What’s Your Story?

Much is made in marketing about your target market, demographics, which media to use, et cetera. The simple fact is, these are the least of your worries. When you begin to design a marketing campaign, you need to think about what stories you will tell.

The research, and yes, the results, show that the ads that bring in the most dollars always tell a story. Whether it’s Tom Bodett telling of the simplicity of Motel 6, to any number of “on the road” ads, storytelling is the way to get people’s attention and keep it. “They all laughed when I sat down at the piano.” Well, they may have, but that campaign from many years ago brought in many thousands.

What stories do your ads tell?
How can you use your product to tell a story?

Tig Wallis helps business owners increase their profitability by improving their marketing, technology, and customer service processes. He is founder of The Wallis Group, a business and marketing consulting firm located in California.

Contact Tig at tigwallis@thewallisgroup.com

It’s Your Responsibility

Of course, it’s your responsibility. It’s your business, isn’t it? So if things aren’t working out or sales aren’t what you want them to be,

• It’s not the big box stores.
• It’s not the economy.
• It’s not the housing market.

It’s you.
Your business.
Your responsibility to make it work.

Otherwise, why stay in business?

Of course, I see the people who give up, because they just can’t make it work, and Here’s what I say to them:
Have you tried everything?
have you tried…something?

Creating the Experience

Recently the love of my life asked me which of my two favorite restaurants I would pick, if I had to:

1. Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse
2. Yank Sing (San Francisco)

Now, there’s not much similarity in these two places, except that I like the food there a lot, and they are both considered pretty pricey. But the difference in experience is what sets them apart in my mind.

At Yank Sing, it’s dim sum. Not downtown so-so dim sum, the REAL DEAL. Steamed buns and fried this and that and the occasional chicken feet. It’s all tasty, and they are constantly rolling up carts to your table, offering you more tasty morsels, when your table and your stomach are already so full you could burst. It’s fast-paced and hectic. There’s nothing wrong with that, you just need to be in the right mood.

Ruth’s, on the other hand, is clubby steakhouse, where the waiters know the menu backwards and are always there to attend to your needs. The food is beyond fabulous.

Out of the two, if I had to choose, I’d pick Ruth’s. They have gone out of their way to make it more than just about the food;it’s about the EXPERIENCE. This should be in every business owner’s mind: creating an experience for your customer. Frankly, there are plenty of places I can go and get hustle and bustle, but very few places where I can go and be served in quiet enjoyment.

Are you creating an experience for your customers?

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Rob Wallis, with the Wallis Group, works with organizations that want to become known in their community and in the world. Contact him at rob(at)thewallisgroup.com

Customer Service is the New Marketing, Indeed.

Check out Customer Service is the New Marketing, by Brad Burnham. This is exactly where we at Visibility stand. If you have to convince someone you rock, you have already lost.
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Rob Wallis, with the Wallis Group, works with organizations that want to become known in their community and in the world. Contact him at rob(at)thewallisgroup.com

Visibility Marketing Tip #1: The Law of Scarcity

Robert Cialdini, in his book “The Power of Persuasion,” speaks of the Law of Scarcity as one of the most powerful principles of getting people to buy that you can use. Quite simply, if people think that there is a limited number of something, they want it that much more. How many times have you heard on the late night infomercials, “call now, this is a limited time offer?”

Is it really? Of course not! These ads have probably been running since we were all kids, and I’ll bet if you waited three months to call, they’d give you the same deal they are offering tonight. But it’s the perception that you’re going to miss out on something big that makes you want to buy NOW.

Pay special attention to that word perception, because we will be using it a lot in the articles to come. Marketing in general, and Visibility Marketing especially, makes use of perception and the manipulation of perception. By the way, if you have trouble with the word “manipulation,” you’re in the wrong business. Marketing, promotion, whatever you want to call it, is all about manipulation, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Your job is to let people know you exist, that’s Visibility. Nothing wrong with that.

Now, back to Scarcity. You have a product or service. You need to let the prospect know that there is a very limited quantity of what you are offering, whether it’s a special offer or limited time discount. This offer is only good through July 31, There are only 6 more copies of this e-book (!) available, that sort of thing. They will be beating down your door with money in their fists.

