Do you Dread Your Drive to Work?

C.C.’s ramblings (and I mean that in a good way – he does it productively!) sparked this question in my mind: Which do you dread more: your drive to work in the morning, or your drive from work in the afternoon?

Put another way, do you actually look forward to your drive to work in the morning, and regret to some degree that you have to leave in the afternoon? If the answer is yes, then you’re fortunate that you get to spend so much time doing something you clearly enjoy. If not, should you maybe face the fact that spending 8+ hours a day doing something you don’t like to do doesn’t make sense?

I hate to oversimplify situations, because I know we all have responsibilities we must account for, families we must take care of, and times when we simply have to do what we have to do. However, there are tons of ways to make a living out there. There are tons of options. Why not pick the option that both pays your bills and allows you to spend a chunk of your valuable time doing something that challenges you and makes you happy?

Saying Hell Yeah!

The other part of C.C. Chapman’s podcast episode was a reference to this post by Derek Sivers. In summary, it describes a problem many of us have: taking on too many projects. I’m so guilty of this. I come across so many projects with friends that seem like they’d be fun, but they end up being a huge time-suck for me and I rarely deliver with excellence because of it. But the “Hell Yeah” filter changes that. When presented with a project, if your immediate reaction isn’t “hell yeah, I want to work on that,” then let it pass. Everyone will be better off for it. As Derek puts it, “We’re all busy. We’ve all taken on too much. Saying yes to less is the way out.”

Be sure to read Derek’s post, and congrats to C.C. for the new work with Campfire.Similar Posts:

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As my interactions varied with each vendor, it became very obvious quite quickly what the best outcome could be for a vendor during one of these conversations: to get me excited about what could happen if I worked with them even more.

Seems obvious, doesn’t it?

The problem is that an agency’s presentation and conversation doesn’t always sync up with this ideal outcome. They might think they’re getting you excited, but their action communicate that their actual goal is something different.

With that said, I give you the following list:

10 Signs of a Good Marketing Agency

1. They know when someone does something better. Just last week, I was ready to give some business to a partner that has been managed by a different partner. It’s an area where both vendors have higher degrees of expertise, and it made sense to me to simply consolidate. However, when I brought this up to the favored vendor, they quickly let me know that they actually thought I’d be better off sticking with the other partner. In other words, they turned down easy business. What they also did was multiply how much I trust in them. Honesty does wonders for ongoing business.
2. They tell you when they disagree, and they can explain why. If I’m hiring an agency, it means I recognize a need for more expertise than I currently have at my disposal. So I expect some of my ideas to be off, and I expect my vendors to call me on it. If you can tell me why you disagree with me in a way that makes sense (don’t wax poetic on me), then I can relax knowing I’ve got an expert who can save me from myself. That’s valuable.
3. They don’t get blame-happy. It’s one thing to know your stuff and let me know that I simply haven’t followed your advice and that could be the reason I’m not getting the result I want. It’s another thing to proactively blame my co-workers, or situations, or whatever. It’s only a sign that you know something’s not right. I’d rather pay you for suggesting solutions than magnifying (or inventing) problems.
4. They can justify their value. Next time an agency is pitching you on spending tens of thousands of dollars on a website, ask them why you shouldn’t just get a web designer and build a site on Wordpress. If they fumble, then you just found a cheaper alternative. If they take it in stride and then give you a smooth answer, then you at least know you’ve got someone who knows their value proposition. Ask tough questions like this when it makes sense. How they answer will tell you a lot more than the answer itself.
5. They can properly focus on you. The risk with a big agency is that they can’t focus on you enough; you’re too small. The risk with a small agency is that they might not have the experience or firepower to make an adequate difference. With that said, always err on the side that gives you more attention. Ideally, you want a small-to-mid-sized agency with experience either in your industry or in the channel/tactic you need support in.

At the end of the day, good agency partnerships are like any relationship: it comes down to chemistry. And remember, that’s a two-street. While I’ve harped on what to look for in an agency in this post, I daresay most agency/client relationships fail because they are poorly managed by the client.

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You know exactly what I’m talking about. You need an image for a website, a flier, whatever. Organizing the resources and timing to get actual photography seems to daunting. So enters stock photography.

Stock photography no doubt has its place. I’ve used a lot of services, and more times than not settle with Shutterstock unless I need to get really picky (their $249 for a month is hard to beat).

But David Meerman Scott has put things into perspective fairly well in his rant on visual gobbledygook. In his words,

Why not just use real people on your site? How innovative! Use real employees in a real conference room to represent your employees in a conference room! Damn. Why didn’t we think of that? And use your real customers too.

Stock Photography – Yes or No?

I have to admit, I’ve seen the same images used on the same websites repeatedly. But even if I hadn’t, we all know stock photography when we see it. The unrealistic gatherings around the conference table. The over-the-top hand shake. The too-perfect embrace in a sunlit field.

Why won’t real pictures of real people work for your real customer? Is it really that hard to buy a good camera and capture exactly what you’re communicating?

Stock photography might be hitting its peak. It could be experiencing the law of diminishing returns.

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If you didn’t believe it then, surely you do now.

The idea that we can segment marketing plans based on channels of communication is ludicrous and a rookie mistake. Sure, there are people who excel in using certain media to support marketing efforts. But to think you can just leave the web to a certain group on your team is extremely irresponsible and outdated.

For example, if you’re a product manager, you should …..

