Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Plan the Work. Work the Plan. (Strategic Tuesday/Process)



Hello again, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape. 
Today is Strategic Tuesday and we’re going to talk about the importance of developing and implementing your action plan.  Yogi Berra, and all the pearls of wisdom that he shared with us, once said: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might end up someplace else.”  If you don’t’ have a plan in place and you don’t follow that plan, how the heck do you know where you are going? Today’s topic is called “Plan the Work. Work the Plan.”

Why is this important?  You have to have a sense of direction.  Can you imagine getting on the road without any sense of direction?  No Google Maps or MapQuest or GPS.  Planning becomes a roadmap for you.  It becomes a game plan for you to follow. 

You need to be flexible as you develop your plan and implement it because things change.  They might change on a monthly basis, a weekly basis, who knows.  It might even be hourly if you have that kind of product where you are interacting with your customers all the time.

It’s important to put your plan down on paper.  If you just have it in your head, that’s fine and a lot of people go that direction, but my recommendation is that you write it down on paper so you can refer to it.  I recommend that you refer to it often.  It’s called shelfware when you make it and you put it on the shelf and you never refer to it again.  So it’s important to actually use it as a dynamic tool for the advancement of your business.  Then also if it’s written down, or an electronic version, you can share it with others.  You can share it with other people in your organization so they can see the common direction you are all trying to move together. 

Now what are the important ingredients of planning the work and working the plan?  First you have to have goals and objectives.  You have to have a place you are trying to get to.  By establishing what those goals and objectives are, that can be the foundation for your action plan. 

Next you have to have actionable tasks.  Things for people to do, whether it be yourself or somebody in your organization.  What are those things you are going to get done? 

Next is ownership.  It might be you or it might again be somebody in your organization.  Somebody has to be responsible for making those tasks happen. 

Next is the timeline and importantly the due date.  You need to set some point out in time where this has to get done.  If not, how do you know when mission is accomplished?  When will it get done?  If there’s not a sense of urgency then people won’t make it a priority.  So set that timeline and due date. 

Next is follow through.  You need to go back and find out if in fact due dates have been met.  If not, you ask the question “Why?”  I think it’s okay in your organization to do this.  You need to ask that of yourself and well as the people who are trying to help you carry out the action plan. 

Lastly is the review and the rework, starting all over again.  What went well and what didn’t go well and how do we fix it in the future? 

By planning the work and working the plan, essentially, you are going to outsmart Yogi Berra and your competition.  You’re actually going to wind up where you want to go.  Develop that plan, make it a priority, share it with others so that you have a common direction and you will get to your final destination. 

I set out an action plan for the release and development of Once a Day Marketing.  I planned the work and now I’m working the plan.  I have to make sure that I get you this video every single day.  I have to make sure I’m sharing these videos on the Internet to build awareness and so forth.  I am planning the work and working the plan and I’m constantly revising it as I talked about.  I’m learning something every single day which I try to implement in future action that I take.

So please, if you can, join us tomorrow Action Wednesday.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we will see you next time.

James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com

Monday, January 30, 2012

7Ps of Marketing: Price (Smart Monday/Price)



Hello again, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape. 
Welcome back, glad you could join us today and hopefully you are finding us all over the internet.  We’re trying to do that, but I’d love for you to find us on Facebook.com/OnceADayMarketing.  We’d love for you to go there, like us as a Friend and a Fan and then share with your friends on Facebook as well, especially if you have peers out there who might need a little marketing nudge.

Today’s topic continues in our series on the 7Ps of Marketing is the “7Ps of Marketing: Price.”

I’ve talked about the 7Ps of Marketing.  It’s interesting that “price” is the only one that drives revenue.  All the other Ps are positioning you to be able to generate revenue but they’re all costs.  So you can see that pricing is a very important factor for your business.

It’s important to remember that pricing is related to supply and demand.  If there are a lot of widgets out there it’s harder to have a higher price.  If your product is a little bit more scarce and in demand then you can raise the price and so usually what happens, if you remember your economics, is there’s an equilibrium point between supply and demand.  You can control that intersection a little bit through your pricing strategy.  But it’s also important to know that it’s not all about price.

There is something called commodity, I’ve mentioned it before.  Certain products only compete on price and if you only are competing on price, what’s your competition going to do?  They’re going to undercut you and you’re going to undercut them and so it’s a downward spiraling sort of strategy that doesn’t benefit anybody.  But if there is no perceived value by your customers, then price is about the only thing you can compete on.

But what you want to try to do is create value.  You want to differentiate yourself from the marketplace.  You want your customers to value what they are getting.  You want them to feel good about your product.  And the more that you can do that, enhancing that brand, and that’s why we talk about that so much, then they’re not so particular about the price because they’re getting something more out of your product or service, they’re getting a benefit and satisfaction.  And that’s what you’re trying to do with respect to brand building and relating that to your price.

Now what factors do you have to keep in mind when you’re pricing?  Well, the first is your competition.  Unless you’re a monopoly and the only game in town you have to keep in mind what your competition is doing with respect to their pricing.  You might be a lower price, you might be the same price, you might be the higher price but you can’t price in a vacuum.  It’s very important to know what your completion is doing out there.  Next thing are goals and objectives of your company.  What are you trying to accomplish?  Are you trying to take time to build a market like I am, for instance, with Once a Day Marketing?  Or are you trying to just penetrate the market overnight? Each requires different pricing strategies.

Also, how unique is your product in the marketplace and where in the marketplace is it?  If it’s very unique you have the opportunity to price more.  If it isn’t then you are going to have to price less.  Again, we talked about being a commodity, you don’t want to be a commodity, you don’t want to be only pushing your product on price.  That’s a bad competitive place to be. 

