Aligned Marketing Blog

Is this Any Way to Run a Country?

Steve Hartkopf - Wednesday, March 10, 2010

I'm not going to right directly about business, communication, social media or any of that today. Instead I'm going to write about what everyone seems to be talking about, ObamaCare.

Everywhere I go it seems people are talking about ObamaCare. Most of the people I talk to (older white guys like me) see it as a government takeover of healthcare, the old "16% of the economy" statement. They believe such a step is highly intrusive on our personal freedom and too expensive, a huge risk. Most add that if you want healthcare then you need to get a job. Government you see can't fix anything, it's inefficient as heck (think DMV) and, oh by the way, if they wanted to fix healthcare they should start by fixing Medicare and Medicaid, both of which are basically bankrupt. The enemies are the trial lawyers, who drive up malpractice insurance through frivolous claims and record awards, and tax-and-spend liberals who never saw a government program they didn't like because so few of them actually pay for them.

A second group, which is generally led by my more liberal Democratic friends, believe it is a great idea. Healthcare is something everyone needs, is basically a human right, and since the uninsured end up in Emergency Rooms anyway, the highest cost healthcare service available, which, by the way, only treats symptoms, any solution is less expensive than the current system. The problem with the current system is it's a patchwork of rules and laws created by our true enemies - a corrupt system ran lobbyist, insurance companies and heartless Republicans who only care about the most capable and the most blessed amongst us. If the government could just manage the whole thing it would work for everyone.

The truth from my perspective is both Democratics and Republicans are corrupt. They're both for sale, they both lie and, for the most part, are only interested in power, re-election and themselves. There are no statesmen taking the high ground in this debate. It's partisan. Manipulating the people is more a means to an end. My view is a little cynical but then i did graduate at the top of my class.

In the end I think the Democrats will get their way and we'll have national healthcare. At some point we're going to realize we can't afford our entitlement programs and our large military. So, like France and Japan and many other countries, we'll cut back on our military spending. We will survive and still be great, we'll just won't be the same. Is that good or bad? I

'm not sure. I think we are a little too aggressive militarily but if we're not there to stop the bad-guys who will?

One possibility is the country is so enraged by this "take-over" that they will throw the Democratics (yes, it's actually the Democratic Party) out in November. A wave of Republicans will arrive, slow down this process, that will give business more confidence to hire and invest, and the economy will pick up more steam.

Before you stand up and cheer, realize that this apparent good news does not solve the healthcare issue and the Republicans, as we've seen in the past, are fully capable of the same level or stupidity. Is this any way to run a country?

Steve
800-707-9150

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Are You a Spammer?

Steve Hartkopf - Monday, March 08, 2010

I’m often asked how businesses can use social media. In separate conversations, the National Electrical Supply Association (NAED) and the Industrial Supply Association (ISA), think GE and 3M, respectively, are asking that very question. Collectively the two organizations represent approximately $300B of our economy. Neither has an answer to the question, so I gave their representatives a glimpse of mine.

Social media is really nothing more than an online reflection of the offline world. The offline process that leads up to a sale; "know me, like me, trust me," also applies to the online world of social media. Sales happen at the end of that process in both worlds.

That sounds simple because it is. What’s striking is how many people get it terribly wrong. Instead of taking the time to get involved in an online community, much as any good business person would if they joined the local Chamber of Commerce, most people rush to the Close. They broadcast their sales pitch out randomly, hoping to hit a target. What a total waste of energy, not to mention the damage done to your brand.

When they don’t hit a target, they blame the medium, the technology. “I tried social media and it didn‘t work.” That’s a crock but it is easier than blaming themselves. It’s easier than doing the hard work involved and dedicating the time to do truly join a community and contribute real value. It’s easier than being a responsible citizen.

Responsibilities are serious business. Avoiding your responsibilities to build trust in the community, which is that you are doing if you just throw out your pitch randomly, means you are a spammer. Spammer is an ugly word in our wired-up world. So ugly that in it’s most literal sense, it’s illegal. Most of us have software installed on our computers to block these cretins.

Opening accounts on social sites such as LinkedIn, Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter and the others for the single purpose of promoting yourself is a bad strategy. Get involved! Become an active member of the community. Provide value. Give good advice and engage with a servant’s heart. Keep the conversation going on the forum itself, don’t try to divert members to your site, your self-interest. Wait until you’re asked.

Take the time to comment and vote on other people’s content. Visit other people’s blogs and “RT” (retweet) good information, Friend those you know or who have similar interests as you and call-out the spammers. Finally, rather than quantity you should seek quality.

In other words focus your efforts on the social sites you are going to be involved in and sites that contain a group of people who can relate to your content and perspective. Don’t submit an article on postpartum depression to a social network convened around Fantasy Football.

