SOUND ADVICE NEWSLETTERS

What Are You Growing?

To compete effectively today, you must constantly search for innovative new ways to upstage competitors who rely upon the same old tired ‘basics’ to maintain their sales.

Having said that, every ‘new’ success, as with every ‘new’ media, must be built upon a firm foundation of tried and proven basics.

Social media, for example, is really built on the same basics as good old fashioned word of mouth advertising. To capture positive buzz in social media, you need to practice the same basics to delight your customers that captured positive word of mouth in the pre-social media environment.

You can find the basic foundations upon which to build your new concepts in the teachings of the proven masters that came before us; masters like Dale Carnegie, David Ogilvy, Thomas Edison, Earl Nightingale, Henry Ford, and Albert Einstein to mention a few.

In the midst of these grey winter weeks, and as you face a whole new set of challenges and opportunities, one of the most profound basics can be found in the immortal words of Earl Nightingale in his ‘Strangest Secret’.

Mr. Nightingale demonstrated his Strangest Secret to success with an analogy that likened the human mind, and what it is capable of, to a fertile farmer’s field.

Nightingale wrote; “Suppose a farmer has some land, and it's good, fertile land. The land gives the farmer a choice; he may plant in that land whatever he chooses. It's up to the farmer to make a decision. We're comparing the human mind with the land because the mind, like the land, doesn't care what you plant in it. It will return what you plant.

Now, let's say that the farmer has two seeds in his hand—one is a seed of corn, the other is nightshade, a deadly poison. He digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both seeds—one corn, the other nightshade. He covers up the holes, waters and cultivates the land...and what will happen? Invariably, the land will return what was planted. Remember, the land doesn't care. It will return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will corn. So up come the plants—one corn, one poison.

The human mind is far more fertile, far more incredible and mysterious than the land, but it works the same way. It doesn't care what we plant...success...or failure. A concrete, worthwhile goal...or confusion, misunderstanding, fear, anxiety, and so on. But what we plant, it must return to us”.

What seeds will you plant and cultivate in your mind this year? When you see two headlines side by side; one proclaiming doom and gloom and the other exploring bountiful new opportunities, which one will you choose to absorb? P.S. The use of analogies, like Nightingale’s field and mind analogy, is just one of the communications tools you can use to create more persuasive advertising.

Like Ugly on Ape

Long before the advent of so-called ‘social media’, the most successful marketers discovered the enormous value of networking. They became so entrenched with their selected communities that it was difficult for a competitor to break into their inner circles.

Local businesses have a huge advantage over the large cookie cutter box stores or long distance online marketers when it comes to networking.

With a well thought out strategic networking plan, a local business can be all over their ‘communities’ like ugly on ape! If you’re a golfer, you might target the local golf communities or a boater might target the waterfront communities. You might simply choose to be active in a service club orsupport and network with a local charity or a particular vocation like teachers or firefighters.

The manager at the big chain business down the street can’t own those communities because if she does, she’ll be so successful head office will promote her and move her to another market, leaving the next manager to start building relationships all over again.

Calculated networking with strategically selected communities, or ‘tribes’ as the marketing gurus call them, can be one of your most effective and satisfying methods of capturing new business, referrals and positive word of mouth buzz.

And you’re not limited to one community. You can plan to have each of your key people build strategically target networks with groups you are not personally networking.

In addition to cultivating existing clubs, you can also start your own club. An auto after-market store can start a classic car club and a fabric store might start a sewing club to win more loyal customers.

In our white paper; Strategies for Productive Networks, we suggest you “ask not what your network can do for you, but what you can do for your network”. People in any formal organization or informal group will resent you ‘selling’ them, but they’ll ask to buy from you if you have been an enthusiastic participant in their network.

Facebook Haters

Word of mouth advertising has always been one of your most important forms of advertising. In the 'good old days', if a customer was delighted with their experience with you, they might tell three to five of their friends. If they were disenchanted, they might tell two or three times as many people about their unpleasant experience.

The internet and social media have totally changed the importance of word of mouth advertising. Today, word of mouth advertising is on steroids. You can multiply old word of mouth values by 100. Customers, who might have told three people about their positive experience with you, can now tell 300 of their social media ‘friends’ about their experience. And if they are unhappy with you, they are two to three times more likely to complain about you online, creating 300 'Facebook haters'.

Before social media, getting a handle on what was being said about you in the market was difficult. The good news is, social media discussions allow you to monitor what’s being said about you, and you can now participate in those discussions.

Studies have revealed that if you can find and convert your unhappy customers into happy customers, they actually become more loyal, and spread more positive word of mouth about your business, than a customer who has never been unhappy with you.

The old rules of how to capture positive word of mouth or how to diffuse negative word of mouth, are even more important in this hyperactive environment. When you encounter a ‘Facebook hater’ you can now resolve issues you might not previously had heard of, and the entire world can see your sincere and honest attempts to correct the situation.

When you encounter a Facebook hater, follow these steps;
1. Resist the urge to go on the defensive.
2. Acknowledge the complaint, and if it’s legitimate, admit your fault.
3. Offer an explanation (not an excuse).
4. Prove to the ‘hater’, and to their eaves dropping friends, that you will do whatever is necessary to rectify the situation.
5. Encourage continued discussion and engagement.

Thank You

Appreciation Marketing can be the highest ROI (return on investment) tool in your marketing tool box.

How do you feel when the cashier hands you your change and simply says, “there you go” as she waves on the next customer in line? A simple culture of customer appreciation that thanks each and every customer can generate more repeat and referral business than any other strategy or tactic you might employ.

The most successful companies actually include Appreciation Marketing in their annual marketing plan to increase their high-profit repeat and referral business.

In our free Appreciation Marketing Tactics, tactic number one is ‘Hire right’. Look for people who genuinely appreciate serving others and have a natural polite tendency to say “thank you”. You can train staff in product knowledge and your systems and processes, but caring and good manners should be a prerequisite for every new hire.

P.S. A very heartfelt ‘thank you’ to you for allowing me into your day with our SoundADvice marketing tips. I sincerely hope you find them useful.