And then finally who are your targets and their willingness to pay?  If you build a multi-million dollar condominium in a low rent neighborhood, chances are it’s going to be hard to find a customer that’s going to be willing to pay the price that you want.  Again the willingness of your customers to pay and also who they are is a big part of pricing strategy.

On our Strategic Tuesdays we’ll be talking a lot more about specific pricing strategies whether you’re penetrating, or skimming or option pricing.  There are all sorts of things you can do with respect to your goals and targets and we’ll be talking about that in the future.

But the main thing you want to try to do and it’s just part of everything we do here at Once a Day Marketing is to build up the brand and build up that familiarity and the reward and the expectations that your customers have with your product.  If you do so then pricing is less important.  And again, as we said, you don’t want to be competing only on price. 

So what is my pricing strategy you might ask for Once a Day Marketing?  Well, I’m a young brand, a young product in the marketplace so I decided that I would provide value to my customers, you watching or reading this blog, by providing at this moment a free video blog.  So, I’m able to penetrate the market a little bit faster because there’s no risk to you to watch my video, there’s no cost to you.  And hopefully as you begin to trust my brand and become more loyal to my brand I have opportunities in the future to do monetize my brand and that’s my goal.

I want to thank you for tuning in today.  If you can, stop by tomorrow for Strategic Tuesday.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing and we will see you next time.

James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com

Friday, January 27, 2012

Getting LinkedIn: Streamlined Networking (Digital Friday/People)




Hello again, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape.  I have a question for you.  Would you like to be able to connect to a network of 135,000,000 people?  That’s what you can do with LinkedIn.  Today we are going to be talking about that powerful digital social networking strategy.  I’m a big fan of networking; I’ve talked about that before.  LinkedIn, if used properly, can really connect you to the right kind of people.  Today’s topic is “Getting LinkedIn: Streamlined Networking.” 

Are you using LinkedIn right now?  Are you using LinkedIn well?  Perhaps it’s a tool that you felt obligated to join but you aren’t using it.  However, LinkedIn is really something I want you to consider to enhance your networking skills.

Some of you probably aren’t members of LinkedIn and are wondering what it is.    LinkedIn is the largest business social networking site out there.  They’ve done a great job creating a tool for you to be able to easily network with people right in your own community and even all over the world.

LinkedIn includes information about people, where they went to school and where they work.  You are able to see who they are linked to.  It’s very powerful in that way, especially if you are just a couple of connections away from somebody you want to get a hold of.  You can go to one person and that person can help you get to another person.  That’s very cool. 

LinkedIn also provides a place for recommendations.  So if you’ve done work for somebody in the past they can actually recommend you, and provide a testimonial that other people can see that in fact people are vouching for you. 

The most powerful feature is the ability to create a network.  I now have almost 400 people in my network and I hope to build that even more.  I hope you will find me, James Glover, on LinkedIn and say hello.  Let’s get connected. 

There’s another section in LinkedIn where you are able to give advice and become an expert.  As you provide more advice, you are rated as an expert. This enables you to share your knowledge base with others and focus attention on your ability to solve problems.  A powerful attribute in the networking world.

What do you have to do to get involved with LinkedIn?  It’s very simple.  First, go to LinkedIn.com.  Then create a free membership.  The price is great.  Fill out the profile that includes a picture of you, your personal background information, and, work background information.  Basically it’s like a personal and work-related resume all in one place.  It’s a very good way to keep all that information all intact.  LinkedIn allows you to profile your company as well.  You can add a link to your company and build a story around it.  You can actually start creating fans of your company.  This is very exciting.

Perhaps the best feature about LinkedIn is the ability to start pulling in friends, and connections that might be of value to you in the future.  It could be colleagues that you have worked with in the past or alumni.  I graduated from the University of California, Irvine with my MBA and I am now in touch with a lot of my fellow graduates through LinkedIn. 

There also a unique add connection feature called “People You May Know.”  It creates a list of possible contacts for you to consider and you can begin sending requests to these individuals to be connected through LinkedIn to start building your network.  Again I’m up to almost 400, it is a very powerful tool and I think you should consider using LinkedIn to advance your networking efforts.

As you can see, LinkedIn is a great networking tool.  And the price is right as I’ve said.  Wherever you are, if you haven’t signed up, do so.  If you have and you haven’t really used it as a daily tool I recommend that you do so.  Spend the time to fill out your profile completely.  Then begin building your network of business connections.  These business connections may lead to all sorts of things.  It can lead to you looking for a job or finding a project, perhaps hiring someone.  There are all sorts of things that you can do with LinkedIn to benefit you and your businesses.  Make it a priority.

That concludes Digital Friday.  I hope you start using LinkedIn as a tool.  Join us next week for another exciting five days of Once a Day Marketing blogs.  As I said earlier, find me on Linked, James Glover with the Once a Day Marketing blog, and say hello and we’ll network. 

I’ve been getting some inquires about working with me directly.  My contact information is at the end of this blog.  I’d love to help your company. If you feel you need a little more assistance than just a daily blog perhaps we can arrange a one on one service engagement.    I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape, and we will see you next time.


James Glover: (505) 501-1330 or onceadaymarketing@gmail.com

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Feeding on Customer Feedback (Recon Thursday/Process)



Hello everyone. Welcome back to Once a Day Marketing.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, and today is Recon Thursday where we get you thinking about your company, your market and your competition.  Before we begin I’d like to learn a little more about my product Once a Day Marketing.  Whenever you get a chance, please send me a comment.  It’s very easy to do, just drop it below any one of my video blogs.  Also, it would be great if you shared my blogs with your friends.  I’m always looking to build our customer base.

Today’s topic is “Feeding on Customer Feedback.” 