As is always the case, to reap the rewards you must do the work. Everyone, as I taught my two boys, pays List Price for success.

Add value to the community and the community will reciprocate.

Steve

800-707-9150

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Try This Instead

Steve Hartkopf - Wednesday, March 03, 2010

I enjoy the Olympics. The 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver was inspirational and the athletic performances amazing. The back-stories about how individuals and teams overcome physical and emotional hardships and turned in the performances of their lives was great stuff.

Some of the stories, often shared at the end-of-broadcast, made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. But not all of them were about success, not all of them had a happy ending. Some included the heartbreak of near-misses, lost opportunities and the difficult circumstances some of the athletes face daily.

I think the combination of intensity, pushing oneself to the limit, and the possibility of both success or failure, frames the magnetic pull of sports. It is high drama in real life. We know we’ll witness incredible athleticism and super-human performances. That tension is what keeps us glued to our televisions and leaning forward in our seats.

Sport metaphors are cliche but, while I'm going to use sports to teach a business lesson, I'm going to take a different approach. I want to talk about the coaches. Olympic athletes, Phil Michelson and LeBron James all have coaches, as do their lesser talented peers. So coaches must do something important, right?

Coaches are usually in the background while the athletes perform. They are not out there looking over their shoulder while the game is being played, they (for the most part) don't coach on the actual playing field. They know who has the talent and, when the coaching subsides, they let the talent, the athlete, perform. They allow the gifted to fully express him- or herself.

Managers could learn a few things from watching coaches. Managers who build teams of people whose talent and strengths exceed their own will perform better, in terms of outstanding results, than those who micro-manage, insist on being the "best-player" on their team, or are so insecure they can't handle other people being stars.

The Olympic coaches showed me something else too. They showed me how the best coaches never berate, belittle and rub a performer's nose in their shortcomings. They recognize that the athletes, their direct reports, know what went wrong and as often as not, how to correct their mistakes. They don't try to grind them to spider-dust so "they'll never do that again." They realize that an aggressive-negative approach squelches confidence. Independent thought and risk-taking, all of which are necessary for a high performance team and success, must be encouraged.

The best coaches teach and encourage. They help their athletes gain confidence so that they are psychologically prepared to face the competition and their next challenge. Like good coaches, good managers find out what’s working and, no matter how small the accomplishment-spark, they fan that flame in hopes of greater performance.

Their "feedback" is framed in the context of a better future: "The next time let's try this…"

So the next time one of your direct reports needs some coaching, Try This Instead.

Steve
800-707-9150

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Storytising

Steve Hartkopf - Monday, March 01, 2010

Getting someone to read your online advertising is not easy. Beyond being memorable, online advertising should create interest in your value proposition and, in its best form, overcome sales objections. That's asking a lot, but it is possible.

Online advertising is different than offline (print) advertising because it is more intimate. Done well, you can get people to read your copy. That's why I believe the long-form (more than 150 words) sales message is not dead.

In fact using well written copy in story form that conveys your value such as a customer testimony, case study or white-paper is a terrific way to deliver your sales message.

The challenge we all face and the reason we usually use short copy, which includes tag-lines, elevator speeches, and anything less than 150 words, is we assume the average reader's attention span is short to the point of being miniscule. Collectively, we've made Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) a national treasure. That's silly, it's an excuse many people use to explain away their lack of seriousness. But no matter, that perception has consequences for those of us who write copy that sells for a living.

Too many of us believe that only the bored or the most desperate buyer will take the time to read the traditional long sales letters we associate with internet marketing. The problem is not the length of the copy. The problem is most of what we read online is tacky, heavy-handed and just plain uninteresting.

A good way around this dilemma is to use stories. But not just any stories. I'm talking about stories that are interesting and fun to read. Stories that, at the same time, communicate each step of your sales sequence over time without ever being tacky or heavy-handed, “salesy.” Stories spread out over time in a series of emails and blog postings.

The first few emails entice the reader, your prospect, to investigate your services further. Once you get a click through the next series of emails describes your service benefits in more detail and, through stories and testimonials, are designed to overcome objections and encourage a purchase.

You can use a series of interesting stories to attract attention, describe benefits, create desire for your product or service, demonstrate the product in action, overcome objections, promote a strong call to action, and convey every other copywriting purpose just as effectively, perhaps more so, in a story (your content) as you would in a traditional sales message.

The goal is to make your content so interesting, entertaining and valuable that the underlying "advertising" will be read, retained, shared and, ultimately, result in a purchase.

When you combine the best aspects of advertising with quality storytelling, that's what I call Storytising.

