Anyone that knows my dad knows that he’s a huge sports fan. He has season tickets to the Texas Rangers baseball games as well as the Dallas Mavericks basketball games, and never misses a game. He usually comes back from the game with some interesting stories, and I remember a few weeks ago he told me something that got my wheels turning. Let me tell you about it…

So he was at the Dallas Mavericks basketball game where someone had won a new car. This wasn’t just any old vehicle though. It was specifically designed to promote the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. Check out this picture to see what I mean…



Pretty cool huh? That’s my dad in the pic by the way, a 2+ year cancer survivor (shameless plug alert)  wearing a t-shirt promoting Dadfest, a 5k race event that benefits prostate cancer awareness and sets up free screenings.  Anyways, to win the contest, the winner had to be the one to guess the correct number of golf balls (of course they were branded with the team logo on one side and the sponsor, Dr. Pepper, on the other) that fit into the vehicles trunk.

I think the Dallas Mavericks are really on to something here. They are taking advantage of what I like to call compound marketing. You know, kind of like compound interest (interest on top of interest), except with marketing. First they promote the contest to win the car, which generates excitement among the fans. To sign up for the contest, they have to fill out a form which helps collect marketing research and demographic information. Of course, the form also helps build the team’s e-mail list. The vehicle itself promotes the team while the proud owner drives it all around Dallas (even in the off season). Oh and after the contest, they handed out those branded golf balls to the participants.

This… dare I say it… orgy of marketing strategy can be used to promote any brand you can think of. Why not promote yours?

I once read somewhere (probably some old marketing textbook) that it takes about 9 or 10 impressions before someone decides to buy from you. In addition, most people discard 4 out of 5 marketing messages (this data could be obsolete, but I’m going to go ahead and run with it… sue me). This means that you may need to reach a person 45 to 50 times with your marketing message to get a sale. Why not take advantage of some compound marketing opportunities so that you can deliver multiple messages at one time?

Think about ways that you can use this to benefit your business. If you come up with something brilliant be sure to let me know so I can steal it… er um share it.

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

The sad truth is that at some point in your personal and/or professional life, you will encounter failure. Sometimes it comes when you lose a key client, or deal. Sometimes it’s when you let someone important in your life down. Sometimes the door closes behind you and you get that realization that you’re about to hear some bad news. It’s hard. I know all too well from experience. As a matter of fact, just yesterday I was faced with failure for yet another time in my life. I guess that it’s only appropriate that I discuss my feelings here, so that you can learn from someone else’s painful experiences.

Your first reaction will probably be sadness, or anger, or even fear. Your friends and family will tell you that this is a waste of time. And you know what? They’re right. You already know that, but it won’t change the way you feel inside. Deep down, you’ll know that it’s your fault. And if you’re any kind of professional, you’re going to ask yourself what you could have done better. What could you have done to avoid the situation? To be honest, if you’re still feeling emotional then it’s too early in the game to be asking such questions. The true first step in dealing with failure is to let your emotions out. Obviously you won’t want an audience for this part (or maybe you do; I am posting here afterall). Whatever you need to do, scream, cry, or even laugh… do it. Here’s step #2:

Distance yourself from yourself. Easier said than done right? I should know. Anyone that knows me will tell you, I’m one of those guys that wears his heart on his sleave. But the truth is, when you’re dealing with a failure of some kind, you need to look at the situation from the outside. Look at things from an objective point of view. This will help you avoid being emotional. We’re all human, and emotion runs high during times like this, but believe me when I tell you that it will cloud your judgement. When you’re dealing with failure, you have important decisions to make, and they need to be made with a clear head. With this objectivity in place, then and only then you need to ask the tough questions. What happened? Why did it happen? What could you have done about it? What can you do about it now? You can’t change the past, only the future, and it’s totally up to you. Which brings me to step #3:

Determine your attitude. When you are down, it’s easy to react and have a negative attitude; I’m kind of at this point myself right now to be completely honest with you. But let me say that again… it’s easy. When is the last time that you’ve seen or heard of a situation where the easy thing to do has been the right thing to do? It almost never happens. True professionals are never satisfied with the easy way. The difficult thing to do when you’re faced with failure is to maintain that positive attitude you had when things were actually going your way. Whatever you have to do to re-capture that attitude… do it. Remember, success is all about attitude. What helps me sometimes is just knowing that I have so many people in my life that care about me. I’m lucky in that regard. You probably are too, but may not know it yet. Talk to your family, and when all else fails, talk to me. I’m not going anywhere, you can reach me at edwardviator@evil-marketer.com. I assure you, I am a real person, and will do my best to help you through any situation you may encounter.

So what’s next? Step #4 is taking action. At this point, you’ll feel a little older, a little wiser. A person at emotional peace, armed with knowledge and a winning attitude can accomplish just about anything. Whatever you decide to do next, now is the time to do it. If you’re not at this point yet, then you need to go back and attempt steps 1-3 again (either that, or I don’t know what I’m talking about).

So there you have it. To summarize, here’s the Evil-Marketer method for dealing with failure:

1. Let your emotions out.
2. Distance yourself from yourself.
3. Determine your attitude.
4. Take action.

Not bad if I do say so myself, I just made this up right now. If anyone else has anything to add, you know what do (translation for those that don’t know what to do: post in the comments section below or email me).

It’s been a while since my last post, so I guess now is a good time to discuss patience. It’s one of the most crucial personality traits that a good marketer must have. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a good marketing campaign end prematurely simply because the results didn’t come fast enough. Let’s get this straight, it takes a while for marketing to have an affect. There are no magic wands in business. You can’t just wave the magic marketing wand and expect to see results overnight (by the way, if you have one of these, please let me know. I’d like to borrow it sometime). You need patience.

Let’s face it, most of your prospects probably haven’t heard of you. Even if they have, it doesn’t mean that they’ll come flocking to your store or your website. You need to work at it. If you’ve done all your marketing homework, you’ll get the results…. in time.

To be honest, I could use more patience myself. If anyone has any tips on how to develop this crucial trait, please let me know. If I like what I hear, I’ll probably post it here in the future.

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

We’ve discussed it before, and we’ll probably discuss it again. Twitter search can be an excellent resource for any business. It’s a great way to research topics or companies. It’s a great way to find out what customers / prospects think of your brand. It’s a great way to seek out new prospects that haven’t heard of you. Most importantly, it allows you to find your customers and interact with them.

In this link, Chris Brogan explains some specific ways that you can use Twitter search for your business. 

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!!