How do you feed on your customer’s feedback?  I think it’s very important to make sure you frequently ask them about your product or service.  Think back, when was the last time you actually took the time to ask your customers what they think about your products or services?  That’s what we are going to talk about today.  Creating a way for you to engage your customers and ask them questions about what they like about your products and services and how they can be improved. 

How can you create new products or enhance the products you have right now if you don’t have input from your customers as to what they like or don’t like?  How do you get this customer feedback?  There’s the informal process and the formal process.  We’re going to be talking more about the informal process which is a lot cheaper for you and we know you are trying to keep those costs down.

The first thing you can do when a customer walks in the door or gives you a call, or wherever you engage that customer, you can just ask them: “What do you think about my company?  What do you think about my product?  What can we do to improve it to make it better for you?”  And believe it or not they will give you feedback.  It might not be what you want to hear but it will be valuable information where you can begin to reshape your product. 

You can also begin by calling up a customer or a few customers and ask them to lunch or out to dinner.  In this casual setting you can ask them about your business.  I think it’s very important to use this approach to obtain this kind of information from them.  It’s a little less structured and perhaps they’ll be a little more open. 

Another thing that you can do is create a survey.  There are lots of ways to do this and there are research companies who do a lot with respect to developing formal questionnaires and research approaches, but you can make an informal survey quite easily.  For instance, there is something called Survey Monkey, it’s online marketing research tool and I use it a lot, and there are many others, but you can actually go in and use these tools to create an effective survey.  You can print the survey and have it sitting on the desk when customers visit your business or you can also email that survey out and capture that information online.  There are many survey approaches you can take.  Regardless of the direction you take it’s important that you start asking the questions.

I think you can tell now that it is very important to get this feedback from your customers.  You can do it informally, you can do it formally.  But the main thing is to be consistent in your quest to always ask your customers what they like about your product and how it can be improved.  And if you do this over time, it will assist you to create a better product, develop new products, and shape up that bottom line.

I’m sure you’re already formulating idea about how to engage your customers and ask them questions about your product and your company.  Good job.  Now you’re thinking.  That’s just what we’re all about here.  So be sure to join us tomorrow for Digital Friday.  We’ll be talking about LinkedIn.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape, and we will see you next time.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Keeping Up Product Appearances (Action Wednesday/Physical Evidence)



Hello again, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape.  And today is Action Wednesday.  I’ll begin with the saying “another day, another dollar.”  I’m hoping that it’s another day, another video blog, and maybe, if you implement, lots more dollars for you.  Today’s topic is called “Keeping Up Product Appearances.”

What do we mean by keeping up product appearances?  It relates back to one of the “7Ps,” like everything we do here, which is physical evidence.  That is what your customers see.  Way-back-when I was attending a session held by consultant Nick Vitalari, a friend of mine.  He started talking about what are the coffee stains of your business.  What he meant by that is what do people see when they interact with your company? 

Literally there could be coffee stains on the rug.  What kind of impression, what kind of opinion would people have of your business if they see that stains are not cleaned up?  Perhaps they see a snubbed out cigarette by the front of the door.  Everything they see relates to physical evidence and everything relates to the perception of the brand in the mind of your customers.  So think about your organization and think about the interaction of your customer along the way and everything they see. 

What can you improve?  That’s your marching order for today on Action Wednesday.  What one thing can you change today that will improve the physical evidence or physical appearance of your business?  It might be something as simple as the sign on the front of your door.  Create a new logo.  Put flowers on the receptionist’s desk.  All of those things are part of the physical evidence that your customer sees.

Your job, should you decide to accept it, much like Mission Impossible, is to keep looking at the physical evidence, the physical appearance, the things that your customers see about your business and try to improve item by item by item over time.  You don’t have to rush out right now and do it all but think about it.  Think about those “coffee stains” and consider what you can improve because every single enhancement paints a more positive picture for your brand in the mind of your customer.  And that’s what you are trying to accomplish. 

I told you I’d keep it nice and short today.  When you are promising something to your customers you need to make sure you can deliver on that promise.  Hopefully you enjoyed our session on physical evidence and keeping up product appearances.  Tomorrow is Recon Thursday, with another exciting topic for you then.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape, and we will see you next time.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Product Strategy: Meeting Customer Needs (Strategic Tuesday/Product)



Hello again, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape.  I just want to remind you that I am your marketing coach.  I hope that you are taking to heart the ideas and inspirations that I provide and that you dive in a little bit deeper and make this content work for you. 

Today is Strategic Tuesday and today our topic is “Product Strategy: Meeting Customer Needs.”  There are many product strategies out there.  Today we are going to start with the Ansoff Product/Market Matrix.  This classic paradigm has been used by marketers for a long time. 

I want you to think about your business.  You have existing products in an existing market or markets.  What we want to elaborate on is where existing products/markets intersect with new products and markets and development of new strategies.  We are going to use the example of a taco stand on the corner as a business that is trying to attract new business through product and market strategies.

We’ll dive a little deeper into the Ansoff Product/Market Matrix.  Let’s begin with market penetration.  Now this is where you already have an existing product in an existing market.  And that’s a good thing.  You’re familiar with your product and you are familiar with your market.  It will be easier to communicate and develop a strategy here.

Why might you use market penetration?  You might want to gobble up a little more market share from your competition.  They are trying to take your market away from you; you try to take it back.  This strategy helps you grow your market share.

Now let’s take a look at our taco stand business.  The owner has been selling his tacos on the same corner for a long, long time.  So how does he launch a market penetration strategy?  He might begin by just staying open late.  It may be that customers are coming home and have a hankering for his tacos and he isn’t open.  By staying open late all of a sudden these people who might have gone to another “open late” taco stand now come to him.  He’s penetrating the market by that one simple strategy.

