Can you tell your business story in seven slides or less?

This weekend, I was attempting to get lean and mean with my Duct Tape Marketing Story and pulled out a book of mine called “The Seven Slide Solution” by Paul Kelly. I had used this book to put together several presentations and had not re-visited it recently, MY MISTAKE. It is a practical approach to building presentations around how people think about information. The following day, I received information about applying to give a presentation to the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce as part of their Slingshot presentation. The application is actually a slideshow based on very similar principles. You talk about Karma!

My point to all of this is that you should review the Slingshot presentation and see if you get your company story on 7 slides. If not, maybe you should buy the book. A basic principle of Duct Tape Marketing is telling your story in a compelling manner. But if it takes too long, how many people will listen?

I am finishing my 7-step slide show for you to review. It is amazing how tough it is to get your story on 7 slides. Too much BS, (Basic Information).

901 Blogs: Smaller Indiana

901 Blogs: Smaller Indiana

Smaller Indiana

I have been promoting a new social website called Smaller Indiana lately. It is on the same order as Linkedin, Facebook and others but particular to Indiana. I believe it has merit and seems much easier to communicate with others. It must be a Hoosier thing! If you are new to the social websites and blogging, intimidated by Diggs, Technorati and Facebook, I encourage you to try this one.

Can anyone tell a story?

The answer is yes and to get your point across in today's world you better learn how. The next workforce generation have been trained with less tables and list and more pictures and graphs. Just review today's textbooks to confirm this. We are appealing to the left side of the brain more.
As a result, stories are not only useful but I believe a necessity in today's world. I believe an important trait you need to develop is the ability to practice or rehearse. When you hear a good story, remember the beginning and the end, you can pretty much ramble in the middle and then repeat the story to someone as you can. Polish and try it again. As you begin to personalize it more and more, you eventually have a pretty good story to use. Look on my website for a couple of mindmaps on this subject.


Business Tip: Communicate your Company Story effectively allows your prospects to easily see how your firm is different from everyone else in the industry and comparisons go out the door.

A couple of thoughts on online advertising!

Business901 has been running an ad in the Business Daily E-mail distributed by KPC News. I felt that it needed some improvement and ask the staff at KPC News to help. Matt Swanson, the online director at KPC News responded with what I thought was a great tutorial for online advertising. Not being shy, I also tossed it out to the Duct Tape Marketing Coaches, the result of the conversations is to the right with the ad toggling between the two copies.

Here is what Matt had to say:

Online ads can be a tought beast to tackle. They really serve two purposes:
1) Branding extension
2) traffic driver

To be effective any ad has to be eye catching. There has to be a strong visual componant that attrracts the eye and compelling content that keeps the attention focused on the ad. Online, the ad can utilize motion/animation to attract the eye (we can't yet handle video or sound in e-mail ads at this time - and until such time as the file size of those ads decreases, it's really not a realistic option). Otherwise, a strong/compelling visual must be used.

The other thing that online ads need, is a call to action. This is typically done through a clear benefit statement. You don't have to say the words "click here", simply infer it, but the ad must provide a reason for clicking.
Be different
Be Sticky
Be Practical
...
Find out How!

Online ads aren't always as large as their print counterparts. That means space is at a premium. I typically do not advise including elements such as web addresses, phone numbers, and street addresses in online ads unless it is part of your overall brand identity (1800flowers.com is an example). Usually this information is simply included out of habit from advertising on other mediums.
1) This information is already on your web page, which is where you are trying to get the person to go to anyway.
2) Web address, you are trying to get them to go to the site by clicking on the ad - why include it on the ad
3) Phone #, street address: This is an online viewer, if they are going to follow the link, it is because they are looking for information about you online, now. Not later, in an offline medium.

If you have this information on your site, this simply becomes redundant.

Thanks Matt for the input and help.

Tim Ferris(4-hour Workweek) interview with Duct Tape Marketing

Tim Ferriss is the author of the wildly popular 4-Hour Workweek. He is a serial entrepreneur and ultravagabond and has been featured by dozens of media, including The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, NBC, and MAXIM.
Session: February 21st, 2008 Noon Central (GMT-6).

If you have read the book, you will not miss it. If you haven't, find out why the others are tuning in.

Each month the Duct Tape Marketing Coach network and Gotvmail will bring you access to a celebrity guest interviewed live by small business marketing expert John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing.Best News, it's free by clicking thru here and registering.

If the link does not work, copy and paste this into your browser:http://www.business901.com/coachingexcellence.html

Does this work for me? I enjoy my work to much. But he really does have a different perspective and is an interesting guy. Is it doable??? If it was, maybe I would have 10 companies with 4-hour workweeks.