But what if you do have more copies? That’s OK, you’re reserving those for a future “gold package” offer.

Your assignment for this week: Figure out what you can offer for a limited time or a limited quantity. And do it!

Get Known!

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Rob Wallis, with the Wallis Group, works with organizations that want to become known in their community and in the world. Contact him at rob(at)thewallisgroup.com

Marketing Mistake #1

Marketing Mistake #1: You don’t let potential customers know you exist.

It’s not surprising; do you have any idea just how many companies are out there who wish you would buy something from them? A lot, believe me. And the reason you are not tracking them down and giving them money is because you’re just not jazzing them.

I’m fascinated at the number of business owners who open the doors, put up an “Open” sign, and wait for the customers to roll in. Needless to say, they get real disappointed real fast.

Like any other business, as my buddy Dean Hankey likes to say, “You gotta TELL em to SELL em!”

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Rob Wallis works with entrepreneurs who want to become known in their community and in the world. Contact him at rob (at) thewallisgroup.com

Organizing Your Email Part 1

STEP 1. FOLDERIZE

You’re staring at a sea of emails. Most of them you have already read, and you haven’t deleted them yet because there’s some action you have to take. Or you might need the infomation later. Or you don’t know if you need the information, but you might someday.

Here’s the thing: you simply cannot look at all of those messages, read or unread, and process the information that you need to on a daily basis. It’s the equivalent of a cluttered desk: All of the distractions are keeping you from FOCUS, which is what it takes to be EFFECTIVE.

Lucky for you, there is a cure: FOLDERIZING

Here’s how it works: put your email into folders. Categorize either by subject or author, or whatever makes sense to you. What is most important is that you create a folder for each category, and create a rule for your incoming email that will put the mail into those folders.

That way you can read what you want to read, when you want to read it.

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Rob Wallis works with entrepreneurs who want to become known in their community and in the world. Contact him at The Wallis Group

A Solution for Better Service?

Maria Palma on Her Blog talks about a possible solution to better service. Would a reward system work in most businesses?

I commented that Macy’s had an interesting reward policy, in that they had staff members write their names on the bottom of the receipt, so you could go to a website and rate their service. The trouble was most of the staffers scribbled their name so illegibly, I couldn’t have raved about them if I wanted to.

What’s your take?
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Rob Wallis works with entrepreneurs who want to become known in their community and in the world. Contact him at The Wallis Group

Bodies

In the early 90’s, I worked at the classified ad counter of a local newspaper. Every now and then a business owner would come in and say, “I need bodies.”

Bodies.

Here’s a simple thought: if you are hiring bodies, your business will suffer.

You don’t need bodies, not even WARM bodies. You need service professionals. Or at least people who are interested in being service professionals.

Ilise Benun’s post from a while back on shyness made me think that many people, even people in service positions, are shy. So shy that they are afraid to try to get another job that suits them better. So, in the meantime, they are messing up your business.

Why do people who have no interest in service jobs take service jobs? Because they pay money. And people need jobs.The trouble isn’t that they look for these jobs, the trouble is that they are hired for these jobs. You want to populate your front line with Service Stars. And service stars start out as people who are interested in providing service, not just a paycheck.

In other words, it’s not them, it’s you.

Tig Wallis works with businesses who want to improve relationships with their customers and employees. Contact him at The Wallis Group

They Put It On A Plate

…Togo’s, that is. Went to Togo’s on Halloween, because we were downtown and hadn’t been there for a while.

“For here or to go?,” the sandwich-maker asked me. Usually this means the difference between a plastic tray and a bag.

“For here,” I said.

When my sandwich was ready, it was on a plate. Not a plastic plate, the real stuff. not wrapped in paper, because, honestly, if I’m going to eat it right there, why do you need to wrap it in paper, just so I have to go to the bother of unwrapping it? Huh, Subway? Huh, Quizno’s?

A thought posed by my wife: Starbucks shows coffee in actual mugs in the ads. Have you ever been served coffee in a Starbucks in an actual mug?

Didn’t think so.