Another intersection of the matrix is market development.  That’s where you have an existing product and you are trying to tap into new markets.  You might use pricing or promotion strategies, or bring on additional sales people.  You might have new distribution strategies where you are targeting customers in new places.  You might revamp the whole look of your business or revamp the whole process of your business. 

Now how about market development for our taco stand?  Let’s say he’s on the same corner and has a certain flow of business every day selling his tacos.  The owner notices lots of high school kids going by after school.  He decides to create a promotion to attract some students to the stand and offers a FREE taco with a student body card.  The promotion works and the students love it.  So what does our high school student do?  They tell friends who then tell their friends who buy tacos, then more and more tacos.  Before he knows it every afternoon his little taco stand has attracted a whole new market for high school students.  That’s good market development strategy.

Next is product development.  This means you have an existing market but you are trying to push more product into that existing market.  So what might you do?  Let’s look again at our taco stand.  It’s branded as a taco stand but what if he introduces burritos?  All of a sudden his customers have more variety and may stop more often for something new.  He, in fact, is increasing his potential business through product development.  Keep this strategy in mind regardless of the kind of business you might have.

The last intersection of the Ansoff Product/Market Matrix is what’s called diversification.  This growth strategy is where you create new products for new markets.  This is the riskiest of all ventures because you don’t have a familiarity with that product or the success of that market.  But it can payoff.  Let’s look again at our taco stand.  Let’s say that he is going to launch with new burritos and thinks that China is a great market.    The owner determines a means to package up those burritos and ship them off to China.  New product, new market.  He still doesn’t know what the results might be but at least he’s trying to diversify with a new challenge or new venture like China.  The payoff may or may not be there.

You should think critically of all these strategies, whether it be market penetration, product development, diversification or market development, as you move forward.  Find out what’s going to work best for you and your business.

That’s our blog for today on Strategic Tuesday. Join me tomorrow for Action Wednesday.  I hope you are now thinking about product strategy and how you can offer products that better meet your customer needs.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape, and we will see you next time.

Monday, January 23, 2012

7ps of Marketing: Product (Smart Monday/Product)



Hello again, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape.  I want to thank you for tuning in.  We’ve entered another week with our Smart Monday.  There are a lot of things you can do for me if you’re enjoying my content.  I would love more comments from you to find out how I can improve my blogs in the future.  I would love for you to share this with your friends.  And also if you find us on Facebook at Once a Day Marketing you can SMS or RSS us, which allows for automatic texts and emails to be automatically sent to you so you’ll know when we’ve posted another blog.  If you like what we’re doing keep letting us know.  We really appreciate that. 

Today is Smart Monday and we’re going to begin a series on defining the 7Ps of Marketing by each individual “P.”  Today we are going to dive into the very first P: product. 

Let’s now define what a product is.  Simply put, a product is any good or service that you offer to your customers.  Let’s begin with a physical product.  That is something that’s tangible, something that you can hold on to.  My home is physical product, the car that I drive, the camera that is shoots my video blog is a physical product. 

A product is also a service.  For instance, Once a Day Marketing.  I am providing you with marketing information to improve your business; that is a service I am giving to you.  I could be a lawyer.  I could be a doctor.  I could be a physical therapist helping you to get your knee back into shape after that drastic skiing accident. 

There are other kinds of products out there as well.  Think about something like a place.  I live in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  This place is often marketed as a great tourist destination.  And since I live here I recommend it, so come by and visit and say hello while you are here. 

It also can be an organization, a non-profit that has a particular mission to save the environment, to save the ocean.  If you like their cause then they become a product for you as well. 

And maybe it’s even an idea.  Say you’re looking to grow your business and somebody comes to you with an idea for a new product and you actually buy that idea from them and use it to develop a new product.  As you can see the product world is virtually anything that’s out there.  But it’s your job as a developer of products is to figure out what is the right product for your company that fits the needs of your targeted customers. 

Now that you have a clear sense of what a product is, you can start thinking about what you are going to do with your products.  First you are going to target a particular segment of the market or segments of the market.  It’s very important to look at who you’re going to go after with respect to your product. 

Also it is very important to look at the benefits of the product to your customers.  And those benefits might be different for each kind of customer.  It might be how it makes them feel.  For instance, if they buy a Ford Mustang it’s not only how fast they can drive down the road, but when they have the top back, they like the waves and smiles that they get as pass by.

It also relates to the positioning in the marketplace.  Where does your product reside?  Is it the high-end?  Is it the low-end?  Or is it so unique nobody else has the product?

And lastly, think about the competitive advantage.  How are you differentiated from your competition?  Hopefully you are.  If you aren’t then you are a commodity and you’re only going to be fighting on price and that’s not a good thing in the marketplace.  So trying to figure how you are unique in the marketplace, especially related to you competition, is all about product. 

Here is a name I want you to remember: Philip Kotler.  Philip Kotler is a marketing genius, a marketing guru that’s been teaching all of us about marketing for decades.  He has something called the “Three Levels of Product” that I’m going to describe right now. 

First is core product.  Now what is that?  When you buy a product, why do you buy it?  Often times it how that product makes you feel.  For instances, back to our Mustang, if you buy that convertible, even though you can go down the road quickly in it, it makes you feel great.  You want people to see you in that car.  That may be more of the reason your buy that product.  Revlon used to say that they manufactured cosmetics but what they were really selling was hope.  That is one level, one element of product.

The next level of product is the actual product itself.  For instance, the camera that I use to shoot my video blog.  It’s a nice Canon camera.  It has zoom capabilities.  It has digital capabilities.  It can shoot stills; it can shoot videos.  So these are all of the physical attributes of that particular camera and why I bought it. 

The final level is the augmented product.  That’s all the things that sort of surround and wrap around the product.  It’s the delivery of the product.  It might be the installation of the product.  It might be the warranty of the product.  It could be the service of the product.  All of these things compel me along with the physical product and the core product to seek out and purchase a product.  And that’s hopefully going to happen when your market learns of your product and also seeks it out.