Steve
800-707-9150

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Defining the End

Steve Hartkopf - Wednesday, February 24, 2010

How will you know the recession is over? What is your definition of recovery? Is it financial: Two consecutive quarters of growth or a month or two of sales that are equal to 2008 (pre-recession) levels? Are you even listening for signals that the worst has passed?

I don't know what your definition is but I do think it's a good idea to have one. Why? Because once you declare the recession over it changes the way you manage your business. That may not make sense at first blush but I declared the recession over last week (more on that in a moment) and it's has changed my thinking in one very important way: I am more willing to spend money, to invest in my future.

Here's a quick recap of the events that led me to a post-recession mindset.

First, I started getting calls from recruiters again. I was getting very few calls between January 2009 and January 2010. I've been in this business a long time so that's a very low numbers and, frankly, a few of them were just people complaining about the lack of activity, "No one is hiring..." The emails and calls from friends and industry contacts was about 3-to-1 from people losing their jobs as compared to people landing new jobs. And most of the calls from people who landed new jobs came in just the last 3-4 months.

Second, during the same time period generating sales leads for Aligned Marketing was difficult. I might make 20-30 calls and send out an equal number of emails before anything "hot" surfaced. In the last two weeks we've received 10 new leads from companies ranging in size from $100M to several billion in sales needing help. Companies are not only looking to reposition their brand, revamp websites, and build online catalogs for commerce, they are in a hurry to get started.

The final domino fell last weekend. My wife and I were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary in downtown Charlotte and decided to have dinner at The Capital Grill. In case you're not familiar with The Capital Grill there are several around the country and they're comparable to Morton's, Sullivan's and Ruth Chris' steakhouses, they are upscale, at least $100 per person. During cocktails the bartender said, "It's like someone opened a floodgate after the first week of February..." Their lunch-crowds since then have been larger than they've seen in over a year and, sure enough, when we exited the dining room after dinner, the bar and lounge area was elbow-to-elbow with people. We had to fight our way out the place. Since then I've asked two other local restaurateurs and they say the same thing, "business has really picked up..."

My tiny slice of the world is sending me buy-signals and they're exciting to hear. What is your world telling you or, more importantly, are you even listening?

Steve
800-707-9150

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Making Numbers Come to Life

Steve Hartkopf - Monday, February 22, 2010

Many people are more comfortable with ideas than they are with data. That's too bad because without good data it's hard to get the funding you'll need to implement your good ideas. The business world is driven by facts, sales projections and generating a return on the investment.

Granted many of the projections are nothing more than educated guesses tied up in your ability to sell and gain a consensus. That doesn't make them useless or wrong, it just makes them, as stated, a guess.

As a creative type person, as a marketer, I had to acquire my taste for numbers. What I found was that the "what-if" scenarios appealed to my imagination. Where as a numbers geek would embroil themselves in the data looking for the one, single, truth, I knew no such single truth existed but found joy in exploring what was possible.

I knew that we could make a reasonable projection based on a certain set of variables and that work would exhaust our capabilities. Working beyond that point is wasted energy but, at times, the politically-wise thing to do.

Ours was a search for excellence, not truth. If you don't believe me review your last ten-years January sales projections. More than likely you'll find half of them are significantly wrong, missed guesses.

If you struggle with data, with facts, then try framing the process in terms your imagination can embrace. Try searching for "possible outcomes" instead of "the number."

Thought of and shared the right way numbers can be fun. If you don't believe me then watch Hans Rosling's amazing presentation about myths and predispositions surrounding the third world.

Hans Rosling, Gapminder presentation at TED.

Steve

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How to Create a Business Conversation

Steve Hartkopf - Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Too many businesses describe themselves to prospects and acquaintances in weak words that describe what they do or their profession, such as; “I’m a Realtor or I’m a builder.” That may not be wise. It may be a conversation killer when what you need is a conversation enabler. Here’s what I mean:

People buy benefits and “Realtor” and “builder” do not itemize benefits
Those traditional descriptions discourage a conversation

Describe your business in terms of benefits and value so the person you are talking to can better understand how you can help them, regardless of what it is you do. “I‘ve been building estate homes in Chicago since 1977” is more descriptive and better than, “I’m a builder,” because it infers some of the benefits you provide and encourages a conversation.

The second version lets the other person know you have solid experience, probably know a lot about a specific geography, you build big-expensive house and, finally, it implies the homes you build are constructed well. If those inferences were not true it is unlikely you'd have been in business since "1977." If you had simply said, “I’m a builder,” you would miss all those important attributes and benefits. Successful people never make this error and almost every successful person I’ve met is a good conversationalists.

A conversation allows you and the other person to determine if your unique expertise fits their unique needs and if your personalities are compatible for a business relationship.

So, the next time you meet someone describe your business or profession in interesting terms that conveys the benefits you provide.