• be more savvy with Google’s keyword research tool than anyone else in your office (it should be a big part of your product innovation)
• be a passionate believer in keeping to a publisher’s mindset and driving content about your product out the door on a daily basis.
• be an expert in email marketing and segmentation.
• be manning a Facebook fan page for your product.

Most companies are still playing catch-up in this area. The companies that are excelling in today’s market are those that don’t make Internet marketing a separate department, but rather an underlying, foundational aspect of their business.

You are a marketer. Your audience is somewhere online. Therefore, you must be an Internet marketer (whether you’re in that department or not).Similar Posts:

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It doesn’t care about your processes. Or your timelines. Or your resources.

Opportunity scoffs at your schedule. It never takes into account what else you have on your plate. It doesn’t fill out your silly forms, or take time to write requirements, or figure out how it strategically fits into your plan.

Opportunity pays no attention to your budget, either.

Opportunity simply ricochets your excuses off it’s chest like its Superman. Invincible. Resistance is futile.

Opportunity simply knocks. It is the uninvited guest who shows up unexpected. You either open the door and let it walk into your house as is, or you don’t answer. Opportunity won’t wait around for you to throw your laundry in the basket and mop your floors. There’s no time to tidy up when opportunity is knocking.

Opportunity doesn’t care about you. But it is looking for someone just like you. Someone who can fit it in. Someone who will answer the door.

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1. Commercial Accounts on Twitter (via @EagleChris): looks like Twitter has at least found one way to make a little cash. This sounds promising, and I’m eager to find out just how deep we can go into the analytics they offer.
2. How Chris Brogan Uses Facebook (via @BillHurlbut): It’s always fascinating to find out how the true savants of social media use these tools. Chris seems to use Facebook mostly for keeping up with friends rather than business reasons.
3. The Ideal Business Plan for Small Business (via @TheMarketingGuy): This is a perfect list to briefly make sure you’re covering all the bases.
4. 54 of Fortune 100 on Twitter (via @mackcollier): Here are some great stats on how the big dogs are using Twitter. I think people are jumping in just cuz everybody else is.
5. Case Study: Coca-Cola uses social media in recent launch (via @QSRweb): I love how more and more case studies are coming out on corporate use of social media.

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I live in Texas, where sales tax is 8.25%. When was the last time you changed your behavior for an 8.25% off sale? I can’t remember ever doing it. It just doesn’t significant enough.

But tax-free? That’s something completely different, right?

Not really.

What this yearly campaign does point out is how important it is to position your promotion. It’s not enough to simply launch it. Or to just offer a boring discount. People like a story even behind their discounts. Your “free” needs to be cooler than their “free.”

A great example is free shipping. In most cases, this is a 10-15% discount to the customer. But people go nuts for it. Even more than they will for a 20% off discount. Trust me; I’ve tested it. I’ve witnessed people spend $300 more than normal just to save on the shipping costs.

It’s a lesson for all of us. There are logical ways of looking at your offers, and then there’s the way your customer looks at them. Position your promotions in a way that appeals to your customers, not logic. There’s nothing logical about what any of us do when we buy.Similar Posts:

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It’s just as common that the non-executives don’t get answers to these questions. Whether it’s true or not, every project appears to be nothing more than a tactic and/or reaction. Not strategic, but urgently necessary. And easily influenced.

A plan that’s not communicated is just a wish. Businesses fail on wishes.

So, if you’re the one in charge, realize that you’re people are yearning for you to tell them what the whole point is. They want to know the strategy, so they can buy into it. “Strategy” is one of those words we all like to throw around a lot, but few of us know what it really means. Fewer know how to create one.

Chances are, though, that you struggle in one of two areas here:

1. You know the strategy, but you haven’t communicated it efficiently. That’s easy to fix. And remember that it’s never as clear to them the first time as it is to you, so simplify it. Nail it your wall. Talk about it in every conversation. Get a tattoo. Repeat it so much that people now make fun of you for talking about the strategy so much.
2. You actually don’t know the strategy either. Your team is right: you are just reacting, just guessing. If this is a problem, get some help fast.

When people know the strategy, they are left with much smaller things to complain about.

Do you have an example of a good way you’ve seen a company communicate it’s strategy to it’s employees? What is it, and why did/does it work so well?Similar Posts:

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A fundamental truth of any tribe, though, is that it must reject more than it accepts. If it doesn’t, it’s not a tribe. It’s just a group, or crowd. Crowds don’t have belief systems. Or secret handshakes. They’re just crowds.

The Tribe Has Spoken

Tribes create their own criteria for acceptance. That’s their right. It doesn’t have to make any sense to anyone but the tribe. This becomes apparent in watching just a couple episodes of Survivor. The show is built on the suspense and strategy surrounding the decision of the tribe. And when the tribe speaks, there is no opportunity to dispute.

Rejected by the Tribe

If you’re rejected by a tribe, regardless of the reason, that’s it. The tribe has spoken. That’s their privilege and their right. And it’s the beauty of the whole system. Otherwise, the tribe would mean nothing, and acceptance would be meaningless.

The bad news is there are so many tribes that the chances of getting rejected are pretty high. The good news is there are so many tribes.

p.s. I’ve only read about 20 pages of Seth Godin’s latest book Tribes. I’m sure much of what I’ve said below is something he’s already explained in a much better way. But I promise I didn’t intentionally rip it off.Similar Posts:

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