I know you gaining a much better understanding of the “7Ps of Marketing,” specifically product.  You can see it’s a simple little word but it has a lot of layers to it, much like an onion.  So I hope you join us tomorrow for Strategic Tuesday. I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape, and we will see you next time.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Google Alerts: 24/7 Global Research (Digital Friday/Process)



Hello again, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape.  And today is Digital Friday so I know you want to get out for that weekend, let your hair down.  I would do that if I had any hair to let down.  We are going to keep today’s blog very short but I think it’s going to be one of the most powerful blogs that I can share with you about tactics you can use in the digital world.

Today’s topic is “Google Alerts: 24/7 Global Research.”  We know that there is tons of information out there.  We have talked about that a lot.  You can use search engines to find that information which is very powerful.  But do you have the time to spend with your busy schedule to do extensive online searches?  You probably don’t.  It would be nice but what if there was a way for the internet to do that automatically for you?  That’s what Google Alerts is all about and that’s what we are going to talk about today in this segment. 

What is Google Alerts?  Simply put, it is a free service offered by Google that sends you automatic email updates about any keyword searches you like.  That’s pretty dang powerful. 

So how do you access Google Alerts?  It’s pretty simple.  Go www.google.com/alerts.  Once there it gives you a little menu to prompt you for your keyword search queries, when you want this email to come to you, how often to come to you, and so forth.  After you make your query, you sit back and let Google do its research for you 24/7 all over the globe finding text, reports, PDFs, photos, and videos.  You name it, Google Alerts will find it for you, if it’s out there.

Why is this important for your business?  Now you have a means to search anything, anytime and you don’t have to use your time to do it.  Google Alerts is doing it automatically for you.  You can search your product.  You can search your company name.  You can search your own individual name.  You can get alerts related to all of this. 

How about your competition?  Automatically search their products, their company names, their marketing efforts and see if anything comes back to you.  If you start seeing a barrage of things in the alerts you know that your competition is really out there these days doing things to get attention on the Internet.  This is a great way to find out what’s going on.  It’s a powerful ally in the world of market research for your company.

Google Alerts is very powerful, very fast and very easy.  I hope you start using it immediately.  I told you I would keep this very short today.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, and we will see you next time.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Finding New Customer (Recon Thursday/Process)



Hello again, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape.  And today is Recon Thursday where we have you look inward into your organization and outward toward your market and competition.

Today’s title is “Finding New Customers.”  Previously I’ve blogged about how to work with your existing customers and make their business count.  There are definitely benefits to working with your existing customers and there’s an old tenet that reads: “It’s easier to get another dollar from an existing customer than finding a new customers. “  This is true because they already know you and you know them.  It’s cheap to communicate with them.

But things can happen when you devote all your time to servicing your existing customers.  They may move on to somebody else’s innovative product or service.  They might literally die off is you are catering to an older clientele.  With this approach, you have too many eggs in one basket.  It is nice to diversify and seeking new customers is a much better growth strategy.  That’s what we’ll be talking about today. 

To elaborate a little bit on this idea of finding new customers, let’s talk about two companies I know you’ve heard of.  One is Nike and the other is Apple.  Nike got started a long time ago by developing a performance shoe for men.  If that was the only market they ever catered to they would be out of business.  But then they expanded that into women’s running shoes.  And all forms of performance athletic shoes.  Then apparel.  Then they got the idea of “just do it.”  So you didn’t necessarily have to be a performance athlete but you could be any kind of person doing any kind of activity.  The Nike for all of us.  Then they got into sports equipment like Tiger Woods golf products.  Nike found new markets over time to grow their little company.

Same thing is true with Apple Computer.  They started out with a computers even before the Macintosh and then they developed the Macintosh, “the computer for the rest of us.”  Then they decided to squeeze a bunch of songs into something they called the iPod and developed iTunes, a source to find our favorite songs.  Now Apple has new customers in the music industry.  Then they got into the communications industry with the iPhone.  And then the iPad introduction, which is changing our consumer behavior yet again and attracting lots of new customers.  So you can see that Apple has also increased its market and found new customers by creating new products, targeting different kinds of people all over the world, targeting different ages, targeting like interests.  And so that’s what’s sort of exciting finding new customers.  We’re going to have you think about doing that same thing for your business. 

So why is finding new customers a good idea?  It’s one of the fastest ways to grow your business.  Think about it.  The more customers you have the more money they might spend with you and more profit you’re going to have at day’s end. 

Also, if you have more customers in your portfolio, your mix of customers, some might go away but at least you have enough customers to sustain your business.  For instance, if you are a consultant and you have just a handful of customers, even if they spend a lot of money with you, what happens if one or two suddenly leave to follow a new consultant?  You’re going to be out of luck for a while aren’t you?  It’s going to take awhile to fill that pipeline, to engage those new potential prospects, and to convert them into customers.  If you already had a nice array of customers in your portfolio then the risk is definitely minimized.

Now it’s a little bit more challenging to bring in new customers or often referred to customer acquisition.  These new prospects don’t really know who you are.  You’re going to have to spend money and create messaging to get their attention.  You’re going to have to work that room, so to speak, so that they now know who you are and they understand the benefits you provide and they consider you for possible business.  Then perhaps they finally give you that business.  It takes awhile to fill the pipeline (lead time) and business might trickle out a little bit on the other side but eventually that flow will be stronger.  The nice thing about the process is that you have converted a lot more people into customers and now have a more ready stream of business flowing through your organization.