Need help doing that? Give us a call at 800-707-9150. We've got a one hour coaching session on just this topic.

Steve

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What was I Thinking?

Steve Hartkopf - Monday, February 15, 2010

We’ve all made mistakes when speaking and writing. We know what we want to say but it just comes out wrong. It’s normal and happens to everyone. The magnitude of the embarrassment or damage is related to the size of your audience.

Nowhere in the world are the gaffs more noticeable than in sports. Athletes live in a world where the communication and interpersonal rules most of us rely to get through life don’t apply. In fairness, they often find themselves with a microphone in their face at inopportune times, like after a tough loss or bad play.

Sports Illustrated listed some classics in their 12-28-09 magazine:

Jesse Rogers (2002)

Cubs radio announcer while interviewing Antonio Alfonseca, who has six fingers on each hand: “Were you born that way?”

Michael Vick (2002)

Quarterback (when he was with the Falcons) on the secret of his success: “I have two weapons – my legs, my arm and my brains.”

Brad Miller (2003)

Pacers Center on the team’s struggles: “It’s not going to be peaches and gravy all the time.”

Ike Taylor (2004)

Steelers backup Cornerback: “You only get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity so many times.”

Mike Cameron (2005)

Mets Outfielder dismissing his problems with the Sun at Shea Stadium: “The Sun has been there for 500, 600, years.”

(My favorite) Rickey Henderson (2009)

Newly inducted Hall of Famer, on why he had someone help him write the speech he gave in Cooperstown: “Speech and me don’t even get along sometimes.”

What should do if this happens to you?

Own up to it, be self-effacing, and let it go. Take a tip from professional gaffers, politicians. Explaining and making excuses just prolongs the attention and, at some point, makes you look defensive and small.

How we express ourselves sends a powerful message to the world about ourselves and about our company. If you need help perfecting your message please give me a call at the number below.

Steve

800-707-9150

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Tying Social Media to Business Results

Steve Hartkopf - Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Tying Social Media to Business Results

Does your company have specific business goals for your social media activities? If not, you should.

In a November 2009 survey MarketingSherpa discovered that approximately ninety-four percent (see chart below) of those surveyed use social media to increase their website traffic, which is not surprising.

What might surprise you is twenty-one percent don’t actually measure their results and five percent have no specific objectives for their social media activities. So I can only assume that they’re on LinkedIn and Tweeting, for example, because they think it’s the right thing to do.

Doing something for the sake of doing it doesn’t sound like real business to me, does it to you?

The other thing that surprised me was the relatively low number of respondents who use social media to reduce their customer acquisition and customer support costs. I mean, the tools are free!

The bottom line is social media is a free and easy to use platform for promoting your business and communicating directly with your customers and prospect, so use it.

If you’re not sure how, give us a call.

Steve Hartkopf

800-707-9150

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Finding Niche Markets & Hot Topics

Steve Hartkopf - Monday, February 08, 2010

If you’re looking for niche markets, hot topics and new ideas there are a bunch of sites that can help you beyond the search engines although, in some cases, they are sub-domains of the search engines.

I check out the hottest search trends at Google Zeitgeist. Since I’m usually targeting the US market, I’ll click on “U.S. Zeitgeist,” otherwise I’ll look at “Zeitgeist Around the World.”

Lycos Top 50 and Yahoo! Buzz are two other sites, like Google Zeitgeist, that I review when I’m looking for the latest trends in digital products and hot topics.

The eBay Pulse site is also an excellent place to start looking at niche markets and topics and is one very few people, from what I can tell, use for research.

If you still can’t find anything to get your creative marketing or writing juices flowing then here are some other sites to investigate:

Nichebot - http://www.nichebot.com

Shopping.com Searches – http://www2.shopping.com/top_searches

AOL Hot Searches - http://hot.aol.com/hot/hot

Google Groups - http://groups.google.com

Craig's List - http://www.craigslist.com

Delicious Popular - http://del.icio.us/popular

Digg - http://www.digg.com

Google Catalogs - http://catalogs.google.com

Google Suggest – http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en

Technorati - http://www.technorati.com

If you want to focus exclusively on what’s selling visit the Clickbank Marketplace (http://marketplace.clickbank.net).

The web is constantly changing so it requires effort to stay current, to remain relevant.

As a marketing consultant it’s my business to stay abreast of web-trends. Feel free to call me if you’re having trouble finding the information you need.

Steve Hartkopf

800-707-9150

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Aligned Marketing Blog

Is this Any Way to Run a Country?

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Are You a Spammer?

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Try This Instead

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Storytising

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Defining the End

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Making Numbers Come to Life

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How to Create a Business Conversation

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What was I Thinking?

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Tying Social Media to Business Results

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Finding Niche Markets & Hot Topics

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