First of all, you may be asking “what is a swipe file”? Basically a swipe file is a journal of ideas, keywords, concepts, etc that you’ve taken from other sources which you may or may not use in your own business.

You might be thinking to yourself ”that sounds kind of…. evil”. Well, what can I say, it kind of is. But that’s not to say that you shouldn’t have one. I think every marketer out there should have a swipe file, and I’ll tell you why.

Good ideas are good ideas. It doesn’t matter who or where they come from. Just stealing an idea outright is probably not the best way to go, but if you think about it, you may have ways to improve on that concept. Then it really isn’t stealing is it? You may have a different way to implement that idea or concept, or maybe just thinking about the idea brings you another different idea that you otherwise wouldn’t have thought of.

As a copywriter, I think it’s okay to take certain keywords or phrases and use them yourself. We do this anyway whether we think about it or not. Every word in our vocabulary has come from someone that has come before. We don’t invent new words when we talk to each other. Therefore I don’t really think it’s wrong. It’s not the same as stealing someones essay or blog post.

Anyways, you get the idea. If you don’t already have one, go out and buy a composition book, a spiral, whatever, and start jotting down ideas from different sources. You may be surprised when those ideas may come in handy. 

If you want business, you have to be willing to do what it takes to get it. The days of sitting back and waiting for your phone to ring are over (and have been over for a long time). Not only do you need to actively look for new opportunities, you need to know when and how to negotiate. Why let some new business walk out the door, when you could easily come to some sort of agreement. I think many businesses hide behind policy, and don’t empower their employees enough to negotiate with prospects (which is a whole other problem).

Policy is usually there for a good reason, but in today’s marketplace, business people need to be flexible enough to understand that one size doesn’t fit all anymore. Sometimes there are exceptions to rules, and at the end of the day you have to do what you can to keep business coming in. If you are a decision maker at your company, please look at your current policies and see if there is something there that could be hurting your business. Better yet, call up your salespeople (or whoever interacts with clients the most) and ask them what they think. You may find something that needs to be updated or changed.

Being aggressive doesn’t mean offering deep discounts or huge concessions. Obviously you need to know when to say no. However, think about your competition. If they are passive and you are active, who do you think is going to get the business? If they say no to a client, and you say yes, who do you think just made a new client? Look for opportunities like this in your market, and you may be pleasantly surprised.

The bottom line? In business, or any other kind of competition for that matter, effective aggression is one of your biggest allies. What do you guys think? Am I full of it?

Everyone’s got to start somewhere, and no one becomes an expert overnight. Attending an excellent business school is a great place to start, but as they say, there’s no substitute for experience. In my career as a marketer so far I’ve had tons of experience both good and bad, so let me share what I’ve learned with you…

1. Be patient: I’ve talked about this before. Patience is a trait that every marketer needs to develop in order to be successful. Marketing is all about controlling variables, and sometimes it takes time to see the effects of your work. You need to have the patience (and the guts) to “stay the course”, and see if you’ve made a good decision or a bad one.

2. Begin with mutual respect: Treat everyone with respect. Not just the people ahead of you on the food chain, not just your co-workers, or your customers. You need to treat everyone you meet with respect.  Besides, if they fail to live up to that respect, you can always change your mind later ;-D.

3. Cover your a**: If you don’t know what I mean, you will soon enough. Always make copies of your work, and keep track of everything you work on. Don’t be anyone’s fall guy.

4. Understand your target market: Don’t assume that everyone is like you. Just because you feel that a product or an approach won’t work, doesn’t mean that it will fail. First, you need to understand your target market, and approach your decisions from their point of view. Yes, you should trust your instincts, but you need to also take your personal feelings out of a situation.

5. Learn, not just from your mistakes, but from others as well: You’re a smart person (you are visiting my site afterall), and smart people learn from their mistakes. Everyone knows this already. You need to also focus on mistakes made by other people / companies, and make sure that you do not repeat them. This is why you should always stay on top of the latest developments in your industry, and in business in general.

6. Always get paid: This doesn’t mean that you should only work for money. Sometimes (like a good internship) the payment is experience, or good connections. The point is, you need to make sure you get something out of any effort you put in.

7. Don’t think you know everything: Pick up a marketing textbook from the 1980’s, and you’ll see that business has evolved. Don’t think that just because you have a diploma that you know all the current trends. You need to continue to learn and evolve. If you don’t you’re dead. We’ve talked about this before, and you know better.