Where do you find these customers, these new exciting customers for your business?  Let’s take a look at demographics and psychographics.  Demographics are the common characteristics of your customers.  This could age, income, marital status, or education.  When you look at your existing base of customers and you identify what their demographics are perhaps you can see some opportunities for pushing your products into new demographics.  Something to think about. 

Next is psychographics.  What are the interests of your customers?  With psychographics you might not care how old they are.  You might not care their education level.  Perhaps this like-minded group loves kayaking and you offer a product that keeps your hands warm when you’re kayaking.  Now through psychographics, the commonality is that this user group is keeping their hands warm with your product, regardless of age or income.  To find new customers, maybe you market the same product to people who mountain bike or snow ski.  All of a sudden you’re tapping into new markets.

Let’s take a look at Once a Day Marketing and the product I’m providing you.  My initial foray in the market is to target small businesses and entrepreneurs who need a little push in their marketing.  Now how do I grow this business in the future?  I might decide to approach chambers of commerce and economic development organizations who are also trying to serve the small businesses in their community.  Rather than me knocking on the doors of all those people in those communities perhaps these chambers and economic development organizations will help me provide my product to their customers.  They become a new base of customers.

Perhaps I decide that I also want to offer my video blog to a whole different kind of clientele.  Rather than small businesses, perhaps Once a Day Marketing lends itself to non-profits.  These organizations need to market, they need to brand and my product will work for them as well.  Maybe in the future what I do is offer up whole new products under the Once a Day Marketing brand that will enable me to tap into new markets too.  So take a look at what you’re offering and to whom, and then see if you can identify gaps in the market, aka new customers, that your product can fill.

I think you’ll agree that finding new customers is a good marketing strategy for your business.  It takes a little work.  You’ve got to identify these potential customers but they are out there.  You’ve got to engage them.  You’ve got to convince them you are their go-to-guy and that your product provides a unique benefit to them.  But once you do that, once you convert more customers, then all of a sudden you’re going to have a more consistent, steady stream of income and profit flowing into your business.  That’s a very good thing and that’s what we are all about here at Once a Day Marketing: firming up your business.

That concludes our Recon Thursday. Be sure to stop by tomorrow if you can for Digital Friday.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, and we will see you next time.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Marketing Knowledge: Soak It Up (Action Wednesday/Process)



Hello everybody, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape.  And today is Action Wednesday and we are going assist you to expand your knowledge about marketing.  It’s imperative to have a good grasp of marketing knowledge; we talk about that on Mondays.  But today I want you to take some action steps to build up that knowledge base more. 

I want to start today by telling a little story.  When I was in college way-back-when, I’m dating myself, they filmed the movie “Animal House” at the University of Oregon.  Faber was the fictional founder of the “Animal House” college and there was a statue for the movie in our quad next to our library and it read: “Knowledge is good.”  That was his Faber’s famous quote.  Knowledge is a little better than that and it’s important to have that knowledge base if you are going to effectively compete against your competition.

Today’s topic is called “Marketing Knowledge: Soak It Up.”  I called our episode this because I want you to be a sponge.  Although we bring you knowledge on Smart Mondays, I would like as an action item for you to make it a priority to continue going out and seeking marketing content.  You’ll never know what you might find.

One, you’ll increase your knowledge base, that marketing IQ I keep talking about.  You’ll also discover current best practices and if you are really paying attention you’re going to find what I call next practices where the market and marketing are going.  Maybe you’ll discover a few nuggets that you can extract that you can use for your business that will set you apart from your competition.

There’s tons of content out there and now I want you to immerse yourself in that content when you have a free moment.  Make that a priority.  There are also so many places to access that content from traditional to contemporary digital sources.  That’s what we are going to talk about next.

Where can you can find this marketing content?  Let’s just start with books like a stack of marketing books here on my desk.  Go out on EBay or Amazon, go to your local library, borrow one from a friend, and just keep it with you.  I don’t really care what the subject is.  On my desk you’d see “Differentiate or Die,” “Experience the Message,” and “A New Brand World.”  There are tons of topics, all you need to do is to just have that book in your hand.  There are also such things as electronic books and books-on-tape and so you can listen while you are in your car.  Just keep the education drive alive.

Next are blogs and thank you for watching mine.  When you look they are everywhere.  Similar to networking events we talked about.  You need to choose the right ones with the best content.  Maybe you want to learn more about social media right now.  Find a blog that is providing daily content, weekly content about social media.  It comes to your phone, it comes to your computer.  Pay a little attention to it and you are going to increase your knowledge base that way.

There are also videos.  I’m very proud of the fact that I’m delivering my blog via video.  You know there’s YouTube.  Everywhere there are videos and if you start searching by marketing or branding keywords you are going to find a lot of pertinent videos you can watch.  I encourage you to do that.

Next are podcasts, which can be video, they can be audio.  Typically they are available to download into something like your iPod and you can listen to these things or watch when you have time, like running on that treadmill.  There’s actually iTunesU or iTunes University.  So if you go to the iTunes Store and go to iTunesU you can find all sorts of podcasts related to marketing.  Again I encourage you to do download a few.

Another thing is to talk to business peers about marketing.  Maybe go out for lunch and ask: “What are you doing?  I want to find out a little bit more and share with you what I’m doing.”  Yesterday my blog talked about guerrilla marketing.  For instance, your chat could be an opportunity to banter the subject of guerilla marketing around a little bit. 

And consider a mentor.  I have a couple of gentlemen in my life who are great mentors to me.  Perhaps you can find a marketing mentor, somebody you can just bounce ideas off whenever you have a questions.  And that person, if he or she has the right background, should be able to answer and give you positive feedback. 

I hope I have you a little excited to soak it up and to continue to pursue your marketing knowledge.  With that knowledge you can make your business better, make it more fit as we’ve talked about.  If you continue to pursue marketing content you’ll be able to develop marketing strategies, you’ll be able to implement those strategies, and over time you will build your business.  And that’s what our goal is here at Once a Day Marketing: to help you firm up.

