Everyone likes to think that they understand their customers, but how many of us really try to completely understand the customers mindset? Every year, Beloit College puts together a “mindset list” describing the thoughts and mindset of their incoming freshmen class. Why would they do this? So that their professors will be able to discuss their topics with relevance, and avoid references and language that the students may not understand. You can see the latest mindset list here.

Companies have gathered “relevant” information about customers for decades, often looking at purchasing behavior, income, demographic information, and so on. But how many have actually looked at the mindset of their customers? Probably not enough. I think it’s a good exercise for every business to put together a mindset list for their customers. With today’s social media options, it’s easier than ever to interact with customers (and for customers to interact with each other). In order to have relevant messages for these people, you need to understand them and speak their language.

Sounds great, but how do you gather this information? The traditional method is to use surveys to gather information. However, I think that if you talk to the people that interact the most with clients, you will find some surprising information. If you have store locations, talk to your cashiers or whatever. If you’re a business to business operation, talk to your sales people or account managers. Listen to what they have to say, and put together a mindset list for your customers. You may be surprised at what you find.

Referral’s are good. In consulting, the hardest thing to do is finding the next job. The work itself is usually no problem, but it’s always difficult to find companies that can use my services, and then even more difficult to convince them to hire me. This is where referrals can really help. A proper referral system can have business steadily coming your way. But how do you implement such a system?

You ask

Pretty simple. After you do a job, ask the client if he/she is happy with the work. If there’s a problem, address it. Once they are completely satisfied, ask if they know of anyone else that can benefit from your services. You’d be surprised how often this turns in to another warm sales lead for you. This doesn’t just work for services, you can apply this to consumer products, events, just about anything that can be marketed.

Another thing you can do is use the referral as a negotiation tool. Sometimes a client will ask for a discount. Why discount something for free? The client is getting something out of this situation, but what about you? If you’re going to discount, always ask for something in return. If a client is asking for a discount, they probably are somewhat short on funds. Instead of asking for a larger purchase, ask for a referral. If the referral pays off, then boom they get the discount. You can also ask for a long term commitment, a quote (that you can use in marketing collateral), or whatever, but the referral is usually the most useful.

What do you do to get referrals for your business? Comment below or email me at edwardviator@evil-marketer.com

I was going over some data at the marketing charts website and was kind of surprised to see a report stating that business to business companies don’t have much of a social media presence. I read the report, and it got me thinking. What could these companies accomplish with social media, and how should they use it to their advantage? It seems we (as marketers) focus alot on business to consumer social media marketing, especially when it comes to Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, and maybe that’s the major problem. So I’d like to discuss some ways that business to business companies can use social media to their advantage. Let’s start by discussing…

Top barriers to social media for business to business companies

According to the report, there are 4 main reasons why b2b companies don’t focus as much on online marketing. Here we go…

1. Insufficient personnel to maintain - It’s not surprising that this is number 1. So many companies have downsized, and they are continuing to do so (HP just let go of a ton of people the other day). However, why do you need to hire more people to do this? Here’s what I think. I would solicit blog entries from employees and offer some sort of reward for entries that are picked. Wow, pretty simple. Every one of your employees should have a presence on LinkedIn. If not for the company, then for their own good. Encourage them to post and answer questions. Now you have a social media presence and you didn’t even have to hire anyone.
2. Lack of organizational knowledge - I’m not sure what they mean by “organizational” knowledge, but I think that if you don’t know something you need to go and figure it out. There are a ton of online resources to find out more about online marketing. There are tons of books out there. If you don’t have time to research them yourself, then pick a different career. To think, these guys call themselves marketers. You should always make time to educate yourself.
3. Preference for traditional marketing - Let me say something here (like you have a choice). I prefer traditional marketing. And yet, I still engage in online and social media marketing. Why? Because I see the advantages, and also because a marketer needs to use any and all weapons at his or her disposal. If you aren’t using social media, you’re leaving a big weapon in the armory collecting dust. There’s no reason for that.
4. Perceived irrelevance to their field - Bottom line: you have to go where your customers go. This is 2010, take a deep breath and say it with me now, twenty-ten, soon to be eleven. People go online to find information. When you go fishing, you probably go to the lake where there are tons of fish. Why is marketing any different. Sure you’re dealing with a company, but that company is made up of individuals. And individuals like to go online to educate themselves. If you have a presence online and provide relevant information, then those individuals will find you. That’s called marketing.