Live by a Marketing Calendar

One of the core principles of Duct Tape Marketing is to "Live by a Marketing Calendar." I am going to write a series of blogs on this subject to expand on his concept. It is area that I feel that John Jantsch does not spend enough time in his book and proves to be valuable tool for most small businesses.

A simple idea on how to have a good one is to look at the people that use them to be successful. No, I am not talking Franklin Covey, I am talking someone that is using them for marketing and living by them, PUBLICATIONS. Go look at some media kits you have and evaluate what you like about them.

Here is why, they are simple and easy to read and they answer these questions:
1. Theme for each month = what
2. Material due dates = when
3. Mail dates = when
4. Types of material = how
5. Publication being used = where
6. Recipient = who

Oh yeah, it sounds like that Rudyard Kipling thing: "I keep six honest men. They taught me all I knew. Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who." I urge you to use these six men.

My Calendar is being updated continuously and is on my web page, take a look.

Microsoft Live Small Business

From John Jantsch in today's DTM Blog today....

Microsoft Office Live Small Business, a suite of online tools aimed squarely at the small business, went live today with a pretty significant upgrade to the already powerful tool. Office Live allows you to easily create and host a website as well as manage contacts, schedule meetings, share documents and projects and integrate online ads from [...]

I think I get it?

Listening to John Jantsch discuss Social Networking for the past 3-months, I have struggled to see the purpose and value of spending time there. John has been quite upfront about it and admits that he is not sure of the “Exact Why” either. He has just told me to be there because what he is certain about is that it is going to lead to something.

But now I think I get it! My wife and I were discussing a new vendor the other day for her Home Furnishing store. We may have not been communicating well, the eldest boy in the house, is taking a management class at the present time and hearing our discussion volunteered to get his notes on decision making and show them to us. We decided to include him in the conversation, so we would not have to be lectured on “Decision Making.” We are adults. We moved on in discussion and he said why don’t you just go to the internet and research them. That is when I got it!

He was not talking about their website, he was not talking about Wall Street, and he was simply talking about asking? He was going to a social community, asking about product and looking for that now ancient word “Buzz.” That’s right Internet “Buzz.”

But it really struck me; go to the Internet for truth, for validation. This is where we build our reputation now. And not just with twenty year olds. You must remember that the fastest growing segment of the gaming industry is the older crowd.

Another item worth note is that in the last week I have 3 well known “Internet Guru’s” promoting social networking in their e-zines. I am glad that I am with the guy that I am, John Jantsch, he was doing it months ago and all 3 e-zines looked like it was John’s stuff from 3 months ago.

How can you Fast Track your plan?

Small business people I believe are simply tired of hearing about another plan, another system, they simply want to get the work done. We have all heard all the reasons and I can recite zillions of them way too much for this blog but the simple fact is, we accomplish more with a plan. But how do we get started. Look at your top producers, they are probably already doing one that works within your company but it may not be documented.

The quickest and most effective way is to build a plan on where you are at. On what is working. It is one of the most important processes that you can do. Then you can define your objectives, develop strategies to achieve them, than institute action plans to carry out your strategies. If your objectives are not being met your strategies and actions may need to be changed. But without a baseline and a plan to work from, the process and achievements are only arbitrary.

As an example, most businesses have no sales process whatsoever. An effective sales process spans from lead generation to include marketing through sales closure. Pick one area at a time and make a commitment to improve that. You might have a long list, but you have to start somewhere and before too long you'll have dramatically improved.

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing simply states that you must live by a marketing calendar. The idea is to keep doing something related to marketing, according to plan, day in and month out. When you plan your marketing activities using a calendar, your focus tends to be on the immediate goal leaving the long term goals become part of the process. Tracking and accountability is built into the calendar so that you can see the progress or where you may become off-track.

How does your calendar look?

Direct Mail using Postcards

Recently, I worked with a company and as part of their Lead Generation Machine we developed a direct mail program using postcards. Not novel, but in the process I wrote the following e-mail which I thoguht was worth sharing. They were convinced that 65% of postcards were read...maybe, but by who? The person bringing in the mail? Here was my response:

My Postcard Thoughts:

1. 65% is a postcard publisher's dream. If it was that high, you would never receive junk mail any other way. However, a high percentage of junk mail comes that way, so there is some truth.
2. More important does it get to the right person. If the message is not direct, postcards may not even reach who it is addressed to, especially if that person has a secretary or someone determines that it should go to somebody else. You could end up in engineering, purchasing, service, maintenance or?
3. Bottom line is the more generic the mailing lists and message the lower the response.
4. With that said, I see no problem using that venue over mail as long as your message is specific and we can get a response out of it.
5. I would design the postcard to solicit a response with maybe a message that is time based. Though I am not suggesting this, I hate discount programs, but as an example “10% off panel work on orders received in November.” Most fax programs and mailings that work are time specific and sell a particular item.
6. People like events or openings.
7. The next question is I think the postcard has to be part of an overall plan that includes follow up and what response you are looking for.
8. Steps in postcard:
   1. Determine market(who, where = mail list, OK)
   2. Determine message(What do they want and Why will they respond?)
   3. Decide what if someone responds to it, what you are going to do or send. (How, when = will you follow up?)