8. Create value: Whatever you do, work hard. You may have just gotten a nice job, but if you don’t work hard at it, you’ll be refreshing your resume real quick. If you don’t have a job right now (hey join the club my friend) work hard at getting one, and create your own project (like I’ve done with this blog) to keep your tools sharp while you’re at it.

9. Don’t gossip: Be carefull what you say and who you say it to. You don’t know who’s listening, and talking behind someone’s back completely violates point number 2. If someone starts gossiping with you, just stay neutral and focus on your job.

10. Don’t panic: Everyone makes mistakes. When you’re just starting out, many times you’ll feel the urge to panic when a mistake has been made and will either throw your hands up and run to the boss, or will try to hide the problem. Don’t do this. Be honest with your boss, and come up with options to correct the problem. If they have a better idea, great, but don’t come up to them with a mess that you created, and expect to be bailed out.

Hey, I don’t know everything. You marketing vets out there post some more tips in the comments.

Wise words from one of my favorite bands (Rage Against the Machine), “know your enemy”. In marketing, you are competing with other companies, and even industries (look at how movie theaters compete against DVD, and television) for scarce money. In order to succeed, you need to arm yourself with all the knowledge you can about your competition. You need to know their strengths, weaknesses and strategies, so that you can develop your plan to defeat them. Great, so you already knew that. But how do you go about obtaining this information? Here are some quick tips for you…

1. List your direct and indirect competitors. How are you going to learn about your competition if you don’t even know who they are? As one of my old mentors (and good friend, you know who you are) would say, “make a list”. Don’t forget to include both direct (companies that provide similar products or services to yours) and indirect competitors (companies that provide products or services different from your own that satisfy the same need).

2. Pay them a visit. After you have your list, you should visit your competitors website and learn what you can. Not only will you learn about their products and / or services, you will also learn how they are marketing themselves, what they think of their own brand, and you will be able to get an idea of which type of customers they are targeting. You can also learn about their history, and the officers of the company. If there is a trade show, visit them and find out all you can. If they have a store, go in and patronize them. Find out what you can up close and in person. It’s important to do this early so that you will get a fresh impression of what type of business they run.

3. Dig a little deeper. Visit www.hoovers.com and check out their financials. If they are a publicly traded company, then there are tons of sources to go to get additional information. Go to www.dnb.com and check out a credit report. Remember those officers you learned about in the previous step? Google them and find out more about them. This will let you know a little bit more about how decisions are made at this company.

4. Set a date to follow-up. Like all marketing, competitive analysis is a process not a project (we’ll probably discuss this in detail in a future post). This means that you need to set up a follow-up date in your calendar so that you can go through the process again, and find out what’s changed. If you’re dealing with professionals, then your competition is looking at you just like you’re looking at them, and they’ll react to whatever strategy you’ve chosen to take them down. Do yourself a favor and stay vigilant.

Once you know all about your competition, you can use this information to find out what you can do better or differently than them. Develop your strategy and watch the competition suffer. We’ll talk more about how to take these suckers out in the future.

Hey, I’m not an expert on competitive analysis, so if any of you readers have anything to share, let me know in the comments, or email me at edwardviator@evil-marketer.com

We all know that a good website is essential to branding and marketing your company online. Here is a list of the seven different types of websites that currently exist…

The informational / brochure site: This type of page is intended to provide information to the user. They usually include a home page, products page, FAQ, testimonials, and a contact us page.

Opt-In page: This type of site is designed to collect contact information from a user. In many cases there will be some sort of offer; a discount, access to additional information, a special bonus offer, etc. The page provides just enough information to get the user interested in “opting in”. This can be a good way to develop prospects for a sales team, or sign people up for an email list.

The Sales page: This type of site includes a compelling offer and a strong call to action. If a site has a shopping cart, it is a sales page.

Blog: A page that uses video, audio, and text to create content based around different topics. The page you are on right now is a blog (thanks for visiting by the way).

Membership site: This is a type of site where specific (usually paying) customers are given access to special information or content. Usually the content is protected by some sort of password protection or login process.

Portal site: When a company owns many different brands, sometimes a portal site is needed. A portal site provides links to different websites all connected by some topic or company.

Social network: Sites like Facebook and linkedin. These sites bring users together in a way that they can interact with each other.

When you create your website, you need to think about what your goals are for the site. This will help you determine which type of site (or combination) you create.

What do you guys think? Did I leave any out?

You’re in business to make a profit. Profit = revenue - costs. We’ve already discussed how to find the lifetime value of a customer. The other half of the story is finding out how much it costs to acquire that customer. Here’s the formula…

Add up your direct marketing and advertising dollars and divide by the number of new customers you acquired as a result.