What can b2b companies do to take advantage of social media

1. Start a blog - We’ve talked about it before. People go online to find information. Provide useful information to people and they will find you (and your company). Provide information on all aspects of your industry and your business. Like I said before, solicit entries from your co-workers (you’ll be surprised at all of the great ideas and talent that you have on board). If you can become an industry expert, then you can’t help but increase your brand awareness… and your profits.
2. Get on LinkedIn - People go to Facebook to interact with friends, relax, and play games, and all that good stuff. People get on LinkedIn to interact with other professionals, and to learn. You and every one of your co-workers should have a presence on LinkedIn. You should spend time asking and answering questions, linking up with other professionals in your industry, and basically becoming a part of the community.
3. Be one of the few - The fact that not many b2b companies are using social media means that the ones that do are ahead of the game. Going back to the fishing analogy, if you’re the only one at the lake, you’re going to catch alot of fish. Get started, stop making excuses and do it. Your competition will hate you, but your customers and prospects will love you.

What do you guys think? How can b2b companies take advantage of social media? What other obstacles do they need to overcome?

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.

So I was at a baseball game with my dad last week, watching the Texas Rangers against the Chicago White Sox (Texas blew the sweep). Since we got to the game early, I started flipping through the program and found something interesting. One of the articles promoted the blog of the team mascot, The Captain (a big furry horse). Wow, what a great idea! I wonder why more companies don’t have their mascots post using social media to promote themselves and the company brand. It seems like a no brainier. You create a mascot that embodies the brand, so why not use the mascot as an online personality to promote the ideals that your business stands for.

When I got home I took  a look at The Captain’s blog. It wasn’t fantastic. The updates seem to be sporadic, but I did like that he stays in character the whole time. It seems that kids like to email him and ask him questions (some of these questions and answers are printed in the program), which is a fantastic way for a brand to interact with their community. I can’t help but think, though, that they could be doing a better job of using online media to promote The Captain as a genuine personality. It may not translate into a huge increase in ticket sales, but it’s free, and can help shape the Texas Ranger’s brand name.

What do you think? Have you seen any creative uses for mascots lately?

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.

I was playing around on Facebook today, and I saw a link to this news story which was posted by one of my friends (thanks for the link Mary). Okay (for those of you that can’t / don’t want to risk clicking on the link) so basically this lady was celebrating her 35th birthday with her 8 year old daughter and so they decided to dress up as princesses and go to Disneyland in Paris. She was told by a guard at the gate that she looked too much like a princess which may confuse kids into thinking that she worked at Disney. As a result, the woman was not gained admittance to the park.

Wow, talk about ridiculous. I know that protecting your brand and controlling your message is very important, but this is a perfect example of just going too far. What would it have hurt? So what if some kid thought she looked like a real princess? If she started getting unruly they could’ve always kicked her out then, just like they would with anyone else.  Really, if they think that she resembles one of the characters, then maybe they should’ve offered her a job instead.

The lady had even called the park before they showed up to see if it would be a problem, and they said it would be fine. I guess this means that there’s no policy against dressing up; perhaps this is a case of an overzealous guard. Who knows. In any case, the lesson here is that you need to understand all of your responsibilities as a marketer, not just one thing or the other. Disney is supposed to be the happiest place on earth, and something as innocent as dressing up as a princess should not just be tolerated, it should be celebrated.

What do you guys think?

Here’s a link worth checking out if you are involved in social media. I’ve seen alot of corporate social media pages, and I have to agree. Most companies still don’t really get it. There’s so much that you can do with social media, but most just exist. Check out what Mikal Belicove on the American Express Open Forum has to say about it.

Thanks to the Marketing4Nerds blog for bringing this to my attention. If you haven’t already, you should pay them a visit. If you own a small business, you should already be familiar with what LinkedIn can do for you. Check out this link for some tips on what you can do to maximize what you get out of using it, then come back here so we can discuss.