wouldn’t be able to sell their mopeds for half a million dollars. The quality just isn’t worth that. But, there are products and services I see regularly  I would pay more to have than what they are charging. Macs, Mizuno shoes, Biofreeze… Despite this post encouraging increased pricing, I can’t contest there’s beauty (and profit) with the effect of selling something for less than it’s really worth. (Something I’m sure we’re all thankful for.) Discretionary note: never price lower to the point people assume cheapness.

First Get Good At Consistently Creating

Garth Beyer

So often you’ll not follow-through with a project or an idea because you know how much marketing you’re going to have to do when it’s complete.

To you, the world might not seem approving of someone writing a book and just throwing it on a digital bookshelf. No. You have to write the book, make sure it’s excellent, put it on the digital bookshelf, and then advertise it, get reviews on it, have bloggers cover it, give it out for free, set a Skype chat interview up for you to talk about it, make sure it’s translated to 20 different languages, beg the NYT reviewers to read it, and so much more.

It’s all a lie. It’s all a trick to stop you from creating. It’s fear speaking up. It’s an excuse and you and I both know it.

First get good at consistently creating. Write five books and throw them up on Amazon. Chat with friends about it, naturally, but don’t worry about heavily marketing it. Think about it in terms of time. If you create something, a book, an art piece, a business plan or a TED talk (and it takes you a month), then you spend the next seven months marketing it, getting people to see it, buy into it, subscribe to it, admire it, blog about it. You’ve just stopped yourself from creating seven more incredible works of art.

Obviously this post isn’t meant for the experts, the famous, the already envied. It’s for you, it’s for me, it’s for all the people out there who think things need to be perfect and need to have their total commitment for a year before they move on and create the next thing. It’s not necessary. The best marketing strategies come natural, the best art work doesn’t need to be pushed, the greatest connections often come from chatting about what you’ve done lately, not what you did six months ago.

And you know what? The act of consistently creating might be the greatest marketing strategy known to man.

 

Stay Positive & Interesting, Isn’t It?

 

What Are They Admitting To?

Garth Beyer

Flappy Bird

You’re searching for customers. Your marketing. Your advertising like crazy to get new folks to buy your product or service or enroll in your seminar or MOOC. To get anyone to try whatever you are offering requires them to admit to something. But what is it? Do you know? You need to.

It’s hell trying to top your competitors, it’s even more difficult to get your competitor’s followers to follow you. Why? Because to do so, those followers have to admit that they want more (most don’t) or that they made the wrong choice to begin with.

Take a second to realize how monumental of an internal confession that is.

I keep wondering why so few people who loved Flappy Bird aren’t trying anything similar like Ironpants, Super Ball Juggling or Red Bouncing Ball Spikes. To do so is to admit that they made a wrong choice of playing Flappy Bird to begin with. Either they don’t want to admit to that or they simply don’t want better, they want Flappy Bird.

I don’t suggest you find a niche because you can’t compete with someone like Apple or Zynga. You could certainly make something as good or better than them. Getting people to admit they like you more or that they were wrong to like the other competitor first, that’s the exhaustive (and endless!) battle.

Unless of course, Apple or Zynga die and there’s room in the market for you. Then again, like I said, not everyone is flapping over to different games after Dong Nguyen took Flappy Bird down.

Niches are important. Find them.

*UPDATE: since writing this post IronPants and another flappy bird spinoff has made the top app list. I would be fascinated to see how many users of these apps know of flappy bird.

Stay Positive & It’s Easier To Get People To Admit They Wanted Something Your Competitor Didn’t Offer

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