This will give you a price per customer. If you’re price per customer is more than the lifetime value of a customer, then you’re in trouble. Even if the lifetime value is higher than the cost of acquiring the customer, you still may be in trouble (you do have other expenses afterall). But this at least shows you a ballpark way of figuring out if you are spending your marketing dollars wisely. Once you have your numbers, you can start to look at ways to tweak things to make your business more profitable.

Do you know of any other tangible ways to find out if you are making the most of your marketing budget? Share the knowledge my friends and email me at edwardviator@evil-marketer.com

In terms of dollars, there’s a pretty simple formula to find out the lifetime value of a customer. Check it out…

Average transaction amount multiplied by the number of transactions per year multiplied by the number of years a customer stays loyal to your business.

This formula will spit out a dollar value which will help show you where to improve your business to make it more profitable. Adjusting any of the elements in the formula can have an exponential impact on your profits. It will also help you come to understand just how important it is to keep your customers happy. It puts a dollar value on your customer service (sort of), and also shows you how your relationship with your customers is a vital component to success. Remember, marketing is all about relationships.

As a marketer though, I have to say that this formula only tells one part of the story. The money part. As you know numbers are only one aspect of marketing. This is why many refer to marketing as an art. There are alot of variables in this game, and mastering these variables is what will make you successful. There are many things this formula doesn’t take in to account. How many people is this customer going to tell about your company? What are they going to say (You can be a customer and still have a negative opinion of the business; look at all the folks dissatisfied with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, but continue to give Activision more money)? What about changes in the economy, like the one we’ve been facing for the past few years? How will that affect your business? What is it that makes your customers come back? I could go on, but you get the point.

Customers are the fuel that moves business. Without them, you’re history. In my view, you can’t begin to put a dollar amount on the relationships that you build with your business. I think the lifetime value of a customer is priceless.

What do you think? Comment below or email me at edwardviator@evil-marketer.com

Many times, when we discuss how to grow business we only discuss tactics. However, I think an overall understanding of the strategy behind the tactics is the more appropriate place to start. Afterall there are only four ways to grow your business, and an almost infinite number of tactics to accomplish these. I’ll illustrate these points using one of my favorite pastimes, comic books. Here we go…

1. Get new customers: This is where many tactics focus; “how can we get more customers?”. This is vital to success, and is the best way to begin growing your business.

Comic publishers are constantly creating new books, and re-launching others. How many times have we seen a new issue #1 come out. One of my favorite comic characters is The Punisher. The guy has about 20 #1 issues (Punisher ongoing, Punisher War Zone, Punisher Max, Punisher War Journal volume 1 and 2, etc). Look at how many comic book movies have been released. As a matter of fact, look at how many times comic characters are licensed period (tooth brushes, action figures, bed sheets, etc). Sure, the comic companies make a ton of money licensing these heroes and villains, but the licensing opportunities also serve to create interest in the comics. Don’t even get me started on crossover issues; moving right along….

2. Increase the average dollar amount per transaction: This may seem like a “no brainer”, and it is. If the average transaction is worth more money, then of course, your business will increase. This is assuming that the same amount of customers purchase your product or service; obviously you will need to focus on the laws of economics. Simply increasing the price isn’t what I’m talking about. This could also mean lowering cost or adding value added merchandise / services (did someone say “bags n boards”?). Basically, think of any way that you can increase the average dollar amount of the transaction.

If you read comics, you probably realize that prices have been slowly increasing over the years. (insert old man voice) Why when I was a kid, sonny, comics used to be a buck per comic, now the average price is about three dollars. Some special issues are even four dollars per issue. But remember, it’s not just about price. Increasing the number of books you take home each month is also part of this equation (enter the crossovers, and event stories).

3. Increase the average number of transactions per customer over a certain period of time: Notice the part where I said “over a certain time period”. This timeline is very important, and many marketers seem to leave it out. Basically, if a customer purchases more often, then you will grow your business.

New comics come out every week, but for the most part a new issue of a given book will come out once per month (12 issues a year). Let’s say, you have good taste, and read Deadpool. That means that you have three books per month that you may consider buying. Oh but wait, he’s also going to make an appearance in that new X-Men book, so you may want to consider that one too. You get the idea. Now imagine buying books for more than one character with each character appearing in multiple books. Punisher + Deadpool + X-Men + Spider-Man + etc = you, broke.

4. Increase the length of time your average customer stays loyal to your business: A customer will only be a customer for a finite period of time. Even a lifetime customer will go away at some point. We all die at some point afterall, however business is forever… in theory anyway.