As always, thanks for watching Once a Day Marketing.  I think I’m going to read one of my marketing books right now.  Hopefully you will find time to keep dropping yourself into marketing content.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape.  Join us tomorrow where we get into Recon Thursday, it will be another exciting adventure.

Guerrilla Marketing: Buzzing Your Customers (Strategic Tuesday/Promotion)



Hello again, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape.  If you’re watching my blog you’ve probably noticed I’m not in the confines of my normal office.  I’m actually out here in beautiful northern New Mexico in Abiquiu, across from Ghost Ranch, where Georgia O’Keeffe, quite a name-brand in her own right, did a lot of her painting.

Today’s hike up to this rim is very similar to what we want you to do at Once a Day Marketing.  I want you to get out every day, workout a little bit with your marketing, and hopefully you’ll see your business or organization become a little more fit.  Today’s topic is called “Guerrilla Marketing: Buzzing Your Customers.”

What is guerrilla marketing?  It’s anything you can do that’s unconventional, unexpected and cheap.  And that’s really important in today’s economy.  A lot of us don’t have the big bucks to market.  And it’s also critical to create buzz for your brand.  Guerrilla marketing is designed to do just that and help your marketing cut through the clutter and be recognized by your potential customers.

So what are some of the elements of guerrilla marketing? 

Humor. Have you ever seen a funny story, perhaps a video on YouTube, and passed that on to a friend.  If you can interject humor into a campaign that’s very cool.  This tactic will go a long way to get your customers to remember your efforts. 

They encounter your guerrilla marketing campaign some place where they don’t expect to.  It seems to come out of nowhere and when people see it they go: “wow.”  That was clever. 

It needs to have some sort of customer benefit associated with the message.  Customers should look at your approach and they think: “Oh, I get it, that product does this for me.”  Remember your marketing needs to be benefit driven.

And how about goodwill if you’ve ever heard of that term used in marketing?  It’s all about creating a good feeling for your brand.  And that will go a long way to get customers to remember your brand, use it, and recommend it to their friends and associates.

Being on top of this mesa is a little bit of guerrilla marketing on my own part.  It’s unexpected, unconventional, and it didn’t cost me anything.  Hopefully you’ll remember my brand a little more and get a better sense of who I am.  If I’d made you smile, mission accomplished.

I want you to think about that same thing for your business.  What can you do with respect to guerrilla marketing that’s going to get your customers to notice you?  What’s cheap, unconventional, unexpected and something that might even be a little bit funny.  Like if I was to fall off this cliff right now I’m sure this video would go viral.  Not so funny but certainly memorable.

Thank you so much for watching today on Strategic Tuesday.  Tomorrow is Action Wednesday where we always get you involved in how to implement your action plan.  I hope you enjoyed the scenery today and our video blog surprise.  I’m sure there will be lots more surprises for you in the future.  I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, and you know the drill, we’ll see you next time.

Monday, January 16, 2012

The 7Ps of Marketing Defined



Hello again, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape.  I’m wearing a t-shirt today that reads: Faster, Farther, Stronger.  I used to wear this when I would watch my daughter compete in the New Mexico high school track and field championships.  In a way, this sums up what we are trying to do here at Once a Day Marketing.  We’re trying to make you move a little faster, get you to go a little farther, and definitely make your business stronger.

Today is Smart Monday so we’re going to try to enhance your marketing IQ a little bit.  Today we’re going to be talking about the “7Ps of Marketing.”  You heard me allude to it several times.  I’m going to define it because I believe it’s such a big part of our Once a Day Marketing program for you and the foundation for everything that we do.

So just what is the “7Ps of Marketing?”  It’s really a business tool for analysis, for strategy and for taking action.  Let’s go through and define the 7Ps.

The first is product.  Now as a company you are offering a product or you may be offering an intangible or service of some sort.  Through the 7Ps we take a look at product and figure out how to make that product more appealing to your customer. 

Next is price.  There are all sorts of pricing strategies out there.  Over the course of Once a Day Marketing we’ll be talking about how you can price your product better.  Believe it or not, sometimes companies under-price their products. 

Next is promotion.  All sorts of things going on in the world today with respect to promotions.  There’s the traditional side of things which include television, radio, print and billboards, and so forth.  And now there’s this whole new, modern social media approach where you use Twitter and Facebook and YouTube.  All of this is part of the 7Ps as well.

Next is place.  Another term for it is distribution, but that doesn’t start with a “p.”  Place (distribution) refers to everywhere your customers can get access to your products.  It used to be they might go to the store to pick up something but now that something might be digital and instantly sent to them from across the world.  Distribution channels are changing and they are also key to the 7Ps.

Next are the people.  This if often forgotten.  You have people in your organization directly dealing with your customers and you have people in your organization behind the scenes.  All of those individuals help shape your branding and marketing, believe it or not, and we’ll be discuss that too.

Next is the physical evidence.  And as I have described physical evidence before in another blog, it’s everything that your customer sees.  If you think about a professional football team, it might be the signage on the stadium, it might be the stadium, it could be the uniforms, the impressive or not so impressive players on the team.  It might be the flamboyant coach or it could be the beers that are sold at the concession stand.  Let’s not forget about the branded merchandise.  All of those things tie into the physical evidence. 

And then there’s process.  I have two parts to the process.  On the one side I have the internal process and that’s everything you do to market to your customers.  And then there’s the external process and that’s everything your customers experience in obtaining your products or services.  We will be looking at all of the 7Ps in the future.

Now there’s one more “P” which is positioning. Although not part of the 7Ps per se, I include it so it’s like 7Ps plus or the eighth P.  But it’s very important to understand about differentiating your product and where that product fits in the marketplace or its niche.  And so we’ll be talking about that positioning.  And that in essence is what the 7Ps are all about.