Interesting survey

Here's an interesting survey done by the National Federation of Independent Businesses on small business marketing...part of a great resource site which you can find at http://www.411sbfacts.com/

1. Results of 2006 Survey on Marketing:
   The primary customer base for 45 percent of small businesses is the general public; However, for 30 percent, the primary customer base is too varied for small employers to identify one.
2. Twelve (12) percent of small businesses sell to a small number of business customers creating the potential of becoming a captive supplier.
3. Fifty-five (55) percent of small employers think that their businesses do not need much marketing since their products/services pretty much sell themselves. Forty-two (42) percent disagree.
4. A large share of the small-business population depends on repeat customers. Twelve (12) percent of small-business owners indicate virtually all customers are repeat customers while another 35 percent say most are repeat.
5. The distinction between marketing and selling is sharp for virtually as many as the distinction is non-existent.
6. Forty-eight (48) percent of small businesses have a separate annual marketing budget within the firm’s overall budget.
7. Experience and customer observation are substantially more likely to influence small-business owner marketing decisions than formal, systematic approaches. Seventy-four (74) percent think it is important to rely on gut feel when making marketing decisions.
8. Small-business owners advocate a long-term business outlook.
9. Seventy-eight (78) percent of small employers think that adding innovative products/services is important to business success.
10. 87 percent agree that customers require businesses to be very flexible and adapt to special customer requirements.
11. More small employers intend their marketing efforts to lead customers (61%) than to respond to them (28%).

Where do you fit into all this?

The 5 B's of Marketing?

In 1960, E. Jerome McCarthy introduced the 4 P's of Marketing as a way to describe the mix of factors required to successfullymarket a product. McCarthy labeled the 4 P's as Product, Price, Place (distribution), and Promotion. The idea was that if youcould identify the right combination of these elements, your marketing would succeed. Since then, many have proposed that there are really 5 P's, suggesting Positioning, Packaging, or People as additions to the mix.

Maybe it should be replaced by the 5 B’s of Marketing?

1. BE Real Your marketplace is crowded with competitors, and your prospects are
besieged with marketing messages. For your message to find its way through all this noise, it must be exactly on target. In any field, it's not enough to simply describe what you do. You must be able to tell your prospects exactly how your work helps them solve problems and reach goals, and the benefits and results they can expect to see from it. What this targeted messaging requires is that you become very specific about not only who your offer is for, but what it will help them do, and why your solution is the right one for them.

2. Be Pulling vs. Pusing…In the classic marketing formula, the emphasis was on promotion -- pushing your message out to the world at large. You need to pull toward you exactly those clients you want. Push-style marketing includes cold calling, unsolicited mail or email, paid advertising (online and off), promotional events like trade shows, and some forms of PR, like blasting out press releases. Pull marketing, on the other hand, is focused on building affinity and connections. To attract clients in your niche, you might develop referral partnerships, become visible at networking events, get booked as a public speaker, have articles published or build a content-rich website. You'll find it much easier to make a sale when clients contact you as the result of hearing about you from someone else, or after sampling your expertise for free.

3. Be interesting…You must position your business in the mind of your prospective clients as the best possible choice for exactly what they need. Broadcasting a muddy or generic marketing message won't be enough. Your clients need to understand "what's in it for me?" Be the place they go when they need something. 4. Be there.. Clients are wary -- and justifiably so -- of committing to spendhundreds or thousands of dollars on something they haven't been able to experience in advance. Without tangible evidence to go by, they base their decision on how much they trust you. A significant portion of your marketing activities should be aimedat increasing your credibility. But one of the best ways to build trust is also the simplest. Allow clients to get to know you, be part of their everyday life. Use of your website, services, ideas and advice that you can offer are all important mixes.

5. Be Fast… In today’s world, the most important. The key is hitting the right client at the right time with the right product in the right way – the first time, because you may not get a second time. You have to identify their need or problem, provide the solution, understand the resources needed and the decision process they will use. You have to have a process in place for doing this or the process itself will lead to slow and inaccurate decisions. Effective companies have processes that drive decisions, not delay them.

And this is all marketing!