I can’t remember where I read it, but I remember seeing somewhere that the average comic book reader sticks around for about 4-5 years. By creating event stories that are basically sequential, companies like Marvel comics have been extending this readership past the 4-5 year mark. Beginning with Avengers: Disassembled (and continuing with House of M, Civil War, Planet Hulk, The Death of Captain America, The Secret Invasion, Dark Reign, and The Siege), Marvel has offered at least one major story per year, each one building on the momentum from the previous story. This creates a much larger epic arc for each character and keeps readers coming back to see what will happen next.

These are the only four ways you can grow your business. As you can see, the tactics are nearly limitless, but by understanding each strategy, you will have a much clearer understanding of which tactics to employ, when, and for what purpose. Remember, good marketing should lead to sales.

What do you think?

A long time ago, when I was first starting out in my career, I met with an advisor named Marty. Marty knows a ton about business, but it’s his personality that really drew me in. Like me, he has an oddball sense of humor, and can be a bit… um colorful in his dialogue. Anyways, one day I was meeting with Marty and one of my other associates when someone (I can’t remember who) brought up the subject of mistakes. I don’t remember how the question was posed, but I do remember Marty’s response vividly. For the sake of discussion, let’s say it went down like this…

Me: “What is the best way to deal with a mistake?”

Marty: “Easy. Just admit that you’re a $#!%head and move on.”

Me: “What if it’s someone else’s fault?”

Marty: “It doesn’t matter. Let others play the blame game. You’ve got work to do.”

Just like that, my eyes were opened.

I have to say, this advice has really served me well. Many business professionals, when confronted with a mistake, tend to point fingers, or try to justify their decision. All this does is waste time. A true professional is focused on results, and when a mistake has been made there’s no time to sit around and play the blame game. Instead, just own the problem and move on the best way you can. Sometimes, the mistake really is someone else’s fault, and they will try to divert the blame on you. “Fine, whatever. It’s my fault. Now can we work on fixing this.” That’s the attitude I’m talking about. Who care’s who started the fire. It’s up to you to put it out.

Discuss below… or face my wrath!!

When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait to get out of school. I didn’t dislike education, but I just felt that I should be doing things rather than learning about things; I was anxious to put my limited knowledge to use. However, now that I’m older, I understand that in order to be successful, I need to continue to learn and educate myself. Doing things is great, but it’s even better to do them the right way. You probably know what I’m talking about. I mean, here you are spending your spare time reading a marketing blog (thank you for visiting, by the way). In order to successfully learn, you need to understand the process, and find out how you can move on to the next phase as efficiently as possible. I’ll attempt to outline this process below…

1. Unconscious Incompetence: Basically, you don’t know what you don’t know. In this phase, you are doing things, and failing, but you don’t understand why. You don’t know what you’re problem is, and therefore have no idea how to fix it. Let’s use hitting in baseball as an example. You really want to hit the ball, but keep missing, and you have no idea why.

2. Conscious Incompetence: In this phase you know what you need to get better at, but still can’t manage to do it properly. Looking at our baseball example, you’ve hired a trainer, you’re reading some books, and you’ve identified why you can’t hit the ball. You’re working to correct the problem, and have some limited success, but you fail more often than you succeed. This is where practice comes in handy.

3. Conscious Competence: In this step you can succeed, but have to focus hard. When you step up to the plate, you have to think about it and make sure that you’re stance is perfect, you make sure to keep your eye on the ball, that you have proper follow-up, etc. It’s like a checklist in your mind. You have to manually check things off, and focus on doing things the proper way. You can be successful, but it’s not easy.

4. Unconscious Competence: This is where we all want to be. In the final phase, you are successful and don’t even have to think about it. You instinctively know where to put your feet, you know how to swing, and you keep your eye on the ball with no problem. This enables you to think about other aspects of the game (where you want to hit the ball, how to effectively move that base runner over, focus on specific pitches, etc). In order to get to this point, you need to understand what mistakes you were making before, understand how to correct those mistakes, and then practice.

So what does this have to do with marketing? Everything. We are living in an age where new technology and new techniques are being created daily. Customer mindsets are changing, the tools we use are changing, the rules themselves are changing. Learning is crucial to your success as a marketer. Don’t get frustrated because you fail. Push through those hard times and find out what you are failing at, and why. Then learn how to correct the problem, and focus hard on what you need to do. Before long, you will be able to move on to other aspects of business, and then others, becoming an expert and building on your knowledge.

Agree / Disagree? Let me know in the comments.