Why are the “7Ps of Marketing” so important for us?  Now we have a way to communicate.  Right?  If I mention the “7Ps of Marketing” you’ll understand what it is and if I start talking pricing, promotion or physical evidence, you’ll also have a grasp of that.  Now we can communicate a lot more effectively here at Once a Day Marketing. 

The other thing is that it’s going to provide for us a systematic way to analyze your business, to analyze your market and your competition.  So little by little I’m helping you become that marketing expert I want you to be.

Over the next few weeks on our Smart Monday I’m going to elaborate and expand on each one of the Ps.  We’ll talk a lot more about product, price and place, etc.  Why that’s so exciting to me is that later on when you’re out there in the real world applying these marketing tactics you might come across a problem like a pricing problem or a physical evidence problem.  What’s nice about Once a Day Marketing is that you’re going to be able to use it as a tool to go back into our database and find blogs by 7P categories and look them up to give you ideas to solve your problems.  The unique nature of Once a Day Marketing is that you can in fact attack problems from the 7Ps using our resource.

Well thanks for joining us for Smart Monday and be sure to stop by tomorrow if you can for Strategic Tuesday.  I guess the big question is: Are you feeling like you are moving a little bit faster, going a little bit farther, and becoming a little bit stronger?  I hope you are. I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape and we’ll see you next time.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Content is King: Building Your Empire (Digital Friday/Physical Evidence)



Hello again, I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape.  I’m wearing a t-shirt today that reads: Faster, Farther, Stronger.  I used to wear this when I would watch my daughter compete in the New Mexico high school track and field championships.  In a way, this sums up what we are trying to do here at Once a Day Marketing.  We’re trying to make you move a little faster, get you to go a little farther, and definitely make your business stronger.

Today is Smart Monday so we’re going to try to enhance your marketing IQ a little bit.  Today we’re going to be talking about the “7Ps of Marketing.”  You heard me allude to it several times.  I’m going to define it because I believe it’s such a big part of our Once a Day Marketing program for you and the foundation for everything that we do.

So just what is the “7Ps of Marketing?”  It’s really a business tool for analysis, for strategy and for taking action.  Let’s go through and define the 7Ps.

The first is product.  Now as a company you are offering a product or you may be offering an intangible or service of some sort.  Through the 7Ps we take a look at product and figure out how to make that product more appealing to your customer. 

Next is price.  There are all sorts of pricing strategies out there.  Over the course of Once a Day Marketing we’ll be talking about how you can price your product better.  Believe it or not, sometimes companies under-price their products. 

Next is promotion.  All sorts of things going on in the world today with respect to promotions.  There’s the traditional side of things which include television, radio, print and billboards, and so forth.  And now there’s this whole new, modern social media approach where you use Twitter and Facebook and YouTube.  All of this is part of the 7Ps as well.

Next is place.  Another term for it is distribution, but that doesn’t start with a “p.”  Place (distribution) refers to everywhere your customers can get access to your products.  It used to be they might go to the store to pick up something but now that something might be digital and instantly sent to them from across the world.  Distribution channels are changing and they are also key to the 7Ps.

Next are the people.  This if often forgotten.  You have people in your organization directly dealing with your customers and you have people in your organization behind the scenes.  All of those individuals help shape your branding and marketing, believe it or not, and we’ll be discuss that too.

Next is the physical evidence.  And as I have described physical evidence before in another blog, it’s everything that your customer sees.  If you think about a professional football team, it might be the signage on the stadium, it might be the stadium, it could be the uniforms, the impressive or not so impressive players on the team.  It might be the flamboyant coach or it could be the beers that are sold at the concession stand.  Let’s not forget about the branded merchandise.  All of those things tie into the physical evidence. 

And then there’s process.  I have two parts to the process.  On the one side I have the internal process and that’s everything you do to market to your customers.  And then there’s the external process and that’s everything your customers experience in obtaining your products or services.  We will be looking at all of the 7Ps in the future.

Now there’s one more “P” which is positioning. Although not part of the 7Ps per se, I include it so it’s like 7Ps plus or the eighth P.  But it’s very important to understand about differentiating your product and where that product fits in the marketplace or its niche.  And so we’ll be talking about that positioning.  And that in essence is what the 7Ps are all about.

Why are the “7Ps of Marketing” so important for us?  Now we have a way to communicate.  Right?  If I mention the “7Ps of Marketing” you’ll understand what it is and if I start talking pricing, promotion or physical evidence, you’ll also have a grasp of that.  Now we can communicate a lot more effectively here at Once a Day Marketing. 

The other thing is that it’s going to provide for us a systematic way to analyze your business, to analyze your market and your competition.  So little by little I’m helping you become that marketing expert I want you to be.

Over the next few weeks on our Smart Monday I’m going to elaborate and expand on each one of the Ps.  We’ll talk a lot more about product, price and place, etc.  Why that’s so exciting to me is that later on when you’re out there in the real world applying these marketing tactics you might come across a problem like a pricing problem or a physical evidence problem.  What’s nice about Once a Day Marketing is that you’re going to be able to use it as a tool to go back into our database and find blogs by 7P categories and look them up to give you ideas to solve your problems.  The unique nature of Once a Day Marketing is that you can in fact attack problems from the 7Ps using our resource.

Well thanks for joining us for Smart Monday and be sure to stop by tomorrow if you can for Strategic Tuesday.  I guess the big question is: Are you feeling like you are moving a little bit faster, going a little bit farther, and becoming a little bit stronger?  I hope you are. I’m Jim Glover, That Branding Guy, for Once a Day Marketing, where business takes shape and we’ll see you next time.